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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37205-0.txt b/37205-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c4c34d --- /dev/null +++ b/37205-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9496 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sea and the Jungle, by H. M. Tomlinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sea and the Jungle + +Author: H. M. Tomlinson + +Release Date: August 26, 2011 [EBook #37205] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + THE SEA + AND THE JUNGLE + + BY + H. M. TOMLINSON + + NEW YORK + E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY + 681 FIFTH AVENUE + + + + + Published, 1920, + BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY + + _All Rights Reserved_ + + _First Printing, October, 1920_ + _Second Printing, September, 1921_ + + THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE + + Being the narrative of the voyage of the tramp steamer _Capella_ + from Swansea to Para in the Brazils, and thence 2000 miles along the + forests of the Amazon and Madeira Rivers to the San Antonio Falls; + afterwards returning to Barbados for orders, and going by way of + Jamaica to Tampa in Florida, where she loaded for home. Done in the + years 1909 and 1910. + + DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO + DID NOT GO + + The author is indebted to the editors of the _English Review_, the + _Pall Mall Magazine_, the _Morning Leader_, and the _Yorkshire + Observer_, for permission to incorporate such parts of this + narrative as appeared first in their publications. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. 1 + II. 98 + III. 185 + IV. 246 + V. 271 + VI. 324 + + + + +THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE + + + + +I + + +Though it is easier, and perhaps far better, not to begin at all, yet if +a beginning is made it is there that most care is needed. Everything is +inherent in the genesis. So I have to record the simple genesis of this +affair as a winter morning after rain. There was more rain to come. The +sky was waterlogged and the grey ceiling, overstrained, had sagged and +dropped to the level of the chimneys. If one of them had pierced it! The +danger was imminent. + +That day was but a thin solution of night. You know those November +mornings with a low, corpse-white east where the sunrise should be, as +though the day were still-born. Looking to the dayspring, there is what +we have waited for, there the end of our hope, prone and shrouded. This +morning of mine was such a morning. The world was very quiet, as though +it were exhausted after tears. Beneath a broken gutter-spout the rain +(all the night had I listened to its monody) had discovered a nest of +pebbles in the path of my garden in a London suburb. It occurs to you at +once that a London garden, especially in winter, should have no place in +a narrative which tells of the sea and the jungle. But it has much to do +with it. It is part of the heredity of this book. It is the essence of +this adventure of mine that it began on the kind of day which so +commonly occurs for both of us in the year’s assortment of days. My +garden, on such a morning, is a necessary feature of the narrative, and +much as I should like to skip it and get to sea, yet things must be +taken in the proper order, and the garden comes first. There it was: the +blackened dahlias, the last to fall, prone in the field where death had +got all things under his feet. My pleasaunce was a dark area of soddened +relics; the battalions of June were slain, and their bodies in the mud. +That was the prospect in life I had. How was I to know the Skipper had +returned from the tropics? Standing in the central mud, which also was +black, surveying that forlorn end to devoted human effort, what was +there to tell me the Skipper had brought back his tramp steamer from the +lands under the sun? I knew of nothing to look forward to but December, +with January to follow. What should you and I expect after November, but +the next month of winter? Should the cultivators of London backs look +for adventures, even though they have read old Hakluyt? What are the +Americas to us, the Amazon and the Orinoco, Barbados and Panama, and +Port Royal, but tales that are told? We have never been nearer to them, +and now know we shall never be nearer to them, than that hill in our +neighbourhood which gives us a broad prospect of the sunset. There is as +near as we can approach. Thither we go and ascend of an evening, like +Moses, except for our pipe. It is all the escape vouchsafed us. Did we +ever know the chain to give? The chain has a certain length—we know it +to a link—to that ultimate link, the possibilities of which we never +strain. The mean range of our chain, the office and the polling booth. +What a radius! Yet it cannot prevent us ascending that hill which looks, +with uplifted and shining brow, to the far vague country whence comes +the last of the light, at dayfall. + +It is necessary for you to learn that on my way to catch the 8.35 that +morning—it is always the 8.35—there came to me no premonition of +change. No portent was in the sky but the grey wrack. I saw the hale and +dominant gentleman, as usual, who arrives at the station in a brougham +drawn by two grey horses. He looked as proud and arrogant as ever, for +his face is as a bull’s. He had the usual bunch of scarlet geraniums in +his coat, and the stationmaster assisted him into an apartment, and his +footman handed him a rug; a routine as stable as the hills, this. If +only the solemn footman would, one morning, as solemnly as ever, hurl +that rug at his master, with the umbrella to crash after it! One could +begin to hope then. There was the pale girl in black who never, between +our suburb and the city, lifts her shy brown eyes, benedictory as they +are at such a time, from the soiled book of the local public library, +and whose umbrella has lost half its handle, a china nob. (I think I +will write this book for her.) And there were all the others who catch +that train, except the young fellow with the cough. Now and then he does +miss it, using for the purpose, I have no doubt, that only form of +rebellion against its accursed tyranny which we have yet learned, +physical inability to catch it. Where that morning train starts from is +a mystery; but it never fails to come for us, and it never takes us +beyond the city, I well know. + +I have a clear memory of the newspapers as they were that morning. I had +a sheaf of them, for it is my melancholy business to know what each is +saying. I learned there were dark and portentous matters, not actually +with us, but looming, each already rather larger than a man’s hand. If +certain things happened, said one half the papers, ruin stared us in the +face. If those thing did not happen, said the other half, ruin stared us +in the face. No way appeared out of it. You paid your half-penny and +were damned either way. If you paid a penny you got more for your money. +Boding gloom, full-orbed, could be had for that. There was your extra +value for you. I looked round at my fellow passengers, all reading the +same papers, and all, it could be reasonably presumed, with +fore-knowledge of catastrophe. They were indifferent, every one of them. +I suppose we have learned, with some bitterness, that nothing ever +happens but private failure and tragedy, unregarded by our fellows +except with pity. The blare of the political megaphones, and the +sustained panic of the party tom-toms, have a message for us, we may +suppose. We may be sure the noise means something. So does the butcher’s +boy when the sheep want to go up a side turning. He makes a noise. He +means something, with his warning cries. The driving uproar has a +purpose. But we have found out (not they who would break up side +turnings, but the people in the second class carriages of the morning +train) that now, though our first instinct is to start in a panic, when +we hear another sudden warning shout, there is no need to do so. And +perhaps, having attained to that more callous mind which allows us to +stare dully from the carriage window though with that urgent din in our +ears, a reasonable explanation of the increasing excitement and flushed +anxiety of the great Statesmen and their fuglemen may occur to us, in a +generation or two. Give us time! But how they wish they were out of it, +they who need no more time, but understand. + +I put down the papers with their calls to social righteousness pitched +in the upper register of the tea-tray, their bright and instructive +interviews with flat earthers, and with the veteran who is topically +interesting because, having served one master fifty years, and reared +thirteen children on fifteen shillings a week, he has just begun to draw +his old age pension. (There’s industry, thrift, and success, my little +dears!) One paper had a column account of the youngest child actress in +London, her toys and her philosophy, initialed by one of our younger +brilliant journalists. All had a society divorce case, with sanitary +elisions. Another contained an amusing account of a man working his way +round the world with a barrel on his head. Again, the young prince, we +were credibly informed in all the papers of that morning, did stop to +look in at a toy-shop window in Regent Street the previous afternoon. So +like a boy, you know, and yet he is a prince of course. The matter could +not be doubted. The report was carefully illustrated. The prince stood +on his feet outside the toy shop, and looked in. + +To think of the future as a modestly long series of such prone mornings, +dawns unlit by heaven’s light, new days to which we should be awakened +always by these clamant cockcrows bringing to our notice what the +busy-ness of our fellows had accomplished in nests of intelligent and +fruitful china eggs, was enough to make one stand up in the carriage, +horrified, and pull the communication cord. So I put down the papers and +turned to the landscape. Had I known the Skipper was back from below the +horizon—but I did not know. So I must go on to explain that that +morning train did stop, with its unfailing regularity, and not the least +hint of reprieve, at the place appointed in the Schedule. Soon I was at +work, showing, I hope, the right eager and concentrated eye, dutifully +and busily climbing the revolving wheel like the squirrel; except, +unluckier than that wild thing so far as I know, I was clearly +conscious, whatever the speed, the wheel remained forever in the same +place. Looking up to sigh through the bars after a long spin there was +the Skipper smiling at me. + +I saw an open door. I got out. It was as though the world had been +suddenly lighted, and I could see a great distance. + +We stood in Fleet Street later, interrupting the tide. The noise of the +traffic came to me from afar, for the sailor was telling me he was +sailing soon, and that he was taking his vessel an experimental voyage +through the tropical forests of the Amazon. He was going to Para, and +thence up the main stream as far as Manaos, and would then attempt to +reach a point on the Madeira river near Bolivia, 800 miles above its +junction with the greater river. It would be a noble journey. They would +see Obydos and Santarem, and the foliage would brush their rigging at +times, so narrow would be the way, and where they anchored at night the +jaguars would come to drink. This to me, and I have read Humboldt, and +Bates, and Spruce, and Wallace. As I listened my pipe went out. + +It was when we were parting that the sailor, who is used to far horizons +and habitually deals with affairs in a large way because his standards +in his own business are the skyline and the meridian, put to me the most +searching question I have had to answer since the city first caught and +caged me. He put it casually when he was striking a match for a cigar, +so little did he himself think of it. + +“Then why,” said he, “don’t you chuck it?” + +What, escape? I had never thought of that. It is the last solution which +would have occurred to me concerning the problem of captivity. It is a +credit to you and to me that we do not think of our chains so +disrespectfully as to regard them as anything but necessary and +indispensable, though sometimes, sore and irritated, we may bite at +them. As if servitude fell to our portion like squints, parents poor in +spirit, green fly, reverence for our social superiors, and the other +consignments from the stars. How should we live if not in bonds? I have +never tried. I do not remember, in all the even and respectable history +of my family, that it has ever been tried. The habit of obedience, like +our family habit of noses, is bred in the bone. The most we have ever +done is to shake our fists at destiny; and I have done most of that. + +“Give it up,” said the Skipper, “and come with me.” + +With a sad smile I lifted my foot heavily and showed him what had me +round the ankle. “Poo,” he said. “You could berth with the second mate. +There’s room there. I could sign you on as purser. You come.” + +I stared at him. The fellow meant it. I laughed at him. + +“What,” I asked conclusively, “shall I do about all this?” I waved my +arm round Fleet Street, source of all the light I know, giver of my gift +of income tax, limit of my perspective. How should I live when withdrawn +from the smell of its ink, the urge of its machinery? + +“_That_,” he said. “Oh, damn that!” + + * * * * * + +It was his light tone which staggered me and not what he said. The +sailor’s manner was that of one who would be annoyed if I treated him +like a practical man, arranging miles of petty considerations and +exceptions before him, arguing for hours along rows of trifles, and +hoping the harvest of difficulties of no consequence at the end of the +argument would convince him. Indeed I know he is always impatient for +the next step in any business, and not, like most of us, for more +careful consideration. “Look there,” said the sailor, pointing to +Ludgate Circus, “see that Putney ’bus? If it takes up two more +passengers before it passes this spot then you’ve got to come.” + +That made the difficulty much clearer. I agreed. The ’bus struggled off, +and a man with a bag ran at it and boarded it. One! Then it had a clear +run—it almost reached us—in another two seconds!—I began to breathe +more easily; the danger of liberty was almost gone. Then the sailor +jumped for the ’bus before it was quite level, and as he mounted the +steps, turned, and held up two fingers with a grin. + +Thus was a voyage of great moment and adventure settled for me. + +When I got home that night I referred to the authorities for the way to +begin an enterprise on the deep. What said Hakluyt? According to him it +is as easy as this: “Master John Hawkins, with the Jesus of Lubeck, a +ship of 700 tunnes, and the Solomon, a ship of seven score, the Tiger, a +barke of 50, and the Swalow of 30 Tunnes, being all well furnished with +men to the number of one hundred threescore and ten; as also with +ordnance and vituall requisite for such a voyage, departed out of +Plinmouth the 18 day of October in the yeere of our Lord 1564, with a +prosperous wind.” + +But we all know such things were done far better in that century. Yet +Master John Hawkins, who seems to have handled a fleet with greater +facility than I do this pen now I am so anxious to scratch it across +preliminaries and get it to sea, did not come to a decision by the +number of passengers on a Putney ’bus. So I turned to a modern +authority. Yet Bates, I found, is worse than old John Hawkins, Bates +actually arrives at his destination in the first sentence. He steps +across in thirty-eight words from England to the Amazon. “I embarked at +Liverpool with Mr. Wallace, in a small trading vessel, on the 26th day +of April 1848; and, after a swift passage from the Irish Channel to the +equator arrived on the 26th of May off Salinas.” + +Well, I did not. I say it is a gross deception. Voyaging does not get +accomplished in that off-hand fashion. It is a mockery to captives like +ourselves to pretend bondage is puffed away in that airy manner. It is +not so easily persuaded to disencumber us. Indeed, with this and that, I +found the initial step in the pursuit of the sunset red a heavy weight, +and hardly suited to the constitution of men who have worked into a deep +rut; but that high resolution and a faith equal to belief in the +liquefaction of St. Januarius’ blood are needed to drop the protective +routine of years, to sheer off the dear and warm entanglements of home +and friendships; to shut the front door one bleak winter evening when +the house smells comfortable and secure, and the light on the hearth, +under such circumstances, is ironic in its bright revelation of years of +ease and stability till then not fully appraised; and so depart in the +dusk for an unknown Welsh coaling port, there to board a tramp steamer +for a voyage that has some serious doubts about it, though its landfall +shall be near the line, and have palms in it. The door slammed, I +noticed, in a chill and penetrating minor, an incident of travel I have +never seen recorded. + +Now do I come at last, O Liberty, my loved and secret divinity! Your +passionate pilgrim is here, late, though still young and eager eyed; yet +with his coat collar upturned for the present. Allons! the Open Road is +before him. But how the broad and empty prospects of his freedom shudder +with the dire sounds and cries of the milk churns on Paddington Station! + +And next I remember black night—it was, I think, about three a.m.—and +a calamitous rain, and a Welsh railway station where I had alighted, +faint with a famine, a kit bag soon to increase in weight and drag, and +a pair of numbed feet. There was a porter who bore himself as though it +were the last day and he knew the worst, a dying station light, the wind +and rain, and me. Outside was the dark, and one of the greatest coaling +ports in the world. As I could not see the coal in great bulk I could +not admire it. The railway man turned out the light, conducted me +politely into a puddle, set my course for the docks in uncharted night +with a dexter having no convictions, and left me. I began to hate the +land of the wild bard in which I found myself for the first time, and +felt a savage satisfaction in being nearly a pure blooded London Saxon; +and as I surveyed my prospects in that country, not even the fact that I +had a grandparent named Hughes would have prevented me striking Wales +with my umbrella, for it is only a cheap one; but I had left it in the +train. + +It had never occurred to me (any more than it did to you when you got +this book to learn about the tropic sea and the jungle) that the Open +Road, where the chains fall from us, would include Swansea High Street +four hours before sunrise in a steady winter downpour. But there I +discovered that trade wind seas by moonlight, flying fish, Indians, and +forests and palms, cannot be compelled. They come in their turn. They +are mixed with litter and dead stuff, like prizes in a bran tub. Going +down the drear and aqueous street it was clear that if there are exalted +moments in travel, as on the instant when we discover we really may +prepare to go, yet exaltation implies the undistinguished flats from +which, for a while, we are translated. This is a travel book for honest +men. I am still on the flat. It will be to-morrow presently. + +My chief fear was that my waterproof, rattling in the wind, would alarm +silent and sleeping Swansea. I found a policeman standing at a street +corner, holding out his cape to help away the rain. He could give me no +hope. He knew where the dock was, but the way thither was difficult and +torturous. I had better follow the tram lines, and ask again, if I saw +anybody. Therefore the tram lines I followed till my portable estate, by +compound interest, had increased to untold tons; but the empty tram way +went on for ever down the rows of frozen and desolate lamps, so that I +surrendered all my chances of the seas of the tropics and the jungle of +the Brazils, and turned aside from the course which the policeman said +led to ships and the deep, entered the dark portico of a shop, where it +was only half wet, and lit my pipe, there to wait for the shy gods to +turn my luck. Hesitating footsteps fumbled to where I was hidden, and +stopped at the flash of my match. “Could yer ’blige with a light, +mister?” + +He was a little elderly seaman in yellow oilskins and a so’wester. He +was rather drunk. His oilskins gathered the reflected street shine, so +that he looked phosphorescent, an old man risen wet and shining from the +ocean. He was looking for Buenos Aires, he explained, and hadn’t got any +matches. Now he, for the Plate, and I, for ultimate Amazonas, set off +down the Swansea tram lines. And the wind whined through overhead wires, +and a lost dog followed us along the empty thoroughfare where the only +sound was of waterspouts, and the elderly mariner sang bold and improper +songs, so that I wondered there was not an irruption of nightcaps at +upper Swansea windows to witness this disturbance of their usual peace. + +We came at length to abandoned lagoons, where spectral ships were moored +down the marges, and round the wide waters was the loom of uncertain +monsters and buildings. Railway metals waylaid us and caught us by the +feet. There were many electric moons swaying in the gale, and they +spilled showers of broken light, which melted on the black water, and +betrayed to us our loneliness in outer night. The call of a vessel’s +syren across that inhospitable space was heard by us as the prolonged +moan of the lost. + +The old man of the sea took me under a stack of timber to light his +pipe. He borrowed my box of matches, and malicious spurts of wind +extinguished each match, steadily, as mine ancient struck them. It was +now 4 a.m. He threw each bit of dead wood down, without irritation, as +though it were the fate of man to strike lights for the gods to douse, +but yet was he uplifted now beyond the hurt of cosmic mockery. The +matches were not wasted. At least they lighted up his sorrowful face as +he talked to me. I would not have had him any the less drunk, for it but +softened his facial integument, which I could see had been hardened and +set by bitter experience, masking the man; but now his jaded life, +warmed by emotion, though much of the emotion was artificial and of the +pewter born, was quick in his face again, and made him a human +responsive to his kind, instead of a sober and warped shellback with a +sour remembrance of his hardships, and of the futility of his endurance, +and of the distance away of his masters with their bowels of iron. + +He had seven children, and the sea was a weary place. Had I any +children?—and God keep them if I had. He was a troublesome old man +(“that’s another light gone”) but he had just left his kids (“ah, to +hell wi’ the wind”) and he had to talk to someone about them, and that +was my rotten luck, said he. We got to the fifth child, and I heard +something about her, when the wind reached round the wood stack at us, +and snatched the last glim. So it was in the dark that I heard about the +other two and the wife, while one of my pockets filled with rain. Only +Milly, he said, was at work, and what was four pound a month for the +rest? And he was sick of the sea and chief mates, and did I think a chap +stood for a better time when he died, if he kept off drink and did his +bit without grousing, like some of the parson fellers said? Then he +indicated my ship, and disappeared in the dark. He is still waiting an +answer to his last question, which I have saved for you to give him. + +For me, I was in no mood to discuss whether balm is to be got in Gilead, +when we come to the place; but stumbling among the lumber on the +deserted deck of the S.S. “Capella,” I found a cabin, fell into it, and +remember nothing more but the smell of hot bread, eggs and bacon, and +coffee, which visited me in a beautiful dream. Then I woke to the +reveille of a tin whistle, which the chief engineer was playing in my +ear; and it was daylight. The jumble of recollections of the night +before were but dark insanities. But the smell of that aromatic food, I +give grace, did not pass with the awakening, for next door I heard +lively sizzling in the galley. Already Fleet Street was hull down. + + * * * * * + +If you are used only to the methods of passenger steamers and regular +routes, then you know little of travel. You are but carried about. +Insistent clocks and schedules keep that way, and the upholstered but +rigid routine is a soporific. You never see the hither side of the +hedge. The granite countenance of fortune, her eyes filmed like frozen +pools, which keeps alert and bright the voyager who is unprotected from +her unscheduled and unmoral acts except by his own ready buckler, is +watched for you by others. You are never surprised into fear by the +unlucky position of the planets, nor moved to sing Laus Deo, when now +and then, the stars are propitious. I had been brought hastily to the +“Capella,” for it was said she was sailing instantly. This morning I +learned at breakfast that nobody knew when she could sail. Our steamer +sat two feet higher than her capacity. There was some galvanised iron to +come from Glascow, some machinery from Sheffield; and owing to labour +difficulties we were short of several hundred tons of coal. A little mob +of us, all strangers, shuffled after the Skipper’s spry heels that +morning to the Board of Trade offices, where an official mumbled over +the ship’s articles, to our shut ears, and we signed where we were told. +A more glum and unromantic group of voyagers, each man twirling his +shabby hat in his hands as he waited his turn for the corroded pen, was +never seen this side of the Elizabethan era. I became the purser of the +“Capella,” with my wages lawfully recorded at a shilling per month. + +I was committed. There was no withdrawal now but desertion. And +desertion, at times, I seriously considered, because for a week more the +cargo dribbled down to us, while I endured as a moucher about those +winter docks with their coal tips, and the muddy streets with their +sailors’ slop marts, marine stores, and pawnshops having a cankered +display of chronometers, telescopes, and other flotsam of marine failure +and wreckage. Daily the quays and the dismal waterside ways with their +cheap shops were still more depressed by additional snow mush and drives +of sleet; and it was no warmth for this idler that he saw the tradesmen, +because of the season, putting holly among their oranges and wreathing +beer bottles with chains of coloured paper. The iron decks and cabins of +my new home were as chill and unfriendly as the empty grate, the marble +tables, and the tin advertisements of chemical slops of a temperance +hotel. Am I plain? Such are the conditions which compass the wayward +traveller. This is what chills one’s rapid pulse when pursuing at last +the rosy visions of boyhood. The deplorable littoral of our island +kingdom is part of a life on the ocean wave, and should help you in +coming to a decision when next you see a friendless and bestial +sailorman. It becomes necessary to declare that we shall really get down +to the tropics presently; have the courage to wait, like the crew of the +“Capella.” Our ship did sail, when she was ready. + +It was the afternoon before we sailed, and having listened long enough +to my messmates, who, after dinner, weighed the probabilities of +malaria, yellow fever and other alien disasters into our coming strange +voyage, that I went into the town to take my last look round a book +shop, and to get some marine soap, dungarees, and things. Here was I at +last with my heart’s desire. On the very next day I should sail, I +myself, and no other hero, veritably Me at last, for a place not on the +chart, because the place we should find, at the journey’s end, the map +described with those words of magic: “Forest” and “Unexplored.” I made +my way round crates and barrels on that untidy deck, which had a thick +mud of coal dust and snow, to the ladder overside. Coal dust and melting +snow! But where was the uplifted heart, the radiant anticipation, as of +one to whom the future was big with treasures to be born, which are the +privilege of a young pilgrim, released from his usual obligations to +pursue far horizons in the Spanish main, while his envious fellows in +the city still cast ledgers under gas lamps? Here was another swindle of +the romanticists. You may search their warm and golden pages in vain for +coal tips, melting ice, delays, and steam heaters that will not work for +cold cabins. Down they go here, though. These gallant affairs, I +thought, as I descended the wet and gritty ladder, are much better done +before the fire at home, in your slippers; for the large scale map, as +you traverse its alluring blank areas, leaves out the conditions which +now, when I am on the actual business, precipitate as frozen spicules, +as would north winds, my warm, aerial, and cloudy enthusiasms that were +wont to be dyed such wonderful hues by sunsets, poems, and tales of old +travel. Another of these congealing draughts was now to catch me +unbuttoned. Because of our unusual destination, and the wild stories +that were told of it, we were a point of interest in Swansea docks, and +had many interviewers and curious visitors. Some of them were on the +quay then, inspecting our steamer, and as I stepped off the ladder one +turned to me. + +“Mister,” he whispered, “are you going in her?” + +“I am,” I said. + +“O gord,” said he. + +That night I met a number of my grave fellow shipmates in the town. The +question was, Should we then go back to the ship? + +“What,” burst out one of us in surprise—his gold-laced cap was already +resting on his right eyebrow—“Now? Not me. Boys, don’t freeze the +Carnival. Follow me!” + +We followed him. The rest of the evening is more easily given in dumb +show. There was a mechanical piano in a saloon bar, and it steadily +devoured pennies, and returned to us automatic joy, fortissimo, over +which our conversation strenuously high-stepped and vaulted. Later, +there was a search for cabs, and an engineer carried with him everywhere +two geese by their necks and sometimes trod on their loose feet. When he +did this he snatched a goose from his own grasp, and then roundly abused +us for our post-dated frivolity. We learned our steamer was now moored +in mid-dock. We found a quay wall, and at the bottom of it, at a great +depth in the dark, the level of the water was seen only because shreds +of lamp-shine floated there. We understood a boat was below, and found +it was, and we loaded it till the water brimmed at the gunwale. As we +mounted the “Capella’s” rope-ladder only one goose fell back into the +dock. + + * * * * * + +The “Capella” started in her sleep, and she woke me. She was still +trembling. Resting my hand on her I felt her heart begin to throb, +though faintly. We were off. + +It was a bright morning, early and keen. Those habitual quays now were +moving past us. The decks were cleared, the carpenter and some sailors +were fixing the hatches, and the pilot, muffled in a thick white shawl, +was on the bridge with the Skipper. We stopped in the outer lock, the +exhaust humming impatiently while a pier-head jumper—for we were a +sailor short—was examined by our doctor. The Skipper had some short +words for an official who had mounted the bridge, because the third mate +had deserted, and had taken his half pay; and the official, who had +volunteered to get us a substitute, had failed. There were now but two +mates for our big tramp steamer going a long and arduous voyage which +included the navigation for some months of narrow inland waterways in +the tropics. Our first mate, passing amidships where the Purser was +leaning overside, stopped to tell me what this meant for him and the +second mate. I was mighty glad it was not the purser’s fault. I have +never heard a short speech more passionate; and his eyes were feral. Yet +it became increasingly clear to me, as the voyage lengthened, that his +eyes no more than met the case. + +Out we drove at last. It was December, but by luck we found a halcyon +morning which had got lost in the year’s procession. It was a Sunday +morning, and it had not been ashore. It was still virgin, bearing a +vestal light. It had not been soiled yet by any suspicion of this +trampled planet, this muddy star, which its innocent and tenuous rays +had discovered in the region of night. I thought it still was regarding +us as a lucky find there. Its light was tremulous, as if with joy and +eagerness. I met this discovering morning as your ambassador while you +still slept, and betrayed not, I hope, any greyness and bleared satiety +of ours to its pure, frail, and lucid regard. That was the last good +service I did before leaving you quite. I was glad to see how well our +old earth did meet such a light, as though it had no difficulty in +looking day in the face. The world was miraculously renewed. It rose, +and received the new-born of Aurora in its arms. There was clouds of +pearl above hills of chrysoprase. The sea ran in volatile flames. The +shadows on the bright deck shot to and fro as we rolled. The breakfast +bell rang not too soon. This was a right beginning. + +The pilot was dropped, and a course was shaped to pass between Lundy and +Hartland. A strong northwester and its seas caught us beyond the +Mumbles, and the quality of the sunshine thinned to a flickering stuff +which cast only grey shadows. The “Capella” became quarrelsome, and +began to strike the seas heavily. You may know the “Capella” when you +see her. She is a modern three-thousand-ton freighter, with derrick +supports fore and aft, and a funnel; and the three of them are so +fearful of seeming rakish that they overdo the effect of stern utility, +and appear to lean ahead. She is a three-island ship, the amidships +section carrying the second mate’s cabin, and the cabins of the four +engineers, all of them, excepting the Chief’s cabin, looking outwards +overseas across a narrow sheltered alleyway; and on a narrower +athwartship’s alleyway there, and opening astern, are the Chief’s place, +and the cook’s galley, the entrance to the engine-room, and the +engineers’ messroom. Above this structure is the boat deck. You may +reach the poop, which contains the master’s and chief mate’s quarters, +the doctor’s and steward’s berths, and the saloon, by descending a +perpendicular iron ladder to the long main deck, or else, as all did at +sea, by a flying trestle bridge, which is dismantled when in port. Her +black funnel is relieved by a cryptic design in white, and her bows are +so bluff that, as the chief mate put it, “her belly begins there.” She +might not take your eye, but a shipowner would see her points. She +carries a large cargo on a comparatively low registered tonnage. The +money that built her went mostly in hull and engines, and the latter do +their work as sweetly as an eight-day clock, giving ten and a half +knots, weather permitting, on a low coal consumption. There was not much +money left, therefore, for balm in the cabins, and that is the reason we +do not find it there. + +At sundown the sky cleared. The wind, increased in violence, had swept +it of the last feather. Lundy was over our starboard bow, a small dark +blot in a clear yellow light which poured, with the gale and the rising +seas, from the west. The glass was falling. Now, the Skipper has often +told me how his “Capella” had faced hurricanes off Cape Hatteras, when +laden with ore, and had kept her decks dry. There are other stories +about her surprising buoyancy, when deeply laden, and I have heard them +all at home, and they are fine stories. But what lies they are! For +there below me, with Lundy not even passed, and the Bay of Biscay to +come (Para not to be thought of yet) were tons and tons of salt wash +that could not get time to escape by the scuppers, but plunged wearily +amongst the hatches and winches. + +“I’ve never seen her as dirty as this,” grumbled the chief engineer +apologetically, peeping from his cabin at cold green water lopping over +casually on to the after deck. “It’s that patent fuel—its stowed wrong. +Now she’ll roll—you can feel it—the cat she is, she’s never going to +stop. It’s that patent fuel and her new load line.” + +Certainly she sat close to the sea. I had never seen so much lively +water so close. She wallowed, she plunged, she rolled, she sank heavily +to its level. I looked out from the round window of the Chief’s cabin, +and when she inclined those green mounds of the swell swinging under us +and away were superior, in apparition, to my outlook. + +“Listen to it,” said the Chief. He stopped triturating some shavings of +hard tobacco between his huge palms, and sat quietly, hands clasped, as +though in prayer. The surge mourned over the deck. The day, too, was +growing towards the dusky hours of retrospection. That sombre monody +outside was like the tremor and boom of the drums funebre. “That chap +some of you talk about—Lloyd George!”—said the Chief, suddenly rubbing +his tobacco again with energy. (Good God, I thought, and here we are at +sea too. Now what has the misguided man done.) “If I had him here I’d +hold him down in that wash on deck till it cleared. Then he’d know. He +put it there, to break sailors’ legs. This steamer, she had dry decks +till her load line was altered. She carries more now than she was built +for, two hundred tons more. If I had him here—but there you are! +Popularity! There’s a fine popular noise for you, isn’t it? Sailors +growled for better food. ‘What about this improved food scale?’ says Mr. +Lloyd George to the shipowners. ‘Oh,’ said they, ‘we’ll give ’em better +food, the drunken insubordinate dogs, if you’ll make overloading legal.’ +‘Why,’ says Lord George, ‘then it wouldn’t be illegal, would it?’ So it +was done. What does the public know about a ship’s buoyancy? Nothing. +But it understands food. So the clever man heightens the Plimsoll mark, +adds a million or so to shipowners’ capital by dipping his pen in the +ink, and gives Jack more jam. What you want ashore,” the Chief added +bitterly, “is not more voters, as some say, but more lunatic asylums.” + +Though I had left politics at home, to be settled by others, like the +trouble with the drains, the dog licence, and the dispute about the +garden fence, I glanced with interest at the Chief. I know him well. Not +only is he a kindly man, but he himself is also a philosophic rebel. But +his eye was hard, and he still ground the tobacco with forgetful energy, +us though an objectionable thing were between his strong hands. Then +impatiently he threw the tobacco loose on his log book, which was open +on his deck, paused, and said, “Ah, maybe the man thought a little +freeboard the less didn’t matter. God give him grace,” and picked his +flute out of a bookshelf which was fastened above his bunk; sat down +over the steam heater, and broke out like a blackbird. Yet was it a +well-remembered air he fluted so well. I listened so long as respect for +the artist demanded, then rose, filled my pipe from the fragrant grains +on the log book, and left him. Presently I would listen to such airs; +but this was too soon. + +I repeat I had confidence in the “Capella” to gain. I went forward to +get it, mounting the bridge, where my cabin mate, the youthful second +officer, was in charge, in his oilskins. A cheerful sight he looked. “I +think,” said he briskly, “we’re going to catch it.” He was puckering his +face over our course. Lundy was looming large—even Rat Island was +plain—but it looked so frail in that flood of seas, wind, and wild +yellow light streaming together from the evening west, that I looked for +the unsubstantial island to spring suddenly from its foundations, and to +come down on us a stretched wisp of thinned and ragged smoke. The sea +was adrift from its old confines. The flood was pouring past, and the +wind was the drainage of interstellar space. Lundy was the last delicate +fragment of land. It still fronted the upheaval and rush of the +ungoverned elements, but one looked for it to be swept away. + +Yet that wild and scenic west, of such pallor and clarity that one +shrank from facing its inhospitable spaciousness, with each shape of a +wave there, black against the light as it reared ahead, a distinct +individual foe in the host moving to the attack, was but the prelude. +Night and the worst were to come. Just then, while the last of the light +was shining on the officer’s oilskins, I was only surprised that our +bulk was such a trifle after all. Our loaded vessel looked so bluff and +massive when in dock. She began to attempt, off Lundy, the spring and +jauntiness of a trawler. The bows sank to the rails in an acre of white, +and the spume flew past the bridge like rain. The black bows lifted and +swayed, buoyant on submarine upheavals, to cut out segments of the +sunset; then sank again into dark hollows where the foam was luminous. +The cold and wind were bitter dolours. + +We rolled. I grasped the rail of the weather cloth, in the drive of wind +and spume, and rode down on our charger like a valiant man; like a +valiant man who is uncertain of his seat. Something like a valiant man. +We advanced to the attack, masts and funnel describing great arcs, and +steadily our bows shouldered away the foe. I think sailors deserve large +monies. Being the less valiant—for the longer I watched, the more grew +I wet and cold—it came to my mind that where we were, but a few weeks +before, another large freighter had her hatches opened by the seas, and +presently was but a trace of oil and cinders on the waters. You will +remember I am on my first long voyage. The officer was quite cheerful +and asked me if I knew Forest Gate. There were, he said, some fine girls +at Forest Gate. + +We rounded Hartland. It was dusk, the weather was now directly on our +starboard beam, and the waves were coming solidly inboard. The main deck +was white with plunging water. We rolled still more. + +“I can’t make out why you left London when you didn’t have to,” said the +grinning sailor. “I’d like to be on the Stratford tram, going down to +Forest Gate.” + +This was nearly as bad as the Chief’s flute. I held up two fingers over +those hatches of ours, called silently on blessed Saint Anthony, who +loves sailors, and went down the ladder; for night had come, and the +prospect from the “Capella” was not the less apprehensive to the mind of +a landsman because the enemy could not be seen, except as flying ghosts. +The noises could be heard all right. + +I shut my heavy teak door amidships, shut out the daunting uproar of +floods, and the sensation that the night was collapsing round our +heaving ship. There was a home light far away, on some unseen Cornish +headland, rising and falling like a soaring but tethered star. Nor did I +want the lights of home. + +“I love the sea,” a beautiful woman once said to me. (We, then, stood +looking out over it from a height, and the sea was but the sediment of +the still air, the blue precipitation of the sky, for it was that +restful time, early October. I also loved it then.) + +I was thinking of this, when the concrete floor of the cabin nearly +became a wall, and I fell absurd-wise, striking nearly every item in the +cabin. Was this the way to greet a lover? Sitting on a sea-chest, and +swaying to and fro because the ship compelled me to a figure of woe, I +began to consider whether it was only the books about the sea which I +had loved hitherto, and not the sea itself. Perhaps it is better not to +live with it, if you would love it. The sea is at its best at London, +near midnight, when you are within the arms of a capacious chair, before +a glowing fire, selecting phases of the voyages you will never make. It +is wiser not to try to realise your dreams. There are no real dreams. +For as to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why should you? I will +never believe again the sea was ever loved by anyone whose life was +married to it. It is the creation of Omnipotence, which is not of human +kind and understandable, and so the springs of its behaviour are hidden. +The sea does not assume its royal blue to please you. Its brute and dark +desolation is not raised to overwhelm you; you disappear then because +you happen to be there. It carries the lucky foolish to fortune, and +drags the calculating wise to the strewn bones. Yet, thought I, that +night off Cornwall, if I pray now as one of the privileged and lucky +foolish, this very occasion may prove to be set apart for the sole use +of the calculating wise. Because that is the way things happen at sea. +What else may we expect from It, the nameless thing, new-born with each +dawn, but as old as the night? Now for me had it degenerated into its +mood of old night, behaving as it did in the lightless days, before +poetry came to change it with flattery. It was again as inhuman as when +the poet was merely a wonderfully potential blob on a warm mudbank. + +Here, you see, is the whole trouble in appealing to Omnipotence. Picture +me entering the wide western ocean at night, an inconspicuous but +self-important morsel sitting on a sea-chest, at a time when it was +perhaps ordained that hundreds of ships should have anxious passages. +(Afterwards I learned very many ships did have anxious passages.) How +could I expect to be spared, even though somewhere the hairs of my head +were all numbered? It is plain that to spare me would be to extend +beneficence to all. There only remained to me my liberty to hope that +our particular steamer might miss all seventh waves, by luck. I was free +to do that. + +I turned up the dull and stinking oil lamp, and tried to read; but that +fuliginous glim haunted the pages. That black-edged light too much +resembled my own thoughts made manifest. There were some bunches of my +cabin mate’s clothes hanging from hooks, and I watched their erratic +behaviour instead. The water in the carafe was also interesting, because +quite mad, standing diagonally in the bottle, and then reversing. A lump +of soap made a flying leap from the washstand, and then slithered about +the floor like something hunted and panic-stricken. I listened to +numerous little voices. There was no telling their origins. There was a +chorus in the cabin, rustlings, whispers, plaints, creaks, wails, and +grunts; but they were foundered in the din when the spittoon, which was +an empty meat tin, got its lashings loose, and began a rioting fandango +on the concrete. Over the clothes chest, which was also our table and a +cabin fixture, was a portrait of the mate’s sweetheart, and on its frame +was one of my busy little friends the cockroaches; for the mate and I do +not sleep alone in this cabin, not by hundreds. The cockroach stood in +thought, waving his hands interrogatively, as one who talks to himself +nervously. The ship at that moment received a seventh wave, lurched, and +trembled. The cockroach fell. I rose, listening. I felt sure a new +clamour would begin at once, showing we had reached another and critical +stage of the fight. But no; the brave heart of her was beating as +before. I could feel its steady pulse throbbing in our table. We were +alive and strong, though labouring direfully. + +It was when I was thinking whether bed would be, as I have so often +found it, the best answer to doubt, that I heard a boatswain’s pipe. + +I fought one side of the door, and the wind fought the other. My hurry +to open the door was great, but the obstinate wind jammed it firmly. +Without warning the wind released its hold, the ship fell over to +windward, the door flew open, and forth I went, clutching at the driving +dark. Then up sailed my side of the ship, and the door shut with the +sound of gunfire. I had never experienced such insensate violence. These +were the unlawful noises and movements of chaos. Hanging to a rail, I +was puzzling out which was the fore and which the rear of the ship, when +a flying lump of salt water struck me in the face just as a figure (I +thought it was the chief officer) hurried past me bawling “All hands.” + +The figure came back. “That you, purser? Number three hatch has gone,” +it said, and disappeared instantly. + +So. Then this very thing had come to me, and at night! Our hatches were +adrift. It was impossible. Why, we had only just left Swansea. It could +not be true; it was absurdly unfair. This was my first long voyage, and +it had only just begun. I stood like the cricketer who is out for a +duck. + +If I could tell you how I felt, I would. Somebody was shouting +somewhere, but his words were cut off at once by the wind and blown +away. I felt my way along a wet and dark iron alleyway which was giddily +unstable, pressing hard against my feet, and then falling from under me. +I got round by the engine-room entrance. Small gleams, shavings of +light, were escaping from seams in the unseen structure, but they showed +nothing, except a length of wet rail or a scrap of wet deck. The ship +itself was a shade, manned by voices. + +I could not see that anything was being done. Were they allowing her to +fill up like an open barge? I became aware my surcharged feelings were +escaping by my knees, which kept knocking in their tremors against a +lower rail. I tried to stop this trembling by hardening my muscles, but +my fearful legs had their own way. Yet it is plain there was nothing to +fear. I told my legs so. Had we not but that day left Swansea? Besides, +I had already commenced a letter which was to be posted at Para. The +letter would have to be posted. They were waiting for it at home. + +Somewhere below me a heavy mass of water plunged monstrously, and became +a faintly luminous cloud over all the main deck aft, actually framing +the rectangular form of the deck in the night. It was unreasonable. I +was not really one of the crew either, though on the articles. I was +there by chance. No advantage should be taken of that. A torrent poured +down the athwartships alleyway, and nearly swept me from my feet. + +One could not watch what was happening. That was another cruel +injustice. The wind and sea could be heard, and the ship could be felt. +But how could I be expected to know what to do in the dark in such +circumstances? There ought to be a light. This should have happened in +the daytime. My garrulous knees struck the lower rail violently in their +excitement. I leaned over the rail, shading my eyes. I grew savagely +indignant with something having no name and no shape. I cannot even now +give a name to the thing that angered me, but can just discern, in the +twilight which shrouds the undiscovered, a vast calm face the rock of +which no human emotion can move, with eyes that stare but see nothing, +and a mouth that never speaks, and ears from which assailing cries and +questions fall as mournful echoes, ironic repetitions. This flung stone +falls from it, as unavailing as your prayers; but we shall never cease +to pray and fling stones, alternately, up there into the twilight. + +Nevertheless, when the chief, with his hurricane lamp, found me, he says +I was smiling. The youth who was our second mate ran up and stood by us, +the better to shout to the deck below. He shouted, bending over the +rail, till he was screaming through hoarseness. He turned to us +abruptly. “They don’t understand a word I say,” he cried in despair. +“There isn’t a sailor or an Englishman in the crowd, the —— German +farmers.” This, I found afterwards, was nearly true. These men had been +signed on at a Continental port. It was really our Dutch cook who saved +us that night. It was the cook who first saw the hatch covers going. + +The ship’s head had been put to the seas to keep the decks as clear as +possible, and being now more accustomed to the gloom I could make out +the men below busy at the hatch. Most conspicuous among them was the +cook, who had taken charge there, and he, with three languages, +bludgeoned into surprising activity the inexperienced youngsters who +were learning for the first time what happens to a ship when the +carpenter’s chief job on leaving port has its defects discovered by +exceptional weather. They were wading through swirling waters as they +worked, and once a greater wave sprang bodily over them, and when the +hatch showed through the foam again some of the men had gone as though +dissolved. But it was found they had kept the right side of the +bulwarks, and the elderly carpenter, whose leg had got wedged in a +winch, was the only one damaged. + +If you ask me when I shall be pleased to allow the necessary sun to rise +upon this narrative to give it a little warmth, then I must tell you it +cannot be done till we have fastened down the “Capella’s” number two +hatch, at least. That hatch has gone now, and if hatches one and four +give way while number two is getting attention from the weary, soaked, +and frozen crowd which has just had an hour’s desperate work at number +three, then I fear the sun will never rise on this narrative. (How Bates +got over to his wonderful blue butterflies in those forest paths under a +tropical sun in thirty-eight words I do not know. He must have been +thinking of nothing but his butterflies. I cannot do it, with the seas +and the ship keeping my mind so busy.) + +Luckily, the other hatches kept staunch. We were watertight again. When +the Old Man, the Chief, the Doctor, and the Purser, gathered late that +night in the Chief’s cabin to see what it was he had secreted in his +cupboard, and boasted of, we sat where we could, being comfortably +crowded, and I never knew tobacco could taste like that. I felt as if +never before had I found such large leisure for extracting its full +flavour. From being suddenly confined within a space which gave me a +short outlook of a few hours, I was presently released into the open +again and of what might remain to me of the usual gift of ample years. I +had all that time to smoke in. Never did a pipe taste so sweet. It is +idle for good and serious souls to think me graceless here with this +talk of tobacco immediately after such a release. Let me tell them my +sacrificial smoke rose up straight and accepted. Looking through the +smoke I saw clearly how worthy, kind, and lovable were the faces of my +comrades. I warmed to this voyage for the first time; as though, after a +test, I had been initiated. This was the place for me, with men like +these about me, and such great affairs to be met. I revelled in the +thought of our valorous bluff, insignificant as we were in that malign +desolation, sundered from our kind. + +“Chief,” said the Old Man, “it was my department that time. None of your +old engines did it.” + +“You’ve got a good cook,” said the Chief, “I saw that.” Then the Chief, +remembering something, turned in his seat to the picture hanging above +his desk of a smiling and handsome matron. “Here’s luck, old girl,” he +said, holding up his glass; “you can still send me some letters.” + + * * * * * + +The Chief, in case of an emergency, slept in his clothes that night on +the settee, and I climbed into his bunk. What a comfortable outline the +man had, as he lay on his broad back, mildly snoring. There was a tangle +of tense hair over a square copper coloured forehead. A long experience +of such nights was written in many lines on that brow, and was shown in +that indifferent snoring while chaos was without. The nose sprang out of +the big face like an ejaculation, and beneath it was a moustache clipped +short to show the red of the upper lip. The jaw was powerful, but its +curves made it friendly. His body and limbs hid the settee and had a +margin over. I quite believed what I had been told of his successful way +with refractory stokers. There was confidence to be got from a mere look +at that slumbering Jovian form. The storm assailed its hairy and fleshy +ears in vain. I braced my knees against the bulkhead to keep myself +still, the rolling was so violent, and went to sleep ... waking to find +us on a level keel; and was deceived into thinking the parallel lines of +grey and gold in the upper air, seen as a picture framed by the port, +were the heights about; a harbour into which we had run for shelter; but +it was only cloudland over the western ocean. The stillness, too, was +but a short reprieve. The wind was merely making a detour, to spring at +us from another quarter. + +The sun died at birth. The wind we had lost we found again as a gale +from the south-east. The waters quickly increased again, and by noon the +saloon was light and giddy with the racing of the propeller. I moved +about like an infant learning to walk. We were 201 miles from the +Mumbles, course S.W. 1/2W.; it was cold, and I was still looking for the +pleasures of travel. The Doctor came to introduce himself, like a good +man, and tried me with such things as fevers, Shaw, Brazilian +entomology, the evolution of sex, the medical profession under +socialism, the sea and the poets. But my thoughts were in retreat, with +the black dog in full cry. It was too cold and damp to talk even of sex. +When my oil lamp began to throw its rays of brown smell, the Doctor, +tired of the effort to exalt the sour dough which was my mind, left me. +It was night. O, the sea and the poets! + +By next morning the gale, now from the south-west, like the seas, was +constantly reinforced with squalls of hurricane violence. The Chief put +a man at the throttle. In the early afternoon the waves had assumed +serious proportions. They soared by us in broad sombre ranges, with +hissing white ridges, an inhospitable and subduing sight. They were a +quite different tribe of waves from the volatile and malicious natives +of the Bristol Channel. Those channel waves had no serried ranks in the +attack; they were but a horde of undisciplined savages, appearing to +assault without design or plan, but getting at us as they could, +depending on their numbers. The waves in the channel were smaller folk, +but more athletic, and very noisy; they appeared to detach themselves +from the sea, and to leap at us, shouting. + +These western ocean waves had a different character. They were the sea. +We did not have a multitude of waves in sight, but the sea floor itself +might have been undulating. The ocean was profoundly convulsed. Our +outlook was confined to a few heights and hollows, and the moving +heights were swift, but unhurried and stately. Your alarm, as you saw a +greater hill appear ahead, tower, and bear down, had no time to get more +than just out of the stage of surprise and wonder when the “Capella’s” +bows were pointing skyward on a long up-slope of water, the broken +summit of which was too quick for the “Capella”—the bows disappeared in +a white explosion, a volley of spray, as hard as shot, raked the bridge, +the foredeck filled with raging water, and the wave swept along our run, +dark, severe, and immense; with so little noise too; with but a faint +hissing of foam, as in a deliberate silence. The “Capella” then began to +run down a valley. + +The engines were reduced to half speed; it would have been dangerous to +drive her at such seas. Our wet and slippery decks were bleak, +windswept, and deserted. The mirror of water on the iron surfaces, +constantly renewed, reflected and flashed the wild lights in the sky as +she rolled and pitched, and somehow those reflections from her polish +made the steamer seem more desolate and forlorn. Not a man showed +anywhere on the vessel’s length, except merely to hurry from one vantage +to another—darting out of the ship’s interior, and scurrying to another +hole and vanishing abruptly, like a rabbit. + +The gale was dumb till it met and was torn in our harsh opposition, +shouting and moaning then in anger and torment as we steadily pressed +our iron into its ponderable body. You could imagine the flawless flood +of air pouring silently express till it met our pillars and pinnacles, +and then flying past rift, the thousand punctures instantly spreading +into long shrieking lacerations. The wounds and mouths were so many, +loud, and poignant, that you wondered you could not see them. Our +structure was full of voices, but the weighty body which drove against +our shrouds and funnel guys, and kept them strongly vibrating, was +curiously invisible. The hard jets of air spurted hissing through the +winches. The sound in the shrouds and stays began like that of something +tearing, and rose to a high keening. The deeper notes were amidships, in +the alleyways and round the engine-room casing; but there the ship +itself contributed a note, a metallic murmur so profound that it was +felt as a tremor rather than heard. It was almost below human hearing. +It was the hollow ship resonant, the steel walls, decks, and bulkheads +quivering under the drumming of the seas, and the regular throws of the +crank-shaft far below. + +It was on this day the “Capella” ceased to be a marine engine to me. She +was not the “Capella” of the Swansea docks, the sea waggon squatting low +in the water, with bows like a box, and a width of beam which made her +seem a wharf fixture. To-day in the Atlantic her bluff bows rose to meet +the approaching bulk of each wave with such steady honesty, getting up +heavily to meet its quick wiles, it is true, but often with such success +that we found ourselves perched at a height above the gloom of the +hollow seas, getting more light and seeing more world; though sometimes +the hill-top was missed; she was not quick enough, and broke the +inflowing ridge with her face. She behaved so like a brave patient thing +that now her portrait, which I treasure, is to me that of one who has +befriended me, a staunch and homely body who never tired in faithful +well-doing. She became our little sanctuary, especially near dayfall, +with those sombre mounts close round us bringing twilight before its +time. + +Your glance caught a wave passing amidships as a heaped mass of polished +obsidian, having minor hollows and ridges on its slopes, conchoidal +fractures in its glass. It rose directly and acutely from your feet to a +summit that was awesome because the eye travelled to it over a long and +broken up-slope; this hill had intervened suddenly to obscure thirty +degrees of light; and the imagination shrank from contemplating water +which over-shadowed your foothold with such high dark bulk toppling in +collapse. The steamer leaning that side, your face was quite close to +the beginning of the bare mobile down, where it swirled past in a +vitreous flux, tortured lines of green foam buried far but plain in its +translucent deeps. It passed; and the light released from the sky +streamed over the “Capella” again as your side of her lifted in the +roll, the sea falling down her iron wall as far as the bilge. The +steamer spouted violently from her choked valve, as it cleared the sea, +like a swimmer who battles, and then gets his mouth free from a smother. + +Her task against those head seas and the squalls was so hard and +continuous that the murmur of her heart, which I fancied grew louder +almost to a moaning when her body sank to the rails, the panic of her +cries when the screw raced, when she lost her hold, her noble and +rhythmic labourings, the sense of her concentrated and unremitting power +given by the smoke driving in violence from her swaying funnel, the +cordage quivering in tense curves, the seas that burst in her face as +clouds, falling roaring inboard then to founder half her length, she +presently to raise her heavy body slowly out of an acre of foam, the +cascades streaming from her in veils,—all this was like great music. I +learned why a ship has a name. It is for the same reason that you and I +have names. She has happenings according to her own weird. She shows +perversities and virtues her parents never dreamed into the plans they +laid for her. Her heredity cannot be explained by the general chemics of +iron and steel and the principles of the steam engine; but something +counts in her of the moods of her creators, both of the happy men and +the sullen men whose bright or dark energies poured into her rivets and +plates as they hammered, and now suffuse her body. Something of the +“Capella” was revealed to me, “our” ship. She was one for pride and +trust. She was slow, but that slowness was of her dignity and size; she +had valour in her. She was not a light yacht. She was strong and hard, +taking heavy punishment, and then lifting her broad face over the seas +to look for the next enemy. But was she slow? She seemed but slow. The +eye judged by those assailing hills, so vast and whelmingly quick. The +hills were so dark, swift, and great, moving barely inferior to the +clouds which travelled with them, the collapsing roof which fell over +the seas, flying with the same impulse as the waters. There was the +uplifted ocean, and pressing down to it, sundered from it only by the +gale—the gale forced them apart—the foundered heavens, a low ceiling +which would have been night itself but that it was thinned in patches by +some solvent day. And our “Capella,” heavy as was her body, and great +and swift as were the hills, never failed to carry us up the long +slopes, and over the white summits which moved down on us like the +marked approach of catastrophe. If one of the greater hills but hit us, +I thought—— + +One did. Late that afternoon the second mate, who was on watch, saw such +a wave bearing down on us. It was so dominantly above us that +instinctively he put his hand in his pocket for his whistle. It was his +first voyage in an ocean steamer; he was not long out of his +apprenticeship in “sails,” and so he did not telegraph to stop the +engines. The Skipper looked up through the chart-room window, saw the +high gloom of this wave over us, and jumped out for the bridge ladder to +get at the telegraph himself. He was too late. + +We went under. The wave stopped us with the shock of a grounding, came +solid over our fore-length, and broke on our structure amidships. The +concussion itself scattered things about my cabin. When the “Capella” +showed herself again the ventilators had gone, the windlass was damaged, +and the iron ends of the drum on the forecastle head, on which a steel +hawser was wound, had been doubled on themselves, like tinfoil. + +By day these movements of water on a grand scale, the harsh and deep +noises of gale and breaking seas, and the labouring of the steamer, no +more than awed me. At least, my sight could escape. But courage went +with the light. At dusk, the eye, which had the liberty during the hours +of light to range up the inclines of the sea to distant summits, and +note that these dangers always passed, was imprisoned by a dreadful +apparition. When there was more night than day in the dusk you saw no +waves. You saw, and close at hand, only vertical shadows, and they +swayed noiselessly without progressing on the fading sky high over you. +I could but think the ocean level had risen greatly, and was see-sawing +much superior to us all round. The “Capella” remained then in a +precarious nadir of the waters. Looking aft from the Chief’s cabin I +could see of our ship only the top of our mainmast, because that +projected out of the shadow of the hollow into the last of the day +overhead; and often the sheer apparitions oscillating around us swung +above the truck of it, and the whole length vanished. The sense of +onward movement ceased because nothing could be seen passing us. At dusk +the steamer appeared to be rocking helplessly in a narrow sunken place +which never had an outlet for us; the shadows of the seas erect over us +did not move away, but their ridges pitched at changing angles. + +You know the Sussex chalk hills at evening, just at that time when, from +the foot of them, they lose all detail but what is on the skyline, +become an abrupt plane before you of unequal height. That was the view +from the “Capella,” except that the skyline moved. And when we passed a +barque that evening it looked as looks a solitary bush far on the summit +of the downs. The barque did not pass us; we saw it fade, and the height +it surmounted fade, as shadows do when all light has gone. But where we +saw it last a green star was adrift and was ranging up and down in the +night. + +This was the dark time when, struggling from amidships to the poop, you +knew there was something organised and coherent under you, still a +standing place in chaos, only because you could feel it there. And this +was the time to seek your fellows in the saloon, where there was light, +warmth, sane and familiar things, and dinner. The “Capella’s” saloon was +fairly large, and the Skipper’s pride. It was panelled in maple and oak, +with a long settee at the foreward end upholstered in red velvet, the +velvet protected by a calico cover. A brass oil lamp with an opaline +shade hung over the table from a beam beneath the skylight. There was a +closed American stove, with a rigorously polished brass flue running up +through the deck. On two oak sideboards in corners of the saloon some +artificial plants blossomed; from single stems each plant blossomed into +flowers of aniline dyes and of different species. One of these plants, +an imitation palm, and a better imitation of life than the others, was +carefully watered throughout the voyage by the steward till it wilted +into corruption and an offence, and became a count against the steward +which the skipper never forgave, for he thought his floral ornaments +lovely. When a pretty Brazilian lady visitor at Itacoatiara admired the +magenta rays of one blossom, he culled it for her (five earnest minutes +with a sharp knife, for there was wire behind the green bark) more as a +sacrifice and a hard duty than a joy, and often spoke of it afterwards, +shaking his head regretfully. + +Ah! that saloon. I remember it first, shiny, cold, and repellent, with a +handful of fire to its wide capacity for draughts, in the northern seas. +It had curious marine odours then, with which I was not friendly till +long after, odours that lamps, burnished brass, newly polished wood, +food, and the steward’s storeroom behind it, never fully accounted for; +and I remember it as I found it in the still heat of the Amazon, when it +had the air of an oven; when, writing in it, the sweat ran off the +fingers to soil the paper, strange insects crawling everywhere on its +green baize table cover, and banging against its lamp. I remember it +assiduously now, every trivial feature of it, and the men, now scattered +over all the world, thrown together in it then for a spell to make the +most of each other. It has the indelible impress of a room of that house +where first the interest in existence awakened in us. + +The Skipper, with stove behind him, took his seat before the soup tureen +at the head of the table. You would as soon think of altering the +chart-room clock, even were it wrong, as of touching the soup tureen +without the Skipper’s orders. It is his duty and his right to serve the +soup, and to call the steward to inform him the density of the +vegetables in it is too heavy. We have no market garden on board, you +know. + +The Doctor was on the Skipper’s right hand, and the Purser next to the +Doctor, and on the opposite side, the chief mate. There was the plump +and bald-headed German steward, in white apron, the lid of one eye +heavier than the other, serving us in his shirt sleeves, sometimes +sucking his teeth with a noticeable click when he knew a dish deserved +our approval. You kept the soup in the plate by holding it off the table +and watching its tides. When her stern sailed up, and the screw raced, +the glass shade of the lamp, being a misfit, took our eyes to watch the +coming smash; the soup then poured over you, and trying to push your +chair back from the mess, you found the chair was a fixture on the +floor. This last fact was never remembered. I should try to push my +“Capella” chair back now, if I were sitting in it. + +The Doctor, who had been long enough tinkering careless bodies to have +grown a little worn and grizzled, was often removed from us by a faint +but impervious hauteur, though maybe he was only a little better and +differently dressed. He was a patient listener, but his eyes could be +droll. The Doctor’s chuckle, escaping from his thoughts while he was +unguarded, would sometimes make the captain look up from a narrative +with question and a trace of resentment in his glance. The captain was a +great traveller, but he was puzzled to find the memory of our surgeon +following him to the most remote and unfamiliar strands. “Now how did +that fellow come to be at a place like that?” the captain would whisper +to me afterwards. “Can’t make him out. Who is he?” The surgeon had a +bottomless fund of short stories, to which he would sometimes go about +the time when we were pushing away the banana skins and nutshells. He +had an elusive and stimulating method with them. He knew his work. At +the end of one the captain would explain the fun to the seriously +interested mate (who had leaned forward to learn), placing spoons and +crumbs to demonstrate the main points. Then the mate, too, would join us +with his happy laugh. The late and giddy laughter of the mate, when he +also arrived, became a welcome feature of a yarn by the surgeon. We +expected it. The mate’s own stories were usually bawdy; he always +prefaced them with some unmanageable hilarity, which impeded his start. + +Mate (_pushing over his plate for soup_). That big wave washed out the +men’s berths, sir. + +Captain. Then it did some good. The dirty brutes. + +Mate. Heard the men grumbling to-night. Said we’ll never get the hawsers +to run out with them bugs in the hawse pipes. Say the bugs don’t belong +to them, sir—ship’s property. + +Doctor. Any this end of the ship, captain? Good Lord! + +Captain. Not a bug. And if there’s any for’ard the men brought ’em. No +bugs in my ship. Never saw one in my cabin. + +Mate (_making a confused effort to master his emotion, not to spill his +soup, and to be respectful_). Te-he! you will, sir, Te-he! (_Realises he +may not laugh, but suffers internally._) + +Captain (_indicates an interrogation with frightful eyes and guttural +noises_). + +Mate (_controls himself by concentrating on a fork_). Well, sir—I’m +just telling you—I heard it said the men annoyed with bugs—some of ’em +said seein’s believin’—said they had enough for everybody. (_His voice +breaks into a stifled falsetto_) So they emptied a match—match—they +emptied a match box full down your ventilator this morning. + + * * * * * + +The captain would frequently keep his seat in the saloon after dinner +till he had finished his cigar, and in the vein, would put a leg over +the arm of his chair, which he had pushed back (his chair was cushioned, +and was not a fixture), and frowning at his cigar, as if for defects, +would voyage again his early seas. I suppose a sailor would call our +skipper a hard case. He was an elderly man, tall, spare, and meagrely +bearded. His eyes were set close into a knife-like nose, and they were +opaque and bright, like two blue stones under a forehead which narrowed +and tightened into a small shiny cranium. There were tufts of grey wool +above his temples. No light came through his eyes to make them limpid, +except when he was fondling Tinker, the dog. They shone from the +surface, giving him a look of peering and intent suspicion. The skin of +his face, neck and hands, now worked a little loose, was so steeped in +the tincture of sunshine that it had preserved an unctious child-like +quality. His dress and habits betrayed an appreciation of his own +person. He kept his own medicines. + +I guessed he would have a ruthless process in an emergency; he would +identify the success and safety of the ship with his own. He laughed +from his mouth only, throwing his head back, showing surprisingly +perfect teeth, and laughter did not change the crystalline glitter of +his eyes. There was something alien and startling in his merriment. As +though his own mind were too cold for him at times he would seek out me, +or the chief, to find warmth in an argument. He would irritate us into a +disputation; and though he was a choleric man, quick at opposition, yet +his vocabulary then was flinty and sparse. It stuck, and was delivered +with pain. You could think of him labouring at his views of men and +affairs with a creaking slate pencil. He set one’s teeth. But he was a +sailor, cautious and bold, with a knowledge of ships and the sea that +was a mine to me. Let me say that, during the voyage, I found him busy +making a canvas cot. He sat on the poop and worked there, bent and +patient as a seamstress, for days. With a judgment made too readily I +believed he was, naturally, making it for his own comfort, against the +heat of the river. When it was finished he was rolling up his ball of +yarn, surveying his job, and he said, mumbling and shy, that the cot was +for me. + +The Skipper, on this day that our decks were swept, swore about the men +and the bugs during dinner, muttered with foreboding about the glass, +which was still falling, and the coals, which were being burnt to no +purpose. We were hardly doing more than holding our place on our course. +The saloon was delirious, and when she flung up her heels, the varied +noises rose with the racing propeller to a crescendo of furious +castenets. The mate let us. The Skipper sat glooming, eyeing his cigar +resentfully, his leg over the arm of his chair. The Doctor was swaying +with the ship, weary and forlorn. Tinker had an appeal in his eyes, and +made timorous noises. The Purser wondered why he was there at all, and +blamed his silly dreams. The night boomed without. What a night! + +Skipper. If this southerly wind goes round to the west and north, look +out. I saw porpoises to-day too. + +Doctor. When are we due at Para? + +Skipper. Huh! What’s this talk of Para? You wait. All this talk about +when we shall get there’s no good.... Now in those Newfoundland +schooners where I served my time—I wouldn’t have no talk in them about +getting anywhere. Seems as if somebody heard. You always run into it. +There was the “Lizzie Polwith.” She was about 80 tons. Those west +country schooners in the fish trade are never more than 100 tons, else +they’d have to carry more than a master and one mate. I was her master, +and a kid of eighteen. We left Falmouth for Cadiz. Now look what +happened. My mate was old Tregenna. He was a regular misery. I never +knew such a dead homer, not so much as he was, always wanting to talk +about his wife. I say, when you’ve cast off, it’s best not to have a +home. The ship wants all you can give her. Tregenna, he looked back a +lot. You know what I mean. Couldn’t keep his mind on his job, but wished +he was through with it. There he’d be cutting bread at dinner, and it +’ud remind him, and he’d be wishing he was cutting it at home. When +things began to go stiff, he’d say, “who wouldn’t sell his little farm +to go to sea?” Used to figure out on paper how long we’d be before we’d +be back. Why, you never know when you’ll get back. + +See what happened. We left Cadiz that year on the first of January, and +got things just right. The winds chased us over. There were big +following seas, but you know those schooners ride like ducks. Up and +over they go. Never a drop did we ship. Though they’re lively enough to +bruise and sicken all but good sailors. And old Tregenna was rubbing his +hands and making out his figures better and better. + +We arrived off St. Johns in a bit more than three weeks. I reckon I’d +done it all right, being such a young chap too. Well, I was turning in +that night, and just as I got into the companion a man said, “There goes +a lump of ice.” I jumped out again. Why, there was ice all round us. The +sea was full of it as far as I could see into the night. “This is all +along of your figuring,” I sang out to Tregenna. “But you’ll have a lot +of time to reckon it up afresh,” I said. + +So he had. Do you know when we got in? We got in on April 15. We were +two months and a half getting in. And we came over in three weeks. +There’s something in that Jonah story. Always some fool who can’t keep +his mouth shut and his mind on his job. + +We did have a time. Two and a half months, and our provisions ran out. +We were living on a little meal and dried peas. The ice chafed the +“Lizzie” till the rudder was worn down to the stock. It roughed up her +wooden sides till they looked as if they were covered with long coarse +hair. We were a sight when we got in. You wouldn’t have known us, +hardly. We looked as if we’d come up from the bottom.... Don’t ask me +when we shall get to Para. Wait till we’re out of this. Listen to that +dog. Shut up, you Tinker. Making that noise, sir! Go and lie down. + +The Skipper clapped on his cap aggressively and went out. The Doctor had +a long and eloquent silence. Then he turned to me. “This beats all,” he +said. “Come and have a drop of gin, old dear.” He led the way to his +berth, which smelt of varnish and of lamp, and we swayed in chorus as +the ship rolled, and had a heartening mourn together. But for its +accidental compensations travel would not be worth the trouble. In proof +of that there is the entry in my diary some days after: + +“December 22. Awoke at four a.m. with the ship rolling as brutally as +ever. A great noise of waters and things banging. The seas huge at +sunrise, when the light came over their tops. Depressing sight. The sky +was blue at first, but was soon overcast with squalls. The horizon ahead +gets slate coloured, and low clouds underneath, like ragged bales of +dirty wool, come towards us heavy and fast. Then the squall and waves +rush down on us express, and the ship buries herself. Constantly hearing +engine-room bell sounded from bridge to slacken speed as a big sea +appears. The captain popped in his head as I was deciding whether to get +up or stay where I was. He gazed sternly at me and said he was looking +for Jonah. I half believe he means it too. Everybody is weary of this. +The men have been in oilskins since the start. + +“Noon to-day, Lat. 42.6 N. Long. 11.10 W. Miles by engines since noon +yesterday 222. Knots by revolutions 9.2. But the slip is 49.2 per cent. +So actual distance 112 miles only, and knots 4.6. Bad going. Wind +southly. Engines racing and engineer still at throttle. + +“Night, and a full moon tearing past cloud openings. The ship +occasionally shows like a pale ghost, the black shadows of the funnel +guys and stanchions oscillating on the white paint-work as she rolls. I +went into Chief’s cabin, and from its open door—for it was sensibly +milder—looked out astern over the way we had come. Up and down, this +side and that, went the steamer, and the Great Bear, in a wind clear +patch of sky, was dancing on our wake. Polaris was making eccentric +orbits round the main masthead light. Then the Skipper came in. He sat +gazing astern. The look of his face was enough. It was quite plain he +would like to be offended to-night, and attack anybody about anything. +Presently he started intently as he looked astern, and jumped from his +seat crying the ultimate anathema on the chap at the wheel; and ran out. +The Chief glanced astern and laughed. ‘The old man comes in here because +it’s uncommon handy for watching the wake. Look at it. Somebody on the +bridge writing letters on the ocean. Thinking of his sweetheart, and her +name is Sue.’ We gave the Skipper’s voice time to reach the wheelhouse, +and then saw the wake visibly tauten out. + +“I went aft, balancing like a man learning the tight rope, along the +trestle bridge. The moon was still falling precipitously through the +broken sky, and areas of the great seas, where the sweeping searchlight +of the moon showed monsters shaping and slowly vanishing, were +frightful. There were sudden expansions of vivid green lightnings in the +north and east. I found the Doctor in the chief mate’s cabin. I sang +some songs in a riving minor, accompanied by the mate on an accordion, +for the doctor’s amusement, and discovered why sailors always use the +accordion, previously a mystery to me. It has a sad and reflective note, +suited to men with memories when alone on the ocean. It ought to fit +Celtic bards better than the harp. It has a fine expiring moan. The mate +gave an imitation of a dying man with it. + +“To bed at 11. Tried to read Henry James. My cockroach came out to wave +his derisive hands at me. No wonder. The light was very bad, and I was +pitched from side to side of the bunk. Nearly thrown out once. I might +just as well have attempted to read the Bhagavad-Gita in the original. +So I read the last letters from home instead and then fell asleep as a +little child.” + + * * * * * + +There was something of leisure in her movements next morning. I felt +sure the glass must be rising at last. The air felt lighter and more +expansive. A peep through the port showed me the ceiling had gone up +considerably in the night. There was little wind, for the waves, though +as great as ever, had lost their white ridges. Their summits were +rounded and smooth. We were running south out of it, though the residue +of the dreary northern seas was still washing about the decks. It was +December yesterday, but April to-day. The engineers’ messroom boy, with +bare fat arms, went by the cabin, singing. + +At breakfast we heard that Chips, who had retired to his bunk for some +days past to mend a leg damaged when the hatches were in danger, had met +with a still more serious misfortune. We fell into a mood of silent and +respectful compassion. There was nothing to be said. Chips had lost his +Victoria Cross. He was an old hero in trouble. The few of us who were +British there—true, most of us were Germans, Dutchmen, Scandinavians, +and Portuguese—felt we represented The Country. Chips limped about the +forecastle with reproach in his face, and we felt we were petty in +noticing his face was also dirty, though it certainly was difficult to +avoid seeing that too, perhaps because, and this can be said for us, the +dirt was of longer standing than the reproach. Then again it is common +knowledge that Chips sleeps in straw, having no mattress. + +Chips’ story we knew. It had been whispered about the ship. He was at +the Siege of Alexandria, and a shell fell near a group of men on his +ship. Chips picked it up and dropped it overboard before the fuse was +finished. The Doctor and I felt especially responsible, for a reason I +cannot easily explain, it is so vague, and we told Chips we would help +him in his search for his lost treasure. This took us to Chips’ +sea-chest, and amid a group of mask-like faces—for how could foreigners +guess what this mattered to us?—we hunted carefully for Chips his +aureole. We found—but I suppose even Victoria Cross heroes must dirty +their socks. There were other things also. Yet it was out of one of +these very other things, which were, I think, shirts, that there +dropped, when the Doctor picked up the garment, a little package wrapped +in newspaper. Chips, from his berth, gave a cry of joy. The Doctor and +I, smiling too, looked upon the old man feeling that we had acted for +you all. Chips, secretive with his sacrosanct emblem, was putting the +little packet under his coverlet, when a low foreign sailor snatched it +from him. The Cross fell to the deck. I recovered it from the feet +instantly in a white passion, and chanced to look at it. It confirmed +that one, who is named Chips here, was something in the Royal and +Ancient Order of Buffaloes. + +Coming back from the fo’castle, suddenly I felt as the man of the +suburbs does when, bowed with months of black winter and work in a city +alley, he is, without any warning, transfigured on his own doorstep one +morning. There as before is his familiar shrub, dripping with rain. Yet +is it as before? It points a black finger at him. But the finger has a +polished green nail. + +He is translated. His ears are opened, and there comes for the first +time that year the silver whistle of the starlings. A touch of South is +in the air. His burden falls. + +The cloudy sky was not grey now, but pearly, for it was translucent to +the sun. More than day had come; life was born. There was ichor in the +day. They were not dark northern waves that baffled us, but we were +shoved and rocked by the send of a long nacreous ocean swell, firm but +kind, from the south-west. The iron ship which had been repulsive to the +touch, for its face had been glassy and cold, was now drying a warm rust +red, like earth of Devon in spring, and was responsive. You could rest +against its iron body and feel yourself grow. I saw the Chief outside +his cabin in his shirt sleeves, gazing overseas between the stanchions +of the boat deck, smoking in the evident luxury of full comfort and +release. Involuntarily, he danced the two-step as she rolled. “Got +anything to read?” he asked. + +Now that reminded me. We have no library, of course, but we have a +circulation of books on board. There are no common shelves; but the book +you left thoughtlessly on the skylight five minutes ago, while you went +to find some matches, is gone when you return. And you, if you see a +book lying open and unprotected in a cabin, glance round warily, dash +in, and take it; very often only to discover to your bitter +disappointment that it is one of your own, and not an adventurous and +unread stranger. The Chief’s question reminded me that the day we left +Swansea a lady (and a friend of poor Jack, the public is well aware) +sent us a bale of literature. We blessed her when we saw its bulk, +looking at it as oxen might look at a truss of hay, for that was its +size and shape. Though it proved to be shavings and a cruel blow to the +animals, as you shall hear. + +Here was the very day to get at that bale, and impatiently I rolled it +into the open. It was trussed with great care, so I tore away a corner +of the wrappings, dived in a hand, and hauled out a copy of “Joy Bells +for Young Christians,” the November number of 1899. + +Well. Anyhow, it was a clean copy, and I put it by as the portion of our +bald-headed German steward. + +This disappointment made me pause, though. Here was going to be a long +job for the Purser, sorting out this. Supposing there was anything +nutritious in the bale I did not mind the labour of the unpacking and +the distribution; but if the bulk of the consignment was hailed, so to +speak, by “Joy Bells,” then it would be better to call a deck hand and +get the package overside before the ship was littered with too much of +this joy. A Brazilian stoker, as he passed, saw me standing in thought, +and I suppose imagined—for he could not ask—that I wanted to cut the +string, but had no knife. Before I could stop him, he, smiling a knowing +and friendly smile, whipped out a blade from his rear; and at once we +stood ankle-deep in literature. There was a landslide near me of Infant +Methodists (dates unknown) and I gave the Brazilian an armful for his +kindness. + +Our dear unknown friend at Swansea, with her eye on our sailor-like but +yet immortal souls, had heard, no doubt, at the annual meeting of the +Society for the Succor of Seamen, at Caxton Hall, Westminster (held on +the 29th of every February), what simple and barbarous and yet, in the +main, considering our origins and circumstances, what worthy fellows we +were. But she was not told at the meeting that the wealthy shipowners, +subscribers to the society, and whose presence there made Caxton Hall +seem nautical, have a way of signing on crews at continental ports +because wages rule lower there; and that consequently not one of our men +was moved by Christian English, but only by mates English, and then not +so very quickly. The officers and engineers were English, and there the +sailors’ friend was right in her surmise; but I do not see how she could +have done more to put in awful jeopardy the soul of our wise and +spectacled chief engineer, for instance, than by approaching him with a +winning and philanthropic smile, under the impulse to do him good with a +statement of her religion in words of one syllable. He would have met +her politely, I know; but after she had gone—— + +Let her try to imagine her own feelings if our Chief, uninvited and +blankly unmindful, invaded the exclusive inner circle of Swansea +society, and approached her in the midst of her own with the childish +notion of instructing her in the first principles of his pronounced +Pyrrhonism; or say he went to her as a colporteur of the Society for +Instructing the Intelligence and Manners of Leisured Folk. But I must +say for our chief that this cannot be even supposed. He would never +offer the lowliest being such an indignity. + +We pulled and dragged at the escaped mass of periodicals, looking for +something good, but found no pearls had been cast before us. There were +parish magazines and temperance monthlies, there were religious almanacs +for the years we have lost; by some sporting chance there were even a +few back numbers of the “Monumental Mason.” It is plain the latter could +be considered an added grievance, even though they were put in as a +kindly reminder of our narrow lease here. It was an aggravation of the +original offence to sailors who, when their short term here closes, have +to make shift with some firebars at their heels. What is Aberdeen +granite and indelible gold lettering to such men but a hint of the +hardships which follow them even beyond the end? + +So overboard went the lot—I may as well tell the whole truth, overboard +also went the evangelical hymn books, new though they were. I will only +suppress the advice cried to the gulls astern as the literature went +floating and flying in their direction. We had to rely for our reading +on what had been brought aboard by our crowd, a collection which +gradually revealed itself in single books and magazines. + +There was, for example, the “Morphology of the Cryptogamia,” an +exhaustive work which gave me much pleasure in wondering how it got +aboard at all. The chief mate used it as a wedge between his open door +and the bulkhead, to prevent the miserable knocking as the ship lolled +about. He would not lend me that book, because it jammed into the +opening nicely; but I borrowed from him “Three Fingered Jack, the Terror +of the Antilles,” and I made him a complete gift in return of “Robert +Elsmere” which I found marooned on a bunker hatch as I came along. There +you see the delightful chance and hazardous character of our literature. + +I prided myself on the select reading I had brought aboard with me. But +what devilish black art the sea air worked on those choice volumes, +however, I cannot explain. I have no means of knowing. But there they +are, their covers bitten by cockroaches, and the words inside bleached +and sterilised of all meaning. There they will stop; Henry James, too. +For what is the use of him when big seas are running? He would be a +magician indeed who could capture our minds then. You get the right +amplitude of leisure and the flat undistracting circumstances he +demands, the emptiness and the immobility necessary, when you are +waiting for cargo long in coming at a low seaboard. I suppose we want +the representation of life only when we are not very much alive. In +heavy weather there is no doubt old newspapers make the best reading, +especially if they have good bold advertisements. For I know it requires +the same courage and concentration needed ashore for reading Another +Great Speech by the Premier; indeed, the steel blue quality of deadly +resolution used only by men of letters who write biographies and spin +literary causeries, to manage even novels when great billows are moving. +The mind is inclined to absent itself then. Then it is you put all +reading aside with a promise of a long and leisurely festival of books +when the ship is steaming uniformly down the unvarying “trades.” + +But when you get near the neighbourhood of the constant sun, during the +day you fall asleep over “Three Fingered Jack” and the old magazines +which you had on your knees while musing on the colours of the sea and +the mounting architecture of the clouds; and beyond sundown listen to +the mate’s accordion or the engineer’s flute. Perhaps, moved by the +hu-s-s-h of the waves, the silky and purple dark, and the loneliness of +your little company under the mid-ocean stars, tentatively (though your +shipmates are very forgiving) lift a ballad yourself; for something is +expected of you, and singing seems right. + +Of all the books aboard the “Capella” I got most out of the Skipper’s +sailing directories and his charts. Talk of romance! There was that +chart-room under the bridge, across its open doors on either side +creaming waves going by in the moonlight, and the steamer inclining each +side alternately, and the shadows of the rigging sliding back and forth +on the pale deck. You cannot know what romance is till you are in seas +you have never sailed before, where the marks will be few when landfall +comes; that ocean where the Skipper is to find his own way by his lore +of the sea, and may even ask your opinion about alternatives; and there +read sailing directories. The romance of these books cannot be +translated or quoted. It would leave them, as though a glimmer went out, +if you attempted to take them from that chart-room where pendant things +are swaying leisurely, where you can hear the bells tell the watches, +and the skipper’s gold-laced cap is on the mahogany table. The South +Atlantic Sailing Directions, our own guide, is fine, especially when it +gets down to the uninhabited islands in far southern latitudes. I do not +think this noble volume is included in the best hundred books, but I +know it can release the mind from the body. + +But what’s this talk of landfalls? as the old man would say. There will +be no landfall yet for us; and this is Christmas Eve. I knew it was an +auspicious occasion of some kind, for the steward just went aft with two +big plum cakes cuddled in his apron. That made me look at the calendar. +We are now 800 miles out, and the steamer has reached six knots. This +was the best night we had yet found. The steamer was on an even keel, +with but occasional spasms of sharp rolling, for there was no sea, but +only old ocean breathing deeply and regularly in its sleep, and +sometimes making a slight movement. The light of the full moon was the +shining ghost of noon. The steamer was distinct but immaterial, +saliently accentuated, as a phantom. A deep shadow would have detached +the forecastle head but for a length of luminous bulwark which still +held it, and some quiet voices of men who were within the shadow, +yarning. The line of bulwark and the murmuring voices held us together. +The prow as it dipped sank into drifts of lambent snow. The snow fled by +the steamer’s sides, melting and musical. Two engineers off duty leaned +on the rails amidships, smoking, looking into the vacancy in which the +moonlight laid a floor of troubled silver. As if drawn by its light a +few little clouds were poised near the moon, grouped round the bright +heart of the night. There was the moon and its small company of clouds, +and ourselves below in our own defined allotment of sea. The only thing +outside and far was Sirius, burning independently in the east, looking +unwinking through the wall of night into our world. + +On such a night and with Christmas morning but sixty minutes away it +would have been wasting life to go to bed. I glanced expectantly at the +door of the Chief’s cabin, and saw indeed it was open, a yellow +rectangle within which was the profile of the Chief beneath his lamp, +talking to somebody. The Doctor was there, and he made room for me on +the settee. Then the captain joined us, and I perched myself on the +washstand. + +“Well, we can undress to-night when we turn in,” said the Chief. (None +of us had, so far.) In a long silence which filled the cabin with +tobacco smoke I could hear the engines below uplifted in confident song. + +“Now they’re walking round,” said the Skipper, nodding his head. “Now +she feels it.” + + * * * * * + +When we met thus, between the hours of nine and midnight, as was our +irregular habit, the talk first was always desultory, and about our own +ship and our own circumstances, for the concerns of our little world +strangely occupied our minds, as you would think, and the large affairs +of that great world we had left, of which we heard now no sound nor +rumour, had lessened in the mind, faded and vanished, all the huge +consequence and loud clangour of it, so that now there was an empty +horizon astern, and nothing between us and that void but a few gulls, +like small and pursuing recollections. Our little microcosm, afloat and +sundered in the wastes, was occupied in its own polity. We talked of the +carpenter’s bad leg; complained of the cook’s bread; heard that Tinker +the dog, being young, had the habit at night, while honest folk slept, +of eating the saloon mats; grumbled that the ship’s tobacco was mouldy. +The deck was getting dry, the Skipper said, and now we could get the men +chipping it, and then it could be tarred. + +“That donkeyman,” said the Skipper, “that man wastes the fresh water. +I’ll have a lock put on the pump handle. He works it as if we were laid +out to the main. I spoke to him about it this morning.” The fresh water +is a vital affair with us. We may not drink the water of the country to +which we are bound, so eighty tons of Welsh mountain spring is in our +cleansed and whitewashed tanks. Woe to the man caught overflowing his +can, if an officer sees him. “The handle can’t be locked,” said the +Chief, “because it’s next to the galley. The cook wants it all day +long.” + +“Well, let me catch anyone wasting it. We’d look all right with a lot of +dysentery, drinking that river water out there.” + +This common meeting-place of ours, the Chief’s cabin, is on a highway of +the ship, being on the direct route from the poop to the bridge, and so +it is a hostel, for the Chief is a kindly and popular man, big and +robust in body and mind; though he has a knack, at odd and unexpected +times, of being candid in a way that shocks, treading on corns without +ruth, the Skipper’s particularly, when their two departments are at a +difference. + +This cabin was one which I always visited first, for, especially in the +morning when other folk had not rubbed the night out of their eyes, and +so looked darkly upon their fellows, my friend the Chief had the early +eye of a child and the soaring spirit of the lark. I never met him when +he had got out of bed on the wrong side. His cabin became a refuge to +me, for, unlike the Doctor’s and my own place (we both were birds of +passage, therefore our cabins were cold and stark), the Chief’s was +comfortable with settled furniture, cosy and habitable, like a fixed +home. There was a wicker chair, with cushions, and a writing-desk where +the engineer’s log lay handy and bearing some plug tobacco, freshly cut, +on its cover, and a pipe rack above the desk carrying a most foul +assortment waiting their turns again for favour. Portraits of the +Chief’s family were on the walls, smiling boys and girls, with their +mother in a chief place, looking upon daddy by proxy. There was a +bookshelf bearing some engineering manuals, a few novels and magazines, +a tape measure, some gauge glasses, some tin whistles, a flute, and a +palm leaf fan. Above the washstand was a rack with glasses and a carafe. +A settee ran along one side, and his bunk upon the other side. There we +sat on Christmas Eve, while the wicker chair bent and complained with +the Skipper’s weight as he swayed to the leisurely rocking of the ship. +The tobacco smoke floated in coils and blue smears in the room. A bottle +of Hollands rested for security on the bed, and we held our glasses on +our knees. + +The pallid and puffy face of the steward, a very honest man secretly +free with his small store of apples on my account because I am green and +my palate not yet used to the flatness of tinned provisions, looked in +on us from the right. “Vhere is der dog, sir? I haf not seen der dog.” +“Must be about,” we cried. “We had seen him,” we said, “nosing about the +poop for rats, or asleep on the saloon mat, or padding round the casing +looking for friends.” “But no, I haf looked. He is not found. Vhere is +der dog?” A hole in our little community, it was apparent from our +intent looks, could not be thought of with equanimity. Tinker’s +importance became quite large. The second engineer passed the door, +caught the drift of our anxious converse, and turned to say the dog was +then asleep in his room. “Ach! zat is all right.” We struck matches for +our pipes again. + +“That dog, I shouldn’t like to lose him,” said the Skipper, stroking his +beard. “There’s no luck in that. I shot a dog once on a ship; and first +we ran into a blow and lost a lot of gear, and then the mate got his +hand smashed, and then everything got cross-grained till I’d have paid, +ah, fifty pounds to have had the brute back again, and an ugly customer +he was. Ah, you can smile, Doctor, but there it is. I’m not +superstitious and never was. But you can’t tell me. Look at the things +that happen. When I was a youngster, my ship was off Rio, and I dreamt +my father was dead. I took my bearings and the time. I dreamt my father +died in a red brick house with a laylock tree by the door and that tree +was in blossom plain enough to smell. I didn’t know the house. There was +a path of clean red bricks leading up to the porch, through a garden. I +didn’t see my father. But you know what dreams are like—no sense in +them—there the house was and not a soul in sight. I knew he was dying +inside it.” + +“How do you account for that? Have you got it down in your books? I lay +you haven’t. I forgot all about that dream. Long after I was at Cape +Town and met my brother. That reminded me. After a bit I said to him, +‘Father’s dead.’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but how did you know?’ Said I, ‘Was +the house like this?’ and I told him. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘it was like that. +A place he was staying at in Essex. But how did you know?’ I didn’t tell +him. What’s the good? He wouldn’t have believed it. People don’t.” + +All through the anxious time when we were being soused and buffeted I +noticed how our company, every man of them, even the Pyrrhonist, saw +omens in all the chance variety of the vast menace under the frown of +which we huddled in our iron box; porpoises alongside; one of Mother +Cary’s dark brood accompanying us, glancing about the vagaries of the +flowing hills with swift precision; the form of a cloud; a loom far out, +as though day were there at least. The fall of a portrait in the Chief’s +room once set him wondering and melancholy. Again, when the dog whined +and moped, the Skipper eyed the animal narrowly, as though the creature +had prescience but could tell us what it knew only by drooping and +quivering its hind quarters. You might have thought that Fate, dumb and +cruel, but a little relenting for something inevitably to come to our +mishap, were trying to stretch a point, and so induced the Skipper to +put his shirt on inside out one morning, after dreaming he saw drowned +rats, in case the horse were not too blind to see both the nod and the +wink. + +The Sphinx makes subtle dumb motions, as it were, when closely regarded. +I do not wonder if it does. Sometimes in those dark days I thought I got +a hint or two. I cannot tell you what they were. The weather grew +brighter afterwards and I forgot them. From our narrow and weltering +security, where the wind searched through us like the judgment eye, I +know, looking out upon the wilderness in turmoil where was no help, and +no witness of our undoing, where the gleams were fleeting as though the +very day were riven and tumbling, that I saw the filmy shapes of those +things which darken the minds of primitives. While the sky is changeful, +and there are storms at sea when our fellows are absent, and mischance +and death are veiled but here, we shall have gods and ghosts. The +sharp-sighted collectors of old brain-lumber and such curios may still +keep busy, and tie up their dry bundles of mythology and religions; but +I myself could make plenty more. + +So it was my shipmates’ yarns were most of the dire kind, with some dim +warning precedent. I do not recall a story that was gay, except those of +the wanton sort. They were of close calls and of women, as, I suppose, +have been those of all hard livers, from the cave men on. + +Eight bells were rung on the bridge, and, like a faint echo in a higher +pitch, answered from the fo’castle. Christmas morning! By my pocket +compass we toasted the folk at home. We had heard a good many stories of +wreck this night, and the Chief was now at his contribution to the +unseasonable memories. (“I’ve had enough of it. Here goes,” said the +Doctor; and he went.) “Don’t leave us. It lets in the draught. Well, the +compliments to you. This typhoon—I had had four others—but this one +made me think it was good-bye. She was a small steamer, that ‘Samuel +Plimsoll,’ and old, but well-behaved. But her light nearly went out in +that blow. It was that dark you could find nothing but the noise, and we +were just the same as a chunk of wood under a waterfall, because the +Lord knows how many feet of water were in the engine-room, for she was +rolling so. Her fires were out. She had a list of 22 degrees to port. +She simply lay in it, and it went over her. Every time she rolled over +on the deep side, thinks I, this is the last of her. All this, mind you, +went on for two days, and the skipper was in the chart-room, waiting. +I’ve found that when the danger is not much you get excited, but when +there seems no chance you get cool and cunning and try to make one. One +time I thought she seemed easier, and I was able to get the donkey +engine going. I felt better as soon as I heard the steam, even though it +was only in the donkey. Thinks I, there’s power, and it’s mine—a canful +of steam to a typhoon. It was a chance to laugh at. Then I took the +other engineers with me and we went below. The water there, full of +cinders and trash, pouring through the gear as she turned from side to +side, made it look a pretty poor show. You see, the donkey wouldn’t work +the pumps, for the coal and muck were sucked in. So I took a basket and +got into the tank, holding the basket under the pump. The water was up +to my neck, and every time she rolled I was ducked. But the dodge +worked, and that list of hers to port was a bit of luck in its way, for +it helped us to get the starboard boiler going. When I saw the throws +moving, and the wash angry when it splashed on the hot metal, I said, +‘So much for your old typhoon.’ We were not counted out then. We crawled +under the lee of an island, and lay for four days repairing her. The +funny thing was when we got to Hong Kong the papers were full of our +loss. ‘“Samuel Plimsoll” lost with all hands.’ It was funny to see a +bill like that. I met the placard as it came running round a corner, and +it made me stand and shuffle my feet on the ground to see if the earth +was all right. I knew the editor of that paper, and I was then going up +to give him something good. And here he was making money out of us like +that. He stood at the door of his office and saw me coming. I went up +laughing, waving his paper in my hand. He looked quite surprised. His +mouth was wide open. ‘You’re a nice sort of chap,’ I said.” + + * * * * * + +Christmas Day. In case it has become necessary for me to show again the +symbols of verity, as this is a book of travel, here they are: “Lat. +37.2 N., long. 14.14 W. Light wind and moderate swell from S.W. Vessel +rolling heavily at intervals. 961 miles out. Miles by engines 226. +Actual distance travelled (because of the swell on our starboard bow) +197 miles.” I cannot see that these particulars do more than help me out +with the book, but as they have been considered essential in narratives +of voyaging, here they are, and much good may they do anybody. Thoreau, +in one of his quaintly superior moods when speaking of travel, said, “It +is not worth while going round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.” +In nearly every book of travel this is proved to be true. They show it +was not worth the while, seeing it was either to shoot cats or to count +degrees of latitude. (As for me, I have no reason whatever for being at +sea.) Consider Arctic travel. I have read long rows of books on that, +but recall few emotional moments. The finest passage in any book of +Arctic travel is in Warburton Pikes’ “Barren Grounds,” where he quotes +what the Indian said to the missionary who had been speaking of heaven. +The Indian asked, “And is it like the land of the Musk-ox in summer, +when the mist is on the lakes, and the loon cries very often?” + +You feel at once that the country the Indian saw around him would be +easily missed by us, even when in the midst of it. For taking the +bearings of such a land, the sextant, and the miles already travelled, +would not be factors to help much. Now the Indian knew nothing of +artificial horizons and the aids to discovering where they are which +strangers use. But in summer the mists of his lakes were but the vapour +of his musings, the penumbra of the unfathomed deeps of his mind whereon +he paddled his own canoe; and when the wild-fowl called, it was his +memory heard; it was his thought become vocal then while he dreamed on. +I myself learned that the treasures found in travel, the chance rewards +of travel which make it worth while, cannot be accounted beforehand, and +seldom are matters a listener would care to hear about afterwards; for +they have no substance. They are no matter. They are untranslatable from +their time and place; and like the man who unwittingly lies down to +sleep on the tumulus where the little people dance on midsummer night, +and dreams that in the place where man has never been his pockets were +filled with fairy gold, waking to find pebbles there instead, so the +traveller cannot prove the dreams he had, showing us only pebbles when +he tries. Such fair things cannot be taken from the magic moment. They +are but filmy, high in the ceiling of your thoughts then, rosy and +sunlit by the chance of the light, transitory, melting as you watch. You +come down to your lead again. These occasions are not on your itinerary. +They are like the Indian’s lakes in summer. They have no names. They +cannot be found on the best maps. Not you nor any other will ever +discover them again. Nor do they fill the hunger which sent you +travelling; they are not provender for notebooks. They do not come to +accord with your mood, but they come unaware to compel, and it is your +own adverse and darkling atoms that are changed, at once dancing in +accord with the rare incidence of that unreasonable and transcendent +moment of your world, the rhythm of which you feel, as you would the +beat of drums. + +And what are these things?—but how can we tell? A strip of coral beach, +as once I saw it, which was as all other coral beaches; but the ship +passed close in, and by favour of the hour and the sun this strand did +not glare, but was resplendent, and the colours of the sea, green, gold, +and purple, were not its common virtues, but the emotional and passing +attar of those hues. There was the long, slow labouring of our burdened +tramp in the Atlantic storm. Or one April, and a wild cherry-tree in +blossom by an English hedge, a white cloud tinctured with rose, and in +it moving a dozen tropical chaffinches; the petals were on the grass. + +And now, this is Christmas morning. I am in the Chief’s bunk, and he +still sleeps on the settee. We fell asleep where we lay yarning on our +backs after midnight. I wake at the right moment, opening my eyes with +the serene and secure conviction that things are very well. The slow +rocking of the ship is perfect rest. There is no sound but the faint +tap-tap of something loose on the desk and responding to the ship’s +movements. The cabin is strangely illuminated to its deepest corner by +an extraordinary light, as though the intense glow of a rare dawn had +penetrated even our ironwork. On the white top of the cabin a bright +moon quivers about, the shine from live waters sent up through the round +of our port. When we lean over, the port shows first the roof of the +alleyway dappled with bright reflections; then a circle of sky, which +the horizon soon halves; and then the dazzling white and blue of the +near waves; we reverse. + +This is life. This is what I have come for. I do not repose merely in a +bunk. I am prone and easy in the deepest assurance of good. This +conviction has penetrated even the unconsciousness of the Chief; he +snores in profound luxury. If in a ship you are brought sometimes too +cruelly close to the scrutiny of the terms of your narrow tenure, +expecting momentarily to see the document torn across by invisible +fingers, yet nowhere else do you feel those terms to be so suddenly +expanded in the sun. And nowhere else is got such release, secure and +absolute, from the nudging of insistent trifles. There is nothing +between your eyes and the confines of your own place. Empty day is all +round. In the entire circle there is not the farthest impertinent +interruption—through all the degrees there is not one fool standing in +the light; and you yourself are on nobody’s horizon. No history stains +that place. There is not a black doubt anywhere. It is the first day +again, and no need yet for a rubbish heap. + +Yet when, singing to myself, I went outside to matins, I found Sandy our +third engineer with the toothache. So much of truth is got from being a +gymnosophist and regarding your own toes with aloof abstraction on a +sunny Christmas morning. I became Sandy’s courage for him instead, took +his arm firmly, and led him aft to the doctor. We would start a rubbish +heap for a pristine world with a decayed tooth. Something to be going on +with. + +Seeing we were almost off Madeira we had some amount of right to the +July sun under which we had run. For the first time since the Mumbles +our decks were quite dry, and cherry red with rust. There were +glittering crusts of salt in odd places. At eight bells (midday) the +captain ordered a general holiday, except for the routine duties; and +the donkeyman appeared to startle us as the apparition of a stranger on +the ship, for he had a clean face, though his eyes still were dark and +spectral, and he wore a suit of new dungarees, stiff and creased from a +paper parcel, but just opened, out of a Swansea slop shop. His mates +were some seconds realising him. Then they made derisive signs, and the +boldest some ribald cries. I thought their resentment was really aroused +by Donkey’s new shirt; it was that touch which pushed matters too far, +and made him unfriendly. He saw this himself. Soon he changed the new +shirt for one that had been rendered neutral in the stoke-hold and the +bucket. + +There was something neutral, like Donkey’s old shirt, about most of our +crowd. Each one of the mob which gathered with mess kits a little before +midday about the galley door seemed reduced, was faded in a noticeable +measure from the sharp and strong pattern of a man. Their conversation +about the galley was always in subdued mutterings, not direct, but out +of the mouth corners, sideways. Their only independence was in the +negligence of their attitudes. They might have been keeping in mind an +austere and invisible presence, whose swift words from nowhere might at +any time cleave their soft babble. If I made to pass through them the +babble ceased, and from limp poses they sprang upright in the narrow way +to let me pass, their eyes cast down. A man who had not seen me coming, +but still sprawled on the rail, talking quietly, would be nudged by his +neighbour. It struck me this attitude would change when they knew us +better; but it never did. These deckhands and firemen were mostly +youngsters, steadied by a few older hands. Chips and Donkey were the +veterans. In that crowd the boatswain was the admirable figure. He was a +young Britisher, tall, upright, and weighty, with a smiling, respectful +eye in which sometimes, I thought, there was a faint hint of mockery. He +had an easy balance and confidence in his movements which made him worth +watching when about his business. Clean shaven when he came aboard, he +now had a tawny beard which caught gold lights, and it was singularly +good on his weather-darkened face. He seldom wore a cap, for it could +have added little protection to the taut vigour of his hair, and would +have spoilt, as perhaps he himself guessed, that proper flourish and +climax to the poise of his head. + +Donkey was an Irishman, and he was the huge frame of what, maybe thirty +years before, had been a powerful man. This morning his big cadaverous +face, white only on the bony ridges surrounding the depressions of the +temples, the cheeks, and the dark pits of the eyes, and with the shadowy +hollow of the mouth which gaped through the weight of the massive jaw, +would have resembled, from a little distance, that of a skeleton head of +one of the monsters in a geological gallery, but for the dewlap +sustained by sinews running from his chin down his throat. Donkey was a +silent man, and never caught your glance as you passed him, but lumbered +along with so much of the surprising celerity of a gaunt elephant that +you thought you might hear the rasp of his loose clothes. He was a +simple and docile fellow. I never heard him speak, but he used to come +to the Chief, fill the door with his massive front, his small eyes which +expressed nothing and were but sparks of life, looking nowhere in +particular, and make guttural sounds; and the Chief, being used to him, +understood. At sea Donkey did his small duties like a plain but +cumbersome mechanism that had somewhere in it an obscure point of +rationality. When ashore, though, he was said to go mad, and to roll +trampling and trumpeting through the squalid littoral of the world; +being brought aboard afterwards an enormity of lax bones and flesh, with +the cogitating glim in his bulk quite doused. + +Of the others, there was a Teutonic bunch of lads, deckhands, which I +never succeeded in segregating, they looked so much alike. They had +pimpled, idle faces, and neutral eyes, cast down when they sidled by +one, thin down on their chins, and grimy raiment which, by the look of +it, was an integument never cast after we left port. One name would have +covered that lot, and frequently I heard the mates use it. But Olsen, +the Norwegian with a blond moustache which covered his mouth like a +fog-protector, and stern blue eyes, was a sailor. The firemen made a +better bunch. There was among them a swarthy Brazilian, whose constant +smile seemed ever on the point of breaking into song, but that he was +always chewing the end of a sweat rag he wore twisted round his neck. +The happy feature of our firemen was a Dutchman, whose hollow face was +full of silent woe and endurance. He was our chief joy. When once we +found the sun, he then appeared in a single garment, trousers and braces +cut in one piece of brown canvas, hauled up well under his arms, leaving +his slab feet remote and forlorn. His torso was bare, a dancing girl in +red and blue tattooed on his chest. He wore a bowler hat without a brim. + +We will get Christmas over. It was a pagan festival. Looking back at it, +I see—with the astonishment of the sedate who is native to a +geometrical suburb where the morning train follows the night and every +numbered house shelters a moral agnostic—I see a dancing baccanal with +free gestures who fades, as I look back intently, doubting my senses, in +a roseous haze. The lawless movements of that wild, bright and laughing +figure, its exultant blasphemy, its confident mockery, are remembered by +me as though once I had been admitted to the green room of heaven. +Surely I have seen a god whose deathless knowledge derides the solemn +gods, behind the curtain. It was Christmas night, and our little +“Capella,” our point of night shine, a star moving through the void to +its dark destiny, filled the vault with its song, while its fellows in +the heavens stood round. Christmas is over. + + * * * * * + +The day following was Sunday, a grey day of penance, the men soberly +washing their shirts in buckets under the forecastle head, smoking moody +pipes. The garments were tied to any convenient gear where they could +hang free. The sky was leaden. This grey day was distinguished by the +strange phenomenon of an horizon which was almost level; the skyline and +the clouds did not slant first this way, then that. The swell had almost +gone. Already I began to feel the large patience and tranquillity of a +mind losing its shadows, and contemplating the light and space of a long +voyage in which the same men do the same things in the same place daily +under the centre of the empty sky. Sitting on a hatch with the Doctor, +smoking, we confessed, with ease at the heart, and with minds in which +nervous vibrations had ceased, that we must have reached this place that +was nowhere, and that now time was not for us. We had escaped you all. +We were free. There was not anything to engage us. There was nothing to +do, and nobody who wanted us. Never before had I felt so still and +conscious of myself. I realised, with a little start of surprise, that +it was Me who felt the warm air, and who looked at the slow pulse of the +waters, and the fulgent breaks in the roof, and heard the droning of the +wake, and not that mere skin, eyes and ears which, as in London, break +in upon our preoccupied minds with agitating sensations; and I took in +this newly-discovered world of ocean and cloudland and my own sure +identity centred therein with the complacency of an immortal who will +see all the things which do not matter pass away. When we left England +we were tense, and sometimes white (though there were others who went +red) about a Great Crisis in our Country’s History. The Doctor and I +arrived on board, detached from the opposing armies in the impending +conflict, and at first put our hands swiftly to our swords every ten +minutes or so during meals. Of that crisis only one small gull now was +left, and he was following us astern with a melancholy cry at intervals, +of which we took no more notice. (And that gull departed, I see by my +diary, the very next day.) + +So ended the Great Crisis. I did not even note the ship’s position at +the time, though I can see now that was a serious fault for which future +historians may blame me. I can but state vaguely that it was about sixty +miles north-west of the Fortunate Isles. The change in the quality of +the sun and air became most marked; I remember that. The horizon +expanded to a surprising distance. According to letters from home, sent +about that date, which I received long afterwards, I am unable to find +that similar phenomena were witnessed in England. Probably they were but +local. These manifestations in the heavens filled the few of us +privileged to witness them with awe, and a new faith in the power and +compassion of God. Nothing further of note occurred on this day, except +that Chips, as a further miracle, suddenly was raised whole from where +he lay in his bunk with a useless leg. His leg, you may remember, was +damaged in the gale off Cornwall. The Doctor, going his rounds, was +surprised to find Chips dancing the hoola-hoola in the forecastle, and a +stoker, with a cut eye, wailing for a lost half bottle of gin taken from +his box while he was on duty. Thereafter Chips returned to work, his leg +becoming halt again only when he knew we saw him stepping it too +blithely. + + * * * * * + +“_Decr. 27._ Distance run for past 24 hours to midday 219. Total +distance 1177 miles. Fine weather. Glass rising.” + +Have you ever heard of the monotony of a long voyage? The same sky you +know, the same waters, the same deck; and now I can see it should be +added, the same old self, dismayed by the contemplation of its features +daily, week after week, within that spacious empty hall, where is no +escape from the bright stare overhead which reveals your baldness and +blemishes without ruth. You get found out. You want to mix with the mob +again, to get lost in the sameness of your fellows. He who goes +travelling should leave his self at home, or as much of it as is not +wanted on the voyage. It is surprising to find how little you want of +yourself. The ideal traveller would venture out merely as a disembodied +thought, or, at most, as an eye. + +A mere eye would see no monotony, for the sky may be the same sky, but +its moods are like those of the same woman; and the ocean, though young +as the morning, is older than Asia—you never know what to expect from +that profound enigma. As for the sunny deck, I see the Doctor sitting on +a spare spar, waiting for someone to sit beside him. The Chief is filing +a piece of small gear outside his cabin. The Skipper is overlooking, +with a hard frown, a group of men busy repairing his chart-room, which +is just forward of the engine-room casing (I could get a job from him at +once for the asking, though I shall not ask). The first mate is trying +to be in three places at once. The second mate patrols the bridge. The +German steward, who tells curious stories in a Teutonised dialect of +Shadwell, is hanging mattresses and bed clothes over a boom. The men are +chipping and tarring the deck; and the boatswain, bare-legged, wildly +bearded, a sheath knife on his hams, looks like a fine pirate brought to +menial tasks. + +I have watched this day’s monotonous sky onwards from the dawn. We are +in the neighbourhood of the Hesperides. For some early hours of the +morning it was grey. But the grey roof soon broke with the incumbent +weight of light, letting sunshine through narrow fractures to the sea, +far out. There were partitions of thin gold in the dim hall. The moving +floor was patterned in day and night. The low ceiling was fused where +the day poured through, became a candent vapour, volatilised. We had +over us before breakfast the ultimate blue, where a few cirrus clouds +showed its great height. + +Then it was August. The sea ran in broad heavy mounds, blue-black and +vitreous, which hardly moved our bulk. In the afternoon, the ocean, a +short distance from the ship, grew filmed and opaque, a milky blue shot +with purple shadows. Its surface, though heaving, was smooth and +flawless. No light entered its deeps, but the radiant heat was mirrored +on it as on the pallor of fluid lava. The water ploughed up by the bows +did not break, but rolled over viscidly. The sun dropped behind the sea +about a point west of our course. Night was near. Yet still the high +dome with its circular floor the sea was magically illuminated, as by +the proximity of a wonderful presence. We, solitary and privileged in +the theatre, waited expectant. The doors of glory were somewhere ajar. +The western wall was clear, shining and empty, enclosed by a proscenium +of amber flames. In the north-east, astern of us, were some high +fair-weather clouds, like a faint host of little cherubs, and from their +superior galleries they watched a light invisible to us; it made their +faces bright. Beneath them the glazed sea was coral pink. Even our own +prosaic iron gear was sublimated; our ship became lustrous and strange. +We were the Argonauts, and our world was bright with the veritable +self-radiance of a world of romance where the things that would happen +were undreamed of, and we watched for them from our argosy’s side, calm +and expectant; my fellows were transfigured, looked huge, were rosy and +awful, immortals in that light no mortal is given to see. + +Now had been given me fellowship with the ship and her men; we were one +body. I had been absorbed by our enterprise. For a long while our +steamer was a harsh and foreign thing to me, unfriendly to the eye, +difficult to understand. But now she had become intelligible and proper. +She and her men were all my world, and I could find my way about that +world in the dark. Getting used to a ship has the process of the growth +of a lasting friendship. Chance begins it. You regard your luck askance, +as you accept a new acquaintance with no joy, to make the best of him. +But presently, to put the matter at its lowest, you arrive at an +understanding. You have learned your friend’s worth. Familiarity would +breed contempt only in the mouse-hearted. You never have to account him +afresh, or he is no comrade; there can be no surprises again, no +encounters with a stranger in him. His value, at the least reckoning, is +that you know his value. Any hour of the day or night you can guess with +assurance where his mind would be found. And here my “Capella” has no +strange doors and startling declivities and traps for me any more. I +know her. She is not exactly all she should be, but I apprehend exactly +what she is. If I hurt myself against her it is my own fault. She is as +familiar to me as home now. I should resent any alteration. Having +learned to know her faults I like her as she is; the trestle bridge with +its sagging hand-ropes and wobbling stanchions (look out, you, when she +rolls) which crosses the main deck aft on the port side from the +amidships section, where I live, to the poop, where the Doctor lives. +The two little streets of three doors each, to port and starboard of her +amidships, the doors that open out under the shade of the boat deck to +sea. There, amidships also, are the Chief’s room and the galley, the +engineers’ messroom, and the engine-room entrance; but these last do not +open overside, but look aft, from a connecting alley which runs across +the ship to join the side alleyways. Forward of these cabins is the +engine-room casing, where the ’midship deck broadens, but is cumbered +with bunker hatches (mind your feet, at night, there); and beyond, +again, is the chart-room, and over the chart-room the bridge and the +wheelhouse, from which is a sheer long drop to the main deck foreward. +At the finish of that deck is an iron wall, with the entrance to the +mysterious forecastle in its centre; and over that is the uplifted head +of our world watching our course, a bleak windswept place of rails, +cable chains, and windlass. The poop has a timber deck, and there in +fine weather the deck chairs are. The poop is a place needing exact +navigation at night. Long boxes enclosing the rudder chains are on +either side of it. In the centre is the saloon skylight, the companion, +the steward’s ice chest, and the hand-steering gear. Also there are two +boats. I gained my night knowledge of the poop deck by assault, and +retained my gains with sticking plaster. I am really proud of the +privilege which has been given me to roam now this rolling shadow at +night, this little dark cloud blowing between the stars and the deep, +the unseen abyss below as with its profound reverberations, and the +height above with its scattered lights as remote as the sounds in the +deeps. With calm faith in our swaying shadow I place my feet where +nothing shows, sure that my angel will bear me up. I put out my hands +and a support comes to them; the pitfalls have ladders for me, and by +touching at some places in the black shadow, as by magic, a lighted and +comfortable room at once materialises for my rest in the void. + + * * * * * + +I think I liked her better as a formless shadow after sundown. Whether +it was then a noise in my head, my tranquil thoughts murmuring in their +sleep, or whether the sound I heard was the deep humming of the world’s +speed, I don’t know; whatever it was, it was the only sound. Our +mainmasthead light was but a nearer star of the host. I was not +surprised to see one of the stars so close. I was within the luminous +porch of the Milky Way. + +It was midnight. In that silence, where I was alone in space, adrift on +a night cloud in the constellations, the stars were really my familiars; +once, when in London, though they had been named to me and were constant +there, they were far in the place to which one lifts one’s eyes from the +dust and traffic, nothing to do with London and with me. But now there +was no more dust and traffic. I was among them at last. Splendid Orion +was near and vast in his hunting. The Pleiades no longer dimmered on the +very limit of vision, but were separate points of delicate light. The +night moved with diamond fire. + +I was so far absent from the body that a human voice beside me was like +a surprising concussion with something invisible in space. Turning, +there was the glow of Sandy’s pipe. Sandy is an elderly man, and an +engineer. He was leaning over the rail, cooling after his watch below. +The magic of the star shine had got into his mind too. He began with +guesses about the things which are not known, parrying doubt with, +“Ah—but it’s hard to say; there are things——”; and, “you bright young +fellers don’t know everything”; and, “somebody told me a queer thing +now.” + +“There was a bright young feller, same as yourself, and he was first +mate of the ‘Abertawe,’ out of Cardiff. Jack Driscoll was his name. It +was a funny thing happened to him. I heard about it afterwards. + +“All the girls thought Jack Driscoll was so nice. One of the girls was +his owner’s daughter, and she was the best of the bunch, anyway, for she +was an only child, and her father would have given her the earth. He was +a good owner, was her father, as things go in Cardiff. Do you know +Cardiff? Well, a little goes a long way on the Welsh coast. Jack was a +smart sailor, with the first chance of the next new boat, if he watched +out. I reckon Jack was a fool. Why, he needn’t have gone to sea any +more. But what did he do? + +“Jack was one of them fellers who think if they put a gold-laced cap +saucy over one ear, and laugh with the eyes, they can whistle up a +duchess. And I daresay Jack could in summer, in his white suit, when +he’d just shaved. He was a bit of all right was Jack. He was a proper +tall lad, and the way he carried himself—It was a treat to see him move +about a ship. His black hair was like one of the big fiddler chap’s, and +his smile would take in one of his pals. + +“Well, it was happy days for Jack. He got good things to come to him. He +didn’t have to look for ’em, like me and you. He knew his work, too. He +was a good sailor. He could get off the mark, at the first word, like a +bird, and he never left a job while there was a loose bit to it. +Sometimes when there was nothing doing it was pretty rotten, Jack would +say, to be stuck there in a Welsh tramp with a crowd of dagoes, and +drink coffee essence and condensed milk out of a pint mug, and never go +to a music hall only once in six months. Jack reckoned it would be fine +to be brass-bound always, in one of the liners, and have a deck like a +skating rink, and a lot of lady passengers who wanted a chap like him to +talk to them. + +“He could tell stories, too, on the quiet, could Jack. They were pretty +blue, though. Sailor stories. They were all about himself in the West +Coast ports. Do you know the Chili coast? Well, it’s mind your eye +there, and no half larks. They’re pretty handy with knives out there. +But when Jack was out for fun you couldn’t stop him. He was like all you +young chaps. He wouldn’t listen to sense. + +“The ‘Abertawe’ went light ship to Barry, one trip, from Buenos Aires, +and Jack saw her snug, and told all the men to be at the shipping office +early and sober in the morning, because they got in on a Sunday, and +Jack saw the old man safe on his way to Cardiff, and then shaved, and +sang while he was shaving. He got himself up west-end style, new yellow +boots and all, and tied his red tie Spanish fashion. And he went down +the quay, looking for anything that was about, and he felt like the best +man on the Welsh coast. + +“But Barry is a dull place. Do you know Barry? Well, it’s a one-eyed +God-forsaken town, made out of odds and ends stuck down anywhere, all +new houses, docks, coal tips, and railway sidings, and nowhere to go. +It’s best to stay aboard, in Barry. Jack began to feel like the only +bird on a mudbank. He got out of the town, and walked along a road till +he came to an old woman sitting in the hedge, with her back up against a +telegraph post. Her face was brown and wrinkled, and she had an +orange-coloured handkerchief round her face, and tied under her chin. +She was smoking a pipe, and looking at her blucher boots. As Jack came +along, she said, ‘Tell your fortune, pretty gentleman?’ Jack laughed, +and told her his face was his fortune. + +“‘What do you see when you look in the glass?’ said she. + +“Now that was dead easy to Jack, because he knew as well as the girls; +and he told her. There was none of your silly modesty about Jack. Then +the old woman laughed; but I reckon Jack thought she was only pleased +with him, because he made it a point to make the mothers and the +grandmothers smile, the same as the girls. + +“‘What do you see in this glass?’ said she to Jack. She was fumbling in +her dress, and hauls out a mirror like you see in the old-fashion shops, +a mirror made of silver, and it had a frame of ebony. She polished it on +her skirt, and gave it to him, and told him to pass a bit of silver with +the other hand. Well, Jack saw sport, and he could always pay for that, +and he did what she said. But he only saw himself in the mirror. + +“‘Hi,’ said Jack, ‘here, what’s your little game now? None of your larks +now,’ he said, ‘or I’ll ask a policeman what he can see in this tin +glass of yours.’ + +“‘You and your policeman,’ she said. ‘Look now, my dandy boy, and see +more than your money’s worth.’ And she rubbed the glass again. Then Jack +took another look. It was a dull day, but that mirror was bright with +sunshine. There was something funny about that mirror. He saw a fine +place in it, all cool and white and gold, like you see out East. It was +a palace, I reckon. There was a fountain in the middle, and some girls +with not a lot on, like some of the Amsterdam postcard girls, were lying +around, just anyhow. And there was Jack’s own self among ’em, and they +were laughing and talking to him. It was fine. Jack turned his head, +just like you would do, to see if the real place was behind him. But, of +course, there was the funnels and topmasts of Barry, and the sky looked +like rain. I bet it gave him a shock. + +“‘Now you’ve seen what’ll be your luck, honey, if you’re not careful,’ +said the old woman. ‘Mind your eye,’ she said, ‘mind your eye, you with +the saucy face. What’s more,’ she called after him, ‘don’t you speak to +the girl with the odd eyes in Cardiff, though I know you will, and sorry +you’ll be.’ + +“‘Go to the devil,’ said Jack. + +“He was just like all you young chaps. Thought she was an artful old +shark who’d got his money dead easy. That’s what you always think. If +you don’t understand anything, then there’s nothing in it. You call in +at the next pub and chatter to the barmaid. What happened? Why, the very +next day the Skipper came back, and told him the new boat was near +ready, and the owner wanted to see him. Jack went, and forgot about +everything, except that he was going to be the handsome boy all right +with the owner’s own daughter to look at him. A pretty girl she was too. +I saw her once, holding up her skirts off the deck while she looked +round. The Skipper introduced me. ‘Good morning, Mr. Brown,’ she said to +me. + +“Coming out of the Great Western Station at Cardiff Jack saw a place +he’d never noticed before. It wasn’t Cardiff style. ‘It’s a new place,’ +Jack thinks to himself, ‘and a ripping good place it looks,’ for he was +thirsty, and there was plenty of time. ‘It must have been run up since I +was here last,’ says Jack to himself, ‘though that’s queer, for I reckon +it’d take years to rig up a dandy show of this sort.’ But in he went. + +“He was surprised, when he got in, and so would you have been. It was +like the place I saw on the stage at London once. It was in Aladdin, at +a place in the Mile End Road. You know what those things are like, when +the curtain goes up. You can see a long way, but you can’t see all the +way. You expect something to happen there. It was full of pillars, all +white and gold, in a pink light. There was a lot of ladies and gentlemen +sitting on sofas full of cushions, talking, and they were too grand to +even notice Jack as he stood there looking round for a chair. But it +took a lot to get on Jack’s nerves. There was one girl in a white silk +dress, with red roses in her golden belt, and she had a white hat with +red roses in that, and she looked like a summer day. Jack was glad to +see that the only vacant chair was at a table where she sat alone. Of +course, over there goes Jack. The place was as quiet as a church before +the service begins. There was only a faint whispering. He got to where +the girl sat, as if she was waiting for him. She looked up and smiled at +Jack. Jack sat down beside her and said what a fine day it was. She had +a face the colour of moonlight, and her eyes were odd. But there wasn’t +a girl who could make Jack wonder if his tie was straight, in those +days, and he began to order things, and talk. + +“Once he took a look round, leaning back in his chair, feeling pretty +large, and he noticed the other people were looking at him artful-like, +out of the corners of their eyes, as if he was talking too loud. But +Jack thought he’d jolly well talk as he liked, and he’d got just the +best girl in that room or anywhere else. He looked at his watch. It was +near twelve o’clock. He had to be at his owner’s by one. There was +plenty of time. + +“The drink had a funny taste, but it was the best liquor he’d ever had. +He marked down that place. He didn’t know there was a show like that in +Cardiff. He caught hold of the girl’s hand, which he noticed was white, +and very cold, and pretended he wanted to look at her ring. There was a +stone in the ring, just like a bit of soda. She asked him to try it on +his own finger, because the stone changed colour then, but Jack couldn’t +get the ring off till he’d placed her finger to his lips, to moisten the +ring. He was the boy, was Jack, to see things didn’t drag along. When he +got the ring on his finger the stone was full of red fire. So the time +went; but he forgot all about time, and the owner, and the owner’s +daughter, and everything. The girl’s hair was scented, too, and it was +close to him. + +“Presently he looked up, and saw what he’d never noticed before. He +could see further into the building than ever. There seemed to be a +garden beyond, full of sunshine, and all the men and women were walking +that way, talking loud, and laughing. His own girl got up too, and said, +‘Come along, Jack Driscoll,’ and he never even wondered how she knew his +name, nor why her face was like snow by moonlight, nor why she smiled +like that. + +“No. Not Jack. All he thought was what a ripping garden that was, with +palms, and marble courts, like you see in the East. There was music far +away, two notes and a drum, like you hear in a native dance, before the +dancers come. It made Jack feel like a millionaire or a lord, able to do +anything, but just then only wanting a good time. Then he noticed they +were alone in the garden, which was full of trees in blossom. All the +other people had gone. There was only that music. The place was very +quiet. He could hear water tinkling in a fountain, and he reckoned he +would stay there till closing time. The girl talked to him in whispers, +and he put his arm around her. I don’t know how long he stayed there, +but he kept telling the girl she was the best girl he’d ever had, and +he’d never had such a good time in his life. + +“It was funny the way he got out. Jack reckoned in there that the world +would never come to an end, like young fellers do, when they’re enjoying +themselves proper. But once he took her ring off his finger, to have +another look at it. Then he was in the street again, looking up at a +building which had its doors shut, and Jack only thought he was looking +there for a number he wanted. + +“It had started to rain. He looked at his watch. It was just twelve +o’clock. He didn’t know what he wanted with an address in that street, +so he started off in a hurry for his owner’s house, feeling pretty +stiff, as if he’d been sleeping rough. When he got to his owner’s house, +he rang the bell. + +“The owner’s daughter came to the door, and looked at him like she +didn’t know him, and was a bit afraid of him. ‘No, thank you,’ she said +kindly, ‘not to-day.’ And shut the door at once. + +“What puzzled Jack was that he didn’t feel surprised and angry. He +turned and went down those steps again, and down the street, thinking it +over. He looked back at the house. Yes, that was the house all right. +And that was Annie all right. Well, what the devil was the matter with +him? There was a public-house at the corner, and he stopped there, +thinking things over, and staring at the window. Then he saw his face in +a mirror, and shouted so that the barman came and ordered him out of +that, sharp now. But he kept looking at the glass, not believing his +eyes. He knew his own face again, but only just knew it. His eyes were +dull and red and gummy, same as those old men have who’ve lived too +long, and his face was puffed and pimpled, and he had a lousy white +beard.” + + + + +II + + +December 28. Lat. 39.10 N., long. 16.3 W. Course, S.W. 1/2 west. We are +nearing the tropics. Now the ship has such a complete set of grumblers, +good fellows who know their work better than anyone less than God, that +our great distance at sea is plain. Our men, casually gathered and +speaking divers tongues, detached from earth and set afloat on a mobile +islet to mix on it if they can, have become one body to deal with the +common enemy. We are corporate to face each trouble as it meets us, and +free to explain afterwards how much better we should have done under +another captain. The skipper knows this broad spirit now possesses us, +and so is contented and blithe, wearing only on deck that weary look +which is the sober badge of high office, as though he were an +unfortunate man to have us about him, we being what we are, but that he +would do his best with the fools, seeing we are in his charge. + +This morning at six, hearing the men at the hosepipes giving the decks +their daily wash, I tumbled out for a cold tub. This is a simple affair. +You leave the cabin with a towel about you, stand in a clear space, and +rotate before the hydrant, to general cheering. A hot bath on the +“Capella” is not so easy, because, although there is a bath-room aboard, +it has become a paint locker. One must descend into the engine-room, +after warning the engineer on duty, who then will have ready a barrel, +filled from the boilers. The ingenious man will fix a shower bath also. +This is a perforated meat tin, hanging from a grating above the tub, and +connected with a pump. After a hot bath in the engine-room, where the +temperature was often well over 120°, that shower of cold sea water +would strike loud cries from any man whose self-control was uncertain. + +This morning was the right prelude to the tropics. This was the morning +when, if our planet had been till then untenanted, a world unconsummated +and waiting approval, the divine approval would have come, and a child +would have been born, an immortal, the offspring of Aurora and the Sea +God, flame-haired and lusty, with eyes as bright as joy, and a rosy body +to be kissed from toes to crown. The dancing light, and the warm shower +suddenly born alive in it from one ripe cloud, the golden air, the waves +of the north-east trades, the seas of the world in the first dawn, +moving along like a multitude released to play, their blue passionate +and profound, their crests innocent and dazzling, made me think I might +hear faint cheering, if I listened intently. In the west was a steep +range of cloudland rising from the sea, and against it was inclined the +flame of a rainbow. There was that rainbow, as constant as the pennant +hoisted over an uplighted occasion. The world’s noble emblem was aloft. +I demanded of the Skipper if he would run up our ensign in reply to it; +but he only peered at me curiously. + +The heat increased with the day. We had run well down from the bleak +apex of the world with its nimbus of fogs. Here was the entrance to the +place where our youthful dreams began. I recognised it. Every feature +was as we both have seen it from afar, across the roofs from our outlook +in the arid city when the path to it had appeared as hopeless to our +feet as the path to the moon. This pioneer can assure his fellows whose +bright illusions grow fainter with age that their dreams must be +followed up, to be reached. + +At midday we began to cast clothes. As to the afternoon, of that I +remember the less. There was the chief’s empty bunk, so much more +alluring than my own. Into that I climbed, my mind steeled against +drowsy weakness. I would digest my dinner with a book, eyes sternly +alert. + +The “Capella” rocked slowly, a big cradle. My body was lax and +responsive. There was about us the silent emptiness which is far from +the centres where many men believe it is necessary to get lots of things +done. The Chief suspired on his settee. The waves were singing to +themselves. A ray of light laughed in my eyes, playing hide and seek +across the wisdom of my book.... I put the book down. + +As you know, where I had come from we do not dare to sleep during +daylight without first arguing with the conscience, which usually we +fail to convince. This comes of our mental trick which takes a pleasure +we wholly desire and puts on it a prohibitive label. Self-indulgence, +you understand; softening of the character; courage, brothers, do not +stumble. The solemn forefinger wags gravely in our faces. Before I fell +asleep, my habit, born of the hard grey weather which makes an +Englishman hard and prosperous, did come with its admonitory forefinger. +Remembering that I was secure in a sunnier world I cried out with ribald +mockery across the abyss I had safely crossed, knowing my old self could +not follow, and shut my eyes happily. And also, let me say—sitting up +again with an urgent afterthought, which I must get rid of before I +sleep—if this were not a plain narrative of travel without any wise +asides I would get off the “Capella” here to argue that what all you +fellows want in the place I have luckily left is not more +self-restraint, in which wan virtue you have long shown yourselves to be +so proficient that our awards for your merit have overcrowded the +workhouses, but more rollicking self-indulgence and a ruddy and bright +eyed insistence on the means to it. Look at me now in this bunk! Not +since I was last in a cradle have I felt the world would buoy me up if I +dared to shut my eyes to affairs while the sun was shining. But I am +going to try it again now, and risk my future. I repeat, I would argue +this with you, only I want to sleep.... + +It is worth recording that when I awoke I found nothing had happened to +me, except benefit. The venture can be made safely. Others had kept the +course for me. The ship had not stopped. Through the door I could see a +half-naked, blackened, and sweating stoker, who had been keeping the +fires while I slept, and he was getting back his breath in loud sobs. +Something had made him sick. These stupid and dirty men will drink too +much while they are attending to the furnaces. They have been warned of +the danger, of which they take no heed, and so they have to suffer. On +the poop was the second officer, busy in the hot sun with a gang, +overhauling a boat. And I found, on enquiry, that a man was still at the +wheel. So thereafter, while in the land of the constant sun, I slept +every afternoon, and was never a penny the worse. Somehow, you know, +things went on. I think I shall become one of the intelligent leisured +class. + +It was within an hour of midnight. The moon had set. I was idling +amidships about the ship’s shadowy structure when I was asked to take +charge of the bridge till eight bells. The second mate was ill, and the +first mate was asleep through overwork. The skipper said he would not +keep me up there long. I had but to call if a light came into view, and +to keep an eye on the wheelhouse. Ah, but it is long since I played at +ships, and was a pirate captain. I remembered there are dull folk who +wonder what it feels like to be a king. The king does not know. Ask the +small boy who is surprised with an order to hold a horse’s head. I took +my promotion, mounting the steep ladder to the open height in the night. + +I felt then I was more than sundered from my kind. I had been taken and +placed remotely from the comfort of the “Capella’s” isolated community +also. There was me, and there were the stars. They were my nearest +neighbours. I stood for you among them alone. When the last man hears +but does not see the deep waters of this dark sphere in that night to +which there shall be no morning sun, he shall know what was my sensation +aloft in the saddle of the “Capella”; the only inhabitant of a congealed +asteroid off the main track in space, with the sun diminished to a point +through travel, and the Milky Way not reached yet; though I could see we +were approaching its bay of light. An appreciable journey had been made. +But by the faintness of its shine there was a timeless vacancy to be +travelled still. We should make that faint glow, that congregation of +suns, that archipelago of worlds; though not yet. But had we not all the +night to travel in? The night would be long. We should not be disrupted +any more by the old day. The final morning had passed. I had no doubt +the drift of the dark lump to which I clung in space, while my hair +streamed with our speed, would at length reach the bright fraternity, no +more than a dimmer of removed promise though it seemed. + +A bell rang beside me in the night. It was answered at once from +somewhere ahead. Others, then, were journeying with me. The void was +peopled, though the travellers were all invisible; and I heard a +confident voice call, “Lights are burning bright.” The lights were. I +could see that. But when the profundities are about you, and you think +you are alone in outer night, that is the kind of word to hear. Joyously +I shouted into what seemed to be boundless nothing, “All Right!” + + * * * * * + +One dayfall we saw the Canary Islands a great distance on the port beam. +I do not know which day it was. The Hesperides were as blurred as the +place in the calendar. The days had run together into a measureless +sense of well-being. We had passed the last of the trivial allotments of +time. The islands loomed, and I wondered whether that land was the hint +of something in a past life which the memory saw but could not shape. +Whatever was there it was too long forgotten. That apparition which a +whisper told me was land faded as I gazed at it overseas, lazily trying +to remember what it once meant. It was gone again. It was no matter now. +Perhaps I was deceiving myself. Perhaps I had had no other life. This +“Capella,” always under the height of a blue dome, always the centre of +a circular floor of waters, waters to be seen beating against the steep +and luminous walls encompassing us, though nowhere finding an outlet, +was all my experience. I could recall only the faintest shadows of a +past into that limpid present. I could see nothing clearly that was not +confined within the dark faultless line where the sky was inseparably +annealed to the sea. Here I had been always. All I knew was this length +of sheltered deck, and those doors behind me where I leaned on a rail +between the stanchions, doors which sheltered a few familiars with their +clothes on hooks, their pipe racks, and photographs of women, a length +of deck finishing on either hand in two iron ladders, the ladder +forward, just past the radiation and coal grit by the engine-room +casing, descending to a broad walk which led to the forecastle head, +that bare outlook always at a difference with the horizon; and the +ladder aft going down to another broad walk, sticky with new tar, where +the bulwarks were as high as the breast, and Tinker, the dog, glad of a +word from you, trotted about the rusty winches and around the hatches; +and that walk aft finished in the door of the alleyway opening upon the +asylum of the doctor’s cabin, and the saloon, the skipper’s sanctum, and +the domain of the friendly steward. There was the smell of the cargo +drawing from the ventilators on the deck, when you went by their trumpet +mouths. There was the warm oily gush of air from the engine-room +entrance. And in the saloon alleyway I used to think the store of +potatoes, right behind, was generating gases. (But nobody knows every +origin of the marine smells.) Well, here were all the things my senses +apprehended. I could walk round my universe in five minutes. And when I +had finished I could do it again. Here I had been always. Nothing could +be clearer than that. Looking out from my immediate circumstances I saw +no entrance to the place where we were rocking, the place where the +“Capella” was alone. The walls of the enclosure were flawless. There was +not a door through them anywhere. There was not a rift in the precision +of the dark circle about us where one could crawl out between the sky +and the sea. + +There we indubitably were though, and I dwelt constantly on the miracle +of that lucky existence. I could not doubt that we were there. Yet how +had we got there? I leave that to the metaphysicians. There we were; and +no man who merely trusted his experience could explain our presence. +There was some evidence to my simple mind that such a life in such +surroundings perchance was the gift of the gods, and that we could never +get any nearer the limits of the world in which we had been placed to +see what was beyond, could never approach that enclosure of blue walls +where the distant waves, which beat against them, could not get out. +Morning after morning I watched them, the dark leaping shapes of the far +rebels, mounting their prison at its base, and collapsing, beaten. + +The seas never changed. They followed us and the wind, a living host, +the blue of their slopes and hollows as deep as ecstasy, their crests +white and lambent. They were buoyant, they were leisurely, they were the +right companions of travel. They just kept pace with us. They ran after +us like happy children, as though they had been lagging. They came abeam +to turn up to us their shining faces, calling to us musically, then +dropping behind again in silence. When I looked overside into the +pellucid depths, peering below the surface in long forgetfulness, +leaving the body and gliding the mind in that palpable and hyacinthine +air beneath us where the sunken foam dimmered in pale clouds, I felt +myself not afloat but hovering in the midst of a hollow sphere filled +with light. The blue water was only a heavier and a darker air. I had no +weight there. I was only a quiet thought tinctured with the royal colour +of the space wherein I drifted. + +The upper half of the sphere was blue also, but of a different blue. The +rarer and more volatile ether was above us. The sea was its essence and +precipitate. The sea colour was profound and satisfying; but the colour +of the sky was diffused, as though the heaven were an idea which was +beyond you, which you stood regarding, and azure were it symbol, and +that by concentration you might fathom its meaning. But I can report no +luck from my concentrated efforts on that symbol. The colour may have +been its own reward. + + * * * * * + +Every morning after breakfast the Skipper and the Doctor made a visit to +the forecastle. Then, after the Doctor had carefully searched his dress +for insects, we spent the day together. We mounted the forecastle to +begin with, watching the acre of dazzling foam which the “Capella’s” +bows broke around us. Out of that the flying fish would get up, just +under us, to go skimming off, flights of silver locusts. This reminded +the surgeon that we might try for albacore and bonito, which would be a +change from tinned mutton. The Skipper found a long fir pole, to which +was attached sixty fathoms of line, with a large hook which we covered +with a white rag, lapping a cutting of tin round the shank. When this +object was dropped over the stern in its leaps from wave to wave it bore +a distant resemblance to a flying fish. The weight of the trailing line, +breaking a cord “tell-tale,” frequently gave us false alarms and long +tiring hauls. But on the second day the scaffold pole vibrated to some +purpose, and we knew we were hauling in more than the bait. We got +aboard a coryphene, the dolphin of the sailors. It gave us in its death +agony the famous display, beautiful, but rather painful to watch, for +the wonderful hues, as they changed, stayed in the eye, and sent to the +mind only a message of a creature in a violent death struggle. + +The contours of this predatory fish express extraordinary speed and +power, and its armed mouth has been upturned by Providence the better to +catch the flying fish as they drop back to sea after an effort to escape +from it. But Providence, or evolution, had never taught the coryphene +that there are times when the little flying fish, as it falls back +exhausted, may be a rag of white shirt and a scrap of bright tin ware +with a large hook in its deceptive little belly. So there the dolphin +was, glowing and fading with the hues of faery. Its life really +illuminating it from within. As its life ebbed, or strove convulsively, +its colours waned and pulsed. It was gold when it came on board, and +darkened to ultramarine as it thrashed the deck, and its broad dorsal +fin showed violet eyes. Its body changed to a pale metallic green; and +then its light went out. + +Now as I look back upon the “Capella” and her company as they were in +that period of our adventure when our place was but somewhere in +mid-ocean between Senegambia and Trinidad, I see us but indifferently, +for we are mellowed in that haze in which retrospection just discerns +those affairs, long since accomplished, that were not altogether +wearisome. It is better to go to my log again, for there the matter was +noted by the stub of a pencil at the very time, and when, unless a +beautiful mist was seen, it had not the remotest chance of being +recorded. When I turn to the diary for further evidence of those days of +blue and gold in the north-east trades its faithfulness is seen at once. + +“_30 Decr._ A grey day. The sun fitful. Wind and seas on the port +quarter, and the large following billows occasionally lopping inboard as +she rolled. The decks therefore are sloppy again. We had a sharp +reminder at six bells that we are not bound to any health resort, as +Sandy put it. We were told to go aft, where the doctor would give each +of us five grains of quinine. This is to be a daily rite. To encourage +the men to take the quinine it is to be given to them in gin. Being +foreigners, they did not understand the advice about the quinine, but +they caught the word gin quite well, and they were outside the saloon +alleyway, a smiling queue, at the stroke of eleven. I went along to see +the harsh truth dawn on them. The first man was a big German deckhand. +He took the glass from the doctor. His shy and puzzled smile at this +unexpected charity from the skipper dissolved instantly when the quinine +got behind it. His eyes opened and stared at nothing. To the surprise of +his fellows he turned violently to the ship’s side, rested his hands on +it, and spat; spat carefully, continuously and with grave deliberation. + +“Distance run since noon yesterday 230 miles. Actual knots 9,5. Total +distance 2072 miles. There was not a living thing in sight to-day; not +even a flying fish. + +“The night is fine and starlit, the Milky Way a brilliant arch from east +to west, under which we are steaming. When Venus rose she was a tiny +moon, so refulgent that she gave a faint pallor to a large area of sky, +outlined the coast of a cloud, and made a broad shining path on the sea. +The moon rose after nine, veiled in filmy air, peeping motionless at the +edge of a black curtain. + +“The moon later was quite obscured, and the steamer ceased to exist +except where in my heated cabin the smoky oil lamp showed me my dismal +cubicle. I went in and sat on the mate’s sea chest. The mate was on +duty. On the washstand was his mug of cocoa, and on top of the mug two +thick sandwiches of bread and meat. That food was black with +cockroaches. The oil lamp stank but gave little light. The engines were +throbbing, and out of the open door I saw the gleam of the wash, and +heard its harassing note. I could not read. I loathed the idea of +getting into the hot bunk and lying there, stewing, a clear keen, +clangour of thoughts making sleep impossible. The mate appeared, drove +off the cockroaches cheerfully, examined the sandwiches for +inconspicuous deer, opening each to make sure, and then muffled himself +with one. My God! I could have killed him with these two hands. What +right had he to be cheerful? But he is such a ginger-headed boy, and to +break that unconsciously happy smile of his would be sacrilege. Besides, +he began to tell me about his sweetheart. Her portrait hangs in our +cabin. It is an enlargement. You pay for the frame, and the +photographer, overjoyed I suppose, gives you the enlargement. I prefer +the second engineer’s sweet-hearts, who are in colours, and are Dutch +picture postcards and cuttings from French comic papers; and he calls +them his recollections of Sundays at home. I listened, patient and kind, +to the second mate’s reminiscences of rapturous evening walks under the +lamps of Swansea with this girl in the picture—no doubt it eased his +heart to tell me—till I could have howled aloud, like the dog who hears +music at night. Then I broke away, and ran to the chief’s cabin for +sanctuary. + +“The Chief was making an abstract, and was searching through his log for +ten tons of coal which were missing. In the hunt for the lost coal I +lost myself. I grew excited wherever a thick bush of figures promised +the hidden quarry; and in an hour’s search found the strayed tons in +hiding at the bottom of a column. They had been left there, and not +transported into the next. Again the dread of that bunk had to be faced +and dealt with. I stood at the chief’s door, knocking out my pipe, +looking astern into the night, looking to where Ursa-Major, our +celestial familiar of home, was low down and preparing to leave us +altogether to the strange and perhaps unlucky gods of other skies. O the +nights at sea! + +“_31 Decr._ Wakened with my heart jumping because of a devastating sound +without. In the early morning, Tinker was being thrashed by the Old Man +for eating the saloon mats. When at 11.30 the men congregated amidships +with their tins for dinner the sun was a near furnace and the breeze a +balm. The white of the ship is now a glare, and the sea foam cannot be +looked at. Donkey lumbered out of his place where he attends to the +minor boiler, his face the colour of putty, and held to a rail, gazing +out with dead eyes overside, gasping. He declared he couldn’t stick his +job. The flying fish are getting up in flights all day long. I saw one +fish go a distance of about fifty yards in a semi-circle, making a bight +in the direction of the wind. We caught another large coryphene to-day, +and had him in steaks for tea. He was much better cooked than the last, +which had the texture of white wool; and to increase our happiness the +cook had not given us sour bread. At midday we were 17.22 N. and 33.27 +W. + +“I had a lonely evening with the chief. This is New Year’s eve. We +talked of the East India Dock Road, and of much else in London Town. At +eight bells, when we held up our glasses in the direction of Polaris, +the moon was bright and the waters hushed. Then we took each a hurricane +lamp, and went about the decks collecting flying fish for breakfast, +finding a dozen of them. + +“_1 Jan._ The uplifted splendour of these days persists; but the +splendour sags now a little at midday with the weight of the heat. The +poop deck is now sheltered with an awning; and lying there in lazy +chairs, with a wind following and barely overtaking us, idly watching +the shadows of the overhead gear move on the bright awning as the ship +rolls, is to get caught in the toils of the droning wake, and to sleep +before you know you are a prisoner. The wake itself, in these seas, when +the sun is on it, a broad road going home straight and white over the +hills, the road which is not for us, is one of the good things of the +voyage. Straight beneath the rail the wake is an upheaval of gems, +sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds, always instantly melting in the sun, +always fusing and fleeting in swift coils of malachite and chrysoprase, +but never gone. As you watch that coloured turmoil it draws your mind +from your body. You feel your careless gaze snatched in the revolving +hues speeding astern, and your consciousness is instantly unwound from +your spinning brain, and you are left standing on the ship, an empty +spool. + +“Under the awning at night, to the Doctor and to me, the first mate +played his accordion. He is a little Welshman, this mate, with a +childish nose and a brutish moustache, and in his face is blended a +girlish innocence of large affairs, and the hirsute nature of the adult +male animal, a nature he relieves on the “Capella” with bawdy talk and +guffaws. He played ‘Come, Birdie, Come,’ and things like that, and then +told us some Monte Videan stories. As they were true stories about +himself and other young sailors they ought really to be included in a +faithful diary of a sea voyage, yet as I cannot reproduce the Doctor’s +antiseptic judgment, of which I know nothing but the glow of his pipe in +the unresponding dark at the end of the stories—the last titter of the +mate had died away—it is better to leave this matter alone. + +“_3 Jan._ The hottest day we have had. I descended at midday to the +engines to see Sandy at work with his shining giants. Standing on the +middle platform, while he was shouting his greetings to me over the +uproar, I felt the heat of the grating through my boot soles, and +shifted. The temperature there was 122°. Sandy was but in his drawers +and a pair of old boots, and the tongues of the boots, properly, were +hanging out. His noble torso was glistening with moisture, and as I +talked, energetically vaulting my words above the roar of the crank +throws in that hot and oleaginous place, the perspiration began a sudden +drop from my own face and hands, and in a copious way which startled me. +For a time I had some difficulty in breathing, as though in a vacuum, +but gradually forgot this danger of suffocation in the love of the +artist Sandy showed while offering me the spectacle of ‘his job.’ I +think I understood him. At first one would see no order in that haze of +rioting steel. The massive metal waves of the shaft were walloping and +plunging in their pits with an astonishing bird-like alacrity; about +fifteen tons of polished steel were moving with swift and somewhat awful +desperation. The big room shook and hummed with the vigour of it. But +order came as Sandy talked, and presently I found the continuous +thunder, that deadening bass of the crank throws, seemed to lessen as we +conversed, sitting together on a tool chest. Our voices easily +penetrated it. And listening more attentively at length I found what +Sandy said was true, that each tossing and circling part of the +room-full could be heard contributing its strident or profound note to +the chorus, and each became constant and expected, a singing personality +which was heard through the others whenever listened for. Above all, at +regular intervals, a rod rang clear, like the bell in Parsifal; yet, +curiously enough, Sandy declared he could not catch that note, though it +tolled clear and resonant enough in my ears. The skylight was so far +above us that we got little daylight. Hanging from the gratings in a few +places, some black iron pots, shaped like kettles, had cotton rags in +their spouts, and were giving us oil flares instead. The terrific +unremitting energy of the ponderous arms, moving thunderously, and still +with a speed which made tons as aery as flashes of light; and Sandy in +the midst of it, quick in nothing but his eyes, moving about his raging +but tethered monsters cock-sure and casual, rubbing his hands on a pull +of cotton waste, putting his ear down to listen attentively at a +bearing, his face turned from a steel fist which flung violently at his +head, missed him, and withdrew to shoot at him again, gave me the first +distinct feeling that our enterprise had its purpose powerfully +energised and cunningly directed. I felt as I watched the dance of the +eccentrics and the connecting rods that our ship was getting along +famously. I think I detected in Sandy himself a faint contempt for the +chap at the upper end of the telegraph. I stayed two hours, and then my +shirt was as though I had been overboard; and ascending a greasy and +almost perpendicular series of ladders to the upper world, I discovered, +from the drag of my feet and the weight of my body, that I had had just +as much of an engineer’s watch in the tropics as I could stand. There +was a burst of cool light. The tumult ceased; and again there was the +old “Capella” rocking in the singing seas, for ever under the tranquil +clouds. We had stopped again. + +“_4 Jan._ A moderate north-east wind and sea, and a bright morning; but +far out a dark cloud formed, and drew, and driving towards us, covered +us presently with a blue-black canopy. The warm torrent fell with +outrageous violence, and for all we could see of our way the “Capella” +might have been in a dense fog. The mosquito curtains were served out +to-day, and we amused ourselves draping our bunks. Later, the weather +cleared. The night was stiflingly hot; and in that reeking bunk, with an +iron bulkhead separating me from the engine room, it was like lying on +the shelf of an oven. Though wide open on its catch, the door admitted +no air, but did allow a miserable tap-tapping as the ship rolled. At +eleven o’clock a pale face floated in the black vacancy of the door, and +I could see the Doctor peering in to find if I were awake. ‘I say, +Purser, I can’t sleep. Will you come and have a gossip, old dear?’ We +went aft in our pyjamas, the Doctor cleared away bottles and things from +his settee, and we disembarked from the ‘Capella,’ visiting other and +distant stars, returning to our own again not before three next morning. + +“_5 Jan._ We seem to have got to a dead end of the trade winds. The heat +of the forenoon was oppressively humid and dinner was nearly lost +through it. The cook, a fair and plump Dutchman, broke down in the midst +of his pans, and was carried out to find his breath again. This poor +chef is up at four o’clock every morning coffee making; is working in +the galley, which is badly ventilated, all day, getting two hours’ rest +in the early afternoon. Then he goes on till the saloon tea is over; +when he begins to bake bread. He fills in his leisure in peeling +potatoes. + +“All round the horizon motionless and permanent storm clouds are banked. +Their forms do not alter, but their colours change with the hours. They +seem to encompass us in a circular lake, a range of precipitous and +intricately piled Alps, high and massive. Cleaving those steeps of +calamitous rocks—for so they looked, and not in the least like +vapour—are chasms full of night, and the upper slopes and summits are +lucent in amber and pearl. In the south and east the ranges are indigo +dark and threatening, and the water between us and that closed country +is opaque and heavy as molten lead. Across the peaks of the mountains +rest horizontal strata of mist. Some petrels were about to-day. The +evening is cool, with a slight head breeze.” + + * * * * * + +After weeks at sea, imprisoned within the walls of the sky, walls which +have not opened once to admit another vessel to give the assurance of +communion, you begin to doubt your direction and destination, and the +possibility of change. Only the clouds change. The ship is no nearer +breaking that rigid circle. She cannot escape from her place under the +centre of the dome. The most cheering assurance I had was the pulse of +the steamer, felt whenever I rested against her warm body. Purposeful +life was there, at least. Though the day may have been brazen, and +without a hint of progress, and the sea the same empty wilderness, yet +when most disheartened in the blind and melancholy night I felt under me +the beatings, energetic and insistent, of her lively heart, some of that +vitality was communicated, and I got sleep as a child would in the arms +of a strong and wakeful guardian. + +Poised between two profundities—though nearer the clouds, cirrus and +lofty though they are, than the land straight beneath the keel—and with +morning and night the only variety in the round, the days flicker by +white and black like a magic lantern working without a story. Tired of +watching for the fruits of our enterprise I went to sleep. Old Captain +Morgan must have lived a dull life, monotonous with adventure. What is +the use of travel, I asked myself. The stars are as near to London as +they are to the Spanish main. In their planetary journey through the +void the passengers at Peckham see as much as their fellows who peer +through the windows in Macassar. The sun rises in the east, and the moon +is horned; but some of the passengers on the mudball, strangely enough, +take their tea without milk. Yet what of that? + +In the chart room some days ago I learned we had 3000 fathoms under us. +Well; these waves of the tropics, curling over such abysmal deeps, look +much the same as the waves off Land’s End. I began to see what I had +done. I had changed the murk of winter in London for the discomforts of +the dog days. I had come thousands of miles to see the thermometer rise. +Where are the Spanish Main, the Guianas, and the Brazils? At last I had +discovered them. I found their true bearings. They are in Raleigh’s +“Golden City of Manoa,” in Burney’s “Buccaneers of America,” with Drake, +Humboldt, Bates, and Wallace; and I had left them all at home. We borrow +the light of an observant and imaginative traveller, and see the foreign +land bright with his aura; and we think it is the country which shines. + + * * * * * + +At eight this morning we crossed the equator. I paid my footing in +whisky, and forgot all about the equator. Soon after that, idling under +the poop awning, I picked up the Doctor’s book from his vacant chair. I +took the essays of Emerson carelessly and read at once—the sage plainly +had laid a trap for me—“Why covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and +night, a house and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve as well as +all trades and spectacles.” So——. At this moment the first mate +crossed my light, and presently I heard the sounding machine whirring, +and then stop. There was a pause, and then the mate’s unimportant voice, +“Twenty-five fathoms, sir, grey sand!” + +Emerson went sprawling. I stood up. Twenty-five fathoms! Then that grey +sand stuck to the tallow of the weight was the first of the Brazils. The +circle of waters was still complete about us, but over the bows, at a +great distance, were thunder clouds and wild lights. The oceanic swell +had decreased to a languid and glassy beat, and the water had become +jade green in colour, shot with turquoise gleams. The Skipper, himself +interested and almost jolly, announced a pound of tobacco to the first +man who spied the coast. We were nearing it at last. Those far clouds +canopied the forests of the Amazon. We stood in at slow speed. + +I know those forests. I mean I have often navigated their obscure +waterways, rafting through the wilds on a map, in my slippers, at night. +Now those forests soon were to loom on a veritable skyline. I should see +them where they stood, their roots in the unfrequented floods. I should +see Santa Maria de Belem, its aerial foliage over its shipping and +squalor. It was quite near now. I should see Santarem and Obydos, and +Itacoatiara; and then, turning from the King of Rivers to his tributary, +the Madeira, follow the Madeira to the San Antonio falls in the heart of +the South American continent. We drew over 23 feet, with this “Capella.” +We were going to try what had never been attempted before by an ocean +steamer. This, too, was pioneering. I also was on an adventure, going +two thousand miles under those clouds of the equatorial rains, to live +for a while in the forests of the Orellana. And our vessel’s rigging, so +they tell me, sometimes shall drag the foliage in showers on our decks, +and where we anchor at night the creatures of the jungle will call. + +Our nearness to land stirs up some old dreads in our minds also. We +discuss those dreads again, though with more concern than we did at +Swansea. Over the bows is now the prelude. We have heard many unsettling +legends of yellow fever, malaria, blackwater fever, dysentery, and +beri-beri. The mates, looking for land, swear they were fools to come a +voyage like this. They ought to have known better. The Doctor, who does +not always smile when he is amused, advises us not to buy a white sun +umbrella at Para, but a black one; then it will do for the funerals. + +“Land O!” That was the Skipper’s own perfunctory cry. He had saved his +pound of tobacco. + +It was two in the afternoon. There was America. I rediscovered it with +some difficulty. All I could see was a mere local thickening of the +horizon, as though the pen which drew the faint line dividing the world +ahead into an upper and a nether opalescence had run a little freely at +one point. That thickening of the horizon was the island of Monjui. +Soon, though, there was a palpable something athwart our course. The +skyline heightened into a bluish barrier, which, as we approached still +nearer, broke into sections. The chart showed that a series of low +wooded islands skirted the mainland. Yet it was hard to believe we were +approaching land again. What showed as land was of too unsubstantial a +quality, too thin and broken a rind on that vast area of water to be of +any use as a foothold. Where luminous sky was behind an island groups of +diminutive palms showed, as tiny and distinct as the forms of mildew +under a magnifying glass, delicate black pencillings along the foot of +the sky-wall. Often that hairlike tracery seemed to rest upon the sea. +The “Capella” continued to stand in, till America was more than a frail +and tinted illusion which sometimes faded the more the eye sought it. +Presently it cast reflections. The islands grew into cobalt layers, with +vistas of silver water between them, giving them body. The course was +changed to west, and we cruised along for Atalaia point, towards the +pilot station. Over the thin and futile rind of land which topped the +sea—it might have undulated on the low swell—ponderous thunder clouds +towered, continents of night in the sky, with translucent areas dividing +them which were strangely illuminated from the hither side. Curtains as +black as bitumen draped to the waters from great heights. Two of these +appalling curtains, trailing over America, were a little withdrawn. We +could look beyond them to a diminishing array of glowing cloud summits, +as if we saw there an accidental revelation of a secret and wonderful +region with a sun of its own. And all, gigantic clouds, the sea, the far +and frail coast, were serene and still. The air had ceased to breathe. I +thought this new lucent world we had found might prove but a lucky dream +after all, to be seen but not to be entered, and that some noise would +presently shatter it and wake me. But we came alongside the white pilot +schooner, and the pilot put off in a boat manned by such a crowd of +grinning, ragged, and cinnamon skinned pirates as would have broken the +fragile wonder of any spell. Ours, though, did not break, and I was able +to believe we had arrived. At sunset the great clouds were full of +explosions of electric fire, and there were momentary revelations above +us of huge impending shapes. We went slowly over a lower world obscurely +lighted by phosphorescent waves. + + * * * * * + +It was not easy to make out, before sunrise, what it was we had come to. +I saw a phantom and indeterminate country; but as though we guessed it +was suspicious and observant, and its stillness a device, we moved +forward slowly and noiselessly, as a thief at an entrance. Low level +cliffs were near to either beam. The cliffs might have been the dense +residuum of the night. The night had been precipitated from the sky, +which was clearing and brightening. Our steamer was between banks of +these iron shades. + +Suddenly the sunrise ran a long band of glowing saffron over the shadow +to port, and the vague summit became remarkable with a parapet of black +filigree, crowns and fronds of palms and strange trees showing in rigid +patterns of ebony. A faint air then moved from off shore as though under +the impulse of the pouring light. It was heated and humid, and bore a +curious odour, at once foreign and familiar, the smell of damp earth, +but not of the earth I knew, and of vegetation, but of vegetation exotic +and wild. For a time it puzzled me that I knew the smell; and then I +remembered where we had met before. It was in the palm house at Kew +Gardens. At Kew that odour once made a deeper impression on me than the +extraordinary vegetation itself, for as a boy I thought that I inhaled +the very spirit of the tropics of which it was born. After the first +minute on the Para River that smell went, and I never noticed it again. + +Full day came quickly to show me the reality of one of my early visions, +and I suppose I may not expect many more such minutes as I spent when +watching from the “Capella’s” bridge the forest of the Amazon take +shape. It was soon over. The morning light brimmed at the forest top, +and spilled into the river. The channel filled with sunshine. There it +was then. In the northern cliff I could see even the boughs and trunks; +they were veins of silver in a mass of solid chrysolite. This forest had +not the rounded and dull verdure of our own woods in midsummer, with +deep bays of shadow. It was a sheer front, uniform, shadowless, and +astonishingly vivid. I thought then the appearance of the forest was but +a local feature, and so gazed at it for what it would show me next. It +had nothing else to show me. Clumps of palms threw their fronds above +the forest roof in some places, or a giant exogen raised a dome; but +that was all. Those strong characters in the growth were seen only in +passing. They did not change the outlook ahead of converging lines of +level green heights rising directly from a brownish flood. + +Occasionally the river narrowed, or we passed close to one wall, and +then we could see the texture of the forest surface, the microstructure +of the cliff, though we could never look into it for more than a few +yards, except where, in some places, habitations were thrust into the +base of the woods, as in lower caverns. An exuberant wealth of forms +built up that forest which was so featureless from a little distance. +The numerous palms gave grace and life to the façade, for their plumes +flung in noble arcs from tall and slender columns, or sprayed directly +from the ground in emerald fountains. The rest was inextricable +confusion. Vines looped across the front of green, binding the forest +with cordage, and the roots of epiphytes dropped from upper boughs, like +hanks of twine. + +In some places the river widened into lagoons, and we seemed to be in a +maze of islands. Canoes shot across the waterways, and river schooners, +shaped very like junks, with high poops and blue and red sails, were +diminished beneath the verdure, betraying the great height of the woods. +Because of its longitudinal extension, fining down to a point in the +distance, the elevation of the forest, when uncontrasted, looked much +less than it really was. The scene was so luminous, still, and +voiceless, it was so like a radiant mirage, or a vivid remembrance of an +emotional dream got from books read and read again, that only the +unquestionable verity of our iron steamer, present with her smoke and +prosaic gear, convinced me that what was outside us was there. Across a +hatch a large butterfly hovered and flickered like a flame. Dragon flies +were suspended invisibly over our awning, jewels in shimmering enamels. + + * * * * * + +We anchored just before breakfast, and a small launch flying a large +Brazilian flag was soon fussing at our gangway. The Brazilian customs +men boarded us, and the official who was left in charge to overlook the +“Capella” while we remained was a tall and majestic Latin with dark eyes +of such nobility and brooding melancholy that it never occurred to me +that our doctor, who has travelled much, was other than a fellow with a +dull Anglo-Saxon mind when he removed some loose property to his cabin +and locked his door, before he went ashore. So I left my field glasses +on the ice-chest; and that was the last I saw of them. Yet that fellow +had such lovely hair, as the ladies would say, and his smile and his +courtesy were fit for kings. He carried a scented pink handkerchief and +wore patent leather boots. Our surgeon had but a faint laugh when these +explanations were made to him, taking my hand fondly, and saying he +loved little children. + +Para, a flat congestion of white buildings and red roofs in the sun, was +about a mile beyond our anchorage, over the port bow; and as its name +has been to me one that had the appeal of the world not ours, like +Tripoli of Barbary, Macassar, the Marquesas, and the Rio Madre de Dios, +the agent’s launch, as it took us towards the small craft lying +immediately before the front of that spread of houses between the river +and the forest, was so momentous an occasion that the small talk of the +dainty Englishmen in linen suits, a gossiping group around the agent and +the Skipper, hardly came into the picture, to my mind. The launch rudely +hustled through a cluster of gaily painted native boats, the dingiest of +them bearing some sonorous name, and I landed in Brazil. + +There was an esplanade, shadowed by an avenue of mangoes. We crossed +that, and went along hot narrow streets, by blotched and shabby walls, +to the office to which our ship was consigned. We met a fisherman +carrying a large turtle by a flipper. We came to a dim cool warehouse. +There, some negroes and half-breeds were lazily hauling packages in the +shadows. It had an office railed off where a few English clerks, in +immaculate white, overlooked a staff of natives. The warehouse had a +strange and memorable odour, evasive, sweet, and pungent, as barbaric a +note as I found in Para, and I understood at once I had come to a place +where there were things I did not know. I felt almost timorous and yet +compelled when I sniffed at those shadows; though what the eye saw in +the squalid streets of the riverside, where brown folk stood regarding +us carelessly from openings in the walls, I had thought no more than a +little interesting. + +What length of time we should have in Belem was uncertain, but presently +the Skipper, looking most morose, came away from his discussion with the +agent and told us, at some length, what he thought of people who kept a +ship waiting because of a few unimportant papers. Then he mumbled, very +reluctantly, that we had plenty of time to see all Para. The Doctor and +I were out of that office before the Skipper had time to change his +mind. Our captain is a very excellent master mariner, but occasionally +he likes to test the security of his absolute autocracy, to see if it is +still sound. I never knew it when it was not; but yet he must, to assure +himself of a certainty, or to exercise some devilish choler in his +nature, sometimes beat our poor weak bodies against the adamant thing, +to see which first will break. I will say for him that he is always +polite when handing back to us our bruised fragments. Here he was giving +us a day’s freedom, and one’s first city of the tropics in which to +spend it; and we agreed with him that such a waste of time was almost +unbearable, and left hurriedly. + +Outside the office was a small public square where grew palms which ran +flexible boles, swaying with the weight of their crowns, clear above the +surrounding buildings, shadowing them except in one place, where the +front of a ruinous church showed, topped by a crucifix. The church, a +white and dilapidated structure, was hoary with ficus and other plants +which grew from ledges and crevices. Through the crowns of the palms the +sunlight fell in dazzling lathes and partitions, chequering the stones. +An ox-cart stood beneath. + +The Paraenses, passing by at a lazy gait—which I was soon compelled to +imitate—in the heat, were puzzling folk to one used to the features of +a race of pure blood, like ourselves. Portuguese, negro, and Indian were +there, but rarely a true type of one. Except where the black was the +predominant factor the men were impoverished bodies, sallow, meagre, and +listless; though there were some brown and brawny ruffians by the +foreshore. But the women often were very showy creatures, certainly +indolent in movement, but not listless, and built in notable curves. +They were usually of a richer colour than their mates, and moved as +though their blood were of a quicker temper. They had slow and insolent +eyes. The Indian has given them the black hair and brown skin, the negro +the figure, and Portugal their features and eyes. Of course, the ladies +of Para society, boasting their straight Portuguese descent, are not +included in this insulting description; and I do not think I saw them. +Unless, indeed, they were the ladies who boldly eyed us in the +fashionable Para hotel, where we lunched, at a great price, off imported +potatoes, tinned peas, and beef which in England would be sold to a glue +factory; I mean the women in those Parisian costumes erring something on +the sides of emphasis, and whose remarkable pallor was even a little +greenish in the throat shadows. + +After lunch some disappointment and irresolution crept into our +holiday....There had been a time—but that was when Para was only in a +book; that was when its mere printed name was to me a token of the +tropics. You know the place I mean. You can picture it. Paths that go at +noon but a little way into the jungle which overshadows an isolated +community of strange but kindly folk, paths that end in a twilight +stillness; ardent hues, flowers of vanilla, warm rain, a luscious and +generative earth, fireflies in the scented dusk of gardens; and +mystery—every outlook disappearing in the dark of the unknown. + +Well, here I was, placed by the ordinary moves of circumstance in the +very place the name of which once had been to me like a chord of that +music none hears but oneself. I stood in Para, outside a picture +postcard shop. Electric cars were bumping down a narrow street. The +glitter of a cheap jeweller’s was next to the stationer’s; and on the +other side was a vendor of American and Parisian boots. There have been +changes in Para since Bates wrote his idylls of the forest. We two +travellers, after ordering some red earthenware chatties, went to find +Bates’ village of Nazareth. In 1850 it was a mile from the town. It is +part of the town now, and an electric tram took us there, a tram which +drove vultures off the line as it bumped along. The heat was a serious +burden. The many dogs, which found energy enough to limp out of the way +of the car only when at the point of death, were thin and diseased, and +most unfortunate to our nice eyes. The Brazilian men of better quality +we passed were dressed in black cloth suits, and one mocked the equator +with a silk hat and yellow boots. I set down these things as the tram +showed them. The evident pride and hauteur, too, of these Latins, was a +surprise to one of a stronger race. We stopped at a street corner, and +this was Nazareth. Bates’ pleasant hamlet is now the place of Para’s +fashionable homes—pleasant still, though the overhead tram cables, and +the electric light standards which interrupt the avenues of trees, place +you there, now your own turn comes to look for the romance of the +tropics, in another century. But the villas are in heliotrope, primrose, +azure, and rose, bowered in extravagant arbours of papaws mangoes, +bananas, and palms, with shrubberies beneath of feathery mimosas, and +cassias with orange and crimson blooms. And my last walk ashore was in +Swansea High Street in the winter rain! From Nazareth’s main street the +side turnings go down to the forest. For, in spite of its quays, its +steamers, and its electric trams, Para is but built in a larger clearing +of the wilderness. The jungle stood at the bottom of all suburban +streets, a definite city wall. The spontaneity and savage freedom of the +plant life in this land of alternate hot sun and warm showers at last +blurred and made insignificant to me the men who braved it in silk hats +and broadcloth there, and the trams, and the jewellers’ shops, for my +experience of vegetation was got on my knees in a London suburb, praying +things to come out of the cold mud. Here, I began to suspect, they +besieged us, quick and turbulent, an exhaustible army, ready to +reconquer the foothold man had hardly won, and to obliterate his works. + +We passed through by-ways, where naked brown babies played before the +doors. We happened upon the cathedral, and went on to the little dock +where native vessels rested on garbage, the tide being out. Vultures +pulled at stuff beneath the bilges. The crews, more Indian than +anything, and men of better body than the sallow fellows in the town, +sprawled on the hot stones of the quays and about the decks. There was a +huge negress, arms akimbo, a shapeless monument in black indiarubber +draped in cotton print, who talked loudly with a red boneless mouth to +two disregarding Indians sitting with their backs to a wall. She had a +rabbit’s foot, mounted in silver, hanging between her dugs. The +schooners, ranged in an arcade, were rigged for lateen sails, very like +Mediterranean craft. The forest was a narrow neutral tinted ribbon far +beyond. The sky was blue, the texture of porcelain. The river was +yellow. And I was grievously disappointed; yet if you put it to me I +cannot say why. There was something missing, and I don’t know what. +There was something I could not find; but as it is too intangible a +matter for me to describe even now, you may say, if you like, that the +fault was with me, and not with Para. We stood in a shady place, and the +doctor, looking down at his hand, suddenly struck it. “Let us go,” he +said. He showed me the corpse of a mosquito. “Have you ever seen the +yellow fever chap?” the Doctor asked. “That is he.” We left. + +Near the agent’s office we met an English shipping clerk, and he took us +into a drink shop, and sat us at a marble-topped table having gilded +iron legs, and called for gin tonics. We began to tell him what we +thought of Para. It did not seem much of a place. It was neither here +nor there. + +He was a pallid fellow with a contemplative smile, and with weary eyes +and tired movements. “I know all that,” he said. “It’s a bit of a hole. +Still—You’d be surprised. There’s a lot here you don’t see at first. +It’s big. All out there—he waved his arm west inclusively—it’s a world +with no light yet. You get lost in it. But you’re going up. You’ll see. +The other end of the forest is as far from the people in the streets +here as London is—it’s farther—and they know no more about it. I was +like you when I first came. I gave the place a week, and then reckoned I +knew it near enough. Now, I’m—well, I’m half afraid of it ... not +afraid of anything I can see ... I don’t know. There’s something dam +strange about it. Something you never can find out. It’s something +that’s been here since the beginning, and it’s too big and strong for +us. It waits its time. I can feel it now. Look at those palm trees, +outside. Don’t they look as if they’re waiting? What are they waiting +for? You get that feeling here in the afternoon when you can’t get air, +and the rain clouds are banking up round the woods, and nothing moves. +‘Lord,’ said a fellow to me when I first came, ‘tell us about Peckham. +But for the spicy talk about yellow fever I’d think I was dead and +waiting wide awake for the judgment day.’ That’s just the feeling. As if +something dark was coming and you couldn’t move. There the forest is, +all round us. Nobody knows what’s at the back of it. Men leave Para, +going up river. We have a drink in here, and they go up river, and don’t +come back. + +“Down by the square one day I saw an old boy in white ducks and a sun +helmet having a shindy with the sentry at the barracks. The old fellow +was kicking up a dust. He was English, and I suppose he thought the +sentry would understand him, if he shouted. English and Americans do. + +“You have to get into the road here, when you approach the barracks. +It’s the custom. The sentry always sends you off the pavement. The old +chap was quite red in the face about it. And the things he was saying! +Lucky for him the soldier didn’t know what he meant. So I went over, as +he was an Englishman, and told him what the sentry wanted. ‘What,’ said +the man, ‘walk in the road? Not me. I’d sooner go back.’ + +“Go back he did, too. I walked with him and we got rather pally. We came +in here. We sat at that table in the corner. He said he was Captain +Davis, of Barry. Ever heard of him? He said he had brought out a +shallow-draught river boat, and he was taking her up the Rio Japura. The +way he talked! Do you know the Japura? Well, it’s a deuce of a way from +here. But that old captain talked—he talked like a child. He was so +obstinate about it. He was going to take that boat up the Japura, and +you’d have thought it was above Boulter’s Lock. Then he began to swear +about the dagoes. + +“The old chap got quite wild again when he thought of that soldier. He +was a little man, nothing of him, and his face was screwed up as if he +was always annoyed about something. You have to take things as they +come, here, and let it go. But this Davis man was an irritable old boy, +and most of his talk was about money. He said he was through with the +boat running jobs. No more of ’em. It was as bare as boards. Nothing to +be made at the game, he said. Over his left eye he had a funny hairy +wart, a sort of knob, and whenever he got excited it turned red. I may +say he let me pay for all the drinks. I reckon he was pretty close with +his money. + +“He told me he knew a man in Barry who’d got a fine pub—a little +gold-mine. He said there was a stuffed bear at the pub and it brought +lots of customers. Seemed to think I must know the place. He said he was +going to try to get an alligator for the chap who kept the pub. The +alligator could stand on its hind legs at the other side of the door, +with an electric bulb in its mouth, like a lemon. That was his fine +idea. He reckoned that would bring customers. Then old Davis started to +fidget about. I began to think he wanted to tell me something, and I +wondered what the deuce it was. I thought it was money. It generally is. +At last he told me. He wanted one of those dried Indian heads for that +pub. ‘You know what I mean,’ he said. ‘The Indians kill somebody, and +make his head smaller than a baby’s, and the hair hangs down all round.’ + +“Have you ever seen one of those heads? The Indians bone ’em, and stuff +’em with spice and gums, and let ’em dry in the sun. They don’t look +nice. I’ve seen one or two. + +“But I tried to persuade him to let the head go. The Government has +stopped that business, you know. Got a bit too thick. If you ordered a +head, the Johnnies would just go out and have somebody’s napper. + +“I missed old Davis after that. I was transferred to Manaos, up river. I +don’t know what became of him. It was nearly a year when I came back to +Para. Our people had had the clearing of that boat old Davis brought +out, and I found some of his papers, still unsettled. I asked about him, +in a general way, and found he hadn’t arrived. His tug had been back +twice. When it was here last it seemed the native skipper explained +Davis went ashore, when returning, at a place where they touched for +rubber. He went into the village and didn’t come back. Well, it seems +the skipper waited. No Davis. So he tootled his whistle and went on up +stream, because the river was falling, and he had some more stations to +do in the season. He was at the village again in a few days, though, and +Davis wasn’t there then. The tug captain said the village was deserted, +and he supposed the old chap had gone down river in another boat. But +he’s not back yet. The boss said the fever had got him, somewhere. +That’s the way things go here. + +“A month ago an American civil engineer touched here, and had to wait +for a boat for New York. He’d been right up country surveying for some +job or another, Peru way. I went up to his hotel with the fellows to see +him one evening. He was on his knees packing his trunks. ‘Say, boys,’ he +said, sitting on the floor, ‘I brought a whole lot of truck from way up, +and now it hasn’t got a smile for me.’ He offered me his collection of +butterflies. Then the Yankee picked up a ball of newspaper off the +floor, and began to peel it. ‘This goes home,’ he said. ‘Have you seen +anything like that? I bet you haven’t.’ He held out the opened packet in +his hand, and there was a brown core to it. ‘I reckon that is thousands +of years old,’ said the American. + +“It was a little dried head, no bigger than a cricket ball, and about +the same colour. Very like an Indian’s too. The features were quite +plain, and there was a tiny wart over the left eyebrow. ‘I bet you +that’s thousands of years old,’ said the American. ‘I bet you it isn’t +two,’ I said.” + + * * * * * + +We returned to the steamer in the late afternoon, bringing with us two +Brazilian pilots, who were to take us as far as Itacoatiara. We sailed +next morning for the interior. Para, like all the towns on the Amazon, +has but one way out of it. There is a continent behind Para, but you +cannot go that way; when you leave the city you must take the river. +Para stands by the only entrance to what is now the greatest region of +virgin tropics left in the world. Always at anchor off the city’s front +are at least a dozen European steamers, most of them flying the red +ensign. A famous engineering contractor, also British, is busy +constructing modern wharves there; and Thames tugs and mudhoppers, +flying the Brazilian flag, as the law insists, but bawling London +compliments as they pass your ship, help the native schooners with their +rakish lateen sails, blue and scarlet, to make the anchorage brisk and +lively. Looking out from the “Capella’s” bridge she appeared to be +within a lagoon. The lake was elliptical, and so large it was a world +for the eye to range in. It was bound by a low barrier of forest, a +barrier distant enough to lose colour, nature, and significance. Para, +white and red, lay reflecting the sunset from many facets in the +south-west, with a cheerful array of superior towers and spires. From +the ship Para looked big, modern, and prosperous; and with those vast +rounded clouds of the rains assembling and mounting over the bright +city, and brooding there, impassive and dark, but with impending keels +lustrous with the burnish of copper and steel, and seeing a rainbow +curving down from one cloud over the city’s white front, I, being a +new-comer, and with a pardonable feeling of exhilaration which was of my +own well-being in a new and a wide and radiant place, thought of man +there as a conqueror who had overcome the wilderness, builded him a +city, bridled the exuberance of a savage land, and directed the sap and +life, born in a rich soil of ardent sun and rain, into the forms useful +to him. So I entered the chart-room, and looked with a new interest on +the chart of the place. Then I felt less certain of the conqueror and +his taming bridle. I saw that this lagoon in which the “Capella” showed +large and important was but a point in an immense area of tractless +islands and meandering waterways, a region intricate, and, the chart +confessed, little known. The coast opposite the city, which I had taken +for mainland, was the trivial Ihla des Oncas. The main channel of the +river was beyond that island, with the coast of Marajo for the farther +shore; and Marajo also was but an island, though as large as Wales. The +north channel of the Amazon was beyond again, with more islands, about +which the chart confessed less knowledge. One of the pilots was with me; +and when I spoke of those points in the ultimate Amazons, the alluring +names on maps you read in England, here they were, at Para, just what +they are at home, still vague and far, journeys thither to be reckoned +by time; a shrug of the shoulders and a look of amusement; two months, +Senhor, or perhaps three or four. The idea came slowly; but it dawned, +something like the conception of astronomy’s amplitudes, of the +remoteness of the beyond of Amazonas, that new world I had just entered. + +I crept within the mosquito curtain that night, and the still heated +dark lay on my mind, the pressure of an unknown full of dread. I thought +of the pale shipping clerk and his tired smile, and of Captain Davis, +his face no bigger than a cricket ball, and the same colour, with a wart +over his eye; and recalled the anxious canvass I had heard made for news +of sickness up-river. A ship had passed outwards that morning, the +consul told us, with twenty men on board down with fever. + +And Thorwaldsen. I forgot to tell you about Thorwaldsen. He was a +trader, and last rainy season he took his vessel up some far backwater, +beyond Manaos, with his wife and his little daughter. News had just come +from nowhere to Para that his wife had died in childbirth in the wilds, +and Thorwaldsen had been murdered; but nothing was known of his +daughter. There it was. I did not know the Thorwaldsens. But the +trader’s little girl who might then be alone in the gloom of the jungle +with savages, helped to keep me awake. And the wife, that fair-haired +Swede; she was in the alien wilderness, beyond all gentlehood, when her +time came. I could see two mosquitoes doing their best to work backwards +through the curtain mesh. They were after me, the emissaries of the +unknown, and their pertinacity was astonishing. + + * * * * * + +“_Jan. 9._ The ‘Capella’ left Para at three o’clock this morning, and +continued up the Para River. Daylight found us in a wide brownish +stream, with the shores low and indistinguishable on either beam. When +the sun grew hot, the jungle came close in; it was often so close that +we could see the nests of wasps on the trees, like grey shields hanging +there. Between the Para River and the Amazon the waters dissipate into a +maze of serpenting ditches. In width these channels usually are no more +than canals, but they were deep enough to float our big tramp steamer. +They thread a multitude of islands, islands overloaded with a massed +growth which topped our mast-heads. Our steamer was enclosed within +resonant chasms, and the noise and incongruity of our progress awoke +deep protests there. + +“The dilated loom of the rains, the cloud shapes so continental that +they occupied, where they stood not so far away, all the space between +the earth and sky, bulged over the forest at the end of every view. The +heat was luscious; but then I had nothing to do but to look on from a +hammock under the awning. The foliage which was pressed out over the +water, not many yards from the hurrying ‘Capella,’ had a closeness of +texture astonishing, and even awful, to one who knew only the thin woods +of the north. It ascended directly from the water’s edge, sometimes out +of the water, and we did not often see its foundation. There were no +shady aisles and glades. The sight was stopped on a front of polished +emerald, a congestion of stiff leaves. The air was still. Individual +sprays and fronds, projecting from the mass in parabolas with flamboyant +abandon and poise, were as rigid as metallic and enamelled shapes. The +diversity of forms, and especially the number and variety of the palms, +so overloaded an unseen standing that the parapets of the woods +occasionally leaned outwards to form an arcade above our masts. One +should not call this the jungle; it was even a soft and benignant Eden. +This was the forest I really wished to find. Often the heavy parapets of +the woods were upheld on long colonnades of grey palm boles; or the +whole upper structure appeared based on low green arches, the pennate +fronds of smaller palms flung direct from the earth. + +“There was not a sound but the noise of our intruding steamer. +Occasionally we brushed a projecting spray, or a vine pendent from a +cornice. We proved the forest then. In some shallow places were +regiments of aquatic grasses, bearing long plumes. There were trees +which stood in the water on a tangle of straight pallid roots, as though +on stilts. This up-burst of intense life so seldom showed the land to +which it was fast, and the side rivers and paranas were so many, that I +could believe the forest afloat, an archipelago of opaque green vapours. +Our heavy wash swayed and undulated the aquatic plants and grasses, as +though disturbing the fringe of those green clouds which clung to the +water because of their weight in a still air. + +“There was seldom a sign of life but the infrequent snowy herons, and +those curious brown fowl, the ciganas. The sun was flaming on the +majestic assembly of the storm. The warm air, broken by our steamer, +coiled over us in a lazy flux. I did not hear the bell calling to meals. +We all hung over the ‘Capella’s’ side, gaping, like a lot of boys. + +“Sometimes we passed single habitations on the water side. Ephemeral +huts of palm-leaves were forced down by the forest, which overhung them, +to wade on frail stilts. A canoe would be tied to a toy jetty, and on +the jetty a sad woman and several naked children would stand, with no +show of emotion, to watch us go by. Behind them was the impenetrable +foliage. I thought of the precarious tenure on earth of these brown folk +with some sadness, especially as the day was going. The easy dominance +of the wilderness, and man’s intelligent morsel of life resisting it, +was made plain when we came suddenly upon one of his little shacks +secreted among the aqueous roots of a great tree, cowering, as it were, +between two of the giant’s toes. Those brown babies on the jetties never +cheered us. They watched us, serious and forlorn. Alongside their +primitive hut were a few rubber trees, which we knew by their scars. +Late in the afternoon we came to a large cavern in the base of the +forest, a shadowy place where at last we did see a gathering of the +folk. A number of little wooden crosses peeped above the floor in the +hollow. The sundering floods and the forest do not always keep these +folk from congregation, and the comfort of the last communion. + +“There was a question at night as to whether our pilots would anchor or +not. They decided to go on. We did not go the route of Bates, _via_ +Breves, but took the Parana de Buyassa on our way to the Amazon. It was +night when we got to the Parana, and but for the trailing lights, the +fairy mooring lines of habitations in the woods, and what the silent +explosions of lightning revealed of great heads of trees, startlingly +close and monstrous, as though watching us in silent and intent regard, +we saw nothing of it.” + + * * * * * + +Once I knew a small boy, and on a summer day too much in the past now to +be recalled without some private emotion, he said to his father, on the +beach of a popular East Anglian resort, “And where is the sea?” He stood +then, for the first time, where the sea, by all the promises of pictures +and poems, should have been breaking on its cold grey crags. “The sea?” +said the father, in astonishment, “why, there it is. Didn’t you know?” + +And that father, being an exact man, there beyond appeal the sea was. +And what was it? A discoloured wash, of mean limit, which flopped +wearily on some shabby sands littered with people and luncheon papers. +Such a flat, stupid, and leaden disillusion surely never before fell on +the upturned, bright and expectant soul of a young human, who, I can +vouch, began life, like most others, believing the noblest of +everything. It was an ocean which was inferior even to the +bathing-machines, and could be seen but in division when that child, +walking along the rank of those boxes on wheels, peeped between them. + +You will have noticed with what simple indifference the people who +really know what they call the truth will shatter an illusion we have +long cherished; though, as we alone see our private dreams, those honest +folk cannot be blamed for poking their feet through fine pictures they +did not know were there. + +I had a picture of the Amazon, which I had long cherished. I was leaning +to-day over the bulwarks of the “Capella,” watching the jungle pass. The +Doctor was with me. I thought we were still on the Para River, and was +waiting for our vessel to emerge from that stream, as through a narrow +gate, dramatically, into the broad sunlight of the greatest river in the +world, the king of rivers, the Amazon of my picture. We idly scanned the +forest with binoculars, having nothing to do, and saw some herons, and +the ciganas, and once a sloth which was hanging to a tree. Para, I felt, +was as distant as London. The silence, the immobility of it all, and the +pour of the tropic sun, were just beginning to be a little subduing. We +had come already to the wilderness. There was, I thought, a very great +deal of this forest; and it never varied. + +“We shall be on the Amazon soon,” I said hopefully, to the doctor. + +“We have been on it for hours,” he replied. And that is how I got there. + +But the Amazon is not seen, any more than is the sea, at the first +glance. What the eye first gathers, is, naturally (for it is but an +eye), nothing like commensurate with your own image of the river. The +mind, by suggestive symbols, builds something portentous, a vague and +tremendous idea. What I saw was only a very swift and opaque yellow +flood, not much broader, it seemed to me, than the Thames at Gravesend, +and the monotonous green of the forest. It was all I saw for a +considerable time. + +I see something different now. It is not easily explained merely as a +yellow river, with a verdant elevation on either hand, and over it a +blue sky. It would be difficult to find, except by luck, a word which +would convey the immensity of the land of the Amazons, something of the +aloofness and separation of the points of its extremes, with months and +months of adventure between them. What a journey it would be from Ino in +Bolivia, on the Rio Madre de Dios, to Conception in Colombia, on the Rio +Putumayo; there is another “Odyssey” in a voyage like that. And think of +the names of those places and rivers! When I take the map of South +America now, and hold it with the estuary of the Amazon as its base, my +thoughts are like those might be of a lost ant, crawling in and over the +furrows and ridges of an exposed root as he regards all he may of the +trunk rising into the whole upper cosmos of a spreading oak. The Amazon +then looks to me, properly symbolical, as a monstrous tree, and its +tributaries, paranas, furos, and igarapes, as the great boughs, little +boughs, and twigs of its ascending and spreading ramifications, so +minutely dissecting the continent with its numberless watercourses that +the mind sees that dark region as an impenetrable density of green and +secret leaves; which, literally, when you go there, is what you will +find. You enter the leaves, and vanish. You creep about the region of +but one of its branches, under a roof of foliage which stays the midday +shine and lets it through to you in the dusk of the interior but as +points of distant starlight. Occasionally, as we did upon a day, you see +something like Santarem. There is a break and a change in the journey. +Moving blindly through the maze of green, there, hanging in the clear +day at the end of a bough, is a golden fruit. + + * * * * * + +“_Jan. 10._ The torrid morning, tempered by a cooling breeze which +followed us up river, was soon overcast. Disappointingly narrow at +first, the Amazon broadened later, but not to one’s conception of its +magnitude. But the greatness of this stream, I have already learned, +dawns upon you in time, and if you sufficiently endure. It persists +about you, this forest and this river, like the stark desolation of the +sea. The real width of the river is not often seen because of the +islands which fringe its banks, many of them of considerable size. The +side channels, or paranas-miris, between the islands and the shores, are +used in preference to the main stream by the native sailing craft, to +avoid the strength of the current. We had the river to ourselves. The +‘Capella’ was taken by the pilots, first over to one side and then to +the other, dodging the set of the stream. The forest has changed. It has +now a graceless and savage aspect when we are close to it. There are not +so many palms. At a little distance the growth appears a mass of spindly +oaks and beeches, though with a more vivid and lighter green foliage. +But when near it shows itself alien enough, a front of nameless and +congested leaves. I suppose it would be more than a hundred feet in +altitude. Sometimes the forest stands in the water. At other times a +yellow bank shows, a narrow strip under the trees, rarely more than four +feet high, and strewn with the bleaching skeletons of trees and +entanglements of vine. There is rarely a sign of life. Once this morning +a bird called in the woods when we were close. Butterflies are +continually crossing the ship, and dragonflies and great wasps and +hornets are hawking over us. The sight of one swallowtail butterfly, a +big black and yellow fellow, sent the cook insane. The insect stayed its +noble flight, poised over our hatch, and then came down to see what we +were. It settled on a coil of rope, leisurely pulsing its wings. The +cook, at the sight of this bold and bright being, sprang from the +galley, and leaped down to the deck with a dish cloth. To our surprise +he caught the insect, and explained with eagerness how that the +shattered pattern of colours, which more than covered his gross palm, +would improve his firescreen in a Rotterdam parlour. + +“Early in the forenoon sections of the forest vanished in grey rain +squalls, though elsewhere the sun was brilliant. The plane of the dingy +yellow flood was variegated with transient areas of bright sulphur and +chocolate. We were hugging the right bank, and so saw the mouth of the +Xingu as we passed. At midday some hills ahead, the Serra de Almerim, +gave us relief from the dead level of the wearying green walls. The +sight of those blue heights with their flat tops—they were perhaps no +more than 1000 feet above the forest—curiously stimulated the eye and +lifted one’s humour, long depressed by the everlasting sameness of the +prospect and the heat. Later in the day we passed more of the welcome +hills, the Serra de Maranuaqua, Velha Pobre, and Serras de Tapaiunaquara +and Paranaquara, their cones, truncated pyramids, knolls and hog backs, +ranging contrary to our course. Bates says some of them are bare, or +covered only with a short herbage; but all those I examined with a good +telescope had forest to the summits; though a few of the inferior +heights, which stood behind the island of Jurupari (the island where +dreams come at night) were grassy. Those cobalt prominences rose like +precipitous islands from a green sea. We were the only spectators. One +high range, as we passed, was veiled in a glittering mesh of rain. The +river, after we left Jurupari, bent round, and brought the heights +astern of us. The sun set. + +“The river and the forest are best at sundown. The serene level rays +discovered the woods. We saw trees then distinctly, almost as a +surprise. Till then the forest had been but a gloom by day. Behind us +was the jungle front. It changed from green to gold, a band of light +between the river and the darkling sky. Some greater trees emerged +majestically. It was the first time that day we had really seen the +features of the jungle. It was but a momentary revelation. The clouds +were reflectors, throwing amber lights below. In the hills astern of us +ravines hitherto unsuspected caught the transitory glory. The dark +heights had many polished facets. One range, round-shouldered and +wooded, I thought resembled the promontories about Clovelly, and for a +few minutes the Amazon had the bright eyes of a friend. On a ridge of +those heights I could see the sky through some of its trees. The light +quickly gave out, and it was night. + +“We continued cruising along the south shore. The usual pulsations of +lightning made night intermittent; the forest was not more than 150 feet +from our vessel, and sitting under the awning the trees kept jumping out +of the night, startlingly near. The night was still and hot, and my +cabin lamp had attracted myriads of insects through the door which had +been left open for air. A heap of crawlers lay dead on the desk, and the +bunk curtain was smothered with grotesque winged shapes, flies, cicadas, +mantis, phasmas, moths, beetles, and mosquitoes.” + + * * * * * + +Next morning found us running along the north shore. Parrots were +squawking in the woods alongside. A large alligator floated close by the +ship, its jaws open in menace. At breakfast time a strip of white beach +came into view on the opposite coast, a place in that world of three +colours on which one’s tired eyes could alight and rest. That was +Santarem. Sharp hills rose immediately behind the town. The town is in a +saddle of the hills, slipping down to the river in terraces of white, +chrome, and blue houses. The Rio Tapajos, a black water tributary and a +noble river, enters the main stream by Santarem, its dark flood sharply +contrasted with the tawny Amazon. But the Amazon sweeps right across its +mouth in a masterful way. There is a definite line dividing black from +yellow water, and then no more Tapajos. + +We passed numerous floating islands (Ilhas de Caapim) and trees adrift, +evidence, the pilots said, that the river was rising. These grass +islands are a feature of the Amazon. They look like lush pastures +adrift. Some of them are so large it is difficult to believe they are +really afloat till they come alongside. Then, if the river is at all +broken by a breeze, the meadow plainly undulates. This floating cane and +grass grows in the sheltered bays and quiet paranas-miris, for though +the latter are navigable side-channels of the river in the rainy season, +in the dry they are merely isolated swamps. But when the river is in +flood the earth is washed away from the roots of this marsh growth, and +it moves off, a flourishing, mobile field, often twenty feet in +thickness. Such islands, when large, can be dangerous to small craft. +Small flowers blossom on these aquatic fields, which shelter snakes and +turtles, and sometimes the peixe-boi, the manatee. + +Obydos was in sight in the afternoon, but presently we lost it in a +violent squall of rain. The squall came down like a gun burst, and +nearly carried away the awnings. It was evening before we were abreast +of that most picturesque town I saw on the river. Obydos rests on one of +the rare Amazon cliffs of rufus clay and sandstone. The forest mounts +the hill above it, and the scattered red roofs of the town show in a +surf of foliage. The cliffs glowed in cream and cherry tints, with a +cascade of vines falling over them, though not reaching the shore. The +dainty little houses sit high in a loop of the cliffs. We left the city +behind, with a huge cumulus cloud resting over it, and the evening light +on all. + +But Obydos and sunsets and rain squalls, and the fireflies which flit +about the dark ship at night in myriads, tiny blue and yellow glow-lamps +which burn with puzzling inconstancy, as though being switched on and +off, though they help me with this narrative, yet candour compels me to +tell you that they take up more space in this book than they do in the +land of the Amazon. They were incidental and small to us, dominated by +the shadowing presence of the forest. + +We have been on the river nearly a week. But our steamer’s decks, even +by day, are deserted now. We lean overside no longer looking at this +strange country. The heat is the most noteworthy fact, and drives every +one to what little leeward to the glare there is. Our cook, who is a +salamander of a fellow, and has no need to fear the possibilities of his +future life—though I do not remember he ever told me he was really +thoughtful for them—feeling a little uncomfortable one day when at work +on our dinner, glanced at his thermometer, and fled in terror. It +registered 134°. He begged me to go in and verify it, and once inside I +was hardly any time doing that. We have such days, without a breath of +air, and two vivid walls of still jungle, and between them a yellow +river serpentining under the torrid sun, and a silence which is like +deafness. + +Under the shadow of the awning aft, in his deck chair, the Doctor is +preparing our defences by sounding a profound volume on tropical +diseases. This gives us but little confidence; though, as to our +surgeon, recently I overheard one fireman to another, “I tell yer +the—doc’s a Man. That’s what he is.” (This is the result of the gin +with the quinine.) Yet, good man as he is, his book on the consequences +of the tropics is so large that we fear we all cannot escape so many +impediments to joy. But our health’s guardian is careful we do not +anticipate anything from peeps into the mysteries. He never leaves his +big book about, much as some of us would like to see the pictures in it, +after what the donkeyman told us. + +This is how it was. Donkey, in spite of instructions, and I know how +emphatic the Skipper usually is, slept on deck away from his mosquito +bar a few nights ago. He said at the time that he wasn’t afraid of them +little fanciful biters, or something of the kind. I have no doubt the +Doctor would have had some trouble in making clear to Donkey’s +understanding exactly what are the links, delicate but sure, between +mosquitoes and dissolution and decay in man. So he showed Donkey a +picture. I wish I knew what it was—but the surgeon preserves the usual +professional reticence in the affairs of his patients. For now Donkey is +convinced it is very bad to sleep outside his curtain, and when he tries +to tell us how unwholesome such sleeping can be, just at the point when +he gets most entertaining his vocabulary wears into holes and tatters. +You could not conjure that man from his curtain now, no, not if you +showed him, in a vision, Cardiff, and the fairy lights of all its dock +hotels. I know that in the Doctor’s book there is a picture of a negro +who acquired, in a superb way, a wonderful form of elephantiasis, for +the Doctor showed it to me once, as a treat, when he thought I was +growing slack and bored. + +We require now such childish laughter at each other’s discomfiture to +break the spell of this land into which we are sinking deeper. Still the +forest glides by. It is a shadow on the mind. It stands over us, an +insistent riddle, every morning when I look out from my bunk. I watch it +all day, drawn against my will; and as day is dying it is still there, +paramount, enigmatic, silent, its question implied in its mere +persistence—meeting me again on the next day, still with its mute +interrogation. + +We have been passing it for nearly a week. It should have convinced me +by now that it is something material. But why should I suppose it is +that? We have had no chance to examine it. It does not look real. It +does not remind me of anything I know of vegetation. When you sight your +first mountains, a delicate and phantom gleam athwart the stars, are you +reminded of the substance of the hills? I have been watching it for so +long, this abiding and soundless forest, that now I think it is like the +sky, intangible, an apparition; what the eye sees of the infinite, just +as the eye sees a blue colour overhead at midday, and the glow of the +Milky Way at night. For the mind sees this forest better than the eye. +The mind is not deceived by what merely shows. Wherever the steamer +drives the forest recedes, as does the sky at sea; but it never leaves +us. + +The jungle gains nothing, and loses nothing, at noon. It is only a +sombre thought still, as at midnight. It is still, at noon, so obscure +and dumb a presence that I suspect the sun does not illuminate it so +much as reveal our steamer in its midst. We are revealed instead. The +presence sees us advancing into its solitudes, a small, busy, and +impudent intruder. But the forest does not greet, and does not resent +us. It regards us with the vacancy of large composure, with a lofty +watchfulness which has no need to show its mind. I think it knows our +fears of its domain. It knows the secret of our fate. It makes no sign. +The pallid boles of the trees, the sentinels by the water with the press +of verdure behind them, stand, as we pass, like soundless exclamations. +So when we go close in shore I find myself listening for a chance +whisper, a careless betrayal of the secret. There is not a murmur in the +host; though once a white bird flew yauping from a tree, and then it +seemed the desolation had been surprised into a cry, a prolonged and +melancholy admonition. Following that the silence was deepened, as +though an indiscretion were regretted. A sustained and angry protest at +our presence would have been natural; but not that infinite line of +lofty trees, darkly superior, silently watching us pass. + + * * * * * + +One night we anchored off the south shore in twenty fathoms, but close +under the trees. At daybreak we stood over to the opposite bank. The +river here was of great width, the north coast being low and indistinct. +These tacks across stream look so purposeless, in a place where there +are no men and all the water looks the same. You go over for nothing. +But this morning, high above the land ahead, some specks were seen +drifting like fragments of burnt paper, the sport of an idle and distant +wind. Those drifting dots were urubus, the vultures, generally the first +sign that a settlement is near. To come upon a settlement upon the +Amazons is like landfall at sea. It brings all on deck. And there, at +last, was Itacoatiara or Serpa. From one of the infrequent, low, +ferruginous cliffs of this river the jungle had been cleared, and on +that short range of modest, undulating heights which displaced the green +palisades with soft glowings of rose, cherry, and orange rock, the sight +escaped to a disorder of arboured houses, like a disarray of little +white cubes; Serpa was, in appearance, half a basketful of white bricks +shot into a portico of the forest. + +That morning was no inducement to exertion, but when an Indian paddled +his canoe alongside our anchored steamer the Doctor and the Purser got +into it, and away. The hot earth would be a change from hot iron. +Besides, I was eager for my first walk in equatorial woods. Our steamer +was anchored below the town, off a small campo, or clearing. The native +swashed his canoe into a margin of floating plants, which had rounded +leaves and inflated stalks, like buoys. I looked at them, and indeed at +the least thing, as keenly as though we were now going to land in the +moon. Nothing should escape me; the colour of the mud, the water tepid +to my hand, the bronze canoeman in his pair of old cotton pants split +just where they should have been scrupulous, and the weeds and grass. I +would drain my tropics to the last precious drop. I myself was seeing +what I had thought others lucky to have seen. It was like being born +into the world as an understanding adult. We got to a steep bank of red +clay, fissured by the heat, and as hard as brickwork. Green and brown +lizards whisked before us as we broke the quiet. From the top of the +bank the anchored steamer looked a little stranger. Aboard her, and she +is a busy village. Now she appeared but a mark I did not recognise in +that reticent solitude. The Amazon was an immensity of water, a plain of +burnished silver, where headlands, islands, and lines of cliff were all +cut in one level mass of emerald veined with white. The canoe going +downstream appeared to dissolve in candent vapour. Cloudland low down +over the forest to the south, a far disorder of violet heights, waiting +to fill the sky at sunset and to shock our unimportance then with +convulsions of blue flames, did not seem more aloof and inaccessible to +me than our immediate surroundings. + +The clearing was a small bay in the jungle. A few statuesque silk-cotton +trees, buttressed giants, were isolated in its centre. A bunch of +dun-coloured cattle with twisted horns stood beneath them, though the +trees gave them no shade, for each grey trunk was as bare of branches +for sixty feet of its length as a stone column. The wall of the jungle +was quite near, and as I stood watching it intently, I could hear but +the throb of my own life. The faint sibilation of insects was only as +if, in the silence, you heard the sharp rays of the sun impinge on the +earth; your finer ear caught that sound when you forgot the ring and +beat of your body. It was something below mere silence. + +We approached the wall to the west, as a path went through the harsh +swamp herbage that way, and entered the jungle. The sun went out almost +at once. It was cellar cool under the trees. We had no idea where the +path would lead us. That did not matter. No doubt it would be the place +desired. The Doctor walked ahead, and I could just see his helmet, the +way was so narrow and uncertain. I kept missing the helmet, for +everything in the half-lighted solitude was strange. One could not keep +an eye on a white hat on one’s first equatorial ramble, and only when +the quiet was heavy enough to be a burden did I look up from a puzzling +leaf, or some busy ants, to find myself alone. There was a feeling that +you were being watched; but there were no eyes, when you glanced round +quickly. Do you remember that dream which sometimes came when we were +children? There were, I remember, empty corridors prolonging into the +shadows of a nameless house where not a sign showed of what was there. +We went on, and no words we could think of when we woke could tell what +we felt when we looked into those long silent aisles of the house +without a name; for we knew something was there; but there was no +telling what the thing would be like when it showed. That is your +sensation in a first walk in a Brazilian forest. + +I stopped at lianas, and curious foliage, trying to trace them to a +beginning, but rarely with any success. There were some mantis, which +commenced to run on a tree while I was examining its bark. They were +like flakes of the bark. For a moment the tree seemed to quiver its hide +at my irritating touch. Then the Doctor called, and I pushed along to +find him stooping over a land snail, the size of a man’s fist, which +rather puzzled him, for it had what he called an operculum; that is, a +cap such as a winkle’s, only in this case it was as large as a crown +piece. I do not know if it was the operculum, for my knowledge of such +things is small; but I did feel this was the only twelfth birthday which +had come to me for many years. + +Presently we saw light, as you would from the interior of a tunnel. Some +beams of sunshine slanted from a break in the roof to where a tree had +fallen, making a bridge for us across an igaripe, a stream, that is, +large enough to be a way for a canoe. The sundered, buttressed roots of +the tree formed a steep climb to begin with, but the buttresses going +straight along the trunk as handrails made crossing the bridge an easy +matter. Raising my hand to a root which was hot in the sun, and watching +a helicon butterfly, a black and yellow fellow, which settled near us, +slowly open and shut his wings, I jumped, because it felt as though a +lighted match had dropped into my sleeve. But I couldn’t douse it. It +burned in ten places at once. It was a first lesson in constant +watchfulness in this new world. I had placed my hand in a swarm of +inconspicuous fire ants. The dead tree was alive with them, and our +passage quickened. We rubbed ourselves hysterically, for the Doctor had +got some too; and there was no professional reserve about him that time. + +After crossing the igaripe the character of the forest changed. It was +now a growth of wild cacao trees. Nothing grew beneath them. The floor +was a black paste, littered with dead sticks. The woods were more open, +but darker and more dank than before. The sooty limbs of the cacao trees +grew low, and filled the view ahead with a perplexity of leafless and +tortured boughs. They were hung about with fruit, pendent lamps lit with +a pale greenish light. We saw nothing move there but two delicate +butterflies, which had transparent wings with opaque crimson spots, such +as might have been served Titania herself; yet the gloom and black ooze, +and the eerie globes, with their illusion of light hung upon distorted +shapes, was more the home of the fabulous sucuruja, the serpent which is +forty feet long. + +A dry stick snapping underfoot had the same effect as that crash which +resounds for some embarrassing seconds when your umbrella drops in a +gallery of the British Museum. The impulse was to apologise to +something. We had been so long in the twilight, recoiling at nameless +objects in the path, a monstrous legume perhaps a yard long and coiled +like a reptile, seeing things only with a second look, that the sudden +entrance into a malocal, a forest clearing, which, as though it were a +reservoir, the sun had filled with bright light, was like a plunge into +a warm, fluid, and lustrous element. + +In the clearing were the huts of an Indian village. Only the roofs could +be seen, through some plantations of bananas. Around the clearing, a +side of which was cut off by a stream, was the overshadowing green +presence. Some chocolate babies, as serious as gnomes, looked up as we +came into daylight, opened their eyes wide, and fled up the path between +the plantains. + +If I could sing, I would sing the banana. It has the loveliest leaf I +know. I feel intemperate about it, because I came upon it after our +passage through a wood which could have been underground, a tangle of +bare roots joining floor and ceiling in limitless caverns. We stood +looking at the plantation till our mind was fed with grace and light. +The plantain jets upwards with a copious stem, and the fountain returns +in broad rippled pennants, falling outwardly, refined to points, when +the impulse is lost. A world could not be old on which such a plant +grows. It is sure evidence of earth’s vitality. To look at it you would +not think that growing is a long process, a matter of months and natural +difficulties. The plantain is an instant and joyous answer to the sun. +The midribs of the leaves, powerful but resilient, held aloft in +generous arches the broad planes of translucent green substance. It is +not a fragile and dainty thing, except in colour and form. It is lush +and solid, though its ascent is so aerial, and its form is content to +the eye. There is no green like that of its leaves, except at sea. The +stout midribs are sometimes rosy, but the banners they hold well above +your upturned face are as the crest of a wave in the moment of collapse, +the day showing through its fluid glass. And after the place of dead +matter and mummied husks in gloom, where we had been wandering, this +burst of leaves in full light was a return to life. + +We continued along the path, in the way of the vanished children. Among +the bananas were some rubber trees, their pale trunks scored with brown +wounds, and under some of the incisions small tin cups adhered, fastened +there with clay. In most of the cups the collected latex was congealed, +for the cups were half full of rain-water, which was alive with mosquito +larvæ. The path led to the top of the river bank. The stream was narrow, +but full and deep. A number of women and children were bathing below, +and they looked up stolidly as we appeared. Some were negligent on the +grass, sunning themselves. Others were combing their long, straight hair +over their honey- and snuff-coloured bodies. The figures of the women +were full, lissom, and rounded, and they posed as if they were aware +that this place was theirs. They were as unconscious of their grace as +animals. They looked round and up at us, and one stayed her hand, her +comb half through the length of her hair, and all gazed intently at us +with faces having no expression but a little surprise; then they turned +again to proceed with their toilets and their gossip. They looked as +proper with their brown and satiny limbs and bodies, in the secluded and +sunny arbour where the water ran, framed in exuberant tropical foliage, +as a herd of deer. + +I had never seen primitive man in his native place till then. There he +was, as at the beginning, and I saw with a new respect from what a +splendid creature we are derived. It was, I am glad to say, to cheer the +existence of these people that I had put money in a church plate at +Poplar. Poplar, you may have heard, is a parish in civilisation where an +organised community is able, through its heritage of the best of two +thousand years of religion, science, commerce, and politics, to eke out +to a finish the lives of its members (warped as they so often are by +arid dispensations of Providence) with the humane Poor Law. The Poor Law +is the civilised man’s ironic rebuke to a parsimonious Creator. It is a +jest which will ruin the solemnity of the Judgment Day. Only the man of +long culture could think of such a shattering insult to the All Wise who +made this earth too small for the children He continues to send to it, +trailing their clouds of glory which prove a sad hindrance and get so +fouled in the fight for standing room on their arrival. But these +savages of the Brazilian forest know nothing of the immortal joke +conceived by their cleverer brothers. They have all they want. +Experience has not taught them to devise such a cosmic mock as a Poor +Law. How do these poor savages live then, who have not been vouchsafed +such light? They pluck bananas, I suppose, and eat them, swinging in +hammocks. They live a purely animal existence. More than that, I even +hear that should you find a child hungry in an Indian village, you may +be sure all the strong men there are hungry too. I was not able to prove +that; yet it may be true there are people to-day to whom the law that +the fittest must survive has not yet been helpfully revealed. (This is +really the Doctor’s fault. I should never have thought of Poplar if he +had not wondered aloud how those bathers under the palms managed without +a workhouse.) + +Behind us were the shelters of these settled Indians, the “cabaclos,” as +they are called in Brazil (literally, copper coloured). Each house was +but a square roof of the fronds of a species of attalea palm, upheld at +each corner by poles seven feet high. The houses had no sides, but were +quite open, except that some had a quarter of the interior partitioned +off with a screen of leaves. There was a rough attempt at a garden about +each dwelling, with rose bushes and coleas in the midst of gourds and +patches of maize. The roses were scented, and of the single briar kind. +We entered one of the dwellings, and surprised a young woman within who +was swinging in a hammock smoking a native pipe of red clay through a +grass stem. One fine limb, free of her cotton gown to the thigh, hung +indolently over the hammock, the toes touching the earth and giving the +couch movement. Her black hair, all at first we could see of her head, +nearly reached the ground. + +A well-grown girl, innocent from head to feet, saw us enter, and cried +to her mother, who rose in the hammock, threw her gown over her leg, +smiled gravely at us, and alighted, to vanish behind the screen with the +child, reappearing presently with the girl neatly attired. Other +children came, and soon had confidence to examine us closely and +critically, grave little mortals with eyes which spoke the only language +I understood there. The men and women who gathered stood behind the +children, smiling sadly and kindly. They were gentle, undemonstrative, +and observant, with features of the conventional Indian type. The men +were spare and lithe, of medium height, wearing only shorts tied with +string below their bronze busts. The women were of fuller build, with +heavier but more cheerful features, and each was dressed in a single +cotton garment, open above, revealing the breasts. + +The noon shadows of the hut, and the trees, were deep as the stains of +ink. A tray of mandioca root, farinha, was set in the hot sun to dry. +Under a gourd tree was a heap of turtle shells. A little game, a +capybara, and a bird like a crow with a brown rump, were hung on the +screen. But the most remarkable feature of the house in the forest was +its pets. A pair of parraquets ran in and out the bushes like green +mice. My helmet was tipped over my eyes, and, looking upwards, there was +an audience of monkeys in the shadow, quite beside themselves with +curiosity. My sudden movement sent them off like fireworks. One was a +most engaging little fellow, a jet-black tamarin slightly larger than a +squirrel. Presently he found courage to come closer, with a companion, a +brown monkey of his own size. As they sat side by side the Doctor +pointed out that the expressions in the faces of these monkeys showed +temperaments separating them even more widely than they were separated +by those physical differences which made them species. I saw at once, +with some pleasure and a little vanity, that I might be more nearly +related to the friendly cabaclos than I am to some people in England. +The brown chap would be no doubt a master of industry on the tree tops, +keeping a whole tree to himself, and living on nuts which others +gathered. You could see it in his keen and domineering look, and in the +quick, casual way he crowded his fellow, who always made room for him. I +have seen such a face, and such manners, in great industrial centres. +They are the marks of the ablest and best, who get on. His hard, eager +eyes showed censoriousness, cruelty, and acquisitiveness. But his +companion, with a sooty and hairless face, and black hair parted in the +middle of a frail forehead, was a pal of ours, and knew it. The brown +midget showed angry distrust of us, knowing what devilry was in his own +mind. But the black, though more delicate and nervous a monkey, his mind +being innocent of secret plots, had gentleness and faith in his looks, +and showed a laughable and welcome curiosity in us. He made friendly +twitterings—not the harsh and menacing chatter of the other—and +perfectly self-possessed, his pure soul giving him quiethood, examined +us in a brotherly way with an ebon paw which was as small and fragile as +a black fairy’s. + +A jabiru stork stood on one leg, beak on breast, meditating, caring +nothing for all that was outside its ruminating mind. There were parrots +on the cross-ties of the roof, on the floor, on the shoulders of the +women, and in the hands of the children, and they were getting an +interesting time through the monkeys when their faces were not cocked +sideways at us in a knowing fashion. And what looked like a crow was +giving bitter and ruthless chase to a young agouti, in and out of the +bare feet of the company. I have never seen creatures so tame. But +Indian women, as I learned afterwards, have a fine gift for winning the +confidence of wild things, and that afternoon they took hold of the +creatures, anyhow and anywhere, to bring them for our inspection, +without the captives showing the least alarm or anger. There were the +dogs, too. But they were like all the dogs we saw in Brazil, looking +sorry for themselves; and they sat about in case they should fall if +they attempted to stand. Our audience broke up suddenly, in an uproar of +protests, to chase the brown monkey, who was towing a frantic parrot by +the tail. + +We continued our walk, entering the forest again on another path. Here +the growth was secondary, and the underbush dense on both sides of the +trail. The voices of the village stopped as we entered the shades, and +there was no more sound except when a bird scurried away heavily, and +again, when some cicadas, the “scissors grinders,” suddenly sprang an +astonishing whirring from a tree. The sound was as loud as that of a +locomotive letting steam escape in a covered station. At a clearing so +small that the roof of the jungle had been but little broken, where a +hut stood as though at a well-bottom sunk in a depth of trees, we turned +back. That deep well in the trees contained but little light, for +already it was being choked with vines. The hut was of the usual light +construction, though its sides were of leaves, as well as its roof. I +think it was the most melancholy dwelling I have ever happened on in my +wanderings. It did not look as though it had been long deserted. There +were ashes and a broken flesh-pot outside it. The entrance was veiled +with gross spiders’ webs. On the earth floor within were puddles of +rain. Round it the forest stood, like night in abeyance. The tree tops +overhung, silently intent on what man had been doing at their feet. A +child’s chemise was stretched on a thorn, and close by was a small +grave, separated by little sticks from the secular earth. A dead plant +was in the centre of the grave, and a crude wooden crucifix. + + * * * * * + +We had plenty of opportunities for exploring Serpa, for the Amazon that +rainy season was slow in rising, and consequently it would have been +unsafe for us to venture into the Madeira. The tributary would have been +full, but it was necessary for the waters of the main stream to dam and +heighten the flood of its tributary before we could trust our draught +there. We were nine days at Serpa. The Amazon would rise as much as a +foot one day, and our distance from the shore would increase +perceptibly, with strong whirling eddies which made the trip ashore more +difficult. Then it would fall again. Some of the yellow Amazon porpoises +showed alongside occasionally, and alligators floated about, though +nothing was seen of them but their snouts. + +Serpa is a small but growing place. It was but a missionary settlement +of Abacaxis Indians from the Madeira in 1759, and was called +Itacoatiara. When I was there it was renewing its old importance, +because the Madeira-Mamoré railway undertaking had placed a depôt a +little to the west of the village. The Doctor and I spent many memorable +days in its neighbourhood, butterfly-hunting and sauntering. Though +mosquitoes, anopeline and culex, are as common here as elsewhere in the +Brazils—the lighters which came alongside with cargo for us conveyed +clouds of them, and they took possession of every dark nook of the +“Capella”—it is noteworthy that Serpa has the reputation, in Amazonas, +of a health resort. I could find no explanation of that. There was +malaria at Serpa, of course; but compared with the really lethal +country, a country not so different in appearance and climate, of the +upper Madeira, the salubrity of Serpa is perplexing. That virulent form +of malaria peculiar to some tropical localities is a phenomenon which +medical research has not yet explained. In the almost unexplored region +of the Rio Madeira the fever is certain to every traveller, though the +land is largely without inhabitants; and it is almost equally certain +that it will be of the malignant type. Yet at an old settlement like +Serpa, where probably every inhabitant has had malaria, and every +mosquito is likely to be a host, the fever is but mild, and the +traveller may escape it entirely. + +By now you will be asking what Itacoatiara is like, that community +contentedly lost in the secret forest. I am afraid you will not learn, +unless, in the happy future, you and I select a few friends, a few +books, and erect some houses of palm leaves to protect us from the too +vigorous sun there, and so, secure from all the really urgent and +important matters which do not matter a twinkle to the eternal stars, +noon it far and secure until the time comes for the gentle villagers to +carry us out and forget us; remembering us again when the annual Day of +the Dead comes round. They will leave some comfortable candles above us +that night. + +There the earth is a warm and luscious body. The lazy paths are cool +with groves, and in the middle hours of the sun, when only a few +butterflies are abroad, and the grasshoppers are shrilling in the quiet, +you swing in a hammock under a thatch—the air has been through some +tree in blossom—and gossip, and drink coffee. Beyond the path of the +village there is—nobody knows what; not even the Royal Geographical +Society. One heard of a large and mysterious lake a day’s journey +inland. Nobody knew anything about it. Nobody cared. One old man once, +when hunting, saw its mirror through the forest’s aisles, and heard the +multitude of its birds. + +The foreshore of the village is rugged with boulders richly tinctured +with iron oxide, and often having a scoriaceous surface. There we would +land, and scramble up to a street which ends on the height above the +river. It is a broad road, with white, substantial, one-story houses on +either side. The dwellings and stores have no windows, but are built +with open fronts, for ventilation. This is Serpa’s main street. It is +shaded with avenues of trees. In the narrower side turnings the trees +meet to form arcades. One day we saw such an avenue covered with yellow, +trumpet-shaped blossoms. Ox-carts with solid wheels stand in the walks. +The sunlight, broken in the leaves of the trees, patterned the roads +with white fire, and so dappled the cattle that they were obscure; you +saw the oxen only when they moved. There is a large square, grass-grown, +in the centre of the village, where stands the church, a white, simple +building with an open belfry in which the bell hangs plain, bright with +verdigris. About here the merchants and tradesmen of Serpa have their +places. The men, hearty and friendly souls, walk abroad in clean linen +suits and straw hats, and their ladies, pallid, slight, but often +singularly beautiful, are dressed as Europeans, but without hats; +sometimes, when out walking late in the day, a lady would have a scarlet +flower in her hair. + +By the foreshore were the cabins, of mud and wood, of the negroes. +Beyond the town, the roads run through the clearings, and end on the +forest. In the clearings were the huts, wattle and daub, and of leaves, +of the settled Indians and half-breeds. These were often prettily placed +beneath groups of graceful palms. It was in the last direction that most +often we made our way with our butterfly nets while other folk were +sleeping during the sun’s height. The humid heat, I suppose, was really +a trial. One did perspire in an alarming way and with the least +exertion. The Doctor, who carries substance, would have dark patches in +his khaki uniform, and would wonder, with foreboding, whether any more +in this life he would catch hold of a cold jug which held a straight +pint in which ice tinkled. But to me the illumination, the heat, the +odour, and the quiethood of those noons made life a great prize. I will +say that my comrade, the Doctor, did much to make it so, with his gentle +fun, and his wide knowledge of earth-lore. There was so much, wherever +we went, to keep me on the magic side of time, and out of its shadow. On +the west of the town were some huts, with plantations of bananas, +pineapples, papaws, and maize, where blossomed cannas, mimosas, +passion-flowers, and where other unseen blooms, especially after rain, +made breathing a sensuous pleasure. There we tried to intercept the +swallow-like flight of big sulphur and orange butterflies, though never +with success. We had more success with the butterflies in the clearings, +where some new huts stood, beyond the village. Over the stagnant pools +in those open spaces dragonflies hovered, fellows that moved, when we +approached, like lines of red light. The butterflies, particularly a +vermilion beauty with black bars on his wings, and a swift flier, used +to settle and gem the mud about these pools. Other species frequented +the flowering shrubs which had grown over the burnt wreckage and stumps +of the forest. That area was full of insects and birds. There we saw +daily the Sauba ants, sometimes called the parasol ants, in endless +processions, each ant holding a piece of leaf, the size of a sixpenny +bit, over its tiny body. Tanagers shot amongst the bushes like blue +projectiles. We saw a ficus there on one occasion, of fair size, with +large leathery leaves, which carried a colony of remarkable +caterpillars, each about seven inches long, thick in proportion, blue +black in colour with yellow stripes, and a coral head, and filaments at +the latter end. They were pugnacious worms, fighting each other +desperately when two met on a leaf. The larvæ stripped that tree in a +day. We were not always sure that the people in this part of Serpa were +friendly. Mostly they were half-breeds, varying mixtures of Indian and +negro, and no doubt very superstitious. The rodent’s foot was commonly +worn by the women, who, if we took notice of their children, sometimes +would spit, to avert the evil eye. But when the thunder clouds banked +close, and the air, being still, became loaded with the scent of the +wood fires of the villagers, promising rain, we would enter a hut, and +then always found we were welcome. + +Even when kept to the ship for any reason this country offered constant +new things to keep our thoughts moving. A regatao, the river pedlar, +would bring his roomy montario, the gipsy van of the river, his family +aboard—the wife, the grandmother, and the sad, shy, little +children—and offer us fruits, and perhaps his monkey and parrots. +Gradually the “Capella” added to her company. The Chief bought a parrot +which had many Indian and Portuguese phrases. It tried to climb a funnel +guy, in escaping the curiosity of our terrier, and fell into the river. +We fished her out with a bucket. The vampire bats came aboard every +night. They were not very terrible creatures to look at; but we +discovered they frequented the forecastle for no good purpose. Again, +stories filtered through to us of sickness on the Madeira, and abruptly +they gave the palms and the sunsets a new light. One man was brought in +from beyond and died of beri-beri. This shook the nerves of one of our +Brazilian pilots, and he refused to go beyond where we were. As for me, +there at Serpa the “Capella” was at anchor, and we were not near the +Madeira, and seemed never likely to go. I watched the sunsets. The +brief, cool evenings prompted me (fever in the future or not) to praise +and grace. Crickets chirped everywhere on the ship then, and the air was +full of the sparks of fireflies. You could smell this good earth. + +There was one sunset when the overspreading of violet clouds would have +shut out the day quite, but that the canopy was not closely adjusted to +the low barrier of forest to the westward. Through that narrow chink a +yellow light streamed, and traced shapes on the lurid walls and roof +which narrowly enclosed us. This was the beginning of the most alarming +of our daily electrical storms. There was no wind. Serpa and all the +coast facing that rift where the light entered our prison, stood +prominent and strange, and surprised us as much as if we had not looked +in that direction till then. The curtain dropped behind the forest, and +all light was shut out. We could not see across the ship. Knowing how +strong and bright could be the electrical discharges (though they were +rarely accompanied by thunder) when not heralded in so portentous a way, +we waited with some anxiety for this display to begin. It began over the +trees behind Serpa. Blue fire flickered low down, and was quickly +doused. Then a crack of light sprang across the inverted black bowl from +east to west in three quick movements. Its instant ramifications +fractured all the roof in a network of dazzling blue lines. The +reticulations of light were fleeting, but never gone. Night contracted +and expanded, and the sharp sounds, which were not like thunder, might +have been the tumbling flinders of night’s roof. We saw not only the +river, and the shapes of the trees and the village, as in wavering +daylight, but their colours. One flash sheeted the heavens, and its +overbright glare extinguished everything. It came with an explosion, +like the firing of a great gun close to our ears, and for a time we +thought the ship was struck. In this effort the storm exhausted itself. + + * * * * * + +The day before we left for the Madeira we took aboard sixty head of +cattle. They were wild things, which had been collected in the campo +with great difficulty, and driven into lighters. A rope was dropped over +the horns of each beast: this was attached to a crane hook, the winch +was started, and up the poor wretch came, all its weight on its horns, +bumping inertly against the ship’s side in its passage, like a bale, and +was then dumped in a heap on deck. This treatment seemed to subdue it. +Each quietly submitted to a halter. Several lost horns, and one hurt its +leg, and had to be dragged to its place. But, to our great joy—we were +watching the scene from the bridge—the Brazilian herdsmen on the +lighter shouted an anxious warning to their fellows on our deck as a +small black heifer, a potbellied lump with a stretched neck, rotated in +her unusual efforts to free her horns. She even bellowed. She bumped +heavily against the ship’s side, and tried desperately to find her feet. +She was, and I offered up thanks for this benefit, most plainly an +implacable rebel. The cattlemen, as punishment for the trouble she had +given them ashore, kept her dangling over the deck, and one got level +with her face and mocked her, slapping her nose. She actually defied +him, though she was quite helpless, with some minatory sounds. She was +no cow. She was insurrection, she was the hate for tyrants incarnated. +They dropped her. She was up and away like a cat, straight for the +winchman, and tried to get the winch out of her path, bellowing as she +worked. She put everybody on that deck in the shrouds or on the +forecastle head as she trotted round, with her tail up, looking for +brutes to put them to death. None of the cows (of course) helped her. By +a trick she was caught, and her horns were lashed down to a ring bolt in +a hatch coaming. Then she tried to kick all who passed. If the rest of +the cattle had been like her none would have suffered. Alas! They were +probably all scientific evolutionists, content to wait for men to become +kindly apple-lovers by slow and natural uplift; and gravely deprecated +the action of the heifer, from which, as peaceful cows, they +disassociated themselves. + +The Indian says that if he eats a morsel of tiger he becomes fierce and +strong. I have not the faith of the Indian, or I would have begged the +heart of that heifer, and of it I would have brewed gallons of precious +liquor, and brought it home in jars for incomparable gifts to the meek +at heart who always do what the herdsmen tell them. The Doctor and I +made a pet of that black cow, to the extent of seeing she got her +rations regularly. It was no joke wading through manure among a press of +nervous animals on a ship’s deck in the tropics, in order to see that a +brave creature was justly dealt with; particularly as she swore +violently whenever she saw us, looking up from her tightly tethered head +with eyes full of unabated fury, and tried to get at us on the hatch +above her, bound though she was. What a heart! For her head was fixed +immovably, unlike the others; yet, till we arrived at Porto Velho she +kept her fierce spirit, often kicking over her water bucket with her +forefeet. Curse their charity! + +With two new pilots, we upanchored next morning; and full of cattle, +flies, and new odours, and a gang of cattlemen who at least appeared +villainous, and carried long knives, the “Capella” continued up stream +for the Madeira. The cattle were sheltered, as far as possible, with +awnings improvised from spare canvas, and their fodder was bales of +American hay. The Skipper did his best to meliorate the harsh native +methods with dumb things. + +And now it seems time to explain why we are bound for the centre of the +American continent, where the unexplored jungle still persists, and +disease or death, so the legends tell us, come to all white men who stay +there for but a few months. If you will get your map of the Brazils, +begin from Para, and cruise along the Amazon to the Madeira River—you +turn south just before Manaos—when you have reached Santo Antonio on +the tributary stream you have traversed the ultimate wilderness of a +continent, and stand on the threshold of Bolivia, almost under the +shadow of the Andes. If you find any pleasure in maps, flying in shoes +of that kind when affairs pursue you too urgently (and I suppose you do, +or you would not be so far into this narrative), you will hardly thank +me when I tell you it is possible for an ocean steamer exceeding 23 feet +in draught to make such a journey, and so break the romance of the +obscure place at the end of it. But it must be said. Even one who +travels for fun should keep to the truth in the matter of a ship’s +draught. As a reasonable being you would prefer to believe the map; and +that clearly shows the only way there (when the chance comes for you to +take it) must be by canoe, a long and arduous journey to a seclusion +remote, and so the more deeply desired. It certainly hurts our faith in +a favourite chart to find that its well-defined seaboard is no barrier +to modern traffic, but that, journeying over those pink and yellow +inland areas, which should have no traffic with great ships, a large +cargo steamer, full of Welsh coal, can come to an anchorage, still with +many fathoms under her, at a point where the cartographer, for lack of +place-names and other humane symbols, has set the word Forest, with the +letters spread widely to the full extent of his ignorance, and so +promised us sanctuary in plenty. I suppose that in a few years those +remote wilds, somehow cleared of Indians, jungle, and malaria—though I +do not see how all this can be done—will have no further interest for +us, because it will possess many of the common disadvantages of +civilisation’s benefits: it will be a point on a regular route of +commerce. I am really sorry for you; but in the sad and cruel code of +the sailor I can only reply as Jack did when he got the sole rag of beef +in the hash, “Blow you, Bill. I’m all right.” I had the fortune to go +when the route was still much as it was in the first chapter of Genesis. +“But after all,” you question me, hopeful yet, “nothing can be done with +5000 tons of Welsh cargo in a jungle.” + +People with the nose for dollars can do wonders. It would be unwise to +back such a doughty opponent as the pristine jungle with its malaria +against people who smell money there. In the early ’seventies there was +a man with one idea, Colonel George Church. His idea was to give to +Bolivia, which the Andes shuts out from the Pacific, and two thousand +miles of virgin forest from the Atlantic, a door communicating with the +outside world. He said, for he was an enthusiast, that Bolivia is the +richest country in the world. The mines of Potosi are in Bolivia. Its +mountains rise from fertile tropical plains to Arctic altitudes. The +rubber tree grows below, and a climate for barley is found in a few +days’ journey towards the sky. But the riches of Bolivia are locked up. +Small parcels of precious goods may be got out over the Andean barrier, +on mule back; or they may dribble in a thin stream down the Beni, +Mamoré, and Madre de Dios rivers—rivers which unite not far from the +Brazilian boundary to form the Rio Madeira. The Beni is a very great and +deep river which has a course of 1500 miles before it contributes its +volume to the Madeira. The Rio Madeira, a broad and deep stream in the +rainy season, reaches the Amazon in another 1100 miles. But between +Guajara-Merim and San Antonio the Madeira comes down a terrace 250 miles +in length of nineteen dangerous cataracts. The Bolivian rubber +collectors shoot those rapids in their batelaōes, large vessels carrying +sometimes ten tons of produce and a crew of a dozen men, when the river +is full. Many are overturned, and the produce and the men are lost. The +Madeira traverses a country notorious even on the Amazon for its fever, +and quite unexplored a mile inland anywhere on its banks; the rubber +hunters, too, have to reckon with wandering tribes of hostile Indians. + +The country is like that to-day. Then judge its value for a railway +route in the early ’seventies. But Colonel Church was a New Englander, +and again he was a visionary, so therefore most energetic and +compelling; he soon persuaded the practical business folk, who seldom +know much, and are at the mercy of every eloquent dreamer, to part with +a lot of money to buy his Bolivian dream. We do really find the Colonel, +on 1st November 1871, solemnly cutting the first sod of a railway in the +presence of a party of Indians, with the wild about him which had +persisted from the beginning of things. What the Indians thought of it +is not recorded. Anyhow, they seem to have humoured the infatuated man +who stopped to cut a square of grass in the land of the Parentintins, +the men who go stark naked, and make musical instruments out of the shin +bones of their victims. + +An English company of engineering contractors was given the job of +building the line, and a small schooner, the “Silver Spray,” went up to +San Antonio with materials in 1872. Her captain, and some of her +officers, died on the way. A year later the contractors confessed utter +defeat. The jungle had won. They declared that “the country was a +charnel-house, their men dying like flies, that the road ran through an +inhospitable wilderness of alternating swamp and porphyry ridges, and +that, with the command of all the capital in the world, and half its +population, it would be impossible to build the road.” (There is a +quality of bitterness in their vehement hate which I recognise. I heard +the same emotional chord expressed concerning that land, though not +because of failure there, only two years ago.) + +But the Bank of England held a large sum in trust for the pursuance of +this enterprise, and after the lawyers had attended to the trust money +in long debate in Chancery, there was yet enough of it left to justify +the indefatigable colonel in beginning the railway again. That was in +1876. Messrs. Collins, of Philadelphia, obtained the contract. The road, +of metre gauge, was to be built in three years. The matter excited the +United States into a wonderful attention. The press there went slightly +delirious, and the excited _Eagle_ was advised that “two Philadelphians +are to overcome the Madeira rapids, and to open up to the world a land +as fair as the Garden of the Lord.” The little steamer “Mercedita,” of +856 tons, with 54 engineers and material, was despatched to San Antonio +on 2nd January 1878. Her departure was made an important national +occasion, and it is an historic fact, which may be confirmed by a +reference to the files of Philadelphian papers of that date, that strong +men, as well as women and children, sobbed aloud on the departure of the +steamer. The vessel arrived at San Antonio on the 16th February. They +had barely started operations when, so they said, a Brazilian official +told them, betraying some feeling, “when the English came here they did +nothing but smoke and drink for two days, but Americans work like the +devil.” Yet, by all accounts, the English method was right. I prefer it, +on the Amazon. The preface to work there should be extended to three or +even more days of drinking and smoking. + +Yet it must be said that if ever men should have honour for holding to a +duty when it was far more easy, and even more reasonable, to leave it, +then I submit the claim of those American engineers. Having lived in the +place where many of them died, and knowing their story, I feel a certain +kinship. There is no monument to them. No epic has been written of their +tragedy. But their story is, I should think, one of the saddest in the +annals of commerce. Of the 941 who left for San Antonio at different +times, 221 lost their lives, mostly of disease, though 80 perished in +the wreck of a transport ship. That is far higher a mortality rate than +that of, say, the South African or the American Civil War. + +Few of those men appeared to know the tropics. They thought “the +tropics” meant only prodigal largess of fruits and sun and a wide +latitude of life—a common mistake. The enterprise became a lingering +disaster. Their state was already bad when a supply ship was lost; and +they hopefully waited, ill and starving, but with a gallant mockery of +their lot, as their letters and diaries attest, for food and medicine +which were not to reach them. The doctors continued the daily round of +the host of the fever-stricken, giving them quinine, which was a deceit +made of flour. The wages of all ceased for legal reasons, and they were +in a place where little is cultivated, and so most food has to be +imported in spite of a tariff which usually doubles the price of every +necessary of life. Some of the survivors, despairing and heroic souls, +attempted to escape on rafts down the river; they might as well have +tried to cut their way through the thousand miles of forest between them +and Manaos. The railway undertaking collapsed again, and the clearing, +the huts, and the workshops, and the short line that was actually laid, +were left for the vines and weeds to bury. But now again the conquering +forest is being attacked. The Madeira-Mamoré Railway has been +recommenced, and our steamer, the “Capella,” is taking up supplies for +the establishment at Porto Velho, from which the new railway begins, +three miles this side of San Antonio. + + + + +III + + +On the morning of the 23rd January, while we were still considering, +seeing what the sun was like, and the languid air, and that we were +reduced to tinned beans, fat bacon, and butter which was oil and flies, +whether it was worth while to note our breakfast bell—the steward stood +swinging it, with the gravity of a priest, under the break of the +poop—a shout came from the bridge that the Rio Madeira was in view. + +As far back as Swansea we had heard legends of this stream, and they +were sufficiently disturbing. When we arrived at Para we heard more, and +worse. The pilot we engaged there called the Madeira the “long +cemetery.” At Serpa, for the first time, we saw what happened to frail +humanity when it ventured far on the Madeira. One day a river steamer +came to Serpa, with a cargo of men from San Antonio. The river steamers +of the Amazon are vessels of broad beam and shallow draft, painted the +dingy hue of the river itself, and they have two tiers of decks, +open-air shelves, between the supports of which the passengers sling +their hammocks. The passengers do not sleep in bunks. This paddleboat +came throbbing towards where we were at anchor. It was night, and she +was unseen, a palpitation in the dark accompanied somehow by a fountain +of sparks. Such boats burn wood in their furnaces. When her noise had +ceased, and her lights imperceptibly enlarged as the current dropped her +down abeam of us, a breath of her, a draught of air, passed our way. I +am more familiar now with the odour malaria causes, but then I thought +she must have a freight of the dead. She anchored. We could see her +loaded hammocks in the light of the few lamps she carried. Through the +binoculars next morning I inspected with peculiar interest the row of +cadaverous heads, with black tousled hair, lemon-coloured skins, open +mouths and vacant eyes, which stared at us over her rails. Each looked +as though once it had peered into the eyes of doom, and then was but +waiting, caring nothing. + +There, ahead, was the Madeira now for us. We were then nearly a thousand +miles from the sea, well within South America. But that meeting-place of +the Amazon and its chief tributary was an expanse of water surprising in +its immensity. As much light was reflected from the floor as at sea. The +water was oceanic in amplitude. The forest boundaries were so far away +that one could not realise, even when the time we had been on the river +was remembered as a prolonged monotony, that this was the centre of a +continent. The forest on our port side was near enough for us to see its +limbs and its vines; but to the south-west, where we were heading for +Bolivia, and to the north, the way to the Guianas, and to the east, out +of which we had come, and to the west, where was Peru, the land was but +a low violet barrier, varying in altitude with distance, and with silver +sections in it, marking the river roads. In the north-west there was a +broad silver path through the wall, the way to the Rio Negro, Manaos, +and the Orinoco. In the south the near forest, being flooded, was a +puzzle of islands. As we progressed they opened out as a line of green +headlands. The Madeira appeared to have three widely separated mouths, +with a complexity of intermediate and connective minor ditches. Indeed, +the gate of the river was a region of inundated jungle. One began to +understand why travellers here sometimes find themselves on the wrong +river. + +Our bows turned in to the forest wall, and for a few minutes I could not +see any way for us there. The jungle parted, and we were on a narrow +turgid flood, the colour of the main river, but swifter; a majestic +forest was near to either beam. We were enclosed. And after we entered +the Madeira my dark thoughts of our future at once left me. If they +returned, it was only to be joked about, in the dry way one does refer +to a dread that has been long in the distance, and then one day takes +shape, becomes material, and settles down with us. Its form, as you +know, nearly always allays your alarms. Your simple mind has expected +something with the lowering face of evil. Lo! evil has even bright eyes. +Its nature, its dark craft which you have dreaded, is not seen, and your +mind grows light with surprise. What, only this, then? + +I never saw earth look more resplendent and chromatic than on the day +when we entered that river with a bad name. Presently, I thought—here +was a brief resurgence of the old gloom which had shrouded my +conjectural Madeira—I might be called upon to pay the price for this +surprising gift of intense colour, light, and luscious heat, for the +quickening of the blood, as though the tropic air were a stimulant as +well as a narcotic. Well, it does seem but fair, if chance, being happy, +gives you a place in the tropics, to expect to have less time there than +is given for the job of eking out a meagre existence in the north. It +would not be right to look for gain both ways. (You will have noticed +already, I suppose, that I have not been on the Madeira fifteen +minutes.) This, I thought, as I walked to and fro on the “Capella,” is +different from that endurance, bitter and prolonged, in the land where +there is no sun worth mentioning, where the north-east wind blows, where +the poor rate is so and so in the pound (and you are one of the +fortunate if you pay it), and Lord Rosebery lectures on Thrift. I +mentioned this to the Doctor. He did not remove his pipe from his mouth. + +Because (the idea dawned on me as I sank into a deck chair beside the +surgeon under the poop awning, and borrowed his silver tobacco-box), +because, as to thrift and parching winds, abstinence and prudence, and +lectures by the solemn on how to thin out your life in cold climates +where all that is worth having is annexed, why praise a man who is +willing to deprave his life to sand and frost? There in merry England +the poor wretch is, where the riches of earth are not broadcast largess +as I see they are here, but are stacked on each side of the road, and +guarded by police, leaving to him but the inclement highway, with +nothing but Lord Rosebery’s advice and benediction to help him keep the +wind out of the holes in his trousers; that benefit, and the bleak +consideration that he may swink all day for a handful of beans, or go +without. What is prudence in that man? It is his goodwill for the +police. To be blue nosed and meek at heart, and to hoard half the crust +of your stinted bread, is to blaspheme the King of Glory. Some men will +touch their crowns to Carnegie in heaven. + +Thrift and abstinence! They began to look the most snivelling of sins as +I watched, with spacious leisure, the near procession of gigantic trees, +that superb wild which did not arise from such niggard and flinty +maxims. Frugality and prudence! That is to regard the means to death in +life, the pallor and projecting bones of a warped existence, as good men +dwell on courage, motherhood, rebellion, and May time, and the other +proofs of vitality and growth. Now, I thought, I see what to do. All +those improving lectures, reform leagues, university settlements, labour +exchanges, and other props for crippled humanity, are idle. It is a +generative idea that is wanted, a revelation, a vision. It would be +easier and quicker to take regiments of folk out of Ancoats, Hanley, +Bethnal Green, and the cottages of the countryside, for one long glance +at the kind of earth I see now. The world would expand as they looked. +They would get the dynamic suggestion. In vain, afterwards, would the +monopolists and the superior persons chant patriotic verse to drown the +noise of chain forging at the Westminster foundry. Not the least good, +that. The folk would not hear. Their minds would be absent and outward, +not locked within to huddle with cramped and respectful thoughts. They +would not start instinctively at the word of command. They would begin +with dignity and assurance to compass their own affairs, and in an +enormous way; and they would make hardly a sound as they moved forward, +and they would have uplifted and shining eyes. (“Then you think more of +’em than I do,” said the surgeon.) + +It would be no use, I saw clearly, sending the folk to Algeria, Egypt, +or New York. Such places never betray to the traveller that our world is +not a shapeless parcel of fields and buildings, tied up with bylaws, and +sealed by the Grand Lama as his last act in the stupendous work of +creation. There it is, an angular package in the sky, which the sun +reads, and directs on its way to heaven in advance of its limited +syndicate of proprietors. + +Here on the Madeira I had a vision instead of the earth as a great and +shining sphere. There were no fences and private bounds. I saw for the +first time an horizon as an arc suggesting how wide is our ambit. That +bare shoulder of the world effaced regions and constellations in the +sky. Our earth had celestial magnitude. It was warm, a living body. The +abundant rain was vital, and the forest I saw, nobler in stature and +with an aspect of intensity beyond what the Amazon forests showed, rose +like a sign of life triumphant. + +You see what that tropical wilderness did for me, and with but a single +glance. Whatever comes after, I shall never be the same again. The +complacent length of the ship was before us. Amidships were some of the +fellows staring overside, absorbed. Now and then, when his beat brought +him to the port side, I could see the head of the little pilot on the +bridge. His colleague was sleeping in one of the hammocks slung between +the stanchions of the poop awning. The Doctor was scrutinising a pair of +motuca flies which hovered about his ankles, waiting for him to go to +sleep. He wanted them for specimens. The Skipper, looking a little +anxious, came slowly up the poop ladder, crossed over, and stood by our +chairs. “The river is full of big timber,” he said. He went to stare +overside, and then came back to us. “The current is about five knots, +and those trees adrift are as big as barges. I hope they keep clear of +the propeller.” The Skipper’s eye was uneasy. He was glum with +suspicion; he spoke of the way his fools might meet the wiles of fortune +at a time when he was below and his ship was without its acute +protective intelligence. He stood, a spare figure in white, in a limp +grass hat with flapping eaves, gazing forward to the bridge +mistrustfully. He had brought us in a valuable vessel to a place +unknown, and now he had to go on, and afterwards get us all out again. I +began to feel a large respect for this elderly master mariner (who did +not give the beard of an onion for any man’s sympathy) who had skilfully +contrived to put us where we were, and now was unaware what mischance +would send us to rot under the forest wall, the bottom to fall out of +our adventure just when we were in its narrowest passage and achievement +was almost within view. “This is no place for a ship,” the captain +mumbled. “It isn’t right. We’re disturbing the mud all the time; and +look at those butterflies now, dodging about us!” He was continuing this +monologue as a dirty cap appeared at the head of the ladder, and a long +and ragged length of sorrowful sailor mounted there, and doffed the cap. +The Skipper brusquely signed to him to approach. He was a youngster in +an advanced stage of some trouble, and he had no English. I think he was +a Swede. He demonstrated his sickness, baring his arm, muttering +unintelligibly. The limb, like his hand, was distorted with large +blisters. There was his face, too. I mistrusted my equanimity for some +moments, but braced my eyes, compelling them to be scientific and +impersonal. By signs we gathered he had been sleeping on deck, such was +the heat of the forecastle, and the mosquitoes, the Doctor said, had +poisoned a body already tainted from the stews of Rotterdam. The +corroding spirit of the jungle was beginning to permeate through our +flaws. + +The Doctor went to his surgery. The pilot sat up in his hammock, glanced +indifferently at the sick sailor, yawning and stretching his arms, his +dainty little brown feet dangling just clear of the deck. He began to +roll a cigarette of something which looked like tea. Then he dropped +out, and went forward to release his mate on the bridge, and the senior +pilot came up as the Doctor had finished his job. The junior pilot, a +fragile, girlish fellow, rather taciturn, greets us always with a +faintly supercilious smile. His chief is a round, jolly little man, +hearty, and lavish with ornamental gestures. We both smiled +involuntarily as he marched across to us, with his uniform cap, bearing +our ship’s badge, stuck on the back of his head with a bias to the right +ear. There is not enough of Portuguese in our ship’s company to serve +one conversation adequately, but we get on well with this pilot, and he +with us. He sits in a hammock, making pantomime explanatory of Brazil to +us strangers, and we pick him up with alacrity, after but brief pauses. +While the Doctor beguiled him into dramatic moments, I lay back and +watched him, searching for Brazilian characteristics, to report here. + +You know that, when you have returned from a far country, you are asked +unanswerable questions about its people, and especially about its women. +We are easily flattered by the suggestion that we are authoritative, +with opinions got from uncommon experience, especially where women with +strange eyes and dark skins are concerned. So, once upon a time, I +caught myself—or rather, I caught that cold, critical, and impartial +part of me, which is a solemn fake—when answering a question of this +kind, explaining in a comprehensive way the character of the Brazilian +people, as though I were telling of the objective phenomena of one +simple soul. Presently the wise and ribald part of me woke, caught the +note of that inhuman voice, and raised a derisive cry, heard by me with +grave deprecation, but not heard at all by my listener. I stopped. For +what do I know of the Brazilian character? Very little. Is there such a +thing? I suppose the true Brazilian is like the true Englishman, or the +typical bird which is known by its bones, but may be anything from a +crow to a nightingale, but is more likely a lark. You can imagine the +foreigner taking his knowledge of the British pick-pocket who met him at +the landing-stage, the pen-portraits of Bernard Shaw, the Rev. Jeremiah +Hardshell, Father O’Flynn, You, Me, the cabman who swore at him, his +landlady and her daughter, Lloyd-George, Piccadilly by night, and Tom +Bowling, carefully adjusting all that valuable British data, just as +Professor Karl Pearson does his physical statistics, and explaining the +result as the modern English; adding, in the usual footnote, what +decadent tendencies are to be deduced, in addition, from the facts which +could not be worked into the major premises. + +Now, there was the handsome Brazilian customs officer, tall, august, +with dark eyes haughty and slow with thought, the waves of his romantic +black hair faintly traced in silver, who might have been a poet, or a +philosophic revolutionist; but who was the man, as the first mate told +us (after we had searched everywhere for the articles) who “pinched your +bloomin’ field-glasses and my meerschaum.” + +Take, if you like, the ultra-fashionable ladies at the Para hotel, who +looked at us with sleepy eyes, and who, I suspect, were not Brazilians +at all. Supposing they were, there must be counted the wife of the +official at Serpa. She came aboard there with her husband to see an +English ship; she reminded me of that picture of the Madonna by +Sassoferrato in the National Gallery; I am unable to come nearer to +justice to her than that. Again, there was a certain vain native +apothecary, and he had the idea that I was bottle-washer to the +“Capella’s” surgeon, much to that fellow’s secret delight. The chemist +treated me with a studied difference in consequence; and though our +surgeon could have undeceived the mistaken man, having some Portuguese, +he refused to do so. I remember the pilot who, when he left us at Serpa, +and I bade him farewell, did, before all our ship’s company, embrace me +heartily, rest his cheek against mine, and make loving noises in his +throat. And there is our present chief guide, now swinging in his +hammock, and looking down upon us waggishly. + +He had not been a pilot always. Once he was a clown in a circus; that +little fact is a clue to much which otherwise would have been obscure in +him. When he boarded us at Serpa to take the place of the man who shrank +from the thought of the Madeira, the chart-room under the bridge was +given to him, and as the mate put it, “he moved in.” He had bundles, +boxes, bags, baskets, a tin trunk, a chair, a parrot, a hammock, and +some pictures. He was going to be with us for two months, but his affair +had the conclusive character of a migration, a final severance from his +old life. His friends came to see him depart, and they wound themselves +in each others arms, head laid in resignation on shoulders. “Looks as if +we’re bound for the Golden Shore,” commented the boatswain. + +This little rounded man, the pilot, with his unctuous olive skin, tiny +moustache of black silk, and impudent eyes, looked ripe in middle age, +though actually he was but thirty. He wore a suit of azure cotton, +ironed faultlessly, and his tunic fitted with hooks and eyes across his +throat. His boots were sulphur coloured and Parisian. A massive gold +ring, which carried a carbonado nearly as large as the stopper of a beer +bottle, was embedded in a fat finger of his right hand. In the front of +his cap he had sewn the badge of our line, and he was curiously proud of +that gaudy symbol. He would wear the cap on one ear, and walk up and +down in display, with a lofty smile, and a carriage supposed to +appertain to a British officer in a grand moment. He had a great +admiration for all that was British, except our food. If you were up at +sunrise you could see him at his toilet, and the spectacle was worth the +effort. His array of toilet vesicles reminded me of the shelves in a +barber’s shop. Oiled and fragrant, he took his seat for breakfast with +much formal politeness. He shook our saloon company into a sense of its +responsibilities, for we had grown indifferent as to dress, and +sometimes we had three-day beards. His handkerchiefs and linen were +scented, and dainty with floral designs. And ours—oh, ours—! He took +wine at breakfast, and after idling a little with our foreign dishes he +would wipe his mouth on our tablecloth, and then leave for the bridge. +As he passed across the poop we would hear him hawk violently, and spit +on the deck. Then the Skipper would glare, and drive his chair backwards +in a dark passion. + + * * * * * + +Gazing at the foliage as it unfolded, our pilot named the paranas, +tributaries, and islands, when they drew abeam. He told us what the +trees were; and then with head shakes and uplifted hands and eyes, +indicated what grave things were behind that screen of leaves. (Though I +don’t suppose he knew.) His mimicry was so spontaneous and exact that it +was more entertaining and just as instructive as speech. He taught us +how the Indians kill you, and what some villagers did to a naughty +padre, and how the sucuruju swallows a deer, and how to make love to a +Brazilian girl. He kicked the slippers from his little feet, and +smuggled into the hammock mesh for a snooze, waving a hand coyly to us +over the edge of his nest. + +The dinner bell rang. Because the saloon is now hot beyond endurance, +the steward has fixed a table on deck, and so, as we eat, we can see the +jungle pass. That keeps some of our mind from dwelling over much on the +dreary menu. The potatoes have begun to ferment. The meat is out of +tins; sometimes it is served as fritters, sometimes we recognise it in a +hash, and sometimes, shameless, it appears without dress, a naked and +shiny lump straight from its metal bed. Often the bread is sour. The +butter, too, is out of tins. Feeding is not a joy, but a duty. But it is +soon over. Although everybody now complains of indigestion, we have far +to go yet, and the cheerfulness which faces all circumstances brazenly +must be our manna. Our table, some deal planks on trestles, is mellowed +by a white tablecloth. We sit round on boxes. Over head the sun flames +on the awning, making it golden and translucent. I let the soup pass. +The next dish is a hot pot of tinned mutton and preserved vegetables. +Something must be done, and I do it then. There is some pickled beef and +pickled onions. I watch the forest pass. Then, for desert, the steward, +the hot beads touring about the mounts of his large pale face, brings +along oleaginous fritters of plum duff. The Doctor leaves. I follow him +to the chairs again, and we exchange tobacco-boxes and fill our pipes. +This may seem to you unendurable for long. I did not think so, though of +habits so regular and engrained that my chances of survival, when viewed +comparatively, for my ship mates were hardened and usually were more +robust, seemed poor enough. But I enjoyed it. There was nourishment, a +tonic stay, in our desire to greet every onset of the miseries, which +now were camped about us, besieging our souls, with sansculotte +insolence. We called to the Eumenides with mockery. Like Thoreau, I +believe I could live on a tenpenny nail, if it comes to that. + +There is no doubt the forest influences our moods in a way you at home +could not understand. Our minds take its light and shade, and just as +our little company, gathered in the Chief’s room at a time when the seas +were running high, recalled sombre legends which told of foredoom, so +this forest, an intrusive presence which is with us morning, noon, and +night, voiceless, or making such sounds as we know are not for our ears, +now shadows us, the prescience of destiny, as though an eyeless mask sat +at table with us, a being which could tell us what we would know, but +though it stays, makes no sign. + +This forest, since we entered the Para River, now a thousand miles away, +has not ceased. There have been the clearings of the settlements from +Para inwards; but as Spruce says in his Journal, those clearings and +campos alter the forest of the Amazon no more than would the culling of +a few weeds alter the aspect of an English cornfield. The few openings I +have seen in the forest do not derange my clear consciousness of a +limitless ocean of leaves, its deep billows of foliage rolling down to +the only paths there are in this country, the rivers, and there +overhanging, arrested in collapse. There is no land. One must travel by +boat from one settlement to another. The settlements are but islands, +narrow foot-holds, widely sundered by vast gulfs of jungle. + +The forest of the Amazons is not merely trees and shrubs. It is not +land. It is another element. Its inhabitants are arborean; they have +been fashioned for life in that medium as fishes to the sea and birds to +the air. Its green apparition is persistent, as the sky is and the +ocean. In months of travel it is the horizon which the traveller cannot +reach, and its unchanging surface, merged through distance into a mere +reflector of the day, a brightness or a gloom, in his immediate vicinity +breaks into a complexity of green surges; then one day the voyager sees +land at last and is released from it. But we have not seen land since +Serpa. There are men whose lives are spent in the chasms of light where +the rivers are sunk in the dominant element, but who never venture +within its green surface, just as one would not go beneath the waves to +walk in the twilight of the sea bottom. + +Now I have been watching it for so long I see the outer aspect of the +jungles does vary. When I saw it first on the Para River it appeared to +my wondering eyes but featureless green cliffs. Then in the Narrows +beyond Para I remember an impression of elegance and placidity, for +there, the waters still being tidal and saline, the palms were +conspicuous and in profuse abundance. The great palms are the chief +feature of that forest elevation, with their graceful columns, and their +generous and symmetrical fronds which sometimes are like gigantic green +feathers, and again are like fans. A tall palm, whatever its species, +being a definite expression of life—not an agglomeration of leaves, but +body and crown, a real personality—the forest of the Narrows, populous +with such exquisite beings, had marges of straight ascending lines and +flourishing and geometrical crests. + +Beyond the river Xingu, on the main stream, the forest, persistent as a +presence, again changed its aspect. It was ragged and shapeless, an +impenetrable tangle, its front strewn with fallen trees, the vision of +outer desolation. By Obydos it was more aerial and shapely again, but +not of that light and soaring grace of the Narrows. It was contained, +yet mounted not in straight lines, as in the country of the palms, but +in convex masses. Here on the lower Madeira the forest seems of a nature +intermediate between the rolling structure of the growth by Obydos, and +the grace of the palm groves in the estuarine region of the Narrows. It +is barbaric and splendid, easily prodigal with illimitable riches, +sinking the river beneath a wealth of forms. + +On the Madeira, as elsewhere in the world of the Amazons, some of the +forest is on “terra-firma,” as that land is called which is not flooded +when the waters rise. There the trees reach their greatest altitude and +diameter; it is the region of the caáapoam, the “great woods” of the +Indians. A stretch of _terra firma_ shows as a low, vertical bank of +clay, a narrow ribbon of yellow earth dividing the water from the +jungle. More rarely the river cuts a section through some undulating +heights of red conglomerate—heights I call these cliffs, as heights +they are in this flat country, though at home they would attract no more +attention than would the side of a gravel-pit—and again the bank may be +of that cherry and saffron clay which gives a name to Itacoatiara. On +such land the forest of the Madeira is immense, three or four species +among the greater trees lording it in the green tumult expansively, +always conspicuous where they stand, their huge boles showing in the +verdant façade of the jungle as grey and brown pilasters, their crowns +rising above the level roof of the forest in definite cupolas. There is +one, having a neat and compact dome and a grey, smooth, and rounded +trunk, and dense foliage as dark as that of the holm oak; and another, +resembling it, but with a flattened and somewhat disrupted dome. I +guessed these two giants to be silk-cottons. Another, which I supposed +to be of the leguminous order, had a silvery bole, and a texture of pale +green leafage open and light, which at a distance resembled that of the +birch. These three trees, when assembled and well grown, made most +stately riverside groups. The trunks were smooth and bare till somewhere +near ninety feet from the ground. Palms were intermediate, filling the +spaces between them, but the palms stood under the exogens, growing in +alcoves of the mass, rising no higher than the beginning of the branches +and foliage of their lords. The whole overhanging superstructure of the +forest—not a window, an inlet, anywhere there—was rolling clouds of +leaves from the lower rims of which vines were catenary, looping from +one green cloud to another, or pendent, like the sundered cordage of a +ship’s rigging. Two other trees were frequent, the pao mulatto, with +limbs so dark as to look black, and the castanheiro, the Brazil nut +tree. + +The roof of the woods lowered when we were steaming past the igapo. The +igapo, or aqueous jungle, through which the waters go deeply for some +months of the year, is of a different character, and perhaps of a lesser +height—it seems less; but then it grows on lower ground. I was told to +note that its foliage is of a lighter green, but I cannot say I saw +that. It is in the igapo that the Hevea Braziliensis flourishes, its +pale bole, suggestive of the white poplar, deep in water for much of the +year, and its crown sheltered by its greater neighbours, so that it +grows in a still, heated, and humid twilight. This low ground is always +marked by growths of small cecropia trees. These, with their white +stems, their habit of free and regular branching, and their long leaves, +digital in the manner of the horse-chestnut, have the appearance of +great candelabra. Sometimes the igapo is prefaced by an area of cane. +The numberless islands, being of recent formation, have a forest of a +different nature, and they seldom carry the larger trees. The upper ends +of many of the islands terminate in sandy pits, where dwarf willows +grow. So foreign was the rest of the vegetation, that notwithstanding +its volume and intricacy, I detected those humble little willows at +once, as one would start surprised at an English word heard in the +meaningless uproar of an alien multitude. + +The forest absorbed us; as one’s attention would be challenged and drawn +by the casual regard, never noticeably direct, but never withdrawn, of a +being superior and mysterious, so I was drawn to watch the still and +intent stature of the jungle, waiting for it to become vocal, for some +relaxing of its static form. Nothing ever happened. I never discovered +it. Rigid, watchful, enigmatic, its presence was constant, but without +so much as one blossom in all its green vacuity to show the least +friendly familiarity to one who had found flowers and woodlands kind. It +had nothing that I knew. It remained securely aloof and indifferent, +till I thought hostility was implied, as the sea implies its impartial +hostility, in a constant presence which experience could not fathom, nor +interest soften, nor courage intimidate. We sank gradually deeper +inwards towards its central fastnesses. + +By noon on our first day on the Madeira we reached the village of +Rozarinho, which is on the left bank, with the tributary of the same +name a little more up stream, but entering from the other side. Here, as +we followed a loop of the stream, the Madeira seemed circumscribed, a +tranquil lake. The yellow water, though swift, had so polished a surface +that the reflections of the forest were hardly disturbed, sinking below +the tops of the inverted trees to the ultimate clouds, giving an +illusion of profundity to the apparent lake. The village was but a +handful of leaf huts grouped about the nucleus of one or two larger +buildings with white walls. There was the usual jetty of a few planks to +which some canoes were tied. The forest was a high background to those +diminished huts; the latter, as we came upon them, suddenly increased +the height of the trees. + +In another place the shelter of a family of Indians was at the top of a +bank, secretive within the base of the woods. A row of chocolate babies +stood outside that nest, with four jabiru storks among them. Each bird, +so much taller than the babies, stood resting meditatively on one leg, +as though waiting the order to take up an infant and deliver it +somewhere. None of them, storks or infants, took the least notice of us. +Perhaps the time had not yet come for them to be aware of mundane +things. Certainly I had a feeling myself, so strange was the place, and +quiet and tranquil the day, that we had passed world’s end, and that +what we saw beyond our steamer was the coloured stuff of dreams which, +if a wind blew, would wreathe and clear; vanish, and leave a shining +void. The sunset deepened this apprehension. There came a wonderful sky +of orange and mauve. It was over us and came down and under the ship. We +moved with glowing clouds beneath our keel. There was no river; the +forest girdled the radiant interior of a hollow sphere. + +The pilots could not proceed at night. Shortly after sundown we +anchored, in nine fathoms. The trees were not many yards from the +steamer. When the ship was at rest a canoe with two Indians came +alongside, with a basket of guavas. They were shy fellows, and each +carried in his hand a bright machete, for they did not seem quite sure +of our company. After tea we sat about the poop, trying to smoke, and, +in the case of the Doctor and the Purser, wearing at the same time veils +of butterfly nets, as protection from the mosquito swarms. The netting +was put over the helmet, and tucked into the neck of the tunic. Yet, +when I poked the stem of the pipe, which carried the gauze with it, into +my mouth, the veil was drawn tight on the face. A mosquito jumped to the +opportunity, and arrived. Alongside, the frogs were making the deafening +clangour of an iron foundry, and through that sound shrilled the +cicadas. I listened for the first time to the din of a tropical night in +the forest. There is no word strong enough to convey this uproar to ears +which have not listened to it. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 24._ A bright still sunrise, promising heat; and before breakfast +the ship’s ironwork was too hot to touch. The novelty of this Madeira is +already beginning to merge into the yellow of the river, the blue of the +sky, and the green of the jungle, with but the occasional variation of +low roseous cliffs. The average width of the river may be less than a +quarter of a mile. It is loaded with floating timber, launched upon it +by “terras-cahidas,” landslides, caused by the rains, which carry away +sections of the forest each large enough to furnish an English park with +trees. Sometimes we see a bight in the bank where such a collapse has +only recently occurred, the wreckage of trees being still fresh. Many of +the trees which charge down on the current are of great bulk, with half +their table-like base high out of the water. Occasionally rafts of them +appear, locked with creepers, and bearing flourishing gardens of weeds. +This characteristic gives the river its Portuguese name, “river of +wood.” The Indians know the Madeira as the Cayary, “white river.” + +Its course to-day serpentines so freely that at times we steer almost +east, and then again go west. Our general direction is south-west. At +eight this morning, after some anxious moments when the river was +dangerous with reefs, we passed the village of Borba, 140 miles from +Serpa. Here there is a considerable clearing, with kine browsing over a +hummocky sward that is well above the river on an occurrence of the red +clay. This release of the eyes was a smooth and grateful experience +after the enclosing walls. Some steps dug in the face of the low cliff +led to the white houses, all roofed with red tiles. The village faced +the river. From each house ascended the leisurely smoke of early +morning. The church was in the midst of the houses, its bell conspicuous +with verdigris. Two men stood to watch us pass. It was a pleasant +assurance to have, those roofs and the steeple rising actually into the +light of the sky. The dominant forest, in which we were sunk, was here +definitely put down by our fellow-men. + +We were beyond Borba, and its parana and island just above it, before +the pilot had finished telling us, where we watched from the “Capella’s” +bridge, that Borba was a settlement which had suffered much from attacks +of the Araras Indians. The river took a sharp turn to the east, and +again went west. Islands were numerous. These islands are lancet-shaped, +and lie along the banks, separated by side channels, their paranas, from +the land. The smaller river craft often take a parana instead of the +main stream, to avoid the rush of the current. The whole region seems +lifeless. There is never a flower to be seen, and rarely a bird. +Sometimes, though, we disturb the snowy heron. On one sandy island, +passed during the afternoon, and called appropriately, Ilho do Jacaré, +we saw two alligators. Otherwise we have the silent river to ourselves; +though I am forgetting the butterflies, and the constant arrival aboard +of new winged shapes which are sometimes so large and grotesque that one +is uncertain about their aggressive qualities. As we idle on the poop we +keep by us two insect nets, and a killing-bottle. The Doctor is making a +collection, and I am supposed to assist. + +When I came on deck on the morning of our arrival in the Brazils it was +not the orange sunrise behind a forest which was topped by a black +design of palm fronds, nor the warm odour of the place, nor the height +and intensity of the vegetation, which was most remarkable to me, a +new-comer from the restricted north. It was a butterfly which flickered +across our steamer like a coloured flame. No other experience put +England so remote. + +A superb butterfly, too bright and quick to be anything but an escape +from Paradise, will stay its dancing flight, as though with intelligent +surprise at our presence, hover as if puzzled, and swoop to inspect us, +alighting on some such incongruous piece of our furniture as a coil of +rope, or the cook’s refuse pail, pulsing its wings there, plainly +nothing to do with us, the prismatic image of joy. Out always rush some +of our men at it, as though the sight of it had maddened them, as would +a revelation of accessible riches. It moves only at the last moment, +abruptly and insolently. They are left to gape at its mocking retreat. +It goes in erratic flashes to the wall of trees and then soars over the +parapet, hope at large. + +Then there are the other things which, so far as most of us know, have +no names, though a sailor, wringing his hands in anguish, is usually +ready with a name. To-day we had such a visitor. He looked a fellow the +Doctor might require, so I marked him down when he settled near a hatch +on the afterdeck. He was a bee the size of a walnut, and habited in dark +blue velvet. In this land it is wise to assume that everything bites or +stings, and that when a creature looks dead it is only carefully +watching you. I clapped the net over that fellow and instantly he +appeared most dead. Knowing he was but shamming, and that he would give +me no assistance, I stood wondering what I could do next; then the cook +came along. The cook saw the situation, laughed at my timidity with +tropical forms, went down on his knees, and caught my prisoner. The cook +raised a piercing cry. + +On the bridge I saw them levelling their glasses at us; and some +engineers came to their cabin doors to see us where we stood on the +lonely deck, the cook and the Purser, in a tableau of poignant tragedy. +The cook walked round and round, nursing his suffering member, and I did +not catch all he said, for I know very little Dutch; but the spirit of +it was familiar, and his thumb was bleeding badly. The bee had resumed +death again. The state of the cook’s thumb was a surprise till the +surgeon exhibited the bee’s weapons, when it became clear that thumbs, +especially when Dutch and rosy, like our cook’s, afforded the right +medium for an artist who worked with such mandibles, and a tail that was +a stiletto. + +In England the forms of insect life soon become familiar. There is the +housefly, the lesser cabbage white butterfly, and one or two other +little things. In the Brazils, though the great host of forms is +surprising enough, it is the variety in that host which is more +surprising still. Any bright day on the “Capella” you may walk the +length of the ship, carrying a net and a collecting-bottle, and fill the +bottle (butterflies, cockroaches, and bugs not admitted), and perhaps +have not three of a species. The men frequently bring us something +buzzing in a hat; though accidents do happen half-way to where the +Doctor is sitting, and the specimen is mangled in a frenzy. A hornet +came to us that way. He was in violet armour, as hard as a crab, was +still stabbing the air with his long needle, and working on a fragment +of hat he held in his jaws, But such knights in mail are really +harmless, for after all they need not be interfered with. It is the +insignificant little fellows whose object in life it is to interfere +with us which really make the difference. + +So far on the river we have not met the famous pium fly. But the motuca +fly is a nuisance during the afternoon sleep. It is nearly of the size +and appearance of a “blue-bottle” fly, but its wings, having black tips, +look as though their ends were cut off. The motucas, while we slept, +would alight on the wrists and ankles, and where each had fed there +would be a wound from which the blood steadily trickled. + +The mosquitoes do not trouble us till sundown. But one morning in my +cabin I was interested in the hovering of what I thought was a small, +leggy spider which, because of its colouration of black and grey bands, +was evasive to the sight as it drifted about on its invisible thread. At +last I caught it, and found it was a new mosquito. In pursuing it I +found a number of them in the cabin. When I exhibited the insect to the +surgeon he did not well disguise his concern. “Say nothing about it,” he +said, “but this is the yellow-fever brute,” So our interest in our new +life is kept alert and bright. The solid teak doors of our cabins are +now permanently fixed back. Shutting them would mean suffocation; but as +the cabins must be closed before sundown to keep out the clouds of +gnats, the carpenter has made wooden frames, covered with copper gauze, +to fit the door openings at night, and rounds of gauze to cap the open +ports; and with a damp cloth, and some careful hunting each morning, one +is able to keep down the mosquitoes which have managed to find entry +during the night and have retired at sunrise to rest in dark corners. +For our care notwithstanding the insects do find their way in to assault +our lighted lamps. The Chief, partly because as an old sailor he is a +fatalist, and partly because he thinks his massive body must be +invulnerable, and partly because he has a contempt, anyway, for +protecting himself, each morning has a new collection of curios, alive +and dead, littered about his room. (I do not wonder Bates remained in +this land so long; it is Elysium for the entomologist.) One of the live +creatures found in his room the Chief retains and cherishes, and hopes +to tame, though the object does not yet answer to his name of Edwin. +This creature is a green mantis or praying insect, about four inches +long, which the Chief came upon where it rested on the copper gauze of +his door-cover, holding a fly in its hands, and eating it as one would +an apple. This mantis is an entertaining freak, and can easily keep an +audience watching it for an hour, if the day is dull. Edwin, in colour +and form, is as fresh, fragile, and translucent as a leaf in spring. He +has a long thin neck—the stalk to his wings, as it were—which is quite +a third of his length. He has a calm, human face with a pointed chin at +the end of his neck; he turns his face to gaze at you without moving his +body, just as a man looks backwards over his shoulder. This uncanny +mimicry makes the Chief shake with mirth. Then, if you alarm Edwin, he +springs round to face you, frilling his wings abroad, standing up and +sparring with his long arms, which have hooks at their ends. At other +times he will remain still, with his hands clasped up before his face, +as though in earnest devotion, for a trying period. If a fly alights +near him he turns his face that way and regards it attentively. Then +sluggishly he approaches it for closer scrutiny. Having satisfied +himself it is a good fly, without warning his arms shoot out and that +fly is hopelessly caught in the hooked hands. He eats it, I repeat, as +you do apples, and the authentic mouthfuls of fly can be seen passing +down his glassy neck. Edwin is fragile as a new leaf in form, has the +same delicate colour, and has fascinating ways; but somehow he gives an +observer the uncomfortable thought that the means to existence on this +earth, though intricately and wonderfully devised, might have been +managed differently. Edwin, who seems but a pretty fragment of +vegetation, is what we call a lie. His very existence rests on the fact +that he is a diabolical lie. + +Gossamers in the rigging to-day led the captain to prophesy a storm +before night. Clouds of an indigo darkness, of immense bulk, and +motionless, reduced the sunset to mere runnels of opaline light about +the bases of dark mountains inverted in the heavens. There was a rapid +fall of temperature, but no rain. Our world, and we in its centre on the +“Capella,” waited for the storm in an expectant hush. Night fell while +we waited. The smooth river again deepened into the nadir of the last of +day, and the forest about us changed to material ramparts of cobalt. The +pilot made preparations to anchor. The engine bell rang to stand-by, a +summons of familiar urgency, but with a new and alarming note when heard +in a place like that. The forest made no response. A little later the +bell clanged rapidly again, and the pulse of our steamer slowed, ceased. +We could hear the water uncoiling along our plates. The forest itself +approached us, came perilously near. The Skipper’s voice cried abruptly, +“Let go!” and at once the virgin silence was demolished by the uproar of +our cable. The “Capella” throbbed violently; she literally undulated in +the drag of the current. We still drifted slowly down stream. The second +anchor was dropped, and held us. The silence closed in on us instantly. +Far in the forest somewhere, while we were whispering to each other in +the quiet, a tree fell with a deep, significant boom. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 25._ We had been under way for more than an hour when my eyes +opened on the illuminated panorama of leaves and boles unfolding past +the door of my cabin. The cicadas were grinding their scissors loudly in +the trees alongside. I spent much of this day on the bridge, where I +liked to be, watching the pilot at work. The Skipper was there, and in a +cantankerous mood. The pilot wants us to make a chart of the river. He +has given the captain and me a long list of islands, paranas, +tributaries, villages, and sitios. Every map and reference to the river +we have on board is valueless. A map of the river indicates many +settlements with beautiful names; and at each point, when we arrive, +nothing but the forest shows. How the cartographers arrived at such +results is a mystery. This river, which their generous imaginings have +seen as a tortuous bough of the Amazon, laden with villages which they +indicate on their maps with marks like little round fruits, is almost +barren. Every day we pass small sitios or clearings; maybe the +map-makers mean such places as those. Yet each clearing is but a brief +security, a raft of land—the size of the garden of an English +villa—lonely in an ocean of deep leaves, where a rubber man has built +himself a timber house, and some huts for his serfs. It will have a +jetty and a huddle of canoes, and usually a few children on the bank +watching us. We salute that place with our syren as we pass, and +sometimes the kiddies spring for home then as though we were shooting at +them. Or we see a little embowered shack with a pile of fuel logs beside +it, and a crude name-board, where the river boats replenish when +traversing this stream, during the season, for rubber. Our pilots have +much to say of these stations, and of all the rubber men on the river +and their wealth. But away with their rubber! I am tired of it, and will +keep it out of this book if I can. For it is blasphemous that in such a +potentially opulent land the juice of one of its wild trees should be +dwelt upon—as it is in the states of Amazonas and Para—as though it +were the sole act of Providence. The Brazilians can see nothing here but +rubber. The generative qualities of this land through fierce sun and +warm showers—for rarely a day passes without rain, whatever the +season—a land of constant high summer with a free fecundity which has +buried the earth everywhere under a wild growth nearly two hundred feet +deep, is insignificant to them. They see nothing in it at all but the +damnable commodity which is its ruin. Para is mainly rubber, and Manaos. +The Amazon is rubber, and most of its tributaries. The Madeira +particularly is rubber. The whole system of communication, which covers +34,000 miles of navigable waters, waters nourishing a humus which +literally stirs beneath your feet with the movements of spores and +seeds, that system would collapse but for the rubber. The passengers on +the river boats are rubber men, and the cargoes are rubber. All the talk +is of rubber. There are no manufactures, no agriculture, no fisheries, +and no saw-mills, in a region which could feed, clothe, and shelter the +population of a continent. There was a book by a Brazilian I saw at +Para, recently published, and called the “Green Hell” (Inferno Verde). +On its cover was the picture of a nude Indian woman, symbolical of +Amazonas, and from wounds in her body her blood was draining into the +little tin cups which the rubber collector uses against the incisions on +the rubber tree. From what I heard of the subject, and I heard much, +that picture was little overdrawn. I begin to think the usual commercial +mind is the most dull, wasteful, and ignorant of all the sad wonders in +the pageant of humanity. + +It is only on the “Capella’s” bridge that you feel the stagnant air +which is upset by the steamer’s progress. There it spills over us, heavy +with the scent of the lairage on the fore deck. The bridge is a narrow, +elevated outlook, full in the sun’s eye, where I can get a view of the +complete ship as she serpentines in her narrow way. On the port side of +it the Skipper has a seat, and there now he sits all day, gazing moodily +ahead. The dapper little pilot stands centrally, throwing brief commands +over his shoulder into the open window of the wheelhouse, where a +sailor, gravely chewing tobacco, his hands on the wheel, is as rapt as +though in a trance. I think the pilot finds his way by divination. The +depth of the river is most variable. In the dry season I hear the stream +becomes but a chain of pools connected by threads which may be no more +than eighteen inches deep, the rest of its bed being dry mud +cross-hatched by sun cracks. The rains in far Bolivia, overflowing the +swamps there, during some months of the year increase the depth of the +Madeira by forty-five feet. The local rainy season would make hardly any +difference to it. The river is fed from reservoirs which stretch beneath +the Andes. + +There is rarely anything to show why, for a spell, the pilot should take +us straight ahead in mid-stream, and then again tack to and fro across, +sometimes brushing the foliage with our shrouds. I have plucked a bunch +of leaves in an unexpected swoop in-shore. And the big timber comes down +afloat to meet us in a never-ending procession; there are the propellor +blades to be thought of. I see, now and then, the swirls which betray +rocks in hiding, and when dodging those dangerous places the screw +disturbs the mud and the stinks. But the pilot takes us round and about, +we with our 300 feet of length and 23 feet draught, as a man would steer +a motor car. To aid it our rudder has had fixed to it a false wooden +length. The “Capella” is a very good girl, as responsive to the pilot’s +word as though she knew that he alone can save her. She stems this +powerful current at but four knots, and sometimes we come to places +where, if she hesitated for but two seconds, we should be put athwart +stream to close the channel. And what would happen to us with nothing +but unexplored malarial forest each side of us is not useful to brood +on. Occasionally the pilot, grasping the top of the “dodger,” stares +beyond us fixedly to where the refracted sunshine is blinding between +the green cliffs, and gives quick and numerous orders to the wheelhouse +without turning his head. The Skipper gets up to watch. The “Capella” +makes surprising swerves, the pilot nervously taps the boards with his +foot.... Then he says something quietly, relaxes, and comes to us +blithely, the funny dog with a nonsense story, and the Skipper sinks +couchant again. Once more I watch the front of the jungle for what may +show there. Seldom there is anything new which shows. It is rare, even +when close alongside, that one can trace the shape of a leaf. There are +but the conspicuous grey nests of the ants and wasps. Yet several times +to-day I saw trees in blossom; domes of lilac in the green forest roof. +Again, to-day we put up a flight of hundreds of ducks; and another +incident was a blackwater stream, the Rio Mataua, the line of +demarcation between the Madeira’s yellow flood and its dark tributary +being distinct. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 26._ The forest is lower and more open, and the pao mulatto is +more numerous. We saw the important village of Manicoré to-day, and +Oncas, a little place within a portico of the woods which was veiled in +grey smoke, for they were coagulating rubber there. For awhile before +sunset the sky was scenic with great clouds, and glowing with the usual +bright colours. The wilderness was transformed. Each evening we seem to +anchor in a region different, in nature and appearance, under these +extraordinary sunset skies, from the country we have been travelling +since daylight. Transfiguration at eventime we know in England. Yet +sunset there but exalts our homeland till it seems more intimately ours +than ever, as though then came a luminous revelation of its rare +intrinsic goodness. We see, for some brief moments, its aura. But this +tropical jungle, at dayfall, is not the earth we know. It is a celestial +vision, beyond physical attaining, beyond knowledge. It is ulterior, +glorious, transient, fading before our surprise and wonder fade. We of +the “Capella” are its only witnesses, except those pale ghosts, the +egrets about the dim aqueous base of the forest. + +Darkness comes quickly, the swoop and overspread of black wings. The +stopping of the ship’s heart, because the pulsations of her body have +had unconscious response in yours, as by an incorporeal ligament, is the +cessation of your own life. At a moment there is a strange quiet, in +which you begin to hear the whisper of inanimate things. A log glides +past making faint labial sounds. You are suddenly released from prison, +and float lightly in an ether impalpable to the coarse sounds and +movements of earth, but which is yet sensitive to the most delicate +contact of your thoughts and emotions. The whispering of your fellows is +but the rustling of their thoughts in an illimitable and inviolate +silence. + +Then, almost imperceptibly, the frogs begin their nightlong din. The +crickets and cicadas join. Between the varying pitch of their voices +come other nocturnes in monotones from creatures unknown to complete the +gamut. There are notes so profound, but constant, that they are a mere +impression of obscurity to the hearing, as when one peers listening into +an abysm in which no bottom is seen, and others are stridulations so +attenuated that they shrill beyond reach. + +A few frogs begin it. There are ululations, wells of mellow sound +bubbling to overflow in the dark, and they multiply and unite till the +quality of the sound, subdued and pleasant at first, is quite changed. +It becomes monstrous. The night trembles in the powerful beat of a +rhythmic clangour. One cannot think of frogs, hearing that metallic din. +At one time, soon after it begins, the chorus seems the far hubbub, +mingled and levelled by distance, of a multitude of people running and +disputing in a place where we who are listening know that no people are. +The noise comes nearer and louder till it is palpitating around us. It +might be the life of the forest, immobile and silent all day, now +released and beating upwards in deafening paroxysms. + +Alongside the engine room casing amidships the engineers have fixed an +open-air mess-table, with a hurricane lamp in its midst, having but a +brief halo of light which hardly distinguishes the pickle jar from the +marmalade pot. A haze of mosquitoes quivers round the light. The air is +hot and lazy, and the engineers sit about limply in trousers and shirts, +the latter open and showing bosoms as various as faces. The men cheer +themselves with comical plaints about the heat, the food, the Brazils, +and make sudden dabs at bare flesh when the insects bite them. The Chief +rallies his boys as would a cheery dad—Sandy, though, is nearly his own +age, but still much of a lad, quietly despondent—and the Chief heartily +insists on food, like it or lump it. I go forward to the captain’s tea +table on the poop deck, where we have two hurricane lamps, and where the +figures of us round the table, in that dismal glim, are the thin +phantoms of men. The lamps have been lighted only that moment, and as we +take our seats, the insects come. Just as sharply as though something +derisive and invisible were throwing them at us, big mole crickets +bounce into our plates. A cicada, though I was then unaware of his +identity, a monstrous fly which looked as large as a rat, and with a +head like a lantern, alighted before me on the cloth, and remained +still. Picking it up tentatively it sprang a startling police rattle +between my finger and thumb, and the other chaps shouted their +merriment. The steward places a cup of tea before each of us, and in an +interval of the talk the Skipper announces a smell of paraffin in his +cup. We experiment with ours, and gravely confirm. The surgeon, bending +close to a light with his cup, the deep characteristics of his face +strongly accentuated—he seems but a bodiless head in the dark—says he +detects globules of fat. The Skipper crudely outlines this horror to the +steward, who makes an inaudible reply in German, and disappears down the +companion. We get a new and innocent brew. + +There is hash for us. There is our familiar the pickled beef. There are +saucers of brown onions. There are saucers of jam and of butter. +To-night the steward has baked some cakes, and their grateful smell and +crisp brown rugged surface, studded with plums, determine in my mind a +resolution to eat four of them, if I can get them without open shame. I +assert that our Skipper has a counting eye for the special dishes; +though you may eat all the hash you want. Damn his hash! The bread is +sour. I want cakes. + +After tea the pilots get into their hammocks and under their curtains, +out of the way of the mosquitoes. We know where they are because of the +red ends of their cigarettes. We sit around anywhere, the Skipper, the +Chief, the Doctor and the Purser. There is little to be said. We talk of +the mosquitoes, in ejaculations, for the little wretches quite easily +penetrate linen, and can manage even worsted socks. Occasionally flying +insects bump into the tin lamp placed above us on the ice chest. (No; +there is no ice.) Thin divergent arrows of light, the fireflies, lace +the gloom, and the trees alongside are gemmed with them. We find still +less to say to each other, but fear to retire to our heated berths, for +as it is just possible to breathe in the open we continue to defy the +mosquitoes. The first mate serenades us on his accordion. At last there +is no help for it. The steward comes to tell the master that his cot is +ready. The “old man” sleeps in a cot draped with netting, and slung from +the awning beams on the starboard side. Nightly he turns in there, and +unfailingly a rain cloud bursts in the very early morning, pounding on +the awning till the cool spray compels him, and he retreats in his +pyjamas for shelter, taking his pillow with him. It is for that reason I +do not use the cot he made for me, which hangs on the port side; though +it is delightful for the afternoon nap. + +The Skipper disappears. The Doctor and I go below to the surgery, and +from the settee there he removes books, tobacco tins, fishing tackle, +phials, india rubber tubing, and small leather cases, making room for us +both, and first we have some out of his bottle, and then we try some out +of mine. The stuff is always tepid, for the water in the carafe has a +temperature of 80 degrees. The perspiration begins a steady permeation +as we talk, for now we can talk, and talk, being together, and talking +is better than sleep, which at its best is but a fitful doze in the +tropics. We fall, as it were, on each other’s necks. Though the Doctor’s +breast—I say nothing of mine—is not one which appears to invite the +weak tear of a fellow mortal who is harassed by solitude. You might +judge it too cold, too hard and unresponsive a support, for that; and I +have seen his eye even repellent. He is not elderly, but he is grey, and +pallid through too much of the tropics. The lines descending his face +show he has been observing things for long, and does not think much of +them. When disputing with him, he does not always reply to you; he +smiles to himself; a habit which is an annoyance to some people, whose +simple minds are suspicious, and who are unaware that the surgeon is +sometimes forgetful that his weaker brethren, when they are most heated +and disputative with him, then most lack confidence in their case, and +need the confirmation of the wit they know is superior. That is no time +when one should look at the wall, and smile quietly. The “Capella’s” +company feel that the surgeon stands where he overlooks them, and they +see, where he stands unassumingly superior, that he looks upon them +politely. They do not know he is really sad and forgetful; they think he +is amused, but that he prefers to pretend he is well bred. I must +confess it is known he has prescience having a certain devilish quality +of penetration. There was one of our stokers, and one night he was drunk +on stolen gin, and latitudinous, and so attempted a curious answer to +the second engineer, who sought him out in the forecastle concerning +work. Now the second engineer is a young man who has a number of +photographs of himself which display him, clad but in vanity and shorts, +back, front, and profile, arms folded tightly to swell his very large +muscles. He has really a model figure, and he knows it. The cut over the +stoker’s nose was a bad one. + +To the surgeon the stoker went, early next morning, actually for a hair +of the dog, but with a story that he was then to go on duty, and so +would miss his ration of quinine, which is not served till eleven +o’clock. The quinine, as you know, is given in gin. The surgeon +complimented the man on such proper attention to his health, and +willingly gave him the quinine—in water. He also stood at the door of +the alleyway to watch the man retained the quinine as far as the engine +room entrance. + +Eight bells! Presently I also must go and pretend to sleep. The +surgeon’s last cheery comment on the cosmic scheme remains but as a wry +smile on our faces. We grope in our minds desperately for a topic to +keep the talk afloat. There goes one bell! + +I arrive at my haunt of cockroaches, where the second mate is already +asleep on the upper shelf. The brown light of the oil lamp has its +familiar flavour, and the cabin is like an oven. What a prospect for +sleep! Raising the mosquito curtain carefully I slip through the opening +like an acrobat, hoping to be ahead of the insidious little malaria +carriers. A drove of cockroaches scuttles wildly over my warm mattress +as I arrive. Striking matches within what the sailor overhead calls my +meat safe, I examine my enclosure carefully for mosquitoes, but none +seems to be there, though I know very well I shall find at least a +dozen, gorged with blood, in the morning. The iron bulkhead which +separates my bed from the engine room is, of course, hot to the touch. +The air is a passive weight. The old insect bites begin to irritate and +burn. I kick the miserable sheet to the foot, and lie on my back without +a movement, for I fear I may suffocate in that shut box. My chest seems +in bonds, and for long there is no relief, though the body presently +grows indifferent to the misery, and the anxiety goes. It is remarkable +to what brutality the body will submit, when it knows it must. Yet +nothing but a continuous effort of will kept the panic suppressed, and +me in that box, till the feeling of anxiety had passed. Thenceforward +the sleepless mind, like a petty balloon giddy on a thin but unbreakable +thread of thought, would tug at my consciousness, revolving and dodging +about, in spite of my resolution to keep it still. If I could only break +that thread, I said to myself, turning over again, away it would fly out +of sight, and I should forget all this ... all this.... And presently it +broke loose, and dwindled into oblivion. + +Then I knew nothing more till I saw, fixed where I was in hopeless +horror, the baby face of one I dwell much upon, in moments of solitude, +and it had fallen wan and thin, and was full of woe unutterable, and its +appealing eyes were blind. I woke with a cry, sitting up suddenly, the +heart going like a rapid hammer. There was the curtained box about me. +The clothes were on the hooks. I could see the black shape of the cabin +doorway. By my watch it was four o’clock. The air had cooled, and as I +sat waiting for the next thing in the silence the mate snored profoundly +overhead. Ah! So that was all right. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 27._ This has been a day of anxious navigation, for the river has +had frequent reefs. We remain in a stagnant chasm of trees. The surgeon +and I, accompanied by a swarm of flies, went forward into the cattle +stew this morning to see how the beasts fared. The patient brutes were +suffering badly, and some, quite plainly, were dying. The change from +the lush green stuff of the Itacoatiara swamps to compressed American +hay put under their noses on an iron deck, and the stifling heat under +partial awnings, had ruined them. Some stood, heads down, legs +straddled, too indifferent to disperse the loathly clouds of parasites. +Most were plagued by ticks, which had the tenacity and appearance of +iron bolt heads. But the little black cow, the rebel, blared at us, +bound and suffering as she was. Vive la revolution! We drove the flies +from her hide, and she tried to kick us, the darling. We found a steer +with his shoulder out of joint, lying inert in the sun, indifferent to +further outrage. That had to be seen to, and we told the Skipper, who +ordered it to be killed. We wanted some fresh meat badly, he added. The +boatswain explained that he knew the business, and he brought a long +knife, and quite calmly thrust it into the front of the prone creature, +and seemed to be trying to find its heart. Nothing happened, except a +little blood and some convulsive movements. Another sailor produced a +short knife and a hammer, and tapped away behind the horns as though he +were a mason and this were stone. The frowning surgeon supposed the +fellow was trying to sever the vertebrae. I don’t know. Yet another +fellow jumped on its abdomen. At last it died. I put down merely what +happened. No two voyages are alike, and as this episode came into mine, +here it is, to be worked in with the sunsets and things. There was some +cheerful talk at the prospect of the first fresh meat since England, and +later, passing the cook’s galley, I saw an iron bin, and lifted its +cover to see what was there. And there was, as I judged there would be, +liver for tea that evening. But I learned that though I am a carnivore +yet I have not the pluck to be a vulture. + +The next day we passed the Cidada de Humayta, the chief town on the +Madeira. Actually it was of the size of an unimportant home village. +There was nothing there to support the pilot’s sonorous title of cidada. +For some reason we were visited to-day by an extraordinary number of +butterflies. One large specimen was of an olive green, barred with +black. Another had wings of a bluish grey, striped with vermilion. +Helicons came, and once a morpho, the latter a great rarity away from +the interior of the woods. At four in the afternoon the sky grew +ominous. We had just time to notice the trees astern suddenly convulsed, +writhing where they stood, and the storm sprang at us, roaring, ripping +away awnings and loose gear. The noise in the forest round us was that +of cataclysm. The rain was an obscurity of falling water, and the trees +turned to shadows in a grey fog. The ship became full of waterspouts, +large streams and jets curving away from every prominence. This lasted +for but twenty minutes; but the impending clouds remained to hasten +night when we were in a place which, more than anything I have seen, was +the world before the coming of man. The river had broadened and +shallowed. The forest enclosed us. There were islands, and the rank +growth of swamps. We could see, through breaks in the igapo, extensive +lagoons beyond, with the high jungle brooding over empty silver areas. +Herons, storks, and egrets were white and still about the tangle of +aqueous roots. It was all as silent and other world as a picture. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 29._ When shouting awakened me this morning I saw the Chief hurry +by my cabin, half-dressed, and looking very anxious. By the almost +stationary foliage I could see the ship had merely way on her. Out I +jumped. On the forecastle head a crowd was gathered, peering overside. A +large tree was balanced accurately athwart our stem, and refused to +move. What worried the staff was that it would, when free, sidle along +our plates till it fouled the propeller. The propeller had to be kept +moving, for the river was narrow and its current unusually rapid. There +the log obstinately remained for the most of an hour, but suddenly made +up its mind, and went, clearing the stern by inches. After that the +engines were driven full, for the pilot hoped to get us to Porto Velho +by nightfall. In the late afternoon, when passing the Rio Jamary, the +clouds again banked astern, bringing night before its time, and another +violent storm compelled an early anchorage. The forest was remarkably +quiet after the tumult of the squall, and the “Capella” had been put +over to the left bank, when close to us on the opposite shore there was +a landslip. We saw a section of the jungle wall sway, as though that +part was taken by a local tempest, and then the green cliff and its +supports fell bodily into the river, raising thunderous submarine +explosions. Such landslides, terras cahidas, can be rarely foreseen, and +are a grave danger to craft when they come close in to rest at night. +To-day we passed a small raft drifting down. A hut was erected in its +middle, and we saw two men within. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 30._ Talk enough there has been of a place called Porto Velho, a +name I heard first when I signed the articles of the “Capella” at +Swansea, and of what would happen to us when we arrived. But I am +looking upon it all as a strange myth. There has been time to prove +those superstitions of Porto Velho. And what has happened? There was a +month we had of the vacant sea, and one day we came upon a low coast +where palms grew. There has been a month which has striped the vacant +mind in three colours, constant in relative position, but without form, +yellow floor, green walls, and a blue ceiling. Plainly we have got +beyond all the works of man now. We have intrigued an ocean steamer +thousands of miles along the devious waterways of an uninhabited +continental jungle, and now she must be near the middle of the puzzle, +with voiceless regions of unexplored forest reeking under the equatorial +sun at every point of the compass. The more we advance up the Amazon and +Madeira rivers the less the likelihood, it seems to me, of getting to +any place where our ship and cargo could be required. We shall steam and +steam till the river shallows, the forest closes in, and we are trapped. +Yet the Madeira looks now much the same as when we entered it, still as +broad and deep. I was thinking this morning we might go on so for ever; +that this adventure was all of the casual improbabilities of a dream was +in my mind when, smoking the after breakfast pipe on the bridge, we +turned a corner sharply, and there was the end of the passage within a +mile of us, Porto Velho at last. + +The forest on the port side ahead was uplifted on an unusually high +cliff of the red rock. Beyond that cliff was a considerable clearing, +with many buildings of a character different from any we had seen in the +country. At the end of the clearing the forest began again, unconquered +still, standing across our course as a high barrier; for, leaving Porto +Velho, the river turned west almost at a right angle, and vanished; as +though now it were done with us. We had arrived. A rough pier was being +thrown out on palm boles to receive us, but it was not ready. We +anchored in five fathoms, about thirty yards from the shore, and in the +quiet which came with the stop of the ship’s life we waited for the next +thing, all hands lining the “Capella’s” side surveying this place of +which we had heard so much. + +Plainly this was not the usual village. Many acres of trees had been +newly cleared, leaving a great bay in the woods. The earth was still raw +from a recent attack on what had been inviolate from time’s beginning. +Trenches, new red gashes, scored it, and holes were gouged in the hill +side. You could think man had attacked the forest here in a fury, but +had spent his force on one small spot, as though he had struck one wound +again and again. The fight was over. The footing had been won, a base +perhaps for further campaigns because wooden emergency houses, sheds and +barracks, had been built. The assailant evidently had made up his mind +to settle on his advantage, though he was tolerating a little quickly +rebellious scrub. Just then he was resting, as if the whole affair had +been over but five minutes before we came, and now the conqueror was +sleeping on his first success. Completely round the conquered space the +jungle stood indifferently regarding the trifle of ground it had lost. +The jungle on the near opposite shore rose straight and uninterrupted +from the river, the front rank, lost each way in distance, of an +innumerable army. At the upper end of the clearing the jungle began +again on our side, and turned to run across our bows, the complement of +the host across the water, and both ranks continued up stream, dark and +indeterminate lines converging, till, three miles away, a delicate +flickering of light, a mere dimmer, faint but constant, bridged the two +walls. No doubt that delicate light would be the San Antonio cataracts, +the first of the nineteen rapids of the Madeira. + +Porto Velho behaved as though we were not there. A pitiless sun flamed +over that deep red wound in the forest, and they who had made it were in +their shelters, resting out of sight after such a recent riot of +exertion. Nothing was being done then. Two or three white men stood on +the dismantled foreshore, placidly regarding us. We might have been +something they were not quite sure was there, a possibility not +sufficiently interesting for them to verify. There was a hint of +mockery, after all our anxiety and travail, in this quiet disregard. Had +we arrived too late to help, and so were not wanted? I confess I should +not have been surprised to have heard suppressed laughter, some light +hilarity from the unseen, at us innocently puzzling as to what was to +happen next. There was a violent scream in the forest near our bows, and +we turned wondering to that green wall. A locomotive ran out from the +base of the trees, still screaming. + +In a little while a man left a house, striding down over the debris to +the foreshore, and some half-breeds brought him in a canoe to the +“Capella.” He was a tall youngster, an American, and his slow body +itself was but a thin sallow drawl; only his eyes were alert, and they +darted at ours in quick scrutiny. His solemn occupying assurance and +accent precipitated reality. He was a doctor and he ordered us to be +mustered on the after deck for inspection for yellow fever. We were +passed; and then this doctor went below to the saloon, distributing his +long limbs and body over several chairs and part of the table, and began +with lazy words and gestures to give us a place in the scene. We learned +we should stay as we were till the pier was finished and that the +railway was actually in being for a short distance. He said something +about Porto Velho being hell. + +He left us. We sat about on deck furniture, and waited on the unknown +gods of the land to see what they would send us. All day in the clearing +figures moved about on some mysterious business, but seldom looked at +us. We had nothing to do but to watch the raft of timber and flotsam +expand about our hawsers, a matter of some concern to us, for the +current ran at six knots. Our brief sense of contact got from the +medical inspection had gone by night. Reality contracted, closing in +upon the “Capella” with rapidly diminishing radii as the light went, +till we had lost everything but our steamer. + +Into the saloon, where some of us sat listening in sympathy to the +Skipper’s growls that night, burst our cook, disrespectful and tousled, +saying he had seen a canoe, which bore a light, overturn in the river. +There was a stampede. We each seized a lantern and leaned overside with +it, with that fatuous eagerness to help which makes a man strike matches +when looking for one who is lost on a moor. Ghostly logs came floating +noiselessly out of darkness into the brief domain of our lanterns, and +faded into night again. From somewhere in the collection of driftwood +beyond our bows we thought we heard an occasional cry, though that might +have been the noise of water sucking through the rubbish, or the +creaking of timbers. Our chief mate got out a small boat, and vanished; +and we were already growing anxious for him when his luminous grin +appeared below in the range of my lantern, and with him came the +ponderous figure of a man. The latter, deft and agile, came up the rope +ladder, and stepped aboard with innocent inconsequence, shocking my +sense of the gravity of the affair; for this streaming object, lifted +from the grip of the boney one just in time, was chuckling. “Say,” said +this big ruddy man to our gaping crowd, “I met a nigger ashore with a +letter for the captain of this packet. Said he didn’t know how to get. +So I brought it, but a tree overturned the canoe. I came up under the +timber jam all right, all right, but it took me quite a piece to get my +head through.” In the saloon, with a pool of water spreading round him, +while we got him some dry clothes, he produced this pulpy letter. “Dear +Captain” (it ran), “I’m as dry as hell, have you brought drinks in the +ship?” + +The bland indifference of Porto Velho to the “Capella,” which had done +so much to get there; the locomotive which ran screaming out of those +woods where, till then, was the same unbroken front which from Para +inwards had surrendered nothing; the inconsequential doctor who +carefully examined us for what we had not got; the ruddy man who rose to +us streaming out of the deeps, as though that were his usual approach, +bearing another stranger’s unreasonable letter complaining of thirst, +were most puzzling. I even felt some anxiety and suspicion. What, then, +were all the other incidents of our difficult six thousand mile voyage? +What was this place to which we had come on urgent business long and +carefully deliberated, where men merely looked at the whites of our +eyes, or changed wet clothes in the saloon, or lightly referred to +hell—they all did that—as if hell were an unremarkable feature of +their day? Were all these unrelated shadows and movements but part of a +long and witless jest? The point of it I could not see. Was there any +point to it or did casual episodes appear at unexpected places till they +came, just as unexpectedly, to an empty end? The man the mate had +rescued sat at the saloon table opposite me, leaning a yard wide chest, +which was almost bare, on the red baize, his bulging arms resting before +him, and his hairy paws easily clasped. I thought that perhaps this +imperturbable being, who could come with easy assurance, his bright +friendly eyes merely amused, his large firm mouth merely mocking, and +his face heated, from a desperate affair in which his life nearly went, +to announce to strangers, “Boys, I’m old man Jim,” must have had the +point of the joke revealed to him long since, and so now had no respect +for its setting, and could have no care and understanding of my anxious +innocence. He sat there for hours in quiet discourse. I listened to him +with my ears only, his words jostling my thoughts, as one would puzzle +over and listen to a superior being which had unbent to be intimate, but +was outside our experience. I heard he had been at this place since +1907. He began the work here. Porto Velho did not then exist. Off where +we were anchored, the jungle rose. He had his young son with him, a +cousin, and two negroes, and he began the railway. Inside the trees, he +said, they could not see three yards, but down it all had to come. There +is a small stingless bee here, which “old man Jim” called the sweat bee. +It alights in swarms on the face and hands, and prefers death to being +dislodged from its enjoyment. The heat, these bees, the ants, the pium +flies, the mosquitoes, made the existence of Jim and his mates a misery. +Jim merely drawled about in a comic way. Fever came, and mistrust of +natives compelled him to dress a dummy, put that in his hammock at +night, while he slept in a corner of the hut, one eye open, nursing a +gun. I could not see “old man Jim” ever having faith that trains would +run, or needed to run, where Indians lurked in the bush, and jaguars +nosed round the hut at night. Why these sufferings then? But we learned +the line now penetrated into the forest for sixty miles, and that beyond +it there were camps, where surveyors were seeing that further way was +made, and beyond them again, among the trees of the interior, the +surveyors were still, planning the way the line should run when it had +got so far. + + * * * * * + +Though we could not get ashore, there was enough to watch, if it were +only the men leisurely driving palm boles into the river, making a pier +for us. While at breakfast to-day a canoe of half-breeds came flying +towards us in pursuit of an object which kept a little ahead of them in +the river. It passed close under our stern, and we saw it was a peccary. +The canoe ran level with it then, and a man leaned over, catching the +wild pig by a hind leg, keeping its snout under water while another +secured its feet with rope. It was brought aboard in bonds as a present +for the Skipper, who begged the natives to convey it below to the +bunkers and there release it. He said he would tame it. I saw the eye of +the beast as it lay on the deck champing its tusks viciously, and +guessed we should have some interesting moments while kindness tried to +reduce that light in its eye. The peccary disappeared for a few days. + +There being nothing to do this fine morning, we watched the cattle put +ashore. This was not so difficult a business as shipping them, for the +beasts now submitted quietly to the noose which was put on their horns. +The steam tackle hoisted them, they were pushed overside, and dropped +into the river. Some natives in a canoe cleared the horns, and the +brute, swimming desperately in the strong current, was guided to the +bank. Some of the beasts being already near death they were merely +jettisoned. The current bore them down stream, making feeble efforts to +swim—food for the alligators. We waited for the turn of the black +heifer. She was one of the last. She was not led to the ship’s side. The +tackle was attached to her horns, and made taut before her head was +loosed. She made a furious lunge at the men when her nose was free, but +the winch rattled, and she was brought up on her hind legs, blaring at +us all. In that ugly manner she was walked on two legs across the deck, +a heroine in shameful guise, while the men laughed. She was hoisted, and +lowered into the river. She fought at the waiting canoe with her feet, +but at last the men released her horns from the tackle. With only her +face above water she heaved herself, open mouthed, at the canoe, trying +to bite it, and then made some almost successful efforts to climb into +it. The canoe men were so panic-stricken that they did nothing but +muddle one another’s efforts. The canoe rocked dangerously. This wicked +animal had no care for its own safety like other cattle. It surprised +its tormentors because it showed its only wish was to kill them. Just in +time the men paddled off for their lives, the cow after them. Seeing she +could not catch them, she swam ashore, climbed the bank, looking round +then for a sight of the enemy—but they were all in hiding—and then +began browsing in the scrub. + +As leisurely as though life were without end, the work on the pier +proceeded; and we on the “Capella,” who could not get ashore, with each +of our days a week long, looked round upon this remote place of the +American tropics till it seemed we had never looked upon anything else. +The days were candent and vaporous, the heat by breakfast-time being +such as we know at home in an early afternoon of the dog-days. The +forest across the river, about three hundred yards away, from sunrise +till eight o’clock, often was veiled in a white fog. There would be a +clear river, and a sky that was full day, but not the least suspicion of +a forest. We saw what seemed a limitless expanse of bright water, which +merged into the opalescent sky walls. Such an invisible fog melted from +below, and then the revelation of the dark base of the forest, in +mid-distance, was as if our eyes were playing tricks. The forest +appeared in the way one magic-lantern picture grows through another. The +last of the vapour would roll upwards from the tree-tops for some time, +and you could believe the woods were smouldering heavily. Thenceforward +the quiet day would be uninterrupted, except for the plunge of a heavy +fish, the passing of a canoe, a visit from an adventurous visitor from +the shore, or the growing of a cloud in the sky. We tried fishing, +though never got anything but some grey scaleless creatures with feelers +hanging about their gills. It was not till the evening when the visitors +usually came that the day began really to move. The new voices gave our +saloon and cabins vivacity, and the stories we heard carried us far and +swiftly towards the next breakfast-time. They were strange characters, +those visitors, usually Americans, but sometimes we got an Englishman or +a Frenchman. They took possession of the ship. + +There was an elderly man, Neil O’Brien, who was often with us. At first +I thought he was a very exceptional character. He was one of the first +to visit our ship. I even felt a little timidity when alone with him, +for he had a habit of sitting limply, looking at nothing in particular, +and dumb, and plainly he was a man whose thoughts ran in ways I could +not even surmise. His pale blue eyes would turn upon me with that +searching openness which may mean childish innocence or madness, and I +could not forget the whispers I had heard of his dangerously inflammable +nature. I could not find common footing with him for some time. My +trouble was that I had come out direct from a country where few men are +free, and so most of us live in doubt of what would happen to us if we +were to act as though we were free men. Where, if a self-reliant man +contemptuously dares to a bleak and perilous extremity, he makes all his +lawful fellows in-draw their timid breaths; that land where even a +reward has been instituted, as for merit, for uncomplaining endurance +under life-long hardships, and called an old-age pension. You cannot +live much of your life with natural servants, the judicious and +impartial, the light shy, and those who look twice carefully, but never +leap, without betraying some reflected pallor of their anæmia. O’Brien, +the quiet master of his own time, with his eyes I could not read, and +his gun, betrayed obliquely in our casual talks together such an +ingenuous indifference to accepted things and authority, that I had +nothing to work with when gauging him. He was his own standard of +conduct. I judged his bearing towards the authority of officials would +be tolerant, and even tender, as men use with wilful children. He was +not a rebel, as we understand it, one who at last grows impatient and +angry, and so votes for the other party. I suppose he was not opposed to +authority, unless it were opposed to him. He was outside any authority +but his own. He lived without State aid. He himself carried the gun, +always the symbol of authority, whether of a man or of a State, and if +any man had attempted to rob him of his substance, certainly O’Brien +would have shot that man according to his own law and his own prophecy, +and would then have cooked his supper. He surprised me for a day or two. +I puzzled much over this phenomenon of a free man, who took his freedom +so quietly and naturally that he never even discussed the subject, as we +do, with enthusiasm, in England. What else? It was long since he was +separated from his mother. Soon I found he was but a type. I met others +like him in this country. Their innocence of the limitations of a +careful man like myself was disconcerting. Once O’Brien casually +proposed that I should “beat it,” cut the ship, and make a traverse of +that wild place to distant Colombia, to some unknown spot by the +approximate source of a certain Amazon tributary, where he knew there +was gold. First I laughed, and then found, from his glance of resentful +candour, that he was quite serious. He generously meant this honour for +me; and I think it was an honour for an elderly, quiet, and seasoned +privateer like O’Brien, to invite me to be his only companion in a +region where you must travel with alert courage and wide experience, or +perish. I have learned since he has gone to that far place alone. But +what a time he will have. He will have all of it to himself. Well—I was +thinking, when I refused him, of my old age pension. I should like to +get it. + +Men like O’Brien are called here, quite respectfully, “bad men,” and +“land sailors.” The lawless lands of the South American +republics—lawless in this sense, that their laws need be little +reckoned by the daring, the strong, and the unscrupulous—seem +particularly attractive to men of the O’Brien type. I got to like them. +I found them, when once used to their feral minds, always entertaining, +and often instructive, for their naïve opinions cut our conventions +across the middle, showing the surprising insides. They dwell without +bounds. As I have read somewhere, we do not think of the buffalo, which +treats a continent as pasturage, as we do of the cow which kicks over +the pail at milking time and jumps the yard fence. These men regard +priest, magistrate and soldier with an indifference which is not even +contemptible indifference. They are merely callous to the calculated +effect of uniforms. When in luck, they are to be found in the cities, +shy and a little miserable, having a good time. Their money gone, they +set out on lonely journeys across this continent which show our fuss +over authentic explorers to be a little overdone. O’Brien was such a +man. He told me he had not slept under a roof for years. He had no home, +he confessed to me once. Any place on the map was the same to him. He +had spent his life drifting alone between Patagonia and Canada, looking +for what he never found, if he knew what he was looking for. His travels +were insignificant to him. He might have been a tramp talking of English +highways. As he droned on one evening I began to doubt he was unaware +that his was an extraordinary narrative. I guessed his unconcern must be +an air. It would have been, in my case. I looked straight over at him, +and he hesitated nervously, and stopped. Was he wasting my time, he +asked? Prospecting for his illusion, his last journey was over the +Peruvian Andes into Colombia. He broke an arm in a fall on the +mountains, set it himself, and continued. On the Rio Japura an Indian +shot an arrow through his leg, and O’Brien dropped in the long grass, +breaking the arrow short each side of the limb, and in an ensuing long +watchful duel presently shot the Indian through the throat. And then, +coming out on the Amazon, his canoe overturned, and the pickle jar full +of gold dust was lost. He put no emphasis on any particular, not even on +the loss of his gold. + +He was pointed out to me first as a singular fellow who kept doves; a +tall, gaunt man, with a deliberate gait, perhaps fifty years of age, in +old garments, long boots laced to the knees, and a battered pith helmet. +He strolled along with his eyes cast down. If you met him abroad, and +stopped him, he answered you with a few mumbles while looking away over +your shoulder. His big mouth drew down a grizzled moustache cynically, +and one of his front teeth was gold plated. Before he passed on he +looked at you with the haughty but doubtful stare of an animal. He +seemed too slow and dull to be combustible. I ceased to credit those +tales of his berserker rage. He always moved in that deliberate way, as +if he were careful, but bored. Or he stood before his doves, and made +bubbling noises in his loose, stringy throat. He embarrassed me with a +present of many of the trophies he had secured in years of travel in the +wilds. One day a negro and O’Brien were in mild dispute on the jetty, +and the negro called the white a Yankee. The river was twenty feet below +swiftly carrying its logs. O’Brien took the big black, and with vicious +ease threw him into the water. The negro missed the floating rubbish, +and struck out for the bank. No one could help him. By good luck he +managed to get to the waterside; yet O’Brien meanwhile had hurried his +long legs over the ties of the skeleton structure, his face +transfigured, and was waiting for the negro to emerge, a spade in his +hand. But under other circumstances I have not the least doubt he would +have fought the Brazilian army single-handed, and so finished, in +defence of that same negro. + + + + +IV + + +Night brought one of these men to each of our cabins, and put a party of +them drinking in the saloon. After my habit of thinking of people in +crowds, as an Anglican Church, or an ethical society, a labour movement, +a federation of proprietors, or suffragists, or Jews, or stockbrokers’ +clerks, crowds moving with massed exactitude by the thousand at least, +when prompted, this man O’Brien standing on his two legs by himself, old +man Jim, and the rest, each of them defending and running his own +particular kingdom, and governing that, ill or well—for I saw them +fairly drunk now and then—and never waiting for a word from any master +or delegate, made me wonder whether till then I had met a living man, or +had heard merely of a population of bundles of newspapers. These men had +no leaders. They attended to all that. Each had to find his own way. +They were unrelated to anything I knew, and beyond the help of even a +candidate for Parliament. I suppose they had never heard of a Defence +League. They could have found no use for it, because a challenge to +defend themselves would never catch them unwilling or unable. Each man +soldiered himself, and perhaps was rather too ready to deal with a show +of insolence, or an assumption of power in another. Yet they were not +the violent and headstrong fellows of romantic tales. They were simple +and kind, submitting with a sick smile to the prickly ridicule of their +fellows round the board. They regarded meat, drink, and tobacco as +common; they were ready to leap into the dark for a friend. + +There was one young bearded Englishman among them who was more than a +friendly figure to me. All were friendly; but the Americans bore +themselves with the easy assurance of the favoured heirs of Adam; though +their successful work in that tropical swamp perhaps justified them. The +Englishman had less of that assurance of a unique favour which was so +completely bestowed that irresolution never shook the aplomb of its +lucky inheritors. He came into my cabin one night, hoping he was not +disturbing me, and bringing as a present a sheaf of native arrows tipped +with red and blue macaw feathers, as he had promised. + +“They come from Bolivia—forest Indians—three hundred miles from here.” +He explained he had reached our point in the Brazilian forest from the +Pacific side. He had crossed the mountains, descended to the level +jungle at the base of the Andean wall, and followed the rivers eastward, +alone in a canoe till he chanced upon our steamer unloading Welsh fuel +into a forest clearing. To a new-comer in a mysterious land, this was a +clear invitation to listen, and I looked at the man expectantly. He was +lighting his pipe. The country through which he must have passed was +unknown, as our maps showed. But he simply indicated that manner of his +advent, as though it were the same as any other, and sat looking through +the door of my cabin, smoking, absently gazing at the night scene on the +afterdeck. + +The hombres were working at the hold immediately below us, their labours +made obscurely bright by a roaring flame of volatalised oil. The light +pulsed on the face of the Englishman, and chequered my cabin in black +and luminous gold. Of all the region of forest about us nothing showed +but a cloud of leaves, which leaned towards us out of the night, +supported on two pale, tremulous columns. The hold of the ship was a +black rectangle, and the almost naked negroes and brown men moving about +it, or peering into the chasm, were like sinister figures on an +inscrutable business about the verge of the pit. They were not men, but +the debris of men, moving with awful volition, merely a bright +cadaverous mask hovering in a void, or two arms upheld, or a black +headless trunk. For the roaring illuminant on deck dismembered the ship +and its occupants, bursting into the weight of surrounding night as a +fixed explosion, beams rigid and glowing, and shadows in long solid bars +radiating from its incandescent heart. + +“I’m glad you’re here,” said my companion. He never gave me his name, +and I do not know it now. “I hav’n’t heard home talk for a year. Hav’n’t +heard much of anything. A little Spanish coming along; and here some +American.” + +We continued looking at the puzzling, disrupted scene outside for some +time without speaking, secure in a chance and lucky sympathy. Then a +basket of coal tipped against a hatch coaming and whirled away, +scattering the men. We rose to see if any were hurt. + +“Curious, this desperate haste, isn’t it?” said the Englishman. “At +every point of the compass from here there’s at least a thousand miles +of wilderness. Excepting at this place it wouldn’t matter to anybody +whether a thing were done to-night, or next week, or not at all. But +look at those fellows—you’d think this was a London wharf, and a tide +had to be caught. Here they are on piece-work and overtime, where +there’s nothing but trees, alligators, tigers, and savages. An unknown +Somebody in Wall Street or Park Lane has an idea, and this is what it +does. The potent impulse! It moves men who don’t know the language of +New York and London down to this desolation. It begins to ferment the +place. The fructifying thought! Have you seen the graveyard here? We’ve +got a fine cemetery, and it grows well. Still, this railway will get +done. Yes, people who don’t know what it’s for, they’ll make a little of +it, and die, and more who don’t know what it’s for, and won’t use it +when it’s made, they’ll finish it. This line will get its freights of +precious rubber moving down to replenish the motor tyres of +civilisation, and the chap who had the bright idea, but never saw this +place, and couldn’t live here a week, or shovel dirt, or lay a track, +and wouldn’t know raw rubber if he saw it, he’ll score again. Progress, +progress! The wilderness blossoms as the rose. It’s wonderful, isn’t +it?” + +I was just a little annoyed. After all, I was part of the job. I’d made +my sacrifices, too. But I admitted what he said. Why not? It was +something, that fancy, that every rattle of the winch outside, bringing +up another load, moved abruptly under the impulse of another thought +from London Town—six thousand miles away; two months’ travel. Great +London Town! It was true. If London shut off its good will that winch +would stop, and the locomotives would come to a stand to rot under the +trees, and the lianas would lock their wheels; and in a month the forest +would have foundered the track under a green flood. Where the American +accent was dominant, the jaguars would moan at night. That long wound in +the forest would be annealed and invisible in a year. While it +persisted, the idea could conquer and maintain. + +“Yes, but it’s all chance,” said the Englishman. + +“That uncertain and impersonal will controls us. Have you ever worked +desperately, the fever in your bones, at a link in a job the rest of +which was already abandoned, though you didn’t know it? Yet perhaps even +so there is something gained, the knowledge that all you do is fugitive, +that there is nothing but an idea, which may be withdrawn without +warning at any moment, under the most complicated and inspiring +structure. Having that fore-knowledge you can work with a light heart, +secure against betrayal, ready with your own laugh when the mockery +comes. A community finds it must have a bridge; Wall Street hears of it, +and finances a contractor, who finds an architect to design it. An army +builds it. And then this blessed old planet moves in its sleep, and the +obstructing river flows another way. Well for us we can rarely see the +beginning and the end of the work we are doing. Most of the men on this +job have not been here three months. They come and shovel a little dirt, +and die. Or they get frightened, and go. But that idea, that remains +here, using up men and forests, using up all that comes within its +invisible influence, drawing in material and pressing it into its unseen +mould, so that out of the invisible sprouts a railway, projecting length +by length, transmuted men and timber. A courtier once gave his cloak to +Queen Elizabeth to save her feet; but what is that when these men give +their bodies to make an easier road for the commerce of their fellows? +They say every sleeper on a tropical line represents a man. The +conquering human, who lives by dying! + +“The unseen idea remains—some stranger’s idea—of gain; profit out of a +necessity not his, filled by other men unknown to him. You can’t escape +it. First and last, it uses you. It uses you up. You may twist and +double, but ‘when me you fly, I am the wings,’ as Emerson says. Once, +once, I deliberately tried to escape from it, to get out of its range. I +thought it was local, that idea, a mean and local urge. I believed I had +escaped it too. I was young, though, then. But we all try when we’re +young. There is but one way of escape—you may use up others; but that +isn’t an easy way of escape, for some of us. + +“No alternative but that, and a man cannot take it. There you are; use, +or be used. Once I thought I had escaped. Once upon a time, every +morning at eight o’clock, I went to an office in Leadenhall Street. Know +that place? My first job. I was one in a crowd of fifty clerks. We sat +on high stools, facing each other across double-desks. There were brass +rails above each desk, where we rested ledgers and letter baskets. Each +of us marked his stool somewhere with a personal symbol. My own, my sole +point of vantage there, my support in life, that high stool; and I would +have been prepared to maintain it upright—following our office code of +honour, I as firm as may be upon it—even if, treacherously blabbing, I +had had to deprive all my fellow-clerks of their supports in life. We +were not a community, working out a common ideal. An idea used us. And +that was a job I got as a favour, mark you. Some one had known my dead +father. + +“I knew the name of my boss, but that was all. I never spoke to him. I +used to see him, a middle-aged man with sad eyes and a petulant mouth, +clean shaved, and bald headed. He came in a carriage every morning, and +went straight to a room kept from us by opaque glass. I used to wonder +what he did in there. He rarely came into the office. When he did come +into it, his was the only voice which ever spoke there above a whisper; +a sharp, startling, and minatory voice. But we rarely saw him there. A +bell would ring, a sinister summons on the ceiling over the desk of a +principal clerk, and that chap would drop anything he was doing, +anything, and go. I’ve seen my senior clerk, an elderly man in +spectacles, jump as if he’d been struck when his bell whirred. It was +such an awfully solemn place. Nobody ever thought of calling across that +room, but would go round to another desk, and whisper. You felt you were +part of a grave and secret plot, scribbling away to bring it to a +completion, and that all your fellow-conspirators were possible +traitors. + +“But the plot was never complete. It went on and on, day after day, in +an everlasting, suffocating sanctity, with the opaque shining glass +front of the private room overlooking us, a luminous face entirely +blank, though you knew the brain behind it saw everything, and was aware +of all. It even knew old Beckwith, my senior, had got deeply into debt +through his wife’s doctor’s bills, and had been fool enough to go to the +moneylenders. His bell sprang a summons one morning; in Beckwith went; +came out again, looking grey, poor old perisher, went straight to the +hat rack, passed awkwardly through the swing doors, letting in a burst +of traffic noise from the street, while we watched him furtively, and +that was the last of Beckwith. I have heard our boss was a rigid +moralist. He said a man who drank, gambled, or got into debt, not being +able to control his own life, was no good for the business of another +man. A system should have no bowels. Out the incompetent had to go. It +was Spartan, but it paid twenty per cent., I’ve heard. Once we had a +rebellious interruption of our sacred quiet, but only once. I never knew +exactly why it was. We had a huge factory somewhere in the East +End—Cubitt Town way—and one afternoon a woman came to the counter, and +asked for the cashier. She was so obviously East End, in a shawl, that +the counter clerk was shocked at the bare idea of it. She kept demanding +the cashier. The clerk politely, but nervously, because of her rising, +emotional voice, resisted her. She began to shout. We all stopped to see +what would happen. Shouting there! She was still crying out—she wanted +justice for a daughter whose body had got into a machine, I think—and +the cashier was forced to appear. I was surprised that he was so quiet +with her. She was weeping hysterically at our polished mahogany counter, +with its immaculate blotters, and flat, crystal ink-pots, where there +were men in silk hats, looking at the unusual scene sideways and +smiling. She could not be pacified; and suddenly she picked up an +ink-pot, and hurled it through that frozen glass face of the private +room. A devastating crash. The shocking, raucous horror of blasphemy. +The silence following was unendurable. We looked to the private door for +outraged power to appear. Nothing happened. A policeman came and removed +the woman, the cashier smiling indulgently at the officer, and shaking +his head. The system, after a momentary halt, moved on again, broad, +serene, and irresistible. + +“I never catch the smell of an open Bible now but it conjures a picture +of that arid office, angular, polished, and hard, where the ledgers +before the disciplined men exude a dusty, leathery smell. But there I +stayed for years, smelling it, and making out bills of lading and +invoices. It was my lot. There was a junior who assisted me, a chap with +flat, shiny hair parted in the middle. He had a habit of whispering +about girls, when he was not whispering about the music hall last night, +or the football next Saturday. When the cashier, a young man, and a +relative of the boss, came walking down the avenue of desks, his sharp +eyes narrowed to slits, and his mouth a little open, it was funny to see +my junior put on speed, and get an intent and earnest look in his face. + +“When I was done for the day, I’d get my book out of my bag, and wonder, +going home, whether I’d ever see those places I read about, Java, India, +and the Congo, where you went about in a white helmet and a white +uniform, and did things in a large, directive way, helping Indians and +niggers to make something of their country. Not this niggling, selfish, +pretty chandlery written large in stone, mahogany, and glass, disguised +in magnitude and gravity. Cocoanut palms and forests with untold tales. +But like the boys who found fun with the girls, with music halls and +football, but were afraid of the sack. I did nothing. I was even afraid +of the girls. + +“One day as usual I went with some of the other fellows to lunch, at an +A.B.C. shop. We always went there. The girls knew us and would smile at +our jokes. Small coffee and a scone and butter. My life! I found a +_Telegraph_ some one had left on a chair, and I read it more because I +didn’t want to listen to that virulent abuse of our mean cashier—he +certainly was mean—than because I wanted to read. In it, by chance, I +noticed an advertisement for a book-keeper who would go to the tropics. +That I noted. Of course, I stood no chance. But I could try. + +“That night at home I wrote an application. I wrote it, I think, a dozen +times, till the letter was impeccable, a thing of beauty and precision. +I felt this was a most momentous affair. Whether it was the excitement +of doing something in the veritable direction of romance, or whether it +was through reading ‘Waterman’s Wanderings’ I don’t know, but I remember +a curious dream I had that night. I was alone in a forest which made me +afraid and expectant. It was still and secretive. You know the empty +stage in an unnatural, rosy light, with a glorified distance in which +you expect a devil or a fairy queen to appear. There was a hammock +hanging motionless from a branch. Something was in it, but I could not +see what. That hammock was as still as the leaves hanging over it. Then +the hammock shook, and a girl rose in it and smiled at me. She was tiny, +but adult, and her eyes were shining in the dusk of her hair, which fell +thickly over her little, coffee-coloured breasts. + +“A telegram came for me, just as I was leaving for the office one +morning. It required me to call on Mr. Utah R. Brewster at the Hotel +Palace, that very day, but at a time when I should have been +industriously at work for another. The question was, should I catch that +morning ’bus I had never missed—or take all the possibilities beyond +this door which promised to open on romance? I made up my mind, which +went drunk with rebellion. I got into my seventh-day clothes. Utah R. +Brewster and freedom! The Blackwall ’bus—do you remember those old +hearses, with a straight companion-ladder to the upper deck where the +outside passengers sat, knees up, back to back along the middle?—well, +it had to go by the office, and I was actually in doubt whether, aware +of my unprecedented revolt, it would stop outside the familiar glum +office and lawfully refuse to budge till I alighted. It went on, +blundering past the place, all strangely unconscious of what it was +doing, bearing me with my courage screwed down to bursting-point. The +driver even said what a lovely May morning it was. + +“The Hotel Palace! I had often seen that ornate building when Saturday +afternoon release took me west. Red carpeting on the steps, a glimpse of +ferns, women all as strange as exotics going in and out, and between me +and it a chasm which cut clear to the very centre of the earth. I +carried my attack beyond the portals. It was nothing, after all. A +flunkey put me in a chair too full of cushions to be easy, and I watched +men and women who, at that time of the day, when all the folk I knew +were making desperate and cunning efforts to keep their places here +safe—I watched those men and women behaving as though all eternity were +theirs, and it was the angels’ business to bear them up. It was as great +a mystery to me whose every week-day morning was the inviolate +possession of another, as Joshua’s solar miracle. I was called, led +along a silent corridor full of shut doors, and after a long walk found +myself beyond all the noise of London, far in solitude with a man in a +dressing-gown, who stood before a fire, working a cigar with strong, +mobile lips. He put up a monocle, and looked at me shyly. Then began to +walk up and down the hearth-rug, talking. + +“‘Well,’ he said. ‘All right. I guess you’ll do. Say, you look pretty +fit. You don’t drink, eh? Don’t get nervous when you see the dead, huh? +All right.’ He put his monocle back into his eye, and grinned at me. I +told him, in a rush, how much I wanted to see the tropics. He said +nothing. He got a large blue map, intricate with white lines, and told +me of The Company. The Job. + +“I did not fully comprehend it then. I don’t now. He left out too much. +There was no beginning and no ending. There was hardly a middle. He +merely indicated unrelated points; but at any rate the points were so +widely sundered and so different that the bare indication of them +conveyed a sense of an enormous undertaking, difficult, important, and +necessary. Work for an army. I should be but an insignificant sutler in +that army. But at least I should be one in it, one of those putting this +important affair through for future generations. The communal idea, +this. The very size of it gave me a sense of security. It was too +broad-based to collapse. Success was inherent in its impersonal nature. +A state affair. Brewster briefly mentioned some showy names, names of +great financiers. They were my generals, and I should never see them. +But their reputations were partly in my keeping. + +“Hallelujah! I had escaped. I never went back to the office. I never +replied to its curt inquiry. In a week I sailed from Liverpool. Much I +heard, on the mail boat, of The Company, this new enterprise which was +going to make a tropical region one of the richest countries in the +world; develop it, fling its riches to all. In four weeks more I arrived +at a small tropical island, at which I had to wait for The Company’s tug +to take me to the mainland and my business. + +“There was a club-house ashore, where I stayed for a few days. There I +met some men who had been working for The Company, but for +incomprehensible reasons were leaving this work to which I had come so +eagerly; they were returning home. They were strangely pallid and limp +as though the dark of some hot damp underground had turned their blood +white. Their talk was drawled out, the weary utterance of the +disillusioned who yet showed fate no resentment. They might have been +the dead speaking, long untouched by any warm human vanity. I was really +glad to get away from them. A tug conveyed me to the mouth of the river, +up which I was to proceed to my station. I joined a shallow-draught +river steamer. + +“The river, that gateway to my dream come true, was a narrow place, a +cleft in universal trees, every tree the same. Mangroves, I suppose. +Soon the forest changed, often rising on each bank to meet overhead. +Those were uncertain places of leaves and dead timber, and as quiet and +still as churchyard yews at midnight. The thumps of our paddle-wheels +did not sound pleasant. Deeper and deeper we went, making turns so often +that I wondered how we could ever be got out again. Sometimes in an open +space we saw a flock of birds. I saw no other sign of life. There were +no men. All my fellow-passengers—there were ten of us—were newcomers; +some from the States, some from Germany, and a Frenchman. I was the only +Englishman. Each of us knew what was expected of himself; none of us +knew what that was which all would be doing. There were clerks with us, +miners, civil engineers, timber men, and a metallurgist. We speculated +much, were perhaps a trifle anxious, but reposed generally on the great +idea. + +“In two hundred miles we reached a clearing. Why it should have been at +that particular place did not show. But there it was, the tangible link +in an invisible, encompassing scheme. It was my place. I landed with my +box. There was a white man on the river bank, sitting on a sea-chest, +his head in his hands. He looked up. ‘You the victim?’ he said. ‘Well, +there you are’—sweeping a lazy arm round the small enclosed +ground—‘that’s your job. There’s your store. There’s your house. That’s +where the niggers live.’ + +“‘Pedro!’ he called. A copper-coloured native, in shorts and a wide +grass hat, loafed over to us. ‘This is your servant,’ he said. ‘He’s a +bit mad, but he’s not a fool. He’s all right. Keep your eye on the +niggers though. They are fools, and they’re not mad. You’ll find the +inventory and the accounts in the desk in your hut. The quinine’s there +too. Take these keys. Oh, the mosquito curtain’s got holes in it. See +you mend it. I couldn’t. Had the shakes too bad. Cheer up!’ + +“He went aboard. The steamer saluted me with its whistle, turned a +corner, and the sound of its paddles diminished, died. I seemed to +concentrate, as though I had never known myself till that instant when +the sound of the steamer failed, when the last connection with busy +outer life was gone. I could smell something like stephanotis. In that +dead silence my hearing was so acute that I caught a faint rustling, +which I thought might be the sound of things growing. I turned and went +to my hut, sad Pedro following with my box. The cheap American clock in +the hut made a terrific noise, filling the afternoon with its rapid and +ridiculous beat, trying to recall to me that time still was moving +quickly, when it was quite evident that time had now come for me to an +absolute stand in a broad-glowing noon. I sat surveying things from a +chair. Then leisurely took my envelope and read my instructions—how I +was to receive and take charge of shovels, lanterns, machinery parts, +railway metals, soap, cooking utensils, axes, pumps, and so on, which +consignments I must divide and parcel according to directions to come, +marking each consignment for its own destination. The names of a hundred +destinations I should hear about in my future work were given. They were +names meaning nothing to me. Then followed some brief rules for a novice +in the governing of men. Through all the rules ran an incongruous note +for such a place as that, a reminiscence of Leadenhall Street and its +miserable whine. Yet it hardly disturbed me. I sat and thought over this +expansion of my life. A melancholy bird called in two notes at +intervals. The leaves which formed the thatch of my hut hung a long +coarse black fringe at the door. My walls were of leaves, and the floor +a raft of small logs, still with the bark on, just clear of the ground. +The sunlight came through one dark wall, studding it with sparks. No. +That dubious and familiar note in the instructions was nothing. I was +clear beyond all that now—all those occasions for carking anxiety which +deprave the worker, and make him hate the task to which whipping +necessity drives him. The domineering manner of my instructions, the +fretfulness of the old correspondence I found carelessly scattered +about, addressed to my predecessor, was the illusion. The forest behind +the hut, the black river, the quiet, the insects, the foreign smell, the +puzzling men, my men to command, who kept passing without in the violent +light, they were not from books any more, they made evidence direct to +my own senses now. I was authority and providence, moulding and +protecting as I thought right. This place should be kept reasonable, +four square, my plot of earth to be clean and unashamed, frankly open to +the eye of the sky. I would see what I could do; and I would start now. +I laughed at authority—all I could see of it—reflected in a fragment +of mirror kept to a door tree by nail heads; the funny hat and the shirt +which did not matter, bad as it was, for I was authority there by every +reason of that white shirt; and the beard which was coming. Latitude, my +boy, latitude! I strolled out to survey my little world. + +“Of the weeks that followed, nothing comes back so strongly as some +quite irrelevant incidents. A tiger I saw one morning, swimming the +river. Pedro, insensible for two days with fever; and death, which came +to over-rule my viceroy authority. The first blow! There was a flock of +parrots which visited us one day, and it surprised me that the men +should regard them merely as food. But there was work to be done, and in +a definite way; but why we did it—and I know we did it well—and how it +joined up with the Job, I could not see. That was not my affair. There +was the inventory to be checked, for one thing, and before I was through +with it the work had fairly imprisoned me, and the new romantic +circumstances became blurred and over written. That inventory was so +extravagantly wrong that in a week I was going about heated and swearing +at the least provocation. It was fraudulent. There was a sporadic +disorder of goods irreconcilable with their neat records, though each +record bore the signs and counter-signs of Heaven knows how many +departments of the Company. All an inextricable welter of calm errors, +neatly initialled by unknown fools. + +“Every few days a steamer of the Company would call, loaded with more +goods, or would come down river to me to take goods away. The confusion +grew and interpenetrated, till I felt that nothing but dumping all that +was there into the river, and beginning again with a virgin station, +would ever clear the muddle. The place grew maddening through ridiculous +blundering from outside. I had six men to attend to, all with +temperatures and all useless. The arrears of accounts, my work on +sweltering nights while the very niggers slept, the arrears grew. A +steam-shovel came, without its shovel, and not all my written protests +to headquarters could complete that irrational creature lying in +sections rotting in sun and rain, minus the very reason for its +existence, an impediment to us and an irritation. Constant urgent orders +came to me from up country to ship there this abortion. I declined, in +the name of sanity. There followed peremptory demands for a complete +steam-shovel, violent with animosity for me, the unknown idiot who +obstinately refused to let a steam-shovel go, just as though I was in +love with the damned thing, and could not part with it. But I understood +those letters. They were from chaps, irritated, like myself, by all this +awful tomfoolery. And from headquarters came other letters, shot with a +curt note of innocent insolence, asking whether I was asleep there, or +dead, and adding, once, that if I could not keep up communications +better I had better make way for one who could. There were plenty who +could do it. Pleasant, wasn’t it? They complained querulously of my +accounts, almost insinuating that I debited more wages to the Company +than I credited to the men. I had too many sick men, they said. Did I +pamper them? And again, I had too many who died; I must take care; they +did not want the local government to get alarmed. + +“The time came when I got amusement out of those letters from +headquarters; for their faults were so plain that I conceived the +headquarters staff having much time to spend, and a sort of instruction +at large to administer ginger to men, like myself, on the spot, on +general principles, so to keep us not only alive, but brisk and anxious; +and doing it with the inconsequential abandon of little children playing +with sharp knives. I got comfort from that view; and when I looked round +my placid domain where my men, with whom I was on good terms, laboured +easily and rightly under the still woods, I told myself I was still +fretting because the business was new, that things would come easier +soon. But at night I felt I was anxious exactly because it was all so +old and familiar to me. + +“One day, having given a group of men at work in a distant corner of the +clearing some advice, I noticed a little path enter the wood beside a +big tree. I had never been into the forest. To tell the truth, I had had +no time. The trees stood round us, keeping us from—what? I had always +felt a little doubt of what was there and could not be seen. I turned +inwards. I found myself at once in a cool gloom. I went on curiously, +peering each side into those shadows, where nothing moved, and in an +hour came to another clearing, smaller than my own, and with no river in +view. By the sun, which now I saw again, this place was north of our +station. The opening was being rapidly choked by a new growth. I was +turning for home again, for the afternoon was late, when I saw a hammock +slung between two saplings beside a dismantled hut. I could just see the +hammock and hut through the scrub. I went over there, and was so +carefully looking for snakes and beastly things in the bush that I had +arrived before I knew it. The hut had been long abandoned. The hammock +had something in it, and I was turning something in my mind as I went up +to it. There were some ragged clothes in the bottom of it, partly +covering bones, and among the rags was a globe of black hair. + +“Next morning I woke late, feeling I had gone wrong. My hands were +yellow and my finger nails blue, and I was shaking with cold. But the +tootling of an up-coming steamer forced me to business. The steamer was +towing six lighters, filled with labourers. They were Poles, I think. +Afterwards, I learned, some hundreds of these men had been collected for +us somewhere by a clever, business-like recruiting agent, who promised +each poor wretch a profitable time in the Garden of Eden. My +responsibility, thirty of them, was landed. They stood by the river, +gaping about them, wondering, some alarmed, more of them angry, most +clad in stuffy woollens, poor souls. Having the fever, I was not very +interested. I told my negro foreman to find them shelter and to put them +to work. We were making our clearing larger, and were building more +store-houses. + +“Something like the pale morning light which wakens you, weary from a +fitful sleep, to the clear apprehension again of an urgent trouble which +has filled the night with dreams, I came through each bout of fever to +know there was really trouble outside with the new men. Daily I had to +crawl about, shivering, my head dizzy with quinine, till the fever came +near its height, when I got into my hammock, and would lie there, +waiting, burning and dry, tremulous with an anxiety I could not shape. +Sometimes then I saw my big negro foreman come to the door, look at me, +as though wishing to say something, but leave, reluctantly, when I +motioned him away. + +“One morning I was better, but hardly able to walk, when shouts and a +running fight, which I could see through the door, showed me the Poles +had mutinied. There was a hustling gang of them outside my door, filling +it with haggard, furious faces. I could not understand them, but one +presently began to shout in French. They refused to work. The food was +bad. They wanted meat. They wanted their contracts fulfilled. They +wanted bread, clothes, money, passages out of the country. They had been +fooled and swindled. They were dying. I argued plaintively with that +man, but it made him shout and gesticulate. At that the voices of all +rose in a passionate tumult, knives and axes flourishing in the +sunlight. In a sudden cold ferocity, not knowing what I was doing, I +picked up my empty gun—I had no ammunition—and moved down on them. +They held for a moment, then broke ground, and walked away quickly, +looking back with fear and malice. Next day they had gone. Yes, +actually. The poor devils. They had gone, with the exception of a few +with the fever. They had taken to that darkness around us, to find a way +to the coast. Talk of the babes in the wood! The men had no food, no +guide, and had they known the right direction they could not have +followed it. If the Company did not take you out of that land, you +stayed there; and if the Company did not feed you there, you died. No +creature could leave that clearing, and survive, unless I willed it. The +forest and the river kept my men together as effectively as though they +were marooned without a boat on a deep-sea island. Those men were never +heard of again. Nobody was to blame. Whom could you blame? The Company +did not desire their death. Simply, not knowing what they were doing, +those poor fellows walked into the invisibly moving machinery of the +Job, not knowing it was there, and were mutilated. + +“We had news of the same trouble with the Poles up river. Some of the +mutineers tried to get to the sea on rafts. Such amazing courage was but +desperation and a complete ignorance of the place they were in. One such +raft did pass our place. Some of them were prone on it, others +squatting; one man got on his feet as the raft swung by our clearing, +and emptied his revolver into us. A few days later another raft floated +by, close in, with six men lying upon it. They were headless. Somewhere, +the savages had caught them asleep. + +“No. I was not affected as much as you might think. I began to look upon +it all with insensitive serenity. I was getting like the men I met on +the islands, months before. I saw us all caught by something huge and +hungry, a viewless, impartial appetite which swallowed us all without +examination; which was slowly eating me. I began to feel I should never +leave that place, and did not care. Why should others want to leave it, +then? Often, through weakness, the trees around us seemed to me to sway, +to be veiled in a thin mist. The heat did not weigh on my skin, but on +my dry bones. I was parched body and mind, and when the men came with +their grievances I felt I could shoot any of them, for very weariness, +to escape argument. The insolence from headquarters I filed for +reference no longer, but lit my pipe with it. But the correspondence +ceased at length, and because now I was callous to it, I failed to +notice it had stopped. + +“Some vessels passed down river, coming suddenly to view, a rush of +paddles, and were gone, tootling their whistles. The work went on, +mechanically. The clearing grew. The sheds spread one by one. The +inventory was kept, the accounts were dealt with. There came a time when +I was forced to remember that the steamer had not called for ten days. +We were running short of food. I had a number of sick, but no quinine. +The men, those quick, faithful fellows with the dog-like, patient eyes, +they looked to me, and I was going to fail them. I made pills of flour +to look like quinine, for the fever patients, trying to cure them by +faith. I wrote a report to headquarters, which I knew would get me my +discharge; I was not polite. There was no meat. We tried dough fried in +lard. When I think of the dumb patience of those black fellows in their +endurance for an idea of which they knew nothing, I am amazed at the +docility and kindness inherent in common men. They will give their lives +for nothing, if you don’t tell them to do it, but only let them trust +you to take them to the sacrifice they know nothing about. + +“That went on for a month. We were in rags. We were starved. We were +scarecrows. No steamer had been by the place, from either direction, for +a month. Then a vessel came. I did not know the chap in charge. He +seemed surprised to see us there. He opened his eyes at our gaunt crew +of survivors, shocked. Then he spoke. + +“‘Don’t you know?’ he asked. + +“Even that ridiculous question had no effect on me. I merely eyed him. I +was reduced to an impotent, dumb query. I suppose I was like Jack the +foreman, a gaping, silent, pathetic interrogation. At last I spoke, and +my voice sounded miles away. ‘Well, what do you want here?’ + +“‘I’ve come for that steam shovel. I’ve bought it.’ + +“The man was mad. My sick men wanted physic. We all wanted food. But +this stranger had come to us just to take away our useless steam shovel. +‘I thought you knew,’ he said. ‘The Company’s bought out. Some +syndicate’s bought ’em out. A month ago. Thought the Company would be +too successful. Spoil some other place. There’s no Company now. They’re +selling off. What about that steam shovel?’” + + + + +V + + +We had 5200 tons of cargo, and nearly all of it was patent fuel. This +was to be put into baskets, hauled up, and emptied into railway trucks +run out on the jetty alongside. We watched the men at work for a few +days and nights, and judged we should be at Porto Velho for a month. I +saw for myself long rambles in the forest during that time of golden +leisure, but saw them no more after the first attempt. The clearing on +its north side rose steeply to about a hundred feet on the hard red +conglomerate; to the south, on the San Antonio side, it ended in a creek +and a swamp. But at whatever point the Doctor and I attempted to leave +the clearing we soon found ourselves stopped by a dense undergrowth. At +a few places there were narrow footpaths, subterranean in the quality of +their light, made by timbermen when searching for suitable trees for the +saw-mill. These tracks never penetrated more than a few hundred yards, +and always ended in a well of sunshine in the forest where some big +trees would be prone in a tangle of splintered branches, and a deep +litter of leaves and broken fronds. And that was as far as man had got +inwards from the east bank of the Madeira river. Beyond it was the +undiscovered, and the Araras Indians. On the other side of the river the +difficulty was the same. The Rio Purus, the next tributary of the Amazon +westward from the Madeira, had its course, it was guessed, perhaps not +more than fifty miles across country from the river bank opposite Porto +Velho; but no one yet has made a traverse of the land between the two +streams. The dark secrecy of the region was even oppressive. Sometimes +when venturing alone a little beyond a footpath, out of hearing of the +settlement, surrounded by the dim tangle in which there was not a +movement or a sound, I have become suspicious that the shapes about me +in the half light were all that was real there, and Porto Velho and its +men an illusion, and there has been a touch of panic in my haste to find +the trail again, and to prove that it could take me to an open prospect +of sunny things with the solid “Capella” in their midst. + +We carried our butterfly nets ashore and went of a morning across the +settlement, choosing one of the paths which ended in a small forest +opening, where there was sunlight as well as shadow. Few butterflies +came to such places. You could really think the forest was untenanted. A +tanager would dart a ray of metallic sheen in the wreckage of timber and +dead branches about us, or some creature would call briefly, melancholy +wise, in the woods. Very rarely an animal would go with an explosive +rush through the leaves. But movements and sounds, except the sound of +our own voices, were surprises; and a sight of one of the larger +inhabitants of the jungle is such a rarity that we knew we might be +there for years and never get it. Yet life about its various business in +the woods kept us interested till the declining sun said it was time to +get aboard again. Every foot of earth, the rotting wood, the bark of the +standing trees, every pool, and the litter of dead leaves and husks, +were populous when closely regarded. Most of the trees had smooth barks. +A corrugated trunk, like that of our elm, was exceptional. But when a +bole had a rough surface it would be masked by the grey tenacious +webbing of spiders; on one such tree we found a small mantis, which so +mimicked the spiders that we were long in discovering what it really +was. Many of the smooth tree trunks were striated laterally with lines +of dry mud. These lines were actually tunnels, covered ways for certain +ants. The corridors of this limitless mansion had many such surprises. +There were the sauba ants; they might engross all a man’s hours, for in +watching them he could easily forget there were other things in the +world. They would move over the ground in an interminable procession. +Looked at quickly, that column of fluid life seemed a narrow brook, its +surface smothered with green leaves, which it carried, not round or +under obstructions, but upwards and over them. Nearly every tiny +creature in that stream of life held upright in its jaws a banner, much +larger than itself, cut from a fresh leaf. It bore its banner along +hurriedly and resolutely. All the ants carrying leaves moved in one +direction. The flickering and forward movement of so many leaves gave +the procession of ants the wavering appearance of shallow water running +unevenly. On both sides of the column other ants hurried in the reverse +direction, often stopping to communicate something, with their antennæ, +to their burdened fellows. Two ants would stop momentarily, and there +would be a swift intimation, and then away they would go again on their +urgent affairs. We would see rapid conversations of that kind everywhere +in the host. Other ants, with larger heads, kept moving hither and +thither about the main body; having an eye on matters generally, I +suppose, policing or superintending them. There was no doubt all those +little fellows had a common purpose. There was no doubt they had made up +their minds about it long since, had come to a decision communally, and +that each of them knew his job and meant to get it done. There did not +appear to be any ant favoured by the god of the ants. You have to cut +your own leaf and get along with it, if you are a sauba. + +There they were, flowing at our feet. I see it now, one of those +restricted forest openings to which we often went, the wall of the +jungle all round, and some small attalea palms left standing, the green +of their long plumes as hard and bright as though varnished. Nothing +else is there that is green, except the weeds which came when the +sunlight was let in by the axe. The spindly forest columns rise about, +pallid in a wall of gloom, draped with withered stuff and dead cordage. +Their far foliage is black and undistinguishable against the irregular +patch of overhead blue. It never ceased to be remarkable that so little +that was green was there. The few pothos plants, their shapely parasitic +foliage sitting like decorative nests in some boughs half-way to the +sky, would be strangely conspicuous and bright. The only leaves of the +forest near us were on the ground, brown parchments all of one simple +shape, that of the leaf of the laurel. I remember a stagnant pool there, +and over it suspended some enamelled dragonflies, their wings vibrating +so rapidly that the flies were like rubies shining in obscure nebulæ. +When we moved, the nymphs vanished, just as if a light flashed out. We +sat down again on our felled tree to watch, and magically they +reappeared in the same place, as though their apparition depended on the +angle and distance of the eye. When a bird called one started +involuntarily, for the air was so muffled and heavy that it was strange +to find it open instantly to let free the delicate sibilation. + +In the low ground beyond Porto Velho up stream there was another place +in the forest where sometimes we would go, the approach to it being +through a deep cutting made by the railwaymen in the clay. This clay, a +stiff homogeneous mass mottled rose and white, was saturated with +moisture, and the helicon butterflies frequented it, probably because it +was damp; and a sight of their black and yellow, or black and crimson +wings, spread on the clean plane of the beautifully tinted rock, was far +better than putting them in the collecting box. The helicons are bold +insects, and did not seem to mind our close inspecting eyes. Beyond the +cutting was a long narrow clearing, with a giant silk cotton tree, a +province in itself, on the edge of the forest. Looking straight upward +we could see its foliage, but so far away was the spreading canopy of +leaves that it was only a black cloud, the outermost sprays mere wisps +of dark vapour melting in the intense brightness of the sky. The smooth +grey trunk was heavily buttressed, the “sapeomas” (literally, flat +roots) ascending the bole for more than fifty feet, and radiating in +walls about the base of the tree; the compartments were so large that +they could have been used as stabling for four or five horses. From its +upper limbs a wreckage of lianas hung to the ground. Beyond this giant +the path rose to a place where the clearing was already waist high with +scrub. Then it descended again to the woods. But the woods there were +flooded. That was my first near view of the igapo. We had approached the +trees, for they seemed free of the usual undergrowth, and passed into +the sombre colonnades. The way appeared clear enough, and we thought we +could move ahead freely at last, but found in a few steps the bare floor +was really black water. The base of the forest was submerged, the +columns which supported the unseen roof, through which came little +light, diminished down soundless distance into night. After the flaming +day from which we had just come this darkness was repellant. The forest, +that austere, stately and regarding Presence draped interminably in +verdant folds, while we gazed upon it suspecting no new thing of it, as +by a stealthy movement had withdrawn its green robe, and our sight had +fallen into the cavernous gloom of its dank and hollow heart. + +It was about the little wooden town itself, where the scarified earth +was already sparsely mantled with shrubs, flowering vines, and weeds, +and where the burnt tree stumps, and even the door posts in some cases, +were freshly budding—life insurgent, beaten down by fire and sword, but +never to its source and copious springs—that most of the butterflies +were to be found. In a land where blossoms were few, these were the +winged flowers. About the squalid wooden barracks of the negro and +native labourers, which were built off the ground to allow of +ventilation, and had a trench round them foul with drainage and evil +with smells, a Colœnis, a scarlet butterfly with narrow, swallow-like +wings, used to flash, and frequently would settle there. Over the +flowering weeds on the waste ground there would be, in the morning +hours, or when the sky was overcast, glittering clouds of the smaller +and duller species, though among them now and then would stoop a very +emperor of butterflies, a being quick and unbelievably beautiful to +temperate eyes. After midday, when the sun was intense, the butterflies +became scarce. When out of the shade of the woods, and stranded, at that +time, in the hopeless heat of the bare settlement, we could turn into +one of the houses of the officials of the company for shelter. These +also were of timber, cool, with a verandah that was a cage of fine +copper gauze to keep out the insects. All the doors were self-closing. +The fewest chances were offered to the mosquitoes. There was no glass, +for the window openings also were covered with copper mesh. Here we +could sit in shaded security, in lazy chairs, and look out over the +clearing to the river below, and to the level line of forest across the +river, while listening to stories which had come down to Porto Velho +from the interior, brought by the returning pioneers. + +Porto Velho had a population of about three hundred. There were +Americans, Germans, English, Brazilians, a few Frenchmen, Portuguese, +some Spaniards, and a crowd of negroes and negresses. There was but one +white woman in the settlement. I was told the climate seemed to poison +them. The white girl, who persisted in staying in spite of warnings from +the doctors, was herself a Brazilian, the wife of one of the labourers. +She refused to leave, and sometimes I saw her about, petite, frail, +looking very sad. But her husband was earning good money. It was a busy +place, most of it being workshops, stores, and offices, with an engine +and trucks jangling inconsequentially on the track by the shore. The +line crossed a creek by a trestle bridge, and disappeared in the forest +in the direction of San Antonio. The hospital for the men was nearly two +miles up the track. + +It was along the railway track towards the hospital, with the woods to +the left, and a short margin of scrub and forest, and then the river, on +the right hand, that I saw one morning in sauntering a few miles as many +butterflies as there are flowers in an English garden in June. They were +the blossoms of the place. The track was bright with them. They settled +on the hot metals and ties, clustered thickly round muddy pools, a +plantation there as vivid and alive, in the quick movements of their +wings, as though a wind shook the petals of a bed of flowers. They +flashed by like birds. One would soar slowly, wings outspread and +stable, a living plane of metallic green and black. There was a large +and insolent beauty—he did not move from his drink at a puddle though +my boot almost touched him—his wings a velvety black with crimson eyes +on the underwings, and I caught him; but I was so astonished by the +strength of his convulsive body in the net that I let him go. Near the +hospital some bushes were covered with minute flowers, and seen from a +distance the countless insects moving about those bushes were a +glistening and puzzling haze. + +All that morning I had felt the power of the torrid sun, which clung to +the body like invisible bonds, and made one’s movements slow, was a +luscious benefit, a golden bath, a softening and generative balm; a +mother heat and light whose ardent virtues stained pinions crimson and +cobalt, and made bodies strong and convulsive, and caused the earth to +burst with rushing sap, to send up green fountains; for so the palms, +which showed everywhere in the woods, looked to me. You could hear the +incessant low murmur of multitudinous wings. And I had been warned to +beware of all things. I felt instead that I could live and grow for ever +in such a land. + +Presently, becoming a little weary of so much strong light, I found it +was midday, and looking back, there was the ship across a curve of the +river. It was two good miles away; two intense, shadeless, silent +afternoon miles. I began the return journey. An increasing rumbling +sound ahead made me look up, as I stepped from tie to tie, and there +came at me a trolley car, pumped along slowly, four brown bodies rising +and falling rhythmically over its handle. A man in a white suit was its +passenger. As it passed me I saw it bore also something under a white +cloth; the cloth moulded a childish figure, of which only the hem of a +skirt and the neat little booted feet showed beyond the cloth, and the +feet swayed limply with the jolts of the car in a way curiously +appealing and woful. The car stopped, and the white man, a cheerful +young doctor chewing an extinct cigar, came to me for a light. He stood +to gossip for a few minutes, giving his men a rest. “That’s the +Brazilian girl,” he said; “she wouldn’t go home when told, poor thing.” + + * * * * * + +This Madeira river had the look of very adventurous fishing, and the +Doctor had brought with him an assortment of tackle. The water was +opaque, and it was deep. Its prospects, though the forest closed round +us, were spacious. It flowed silently, with great power, and its surface +was often coiled by profound movements. The coils of the river, as we +were looking over the side one morning, began to move in our minds also, +and the Doctor mentioned his tackle. There was the forest enclosing us, +as mute as the water, its bare roots clenched in aqueous earth. Nobody +could tell us much about the fish in this river, but we heard stories of +creatures partly seen. There was one story of a thing taken from the +very place in the river where we were anchored, a fish in armour which +the natives declared was new to them; a fearful ganoid I guessed it, +reconstructing it in vision from fragments of various tales about it, +such as is pictured in a book on primeval rocks. There were alligators, +too, and there was the sucuruju, which I could call the great water +serpent, only the Indian name sounds so much more right and awful; and +that fellow is forty feet long in his legend, but spoils a good story +through reducing himself by half when he is actually killed. Still, +twenty feet of stout snake is enough for trouble. I saw one, just after +it was killed, which was twenty-two feet in length, and was three feet +round its middle. So to fish in the Madeira was as if one’s hook and +line were cast into the deeps where forms that are without name stir in +the dark of dreams. We got out our tackle, and the cook had an +assortment of stuff he did not want, and that we put on the hooks, and +waited, our lines carried astern by the current, for signals from the +unknown. Yet excepting for a few catfish, nothing interrupted the placid +flow of stream and time. The Doctor put a bight of the lime round his +wrist, sat down, and slept. We had fine afternoons, broad with the +wealth of our own time. + +Old man Jim came aboard and saw our patience with amusement. He +suggested dynamite, and no waiting. The river was full of good fish, and +he would come next day with a canoe and take us where we could get a +load. It was a suggestion which needed slurring, to look attractive to +sportsmen. Jim took it for granted that we simply wanted fish to eat, +and as many as we could get; and next morning there he was alongside +with his big boat and its crew. Jim himself was in the stern, the +navigator, and he was sitting on what I was told was a box of dynamite. +Now, there were two others of our company who, but the day before, were +even eager to see what dynamite would send up from the bottom of that +river; but when they saw the craft alongside with its wild-looking crew, +and Jim with his rifle sitting on a power which could lift St. Paul’s, +they considered everything, and decided they could not go that day. I +went alone. + +I suppose men do plucky things because they are largely thoughtless of +the danger of the things they do. As soon as I was sitting on the level +of the water in that crazy boat, with Jim and his explosive, and beside +him what whisky he had not already consumed, and saw under my nose the +eddies and upheavals of the current, I knew I was doing a very plucky +thing indeed, and wished I was high and safe on the “Capella.” But we +had pushed off. + +Jim, with his eyes dreamy through barley juice, was the pilot, and there +was a measure of confidence to be got from the way he navigated us past +the charging trees afloat. There was no drink in the steering paddle, at +least. But the shore was a long swim away; yet perhaps it would have +been as pleasant to be drowned or blown-up as to be lost in the jungle. +We turned into a still creek, where the trees met overhead. Jim +continued his course till the inundated forest was about us. The gloom +was hollow, the pillars rising from the black floor were spectral, and +our voices and paddles sounded like a noisy irruption among the aisles +of a temple. The echoes fled from us deeper into the dark. But Jim was +all unconscious of this; he but stopped our progress, and opened the box +of cartridges. + +I had never seen dynamite, but only heard of it. I understood it had +unexpected qualities. Jim had a cartridge in his hand, and was digging a +knife into it. I repeat, the flooded wilderness was round us, and below +was the black deep. Jim fitted a detonator to a length of fuse, and +stuck it in the cartridge. He was in no hurry. He stopped now and then +for another drink. Having got the cartridge ready, with its potent +filament, he tied four more cartridges round it. I put these things down +simply, but my hand ached with the way I gripped the gunwale, and I +could hear myself breathing. + +Then Jim struck a match on his breeches, with all the fumbling +deliberation of the fully ripe—brushing the vine leaves from his eyes +the better to see what he was doing—and he lit the fuse, after it had +twice dodged the match. It fizzed. The splutter worked downwards +energetically. Jim did not deign to look at it, though it fascinated me. +He slowly scratched his back with his disengaged hand, and gazed +absently into the forest. + +The spark and its spurts of smoke were now near the bottom. Jim changed +the menace into his right hand, in order to reach another part of his +back with his leisurely left. His eyes were still on the forest. I kept +swallowing. + +“Jim,” I said eagerly—though I did not know I was going to +speak—“don’t—don’t you think you’d better throw it away now?” + +He regarded me steadily, with eyes half shut. The spark spurted, and +dropped another inch. He looked at it. He looked round the waters +without haste. Then, and I could have cried aloud, he threw the shocking +handful away from us. + +It sank. There were a few bubbles, and we sat regarding each other in +the quiet of a time which had been long dead, waiting for something to +happen in a time to come. At the end of two weeks the bottom of the +river fell out, with the noise of the collapse of an iron foundry on a +Sunday. Our boat tried to leap upwards, but failed. The water did not +burst asunder. It vibrated, and was then convulsed. + +Dead fish appeared everywhere, patches of white all round; but we hardly +saw them. There was a great head which emerged from the floor, looking +upwards sleepily, and two hands moved slowly. These quietly sank again. +The tail of the saurean appeared, slowly described a half circle, and +went. The big alligator then lifted itself, and performed some grotesque +antics with deliberation and gravity. Then it gathered speed. It +rotated, thrashed, and drummed. It did all that a ten-horse-power maniac +might. I think the natives shrieked. I think Jim kept saying “hell”; for +I was conscious only with my eyes. When the dizzy reptile recovered, it +shot away among the trees like a torpedo. + +We went home. That night I understand the second mate was kept awake +listening to me, as I slept, bursting into spasms of dreadful merriment. + + * * * * * + +When you are lost in the map of a country that is beyond the worn +routes, trying to discover therein the place name which is the most +secluded and inaccessible, if the map should happen to be that of South +America, then your thought would naturally wander to the neighbourhood +of San Antonio of the Rio Madeira. There you stay, to wonder what +strange people and rocks and trees are to be found at San Antonio. It +looks remote, even on the map. The sign which stands for the village is +caught in a central loop of the mesh which is the river system of the +Amazon forest. San Antonio must be beyond all, and a great journey. It +is far outside the radius. And that would be enough, to be beyond the +last ripple of the traffic and at peace, where that dark disquiet, that +sombre emanation which rises from the soured earth where myriads have +their chimneys, their troubles and their strife, staining even the +morning and the morning thought, is no more. A place where the light has +the clarity of the first dawn, and one might hear, while sure of +absolute solitude, the winding of a strange horn, and suspect, when +coming to an opening in the woods, the flight of a shining one; for +somewhere the ancient gods must have sanctuary. A land where the rocks +have the moss of unvisited fastnesses, and you can snuff the scents of +original day. + +Where we were anchored, San Antonio was in view, about five miles up +stream. Where at the end of that reach of river a line of tremulous +light, which we thought was the cataracts, bridged the converging +palisades of the jungle, in the trees of the right bank it was sometimes +easy to believe there was a glint of white buildings. But looking again, +to reassure your sight, the apparition of dwellings vanished. At night, +in the quiet, sometimes the ears could detect the shudder of the weighty +rapids by San Antonio; but it was merely a tremor felt; there was no +sound. The village remained to us for some time just that uncertain +gleam by day, and the rapids but a minute reduction of a turmoil that +was far. For in that languorous heat we counted miles differently, and +it was pleasanter to suspect than to go and prove, and much easier. + +One day I went. When in a small boat the jungle towered. The river, too, +had a different character. From the shore, or from the big “Capella,” +the river was an expanse of light, an impression of shining peace. +Whenever you got close to its surface it became alive and menacingly +intimate. Our little boat seemed to roll in the powerful folds of a +monster which wallowed ponderously and without ceasing. The trees +afloat, charging down swiftly and in what one felt was an ominous quiet, +stood well above our tiny craft. + +We steered close in-shore to avoid the drifting wood and the set of the +current. The jungle’s sheer height, confusion, and intensity were more +awesome than when seen from the steamer. Not many of the trees were of +great beam, but their consistent height, with the lianas in a wreck from +the far overhanging cornice, dwarfed our boat to an unimportant straw. +At times the forest had a selvage of cane, and growths of arrow grass, +bearing long white plumes twelve feet above us, and a pair of fan-shaped +leaves resembling palm leaves. + +The sound of the cataracts increased, and a barrier grew in height +athwart the Madeira. Mounting high right ahead of us at last was a mass +of granite boulders, with broad smooth surfaces, having the structure of +gigantic masonry in ruin which weathered plutonic rock so often assumes. +Beyond the barrier the river was plainly above our level. It was seen, +resplendent as quicksilver, through the crenellations of the black +rocks. One central mass of rock, higher than the rest, had a crown of +dark and individual palms, standing paramount in the upper light. Yet, +with that gleam of wide river behind, no great rush of water broke +there. A few fountains spurted, apparently without source, and +collapsed, and pulsed again. The white runnels of foam which laced the +contours of the piled boulders gave the barrier the appearance of being +miraculously uplifted, as though one saw thin daylight through its +interstices. Not till the village was in view did we see where the main +river avoided the barrier. The course here was looped. Above the barrier +the river turned from the right bank, and heaped itself in a smooth +steep glide through a narrow pass against the opposite shore, the +roaring welter then running obliquely across the foot of the rocks to +the front of San Antonio on the right bank again. The forest beside the +falls seemed to be tremulous with continuous and profound underground +thunder. + +The little huddle of San Antonio’s white houses is on slightly rising +ground, and the lambent green of the jungle is beside them and over +them. The foliage presses the village down to the river. Like every +Amazonian town and village, it appears, set in that forest, as rare a +human foothold as a ship in mid-ocean; a few lights and a few voices in +the dark and interminable wastes. So I landed from our little craft +elated with a sense of luckily acquired security. + +The white embowered village, the leaping fountains and the rocks, the +air in a flutter with the shock of ponderous water collapsing, the +surmounting island in mid-stream with its coronet of palms, the +half-naked Indians idling among the Bolivian rubber boats hauled up to +the foreshore below, the unexplored jungle which closed in and framed +the scene, the fierce sun set in the rounded amplitude of the clouds of +the rains, made the tropical picture which was the right reward for a +great journey. I had come down long weeks of empty leisure, in which the +mind got farther and farther away from the cities where time is so +carefully measured and highly valued. The centre of the ultimate +wilderness was more than a matter of fact. It was now a personal +conviction which needed no verification. + +The village had but one street. There were two rows of houses of a +single storey, built of clay and plaster, dilapidated, the whitewash +stained and peeling, every house open and cavernous below, without +doors, in the way of Brazilian dwellings, to give coolness. The street +was almost deserted when we entered it. A few children played in the +shadows, and outside one house a merchant in a white cotton suit stood +overlooking the scales while the half-breeds weighed balls of rubber; +for this town is in the midst of the richest rubber country of the +world, and all the wealth of the rivers Mamoré, Beni, and Madre de Dios +comes this way. And that was why, as we idled through its single +thoroughfare, some dark girls came to stand at the house openings, +dressed in odorous muslin, red flowers in their shiny black hair, and +their smiling eyes full of interest in us. The rough road between the +dwellings was overgrown with grass, and in the centre of it, partly +hidden by the grass, was the line laid long ago by the railway +enterprise which ended so tragically. To-day the rubber men use it as a +portage for their boats. There were several inns, half-obliterated names +painted on their outer walls. They had crude interior walls of mud, and +floors of bare earth. In such an inn would be a few iron tables and +chairs, and there a visitor might drink from bottles which at least bore +European labels, though the contents and cost were past all European +understanding. I forgot to say that by the foreshore of this little +village is the head depôt of a great rubber house, a building apparently +out of all proportion to the size of San Antonio. But I looked on that +place with the less interest, though from what my native companion told +me the head of the house is a monarch more absolute and undisputed in +this wild country than most eastern kings are to-day. + +I was more interested in the huge boulders of smooth granite which rose +strangely from the street in places, and broke its regularity. These +rounded and noble rocks often topped the houses. What man had built +looked mean and transitory beside the poise and fine contours of the +rocks. The colony of giant rocks had a look of settled and tranquil +solidity, a friendly and hospitable aspect. They might have been old +friends which time had proved; the houses beside them were alien by +contrast. I felt that San Antonio had merely imposed itself on them, +that they tolerated the village because it was but an incident; that +they could afford to wait. When I saw them there I recognised the +village of my map. I climbed to the summit of one, over its weather-worn +shelves. It had a skin of lichen, warm in the sun and harshly familiar. +The curious hieroglyphics of the lichen were intelligible enough, and +more easily read than the signs on the walls of the inns. I learned +where I was; and knew that when the day of the great rubber house had +long passed, my village would still be there, and prospering. + +Below my rock, on the land side—to which I had turned my back—was a +monstrous cesspool. It was in the centre of the village. It was the +capital of all flies, and the source and origin of all smells, varying +smells which reposed, as I had found when below in the hot and stagnant +street, in strata, each layer of smell invisible but well-defined. Among +the weeds in the roads were many derelict cans. Over the empty tins, and +the garbage, pulsed and darted hundreds of Brazil’s wonderful insects. + +But I was above all that, on my high rock. Its height released me to a +wide and splendid liberty. I cannot tell you all that my vantage +surveyed. But chiefly I was assured by what I saw that I was more +central even than my eyes showed; they merely found for me the +intimation. Here was all the proof I wanted; for faith is not blind, but +critical, yet instantly transcends to knowledge at the faintest glimmer +of authentic light, as when an exile who is beset by inexplicable and +puissant circumstance among strangers whose tongue is barbarous, is +surprised at a secret sign passed there of fellowship, and is at once +content. Yet I can report but a broad river flowing smooth and bright +out of indefinite distance between dark forests to the wooded islands +below; and by the islands suddenly accelerated and divided, in a slight +descent, pouring to a lower level in taut floods as smooth, noiseless, +and polished as mercury. Lower still was the gleaming turmoil of the +falls, pulsing, and ever on the point of vanishing, but constant, its +shouting riot baffled by the green cliffs everywhere. But I could +escape, for once, over the parapets of the jungle to the upper rolling +ocean of leaves; to the distance, dim and blue, the region where man has +never been. + + * * * * * + +There was a man who looked like a sensational ruffian who boarded us one +morning at Porto Velho, and said he had come to find me. He was going up +into the forest, beyond the track, and would I go with him? That made me +look at him again, and with some anxiety; for I had tried before to get +away, but the crowd on the “Capella” disliked the idea. The Doctor +talked dysentery and things. He said it was safer to keep to the ship +during the month we had still to spend at Porto Velho. I felt, overborne +by their arguments, a rather thin sort of adventurer. That mysterious +railway would have drawn the mind of any man who had not lost his +curiosity, and who valued being alive more than his chance of old age. +The track went from Porto Velho into outer darkness. It left the +clearing and the village of mushroom buildings, the place where the +inhuman had been moderately subdued, where a modicum of industry was +established in a continent of primitive wild, crossed a creek by a +trestle bridge in view of our steamer, and vanished; that was the end of +it, so far as we knew. Men came back to the settlement through that hole +of the forest, and boarded the “Capella” to tell us, in long hot nights, +something of what the forest of the Madeira was hiding; and they were +bearded like Crusoe, pallid as anæmic women, and speckled with insect +bites. These men said that where they had been working the sun never +shone, for his light was stopped on the unbroken green which, except +where the big rivers flowed, roofed the whole land. I liked the look of +the stranger who had come to persuade me to this rare holiday. He said +his name was Marion Hill, of Texas. He wore muddy riding breeches, and a +black shirt open at the throat, and boots of intricately embossed +leather which came well up his thighs, spurs that would have ravelled a +pachyderm, and the insolent hat of a bandit. He had a waistbelt heavy +with guns and ammunition. I saw his face, and divined instantly that +this was a man, and that the memory of a time with him would serve me as +a refuge in the grey and barren years, and as a solace. I told him I +would get my things together. The Skipper called after me that if I +returned too late I should have to walk home. + +There was a commissary train next morning, taking men and supplies to +the camps. It had a number of open waggons, loaded with material, about +which the labourers going up to replenish the gangs made themselves as +comfortable as they could. I had an indiarubber bag for all my +belongings, being told that it was best for strapping to a mule, and a +valuable lifebuoy when a canoe overturned. I accepted it with perfect +faith, for I knew nothing of mules or canoes. The train moved off, a +bell on the engine ringing sepulchrally. Hill and I were packed into a +box car, which had a door open on either side for light and air. Two +American engineers were in charge, there was an Austrian to superintend +the distribution at each camp of the provisions, the Austrian had an +Italian assistant, and a few Barbadian blacks were there to move about +the packages. I sat on a case of tinned fruit. Hill reposed on one of +the shelves where we should stow fever victims, when we collected them. +There was no more room in the car, and another degree of heat would have +meant complete ruin. + +When Porto Velho is left for the place where the line is to end, when +completed, though it is but 250 miles away, two months at least is +required for the return journey. That way goes the paymaster, with his +armed escort, and every bundle of shovels and tin of provisions. When I +went, too, the train helped for sixty miles. Then most of the material +was transported at the Rio Caracoles, a tributary of the Madeira, and +taken by boats in stages up the main stream, cargoes and boats being +hauled round each cataract. Travellers could shorten the journey by +going overland part of the way, mules being kept on the hither side of +the Caracoles river for that purpose. + +We delivered some patients at the hospital, went through a cutting of +red granite to the back of San Antonio, and then entered the forest. +That absorbed us. Thenceforward, and until I reached the ship again, I +was dominated by the lofty, silent, confused, and brooding growth. +Everywhere it was dramatically passionate in its intensity, an arrested +riot of green life, and its muteness kept expectant attention fixed upon +it. The right of way through the forest was a hundred feet wide. On each +side of us the trees rose like virid cliffs. The trees usually were of +slender girth, almost as straight as fir poles, rising perhaps for sixty +feet without a branch. Occasionally there was a giant, a silk cotton +tree, or the strange tree with its grey trunk and pale birch-like habit +of foliage which I had noticed on the riverside; but they were not +common. Palms were numerous. From ground to high parapet the spaces +between the columns were filled with lianas, unrelated big leaves, and +the characteristic fronds of the endogens. In this older part of the +track, though it had been made but little more than a year, the scrub +was dense. The undergrowth was often so strong and aggressive as to +brush the train as we slowly bumped along. Sometimes we went through +deep cuttings in the red clay, close enough for me to notice it was +interstratified with waterworn but angular quartz peebles. But the track +usually was over flat country, only rarely crossing a gulley. + +At every maintenance camp we stopped to deliver supplies. From out of a +small huddle of shanties made of leaves and poles, insignificant beneath +the forest wall, a number of languid half-breeds, merely in pants and +hats, would loiter through the hot sun to us for their sustenance. The +men of those secluded huts must have been glad of our temporary uproar, +and our new faces. The bell rang, and we left them to burial in their +deep silence again. There were intervening camps, which had been +deserted as the work progressed. These were even more interesting to me. +The work of the human, when he leaves it to the wild from which he has +won it with so much pain, has an appeal of its own, with its abandoned +ruin returning to the ground again. There would be a sandy swamp, and +standing back from the line some weather-worn shanties with roofs awry. +I am sure there were ghosts in those camps. One we passed, and it was +called Camp 10-1/2, and resting against its open front where the posts +were giving was a butterfly net. I pointed this out. “Oh, that,” said +Hill. “Old man Biddell. I knew him. He was all right. He was great on +bugs and butterflies. Used to wear spectacles. He was a good engineer +though. Died of blackwater fever before the line got past this camp. +That was his shack.” And that was his butterfly net, all of Biddell now, +his sole monument and reminder. As we bumped by the huts the helicons +and swallow tails rose precipitously from the mangled cans and cast +rubbish. I never knew Biddell, the man with spectacles and a butterfly +net, but a first rate railway man, who left that net outside his hut one +morning, and at evening was buried, but now I am doomed to think of him +while I live. + +It was near midnight when we reached the last active camp but one on the +line, where we alighted. It was wiser, I was told, to run the remaining +length of the track by daylight. Here a doctor and a few engineers, +bearing handlamps against which moths were blundering, met us in a place +which seemed to be the bottom of a well, for the black shadows which +rose round us shut out all but a few stars. The men raised joyous cries +at the sight of Hill; and they took this stranger on trust. We fed in a +hut which was four poles and a roof. One pole had a hurricane lamp tied +to it. There was an enormous quiet, which the men seemed to delight in +breaking with their voices. Four planks nailed unevenly to uprights was +our table, and we sat crooked on a similar but lower construction. We +ate out of enamelled plates with iron instruments, and it was very good +indeed. There were four of us who were white, and we were babes in the +wood. One of us pretended he was playing on a Jew’s-harp, sang songs +riotously, and then began to talk long and earnestly of New York. These +men lived in four railway waggons which had doors made of copper gauze, +berths with mosquito bars, and portraits of the folk at home; and in the +case of the doctor the waggon smelt of iodoform, had one wall full of +bottles, and a table with a board and chessmen. In one of those waggons +I lay down to sleep under a net; but the blanket felt damp and had a +foreign smell. My thoughts crowded me. For long I listened to so much +jungle pressing close to my bed, waiting for it to make known its near +but unseen presence with a voice; but it did not. + +Next morning at sunrise the train moved forward to the construction camp +at the Rio Caracoles. I rode on a truck pushed in front of the +locomotive, perched there with some engineers who kept a careful eye on +the track. I saw at once why the train did not proceed at night. It was +too speculative altogether. Behind us the locomotive’s smoke stack +rolled like a steamer’s funnel when a beam sea is running. This part of +the line crossed many ravines, where we looked down upon the tree tops; +and when on a frail wooden bridge which crossed a vacancy like that such +movements of the drunken engine behind us became dazzling. Then, too, +there were some high “fills,” or embankments. After heavy rains these +have a habit of retiring from the metals, which are left looped and +twisted in mid-air. An engineer told me that one cannot always tell when +an embankment is on the point of retiring. He was carefully watching, +however. But we reached the construction camp. + +At the construction camp by the side of the Rio Caracoles we stayed two +days. There was the end of the line, and the men who were growing the +track were so busy that I was left to my own devices. Till the +railwaymen came none but the Caripuna Indians knew what was there; so +into the woods, of course, I would go, trying every track which led from +the camp. A botanist might have seen some difference from the forest at +Porto Velho, but I could not discover any. In appearance it was exactly +the same. The trees mostly were arborescent laurels I believe, with +smooth brown boles which were blotched through their outer cuticle +peeling away, much in the manner of that of the plane tree. The brown +parchments of their laurel-like leaves covered the floor of the woods. +The trees were rarely of great diameter, but their crowns were so +distant that nothing could be made of their living foliage. I saw no +flowers at all. There were few orchids, but the large shapely emerald +coloured leaves of pothos plants were very frequent, sitting in the +angles of branches and trunk. Aloft was always the wreckage of vines +suspended, as vaguely seen and as motionless as cobwebs and +dilapidations in the overhead darkness of high vaults. I rarely heard a +sound in that forest, though there was a bird which called. I often +heard it in the woods of the upper Madeira. It called thrice, as a boy +who whistles shrilly through his fingers; a long call, and then another +whistle in the same key followed instantly by a falling note. One +delightful walk was along a path which had not been made by the +railwaymen, for it was evidently old, as it ran, a cleft in the trees, +not through broken timber, but in partial sunshine, with a mesh of vines +and freely growing plants on either side. It led downwards to a small +stream, which was cumbered with fallen and rotting timber, a cool hollow +where ferns were abundant. It was in the woods at the Caracoles that I +first saw the great morpho butterfly at home. This species, peculiar to +South America, is rarely seen except in the shades of the virgin forest. +One day in the twilight aisles near the Caracoles camp, where nothing +moved, and all was a grey monotone, it so surprised me with its happy +undulating flight—as though it danced along, and were in no hurry—its +great size, and its bright blue wings, that I rose mesmerised, stumbling +after it through the dank litter, thoughtless of direction, not thinking +of the danger of losing my way, thinking of nothing but that joyous +resplendent creature dancing aloft ahead of me in the gloom and just +beyond my reach. Its polished blue wings flashed like speculæ. It might +have been a drifting fragment of sunny sky. I had never seen anything +alive so beautiful. A fall over a log brought me to sobriety, and when I +looked up it was gone. Afterwards I saw many of them; sometimes when +walking the forest there would be morphos always in sight. + +The construction camp was not more than a month old. Perched on an +escarpment by the line was a row of tents, and at the back of the tents +some flimsy huts built of forest stuff. They stood about a ruin of +felled trees, with a midden and its butterflies in the midst. Probably +thirty white men were stationed there. They were then throwing a wooden +bridge across the Caracoles. Most of them were young American civil +engineers, though some were English; and when I found one of them—and +he happened to be a countryman of mine—balancing himself on a narrow +beam high over a swift current, and, regardless of the air heavy with +vapour and the torrid sun, directing the disposal of awkward weights +with a concentration and keenness which made me recall with regret the +way I do things at times, I saw his profession with a new regard. I +noticed the men of that transient little settlement in the wilds were in +constant high spirits. They betrayed nothing of the gravity of their +undertaking. They might have been boys employed at some elaborate jest. +But it seemed to me to be a pose of heartiness. They repelled reality +with a laugh and a hand clapped to your shoulder. At our mess table, +over the dishes of toucan and parrot supplied by the camp hunters, they +rallied each other boisterously. There was a touch of defiance in the +way they referred to the sickness and the shadow; for it was notorious +that changes were frequent in their little garrison. They were forced to +talk of these changes, and this was the way they chose to do it. As if +laughter was their only prophylactic! But such laughter, to a visitor +who did not have to wait till fever took him, but could go when he +liked, could be answered only with a friendly smile. Some of my cheery +friends of the Caracoles were but the ghosts of men. + + * * * * * + +Hill warned me late one afternoon to be ready to start at sunrise, and +then went to play poker. On my way to my hut, at sunset, I stopped to +gossip with the young doctor, where he was busy dressing wounds at his +surgery. The labourers, half-breeds, Brazilians, and Bolivian Spaniards, +work being over, were giving the doctor a full evening with their +ailments. Mostly these were skin troubles. The least abrasion in the +tropics may spread to a horrid and persistent wound. The legs of the +majority of these natives were unpleasant with livid scars. In one case +a vampire bat had punctured a man’s arm near the elbow while he slept, +and that little wound had grown disastrously. We were in a region where +the pium flies swarmed, tiny black insects which alight on the hands and +face, perhaps a dozen at a time, and gorge themselves, though you may be +unconscious of it. Where the pium fly feeds it leaves a dot of +extravasated blood which remains for weeks, so that most of us were +speckled. Even these minute wounds were liable to become deep and bad. +There were larger flies which put their eggs in the human body, where +they hatch with dire results. (Do not think the splendid tropics have +nothing but verdure, orchids, butterflies, and coral snakes banded +orange and black and crimson and black.) So the doctor was a busy man +that evening. The floor of his surgery was made of unequal boughs; the +walls and roof were of dried fronds. A lamp was slung on a doorpost. He +was a young American, and he did not grumble at his bumpy floor, the bad +light, the appliances and remedies which were all one should expect in +the jungle, nor the number of his patients, except comically. He told me +he was rather keen on the diseases of the tropics. He liked them. (I +should think he must have liked them.) He was merrily insolent with +those swarthy and melancholy men, and they smiled back sadly at the +clever, handsome, and lively youngster. He was quick in his decisions, +deft, insistent, kind, and thorough, working down that file of pitiable +humanity, as careful with the last of the long row as with the first; +telling me, as he went along, much that I had never heard before, with +demonstrations. “Don’t go,” he cried, when I would have left him; for I +thought it might be he was as kind with this stranger as he was with the +others. “Ah! don’t go. Let me hear a true word or two.” He said he would +give me a treat if I stayed. He finished, put his materials away +deliberately, accurately, his back to me, while I saluted him as a fine +representative of ours. He turned, free of his task and jolly, and +produced that treat of his, two bottles of treasured and precious ginger +ale. It was a miracle performed. We talked till the light went out. + +Much later a cry in the woods woke me. It was yet dark, but I could see +Hill up, and fumbling with his accoutrements. Out I jumped, though still +unreasonably tired; and sleepily dressed. When I turned to Hill, to see +if he were ready, he was then under his net, watching me. He explained +he had just returned from poker, and was wondering why I was dressing, +but did not like to ask, knowing that Englishmen have ways that are not +American. So the sun was up long before we were, though presently, in a +small canoe, we embarked on the Caracoles. This tributary of the Madeira +comes from nobody knows where. It is a river of the kind which explorers +in these forests have sometimes mentioned, to our fearful joy. The +sunlight hardly reached the water. The river was merely a drain +burrowing under the jungle. The forest on its banks met overhead. There +was little foliage below; we saw but the base of the forest, grey +columns that might have been of stone upholding a darkness from which +dead stuff suspended. The canoe had to dodge the lianas, which dropped +to the water. The noise of our paddles convoyed us down stream, a rout +of panic echoes trying to escape. We came to an opening and full +daylight presently, and landed by a mule corral; and I began a lonely +ride with Hill through the forest. The mule was such a docile little +brown creature that I was left in the silence to my thoughts, which were +interrupted now and then by the wandering blue flame of a morpho. My +mule followed Hill’s mule along a winding trail, and our leader was +nearly always out of sight. I do not remember much of my first ride in +the forest. I had an impression of being at a viewless distance from the +sun. We were on the abysmal floor of a growth which was not trees, but +the hoary pediments of a structure which was too high and vast for human +sight. We rode in the basal gloom of it, no more than lost ants there, +at an immeasurable depth in the atmosphere. The roof of the world was +far away. Somewhere was the sun, for occasionally there was a well which +its light had filled, and a grove of green palms, complete and personal, +standing at the bottom of the well, living and reasonable shapes. Or one +of the morphos would flicker among those spectral bastions, aerial and +bright as a fairy in Hades. The sombre mind caught it at once, an +unexpected gleam of hope, a bright blue thought to set among one’s +shapeless fears. We descended into hollows, going down into darker +fathoms of the shades; mounted again through brighter suffusions of day, +and in a while came out upon the open lane in the woods, the long cut in +the jungle made for the railway, when it should get so far. + +Now I could see my companion. He was from Texas, and it was easy to +guess that. In the long rides which followed in the land where we looked +upon what was there for the first time since genesis, where we might +have been in the hush of the seventh day, so new, strange, and quiet was +all, the figure ahead of me, with its long boots, negligent black shirt, +the guns about the waist, and the hat with its extravagant size nobly +raked, made me stop at times to assure myself that I was not pursuing a +day-dream of boyhood, too much Mayne Reid in my head, especially when my +wild and improbable companion paused under a group of statuesque palms +and looked back at me—I suppose to make sure that I was still there, +and that the silence had not absorbed me utterly, a faint rustle of +intruding sound in a virgin and absorbent world. And again I remember +the sparkle and lift of early morning there. The air was new, it was +stimulative, it recharged me with buoyant youth. To breathe that air in +the fresh of the morning was exaltation, and to see the young sunlight +on the ardent foliage was to know the springs of life were full. That +was at the breakfast hour, when the camp fires crackled and were +aromatic, the smoke going straight to the tree tops. Then quickly the +narrow track through the forest filled with day, increased in heat till +I felt I could bear no more of it, and so gazed vacantly at the mule’s +ears, merely enduring and numbed. The vitality of the morning went, and +in the fierce pour of light I looked no more to the strange leaves and +vines, the curious fronds, the anthills by the way, the butterflies and +birds, but had only a dull dread that the avenue through which we were +riding was straight and interminable. There was no escape from this +heat. There were no openings through which we could retreat under the +trees. The air was immobile; the air itself was the incumbent heat. The +only shadows were under the mules’ bellies. Cruel and relentless noons! +How the surveyors endured it, standing for long eyeing their exacting +instruments in such a defeating glare, I do not know. At the end of each +day my pigskin leggings were like wet brown paper with sweat, and my +hands crinkled and bleached as though they had been in a soda bath. + +We reached another and greater tributary of the Madeira, the Rio +Jaci-Parana. Here there was a very extensive clearing as great as the +one at Porto Velho. The bridging of the Jaci would be a considerable +undertaking, consequently there were numerous huts dotted about the +rough open ground; but I think the original intention in cutting back +the jungle to such an extent was that in the days to come a town would +grow there. I imagine it will not, and that the project is abandoned. In +one of my early walks in the woods I came by chance upon the new +cemetery; it was already large. The Jaci country has proved to be more +than usually unhealthy. The ground was cleared down to a coarse herbage, +round which stood shadowing trees. Little crucifixes, made by splitting +a stick and putting another stick crosswise in the slit, were planted at +all sorts of drunken angles in the ground. One large cross in the centre +stood for all the dead. There were no names given. A Brazil nut-tree +grew alongside this graveyard in the jungle, so tall that the flock of +screaming parrots about its foliage were but drifting black specks. + +Because Hill had a touch of the fever we stayed for some days by the +Jaci. I had a hut given to me, typical of the rest; but I was so much +alone in it that that hut on the Jaci, where our remoteness from human +things tested and known, the aloofness and quiet of the forest, the +deadly nature of the romantic and beautiful river bank where we were +marooned, and the sickness of my friend Hill, threw me upon my centre, +until I began even to talk to myself, and received such an impress of +the minute details of my little habitation that, ephemeral as it was and +now long since gone, it endures, of coloured and indestructible stuff, +with a sunny portal I still can enter whenever my mind turns that way. +It was of four palm trunks, lapped round and over with mats of leaves. +The floor was of untrimmed branches, two feet from the earth, and their +unexpected inequalities, never remembered, were always jolting my +thoughts as I walked across. They were crooked, and I could see the +dusty earth two feet beneath where brown and green lizards ran. At one +end was a verandah with a narrow floor made of the lids of soap and +dynamite boxes, and laid without any idea that some curious tenant might +wish to read the manufacturers’ full names and see their complete +trademarks. It was a puzzle. There was nothing to do, and I searched +long on my verandah floor for the clue to one embarrassing fragment of a +stencilled word. Hill sometimes huddled in a hammock on one side of the +verandah, a leg hanging limply over, his thin sallow face drawn and +resting on his breast, and his eyes shut; and I sat near him on the +rail, silent, alone with any thought I met, and gazing blankly down the +steep slope, past two tall Brazil nut-trees, to the half-hidden Rio Jaci +below, and the roof of the forest opposite, over which the sun set each +day in uplifted splendour. I remembered but one conversation during that +wait. An elderly white man came up to the verandah one evening, and +murmured something to Hill, who opened his eyes, and looked at his +visitor under weary lids. This man was one of Hill’s subordinates. He +had something to say of the work; but one would hardly call it speech. +The flow of his life was so weak that he could do no more than lift a +few small words from his gaping mouth between his breaths. He held on to +the verandah. His loose clothes hung straight down from his bones. The +veins were in blue knots on his forehead. “Say,” said Hill, rousing +himself, “I want you to ride to the Caracoles, go down to Porto Velho, +and take this note to the hospital.” The man said nothing, but nodded. +Hill scrawled his note, and the man left. “He’ll be dead in a month,” +said Hill, five minutes after the man had gone. “But he would not go to +the hospital for his health. I have to pretend that he must go for mine. +He may as well die in a comfortable bed.... I wish those damned parrots +would cease!” They were somewhere down by the river, unseen, but all the +sound there was, their voices long, keen and distracting flaws in the +pellucid and coloured dayfall. + +One morning we crossed the Jaci, and on the opposite shore some mules +were already geared with Texan saddles, the hombres at their heads, +waiting for us. I considered my mule. He was a big, grey, upstanding +fellow, with the legs and feet of a racehorse, the head of a hammer, and +alert and inquisitive ears. He was very much alive. I had no doubt he +could leave anywhere like light, when he had a mind for it. So that I +turned to Hill, and said, “Is mine a quiet animal? Is he vicious?” “O +say,” said my guide, glancing carelessly at my dubious mount, “I guess +he’s just a mule.” When a hombre shouted at my mule he stepped briskly, +with more than a hint of the malicious rebel in his gait. + +I knew it would happen, and it did. One foot was no sooner buried in a +wooden shoe called a stirrup than he was off, like an explosion. A +desperate leap got my other leg over my travelling sack, lashed on his +rump, and I came down in the saddle, much surprised. Texan saddles are +not leather pads for riding domestic creatures, but thrones for ruling +devils, and the bit would have broken the mouth of a hippopotamus. The +brute stopped, turned back one ear, and his thought was in his swivel +eye. “You wait,” I saw him say. In the few engrossing moments when his +body was expanding and contracting under me I got some idea of the force +I was supposed to guide, and it did not make my mind easy, for an office +chair had been my most unstable seat till then. Yet off we went quietly, +along the track, and Hill was in front, and my mule was as meek as a +sheep. There came a swamp, into which he went to the knees, and I +dismounted, jumping from hummock to hummock, encouraging him, and +showing him the best places. His brown eyes were then like those of a +good woman. So leaning forward, when we were through, I patted his sleek +neck, and gave him pleasant words. Afterwards, when he showed a certain +precious care in difficult places, for the country was very broken, +stepping like a tight-rope walker, I was fool enough to think it was +because of our understanding. Though I believe he would have deceived +anybody. + +At noon we left the track and entered the forest by a path so narrow +that the trees touched our legs, and sometimes we had just time to duck +beneath a noose which a liana dangled in our faces. It was a low and +narrow tunnel, and it descended to a bottom where a shallow stream +brawled among granite boulders; thence up the trail went through the +trees and vines again, and at last we came to a little clearing, where +there was a hut, and men who would give us meat and drink. We +dismounted. I rubbed my mule’s soft nose, and spoke him playfully, as a +familiar; but when entering the hut was rebuked by a man there for +making a short cut round the heels of my mule. “Never do it. Don’t give +him a chance. A mule will be peaches for ten years waiting for the sure +chance of getting his heels right on your stomach. They’re not horses, +them mules. They don’t bite, and they don’t muzzle you and show +friendly. They’ve got no feelings. That chap of yours, his mother was an +ass, and his father was old Solfernio himself. But they’ve all got one +good point—they’re barren.” + +The mule stood deep in thought till I was mounted again; then instantly +bolted back along the path which led to the ravine. The idle hombre had +mishandled the reins, and I could get no pull. I went across that +clearing like (so Hill said afterwards) Tod Sloan up. The beast, his +ears back, was in a frenzy, and the convulsions of his powerful body +made my thoughts pallid and ghastly. Nothing but disaster could stop +him, and the black mouth of that steep tunnel in the forest yawned +before us, and grew larger, though not large enough. He took the opening +as clean as a lucky shot; but I was laid carefully along his back. Why +we missed the tangle of woods and the rocks in that precipitate descent +is known only to my lucky stars. I had my feet from the stirrups, my +toes hooked on his rump, one arm round the horn of the saddle, and the +other stretched along his sawing neck. I saw the roots and stones leap +up and by us, close to my face. Several things occurred to me, and one +was that some methods of dire fate were fatuous and undignified. I +wondered also whether I should be taken back to the ship, or buried +there. The impetus of the brute, which I expected would send us +somersaulting among the rocks of the bottom, took him partly up the +hither slope, and soon he had to gather his haunches for the upward +leaps. I slipped off. He swung round at the length of the reins, and +eyed me, cocking his ears derisively. A horse’s nerves are human-like, +and a horse would have been in a muck, but this murderous mule was calm +and mocking. I watched him, and listened for an obscene and confident +guffaw. + +I found afterwards that punishment has no more effect on them than +kindness. There is no guidance in this matter, take the mule all round. +It is dealing with the uncanny. It is better to cross yourself when you +go near a mule. Every morning about a camp we would watch the hombres +gear up those pensive and placid creatures. They were sleek, lissom, and +beautiful, and it was a pleasure to watch them. But as soon as the +business of the day began one of the mules (and there was no prophecy as +to which one it would be) became a homicidal maniac. At one camp it was +necessary to keep a hundred or more mules in reserve, and there, for +their health, a sane old horse was kept also. The horse was a knacker’s +body, a sorry spectacle, and in that climate he but pottered about +waiting for disease to take him. He was smaller than the fine and +healthy mules, but the respect the hammer-heads had for him was comical, +and a great help to the men. Without the horse, it would have been +opening the door of an asylum to have let the mules out of the corral to +water at the river. But he led the way, and they bunched round him +bashfully, and followed him to the stream. He took no notice of them +whatever. He did not flatter them by pretending to be aware of their +existence. When he had had his fill, he turned, and ambled through them, +scorning to see them, and returned to the corral. Round went all the +mules nearest to him, and any of them on the outskirts of the mob that +stayed on because they did not see him go lost their heads, when they +looked up, and risked their necks in short cuts through the timber. “Ho, +mule!” would shout the hombres in alarm; for even mules cost money. + + * * * * * + +The land through which we were riding shall have a little railway there +some day, if the men who are building it keep their hearts of brass, and +refuse in working hours to remember London and New York. When it is +there, that short line, it will begin and end in places having names +which will convey little meaning to people outside Brazil; but to know +what endurance of valour, but chiefly what raillery and light-hearted +disregard of the gods who put baleful forests guarded by dragons—the +dragons of mythology were lambs to what mosquitoes are—in the path of +weak men pursuing their purpose, to know what has gone to the building +of that track, though it nowhere plainly shows, for the graveyards are +casual and obscure, brings you to a stand, surprised into awe of your +fellows, as though through a coarse disguise you caught a gleam of +divinity. Something shows, a light shows, which is beyond human. Would +men be so prodigal of life and time if they were not aware of their +great wealth? I don’t know. My travels never brought me to that ultimate +assurance. But I did see that my fellow-men are indifferent, spendthrift +with their known and scanty store as though they were immortals, the +remittance men of Great Jove. I have no doubt now the line will be +finished some day; but there were times, riding along the roughly +cleared trail where it is to be, and we came upon places where men, in a +spasm of pointless and soon expiring energy had scratched and mauled the +pristine earth, when I did not think so. Always the same dumb mystery +was about us at noon as at nightfall. I felt we were lost at the back of +the world, that we had crossed the boundary beyond which the voice of +traffic never goes, and were idly wandering on the confines of oblivion. +Sometimes I had that consciousness of futility which comes to us when, +in sleep, we are earnest in the absurd activities of a dream, one point +of the reason remaining awake to wonder at the antics of the busy but +blind mind. Why was I there at all? Was I there? Those forlorn spots in +the forest where our fellows had been before us, which we two riders +overlooked alone, seemed to show that those men, while in the midst of +their feverish labour, had recovered their minds, and had seen the +wilderness was too vast, was unconquerable; and they had fled. There +before us was what they had done. A deep trench would be in the track, +the sand thrown up on either side. Some dead trees would be prone in our +path, and we had to ride round them. There would be a few empty huts of +leaves, with old ashes at the entrances, and a midden with its usual +gorgeous butterflies. There would not be a sign of life, except the +butterflies over the refuse, and not a sound or a movement but a clink +from our own harness, and the heads of our mules impatient with the +flies. Over the evidence of man’s far-fetched enterprise and industry, +his short and ferocious attack on the wild, brooded the forest. That +bent over us, and it might have been solicitous and compassionate, or it +might have been merely curious about the behaviour of the surprising +creatures who had come there for the first time, and had been so active +for a while. Sitting in the pour of the sun, looking upon the scanty +work of my fellows, and then upon the near watchful ranks of that +continent of trees pressing close to regard the grave-like trench into +which man’s hope might have been thrown, I had a dread of the easy and +enduring dominion of those powers which were before man. + +We would ride on then, sometimes up to our saddles in swamps, and every +day I lost faith that there was any company of our fellows in that +desolation, who would take our mules at nightfall, and show hammocks for +our rest. But always before night caught us we would spy a few huts +diminutive under the cliffs of forest—land ho!—and the little outpost +of two or three engineers and a doctor would meet us as we came up. Such +a camp was like finding security and fellowship again after the +uncertainty and emptiness of the sea. The voices of new friends disarmed +the forest. It was not curious that we found it so easy to talk and +laugh. + +One such camp I remember well. We came upon it late, and my bones, +through a longer ride than usual in the wooden saddle, had grown into an +unjointed frame. This was the real meaning of fatigue. My body was a +comprehensive ache. Yet my mind was alert and buoyant; and I remembered +that perhaps it was so because I had been well bitten by the mosqitoes +of the Jaci-Parana, a first effect of the inoculation; so I swallowed +twenty grains of my store of quinine. + +You in settled lands, unless you have been very poor indeed and know +what trouble is and what friends are, have never seen the face of your +brother, nor the serenity of evening when you have found, without +expecting it, shelter for the night; you don’t know what the taste of +bread and meat is, nor the savour of tobacco, nor what comfortable +security is the whispering of a comrade unseen in the shadows of a +resting place, nor what it is to sleep. I found those gifts are not +means to life only, but reasons for living too; something to live for. +With these at nightfall, our frail little hut, beleaguered in the +limitless woods, the shack in which the ants and spiders swarmed and +gross insects rang on the metal lamp, where we loafed in hammocks, +smoking, and listened to the cries of we knew not what in the unknown +about us, was impregnable to the hosts of darkness. + +Perhaps I remember that camp so well because it was a night of full +moon. There were three huts. We were deep in the trees. The dark walls +of that well in the jungle rose sheer all round us. Nobody knew what was +beyond the huts. The moon appeared just clear of the lofty parapet of +the well, and poured down to us an imponderable rarity of bluish fire. +Wherever this fire lodged it stayed. Half-way up projected palm fronds, +and they were heavy patterns in burnished silver. Nameless shapes grew +luminous in the dark about us. The ragged thatch of a hut fell from its +apex in a cascade of lustrous fluid metal suddenly congealed. The gloom +beneath that shining roof was hollowed by the pale yellow light of a +lamp; so I could see, under the eaves, the three hammocks slung from the +posts. The quiet talk of my companions was the only sound. I limped with +weariness towards the voices, and sat in a shadow listening; and looked +beyond to sprays of motionless shining foliage leaning out from +inscrutable darkness. I seemed to have escaped from my tired body; my +disembodied mind was free and at large. A camp hunter had killed a +jaguar there, during the afternoon, they were saying. There were many +about, for we were beyond the railway men, the track being but a lane of +felled trees. They were saying the country there abounded with wild +life. Just as we arrived that evening one of the men brought in a +wounded animal, its nature so disguised that I thought it was a kind of +sloth. It was about two feet long, and covered with long grizzled hair +from its snout to the end of its considerable tail; but when I lifted +it, and the poor injured creature shook its hair from its eyes, I saw it +was a monkey; that anguished and fearful gaze which met mine was of my +own tiny brother. It was a rare and little-known creature, the Hairy +Saki, the first of its kind I had seen. The native took it away to eat +it. I may say that at every camp we ate what we could get; and being by +nature squeamish I never asked what it was that was put before me. +Whatever it was, there it was, and it was all they could give me. I only +emphatically directed that monkey flesh would be worse to me than +hunger. + +“There are plenty of tigers about here,” called one of our hosts to me; +“I’ll fix you with a gun to-morrow, and we’ll have some fun.” But thank +you, no. I did not carry arms throughout my journey. The jaguars did me +no hurt when I went exploring o’ mornings; and as for me, I was not +looking for trouble. Quite politely the jaguars retired while I wandered +about alone; though I should have been delighted to have sighted one. +The whiffs of feral odour I got, especially in the neighbourhood of the +mules, about which the jaguars prowled at night, were my only big game +trophies. Sometimes an indistinguishable object would step across ahead +of me, or stir in a bush close by, drawing ear and eye at once in a +place where trees and leaves were always as fixtures, like the air. I +never met one of the larger natives of the place. I knew the parrots by +their voices. I heard and smelt the cats. The monkeys called from a +great distance; or a body would slip round a tree so like a shadow +moving that when I examined the place, and saw nothing, it was easy to +believe the eye was only suspicious. + +The men began to talk of the Indians. They said we were in the land of +the Caripunas. “You won’t see them,” said Hill. “I expect they are +watching us now though,” he added, after a pause. I glanced up with some +interest at the spectral foliage, where right before me the pale +moonfire on leaves and trunks framed portals in the night. I could see +nothing. + +“It’s odds that some of them have been following us all day,” continued +Hill. “They watch us. They can’t make us out. The rubber men told us the +Caripunas would kill and eat us. They kill the rubber men all right, and +a good job too. But they only slip through the forest watching us. I saw +some once. On the Jaci. I jollied them into putting their canoe ashore. +It was only a bark contraption, the roughest thing of its kind I’ve +seen, sharpened fore and aft by lacing the ends together with sinews. +They were fine light brown fellows, well made, and stark naked. The +black hair of some of them was frizzy. Curious, isn’t it? But I’ve heard +that in the slave days runaway niggers got down here, and the forest +Indians collared them to improve their own miserable stock. The +Brazilians have always had a tradition of a frizzy-haired race on the +Madeira; and here they are. They had bows and arrows, those chaps, made +entirely of cane and wood. The arrows were tipped with macaw feathers, +and were over six feet long. I couldn’t bend the bloomin’ bow. These +fellows keep to the side rivers, and their villages are always hidden in +the woods. It’s a funny thing, but whenever the surveyors come on a +village they find it has been vacated about a week.” + +We were silent for a time, and then a half-breed crept up to a hammock +and spoke in Spanish to the doctor. The doctor laughed, and the fellow +went away. “He’s asking for a piece of that onca to eat. He says it will +make him strong.” They began to talk of that, and the talk went on to +what the Indians say of the mai d’aqua, the mother of the waters, who +frequents islands in the rivers and is the ruin of young men, and of +such dreads as the jurupari, and the curupira, and the maty tapéré. + +They admitted it was easy to imagine such things into the forest. It +wasn’t what was seen there. Only the trees and the shadows were seen. +But sometimes there were sounds. One of us, when alone making a traverse +in the forest, had heard a scream, as if a woman had been frightened, +and then there was no more sound. The camp doctor began to talk. He was +an Englishman. He sat upright in the middle of his hammock, swinging it +with one foot. “There was a curious yarn I heard about a tiger in +Hampshire. Ah! Hampshire! I had a practice there once, you know. It made +me so busy and popular that at last I began to wonder whether I wasn’t +altogether too successful. It was the practice or me. As I wanted to +live on and do some useful work I slew the practice. I’ve got one or two +ideas about that beri-beri you chaps die of here. A doctor cannot serve +God and a lot of old women with colds.... Oh yes, about that tiger. +Well, one of those travelling shows came to our village. I could see the +steam of its roundabout engines from my surgery windows, and I told the +farmer who rented the field to the showmen that if he let a mechanical +organ come anywhere near my place again he could take his gallstone +somewhere else in future. + +“Late one night I got an urgent message to go over to the show. There +had been an accident. I was taken into a caravan. There was a fat woman +dressed as a pink fairy kneeling over a man stretched on a bunk, shaking +him, and crying. The man was dead all right. But I couldn’t find a mark +on him. Diseased heart, I supposed, but he looked a good ’un. Some of +the well-made, powerful chaps have most unreliable hearts. The woman +kept crying out something about ‘that beast of a tiger.’ Curious sort of +remark, and I asked the boss afterwards what she meant. He shuffled +about a bit, pretending that she was talking silly. ‘Nothing to do with +the tigress,’ he said, ‘although the man was found unconscious in her +cage.’ ‘It’s such a tame thing,’ said the showman. ‘Anybody could handle +it. Never shows vice. Old Jackson’—that was the dead chap—‘he’d been +inside tinkering with a partition. When we found him she was lying in a +corner as if asleep, and only sat up and yawned when we got him out of +her cage. Come and see for yourself.’ + +“I went. There was nothing to see, except a slit-eyed tigress sitting up +in a corner of her cage, blinking at the lantern, and looking rather +spooky. A rather small creature, and prettily marked—one of the +melantic variety. + +“Well, the chap was buried after an inquest, and that inquest made me +ask a lot of questions afterwards. It was a simple affair, the inquest. +Death from natural causes. But there was something behind the evidence +of the man’s wife, and I wanted to find out about that. + +“She told me she had a little girl, who got one night into the tent +where the big cats were kept. Nobody was there at the time. Next morning +she said to her mother, ‘Mummie, who was the funny lady in Lucy’s cage?’ + +“Lucy was the name of the tigress. The child said that there was only +the lady in the cage, and the lady watched her. And that was all they +could get out of the kiddie. The funny thing about it is that once +before the child had come back with a yarn like that, after straying +into the menagerie tent late at night. The wife’s idea was her husband +had died of fright. + +“Don’t ask me what I want to make out, boys. I’m only just telling you +the yarn. There you are. + +“Well, before the show left our village, I heard they’d got a nigger to +look after the big cats. He was with the show two days. On the third day +he was missing. He went without drawing his money, and he had left open +the door of Lucy’s cage. She hadn’t attempted to get out. The nigger was +found some days after, wandering about the country, and a little +cracked, by all accounts. And that’s all.” The doctor struck a match, +and then hoisted his legs into the hammock. Somewhere far in the forest +the monkeys were howling. + +“That doctor is a good body mender,” said Hill to me. “He is the most +entertaining liar on this job.” + + + + +VI + + +When in the neighbourhood of the Girau Falls we returned to a camp known +as 22, which was merely a couple of huts, the station of two English +surveyors, who had with them a small party of Bolivians. The Bolivian +frontier was then but a little distance to the south-west. We rested for +a day there, and planned to make a journey of ten miles across country, +to the falls of the Caldeirao do Inferno. By doing so we should save the +wearying return ride along the track to the Rio Jaci-Parana, for at the +Caldeirao a launch was kept, and in that we could shoot the rapids and +reach the camp on the Jaci two days earlier. Some haste was necessary +now, for my steamer must be nearing her sailing time. And again, I +agreed the more readily to the plan of making a traverse of the forest +because it would give me the opportunity of seeing the interior of the +virgin jungle away from any track. Though I had been so long in a land +which all was forest I had not been within the universal growth except +for little journeys on used trails. A journey across country in the +Amazon country is never made by the Brazilians. The only roads are the +rivers. It is a rare traveller who goes through those forests, guided +only, by a compass and his lore of the wilderness. That for months I had +never been out of sight of the jungle, and yet had rarely ventured to +turn aside from a path for more than a few paces, is some indication of +its character. At the camp where we were staying I was told that once a +man had gone merely within the screen of leaves, and then no doubt had +lost, for a few moments, his sense of direction of the camp, for he was +never seen again. + +The equatorial forest is popularly pictured as a place of bright and +varied colours, with extravagant flowers, an abundance of fruits, and +huge trees hung with creepers where lurk many venomous but beautiful +snakes with gem-like eyes, and a multitude of birds as bright as the +flowers; paradise indeed, though haunted by a peril. Those details are +right, but the picture is wrong. It is true that some of the birds are +decorated in a way which makes the most beautiful of our temperate birds +seem dull; but the toucans and macaws of the Madeira forest, though +common, are not often seen, and when they are seen they are likely to be +but obscure atoms drifting high in a white light. About the villages and +in the clearings there are usually many superb butterflies and moths, +and a varied wealth of vegetation not to be matched outside the tropics, +and there will be the fireflies and odours in evening pathways. But the +virgin forest itself soon becomes but a green monotony which, through +extent and mystery, dominates and compels to awe and some dread. You +will see it daily, but will not often approach it. It has no splendid +blossoms; none, that is, which you will see, except by chance, as by +luck one day I saw from the steamer’s bridge some trees in blossom, +domes of lilac surmounting the forest levels. Trees are always in +blossom there, for it is a land of continuous high summer, and there are +orchids always in flower, and palms and vines that fill acres of forest +with fragrance, palms and other trees which give wine and delicious +fruits, and somewhere hidden there are the birds of the tropical +picture, and dappled jaguars perfect in colouring and form, and brown +men and women who have strange gods. But they are lost in the ocean of +leaves as are the pearls and wonders in the deep. You will remember the +equatorial forest but as a gloom of foliage in which all else that +showed was rare and momentary, was foundered and lost to sight +instantly, as an unusual ray of coloured light in one mid-ocean wave +gleams, and at once goes, and your surprise at its apparition fades too, +and again there is but the empty desolation which is for ever but +vastness sombrely bright. + +One morning, wondering greatly what we should see in the place where we +should be the first men to go, Hill and I left camp 22 and returned a +little along the track. It was a hot still morning. A vanilla vine was +in fragrant flower somewhere, unseen, but unescapable. My little unknown +friend in the woods, who calls me at odd times—but I think chiefly when +I am near a stream—by whistling thrice, let me know he was about. Hill +said he thinks he has seen him, and that my little friend looks like a +blackbird. On the track in many places were objects which appeared to be +long cups inverted, of unglazed ware. Picking up one I found it was the +cap to a mine of ants, the inside of the clay cup being hollowed in a +perfect circle, and remarkably smooth. A paca dived into the scrub near +us. It was early morning, scented with vanilla, and the intricacy of +leaves was radiant. Nowhere in the screen could I see a place through +which it was possible to crawl to whatever was behind it. The front of +leaves was unbroken. Hill presently bent double and disappeared, and I +followed in the break he made. So we went for about ten minutes, my +leader cutting obstructions with his machete, and mostly we had to go +almost on hands and knees. The undergrowth was green, but in the +etiolated way of plants which have little light, though that may have +been my fancy. One plant was very common, making light-green feathery +barriers. I think it was a climbing bamboo. Its stem was vapid and of no +diameter, and its grasslike leaves grew in whorls at the joints. It +extended to incredible distances. We got out of that margin of +undergrowth, which springs up quickly when light is let into the woods, +as it was there through the cutting of the track, and found ourselves on +a bare floor where the trunks of arborescent laurels grew so thickly +together that our view ahead was restricted to a few yards. We were in +the forest. There was a pale tinge of day, but its origin was uncertain, +for overhead no foliage could be seen, but only deep shadows from which +long ropes were hanging without life. In that obscurity were points of +light, as if a high roof had lost some tiles. Hill set a course almost +due south, and we went on, presently descending to a deep clear stream +over which a tree had fallen. Shafts of daylight came down to us there, +making the sandy bottom of the stream luminous, as by a lantern, and +betraying crowds of small fishes. As we climbed the tree, to cross upon +it, we disturbed several morphos. We had difficulties beyond in a +hollow, where the bottom of the forest was lumbered with fallen trees, +dry rubbish, and thorns, and once, stepping on what looked timber solid +enough, its treacherous shell collapsed, and I went down into a cloud of +dust and ants. In clearing this wreckage, which was usually as high as +our faces, and doubly confused by the darkness, the involutions of dead +thorny creepers, and clouds of dried foliage, Hills got at fault with +our direction, but reassured himself, though I don’t know how—but I +think with the certain knowledge that if we went south long enough we +should strike the Madeira somewhere—and on we went. For hours we +continued among the trees, seldom knowing what was ahead of us for any +distance, surviving points of noise intruding again after long in the +dusk of limbo. So still and nocturnal was the forest that it was real +only when its forms were close. All else was phantom and of the shades. +There was not a green sign of life, and not a sound. Resting once under +a tree I began to think there was a conspiracy implied in that murk and +awful stillness, and that we should never come out again into the day +and see a living earth. Hills sat looking out, and said, as if in answer +to an unspoken thought of mine which had been heard because there was +less than no sound there, that men who were lost in those woods soon +went mad. + +Then he led on again. This forest was nothing like the paradise a +tropical wild is supposed to be. It was as uniformly dingy as the old +stones of a London street on a November evening. We did not see a +movement, except when the morphos started from the uprooted tree. Once I +heard the whistle call us from the depths of the forest, urgent and +startling; and now when in a London by-way I hear a boy call his mate in +a shrill whistle, it puts about me again the spectral aisles, and that +unexpectant quiet of the sepulchre which is more than mere absence of +sound, for the dead who should have no voice. This central forest was +really the vault of the long-forgotten, dank, mouldering, dark, +abandoned to the accumulations of eld and decay. The tall pillars rose, +upholding night, and they might have been bastions of weathered +limestone and basalt, for they were as grim as ancient and ruinous +masonry. There was no undergrowth. The ground was hidden in a ruin of +perished stuff, uprooted trees, parchments of leaves, broken boughs, and +mummied husks, the iron globes of nuts, and pods. There was no day, but +some breaks in the roof were points of remote starlight. The crowded +columns mounted straight and far, almost branchless, fading into +indistinction. Out of that overhead obscurity hung a wreckage of +distorted cables, binding the trees, and often reaching the ground. The +trees were seldom of great girth, though occasionally there was a +dominant basaltic pillar, its roots meandering over the floor like +streams of old lava. The smooth ridges of such a fantastic complexity of +roots were sometimes breast high. The walls ran up the trunk, projecting +from it as flat buttresses, for great heights. We would crawl round such +an occupying structure, diminished groundlings, as one would move about +the base of a foreboding, plutonic building whose limits and meaning +were ominous and baffling. There were other great trees with compound +boles, built literally of bundles of round stems, intricate gothic +pillars, some of the props having fused in places. Every tree was the +support of a parasitic community, lianas swathing it and binding it. One +vine moulded itself to its host, a flat and wide compress, as though it +were plastic. We might have been witnessing what had been a riot of +manifold and insurgent life. It had been turned to stone when in the +extreme pose of striving violence. It was all dead now. + +But what if these combatants had only paused as we appeared? It was a +thought which came to me. The pause might be but an appearance for our +deception. Indeed, they were all fighting as we passed through, those +still and fantastic shapes, a war ruthless but slow, in which the battle +day was ages long. They seemed but still. We were deceived. If time had +been accelerated, if the movements in that war of phantoms had been +speeded, we should have seen what really was there, the greater trees +running upwards to starve the weak of light and food, and heard the +continuous collapse of the failures, and have seen the lianas writhing +and constricting, manifestly like serpents, throttling and eating their +hosts. We did see the dead everywhere, shells with the worms at them. +Yet it was not easy to be sure that we saw anything at all, for these +were not trees, but shapes in a region below the day, a world sunk +abysmally from the land of living things, to which light but thinly +percolated down to two travellers moving over its floor, trying to get +out to their own place. + +Late in the afternoon we were surprised by a steep hill in our way, +where the forest was more open. Palms became conspicuous on the slopes, +and the interior of the sombre woods was lighted with bright and +graceful foliage. The wild banana was frequent, its long rippling +pennants showing everywhere. The hill rose sharply, perhaps for six +hundred feet, and over its surface were scattered large stones, and +stones are rare indeed in this land of vegetable humus. They were often +six inches in diameter, and I should have said they were waterworn but +that I had seen them _in situ_ at one camp, where they occurred but +little below the surface in a friable sandstone, the largest of them +easily broken in the hand, for they were but ferrous concretions of +quartz grains. After exposure to the air they so hardened that they +could be fractured only with difficulty. We kept along the ridge of the +hill, finding breaks in the forest through which, as through unexpected +windows, we could see, for a wonder, over the roof of the forest, +looking out of our prison to a wide world where the sun was declining. +In the south-west we caught the gleam of the Madeira, and beyond it saw +a continuation of the range of hills on which we stood. + +In the low ground between the hill range and the river the forest was +lower, and was so tangled a mass that I doubted whether we could make a +way through it. We happened upon a deserted Caripuna village, three +large sheds, without sides, each but a ragged thatch propped on four +legs. The clearing was just large enough to hold them. I could find no +relics of the forest folk about. Damp leaves were thick on the floor of +each shelter. But it was lucky we found the huts, for thence a trail led +us to the river. We emerged suddenly from the forest, just as one goes +through a little door into the open street. We were on the bank of the +Madeira by the upper falls of the Caldeirao. It was still a great river, +with the wall of the forest opposite, just above which the sunset was +flaming, so far away that its tree trunks were but vertical lines of +silver in dark cliffs. A track used by the Bolivian rubber boatmen led +us down stream to the camp by the lower falls. + +It was night when we got to the three huts of the camp, and the river +could not be seen, but it was heard, a continuous low thundering. +Sometimes a greater shock of deep waters falling, an orgasm of the flood +pouring unseen, more violent than the rest, made the earth tremulous. +Men held up lanterns to our faces, and led us to a hut. It was but the +usual roof of leaves. We rested in hammocks slung between the posts, and +I ached in every limb. But here we were at last; and there is no more +luxurious bed than a hammock, yielding and resilient, as though you were +cradled on air; and there is no pipe like that smoked in a hammock at +night in the tropics after a day of toil and anxiety in a dissolving +heat, for the heat makes a pipe bitter and impossible; but if a tropic +night is cool and cloudless it comes like a benediction, and the silence +is a peace that is below you and around, and as high as the stars +towards which your face is turned. The ropes of the hammock creaked. +Sometimes a man spoke quietly, as though he were at a great distance. +The sound of the water receded, was heard only as in a sleep, and it +might have been the loud murmur of the spinning globe, heard because we +had left this world and had leisure for trifles in a securer world +apart. + +In the morning, while they prepared the little steam launch for its +journey down the rapids, I had time to climb about the smooth granite +boulders of the foreshore below the hut. A rock is so unusual in this +country that it is a luxury when found. The granite was bare, but in its +crevices grew cacti and other plants with fleshy leaves and swollen +stems. Shadowing the hut was a tree bearing trumpet-shaped flowers, and +before the blossoms humming birds were hovering, glowing and evanescent +morsels, remaining miraculously suspended when inserting their long +bills into the flowers, their little wings beating so rapidly that the +air seemed visible and radiant about them. Another tree here interested +me, for it was Bates Assacu, the only one I saw. It was a large tree, +with palmate leaves having seven fingers. Ugly spines studded even its +brown trunk. + +I looked out on the river dubiously. A rocky island was just off shore, +crowned with trees. Between us and the island, and beyond, the waters +heaved and circled, evidently of great depth, and fearfully disturbed +and swift. It looked all its name, the Caldeirao do Inferno—hell’s +cauldron. There was not much white and broken water. But its surface was +always changing, whirlpools forming and revolving, then disappearing in +long wrenched strands of water. Sometimes a big tree would leap out of +the water, as though it had travelled upwards from the bottom, and then +would vanish again. + +We set out upon it, with an engineman and two half-breeds, and went off +obliquely for mid-stream. The engineman and navigator was a fair-haired +German. If the river had been sane and usual I should have had my eyes +on the forest which stood along each shore, for few white men had ever +looked upon it. But the river took our minds, and never in bad weather +in the western ocean have I seen water so full of menace. Yet below the +falls it was silent and unbroken. It was its smooth swiftness, its +strange checks and mysterious and deep convulsions, as though the river +bed itself was insecure, the startling whirlpools which appeared without +warning, circling depressions on the surface in which our launch would +have been but a straw, which shocked the mind. It was stealthy and +noiseless. The water was but an inch or two below our gunwale. We saw +trees afloat, greater and heavier than our midget of a craft, shooting +down the gently inclined shining expanse just as we were, and express; +and then, as if an awful hand had grasped them from below, they were +pulled under, and we saw them no more; or, again, and near to us and +ahead, a tree bole would shoot from below like an arrow, though no tree +had been drifting there. The shores were far away. + +The water ahead grew worse. The German crouched by his little throbbing +engine, looking anxiously—I could see his fixed stare—over the bows. +We were travelling indeed now. The boat, in a rapid tremor, and +oscillating violently, was clutched at the keel by something which +coiled strongly about us, gripped us, and held us; and the boat, mad and +terrified, in an effort to escape, made a circuit, the water lipping at +her gunwale and coming over the bows. The river seemed poised a foot +above the bows, ready to pour in and swamp us. The German tried to get +her head down stream. Hills began tearing at his ammunition belt, and I +stooped and tugged at my boot laces.... + +The boat jumped, as if released. The German turned round on us grinning. +“It ees all right,” he said. He began to roll a cigarette nervously. “We +pull it off all right,” said the German, wetting his cigarette paper. +The boat was free, dancing lightly along. The little engine was singing +quickly and freely. + +The Madeira here was as wide as in its lower reaches, with many islands. +There were hosts of waterfowl. We landed once at a rubber hunter’s sitio +on the right bank. Its owner, a Bolivian, and his pretty Indian wife, +who had tattoo marks on her forehead, made much of us, and gave us +coffee. They had an orchard of guavas, and there, for it was long since +I had tasted fruit, I was an immoderate thief, in spite of a pet +curassow which followed me through the garden with distracting pecks. +The Rio Jaci-Parana, a blackwater stream, opened up soon after we left +the sitio. The boundary between the clay-coloured flood of the Madeira +and the dark water of the tributary was straight and distinct. From a +distance the black water seemed like ink, but we found it quite clear +and bright. The Jaci is not an important branch river, but it was, at +this period of the rains, wider than the Thames at Richmond, and without +doubt very much deeper. The appearance of the forest on the Jaci was +quite different from the palisades of the parent stream. On the Madeira +there is commonly a narrow shelf of bank, above which the jungle rises +as would a sheer cliff. The Jaci had no banks. The forest was deeply +submerged on either side, and whenever an opening showed in the woods we +could see the waters within, but could not see their extent because of +the interior gloom. The outer foliage was awash, and mounted, not +straight, but in rounded clouds. For the first time I saw many vines and +trees in flower, presumably because we were nearer the roof of the +woods. One tree was loaded with the pendent pear-shaped nests of those +birds called “hang nests,” and scores of the beauties in their black and +gold plumage were busy about their homes, which resembled monstrous +fruits. Another tree was weighted with large racemes of orange-coloured +blossoms, but as the launch passed close to it we discovered the blooms +were really bundles of caterpillars. The Jaci appeared to be a haunt of +the alligators, but all we saw of them was their snouts, which moved +over the surface of the water out of our way like rubber balls afloat +and mysteriously propelled. I had a sight, too, of that most regal of +the eagles, the harpy, for one, well within view, lifted from a tree +ahead, and sailed finely over the river and away. + +That night I slept again in my old hut at the Jaci camp, and with Hill +and another official set off early next morning for the construction +camp on Rio Caracoles, which we hoped to reach before the commissary +train left for Porto Velho. At Porto Velho the “Capella” was, and I +wished, perhaps as much as I have ever wished for anything, that I +should not be left behind when she departed. I knew she must be on the +point of sailing. + +My two companions had reasons of their own for thinking the catching of +that train was urgently necessary. In our minds we were already settled +and safe in a waggon, comfortable among the empty boxes, going back to +the place where the crowd was. But still we had some way to ride; and, I +must tell you, I was now possessed of all I desired of the tropical +forest, and had but one fixed idea in my dark mind, but one bright star +shining there; I had turned about, and was going home, and now must +follow hard and unswervingly that star in the east of my mind. The +rhythmic movements of the mule under me—only my legs knew he was +there—formed in my darkened mind a refrain: get out of it, get out of +it. + +And at last there were the huts and tents of the Caracoles, still and +quiet under the vertical sun. No train was there, nor did it look a +place for trains. My steamer was sixty miles away, beyond a track along +which further riding was impossible, and where walking, for more than +two miles, could not be even considered. The train, the boys told us +blithely, went back half an hour before. The audience of trees regarded +my consternation with the indifference which I had begun to hate with +some passion. The boys naturally expected that we should take it in the +right way for hot climates, without fuss, and that now they had some new +gossip for the night. But they should have understood Hill better. My +tall gaunt leader waved them aside, for he was a man who could do +things, when there seemed nothing that one could do. “The terminus or +bust!” he cried. “Where’s the boss?” He demanded a handcart and a crew. +I thought he spoke in jest. A handcart is a contrivance propelled along +railway metals by pumping at a handle. The handle connects with the +wheels by a crank and cogs through a slot in the centre of the platform, +and you get five miles an hour out of it, while the crew continues. For +sixty miles, in that heat, it was impossible. Yet Hill persisted; the +cart was put on the metals, five half-breeds manned the pump handle, +three facing the track ahead, two with their backs to it. We three +passengers sat on the sides and front of the trolley. Away we went. + +The boys cheered and laughed, calling out to us the probabilities of our +journey. We trundled round a corner, and already I had to change my +cramped position; fifty-eight miles to go. We sat with our legs held up +out of the way of the vines and rocks by the track, and careful to +remember that our craniums must be kept clear of the pump handle. The +crew went up and down, with fixed looks. The sun was the eye of the last +judgment, and my lips were cracked. The trees made no sign. The natives +went up and down; and the forest went by, tree by tree. + +My tired and thoughtless legs dropped, and a thorn fastened its teeth +instantly in my boots, and nearly had me down. The trees went by, one by +one. There was a large black and yellow butterfly on a stone near us. I +was surprised when no sound came as it made a grand movement upwards. +Then, in the heart of nowhere, the trolley slackened, and came to a +stand. We had lost a pin. Half a mile back we could hardly credit we +really had found that pin, but there it was; and the men began to go up +and down again. Hill got a touch of fever, and the natives had changed +to the colour of impure tallow, and flung their perspiration on my face +and hands as they swung mechanically. The poor wretches! We were done. +The sun weighed untold tons. + +But the sun declined, some monkeys began to howl, and the sunset tempest +sprang down on us its assault, shaking the high screens on either hand, +and the rain beat with the roll of kettle-drums. Then we got on an up +grade, and two of the spent natives collapsed, their chests heaving. So +I and the other chap stood up in the night, looked to the stars, from +which no help could be got, took hold of the pump handle like gallant +gentlemen, and tried to forget there were twenty miles to go. Away we +went, jog, jog, uphill. I thought that gradient would not end till my +heart and head had burst; but it did, just in time. + +We gathered speed on a down grade. We flew. Presently the man with the +fever yelled, “The brake, the brake!” But the brake was broken. The +trolley was not running, but leaping in the dark. Every time it came +down it found the metals. A light was coming towards us on the line; and +the others prepared to jump. I could not even see that light, for my +back was turned to our direction, and I could not let go the flying +handle, else would all control have gone, and also I should have been +smashed. I shut my eyes, pumped swiftly and involuntarily, and waited +for doom to hit me in the back. The blow was a long time coming. Then +Hill’s gentle voice remarked, “All right, boys, it’s a firefly.” + +... I became only a piece of machinery, and pumped, and pumped, with no +more feeling than a bolster. Shadows undulated by us everlastingly. I +think my tongue was hanging out.... + +Lights were really seen at last. Kind hands lifted us from the engine of +torture; and I heard the remembered voice of the Skipper, “Is he there? +I thought it was a case.” + + * * * * * + +That night of my return a full moon and a placid river showed me the +“Capella” doubled, as in a mirror, and admiring the steamer’s deep +inverted shape I saw a heartening portent—I saw steam escaping from the +funnel which was upside down. A great joy filled me at that, and I +turned to the Skipper, as we strode over the ties of the jetty. “Yes. We +go home to-morrow,” he said. The bunk was super-heated again by the +engine room, but knowing the glad reason, I endured it with pleasure. +To-morrow we turned about. + +Yet on the morrow there was still the persistence of the spacious +idleness which encompassed us impregnably, beyond which we could not go. +The little that was left of the fuel in the holds went out of us with +dismal unhaste. The Skipper and the mates fumed, and the Doctor took me +round to see the “Capella’s” pets, so that we might fill up time. A +monkey, an entirely secular creature once with us, had died while I was +away. It was well. He had no name; Vice was his name. There were no +tears at his death, and Tinker the terrier began to get back some of his +full and lively form again after that day when, in a sudden righteous +revolution, he slew, and barbarously mangled, the insolent tyrant of the +ship. The monkey had feared none but Mack, our red, blue and yellow +macaw, a monstrous and resplendent fowl in whose iron bill even Brazil +nuts were soft. + +But we all respected Mack. He was the wisest thing on the ship. If an +idle man felt high-spirited and approached Mack to demonstrate his +humour, that great bird gave an inquiring turn to its head, and its +deliberate and unwinking eyes hid the rapid play of its prescient mind. +The man stopped, and would speak but playfully. Nobody ever dared. + +When Mack first boarded the ship, a group of us, gloved, smothered him +with a heavy blanket and fastened a chain to his leg. He knew he was +overpowered, and did not struggle, but inside the blanket we heard some +horrible chuckles. We took off the blanket and stood back expectantly +from that dishevelled and puzzling giant of a parrot. He shook his +feathers flat again, quite self-contained, looked at us sardonically and +murmured “Gur-r-r” very distinctly; then glanced at his foot. There was +a little surprise in his eye when he saw the chain there. He lifted up +the chain to examine it, tried it, and then quietly and easily bit it +through. “Gur-r-r!” he said again, straightening his vest, still +regarding us solemnly. Then he moved off to a davit, and climbed the +mizzen shrouds to the top-mast. + +When he saw us at food he came down with nonchalance, and overlooked our +table from the cross beam of an awning. Apparently satisfied, he came +directly to the mess table, sitting beside me, and took his share with +all the assurance of a member, allowing me to idle with his beautiful +wings and his tail. He was a beauty. He took my finger in his awful bill +and rolled it round like a cigarette. I wondered what he would do to it +before he let it go; but he merely let it go. He was a great character, +magnanimously minded. I never knew a tamer creature than Mack. That +evening he rejoined a flock of his wild brothers in the distant +tree-tops. But he was back next morning, and put everlasting fear into +the terrier, who was at breakfast, by suddenly appearing before him with +wings outspread on the deck, looking like a disrupted and angry rainbow, +and making raucous threats. The dog gave one yell and fell over +backwards. + +We had added a bull-frog to our pets, and he must have weighed at least +three pounds. He had neither vice nor virtue, but was merely a squab in +a shady corner. Whenever the dog approached him he would rise on his +legs, however, and inflate himself till he was globular. This was +incomprehensible to Tinker, who was contemptuous, but being a little +uncertain, would make a circuit of the frog. Sitting one day in the +shadow of the box which enclosed the rudder chain was the frog, and we +were near, and up came Tinker a-trot all unthinking, his nose to the +deck. The frog hurriedly furnished his pneumatic act when Tinker, who +did not know froggie was there, was close beside him, and Tinker snapped +sideways in a panic. Poor punctured froggie dwindled instantly, and +died. + +I could add to the list of our creatures the anaconda which was found +coming aboard by the gangway but that a stoker saw him first, became +hysterical, and slew the reptile with a shovel; there were the coral +snakes which came inboard over the cables and through the hawse pipes, +and the vampire bats which frequented the forecastle. But they are +insignificant beside our peccary. I forgot to tell you the Skipper never +made a tame creature of her. She refused us. We brought her up from the +bunkers where first she was placed, because the stokers flatly refused +her society in the dark. She was brought up on deck in bonds, snapping +her tushes in a direful way, and when released did most indomitably +charge all our ship’s company, bristles up, and her automatic teeth +louder and more rapid than ever. How we fled! When I turned on my +vantage, the manner of my getting there all unknown, to see who was my +neighbour, it was my abashed and elderly captain, who can look upon sea +weather at its worst with an easy eye, but who then was striving +desperately to get his legs (which were in pyjamas) ten feet above the +deck, in case the very wild pig below had wings. + +After the peccary was released we could not call the ship ours. We crept +about as thieves. It was fortunate that she always gave warning of her +proximity by making the noise of castanets with her tusks, so that we +had time to get elevated before she arrived. But I never really knew how +fast she could move till I saw her chase the dog, whom she despised and +ignored. One morning his valiant barking at her, from a distance he +judged to be adequate, annoyed her, and she shot at him like a +projectile. Her slender limbs and diminutive hooves were those of a +deer, and they became merely a haze beneath her body, which was a flying +passion. The terrified dog had no chance, but just as she closed with +him her feet slipped, and so Tinker’s life was saved. + +Her end was pitiful. One day she got into the saloon. The Doctor and I +were there, and saw her trot in at one door, and we trotted out at +another door. Now, the saloon was the pride of the Skipper; and when the +old man tried to bribe her out of it—he talked to her from the open +skylight above—and she insulted him with her mouth, he sent for his +men. From behind a shut door of the saloon alley way we heard a fusilade +of tusks in the saloon, shrieks from the maddened dog, uproar from the +parrots, and the hoarse shouts of the crew. The pig was charging ten +ways at once. Stealing a look from the cabin we saw the boatswain appear +with a bunch of cotton waste, soaked in kerosene, blazing at the end of +a bamboo, and the mate with a knife lashed to another pole. The peccary +charged the lot. There broke out the cries of Tophet, and through chaos +champed insistently the high note of the tusks. She was noosed and +caged; but nothing could be done with the little fury, and when I peeped +in at her a few days later she was full length, and dying. She opened +one glazing eye at me, and snapped her teeth slowly, game to the end. + + * * * * * + +_March 6._—It was reported at breakfast that we sail to-morrow. The +bread was sour, the butter was oil, the sugar was black with flies, the +sausages were tinned and very white and dead, and the bacon was all fat. +And even the awning could not keep the sun away. + +_March 7._—We got the hatches on number four hold. It is reported we +sail to-morrow. + +_March 8._—The ship was crowded this night with the boys, for a last +jollification. We fired rockets, and swore enduring friendships with +anybody, and many sang different songs together. It is reported that we +sail to-morrow. + +_March 9._—It is reported that we sail to-morrow. + +_March 10._—The “Capella” has come to life. The master is on the +bridge, the first mate is on the forecastle head, the second mate is on +the poop, and the engineers are below. There are stern and minatory +cries, and men who run. At the first slow clanking of the cable we +raised wild cheers. The ship’s body began to tremble, and there was +thunder under her counter. We actually came away from the jetty, where +long we had seemed a fixture. We got into mid-stream—stopped; slowly +turned tail on Porto Velho. There was old man Jim, diminished on the +distant jetty, waving his hat. Porto Velho looked strange again. Away we +went. We reached the bend of the river, and turned the corner. There was +the last we shall ever see of Porto Velho. Gone! + +The forest unfolding in reverse order seemed brighter, and all would +have been quite well, but the fourth engineer came up from his duty, and +fell insensible. He was very yellow, and the Doctor had work to do. Here +was the first of our company to succumb to the country. + + * * * * * + +There were but six more days of forest; for the old “Capella,” empty and +light as a balloon, the collisions with the floating timber causing +muffled thunder in her hollow body, came down the swift floods of the +Madeira and the Amazon rivers “like a Cunarder, at sixteen knots,” as +the Skipper said. And there on the sixth day was Para again, and the sea +near. Our spirits mounted, released from the dead weight of heat and +silence. But I was to lose the Doctor at Para, for he was then to return +to Porto Velho, having discharged his duty to the “Capella’s” company. +The Skipper took his wallet, and we went ashore with him, he to his +day-long task of clearing his vessel, and we for a final sad excursion. +Much later in the day, suspecting an unnameable evil was gathering to my +undoing, I called at the agent’s office, and found the Skipper had +returned to the ship, that she was sailing that night, and, the +regulations of Para being what they were, it being after six in the +evening I could not leave the city till next morning. My haggard and +dismayed array of thoughts broke in confusion and left me gibbering, +with not one idea for use. Without saying even good-bye to my old +comrade I took to my heels, and left him; and that was the last I saw of +the Doctor. (Aha! my staunch support in the long, hot and empty time at +the back of things, where were but trees, bad food, and a jest to brace +our souls, if ever you should see this—How!—and know, dear lad, I +carried the damnable regulations and a whole row of officials, the Union +Jack at the main, firing every gun as I bore down on them. I broke +through. Only death could have barred me from my ship and the way home.) + +Next morning we were at sea. We dropped the pilot early and changed our +course to the north, bound for Barbados. Though on the line, the +difference in the air at sea, after our long enclosure in the rivers of +the forest, was keenly felt. And the ship too had been so level and +quiet; but here she was lively again, full of movements and noises. The +bows were at their old difference with the skyline, and the steady wind +of the outer was driving over us. Before noon, when I went in to the +Chief, my crony was flat and moribund with a temperature at 105°, and he +had no interest in this life whatever. I had added the apothecary’s +duties to those of the Purser, and here found my first job. (Doctor, I +gave him lots of grains of quinine, and lots more afterwards; and plenty +of calomel when he was at 98 again. Was that all right?) + +The sight of the big and hearty Chief, when he was about once more, +yellow, insecure, and somewhat shrunken, made us dubious. Yet now were +we rolling home. She was breasting down into a creaming smother, the +seas were blue, and the world was fresh and wide all the way back. There +was one fine night, as we were climbing slowly up the slope of the +globe, when we lifted the whole constellation of the Great Bear, the +last star of the tail just dipping below the seas, straight over the +“Capella’s” bows, as she pitched. Then were we assured affairs were +rightly ordered, and slept well and contented. + + * * * * * + +Late one afternoon we sighted Barbados. The sea was dark and the light +was golden. The island did not look like land. It was a faint but +constant pearl-coloured cloud. The empty sky came down to the dark sea +in bright walls which had but a bloom of azure. Overhead it was day, but +the sea was fluid night. Above the island was a group of cirrus, turned +to the setting sun like an audience of intent faces. Near to starboard +was a white ship, fully rigged, standing towards the island with royals +set, and even a towering main skysail. Tall as she was, she looked but a +multiple cloud which had dropped from the sky, and had settled on the +dark sea, and over it was drifting in a faint air, buoyant, but unable +to lift. We overhauled that stately ship. She was reflecting the dayfall +from the white rounds of her many sails. She was regal, she was +paramount in her world, and the sun seemed to be watching her, and +shining solely for her illustrious progress. The clarity and the peace +of it was in us as we leaned against the rail, watching Barbados grow, +and watching that exalted ship. “This is all right,” said the Chief. + +We were coming to the things we knew and understood. In the island near +us were men, quays, and shops. This evening had a familiar and friendly +look. Barbados at last! There would be something to eat, too, and we +kept talking of that. Do you know what good bread and butter tastes +like? Or mealy baked potatoes? Or fruit from which the juice runs when +you bite? Or crisp salads? Not you; not if you haven’t lived for long on +tinned stuffs, bread which smelt like vinegar, and butter to which a +spoon had to be used. + +To the door of the saloon alley way we saw the steward come, and begin +to swing his bell. “Tea ho!” said the mate. “Keep it,” said the Chief. +“I know it. Sardines and hash. Not for me. We shall get some grub in the +morning. Oranges and bananas, boys. I’m tired of oil. My belt is in by +three holes.” + +When the sun once touched the sea it sank visibly, like a weight. Night +came at once. We passed a winking light, and soon ahead of us in the +dark was grouped a multitude of lower stars. That was Bridgetown. Those +stars opened and spread round us, showing nothing of the wall of night +in which they were fixed. Well, there it was. We could smell the good +land. We should see it in the morning. We had really got there. + +The engines stopped. There was a shout from the steamer’s bridge and a +thunderous rumbling as the cable ran out, and then a remarkable quiet. +The old man came sideways down the bridge ladder with a hurricane lamp, +and stood with us, striking a light for his cigar. “Here we are, Chief,” +he said. “What about coals in the morning?” The night was hot, there was +no wind, and as we sat yarning on the bunker hatch another cluster of +stars moved in swiftly together, came to a stand near us, and a +peremptory gun was fired. That was the British mail steamer. + +We looked at her with awe. We could see the toffs in evening dress +idling in the glow of her electric lights. What a feed they had just +finished! But the greatest wonder of her deck was the women in white +gowns. We could hear the strange laughter of the women, and listened for +it. That was music worth listening to. Our little mob of toughs in turns +used the night glasses on those women, and in a dead silence. There were +some kiddies, too. + +We were looking at the benign lights of the island and trying to make +out what they meant. The sense of our repose, and the touch of those +warm and velvet airs, and the scent of land, were like the kindness and +security of home. “I know this place,” drawled Sandy. “I was here once. +Before I went into steam I used to come out to the islands, when I was a +young ’un. I made two voyages in the ‘Chocolate Girl.’ She was my first +ship. She was a daisy, too. Once we lifted St. Vincent twenty-five days +out of Liverpool. That was going, if you like. If old Wager—he was the +old man of the ‘Chocolate Girl’—if he could only get a trip in a ship +like this, like an iron street with a factory stack in the middle! But +he can’t. He’s dead. He had the ‘Mignonette,’ and she went missing among +the Bahamas. There’s millions of islands in the Bahamas. They’re north +of this place. You couldn’t visit all those islands in a lifetime. + +“If you ask me, some of the islands in these seas are very funny. +There’s something wrong about a few of them. They’re not down in the +chart, so I’ve heard. One day you lift one, and you never knew it was +there. ‘What’s that?’ says the old man. ‘Can’t make that place out.’ +Then he reckons he’s found new land, and takes his position. He calls it +after his wife, and cables home what he’s done. The next thing is a +gunboat goes there and beats about and lays over the spot, but she +doesn’t find no island. The gunboat cables home that the merchant chap +was drunk or something, and that he steamed over the spot and got +hundreds of fathoms. They’re always so clever, in the navy. But I’ve +heard some of these islands are not right. You see one once, and nobody +ever sees it again. + +“I knew a man, and he was marooned on one of those islands. He sailed +with me afterwards on one of the Blue Anchor steamers to Sydney. One +time he was on a craft out of Martinique for Cuba. She was a schooner of +the islands, and fine vessels they are. You’ll see a lot about us in the +morning. This man’s name was Moffat—Bill Moffat. His schooner had a +mulatto for a master, and that nigger was a fool and very superstitious, +by all accounts. They ran short of water, and it’s pretty bad if you +fall short of water in these seas. Off the regular routes there’s +nothing. You might drift for weeks, and see nothing, off the track. + +“Then they sighted an island. The mulatto chap pretended he knew all +about that island. He said he had been there before. But he was a liar. +It was only a little island, like some trees afloat. They came down on +it, and anchored in ten fathoms and waited for daylight. + +“Next morning some wind freshened off shore, and Moffat takes a nigger +and rows to the beach. There was only a light swell breaking on the +coral, and landing was easy. Moffat told the nigger to stay by the boat +while he took a look round. There was a bit of a coral beach with a pile +of high rocks at the ends of it, like pillars each side of a doorstep. +What was inside the island Moffat couldn’t see, because at the back of +the beach was a wood. He said he heard a sound like a bird calling, but +he reckoned there wasn’t a soul in that place. The schooner was riding +just off. He turned and was crunching his way up the coral with the idea +of looking for a way inside. He got to the trees, and then heard the +nigger shout in a fright. The black beggar was pushing out the boat. He +got in it too, and began rowing back to the schooner as if somebody was +coming after him. + +“Moffat yelled, and ran down to the surf, but the nigger kept right on. +There was Moffat up to his knees in the water, and in a fine state. The +boat reached the schooner—and now, thinks Moffat, there’ll be trouble. +Do you know what happened though? For a little while nothing happened. +Then they began to haul in her cable. She upanchored and stood out. +That’s a fact. Bill told me he felt pretty sick when he saw it. He +didn’t like the look of it. He watched the schooner turn tail, and soon +she found more wind and got out of sight past the island, close-hauled. +He watched her dance past one of the piles of rocks till there was +nothing but empty sea behind the rock. Then his eye caught something +moving on the rock. Something moved round it out of his sight. He never +saw what it was. He wished he had. + +“Well, he had a pretty bad time. He couldn’t find anyone on the island, +in a manner of speaking. But somebody was always going round a corner, +or behind a tree. He caught them out of the tail of his eye. He said it +was enough to get on a man’s nerves the way that thing always just +wasn’t there, whatever it was. ‘Curse the goats,’ Bill used to say to +himself. + +“One day Bill was strolling round figuring out what he could do to that +mulatto when he met him again, and then he found a sea cave. He went in. +It was a silly thing to do, because the way in was so low that he had to +crawl. But the cave was big enough inside for a music-hall. The walls +ran up into a vault, and the water came up to the bottom of the walls +nearly all round. The water was like a green light. A bright light came +up through the water, and the reflections were wriggling all over the +rocks, making them seem to shake. The water was like thick glass full of +light. He could see a long way down, but not to the bottom. While he was +looking at it the water heaved up quietly full three feet, and the +reflections on the walls faded. Then he saw the hole through which he +had crawled was gone. ‘Now, Bill Moffat, you’re in a regular mess,’ he +says to himself. + +“He dived for the hole. But he never found that way out, and the funny +thing was he couldn’t come to the top again. Bill saw it was a proper +case that time, and no more Sundays in Poplar. He was surprised to find +that the deeper he went the thinner the water was. It was thin and +clear, like electric light. He could see miles there, and down he kept +falling till he hit the bottom with a bang. It scared a lot of fishes, +and they flew up like birds. He looked up to see them go, and there was +the sun overhead, only it was like a bright round of green jelly, all +shaking. Bill found it was dead easy to breathe in water that was no +thicker than air, so he got up, brushed the sand off, and looked round. +A flock of fishes flew about him quite friendly, and as beautiful as +Amazon parrots. A big crab walked ahead, and Bill thought he had better +follow the crab. + +“He came to a path which was marked with shells, and at the end of the +path he saw the fore half of a ship up-ended. While he was looking at +it, somebody pushed the curtains from the hatchway, and came out, and +looked at him. ‘Good lord, it’s Davy Jones,’ said Bill to himself. + +“‘Hullo, Bill,’ said Davy. ‘Come in. Glad to see you, Bill. What a time +you’ve been.’ + +“Moffat said that Davy wasn’t a decent sight, having barnacles all over +his face. But he shook hands. ‘You’re hand is quite cold, Bill,’ said +Davy. ‘Did you lose your soul coming along? You nearly did that before, +Bill Moffat. You nearly did it that Christmas night off Ushant. I +thought you were coming then. But not you. But here you are at last all +right. Come in! Come in!’ + +“Bill went inside with Davy. There was sea junk all over the place. ‘I +find these things very handy, old chap,’ said Davy to Bill, seeing he +was looking at them. ‘It’s good of you to send them down, though I don’t +like the iron, for it won’t stand the climate. See that old hat? It’s a +Spanish admiral’s. I clap it on, backwards, whenever I want to go +ashore.’ + +“So they sat down, and yarned about old times, though Bill told me that +Davy seemed to remember people after everybody else had forgotten them, +which was confusing. ‘Oh, yes,’ Davy would say, ‘old Johnson. Yes. He +used to talk of me in a rare way. He was a dog, was Johnson. I’ve heard +him, many a time. But he’s changed since his ship came downstairs. He’s +a better man. He’s not so funny as he was.’ + +“Then they had a pipe, and after a bit things began to drag. ‘Come into +the garden, Bill,’ said Davy. ‘Come and have a look round.’ + +“All round the garden Bill noticed the name-boards of ships nailed up. +Some of the names Bill knew, and some he didn’t, being Spanish. ‘What do +you think of my collection?’ said Davy. ‘Ever seen as fine a one? I lay +you never have!’ + +“Then they came to a door. ‘Come in,’ said Davy. ‘This is my locker. +Ever heard of my locker?’ + +“Bill said it was pretty dark inside. Just light enough to see. But +there was only miles and miles of crab-pots, all set out in rows, with a +label on each. ‘What do you think of that lot, Bill?’ asked Davy. ‘I +shall have to get larger premises soon.’ Bill choked a bit, for the +place smelt stale and seaweedy. ‘What’s in the crab-pots, Davy?’ said +Bill. + +“‘Souls!’ said Davy. ‘But there’s a lot of trash, though now and then I +get a good one. Here, now. See this? This is a fine one, though I +mustn’t tell you where I got it. And people said he hadn’t got one. But +I knew better, and there it is.’ + +“But Bill couldn’t see anything in the pots. He could only hear a +rustling, as if something was rubbing on the wicker, or a twittering. At +last Davy came to a new pot. ‘Do you know who’s in this one, Bill,’ he +said. But Bill couldn’t guess. ‘Well, Bill, it’s your soul, and a poorer +one I never see. It was hardly worth setting the pot for a soul like +that.’ Then Davy began to shake the pot, and soon got wild. ‘Here, where +the deuce has that soul gone,’ he said, and put his ear to the bars. +Then he put the pot down and made a rush at Bill, to get it back; but +Bill jumped backwards, got through the door, ran through the house, +grabbed the admiral’s cocked hat, and clapped it on backwards. Then he +shot out of the water at once, and found himself on the rocks outside +the cave, with the cocked hat still on his head. He’s kept that hat ever +since, and money wouldn’t buy it.” + + * * * * * + +When I woke next morning it was like waking to a great occasion. The +tropic sun was blazing outside. The day seemed of a superior quality. An +old negress shuffled by my cabin door, through which was a peep of the +town across the harbour, and she had some necklaces of shells strung on +one skinny black arm and carried a basket of oranges on the other. I +jumped up, and bought all the oranges. A boat came to our gangway and +some of us went ashore. I don’t know what a man feels like who is +released one fine day from imprisonment into the stream of his fellows, +but I should think he is first a little stunned, and afterwards becomes +like a child’s balloon in a breeze. The people we had met in the Brazils +never laughed; and I myself had always felt that there we had been +watched and followed unseen, that something was there, watching us, +waiting its time, knowing well it could get us before we escaped. + +We were at last outside it and free. The anchorage of Bridgetown seemed +anarchic, after our level sombre experience, for the sea was a green +light, flashing and volatile, with white schooners driving upon it, +negroes shouting and laughing over the bulwarks, or frantically hauling +on the sheets. The rushing water was crowded with leaping boats, all +gaudily painted; and even the sunshine, moving rapidly on quivering +white sails and the white hulls buoyantly swinging, was a kind of +shaking laughter. Our negro boatmen sang as they rowed, when they were +not swearing at other boatmen. The world had got wine in its head. + +We went to the Ice House, and bought English beer. (Oh, the taste of +beer!) In the brisk and sunny streets there were English women, cool, +dainty, a little haughty, their dresses smelling of new linen, and they +were looking in at shop windows. We had got our feet down on home +pavements, and the streets had the newness and sparkle of holiday. “Hi, +cabby!” + +He drove us along coral roads, under cocoanut palms, and there were +golden hills (hills once more!) one way, and on the other hand was a +beach glowing like white fire, with a sea beyond of a blue that was +ultimate, profound, and as tense and as still as rapture. We came to a +hotel where there was stiff napery, with creases in it, on a breakfast +table. There was a silver coffee-pot. There was sweet-smelling and +crusty bread, butter in ice, and new milk. There was a heaped plate of +fruit. There was a crystal jug filled with cold water and sunshine, and +it threw a wavering light on the damask. + +We had some of everything. We ate for more than an hour, steadily. A man +could not have done it alone, and without shame. There was one superior +lady tourist, with grey curls on her cheeks and a face like doom, and +she sent for the manager, and asked if we were to breakfast there again. +She wanted to know. The Chief begged me, as the youngest of the party, +to go over and kiss her. But I pointed out that, seeing where we had +come from, and what we had suffered, it was the plain duty of any really +dear old soul to come over and kiss us on a morning like that. + + * * * * * + +In the afternoon we were aboard again, waiting for the Skipper to return +with the new orders. To what part of the world would the power in +Leadenhall Street now consign us? Sandy thought New Orleans; but we +could rule that out, for there was no cotton just then. Pensacola was +more likely, the Chief said, with a deck cargo of lumber for Hamburg. +That guess made the crowd glum. Winter in the Atlantic, she rolling her +heart out, and the timber that was level with the engine-room casing +groaning and straining at every roll—to dwell on that prospect was to +feel a cold draught out of the Valley of Shadows. + +Two nigger boys were overside, diving for coins. You threw a +coin—Brazil’s nickel muck, a handful worth nothing—and it went below +oscillating, as though sentiently dodging the contorted and convulsive +figure of the boy diving after it. The transparency of the fathoms was +that of a denser air. When the sea was still, at the slack of the tides, +this tropic anchorage was not like water. You did not look upon it, but +into it, being hardly aware of its surface. It was surprising to see our +massive iron plates stand upright in it. We were still an ugly black +bulk, as we were on the ditch water of Swansea, but our sea wagon had +lost its look of squat heaviness. Even our iron ship was transmuted, +such was the lift and radiance of Barbados and its sea, into the +buoyancy of the unsubstantial stuff of that scene about us, the low +hills of greenish gold so delicate under the sky of malachite blue that +you doubted whether mortals could walk there. Bridgetown was between +those hills and the sea, a cluster of white cubes, with inconsequential +touches of scarlet, orange, and emerald. Beneath our keel was a boy who +might have been flying there. + +On one side of the town was a belt of coral beach. It was a-fire, and +the palms above the beach, with their secretive villas, and the +green-gold hills beyond, floated on that white glow. The sea below the +beach was an incandescent green; it might have been burning through +contact with the island. Then the sea spread down to us in areas of +opaque violet and blue, till in the neighbourhood of the ship it became +transparent and was but a denser atmosphere. You, in the hard and bitter +north, on the exposed summit of the world where Polaris glitters in the +forehead of a frozen god, hardly know what young and luscious stuff this +earth is, where the constant sun and tepid rains and salt air have +preserved its bloom and flush of abounding life. + +There came the Skipper’s boat, he in his shore-going white ducks and +Panama hat in the stern sheets, his wallet in his hand. He knew that we +all looked at him with assumed indifference, when he stepped among us on +deck. That was his time to show he was the ship’s master. He feigned +that we were not there. He turned to the chief mate: “All ready, Mr. +Brown?” “All ready, sir.” Then the master walked slowly, knowing our +eyes were on his back, to his place aft, first going in to speak to the +Chief. The Chief came out some minutes after. “Tampa, boys,” said he. +“Florida for phosphate, then home.” + +That evening we were on our way, and turned inwards through the line of +the Caribbees, passing between the islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent, +high purple masses of rock, St. Lucia’s mass ascending into cones. The +Skipper had been to most of the West Indian islands, and remembered +them, while I listened. We stood at the chart-room door, watching the +islands across the evening seas. The sun, just above the sharply dark +rim of ocean, touched the sea, and sank. A thin paring of silver moon +had the sky to itself. I went into the chart-room; and the old man who, +grim and sour as you might think him, mellows into confidential +friendliness when he has you to himself, spread his charts of the +Spanish Main under the yellow lamp, which was a slow pendulum as she +rolled, and he put his spectacles on his lean brown face, talked of +unfrequented cays, and of the negro islands, and debated which route we +should take. + +The fourth morning at breakfast-time, was a burning day, with a sky +almost cloudless, and a slow sea which had the surface of its rich blue +deeps shot with turquoise lights, while fields of saffron gulfweed +stained it; and we had, close over our port bow, the most beautiful +island in the world. It is useless to deny it, and to declare you know a +better island. Can’t I see Jamaica now? I see it most plain. It descends +abruptly from the meridian, pinnacles and escarpments trembling in the +upper air with distance and delicate poise, and comes down in rolling +forests and steep verdant slopes, where facets of bare rock glitter, to +more leisurely open glades and knolls; and then, being not far from the +sea, drops in sheer cliffs to where the white combers pulse. It is a +jewel which smells like a flower. The “Capella” went close in till Port +Antonio under the Blue Mountains was plain, and though I could see the +few scattered houses, I could not see the narrow ledges where men could +stand in such a steep land. We crawled over the blue floor in which that +sea mountain is set, and cruised along, feeling very small, under the +various and towering shape. For long I watched it, declaring continually +that some day I must return. (And that is the greatest compliment a +traveller on his way home can pay to any spot on earth.) + +It faded as we drew northwards. Over seas to the north was a long low +stratum of permanent cloud, and beneath it was the faint presentiment of +Cuba. Still we were in the spell of the very halcyon weather of old +tales, with the world our own, though once this day there was a great +rain burst, and the “Capella” was lost in falling water, her syren +blaring. We neared the Cuban coast by the Isle of Pines, a pallid desert +shore, apparently treeless and parched. The next morning we came to the +western cape of the island, rounding it in company with a white island +schooner, its crew of toughs watching us from her shadeless deck; and +changed our course almost due north. + +Now we were in the Gulf of Mexico, and soon upset its notoriously +uncertain temper, for a “norther” met us and piped till it was a full +gale, end-on, and it kicked up a nasty sea which flung about the empty +“Capella” like a band-box. There was a night of it. Towards morning it +eased up, and I woke to a serene sunrise, and found we were in the pale +green water of coral soundings, with the Floridan pilot even then +standing in to us, his tug bearing centrally on its bridge a gilded +eagle with rampant wings. In a little while we were fast to the +quarantine quay at Mullet Island, detained as a yellow fever suspect. +The medical officers boarded us, ranged amidships the “Capella’s” crowd +from the master down, and put in the mouth of each of us a thermometer; +and so for a time we stood ridiculously smoking glass cigarettes. One +stoker was put aside, for he had a temperature. Then into the cabins, +and the saloon, the forecastle, and into the holds, were put gallipots +of burning sulphur, and the doors were closed. We became a great and +dreadful stench; and I went ashore. + +There was a deserted beach of comminuted shells, its glare as bright as +snow in sunshine. It was littered with the relics of old wrecks, with +sea rubbish, and the carapaces of crabs. Beyond the beach was a +calcareous desert, with a scrub of palmetto and evergreen, and patches +of flowering coreopsis and blue squills. Hidden by the scrub were +shallow lagoons. It is hard to tell the sea from the land in warm and +aqueous Florida, for sea and land so invade each other’s dominions. +Water and land were asleep in the sun. I was alone in the island, and +sat in a decaying boat by the shore of a lagoon where nothing moved but +the little crabs playing hide and seek in the moist crevices of the +boat, and the pelicans which sat round the interminable flat shores. +Sometimes the pelicans woke, and yawned, and fanned the heat with great +slow wings. + +In the early afternoon we were allowed to proceed to Tampa, which we +reached in three hours; and there we came once more to the press of the +busy and indifferent world. The muddle of roofs and steeples of a great +city were about us, and men met us and talked to us, but they had no +leisure for interest in the wonders of the strange land from which we +had come, and would not have cared if afterwards we were going to +Gehenna. We made fast under a new structure of timber and iron which was +something between a flour mill and the Tower of Babel, for it was wan +and powdered, and full of strange noises; and it had a habit of eating, +in a mechanical way, an interminable length of railway trucks, wagon +after wagon, one every minute. A great weariness and yearning filled me +that night. The strangulating fumes of the sulphur clung to all the +cabin, and puffed in clouds from the pillow when I changed sides; for +the wagons clanked and banged till daylight. I sat up and beat my +breast, and swore I would leave her and go home. The next morning that +inexplicable structure beside us began from many mouths to vomit floods +of powdered phosphate into us, and the “Capella,” in and out, turned +pale through an almost impalpable dust. Everybody took bronchitis and +cursed Tampa and its phosphate. + +I spoke to the Skipper and the Chief about it, and they agreed that +nobody would stop with her now, who could leave her; but that yet was I +no pal to desert them. What about them? They had yet to see her safe +across the most ruthless of seas at a time when its temper would be at +its worst; and what about them? Though they admitted that, were they in +my case, they would certainly take the train to New York, and catch +there the fastest steamer for England. Then come with me to the British +Consul like an honest man, said I to the captain, and get me off your +articles. + +The three of us left her, I for the last time. I turned upon the +“Capella,” and the boys stood leaning on her taffrail watching me; and I +am not going to put down here what I felt, nor what the lads cried to +me, nor what I said when I stood beneath her counter, and called up to +them. We came to a corner by a warehouse, and I turned to look upon the +“Capella” for the last time. + +Tampa, the noisy city about us, was rawly new, most of its site but +lately a shallow lagoon, and one of its natives, the ship’s agent who +was entertaining us at lunch, did not fail to impress that enterprise +and industry upon us with great earnestness. Tampa was a large, hasty, +makeshift standing of depôts, railway sidings, cigar factories, wharves, +and huge elevators which could load I forget how many thousands of tons +of bulk cargo into a steamer in twelve hours, as though she were an iron +bucket under a pump. A town spontaneous unexpected and complete, with a +hurrying population in its sidewalks, pushing to secure foothold in +life, and not a book-shop there, and no talk but in its saloons and +commercial exchanges. We went into many of those saloons, the Skipper, +and the Chief, and the late Purser, shaking hands for the last time in +each, and then dropping into another to recall old affairs; and shaking +hands finally again, and so to the next bar. + +That night I was alone in Tampa, with a torrent of urgent affairs +surging past. I could not find the railway station. Standing at a +corner, outside a tobacconist’s shop, a huge corridor train shaped among +the lights of the street, trundled down the centre of the roadway, then +edged close to the sidewalk, bumping past a row of shops as casually as +a tram for a penny journey, and stopped just where I stood with a +hand-bag wondering how I was to get to New York. New York was a thousand +miles away. The train was but a mere episode of the open street, and I +could not feel it bore out the promise of my railway vouchers. This +train, a row of lighted villas in motion, came down the roadway, out of +nowhere, while carts and women with market baskets waited for it to +pass, stopped outside a tobacconist’s shop, and the light of the shop +window illuminated a round of a huge wheel which stood higher than my +head. The wheel came to rest upon an abandoned newspaper. A negro was +passing me, and I stopped him. “Noo Yark? Step aboard right now!” His +word was all I had to go upon that this train would take me to the +precise point in a continent I did not know. A struggle for existence +eddied fiercely round the train, and assuming it was the right train, +and I missed it—it was an unbearable thought! The train had to be +mounted. It was like climbing a wall; but I would have cast my luggage, +scaled more than walls, and dealt conclusively with any obstruction if +the way home left me no other choice. The traveller who has been in the +wilds and has lived with the barbarous, though he has not allowed his +thoughts to look back there, yet he knows something of that eagerness +which dumb things feel when he turns about. I took my train on trust, as +one does so many things in the United States, found we should really get +to New York, in time, and lay listening to the beat of the flying wheels +beneath my berth; tried to count their pulse, and fell asleep. + +There were some more days and nights, and all the passengers of the +earlier stages of the journey had passed away. Then the train slowed +through imperceptible gradations, and stopped. I thought a cow was on +the line. But the negro attendant came to me and told me to get out. +This was New York. Outside there was a street in the rain, the stones +were deep with yellow reflections, and some cabmen stood about in shiny +capes. No majestic figure of Liberty met me. A cab met me, on a rainy +night. + + * * * * * + +It was on one of those huge liners, and the steward told him they would +reach Plymouth in the morning. He was packing up his things in his +cabin. England to-morrow! The things went into his trunks in the lump, +with a compressing foot after each. It did not matter. All the clothes +were in ruins. The only care he took was with the toucans brilliant +skins, the bundle of arrows, the biscuit tins full of butterflies—they +would excite the Boy—and the barbaric Indian ornaments for Miss Muffet +and the Curly Nob; how their eyes would shine. His telegram from +Plymouth would surprise them. They did not know where he was. + +But he knew, when they did not, that there was but one more day to tick +off the calendar to complete the exile. He had turned back that day to +the earlier pages of the diary and found some illuminating entries; +“Gone,” or “That’s another,” were written across some spaces which +otherwise were blank. It was curious that those cryptic entries recalled +the hours they stood for more vividly to his mind than those which had +happenings minutely recorded. He threw the diary into a trunk; the long +job was finished. + +The sunshine all that day was different from the well remembered burning +weight of the tropics. It was a frail and grateful spring warmth, and +the incidence of its rays was happy and illuminating, as though the +light had only just reached the world, and so things looked just +discovered and interesting. A faint silver haze hung upon a pallid sea, +and the slow smooth mounds of water were full of fugitive glints and +flashes. You hardly knew the sea was there. The mist was the luminous +nimbus of a new world, a world not yet fully formed, for it had no +visible bounds. Night came, and a nearly full moon, and the only reality +was the stupendous bulk of the liner. She might have been in the clouds, +herself a dark cloud near the moon, with but rumours of light in the +aerial deeps beneath. It seemed another of the dreams. Would he wake up +presently to the reality of the forest, with the sun blazing on the +enamel of its hard foliage? + +He wanted some assurance of time and space. He would stay on deck till +the first sign came of England. So he leaned motionless for hours on the +rail of the boat-deck, gazing ahead, where the outlook remained as +unshapen as it had since he left home. Far on the port bow appeared the +headlight of a steamer. + +He watched that light. This, then, was no dream sea. Others were there. +But was it a headlight? ... No! + +The Bishop’s! England now! + +The steward came again, peeping through his curtain, and said, +“Plymouth, sir!” and turned on the glow lamp, for it was not yet dawn. +There was an early breakfast laid in the saloon; but he went on deck. +The liner had hardly way on her; the water was but uncoiling noiselessly +alongside. There were shapes of hills near, with villas painted on them, +but so bluish and immaterial was all that it might have rippled like the +flat water, being but a flimsy background which could be easily shaken. +The hills drew nearer imperceptibly, grew higher. A touch of real day +gave a hill-top body; and there was a confident shout from somebody +unseen in plain English. The vision grounded and got substance. Not only +home, but spring in Devon. + +From the train window the countryside in the tones and flush of the +renascence absorbed him. He went from side to side of the carriage. What +was most extraordinary was the sparsity and lowness of the trees and +bushes, the fineness of the growth. The outlines of the trees could be +seen, and they crouched so near to the ground and were so very meagre. +The colours were faint enough to be but tinted mists. The biggest of the +trees were manageable, looked like toys. The orderly hedges, the clean +roads, the geometrical patterns of the fields, gave him assurance once +more of order and security. Here was law again, and the permanence of +affairs long decided upon. He closed his eyes, sinking into the cushions +of the carriage as though the arms under him were proved friendly and +could be trusted.... + +The slowing of the train woke him. They were running into Paddington. He +got his feet fair and solid on London before the train stopped, and +looked into the crowd waiting there. A flushed youngster ran towards him +out of a group, then stopped shyly. He caught The Boy, and held him +up.... Here again was the centre of the world. + + THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sea and the Jungle, by H. M. Tomlinson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE *** + +***** This file should be named 37205-0.txt or 37205-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/0/37205/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sea and the Jungle + +Author: H. M. Tomlinson + +Release Date: August 26, 2011 [EBook #37205] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + THE SEA + AND THE JUNGLE + + BY + H. M. TOMLINSON + + NEW YORK + E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY + 681 FIFTH AVENUE + + + + + Published, 1920, + BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY + + _All Rights Reserved_ + + _First Printing, October, 1920_ + _Second Printing, September, 1921_ + + THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE + + Being the narrative of the voyage of the tramp steamer _Capella_ + from Swansea to Para in the Brazils, and thence 2000 miles along the + forests of the Amazon and Madeira Rivers to the San Antonio Falls; + afterwards returning to Barbados for orders, and going by way of + Jamaica to Tampa in Florida, where she loaded for home. Done in the + years 1909 and 1910. + + DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO + DID NOT GO + + The author is indebted to the editors of the _English Review_, the + _Pall Mall Magazine_, the _Morning Leader_, and the _Yorkshire + Observer_, for permission to incorporate such parts of this + narrative as appeared first in their publications. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. 1 + II. 98 + III. 185 + IV. 246 + V. 271 + VI. 324 + + + + +THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE + + + + +I + + +Though it is easier, and perhaps far better, not to begin at all, yet if +a beginning is made it is there that most care is needed. Everything is +inherent in the genesis. So I have to record the simple genesis of this +affair as a winter morning after rain. There was more rain to come. The +sky was waterlogged and the grey ceiling, overstrained, had sagged and +dropped to the level of the chimneys. If one of them had pierced it! The +danger was imminent. + +That day was but a thin solution of night. You know those November +mornings with a low, corpse-white east where the sunrise should be, as +though the day were still-born. Looking to the dayspring, there is what +we have waited for, there the end of our hope, prone and shrouded. This +morning of mine was such a morning. The world was very quiet, as though +it were exhausted after tears. Beneath a broken gutter-spout the rain +(all the night had I listened to its monody) had discovered a nest of +pebbles in the path of my garden in a London suburb. It occurs to you at +once that a London garden, especially in winter, should have no place in +a narrative which tells of the sea and the jungle. But it has much to do +with it. It is part of the heredity of this book. It is the essence of +this adventure of mine that it began on the kind of day which so +commonly occurs for both of us in the year's assortment of days. My +garden, on such a morning, is a necessary feature of the narrative, and +much as I should like to skip it and get to sea, yet things must be +taken in the proper order, and the garden comes first. There it was: the +blackened dahlias, the last to fall, prone in the field where death had +got all things under his feet. My pleasaunce was a dark area of soddened +relics; the battalions of June were slain, and their bodies in the mud. +That was the prospect in life I had. How was I to know the Skipper had +returned from the tropics? Standing in the central mud, which also was +black, surveying that forlorn end to devoted human effort, what was +there to tell me the Skipper had brought back his tramp steamer from the +lands under the sun? I knew of nothing to look forward to but December, +with January to follow. What should you and I expect after November, but +the next month of winter? Should the cultivators of London backs look +for adventures, even though they have read old Hakluyt? What are the +Americas to us, the Amazon and the Orinoco, Barbados and Panama, and +Port Royal, but tales that are told? We have never been nearer to them, +and now know we shall never be nearer to them, than that hill in our +neighbourhood which gives us a broad prospect of the sunset. There is as +near as we can approach. Thither we go and ascend of an evening, like +Moses, except for our pipe. It is all the escape vouchsafed us. Did we +ever know the chain to give? The chain has a certain length--we know it +to a link--to that ultimate link, the possibilities of which we never +strain. The mean range of our chain, the office and the polling booth. +What a radius! Yet it cannot prevent us ascending that hill which looks, +with uplifted and shining brow, to the far vague country whence comes +the last of the light, at dayfall. + +It is necessary for you to learn that on my way to catch the 8.35 that +morning--it is always the 8.35--there came to me no premonition of +change. No portent was in the sky but the grey wrack. I saw the hale and +dominant gentleman, as usual, who arrives at the station in a brougham +drawn by two grey horses. He looked as proud and arrogant as ever, for +his face is as a bull's. He had the usual bunch of scarlet geraniums in +his coat, and the stationmaster assisted him into an apartment, and his +footman handed him a rug; a routine as stable as the hills, this. If +only the solemn footman would, one morning, as solemnly as ever, hurl +that rug at his master, with the umbrella to crash after it! One could +begin to hope then. There was the pale girl in black who never, between +our suburb and the city, lifts her shy brown eyes, benedictory as they +are at such a time, from the soiled book of the local public library, +and whose umbrella has lost half its handle, a china nob. (I think I +will write this book for her.) And there were all the others who catch +that train, except the young fellow with the cough. Now and then he does +miss it, using for the purpose, I have no doubt, that only form of +rebellion against its accursed tyranny which we have yet learned, +physical inability to catch it. Where that morning train starts from is +a mystery; but it never fails to come for us, and it never takes us +beyond the city, I well know. + +I have a clear memory of the newspapers as they were that morning. I had +a sheaf of them, for it is my melancholy business to know what each is +saying. I learned there were dark and portentous matters, not actually +with us, but looming, each already rather larger than a man's hand. If +certain things happened, said one half the papers, ruin stared us in the +face. If those thing did not happen, said the other half, ruin stared us +in the face. No way appeared out of it. You paid your half-penny and +were damned either way. If you paid a penny you got more for your money. +Boding gloom, full-orbed, could be had for that. There was your extra +value for you. I looked round at my fellow passengers, all reading the +same papers, and all, it could be reasonably presumed, with +fore-knowledge of catastrophe. They were indifferent, every one of them. +I suppose we have learned, with some bitterness, that nothing ever +happens but private failure and tragedy, unregarded by our fellows +except with pity. The blare of the political megaphones, and the +sustained panic of the party tom-toms, have a message for us, we may +suppose. We may be sure the noise means something. So does the butcher's +boy when the sheep want to go up a side turning. He makes a noise. He +means something, with his warning cries. The driving uproar has a +purpose. But we have found out (not they who would break up side +turnings, but the people in the second class carriages of the morning +train) that now, though our first instinct is to start in a panic, when +we hear another sudden warning shout, there is no need to do so. And +perhaps, having attained to that more callous mind which allows us to +stare dully from the carriage window though with that urgent din in our +ears, a reasonable explanation of the increasing excitement and flushed +anxiety of the great Statesmen and their fuglemen may occur to us, in a +generation or two. Give us time! But how they wish they were out of it, +they who need no more time, but understand. + +I put down the papers with their calls to social righteousness pitched +in the upper register of the tea-tray, their bright and instructive +interviews with flat earthers, and with the veteran who is topically +interesting because, having served one master fifty years, and reared +thirteen children on fifteen shillings a week, he has just begun to draw +his old age pension. (There's industry, thrift, and success, my little +dears!) One paper had a column account of the youngest child actress in +London, her toys and her philosophy, initialed by one of our younger +brilliant journalists. All had a society divorce case, with sanitary +elisions. Another contained an amusing account of a man working his way +round the world with a barrel on his head. Again, the young prince, we +were credibly informed in all the papers of that morning, did stop to +look in at a toy-shop window in Regent Street the previous afternoon. So +like a boy, you know, and yet he is a prince of course. The matter could +not be doubted. The report was carefully illustrated. The prince stood +on his feet outside the toy shop, and looked in. + +To think of the future as a modestly long series of such prone mornings, +dawns unlit by heaven's light, new days to which we should be awakened +always by these clamant cockcrows bringing to our notice what the +busy-ness of our fellows had accomplished in nests of intelligent and +fruitful china eggs, was enough to make one stand up in the carriage, +horrified, and pull the communication cord. So I put down the papers and +turned to the landscape. Had I known the Skipper was back from below the +horizon--but I did not know. So I must go on to explain that that +morning train did stop, with its unfailing regularity, and not the least +hint of reprieve, at the place appointed in the Schedule. Soon I was at +work, showing, I hope, the right eager and concentrated eye, dutifully +and busily climbing the revolving wheel like the squirrel; except, +unluckier than that wild thing so far as I know, I was clearly +conscious, whatever the speed, the wheel remained forever in the same +place. Looking up to sigh through the bars after a long spin there was +the Skipper smiling at me. + +I saw an open door. I got out. It was as though the world had been +suddenly lighted, and I could see a great distance. + +We stood in Fleet Street later, interrupting the tide. The noise of the +traffic came to me from afar, for the sailor was telling me he was +sailing soon, and that he was taking his vessel an experimental voyage +through the tropical forests of the Amazon. He was going to Para, and +thence up the main stream as far as Manaos, and would then attempt to +reach a point on the Madeira river near Bolivia, 800 miles above its +junction with the greater river. It would be a noble journey. They would +see Obydos and Santarem, and the foliage would brush their rigging at +times, so narrow would be the way, and where they anchored at night the +jaguars would come to drink. This to me, and I have read Humboldt, and +Bates, and Spruce, and Wallace. As I listened my pipe went out. + +It was when we were parting that the sailor, who is used to far horizons +and habitually deals with affairs in a large way because his standards +in his own business are the skyline and the meridian, put to me the most +searching question I have had to answer since the city first caught and +caged me. He put it casually when he was striking a match for a cigar, +so little did he himself think of it. + +"Then why," said he, "don't you chuck it?" + +What, escape? I had never thought of that. It is the last solution which +would have occurred to me concerning the problem of captivity. It is a +credit to you and to me that we do not think of our chains so +disrespectfully as to regard them as anything but necessary and +indispensable, though sometimes, sore and irritated, we may bite at +them. As if servitude fell to our portion like squints, parents poor in +spirit, green fly, reverence for our social superiors, and the other +consignments from the stars. How should we live if not in bonds? I have +never tried. I do not remember, in all the even and respectable history +of my family, that it has ever been tried. The habit of obedience, like +our family habit of noses, is bred in the bone. The most we have ever +done is to shake our fists at destiny; and I have done most of that. + +"Give it up," said the Skipper, "and come with me." + +With a sad smile I lifted my foot heavily and showed him what had me +round the ankle. "Poo," he said. "You could berth with the second mate. +There's room there. I could sign you on as purser. You come." + +I stared at him. The fellow meant it. I laughed at him. + +"What," I asked conclusively, "shall I do about all this?" I waved my +arm round Fleet Street, source of all the light I know, giver of my gift +of income tax, limit of my perspective. How should I live when withdrawn +from the smell of its ink, the urge of its machinery? + +"_That_," he said. "Oh, damn that!" + + * * * * * + +It was his light tone which staggered me and not what he said. The +sailor's manner was that of one who would be annoyed if I treated him +like a practical man, arranging miles of petty considerations and +exceptions before him, arguing for hours along rows of trifles, and +hoping the harvest of difficulties of no consequence at the end of the +argument would convince him. Indeed I know he is always impatient for +the next step in any business, and not, like most of us, for more +careful consideration. "Look there," said the sailor, pointing to +Ludgate Circus, "see that Putney 'bus? If it takes up two more +passengers before it passes this spot then you've got to come." + +That made the difficulty much clearer. I agreed. The 'bus struggled off, +and a man with a bag ran at it and boarded it. One! Then it had a clear +run--it almost reached us--in another two seconds!--I began to breathe +more easily; the danger of liberty was almost gone. Then the sailor +jumped for the 'bus before it was quite level, and as he mounted the +steps, turned, and held up two fingers with a grin. + +Thus was a voyage of great moment and adventure settled for me. + +When I got home that night I referred to the authorities for the way to +begin an enterprise on the deep. What said Hakluyt? According to him it +is as easy as this: "Master John Hawkins, with the Jesus of Lubeck, a +ship of 700 tunnes, and the Solomon, a ship of seven score, the Tiger, a +barke of 50, and the Swalow of 30 Tunnes, being all well furnished with +men to the number of one hundred threescore and ten; as also with +ordnance and vituall requisite for such a voyage, departed out of +Plinmouth the 18 day of October in the yeere of our Lord 1564, with a +prosperous wind." + +But we all know such things were done far better in that century. Yet +Master John Hawkins, who seems to have handled a fleet with greater +facility than I do this pen now I am so anxious to scratch it across +preliminaries and get it to sea, did not come to a decision by the +number of passengers on a Putney 'bus. So I turned to a modern +authority. Yet Bates, I found, is worse than old John Hawkins, Bates +actually arrives at his destination in the first sentence. He steps +across in thirty-eight words from England to the Amazon. "I embarked at +Liverpool with Mr. Wallace, in a small trading vessel, on the 26th day +of April 1848; and, after a swift passage from the Irish Channel to the +equator arrived on the 26th of May off Salinas." + +Well, I did not. I say it is a gross deception. Voyaging does not get +accomplished in that off-hand fashion. It is a mockery to captives like +ourselves to pretend bondage is puffed away in that airy manner. It is +not so easily persuaded to disencumber us. Indeed, with this and that, I +found the initial step in the pursuit of the sunset red a heavy weight, +and hardly suited to the constitution of men who have worked into a deep +rut; but that high resolution and a faith equal to belief in the +liquefaction of St. Januarius' blood are needed to drop the protective +routine of years, to sheer off the dear and warm entanglements of home +and friendships; to shut the front door one bleak winter evening when +the house smells comfortable and secure, and the light on the hearth, +under such circumstances, is ironic in its bright revelation of years of +ease and stability till then not fully appraised; and so depart in the +dusk for an unknown Welsh coaling port, there to board a tramp steamer +for a voyage that has some serious doubts about it, though its landfall +shall be near the line, and have palms in it. The door slammed, I +noticed, in a chill and penetrating minor, an incident of travel I have +never seen recorded. + +Now do I come at last, O Liberty, my loved and secret divinity! Your +passionate pilgrim is here, late, though still young and eager eyed; yet +with his coat collar upturned for the present. Allons! the Open Road is +before him. But how the broad and empty prospects of his freedom shudder +with the dire sounds and cries of the milk churns on Paddington Station! + +And next I remember black night--it was, I think, about three a.m.--and +a calamitous rain, and a Welsh railway station where I had alighted, +faint with a famine, a kit bag soon to increase in weight and drag, and +a pair of numbed feet. There was a porter who bore himself as though it +were the last day and he knew the worst, a dying station light, the wind +and rain, and me. Outside was the dark, and one of the greatest coaling +ports in the world. As I could not see the coal in great bulk I could +not admire it. The railway man turned out the light, conducted me +politely into a puddle, set my course for the docks in uncharted night +with a dexter having no convictions, and left me. I began to hate the +land of the wild bard in which I found myself for the first time, and +felt a savage satisfaction in being nearly a pure blooded London Saxon; +and as I surveyed my prospects in that country, not even the fact that I +had a grandparent named Hughes would have prevented me striking Wales +with my umbrella, for it is only a cheap one; but I had left it in the +train. + +It had never occurred to me (any more than it did to you when you got +this book to learn about the tropic sea and the jungle) that the Open +Road, where the chains fall from us, would include Swansea High Street +four hours before sunrise in a steady winter downpour. But there I +discovered that trade wind seas by moonlight, flying fish, Indians, and +forests and palms, cannot be compelled. They come in their turn. They +are mixed with litter and dead stuff, like prizes in a bran tub. Going +down the drear and aqueous street it was clear that if there are exalted +moments in travel, as on the instant when we discover we really may +prepare to go, yet exaltation implies the undistinguished flats from +which, for a while, we are translated. This is a travel book for honest +men. I am still on the flat. It will be to-morrow presently. + +My chief fear was that my waterproof, rattling in the wind, would alarm +silent and sleeping Swansea. I found a policeman standing at a street +corner, holding out his cape to help away the rain. He could give me no +hope. He knew where the dock was, but the way thither was difficult and +torturous. I had better follow the tram lines, and ask again, if I saw +anybody. Therefore the tram lines I followed till my portable estate, by +compound interest, had increased to untold tons; but the empty tram way +went on for ever down the rows of frozen and desolate lamps, so that I +surrendered all my chances of the seas of the tropics and the jungle of +the Brazils, and turned aside from the course which the policeman said +led to ships and the deep, entered the dark portico of a shop, where it +was only half wet, and lit my pipe, there to wait for the shy gods to +turn my luck. Hesitating footsteps fumbled to where I was hidden, and +stopped at the flash of my match. "Could yer 'blige with a light, +mister?" + +He was a little elderly seaman in yellow oilskins and a so'wester. He +was rather drunk. His oilskins gathered the reflected street shine, so +that he looked phosphorescent, an old man risen wet and shining from the +ocean. He was looking for Buenos Aires, he explained, and hadn't got any +matches. Now he, for the Plate, and I, for ultimate Amazonas, set off +down the Swansea tram lines. And the wind whined through overhead wires, +and a lost dog followed us along the empty thoroughfare where the only +sound was of waterspouts, and the elderly mariner sang bold and improper +songs, so that I wondered there was not an irruption of nightcaps at +upper Swansea windows to witness this disturbance of their usual peace. + +We came at length to abandoned lagoons, where spectral ships were moored +down the marges, and round the wide waters was the loom of uncertain +monsters and buildings. Railway metals waylaid us and caught us by the +feet. There were many electric moons swaying in the gale, and they +spilled showers of broken light, which melted on the black water, and +betrayed to us our loneliness in outer night. The call of a vessel's +syren across that inhospitable space was heard by us as the prolonged +moan of the lost. + +The old man of the sea took me under a stack of timber to light his +pipe. He borrowed my box of matches, and malicious spurts of wind +extinguished each match, steadily, as mine ancient struck them. It was +now 4 a.m. He threw each bit of dead wood down, without irritation, as +though it were the fate of man to strike lights for the gods to douse, +but yet was he uplifted now beyond the hurt of cosmic mockery. The +matches were not wasted. At least they lighted up his sorrowful face as +he talked to me. I would not have had him any the less drunk, for it but +softened his facial integument, which I could see had been hardened and +set by bitter experience, masking the man; but now his jaded life, +warmed by emotion, though much of the emotion was artificial and of the +pewter born, was quick in his face again, and made him a human +responsive to his kind, instead of a sober and warped shellback with a +sour remembrance of his hardships, and of the futility of his endurance, +and of the distance away of his masters with their bowels of iron. + +He had seven children, and the sea was a weary place. Had I any +children?--and God keep them if I had. He was a troublesome old man +("that's another light gone") but he had just left his kids ("ah, to +hell wi' the wind") and he had to talk to someone about them, and that +was my rotten luck, said he. We got to the fifth child, and I heard +something about her, when the wind reached round the wood stack at us, +and snatched the last glim. So it was in the dark that I heard about the +other two and the wife, while one of my pockets filled with rain. Only +Milly, he said, was at work, and what was four pound a month for the +rest? And he was sick of the sea and chief mates, and did I think a chap +stood for a better time when he died, if he kept off drink and did his +bit without grousing, like some of the parson fellers said? Then he +indicated my ship, and disappeared in the dark. He is still waiting an +answer to his last question, which I have saved for you to give him. + +For me, I was in no mood to discuss whether balm is to be got in Gilead, +when we come to the place; but stumbling among the lumber on the +deserted deck of the S.S. "Capella," I found a cabin, fell into it, and +remember nothing more but the smell of hot bread, eggs and bacon, and +coffee, which visited me in a beautiful dream. Then I woke to the +reveille of a tin whistle, which the chief engineer was playing in my +ear; and it was daylight. The jumble of recollections of the night +before were but dark insanities. But the smell of that aromatic food, I +give grace, did not pass with the awakening, for next door I heard +lively sizzling in the galley. Already Fleet Street was hull down. + + * * * * * + +If you are used only to the methods of passenger steamers and regular +routes, then you know little of travel. You are but carried about. +Insistent clocks and schedules keep that way, and the upholstered but +rigid routine is a soporific. You never see the hither side of the +hedge. The granite countenance of fortune, her eyes filmed like frozen +pools, which keeps alert and bright the voyager who is unprotected from +her unscheduled and unmoral acts except by his own ready buckler, is +watched for you by others. You are never surprised into fear by the +unlucky position of the planets, nor moved to sing Laus Deo, when now +and then, the stars are propitious. I had been brought hastily to the +"Capella," for it was said she was sailing instantly. This morning I +learned at breakfast that nobody knew when she could sail. Our steamer +sat two feet higher than her capacity. There was some galvanised iron to +come from Glascow, some machinery from Sheffield; and owing to labour +difficulties we were short of several hundred tons of coal. A little mob +of us, all strangers, shuffled after the Skipper's spry heels that +morning to the Board of Trade offices, where an official mumbled over +the ship's articles, to our shut ears, and we signed where we were told. +A more glum and unromantic group of voyagers, each man twirling his +shabby hat in his hands as he waited his turn for the corroded pen, was +never seen this side of the Elizabethan era. I became the purser of the +"Capella," with my wages lawfully recorded at a shilling per month. + +I was committed. There was no withdrawal now but desertion. And +desertion, at times, I seriously considered, because for a week more the +cargo dribbled down to us, while I endured as a moucher about those +winter docks with their coal tips, and the muddy streets with their +sailors' slop marts, marine stores, and pawnshops having a cankered +display of chronometers, telescopes, and other flotsam of marine failure +and wreckage. Daily the quays and the dismal waterside ways with their +cheap shops were still more depressed by additional snow mush and drives +of sleet; and it was no warmth for this idler that he saw the tradesmen, +because of the season, putting holly among their oranges and wreathing +beer bottles with chains of coloured paper. The iron decks and cabins of +my new home were as chill and unfriendly as the empty grate, the marble +tables, and the tin advertisements of chemical slops of a temperance +hotel. Am I plain? Such are the conditions which compass the wayward +traveller. This is what chills one's rapid pulse when pursuing at last +the rosy visions of boyhood. The deplorable littoral of our island +kingdom is part of a life on the ocean wave, and should help you in +coming to a decision when next you see a friendless and bestial +sailorman. It becomes necessary to declare that we shall really get down +to the tropics presently; have the courage to wait, like the crew of the +"Capella." Our ship did sail, when she was ready. + +It was the afternoon before we sailed, and having listened long enough +to my messmates, who, after dinner, weighed the probabilities of +malaria, yellow fever and other alien disasters into our coming strange +voyage, that I went into the town to take my last look round a book +shop, and to get some marine soap, dungarees, and things. Here was I at +last with my heart's desire. On the very next day I should sail, I +myself, and no other hero, veritably Me at last, for a place not on the +chart, because the place we should find, at the journey's end, the map +described with those words of magic: "Forest" and "Unexplored." I made +my way round crates and barrels on that untidy deck, which had a thick +mud of coal dust and snow, to the ladder overside. Coal dust and melting +snow! But where was the uplifted heart, the radiant anticipation, as of +one to whom the future was big with treasures to be born, which are the +privilege of a young pilgrim, released from his usual obligations to +pursue far horizons in the Spanish main, while his envious fellows in +the city still cast ledgers under gas lamps? Here was another swindle of +the romanticists. You may search their warm and golden pages in vain for +coal tips, melting ice, delays, and steam heaters that will not work for +cold cabins. Down they go here, though. These gallant affairs, I +thought, as I descended the wet and gritty ladder, are much better done +before the fire at home, in your slippers; for the large scale map, as +you traverse its alluring blank areas, leaves out the conditions which +now, when I am on the actual business, precipitate as frozen spicules, +as would north winds, my warm, aerial, and cloudy enthusiasms that were +wont to be dyed such wonderful hues by sunsets, poems, and tales of old +travel. Another of these congealing draughts was now to catch me +unbuttoned. Because of our unusual destination, and the wild stories +that were told of it, we were a point of interest in Swansea docks, and +had many interviewers and curious visitors. Some of them were on the +quay then, inspecting our steamer, and as I stepped off the ladder one +turned to me. + +"Mister," he whispered, "are you going in her?" + +"I am," I said. + +"O gord," said he. + +That night I met a number of my grave fellow shipmates in the town. The +question was, Should we then go back to the ship? + +"What," burst out one of us in surprise--his gold-laced cap was already +resting on his right eyebrow--"Now? Not me. Boys, don't freeze the +Carnival. Follow me!" + +We followed him. The rest of the evening is more easily given in dumb +show. There was a mechanical piano in a saloon bar, and it steadily +devoured pennies, and returned to us automatic joy, fortissimo, over +which our conversation strenuously high-stepped and vaulted. Later, +there was a search for cabs, and an engineer carried with him everywhere +two geese by their necks and sometimes trod on their loose feet. When he +did this he snatched a goose from his own grasp, and then roundly abused +us for our post-dated frivolity. We learned our steamer was now moored +in mid-dock. We found a quay wall, and at the bottom of it, at a great +depth in the dark, the level of the water was seen only because shreds +of lamp-shine floated there. We understood a boat was below, and found +it was, and we loaded it till the water brimmed at the gunwale. As we +mounted the "Capella's" rope-ladder only one goose fell back into the +dock. + + * * * * * + +The "Capella" started in her sleep, and she woke me. She was still +trembling. Resting my hand on her I felt her heart begin to throb, +though faintly. We were off. + +It was a bright morning, early and keen. Those habitual quays now were +moving past us. The decks were cleared, the carpenter and some sailors +were fixing the hatches, and the pilot, muffled in a thick white shawl, +was on the bridge with the Skipper. We stopped in the outer lock, the +exhaust humming impatiently while a pier-head jumper--for we were a +sailor short--was examined by our doctor. The Skipper had some short +words for an official who had mounted the bridge, because the third mate +had deserted, and had taken his half pay; and the official, who had +volunteered to get us a substitute, had failed. There were now but two +mates for our big tramp steamer going a long and arduous voyage which +included the navigation for some months of narrow inland waterways in +the tropics. Our first mate, passing amidships where the Purser was +leaning overside, stopped to tell me what this meant for him and the +second mate. I was mighty glad it was not the purser's fault. I have +never heard a short speech more passionate; and his eyes were feral. Yet +it became increasingly clear to me, as the voyage lengthened, that his +eyes no more than met the case. + +Out we drove at last. It was December, but by luck we found a halcyon +morning which had got lost in the year's procession. It was a Sunday +morning, and it had not been ashore. It was still virgin, bearing a +vestal light. It had not been soiled yet by any suspicion of this +trampled planet, this muddy star, which its innocent and tenuous rays +had discovered in the region of night. I thought it still was regarding +us as a lucky find there. Its light was tremulous, as if with joy and +eagerness. I met this discovering morning as your ambassador while you +still slept, and betrayed not, I hope, any greyness and bleared satiety +of ours to its pure, frail, and lucid regard. That was the last good +service I did before leaving you quite. I was glad to see how well our +old earth did meet such a light, as though it had no difficulty in +looking day in the face. The world was miraculously renewed. It rose, +and received the new-born of Aurora in its arms. There was clouds of +pearl above hills of chrysoprase. The sea ran in volatile flames. The +shadows on the bright deck shot to and fro as we rolled. The breakfast +bell rang not too soon. This was a right beginning. + +The pilot was dropped, and a course was shaped to pass between Lundy and +Hartland. A strong northwester and its seas caught us beyond the +Mumbles, and the quality of the sunshine thinned to a flickering stuff +which cast only grey shadows. The "Capella" became quarrelsome, and +began to strike the seas heavily. You may know the "Capella" when you +see her. She is a modern three-thousand-ton freighter, with derrick +supports fore and aft, and a funnel; and the three of them are so +fearful of seeming rakish that they overdo the effect of stern utility, +and appear to lean ahead. She is a three-island ship, the amidships +section carrying the second mate's cabin, and the cabins of the four +engineers, all of them, excepting the Chief's cabin, looking outwards +overseas across a narrow sheltered alleyway; and on a narrower +athwartship's alleyway there, and opening astern, are the Chief's place, +and the cook's galley, the entrance to the engine-room, and the +engineers' messroom. Above this structure is the boat deck. You may +reach the poop, which contains the master's and chief mate's quarters, +the doctor's and steward's berths, and the saloon, by descending a +perpendicular iron ladder to the long main deck, or else, as all did at +sea, by a flying trestle bridge, which is dismantled when in port. Her +black funnel is relieved by a cryptic design in white, and her bows are +so bluff that, as the chief mate put it, "her belly begins there." She +might not take your eye, but a shipowner would see her points. She +carries a large cargo on a comparatively low registered tonnage. The +money that built her went mostly in hull and engines, and the latter do +their work as sweetly as an eight-day clock, giving ten and a half +knots, weather permitting, on a low coal consumption. There was not much +money left, therefore, for balm in the cabins, and that is the reason we +do not find it there. + +At sundown the sky cleared. The wind, increased in violence, had swept +it of the last feather. Lundy was over our starboard bow, a small dark +blot in a clear yellow light which poured, with the gale and the rising +seas, from the west. The glass was falling. Now, the Skipper has often +told me how his "Capella" had faced hurricanes off Cape Hatteras, when +laden with ore, and had kept her decks dry. There are other stories +about her surprising buoyancy, when deeply laden, and I have heard them +all at home, and they are fine stories. But what lies they are! For +there below me, with Lundy not even passed, and the Bay of Biscay to +come (Para not to be thought of yet) were tons and tons of salt wash +that could not get time to escape by the scuppers, but plunged wearily +amongst the hatches and winches. + +"I've never seen her as dirty as this," grumbled the chief engineer +apologetically, peeping from his cabin at cold green water lopping over +casually on to the after deck. "It's that patent fuel--its stowed wrong. +Now she'll roll--you can feel it--the cat she is, she's never going to +stop. It's that patent fuel and her new load line." + +Certainly she sat close to the sea. I had never seen so much lively +water so close. She wallowed, she plunged, she rolled, she sank heavily +to its level. I looked out from the round window of the Chief's cabin, +and when she inclined those green mounds of the swell swinging under us +and away were superior, in apparition, to my outlook. + +"Listen to it," said the Chief. He stopped triturating some shavings of +hard tobacco between his huge palms, and sat quietly, hands clasped, as +though in prayer. The surge mourned over the deck. The day, too, was +growing towards the dusky hours of retrospection. That sombre monody +outside was like the tremor and boom of the drums funebre. "That chap +some of you talk about--Lloyd George!"--said the Chief, suddenly rubbing +his tobacco again with energy. (Good God, I thought, and here we are at +sea too. Now what has the misguided man done.) "If I had him here I'd +hold him down in that wash on deck till it cleared. Then he'd know. He +put it there, to break sailors' legs. This steamer, she had dry decks +till her load line was altered. She carries more now than she was built +for, two hundred tons more. If I had him here--but there you are! +Popularity! There's a fine popular noise for you, isn't it? Sailors +growled for better food. 'What about this improved food scale?' says Mr. +Lloyd George to the shipowners. 'Oh,' said they, 'we'll give 'em better +food, the drunken insubordinate dogs, if you'll make overloading legal.' +'Why,' says Lord George, 'then it wouldn't be illegal, would it?' So it +was done. What does the public know about a ship's buoyancy? Nothing. +But it understands food. So the clever man heightens the Plimsoll mark, +adds a million or so to shipowners' capital by dipping his pen in the +ink, and gives Jack more jam. What you want ashore," the Chief added +bitterly, "is not more voters, as some say, but more lunatic asylums." + +Though I had left politics at home, to be settled by others, like the +trouble with the drains, the dog licence, and the dispute about the +garden fence, I glanced with interest at the Chief. I know him well. Not +only is he a kindly man, but he himself is also a philosophic rebel. But +his eye was hard, and he still ground the tobacco with forgetful energy, +us though an objectionable thing were between his strong hands. Then +impatiently he threw the tobacco loose on his log book, which was open +on his deck, paused, and said, "Ah, maybe the man thought a little +freeboard the less didn't matter. God give him grace," and picked his +flute out of a bookshelf which was fastened above his bunk; sat down +over the steam heater, and broke out like a blackbird. Yet was it a +well-remembered air he fluted so well. I listened so long as respect for +the artist demanded, then rose, filled my pipe from the fragrant grains +on the log book, and left him. Presently I would listen to such airs; +but this was too soon. + +I repeat I had confidence in the "Capella" to gain. I went forward to +get it, mounting the bridge, where my cabin mate, the youthful second +officer, was in charge, in his oilskins. A cheerful sight he looked. "I +think," said he briskly, "we're going to catch it." He was puckering his +face over our course. Lundy was looming large--even Rat Island was +plain--but it looked so frail in that flood of seas, wind, and wild +yellow light streaming together from the evening west, that I looked for +the unsubstantial island to spring suddenly from its foundations, and to +come down on us a stretched wisp of thinned and ragged smoke. The sea +was adrift from its old confines. The flood was pouring past, and the +wind was the drainage of interstellar space. Lundy was the last delicate +fragment of land. It still fronted the upheaval and rush of the +ungoverned elements, but one looked for it to be swept away. + +Yet that wild and scenic west, of such pallor and clarity that one +shrank from facing its inhospitable spaciousness, with each shape of a +wave there, black against the light as it reared ahead, a distinct +individual foe in the host moving to the attack, was but the prelude. +Night and the worst were to come. Just then, while the last of the light +was shining on the officer's oilskins, I was only surprised that our +bulk was such a trifle after all. Our loaded vessel looked so bluff and +massive when in dock. She began to attempt, off Lundy, the spring and +jauntiness of a trawler. The bows sank to the rails in an acre of white, +and the spume flew past the bridge like rain. The black bows lifted and +swayed, buoyant on submarine upheavals, to cut out segments of the +sunset; then sank again into dark hollows where the foam was luminous. +The cold and wind were bitter dolours. + +We rolled. I grasped the rail of the weather cloth, in the drive of wind +and spume, and rode down on our charger like a valiant man; like a +valiant man who is uncertain of his seat. Something like a valiant man. +We advanced to the attack, masts and funnel describing great arcs, and +steadily our bows shouldered away the foe. I think sailors deserve large +monies. Being the less valiant--for the longer I watched, the more grew +I wet and cold--it came to my mind that where we were, but a few weeks +before, another large freighter had her hatches opened by the seas, and +presently was but a trace of oil and cinders on the waters. You will +remember I am on my first long voyage. The officer was quite cheerful +and asked me if I knew Forest Gate. There were, he said, some fine girls +at Forest Gate. + +We rounded Hartland. It was dusk, the weather was now directly on our +starboard beam, and the waves were coming solidly inboard. The main deck +was white with plunging water. We rolled still more. + +"I can't make out why you left London when you didn't have to," said the +grinning sailor. "I'd like to be on the Stratford tram, going down to +Forest Gate." + +This was nearly as bad as the Chief's flute. I held up two fingers over +those hatches of ours, called silently on blessed Saint Anthony, who +loves sailors, and went down the ladder; for night had come, and the +prospect from the "Capella" was not the less apprehensive to the mind of +a landsman because the enemy could not be seen, except as flying ghosts. +The noises could be heard all right. + +I shut my heavy teak door amidships, shut out the daunting uproar of +floods, and the sensation that the night was collapsing round our +heaving ship. There was a home light far away, on some unseen Cornish +headland, rising and falling like a soaring but tethered star. Nor did I +want the lights of home. + +"I love the sea," a beautiful woman once said to me. (We, then, stood +looking out over it from a height, and the sea was but the sediment of +the still air, the blue precipitation of the sky, for it was that +restful time, early October. I also loved it then.) + +I was thinking of this, when the concrete floor of the cabin nearly +became a wall, and I fell absurd-wise, striking nearly every item in the +cabin. Was this the way to greet a lover? Sitting on a sea-chest, and +swaying to and fro because the ship compelled me to a figure of woe, I +began to consider whether it was only the books about the sea which I +had loved hitherto, and not the sea itself. Perhaps it is better not to +live with it, if you would love it. The sea is at its best at London, +near midnight, when you are within the arms of a capacious chair, before +a glowing fire, selecting phases of the voyages you will never make. It +is wiser not to try to realise your dreams. There are no real dreams. +For as to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why should you? I will +never believe again the sea was ever loved by anyone whose life was +married to it. It is the creation of Omnipotence, which is not of human +kind and understandable, and so the springs of its behaviour are hidden. +The sea does not assume its royal blue to please you. Its brute and dark +desolation is not raised to overwhelm you; you disappear then because +you happen to be there. It carries the lucky foolish to fortune, and +drags the calculating wise to the strewn bones. Yet, thought I, that +night off Cornwall, if I pray now as one of the privileged and lucky +foolish, this very occasion may prove to be set apart for the sole use +of the calculating wise. Because that is the way things happen at sea. +What else may we expect from It, the nameless thing, new-born with each +dawn, but as old as the night? Now for me had it degenerated into its +mood of old night, behaving as it did in the lightless days, before +poetry came to change it with flattery. It was again as inhuman as when +the poet was merely a wonderfully potential blob on a warm mudbank. + +Here, you see, is the whole trouble in appealing to Omnipotence. Picture +me entering the wide western ocean at night, an inconspicuous but +self-important morsel sitting on a sea-chest, at a time when it was +perhaps ordained that hundreds of ships should have anxious passages. +(Afterwards I learned very many ships did have anxious passages.) How +could I expect to be spared, even though somewhere the hairs of my head +were all numbered? It is plain that to spare me would be to extend +beneficence to all. There only remained to me my liberty to hope that +our particular steamer might miss all seventh waves, by luck. I was free +to do that. + +I turned up the dull and stinking oil lamp, and tried to read; but that +fuliginous glim haunted the pages. That black-edged light too much +resembled my own thoughts made manifest. There were some bunches of my +cabin mate's clothes hanging from hooks, and I watched their erratic +behaviour instead. The water in the carafe was also interesting, because +quite mad, standing diagonally in the bottle, and then reversing. A lump +of soap made a flying leap from the washstand, and then slithered about +the floor like something hunted and panic-stricken. I listened to +numerous little voices. There was no telling their origins. There was a +chorus in the cabin, rustlings, whispers, plaints, creaks, wails, and +grunts; but they were foundered in the din when the spittoon, which was +an empty meat tin, got its lashings loose, and began a rioting fandango +on the concrete. Over the clothes chest, which was also our table and a +cabin fixture, was a portrait of the mate's sweetheart, and on its frame +was one of my busy little friends the cockroaches; for the mate and I do +not sleep alone in this cabin, not by hundreds. The cockroach stood in +thought, waving his hands interrogatively, as one who talks to himself +nervously. The ship at that moment received a seventh wave, lurched, and +trembled. The cockroach fell. I rose, listening. I felt sure a new +clamour would begin at once, showing we had reached another and critical +stage of the fight. But no; the brave heart of her was beating as +before. I could feel its steady pulse throbbing in our table. We were +alive and strong, though labouring direfully. + +It was when I was thinking whether bed would be, as I have so often +found it, the best answer to doubt, that I heard a boatswain's pipe. + +I fought one side of the door, and the wind fought the other. My hurry +to open the door was great, but the obstinate wind jammed it firmly. +Without warning the wind released its hold, the ship fell over to +windward, the door flew open, and forth I went, clutching at the driving +dark. Then up sailed my side of the ship, and the door shut with the +sound of gunfire. I had never experienced such insensate violence. These +were the unlawful noises and movements of chaos. Hanging to a rail, I +was puzzling out which was the fore and which the rear of the ship, when +a flying lump of salt water struck me in the face just as a figure (I +thought it was the chief officer) hurried past me bawling "All hands." + +The figure came back. "That you, purser? Number three hatch has gone," +it said, and disappeared instantly. + +So. Then this very thing had come to me, and at night! Our hatches were +adrift. It was impossible. Why, we had only just left Swansea. It could +not be true; it was absurdly unfair. This was my first long voyage, and +it had only just begun. I stood like the cricketer who is out for a +duck. + +If I could tell you how I felt, I would. Somebody was shouting +somewhere, but his words were cut off at once by the wind and blown +away. I felt my way along a wet and dark iron alleyway which was giddily +unstable, pressing hard against my feet, and then falling from under me. +I got round by the engine-room entrance. Small gleams, shavings of +light, were escaping from seams in the unseen structure, but they showed +nothing, except a length of wet rail or a scrap of wet deck. The ship +itself was a shade, manned by voices. + +I could not see that anything was being done. Were they allowing her to +fill up like an open barge? I became aware my surcharged feelings were +escaping by my knees, which kept knocking in their tremors against a +lower rail. I tried to stop this trembling by hardening my muscles, but +my fearful legs had their own way. Yet it is plain there was nothing to +fear. I told my legs so. Had we not but that day left Swansea? Besides, +I had already commenced a letter which was to be posted at Para. The +letter would have to be posted. They were waiting for it at home. + +Somewhere below me a heavy mass of water plunged monstrously, and became +a faintly luminous cloud over all the main deck aft, actually framing +the rectangular form of the deck in the night. It was unreasonable. I +was not really one of the crew either, though on the articles. I was +there by chance. No advantage should be taken of that. A torrent poured +down the athwartships alleyway, and nearly swept me from my feet. + +One could not watch what was happening. That was another cruel +injustice. The wind and sea could be heard, and the ship could be felt. +But how could I be expected to know what to do in the dark in such +circumstances? There ought to be a light. This should have happened in +the daytime. My garrulous knees struck the lower rail violently in their +excitement. I leaned over the rail, shading my eyes. I grew savagely +indignant with something having no name and no shape. I cannot even now +give a name to the thing that angered me, but can just discern, in the +twilight which shrouds the undiscovered, a vast calm face the rock of +which no human emotion can move, with eyes that stare but see nothing, +and a mouth that never speaks, and ears from which assailing cries and +questions fall as mournful echoes, ironic repetitions. This flung stone +falls from it, as unavailing as your prayers; but we shall never cease +to pray and fling stones, alternately, up there into the twilight. + +Nevertheless, when the chief, with his hurricane lamp, found me, he says +I was smiling. The youth who was our second mate ran up and stood by us, +the better to shout to the deck below. He shouted, bending over the +rail, till he was screaming through hoarseness. He turned to us +abruptly. "They don't understand a word I say," he cried in despair. +"There isn't a sailor or an Englishman in the crowd, the ---- German +farmers." This, I found afterwards, was nearly true. These men had been +signed on at a Continental port. It was really our Dutch cook who saved +us that night. It was the cook who first saw the hatch covers going. + +The ship's head had been put to the seas to keep the decks as clear as +possible, and being now more accustomed to the gloom I could make out +the men below busy at the hatch. Most conspicuous among them was the +cook, who had taken charge there, and he, with three languages, +bludgeoned into surprising activity the inexperienced youngsters who +were learning for the first time what happens to a ship when the +carpenter's chief job on leaving port has its defects discovered by +exceptional weather. They were wading through swirling waters as they +worked, and once a greater wave sprang bodily over them, and when the +hatch showed through the foam again some of the men had gone as though +dissolved. But it was found they had kept the right side of the +bulwarks, and the elderly carpenter, whose leg had got wedged in a +winch, was the only one damaged. + +If you ask me when I shall be pleased to allow the necessary sun to rise +upon this narrative to give it a little warmth, then I must tell you it +cannot be done till we have fastened down the "Capella's" number two +hatch, at least. That hatch has gone now, and if hatches one and four +give way while number two is getting attention from the weary, soaked, +and frozen crowd which has just had an hour's desperate work at number +three, then I fear the sun will never rise on this narrative. (How Bates +got over to his wonderful blue butterflies in those forest paths under a +tropical sun in thirty-eight words I do not know. He must have been +thinking of nothing but his butterflies. I cannot do it, with the seas +and the ship keeping my mind so busy.) + +Luckily, the other hatches kept staunch. We were watertight again. When +the Old Man, the Chief, the Doctor, and the Purser, gathered late that +night in the Chief's cabin to see what it was he had secreted in his +cupboard, and boasted of, we sat where we could, being comfortably +crowded, and I never knew tobacco could taste like that. I felt as if +never before had I found such large leisure for extracting its full +flavour. From being suddenly confined within a space which gave me a +short outlook of a few hours, I was presently released into the open +again and of what might remain to me of the usual gift of ample years. I +had all that time to smoke in. Never did a pipe taste so sweet. It is +idle for good and serious souls to think me graceless here with this +talk of tobacco immediately after such a release. Let me tell them my +sacrificial smoke rose up straight and accepted. Looking through the +smoke I saw clearly how worthy, kind, and lovable were the faces of my +comrades. I warmed to this voyage for the first time; as though, after a +test, I had been initiated. This was the place for me, with men like +these about me, and such great affairs to be met. I revelled in the +thought of our valorous bluff, insignificant as we were in that malign +desolation, sundered from our kind. + +"Chief," said the Old Man, "it was my department that time. None of your +old engines did it." + +"You've got a good cook," said the Chief, "I saw that." Then the Chief, +remembering something, turned in his seat to the picture hanging above +his desk of a smiling and handsome matron. "Here's luck, old girl," he +said, holding up his glass; "you can still send me some letters." + + * * * * * + +The Chief, in case of an emergency, slept in his clothes that night on +the settee, and I climbed into his bunk. What a comfortable outline the +man had, as he lay on his broad back, mildly snoring. There was a tangle +of tense hair over a square copper coloured forehead. A long experience +of such nights was written in many lines on that brow, and was shown in +that indifferent snoring while chaos was without. The nose sprang out of +the big face like an ejaculation, and beneath it was a moustache clipped +short to show the red of the upper lip. The jaw was powerful, but its +curves made it friendly. His body and limbs hid the settee and had a +margin over. I quite believed what I had been told of his successful way +with refractory stokers. There was confidence to be got from a mere look +at that slumbering Jovian form. The storm assailed its hairy and fleshy +ears in vain. I braced my knees against the bulkhead to keep myself +still, the rolling was so violent, and went to sleep ... waking to find +us on a level keel; and was deceived into thinking the parallel lines of +grey and gold in the upper air, seen as a picture framed by the port, +were the heights about; a harbour into which we had run for shelter; but +it was only cloudland over the western ocean. The stillness, too, was +but a short reprieve. The wind was merely making a detour, to spring at +us from another quarter. + +The sun died at birth. The wind we had lost we found again as a gale +from the south-east. The waters quickly increased again, and by noon the +saloon was light and giddy with the racing of the propeller. I moved +about like an infant learning to walk. We were 201 miles from the +Mumbles, course S.W. 1/2W.; it was cold, and I was still looking for the +pleasures of travel. The Doctor came to introduce himself, like a good +man, and tried me with such things as fevers, Shaw, Brazilian +entomology, the evolution of sex, the medical profession under +socialism, the sea and the poets. But my thoughts were in retreat, with +the black dog in full cry. It was too cold and damp to talk even of sex. +When my oil lamp began to throw its rays of brown smell, the Doctor, +tired of the effort to exalt the sour dough which was my mind, left me. +It was night. O, the sea and the poets! + +By next morning the gale, now from the south-west, like the seas, was +constantly reinforced with squalls of hurricane violence. The Chief put +a man at the throttle. In the early afternoon the waves had assumed +serious proportions. They soared by us in broad sombre ranges, with +hissing white ridges, an inhospitable and subduing sight. They were a +quite different tribe of waves from the volatile and malicious natives +of the Bristol Channel. Those channel waves had no serried ranks in the +attack; they were but a horde of undisciplined savages, appearing to +assault without design or plan, but getting at us as they could, +depending on their numbers. The waves in the channel were smaller folk, +but more athletic, and very noisy; they appeared to detach themselves +from the sea, and to leap at us, shouting. + +These western ocean waves had a different character. They were the sea. +We did not have a multitude of waves in sight, but the sea floor itself +might have been undulating. The ocean was profoundly convulsed. Our +outlook was confined to a few heights and hollows, and the moving +heights were swift, but unhurried and stately. Your alarm, as you saw a +greater hill appear ahead, tower, and bear down, had no time to get more +than just out of the stage of surprise and wonder when the "Capella's" +bows were pointing skyward on a long up-slope of water, the broken +summit of which was too quick for the "Capella"--the bows disappeared in +a white explosion, a volley of spray, as hard as shot, raked the bridge, +the foredeck filled with raging water, and the wave swept along our run, +dark, severe, and immense; with so little noise too; with but a faint +hissing of foam, as in a deliberate silence. The "Capella" then began to +run down a valley. + +The engines were reduced to half speed; it would have been dangerous to +drive her at such seas. Our wet and slippery decks were bleak, +windswept, and deserted. The mirror of water on the iron surfaces, +constantly renewed, reflected and flashed the wild lights in the sky as +she rolled and pitched, and somehow those reflections from her polish +made the steamer seem more desolate and forlorn. Not a man showed +anywhere on the vessel's length, except merely to hurry from one vantage +to another--darting out of the ship's interior, and scurrying to another +hole and vanishing abruptly, like a rabbit. + +The gale was dumb till it met and was torn in our harsh opposition, +shouting and moaning then in anger and torment as we steadily pressed +our iron into its ponderable body. You could imagine the flawless flood +of air pouring silently express till it met our pillars and pinnacles, +and then flying past rift, the thousand punctures instantly spreading +into long shrieking lacerations. The wounds and mouths were so many, +loud, and poignant, that you wondered you could not see them. Our +structure was full of voices, but the weighty body which drove against +our shrouds and funnel guys, and kept them strongly vibrating, was +curiously invisible. The hard jets of air spurted hissing through the +winches. The sound in the shrouds and stays began like that of something +tearing, and rose to a high keening. The deeper notes were amidships, in +the alleyways and round the engine-room casing; but there the ship +itself contributed a note, a metallic murmur so profound that it was +felt as a tremor rather than heard. It was almost below human hearing. +It was the hollow ship resonant, the steel walls, decks, and bulkheads +quivering under the drumming of the seas, and the regular throws of the +crank-shaft far below. + +It was on this day the "Capella" ceased to be a marine engine to me. She +was not the "Capella" of the Swansea docks, the sea waggon squatting low +in the water, with bows like a box, and a width of beam which made her +seem a wharf fixture. To-day in the Atlantic her bluff bows rose to meet +the approaching bulk of each wave with such steady honesty, getting up +heavily to meet its quick wiles, it is true, but often with such success +that we found ourselves perched at a height above the gloom of the +hollow seas, getting more light and seeing more world; though sometimes +the hill-top was missed; she was not quick enough, and broke the +inflowing ridge with her face. She behaved so like a brave patient thing +that now her portrait, which I treasure, is to me that of one who has +befriended me, a staunch and homely body who never tired in faithful +well-doing. She became our little sanctuary, especially near dayfall, +with those sombre mounts close round us bringing twilight before its +time. + +Your glance caught a wave passing amidships as a heaped mass of polished +obsidian, having minor hollows and ridges on its slopes, conchoidal +fractures in its glass. It rose directly and acutely from your feet to a +summit that was awesome because the eye travelled to it over a long and +broken up-slope; this hill had intervened suddenly to obscure thirty +degrees of light; and the imagination shrank from contemplating water +which over-shadowed your foothold with such high dark bulk toppling in +collapse. The steamer leaning that side, your face was quite close to +the beginning of the bare mobile down, where it swirled past in a +vitreous flux, tortured lines of green foam buried far but plain in its +translucent deeps. It passed; and the light released from the sky +streamed over the "Capella" again as your side of her lifted in the +roll, the sea falling down her iron wall as far as the bilge. The +steamer spouted violently from her choked valve, as it cleared the sea, +like a swimmer who battles, and then gets his mouth free from a smother. + +Her task against those head seas and the squalls was so hard and +continuous that the murmur of her heart, which I fancied grew louder +almost to a moaning when her body sank to the rails, the panic of her +cries when the screw raced, when she lost her hold, her noble and +rhythmic labourings, the sense of her concentrated and unremitting power +given by the smoke driving in violence from her swaying funnel, the +cordage quivering in tense curves, the seas that burst in her face as +clouds, falling roaring inboard then to founder half her length, she +presently to raise her heavy body slowly out of an acre of foam, the +cascades streaming from her in veils,--all this was like great music. I +learned why a ship has a name. It is for the same reason that you and I +have names. She has happenings according to her own weird. She shows +perversities and virtues her parents never dreamed into the plans they +laid for her. Her heredity cannot be explained by the general chemics of +iron and steel and the principles of the steam engine; but something +counts in her of the moods of her creators, both of the happy men and +the sullen men whose bright or dark energies poured into her rivets and +plates as they hammered, and now suffuse her body. Something of the +"Capella" was revealed to me, "our" ship. She was one for pride and +trust. She was slow, but that slowness was of her dignity and size; she +had valour in her. She was not a light yacht. She was strong and hard, +taking heavy punishment, and then lifting her broad face over the seas +to look for the next enemy. But was she slow? She seemed but slow. The +eye judged by those assailing hills, so vast and whelmingly quick. The +hills were so dark, swift, and great, moving barely inferior to the +clouds which travelled with them, the collapsing roof which fell over +the seas, flying with the same impulse as the waters. There was the +uplifted ocean, and pressing down to it, sundered from it only by the +gale--the gale forced them apart--the foundered heavens, a low ceiling +which would have been night itself but that it was thinned in patches by +some solvent day. And our "Capella," heavy as was her body, and great +and swift as were the hills, never failed to carry us up the long +slopes, and over the white summits which moved down on us like the +marked approach of catastrophe. If one of the greater hills but hit us, +I thought---- + +One did. Late that afternoon the second mate, who was on watch, saw such +a wave bearing down on us. It was so dominantly above us that +instinctively he put his hand in his pocket for his whistle. It was his +first voyage in an ocean steamer; he was not long out of his +apprenticeship in "sails," and so he did not telegraph to stop the +engines. The Skipper looked up through the chart-room window, saw the +high gloom of this wave over us, and jumped out for the bridge ladder to +get at the telegraph himself. He was too late. + +We went under. The wave stopped us with the shock of a grounding, came +solid over our fore-length, and broke on our structure amidships. The +concussion itself scattered things about my cabin. When the "Capella" +showed herself again the ventilators had gone, the windlass was damaged, +and the iron ends of the drum on the forecastle head, on which a steel +hawser was wound, had been doubled on themselves, like tinfoil. + +By day these movements of water on a grand scale, the harsh and deep +noises of gale and breaking seas, and the labouring of the steamer, no +more than awed me. At least, my sight could escape. But courage went +with the light. At dusk, the eye, which had the liberty during the hours +of light to range up the inclines of the sea to distant summits, and +note that these dangers always passed, was imprisoned by a dreadful +apparition. When there was more night than day in the dusk you saw no +waves. You saw, and close at hand, only vertical shadows, and they +swayed noiselessly without progressing on the fading sky high over you. +I could but think the ocean level had risen greatly, and was see-sawing +much superior to us all round. The "Capella" remained then in a +precarious nadir of the waters. Looking aft from the Chief's cabin I +could see of our ship only the top of our mainmast, because that +projected out of the shadow of the hollow into the last of the day +overhead; and often the sheer apparitions oscillating around us swung +above the truck of it, and the whole length vanished. The sense of +onward movement ceased because nothing could be seen passing us. At dusk +the steamer appeared to be rocking helplessly in a narrow sunken place +which never had an outlet for us; the shadows of the seas erect over us +did not move away, but their ridges pitched at changing angles. + +You know the Sussex chalk hills at evening, just at that time when, from +the foot of them, they lose all detail but what is on the skyline, +become an abrupt plane before you of unequal height. That was the view +from the "Capella," except that the skyline moved. And when we passed a +barque that evening it looked as looks a solitary bush far on the summit +of the downs. The barque did not pass us; we saw it fade, and the height +it surmounted fade, as shadows do when all light has gone. But where we +saw it last a green star was adrift and was ranging up and down in the +night. + +This was the dark time when, struggling from amidships to the poop, you +knew there was something organised and coherent under you, still a +standing place in chaos, only because you could feel it there. And this +was the time to seek your fellows in the saloon, where there was light, +warmth, sane and familiar things, and dinner. The "Capella's" saloon was +fairly large, and the Skipper's pride. It was panelled in maple and oak, +with a long settee at the foreward end upholstered in red velvet, the +velvet protected by a calico cover. A brass oil lamp with an opaline +shade hung over the table from a beam beneath the skylight. There was a +closed American stove, with a rigorously polished brass flue running up +through the deck. On two oak sideboards in corners of the saloon some +artificial plants blossomed; from single stems each plant blossomed into +flowers of aniline dyes and of different species. One of these plants, +an imitation palm, and a better imitation of life than the others, was +carefully watered throughout the voyage by the steward till it wilted +into corruption and an offence, and became a count against the steward +which the skipper never forgave, for he thought his floral ornaments +lovely. When a pretty Brazilian lady visitor at Itacoatiara admired the +magenta rays of one blossom, he culled it for her (five earnest minutes +with a sharp knife, for there was wire behind the green bark) more as a +sacrifice and a hard duty than a joy, and often spoke of it afterwards, +shaking his head regretfully. + +Ah! that saloon. I remember it first, shiny, cold, and repellent, with a +handful of fire to its wide capacity for draughts, in the northern seas. +It had curious marine odours then, with which I was not friendly till +long after, odours that lamps, burnished brass, newly polished wood, +food, and the steward's storeroom behind it, never fully accounted for; +and I remember it as I found it in the still heat of the Amazon, when it +had the air of an oven; when, writing in it, the sweat ran off the +fingers to soil the paper, strange insects crawling everywhere on its +green baize table cover, and banging against its lamp. I remember it +assiduously now, every trivial feature of it, and the men, now scattered +over all the world, thrown together in it then for a spell to make the +most of each other. It has the indelible impress of a room of that house +where first the interest in existence awakened in us. + +The Skipper, with stove behind him, took his seat before the soup tureen +at the head of the table. You would as soon think of altering the +chart-room clock, even were it wrong, as of touching the soup tureen +without the Skipper's orders. It is his duty and his right to serve the +soup, and to call the steward to inform him the density of the +vegetables in it is too heavy. We have no market garden on board, you +know. + +The Doctor was on the Skipper's right hand, and the Purser next to the +Doctor, and on the opposite side, the chief mate. There was the plump +and bald-headed German steward, in white apron, the lid of one eye +heavier than the other, serving us in his shirt sleeves, sometimes +sucking his teeth with a noticeable click when he knew a dish deserved +our approval. You kept the soup in the plate by holding it off the table +and watching its tides. When her stern sailed up, and the screw raced, +the glass shade of the lamp, being a misfit, took our eyes to watch the +coming smash; the soup then poured over you, and trying to push your +chair back from the mess, you found the chair was a fixture on the +floor. This last fact was never remembered. I should try to push my +"Capella" chair back now, if I were sitting in it. + +The Doctor, who had been long enough tinkering careless bodies to have +grown a little worn and grizzled, was often removed from us by a faint +but impervious hauteur, though maybe he was only a little better and +differently dressed. He was a patient listener, but his eyes could be +droll. The Doctor's chuckle, escaping from his thoughts while he was +unguarded, would sometimes make the captain look up from a narrative +with question and a trace of resentment in his glance. The captain was a +great traveller, but he was puzzled to find the memory of our surgeon +following him to the most remote and unfamiliar strands. "Now how did +that fellow come to be at a place like that?" the captain would whisper +to me afterwards. "Can't make him out. Who is he?" The surgeon had a +bottomless fund of short stories, to which he would sometimes go about +the time when we were pushing away the banana skins and nutshells. He +had an elusive and stimulating method with them. He knew his work. At +the end of one the captain would explain the fun to the seriously +interested mate (who had leaned forward to learn), placing spoons and +crumbs to demonstrate the main points. Then the mate, too, would join us +with his happy laugh. The late and giddy laughter of the mate, when he +also arrived, became a welcome feature of a yarn by the surgeon. We +expected it. The mate's own stories were usually bawdy; he always +prefaced them with some unmanageable hilarity, which impeded his start. + +Mate (_pushing over his plate for soup_). That big wave washed out the +men's berths, sir. + +Captain. Then it did some good. The dirty brutes. + +Mate. Heard the men grumbling to-night. Said we'll never get the hawsers +to run out with them bugs in the hawse pipes. Say the bugs don't belong +to them, sir--ship's property. + +Doctor. Any this end of the ship, captain? Good Lord! + +Captain. Not a bug. And if there's any for'ard the men brought 'em. No +bugs in my ship. Never saw one in my cabin. + +Mate (_making a confused effort to master his emotion, not to spill his +soup, and to be respectful_). Te-he! you will, sir, Te-he! (_Realises he +may not laugh, but suffers internally._) + +Captain (_indicates an interrogation with frightful eyes and guttural +noises_). + +Mate (_controls himself by concentrating on a fork_). Well, sir--I'm +just telling you--I heard it said the men annoyed with bugs--some of 'em +said seein's believin'--said they had enough for everybody. (_His voice +breaks into a stifled falsetto_) So they emptied a match--match--they +emptied a match box full down your ventilator this morning. + + * * * * * + +The captain would frequently keep his seat in the saloon after dinner +till he had finished his cigar, and in the vein, would put a leg over +the arm of his chair, which he had pushed back (his chair was cushioned, +and was not a fixture), and frowning at his cigar, as if for defects, +would voyage again his early seas. I suppose a sailor would call our +skipper a hard case. He was an elderly man, tall, spare, and meagrely +bearded. His eyes were set close into a knife-like nose, and they were +opaque and bright, like two blue stones under a forehead which narrowed +and tightened into a small shiny cranium. There were tufts of grey wool +above his temples. No light came through his eyes to make them limpid, +except when he was fondling Tinker, the dog. They shone from the +surface, giving him a look of peering and intent suspicion. The skin of +his face, neck and hands, now worked a little loose, was so steeped in +the tincture of sunshine that it had preserved an unctious child-like +quality. His dress and habits betrayed an appreciation of his own +person. He kept his own medicines. + +I guessed he would have a ruthless process in an emergency; he would +identify the success and safety of the ship with his own. He laughed +from his mouth only, throwing his head back, showing surprisingly +perfect teeth, and laughter did not change the crystalline glitter of +his eyes. There was something alien and startling in his merriment. As +though his own mind were too cold for him at times he would seek out me, +or the chief, to find warmth in an argument. He would irritate us into a +disputation; and though he was a choleric man, quick at opposition, yet +his vocabulary then was flinty and sparse. It stuck, and was delivered +with pain. You could think of him labouring at his views of men and +affairs with a creaking slate pencil. He set one's teeth. But he was a +sailor, cautious and bold, with a knowledge of ships and the sea that +was a mine to me. Let me say that, during the voyage, I found him busy +making a canvas cot. He sat on the poop and worked there, bent and +patient as a seamstress, for days. With a judgment made too readily I +believed he was, naturally, making it for his own comfort, against the +heat of the river. When it was finished he was rolling up his ball of +yarn, surveying his job, and he said, mumbling and shy, that the cot was +for me. + +The Skipper, on this day that our decks were swept, swore about the men +and the bugs during dinner, muttered with foreboding about the glass, +which was still falling, and the coals, which were being burnt to no +purpose. We were hardly doing more than holding our place on our course. +The saloon was delirious, and when she flung up her heels, the varied +noises rose with the racing propeller to a crescendo of furious +castenets. The mate let us. The Skipper sat glooming, eyeing his cigar +resentfully, his leg over the arm of his chair. The Doctor was swaying +with the ship, weary and forlorn. Tinker had an appeal in his eyes, and +made timorous noises. The Purser wondered why he was there at all, and +blamed his silly dreams. The night boomed without. What a night! + +Skipper. If this southerly wind goes round to the west and north, look +out. I saw porpoises to-day too. + +Doctor. When are we due at Para? + +Skipper. Huh! What's this talk of Para? You wait. All this talk about +when we shall get there's no good.... Now in those Newfoundland +schooners where I served my time--I wouldn't have no talk in them about +getting anywhere. Seems as if somebody heard. You always run into it. +There was the "Lizzie Polwith." She was about 80 tons. Those west +country schooners in the fish trade are never more than 100 tons, else +they'd have to carry more than a master and one mate. I was her master, +and a kid of eighteen. We left Falmouth for Cadiz. Now look what +happened. My mate was old Tregenna. He was a regular misery. I never +knew such a dead homer, not so much as he was, always wanting to talk +about his wife. I say, when you've cast off, it's best not to have a +home. The ship wants all you can give her. Tregenna, he looked back a +lot. You know what I mean. Couldn't keep his mind on his job, but wished +he was through with it. There he'd be cutting bread at dinner, and it +'ud remind him, and he'd be wishing he was cutting it at home. When +things began to go stiff, he'd say, "who wouldn't sell his little farm +to go to sea?" Used to figure out on paper how long we'd be before we'd +be back. Why, you never know when you'll get back. + +See what happened. We left Cadiz that year on the first of January, and +got things just right. The winds chased us over. There were big +following seas, but you know those schooners ride like ducks. Up and +over they go. Never a drop did we ship. Though they're lively enough to +bruise and sicken all but good sailors. And old Tregenna was rubbing his +hands and making out his figures better and better. + +We arrived off St. Johns in a bit more than three weeks. I reckon I'd +done it all right, being such a young chap too. Well, I was turning in +that night, and just as I got into the companion a man said, "There goes +a lump of ice." I jumped out again. Why, there was ice all round us. The +sea was full of it as far as I could see into the night. "This is all +along of your figuring," I sang out to Tregenna. "But you'll have a lot +of time to reckon it up afresh," I said. + +So he had. Do you know when we got in? We got in on April 15. We were +two months and a half getting in. And we came over in three weeks. +There's something in that Jonah story. Always some fool who can't keep +his mouth shut and his mind on his job. + +We did have a time. Two and a half months, and our provisions ran out. +We were living on a little meal and dried peas. The ice chafed the +"Lizzie" till the rudder was worn down to the stock. It roughed up her +wooden sides till they looked as if they were covered with long coarse +hair. We were a sight when we got in. You wouldn't have known us, +hardly. We looked as if we'd come up from the bottom.... Don't ask me +when we shall get to Para. Wait till we're out of this. Listen to that +dog. Shut up, you Tinker. Making that noise, sir! Go and lie down. + +The Skipper clapped on his cap aggressively and went out. The Doctor had +a long and eloquent silence. Then he turned to me. "This beats all," he +said. "Come and have a drop of gin, old dear." He led the way to his +berth, which smelt of varnish and of lamp, and we swayed in chorus as +the ship rolled, and had a heartening mourn together. But for its +accidental compensations travel would not be worth the trouble. In proof +of that there is the entry in my diary some days after: + +"December 22. Awoke at four a.m. with the ship rolling as brutally as +ever. A great noise of waters and things banging. The seas huge at +sunrise, when the light came over their tops. Depressing sight. The sky +was blue at first, but was soon overcast with squalls. The horizon ahead +gets slate coloured, and low clouds underneath, like ragged bales of +dirty wool, come towards us heavy and fast. Then the squall and waves +rush down on us express, and the ship buries herself. Constantly hearing +engine-room bell sounded from bridge to slacken speed as a big sea +appears. The captain popped in his head as I was deciding whether to get +up or stay where I was. He gazed sternly at me and said he was looking +for Jonah. I half believe he means it too. Everybody is weary of this. +The men have been in oilskins since the start. + +"Noon to-day, Lat. 42.6 N. Long. 11.10 W. Miles by engines since noon +yesterday 222. Knots by revolutions 9.2. But the slip is 49.2 per cent. +So actual distance 112 miles only, and knots 4.6. Bad going. Wind +southly. Engines racing and engineer still at throttle. + +"Night, and a full moon tearing past cloud openings. The ship +occasionally shows like a pale ghost, the black shadows of the funnel +guys and stanchions oscillating on the white paint-work as she rolls. I +went into Chief's cabin, and from its open door--for it was sensibly +milder--looked out astern over the way we had come. Up and down, this +side and that, went the steamer, and the Great Bear, in a wind clear +patch of sky, was dancing on our wake. Polaris was making eccentric +orbits round the main masthead light. Then the Skipper came in. He sat +gazing astern. The look of his face was enough. It was quite plain he +would like to be offended to-night, and attack anybody about anything. +Presently he started intently as he looked astern, and jumped from his +seat crying the ultimate anathema on the chap at the wheel; and ran out. +The Chief glanced astern and laughed. 'The old man comes in here because +it's uncommon handy for watching the wake. Look at it. Somebody on the +bridge writing letters on the ocean. Thinking of his sweetheart, and her +name is Sue.' We gave the Skipper's voice time to reach the wheelhouse, +and then saw the wake visibly tauten out. + +"I went aft, balancing like a man learning the tight rope, along the +trestle bridge. The moon was still falling precipitously through the +broken sky, and areas of the great seas, where the sweeping searchlight +of the moon showed monsters shaping and slowly vanishing, were +frightful. There were sudden expansions of vivid green lightnings in the +north and east. I found the Doctor in the chief mate's cabin. I sang +some songs in a riving minor, accompanied by the mate on an accordion, +for the doctor's amusement, and discovered why sailors always use the +accordion, previously a mystery to me. It has a sad and reflective note, +suited to men with memories when alone on the ocean. It ought to fit +Celtic bards better than the harp. It has a fine expiring moan. The mate +gave an imitation of a dying man with it. + +"To bed at 11. Tried to read Henry James. My cockroach came out to wave +his derisive hands at me. No wonder. The light was very bad, and I was +pitched from side to side of the bunk. Nearly thrown out once. I might +just as well have attempted to read the Bhagavad-Gita in the original. +So I read the last letters from home instead and then fell asleep as a +little child." + + * * * * * + +There was something of leisure in her movements next morning. I felt +sure the glass must be rising at last. The air felt lighter and more +expansive. A peep through the port showed me the ceiling had gone up +considerably in the night. There was little wind, for the waves, though +as great as ever, had lost their white ridges. Their summits were +rounded and smooth. We were running south out of it, though the residue +of the dreary northern seas was still washing about the decks. It was +December yesterday, but April to-day. The engineers' messroom boy, with +bare fat arms, went by the cabin, singing. + +At breakfast we heard that Chips, who had retired to his bunk for some +days past to mend a leg damaged when the hatches were in danger, had met +with a still more serious misfortune. We fell into a mood of silent and +respectful compassion. There was nothing to be said. Chips had lost his +Victoria Cross. He was an old hero in trouble. The few of us who were +British there--true, most of us were Germans, Dutchmen, Scandinavians, +and Portuguese--felt we represented The Country. Chips limped about the +forecastle with reproach in his face, and we felt we were petty in +noticing his face was also dirty, though it certainly was difficult to +avoid seeing that too, perhaps because, and this can be said for us, the +dirt was of longer standing than the reproach. Then again it is common +knowledge that Chips sleeps in straw, having no mattress. + +Chips' story we knew. It had been whispered about the ship. He was at +the Siege of Alexandria, and a shell fell near a group of men on his +ship. Chips picked it up and dropped it overboard before the fuse was +finished. The Doctor and I felt especially responsible, for a reason I +cannot easily explain, it is so vague, and we told Chips we would help +him in his search for his lost treasure. This took us to Chips' +sea-chest, and amid a group of mask-like faces--for how could foreigners +guess what this mattered to us?--we hunted carefully for Chips his +aureole. We found--but I suppose even Victoria Cross heroes must dirty +their socks. There were other things also. Yet it was out of one of +these very other things, which were, I think, shirts, that there +dropped, when the Doctor picked up the garment, a little package wrapped +in newspaper. Chips, from his berth, gave a cry of joy. The Doctor and +I, smiling too, looked upon the old man feeling that we had acted for +you all. Chips, secretive with his sacrosanct emblem, was putting the +little packet under his coverlet, when a low foreign sailor snatched it +from him. The Cross fell to the deck. I recovered it from the feet +instantly in a white passion, and chanced to look at it. It confirmed +that one, who is named Chips here, was something in the Royal and +Ancient Order of Buffaloes. + +Coming back from the fo'castle, suddenly I felt as the man of the +suburbs does when, bowed with months of black winter and work in a city +alley, he is, without any warning, transfigured on his own doorstep one +morning. There as before is his familiar shrub, dripping with rain. Yet +is it as before? It points a black finger at him. But the finger has a +polished green nail. + +He is translated. His ears are opened, and there comes for the first +time that year the silver whistle of the starlings. A touch of South is +in the air. His burden falls. + +The cloudy sky was not grey now, but pearly, for it was translucent to +the sun. More than day had come; life was born. There was ichor in the +day. They were not dark northern waves that baffled us, but we were +shoved and rocked by the send of a long nacreous ocean swell, firm but +kind, from the south-west. The iron ship which had been repulsive to the +touch, for its face had been glassy and cold, was now drying a warm rust +red, like earth of Devon in spring, and was responsive. You could rest +against its iron body and feel yourself grow. I saw the Chief outside +his cabin in his shirt sleeves, gazing overseas between the stanchions +of the boat deck, smoking in the evident luxury of full comfort and +release. Involuntarily, he danced the two-step as she rolled. "Got +anything to read?" he asked. + +Now that reminded me. We have no library, of course, but we have a +circulation of books on board. There are no common shelves; but the book +you left thoughtlessly on the skylight five minutes ago, while you went +to find some matches, is gone when you return. And you, if you see a +book lying open and unprotected in a cabin, glance round warily, dash +in, and take it; very often only to discover to your bitter +disappointment that it is one of your own, and not an adventurous and +unread stranger. The Chief's question reminded me that the day we left +Swansea a lady (and a friend of poor Jack, the public is well aware) +sent us a bale of literature. We blessed her when we saw its bulk, +looking at it as oxen might look at a truss of hay, for that was its +size and shape. Though it proved to be shavings and a cruel blow to the +animals, as you shall hear. + +Here was the very day to get at that bale, and impatiently I rolled it +into the open. It was trussed with great care, so I tore away a corner +of the wrappings, dived in a hand, and hauled out a copy of "Joy Bells +for Young Christians," the November number of 1899. + +Well. Anyhow, it was a clean copy, and I put it by as the portion of our +bald-headed German steward. + +This disappointment made me pause, though. Here was going to be a long +job for the Purser, sorting out this. Supposing there was anything +nutritious in the bale I did not mind the labour of the unpacking and +the distribution; but if the bulk of the consignment was hailed, so to +speak, by "Joy Bells," then it would be better to call a deck hand and +get the package overside before the ship was littered with too much of +this joy. A Brazilian stoker, as he passed, saw me standing in thought, +and I suppose imagined--for he could not ask--that I wanted to cut the +string, but had no knife. Before I could stop him, he, smiling a knowing +and friendly smile, whipped out a blade from his rear; and at once we +stood ankle-deep in literature. There was a landslide near me of Infant +Methodists (dates unknown) and I gave the Brazilian an armful for his +kindness. + +Our dear unknown friend at Swansea, with her eye on our sailor-like but +yet immortal souls, had heard, no doubt, at the annual meeting of the +Society for the Succor of Seamen, at Caxton Hall, Westminster (held on +the 29th of every February), what simple and barbarous and yet, in the +main, considering our origins and circumstances, what worthy fellows we +were. But she was not told at the meeting that the wealthy shipowners, +subscribers to the society, and whose presence there made Caxton Hall +seem nautical, have a way of signing on crews at continental ports +because wages rule lower there; and that consequently not one of our men +was moved by Christian English, but only by mates English, and then not +so very quickly. The officers and engineers were English, and there the +sailors' friend was right in her surmise; but I do not see how she could +have done more to put in awful jeopardy the soul of our wise and +spectacled chief engineer, for instance, than by approaching him with a +winning and philanthropic smile, under the impulse to do him good with a +statement of her religion in words of one syllable. He would have met +her politely, I know; but after she had gone---- + +Let her try to imagine her own feelings if our Chief, uninvited and +blankly unmindful, invaded the exclusive inner circle of Swansea +society, and approached her in the midst of her own with the childish +notion of instructing her in the first principles of his pronounced +Pyrrhonism; or say he went to her as a colporteur of the Society for +Instructing the Intelligence and Manners of Leisured Folk. But I must +say for our chief that this cannot be even supposed. He would never +offer the lowliest being such an indignity. + +We pulled and dragged at the escaped mass of periodicals, looking for +something good, but found no pearls had been cast before us. There were +parish magazines and temperance monthlies, there were religious almanacs +for the years we have lost; by some sporting chance there were even a +few back numbers of the "Monumental Mason." It is plain the latter could +be considered an added grievance, even though they were put in as a +kindly reminder of our narrow lease here. It was an aggravation of the +original offence to sailors who, when their short term here closes, have +to make shift with some firebars at their heels. What is Aberdeen +granite and indelible gold lettering to such men but a hint of the +hardships which follow them even beyond the end? + +So overboard went the lot--I may as well tell the whole truth, overboard +also went the evangelical hymn books, new though they were. I will only +suppress the advice cried to the gulls astern as the literature went +floating and flying in their direction. We had to rely for our reading +on what had been brought aboard by our crowd, a collection which +gradually revealed itself in single books and magazines. + +There was, for example, the "Morphology of the Cryptogamia," an +exhaustive work which gave me much pleasure in wondering how it got +aboard at all. The chief mate used it as a wedge between his open door +and the bulkhead, to prevent the miserable knocking as the ship lolled +about. He would not lend me that book, because it jammed into the +opening nicely; but I borrowed from him "Three Fingered Jack, the Terror +of the Antilles," and I made him a complete gift in return of "Robert +Elsmere" which I found marooned on a bunker hatch as I came along. There +you see the delightful chance and hazardous character of our literature. + +I prided myself on the select reading I had brought aboard with me. But +what devilish black art the sea air worked on those choice volumes, +however, I cannot explain. I have no means of knowing. But there they +are, their covers bitten by cockroaches, and the words inside bleached +and sterilised of all meaning. There they will stop; Henry James, too. +For what is the use of him when big seas are running? He would be a +magician indeed who could capture our minds then. You get the right +amplitude of leisure and the flat undistracting circumstances he +demands, the emptiness and the immobility necessary, when you are +waiting for cargo long in coming at a low seaboard. I suppose we want +the representation of life only when we are not very much alive. In +heavy weather there is no doubt old newspapers make the best reading, +especially if they have good bold advertisements. For I know it requires +the same courage and concentration needed ashore for reading Another +Great Speech by the Premier; indeed, the steel blue quality of deadly +resolution used only by men of letters who write biographies and spin +literary causeries, to manage even novels when great billows are moving. +The mind is inclined to absent itself then. Then it is you put all +reading aside with a promise of a long and leisurely festival of books +when the ship is steaming uniformly down the unvarying "trades." + +But when you get near the neighbourhood of the constant sun, during the +day you fall asleep over "Three Fingered Jack" and the old magazines +which you had on your knees while musing on the colours of the sea and +the mounting architecture of the clouds; and beyond sundown listen to +the mate's accordion or the engineer's flute. Perhaps, moved by the +hu-s-s-h of the waves, the silky and purple dark, and the loneliness of +your little company under the mid-ocean stars, tentatively (though your +shipmates are very forgiving) lift a ballad yourself; for something is +expected of you, and singing seems right. + +Of all the books aboard the "Capella" I got most out of the Skipper's +sailing directories and his charts. Talk of romance! There was that +chart-room under the bridge, across its open doors on either side +creaming waves going by in the moonlight, and the steamer inclining each +side alternately, and the shadows of the rigging sliding back and forth +on the pale deck. You cannot know what romance is till you are in seas +you have never sailed before, where the marks will be few when landfall +comes; that ocean where the Skipper is to find his own way by his lore +of the sea, and may even ask your opinion about alternatives; and there +read sailing directories. The romance of these books cannot be +translated or quoted. It would leave them, as though a glimmer went out, +if you attempted to take them from that chart-room where pendant things +are swaying leisurely, where you can hear the bells tell the watches, +and the skipper's gold-laced cap is on the mahogany table. The South +Atlantic Sailing Directions, our own guide, is fine, especially when it +gets down to the uninhabited islands in far southern latitudes. I do not +think this noble volume is included in the best hundred books, but I +know it can release the mind from the body. + +But what's this talk of landfalls? as the old man would say. There will +be no landfall yet for us; and this is Christmas Eve. I knew it was an +auspicious occasion of some kind, for the steward just went aft with two +big plum cakes cuddled in his apron. That made me look at the calendar. +We are now 800 miles out, and the steamer has reached six knots. This +was the best night we had yet found. The steamer was on an even keel, +with but occasional spasms of sharp rolling, for there was no sea, but +only old ocean breathing deeply and regularly in its sleep, and +sometimes making a slight movement. The light of the full moon was the +shining ghost of noon. The steamer was distinct but immaterial, +saliently accentuated, as a phantom. A deep shadow would have detached +the forecastle head but for a length of luminous bulwark which still +held it, and some quiet voices of men who were within the shadow, +yarning. The line of bulwark and the murmuring voices held us together. +The prow as it dipped sank into drifts of lambent snow. The snow fled by +the steamer's sides, melting and musical. Two engineers off duty leaned +on the rails amidships, smoking, looking into the vacancy in which the +moonlight laid a floor of troubled silver. As if drawn by its light a +few little clouds were poised near the moon, grouped round the bright +heart of the night. There was the moon and its small company of clouds, +and ourselves below in our own defined allotment of sea. The only thing +outside and far was Sirius, burning independently in the east, looking +unwinking through the wall of night into our world. + +On such a night and with Christmas morning but sixty minutes away it +would have been wasting life to go to bed. I glanced expectantly at the +door of the Chief's cabin, and saw indeed it was open, a yellow +rectangle within which was the profile of the Chief beneath his lamp, +talking to somebody. The Doctor was there, and he made room for me on +the settee. Then the captain joined us, and I perched myself on the +washstand. + +"Well, we can undress to-night when we turn in," said the Chief. (None +of us had, so far.) In a long silence which filled the cabin with +tobacco smoke I could hear the engines below uplifted in confident song. + +"Now they're walking round," said the Skipper, nodding his head. "Now +she feels it." + + * * * * * + +When we met thus, between the hours of nine and midnight, as was our +irregular habit, the talk first was always desultory, and about our own +ship and our own circumstances, for the concerns of our little world +strangely occupied our minds, as you would think, and the large affairs +of that great world we had left, of which we heard now no sound nor +rumour, had lessened in the mind, faded and vanished, all the huge +consequence and loud clangour of it, so that now there was an empty +horizon astern, and nothing between us and that void but a few gulls, +like small and pursuing recollections. Our little microcosm, afloat and +sundered in the wastes, was occupied in its own polity. We talked of the +carpenter's bad leg; complained of the cook's bread; heard that Tinker +the dog, being young, had the habit at night, while honest folk slept, +of eating the saloon mats; grumbled that the ship's tobacco was mouldy. +The deck was getting dry, the Skipper said, and now we could get the men +chipping it, and then it could be tarred. + +"That donkeyman," said the Skipper, "that man wastes the fresh water. +I'll have a lock put on the pump handle. He works it as if we were laid +out to the main. I spoke to him about it this morning." The fresh water +is a vital affair with us. We may not drink the water of the country to +which we are bound, so eighty tons of Welsh mountain spring is in our +cleansed and whitewashed tanks. Woe to the man caught overflowing his +can, if an officer sees him. "The handle can't be locked," said the +Chief, "because it's next to the galley. The cook wants it all day +long." + +"Well, let me catch anyone wasting it. We'd look all right with a lot of +dysentery, drinking that river water out there." + +This common meeting-place of ours, the Chief's cabin, is on a highway of +the ship, being on the direct route from the poop to the bridge, and so +it is a hostel, for the Chief is a kindly and popular man, big and +robust in body and mind; though he has a knack, at odd and unexpected +times, of being candid in a way that shocks, treading on corns without +ruth, the Skipper's particularly, when their two departments are at a +difference. + +This cabin was one which I always visited first, for, especially in the +morning when other folk had not rubbed the night out of their eyes, and +so looked darkly upon their fellows, my friend the Chief had the early +eye of a child and the soaring spirit of the lark. I never met him when +he had got out of bed on the wrong side. His cabin became a refuge to +me, for, unlike the Doctor's and my own place (we both were birds of +passage, therefore our cabins were cold and stark), the Chief's was +comfortable with settled furniture, cosy and habitable, like a fixed +home. There was a wicker chair, with cushions, and a writing-desk where +the engineer's log lay handy and bearing some plug tobacco, freshly cut, +on its cover, and a pipe rack above the desk carrying a most foul +assortment waiting their turns again for favour. Portraits of the +Chief's family were on the walls, smiling boys and girls, with their +mother in a chief place, looking upon daddy by proxy. There was a +bookshelf bearing some engineering manuals, a few novels and magazines, +a tape measure, some gauge glasses, some tin whistles, a flute, and a +palm leaf fan. Above the washstand was a rack with glasses and a carafe. +A settee ran along one side, and his bunk upon the other side. There we +sat on Christmas Eve, while the wicker chair bent and complained with +the Skipper's weight as he swayed to the leisurely rocking of the ship. +The tobacco smoke floated in coils and blue smears in the room. A bottle +of Hollands rested for security on the bed, and we held our glasses on +our knees. + +The pallid and puffy face of the steward, a very honest man secretly +free with his small store of apples on my account because I am green and +my palate not yet used to the flatness of tinned provisions, looked in +on us from the right. "Vhere is der dog, sir? I haf not seen der dog." +"Must be about," we cried. "We had seen him," we said, "nosing about the +poop for rats, or asleep on the saloon mat, or padding round the casing +looking for friends." "But no, I haf looked. He is not found. Vhere is +der dog?" A hole in our little community, it was apparent from our +intent looks, could not be thought of with equanimity. Tinker's +importance became quite large. The second engineer passed the door, +caught the drift of our anxious converse, and turned to say the dog was +then asleep in his room. "Ach! zat is all right." We struck matches for +our pipes again. + +"That dog, I shouldn't like to lose him," said the Skipper, stroking his +beard. "There's no luck in that. I shot a dog once on a ship; and first +we ran into a blow and lost a lot of gear, and then the mate got his +hand smashed, and then everything got cross-grained till I'd have paid, +ah, fifty pounds to have had the brute back again, and an ugly customer +he was. Ah, you can smile, Doctor, but there it is. I'm not +superstitious and never was. But you can't tell me. Look at the things +that happen. When I was a youngster, my ship was off Rio, and I dreamt +my father was dead. I took my bearings and the time. I dreamt my father +died in a red brick house with a laylock tree by the door and that tree +was in blossom plain enough to smell. I didn't know the house. There was +a path of clean red bricks leading up to the porch, through a garden. I +didn't see my father. But you know what dreams are like--no sense in +them--there the house was and not a soul in sight. I knew he was dying +inside it." + +"How do you account for that? Have you got it down in your books? I lay +you haven't. I forgot all about that dream. Long after I was at Cape +Town and met my brother. That reminded me. After a bit I said to him, +'Father's dead.' 'Yes,' he said, 'but how did you know?' Said I, 'Was +the house like this?' and I told him. 'Yes,' he said, 'it was like that. +A place he was staying at in Essex. But how did you know?' I didn't tell +him. What's the good? He wouldn't have believed it. People don't." + +All through the anxious time when we were being soused and buffeted I +noticed how our company, every man of them, even the Pyrrhonist, saw +omens in all the chance variety of the vast menace under the frown of +which we huddled in our iron box; porpoises alongside; one of Mother +Cary's dark brood accompanying us, glancing about the vagaries of the +flowing hills with swift precision; the form of a cloud; a loom far out, +as though day were there at least. The fall of a portrait in the Chief's +room once set him wondering and melancholy. Again, when the dog whined +and moped, the Skipper eyed the animal narrowly, as though the creature +had prescience but could tell us what it knew only by drooping and +quivering its hind quarters. You might have thought that Fate, dumb and +cruel, but a little relenting for something inevitably to come to our +mishap, were trying to stretch a point, and so induced the Skipper to +put his shirt on inside out one morning, after dreaming he saw drowned +rats, in case the horse were not too blind to see both the nod and the +wink. + +The Sphinx makes subtle dumb motions, as it were, when closely regarded. +I do not wonder if it does. Sometimes in those dark days I thought I got +a hint or two. I cannot tell you what they were. The weather grew +brighter afterwards and I forgot them. From our narrow and weltering +security, where the wind searched through us like the judgment eye, I +know, looking out upon the wilderness in turmoil where was no help, and +no witness of our undoing, where the gleams were fleeting as though the +very day were riven and tumbling, that I saw the filmy shapes of those +things which darken the minds of primitives. While the sky is changeful, +and there are storms at sea when our fellows are absent, and mischance +and death are veiled but here, we shall have gods and ghosts. The +sharp-sighted collectors of old brain-lumber and such curios may still +keep busy, and tie up their dry bundles of mythology and religions; but +I myself could make plenty more. + +So it was my shipmates' yarns were most of the dire kind, with some dim +warning precedent. I do not recall a story that was gay, except those of +the wanton sort. They were of close calls and of women, as, I suppose, +have been those of all hard livers, from the cave men on. + +Eight bells were rung on the bridge, and, like a faint echo in a higher +pitch, answered from the fo'castle. Christmas morning! By my pocket +compass we toasted the folk at home. We had heard a good many stories of +wreck this night, and the Chief was now at his contribution to the +unseasonable memories. ("I've had enough of it. Here goes," said the +Doctor; and he went.) "Don't leave us. It lets in the draught. Well, the +compliments to you. This typhoon--I had had four others--but this one +made me think it was good-bye. She was a small steamer, that 'Samuel +Plimsoll,' and old, but well-behaved. But her light nearly went out in +that blow. It was that dark you could find nothing but the noise, and we +were just the same as a chunk of wood under a waterfall, because the +Lord knows how many feet of water were in the engine-room, for she was +rolling so. Her fires were out. She had a list of 22 degrees to port. +She simply lay in it, and it went over her. Every time she rolled over +on the deep side, thinks I, this is the last of her. All this, mind you, +went on for two days, and the skipper was in the chart-room, waiting. +I've found that when the danger is not much you get excited, but when +there seems no chance you get cool and cunning and try to make one. One +time I thought she seemed easier, and I was able to get the donkey +engine going. I felt better as soon as I heard the steam, even though it +was only in the donkey. Thinks I, there's power, and it's mine--a canful +of steam to a typhoon. It was a chance to laugh at. Then I took the +other engineers with me and we went below. The water there, full of +cinders and trash, pouring through the gear as she turned from side to +side, made it look a pretty poor show. You see, the donkey wouldn't work +the pumps, for the coal and muck were sucked in. So I took a basket and +got into the tank, holding the basket under the pump. The water was up +to my neck, and every time she rolled I was ducked. But the dodge +worked, and that list of hers to port was a bit of luck in its way, for +it helped us to get the starboard boiler going. When I saw the throws +moving, and the wash angry when it splashed on the hot metal, I said, +'So much for your old typhoon.' We were not counted out then. We crawled +under the lee of an island, and lay for four days repairing her. The +funny thing was when we got to Hong Kong the papers were full of our +loss. '"Samuel Plimsoll" lost with all hands.' It was funny to see a +bill like that. I met the placard as it came running round a corner, and +it made me stand and shuffle my feet on the ground to see if the earth +was all right. I knew the editor of that paper, and I was then going up +to give him something good. And here he was making money out of us like +that. He stood at the door of his office and saw me coming. I went up +laughing, waving his paper in my hand. He looked quite surprised. His +mouth was wide open. 'You're a nice sort of chap,' I said." + + * * * * * + +Christmas Day. In case it has become necessary for me to show again the +symbols of verity, as this is a book of travel, here they are: "Lat. +37.2 N., long. 14.14 W. Light wind and moderate swell from S.W. Vessel +rolling heavily at intervals. 961 miles out. Miles by engines 226. +Actual distance travelled (because of the swell on our starboard bow) +197 miles." I cannot see that these particulars do more than help me out +with the book, but as they have been considered essential in narratives +of voyaging, here they are, and much good may they do anybody. Thoreau, +in one of his quaintly superior moods when speaking of travel, said, "It +is not worth while going round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar." +In nearly every book of travel this is proved to be true. They show it +was not worth the while, seeing it was either to shoot cats or to count +degrees of latitude. (As for me, I have no reason whatever for being at +sea.) Consider Arctic travel. I have read long rows of books on that, +but recall few emotional moments. The finest passage in any book of +Arctic travel is in Warburton Pikes' "Barren Grounds," where he quotes +what the Indian said to the missionary who had been speaking of heaven. +The Indian asked, "And is it like the land of the Musk-ox in summer, +when the mist is on the lakes, and the loon cries very often?" + +You feel at once that the country the Indian saw around him would be +easily missed by us, even when in the midst of it. For taking the +bearings of such a land, the sextant, and the miles already travelled, +would not be factors to help much. Now the Indian knew nothing of +artificial horizons and the aids to discovering where they are which +strangers use. But in summer the mists of his lakes were but the vapour +of his musings, the penumbra of the unfathomed deeps of his mind whereon +he paddled his own canoe; and when the wild-fowl called, it was his +memory heard; it was his thought become vocal then while he dreamed on. +I myself learned that the treasures found in travel, the chance rewards +of travel which make it worth while, cannot be accounted beforehand, and +seldom are matters a listener would care to hear about afterwards; for +they have no substance. They are no matter. They are untranslatable from +their time and place; and like the man who unwittingly lies down to +sleep on the tumulus where the little people dance on midsummer night, +and dreams that in the place where man has never been his pockets were +filled with fairy gold, waking to find pebbles there instead, so the +traveller cannot prove the dreams he had, showing us only pebbles when +he tries. Such fair things cannot be taken from the magic moment. They +are but filmy, high in the ceiling of your thoughts then, rosy and +sunlit by the chance of the light, transitory, melting as you watch. You +come down to your lead again. These occasions are not on your itinerary. +They are like the Indian's lakes in summer. They have no names. They +cannot be found on the best maps. Not you nor any other will ever +discover them again. Nor do they fill the hunger which sent you +travelling; they are not provender for notebooks. They do not come to +accord with your mood, but they come unaware to compel, and it is your +own adverse and darkling atoms that are changed, at once dancing in +accord with the rare incidence of that unreasonable and transcendent +moment of your world, the rhythm of which you feel, as you would the +beat of drums. + +And what are these things?--but how can we tell? A strip of coral beach, +as once I saw it, which was as all other coral beaches; but the ship +passed close in, and by favour of the hour and the sun this strand did +not glare, but was resplendent, and the colours of the sea, green, gold, +and purple, were not its common virtues, but the emotional and passing +attar of those hues. There was the long, slow labouring of our burdened +tramp in the Atlantic storm. Or one April, and a wild cherry-tree in +blossom by an English hedge, a white cloud tinctured with rose, and in +it moving a dozen tropical chaffinches; the petals were on the grass. + +And now, this is Christmas morning. I am in the Chief's bunk, and he +still sleeps on the settee. We fell asleep where we lay yarning on our +backs after midnight. I wake at the right moment, opening my eyes with +the serene and secure conviction that things are very well. The slow +rocking of the ship is perfect rest. There is no sound but the faint +tap-tap of something loose on the desk and responding to the ship's +movements. The cabin is strangely illuminated to its deepest corner by +an extraordinary light, as though the intense glow of a rare dawn had +penetrated even our ironwork. On the white top of the cabin a bright +moon quivers about, the shine from live waters sent up through the round +of our port. When we lean over, the port shows first the roof of the +alleyway dappled with bright reflections; then a circle of sky, which +the horizon soon halves; and then the dazzling white and blue of the +near waves; we reverse. + +This is life. This is what I have come for. I do not repose merely in a +bunk. I am prone and easy in the deepest assurance of good. This +conviction has penetrated even the unconsciousness of the Chief; he +snores in profound luxury. If in a ship you are brought sometimes too +cruelly close to the scrutiny of the terms of your narrow tenure, +expecting momentarily to see the document torn across by invisible +fingers, yet nowhere else do you feel those terms to be so suddenly +expanded in the sun. And nowhere else is got such release, secure and +absolute, from the nudging of insistent trifles. There is nothing +between your eyes and the confines of your own place. Empty day is all +round. In the entire circle there is not the farthest impertinent +interruption--through all the degrees there is not one fool standing in +the light; and you yourself are on nobody's horizon. No history stains +that place. There is not a black doubt anywhere. It is the first day +again, and no need yet for a rubbish heap. + +Yet when, singing to myself, I went outside to matins, I found Sandy our +third engineer with the toothache. So much of truth is got from being a +gymnosophist and regarding your own toes with aloof abstraction on a +sunny Christmas morning. I became Sandy's courage for him instead, took +his arm firmly, and led him aft to the doctor. We would start a rubbish +heap for a pristine world with a decayed tooth. Something to be going on +with. + +Seeing we were almost off Madeira we had some amount of right to the +July sun under which we had run. For the first time since the Mumbles +our decks were quite dry, and cherry red with rust. There were +glittering crusts of salt in odd places. At eight bells (midday) the +captain ordered a general holiday, except for the routine duties; and +the donkeyman appeared to startle us as the apparition of a stranger on +the ship, for he had a clean face, though his eyes still were dark and +spectral, and he wore a suit of new dungarees, stiff and creased from a +paper parcel, but just opened, out of a Swansea slop shop. His mates +were some seconds realising him. Then they made derisive signs, and the +boldest some ribald cries. I thought their resentment was really aroused +by Donkey's new shirt; it was that touch which pushed matters too far, +and made him unfriendly. He saw this himself. Soon he changed the new +shirt for one that had been rendered neutral in the stoke-hold and the +bucket. + +There was something neutral, like Donkey's old shirt, about most of our +crowd. Each one of the mob which gathered with mess kits a little before +midday about the galley door seemed reduced, was faded in a noticeable +measure from the sharp and strong pattern of a man. Their conversation +about the galley was always in subdued mutterings, not direct, but out +of the mouth corners, sideways. Their only independence was in the +negligence of their attitudes. They might have been keeping in mind an +austere and invisible presence, whose swift words from nowhere might at +any time cleave their soft babble. If I made to pass through them the +babble ceased, and from limp poses they sprang upright in the narrow way +to let me pass, their eyes cast down. A man who had not seen me coming, +but still sprawled on the rail, talking quietly, would be nudged by his +neighbour. It struck me this attitude would change when they knew us +better; but it never did. These deckhands and firemen were mostly +youngsters, steadied by a few older hands. Chips and Donkey were the +veterans. In that crowd the boatswain was the admirable figure. He was a +young Britisher, tall, upright, and weighty, with a smiling, respectful +eye in which sometimes, I thought, there was a faint hint of mockery. He +had an easy balance and confidence in his movements which made him worth +watching when about his business. Clean shaven when he came aboard, he +now had a tawny beard which caught gold lights, and it was singularly +good on his weather-darkened face. He seldom wore a cap, for it could +have added little protection to the taut vigour of his hair, and would +have spoilt, as perhaps he himself guessed, that proper flourish and +climax to the poise of his head. + +Donkey was an Irishman, and he was the huge frame of what, maybe thirty +years before, had been a powerful man. This morning his big cadaverous +face, white only on the bony ridges surrounding the depressions of the +temples, the cheeks, and the dark pits of the eyes, and with the shadowy +hollow of the mouth which gaped through the weight of the massive jaw, +would have resembled, from a little distance, that of a skeleton head of +one of the monsters in a geological gallery, but for the dewlap +sustained by sinews running from his chin down his throat. Donkey was a +silent man, and never caught your glance as you passed him, but lumbered +along with so much of the surprising celerity of a gaunt elephant that +you thought you might hear the rasp of his loose clothes. He was a +simple and docile fellow. I never heard him speak, but he used to come +to the Chief, fill the door with his massive front, his small eyes which +expressed nothing and were but sparks of life, looking nowhere in +particular, and make guttural sounds; and the Chief, being used to him, +understood. At sea Donkey did his small duties like a plain but +cumbersome mechanism that had somewhere in it an obscure point of +rationality. When ashore, though, he was said to go mad, and to roll +trampling and trumpeting through the squalid littoral of the world; +being brought aboard afterwards an enormity of lax bones and flesh, with +the cogitating glim in his bulk quite doused. + +Of the others, there was a Teutonic bunch of lads, deckhands, which I +never succeeded in segregating, they looked so much alike. They had +pimpled, idle faces, and neutral eyes, cast down when they sidled by +one, thin down on their chins, and grimy raiment which, by the look of +it, was an integument never cast after we left port. One name would have +covered that lot, and frequently I heard the mates use it. But Olsen, +the Norwegian with a blond moustache which covered his mouth like a +fog-protector, and stern blue eyes, was a sailor. The firemen made a +better bunch. There was among them a swarthy Brazilian, whose constant +smile seemed ever on the point of breaking into song, but that he was +always chewing the end of a sweat rag he wore twisted round his neck. +The happy feature of our firemen was a Dutchman, whose hollow face was +full of silent woe and endurance. He was our chief joy. When once we +found the sun, he then appeared in a single garment, trousers and braces +cut in one piece of brown canvas, hauled up well under his arms, leaving +his slab feet remote and forlorn. His torso was bare, a dancing girl in +red and blue tattooed on his chest. He wore a bowler hat without a brim. + +We will get Christmas over. It was a pagan festival. Looking back at it, +I see--with the astonishment of the sedate who is native to a +geometrical suburb where the morning train follows the night and every +numbered house shelters a moral agnostic--I see a dancing baccanal with +free gestures who fades, as I look back intently, doubting my senses, in +a roseous haze. The lawless movements of that wild, bright and laughing +figure, its exultant blasphemy, its confident mockery, are remembered by +me as though once I had been admitted to the green room of heaven. +Surely I have seen a god whose deathless knowledge derides the solemn +gods, behind the curtain. It was Christmas night, and our little +"Capella," our point of night shine, a star moving through the void to +its dark destiny, filled the vault with its song, while its fellows in +the heavens stood round. Christmas is over. + + * * * * * + +The day following was Sunday, a grey day of penance, the men soberly +washing their shirts in buckets under the forecastle head, smoking moody +pipes. The garments were tied to any convenient gear where they could +hang free. The sky was leaden. This grey day was distinguished by the +strange phenomenon of an horizon which was almost level; the skyline and +the clouds did not slant first this way, then that. The swell had almost +gone. Already I began to feel the large patience and tranquillity of a +mind losing its shadows, and contemplating the light and space of a long +voyage in which the same men do the same things in the same place daily +under the centre of the empty sky. Sitting on a hatch with the Doctor, +smoking, we confessed, with ease at the heart, and with minds in which +nervous vibrations had ceased, that we must have reached this place that +was nowhere, and that now time was not for us. We had escaped you all. +We were free. There was not anything to engage us. There was nothing to +do, and nobody who wanted us. Never before had I felt so still and +conscious of myself. I realised, with a little start of surprise, that +it was Me who felt the warm air, and who looked at the slow pulse of the +waters, and the fulgent breaks in the roof, and heard the droning of the +wake, and not that mere skin, eyes and ears which, as in London, break +in upon our preoccupied minds with agitating sensations; and I took in +this newly-discovered world of ocean and cloudland and my own sure +identity centred therein with the complacency of an immortal who will +see all the things which do not matter pass away. When we left England +we were tense, and sometimes white (though there were others who went +red) about a Great Crisis in our Country's History. The Doctor and I +arrived on board, detached from the opposing armies in the impending +conflict, and at first put our hands swiftly to our swords every ten +minutes or so during meals. Of that crisis only one small gull now was +left, and he was following us astern with a melancholy cry at intervals, +of which we took no more notice. (And that gull departed, I see by my +diary, the very next day.) + +So ended the Great Crisis. I did not even note the ship's position at +the time, though I can see now that was a serious fault for which future +historians may blame me. I can but state vaguely that it was about sixty +miles north-west of the Fortunate Isles. The change in the quality of +the sun and air became most marked; I remember that. The horizon +expanded to a surprising distance. According to letters from home, sent +about that date, which I received long afterwards, I am unable to find +that similar phenomena were witnessed in England. Probably they were but +local. These manifestations in the heavens filled the few of us +privileged to witness them with awe, and a new faith in the power and +compassion of God. Nothing further of note occurred on this day, except +that Chips, as a further miracle, suddenly was raised whole from where +he lay in his bunk with a useless leg. His leg, you may remember, was +damaged in the gale off Cornwall. The Doctor, going his rounds, was +surprised to find Chips dancing the hoola-hoola in the forecastle, and a +stoker, with a cut eye, wailing for a lost half bottle of gin taken from +his box while he was on duty. Thereafter Chips returned to work, his leg +becoming halt again only when he knew we saw him stepping it too +blithely. + + * * * * * + +"_Decr. 27._ Distance run for past 24 hours to midday 219. Total +distance 1177 miles. Fine weather. Glass rising." + +Have you ever heard of the monotony of a long voyage? The same sky you +know, the same waters, the same deck; and now I can see it should be +added, the same old self, dismayed by the contemplation of its features +daily, week after week, within that spacious empty hall, where is no +escape from the bright stare overhead which reveals your baldness and +blemishes without ruth. You get found out. You want to mix with the mob +again, to get lost in the sameness of your fellows. He who goes +travelling should leave his self at home, or as much of it as is not +wanted on the voyage. It is surprising to find how little you want of +yourself. The ideal traveller would venture out merely as a disembodied +thought, or, at most, as an eye. + +A mere eye would see no monotony, for the sky may be the same sky, but +its moods are like those of the same woman; and the ocean, though young +as the morning, is older than Asia--you never know what to expect from +that profound enigma. As for the sunny deck, I see the Doctor sitting on +a spare spar, waiting for someone to sit beside him. The Chief is filing +a piece of small gear outside his cabin. The Skipper is overlooking, +with a hard frown, a group of men busy repairing his chart-room, which +is just forward of the engine-room casing (I could get a job from him at +once for the asking, though I shall not ask). The first mate is trying +to be in three places at once. The second mate patrols the bridge. The +German steward, who tells curious stories in a Teutonised dialect of +Shadwell, is hanging mattresses and bed clothes over a boom. The men are +chipping and tarring the deck; and the boatswain, bare-legged, wildly +bearded, a sheath knife on his hams, looks like a fine pirate brought to +menial tasks. + +I have watched this day's monotonous sky onwards from the dawn. We are +in the neighbourhood of the Hesperides. For some early hours of the +morning it was grey. But the grey roof soon broke with the incumbent +weight of light, letting sunshine through narrow fractures to the sea, +far out. There were partitions of thin gold in the dim hall. The moving +floor was patterned in day and night. The low ceiling was fused where +the day poured through, became a candent vapour, volatilised. We had +over us before breakfast the ultimate blue, where a few cirrus clouds +showed its great height. + +Then it was August. The sea ran in broad heavy mounds, blue-black and +vitreous, which hardly moved our bulk. In the afternoon, the ocean, a +short distance from the ship, grew filmed and opaque, a milky blue shot +with purple shadows. Its surface, though heaving, was smooth and +flawless. No light entered its deeps, but the radiant heat was mirrored +on it as on the pallor of fluid lava. The water ploughed up by the bows +did not break, but rolled over viscidly. The sun dropped behind the sea +about a point west of our course. Night was near. Yet still the high +dome with its circular floor the sea was magically illuminated, as by +the proximity of a wonderful presence. We, solitary and privileged in +the theatre, waited expectant. The doors of glory were somewhere ajar. +The western wall was clear, shining and empty, enclosed by a proscenium +of amber flames. In the north-east, astern of us, were some high +fair-weather clouds, like a faint host of little cherubs, and from their +superior galleries they watched a light invisible to us; it made their +faces bright. Beneath them the glazed sea was coral pink. Even our own +prosaic iron gear was sublimated; our ship became lustrous and strange. +We were the Argonauts, and our world was bright with the veritable +self-radiance of a world of romance where the things that would happen +were undreamed of, and we watched for them from our argosy's side, calm +and expectant; my fellows were transfigured, looked huge, were rosy and +awful, immortals in that light no mortal is given to see. + +Now had been given me fellowship with the ship and her men; we were one +body. I had been absorbed by our enterprise. For a long while our +steamer was a harsh and foreign thing to me, unfriendly to the eye, +difficult to understand. But now she had become intelligible and proper. +She and her men were all my world, and I could find my way about that +world in the dark. Getting used to a ship has the process of the growth +of a lasting friendship. Chance begins it. You regard your luck askance, +as you accept a new acquaintance with no joy, to make the best of him. +But presently, to put the matter at its lowest, you arrive at an +understanding. You have learned your friend's worth. Familiarity would +breed contempt only in the mouse-hearted. You never have to account him +afresh, or he is no comrade; there can be no surprises again, no +encounters with a stranger in him. His value, at the least reckoning, is +that you know his value. Any hour of the day or night you can guess with +assurance where his mind would be found. And here my "Capella" has no +strange doors and startling declivities and traps for me any more. I +know her. She is not exactly all she should be, but I apprehend exactly +what she is. If I hurt myself against her it is my own fault. She is as +familiar to me as home now. I should resent any alteration. Having +learned to know her faults I like her as she is; the trestle bridge with +its sagging hand-ropes and wobbling stanchions (look out, you, when she +rolls) which crosses the main deck aft on the port side from the +amidships section, where I live, to the poop, where the Doctor lives. +The two little streets of three doors each, to port and starboard of her +amidships, the doors that open out under the shade of the boat deck to +sea. There, amidships also, are the Chief's room and the galley, the +engineers' messroom, and the engine-room entrance; but these last do not +open overside, but look aft, from a connecting alley which runs across +the ship to join the side alleyways. Forward of these cabins is the +engine-room casing, where the 'midship deck broadens, but is cumbered +with bunker hatches (mind your feet, at night, there); and beyond, +again, is the chart-room, and over the chart-room the bridge and the +wheelhouse, from which is a sheer long drop to the main deck foreward. +At the finish of that deck is an iron wall, with the entrance to the +mysterious forecastle in its centre; and over that is the uplifted head +of our world watching our course, a bleak windswept place of rails, +cable chains, and windlass. The poop has a timber deck, and there in +fine weather the deck chairs are. The poop is a place needing exact +navigation at night. Long boxes enclosing the rudder chains are on +either side of it. In the centre is the saloon skylight, the companion, +the steward's ice chest, and the hand-steering gear. Also there are two +boats. I gained my night knowledge of the poop deck by assault, and +retained my gains with sticking plaster. I am really proud of the +privilege which has been given me to roam now this rolling shadow at +night, this little dark cloud blowing between the stars and the deep, +the unseen abyss below as with its profound reverberations, and the +height above with its scattered lights as remote as the sounds in the +deeps. With calm faith in our swaying shadow I place my feet where +nothing shows, sure that my angel will bear me up. I put out my hands +and a support comes to them; the pitfalls have ladders for me, and by +touching at some places in the black shadow, as by magic, a lighted and +comfortable room at once materialises for my rest in the void. + + * * * * * + +I think I liked her better as a formless shadow after sundown. Whether +it was then a noise in my head, my tranquil thoughts murmuring in their +sleep, or whether the sound I heard was the deep humming of the world's +speed, I don't know; whatever it was, it was the only sound. Our +mainmasthead light was but a nearer star of the host. I was not +surprised to see one of the stars so close. I was within the luminous +porch of the Milky Way. + +It was midnight. In that silence, where I was alone in space, adrift on +a night cloud in the constellations, the stars were really my familiars; +once, when in London, though they had been named to me and were constant +there, they were far in the place to which one lifts one's eyes from the +dust and traffic, nothing to do with London and with me. But now there +was no more dust and traffic. I was among them at last. Splendid Orion +was near and vast in his hunting. The Pleiades no longer dimmered on the +very limit of vision, but were separate points of delicate light. The +night moved with diamond fire. + +I was so far absent from the body that a human voice beside me was like +a surprising concussion with something invisible in space. Turning, +there was the glow of Sandy's pipe. Sandy is an elderly man, and an +engineer. He was leaning over the rail, cooling after his watch below. +The magic of the star shine had got into his mind too. He began with +guesses about the things which are not known, parrying doubt with, +"Ah--but it's hard to say; there are things----"; and, "you bright young +fellers don't know everything"; and, "somebody told me a queer thing +now." + +"There was a bright young feller, same as yourself, and he was first +mate of the 'Abertawe,' out of Cardiff. Jack Driscoll was his name. It +was a funny thing happened to him. I heard about it afterwards. + +"All the girls thought Jack Driscoll was so nice. One of the girls was +his owner's daughter, and she was the best of the bunch, anyway, for she +was an only child, and her father would have given her the earth. He was +a good owner, was her father, as things go in Cardiff. Do you know +Cardiff? Well, a little goes a long way on the Welsh coast. Jack was a +smart sailor, with the first chance of the next new boat, if he watched +out. I reckon Jack was a fool. Why, he needn't have gone to sea any +more. But what did he do? + +"Jack was one of them fellers who think if they put a gold-laced cap +saucy over one ear, and laugh with the eyes, they can whistle up a +duchess. And I daresay Jack could in summer, in his white suit, when +he'd just shaved. He was a bit of all right was Jack. He was a proper +tall lad, and the way he carried himself--It was a treat to see him move +about a ship. His black hair was like one of the big fiddler chap's, and +his smile would take in one of his pals. + +"Well, it was happy days for Jack. He got good things to come to him. He +didn't have to look for 'em, like me and you. He knew his work, too. He +was a good sailor. He could get off the mark, at the first word, like a +bird, and he never left a job while there was a loose bit to it. +Sometimes when there was nothing doing it was pretty rotten, Jack would +say, to be stuck there in a Welsh tramp with a crowd of dagoes, and +drink coffee essence and condensed milk out of a pint mug, and never go +to a music hall only once in six months. Jack reckoned it would be fine +to be brass-bound always, in one of the liners, and have a deck like a +skating rink, and a lot of lady passengers who wanted a chap like him to +talk to them. + +"He could tell stories, too, on the quiet, could Jack. They were pretty +blue, though. Sailor stories. They were all about himself in the West +Coast ports. Do you know the Chili coast? Well, it's mind your eye +there, and no half larks. They're pretty handy with knives out there. +But when Jack was out for fun you couldn't stop him. He was like all you +young chaps. He wouldn't listen to sense. + +"The 'Abertawe' went light ship to Barry, one trip, from Buenos Aires, +and Jack saw her snug, and told all the men to be at the shipping office +early and sober in the morning, because they got in on a Sunday, and +Jack saw the old man safe on his way to Cardiff, and then shaved, and +sang while he was shaving. He got himself up west-end style, new yellow +boots and all, and tied his red tie Spanish fashion. And he went down +the quay, looking for anything that was about, and he felt like the best +man on the Welsh coast. + +"But Barry is a dull place. Do you know Barry? Well, it's a one-eyed +God-forsaken town, made out of odds and ends stuck down anywhere, all +new houses, docks, coal tips, and railway sidings, and nowhere to go. +It's best to stay aboard, in Barry. Jack began to feel like the only +bird on a mudbank. He got out of the town, and walked along a road till +he came to an old woman sitting in the hedge, with her back up against a +telegraph post. Her face was brown and wrinkled, and she had an +orange-coloured handkerchief round her face, and tied under her chin. +She was smoking a pipe, and looking at her blucher boots. As Jack came +along, she said, 'Tell your fortune, pretty gentleman?' Jack laughed, +and told her his face was his fortune. + +"'What do you see when you look in the glass?' said she. + +"Now that was dead easy to Jack, because he knew as well as the girls; +and he told her. There was none of your silly modesty about Jack. Then +the old woman laughed; but I reckon Jack thought she was only pleased +with him, because he made it a point to make the mothers and the +grandmothers smile, the same as the girls. + +"'What do you see in this glass?' said she to Jack. She was fumbling in +her dress, and hauls out a mirror like you see in the old-fashion shops, +a mirror made of silver, and it had a frame of ebony. She polished it on +her skirt, and gave it to him, and told him to pass a bit of silver with +the other hand. Well, Jack saw sport, and he could always pay for that, +and he did what she said. But he only saw himself in the mirror. + +"'Hi,' said Jack, 'here, what's your little game now? None of your larks +now,' he said, 'or I'll ask a policeman what he can see in this tin +glass of yours.' + +"'You and your policeman,' she said. 'Look now, my dandy boy, and see +more than your money's worth.' And she rubbed the glass again. Then Jack +took another look. It was a dull day, but that mirror was bright with +sunshine. There was something funny about that mirror. He saw a fine +place in it, all cool and white and gold, like you see out East. It was +a palace, I reckon. There was a fountain in the middle, and some girls +with not a lot on, like some of the Amsterdam postcard girls, were lying +around, just anyhow. And there was Jack's own self among 'em, and they +were laughing and talking to him. It was fine. Jack turned his head, +just like you would do, to see if the real place was behind him. But, of +course, there was the funnels and topmasts of Barry, and the sky looked +like rain. I bet it gave him a shock. + +"'Now you've seen what'll be your luck, honey, if you're not careful,' +said the old woman. 'Mind your eye,' she said, 'mind your eye, you with +the saucy face. What's more,' she called after him, 'don't you speak to +the girl with the odd eyes in Cardiff, though I know you will, and sorry +you'll be.' + +"'Go to the devil,' said Jack. + +"He was just like all you young chaps. Thought she was an artful old +shark who'd got his money dead easy. That's what you always think. If +you don't understand anything, then there's nothing in it. You call in +at the next pub and chatter to the barmaid. What happened? Why, the very +next day the Skipper came back, and told him the new boat was near +ready, and the owner wanted to see him. Jack went, and forgot about +everything, except that he was going to be the handsome boy all right +with the owner's own daughter to look at him. A pretty girl she was too. +I saw her once, holding up her skirts off the deck while she looked +round. The Skipper introduced me. 'Good morning, Mr. Brown,' she said to +me. + +"Coming out of the Great Western Station at Cardiff Jack saw a place +he'd never noticed before. It wasn't Cardiff style. 'It's a new place,' +Jack thinks to himself, 'and a ripping good place it looks,' for he was +thirsty, and there was plenty of time. 'It must have been run up since I +was here last,' says Jack to himself, 'though that's queer, for I reckon +it'd take years to rig up a dandy show of this sort.' But in he went. + +"He was surprised, when he got in, and so would you have been. It was +like the place I saw on the stage at London once. It was in Aladdin, at +a place in the Mile End Road. You know what those things are like, when +the curtain goes up. You can see a long way, but you can't see all the +way. You expect something to happen there. It was full of pillars, all +white and gold, in a pink light. There was a lot of ladies and gentlemen +sitting on sofas full of cushions, talking, and they were too grand to +even notice Jack as he stood there looking round for a chair. But it +took a lot to get on Jack's nerves. There was one girl in a white silk +dress, with red roses in her golden belt, and she had a white hat with +red roses in that, and she looked like a summer day. Jack was glad to +see that the only vacant chair was at a table where she sat alone. Of +course, over there goes Jack. The place was as quiet as a church before +the service begins. There was only a faint whispering. He got to where +the girl sat, as if she was waiting for him. She looked up and smiled at +Jack. Jack sat down beside her and said what a fine day it was. She had +a face the colour of moonlight, and her eyes were odd. But there wasn't +a girl who could make Jack wonder if his tie was straight, in those +days, and he began to order things, and talk. + +"Once he took a look round, leaning back in his chair, feeling pretty +large, and he noticed the other people were looking at him artful-like, +out of the corners of their eyes, as if he was talking too loud. But +Jack thought he'd jolly well talk as he liked, and he'd got just the +best girl in that room or anywhere else. He looked at his watch. It was +near twelve o'clock. He had to be at his owner's by one. There was +plenty of time. + +"The drink had a funny taste, but it was the best liquor he'd ever had. +He marked down that place. He didn't know there was a show like that in +Cardiff. He caught hold of the girl's hand, which he noticed was white, +and very cold, and pretended he wanted to look at her ring. There was a +stone in the ring, just like a bit of soda. She asked him to try it on +his own finger, because the stone changed colour then, but Jack couldn't +get the ring off till he'd placed her finger to his lips, to moisten the +ring. He was the boy, was Jack, to see things didn't drag along. When he +got the ring on his finger the stone was full of red fire. So the time +went; but he forgot all about time, and the owner, and the owner's +daughter, and everything. The girl's hair was scented, too, and it was +close to him. + +"Presently he looked up, and saw what he'd never noticed before. He +could see further into the building than ever. There seemed to be a +garden beyond, full of sunshine, and all the men and women were walking +that way, talking loud, and laughing. His own girl got up too, and said, +'Come along, Jack Driscoll,' and he never even wondered how she knew his +name, nor why her face was like snow by moonlight, nor why she smiled +like that. + +"No. Not Jack. All he thought was what a ripping garden that was, with +palms, and marble courts, like you see in the East. There was music far +away, two notes and a drum, like you hear in a native dance, before the +dancers come. It made Jack feel like a millionaire or a lord, able to do +anything, but just then only wanting a good time. Then he noticed they +were alone in the garden, which was full of trees in blossom. All the +other people had gone. There was only that music. The place was very +quiet. He could hear water tinkling in a fountain, and he reckoned he +would stay there till closing time. The girl talked to him in whispers, +and he put his arm around her. I don't know how long he stayed there, +but he kept telling the girl she was the best girl he'd ever had, and +he'd never had such a good time in his life. + +"It was funny the way he got out. Jack reckoned in there that the world +would never come to an end, like young fellers do, when they're enjoying +themselves proper. But once he took her ring off his finger, to have +another look at it. Then he was in the street again, looking up at a +building which had its doors shut, and Jack only thought he was looking +there for a number he wanted. + +"It had started to rain. He looked at his watch. It was just twelve +o'clock. He didn't know what he wanted with an address in that street, +so he started off in a hurry for his owner's house, feeling pretty +stiff, as if he'd been sleeping rough. When he got to his owner's house, +he rang the bell. + +"The owner's daughter came to the door, and looked at him like she +didn't know him, and was a bit afraid of him. 'No, thank you,' she said +kindly, 'not to-day.' And shut the door at once. + +"What puzzled Jack was that he didn't feel surprised and angry. He +turned and went down those steps again, and down the street, thinking it +over. He looked back at the house. Yes, that was the house all right. +And that was Annie all right. Well, what the devil was the matter with +him? There was a public-house at the corner, and he stopped there, +thinking things over, and staring at the window. Then he saw his face in +a mirror, and shouted so that the barman came and ordered him out of +that, sharp now. But he kept looking at the glass, not believing his +eyes. He knew his own face again, but only just knew it. His eyes were +dull and red and gummy, same as those old men have who've lived too +long, and his face was puffed and pimpled, and he had a lousy white +beard." + + + + +II + + +December 28. Lat. 39.10 N., long. 16.3 W. Course, S.W. 1/2 west. We are +nearing the tropics. Now the ship has such a complete set of grumblers, +good fellows who know their work better than anyone less than God, that +our great distance at sea is plain. Our men, casually gathered and +speaking divers tongues, detached from earth and set afloat on a mobile +islet to mix on it if they can, have become one body to deal with the +common enemy. We are corporate to face each trouble as it meets us, and +free to explain afterwards how much better we should have done under +another captain. The skipper knows this broad spirit now possesses us, +and so is contented and blithe, wearing only on deck that weary look +which is the sober badge of high office, as though he were an +unfortunate man to have us about him, we being what we are, but that he +would do his best with the fools, seeing we are in his charge. + +This morning at six, hearing the men at the hosepipes giving the decks +their daily wash, I tumbled out for a cold tub. This is a simple affair. +You leave the cabin with a towel about you, stand in a clear space, and +rotate before the hydrant, to general cheering. A hot bath on the +"Capella" is not so easy, because, although there is a bath-room aboard, +it has become a paint locker. One must descend into the engine-room, +after warning the engineer on duty, who then will have ready a barrel, +filled from the boilers. The ingenious man will fix a shower bath also. +This is a perforated meat tin, hanging from a grating above the tub, and +connected with a pump. After a hot bath in the engine-room, where the +temperature was often well over 120, that shower of cold sea water +would strike loud cries from any man whose self-control was uncertain. + +This morning was the right prelude to the tropics. This was the morning +when, if our planet had been till then untenanted, a world unconsummated +and waiting approval, the divine approval would have come, and a child +would have been born, an immortal, the offspring of Aurora and the Sea +God, flame-haired and lusty, with eyes as bright as joy, and a rosy body +to be kissed from toes to crown. The dancing light, and the warm shower +suddenly born alive in it from one ripe cloud, the golden air, the waves +of the north-east trades, the seas of the world in the first dawn, +moving along like a multitude released to play, their blue passionate +and profound, their crests innocent and dazzling, made me think I might +hear faint cheering, if I listened intently. In the west was a steep +range of cloudland rising from the sea, and against it was inclined the +flame of a rainbow. There was that rainbow, as constant as the pennant +hoisted over an uplighted occasion. The world's noble emblem was aloft. +I demanded of the Skipper if he would run up our ensign in reply to it; +but he only peered at me curiously. + +The heat increased with the day. We had run well down from the bleak +apex of the world with its nimbus of fogs. Here was the entrance to the +place where our youthful dreams began. I recognised it. Every feature +was as we both have seen it from afar, across the roofs from our outlook +in the arid city when the path to it had appeared as hopeless to our +feet as the path to the moon. This pioneer can assure his fellows whose +bright illusions grow fainter with age that their dreams must be +followed up, to be reached. + +At midday we began to cast clothes. As to the afternoon, of that I +remember the less. There was the chief's empty bunk, so much more +alluring than my own. Into that I climbed, my mind steeled against +drowsy weakness. I would digest my dinner with a book, eyes sternly +alert. + +The "Capella" rocked slowly, a big cradle. My body was lax and +responsive. There was about us the silent emptiness which is far from +the centres where many men believe it is necessary to get lots of things +done. The Chief suspired on his settee. The waves were singing to +themselves. A ray of light laughed in my eyes, playing hide and seek +across the wisdom of my book.... I put the book down. + +As you know, where I had come from we do not dare to sleep during +daylight without first arguing with the conscience, which usually we +fail to convince. This comes of our mental trick which takes a pleasure +we wholly desire and puts on it a prohibitive label. Self-indulgence, +you understand; softening of the character; courage, brothers, do not +stumble. The solemn forefinger wags gravely in our faces. Before I fell +asleep, my habit, born of the hard grey weather which makes an +Englishman hard and prosperous, did come with its admonitory forefinger. +Remembering that I was secure in a sunnier world I cried out with ribald +mockery across the abyss I had safely crossed, knowing my old self could +not follow, and shut my eyes happily. And also, let me say--sitting up +again with an urgent afterthought, which I must get rid of before I +sleep--if this were not a plain narrative of travel without any wise +asides I would get off the "Capella" here to argue that what all you +fellows want in the place I have luckily left is not more +self-restraint, in which wan virtue you have long shown yourselves to be +so proficient that our awards for your merit have overcrowded the +workhouses, but more rollicking self-indulgence and a ruddy and bright +eyed insistence on the means to it. Look at me now in this bunk! Not +since I was last in a cradle have I felt the world would buoy me up if I +dared to shut my eyes to affairs while the sun was shining. But I am +going to try it again now, and risk my future. I repeat, I would argue +this with you, only I want to sleep.... + +It is worth recording that when I awoke I found nothing had happened to +me, except benefit. The venture can be made safely. Others had kept the +course for me. The ship had not stopped. Through the door I could see a +half-naked, blackened, and sweating stoker, who had been keeping the +fires while I slept, and he was getting back his breath in loud sobs. +Something had made him sick. These stupid and dirty men will drink too +much while they are attending to the furnaces. They have been warned of +the danger, of which they take no heed, and so they have to suffer. On +the poop was the second officer, busy in the hot sun with a gang, +overhauling a boat. And I found, on enquiry, that a man was still at the +wheel. So thereafter, while in the land of the constant sun, I slept +every afternoon, and was never a penny the worse. Somehow, you know, +things went on. I think I shall become one of the intelligent leisured +class. + +It was within an hour of midnight. The moon had set. I was idling +amidships about the ship's shadowy structure when I was asked to take +charge of the bridge till eight bells. The second mate was ill, and the +first mate was asleep through overwork. The skipper said he would not +keep me up there long. I had but to call if a light came into view, and +to keep an eye on the wheelhouse. Ah, but it is long since I played at +ships, and was a pirate captain. I remembered there are dull folk who +wonder what it feels like to be a king. The king does not know. Ask the +small boy who is surprised with an order to hold a horse's head. I took +my promotion, mounting the steep ladder to the open height in the night. + +I felt then I was more than sundered from my kind. I had been taken and +placed remotely from the comfort of the "Capella's" isolated community +also. There was me, and there were the stars. They were my nearest +neighbours. I stood for you among them alone. When the last man hears +but does not see the deep waters of this dark sphere in that night to +which there shall be no morning sun, he shall know what was my sensation +aloft in the saddle of the "Capella"; the only inhabitant of a congealed +asteroid off the main track in space, with the sun diminished to a point +through travel, and the Milky Way not reached yet; though I could see we +were approaching its bay of light. An appreciable journey had been made. +But by the faintness of its shine there was a timeless vacancy to be +travelled still. We should make that faint glow, that congregation of +suns, that archipelago of worlds; though not yet. But had we not all the +night to travel in? The night would be long. We should not be disrupted +any more by the old day. The final morning had passed. I had no doubt +the drift of the dark lump to which I clung in space, while my hair +streamed with our speed, would at length reach the bright fraternity, no +more than a dimmer of removed promise though it seemed. + +A bell rang beside me in the night. It was answered at once from +somewhere ahead. Others, then, were journeying with me. The void was +peopled, though the travellers were all invisible; and I heard a +confident voice call, "Lights are burning bright." The lights were. I +could see that. But when the profundities are about you, and you think +you are alone in outer night, that is the kind of word to hear. Joyously +I shouted into what seemed to be boundless nothing, "All Right!" + + * * * * * + +One dayfall we saw the Canary Islands a great distance on the port beam. +I do not know which day it was. The Hesperides were as blurred as the +place in the calendar. The days had run together into a measureless +sense of well-being. We had passed the last of the trivial allotments of +time. The islands loomed, and I wondered whether that land was the hint +of something in a past life which the memory saw but could not shape. +Whatever was there it was too long forgotten. That apparition which a +whisper told me was land faded as I gazed at it overseas, lazily trying +to remember what it once meant. It was gone again. It was no matter now. +Perhaps I was deceiving myself. Perhaps I had had no other life. This +"Capella," always under the height of a blue dome, always the centre of +a circular floor of waters, waters to be seen beating against the steep +and luminous walls encompassing us, though nowhere finding an outlet, +was all my experience. I could recall only the faintest shadows of a +past into that limpid present. I could see nothing clearly that was not +confined within the dark faultless line where the sky was inseparably +annealed to the sea. Here I had been always. All I knew was this length +of sheltered deck, and those doors behind me where I leaned on a rail +between the stanchions, doors which sheltered a few familiars with their +clothes on hooks, their pipe racks, and photographs of women, a length +of deck finishing on either hand in two iron ladders, the ladder +forward, just past the radiation and coal grit by the engine-room +casing, descending to a broad walk which led to the forecastle head, +that bare outlook always at a difference with the horizon; and the +ladder aft going down to another broad walk, sticky with new tar, where +the bulwarks were as high as the breast, and Tinker, the dog, glad of a +word from you, trotted about the rusty winches and around the hatches; +and that walk aft finished in the door of the alleyway opening upon the +asylum of the doctor's cabin, and the saloon, the skipper's sanctum, and +the domain of the friendly steward. There was the smell of the cargo +drawing from the ventilators on the deck, when you went by their trumpet +mouths. There was the warm oily gush of air from the engine-room +entrance. And in the saloon alleyway I used to think the store of +potatoes, right behind, was generating gases. (But nobody knows every +origin of the marine smells.) Well, here were all the things my senses +apprehended. I could walk round my universe in five minutes. And when I +had finished I could do it again. Here I had been always. Nothing could +be clearer than that. Looking out from my immediate circumstances I saw +no entrance to the place where we were rocking, the place where the +"Capella" was alone. The walls of the enclosure were flawless. There was +not a door through them anywhere. There was not a rift in the precision +of the dark circle about us where one could crawl out between the sky +and the sea. + +There we indubitably were though, and I dwelt constantly on the miracle +of that lucky existence. I could not doubt that we were there. Yet how +had we got there? I leave that to the metaphysicians. There we were; and +no man who merely trusted his experience could explain our presence. +There was some evidence to my simple mind that such a life in such +surroundings perchance was the gift of the gods, and that we could never +get any nearer the limits of the world in which we had been placed to +see what was beyond, could never approach that enclosure of blue walls +where the distant waves, which beat against them, could not get out. +Morning after morning I watched them, the dark leaping shapes of the far +rebels, mounting their prison at its base, and collapsing, beaten. + +The seas never changed. They followed us and the wind, a living host, +the blue of their slopes and hollows as deep as ecstasy, their crests +white and lambent. They were buoyant, they were leisurely, they were the +right companions of travel. They just kept pace with us. They ran after +us like happy children, as though they had been lagging. They came abeam +to turn up to us their shining faces, calling to us musically, then +dropping behind again in silence. When I looked overside into the +pellucid depths, peering below the surface in long forgetfulness, +leaving the body and gliding the mind in that palpable and hyacinthine +air beneath us where the sunken foam dimmered in pale clouds, I felt +myself not afloat but hovering in the midst of a hollow sphere filled +with light. The blue water was only a heavier and a darker air. I had no +weight there. I was only a quiet thought tinctured with the royal colour +of the space wherein I drifted. + +The upper half of the sphere was blue also, but of a different blue. The +rarer and more volatile ether was above us. The sea was its essence and +precipitate. The sea colour was profound and satisfying; but the colour +of the sky was diffused, as though the heaven were an idea which was +beyond you, which you stood regarding, and azure were it symbol, and +that by concentration you might fathom its meaning. But I can report no +luck from my concentrated efforts on that symbol. The colour may have +been its own reward. + + * * * * * + +Every morning after breakfast the Skipper and the Doctor made a visit to +the forecastle. Then, after the Doctor had carefully searched his dress +for insects, we spent the day together. We mounted the forecastle to +begin with, watching the acre of dazzling foam which the "Capella's" +bows broke around us. Out of that the flying fish would get up, just +under us, to go skimming off, flights of silver locusts. This reminded +the surgeon that we might try for albacore and bonito, which would be a +change from tinned mutton. The Skipper found a long fir pole, to which +was attached sixty fathoms of line, with a large hook which we covered +with a white rag, lapping a cutting of tin round the shank. When this +object was dropped over the stern in its leaps from wave to wave it bore +a distant resemblance to a flying fish. The weight of the trailing line, +breaking a cord "tell-tale," frequently gave us false alarms and long +tiring hauls. But on the second day the scaffold pole vibrated to some +purpose, and we knew we were hauling in more than the bait. We got +aboard a coryphene, the dolphin of the sailors. It gave us in its death +agony the famous display, beautiful, but rather painful to watch, for +the wonderful hues, as they changed, stayed in the eye, and sent to the +mind only a message of a creature in a violent death struggle. + +The contours of this predatory fish express extraordinary speed and +power, and its armed mouth has been upturned by Providence the better to +catch the flying fish as they drop back to sea after an effort to escape +from it. But Providence, or evolution, had never taught the coryphene +that there are times when the little flying fish, as it falls back +exhausted, may be a rag of white shirt and a scrap of bright tin ware +with a large hook in its deceptive little belly. So there the dolphin +was, glowing and fading with the hues of faery. Its life really +illuminating it from within. As its life ebbed, or strove convulsively, +its colours waned and pulsed. It was gold when it came on board, and +darkened to ultramarine as it thrashed the deck, and its broad dorsal +fin showed violet eyes. Its body changed to a pale metallic green; and +then its light went out. + +Now as I look back upon the "Capella" and her company as they were in +that period of our adventure when our place was but somewhere in +mid-ocean between Senegambia and Trinidad, I see us but indifferently, +for we are mellowed in that haze in which retrospection just discerns +those affairs, long since accomplished, that were not altogether +wearisome. It is better to go to my log again, for there the matter was +noted by the stub of a pencil at the very time, and when, unless a +beautiful mist was seen, it had not the remotest chance of being +recorded. When I turn to the diary for further evidence of those days of +blue and gold in the north-east trades its faithfulness is seen at once. + +"_30 Decr._ A grey day. The sun fitful. Wind and seas on the port +quarter, and the large following billows occasionally lopping inboard as +she rolled. The decks therefore are sloppy again. We had a sharp +reminder at six bells that we are not bound to any health resort, as +Sandy put it. We were told to go aft, where the doctor would give each +of us five grains of quinine. This is to be a daily rite. To encourage +the men to take the quinine it is to be given to them in gin. Being +foreigners, they did not understand the advice about the quinine, but +they caught the word gin quite well, and they were outside the saloon +alleyway, a smiling queue, at the stroke of eleven. I went along to see +the harsh truth dawn on them. The first man was a big German deckhand. +He took the glass from the doctor. His shy and puzzled smile at this +unexpected charity from the skipper dissolved instantly when the quinine +got behind it. His eyes opened and stared at nothing. To the surprise of +his fellows he turned violently to the ship's side, rested his hands on +it, and spat; spat carefully, continuously and with grave deliberation. + +"Distance run since noon yesterday 230 miles. Actual knots 9,5. Total +distance 2072 miles. There was not a living thing in sight to-day; not +even a flying fish. + +"The night is fine and starlit, the Milky Way a brilliant arch from east +to west, under which we are steaming. When Venus rose she was a tiny +moon, so refulgent that she gave a faint pallor to a large area of sky, +outlined the coast of a cloud, and made a broad shining path on the sea. +The moon rose after nine, veiled in filmy air, peeping motionless at the +edge of a black curtain. + +"The moon later was quite obscured, and the steamer ceased to exist +except where in my heated cabin the smoky oil lamp showed me my dismal +cubicle. I went in and sat on the mate's sea chest. The mate was on +duty. On the washstand was his mug of cocoa, and on top of the mug two +thick sandwiches of bread and meat. That food was black with +cockroaches. The oil lamp stank but gave little light. The engines were +throbbing, and out of the open door I saw the gleam of the wash, and +heard its harassing note. I could not read. I loathed the idea of +getting into the hot bunk and lying there, stewing, a clear keen, +clangour of thoughts making sleep impossible. The mate appeared, drove +off the cockroaches cheerfully, examined the sandwiches for +inconspicuous deer, opening each to make sure, and then muffled himself +with one. My God! I could have killed him with these two hands. What +right had he to be cheerful? But he is such a ginger-headed boy, and to +break that unconsciously happy smile of his would be sacrilege. Besides, +he began to tell me about his sweetheart. Her portrait hangs in our +cabin. It is an enlargement. You pay for the frame, and the +photographer, overjoyed I suppose, gives you the enlargement. I prefer +the second engineer's sweet-hearts, who are in colours, and are Dutch +picture postcards and cuttings from French comic papers; and he calls +them his recollections of Sundays at home. I listened, patient and kind, +to the second mate's reminiscences of rapturous evening walks under the +lamps of Swansea with this girl in the picture--no doubt it eased his +heart to tell me--till I could have howled aloud, like the dog who hears +music at night. Then I broke away, and ran to the chief's cabin for +sanctuary. + +"The Chief was making an abstract, and was searching through his log for +ten tons of coal which were missing. In the hunt for the lost coal I +lost myself. I grew excited wherever a thick bush of figures promised +the hidden quarry; and in an hour's search found the strayed tons in +hiding at the bottom of a column. They had been left there, and not +transported into the next. Again the dread of that bunk had to be faced +and dealt with. I stood at the chief's door, knocking out my pipe, +looking astern into the night, looking to where Ursa-Major, our +celestial familiar of home, was low down and preparing to leave us +altogether to the strange and perhaps unlucky gods of other skies. O the +nights at sea! + +"_31 Decr._ Wakened with my heart jumping because of a devastating sound +without. In the early morning, Tinker was being thrashed by the Old Man +for eating the saloon mats. When at 11.30 the men congregated amidships +with their tins for dinner the sun was a near furnace and the breeze a +balm. The white of the ship is now a glare, and the sea foam cannot be +looked at. Donkey lumbered out of his place where he attends to the +minor boiler, his face the colour of putty, and held to a rail, gazing +out with dead eyes overside, gasping. He declared he couldn't stick his +job. The flying fish are getting up in flights all day long. I saw one +fish go a distance of about fifty yards in a semi-circle, making a bight +in the direction of the wind. We caught another large coryphene to-day, +and had him in steaks for tea. He was much better cooked than the last, +which had the texture of white wool; and to increase our happiness the +cook had not given us sour bread. At midday we were 17.22 N. and 33.27 +W. + +"I had a lonely evening with the chief. This is New Year's eve. We +talked of the East India Dock Road, and of much else in London Town. At +eight bells, when we held up our glasses in the direction of Polaris, +the moon was bright and the waters hushed. Then we took each a hurricane +lamp, and went about the decks collecting flying fish for breakfast, +finding a dozen of them. + +"_1 Jan._ The uplifted splendour of these days persists; but the +splendour sags now a little at midday with the weight of the heat. The +poop deck is now sheltered with an awning; and lying there in lazy +chairs, with a wind following and barely overtaking us, idly watching +the shadows of the overhead gear move on the bright awning as the ship +rolls, is to get caught in the toils of the droning wake, and to sleep +before you know you are a prisoner. The wake itself, in these seas, when +the sun is on it, a broad road going home straight and white over the +hills, the road which is not for us, is one of the good things of the +voyage. Straight beneath the rail the wake is an upheaval of gems, +sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds, always instantly melting in the sun, +always fusing and fleeting in swift coils of malachite and chrysoprase, +but never gone. As you watch that coloured turmoil it draws your mind +from your body. You feel your careless gaze snatched in the revolving +hues speeding astern, and your consciousness is instantly unwound from +your spinning brain, and you are left standing on the ship, an empty +spool. + +"Under the awning at night, to the Doctor and to me, the first mate +played his accordion. He is a little Welshman, this mate, with a +childish nose and a brutish moustache, and in his face is blended a +girlish innocence of large affairs, and the hirsute nature of the adult +male animal, a nature he relieves on the "Capella" with bawdy talk and +guffaws. He played 'Come, Birdie, Come,' and things like that, and then +told us some Monte Videan stories. As they were true stories about +himself and other young sailors they ought really to be included in a +faithful diary of a sea voyage, yet as I cannot reproduce the Doctor's +antiseptic judgment, of which I know nothing but the glow of his pipe in +the unresponding dark at the end of the stories--the last titter of the +mate had died away--it is better to leave this matter alone. + +"_3 Jan._ The hottest day we have had. I descended at midday to the +engines to see Sandy at work with his shining giants. Standing on the +middle platform, while he was shouting his greetings to me over the +uproar, I felt the heat of the grating through my boot soles, and +shifted. The temperature there was 122. Sandy was but in his drawers +and a pair of old boots, and the tongues of the boots, properly, were +hanging out. His noble torso was glistening with moisture, and as I +talked, energetically vaulting my words above the roar of the crank +throws in that hot and oleaginous place, the perspiration began a sudden +drop from my own face and hands, and in a copious way which startled me. +For a time I had some difficulty in breathing, as though in a vacuum, +but gradually forgot this danger of suffocation in the love of the +artist Sandy showed while offering me the spectacle of 'his job.' I +think I understood him. At first one would see no order in that haze of +rioting steel. The massive metal waves of the shaft were walloping and +plunging in their pits with an astonishing bird-like alacrity; about +fifteen tons of polished steel were moving with swift and somewhat awful +desperation. The big room shook and hummed with the vigour of it. But +order came as Sandy talked, and presently I found the continuous +thunder, that deadening bass of the crank throws, seemed to lessen as we +conversed, sitting together on a tool chest. Our voices easily +penetrated it. And listening more attentively at length I found what +Sandy said was true, that each tossing and circling part of the +room-full could be heard contributing its strident or profound note to +the chorus, and each became constant and expected, a singing personality +which was heard through the others whenever listened for. Above all, at +regular intervals, a rod rang clear, like the bell in Parsifal; yet, +curiously enough, Sandy declared he could not catch that note, though it +tolled clear and resonant enough in my ears. The skylight was so far +above us that we got little daylight. Hanging from the gratings in a few +places, some black iron pots, shaped like kettles, had cotton rags in +their spouts, and were giving us oil flares instead. The terrific +unremitting energy of the ponderous arms, moving thunderously, and still +with a speed which made tons as aery as flashes of light; and Sandy in +the midst of it, quick in nothing but his eyes, moving about his raging +but tethered monsters cock-sure and casual, rubbing his hands on a pull +of cotton waste, putting his ear down to listen attentively at a +bearing, his face turned from a steel fist which flung violently at his +head, missed him, and withdrew to shoot at him again, gave me the first +distinct feeling that our enterprise had its purpose powerfully +energised and cunningly directed. I felt as I watched the dance of the +eccentrics and the connecting rods that our ship was getting along +famously. I think I detected in Sandy himself a faint contempt for the +chap at the upper end of the telegraph. I stayed two hours, and then my +shirt was as though I had been overboard; and ascending a greasy and +almost perpendicular series of ladders to the upper world, I discovered, +from the drag of my feet and the weight of my body, that I had had just +as much of an engineer's watch in the tropics as I could stand. There +was a burst of cool light. The tumult ceased; and again there was the +old "Capella" rocking in the singing seas, for ever under the tranquil +clouds. We had stopped again. + +"_4 Jan._ A moderate north-east wind and sea, and a bright morning; but +far out a dark cloud formed, and drew, and driving towards us, covered +us presently with a blue-black canopy. The warm torrent fell with +outrageous violence, and for all we could see of our way the "Capella" +might have been in a dense fog. The mosquito curtains were served out +to-day, and we amused ourselves draping our bunks. Later, the weather +cleared. The night was stiflingly hot; and in that reeking bunk, with an +iron bulkhead separating me from the engine room, it was like lying on +the shelf of an oven. Though wide open on its catch, the door admitted +no air, but did allow a miserable tap-tapping as the ship rolled. At +eleven o'clock a pale face floated in the black vacancy of the door, and +I could see the Doctor peering in to find if I were awake. 'I say, +Purser, I can't sleep. Will you come and have a gossip, old dear?' We +went aft in our pyjamas, the Doctor cleared away bottles and things from +his settee, and we disembarked from the 'Capella,' visiting other and +distant stars, returning to our own again not before three next morning. + +"_5 Jan._ We seem to have got to a dead end of the trade winds. The heat +of the forenoon was oppressively humid and dinner was nearly lost +through it. The cook, a fair and plump Dutchman, broke down in the midst +of his pans, and was carried out to find his breath again. This poor +chef is up at four o'clock every morning coffee making; is working in +the galley, which is badly ventilated, all day, getting two hours' rest +in the early afternoon. Then he goes on till the saloon tea is over; +when he begins to bake bread. He fills in his leisure in peeling +potatoes. + +"All round the horizon motionless and permanent storm clouds are banked. +Their forms do not alter, but their colours change with the hours. They +seem to encompass us in a circular lake, a range of precipitous and +intricately piled Alps, high and massive. Cleaving those steeps of +calamitous rocks--for so they looked, and not in the least like +vapour--are chasms full of night, and the upper slopes and summits are +lucent in amber and pearl. In the south and east the ranges are indigo +dark and threatening, and the water between us and that closed country +is opaque and heavy as molten lead. Across the peaks of the mountains +rest horizontal strata of mist. Some petrels were about to-day. The +evening is cool, with a slight head breeze." + + * * * * * + +After weeks at sea, imprisoned within the walls of the sky, walls which +have not opened once to admit another vessel to give the assurance of +communion, you begin to doubt your direction and destination, and the +possibility of change. Only the clouds change. The ship is no nearer +breaking that rigid circle. She cannot escape from her place under the +centre of the dome. The most cheering assurance I had was the pulse of +the steamer, felt whenever I rested against her warm body. Purposeful +life was there, at least. Though the day may have been brazen, and +without a hint of progress, and the sea the same empty wilderness, yet +when most disheartened in the blind and melancholy night I felt under me +the beatings, energetic and insistent, of her lively heart, some of that +vitality was communicated, and I got sleep as a child would in the arms +of a strong and wakeful guardian. + +Poised between two profundities--though nearer the clouds, cirrus and +lofty though they are, than the land straight beneath the keel--and with +morning and night the only variety in the round, the days flicker by +white and black like a magic lantern working without a story. Tired of +watching for the fruits of our enterprise I went to sleep. Old Captain +Morgan must have lived a dull life, monotonous with adventure. What is +the use of travel, I asked myself. The stars are as near to London as +they are to the Spanish main. In their planetary journey through the +void the passengers at Peckham see as much as their fellows who peer +through the windows in Macassar. The sun rises in the east, and the moon +is horned; but some of the passengers on the mudball, strangely enough, +take their tea without milk. Yet what of that? + +In the chart room some days ago I learned we had 3000 fathoms under us. +Well; these waves of the tropics, curling over such abysmal deeps, look +much the same as the waves off Land's End. I began to see what I had +done. I had changed the murk of winter in London for the discomforts of +the dog days. I had come thousands of miles to see the thermometer rise. +Where are the Spanish Main, the Guianas, and the Brazils? At last I had +discovered them. I found their true bearings. They are in Raleigh's +"Golden City of Manoa," in Burney's "Buccaneers of America," with Drake, +Humboldt, Bates, and Wallace; and I had left them all at home. We borrow +the light of an observant and imaginative traveller, and see the foreign +land bright with his aura; and we think it is the country which shines. + + * * * * * + +At eight this morning we crossed the equator. I paid my footing in +whisky, and forgot all about the equator. Soon after that, idling under +the poop awning, I picked up the Doctor's book from his vacant chair. I +took the essays of Emerson carelessly and read at once--the sage plainly +had laid a trap for me--"Why covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and +night, a house and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve as well as +all trades and spectacles." So----. At this moment the first mate +crossed my light, and presently I heard the sounding machine whirring, +and then stop. There was a pause, and then the mate's unimportant voice, +"Twenty-five fathoms, sir, grey sand!" + +Emerson went sprawling. I stood up. Twenty-five fathoms! Then that grey +sand stuck to the tallow of the weight was the first of the Brazils. The +circle of waters was still complete about us, but over the bows, at a +great distance, were thunder clouds and wild lights. The oceanic swell +had decreased to a languid and glassy beat, and the water had become +jade green in colour, shot with turquoise gleams. The Skipper, himself +interested and almost jolly, announced a pound of tobacco to the first +man who spied the coast. We were nearing it at last. Those far clouds +canopied the forests of the Amazon. We stood in at slow speed. + +I know those forests. I mean I have often navigated their obscure +waterways, rafting through the wilds on a map, in my slippers, at night. +Now those forests soon were to loom on a veritable skyline. I should see +them where they stood, their roots in the unfrequented floods. I should +see Santa Maria de Belem, its aerial foliage over its shipping and +squalor. It was quite near now. I should see Santarem and Obydos, and +Itacoatiara; and then, turning from the King of Rivers to his tributary, +the Madeira, follow the Madeira to the San Antonio falls in the heart of +the South American continent. We drew over 23 feet, with this "Capella." +We were going to try what had never been attempted before by an ocean +steamer. This, too, was pioneering. I also was on an adventure, going +two thousand miles under those clouds of the equatorial rains, to live +for a while in the forests of the Orellana. And our vessel's rigging, so +they tell me, sometimes shall drag the foliage in showers on our decks, +and where we anchor at night the creatures of the jungle will call. + +Our nearness to land stirs up some old dreads in our minds also. We +discuss those dreads again, though with more concern than we did at +Swansea. Over the bows is now the prelude. We have heard many unsettling +legends of yellow fever, malaria, blackwater fever, dysentery, and +beri-beri. The mates, looking for land, swear they were fools to come a +voyage like this. They ought to have known better. The Doctor, who does +not always smile when he is amused, advises us not to buy a white sun +umbrella at Para, but a black one; then it will do for the funerals. + +"Land O!" That was the Skipper's own perfunctory cry. He had saved his +pound of tobacco. + +It was two in the afternoon. There was America. I rediscovered it with +some difficulty. All I could see was a mere local thickening of the +horizon, as though the pen which drew the faint line dividing the world +ahead into an upper and a nether opalescence had run a little freely at +one point. That thickening of the horizon was the island of Monjui. +Soon, though, there was a palpable something athwart our course. The +skyline heightened into a bluish barrier, which, as we approached still +nearer, broke into sections. The chart showed that a series of low +wooded islands skirted the mainland. Yet it was hard to believe we were +approaching land again. What showed as land was of too unsubstantial a +quality, too thin and broken a rind on that vast area of water to be of +any use as a foothold. Where luminous sky was behind an island groups of +diminutive palms showed, as tiny and distinct as the forms of mildew +under a magnifying glass, delicate black pencillings along the foot of +the sky-wall. Often that hairlike tracery seemed to rest upon the sea. +The "Capella" continued to stand in, till America was more than a frail +and tinted illusion which sometimes faded the more the eye sought it. +Presently it cast reflections. The islands grew into cobalt layers, with +vistas of silver water between them, giving them body. The course was +changed to west, and we cruised along for Atalaia point, towards the +pilot station. Over the thin and futile rind of land which topped the +sea--it might have undulated on the low swell--ponderous thunder clouds +towered, continents of night in the sky, with translucent areas dividing +them which were strangely illuminated from the hither side. Curtains as +black as bitumen draped to the waters from great heights. Two of these +appalling curtains, trailing over America, were a little withdrawn. We +could look beyond them to a diminishing array of glowing cloud summits, +as if we saw there an accidental revelation of a secret and wonderful +region with a sun of its own. And all, gigantic clouds, the sea, the far +and frail coast, were serene and still. The air had ceased to breathe. I +thought this new lucent world we had found might prove but a lucky dream +after all, to be seen but not to be entered, and that some noise would +presently shatter it and wake me. But we came alongside the white pilot +schooner, and the pilot put off in a boat manned by such a crowd of +grinning, ragged, and cinnamon skinned pirates as would have broken the +fragile wonder of any spell. Ours, though, did not break, and I was able +to believe we had arrived. At sunset the great clouds were full of +explosions of electric fire, and there were momentary revelations above +us of huge impending shapes. We went slowly over a lower world obscurely +lighted by phosphorescent waves. + + * * * * * + +It was not easy to make out, before sunrise, what it was we had come to. +I saw a phantom and indeterminate country; but as though we guessed it +was suspicious and observant, and its stillness a device, we moved +forward slowly and noiselessly, as a thief at an entrance. Low level +cliffs were near to either beam. The cliffs might have been the dense +residuum of the night. The night had been precipitated from the sky, +which was clearing and brightening. Our steamer was between banks of +these iron shades. + +Suddenly the sunrise ran a long band of glowing saffron over the shadow +to port, and the vague summit became remarkable with a parapet of black +filigree, crowns and fronds of palms and strange trees showing in rigid +patterns of ebony. A faint air then moved from off shore as though under +the impulse of the pouring light. It was heated and humid, and bore a +curious odour, at once foreign and familiar, the smell of damp earth, +but not of the earth I knew, and of vegetation, but of vegetation exotic +and wild. For a time it puzzled me that I knew the smell; and then I +remembered where we had met before. It was in the palm house at Kew +Gardens. At Kew that odour once made a deeper impression on me than the +extraordinary vegetation itself, for as a boy I thought that I inhaled +the very spirit of the tropics of which it was born. After the first +minute on the Para River that smell went, and I never noticed it again. + +Full day came quickly to show me the reality of one of my early visions, +and I suppose I may not expect many more such minutes as I spent when +watching from the "Capella's" bridge the forest of the Amazon take +shape. It was soon over. The morning light brimmed at the forest top, +and spilled into the river. The channel filled with sunshine. There it +was then. In the northern cliff I could see even the boughs and trunks; +they were veins of silver in a mass of solid chrysolite. This forest had +not the rounded and dull verdure of our own woods in midsummer, with +deep bays of shadow. It was a sheer front, uniform, shadowless, and +astonishingly vivid. I thought then the appearance of the forest was but +a local feature, and so gazed at it for what it would show me next. It +had nothing else to show me. Clumps of palms threw their fronds above +the forest roof in some places, or a giant exogen raised a dome; but +that was all. Those strong characters in the growth were seen only in +passing. They did not change the outlook ahead of converging lines of +level green heights rising directly from a brownish flood. + +Occasionally the river narrowed, or we passed close to one wall, and +then we could see the texture of the forest surface, the microstructure +of the cliff, though we could never look into it for more than a few +yards, except where, in some places, habitations were thrust into the +base of the woods, as in lower caverns. An exuberant wealth of forms +built up that forest which was so featureless from a little distance. +The numerous palms gave grace and life to the faade, for their plumes +flung in noble arcs from tall and slender columns, or sprayed directly +from the ground in emerald fountains. The rest was inextricable +confusion. Vines looped across the front of green, binding the forest +with cordage, and the roots of epiphytes dropped from upper boughs, like +hanks of twine. + +In some places the river widened into lagoons, and we seemed to be in a +maze of islands. Canoes shot across the waterways, and river schooners, +shaped very like junks, with high poops and blue and red sails, were +diminished beneath the verdure, betraying the great height of the woods. +Because of its longitudinal extension, fining down to a point in the +distance, the elevation of the forest, when uncontrasted, looked much +less than it really was. The scene was so luminous, still, and +voiceless, it was so like a radiant mirage, or a vivid remembrance of an +emotional dream got from books read and read again, that only the +unquestionable verity of our iron steamer, present with her smoke and +prosaic gear, convinced me that what was outside us was there. Across a +hatch a large butterfly hovered and flickered like a flame. Dragon flies +were suspended invisibly over our awning, jewels in shimmering enamels. + + * * * * * + +We anchored just before breakfast, and a small launch flying a large +Brazilian flag was soon fussing at our gangway. The Brazilian customs +men boarded us, and the official who was left in charge to overlook the +"Capella" while we remained was a tall and majestic Latin with dark eyes +of such nobility and brooding melancholy that it never occurred to me +that our doctor, who has travelled much, was other than a fellow with a +dull Anglo-Saxon mind when he removed some loose property to his cabin +and locked his door, before he went ashore. So I left my field glasses +on the ice-chest; and that was the last I saw of them. Yet that fellow +had such lovely hair, as the ladies would say, and his smile and his +courtesy were fit for kings. He carried a scented pink handkerchief and +wore patent leather boots. Our surgeon had but a faint laugh when these +explanations were made to him, taking my hand fondly, and saying he +loved little children. + +Para, a flat congestion of white buildings and red roofs in the sun, was +about a mile beyond our anchorage, over the port bow; and as its name +has been to me one that had the appeal of the world not ours, like +Tripoli of Barbary, Macassar, the Marquesas, and the Rio Madre de Dios, +the agent's launch, as it took us towards the small craft lying +immediately before the front of that spread of houses between the river +and the forest, was so momentous an occasion that the small talk of the +dainty Englishmen in linen suits, a gossiping group around the agent and +the Skipper, hardly came into the picture, to my mind. The launch rudely +hustled through a cluster of gaily painted native boats, the dingiest of +them bearing some sonorous name, and I landed in Brazil. + +There was an esplanade, shadowed by an avenue of mangoes. We crossed +that, and went along hot narrow streets, by blotched and shabby walls, +to the office to which our ship was consigned. We met a fisherman +carrying a large turtle by a flipper. We came to a dim cool warehouse. +There, some negroes and half-breeds were lazily hauling packages in the +shadows. It had an office railed off where a few English clerks, in +immaculate white, overlooked a staff of natives. The warehouse had a +strange and memorable odour, evasive, sweet, and pungent, as barbaric a +note as I found in Para, and I understood at once I had come to a place +where there were things I did not know. I felt almost timorous and yet +compelled when I sniffed at those shadows; though what the eye saw in +the squalid streets of the riverside, where brown folk stood regarding +us carelessly from openings in the walls, I had thought no more than a +little interesting. + +What length of time we should have in Belem was uncertain, but presently +the Skipper, looking most morose, came away from his discussion with the +agent and told us, at some length, what he thought of people who kept a +ship waiting because of a few unimportant papers. Then he mumbled, very +reluctantly, that we had plenty of time to see all Para. The Doctor and +I were out of that office before the Skipper had time to change his +mind. Our captain is a very excellent master mariner, but occasionally +he likes to test the security of his absolute autocracy, to see if it is +still sound. I never knew it when it was not; but yet he must, to assure +himself of a certainty, or to exercise some devilish choler in his +nature, sometimes beat our poor weak bodies against the adamant thing, +to see which first will break. I will say for him that he is always +polite when handing back to us our bruised fragments. Here he was giving +us a day's freedom, and one's first city of the tropics in which to +spend it; and we agreed with him that such a waste of time was almost +unbearable, and left hurriedly. + +Outside the office was a small public square where grew palms which ran +flexible boles, swaying with the weight of their crowns, clear above the +surrounding buildings, shadowing them except in one place, where the +front of a ruinous church showed, topped by a crucifix. The church, a +white and dilapidated structure, was hoary with ficus and other plants +which grew from ledges and crevices. Through the crowns of the palms the +sunlight fell in dazzling lathes and partitions, chequering the stones. +An ox-cart stood beneath. + +The Paraenses, passing by at a lazy gait--which I was soon compelled to +imitate--in the heat, were puzzling folk to one used to the features of +a race of pure blood, like ourselves. Portuguese, negro, and Indian were +there, but rarely a true type of one. Except where the black was the +predominant factor the men were impoverished bodies, sallow, meagre, and +listless; though there were some brown and brawny ruffians by the +foreshore. But the women often were very showy creatures, certainly +indolent in movement, but not listless, and built in notable curves. +They were usually of a richer colour than their mates, and moved as +though their blood were of a quicker temper. They had slow and insolent +eyes. The Indian has given them the black hair and brown skin, the negro +the figure, and Portugal their features and eyes. Of course, the ladies +of Para society, boasting their straight Portuguese descent, are not +included in this insulting description; and I do not think I saw them. +Unless, indeed, they were the ladies who boldly eyed us in the +fashionable Para hotel, where we lunched, at a great price, off imported +potatoes, tinned peas, and beef which in England would be sold to a glue +factory; I mean the women in those Parisian costumes erring something on +the sides of emphasis, and whose remarkable pallor was even a little +greenish in the throat shadows. + +After lunch some disappointment and irresolution crept into our +holiday....There had been a time--but that was when Para was only in a +book; that was when its mere printed name was to me a token of the +tropics. You know the place I mean. You can picture it. Paths that go at +noon but a little way into the jungle which overshadows an isolated +community of strange but kindly folk, paths that end in a twilight +stillness; ardent hues, flowers of vanilla, warm rain, a luscious and +generative earth, fireflies in the scented dusk of gardens; and +mystery--every outlook disappearing in the dark of the unknown. + +Well, here I was, placed by the ordinary moves of circumstance in the +very place the name of which once had been to me like a chord of that +music none hears but oneself. I stood in Para, outside a picture +postcard shop. Electric cars were bumping down a narrow street. The +glitter of a cheap jeweller's was next to the stationer's; and on the +other side was a vendor of American and Parisian boots. There have been +changes in Para since Bates wrote his idylls of the forest. We two +travellers, after ordering some red earthenware chatties, went to find +Bates' village of Nazareth. In 1850 it was a mile from the town. It is +part of the town now, and an electric tram took us there, a tram which +drove vultures off the line as it bumped along. The heat was a serious +burden. The many dogs, which found energy enough to limp out of the way +of the car only when at the point of death, were thin and diseased, and +most unfortunate to our nice eyes. The Brazilian men of better quality +we passed were dressed in black cloth suits, and one mocked the equator +with a silk hat and yellow boots. I set down these things as the tram +showed them. The evident pride and hauteur, too, of these Latins, was a +surprise to one of a stronger race. We stopped at a street corner, and +this was Nazareth. Bates' pleasant hamlet is now the place of Para's +fashionable homes--pleasant still, though the overhead tram cables, and +the electric light standards which interrupt the avenues of trees, place +you there, now your own turn comes to look for the romance of the +tropics, in another century. But the villas are in heliotrope, primrose, +azure, and rose, bowered in extravagant arbours of papaws mangoes, +bananas, and palms, with shrubberies beneath of feathery mimosas, and +cassias with orange and crimson blooms. And my last walk ashore was in +Swansea High Street in the winter rain! From Nazareth's main street the +side turnings go down to the forest. For, in spite of its quays, its +steamers, and its electric trams, Para is but built in a larger clearing +of the wilderness. The jungle stood at the bottom of all suburban +streets, a definite city wall. The spontaneity and savage freedom of the +plant life in this land of alternate hot sun and warm showers at last +blurred and made insignificant to me the men who braved it in silk hats +and broadcloth there, and the trams, and the jewellers' shops, for my +experience of vegetation was got on my knees in a London suburb, praying +things to come out of the cold mud. Here, I began to suspect, they +besieged us, quick and turbulent, an exhaustible army, ready to +reconquer the foothold man had hardly won, and to obliterate his works. + +We passed through by-ways, where naked brown babies played before the +doors. We happened upon the cathedral, and went on to the little dock +where native vessels rested on garbage, the tide being out. Vultures +pulled at stuff beneath the bilges. The crews, more Indian than +anything, and men of better body than the sallow fellows in the town, +sprawled on the hot stones of the quays and about the decks. There was a +huge negress, arms akimbo, a shapeless monument in black indiarubber +draped in cotton print, who talked loudly with a red boneless mouth to +two disregarding Indians sitting with their backs to a wall. She had a +rabbit's foot, mounted in silver, hanging between her dugs. The +schooners, ranged in an arcade, were rigged for lateen sails, very like +Mediterranean craft. The forest was a narrow neutral tinted ribbon far +beyond. The sky was blue, the texture of porcelain. The river was +yellow. And I was grievously disappointed; yet if you put it to me I +cannot say why. There was something missing, and I don't know what. +There was something I could not find; but as it is too intangible a +matter for me to describe even now, you may say, if you like, that the +fault was with me, and not with Para. We stood in a shady place, and the +doctor, looking down at his hand, suddenly struck it. "Let us go," he +said. He showed me the corpse of a mosquito. "Have you ever seen the +yellow fever chap?" the Doctor asked. "That is he." We left. + +Near the agent's office we met an English shipping clerk, and he took us +into a drink shop, and sat us at a marble-topped table having gilded +iron legs, and called for gin tonics. We began to tell him what we +thought of Para. It did not seem much of a place. It was neither here +nor there. + +He was a pallid fellow with a contemplative smile, and with weary eyes +and tired movements. "I know all that," he said. "It's a bit of a hole. +Still--You'd be surprised. There's a lot here you don't see at first. +It's big. All out there--he waved his arm west inclusively--it's a world +with no light yet. You get lost in it. But you're going up. You'll see. +The other end of the forest is as far from the people in the streets +here as London is--it's farther--and they know no more about it. I was +like you when I first came. I gave the place a week, and then reckoned I +knew it near enough. Now, I'm--well, I'm half afraid of it ... not +afraid of anything I can see ... I don't know. There's something dam +strange about it. Something you never can find out. It's something +that's been here since the beginning, and it's too big and strong for +us. It waits its time. I can feel it now. Look at those palm trees, +outside. Don't they look as if they're waiting? What are they waiting +for? You get that feeling here in the afternoon when you can't get air, +and the rain clouds are banking up round the woods, and nothing moves. +'Lord,' said a fellow to me when I first came, 'tell us about Peckham. +But for the spicy talk about yellow fever I'd think I was dead and +waiting wide awake for the judgment day.' That's just the feeling. As if +something dark was coming and you couldn't move. There the forest is, +all round us. Nobody knows what's at the back of it. Men leave Para, +going up river. We have a drink in here, and they go up river, and don't +come back. + +"Down by the square one day I saw an old boy in white ducks and a sun +helmet having a shindy with the sentry at the barracks. The old fellow +was kicking up a dust. He was English, and I suppose he thought the +sentry would understand him, if he shouted. English and Americans do. + +"You have to get into the road here, when you approach the barracks. +It's the custom. The sentry always sends you off the pavement. The old +chap was quite red in the face about it. And the things he was saying! +Lucky for him the soldier didn't know what he meant. So I went over, as +he was an Englishman, and told him what the sentry wanted. 'What,' said +the man, 'walk in the road? Not me. I'd sooner go back.' + +"Go back he did, too. I walked with him and we got rather pally. We came +in here. We sat at that table in the corner. He said he was Captain +Davis, of Barry. Ever heard of him? He said he had brought out a +shallow-draught river boat, and he was taking her up the Rio Japura. The +way he talked! Do you know the Japura? Well, it's a deuce of a way from +here. But that old captain talked--he talked like a child. He was so +obstinate about it. He was going to take that boat up the Japura, and +you'd have thought it was above Boulter's Lock. Then he began to swear +about the dagoes. + +"The old chap got quite wild again when he thought of that soldier. He +was a little man, nothing of him, and his face was screwed up as if he +was always annoyed about something. You have to take things as they +come, here, and let it go. But this Davis man was an irritable old boy, +and most of his talk was about money. He said he was through with the +boat running jobs. No more of 'em. It was as bare as boards. Nothing to +be made at the game, he said. Over his left eye he had a funny hairy +wart, a sort of knob, and whenever he got excited it turned red. I may +say he let me pay for all the drinks. I reckon he was pretty close with +his money. + +"He told me he knew a man in Barry who'd got a fine pub--a little +gold-mine. He said there was a stuffed bear at the pub and it brought +lots of customers. Seemed to think I must know the place. He said he was +going to try to get an alligator for the chap who kept the pub. The +alligator could stand on its hind legs at the other side of the door, +with an electric bulb in its mouth, like a lemon. That was his fine +idea. He reckoned that would bring customers. Then old Davis started to +fidget about. I began to think he wanted to tell me something, and I +wondered what the deuce it was. I thought it was money. It generally is. +At last he told me. He wanted one of those dried Indian heads for that +pub. 'You know what I mean,' he said. 'The Indians kill somebody, and +make his head smaller than a baby's, and the hair hangs down all round.' + +"Have you ever seen one of those heads? The Indians bone 'em, and stuff +'em with spice and gums, and let 'em dry in the sun. They don't look +nice. I've seen one or two. + +"But I tried to persuade him to let the head go. The Government has +stopped that business, you know. Got a bit too thick. If you ordered a +head, the Johnnies would just go out and have somebody's napper. + +"I missed old Davis after that. I was transferred to Manaos, up river. I +don't know what became of him. It was nearly a year when I came back to +Para. Our people had had the clearing of that boat old Davis brought +out, and I found some of his papers, still unsettled. I asked about him, +in a general way, and found he hadn't arrived. His tug had been back +twice. When it was here last it seemed the native skipper explained +Davis went ashore, when returning, at a place where they touched for +rubber. He went into the village and didn't come back. Well, it seems +the skipper waited. No Davis. So he tootled his whistle and went on up +stream, because the river was falling, and he had some more stations to +do in the season. He was at the village again in a few days, though, and +Davis wasn't there then. The tug captain said the village was deserted, +and he supposed the old chap had gone down river in another boat. But +he's not back yet. The boss said the fever had got him, somewhere. +That's the way things go here. + +"A month ago an American civil engineer touched here, and had to wait +for a boat for New York. He'd been right up country surveying for some +job or another, Peru way. I went up to his hotel with the fellows to see +him one evening. He was on his knees packing his trunks. 'Say, boys,' he +said, sitting on the floor, 'I brought a whole lot of truck from way up, +and now it hasn't got a smile for me.' He offered me his collection of +butterflies. Then the Yankee picked up a ball of newspaper off the +floor, and began to peel it. 'This goes home,' he said. 'Have you seen +anything like that? I bet you haven't.' He held out the opened packet in +his hand, and there was a brown core to it. 'I reckon that is thousands +of years old,' said the American. + +"It was a little dried head, no bigger than a cricket ball, and about +the same colour. Very like an Indian's too. The features were quite +plain, and there was a tiny wart over the left eyebrow. 'I bet you +that's thousands of years old,' said the American. 'I bet you it isn't +two,' I said." + + * * * * * + +We returned to the steamer in the late afternoon, bringing with us two +Brazilian pilots, who were to take us as far as Itacoatiara. We sailed +next morning for the interior. Para, like all the towns on the Amazon, +has but one way out of it. There is a continent behind Para, but you +cannot go that way; when you leave the city you must take the river. +Para stands by the only entrance to what is now the greatest region of +virgin tropics left in the world. Always at anchor off the city's front +are at least a dozen European steamers, most of them flying the red +ensign. A famous engineering contractor, also British, is busy +constructing modern wharves there; and Thames tugs and mudhoppers, +flying the Brazilian flag, as the law insists, but bawling London +compliments as they pass your ship, help the native schooners with their +rakish lateen sails, blue and scarlet, to make the anchorage brisk and +lively. Looking out from the "Capella's" bridge she appeared to be +within a lagoon. The lake was elliptical, and so large it was a world +for the eye to range in. It was bound by a low barrier of forest, a +barrier distant enough to lose colour, nature, and significance. Para, +white and red, lay reflecting the sunset from many facets in the +south-west, with a cheerful array of superior towers and spires. From +the ship Para looked big, modern, and prosperous; and with those vast +rounded clouds of the rains assembling and mounting over the bright +city, and brooding there, impassive and dark, but with impending keels +lustrous with the burnish of copper and steel, and seeing a rainbow +curving down from one cloud over the city's white front, I, being a +new-comer, and with a pardonable feeling of exhilaration which was of my +own well-being in a new and a wide and radiant place, thought of man +there as a conqueror who had overcome the wilderness, builded him a +city, bridled the exuberance of a savage land, and directed the sap and +life, born in a rich soil of ardent sun and rain, into the forms useful +to him. So I entered the chart-room, and looked with a new interest on +the chart of the place. Then I felt less certain of the conqueror and +his taming bridle. I saw that this lagoon in which the "Capella" showed +large and important was but a point in an immense area of tractless +islands and meandering waterways, a region intricate, and, the chart +confessed, little known. The coast opposite the city, which I had taken +for mainland, was the trivial Ihla des Oncas. The main channel of the +river was beyond that island, with the coast of Marajo for the farther +shore; and Marajo also was but an island, though as large as Wales. The +north channel of the Amazon was beyond again, with more islands, about +which the chart confessed less knowledge. One of the pilots was with me; +and when I spoke of those points in the ultimate Amazons, the alluring +names on maps you read in England, here they were, at Para, just what +they are at home, still vague and far, journeys thither to be reckoned +by time; a shrug of the shoulders and a look of amusement; two months, +Senhor, or perhaps three or four. The idea came slowly; but it dawned, +something like the conception of astronomy's amplitudes, of the +remoteness of the beyond of Amazonas, that new world I had just entered. + +I crept within the mosquito curtain that night, and the still heated +dark lay on my mind, the pressure of an unknown full of dread. I thought +of the pale shipping clerk and his tired smile, and of Captain Davis, +his face no bigger than a cricket ball, and the same colour, with a wart +over his eye; and recalled the anxious canvass I had heard made for news +of sickness up-river. A ship had passed outwards that morning, the +consul told us, with twenty men on board down with fever. + +And Thorwaldsen. I forgot to tell you about Thorwaldsen. He was a +trader, and last rainy season he took his vessel up some far backwater, +beyond Manaos, with his wife and his little daughter. News had just come +from nowhere to Para that his wife had died in childbirth in the wilds, +and Thorwaldsen had been murdered; but nothing was known of his +daughter. There it was. I did not know the Thorwaldsens. But the +trader's little girl who might then be alone in the gloom of the jungle +with savages, helped to keep me awake. And the wife, that fair-haired +Swede; she was in the alien wilderness, beyond all gentlehood, when her +time came. I could see two mosquitoes doing their best to work backwards +through the curtain mesh. They were after me, the emissaries of the +unknown, and their pertinacity was astonishing. + + * * * * * + +"_Jan. 9._ The 'Capella' left Para at three o'clock this morning, and +continued up the Para River. Daylight found us in a wide brownish +stream, with the shores low and indistinguishable on either beam. When +the sun grew hot, the jungle came close in; it was often so close that +we could see the nests of wasps on the trees, like grey shields hanging +there. Between the Para River and the Amazon the waters dissipate into a +maze of serpenting ditches. In width these channels usually are no more +than canals, but they were deep enough to float our big tramp steamer. +They thread a multitude of islands, islands overloaded with a massed +growth which topped our mast-heads. Our steamer was enclosed within +resonant chasms, and the noise and incongruity of our progress awoke +deep protests there. + +"The dilated loom of the rains, the cloud shapes so continental that +they occupied, where they stood not so far away, all the space between +the earth and sky, bulged over the forest at the end of every view. The +heat was luscious; but then I had nothing to do but to look on from a +hammock under the awning. The foliage which was pressed out over the +water, not many yards from the hurrying 'Capella,' had a closeness of +texture astonishing, and even awful, to one who knew only the thin woods +of the north. It ascended directly from the water's edge, sometimes out +of the water, and we did not often see its foundation. There were no +shady aisles and glades. The sight was stopped on a front of polished +emerald, a congestion of stiff leaves. The air was still. Individual +sprays and fronds, projecting from the mass in parabolas with flamboyant +abandon and poise, were as rigid as metallic and enamelled shapes. The +diversity of forms, and especially the number and variety of the palms, +so overloaded an unseen standing that the parapets of the woods +occasionally leaned outwards to form an arcade above our masts. One +should not call this the jungle; it was even a soft and benignant Eden. +This was the forest I really wished to find. Often the heavy parapets of +the woods were upheld on long colonnades of grey palm boles; or the +whole upper structure appeared based on low green arches, the pennate +fronds of smaller palms flung direct from the earth. + +"There was not a sound but the noise of our intruding steamer. +Occasionally we brushed a projecting spray, or a vine pendent from a +cornice. We proved the forest then. In some shallow places were +regiments of aquatic grasses, bearing long plumes. There were trees +which stood in the water on a tangle of straight pallid roots, as though +on stilts. This up-burst of intense life so seldom showed the land to +which it was fast, and the side rivers and paranas were so many, that I +could believe the forest afloat, an archipelago of opaque green vapours. +Our heavy wash swayed and undulated the aquatic plants and grasses, as +though disturbing the fringe of those green clouds which clung to the +water because of their weight in a still air. + +"There was seldom a sign of life but the infrequent snowy herons, and +those curious brown fowl, the ciganas. The sun was flaming on the +majestic assembly of the storm. The warm air, broken by our steamer, +coiled over us in a lazy flux. I did not hear the bell calling to meals. +We all hung over the 'Capella's' side, gaping, like a lot of boys. + +"Sometimes we passed single habitations on the water side. Ephemeral +huts of palm-leaves were forced down by the forest, which overhung them, +to wade on frail stilts. A canoe would be tied to a toy jetty, and on +the jetty a sad woman and several naked children would stand, with no +show of emotion, to watch us go by. Behind them was the impenetrable +foliage. I thought of the precarious tenure on earth of these brown folk +with some sadness, especially as the day was going. The easy dominance +of the wilderness, and man's intelligent morsel of life resisting it, +was made plain when we came suddenly upon one of his little shacks +secreted among the aqueous roots of a great tree, cowering, as it were, +between two of the giant's toes. Those brown babies on the jetties never +cheered us. They watched us, serious and forlorn. Alongside their +primitive hut were a few rubber trees, which we knew by their scars. +Late in the afternoon we came to a large cavern in the base of the +forest, a shadowy place where at last we did see a gathering of the +folk. A number of little wooden crosses peeped above the floor in the +hollow. The sundering floods and the forest do not always keep these +folk from congregation, and the comfort of the last communion. + +"There was a question at night as to whether our pilots would anchor or +not. They decided to go on. We did not go the route of Bates, _via_ +Breves, but took the Parana de Buyassa on our way to the Amazon. It was +night when we got to the Parana, and but for the trailing lights, the +fairy mooring lines of habitations in the woods, and what the silent +explosions of lightning revealed of great heads of trees, startlingly +close and monstrous, as though watching us in silent and intent regard, +we saw nothing of it." + + * * * * * + +Once I knew a small boy, and on a summer day too much in the past now to +be recalled without some private emotion, he said to his father, on the +beach of a popular East Anglian resort, "And where is the sea?" He stood +then, for the first time, where the sea, by all the promises of pictures +and poems, should have been breaking on its cold grey crags. "The sea?" +said the father, in astonishment, "why, there it is. Didn't you know?" + +And that father, being an exact man, there beyond appeal the sea was. +And what was it? A discoloured wash, of mean limit, which flopped +wearily on some shabby sands littered with people and luncheon papers. +Such a flat, stupid, and leaden disillusion surely never before fell on +the upturned, bright and expectant soul of a young human, who, I can +vouch, began life, like most others, believing the noblest of +everything. It was an ocean which was inferior even to the +bathing-machines, and could be seen but in division when that child, +walking along the rank of those boxes on wheels, peeped between them. + +You will have noticed with what simple indifference the people who +really know what they call the truth will shatter an illusion we have +long cherished; though, as we alone see our private dreams, those honest +folk cannot be blamed for poking their feet through fine pictures they +did not know were there. + +I had a picture of the Amazon, which I had long cherished. I was leaning +to-day over the bulwarks of the "Capella," watching the jungle pass. The +Doctor was with me. I thought we were still on the Para River, and was +waiting for our vessel to emerge from that stream, as through a narrow +gate, dramatically, into the broad sunlight of the greatest river in the +world, the king of rivers, the Amazon of my picture. We idly scanned the +forest with binoculars, having nothing to do, and saw some herons, and +the ciganas, and once a sloth which was hanging to a tree. Para, I felt, +was as distant as London. The silence, the immobility of it all, and the +pour of the tropic sun, were just beginning to be a little subduing. We +had come already to the wilderness. There was, I thought, a very great +deal of this forest; and it never varied. + +"We shall be on the Amazon soon," I said hopefully, to the doctor. + +"We have been on it for hours," he replied. And that is how I got there. + +But the Amazon is not seen, any more than is the sea, at the first +glance. What the eye first gathers, is, naturally (for it is but an +eye), nothing like commensurate with your own image of the river. The +mind, by suggestive symbols, builds something portentous, a vague and +tremendous idea. What I saw was only a very swift and opaque yellow +flood, not much broader, it seemed to me, than the Thames at Gravesend, +and the monotonous green of the forest. It was all I saw for a +considerable time. + +I see something different now. It is not easily explained merely as a +yellow river, with a verdant elevation on either hand, and over it a +blue sky. It would be difficult to find, except by luck, a word which +would convey the immensity of the land of the Amazons, something of the +aloofness and separation of the points of its extremes, with months and +months of adventure between them. What a journey it would be from Ino in +Bolivia, on the Rio Madre de Dios, to Conception in Colombia, on the Rio +Putumayo; there is another "Odyssey" in a voyage like that. And think of +the names of those places and rivers! When I take the map of South +America now, and hold it with the estuary of the Amazon as its base, my +thoughts are like those might be of a lost ant, crawling in and over the +furrows and ridges of an exposed root as he regards all he may of the +trunk rising into the whole upper cosmos of a spreading oak. The Amazon +then looks to me, properly symbolical, as a monstrous tree, and its +tributaries, paranas, furos, and igarapes, as the great boughs, little +boughs, and twigs of its ascending and spreading ramifications, so +minutely dissecting the continent with its numberless watercourses that +the mind sees that dark region as an impenetrable density of green and +secret leaves; which, literally, when you go there, is what you will +find. You enter the leaves, and vanish. You creep about the region of +but one of its branches, under a roof of foliage which stays the midday +shine and lets it through to you in the dusk of the interior but as +points of distant starlight. Occasionally, as we did upon a day, you see +something like Santarem. There is a break and a change in the journey. +Moving blindly through the maze of green, there, hanging in the clear +day at the end of a bough, is a golden fruit. + + * * * * * + +"_Jan. 10._ The torrid morning, tempered by a cooling breeze which +followed us up river, was soon overcast. Disappointingly narrow at +first, the Amazon broadened later, but not to one's conception of its +magnitude. But the greatness of this stream, I have already learned, +dawns upon you in time, and if you sufficiently endure. It persists +about you, this forest and this river, like the stark desolation of the +sea. The real width of the river is not often seen because of the +islands which fringe its banks, many of them of considerable size. The +side channels, or paranas-miris, between the islands and the shores, are +used in preference to the main stream by the native sailing craft, to +avoid the strength of the current. We had the river to ourselves. The +'Capella' was taken by the pilots, first over to one side and then to +the other, dodging the set of the stream. The forest has changed. It has +now a graceless and savage aspect when we are close to it. There are not +so many palms. At a little distance the growth appears a mass of spindly +oaks and beeches, though with a more vivid and lighter green foliage. +But when near it shows itself alien enough, a front of nameless and +congested leaves. I suppose it would be more than a hundred feet in +altitude. Sometimes the forest stands in the water. At other times a +yellow bank shows, a narrow strip under the trees, rarely more than four +feet high, and strewn with the bleaching skeletons of trees and +entanglements of vine. There is rarely a sign of life. Once this morning +a bird called in the woods when we were close. Butterflies are +continually crossing the ship, and dragonflies and great wasps and +hornets are hawking over us. The sight of one swallowtail butterfly, a +big black and yellow fellow, sent the cook insane. The insect stayed its +noble flight, poised over our hatch, and then came down to see what we +were. It settled on a coil of rope, leisurely pulsing its wings. The +cook, at the sight of this bold and bright being, sprang from the +galley, and leaped down to the deck with a dish cloth. To our surprise +he caught the insect, and explained with eagerness how that the +shattered pattern of colours, which more than covered his gross palm, +would improve his firescreen in a Rotterdam parlour. + +"Early in the forenoon sections of the forest vanished in grey rain +squalls, though elsewhere the sun was brilliant. The plane of the dingy +yellow flood was variegated with transient areas of bright sulphur and +chocolate. We were hugging the right bank, and so saw the mouth of the +Xingu as we passed. At midday some hills ahead, the Serra de Almerim, +gave us relief from the dead level of the wearying green walls. The +sight of those blue heights with their flat tops--they were perhaps no +more than 1000 feet above the forest--curiously stimulated the eye and +lifted one's humour, long depressed by the everlasting sameness of the +prospect and the heat. Later in the day we passed more of the welcome +hills, the Serra de Maranuaqua, Velha Pobre, and Serras de Tapaiunaquara +and Paranaquara, their cones, truncated pyramids, knolls and hog backs, +ranging contrary to our course. Bates says some of them are bare, or +covered only with a short herbage; but all those I examined with a good +telescope had forest to the summits; though a few of the inferior +heights, which stood behind the island of Jurupari (the island where +dreams come at night) were grassy. Those cobalt prominences rose like +precipitous islands from a green sea. We were the only spectators. One +high range, as we passed, was veiled in a glittering mesh of rain. The +river, after we left Jurupari, bent round, and brought the heights +astern of us. The sun set. + +"The river and the forest are best at sundown. The serene level rays +discovered the woods. We saw trees then distinctly, almost as a +surprise. Till then the forest had been but a gloom by day. Behind us +was the jungle front. It changed from green to gold, a band of light +between the river and the darkling sky. Some greater trees emerged +majestically. It was the first time that day we had really seen the +features of the jungle. It was but a momentary revelation. The clouds +were reflectors, throwing amber lights below. In the hills astern of us +ravines hitherto unsuspected caught the transitory glory. The dark +heights had many polished facets. One range, round-shouldered and +wooded, I thought resembled the promontories about Clovelly, and for a +few minutes the Amazon had the bright eyes of a friend. On a ridge of +those heights I could see the sky through some of its trees. The light +quickly gave out, and it was night. + +"We continued cruising along the south shore. The usual pulsations of +lightning made night intermittent; the forest was not more than 150 feet +from our vessel, and sitting under the awning the trees kept jumping out +of the night, startlingly near. The night was still and hot, and my +cabin lamp had attracted myriads of insects through the door which had +been left open for air. A heap of crawlers lay dead on the desk, and the +bunk curtain was smothered with grotesque winged shapes, flies, cicadas, +mantis, phasmas, moths, beetles, and mosquitoes." + + * * * * * + +Next morning found us running along the north shore. Parrots were +squawking in the woods alongside. A large alligator floated close by the +ship, its jaws open in menace. At breakfast time a strip of white beach +came into view on the opposite coast, a place in that world of three +colours on which one's tired eyes could alight and rest. That was +Santarem. Sharp hills rose immediately behind the town. The town is in a +saddle of the hills, slipping down to the river in terraces of white, +chrome, and blue houses. The Rio Tapajos, a black water tributary and a +noble river, enters the main stream by Santarem, its dark flood sharply +contrasted with the tawny Amazon. But the Amazon sweeps right across its +mouth in a masterful way. There is a definite line dividing black from +yellow water, and then no more Tapajos. + +We passed numerous floating islands (Ilhas de Caapim) and trees adrift, +evidence, the pilots said, that the river was rising. These grass +islands are a feature of the Amazon. They look like lush pastures +adrift. Some of them are so large it is difficult to believe they are +really afloat till they come alongside. Then, if the river is at all +broken by a breeze, the meadow plainly undulates. This floating cane and +grass grows in the sheltered bays and quiet paranas-miris, for though +the latter are navigable side-channels of the river in the rainy season, +in the dry they are merely isolated swamps. But when the river is in +flood the earth is washed away from the roots of this marsh growth, and +it moves off, a flourishing, mobile field, often twenty feet in +thickness. Such islands, when large, can be dangerous to small craft. +Small flowers blossom on these aquatic fields, which shelter snakes and +turtles, and sometimes the peixe-boi, the manatee. + +Obydos was in sight in the afternoon, but presently we lost it in a +violent squall of rain. The squall came down like a gun burst, and +nearly carried away the awnings. It was evening before we were abreast +of that most picturesque town I saw on the river. Obydos rests on one of +the rare Amazon cliffs of rufus clay and sandstone. The forest mounts +the hill above it, and the scattered red roofs of the town show in a +surf of foliage. The cliffs glowed in cream and cherry tints, with a +cascade of vines falling over them, though not reaching the shore. The +dainty little houses sit high in a loop of the cliffs. We left the city +behind, with a huge cumulus cloud resting over it, and the evening light +on all. + +But Obydos and sunsets and rain squalls, and the fireflies which flit +about the dark ship at night in myriads, tiny blue and yellow glow-lamps +which burn with puzzling inconstancy, as though being switched on and +off, though they help me with this narrative, yet candour compels me to +tell you that they take up more space in this book than they do in the +land of the Amazon. They were incidental and small to us, dominated by +the shadowing presence of the forest. + +We have been on the river nearly a week. But our steamer's decks, even +by day, are deserted now. We lean overside no longer looking at this +strange country. The heat is the most noteworthy fact, and drives every +one to what little leeward to the glare there is. Our cook, who is a +salamander of a fellow, and has no need to fear the possibilities of his +future life--though I do not remember he ever told me he was really +thoughtful for them--feeling a little uncomfortable one day when at work +on our dinner, glanced at his thermometer, and fled in terror. It +registered 134. He begged me to go in and verify it, and once inside I +was hardly any time doing that. We have such days, without a breath of +air, and two vivid walls of still jungle, and between them a yellow +river serpentining under the torrid sun, and a silence which is like +deafness. + +Under the shadow of the awning aft, in his deck chair, the Doctor is +preparing our defences by sounding a profound volume on tropical +diseases. This gives us but little confidence; though, as to our +surgeon, recently I overheard one fireman to another, "I tell yer +the--doc's a Man. That's what he is." (This is the result of the gin +with the quinine.) Yet, good man as he is, his book on the consequences +of the tropics is so large that we fear we all cannot escape so many +impediments to joy. But our health's guardian is careful we do not +anticipate anything from peeps into the mysteries. He never leaves his +big book about, much as some of us would like to see the pictures in it, +after what the donkeyman told us. + +This is how it was. Donkey, in spite of instructions, and I know how +emphatic the Skipper usually is, slept on deck away from his mosquito +bar a few nights ago. He said at the time that he wasn't afraid of them +little fanciful biters, or something of the kind. I have no doubt the +Doctor would have had some trouble in making clear to Donkey's +understanding exactly what are the links, delicate but sure, between +mosquitoes and dissolution and decay in man. So he showed Donkey a +picture. I wish I knew what it was--but the surgeon preserves the usual +professional reticence in the affairs of his patients. For now Donkey is +convinced it is very bad to sleep outside his curtain, and when he tries +to tell us how unwholesome such sleeping can be, just at the point when +he gets most entertaining his vocabulary wears into holes and tatters. +You could not conjure that man from his curtain now, no, not if you +showed him, in a vision, Cardiff, and the fairy lights of all its dock +hotels. I know that in the Doctor's book there is a picture of a negro +who acquired, in a superb way, a wonderful form of elephantiasis, for +the Doctor showed it to me once, as a treat, when he thought I was +growing slack and bored. + +We require now such childish laughter at each other's discomfiture to +break the spell of this land into which we are sinking deeper. Still the +forest glides by. It is a shadow on the mind. It stands over us, an +insistent riddle, every morning when I look out from my bunk. I watch it +all day, drawn against my will; and as day is dying it is still there, +paramount, enigmatic, silent, its question implied in its mere +persistence--meeting me again on the next day, still with its mute +interrogation. + +We have been passing it for nearly a week. It should have convinced me +by now that it is something material. But why should I suppose it is +that? We have had no chance to examine it. It does not look real. It +does not remind me of anything I know of vegetation. When you sight your +first mountains, a delicate and phantom gleam athwart the stars, are you +reminded of the substance of the hills? I have been watching it for so +long, this abiding and soundless forest, that now I think it is like the +sky, intangible, an apparition; what the eye sees of the infinite, just +as the eye sees a blue colour overhead at midday, and the glow of the +Milky Way at night. For the mind sees this forest better than the eye. +The mind is not deceived by what merely shows. Wherever the steamer +drives the forest recedes, as does the sky at sea; but it never leaves +us. + +The jungle gains nothing, and loses nothing, at noon. It is only a +sombre thought still, as at midnight. It is still, at noon, so obscure +and dumb a presence that I suspect the sun does not illuminate it so +much as reveal our steamer in its midst. We are revealed instead. The +presence sees us advancing into its solitudes, a small, busy, and +impudent intruder. But the forest does not greet, and does not resent +us. It regards us with the vacancy of large composure, with a lofty +watchfulness which has no need to show its mind. I think it knows our +fears of its domain. It knows the secret of our fate. It makes no sign. +The pallid boles of the trees, the sentinels by the water with the press +of verdure behind them, stand, as we pass, like soundless exclamations. +So when we go close in shore I find myself listening for a chance +whisper, a careless betrayal of the secret. There is not a murmur in the +host; though once a white bird flew yauping from a tree, and then it +seemed the desolation had been surprised into a cry, a prolonged and +melancholy admonition. Following that the silence was deepened, as +though an indiscretion were regretted. A sustained and angry protest at +our presence would have been natural; but not that infinite line of +lofty trees, darkly superior, silently watching us pass. + + * * * * * + +One night we anchored off the south shore in twenty fathoms, but close +under the trees. At daybreak we stood over to the opposite bank. The +river here was of great width, the north coast being low and indistinct. +These tacks across stream look so purposeless, in a place where there +are no men and all the water looks the same. You go over for nothing. +But this morning, high above the land ahead, some specks were seen +drifting like fragments of burnt paper, the sport of an idle and distant +wind. Those drifting dots were urubus, the vultures, generally the first +sign that a settlement is near. To come upon a settlement upon the +Amazons is like landfall at sea. It brings all on deck. And there, at +last, was Itacoatiara or Serpa. From one of the infrequent, low, +ferruginous cliffs of this river the jungle had been cleared, and on +that short range of modest, undulating heights which displaced the green +palisades with soft glowings of rose, cherry, and orange rock, the sight +escaped to a disorder of arboured houses, like a disarray of little +white cubes; Serpa was, in appearance, half a basketful of white bricks +shot into a portico of the forest. + +That morning was no inducement to exertion, but when an Indian paddled +his canoe alongside our anchored steamer the Doctor and the Purser got +into it, and away. The hot earth would be a change from hot iron. +Besides, I was eager for my first walk in equatorial woods. Our steamer +was anchored below the town, off a small campo, or clearing. The native +swashed his canoe into a margin of floating plants, which had rounded +leaves and inflated stalks, like buoys. I looked at them, and indeed at +the least thing, as keenly as though we were now going to land in the +moon. Nothing should escape me; the colour of the mud, the water tepid +to my hand, the bronze canoeman in his pair of old cotton pants split +just where they should have been scrupulous, and the weeds and grass. I +would drain my tropics to the last precious drop. I myself was seeing +what I had thought others lucky to have seen. It was like being born +into the world as an understanding adult. We got to a steep bank of red +clay, fissured by the heat, and as hard as brickwork. Green and brown +lizards whisked before us as we broke the quiet. From the top of the +bank the anchored steamer looked a little stranger. Aboard her, and she +is a busy village. Now she appeared but a mark I did not recognise in +that reticent solitude. The Amazon was an immensity of water, a plain of +burnished silver, where headlands, islands, and lines of cliff were all +cut in one level mass of emerald veined with white. The canoe going +downstream appeared to dissolve in candent vapour. Cloudland low down +over the forest to the south, a far disorder of violet heights, waiting +to fill the sky at sunset and to shock our unimportance then with +convulsions of blue flames, did not seem more aloof and inaccessible to +me than our immediate surroundings. + +The clearing was a small bay in the jungle. A few statuesque silk-cotton +trees, buttressed giants, were isolated in its centre. A bunch of +dun-coloured cattle with twisted horns stood beneath them, though the +trees gave them no shade, for each grey trunk was as bare of branches +for sixty feet of its length as a stone column. The wall of the jungle +was quite near, and as I stood watching it intently, I could hear but +the throb of my own life. The faint sibilation of insects was only as +if, in the silence, you heard the sharp rays of the sun impinge on the +earth; your finer ear caught that sound when you forgot the ring and +beat of your body. It was something below mere silence. + +We approached the wall to the west, as a path went through the harsh +swamp herbage that way, and entered the jungle. The sun went out almost +at once. It was cellar cool under the trees. We had no idea where the +path would lead us. That did not matter. No doubt it would be the place +desired. The Doctor walked ahead, and I could just see his helmet, the +way was so narrow and uncertain. I kept missing the helmet, for +everything in the half-lighted solitude was strange. One could not keep +an eye on a white hat on one's first equatorial ramble, and only when +the quiet was heavy enough to be a burden did I look up from a puzzling +leaf, or some busy ants, to find myself alone. There was a feeling that +you were being watched; but there were no eyes, when you glanced round +quickly. Do you remember that dream which sometimes came when we were +children? There were, I remember, empty corridors prolonging into the +shadows of a nameless house where not a sign showed of what was there. +We went on, and no words we could think of when we woke could tell what +we felt when we looked into those long silent aisles of the house +without a name; for we knew something was there; but there was no +telling what the thing would be like when it showed. That is your +sensation in a first walk in a Brazilian forest. + +I stopped at lianas, and curious foliage, trying to trace them to a +beginning, but rarely with any success. There were some mantis, which +commenced to run on a tree while I was examining its bark. They were +like flakes of the bark. For a moment the tree seemed to quiver its hide +at my irritating touch. Then the Doctor called, and I pushed along to +find him stooping over a land snail, the size of a man's fist, which +rather puzzled him, for it had what he called an operculum; that is, a +cap such as a winkle's, only in this case it was as large as a crown +piece. I do not know if it was the operculum, for my knowledge of such +things is small; but I did feel this was the only twelfth birthday which +had come to me for many years. + +Presently we saw light, as you would from the interior of a tunnel. Some +beams of sunshine slanted from a break in the roof to where a tree had +fallen, making a bridge for us across an igaripe, a stream, that is, +large enough to be a way for a canoe. The sundered, buttressed roots of +the tree formed a steep climb to begin with, but the buttresses going +straight along the trunk as handrails made crossing the bridge an easy +matter. Raising my hand to a root which was hot in the sun, and watching +a helicon butterfly, a black and yellow fellow, which settled near us, +slowly open and shut his wings, I jumped, because it felt as though a +lighted match had dropped into my sleeve. But I couldn't douse it. It +burned in ten places at once. It was a first lesson in constant +watchfulness in this new world. I had placed my hand in a swarm of +inconspicuous fire ants. The dead tree was alive with them, and our +passage quickened. We rubbed ourselves hysterically, for the Doctor had +got some too; and there was no professional reserve about him that time. + +After crossing the igaripe the character of the forest changed. It was +now a growth of wild cacao trees. Nothing grew beneath them. The floor +was a black paste, littered with dead sticks. The woods were more open, +but darker and more dank than before. The sooty limbs of the cacao trees +grew low, and filled the view ahead with a perplexity of leafless and +tortured boughs. They were hung about with fruit, pendent lamps lit with +a pale greenish light. We saw nothing move there but two delicate +butterflies, which had transparent wings with opaque crimson spots, such +as might have been served Titania herself; yet the gloom and black ooze, +and the eerie globes, with their illusion of light hung upon distorted +shapes, was more the home of the fabulous sucuruja, the serpent which is +forty feet long. + +A dry stick snapping underfoot had the same effect as that crash which +resounds for some embarrassing seconds when your umbrella drops in a +gallery of the British Museum. The impulse was to apologise to +something. We had been so long in the twilight, recoiling at nameless +objects in the path, a monstrous legume perhaps a yard long and coiled +like a reptile, seeing things only with a second look, that the sudden +entrance into a malocal, a forest clearing, which, as though it were a +reservoir, the sun had filled with bright light, was like a plunge into +a warm, fluid, and lustrous element. + +In the clearing were the huts of an Indian village. Only the roofs could +be seen, through some plantations of bananas. Around the clearing, a +side of which was cut off by a stream, was the overshadowing green +presence. Some chocolate babies, as serious as gnomes, looked up as we +came into daylight, opened their eyes wide, and fled up the path between +the plantains. + +If I could sing, I would sing the banana. It has the loveliest leaf I +know. I feel intemperate about it, because I came upon it after our +passage through a wood which could have been underground, a tangle of +bare roots joining floor and ceiling in limitless caverns. We stood +looking at the plantation till our mind was fed with grace and light. +The plantain jets upwards with a copious stem, and the fountain returns +in broad rippled pennants, falling outwardly, refined to points, when +the impulse is lost. A world could not be old on which such a plant +grows. It is sure evidence of earth's vitality. To look at it you would +not think that growing is a long process, a matter of months and natural +difficulties. The plantain is an instant and joyous answer to the sun. +The midribs of the leaves, powerful but resilient, held aloft in +generous arches the broad planes of translucent green substance. It is +not a fragile and dainty thing, except in colour and form. It is lush +and solid, though its ascent is so aerial, and its form is content to +the eye. There is no green like that of its leaves, except at sea. The +stout midribs are sometimes rosy, but the banners they hold well above +your upturned face are as the crest of a wave in the moment of collapse, +the day showing through its fluid glass. And after the place of dead +matter and mummied husks in gloom, where we had been wandering, this +burst of leaves in full light was a return to life. + +We continued along the path, in the way of the vanished children. Among +the bananas were some rubber trees, their pale trunks scored with brown +wounds, and under some of the incisions small tin cups adhered, fastened +there with clay. In most of the cups the collected latex was congealed, +for the cups were half full of rain-water, which was alive with mosquito +larv. The path led to the top of the river bank. The stream was narrow, +but full and deep. A number of women and children were bathing below, +and they looked up stolidly as we appeared. Some were negligent on the +grass, sunning themselves. Others were combing their long, straight hair +over their honey- and snuff-coloured bodies. The figures of the women +were full, lissom, and rounded, and they posed as if they were aware +that this place was theirs. They were as unconscious of their grace as +animals. They looked round and up at us, and one stayed her hand, her +comb half through the length of her hair, and all gazed intently at us +with faces having no expression but a little surprise; then they turned +again to proceed with their toilets and their gossip. They looked as +proper with their brown and satiny limbs and bodies, in the secluded and +sunny arbour where the water ran, framed in exuberant tropical foliage, +as a herd of deer. + +I had never seen primitive man in his native place till then. There he +was, as at the beginning, and I saw with a new respect from what a +splendid creature we are derived. It was, I am glad to say, to cheer the +existence of these people that I had put money in a church plate at +Poplar. Poplar, you may have heard, is a parish in civilisation where an +organised community is able, through its heritage of the best of two +thousand years of religion, science, commerce, and politics, to eke out +to a finish the lives of its members (warped as they so often are by +arid dispensations of Providence) with the humane Poor Law. The Poor Law +is the civilised man's ironic rebuke to a parsimonious Creator. It is a +jest which will ruin the solemnity of the Judgment Day. Only the man of +long culture could think of such a shattering insult to the All Wise who +made this earth too small for the children He continues to send to it, +trailing their clouds of glory which prove a sad hindrance and get so +fouled in the fight for standing room on their arrival. But these +savages of the Brazilian forest know nothing of the immortal joke +conceived by their cleverer brothers. They have all they want. +Experience has not taught them to devise such a cosmic mock as a Poor +Law. How do these poor savages live then, who have not been vouchsafed +such light? They pluck bananas, I suppose, and eat them, swinging in +hammocks. They live a purely animal existence. More than that, I even +hear that should you find a child hungry in an Indian village, you may +be sure all the strong men there are hungry too. I was not able to prove +that; yet it may be true there are people to-day to whom the law that +the fittest must survive has not yet been helpfully revealed. (This is +really the Doctor's fault. I should never have thought of Poplar if he +had not wondered aloud how those bathers under the palms managed without +a workhouse.) + +Behind us were the shelters of these settled Indians, the "cabaclos," as +they are called in Brazil (literally, copper coloured). Each house was +but a square roof of the fronds of a species of attalea palm, upheld at +each corner by poles seven feet high. The houses had no sides, but were +quite open, except that some had a quarter of the interior partitioned +off with a screen of leaves. There was a rough attempt at a garden about +each dwelling, with rose bushes and coleas in the midst of gourds and +patches of maize. The roses were scented, and of the single briar kind. +We entered one of the dwellings, and surprised a young woman within who +was swinging in a hammock smoking a native pipe of red clay through a +grass stem. One fine limb, free of her cotton gown to the thigh, hung +indolently over the hammock, the toes touching the earth and giving the +couch movement. Her black hair, all at first we could see of her head, +nearly reached the ground. + +A well-grown girl, innocent from head to feet, saw us enter, and cried +to her mother, who rose in the hammock, threw her gown over her leg, +smiled gravely at us, and alighted, to vanish behind the screen with the +child, reappearing presently with the girl neatly attired. Other +children came, and soon had confidence to examine us closely and +critically, grave little mortals with eyes which spoke the only language +I understood there. The men and women who gathered stood behind the +children, smiling sadly and kindly. They were gentle, undemonstrative, +and observant, with features of the conventional Indian type. The men +were spare and lithe, of medium height, wearing only shorts tied with +string below their bronze busts. The women were of fuller build, with +heavier but more cheerful features, and each was dressed in a single +cotton garment, open above, revealing the breasts. + +The noon shadows of the hut, and the trees, were deep as the stains of +ink. A tray of mandioca root, farinha, was set in the hot sun to dry. +Under a gourd tree was a heap of turtle shells. A little game, a +capybara, and a bird like a crow with a brown rump, were hung on the +screen. But the most remarkable feature of the house in the forest was +its pets. A pair of parraquets ran in and out the bushes like green +mice. My helmet was tipped over my eyes, and, looking upwards, there was +an audience of monkeys in the shadow, quite beside themselves with +curiosity. My sudden movement sent them off like fireworks. One was a +most engaging little fellow, a jet-black tamarin slightly larger than a +squirrel. Presently he found courage to come closer, with a companion, a +brown monkey of his own size. As they sat side by side the Doctor +pointed out that the expressions in the faces of these monkeys showed +temperaments separating them even more widely than they were separated +by those physical differences which made them species. I saw at once, +with some pleasure and a little vanity, that I might be more nearly +related to the friendly cabaclos than I am to some people in England. +The brown chap would be no doubt a master of industry on the tree tops, +keeping a whole tree to himself, and living on nuts which others +gathered. You could see it in his keen and domineering look, and in the +quick, casual way he crowded his fellow, who always made room for him. I +have seen such a face, and such manners, in great industrial centres. +They are the marks of the ablest and best, who get on. His hard, eager +eyes showed censoriousness, cruelty, and acquisitiveness. But his +companion, with a sooty and hairless face, and black hair parted in the +middle of a frail forehead, was a pal of ours, and knew it. The brown +midget showed angry distrust of us, knowing what devilry was in his own +mind. But the black, though more delicate and nervous a monkey, his mind +being innocent of secret plots, had gentleness and faith in his looks, +and showed a laughable and welcome curiosity in us. He made friendly +twitterings--not the harsh and menacing chatter of the other--and +perfectly self-possessed, his pure soul giving him quiethood, examined +us in a brotherly way with an ebon paw which was as small and fragile as +a black fairy's. + +A jabiru stork stood on one leg, beak on breast, meditating, caring +nothing for all that was outside its ruminating mind. There were parrots +on the cross-ties of the roof, on the floor, on the shoulders of the +women, and in the hands of the children, and they were getting an +interesting time through the monkeys when their faces were not cocked +sideways at us in a knowing fashion. And what looked like a crow was +giving bitter and ruthless chase to a young agouti, in and out of the +bare feet of the company. I have never seen creatures so tame. But +Indian women, as I learned afterwards, have a fine gift for winning the +confidence of wild things, and that afternoon they took hold of the +creatures, anyhow and anywhere, to bring them for our inspection, +without the captives showing the least alarm or anger. There were the +dogs, too. But they were like all the dogs we saw in Brazil, looking +sorry for themselves; and they sat about in case they should fall if +they attempted to stand. Our audience broke up suddenly, in an uproar of +protests, to chase the brown monkey, who was towing a frantic parrot by +the tail. + +We continued our walk, entering the forest again on another path. Here +the growth was secondary, and the underbush dense on both sides of the +trail. The voices of the village stopped as we entered the shades, and +there was no more sound except when a bird scurried away heavily, and +again, when some cicadas, the "scissors grinders," suddenly sprang an +astonishing whirring from a tree. The sound was as loud as that of a +locomotive letting steam escape in a covered station. At a clearing so +small that the roof of the jungle had been but little broken, where a +hut stood as though at a well-bottom sunk in a depth of trees, we turned +back. That deep well in the trees contained but little light, for +already it was being choked with vines. The hut was of the usual light +construction, though its sides were of leaves, as well as its roof. I +think it was the most melancholy dwelling I have ever happened on in my +wanderings. It did not look as though it had been long deserted. There +were ashes and a broken flesh-pot outside it. The entrance was veiled +with gross spiders' webs. On the earth floor within were puddles of +rain. Round it the forest stood, like night in abeyance. The tree tops +overhung, silently intent on what man had been doing at their feet. A +child's chemise was stretched on a thorn, and close by was a small +grave, separated by little sticks from the secular earth. A dead plant +was in the centre of the grave, and a crude wooden crucifix. + + * * * * * + +We had plenty of opportunities for exploring Serpa, for the Amazon that +rainy season was slow in rising, and consequently it would have been +unsafe for us to venture into the Madeira. The tributary would have been +full, but it was necessary for the waters of the main stream to dam and +heighten the flood of its tributary before we could trust our draught +there. We were nine days at Serpa. The Amazon would rise as much as a +foot one day, and our distance from the shore would increase +perceptibly, with strong whirling eddies which made the trip ashore more +difficult. Then it would fall again. Some of the yellow Amazon porpoises +showed alongside occasionally, and alligators floated about, though +nothing was seen of them but their snouts. + +Serpa is a small but growing place. It was but a missionary settlement +of Abacaxis Indians from the Madeira in 1759, and was called +Itacoatiara. When I was there it was renewing its old importance, +because the Madeira-Mamor railway undertaking had placed a dept a +little to the west of the village. The Doctor and I spent many memorable +days in its neighbourhood, butterfly-hunting and sauntering. Though +mosquitoes, anopeline and culex, are as common here as elsewhere in the +Brazils--the lighters which came alongside with cargo for us conveyed +clouds of them, and they took possession of every dark nook of the +"Capella"--it is noteworthy that Serpa has the reputation, in Amazonas, +of a health resort. I could find no explanation of that. There was +malaria at Serpa, of course; but compared with the really lethal +country, a country not so different in appearance and climate, of the +upper Madeira, the salubrity of Serpa is perplexing. That virulent form +of malaria peculiar to some tropical localities is a phenomenon which +medical research has not yet explained. In the almost unexplored region +of the Rio Madeira the fever is certain to every traveller, though the +land is largely without inhabitants; and it is almost equally certain +that it will be of the malignant type. Yet at an old settlement like +Serpa, where probably every inhabitant has had malaria, and every +mosquito is likely to be a host, the fever is but mild, and the +traveller may escape it entirely. + +By now you will be asking what Itacoatiara is like, that community +contentedly lost in the secret forest. I am afraid you will not learn, +unless, in the happy future, you and I select a few friends, a few +books, and erect some houses of palm leaves to protect us from the too +vigorous sun there, and so, secure from all the really urgent and +important matters which do not matter a twinkle to the eternal stars, +noon it far and secure until the time comes for the gentle villagers to +carry us out and forget us; remembering us again when the annual Day of +the Dead comes round. They will leave some comfortable candles above us +that night. + +There the earth is a warm and luscious body. The lazy paths are cool +with groves, and in the middle hours of the sun, when only a few +butterflies are abroad, and the grasshoppers are shrilling in the quiet, +you swing in a hammock under a thatch--the air has been through some +tree in blossom--and gossip, and drink coffee. Beyond the path of the +village there is--nobody knows what; not even the Royal Geographical +Society. One heard of a large and mysterious lake a day's journey +inland. Nobody knew anything about it. Nobody cared. One old man once, +when hunting, saw its mirror through the forest's aisles, and heard the +multitude of its birds. + +The foreshore of the village is rugged with boulders richly tinctured +with iron oxide, and often having a scoriaceous surface. There we would +land, and scramble up to a street which ends on the height above the +river. It is a broad road, with white, substantial, one-story houses on +either side. The dwellings and stores have no windows, but are built +with open fronts, for ventilation. This is Serpa's main street. It is +shaded with avenues of trees. In the narrower side turnings the trees +meet to form arcades. One day we saw such an avenue covered with yellow, +trumpet-shaped blossoms. Ox-carts with solid wheels stand in the walks. +The sunlight, broken in the leaves of the trees, patterned the roads +with white fire, and so dappled the cattle that they were obscure; you +saw the oxen only when they moved. There is a large square, grass-grown, +in the centre of the village, where stands the church, a white, simple +building with an open belfry in which the bell hangs plain, bright with +verdigris. About here the merchants and tradesmen of Serpa have their +places. The men, hearty and friendly souls, walk abroad in clean linen +suits and straw hats, and their ladies, pallid, slight, but often +singularly beautiful, are dressed as Europeans, but without hats; +sometimes, when out walking late in the day, a lady would have a scarlet +flower in her hair. + +By the foreshore were the cabins, of mud and wood, of the negroes. +Beyond the town, the roads run through the clearings, and end on the +forest. In the clearings were the huts, wattle and daub, and of leaves, +of the settled Indians and half-breeds. These were often prettily placed +beneath groups of graceful palms. It was in the last direction that most +often we made our way with our butterfly nets while other folk were +sleeping during the sun's height. The humid heat, I suppose, was really +a trial. One did perspire in an alarming way and with the least +exertion. The Doctor, who carries substance, would have dark patches in +his khaki uniform, and would wonder, with foreboding, whether any more +in this life he would catch hold of a cold jug which held a straight +pint in which ice tinkled. But to me the illumination, the heat, the +odour, and the quiethood of those noons made life a great prize. I will +say that my comrade, the Doctor, did much to make it so, with his gentle +fun, and his wide knowledge of earth-lore. There was so much, wherever +we went, to keep me on the magic side of time, and out of its shadow. On +the west of the town were some huts, with plantations of bananas, +pineapples, papaws, and maize, where blossomed cannas, mimosas, +passion-flowers, and where other unseen blooms, especially after rain, +made breathing a sensuous pleasure. There we tried to intercept the +swallow-like flight of big sulphur and orange butterflies, though never +with success. We had more success with the butterflies in the clearings, +where some new huts stood, beyond the village. Over the stagnant pools +in those open spaces dragonflies hovered, fellows that moved, when we +approached, like lines of red light. The butterflies, particularly a +vermilion beauty with black bars on his wings, and a swift flier, used +to settle and gem the mud about these pools. Other species frequented +the flowering shrubs which had grown over the burnt wreckage and stumps +of the forest. That area was full of insects and birds. There we saw +daily the Sauba ants, sometimes called the parasol ants, in endless +processions, each ant holding a piece of leaf, the size of a sixpenny +bit, over its tiny body. Tanagers shot amongst the bushes like blue +projectiles. We saw a ficus there on one occasion, of fair size, with +large leathery leaves, which carried a colony of remarkable +caterpillars, each about seven inches long, thick in proportion, blue +black in colour with yellow stripes, and a coral head, and filaments at +the latter end. They were pugnacious worms, fighting each other +desperately when two met on a leaf. The larv stripped that tree in a +day. We were not always sure that the people in this part of Serpa were +friendly. Mostly they were half-breeds, varying mixtures of Indian and +negro, and no doubt very superstitious. The rodent's foot was commonly +worn by the women, who, if we took notice of their children, sometimes +would spit, to avert the evil eye. But when the thunder clouds banked +close, and the air, being still, became loaded with the scent of the +wood fires of the villagers, promising rain, we would enter a hut, and +then always found we were welcome. + +Even when kept to the ship for any reason this country offered constant +new things to keep our thoughts moving. A regatao, the river pedlar, +would bring his roomy montario, the gipsy van of the river, his family +aboard--the wife, the grandmother, and the sad, shy, little +children--and offer us fruits, and perhaps his monkey and parrots. +Gradually the "Capella" added to her company. The Chief bought a parrot +which had many Indian and Portuguese phrases. It tried to climb a funnel +guy, in escaping the curiosity of our terrier, and fell into the river. +We fished her out with a bucket. The vampire bats came aboard every +night. They were not very terrible creatures to look at; but we +discovered they frequented the forecastle for no good purpose. Again, +stories filtered through to us of sickness on the Madeira, and abruptly +they gave the palms and the sunsets a new light. One man was brought in +from beyond and died of beri-beri. This shook the nerves of one of our +Brazilian pilots, and he refused to go beyond where we were. As for me, +there at Serpa the "Capella" was at anchor, and we were not near the +Madeira, and seemed never likely to go. I watched the sunsets. The +brief, cool evenings prompted me (fever in the future or not) to praise +and grace. Crickets chirped everywhere on the ship then, and the air was +full of the sparks of fireflies. You could smell this good earth. + +There was one sunset when the overspreading of violet clouds would have +shut out the day quite, but that the canopy was not closely adjusted to +the low barrier of forest to the westward. Through that narrow chink a +yellow light streamed, and traced shapes on the lurid walls and roof +which narrowly enclosed us. This was the beginning of the most alarming +of our daily electrical storms. There was no wind. Serpa and all the +coast facing that rift where the light entered our prison, stood +prominent and strange, and surprised us as much as if we had not looked +in that direction till then. The curtain dropped behind the forest, and +all light was shut out. We could not see across the ship. Knowing how +strong and bright could be the electrical discharges (though they were +rarely accompanied by thunder) when not heralded in so portentous a way, +we waited with some anxiety for this display to begin. It began over the +trees behind Serpa. Blue fire flickered low down, and was quickly +doused. Then a crack of light sprang across the inverted black bowl from +east to west in three quick movements. Its instant ramifications +fractured all the roof in a network of dazzling blue lines. The +reticulations of light were fleeting, but never gone. Night contracted +and expanded, and the sharp sounds, which were not like thunder, might +have been the tumbling flinders of night's roof. We saw not only the +river, and the shapes of the trees and the village, as in wavering +daylight, but their colours. One flash sheeted the heavens, and its +overbright glare extinguished everything. It came with an explosion, +like the firing of a great gun close to our ears, and for a time we +thought the ship was struck. In this effort the storm exhausted itself. + + * * * * * + +The day before we left for the Madeira we took aboard sixty head of +cattle. They were wild things, which had been collected in the campo +with great difficulty, and driven into lighters. A rope was dropped over +the horns of each beast: this was attached to a crane hook, the winch +was started, and up the poor wretch came, all its weight on its horns, +bumping inertly against the ship's side in its passage, like a bale, and +was then dumped in a heap on deck. This treatment seemed to subdue it. +Each quietly submitted to a halter. Several lost horns, and one hurt its +leg, and had to be dragged to its place. But, to our great joy--we were +watching the scene from the bridge--the Brazilian herdsmen on the +lighter shouted an anxious warning to their fellows on our deck as a +small black heifer, a potbellied lump with a stretched neck, rotated in +her unusual efforts to free her horns. She even bellowed. She bumped +heavily against the ship's side, and tried desperately to find her feet. +She was, and I offered up thanks for this benefit, most plainly an +implacable rebel. The cattlemen, as punishment for the trouble she had +given them ashore, kept her dangling over the deck, and one got level +with her face and mocked her, slapping her nose. She actually defied +him, though she was quite helpless, with some minatory sounds. She was +no cow. She was insurrection, she was the hate for tyrants incarnated. +They dropped her. She was up and away like a cat, straight for the +winchman, and tried to get the winch out of her path, bellowing as she +worked. She put everybody on that deck in the shrouds or on the +forecastle head as she trotted round, with her tail up, looking for +brutes to put them to death. None of the cows (of course) helped her. By +a trick she was caught, and her horns were lashed down to a ring bolt in +a hatch coaming. Then she tried to kick all who passed. If the rest of +the cattle had been like her none would have suffered. Alas! They were +probably all scientific evolutionists, content to wait for men to become +kindly apple-lovers by slow and natural uplift; and gravely deprecated +the action of the heifer, from which, as peaceful cows, they +disassociated themselves. + +The Indian says that if he eats a morsel of tiger he becomes fierce and +strong. I have not the faith of the Indian, or I would have begged the +heart of that heifer, and of it I would have brewed gallons of precious +liquor, and brought it home in jars for incomparable gifts to the meek +at heart who always do what the herdsmen tell them. The Doctor and I +made a pet of that black cow, to the extent of seeing she got her +rations regularly. It was no joke wading through manure among a press of +nervous animals on a ship's deck in the tropics, in order to see that a +brave creature was justly dealt with; particularly as she swore +violently whenever she saw us, looking up from her tightly tethered head +with eyes full of unabated fury, and tried to get at us on the hatch +above her, bound though she was. What a heart! For her head was fixed +immovably, unlike the others; yet, till we arrived at Porto Velho she +kept her fierce spirit, often kicking over her water bucket with her +forefeet. Curse their charity! + +With two new pilots, we upanchored next morning; and full of cattle, +flies, and new odours, and a gang of cattlemen who at least appeared +villainous, and carried long knives, the "Capella" continued up stream +for the Madeira. The cattle were sheltered, as far as possible, with +awnings improvised from spare canvas, and their fodder was bales of +American hay. The Skipper did his best to meliorate the harsh native +methods with dumb things. + +And now it seems time to explain why we are bound for the centre of the +American continent, where the unexplored jungle still persists, and +disease or death, so the legends tell us, come to all white men who stay +there for but a few months. If you will get your map of the Brazils, +begin from Para, and cruise along the Amazon to the Madeira River--you +turn south just before Manaos--when you have reached Santo Antonio on +the tributary stream you have traversed the ultimate wilderness of a +continent, and stand on the threshold of Bolivia, almost under the +shadow of the Andes. If you find any pleasure in maps, flying in shoes +of that kind when affairs pursue you too urgently (and I suppose you do, +or you would not be so far into this narrative), you will hardly thank +me when I tell you it is possible for an ocean steamer exceeding 23 feet +in draught to make such a journey, and so break the romance of the +obscure place at the end of it. But it must be said. Even one who +travels for fun should keep to the truth in the matter of a ship's +draught. As a reasonable being you would prefer to believe the map; and +that clearly shows the only way there (when the chance comes for you to +take it) must be by canoe, a long and arduous journey to a seclusion +remote, and so the more deeply desired. It certainly hurts our faith in +a favourite chart to find that its well-defined seaboard is no barrier +to modern traffic, but that, journeying over those pink and yellow +inland areas, which should have no traffic with great ships, a large +cargo steamer, full of Welsh coal, can come to an anchorage, still with +many fathoms under her, at a point where the cartographer, for lack of +place-names and other humane symbols, has set the word Forest, with the +letters spread widely to the full extent of his ignorance, and so +promised us sanctuary in plenty. I suppose that in a few years those +remote wilds, somehow cleared of Indians, jungle, and malaria--though I +do not see how all this can be done--will have no further interest for +us, because it will possess many of the common disadvantages of +civilisation's benefits: it will be a point on a regular route of +commerce. I am really sorry for you; but in the sad and cruel code of +the sailor I can only reply as Jack did when he got the sole rag of beef +in the hash, "Blow you, Bill. I'm all right." I had the fortune to go +when the route was still much as it was in the first chapter of Genesis. +"But after all," you question me, hopeful yet, "nothing can be done with +5000 tons of Welsh cargo in a jungle." + +People with the nose for dollars can do wonders. It would be unwise to +back such a doughty opponent as the pristine jungle with its malaria +against people who smell money there. In the early 'seventies there was +a man with one idea, Colonel George Church. His idea was to give to +Bolivia, which the Andes shuts out from the Pacific, and two thousand +miles of virgin forest from the Atlantic, a door communicating with the +outside world. He said, for he was an enthusiast, that Bolivia is the +richest country in the world. The mines of Potosi are in Bolivia. Its +mountains rise from fertile tropical plains to Arctic altitudes. The +rubber tree grows below, and a climate for barley is found in a few +days' journey towards the sky. But the riches of Bolivia are locked up. +Small parcels of precious goods may be got out over the Andean barrier, +on mule back; or they may dribble in a thin stream down the Beni, +Mamor, and Madre de Dios rivers--rivers which unite not far from the +Brazilian boundary to form the Rio Madeira. The Beni is a very great and +deep river which has a course of 1500 miles before it contributes its +volume to the Madeira. The Rio Madeira, a broad and deep stream in the +rainy season, reaches the Amazon in another 1100 miles. But between +Guajara-Merim and San Antonio the Madeira comes down a terrace 250 miles +in length of nineteen dangerous cataracts. The Bolivian rubber +collectors shoot those rapids in their batelaoes, large vessels carrying +sometimes ten tons of produce and a crew of a dozen men, when the river +is full. Many are overturned, and the produce and the men are lost. The +Madeira traverses a country notorious even on the Amazon for its fever, +and quite unexplored a mile inland anywhere on its banks; the rubber +hunters, too, have to reckon with wandering tribes of hostile Indians. + +The country is like that to-day. Then judge its value for a railway +route in the early 'seventies. But Colonel Church was a New Englander, +and again he was a visionary, so therefore most energetic and +compelling; he soon persuaded the practical business folk, who seldom +know much, and are at the mercy of every eloquent dreamer, to part with +a lot of money to buy his Bolivian dream. We do really find the Colonel, +on 1st November 1871, solemnly cutting the first sod of a railway in the +presence of a party of Indians, with the wild about him which had +persisted from the beginning of things. What the Indians thought of it +is not recorded. Anyhow, they seem to have humoured the infatuated man +who stopped to cut a square of grass in the land of the Parentintins, +the men who go stark naked, and make musical instruments out of the shin +bones of their victims. + +An English company of engineering contractors was given the job of +building the line, and a small schooner, the "Silver Spray," went up to +San Antonio with materials in 1872. Her captain, and some of her +officers, died on the way. A year later the contractors confessed utter +defeat. The jungle had won. They declared that "the country was a +charnel-house, their men dying like flies, that the road ran through an +inhospitable wilderness of alternating swamp and porphyry ridges, and +that, with the command of all the capital in the world, and half its +population, it would be impossible to build the road." (There is a +quality of bitterness in their vehement hate which I recognise. I heard +the same emotional chord expressed concerning that land, though not +because of failure there, only two years ago.) + +But the Bank of England held a large sum in trust for the pursuance of +this enterprise, and after the lawyers had attended to the trust money +in long debate in Chancery, there was yet enough of it left to justify +the indefatigable colonel in beginning the railway again. That was in +1876. Messrs. Collins, of Philadelphia, obtained the contract. The road, +of metre gauge, was to be built in three years. The matter excited the +United States into a wonderful attention. The press there went slightly +delirious, and the excited _Eagle_ was advised that "two Philadelphians +are to overcome the Madeira rapids, and to open up to the world a land +as fair as the Garden of the Lord." The little steamer "Mercedita," of +856 tons, with 54 engineers and material, was despatched to San Antonio +on 2nd January 1878. Her departure was made an important national +occasion, and it is an historic fact, which may be confirmed by a +reference to the files of Philadelphian papers of that date, that strong +men, as well as women and children, sobbed aloud on the departure of the +steamer. The vessel arrived at San Antonio on the 16th February. They +had barely started operations when, so they said, a Brazilian official +told them, betraying some feeling, "when the English came here they did +nothing but smoke and drink for two days, but Americans work like the +devil." Yet, by all accounts, the English method was right. I prefer it, +on the Amazon. The preface to work there should be extended to three or +even more days of drinking and smoking. + +Yet it must be said that if ever men should have honour for holding to a +duty when it was far more easy, and even more reasonable, to leave it, +then I submit the claim of those American engineers. Having lived in the +place where many of them died, and knowing their story, I feel a certain +kinship. There is no monument to them. No epic has been written of their +tragedy. But their story is, I should think, one of the saddest in the +annals of commerce. Of the 941 who left for San Antonio at different +times, 221 lost their lives, mostly of disease, though 80 perished in +the wreck of a transport ship. That is far higher a mortality rate than +that of, say, the South African or the American Civil War. + +Few of those men appeared to know the tropics. They thought "the +tropics" meant only prodigal largess of fruits and sun and a wide +latitude of life--a common mistake. The enterprise became a lingering +disaster. Their state was already bad when a supply ship was lost; and +they hopefully waited, ill and starving, but with a gallant mockery of +their lot, as their letters and diaries attest, for food and medicine +which were not to reach them. The doctors continued the daily round of +the host of the fever-stricken, giving them quinine, which was a deceit +made of flour. The wages of all ceased for legal reasons, and they were +in a place where little is cultivated, and so most food has to be +imported in spite of a tariff which usually doubles the price of every +necessary of life. Some of the survivors, despairing and heroic souls, +attempted to escape on rafts down the river; they might as well have +tried to cut their way through the thousand miles of forest between them +and Manaos. The railway undertaking collapsed again, and the clearing, +the huts, and the workshops, and the short line that was actually laid, +were left for the vines and weeds to bury. But now again the conquering +forest is being attacked. The Madeira-Mamor Railway has been +recommenced, and our steamer, the "Capella," is taking up supplies for +the establishment at Porto Velho, from which the new railway begins, +three miles this side of San Antonio. + + + + +III + + +On the morning of the 23rd January, while we were still considering, +seeing what the sun was like, and the languid air, and that we were +reduced to tinned beans, fat bacon, and butter which was oil and flies, +whether it was worth while to note our breakfast bell--the steward stood +swinging it, with the gravity of a priest, under the break of the +poop--a shout came from the bridge that the Rio Madeira was in view. + +As far back as Swansea we had heard legends of this stream, and they +were sufficiently disturbing. When we arrived at Para we heard more, and +worse. The pilot we engaged there called the Madeira the "long +cemetery." At Serpa, for the first time, we saw what happened to frail +humanity when it ventured far on the Madeira. One day a river steamer +came to Serpa, with a cargo of men from San Antonio. The river steamers +of the Amazon are vessels of broad beam and shallow draft, painted the +dingy hue of the river itself, and they have two tiers of decks, +open-air shelves, between the supports of which the passengers sling +their hammocks. The passengers do not sleep in bunks. This paddleboat +came throbbing towards where we were at anchor. It was night, and she +was unseen, a palpitation in the dark accompanied somehow by a fountain +of sparks. Such boats burn wood in their furnaces. When her noise had +ceased, and her lights imperceptibly enlarged as the current dropped her +down abeam of us, a breath of her, a draught of air, passed our way. I +am more familiar now with the odour malaria causes, but then I thought +she must have a freight of the dead. She anchored. We could see her +loaded hammocks in the light of the few lamps she carried. Through the +binoculars next morning I inspected with peculiar interest the row of +cadaverous heads, with black tousled hair, lemon-coloured skins, open +mouths and vacant eyes, which stared at us over her rails. Each looked +as though once it had peered into the eyes of doom, and then was but +waiting, caring nothing. + +There, ahead, was the Madeira now for us. We were then nearly a thousand +miles from the sea, well within South America. But that meeting-place of +the Amazon and its chief tributary was an expanse of water surprising in +its immensity. As much light was reflected from the floor as at sea. The +water was oceanic in amplitude. The forest boundaries were so far away +that one could not realise, even when the time we had been on the river +was remembered as a prolonged monotony, that this was the centre of a +continent. The forest on our port side was near enough for us to see its +limbs and its vines; but to the south-west, where we were heading for +Bolivia, and to the north, the way to the Guianas, and to the east, out +of which we had come, and to the west, where was Peru, the land was but +a low violet barrier, varying in altitude with distance, and with silver +sections in it, marking the river roads. In the north-west there was a +broad silver path through the wall, the way to the Rio Negro, Manaos, +and the Orinoco. In the south the near forest, being flooded, was a +puzzle of islands. As we progressed they opened out as a line of green +headlands. The Madeira appeared to have three widely separated mouths, +with a complexity of intermediate and connective minor ditches. Indeed, +the gate of the river was a region of inundated jungle. One began to +understand why travellers here sometimes find themselves on the wrong +river. + +Our bows turned in to the forest wall, and for a few minutes I could not +see any way for us there. The jungle parted, and we were on a narrow +turgid flood, the colour of the main river, but swifter; a majestic +forest was near to either beam. We were enclosed. And after we entered +the Madeira my dark thoughts of our future at once left me. If they +returned, it was only to be joked about, in the dry way one does refer +to a dread that has been long in the distance, and then one day takes +shape, becomes material, and settles down with us. Its form, as you +know, nearly always allays your alarms. Your simple mind has expected +something with the lowering face of evil. Lo! evil has even bright eyes. +Its nature, its dark craft which you have dreaded, is not seen, and your +mind grows light with surprise. What, only this, then? + +I never saw earth look more resplendent and chromatic than on the day +when we entered that river with a bad name. Presently, I thought--here +was a brief resurgence of the old gloom which had shrouded my +conjectural Madeira--I might be called upon to pay the price for this +surprising gift of intense colour, light, and luscious heat, for the +quickening of the blood, as though the tropic air were a stimulant as +well as a narcotic. Well, it does seem but fair, if chance, being happy, +gives you a place in the tropics, to expect to have less time there than +is given for the job of eking out a meagre existence in the north. It +would not be right to look for gain both ways. (You will have noticed +already, I suppose, that I have not been on the Madeira fifteen +minutes.) This, I thought, as I walked to and fro on the "Capella," is +different from that endurance, bitter and prolonged, in the land where +there is no sun worth mentioning, where the north-east wind blows, where +the poor rate is so and so in the pound (and you are one of the +fortunate if you pay it), and Lord Rosebery lectures on Thrift. I +mentioned this to the Doctor. He did not remove his pipe from his mouth. + +Because (the idea dawned on me as I sank into a deck chair beside the +surgeon under the poop awning, and borrowed his silver tobacco-box), +because, as to thrift and parching winds, abstinence and prudence, and +lectures by the solemn on how to thin out your life in cold climates +where all that is worth having is annexed, why praise a man who is +willing to deprave his life to sand and frost? There in merry England +the poor wretch is, where the riches of earth are not broadcast largess +as I see they are here, but are stacked on each side of the road, and +guarded by police, leaving to him but the inclement highway, with +nothing but Lord Rosebery's advice and benediction to help him keep the +wind out of the holes in his trousers; that benefit, and the bleak +consideration that he may swink all day for a handful of beans, or go +without. What is prudence in that man? It is his goodwill for the +police. To be blue nosed and meek at heart, and to hoard half the crust +of your stinted bread, is to blaspheme the King of Glory. Some men will +touch their crowns to Carnegie in heaven. + +Thrift and abstinence! They began to look the most snivelling of sins as +I watched, with spacious leisure, the near procession of gigantic trees, +that superb wild which did not arise from such niggard and flinty +maxims. Frugality and prudence! That is to regard the means to death in +life, the pallor and projecting bones of a warped existence, as good men +dwell on courage, motherhood, rebellion, and May time, and the other +proofs of vitality and growth. Now, I thought, I see what to do. All +those improving lectures, reform leagues, university settlements, labour +exchanges, and other props for crippled humanity, are idle. It is a +generative idea that is wanted, a revelation, a vision. It would be +easier and quicker to take regiments of folk out of Ancoats, Hanley, +Bethnal Green, and the cottages of the countryside, for one long glance +at the kind of earth I see now. The world would expand as they looked. +They would get the dynamic suggestion. In vain, afterwards, would the +monopolists and the superior persons chant patriotic verse to drown the +noise of chain forging at the Westminster foundry. Not the least good, +that. The folk would not hear. Their minds would be absent and outward, +not locked within to huddle with cramped and respectful thoughts. They +would not start instinctively at the word of command. They would begin +with dignity and assurance to compass their own affairs, and in an +enormous way; and they would make hardly a sound as they moved forward, +and they would have uplifted and shining eyes. ("Then you think more of +'em than I do," said the surgeon.) + +It would be no use, I saw clearly, sending the folk to Algeria, Egypt, +or New York. Such places never betray to the traveller that our world is +not a shapeless parcel of fields and buildings, tied up with bylaws, and +sealed by the Grand Lama as his last act in the stupendous work of +creation. There it is, an angular package in the sky, which the sun +reads, and directs on its way to heaven in advance of its limited +syndicate of proprietors. + +Here on the Madeira I had a vision instead of the earth as a great and +shining sphere. There were no fences and private bounds. I saw for the +first time an horizon as an arc suggesting how wide is our ambit. That +bare shoulder of the world effaced regions and constellations in the +sky. Our earth had celestial magnitude. It was warm, a living body. The +abundant rain was vital, and the forest I saw, nobler in stature and +with an aspect of intensity beyond what the Amazon forests showed, rose +like a sign of life triumphant. + +You see what that tropical wilderness did for me, and with but a single +glance. Whatever comes after, I shall never be the same again. The +complacent length of the ship was before us. Amidships were some of the +fellows staring overside, absorbed. Now and then, when his beat brought +him to the port side, I could see the head of the little pilot on the +bridge. His colleague was sleeping in one of the hammocks slung between +the stanchions of the poop awning. The Doctor was scrutinising a pair of +motuca flies which hovered about his ankles, waiting for him to go to +sleep. He wanted them for specimens. The Skipper, looking a little +anxious, came slowly up the poop ladder, crossed over, and stood by our +chairs. "The river is full of big timber," he said. He went to stare +overside, and then came back to us. "The current is about five knots, +and those trees adrift are as big as barges. I hope they keep clear of +the propeller." The Skipper's eye was uneasy. He was glum with +suspicion; he spoke of the way his fools might meet the wiles of fortune +at a time when he was below and his ship was without its acute +protective intelligence. He stood, a spare figure in white, in a limp +grass hat with flapping eaves, gazing forward to the bridge +mistrustfully. He had brought us in a valuable vessel to a place +unknown, and now he had to go on, and afterwards get us all out again. I +began to feel a large respect for this elderly master mariner (who did +not give the beard of an onion for any man's sympathy) who had skilfully +contrived to put us where we were, and now was unaware what mischance +would send us to rot under the forest wall, the bottom to fall out of +our adventure just when we were in its narrowest passage and achievement +was almost within view. "This is no place for a ship," the captain +mumbled. "It isn't right. We're disturbing the mud all the time; and +look at those butterflies now, dodging about us!" He was continuing this +monologue as a dirty cap appeared at the head of the ladder, and a long +and ragged length of sorrowful sailor mounted there, and doffed the cap. +The Skipper brusquely signed to him to approach. He was a youngster in +an advanced stage of some trouble, and he had no English. I think he was +a Swede. He demonstrated his sickness, baring his arm, muttering +unintelligibly. The limb, like his hand, was distorted with large +blisters. There was his face, too. I mistrusted my equanimity for some +moments, but braced my eyes, compelling them to be scientific and +impersonal. By signs we gathered he had been sleeping on deck, such was +the heat of the forecastle, and the mosquitoes, the Doctor said, had +poisoned a body already tainted from the stews of Rotterdam. The +corroding spirit of the jungle was beginning to permeate through our +flaws. + +The Doctor went to his surgery. The pilot sat up in his hammock, glanced +indifferently at the sick sailor, yawning and stretching his arms, his +dainty little brown feet dangling just clear of the deck. He began to +roll a cigarette of something which looked like tea. Then he dropped +out, and went forward to release his mate on the bridge, and the senior +pilot came up as the Doctor had finished his job. The junior pilot, a +fragile, girlish fellow, rather taciturn, greets us always with a +faintly supercilious smile. His chief is a round, jolly little man, +hearty, and lavish with ornamental gestures. We both smiled +involuntarily as he marched across to us, with his uniform cap, bearing +our ship's badge, stuck on the back of his head with a bias to the right +ear. There is not enough of Portuguese in our ship's company to serve +one conversation adequately, but we get on well with this pilot, and he +with us. He sits in a hammock, making pantomime explanatory of Brazil to +us strangers, and we pick him up with alacrity, after but brief pauses. +While the Doctor beguiled him into dramatic moments, I lay back and +watched him, searching for Brazilian characteristics, to report here. + +You know that, when you have returned from a far country, you are asked +unanswerable questions about its people, and especially about its women. +We are easily flattered by the suggestion that we are authoritative, +with opinions got from uncommon experience, especially where women with +strange eyes and dark skins are concerned. So, once upon a time, I +caught myself--or rather, I caught that cold, critical, and impartial +part of me, which is a solemn fake--when answering a question of this +kind, explaining in a comprehensive way the character of the Brazilian +people, as though I were telling of the objective phenomena of one +simple soul. Presently the wise and ribald part of me woke, caught the +note of that inhuman voice, and raised a derisive cry, heard by me with +grave deprecation, but not heard at all by my listener. I stopped. For +what do I know of the Brazilian character? Very little. Is there such a +thing? I suppose the true Brazilian is like the true Englishman, or the +typical bird which is known by its bones, but may be anything from a +crow to a nightingale, but is more likely a lark. You can imagine the +foreigner taking his knowledge of the British pick-pocket who met him at +the landing-stage, the pen-portraits of Bernard Shaw, the Rev. Jeremiah +Hardshell, Father O'Flynn, You, Me, the cabman who swore at him, his +landlady and her daughter, Lloyd-George, Piccadilly by night, and Tom +Bowling, carefully adjusting all that valuable British data, just as +Professor Karl Pearson does his physical statistics, and explaining the +result as the modern English; adding, in the usual footnote, what +decadent tendencies are to be deduced, in addition, from the facts which +could not be worked into the major premises. + +Now, there was the handsome Brazilian customs officer, tall, august, +with dark eyes haughty and slow with thought, the waves of his romantic +black hair faintly traced in silver, who might have been a poet, or a +philosophic revolutionist; but who was the man, as the first mate told +us (after we had searched everywhere for the articles) who "pinched your +bloomin' field-glasses and my meerschaum." + +Take, if you like, the ultra-fashionable ladies at the Para hotel, who +looked at us with sleepy eyes, and who, I suspect, were not Brazilians +at all. Supposing they were, there must be counted the wife of the +official at Serpa. She came aboard there with her husband to see an +English ship; she reminded me of that picture of the Madonna by +Sassoferrato in the National Gallery; I am unable to come nearer to +justice to her than that. Again, there was a certain vain native +apothecary, and he had the idea that I was bottle-washer to the +"Capella's" surgeon, much to that fellow's secret delight. The chemist +treated me with a studied difference in consequence; and though our +surgeon could have undeceived the mistaken man, having some Portuguese, +he refused to do so. I remember the pilot who, when he left us at Serpa, +and I bade him farewell, did, before all our ship's company, embrace me +heartily, rest his cheek against mine, and make loving noises in his +throat. And there is our present chief guide, now swinging in his +hammock, and looking down upon us waggishly. + +He had not been a pilot always. Once he was a clown in a circus; that +little fact is a clue to much which otherwise would have been obscure in +him. When he boarded us at Serpa to take the place of the man who shrank +from the thought of the Madeira, the chart-room under the bridge was +given to him, and as the mate put it, "he moved in." He had bundles, +boxes, bags, baskets, a tin trunk, a chair, a parrot, a hammock, and +some pictures. He was going to be with us for two months, but his affair +had the conclusive character of a migration, a final severance from his +old life. His friends came to see him depart, and they wound themselves +in each others arms, head laid in resignation on shoulders. "Looks as if +we're bound for the Golden Shore," commented the boatswain. + +This little rounded man, the pilot, with his unctuous olive skin, tiny +moustache of black silk, and impudent eyes, looked ripe in middle age, +though actually he was but thirty. He wore a suit of azure cotton, +ironed faultlessly, and his tunic fitted with hooks and eyes across his +throat. His boots were sulphur coloured and Parisian. A massive gold +ring, which carried a carbonado nearly as large as the stopper of a beer +bottle, was embedded in a fat finger of his right hand. In the front of +his cap he had sewn the badge of our line, and he was curiously proud of +that gaudy symbol. He would wear the cap on one ear, and walk up and +down in display, with a lofty smile, and a carriage supposed to +appertain to a British officer in a grand moment. He had a great +admiration for all that was British, except our food. If you were up at +sunrise you could see him at his toilet, and the spectacle was worth the +effort. His array of toilet vesicles reminded me of the shelves in a +barber's shop. Oiled and fragrant, he took his seat for breakfast with +much formal politeness. He shook our saloon company into a sense of its +responsibilities, for we had grown indifferent as to dress, and +sometimes we had three-day beards. His handkerchiefs and linen were +scented, and dainty with floral designs. And ours--oh, ours--! He took +wine at breakfast, and after idling a little with our foreign dishes he +would wipe his mouth on our tablecloth, and then leave for the bridge. +As he passed across the poop we would hear him hawk violently, and spit +on the deck. Then the Skipper would glare, and drive his chair backwards +in a dark passion. + + * * * * * + +Gazing at the foliage as it unfolded, our pilot named the paranas, +tributaries, and islands, when they drew abeam. He told us what the +trees were; and then with head shakes and uplifted hands and eyes, +indicated what grave things were behind that screen of leaves. (Though I +don't suppose he knew.) His mimicry was so spontaneous and exact that it +was more entertaining and just as instructive as speech. He taught us +how the Indians kill you, and what some villagers did to a naughty +padre, and how the sucuruju swallows a deer, and how to make love to a +Brazilian girl. He kicked the slippers from his little feet, and +smuggled into the hammock mesh for a snooze, waving a hand coyly to us +over the edge of his nest. + +The dinner bell rang. Because the saloon is now hot beyond endurance, +the steward has fixed a table on deck, and so, as we eat, we can see the +jungle pass. That keeps some of our mind from dwelling over much on the +dreary menu. The potatoes have begun to ferment. The meat is out of +tins; sometimes it is served as fritters, sometimes we recognise it in a +hash, and sometimes, shameless, it appears without dress, a naked and +shiny lump straight from its metal bed. Often the bread is sour. The +butter, too, is out of tins. Feeding is not a joy, but a duty. But it is +soon over. Although everybody now complains of indigestion, we have far +to go yet, and the cheerfulness which faces all circumstances brazenly +must be our manna. Our table, some deal planks on trestles, is mellowed +by a white tablecloth. We sit round on boxes. Over head the sun flames +on the awning, making it golden and translucent. I let the soup pass. +The next dish is a hot pot of tinned mutton and preserved vegetables. +Something must be done, and I do it then. There is some pickled beef and +pickled onions. I watch the forest pass. Then, for desert, the steward, +the hot beads touring about the mounts of his large pale face, brings +along oleaginous fritters of plum duff. The Doctor leaves. I follow him +to the chairs again, and we exchange tobacco-boxes and fill our pipes. +This may seem to you unendurable for long. I did not think so, though of +habits so regular and engrained that my chances of survival, when viewed +comparatively, for my ship mates were hardened and usually were more +robust, seemed poor enough. But I enjoyed it. There was nourishment, a +tonic stay, in our desire to greet every onset of the miseries, which +now were camped about us, besieging our souls, with sansculotte +insolence. We called to the Eumenides with mockery. Like Thoreau, I +believe I could live on a tenpenny nail, if it comes to that. + +There is no doubt the forest influences our moods in a way you at home +could not understand. Our minds take its light and shade, and just as +our little company, gathered in the Chief's room at a time when the seas +were running high, recalled sombre legends which told of foredoom, so +this forest, an intrusive presence which is with us morning, noon, and +night, voiceless, or making such sounds as we know are not for our ears, +now shadows us, the prescience of destiny, as though an eyeless mask sat +at table with us, a being which could tell us what we would know, but +though it stays, makes no sign. + +This forest, since we entered the Para River, now a thousand miles away, +has not ceased. There have been the clearings of the settlements from +Para inwards; but as Spruce says in his Journal, those clearings and +campos alter the forest of the Amazon no more than would the culling of +a few weeds alter the aspect of an English cornfield. The few openings I +have seen in the forest do not derange my clear consciousness of a +limitless ocean of leaves, its deep billows of foliage rolling down to +the only paths there are in this country, the rivers, and there +overhanging, arrested in collapse. There is no land. One must travel by +boat from one settlement to another. The settlements are but islands, +narrow foot-holds, widely sundered by vast gulfs of jungle. + +The forest of the Amazons is not merely trees and shrubs. It is not +land. It is another element. Its inhabitants are arborean; they have +been fashioned for life in that medium as fishes to the sea and birds to +the air. Its green apparition is persistent, as the sky is and the +ocean. In months of travel it is the horizon which the traveller cannot +reach, and its unchanging surface, merged through distance into a mere +reflector of the day, a brightness or a gloom, in his immediate vicinity +breaks into a complexity of green surges; then one day the voyager sees +land at last and is released from it. But we have not seen land since +Serpa. There are men whose lives are spent in the chasms of light where +the rivers are sunk in the dominant element, but who never venture +within its green surface, just as one would not go beneath the waves to +walk in the twilight of the sea bottom. + +Now I have been watching it for so long I see the outer aspect of the +jungles does vary. When I saw it first on the Para River it appeared to +my wondering eyes but featureless green cliffs. Then in the Narrows +beyond Para I remember an impression of elegance and placidity, for +there, the waters still being tidal and saline, the palms were +conspicuous and in profuse abundance. The great palms are the chief +feature of that forest elevation, with their graceful columns, and their +generous and symmetrical fronds which sometimes are like gigantic green +feathers, and again are like fans. A tall palm, whatever its species, +being a definite expression of life--not an agglomeration of leaves, but +body and crown, a real personality--the forest of the Narrows, populous +with such exquisite beings, had marges of straight ascending lines and +flourishing and geometrical crests. + +Beyond the river Xingu, on the main stream, the forest, persistent as a +presence, again changed its aspect. It was ragged and shapeless, an +impenetrable tangle, its front strewn with fallen trees, the vision of +outer desolation. By Obydos it was more aerial and shapely again, but +not of that light and soaring grace of the Narrows. It was contained, +yet mounted not in straight lines, as in the country of the palms, but +in convex masses. Here on the lower Madeira the forest seems of a nature +intermediate between the rolling structure of the growth by Obydos, and +the grace of the palm groves in the estuarine region of the Narrows. It +is barbaric and splendid, easily prodigal with illimitable riches, +sinking the river beneath a wealth of forms. + +On the Madeira, as elsewhere in the world of the Amazons, some of the +forest is on "terra-firma," as that land is called which is not flooded +when the waters rise. There the trees reach their greatest altitude and +diameter; it is the region of the caapoam, the "great woods" of the +Indians. A stretch of _terra firma_ shows as a low, vertical bank of +clay, a narrow ribbon of yellow earth dividing the water from the +jungle. More rarely the river cuts a section through some undulating +heights of red conglomerate--heights I call these cliffs, as heights +they are in this flat country, though at home they would attract no more +attention than would the side of a gravel-pit--and again the bank may be +of that cherry and saffron clay which gives a name to Itacoatiara. On +such land the forest of the Madeira is immense, three or four species +among the greater trees lording it in the green tumult expansively, +always conspicuous where they stand, their huge boles showing in the +verdant faade of the jungle as grey and brown pilasters, their crowns +rising above the level roof of the forest in definite cupolas. There is +one, having a neat and compact dome and a grey, smooth, and rounded +trunk, and dense foliage as dark as that of the holm oak; and another, +resembling it, but with a flattened and somewhat disrupted dome. I +guessed these two giants to be silk-cottons. Another, which I supposed +to be of the leguminous order, had a silvery bole, and a texture of pale +green leafage open and light, which at a distance resembled that of the +birch. These three trees, when assembled and well grown, made most +stately riverside groups. The trunks were smooth and bare till somewhere +near ninety feet from the ground. Palms were intermediate, filling the +spaces between them, but the palms stood under the exogens, growing in +alcoves of the mass, rising no higher than the beginning of the branches +and foliage of their lords. The whole overhanging superstructure of the +forest--not a window, an inlet, anywhere there--was rolling clouds of +leaves from the lower rims of which vines were catenary, looping from +one green cloud to another, or pendent, like the sundered cordage of a +ship's rigging. Two other trees were frequent, the pao mulatto, with +limbs so dark as to look black, and the castanheiro, the Brazil nut +tree. + +The roof of the woods lowered when we were steaming past the igapo. The +igapo, or aqueous jungle, through which the waters go deeply for some +months of the year, is of a different character, and perhaps of a lesser +height--it seems less; but then it grows on lower ground. I was told to +note that its foliage is of a lighter green, but I cannot say I saw +that. It is in the igapo that the Hevea Braziliensis flourishes, its +pale bole, suggestive of the white poplar, deep in water for much of the +year, and its crown sheltered by its greater neighbours, so that it +grows in a still, heated, and humid twilight. This low ground is always +marked by growths of small cecropia trees. These, with their white +stems, their habit of free and regular branching, and their long leaves, +digital in the manner of the horse-chestnut, have the appearance of +great candelabra. Sometimes the igapo is prefaced by an area of cane. +The numberless islands, being of recent formation, have a forest of a +different nature, and they seldom carry the larger trees. The upper ends +of many of the islands terminate in sandy pits, where dwarf willows +grow. So foreign was the rest of the vegetation, that notwithstanding +its volume and intricacy, I detected those humble little willows at +once, as one would start surprised at an English word heard in the +meaningless uproar of an alien multitude. + +The forest absorbed us; as one's attention would be challenged and drawn +by the casual regard, never noticeably direct, but never withdrawn, of a +being superior and mysterious, so I was drawn to watch the still and +intent stature of the jungle, waiting for it to become vocal, for some +relaxing of its static form. Nothing ever happened. I never discovered +it. Rigid, watchful, enigmatic, its presence was constant, but without +so much as one blossom in all its green vacuity to show the least +friendly familiarity to one who had found flowers and woodlands kind. It +had nothing that I knew. It remained securely aloof and indifferent, +till I thought hostility was implied, as the sea implies its impartial +hostility, in a constant presence which experience could not fathom, nor +interest soften, nor courage intimidate. We sank gradually deeper +inwards towards its central fastnesses. + +By noon on our first day on the Madeira we reached the village of +Rozarinho, which is on the left bank, with the tributary of the same +name a little more up stream, but entering from the other side. Here, as +we followed a loop of the stream, the Madeira seemed circumscribed, a +tranquil lake. The yellow water, though swift, had so polished a surface +that the reflections of the forest were hardly disturbed, sinking below +the tops of the inverted trees to the ultimate clouds, giving an +illusion of profundity to the apparent lake. The village was but a +handful of leaf huts grouped about the nucleus of one or two larger +buildings with white walls. There was the usual jetty of a few planks to +which some canoes were tied. The forest was a high background to those +diminished huts; the latter, as we came upon them, suddenly increased +the height of the trees. + +In another place the shelter of a family of Indians was at the top of a +bank, secretive within the base of the woods. A row of chocolate babies +stood outside that nest, with four jabiru storks among them. Each bird, +so much taller than the babies, stood resting meditatively on one leg, +as though waiting the order to take up an infant and deliver it +somewhere. None of them, storks or infants, took the least notice of us. +Perhaps the time had not yet come for them to be aware of mundane +things. Certainly I had a feeling myself, so strange was the place, and +quiet and tranquil the day, that we had passed world's end, and that +what we saw beyond our steamer was the coloured stuff of dreams which, +if a wind blew, would wreathe and clear; vanish, and leave a shining +void. The sunset deepened this apprehension. There came a wonderful sky +of orange and mauve. It was over us and came down and under the ship. We +moved with glowing clouds beneath our keel. There was no river; the +forest girdled the radiant interior of a hollow sphere. + +The pilots could not proceed at night. Shortly after sundown we +anchored, in nine fathoms. The trees were not many yards from the +steamer. When the ship was at rest a canoe with two Indians came +alongside, with a basket of guavas. They were shy fellows, and each +carried in his hand a bright machete, for they did not seem quite sure +of our company. After tea we sat about the poop, trying to smoke, and, +in the case of the Doctor and the Purser, wearing at the same time veils +of butterfly nets, as protection from the mosquito swarms. The netting +was put over the helmet, and tucked into the neck of the tunic. Yet, +when I poked the stem of the pipe, which carried the gauze with it, into +my mouth, the veil was drawn tight on the face. A mosquito jumped to the +opportunity, and arrived. Alongside, the frogs were making the deafening +clangour of an iron foundry, and through that sound shrilled the +cicadas. I listened for the first time to the din of a tropical night in +the forest. There is no word strong enough to convey this uproar to ears +which have not listened to it. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 24._ A bright still sunrise, promising heat; and before breakfast +the ship's ironwork was too hot to touch. The novelty of this Madeira is +already beginning to merge into the yellow of the river, the blue of the +sky, and the green of the jungle, with but the occasional variation of +low roseous cliffs. The average width of the river may be less than a +quarter of a mile. It is loaded with floating timber, launched upon it +by "terras-cahidas," landslides, caused by the rains, which carry away +sections of the forest each large enough to furnish an English park with +trees. Sometimes we see a bight in the bank where such a collapse has +only recently occurred, the wreckage of trees being still fresh. Many of +the trees which charge down on the current are of great bulk, with half +their table-like base high out of the water. Occasionally rafts of them +appear, locked with creepers, and bearing flourishing gardens of weeds. +This characteristic gives the river its Portuguese name, "river of +wood." The Indians know the Madeira as the Cayary, "white river." + +Its course to-day serpentines so freely that at times we steer almost +east, and then again go west. Our general direction is south-west. At +eight this morning, after some anxious moments when the river was +dangerous with reefs, we passed the village of Borba, 140 miles from +Serpa. Here there is a considerable clearing, with kine browsing over a +hummocky sward that is well above the river on an occurrence of the red +clay. This release of the eyes was a smooth and grateful experience +after the enclosing walls. Some steps dug in the face of the low cliff +led to the white houses, all roofed with red tiles. The village faced +the river. From each house ascended the leisurely smoke of early +morning. The church was in the midst of the houses, its bell conspicuous +with verdigris. Two men stood to watch us pass. It was a pleasant +assurance to have, those roofs and the steeple rising actually into the +light of the sky. The dominant forest, in which we were sunk, was here +definitely put down by our fellow-men. + +We were beyond Borba, and its parana and island just above it, before +the pilot had finished telling us, where we watched from the "Capella's" +bridge, that Borba was a settlement which had suffered much from attacks +of the Araras Indians. The river took a sharp turn to the east, and +again went west. Islands were numerous. These islands are lancet-shaped, +and lie along the banks, separated by side channels, their paranas, from +the land. The smaller river craft often take a parana instead of the +main stream, to avoid the rush of the current. The whole region seems +lifeless. There is never a flower to be seen, and rarely a bird. +Sometimes, though, we disturb the snowy heron. On one sandy island, +passed during the afternoon, and called appropriately, Ilho do Jacar, +we saw two alligators. Otherwise we have the silent river to ourselves; +though I am forgetting the butterflies, and the constant arrival aboard +of new winged shapes which are sometimes so large and grotesque that one +is uncertain about their aggressive qualities. As we idle on the poop we +keep by us two insect nets, and a killing-bottle. The Doctor is making a +collection, and I am supposed to assist. + +When I came on deck on the morning of our arrival in the Brazils it was +not the orange sunrise behind a forest which was topped by a black +design of palm fronds, nor the warm odour of the place, nor the height +and intensity of the vegetation, which was most remarkable to me, a +new-comer from the restricted north. It was a butterfly which flickered +across our steamer like a coloured flame. No other experience put +England so remote. + +A superb butterfly, too bright and quick to be anything but an escape +from Paradise, will stay its dancing flight, as though with intelligent +surprise at our presence, hover as if puzzled, and swoop to inspect us, +alighting on some such incongruous piece of our furniture as a coil of +rope, or the cook's refuse pail, pulsing its wings there, plainly +nothing to do with us, the prismatic image of joy. Out always rush some +of our men at it, as though the sight of it had maddened them, as would +a revelation of accessible riches. It moves only at the last moment, +abruptly and insolently. They are left to gape at its mocking retreat. +It goes in erratic flashes to the wall of trees and then soars over the +parapet, hope at large. + +Then there are the other things which, so far as most of us know, have +no names, though a sailor, wringing his hands in anguish, is usually +ready with a name. To-day we had such a visitor. He looked a fellow the +Doctor might require, so I marked him down when he settled near a hatch +on the afterdeck. He was a bee the size of a walnut, and habited in dark +blue velvet. In this land it is wise to assume that everything bites or +stings, and that when a creature looks dead it is only carefully +watching you. I clapped the net over that fellow and instantly he +appeared most dead. Knowing he was but shamming, and that he would give +me no assistance, I stood wondering what I could do next; then the cook +came along. The cook saw the situation, laughed at my timidity with +tropical forms, went down on his knees, and caught my prisoner. The cook +raised a piercing cry. + +On the bridge I saw them levelling their glasses at us; and some +engineers came to their cabin doors to see us where we stood on the +lonely deck, the cook and the Purser, in a tableau of poignant tragedy. +The cook walked round and round, nursing his suffering member, and I did +not catch all he said, for I know very little Dutch; but the spirit of +it was familiar, and his thumb was bleeding badly. The bee had resumed +death again. The state of the cook's thumb was a surprise till the +surgeon exhibited the bee's weapons, when it became clear that thumbs, +especially when Dutch and rosy, like our cook's, afforded the right +medium for an artist who worked with such mandibles, and a tail that was +a stiletto. + +In England the forms of insect life soon become familiar. There is the +housefly, the lesser cabbage white butterfly, and one or two other +little things. In the Brazils, though the great host of forms is +surprising enough, it is the variety in that host which is more +surprising still. Any bright day on the "Capella" you may walk the +length of the ship, carrying a net and a collecting-bottle, and fill the +bottle (butterflies, cockroaches, and bugs not admitted), and perhaps +have not three of a species. The men frequently bring us something +buzzing in a hat; though accidents do happen half-way to where the +Doctor is sitting, and the specimen is mangled in a frenzy. A hornet +came to us that way. He was in violet armour, as hard as a crab, was +still stabbing the air with his long needle, and working on a fragment +of hat he held in his jaws, But such knights in mail are really +harmless, for after all they need not be interfered with. It is the +insignificant little fellows whose object in life it is to interfere +with us which really make the difference. + +So far on the river we have not met the famous pium fly. But the motuca +fly is a nuisance during the afternoon sleep. It is nearly of the size +and appearance of a "blue-bottle" fly, but its wings, having black tips, +look as though their ends were cut off. The motucas, while we slept, +would alight on the wrists and ankles, and where each had fed there +would be a wound from which the blood steadily trickled. + +The mosquitoes do not trouble us till sundown. But one morning in my +cabin I was interested in the hovering of what I thought was a small, +leggy spider which, because of its colouration of black and grey bands, +was evasive to the sight as it drifted about on its invisible thread. At +last I caught it, and found it was a new mosquito. In pursuing it I +found a number of them in the cabin. When I exhibited the insect to the +surgeon he did not well disguise his concern. "Say nothing about it," he +said, "but this is the yellow-fever brute," So our interest in our new +life is kept alert and bright. The solid teak doors of our cabins are +now permanently fixed back. Shutting them would mean suffocation; but as +the cabins must be closed before sundown to keep out the clouds of +gnats, the carpenter has made wooden frames, covered with copper gauze, +to fit the door openings at night, and rounds of gauze to cap the open +ports; and with a damp cloth, and some careful hunting each morning, one +is able to keep down the mosquitoes which have managed to find entry +during the night and have retired at sunrise to rest in dark corners. +For our care notwithstanding the insects do find their way in to assault +our lighted lamps. The Chief, partly because as an old sailor he is a +fatalist, and partly because he thinks his massive body must be +invulnerable, and partly because he has a contempt, anyway, for +protecting himself, each morning has a new collection of curios, alive +and dead, littered about his room. (I do not wonder Bates remained in +this land so long; it is Elysium for the entomologist.) One of the live +creatures found in his room the Chief retains and cherishes, and hopes +to tame, though the object does not yet answer to his name of Edwin. +This creature is a green mantis or praying insect, about four inches +long, which the Chief came upon where it rested on the copper gauze of +his door-cover, holding a fly in its hands, and eating it as one would +an apple. This mantis is an entertaining freak, and can easily keep an +audience watching it for an hour, if the day is dull. Edwin, in colour +and form, is as fresh, fragile, and translucent as a leaf in spring. He +has a long thin neck--the stalk to his wings, as it were--which is quite +a third of his length. He has a calm, human face with a pointed chin at +the end of his neck; he turns his face to gaze at you without moving his +body, just as a man looks backwards over his shoulder. This uncanny +mimicry makes the Chief shake with mirth. Then, if you alarm Edwin, he +springs round to face you, frilling his wings abroad, standing up and +sparring with his long arms, which have hooks at their ends. At other +times he will remain still, with his hands clasped up before his face, +as though in earnest devotion, for a trying period. If a fly alights +near him he turns his face that way and regards it attentively. Then +sluggishly he approaches it for closer scrutiny. Having satisfied +himself it is a good fly, without warning his arms shoot out and that +fly is hopelessly caught in the hooked hands. He eats it, I repeat, as +you do apples, and the authentic mouthfuls of fly can be seen passing +down his glassy neck. Edwin is fragile as a new leaf in form, has the +same delicate colour, and has fascinating ways; but somehow he gives an +observer the uncomfortable thought that the means to existence on this +earth, though intricately and wonderfully devised, might have been +managed differently. Edwin, who seems but a pretty fragment of +vegetation, is what we call a lie. His very existence rests on the fact +that he is a diabolical lie. + +Gossamers in the rigging to-day led the captain to prophesy a storm +before night. Clouds of an indigo darkness, of immense bulk, and +motionless, reduced the sunset to mere runnels of opaline light about +the bases of dark mountains inverted in the heavens. There was a rapid +fall of temperature, but no rain. Our world, and we in its centre on the +"Capella," waited for the storm in an expectant hush. Night fell while +we waited. The smooth river again deepened into the nadir of the last of +day, and the forest about us changed to material ramparts of cobalt. The +pilot made preparations to anchor. The engine bell rang to stand-by, a +summons of familiar urgency, but with a new and alarming note when heard +in a place like that. The forest made no response. A little later the +bell clanged rapidly again, and the pulse of our steamer slowed, ceased. +We could hear the water uncoiling along our plates. The forest itself +approached us, came perilously near. The Skipper's voice cried abruptly, +"Let go!" and at once the virgin silence was demolished by the uproar of +our cable. The "Capella" throbbed violently; she literally undulated in +the drag of the current. We still drifted slowly down stream. The second +anchor was dropped, and held us. The silence closed in on us instantly. +Far in the forest somewhere, while we were whispering to each other in +the quiet, a tree fell with a deep, significant boom. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 25._ We had been under way for more than an hour when my eyes +opened on the illuminated panorama of leaves and boles unfolding past +the door of my cabin. The cicadas were grinding their scissors loudly in +the trees alongside. I spent much of this day on the bridge, where I +liked to be, watching the pilot at work. The Skipper was there, and in a +cantankerous mood. The pilot wants us to make a chart of the river. He +has given the captain and me a long list of islands, paranas, +tributaries, villages, and sitios. Every map and reference to the river +we have on board is valueless. A map of the river indicates many +settlements with beautiful names; and at each point, when we arrive, +nothing but the forest shows. How the cartographers arrived at such +results is a mystery. This river, which their generous imaginings have +seen as a tortuous bough of the Amazon, laden with villages which they +indicate on their maps with marks like little round fruits, is almost +barren. Every day we pass small sitios or clearings; maybe the +map-makers mean such places as those. Yet each clearing is but a brief +security, a raft of land--the size of the garden of an English +villa--lonely in an ocean of deep leaves, where a rubber man has built +himself a timber house, and some huts for his serfs. It will have a +jetty and a huddle of canoes, and usually a few children on the bank +watching us. We salute that place with our syren as we pass, and +sometimes the kiddies spring for home then as though we were shooting at +them. Or we see a little embowered shack with a pile of fuel logs beside +it, and a crude name-board, where the river boats replenish when +traversing this stream, during the season, for rubber. Our pilots have +much to say of these stations, and of all the rubber men on the river +and their wealth. But away with their rubber! I am tired of it, and will +keep it out of this book if I can. For it is blasphemous that in such a +potentially opulent land the juice of one of its wild trees should be +dwelt upon--as it is in the states of Amazonas and Para--as though it +were the sole act of Providence. The Brazilians can see nothing here but +rubber. The generative qualities of this land through fierce sun and +warm showers--for rarely a day passes without rain, whatever the +season--a land of constant high summer with a free fecundity which has +buried the earth everywhere under a wild growth nearly two hundred feet +deep, is insignificant to them. They see nothing in it at all but the +damnable commodity which is its ruin. Para is mainly rubber, and Manaos. +The Amazon is rubber, and most of its tributaries. The Madeira +particularly is rubber. The whole system of communication, which covers +34,000 miles of navigable waters, waters nourishing a humus which +literally stirs beneath your feet with the movements of spores and +seeds, that system would collapse but for the rubber. The passengers on +the river boats are rubber men, and the cargoes are rubber. All the talk +is of rubber. There are no manufactures, no agriculture, no fisheries, +and no saw-mills, in a region which could feed, clothe, and shelter the +population of a continent. There was a book by a Brazilian I saw at +Para, recently published, and called the "Green Hell" (Inferno Verde). +On its cover was the picture of a nude Indian woman, symbolical of +Amazonas, and from wounds in her body her blood was draining into the +little tin cups which the rubber collector uses against the incisions on +the rubber tree. From what I heard of the subject, and I heard much, +that picture was little overdrawn. I begin to think the usual commercial +mind is the most dull, wasteful, and ignorant of all the sad wonders in +the pageant of humanity. + +It is only on the "Capella's" bridge that you feel the stagnant air +which is upset by the steamer's progress. There it spills over us, heavy +with the scent of the lairage on the fore deck. The bridge is a narrow, +elevated outlook, full in the sun's eye, where I can get a view of the +complete ship as she serpentines in her narrow way. On the port side of +it the Skipper has a seat, and there now he sits all day, gazing moodily +ahead. The dapper little pilot stands centrally, throwing brief commands +over his shoulder into the open window of the wheelhouse, where a +sailor, gravely chewing tobacco, his hands on the wheel, is as rapt as +though in a trance. I think the pilot finds his way by divination. The +depth of the river is most variable. In the dry season I hear the stream +becomes but a chain of pools connected by threads which may be no more +than eighteen inches deep, the rest of its bed being dry mud +cross-hatched by sun cracks. The rains in far Bolivia, overflowing the +swamps there, during some months of the year increase the depth of the +Madeira by forty-five feet. The local rainy season would make hardly any +difference to it. The river is fed from reservoirs which stretch beneath +the Andes. + +There is rarely anything to show why, for a spell, the pilot should take +us straight ahead in mid-stream, and then again tack to and fro across, +sometimes brushing the foliage with our shrouds. I have plucked a bunch +of leaves in an unexpected swoop in-shore. And the big timber comes down +afloat to meet us in a never-ending procession; there are the propellor +blades to be thought of. I see, now and then, the swirls which betray +rocks in hiding, and when dodging those dangerous places the screw +disturbs the mud and the stinks. But the pilot takes us round and about, +we with our 300 feet of length and 23 feet draught, as a man would steer +a motor car. To aid it our rudder has had fixed to it a false wooden +length. The "Capella" is a very good girl, as responsive to the pilot's +word as though she knew that he alone can save her. She stems this +powerful current at but four knots, and sometimes we come to places +where, if she hesitated for but two seconds, we should be put athwart +stream to close the channel. And what would happen to us with nothing +but unexplored malarial forest each side of us is not useful to brood +on. Occasionally the pilot, grasping the top of the "dodger," stares +beyond us fixedly to where the refracted sunshine is blinding between +the green cliffs, and gives quick and numerous orders to the wheelhouse +without turning his head. The Skipper gets up to watch. The "Capella" +makes surprising swerves, the pilot nervously taps the boards with his +foot.... Then he says something quietly, relaxes, and comes to us +blithely, the funny dog with a nonsense story, and the Skipper sinks +couchant again. Once more I watch the front of the jungle for what may +show there. Seldom there is anything new which shows. It is rare, even +when close alongside, that one can trace the shape of a leaf. There are +but the conspicuous grey nests of the ants and wasps. Yet several times +to-day I saw trees in blossom; domes of lilac in the green forest roof. +Again, to-day we put up a flight of hundreds of ducks; and another +incident was a blackwater stream, the Rio Mataua, the line of +demarcation between the Madeira's yellow flood and its dark tributary +being distinct. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 26._ The forest is lower and more open, and the pao mulatto is +more numerous. We saw the important village of Manicor to-day, and +Oncas, a little place within a portico of the woods which was veiled in +grey smoke, for they were coagulating rubber there. For awhile before +sunset the sky was scenic with great clouds, and glowing with the usual +bright colours. The wilderness was transformed. Each evening we seem to +anchor in a region different, in nature and appearance, under these +extraordinary sunset skies, from the country we have been travelling +since daylight. Transfiguration at eventime we know in England. Yet +sunset there but exalts our homeland till it seems more intimately ours +than ever, as though then came a luminous revelation of its rare +intrinsic goodness. We see, for some brief moments, its aura. But this +tropical jungle, at dayfall, is not the earth we know. It is a celestial +vision, beyond physical attaining, beyond knowledge. It is ulterior, +glorious, transient, fading before our surprise and wonder fade. We of +the "Capella" are its only witnesses, except those pale ghosts, the +egrets about the dim aqueous base of the forest. + +Darkness comes quickly, the swoop and overspread of black wings. The +stopping of the ship's heart, because the pulsations of her body have +had unconscious response in yours, as by an incorporeal ligament, is the +cessation of your own life. At a moment there is a strange quiet, in +which you begin to hear the whisper of inanimate things. A log glides +past making faint labial sounds. You are suddenly released from prison, +and float lightly in an ether impalpable to the coarse sounds and +movements of earth, but which is yet sensitive to the most delicate +contact of your thoughts and emotions. The whispering of your fellows is +but the rustling of their thoughts in an illimitable and inviolate +silence. + +Then, almost imperceptibly, the frogs begin their nightlong din. The +crickets and cicadas join. Between the varying pitch of their voices +come other nocturnes in monotones from creatures unknown to complete the +gamut. There are notes so profound, but constant, that they are a mere +impression of obscurity to the hearing, as when one peers listening into +an abysm in which no bottom is seen, and others are stridulations so +attenuated that they shrill beyond reach. + +A few frogs begin it. There are ululations, wells of mellow sound +bubbling to overflow in the dark, and they multiply and unite till the +quality of the sound, subdued and pleasant at first, is quite changed. +It becomes monstrous. The night trembles in the powerful beat of a +rhythmic clangour. One cannot think of frogs, hearing that metallic din. +At one time, soon after it begins, the chorus seems the far hubbub, +mingled and levelled by distance, of a multitude of people running and +disputing in a place where we who are listening know that no people are. +The noise comes nearer and louder till it is palpitating around us. It +might be the life of the forest, immobile and silent all day, now +released and beating upwards in deafening paroxysms. + +Alongside the engine room casing amidships the engineers have fixed an +open-air mess-table, with a hurricane lamp in its midst, having but a +brief halo of light which hardly distinguishes the pickle jar from the +marmalade pot. A haze of mosquitoes quivers round the light. The air is +hot and lazy, and the engineers sit about limply in trousers and shirts, +the latter open and showing bosoms as various as faces. The men cheer +themselves with comical plaints about the heat, the food, the Brazils, +and make sudden dabs at bare flesh when the insects bite them. The Chief +rallies his boys as would a cheery dad--Sandy, though, is nearly his own +age, but still much of a lad, quietly despondent--and the Chief heartily +insists on food, like it or lump it. I go forward to the captain's tea +table on the poop deck, where we have two hurricane lamps, and where the +figures of us round the table, in that dismal glim, are the thin +phantoms of men. The lamps have been lighted only that moment, and as we +take our seats, the insects come. Just as sharply as though something +derisive and invisible were throwing them at us, big mole crickets +bounce into our plates. A cicada, though I was then unaware of his +identity, a monstrous fly which looked as large as a rat, and with a +head like a lantern, alighted before me on the cloth, and remained +still. Picking it up tentatively it sprang a startling police rattle +between my finger and thumb, and the other chaps shouted their +merriment. The steward places a cup of tea before each of us, and in an +interval of the talk the Skipper announces a smell of paraffin in his +cup. We experiment with ours, and gravely confirm. The surgeon, bending +close to a light with his cup, the deep characteristics of his face +strongly accentuated--he seems but a bodiless head in the dark--says he +detects globules of fat. The Skipper crudely outlines this horror to the +steward, who makes an inaudible reply in German, and disappears down the +companion. We get a new and innocent brew. + +There is hash for us. There is our familiar the pickled beef. There are +saucers of brown onions. There are saucers of jam and of butter. +To-night the steward has baked some cakes, and their grateful smell and +crisp brown rugged surface, studded with plums, determine in my mind a +resolution to eat four of them, if I can get them without open shame. I +assert that our Skipper has a counting eye for the special dishes; +though you may eat all the hash you want. Damn his hash! The bread is +sour. I want cakes. + +After tea the pilots get into their hammocks and under their curtains, +out of the way of the mosquitoes. We know where they are because of the +red ends of their cigarettes. We sit around anywhere, the Skipper, the +Chief, the Doctor and the Purser. There is little to be said. We talk of +the mosquitoes, in ejaculations, for the little wretches quite easily +penetrate linen, and can manage even worsted socks. Occasionally flying +insects bump into the tin lamp placed above us on the ice chest. (No; +there is no ice.) Thin divergent arrows of light, the fireflies, lace +the gloom, and the trees alongside are gemmed with them. We find still +less to say to each other, but fear to retire to our heated berths, for +as it is just possible to breathe in the open we continue to defy the +mosquitoes. The first mate serenades us on his accordion. At last there +is no help for it. The steward comes to tell the master that his cot is +ready. The "old man" sleeps in a cot draped with netting, and slung from +the awning beams on the starboard side. Nightly he turns in there, and +unfailingly a rain cloud bursts in the very early morning, pounding on +the awning till the cool spray compels him, and he retreats in his +pyjamas for shelter, taking his pillow with him. It is for that reason I +do not use the cot he made for me, which hangs on the port side; though +it is delightful for the afternoon nap. + +The Skipper disappears. The Doctor and I go below to the surgery, and +from the settee there he removes books, tobacco tins, fishing tackle, +phials, india rubber tubing, and small leather cases, making room for us +both, and first we have some out of his bottle, and then we try some out +of mine. The stuff is always tepid, for the water in the carafe has a +temperature of 80 degrees. The perspiration begins a steady permeation +as we talk, for now we can talk, and talk, being together, and talking +is better than sleep, which at its best is but a fitful doze in the +tropics. We fall, as it were, on each other's necks. Though the Doctor's +breast--I say nothing of mine--is not one which appears to invite the +weak tear of a fellow mortal who is harassed by solitude. You might +judge it too cold, too hard and unresponsive a support, for that; and I +have seen his eye even repellent. He is not elderly, but he is grey, and +pallid through too much of the tropics. The lines descending his face +show he has been observing things for long, and does not think much of +them. When disputing with him, he does not always reply to you; he +smiles to himself; a habit which is an annoyance to some people, whose +simple minds are suspicious, and who are unaware that the surgeon is +sometimes forgetful that his weaker brethren, when they are most heated +and disputative with him, then most lack confidence in their case, and +need the confirmation of the wit they know is superior. That is no time +when one should look at the wall, and smile quietly. The "Capella's" +company feel that the surgeon stands where he overlooks them, and they +see, where he stands unassumingly superior, that he looks upon them +politely. They do not know he is really sad and forgetful; they think he +is amused, but that he prefers to pretend he is well bred. I must +confess it is known he has prescience having a certain devilish quality +of penetration. There was one of our stokers, and one night he was drunk +on stolen gin, and latitudinous, and so attempted a curious answer to +the second engineer, who sought him out in the forecastle concerning +work. Now the second engineer is a young man who has a number of +photographs of himself which display him, clad but in vanity and shorts, +back, front, and profile, arms folded tightly to swell his very large +muscles. He has really a model figure, and he knows it. The cut over the +stoker's nose was a bad one. + +To the surgeon the stoker went, early next morning, actually for a hair +of the dog, but with a story that he was then to go on duty, and so +would miss his ration of quinine, which is not served till eleven +o'clock. The quinine, as you know, is given in gin. The surgeon +complimented the man on such proper attention to his health, and +willingly gave him the quinine--in water. He also stood at the door of +the alleyway to watch the man retained the quinine as far as the engine +room entrance. + +Eight bells! Presently I also must go and pretend to sleep. The +surgeon's last cheery comment on the cosmic scheme remains but as a wry +smile on our faces. We grope in our minds desperately for a topic to +keep the talk afloat. There goes one bell! + +I arrive at my haunt of cockroaches, where the second mate is already +asleep on the upper shelf. The brown light of the oil lamp has its +familiar flavour, and the cabin is like an oven. What a prospect for +sleep! Raising the mosquito curtain carefully I slip through the opening +like an acrobat, hoping to be ahead of the insidious little malaria +carriers. A drove of cockroaches scuttles wildly over my warm mattress +as I arrive. Striking matches within what the sailor overhead calls my +meat safe, I examine my enclosure carefully for mosquitoes, but none +seems to be there, though I know very well I shall find at least a +dozen, gorged with blood, in the morning. The iron bulkhead which +separates my bed from the engine room is, of course, hot to the touch. +The air is a passive weight. The old insect bites begin to irritate and +burn. I kick the miserable sheet to the foot, and lie on my back without +a movement, for I fear I may suffocate in that shut box. My chest seems +in bonds, and for long there is no relief, though the body presently +grows indifferent to the misery, and the anxiety goes. It is remarkable +to what brutality the body will submit, when it knows it must. Yet +nothing but a continuous effort of will kept the panic suppressed, and +me in that box, till the feeling of anxiety had passed. Thenceforward +the sleepless mind, like a petty balloon giddy on a thin but unbreakable +thread of thought, would tug at my consciousness, revolving and dodging +about, in spite of my resolution to keep it still. If I could only break +that thread, I said to myself, turning over again, away it would fly out +of sight, and I should forget all this ... all this.... And presently it +broke loose, and dwindled into oblivion. + +Then I knew nothing more till I saw, fixed where I was in hopeless +horror, the baby face of one I dwell much upon, in moments of solitude, +and it had fallen wan and thin, and was full of woe unutterable, and its +appealing eyes were blind. I woke with a cry, sitting up suddenly, the +heart going like a rapid hammer. There was the curtained box about me. +The clothes were on the hooks. I could see the black shape of the cabin +doorway. By my watch it was four o'clock. The air had cooled, and as I +sat waiting for the next thing in the silence the mate snored profoundly +overhead. Ah! So that was all right. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 27._ This has been a day of anxious navigation, for the river has +had frequent reefs. We remain in a stagnant chasm of trees. The surgeon +and I, accompanied by a swarm of flies, went forward into the cattle +stew this morning to see how the beasts fared. The patient brutes were +suffering badly, and some, quite plainly, were dying. The change from +the lush green stuff of the Itacoatiara swamps to compressed American +hay put under their noses on an iron deck, and the stifling heat under +partial awnings, had ruined them. Some stood, heads down, legs +straddled, too indifferent to disperse the loathly clouds of parasites. +Most were plagued by ticks, which had the tenacity and appearance of +iron bolt heads. But the little black cow, the rebel, blared at us, +bound and suffering as she was. Vive la revolution! We drove the flies +from her hide, and she tried to kick us, the darling. We found a steer +with his shoulder out of joint, lying inert in the sun, indifferent to +further outrage. That had to be seen to, and we told the Skipper, who +ordered it to be killed. We wanted some fresh meat badly, he added. The +boatswain explained that he knew the business, and he brought a long +knife, and quite calmly thrust it into the front of the prone creature, +and seemed to be trying to find its heart. Nothing happened, except a +little blood and some convulsive movements. Another sailor produced a +short knife and a hammer, and tapped away behind the horns as though he +were a mason and this were stone. The frowning surgeon supposed the +fellow was trying to sever the vertebrae. I don't know. Yet another +fellow jumped on its abdomen. At last it died. I put down merely what +happened. No two voyages are alike, and as this episode came into mine, +here it is, to be worked in with the sunsets and things. There was some +cheerful talk at the prospect of the first fresh meat since England, and +later, passing the cook's galley, I saw an iron bin, and lifted its +cover to see what was there. And there was, as I judged there would be, +liver for tea that evening. But I learned that though I am a carnivore +yet I have not the pluck to be a vulture. + +The next day we passed the Cidada de Humayta, the chief town on the +Madeira. Actually it was of the size of an unimportant home village. +There was nothing there to support the pilot's sonorous title of cidada. +For some reason we were visited to-day by an extraordinary number of +butterflies. One large specimen was of an olive green, barred with +black. Another had wings of a bluish grey, striped with vermilion. +Helicons came, and once a morpho, the latter a great rarity away from +the interior of the woods. At four in the afternoon the sky grew +ominous. We had just time to notice the trees astern suddenly convulsed, +writhing where they stood, and the storm sprang at us, roaring, ripping +away awnings and loose gear. The noise in the forest round us was that +of cataclysm. The rain was an obscurity of falling water, and the trees +turned to shadows in a grey fog. The ship became full of waterspouts, +large streams and jets curving away from every prominence. This lasted +for but twenty minutes; but the impending clouds remained to hasten +night when we were in a place which, more than anything I have seen, was +the world before the coming of man. The river had broadened and +shallowed. The forest enclosed us. There were islands, and the rank +growth of swamps. We could see, through breaks in the igapo, extensive +lagoons beyond, with the high jungle brooding over empty silver areas. +Herons, storks, and egrets were white and still about the tangle of +aqueous roots. It was all as silent and other world as a picture. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 29._ When shouting awakened me this morning I saw the Chief hurry +by my cabin, half-dressed, and looking very anxious. By the almost +stationary foliage I could see the ship had merely way on her. Out I +jumped. On the forecastle head a crowd was gathered, peering overside. A +large tree was balanced accurately athwart our stem, and refused to +move. What worried the staff was that it would, when free, sidle along +our plates till it fouled the propeller. The propeller had to be kept +moving, for the river was narrow and its current unusually rapid. There +the log obstinately remained for the most of an hour, but suddenly made +up its mind, and went, clearing the stern by inches. After that the +engines were driven full, for the pilot hoped to get us to Porto Velho +by nightfall. In the late afternoon, when passing the Rio Jamary, the +clouds again banked astern, bringing night before its time, and another +violent storm compelled an early anchorage. The forest was remarkably +quiet after the tumult of the squall, and the "Capella" had been put +over to the left bank, when close to us on the opposite shore there was +a landslip. We saw a section of the jungle wall sway, as though that +part was taken by a local tempest, and then the green cliff and its +supports fell bodily into the river, raising thunderous submarine +explosions. Such landslides, terras cahidas, can be rarely foreseen, and +are a grave danger to craft when they come close in to rest at night. +To-day we passed a small raft drifting down. A hut was erected in its +middle, and we saw two men within. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 30._ Talk enough there has been of a place called Porto Velho, a +name I heard first when I signed the articles of the "Capella" at +Swansea, and of what would happen to us when we arrived. But I am +looking upon it all as a strange myth. There has been time to prove +those superstitions of Porto Velho. And what has happened? There was a +month we had of the vacant sea, and one day we came upon a low coast +where palms grew. There has been a month which has striped the vacant +mind in three colours, constant in relative position, but without form, +yellow floor, green walls, and a blue ceiling. Plainly we have got +beyond all the works of man now. We have intrigued an ocean steamer +thousands of miles along the devious waterways of an uninhabited +continental jungle, and now she must be near the middle of the puzzle, +with voiceless regions of unexplored forest reeking under the equatorial +sun at every point of the compass. The more we advance up the Amazon and +Madeira rivers the less the likelihood, it seems to me, of getting to +any place where our ship and cargo could be required. We shall steam and +steam till the river shallows, the forest closes in, and we are trapped. +Yet the Madeira looks now much the same as when we entered it, still as +broad and deep. I was thinking this morning we might go on so for ever; +that this adventure was all of the casual improbabilities of a dream was +in my mind when, smoking the after breakfast pipe on the bridge, we +turned a corner sharply, and there was the end of the passage within a +mile of us, Porto Velho at last. + +The forest on the port side ahead was uplifted on an unusually high +cliff of the red rock. Beyond that cliff was a considerable clearing, +with many buildings of a character different from any we had seen in the +country. At the end of the clearing the forest began again, unconquered +still, standing across our course as a high barrier; for, leaving Porto +Velho, the river turned west almost at a right angle, and vanished; as +though now it were done with us. We had arrived. A rough pier was being +thrown out on palm boles to receive us, but it was not ready. We +anchored in five fathoms, about thirty yards from the shore, and in the +quiet which came with the stop of the ship's life we waited for the next +thing, all hands lining the "Capella's" side surveying this place of +which we had heard so much. + +Plainly this was not the usual village. Many acres of trees had been +newly cleared, leaving a great bay in the woods. The earth was still raw +from a recent attack on what had been inviolate from time's beginning. +Trenches, new red gashes, scored it, and holes were gouged in the hill +side. You could think man had attacked the forest here in a fury, but +had spent his force on one small spot, as though he had struck one wound +again and again. The fight was over. The footing had been won, a base +perhaps for further campaigns because wooden emergency houses, sheds and +barracks, had been built. The assailant evidently had made up his mind +to settle on his advantage, though he was tolerating a little quickly +rebellious scrub. Just then he was resting, as if the whole affair had +been over but five minutes before we came, and now the conqueror was +sleeping on his first success. Completely round the conquered space the +jungle stood indifferently regarding the trifle of ground it had lost. +The jungle on the near opposite shore rose straight and uninterrupted +from the river, the front rank, lost each way in distance, of an +innumerable army. At the upper end of the clearing the jungle began +again on our side, and turned to run across our bows, the complement of +the host across the water, and both ranks continued up stream, dark and +indeterminate lines converging, till, three miles away, a delicate +flickering of light, a mere dimmer, faint but constant, bridged the two +walls. No doubt that delicate light would be the San Antonio cataracts, +the first of the nineteen rapids of the Madeira. + +Porto Velho behaved as though we were not there. A pitiless sun flamed +over that deep red wound in the forest, and they who had made it were in +their shelters, resting out of sight after such a recent riot of +exertion. Nothing was being done then. Two or three white men stood on +the dismantled foreshore, placidly regarding us. We might have been +something they were not quite sure was there, a possibility not +sufficiently interesting for them to verify. There was a hint of +mockery, after all our anxiety and travail, in this quiet disregard. Had +we arrived too late to help, and so were not wanted? I confess I should +not have been surprised to have heard suppressed laughter, some light +hilarity from the unseen, at us innocently puzzling as to what was to +happen next. There was a violent scream in the forest near our bows, and +we turned wondering to that green wall. A locomotive ran out from the +base of the trees, still screaming. + +In a little while a man left a house, striding down over the debris to +the foreshore, and some half-breeds brought him in a canoe to the +"Capella." He was a tall youngster, an American, and his slow body +itself was but a thin sallow drawl; only his eyes were alert, and they +darted at ours in quick scrutiny. His solemn occupying assurance and +accent precipitated reality. He was a doctor and he ordered us to be +mustered on the after deck for inspection for yellow fever. We were +passed; and then this doctor went below to the saloon, distributing his +long limbs and body over several chairs and part of the table, and began +with lazy words and gestures to give us a place in the scene. We learned +we should stay as we were till the pier was finished and that the +railway was actually in being for a short distance. He said something +about Porto Velho being hell. + +He left us. We sat about on deck furniture, and waited on the unknown +gods of the land to see what they would send us. All day in the clearing +figures moved about on some mysterious business, but seldom looked at +us. We had nothing to do but to watch the raft of timber and flotsam +expand about our hawsers, a matter of some concern to us, for the +current ran at six knots. Our brief sense of contact got from the +medical inspection had gone by night. Reality contracted, closing in +upon the "Capella" with rapidly diminishing radii as the light went, +till we had lost everything but our steamer. + +Into the saloon, where some of us sat listening in sympathy to the +Skipper's growls that night, burst our cook, disrespectful and tousled, +saying he had seen a canoe, which bore a light, overturn in the river. +There was a stampede. We each seized a lantern and leaned overside with +it, with that fatuous eagerness to help which makes a man strike matches +when looking for one who is lost on a moor. Ghostly logs came floating +noiselessly out of darkness into the brief domain of our lanterns, and +faded into night again. From somewhere in the collection of driftwood +beyond our bows we thought we heard an occasional cry, though that might +have been the noise of water sucking through the rubbish, or the +creaking of timbers. Our chief mate got out a small boat, and vanished; +and we were already growing anxious for him when his luminous grin +appeared below in the range of my lantern, and with him came the +ponderous figure of a man. The latter, deft and agile, came up the rope +ladder, and stepped aboard with innocent inconsequence, shocking my +sense of the gravity of the affair; for this streaming object, lifted +from the grip of the boney one just in time, was chuckling. "Say," said +this big ruddy man to our gaping crowd, "I met a nigger ashore with a +letter for the captain of this packet. Said he didn't know how to get. +So I brought it, but a tree overturned the canoe. I came up under the +timber jam all right, all right, but it took me quite a piece to get my +head through." In the saloon, with a pool of water spreading round him, +while we got him some dry clothes, he produced this pulpy letter. "Dear +Captain" (it ran), "I'm as dry as hell, have you brought drinks in the +ship?" + +The bland indifference of Porto Velho to the "Capella," which had done +so much to get there; the locomotive which ran screaming out of those +woods where, till then, was the same unbroken front which from Para +inwards had surrendered nothing; the inconsequential doctor who +carefully examined us for what we had not got; the ruddy man who rose to +us streaming out of the deeps, as though that were his usual approach, +bearing another stranger's unreasonable letter complaining of thirst, +were most puzzling. I even felt some anxiety and suspicion. What, then, +were all the other incidents of our difficult six thousand mile voyage? +What was this place to which we had come on urgent business long and +carefully deliberated, where men merely looked at the whites of our +eyes, or changed wet clothes in the saloon, or lightly referred to +hell--they all did that--as if hell were an unremarkable feature of +their day? Were all these unrelated shadows and movements but part of a +long and witless jest? The point of it I could not see. Was there any +point to it or did casual episodes appear at unexpected places till they +came, just as unexpectedly, to an empty end? The man the mate had +rescued sat at the saloon table opposite me, leaning a yard wide chest, +which was almost bare, on the red baize, his bulging arms resting before +him, and his hairy paws easily clasped. I thought that perhaps this +imperturbable being, who could come with easy assurance, his bright +friendly eyes merely amused, his large firm mouth merely mocking, and +his face heated, from a desperate affair in which his life nearly went, +to announce to strangers, "Boys, I'm old man Jim," must have had the +point of the joke revealed to him long since, and so now had no respect +for its setting, and could have no care and understanding of my anxious +innocence. He sat there for hours in quiet discourse. I listened to him +with my ears only, his words jostling my thoughts, as one would puzzle +over and listen to a superior being which had unbent to be intimate, but +was outside our experience. I heard he had been at this place since +1907. He began the work here. Porto Velho did not then exist. Off where +we were anchored, the jungle rose. He had his young son with him, a +cousin, and two negroes, and he began the railway. Inside the trees, he +said, they could not see three yards, but down it all had to come. There +is a small stingless bee here, which "old man Jim" called the sweat bee. +It alights in swarms on the face and hands, and prefers death to being +dislodged from its enjoyment. The heat, these bees, the ants, the pium +flies, the mosquitoes, made the existence of Jim and his mates a misery. +Jim merely drawled about in a comic way. Fever came, and mistrust of +natives compelled him to dress a dummy, put that in his hammock at +night, while he slept in a corner of the hut, one eye open, nursing a +gun. I could not see "old man Jim" ever having faith that trains would +run, or needed to run, where Indians lurked in the bush, and jaguars +nosed round the hut at night. Why these sufferings then? But we learned +the line now penetrated into the forest for sixty miles, and that beyond +it there were camps, where surveyors were seeing that further way was +made, and beyond them again, among the trees of the interior, the +surveyors were still, planning the way the line should run when it had +got so far. + + * * * * * + +Though we could not get ashore, there was enough to watch, if it were +only the men leisurely driving palm boles into the river, making a pier +for us. While at breakfast to-day a canoe of half-breeds came flying +towards us in pursuit of an object which kept a little ahead of them in +the river. It passed close under our stern, and we saw it was a peccary. +The canoe ran level with it then, and a man leaned over, catching the +wild pig by a hind leg, keeping its snout under water while another +secured its feet with rope. It was brought aboard in bonds as a present +for the Skipper, who begged the natives to convey it below to the +bunkers and there release it. He said he would tame it. I saw the eye of +the beast as it lay on the deck champing its tusks viciously, and +guessed we should have some interesting moments while kindness tried to +reduce that light in its eye. The peccary disappeared for a few days. + +There being nothing to do this fine morning, we watched the cattle put +ashore. This was not so difficult a business as shipping them, for the +beasts now submitted quietly to the noose which was put on their horns. +The steam tackle hoisted them, they were pushed overside, and dropped +into the river. Some natives in a canoe cleared the horns, and the +brute, swimming desperately in the strong current, was guided to the +bank. Some of the beasts being already near death they were merely +jettisoned. The current bore them down stream, making feeble efforts to +swim--food for the alligators. We waited for the turn of the black +heifer. She was one of the last. She was not led to the ship's side. The +tackle was attached to her horns, and made taut before her head was +loosed. She made a furious lunge at the men when her nose was free, but +the winch rattled, and she was brought up on her hind legs, blaring at +us all. In that ugly manner she was walked on two legs across the deck, +a heroine in shameful guise, while the men laughed. She was hoisted, and +lowered into the river. She fought at the waiting canoe with her feet, +but at last the men released her horns from the tackle. With only her +face above water she heaved herself, open mouthed, at the canoe, trying +to bite it, and then made some almost successful efforts to climb into +it. The canoe men were so panic-stricken that they did nothing but +muddle one another's efforts. The canoe rocked dangerously. This wicked +animal had no care for its own safety like other cattle. It surprised +its tormentors because it showed its only wish was to kill them. Just in +time the men paddled off for their lives, the cow after them. Seeing she +could not catch them, she swam ashore, climbed the bank, looking round +then for a sight of the enemy--but they were all in hiding--and then +began browsing in the scrub. + +As leisurely as though life were without end, the work on the pier +proceeded; and we on the "Capella," who could not get ashore, with each +of our days a week long, looked round upon this remote place of the +American tropics till it seemed we had never looked upon anything else. +The days were candent and vaporous, the heat by breakfast-time being +such as we know at home in an early afternoon of the dog-days. The +forest across the river, about three hundred yards away, from sunrise +till eight o'clock, often was veiled in a white fog. There would be a +clear river, and a sky that was full day, but not the least suspicion of +a forest. We saw what seemed a limitless expanse of bright water, which +merged into the opalescent sky walls. Such an invisible fog melted from +below, and then the revelation of the dark base of the forest, in +mid-distance, was as if our eyes were playing tricks. The forest +appeared in the way one magic-lantern picture grows through another. The +last of the vapour would roll upwards from the tree-tops for some time, +and you could believe the woods were smouldering heavily. Thenceforward +the quiet day would be uninterrupted, except for the plunge of a heavy +fish, the passing of a canoe, a visit from an adventurous visitor from +the shore, or the growing of a cloud in the sky. We tried fishing, +though never got anything but some grey scaleless creatures with feelers +hanging about their gills. It was not till the evening when the visitors +usually came that the day began really to move. The new voices gave our +saloon and cabins vivacity, and the stories we heard carried us far and +swiftly towards the next breakfast-time. They were strange characters, +those visitors, usually Americans, but sometimes we got an Englishman or +a Frenchman. They took possession of the ship. + +There was an elderly man, Neil O'Brien, who was often with us. At first +I thought he was a very exceptional character. He was one of the first +to visit our ship. I even felt a little timidity when alone with him, +for he had a habit of sitting limply, looking at nothing in particular, +and dumb, and plainly he was a man whose thoughts ran in ways I could +not even surmise. His pale blue eyes would turn upon me with that +searching openness which may mean childish innocence or madness, and I +could not forget the whispers I had heard of his dangerously inflammable +nature. I could not find common footing with him for some time. My +trouble was that I had come out direct from a country where few men are +free, and so most of us live in doubt of what would happen to us if we +were to act as though we were free men. Where, if a self-reliant man +contemptuously dares to a bleak and perilous extremity, he makes all his +lawful fellows in-draw their timid breaths; that land where even a +reward has been instituted, as for merit, for uncomplaining endurance +under life-long hardships, and called an old-age pension. You cannot +live much of your life with natural servants, the judicious and +impartial, the light shy, and those who look twice carefully, but never +leap, without betraying some reflected pallor of their anmia. O'Brien, +the quiet master of his own time, with his eyes I could not read, and +his gun, betrayed obliquely in our casual talks together such an +ingenuous indifference to accepted things and authority, that I had +nothing to work with when gauging him. He was his own standard of +conduct. I judged his bearing towards the authority of officials would +be tolerant, and even tender, as men use with wilful children. He was +not a rebel, as we understand it, one who at last grows impatient and +angry, and so votes for the other party. I suppose he was not opposed to +authority, unless it were opposed to him. He was outside any authority +but his own. He lived without State aid. He himself carried the gun, +always the symbol of authority, whether of a man or of a State, and if +any man had attempted to rob him of his substance, certainly O'Brien +would have shot that man according to his own law and his own prophecy, +and would then have cooked his supper. He surprised me for a day or two. +I puzzled much over this phenomenon of a free man, who took his freedom +so quietly and naturally that he never even discussed the subject, as we +do, with enthusiasm, in England. What else? It was long since he was +separated from his mother. Soon I found he was but a type. I met others +like him in this country. Their innocence of the limitations of a +careful man like myself was disconcerting. Once O'Brien casually +proposed that I should "beat it," cut the ship, and make a traverse of +that wild place to distant Colombia, to some unknown spot by the +approximate source of a certain Amazon tributary, where he knew there +was gold. First I laughed, and then found, from his glance of resentful +candour, that he was quite serious. He generously meant this honour for +me; and I think it was an honour for an elderly, quiet, and seasoned +privateer like O'Brien, to invite me to be his only companion in a +region where you must travel with alert courage and wide experience, or +perish. I have learned since he has gone to that far place alone. But +what a time he will have. He will have all of it to himself. Well--I was +thinking, when I refused him, of my old age pension. I should like to +get it. + +Men like O'Brien are called here, quite respectfully, "bad men," and +"land sailors." The lawless lands of the South American +republics--lawless in this sense, that their laws need be little +reckoned by the daring, the strong, and the unscrupulous--seem +particularly attractive to men of the O'Brien type. I got to like them. +I found them, when once used to their feral minds, always entertaining, +and often instructive, for their nave opinions cut our conventions +across the middle, showing the surprising insides. They dwell without +bounds. As I have read somewhere, we do not think of the buffalo, which +treats a continent as pasturage, as we do of the cow which kicks over +the pail at milking time and jumps the yard fence. These men regard +priest, magistrate and soldier with an indifference which is not even +contemptible indifference. They are merely callous to the calculated +effect of uniforms. When in luck, they are to be found in the cities, +shy and a little miserable, having a good time. Their money gone, they +set out on lonely journeys across this continent which show our fuss +over authentic explorers to be a little overdone. O'Brien was such a +man. He told me he had not slept under a roof for years. He had no home, +he confessed to me once. Any place on the map was the same to him. He +had spent his life drifting alone between Patagonia and Canada, looking +for what he never found, if he knew what he was looking for. His travels +were insignificant to him. He might have been a tramp talking of English +highways. As he droned on one evening I began to doubt he was unaware +that his was an extraordinary narrative. I guessed his unconcern must be +an air. It would have been, in my case. I looked straight over at him, +and he hesitated nervously, and stopped. Was he wasting my time, he +asked? Prospecting for his illusion, his last journey was over the +Peruvian Andes into Colombia. He broke an arm in a fall on the +mountains, set it himself, and continued. On the Rio Japura an Indian +shot an arrow through his leg, and O'Brien dropped in the long grass, +breaking the arrow short each side of the limb, and in an ensuing long +watchful duel presently shot the Indian through the throat. And then, +coming out on the Amazon, his canoe overturned, and the pickle jar full +of gold dust was lost. He put no emphasis on any particular, not even on +the loss of his gold. + +He was pointed out to me first as a singular fellow who kept doves; a +tall, gaunt man, with a deliberate gait, perhaps fifty years of age, in +old garments, long boots laced to the knees, and a battered pith helmet. +He strolled along with his eyes cast down. If you met him abroad, and +stopped him, he answered you with a few mumbles while looking away over +your shoulder. His big mouth drew down a grizzled moustache cynically, +and one of his front teeth was gold plated. Before he passed on he +looked at you with the haughty but doubtful stare of an animal. He +seemed too slow and dull to be combustible. I ceased to credit those +tales of his berserker rage. He always moved in that deliberate way, as +if he were careful, but bored. Or he stood before his doves, and made +bubbling noises in his loose, stringy throat. He embarrassed me with a +present of many of the trophies he had secured in years of travel in the +wilds. One day a negro and O'Brien were in mild dispute on the jetty, +and the negro called the white a Yankee. The river was twenty feet below +swiftly carrying its logs. O'Brien took the big black, and with vicious +ease threw him into the water. The negro missed the floating rubbish, +and struck out for the bank. No one could help him. By good luck he +managed to get to the waterside; yet O'Brien meanwhile had hurried his +long legs over the ties of the skeleton structure, his face +transfigured, and was waiting for the negro to emerge, a spade in his +hand. But under other circumstances I have not the least doubt he would +have fought the Brazilian army single-handed, and so finished, in +defence of that same negro. + + + + +IV + + +Night brought one of these men to each of our cabins, and put a party of +them drinking in the saloon. After my habit of thinking of people in +crowds, as an Anglican Church, or an ethical society, a labour movement, +a federation of proprietors, or suffragists, or Jews, or stockbrokers' +clerks, crowds moving with massed exactitude by the thousand at least, +when prompted, this man O'Brien standing on his two legs by himself, old +man Jim, and the rest, each of them defending and running his own +particular kingdom, and governing that, ill or well--for I saw them +fairly drunk now and then--and never waiting for a word from any master +or delegate, made me wonder whether till then I had met a living man, or +had heard merely of a population of bundles of newspapers. These men had +no leaders. They attended to all that. Each had to find his own way. +They were unrelated to anything I knew, and beyond the help of even a +candidate for Parliament. I suppose they had never heard of a Defence +League. They could have found no use for it, because a challenge to +defend themselves would never catch them unwilling or unable. Each man +soldiered himself, and perhaps was rather too ready to deal with a show +of insolence, or an assumption of power in another. Yet they were not +the violent and headstrong fellows of romantic tales. They were simple +and kind, submitting with a sick smile to the prickly ridicule of their +fellows round the board. They regarded meat, drink, and tobacco as +common; they were ready to leap into the dark for a friend. + +There was one young bearded Englishman among them who was more than a +friendly figure to me. All were friendly; but the Americans bore +themselves with the easy assurance of the favoured heirs of Adam; though +their successful work in that tropical swamp perhaps justified them. The +Englishman had less of that assurance of a unique favour which was so +completely bestowed that irresolution never shook the aplomb of its +lucky inheritors. He came into my cabin one night, hoping he was not +disturbing me, and bringing as a present a sheaf of native arrows tipped +with red and blue macaw feathers, as he had promised. + +"They come from Bolivia--forest Indians--three hundred miles from here." +He explained he had reached our point in the Brazilian forest from the +Pacific side. He had crossed the mountains, descended to the level +jungle at the base of the Andean wall, and followed the rivers eastward, +alone in a canoe till he chanced upon our steamer unloading Welsh fuel +into a forest clearing. To a new-comer in a mysterious land, this was a +clear invitation to listen, and I looked at the man expectantly. He was +lighting his pipe. The country through which he must have passed was +unknown, as our maps showed. But he simply indicated that manner of his +advent, as though it were the same as any other, and sat looking through +the door of my cabin, smoking, absently gazing at the night scene on the +afterdeck. + +The hombres were working at the hold immediately below us, their labours +made obscurely bright by a roaring flame of volatalised oil. The light +pulsed on the face of the Englishman, and chequered my cabin in black +and luminous gold. Of all the region of forest about us nothing showed +but a cloud of leaves, which leaned towards us out of the night, +supported on two pale, tremulous columns. The hold of the ship was a +black rectangle, and the almost naked negroes and brown men moving about +it, or peering into the chasm, were like sinister figures on an +inscrutable business about the verge of the pit. They were not men, but +the debris of men, moving with awful volition, merely a bright +cadaverous mask hovering in a void, or two arms upheld, or a black +headless trunk. For the roaring illuminant on deck dismembered the ship +and its occupants, bursting into the weight of surrounding night as a +fixed explosion, beams rigid and glowing, and shadows in long solid bars +radiating from its incandescent heart. + +"I'm glad you're here," said my companion. He never gave me his name, +and I do not know it now. "I hav'n't heard home talk for a year. Hav'n't +heard much of anything. A little Spanish coming along; and here some +American." + +We continued looking at the puzzling, disrupted scene outside for some +time without speaking, secure in a chance and lucky sympathy. Then a +basket of coal tipped against a hatch coaming and whirled away, +scattering the men. We rose to see if any were hurt. + +"Curious, this desperate haste, isn't it?" said the Englishman. "At +every point of the compass from here there's at least a thousand miles +of wilderness. Excepting at this place it wouldn't matter to anybody +whether a thing were done to-night, or next week, or not at all. But +look at those fellows--you'd think this was a London wharf, and a tide +had to be caught. Here they are on piece-work and overtime, where +there's nothing but trees, alligators, tigers, and savages. An unknown +Somebody in Wall Street or Park Lane has an idea, and this is what it +does. The potent impulse! It moves men who don't know the language of +New York and London down to this desolation. It begins to ferment the +place. The fructifying thought! Have you seen the graveyard here? We've +got a fine cemetery, and it grows well. Still, this railway will get +done. Yes, people who don't know what it's for, they'll make a little of +it, and die, and more who don't know what it's for, and won't use it +when it's made, they'll finish it. This line will get its freights of +precious rubber moving down to replenish the motor tyres of +civilisation, and the chap who had the bright idea, but never saw this +place, and couldn't live here a week, or shovel dirt, or lay a track, +and wouldn't know raw rubber if he saw it, he'll score again. Progress, +progress! The wilderness blossoms as the rose. It's wonderful, isn't +it?" + +I was just a little annoyed. After all, I was part of the job. I'd made +my sacrifices, too. But I admitted what he said. Why not? It was +something, that fancy, that every rattle of the winch outside, bringing +up another load, moved abruptly under the impulse of another thought +from London Town--six thousand miles away; two months' travel. Great +London Town! It was true. If London shut off its good will that winch +would stop, and the locomotives would come to a stand to rot under the +trees, and the lianas would lock their wheels; and in a month the forest +would have foundered the track under a green flood. Where the American +accent was dominant, the jaguars would moan at night. That long wound in +the forest would be annealed and invisible in a year. While it +persisted, the idea could conquer and maintain. + +"Yes, but it's all chance," said the Englishman. + +"That uncertain and impersonal will controls us. Have you ever worked +desperately, the fever in your bones, at a link in a job the rest of +which was already abandoned, though you didn't know it? Yet perhaps even +so there is something gained, the knowledge that all you do is fugitive, +that there is nothing but an idea, which may be withdrawn without +warning at any moment, under the most complicated and inspiring +structure. Having that fore-knowledge you can work with a light heart, +secure against betrayal, ready with your own laugh when the mockery +comes. A community finds it must have a bridge; Wall Street hears of it, +and finances a contractor, who finds an architect to design it. An army +builds it. And then this blessed old planet moves in its sleep, and the +obstructing river flows another way. Well for us we can rarely see the +beginning and the end of the work we are doing. Most of the men on this +job have not been here three months. They come and shovel a little dirt, +and die. Or they get frightened, and go. But that idea, that remains +here, using up men and forests, using up all that comes within its +invisible influence, drawing in material and pressing it into its unseen +mould, so that out of the invisible sprouts a railway, projecting length +by length, transmuted men and timber. A courtier once gave his cloak to +Queen Elizabeth to save her feet; but what is that when these men give +their bodies to make an easier road for the commerce of their fellows? +They say every sleeper on a tropical line represents a man. The +conquering human, who lives by dying! + +"The unseen idea remains--some stranger's idea--of gain; profit out of a +necessity not his, filled by other men unknown to him. You can't escape +it. First and last, it uses you. It uses you up. You may twist and +double, but 'when me you fly, I am the wings,' as Emerson says. Once, +once, I deliberately tried to escape from it, to get out of its range. I +thought it was local, that idea, a mean and local urge. I believed I had +escaped it too. I was young, though, then. But we all try when we're +young. There is but one way of escape--you may use up others; but that +isn't an easy way of escape, for some of us. + +"No alternative but that, and a man cannot take it. There you are; use, +or be used. Once I thought I had escaped. Once upon a time, every +morning at eight o'clock, I went to an office in Leadenhall Street. Know +that place? My first job. I was one in a crowd of fifty clerks. We sat +on high stools, facing each other across double-desks. There were brass +rails above each desk, where we rested ledgers and letter baskets. Each +of us marked his stool somewhere with a personal symbol. My own, my sole +point of vantage there, my support in life, that high stool; and I would +have been prepared to maintain it upright--following our office code of +honour, I as firm as may be upon it--even if, treacherously blabbing, I +had had to deprive all my fellow-clerks of their supports in life. We +were not a community, working out a common ideal. An idea used us. And +that was a job I got as a favour, mark you. Some one had known my dead +father. + +"I knew the name of my boss, but that was all. I never spoke to him. I +used to see him, a middle-aged man with sad eyes and a petulant mouth, +clean shaved, and bald headed. He came in a carriage every morning, and +went straight to a room kept from us by opaque glass. I used to wonder +what he did in there. He rarely came into the office. When he did come +into it, his was the only voice which ever spoke there above a whisper; +a sharp, startling, and minatory voice. But we rarely saw him there. A +bell would ring, a sinister summons on the ceiling over the desk of a +principal clerk, and that chap would drop anything he was doing, +anything, and go. I've seen my senior clerk, an elderly man in +spectacles, jump as if he'd been struck when his bell whirred. It was +such an awfully solemn place. Nobody ever thought of calling across that +room, but would go round to another desk, and whisper. You felt you were +part of a grave and secret plot, scribbling away to bring it to a +completion, and that all your fellow-conspirators were possible +traitors. + +"But the plot was never complete. It went on and on, day after day, in +an everlasting, suffocating sanctity, with the opaque shining glass +front of the private room overlooking us, a luminous face entirely +blank, though you knew the brain behind it saw everything, and was aware +of all. It even knew old Beckwith, my senior, had got deeply into debt +through his wife's doctor's bills, and had been fool enough to go to the +moneylenders. His bell sprang a summons one morning; in Beckwith went; +came out again, looking grey, poor old perisher, went straight to the +hat rack, passed awkwardly through the swing doors, letting in a burst +of traffic noise from the street, while we watched him furtively, and +that was the last of Beckwith. I have heard our boss was a rigid +moralist. He said a man who drank, gambled, or got into debt, not being +able to control his own life, was no good for the business of another +man. A system should have no bowels. Out the incompetent had to go. It +was Spartan, but it paid twenty per cent., I've heard. Once we had a +rebellious interruption of our sacred quiet, but only once. I never knew +exactly why it was. We had a huge factory somewhere in the East +End--Cubitt Town way--and one afternoon a woman came to the counter, and +asked for the cashier. She was so obviously East End, in a shawl, that +the counter clerk was shocked at the bare idea of it. She kept demanding +the cashier. The clerk politely, but nervously, because of her rising, +emotional voice, resisted her. She began to shout. We all stopped to see +what would happen. Shouting there! She was still crying out--she wanted +justice for a daughter whose body had got into a machine, I think--and +the cashier was forced to appear. I was surprised that he was so quiet +with her. She was weeping hysterically at our polished mahogany counter, +with its immaculate blotters, and flat, crystal ink-pots, where there +were men in silk hats, looking at the unusual scene sideways and +smiling. She could not be pacified; and suddenly she picked up an +ink-pot, and hurled it through that frozen glass face of the private +room. A devastating crash. The shocking, raucous horror of blasphemy. +The silence following was unendurable. We looked to the private door for +outraged power to appear. Nothing happened. A policeman came and removed +the woman, the cashier smiling indulgently at the officer, and shaking +his head. The system, after a momentary halt, moved on again, broad, +serene, and irresistible. + +"I never catch the smell of an open Bible now but it conjures a picture +of that arid office, angular, polished, and hard, where the ledgers +before the disciplined men exude a dusty, leathery smell. But there I +stayed for years, smelling it, and making out bills of lading and +invoices. It was my lot. There was a junior who assisted me, a chap with +flat, shiny hair parted in the middle. He had a habit of whispering +about girls, when he was not whispering about the music hall last night, +or the football next Saturday. When the cashier, a young man, and a +relative of the boss, came walking down the avenue of desks, his sharp +eyes narrowed to slits, and his mouth a little open, it was funny to see +my junior put on speed, and get an intent and earnest look in his face. + +"When I was done for the day, I'd get my book out of my bag, and wonder, +going home, whether I'd ever see those places I read about, Java, India, +and the Congo, where you went about in a white helmet and a white +uniform, and did things in a large, directive way, helping Indians and +niggers to make something of their country. Not this niggling, selfish, +pretty chandlery written large in stone, mahogany, and glass, disguised +in magnitude and gravity. Cocoanut palms and forests with untold tales. +But like the boys who found fun with the girls, with music halls and +football, but were afraid of the sack. I did nothing. I was even afraid +of the girls. + +"One day as usual I went with some of the other fellows to lunch, at an +A.B.C. shop. We always went there. The girls knew us and would smile at +our jokes. Small coffee and a scone and butter. My life! I found a +_Telegraph_ some one had left on a chair, and I read it more because I +didn't want to listen to that virulent abuse of our mean cashier--he +certainly was mean--than because I wanted to read. In it, by chance, I +noticed an advertisement for a book-keeper who would go to the tropics. +That I noted. Of course, I stood no chance. But I could try. + +"That night at home I wrote an application. I wrote it, I think, a dozen +times, till the letter was impeccable, a thing of beauty and precision. +I felt this was a most momentous affair. Whether it was the excitement +of doing something in the veritable direction of romance, or whether it +was through reading 'Waterman's Wanderings' I don't know, but I remember +a curious dream I had that night. I was alone in a forest which made me +afraid and expectant. It was still and secretive. You know the empty +stage in an unnatural, rosy light, with a glorified distance in which +you expect a devil or a fairy queen to appear. There was a hammock +hanging motionless from a branch. Something was in it, but I could not +see what. That hammock was as still as the leaves hanging over it. Then +the hammock shook, and a girl rose in it and smiled at me. She was tiny, +but adult, and her eyes were shining in the dusk of her hair, which fell +thickly over her little, coffee-coloured breasts. + +"A telegram came for me, just as I was leaving for the office one +morning. It required me to call on Mr. Utah R. Brewster at the Hotel +Palace, that very day, but at a time when I should have been +industriously at work for another. The question was, should I catch that +morning 'bus I had never missed--or take all the possibilities beyond +this door which promised to open on romance? I made up my mind, which +went drunk with rebellion. I got into my seventh-day clothes. Utah R. +Brewster and freedom! The Blackwall 'bus--do you remember those old +hearses, with a straight companion-ladder to the upper deck where the +outside passengers sat, knees up, back to back along the middle?--well, +it had to go by the office, and I was actually in doubt whether, aware +of my unprecedented revolt, it would stop outside the familiar glum +office and lawfully refuse to budge till I alighted. It went on, +blundering past the place, all strangely unconscious of what it was +doing, bearing me with my courage screwed down to bursting-point. The +driver even said what a lovely May morning it was. + +"The Hotel Palace! I had often seen that ornate building when Saturday +afternoon release took me west. Red carpeting on the steps, a glimpse of +ferns, women all as strange as exotics going in and out, and between me +and it a chasm which cut clear to the very centre of the earth. I +carried my attack beyond the portals. It was nothing, after all. A +flunkey put me in a chair too full of cushions to be easy, and I watched +men and women who, at that time of the day, when all the folk I knew +were making desperate and cunning efforts to keep their places here +safe--I watched those men and women behaving as though all eternity were +theirs, and it was the angels' business to bear them up. It was as great +a mystery to me whose every week-day morning was the inviolate +possession of another, as Joshua's solar miracle. I was called, led +along a silent corridor full of shut doors, and after a long walk found +myself beyond all the noise of London, far in solitude with a man in a +dressing-gown, who stood before a fire, working a cigar with strong, +mobile lips. He put up a monocle, and looked at me shyly. Then began to +walk up and down the hearth-rug, talking. + +"'Well,' he said. 'All right. I guess you'll do. Say, you look pretty +fit. You don't drink, eh? Don't get nervous when you see the dead, huh? +All right.' He put his monocle back into his eye, and grinned at me. I +told him, in a rush, how much I wanted to see the tropics. He said +nothing. He got a large blue map, intricate with white lines, and told +me of The Company. The Job. + +"I did not fully comprehend it then. I don't now. He left out too much. +There was no beginning and no ending. There was hardly a middle. He +merely indicated unrelated points; but at any rate the points were so +widely sundered and so different that the bare indication of them +conveyed a sense of an enormous undertaking, difficult, important, and +necessary. Work for an army. I should be but an insignificant sutler in +that army. But at least I should be one in it, one of those putting this +important affair through for future generations. The communal idea, +this. The very size of it gave me a sense of security. It was too +broad-based to collapse. Success was inherent in its impersonal nature. +A state affair. Brewster briefly mentioned some showy names, names of +great financiers. They were my generals, and I should never see them. +But their reputations were partly in my keeping. + +"Hallelujah! I had escaped. I never went back to the office. I never +replied to its curt inquiry. In a week I sailed from Liverpool. Much I +heard, on the mail boat, of The Company, this new enterprise which was +going to make a tropical region one of the richest countries in the +world; develop it, fling its riches to all. In four weeks more I arrived +at a small tropical island, at which I had to wait for The Company's tug +to take me to the mainland and my business. + +"There was a club-house ashore, where I stayed for a few days. There I +met some men who had been working for The Company, but for +incomprehensible reasons were leaving this work to which I had come so +eagerly; they were returning home. They were strangely pallid and limp +as though the dark of some hot damp underground had turned their blood +white. Their talk was drawled out, the weary utterance of the +disillusioned who yet showed fate no resentment. They might have been +the dead speaking, long untouched by any warm human vanity. I was really +glad to get away from them. A tug conveyed me to the mouth of the river, +up which I was to proceed to my station. I joined a shallow-draught +river steamer. + +"The river, that gateway to my dream come true, was a narrow place, a +cleft in universal trees, every tree the same. Mangroves, I suppose. +Soon the forest changed, often rising on each bank to meet overhead. +Those were uncertain places of leaves and dead timber, and as quiet and +still as churchyard yews at midnight. The thumps of our paddle-wheels +did not sound pleasant. Deeper and deeper we went, making turns so often +that I wondered how we could ever be got out again. Sometimes in an open +space we saw a flock of birds. I saw no other sign of life. There were +no men. All my fellow-passengers--there were ten of us--were newcomers; +some from the States, some from Germany, and a Frenchman. I was the only +Englishman. Each of us knew what was expected of himself; none of us +knew what that was which all would be doing. There were clerks with us, +miners, civil engineers, timber men, and a metallurgist. We speculated +much, were perhaps a trifle anxious, but reposed generally on the great +idea. + +"In two hundred miles we reached a clearing. Why it should have been at +that particular place did not show. But there it was, the tangible link +in an invisible, encompassing scheme. It was my place. I landed with my +box. There was a white man on the river bank, sitting on a sea-chest, +his head in his hands. He looked up. 'You the victim?' he said. 'Well, +there you are'--sweeping a lazy arm round the small enclosed +ground--'that's your job. There's your store. There's your house. That's +where the niggers live.' + +"'Pedro!' he called. A copper-coloured native, in shorts and a wide +grass hat, loafed over to us. 'This is your servant,' he said. 'He's a +bit mad, but he's not a fool. He's all right. Keep your eye on the +niggers though. They are fools, and they're not mad. You'll find the +inventory and the accounts in the desk in your hut. The quinine's there +too. Take these keys. Oh, the mosquito curtain's got holes in it. See +you mend it. I couldn't. Had the shakes too bad. Cheer up!' + +"He went aboard. The steamer saluted me with its whistle, turned a +corner, and the sound of its paddles diminished, died. I seemed to +concentrate, as though I had never known myself till that instant when +the sound of the steamer failed, when the last connection with busy +outer life was gone. I could smell something like stephanotis. In that +dead silence my hearing was so acute that I caught a faint rustling, +which I thought might be the sound of things growing. I turned and went +to my hut, sad Pedro following with my box. The cheap American clock in +the hut made a terrific noise, filling the afternoon with its rapid and +ridiculous beat, trying to recall to me that time still was moving +quickly, when it was quite evident that time had now come for me to an +absolute stand in a broad-glowing noon. I sat surveying things from a +chair. Then leisurely took my envelope and read my instructions--how I +was to receive and take charge of shovels, lanterns, machinery parts, +railway metals, soap, cooking utensils, axes, pumps, and so on, which +consignments I must divide and parcel according to directions to come, +marking each consignment for its own destination. The names of a hundred +destinations I should hear about in my future work were given. They were +names meaning nothing to me. Then followed some brief rules for a novice +in the governing of men. Through all the rules ran an incongruous note +for such a place as that, a reminiscence of Leadenhall Street and its +miserable whine. Yet it hardly disturbed me. I sat and thought over this +expansion of my life. A melancholy bird called in two notes at +intervals. The leaves which formed the thatch of my hut hung a long +coarse black fringe at the door. My walls were of leaves, and the floor +a raft of small logs, still with the bark on, just clear of the ground. +The sunlight came through one dark wall, studding it with sparks. No. +That dubious and familiar note in the instructions was nothing. I was +clear beyond all that now--all those occasions for carking anxiety which +deprave the worker, and make him hate the task to which whipping +necessity drives him. The domineering manner of my instructions, the +fretfulness of the old correspondence I found carelessly scattered +about, addressed to my predecessor, was the illusion. The forest behind +the hut, the black river, the quiet, the insects, the foreign smell, the +puzzling men, my men to command, who kept passing without in the violent +light, they were not from books any more, they made evidence direct to +my own senses now. I was authority and providence, moulding and +protecting as I thought right. This place should be kept reasonable, +four square, my plot of earth to be clean and unashamed, frankly open to +the eye of the sky. I would see what I could do; and I would start now. +I laughed at authority--all I could see of it--reflected in a fragment +of mirror kept to a door tree by nail heads; the funny hat and the shirt +which did not matter, bad as it was, for I was authority there by every +reason of that white shirt; and the beard which was coming. Latitude, my +boy, latitude! I strolled out to survey my little world. + +"Of the weeks that followed, nothing comes back so strongly as some +quite irrelevant incidents. A tiger I saw one morning, swimming the +river. Pedro, insensible for two days with fever; and death, which came +to over-rule my viceroy authority. The first blow! There was a flock of +parrots which visited us one day, and it surprised me that the men +should regard them merely as food. But there was work to be done, and in +a definite way; but why we did it--and I know we did it well--and how it +joined up with the Job, I could not see. That was not my affair. There +was the inventory to be checked, for one thing, and before I was through +with it the work had fairly imprisoned me, and the new romantic +circumstances became blurred and over written. That inventory was so +extravagantly wrong that in a week I was going about heated and swearing +at the least provocation. It was fraudulent. There was a sporadic +disorder of goods irreconcilable with their neat records, though each +record bore the signs and counter-signs of Heaven knows how many +departments of the Company. All an inextricable welter of calm errors, +neatly initialled by unknown fools. + +"Every few days a steamer of the Company would call, loaded with more +goods, or would come down river to me to take goods away. The confusion +grew and interpenetrated, till I felt that nothing but dumping all that +was there into the river, and beginning again with a virgin station, +would ever clear the muddle. The place grew maddening through ridiculous +blundering from outside. I had six men to attend to, all with +temperatures and all useless. The arrears of accounts, my work on +sweltering nights while the very niggers slept, the arrears grew. A +steam-shovel came, without its shovel, and not all my written protests +to headquarters could complete that irrational creature lying in +sections rotting in sun and rain, minus the very reason for its +existence, an impediment to us and an irritation. Constant urgent orders +came to me from up country to ship there this abortion. I declined, in +the name of sanity. There followed peremptory demands for a complete +steam-shovel, violent with animosity for me, the unknown idiot who +obstinately refused to let a steam-shovel go, just as though I was in +love with the damned thing, and could not part with it. But I understood +those letters. They were from chaps, irritated, like myself, by all this +awful tomfoolery. And from headquarters came other letters, shot with a +curt note of innocent insolence, asking whether I was asleep there, or +dead, and adding, once, that if I could not keep up communications +better I had better make way for one who could. There were plenty who +could do it. Pleasant, wasn't it? They complained querulously of my +accounts, almost insinuating that I debited more wages to the Company +than I credited to the men. I had too many sick men, they said. Did I +pamper them? And again, I had too many who died; I must take care; they +did not want the local government to get alarmed. + +"The time came when I got amusement out of those letters from +headquarters; for their faults were so plain that I conceived the +headquarters staff having much time to spend, and a sort of instruction +at large to administer ginger to men, like myself, on the spot, on +general principles, so to keep us not only alive, but brisk and anxious; +and doing it with the inconsequential abandon of little children playing +with sharp knives. I got comfort from that view; and when I looked round +my placid domain where my men, with whom I was on good terms, laboured +easily and rightly under the still woods, I told myself I was still +fretting because the business was new, that things would come easier +soon. But at night I felt I was anxious exactly because it was all so +old and familiar to me. + +"One day, having given a group of men at work in a distant corner of the +clearing some advice, I noticed a little path enter the wood beside a +big tree. I had never been into the forest. To tell the truth, I had had +no time. The trees stood round us, keeping us from--what? I had always +felt a little doubt of what was there and could not be seen. I turned +inwards. I found myself at once in a cool gloom. I went on curiously, +peering each side into those shadows, where nothing moved, and in an +hour came to another clearing, smaller than my own, and with no river in +view. By the sun, which now I saw again, this place was north of our +station. The opening was being rapidly choked by a new growth. I was +turning for home again, for the afternoon was late, when I saw a hammock +slung between two saplings beside a dismantled hut. I could just see the +hammock and hut through the scrub. I went over there, and was so +carefully looking for snakes and beastly things in the bush that I had +arrived before I knew it. The hut had been long abandoned. The hammock +had something in it, and I was turning something in my mind as I went up +to it. There were some ragged clothes in the bottom of it, partly +covering bones, and among the rags was a globe of black hair. + +"Next morning I woke late, feeling I had gone wrong. My hands were +yellow and my finger nails blue, and I was shaking with cold. But the +tootling of an up-coming steamer forced me to business. The steamer was +towing six lighters, filled with labourers. They were Poles, I think. +Afterwards, I learned, some hundreds of these men had been collected for +us somewhere by a clever, business-like recruiting agent, who promised +each poor wretch a profitable time in the Garden of Eden. My +responsibility, thirty of them, was landed. They stood by the river, +gaping about them, wondering, some alarmed, more of them angry, most +clad in stuffy woollens, poor souls. Having the fever, I was not very +interested. I told my negro foreman to find them shelter and to put them +to work. We were making our clearing larger, and were building more +store-houses. + +"Something like the pale morning light which wakens you, weary from a +fitful sleep, to the clear apprehension again of an urgent trouble which +has filled the night with dreams, I came through each bout of fever to +know there was really trouble outside with the new men. Daily I had to +crawl about, shivering, my head dizzy with quinine, till the fever came +near its height, when I got into my hammock, and would lie there, +waiting, burning and dry, tremulous with an anxiety I could not shape. +Sometimes then I saw my big negro foreman come to the door, look at me, +as though wishing to say something, but leave, reluctantly, when I +motioned him away. + +"One morning I was better, but hardly able to walk, when shouts and a +running fight, which I could see through the door, showed me the Poles +had mutinied. There was a hustling gang of them outside my door, filling +it with haggard, furious faces. I could not understand them, but one +presently began to shout in French. They refused to work. The food was +bad. They wanted meat. They wanted their contracts fulfilled. They +wanted bread, clothes, money, passages out of the country. They had been +fooled and swindled. They were dying. I argued plaintively with that +man, but it made him shout and gesticulate. At that the voices of all +rose in a passionate tumult, knives and axes flourishing in the +sunlight. In a sudden cold ferocity, not knowing what I was doing, I +picked up my empty gun--I had no ammunition--and moved down on them. +They held for a moment, then broke ground, and walked away quickly, +looking back with fear and malice. Next day they had gone. Yes, +actually. The poor devils. They had gone, with the exception of a few +with the fever. They had taken to that darkness around us, to find a way +to the coast. Talk of the babes in the wood! The men had no food, no +guide, and had they known the right direction they could not have +followed it. If the Company did not take you out of that land, you +stayed there; and if the Company did not feed you there, you died. No +creature could leave that clearing, and survive, unless I willed it. The +forest and the river kept my men together as effectively as though they +were marooned without a boat on a deep-sea island. Those men were never +heard of again. Nobody was to blame. Whom could you blame? The Company +did not desire their death. Simply, not knowing what they were doing, +those poor fellows walked into the invisibly moving machinery of the +Job, not knowing it was there, and were mutilated. + +"We had news of the same trouble with the Poles up river. Some of the +mutineers tried to get to the sea on rafts. Such amazing courage was but +desperation and a complete ignorance of the place they were in. One such +raft did pass our place. Some of them were prone on it, others +squatting; one man got on his feet as the raft swung by our clearing, +and emptied his revolver into us. A few days later another raft floated +by, close in, with six men lying upon it. They were headless. Somewhere, +the savages had caught them asleep. + +"No. I was not affected as much as you might think. I began to look upon +it all with insensitive serenity. I was getting like the men I met on +the islands, months before. I saw us all caught by something huge and +hungry, a viewless, impartial appetite which swallowed us all without +examination; which was slowly eating me. I began to feel I should never +leave that place, and did not care. Why should others want to leave it, +then? Often, through weakness, the trees around us seemed to me to sway, +to be veiled in a thin mist. The heat did not weigh on my skin, but on +my dry bones. I was parched body and mind, and when the men came with +their grievances I felt I could shoot any of them, for very weariness, +to escape argument. The insolence from headquarters I filed for +reference no longer, but lit my pipe with it. But the correspondence +ceased at length, and because now I was callous to it, I failed to +notice it had stopped. + +"Some vessels passed down river, coming suddenly to view, a rush of +paddles, and were gone, tootling their whistles. The work went on, +mechanically. The clearing grew. The sheds spread one by one. The +inventory was kept, the accounts were dealt with. There came a time when +I was forced to remember that the steamer had not called for ten days. +We were running short of food. I had a number of sick, but no quinine. +The men, those quick, faithful fellows with the dog-like, patient eyes, +they looked to me, and I was going to fail them. I made pills of flour +to look like quinine, for the fever patients, trying to cure them by +faith. I wrote a report to headquarters, which I knew would get me my +discharge; I was not polite. There was no meat. We tried dough fried in +lard. When I think of the dumb patience of those black fellows in their +endurance for an idea of which they knew nothing, I am amazed at the +docility and kindness inherent in common men. They will give their lives +for nothing, if you don't tell them to do it, but only let them trust +you to take them to the sacrifice they know nothing about. + +"That went on for a month. We were in rags. We were starved. We were +scarecrows. No steamer had been by the place, from either direction, for +a month. Then a vessel came. I did not know the chap in charge. He +seemed surprised to see us there. He opened his eyes at our gaunt crew +of survivors, shocked. Then he spoke. + +"'Don't you know?' he asked. + +"Even that ridiculous question had no effect on me. I merely eyed him. I +was reduced to an impotent, dumb query. I suppose I was like Jack the +foreman, a gaping, silent, pathetic interrogation. At last I spoke, and +my voice sounded miles away. 'Well, what do you want here?' + +"'I've come for that steam shovel. I've bought it.' + +"The man was mad. My sick men wanted physic. We all wanted food. But +this stranger had come to us just to take away our useless steam shovel. +'I thought you knew,' he said. 'The Company's bought out. Some +syndicate's bought 'em out. A month ago. Thought the Company would be +too successful. Spoil some other place. There's no Company now. They're +selling off. What about that steam shovel?'" + + + + +V + + +We had 5200 tons of cargo, and nearly all of it was patent fuel. This +was to be put into baskets, hauled up, and emptied into railway trucks +run out on the jetty alongside. We watched the men at work for a few +days and nights, and judged we should be at Porto Velho for a month. I +saw for myself long rambles in the forest during that time of golden +leisure, but saw them no more after the first attempt. The clearing on +its north side rose steeply to about a hundred feet on the hard red +conglomerate; to the south, on the San Antonio side, it ended in a creek +and a swamp. But at whatever point the Doctor and I attempted to leave +the clearing we soon found ourselves stopped by a dense undergrowth. At +a few places there were narrow footpaths, subterranean in the quality of +their light, made by timbermen when searching for suitable trees for the +saw-mill. These tracks never penetrated more than a few hundred yards, +and always ended in a well of sunshine in the forest where some big +trees would be prone in a tangle of splintered branches, and a deep +litter of leaves and broken fronds. And that was as far as man had got +inwards from the east bank of the Madeira river. Beyond it was the +undiscovered, and the Araras Indians. On the other side of the river the +difficulty was the same. The Rio Purus, the next tributary of the Amazon +westward from the Madeira, had its course, it was guessed, perhaps not +more than fifty miles across country from the river bank opposite Porto +Velho; but no one yet has made a traverse of the land between the two +streams. The dark secrecy of the region was even oppressive. Sometimes +when venturing alone a little beyond a footpath, out of hearing of the +settlement, surrounded by the dim tangle in which there was not a +movement or a sound, I have become suspicious that the shapes about me +in the half light were all that was real there, and Porto Velho and its +men an illusion, and there has been a touch of panic in my haste to find +the trail again, and to prove that it could take me to an open prospect +of sunny things with the solid "Capella" in their midst. + +We carried our butterfly nets ashore and went of a morning across the +settlement, choosing one of the paths which ended in a small forest +opening, where there was sunlight as well as shadow. Few butterflies +came to such places. You could really think the forest was untenanted. A +tanager would dart a ray of metallic sheen in the wreckage of timber and +dead branches about us, or some creature would call briefly, melancholy +wise, in the woods. Very rarely an animal would go with an explosive +rush through the leaves. But movements and sounds, except the sound of +our own voices, were surprises; and a sight of one of the larger +inhabitants of the jungle is such a rarity that we knew we might be +there for years and never get it. Yet life about its various business in +the woods kept us interested till the declining sun said it was time to +get aboard again. Every foot of earth, the rotting wood, the bark of the +standing trees, every pool, and the litter of dead leaves and husks, +were populous when closely regarded. Most of the trees had smooth barks. +A corrugated trunk, like that of our elm, was exceptional. But when a +bole had a rough surface it would be masked by the grey tenacious +webbing of spiders; on one such tree we found a small mantis, which so +mimicked the spiders that we were long in discovering what it really +was. Many of the smooth tree trunks were striated laterally with lines +of dry mud. These lines were actually tunnels, covered ways for certain +ants. The corridors of this limitless mansion had many such surprises. +There were the sauba ants; they might engross all a man's hours, for in +watching them he could easily forget there were other things in the +world. They would move over the ground in an interminable procession. +Looked at quickly, that column of fluid life seemed a narrow brook, its +surface smothered with green leaves, which it carried, not round or +under obstructions, but upwards and over them. Nearly every tiny +creature in that stream of life held upright in its jaws a banner, much +larger than itself, cut from a fresh leaf. It bore its banner along +hurriedly and resolutely. All the ants carrying leaves moved in one +direction. The flickering and forward movement of so many leaves gave +the procession of ants the wavering appearance of shallow water running +unevenly. On both sides of the column other ants hurried in the reverse +direction, often stopping to communicate something, with their antenn, +to their burdened fellows. Two ants would stop momentarily, and there +would be a swift intimation, and then away they would go again on their +urgent affairs. We would see rapid conversations of that kind everywhere +in the host. Other ants, with larger heads, kept moving hither and +thither about the main body; having an eye on matters generally, I +suppose, policing or superintending them. There was no doubt all those +little fellows had a common purpose. There was no doubt they had made up +their minds about it long since, had come to a decision communally, and +that each of them knew his job and meant to get it done. There did not +appear to be any ant favoured by the god of the ants. You have to cut +your own leaf and get along with it, if you are a sauba. + +There they were, flowing at our feet. I see it now, one of those +restricted forest openings to which we often went, the wall of the +jungle all round, and some small attalea palms left standing, the green +of their long plumes as hard and bright as though varnished. Nothing +else is there that is green, except the weeds which came when the +sunlight was let in by the axe. The spindly forest columns rise about, +pallid in a wall of gloom, draped with withered stuff and dead cordage. +Their far foliage is black and undistinguishable against the irregular +patch of overhead blue. It never ceased to be remarkable that so little +that was green was there. The few pothos plants, their shapely parasitic +foliage sitting like decorative nests in some boughs half-way to the +sky, would be strangely conspicuous and bright. The only leaves of the +forest near us were on the ground, brown parchments all of one simple +shape, that of the leaf of the laurel. I remember a stagnant pool there, +and over it suspended some enamelled dragonflies, their wings vibrating +so rapidly that the flies were like rubies shining in obscure nebul. +When we moved, the nymphs vanished, just as if a light flashed out. We +sat down again on our felled tree to watch, and magically they +reappeared in the same place, as though their apparition depended on the +angle and distance of the eye. When a bird called one started +involuntarily, for the air was so muffled and heavy that it was strange +to find it open instantly to let free the delicate sibilation. + +In the low ground beyond Porto Velho up stream there was another place +in the forest where sometimes we would go, the approach to it being +through a deep cutting made by the railwaymen in the clay. This clay, a +stiff homogeneous mass mottled rose and white, was saturated with +moisture, and the helicon butterflies frequented it, probably because it +was damp; and a sight of their black and yellow, or black and crimson +wings, spread on the clean plane of the beautifully tinted rock, was far +better than putting them in the collecting box. The helicons are bold +insects, and did not seem to mind our close inspecting eyes. Beyond the +cutting was a long narrow clearing, with a giant silk cotton tree, a +province in itself, on the edge of the forest. Looking straight upward +we could see its foliage, but so far away was the spreading canopy of +leaves that it was only a black cloud, the outermost sprays mere wisps +of dark vapour melting in the intense brightness of the sky. The smooth +grey trunk was heavily buttressed, the "sapeomas" (literally, flat +roots) ascending the bole for more than fifty feet, and radiating in +walls about the base of the tree; the compartments were so large that +they could have been used as stabling for four or five horses. From its +upper limbs a wreckage of lianas hung to the ground. Beyond this giant +the path rose to a place where the clearing was already waist high with +scrub. Then it descended again to the woods. But the woods there were +flooded. That was my first near view of the igapo. We had approached the +trees, for they seemed free of the usual undergrowth, and passed into +the sombre colonnades. The way appeared clear enough, and we thought we +could move ahead freely at last, but found in a few steps the bare floor +was really black water. The base of the forest was submerged, the +columns which supported the unseen roof, through which came little +light, diminished down soundless distance into night. After the flaming +day from which we had just come this darkness was repellant. The forest, +that austere, stately and regarding Presence draped interminably in +verdant folds, while we gazed upon it suspecting no new thing of it, as +by a stealthy movement had withdrawn its green robe, and our sight had +fallen into the cavernous gloom of its dank and hollow heart. + +It was about the little wooden town itself, where the scarified earth +was already sparsely mantled with shrubs, flowering vines, and weeds, +and where the burnt tree stumps, and even the door posts in some cases, +were freshly budding--life insurgent, beaten down by fire and sword, but +never to its source and copious springs--that most of the butterflies +were to be found. In a land where blossoms were few, these were the +winged flowers. About the squalid wooden barracks of the negro and +native labourers, which were built off the ground to allow of +ventilation, and had a trench round them foul with drainage and evil +with smells, a Coloenis, a scarlet butterfly with narrow, swallow-like +wings, used to flash, and frequently would settle there. Over the +flowering weeds on the waste ground there would be, in the morning +hours, or when the sky was overcast, glittering clouds of the smaller +and duller species, though among them now and then would stoop a very +emperor of butterflies, a being quick and unbelievably beautiful to +temperate eyes. After midday, when the sun was intense, the butterflies +became scarce. When out of the shade of the woods, and stranded, at that +time, in the hopeless heat of the bare settlement, we could turn into +one of the houses of the officials of the company for shelter. These +also were of timber, cool, with a verandah that was a cage of fine +copper gauze to keep out the insects. All the doors were self-closing. +The fewest chances were offered to the mosquitoes. There was no glass, +for the window openings also were covered with copper mesh. Here we +could sit in shaded security, in lazy chairs, and look out over the +clearing to the river below, and to the level line of forest across the +river, while listening to stories which had come down to Porto Velho +from the interior, brought by the returning pioneers. + +Porto Velho had a population of about three hundred. There were +Americans, Germans, English, Brazilians, a few Frenchmen, Portuguese, +some Spaniards, and a crowd of negroes and negresses. There was but one +white woman in the settlement. I was told the climate seemed to poison +them. The white girl, who persisted in staying in spite of warnings from +the doctors, was herself a Brazilian, the wife of one of the labourers. +She refused to leave, and sometimes I saw her about, petite, frail, +looking very sad. But her husband was earning good money. It was a busy +place, most of it being workshops, stores, and offices, with an engine +and trucks jangling inconsequentially on the track by the shore. The +line crossed a creek by a trestle bridge, and disappeared in the forest +in the direction of San Antonio. The hospital for the men was nearly two +miles up the track. + +It was along the railway track towards the hospital, with the woods to +the left, and a short margin of scrub and forest, and then the river, on +the right hand, that I saw one morning in sauntering a few miles as many +butterflies as there are flowers in an English garden in June. They were +the blossoms of the place. The track was bright with them. They settled +on the hot metals and ties, clustered thickly round muddy pools, a +plantation there as vivid and alive, in the quick movements of their +wings, as though a wind shook the petals of a bed of flowers. They +flashed by like birds. One would soar slowly, wings outspread and +stable, a living plane of metallic green and black. There was a large +and insolent beauty--he did not move from his drink at a puddle though +my boot almost touched him--his wings a velvety black with crimson eyes +on the underwings, and I caught him; but I was so astonished by the +strength of his convulsive body in the net that I let him go. Near the +hospital some bushes were covered with minute flowers, and seen from a +distance the countless insects moving about those bushes were a +glistening and puzzling haze. + +All that morning I had felt the power of the torrid sun, which clung to +the body like invisible bonds, and made one's movements slow, was a +luscious benefit, a golden bath, a softening and generative balm; a +mother heat and light whose ardent virtues stained pinions crimson and +cobalt, and made bodies strong and convulsive, and caused the earth to +burst with rushing sap, to send up green fountains; for so the palms, +which showed everywhere in the woods, looked to me. You could hear the +incessant low murmur of multitudinous wings. And I had been warned to +beware of all things. I felt instead that I could live and grow for ever +in such a land. + +Presently, becoming a little weary of so much strong light, I found it +was midday, and looking back, there was the ship across a curve of the +river. It was two good miles away; two intense, shadeless, silent +afternoon miles. I began the return journey. An increasing rumbling +sound ahead made me look up, as I stepped from tie to tie, and there +came at me a trolley car, pumped along slowly, four brown bodies rising +and falling rhythmically over its handle. A man in a white suit was its +passenger. As it passed me I saw it bore also something under a white +cloth; the cloth moulded a childish figure, of which only the hem of a +skirt and the neat little booted feet showed beyond the cloth, and the +feet swayed limply with the jolts of the car in a way curiously +appealing and woful. The car stopped, and the white man, a cheerful +young doctor chewing an extinct cigar, came to me for a light. He stood +to gossip for a few minutes, giving his men a rest. "That's the +Brazilian girl," he said; "she wouldn't go home when told, poor thing." + + * * * * * + +This Madeira river had the look of very adventurous fishing, and the +Doctor had brought with him an assortment of tackle. The water was +opaque, and it was deep. Its prospects, though the forest closed round +us, were spacious. It flowed silently, with great power, and its surface +was often coiled by profound movements. The coils of the river, as we +were looking over the side one morning, began to move in our minds also, +and the Doctor mentioned his tackle. There was the forest enclosing us, +as mute as the water, its bare roots clenched in aqueous earth. Nobody +could tell us much about the fish in this river, but we heard stories of +creatures partly seen. There was one story of a thing taken from the +very place in the river where we were anchored, a fish in armour which +the natives declared was new to them; a fearful ganoid I guessed it, +reconstructing it in vision from fragments of various tales about it, +such as is pictured in a book on primeval rocks. There were alligators, +too, and there was the sucuruju, which I could call the great water +serpent, only the Indian name sounds so much more right and awful; and +that fellow is forty feet long in his legend, but spoils a good story +through reducing himself by half when he is actually killed. Still, +twenty feet of stout snake is enough for trouble. I saw one, just after +it was killed, which was twenty-two feet in length, and was three feet +round its middle. So to fish in the Madeira was as if one's hook and +line were cast into the deeps where forms that are without name stir in +the dark of dreams. We got out our tackle, and the cook had an +assortment of stuff he did not want, and that we put on the hooks, and +waited, our lines carried astern by the current, for signals from the +unknown. Yet excepting for a few catfish, nothing interrupted the placid +flow of stream and time. The Doctor put a bight of the lime round his +wrist, sat down, and slept. We had fine afternoons, broad with the +wealth of our own time. + +Old man Jim came aboard and saw our patience with amusement. He +suggested dynamite, and no waiting. The river was full of good fish, and +he would come next day with a canoe and take us where we could get a +load. It was a suggestion which needed slurring, to look attractive to +sportsmen. Jim took it for granted that we simply wanted fish to eat, +and as many as we could get; and next morning there he was alongside +with his big boat and its crew. Jim himself was in the stern, the +navigator, and he was sitting on what I was told was a box of dynamite. +Now, there were two others of our company who, but the day before, were +even eager to see what dynamite would send up from the bottom of that +river; but when they saw the craft alongside with its wild-looking crew, +and Jim with his rifle sitting on a power which could lift St. Paul's, +they considered everything, and decided they could not go that day. I +went alone. + +I suppose men do plucky things because they are largely thoughtless of +the danger of the things they do. As soon as I was sitting on the level +of the water in that crazy boat, with Jim and his explosive, and beside +him what whisky he had not already consumed, and saw under my nose the +eddies and upheavals of the current, I knew I was doing a very plucky +thing indeed, and wished I was high and safe on the "Capella." But we +had pushed off. + +Jim, with his eyes dreamy through barley juice, was the pilot, and there +was a measure of confidence to be got from the way he navigated us past +the charging trees afloat. There was no drink in the steering paddle, at +least. But the shore was a long swim away; yet perhaps it would have +been as pleasant to be drowned or blown-up as to be lost in the jungle. +We turned into a still creek, where the trees met overhead. Jim +continued his course till the inundated forest was about us. The gloom +was hollow, the pillars rising from the black floor were spectral, and +our voices and paddles sounded like a noisy irruption among the aisles +of a temple. The echoes fled from us deeper into the dark. But Jim was +all unconscious of this; he but stopped our progress, and opened the box +of cartridges. + +I had never seen dynamite, but only heard of it. I understood it had +unexpected qualities. Jim had a cartridge in his hand, and was digging a +knife into it. I repeat, the flooded wilderness was round us, and below +was the black deep. Jim fitted a detonator to a length of fuse, and +stuck it in the cartridge. He was in no hurry. He stopped now and then +for another drink. Having got the cartridge ready, with its potent +filament, he tied four more cartridges round it. I put these things down +simply, but my hand ached with the way I gripped the gunwale, and I +could hear myself breathing. + +Then Jim struck a match on his breeches, with all the fumbling +deliberation of the fully ripe--brushing the vine leaves from his eyes +the better to see what he was doing--and he lit the fuse, after it had +twice dodged the match. It fizzed. The splutter worked downwards +energetically. Jim did not deign to look at it, though it fascinated me. +He slowly scratched his back with his disengaged hand, and gazed +absently into the forest. + +The spark and its spurts of smoke were now near the bottom. Jim changed +the menace into his right hand, in order to reach another part of his +back with his leisurely left. His eyes were still on the forest. I kept +swallowing. + +"Jim," I said eagerly--though I did not know I was going to +speak--"don't--don't you think you'd better throw it away now?" + +He regarded me steadily, with eyes half shut. The spark spurted, and +dropped another inch. He looked at it. He looked round the waters +without haste. Then, and I could have cried aloud, he threw the shocking +handful away from us. + +It sank. There were a few bubbles, and we sat regarding each other in +the quiet of a time which had been long dead, waiting for something to +happen in a time to come. At the end of two weeks the bottom of the +river fell out, with the noise of the collapse of an iron foundry on a +Sunday. Our boat tried to leap upwards, but failed. The water did not +burst asunder. It vibrated, and was then convulsed. + +Dead fish appeared everywhere, patches of white all round; but we hardly +saw them. There was a great head which emerged from the floor, looking +upwards sleepily, and two hands moved slowly. These quietly sank again. +The tail of the saurean appeared, slowly described a half circle, and +went. The big alligator then lifted itself, and performed some grotesque +antics with deliberation and gravity. Then it gathered speed. It +rotated, thrashed, and drummed. It did all that a ten-horse-power maniac +might. I think the natives shrieked. I think Jim kept saying "hell"; for +I was conscious only with my eyes. When the dizzy reptile recovered, it +shot away among the trees like a torpedo. + +We went home. That night I understand the second mate was kept awake +listening to me, as I slept, bursting into spasms of dreadful merriment. + + * * * * * + +When you are lost in the map of a country that is beyond the worn +routes, trying to discover therein the place name which is the most +secluded and inaccessible, if the map should happen to be that of South +America, then your thought would naturally wander to the neighbourhood +of San Antonio of the Rio Madeira. There you stay, to wonder what +strange people and rocks and trees are to be found at San Antonio. It +looks remote, even on the map. The sign which stands for the village is +caught in a central loop of the mesh which is the river system of the +Amazon forest. San Antonio must be beyond all, and a great journey. It +is far outside the radius. And that would be enough, to be beyond the +last ripple of the traffic and at peace, where that dark disquiet, that +sombre emanation which rises from the soured earth where myriads have +their chimneys, their troubles and their strife, staining even the +morning and the morning thought, is no more. A place where the light has +the clarity of the first dawn, and one might hear, while sure of +absolute solitude, the winding of a strange horn, and suspect, when +coming to an opening in the woods, the flight of a shining one; for +somewhere the ancient gods must have sanctuary. A land where the rocks +have the moss of unvisited fastnesses, and you can snuff the scents of +original day. + +Where we were anchored, San Antonio was in view, about five miles up +stream. Where at the end of that reach of river a line of tremulous +light, which we thought was the cataracts, bridged the converging +palisades of the jungle, in the trees of the right bank it was sometimes +easy to believe there was a glint of white buildings. But looking again, +to reassure your sight, the apparition of dwellings vanished. At night, +in the quiet, sometimes the ears could detect the shudder of the weighty +rapids by San Antonio; but it was merely a tremor felt; there was no +sound. The village remained to us for some time just that uncertain +gleam by day, and the rapids but a minute reduction of a turmoil that +was far. For in that languorous heat we counted miles differently, and +it was pleasanter to suspect than to go and prove, and much easier. + +One day I went. When in a small boat the jungle towered. The river, too, +had a different character. From the shore, or from the big "Capella," +the river was an expanse of light, an impression of shining peace. +Whenever you got close to its surface it became alive and menacingly +intimate. Our little boat seemed to roll in the powerful folds of a +monster which wallowed ponderously and without ceasing. The trees +afloat, charging down swiftly and in what one felt was an ominous quiet, +stood well above our tiny craft. + +We steered close in-shore to avoid the drifting wood and the set of the +current. The jungle's sheer height, confusion, and intensity were more +awesome than when seen from the steamer. Not many of the trees were of +great beam, but their consistent height, with the lianas in a wreck from +the far overhanging cornice, dwarfed our boat to an unimportant straw. +At times the forest had a selvage of cane, and growths of arrow grass, +bearing long white plumes twelve feet above us, and a pair of fan-shaped +leaves resembling palm leaves. + +The sound of the cataracts increased, and a barrier grew in height +athwart the Madeira. Mounting high right ahead of us at last was a mass +of granite boulders, with broad smooth surfaces, having the structure of +gigantic masonry in ruin which weathered plutonic rock so often assumes. +Beyond the barrier the river was plainly above our level. It was seen, +resplendent as quicksilver, through the crenellations of the black +rocks. One central mass of rock, higher than the rest, had a crown of +dark and individual palms, standing paramount in the upper light. Yet, +with that gleam of wide river behind, no great rush of water broke +there. A few fountains spurted, apparently without source, and +collapsed, and pulsed again. The white runnels of foam which laced the +contours of the piled boulders gave the barrier the appearance of being +miraculously uplifted, as though one saw thin daylight through its +interstices. Not till the village was in view did we see where the main +river avoided the barrier. The course here was looped. Above the barrier +the river turned from the right bank, and heaped itself in a smooth +steep glide through a narrow pass against the opposite shore, the +roaring welter then running obliquely across the foot of the rocks to +the front of San Antonio on the right bank again. The forest beside the +falls seemed to be tremulous with continuous and profound underground +thunder. + +The little huddle of San Antonio's white houses is on slightly rising +ground, and the lambent green of the jungle is beside them and over +them. The foliage presses the village down to the river. Like every +Amazonian town and village, it appears, set in that forest, as rare a +human foothold as a ship in mid-ocean; a few lights and a few voices in +the dark and interminable wastes. So I landed from our little craft +elated with a sense of luckily acquired security. + +The white embowered village, the leaping fountains and the rocks, the +air in a flutter with the shock of ponderous water collapsing, the +surmounting island in mid-stream with its coronet of palms, the +half-naked Indians idling among the Bolivian rubber boats hauled up to +the foreshore below, the unexplored jungle which closed in and framed +the scene, the fierce sun set in the rounded amplitude of the clouds of +the rains, made the tropical picture which was the right reward for a +great journey. I had come down long weeks of empty leisure, in which the +mind got farther and farther away from the cities where time is so +carefully measured and highly valued. The centre of the ultimate +wilderness was more than a matter of fact. It was now a personal +conviction which needed no verification. + +The village had but one street. There were two rows of houses of a +single storey, built of clay and plaster, dilapidated, the whitewash +stained and peeling, every house open and cavernous below, without +doors, in the way of Brazilian dwellings, to give coolness. The street +was almost deserted when we entered it. A few children played in the +shadows, and outside one house a merchant in a white cotton suit stood +overlooking the scales while the half-breeds weighed balls of rubber; +for this town is in the midst of the richest rubber country of the +world, and all the wealth of the rivers Mamor, Beni, and Madre de Dios +comes this way. And that was why, as we idled through its single +thoroughfare, some dark girls came to stand at the house openings, +dressed in odorous muslin, red flowers in their shiny black hair, and +their smiling eyes full of interest in us. The rough road between the +dwellings was overgrown with grass, and in the centre of it, partly +hidden by the grass, was the line laid long ago by the railway +enterprise which ended so tragically. To-day the rubber men use it as a +portage for their boats. There were several inns, half-obliterated names +painted on their outer walls. They had crude interior walls of mud, and +floors of bare earth. In such an inn would be a few iron tables and +chairs, and there a visitor might drink from bottles which at least bore +European labels, though the contents and cost were past all European +understanding. I forgot to say that by the foreshore of this little +village is the head dept of a great rubber house, a building apparently +out of all proportion to the size of San Antonio. But I looked on that +place with the less interest, though from what my native companion told +me the head of the house is a monarch more absolute and undisputed in +this wild country than most eastern kings are to-day. + +I was more interested in the huge boulders of smooth granite which rose +strangely from the street in places, and broke its regularity. These +rounded and noble rocks often topped the houses. What man had built +looked mean and transitory beside the poise and fine contours of the +rocks. The colony of giant rocks had a look of settled and tranquil +solidity, a friendly and hospitable aspect. They might have been old +friends which time had proved; the houses beside them were alien by +contrast. I felt that San Antonio had merely imposed itself on them, +that they tolerated the village because it was but an incident; that +they could afford to wait. When I saw them there I recognised the +village of my map. I climbed to the summit of one, over its weather-worn +shelves. It had a skin of lichen, warm in the sun and harshly familiar. +The curious hieroglyphics of the lichen were intelligible enough, and +more easily read than the signs on the walls of the inns. I learned +where I was; and knew that when the day of the great rubber house had +long passed, my village would still be there, and prospering. + +Below my rock, on the land side--to which I had turned my back--was a +monstrous cesspool. It was in the centre of the village. It was the +capital of all flies, and the source and origin of all smells, varying +smells which reposed, as I had found when below in the hot and stagnant +street, in strata, each layer of smell invisible but well-defined. Among +the weeds in the roads were many derelict cans. Over the empty tins, and +the garbage, pulsed and darted hundreds of Brazil's wonderful insects. + +But I was above all that, on my high rock. Its height released me to a +wide and splendid liberty. I cannot tell you all that my vantage +surveyed. But chiefly I was assured by what I saw that I was more +central even than my eyes showed; they merely found for me the +intimation. Here was all the proof I wanted; for faith is not blind, but +critical, yet instantly transcends to knowledge at the faintest glimmer +of authentic light, as when an exile who is beset by inexplicable and +puissant circumstance among strangers whose tongue is barbarous, is +surprised at a secret sign passed there of fellowship, and is at once +content. Yet I can report but a broad river flowing smooth and bright +out of indefinite distance between dark forests to the wooded islands +below; and by the islands suddenly accelerated and divided, in a slight +descent, pouring to a lower level in taut floods as smooth, noiseless, +and polished as mercury. Lower still was the gleaming turmoil of the +falls, pulsing, and ever on the point of vanishing, but constant, its +shouting riot baffled by the green cliffs everywhere. But I could +escape, for once, over the parapets of the jungle to the upper rolling +ocean of leaves; to the distance, dim and blue, the region where man has +never been. + + * * * * * + +There was a man who looked like a sensational ruffian who boarded us one +morning at Porto Velho, and said he had come to find me. He was going up +into the forest, beyond the track, and would I go with him? That made me +look at him again, and with some anxiety; for I had tried before to get +away, but the crowd on the "Capella" disliked the idea. The Doctor +talked dysentery and things. He said it was safer to keep to the ship +during the month we had still to spend at Porto Velho. I felt, overborne +by their arguments, a rather thin sort of adventurer. That mysterious +railway would have drawn the mind of any man who had not lost his +curiosity, and who valued being alive more than his chance of old age. +The track went from Porto Velho into outer darkness. It left the +clearing and the village of mushroom buildings, the place where the +inhuman had been moderately subdued, where a modicum of industry was +established in a continent of primitive wild, crossed a creek by a +trestle bridge in view of our steamer, and vanished; that was the end of +it, so far as we knew. Men came back to the settlement through that hole +of the forest, and boarded the "Capella" to tell us, in long hot nights, +something of what the forest of the Madeira was hiding; and they were +bearded like Crusoe, pallid as anmic women, and speckled with insect +bites. These men said that where they had been working the sun never +shone, for his light was stopped on the unbroken green which, except +where the big rivers flowed, roofed the whole land. I liked the look of +the stranger who had come to persuade me to this rare holiday. He said +his name was Marion Hill, of Texas. He wore muddy riding breeches, and a +black shirt open at the throat, and boots of intricately embossed +leather which came well up his thighs, spurs that would have ravelled a +pachyderm, and the insolent hat of a bandit. He had a waistbelt heavy +with guns and ammunition. I saw his face, and divined instantly that +this was a man, and that the memory of a time with him would serve me as +a refuge in the grey and barren years, and as a solace. I told him I +would get my things together. The Skipper called after me that if I +returned too late I should have to walk home. + +There was a commissary train next morning, taking men and supplies to +the camps. It had a number of open waggons, loaded with material, about +which the labourers going up to replenish the gangs made themselves as +comfortable as they could. I had an indiarubber bag for all my +belongings, being told that it was best for strapping to a mule, and a +valuable lifebuoy when a canoe overturned. I accepted it with perfect +faith, for I knew nothing of mules or canoes. The train moved off, a +bell on the engine ringing sepulchrally. Hill and I were packed into a +box car, which had a door open on either side for light and air. Two +American engineers were in charge, there was an Austrian to superintend +the distribution at each camp of the provisions, the Austrian had an +Italian assistant, and a few Barbadian blacks were there to move about +the packages. I sat on a case of tinned fruit. Hill reposed on one of +the shelves where we should stow fever victims, when we collected them. +There was no more room in the car, and another degree of heat would have +meant complete ruin. + +When Porto Velho is left for the place where the line is to end, when +completed, though it is but 250 miles away, two months at least is +required for the return journey. That way goes the paymaster, with his +armed escort, and every bundle of shovels and tin of provisions. When I +went, too, the train helped for sixty miles. Then most of the material +was transported at the Rio Caracoles, a tributary of the Madeira, and +taken by boats in stages up the main stream, cargoes and boats being +hauled round each cataract. Travellers could shorten the journey by +going overland part of the way, mules being kept on the hither side of +the Caracoles river for that purpose. + +We delivered some patients at the hospital, went through a cutting of +red granite to the back of San Antonio, and then entered the forest. +That absorbed us. Thenceforward, and until I reached the ship again, I +was dominated by the lofty, silent, confused, and brooding growth. +Everywhere it was dramatically passionate in its intensity, an arrested +riot of green life, and its muteness kept expectant attention fixed upon +it. The right of way through the forest was a hundred feet wide. On each +side of us the trees rose like virid cliffs. The trees usually were of +slender girth, almost as straight as fir poles, rising perhaps for sixty +feet without a branch. Occasionally there was a giant, a silk cotton +tree, or the strange tree with its grey trunk and pale birch-like habit +of foliage which I had noticed on the riverside; but they were not +common. Palms were numerous. From ground to high parapet the spaces +between the columns were filled with lianas, unrelated big leaves, and +the characteristic fronds of the endogens. In this older part of the +track, though it had been made but little more than a year, the scrub +was dense. The undergrowth was often so strong and aggressive as to +brush the train as we slowly bumped along. Sometimes we went through +deep cuttings in the red clay, close enough for me to notice it was +interstratified with waterworn but angular quartz peebles. But the track +usually was over flat country, only rarely crossing a gulley. + +At every maintenance camp we stopped to deliver supplies. From out of a +small huddle of shanties made of leaves and poles, insignificant beneath +the forest wall, a number of languid half-breeds, merely in pants and +hats, would loiter through the hot sun to us for their sustenance. The +men of those secluded huts must have been glad of our temporary uproar, +and our new faces. The bell rang, and we left them to burial in their +deep silence again. There were intervening camps, which had been +deserted as the work progressed. These were even more interesting to me. +The work of the human, when he leaves it to the wild from which he has +won it with so much pain, has an appeal of its own, with its abandoned +ruin returning to the ground again. There would be a sandy swamp, and +standing back from the line some weather-worn shanties with roofs awry. +I am sure there were ghosts in those camps. One we passed, and it was +called Camp 10-1/2, and resting against its open front where the posts +were giving was a butterfly net. I pointed this out. "Oh, that," said +Hill. "Old man Biddell. I knew him. He was all right. He was great on +bugs and butterflies. Used to wear spectacles. He was a good engineer +though. Died of blackwater fever before the line got past this camp. +That was his shack." And that was his butterfly net, all of Biddell now, +his sole monument and reminder. As we bumped by the huts the helicons +and swallow tails rose precipitously from the mangled cans and cast +rubbish. I never knew Biddell, the man with spectacles and a butterfly +net, but a first rate railway man, who left that net outside his hut one +morning, and at evening was buried, but now I am doomed to think of him +while I live. + +It was near midnight when we reached the last active camp but one on the +line, where we alighted. It was wiser, I was told, to run the remaining +length of the track by daylight. Here a doctor and a few engineers, +bearing handlamps against which moths were blundering, met us in a place +which seemed to be the bottom of a well, for the black shadows which +rose round us shut out all but a few stars. The men raised joyous cries +at the sight of Hill; and they took this stranger on trust. We fed in a +hut which was four poles and a roof. One pole had a hurricane lamp tied +to it. There was an enormous quiet, which the men seemed to delight in +breaking with their voices. Four planks nailed unevenly to uprights was +our table, and we sat crooked on a similar but lower construction. We +ate out of enamelled plates with iron instruments, and it was very good +indeed. There were four of us who were white, and we were babes in the +wood. One of us pretended he was playing on a Jew's-harp, sang songs +riotously, and then began to talk long and earnestly of New York. These +men lived in four railway waggons which had doors made of copper gauze, +berths with mosquito bars, and portraits of the folk at home; and in the +case of the doctor the waggon smelt of iodoform, had one wall full of +bottles, and a table with a board and chessmen. In one of those waggons +I lay down to sleep under a net; but the blanket felt damp and had a +foreign smell. My thoughts crowded me. For long I listened to so much +jungle pressing close to my bed, waiting for it to make known its near +but unseen presence with a voice; but it did not. + +Next morning at sunrise the train moved forward to the construction camp +at the Rio Caracoles. I rode on a truck pushed in front of the +locomotive, perched there with some engineers who kept a careful eye on +the track. I saw at once why the train did not proceed at night. It was +too speculative altogether. Behind us the locomotive's smoke stack +rolled like a steamer's funnel when a beam sea is running. This part of +the line crossed many ravines, where we looked down upon the tree tops; +and when on a frail wooden bridge which crossed a vacancy like that such +movements of the drunken engine behind us became dazzling. Then, too, +there were some high "fills," or embankments. After heavy rains these +have a habit of retiring from the metals, which are left looped and +twisted in mid-air. An engineer told me that one cannot always tell when +an embankment is on the point of retiring. He was carefully watching, +however. But we reached the construction camp. + +At the construction camp by the side of the Rio Caracoles we stayed two +days. There was the end of the line, and the men who were growing the +track were so busy that I was left to my own devices. Till the +railwaymen came none but the Caripuna Indians knew what was there; so +into the woods, of course, I would go, trying every track which led from +the camp. A botanist might have seen some difference from the forest at +Porto Velho, but I could not discover any. In appearance it was exactly +the same. The trees mostly were arborescent laurels I believe, with +smooth brown boles which were blotched through their outer cuticle +peeling away, much in the manner of that of the plane tree. The brown +parchments of their laurel-like leaves covered the floor of the woods. +The trees were rarely of great diameter, but their crowns were so +distant that nothing could be made of their living foliage. I saw no +flowers at all. There were few orchids, but the large shapely emerald +coloured leaves of pothos plants were very frequent, sitting in the +angles of branches and trunk. Aloft was always the wreckage of vines +suspended, as vaguely seen and as motionless as cobwebs and +dilapidations in the overhead darkness of high vaults. I rarely heard a +sound in that forest, though there was a bird which called. I often +heard it in the woods of the upper Madeira. It called thrice, as a boy +who whistles shrilly through his fingers; a long call, and then another +whistle in the same key followed instantly by a falling note. One +delightful walk was along a path which had not been made by the +railwaymen, for it was evidently old, as it ran, a cleft in the trees, +not through broken timber, but in partial sunshine, with a mesh of vines +and freely growing plants on either side. It led downwards to a small +stream, which was cumbered with fallen and rotting timber, a cool hollow +where ferns were abundant. It was in the woods at the Caracoles that I +first saw the great morpho butterfly at home. This species, peculiar to +South America, is rarely seen except in the shades of the virgin forest. +One day in the twilight aisles near the Caracoles camp, where nothing +moved, and all was a grey monotone, it so surprised me with its happy +undulating flight--as though it danced along, and were in no hurry--its +great size, and its bright blue wings, that I rose mesmerised, stumbling +after it through the dank litter, thoughtless of direction, not thinking +of the danger of losing my way, thinking of nothing but that joyous +resplendent creature dancing aloft ahead of me in the gloom and just +beyond my reach. Its polished blue wings flashed like specul. It might +have been a drifting fragment of sunny sky. I had never seen anything +alive so beautiful. A fall over a log brought me to sobriety, and when I +looked up it was gone. Afterwards I saw many of them; sometimes when +walking the forest there would be morphos always in sight. + +The construction camp was not more than a month old. Perched on an +escarpment by the line was a row of tents, and at the back of the tents +some flimsy huts built of forest stuff. They stood about a ruin of +felled trees, with a midden and its butterflies in the midst. Probably +thirty white men were stationed there. They were then throwing a wooden +bridge across the Caracoles. Most of them were young American civil +engineers, though some were English; and when I found one of them--and +he happened to be a countryman of mine--balancing himself on a narrow +beam high over a swift current, and, regardless of the air heavy with +vapour and the torrid sun, directing the disposal of awkward weights +with a concentration and keenness which made me recall with regret the +way I do things at times, I saw his profession with a new regard. I +noticed the men of that transient little settlement in the wilds were in +constant high spirits. They betrayed nothing of the gravity of their +undertaking. They might have been boys employed at some elaborate jest. +But it seemed to me to be a pose of heartiness. They repelled reality +with a laugh and a hand clapped to your shoulder. At our mess table, +over the dishes of toucan and parrot supplied by the camp hunters, they +rallied each other boisterously. There was a touch of defiance in the +way they referred to the sickness and the shadow; for it was notorious +that changes were frequent in their little garrison. They were forced to +talk of these changes, and this was the way they chose to do it. As if +laughter was their only prophylactic! But such laughter, to a visitor +who did not have to wait till fever took him, but could go when he +liked, could be answered only with a friendly smile. Some of my cheery +friends of the Caracoles were but the ghosts of men. + + * * * * * + +Hill warned me late one afternoon to be ready to start at sunrise, and +then went to play poker. On my way to my hut, at sunset, I stopped to +gossip with the young doctor, where he was busy dressing wounds at his +surgery. The labourers, half-breeds, Brazilians, and Bolivian Spaniards, +work being over, were giving the doctor a full evening with their +ailments. Mostly these were skin troubles. The least abrasion in the +tropics may spread to a horrid and persistent wound. The legs of the +majority of these natives were unpleasant with livid scars. In one case +a vampire bat had punctured a man's arm near the elbow while he slept, +and that little wound had grown disastrously. We were in a region where +the pium flies swarmed, tiny black insects which alight on the hands and +face, perhaps a dozen at a time, and gorge themselves, though you may be +unconscious of it. Where the pium fly feeds it leaves a dot of +extravasated blood which remains for weeks, so that most of us were +speckled. Even these minute wounds were liable to become deep and bad. +There were larger flies which put their eggs in the human body, where +they hatch with dire results. (Do not think the splendid tropics have +nothing but verdure, orchids, butterflies, and coral snakes banded +orange and black and crimson and black.) So the doctor was a busy man +that evening. The floor of his surgery was made of unequal boughs; the +walls and roof were of dried fronds. A lamp was slung on a doorpost. He +was a young American, and he did not grumble at his bumpy floor, the bad +light, the appliances and remedies which were all one should expect in +the jungle, nor the number of his patients, except comically. He told me +he was rather keen on the diseases of the tropics. He liked them. (I +should think he must have liked them.) He was merrily insolent with +those swarthy and melancholy men, and they smiled back sadly at the +clever, handsome, and lively youngster. He was quick in his decisions, +deft, insistent, kind, and thorough, working down that file of pitiable +humanity, as careful with the last of the long row as with the first; +telling me, as he went along, much that I had never heard before, with +demonstrations. "Don't go," he cried, when I would have left him; for I +thought it might be he was as kind with this stranger as he was with the +others. "Ah! don't go. Let me hear a true word or two." He said he would +give me a treat if I stayed. He finished, put his materials away +deliberately, accurately, his back to me, while I saluted him as a fine +representative of ours. He turned, free of his task and jolly, and +produced that treat of his, two bottles of treasured and precious ginger +ale. It was a miracle performed. We talked till the light went out. + +Much later a cry in the woods woke me. It was yet dark, but I could see +Hill up, and fumbling with his accoutrements. Out I jumped, though still +unreasonably tired; and sleepily dressed. When I turned to Hill, to see +if he were ready, he was then under his net, watching me. He explained +he had just returned from poker, and was wondering why I was dressing, +but did not like to ask, knowing that Englishmen have ways that are not +American. So the sun was up long before we were, though presently, in a +small canoe, we embarked on the Caracoles. This tributary of the Madeira +comes from nobody knows where. It is a river of the kind which explorers +in these forests have sometimes mentioned, to our fearful joy. The +sunlight hardly reached the water. The river was merely a drain +burrowing under the jungle. The forest on its banks met overhead. There +was little foliage below; we saw but the base of the forest, grey +columns that might have been of stone upholding a darkness from which +dead stuff suspended. The canoe had to dodge the lianas, which dropped +to the water. The noise of our paddles convoyed us down stream, a rout +of panic echoes trying to escape. We came to an opening and full +daylight presently, and landed by a mule corral; and I began a lonely +ride with Hill through the forest. The mule was such a docile little +brown creature that I was left in the silence to my thoughts, which were +interrupted now and then by the wandering blue flame of a morpho. My +mule followed Hill's mule along a winding trail, and our leader was +nearly always out of sight. I do not remember much of my first ride in +the forest. I had an impression of being at a viewless distance from the +sun. We were on the abysmal floor of a growth which was not trees, but +the hoary pediments of a structure which was too high and vast for human +sight. We rode in the basal gloom of it, no more than lost ants there, +at an immeasurable depth in the atmosphere. The roof of the world was +far away. Somewhere was the sun, for occasionally there was a well which +its light had filled, and a grove of green palms, complete and personal, +standing at the bottom of the well, living and reasonable shapes. Or one +of the morphos would flicker among those spectral bastions, aerial and +bright as a fairy in Hades. The sombre mind caught it at once, an +unexpected gleam of hope, a bright blue thought to set among one's +shapeless fears. We descended into hollows, going down into darker +fathoms of the shades; mounted again through brighter suffusions of day, +and in a while came out upon the open lane in the woods, the long cut in +the jungle made for the railway, when it should get so far. + +Now I could see my companion. He was from Texas, and it was easy to +guess that. In the long rides which followed in the land where we looked +upon what was there for the first time since genesis, where we might +have been in the hush of the seventh day, so new, strange, and quiet was +all, the figure ahead of me, with its long boots, negligent black shirt, +the guns about the waist, and the hat with its extravagant size nobly +raked, made me stop at times to assure myself that I was not pursuing a +day-dream of boyhood, too much Mayne Reid in my head, especially when my +wild and improbable companion paused under a group of statuesque palms +and looked back at me--I suppose to make sure that I was still there, +and that the silence had not absorbed me utterly, a faint rustle of +intruding sound in a virgin and absorbent world. And again I remember +the sparkle and lift of early morning there. The air was new, it was +stimulative, it recharged me with buoyant youth. To breathe that air in +the fresh of the morning was exaltation, and to see the young sunlight +on the ardent foliage was to know the springs of life were full. That +was at the breakfast hour, when the camp fires crackled and were +aromatic, the smoke going straight to the tree tops. Then quickly the +narrow track through the forest filled with day, increased in heat till +I felt I could bear no more of it, and so gazed vacantly at the mule's +ears, merely enduring and numbed. The vitality of the morning went, and +in the fierce pour of light I looked no more to the strange leaves and +vines, the curious fronds, the anthills by the way, the butterflies and +birds, but had only a dull dread that the avenue through which we were +riding was straight and interminable. There was no escape from this +heat. There were no openings through which we could retreat under the +trees. The air was immobile; the air itself was the incumbent heat. The +only shadows were under the mules' bellies. Cruel and relentless noons! +How the surveyors endured it, standing for long eyeing their exacting +instruments in such a defeating glare, I do not know. At the end of each +day my pigskin leggings were like wet brown paper with sweat, and my +hands crinkled and bleached as though they had been in a soda bath. + +We reached another and greater tributary of the Madeira, the Rio +Jaci-Parana. Here there was a very extensive clearing as great as the +one at Porto Velho. The bridging of the Jaci would be a considerable +undertaking, consequently there were numerous huts dotted about the +rough open ground; but I think the original intention in cutting back +the jungle to such an extent was that in the days to come a town would +grow there. I imagine it will not, and that the project is abandoned. In +one of my early walks in the woods I came by chance upon the new +cemetery; it was already large. The Jaci country has proved to be more +than usually unhealthy. The ground was cleared down to a coarse herbage, +round which stood shadowing trees. Little crucifixes, made by splitting +a stick and putting another stick crosswise in the slit, were planted at +all sorts of drunken angles in the ground. One large cross in the centre +stood for all the dead. There were no names given. A Brazil nut-tree +grew alongside this graveyard in the jungle, so tall that the flock of +screaming parrots about its foliage were but drifting black specks. + +Because Hill had a touch of the fever we stayed for some days by the +Jaci. I had a hut given to me, typical of the rest; but I was so much +alone in it that that hut on the Jaci, where our remoteness from human +things tested and known, the aloofness and quiet of the forest, the +deadly nature of the romantic and beautiful river bank where we were +marooned, and the sickness of my friend Hill, threw me upon my centre, +until I began even to talk to myself, and received such an impress of +the minute details of my little habitation that, ephemeral as it was and +now long since gone, it endures, of coloured and indestructible stuff, +with a sunny portal I still can enter whenever my mind turns that way. +It was of four palm trunks, lapped round and over with mats of leaves. +The floor was of untrimmed branches, two feet from the earth, and their +unexpected inequalities, never remembered, were always jolting my +thoughts as I walked across. They were crooked, and I could see the +dusty earth two feet beneath where brown and green lizards ran. At one +end was a verandah with a narrow floor made of the lids of soap and +dynamite boxes, and laid without any idea that some curious tenant might +wish to read the manufacturers' full names and see their complete +trademarks. It was a puzzle. There was nothing to do, and I searched +long on my verandah floor for the clue to one embarrassing fragment of a +stencilled word. Hill sometimes huddled in a hammock on one side of the +verandah, a leg hanging limply over, his thin sallow face drawn and +resting on his breast, and his eyes shut; and I sat near him on the +rail, silent, alone with any thought I met, and gazing blankly down the +steep slope, past two tall Brazil nut-trees, to the half-hidden Rio Jaci +below, and the roof of the forest opposite, over which the sun set each +day in uplifted splendour. I remembered but one conversation during that +wait. An elderly white man came up to the verandah one evening, and +murmured something to Hill, who opened his eyes, and looked at his +visitor under weary lids. This man was one of Hill's subordinates. He +had something to say of the work; but one would hardly call it speech. +The flow of his life was so weak that he could do no more than lift a +few small words from his gaping mouth between his breaths. He held on to +the verandah. His loose clothes hung straight down from his bones. The +veins were in blue knots on his forehead. "Say," said Hill, rousing +himself, "I want you to ride to the Caracoles, go down to Porto Velho, +and take this note to the hospital." The man said nothing, but nodded. +Hill scrawled his note, and the man left. "He'll be dead in a month," +said Hill, five minutes after the man had gone. "But he would not go to +the hospital for his health. I have to pretend that he must go for mine. +He may as well die in a comfortable bed.... I wish those damned parrots +would cease!" They were somewhere down by the river, unseen, but all the +sound there was, their voices long, keen and distracting flaws in the +pellucid and coloured dayfall. + +One morning we crossed the Jaci, and on the opposite shore some mules +were already geared with Texan saddles, the hombres at their heads, +waiting for us. I considered my mule. He was a big, grey, upstanding +fellow, with the legs and feet of a racehorse, the head of a hammer, and +alert and inquisitive ears. He was very much alive. I had no doubt he +could leave anywhere like light, when he had a mind for it. So that I +turned to Hill, and said, "Is mine a quiet animal? Is he vicious?" "O +say," said my guide, glancing carelessly at my dubious mount, "I guess +he's just a mule." When a hombre shouted at my mule he stepped briskly, +with more than a hint of the malicious rebel in his gait. + +I knew it would happen, and it did. One foot was no sooner buried in a +wooden shoe called a stirrup than he was off, like an explosion. A +desperate leap got my other leg over my travelling sack, lashed on his +rump, and I came down in the saddle, much surprised. Texan saddles are +not leather pads for riding domestic creatures, but thrones for ruling +devils, and the bit would have broken the mouth of a hippopotamus. The +brute stopped, turned back one ear, and his thought was in his swivel +eye. "You wait," I saw him say. In the few engrossing moments when his +body was expanding and contracting under me I got some idea of the force +I was supposed to guide, and it did not make my mind easy, for an office +chair had been my most unstable seat till then. Yet off we went quietly, +along the track, and Hill was in front, and my mule was as meek as a +sheep. There came a swamp, into which he went to the knees, and I +dismounted, jumping from hummock to hummock, encouraging him, and +showing him the best places. His brown eyes were then like those of a +good woman. So leaning forward, when we were through, I patted his sleek +neck, and gave him pleasant words. Afterwards, when he showed a certain +precious care in difficult places, for the country was very broken, +stepping like a tight-rope walker, I was fool enough to think it was +because of our understanding. Though I believe he would have deceived +anybody. + +At noon we left the track and entered the forest by a path so narrow +that the trees touched our legs, and sometimes we had just time to duck +beneath a noose which a liana dangled in our faces. It was a low and +narrow tunnel, and it descended to a bottom where a shallow stream +brawled among granite boulders; thence up the trail went through the +trees and vines again, and at last we came to a little clearing, where +there was a hut, and men who would give us meat and drink. We +dismounted. I rubbed my mule's soft nose, and spoke him playfully, as a +familiar; but when entering the hut was rebuked by a man there for +making a short cut round the heels of my mule. "Never do it. Don't give +him a chance. A mule will be peaches for ten years waiting for the sure +chance of getting his heels right on your stomach. They're not horses, +them mules. They don't bite, and they don't muzzle you and show +friendly. They've got no feelings. That chap of yours, his mother was an +ass, and his father was old Solfernio himself. But they've all got one +good point--they're barren." + +The mule stood deep in thought till I was mounted again; then instantly +bolted back along the path which led to the ravine. The idle hombre had +mishandled the reins, and I could get no pull. I went across that +clearing like (so Hill said afterwards) Tod Sloan up. The beast, his +ears back, was in a frenzy, and the convulsions of his powerful body +made my thoughts pallid and ghastly. Nothing but disaster could stop +him, and the black mouth of that steep tunnel in the forest yawned +before us, and grew larger, though not large enough. He took the opening +as clean as a lucky shot; but I was laid carefully along his back. Why +we missed the tangle of woods and the rocks in that precipitate descent +is known only to my lucky stars. I had my feet from the stirrups, my +toes hooked on his rump, one arm round the horn of the saddle, and the +other stretched along his sawing neck. I saw the roots and stones leap +up and by us, close to my face. Several things occurred to me, and one +was that some methods of dire fate were fatuous and undignified. I +wondered also whether I should be taken back to the ship, or buried +there. The impetus of the brute, which I expected would send us +somersaulting among the rocks of the bottom, took him partly up the +hither slope, and soon he had to gather his haunches for the upward +leaps. I slipped off. He swung round at the length of the reins, and +eyed me, cocking his ears derisively. A horse's nerves are human-like, +and a horse would have been in a muck, but this murderous mule was calm +and mocking. I watched him, and listened for an obscene and confident +guffaw. + +I found afterwards that punishment has no more effect on them than +kindness. There is no guidance in this matter, take the mule all round. +It is dealing with the uncanny. It is better to cross yourself when you +go near a mule. Every morning about a camp we would watch the hombres +gear up those pensive and placid creatures. They were sleek, lissom, and +beautiful, and it was a pleasure to watch them. But as soon as the +business of the day began one of the mules (and there was no prophecy as +to which one it would be) became a homicidal maniac. At one camp it was +necessary to keep a hundred or more mules in reserve, and there, for +their health, a sane old horse was kept also. The horse was a knacker's +body, a sorry spectacle, and in that climate he but pottered about +waiting for disease to take him. He was smaller than the fine and +healthy mules, but the respect the hammer-heads had for him was comical, +and a great help to the men. Without the horse, it would have been +opening the door of an asylum to have let the mules out of the corral to +water at the river. But he led the way, and they bunched round him +bashfully, and followed him to the stream. He took no notice of them +whatever. He did not flatter them by pretending to be aware of their +existence. When he had had his fill, he turned, and ambled through them, +scorning to see them, and returned to the corral. Round went all the +mules nearest to him, and any of them on the outskirts of the mob that +stayed on because they did not see him go lost their heads, when they +looked up, and risked their necks in short cuts through the timber. "Ho, +mule!" would shout the hombres in alarm; for even mules cost money. + + * * * * * + +The land through which we were riding shall have a little railway there +some day, if the men who are building it keep their hearts of brass, and +refuse in working hours to remember London and New York. When it is +there, that short line, it will begin and end in places having names +which will convey little meaning to people outside Brazil; but to know +what endurance of valour, but chiefly what raillery and light-hearted +disregard of the gods who put baleful forests guarded by dragons--the +dragons of mythology were lambs to what mosquitoes are--in the path of +weak men pursuing their purpose, to know what has gone to the building +of that track, though it nowhere plainly shows, for the graveyards are +casual and obscure, brings you to a stand, surprised into awe of your +fellows, as though through a coarse disguise you caught a gleam of +divinity. Something shows, a light shows, which is beyond human. Would +men be so prodigal of life and time if they were not aware of their +great wealth? I don't know. My travels never brought me to that ultimate +assurance. But I did see that my fellow-men are indifferent, spendthrift +with their known and scanty store as though they were immortals, the +remittance men of Great Jove. I have no doubt now the line will be +finished some day; but there were times, riding along the roughly +cleared trail where it is to be, and we came upon places where men, in a +spasm of pointless and soon expiring energy had scratched and mauled the +pristine earth, when I did not think so. Always the same dumb mystery +was about us at noon as at nightfall. I felt we were lost at the back of +the world, that we had crossed the boundary beyond which the voice of +traffic never goes, and were idly wandering on the confines of oblivion. +Sometimes I had that consciousness of futility which comes to us when, +in sleep, we are earnest in the absurd activities of a dream, one point +of the reason remaining awake to wonder at the antics of the busy but +blind mind. Why was I there at all? Was I there? Those forlorn spots in +the forest where our fellows had been before us, which we two riders +overlooked alone, seemed to show that those men, while in the midst of +their feverish labour, had recovered their minds, and had seen the +wilderness was too vast, was unconquerable; and they had fled. There +before us was what they had done. A deep trench would be in the track, +the sand thrown up on either side. Some dead trees would be prone in our +path, and we had to ride round them. There would be a few empty huts of +leaves, with old ashes at the entrances, and a midden with its usual +gorgeous butterflies. There would not be a sign of life, except the +butterflies over the refuse, and not a sound or a movement but a clink +from our own harness, and the heads of our mules impatient with the +flies. Over the evidence of man's far-fetched enterprise and industry, +his short and ferocious attack on the wild, brooded the forest. That +bent over us, and it might have been solicitous and compassionate, or it +might have been merely curious about the behaviour of the surprising +creatures who had come there for the first time, and had been so active +for a while. Sitting in the pour of the sun, looking upon the scanty +work of my fellows, and then upon the near watchful ranks of that +continent of trees pressing close to regard the grave-like trench into +which man's hope might have been thrown, I had a dread of the easy and +enduring dominion of those powers which were before man. + +We would ride on then, sometimes up to our saddles in swamps, and every +day I lost faith that there was any company of our fellows in that +desolation, who would take our mules at nightfall, and show hammocks for +our rest. But always before night caught us we would spy a few huts +diminutive under the cliffs of forest--land ho!--and the little outpost +of two or three engineers and a doctor would meet us as we came up. Such +a camp was like finding security and fellowship again after the +uncertainty and emptiness of the sea. The voices of new friends disarmed +the forest. It was not curious that we found it so easy to talk and +laugh. + +One such camp I remember well. We came upon it late, and my bones, +through a longer ride than usual in the wooden saddle, had grown into an +unjointed frame. This was the real meaning of fatigue. My body was a +comprehensive ache. Yet my mind was alert and buoyant; and I remembered +that perhaps it was so because I had been well bitten by the mosqitoes +of the Jaci-Parana, a first effect of the inoculation; so I swallowed +twenty grains of my store of quinine. + +You in settled lands, unless you have been very poor indeed and know +what trouble is and what friends are, have never seen the face of your +brother, nor the serenity of evening when you have found, without +expecting it, shelter for the night; you don't know what the taste of +bread and meat is, nor the savour of tobacco, nor what comfortable +security is the whispering of a comrade unseen in the shadows of a +resting place, nor what it is to sleep. I found those gifts are not +means to life only, but reasons for living too; something to live for. +With these at nightfall, our frail little hut, beleaguered in the +limitless woods, the shack in which the ants and spiders swarmed and +gross insects rang on the metal lamp, where we loafed in hammocks, +smoking, and listened to the cries of we knew not what in the unknown +about us, was impregnable to the hosts of darkness. + +Perhaps I remember that camp so well because it was a night of full +moon. There were three huts. We were deep in the trees. The dark walls +of that well in the jungle rose sheer all round us. Nobody knew what was +beyond the huts. The moon appeared just clear of the lofty parapet of +the well, and poured down to us an imponderable rarity of bluish fire. +Wherever this fire lodged it stayed. Half-way up projected palm fronds, +and they were heavy patterns in burnished silver. Nameless shapes grew +luminous in the dark about us. The ragged thatch of a hut fell from its +apex in a cascade of lustrous fluid metal suddenly congealed. The gloom +beneath that shining roof was hollowed by the pale yellow light of a +lamp; so I could see, under the eaves, the three hammocks slung from the +posts. The quiet talk of my companions was the only sound. I limped with +weariness towards the voices, and sat in a shadow listening; and looked +beyond to sprays of motionless shining foliage leaning out from +inscrutable darkness. I seemed to have escaped from my tired body; my +disembodied mind was free and at large. A camp hunter had killed a +jaguar there, during the afternoon, they were saying. There were many +about, for we were beyond the railway men, the track being but a lane of +felled trees. They were saying the country there abounded with wild +life. Just as we arrived that evening one of the men brought in a +wounded animal, its nature so disguised that I thought it was a kind of +sloth. It was about two feet long, and covered with long grizzled hair +from its snout to the end of its considerable tail; but when I lifted +it, and the poor injured creature shook its hair from its eyes, I saw it +was a monkey; that anguished and fearful gaze which met mine was of my +own tiny brother. It was a rare and little-known creature, the Hairy +Saki, the first of its kind I had seen. The native took it away to eat +it. I may say that at every camp we ate what we could get; and being by +nature squeamish I never asked what it was that was put before me. +Whatever it was, there it was, and it was all they could give me. I only +emphatically directed that monkey flesh would be worse to me than +hunger. + +"There are plenty of tigers about here," called one of our hosts to me; +"I'll fix you with a gun to-morrow, and we'll have some fun." But thank +you, no. I did not carry arms throughout my journey. The jaguars did me +no hurt when I went exploring o' mornings; and as for me, I was not +looking for trouble. Quite politely the jaguars retired while I wandered +about alone; though I should have been delighted to have sighted one. +The whiffs of feral odour I got, especially in the neighbourhood of the +mules, about which the jaguars prowled at night, were my only big game +trophies. Sometimes an indistinguishable object would step across ahead +of me, or stir in a bush close by, drawing ear and eye at once in a +place where trees and leaves were always as fixtures, like the air. I +never met one of the larger natives of the place. I knew the parrots by +their voices. I heard and smelt the cats. The monkeys called from a +great distance; or a body would slip round a tree so like a shadow +moving that when I examined the place, and saw nothing, it was easy to +believe the eye was only suspicious. + +The men began to talk of the Indians. They said we were in the land of +the Caripunas. "You won't see them," said Hill. "I expect they are +watching us now though," he added, after a pause. I glanced up with some +interest at the spectral foliage, where right before me the pale +moonfire on leaves and trunks framed portals in the night. I could see +nothing. + +"It's odds that some of them have been following us all day," continued +Hill. "They watch us. They can't make us out. The rubber men told us the +Caripunas would kill and eat us. They kill the rubber men all right, and +a good job too. But they only slip through the forest watching us. I saw +some once. On the Jaci. I jollied them into putting their canoe ashore. +It was only a bark contraption, the roughest thing of its kind I've +seen, sharpened fore and aft by lacing the ends together with sinews. +They were fine light brown fellows, well made, and stark naked. The +black hair of some of them was frizzy. Curious, isn't it? But I've heard +that in the slave days runaway niggers got down here, and the forest +Indians collared them to improve their own miserable stock. The +Brazilians have always had a tradition of a frizzy-haired race on the +Madeira; and here they are. They had bows and arrows, those chaps, made +entirely of cane and wood. The arrows were tipped with macaw feathers, +and were over six feet long. I couldn't bend the bloomin' bow. These +fellows keep to the side rivers, and their villages are always hidden in +the woods. It's a funny thing, but whenever the surveyors come on a +village they find it has been vacated about a week." + +We were silent for a time, and then a half-breed crept up to a hammock +and spoke in Spanish to the doctor. The doctor laughed, and the fellow +went away. "He's asking for a piece of that onca to eat. He says it will +make him strong." They began to talk of that, and the talk went on to +what the Indians say of the mai d'aqua, the mother of the waters, who +frequents islands in the rivers and is the ruin of young men, and of +such dreads as the jurupari, and the curupira, and the maty tapr. + +They admitted it was easy to imagine such things into the forest. It +wasn't what was seen there. Only the trees and the shadows were seen. +But sometimes there were sounds. One of us, when alone making a traverse +in the forest, had heard a scream, as if a woman had been frightened, +and then there was no more sound. The camp doctor began to talk. He was +an Englishman. He sat upright in the middle of his hammock, swinging it +with one foot. "There was a curious yarn I heard about a tiger in +Hampshire. Ah! Hampshire! I had a practice there once, you know. It made +me so busy and popular that at last I began to wonder whether I wasn't +altogether too successful. It was the practice or me. As I wanted to +live on and do some useful work I slew the practice. I've got one or two +ideas about that beri-beri you chaps die of here. A doctor cannot serve +God and a lot of old women with colds.... Oh yes, about that tiger. +Well, one of those travelling shows came to our village. I could see the +steam of its roundabout engines from my surgery windows, and I told the +farmer who rented the field to the showmen that if he let a mechanical +organ come anywhere near my place again he could take his gallstone +somewhere else in future. + +"Late one night I got an urgent message to go over to the show. There +had been an accident. I was taken into a caravan. There was a fat woman +dressed as a pink fairy kneeling over a man stretched on a bunk, shaking +him, and crying. The man was dead all right. But I couldn't find a mark +on him. Diseased heart, I supposed, but he looked a good 'un. Some of +the well-made, powerful chaps have most unreliable hearts. The woman +kept crying out something about 'that beast of a tiger.' Curious sort of +remark, and I asked the boss afterwards what she meant. He shuffled +about a bit, pretending that she was talking silly. 'Nothing to do with +the tigress,' he said, 'although the man was found unconscious in her +cage.' 'It's such a tame thing,' said the showman. 'Anybody could handle +it. Never shows vice. Old Jackson'--that was the dead chap--'he'd been +inside tinkering with a partition. When we found him she was lying in a +corner as if asleep, and only sat up and yawned when we got him out of +her cage. Come and see for yourself.' + +"I went. There was nothing to see, except a slit-eyed tigress sitting up +in a corner of her cage, blinking at the lantern, and looking rather +spooky. A rather small creature, and prettily marked--one of the +melantic variety. + +"Well, the chap was buried after an inquest, and that inquest made me +ask a lot of questions afterwards. It was a simple affair, the inquest. +Death from natural causes. But there was something behind the evidence +of the man's wife, and I wanted to find out about that. + +"She told me she had a little girl, who got one night into the tent +where the big cats were kept. Nobody was there at the time. Next morning +she said to her mother, 'Mummie, who was the funny lady in Lucy's cage?' + +"Lucy was the name of the tigress. The child said that there was only +the lady in the cage, and the lady watched her. And that was all they +could get out of the kiddie. The funny thing about it is that once +before the child had come back with a yarn like that, after straying +into the menagerie tent late at night. The wife's idea was her husband +had died of fright. + +"Don't ask me what I want to make out, boys. I'm only just telling you +the yarn. There you are. + +"Well, before the show left our village, I heard they'd got a nigger to +look after the big cats. He was with the show two days. On the third day +he was missing. He went without drawing his money, and he had left open +the door of Lucy's cage. She hadn't attempted to get out. The nigger was +found some days after, wandering about the country, and a little +cracked, by all accounts. And that's all." The doctor struck a match, +and then hoisted his legs into the hammock. Somewhere far in the forest +the monkeys were howling. + +"That doctor is a good body mender," said Hill to me. "He is the most +entertaining liar on this job." + + + + +VI + + +When in the neighbourhood of the Girau Falls we returned to a camp known +as 22, which was merely a couple of huts, the station of two English +surveyors, who had with them a small party of Bolivians. The Bolivian +frontier was then but a little distance to the south-west. We rested for +a day there, and planned to make a journey of ten miles across country, +to the falls of the Caldeirao do Inferno. By doing so we should save the +wearying return ride along the track to the Rio Jaci-Parana, for at the +Caldeirao a launch was kept, and in that we could shoot the rapids and +reach the camp on the Jaci two days earlier. Some haste was necessary +now, for my steamer must be nearing her sailing time. And again, I +agreed the more readily to the plan of making a traverse of the forest +because it would give me the opportunity of seeing the interior of the +virgin jungle away from any track. Though I had been so long in a land +which all was forest I had not been within the universal growth except +for little journeys on used trails. A journey across country in the +Amazon country is never made by the Brazilians. The only roads are the +rivers. It is a rare traveller who goes through those forests, guided +only, by a compass and his lore of the wilderness. That for months I had +never been out of sight of the jungle, and yet had rarely ventured to +turn aside from a path for more than a few paces, is some indication of +its character. At the camp where we were staying I was told that once a +man had gone merely within the screen of leaves, and then no doubt had +lost, for a few moments, his sense of direction of the camp, for he was +never seen again. + +The equatorial forest is popularly pictured as a place of bright and +varied colours, with extravagant flowers, an abundance of fruits, and +huge trees hung with creepers where lurk many venomous but beautiful +snakes with gem-like eyes, and a multitude of birds as bright as the +flowers; paradise indeed, though haunted by a peril. Those details are +right, but the picture is wrong. It is true that some of the birds are +decorated in a way which makes the most beautiful of our temperate birds +seem dull; but the toucans and macaws of the Madeira forest, though +common, are not often seen, and when they are seen they are likely to be +but obscure atoms drifting high in a white light. About the villages and +in the clearings there are usually many superb butterflies and moths, +and a varied wealth of vegetation not to be matched outside the tropics, +and there will be the fireflies and odours in evening pathways. But the +virgin forest itself soon becomes but a green monotony which, through +extent and mystery, dominates and compels to awe and some dread. You +will see it daily, but will not often approach it. It has no splendid +blossoms; none, that is, which you will see, except by chance, as by +luck one day I saw from the steamer's bridge some trees in blossom, +domes of lilac surmounting the forest levels. Trees are always in +blossom there, for it is a land of continuous high summer, and there are +orchids always in flower, and palms and vines that fill acres of forest +with fragrance, palms and other trees which give wine and delicious +fruits, and somewhere hidden there are the birds of the tropical +picture, and dappled jaguars perfect in colouring and form, and brown +men and women who have strange gods. But they are lost in the ocean of +leaves as are the pearls and wonders in the deep. You will remember the +equatorial forest but as a gloom of foliage in which all else that +showed was rare and momentary, was foundered and lost to sight +instantly, as an unusual ray of coloured light in one mid-ocean wave +gleams, and at once goes, and your surprise at its apparition fades too, +and again there is but the empty desolation which is for ever but +vastness sombrely bright. + +One morning, wondering greatly what we should see in the place where we +should be the first men to go, Hill and I left camp 22 and returned a +little along the track. It was a hot still morning. A vanilla vine was +in fragrant flower somewhere, unseen, but unescapable. My little unknown +friend in the woods, who calls me at odd times--but I think chiefly when +I am near a stream--by whistling thrice, let me know he was about. Hill +said he thinks he has seen him, and that my little friend looks like a +blackbird. On the track in many places were objects which appeared to be +long cups inverted, of unglazed ware. Picking up one I found it was the +cap to a mine of ants, the inside of the clay cup being hollowed in a +perfect circle, and remarkably smooth. A paca dived into the scrub near +us. It was early morning, scented with vanilla, and the intricacy of +leaves was radiant. Nowhere in the screen could I see a place through +which it was possible to crawl to whatever was behind it. The front of +leaves was unbroken. Hill presently bent double and disappeared, and I +followed in the break he made. So we went for about ten minutes, my +leader cutting obstructions with his machete, and mostly we had to go +almost on hands and knees. The undergrowth was green, but in the +etiolated way of plants which have little light, though that may have +been my fancy. One plant was very common, making light-green feathery +barriers. I think it was a climbing bamboo. Its stem was vapid and of no +diameter, and its grasslike leaves grew in whorls at the joints. It +extended to incredible distances. We got out of that margin of +undergrowth, which springs up quickly when light is let into the woods, +as it was there through the cutting of the track, and found ourselves on +a bare floor where the trunks of arborescent laurels grew so thickly +together that our view ahead was restricted to a few yards. We were in +the forest. There was a pale tinge of day, but its origin was uncertain, +for overhead no foliage could be seen, but only deep shadows from which +long ropes were hanging without life. In that obscurity were points of +light, as if a high roof had lost some tiles. Hill set a course almost +due south, and we went on, presently descending to a deep clear stream +over which a tree had fallen. Shafts of daylight came down to us there, +making the sandy bottom of the stream luminous, as by a lantern, and +betraying crowds of small fishes. As we climbed the tree, to cross upon +it, we disturbed several morphos. We had difficulties beyond in a +hollow, where the bottom of the forest was lumbered with fallen trees, +dry rubbish, and thorns, and once, stepping on what looked timber solid +enough, its treacherous shell collapsed, and I went down into a cloud of +dust and ants. In clearing this wreckage, which was usually as high as +our faces, and doubly confused by the darkness, the involutions of dead +thorny creepers, and clouds of dried foliage, Hills got at fault with +our direction, but reassured himself, though I don't know how--but I +think with the certain knowledge that if we went south long enough we +should strike the Madeira somewhere--and on we went. For hours we +continued among the trees, seldom knowing what was ahead of us for any +distance, surviving points of noise intruding again after long in the +dusk of limbo. So still and nocturnal was the forest that it was real +only when its forms were close. All else was phantom and of the shades. +There was not a green sign of life, and not a sound. Resting once under +a tree I began to think there was a conspiracy implied in that murk and +awful stillness, and that we should never come out again into the day +and see a living earth. Hills sat looking out, and said, as if in answer +to an unspoken thought of mine which had been heard because there was +less than no sound there, that men who were lost in those woods soon +went mad. + +Then he led on again. This forest was nothing like the paradise a +tropical wild is supposed to be. It was as uniformly dingy as the old +stones of a London street on a November evening. We did not see a +movement, except when the morphos started from the uprooted tree. Once I +heard the whistle call us from the depths of the forest, urgent and +startling; and now when in a London by-way I hear a boy call his mate in +a shrill whistle, it puts about me again the spectral aisles, and that +unexpectant quiet of the sepulchre which is more than mere absence of +sound, for the dead who should have no voice. This central forest was +really the vault of the long-forgotten, dank, mouldering, dark, +abandoned to the accumulations of eld and decay. The tall pillars rose, +upholding night, and they might have been bastions of weathered +limestone and basalt, for they were as grim as ancient and ruinous +masonry. There was no undergrowth. The ground was hidden in a ruin of +perished stuff, uprooted trees, parchments of leaves, broken boughs, and +mummied husks, the iron globes of nuts, and pods. There was no day, but +some breaks in the roof were points of remote starlight. The crowded +columns mounted straight and far, almost branchless, fading into +indistinction. Out of that overhead obscurity hung a wreckage of +distorted cables, binding the trees, and often reaching the ground. The +trees were seldom of great girth, though occasionally there was a +dominant basaltic pillar, its roots meandering over the floor like +streams of old lava. The smooth ridges of such a fantastic complexity of +roots were sometimes breast high. The walls ran up the trunk, projecting +from it as flat buttresses, for great heights. We would crawl round such +an occupying structure, diminished groundlings, as one would move about +the base of a foreboding, plutonic building whose limits and meaning +were ominous and baffling. There were other great trees with compound +boles, built literally of bundles of round stems, intricate gothic +pillars, some of the props having fused in places. Every tree was the +support of a parasitic community, lianas swathing it and binding it. One +vine moulded itself to its host, a flat and wide compress, as though it +were plastic. We might have been witnessing what had been a riot of +manifold and insurgent life. It had been turned to stone when in the +extreme pose of striving violence. It was all dead now. + +But what if these combatants had only paused as we appeared? It was a +thought which came to me. The pause might be but an appearance for our +deception. Indeed, they were all fighting as we passed through, those +still and fantastic shapes, a war ruthless but slow, in which the battle +day was ages long. They seemed but still. We were deceived. If time had +been accelerated, if the movements in that war of phantoms had been +speeded, we should have seen what really was there, the greater trees +running upwards to starve the weak of light and food, and heard the +continuous collapse of the failures, and have seen the lianas writhing +and constricting, manifestly like serpents, throttling and eating their +hosts. We did see the dead everywhere, shells with the worms at them. +Yet it was not easy to be sure that we saw anything at all, for these +were not trees, but shapes in a region below the day, a world sunk +abysmally from the land of living things, to which light but thinly +percolated down to two travellers moving over its floor, trying to get +out to their own place. + +Late in the afternoon we were surprised by a steep hill in our way, +where the forest was more open. Palms became conspicuous on the slopes, +and the interior of the sombre woods was lighted with bright and +graceful foliage. The wild banana was frequent, its long rippling +pennants showing everywhere. The hill rose sharply, perhaps for six +hundred feet, and over its surface were scattered large stones, and +stones are rare indeed in this land of vegetable humus. They were often +six inches in diameter, and I should have said they were waterworn but +that I had seen them _in situ_ at one camp, where they occurred but +little below the surface in a friable sandstone, the largest of them +easily broken in the hand, for they were but ferrous concretions of +quartz grains. After exposure to the air they so hardened that they +could be fractured only with difficulty. We kept along the ridge of the +hill, finding breaks in the forest through which, as through unexpected +windows, we could see, for a wonder, over the roof of the forest, +looking out of our prison to a wide world where the sun was declining. +In the south-west we caught the gleam of the Madeira, and beyond it saw +a continuation of the range of hills on which we stood. + +In the low ground between the hill range and the river the forest was +lower, and was so tangled a mass that I doubted whether we could make a +way through it. We happened upon a deserted Caripuna village, three +large sheds, without sides, each but a ragged thatch propped on four +legs. The clearing was just large enough to hold them. I could find no +relics of the forest folk about. Damp leaves were thick on the floor of +each shelter. But it was lucky we found the huts, for thence a trail led +us to the river. We emerged suddenly from the forest, just as one goes +through a little door into the open street. We were on the bank of the +Madeira by the upper falls of the Caldeirao. It was still a great river, +with the wall of the forest opposite, just above which the sunset was +flaming, so far away that its tree trunks were but vertical lines of +silver in dark cliffs. A track used by the Bolivian rubber boatmen led +us down stream to the camp by the lower falls. + +It was night when we got to the three huts of the camp, and the river +could not be seen, but it was heard, a continuous low thundering. +Sometimes a greater shock of deep waters falling, an orgasm of the flood +pouring unseen, more violent than the rest, made the earth tremulous. +Men held up lanterns to our faces, and led us to a hut. It was but the +usual roof of leaves. We rested in hammocks slung between the posts, and +I ached in every limb. But here we were at last; and there is no more +luxurious bed than a hammock, yielding and resilient, as though you were +cradled on air; and there is no pipe like that smoked in a hammock at +night in the tropics after a day of toil and anxiety in a dissolving +heat, for the heat makes a pipe bitter and impossible; but if a tropic +night is cool and cloudless it comes like a benediction, and the silence +is a peace that is below you and around, and as high as the stars +towards which your face is turned. The ropes of the hammock creaked. +Sometimes a man spoke quietly, as though he were at a great distance. +The sound of the water receded, was heard only as in a sleep, and it +might have been the loud murmur of the spinning globe, heard because we +had left this world and had leisure for trifles in a securer world +apart. + +In the morning, while they prepared the little steam launch for its +journey down the rapids, I had time to climb about the smooth granite +boulders of the foreshore below the hut. A rock is so unusual in this +country that it is a luxury when found. The granite was bare, but in its +crevices grew cacti and other plants with fleshy leaves and swollen +stems. Shadowing the hut was a tree bearing trumpet-shaped flowers, and +before the blossoms humming birds were hovering, glowing and evanescent +morsels, remaining miraculously suspended when inserting their long +bills into the flowers, their little wings beating so rapidly that the +air seemed visible and radiant about them. Another tree here interested +me, for it was Bates Assacu, the only one I saw. It was a large tree, +with palmate leaves having seven fingers. Ugly spines studded even its +brown trunk. + +I looked out on the river dubiously. A rocky island was just off shore, +crowned with trees. Between us and the island, and beyond, the waters +heaved and circled, evidently of great depth, and fearfully disturbed +and swift. It looked all its name, the Caldeirao do Inferno--hell's +cauldron. There was not much white and broken water. But its surface was +always changing, whirlpools forming and revolving, then disappearing in +long wrenched strands of water. Sometimes a big tree would leap out of +the water, as though it had travelled upwards from the bottom, and then +would vanish again. + +We set out upon it, with an engineman and two half-breeds, and went off +obliquely for mid-stream. The engineman and navigator was a fair-haired +German. If the river had been sane and usual I should have had my eyes +on the forest which stood along each shore, for few white men had ever +looked upon it. But the river took our minds, and never in bad weather +in the western ocean have I seen water so full of menace. Yet below the +falls it was silent and unbroken. It was its smooth swiftness, its +strange checks and mysterious and deep convulsions, as though the river +bed itself was insecure, the startling whirlpools which appeared without +warning, circling depressions on the surface in which our launch would +have been but a straw, which shocked the mind. It was stealthy and +noiseless. The water was but an inch or two below our gunwale. We saw +trees afloat, greater and heavier than our midget of a craft, shooting +down the gently inclined shining expanse just as we were, and express; +and then, as if an awful hand had grasped them from below, they were +pulled under, and we saw them no more; or, again, and near to us and +ahead, a tree bole would shoot from below like an arrow, though no tree +had been drifting there. The shores were far away. + +The water ahead grew worse. The German crouched by his little throbbing +engine, looking anxiously--I could see his fixed stare--over the bows. +We were travelling indeed now. The boat, in a rapid tremor, and +oscillating violently, was clutched at the keel by something which +coiled strongly about us, gripped us, and held us; and the boat, mad and +terrified, in an effort to escape, made a circuit, the water lipping at +her gunwale and coming over the bows. The river seemed poised a foot +above the bows, ready to pour in and swamp us. The German tried to get +her head down stream. Hills began tearing at his ammunition belt, and I +stooped and tugged at my boot laces.... + +The boat jumped, as if released. The German turned round on us grinning. +"It ees all right," he said. He began to roll a cigarette nervously. "We +pull it off all right," said the German, wetting his cigarette paper. +The boat was free, dancing lightly along. The little engine was singing +quickly and freely. + +The Madeira here was as wide as in its lower reaches, with many islands. +There were hosts of waterfowl. We landed once at a rubber hunter's sitio +on the right bank. Its owner, a Bolivian, and his pretty Indian wife, +who had tattoo marks on her forehead, made much of us, and gave us +coffee. They had an orchard of guavas, and there, for it was long since +I had tasted fruit, I was an immoderate thief, in spite of a pet +curassow which followed me through the garden with distracting pecks. +The Rio Jaci-Parana, a blackwater stream, opened up soon after we left +the sitio. The boundary between the clay-coloured flood of the Madeira +and the dark water of the tributary was straight and distinct. From a +distance the black water seemed like ink, but we found it quite clear +and bright. The Jaci is not an important branch river, but it was, at +this period of the rains, wider than the Thames at Richmond, and without +doubt very much deeper. The appearance of the forest on the Jaci was +quite different from the palisades of the parent stream. On the Madeira +there is commonly a narrow shelf of bank, above which the jungle rises +as would a sheer cliff. The Jaci had no banks. The forest was deeply +submerged on either side, and whenever an opening showed in the woods we +could see the waters within, but could not see their extent because of +the interior gloom. The outer foliage was awash, and mounted, not +straight, but in rounded clouds. For the first time I saw many vines and +trees in flower, presumably because we were nearer the roof of the +woods. One tree was loaded with the pendent pear-shaped nests of those +birds called "hang nests," and scores of the beauties in their black and +gold plumage were busy about their homes, which resembled monstrous +fruits. Another tree was weighted with large racemes of orange-coloured +blossoms, but as the launch passed close to it we discovered the blooms +were really bundles of caterpillars. The Jaci appeared to be a haunt of +the alligators, but all we saw of them was their snouts, which moved +over the surface of the water out of our way like rubber balls afloat +and mysteriously propelled. I had a sight, too, of that most regal of +the eagles, the harpy, for one, well within view, lifted from a tree +ahead, and sailed finely over the river and away. + +That night I slept again in my old hut at the Jaci camp, and with Hill +and another official set off early next morning for the construction +camp on Rio Caracoles, which we hoped to reach before the commissary +train left for Porto Velho. At Porto Velho the "Capella" was, and I +wished, perhaps as much as I have ever wished for anything, that I +should not be left behind when she departed. I knew she must be on the +point of sailing. + +My two companions had reasons of their own for thinking the catching of +that train was urgently necessary. In our minds we were already settled +and safe in a waggon, comfortable among the empty boxes, going back to +the place where the crowd was. But still we had some way to ride; and, I +must tell you, I was now possessed of all I desired of the tropical +forest, and had but one fixed idea in my dark mind, but one bright star +shining there; I had turned about, and was going home, and now must +follow hard and unswervingly that star in the east of my mind. The +rhythmic movements of the mule under me--only my legs knew he was +there--formed in my darkened mind a refrain: get out of it, get out of +it. + +And at last there were the huts and tents of the Caracoles, still and +quiet under the vertical sun. No train was there, nor did it look a +place for trains. My steamer was sixty miles away, beyond a track along +which further riding was impossible, and where walking, for more than +two miles, could not be even considered. The train, the boys told us +blithely, went back half an hour before. The audience of trees regarded +my consternation with the indifference which I had begun to hate with +some passion. The boys naturally expected that we should take it in the +right way for hot climates, without fuss, and that now they had some new +gossip for the night. But they should have understood Hill better. My +tall gaunt leader waved them aside, for he was a man who could do +things, when there seemed nothing that one could do. "The terminus or +bust!" he cried. "Where's the boss?" He demanded a handcart and a crew. +I thought he spoke in jest. A handcart is a contrivance propelled along +railway metals by pumping at a handle. The handle connects with the +wheels by a crank and cogs through a slot in the centre of the platform, +and you get five miles an hour out of it, while the crew continues. For +sixty miles, in that heat, it was impossible. Yet Hill persisted; the +cart was put on the metals, five half-breeds manned the pump handle, +three facing the track ahead, two with their backs to it. We three +passengers sat on the sides and front of the trolley. Away we went. + +The boys cheered and laughed, calling out to us the probabilities of our +journey. We trundled round a corner, and already I had to change my +cramped position; fifty-eight miles to go. We sat with our legs held up +out of the way of the vines and rocks by the track, and careful to +remember that our craniums must be kept clear of the pump handle. The +crew went up and down, with fixed looks. The sun was the eye of the last +judgment, and my lips were cracked. The trees made no sign. The natives +went up and down; and the forest went by, tree by tree. + +My tired and thoughtless legs dropped, and a thorn fastened its teeth +instantly in my boots, and nearly had me down. The trees went by, one by +one. There was a large black and yellow butterfly on a stone near us. I +was surprised when no sound came as it made a grand movement upwards. +Then, in the heart of nowhere, the trolley slackened, and came to a +stand. We had lost a pin. Half a mile back we could hardly credit we +really had found that pin, but there it was; and the men began to go up +and down again. Hill got a touch of fever, and the natives had changed +to the colour of impure tallow, and flung their perspiration on my face +and hands as they swung mechanically. The poor wretches! We were done. +The sun weighed untold tons. + +But the sun declined, some monkeys began to howl, and the sunset tempest +sprang down on us its assault, shaking the high screens on either hand, +and the rain beat with the roll of kettle-drums. Then we got on an up +grade, and two of the spent natives collapsed, their chests heaving. So +I and the other chap stood up in the night, looked to the stars, from +which no help could be got, took hold of the pump handle like gallant +gentlemen, and tried to forget there were twenty miles to go. Away we +went, jog, jog, uphill. I thought that gradient would not end till my +heart and head had burst; but it did, just in time. + +We gathered speed on a down grade. We flew. Presently the man with the +fever yelled, "The brake, the brake!" But the brake was broken. The +trolley was not running, but leaping in the dark. Every time it came +down it found the metals. A light was coming towards us on the line; and +the others prepared to jump. I could not even see that light, for my +back was turned to our direction, and I could not let go the flying +handle, else would all control have gone, and also I should have been +smashed. I shut my eyes, pumped swiftly and involuntarily, and waited +for doom to hit me in the back. The blow was a long time coming. Then +Hill's gentle voice remarked, "All right, boys, it's a firefly." + +... I became only a piece of machinery, and pumped, and pumped, with no +more feeling than a bolster. Shadows undulated by us everlastingly. I +think my tongue was hanging out.... + +Lights were really seen at last. Kind hands lifted us from the engine of +torture; and I heard the remembered voice of the Skipper, "Is he there? +I thought it was a case." + + * * * * * + +That night of my return a full moon and a placid river showed me the +"Capella" doubled, as in a mirror, and admiring the steamer's deep +inverted shape I saw a heartening portent--I saw steam escaping from the +funnel which was upside down. A great joy filled me at that, and I +turned to the Skipper, as we strode over the ties of the jetty. "Yes. We +go home to-morrow," he said. The bunk was super-heated again by the +engine room, but knowing the glad reason, I endured it with pleasure. +To-morrow we turned about. + +Yet on the morrow there was still the persistence of the spacious +idleness which encompassed us impregnably, beyond which we could not go. +The little that was left of the fuel in the holds went out of us with +dismal unhaste. The Skipper and the mates fumed, and the Doctor took me +round to see the "Capella's" pets, so that we might fill up time. A +monkey, an entirely secular creature once with us, had died while I was +away. It was well. He had no name; Vice was his name. There were no +tears at his death, and Tinker the terrier began to get back some of his +full and lively form again after that day when, in a sudden righteous +revolution, he slew, and barbarously mangled, the insolent tyrant of the +ship. The monkey had feared none but Mack, our red, blue and yellow +macaw, a monstrous and resplendent fowl in whose iron bill even Brazil +nuts were soft. + +But we all respected Mack. He was the wisest thing on the ship. If an +idle man felt high-spirited and approached Mack to demonstrate his +humour, that great bird gave an inquiring turn to its head, and its +deliberate and unwinking eyes hid the rapid play of its prescient mind. +The man stopped, and would speak but playfully. Nobody ever dared. + +When Mack first boarded the ship, a group of us, gloved, smothered him +with a heavy blanket and fastened a chain to his leg. He knew he was +overpowered, and did not struggle, but inside the blanket we heard some +horrible chuckles. We took off the blanket and stood back expectantly +from that dishevelled and puzzling giant of a parrot. He shook his +feathers flat again, quite self-contained, looked at us sardonically and +murmured "Gur-r-r" very distinctly; then glanced at his foot. There was +a little surprise in his eye when he saw the chain there. He lifted up +the chain to examine it, tried it, and then quietly and easily bit it +through. "Gur-r-r!" he said again, straightening his vest, still +regarding us solemnly. Then he moved off to a davit, and climbed the +mizzen shrouds to the top-mast. + +When he saw us at food he came down with nonchalance, and overlooked our +table from the cross beam of an awning. Apparently satisfied, he came +directly to the mess table, sitting beside me, and took his share with +all the assurance of a member, allowing me to idle with his beautiful +wings and his tail. He was a beauty. He took my finger in his awful bill +and rolled it round like a cigarette. I wondered what he would do to it +before he let it go; but he merely let it go. He was a great character, +magnanimously minded. I never knew a tamer creature than Mack. That +evening he rejoined a flock of his wild brothers in the distant +tree-tops. But he was back next morning, and put everlasting fear into +the terrier, who was at breakfast, by suddenly appearing before him with +wings outspread on the deck, looking like a disrupted and angry rainbow, +and making raucous threats. The dog gave one yell and fell over +backwards. + +We had added a bull-frog to our pets, and he must have weighed at least +three pounds. He had neither vice nor virtue, but was merely a squab in +a shady corner. Whenever the dog approached him he would rise on his +legs, however, and inflate himself till he was globular. This was +incomprehensible to Tinker, who was contemptuous, but being a little +uncertain, would make a circuit of the frog. Sitting one day in the +shadow of the box which enclosed the rudder chain was the frog, and we +were near, and up came Tinker a-trot all unthinking, his nose to the +deck. The frog hurriedly furnished his pneumatic act when Tinker, who +did not know froggie was there, was close beside him, and Tinker snapped +sideways in a panic. Poor punctured froggie dwindled instantly, and +died. + +I could add to the list of our creatures the anaconda which was found +coming aboard by the gangway but that a stoker saw him first, became +hysterical, and slew the reptile with a shovel; there were the coral +snakes which came inboard over the cables and through the hawse pipes, +and the vampire bats which frequented the forecastle. But they are +insignificant beside our peccary. I forgot to tell you the Skipper never +made a tame creature of her. She refused us. We brought her up from the +bunkers where first she was placed, because the stokers flatly refused +her society in the dark. She was brought up on deck in bonds, snapping +her tushes in a direful way, and when released did most indomitably +charge all our ship's company, bristles up, and her automatic teeth +louder and more rapid than ever. How we fled! When I turned on my +vantage, the manner of my getting there all unknown, to see who was my +neighbour, it was my abashed and elderly captain, who can look upon sea +weather at its worst with an easy eye, but who then was striving +desperately to get his legs (which were in pyjamas) ten feet above the +deck, in case the very wild pig below had wings. + +After the peccary was released we could not call the ship ours. We crept +about as thieves. It was fortunate that she always gave warning of her +proximity by making the noise of castanets with her tusks, so that we +had time to get elevated before she arrived. But I never really knew how +fast she could move till I saw her chase the dog, whom she despised and +ignored. One morning his valiant barking at her, from a distance he +judged to be adequate, annoyed her, and she shot at him like a +projectile. Her slender limbs and diminutive hooves were those of a +deer, and they became merely a haze beneath her body, which was a flying +passion. The terrified dog had no chance, but just as she closed with +him her feet slipped, and so Tinker's life was saved. + +Her end was pitiful. One day she got into the saloon. The Doctor and I +were there, and saw her trot in at one door, and we trotted out at +another door. Now, the saloon was the pride of the Skipper; and when the +old man tried to bribe her out of it--he talked to her from the open +skylight above--and she insulted him with her mouth, he sent for his +men. From behind a shut door of the saloon alley way we heard a fusilade +of tusks in the saloon, shrieks from the maddened dog, uproar from the +parrots, and the hoarse shouts of the crew. The pig was charging ten +ways at once. Stealing a look from the cabin we saw the boatswain appear +with a bunch of cotton waste, soaked in kerosene, blazing at the end of +a bamboo, and the mate with a knife lashed to another pole. The peccary +charged the lot. There broke out the cries of Tophet, and through chaos +champed insistently the high note of the tusks. She was noosed and +caged; but nothing could be done with the little fury, and when I peeped +in at her a few days later she was full length, and dying. She opened +one glazing eye at me, and snapped her teeth slowly, game to the end. + + * * * * * + +_March 6._--It was reported at breakfast that we sail to-morrow. The +bread was sour, the butter was oil, the sugar was black with flies, the +sausages were tinned and very white and dead, and the bacon was all fat. +And even the awning could not keep the sun away. + +_March 7._--We got the hatches on number four hold. It is reported we +sail to-morrow. + +_March 8._--The ship was crowded this night with the boys, for a last +jollification. We fired rockets, and swore enduring friendships with +anybody, and many sang different songs together. It is reported that we +sail to-morrow. + +_March 9._--It is reported that we sail to-morrow. + +_March 10._--The "Capella" has come to life. The master is on the +bridge, the first mate is on the forecastle head, the second mate is on +the poop, and the engineers are below. There are stern and minatory +cries, and men who run. At the first slow clanking of the cable we +raised wild cheers. The ship's body began to tremble, and there was +thunder under her counter. We actually came away from the jetty, where +long we had seemed a fixture. We got into mid-stream--stopped; slowly +turned tail on Porto Velho. There was old man Jim, diminished on the +distant jetty, waving his hat. Porto Velho looked strange again. Away we +went. We reached the bend of the river, and turned the corner. There was +the last we shall ever see of Porto Velho. Gone! + +The forest unfolding in reverse order seemed brighter, and all would +have been quite well, but the fourth engineer came up from his duty, and +fell insensible. He was very yellow, and the Doctor had work to do. Here +was the first of our company to succumb to the country. + + * * * * * + +There were but six more days of forest; for the old "Capella," empty and +light as a balloon, the collisions with the floating timber causing +muffled thunder in her hollow body, came down the swift floods of the +Madeira and the Amazon rivers "like a Cunarder, at sixteen knots," as +the Skipper said. And there on the sixth day was Para again, and the sea +near. Our spirits mounted, released from the dead weight of heat and +silence. But I was to lose the Doctor at Para, for he was then to return +to Porto Velho, having discharged his duty to the "Capella's" company. +The Skipper took his wallet, and we went ashore with him, he to his +day-long task of clearing his vessel, and we for a final sad excursion. +Much later in the day, suspecting an unnameable evil was gathering to my +undoing, I called at the agent's office, and found the Skipper had +returned to the ship, that she was sailing that night, and, the +regulations of Para being what they were, it being after six in the +evening I could not leave the city till next morning. My haggard and +dismayed array of thoughts broke in confusion and left me gibbering, +with not one idea for use. Without saying even good-bye to my old +comrade I took to my heels, and left him; and that was the last I saw of +the Doctor. (Aha! my staunch support in the long, hot and empty time at +the back of things, where were but trees, bad food, and a jest to brace +our souls, if ever you should see this--How!--and know, dear lad, I +carried the damnable regulations and a whole row of officials, the Union +Jack at the main, firing every gun as I bore down on them. I broke +through. Only death could have barred me from my ship and the way home.) + +Next morning we were at sea. We dropped the pilot early and changed our +course to the north, bound for Barbados. Though on the line, the +difference in the air at sea, after our long enclosure in the rivers of +the forest, was keenly felt. And the ship too had been so level and +quiet; but here she was lively again, full of movements and noises. The +bows were at their old difference with the skyline, and the steady wind +of the outer was driving over us. Before noon, when I went in to the +Chief, my crony was flat and moribund with a temperature at 105, and he +had no interest in this life whatever. I had added the apothecary's +duties to those of the Purser, and here found my first job. (Doctor, I +gave him lots of grains of quinine, and lots more afterwards; and plenty +of calomel when he was at 98 again. Was that all right?) + +The sight of the big and hearty Chief, when he was about once more, +yellow, insecure, and somewhat shrunken, made us dubious. Yet now were +we rolling home. She was breasting down into a creaming smother, the +seas were blue, and the world was fresh and wide all the way back. There +was one fine night, as we were climbing slowly up the slope of the +globe, when we lifted the whole constellation of the Great Bear, the +last star of the tail just dipping below the seas, straight over the +"Capella's" bows, as she pitched. Then were we assured affairs were +rightly ordered, and slept well and contented. + + * * * * * + +Late one afternoon we sighted Barbados. The sea was dark and the light +was golden. The island did not look like land. It was a faint but +constant pearl-coloured cloud. The empty sky came down to the dark sea +in bright walls which had but a bloom of azure. Overhead it was day, but +the sea was fluid night. Above the island was a group of cirrus, turned +to the setting sun like an audience of intent faces. Near to starboard +was a white ship, fully rigged, standing towards the island with royals +set, and even a towering main skysail. Tall as she was, she looked but a +multiple cloud which had dropped from the sky, and had settled on the +dark sea, and over it was drifting in a faint air, buoyant, but unable +to lift. We overhauled that stately ship. She was reflecting the dayfall +from the white rounds of her many sails. She was regal, she was +paramount in her world, and the sun seemed to be watching her, and +shining solely for her illustrious progress. The clarity and the peace +of it was in us as we leaned against the rail, watching Barbados grow, +and watching that exalted ship. "This is all right," said the Chief. + +We were coming to the things we knew and understood. In the island near +us were men, quays, and shops. This evening had a familiar and friendly +look. Barbados at last! There would be something to eat, too, and we +kept talking of that. Do you know what good bread and butter tastes +like? Or mealy baked potatoes? Or fruit from which the juice runs when +you bite? Or crisp salads? Not you; not if you haven't lived for long on +tinned stuffs, bread which smelt like vinegar, and butter to which a +spoon had to be used. + +To the door of the saloon alley way we saw the steward come, and begin +to swing his bell. "Tea ho!" said the mate. "Keep it," said the Chief. +"I know it. Sardines and hash. Not for me. We shall get some grub in the +morning. Oranges and bananas, boys. I'm tired of oil. My belt is in by +three holes." + +When the sun once touched the sea it sank visibly, like a weight. Night +came at once. We passed a winking light, and soon ahead of us in the +dark was grouped a multitude of lower stars. That was Bridgetown. Those +stars opened and spread round us, showing nothing of the wall of night +in which they were fixed. Well, there it was. We could smell the good +land. We should see it in the morning. We had really got there. + +The engines stopped. There was a shout from the steamer's bridge and a +thunderous rumbling as the cable ran out, and then a remarkable quiet. +The old man came sideways down the bridge ladder with a hurricane lamp, +and stood with us, striking a light for his cigar. "Here we are, Chief," +he said. "What about coals in the morning?" The night was hot, there was +no wind, and as we sat yarning on the bunker hatch another cluster of +stars moved in swiftly together, came to a stand near us, and a +peremptory gun was fired. That was the British mail steamer. + +We looked at her with awe. We could see the toffs in evening dress +idling in the glow of her electric lights. What a feed they had just +finished! But the greatest wonder of her deck was the women in white +gowns. We could hear the strange laughter of the women, and listened for +it. That was music worth listening to. Our little mob of toughs in turns +used the night glasses on those women, and in a dead silence. There were +some kiddies, too. + +We were looking at the benign lights of the island and trying to make +out what they meant. The sense of our repose, and the touch of those +warm and velvet airs, and the scent of land, were like the kindness and +security of home. "I know this place," drawled Sandy. "I was here once. +Before I went into steam I used to come out to the islands, when I was a +young 'un. I made two voyages in the 'Chocolate Girl.' She was my first +ship. She was a daisy, too. Once we lifted St. Vincent twenty-five days +out of Liverpool. That was going, if you like. If old Wager--he was the +old man of the 'Chocolate Girl'--if he could only get a trip in a ship +like this, like an iron street with a factory stack in the middle! But +he can't. He's dead. He had the 'Mignonette,' and she went missing among +the Bahamas. There's millions of islands in the Bahamas. They're north +of this place. You couldn't visit all those islands in a lifetime. + +"If you ask me, some of the islands in these seas are very funny. +There's something wrong about a few of them. They're not down in the +chart, so I've heard. One day you lift one, and you never knew it was +there. 'What's that?' says the old man. 'Can't make that place out.' +Then he reckons he's found new land, and takes his position. He calls it +after his wife, and cables home what he's done. The next thing is a +gunboat goes there and beats about and lays over the spot, but she +doesn't find no island. The gunboat cables home that the merchant chap +was drunk or something, and that he steamed over the spot and got +hundreds of fathoms. They're always so clever, in the navy. But I've +heard some of these islands are not right. You see one once, and nobody +ever sees it again. + +"I knew a man, and he was marooned on one of those islands. He sailed +with me afterwards on one of the Blue Anchor steamers to Sydney. One +time he was on a craft out of Martinique for Cuba. She was a schooner of +the islands, and fine vessels they are. You'll see a lot about us in the +morning. This man's name was Moffat--Bill Moffat. His schooner had a +mulatto for a master, and that nigger was a fool and very superstitious, +by all accounts. They ran short of water, and it's pretty bad if you +fall short of water in these seas. Off the regular routes there's +nothing. You might drift for weeks, and see nothing, off the track. + +"Then they sighted an island. The mulatto chap pretended he knew all +about that island. He said he had been there before. But he was a liar. +It was only a little island, like some trees afloat. They came down on +it, and anchored in ten fathoms and waited for daylight. + +"Next morning some wind freshened off shore, and Moffat takes a nigger +and rows to the beach. There was only a light swell breaking on the +coral, and landing was easy. Moffat told the nigger to stay by the boat +while he took a look round. There was a bit of a coral beach with a pile +of high rocks at the ends of it, like pillars each side of a doorstep. +What was inside the island Moffat couldn't see, because at the back of +the beach was a wood. He said he heard a sound like a bird calling, but +he reckoned there wasn't a soul in that place. The schooner was riding +just off. He turned and was crunching his way up the coral with the idea +of looking for a way inside. He got to the trees, and then heard the +nigger shout in a fright. The black beggar was pushing out the boat. He +got in it too, and began rowing back to the schooner as if somebody was +coming after him. + +"Moffat yelled, and ran down to the surf, but the nigger kept right on. +There was Moffat up to his knees in the water, and in a fine state. The +boat reached the schooner--and now, thinks Moffat, there'll be trouble. +Do you know what happened though? For a little while nothing happened. +Then they began to haul in her cable. She upanchored and stood out. +That's a fact. Bill told me he felt pretty sick when he saw it. He +didn't like the look of it. He watched the schooner turn tail, and soon +she found more wind and got out of sight past the island, close-hauled. +He watched her dance past one of the piles of rocks till there was +nothing but empty sea behind the rock. Then his eye caught something +moving on the rock. Something moved round it out of his sight. He never +saw what it was. He wished he had. + +"Well, he had a pretty bad time. He couldn't find anyone on the island, +in a manner of speaking. But somebody was always going round a corner, +or behind a tree. He caught them out of the tail of his eye. He said it +was enough to get on a man's nerves the way that thing always just +wasn't there, whatever it was. 'Curse the goats,' Bill used to say to +himself. + +"One day Bill was strolling round figuring out what he could do to that +mulatto when he met him again, and then he found a sea cave. He went in. +It was a silly thing to do, because the way in was so low that he had to +crawl. But the cave was big enough inside for a music-hall. The walls +ran up into a vault, and the water came up to the bottom of the walls +nearly all round. The water was like a green light. A bright light came +up through the water, and the reflections were wriggling all over the +rocks, making them seem to shake. The water was like thick glass full of +light. He could see a long way down, but not to the bottom. While he was +looking at it the water heaved up quietly full three feet, and the +reflections on the walls faded. Then he saw the hole through which he +had crawled was gone. 'Now, Bill Moffat, you're in a regular mess,' he +says to himself. + +"He dived for the hole. But he never found that way out, and the funny +thing was he couldn't come to the top again. Bill saw it was a proper +case that time, and no more Sundays in Poplar. He was surprised to find +that the deeper he went the thinner the water was. It was thin and +clear, like electric light. He could see miles there, and down he kept +falling till he hit the bottom with a bang. It scared a lot of fishes, +and they flew up like birds. He looked up to see them go, and there was +the sun overhead, only it was like a bright round of green jelly, all +shaking. Bill found it was dead easy to breathe in water that was no +thicker than air, so he got up, brushed the sand off, and looked round. +A flock of fishes flew about him quite friendly, and as beautiful as +Amazon parrots. A big crab walked ahead, and Bill thought he had better +follow the crab. + +"He came to a path which was marked with shells, and at the end of the +path he saw the fore half of a ship up-ended. While he was looking at +it, somebody pushed the curtains from the hatchway, and came out, and +looked at him. 'Good lord, it's Davy Jones,' said Bill to himself. + +"'Hullo, Bill,' said Davy. 'Come in. Glad to see you, Bill. What a time +you've been.' + +"Moffat said that Davy wasn't a decent sight, having barnacles all over +his face. But he shook hands. 'You're hand is quite cold, Bill,' said +Davy. 'Did you lose your soul coming along? You nearly did that before, +Bill Moffat. You nearly did it that Christmas night off Ushant. I +thought you were coming then. But not you. But here you are at last all +right. Come in! Come in!' + +"Bill went inside with Davy. There was sea junk all over the place. 'I +find these things very handy, old chap,' said Davy to Bill, seeing he +was looking at them. 'It's good of you to send them down, though I don't +like the iron, for it won't stand the climate. See that old hat? It's a +Spanish admiral's. I clap it on, backwards, whenever I want to go +ashore.' + +"So they sat down, and yarned about old times, though Bill told me that +Davy seemed to remember people after everybody else had forgotten them, +which was confusing. 'Oh, yes,' Davy would say, 'old Johnson. Yes. He +used to talk of me in a rare way. He was a dog, was Johnson. I've heard +him, many a time. But he's changed since his ship came downstairs. He's +a better man. He's not so funny as he was.' + +"Then they had a pipe, and after a bit things began to drag. 'Come into +the garden, Bill,' said Davy. 'Come and have a look round.' + +"All round the garden Bill noticed the name-boards of ships nailed up. +Some of the names Bill knew, and some he didn't, being Spanish. 'What do +you think of my collection?' said Davy. 'Ever seen as fine a one? I lay +you never have!' + +"Then they came to a door. 'Come in,' said Davy. 'This is my locker. +Ever heard of my locker?' + +"Bill said it was pretty dark inside. Just light enough to see. But +there was only miles and miles of crab-pots, all set out in rows, with a +label on each. 'What do you think of that lot, Bill?' asked Davy. 'I +shall have to get larger premises soon.' Bill choked a bit, for the +place smelt stale and seaweedy. 'What's in the crab-pots, Davy?' said +Bill. + +"'Souls!' said Davy. 'But there's a lot of trash, though now and then I +get a good one. Here, now. See this? This is a fine one, though I +mustn't tell you where I got it. And people said he hadn't got one. But +I knew better, and there it is.' + +"But Bill couldn't see anything in the pots. He could only hear a +rustling, as if something was rubbing on the wicker, or a twittering. At +last Davy came to a new pot. 'Do you know who's in this one, Bill,' he +said. But Bill couldn't guess. 'Well, Bill, it's your soul, and a poorer +one I never see. It was hardly worth setting the pot for a soul like +that.' Then Davy began to shake the pot, and soon got wild. 'Here, where +the deuce has that soul gone,' he said, and put his ear to the bars. +Then he put the pot down and made a rush at Bill, to get it back; but +Bill jumped backwards, got through the door, ran through the house, +grabbed the admiral's cocked hat, and clapped it on backwards. Then he +shot out of the water at once, and found himself on the rocks outside +the cave, with the cocked hat still on his head. He's kept that hat ever +since, and money wouldn't buy it." + + * * * * * + +When I woke next morning it was like waking to a great occasion. The +tropic sun was blazing outside. The day seemed of a superior quality. An +old negress shuffled by my cabin door, through which was a peep of the +town across the harbour, and she had some necklaces of shells strung on +one skinny black arm and carried a basket of oranges on the other. I +jumped up, and bought all the oranges. A boat came to our gangway and +some of us went ashore. I don't know what a man feels like who is +released one fine day from imprisonment into the stream of his fellows, +but I should think he is first a little stunned, and afterwards becomes +like a child's balloon in a breeze. The people we had met in the Brazils +never laughed; and I myself had always felt that there we had been +watched and followed unseen, that something was there, watching us, +waiting its time, knowing well it could get us before we escaped. + +We were at last outside it and free. The anchorage of Bridgetown seemed +anarchic, after our level sombre experience, for the sea was a green +light, flashing and volatile, with white schooners driving upon it, +negroes shouting and laughing over the bulwarks, or frantically hauling +on the sheets. The rushing water was crowded with leaping boats, all +gaudily painted; and even the sunshine, moving rapidly on quivering +white sails and the white hulls buoyantly swinging, was a kind of +shaking laughter. Our negro boatmen sang as they rowed, when they were +not swearing at other boatmen. The world had got wine in its head. + +We went to the Ice House, and bought English beer. (Oh, the taste of +beer!) In the brisk and sunny streets there were English women, cool, +dainty, a little haughty, their dresses smelling of new linen, and they +were looking in at shop windows. We had got our feet down on home +pavements, and the streets had the newness and sparkle of holiday. "Hi, +cabby!" + +He drove us along coral roads, under cocoanut palms, and there were +golden hills (hills once more!) one way, and on the other hand was a +beach glowing like white fire, with a sea beyond of a blue that was +ultimate, profound, and as tense and as still as rapture. We came to a +hotel where there was stiff napery, with creases in it, on a breakfast +table. There was a silver coffee-pot. There was sweet-smelling and +crusty bread, butter in ice, and new milk. There was a heaped plate of +fruit. There was a crystal jug filled with cold water and sunshine, and +it threw a wavering light on the damask. + +We had some of everything. We ate for more than an hour, steadily. A man +could not have done it alone, and without shame. There was one superior +lady tourist, with grey curls on her cheeks and a face like doom, and +she sent for the manager, and asked if we were to breakfast there again. +She wanted to know. The Chief begged me, as the youngest of the party, +to go over and kiss her. But I pointed out that, seeing where we had +come from, and what we had suffered, it was the plain duty of any really +dear old soul to come over and kiss us on a morning like that. + + * * * * * + +In the afternoon we were aboard again, waiting for the Skipper to return +with the new orders. To what part of the world would the power in +Leadenhall Street now consign us? Sandy thought New Orleans; but we +could rule that out, for there was no cotton just then. Pensacola was +more likely, the Chief said, with a deck cargo of lumber for Hamburg. +That guess made the crowd glum. Winter in the Atlantic, she rolling her +heart out, and the timber that was level with the engine-room casing +groaning and straining at every roll--to dwell on that prospect was to +feel a cold draught out of the Valley of Shadows. + +Two nigger boys were overside, diving for coins. You threw a +coin--Brazil's nickel muck, a handful worth nothing--and it went below +oscillating, as though sentiently dodging the contorted and convulsive +figure of the boy diving after it. The transparency of the fathoms was +that of a denser air. When the sea was still, at the slack of the tides, +this tropic anchorage was not like water. You did not look upon it, but +into it, being hardly aware of its surface. It was surprising to see our +massive iron plates stand upright in it. We were still an ugly black +bulk, as we were on the ditch water of Swansea, but our sea wagon had +lost its look of squat heaviness. Even our iron ship was transmuted, +such was the lift and radiance of Barbados and its sea, into the +buoyancy of the unsubstantial stuff of that scene about us, the low +hills of greenish gold so delicate under the sky of malachite blue that +you doubted whether mortals could walk there. Bridgetown was between +those hills and the sea, a cluster of white cubes, with inconsequential +touches of scarlet, orange, and emerald. Beneath our keel was a boy who +might have been flying there. + +On one side of the town was a belt of coral beach. It was a-fire, and +the palms above the beach, with their secretive villas, and the +green-gold hills beyond, floated on that white glow. The sea below the +beach was an incandescent green; it might have been burning through +contact with the island. Then the sea spread down to us in areas of +opaque violet and blue, till in the neighbourhood of the ship it became +transparent and was but a denser atmosphere. You, in the hard and bitter +north, on the exposed summit of the world where Polaris glitters in the +forehead of a frozen god, hardly know what young and luscious stuff this +earth is, where the constant sun and tepid rains and salt air have +preserved its bloom and flush of abounding life. + +There came the Skipper's boat, he in his shore-going white ducks and +Panama hat in the stern sheets, his wallet in his hand. He knew that we +all looked at him with assumed indifference, when he stepped among us on +deck. That was his time to show he was the ship's master. He feigned +that we were not there. He turned to the chief mate: "All ready, Mr. +Brown?" "All ready, sir." Then the master walked slowly, knowing our +eyes were on his back, to his place aft, first going in to speak to the +Chief. The Chief came out some minutes after. "Tampa, boys," said he. +"Florida for phosphate, then home." + +That evening we were on our way, and turned inwards through the line of +the Caribbees, passing between the islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent, +high purple masses of rock, St. Lucia's mass ascending into cones. The +Skipper had been to most of the West Indian islands, and remembered +them, while I listened. We stood at the chart-room door, watching the +islands across the evening seas. The sun, just above the sharply dark +rim of ocean, touched the sea, and sank. A thin paring of silver moon +had the sky to itself. I went into the chart-room; and the old man who, +grim and sour as you might think him, mellows into confidential +friendliness when he has you to himself, spread his charts of the +Spanish Main under the yellow lamp, which was a slow pendulum as she +rolled, and he put his spectacles on his lean brown face, talked of +unfrequented cays, and of the negro islands, and debated which route we +should take. + +The fourth morning at breakfast-time, was a burning day, with a sky +almost cloudless, and a slow sea which had the surface of its rich blue +deeps shot with turquoise lights, while fields of saffron gulfweed +stained it; and we had, close over our port bow, the most beautiful +island in the world. It is useless to deny it, and to declare you know a +better island. Can't I see Jamaica now? I see it most plain. It descends +abruptly from the meridian, pinnacles and escarpments trembling in the +upper air with distance and delicate poise, and comes down in rolling +forests and steep verdant slopes, where facets of bare rock glitter, to +more leisurely open glades and knolls; and then, being not far from the +sea, drops in sheer cliffs to where the white combers pulse. It is a +jewel which smells like a flower. The "Capella" went close in till Port +Antonio under the Blue Mountains was plain, and though I could see the +few scattered houses, I could not see the narrow ledges where men could +stand in such a steep land. We crawled over the blue floor in which that +sea mountain is set, and cruised along, feeling very small, under the +various and towering shape. For long I watched it, declaring continually +that some day I must return. (And that is the greatest compliment a +traveller on his way home can pay to any spot on earth.) + +It faded as we drew northwards. Over seas to the north was a long low +stratum of permanent cloud, and beneath it was the faint presentiment of +Cuba. Still we were in the spell of the very halcyon weather of old +tales, with the world our own, though once this day there was a great +rain burst, and the "Capella" was lost in falling water, her syren +blaring. We neared the Cuban coast by the Isle of Pines, a pallid desert +shore, apparently treeless and parched. The next morning we came to the +western cape of the island, rounding it in company with a white island +schooner, its crew of toughs watching us from her shadeless deck; and +changed our course almost due north. + +Now we were in the Gulf of Mexico, and soon upset its notoriously +uncertain temper, for a "norther" met us and piped till it was a full +gale, end-on, and it kicked up a nasty sea which flung about the empty +"Capella" like a band-box. There was a night of it. Towards morning it +eased up, and I woke to a serene sunrise, and found we were in the pale +green water of coral soundings, with the Floridan pilot even then +standing in to us, his tug bearing centrally on its bridge a gilded +eagle with rampant wings. In a little while we were fast to the +quarantine quay at Mullet Island, detained as a yellow fever suspect. +The medical officers boarded us, ranged amidships the "Capella's" crowd +from the master down, and put in the mouth of each of us a thermometer; +and so for a time we stood ridiculously smoking glass cigarettes. One +stoker was put aside, for he had a temperature. Then into the cabins, +and the saloon, the forecastle, and into the holds, were put gallipots +of burning sulphur, and the doors were closed. We became a great and +dreadful stench; and I went ashore. + +There was a deserted beach of comminuted shells, its glare as bright as +snow in sunshine. It was littered with the relics of old wrecks, with +sea rubbish, and the carapaces of crabs. Beyond the beach was a +calcareous desert, with a scrub of palmetto and evergreen, and patches +of flowering coreopsis and blue squills. Hidden by the scrub were +shallow lagoons. It is hard to tell the sea from the land in warm and +aqueous Florida, for sea and land so invade each other's dominions. +Water and land were asleep in the sun. I was alone in the island, and +sat in a decaying boat by the shore of a lagoon where nothing moved but +the little crabs playing hide and seek in the moist crevices of the +boat, and the pelicans which sat round the interminable flat shores. +Sometimes the pelicans woke, and yawned, and fanned the heat with great +slow wings. + +In the early afternoon we were allowed to proceed to Tampa, which we +reached in three hours; and there we came once more to the press of the +busy and indifferent world. The muddle of roofs and steeples of a great +city were about us, and men met us and talked to us, but they had no +leisure for interest in the wonders of the strange land from which we +had come, and would not have cared if afterwards we were going to +Gehenna. We made fast under a new structure of timber and iron which was +something between a flour mill and the Tower of Babel, for it was wan +and powdered, and full of strange noises; and it had a habit of eating, +in a mechanical way, an interminable length of railway trucks, wagon +after wagon, one every minute. A great weariness and yearning filled me +that night. The strangulating fumes of the sulphur clung to all the +cabin, and puffed in clouds from the pillow when I changed sides; for +the wagons clanked and banged till daylight. I sat up and beat my +breast, and swore I would leave her and go home. The next morning that +inexplicable structure beside us began from many mouths to vomit floods +of powdered phosphate into us, and the "Capella," in and out, turned +pale through an almost impalpable dust. Everybody took bronchitis and +cursed Tampa and its phosphate. + +I spoke to the Skipper and the Chief about it, and they agreed that +nobody would stop with her now, who could leave her; but that yet was I +no pal to desert them. What about them? They had yet to see her safe +across the most ruthless of seas at a time when its temper would be at +its worst; and what about them? Though they admitted that, were they in +my case, they would certainly take the train to New York, and catch +there the fastest steamer for England. Then come with me to the British +Consul like an honest man, said I to the captain, and get me off your +articles. + +The three of us left her, I for the last time. I turned upon the +"Capella," and the boys stood leaning on her taffrail watching me; and I +am not going to put down here what I felt, nor what the lads cried to +me, nor what I said when I stood beneath her counter, and called up to +them. We came to a corner by a warehouse, and I turned to look upon the +"Capella" for the last time. + +Tampa, the noisy city about us, was rawly new, most of its site but +lately a shallow lagoon, and one of its natives, the ship's agent who +was entertaining us at lunch, did not fail to impress that enterprise +and industry upon us with great earnestness. Tampa was a large, hasty, +makeshift standing of depts, railway sidings, cigar factories, wharves, +and huge elevators which could load I forget how many thousands of tons +of bulk cargo into a steamer in twelve hours, as though she were an iron +bucket under a pump. A town spontaneous unexpected and complete, with a +hurrying population in its sidewalks, pushing to secure foothold in +life, and not a book-shop there, and no talk but in its saloons and +commercial exchanges. We went into many of those saloons, the Skipper, +and the Chief, and the late Purser, shaking hands for the last time in +each, and then dropping into another to recall old affairs; and shaking +hands finally again, and so to the next bar. + +That night I was alone in Tampa, with a torrent of urgent affairs +surging past. I could not find the railway station. Standing at a +corner, outside a tobacconist's shop, a huge corridor train shaped among +the lights of the street, trundled down the centre of the roadway, then +edged close to the sidewalk, bumping past a row of shops as casually as +a tram for a penny journey, and stopped just where I stood with a +hand-bag wondering how I was to get to New York. New York was a thousand +miles away. The train was but a mere episode of the open street, and I +could not feel it bore out the promise of my railway vouchers. This +train, a row of lighted villas in motion, came down the roadway, out of +nowhere, while carts and women with market baskets waited for it to +pass, stopped outside a tobacconist's shop, and the light of the shop +window illuminated a round of a huge wheel which stood higher than my +head. The wheel came to rest upon an abandoned newspaper. A negro was +passing me, and I stopped him. "Noo Yark? Step aboard right now!" His +word was all I had to go upon that this train would take me to the +precise point in a continent I did not know. A struggle for existence +eddied fiercely round the train, and assuming it was the right train, +and I missed it--it was an unbearable thought! The train had to be +mounted. It was like climbing a wall; but I would have cast my luggage, +scaled more than walls, and dealt conclusively with any obstruction if +the way home left me no other choice. The traveller who has been in the +wilds and has lived with the barbarous, though he has not allowed his +thoughts to look back there, yet he knows something of that eagerness +which dumb things feel when he turns about. I took my train on trust, as +one does so many things in the United States, found we should really get +to New York, in time, and lay listening to the beat of the flying wheels +beneath my berth; tried to count their pulse, and fell asleep. + +There were some more days and nights, and all the passengers of the +earlier stages of the journey had passed away. Then the train slowed +through imperceptible gradations, and stopped. I thought a cow was on +the line. But the negro attendant came to me and told me to get out. +This was New York. Outside there was a street in the rain, the stones +were deep with yellow reflections, and some cabmen stood about in shiny +capes. No majestic figure of Liberty met me. A cab met me, on a rainy +night. + + * * * * * + +It was on one of those huge liners, and the steward told him they would +reach Plymouth in the morning. He was packing up his things in his +cabin. England to-morrow! The things went into his trunks in the lump, +with a compressing foot after each. It did not matter. All the clothes +were in ruins. The only care he took was with the toucans brilliant +skins, the bundle of arrows, the biscuit tins full of butterflies--they +would excite the Boy--and the barbaric Indian ornaments for Miss Muffet +and the Curly Nob; how their eyes would shine. His telegram from +Plymouth would surprise them. They did not know where he was. + +But he knew, when they did not, that there was but one more day to tick +off the calendar to complete the exile. He had turned back that day to +the earlier pages of the diary and found some illuminating entries; +"Gone," or "That's another," were written across some spaces which +otherwise were blank. It was curious that those cryptic entries recalled +the hours they stood for more vividly to his mind than those which had +happenings minutely recorded. He threw the diary into a trunk; the long +job was finished. + +The sunshine all that day was different from the well remembered burning +weight of the tropics. It was a frail and grateful spring warmth, and +the incidence of its rays was happy and illuminating, as though the +light had only just reached the world, and so things looked just +discovered and interesting. A faint silver haze hung upon a pallid sea, +and the slow smooth mounds of water were full of fugitive glints and +flashes. You hardly knew the sea was there. The mist was the luminous +nimbus of a new world, a world not yet fully formed, for it had no +visible bounds. Night came, and a nearly full moon, and the only reality +was the stupendous bulk of the liner. She might have been in the clouds, +herself a dark cloud near the moon, with but rumours of light in the +aerial deeps beneath. It seemed another of the dreams. Would he wake up +presently to the reality of the forest, with the sun blazing on the +enamel of its hard foliage? + +He wanted some assurance of time and space. He would stay on deck till +the first sign came of England. So he leaned motionless for hours on the +rail of the boat-deck, gazing ahead, where the outlook remained as +unshapen as it had since he left home. Far on the port bow appeared the +headlight of a steamer. + +He watched that light. This, then, was no dream sea. Others were there. +But was it a headlight? ... No! + +The Bishop's! England now! + +The steward came again, peeping through his curtain, and said, +"Plymouth, sir!" and turned on the glow lamp, for it was not yet dawn. +There was an early breakfast laid in the saloon; but he went on deck. +The liner had hardly way on her; the water was but uncoiling noiselessly +alongside. There were shapes of hills near, with villas painted on them, +but so bluish and immaterial was all that it might have rippled like the +flat water, being but a flimsy background which could be easily shaken. +The hills drew nearer imperceptibly, grew higher. A touch of real day +gave a hill-top body; and there was a confident shout from somebody +unseen in plain English. The vision grounded and got substance. Not only +home, but spring in Devon. + +From the train window the countryside in the tones and flush of the +renascence absorbed him. He went from side to side of the carriage. What +was most extraordinary was the sparsity and lowness of the trees and +bushes, the fineness of the growth. The outlines of the trees could be +seen, and they crouched so near to the ground and were so very meagre. +The colours were faint enough to be but tinted mists. The biggest of the +trees were manageable, looked like toys. The orderly hedges, the clean +roads, the geometrical patterns of the fields, gave him assurance once +more of order and security. Here was law again, and the permanence of +affairs long decided upon. He closed his eyes, sinking into the cushions +of the carriage as though the arms under him were proved friendly and +could be trusted.... + +The slowing of the train woke him. They were running into Paddington. He +got his feet fair and solid on London before the train stopped, and +looked into the crowd waiting there. A flushed youngster ran towards him +out of a group, then stopped shyly. He caught The Boy, and held him +up.... Here again was the centre of the world. + + THE END + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sea and the Jungle, by H. M. Tomlinson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE *** + +***** This file should be named 37205-8.txt or 37205-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/0/37205/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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M. Tomlinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sea and the Jungle + +Author: H. M. Tomlinson + +Release Date: August 26, 2011 [EBook #37205] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class='center'> +<p><span style='font-size:1.6em;font-weight:bold;'>THE SEA</span></p> +<p><span style='font-size:1.6em;font-weight:bold;'>AND THE JUNGLE</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p>BY</p> +<p><span style='font-size:1.2em;'>H. M. TOMLINSON</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'>NEW YORK</span></p> +<p>E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY</p> +<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'>681 FIFTH AVENUE</span></p> +</div> +<p> + <br /> + <br /> + <br /> +</p> +<div class='center'> +<p><span class='sc'>Published</span>, 1920,</p> +<p>BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY</p> +<p> </p> +<p><em>All Rights Reserved</em></p> +<p> </p> +<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'><em>First Printing, October, 1920</em></span></p> +<p><span style='font-size:smaller;'><em>Second Printing, September, 1921</em></span></p> +</div> +<div class='center'> +<p>THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE</p> +</div> +<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'> +Being the narrative of the voyage of the tramp +steamer <em>Capella</em> from Swansea to Para in the +Brazils, and thence 2000 miles along the forests +of the Amazon and Madeira Rivers to the San +Antonio Falls; afterwards returning to Barbados +for orders, and going by way of Jamaica +to Tampa in Florida, where she loaded for +home. Done in the years 1909 and 1910. +</p> +<div class='center'> +<p>DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO</p> +<p>DID NOT GO</p> +</div> +<p style='margin-left: 2em;margin-right: 2em;'> +The author is indebted to the editors of the +<em>English Review</em>, the <em>Pall Mall Magazine</em>, the +<em>Morning Leader</em>, and the <em>Yorkshire Observer</em>, +for permission to incorporate such parts of this +narrative as appeared first in their publications. +</p> +<p> + <br /> + <br /> + <br /> +</p> +<div class='center'> +<p><span style='font-size:larger;'>CONTENTS</span></p> +</div> +<table class='c' summary='table of contents'> +<tr><td style='font-size:smaller'>CHAPTER</td><td></td><td style='font-size:smaller'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>I.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'></span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chI'>1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>II.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'></span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chII'>98</a></td></tr> +<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>III.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'></span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIII'>185</a></td></tr> +<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'></span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chIV'>246</a></td></tr> +<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>V.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'></span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chV'>271</a></td></tr> +<tr><td valign='top' style='text-align:right; padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td><td valign='top' style='text-align:left; padding-right:3em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'></span></td><td valign='top' style='text-align:right;'><a href='#chVI'>324</a></td></tr> +</table> +<h1>THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE</h1> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1'></a>1</span><a name='chI' id='chI'></a>I</h2> +<p> +Though it is easier, and perhaps far better, not to +begin at all, yet if a beginning is made it is there +that most care is needed. Everything is inherent +in the genesis. So I have to record the simple +genesis of this affair as a winter morning after +rain. There was more rain to come. The sky was +waterlogged and the grey ceiling, overstrained, had +sagged and dropped to the level of the chimneys. +If one of them had pierced it! The danger was +imminent. +</p> +<p> +That day was but a thin solution of night. You +know those November mornings with a low, corpse-white +east where the sunrise should be, as though +the day were still-born. Looking to the dayspring, +there is what we have waited for, there the end of +our hope, prone and shrouded. This morning of +mine was such a morning. The world was very +quiet, as though it were exhausted after tears. Beneath +a broken gutter-spout the rain (all the night +had I listened to its monody) had discovered a nest +of pebbles in the path of my garden in a London +suburb. It occurs to you at once that a London +garden, especially in winter, should have no place +in a narrative which tells of the sea and the jungle. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2'></a>2</span> +But it has much to do with it. It is part of the +heredity of this book. It is the essence of this adventure +of mine that it began on the kind of day +which so commonly occurs for both of us in the +year’s assortment of days. My garden, on such a +morning, is a necessary feature of the narrative, +and much as I should like to skip it and get to sea, +yet things must be taken in the proper order, and +the garden comes first. There it was: the blackened +dahlias, the last to fall, prone in the field where +death had got all things under his feet. My pleasaunce +was a dark area of soddened relics; the battalions +of June were slain, and their bodies in the +mud. That was the prospect in life I had. How +was I to know the Skipper had returned from the +tropics? Standing in the central mud, which also +was black, surveying that forlorn end to devoted +human effort, what was there to tell me the Skipper +had brought back his tramp steamer from the lands +under the sun? I knew of nothing to look forward +to but December, with January to follow. What +should you and I expect after November, but the +next month of winter? Should the cultivators of +London backs look for adventures, even though +they have read old Hakluyt? What are the Americas +to us, the Amazon and the Orinoco, Barbados +and Panama, and Port Royal, but tales that are +told? We have never been nearer to them, and now +know we shall never be nearer to them, than that +hill in our neighbourhood which gives us a broad +prospect of the sunset. There is as near as we can +approach. Thither we go and ascend of an evening, like +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3'></a>3</span> +Moses, except for our pipe. It is all the +escape vouchsafed us. Did we ever know the chain +to give? The chain has a certain length—we know +it to a link—to that ultimate link, the possibilities +of which we never strain. The mean range of our +chain, the office and the polling booth. What a +radius! Yet it cannot prevent us ascending that +hill which looks, with uplifted and shining brow, to +the far vague country whence comes the last of the +light, at dayfall. +</p> +<p> +It is necessary for you to learn that on my way to +catch the 8.35 that morning—it is always the 8.35—there +came to me no premonition of change. No +portent was in the sky but the grey wrack. I saw +the hale and dominant gentleman, as usual, who +arrives at the station in a brougham drawn by two +grey horses. He looked as proud and arrogant as +ever, for his face is as a bull’s. He had the usual +bunch of scarlet geraniums in his coat, and the +stationmaster assisted him into an apartment, and +his footman handed him a rug; a routine as stable +as the hills, this. If only the solemn footman +would, one morning, as solemnly as ever, hurl that +rug at his master, with the umbrella to crash after +it! One could begin to hope then. There was the +pale girl in black who never, between our suburb +and the city, lifts her shy brown eyes, benedictory +as they are at such a time, from the soiled book of +the local public library, and whose umbrella has lost +half its handle, a china nob. (I think I will write +this book for her.) And there were all the others +who catch that train, except the young fellow with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4'></a>4</span> +the cough. Now and then he does miss it, using for +the purpose, I have no doubt, that only form of +rebellion against its accursed tyranny which we +have yet learned, physical inability to catch it. +Where that morning train starts from is a mystery; +but it never fails to come for us, and it never takes +us beyond the city, I well know. +</p> +<p> +I have a clear memory of the newspapers as they +were that morning. I had a sheaf of them, for it is +my melancholy business to know what each is saying. +I learned there were dark and portentous +matters, not actually with us, but looming, each +already rather larger than a man’s hand. If certain +things happened, said one half the papers, ruin +stared us in the face. If those thing did not happen, +said the other half, ruin stared us in the face. +No way appeared out of it. You paid your half-penny +and were damned either way. If you paid a +penny you got more for your money. Boding +gloom, full-orbed, could be had for that. There was +your extra value for you. I looked round at my +fellow passengers, all reading the same papers, and +all, it could be reasonably presumed, with fore-knowledge +of catastrophe. They were indifferent, +every one of them. I suppose we have learned, with +some bitterness, that nothing ever happens but private +failure and tragedy, unregarded by our fellows +except with pity. The blare of the political megaphones, +and the sustained panic of the party tom-toms, +have a message for us, we may suppose. We +may be sure the noise means something. So does +the butcher’s boy when the sheep want to go up a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5'></a>5</span> +side turning. He makes a noise. He means something, +with his warning cries. The driving uproar +has a purpose. But we have found out (not they +who would break up side turnings, but the people +in the second class carriages of the morning train) +that now, though our first instinct is to start in a +panic, when we hear another sudden warning shout, +there is no need to do so. And perhaps, having +attained to that more callous mind which allows us +to stare dully from the carriage window though +with that urgent din in our ears, a reasonable explanation +of the increasing excitement and flushed +anxiety of the great Statesmen and their fuglemen +may occur to us, in a generation or two. Give us +time! But how they wish they were out of it, they +who need no more time, but understand. +</p> +<p> +I put down the papers with their calls to social +righteousness pitched in the upper register of the +tea-tray, their bright and instructive interviews +with flat earthers, and with the veteran who is +topically interesting because, having served one +master fifty years, and reared thirteen children on +fifteen shillings a week, he has just begun to draw +his old age pension. (There’s industry, thrift, and +success, my little dears!) One paper had a column +account of the youngest child actress in London, +her toys and her philosophy, initialed by one of our +younger brilliant journalists. All had a society divorce +case, with sanitary elisions. Another contained +an amusing account of a man working his +way round the world with a barrel on his head. +Again, the young prince, we were credibly informed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6'></a>6</span> +in all the papers of that morning, did stop +to look in at a toy-shop window in Regent Street +the previous afternoon. So like a boy, you know, +and yet he is a prince of course. The matter could +not be doubted. The report was carefully illustrated. +The prince stood on his feet outside the +toy shop, and looked in. +</p> +<p> +To think of the future as a modestly long series +of such prone mornings, dawns unlit by heaven’s +light, new days to which we should be awakened +always by these clamant cockcrows bringing to our +notice what the busy-ness of our fellows had accomplished +in nests of intelligent and fruitful china +eggs, was enough to make one stand up in the carriage, +horrified, and pull the communication cord. +So I put down the papers and turned to the landscape. +Had I known the Skipper was back from +below the horizon—but I did not know. So I must +go on to explain that that morning train did stop, +with its unfailing regularity, and not the least hint +of reprieve, at the place appointed in the Schedule. +Soon I was at work, showing, I hope, the right +eager and concentrated eye, dutifully and busily +climbing the revolving wheel like the squirrel; except, +unluckier than that wild thing so far as I +know, I was clearly conscious, whatever the speed, +the wheel remained forever in the same place. +Looking up to sigh through the bars after a long +spin there was the Skipper smiling at me. +</p> +<p> +I saw an open door. I got out. It was as though +the world had been suddenly lighted, and I could +see a great distance. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span> +</p> +<p> +We stood in Fleet Street later, interrupting the +tide. The noise of the traffic came to me from +afar, for the sailor was telling me he was sailing +soon, and that he was taking his vessel an experimental +voyage through the tropical forests of the +Amazon. He was going to Para, and thence up +the main stream as far as Manaos, and would then +attempt to reach a point on the Madeira river near +Bolivia, 800 miles above its junction with the +greater river. It would be a noble journey. They +would see Obydos and Santarem, and the foliage +would brush their rigging at times, so narrow would +be the way, and where they anchored at night the +jaguars would come to drink. This to me, and I +have read Humboldt, and Bates, and Spruce, and +Wallace. As I listened my pipe went out. +</p> +<p> +It was when we were parting that the sailor, who +is used to far horizons and habitually deals with +affairs in a large way because his standards in his +own business are the skyline and the meridian, put +to me the most searching question I have had to +answer since the city first caught and caged me. +He put it casually when he was striking a match +for a cigar, so little did he himself think of it. +</p> +<p> +“Then why,” said he, “don’t you chuck it?” +</p> +<p> +What, escape? I had never thought of that. It +is the last solution which would have occurred to +me concerning the problem of captivity. It is a +credit to you and to me that we do not think of our +chains so disrespectfully as to regard them as anything +but necessary and indispensable, though +sometimes, sore and irritated, we may bite at them. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span> +As if servitude fell to our portion like squints, parents +poor in spirit, green fly, reverence for our +social superiors, and the other consignments from +the stars. How should we live if not in bonds? I +have never tried. I do not remember, in all the +even and respectable history of my family, that it +has ever been tried. The habit of obedience, like +our family habit of noses, is bred in the bone. The +most we have ever done is to shake our fists at +destiny; and I have done most of that. +</p> +<p> +“Give it up,” said the Skipper, “and come with +me.” +</p> +<p> +With a sad smile I lifted my foot heavily and +showed him what had me round the ankle. “Poo,” +he said. “You could berth with the second mate. +There’s room there. I could sign you on as purser. +You come.” +</p> +<p> +I stared at him. The fellow meant it. I laughed +at him. +</p> +<p> +“What,” I asked conclusively, “shall I do about +all this?” I waved my arm round Fleet Street, +source of all the light I know, giver of my gift of +income tax, limit of my perspective. How should +I live when withdrawn from the smell of its ink, +the urge of its machinery? +</p> +<p> +“<em>That</em>,” he said. “Oh, damn that!” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +It was his light tone which staggered me and not +what he said. The sailor’s manner was that of one +who would be annoyed if I treated him like a practical +man, arranging miles of petty considerations +and exceptions before him, arguing for hours along +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span> +rows of trifles, and hoping the harvest of difficulties +of no consequence at the end of the argument would +convince him. Indeed I know he is always impatient +for the next step in any business, and not, +like most of us, for more careful consideration. +“Look there,” said the sailor, pointing to Ludgate +Circus, “see that Putney ’bus? If it takes up two +more passengers before it passes this spot then +you’ve got to come.” +</p> +<p> +That made the difficulty much clearer. I agreed. +The ’bus struggled off, and a man with a bag ran +at it and boarded it. One! Then it had a clear +run—it almost reached us—in another two seconds!—I +began to breathe more easily; the danger of +liberty was almost gone. Then the sailor jumped +for the ’bus before it was quite level, and as he +mounted the steps, turned, and held up two fingers +with a grin. +</p> +<p> +Thus was a voyage of great moment and adventure +settled for me. +</p> +<p> +When I got home that night I referred to the +authorities for the way to begin an enterprise on +the deep. What said Hakluyt? According to him +it is as easy as this: “Master John Hawkins, with +the Jesus of Lubeck, a ship of 700 tunnes, and the +Solomon, a ship of seven score, the Tiger, a barke +of 50, and the Swalow of 30 Tunnes, being all well +furnished with men to the number of one hundred +threescore and ten; as also with ordnance and +vituall requisite for such a voyage, departed out of +Plinmouth the 18 day of October in the yeere of our +Lord 1564, with a prosperous wind.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10'></a>10</span> +</p> +<p> +But we all know such things were done far better +in that century. Yet Master John Hawkins, who +seems to have handled a fleet with greater facility +than I do this pen now I am so anxious to scratch +it across preliminaries and get it to sea, did not +come to a decision by the number of passengers on a +Putney ’bus. So I turned to a modern authority. +Yet Bates, I found, is worse than old John Hawkins, +Bates actually arrives at his destination in the +first sentence. He steps across in thirty-eight +words from England to the Amazon. “I embarked +at Liverpool with Mr. Wallace, in a small trading +vessel, on the 26th day of April 1848; and, after a +swift passage from the Irish Channel to the equator +arrived on the 26th of May off Salinas.” +</p> +<p> +Well, I did not. I say it is a gross deception. +Voyaging does not get accomplished in that off-hand +fashion. It is a mockery to captives like ourselves +to pretend bondage is puffed away in that +airy manner. It is not so easily persuaded to disencumber +us. Indeed, with this and that, I found +the initial step in the pursuit of the sunset red a +heavy weight, and hardly suited to the constitution +of men who have worked into a deep rut; but that +high resolution and a faith equal to belief in the +liquefaction of St. Januarius’ blood are needed to +drop the protective routine of years, to sheer off the +dear and warm entanglements of home and friendships; +to shut the front door one bleak winter evening +when the house smells comfortable and secure, +and the light on the hearth, under such circumstances, +is ironic in its bright revelation of years of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span> +ease and stability till then not fully appraised; and +so depart in the dusk for an unknown Welsh coaling +port, there to board a tramp steamer for a voyage +that has some serious doubts about it, though +its landfall shall be near the line, and have palms in +it. The door slammed, I noticed, in a chill and +penetrating minor, an incident of travel I have +never seen recorded. +</p> +<p> +Now do I come at last, O Liberty, my loved and +secret divinity! Your passionate pilgrim is here, +late, though still young and eager eyed; yet with +his coat collar upturned for the present. Allons! +the Open Road is before him. But how the broad +and empty prospects of his freedom shudder with +the dire sounds and cries of the milk churns on Paddington +Station! +</p> +<p> +And next I remember black night—it was, I +think, about three a.m.—and a calamitous rain, and +a Welsh railway station where I had alighted, faint +with a famine, a kit bag soon to increase in weight +and drag, and a pair of numbed feet. There was a +porter who bore himself as though it were the last +day and he knew the worst, a dying station light, +the wind and rain, and me. Outside was the dark, +and one of the greatest coaling ports in the world. +As I could not see the coal in great bulk I could not +admire it. The railway man turned out the light, +conducted me politely into a puddle, set my course +for the docks in uncharted night with a dexter having +no convictions, and left me. I began to hate +the land of the wild bard in which I found myself +for the first time, and felt a savage satisfaction in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span> +being nearly a pure blooded London Saxon; and as +I surveyed my prospects in that country, not even +the fact that I had a grandparent named Hughes +would have prevented me striking Wales with my +umbrella, for it is only a cheap one; but I had left +it in the train. +</p> +<p> +It had never occurred to me (any more than it +did to you when you got this book to learn about +the tropic sea and the jungle) that the Open Road, +where the chains fall from us, would include Swansea +High Street four hours before sunrise in a +steady winter downpour. But there I discovered +that trade wind seas by moonlight, flying fish, Indians, +and forests and palms, cannot be compelled. +They come in their turn. They are mixed with +litter and dead stuff, like prizes in a bran tub. Going +down the drear and aqueous street it was clear +that if there are exalted moments in travel, as on +the instant when we discover we really may prepare +to go, yet exaltation implies the undistinguished +flats from which, for a while, we are translated. +This is a travel book for honest men. I am still on +the flat. It will be to-morrow presently. +</p> +<p> +My chief fear was that my waterproof, rattling +in the wind, would alarm silent and sleeping Swansea. +I found a policeman standing at a street corner, +holding out his cape to help away the rain. He +could give me no hope. He knew where the dock +was, but the way thither was difficult and torturous. +I had better follow the tram lines, and ask again, +if I saw anybody. Therefore the tram lines I followed +till my portable estate, by compound interest, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span> +had increased to untold tons; but the empty tram +way went on for ever down the rows of frozen and +desolate lamps, so that I surrendered all my +chances of the seas of the tropics and the jungle of +the Brazils, and turned aside from the course which +the policeman said led to ships and the deep, entered +the dark portico of a shop, where it was only +half wet, and lit my pipe, there to wait for the shy +gods to turn my luck. Hesitating footsteps fumbled +to where I was hidden, and stopped at the +flash of my match. “Could yer ’blige with a light, +mister?” +</p> +<p> +He was a little elderly seaman in yellow oilskins +and a so’wester. He was rather drunk. His oilskins +gathered the reflected street shine, so that he +looked phosphorescent, an old man risen wet and +shining from the ocean. He was looking for Buenos +Aires, he explained, and hadn’t got any matches. +Now he, for the Plate, and I, for ultimate Amazonas, +set off down the Swansea tram lines. And +the wind whined through overhead wires, and a lost +dog followed us along the empty thoroughfare +where the only sound was of waterspouts, and the +elderly mariner sang bold and improper songs, so +that I wondered there was not an irruption of +nightcaps at upper Swansea windows to witness +this disturbance of their usual peace. +</p> +<p> +We came at length to abandoned lagoons, where +spectral ships were moored down the marges, and +round the wide waters was the loom of uncertain +monsters and buildings. Railway metals waylaid +us and caught us by the feet. There were many +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span> +electric moons swaying in the gale, and they spilled +showers of broken light, which melted on the black +water, and betrayed to us our loneliness in outer +night. The call of a vessel’s syren across that inhospitable +space was heard by us as the prolonged +moan of the lost. +</p> +<p> +The old man of the sea took me under a stack of +timber to light his pipe. He borrowed my box of +matches, and malicious spurts of wind extinguished +each match, steadily, as mine ancient struck them. +It was now 4 a.m. He threw each bit of dead wood +down, without irritation, as though it were the fate +of man to strike lights for the gods to douse, but +yet was he uplifted now beyond the hurt of cosmic +mockery. The matches were not wasted. At least +they lighted up his sorrowful face as he talked to +me. I would not have had him any the less drunk, +for it but softened his facial integument, which I +could see had been hardened and set by bitter experience, +masking the man; but now his jaded life, +warmed by emotion, though much of the emotion +was artificial and of the pewter born, was quick in +his face again, and made him a human responsive +to his kind, instead of a sober and warped shellback +with a sour remembrance of his hardships, and of +the futility of his endurance, and of the distance +away of his masters with their bowels of iron. +</p> +<p> +He had seven children, and the sea was a weary +place. Had I any children?—and God keep them +if I had. He was a troublesome old man (“that’s +another light gone”) but he had just left his kids +(“ah, to hell wi’ the wind”) and he had to talk to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span> +someone about them, and that was my rotten luck, +said he. We got to the fifth child, and I heard +something about her, when the wind reached round +the wood stack at us, and snatched the last glim. +So it was in the dark that I heard about the other +two and the wife, while one of my pockets filled +with rain. Only Milly, he said, was at work, and +what was four pound a month for the rest? And +he was sick of the sea and chief mates, and did I +think a chap stood for a better time when he died, +if he kept off drink and did his bit without grousing, +like some of the parson fellers said? Then he +indicated my ship, and disappeared in the dark. +He is still waiting an answer to his last question, +which I have saved for you to give him. +</p> +<p> +For me, I was in no mood to discuss whether +balm is to be got in Gilead, when we come to the +place; but stumbling among the lumber on the deserted +deck of the S.S. “Capella,” I found a cabin, +fell into it, and remember nothing more but the +smell of hot bread, eggs and bacon, and coffee, +which visited me in a beautiful dream. Then I +woke to the reveille of a tin whistle, which the chief +engineer was playing in my ear; and it was daylight. +The jumble of recollections of the night before +were but dark insanities. But the smell of that +aromatic food, I give grace, did not pass with the +awakening, for next door I heard lively sizzling in +the galley. Already Fleet Street was hull down. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +If you are used only to the methods of passenger +steamers and regular routes, then you know little +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span> +of travel. You are but carried about. Insistent +clocks and schedules keep that way, and the upholstered +but rigid routine is a soporific. You +never see the hither side of the hedge. The granite +countenance of fortune, her eyes filmed like frozen +pools, which keeps alert and bright the voyager who +is unprotected from her unscheduled and unmoral +acts except by his own ready buckler, is watched for +you by others. You are never surprised into fear +by the unlucky position of the planets, nor moved +to sing Laus Deo, when now and then, the stars are +propitious. I had been brought hastily to the +“Capella,” for it was said she was sailing instantly. +This morning I learned at breakfast that nobody +knew when she could sail. Our steamer sat two feet +higher than her capacity. There was some galvanised +iron to come from Glascow, some machinery +from Sheffield; and owing to labour difficulties +we were short of several hundred tons of coal. A +little mob of us, all strangers, shuffled after the +Skipper’s spry heels that morning to the Board of +Trade offices, where an official mumbled over the +ship’s articles, to our shut ears, and we signed where +we were told. A more glum and unromantic group +of voyagers, each man twirling his shabby hat in his +hands as he waited his turn for the corroded pen, +was never seen this side of the Elizabethan era. I +became the purser of the “Capella,” with my wages +lawfully recorded at a shilling per month. +</p> +<p> +I was committed. There was no withdrawal now +but desertion. And desertion, at times, I seriously +considered, because for a week more the cargo +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span> +dribbled down to us, while I endured as a moucher +about those winter docks with their coal tips, and +the muddy streets with their sailors’ slop marts, +marine stores, and pawnshops having a cankered +display of chronometers, telescopes, and other flotsam +of marine failure and wreckage. Daily the +quays and the dismal waterside ways with their +cheap shops were still more depressed by additional +snow mush and drives of sleet; and it was no +warmth for this idler that he saw the tradesmen, +because of the season, putting holly among their +oranges and wreathing beer bottles with chains of +coloured paper. The iron decks and cabins of my +new home were as chill and unfriendly as the empty +grate, the marble tables, and the tin advertisements +of chemical slops of a temperance hotel. Am I +plain? Such are the conditions which compass the +wayward traveller. This is what chills one’s rapid +pulse when pursuing at last the rosy visions of boyhood. +The deplorable littoral of our island kingdom +is part of a life on the ocean wave, and should +help you in coming to a decision when next you see +a friendless and bestial sailorman. It becomes +necessary to declare that we shall really get down +to the tropics presently; have the courage to wait, +like the crew of the “Capella.” Our ship did sail, +when she was ready. +</p> +<p> +It was the afternoon before we sailed, and having +listened long enough to my messmates, who, after +dinner, weighed the probabilities of malaria, yellow +fever and other alien disasters into our coming +strange voyage, that I went into the town to take +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span> +my last look round a book shop, and to get some +marine soap, dungarees, and things. Here was I at +last with my heart’s desire. On the very next day +I should sail, I myself, and no other hero, veritably +Me at last, for a place not on the chart, because the +place we should find, at the journey’s end, the map +described with those words of magic: “Forest” and +“Unexplored.” I made my way round crates and +barrels on that untidy deck, which had a thick mud +of coal dust and snow, to the ladder overside. Coal +dust and melting snow! But where was the uplifted +heart, the radiant anticipation, as of one to +whom the future was big with treasures to be born, +which are the privilege of a young pilgrim, released +from his usual obligations to pursue far horizons +in the Spanish main, while his envious fellows in the +city still cast ledgers under gas lamps? Here was +another swindle of the romanticists. You may +search their warm and golden pages in vain for coal +tips, melting ice, delays, and steam heaters that +will not work for cold cabins. Down they go here, +though. These gallant affairs, I thought, as I descended +the wet and gritty ladder, are much better +done before the fire at home, in your slippers; for +the large scale map, as you traverse its alluring +blank areas, leaves out the conditions which now, +when I am on the actual business, precipitate as +frozen spicules, as would north winds, my warm, +aerial, and cloudy enthusiasms that were wont to be +dyed such wonderful hues by sunsets, poems, and +tales of old travel. Another of these congealing +draughts was now to catch me unbuttoned. Because +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span> +of our unusual destination, and the wild stories that +were told of it, we were a point of interest in Swansea +docks, and had many interviewers and curious +visitors. Some of them were on the quay then, +inspecting our steamer, and as I stepped off the +ladder one turned to me. +</p> +<p> +“Mister,” he whispered, “are you going in her?” +</p> +<p> +“I am,” I said. +</p> +<p> +“O gord,” said he. +</p> +<p> +That night I met a number of my grave fellow +shipmates in the town. The question was, Should +we then go back to the ship? +</p> +<p> +“What,” burst out one of us in surprise—his +gold-laced cap was already resting on his right eyebrow—“Now? +Not me. Boys, don’t freeze the +Carnival. Follow me!” +</p> +<p> +We followed him. The rest of the evening is more +easily given in dumb show. There was a mechanical +piano in a saloon bar, and it steadily devoured +pennies, and returned to us automatic joy, fortissimo, +over which our conversation strenuously high-stepped +and vaulted. Later, there was a search +for cabs, and an engineer carried with him everywhere +two geese by their necks and sometimes trod +on their loose feet. When he did this he snatched +a goose from his own grasp, and then roundly +abused us for our post-dated frivolity. We learned +our steamer was now moored in mid-dock. We +found a quay wall, and at the bottom of it, at a +great depth in the dark, the level of the water was +seen only because shreds of lamp-shine floated +there. We understood a boat was below, and found +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span> +it was, and we loaded it till the water brimmed at +the gunwale. As we mounted the “Capella’s” rope-ladder +only one goose fell back into the dock. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +The “Capella” started in her sleep, and she woke +me. She was still trembling. Resting my hand on +her I felt her heart begin to throb, though faintly. +We were off. +</p> +<p> +It was a bright morning, early and keen. Those +habitual quays now were moving past us. The decks +were cleared, the carpenter and some sailors were +fixing the hatches, and the pilot, muffled in a thick +white shawl, was on the bridge with the Skipper. +We stopped in the outer lock, the exhaust humming +impatiently while a pier-head jumper—for +we were a sailor short—was examined by our doctor. +The Skipper had some short words for an +official who had mounted the bridge, because the +third mate had deserted, and had taken his half +pay; and the official, who had volunteered to get us +a substitute, had failed. There were now but two +mates for our big tramp steamer going a long and +arduous voyage which included the navigation for +some months of narrow inland waterways in the +tropics. Our first mate, passing amidships where +the Purser was leaning overside, stopped to tell +me what this meant for him and the second mate. +I was mighty glad it was not the purser’s fault. I +have never heard a short speech more passionate; +and his eyes were feral. Yet it became increasingly +clear to me, as the voyage lengthened, that his eyes +no more than met the case. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span> +</p> +<p> +Out we drove at last. It was December, but by +luck we found a halcyon morning which had got +lost in the year’s procession. It was a Sunday +morning, and it had not been ashore. It was still +virgin, bearing a vestal light. It had not been +soiled yet by any suspicion of this trampled planet, +this muddy star, which its innocent and tenuous +rays had discovered in the region of night. I +thought it still was regarding us as a lucky find +there. Its light was tremulous, as if with joy and +eagerness. I met this discovering morning as your +ambassador while you still slept, and betrayed not, +I hope, any greyness and bleared satiety of ours to +its pure, frail, and lucid regard. That was the last +good service I did before leaving you quite. I was +glad to see how well our old earth did meet such a +light, as though it had no difficulty in looking day +in the face. The world was miraculously renewed. +It rose, and received the new-born of Aurora in its +arms. There was clouds of pearl above hills of +chrysoprase. The sea ran in volatile flames. The +shadows on the bright deck shot to and fro as we +rolled. The breakfast bell rang not too soon. This +was a right beginning. +</p> +<p> +The pilot was dropped, and a course was shaped +to pass between Lundy and Hartland. A strong +northwester and its seas caught us beyond the +Mumbles, and the quality of the sunshine thinned +to a flickering stuff which cast only grey shadows. +The “Capella” became quarrelsome, and began to +strike the seas heavily. You may know the +“Capella” when you see her. She is a modern +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span> +three-thousand-ton freighter, with derrick supports +fore and aft, and a funnel; and the three of them +are so fearful of seeming rakish that they overdo +the effect of stern utility, and appear to lean ahead. +She is a three-island ship, the amidships section +carrying the second mate’s cabin, and the cabins of +the four engineers, all of them, excepting the +Chief’s cabin, looking outwards overseas across a +narrow sheltered alleyway; and on a narrower +athwartship’s alleyway there, and opening astern, +are the Chief’s place, and the cook’s galley, the +entrance to the engine-room, and the engineers’ +messroom. Above this structure is the boat deck. +You may reach the poop, which contains the master’s +and chief mate’s quarters, the doctor’s and +steward’s berths, and the saloon, by descending a +perpendicular iron ladder to the long main deck, or +else, as all did at sea, by a flying trestle bridge, +which is dismantled when in port. Her black funnel +is relieved by a cryptic design in white, and her +bows are so bluff that, as the chief mate put it, “her +belly begins there.” She might not take your eye, +but a shipowner would see her points. She carries +a large cargo on a comparatively low registered +tonnage. The money that built her went mostly +in hull and engines, and the latter do their work as +sweetly as an eight-day clock, giving ten and a half +knots, weather permitting, on a low coal consumption. +There was not much money left, therefore, +for balm in the cabins, and that is the reason we do +not find it there. +</p> +<p> +At sundown the sky cleared. The wind, increased +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span> +in violence, had swept it of the last feather. Lundy +was over our starboard bow, a small dark blot in +a clear yellow light which poured, with the gale and +the rising seas, from the west. The glass was falling. +Now, the Skipper has often told me how his +“Capella” had faced hurricanes off Cape Hatteras, +when laden with ore, and had kept her decks dry. +There are other stories about her surprising buoyancy, +when deeply laden, and I have heard them all +at home, and they are fine stories. But what lies +they are! For there below me, with Lundy not +even passed, and the Bay of Biscay to come (Para +not to be thought of yet) were tons and tons of salt +wash that could not get time to escape by the scuppers, +but plunged wearily amongst the hatches and +winches. +</p> +<p> +“I’ve never seen her as dirty as this,” grumbled +the chief engineer apologetically, peeping from his +cabin at cold green water lopping over casually on +to the after deck. “It’s that patent fuel—its stowed +wrong. Now she’ll roll—you can feel it—the cat +she is, she’s never going to stop. It’s that patent +fuel and her new load line.” +</p> +<p> +Certainly she sat close to the sea. I had never +seen so much lively water so close. She wallowed, +she plunged, she rolled, she sank heavily to its level. +I looked out from the round window of the Chief’s +cabin, and when she inclined those green mounds of +the swell swinging under us and away were superior, +in apparition, to my outlook. +</p> +<p> +“Listen to it,” said the Chief. He stopped triturating +some shavings of hard tobacco between his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span> +huge palms, and sat quietly, hands clasped, as +though in prayer. The surge mourned over the +deck. The day, too, was growing towards the dusky +hours of retrospection. That sombre monody outside +was like the tremor and boom of the drums +funebre. “That chap some of you talk about—Lloyd +George!”—said the Chief, suddenly rubbing +his tobacco again with energy. (Good God, I +thought, and here we are at sea too. Now what +has the misguided man done.) “If I had him here +I’d hold him down in that wash on deck till it +cleared. Then he’d know. He put it there, to +break sailors’ legs. This steamer, she had dry decks +till her load line was altered. She carries more now +than she was built for, two hundred tons more. If +I had him here—but there you are! Popularity! +There’s a fine popular noise for you, isn’t it? +Sailors growled for better food. ‘What about this +improved food scale?’ says Mr. Lloyd George to the +shipowners. ‘Oh,’ said they, ‘we’ll give ’em better +food, the drunken insubordinate dogs, if you’ll +make overloading legal.’ ‘Why,’ says Lord George, +‘then it wouldn’t be illegal, would it?’ So it was +done. What does the public know about a ship’s +buoyancy? Nothing. But it understands food. +So the clever man heightens the Plimsoll mark, +adds a million or so to shipowners’ capital by dipping +his pen in the ink, and gives Jack more jam. +What you want ashore,” the Chief added bitterly, +“is not more voters, as some say, but more lunatic +asylums.” +</p> +<p> +Though I had left politics at home, to be settled +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span> +by others, like the trouble with the drains, the dog +licence, and the dispute about the garden fence, +I glanced with interest at the Chief. I know him +well. Not only is he a kindly man, but he himself +is also a philosophic rebel. But his eye was hard, +and he still ground the tobacco with forgetful +energy, us though an objectionable thing were between +his strong hands. Then impatiently he +threw the tobacco loose on his log book, which was +open on his deck, paused, and said, “Ah, maybe +the man thought a little freeboard the less didn’t +matter. God give him grace,” and picked his flute +out of a bookshelf which was fastened above his +bunk; sat down over the steam heater, and broke +out like a blackbird. Yet was it a well-remembered +air he fluted so well. I listened so long as respect +for the artist demanded, then rose, filled my pipe +from the fragrant grains on the log book, and left +him. Presently I would listen to such airs; but this +was too soon. +</p> +<p> +I repeat I had confidence in the “Capella” to +gain. I went forward to get it, mounting the +bridge, where my cabin mate, the youthful second +officer, was in charge, in his oilskins. A cheerful +sight he looked. “I think,” said he briskly, “we’re +going to catch it.” He was puckering his face over +our course. Lundy was looming large—even Rat +Island was plain—but it looked so frail in that +flood of seas, wind, and wild yellow light streaming +together from the evening west, that I looked for +the unsubstantial island to spring suddenly from its +foundations, and to come down on us a stretched +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26'></a>26</span> +wisp of thinned and ragged smoke. The sea was +adrift from its old confines. The flood was pouring +past, and the wind was the drainage of interstellar +space. Lundy was the last delicate fragment of +land. It still fronted the upheaval and rush of the +ungoverned elements, but one looked for it to be +swept away. +</p> +<p> +Yet that wild and scenic west, of such pallor +and clarity that one shrank from facing its inhospitable +spaciousness, with each shape of a wave +there, black against the light as it reared ahead, a +distinct individual foe in the host moving to the +attack, was but the prelude. Night and the worst +were to come. Just then, while the last of the light +was shining on the officer’s oilskins, I was only +surprised that our bulk was such a trifle after all. +Our loaded vessel looked so bluff and massive when +in dock. She began to attempt, off Lundy, the +spring and jauntiness of a trawler. The bows +sank to the rails in an acre of white, and the spume +flew past the bridge like rain. The black bows +lifted and swayed, buoyant on submarine upheavals, +to cut out segments of the sunset; then +sank again into dark hollows where the foam was +luminous. The cold and wind were bitter dolours. +</p> +<p> +We rolled. I grasped the rail of the weather +cloth, in the drive of wind and spume, and rode +down on our charger like a valiant man; like a +valiant man who is uncertain of his seat. Something +like a valiant man. We advanced to the +attack, masts and funnel describing great arcs, and +steadily our bows shouldered away the foe. I think +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span> +sailors deserve large monies. Being the less valiant—for the longer I watched, the more grew I wet +and cold—it came to my mind that where we were, +but a few weeks before, another large freighter had +her hatches opened by the seas, and presently was +but a trace of oil and cinders on the waters. You +will remember I am on my first long voyage. The +officer was quite cheerful and asked me if I knew +Forest Gate. There were, he said, some fine girls +at Forest Gate. +</p> +<p> +We rounded Hartland. It was dusk, the weather +was now directly on our starboard beam, and the +waves were coming solidly inboard. The main deck +was white with plunging water. We rolled still +more. +</p> +<p> +“I can’t make out why you left London when +you didn’t have to,” said the grinning sailor. “I’d +like to be on the Stratford tram, going down to +Forest Gate.” +</p> +<p> +This was nearly as bad as the Chief’s flute. I +held up two fingers over those hatches of ours, +called silently on blessed Saint Anthony, who loves +sailors, and went down the ladder; for night had +come, and the prospect from the “Capella” was not +the less apprehensive to the mind of a landsman +because the enemy could not be seen, except as +flying ghosts. The noises could be heard all right. +</p> +<p> +I shut my heavy teak door amidships, shut out +the daunting uproar of floods, and the sensation +that the night was collapsing round our heaving +ship. There was a home light far away, on some +unseen Cornish headland, rising and falling like a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span> +soaring but tethered star. Nor did I want the lights +of home. +</p> +<p> +“I love the sea,” a beautiful woman once said to +me. (We, then, stood looking out over it from a +height, and the sea was but the sediment of the +still air, the blue precipitation of the sky, for it was +that restful time, early October. I also loved it +then.) +</p> +<p> +I was thinking of this, when the concrete floor of +the cabin nearly became a wall, and I fell absurd-wise, +striking nearly every item in the cabin. Was +this the way to greet a lover? Sitting on a sea-chest, +and swaying to and fro because the ship compelled +me to a figure of woe, I began to consider +whether it was only the books about the sea which +I had loved hitherto, and not the sea itself. Perhaps +it is better not to live with it, if you would +love it. The sea is at its best at London, near midnight, +when you are within the arms of a capacious +chair, before a glowing fire, selecting phases of the +voyages you will never make. It is wiser not to try +to realise your dreams. There are no real dreams. +For as to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why +should you? I will never believe again the sea +was ever loved by anyone whose life was married +to it. It is the creation of Omnipotence, which is +not of human kind and understandable, and so the +springs of its behaviour are hidden. The sea does +not assume its royal blue to please you. Its brute +and dark desolation is not raised to overwhelm +you; you disappear then because you happen to +be there. It carries the lucky foolish to fortune, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span> +and drags the calculating wise to the strewn bones. +Yet, thought I, that night off Cornwall, if I pray +now as one of the privileged and lucky foolish, this +very occasion may prove to be set apart for the +sole use of the calculating wise. Because that is the +way things happen at sea. What else may we expect +from It, the nameless thing, new-born with +each dawn, but as old as the night? Now for me +had it degenerated into its mood of old night, behaving +as it did in the lightless days, before poetry +came to change it with flattery. It was again as +inhuman as when the poet was merely a wonderfully +potential blob on a warm mudbank. +</p> +<p> +Here, you see, is the whole trouble in appealing +to Omnipotence. Picture me entering the wide +western ocean at night, an inconspicuous but self-important +morsel sitting on a sea-chest, at a time +when it was perhaps ordained that hundreds of +ships should have anxious passages. (Afterwards +I learned very many ships did have anxious passages.) +How could I expect to be spared, even +though somewhere the hairs of my head were all +numbered? It is plain that to spare me would be +to extend beneficence to all. There only remained +to me my liberty to hope that our particular +steamer might miss all seventh waves, by luck. I +was free to do that. +</p> +<p> +I turned up the dull and stinking oil lamp, and +tried to read; but that fuliginous glim haunted the +pages. That black-edged light too much resembled +my own thoughts made manifest. There were some +bunches of my cabin mate’s clothes hanging from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span> +hooks, and I watched their erratic behaviour instead. +The water in the carafe was also interesting, +because quite mad, standing diagonally in the +bottle, and then reversing. A lump of soap made +a flying leap from the washstand, and then slithered +about the floor like something hunted and panic-stricken. +I listened to numerous little voices. There +was no telling their origins. There was a chorus +in the cabin, rustlings, whispers, plaints, creaks, +wails, and grunts; but they were foundered in the +din when the spittoon, which was an empty meat +tin, got its lashings loose, and began a rioting fandango +on the concrete. Over the clothes chest, +which was also our table and a cabin fixture, was a +portrait of the mate’s sweetheart, and on its frame +was one of my busy little friends the cockroaches; +for the mate and I do not sleep alone in this cabin, +not by hundreds. The cockroach stood in thought, +waving his hands interrogatively, as one who talks +to himself nervously. The ship at that moment received +a seventh wave, lurched, and trembled. The +cockroach fell. I rose, listening. I felt sure a new +clamour would begin at once, showing we had +reached another and critical stage of the fight. But +no; the brave heart of her was beating as before. I +could feel its steady pulse throbbing in our table. +We were alive and strong, though labouring direfully. +</p> +<p> +It was when I was thinking whether bed would +be, as I have so often found it, the best answer +to doubt, that I heard a boatswain’s pipe. +</p> +<p> +I fought one side of the door, and the wind fought +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span> +the other. My hurry to open the door was great, +but the obstinate wind jammed it firmly. Without +warning the wind released its hold, the ship fell +over to windward, the door flew open, and forth I +went, clutching at the driving dark. Then up +sailed my side of the ship, and the door shut with +the sound of gunfire. I had never experienced such +insensate violence. These were the unlawful noises +and movements of chaos. Hanging to a rail, I was +puzzling out which was the fore and which the +rear of the ship, when a flying lump of salt water +struck me in the face just as a figure (I thought it +was the chief officer) hurried past me bawling “All +hands.” +</p> +<p> +The figure came back. “That you, purser? +Number three hatch has gone,” it said, and disappeared +instantly. +</p> +<p> +So. Then this very thing had come to me, and at +night! Our hatches were adrift. It was impossible. +Why, we had only just left Swansea. It could not +be true; it was absurdly unfair. This was my first +long voyage, and it had only just begun. I stood +like the cricketer who is out for a duck. +</p> +<p> +If I could tell you how I felt, I would. Somebody +was shouting somewhere, but his words were +cut off at once by the wind and blown away. I felt +my way along a wet and dark iron alleyway which +was giddily unstable, pressing hard against my +feet, and then falling from under me. I got round +by the engine-room entrance. Small gleams, shavings +of light, were escaping from seams in the +unseen structure, but they showed nothing, except +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span> +a length of wet rail or a scrap of wet deck. The +ship itself was a shade, manned by voices. +</p> +<p> +I could not see that anything was being done. +Were they allowing her to fill up like an open +barge? I became aware my surcharged feelings +were escaping by my knees, which kept knocking in +their tremors against a lower rail. I tried to stop +this trembling by hardening my muscles, but my +fearful legs had their own way. Yet it is plain +there was nothing to fear. I told my legs so. Had +we not but that day left Swansea? Besides, I had +already commenced a letter which was to be posted +at Para. The letter would have to be posted. They +were waiting for it at home. +</p> +<p> +Somewhere below me a heavy mass of water +plunged monstrously, and became a faintly luminous +cloud over all the main deck aft, actually +framing the rectangular form of the deck in the +night. It was unreasonable. I was not really one +of the crew either, though on the articles. I was +there by chance. No advantage should be taken of +that. A torrent poured down the athwartships +alleyway, and nearly swept me from my feet. +</p> +<p> +One could not watch what was happening. That +was another cruel injustice. The wind and sea +could be heard, and the ship could be felt. But +how could I be expected to know what to do in the +dark in such circumstances? There ought to be a +light. This should have happened in the daytime. +My garrulous knees struck the lower rail violently +in their excitement. I leaned over the rail, shading +my eyes. I grew savagely indignant with something having +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span> +no name and no shape. I cannot even +now give a name to the thing that angered me, but +can just discern, in the twilight which shrouds the +undiscovered, a vast calm face the rock of which no +human emotion can move, with eyes that stare but +see nothing, and a mouth that never speaks, and ears +from which assailing cries and questions fall as +mournful echoes, ironic repetitions. This flung +stone falls from it, as unavailing as your prayers; +but we shall never cease to pray and fling stones, +alternately, up there into the twilight. +</p> +<p> +Nevertheless, when the chief, with his hurricane +lamp, found me, he says I was smiling. The youth +who was our second mate ran up and stood by us, +the better to shout to the deck below. He shouted, +bending over the rail, till he was screaming through +hoarseness. He turned to us abruptly. “They +don’t understand a word I say,” he cried in despair. +“There isn’t a sailor or an Englishman in the crowd, +the —— German farmers.” This, I found afterwards, +was nearly true. These men had been signed +on at a Continental port. It was really our Dutch +cook who saved us that night. It was the cook who +first saw the hatch covers going. +</p> +<p> +The ship’s head had been put to the seas to keep +the decks as clear as possible, and being now more +accustomed to the gloom I could make out the men +below busy at the hatch. Most conspicuous among +them was the cook, who had taken charge there, and +he, with three languages, bludgeoned into surprising +activity the inexperienced youngsters who +were learning for the first time what happens to a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span> +ship when the carpenter’s chief job on leaving port +has its defects discovered by exceptional weather. +They were wading through swirling waters as they +worked, and once a greater wave sprang bodily +over them, and when the hatch showed through the +foam again some of the men had gone as though +dissolved. But it was found they had kept the +right side of the bulwarks, and the elderly carpenter, +whose leg had got wedged in a winch, was +the only one damaged. +</p> +<p> +If you ask me when I shall be pleased to allow +the necessary sun to rise upon this narrative to give +it a little warmth, then I must tell you it cannot be +done till we have fastened down the “Capella’s” +number two hatch, at least. That hatch has gone +now, and if hatches one and four give way while +number two is getting attention from the weary, +soaked, and frozen crowd which has just had an +hour’s desperate work at number three, then I fear +the sun will never rise on this narrative. (How +Bates got over to his wonderful blue butterflies in +those forest paths under a tropical sun in thirty-eight +words I do not know. He must have been +thinking of nothing but his butterflies. I cannot do +it, with the seas and the ship keeping my mind so +busy.) +</p> +<p> +Luckily, the other hatches kept staunch. We +were watertight again. When the Old Man, the +Chief, the Doctor, and the Purser, gathered late +that night in the Chief’s cabin to see what it was he +had secreted in his cupboard, and boasted of, we +sat where we could, being comfortably crowded, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span> +and I never knew tobacco could taste like that. I +felt as if never before had I found such large leisure +for extracting its full flavour. From being +suddenly confined within a space which gave me a +short outlook of a few hours, I was presently released +into the open again and of what might remain +to me of the usual gift of ample years. I had +all that time to smoke in. Never did a pipe taste +so sweet. It is idle for good and serious souls to +think me graceless here with this talk of tobacco +immediately after such a release. Let me tell them +my sacrificial smoke rose up straight and accepted. +Looking through the smoke I saw clearly how +worthy, kind, and lovable were the faces of my +comrades. I warmed to this voyage for the first +time; as though, after a test, I had been initiated. +This was the place for me, with men like these about +me, and such great affairs to be met. I revelled in +the thought of our valorous bluff, insignificant as +we were in that malign desolation, sundered from +our kind. +</p> +<p> +“Chief,” said the Old Man, “it was my department +that time. None of your old engines did it.” +</p> +<p> +“You’ve got a good cook,” said the Chief, “I saw +that.” Then the Chief, remembering something, +turned in his seat to the picture hanging above his +desk of a smiling and handsome matron. “Here’s +luck, old girl,” he said, holding up his glass; “you +can still send me some letters.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +The Chief, in case of an emergency, slept in his +clothes that night on the settee, and I climbed into +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span> +his bunk. What a comfortable outline the man +had, as he lay on his broad back, mildly snoring. +There was a tangle of tense hair over a square +copper coloured forehead. A long experience of +such nights was written in many lines on that brow, +and was shown in that indifferent snoring while +chaos was without. The nose sprang out of the +big face like an ejaculation, and beneath it was a +moustache clipped short to show the red of the +upper lip. The jaw was powerful, but its curves +made it friendly. His body and limbs hid the settee +and had a margin over. I quite believed what I +had been told of his successful way with refractory +stokers. There was confidence to be got from a +mere look at that slumbering Jovian form. The +storm assailed its hairy and fleshy ears in vain. +I braced my knees against the bulkhead to keep +myself still, the rolling was so violent, and went to +sleep ... waking to find us on a level keel; and +was deceived into thinking the parallel lines of +grey and gold in the upper air, seen as a picture +framed by the port, were the heights about; a harbour +into which we had run for shelter; but it was +only cloudland over the western ocean. The stillness, +too, was but a short reprieve. The wind was +merely making a detour, to spring at us from another +quarter. +</p> +<p> +The sun died at birth. The wind we had lost +we found again as a gale from the south-east. The +waters quickly increased again, and by noon the +saloon was light and giddy with the racing of the +propeller. I moved about like an infant learning +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span> +to walk. We were 201 miles from the Mumbles, +course S.W. 1/2W.; it was cold, and I was still looking +for the pleasures of travel. The Doctor came +to introduce himself, like a good man, and tried me +with such things as fevers, Shaw, Brazilian entomology, +the evolution of sex, the medical profession +under socialism, the sea and the poets. But my +thoughts were in retreat, with the black dog in full +cry. It was too cold and damp to talk even of sex. +When my oil lamp began to throw its rays of brown +smell, the Doctor, tired of the effort to exalt the +sour dough which was my mind, left me. It was +night. O, the sea and the poets! +</p> +<p> +By next morning the gale, now from the south-west, +like the seas, was constantly reinforced with +squalls of hurricane violence. The Chief put a +man at the throttle. In the early afternoon the +waves had assumed serious proportions. They +soared by us in broad sombre ranges, with hissing +white ridges, an inhospitable and subduing sight. +They were a quite different tribe of waves from +the volatile and malicious natives of the Bristol +Channel. Those channel waves had no serried +ranks in the attack; they were but a horde of +undisciplined savages, appearing to assault without +design or plan, but getting at us as they could, +depending on their numbers. The waves in the +channel were smaller folk, but more athletic, and +very noisy; they appeared to detach themselves +from the sea, and to leap at us, shouting. +</p> +<p> +These western ocean waves had a different character. +They were the sea. We did not have a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span> +multitude of waves in sight, but the sea floor itself +might have been undulating. The ocean was profoundly +convulsed. Our outlook was confined to +a few heights and hollows, and the moving heights +were swift, but unhurried and stately. Your alarm, +as you saw a greater hill appear ahead, tower, and +bear down, had no time to get more than just out of +the stage of surprise and wonder when the “Capella’s” +bows were pointing skyward on a long up-slope +of water, the broken summit of which was +too quick for the “Capella”—the bows disappeared +in a white explosion, a volley of spray, as hard as +shot, raked the bridge, the foredeck filled with +raging water, and the wave swept along our run, +dark, severe, and immense; with so little noise too; +with but a faint hissing of foam, as in a deliberate +silence. The “Capella” then began to run down a +valley. +</p> +<p> +The engines were reduced to half speed; it would +have been dangerous to drive her at such seas. Our +wet and slippery decks were bleak, windswept, and +deserted. The mirror of water on the iron surfaces, +constantly renewed, reflected and flashed the wild +lights in the sky as she rolled and pitched, and +somehow those reflections from her polish made the +steamer seem more desolate and forlorn. Not a +man showed anywhere on the vessel’s length, except +merely to hurry from one vantage to another—darting +out of the ship’s interior, and scurrying to +another hole and vanishing abruptly, like a rabbit. +</p> +<p> +The gale was dumb till it met and was torn +in our harsh opposition, shouting and moaning then +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span> +in anger and torment as we steadily pressed our +iron into its ponderable body. You could imagine +the flawless flood of air pouring silently express till +it met our pillars and pinnacles, and then flying past +rift, the thousand punctures instantly spreading +into long shrieking lacerations. The wounds and +mouths were so many, loud, and poignant, that you +wondered you could not see them. Our structure +was full of voices, but the weighty body which drove +against our shrouds and funnel guys, and kept them +strongly vibrating, was curiously invisible. The +hard jets of air spurted hissing through the +winches. The sound in the shrouds and stays began +like that of something tearing, and rose to a +high keening. The deeper notes were amidships, +in the alleyways and round the engine-room casing; +but there the ship itself contributed a note, a metallic +murmur so profound that it was felt as a +tremor rather than heard. It was almost below +human hearing. It was the hollow ship resonant, +the steel walls, decks, and bulkheads quivering +under the drumming of the seas, and the regular +throws of the crank-shaft far below. +</p> +<p> +It was on this day the “Capella” ceased to +be a marine engine to me. She was not the “Capella” +of the Swansea docks, the sea waggon +squatting low in the water, with bows like a box, +and a width of beam which made her seem a wharf +fixture. To-day in the Atlantic her bluff bows rose +to meet the approaching bulk of each wave with +such steady honesty, getting up heavily to meet its +quick wiles, it is true, but often with such success +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span> +that we found ourselves perched at a height above +the gloom of the hollow seas, getting more light and +seeing more world; though sometimes the hill-top +was missed; she was not quick enough, and broke +the inflowing ridge with her face. She behaved so +like a brave patient thing that now her portrait, +which I treasure, is to me that of one who has befriended +me, a staunch and homely body who never +tired in faithful well-doing. She became our little +sanctuary, especially near dayfall, with those +sombre mounts close round us bringing twilight +before its time. +</p> +<p> +Your glance caught a wave passing amidships as +a heaped mass of polished obsidian, having minor +hollows and ridges on its slopes, conchoidal fractures +in its glass. It rose directly and acutely +from your feet to a summit that was awesome because +the eye travelled to it over a long and broken +up-slope; this hill had intervened suddenly to obscure +thirty degrees of light; and the imagination +shrank from contemplating water which over-shadowed +your foothold with such high dark bulk +toppling in collapse. The steamer leaning that +side, your face was quite close to the beginning of +the bare mobile down, where it swirled past in a +vitreous flux, tortured lines of green foam buried +far but plain in its translucent deeps. It passed; +and the light released from the sky streamed over +the “Capella” again as your side of her lifted in +the roll, the sea falling down her iron wall as far as +the bilge. The steamer spouted violently from her +choked valve, as it cleared the sea, like a swimmer +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span> +who battles, and then gets his mouth free from +a smother. +</p> +<p> +Her task against those head seas and the squalls +was so hard and continuous that the murmur of +her heart, which I fancied grew louder almost to a +moaning when her body sank to the rails, the panic +of her cries when the screw raced, when she lost her +hold, her noble and rhythmic labourings, the sense +of her concentrated and unremitting power given +by the smoke driving in violence from her swaying +funnel, the cordage quivering in tense curves, the +seas that burst in her face as clouds, falling roaring +inboard then to founder half her length, she presently +to raise her heavy body slowly out of an acre +of foam, the cascades streaming from her in veils,—all +this was like great music. I learned why a ship +has a name. It is for the same reason that you +and I have names. She has happenings according +to her own weird. She shows perversities and virtues +her parents never dreamed into the plans they +laid for her. Her heredity cannot be explained by +the general chemics of iron and steel and the principles +of the steam engine; but something counts in +her of the moods of her creators, both of the happy +men and the sullen men whose bright or dark energies +poured into her rivets and plates as they hammered, +and now suffuse her body. Something of +the “Capella” was revealed to me, “our” ship. She +was one for pride and trust. She was slow, but that +slowness was of her dignity and size; she had valour +in her. She was not a light yacht. She was strong +and hard, taking heavy punishment, and then lifting +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span> +her broad face over the seas to look for the next +enemy. But was she slow? She seemed but slow. +The eye judged by those assailing hills, so vast and +whelmingly quick. The hills were so dark, swift, +and great, moving barely inferior to the clouds +which travelled with them, the collapsing roof +which fell over the seas, flying with the same impulse +as the waters. There was the uplifted ocean, +and pressing down to it, sundered from it only by +the gale—the gale forced them apart—the foundered +heavens, a low ceiling which would have been +night itself but that it was thinned in patches by +some solvent day. And our “Capella,” heavy as +was her body, and great and swift as were the hills, +never failed to carry us up the long slopes, and +over the white summits which moved down on us +like the marked approach of catastrophe. If one +of the greater hills but hit us, I thought—— +</p> +<p> +One did. Late that afternoon the second mate, +who was on watch, saw such a wave bearing down +on us. It was so dominantly above us that instinctively +he put his hand in his pocket for his +whistle. It was his first voyage in an ocean +steamer; he was not long out of his apprenticeship +in “sails,” and so he did not telegraph to stop the +engines. The Skipper looked up through the chart-room +window, saw the high gloom of this wave +over us, and jumped out for the bridge ladder to +get at the telegraph himself. He was too late. +</p> +<p> +We went under. The wave stopped us with the +shock of a grounding, came solid over our fore-length, +and broke on our structure amidships. The +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span> +concussion itself scattered things about my cabin. +When the “Capella” showed herself again the ventilators +had gone, the windlass was damaged, and +the iron ends of the drum on the forecastle head, on +which a steel hawser was wound, had been doubled +on themselves, like tinfoil. +</p> +<p> +By day these movements of water on a grand +scale, the harsh and deep noises of gale and breaking +seas, and the labouring of the steamer, no more +than awed me. At least, my sight could escape. +But courage went with the light. At dusk, the +eye, which had the liberty during the hours of light +to range up the inclines of the sea to distant summits, +and note that these dangers always passed, +was imprisoned by a dreadful apparition. When +there was more night than day in the dusk you saw +no waves. You saw, and close at hand, only vertical +shadows, and they swayed noiselessly without progressing +on the fading sky high over you. I could +but think the ocean level had risen greatly, and was +see-sawing much superior to us all round. The +“Capella” remained then in a precarious nadir of +the waters. Looking aft from the Chief’s cabin I +could see of our ship only the top of our mainmast, +because that projected out of the shadow of the +hollow into the last of the day overhead; and often +the sheer apparitions oscillating around us swung +above the truck of it, and the whole length vanished. +The sense of onward movement ceased because +nothing could be seen passing us. At dusk the +steamer appeared to be rocking helplessly in a narrow +sunken place which never had an outlet for us; +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span> +the shadows of the seas erect over us did not move +away, but their ridges pitched at changing angles. +</p> +<p> +You know the Sussex chalk hills at evening, just +at that time when, from the foot of them, they lose +all detail but what is on the skyline, become an +abrupt plane before you of unequal height. That +was the view from the “Capella,” except that the +skyline moved. And when we passed a barque +that evening it looked as looks a solitary bush far on +the summit of the downs. The barque did not pass +us; we saw it fade, and the height it surmounted +fade, as shadows do when all light has gone. But +where we saw it last a green star was adrift and was +ranging up and down in the night. +</p> +<p> +This was the dark time when, struggling from +amidships to the poop, you knew there was something +organised and coherent under you, still a +standing place in chaos, only because you could feel +it there. And this was the time to seek your fellows +in the saloon, where there was light, warmth, sane +and familiar things, and dinner. The “Capella’s” +saloon was fairly large, and the Skipper’s pride. It +was panelled in maple and oak, with a long settee +at the foreward end upholstered in red velvet, the +velvet protected by a calico cover. A brass oil +lamp with an opaline shade hung over the table +from a beam beneath the skylight. There was a +closed American stove, with a rigorously polished +brass flue running up through the deck. On two +oak sideboards in corners of the saloon some artificial +plants blossomed; from single stems each +plant blossomed into flowers of aniline dyes and of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span> +different species. One of these plants, an imitation +palm, and a better imitation of life than the others, +was carefully watered throughout the voyage by the +steward till it wilted into corruption and an offence, +and became a count against the steward which the +skipper never forgave, for he thought his floral +ornaments lovely. When a pretty Brazilian lady +visitor at Itacoatiara admired the magenta rays of +one blossom, he culled it for her (five earnest minutes +with a sharp knife, for there was wire behind +the green bark) more as a sacrifice and a hard duty +than a joy, and often spoke of it afterwards, shaking +his head regretfully. +</p> +<p> +Ah! that saloon. I remember it first, shiny, cold, +and repellent, with a handful of fire to its wide +capacity for draughts, in the northern seas. It +had curious marine odours then, with which I was +not friendly till long after, odours that lamps, burnished +brass, newly polished wood, food, and the +steward’s storeroom behind it, never fully accounted +for; and I remember it as I found it in +the still heat of the Amazon, when it had the air of +an oven; when, writing in it, the sweat ran off the +fingers to soil the paper, strange insects crawling +everywhere on its green baize table cover, and banging +against its lamp. I remember it assiduously +now, every trivial feature of it, and the men, now +scattered over all the world, thrown together in +it then for a spell to make the most of each other. +It has the indelible impress of a room of that house +where first the interest in existence awakened in us. +</p> +<p> +The Skipper, with stove behind him, took his seat +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span> +before the soup tureen at the head of the table. You +would as soon think of altering the chart-room +clock, even were it wrong, as of touching the soup +tureen without the Skipper’s orders. It is his duty +and his right to serve the soup, and to call the +steward to inform him the density of the vegetables +in it is too heavy. We have no market garden on +board, you know. +</p> +<p> +The Doctor was on the Skipper’s right hand, and +the Purser next to the Doctor, and on the opposite +side, the chief mate. There was the plump and +bald-headed German steward, in white apron, the +lid of one eye heavier than the other, serving us in +his shirt sleeves, sometimes sucking his teeth with a +noticeable click when he knew a dish deserved our +approval. You kept the soup in the plate by holding +it off the table and watching its tides. When +her stern sailed up, and the screw raced, the glass +shade of the lamp, being a misfit, took our eyes to +watch the coming smash; the soup then poured +over you, and trying to push your chair back from +the mess, you found the chair was a fixture on the +floor. This last fact was never remembered. I +should try to push my “Capella” chair back now, +if I were sitting in it. +</p> +<p> +The Doctor, who had been long enough tinkering +careless bodies to have grown a little worn and +grizzled, was often removed from us by a faint but +impervious hauteur, though maybe he was only +a little better and differently dressed. He was +a patient listener, but his eyes could be droll. The +Doctor’s chuckle, escaping from his thoughts while +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span> +he was unguarded, would sometimes make the captain +look up from a narrative with question and a +trace of resentment in his glance. The captain +was a great traveller, but he was puzzled to find the +memory of our surgeon following him to the most +remote and unfamiliar strands. “Now how did +that fellow come to be at a place like that?” the +captain would whisper to me afterwards. “Can’t +make him out. Who is he?” The surgeon had a +bottomless fund of short stories, to which he would +sometimes go about the time when we were pushing +away the banana skins and nutshells. He had an +elusive and stimulating method with them. He knew +his work. At the end of one the captain would +explain the fun to the seriously interested mate +(who had leaned forward to learn), placing spoons +and crumbs to demonstrate the main points. Then +the mate, too, would join us with his happy laugh. +The late and giddy laughter of the mate, when he +also arrived, became a welcome feature of a yarn +by the surgeon. We expected it. The mate’s own +stories were usually bawdy; he always prefaced +them with some unmanageable hilarity, which impeded +his start. +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Mate</span> (<em>pushing over his plate for soup</em>). That +big wave washed out the men’s berths, sir. +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Captain.</span> Then it did some good. The dirty +brutes. +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Mate.</span> Heard the men grumbling to-night. +Said we’ll never get the hawsers to run out with +them bugs in the hawse pipes. Say the bugs don’t +belong to them, sir—ship’s property. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span> +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Doctor.</span> Any this end of the ship, captain? +Good Lord! +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Captain.</span> Not a bug. And if there’s any for’ard +the men brought ’em. No bugs in my ship. Never +saw one in my cabin. +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Mate</span> (<em>making a confused effort to master his +emotion, not to spill his soup, and to be respectful</em>). +Te-he! you will, sir, Te-he! (<em>Realises he may not +laugh, but suffers internally.</em>) +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Captain</span> (<em>indicates an interrogation with frightful +eyes and guttural noises</em>). +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Mate</span> (<em>controls himself by concentrating on a +fork</em>). Well, sir—I’m just telling you—I heard it +said the men annoyed with bugs—some of ’em said +seein’s believin’—said they had enough for everybody. +(<em>His voice breaks into a stifled falsetto</em>) So +they emptied a match—match—they emptied a +match box full down your ventilator this morning. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +The captain would frequently keep his seat in the +saloon after dinner till he had finished his cigar, +and in the vein, would put a leg over the arm of +his chair, which he had pushed back (his chair was +cushioned, and was not a fixture), and frowning at +his cigar, as if for defects, would voyage again his +early seas. I suppose a sailor would call our skipper +a hard case. He was an elderly man, tall, +spare, and meagrely bearded. His eyes were set +close into a knife-like nose, and they were opaque +and bright, like two blue stones under a forehead +which narrowed and tightened into a small shiny +cranium. There were tufts of grey wool above his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span> +temples. No light came through his eyes to make +them limpid, except when he was fondling Tinker, +the dog. They shone from the surface, giving him +a look of peering and intent suspicion. The skin +of his face, neck and hands, now worked a little +loose, was so steeped in the tincture of sunshine +that it had preserved an unctious child-like quality. +His dress and habits betrayed an appreciation of +his own person. He kept his own medicines. +</p> +<p> +I guessed he would have a ruthless process in an +emergency; he would identify the success and +safety of the ship with his own. He laughed from +his mouth only, throwing his head back, showing +surprisingly perfect teeth, and laughter did not +change the crystalline glitter of his eyes. There +was something alien and startling in his merriment. +As though his own mind were too cold for him at +times he would seek out me, or the chief, to find +warmth in an argument. He would irritate us into +a disputation; and though he was a choleric man, +quick at opposition, yet his vocabulary then was +flinty and sparse. It stuck, and was delivered with +pain. You could think of him labouring at his views +of men and affairs with a creaking slate pencil. He +set one’s teeth. But he was a sailor, cautious and +bold, with a knowledge of ships and the sea that +was a mine to me. Let me say that, during the +voyage, I found him busy making a canvas cot. +He sat on the poop and worked there, bent and +patient as a seamstress, for days. With a judgment +made too readily I believed he was, naturally, +making it for his own comfort, against the heat of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span> +the river. When it was finished he was rolling up +his ball of yarn, surveying his job, and he said, +mumbling and shy, that the cot was for me. +</p> +<p> +The Skipper, on this day that our decks were +swept, swore about the men and the bugs during +dinner, muttered with foreboding about the glass, +which was still falling, and the coals, which were +being burnt to no purpose. We were hardly doing +more than holding our place on our course. The +saloon was delirious, and when she flung up her +heels, the varied noises rose with the racing propeller +to a crescendo of furious castenets. The mate +let us. The Skipper sat glooming, eyeing his cigar +resentfully, his leg over the arm of his chair. The +Doctor was swaying with the ship, weary and forlorn. +Tinker had an appeal in his eyes, and made +timorous noises. The Purser wondered why he +was there at all, and blamed his silly dreams. The +night boomed without. What a night! +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Skipper.</span> If this southerly wind goes round to +the west and north, look out. I saw porpoises to-day +too. +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Doctor.</span> When are we due at Para? +</p> +<p> +<span class='sc'>Skipper.</span> Huh! What’s this talk of Para? +You wait. All this talk about when we shall get +there’s no good.... Now in those Newfoundland +schooners where I served my time—I wouldn’t have +no talk in them about getting anywhere. Seems +as if somebody heard. You always run into it. +There was the “Lizzie Polwith.” She was about +80 tons. Those west country schooners in the fish +trade are never more than 100 tons, else they’d have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span> +to carry more than a master and one mate. I was +her master, and a kid of eighteen. We left Falmouth +for Cadiz. Now look what happened. My +mate was old Tregenna. He was a regular misery. +I never knew such a dead homer, not so much as he +was, always wanting to talk about his wife. I say, +when you’ve cast off, it’s best not to have a home. +The ship wants all you can give her. Tregenna, +he looked back a lot. You know what I mean. +Couldn’t keep his mind on his job, but wished he +was through with it. There he’d be cutting bread +at dinner, and it ’ud remind him, and he’d be wishing +he was cutting it at home. When things began +to go stiff, he’d say, “who wouldn’t sell his little +farm to go to sea?” Used to figure out on paper +how long we’d be before we’d be back. Why, you +never know when you’ll get back. +</p> +<p> +See what happened. We left Cadiz that year +on the first of January, and got things just right. +The winds chased us over. There were big following +seas, but you know those schooners ride like +ducks. Up and over they go. Never a drop did we +ship. Though they’re lively enough to bruise and +sicken all but good sailors. And old Tregenna was +rubbing his hands and making out his figures better +and better. +</p> +<p> +We arrived off St. Johns in a bit more than three +weeks. I reckon I’d done it all right, being such +a young chap too. Well, I was turning in that +night, and just as I got into the companion a man +said, “There goes a lump of ice.” I jumped out +again. Why, there was ice all round us. The sea +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span> +was full of it as far as I could see into the night. +“This is all along of your figuring,” I sang out to +Tregenna. “But you’ll have a lot of time to reckon +it up afresh,” I said. +</p> +<p> +So he had. Do you know when we got in? +We got in on April 15. We were two months and +a half getting in. And we came over in three weeks. +There’s something in that Jonah story. Always +some fool who can’t keep his mouth shut and his +mind on his job. +</p> +<p> +We did have a time. Two and a half months, +and our provisions ran out. We were living on a +little meal and dried peas. The ice chafed the +“Lizzie” till the rudder was worn down to the +stock. It roughed up her wooden sides till they +looked as if they were covered with long coarse hair. +We were a sight when we got in. You wouldn’t +have known us, hardly. We looked as if we’d come +up from the bottom.... Don’t ask me when we +shall get to Para. Wait till we’re out of this. +Listen to that dog. Shut up, you Tinker. Making +that noise, sir! Go and lie down. +</p> +<p> +The Skipper clapped on his cap aggressively and +went out. The Doctor had a long and eloquent +silence. Then he turned to me. “This beats all,” +he said. “Come and have a drop of gin, old dear.” +He led the way to his berth, which smelt of varnish +and of lamp, and we swayed in chorus as the ship +rolled, and had a heartening mourn together. But +for its accidental compensations travel would not be +worth the trouble. In proof of that there is the entry +in my diary some days after: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span> +</p> +<p> +“December 22. Awoke at four a.m. with the ship +rolling as brutally as ever. A great noise of waters +and things banging. The seas huge at sunrise, +when the light came over their tops. Depressing +sight. The sky was blue at first, but was soon +overcast with squalls. The horizon ahead gets +slate coloured, and low clouds underneath, like +ragged bales of dirty wool, come towards us heavy +and fast. Then the squall and waves rush down on +us express, and the ship buries herself. Constantly +hearing engine-room bell sounded from bridge to +slacken speed as a big sea appears. The captain +popped in his head as I was deciding whether to get +up or stay where I was. He gazed sternly at me +and said he was looking for Jonah. I half believe +he means it too. Everybody is weary of this. The +men have been in oilskins since the start. +</p> +<p> +“Noon to-day, Lat. 42.6 N. Long. 11.10 W. +Miles by engines since noon yesterday 222. Knots +by revolutions 9.2. But the slip is 49.2 per cent. +So actual distance 112 miles only, and knots 4.6. +Bad going. Wind southly. Engines racing and +engineer still at throttle. +</p> +<p> +“Night, and a full moon tearing past cloud openings. +The ship occasionally shows like a pale ghost, +the black shadows of the funnel guys and stanchions +oscillating on the white paint-work as she +rolls. I went into Chief’s cabin, and from its open +door—for it was sensibly milder—looked out astern +over the way we had come. Up and down, this side +and that, went the steamer, and the Great Bear, in a +wind clear patch of sky, was dancing on our wake. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span> +Polaris was making eccentric orbits round the main +masthead light. Then the Skipper came in. He +sat gazing astern. The look of his face was enough. +It was quite plain he would like to be offended to-night, +and attack anybody about anything. Presently +he started intently as he looked astern, and +jumped from his seat crying the ultimate anathema +on the chap at the wheel; and ran out. The Chief +glanced astern and laughed. ‘The old man comes in +here because it’s uncommon handy for watching +the wake. Look at it. Somebody on the bridge +writing letters on the ocean. Thinking of his sweetheart, +and her name is Sue.’ We gave the Skipper’s +voice time to reach the wheelhouse, and then +saw the wake visibly tauten out. +</p> +<p> +“I went aft, balancing like a man learning the +tight rope, along the trestle bridge. The moon was +still falling precipitously through the broken sky, +and areas of the great seas, where the sweeping +searchlight of the moon showed monsters shaping +and slowly vanishing, were frightful. There were +sudden expansions of vivid green lightnings in the +north and east. I found the Doctor in the chief +mate’s cabin. I sang some songs in a riving minor, +accompanied by the mate on an accordion, for the +doctor’s amusement, and discovered why sailors +always use the accordion, previously a mystery to +me. It has a sad and reflective note, suited to men +with memories when alone on the ocean. It ought +to fit Celtic bards better than the harp. It has a +fine expiring moan. The mate gave an imitation +of a dying man with it. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span> +</p> +<p> +“To bed at 11. Tried to read Henry James. My +cockroach came out to wave his derisive hands at +me. No wonder. The light was very bad, and I +was pitched from side to side of the bunk. Nearly +thrown out once. I might just as well have attempted +to read the Bhagavad-Gita in the original. +So I read the last letters from home instead and +then fell asleep as a little child.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +There was something of leisure in her movements +next morning. I felt sure the glass must be rising +at last. The air felt lighter and more expansive. +A peep through the port showed me the ceiling had +gone up considerably in the night. There was little +wind, for the waves, though as great as ever, had +lost their white ridges. Their summits were rounded +and smooth. We were running south out of it, +though the residue of the dreary northern seas was +still washing about the decks. It was December +yesterday, but April to-day. The engineers’ messroom +boy, with bare fat arms, went by the cabin, +singing. +</p> +<p> +At breakfast we heard that Chips, who had retired +to his bunk for some days past to mend a leg +damaged when the hatches were in danger, had +met with a still more serious misfortune. We fell +into a mood of silent and respectful compassion. +There was nothing to be said. Chips had lost his +Victoria Cross. He was an old hero in trouble. +The few of us who were British there—true, most +of us were Germans, Dutchmen, Scandinavians, +and Portuguese—felt we represented The Country. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span> +Chips limped about the forecastle with reproach +in his face, and we felt we were petty in +noticing his face was also dirty, though it certainly +was difficult to avoid seeing that too, perhaps because, +and this can be said for us, the dirt was of +longer standing than the reproach. Then again it +is common knowledge that Chips sleeps in straw, +having no mattress. +</p> +<p> +Chips’ story we knew. It had been whispered +about the ship. He was at the Siege of Alexandria, +and a shell fell near a group of men on his ship. +Chips picked it up and dropped it overboard before +the fuse was finished. The Doctor and I felt especially +responsible, for a reason I cannot easily +explain, it is so vague, and we told Chips we would +help him in his search for his lost treasure. This +took us to Chips’ sea-chest, and amid a group of +mask-like faces—for how could foreigners guess +what this mattered to us?—we hunted carefully for +Chips his aureole. We found—but I suppose even +Victoria Cross heroes must dirty their socks. There +were other things also. Yet it was out of one of +these very other things, which were, I think, shirts, +that there dropped, when the Doctor picked up the +garment, a little package wrapped in newspaper. +Chips, from his berth, gave a cry of joy. The +Doctor and I, smiling too, looked upon the old man +feeling that we had acted for you all. Chips, secretive +with his sacrosanct emblem, was putting the +little packet under his coverlet, when a low foreign +sailor snatched it from him. The Cross fell to the +deck. I recovered it from the feet instantly in a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span> +white passion, and chanced to look at it. It confirmed +that one, who is named Chips here, was +something in the Royal and Ancient Order of Buffaloes. +</p> +<p> +Coming back from the fo’castle, suddenly I felt +as the man of the suburbs does when, bowed with +months of black winter and work in a city alley, he +is, without any warning, transfigured on his own +doorstep one morning. There as before is his +familiar shrub, dripping with rain. Yet is it as +before? It points a black finger at him. But the +finger has a polished green nail. +</p> +<p> +He is translated. His ears are opened, and there +comes for the first time that year the silver whistle +of the starlings. A touch of South is in the air. His +burden falls. +</p> +<p> +The cloudy sky was not grey now, but pearly, for +it was translucent to the sun. More than day had +come; life was born. There was ichor in the day. +They were not dark northern waves that baffled us, +but we were shoved and rocked by the send of a +long nacreous ocean swell, firm but kind, from the +south-west. The iron ship which had been repulsive +to the touch, for its face had been glassy and cold, +was now drying a warm rust red, like earth of +Devon in spring, and was responsive. You could +rest against its iron body and feel yourself grow. I +saw the Chief outside his cabin in his shirt sleeves, +gazing overseas between the stanchions of the boat +deck, smoking in the evident luxury of full comfort +and release. Involuntarily, he danced the two-step +as she rolled. “Got anything to read?” he asked. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span> +</p> +<p> +Now that reminded me. We have no library, of +course, but we have a circulation of books on +board. There are no common shelves; but the book +you left thoughtlessly on the skylight five minutes +ago, while you went to find some matches, is gone +when you return. And you, if you see a book lying +open and unprotected in a cabin, glance round +warily, dash in, and take it; very often only to +discover to your bitter disappointment that it is one +of your own, and not an adventurous and unread +stranger. The Chief’s question reminded me that +the day we left Swansea a lady (and a friend of +poor Jack, the public is well aware) sent us a bale +of literature. We blessed her when we saw its bulk, +looking at it as oxen might look at a truss of hay, +for that was its size and shape. Though it proved +to be shavings and a cruel blow to the animals, as +you shall hear. +</p> +<p> +Here was the very day to get at that bale, and +impatiently I rolled it into the open. It was trussed +with great care, so I tore away a corner of the wrappings, +dived in a hand, and hauled out a copy of +“Joy Bells for Young Christians,” the November +number of 1899. +</p> +<p> +Well. Anyhow, it was a clean copy, and I put it +by as the portion of our bald-headed German +steward. +</p> +<p> +This disappointment made me pause, though. +Here was going to be a long job for the Purser, +sorting out this. Supposing there was anything +nutritious in the bale I did not mind the labour +of the unpacking and the distribution; but if the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span> +bulk of the consignment was hailed, so to speak, +by “Joy Bells,” then it would be better to call a +deck hand and get the package overside before the +ship was littered with too much of this joy. A +Brazilian stoker, as he passed, saw me standing in +thought, and I suppose imagined—for he could not +ask—that I wanted to cut the string, but had no +knife. Before I could stop him, he, smiling a knowing +and friendly smile, whipped out a blade from +his rear; and at once we stood ankle-deep in literature. +There was a landslide near me of Infant +Methodists (dates unknown) and I gave the Brazilian +an armful for his kindness. +</p> +<p> +Our dear unknown friend at Swansea, with her +eye on our sailor-like but yet immortal souls, had +heard, no doubt, at the annual meeting of the Society +for the Succor of Seamen, at Caxton Hall, +Westminster (held on the 29th of every February), +what simple and barbarous and yet, in the main, +considering our origins and circumstances, what +worthy fellows we were. But she was not told at +the meeting that the wealthy shipowners, subscribers +to the society, and whose presence there +made Caxton Hall seem nautical, have a way of +signing on crews at continental ports because wages +rule lower there; and that consequently not one of +our men was moved by Christian English, but only +by mates English, and then not so very quickly. +The officers and engineers were English, and there +the sailors’ friend was right in her surmise; but I +do not see how she could have done more to put in +awful jeopardy the soul of our wise and spectacled +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span> +chief engineer, for instance, than by approaching +him with a winning and philanthropic smile, under +the impulse to do him good with a statement of +her religion in words of one syllable. He would +have met her politely, I know; but after she had +gone—— +</p> +<p> +Let her try to imagine her own feelings if our +Chief, uninvited and blankly unmindful, invaded +the exclusive inner circle of Swansea society, and +approached her in the midst of her own with the +childish notion of instructing her in the first principles +of his pronounced Pyrrhonism; or say he +went to her as a colporteur of the Society for Instructing +the Intelligence and Manners of Leisured +Folk. But I must say for our chief that this cannot +be even supposed. He would never offer the lowliest +being such an indignity. +</p> +<p> +We pulled and dragged at the escaped mass of +periodicals, looking for something good, but found +no pearls had been cast before us. There were +parish magazines and temperance monthlies, there +were religious almanacs for the years we have lost; +by some sporting chance there were even a few back +numbers of the “Monumental Mason.” It is plain +the latter could be considered an added grievance, +even though they were put in as a kindly reminder +of our narrow lease here. It was an aggravation +of the original offence to sailors who, when their +short term here closes, have to make shift with some +firebars at their heels. What is Aberdeen granite +and indelible gold lettering to such men but a hint +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span> +of the hardships which follow them even beyond +the end? +</p> +<p> +So overboard went the lot—I may as well tell the +whole truth, overboard also went the evangelical +hymn books, new though they were. I will only +suppress the advice cried to the gulls astern as the +literature went floating and flying in their direction. +We had to rely for our reading on what had +been brought aboard by our crowd, a collection +which gradually revealed itself in single books and +magazines. +</p> +<p> +There was, for example, the “Morphology of the +Cryptogamia,” an exhaustive work which gave me +much pleasure in wondering how it got aboard at +all. The chief mate used it as a wedge between his +open door and the bulkhead, to prevent the miserable +knocking as the ship lolled about. He would +not lend me that book, because it jammed into the +opening nicely; but I borrowed from him “Three +Fingered Jack, the Terror of the Antilles,” and I +made him a complete gift in return of “Robert +Elsmere” which I found marooned on a bunker +hatch as I came along. There you see the delightful +chance and hazardous character of our literature. +</p> +<p> +I prided myself on the select reading I had +brought aboard with me. But what devilish black +art the sea air worked on those choice volumes, however, +I cannot explain. I have no means of knowing. +But there they are, their covers bitten by +cockroaches, and the words inside bleached and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span> +sterilised of all meaning. There they will stop; +Henry James, too. For what is the use of him +when big seas are running? He would be a magician +indeed who could capture our minds then. +You get the right amplitude of leisure and the flat +undistracting circumstances he demands, the emptiness +and the immobility necessary, when you are +waiting for cargo long in coming at a low seaboard. +I suppose we want the representation of life only +when we are not very much alive. In heavy +weather there is no doubt old newspapers make the +best reading, especially if they have good bold +advertisements. For I know it requires the same +courage and concentration needed ashore for reading +Another Great Speech by the Premier; indeed, +the steel blue quality of deadly resolution used only +by men of letters who write biographies and spin +literary causeries, to manage even novels when great +billows are moving. The mind is inclined to absent +itself then. Then it is you put all reading aside +with a promise of a long and leisurely festival of +books when the ship is steaming uniformly down +the unvarying “trades.” +</p> +<p> +But when you get near the neighbourhood of the +constant sun, during the day you fall asleep over +“Three Fingered Jack” and the old magazines +which you had on your knees while musing on the +colours of the sea and the mounting architecture of +the clouds; and beyond sundown listen to the mate’s +accordion or the engineer’s flute. Perhaps, moved +by the hu-s-s-h of the waves, the silky and purple +dark, and the loneliness of your little company +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63'></a>63</span> +under the mid-ocean stars, tentatively (though +your shipmates are very forgiving) lift a ballad +yourself; for something is expected of you, and +singing seems right. +</p> +<p> +Of all the books aboard the “Capella” I got most +out of the Skipper’s sailing directories and his +charts. Talk of romance! There was that chart-room +under the bridge, across its open doors on +either side creaming waves going by in the moonlight, +and the steamer inclining each side alternately, +and the shadows of the rigging sliding back +and forth on the pale deck. You cannot know what +romance is till you are in seas you have never sailed +before, where the marks will be few when landfall +comes; that ocean where the Skipper is to find his +own way by his lore of the sea, and may even ask +your opinion about alternatives; and there read +sailing directories. The romance of these books +cannot be translated or quoted. It would leave +them, as though a glimmer went out, if you attempted +to take them from that chart-room where +pendant things are swaying leisurely, where you +can hear the bells tell the watches, and the skipper’s +gold-laced cap is on the mahogany table. The South +Atlantic Sailing Directions, our own guide, is fine, +especially when it gets down to the uninhabited +islands in far southern latitudes. I do not think +this noble volume is included in the best hundred +books, but I know it can release the mind from the +body. +</p> +<p> +But what’s this talk of landfalls? as the old man +would say. There will be no landfall yet for us; +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span> +and this is Christmas Eve. I knew it was an auspicious +occasion of some kind, for the steward just +went aft with two big plum cakes cuddled in his +apron. That made me look at the calendar. We +are now 800 miles out, and the steamer has reached +six knots. This was the best night we had yet +found. The steamer was on an even keel, with but +occasional spasms of sharp rolling, for there was +no sea, but only old ocean breathing deeply and +regularly in its sleep, and sometimes making a +slight movement. The light of the full moon was +the shining ghost of noon. The steamer was distinct +but immaterial, saliently accentuated, as a +phantom. A deep shadow would have detached +the forecastle head but for a length of luminous +bulwark which still held it, and some quiet voices +of men who were within the shadow, yarning. The +line of bulwark and the murmuring voices held us +together. The prow as it dipped sank into drifts +of lambent snow. The snow fled by the steamer’s +sides, melting and musical. Two engineers off duty +leaned on the rails amidships, smoking, looking into +the vacancy in which the moonlight laid a floor of +troubled silver. As if drawn by its light a few little +clouds were poised near the moon, grouped round +the bright heart of the night. There was the moon +and its small company of clouds, and ourselves +below in our own defined allotment of sea. The +only thing outside and far was Sirius, burning independently +in the east, looking unwinking through +the wall of night into our world. +</p> +<p> +On such a night and with Christmas morning but +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span> +sixty minutes away it would have been wasting life +to go to bed. I glanced expectantly at the door of +the Chief’s cabin, and saw indeed it was open, a +yellow rectangle within which was the profile of the +Chief beneath his lamp, talking to somebody. The +Doctor was there, and he made room for me on the +settee. Then the captain joined us, and I perched +myself on the washstand. +</p> +<p> +“Well, we can undress to-night when we turn +in,” said the Chief. (None of us had, so far.) In a +long silence which filled the cabin with tobacco +smoke I could hear the engines below uplifted in +confident song. +</p> +<p> +“Now they’re walking round,” said the Skipper, +nodding his head. “Now she feels it.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +When we met thus, between the hours of nine and +midnight, as was our irregular habit, the talk first +was always desultory, and about our own ship and +our own circumstances, for the concerns of our little +world strangely occupied our minds, as you would +think, and the large affairs of that great world we +had left, of which we heard now no sound nor +rumour, had lessened in the mind, faded and vanished, +all the huge consequence and loud clangour +of it, so that now there was an empty horizon astern, +and nothing between us and that void but a few +gulls, like small and pursuing recollections. Our +little microcosm, afloat and sundered in the wastes, +was occupied in its own polity. We talked of the +carpenter’s bad leg; complained of the cook’s bread; +heard that Tinker the dog, being young, had the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span> +habit at night, while honest folk slept, of eating the +saloon mats; grumbled that the ship’s tobacco was +mouldy. The deck was getting dry, the Skipper +said, and now we could get the men chipping it, +and then it could be tarred. +</p> +<p> +“That donkeyman,” said the Skipper, “that man +wastes the fresh water. I’ll have a lock put on +the pump handle. He works it as if we were laid +out to the main. I spoke to him about it this morning.” +The fresh water is a vital affair with us. We +may not drink the water of the country to which we +are bound, so eighty tons of Welsh mountain spring +is in our cleansed and whitewashed tanks. Woe to +the man caught overflowing his can, if an officer sees +him. “The handle can’t be locked,” said the Chief, +“because it’s next to the galley. The cook wants +it all day long.” +</p> +<p> +“Well, let me catch anyone wasting it. We’d +look all right with a lot of dysentery, drinking that +river water out there.” +</p> +<p> +This common meeting-place of ours, the Chief’s +cabin, is on a highway of the ship, being on the +direct route from the poop to the bridge, and so it +is a hostel, for the Chief is a kindly and popular +man, big and robust in body and mind; though he +has a knack, at odd and unexpected times, of being +candid in a way that shocks, treading on corns without +ruth, the Skipper’s particularly, when their two +departments are at a difference. +</p> +<p> +This cabin was one which I always visited first, +for, especially in the morning when other folk had +not rubbed the night out of their eyes, and so looked +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span> +darkly upon their fellows, my friend the Chief had +the early eye of a child and the soaring spirit of the +lark. I never met him when he had got out of bed +on the wrong side. His cabin became a refuge to +me, for, unlike the Doctor’s and my own place (we +both were birds of passage, therefore our cabins +were cold and stark), the Chief’s was comfortable +with settled furniture, cosy and habitable, like a +fixed home. There was a wicker chair, with cushions, +and a writing-desk where the engineer’s log +lay handy and bearing some plug tobacco, freshly +cut, on its cover, and a pipe rack above the desk +carrying a most foul assortment waiting their turns +again for favour. Portraits of the Chief’s family +were on the walls, smiling boys and girls, with their +mother in a chief place, looking upon daddy by +proxy. There was a bookshelf bearing some engineering +manuals, a few novels and magazines, a +tape measure, some gauge glasses, some tin whistles, +a flute, and a palm leaf fan. Above the washstand +was a rack with glasses and a carafe. A settee ran +along one side, and his bunk upon the other side. +There we sat on Christmas Eve, while the wicker +chair bent and complained with the Skipper’s +weight as he swayed to the leisurely rocking of the +ship. The tobacco smoke floated in coils and blue +smears in the room. A bottle of Hollands rested +for security on the bed, and we held our glasses on +our knees. +</p> +<p> +The pallid and puffy face of the steward, a very +honest man secretly free with his small store of +apples on my account because I am green and my +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span> +palate not yet used to the flatness of tinned provisions, +looked in on us from the right. “Vhere is +der dog, sir? I haf not seen der dog.” “Must be +about,” we cried. “We had seen him,” we said, +“nosing about the poop for rats, or asleep on the +saloon mat, or padding round the casing looking +for friends.” “But no, I haf looked. He is not +found. Vhere is der dog?” A hole in our little +community, it was apparent from our intent looks, +could not be thought of with equanimity. Tinker’s +importance became quite large. The second engineer +passed the door, caught the drift of our anxious +converse, and turned to say the dog was then +asleep in his room. “Ach! zat is all right.” We +struck matches for our pipes again. +</p> +<p> +“That dog, I shouldn’t like to lose him,” said the +Skipper, stroking his beard. “There’s no luck in +that. I shot a dog once on a ship; and first we ran +into a blow and lost a lot of gear, and then the mate +got his hand smashed, and then everything got +cross-grained till I’d have paid, ah, fifty pounds to +have had the brute back again, and an ugly customer +he was. Ah, you can smile, Doctor, but there +it is. I’m not superstitious and never was. But +you can’t tell me. Look at the things that happen. +When I was a youngster, my ship was off +Rio, and I dreamt my father was dead. I took my +bearings and the time. I dreamt my father died in +a red brick house with a laylock tree by the door +and that tree was in blossom plain enough to smell. +I didn’t know the house. There was a path of clean +red bricks leading up to the porch, through a garden. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span> +I didn’t see my father. But you know what +dreams are like—no sense in them—there the house +was and not a soul in sight. I knew he was dying +inside it.” +</p> +<p> +“How do you account for that? Have you got it +down in your books? I lay you haven’t. I forgot all +about that dream. Long after I was at Cape Town +and met my brother. That reminded me. After +a bit I said to him, ‘Father’s dead.’ ‘Yes,’ he said, +‘but how did you know?’ Said I, ‘Was the house +like this?’ and I told him. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘it was +like that. A place he was staying at in Essex. But +how did you know?’ I didn’t tell him. What’s the +good? He wouldn’t have believed it. People don’t.” +</p> +<p> +All through the anxious time when we were being +soused and buffeted I noticed how our company, +every man of them, even the Pyrrhonist, saw omens +in all the chance variety of the vast menace under +the frown of which we huddled in our iron box; +porpoises alongside; one of Mother Cary’s dark +brood accompanying us, glancing about the +vagaries of the flowing hills with swift precision; +the form of a cloud; a loom far out, as though day +were there at least. The fall of a portrait in the +Chief’s room once set him wondering and melancholy. +Again, when the dog whined and moped, +the Skipper eyed the animal narrowly, as though +the creature had prescience but could tell us what it +knew only by drooping and quivering its hind quarters. +You might have thought that Fate, dumb +and cruel, but a little relenting for something inevitably +to come to our mishap, were trying to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span> +stretch a point, and so induced the Skipper to put +his shirt on inside out one morning, after dreaming +he saw drowned rats, in case the horse were not too +blind to see both the nod and the wink. +</p> +<p> +The Sphinx makes subtle dumb motions, as it +were, when closely regarded. I do not wonder if +it does. Sometimes in those dark days I thought I +got a hint or two. I cannot tell you what they were. +The weather grew brighter afterwards and I forgot +them. From our narrow and weltering security, +where the wind searched through us like the judgment +eye, I know, looking out upon the wilderness +in turmoil where was no help, and no witness of our +undoing, where the gleams were fleeting as though +the very day were riven and tumbling, that I saw +the filmy shapes of those things which darken the +minds of primitives. While the sky is changeful, +and there are storms at sea when our fellows are absent, +and mischance and death are veiled but here, +we shall have gods and ghosts. The sharp-sighted +collectors of old brain-lumber and such curios may +still keep busy, and tie up their dry bundles of +mythology and religions; but I myself could make +plenty more. +</p> +<p> +So it was my shipmates’ yarns were most of the +dire kind, with some dim warning precedent. I do +not recall a story that was gay, except those of the +wanton sort. They were of close calls and of women, +as, I suppose, have been those of all hard +livers, from the cave men on. +</p> +<p> +Eight bells were rung on the bridge, and, like a +faint echo in a higher pitch, answered from the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span> +fo’castle. Christmas morning! By my pocket compass +we toasted the folk at home. We had heard a +good many stories of wreck this night, and the +Chief was now at his contribution to the unseasonable +memories. (“I’ve had enough of it. Here +goes,” said the Doctor; and he went.) “Don’t +leave us. It lets in the draught. Well, the compliments +to you. This typhoon—I had had four others—but +this one made me think it was good-bye. +She was a small steamer, that ‘Samuel Plimsoll,’ +and old, but well-behaved. But her light nearly +went out in that blow. It was that dark you could +find nothing but the noise, and we were just the +same as a chunk of wood under a waterfall, because +the Lord knows how many feet of water were in the +engine-room, for she was rolling so. Her fires were +out. She had a list of 22 degrees to port. She +simply lay in it, and it went over her. Every time +she rolled over on the deep side, thinks I, this is the +last of her. All this, mind you, went on for two +days, and the skipper was in the chart-room, waiting. +I’ve found that when the danger is not much +you get excited, but when there seems no chance +you get cool and cunning and try to make one. +One time I thought she seemed easier, and I was +able to get the donkey engine going. I felt better +as soon as I heard the steam, even though it was only +in the donkey. Thinks I, there’s power, and it’s +mine—a canful of steam to a typhoon. It was a +chance to laugh at. Then I took the other engineers +with me and we went below. The water there, +full of cinders and trash, pouring through the gear +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span> +as she turned from side to side, made it look a +pretty poor show. You see, the donkey wouldn’t +work the pumps, for the coal and muck were sucked +in. So I took a basket and got into the tank, holding +the basket under the pump. The water was up +to my neck, and every time she rolled I was ducked. +But the dodge worked, and that list of hers to port +was a bit of luck in its way, for it helped us to get +the starboard boiler going. When I saw the throws +moving, and the wash angry when it splashed on the +hot metal, I said, ‘So much for your old typhoon.’ +We were not counted out then. We crawled under +the lee of an island, and lay for four days repairing +her. The funny thing was when we got to Hong +Kong the papers were full of our loss. ‘“Samuel +Plimsoll” lost with all hands.’ It was funny to see +a bill like that. I met the placard as it came running +round a corner, and it made me stand and +shuffle my feet on the ground to see if the earth was +all right. I knew the editor of that paper, and I +was then going up to give him something good. +And here he was making money out of us like that. +He stood at the door of his office and saw me coming. +I went up laughing, waving his paper in my +hand. He looked quite surprised. His mouth was +wide open. ‘You’re a nice sort of chap,’ I said.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +Christmas Day. In case it has become necessary +for me to show again the symbols of verity, as this +is a book of travel, here they are: “Lat. 37.2 N., +long. 14.14 W. Light wind and moderate swell +from S.W. Vessel rolling heavily at intervals. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span> +961 miles out. Miles by engines 226. Actual distance +travelled (because of the swell on our starboard +bow) 197 miles.” I cannot see that these +particulars do more than help me out with the book, +but as they have been considered essential in narratives +of voyaging, here they are, and much good +may they do anybody. Thoreau, in one of his +quaintly superior moods when speaking of travel, +said, “It is not worth while going round the world +to count the cats in Zanzibar.” In nearly every +book of travel this is proved to be true. They show +it was not worth the while, seeing it was either to +shoot cats or to count degrees of latitude. (As for +me, I have no reason whatever for being at sea.) +Consider Arctic travel. I have read long rows of +books on that, but recall few emotional moments. +The finest passage in any book of Arctic travel is in +Warburton Pikes’ “Barren Grounds,” where he +quotes what the Indian said to the missionary who +had been speaking of heaven. The Indian asked, +“And is it like the land of the Musk-ox in summer, +when the mist is on the lakes, and the loon cries very +often?” +</p> +<p> +You feel at once that the country the Indian saw +around him would be easily missed by us, even when +in the midst of it. For taking the bearings of such +a land, the sextant, and the miles already travelled, +would not be factors to help much. Now the Indian +knew nothing of artificial horizons and the aids to +discovering where they are which strangers use. +But in summer the mists of his lakes were but the +vapour of his musings, the penumbra of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span> +unfathomed deeps of his mind whereon he paddled his +own canoe; and when the wild-fowl called, it was his +memory heard; it was his thought become vocal +then while he dreamed on. I myself learned that +the treasures found in travel, the chance rewards +of travel which make it worth while, cannot be +accounted beforehand, and seldom are matters a +listener would care to hear about afterwards; for +they have no substance. They are no matter. +They are untranslatable from their time and place; +and like the man who unwittingly lies down to +sleep on the tumulus where the little people dance +on midsummer night, and dreams that in the place +where man has never been his pockets were filled +with fairy gold, waking to find pebbles there instead, +so the traveller cannot prove the dreams he +had, showing us only pebbles when he tries. Such +fair things cannot be taken from the magic moment. +They are but filmy, high in the ceiling of your +thoughts then, rosy and sunlit by the chance of the +light, transitory, melting as you watch. You come +down to your lead again. These occasions are not +on your itinerary. They are like the Indian’s lakes +in summer. They have no names. They cannot +be found on the best maps. Not you nor any other +will ever discover them again. Nor do they fill the +hunger which sent you travelling; they are not +provender for notebooks. They do not come to +accord with your mood, but they come unaware to +compel, and it is your own adverse and darkling +atoms that are changed, at once dancing in accord +with the rare incidence of that unreasonable and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span> +transcendent moment of your world, the rhythm of +which you feel, as you would the beat of drums. +</p> +<p> +And what are these things?—but how can we tell? +A strip of coral beach, as once I saw it, which was +as all other coral beaches; but the ship passed +close in, and by favour of the hour and the sun this +strand did not glare, but was resplendent, and the +colours of the sea, green, gold, and purple, were not +its common virtues, but the emotional and passing +attar of those hues. There was the long, slow labouring +of our burdened tramp in the Atlantic +storm. Or one April, and a wild cherry-tree in +blossom by an English hedge, a white cloud tinctured +with rose, and in it moving a dozen tropical +chaffinches; the petals were on the grass. +</p> +<p> +And now, this is Christmas morning. I am in +the Chief’s bunk, and he still sleeps on the settee. +We fell asleep where we lay yarning on our backs +after midnight. I wake at the right moment, opening +my eyes with the serene and secure conviction +that things are very well. The slow rocking of the +ship is perfect rest. There is no sound but the faint +tap-tap of something loose on the desk and responding +to the ship’s movements. The cabin is +strangely illuminated to its deepest corner by an +extraordinary light, as though the intense glow of a +rare dawn had penetrated even our ironwork. On +the white top of the cabin a bright moon quivers +about, the shine from live waters sent up through +the round of our port. When we lean over, the +port shows first the roof of the alleyway dappled +with bright reflections; then a circle of sky, which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span> +the horizon soon halves; and then the dazzling white +and blue of the near waves; we reverse. +</p> +<p> +This is life. This is what I have come for. I do +not repose merely in a bunk. I am prone and easy +in the deepest assurance of good. This conviction +has penetrated even the unconsciousness of the +Chief; he snores in profound luxury. If in a ship +you are brought sometimes too cruelly close to the +scrutiny of the terms of your narrow tenure, expecting +momentarily to see the document torn +across by invisible fingers, yet nowhere else do you +feel those terms to be so suddenly expanded in the +sun. And nowhere else is got such release, secure +and absolute, from the nudging of insistent trifles. +There is nothing between your eyes and the confines +of your own place. Empty day is all round. +In the entire circle there is not the farthest impertinent +interruption—through all the degrees +there is not one fool standing in the light; and you +yourself are on nobody’s horizon. No history stains +that place. There is not a black doubt anywhere. +It is the first day again, and no need yet for a rubbish +heap. +</p> +<p> +Yet when, singing to myself, I went outside to +matins, I found Sandy our third engineer with the +toothache. So much of truth is got from being a +gymnosophist and regarding your own toes with +aloof abstraction on a sunny Christmas morning. +I became Sandy’s courage for him instead, took his +arm firmly, and led him aft to the doctor. We +would start a rubbish heap for a pristine world with +a decayed tooth. Something to be going on with. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span> +</p> +<p> +Seeing we were almost off Madeira we had some +amount of right to the July sun under which we had +run. For the first time since the Mumbles our decks +were quite dry, and cherry red with rust. There +were glittering crusts of salt in odd places. At +eight bells (midday) the captain ordered a general +holiday, except for the routine duties; and the +donkeyman appeared to startle us as the apparition +of a stranger on the ship, for he had a clean +face, though his eyes still were dark and spectral, +and he wore a suit of new dungarees, stiff and +creased from a paper parcel, but just opened, out of +a Swansea slop shop. His mates were some seconds +realising him. Then they made derisive signs, +and the boldest some ribald cries. I thought their +resentment was really aroused by Donkey’s new +shirt; it was that touch which pushed matters too +far, and made him unfriendly. He saw this himself. +Soon he changed the new shirt for one that +had been rendered neutral in the stoke-hold and +the bucket. +</p> +<p> +There was something neutral, like Donkey’s old +shirt, about most of our crowd. Each one of the +mob which gathered with mess kits a little before +midday about the galley door seemed reduced, was +faded in a noticeable measure from the sharp and +strong pattern of a man. Their conversation about +the galley was always in subdued mutterings, not +direct, but out of the mouth corners, sideways. +Their only independence was in the negligence of +their attitudes. They might have been keeping in +mind an austere and invisible presence, whose swift +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span> +words from nowhere might at any time cleave their +soft babble. If I made to pass through them the +babble ceased, and from limp poses they sprang +upright in the narrow way to let me pass, their eyes +cast down. A man who had not seen me coming, +but still sprawled on the rail, talking quietly, would +be nudged by his neighbour. It struck me this +attitude would change when they knew us better; +but it never did. These deckhands and firemen were +mostly youngsters, steadied by a few older hands. +Chips and Donkey were the veterans. In that +crowd the boatswain was the admirable figure. He +was a young Britisher, tall, upright, and weighty, +with a smiling, respectful eye in which sometimes, +I thought, there was a faint hint of mockery. He +had an easy balance and confidence in his movements +which made him worth watching when about +his business. Clean shaven when he came aboard, he +now had a tawny beard which caught gold lights, +and it was singularly good on his weather-darkened +face. He seldom wore a cap, for it could have +added little protection to the taut vigour of his hair, +and would have spoilt, as perhaps he himself +guessed, that proper flourish and climax to the poise +of his head. +</p> +<p> +Donkey was an Irishman, and he was the huge +frame of what, maybe thirty years before, had been +a powerful man. This morning his big cadaverous +face, white only on the bony ridges surrounding +the depressions of the temples, the cheeks, and the +dark pits of the eyes, and with the shadowy hollow +of the mouth which gaped through the weight of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79'></a>79</span> +massive jaw, would have resembled, from a little +distance, that of a skeleton head of one of the +monsters in a geological gallery, but for the dewlap +sustained by sinews running from his chin down his +throat. Donkey was a silent man, and never caught +your glance as you passed him, but lumbered along +with so much of the surprising celerity of a gaunt +elephant that you thought you might hear the rasp +of his loose clothes. He was a simple and docile +fellow. I never heard him speak, but he used to +come to the Chief, fill the door with his massive +front, his small eyes which expressed nothing and +were but sparks of life, looking nowhere in particular, +and make guttural sounds; and the Chief, +being used to him, understood. At sea Donkey did +his small duties like a plain but cumbersome mechanism +that had somewhere in it an obscure point +of rationality. When ashore, though, he was said +to go mad, and to roll trampling and trumpeting +through the squalid littoral of the world; being +brought aboard afterwards an enormity of lax bones +and flesh, with the cogitating glim in his bulk quite +doused. +</p> +<p> +Of the others, there was a Teutonic bunch of lads, +deckhands, which I never succeeded in segregating, +they looked so much alike. They had pimpled, +idle faces, and neutral eyes, cast down when they +sidled by one, thin down on their chins, and grimy +raiment which, by the look of it, was an integument +never cast after we left port. One name would have +covered that lot, and frequently I heard the mates +use it. But Olsen, the Norwegian with a blond +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span> +moustache which covered his mouth like a fog-protector, +and stern blue eyes, was a sailor. The firemen +made a better bunch. There was among them +a swarthy Brazilian, whose constant smile seemed +ever on the point of breaking into song, but that he +was always chewing the end of a sweat rag he wore +twisted round his neck. The happy feature of our +firemen was a Dutchman, whose hollow face was +full of silent woe and endurance. He was our chief +joy. When once we found the sun, he then appeared +in a single garment, trousers and braces cut +in one piece of brown canvas, hauled up well under +his arms, leaving his slab feet remote and forlorn. +His torso was bare, a dancing girl in red and blue +tattooed on his chest. He wore a bowler hat without +a brim. +</p> +<p> +We will get Christmas over. It was a pagan +festival. Looking back at it, I see—with the astonishment +of the sedate who is native to a geometrical +suburb where the morning train follows the night +and every numbered house shelters a moral agnostic—I +see a dancing baccanal with free gestures who +fades, as I look back intently, doubting my senses, +in a roseous haze. The lawless movements of that +wild, bright and laughing figure, its exultant blasphemy, +its confident mockery, are remembered by +me as though once I had been admitted to the green +room of heaven. Surely I have seen a god whose +deathless knowledge derides the solemn gods, behind +the curtain. It was Christmas night, and our +little “Capella,” our point of night shine, a star +moving through the void to its dark destiny, filled +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span> +the vault with its song, while its fellows in the +heavens stood round. Christmas is over. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +The day following was Sunday, a grey day of +penance, the men soberly washing their shirts in +buckets under the forecastle head, smoking moody +pipes. The garments were tied to any convenient +gear where they could hang free. The sky was +leaden. This grey day was distinguished by the +strange phenomenon of an horizon which was almost +level; the skyline and the clouds did not slant first +this way, then that. The swell had almost gone. +Already I began to feel the large patience and +tranquillity of a mind losing its shadows, and contemplating +the light and space of a long voyage in +which the same men do the same things in the same +place daily under the centre of the empty sky. +Sitting on a hatch with the Doctor, smoking, we +confessed, with ease at the heart, and with minds in +which nervous vibrations had ceased, that we must +have reached this place that was nowhere, and that +now time was not for us. We had escaped you all. +We were free. There was not anything to engage +us. There was nothing to do, and nobody who +wanted us. Never before had I felt so still and +conscious of myself. I realised, with a little start +of surprise, that it was Me who felt the warm air, +and who looked at the slow pulse of the waters, and +the fulgent breaks in the roof, and heard the droning +of the wake, and not that mere skin, eyes and +ears which, as in London, break in upon our preoccupied +minds with agitating sensations; and I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span> +took in this newly-discovered world of ocean and +cloudland and my own sure identity centred therein +with the complacency of an immortal who will see +all the things which do not matter pass away. +When we left England we were tense, and sometimes +white (though there were others who went +red) about a Great Crisis in our Country’s History. +The Doctor and I arrived on board, detached +from the opposing armies in the impending conflict, +and at first put our hands swiftly to our swords +every ten minutes or so during meals. Of that +crisis only one small gull now was left, and he was +following us astern with a melancholy cry at intervals, +of which we took no more notice. (And +that gull departed, I see by my diary, the very next +day.) +</p> +<p> +So ended the Great Crisis. I did not even note +the ship’s position at the time, though I can see now +that was a serious fault for which future historians +may blame me. I can but state vaguely that it was +about sixty miles north-west of the Fortunate Isles. +The change in the quality of the sun and air became +most marked; I remember that. The horizon expanded +to a surprising distance. According to +letters from home, sent about that date, which I +received long afterwards, I am unable to find that +similar phenomena were witnessed in England. +Probably they were but local. These manifestations +in the heavens filled the few of us privileged +to witness them with awe, and a new faith in the +power and compassion of God. Nothing further of +note occurred on this day, except that Chips, as a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span> +further miracle, suddenly was raised whole from +where he lay in his bunk with a useless leg. His +leg, you may remember, was damaged in the gale +off Cornwall. The Doctor, going his rounds, was +surprised to find Chips dancing the hoola-hoola in +the forecastle, and a stoker, with a cut eye, wailing +for a lost half bottle of gin taken from his box while +he was on duty. Thereafter Chips returned to +work, his leg becoming halt again only when he +knew we saw him stepping it too blithely. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +“<em>Decr. 27.</em> Distance run for past 24 hours to +midday 219. Total distance 1177 miles. Fine +weather. Glass rising.” +</p> +<p> +Have you ever heard of the monotony of a long +voyage? The same sky you know, the same waters, +the same deck; and now I can see it should be +added, the same old self, dismayed by the contemplation +of its features daily, week after week, +within that spacious empty hall, where is no escape +from the bright stare overhead which reveals your +baldness and blemishes without ruth. You get +found out. You want to mix with the mob again, +to get lost in the sameness of your fellows. He who +goes travelling should leave his self at home, or as +much of it as is not wanted on the voyage. It is +surprising to find how little you want of yourself. +The ideal traveller would venture out merely as a +disembodied thought, or, at most, as an eye. +</p> +<p> +A mere eye would see no monotony, for the sky +may be the same sky, but its moods are like those +of the same woman; and the ocean, though young +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span> +as the morning, is older than Asia—you never know +what to expect from that profound enigma. As for +the sunny deck, I see the Doctor sitting on a spare +spar, waiting for someone to sit beside him. The +Chief is filing a piece of small gear outside his cabin. +The Skipper is overlooking, with a hard frown, a +group of men busy repairing his chart-room, which +is just forward of the engine-room casing (I could +get a job from him at once for the asking, though I +shall not ask). The first mate is trying to be in +three places at once. The second mate patrols the +bridge. The German steward, who tells curious +stories in a Teutonised dialect of Shadwell, is hanging +mattresses and bed clothes over a boom. The +men are chipping and tarring the deck; and the +boatswain, bare-legged, wildly bearded, a sheath +knife on his hams, looks like a fine pirate brought +to menial tasks. +</p> +<p> +I have watched this day’s monotonous sky onwards +from the dawn. We are in the neighbourhood +of the Hesperides. For some early hours of +the morning it was grey. But the grey roof soon +broke with the incumbent weight of light, letting +sunshine through narrow fractures to the sea, far +out. There were partitions of thin gold in the dim +hall. The moving floor was patterned in day and +night. The low ceiling was fused where the day +poured through, became a candent vapour, volatilised. +We had over us before breakfast the ultimate +blue, where a few cirrus clouds showed its +great height. +</p> +<p> +Then it was August. The sea ran in broad heavy +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span> +mounds, blue-black and vitreous, which hardly +moved our bulk. In the afternoon, the ocean, a +short distance from the ship, grew filmed and +opaque, a milky blue shot with purple shadows. Its +surface, though heaving, was smooth and flawless. +No light entered its deeps, but the radiant heat was +mirrored on it as on the pallor of fluid lava. The +water ploughed up by the bows did not break, but +rolled over viscidly. The sun dropped behind the +sea about a point west of our course. Night was +near. Yet still the high dome with its circular floor +the sea was magically illuminated, as by the proximity +of a wonderful presence. We, solitary and privileged +in the theatre, waited expectant. The doors +of glory were somewhere ajar. The western wall +was clear, shining and empty, enclosed by a proscenium +of amber flames. In the north-east, astern +of us, were some high fair-weather clouds, like a +faint host of little cherubs, and from their superior +galleries they watched a light invisible to us; it +made their faces bright. Beneath them the glazed +sea was coral pink. Even our own prosaic iron gear +was sublimated; our ship became lustrous and +strange. We were the Argonauts, and our world +was bright with the veritable self-radiance of a +world of romance where the things that would happen +were undreamed of, and we watched for them +from our argosy’s side, calm and expectant; my +fellows were transfigured, looked huge, were rosy +and awful, immortals in that light no mortal is +given to see. +</p> +<p> +Now had been given me fellowship with the ship +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span> +and her men; we were one body. I had been absorbed +by our enterprise. For a long while our +steamer was a harsh and foreign thing to me, unfriendly +to the eye, difficult to understand. But +now she had become intelligible and proper. She +and her men were all my world, and I could find my +way about that world in the dark. Getting used to a +ship has the process of the growth of a lasting +friendship. Chance begins it. You regard your +luck askance, as you accept a new acquaintance +with no joy, to make the best of him. But presently, +to put the matter at its lowest, you arrive at an +understanding. You have learned your friend’s +worth. Familiarity would breed contempt only in +the mouse-hearted. You never have to account him +afresh, or he is no comrade; there can be no surprises +again, no encounters with a stranger in him. +His value, at the least reckoning, is that you know +his value. Any hour of the day or night you can +guess with assurance where his mind would be +found. And here my “Capella” has no strange +doors and startling declivities and traps for me any +more. I know her. She is not exactly all she should +be, but I apprehend exactly what she is. If I hurt +myself against her it is my own fault. She is as +familiar to me as home now. I should resent any +alteration. Having learned to know her faults I +like her as she is; the trestle bridge with its sagging +hand-ropes and wobbling stanchions (look out, you, +when she rolls) which crosses the main deck aft on +the port side from the amidships section, where I +live, to the poop, where the Doctor lives. The two +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span> +little streets of three doors each, to port and starboard +of her amidships, the doors that open out under +the shade of the boat deck to sea. There, amidships +also, are the Chief’s room and the galley, +the engineers’ messroom, and the engine-room entrance; +but these last do not open overside, but look +aft, from a connecting alley which runs across the +ship to join the side alleyways. Forward of these +cabins is the engine-room casing, where the ’midship +deck broadens, but is cumbered with bunker +hatches (mind your feet, at night, there); and beyond, +again, is the chart-room, and over the chart-room +the bridge and the wheelhouse, from which is +a sheer long drop to the main deck foreward. At +the finish of that deck is an iron wall, with the entrance +to the mysterious forecastle in its centre; and +over that is the uplifted head of our world watching +our course, a bleak windswept place of rails, +cable chains, and windlass. The poop has a timber +deck, and there in fine weather the deck chairs are. +The poop is a place needing exact navigation at +night. Long boxes enclosing the rudder chains are +on either side of it. In the centre is the saloon skylight, +the companion, the steward’s ice chest, and +the hand-steering gear. Also there are two boats. +I gained my night knowledge of the poop deck by +assault, and retained my gains with sticking plaster. +I am really proud of the privilege which has been +given me to roam now this rolling shadow at night, +this little dark cloud blowing between the stars and +the deep, the unseen abyss below as with its profound +reverberations, and the height above with its +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span> +scattered lights as remote as the sounds in the deeps. +With calm faith in our swaying shadow I place my +feet where nothing shows, sure that my angel will +bear me up. I put out my hands and a support +comes to them; the pitfalls have ladders for me, and +by touching at some places in the black shadow, as +by magic, a lighted and comfortable room at once +materialises for my rest in the void. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +I think I liked her better as a formless shadow +after sundown. Whether it was then a noise in my +head, my tranquil thoughts murmuring in their +sleep, or whether the sound I heard was the deep +humming of the world’s speed, I don’t know; whatever +it was, it was the only sound. Our mainmasthead +light was but a nearer star of the host. I was +not surprised to see one of the stars so close. I was +within the luminous porch of the Milky Way. +</p> +<p> +It was midnight. In that silence, where I was +alone in space, adrift on a night cloud in the constellations, +the stars were really my familiars; once, +when in London, though they had been named to +me and were constant there, they were far in the +place to which one lifts one’s eyes from the dust and +traffic, nothing to do with London and with me. +But now there was no more dust and traffic. I was +among them at last. Splendid Orion was near and +vast in his hunting. The Pleiades no longer dimmered +on the very limit of vision, but were separate +points of delicate light. The night moved with diamond +fire. +</p> +<p> +I was so far absent from the body that a human +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span> +voice beside me was like a surprising concussion +with something invisible in space. Turning, there +was the glow of Sandy’s pipe. Sandy is an elderly +man, and an engineer. He was leaning over the +rail, cooling after his watch below. The magic of +the star shine had got into his mind too. He began +with guesses about the things which are not known, +parrying doubt with, “Ah—but it’s hard to say; +there are things——”; and, “you bright young +fellers don’t know everything”; and, “somebody +told me a queer thing now.” +</p> +<p> +“There was a bright young feller, same as yourself, +and he was first mate of the ‘Abertawe,’ out +of Cardiff. Jack Driscoll was his name. It was a +funny thing happened to him. I heard about it +afterwards. +</p> +<p> +“All the girls thought Jack Driscoll was so nice. +One of the girls was his owner’s daughter, and she +was the best of the bunch, anyway, for she was an +only child, and her father would have given her the +earth. He was a good owner, was her father, as +things go in Cardiff. Do you know Cardiff? Well, +a little goes a long way on the Welsh coast. Jack +was a smart sailor, with the first chance of the next +new boat, if he watched out. I reckon Jack was a +fool. Why, he needn’t have gone to sea any more. +But what did he do? +</p> +<p> +“Jack was one of them fellers who think if they +put a gold-laced cap saucy over one ear, and laugh +with the eyes, they can whistle up a duchess. And +I daresay Jack could in summer, in his white suit, +when he’d just shaved. He was a bit of all right was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span> +Jack. He was a proper tall lad, and the way he +carried himself—It was a treat to see him move +about a ship. His black hair was like one of the big +fiddler chap’s, and his smile would take in one of +his pals. +</p> +<p> +“Well, it was happy days for Jack. He got good +things to come to him. He didn’t have to look for +’em, like me and you. He knew his work, too. He +was a good sailor. He could get off the mark, at the +first word, like a bird, and he never left a job while +there was a loose bit to it. Sometimes when there +was nothing doing it was pretty rotten, Jack would +say, to be stuck there in a Welsh tramp with a +crowd of dagoes, and drink coffee essence and condensed +milk out of a pint mug, and never go to a +music hall only once in six months. Jack reckoned +it would be fine to be brass-bound always, in one of +the liners, and have a deck like a skating rink, and +a lot of lady passengers who wanted a chap like +him to talk to them. +</p> +<p> +“He could tell stories, too, on the quiet, could +Jack. They were pretty blue, though. Sailor +stories. They were all about himself in the West +Coast ports. Do you know the Chili coast? Well, +it’s mind your eye there, and no half larks. They’re +pretty handy with knives out there. But when Jack +was out for fun you couldn’t stop him. He was +like all you young chaps. He wouldn’t listen to +sense. +</p> +<p> +“The ‘Abertawe’ went light ship to Barry, one +trip, from Buenos Aires, and Jack saw her snug, +and told all the men to be at the shipping office early +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span> +and sober in the morning, because they got in on a +Sunday, and Jack saw the old man safe on his way +to Cardiff, and then shaved, and sang while he was +shaving. He got himself up west-end style, new +yellow boots and all, and tied his red tie Spanish +fashion. And he went down the quay, looking for +anything that was about, and he felt like the best +man on the Welsh coast. +</p> +<p> +“But Barry is a dull place. Do you know Barry? +Well, it’s a one-eyed God-forsaken town, made out +of odds and ends stuck down anywhere, all new +houses, docks, coal tips, and railway sidings, and +nowhere to go. It’s best to stay aboard, in Barry. +Jack began to feel like the only bird on a mudbank. +He got out of the town, and walked along a road +till he came to an old woman sitting in the hedge, +with her back up against a telegraph post. Her +face was brown and wrinkled, and she had an orange-coloured +handkerchief round her face, and +tied under her chin. She was smoking a pipe, and +looking at her blucher boots. As Jack came along, +she said, ‘Tell your fortune, pretty gentleman?’ +Jack laughed, and told her his face was his fortune. +</p> +<p> +“‘What do you see when you look in the glass?’ +said she. +</p> +<p> +“Now that was dead easy to Jack, because he +knew as well as the girls; and he told her. There +was none of your silly modesty about Jack. Then +the old woman laughed; but I reckon Jack thought +she was only pleased with him, because he made it +a point to make the mothers and the grandmothers +smile, the same as the girls. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span> +</p> +<p> +“‘What do you see in this glass?’ said she to +Jack. She was fumbling in her dress, and hauls +out a mirror like you see in the old-fashion shops, +a mirror made of silver, and it had a frame of ebony. +She polished it on her skirt, and gave it to him, and +told him to pass a bit of silver with the other hand. +Well, Jack saw sport, and he could always pay for +that, and he did what she said. But he only saw +himself in the mirror. +</p> +<p> +“‘Hi,’ said Jack, ‘here, what’s your little game +now? None of your larks now,’ he said, ‘or I’ll ask +a policeman what he can see in this tin glass of +yours.’ +</p> +<p> +“‘You and your policeman,’ she said. ‘Look +now, my dandy boy, and see more than your +money’s worth.’ And she rubbed the glass again. +Then Jack took another look. It was a dull day, +but that mirror was bright with sunshine. There +was something funny about that mirror. He saw a +fine place in it, all cool and white and gold, like you +see out East. It was a palace, I reckon. There was +a fountain in the middle, and some girls with not a +lot on, like some of the Amsterdam postcard girls, +were lying around, just anyhow. And there was +Jack’s own self among ’em, and they were laughing +and talking to him. It was fine. Jack turned his +head, just like you would do, to see if the real place +was behind him. But, of course, there was the +funnels and topmasts of Barry, and the sky looked +like rain. I bet it gave him a shock. +</p> +<p> +“‘Now you’ve seen what’ll be your luck, honey, +if you’re not careful,’ said the old woman. ‘Mind +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span> +your eye,’ she said, ‘mind your eye, you with the +saucy face. What’s more,’ she called after him, +‘don’t you speak to the girl with the odd eyes in +Cardiff, though I know you will, and sorry you’ll +be.’ +</p> +<p> +“‘Go to the devil,’ said Jack. +</p> +<p> +“He was just like all you young chaps. Thought +she was an artful old shark who’d got his money +dead easy. That’s what you always think. If you +don’t understand anything, then there’s nothing in +it. You call in at the next pub and chatter to the +barmaid. What happened? Why, the very next +day the Skipper came back, and told him the new +boat was near ready, and the owner wanted to see +him. Jack went, and forgot about everything, except +that he was going to be the handsome boy all +right with the owner’s own daughter to look at him. +A pretty girl she was too. I saw her once, holding +up her skirts off the deck while she looked round. +The Skipper introduced me. ‘Good morning, Mr. +Brown,’ she said to me. +</p> +<p> +“Coming out of the Great Western Station at +Cardiff Jack saw a place he’d never noticed before. +It wasn’t Cardiff style. ‘It’s a new place,’ Jack +thinks to himself, ‘and a ripping good place it +looks,’ for he was thirsty, and there was plenty of +time. ‘It must have been run up since I was here +last,’ says Jack to himself, ‘though that’s queer, for +I reckon it’d take years to rig up a dandy show of +this sort.’ But in he went. +</p> +<p> +“He was surprised, when he got in, and so would +you have been. It was like the place I saw on the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span> +stage at London once. It was in Aladdin, at a +place in the Mile End Road. You know what those +things are like, when the curtain goes up. You can +see a long way, but you can’t see all the way. You +expect something to happen there. It was full of +pillars, all white and gold, in a pink light. There +was a lot of ladies and gentlemen sitting on sofas +full of cushions, talking, and they were too grand to +even notice Jack as he stood there looking round for +a chair. But it took a lot to get on Jack’s nerves. +There was one girl in a white silk dress, with red +roses in her golden belt, and she had a white hat +with red roses in that, and she looked like a summer +day. Jack was glad to see that the only vacant +chair was at a table where she sat alone. Of course, +over there goes Jack. The place was as quiet as a +church before the service begins. There was only +a faint whispering. He got to where the girl sat, +as if she was waiting for him. She looked up and +smiled at Jack. Jack sat down beside her and said +what a fine day it was. She had a face the colour +of moonlight, and her eyes were odd. But there +wasn’t a girl who could make Jack wonder if his +tie was straight, in those days, and he began to +order things, and talk. +</p> +<p> +“Once he took a look round, leaning back in his +chair, feeling pretty large, and he noticed the other +people were looking at him artful-like, out of the +corners of their eyes, as if he was talking too loud. +But Jack thought he’d jolly well talk as he liked, +and he’d got just the best girl in that room or anywhere +else. He looked at his watch. It was near +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span> +twelve o’clock. He had to be at his owner’s by one. +There was plenty of time. +</p> +<p> +“The drink had a funny taste, but it was the best +liquor he’d ever had. He marked down that place. +He didn’t know there was a show like that in Cardiff. +He caught hold of the girl’s hand, which he +noticed was white, and very cold, and pretended he +wanted to look at her ring. There was a stone in +the ring, just like a bit of soda. She asked him to +try it on his own finger, because the stone changed +colour then, but Jack couldn’t get the ring off till +he’d placed her finger to his lips, to moisten the ring. +He was the boy, was Jack, to see things didn’t +drag along. When he got the ring on his finger the +stone was full of red fire. So the time went; but +he forgot all about time, and the owner, and the +owner’s daughter, and everything. The girl’s hair +was scented, too, and it was close to him. +</p> +<p> +“Presently he looked up, and saw what he’d never +noticed before. He could see further into the building +than ever. There seemed to be a garden beyond, +full of sunshine, and all the men and women +were walking that way, talking loud, and laughing. +His own girl got up too, and said, ‘Come along, +Jack Driscoll,’ and he never even wondered how +she knew his name, nor why her face was like snow +by moonlight, nor why she smiled like that. +</p> +<p> +“No. Not Jack. All he thought was what a +ripping garden that was, with palms, and marble +courts, like you see in the East. There was music +far away, two notes and a drum, like you hear in a +native dance, before the dancers come. It made +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span> +Jack feel like a millionaire or a lord, able to do anything, +but just then only wanting a good time. +Then he noticed they were alone in the garden, +which was full of trees in blossom. All the other +people had gone. There was only that music. The +place was very quiet. He could hear water tinkling +in a fountain, and he reckoned he would stay there +till closing time. The girl talked to him in whispers, +and he put his arm around her. I don’t know how +long he stayed there, but he kept telling the girl she +was the best girl he’d ever had, and he’d never had +such a good time in his life. +</p> +<p> +“It was funny the way he got out. Jack reckoned +in there that the world would never come to an end, +like young fellers do, when they’re enjoying themselves +proper. But once he took her ring off his +finger, to have another look at it. Then he was in +the street again, looking up at a building which had +its doors shut, and Jack only thought he was looking +there for a number he wanted. +</p> +<p> +“It had started to rain. He looked at his watch. +It was just twelve o’clock. He didn’t know what +he wanted with an address in that street, so he +started off in a hurry for his owner’s house, feeling +pretty stiff, as if he’d been sleeping rough. When +he got to his owner’s house, he rang the bell. +</p> +<p> +“The owner’s daughter came to the door, and +looked at him like she didn’t know him, and was a +bit afraid of him. ‘No, thank you,’ she said kindly, +‘not to-day.’ And shut the door at once. +</p> +<p> +“What puzzled Jack was that he didn’t feel surprised +and angry. He turned and went down those +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span> +steps again, and down the street, thinking it over. +He looked back at the house. Yes, that was the +house all right. And that was Annie all right. +Well, what the devil was the matter with him? +There was a public-house at the corner, and he +stopped there, thinking things over, and staring at +the window. Then he saw his face in a mirror, +and shouted so that the barman came and ordered +him out of that, sharp now. But he kept looking +at the glass, not believing his eyes. He knew his +own face again, but only just knew it. His eyes +were dull and red and gummy, same as those old +men have who’ve lived too long, and his face was +puffed and pimpled, and he had a lousy white +beard.” +</p> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span><a name='chII' id='chII'></a>II</h2> +<p> +December 28. Lat. 39.10 N., long. 16.3 W. +Course, S.W. 1/2 west. We are nearing the tropics. +Now the ship has such a complete set of grumblers, +good fellows who know their work better than anyone +less than God, that our great distance at sea is +plain. Our men, casually gathered and speaking +divers tongues, detached from earth and set afloat +on a mobile islet to mix on it if they can, have become +one body to deal with the common enemy. +We are corporate to face each trouble as it meets +us, and free to explain afterwards how much better +we should have done under another captain. The +skipper knows this broad spirit now possesses us, +and so is contented and blithe, wearing only on deck +that weary look which is the sober badge of high +office, as though he were an unfortunate man to +have us about him, we being what we are, but that +he would do his best with the fools, seeing we are +in his charge. +</p> +<p> +This morning at six, hearing the men at the hosepipes +giving the decks their daily wash, I tumbled +out for a cold tub. This is a simple affair. You +leave the cabin with a towel about you, stand in a +clear space, and rotate before the hydrant, to general +cheering. A hot bath on the “Capella” is not so +easy, because, although there is a bath-room aboard, +it has become a paint locker. One must descend +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span> +into the engine-room, after warning the engineer on +duty, who then will have ready a barrel, filled from +the boilers. The ingenious man will fix a shower +bath also. This is a perforated meat tin, hanging +from a grating above the tub, and connected with a +pump. After a hot bath in the engine-room, where +the temperature was often well over 120°, that +shower of cold sea water would strike loud cries +from any man whose self-control was uncertain. +</p> +<p> +This morning was the right prelude to the tropics. +This was the morning when, if our planet had been +till then untenanted, a world unconsummated and +waiting approval, the divine approval would have +come, and a child would have been born, an immortal, +the offspring of Aurora and the Sea God, +flame-haired and lusty, with eyes as bright as joy, +and a rosy body to be kissed from toes to crown. +The dancing light, and the warm shower suddenly +born alive in it from one ripe cloud, the golden air, +the waves of the north-east trades, the seas of the +world in the first dawn, moving along like a multitude +released to play, their blue passionate and profound, +their crests innocent and dazzling, made me +think I might hear faint cheering, if I listened intently. +In the west was a steep range of cloudland +rising from the sea, and against it was inclined the +flame of a rainbow. There was that rainbow, as +constant as the pennant hoisted over an uplighted +occasion. The world’s noble emblem was aloft. I +demanded of the Skipper if he would run up our +ensign in reply to it; but he only peered at me +curiously. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100'></a>100</span> +</p> +<p> +The heat increased with the day. We had run +well down from the bleak apex of the world with its +nimbus of fogs. Here was the entrance to the place +where our youthful dreams began. I recognised it. +Every feature was as we both have seen it from +afar, across the roofs from our outlook in the arid +city when the path to it had appeared as hopeless +to our feet as the path to the moon. This pioneer +can assure his fellows whose bright illusions grow +fainter with age that their dreams must be followed +up, to be reached. +</p> +<p> +At midday we began to cast clothes. As to the +afternoon, of that I remember the less. There was +the chief’s empty bunk, so much more alluring than +my own. Into that I climbed, my mind steeled +against drowsy weakness. I would digest my dinner +with a book, eyes sternly alert. +</p> +<p> +The “Capella” rocked slowly, a big cradle. My +body was lax and responsive. There was about us +the silent emptiness which is far from the centres +where many men believe it is necessary to get lots of +things done. The Chief suspired on his settee. The +waves were singing to themselves. A ray of light +laughed in my eyes, playing hide and seek across +the wisdom of my book.... I put the book down. +</p> +<p> +As you know, where I had come from we do not +dare to sleep during daylight without first arguing +with the conscience, which usually we fail to convince. +This comes of our mental trick which takes a +pleasure we wholly desire and puts on it a prohibitive +label. Self-indulgence, you understand; softening +of the character; courage, brothers, do not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span> +stumble. The solemn forefinger wags gravely in +our faces. Before I fell asleep, my habit, born of +the hard grey weather which makes an Englishman +hard and prosperous, did come with its admonitory +forefinger. Remembering that I was secure in a +sunnier world I cried out with ribald mockery +across the abyss I had safely crossed, knowing my +old self could not follow, and shut my eyes happily. +And also, let me say—sitting up again with an +urgent afterthought, which I must get rid of before +I sleep—if this were not a plain narrative of +travel without any wise asides I would get off the +“Capella” here to argue that what all you fellows +want in the place I have luckily left is not more +self-restraint, in which wan virtue you have long +shown yourselves to be so proficient that our awards +for your merit have overcrowded the workhouses, +but more rollicking self-indulgence and a ruddy +and bright eyed insistence on the means to it. Look +at me now in this bunk! Not since I was last in a +cradle have I felt the world would buoy me up if I +dared to shut my eyes to affairs while the sun was +shining. But I am going to try it again now, and +risk my future. I repeat, I would argue this with +you, only I want to sleep.... +</p> +<p> +It is worth recording that when I awoke I found +nothing had happened to me, except benefit. The +venture can be made safely. Others had kept the +course for me. The ship had not stopped. Through +the door I could see a half-naked, blackened, and +sweating stoker, who had been keeping the fires +while I slept, and he was getting back his breath +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span> +in loud sobs. Something had made him sick. These +stupid and dirty men will drink too much while they +are attending to the furnaces. They have been +warned of the danger, of which they take no heed, +and so they have to suffer. On the poop was the +second officer, busy in the hot sun with a gang, overhauling +a boat. And I found, on enquiry, that a +man was still at the wheel. So thereafter, while in +the land of the constant sun, I slept every afternoon, +and was never a penny the worse. Somehow, +you know, things went on. I think I shall become +one of the intelligent leisured class. +</p> +<p> +It was within an hour of midnight. The moon +had set. I was idling amidships about the ship’s +shadowy structure when I was asked to take charge +of the bridge till eight bells. The second mate was +ill, and the first mate was asleep through overwork. +The skipper said he would not keep me up there +long. I had but to call if a light came into view, +and to keep an eye on the wheelhouse. Ah, but it +is long since I played at ships, and was a pirate +captain. I remembered there are dull folk who +wonder what it feels like to be a king. The king +does not know. Ask the small boy who is surprised +with an order to hold a horse’s head. I took my +promotion, mounting the steep ladder to the open +height in the night. +</p> +<p> +I felt then I was more than sundered from my +kind. I had been taken and placed remotely from +the comfort of the “Capella’s” isolated community +also. There was me, and there were the stars. They +were my nearest neighbours. I stood for you among +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span> +them alone. When the last man hears but does not +see the deep waters of this dark sphere in that night +to which there shall be no morning sun, he shall +know what was my sensation aloft in the saddle +of the “Capella”; the only inhabitant of a congealed +asteroid off the main track in space, with the sun +diminished to a point through travel, and the Milky +Way not reached yet; though I could see we were +approaching its bay of light. An appreciable journey +had been made. But by the faintness of its +shine there was a timeless vacancy to be travelled +still. We should make that faint glow, that congregation +of suns, that archipelago of worlds; +though not yet. But had we not all the night to +travel in? The night would be long. We should +not be disrupted any more by the old day. The final +morning had passed. I had no doubt the drift of +the dark lump to which I clung in space, while my +hair streamed with our speed, would at length reach +the bright fraternity, no more than a dimmer of +removed promise though it seemed. +</p> +<p> +A bell rang beside me in the night. It was answered +at once from somewhere ahead. Others, +then, were journeying with me. The void was +peopled, though the travellers were all invisible; +and I heard a confident voice call, “Lights are +burning bright.” The lights were. I could see that. +But when the profundities are about you, and you +think you are alone in outer night, that is the kind +of word to hear. Joyously I shouted into what +seemed to be boundless nothing, “All Right!” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span></div> +<p> +One dayfall we saw the Canary Islands a great +distance on the port beam. I do not know which +day it was. The Hesperides were as blurred as the +place in the calendar. The days had run together +into a measureless sense of well-being. We had +passed the last of the trivial allotments of time. +The islands loomed, and I wondered whether that +land was the hint of something in a past life which +the memory saw but could not shape. Whatever +was there it was too long forgotten. That apparition +which a whisper told me was land faded as I +gazed at it overseas, lazily trying to remember what +it once meant. It was gone again. It was no matter +now. Perhaps I was deceiving myself. Perhaps +I had had no other life. This “Capella,” always +under the height of a blue dome, always the +centre of a circular floor of waters, waters to be +seen beating against the steep and luminous walls +encompassing us, though nowhere finding an outlet, +was all my experience. I could recall only the +faintest shadows of a past into that limpid present. +I could see nothing clearly that was not confined +within the dark faultless line where the sky was inseparably +annealed to the sea. Here I had been +always. All I knew was this length of sheltered +deck, and those doors behind me where I leaned on +a rail between the stanchions, doors which sheltered +a few familiars with their clothes on hooks, their +pipe racks, and photographs of women, a length of +deck finishing on either hand in two iron ladders, +the ladder forward, just past the radiation and coal +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span> +grit by the engine-room casing, descending to a +broad walk which led to the forecastle head, that +bare outlook always at a difference with the horizon; +and the ladder aft going down to another +broad walk, sticky with new tar, where the bulwarks +were as high as the breast, and Tinker, the dog, glad +of a word from you, trotted about the rusty winches +and around the hatches; and that walk aft finished +in the door of the alleyway opening upon the +asylum of the doctor’s cabin, and the saloon, the +skipper’s sanctum, and the domain of the friendly +steward. There was the smell of the cargo drawing +from the ventilators on the deck, when you went +by their trumpet mouths. There was the warm +oily gush of air from the engine-room entrance. +And in the saloon alleyway I used to think the +store of potatoes, right behind, was generating +gases. (But nobody knows every origin of the +marine smells.) Well, here were all the things my +senses apprehended. I could walk round my universe +in five minutes. And when I had finished I +could do it again. Here I had been always. Nothing +could be clearer than that. Looking out from +my immediate circumstances I saw no entrance +to the place where we were rocking, the place where +the “Capella” was alone. The walls of the enclosure +were flawless. There was not a door through them +anywhere. There was not a rift in the precision of +the dark circle about us where one could crawl out +between the sky and the sea. +</p> +<p> +There we indubitably were though, and I dwelt +constantly on the miracle of that lucky existence. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span> +I could not doubt that we were there. Yet how had +we got there? I leave that to the metaphysicians. +There we were; and no man who merely trusted his +experience could explain our presence. There was +some evidence to my simple mind that such a life +in such surroundings perchance was the gift of the +gods, and that we could never get any nearer the +limits of the world in which we had been placed +to see what was beyond, could never approach that +enclosure of blue walls where the distant waves, +which beat against them, could not get out. Morning +after morning I watched them, the dark leaping +shapes of the far rebels, mounting their prison at +its base, and collapsing, beaten. +</p> +<p> +The seas never changed. They followed us and +the wind, a living host, the blue of their slopes and +hollows as deep as ecstasy, their crests white and +lambent. They were buoyant, they were leisurely, +they were the right companions of travel. They +just kept pace with us. They ran after us like +happy children, as though they had been lagging. +They came abeam to turn up to us their shining +faces, calling to us musically, then dropping behind +again in silence. When I looked overside into the +pellucid depths, peering below the surface in long +forgetfulness, leaving the body and gliding the +mind in that palpable and hyacinthine air beneath +us where the sunken foam dimmered in pale clouds, +I felt myself not afloat but hovering in the midst of +a hollow sphere filled with light. The blue water +was only a heavier and a darker air. I had no +weight there. I was only a quiet thought tinctured +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span> +with the royal colour of the space wherein I drifted. +</p> +<p> +The upper half of the sphere was blue also, but of +a different blue. The rarer and more volatile ether +was above us. The sea was its essence and precipitate. +The sea colour was profound and satisfying; +but the colour of the sky was diffused, as though +the heaven were an idea which was beyond you, +which you stood regarding, and azure were it symbol, +and that by concentration you might fathom +its meaning. But I can report no luck from my +concentrated efforts on that symbol. The colour +may have been its own reward. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +Every morning after breakfast the Skipper and +the Doctor made a visit to the forecastle. Then, +after the Doctor had carefully searched his dress +for insects, we spent the day together. We mounted +the forecastle to begin with, watching the acre of +dazzling foam which the “Capella’s” bows broke +around us. Out of that the flying fish would get up, +just under us, to go skimming off, flights of silver +locusts. This reminded the surgeon that we might +try for albacore and bonito, which would be a +change from tinned mutton. The Skipper found a +long fir pole, to which was attached sixty fathoms +of line, with a large hook which we covered with a +white rag, lapping a cutting of tin round the shank. +When this object was dropped over the stern in its +leaps from wave to wave it bore a distant resemblance +to a flying fish. The weight of the trailing +line, breaking a cord “tell-tale,” frequently gave us +false alarms and long tiring hauls. But on the second +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span> +day the scaffold pole vibrated to some purpose, +and we knew we were hauling in more than the bait. +We got aboard a coryphene, the dolphin of the +sailors. It gave us in its death agony the famous +display, beautiful, but rather painful to watch, for +the wonderful hues, as they changed, stayed in the +eye, and sent to the mind only a message of a creature +in a violent death struggle. +</p> +<p> +The contours of this predatory fish express extraordinary +speed and power, and its armed mouth +has been upturned by Providence the better to +catch the flying fish as they drop back to sea after +an effort to escape from it. But Providence, or +evolution, had never taught the coryphene that +there are times when the little flying fish, as it falls +back exhausted, may be a rag of white shirt and a +scrap of bright tin ware with a large hook in its deceptive +little belly. So there the dolphin was, glowing +and fading with the hues of faery. Its life really +illuminating it from within. As its life ebbed, or +strove convulsively, its colours waned and pulsed. +It was gold when it came on board, and darkened to +ultramarine as it thrashed the deck, and its broad +dorsal fin showed violet eyes. Its body changed to +a pale metallic green; and then its light went out. +</p> +<p> +Now as I look back upon the “Capella” and her +company as they were in that period of our adventure +when our place was but somewhere in mid-ocean +between Senegambia and Trinidad, I see us +but indifferently, for we are mellowed in that haze +in which retrospection just discerns those affairs, +long since accomplished, that were not altogether +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span> +wearisome. It is better to go to my log again, for +there the matter was noted by the stub of a pencil +at the very time, and when, unless a beautiful mist +was seen, it had not the remotest chance of being +recorded. When I turn to the diary for further +evidence of those days of blue and gold in the north-east +trades its faithfulness is seen at once. +</p> +<p> +“<em>30 Decr.</em> A grey day. The sun fitful. Wind +and seas on the port quarter, and the large following +billows occasionally lopping inboard as she +rolled. The decks therefore are sloppy again. We +had a sharp reminder at six bells that we are not +bound to any health resort, as Sandy put it. We +were told to go aft, where the doctor would give +each of us five grains of quinine. This is to be a +daily rite. To encourage the men to take the quinine +it is to be given to them in gin. Being foreigners, +they did not understand the advice about the +quinine, but they caught the word gin quite well, +and they were outside the saloon alleyway, a smiling +queue, at the stroke of eleven. I went along to +see the harsh truth dawn on them. The first man +was a big German deckhand. He took the glass +from the doctor. His shy and puzzled smile at this +unexpected charity from the skipper dissolved instantly +when the quinine got behind it. His eyes +opened and stared at nothing. To the surprise of +his fellows he turned violently to the ship’s side, +rested his hands on it, and spat; spat carefully, continuously +and with grave deliberation. +</p> +<p> +“Distance run since noon yesterday 230 miles. +Actual knots 9,5. Total distance 2072 miles. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span> +There was not a living thing in sight to-day; not +even a flying fish. +</p> +<p> +“The night is fine and starlit, the Milky Way a +brilliant arch from east to west, under which we +are steaming. When Venus rose she was a tiny +moon, so refulgent that she gave a faint pallor to a +large area of sky, outlined the coast of a cloud, and +made a broad shining path on the sea. The moon +rose after nine, veiled in filmy air, peeping motionless +at the edge of a black curtain. +</p> +<p> +“The moon later was quite obscured, and the +steamer ceased to exist except where in my heated +cabin the smoky oil lamp showed me my dismal +cubicle. I went in and sat on the mate’s sea chest. +The mate was on duty. On the washstand was +his mug of cocoa, and on top of the mug two thick +sandwiches of bread and meat. That food was black +with cockroaches. The oil lamp stank but gave +little light. The engines were throbbing, and out of +the open door I saw the gleam of the wash, and +heard its harassing note. I could not read. I +loathed the idea of getting into the hot bunk and +lying there, stewing, a clear keen, clangour of +thoughts making sleep impossible. The mate appeared, +drove off the cockroaches cheerfully, examined +the sandwiches for inconspicuous deer, +opening each to make sure, and then muffled himself +with one. My God! I could have killed him with +these two hands. What right had he to be cheerful? +But he is such a ginger-headed boy, and to break +that unconsciously happy smile of his would be sacrilege. +Besides, he began to tell me about his sweetheart. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span> +Her portrait hangs in our cabin. It is an +enlargement. You pay for the frame, and the +photographer, overjoyed I suppose, gives you the +enlargement. I prefer the second engineer’s sweet-hearts, +who are in colours, and are Dutch picture +postcards and cuttings from French comic papers; +and he calls them his recollections of Sundays at +home. I listened, patient and kind, to the second +mate’s reminiscences of rapturous evening walks +under the lamps of Swansea with this girl in the +picture—no doubt it eased his heart to tell me—till I +could have howled aloud, like the dog who hears +music at night. Then I broke away, and ran to the +chief’s cabin for sanctuary. +</p> +<p> +“The Chief was making an abstract, and was +searching through his log for ten tons of coal which +were missing. In the hunt for the lost coal I lost +myself. I grew excited wherever a thick bush of +figures promised the hidden quarry; and in an +hour’s search found the strayed tons in hiding at +the bottom of a column. They had been left there, +and not transported into the next. Again the dread +of that bunk had to be faced and dealt with. I +stood at the chief’s door, knocking out my pipe, +looking astern into the night, looking to where +Ursa-Major, our celestial familiar of home, was low +down and preparing to leave us altogether to the +strange and perhaps unlucky gods of other skies. +O the nights at sea! +</p> +<p> +“<em>31 Decr.</em> Wakened with my heart jumping +because of a devastating sound without. In the +early morning, Tinker was being thrashed by the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span> +Old Man for eating the saloon mats. When at +11.30 the men congregated amidships with their tins +for dinner the sun was a near furnace and the +breeze a balm. The white of the ship is now a glare, +and the sea foam cannot be looked at. Donkey +lumbered out of his place where he attends to the +minor boiler, his face the colour of putty, and held +to a rail, gazing out with dead eyes overside, gasping. +He declared he couldn’t stick his job. The +flying fish are getting up in flights all day long. I +saw one fish go a distance of about fifty yards in a +semi-circle, making a bight in the direction of the +wind. We caught another large coryphene to-day, +and had him in steaks for tea. He was much better +cooked than the last, which had the texture of white +wool; and to increase our happiness the cook had +not given us sour bread. At midday we were 17.22 +N. and 33.27 W. +</p> +<p> +“I had a lonely evening with the chief. This is +New Year’s eve. We talked of the East India +Dock Road, and of much else in London Town. At +eight bells, when we held up our glasses in the direction +of Polaris, the moon was bright and the waters +hushed. Then we took each a hurricane lamp, and +went about the decks collecting flying fish for +breakfast, finding a dozen of them. +</p> +<p> +“<em>1 Jan.</em> The uplifted splendour of these days persists; +but the splendour sags now a little at midday +with the weight of the heat. The poop deck +is now sheltered with an awning; and lying there in +lazy chairs, with a wind following and barely overtaking +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span> +us, idly watching the shadows of the overhead +gear move on the bright awning as the ship +rolls, is to get caught in the toils of the droning +wake, and to sleep before you know you are a prisoner. +The wake itself, in these seas, when the sun +is on it, a broad road going home straight and white +over the hills, the road which is not for us, is one of +the good things of the voyage. Straight beneath +the rail the wake is an upheaval of gems, sapphires, +emeralds, and diamonds, always instantly melting +in the sun, always fusing and fleeting in swift coils +of malachite and chrysoprase, but never gone. As +you watch that coloured turmoil it draws your mind +from your body. You feel your careless gaze +snatched in the revolving hues speeding astern, and +your consciousness is instantly unwound from your +spinning brain, and you are left standing on the +ship, an empty spool. +</p> +<p> +“Under the awning at night, to the Doctor and +to me, the first mate played his accordion. He is a +little Welshman, this mate, with a childish nose and +a brutish moustache, and in his face is blended a +girlish innocence of large affairs, and the hirsute +nature of the adult male animal, a nature he relieves +on the “Capella” with bawdy talk and guffaws. +He played ‘Come, Birdie, Come,’ and things like +that, and then told us some Monte Videan stories. +As they were true stories about himself and other +young sailors they ought really to be included in a +faithful diary of a sea voyage, yet as I cannot reproduce +the Doctor’s antiseptic judgment, of which +I know nothing but the glow of his pipe in the unresponding +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span> +dark at the end of the stories—the last +titter of the mate had died away—it is better to +leave this matter alone. +</p> +<p> +“<em>3 Jan.</em> The hottest day we have had. I +descended at midday to the engines to see Sandy +at work with his shining giants. Standing on the +middle platform, while he was shouting his greetings +to me over the uproar, I felt the heat of the +grating through my boot soles, and shifted. The +temperature there was 122°. Sandy was but in his +drawers and a pair of old boots, and the tongues of +the boots, properly, were hanging out. His noble +torso was glistening with moisture, and as I talked, +energetically vaulting my words above the roar of +the crank throws in that hot and oleaginous place, +the perspiration began a sudden drop from my own +face and hands, and in a copious way which startled +me. For a time I had some difficulty in breathing, +as though in a vacuum, but gradually forgot this +danger of suffocation in the love of the artist Sandy +showed while offering me the spectacle of ‘his job.’ +I think I understood him. At first one would see +no order in that haze of rioting steel. The massive +metal waves of the shaft were walloping and plunging +in their pits with an astonishing bird-like +alacrity; about fifteen tons of polished steel were +moving with swift and somewhat awful desperation. +The big room shook and hummed with the vigour of +it. But order came as Sandy talked, and presently +I found the continuous thunder, that deadening +bass of the crank throws, seemed to lessen as we +conversed, sitting together on a tool chest. Our +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span> +voices easily penetrated it. And listening more attentively +at length I found what Sandy said was +true, that each tossing and circling part of the +room-full could be heard contributing its strident +or profound note to the chorus, and each became +constant and expected, a singing personality which +was heard through the others whenever listened for. +Above all, at regular intervals, a rod rang clear, like +the bell in Parsifal; yet, curiously enough, Sandy +declared he could not catch that note, though it +tolled clear and resonant enough in my ears. The +skylight was so far above us that we got little daylight. +Hanging from the gratings in a few places, +some black iron pots, shaped like kettles, had cotton +rags in their spouts, and were giving us oil flares +instead. The terrific unremitting energy of the +ponderous arms, moving thunderously, and still +with a speed which made tons as aery as flashes of +light; and Sandy in the midst of it, quick in nothing +but his eyes, moving about his raging but +tethered monsters cock-sure and casual, rubbing +his hands on a pull of cotton waste, putting his ear +down to listen attentively at a bearing, his face +turned from a steel fist which flung violently at his +head, missed him, and withdrew to shoot at him +again, gave me the first distinct feeling that our +enterprise had its purpose powerfully energised +and cunningly directed. I felt as I watched the +dance of the eccentrics and the connecting rods that +our ship was getting along famously. I think I +detected in Sandy himself a faint contempt for the +chap at the upper end of the telegraph. I stayed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span> +two hours, and then my shirt was as though I had +been overboard; and ascending a greasy and almost +perpendicular series of ladders to the upper world, +I discovered, from the drag of my feet and the +weight of my body, that I had had just as much of +an engineer’s watch in the tropics as I could stand. +There was a burst of cool light. The tumult ceased; +and again there was the old “Capella” rocking in +the singing seas, for ever under the tranquil clouds. +We had stopped again. +</p> +<p> +“<em>4 Jan.</em> A moderate north-east wind and sea, +and a bright morning; but far out a dark cloud +formed, and drew, and driving towards us, covered +us presently with a blue-black canopy. The warm +torrent fell with outrageous violence, and for all we +could see of our way the “Capella” might have been +in a dense fog. The mosquito curtains were served +out to-day, and we amused ourselves draping our +bunks. Later, the weather cleared. The night +was stiflingly hot; and in that reeking bunk, with +an iron bulkhead separating me from the engine +room, it was like lying on the shelf of an oven. +Though wide open on its catch, the door admitted +no air, but did allow a miserable tap-tapping as the +ship rolled. At eleven o’clock a pale face floated in +the black vacancy of the door, and I could see the +Doctor peering in to find if I were awake. ‘I say, +Purser, I can’t sleep. Will you come and have a +gossip, old dear?’ We went aft in our pyjamas, +the Doctor cleared away bottles and things from +his settee, and we disembarked from the ‘Capella,’ +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span> +visiting other and distant stars, returning to our +own again not before three next morning. +</p> +<p> +“<em>5 Jan.</em> We seem to have got to a dead end of +the trade winds. The heat of the forenoon was +oppressively humid and dinner was nearly lost +through it. The cook, a fair and plump Dutchman, +broke down in the midst of his pans, and was carried +out to find his breath again. This poor chef is +up at four o’clock every morning coffee making; +is working in the galley, which is badly ventilated, +all day, getting two hours’ rest in the early afternoon. +Then he goes on till the saloon tea is over; +when he begins to bake bread. He fills in his leisure +in peeling potatoes. +</p> +<p> +“All round the horizon motionless and permanent +storm clouds are banked. Their forms do not +alter, but their colours change with the hours. They +seem to encompass us in a circular lake, a range of +precipitous and intricately piled Alps, high and +massive. Cleaving those steeps of calamitous rocks—for +so they looked, and not in the least like vapour—are +chasms full of night, and the upper slopes and +summits are lucent in amber and pearl. In the +south and east the ranges are indigo dark and +threatening, and the water between us and that +closed country is opaque and heavy as molten lead. +Across the peaks of the mountains rest horizontal +strata of mist. Some petrels were about to-day. +The evening is cool, with a slight head breeze.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +After weeks at sea, imprisoned within the walls +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span> +of the sky, walls which have not opened once to +admit another vessel to give the assurance of communion, +you begin to doubt your direction and +destination, and the possibility of change. Only +the clouds change. The ship is no nearer breaking +that rigid circle. She cannot escape from her place +under the centre of the dome. The most cheering +assurance I had was the pulse of the steamer, felt +whenever I rested against her warm body. Purposeful +life was there, at least. Though the day +may have been brazen, and without a hint of progress, +and the sea the same empty wilderness, yet +when most disheartened in the blind and melancholy +night I felt under me the beatings, energetic +and insistent, of her lively heart, some of that vitality +was communicated, and I got sleep as a child +would in the arms of a strong and wakeful guardian. +</p> +<p> +Poised between two profundities—though nearer +the clouds, cirrus and lofty though they are, than +the land straight beneath the keel—and with morning +and night the only variety in the round, the +days flicker by white and black like a magic lantern +working without a story. Tired of watching +for the fruits of our enterprise I went to sleep. Old +Captain Morgan must have lived a dull life, monotonous +with adventure. What is the use of travel, I +asked myself. The stars are as near to London as +they are to the Spanish main. In their planetary +journey through the void the passengers at Peckham +see as much as their fellows who peer through +the windows in Macassar. The sun rises in the east, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span> +and the moon is horned; but some of the passengers +on the mudball, strangely enough, take their tea +without milk. Yet what of that? +</p> +<p> +In the chart room some days ago I learned we +had 3000 fathoms under us. Well; these waves of +the tropics, curling over such abysmal deeps, look +much the same as the waves off Land’s End. I +began to see what I had done. I had changed the +murk of winter in London for the discomforts of +the dog days. I had come thousands of miles to +see the thermometer rise. Where are the Spanish +Main, the Guianas, and the Brazils? At last I had +discovered them. I found their true bearings. +They are in Raleigh’s “Golden City of Manoa,” in +Burney’s “Buccaneers of America,” with Drake, +Humboldt, Bates, and Wallace; and I had left +them all at home. We borrow the light of an observant +and imaginative traveller, and see the foreign +land bright with his aura; and we think it is +the country which shines. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +At eight this morning we crossed the equator. +I paid my footing in whisky, and forgot all about +the equator. Soon after that, idling under the poop +awning, I picked up the Doctor’s book from his +vacant chair. I took the essays of Emerson carelessly +and read at once—the sage plainly had laid a +trap for me—“Why covet a knowledge of new +facts? Day and night, a house and garden, a few +books, a few actions, serve as well as all trades and +spectacles.” So——. At this moment the first mate +crossed my light, and presently I heard the sounding +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span> +machine whirring, and then stop. There was a +pause, and then the mate’s unimportant voice, +“Twenty-five fathoms, sir, grey sand!” +</p> +<p> +Emerson went sprawling. I stood up. Twenty-five +fathoms! Then that grey sand stuck to the +tallow of the weight was the first of the Brazils. +The circle of waters was still complete about us, +but over the bows, at a great distance, were thunder +clouds and wild lights. The oceanic swell had decreased +to a languid and glassy beat, and the water +had become jade green in colour, shot with turquoise +gleams. The Skipper, himself interested +and almost jolly, announced a pound of tobacco to +the first man who spied the coast. We were nearing +it at last. Those far clouds canopied the forests +of the Amazon. We stood in at slow speed. +</p> +<p> +I know those forests. I mean I have often navigated +their obscure waterways, rafting through the +wilds on a map, in my slippers, at night. Now those +forests soon were to loom on a veritable skyline. +I should see them where they stood, their roots in +the unfrequented floods. I should see Santa Maria +de Belem, its aerial foliage over its shipping and +squalor. It was quite near now. I should see +Santarem and Obydos, and Itacoatiara; and then, +turning from the King of Rivers to his tributary, +the Madeira, follow the Madeira to the San Antonio +falls in the heart of the South American continent. +We drew over 23 feet, with this “Capella.” +We were going to try what had never been attempted +before by an ocean steamer. This, too, +was pioneering. I also was on an adventure, going +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span> +two thousand miles under those clouds of the equatorial +rains, to live for a while in the forests of the +Orellana. And our vessel’s rigging, so they tell +me, sometimes shall drag the foliage in showers on +our decks, and where we anchor at night the creatures +of the jungle will call. +</p> +<p> +Our nearness to land stirs up some old dreads in +our minds also. We discuss those dreads again, +though with more concern than we did at Swansea. +Over the bows is now the prelude. We have heard +many unsettling legends of yellow fever, malaria, +blackwater fever, dysentery, and beri-beri. The +mates, looking for land, swear they were fools to +come a voyage like this. They ought to have known +better. The Doctor, who does not always smile +when he is amused, advises us not to buy a white +sun umbrella at Para, but a black one; then it will +do for the funerals. +</p> +<p> +“Land O!” That was the Skipper’s own perfunctory +cry. He had saved his pound of tobacco. +</p> +<p> +It was two in the afternoon. There was America. +I rediscovered it with some difficulty. All I could +see was a mere local thickening of the horizon, as +though the pen which drew the faint line dividing +the world ahead into an upper and a nether opalescence +had run a little freely at one point. That +thickening of the horizon was the island of Monjui. +Soon, though, there was a palpable something +athwart our course. The skyline heightened into a +bluish barrier, which, as we approached still nearer, +broke into sections. The chart showed that a series +of low wooded islands skirted the mainland. Yet +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span> +it was hard to believe we were approaching land +again. What showed as land was of too unsubstantial +a quality, too thin and broken a rind on that +vast area of water to be of any use as a foothold. +Where luminous sky was behind an island groups +of diminutive palms showed, as tiny and distinct as +the forms of mildew under a magnifying glass, +delicate black pencillings along the foot of the sky-wall. +Often that hairlike tracery seemed to rest +upon the sea. The “Capella” continued to stand +in, till America was more than a frail and tinted +illusion which sometimes faded the more the eye +sought it. Presently it cast reflections. The islands +grew into cobalt layers, with vistas of silver water +between them, giving them body. The course was +changed to west, and we cruised along for Atalaia +point, towards the pilot station. Over the thin and +futile rind of land which topped the sea—it might +have undulated on the low swell—ponderous thunder +clouds towered, continents of night in the sky, +with translucent areas dividing them which were +strangely illuminated from the hither side. Curtains +as black as bitumen draped to the waters from +great heights. Two of these appalling curtains, +trailing over America, were a little withdrawn. We +could look beyond them to a diminishing array of +glowing cloud summits, as if we saw there an accidental +revelation of a secret and wonderful region +with a sun of its own. And all, gigantic clouds, the +sea, the far and frail coast, were serene and still. +The air had ceased to breathe. I thought this new +lucent world we had found might prove but a lucky +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span> +dream after all, to be seen but not to be entered, +and that some noise would presently shatter it and +wake me. But we came alongside the white pilot +schooner, and the pilot put off in a boat manned +by such a crowd of grinning, ragged, and cinnamon +skinned pirates as would have broken the fragile +wonder of any spell. Ours, though, did not break, +and I was able to believe we had arrived. At sunset +the great clouds were full of explosions of electric +fire, and there were momentary revelations +above us of huge impending shapes. We went +slowly over a lower world obscurely lighted by +phosphorescent waves. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +It was not easy to make out, before sunrise, what +it was we had come to. I saw a phantom and indeterminate +country; but as though we guessed it +was suspicious and observant, and its stillness a +device, we moved forward slowly and noiselessly, +as a thief at an entrance. Low level cliffs were near +to either beam. The cliffs might have been the +dense residuum of the night. The night had been +precipitated from the sky, which was clearing and +brightening. Our steamer was between banks of +these iron shades. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly the sunrise ran a long band of glowing +saffron over the shadow to port, and the vague +summit became remarkable with a parapet of black +filigree, crowns and fronds of palms and strange +trees showing in rigid patterns of ebony. A faint +air then moved from off shore as though under the +impulse of the pouring light. It was heated and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span> +humid, and bore a curious odour, at once foreign +and familiar, the smell of damp earth, but not of +the earth I knew, and of vegetation, but of vegetation +exotic and wild. For a time it puzzled me that +I knew the smell; and then I remembered where we +had met before. It was in the palm house at Kew +Gardens. At Kew that odour once made a deeper +impression on me than the extraordinary vegetation +itself, for as a boy I thought that I inhaled the very +spirit of the tropics of which it was born. After the +first minute on the Para River that smell went, and +I never noticed it again. +</p> +<p> +Full day came quickly to show me the reality of +one of my early visions, and I suppose I may not +expect many more such minutes as I spent when +watching from the “Capella’s” bridge the forest +of the Amazon take shape. It was soon over. The +morning light brimmed at the forest top, and spilled +into the river. The channel filled with sunshine. +There it was then. In the northern cliff I could +see even the boughs and trunks; they were veins of +silver in a mass of solid chrysolite. This forest had +not the rounded and dull verdure of our own woods +in midsummer, with deep bays of shadow. It was +a sheer front, uniform, shadowless, and astonishingly +vivid. I thought then the appearance of the +forest was but a local feature, and so gazed at it for +what it would show me next. It had nothing else to +show me. Clumps of palms threw their fronds +above the forest roof in some places, or a giant +exogen raised a dome; but that was all. Those +strong characters in the growth were seen only in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span> +passing. They did not change the outlook ahead +of converging lines of level green heights rising +directly from a brownish flood. +</p> +<p> +Occasionally the river narrowed, or we passed +close to one wall, and then we could see the texture +of the forest surface, the microstructure of the cliff, +though we could never look into it for more than a +few yards, except where, in some places, habitations +were thrust into the base of the woods, as in lower +caverns. An exuberant wealth of forms built up +that forest which was so featureless from a little +distance. The numerous palms gave grace and life +to the façade, for their plumes flung in noble arcs +from tall and slender columns, or sprayed directly +from the ground in emerald fountains. The rest +was inextricable confusion. Vines looped across +the front of green, binding the forest with cordage, +and the roots of epiphytes dropped from upper +boughs, like hanks of twine. +</p> +<p> +In some places the river widened into lagoons, +and we seemed to be in a maze of islands. Canoes +shot across the waterways, and river schooners, +shaped very like junks, with high poops and blue +and red sails, were diminished beneath the verdure, +betraying the great height of the woods. Because +of its longitudinal extension, fining down to a point +in the distance, the elevation of the forest, when +uncontrasted, looked much less than it really was. +The scene was so luminous, still, and voiceless, it +was so like a radiant mirage, or a vivid remembrance +of an emotional dream got from books read +and read again, that only the unquestionable verity +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span> +of our iron steamer, present with her smoke and +prosaic gear, convinced me that what was outside +us was there. Across a hatch a large butterfly +hovered and flickered like a flame. Dragon flies +were suspended invisibly over our awning, jewels +in shimmering enamels. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +We anchored just before breakfast, and a small +launch flying a large Brazilian flag was soon fussing +at our gangway. The Brazilian customs men +boarded us, and the official who was left in charge +to overlook the “Capella” while we remained was +a tall and majestic Latin with dark eyes of such +nobility and brooding melancholy that it never +occurred to me that our doctor, who has travelled +much, was other than a fellow with a dull Anglo-Saxon +mind when he removed some loose property +to his cabin and locked his door, before he went +ashore. So I left my field glasses on the ice-chest; +and that was the last I saw of them. Yet that +fellow had such lovely hair, as the ladies would say, +and his smile and his courtesy were fit for kings. He +carried a scented pink handkerchief and wore +patent leather boots. Our surgeon had but a faint +laugh when these explanations were made to him, +taking my hand fondly, and saying he loved little +children. +</p> +<p> +Para, a flat congestion of white buildings and red +roofs in the sun, was about a mile beyond our anchorage, +over the port bow; and as its name has +been to me one that had the appeal of the world not +ours, like Tripoli of Barbary, Macassar, the Marquesas, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span> +and the Rio Madre de Dios, the agent’s +launch, as it took us towards the small craft lying +immediately before the front of that spread of +houses between the river and the forest, was so momentous +an occasion that the small talk of the +dainty Englishmen in linen suits, a gossiping group +around the agent and the Skipper, hardly came into +the picture, to my mind. The launch rudely hustled +through a cluster of gaily painted native boats, the +dingiest of them bearing some sonorous name, and +I landed in Brazil. +</p> +<p> +There was an esplanade, shadowed by an avenue +of mangoes. We crossed that, and went along hot +narrow streets, by blotched and shabby walls, to +the office to which our ship was consigned. We met +a fisherman carrying a large turtle by a flipper. We +came to a dim cool warehouse. There, some negroes +and half-breeds were lazily hauling packages in the +shadows. It had an office railed off where a few +English clerks, in immaculate white, overlooked a +staff of natives. The warehouse had a strange and +memorable odour, evasive, sweet, and pungent, as +barbaric a note as I found in Para, and I understood +at once I had come to a place where there +were things I did not know. I felt almost timorous +and yet compelled when I sniffed at those shadows; +though what the eye saw in the squalid streets of +the riverside, where brown folk stood regarding us +carelessly from openings in the walls, I had thought +no more than a little interesting. +</p> +<p> +What length of time we should have in Belem was +uncertain, but presently the Skipper, looking most +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span> +morose, came away from his discussion with the +agent and told us, at some length, what he thought +of people who kept a ship waiting because of a few +unimportant papers. Then he mumbled, very reluctantly, +that we had plenty of time to see all Para. +The Doctor and I were out of that office before the +Skipper had time to change his mind. Our captain +is a very excellent master mariner, but occasionally +he likes to test the security of his absolute autocracy, +to see if it is still sound. I never knew it when +it was not; but yet he must, to assure himself of a +certainty, or to exercise some devilish choler in his +nature, sometimes beat our poor weak bodies +against the adamant thing, to see which first will +break. I will say for him that he is always polite +when handing back to us our bruised fragments. +Here he was giving us a day’s freedom, and one’s +first city of the tropics in which to spend it; and we +agreed with him that such a waste of time was almost +unbearable, and left hurriedly. +</p> +<p> +Outside the office was a small public square where +grew palms which ran flexible boles, swaying with +the weight of their crowns, clear above the surrounding +buildings, shadowing them except in one +place, where the front of a ruinous church showed, +topped by a crucifix. The church, a white and +dilapidated structure, was hoary with ficus and +other plants which grew from ledges and crevices. +Through the crowns of the palms the sunlight fell +in dazzling lathes and partitions, chequering the +stones. An ox-cart stood beneath. +</p> +<p> +The Paraenses, passing by at a lazy gait—which +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span> +I was soon compelled to imitate—in the heat, were +puzzling folk to one used to the features of a race +of pure blood, like ourselves. Portuguese, negro, +and Indian were there, but rarely a true type of +one. Except where the black was the predominant +factor the men were impoverished bodies, sallow, +meagre, and listless; though there were some brown +and brawny ruffians by the foreshore. But the +women often were very showy creatures, certainly +indolent in movement, but not listless, and built in +notable curves. They were usually of a richer +colour than their mates, and moved as though their +blood were of a quicker temper. They had slow +and insolent eyes. The Indian has given them the +black hair and brown skin, the negro the figure, and +Portugal their features and eyes. Of course, the +ladies of Para society, boasting their straight Portuguese +descent, are not included in this insulting +description; and I do not think I saw them. Unless, +indeed, they were the ladies who boldly eyed us in +the fashionable Para hotel, where we lunched, at a +great price, off imported potatoes, tinned peas, and +beef which in England would be sold to a glue factory; +I mean the women in those Parisian costumes +erring something on the sides of emphasis, and +whose remarkable pallor was even a little greenish +in the throat shadows. +</p> +<p> +After lunch some disappointment and irresolution +crept into our holiday....There had been a +time—but that was when Para was only in a book; +that was when its mere printed name was to me a +token of the tropics. You know the place I mean. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span> +You can picture it. Paths that go at noon but a +little way into the jungle which overshadows an +isolated community of strange but kindly folk, +paths that end in a twilight stillness; ardent hues, +flowers of vanilla, warm rain, a luscious and generative +earth, fireflies in the scented dusk of gardens; +and mystery—every outlook disappearing in the +dark of the unknown. +</p> +<p> +Well, here I was, placed by the ordinary moves +of circumstance in the very place the name of +which once had been to me like a chord of that music +none hears but oneself. I stood in Para, outside a +picture postcard shop. Electric cars were bumping +down a narrow street. The glitter of a cheap jeweller’s +was next to the stationer’s; and on the other +side was a vendor of American and Parisian boots. +There have been changes in Para since Bates wrote +his idylls of the forest. We two travellers, after +ordering some red earthenware chatties, went to +find Bates’ village of Nazareth. In 1850 it was a +mile from the town. It is part of the town now, +and an electric tram took us there, a tram which +drove vultures off the line as it bumped along. The +heat was a serious burden. The many dogs, which +found energy enough to limp out of the way of +the car only when at the point of death, were thin +and diseased, and most unfortunate to our nice +eyes. The Brazilian men of better quality we +passed were dressed in black cloth suits, and one +mocked the equator with a silk hat and yellow +boots. I set down these things as the tram showed +them. The evident pride and hauteur, too, of these +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span> +Latins, was a surprise to one of a stronger race. +We stopped at a street corner, and this was Nazareth. +Bates’ pleasant hamlet is now the place of +Para’s fashionable homes—pleasant still, though +the overhead tram cables, and the electric light +standards which interrupt the avenues of trees, +place you there, now your own turn comes to look +for the romance of the tropics, in another century. +But the villas are in heliotrope, primrose, azure, +and rose, bowered in extravagant arbours of papaws +mangoes, bananas, and palms, with shrubberies beneath +of feathery mimosas, and cassias with orange +and crimson blooms. And my last walk ashore was +in Swansea High Street in the winter rain! From +Nazareth’s main street the side turnings go down +to the forest. For, in spite of its quays, its steamers, +and its electric trams, Para is but built in a larger +clearing of the wilderness. The jungle stood at the +bottom of all suburban streets, a definite city wall. +The spontaneity and savage freedom of the plant +life in this land of alternate hot sun and warm showers +at last blurred and made insignificant to me the +men who braved it in silk hats and broadcloth there, +and the trams, and the jewellers’ shops, for my +experience of vegetation was got on my knees in a +London suburb, praying things to come out of the +cold mud. Here, I began to suspect, they besieged +us, quick and turbulent, an exhaustible army, ready +to reconquer the foothold man had hardly won, and +to obliterate his works. +</p> +<p> +We passed through by-ways, where naked brown +babies played before the doors. We happened upon +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span> +the cathedral, and went on to the little dock where +native vessels rested on garbage, the tide being out. +Vultures pulled at stuff beneath the bilges. The +crews, more Indian than anything, and men of +better body than the sallow fellows in the town, +sprawled on the hot stones of the quays and about +the decks. There was a huge negress, arms akimbo, +a shapeless monument in black indiarubber +draped in cotton print, who talked loudly with a +red boneless mouth to two disregarding Indians +sitting with their backs to a wall. She had a rabbit’s +foot, mounted in silver, hanging between her +dugs. The schooners, ranged in an arcade, were +rigged for lateen sails, very like Mediterranean +craft. The forest was a narrow neutral tinted ribbon +far beyond. The sky was blue, the texture +of porcelain. The river was yellow. And I was +grievously disappointed; yet if you put it to me I +cannot say why. There was something missing, +and I don’t know what. There was something I +could not find; but as it is too intangible a matter +for me to describe even now, you may say, if you +like, that the fault was with me, and not with Para. +We stood in a shady place, and the doctor, looking +down at his hand, suddenly struck it. “Let us go,” +he said. He showed me the corpse of a mosquito. +“Have you ever seen the yellow fever chap?” the +Doctor asked. “That is he.” We left. +</p> +<p> +Near the agent’s office we met an English shipping +clerk, and he took us into a drink shop, and +sat us at a marble-topped table having gilded iron +legs, and called for gin tonics. We began to tell +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span> +him what we thought of Para. It did not seem +much of a place. It was neither here nor there. +</p> +<p> +He was a pallid fellow with a contemplative +smile, and with weary eyes and tired movements. +“I know all that,” he said. “It’s a bit of a hole. +Still—You’d be surprised. There’s a lot here +you don’t see at first. It’s big. All out there—he +waved his arm west inclusively—it’s a world with +no light yet. You get lost in it. But you’re going +up. You’ll see. The other end of the forest is +as far from the people in the streets here as London +is—it’s farther—and they know no more about it. +I was like you when I first came. I gave the place +a week, and then reckoned I knew it near enough. +Now, I’m—well, I’m half afraid of it ... not +afraid of anything I can see ... I don’t know. +There’s something dam strange about it. Something +you never can find out. It’s something that’s +been here since the beginning, and it’s too big and +strong for us. It waits its time. I can feel it now. +Look at those palm trees, outside. Don’t they look +as if they’re waiting? What are they waiting for? +You get that feeling here in the afternoon when +you can’t get air, and the rain clouds are banking +up round the woods, and nothing moves. ‘Lord,’ +said a fellow to me when I first came, ‘tell us about +Peckham. But for the spicy talk about yellow +fever I’d think I was dead and waiting wide awake +for the judgment day.’ That’s just the feeling. +As if something dark was coming and you couldn’t +move. There the forest is, all round us. Nobody +knows what’s at the back of it. Men leave Para, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span> +going up river. We have a drink in here, and they +go up river, and don’t come back. +</p> +<p> +“Down by the square one day I saw an old boy +in white ducks and a sun helmet having a shindy +with the sentry at the barracks. The old fellow was +kicking up a dust. He was English, and I suppose +he thought the sentry would understand him, if he +shouted. English and Americans do. +</p> +<p> +“You have to get into the road here, when you +approach the barracks. It’s the custom. The +sentry always sends you off the pavement. The +old chap was quite red in the face about it. And +the things he was saying! Lucky for him the +soldier didn’t know what he meant. So I went +over, as he was an Englishman, and told him what +the sentry wanted. ‘What,’ said the man, ‘walk in +the road? Not me. I’d sooner go back.’ +</p> +<p> +“Go back he did, too. I walked with him and +we got rather pally. We came in here. We sat at +that table in the corner. He said he was Captain +Davis, of Barry. Ever heard of him? He said +he had brought out a shallow-draught river boat, +and he was taking her up the Rio Japura. The way +he talked! Do you know the Japura? Well, it’s +a deuce of a way from here. But that old captain +talked—he talked like a child. He was so obstinate +about it. He was going to take that boat up the +Japura, and you’d have thought it was above Boulter’s +Lock. Then he began to swear about the +dagoes. +</p> +<p> +“The old chap got quite wild again when he +thought of that soldier. He was a little man, nothing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span> +of him, and his face was screwed up as if he was +always annoyed about something. You have to +take things as they come, here, and let it go. But +this Davis man was an irritable old boy, and most +of his talk was about money. He said he was +through with the boat running jobs. No more of +’em. It was as bare as boards. Nothing to be made +at the game, he said. Over his left eye he had a +funny hairy wart, a sort of knob, and whenever he +got excited it turned red. I may say he let me pay +for all the drinks. I reckon he was pretty close +with his money. +</p> +<p> +“He told me he knew a man in Barry who’d got +a fine pub—a little gold-mine. He said there was +a stuffed bear at the pub and it brought lots of +customers. Seemed to think I must know the place. +He said he was going to try to get an alligator for +the chap who kept the pub. The alligator could +stand on its hind legs at the other side of the +door, with an electric bulb in its mouth, like a lemon. +That was his fine idea. He reckoned that would +bring customers. Then old Davis started to fidget +about. I began to think he wanted to tell me something, +and I wondered what the deuce it was. I +thought it was money. It generally is. At last +he told me. He wanted one of those dried Indian +heads for that pub. ‘You know what I mean,’ he +said. ‘The Indians kill somebody, and make his +head smaller than a baby’s, and the hair hangs down +all round.’ +</p> +<p> +“Have you ever seen one of those heads? The +Indians bone ’em, and stuff ’em with spice and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span> +gums, and let ’em dry in the sun. They don’t look +nice. I’ve seen one or two. +</p> +<p> +“But I tried to persuade him to let the head +go. The Government has stopped that business, +you know. Got a bit too thick. If you ordered a +head, the Johnnies would just go out and have +somebody’s napper. +</p> +<p> +“I missed old Davis after that. I was transferred +to Manaos, up river. I don’t know what became +of him. It was nearly a year when I came +back to Para. Our people had had the clearing of +that boat old Davis brought out, and I found some +of his papers, still unsettled. I asked about him, in +a general way, and found he hadn’t arrived. His +tug had been back twice. When it was here last +it seemed the native skipper explained Davis went +ashore, when returning, at a place where they +touched for rubber. He went into the village and +didn’t come back. Well, it seems the skipper +waited. No Davis. So he tootled his whistle and +went on up stream, because the river was falling, +and he had some more stations to do in the season. +He was at the village again in a few days, though, +and Davis wasn’t there then. The tug captain said +the village was deserted, and he supposed the old +chap had gone down river in another boat. But he’s +not back yet. The boss said the fever had got him, +somewhere. That’s the way things go here. +</p> +<p> +“A month ago an American civil engineer +touched here, and had to wait for a boat for New +York. He’d been right up country surveying for +some job or another, Peru way. I went up to his +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span> +hotel with the fellows to see him one evening. He +was on his knees packing his trunks. ‘Say, boys,’ +he said, sitting on the floor, ‘I brought a whole lot +of truck from way up, and now it hasn’t got a smile +for me.’ He offered me his collection of butterflies. +Then the Yankee picked up a ball of newspaper +off the floor, and began to peel it. ‘This goes +home,’ he said. ‘Have you seen anything like that? +I bet you haven’t.’ He held out the opened packet +in his hand, and there was a brown core to it. ‘I +reckon that is thousands of years old,’ said the +American. +</p> +<p> +“It was a little dried head, no bigger than a +cricket ball, and about the same colour. Very like +an Indian’s too. The features were quite plain, +and there was a tiny wart over the left eyebrow. +‘I bet you that’s thousands of years old,’ said the +American. ‘I bet you it isn’t two,’ I said.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +We returned to the steamer in the late afternoon, +bringing with us two Brazilian pilots, who were to +take us as far as Itacoatiara. We sailed next +morning for the interior. Para, like all the towns +on the Amazon, has but one way out of it. There +is a continent behind Para, but you cannot go that +way; when you leave the city you must take the +river. Para stands by the only entrance to what +is now the greatest region of virgin tropics left in +the world. Always at anchor off the city’s front +are at least a dozen European steamers, most of +them flying the red ensign. A famous engineering +contractor, also British, is busy constructing modern +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span> +wharves there; and Thames tugs and mudhoppers, +flying the Brazilian flag, as the law insists, +but bawling London compliments as they pass your +ship, help the native schooners with their rakish +lateen sails, blue and scarlet, to make the anchorage +brisk and lively. Looking out from the “Capella’s” +bridge she appeared to be within a lagoon. The +lake was elliptical, and so large it was a world for +the eye to range in. It was bound by a low barrier +of forest, a barrier distant enough to lose colour, +nature, and significance. Para, white and red, lay +reflecting the sunset from many facets in the south-west, +with a cheerful array of superior towers and +spires. From the ship Para looked big, modern, +and prosperous; and with those vast rounded clouds +of the rains assembling and mounting over the +bright city, and brooding there, impassive and dark, +but with impending keels lustrous with the burnish +of copper and steel, and seeing a rainbow curving +down from one cloud over the city’s white +front, I, being a new-comer, and with a pardonable +feeling of exhilaration which was of my own +well-being in a new and a wide and radiant place, +thought of man there as a conqueror who had overcome +the wilderness, builded him a city, bridled the +exuberance of a savage land, and directed the sap +and life, born in a rich soil of ardent sun and rain, +into the forms useful to him. So I entered the +chart-room, and looked with a new interest on the +chart of the place. Then I felt less certain of the +conqueror and his taming bridle. I saw that this +lagoon in which the “Capella” showed large and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span> +important was but a point in an immense area of +tractless islands and meandering waterways, a +region intricate, and, the chart confessed, little +known. The coast opposite the city, which I had +taken for mainland, was the trivial Ihla des Oncas. +The main channel of the river was beyond that +island, with the coast of Marajo for the farther +shore; and Marajo also was but an island, though +as large as Wales. The north channel of the Amazon +was beyond again, with more islands, about +which the chart confessed less knowledge. One of +the pilots was with me; and when I spoke of those +points in the ultimate Amazons, the alluring names +on maps you read in England, here they were, at +Para, just what they are at home, still vague and +far, journeys thither to be reckoned by time; a +shrug of the shoulders and a look of amusement; +two months, Senhor, or perhaps three or four. The +idea came slowly; but it dawned, something like +the conception of astronomy’s amplitudes, of the +remoteness of the beyond of Amazonas, that new +world I had just entered. +</p> +<p> +I crept within the mosquito curtain that night, +and the still heated dark lay on my mind, the pressure +of an unknown full of dread. I thought of the +pale shipping clerk and his tired smile, and of +Captain Davis, his face no bigger than a cricket +ball, and the same colour, with a wart over his eye; +and recalled the anxious canvass I had heard made +for news of sickness up-river. A ship had passed +outwards that morning, the consul told us, with +twenty men on board down with fever. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span> +</p> +<p> +And Thorwaldsen. I forgot to tell you about +Thorwaldsen. He was a trader, and last rainy +season he took his vessel up some far backwater, +beyond Manaos, with his wife and his little daughter. +News had just come from nowhere to Para +that his wife had died in childbirth in the wilds, +and Thorwaldsen had been murdered; but nothing +was known of his daughter. There it was. I did +not know the Thorwaldsens. But the trader’s little +girl who might then be alone in the gloom of the +jungle with savages, helped to keep me awake. And +the wife, that fair-haired Swede; she was in the +alien wilderness, beyond all gentlehood, when +her time came. I could see two mosquitoes doing +their best to work backwards through the curtain +mesh. They were after me, the emissaries of the +unknown, and their pertinacity was astonishing. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +“<em>Jan. 9.</em> The ‘Capella’ left Para at three o’clock +this morning, and continued up the Para River. +Daylight found us in a wide brownish stream, with +the shores low and indistinguishable on either beam. +When the sun grew hot, the jungle came close in; +it was often so close that we could see the nests of +wasps on the trees, like grey shields hanging there. +Between the Para River and the Amazon the +waters dissipate into a maze of serpenting ditches. +In width these channels usually are no more than +canals, but they were deep enough to float our +big tramp steamer. They thread a multitude of +islands, islands overloaded with a massed growth +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span> +which topped our mast-heads. Our steamer was +enclosed within resonant chasms, and the noise and +incongruity of our progress awoke deep protests +there. +</p> +<p> +“The dilated loom of the rains, the cloud shapes +so continental that they occupied, where they stood +not so far away, all the space between the earth and +sky, bulged over the forest at the end of every view. +The heat was luscious; but then I had nothing to +do but to look on from a hammock under the awning. +The foliage which was pressed out over the +water, not many yards from the hurrying ‘Capella,’ +had a closeness of texture astonishing, and even +awful, to one who knew only the thin woods of the +north. It ascended directly from the water’s edge, +sometimes out of the water, and we did not often +see its foundation. There were no shady aisles and +glades. The sight was stopped on a front of polished +emerald, a congestion of stiff leaves. The air was +still. Individual sprays and fronds, projecting from +the mass in parabolas with flamboyant abandon and +poise, were as rigid as metallic and enamelled +shapes. The diversity of forms, and especially the +number and variety of the palms, so overloaded an +unseen standing that the parapets of the woods +occasionally leaned outwards to form an arcade +above our masts. One should not call this the +jungle; it was even a soft and benignant Eden. +This was the forest I really wished to find. Often +the heavy parapets of the woods were upheld on +long colonnades of grey palm boles; or the whole +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span> +upper structure appeared based on low green +arches, the pennate fronds of smaller palms flung +direct from the earth. +</p> +<p> +“There was not a sound but the noise of our intruding +steamer. Occasionally we brushed a projecting +spray, or a vine pendent from a cornice. We +proved the forest then. In some shallow places +were regiments of aquatic grasses, bearing long +plumes. There were trees which stood in the water +on a tangle of straight pallid roots, as though on +stilts. This up-burst of intense life so seldom +showed the land to which it was fast, and the side +rivers and paranas were so many, that I could believe +the forest afloat, an archipelago of opaque +green vapours. Our heavy wash swayed and undulated +the aquatic plants and grasses, as though +disturbing the fringe of those green clouds which +clung to the water because of their weight in a +still air. +</p> +<p> +“There was seldom a sign of life but the infrequent +snowy herons, and those curious brown fowl, +the ciganas. The sun was flaming on the majestic +assembly of the storm. The warm air, broken by +our steamer, coiled over us in a lazy flux. I did +not hear the bell calling to meals. We all hung +over the ‘Capella’s’ side, gaping, like a lot of boys. +</p> +<p> +“Sometimes we passed single habitations on the +water side. Ephemeral huts of palm-leaves were +forced down by the forest, which overhung them, +to wade on frail stilts. A canoe would be tied to a +toy jetty, and on the jetty a sad woman and several +naked children would stand, with no show of emotion, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span> +to watch us go by. Behind them was the +impenetrable foliage. I thought of the precarious +tenure on earth of these brown folk with some sadness, +especially as the day was going. The easy +dominance of the wilderness, and man’s intelligent +morsel of life resisting it, was made plain when we +came suddenly upon one of his little shacks secreted +among the aqueous roots of a great tree, cowering, +as it were, between two of the giant’s toes. Those +brown babies on the jetties never cheered us. They +watched us, serious and forlorn. Alongside their +primitive hut were a few rubber trees, which we +knew by their scars. Late in the afternoon we +came to a large cavern in the base of the forest, a +shadowy place where at last we did see a gathering +of the folk. A number of little wooden crosses +peeped above the floor in the hollow. The sundering +floods and the forest do not always keep these +folk from congregation, and the comfort of the last +communion. +</p> +<p> +“There was a question at night as to whether our +pilots would anchor or not. They decided to go on. +We did not go the route of Bates, <em>via</em> Breves, but +took the Parana de Buyassa on our way to the +Amazon. It was night when we got to the Parana, +and but for the trailing lights, the fairy mooring +lines of habitations in the woods, and what the +silent explosions of lightning revealed of great +heads of trees, startlingly close and monstrous, as +though watching us in silent and intent regard, we +saw nothing of it.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<div><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span></div> +<p> +Once I knew a small boy, and on a summer day +too much in the past now to be recalled without +some private emotion, he said to his father, on the +beach of a popular East Anglian resort, “And +where is the sea?” He stood then, for the first time, +where the sea, by all the promises of pictures and +poems, should have been breaking on its cold grey +crags. “The sea?” said the father, in astonishment, +“why, there it is. Didn’t you know?” +</p> +<p> +And that father, being an exact man, there beyond +appeal the sea was. And what was it? A +discoloured wash, of mean limit, which flopped +wearily on some shabby sands littered with people +and luncheon papers. Such a flat, stupid, and +leaden disillusion surely never before fell on the upturned, +bright and expectant soul of a young +human, who, I can vouch, began life, like most +others, believing the noblest of everything. It was +an ocean which was inferior even to the bathing-machines, +and could be seen but in division when +that child, walking along the rank of those boxes +on wheels, peeped between them. +</p> +<p> +You will have noticed with what simple indifference +the people who really know what they call the +truth will shatter an illusion we have long cherished; +though, as we alone see our private dreams, +those honest folk cannot be blamed for poking their +feet through fine pictures they did not know were +there. +</p> +<p> +I had a picture of the Amazon, which I had long +cherished. I was leaning to-day over the bulwarks +of the “Capella,” watching the jungle pass. The +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span> +Doctor was with me. I thought we were still on the +Para River, and was waiting for our vessel to +emerge from that stream, as through a narrow +gate, dramatically, into the broad sunlight of the +greatest river in the world, the king of rivers, the +Amazon of my picture. We idly scanned the +forest with binoculars, having nothing to do, and +saw some herons, and the ciganas, and once a sloth +which was hanging to a tree. Para, I felt, was as +distant as London. The silence, the immobility of +it all, and the pour of the tropic sun, were just beginning +to be a little subduing. We had come +already to the wilderness. There was, I thought, +a very great deal of this forest; and it never varied. +</p> +<p> +“We shall be on the Amazon soon,” I said hopefully, +to the doctor. +</p> +<p> +“We have been on it for hours,” he replied. And +that is how I got there. +</p> +<p> +But the Amazon is not seen, any more than is +the sea, at the first glance. What the eye first +gathers, is, naturally (for it is but an eye), nothing +like commensurate with your own image of the +river. The mind, by suggestive symbols, builds +something portentous, a vague and tremendous +idea. What I saw was only a very swift and opaque +yellow flood, not much broader, it seemed to me, +than the Thames at Gravesend, and the monotonous +green of the forest. It was all I saw for a +considerable time. +</p> +<p> +I see something different now. It is not easily +explained merely as a yellow river, with a verdant +elevation on either hand, and over it a blue sky. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span> +It would be difficult to find, except by luck, a word +which would convey the immensity of the land of +the Amazons, something of the aloofness and separation +of the points of its extremes, with months +and months of adventure between them. What a +journey it would be from Ino in Bolivia, on the +Rio Madre de Dios, to Conception in Colombia, +on the Rio Putumayo; there is another “Odyssey” +in a voyage like that. And think of the names of +those places and rivers! When I take the map of +South America now, and hold it with the estuary +of the Amazon as its base, my thoughts are like +those might be of a lost ant, crawling in and over +the furrows and ridges of an exposed root as he +regards all he may of the trunk rising into the +whole upper cosmos of a spreading oak. The Amazon +then looks to me, properly symbolical, as a +monstrous tree, and its tributaries, paranas, furos, +and igarapes, as the great boughs, little boughs, +and twigs of its ascending and spreading ramifications, +so minutely dissecting the continent with its +numberless watercourses that the mind sees that +dark region as an impenetrable density of green +and secret leaves; which, literally, when you go +there, is what you will find. You enter the leaves, +and vanish. You creep about the region of but +one of its branches, under a roof of foliage which +stays the midday shine and lets it through to you +in the dusk of the interior but as points of distant +starlight. Occasionally, as we did upon a day, you +see something like Santarem. There is a break +and a change in the journey. Moving blindly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span> +through the maze of green, there, hanging in the +clear day at the end of a bough, is a golden fruit. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +“<em>Jan. 10.</em> The torrid morning, tempered by a +cooling breeze which followed us up river, was soon +overcast. Disappointingly narrow at first, the +Amazon broadened later, but not to one’s conception +of its magnitude. But the greatness of this +stream, I have already learned, dawns upon you +in time, and if you sufficiently endure. It persists +about you, this forest and this river, like the stark +desolation of the sea. The real width of the river +is not often seen because of the islands which fringe +its banks, many of them of considerable size. The +side channels, or paranas-miris, between the islands +and the shores, are used in preference to the main +stream by the native sailing craft, to avoid the +strength of the current. We had the river to ourselves. +The ‘Capella’ was taken by the pilots, first +over to one side and then to the other, dodging the +set of the stream. The forest has changed. It has +now a graceless and savage aspect when we are +close to it. There are not so many palms. At a +little distance the growth appears a mass of spindly +oaks and beeches, though with a more vivid and +lighter green foliage. But when near it shows +itself alien enough, a front of nameless and congested +leaves. I suppose it would be more than a +hundred feet in altitude. Sometimes the forest +stands in the water. At other times a yellow bank +shows, a narrow strip under the trees, rarely more +than four feet high, and strewn with the bleaching +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span> +skeletons of trees and entanglements of vine. There +is rarely a sign of life. Once this morning a bird +called in the woods when we were close. Butterflies +are continually crossing the ship, and dragonflies +and great wasps and hornets are hawking over +us. The sight of one swallowtail butterfly, a big +black and yellow fellow, sent the cook insane. The +insect stayed its noble flight, poised over our hatch, +and then came down to see what we were. It settled +on a coil of rope, leisurely pulsing its wings. The +cook, at the sight of this bold and bright being, +sprang from the galley, and leaped down to the +deck with a dish cloth. To our surprise he caught +the insect, and explained with eagerness how that +the shattered pattern of colours, which more than +covered his gross palm, would improve his firescreen +in a Rotterdam parlour. +</p> +<p> +“Early in the forenoon sections of the forest +vanished in grey rain squalls, though elsewhere the +sun was brilliant. The plane of the dingy yellow +flood was variegated with transient areas of bright +sulphur and chocolate. We were hugging the right +bank, and so saw the mouth of the Xingu as we +passed. At midday some hills ahead, the Serra de +Almerim, gave us relief from the dead level of the +wearying green walls. The sight of those blue +heights with their flat tops—they were perhaps no +more than 1000 feet above the forest—curiously +stimulated the eye and lifted one’s humour, long +depressed by the everlasting sameness of the prospect +and the heat. Later in the day we passed more +of the welcome hills, the Serra de Maranuaqua, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span> +Velha Pobre, and Serras de Tapaiunaquara and +Paranaquara, their cones, truncated pyramids, +knolls and hog backs, ranging contrary to our +course. Bates says some of them are bare, or covered +only with a short herbage; but all those I +examined with a good telescope had forest to the +summits; though a few of the inferior heights, which +stood behind the island of Jurupari (the island +where dreams come at night) were grassy. Those +cobalt prominences rose like precipitous islands +from a green sea. We were the only spectators. +One high range, as we passed, was veiled in a glittering +mesh of rain. The river, after we left +Jurupari, bent round, and brought the heights +astern of us. The sun set. +</p> +<p> +“The river and the forest are best at sundown. +The serene level rays discovered the woods. We +saw trees then distinctly, almost as a surprise. Till +then the forest had been but a gloom by day. Behind +us was the jungle front. It changed from +green to gold, a band of light between the river +and the darkling sky. Some greater trees emerged +majestically. It was the first time that day we had +really seen the features of the jungle. It was but +a momentary revelation. The clouds were reflectors, +throwing amber lights below. In the hills +astern of us ravines hitherto unsuspected caught +the transitory glory. The dark heights had many +polished facets. One range, round-shouldered and +wooded, I thought resembled the promontories +about Clovelly, and for a few minutes the Amazon +had the bright eyes of a friend. On a ridge of those +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span> +heights I could see the sky through some of its +trees. The light quickly gave out, and it was night. +</p> +<p> +“We continued cruising along the south shore. +The usual pulsations of lightning made night intermittent; +the forest was not more than 150 feet +from our vessel, and sitting under the awning the +trees kept jumping out of the night, startlingly +near. The night was still and hot, and my cabin +lamp had attracted myriads of insects through the +door which had been left open for air. A heap of +crawlers lay dead on the desk, and the bunk curtain +was smothered with grotesque winged shapes, flies, +cicadas, mantis, phasmas, moths, beetles, and mosquitoes.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +Next morning found us running along the north +shore. Parrots were squawking in the woods alongside. +A large alligator floated close by the ship, +its jaws open in menace. At breakfast time a strip +of white beach came into view on the opposite coast, +a place in that world of three colours on which one’s +tired eyes could alight and rest. That was Santarem. +Sharp hills rose immediately behind the +town. The town is in a saddle of the hills, slipping +down to the river in terraces of white, chrome, and +blue houses. The Rio Tapajos, a black water +tributary and a noble river, enters the main stream +by Santarem, its dark flood sharply contrasted with +the tawny Amazon. But the Amazon sweeps right +across its mouth in a masterful way. There is a +definite line dividing black from yellow water, and +then no more Tapajos. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span> +</p> +<p> +We passed numerous floating islands (Ilhas de +Caapim) and trees adrift, evidence, the pilots said, +that the river was rising. These grass islands are +a feature of the Amazon. They look like lush +pastures adrift. Some of them are so large it is +difficult to believe they are really afloat till they +come alongside. Then, if the river is at all broken +by a breeze, the meadow plainly undulates. This +floating cane and grass grows in the sheltered bays +and quiet paranas-miris, for though the latter are +navigable side-channels of the river in the rainy +season, in the dry they are merely isolated swamps. +But when the river is in flood the earth is washed +away from the roots of this marsh growth, and it +moves off, a flourishing, mobile field, often twenty +feet in thickness. Such islands, when large, can be +dangerous to small craft. Small flowers blossom +on these aquatic fields, which shelter snakes and +turtles, and sometimes the peixe-boi, the manatee. +</p> +<p> +Obydos was in sight in the afternoon, but presently +we lost it in a violent squall of rain. The +squall came down like a gun burst, and nearly carried +away the awnings. It was evening before we +were abreast of that most picturesque town I saw +on the river. Obydos rests on one of the rare +Amazon cliffs of rufus clay and sandstone. The +forest mounts the hill above it, and the scattered +red roofs of the town show in a surf of foliage. The +cliffs glowed in cream and cherry tints, with a cascade +of vines falling over them, though not reaching +the shore. The dainty little houses sit high in +a loop of the cliffs. We left the city behind, with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span> +a huge cumulus cloud resting over it, and the evening +light on all. +</p> +<p> +But Obydos and sunsets and rain squalls, and +the fireflies which flit about the dark ship at night +in myriads, tiny blue and yellow glow-lamps which +burn with puzzling inconstancy, as though being +switched on and off, though they help me with this +narrative, yet candour compels me to tell you that +they take up more space in this book than they do +in the land of the Amazon. They were incidental +and small to us, dominated by the shadowing presence +of the forest. +</p> +<p> +We have been on the river nearly a week. But +our steamer’s decks, even by day, are deserted +now. We lean overside no longer looking at this +strange country. The heat is the most noteworthy +fact, and drives every one to what little leeward to +the glare there is. Our cook, who is a salamander +of a fellow, and has no need to fear the possibilities +of his future life—though I do not remember he +ever told me he was really thoughtful for them—feeling +a little uncomfortable one day when at work +on our dinner, glanced at his thermometer, and fled +in terror. It registered 134°. He begged me to +go in and verify it, and once inside I was +hardly any time doing that. We have such days, +without a breath of air, and two vivid walls of still +jungle, and between them a yellow river serpentining +under the torrid sun, and a silence which is +like deafness. +</p> +<p> +Under the shadow of the awning aft, in his deck +chair, the Doctor is preparing our defences by +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span> +sounding a profound volume on tropical diseases. +This gives us but little confidence; though, as to our +surgeon, recently I overheard one fireman to another, +“I tell yer the—doc’s a Man. That’s what +he is.” (This is the result of the gin with the +quinine.) Yet, good man as he is, his book on the +consequences of the tropics is so large that we fear +we all cannot escape so many impediments to joy. +But our health’s guardian is careful we do not +anticipate anything from peeps into the mysteries. +He never leaves his big book about, much as some +of us would like to see the pictures in it, after what +the donkeyman told us. +</p> +<p> +This is how it was. Donkey, in spite of instructions, +and I know how emphatic the Skipper +usually is, slept on deck away from his mosquito +bar a few nights ago. He said at the time that he +wasn’t afraid of them little fanciful biters, or something +of the kind. I have no doubt the Doctor +would have had some trouble in making clear to +Donkey’s understanding exactly what are the links, +delicate but sure, between mosquitoes and dissolution +and decay in man. So he showed Donkey a +picture. I wish I knew what it was—but the surgeon +preserves the usual professional reticence in +the affairs of his patients. For now Donkey is +convinced it is very bad to sleep outside his curtain, +and when he tries to tell us how unwholesome such +sleeping can be, just at the point when he gets most +entertaining his vocabulary wears into holes and +tatters. You could not conjure that man from his +curtain now, no, not if you showed him, in a vision, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span> +Cardiff, and the fairy lights of all its dock hotels. +I know that in the Doctor’s book there is a picture +of a negro who acquired, in a superb way, a wonderful +form of elephantiasis, for the Doctor showed it +to me once, as a treat, when he thought I was growing +slack and bored. +</p> +<p> +We require now such childish laughter at each +other’s discomfiture to break the spell of this land +into which we are sinking deeper. Still the forest +glides by. It is a shadow on the mind. It stands +over us, an insistent riddle, every morning when +I look out from my bunk. I watch it all day, +drawn against my will; and as day is dying it is +still there, paramount, enigmatic, silent, its question +implied in its mere persistence—meeting me again +on the next day, still with its mute interrogation. +</p> +<p> +We have been passing it for nearly a week. It +should have convinced me by now that it is something +material. But why should I suppose it is +that? We have had no chance to examine it. It +does not look real. It does not remind me of anything +I know of vegetation. When you sight your +first mountains, a delicate and phantom gleam +athwart the stars, are you reminded of the substance +of the hills? I have been watching it for so +long, this abiding and soundless forest, that now I +think it is like the sky, intangible, an apparition; +what the eye sees of the infinite, just as the eye sees +a blue colour overhead at midday, and the glow of +the Milky Way at night. For the mind sees this +forest better than the eye. The mind is not deceived +by what merely shows. Wherever the steamer +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span> +drives the forest recedes, as does the sky at sea; but +it never leaves us. +</p> +<p> +The jungle gains nothing, and loses nothing, at +noon. It is only a sombre thought still, as at midnight. +It is still, at noon, so obscure and dumb a +presence that I suspect the sun does not illuminate +it so much as reveal our steamer in its midst. We +are revealed instead. The presence sees us advancing +into its solitudes, a small, busy, and impudent +intruder. But the forest does not greet, and does +not resent us. It regards us with the vacancy of +large composure, with a lofty watchfulness which +has no need to show its mind. I think it knows our +fears of its domain. It knows the secret of our fate. +It makes no sign. The pallid boles of the trees, +the sentinels by the water with the press of verdure +behind them, stand, as we pass, like soundless exclamations. +So when we go close in shore I find +myself listening for a chance whisper, a careless +betrayal of the secret. There is not a murmur in +the host; though once a white bird flew yauping +from a tree, and then it seemed the desolation had +been surprised into a cry, a prolonged and melancholy +admonition. Following that the silence was +deepened, as though an indiscretion were regretted. +A sustained and angry protest at our presence +would have been natural; but not that infinite line +of lofty trees, darkly superior, silently watching +us pass. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +One night we anchored off the south shore in +twenty fathoms, but close under the trees. At +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span> +daybreak we stood over to the opposite bank. The +river here was of great width, the north coast being +low and indistinct. These tacks across stream look +so purposeless, in a place where there are no men +and all the water looks the same. You go over for +nothing. But this morning, high above the land +ahead, some specks were seen drifting like fragments +of burnt paper, the sport of an idle and +distant wind. Those drifting dots were urubus, +the vultures, generally the first sign that a settlement +is near. To come upon a settlement upon the +Amazons is like landfall at sea. It brings all on +deck. And there, at last, was Itacoatiara or Serpa. +From one of the infrequent, low, ferruginous cliffs +of this river the jungle had been cleared, and on +that short range of modest, undulating heights +which displaced the green palisades with soft glowings +of rose, cherry, and orange rock, the sight +escaped to a disorder of arboured houses, like a +disarray of little white cubes; Serpa was, in appearance, +half a basketful of white bricks shot into +a portico of the forest. +</p> +<p> +That morning was no inducement to exertion, +but when an Indian paddled his canoe alongside +our anchored steamer the Doctor and the Purser +got into it, and away. The hot earth would be a +change from hot iron. Besides, I was eager for my +first walk in equatorial woods. Our steamer was +anchored below the town, off a small campo, or +clearing. The native swashed his canoe into a +margin of floating plants, which had rounded leaves +and inflated stalks, like buoys. I looked at them, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span> +and indeed at the least thing, as keenly as though +we were now going to land in the moon. Nothing +should escape me; the colour of the mud, the water +tepid to my hand, the bronze canoeman in his pair +of old cotton pants split just where they should +have been scrupulous, and the weeds and grass. I +would drain my tropics to the last precious drop. +I myself was seeing what I had thought others +lucky to have seen. It was like being born into +the world as an understanding adult. We got to a +steep bank of red clay, fissured by the heat, and as +hard as brickwork. Green and brown lizards +whisked before us as we broke the quiet. From the +top of the bank the anchored steamer looked a little +stranger. Aboard her, and she is a busy village. +Now she appeared but a mark I did not recognise +in that reticent solitude. The Amazon was an immensity +of water, a plain of burnished silver, where +headlands, islands, and lines of cliff were all cut in +one level mass of emerald veined with white. The +canoe going downstream appeared to dissolve in +candent vapour. Cloudland low down over the +forest to the south, a far disorder of violet heights, +waiting to fill the sky at sunset and to shock our +unimportance then with convulsions of blue flames, +did not seem more aloof and inaccessible to me than +our immediate surroundings. +</p> +<p> +The clearing was a small bay in the jungle. A +few statuesque silk-cotton trees, buttressed giants, +were isolated in its centre. A bunch of dun-coloured +cattle with twisted horns stood beneath them, +though the trees gave them no shade, for each grey +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span> +trunk was as bare of branches for sixty feet of its +length as a stone column. The wall of the jungle +was quite near, and as I stood watching it intently, +I could hear but the throb of my own life. The +faint sibilation of insects was only as if, in the +silence, you heard the sharp rays of the sun impinge +on the earth; your finer ear caught that sound when +you forgot the ring and beat of your body. It was +something below mere silence. +</p> +<p> +We approached the wall to the west, as a path +went through the harsh swamp herbage that way, +and entered the jungle. The sun went out almost +at once. It was cellar cool under the trees. We +had no idea where the path would lead us. That +did not matter. No doubt it would be the place +desired. The Doctor walked ahead, and I could +just see his helmet, the way was so narrow and +uncertain. I kept missing the helmet, for everything +in the half-lighted solitude was strange. One +could not keep an eye on a white hat on one’s first +equatorial ramble, and only when the quiet was +heavy enough to be a burden did I look up from a +puzzling leaf, or some busy ants, to find myself +alone. There was a feeling that you were being +watched; but there were no eyes, when you glanced +round quickly. Do you remember that dream which +sometimes came when we were children? There +were, I remember, empty corridors prolonging into +the shadows of a nameless house where not a sign +showed of what was there. We went on, and no +words we could think of when we woke could tell +what we felt when we looked into those long silent +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span> +aisles of the house without a name; for we knew +something was there; but there was no telling what +the thing would be like when it showed. That is +your sensation in a first walk in a Brazilian forest. +</p> +<p> +I stopped at lianas, and curious foliage, trying to +trace them to a beginning, but rarely with any success. +There were some mantis, which commenced +to run on a tree while I was examining its bark. +They were like flakes of the bark. For a moment +the tree seemed to quiver its hide at my irritating +touch. Then the Doctor called, and I pushed along +to find him stooping over a land snail, the size of a +man’s fist, which rather puzzled him, for it had what +he called an operculum; that is, a cap such as a +winkle’s, only in this case it was as large as a crown +piece. I do not know if it was the operculum, for +my knowledge of such things is small; but I did feel +this was the only twelfth birthday which had come +to me for many years. +</p> +<p> +Presently we saw light, as you would from the +interior of a tunnel. Some beams of sunshine +slanted from a break in the roof to where a tree had +fallen, making a bridge for us across an igaripe, a +stream, that is, large enough to be a way for a +canoe. The sundered, buttressed roots of the tree +formed a steep climb to begin with, but the buttresses +going straight along the trunk as handrails +made crossing the bridge an easy matter. Raising +my hand to a root which was hot in the sun, and +watching a helicon butterfly, a black and yellow +fellow, which settled near us, slowly open and shut +his wings, I jumped, because it felt as though a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span> +lighted match had dropped into my sleeve. But I +couldn’t douse it. It burned in ten places at once. +It was a first lesson in constant watchfulness in this +new world. I had placed my hand in a swarm of +inconspicuous fire ants. The dead tree was alive +with them, and our passage quickened. We rubbed +ourselves hysterically, for the Doctor had got some +too; and there was no professional reserve about +him that time. +</p> +<p> +After crossing the igaripe the character of the +forest changed. It was now a growth of wild cacao +trees. Nothing grew beneath them. The floor was +a black paste, littered with dead sticks. The woods +were more open, but darker and more dank than +before. The sooty limbs of the cacao trees grew low, +and filled the view ahead with a perplexity of leafless +and tortured boughs. They were hung about +with fruit, pendent lamps lit with a pale greenish +light. We saw nothing move there but two delicate +butterflies, which had transparent wings with +opaque crimson spots, such as might have been +served Titania herself; yet the gloom and black +ooze, and the eerie globes, with their illusion of light +hung upon distorted shapes, was more the home of +the fabulous sucuruja, the serpent which is forty +feet long. +</p> +<p> +A dry stick snapping underfoot had the same +effect as that crash which resounds for some embarrassing +seconds when your umbrella drops in a +gallery of the British Museum. The impulse was to +apologise to something. We had been so long in +the twilight, recoiling at nameless objects in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span> +path, a monstrous legume perhaps a yard long and +coiled like a reptile, seeing things only with a second +look, that the sudden entrance into a malocal, a +forest clearing, which, as though it were a reservoir, +the sun had filled with bright light, was like a plunge +into a warm, fluid, and lustrous element. +</p> +<p> +In the clearing were the huts of an Indian village. +Only the roofs could be seen, through some plantations +of bananas. Around the clearing, a side of +which was cut off by a stream, was the overshadowing +green presence. Some chocolate babies, as serious +as gnomes, looked up as we came into daylight, +opened their eyes wide, and fled up the path between +the plantains. +</p> +<p> +If I could sing, I would sing the banana. It has +the loveliest leaf I know. I feel intemperate about +it, because I came upon it after our passage through +a wood which could have been underground, a +tangle of bare roots joining floor and ceiling in limitless +caverns. We stood looking at the plantation +till our mind was fed with grace and light. The +plantain jets upwards with a copious stem, and the +fountain returns in broad rippled pennants, falling +outwardly, refined to points, when the impulse is +lost. A world could not be old on which such a +plant grows. It is sure evidence of earth’s vitality. +To look at it you would not think that growing is +a long process, a matter of months and natural difficulties. +The plantain is an instant and joyous answer +to the sun. The midribs of the leaves, powerful +but resilient, held aloft in generous arches the +broad planes of translucent green substance. It is +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span> +not a fragile and dainty thing, except in colour and +form. It is lush and solid, though its ascent is so +aerial, and its form is content to the eye. There is +no green like that of its leaves, except at sea. The +stout midribs are sometimes rosy, but the banners +they hold well above your upturned face are as the +crest of a wave in the moment of collapse, the day +showing through its fluid glass. And after the place +of dead matter and mummied husks in gloom, where +we had been wandering, this burst of leaves in full +light was a return to life. +</p> +<p> +We continued along the path, in the way of the +vanished children. Among the bananas were some +rubber trees, their pale trunks scored with brown +wounds, and under some of the incisions small tin +cups adhered, fastened there with clay. In most of +the cups the collected latex was congealed, for the +cups were half full of rain-water, which was alive +with mosquito larvæ. The path led to the top of +the river bank. The stream was narrow, but full +and deep. A number of women and children were +bathing below, and they looked up stolidly as we +appeared. Some were negligent on the grass, sunning +themselves. Others were combing their long, +straight hair over their honey- and snuff-coloured +bodies. The figures of the women were full, lissom, +and rounded, and they posed as if they were aware +that this place was theirs. They were as unconscious +of their grace as animals. They looked round +and up at us, and one stayed her hand, her comb half +through the length of her hair, and all gazed intently +at us with faces having no expression but a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span> +little surprise; then they turned again to proceed +with their toilets and their gossip. They looked as +proper with their brown and satiny limbs and +bodies, in the secluded and sunny arbour where the +water ran, framed in exuberant tropical foliage, as +a herd of deer. +</p> +<p> +I had never seen primitive man in his native place +till then. There he was, as at the beginning, and I +saw with a new respect from what a splendid creature +we are derived. It was, I am glad to say, to +cheer the existence of these people that I had put +money in a church plate at Poplar. Poplar, you +may have heard, is a parish in civilisation where an +organised community is able, through its heritage +of the best of two thousand years of religion, +science, commerce, and politics, to eke out to a finish +the lives of its members (warped as they so often +are by arid dispensations of Providence) with the +humane Poor Law. The Poor Law is the civilised +man’s ironic rebuke to a parsimonious Creator. It +is a jest which will ruin the solemnity of the Judgment +Day. Only the man of long culture could +think of such a shattering insult to the All Wise +who made this earth too small for the children He +continues to send to it, trailing their clouds of +glory which prove a sad hindrance and get so fouled +in the fight for standing room on their arrival. But +these savages of the Brazilian forest know nothing +of the immortal joke conceived by their cleverer +brothers. They have all they want. Experience +has not taught them to devise such a cosmic mock +as a Poor Law. How do these poor savages live +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span> +then, who have not been vouchsafed such light? +They pluck bananas, I suppose, and eat them, +swinging in hammocks. They live a purely animal +existence. More than that, I even hear that should +you find a child hungry in an Indian village, you +may be sure all the strong men there are hungry +too. I was not able to prove that; yet it may be +true there are people to-day to whom the law that +the fittest must survive has not yet been helpfully +revealed. (This is really the Doctor’s fault. I +should never have thought of Poplar if he had not +wondered aloud how those bathers under the palms +managed without a workhouse.) +</p> +<p> +Behind us were the shelters of these settled Indians, +the “cabaclos,” as they are called in Brazil +(literally, copper coloured). Each house was but a +square roof of the fronds of a species of attalea +palm, upheld at each corner by poles seven feet +high. The houses had no sides, but were quite open, +except that some had a quarter of the interior partitioned +off with a screen of leaves. There was a +rough attempt at a garden about each dwelling, +with rose bushes and coleas in the midst of gourds +and patches of maize. The roses were scented, and +of the single briar kind. We entered one of the +dwellings, and surprised a young woman within who +was swinging in a hammock smoking a native pipe +of red clay through a grass stem. One fine limb, free +of her cotton gown to the thigh, hung indolently +over the hammock, the toes touching the earth and +giving the couch movement. Her black hair, all at +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span> +first we could see of her head, nearly reached the +ground. +</p> +<p> +A well-grown girl, innocent from head to feet, +saw us enter, and cried to her mother, who rose in +the hammock, threw her gown over her leg, smiled +gravely at us, and alighted, to vanish behind the +screen with the child, reappearing presently with +the girl neatly attired. Other children came, and +soon had confidence to examine us closely and critically, +grave little mortals with eyes which spoke the +only language I understood there. The men and +women who gathered stood behind the children, +smiling sadly and kindly. They were gentle, undemonstrative, +and observant, with features of the +conventional Indian type. The men were spare +and lithe, of medium height, wearing only shorts +tied with string below their bronze busts. The women +were of fuller build, with heavier but more +cheerful features, and each was dressed in a single +cotton garment, open above, revealing the breasts. +</p> +<p> +The noon shadows of the hut, and the trees, were +deep as the stains of ink. A tray of mandioca root, +farinha, was set in the hot sun to dry. Under a +gourd tree was a heap of turtle shells. A little +game, a capybara, and a bird like a crow with a +brown rump, were hung on the screen. But the +most remarkable feature of the house in the forest +was its pets. A pair of parraquets ran in and out +the bushes like green mice. My helmet was tipped +over my eyes, and, looking upwards, there was an +audience of monkeys in the shadow, quite beside +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span> +themselves with curiosity. My sudden movement +sent them off like fireworks. One was a most engaging +little fellow, a jet-black tamarin slightly +larger than a squirrel. Presently he found courage +to come closer, with a companion, a brown monkey +of his own size. As they sat side by side the Doctor +pointed out that the expressions in the faces of these +monkeys showed temperaments separating them +even more widely than they were separated by those +physical differences which made them species. I +saw at once, with some pleasure and a little vanity, +that I might be more nearly related to the friendly +cabaclos than I am to some people in England. The +brown chap would be no doubt a master of industry +on the tree tops, keeping a whole tree to himself, +and living on nuts which others gathered. You +could see it in his keen and domineering look, and +in the quick, casual way he crowded his fellow, who +always made room for him. I have seen such a face, +and such manners, in great industrial centres. They +are the marks of the ablest and best, who get on. +His hard, eager eyes showed censoriousness, +cruelty, and acquisitiveness. But his companion, +with a sooty and hairless face, and black hair parted +in the middle of a frail forehead, was a pal of ours, +and knew it. The brown midget showed angry distrust +of us, knowing what devilry was in his own +mind. But the black, though more delicate and +nervous a monkey, his mind being innocent of secret +plots, had gentleness and faith in his looks, and +showed a laughable and welcome curiosity in us. +He made friendly twitterings—not the harsh and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span> +menacing chatter of the other—and perfectly self-possessed, +his pure soul giving him quiethood, examined +us in a brotherly way with an ebon paw +which was as small and fragile as a black fairy’s. +</p> +<p> +A jabiru stork stood on one leg, beak on breast, +meditating, caring nothing for all that was outside +its ruminating mind. There were parrots on the +cross-ties of the roof, on the floor, on the shoulders +of the women, and in the hands of the children, and +they were getting an interesting time through the +monkeys when their faces were not cocked sideways +at us in a knowing fashion. And what looked like +a crow was giving bitter and ruthless chase to a +young agouti, in and out of the bare feet of the company. +I have never seen creatures so tame. But +Indian women, as I learned afterwards, have a fine +gift for winning the confidence of wild things, and +that afternoon they took hold of the creatures, anyhow +and anywhere, to bring them for our inspection, +without the captives showing the least alarm +or anger. There were the dogs, too. But they were +like all the dogs we saw in Brazil, looking sorry for +themselves; and they sat about in case they should +fall if they attempted to stand. Our audience broke +up suddenly, in an uproar of protests, to chase the +brown monkey, who was towing a frantic parrot by +the tail. +</p> +<p> +We continued our walk, entering the forest again +on another path. Here the growth was secondary, +and the underbush dense on both sides of the trail. +The voices of the village stopped as we entered the +shades, and there was no more sound except when +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span> +a bird scurried away heavily, and again, when some +cicadas, the “scissors grinders,” suddenly sprang +an astonishing whirring from a tree. The sound +was as loud as that of a locomotive letting steam +escape in a covered station. At a clearing so small +that the roof of the jungle had been but little +broken, where a hut stood as though at a well-bottom +sunk in a depth of trees, we turned back. That +deep well in the trees contained but little light, for +already it was being choked with vines. The hut +was of the usual light construction, though its sides +were of leaves, as well as its roof. I think it was +the most melancholy dwelling I have ever happened +on in my wanderings. It did not look as though it +had been long deserted. There were ashes and a +broken flesh-pot outside it. The entrance was +veiled with gross spiders’ webs. On the earth floor +within were puddles of rain. Round it the forest +stood, like night in abeyance. The tree tops overhung, +silently intent on what man had been doing +at their feet. A child’s chemise was stretched on a +thorn, and close by was a small grave, separated by +little sticks from the secular earth. A dead plant +was in the centre of the grave, and a crude wooden +crucifix. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +We had plenty of opportunities for exploring +Serpa, for the Amazon that rainy season was slow +in rising, and consequently it would have been unsafe +for us to venture into the Madeira. The tributary +would have been full, but it was necessary for +the waters of the main stream to dam and heighten +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span> +the flood of its tributary before we could trust our +draught there. We were nine days at Serpa. The +Amazon would rise as much as a foot one day, and +our distance from the shore would increase perceptibly, +with strong whirling eddies which made the +trip ashore more difficult. Then it would fall again. +Some of the yellow Amazon porpoises showed +alongside occasionally, and alligators floated about, +though nothing was seen of them but their snouts. +</p> +<p> +Serpa is a small but growing place. It was but a +missionary settlement of Abacaxis Indians from +the Madeira in 1759, and was called Itacoatiara. +When I was there it was renewing its old importance, +because the Madeira-Mamoré railway undertaking +had placed a depôt a little to the west of the +village. The Doctor and I spent many memorable +days in its neighbourhood, butterfly-hunting and +sauntering. Though mosquitoes, anopeline and +culex, are as common here as elsewhere in the Brazils—the +lighters which came alongside with cargo +for us conveyed clouds of them, and they took possession +of every dark nook of the “Capella”—it is +noteworthy that Serpa has the reputation, in Amazonas, +of a health resort. I could find no explanation +of that. There was malaria at Serpa, of +course; but compared with the really lethal country, +a country not so different in appearance and climate, +of the upper Madeira, the salubrity of Serpa +is perplexing. That virulent form of malaria peculiar +to some tropical localities is a phenomenon +which medical research has not yet explained. In +the almost unexplored region of the Rio Madeira +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span> +the fever is certain to every traveller, though the +land is largely without inhabitants; and it is almost +equally certain that it will be of the malignant type. +Yet at an old settlement like Serpa, where probably +every inhabitant has had malaria, and every +mosquito is likely to be a host, the fever is but mild, +and the traveller may escape it entirely. +</p> +<p> +By now you will be asking what Itacoatiara is +like, that community contentedly lost in the secret +forest. I am afraid you will not learn, unless, in +the happy future, you and I select a few friends, a +few books, and erect some houses of palm leaves to +protect us from the too vigorous sun there, and so, +secure from all the really urgent and important +matters which do not matter a twinkle to the eternal +stars, noon it far and secure until the time comes +for the gentle villagers to carry us out and forget +us; remembering us again when the annual Day +of the Dead comes round. They will leave some +comfortable candles above us that night. +</p> +<p> +There the earth is a warm and luscious body. +The lazy paths are cool with groves, and in the middle +hours of the sun, when only a few butterflies are +abroad, and the grasshoppers are shrilling in the +quiet, you swing in a hammock under a thatch—the +air has been through some tree in blossom—and +gossip, and drink coffee. Beyond the path of the +village there is—nobody knows what; not even the +Royal Geographical Society. One heard of a large +and mysterious lake a day’s journey inland. Nobody +knew anything about it. Nobody cared. One +old man once, when hunting, saw its mirror through +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span> +the forest’s aisles, and heard the multitude of its +birds. +</p> +<p> +The foreshore of the village is rugged with boulders +richly tinctured with iron oxide, and often having +a scoriaceous surface. There we would land, +and scramble up to a street which ends on the height +above the river. It is a broad road, with white, +substantial, one-story houses on either side. The +dwellings and stores have no windows, but are built +with open fronts, for ventilation. This is Serpa’s +main street. It is shaded with avenues of trees. +In the narrower side turnings the trees meet to form +arcades. One day we saw such an avenue covered +with yellow, trumpet-shaped blossoms. Ox-carts +with solid wheels stand in the walks. The sunlight, +broken in the leaves of the trees, patterned the +roads with white fire, and so dappled the cattle that +they were obscure; you saw the oxen only when +they moved. There is a large square, grass-grown, +in the centre of the village, where stands the church, +a white, simple building with an open belfry in +which the bell hangs plain, bright with verdigris. +About here the merchants and tradesmen of Serpa +have their places. The men, hearty and friendly +souls, walk abroad in clean linen suits and straw +hats, and their ladies, pallid, slight, but often singularly +beautiful, are dressed as Europeans, but without +hats; sometimes, when out walking late in the +day, a lady would have a scarlet flower in her hair. +</p> +<p> +By the foreshore were the cabins, of mud and +wood, of the negroes. Beyond the town, the roads +run through the clearings, and end on the forest. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span> +In the clearings were the huts, wattle and daub, +and of leaves, of the settled Indians and half-breeds. +These were often prettily placed beneath groups of +graceful palms. It was in the last direction that +most often we made our way with our butterfly nets +while other folk were sleeping during the sun’s +height. The humid heat, I suppose, was really a +trial. One did perspire in an alarming way and +with the least exertion. The Doctor, who carries +substance, would have dark patches in his khaki +uniform, and would wonder, with foreboding, +whether any more in this life he would catch hold of +a cold jug which held a straight pint in which ice +tinkled. But to me the illumination, the heat, the +odour, and the quiethood of those noons made life a +great prize. I will say that my comrade, the Doctor, +did much to make it so, with his gentle fun, and +his wide knowledge of earth-lore. There was so +much, wherever we went, to keep me on the magic +side of time, and out of its shadow. On the west of +the town were some huts, with plantations of bananas, +pineapples, papaws, and maize, where blossomed +cannas, mimosas, passion-flowers, and where +other unseen blooms, especially after rain, made +breathing a sensuous pleasure. There we tried to +intercept the swallow-like flight of big sulphur and +orange butterflies, though never with success. We +had more success with the butterflies in the clearings, +where some new huts stood, beyond the village. +Over the stagnant pools in those open spaces +dragonflies hovered, fellows that moved, when we +approached, like lines of red light. The butterflies, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span> +particularly a vermilion beauty with black bars on +his wings, and a swift flier, used to settle and gem +the mud about these pools. Other species frequented +the flowering shrubs which had grown over +the burnt wreckage and stumps of the forest. That +area was full of insects and birds. There we saw +daily the Sauba ants, sometimes called the parasol +ants, in endless processions, each ant holding a piece +of leaf, the size of a sixpenny bit, over its tiny body. +Tanagers shot amongst the bushes like blue projectiles. +We saw a ficus there on one occasion, of +fair size, with large leathery leaves, which carried a +colony of remarkable caterpillars, each about seven +inches long, thick in proportion, blue black in colour +with yellow stripes, and a coral head, and filaments +at the latter end. They were pugnacious worms, +fighting each other desperately when two met on a +leaf. The larvæ stripped that tree in a day. We +were not always sure that the people in this part of +Serpa were friendly. Mostly they were half-breeds, +varying mixtures of Indian and negro, and +no doubt very superstitious. The rodent’s foot was +commonly worn by the women, who, if we took notice +of their children, sometimes would spit, to avert +the evil eye. But when the thunder clouds banked +close, and the air, being still, became loaded with the +scent of the wood fires of the villagers, promising +rain, we would enter a hut, and then always found +we were welcome. +</p> +<p> +Even when kept to the ship for any reason this +country offered constant new things to keep our +thoughts moving. A regatao, the river pedlar, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span> +would bring his roomy montario, the gipsy van +of the river, his family aboard—the wife, the grandmother, +and the sad, shy, little children—and offer +us fruits, and perhaps his monkey and parrots. +Gradually the “Capella” added to her company. +The Chief bought a parrot which had many Indian +and Portuguese phrases. It tried to climb a funnel +guy, in escaping the curiosity of our terrier, +and fell into the river. We fished her out with a +bucket. The vampire bats came aboard every night. +They were not very terrible creatures to look at; +but we discovered they frequented the forecastle for +no good purpose. Again, stories filtered through +to us of sickness on the Madeira, and abruptly they +gave the palms and the sunsets a new light. One +man was brought in from beyond and died of beri-beri. +This shook the nerves of one of our Brazilian +pilots, and he refused to go beyond where we were. +As for me, there at Serpa the “Capella” was at +anchor, and we were not near the Madeira, and +seemed never likely to go. I watched the sunsets. +The brief, cool evenings prompted me (fever in +the future or not) to praise and grace. Crickets +chirped everywhere on the ship then, and the air +was full of the sparks of fireflies. You could smell +this good earth. +</p> +<p> +There was one sunset when the overspreading of +violet clouds would have shut out the day quite, +but that the canopy was not closely adjusted to the +low barrier of forest to the westward. Through that +narrow chink a yellow light streamed, and traced +shapes on the lurid walls and roof which narrowly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span> +enclosed us. This was the beginning of the most +alarming of our daily electrical storms. There was +no wind. Serpa and all the coast facing that rift +where the light entered our prison, stood prominent +and strange, and surprised us as much as if we had +not looked in that direction till then. The curtain +dropped behind the forest, and all light was shut +out. We could not see across the ship. Knowing +how strong and bright could be the electrical discharges +(though they were rarely accompanied by +thunder) when not heralded in so portentous a way, +we waited with some anxiety for this display to +begin. It began over the trees behind Serpa. Blue +fire flickered low down, and was quickly doused. +Then a crack of light sprang across the inverted +black bowl from east to west in three quick movements. +Its instant ramifications fractured all the +roof in a network of dazzling blue lines. The reticulations +of light were fleeting, but never gone. +Night contracted and expanded, and the sharp +sounds, which were not like thunder, might have +been the tumbling flinders of night’s roof. We saw +not only the river, and the shapes of the trees and +the village, as in wavering daylight, but their +colours. One flash sheeted the heavens, and its overbright +glare extinguished everything. It came with +an explosion, like the firing of a great gun close to +our ears, and for a time we thought the ship was +struck. In this effort the storm exhausted itself. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +The day before we left for the Madeira we took +aboard sixty head of cattle. They were wild things, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span> +which had been collected in the campo with great +difficulty, and driven into lighters. A rope was +dropped over the horns of each beast: this was +attached to a crane hook, the winch was started, +and up the poor wretch came, all its weight on its +horns, bumping inertly against the ship’s side in its +passage, like a bale, and was then dumped in a heap +on deck. This treatment seemed to subdue it. Each +quietly submitted to a halter. Several lost horns, +and one hurt its leg, and had to be dragged to its +place. But, to our great joy—we were watching +the scene from the bridge—the Brazilian herdsmen +on the lighter shouted an anxious warning to their +fellows on our deck as a small black heifer, a potbellied +lump with a stretched neck, rotated in her +unusual efforts to free her horns. She even bellowed. +She bumped heavily against the ship’s side, +and tried desperately to find her feet. She was, and +I offered up thanks for this benefit, most plainly +an implacable rebel. The cattlemen, as punishment +for the trouble she had given them ashore, +kept her dangling over the deck, and one got level +with her face and mocked her, slapping her nose. +She actually defied him, though she was quite helpless, +with some minatory sounds. She was no cow. +She was insurrection, she was the hate for tyrants +incarnated. They dropped her. She was up and +away like a cat, straight for the winchman, and tried +to get the winch out of her path, bellowing as she +worked. She put everybody on that deck in the +shrouds or on the forecastle head as she trotted +round, with her tail up, looking for brutes to put +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span> +them to death. None of the cows (of course) +helped her. By a trick she was caught, and her +horns were lashed down to a ring bolt in a hatch +coaming. Then she tried to kick all who passed. If +the rest of the cattle had been like her none would +have suffered. Alas! They were probably all +scientific evolutionists, content to wait for men to +become kindly apple-lovers by slow and natural uplift; +and gravely deprecated the action of the heifer, +from which, as peaceful cows, they disassociated +themselves. +</p> +<p> +The Indian says that if he eats a morsel of tiger +he becomes fierce and strong. I have not the faith +of the Indian, or I would have begged the heart of +that heifer, and of it I would have brewed gallons +of precious liquor, and brought it home in jars for +incomparable gifts to the meek at heart who always +do what the herdsmen tell them. The Doctor and I +made a pet of that black cow, to the extent of seeing +she got her rations regularly. It was no joke wading +through manure among a press of nervous animals +on a ship’s deck in the tropics, in order to see +that a brave creature was justly dealt with; particularly +as she swore violently whenever she saw +us, looking up from her tightly tethered head with +eyes full of unabated fury, and tried to get at us on +the hatch above her, bound though she was. What a +heart! For her head was fixed immovably, unlike +the others; yet, till we arrived at Porto Velho she +kept her fierce spirit, often kicking over her water +bucket with her forefeet. Curse their charity! +</p> +<p> +With two new pilots, we upanchored next morning; and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span> +full of cattle, flies, and new odours, and a +gang of cattlemen who at least appeared villainous, +and carried long knives, the “Capella” continued +up stream for the Madeira. The cattle were +sheltered, as far as possible, with awnings improvised +from spare canvas, and their fodder was bales +of American hay. The Skipper did his best to +meliorate the harsh native methods with dumb +things. +</p> +<p> +And now it seems time to explain why we are +bound for the centre of the American continent, +where the unexplored jungle still persists, and disease +or death, so the legends tell us, come to all +white men who stay there for but a few months. If +you will get your map of the Brazils, begin from +Para, and cruise along the Amazon to the Madeira +River—you turn south just before Manaos—when +you have reached Santo Antonio on the tributary +stream you have traversed the ultimate wilderness +of a continent, and stand on the threshold of Bolivia, +almost under the shadow of the Andes. If +you find any pleasure in maps, flying in shoes of +that kind when affairs pursue you too urgently +(and I suppose you do, or you would not be so far +into this narrative), you will hardly thank me when +I tell you it is possible for an ocean steamer exceeding +23 feet in draught to make such a journey, and +so break the romance of the obscure place at the end +of it. But it must be said. Even one who travels +for fun should keep to the truth in the matter of a +ship’s draught. As a reasonable being you would +prefer to believe the map; and that clearly shows +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span> +the only way there (when the chance comes for you +to take it) must be by canoe, a long and arduous +journey to a seclusion remote, and so the more +deeply desired. It certainly hurts our faith in a +favourite chart to find that its well-defined seaboard +is no barrier to modern traffic, but that, journeying +over those pink and yellow inland areas, which +should have no traffic with great ships, a large cargo +steamer, full of Welsh coal, can come to an anchorage, +still with many fathoms under her, at a point +where the cartographer, for lack of place-names and +other humane symbols, has set the word Forest, with +the letters spread widely to the full extent of his +ignorance, and so promised us sanctuary in plenty. +I suppose that in a few years those remote wilds, +somehow cleared of Indians, jungle, and malaria—though +I do not see how all this can be done—will +have no further interest for us, because it will possess +many of the common disadvantages of civilisation’s +benefits: it will be a point on a regular route +of commerce. I am really sorry for you; but in the +sad and cruel code of the sailor I can only reply as +Jack did when he got the sole rag of beef in the +hash, “Blow you, Bill. I’m all right.” I had the +fortune to go when the route was still much as it +was in the first chapter of Genesis. “But after all,” +you question me, hopeful yet, “nothing can be done +with 5000 tons of Welsh cargo in a jungle.” +</p> +<p> +People with the nose for dollars can do wonders. +It would be unwise to back such a doughty opponent +as the pristine jungle with its malaria against +people who smell money there. In the early ’seventies +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span> +there was a man with one idea, Colonel +George Church. His idea was to give to Bolivia, +which the Andes shuts out from the Pacific, and two +thousand miles of virgin forest from the Atlantic, a +door communicating with the outside world. He +said, for he was an enthusiast, that Bolivia is the +richest country in the world. The mines of Potosi +are in Bolivia. Its mountains rise from fertile tropical +plains to Arctic altitudes. The rubber tree +grows below, and a climate for barley is found in a +few days’ journey towards the sky. But the riches +of Bolivia are locked up. Small parcels of precious +goods may be got out over the Andean barrier, on +mule back; or they may dribble in a thin stream +down the Beni, Mamoré, and Madre de Dios rivers—rivers +which unite not far from the Brazilian +boundary to form the Rio Madeira. The Beni is a +very great and deep river which has a course of 1500 +miles before it contributes its volume to the Madeira. +The Rio Madeira, a broad and deep stream +in the rainy season, reaches the Amazon in another +1100 miles. But between Guajara-Merim and San +Antonio the Madeira comes down a terrace 250 +miles in length of nineteen dangerous cataracts. +The Bolivian rubber collectors shoot those rapids in +their batelaōes, large vessels carrying sometimes ten +tons of produce and a crew of a dozen men, when +the river is full. Many are overturned, and the +produce and the men are lost. The Madeira traverses +a country notorious even on the Amazon for +its fever, and quite unexplored a mile inland anywhere +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span> +on its banks; the rubber hunters, too, have to +reckon with wandering tribes of hostile Indians. +</p> +<p> +The country is like that to-day. Then judge its +value for a railway route in the early ’seventies. But +Colonel Church was a New Englander, and again +he was a visionary, so therefore most energetic and +compelling; he soon persuaded the practical business +folk, who seldom know much, and are at the +mercy of every eloquent dreamer, to part with a lot +of money to buy his Bolivian dream. We do really +find the Colonel, on 1st November 1871, solemnly +cutting the first sod of a railway in the presence of +a party of Indians, with the wild about him which +had persisted from the beginning of things. What +the Indians thought of it is not recorded. Anyhow, +they seem to have humoured the infatuated man +who stopped to cut a square of grass in the land of +the Parentintins, the men who go stark naked, and +make musical instruments out of the shin bones of +their victims. +</p> +<p> +An English company of engineering contractors +was given the job of building the line, and a small +schooner, the “Silver Spray,” went up to San Antonio +with materials in 1872. Her captain, and some +of her officers, died on the way. A year later the +contractors confessed utter defeat. The jungle had +won. They declared that “the country was a charnel-house, +their men dying like flies, that the road +ran through an inhospitable wilderness of alternating +swamp and porphyry ridges, and that, with the +command of all the capital in the world, and half its +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span> +population, it would be impossible to build the +road.” (There is a quality of bitterness in their +vehement hate which I recognise. I heard the same +emotional chord expressed concerning that land, +though not because of failure there, only two years +ago.) +</p> +<p> +But the Bank of England held a large sum in +trust for the pursuance of this enterprise, and after +the lawyers had attended to the trust money in long +debate in Chancery, there was yet enough of it left +to justify the indefatigable colonel in beginning the +railway again. That was in 1876. Messrs. Collins, +of Philadelphia, obtained the contract. The road, +of metre gauge, was to be built in three years. The +matter excited the United States into a wonderful +attention. The press there went slightly delirious, +and the excited <em>Eagle</em> was advised that “two Philadelphians +are to overcome the Madeira rapids, and +to open up to the world a land as fair as the Garden +of the Lord.” The little steamer “Mercedita,” of +856 tons, with 54 engineers and material, was despatched +to San Antonio on 2nd January 1878. Her +departure was made an important national occasion, +and it is an historic fact, which may be confirmed by +a reference to the files of Philadelphian papers of +that date, that strong men, as well as women and +children, sobbed aloud on the departure of the +steamer. The vessel arrived at San Antonio on the +16th February. They had barely started operations +when, so they said, a Brazilian official told them, +betraying some feeling, “when the English came +here they did nothing but smoke and drink for two +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span> +days, but Americans work like the devil.” Yet, by +all accounts, the English method was right. I prefer +it, on the Amazon. The preface to work there +should be extended to three or even more days of +drinking and smoking. +</p> +<p> +Yet it must be said that if ever men should have +honour for holding to a duty when it was far more +easy, and even more reasonable, to leave it, then I +submit the claim of those American engineers. +Having lived in the place where many of them died, +and knowing their story, I feel a certain kinship. +There is no monument to them. No epic has been +written of their tragedy. But their story is, I should +think, one of the saddest in the annals of commerce. +Of the 941 who left for San Antonio at different +times, 221 lost their lives, mostly of disease, though +80 perished in the wreck of a transport ship. That +is far higher a mortality rate than that of, say, the +South African or the American Civil War. +</p> +<p> +Few of those men appeared to know the tropics. +They thought “the tropics” meant only prodigal +largess of fruits and sun and a wide latitude of life—a +common mistake. The enterprise became a lingering +disaster. Their state was already bad when +a supply ship was lost; and they hopefully waited, +ill and starving, but with a gallant mockery of their +lot, as their letters and diaries attest, for food and +medicine which were not to reach them. The doctors +continued the daily round of the host of the +fever-stricken, giving them quinine, which was a +deceit made of flour. The wages of all ceased for +legal reasons, and they were in a place where little +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span> +is cultivated, and so most food has to be imported +in spite of a tariff which usually doubles the price +of every necessary of life. Some of the survivors, +despairing and heroic souls, attempted to escape on +rafts down the river; they might as well have tried +to cut their way through the thousand miles of +forest between them and Manaos. The railway undertaking +collapsed again, and the clearing, the +huts, and the workshops, and the short line that was +actually laid, were left for the vines and weeds to +bury. But now again the conquering forest is being +attacked. The Madeira-Mamoré Railway has +been recommenced, and our steamer, the “Capella,” +is taking up supplies for the establishment at Porto +Velho, from which the new railway begins, three +miles this side of San Antonio. +</p> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span><a name='chIII' id='chIII'></a>III</h2> +<p> +On the morning of the 23rd January, while we were +still considering, seeing what the sun was like, and +the languid air, and that we were reduced to tinned +beans, fat bacon, and butter which was oil and flies, +whether it was worth while to note our breakfast +bell—the steward stood swinging it, with the gravity +of a priest, under the break of the poop—a shout +came from the bridge that the Rio Madeira was in +view. +</p> +<p> +As far back as Swansea we had heard legends of +this stream, and they were sufficiently disturbing. +When we arrived at Para we heard more, and +worse. The pilot we engaged there called the Madeira +the “long cemetery.” At Serpa, for the first +time, we saw what happened to frail humanity when +it ventured far on the Madeira. One day a river +steamer came to Serpa, with a cargo of men from +San Antonio. The river steamers of the Amazon +are vessels of broad beam and shallow draft, painted +the dingy hue of the river itself, and they have two +tiers of decks, open-air shelves, between the supports +of which the passengers sling their hammocks. +The passengers do not sleep in bunks. This paddleboat +came throbbing towards where we were at +anchor. It was night, and she was unseen, a palpitation +in the dark accompanied somehow by a fountain +of sparks. Such boats burn wood in their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span> +furnaces. When her noise had ceased, and her lights +imperceptibly enlarged as the current dropped her +down abeam of us, a breath of her, a draught of air, +passed our way. I am more familiar now with the +odour malaria causes, but then I thought she must +have a freight of the dead. She anchored. We +could see her loaded hammocks in the light of the +few lamps she carried. Through the binoculars next +morning I inspected with peculiar interest the row +of cadaverous heads, with black tousled hair, lemon-coloured +skins, open mouths and vacant eyes, which +stared at us over her rails. Each looked as though +once it had peered into the eyes of doom, and then +was but waiting, caring nothing. +</p> +<p> +There, ahead, was the Madeira now for us. We +were then nearly a thousand miles from the sea, well +within South America. But that meeting-place of +the Amazon and its chief tributary was an expanse +of water surprising in its immensity. As much +light was reflected from the floor as at sea. The +water was oceanic in amplitude. The forest boundaries +were so far away that one could not realise, +even when the time we had been on the river was +remembered as a prolonged monotony, that this was +the centre of a continent. The forest on our port +side was near enough for us to see its limbs and its +vines; but to the south-west, where we were heading +for Bolivia, and to the north, the way to the +Guianas, and to the east, out of which we had come, +and to the west, where was Peru, the land was but a +low violet barrier, varying in altitude with distance, +and with silver sections in it, marking the river +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span> +roads. In the north-west there was a broad silver +path through the wall, the way to the Rio Negro, +Manaos, and the Orinoco. In the south the near +forest, being flooded, was a puzzle of islands. As +we progressed they opened out as a line of green +headlands. The Madeira appeared to have three +widely separated mouths, with a complexity of intermediate +and connective minor ditches. Indeed, +the gate of the river was a region of inundated +jungle. One began to understand why travellers +here sometimes find themselves on the wrong river. +</p> +<p> +Our bows turned in to the forest wall, and for a +few minutes I could not see any way for us there. +The jungle parted, and we were on a narrow turgid +flood, the colour of the main river, but swifter; a +majestic forest was near to either beam. We were +enclosed. And after we entered the Madeira my +dark thoughts of our future at once left me. If they +returned, it was only to be joked about, in the dry +way one does refer to a dread that has been long in +the distance, and then one day takes shape, becomes +material, and settles down with us. Its form, as +you know, nearly always allays your alarms. Your +simple mind has expected something with the lowering +face of evil. Lo! evil has even bright eyes. Its +nature, its dark craft which you have dreaded, is not +seen, and your mind grows light with surprise. +What, only this, then? +</p> +<p> +I never saw earth look more resplendent and +chromatic than on the day when we entered that +river with a bad name. Presently, I thought—here +was a brief resurgence of the old gloom which had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span> +shrouded my conjectural Madeira—I might be +called upon to pay the price for this surprising gift +of intense colour, light, and luscious heat, for the +quickening of the blood, as though the tropic air +were a stimulant as well as a narcotic. Well, it does +seem but fair, if chance, being happy, gives you a +place in the tropics, to expect to have less time there +than is given for the job of eking out a meagre existence +in the north. It would not be right to look +for gain both ways. (You will have noticed already, +I suppose, that I have not been on the Madeira +fifteen minutes.) This, I thought, as I walked to +and fro on the “Capella,” is different from that endurance, +bitter and prolonged, in the land where +there is no sun worth mentioning, where the north-east +wind blows, where the poor rate is so and so in +the pound (and you are one of the fortunate if you +pay it), and Lord Rosebery lectures on Thrift. I +mentioned this to the Doctor. He did not remove +his pipe from his mouth. +</p> +<p> +Because (the idea dawned on me as I sank into a +deck chair beside the surgeon under the poop awning, +and borrowed his silver tobacco-box), because, +as to thrift and parching winds, abstinence and +prudence, and lectures by the solemn on how to thin +out your life in cold climates where all that is worth +having is annexed, why praise a man who is willing +to deprave his life to sand and frost? There in +merry England the poor wretch is, where the riches +of earth are not broadcast largess as I see they are +here, but are stacked on each side of the road, and +guarded by police, leaving to him but the inclement +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span> +highway, with nothing but Lord Rosebery’s advice +and benediction to help him keep the wind out of +the holes in his trousers; that benefit, and the bleak +consideration that he may swink all day for a handful +of beans, or go without. What is prudence in +that man? It is his goodwill for the police. To be +blue nosed and meek at heart, and to hoard half the +crust of your stinted bread, is to blaspheme the +King of Glory. Some men will touch their crowns +to Carnegie in heaven. +</p> +<p> +Thrift and abstinence! They began to look the +most snivelling of sins as I watched, with spacious +leisure, the near procession of gigantic trees, that +superb wild which did not arise from such niggard +and flinty maxims. Frugality and prudence! That +is to regard the means to death in life, the pallor and +projecting bones of a warped existence, as good +men dwell on courage, motherhood, rebellion, and +May time, and the other proofs of vitality and +growth. Now, I thought, I see what to do. All +those improving lectures, reform leagues, university +settlements, labour exchanges, and other props for +crippled humanity, are idle. It is a generative idea +that is wanted, a revelation, a vision. It would be +easier and quicker to take regiments of folk out of +Ancoats, Hanley, Bethnal Green, and the cottages +of the countryside, for one long glance at the kind +of earth I see now. The world would expand as +they looked. They would get the dynamic suggestion. +In vain, afterwards, would the monopolists +and the superior persons chant patriotic verse to +drown the noise of chain forging at the Westminster +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span> +foundry. Not the least good, that. The folk +would not hear. Their minds would be absent and +outward, not locked within to huddle with cramped +and respectful thoughts. They would not start instinctively +at the word of command. They would +begin with dignity and assurance to compass their +own affairs, and in an enormous way; and they +would make hardly a sound as they moved forward, +and they would have uplifted and shining eyes. +(“Then you think more of ’em than I do,” said the +surgeon.) +</p> +<p> +It would be no use, I saw clearly, sending the folk +to Algeria, Egypt, or New York. Such places +never betray to the traveller that our world is not a +shapeless parcel of fields and buildings, tied up with +bylaws, and sealed by the Grand Lama as his last +act in the stupendous work of creation. There it is, +an angular package in the sky, which the sun reads, +and directs on its way to heaven in advance of its +limited syndicate of proprietors. +</p> +<p> +Here on the Madeira I had a vision instead of the +earth as a great and shining sphere. There were +no fences and private bounds. I saw for the first +time an horizon as an arc suggesting how wide is our +ambit. That bare shoulder of the world effaced +regions and constellations in the sky. Our earth +had celestial magnitude. It was warm, a living +body. The abundant rain was vital, and the forest +I saw, nobler in stature and with an aspect of intensity +beyond what the Amazon forests showed, +rose like a sign of life triumphant. +</p> +<p> +You see what that tropical wilderness did for me, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span> +and with but a single glance. Whatever comes +after, I shall never be the same again. The complacent +length of the ship was before us. Amidships +were some of the fellows staring overside, absorbed. +Now and then, when his beat brought him to the +port side, I could see the head of the little pilot on +the bridge. His colleague was sleeping in one of the +hammocks slung between the stanchions of the poop +awning. The Doctor was scrutinising a pair of +motuca flies which hovered about his ankles, waiting +for him to go to sleep. He wanted them for specimens. +The Skipper, looking a little anxious, came +slowly up the poop ladder, crossed over, and stood +by our chairs. “The river is full of big timber,” he +said. He went to stare overside, and then came +back to us. “The current is about five knots, and +those trees adrift are as big as barges. I hope they +keep clear of the propeller.” The Skipper’s eye +was uneasy. He was glum with suspicion; he spoke +of the way his fools might meet the wiles of fortune +at a time when he was below and his ship was without +its acute protective intelligence. He stood, a +spare figure in white, in a limp grass hat with flapping +eaves, gazing forward to the bridge mistrustfully. +He had brought us in a valuable vessel to a +place unknown, and now he had to go on, and afterwards +get us all out again. I began to feel a large +respect for this elderly master mariner (who did not +give the beard of an onion for any man’s sympathy) +who had skilfully contrived to put us where we +were, and now was unaware what mischance would +send us to rot under the forest wall, the bottom to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span> +fall out of our adventure just when we were in its +narrowest passage and achievement was almost +within view. “This is no place for a ship,” the captain +mumbled. “It isn’t right. We’re disturbing +the mud all the time; and look at those butterflies +now, dodging about us!” He was continuing this +monologue as a dirty cap appeared at the head of +the ladder, and a long and ragged length of sorrowful +sailor mounted there, and doffed the cap. The +Skipper brusquely signed to him to approach. He +was a youngster in an advanced stage of some +trouble, and he had no English. I think he was a +Swede. He demonstrated his sickness, baring his +arm, muttering unintelligibly. The limb, like his +hand, was distorted with large blisters. There was +his face, too. I mistrusted my equanimity for some +moments, but braced my eyes, compelling them to +be scientific and impersonal. By signs we gathered +he had been sleeping on deck, such was the heat of +the forecastle, and the mosquitoes, the Doctor said, +had poisoned a body already tainted from the stews +of Rotterdam. The corroding spirit of the jungle +was beginning to permeate through our flaws. +</p> +<p> +The Doctor went to his surgery. The pilot sat up +in his hammock, glanced indifferently at the sick +sailor, yawning and stretching his arms, his dainty +little brown feet dangling just clear of the deck. +He began to roll a cigarette of something which +looked like tea. Then he dropped out, and went +forward to release his mate on the bridge, and the +senior pilot came up as the Doctor had finished his +job. The junior pilot, a fragile, girlish fellow, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span> +rather taciturn, greets us always with a faintly supercilious +smile. His chief is a round, jolly little +man, hearty, and lavish with ornamental gestures. +We both smiled involuntarily as he marched across +to us, with his uniform cap, bearing our ship’s +badge, stuck on the back of his head with a bias to +the right ear. There is not enough of Portuguese +in our ship’s company to serve one conversation adequately, +but we get on well with this pilot, and he +with us. He sits in a hammock, making pantomime +explanatory of Brazil to us strangers, and we pick +him up with alacrity, after but brief pauses. While +the Doctor beguiled him into dramatic moments, I +lay back and watched him, searching for Brazilian +characteristics, to report here. +</p> +<p> +You know that, when you have returned from a +far country, you are asked unanswerable questions +about its people, and especially about its women. +We are easily flattered by the suggestion that we +are authoritative, with opinions got from uncommon +experience, especially where women with +strange eyes and dark skins are concerned. So, +once upon a time, I caught myself—or rather, I +caught that cold, critical, and impartial part of me, +which is a solemn fake—when answering a question +of this kind, explaining in a comprehensive way the +character of the Brazilian people, as though I were +telling of the objective phenomena of one simple +soul. Presently the wise and ribald part of me +woke, caught the note of that inhuman voice, and +raised a derisive cry, heard by me with grave deprecation, +but not heard at all by my listener. I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span> +stopped. For what do I know of the Brazilian +character? Very little. Is there such a thing? I +suppose the true Brazilian is like the true Englishman, +or the typical bird which is known by its bones, +but may be anything from a crow to a nightingale, +but is more likely a lark. You can imagine the foreigner +taking his knowledge of the British pick-pocket +who met him at the landing-stage, the pen-portraits +of Bernard Shaw, the Rev. Jeremiah +Hardshell, Father O’Flynn, You, Me, the cabman +who swore at him, his landlady and her daughter, +Lloyd-George, Piccadilly by night, and Tom Bowling, +carefully adjusting all that valuable British +data, just as Professor Karl Pearson does his physical +statistics, and explaining the result as the +modern English; adding, in the usual footnote, +what decadent tendencies are to be deduced, in addition, +from the facts which could not be worked into +the major premises. +</p> +<p> +Now, there was the handsome Brazilian customs +officer, tall, august, with dark eyes haughty and +slow with thought, the waves of his romantic black +hair faintly traced in silver, who might have been a +poet, or a philosophic revolutionist; but who was the +man, as the first mate told us (after we had searched +everywhere for the articles) who “pinched your +bloomin’ field-glasses and my meerschaum.” +</p> +<p> +Take, if you like, the ultra-fashionable ladies at +the Para hotel, who looked at us with sleepy eyes, +and who, I suspect, were not Brazilians at all. Supposing +they were, there must be counted the wife of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span> +the official at Serpa. She came aboard there with +her husband to see an English ship; she reminded +me of that picture of the Madonna by Sassoferrato +in the National Gallery; I am unable to come nearer +to justice to her than that. Again, there was a +certain vain native apothecary, and he had the idea +that I was bottle-washer to the “Capella’s” surgeon, +much to that fellow’s secret delight. The chemist +treated me with a studied difference in consequence; +and though our surgeon could have undeceived the +mistaken man, having some Portuguese, he refused +to do so. I remember the pilot who, when he left +us at Serpa, and I bade him farewell, did, before all +our ship’s company, embrace me heartily, rest his +cheek against mine, and make loving noises in his +throat. And there is our present chief guide, now +swinging in his hammock, and looking down upon +us waggishly. +</p> +<p> +He had not been a pilot always. Once he was a +clown in a circus; that little fact is a clue to much +which otherwise would have been obscure in him. +When he boarded us at Serpa to take the place of +the man who shrank from the thought of the Madeira, +the chart-room under the bridge was given to +him, and as the mate put it, “he moved in.” He had +bundles, boxes, bags, baskets, a tin trunk, a chair, +a parrot, a hammock, and some pictures. He was +going to be with us for two months, but his affair +had the conclusive character of a migration, a final +severance from his old life. His friends came to see +him depart, and they wound themselves in each +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span> +others arms, head laid in resignation on shoulders. +“Looks as if we’re bound for the Golden Shore,” +commented the boatswain. +</p> +<p> +This little rounded man, the pilot, with his unctuous +olive skin, tiny moustache of black silk, and impudent +eyes, looked ripe in middle age, though +actually he was but thirty. He wore a suit of azure +cotton, ironed faultlessly, and his tunic fitted with +hooks and eyes across his throat. His boots were +sulphur coloured and Parisian. A massive gold +ring, which carried a carbonado nearly as large as +the stopper of a beer bottle, was embedded in a fat +finger of his right hand. In the front of his cap he +had sewn the badge of our line, and he was curiously +proud of that gaudy symbol. He would wear the +cap on one ear, and walk up and down in display, +with a lofty smile, and a carriage supposed to appertain +to a British officer in a grand moment. He +had a great admiration for all that was British, except +our food. If you were up at sunrise you could +see him at his toilet, and the spectacle was worth the +effort. His array of toilet vesicles reminded me of +the shelves in a barber’s shop. Oiled and fragrant, he +took his seat for breakfast with much formal politeness. +He shook our saloon company into a sense of +its responsibilities, for we had grown indifferent as +to dress, and sometimes we had three-day beards. +His handkerchiefs and linen were scented, and +dainty with floral designs. And ours—oh, ours—! +He took wine at breakfast, and after idling a little +with our foreign dishes he would wipe his mouth on +our tablecloth, and then leave for the bridge. As he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span> +passed across the poop we would hear him hawk +violently, and spit on the deck. Then the Skipper +would glare, and drive his chair backwards in a dark +passion. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +Gazing at the foliage as it unfolded, our pilot +named the paranas, tributaries, and islands, when +they drew abeam. He told us what the trees were; +and then with head shakes and uplifted hands and +eyes, indicated what grave things were behind that +screen of leaves. (Though I don’t suppose he +knew.) His mimicry was so spontaneous and exact +that it was more entertaining and just as instructive +as speech. He taught us how the Indians kill you, +and what some villagers did to a naughty padre, and +how the sucuruju swallows a deer, and how to make +love to a Brazilian girl. He kicked the slippers +from his little feet, and smuggled into the hammock +mesh for a snooze, waving a hand coyly to us over +the edge of his nest. +</p> +<p> +The dinner bell rang. Because the saloon is now +hot beyond endurance, the steward has fixed a +table on deck, and so, as we eat, we can see the +jungle pass. That keeps some of our mind from +dwelling over much on the dreary menu. The potatoes +have begun to ferment. The meat is out of +tins; sometimes it is served as fritters, sometimes we +recognise it in a hash, and sometimes, shameless, it +appears without dress, a naked and shiny lump +straight from its metal bed. Often the bread is +sour. The butter, too, is out of tins. Feeding is not +a joy, but a duty. But it is soon over. Although +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span> +everybody now complains of indigestion, we have +far to go yet, and the cheerfulness which faces all +circumstances brazenly must be our manna. Our +table, some deal planks on trestles, is mellowed by +a white tablecloth. We sit round on boxes. Over +head the sun flames on the awning, making it golden +and translucent. I let the soup pass. The next dish +is a hot pot of tinned mutton and preserved vegetables. +Something must be done, and I do it then. +There is some pickled beef and pickled onions. I +watch the forest pass. Then, for desert, the steward, +the hot beads touring about the mounts of his +large pale face, brings along oleaginous fritters of +plum duff. The Doctor leaves. I follow him to the +chairs again, and we exchange tobacco-boxes and +fill our pipes. This may seem to you unendurable +for long. I did not think so, though of habits so +regular and engrained that my chances of survival, +when viewed comparatively, for my ship mates were +hardened and usually were more robust, seemed +poor enough. But I enjoyed it. There was nourishment, +a tonic stay, in our desire to greet every +onset of the miseries, which now were camped about +us, besieging our souls, with sansculotte insolence. +We called to the Eumenides with mockery. Like +Thoreau, I believe I could live on a tenpenny nail, +if it comes to that. +</p> +<p> +There is no doubt the forest influences our moods +in a way you at home could not understand. Our +minds take its light and shade, and just as our little +company, gathered in the Chief’s room at a time +when the seas were running high, recalled sombre +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span> +legends which told of foredoom, so this forest, an +intrusive presence which is with us morning, noon, +and night, voiceless, or making such sounds as we +know are not for our ears, now shadows us, the prescience +of destiny, as though an eyeless mask sat at +table with us, a being which could tell us what we +would know, but though it stays, makes no sign. +</p> +<p> +This forest, since we entered the Para River, now +a thousand miles away, has not ceased. There have +been the clearings of the settlements from Para inwards; +but as Spruce says in his Journal, those +clearings and campos alter the forest of the Amazon +no more than would the culling of a few weeds alter +the aspect of an English cornfield. The few openings +I have seen in the forest do not derange my +clear consciousness of a limitless ocean of leaves, its +deep billows of foliage rolling down to the only +paths there are in this country, the rivers, and there +overhanging, arrested in collapse. There is no land. +One must travel by boat from one settlement to another. +The settlements are but islands, narrow foot-holds, +widely sundered by vast gulfs of jungle. +</p> +<p> +The forest of the Amazons is not merely trees +and shrubs. It is not land. It is another element. +Its inhabitants are arborean; they have been fashioned +for life in that medium as fishes to the sea and +birds to the air. Its green apparition is persistent, +as the sky is and the ocean. In months of travel it +is the horizon which the traveller cannot reach, and +its unchanging surface, merged through distance +into a mere reflector of the day, a brightness or a +gloom, in his immediate vicinity breaks into a complexity +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span> +of green surges; then one day the voyager +sees land at last and is released from it. But we +have not seen land since Serpa. There are men +whose lives are spent in the chasms of light where +the rivers are sunk in the dominant element, but who +never venture within its green surface, just as one +would not go beneath the waves to walk in the twilight +of the sea bottom. +</p> +<p> +Now I have been watching it for so long I see +the outer aspect of the jungles does vary. When +I saw it first on the Para River it appeared to my +wondering eyes but featureless green cliffs. Then +in the Narrows beyond Para I remember an impression +of elegance and placidity, for there, the waters +still being tidal and saline, the palms were conspicuous +and in profuse abundance. The great palms +are the chief feature of that forest elevation, with +their graceful columns, and their generous and symmetrical +fronds which sometimes are like gigantic +green feathers, and again are like fans. A tall +palm, whatever its species, being a definite expression +of life—not an agglomeration of leaves, but +body and crown, a real personality—the forest of +the Narrows, populous with such exquisite beings, +had marges of straight ascending lines and flourishing +and geometrical crests. +</p> +<p> +Beyond the river Xingu, on the main stream, the +forest, persistent as a presence, again changed its +aspect. It was ragged and shapeless, an impenetrable +tangle, its front strewn with fallen trees, the +vision of outer desolation. By Obydos it was more +aerial and shapely again, but not of that light and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span> +soaring grace of the Narrows. It was contained, +yet mounted not in straight lines, as in the country +of the palms, but in convex masses. Here on the +lower Madeira the forest seems of a nature intermediate +between the rolling structure of the growth +by Obydos, and the grace of the palm groves in the +estuarine region of the Narrows. It is barbaric and +splendid, easily prodigal with illimitable riches, +sinking the river beneath a wealth of forms. +</p> +<p> +On the Madeira, as elsewhere in the world of the +Amazons, some of the forest is on “terra-firma,” as +that land is called which is not flooded when the +waters rise. There the trees reach their greatest +altitude and diameter; it is the region of the caáapoam, +the “great woods” of the Indians. A +stretch of <em>terra firma</em> shows as a low, vertical bank +of clay, a narrow ribbon of yellow earth dividing the +water from the jungle. More rarely the river cuts +a section through some undulating heights of red +conglomerate—heights I call these cliffs, as heights +they are in this flat country, though at home they +would attract no more attention than would the side +of a gravel-pit—and again the bank may be of that +cherry and saffron clay which gives a name to Itacoatiara. +On such land the forest of the Madeira is +immense, three or four species among the greater +trees lording it in the green tumult expansively, +always conspicuous where they stand, their huge +boles showing in the verdant façade of the jungle as +grey and brown pilasters, their crowns rising above +the level roof of the forest in definite cupolas. There +is one, having a neat and compact dome and a grey, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span> +smooth, and rounded trunk, and dense foliage as +dark as that of the holm oak; and another, resembling +it, but with a flattened and somewhat disrupted +dome. I guessed these two giants to be silk-cottons. +Another, which I supposed to be of the +leguminous order, had a silvery bole, and a texture +of pale green leafage open and light, which at a distance +resembled that of the birch. These three trees, +when assembled and well grown, made most stately +riverside groups. The trunks were smooth and bare +till somewhere near ninety feet from the ground. +Palms were intermediate, filling the spaces between +them, but the palms stood under the exogens, growing +in alcoves of the mass, rising no higher than the +beginning of the branches and foliage of their lords. +The whole overhanging superstructure of the forest—not +a window, an inlet, anywhere there—was +rolling clouds of leaves from the lower rims of which +vines were catenary, looping from one green cloud +to another, or pendent, like the sundered cordage +of a ship’s rigging. Two other trees were frequent, +the pao mulatto, with limbs so dark as to look black, +and the castanheiro, the Brazil nut tree. +</p> +<p> +The roof of the woods lowered when we were +steaming past the igapo. The igapo, or aqueous +jungle, through which the waters go deeply for +some months of the year, is of a different character, +and perhaps of a lesser height—it seems less; but +then it grows on lower ground. I was told to note +that its foliage is of a lighter green, but I cannot +say I saw that. It is in the igapo that the Hevea +Braziliensis flourishes, its pale bole, suggestive of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span> +the white poplar, deep in water for much of the +year, and its crown sheltered by its greater neighbours, +so that it grows in a still, heated, and humid +twilight. This low ground is always marked by +growths of small cecropia trees. These, with their +white stems, their habit of free and regular branching, +and their long leaves, digital in the manner of +the horse-chestnut, have the appearance of great +candelabra. Sometimes the igapo is prefaced by an +area of cane. The numberless islands, being of recent +formation, have a forest of a different nature, +and they seldom carry the larger trees. The upper +ends of many of the islands terminate in sandy pits, +where dwarf willows grow. So foreign was the rest +of the vegetation, that notwithstanding its volume +and intricacy, I detected those humble little willows +at once, as one would start surprised at an English +word heard in the meaningless uproar of an alien +multitude. +</p> +<p> +The forest absorbed us; as one’s attention would +be challenged and drawn by the casual regard, never +noticeably direct, but never withdrawn, of a being +superior and mysterious, so I was drawn to watch +the still and intent stature of the jungle, waiting for +it to become vocal, for some relaxing of its static +form. Nothing ever happened. I never discovered +it. Rigid, watchful, enigmatic, its presence was +constant, but without so much as one blossom in all +its green vacuity to show the least friendly familiarity +to one who had found flowers and woodlands +kind. It had nothing that I knew. It remained securely +aloof and indifferent, till I thought hostility +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span> +was implied, as the sea implies its impartial hostility, +in a constant presence which experience could not +fathom, nor interest soften, nor courage intimidate. +We sank gradually deeper inwards towards its central +fastnesses. +</p> +<p> +By noon on our first day on the Madeira we +reached the village of Rozarinho, which is on the +left bank, with the tributary of the same name a +little more up stream, but entering from the other +side. Here, as we followed a loop of the stream, the +Madeira seemed circumscribed, a tranquil lake. The +yellow water, though swift, had so polished a surface +that the reflections of the forest were hardly +disturbed, sinking below the tops of the inverted +trees to the ultimate clouds, giving an illusion of +profundity to the apparent lake. The village was +but a handful of leaf huts grouped about the +nucleus of one or two larger buildings with white +walls. There was the usual jetty of a few planks to +which some canoes were tied. The forest was a high +background to those diminished huts; the latter, as +we came upon them, suddenly increased the height +of the trees. +</p> +<p> +In another place the shelter of a family of Indians +was at the top of a bank, secretive within the +base of the woods. A row of chocolate babies stood +outside that nest, with four jabiru storks among +them. Each bird, so much taller than the babies, +stood resting meditatively on one leg, as though +waiting the order to take up an infant and deliver +it somewhere. None of them, storks or infants, took +the least notice of us. Perhaps the time had not yet +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span> +come for them to be aware of mundane things. +Certainly I had a feeling myself, so strange was +the place, and quiet and tranquil the day, that we +had passed world’s end, and that what we saw beyond +our steamer was the coloured stuff of dreams +which, if a wind blew, would wreathe and clear; +vanish, and leave a shining void. The sunset deepened +this apprehension. There came a wonderful +sky of orange and mauve. It was over us and came +down and under the ship. We moved with glowing +clouds beneath our keel. There was no river; +the forest girdled the radiant interior of a hollow +sphere. +</p> +<p> +The pilots could not proceed at night. Shortly +after sundown we anchored, in nine fathoms. The +trees were not many yards from the steamer. When +the ship was at rest a canoe with two Indians came +alongside, with a basket of guavas. They were shy +fellows, and each carried in his hand a bright machete, +for they did not seem quite sure of our company. +After tea we sat about the poop, trying to +smoke, and, in the case of the Doctor and the Purser, +wearing at the same time veils of butterfly nets, +as protection from the mosquito swarms. The netting +was put over the helmet, and tucked into the +neck of the tunic. Yet, when I poked the stem of +the pipe, which carried the gauze with it, into my +mouth, the veil was drawn tight on the face. A +mosquito jumped to the opportunity, and arrived. +Alongside, the frogs were making the deafening +clangour of an iron foundry, and through that +sound shrilled the cicadas. I listened for the first +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206'></a>206</span> +time to the din of a tropical night in the forest. +There is no word strong enough to convey this +uproar to ears which have not listened to it. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +<em>Jan. 24.</em> A bright still sunrise, promising heat; +and before breakfast the ship’s ironwork was too hot +to touch. The novelty of this Madeira is already +beginning to merge into the yellow of the river, the +blue of the sky, and the green of the jungle, with +but the occasional variation of low roseous cliffs. +The average width of the river may be less than a +quarter of a mile. It is loaded with floating timber, +launched upon it by “terras-cahidas,” landslides, +caused by the rains, which carry away sections of +the forest each large enough to furnish an English +park with trees. Sometimes we see a bight in the +bank where such a collapse has only recently occurred, +the wreckage of trees being still fresh. +Many of the trees which charge down on the current +are of great bulk, with half their table-like base high +out of the water. Occasionally rafts of them appear, +locked with creepers, and bearing flourishing +gardens of weeds. This characteristic gives the +river its Portuguese name, “river of wood.” The +Indians know the Madeira as the Cayary, “white +river.” +</p> +<p> +Its course to-day serpentines so freely that at +times we steer almost east, and then again go west. +Our general direction is south-west. At eight this +morning, after some anxious moments when the +river was dangerous with reefs, we passed the village +of Borba, 140 miles from Serpa. Here there +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span> +is a considerable clearing, with kine browsing over +a hummocky sward that is well above the river on +an occurrence of the red clay. This release of the +eyes was a smooth and grateful experience after +the enclosing walls. Some steps dug in the face of +the low cliff led to the white houses, all roofed with +red tiles. The village faced the river. From each +house ascended the leisurely smoke of early morning. +The church was in the midst of the houses, its +bell conspicuous with verdigris. Two men stood to +watch us pass. It was a pleasant assurance to have, +those roofs and the steeple rising actually into the +light of the sky. The dominant forest, in which +we were sunk, was here definitely put down by our +fellow-men. +</p> +<p> +We were beyond Borba, and its parana and +island just above it, before the pilot had finished +telling us, where we watched from the “Capella’s” +bridge, that Borba was a settlement which had suffered +much from attacks of the Araras Indians. +The river took a sharp turn to the east, and again +went west. Islands were numerous. These islands +are lancet-shaped, and lie along the banks, separated +by side channels, their paranas, from the land. +The smaller river craft often take a parana instead +of the main stream, to avoid the rush of the current. +The whole region seems lifeless. There is never a +flower to be seen, and rarely a bird. Sometimes, +though, we disturb the snowy heron. On one sandy +island, passed during the afternoon, and called appropriately, +Ilho do Jacaré, we saw two alligators. +Otherwise we have the silent river to ourselves; +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span> +though I am forgetting the butterflies, and the constant +arrival aboard of new winged shapes which +are sometimes so large and grotesque that one is +uncertain about their aggressive qualities. As we +idle on the poop we keep by us two insect nets, and +a killing-bottle. The Doctor is making a collection, +and I am supposed to assist. +</p> +<p> +When I came on deck on the morning of our +arrival in the Brazils it was not the orange sunrise +behind a forest which was topped by a black design +of palm fronds, nor the warm odour of the place, +nor the height and intensity of the vegetation, which +was most remarkable to me, a new-comer from the +restricted north. It was a butterfly which flickered +across our steamer like a coloured flame. No other +experience put England so remote. +</p> +<p> +A superb butterfly, too bright and quick to be +anything but an escape from Paradise, will stay its +dancing flight, as though with intelligent surprise +at our presence, hover as if puzzled, and swoop to +inspect us, alighting on some such incongruous +piece of our furniture as a coil of rope, or the cook’s +refuse pail, pulsing its wings there, plainly nothing +to do with us, the prismatic image of joy. Out +always rush some of our men at it, as though the +sight of it had maddened them, as would a revelation +of accessible riches. It moves only at the last +moment, abruptly and insolently. They are left to +gape at its mocking retreat. It goes in erratic +flashes to the wall of trees and then soars over the +parapet, hope at large. +</p> +<p> +Then there are the other things which, so far as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span> +most of us know, have no names, though a sailor, +wringing his hands in anguish, is usually ready with +a name. To-day we had such a visitor. He looked +a fellow the Doctor might require, so I marked him +down when he settled near a hatch on the afterdeck. +He was a bee the size of a walnut, and habited +in dark blue velvet. In this land it is wise to +assume that everything bites or stings, and that +when a creature looks dead it is only carefully +watching you. I clapped the net over that fellow +and instantly he appeared most dead. Knowing he +was but shamming, and that he would give me no assistance, +I stood wondering what I could do next; +then the cook came along. The cook saw the situation, +laughed at my timidity with tropical forms, +went down on his knees, and caught my prisoner. +The cook raised a piercing cry. +</p> +<p> +On the bridge I saw them levelling their glasses +at us; and some engineers came to their cabin doors +to see us where we stood on the lonely deck, the +cook and the Purser, in a tableau of poignant tragedy. +The cook walked round and round, nursing +his suffering member, and I did not catch all he +said, for I know very little Dutch; but the spirit of +it was familiar, and his thumb was bleeding badly. +The bee had resumed death again. The state of +the cook’s thumb was a surprise till the surgeon +exhibited the bee’s weapons, when it became clear +that thumbs, especially when Dutch and rosy, like +our cook’s, afforded the right medium for an artist +who worked with such mandibles, and a tail that +was a stiletto. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span> +</p> +<p> +In England the forms of insect life soon become +familiar. There is the housefly, the lesser cabbage +white butterfly, and one or two other little things. +In the Brazils, though the great host of forms is +surprising enough, it is the variety in that host +which is more surprising still. Any bright day on +the “Capella” you may walk the length of the ship, +carrying a net and a collecting-bottle, and fill the +bottle (butterflies, cockroaches, and bugs not admitted), +and perhaps have not three of a species. +The men frequently bring us something buzzing in +a hat; though accidents do happen half-way to +where the Doctor is sitting, and the specimen is +mangled in a frenzy. A hornet came to us that +way. He was in violet armour, as hard as a crab, +was still stabbing the air with his long needle, and +working on a fragment of hat he held in his jaws, +But such knights in mail are really harmless, for +after all they need not be interfered with. It is the +insignificant little fellows whose object in life it is +to interfere with us which really make the difference. +</p> +<p> +So far on the river we have not met the famous +pium fly. But the motuca fly is a nuisance during +the afternoon sleep. It is nearly of the size and +appearance of a “blue-bottle” fly, but its wings, +having black tips, look as though their ends were +cut off. The motucas, while we slept, would alight +on the wrists and ankles, and where each had fed +there would be a wound from which the blood steadily +trickled. +</p> +<p> +The mosquitoes do not trouble us till sundown. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span> +But one morning in my cabin I was interested in +the hovering of what I thought was a small, leggy +spider which, because of its colouration of black and +grey bands, was evasive to the sight as it drifted +about on its invisible thread. At last I caught it, +and found it was a new mosquito. In pursuing it +I found a number of them in the cabin. When I +exhibited the insect to the surgeon he did not well +disguise his concern. “Say nothing about it,” he +said, “but this is the yellow-fever brute,” So our +interest in our new life is kept alert and bright. +The solid teak doors of our cabins are now permanently +fixed back. Shutting them would mean +suffocation; but as the cabins must be closed before +sundown to keep out the clouds of gnats, the carpenter +has made wooden frames, covered with copper +gauze, to fit the door openings at night, and +rounds of gauze to cap the open ports; and with a +damp cloth, and some careful hunting each morning, +one is able to keep down the mosquitoes which +have managed to find entry during the night and +have retired at sunrise to rest in dark corners. For +our care notwithstanding the insects do find their +way in to assault our lighted lamps. The Chief, +partly because as an old sailor he is a fatalist, and +partly because he thinks his massive body must be +invulnerable, and partly because he has a contempt, +anyway, for protecting himself, each morning has +a new collection of curios, alive and dead, littered +about his room. (I do not wonder Bates remained +in this land so long; it is Elysium for the entomologist.) +One of the live creatures found in his room +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span> +the Chief retains and cherishes, and hopes to tame, +though the object does not yet answer to his name +of Edwin. This creature is a green mantis or praying +insect, about four inches long, which the Chief +came upon where it rested on the copper gauze of +his door-cover, holding a fly in its hands, and eating +it as one would an apple. This mantis is an entertaining +freak, and can easily keep an audience +watching it for an hour, if the day is dull. Edwin, +in colour and form, is as fresh, fragile, and translucent +as a leaf in spring. He has a long thin neck—the +stalk to his wings, as it were—which is quite +a third of his length. He has a calm, human face +with a pointed chin at the end of his neck; he turns +his face to gaze at you without moving his body, +just as a man looks backwards over his shoulder. +This uncanny mimicry makes the Chief shake with +mirth. Then, if you alarm Edwin, he springs +round to face you, frilling his wings abroad, standing +up and sparring with his long arms, which have +hooks at their ends. At other times he will remain +still, with his hands clasped up before his face, as +though in earnest devotion, for a trying period. If +a fly alights near him he turns his face that way and +regards it attentively. Then sluggishly he approaches +it for closer scrutiny. Having satisfied +himself it is a good fly, without warning his arms +shoot out and that fly is hopelessly caught in the +hooked hands. He eats it, I repeat, as you do +apples, and the authentic mouthfuls of fly can be +seen passing down his glassy neck. Edwin is fragile +as a new leaf in form, has the same delicate colour, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span> +and has fascinating ways; but somehow he gives an +observer the uncomfortable thought that the means +to existence on this earth, though intricately and +wonderfully devised, might have been managed differently. +Edwin, who seems but a pretty fragment +of vegetation, is what we call a lie. His very existence +rests on the fact that he is a diabolical lie. +</p> +<p> +Gossamers in the rigging to-day led the captain +to prophesy a storm before night. Clouds of an +indigo darkness, of immense bulk, and motionless, +reduced the sunset to mere runnels of opaline light +about the bases of dark mountains inverted in the +heavens. There was a rapid fall of temperature, but +no rain. Our world, and we in its centre on the +“Capella,” waited for the storm in an expectant +hush. Night fell while we waited. The smooth +river again deepened into the nadir of the last of +day, and the forest about us changed to material +ramparts of cobalt. The pilot made preparations to +anchor. The engine bell rang to stand-by, a summons +of familiar urgency, but with a new and +alarming note when heard in a place like that. The +forest made no response. A little later the bell +clanged rapidly again, and the pulse of our steamer +slowed, ceased. We could hear the water uncoiling +along our plates. The forest itself approached +us, came perilously near. The Skipper’s voice cried +abruptly, “Let go!” and at once the virgin silence +was demolished by the uproar of our cable. The +“Capella” throbbed violently; she literally undulated +in the drag of the current. We still drifted +slowly down stream. The second anchor was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span> +dropped, and held us. The silence closed in on us +instantly. Far in the forest somewhere, while we +were whispering to each other in the quiet, a tree +fell with a deep, significant boom. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +<em>Jan. 25.</em> We had been under way for more than +an hour when my eyes opened on the illuminated +panorama of leaves and boles unfolding past the +door of my cabin. The cicadas were grinding their +scissors loudly in the trees alongside. I spent much +of this day on the bridge, where I liked to be, +watching the pilot at work. The Skipper was there, +and in a cantankerous mood. The pilot wants us to +make a chart of the river. He has given the captain +and me a long list of islands, paranas, tributaries, +villages, and sitios. Every map and reference to the +river we have on board is valueless. A map of the +river indicates many settlements with beautiful +names; and at each point, when we arrive, nothing +but the forest shows. How the cartographers arrived +at such results is a mystery. This river, which +their generous imaginings have seen as a tortuous +bough of the Amazon, laden with villages which +they indicate on their maps with marks like little +round fruits, is almost barren. Every day we pass +small sitios or clearings; maybe the map-makers +mean such places as those. Yet each clearing is but +a brief security, a raft of land—the size of the +garden of an English villa—lonely in an ocean +of deep leaves, where a rubber man has built himself +a timber house, and some huts for his serfs. +It will have a jetty and a huddle of canoes, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span> +usually a few children on the bank watching us. +We salute that place with our syren as we pass, and +sometimes the kiddies spring for home then as +though we were shooting at them. Or we see a +little embowered shack with a pile of fuel logs beside +it, and a crude name-board, where the river +boats replenish when traversing this stream, during +the season, for rubber. Our pilots have much to +say of these stations, and of all the rubber men on +the river and their wealth. But away with their +rubber! I am tired of it, and will keep it out of this +book if I can. For it is blasphemous that in such a +potentially opulent land the juice of one of its +wild trees should be dwelt upon—as it is in the +states of Amazonas and Para—as though it were +the sole act of Providence. The Brazilians can see +nothing here but rubber. The generative qualities +of this land through fierce sun and warm showers—for +rarely a day passes without rain, whatever the +season—a land of constant high summer with a free +fecundity which has buried the earth everywhere +under a wild growth nearly two hundred feet deep, +is insignificant to them. They see nothing in it at +all but the damnable commodity which is its ruin. +Para is mainly rubber, and Manaos. The Amazon +is rubber, and most of its tributaries. The Madeira +particularly is rubber. The whole system of communication, +which covers 34,000 miles of navigable +waters, waters nourishing a humus which literally +stirs beneath your feet with the movements of +spores and seeds, that system would collapse but +for the rubber. The passengers on the river boats +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span> +are rubber men, and the cargoes are rubber. All +the talk is of rubber. There are no manufactures, +no agriculture, no fisheries, and no saw-mills, in a +region which could feed, clothe, and shelter the +population of a continent. There was a book by +a Brazilian I saw at Para, recently published, and +called the “Green Hell” (Inferno Verde). On its +cover was the picture of a nude Indian woman, symbolical +of Amazonas, and from wounds in her body +her blood was draining into the little tin cups which +the rubber collector uses against the incisions on the +rubber tree. From what I heard of the subject, +and I heard much, that picture was little overdrawn. +I begin to think the usual commercial mind is the +most dull, wasteful, and ignorant of all the sad +wonders in the pageant of humanity. +</p> +<p> +It is only on the “Capella’s” bridge that you feel +the stagnant air which is upset by the steamer’s +progress. There it spills over us, heavy with the +scent of the lairage on the fore deck. The bridge is +a narrow, elevated outlook, full in the sun’s eye, +where I can get a view of the complete ship as she +serpentines in her narrow way. On the port side +of it the Skipper has a seat, and there now he sits all +day, gazing moodily ahead. The dapper little pilot +stands centrally, throwing brief commands over his +shoulder into the open window of the wheelhouse, +where a sailor, gravely chewing tobacco, his hands +on the wheel, is as rapt as though in a trance. I +think the pilot finds his way by divination. The +depth of the river is most variable. In the dry +season I hear the stream becomes but a chain of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span> +pools connected by threads which may be no more +than eighteen inches deep, the rest of its bed being +dry mud cross-hatched by sun cracks. The rains +in far Bolivia, overflowing the swamps there, during +some months of the year increase the depth of the +Madeira by forty-five feet. The local rainy season +would make hardly any difference to it. The river +is fed from reservoirs which stretch beneath the +Andes. +</p> +<p> +There is rarely anything to show why, for a spell, +the pilot should take us straight ahead in mid-stream, +and then again tack to and fro across, sometimes +brushing the foliage with our shrouds. I have +plucked a bunch of leaves in an unexpected swoop +in-shore. And the big timber comes down afloat +to meet us in a never-ending procession; there are +the propellor blades to be thought of. I see, now +and then, the swirls which betray rocks in hiding, +and when dodging those dangerous places the screw +disturbs the mud and the stinks. But the pilot +takes us round and about, we with our 300 feet of +length and 23 feet draught, as a man would steer +a motor car. To aid it our rudder has had fixed to +it a false wooden length. The “Capella” is a very +good girl, as responsive to the pilot’s word as though +she knew that he alone can save her. She stems +this powerful current at but four knots, and sometimes +we come to places where, if she hesitated for +but two seconds, we should be put athwart stream +to close the channel. And what would happen to +us with nothing but unexplored malarial forest each +side of us is not useful to brood on. Occasionally +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span> +the pilot, grasping the top of the “dodger,” stares +beyond us fixedly to where the refracted sunshine +is blinding between the green cliffs, and gives quick +and numerous orders to the wheelhouse without +turning his head. The Skipper gets up to watch. +The “Capella” makes surprising swerves, the pilot +nervously taps the boards with his foot.... Then +he says something quietly, relaxes, and comes to us +blithely, the funny dog with a nonsense story, and +the Skipper sinks couchant again. Once more I +watch the front of the jungle for what may show +there. Seldom there is anything new which shows. +It is rare, even when close alongside, that one can +trace the shape of a leaf. There are but the conspicuous +grey nests of the ants and wasps. Yet +several times to-day I saw trees in blossom; domes +of lilac in the green forest roof. Again, to-day we +put up a flight of hundreds of ducks; and another +incident was a blackwater stream, the Rio Mataua, +the line of demarcation between the Madeira’s yellow +flood and its dark tributary being distinct. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +<em>Jan. 26.</em> The forest is lower and more open, and +the pao mulatto is more numerous. We saw the +important village of Manicoré to-day, and Oncas, +a little place within a portico of the woods which +was veiled in grey smoke, for they were coagulating +rubber there. For awhile before sunset the sky +was scenic with great clouds, and glowing with the +usual bright colours. The wilderness was transformed. +Each evening we seem to anchor in a region +different, in nature and appearance, under these +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span> +extraordinary sunset skies, from the country we +have been travelling since daylight. Transfiguration +at eventime we know in England. Yet sunset +there but exalts our homeland till it seems more +intimately ours than ever, as though then came a +luminous revelation of its rare intrinsic goodness. +We see, for some brief moments, its aura. But this +tropical jungle, at dayfall, is not the earth we +know. It is a celestial vision, beyond physical attaining, +beyond knowledge. It is ulterior, glorious, +transient, fading before our surprise and wonder +fade. We of the “Capella” are its only witnesses, +except those pale ghosts, the egrets about the dim +aqueous base of the forest. +</p> +<p> +Darkness comes quickly, the swoop and overspread +of black wings. The stopping of the ship’s +heart, because the pulsations of her body have had +unconscious response in yours, as by an incorporeal +ligament, is the cessation of your own life. At a +moment there is a strange quiet, in which you begin +to hear the whisper of inanimate things. A log +glides past making faint labial sounds. You are +suddenly released from prison, and float lightly in +an ether impalpable to the coarse sounds and movements +of earth, but which is yet sensitive to the +most delicate contact of your thoughts and emotions. +The whispering of your fellows is but the +rustling of their thoughts in an illimitable and inviolate +silence. +</p> +<p> +Then, almost imperceptibly, the frogs begin +their nightlong din. The crickets and cicadas join. +Between the varying pitch of their voices come +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span> +other nocturnes in monotones from creatures unknown +to complete the gamut. There are notes so +profound, but constant, that they are a mere impression +of obscurity to the hearing, as when one +peers listening into an abysm in which no bottom +is seen, and others are stridulations so attenuated +that they shrill beyond reach. +</p> +<p> +A few frogs begin it. There are ululations, wells +of mellow sound bubbling to overflow in the dark, +and they multiply and unite till the quality of the +sound, subdued and pleasant at first, is quite +changed. It becomes monstrous. The night +trembles in the powerful beat of a rhythmic clangour. +One cannot think of frogs, hearing that +metallic din. At one time, soon after it begins, the +chorus seems the far hubbub, mingled and levelled +by distance, of a multitude of people running and +disputing in a place where we who are listening +know that no people are. The noise comes nearer +and louder till it is palpitating around us. It might +be the life of the forest, immobile and silent all day, +now released and beating upwards in deafening +paroxysms. +</p> +<p> +Alongside the engine room casing amidships the +engineers have fixed an open-air mess-table, with a +hurricane lamp in its midst, having but a brief halo +of light which hardly distinguishes the pickle jar +from the marmalade pot. A haze of mosquitoes +quivers round the light. The air is hot and lazy, +and the engineers sit about limply in trousers and +shirts, the latter open and showing bosoms as various +as faces. The men cheer themselves with comical plaints +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221'></a>221</span> +about the heat, the food, the Brazils, and +make sudden dabs at bare flesh when the insects +bite them. The Chief rallies his boys as would a +cheery dad—Sandy, though, is nearly his own age, +but still much of a lad, quietly despondent—and +the Chief heartily insists on food, like it or lump it. +I go forward to the captain’s tea table on the poop +deck, where we have two hurricane lamps, and +where the figures of us round the table, in that dismal +glim, are the thin phantoms of men. The lamps +have been lighted only that moment, and as we take +our seats, the insects come. Just as sharply as +though something derisive and invisible were throwing +them at us, big mole crickets bounce into our +plates. A cicada, though I was then unaware of +his identity, a monstrous fly which looked as large +as a rat, and with a head like a lantern, alighted before +me on the cloth, and remained still. Picking it +up tentatively it sprang a startling police rattle between +my finger and thumb, and the other chaps +shouted their merriment. The steward places a +cup of tea before each of us, and in an interval +of the talk the Skipper announces a smell of paraffin +in his cup. We experiment with ours, and +gravely confirm. The surgeon, bending close to a +light with his cup, the deep characteristics of his +face strongly accentuated—he seems but a bodiless +head in the dark—says he detects globules of fat. +The Skipper crudely outlines this horror to the +steward, who makes an inaudible reply in German, +and disappears down the companion. We get a +new and innocent brew. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span> +</p> +<p> +There is hash for us. There is our familiar the +pickled beef. There are saucers of brown onions. +There are saucers of jam and of butter. To-night +the steward has baked some cakes, and their grateful +smell and crisp brown rugged surface, studded +with plums, determine in my mind a resolution to +eat four of them, if I can get them without open +shame. I assert that our Skipper has a counting +eye for the special dishes; though you may eat all +the hash you want. Damn his hash! The bread +is sour. I want cakes. +</p> +<p> +After tea the pilots get into their hammocks and +under their curtains, out of the way of the mosquitoes. +We know where they are because of the +red ends of their cigarettes. We sit around anywhere, +the Skipper, the Chief, the Doctor and the +Purser. There is little to be said. We talk of the +mosquitoes, in ejaculations, for the little wretches +quite easily penetrate linen, and can manage even +worsted socks. Occasionally flying insects bump +into the tin lamp placed above us on the ice chest. +(No; there is no ice.) Thin divergent arrows of +light, the fireflies, lace the gloom, and the trees +alongside are gemmed with them. We find still less +to say to each other, but fear to retire to our heated +berths, for as it is just possible to breathe in the +open we continue to defy the mosquitoes. The first +mate serenades us on his accordion. At last there +is no help for it. The steward comes to tell the +master that his cot is ready. The “old man” sleeps +in a cot draped with netting, and slung from the +awning beams on the starboard side. Nightly he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223'></a>223</span> +turns in there, and unfailingly a rain cloud bursts +in the very early morning, pounding on the awning +till the cool spray compels him, and he retreats in +his pyjamas for shelter, taking his pillow with him. +It is for that reason I do not use the cot he made for +me, which hangs on the port side; though it is delightful +for the afternoon nap. +</p> +<p> +The Skipper disappears. The Doctor and I go +below to the surgery, and from the settee there he +removes books, tobacco tins, fishing tackle, phials, +india rubber tubing, and small leather cases, making +room for us both, and first we have some out of his +bottle, and then we try some out of mine. The stuff +is always tepid, for the water in the carafe has a +temperature of 80 degrees. The perspiration begins +a steady permeation as we talk, for now we +can talk, and talk, being together, and talking is +better than sleep, which at its best is but a fitful +doze in the tropics. We fall, as it were, on each +other’s necks. Though the Doctor’s breast—I say +nothing of mine—is not one which appears to invite +the weak tear of a fellow mortal who is harassed +by solitude. You might judge it too cold, +too hard and unresponsive a support, for that; and +I have seen his eye even repellent. He is not +elderly, but he is grey, and pallid through too much +of the tropics. The lines descending his face show +he has been observing things for long, and does not +think much of them. When disputing with him, he +does not always reply to you; he smiles to himself; +a habit which is an annoyance to some people, whose +simple minds are suspicious, and who are unaware +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span> +that the surgeon is sometimes forgetful that his +weaker brethren, when they are most heated and +disputative with him, then most lack confidence in +their case, and need the confirmation of the wit they +know is superior. That is no time when one should +look at the wall, and smile quietly. The “Capella’s” +company feel that the surgeon stands where he +overlooks them, and they see, where he stands unassumingly +superior, that he looks upon them politely. +They do not know he is really sad and forgetful; +they think he is amused, but that he prefers +to pretend he is well bred. I must confess it is +known he has prescience having a certain devilish +quality of penetration. There was one of our +stokers, and one night he was drunk on stolen gin, +and latitudinous, and so attempted a curious answer +to the second engineer, who sought him out in +the forecastle concerning work. Now the second +engineer is a young man who has a number of photographs +of himself which display him, clad but in +vanity and shorts, back, front, and profile, arms +folded tightly to swell his very large muscles. He +has really a model figure, and he knows it. The +cut over the stoker’s nose was a bad one. +</p> +<p> +To the surgeon the stoker went, early next morning, +actually for a hair of the dog, but with a story +that he was then to go on duty, and so would miss +his ration of quinine, which is not served till eleven +o’clock. The quinine, as you know, is given in gin. +The surgeon complimented the man on such proper +attention to his health, and willingly gave him the +quinine—in water. He also stood at the door of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225'></a>225</span> +the alleyway to watch the man retained the quinine +as far as the engine room entrance. +</p> +<p> +Eight bells! Presently I also must go and pretend +to sleep. The surgeon’s last cheery comment +on the cosmic scheme remains but as a wry smile on +our faces. We grope in our minds desperately for +a topic to keep the talk afloat. There goes one +bell! +</p> +<p> +I arrive at my haunt of cockroaches, where the +second mate is already asleep on the upper shelf. +The brown light of the oil lamp has its familiar +flavour, and the cabin is like an oven. What a +prospect for sleep! Raising the mosquito curtain +carefully I slip through the opening like an acrobat, +hoping to be ahead of the insidious little malaria +carriers. A drove of cockroaches scuttles wildly +over my warm mattress as I arrive. Striking +matches within what the sailor overhead calls my +meat safe, I examine my enclosure carefully for +mosquitoes, but none seems to be there, though I +know very well I shall find at least a dozen, gorged +with blood, in the morning. The iron bulkhead +which separates my bed from the engine room is, of +course, hot to the touch. The air is a passive weight. +The old insect bites begin to irritate and burn. I +kick the miserable sheet to the foot, and lie on my +back without a movement, for I fear I may suffocate +in that shut box. My chest seems in bonds, +and for long there is no relief, though the body +presently grows indifferent to the misery, and the +anxiety goes. It is remarkable to what brutality +the body will submit, when it knows it must. Yet +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226'></a>226</span> +nothing but a continuous effort of will kept the +panic suppressed, and me in that box, till the feeling +of anxiety had passed. Thenceforward the +sleepless mind, like a petty balloon giddy on a thin +but unbreakable thread of thought, would tug at my +consciousness, revolving and dodging about, in spite +of my resolution to keep it still. If I could only +break that thread, I said to myself, turning over +again, away it would fly out of sight, and I should +forget all this ... all this.... And presently it +broke loose, and dwindled into oblivion. +</p> +<p> +Then I knew nothing more till I saw, fixed +where I was in hopeless horror, the baby face of one +I dwell much upon, in moments of solitude, and it +had fallen wan and thin, and was full of woe unutterable, +and its appealing eyes were blind. I +woke with a cry, sitting up suddenly, the heart going +like a rapid hammer. There was the curtained +box about me. The clothes were on the hooks. I +could see the black shape of the cabin doorway. +By my watch it was four o’clock. The air had +cooled, and as I sat waiting for the next thing in +the silence the mate snored profoundly overhead. +Ah! So that was all right. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +<em>Jan. 27.</em> This has been a day of anxious navigation, +for the river has had frequent reefs. We remain +in a stagnant chasm of trees. The surgeon +and I, accompanied by a swarm of flies, went forward +into the cattle stew this morning to see how +the beasts fared. The patient brutes were suffering +badly, and some, quite plainly, were dying. The +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span> +change from the lush green stuff of the Itacoatiara +swamps to compressed American hay put under +their noses on an iron deck, and the stifling heat +under partial awnings, had ruined them. Some +stood, heads down, legs straddled, too indifferent +to disperse the loathly clouds of parasites. Most +were plagued by ticks, which had the tenacity and +appearance of iron bolt heads. But the little black +cow, the rebel, blared at us, bound and suffering +as she was. Vive la revolution! We drove the flies +from her hide, and she tried to kick us, the darling. +We found a steer with his shoulder out of joint, +lying inert in the sun, indifferent to further outrage. +That had to be seen to, and we told the Skipper, +who ordered it to be killed. We wanted some +fresh meat badly, he added. The boatswain explained +that he knew the business, and he brought +a long knife, and quite calmly thrust it into the +front of the prone creature, and seemed to be trying +to find its heart. Nothing happened, except a +little blood and some convulsive movements. Another +sailor produced a short knife and a hammer, +and tapped away behind the horns as though he +were a mason and this were stone. The frowning +surgeon supposed the fellow was trying to sever the +vertebrae. I don’t know. Yet another fellow +jumped on its abdomen. At last it died. I put +down merely what happened. No two voyages are +alike, and as this episode came into mine, here it is, +to be worked in with the sunsets and things. There +was some cheerful talk at the prospect of the first +fresh meat since England, and later, passing the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span> +cook’s galley, I saw an iron bin, and lifted its cover +to see what was there. And there was, as I judged +there would be, liver for tea that evening. But I +learned that though I am a carnivore yet I have not +the pluck to be a vulture. +</p> +<p> +The next day we passed the Cidada de Humayta, +the chief town on the Madeira. Actually it was +of the size of an unimportant home village. There +was nothing there to support the pilot’s sonorous +title of cidada. For some reason we were visited +to-day by an extraordinary number of butterflies. +One large specimen was of an olive green, barred +with black. Another had wings of a bluish grey, +striped with vermilion. Helicons came, and once a +morpho, the latter a great rarity away from the +interior of the woods. At four in the afternoon the +sky grew ominous. We had just time to notice the +trees astern suddenly convulsed, writhing where +they stood, and the storm sprang at us, roaring, +ripping away awnings and loose gear. The noise +in the forest round us was that of cataclysm. The +rain was an obscurity of falling water, and the trees +turned to shadows in a grey fog. The ship became +full of waterspouts, large streams and jets curving +away from every prominence. This lasted for but +twenty minutes; but the impending clouds remained +to hasten night when we were in a place which, +more than anything I have seen, was the world before +the coming of man. The river had broadened +and shallowed. The forest enclosed us. There were +islands, and the rank growth of swamps. We could +see, through breaks in the igapo, extensive lagoons +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span> +beyond, with the high jungle brooding over empty +silver areas. Herons, storks, and egrets were white +and still about the tangle of aqueous roots. It was +all as silent and other world as a picture. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +<em>Jan. 29.</em> When shouting awakened me this morning +I saw the Chief hurry by my cabin, half-dressed, +and looking very anxious. By the almost stationary +foliage I could see the ship had merely way on her. +Out I jumped. On the forecastle head a crowd was +gathered, peering overside. A large tree was +balanced accurately athwart our stem, and refused +to move. What worried the staff was that it would, +when free, sidle along our plates till it fouled the +propeller. The propeller had to be kept moving, +for the river was narrow and its current unusually +rapid. There the log obstinately remained for the +most of an hour, but suddenly made up its mind, +and went, clearing the stern by inches. After that +the engines were driven full, for the pilot hoped to +get us to Porto Velho by nightfall. In the late +afternoon, when passing the Rio Jamary, the clouds +again banked astern, bringing night before its time, +and another violent storm compelled an early anchorage. +The forest was remarkably quiet after +the tumult of the squall, and the “Capella” had been +put over to the left bank, when close to us on the +opposite shore there was a landslip. We saw a +section of the jungle wall sway, as though that part +was taken by a local tempest, and then the green +cliff and its supports fell bodily into the river, raising +thunderous submarine explosions. Such landslides, terras +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_230'></a>230</span> +cahidas, can be rarely foreseen, and +are a grave danger to craft when they come close +in to rest at night. To-day we passed a small raft +drifting down. A hut was erected in its middle, +and we saw two men within. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +<em>Jan. 30.</em> Talk enough there has been of a place +called Porto Velho, a name I heard first when I +signed the articles of the “Capella” at Swansea, +and of what would happen to us when we arrived. +But I am looking upon it all as a strange myth. +There has been time to prove those superstitions of +Porto Velho. And what has happened? There +was a month we had of the vacant sea, and one day +we came upon a low coast where palms grew. There +has been a month which has striped the vacant mind +in three colours, constant in relative position, but +without form, yellow floor, green walls, and a blue +ceiling. Plainly we have got beyond all the works +of man now. We have intrigued an ocean steamer +thousands of miles along the devious waterways of +an uninhabited continental jungle, and now she +must be near the middle of the puzzle, with voiceless +regions of unexplored forest reeking under the +equatorial sun at every point of the compass. The +more we advance up the Amazon and Madeira +rivers the less the likelihood, it seems to me, of +getting to any place where our ship and cargo could +be required. We shall steam and steam till the +river shallows, the forest closes in, and we are +trapped. Yet the Madeira looks now much the same +as when we entered it, still as broad and deep. I +was thinking this morning we might go on so for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_231'></a>231</span> +ever; that this adventure was all of the casual improbabilities +of a dream was in my mind when, +smoking the after breakfast pipe on the bridge, we +turned a corner sharply, and there was the end of +the passage within a mile of us, Porto Velho at last. +</p> +<p> +The forest on the port side ahead was uplifted on +an unusually high cliff of the red rock. Beyond +that cliff was a considerable clearing, with many +buildings of a character different from any we had +seen in the country. At the end of the clearing +the forest began again, unconquered still, standing +across our course as a high barrier; for, leaving +Porto Velho, the river turned west almost at a right +angle, and vanished; as though now it were done +with us. We had arrived. A rough pier was being +thrown out on palm boles to receive us, but it was +not ready. We anchored in five fathoms, about +thirty yards from the shore, and in the quiet which +came with the stop of the ship’s life we waited for +the next thing, all hands lining the “Capella’s” side +surveying this place of which we had heard so much. +</p> +<p> +Plainly this was not the usual village. Many +acres of trees had been newly cleared, leaving a +great bay in the woods. The earth was still raw +from a recent attack on what had been inviolate +from time’s beginning. Trenches, new red gashes, +scored it, and holes were gouged in the hill side. +You could think man had attacked the forest here +in a fury, but had spent his force on one small spot, +as though he had struck one wound again and again. +The fight was over. The footing had been won, a +base perhaps for further campaigns because +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_232'></a>232</span> +wooden emergency houses, sheds and barracks, had +been built. The assailant evidently had made up +his mind to settle on his advantage, though he was +tolerating a little quickly rebellious scrub. Just +then he was resting, as if the whole affair had been +over but five minutes before we came, and now the +conqueror was sleeping on his first success. Completely +round the conquered space the jungle stood +indifferently regarding the trifle of ground it had +lost. The jungle on the near opposite shore rose +straight and uninterrupted from the river, the front +rank, lost each way in distance, of an innumerable +army. At the upper end of the clearing the jungle +began again on our side, and turned to run across +our bows, the complement of the host across the +water, and both ranks continued up stream, dark +and indeterminate lines converging, till, three miles +away, a delicate flickering of light, a mere dimmer, +faint but constant, bridged the two walls. No doubt +that delicate light would be the San Antonio cataracts, +the first of the nineteen rapids of the Madeira. +</p> +<p> +Porto Velho behaved as though we were not +there. A pitiless sun flamed over that deep red +wound in the forest, and they who had made it were +in their shelters, resting out of sight after such a +recent riot of exertion. Nothing was being done +then. Two or three white men stood on the dismantled +foreshore, placidly regarding us. We +might have been something they were not quite sure +was there, a possibility not sufficiently interesting +for them to verify. There was a hint of mockery, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_233'></a>233</span> +after all our anxiety and travail, in this quiet disregard. +Had we arrived too late to help, and so +were not wanted? I confess I should not have been +surprised to have heard suppressed laughter, some +light hilarity from the unseen, at us innocently puzzling +as to what was to happen next. There was +a violent scream in the forest near our bows, and we +turned wondering to that green wall. A locomotive +ran out from the base of the trees, still screaming. +</p> +<p> +In a little while a man left a house, striding down +over the debris to the foreshore, and some half-breeds +brought him in a canoe to the “Capella.” He +was a tall youngster, an American, and his slow +body itself was but a thin sallow drawl; only his +eyes were alert, and they darted at ours in quick +scrutiny. His solemn occupying assurance and +accent precipitated reality. He was a doctor and he +ordered us to be mustered on the after deck for +inspection for yellow fever. We were passed; and +then this doctor went below to the saloon, distributing +his long limbs and body over several chairs and +part of the table, and began with lazy words and +gestures to give us a place in the scene. We learned +we should stay as we were till the pier was finished +and that the railway was actually in being for a +short distance. He said something about Porto +Velho being hell. +</p> +<p> +He left us. We sat about on deck furniture, and +waited on the unknown gods of the land to see what +they would send us. All day in the clearing figures +moved about on some mysterious business, but seldom +looked at us. We had nothing to do but to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_234'></a>234</span> +watch the raft of timber and flotsam expand about +our hawsers, a matter of some concern to us, for the +current ran at six knots. Our brief sense of contact +got from the medical inspection had gone by night. +Reality contracted, closing in upon the “Capella” +with rapidly diminishing radii as the light went, till +we had lost everything but our steamer. +</p> +<p> +Into the saloon, where some of us sat listening in +sympathy to the Skipper’s growls that night, burst +our cook, disrespectful and tousled, saying he had +seen a canoe, which bore a light, overturn in the +river. There was a stampede. We each seized a +lantern and leaned overside with it, with that fatuous +eagerness to help which makes a man strike +matches when looking for one who is lost on a +moor. Ghostly logs came floating noiselessly out +of darkness into the brief domain of our lanterns, +and faded into night again. From somewhere in +the collection of driftwood beyond our bows we +thought we heard an occasional cry, though that +might have been the noise of water sucking through +the rubbish, or the creaking of timbers. Our chief +mate got out a small boat, and vanished; and we +were already growing anxious for him when his +luminous grin appeared below in the range of my +lantern, and with him came the ponderous figure +of a man. The latter, deft and agile, came up the +rope ladder, and stepped aboard with innocent inconsequence, +shocking my sense of the gravity of +the affair; for this streaming object, lifted from the +grip of the boney one just in time, was chuckling. +“Say,” said this big ruddy man to our gaping +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235'></a>235</span> +crowd, “I met a nigger ashore with a letter for the +captain of this packet. Said he didn’t know how +to get. So I brought it, but a tree overturned the +canoe. I came up under the timber jam all right, +all right, but it took me quite a piece to get my head +through.” In the saloon, with a pool of water +spreading round him, while we got him some dry +clothes, he produced this pulpy letter. “Dear +Captain” (it ran), “I’m as dry as hell, have you +brought drinks in the ship?” +</p> +<p> +The bland indifference of Porto Velho to the +“Capella,” which had done so much to get there; +the locomotive which ran screaming out of those +woods where, till then, was the same unbroken front +which from Para inwards had surrendered nothing; +the inconsequential doctor who carefully examined +us for what we had not got; the ruddy man who +rose to us streaming out of the deeps, as though +that were his usual approach, bearing another +stranger’s unreasonable letter complaining of thirst, +were most puzzling. I even felt some anxiety and +suspicion. What, then, were all the other incidents +of our difficult six thousand mile voyage? What +was this place to which we had come on urgent business +long and carefully deliberated, where men +merely looked at the whites of our eyes, or changed +wet clothes in the saloon, or lightly referred to hell—they +all did that—as if hell were an unremarkable +feature of their day? Were all these unrelated +shadows and movements but part of a long and +witless jest? The point of it I could not see. Was +there any point to it or did casual episodes appear +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236'></a>236</span> +at unexpected places till they came, just as unexpectedly, +to an empty end? The man the mate +had rescued sat at the saloon table opposite me, +leaning a yard wide chest, which was almost bare, +on the red baize, his bulging arms resting before +him, and his hairy paws easily clasped. I thought +that perhaps this imperturbable being, who could +come with easy assurance, his bright friendly eyes +merely amused, his large firm mouth merely mocking, +and his face heated, from a desperate affair in +which his life nearly went, to announce to strangers, +“Boys, I’m old man Jim,” must have had the point +of the joke revealed to him long since, and so now +had no respect for its setting, and could have no care +and understanding of my anxious innocence. He +sat there for hours in quiet discourse. I listened +to him with my ears only, his words jostling my +thoughts, as one would puzzle over and listen to a +superior being which had unbent to be intimate, but +was outside our experience. I heard he had been +at this place since 1907. He began the work here. +Porto Velho did not then exist. Off where we were +anchored, the jungle rose. He had his young son +with him, a cousin, and two negroes, and he began +the railway. Inside the trees, he said, they could +not see three yards, but down it all had to come. +There is a small stingless bee here, which “old man +Jim” called the sweat bee. It alights in swarms on +the face and hands, and prefers death to being dislodged +from its enjoyment. The heat, these bees, +the ants, the pium flies, the mosquitoes, made the +existence of Jim and his mates a misery. Jim merely +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_237'></a>237</span> +drawled about in a comic way. Fever came, and +mistrust of natives compelled him to dress a dummy, +put that in his hammock at night, while he slept in a +corner of the hut, one eye open, nursing a gun. +I could not see “old man Jim” ever having faith +that trains would run, or needed to run, where Indians +lurked in the bush, and jaguars nosed round +the hut at night. Why these sufferings then? But +we learned the line now penetrated into the forest +for sixty miles, and that beyond it there were camps, +where surveyors were seeing that further way was +made, and beyond them again, among the trees of +the interior, the surveyors were still, planning the +way the line should run when it had got so far. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +Though we could not get ashore, there was +enough to watch, if it were only the men leisurely +driving palm boles into the river, making a pier for +us. While at breakfast to-day a canoe of half-breeds +came flying towards us in pursuit of an +object which kept a little ahead of them in the river. +It passed close under our stern, and we saw it was +a peccary. The canoe ran level with it then, and a +man leaned over, catching the wild pig by a hind +leg, keeping its snout under water while another +secured its feet with rope. It was brought aboard +in bonds as a present for the Skipper, who begged +the natives to convey it below to the bunkers and +there release it. He said he would tame it. I saw +the eye of the beast as it lay on the deck champing +its tusks viciously, and guessed we should have some +interesting moments while kindness tried to reduce +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_238'></a>238</span> +that light in its eye. The peccary disappeared for +a few days. +</p> +<p> +There being nothing to do this fine morning, we +watched the cattle put ashore. This was not so +difficult a business as shipping them, for the beasts +now submitted quietly to the noose which was put +on their horns. The steam tackle hoisted them, they +were pushed overside, and dropped into the river. +Some natives in a canoe cleared the horns, and the +brute, swimming desperately in the strong current, +was guided to the bank. Some of the beasts being +already near death they were merely jettisoned. +The current bore them down stream, making feeble +efforts to swim—food for the alligators. We waited +for the turn of the black heifer. She was one of the +last. She was not led to the ship’s side. The tackle +was attached to her horns, and made taut before +her head was loosed. She made a furious lunge at +the men when her nose was free, but the winch +rattled, and she was brought up on her hind +legs, blaring at us all. In that ugly manner she was +walked on two legs across the deck, a heroine in +shameful guise, while the men laughed. She was +hoisted, and lowered into the river. She fought at +the waiting canoe with her feet, but at last the men +released her horns from the tackle. With only her +face above water she heaved herself, open mouthed, +at the canoe, trying to bite it, and then made some +almost successful efforts to climb into it. The canoe +men were so panic-stricken that they did nothing +but muddle one another’s efforts. The canoe rocked +dangerously. This wicked animal had no care for +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239'></a>239</span> +its own safety like other cattle. It surprised its +tormentors because it showed its only wish was to +kill them. Just in time the men paddled off for +their lives, the cow after them. Seeing she could +not catch them, she swam ashore, climbed the bank, +looking round then for a sight of the enemy—but +they were all in hiding—and then began browsing +in the scrub. +</p> +<p> +As leisurely as though life were without end, the +work on the pier proceeded; and we on the “Capella,” +who could not get ashore, with each of our +days a week long, looked round upon this remote +place of the American tropics till it seemed we had +never looked upon anything else. The days were +candent and vaporous, the heat by breakfast-time +being such as we know at home in an early afternoon +of the dog-days. The forest across the river, +about three hundred yards away, from sunrise till +eight o’clock, often was veiled in a white fog. There +would be a clear river, and a sky that was full day, +but not the least suspicion of a forest. We saw what +seemed a limitless expanse of bright water, which +merged into the opalescent sky walls. Such an invisible +fog melted from below, and then the revelation +of the dark base of the forest, in mid-distance, +was as if our eyes were playing tricks. The forest +appeared in the way one magic-lantern picture +grows through another. The last of the vapour +would roll upwards from the tree-tops for some +time, and you could believe the woods were smouldering +heavily. Thenceforward the quiet day +would be uninterrupted, except for the plunge of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span> +a heavy fish, the passing of a canoe, a visit from an +adventurous visitor from the shore, or the growing +of a cloud in the sky. We tried fishing, though +never got anything but some grey scaleless creatures +with feelers hanging about their gills. It +was not till the evening when the visitors usually +came that the day began really to move. The new +voices gave our saloon and cabins vivacity, and the +stories we heard carried us far and swiftly towards +the next breakfast-time. They were strange characters, +those visitors, usually Americans, but sometimes +we got an Englishman or a Frenchman. +They took possession of the ship. +</p> +<p> +There was an elderly man, Neil O’Brien, who was +often with us. At first I thought he was a very +exceptional character. He was one of the first +to visit our ship. I even felt a little timidity when +alone with him, for he had a habit of sitting limply, +looking at nothing in particular, and dumb, and +plainly he was a man whose thoughts ran in ways I +could not even surmise. His pale blue eyes would +turn upon me with that searching openness which +may mean childish innocence or madness, and I +could not forget the whispers I had heard of his +dangerously inflammable nature. I could not find +common footing with him for some time. My trouble +was that I had come out direct from a country +where few men are free, and so most of us live in +doubt of what would happen to us if we were to act +as though we were free men. Where, if a self-reliant +man contemptuously dares to a bleak and +perilous extremity, he makes all his lawful fellows +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_241'></a>241</span> +in-draw their timid breaths; that land where even +a reward has been instituted, as for merit, for uncomplaining +endurance under life-long hardships, +and called an old-age pension. You cannot live +much of your life with natural servants, the judicious +and impartial, the light shy, and those who +look twice carefully, but never leap, without betraying +some reflected pallor of their anæmia. O’Brien, +the quiet master of his own time, with his eyes I +could not read, and his gun, betrayed obliquely in +our casual talks together such an ingenuous indifference +to accepted things and authority, that I had +nothing to work with when gauging him. He was +his own standard of conduct. I judged his bearing +towards the authority of officials would be tolerant, +and even tender, as men use with wilful children. +He was not a rebel, as we understand it, one who +at last grows impatient and angry, and so votes for +the other party. I suppose he was not opposed to +authority, unless it were opposed to him. He was +outside any authority but his own. He lived without +State aid. He himself carried the gun, always +the symbol of authority, whether of a man or of a +State, and if any man had attempted to rob him +of his substance, certainly O’Brien would have shot +that man according to his own law and his own +prophecy, and would then have cooked his supper. +He surprised me for a day or two. I puzzled much +over this phenomenon of a free man, who took his +freedom so quietly and naturally that he never +even discussed the subject, as we do, with enthusiasm, +in England. What else? It was long since +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_242'></a>242</span> +he was separated from his mother. Soon I found +he was but a type. I met others like him in this +country. Their innocence of the limitations of a +careful man like myself was disconcerting. Once +O’Brien casually proposed that I should “beat it,” +cut the ship, and make a traverse of that wild place +to distant Colombia, to some unknown spot by the +approximate source of a certain Amazon tributary, +where he knew there was gold. First I laughed, +and then found, from his glance of resentful candour, +that he was quite serious. He generously +meant this honour for me; and I think it was an +honour for an elderly, quiet, and seasoned privateer +like O’Brien, to invite me to be his only companion +in a region where you must travel with alert courage +and wide experience, or perish. I have learned +since he has gone to that far place alone. But what +a time he will have. He will have all of it to himself. +Well—I was thinking, when I refused him, of my +old age pension. I should like to get it. +</p> +<p> +Men like O’Brien are called here, quite respectfully, +“bad men,” and “land sailors.” The lawless +lands of the South American republics—lawless in +this sense, that their laws need be little reckoned +by the daring, the strong, and the unscrupulous—seem +particularly attractive to men of the O’Brien +type. I got to like them. I found them, when once +used to their feral minds, always entertaining, and +often instructive, for their naïve opinions cut our +conventions across the middle, showing the surprising +insides. They dwell without bounds. As I +have read somewhere, we do not think of the buffalo, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_243'></a>243</span> +which treats a continent as pasturage, as we do +of the cow which kicks over the pail at milking time +and jumps the yard fence. These men regard +priest, magistrate and soldier with an indifference +which is not even contemptible indifference. They +are merely callous to the calculated effect of uniforms. +When in luck, they are to be found in the +cities, shy and a little miserable, having a good time. +Their money gone, they set out on lonely journeys +across this continent which show our fuss over +authentic explorers to be a little overdone. O’Brien +was such a man. He told me he had not slept under +a roof for years. He had no home, he confessed +to me once. Any place on the map was the same +to him. He had spent his life drifting alone between +Patagonia and Canada, looking for what he +never found, if he knew what he was looking for. +His travels were insignificant to him. He might +have been a tramp talking of English highways. +As he droned on one evening I began to doubt he +was unaware that his was an extraordinary narrative. +I guessed his unconcern must be an air. +It would have been, in my case. I looked straight +over at him, and he hesitated nervously, and +stopped. Was he wasting my time, he asked? +Prospecting for his illusion, his last journey was +over the Peruvian Andes into Colombia. He broke +an arm in a fall on the mountains, set it himself, +and continued. On the Rio Japura an Indian shot +an arrow through his leg, and O’Brien dropped in +the long grass, breaking the arrow short each side +of the limb, and in an ensuing long watchful duel +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244'></a>244</span> +presently shot the Indian through the throat. And +then, coming out on the Amazon, his canoe overturned, +and the pickle jar full of gold dust was +lost. He put no emphasis on any particular, not +even on the loss of his gold. +</p> +<p> +He was pointed out to me first as a singular fellow +who kept doves; a tall, gaunt man, with a +deliberate gait, perhaps fifty years of age, in old +garments, long boots laced to the knees, and a +battered pith helmet. He strolled along with his +eyes cast down. If you met him abroad, and +stopped him, he answered you with a few mumbles +while looking away over your shoulder. His big +mouth drew down a grizzled moustache cynically, +and one of his front teeth was gold plated. Before +he passed on he looked at you with the haughty but +doubtful stare of an animal. He seemed too slow +and dull to be combustible. I ceased to credit those +tales of his berserker rage. He always moved in +that deliberate way, as if he were careful, but bored. +Or he stood before his doves, and made bubbling +noises in his loose, stringy throat. He embarrassed +me with a present of many of the trophies he had +secured in years of travel in the wilds. One day a +negro and O’Brien were in mild dispute on the +jetty, and the negro called the white a Yankee. +The river was twenty feet below swiftly carrying +its logs. O’Brien took the big black, and with +vicious ease threw him into the water. The negro +missed the floating rubbish, and struck out for the +bank. No one could help him. By good luck he +managed to get to the waterside; yet O’Brien +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_245'></a>245</span> +meanwhile had hurried his long legs over the ties of +the skeleton structure, his face transfigured, and +was waiting for the negro to emerge, a spade in his +hand. But under other circumstances I have not +the least doubt he would have fought the Brazilian +army single-handed, and so finished, in defence of +that same negro. +</p> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_246'></a>246</span><a name='chIV' id='chIV'></a>IV</h2> +<p> +Night brought one of these men to each of our +cabins, and put a party of them drinking in the +saloon. After my habit of thinking of people in +crowds, as an Anglican Church, or an ethical society, +a labour movement, a federation of proprietors, +or suffragists, or Jews, or stockbrokers’ +clerks, crowds moving with massed exactitude by +the thousand at least, when prompted, this man +O’Brien standing on his two legs by himself, old +man Jim, and the rest, each of them defending +and running his own particular kingdom, and governing +that, ill or well—for I saw them fairly +drunk now and then—and never waiting for a word +from any master or delegate, made me wonder +whether till then I had met a living man, or had +heard merely of a population of bundles of newspapers. +These men had no leaders. They attended +to all that. Each had to find his own way. They +were unrelated to anything I knew, and beyond +the help of even a candidate for Parliament. I +suppose they had never heard of a Defence League. +They could have found no use for it, because a +challenge to defend themselves would never catch +them unwilling or unable. Each man soldiered himself, +and perhaps was rather too ready to deal with +a show of insolence, or an assumption of power in +another. Yet they were not the violent and headstrong +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_247'></a>247</span> +fellows of romantic tales. They were simple +and kind, submitting with a sick smile to the prickly +ridicule of their fellows round the board. They +regarded meat, drink, and tobacco as common; they +were ready to leap into the dark for a friend. +</p> +<p> +There was one young bearded Englishman +among them who was more than a friendly figure +to me. All were friendly; but the Americans bore +themselves with the easy assurance of the favoured +heirs of Adam; though their successful work in that +tropical swamp perhaps justified them. The Englishman +had less of that assurance of a unique +favour which was so completely bestowed that irresolution +never shook the aplomb of its lucky inheritors. +He came into my cabin one night, hoping he +was not disturbing me, and bringing as a present a +sheaf of native arrows tipped with red and blue +macaw feathers, as he had promised. +</p> +<p> +“They come from Bolivia—forest Indians—three +hundred miles from here.” He explained he +had reached our point in the Brazilian forest from +the Pacific side. He had crossed the mountains, +descended to the level jungle at the base of the +Andean wall, and followed the rivers eastward, +alone in a canoe till he chanced upon our steamer +unloading Welsh fuel into a forest clearing. To +a new-comer in a mysterious land, this was a clear +invitation to listen, and I looked at the man expectantly. +He was lighting his pipe. The country +through which he must have passed was unknown, +as our maps showed. But he simply indicated that +manner of his advent, as though it were the same +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_248'></a>248</span> +as any other, and sat looking through the door of +my cabin, smoking, absently gazing at the night +scene on the afterdeck. +</p> +<p> +The hombres were working at the hold immediately +below us, their labours made obscurely bright +by a roaring flame of volatalised oil. The light +pulsed on the face of the Englishman, and +chequered my cabin in black and luminous gold. +Of all the region of forest about us nothing showed +but a cloud of leaves, which leaned towards us out +of the night, supported on two pale, tremulous +columns. The hold of the ship was a black rectangle, +and the almost naked negroes and brown +men moving about it, or peering into the chasm, +were like sinister figures on an inscrutable business +about the verge of the pit. They were not men, but +the debris of men, moving with awful volition, +merely a bright cadaverous mask hovering in a void, +or two arms upheld, or a black headless trunk. For +the roaring illuminant on deck dismembered the +ship and its occupants, bursting into the weight of +surrounding night as a fixed explosion, beams rigid +and glowing, and shadows in long solid bars radiating +from its incandescent heart. +</p> +<p> +“I’m glad you’re here,” said my companion. He +never gave me his name, and I do not know it now. +“I hav’n’t heard home talk for a year. Hav’n’t +heard much of anything. A little Spanish coming +along; and here some American.” +</p> +<p> +We continued looking at the puzzling, disrupted +scene outside for some time without speaking, secure +in a chance and lucky sympathy. Then a basket +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_249'></a>249</span> +of coal tipped against a hatch coaming and whirled +away, scattering the men. We rose to see if any +were hurt. +</p> +<p> +“Curious, this desperate haste, isn’t it?” said the +Englishman. “At every point of the compass from +here there’s at least a thousand miles of wilderness. +Excepting at this place it wouldn’t matter to anybody +whether a thing were done to-night, or next +week, or not at all. But look at those fellows—you’d +think this was a London wharf, and a tide +had to be caught. Here they are on piece-work and +overtime, where there’s nothing but trees, alligators, +tigers, and savages. An unknown Somebody in +Wall Street or Park Lane has an idea, and this is +what it does. The potent impulse! It moves men +who don’t know the language of New York and +London down to this desolation. It begins to ferment +the place. The fructifying thought! Have +you seen the graveyard here? We’ve got a fine +cemetery, and it grows well. Still, this railway +will get done. Yes, people who don’t know what +it’s for, they’ll make a little of it, and die, and more +who don’t know what it’s for, and won’t use it when +it’s made, they’ll finish it. This line will get its +freights of precious rubber moving down to replenish +the motor tyres of civilisation, and the chap who +had the bright idea, but never saw this place, and +couldn’t live here a week, or shovel dirt, or lay a +track, and wouldn’t know raw rubber if he saw it, +he’ll score again. Progress, progress! The wilderness +blossoms as the rose. It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” +</p> +<p> +I was just a little annoyed. After all, I was part +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_250'></a>250</span> +of the job. I’d made my sacrifices, too. But I +admitted what he said. Why not? It was something, +that fancy, that every rattle of the winch +outside, bringing up another load, moved abruptly +under the impulse of another thought from London +Town—six thousand miles away; two months’ +travel. Great London Town! It was true. If +London shut off its good will that winch would +stop, and the locomotives would come to a stand to +rot under the trees, and the lianas would lock their +wheels; and in a month the forest would have +foundered the track under a green flood. Where +the American accent was dominant, the jaguars +would moan at night. That long wound in the +forest would be annealed and invisible in a year. +While it persisted, the idea could conquer and maintain. +</p> +<p> +“Yes, but it’s all chance,” said the Englishman. +</p> +<p> +“That uncertain and impersonal will controls us. +Have you ever worked desperately, the fever in +your bones, at a link in a job the rest of which was +already abandoned, though you didn’t know it? Yet +perhaps even so there is something gained, the +knowledge that all you do is fugitive, that there is +nothing but an idea, which may be withdrawn without +warning at any moment, under the most complicated +and inspiring structure. Having that fore-knowledge +you can work with a light heart, secure +against betrayal, ready with your own laugh when +the mockery comes. A community finds it must +have a bridge; Wall Street hears of it, and finances +a contractor, who finds an architect to design it. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_251'></a>251</span> +An army builds it. And then this blessed old planet +moves in its sleep, and the obstructing river flows +another way. Well for us we can rarely see the +beginning and the end of the work we are doing. +Most of the men on this job have not been here +three months. They come and shovel a little dirt, +and die. Or they get frightened, and go. But that +idea, that remains here, using up men and forests, +using up all that comes within its invisible influence, +drawing in material and pressing it into its unseen +mould, so that out of the invisible sprouts a railway, +projecting length by length, transmuted men and +timber. A courtier once gave his cloak to Queen +Elizabeth to save her feet; but what is that when +these men give their bodies to make an easier road +for the commerce of their fellows? They say every +sleeper on a tropical line represents a man. The +conquering human, who lives by dying! +</p> +<p> +“The unseen idea remains—some stranger’s idea—of +gain; profit out of a necessity not his, filled by +other men unknown to him. You can’t escape it. +First and last, it uses you. It uses you up. You +may twist and double, but ‘when me you fly, I am +the wings,’ as Emerson says. Once, once, I deliberately +tried to escape from it, to get out of its range. +I thought it was local, that idea, a mean and local +urge. I believed I had escaped it too. I was young, +though, then. But we all try when we’re young. +There is but one way of escape—you may use up +others; but that isn’t an easy way of escape, for +some of us. +</p> +<p> +“No alternative but that, and a man cannot take +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_252'></a>252</span> +it. There you are; use, or be used. Once I thought +I had escaped. Once upon a time, every morning +at eight o’clock, I went to an office in Leadenhall +Street. Know that place? My first job. I was +one in a crowd of fifty clerks. We sat on high +stools, facing each other across double-desks. There +were brass rails above each desk, where we rested +ledgers and letter baskets. Each of us marked his +stool somewhere with a personal symbol. My own, +my sole point of vantage there, my support in life, +that high stool; and I would have been prepared to +maintain it upright—following our office code of +honour, I as firm as may be upon it—even if, +treacherously blabbing, I had had to deprive all +my fellow-clerks of their supports in life. We were +not a community, working out a common ideal. An +idea used us. And that was a job I got as a favour, +mark you. Some one had known my dead father. +</p> +<p> +“I knew the name of my boss, but that was all. +I never spoke to him. I used to see him, a middle-aged +man with sad eyes and a petulant mouth, clean +shaved, and bald headed. He came in a carriage +every morning, and went straight to a room kept +from us by opaque glass. I used to wonder what +he did in there. He rarely came into the office. +When he did come into it, his was the only voice +which ever spoke there above a whisper; a sharp, +startling, and minatory voice. But we rarely saw +him there. A bell would ring, a sinister summons +on the ceiling over the desk of a principal clerk, and +that chap would drop anything he was doing, anything, +and go. I’ve seen my senior clerk, an elderly +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_253'></a>253</span> +man in spectacles, jump as if he’d been struck when +his bell whirred. It was such an awfully solemn +place. Nobody ever thought of calling across that +room, but would go round to another desk, and +whisper. You felt you were part of a grave and +secret plot, scribbling away to bring it to a completion, +and that all your fellow-conspirators were +possible traitors. +</p> +<p> +“But the plot was never complete. It went on +and on, day after day, in an everlasting, suffocating +sanctity, with the opaque shining glass front of the +private room overlooking us, a luminous face entirely +blank, though you knew the brain behind it +saw everything, and was aware of all. It even +knew old Beckwith, my senior, had got deeply into +debt through his wife’s doctor’s bills, and had been +fool enough to go to the moneylenders. His bell +sprang a summons one morning; in Beckwith went; +came out again, looking grey, poor old perisher, +went straight to the hat rack, passed awkwardly +through the swing doors, letting in a burst of traffic +noise from the street, while we watched him furtively, +and that was the last of Beckwith. I have +heard our boss was a rigid moralist. He said a +man who drank, gambled, or got into debt, not +being able to control his own life, was no good for +the business of another man. A system should have +no bowels. Out the incompetent had to go. It was +Spartan, but it paid twenty per cent., I’ve heard. +Once we had a rebellious interruption of our sacred +quiet, but only once. I never knew exactly why it +was. We had a huge factory somewhere in the East +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_254'></a>254</span> +End—Cubitt Town way—and one afternoon a woman +came to the counter, and asked for the cashier. +She was so obviously East End, in a shawl, that the +counter clerk was shocked at the bare idea of it. +She kept demanding the cashier. The clerk politely, +but nervously, because of her rising, emotional +voice, resisted her. She began to shout. We all +stopped to see what would happen. Shouting there! +She was still crying out—she wanted justice for a +daughter whose body had got into a machine, I +think—and the cashier was forced to appear. I was +surprised that he was so quiet with her. She was +weeping hysterically at our polished mahogany +counter, with its immaculate blotters, and flat, +crystal ink-pots, where there were men in silk hats, +looking at the unusual scene sideways and smiling. +She could not be pacified; and suddenly she picked +up an ink-pot, and hurled it through that frozen +glass face of the private room. A devastating +crash. The shocking, raucous horror of blasphemy. +The silence following was unendurable. We looked +to the private door for outraged power to appear. +Nothing happened. A policeman came and removed +the woman, the cashier smiling indulgently +at the officer, and shaking his head. The system, +after a momentary halt, moved on again, broad, +serene, and irresistible. +</p> +<p> +“I never catch the smell of an open Bible now but +it conjures a picture of that arid office, angular, +polished, and hard, where the ledgers before the +disciplined men exude a dusty, leathery smell. But +there I stayed for years, smelling it, and making out +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_255'></a>255</span> +bills of lading and invoices. It was my lot. There +was a junior who assisted me, a chap with flat, shiny +hair parted in the middle. He had a habit of whispering +about girls, when he was not whispering +about the music hall last night, or the football next +Saturday. When the cashier, a young man, and a +relative of the boss, came walking down the avenue +of desks, his sharp eyes narrowed to slits, and his +mouth a little open, it was funny to see my junior +put on speed, and get an intent and earnest look in +his face. +</p> +<p> +“When I was done for the day, I’d get my book +out of my bag, and wonder, going home, whether +I’d ever see those places I read about, Java, India, +and the Congo, where you went about in a white +helmet and a white uniform, and did things in a +large, directive way, helping Indians and niggers to +make something of their country. Not this niggling, +selfish, pretty chandlery written large in stone, mahogany, +and glass, disguised in magnitude and +gravity. Cocoanut palms and forests with untold +tales. But like the boys who found fun with the +girls, with music halls and football, but were afraid +of the sack. I did nothing. I was even afraid of +the girls. +</p> +<p> +“One day as usual I went with some of the other +fellows to lunch, at an A.B.C. shop. We always +went there. The girls knew us and would smile at +our jokes. Small coffee and a scone and butter. +My life! I found a <em>Telegraph</em> some one had left on +a chair, and I read it more because I didn’t want to +listen to that virulent abuse of our mean cashier—he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_256'></a>256</span> +certainly was mean—than because I wanted to +read. In it, by chance, I noticed an advertisement +for a book-keeper who would go to the tropics. +That I noted. Of course, I stood no chance. But I +could try. +</p> +<p> +“That night at home I wrote an application. I +wrote it, I think, a dozen times, till the letter was +impeccable, a thing of beauty and precision. I felt +this was a most momentous affair. Whether it was +the excitement of doing something in the veritable +direction of romance, or whether it was through +reading ‘Waterman’s Wanderings’ I don’t know, +but I remember a curious dream I had that night. +I was alone in a forest which made me afraid and +expectant. It was still and secretive. You know +the empty stage in an unnatural, rosy light, with a +glorified distance in which you expect a devil or a +fairy queen to appear. There was a hammock hanging +motionless from a branch. Something was in it, +but I could not see what. That hammock was as +still as the leaves hanging over it. Then the hammock +shook, and a girl rose in it and smiled at me. +She was tiny, but adult, and her eyes were shining +in the dusk of her hair, which fell thickly over her +little, coffee-coloured breasts. +</p> +<p> +“A telegram came for me, just as I was leaving +for the office one morning. It required me to call +on Mr. Utah R. Brewster at the Hotel Palace, +that very day, but at a time when I should have been +industriously at work for another. The question +was, should I catch that morning ’bus I had never +missed—or take all the possibilities beyond this door +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_257'></a>257</span> +which promised to open on romance? I made up +my mind, which went drunk with rebellion. I got +into my seventh-day clothes. Utah R. Brewster +and freedom! The Blackwall ’bus—do you remember +those old hearses, with a straight companion-ladder +to the upper deck where the outside passengers +sat, knees up, back to back along the middle?—well, +it had to go by the office, and I was actually in +doubt whether, aware of my unprecedented revolt, +it would stop outside the familiar glum office and +lawfully refuse to budge till I alighted. It went on, +blundering past the place, all strangely unconscious +of what it was doing, bearing me with my courage +screwed down to bursting-point. The driver even +said what a lovely May morning it was. +</p> +<p> +“The Hotel Palace! I had often seen that ornate +building when Saturday afternoon release took me +west. Red carpeting on the steps, a glimpse of +ferns, women all as strange as exotics going in and +out, and between me and it a chasm which cut clear +to the very centre of the earth. I carried my attack +beyond the portals. It was nothing, after all. A +flunkey put me in a chair too full of cushions to be +easy, and I watched men and women who, at that +time of the day, when all the folk I knew were making +desperate and cunning efforts to keep their +places here safe—I watched those men and women +behaving as though all eternity were theirs, and it +was the angels’ business to bear them up. It was as +great a mystery to me whose every week-day morning +was the inviolate possession of another, as +Joshua’s solar miracle. I was called, led along a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_258'></a>258</span> +silent corridor full of shut doors, and after a long +walk found myself beyond all the noise of London, +far in solitude with a man in a dressing-gown, who +stood before a fire, working a cigar with strong, +mobile lips. He put up a monocle, and looked at +me shyly. Then began to walk up and down the +hearth-rug, talking. +</p> +<p> +“‘Well,’ he said. ‘All right. I guess you’ll do. +Say, you look pretty fit. You don’t drink, eh? +Don’t get nervous when you see the dead, huh? +All right.’ He put his monocle back into his eye, +and grinned at me. I told him, in a rush, how much +I wanted to see the tropics. He said nothing. He +got a large blue map, intricate with white lines, and +told me of The Company. The Job. +</p> +<p> +“I did not fully comprehend it then. I don’t now. +He left out too much. There was no beginning and +no ending. There was hardly a middle. He merely +indicated unrelated points; but at any rate the +points were so widely sundered and so different that +the bare indication of them conveyed a sense of an +enormous undertaking, difficult, important, and +necessary. Work for an army. I should be but an +insignificant sutler in that army. But at least I +should be one in it, one of those putting this important +affair through for future generations. The +communal idea, this. The very size of it gave me a +sense of security. It was too broad-based to collapse. +Success was inherent in its impersonal nature. +A state affair. Brewster briefly mentioned +some showy names, names of great financiers. They +were my generals, and I should never see them. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_259'></a>259</span> +But their reputations were partly in my keeping. +</p> +<p> +“Hallelujah! I had escaped. I never went back +to the office. I never replied to its curt inquiry. +In a week I sailed from Liverpool. Much I heard, +on the mail boat, of The Company, this new enterprise +which was going to make a tropical region one +of the richest countries in the world; develop it, +fling its riches to all. In four weeks more I arrived +at a small tropical island, at which I had to wait for +The Company’s tug to take me to the mainland and +my business. +</p> +<p> +“There was a club-house ashore, where I stayed +for a few days. There I met some men who had +been working for The Company, but for incomprehensible +reasons were leaving this work to which I +had come so eagerly; they were returning home. +They were strangely pallid and limp as though the +dark of some hot damp underground had turned +their blood white. Their talk was drawled out, the +weary utterance of the disillusioned who yet showed +fate no resentment. They might have been the dead +speaking, long untouched by any warm human +vanity. I was really glad to get away from them. +A tug conveyed me to the mouth of the river, up +which I was to proceed to my station. I joined a +shallow-draught river steamer. +</p> +<p> +“The river, that gateway to my dream come true, +was a narrow place, a cleft in universal trees, every +tree the same. Mangroves, I suppose. Soon the +forest changed, often rising on each bank to meet +overhead. Those were uncertain places of leaves +and dead timber, and as quiet and still as churchyard +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_260'></a>260</span> +yews at midnight. The thumps of our paddle-wheels +did not sound pleasant. Deeper and deeper +we went, making turns so often that I wondered +how we could ever be got out again. Sometimes in +an open space we saw a flock of birds. I saw no +other sign of life. There were no men. All my +fellow-passengers—there were ten of us—were +newcomers; some from the States, some from Germany, +and a Frenchman. I was the only Englishman. +Each of us knew what was expected of himself; +none of us knew what that was which all would +be doing. There were clerks with us, miners, civil +engineers, timber men, and a metallurgist. We +speculated much, were perhaps a trifle anxious, but +reposed generally on the great idea. +</p> +<p> +“In two hundred miles we reached a clearing. +Why it should have been at that particular place did +not show. But there it was, the tangible link in an +invisible, encompassing scheme. It was my place. +I landed with my box. There was a white man on +the river bank, sitting on a sea-chest, his head in his +hands. He looked up. ‘You the victim?’ he said. +‘Well, there you are’—sweeping a lazy arm round +the small enclosed ground—‘that’s your job. +There’s your store. There’s your house. That’s +where the niggers live.’ +</p> +<p> +“‘Pedro!’ he called. A copper-coloured native, +in shorts and a wide grass hat, loafed over to us. +‘This is your servant,’ he said. ‘He’s a bit mad, but +he’s not a fool. He’s all right. Keep your eye on +the niggers though. They are fools, and they’re not +mad. You’ll find the inventory and the accounts +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_261'></a>261</span> +in the desk in your hut. The quinine’s there too. +Take these keys. Oh, the mosquito curtain’s got +holes in it. See you mend it. I couldn’t. Had +the shakes too bad. Cheer up!’ +</p> +<p> +“He went aboard. The steamer saluted me with +its whistle, turned a corner, and the sound of its +paddles diminished, died. I seemed to concentrate, +as though I had never known myself till that instant +when the sound of the steamer failed, when the last +connection with busy outer life was gone. I could +smell something like stephanotis. In that dead +silence my hearing was so acute that I caught a faint +rustling, which I thought might be the sound of +things growing. I turned and went to my hut, sad +Pedro following with my box. The cheap American +clock in the hut made a terrific noise, filling the +afternoon with its rapid and ridiculous beat, trying +to recall to me that time still was moving quickly, +when it was quite evident that time had now come +for me to an absolute stand in a broad-glowing +noon. I sat surveying things from a chair. Then +leisurely took my envelope and read my instructions—how +I was to receive and take charge of shovels, +lanterns, machinery parts, railway metals, soap, +cooking utensils, axes, pumps, and so on, which consignments +I must divide and parcel according to directions +to come, marking each consignment for its +own destination. The names of a hundred destinations +I should hear about in my future work were +given. They were names meaning nothing to me. +Then followed some brief rules for a novice in the +governing of men. Through all the rules ran an +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_262'></a>262</span> +incongruous note for such a place as that, a reminiscence +of Leadenhall Street and its miserable +whine. Yet it hardly disturbed me. I sat and +thought over this expansion of my life. A melancholy +bird called in two notes at intervals. The +leaves which formed the thatch of my hut hung a +long coarse black fringe at the door. My walls +were of leaves, and the floor a raft of small logs, +still with the bark on, just clear of the ground. +The sunlight came through one dark wall, studding +it with sparks. No. That dubious and familiar note +in the instructions was nothing. I was clear beyond +all that now—all those occasions for carking +anxiety which deprave the worker, and make him +hate the task to which whipping necessity drives +him. The domineering manner of my instructions, +the fretfulness of the old correspondence I found +carelessly scattered about, addressed to my predecessor, +was the illusion. The forest behind the hut, +the black river, the quiet, the insects, the foreign +smell, the puzzling men, my men to command, who +kept passing without in the violent light, they were +not from books any more, they made evidence direct +to my own senses now. I was authority and providence, +moulding and protecting as I thought right. +This place should be kept reasonable, four square, +my plot of earth to be clean and unashamed, frankly +open to the eye of the sky. I would see what I +could do; and I would start now. I laughed at +authority—all I could see of it—reflected in a fragment +of mirror kept to a door tree by nail heads; the +funny hat and the shirt which did not matter, bad +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_263'></a>263</span> +as it was, for I was authority there by every reason +of that white shirt; and the beard which was coming. +Latitude, my boy, latitude! I strolled out to survey +my little world. +</p> +<p> +“Of the weeks that followed, nothing comes back +so strongly as some quite irrelevant incidents. A +tiger I saw one morning, swimming the river. +Pedro, insensible for two days with fever; and +death, which came to over-rule my viceroy authority. +The first blow! There was a flock of parrots +which visited us one day, and it surprised me that +the men should regard them merely as food. But +there was work to be done, and in a definite way; +but why we did it—and I know we did it well—and +how it joined up with the Job, I could not see. That +was not my affair. There was the inventory to be +checked, for one thing, and before I was through +with it the work had fairly imprisoned me, and the +new romantic circumstances became blurred and +over written. That inventory was so extravagantly +wrong that in a week I was going about heated and +swearing at the least provocation. It was fraudulent. +There was a sporadic disorder of goods irreconcilable +with their neat records, though each record +bore the signs and counter-signs of Heaven +knows how many departments of the Company. +All an inextricable welter of calm errors, neatly +initialled by unknown fools. +</p> +<p> +“Every few days a steamer of the Company +would call, loaded with more goods, or would come +down river to me to take goods away. The confusion +grew and interpenetrated, till I felt that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_264'></a>264</span> +nothing but dumping all that was there into the +river, and beginning again with a virgin station, +would ever clear the muddle. The place grew maddening +through ridiculous blundering from outside. +I had six men to attend to, all with temperatures +and all useless. The arrears of accounts, my work +on sweltering nights while the very niggers slept, +the arrears grew. A steam-shovel came, without its +shovel, and not all my written protests to headquarters +could complete that irrational creature lying in +sections rotting in sun and rain, minus the very +reason for its existence, an impediment to us and an +irritation. Constant urgent orders came to me from +up country to ship there this abortion. I declined, +in the name of sanity. There followed peremptory +demands for a complete steam-shovel, violent with +animosity for me, the unknown idiot who obstinately +refused to let a steam-shovel go, just as though I +was in love with the damned thing, and could not +part with it. But I understood those letters. They +were from chaps, irritated, like myself, by all this +awful tomfoolery. And from headquarters came +other letters, shot with a curt note of innocent insolence, +asking whether I was asleep there, or dead, +and adding, once, that if I could not keep up communications +better I had better make way for one +who could. There were plenty who could do it. +Pleasant, wasn’t it? They complained querulously +of my accounts, almost insinuating that I debited +more wages to the Company than I credited to the +men. I had too many sick men, they said. Did I +pamper them? And again, I had too many who +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_265'></a>265</span> +died; I must take care; they did not want the local +government to get alarmed. +</p> +<p> +“The time came when I got amusement out of +those letters from headquarters; for their faults +were so plain that I conceived the headquarters +staff having much time to spend, and a sort of instruction +at large to administer ginger to men, like +myself, on the spot, on general principles, so to keep +us not only alive, but brisk and anxious; and doing +it with the inconsequential abandon of little children +playing with sharp knives. I got comfort from that +view; and when I looked round my placid domain +where my men, with whom I was on good terms, +laboured easily and rightly under the still woods, I +told myself I was still fretting because the business +was new, that things would come easier soon. But +at night I felt I was anxious exactly because it was +all so old and familiar to me. +</p> +<p> +“One day, having given a group of men at work +in a distant corner of the clearing some advice, I +noticed a little path enter the wood beside a big +tree. I had never been into the forest. To tell the +truth, I had had no time. The trees stood round us, +keeping us from—what? I had always felt a little +doubt of what was there and could not be seen. I +turned inwards. I found myself at once in a cool +gloom. I went on curiously, peering each side into +those shadows, where nothing moved, and in an +hour came to another clearing, smaller than my +own, and with no river in view. By the sun, which +now I saw again, this place was north of our station. +The opening was being rapidly choked by a new +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_266'></a>266</span> +growth. I was turning for home again, for the +afternoon was late, when I saw a hammock slung +between two saplings beside a dismantled hut. I +could just see the hammock and hut through the +scrub. I went over there, and was so carefully looking +for snakes and beastly things in the bush that I +had arrived before I knew it. The hut had been +long abandoned. The hammock had something in +it, and I was turning something in my mind as I +went up to it. There were some ragged clothes in +the bottom of it, partly covering bones, and among +the rags was a globe of black hair. +</p> +<p> +“Next morning I woke late, feeling I had gone +wrong. My hands were yellow and my finger nails +blue, and I was shaking with cold. But the tootling +of an up-coming steamer forced me to business. +The steamer was towing six lighters, filled with +labourers. They were Poles, I think. Afterwards, +I learned, some hundreds of these men had been +collected for us somewhere by a clever, business-like +recruiting agent, who promised each poor wretch a +profitable time in the Garden of Eden. My responsibility, +thirty of them, was landed. They +stood by the river, gaping about them, wondering, +some alarmed, more of them angry, most clad in +stuffy woollens, poor souls. Having the fever, I +was not very interested. I told my negro foreman +to find them shelter and to put them to work. We +were making our clearing larger, and were building +more store-houses. +</p> +<p> +“Something like the pale morning light which +wakens you, weary from a fitful sleep, to the clear +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_267'></a>267</span> +apprehension again of an urgent trouble which has +filled the night with dreams, I came through each +bout of fever to know there was really trouble outside +with the new men. Daily I had to crawl about, +shivering, my head dizzy with quinine, till the fever +came near its height, when I got into my hammock, +and would lie there, waiting, burning and dry, tremulous +with an anxiety I could not shape. Sometimes +then I saw my big negro foreman come to the +door, look at me, as though wishing to say something, +but leave, reluctantly, when I motioned him +away. +</p> +<p> +“One morning I was better, but hardly able to +walk, when shouts and a running fight, which I +could see through the door, showed me the Poles had +mutinied. There was a hustling gang of them outside +my door, filling it with haggard, furious faces. +I could not understand them, but one presently began +to shout in French. They refused to work. +The food was bad. They wanted meat. They +wanted their contracts fulfilled. They wanted +bread, clothes, money, passages out of the country. +They had been fooled and swindled. They were +dying. I argued plaintively with that man, but it +made him shout and gesticulate. At that the voices +of all rose in a passionate tumult, knives and axes +flourishing in the sunlight. In a sudden cold ferocity, +not knowing what I was doing, I picked up my +empty gun—I had no ammunition—and moved +down on them. They held for a moment, then broke +ground, and walked away quickly, looking back +with fear and malice. Next day they had gone. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_268'></a>268</span> +Yes, actually. The poor devils. They had gone, +with the exception of a few with the fever. They +had taken to that darkness around us, to find a way +to the coast. Talk of the babes in the wood! The +men had no food, no guide, and had they known the +right direction they could not have followed it. If +the Company did not take you out of that land, +you stayed there; and if the Company did not feed +you there, you died. No creature could leave that +clearing, and survive, unless I willed it. The forest +and the river kept my men together as effectively as +though they were marooned without a boat on a +deep-sea island. Those men were never heard of +again. Nobody was to blame. Whom could you +blame? The Company did not desire their death. +Simply, not knowing what they were doing, those +poor fellows walked into the invisibly moving machinery +of the Job, not knowing it was there, and +were mutilated. +</p> +<p> +“We had news of the same trouble with the Poles +up river. Some of the mutineers tried to get to +the sea on rafts. Such amazing courage was but +desperation and a complete ignorance of the place +they were in. One such raft did pass our place. +Some of them were prone on it, others squatting; +one man got on his feet as the raft swung by our +clearing, and emptied his revolver into us. A few +days later another raft floated by, close in, with six +men lying upon it. They were headless. Somewhere, +the savages had caught them asleep. +</p> +<p> +“No. I was not affected as much as you might +think. I began to look upon it all with insensitive +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_269'></a>269</span> +serenity. I was getting like the men I met on the +islands, months before. I saw us all caught by something +huge and hungry, a viewless, impartial appetite +which swallowed us all without examination; +which was slowly eating me. I began to feel I +should never leave that place, and did not care. +Why should others want to leave it, then? Often, +through weakness, the trees around us seemed to me +to sway, to be veiled in a thin mist. The heat did +not weigh on my skin, but on my dry bones. I was +parched body and mind, and when the men came +with their grievances I felt I could shoot any of +them, for very weariness, to escape argument. The +insolence from headquarters I filed for reference no +longer, but lit my pipe with it. But the correspondence +ceased at length, and because now I was callous +to it, I failed to notice it had stopped. +</p> +<p> +“Some vessels passed down river, coming suddenly +to view, a rush of paddles, and were gone, +tootling their whistles. The work went on, mechanically. +The clearing grew. The sheds spread +one by one. The inventory was kept, the accounts +were dealt with. There came a time when I was +forced to remember that the steamer had not called +for ten days. We were running short of food. I +had a number of sick, but no quinine. The men, +those quick, faithful fellows with the dog-like, patient +eyes, they looked to me, and I was going to +fail them. I made pills of flour to look like quinine, +for the fever patients, trying to cure them by faith. +I wrote a report to headquarters, which I knew +would get me my discharge; I was not polite. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_270'></a>270</span> +There was no meat. We tried dough fried in lard. +When I think of the dumb patience of those black +fellows in their endurance for an idea of which they +knew nothing, I am amazed at the docility and kindness +inherent in common men. They will give their +lives for nothing, if you don’t tell them to do it, but +only let them trust you to take them to the sacrifice +they know nothing about. +</p> +<p> +“That went on for a month. We were in rags. +We were starved. We were scarecrows. No +steamer had been by the place, from either direction, +for a month. Then a vessel came. I did not +know the chap in charge. He seemed surprised to +see us there. He opened his eyes at our gaunt crew +of survivors, shocked. Then he spoke. +</p> +<p> +“‘Don’t you know?’ he asked. +</p> +<p> +“Even that ridiculous question had no effect on +me. I merely eyed him. I was reduced to an impotent, +dumb query. I suppose I was like Jack +the foreman, a gaping, silent, pathetic interrogation. +At last I spoke, and my voice sounded miles +away. ‘Well, what do you want here?’ +</p> +<p> +“‘I’ve come for that steam shovel. I’ve bought it.’ +</p> +<p> +“The man was mad. My sick men wanted physic. +We all wanted food. But this stranger had come to +us just to take away our useless steam shovel. ‘I +thought you knew,’ he said. ‘The Company’s +bought out. Some syndicate’s bought ’em out. A +month ago. Thought the Company would be too +successful. Spoil some other place. There’s no +Company now. They’re selling off. What about +that steam shovel?’” +</p> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_271'></a>271</span><a name='chV' id='chV'></a>V</h2> +<p> +We had 5200 tons of cargo, and nearly all of it was +patent fuel. This was to be put into baskets, hauled +up, and emptied into railway trucks run out on the +jetty alongside. We watched the men at work for +a few days and nights, and judged we should be at +Porto Velho for a month. I saw for myself long +rambles in the forest during that time of golden +leisure, but saw them no more after the first attempt. +The clearing on its north side rose steeply +to about a hundred feet on the hard red conglomerate; +to the south, on the San Antonio side, it ended +in a creek and a swamp. But at whatever point the +Doctor and I attempted to leave the clearing we +soon found ourselves stopped by a dense undergrowth. +At a few places there were narrow footpaths, +subterranean in the quality of their light, +made by timbermen when searching for suitable +trees for the saw-mill. These tracks never penetrated +more than a few hundred yards, and always +ended in a well of sunshine in the forest where some +big trees would be prone in a tangle of splintered +branches, and a deep litter of leaves and broken +fronds. And that was as far as man had got inwards +from the east bank of the Madeira river. Beyond +it was the undiscovered, and the Araras Indians. +On the other side of the river the difficulty +was the same. The Rio Purus, the next tributary +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_272'></a>272</span> +of the Amazon westward from the Madeira, had its +course, it was guessed, perhaps not more than fifty +miles across country from the river bank opposite +Porto Velho; but no one yet has made a traverse +of the land between the two streams. The dark +secrecy of the region was even oppressive. Sometimes +when venturing alone a little beyond a footpath, +out of hearing of the settlement, surrounded +by the dim tangle in which there was not a movement +or a sound, I have become suspicious that the +shapes about me in the half light were all that was +real there, and Porto Velho and its men an illusion, +and there has been a touch of panic in my haste to +find the trail again, and to prove that it could take +me to an open prospect of sunny things with the +solid “Capella” in their midst. +</p> +<p> +We carried our butterfly nets ashore and went of +a morning across the settlement, choosing one of +the paths which ended in a small forest opening, +where there was sunlight as well as shadow. Few +butterflies came to such places. You could really +think the forest was untenanted. A tanager would +dart a ray of metallic sheen in the wreckage of timber +and dead branches about us, or some creature +would call briefly, melancholy wise, in the woods. +Very rarely an animal would go with an explosive +rush through the leaves. But movements and sounds, +except the sound of our own voices, were surprises; +and a sight of one of the larger inhabitants of the +jungle is such a rarity that we knew we might be +there for years and never get it. Yet life about its +various business in the woods kept us interested +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_273'></a>273</span> +till the declining sun said it was time to get aboard +again. Every foot of earth, the rotting wood, the +bark of the standing trees, every pool, and the litter +of dead leaves and husks, were populous when closely +regarded. Most of the trees had smooth barks. +A corrugated trunk, like that of our elm, was exceptional. +But when a bole had a rough surface it +would be masked by the grey tenacious webbing of +spiders; on one such tree we found a small mantis, +which so mimicked the spiders that we were long +in discovering what it really was. Many of the +smooth tree trunks were striated laterally with lines +of dry mud. These lines were actually tunnels, +covered ways for certain ants. The corridors of this +limitless mansion had many such surprises. There +were the sauba ants; they might engross all a man’s +hours, for in watching them he could easily forget +there were other things in the world. They would +move over the ground in an interminable procession. +Looked at quickly, that column of fluid life seemed +a narrow brook, its surface smothered with green +leaves, which it carried, not round or under obstructions, +but upwards and over them. Nearly every +tiny creature in that stream of life held upright in +its jaws a banner, much larger than itself, cut from +a fresh leaf. It bore its banner along hurriedly and +resolutely. All the ants carrying leaves moved in +one direction. The flickering and forward movement +of so many leaves gave the procession of ants +the wavering appearance of shallow water running +unevenly. On both sides of the column other ants +hurried in the reverse direction, often stopping +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_274'></a>274</span> +to communicate something, with their antennæ, to +their burdened fellows. Two ants would stop +momentarily, and there would be a swift intimation, +and then away they would go again on their urgent +affairs. We would see rapid conversations of that +kind everywhere in the host. Other ants, with larger +heads, kept moving hither and thither about the +main body; having an eye on matters generally, I +suppose, policing or superintending them. There +was no doubt all those little fellows had a common +purpose. There was no doubt they had made up +their minds about it long since, had come to a decision +communally, and that each of them knew his +job and meant to get it done. There did not appear +to be any ant favoured by the god of the ants. You +have to cut your own leaf and get along with it, if +you are a sauba. +</p> +<p> +There they were, flowing at our feet. I see it +now, one of those restricted forest openings to which +we often went, the wall of the jungle all round, and +some small attalea palms left standing, the green of +their long plumes as hard and bright as though varnished. +Nothing else is there that is green, except +the weeds which came when the sunlight was let in +by the axe. The spindly forest columns rise about, +pallid in a wall of gloom, draped with withered stuff +and dead cordage. Their far foliage is black and +undistinguishable against the irregular patch of +overhead blue. It never ceased to be remarkable +that so little that was green was there. The few +pothos plants, their shapely parasitic foliage sitting +like decorative nests in some boughs half-way +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_275'></a>275</span> +to the sky, would be strangely conspicuous and +bright. The only leaves of the forest near us were +on the ground, brown parchments all of one simple +shape, that of the leaf of the laurel. I remember a +stagnant pool there, and over it suspended some +enamelled dragonflies, their wings vibrating so +rapidly that the flies were like rubies shining in +obscure nebulæ. When we moved, the nymphs vanished, +just as if a light flashed out. We sat down +again on our felled tree to watch, and magically +they reappeared in the same place, as though their +apparition depended on the angle and distance of +the eye. When a bird called one started involuntarily, +for the air was so muffled and heavy that it +was strange to find it open instantly to let free the +delicate sibilation. +</p> +<p> +In the low ground beyond Porto Velho up stream +there was another place in the forest where sometimes +we would go, the approach to it being through +a deep cutting made by the railwaymen in the clay. +This clay, a stiff homogeneous mass mottled rose +and white, was saturated with moisture, and the +helicon butterflies frequented it, probably because it +was damp; and a sight of their black and yellow, or +black and crimson wings, spread on the clean plane +of the beautifully tinted rock, was far better than +putting them in the collecting box. The helicons +are bold insects, and did not seem to mind our close +inspecting eyes. Beyond the cutting was a long +narrow clearing, with a giant silk cotton tree, a +province in itself, on the edge of the forest. Looking +straight upward we could see its foliage, but so +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_276'></a>276</span> +far away was the spreading canopy of leaves that it +was only a black cloud, the outermost sprays mere +wisps of dark vapour melting in the intense brightness +of the sky. The smooth grey trunk was heavily +buttressed, the “sapeomas” (literally, flat roots) +ascending the bole for more than fifty feet, and +radiating in walls about the base of the tree; the +compartments were so large that they could have +been used as stabling for four or five horses. From +its upper limbs a wreckage of lianas hung to the +ground. Beyond this giant the path rose to a place +where the clearing was already waist high with +scrub. Then it descended again to the woods. But +the woods there were flooded. That was my first +near view of the igapo. We had approached the +trees, for they seemed free of the usual undergrowth, +and passed into the sombre colonnades. +The way appeared clear enough, and we thought we +could move ahead freely at last, but found in a few +steps the bare floor was really black water. The +base of the forest was submerged, the columns which +supported the unseen roof, through which came little +light, diminished down soundless distance into +night. After the flaming day from which we had +just come this darkness was repellant. The forest, +that austere, stately and regarding Presence draped +interminably in verdant folds, while we gazed upon +it suspecting no new thing of it, as by a stealthy +movement had withdrawn its green robe, and our +sight had fallen into the cavernous gloom of its dank +and hollow heart. +</p> +<p> +It was about the little wooden town itself, where +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_277'></a>277</span> +the scarified earth was already sparsely mantled +with shrubs, flowering vines, and weeds, and where +the burnt tree stumps, and even the door posts in +some cases, were freshly budding—life insurgent, +beaten down by fire and sword, but never to its +source and copious springs—that most of the butterflies +were to be found. In a land where blossoms +were few, these were the winged flowers. About the +squalid wooden barracks of the negro and native labourers, +which were built off the ground to allow +of ventilation, and had a trench round them foul +with drainage and evil with smells, a Colœnis, a +scarlet butterfly with narrow, swallow-like wings, +used to flash, and frequently would settle there. +Over the flowering weeds on the waste ground there +would be, in the morning hours, or when the sky was +overcast, glittering clouds of the smaller and duller +species, though among them now and then would +stoop a very emperor of butterflies, a being quick +and unbelievably beautiful to temperate eyes. +After midday, when the sun was intense, the butterflies +became scarce. When out of the shade of +the woods, and stranded, at that time, in the hopeless +heat of the bare settlement, we could turn into +one of the houses of the officials of the company for +shelter. These also were of timber, cool, with a +verandah that was a cage of fine copper gauze to +keep out the insects. All the doors were self-closing. +The fewest chances were offered to the mosquitoes. +There was no glass, for the window openings +also were covered with copper mesh. Here we +could sit in shaded security, in lazy chairs, and look +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_278'></a>278</span> +out over the clearing to the river below, and to the +level line of forest across the river, while listening +to stories which had come down to Porto Velho from +the interior, brought by the returning pioneers. +</p> +<p> +Porto Velho had a population of about three +hundred. There were Americans, Germans, English, +Brazilians, a few Frenchmen, Portuguese, +some Spaniards, and a crowd of negroes and +negresses. There was but one white woman in the +settlement. I was told the climate seemed to poison +them. The white girl, who persisted in staying in +spite of warnings from the doctors, was herself a +Brazilian, the wife of one of the labourers. She refused +to leave, and sometimes I saw her about, +petite, frail, looking very sad. But her husband +was earning good money. It was a busy place, +most of it being workshops, stores, and offices, with +an engine and trucks jangling inconsequentially on +the track by the shore. The line crossed a creek +by a trestle bridge, and disappeared in the forest +in the direction of San Antonio. The hospital for +the men was nearly two miles up the track. +</p> +<p> +It was along the railway track towards the hospital, +with the woods to the left, and a short margin +of scrub and forest, and then the river, on the right +hand, that I saw one morning in sauntering a few +miles as many butterflies as there are flowers in an +English garden in June. They were the blossoms +of the place. The track was bright with them. +They settled on the hot metals and ties, clustered +thickly round muddy pools, a plantation there as +vivid and alive, in the quick movements of their +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_279'></a>279</span> +wings, as though a wind shook the petals of a bed +of flowers. They flashed by like birds. One would +soar slowly, wings outspread and stable, a living +plane of metallic green and black. There was a +large and insolent beauty—he did not move from +his drink at a puddle though my boot almost +touched him—his wings a velvety black with crimson +eyes on the underwings, and I caught him; +but I was so astonished by the strength of his convulsive +body in the net that I let him go. Near the +hospital some bushes were covered with minute +flowers, and seen from a distance the countless insects +moving about those bushes were a glistening +and puzzling haze. +</p> +<p> +All that morning I had felt the power of the +torrid sun, which clung to the body like invisible +bonds, and made one’s movements slow, was a luscious +benefit, a golden bath, a softening and generative +balm; a mother heat and light whose ardent +virtues stained pinions crimson and cobalt, and +made bodies strong and convulsive, and caused the +earth to burst with rushing sap, to send up green +fountains; for so the palms, which showed everywhere +in the woods, looked to me. You could hear +the incessant low murmur of multitudinous wings. +And I had been warned to beware of all things. I +felt instead that I could live and grow for ever +in such a land. +</p> +<p> +Presently, becoming a little weary of so much +strong light, I found it was midday, and looking +back, there was the ship across a curve of the river. +It was two good miles away; two intense, shadeless, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_280'></a>280</span> +silent afternoon miles. I began the return +journey. An increasing rumbling sound ahead +made me look up, as I stepped from tie to tie, and +there came at me a trolley car, pumped along slowly, +four brown bodies rising and falling rhythmically +over its handle. A man in a white suit was +its passenger. As it passed me I saw it bore also +something under a white cloth; the cloth moulded +a childish figure, of which only the hem of a skirt +and the neat little booted feet showed beyond the +cloth, and the feet swayed limply with the jolts of +the car in a way curiously appealing and woful. +The car stopped, and the white man, a cheerful +young doctor chewing an extinct cigar, came to me +for a light. He stood to gossip for a few minutes, +giving his men a rest. “That’s the Brazilian girl,” +he said; “she wouldn’t go home when told, poor +thing.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +This Madeira river had the look of very adventurous +fishing, and the Doctor had brought with him +an assortment of tackle. The water was opaque, +and it was deep. Its prospects, though the forest +closed round us, were spacious. It flowed silently, +with great power, and its surface was often coiled +by profound movements. The coils of the river, as +we were looking over the side one morning, began +to move in our minds also, and the Doctor mentioned +his tackle. There was the forest enclosing +us, as mute as the water, its bare roots clenched in +aqueous earth. Nobody could tell us much about +the fish in this river, but we heard stories of creatures +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_281'></a>281</span> +partly seen. There was one story of a thing +taken from the very place in the river where we +were anchored, a fish in armour which the natives +declared was new to them; a fearful ganoid I +guessed it, reconstructing it in vision from fragments +of various tales about it, such as is pictured +in a book on primeval rocks. There were alligators, +too, and there was the sucuruju, which I could +call the great water serpent, only the Indian name +sounds so much more right and awful; and that +fellow is forty feet long in his legend, but spoils a +good story through reducing himself by half when +he is actually killed. Still, twenty feet of stout +snake is enough for trouble. I saw one, just after +it was killed, which was twenty-two feet in length, +and was three feet round its middle. So to fish in +the Madeira was as if one’s hook and line were cast +into the deeps where forms that are without name +stir in the dark of dreams. We got out our tackle, +and the cook had an assortment of stuff he did not +want, and that we put on the hooks, and waited, +our lines carried astern by the current, for signals +from the unknown. Yet excepting for a few catfish, +nothing interrupted the placid flow of stream +and time. The Doctor put a bight of the lime round +his wrist, sat down, and slept. We had fine afternoons, +broad with the wealth of our own time. +</p> +<p> +Old man Jim came aboard and saw our patience +with amusement. He suggested dynamite, and no +waiting. The river was full of good fish, and he +would come next day with a canoe and take us +where we could get a load. It was a suggestion +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_282'></a>282</span> +which needed slurring, to look attractive to sportsmen. +Jim took it for granted that we simply +wanted fish to eat, and as many as we could get; +and next morning there he was alongside with his +big boat and its crew. Jim himself was in the stern, +the navigator, and he was sitting on what I was told +was a box of dynamite. Now, there were two others +of our company who, but the day before, were even +eager to see what dynamite would send up from the +bottom of that river; but when they saw the craft +alongside with its wild-looking crew, and Jim with +his rifle sitting on a power which could lift St. +Paul’s, they considered everything, and decided +they could not go that day. I went alone. +</p> +<p> +I suppose men do plucky things because they are +largely thoughtless of the danger of the things they +do. As soon as I was sitting on the level of the +water in that crazy boat, with Jim and his explosive, +and beside him what whisky he had not already +consumed, and saw under my nose the eddies and +upheavals of the current, I knew I was doing a very +plucky thing indeed, and wished I was high and +safe on the “Capella.” But we had pushed off. +</p> +<p> +Jim, with his eyes dreamy through barley juice, +was the pilot, and there was a measure of confidence +to be got from the way he navigated us past the +charging trees afloat. There was no drink in the +steering paddle, at least. But the shore was a long +swim away; yet perhaps it would have been as +pleasant to be drowned or blown-up as to be lost in +the jungle. We turned into a still creek, where the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_283'></a>283</span> +trees met overhead. Jim continued his course till +the inundated forest was about us. The gloom +was hollow, the pillars rising from the black floor +were spectral, and our voices and paddles sounded +like a noisy irruption among the aisles of a temple. +The echoes fled from us deeper into the dark. But +Jim was all unconscious of this; he but stopped our +progress, and opened the box of cartridges. +</p> +<p> +I had never seen dynamite, but only heard of it. +I understood it had unexpected qualities. Jim had +a cartridge in his hand, and was digging a knife into +it. I repeat, the flooded wilderness was round +us, and below was the black deep. Jim fitted a +detonator to a length of fuse, and stuck it in the +cartridge. He was in no hurry. He stopped now +and then for another drink. Having got the cartridge +ready, with its potent filament, he tied four +more cartridges round it. I put these things down +simply, but my hand ached with the way I gripped +the gunwale, and I could hear myself breathing. +</p> +<p> +Then Jim struck a match on his breeches, with all +the fumbling deliberation of the fully ripe—brushing +the vine leaves from his eyes the better to see +what he was doing—and he lit the fuse, after it had +twice dodged the match. It fizzed. The splutter +worked downwards energetically. Jim did not +deign to look at it, though it fascinated me. He +slowly scratched his back with his disengaged hand, +and gazed absently into the forest. +</p> +<p> +The spark and its spurts of smoke were now near +the bottom. Jim changed the menace into his right +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_284'></a>284</span> +hand, in order to reach another part of his back +with his leisurely left. His eyes were still on the +forest. I kept swallowing. +</p> +<p> +“Jim,” I said eagerly—though I did not know I +was going to speak—“don’t—don’t you think you’d +better throw it away now?” +</p> +<p> +He regarded me steadily, with eyes half shut. +The spark spurted, and dropped another inch. He +looked at it. He looked round the waters without +haste. Then, and I could have cried aloud, he +threw the shocking handful away from us. +</p> +<p> +It sank. There were a few bubbles, and we sat +regarding each other in the quiet of a time which +had been long dead, waiting for something to happen +in a time to come. At the end of two weeks the +bottom of the river fell out, with the noise of the +collapse of an iron foundry on a Sunday. Our boat +tried to leap upwards, but failed. The water did +not burst asunder. It vibrated, and was then convulsed. +</p> +<p> +Dead fish appeared everywhere, patches of white +all round; but we hardly saw them. There was a +great head which emerged from the floor, looking +upwards sleepily, and two hands moved slowly. +These quietly sank again. The tail of the saurean +appeared, slowly described a half circle, and went. +The big alligator then lifted itself, and performed +some grotesque antics with deliberation and gravity. +Then it gathered speed. It rotated, thrashed, and +drummed. It did all that a ten-horse-power maniac +might. I think the natives shrieked. I think Jim +kept saying “hell”; for I was conscious only with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_285'></a>285</span> +my eyes. When the dizzy reptile recovered, it shot +away among the trees like a torpedo. +</p> +<p> +We went home. That night I understand the +second mate was kept awake listening to me, as I +slept, bursting into spasms of dreadful merriment. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +When you are lost in the map of a country that +is beyond the worn routes, trying to discover therein +the place name which is the most secluded and inaccessible, +if the map should happen to be that of +South America, then your thought would naturally +wander to the neighbourhood of San Antonio of the +Rio Madeira. There you stay, to wonder what +strange people and rocks and trees are to be found +at San Antonio. It looks remote, even on the map. +The sign which stands for the village is caught in +a central loop of the mesh which is the river system +of the Amazon forest. San Antonio must be beyond +all, and a great journey. It is far outside the +radius. And that would be enough, to be beyond +the last ripple of the traffic and at peace, where that +dark disquiet, that sombre emanation which rises +from the soured earth where myriads have their +chimneys, their troubles and their strife, staining +even the morning and the morning thought, is no +more. A place where the light has the clarity of +the first dawn, and one might hear, while sure of +absolute solitude, the winding of a strange horn, +and suspect, when coming to an opening in the +woods, the flight of a shining one; for somewhere +the ancient gods must have sanctuary. A land +where the rocks have the moss of unvisited +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_286'></a>286</span> +fastnesses, and you can snuff the scents of original +day. +</p> +<p> +Where we were anchored, San Antonio was in +view, about five miles up stream. Where at the +end of that reach of river a line of tremulous light, +which we thought was the cataracts, bridged the +converging palisades of the jungle, in the trees of +the right bank it was sometimes easy to believe +there was a glint of white buildings. But looking +again, to reassure your sight, the apparition of +dwellings vanished. At night, in the quiet, sometimes +the ears could detect the shudder of the +weighty rapids by San Antonio; but it was merely +a tremor felt; there was no sound. The village +remained to us for some time just that uncertain +gleam by day, and the rapids but a minute reduction +of a turmoil that was far. For in that languorous +heat we counted miles differently, and it was +pleasanter to suspect than to go and prove, and +much easier. +</p> +<p> +One day I went. When in a small boat the +jungle towered. The river, too, had a different +character. From the shore, or from the big “Capella,” +the river was an expanse of light, an impression +of shining peace. Whenever you got close +to its surface it became alive and menacingly intimate. +Our little boat seemed to roll in the powerful +folds of a monster which wallowed ponderously +and without ceasing. The trees afloat, charging +down swiftly and in what one felt was an ominous +quiet, stood well above our tiny craft. +</p> +<p> +We steered close in-shore to avoid the drifting +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_287'></a>287</span> +wood and the set of the current. The jungle’s +sheer height, confusion, and intensity were more +awesome than when seen from the steamer. Not +many of the trees were of great beam, but their +consistent height, with the lianas in a wreck from +the far overhanging cornice, dwarfed our boat to +an unimportant straw. At times the forest had a +selvage of cane, and growths of arrow grass, bearing +long white plumes twelve feet above us, and a +pair of fan-shaped leaves resembling palm leaves. +</p> +<p> +The sound of the cataracts increased, and a barrier +grew in height athwart the Madeira. Mounting +high right ahead of us at last was a mass of +granite boulders, with broad smooth surfaces, having +the structure of gigantic masonry in ruin which +weathered plutonic rock so often assumes. Beyond +the barrier the river was plainly above our +level. It was seen, resplendent as quicksilver, +through the crenellations of the black rocks. One +central mass of rock, higher than the rest, had a +crown of dark and individual palms, standing paramount +in the upper light. Yet, with that gleam of +wide river behind, no great rush of water broke +there. A few fountains spurted, apparently without +source, and collapsed, and pulsed again. The +white runnels of foam which laced the contours of +the piled boulders gave the barrier the appearance +of being miraculously uplifted, as though one saw +thin daylight through its interstices. Not till the +village was in view did we see where the main river +avoided the barrier. The course here was looped. +Above the barrier the river turned from the right +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_288'></a>288</span> +bank, and heaped itself in a smooth steep glide +through a narrow pass against the opposite shore, +the roaring welter then running obliquely across +the foot of the rocks to the front of San Antonio +on the right bank again. The forest beside the falls +seemed to be tremulous with continuous and profound +underground thunder. +</p> +<p> +The little huddle of San Antonio’s white houses +is on slightly rising ground, and the lambent green +of the jungle is beside them and over them. The +foliage presses the village down to the river. Like +every Amazonian town and village, it appears, set +in that forest, as rare a human foothold as a ship +in mid-ocean; a few lights and a few voices in the +dark and interminable wastes. So I landed from +our little craft elated with a sense of luckily acquired +security. +</p> +<p> +The white embowered village, the leaping fountains +and the rocks, the air in a flutter with the +shock of ponderous water collapsing, the surmounting +island in mid-stream with its coronet of palms, +the half-naked Indians idling among the Bolivian +rubber boats hauled up to the foreshore below, the +unexplored jungle which closed in and framed the +scene, the fierce sun set in the rounded amplitude +of the clouds of the rains, made the tropical picture +which was the right reward for a great journey. I +had come down long weeks of empty leisure, in +which the mind got farther and farther away from +the cities where time is so carefully measured and +highly valued. The centre of the ultimate wilderness +was more than a matter of fact. It was now a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_289'></a>289</span> +personal conviction which needed no verification. +</p> +<p> +The village had but one street. There were two +rows of houses of a single storey, built of clay and +plaster, dilapidated, the whitewash stained and +peeling, every house open and cavernous below, +without doors, in the way of Brazilian dwellings, to +give coolness. The street was almost deserted when +we entered it. A few children played in the shadows, +and outside one house a merchant in a white +cotton suit stood overlooking the scales while the +half-breeds weighed balls of rubber; for this town +is in the midst of the richest rubber country of the +world, and all the wealth of the rivers Mamoré, +Beni, and Madre de Dios comes this way. And +that was why, as we idled through its single thoroughfare, +some dark girls came to stand at the +house openings, dressed in odorous muslin, red +flowers in their shiny black hair, and their smiling +eyes full of interest in us. The rough road between +the dwellings was overgrown with grass, and in the +centre of it, partly hidden by the grass, was the +line laid long ago by the railway enterprise which +ended so tragically. To-day the rubber men use +it as a portage for their boats. There were several +inns, half-obliterated names painted on their outer +walls. They had crude interior walls of mud, and +floors of bare earth. In such an inn would be a few +iron tables and chairs, and there a visitor might +drink from bottles which at least bore European +labels, though the contents and cost were past all +European understanding. I forgot to say that by +the foreshore of this little village is the head depôt +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_290'></a>290</span> +of a great rubber house, a building apparently out +of all proportion to the size of San Antonio. But +I looked on that place with the less interest, though +from what my native companion told me the head +of the house is a monarch more absolute and undisputed +in this wild country than most eastern kings +are to-day. +</p> +<p> +I was more interested in the huge boulders of +smooth granite which rose strangely from the street +in places, and broke its regularity. These rounded +and noble rocks often topped the houses. What +man had built looked mean and transitory beside +the poise and fine contours of the rocks. The colony +of giant rocks had a look of settled and tranquil +solidity, a friendly and hospitable aspect. They +might have been old friends which time had proved; +the houses beside them were alien by contrast. I +felt that San Antonio had merely imposed itself +on them, that they tolerated the village because it +was but an incident; that they could afford to wait. +When I saw them there I recognised the village of +my map. I climbed to the summit of one, over its +weather-worn shelves. It had a skin of lichen, +warm in the sun and harshly familiar. The curious +hieroglyphics of the lichen were intelligible enough, +and more easily read than the signs on the walls of +the inns. I learned where I was; and knew that +when the day of the great rubber house had long +passed, my village would still be there, and prospering. +</p> +<p> +Below my rock, on the land side—to which I had +turned my back—was a monstrous cesspool. It +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_291'></a>291</span> +was in the centre of the village. It was the capital +of all flies, and the source and origin of all smells, +varying smells which reposed, as I had found when +below in the hot and stagnant street, in strata, each +layer of smell invisible but well-defined. Among +the weeds in the roads were many derelict cans. +Over the empty tins, and the garbage, pulsed and +darted hundreds of Brazil’s wonderful insects. +</p> +<p> +But I was above all that, on my high rock. Its +height released me to a wide and splendid liberty. +I cannot tell you all that my vantage surveyed. +But chiefly I was assured by what I saw that I +was more central even than my eyes showed; they +merely found for me the intimation. Here was all +the proof I wanted; for faith is not blind, but critical, +yet instantly transcends to knowledge at the +faintest glimmer of authentic light, as when an +exile who is beset by inexplicable and puissant circumstance +among strangers whose tongue is barbarous, +is surprised at a secret sign passed there of +fellowship, and is at once content. Yet I can report +but a broad river flowing smooth and bright out of +indefinite distance between dark forests to the +wooded islands below; and by the islands suddenly +accelerated and divided, in a slight descent, pouring +to a lower level in taut floods as smooth, noiseless, +and polished as mercury. Lower still was the +gleaming turmoil of the falls, pulsing, and ever on +the point of vanishing, but constant, its shouting +riot baffled by the green cliffs everywhere. But I +could escape, for once, over the parapets of the +jungle to the upper rolling ocean of leaves; to the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_292'></a>292</span> +distance, dim and blue, the region where man has +never been. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +There was a man who looked like a sensational +ruffian who boarded us one morning at Porto +Velho, and said he had come to find me. He was +going up into the forest, beyond the track, and +would I go with him? That made me look at him +again, and with some anxiety; for I had tried before +to get away, but the crowd on the “Capella” +disliked the idea. The Doctor talked dysentery +and things. He said it was safer to keep to the ship +during the month we had still to spend at Porto +Velho. I felt, overborne by their arguments, a +rather thin sort of adventurer. That mysterious +railway would have drawn the mind of any man +who had not lost his curiosity, and who valued being +alive more than his chance of old age. The +track went from Porto Velho into outer darkness. +It left the clearing and the village of mushroom +buildings, the place where the inhuman had been +moderately subdued, where a modicum of industry +was established in a continent of primitive wild, +crossed a creek by a trestle bridge in view of our +steamer, and vanished; that was the end of it, so +far as we knew. Men came back to the settlement +through that hole of the forest, and boarded the +“Capella” to tell us, in long hot nights, something +of what the forest of the Madeira was hiding; and +they were bearded like Crusoe, pallid as anæmic +women, and speckled with insect bites. These men +said that where they had been working the sun +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_293'></a>293</span> +never shone, for his light was stopped on the unbroken +green which, except where the big rivers +flowed, roofed the whole land. I liked the look of +the stranger who had come to persuade me to this +rare holiday. He said his name was Marion Hill, +of Texas. He wore muddy riding breeches, and a +black shirt open at the throat, and boots of intricately +embossed leather which came well up his +thighs, spurs that would have ravelled a pachyderm, +and the insolent hat of a bandit. He had a +waistbelt heavy with guns and ammunition. I saw +his face, and divined instantly that this was a man, +and that the memory of a time with him would +serve me as a refuge in the grey and barren years, +and as a solace. I told him I would get my things +together. The Skipper called after me that if I +returned too late I should have to walk home. +</p> +<p> +There was a commissary train next morning, +taking men and supplies to the camps. It had a +number of open waggons, loaded with material, +about which the labourers going up to replenish +the gangs made themselves as comfortable as they +could. I had an indiarubber bag for all my belongings, +being told that it was best for strapping to a +mule, and a valuable lifebuoy when a canoe overturned. +I accepted it with perfect faith, for I +knew nothing of mules or canoes. The train moved +off, a bell on the engine ringing sepulchrally. Hill +and I were packed into a box car, which had a door +open on either side for light and air. Two American +engineers were in charge, there was an Austrian +to superintend the distribution at each camp +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_294'></a>294</span> +of the provisions, the Austrian had an Italian assistant, +and a few Barbadian blacks were there to +move about the packages. I sat on a case of tinned +fruit. Hill reposed on one of the shelves where we +should stow fever victims, when we collected them. +There was no more room in the car, and another +degree of heat would have meant complete ruin. +</p> +<p> +When Porto Velho is left for the place where the +line is to end, when completed, though it is but 250 +miles away, two months at least is required for the +return journey. That way goes the paymaster, +with his armed escort, and every bundle of shovels +and tin of provisions. When I went, too, the train +helped for sixty miles. Then most of the material +was transported at the Rio Caracoles, a tributary +of the Madeira, and taken by boats in stages up the +main stream, cargoes and boats being hauled round +each cataract. Travellers could shorten the journey +by going overland part of the way, mules being +kept on the hither side of the Caracoles river for +that purpose. +</p> +<p> +We delivered some patients at the hospital, went +through a cutting of red granite to the back of San +Antonio, and then entered the forest. That absorbed +us. Thenceforward, and until I reached the +ship again, I was dominated by the lofty, silent, +confused, and brooding growth. Everywhere it +was dramatically passionate in its intensity, an +arrested riot of green life, and its muteness kept +expectant attention fixed upon it. The right of +way through the forest was a hundred feet wide. +On each side of us the trees rose like virid cliffs. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_295'></a>295</span> +The trees usually were of slender girth, almost as +straight as fir poles, rising perhaps for sixty feet +without a branch. Occasionally there was a giant, +a silk cotton tree, or the strange tree with its grey +trunk and pale birch-like habit of foliage which I +had noticed on the riverside; but they were not +common. Palms were numerous. From ground +to high parapet the spaces between the columns +were filled with lianas, unrelated big leaves, and +the characteristic fronds of the endogens. In this +older part of the track, though it had been made +but little more than a year, the scrub was dense. +The undergrowth was often so strong and aggressive +as to brush the train as we slowly bumped +along. Sometimes we went through deep cuttings +in the red clay, close enough for me to notice it was +interstratified with waterworn but angular quartz +peebles. But the track usually was over flat country, +only rarely crossing a gulley. +</p> +<p> +At every maintenance camp we stopped to deliver +supplies. From out of a small huddle of +shanties made of leaves and poles, insignificant +beneath the forest wall, a number of languid half-breeds, +merely in pants and hats, would loiter +through the hot sun to us for their sustenance. The +men of those secluded huts must have been glad of +our temporary uproar, and our new faces. The +bell rang, and we left them to burial in their deep +silence again. There were intervening camps, +which had been deserted as the work progressed. +These were even more interesting to me. The work +of the human, when he leaves it to the wild from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_296'></a>296</span> +which he has won it with so much pain, has an appeal +of its own, with its abandoned ruin returning +to the ground again. There would be a sandy +swamp, and standing back from the line some +weather-worn shanties with roofs awry. I am sure +there were ghosts in those camps. One we passed, +and it was called Camp 10-1/2, and resting against +its open front where the posts were giving was a +butterfly net. I pointed this out. “Oh, that,” said +Hill. “Old man Biddell. I knew him. He was +all right. He was great on bugs and butterflies. +Used to wear spectacles. He was a good engineer +though. Died of blackwater fever before the line +got past this camp. That was his shack.” And +that was his butterfly net, all of Biddell now, his +sole monument and reminder. As we bumped by +the huts the helicons and swallow tails rose precipitously +from the mangled cans and cast rubbish. I +never knew Biddell, the man with spectacles and a +butterfly net, but a first rate railway man, who left +that net outside his hut one morning, and at evening +was buried, but now I am doomed to think of +him while I live. +</p> +<p> +It was near midnight when we reached the last +active camp but one on the line, where we alighted. +It was wiser, I was told, to run the remaining +length of the track by daylight. Here a doctor and +a few engineers, bearing handlamps against which +moths were blundering, met us in a place which +seemed to be the bottom of a well, for the black +shadows which rose round us shut out all but a few +stars. The men raised joyous cries at the sight of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_297'></a>297</span> +Hill; and they took this stranger on trust. We fed +in a hut which was four poles and a roof. One pole +had a hurricane lamp tied to it. There was an +enormous quiet, which the men seemed to delight in +breaking with their voices. Four planks nailed +unevenly to uprights was our table, and we sat +crooked on a similar but lower construction. We +ate out of enamelled plates with iron instruments, +and it was very good indeed. There were four of +us who were white, and we were babes in the wood. +One of us pretended he was playing on a Jew’s-harp, +sang songs riotously, and then began to talk +long and earnestly of New York. These men lived +in four railway waggons which had doors made of +copper gauze, berths with mosquito bars, and portraits +of the folk at home; and in the case of the +doctor the waggon smelt of iodoform, had one wall +full of bottles, and a table with a board and chessmen. +In one of those waggons I lay down to sleep +under a net; but the blanket felt damp and had a +foreign smell. My thoughts crowded me. For +long I listened to so much jungle pressing close to +my bed, waiting for it to make known its near but +unseen presence with a voice; but it did not. +</p> +<p> +Next morning at sunrise the train moved forward +to the construction camp at the Rio Caracoles. +I rode on a truck pushed in front of the +locomotive, perched there with some engineers who +kept a careful eye on the track. I saw at once why +the train did not proceed at night. It was too speculative +altogether. Behind us the locomotive’s +smoke stack rolled like a steamer’s funnel when a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_298'></a>298</span> +beam sea is running. This part of the line crossed +many ravines, where we looked down upon the tree +tops; and when on a frail wooden bridge which +crossed a vacancy like that such movements of the +drunken engine behind us became dazzling. Then, +too, there were some high “fills,” or embankments. +After heavy rains these have a habit of retiring +from the metals, which are left looped and twisted +in mid-air. An engineer told me that one cannot +always tell when an embankment is on the point of +retiring. He was carefully watching, however. +But we reached the construction camp. +</p> +<p> +At the construction camp by the side of the Rio +Caracoles we stayed two days. There was the end +of the line, and the men who were growing the +track were so busy that I was left to my own +devices. Till the railwaymen came none but the +Caripuna Indians knew what was there; so into the +woods, of course, I would go, trying every track +which led from the camp. A botanist might have +seen some difference from the forest at Porto +Velho, but I could not discover any. In appearance +it was exactly the same. The trees mostly +were arborescent laurels I believe, with smooth +brown boles which were blotched through their +outer cuticle peeling away, much in the manner +of that of the plane tree. The brown parchments +of their laurel-like leaves covered the floor of the +woods. The trees were rarely of great diameter, +but their crowns were so distant that nothing could +be made of their living foliage. I saw no flowers +at all. There were few orchids, but the large +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_299'></a>299</span> +shapely emerald coloured leaves of pothos plants +were very frequent, sitting in the angles of +branches and trunk. Aloft was always the wreckage +of vines suspended, as vaguely seen and as +motionless as cobwebs and dilapidations in the overhead +darkness of high vaults. I rarely heard a +sound in that forest, though there was a bird which +called. I often heard it in the woods of the upper +Madeira. It called thrice, as a boy who whistles +shrilly through his fingers; a long call, and then +another whistle in the same key followed instantly +by a falling note. One delightful walk was along +a path which had not been made by the railwaymen, +for it was evidently old, as it ran, a cleft in the +trees, not through broken timber, but in partial +sunshine, with a mesh of vines and freely growing +plants on either side. It led downwards to a small +stream, which was cumbered with fallen and rotting +timber, a cool hollow where ferns were abundant. +It was in the woods at the Caracoles that I +first saw the great morpho butterfly at home. This +species, peculiar to South America, is rarely seen +except in the shades of the virgin forest. One day +in the twilight aisles near the Caracoles camp, +where nothing moved, and all was a grey monotone, +it so surprised me with its happy undulating flight—as +though it danced along, and were in no hurry—its +great size, and its bright blue wings, that I +rose mesmerised, stumbling after it through the +dank litter, thoughtless of direction, not thinking +of the danger of losing my way, thinking of nothing +but that joyous resplendent creature dancing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_300'></a>300</span> +aloft ahead of me in the gloom and just beyond my +reach. Its polished blue wings flashed like speculæ. +It might have been a drifting fragment of sunny +sky. I had never seen anything alive so beautiful. +A fall over a log brought me to sobriety, and when +I looked up it was gone. Afterwards I saw many +of them; sometimes when walking the forest there +would be morphos always in sight. +</p> +<p> +The construction camp was not more than a +month old. Perched on an escarpment by the line +was a row of tents, and at the back of the tents +some flimsy huts built of forest stuff. They stood +about a ruin of felled trees, with a midden and its +butterflies in the midst. Probably thirty white men +were stationed there. They were then throwing +a wooden bridge across the Caracoles. Most of +them were young American civil engineers, though +some were English; and when I found one of them—and +he happened to be a countryman of mine—balancing +himself on a narrow beam high over a +swift current, and, regardless of the air heavy with +vapour and the torrid sun, directing the disposal +of awkward weights with a concentration and keenness +which made me recall with regret the way I +do things at times, I saw his profession with a new +regard. I noticed the men of that transient little +settlement in the wilds were in constant high spirits. +They betrayed nothing of the gravity of their +undertaking. They might have been boys employed +at some elaborate jest. But it seemed to +me to be a pose of heartiness. They repelled reality +with a laugh and a hand clapped to your shoulder. At +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_301'></a>301</span> +our mess table, over the dishes of toucan +and parrot supplied by the camp hunters, they +rallied each other boisterously. There was a touch +of defiance in the way they referred to the sickness +and the shadow; for it was notorious that changes +were frequent in their little garrison. They were +forced to talk of these changes, and this was the +way they chose to do it. As if laughter was their +only prophylactic! But such laughter, to a visitor +who did not have to wait till fever took him, but +could go when he liked, could be answered only +with a friendly smile. Some of my cheery friends +of the Caracoles were but the ghosts of men. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +Hill warned me late one afternoon to be ready +to start at sunrise, and then went to play poker. +On my way to my hut, at sunset, I stopped to gossip +with the young doctor, where he was busy +dressing wounds at his surgery. The labourers, +half-breeds, Brazilians, and Bolivian Spaniards, +work being over, were giving the doctor a full evening +with their ailments. Mostly these were skin +troubles. The least abrasion in the tropics may +spread to a horrid and persistent wound. The legs +of the majority of these natives were unpleasant +with livid scars. In one case a vampire bat had +punctured a man’s arm near the elbow while he +slept, and that little wound had grown disastrously. +We were in a region where the pium flies swarmed, +tiny black insects which alight on the hands and +face, perhaps a dozen at a time, and gorge themselves, +though you may be unconscious of it. Where +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_302'></a>302</span> +the pium fly feeds it leaves a dot of extravasated +blood which remains for weeks, so that most of us +were speckled. Even these minute wounds were +liable to become deep and bad. There were larger +flies which put their eggs in the human body, where +they hatch with dire results. (Do not think the +splendid tropics have nothing but verdure, orchids, +butterflies, and coral snakes banded orange and +black and crimson and black.) So the doctor was +a busy man that evening. The floor of his surgery +was made of unequal boughs; the walls and roof +were of dried fronds. A lamp was slung on a doorpost. +He was a young American, and he did not +grumble at his bumpy floor, the bad light, the +appliances and remedies which were all one should +expect in the jungle, nor the number of his +patients, except comically. He told me he was +rather keen on the diseases of the tropics. He liked +them. (I should think he must have liked them.) +He was merrily insolent with those swarthy and +melancholy men, and they smiled back sadly at the +clever, handsome, and lively youngster. He was +quick in his decisions, deft, insistent, kind, and +thorough, working down that file of pitiable humanity, +as careful with the last of the long row as +with the first; telling me, as he went along, much +that I had never heard before, with demonstrations. +“Don’t go,” he cried, when I would have +left him; for I thought it might be he was as kind +with this stranger as he was with the others. “Ah! +don’t go. Let me hear a true word or two.” He +said he would give me a treat if I stayed. He +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_303'></a>303</span> +finished, put his materials away deliberately, accurately, +his back to me, while I saluted him as a fine +representative of ours. He turned, free of his task +and jolly, and produced that treat of his, two +bottles of treasured and precious ginger ale. It +was a miracle performed. We talked till the light +went out. +</p> +<p> +Much later a cry in the woods woke me. It was +yet dark, but I could see Hill up, and fumbling +with his accoutrements. Out I jumped, though still +unreasonably tired; and sleepily dressed. When +I turned to Hill, to see if he were ready, he was +then under his net, watching me. He explained +he had just returned from poker, and was wondering +why I was dressing, but did not like to +ask, knowing that Englishmen have ways that are +not American. So the sun was up long before we +were, though presently, in a small canoe, we embarked +on the Caracoles. This tributary of the +Madeira comes from nobody knows where. It is +a river of the kind which explorers in these forests +have sometimes mentioned, to our fearful joy. The +sunlight hardly reached the water. The river was +merely a drain burrowing under the jungle. The +forest on its banks met overhead. There was little +foliage below; we saw but the base of the forest, +grey columns that might have been of stone upholding +a darkness from which dead stuff +suspended. The canoe had to dodge the lianas, +which dropped to the water. The noise of our +paddles convoyed us down stream, a rout of panic +echoes trying to escape. We came to an opening +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_304'></a>304</span> +and full daylight presently, and landed by a mule +corral; and I began a lonely ride with Hill through +the forest. The mule was such a docile little brown +creature that I was left in the silence to my +thoughts, which were interrupted now and then by +the wandering blue flame of a morpho. My mule +followed Hill’s mule along a winding trail, and our +leader was nearly always out of sight. I do not +remember much of my first ride in the forest. I +had an impression of being at a viewless distance +from the sun. We were on the abysmal floor of a +growth which was not trees, but the hoary pediments +of a structure which was too high and vast +for human sight. We rode in the basal gloom of it, +no more than lost ants there, at an immeasurable +depth in the atmosphere. The roof of the world +was far away. Somewhere was the sun, for occasionally +there was a well which its light had filled, +and a grove of green palms, complete and personal, +standing at the bottom of the well, living and reasonable +shapes. Or one of the morphos would +flicker among those spectral bastions, aerial and +bright as a fairy in Hades. The sombre mind +caught it at once, an unexpected gleam of hope, a +bright blue thought to set among one’s shapeless +fears. We descended into hollows, going down +into darker fathoms of the shades; mounted again +through brighter suffusions of day, and in a while +came out upon the open lane in the woods, the long +cut in the jungle made for the railway, when it +should get so far. +</p> +<p> +Now I could see my companion. He was from +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_305'></a>305</span> +Texas, and it was easy to guess that. In the long +rides which followed in the land where we looked +upon what was there for the first time since genesis, +where we might have been in the hush of the seventh +day, so new, strange, and quiet was all, the +figure ahead of me, with its long boots, negligent +black shirt, the guns about the waist, and the hat +with its extravagant size nobly raked, made me stop +at times to assure myself that I was not pursuing +a day-dream of boyhood, too much Mayne Reid in +my head, especially when my wild and improbable +companion paused under a group of statuesque +palms and looked back at me—I suppose to make +sure that I was still there, and that the silence had +not absorbed me utterly, a faint rustle of intruding +sound in a virgin and absorbent world. And again +I remember the sparkle and lift of early morning +there. The air was new, it was stimulative, it recharged +me with buoyant youth. To breathe that +air in the fresh of the morning was exaltation, and +to see the young sunlight on the ardent foliage was +to know the springs of life were full. That was at +the breakfast hour, when the camp fires crackled +and were aromatic, the smoke going straight to the +tree tops. Then quickly the narrow track through +the forest filled with day, increased in heat till I +felt I could bear no more of it, and so gazed +vacantly at the mule’s ears, merely enduring and +numbed. The vitality of the morning went, and in +the fierce pour of light I looked no more to the +strange leaves and vines, the curious fronds, the +anthills by the way, the butterflies and birds, but +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_306'></a>306</span> +had only a dull dread that the avenue through +which we were riding was straight and interminable. +There was no escape from this heat. There +were no openings through which we could retreat +under the trees. The air was immobile; the air +itself was the incumbent heat. The only shadows +were under the mules’ bellies. Cruel and relentless +noons! How the surveyors endured it, standing +for long eyeing their exacting instruments in +such a defeating glare, I do not know. At the end +of each day my pigskin leggings were like wet +brown paper with sweat, and my hands crinkled +and bleached as though they had been in a soda +bath. +</p> +<p> +We reached another and greater tributary of the +Madeira, the Rio Jaci-Parana. Here there was a +very extensive clearing as great as the one at Porto +Velho. The bridging of the Jaci would be a considerable +undertaking, consequently there were +numerous huts dotted about the rough open +ground; but I think the original intention in cutting +back the jungle to such an extent was that in +the days to come a town would grow there. I +imagine it will not, and that the project is abandoned. +In one of my early walks in the woods I +came by chance upon the new cemetery; it was +already large. The Jaci country has proved to be +more than usually unhealthy. The ground was +cleared down to a coarse herbage, round which stood +shadowing trees. Little crucifixes, made by splitting +a stick and putting another stick crosswise in +the slit, were planted at all sorts of drunken angles +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_307'></a>307</span> +in the ground. One large cross in the centre stood +for all the dead. There were no names given. A +Brazil nut-tree grew alongside this graveyard in +the jungle, so tall that the flock of screaming parrots +about its foliage were but drifting black +specks. +</p> +<p> +Because Hill had a touch of the fever we stayed +for some days by the Jaci. I had a hut given to me, +typical of the rest; but I was so much alone in it +that that hut on the Jaci, where our remoteness +from human things tested and known, the aloofness +and quiet of the forest, the deadly nature of the +romantic and beautiful river bank where we were +marooned, and the sickness of my friend Hill, +threw me upon my centre, until I began even to +talk to myself, and received such an impress of the +minute details of my little habitation that, ephemeral +as it was and now long since gone, it endures, +of coloured and indestructible stuff, with a sunny +portal I still can enter whenever my mind turns +that way. It was of four palm trunks, lapped +round and over with mats of leaves. The floor was +of untrimmed branches, two feet from the earth, +and their unexpected inequalities, never remembered, +were always jolting my thoughts as I walked +across. They were crooked, and I could see the +dusty earth two feet beneath where brown and +green lizards ran. At one end was a verandah +with a narrow floor made of the lids of soap and +dynamite boxes, and laid without any idea that +some curious tenant might wish to read the manufacturers’ +full names and see their complete +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_308'></a>308</span> +trademarks. It was a puzzle. There was nothing to +do, and I searched long on my verandah floor for +the clue to one embarrassing fragment of a stencilled +word. Hill sometimes huddled in a hammock +on one side of the verandah, a leg hanging limply +over, his thin sallow face drawn and resting on his +breast, and his eyes shut; and I sat near him on the +rail, silent, alone with any thought I met, and gazing +blankly down the steep slope, past two tall +Brazil nut-trees, to the half-hidden Rio Jaci below, +and the roof of the forest opposite, over which the +sun set each day in uplifted splendour. I remembered +but one conversation during that wait. An +elderly white man came up to the verandah one +evening, and murmured something to Hill, who +opened his eyes, and looked at his visitor under +weary lids. This man was one of Hill’s subordinates. +He had something to say of the work; +but one would hardly call it speech. The flow of +his life was so weak that he could do no more than +lift a few small words from his gaping mouth between +his breaths. He held on to the verandah. +His loose clothes hung straight down from his +bones. The veins were in blue knots on his forehead. +“Say,” said Hill, rousing himself, “I want +you to ride to the Caracoles, go down to Porto +Velho, and take this note to the hospital.” The +man said nothing, but nodded. Hill scrawled his +note, and the man left. “He’ll be dead in a month,” +said Hill, five minutes after the man had gone. +“But he would not go to the hospital for his health. +I have to pretend that he must go for mine. He +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_309'></a>309</span> +may as well die in a comfortable bed.... I wish +those damned parrots would cease!” They were +somewhere down by the river, unseen, but all the +sound there was, their voices long, keen and distracting +flaws in the pellucid and coloured dayfall. +</p> +<p> +One morning we crossed the Jaci, and on the +opposite shore some mules were already geared +with Texan saddles, the hombres at their heads, +waiting for us. I considered my mule. He was a +big, grey, upstanding fellow, with the legs and +feet of a racehorse, the head of a hammer, and +alert and inquisitive ears. He was very much alive. +I had no doubt he could leave anywhere like light, +when he had a mind for it. So that I turned to +Hill, and said, “Is mine a quiet animal? Is he +vicious?” “O say,” said my guide, glancing carelessly +at my dubious mount, “I guess he’s just a +mule.” When a hombre shouted at my mule he +stepped briskly, with more than a hint of the malicious +rebel in his gait. +</p> +<p> +I knew it would happen, and it did. One foot +was no sooner buried in a wooden shoe called a +stirrup than he was off, like an explosion. A +desperate leap got my other leg over my travelling +sack, lashed on his rump, and I came down in the +saddle, much surprised. Texan saddles are not +leather pads for riding domestic creatures, but +thrones for ruling devils, and the bit would have +broken the mouth of a hippopotamus. The brute +stopped, turned back one ear, and his thought was +in his swivel eye. “You wait,” I saw him say. In +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_310'></a>310</span> +the few engrossing moments when his body was +expanding and contracting under me I got some +idea of the force I was supposed to guide, and it +did not make my mind easy, for an office chair had +been my most unstable seat till then. Yet off we +went quietly, along the track, and Hill was in +front, and my mule was as meek as a sheep. There +came a swamp, into which he went to the knees, and +I dismounted, jumping from hummock to hummock, +encouraging him, and showing him the best +places. His brown eyes were then like those of a +good woman. So leaning forward, when we were +through, I patted his sleek neck, and gave him +pleasant words. Afterwards, when he showed a +certain precious care in difficult places, for the +country was very broken, stepping like a tight-rope +walker, I was fool enough to think it was because +of our understanding. Though I believe +he would have deceived anybody. +</p> +<p> +At noon we left the track and entered the forest +by a path so narrow that the trees touched our +legs, and sometimes we had just time to duck beneath +a noose which a liana dangled in our faces. +It was a low and narrow tunnel, and it descended +to a bottom where a shallow stream brawled among +granite boulders; thence up the trail went through +the trees and vines again, and at last we came to a +little clearing, where there was a hut, and men who +would give us meat and drink. We dismounted. +I rubbed my mule’s soft nose, and spoke him playfully, +as a familiar; but when entering the hut was +rebuked by a man there for making a short cut +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_311'></a>311</span> +round the heels of my mule. “Never do it. Don’t +give him a chance. A mule will be peaches for ten +years waiting for the sure chance of getting his +heels right on your stomach. They’re not horses, +them mules. They don’t bite, and they don’t muzzle +you and show friendly. They’ve got no feelings. +That chap of yours, his mother was an ass, and his +father was old Solfernio himself. But they’ve all +got one good point—they’re barren.” +</p> +<p> +The mule stood deep in thought till I was +mounted again; then instantly bolted back along +the path which led to the ravine. The idle hombre +had mishandled the reins, and I could get no pull. +I went across that clearing like (so Hill said afterwards) +Tod Sloan up. The beast, his ears back, +was in a frenzy, and the convulsions of his powerful +body made my thoughts pallid and ghastly. +Nothing but disaster could stop him, and the black +mouth of that steep tunnel in the forest yawned +before us, and grew larger, though not large +enough. He took the opening as clean as a lucky +shot; but I was laid carefully along his back. Why +we missed the tangle of woods and the rocks in that +precipitate descent is known only to my lucky stars. +I had my feet from the stirrups, my toes hooked +on his rump, one arm round the horn of the saddle, +and the other stretched along his sawing neck. I +saw the roots and stones leap up and by us, close +to my face. Several things occurred to me, and +one was that some methods of dire fate were fatuous +and undignified. I wondered also whether I +should be taken back to the ship, or buried there. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_312'></a>312</span> +The impetus of the brute, which I expected would +send us somersaulting among the rocks of the bottom, +took him partly up the hither slope, and soon +he had to gather his haunches for the upward leaps. +I slipped off. He swung round at the length of +the reins, and eyed me, cocking his ears derisively. +A horse’s nerves are human-like, and a horse would +have been in a muck, but this murderous mule was +calm and mocking. I watched him, and listened +for an obscene and confident guffaw. +</p> +<p> +I found afterwards that punishment has no more +effect on them than kindness. There is no guidance +in this matter, take the mule all round. It is dealing +with the uncanny. It is better to cross yourself +when you go near a mule. Every morning about a +camp we would watch the hombres gear up those +pensive and placid creatures. They were sleek, +lissom, and beautiful, and it was a pleasure to +watch them. But as soon as the business of the +day began one of the mules (and there was no +prophecy as to which one it would be) became a +homicidal maniac. At one camp it was necessary +to keep a hundred or more mules in reserve, and +there, for their health, a sane old horse was kept +also. The horse was a knacker’s body, a sorry +spectacle, and in that climate he but pottered about +waiting for disease to take him. He was smaller +than the fine and healthy mules, but the respect the +hammer-heads had for him was comical, and a +great help to the men. Without the horse, it +would have been opening the door of an asylum +to have let the mules out of the corral to water at +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_313'></a>313</span> +the river. But he led the way, and they bunched +round him bashfully, and followed him to the +stream. He took no notice of them whatever. He +did not flatter them by pretending to be aware of +their existence. When he had had his fill, he turned, +and ambled through them, scorning to see them, +and returned to the corral. Round went all the +mules nearest to him, and any of them on the +outskirts of the mob that stayed on because they +did not see him go lost their heads, when they +looked up, and risked their necks in short cuts +through the timber. “Ho, mule!” would shout the +hombres in alarm; for even mules cost money. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +The land through which we were riding shall +have a little railway there some day, if the men +who are building it keep their hearts of brass, and +refuse in working hours to remember London and +New York. When it is there, that short line, it +will begin and end in places having names which +will convey little meaning to people outside Brazil; +but to know what endurance of valour, but chiefly +what raillery and light-hearted disregard of the +gods who put baleful forests guarded by dragons—the +dragons of mythology were lambs to what mosquitoes +are—in the path of weak men pursuing their +purpose, to know what has gone to the building +of that track, though it nowhere plainly shows, for +the graveyards are casual and obscure, brings you +to a stand, surprised into awe of your fellows, as +though through a coarse disguise you caught a +gleam of divinity. Something shows, a light shows, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_314'></a>314</span> +which is beyond human. Would men be so prodigal +of life and time if they were not aware of their +great wealth? I don’t know. My travels never +brought me to that ultimate assurance. But I did +see that my fellow-men are indifferent, spendthrift +with their known and scanty store as though they +were immortals, the remittance men of Great Jove. +I have no doubt now the line will be finished some +day; but there were times, riding along the roughly +cleared trail where it is to be, and we came upon +places where men, in a spasm of pointless and soon +expiring energy had scratched and mauled the pristine +earth, when I did not think so. Always the +same dumb mystery was about us at noon as at +nightfall. I felt we were lost at the back of the +world, that we had crossed the boundary beyond +which the voice of traffic never goes, and were idly +wandering on the confines of oblivion. Sometimes +I had that consciousness of futility which comes to +us when, in sleep, we are earnest in the absurd +activities of a dream, one point of the reason remaining +awake to wonder at the antics of the busy +but blind mind. Why was I there at all? Was I +there? Those forlorn spots in the forest where our +fellows had been before us, which we two riders +overlooked alone, seemed to show that those men, +while in the midst of their feverish labour, had recovered +their minds, and had seen the wilderness +was too vast, was unconquerable; and they had fled. +There before us was what they had done. A deep +trench would be in the track, the sand thrown up +on either side. Some dead trees would be prone +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_315'></a>315</span> +in our path, and we had to ride round them. There +would be a few empty huts of leaves, with old ashes +at the entrances, and a midden with its usual gorgeous +butterflies. There would not be a sign of +life, except the butterflies over the refuse, and not +a sound or a movement but a clink from our own +harness, and the heads of our mules impatient with +the flies. Over the evidence of man’s far-fetched +enterprise and industry, his short and ferocious attack +on the wild, brooded the forest. That bent +over us, and it might have been solicitous and compassionate, +or it might have been merely curious +about the behaviour of the surprising creatures who +had come there for the first time, and had been so +active for a while. Sitting in the pour of the sun, +looking upon the scanty work of my fellows, and +then upon the near watchful ranks of that continent +of trees pressing close to regard the grave-like +trench into which man’s hope might have been +thrown, I had a dread of the easy and enduring +dominion of those powers which were before man. +</p> +<p> +We would ride on then, sometimes up to our +saddles in swamps, and every day I lost faith that +there was any company of our fellows in that desolation, +who would take our mules at nightfall, and +show hammocks for our rest. But always before +night caught us we would spy a few huts diminutive +under the cliffs of forest—land ho!—and the +little outpost of two or three engineers and a doctor +would meet us as we came up. Such a camp was +like finding security and fellowship again after the +uncertainty and emptiness of the sea. The voices +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_316'></a>316</span> +of new friends disarmed the forest. It was not +curious that we found it so easy to talk and laugh. +</p> +<p> +One such camp I remember well. We came upon +it late, and my bones, through a longer ride than +usual in the wooden saddle, had grown into an unjointed +frame. This was the real meaning of +fatigue. My body was a comprehensive ache. Yet +my mind was alert and buoyant; and I remembered +that perhaps it was so because I had been well bitten +by the mosqitoes of the Jaci-Parana, a first +effect of the inoculation; so I swallowed twenty +grains of my store of quinine. +</p> +<p> +You in settled lands, unless you have been very +poor indeed and know what trouble is and what +friends are, have never seen the face of your +brother, nor the serenity of evening when you have +found, without expecting it, shelter for the night; +you don’t know what the taste of bread and meat is, +nor the savour of tobacco, nor what comfortable +security is the whispering of a comrade unseen in +the shadows of a resting place, nor what it is to +sleep. I found those gifts are not means to life +only, but reasons for living too; something to live +for. With these at nightfall, our frail little hut, +beleaguered in the limitless woods, the shack in +which the ants and spiders swarmed and gross insects +rang on the metal lamp, where we loafed in +hammocks, smoking, and listened to the cries of +we knew not what in the unknown about us, was +impregnable to the hosts of darkness. +</p> +<p> +Perhaps I remember that camp so well because +it was a night of full moon. There were three huts. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_317'></a>317</span> +We were deep in the trees. The dark walls of that +well in the jungle rose sheer all round us. Nobody +knew what was beyond the huts. The moon appeared +just clear of the lofty parapet of the well, +and poured down to us an imponderable rarity of +bluish fire. Wherever this fire lodged it stayed. +Half-way up projected palm fronds, and they +were heavy patterns in burnished silver. Nameless +shapes grew luminous in the dark about us. +The ragged thatch of a hut fell from its apex in a +cascade of lustrous fluid metal suddenly congealed. +The gloom beneath that shining roof was hollowed +by the pale yellow light of a lamp; so I could +see, under the eaves, the three hammocks slung +from the posts. The quiet talk of my companions +was the only sound. I limped with weariness +towards the voices, and sat in a shadow listening; +and looked beyond to sprays of motionless shining +foliage leaning out from inscrutable darkness. I +seemed to have escaped from my tired body; my +disembodied mind was free and at large. A camp +hunter had killed a jaguar there, during the afternoon, +they were saying. There were many about, +for we were beyond the railway men, the track +being but a lane of felled trees. They were saying +the country there abounded with wild life. Just +as we arrived that evening one of the men brought +in a wounded animal, its nature so disguised that I +thought it was a kind of sloth. It was about two +feet long, and covered with long grizzled hair from +its snout to the end of its considerable tail; but +when I lifted it, and the poor injured creature +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_318'></a>318</span> +shook its hair from its eyes, I saw it was a monkey; +that anguished and fearful gaze which met mine +was of my own tiny brother. It was a rare and +little-known creature, the Hairy Saki, the first of +its kind I had seen. The native took it away to +eat it. I may say that at every camp we ate what +we could get; and being by nature squeamish I +never asked what it was that was put before me. +Whatever it was, there it was, and it was all they +could give me. I only emphatically directed that +monkey flesh would be worse to me than hunger. +</p> +<p> +“There are plenty of tigers about here,” called +one of our hosts to me; “I’ll fix you with a gun to-morrow, +and we’ll have some fun.” But thank +you, no. I did not carry arms throughout my journey. +The jaguars did me no hurt when I went +exploring o’ mornings; and as for me, I was not +looking for trouble. Quite politely the jaguars +retired while I wandered about alone; though I +should have been delighted to have sighted one. +The whiffs of feral odour I got, especially in the +neighbourhood of the mules, about which the +jaguars prowled at night, were my only big game +trophies. Sometimes an indistinguishable object +would step across ahead of me, or stir in a bush +close by, drawing ear and eye at once in a place +where trees and leaves were always as fixtures, +like the air. I never met one of the larger natives +of the place. I knew the parrots by their voices. +I heard and smelt the cats. The monkeys called +from a great distance; or a body would slip round +a tree so like a shadow moving that when I examined +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_319'></a>319</span> +the place, and saw nothing, it was easy to +believe the eye was only suspicious. +</p> +<p> +The men began to talk of the Indians. They said +we were in the land of the Caripunas. “You won’t +see them,” said Hill. “I expect they are watching +us now though,” he added, after a pause. I glanced +up with some interest at the spectral foliage, where +right before me the pale moonfire on leaves and +trunks framed portals in the night. I could see +nothing. +</p> +<p> +“It’s odds that some of them have been following +us all day,” continued Hill. “They watch us. +They can’t make us out. The rubber men told us +the Caripunas would kill and eat us. They kill the +rubber men all right, and a good job too. But they +only slip through the forest watching us. I saw +some once. On the Jaci. I jollied them into putting +their canoe ashore. It was only a bark contraption, +the roughest thing of its kind I’ve seen, +sharpened fore and aft by lacing the ends together +with sinews. They were fine light brown fellows, +well made, and stark naked. The black hair of some +of them was frizzy. Curious, isn’t it? But I’ve +heard that in the slave days runaway niggers got +down here, and the forest Indians collared them to +improve their own miserable stock. The Brazilians +have always had a tradition of a frizzy-haired race +on the Madeira; and here they are. They had bows +and arrows, those chaps, made entirely of cane and +wood. The arrows were tipped with macaw +feathers, and were over six feet long. I couldn’t +bend the bloomin’ bow. These fellows keep to the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_320'></a>320</span> +side rivers, and their villages are always hidden in +the woods. It’s a funny thing, but whenever the +surveyors come on a village they find it has been +vacated about a week.” +</p> +<p> +We were silent for a time, and then a half-breed +crept up to a hammock and spoke in Spanish to the +doctor. The doctor laughed, and the fellow went +away. “He’s asking for a piece of that onca to +eat. He says it will make him strong.” They +began to talk of that, and the talk went on to what +the Indians say of the mai d’aqua, the mother of +the waters, who frequents islands in the rivers and +is the ruin of young men, and of such dreads as the +jurupari, and the curupira, and the maty tapéré. +</p> +<p> +They admitted it was easy to imagine such things +into the forest. It wasn’t what was seen there. +Only the trees and the shadows were seen. But +sometimes there were sounds. One of us, when +alone making a traverse in the forest, had heard a +scream, as if a woman had been frightened, and +then there was no more sound. The camp doctor +began to talk. He was an Englishman. He sat +upright in the middle of his hammock, swinging +it with one foot. “There was a curious yarn I +heard about a tiger in Hampshire. Ah! Hampshire! +I had a practice there once, you know. It +made me so busy and popular that at last I began +to wonder whether I wasn’t altogether too successful. +It was the practice or me. As I wanted to +live on and do some useful work I slew the practice. +I’ve got one or two ideas about that beri-beri you +chaps die of here. A doctor cannot serve God and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_321'></a>321</span> +a lot of old women with colds.... Oh yes, about +that tiger. Well, one of those travelling shows +came to our village. I could see the steam of its +roundabout engines from my surgery windows, and +I told the farmer who rented the field to the showmen +that if he let a mechanical organ come anywhere +near my place again he could take his gallstone +somewhere else in future. +</p> +<p> +“Late one night I got an urgent message to go +over to the show. There had been an accident. I +was taken into a caravan. There was a fat woman +dressed as a pink fairy kneeling over a man +stretched on a bunk, shaking him, and crying. The +man was dead all right. But I couldn’t find a mark +on him. Diseased heart, I supposed, but he looked +a good ’un. Some of the well-made, powerful chaps +have most unreliable hearts. The woman kept +crying out something about ‘that beast of a tiger.’ +Curious sort of remark, and I asked the boss afterwards +what she meant. He shuffled about a bit, +pretending that she was talking silly. ‘Nothing to +do with the tigress,’ he said, ‘although the man was +found unconscious in her cage.’ ‘It’s such a tame +thing,’ said the showman. ‘Anybody could handle +it. Never shows vice. Old Jackson’—that was the +dead chap—‘he’d been inside tinkering with a partition. +When we found him she was lying in a +corner as if asleep, and only sat up and yawned +when we got him out of her cage. Come and see +for yourself.’ +</p> +<p> +“I went. There was nothing to see, except a +slit-eyed tigress sitting up in a corner of her cage, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_322'></a>322</span> +blinking at the lantern, and looking rather spooky. +A rather small creature, and prettily marked—one +of the melantic variety. +</p> +<p> +“Well, the chap was buried after an inquest, and +that inquest made me ask a lot of questions afterwards. +It was a simple affair, the inquest. Death +from natural causes. But there was something behind +the evidence of the man’s wife, and I wanted +to find out about that. +</p> +<p> +“She told me she had a little girl, who got one +night into the tent where the big cats were kept. +Nobody was there at the time. Next morning she +said to her mother, ‘Mummie, who was the funny +lady in Lucy’s cage?’ +</p> +<p> +“Lucy was the name of the tigress. The child +said that there was only the lady in the cage, and +the lady watched her. And that was all they could +get out of the kiddie. The funny thing about it is +that once before the child had come back with a +yarn like that, after straying into the menagerie +tent late at night. The wife’s idea was her husband +had died of fright. +</p> +<p> +“Don’t ask me what I want to make out, boys. +I’m only just telling you the yarn. There you are. +</p> +<p> +“Well, before the show left our village, I heard +they’d got a nigger to look after the big cats. He +was with the show two days. On the third day he +was missing. He went without drawing his money, +and he had left open the door of Lucy’s cage. She +hadn’t attempted to get out. The nigger was found +some days after, wandering about the country, and +a little cracked, by all accounts. And that’s all.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_323'></a>323</span> +The doctor struck a match, and then hoisted his +legs into the hammock. Somewhere far in the +forest the monkeys were howling. +</p> +<p> +“That doctor is a good body mender,” said Hill +to me. “He is the most entertaining liar on this +job.” +</p> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_324'></a>324</span><a name='chVI' id='chVI'></a>VI</h2> +<p> +When in the neighbourhood of the Girau Falls +we returned to a camp known as 22, which was +merely a couple of huts, the station of two English +surveyors, who had with them a small party of +Bolivians. The Bolivian frontier was then but a +little distance to the south-west. We rested for a +day there, and planned to make a journey of ten +miles across country, to the falls of the Caldeirao do +Inferno. By doing so we should save the wearying +return ride along the track to the Rio Jaci-Parana, +for at the Caldeirao a launch was kept, and in that +we could shoot the rapids and reach the camp on +the Jaci two days earlier. Some haste was necessary +now, for my steamer must be nearing her sailing +time. And again, I agreed the more readily +to the plan of making a traverse of the forest because +it would give me the opportunity of seeing +the interior of the virgin jungle away from any +track. Though I had been so long in a land which +all was forest I had not been within the universal +growth except for little journeys on used trails. A +journey across country in the Amazon country is +never made by the Brazilians. The only roads are +the rivers. It is a rare traveller who goes through +those forests, guided only, by a compass and his lore +of the wilderness. That for months I had never +been out of sight of the jungle, and yet had rarely +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_325'></a>325</span> +ventured to turn aside from a path for more than +a few paces, is some indication of its character. At +the camp where we were staying I was told that +once a man had gone merely within the screen of +leaves, and then no doubt had lost, for a few moments, +his sense of direction of the camp, for he +was never seen again. +</p> +<p> +The equatorial forest is popularly pictured as a +place of bright and varied colours, with extravagant +flowers, an abundance of fruits, and huge +trees hung with creepers where lurk many venomous +but beautiful snakes with gem-like eyes, and a +multitude of birds as bright as the flowers; paradise +indeed, though haunted by a peril. Those +details are right, but the picture is wrong. It is +true that some of the birds are decorated in a way +which makes the most beautiful of our temperate +birds seem dull; but the toucans and macaws of the +Madeira forest, though common, are not often seen, +and when they are seen they are likely to be but +obscure atoms drifting high in a white light. About +the villages and in the clearings there are usually +many superb butterflies and moths, and a varied +wealth of vegetation not to be matched outside the +tropics, and there will be the fireflies and odours +in evening pathways. But the virgin forest itself +soon becomes but a green monotony which, through +extent and mystery, dominates and compels to awe +and some dread. You will see it daily, but will not +often approach it. It has no splendid blossoms; +none, that is, which you will see, except by chance, +as by luck one day I saw from the steamer’s bridge +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_326'></a>326</span> +some trees in blossom, domes of lilac surmounting +the forest levels. Trees are always in blossom +there, for it is a land of continuous high summer, +and there are orchids always in flower, and palms +and vines that fill acres of forest with fragrance, +palms and other trees which give wine and delicious +fruits, and somewhere hidden there are the birds of +the tropical picture, and dappled jaguars perfect +in colouring and form, and brown men and women +who have strange gods. But they are lost in the +ocean of leaves as are the pearls and wonders in the +deep. You will remember the equatorial forest but +as a gloom of foliage in which all else that showed +was rare and momentary, was foundered and lost +to sight instantly, as an unusual ray of coloured +light in one mid-ocean wave gleams, and at once +goes, and your surprise at its apparition fades too, +and again there is but the empty desolation which +is for ever but vastness sombrely bright. +</p> +<p> +One morning, wondering greatly what we should +see in the place where we should be the first men +to go, Hill and I left camp 22 and returned a little +along the track. It was a hot still morning. A +vanilla vine was in fragrant flower somewhere, unseen, +but unescapable. My little unknown friend +in the woods, who calls me at odd times—but I +think chiefly when I am near a stream—by whistling +thrice, let me know he was about. Hill said +he thinks he has seen him, and that my little friend +looks like a blackbird. On the track in many places +were objects which appeared to be long cups inverted, +of unglazed ware. Picking up one I found +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_327'></a>327</span> +it was the cap to a mine of ants, the inside of the +clay cup being hollowed in a perfect circle, and +remarkably smooth. A paca dived into the scrub +near us. It was early morning, scented with vanilla, +and the intricacy of leaves was radiant. Nowhere +in the screen could I see a place through which it +was possible to crawl to whatever was behind it. +The front of leaves was unbroken. Hill presently +bent double and disappeared, and I followed in the +break he made. So we went for about ten minutes, +my leader cutting obstructions with his machete, +and mostly we had to go almost on hands and knees. +The undergrowth was green, but in the etiolated +way of plants which have little light, though that +may have been my fancy. One plant was very +common, making light-green feathery barriers. I +think it was a climbing bamboo. Its stem was vapid +and of no diameter, and its grasslike leaves grew in +whorls at the joints. It extended to incredible distances. +We got out of that margin of undergrowth, +which springs up quickly when light is let into the +woods, as it was there through the cutting of the +track, and found ourselves on a bare floor where the +trunks of arborescent laurels grew so thickly together +that our view ahead was restricted to a few +yards. We were in the forest. There was a pale +tinge of day, but its origin was uncertain, for overhead +no foliage could be seen, but only deep shadows +from which long ropes were hanging without life. +In that obscurity were points of light, as if a high +roof had lost some tiles. Hill set a course almost +due south, and we went on, presently descending to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_328'></a>328</span> +a deep clear stream over which a tree had fallen. +Shafts of daylight came down to us there, making +the sandy bottom of the stream luminous, as by a +lantern, and betraying crowds of small fishes. As +we climbed the tree, to cross upon it, we disturbed +several morphos. We had difficulties beyond in a +hollow, where the bottom of the forest was lumbered +with fallen trees, dry rubbish, and thorns, and once, +stepping on what looked timber solid enough, its +treacherous shell collapsed, and I went down into a +cloud of dust and ants. In clearing this wreckage, +which was usually as high as our faces, and doubly +confused by the darkness, the involutions of dead +thorny creepers, and clouds of dried foliage, Hills +got at fault with our direction, but reassured himself, +though I don’t know how—but I think with the +certain knowledge that if we went south long +enough we should strike the Madeira somewhere—and +on we went. For hours we continued among +the trees, seldom knowing what was ahead of us for +any distance, surviving points of noise intruding +again after long in the dusk of limbo. So still and +nocturnal was the forest that it was real only when +its forms were close. All else was phantom and of +the shades. There was not a green sign of life, and +not a sound. Resting once under a tree I began to +think there was a conspiracy implied in that murk +and awful stillness, and that we should never come +out again into the day and see a living earth. Hills +sat looking out, and said, as if in answer to an unspoken +thought of mine which had been heard because there +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_329'></a>329</span> +was less than no sound there, that men +who were lost in those woods soon went mad. +</p> +<p> +Then he led on again. This forest was nothing +like the paradise a tropical wild is supposed to be. It +was as uniformly dingy as the old stones of a London +street on a November evening. We did not see +a movement, except when the morphos started from +the uprooted tree. Once I heard the whistle call +us from the depths of the forest, urgent and startling; +and now when in a London by-way I hear a +boy call his mate in a shrill whistle, it puts about me +again the spectral aisles, and that unexpectant quiet +of the sepulchre which is more than mere absence of +sound, for the dead who should have no voice. This +central forest was really the vault of the long-forgotten, +dank, mouldering, dark, abandoned to the +accumulations of eld and decay. The tall pillars +rose, upholding night, and they might have been +bastions of weathered limestone and basalt, for they +were as grim as ancient and ruinous masonry. +There was no undergrowth. The ground was hidden +in a ruin of perished stuff, uprooted trees, +parchments of leaves, broken boughs, and mummied +husks, the iron globes of nuts, and pods. There was +no day, but some breaks in the roof were points of +remote starlight. The crowded columns mounted +straight and far, almost branchless, fading into indistinction. +Out of that overhead obscurity hung a +wreckage of distorted cables, binding the trees, and +often reaching the ground. The trees were seldom +of great girth, though occasionally there was a dominant +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_330'></a>330</span> +basaltic pillar, its roots meandering over the +floor like streams of old lava. The smooth ridges +of such a fantastic complexity of roots were sometimes +breast high. The walls ran up the trunk, projecting +from it as flat buttresses, for great heights. +We would crawl round such an occupying structure, +diminished groundlings, as one would move +about the base of a foreboding, plutonic building +whose limits and meaning were ominous and baffling. +There were other great trees with compound +boles, built literally of bundles of round stems, intricate +gothic pillars, some of the props having fused in +places. Every tree was the support of a parasitic +community, lianas swathing it and binding it. One +vine moulded itself to its host, a flat and wide compress, +as though it were plastic. We might have +been witnessing what had been a riot of manifold +and insurgent life. It had been turned to stone +when in the extreme pose of striving violence. It +was all dead now. +</p> +<p> +But what if these combatants had only paused as +we appeared? It was a thought which came to me. +The pause might be but an appearance for our deception. +Indeed, they were all fighting as we passed +through, those still and fantastic shapes, a war ruthless +but slow, in which the battle day was ages long. +They seemed but still. We were deceived. If time +had been accelerated, if the movements in that war +of phantoms had been speeded, we should have seen +what really was there, the greater trees running upwards +to starve the weak of light and food, and +heard the continuous collapse of the failures, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_331'></a>331</span> +have seen the lianas writhing and constricting, manifestly +like serpents, throttling and eating their +hosts. We did see the dead everywhere, shells with +the worms at them. Yet it was not easy to be sure +that we saw anything at all, for these were not trees, +but shapes in a region below the day, a world sunk +abysmally from the land of living things, to which +light but thinly percolated down to two travellers +moving over its floor, trying to get out to their own +place. +</p> +<p> +Late in the afternoon we were surprised by a +steep hill in our way, where the forest was more +open. Palms became conspicuous on the slopes, and +the interior of the sombre woods was lighted with +bright and graceful foliage. The wild banana was +frequent, its long rippling pennants showing everywhere. +The hill rose sharply, perhaps for six hundred +feet, and over its surface were scattered large +stones, and stones are rare indeed in this land of +vegetable humus. They were often six inches in +diameter, and I should have said they were waterworn +but that I had seen them <em>in situ</em> at one camp, +where they occurred but little below the surface in a +friable sandstone, the largest of them easily broken +in the hand, for they were but ferrous concretions +of quartz grains. After exposure to the air they so +hardened that they could be fractured only with +difficulty. We kept along the ridge of the hill, +finding breaks in the forest through which, as +through unexpected windows, we could see, for a +wonder, over the roof of the forest, looking out of +our prison to a wide world where the sun was declining. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_332'></a>332</span> +In the south-west we caught the gleam of +the Madeira, and beyond it saw a continuation of +the range of hills on which we stood. +</p> +<p> +In the low ground between the hill range and the +river the forest was lower, and was so tangled a mass +that I doubted whether we could make a way +through it. We happened upon a deserted Caripuna +village, three large sheds, without sides, each +but a ragged thatch propped on four legs. The +clearing was just large enough to hold them. I +could find no relics of the forest folk about. Damp +leaves were thick on the floor of each shelter. But +it was lucky we found the huts, for thence a trail +led us to the river. We emerged suddenly from the +forest, just as one goes through a little door into +the open street. We were on the bank of the Madeira +by the upper falls of the Caldeirao. It was +still a great river, with the wall of the forest opposite, +just above which the sunset was flaming, so +far away that its tree trunks were but vertical lines +of silver in dark cliffs. A track used by the Bolivian +rubber boatmen led us down stream to the +camp by the lower falls. +</p> +<p> +It was night when we got to the three huts of the +camp, and the river could not be seen, but it was +heard, a continuous low thundering. Sometimes a +greater shock of deep waters falling, an orgasm of +the flood pouring unseen, more violent than the +rest, made the earth tremulous. Men held up lanterns +to our faces, and led us to a hut. It was but +the usual roof of leaves. We rested in hammocks +slung between the posts, and I ached in every limb. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_333'></a>333</span> +But here we were at last; and there is no more +luxurious bed than a hammock, yielding and resilient, +as though you were cradled on air; and there +is no pipe like that smoked in a hammock at night +in the tropics after a day of toil and anxiety in a +dissolving heat, for the heat makes a pipe bitter and +impossible; but if a tropic night is cool and cloudless +it comes like a benediction, and the silence is a peace +that is below you and around, and as high as the +stars towards which your face is turned. The ropes +of the hammock creaked. Sometimes a man spoke +quietly, as though he were at a great distance. The +sound of the water receded, was heard only as in a +sleep, and it might have been the loud murmur of +the spinning globe, heard because we had left this +world and had leisure for trifles in a securer world +apart. +</p> +<p> +In the morning, while they prepared the little +steam launch for its journey down the rapids, I had +time to climb about the smooth granite boulders of +the foreshore below the hut. A rock is so unusual +in this country that it is a luxury when found. The +granite was bare, but in its crevices grew cacti and +other plants with fleshy leaves and swollen stems. +Shadowing the hut was a tree bearing trumpet-shaped +flowers, and before the blossoms humming +birds were hovering, glowing and evanescent morsels, +remaining miraculously suspended when inserting +their long bills into the flowers, their little +wings beating so rapidly that the air seemed visible +and radiant about them. Another tree here interested +me, for it was Bates Assacu, the only one I +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_334'></a>334</span> +saw. It was a large tree, with palmate leaves having +seven fingers. Ugly spines studded even its +brown trunk. +</p> +<p> +I looked out on the river dubiously. A rocky +island was just off shore, crowned with trees. Between +us and the island, and beyond, the waters +heaved and circled, evidently of great depth, and +fearfully disturbed and swift. It looked all its +name, the Caldeirao do Inferno—hell’s cauldron. +There was not much white and broken water. But +its surface was always changing, whirlpools forming +and revolving, then disappearing in long wrenched +strands of water. Sometimes a big tree would leap +out of the water, as though it had travelled upwards +from the bottom, and then would vanish again. +</p> +<p> +We set out upon it, with an engineman and two +half-breeds, and went off obliquely for mid-stream. +The engineman and navigator was a fair-haired +German. If the river had been sane and usual I +should have had my eyes on the forest which stood +along each shore, for few white men had ever looked +upon it. But the river took our minds, and never +in bad weather in the western ocean have I seen +water so full of menace. Yet below the falls it was +silent and unbroken. It was its smooth swiftness, +its strange checks and mysterious and deep convulsions, +as though the river bed itself was insecure, +the startling whirlpools which appeared without +warning, circling depressions on the surface in which +our launch would have been but a straw, which +shocked the mind. It was stealthy and noiseless. +The water was but an inch or two below our gunwale. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_335'></a>335</span> +We saw trees afloat, greater and heavier than +our midget of a craft, shooting down the gently +inclined shining expanse just as we were, and express; +and then, as if an awful hand had grasped +them from below, they were pulled under, and we +saw them no more; or, again, and near to us and +ahead, a tree bole would shoot from below like an +arrow, though no tree had been drifting there. The +shores were far away. +</p> +<p> +The water ahead grew worse. The German +crouched by his little throbbing engine, looking +anxiously—I could see his fixed stare—over the +bows. We were travelling indeed now. The boat, +in a rapid tremor, and oscillating violently, was +clutched at the keel by something which coiled +strongly about us, gripped us, and held us; and the +boat, mad and terrified, in an effort to escape, made +a circuit, the water lipping at her gunwale and coming +over the bows. The river seemed poised a foot +above the bows, ready to pour in and swamp us. +The German tried to get her head down stream. +Hills began tearing at his ammunition belt, and I +stooped and tugged at my boot laces.... +</p> +<p> +The boat jumped, as if released. The German +turned round on us grinning. “It ees all right,” +he said. He began to roll a cigarette nervously. +“We pull it off all right,” said the German, wetting +his cigarette paper. The boat was free, dancing +lightly along. The little engine was singing quickly +and freely. +</p> +<p> +The Madeira here was as wide as in its lower +reaches, with many islands. There were hosts of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_336'></a>336</span> +waterfowl. We landed once at a rubber hunter’s +sitio on the right bank. Its owner, a Bolivian, +and his pretty Indian wife, who had tattoo marks on +her forehead, made much of us, and gave us coffee. +They had an orchard of guavas, and there, for it was +long since I had tasted fruit, I was an immoderate +thief, in spite of a pet curassow which followed me +through the garden with distracting pecks. The +Rio Jaci-Parana, a blackwater stream, opened up +soon after we left the sitio. The boundary between +the clay-coloured flood of the Madeira and the dark +water of the tributary was straight and distinct. +From a distance the black water seemed like ink, +but we found it quite clear and bright. The Jaci is +not an important branch river, but it was, at this +period of the rains, wider than the Thames at Richmond, +and without doubt very much deeper. The +appearance of the forest on the Jaci was quite different +from the palisades of the parent stream. On +the Madeira there is commonly a narrow shelf of +bank, above which the jungle rises as would a sheer +cliff. The Jaci had no banks. The forest was +deeply submerged on either side, and whenever an +opening showed in the woods we could see the +waters within, but could not see their extent because +of the interior gloom. The outer foliage was awash, +and mounted, not straight, but in rounded clouds. +For the first time I saw many vines and trees in +flower, presumably because we were nearer the roof +of the woods. One tree was loaded with the pendent +pear-shaped nests of those birds called “hang nests,” +and scores of the beauties in their black and gold +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_337'></a>337</span> +plumage were busy about their homes, which resembled +monstrous fruits. Another tree was +weighted with large racemes of orange-coloured +blossoms, but as the launch passed close to it we discovered +the blooms were really bundles of caterpillars. +The Jaci appeared to be a haunt of the alligators, +but all we saw of them was their snouts, +which moved over the surface of the water out of +our way like rubber balls afloat and mysteriously +propelled. I had a sight, too, of that most regal +of the eagles, the harpy, for one, well within view, +lifted from a tree ahead, and sailed finely over the +river and away. +</p> +<p> +That night I slept again in my old hut at the Jaci +camp, and with Hill and another official set off +early next morning for the construction camp on +Rio Caracoles, which we hoped to reach before the +commissary train left for Porto Velho. At Porto +Velho the “Capella” was, and I wished, perhaps as +much as I have ever wished for anything, that I +should not be left behind when she departed. I +knew she must be on the point of sailing. +</p> +<p> +My two companions had reasons of their own for +thinking the catching of that train was urgently +necessary. In our minds we were already settled +and safe in a waggon, comfortable among the +empty boxes, going back to the place where the +crowd was. But still we had some way to ride; and, +I must tell you, I was now possessed of all I desired +of the tropical forest, and had but one fixed +idea in my dark mind, but one bright star shining +there; I had turned about, and was going home, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_338'></a>338</span> +now must follow hard and unswervingly that star +in the east of my mind. The rhythmic movements +of the mule under me—only my legs knew he was +there—formed in my darkened mind a refrain: get +out of it, get out of it. +</p> +<p> +And at last there were the huts and tents of the +Caracoles, still and quiet under the vertical sun. +No train was there, nor did it look a place for trains. +My steamer was sixty miles away, beyond a track +along which further riding was impossible, and +where walking, for more than two miles, could not +be even considered. The train, the boys told us +blithely, went back half an hour before. The audience +of trees regarded my consternation with the +indifference which I had begun to hate with some +passion. The boys naturally expected that we +should take it in the right way for hot climates, +without fuss, and that now they had some new gossip +for the night. But they should have understood +Hill better. My tall gaunt leader waved them aside, +for he was a man who could do things, when there +seemed nothing that one could do. “The terminus +or bust!” he cried. “Where’s the boss?” He demanded +a handcart and a crew. I thought he spoke +in jest. A handcart is a contrivance propelled +along railway metals by pumping at a handle. The +handle connects with the wheels by a crank and +cogs through a slot in the centre of the platform, +and you get five miles an hour out of it, while the +crew continues. For sixty miles, in that heat, it +was impossible. Yet Hill persisted; the cart was +put on the metals, five half-breeds manned the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_339'></a>339</span> +pump handle, three facing the track ahead, two +with their backs to it. We three passengers sat on +the sides and front of the trolley. Away we went. +</p> +<p> +The boys cheered and laughed, calling out to us +the probabilities of our journey. We trundled +round a corner, and already I had to change my +cramped position; fifty-eight miles to go. We sat +with our legs held up out of the way of the vines +and rocks by the track, and careful to remember +that our craniums must be kept clear of the pump +handle. The crew went up and down, with fixed +looks. The sun was the eye of the last judgment, +and my lips were cracked. The trees made no sign. +The natives went up and down; and the forest went +by, tree by tree. +</p> +<p> +My tired and thoughtless legs dropped, and a +thorn fastened its teeth instantly in my boots, and +nearly had me down. The trees went by, one by +one. There was a large black and yellow butterfly +on a stone near us. I was surprised when no sound +came as it made a grand movement upwards. Then, +in the heart of nowhere, the trolley slackened, and +came to a stand. We had lost a pin. Half a mile +back we could hardly credit we really had found +that pin, but there it was; and the men began to +go up and down again. Hill got a touch of fever, +and the natives had changed to the colour of impure +tallow, and flung their perspiration on my +face and hands as they swung mechanically. The +poor wretches! We were done. The sun weighed +untold tons. +</p> +<p> +But the sun declined, some monkeys began to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_340'></a>340</span> +howl, and the sunset tempest sprang down on us its +assault, shaking the high screens on either hand, +and the rain beat with the roll of kettle-drums. +Then we got on an up grade, and two of the spent +natives collapsed, their chests heaving. So I and +the other chap stood up in the night, looked to the +stars, from which no help could be got, took hold of +the pump handle like gallant gentlemen, and tried +to forget there were twenty miles to go. Away +we went, jog, jog, uphill. I thought that gradient +would not end till my heart and head had burst; +but it did, just in time. +</p> +<p> +We gathered speed on a down grade. We flew. +Presently the man with the fever yelled, “The +brake, the brake!” But the brake was broken. The +trolley was not running, but leaping in the dark. +Every time it came down it found the metals. A +light was coming towards us on the line; and the +others prepared to jump. I could not even see that +light, for my back was turned to our direction, and +I could not let go the flying handle, else would all +control have gone, and also I should have been +smashed. I shut my eyes, pumped swiftly and involuntarily, +and waited for doom to hit me in +the back. The blow was a long time coming. Then +Hill’s gentle voice remarked, “All right, boys, it’s +a firefly.” +</p> +<p> +... I became only a piece of machinery, and +pumped, and pumped, with no more feeling than a +bolster. Shadows undulated by us everlastingly. +I think my tongue was hanging out.... +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_341'></a>341</span> +</p> +<p> +Lights were really seen at last. Kind hands lifted +us from the engine of torture; and I heard the remembered +voice of the Skipper, “Is he there? I +thought it was a case.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +That night of my return a full moon and a placid +river showed me the “Capella” doubled, as in a +mirror, and admiring the steamer’s deep inverted +shape I saw a heartening portent—I saw steam +escaping from the funnel which was upside down. +A great joy filled me at that, and I turned to the +Skipper, as we strode over the ties of the jetty. +“Yes. We go home to-morrow,” he said. The +bunk was super-heated again by the engine room, +but knowing the glad reason, I endured it with +pleasure. To-morrow we turned about. +</p> +<p> +Yet on the morrow there was still the persistence +of the spacious idleness which encompassed us +impregnably, beyond which we could not go. The +little that was left of the fuel in the holds went out +of us with dismal unhaste. The Skipper and the +mates fumed, and the Doctor took me round to see +the “Capella’s” pets, so that we might fill up time. +A monkey, an entirely secular creature once with us, +had died while I was away. It was well. He had +no name; Vice was his name. There were no tears +at his death, and Tinker the terrier began to get +back some of his full and lively form again after +that day when, in a sudden righteous revolution, he +slew, and barbarously mangled, the insolent tyrant +of the ship. The monkey had feared none but +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_342'></a>342</span> +Mack, our red, blue and yellow macaw, a monstrous +and resplendent fowl in whose iron bill even Brazil +nuts were soft. +</p> +<p> +But we all respected Mack. He was the wisest +thing on the ship. If an idle man felt high-spirited +and approached Mack to demonstrate his humour, +that great bird gave an inquiring turn to its head, +and its deliberate and unwinking eyes hid the rapid +play of its prescient mind. The man stopped, and +would speak but playfully. Nobody ever dared. +</p> +<p> +When Mack first boarded the ship, a group of us, +gloved, smothered him with a heavy blanket and +fastened a chain to his leg. He knew he was overpowered, +and did not struggle, but inside the +blanket we heard some horrible chuckles. We took +off the blanket and stood back expectantly from +that dishevelled and puzzling giant of a parrot. He +shook his feathers flat again, quite self-contained, +looked at us sardonically and murmured “Gur-r-r” +very distinctly; then glanced at his foot. There was +a little surprise in his eye when he saw the chain +there. He lifted up the chain to examine it, tried +it, and then quietly and easily bit it through. +“Gur-r-r!” he said again, straightening his vest, still +regarding us solemnly. Then he moved off to a +davit, and climbed the mizzen shrouds to the top-mast. +</p> +<p> +When he saw us at food he came down with nonchalance, +and overlooked our table from the cross +beam of an awning. Apparently satisfied, he came +directly to the mess table, sitting beside me, and +took his share with all the assurance of a member, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_343'></a>343</span> +allowing me to idle with his beautiful wings and his +tail. He was a beauty. He took my finger in his +awful bill and rolled it round like a cigarette. I +wondered what he would do to it before he let it go; +but he merely let it go. He was a great character, +magnanimously minded. I never knew a tamer +creature than Mack. That evening he rejoined a +flock of his wild brothers in the distant tree-tops. +But he was back next morning, and put everlasting +fear into the terrier, who was at breakfast, by suddenly +appearing before him with wings outspread +on the deck, looking like a disrupted and angry +rainbow, and making raucous threats. The dog +gave one yell and fell over backwards. +</p> +<p> +We had added a bull-frog to our pets, and he +must have weighed at least three pounds. He had +neither vice nor virtue, but was merely a squab in a +shady corner. Whenever the dog approached him +he would rise on his legs, however, and inflate himself +till he was globular. This was incomprehensible +to Tinker, who was contemptuous, but being a +little uncertain, would make a circuit of the frog. +Sitting one day in the shadow of the box which enclosed +the rudder chain was the frog, and we were +near, and up came Tinker a-trot all unthinking, his +nose to the deck. The frog hurriedly furnished his +pneumatic act when Tinker, who did not know froggie +was there, was close beside him, and Tinker +snapped sideways in a panic. Poor punctured froggie +dwindled instantly, and died. +</p> +<p> +I could add to the list of our creatures the anaconda +which was found coming aboard by the gangway but that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_344'></a>344</span> +a stoker saw him first, became hysterical, +and slew the reptile with a shovel; there were the +coral snakes which came inboard over the cables +and through the hawse pipes, and the vampire bats +which frequented the forecastle. But they are insignificant +beside our peccary. I forgot to tell you +the Skipper never made a tame creature of her. +She refused us. We brought her up from the +bunkers where first she was placed, because the +stokers flatly refused her society in the dark. She +was brought up on deck in bonds, snapping her +tushes in a direful way, and when released did most +indomitably charge all our ship’s company, bristles +up, and her automatic teeth louder and more rapid +than ever. How we fled! When I turned on my +vantage, the manner of my getting there all unknown, +to see who was my neighbour, it was my +abashed and elderly captain, who can look upon +sea weather at its worst with an easy eye, but who +then was striving desperately to get his legs (which +were in pyjamas) ten feet above the deck, in case +the very wild pig below had wings. +</p> +<p> +After the peccary was released we could not call +the ship ours. We crept about as thieves. It was +fortunate that she always gave warning of her proximity +by making the noise of castanets with her +tusks, so that we had time to get elevated before +she arrived. But I never really knew how fast she +could move till I saw her chase the dog, whom she +despised and ignored. One morning his valiant +barking at her, from a distance he judged to be +adequate, annoyed her, and she shot at him like a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_345'></a>345</span> +projectile. Her slender limbs and diminutive +hooves were those of a deer, and they became merely +a haze beneath her body, which was a flying passion. +The terrified dog had no chance, but just as she +closed with him her feet slipped, and so Tinker’s +life was saved. +</p> +<p> +Her end was pitiful. One day she got into the +saloon. The Doctor and I were there, and saw her +trot in at one door, and we trotted out at another +door. Now, the saloon was the pride of the Skipper; +and when the old man tried to bribe her out of +it—he talked to her from the open skylight above—and +she insulted him with her mouth, he sent for +his men. From behind a shut door of the saloon +alley way we heard a fusilade of tusks in the saloon, +shrieks from the maddened dog, uproar from the +parrots, and the hoarse shouts of the crew. The pig +was charging ten ways at once. Stealing a look +from the cabin we saw the boatswain appear with a +bunch of cotton waste, soaked in kerosene, blazing +at the end of a bamboo, and the mate with a knife +lashed to another pole. The peccary charged the +lot. There broke out the cries of Tophet, and +through chaos champed insistently the high note of +the tusks. She was noosed and caged; but nothing +could be done with the little fury, and when I +peeped in at her a few days later she was full length, +and dying. She opened one glazing eye at me, and +snapped her teeth slowly, game to the end. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +<em>March 6.</em>—It was reported at breakfast that we +sail to-morrow. The bread was sour, the butter +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_346'></a>346</span> +was oil, the sugar was black with flies, the sausages +were tinned and very white and dead, and the bacon +was all fat. And even the awning could not keep +the sun away. +</p> +<p> +<em>March 7.</em>—We got the hatches on number four +hold. It is reported we sail to-morrow. +</p> +<p> +<em>March 8.</em>—The ship was crowded this night with +the boys, for a last jollification. We fired rockets, +and swore enduring friendships with anybody, and +many sang different songs together. It is reported +that we sail to-morrow. +</p> +<p> +<em>March 9.</em>—It is reported that we sail to-morrow. +</p> +<p> +<em>March 10.</em>—The “Capella” has come to life. The +master is on the bridge, the first mate is on the forecastle +head, the second mate is on the poop, and the +engineers are below. There are stern and minatory +cries, and men who run. At the first slow clanking +of the cable we raised wild cheers. The ship’s body +began to tremble, and there was thunder under her +counter. We actually came away from the jetty, +where long we had seemed a fixture. We got into +mid-stream—stopped; slowly turned tail on Porto +Velho. There was old man Jim, diminished on the +distant jetty, waving his hat. Porto Velho looked +strange again. Away we went. We reached the +bend of the river, and turned the corner. There was +the last we shall ever see of Porto Velho. Gone! +</p> +<p> +The forest unfolding in reverse order seemed +brighter, and all would have been quite well, but +the fourth engineer came up from his duty, and fell +insensible. He was very yellow, and the Doctor +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_347'></a>347</span> +had work to do. Here was the first of our company +to succumb to the country. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +There were but six more days of forest; for the +old “Capella,” empty and light as a balloon, the +collisions with the floating timber causing muffled +thunder in her hollow body, came down the swift +floods of the Madeira and the Amazon rivers “like +a Cunarder, at sixteen knots,” as the Skipper said. +And there on the sixth day was Para again, and +the sea near. Our spirits mounted, released from +the dead weight of heat and silence. But I was to +lose the Doctor at Para, for he was then to return to +Porto Velho, having discharged his duty to the +“Capella’s” company. The Skipper took his wallet, +and we went ashore with him, he to his day-long +task of clearing his vessel, and we for a final sad +excursion. Much later in the day, suspecting an +unnameable evil was gathering to my undoing, I +called at the agent’s office, and found the Skipper +had returned to the ship, that she was sailing that +night, and, the regulations of Para being what they +were, it being after six in the evening I could not +leave the city till next morning. My haggard and +dismayed array of thoughts broke in confusion and +left me gibbering, with not one idea for use. Without +saying even good-bye to my old comrade I took +to my heels, and left him; and that was the last I +saw of the Doctor. (Aha! my staunch support in +the long, hot and empty time at the back of things, +where were but trees, bad food, and a jest to brace +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_348'></a>348</span> +our souls, if ever you should see this—How!—and +know, dear lad, I carried the damnable regulations +and a whole row of officials, the Union Jack at the +main, firing every gun as I bore down on them. I +broke through. Only death could have barred me +from my ship and the way home.) +</p> +<p> +Next morning we were at sea. We dropped the +pilot early and changed our course to the north, +bound for Barbados. Though on the line, the difference +in the air at sea, after our long enclosure +in the rivers of the forest, was keenly felt. And the +ship too had been so level and quiet; but here she +was lively again, full of movements and noises. +The bows were at their old difference with the skyline, +and the steady wind of the outer was driving +over us. Before noon, when I went in to the Chief, +my crony was flat and moribund with a temperature +at 105°, and he had no interest in this life whatever. +I had added the apothecary’s duties to those of the +Purser, and here found my first job. (Doctor, I +gave him lots of grains of quinine, and lots more +afterwards; and plenty of calomel when he was at +98 again. Was that all right?) +</p> +<p> +The sight of the big and hearty Chief, when he +was about once more, yellow, insecure, and somewhat +shrunken, made us dubious. Yet now were +we rolling home. She was breasting down into a +creaming smother, the seas were blue, and the world +was fresh and wide all the way back. There was +one fine night, as we were climbing slowly up the +slope of the globe, when we lifted the whole constellation +of the Great Bear, the last star of the tail +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_349'></a>349</span> +just dipping below the seas, straight over the “Capella’s” +bows, as she pitched. Then were we assured +affairs were rightly ordered, and slept well +and contented. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +Late one afternoon we sighted Barbados. The +sea was dark and the light was golden. The island +did not look like land. It was a faint but constant +pearl-coloured cloud. The empty sky came down +to the dark sea in bright walls which had but a +bloom of azure. Overhead it was day, but the sea +was fluid night. Above the island was a group of +cirrus, turned to the setting sun like an audience +of intent faces. Near to starboard was a white ship, +fully rigged, standing towards the island with +royals set, and even a towering main skysail. Tall +as she was, she looked but a multiple cloud which +had dropped from the sky, and had settled on the +dark sea, and over it was drifting in a faint air, +buoyant, but unable to lift. We overhauled that +stately ship. She was reflecting the dayfall from +the white rounds of her many sails. She was regal, +she was paramount in her world, and the sun seemed +to be watching her, and shining solely for her +illustrious progress. The clarity and the peace of +it was in us as we leaned against the rail, watching +Barbados grow, and watching that exalted ship. +“This is all right,” said the Chief. +</p> +<p> +We were coming to the things we knew and understood. +In the island near us were men, quays, +and shops. This evening had a familiar and friendly +look. Barbados at last! There would be something to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_350'></a>350</span> +eat, too, and we kept talking of that. Do +you know what good bread and butter tastes like? +Or mealy baked potatoes? Or fruit from which the +juice runs when you bite? Or crisp salads? Not +you; not if you haven’t lived for long on tinned +stuffs, bread which smelt like vinegar, and butter to +which a spoon had to be used. +</p> +<p> +To the door of the saloon alley way we saw the +steward come, and begin to swing his bell. “Tea +ho!” said the mate. “Keep it,” said the Chief. “I +know it. Sardines and hash. Not for me. We +shall get some grub in the morning. Oranges and +bananas, boys. I’m tired of oil. My belt is in by +three holes.” +</p> +<p> +When the sun once touched the sea it sank visibly, +like a weight. Night came at once. We passed a +winking light, and soon ahead of us in the dark +was grouped a multitude of lower stars. That was +Bridgetown. Those stars opened and spread round +us, showing nothing of the wall of night in which +they were fixed. Well, there it was. We could +smell the good land. We should see it in the morning. +We had really got there. +</p> +<p> +The engines stopped. There was a shout from +the steamer’s bridge and a thunderous rumbling as +the cable ran out, and then a remarkable quiet. The +old man came sideways down the bridge ladder with +a hurricane lamp, and stood with us, striking a light +for his cigar. “Here we are, Chief,” he said. +“What about coals in the morning?” The night +was hot, there was no wind, and as we sat yarning +on the bunker hatch another cluster of stars moved +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_351'></a>351</span> +in swiftly together, came to a stand near us, and a +peremptory gun was fired. That was the British +mail steamer. +</p> +<p> +We looked at her with awe. We could see the +toffs in evening dress idling in the glow of her +electric lights. What a feed they had just finished! +But the greatest wonder of her deck was the women +in white gowns. We could hear the strange +laughter of the women, and listened for it. That +was music worth listening to. Our little mob of +toughs in turns used the night glasses on those women, +and in a dead silence. There were some kiddies, +too. +</p> +<p> +We were looking at the benign lights of the island +and trying to make out what they meant. The +sense of our repose, and the touch of those warm +and velvet airs, and the scent of land, were like the +kindness and security of home. “I know this place,” +drawled Sandy. “I was here once. Before I went +into steam I used to come out to the islands, when +I was a young ’un. I made two voyages in the +‘Chocolate Girl.’ She was my first ship. She was +a daisy, too. Once we lifted St. Vincent twenty-five +days out of Liverpool. That was going, if you like. +If old Wager—he was the old man of the ‘Chocolate +Girl’—if he could only get a trip in a ship like +this, like an iron street with a factory stack in the +middle! But he can’t. He’s dead. He had the +‘Mignonette,’ and she went missing among the +Bahamas. There’s millions of islands in the Bahamas. +They’re north of this place. You couldn’t +visit all those islands in a lifetime. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_352'></a>352</span> +</p> +<p> +“If you ask me, some of the islands in these seas +are very funny. There’s something wrong about a +few of them. They’re not down in the chart, so +I’ve heard. One day you lift one, and you never +knew it was there. ‘What’s that?’ says the old man. +‘Can’t make that place out.’ Then he reckons he’s +found new land, and takes his position. He calls +it after his wife, and cables home what he’s done. +The next thing is a gunboat goes there and beats +about and lays over the spot, but she doesn’t find +no island. The gunboat cables home that the merchant +chap was drunk or something, and that he +steamed over the spot and got hundreds of fathoms. +They’re always so clever, in the navy. But I’ve +heard some of these islands are not right. You see +one once, and nobody ever sees it again. +</p> +<p> +“I knew a man, and he was marooned on one of +those islands. He sailed with me afterwards on one +of the Blue Anchor steamers to Sydney. One time +he was on a craft out of Martinique for Cuba. She +was a schooner of the islands, and fine vessels they +are. You’ll see a lot about us in the morning. This +man’s name was Moffat—Bill Moffat. His +schooner had a mulatto for a master, and that nigger +was a fool and very superstitious, by all accounts. +They ran short of water, and it’s pretty +bad if you fall short of water in these seas. Off the +regular routes there’s nothing. You might drift +for weeks, and see nothing, off the track. +</p> +<p> +“Then they sighted an island. The mulatto chap +pretended he knew all about that island. He said +he had been there before. But he was a liar. It +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_353'></a>353</span> +was only a little island, like some trees afloat. They +came down on it, and anchored in ten fathoms and +waited for daylight. +</p> +<p> +“Next morning some wind freshened off shore, +and Moffat takes a nigger and rows to the beach. +There was only a light swell breaking on the coral, +and landing was easy. Moffat told the nigger to +stay by the boat while he took a look round. There +was a bit of a coral beach with a pile of high rocks +at the ends of it, like pillars each side of a doorstep. +What was inside the island Moffat couldn’t see, +because at the back of the beach was a wood. He +said he heard a sound like a bird calling, but he +reckoned there wasn’t a soul in that place. The +schooner was riding just off. He turned and was +crunching his way up the coral with the idea of +looking for a way inside. He got to the trees, and +then heard the nigger shout in a fright. The black +beggar was pushing out the boat. He got in it too, +and began rowing back to the schooner as if somebody +was coming after him. +</p> +<p> +“Moffat yelled, and ran down to the surf, but the +nigger kept right on. There was Moffat up to his +knees in the water, and in a fine state. The boat +reached the schooner—and now, thinks Moffat, +there’ll be trouble. Do you know what happened +though? For a little while nothing happened. +Then they began to haul in her cable. She upanchored +and stood out. That’s a fact. Bill told +me he felt pretty sick when he saw it. He didn’t +like the look of it. He watched the schooner turn +tail, and soon she found more wind and got out of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_354'></a>354</span> +sight past the island, close-hauled. He watched her +dance past one of the piles of rocks till there was +nothing but empty sea behind the rock. Then his +eye caught something moving on the rock. Something +moved round it out of his sight. He never +saw what it was. He wished he had. +</p> +<p> +“Well, he had a pretty bad time. He couldn’t +find anyone on the island, in a manner of speaking. +But somebody was always going round a corner, or +behind a tree. He caught them out of the tail of +his eye. He said it was enough to get on a man’s +nerves the way that thing always just wasn’t there, +whatever it was. ‘Curse the goats,’ Bill used to say +to himself. +</p> +<p> +“One day Bill was strolling round figuring out +what he could do to that mulatto when he met him +again, and then he found a sea cave. He went in. +It was a silly thing to do, because the way in was so +low that he had to crawl. But the cave was big +enough inside for a music-hall. The walls ran up +into a vault, and the water came up to the bottom +of the walls nearly all round. The water was like a +green light. A bright light came up through the +water, and the reflections were wriggling all over +the rocks, making them seem to shake. The water +was like thick glass full of light. He could see a +long way down, but not to the bottom. While he +was looking at it the water heaved up quietly full +three feet, and the reflections on the walls faded. +Then he saw the hole through which he had crawled +was gone. ‘Now, Bill Moffat, you’re in a regular +mess,’ he says to himself. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_355'></a>355</span> +</p> +<p> +“He dived for the hole. But he never found that +way out, and the funny thing was he couldn’t come +to the top again. Bill saw it was a proper case that +time, and no more Sundays in Poplar. He was +surprised to find that the deeper he went the thinner +the water was. It was thin and clear, like electric +light. He could see miles there, and down he kept +falling till he hit the bottom with a bang. It scared +a lot of fishes, and they flew up like birds. He +looked up to see them go, and there was the sun +overhead, only it was like a bright round of green +jelly, all shaking. Bill found it was dead easy to +breathe in water that was no thicker than air, so he +got up, brushed the sand off, and looked round. A +flock of fishes flew about him quite friendly, and as +beautiful as Amazon parrots. A big crab walked +ahead, and Bill thought he had better follow the +crab. +</p> +<p> +“He came to a path which was marked with shells, +and at the end of the path he saw the fore half of a +ship up-ended. While he was looking at it, somebody +pushed the curtains from the hatchway, and +came out, and looked at him. ‘Good lord, it’s Davy +Jones,’ said Bill to himself. +</p> +<p> +“‘Hullo, Bill,’ said Davy. ‘Come in. Glad to +see you, Bill. What a time you’ve been.’ +</p> +<p> +“Moffat said that Davy wasn’t a decent sight, +having barnacles all over his face. But he shook +hands. ‘You’re hand is quite cold, Bill,’ said +Davy. ‘Did you lose your soul coming along? You +nearly did that before, Bill Moffat. You nearly +did it that Christmas night off Ushant. I thought +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_356'></a>356</span> +you were coming then. But not you. But here you +are at last all right. Come in! Come in!’ +</p> +<p> +“Bill went inside with Davy. There was sea junk +all over the place. ‘I find these things very handy, +old chap,’ said Davy to Bill, seeing he was looking +at them. ‘It’s good of you to send them down, +though I don’t like the iron, for it won’t stand the +climate. See that old hat? It’s a Spanish admiral’s. +I clap it on, backwards, whenever I want +to go ashore.’ +</p> +<p> +“So they sat down, and yarned about old times, +though Bill told me that Davy seemed to remember +people after everybody else had forgotten them, +which was confusing. ‘Oh, yes,’ Davy would say, +‘old Johnson. Yes. He used to talk of me in a +rare way. He was a dog, was Johnson. I’ve heard +him, many a time. But he’s changed since his ship +came downstairs. He’s a better man. He’s not so +funny as he was.’ +</p> +<p> +“Then they had a pipe, and after a bit things +began to drag. ‘Come into the garden, Bill,’ said +Davy. ‘Come and have a look round.’ +</p> +<p> +“All round the garden Bill noticed the name-boards +of ships nailed up. Some of the names Bill +knew, and some he didn’t, being Spanish. ‘What +do you think of my collection?’ said Davy. ‘Ever +seen as fine a one? I lay you never have!’ +</p> +<p> +“Then they came to a door. ‘Come in,’ said Davy. +‘This is my locker. Ever heard of my locker?’ +</p> +<p> +“Bill said it was pretty dark inside. Just light +enough to see. But there was only miles and miles +of crab-pots, all set out in rows, with a label on each. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_357'></a>357</span> +‘What do you think of that lot, Bill?’ asked Davy. +‘I shall have to get larger premises soon.’ Bill +choked a bit, for the place smelt stale and seaweedy. +‘What’s in the crab-pots, Davy?’ said Bill. +</p> +<p> +“‘Souls!’ said Davy. ‘But there’s a lot of trash, +though now and then I get a good one. Here, now. +See this? This is a fine one, though I mustn’t tell +you where I got it. And people said he hadn’t got +one. But I knew better, and there it is.’ +</p> +<p> +“But Bill couldn’t see anything in the pots. He +could only hear a rustling, as if something was rubbing +on the wicker, or a twittering. At last Davy +came to a new pot. ‘Do you know who’s in this one, +Bill,’ he said. But Bill couldn’t guess. ‘Well, Bill, +it’s your soul, and a poorer one I never see. It was +hardly worth setting the pot for a soul like that.’ +Then Davy began to shake the pot, and soon got +wild. ‘Here, where the deuce has that soul gone,’ +he said, and put his ear to the bars. Then he put +the pot down and made a rush at Bill, to get it back; +but Bill jumped backwards, got through the door, +ran through the house, grabbed the admiral’s cocked +hat, and clapped it on backwards. Then he shot +out of the water at once, and found himself on the +rocks outside the cave, with the cocked hat still on +his head. He’s kept that hat ever since, and money +wouldn’t buy it.” +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +When I woke next morning it was like waking +to a great occasion. The tropic sun was blazing +outside. The day seemed of a superior quality. +An old negress shuffled by my cabin door, through +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_358'></a>358</span> +which was a peep of the town across the harbour, +and she had some necklaces of shells strung on one +skinny black arm and carried a basket of oranges +on the other. I jumped up, and bought all the oranges. +A boat came to our gangway and some of +us went ashore. I don’t know what a man feels +like who is released one fine day from imprisonment +into the stream of his fellows, but I should think +he is first a little stunned, and afterwards becomes +like a child’s balloon in a breeze. The people we had +met in the Brazils never laughed; and I myself had +always felt that there we had been watched and +followed unseen, that something was there, watching +us, waiting its time, knowing well it could get +us before we escaped. +</p> +<p> +We were at last outside it and free. The anchorage +of Bridgetown seemed anarchic, after our level +sombre experience, for the sea was a green light, +flashing and volatile, with white schooners driving +upon it, negroes shouting and laughing over the +bulwarks, or frantically hauling on the sheets. The +rushing water was crowded with leaping boats, all +gaudily painted; and even the sunshine, moving +rapidly on quivering white sails and the white hulls +buoyantly swinging, was a kind of shaking laughter. +Our negro boatmen sang as they rowed, when they +were not swearing at other boatmen. The world +had got wine in its head. +</p> +<p> +We went to the Ice House, and bought English +beer. (Oh, the taste of beer!) In the brisk and +sunny streets there were English women, cool, +dainty, a little haughty, their dresses smelling of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_359'></a>359</span> +new linen, and they were looking in at shop windows. +We had got our feet down on home pavements, +and the streets had the newness and sparkle +of holiday. “Hi, cabby!” +</p> +<p> +He drove us along coral roads, under cocoanut +palms, and there were golden hills (hills once +more!) one way, and on the other hand was a beach +glowing like white fire, with a sea beyond of a blue +that was ultimate, profound, and as tense and as +still as rapture. We came to a hotel where there +was stiff napery, with creases in it, on a breakfast +table. There was a silver coffee-pot. There was +sweet-smelling and crusty bread, butter in ice, and +new milk. There was a heaped plate of fruit. +There was a crystal jug filled with cold water and +sunshine, and it threw a wavering light on the damask. +</p> +<p> +We had some of everything. We ate for more +than an hour, steadily. A man could not have done +it alone, and without shame. There was one superior +lady tourist, with grey curls on her cheeks +and a face like doom, and she sent for the manager, +and asked if we were to breakfast there again. She +wanted to know. The Chief begged me, as the +youngest of the party, to go over and kiss her. But +I pointed out that, seeing where we had come from, +and what we had suffered, it was the plain duty of +any really dear old soul to come over and kiss us +on a morning like that. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +In the afternoon we were aboard again, waiting +for the Skipper to return with the new orders. To +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_360'></a>360</span> +what part of the world would the power in Leadenhall +Street now consign us? Sandy thought New +Orleans; but we could rule that out, for there was +no cotton just then. Pensacola was more likely, the +Chief said, with a deck cargo of lumber for Hamburg. +That guess made the crowd glum. Winter +in the Atlantic, she rolling her heart out, and the +timber that was level with the engine-room casing +groaning and straining at every roll—to dwell on +that prospect was to feel a cold draught out of the +Valley of Shadows. +</p> +<p> +Two nigger boys were overside, diving for coins. +You threw a coin—Brazil’s nickel muck, a handful +worth nothing—and it went below oscillating, as +though sentiently dodging the contorted and convulsive +figure of the boy diving after it. The transparency +of the fathoms was that of a denser air. +When the sea was still, at the slack of the tides, +this tropic anchorage was not like water. You did +not look upon it, but into it, being hardly aware of +its surface. It was surprising to see our massive +iron plates stand upright in it. We were still an +ugly black bulk, as we were on the ditch water of +Swansea, but our sea wagon had lost its look of +squat heaviness. Even our iron ship was transmuted, +such was the lift and radiance of Barbados +and its sea, into the buoyancy of the unsubstantial +stuff of that scene about us, the low hills of greenish +gold so delicate under the sky of malachite blue that +you doubted whether mortals could walk there. +Bridgetown was between those hills and the sea, a +cluster of white cubes, with inconsequential touches +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_361'></a>361</span> +of scarlet, orange, and emerald. Beneath our keel +was a boy who might have been flying there. +</p> +<p> +On one side of the town was a belt of coral beach. +It was a-fire, and the palms above the beach, with +their secretive villas, and the green-gold hills beyond, +floated on that white glow. The sea below the +beach was an incandescent green; it might have been +burning through contact with the island. Then the +sea spread down to us in areas of opaque violet and +blue, till in the neighbourhood of the ship it became +transparent and was but a denser atmosphere. You, +in the hard and bitter north, on the exposed summit +of the world where Polaris glitters in the forehead +of a frozen god, hardly know what young and luscious +stuff this earth is, where the constant sun and +tepid rains and salt air have preserved its bloom +and flush of abounding life. +</p> +<p> +There came the Skipper’s boat, he in his shore-going +white ducks and Panama hat in the stern +sheets, his wallet in his hand. He knew that we +all looked at him with assumed indifference, when +he stepped among us on deck. That was his +time to show he was the ship’s master. He feigned +that we were not there. He turned to the chief +mate: “All ready, Mr. Brown?” “All ready, sir.” +Then the master walked slowly, knowing our eyes +were on his back, to his place aft, first going in to +speak to the Chief. The Chief came out some minutes +after. “Tampa, boys,” said he. “Florida for +phosphate, then home.” +</p> +<p> +That evening we were on our way, and turned +inwards through the line of the Caribbees, passing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_362'></a>362</span> +between the islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent, +high purple masses of rock, St. Lucia’s mass ascending +into cones. The Skipper had been to most +of the West Indian islands, and remembered them, +while I listened. We stood at the chart-room door, +watching the islands across the evening seas. The +sun, just above the sharply dark rim of ocean, +touched the sea, and sank. A thin paring of silver +moon had the sky to itself. I went into the chart-room; +and the old man who, grim and sour as you +might think him, mellows into confidential friendliness +when he has you to himself, spread his charts +of the Spanish Main under the yellow lamp, which +was a slow pendulum as she rolled, and he put his +spectacles on his lean brown face, talked of unfrequented +cays, and of the negro islands, and debated +which route we should take. +</p> +<p> +The fourth morning at breakfast-time, was a +burning day, with a sky almost cloudless, and a slow +sea which had the surface of its rich blue deeps shot +with turquoise lights, while fields of saffron gulfweed +stained it; and we had, close over our port +bow, the most beautiful island in the world. It is +useless to deny it, and to declare you know a better +island. Can’t I see Jamaica now? I see it most +plain. It descends abruptly from the meridian, +pinnacles and escarpments trembling in the upper +air with distance and delicate poise, and comes down +in rolling forests and steep verdant slopes, where +facets of bare rock glitter, to more leisurely open +glades and knolls; and then, being not far from the +sea, drops in sheer cliffs to where the white combers +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_363'></a>363</span> +pulse. It is a jewel which smells like a flower. The +“Capella” went close in till Port Antonio under +the Blue Mountains was plain, and though I could +see the few scattered houses, I could not see the +narrow ledges where men could stand in such a steep +land. We crawled over the blue floor in which that +sea mountain is set, and cruised along, feeling very +small, under the various and towering shape. For +long I watched it, declaring continually that some +day I must return. (And that is the greatest compliment +a traveller on his way home can pay to any +spot on earth.) +</p> +<p> +It faded as we drew northwards. Over seas to +the north was a long low stratum of permanent +cloud, and beneath it was the faint presentiment of +Cuba. Still we were in the spell of the very halcyon +weather of old tales, with the world our own, though +once this day there was a great rain burst, and the +“Capella” was lost in falling water, her syren blaring. +We neared the Cuban coast by the Isle of +Pines, a pallid desert shore, apparently treeless and +parched. The next morning we came to the western +cape of the island, rounding it in company with a +white island schooner, its crew of toughs watching +us from her shadeless deck; and changed our course +almost due north. +</p> +<p> +Now we were in the Gulf of Mexico, and soon +upset its notoriously uncertain temper, for a +“norther” met us and piped till it was a full gale, +end-on, and it kicked up a nasty sea which flung +about the empty “Capella” like a band-box. There +was a night of it. Towards morning it eased up, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_364'></a>364</span> +and I woke to a serene sunrise, and found we were +in the pale green water of coral soundings, with the +Floridan pilot even then standing in to us, his tug +bearing centrally on its bridge a gilded eagle with +rampant wings. In a little while we were fast to +the quarantine quay at Mullet Island, detained as +a yellow fever suspect. The medical officers boarded +us, ranged amidships the “Capella’s” crowd from +the master down, and put in the mouth of each of us +a thermometer; and so for a time we stood ridiculously +smoking glass cigarettes. One stoker was +put aside, for he had a temperature. Then into the +cabins, and the saloon, the forecastle, and into the +holds, were put gallipots of burning sulphur, and +the doors were closed. We became a great and +dreadful stench; and I went ashore. +</p> +<p> +There was a deserted beach of comminuted shells, +its glare as bright as snow in sunshine. It was +littered with the relics of old wrecks, with sea rubbish, +and the carapaces of crabs. Beyond the beach +was a calcareous desert, with a scrub of palmetto +and evergreen, and patches of flowering coreopsis +and blue squills. Hidden by the scrub were shallow +lagoons. It is hard to tell the sea from the land +in warm and aqueous Florida, for sea and land so +invade each other’s dominions. Water and land +were asleep in the sun. I was alone in the island, +and sat in a decaying boat by the shore of a lagoon +where nothing moved but the little crabs playing +hide and seek in the moist crevices of the boat, and +the pelicans which sat round the interminable flat +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_365'></a>365</span> +shores. Sometimes the pelicans woke, and yawned, +and fanned the heat with great slow wings. +</p> +<p> +In the early afternoon we were allowed to proceed +to Tampa, which we reached in three hours; +and there we came once more to the press of the +busy and indifferent world. The muddle of roofs +and steeples of a great city were about us, and men +met us and talked to us, but they had no leisure +for interest in the wonders of the strange land from +which we had come, and would not have cared if +afterwards we were going to Gehenna. We made +fast under a new structure of timber and iron which +was something between a flour mill and the Tower +of Babel, for it was wan and powdered, and full of +strange noises; and it had a habit of eating, in a +mechanical way, an interminable length of railway +trucks, wagon after wagon, one every minute. A +great weariness and yearning filled me that night. +The strangulating fumes of the sulphur clung to +all the cabin, and puffed in clouds from the pillow +when I changed sides; for the wagons clanked and +banged till daylight. I sat up and beat my breast, +and swore I would leave her and go home. The +next morning that inexplicable structure beside us +began from many mouths to vomit floods of powdered +phosphate into us, and the “Capella,” in and +out, turned pale through an almost impalpable dust. +Everybody took bronchitis and cursed Tampa and +its phosphate. +</p> +<p> +I spoke to the Skipper and the Chief about it, and +they agreed that nobody would stop with her now, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_366'></a>366</span> +who could leave her; but that yet was I no pal to +desert them. What about them? They had yet +to see her safe across the most ruthless of seas at a +time when its temper would be at its worst; and +what about them? Though they admitted that, +were they in my case, they would certainly take the +train to New York, and catch there the fastest +steamer for England. Then come with me to the +British Consul like an honest man, said I to the +captain, and get me off your articles. +</p> +<p> +The three of us left her, I for the last time. I +turned upon the “Capella,” and the boys stood +leaning on her taffrail watching me; and I am not +going to put down here what I felt, nor what the +lads cried to me, nor what I said when I stood beneath +her counter, and called up to them. We came +to a corner by a warehouse, and I turned to look +upon the “Capella” for the last time. +</p> +<p> +Tampa, the noisy city about us, was rawly new, +most of its site but lately a shallow lagoon, and one +of its natives, the ship’s agent who was entertaining +us at lunch, did not fail to impress that enterprise +and industry upon us with great earnestness. +Tampa was a large, hasty, makeshift standing of +depôts, railway sidings, cigar factories, wharves, +and huge elevators which could load I forget how +many thousands of tons of bulk cargo into a steamer +in twelve hours, as though she were an iron bucket +under a pump. A town spontaneous unexpected +and complete, with a hurrying population in its sidewalks, +pushing to secure foothold in life, and not a +book-shop there, and no talk but in its saloons and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_367'></a>367</span> +commercial exchanges. We went into many of +those saloons, the Skipper, and the Chief, and the +late Purser, shaking hands for the last time in each, +and then dropping into another to recall old affairs; +and shaking hands finally again, and so to the next +bar. +</p> +<p> +That night I was alone in Tampa, with a torrent +of urgent affairs surging past. I could not find the +railway station. Standing at a corner, outside a +tobacconist’s shop, a huge corridor train shaped +among the lights of the street, trundled down the +centre of the roadway, then edged close to the sidewalk, +bumping past a row of shops as casually as a +tram for a penny journey, and stopped just where +I stood with a hand-bag wondering how I was to get +to New York. New York was a thousand miles +away. The train was but a mere episode of the +open street, and I could not feel it bore out the +promise of my railway vouchers. This train, a row +of lighted villas in motion, came down the roadway, +out of nowhere, while carts and women with market +baskets waited for it to pass, stopped outside a +tobacconist’s shop, and the light of the shop window +illuminated a round of a huge wheel which stood +higher than my head. The wheel came to rest upon +an abandoned newspaper. A negro was passing me, +and I stopped him. “Noo Yark? Step aboard +right now!” His word was all I had to go upon +that this train would take me to the precise point +in a continent I did not know. A struggle for existence +eddied fiercely round the train, and assuming +it was the right train, and I missed it—it was an +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_368'></a>368</span> +unbearable thought! The train had to be mounted. +It was like climbing a wall; but I would have cast +my luggage, scaled more than walls, and dealt conclusively +with any obstruction if the way home left +me no other choice. The traveller who has been in +the wilds and has lived with the barbarous, though +he has not allowed his thoughts to look back there, +yet he knows something of that eagerness which +dumb things feel when he turns about. I took my +train on trust, as one does so many things in the +United States, found we should really get to New +York, in time, and lay listening to the beat of the +flying wheels beneath my berth; tried to count their +pulse, and fell asleep. +</p> +<p> +There were some more days and nights, and all +the passengers of the earlier stages of the journey +had passed away. Then the train slowed through +imperceptible gradations, and stopped. I thought +a cow was on the line. But the negro attendant +came to me and told me to get out. This was New +York. Outside there was a street in the rain, the +stones were deep with yellow reflections, and some +cabmen stood about in shiny capes. No majestic +figure of Liberty met me. A cab met me, on a rainy +night. +</p> +<hr class='tb' /> +<p> +It was on one of those huge liners, and the steward +told him they would reach Plymouth in the +morning. He was packing up his things in his cabin. +England to-morrow! The things went into his +trunks in the lump, with a compressing foot after +each. It did not matter. All the clothes were in +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_369'></a>369</span> +ruins. The only care he took was with the toucans +brilliant skins, the bundle of arrows, the biscuit tins +full of butterflies—they would excite the Boy—and +the barbaric Indian ornaments for Miss Muffet and +the Curly Nob; how their eyes would shine. His +telegram from Plymouth would surprise them. +They did not know where he was. +</p> +<p> +But he knew, when they did not, that there was +but one more day to tick off the calendar to complete +the exile. He had turned back that day to the +earlier pages of the diary and found some illuminating +entries; “Gone,” or “That’s another,” were written +across some spaces which otherwise were blank. +It was curious that those cryptic entries recalled the +hours they stood for more vividly to his mind than +those which had happenings minutely recorded. He +threw the diary into a trunk; the long job was +finished. +</p> +<p> +The sunshine all that day was different from the +well remembered burning weight of the tropics. It +was a frail and grateful spring warmth, and the +incidence of its rays was happy and illuminating, +as though the light had only just reached the world, +and so things looked just discovered and interesting. +A faint silver haze hung upon a pallid sea, and +the slow smooth mounds of water were full of +fugitive glints and flashes. You hardly knew the +sea was there. The mist was the luminous nimbus +of a new world, a world not yet fully formed, for +it had no visible bounds. Night came, and a nearly +full moon, and the only reality was the stupendous +bulk of the liner. She might have been in the clouds, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_370'></a>370</span> +herself a dark cloud near the moon, with but +rumours of light in the aerial deeps beneath. It +seemed another of the dreams. Would he wake up +presently to the reality of the forest, with the sun +blazing on the enamel of its hard foliage? +</p> +<p> +He wanted some assurance of time and space. +He would stay on deck till the first sign came of +England. So he leaned motionless for hours on the +rail of the boat-deck, gazing ahead, where the outlook +remained as unshapen as it had since he left +home. Far on the port bow appeared the headlight +of a steamer. +</p> +<p> +He watched that light. This, then, was no dream +sea. Others were there. But was it a headlight? +... No! +</p> +<p> +The Bishop’s! England now! +</p> +<p> +The steward came again, peeping through his +curtain, and said, “Plymouth, sir!” and turned on +the glow lamp, for it was not yet dawn. There was +an early breakfast laid in the saloon; but he went +on deck. The liner had hardly way on her; the +water was but uncoiling noiselessly alongside. There +were shapes of hills near, with villas painted on +them, but so bluish and immaterial was all that it +might have rippled like the flat water, being but a +flimsy background which could be easily shaken. +The hills drew nearer imperceptibly, grew higher. +A touch of real day gave a hill-top body; and there +was a confident shout from somebody unseen in +plain English. The vision grounded and got substance. +Not only home, but spring in Devon. +</p> +<p> +From the train window the countryside in the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_371'></a>371</span> +tones and flush of the renascence absorbed him. He +went from side to side of the carriage. What was +most extraordinary was the sparsity and lowness of +the trees and bushes, the fineness of the growth. +The outlines of the trees could be seen, and they +crouched so near to the ground and were so very +meagre. The colours were faint enough to be but +tinted mists. The biggest of the trees were manageable, +looked like toys. The orderly hedges, the clean +roads, the geometrical patterns of the fields, gave +him assurance once more of order and security. +Here was law again, and the permanence of affairs +long decided upon. He closed his eyes, sinking into +the cushions of the carriage as though the arms +under him were proved friendly and could be +trusted.... +</p> +<p> +The slowing of the train woke him. They were +running into Paddington. He got his feet fair and +solid on London before the train stopped, and +looked into the crowd waiting there. A flushed +youngster ran towards him out of a group, then +stopped shyly. He caught The Boy, and held him +up.... Here again was the centre of the world. +</p> +<div class='center'> +<p>THE END</p> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sea and the Jungle, by H. M. 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Tomlinson + +Release Date: August 26, 2011 [EBook #37205] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + THE SEA + AND THE JUNGLE + + BY + H. M. TOMLINSON + + NEW YORK + E.P. DUTTON & COMPANY + 681 FIFTH AVENUE + + + + + Published, 1920, + BY E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY + + _All Rights Reserved_ + + _First Printing, October, 1920_ + _Second Printing, September, 1921_ + + THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE + + Being the narrative of the voyage of the tramp steamer _Capella_ + from Swansea to Para in the Brazils, and thence 2000 miles along the + forests of the Amazon and Madeira Rivers to the San Antonio Falls; + afterwards returning to Barbados for orders, and going by way of + Jamaica to Tampa in Florida, where she loaded for home. Done in the + years 1909 and 1910. + + DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO + DID NOT GO + + The author is indebted to the editors of the _English Review_, the + _Pall Mall Magazine_, the _Morning Leader_, and the _Yorkshire + Observer_, for permission to incorporate such parts of this + narrative as appeared first in their publications. + + + + + CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. 1 + II. 98 + III. 185 + IV. 246 + V. 271 + VI. 324 + + + + +THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE + + + + +I + + +Though it is easier, and perhaps far better, not to begin at all, yet if +a beginning is made it is there that most care is needed. Everything is +inherent in the genesis. So I have to record the simple genesis of this +affair as a winter morning after rain. There was more rain to come. The +sky was waterlogged and the grey ceiling, overstrained, had sagged and +dropped to the level of the chimneys. If one of them had pierced it! The +danger was imminent. + +That day was but a thin solution of night. You know those November +mornings with a low, corpse-white east where the sunrise should be, as +though the day were still-born. Looking to the dayspring, there is what +we have waited for, there the end of our hope, prone and shrouded. This +morning of mine was such a morning. The world was very quiet, as though +it were exhausted after tears. Beneath a broken gutter-spout the rain +(all the night had I listened to its monody) had discovered a nest of +pebbles in the path of my garden in a London suburb. It occurs to you at +once that a London garden, especially in winter, should have no place in +a narrative which tells of the sea and the jungle. But it has much to do +with it. It is part of the heredity of this book. It is the essence of +this adventure of mine that it began on the kind of day which so +commonly occurs for both of us in the year's assortment of days. My +garden, on such a morning, is a necessary feature of the narrative, and +much as I should like to skip it and get to sea, yet things must be +taken in the proper order, and the garden comes first. There it was: the +blackened dahlias, the last to fall, prone in the field where death had +got all things under his feet. My pleasaunce was a dark area of soddened +relics; the battalions of June were slain, and their bodies in the mud. +That was the prospect in life I had. How was I to know the Skipper had +returned from the tropics? Standing in the central mud, which also was +black, surveying that forlorn end to devoted human effort, what was +there to tell me the Skipper had brought back his tramp steamer from the +lands under the sun? I knew of nothing to look forward to but December, +with January to follow. What should you and I expect after November, but +the next month of winter? Should the cultivators of London backs look +for adventures, even though they have read old Hakluyt? What are the +Americas to us, the Amazon and the Orinoco, Barbados and Panama, and +Port Royal, but tales that are told? We have never been nearer to them, +and now know we shall never be nearer to them, than that hill in our +neighbourhood which gives us a broad prospect of the sunset. There is as +near as we can approach. Thither we go and ascend of an evening, like +Moses, except for our pipe. It is all the escape vouchsafed us. Did we +ever know the chain to give? The chain has a certain length--we know it +to a link--to that ultimate link, the possibilities of which we never +strain. The mean range of our chain, the office and the polling booth. +What a radius! Yet it cannot prevent us ascending that hill which looks, +with uplifted and shining brow, to the far vague country whence comes +the last of the light, at dayfall. + +It is necessary for you to learn that on my way to catch the 8.35 that +morning--it is always the 8.35--there came to me no premonition of +change. No portent was in the sky but the grey wrack. I saw the hale and +dominant gentleman, as usual, who arrives at the station in a brougham +drawn by two grey horses. He looked as proud and arrogant as ever, for +his face is as a bull's. He had the usual bunch of scarlet geraniums in +his coat, and the stationmaster assisted him into an apartment, and his +footman handed him a rug; a routine as stable as the hills, this. If +only the solemn footman would, one morning, as solemnly as ever, hurl +that rug at his master, with the umbrella to crash after it! One could +begin to hope then. There was the pale girl in black who never, between +our suburb and the city, lifts her shy brown eyes, benedictory as they +are at such a time, from the soiled book of the local public library, +and whose umbrella has lost half its handle, a china nob. (I think I +will write this book for her.) And there were all the others who catch +that train, except the young fellow with the cough. Now and then he does +miss it, using for the purpose, I have no doubt, that only form of +rebellion against its accursed tyranny which we have yet learned, +physical inability to catch it. Where that morning train starts from is +a mystery; but it never fails to come for us, and it never takes us +beyond the city, I well know. + +I have a clear memory of the newspapers as they were that morning. I had +a sheaf of them, for it is my melancholy business to know what each is +saying. I learned there were dark and portentous matters, not actually +with us, but looming, each already rather larger than a man's hand. If +certain things happened, said one half the papers, ruin stared us in the +face. If those thing did not happen, said the other half, ruin stared us +in the face. No way appeared out of it. You paid your half-penny and +were damned either way. If you paid a penny you got more for your money. +Boding gloom, full-orbed, could be had for that. There was your extra +value for you. I looked round at my fellow passengers, all reading the +same papers, and all, it could be reasonably presumed, with +fore-knowledge of catastrophe. They were indifferent, every one of them. +I suppose we have learned, with some bitterness, that nothing ever +happens but private failure and tragedy, unregarded by our fellows +except with pity. The blare of the political megaphones, and the +sustained panic of the party tom-toms, have a message for us, we may +suppose. We may be sure the noise means something. So does the butcher's +boy when the sheep want to go up a side turning. He makes a noise. He +means something, with his warning cries. The driving uproar has a +purpose. But we have found out (not they who would break up side +turnings, but the people in the second class carriages of the morning +train) that now, though our first instinct is to start in a panic, when +we hear another sudden warning shout, there is no need to do so. And +perhaps, having attained to that more callous mind which allows us to +stare dully from the carriage window though with that urgent din in our +ears, a reasonable explanation of the increasing excitement and flushed +anxiety of the great Statesmen and their fuglemen may occur to us, in a +generation or two. Give us time! But how they wish they were out of it, +they who need no more time, but understand. + +I put down the papers with their calls to social righteousness pitched +in the upper register of the tea-tray, their bright and instructive +interviews with flat earthers, and with the veteran who is topically +interesting because, having served one master fifty years, and reared +thirteen children on fifteen shillings a week, he has just begun to draw +his old age pension. (There's industry, thrift, and success, my little +dears!) One paper had a column account of the youngest child actress in +London, her toys and her philosophy, initialed by one of our younger +brilliant journalists. All had a society divorce case, with sanitary +elisions. Another contained an amusing account of a man working his way +round the world with a barrel on his head. Again, the young prince, we +were credibly informed in all the papers of that morning, did stop to +look in at a toy-shop window in Regent Street the previous afternoon. So +like a boy, you know, and yet he is a prince of course. The matter could +not be doubted. The report was carefully illustrated. The prince stood +on his feet outside the toy shop, and looked in. + +To think of the future as a modestly long series of such prone mornings, +dawns unlit by heaven's light, new days to which we should be awakened +always by these clamant cockcrows bringing to our notice what the +busy-ness of our fellows had accomplished in nests of intelligent and +fruitful china eggs, was enough to make one stand up in the carriage, +horrified, and pull the communication cord. So I put down the papers and +turned to the landscape. Had I known the Skipper was back from below the +horizon--but I did not know. So I must go on to explain that that +morning train did stop, with its unfailing regularity, and not the least +hint of reprieve, at the place appointed in the Schedule. Soon I was at +work, showing, I hope, the right eager and concentrated eye, dutifully +and busily climbing the revolving wheel like the squirrel; except, +unluckier than that wild thing so far as I know, I was clearly +conscious, whatever the speed, the wheel remained forever in the same +place. Looking up to sigh through the bars after a long spin there was +the Skipper smiling at me. + +I saw an open door. I got out. It was as though the world had been +suddenly lighted, and I could see a great distance. + +We stood in Fleet Street later, interrupting the tide. The noise of the +traffic came to me from afar, for the sailor was telling me he was +sailing soon, and that he was taking his vessel an experimental voyage +through the tropical forests of the Amazon. He was going to Para, and +thence up the main stream as far as Manaos, and would then attempt to +reach a point on the Madeira river near Bolivia, 800 miles above its +junction with the greater river. It would be a noble journey. They would +see Obydos and Santarem, and the foliage would brush their rigging at +times, so narrow would be the way, and where they anchored at night the +jaguars would come to drink. This to me, and I have read Humboldt, and +Bates, and Spruce, and Wallace. As I listened my pipe went out. + +It was when we were parting that the sailor, who is used to far horizons +and habitually deals with affairs in a large way because his standards +in his own business are the skyline and the meridian, put to me the most +searching question I have had to answer since the city first caught and +caged me. He put it casually when he was striking a match for a cigar, +so little did he himself think of it. + +"Then why," said he, "don't you chuck it?" + +What, escape? I had never thought of that. It is the last solution which +would have occurred to me concerning the problem of captivity. It is a +credit to you and to me that we do not think of our chains so +disrespectfully as to regard them as anything but necessary and +indispensable, though sometimes, sore and irritated, we may bite at +them. As if servitude fell to our portion like squints, parents poor in +spirit, green fly, reverence for our social superiors, and the other +consignments from the stars. How should we live if not in bonds? I have +never tried. I do not remember, in all the even and respectable history +of my family, that it has ever been tried. The habit of obedience, like +our family habit of noses, is bred in the bone. The most we have ever +done is to shake our fists at destiny; and I have done most of that. + +"Give it up," said the Skipper, "and come with me." + +With a sad smile I lifted my foot heavily and showed him what had me +round the ankle. "Poo," he said. "You could berth with the second mate. +There's room there. I could sign you on as purser. You come." + +I stared at him. The fellow meant it. I laughed at him. + +"What," I asked conclusively, "shall I do about all this?" I waved my +arm round Fleet Street, source of all the light I know, giver of my gift +of income tax, limit of my perspective. How should I live when withdrawn +from the smell of its ink, the urge of its machinery? + +"_That_," he said. "Oh, damn that!" + + * * * * * + +It was his light tone which staggered me and not what he said. The +sailor's manner was that of one who would be annoyed if I treated him +like a practical man, arranging miles of petty considerations and +exceptions before him, arguing for hours along rows of trifles, and +hoping the harvest of difficulties of no consequence at the end of the +argument would convince him. Indeed I know he is always impatient for +the next step in any business, and not, like most of us, for more +careful consideration. "Look there," said the sailor, pointing to +Ludgate Circus, "see that Putney 'bus? If it takes up two more +passengers before it passes this spot then you've got to come." + +That made the difficulty much clearer. I agreed. The 'bus struggled off, +and a man with a bag ran at it and boarded it. One! Then it had a clear +run--it almost reached us--in another two seconds!--I began to breathe +more easily; the danger of liberty was almost gone. Then the sailor +jumped for the 'bus before it was quite level, and as he mounted the +steps, turned, and held up two fingers with a grin. + +Thus was a voyage of great moment and adventure settled for me. + +When I got home that night I referred to the authorities for the way to +begin an enterprise on the deep. What said Hakluyt? According to him it +is as easy as this: "Master John Hawkins, with the Jesus of Lubeck, a +ship of 700 tunnes, and the Solomon, a ship of seven score, the Tiger, a +barke of 50, and the Swalow of 30 Tunnes, being all well furnished with +men to the number of one hundred threescore and ten; as also with +ordnance and vituall requisite for such a voyage, departed out of +Plinmouth the 18 day of October in the yeere of our Lord 1564, with a +prosperous wind." + +But we all know such things were done far better in that century. Yet +Master John Hawkins, who seems to have handled a fleet with greater +facility than I do this pen now I am so anxious to scratch it across +preliminaries and get it to sea, did not come to a decision by the +number of passengers on a Putney 'bus. So I turned to a modern +authority. Yet Bates, I found, is worse than old John Hawkins, Bates +actually arrives at his destination in the first sentence. He steps +across in thirty-eight words from England to the Amazon. "I embarked at +Liverpool with Mr. Wallace, in a small trading vessel, on the 26th day +of April 1848; and, after a swift passage from the Irish Channel to the +equator arrived on the 26th of May off Salinas." + +Well, I did not. I say it is a gross deception. Voyaging does not get +accomplished in that off-hand fashion. It is a mockery to captives like +ourselves to pretend bondage is puffed away in that airy manner. It is +not so easily persuaded to disencumber us. Indeed, with this and that, I +found the initial step in the pursuit of the sunset red a heavy weight, +and hardly suited to the constitution of men who have worked into a deep +rut; but that high resolution and a faith equal to belief in the +liquefaction of St. Januarius' blood are needed to drop the protective +routine of years, to sheer off the dear and warm entanglements of home +and friendships; to shut the front door one bleak winter evening when +the house smells comfortable and secure, and the light on the hearth, +under such circumstances, is ironic in its bright revelation of years of +ease and stability till then not fully appraised; and so depart in the +dusk for an unknown Welsh coaling port, there to board a tramp steamer +for a voyage that has some serious doubts about it, though its landfall +shall be near the line, and have palms in it. The door slammed, I +noticed, in a chill and penetrating minor, an incident of travel I have +never seen recorded. + +Now do I come at last, O Liberty, my loved and secret divinity! Your +passionate pilgrim is here, late, though still young and eager eyed; yet +with his coat collar upturned for the present. Allons! the Open Road is +before him. But how the broad and empty prospects of his freedom shudder +with the dire sounds and cries of the milk churns on Paddington Station! + +And next I remember black night--it was, I think, about three a.m.--and +a calamitous rain, and a Welsh railway station where I had alighted, +faint with a famine, a kit bag soon to increase in weight and drag, and +a pair of numbed feet. There was a porter who bore himself as though it +were the last day and he knew the worst, a dying station light, the wind +and rain, and me. Outside was the dark, and one of the greatest coaling +ports in the world. As I could not see the coal in great bulk I could +not admire it. The railway man turned out the light, conducted me +politely into a puddle, set my course for the docks in uncharted night +with a dexter having no convictions, and left me. I began to hate the +land of the wild bard in which I found myself for the first time, and +felt a savage satisfaction in being nearly a pure blooded London Saxon; +and as I surveyed my prospects in that country, not even the fact that I +had a grandparent named Hughes would have prevented me striking Wales +with my umbrella, for it is only a cheap one; but I had left it in the +train. + +It had never occurred to me (any more than it did to you when you got +this book to learn about the tropic sea and the jungle) that the Open +Road, where the chains fall from us, would include Swansea High Street +four hours before sunrise in a steady winter downpour. But there I +discovered that trade wind seas by moonlight, flying fish, Indians, and +forests and palms, cannot be compelled. They come in their turn. They +are mixed with litter and dead stuff, like prizes in a bran tub. Going +down the drear and aqueous street it was clear that if there are exalted +moments in travel, as on the instant when we discover we really may +prepare to go, yet exaltation implies the undistinguished flats from +which, for a while, we are translated. This is a travel book for honest +men. I am still on the flat. It will be to-morrow presently. + +My chief fear was that my waterproof, rattling in the wind, would alarm +silent and sleeping Swansea. I found a policeman standing at a street +corner, holding out his cape to help away the rain. He could give me no +hope. He knew where the dock was, but the way thither was difficult and +torturous. I had better follow the tram lines, and ask again, if I saw +anybody. Therefore the tram lines I followed till my portable estate, by +compound interest, had increased to untold tons; but the empty tram way +went on for ever down the rows of frozen and desolate lamps, so that I +surrendered all my chances of the seas of the tropics and the jungle of +the Brazils, and turned aside from the course which the policeman said +led to ships and the deep, entered the dark portico of a shop, where it +was only half wet, and lit my pipe, there to wait for the shy gods to +turn my luck. Hesitating footsteps fumbled to where I was hidden, and +stopped at the flash of my match. "Could yer 'blige with a light, +mister?" + +He was a little elderly seaman in yellow oilskins and a so'wester. He +was rather drunk. His oilskins gathered the reflected street shine, so +that he looked phosphorescent, an old man risen wet and shining from the +ocean. He was looking for Buenos Aires, he explained, and hadn't got any +matches. Now he, for the Plate, and I, for ultimate Amazonas, set off +down the Swansea tram lines. And the wind whined through overhead wires, +and a lost dog followed us along the empty thoroughfare where the only +sound was of waterspouts, and the elderly mariner sang bold and improper +songs, so that I wondered there was not an irruption of nightcaps at +upper Swansea windows to witness this disturbance of their usual peace. + +We came at length to abandoned lagoons, where spectral ships were moored +down the marges, and round the wide waters was the loom of uncertain +monsters and buildings. Railway metals waylaid us and caught us by the +feet. There were many electric moons swaying in the gale, and they +spilled showers of broken light, which melted on the black water, and +betrayed to us our loneliness in outer night. The call of a vessel's +syren across that inhospitable space was heard by us as the prolonged +moan of the lost. + +The old man of the sea took me under a stack of timber to light his +pipe. He borrowed my box of matches, and malicious spurts of wind +extinguished each match, steadily, as mine ancient struck them. It was +now 4 a.m. He threw each bit of dead wood down, without irritation, as +though it were the fate of man to strike lights for the gods to douse, +but yet was he uplifted now beyond the hurt of cosmic mockery. The +matches were not wasted. At least they lighted up his sorrowful face as +he talked to me. I would not have had him any the less drunk, for it but +softened his facial integument, which I could see had been hardened and +set by bitter experience, masking the man; but now his jaded life, +warmed by emotion, though much of the emotion was artificial and of the +pewter born, was quick in his face again, and made him a human +responsive to his kind, instead of a sober and warped shellback with a +sour remembrance of his hardships, and of the futility of his endurance, +and of the distance away of his masters with their bowels of iron. + +He had seven children, and the sea was a weary place. Had I any +children?--and God keep them if I had. He was a troublesome old man +("that's another light gone") but he had just left his kids ("ah, to +hell wi' the wind") and he had to talk to someone about them, and that +was my rotten luck, said he. We got to the fifth child, and I heard +something about her, when the wind reached round the wood stack at us, +and snatched the last glim. So it was in the dark that I heard about the +other two and the wife, while one of my pockets filled with rain. Only +Milly, he said, was at work, and what was four pound a month for the +rest? And he was sick of the sea and chief mates, and did I think a chap +stood for a better time when he died, if he kept off drink and did his +bit without grousing, like some of the parson fellers said? Then he +indicated my ship, and disappeared in the dark. He is still waiting an +answer to his last question, which I have saved for you to give him. + +For me, I was in no mood to discuss whether balm is to be got in Gilead, +when we come to the place; but stumbling among the lumber on the +deserted deck of the S.S. "Capella," I found a cabin, fell into it, and +remember nothing more but the smell of hot bread, eggs and bacon, and +coffee, which visited me in a beautiful dream. Then I woke to the +reveille of a tin whistle, which the chief engineer was playing in my +ear; and it was daylight. The jumble of recollections of the night +before were but dark insanities. But the smell of that aromatic food, I +give grace, did not pass with the awakening, for next door I heard +lively sizzling in the galley. Already Fleet Street was hull down. + + * * * * * + +If you are used only to the methods of passenger steamers and regular +routes, then you know little of travel. You are but carried about. +Insistent clocks and schedules keep that way, and the upholstered but +rigid routine is a soporific. You never see the hither side of the +hedge. The granite countenance of fortune, her eyes filmed like frozen +pools, which keeps alert and bright the voyager who is unprotected from +her unscheduled and unmoral acts except by his own ready buckler, is +watched for you by others. You are never surprised into fear by the +unlucky position of the planets, nor moved to sing Laus Deo, when now +and then, the stars are propitious. I had been brought hastily to the +"Capella," for it was said she was sailing instantly. This morning I +learned at breakfast that nobody knew when she could sail. Our steamer +sat two feet higher than her capacity. There was some galvanised iron to +come from Glascow, some machinery from Sheffield; and owing to labour +difficulties we were short of several hundred tons of coal. A little mob +of us, all strangers, shuffled after the Skipper's spry heels that +morning to the Board of Trade offices, where an official mumbled over +the ship's articles, to our shut ears, and we signed where we were told. +A more glum and unromantic group of voyagers, each man twirling his +shabby hat in his hands as he waited his turn for the corroded pen, was +never seen this side of the Elizabethan era. I became the purser of the +"Capella," with my wages lawfully recorded at a shilling per month. + +I was committed. There was no withdrawal now but desertion. And +desertion, at times, I seriously considered, because for a week more the +cargo dribbled down to us, while I endured as a moucher about those +winter docks with their coal tips, and the muddy streets with their +sailors' slop marts, marine stores, and pawnshops having a cankered +display of chronometers, telescopes, and other flotsam of marine failure +and wreckage. Daily the quays and the dismal waterside ways with their +cheap shops were still more depressed by additional snow mush and drives +of sleet; and it was no warmth for this idler that he saw the tradesmen, +because of the season, putting holly among their oranges and wreathing +beer bottles with chains of coloured paper. The iron decks and cabins of +my new home were as chill and unfriendly as the empty grate, the marble +tables, and the tin advertisements of chemical slops of a temperance +hotel. Am I plain? Such are the conditions which compass the wayward +traveller. This is what chills one's rapid pulse when pursuing at last +the rosy visions of boyhood. The deplorable littoral of our island +kingdom is part of a life on the ocean wave, and should help you in +coming to a decision when next you see a friendless and bestial +sailorman. It becomes necessary to declare that we shall really get down +to the tropics presently; have the courage to wait, like the crew of the +"Capella." Our ship did sail, when she was ready. + +It was the afternoon before we sailed, and having listened long enough +to my messmates, who, after dinner, weighed the probabilities of +malaria, yellow fever and other alien disasters into our coming strange +voyage, that I went into the town to take my last look round a book +shop, and to get some marine soap, dungarees, and things. Here was I at +last with my heart's desire. On the very next day I should sail, I +myself, and no other hero, veritably Me at last, for a place not on the +chart, because the place we should find, at the journey's end, the map +described with those words of magic: "Forest" and "Unexplored." I made +my way round crates and barrels on that untidy deck, which had a thick +mud of coal dust and snow, to the ladder overside. Coal dust and melting +snow! But where was the uplifted heart, the radiant anticipation, as of +one to whom the future was big with treasures to be born, which are the +privilege of a young pilgrim, released from his usual obligations to +pursue far horizons in the Spanish main, while his envious fellows in +the city still cast ledgers under gas lamps? Here was another swindle of +the romanticists. You may search their warm and golden pages in vain for +coal tips, melting ice, delays, and steam heaters that will not work for +cold cabins. Down they go here, though. These gallant affairs, I +thought, as I descended the wet and gritty ladder, are much better done +before the fire at home, in your slippers; for the large scale map, as +you traverse its alluring blank areas, leaves out the conditions which +now, when I am on the actual business, precipitate as frozen spicules, +as would north winds, my warm, aerial, and cloudy enthusiasms that were +wont to be dyed such wonderful hues by sunsets, poems, and tales of old +travel. Another of these congealing draughts was now to catch me +unbuttoned. Because of our unusual destination, and the wild stories +that were told of it, we were a point of interest in Swansea docks, and +had many interviewers and curious visitors. Some of them were on the +quay then, inspecting our steamer, and as I stepped off the ladder one +turned to me. + +"Mister," he whispered, "are you going in her?" + +"I am," I said. + +"O gord," said he. + +That night I met a number of my grave fellow shipmates in the town. The +question was, Should we then go back to the ship? + +"What," burst out one of us in surprise--his gold-laced cap was already +resting on his right eyebrow--"Now? Not me. Boys, don't freeze the +Carnival. Follow me!" + +We followed him. The rest of the evening is more easily given in dumb +show. There was a mechanical piano in a saloon bar, and it steadily +devoured pennies, and returned to us automatic joy, fortissimo, over +which our conversation strenuously high-stepped and vaulted. Later, +there was a search for cabs, and an engineer carried with him everywhere +two geese by their necks and sometimes trod on their loose feet. When he +did this he snatched a goose from his own grasp, and then roundly abused +us for our post-dated frivolity. We learned our steamer was now moored +in mid-dock. We found a quay wall, and at the bottom of it, at a great +depth in the dark, the level of the water was seen only because shreds +of lamp-shine floated there. We understood a boat was below, and found +it was, and we loaded it till the water brimmed at the gunwale. As we +mounted the "Capella's" rope-ladder only one goose fell back into the +dock. + + * * * * * + +The "Capella" started in her sleep, and she woke me. She was still +trembling. Resting my hand on her I felt her heart begin to throb, +though faintly. We were off. + +It was a bright morning, early and keen. Those habitual quays now were +moving past us. The decks were cleared, the carpenter and some sailors +were fixing the hatches, and the pilot, muffled in a thick white shawl, +was on the bridge with the Skipper. We stopped in the outer lock, the +exhaust humming impatiently while a pier-head jumper--for we were a +sailor short--was examined by our doctor. The Skipper had some short +words for an official who had mounted the bridge, because the third mate +had deserted, and had taken his half pay; and the official, who had +volunteered to get us a substitute, had failed. There were now but two +mates for our big tramp steamer going a long and arduous voyage which +included the navigation for some months of narrow inland waterways in +the tropics. Our first mate, passing amidships where the Purser was +leaning overside, stopped to tell me what this meant for him and the +second mate. I was mighty glad it was not the purser's fault. I have +never heard a short speech more passionate; and his eyes were feral. Yet +it became increasingly clear to me, as the voyage lengthened, that his +eyes no more than met the case. + +Out we drove at last. It was December, but by luck we found a halcyon +morning which had got lost in the year's procession. It was a Sunday +morning, and it had not been ashore. It was still virgin, bearing a +vestal light. It had not been soiled yet by any suspicion of this +trampled planet, this muddy star, which its innocent and tenuous rays +had discovered in the region of night. I thought it still was regarding +us as a lucky find there. Its light was tremulous, as if with joy and +eagerness. I met this discovering morning as your ambassador while you +still slept, and betrayed not, I hope, any greyness and bleared satiety +of ours to its pure, frail, and lucid regard. That was the last good +service I did before leaving you quite. I was glad to see how well our +old earth did meet such a light, as though it had no difficulty in +looking day in the face. The world was miraculously renewed. It rose, +and received the new-born of Aurora in its arms. There was clouds of +pearl above hills of chrysoprase. The sea ran in volatile flames. The +shadows on the bright deck shot to and fro as we rolled. The breakfast +bell rang not too soon. This was a right beginning. + +The pilot was dropped, and a course was shaped to pass between Lundy and +Hartland. A strong northwester and its seas caught us beyond the +Mumbles, and the quality of the sunshine thinned to a flickering stuff +which cast only grey shadows. The "Capella" became quarrelsome, and +began to strike the seas heavily. You may know the "Capella" when you +see her. She is a modern three-thousand-ton freighter, with derrick +supports fore and aft, and a funnel; and the three of them are so +fearful of seeming rakish that they overdo the effect of stern utility, +and appear to lean ahead. She is a three-island ship, the amidships +section carrying the second mate's cabin, and the cabins of the four +engineers, all of them, excepting the Chief's cabin, looking outwards +overseas across a narrow sheltered alleyway; and on a narrower +athwartship's alleyway there, and opening astern, are the Chief's place, +and the cook's galley, the entrance to the engine-room, and the +engineers' messroom. Above this structure is the boat deck. You may +reach the poop, which contains the master's and chief mate's quarters, +the doctor's and steward's berths, and the saloon, by descending a +perpendicular iron ladder to the long main deck, or else, as all did at +sea, by a flying trestle bridge, which is dismantled when in port. Her +black funnel is relieved by a cryptic design in white, and her bows are +so bluff that, as the chief mate put it, "her belly begins there." She +might not take your eye, but a shipowner would see her points. She +carries a large cargo on a comparatively low registered tonnage. The +money that built her went mostly in hull and engines, and the latter do +their work as sweetly as an eight-day clock, giving ten and a half +knots, weather permitting, on a low coal consumption. There was not much +money left, therefore, for balm in the cabins, and that is the reason we +do not find it there. + +At sundown the sky cleared. The wind, increased in violence, had swept +it of the last feather. Lundy was over our starboard bow, a small dark +blot in a clear yellow light which poured, with the gale and the rising +seas, from the west. The glass was falling. Now, the Skipper has often +told me how his "Capella" had faced hurricanes off Cape Hatteras, when +laden with ore, and had kept her decks dry. There are other stories +about her surprising buoyancy, when deeply laden, and I have heard them +all at home, and they are fine stories. But what lies they are! For +there below me, with Lundy not even passed, and the Bay of Biscay to +come (Para not to be thought of yet) were tons and tons of salt wash +that could not get time to escape by the scuppers, but plunged wearily +amongst the hatches and winches. + +"I've never seen her as dirty as this," grumbled the chief engineer +apologetically, peeping from his cabin at cold green water lopping over +casually on to the after deck. "It's that patent fuel--its stowed wrong. +Now she'll roll--you can feel it--the cat she is, she's never going to +stop. It's that patent fuel and her new load line." + +Certainly she sat close to the sea. I had never seen so much lively +water so close. She wallowed, she plunged, she rolled, she sank heavily +to its level. I looked out from the round window of the Chief's cabin, +and when she inclined those green mounds of the swell swinging under us +and away were superior, in apparition, to my outlook. + +"Listen to it," said the Chief. He stopped triturating some shavings of +hard tobacco between his huge palms, and sat quietly, hands clasped, as +though in prayer. The surge mourned over the deck. The day, too, was +growing towards the dusky hours of retrospection. That sombre monody +outside was like the tremor and boom of the drums funebre. "That chap +some of you talk about--Lloyd George!"--said the Chief, suddenly rubbing +his tobacco again with energy. (Good God, I thought, and here we are at +sea too. Now what has the misguided man done.) "If I had him here I'd +hold him down in that wash on deck till it cleared. Then he'd know. He +put it there, to break sailors' legs. This steamer, she had dry decks +till her load line was altered. She carries more now than she was built +for, two hundred tons more. If I had him here--but there you are! +Popularity! There's a fine popular noise for you, isn't it? Sailors +growled for better food. 'What about this improved food scale?' says Mr. +Lloyd George to the shipowners. 'Oh,' said they, 'we'll give 'em better +food, the drunken insubordinate dogs, if you'll make overloading legal.' +'Why,' says Lord George, 'then it wouldn't be illegal, would it?' So it +was done. What does the public know about a ship's buoyancy? Nothing. +But it understands food. So the clever man heightens the Plimsoll mark, +adds a million or so to shipowners' capital by dipping his pen in the +ink, and gives Jack more jam. What you want ashore," the Chief added +bitterly, "is not more voters, as some say, but more lunatic asylums." + +Though I had left politics at home, to be settled by others, like the +trouble with the drains, the dog licence, and the dispute about the +garden fence, I glanced with interest at the Chief. I know him well. Not +only is he a kindly man, but he himself is also a philosophic rebel. But +his eye was hard, and he still ground the tobacco with forgetful energy, +us though an objectionable thing were between his strong hands. Then +impatiently he threw the tobacco loose on his log book, which was open +on his deck, paused, and said, "Ah, maybe the man thought a little +freeboard the less didn't matter. God give him grace," and picked his +flute out of a bookshelf which was fastened above his bunk; sat down +over the steam heater, and broke out like a blackbird. Yet was it a +well-remembered air he fluted so well. I listened so long as respect for +the artist demanded, then rose, filled my pipe from the fragrant grains +on the log book, and left him. Presently I would listen to such airs; +but this was too soon. + +I repeat I had confidence in the "Capella" to gain. I went forward to +get it, mounting the bridge, where my cabin mate, the youthful second +officer, was in charge, in his oilskins. A cheerful sight he looked. "I +think," said he briskly, "we're going to catch it." He was puckering his +face over our course. Lundy was looming large--even Rat Island was +plain--but it looked so frail in that flood of seas, wind, and wild +yellow light streaming together from the evening west, that I looked for +the unsubstantial island to spring suddenly from its foundations, and to +come down on us a stretched wisp of thinned and ragged smoke. The sea +was adrift from its old confines. The flood was pouring past, and the +wind was the drainage of interstellar space. Lundy was the last delicate +fragment of land. It still fronted the upheaval and rush of the +ungoverned elements, but one looked for it to be swept away. + +Yet that wild and scenic west, of such pallor and clarity that one +shrank from facing its inhospitable spaciousness, with each shape of a +wave there, black against the light as it reared ahead, a distinct +individual foe in the host moving to the attack, was but the prelude. +Night and the worst were to come. Just then, while the last of the light +was shining on the officer's oilskins, I was only surprised that our +bulk was such a trifle after all. Our loaded vessel looked so bluff and +massive when in dock. She began to attempt, off Lundy, the spring and +jauntiness of a trawler. The bows sank to the rails in an acre of white, +and the spume flew past the bridge like rain. The black bows lifted and +swayed, buoyant on submarine upheavals, to cut out segments of the +sunset; then sank again into dark hollows where the foam was luminous. +The cold and wind were bitter dolours. + +We rolled. I grasped the rail of the weather cloth, in the drive of wind +and spume, and rode down on our charger like a valiant man; like a +valiant man who is uncertain of his seat. Something like a valiant man. +We advanced to the attack, masts and funnel describing great arcs, and +steadily our bows shouldered away the foe. I think sailors deserve large +monies. Being the less valiant--for the longer I watched, the more grew +I wet and cold--it came to my mind that where we were, but a few weeks +before, another large freighter had her hatches opened by the seas, and +presently was but a trace of oil and cinders on the waters. You will +remember I am on my first long voyage. The officer was quite cheerful +and asked me if I knew Forest Gate. There were, he said, some fine girls +at Forest Gate. + +We rounded Hartland. It was dusk, the weather was now directly on our +starboard beam, and the waves were coming solidly inboard. The main deck +was white with plunging water. We rolled still more. + +"I can't make out why you left London when you didn't have to," said the +grinning sailor. "I'd like to be on the Stratford tram, going down to +Forest Gate." + +This was nearly as bad as the Chief's flute. I held up two fingers over +those hatches of ours, called silently on blessed Saint Anthony, who +loves sailors, and went down the ladder; for night had come, and the +prospect from the "Capella" was not the less apprehensive to the mind of +a landsman because the enemy could not be seen, except as flying ghosts. +The noises could be heard all right. + +I shut my heavy teak door amidships, shut out the daunting uproar of +floods, and the sensation that the night was collapsing round our +heaving ship. There was a home light far away, on some unseen Cornish +headland, rising and falling like a soaring but tethered star. Nor did I +want the lights of home. + +"I love the sea," a beautiful woman once said to me. (We, then, stood +looking out over it from a height, and the sea was but the sediment of +the still air, the blue precipitation of the sky, for it was that +restful time, early October. I also loved it then.) + +I was thinking of this, when the concrete floor of the cabin nearly +became a wall, and I fell absurd-wise, striking nearly every item in the +cabin. Was this the way to greet a lover? Sitting on a sea-chest, and +swaying to and fro because the ship compelled me to a figure of woe, I +began to consider whether it was only the books about the sea which I +had loved hitherto, and not the sea itself. Perhaps it is better not to +live with it, if you would love it. The sea is at its best at London, +near midnight, when you are within the arms of a capacious chair, before +a glowing fire, selecting phases of the voyages you will never make. It +is wiser not to try to realise your dreams. There are no real dreams. +For as to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why should you? I will +never believe again the sea was ever loved by anyone whose life was +married to it. It is the creation of Omnipotence, which is not of human +kind and understandable, and so the springs of its behaviour are hidden. +The sea does not assume its royal blue to please you. Its brute and dark +desolation is not raised to overwhelm you; you disappear then because +you happen to be there. It carries the lucky foolish to fortune, and +drags the calculating wise to the strewn bones. Yet, thought I, that +night off Cornwall, if I pray now as one of the privileged and lucky +foolish, this very occasion may prove to be set apart for the sole use +of the calculating wise. Because that is the way things happen at sea. +What else may we expect from It, the nameless thing, new-born with each +dawn, but as old as the night? Now for me had it degenerated into its +mood of old night, behaving as it did in the lightless days, before +poetry came to change it with flattery. It was again as inhuman as when +the poet was merely a wonderfully potential blob on a warm mudbank. + +Here, you see, is the whole trouble in appealing to Omnipotence. Picture +me entering the wide western ocean at night, an inconspicuous but +self-important morsel sitting on a sea-chest, at a time when it was +perhaps ordained that hundreds of ships should have anxious passages. +(Afterwards I learned very many ships did have anxious passages.) How +could I expect to be spared, even though somewhere the hairs of my head +were all numbered? It is plain that to spare me would be to extend +beneficence to all. There only remained to me my liberty to hope that +our particular steamer might miss all seventh waves, by luck. I was free +to do that. + +I turned up the dull and stinking oil lamp, and tried to read; but that +fuliginous glim haunted the pages. That black-edged light too much +resembled my own thoughts made manifest. There were some bunches of my +cabin mate's clothes hanging from hooks, and I watched their erratic +behaviour instead. The water in the carafe was also interesting, because +quite mad, standing diagonally in the bottle, and then reversing. A lump +of soap made a flying leap from the washstand, and then slithered about +the floor like something hunted and panic-stricken. I listened to +numerous little voices. There was no telling their origins. There was a +chorus in the cabin, rustlings, whispers, plaints, creaks, wails, and +grunts; but they were foundered in the din when the spittoon, which was +an empty meat tin, got its lashings loose, and began a rioting fandango +on the concrete. Over the clothes chest, which was also our table and a +cabin fixture, was a portrait of the mate's sweetheart, and on its frame +was one of my busy little friends the cockroaches; for the mate and I do +not sleep alone in this cabin, not by hundreds. The cockroach stood in +thought, waving his hands interrogatively, as one who talks to himself +nervously. The ship at that moment received a seventh wave, lurched, and +trembled. The cockroach fell. I rose, listening. I felt sure a new +clamour would begin at once, showing we had reached another and critical +stage of the fight. But no; the brave heart of her was beating as +before. I could feel its steady pulse throbbing in our table. We were +alive and strong, though labouring direfully. + +It was when I was thinking whether bed would be, as I have so often +found it, the best answer to doubt, that I heard a boatswain's pipe. + +I fought one side of the door, and the wind fought the other. My hurry +to open the door was great, but the obstinate wind jammed it firmly. +Without warning the wind released its hold, the ship fell over to +windward, the door flew open, and forth I went, clutching at the driving +dark. Then up sailed my side of the ship, and the door shut with the +sound of gunfire. I had never experienced such insensate violence. These +were the unlawful noises and movements of chaos. Hanging to a rail, I +was puzzling out which was the fore and which the rear of the ship, when +a flying lump of salt water struck me in the face just as a figure (I +thought it was the chief officer) hurried past me bawling "All hands." + +The figure came back. "That you, purser? Number three hatch has gone," +it said, and disappeared instantly. + +So. Then this very thing had come to me, and at night! Our hatches were +adrift. It was impossible. Why, we had only just left Swansea. It could +not be true; it was absurdly unfair. This was my first long voyage, and +it had only just begun. I stood like the cricketer who is out for a +duck. + +If I could tell you how I felt, I would. Somebody was shouting +somewhere, but his words were cut off at once by the wind and blown +away. I felt my way along a wet and dark iron alleyway which was giddily +unstable, pressing hard against my feet, and then falling from under me. +I got round by the engine-room entrance. Small gleams, shavings of +light, were escaping from seams in the unseen structure, but they showed +nothing, except a length of wet rail or a scrap of wet deck. The ship +itself was a shade, manned by voices. + +I could not see that anything was being done. Were they allowing her to +fill up like an open barge? I became aware my surcharged feelings were +escaping by my knees, which kept knocking in their tremors against a +lower rail. I tried to stop this trembling by hardening my muscles, but +my fearful legs had their own way. Yet it is plain there was nothing to +fear. I told my legs so. Had we not but that day left Swansea? Besides, +I had already commenced a letter which was to be posted at Para. The +letter would have to be posted. They were waiting for it at home. + +Somewhere below me a heavy mass of water plunged monstrously, and became +a faintly luminous cloud over all the main deck aft, actually framing +the rectangular form of the deck in the night. It was unreasonable. I +was not really one of the crew either, though on the articles. I was +there by chance. No advantage should be taken of that. A torrent poured +down the athwartships alleyway, and nearly swept me from my feet. + +One could not watch what was happening. That was another cruel +injustice. The wind and sea could be heard, and the ship could be felt. +But how could I be expected to know what to do in the dark in such +circumstances? There ought to be a light. This should have happened in +the daytime. My garrulous knees struck the lower rail violently in their +excitement. I leaned over the rail, shading my eyes. I grew savagely +indignant with something having no name and no shape. I cannot even now +give a name to the thing that angered me, but can just discern, in the +twilight which shrouds the undiscovered, a vast calm face the rock of +which no human emotion can move, with eyes that stare but see nothing, +and a mouth that never speaks, and ears from which assailing cries and +questions fall as mournful echoes, ironic repetitions. This flung stone +falls from it, as unavailing as your prayers; but we shall never cease +to pray and fling stones, alternately, up there into the twilight. + +Nevertheless, when the chief, with his hurricane lamp, found me, he says +I was smiling. The youth who was our second mate ran up and stood by us, +the better to shout to the deck below. He shouted, bending over the +rail, till he was screaming through hoarseness. He turned to us +abruptly. "They don't understand a word I say," he cried in despair. +"There isn't a sailor or an Englishman in the crowd, the ---- German +farmers." This, I found afterwards, was nearly true. These men had been +signed on at a Continental port. It was really our Dutch cook who saved +us that night. It was the cook who first saw the hatch covers going. + +The ship's head had been put to the seas to keep the decks as clear as +possible, and being now more accustomed to the gloom I could make out +the men below busy at the hatch. Most conspicuous among them was the +cook, who had taken charge there, and he, with three languages, +bludgeoned into surprising activity the inexperienced youngsters who +were learning for the first time what happens to a ship when the +carpenter's chief job on leaving port has its defects discovered by +exceptional weather. They were wading through swirling waters as they +worked, and once a greater wave sprang bodily over them, and when the +hatch showed through the foam again some of the men had gone as though +dissolved. But it was found they had kept the right side of the +bulwarks, and the elderly carpenter, whose leg had got wedged in a +winch, was the only one damaged. + +If you ask me when I shall be pleased to allow the necessary sun to rise +upon this narrative to give it a little warmth, then I must tell you it +cannot be done till we have fastened down the "Capella's" number two +hatch, at least. That hatch has gone now, and if hatches one and four +give way while number two is getting attention from the weary, soaked, +and frozen crowd which has just had an hour's desperate work at number +three, then I fear the sun will never rise on this narrative. (How Bates +got over to his wonderful blue butterflies in those forest paths under a +tropical sun in thirty-eight words I do not know. He must have been +thinking of nothing but his butterflies. I cannot do it, with the seas +and the ship keeping my mind so busy.) + +Luckily, the other hatches kept staunch. We were watertight again. When +the Old Man, the Chief, the Doctor, and the Purser, gathered late that +night in the Chief's cabin to see what it was he had secreted in his +cupboard, and boasted of, we sat where we could, being comfortably +crowded, and I never knew tobacco could taste like that. I felt as if +never before had I found such large leisure for extracting its full +flavour. From being suddenly confined within a space which gave me a +short outlook of a few hours, I was presently released into the open +again and of what might remain to me of the usual gift of ample years. I +had all that time to smoke in. Never did a pipe taste so sweet. It is +idle for good and serious souls to think me graceless here with this +talk of tobacco immediately after such a release. Let me tell them my +sacrificial smoke rose up straight and accepted. Looking through the +smoke I saw clearly how worthy, kind, and lovable were the faces of my +comrades. I warmed to this voyage for the first time; as though, after a +test, I had been initiated. This was the place for me, with men like +these about me, and such great affairs to be met. I revelled in the +thought of our valorous bluff, insignificant as we were in that malign +desolation, sundered from our kind. + +"Chief," said the Old Man, "it was my department that time. None of your +old engines did it." + +"You've got a good cook," said the Chief, "I saw that." Then the Chief, +remembering something, turned in his seat to the picture hanging above +his desk of a smiling and handsome matron. "Here's luck, old girl," he +said, holding up his glass; "you can still send me some letters." + + * * * * * + +The Chief, in case of an emergency, slept in his clothes that night on +the settee, and I climbed into his bunk. What a comfortable outline the +man had, as he lay on his broad back, mildly snoring. There was a tangle +of tense hair over a square copper coloured forehead. A long experience +of such nights was written in many lines on that brow, and was shown in +that indifferent snoring while chaos was without. The nose sprang out of +the big face like an ejaculation, and beneath it was a moustache clipped +short to show the red of the upper lip. The jaw was powerful, but its +curves made it friendly. His body and limbs hid the settee and had a +margin over. I quite believed what I had been told of his successful way +with refractory stokers. There was confidence to be got from a mere look +at that slumbering Jovian form. The storm assailed its hairy and fleshy +ears in vain. I braced my knees against the bulkhead to keep myself +still, the rolling was so violent, and went to sleep ... waking to find +us on a level keel; and was deceived into thinking the parallel lines of +grey and gold in the upper air, seen as a picture framed by the port, +were the heights about; a harbour into which we had run for shelter; but +it was only cloudland over the western ocean. The stillness, too, was +but a short reprieve. The wind was merely making a detour, to spring at +us from another quarter. + +The sun died at birth. The wind we had lost we found again as a gale +from the south-east. The waters quickly increased again, and by noon the +saloon was light and giddy with the racing of the propeller. I moved +about like an infant learning to walk. We were 201 miles from the +Mumbles, course S.W. 1/2W.; it was cold, and I was still looking for the +pleasures of travel. The Doctor came to introduce himself, like a good +man, and tried me with such things as fevers, Shaw, Brazilian +entomology, the evolution of sex, the medical profession under +socialism, the sea and the poets. But my thoughts were in retreat, with +the black dog in full cry. It was too cold and damp to talk even of sex. +When my oil lamp began to throw its rays of brown smell, the Doctor, +tired of the effort to exalt the sour dough which was my mind, left me. +It was night. O, the sea and the poets! + +By next morning the gale, now from the south-west, like the seas, was +constantly reinforced with squalls of hurricane violence. The Chief put +a man at the throttle. In the early afternoon the waves had assumed +serious proportions. They soared by us in broad sombre ranges, with +hissing white ridges, an inhospitable and subduing sight. They were a +quite different tribe of waves from the volatile and malicious natives +of the Bristol Channel. Those channel waves had no serried ranks in the +attack; they were but a horde of undisciplined savages, appearing to +assault without design or plan, but getting at us as they could, +depending on their numbers. The waves in the channel were smaller folk, +but more athletic, and very noisy; they appeared to detach themselves +from the sea, and to leap at us, shouting. + +These western ocean waves had a different character. They were the sea. +We did not have a multitude of waves in sight, but the sea floor itself +might have been undulating. The ocean was profoundly convulsed. Our +outlook was confined to a few heights and hollows, and the moving +heights were swift, but unhurried and stately. Your alarm, as you saw a +greater hill appear ahead, tower, and bear down, had no time to get more +than just out of the stage of surprise and wonder when the "Capella's" +bows were pointing skyward on a long up-slope of water, the broken +summit of which was too quick for the "Capella"--the bows disappeared in +a white explosion, a volley of spray, as hard as shot, raked the bridge, +the foredeck filled with raging water, and the wave swept along our run, +dark, severe, and immense; with so little noise too; with but a faint +hissing of foam, as in a deliberate silence. The "Capella" then began to +run down a valley. + +The engines were reduced to half speed; it would have been dangerous to +drive her at such seas. Our wet and slippery decks were bleak, +windswept, and deserted. The mirror of water on the iron surfaces, +constantly renewed, reflected and flashed the wild lights in the sky as +she rolled and pitched, and somehow those reflections from her polish +made the steamer seem more desolate and forlorn. Not a man showed +anywhere on the vessel's length, except merely to hurry from one vantage +to another--darting out of the ship's interior, and scurrying to another +hole and vanishing abruptly, like a rabbit. + +The gale was dumb till it met and was torn in our harsh opposition, +shouting and moaning then in anger and torment as we steadily pressed +our iron into its ponderable body. You could imagine the flawless flood +of air pouring silently express till it met our pillars and pinnacles, +and then flying past rift, the thousand punctures instantly spreading +into long shrieking lacerations. The wounds and mouths were so many, +loud, and poignant, that you wondered you could not see them. Our +structure was full of voices, but the weighty body which drove against +our shrouds and funnel guys, and kept them strongly vibrating, was +curiously invisible. The hard jets of air spurted hissing through the +winches. The sound in the shrouds and stays began like that of something +tearing, and rose to a high keening. The deeper notes were amidships, in +the alleyways and round the engine-room casing; but there the ship +itself contributed a note, a metallic murmur so profound that it was +felt as a tremor rather than heard. It was almost below human hearing. +It was the hollow ship resonant, the steel walls, decks, and bulkheads +quivering under the drumming of the seas, and the regular throws of the +crank-shaft far below. + +It was on this day the "Capella" ceased to be a marine engine to me. She +was not the "Capella" of the Swansea docks, the sea waggon squatting low +in the water, with bows like a box, and a width of beam which made her +seem a wharf fixture. To-day in the Atlantic her bluff bows rose to meet +the approaching bulk of each wave with such steady honesty, getting up +heavily to meet its quick wiles, it is true, but often with such success +that we found ourselves perched at a height above the gloom of the +hollow seas, getting more light and seeing more world; though sometimes +the hill-top was missed; she was not quick enough, and broke the +inflowing ridge with her face. She behaved so like a brave patient thing +that now her portrait, which I treasure, is to me that of one who has +befriended me, a staunch and homely body who never tired in faithful +well-doing. She became our little sanctuary, especially near dayfall, +with those sombre mounts close round us bringing twilight before its +time. + +Your glance caught a wave passing amidships as a heaped mass of polished +obsidian, having minor hollows and ridges on its slopes, conchoidal +fractures in its glass. It rose directly and acutely from your feet to a +summit that was awesome because the eye travelled to it over a long and +broken up-slope; this hill had intervened suddenly to obscure thirty +degrees of light; and the imagination shrank from contemplating water +which over-shadowed your foothold with such high dark bulk toppling in +collapse. The steamer leaning that side, your face was quite close to +the beginning of the bare mobile down, where it swirled past in a +vitreous flux, tortured lines of green foam buried far but plain in its +translucent deeps. It passed; and the light released from the sky +streamed over the "Capella" again as your side of her lifted in the +roll, the sea falling down her iron wall as far as the bilge. The +steamer spouted violently from her choked valve, as it cleared the sea, +like a swimmer who battles, and then gets his mouth free from a smother. + +Her task against those head seas and the squalls was so hard and +continuous that the murmur of her heart, which I fancied grew louder +almost to a moaning when her body sank to the rails, the panic of her +cries when the screw raced, when she lost her hold, her noble and +rhythmic labourings, the sense of her concentrated and unremitting power +given by the smoke driving in violence from her swaying funnel, the +cordage quivering in tense curves, the seas that burst in her face as +clouds, falling roaring inboard then to founder half her length, she +presently to raise her heavy body slowly out of an acre of foam, the +cascades streaming from her in veils,--all this was like great music. I +learned why a ship has a name. It is for the same reason that you and I +have names. She has happenings according to her own weird. She shows +perversities and virtues her parents never dreamed into the plans they +laid for her. Her heredity cannot be explained by the general chemics of +iron and steel and the principles of the steam engine; but something +counts in her of the moods of her creators, both of the happy men and +the sullen men whose bright or dark energies poured into her rivets and +plates as they hammered, and now suffuse her body. Something of the +"Capella" was revealed to me, "our" ship. She was one for pride and +trust. She was slow, but that slowness was of her dignity and size; she +had valour in her. She was not a light yacht. She was strong and hard, +taking heavy punishment, and then lifting her broad face over the seas +to look for the next enemy. But was she slow? She seemed but slow. The +eye judged by those assailing hills, so vast and whelmingly quick. The +hills were so dark, swift, and great, moving barely inferior to the +clouds which travelled with them, the collapsing roof which fell over +the seas, flying with the same impulse as the waters. There was the +uplifted ocean, and pressing down to it, sundered from it only by the +gale--the gale forced them apart--the foundered heavens, a low ceiling +which would have been night itself but that it was thinned in patches by +some solvent day. And our "Capella," heavy as was her body, and great +and swift as were the hills, never failed to carry us up the long +slopes, and over the white summits which moved down on us like the +marked approach of catastrophe. If one of the greater hills but hit us, +I thought---- + +One did. Late that afternoon the second mate, who was on watch, saw such +a wave bearing down on us. It was so dominantly above us that +instinctively he put his hand in his pocket for his whistle. It was his +first voyage in an ocean steamer; he was not long out of his +apprenticeship in "sails," and so he did not telegraph to stop the +engines. The Skipper looked up through the chart-room window, saw the +high gloom of this wave over us, and jumped out for the bridge ladder to +get at the telegraph himself. He was too late. + +We went under. The wave stopped us with the shock of a grounding, came +solid over our fore-length, and broke on our structure amidships. The +concussion itself scattered things about my cabin. When the "Capella" +showed herself again the ventilators had gone, the windlass was damaged, +and the iron ends of the drum on the forecastle head, on which a steel +hawser was wound, had been doubled on themselves, like tinfoil. + +By day these movements of water on a grand scale, the harsh and deep +noises of gale and breaking seas, and the labouring of the steamer, no +more than awed me. At least, my sight could escape. But courage went +with the light. At dusk, the eye, which had the liberty during the hours +of light to range up the inclines of the sea to distant summits, and +note that these dangers always passed, was imprisoned by a dreadful +apparition. When there was more night than day in the dusk you saw no +waves. You saw, and close at hand, only vertical shadows, and they +swayed noiselessly without progressing on the fading sky high over you. +I could but think the ocean level had risen greatly, and was see-sawing +much superior to us all round. The "Capella" remained then in a +precarious nadir of the waters. Looking aft from the Chief's cabin I +could see of our ship only the top of our mainmast, because that +projected out of the shadow of the hollow into the last of the day +overhead; and often the sheer apparitions oscillating around us swung +above the truck of it, and the whole length vanished. The sense of +onward movement ceased because nothing could be seen passing us. At dusk +the steamer appeared to be rocking helplessly in a narrow sunken place +which never had an outlet for us; the shadows of the seas erect over us +did not move away, but their ridges pitched at changing angles. + +You know the Sussex chalk hills at evening, just at that time when, from +the foot of them, they lose all detail but what is on the skyline, +become an abrupt plane before you of unequal height. That was the view +from the "Capella," except that the skyline moved. And when we passed a +barque that evening it looked as looks a solitary bush far on the summit +of the downs. The barque did not pass us; we saw it fade, and the height +it surmounted fade, as shadows do when all light has gone. But where we +saw it last a green star was adrift and was ranging up and down in the +night. + +This was the dark time when, struggling from amidships to the poop, you +knew there was something organised and coherent under you, still a +standing place in chaos, only because you could feel it there. And this +was the time to seek your fellows in the saloon, where there was light, +warmth, sane and familiar things, and dinner. The "Capella's" saloon was +fairly large, and the Skipper's pride. It was panelled in maple and oak, +with a long settee at the foreward end upholstered in red velvet, the +velvet protected by a calico cover. A brass oil lamp with an opaline +shade hung over the table from a beam beneath the skylight. There was a +closed American stove, with a rigorously polished brass flue running up +through the deck. On two oak sideboards in corners of the saloon some +artificial plants blossomed; from single stems each plant blossomed into +flowers of aniline dyes and of different species. One of these plants, +an imitation palm, and a better imitation of life than the others, was +carefully watered throughout the voyage by the steward till it wilted +into corruption and an offence, and became a count against the steward +which the skipper never forgave, for he thought his floral ornaments +lovely. When a pretty Brazilian lady visitor at Itacoatiara admired the +magenta rays of one blossom, he culled it for her (five earnest minutes +with a sharp knife, for there was wire behind the green bark) more as a +sacrifice and a hard duty than a joy, and often spoke of it afterwards, +shaking his head regretfully. + +Ah! that saloon. I remember it first, shiny, cold, and repellent, with a +handful of fire to its wide capacity for draughts, in the northern seas. +It had curious marine odours then, with which I was not friendly till +long after, odours that lamps, burnished brass, newly polished wood, +food, and the steward's storeroom behind it, never fully accounted for; +and I remember it as I found it in the still heat of the Amazon, when it +had the air of an oven; when, writing in it, the sweat ran off the +fingers to soil the paper, strange insects crawling everywhere on its +green baize table cover, and banging against its lamp. I remember it +assiduously now, every trivial feature of it, and the men, now scattered +over all the world, thrown together in it then for a spell to make the +most of each other. It has the indelible impress of a room of that house +where first the interest in existence awakened in us. + +The Skipper, with stove behind him, took his seat before the soup tureen +at the head of the table. You would as soon think of altering the +chart-room clock, even were it wrong, as of touching the soup tureen +without the Skipper's orders. It is his duty and his right to serve the +soup, and to call the steward to inform him the density of the +vegetables in it is too heavy. We have no market garden on board, you +know. + +The Doctor was on the Skipper's right hand, and the Purser next to the +Doctor, and on the opposite side, the chief mate. There was the plump +and bald-headed German steward, in white apron, the lid of one eye +heavier than the other, serving us in his shirt sleeves, sometimes +sucking his teeth with a noticeable click when he knew a dish deserved +our approval. You kept the soup in the plate by holding it off the table +and watching its tides. When her stern sailed up, and the screw raced, +the glass shade of the lamp, being a misfit, took our eyes to watch the +coming smash; the soup then poured over you, and trying to push your +chair back from the mess, you found the chair was a fixture on the +floor. This last fact was never remembered. I should try to push my +"Capella" chair back now, if I were sitting in it. + +The Doctor, who had been long enough tinkering careless bodies to have +grown a little worn and grizzled, was often removed from us by a faint +but impervious hauteur, though maybe he was only a little better and +differently dressed. He was a patient listener, but his eyes could be +droll. The Doctor's chuckle, escaping from his thoughts while he was +unguarded, would sometimes make the captain look up from a narrative +with question and a trace of resentment in his glance. The captain was a +great traveller, but he was puzzled to find the memory of our surgeon +following him to the most remote and unfamiliar strands. "Now how did +that fellow come to be at a place like that?" the captain would whisper +to me afterwards. "Can't make him out. Who is he?" The surgeon had a +bottomless fund of short stories, to which he would sometimes go about +the time when we were pushing away the banana skins and nutshells. He +had an elusive and stimulating method with them. He knew his work. At +the end of one the captain would explain the fun to the seriously +interested mate (who had leaned forward to learn), placing spoons and +crumbs to demonstrate the main points. Then the mate, too, would join us +with his happy laugh. The late and giddy laughter of the mate, when he +also arrived, became a welcome feature of a yarn by the surgeon. We +expected it. The mate's own stories were usually bawdy; he always +prefaced them with some unmanageable hilarity, which impeded his start. + +Mate (_pushing over his plate for soup_). That big wave washed out the +men's berths, sir. + +Captain. Then it did some good. The dirty brutes. + +Mate. Heard the men grumbling to-night. Said we'll never get the hawsers +to run out with them bugs in the hawse pipes. Say the bugs don't belong +to them, sir--ship's property. + +Doctor. Any this end of the ship, captain? Good Lord! + +Captain. Not a bug. And if there's any for'ard the men brought 'em. No +bugs in my ship. Never saw one in my cabin. + +Mate (_making a confused effort to master his emotion, not to spill his +soup, and to be respectful_). Te-he! you will, sir, Te-he! (_Realises he +may not laugh, but suffers internally._) + +Captain (_indicates an interrogation with frightful eyes and guttural +noises_). + +Mate (_controls himself by concentrating on a fork_). Well, sir--I'm +just telling you--I heard it said the men annoyed with bugs--some of 'em +said seein's believin'--said they had enough for everybody. (_His voice +breaks into a stifled falsetto_) So they emptied a match--match--they +emptied a match box full down your ventilator this morning. + + * * * * * + +The captain would frequently keep his seat in the saloon after dinner +till he had finished his cigar, and in the vein, would put a leg over +the arm of his chair, which he had pushed back (his chair was cushioned, +and was not a fixture), and frowning at his cigar, as if for defects, +would voyage again his early seas. I suppose a sailor would call our +skipper a hard case. He was an elderly man, tall, spare, and meagrely +bearded. His eyes were set close into a knife-like nose, and they were +opaque and bright, like two blue stones under a forehead which narrowed +and tightened into a small shiny cranium. There were tufts of grey wool +above his temples. No light came through his eyes to make them limpid, +except when he was fondling Tinker, the dog. They shone from the +surface, giving him a look of peering and intent suspicion. The skin of +his face, neck and hands, now worked a little loose, was so steeped in +the tincture of sunshine that it had preserved an unctious child-like +quality. His dress and habits betrayed an appreciation of his own +person. He kept his own medicines. + +I guessed he would have a ruthless process in an emergency; he would +identify the success and safety of the ship with his own. He laughed +from his mouth only, throwing his head back, showing surprisingly +perfect teeth, and laughter did not change the crystalline glitter of +his eyes. There was something alien and startling in his merriment. As +though his own mind were too cold for him at times he would seek out me, +or the chief, to find warmth in an argument. He would irritate us into a +disputation; and though he was a choleric man, quick at opposition, yet +his vocabulary then was flinty and sparse. It stuck, and was delivered +with pain. You could think of him labouring at his views of men and +affairs with a creaking slate pencil. He set one's teeth. But he was a +sailor, cautious and bold, with a knowledge of ships and the sea that +was a mine to me. Let me say that, during the voyage, I found him busy +making a canvas cot. He sat on the poop and worked there, bent and +patient as a seamstress, for days. With a judgment made too readily I +believed he was, naturally, making it for his own comfort, against the +heat of the river. When it was finished he was rolling up his ball of +yarn, surveying his job, and he said, mumbling and shy, that the cot was +for me. + +The Skipper, on this day that our decks were swept, swore about the men +and the bugs during dinner, muttered with foreboding about the glass, +which was still falling, and the coals, which were being burnt to no +purpose. We were hardly doing more than holding our place on our course. +The saloon was delirious, and when she flung up her heels, the varied +noises rose with the racing propeller to a crescendo of furious +castenets. The mate let us. The Skipper sat glooming, eyeing his cigar +resentfully, his leg over the arm of his chair. The Doctor was swaying +with the ship, weary and forlorn. Tinker had an appeal in his eyes, and +made timorous noises. The Purser wondered why he was there at all, and +blamed his silly dreams. The night boomed without. What a night! + +Skipper. If this southerly wind goes round to the west and north, look +out. I saw porpoises to-day too. + +Doctor. When are we due at Para? + +Skipper. Huh! What's this talk of Para? You wait. All this talk about +when we shall get there's no good.... Now in those Newfoundland +schooners where I served my time--I wouldn't have no talk in them about +getting anywhere. Seems as if somebody heard. You always run into it. +There was the "Lizzie Polwith." She was about 80 tons. Those west +country schooners in the fish trade are never more than 100 tons, else +they'd have to carry more than a master and one mate. I was her master, +and a kid of eighteen. We left Falmouth for Cadiz. Now look what +happened. My mate was old Tregenna. He was a regular misery. I never +knew such a dead homer, not so much as he was, always wanting to talk +about his wife. I say, when you've cast off, it's best not to have a +home. The ship wants all you can give her. Tregenna, he looked back a +lot. You know what I mean. Couldn't keep his mind on his job, but wished +he was through with it. There he'd be cutting bread at dinner, and it +'ud remind him, and he'd be wishing he was cutting it at home. When +things began to go stiff, he'd say, "who wouldn't sell his little farm +to go to sea?" Used to figure out on paper how long we'd be before we'd +be back. Why, you never know when you'll get back. + +See what happened. We left Cadiz that year on the first of January, and +got things just right. The winds chased us over. There were big +following seas, but you know those schooners ride like ducks. Up and +over they go. Never a drop did we ship. Though they're lively enough to +bruise and sicken all but good sailors. And old Tregenna was rubbing his +hands and making out his figures better and better. + +We arrived off St. Johns in a bit more than three weeks. I reckon I'd +done it all right, being such a young chap too. Well, I was turning in +that night, and just as I got into the companion a man said, "There goes +a lump of ice." I jumped out again. Why, there was ice all round us. The +sea was full of it as far as I could see into the night. "This is all +along of your figuring," I sang out to Tregenna. "But you'll have a lot +of time to reckon it up afresh," I said. + +So he had. Do you know when we got in? We got in on April 15. We were +two months and a half getting in. And we came over in three weeks. +There's something in that Jonah story. Always some fool who can't keep +his mouth shut and his mind on his job. + +We did have a time. Two and a half months, and our provisions ran out. +We were living on a little meal and dried peas. The ice chafed the +"Lizzie" till the rudder was worn down to the stock. It roughed up her +wooden sides till they looked as if they were covered with long coarse +hair. We were a sight when we got in. You wouldn't have known us, +hardly. We looked as if we'd come up from the bottom.... Don't ask me +when we shall get to Para. Wait till we're out of this. Listen to that +dog. Shut up, you Tinker. Making that noise, sir! Go and lie down. + +The Skipper clapped on his cap aggressively and went out. The Doctor had +a long and eloquent silence. Then he turned to me. "This beats all," he +said. "Come and have a drop of gin, old dear." He led the way to his +berth, which smelt of varnish and of lamp, and we swayed in chorus as +the ship rolled, and had a heartening mourn together. But for its +accidental compensations travel would not be worth the trouble. In proof +of that there is the entry in my diary some days after: + +"December 22. Awoke at four a.m. with the ship rolling as brutally as +ever. A great noise of waters and things banging. The seas huge at +sunrise, when the light came over their tops. Depressing sight. The sky +was blue at first, but was soon overcast with squalls. The horizon ahead +gets slate coloured, and low clouds underneath, like ragged bales of +dirty wool, come towards us heavy and fast. Then the squall and waves +rush down on us express, and the ship buries herself. Constantly hearing +engine-room bell sounded from bridge to slacken speed as a big sea +appears. The captain popped in his head as I was deciding whether to get +up or stay where I was. He gazed sternly at me and said he was looking +for Jonah. I half believe he means it too. Everybody is weary of this. +The men have been in oilskins since the start. + +"Noon to-day, Lat. 42.6 N. Long. 11.10 W. Miles by engines since noon +yesterday 222. Knots by revolutions 9.2. But the slip is 49.2 per cent. +So actual distance 112 miles only, and knots 4.6. Bad going. Wind +southly. Engines racing and engineer still at throttle. + +"Night, and a full moon tearing past cloud openings. The ship +occasionally shows like a pale ghost, the black shadows of the funnel +guys and stanchions oscillating on the white paint-work as she rolls. I +went into Chief's cabin, and from its open door--for it was sensibly +milder--looked out astern over the way we had come. Up and down, this +side and that, went the steamer, and the Great Bear, in a wind clear +patch of sky, was dancing on our wake. Polaris was making eccentric +orbits round the main masthead light. Then the Skipper came in. He sat +gazing astern. The look of his face was enough. It was quite plain he +would like to be offended to-night, and attack anybody about anything. +Presently he started intently as he looked astern, and jumped from his +seat crying the ultimate anathema on the chap at the wheel; and ran out. +The Chief glanced astern and laughed. 'The old man comes in here because +it's uncommon handy for watching the wake. Look at it. Somebody on the +bridge writing letters on the ocean. Thinking of his sweetheart, and her +name is Sue.' We gave the Skipper's voice time to reach the wheelhouse, +and then saw the wake visibly tauten out. + +"I went aft, balancing like a man learning the tight rope, along the +trestle bridge. The moon was still falling precipitously through the +broken sky, and areas of the great seas, where the sweeping searchlight +of the moon showed monsters shaping and slowly vanishing, were +frightful. There were sudden expansions of vivid green lightnings in the +north and east. I found the Doctor in the chief mate's cabin. I sang +some songs in a riving minor, accompanied by the mate on an accordion, +for the doctor's amusement, and discovered why sailors always use the +accordion, previously a mystery to me. It has a sad and reflective note, +suited to men with memories when alone on the ocean. It ought to fit +Celtic bards better than the harp. It has a fine expiring moan. The mate +gave an imitation of a dying man with it. + +"To bed at 11. Tried to read Henry James. My cockroach came out to wave +his derisive hands at me. No wonder. The light was very bad, and I was +pitched from side to side of the bunk. Nearly thrown out once. I might +just as well have attempted to read the Bhagavad-Gita in the original. +So I read the last letters from home instead and then fell asleep as a +little child." + + * * * * * + +There was something of leisure in her movements next morning. I felt +sure the glass must be rising at last. The air felt lighter and more +expansive. A peep through the port showed me the ceiling had gone up +considerably in the night. There was little wind, for the waves, though +as great as ever, had lost their white ridges. Their summits were +rounded and smooth. We were running south out of it, though the residue +of the dreary northern seas was still washing about the decks. It was +December yesterday, but April to-day. The engineers' messroom boy, with +bare fat arms, went by the cabin, singing. + +At breakfast we heard that Chips, who had retired to his bunk for some +days past to mend a leg damaged when the hatches were in danger, had met +with a still more serious misfortune. We fell into a mood of silent and +respectful compassion. There was nothing to be said. Chips had lost his +Victoria Cross. He was an old hero in trouble. The few of us who were +British there--true, most of us were Germans, Dutchmen, Scandinavians, +and Portuguese--felt we represented The Country. Chips limped about the +forecastle with reproach in his face, and we felt we were petty in +noticing his face was also dirty, though it certainly was difficult to +avoid seeing that too, perhaps because, and this can be said for us, the +dirt was of longer standing than the reproach. Then again it is common +knowledge that Chips sleeps in straw, having no mattress. + +Chips' story we knew. It had been whispered about the ship. He was at +the Siege of Alexandria, and a shell fell near a group of men on his +ship. Chips picked it up and dropped it overboard before the fuse was +finished. The Doctor and I felt especially responsible, for a reason I +cannot easily explain, it is so vague, and we told Chips we would help +him in his search for his lost treasure. This took us to Chips' +sea-chest, and amid a group of mask-like faces--for how could foreigners +guess what this mattered to us?--we hunted carefully for Chips his +aureole. We found--but I suppose even Victoria Cross heroes must dirty +their socks. There were other things also. Yet it was out of one of +these very other things, which were, I think, shirts, that there +dropped, when the Doctor picked up the garment, a little package wrapped +in newspaper. Chips, from his berth, gave a cry of joy. The Doctor and +I, smiling too, looked upon the old man feeling that we had acted for +you all. Chips, secretive with his sacrosanct emblem, was putting the +little packet under his coverlet, when a low foreign sailor snatched it +from him. The Cross fell to the deck. I recovered it from the feet +instantly in a white passion, and chanced to look at it. It confirmed +that one, who is named Chips here, was something in the Royal and +Ancient Order of Buffaloes. + +Coming back from the fo'castle, suddenly I felt as the man of the +suburbs does when, bowed with months of black winter and work in a city +alley, he is, without any warning, transfigured on his own doorstep one +morning. There as before is his familiar shrub, dripping with rain. Yet +is it as before? It points a black finger at him. But the finger has a +polished green nail. + +He is translated. His ears are opened, and there comes for the first +time that year the silver whistle of the starlings. A touch of South is +in the air. His burden falls. + +The cloudy sky was not grey now, but pearly, for it was translucent to +the sun. More than day had come; life was born. There was ichor in the +day. They were not dark northern waves that baffled us, but we were +shoved and rocked by the send of a long nacreous ocean swell, firm but +kind, from the south-west. The iron ship which had been repulsive to the +touch, for its face had been glassy and cold, was now drying a warm rust +red, like earth of Devon in spring, and was responsive. You could rest +against its iron body and feel yourself grow. I saw the Chief outside +his cabin in his shirt sleeves, gazing overseas between the stanchions +of the boat deck, smoking in the evident luxury of full comfort and +release. Involuntarily, he danced the two-step as she rolled. "Got +anything to read?" he asked. + +Now that reminded me. We have no library, of course, but we have a +circulation of books on board. There are no common shelves; but the book +you left thoughtlessly on the skylight five minutes ago, while you went +to find some matches, is gone when you return. And you, if you see a +book lying open and unprotected in a cabin, glance round warily, dash +in, and take it; very often only to discover to your bitter +disappointment that it is one of your own, and not an adventurous and +unread stranger. The Chief's question reminded me that the day we left +Swansea a lady (and a friend of poor Jack, the public is well aware) +sent us a bale of literature. We blessed her when we saw its bulk, +looking at it as oxen might look at a truss of hay, for that was its +size and shape. Though it proved to be shavings and a cruel blow to the +animals, as you shall hear. + +Here was the very day to get at that bale, and impatiently I rolled it +into the open. It was trussed with great care, so I tore away a corner +of the wrappings, dived in a hand, and hauled out a copy of "Joy Bells +for Young Christians," the November number of 1899. + +Well. Anyhow, it was a clean copy, and I put it by as the portion of our +bald-headed German steward. + +This disappointment made me pause, though. Here was going to be a long +job for the Purser, sorting out this. Supposing there was anything +nutritious in the bale I did not mind the labour of the unpacking and +the distribution; but if the bulk of the consignment was hailed, so to +speak, by "Joy Bells," then it would be better to call a deck hand and +get the package overside before the ship was littered with too much of +this joy. A Brazilian stoker, as he passed, saw me standing in thought, +and I suppose imagined--for he could not ask--that I wanted to cut the +string, but had no knife. Before I could stop him, he, smiling a knowing +and friendly smile, whipped out a blade from his rear; and at once we +stood ankle-deep in literature. There was a landslide near me of Infant +Methodists (dates unknown) and I gave the Brazilian an armful for his +kindness. + +Our dear unknown friend at Swansea, with her eye on our sailor-like but +yet immortal souls, had heard, no doubt, at the annual meeting of the +Society for the Succor of Seamen, at Caxton Hall, Westminster (held on +the 29th of every February), what simple and barbarous and yet, in the +main, considering our origins and circumstances, what worthy fellows we +were. But she was not told at the meeting that the wealthy shipowners, +subscribers to the society, and whose presence there made Caxton Hall +seem nautical, have a way of signing on crews at continental ports +because wages rule lower there; and that consequently not one of our men +was moved by Christian English, but only by mates English, and then not +so very quickly. The officers and engineers were English, and there the +sailors' friend was right in her surmise; but I do not see how she could +have done more to put in awful jeopardy the soul of our wise and +spectacled chief engineer, for instance, than by approaching him with a +winning and philanthropic smile, under the impulse to do him good with a +statement of her religion in words of one syllable. He would have met +her politely, I know; but after she had gone---- + +Let her try to imagine her own feelings if our Chief, uninvited and +blankly unmindful, invaded the exclusive inner circle of Swansea +society, and approached her in the midst of her own with the childish +notion of instructing her in the first principles of his pronounced +Pyrrhonism; or say he went to her as a colporteur of the Society for +Instructing the Intelligence and Manners of Leisured Folk. But I must +say for our chief that this cannot be even supposed. He would never +offer the lowliest being such an indignity. + +We pulled and dragged at the escaped mass of periodicals, looking for +something good, but found no pearls had been cast before us. There were +parish magazines and temperance monthlies, there were religious almanacs +for the years we have lost; by some sporting chance there were even a +few back numbers of the "Monumental Mason." It is plain the latter could +be considered an added grievance, even though they were put in as a +kindly reminder of our narrow lease here. It was an aggravation of the +original offence to sailors who, when their short term here closes, have +to make shift with some firebars at their heels. What is Aberdeen +granite and indelible gold lettering to such men but a hint of the +hardships which follow them even beyond the end? + +So overboard went the lot--I may as well tell the whole truth, overboard +also went the evangelical hymn books, new though they were. I will only +suppress the advice cried to the gulls astern as the literature went +floating and flying in their direction. We had to rely for our reading +on what had been brought aboard by our crowd, a collection which +gradually revealed itself in single books and magazines. + +There was, for example, the "Morphology of the Cryptogamia," an +exhaustive work which gave me much pleasure in wondering how it got +aboard at all. The chief mate used it as a wedge between his open door +and the bulkhead, to prevent the miserable knocking as the ship lolled +about. He would not lend me that book, because it jammed into the +opening nicely; but I borrowed from him "Three Fingered Jack, the Terror +of the Antilles," and I made him a complete gift in return of "Robert +Elsmere" which I found marooned on a bunker hatch as I came along. There +you see the delightful chance and hazardous character of our literature. + +I prided myself on the select reading I had brought aboard with me. But +what devilish black art the sea air worked on those choice volumes, +however, I cannot explain. I have no means of knowing. But there they +are, their covers bitten by cockroaches, and the words inside bleached +and sterilised of all meaning. There they will stop; Henry James, too. +For what is the use of him when big seas are running? He would be a +magician indeed who could capture our minds then. You get the right +amplitude of leisure and the flat undistracting circumstances he +demands, the emptiness and the immobility necessary, when you are +waiting for cargo long in coming at a low seaboard. I suppose we want +the representation of life only when we are not very much alive. In +heavy weather there is no doubt old newspapers make the best reading, +especially if they have good bold advertisements. For I know it requires +the same courage and concentration needed ashore for reading Another +Great Speech by the Premier; indeed, the steel blue quality of deadly +resolution used only by men of letters who write biographies and spin +literary causeries, to manage even novels when great billows are moving. +The mind is inclined to absent itself then. Then it is you put all +reading aside with a promise of a long and leisurely festival of books +when the ship is steaming uniformly down the unvarying "trades." + +But when you get near the neighbourhood of the constant sun, during the +day you fall asleep over "Three Fingered Jack" and the old magazines +which you had on your knees while musing on the colours of the sea and +the mounting architecture of the clouds; and beyond sundown listen to +the mate's accordion or the engineer's flute. Perhaps, moved by the +hu-s-s-h of the waves, the silky and purple dark, and the loneliness of +your little company under the mid-ocean stars, tentatively (though your +shipmates are very forgiving) lift a ballad yourself; for something is +expected of you, and singing seems right. + +Of all the books aboard the "Capella" I got most out of the Skipper's +sailing directories and his charts. Talk of romance! There was that +chart-room under the bridge, across its open doors on either side +creaming waves going by in the moonlight, and the steamer inclining each +side alternately, and the shadows of the rigging sliding back and forth +on the pale deck. You cannot know what romance is till you are in seas +you have never sailed before, where the marks will be few when landfall +comes; that ocean where the Skipper is to find his own way by his lore +of the sea, and may even ask your opinion about alternatives; and there +read sailing directories. The romance of these books cannot be +translated or quoted. It would leave them, as though a glimmer went out, +if you attempted to take them from that chart-room where pendant things +are swaying leisurely, where you can hear the bells tell the watches, +and the skipper's gold-laced cap is on the mahogany table. The South +Atlantic Sailing Directions, our own guide, is fine, especially when it +gets down to the uninhabited islands in far southern latitudes. I do not +think this noble volume is included in the best hundred books, but I +know it can release the mind from the body. + +But what's this talk of landfalls? as the old man would say. There will +be no landfall yet for us; and this is Christmas Eve. I knew it was an +auspicious occasion of some kind, for the steward just went aft with two +big plum cakes cuddled in his apron. That made me look at the calendar. +We are now 800 miles out, and the steamer has reached six knots. This +was the best night we had yet found. The steamer was on an even keel, +with but occasional spasms of sharp rolling, for there was no sea, but +only old ocean breathing deeply and regularly in its sleep, and +sometimes making a slight movement. The light of the full moon was the +shining ghost of noon. The steamer was distinct but immaterial, +saliently accentuated, as a phantom. A deep shadow would have detached +the forecastle head but for a length of luminous bulwark which still +held it, and some quiet voices of men who were within the shadow, +yarning. The line of bulwark and the murmuring voices held us together. +The prow as it dipped sank into drifts of lambent snow. The snow fled by +the steamer's sides, melting and musical. Two engineers off duty leaned +on the rails amidships, smoking, looking into the vacancy in which the +moonlight laid a floor of troubled silver. As if drawn by its light a +few little clouds were poised near the moon, grouped round the bright +heart of the night. There was the moon and its small company of clouds, +and ourselves below in our own defined allotment of sea. The only thing +outside and far was Sirius, burning independently in the east, looking +unwinking through the wall of night into our world. + +On such a night and with Christmas morning but sixty minutes away it +would have been wasting life to go to bed. I glanced expectantly at the +door of the Chief's cabin, and saw indeed it was open, a yellow +rectangle within which was the profile of the Chief beneath his lamp, +talking to somebody. The Doctor was there, and he made room for me on +the settee. Then the captain joined us, and I perched myself on the +washstand. + +"Well, we can undress to-night when we turn in," said the Chief. (None +of us had, so far.) In a long silence which filled the cabin with +tobacco smoke I could hear the engines below uplifted in confident song. + +"Now they're walking round," said the Skipper, nodding his head. "Now +she feels it." + + * * * * * + +When we met thus, between the hours of nine and midnight, as was our +irregular habit, the talk first was always desultory, and about our own +ship and our own circumstances, for the concerns of our little world +strangely occupied our minds, as you would think, and the large affairs +of that great world we had left, of which we heard now no sound nor +rumour, had lessened in the mind, faded and vanished, all the huge +consequence and loud clangour of it, so that now there was an empty +horizon astern, and nothing between us and that void but a few gulls, +like small and pursuing recollections. Our little microcosm, afloat and +sundered in the wastes, was occupied in its own polity. We talked of the +carpenter's bad leg; complained of the cook's bread; heard that Tinker +the dog, being young, had the habit at night, while honest folk slept, +of eating the saloon mats; grumbled that the ship's tobacco was mouldy. +The deck was getting dry, the Skipper said, and now we could get the men +chipping it, and then it could be tarred. + +"That donkeyman," said the Skipper, "that man wastes the fresh water. +I'll have a lock put on the pump handle. He works it as if we were laid +out to the main. I spoke to him about it this morning." The fresh water +is a vital affair with us. We may not drink the water of the country to +which we are bound, so eighty tons of Welsh mountain spring is in our +cleansed and whitewashed tanks. Woe to the man caught overflowing his +can, if an officer sees him. "The handle can't be locked," said the +Chief, "because it's next to the galley. The cook wants it all day +long." + +"Well, let me catch anyone wasting it. We'd look all right with a lot of +dysentery, drinking that river water out there." + +This common meeting-place of ours, the Chief's cabin, is on a highway of +the ship, being on the direct route from the poop to the bridge, and so +it is a hostel, for the Chief is a kindly and popular man, big and +robust in body and mind; though he has a knack, at odd and unexpected +times, of being candid in a way that shocks, treading on corns without +ruth, the Skipper's particularly, when their two departments are at a +difference. + +This cabin was one which I always visited first, for, especially in the +morning when other folk had not rubbed the night out of their eyes, and +so looked darkly upon their fellows, my friend the Chief had the early +eye of a child and the soaring spirit of the lark. I never met him when +he had got out of bed on the wrong side. His cabin became a refuge to +me, for, unlike the Doctor's and my own place (we both were birds of +passage, therefore our cabins were cold and stark), the Chief's was +comfortable with settled furniture, cosy and habitable, like a fixed +home. There was a wicker chair, with cushions, and a writing-desk where +the engineer's log lay handy and bearing some plug tobacco, freshly cut, +on its cover, and a pipe rack above the desk carrying a most foul +assortment waiting their turns again for favour. Portraits of the +Chief's family were on the walls, smiling boys and girls, with their +mother in a chief place, looking upon daddy by proxy. There was a +bookshelf bearing some engineering manuals, a few novels and magazines, +a tape measure, some gauge glasses, some tin whistles, a flute, and a +palm leaf fan. Above the washstand was a rack with glasses and a carafe. +A settee ran along one side, and his bunk upon the other side. There we +sat on Christmas Eve, while the wicker chair bent and complained with +the Skipper's weight as he swayed to the leisurely rocking of the ship. +The tobacco smoke floated in coils and blue smears in the room. A bottle +of Hollands rested for security on the bed, and we held our glasses on +our knees. + +The pallid and puffy face of the steward, a very honest man secretly +free with his small store of apples on my account because I am green and +my palate not yet used to the flatness of tinned provisions, looked in +on us from the right. "Vhere is der dog, sir? I haf not seen der dog." +"Must be about," we cried. "We had seen him," we said, "nosing about the +poop for rats, or asleep on the saloon mat, or padding round the casing +looking for friends." "But no, I haf looked. He is not found. Vhere is +der dog?" A hole in our little community, it was apparent from our +intent looks, could not be thought of with equanimity. Tinker's +importance became quite large. The second engineer passed the door, +caught the drift of our anxious converse, and turned to say the dog was +then asleep in his room. "Ach! zat is all right." We struck matches for +our pipes again. + +"That dog, I shouldn't like to lose him," said the Skipper, stroking his +beard. "There's no luck in that. I shot a dog once on a ship; and first +we ran into a blow and lost a lot of gear, and then the mate got his +hand smashed, and then everything got cross-grained till I'd have paid, +ah, fifty pounds to have had the brute back again, and an ugly customer +he was. Ah, you can smile, Doctor, but there it is. I'm not +superstitious and never was. But you can't tell me. Look at the things +that happen. When I was a youngster, my ship was off Rio, and I dreamt +my father was dead. I took my bearings and the time. I dreamt my father +died in a red brick house with a laylock tree by the door and that tree +was in blossom plain enough to smell. I didn't know the house. There was +a path of clean red bricks leading up to the porch, through a garden. I +didn't see my father. But you know what dreams are like--no sense in +them--there the house was and not a soul in sight. I knew he was dying +inside it." + +"How do you account for that? Have you got it down in your books? I lay +you haven't. I forgot all about that dream. Long after I was at Cape +Town and met my brother. That reminded me. After a bit I said to him, +'Father's dead.' 'Yes,' he said, 'but how did you know?' Said I, 'Was +the house like this?' and I told him. 'Yes,' he said, 'it was like that. +A place he was staying at in Essex. But how did you know?' I didn't tell +him. What's the good? He wouldn't have believed it. People don't." + +All through the anxious time when we were being soused and buffeted I +noticed how our company, every man of them, even the Pyrrhonist, saw +omens in all the chance variety of the vast menace under the frown of +which we huddled in our iron box; porpoises alongside; one of Mother +Cary's dark brood accompanying us, glancing about the vagaries of the +flowing hills with swift precision; the form of a cloud; a loom far out, +as though day were there at least. The fall of a portrait in the Chief's +room once set him wondering and melancholy. Again, when the dog whined +and moped, the Skipper eyed the animal narrowly, as though the creature +had prescience but could tell us what it knew only by drooping and +quivering its hind quarters. You might have thought that Fate, dumb and +cruel, but a little relenting for something inevitably to come to our +mishap, were trying to stretch a point, and so induced the Skipper to +put his shirt on inside out one morning, after dreaming he saw drowned +rats, in case the horse were not too blind to see both the nod and the +wink. + +The Sphinx makes subtle dumb motions, as it were, when closely regarded. +I do not wonder if it does. Sometimes in those dark days I thought I got +a hint or two. I cannot tell you what they were. The weather grew +brighter afterwards and I forgot them. From our narrow and weltering +security, where the wind searched through us like the judgment eye, I +know, looking out upon the wilderness in turmoil where was no help, and +no witness of our undoing, where the gleams were fleeting as though the +very day were riven and tumbling, that I saw the filmy shapes of those +things which darken the minds of primitives. While the sky is changeful, +and there are storms at sea when our fellows are absent, and mischance +and death are veiled but here, we shall have gods and ghosts. The +sharp-sighted collectors of old brain-lumber and such curios may still +keep busy, and tie up their dry bundles of mythology and religions; but +I myself could make plenty more. + +So it was my shipmates' yarns were most of the dire kind, with some dim +warning precedent. I do not recall a story that was gay, except those of +the wanton sort. They were of close calls and of women, as, I suppose, +have been those of all hard livers, from the cave men on. + +Eight bells were rung on the bridge, and, like a faint echo in a higher +pitch, answered from the fo'castle. Christmas morning! By my pocket +compass we toasted the folk at home. We had heard a good many stories of +wreck this night, and the Chief was now at his contribution to the +unseasonable memories. ("I've had enough of it. Here goes," said the +Doctor; and he went.) "Don't leave us. It lets in the draught. Well, the +compliments to you. This typhoon--I had had four others--but this one +made me think it was good-bye. She was a small steamer, that 'Samuel +Plimsoll,' and old, but well-behaved. But her light nearly went out in +that blow. It was that dark you could find nothing but the noise, and we +were just the same as a chunk of wood under a waterfall, because the +Lord knows how many feet of water were in the engine-room, for she was +rolling so. Her fires were out. She had a list of 22 degrees to port. +She simply lay in it, and it went over her. Every time she rolled over +on the deep side, thinks I, this is the last of her. All this, mind you, +went on for two days, and the skipper was in the chart-room, waiting. +I've found that when the danger is not much you get excited, but when +there seems no chance you get cool and cunning and try to make one. One +time I thought she seemed easier, and I was able to get the donkey +engine going. I felt better as soon as I heard the steam, even though it +was only in the donkey. Thinks I, there's power, and it's mine--a canful +of steam to a typhoon. It was a chance to laugh at. Then I took the +other engineers with me and we went below. The water there, full of +cinders and trash, pouring through the gear as she turned from side to +side, made it look a pretty poor show. You see, the donkey wouldn't work +the pumps, for the coal and muck were sucked in. So I took a basket and +got into the tank, holding the basket under the pump. The water was up +to my neck, and every time she rolled I was ducked. But the dodge +worked, and that list of hers to port was a bit of luck in its way, for +it helped us to get the starboard boiler going. When I saw the throws +moving, and the wash angry when it splashed on the hot metal, I said, +'So much for your old typhoon.' We were not counted out then. We crawled +under the lee of an island, and lay for four days repairing her. The +funny thing was when we got to Hong Kong the papers were full of our +loss. '"Samuel Plimsoll" lost with all hands.' It was funny to see a +bill like that. I met the placard as it came running round a corner, and +it made me stand and shuffle my feet on the ground to see if the earth +was all right. I knew the editor of that paper, and I was then going up +to give him something good. And here he was making money out of us like +that. He stood at the door of his office and saw me coming. I went up +laughing, waving his paper in my hand. He looked quite surprised. His +mouth was wide open. 'You're a nice sort of chap,' I said." + + * * * * * + +Christmas Day. In case it has become necessary for me to show again the +symbols of verity, as this is a book of travel, here they are: "Lat. +37.2 N., long. 14.14 W. Light wind and moderate swell from S.W. Vessel +rolling heavily at intervals. 961 miles out. Miles by engines 226. +Actual distance travelled (because of the swell on our starboard bow) +197 miles." I cannot see that these particulars do more than help me out +with the book, but as they have been considered essential in narratives +of voyaging, here they are, and much good may they do anybody. Thoreau, +in one of his quaintly superior moods when speaking of travel, said, "It +is not worth while going round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar." +In nearly every book of travel this is proved to be true. They show it +was not worth the while, seeing it was either to shoot cats or to count +degrees of latitude. (As for me, I have no reason whatever for being at +sea.) Consider Arctic travel. I have read long rows of books on that, +but recall few emotional moments. The finest passage in any book of +Arctic travel is in Warburton Pikes' "Barren Grounds," where he quotes +what the Indian said to the missionary who had been speaking of heaven. +The Indian asked, "And is it like the land of the Musk-ox in summer, +when the mist is on the lakes, and the loon cries very often?" + +You feel at once that the country the Indian saw around him would be +easily missed by us, even when in the midst of it. For taking the +bearings of such a land, the sextant, and the miles already travelled, +would not be factors to help much. Now the Indian knew nothing of +artificial horizons and the aids to discovering where they are which +strangers use. But in summer the mists of his lakes were but the vapour +of his musings, the penumbra of the unfathomed deeps of his mind whereon +he paddled his own canoe; and when the wild-fowl called, it was his +memory heard; it was his thought become vocal then while he dreamed on. +I myself learned that the treasures found in travel, the chance rewards +of travel which make it worth while, cannot be accounted beforehand, and +seldom are matters a listener would care to hear about afterwards; for +they have no substance. They are no matter. They are untranslatable from +their time and place; and like the man who unwittingly lies down to +sleep on the tumulus where the little people dance on midsummer night, +and dreams that in the place where man has never been his pockets were +filled with fairy gold, waking to find pebbles there instead, so the +traveller cannot prove the dreams he had, showing us only pebbles when +he tries. Such fair things cannot be taken from the magic moment. They +are but filmy, high in the ceiling of your thoughts then, rosy and +sunlit by the chance of the light, transitory, melting as you watch. You +come down to your lead again. These occasions are not on your itinerary. +They are like the Indian's lakes in summer. They have no names. They +cannot be found on the best maps. Not you nor any other will ever +discover them again. Nor do they fill the hunger which sent you +travelling; they are not provender for notebooks. They do not come to +accord with your mood, but they come unaware to compel, and it is your +own adverse and darkling atoms that are changed, at once dancing in +accord with the rare incidence of that unreasonable and transcendent +moment of your world, the rhythm of which you feel, as you would the +beat of drums. + +And what are these things?--but how can we tell? A strip of coral beach, +as once I saw it, which was as all other coral beaches; but the ship +passed close in, and by favour of the hour and the sun this strand did +not glare, but was resplendent, and the colours of the sea, green, gold, +and purple, were not its common virtues, but the emotional and passing +attar of those hues. There was the long, slow labouring of our burdened +tramp in the Atlantic storm. Or one April, and a wild cherry-tree in +blossom by an English hedge, a white cloud tinctured with rose, and in +it moving a dozen tropical chaffinches; the petals were on the grass. + +And now, this is Christmas morning. I am in the Chief's bunk, and he +still sleeps on the settee. We fell asleep where we lay yarning on our +backs after midnight. I wake at the right moment, opening my eyes with +the serene and secure conviction that things are very well. The slow +rocking of the ship is perfect rest. There is no sound but the faint +tap-tap of something loose on the desk and responding to the ship's +movements. The cabin is strangely illuminated to its deepest corner by +an extraordinary light, as though the intense glow of a rare dawn had +penetrated even our ironwork. On the white top of the cabin a bright +moon quivers about, the shine from live waters sent up through the round +of our port. When we lean over, the port shows first the roof of the +alleyway dappled with bright reflections; then a circle of sky, which +the horizon soon halves; and then the dazzling white and blue of the +near waves; we reverse. + +This is life. This is what I have come for. I do not repose merely in a +bunk. I am prone and easy in the deepest assurance of good. This +conviction has penetrated even the unconsciousness of the Chief; he +snores in profound luxury. If in a ship you are brought sometimes too +cruelly close to the scrutiny of the terms of your narrow tenure, +expecting momentarily to see the document torn across by invisible +fingers, yet nowhere else do you feel those terms to be so suddenly +expanded in the sun. And nowhere else is got such release, secure and +absolute, from the nudging of insistent trifles. There is nothing +between your eyes and the confines of your own place. Empty day is all +round. In the entire circle there is not the farthest impertinent +interruption--through all the degrees there is not one fool standing in +the light; and you yourself are on nobody's horizon. No history stains +that place. There is not a black doubt anywhere. It is the first day +again, and no need yet for a rubbish heap. + +Yet when, singing to myself, I went outside to matins, I found Sandy our +third engineer with the toothache. So much of truth is got from being a +gymnosophist and regarding your own toes with aloof abstraction on a +sunny Christmas morning. I became Sandy's courage for him instead, took +his arm firmly, and led him aft to the doctor. We would start a rubbish +heap for a pristine world with a decayed tooth. Something to be going on +with. + +Seeing we were almost off Madeira we had some amount of right to the +July sun under which we had run. For the first time since the Mumbles +our decks were quite dry, and cherry red with rust. There were +glittering crusts of salt in odd places. At eight bells (midday) the +captain ordered a general holiday, except for the routine duties; and +the donkeyman appeared to startle us as the apparition of a stranger on +the ship, for he had a clean face, though his eyes still were dark and +spectral, and he wore a suit of new dungarees, stiff and creased from a +paper parcel, but just opened, out of a Swansea slop shop. His mates +were some seconds realising him. Then they made derisive signs, and the +boldest some ribald cries. I thought their resentment was really aroused +by Donkey's new shirt; it was that touch which pushed matters too far, +and made him unfriendly. He saw this himself. Soon he changed the new +shirt for one that had been rendered neutral in the stoke-hold and the +bucket. + +There was something neutral, like Donkey's old shirt, about most of our +crowd. Each one of the mob which gathered with mess kits a little before +midday about the galley door seemed reduced, was faded in a noticeable +measure from the sharp and strong pattern of a man. Their conversation +about the galley was always in subdued mutterings, not direct, but out +of the mouth corners, sideways. Their only independence was in the +negligence of their attitudes. They might have been keeping in mind an +austere and invisible presence, whose swift words from nowhere might at +any time cleave their soft babble. If I made to pass through them the +babble ceased, and from limp poses they sprang upright in the narrow way +to let me pass, their eyes cast down. A man who had not seen me coming, +but still sprawled on the rail, talking quietly, would be nudged by his +neighbour. It struck me this attitude would change when they knew us +better; but it never did. These deckhands and firemen were mostly +youngsters, steadied by a few older hands. Chips and Donkey were the +veterans. In that crowd the boatswain was the admirable figure. He was a +young Britisher, tall, upright, and weighty, with a smiling, respectful +eye in which sometimes, I thought, there was a faint hint of mockery. He +had an easy balance and confidence in his movements which made him worth +watching when about his business. Clean shaven when he came aboard, he +now had a tawny beard which caught gold lights, and it was singularly +good on his weather-darkened face. He seldom wore a cap, for it could +have added little protection to the taut vigour of his hair, and would +have spoilt, as perhaps he himself guessed, that proper flourish and +climax to the poise of his head. + +Donkey was an Irishman, and he was the huge frame of what, maybe thirty +years before, had been a powerful man. This morning his big cadaverous +face, white only on the bony ridges surrounding the depressions of the +temples, the cheeks, and the dark pits of the eyes, and with the shadowy +hollow of the mouth which gaped through the weight of the massive jaw, +would have resembled, from a little distance, that of a skeleton head of +one of the monsters in a geological gallery, but for the dewlap +sustained by sinews running from his chin down his throat. Donkey was a +silent man, and never caught your glance as you passed him, but lumbered +along with so much of the surprising celerity of a gaunt elephant that +you thought you might hear the rasp of his loose clothes. He was a +simple and docile fellow. I never heard him speak, but he used to come +to the Chief, fill the door with his massive front, his small eyes which +expressed nothing and were but sparks of life, looking nowhere in +particular, and make guttural sounds; and the Chief, being used to him, +understood. At sea Donkey did his small duties like a plain but +cumbersome mechanism that had somewhere in it an obscure point of +rationality. When ashore, though, he was said to go mad, and to roll +trampling and trumpeting through the squalid littoral of the world; +being brought aboard afterwards an enormity of lax bones and flesh, with +the cogitating glim in his bulk quite doused. + +Of the others, there was a Teutonic bunch of lads, deckhands, which I +never succeeded in segregating, they looked so much alike. They had +pimpled, idle faces, and neutral eyes, cast down when they sidled by +one, thin down on their chins, and grimy raiment which, by the look of +it, was an integument never cast after we left port. One name would have +covered that lot, and frequently I heard the mates use it. But Olsen, +the Norwegian with a blond moustache which covered his mouth like a +fog-protector, and stern blue eyes, was a sailor. The firemen made a +better bunch. There was among them a swarthy Brazilian, whose constant +smile seemed ever on the point of breaking into song, but that he was +always chewing the end of a sweat rag he wore twisted round his neck. +The happy feature of our firemen was a Dutchman, whose hollow face was +full of silent woe and endurance. He was our chief joy. When once we +found the sun, he then appeared in a single garment, trousers and braces +cut in one piece of brown canvas, hauled up well under his arms, leaving +his slab feet remote and forlorn. His torso was bare, a dancing girl in +red and blue tattooed on his chest. He wore a bowler hat without a brim. + +We will get Christmas over. It was a pagan festival. Looking back at it, +I see--with the astonishment of the sedate who is native to a +geometrical suburb where the morning train follows the night and every +numbered house shelters a moral agnostic--I see a dancing baccanal with +free gestures who fades, as I look back intently, doubting my senses, in +a roseous haze. The lawless movements of that wild, bright and laughing +figure, its exultant blasphemy, its confident mockery, are remembered by +me as though once I had been admitted to the green room of heaven. +Surely I have seen a god whose deathless knowledge derides the solemn +gods, behind the curtain. It was Christmas night, and our little +"Capella," our point of night shine, a star moving through the void to +its dark destiny, filled the vault with its song, while its fellows in +the heavens stood round. Christmas is over. + + * * * * * + +The day following was Sunday, a grey day of penance, the men soberly +washing their shirts in buckets under the forecastle head, smoking moody +pipes. The garments were tied to any convenient gear where they could +hang free. The sky was leaden. This grey day was distinguished by the +strange phenomenon of an horizon which was almost level; the skyline and +the clouds did not slant first this way, then that. The swell had almost +gone. Already I began to feel the large patience and tranquillity of a +mind losing its shadows, and contemplating the light and space of a long +voyage in which the same men do the same things in the same place daily +under the centre of the empty sky. Sitting on a hatch with the Doctor, +smoking, we confessed, with ease at the heart, and with minds in which +nervous vibrations had ceased, that we must have reached this place that +was nowhere, and that now time was not for us. We had escaped you all. +We were free. There was not anything to engage us. There was nothing to +do, and nobody who wanted us. Never before had I felt so still and +conscious of myself. I realised, with a little start of surprise, that +it was Me who felt the warm air, and who looked at the slow pulse of the +waters, and the fulgent breaks in the roof, and heard the droning of the +wake, and not that mere skin, eyes and ears which, as in London, break +in upon our preoccupied minds with agitating sensations; and I took in +this newly-discovered world of ocean and cloudland and my own sure +identity centred therein with the complacency of an immortal who will +see all the things which do not matter pass away. When we left England +we were tense, and sometimes white (though there were others who went +red) about a Great Crisis in our Country's History. The Doctor and I +arrived on board, detached from the opposing armies in the impending +conflict, and at first put our hands swiftly to our swords every ten +minutes or so during meals. Of that crisis only one small gull now was +left, and he was following us astern with a melancholy cry at intervals, +of which we took no more notice. (And that gull departed, I see by my +diary, the very next day.) + +So ended the Great Crisis. I did not even note the ship's position at +the time, though I can see now that was a serious fault for which future +historians may blame me. I can but state vaguely that it was about sixty +miles north-west of the Fortunate Isles. The change in the quality of +the sun and air became most marked; I remember that. The horizon +expanded to a surprising distance. According to letters from home, sent +about that date, which I received long afterwards, I am unable to find +that similar phenomena were witnessed in England. Probably they were but +local. These manifestations in the heavens filled the few of us +privileged to witness them with awe, and a new faith in the power and +compassion of God. Nothing further of note occurred on this day, except +that Chips, as a further miracle, suddenly was raised whole from where +he lay in his bunk with a useless leg. His leg, you may remember, was +damaged in the gale off Cornwall. The Doctor, going his rounds, was +surprised to find Chips dancing the hoola-hoola in the forecastle, and a +stoker, with a cut eye, wailing for a lost half bottle of gin taken from +his box while he was on duty. Thereafter Chips returned to work, his leg +becoming halt again only when he knew we saw him stepping it too +blithely. + + * * * * * + +"_Decr. 27._ Distance run for past 24 hours to midday 219. Total +distance 1177 miles. Fine weather. Glass rising." + +Have you ever heard of the monotony of a long voyage? The same sky you +know, the same waters, the same deck; and now I can see it should be +added, the same old self, dismayed by the contemplation of its features +daily, week after week, within that spacious empty hall, where is no +escape from the bright stare overhead which reveals your baldness and +blemishes without ruth. You get found out. You want to mix with the mob +again, to get lost in the sameness of your fellows. He who goes +travelling should leave his self at home, or as much of it as is not +wanted on the voyage. It is surprising to find how little you want of +yourself. The ideal traveller would venture out merely as a disembodied +thought, or, at most, as an eye. + +A mere eye would see no monotony, for the sky may be the same sky, but +its moods are like those of the same woman; and the ocean, though young +as the morning, is older than Asia--you never know what to expect from +that profound enigma. As for the sunny deck, I see the Doctor sitting on +a spare spar, waiting for someone to sit beside him. The Chief is filing +a piece of small gear outside his cabin. The Skipper is overlooking, +with a hard frown, a group of men busy repairing his chart-room, which +is just forward of the engine-room casing (I could get a job from him at +once for the asking, though I shall not ask). The first mate is trying +to be in three places at once. The second mate patrols the bridge. The +German steward, who tells curious stories in a Teutonised dialect of +Shadwell, is hanging mattresses and bed clothes over a boom. The men are +chipping and tarring the deck; and the boatswain, bare-legged, wildly +bearded, a sheath knife on his hams, looks like a fine pirate brought to +menial tasks. + +I have watched this day's monotonous sky onwards from the dawn. We are +in the neighbourhood of the Hesperides. For some early hours of the +morning it was grey. But the grey roof soon broke with the incumbent +weight of light, letting sunshine through narrow fractures to the sea, +far out. There were partitions of thin gold in the dim hall. The moving +floor was patterned in day and night. The low ceiling was fused where +the day poured through, became a candent vapour, volatilised. We had +over us before breakfast the ultimate blue, where a few cirrus clouds +showed its great height. + +Then it was August. The sea ran in broad heavy mounds, blue-black and +vitreous, which hardly moved our bulk. In the afternoon, the ocean, a +short distance from the ship, grew filmed and opaque, a milky blue shot +with purple shadows. Its surface, though heaving, was smooth and +flawless. No light entered its deeps, but the radiant heat was mirrored +on it as on the pallor of fluid lava. The water ploughed up by the bows +did not break, but rolled over viscidly. The sun dropped behind the sea +about a point west of our course. Night was near. Yet still the high +dome with its circular floor the sea was magically illuminated, as by +the proximity of a wonderful presence. We, solitary and privileged in +the theatre, waited expectant. The doors of glory were somewhere ajar. +The western wall was clear, shining and empty, enclosed by a proscenium +of amber flames. In the north-east, astern of us, were some high +fair-weather clouds, like a faint host of little cherubs, and from their +superior galleries they watched a light invisible to us; it made their +faces bright. Beneath them the glazed sea was coral pink. Even our own +prosaic iron gear was sublimated; our ship became lustrous and strange. +We were the Argonauts, and our world was bright with the veritable +self-radiance of a world of romance where the things that would happen +were undreamed of, and we watched for them from our argosy's side, calm +and expectant; my fellows were transfigured, looked huge, were rosy and +awful, immortals in that light no mortal is given to see. + +Now had been given me fellowship with the ship and her men; we were one +body. I had been absorbed by our enterprise. For a long while our +steamer was a harsh and foreign thing to me, unfriendly to the eye, +difficult to understand. But now she had become intelligible and proper. +She and her men were all my world, and I could find my way about that +world in the dark. Getting used to a ship has the process of the growth +of a lasting friendship. Chance begins it. You regard your luck askance, +as you accept a new acquaintance with no joy, to make the best of him. +But presently, to put the matter at its lowest, you arrive at an +understanding. You have learned your friend's worth. Familiarity would +breed contempt only in the mouse-hearted. You never have to account him +afresh, or he is no comrade; there can be no surprises again, no +encounters with a stranger in him. His value, at the least reckoning, is +that you know his value. Any hour of the day or night you can guess with +assurance where his mind would be found. And here my "Capella" has no +strange doors and startling declivities and traps for me any more. I +know her. She is not exactly all she should be, but I apprehend exactly +what she is. If I hurt myself against her it is my own fault. She is as +familiar to me as home now. I should resent any alteration. Having +learned to know her faults I like her as she is; the trestle bridge with +its sagging hand-ropes and wobbling stanchions (look out, you, when she +rolls) which crosses the main deck aft on the port side from the +amidships section, where I live, to the poop, where the Doctor lives. +The two little streets of three doors each, to port and starboard of her +amidships, the doors that open out under the shade of the boat deck to +sea. There, amidships also, are the Chief's room and the galley, the +engineers' messroom, and the engine-room entrance; but these last do not +open overside, but look aft, from a connecting alley which runs across +the ship to join the side alleyways. Forward of these cabins is the +engine-room casing, where the 'midship deck broadens, but is cumbered +with bunker hatches (mind your feet, at night, there); and beyond, +again, is the chart-room, and over the chart-room the bridge and the +wheelhouse, from which is a sheer long drop to the main deck foreward. +At the finish of that deck is an iron wall, with the entrance to the +mysterious forecastle in its centre; and over that is the uplifted head +of our world watching our course, a bleak windswept place of rails, +cable chains, and windlass. The poop has a timber deck, and there in +fine weather the deck chairs are. The poop is a place needing exact +navigation at night. Long boxes enclosing the rudder chains are on +either side of it. In the centre is the saloon skylight, the companion, +the steward's ice chest, and the hand-steering gear. Also there are two +boats. I gained my night knowledge of the poop deck by assault, and +retained my gains with sticking plaster. I am really proud of the +privilege which has been given me to roam now this rolling shadow at +night, this little dark cloud blowing between the stars and the deep, +the unseen abyss below as with its profound reverberations, and the +height above with its scattered lights as remote as the sounds in the +deeps. With calm faith in our swaying shadow I place my feet where +nothing shows, sure that my angel will bear me up. I put out my hands +and a support comes to them; the pitfalls have ladders for me, and by +touching at some places in the black shadow, as by magic, a lighted and +comfortable room at once materialises for my rest in the void. + + * * * * * + +I think I liked her better as a formless shadow after sundown. Whether +it was then a noise in my head, my tranquil thoughts murmuring in their +sleep, or whether the sound I heard was the deep humming of the world's +speed, I don't know; whatever it was, it was the only sound. Our +mainmasthead light was but a nearer star of the host. I was not +surprised to see one of the stars so close. I was within the luminous +porch of the Milky Way. + +It was midnight. In that silence, where I was alone in space, adrift on +a night cloud in the constellations, the stars were really my familiars; +once, when in London, though they had been named to me and were constant +there, they were far in the place to which one lifts one's eyes from the +dust and traffic, nothing to do with London and with me. But now there +was no more dust and traffic. I was among them at last. Splendid Orion +was near and vast in his hunting. The Pleiades no longer dimmered on the +very limit of vision, but were separate points of delicate light. The +night moved with diamond fire. + +I was so far absent from the body that a human voice beside me was like +a surprising concussion with something invisible in space. Turning, +there was the glow of Sandy's pipe. Sandy is an elderly man, and an +engineer. He was leaning over the rail, cooling after his watch below. +The magic of the star shine had got into his mind too. He began with +guesses about the things which are not known, parrying doubt with, +"Ah--but it's hard to say; there are things----"; and, "you bright young +fellers don't know everything"; and, "somebody told me a queer thing +now." + +"There was a bright young feller, same as yourself, and he was first +mate of the 'Abertawe,' out of Cardiff. Jack Driscoll was his name. It +was a funny thing happened to him. I heard about it afterwards. + +"All the girls thought Jack Driscoll was so nice. One of the girls was +his owner's daughter, and she was the best of the bunch, anyway, for she +was an only child, and her father would have given her the earth. He was +a good owner, was her father, as things go in Cardiff. Do you know +Cardiff? Well, a little goes a long way on the Welsh coast. Jack was a +smart sailor, with the first chance of the next new boat, if he watched +out. I reckon Jack was a fool. Why, he needn't have gone to sea any +more. But what did he do? + +"Jack was one of them fellers who think if they put a gold-laced cap +saucy over one ear, and laugh with the eyes, they can whistle up a +duchess. And I daresay Jack could in summer, in his white suit, when +he'd just shaved. He was a bit of all right was Jack. He was a proper +tall lad, and the way he carried himself--It was a treat to see him move +about a ship. His black hair was like one of the big fiddler chap's, and +his smile would take in one of his pals. + +"Well, it was happy days for Jack. He got good things to come to him. He +didn't have to look for 'em, like me and you. He knew his work, too. He +was a good sailor. He could get off the mark, at the first word, like a +bird, and he never left a job while there was a loose bit to it. +Sometimes when there was nothing doing it was pretty rotten, Jack would +say, to be stuck there in a Welsh tramp with a crowd of dagoes, and +drink coffee essence and condensed milk out of a pint mug, and never go +to a music hall only once in six months. Jack reckoned it would be fine +to be brass-bound always, in one of the liners, and have a deck like a +skating rink, and a lot of lady passengers who wanted a chap like him to +talk to them. + +"He could tell stories, too, on the quiet, could Jack. They were pretty +blue, though. Sailor stories. They were all about himself in the West +Coast ports. Do you know the Chili coast? Well, it's mind your eye +there, and no half larks. They're pretty handy with knives out there. +But when Jack was out for fun you couldn't stop him. He was like all you +young chaps. He wouldn't listen to sense. + +"The 'Abertawe' went light ship to Barry, one trip, from Buenos Aires, +and Jack saw her snug, and told all the men to be at the shipping office +early and sober in the morning, because they got in on a Sunday, and +Jack saw the old man safe on his way to Cardiff, and then shaved, and +sang while he was shaving. He got himself up west-end style, new yellow +boots and all, and tied his red tie Spanish fashion. And he went down +the quay, looking for anything that was about, and he felt like the best +man on the Welsh coast. + +"But Barry is a dull place. Do you know Barry? Well, it's a one-eyed +God-forsaken town, made out of odds and ends stuck down anywhere, all +new houses, docks, coal tips, and railway sidings, and nowhere to go. +It's best to stay aboard, in Barry. Jack began to feel like the only +bird on a mudbank. He got out of the town, and walked along a road till +he came to an old woman sitting in the hedge, with her back up against a +telegraph post. Her face was brown and wrinkled, and she had an +orange-coloured handkerchief round her face, and tied under her chin. +She was smoking a pipe, and looking at her blucher boots. As Jack came +along, she said, 'Tell your fortune, pretty gentleman?' Jack laughed, +and told her his face was his fortune. + +"'What do you see when you look in the glass?' said she. + +"Now that was dead easy to Jack, because he knew as well as the girls; +and he told her. There was none of your silly modesty about Jack. Then +the old woman laughed; but I reckon Jack thought she was only pleased +with him, because he made it a point to make the mothers and the +grandmothers smile, the same as the girls. + +"'What do you see in this glass?' said she to Jack. She was fumbling in +her dress, and hauls out a mirror like you see in the old-fashion shops, +a mirror made of silver, and it had a frame of ebony. She polished it on +her skirt, and gave it to him, and told him to pass a bit of silver with +the other hand. Well, Jack saw sport, and he could always pay for that, +and he did what she said. But he only saw himself in the mirror. + +"'Hi,' said Jack, 'here, what's your little game now? None of your larks +now,' he said, 'or I'll ask a policeman what he can see in this tin +glass of yours.' + +"'You and your policeman,' she said. 'Look now, my dandy boy, and see +more than your money's worth.' And she rubbed the glass again. Then Jack +took another look. It was a dull day, but that mirror was bright with +sunshine. There was something funny about that mirror. He saw a fine +place in it, all cool and white and gold, like you see out East. It was +a palace, I reckon. There was a fountain in the middle, and some girls +with not a lot on, like some of the Amsterdam postcard girls, were lying +around, just anyhow. And there was Jack's own self among 'em, and they +were laughing and talking to him. It was fine. Jack turned his head, +just like you would do, to see if the real place was behind him. But, of +course, there was the funnels and topmasts of Barry, and the sky looked +like rain. I bet it gave him a shock. + +"'Now you've seen what'll be your luck, honey, if you're not careful,' +said the old woman. 'Mind your eye,' she said, 'mind your eye, you with +the saucy face. What's more,' she called after him, 'don't you speak to +the girl with the odd eyes in Cardiff, though I know you will, and sorry +you'll be.' + +"'Go to the devil,' said Jack. + +"He was just like all you young chaps. Thought she was an artful old +shark who'd got his money dead easy. That's what you always think. If +you don't understand anything, then there's nothing in it. You call in +at the next pub and chatter to the barmaid. What happened? Why, the very +next day the Skipper came back, and told him the new boat was near +ready, and the owner wanted to see him. Jack went, and forgot about +everything, except that he was going to be the handsome boy all right +with the owner's own daughter to look at him. A pretty girl she was too. +I saw her once, holding up her skirts off the deck while she looked +round. The Skipper introduced me. 'Good morning, Mr. Brown,' she said to +me. + +"Coming out of the Great Western Station at Cardiff Jack saw a place +he'd never noticed before. It wasn't Cardiff style. 'It's a new place,' +Jack thinks to himself, 'and a ripping good place it looks,' for he was +thirsty, and there was plenty of time. 'It must have been run up since I +was here last,' says Jack to himself, 'though that's queer, for I reckon +it'd take years to rig up a dandy show of this sort.' But in he went. + +"He was surprised, when he got in, and so would you have been. It was +like the place I saw on the stage at London once. It was in Aladdin, at +a place in the Mile End Road. You know what those things are like, when +the curtain goes up. You can see a long way, but you can't see all the +way. You expect something to happen there. It was full of pillars, all +white and gold, in a pink light. There was a lot of ladies and gentlemen +sitting on sofas full of cushions, talking, and they were too grand to +even notice Jack as he stood there looking round for a chair. But it +took a lot to get on Jack's nerves. There was one girl in a white silk +dress, with red roses in her golden belt, and she had a white hat with +red roses in that, and she looked like a summer day. Jack was glad to +see that the only vacant chair was at a table where she sat alone. Of +course, over there goes Jack. The place was as quiet as a church before +the service begins. There was only a faint whispering. He got to where +the girl sat, as if she was waiting for him. She looked up and smiled at +Jack. Jack sat down beside her and said what a fine day it was. She had +a face the colour of moonlight, and her eyes were odd. But there wasn't +a girl who could make Jack wonder if his tie was straight, in those +days, and he began to order things, and talk. + +"Once he took a look round, leaning back in his chair, feeling pretty +large, and he noticed the other people were looking at him artful-like, +out of the corners of their eyes, as if he was talking too loud. But +Jack thought he'd jolly well talk as he liked, and he'd got just the +best girl in that room or anywhere else. He looked at his watch. It was +near twelve o'clock. He had to be at his owner's by one. There was +plenty of time. + +"The drink had a funny taste, but it was the best liquor he'd ever had. +He marked down that place. He didn't know there was a show like that in +Cardiff. He caught hold of the girl's hand, which he noticed was white, +and very cold, and pretended he wanted to look at her ring. There was a +stone in the ring, just like a bit of soda. She asked him to try it on +his own finger, because the stone changed colour then, but Jack couldn't +get the ring off till he'd placed her finger to his lips, to moisten the +ring. He was the boy, was Jack, to see things didn't drag along. When he +got the ring on his finger the stone was full of red fire. So the time +went; but he forgot all about time, and the owner, and the owner's +daughter, and everything. The girl's hair was scented, too, and it was +close to him. + +"Presently he looked up, and saw what he'd never noticed before. He +could see further into the building than ever. There seemed to be a +garden beyond, full of sunshine, and all the men and women were walking +that way, talking loud, and laughing. His own girl got up too, and said, +'Come along, Jack Driscoll,' and he never even wondered how she knew his +name, nor why her face was like snow by moonlight, nor why she smiled +like that. + +"No. Not Jack. All he thought was what a ripping garden that was, with +palms, and marble courts, like you see in the East. There was music far +away, two notes and a drum, like you hear in a native dance, before the +dancers come. It made Jack feel like a millionaire or a lord, able to do +anything, but just then only wanting a good time. Then he noticed they +were alone in the garden, which was full of trees in blossom. All the +other people had gone. There was only that music. The place was very +quiet. He could hear water tinkling in a fountain, and he reckoned he +would stay there till closing time. The girl talked to him in whispers, +and he put his arm around her. I don't know how long he stayed there, +but he kept telling the girl she was the best girl he'd ever had, and +he'd never had such a good time in his life. + +"It was funny the way he got out. Jack reckoned in there that the world +would never come to an end, like young fellers do, when they're enjoying +themselves proper. But once he took her ring off his finger, to have +another look at it. Then he was in the street again, looking up at a +building which had its doors shut, and Jack only thought he was looking +there for a number he wanted. + +"It had started to rain. He looked at his watch. It was just twelve +o'clock. He didn't know what he wanted with an address in that street, +so he started off in a hurry for his owner's house, feeling pretty +stiff, as if he'd been sleeping rough. When he got to his owner's house, +he rang the bell. + +"The owner's daughter came to the door, and looked at him like she +didn't know him, and was a bit afraid of him. 'No, thank you,' she said +kindly, 'not to-day.' And shut the door at once. + +"What puzzled Jack was that he didn't feel surprised and angry. He +turned and went down those steps again, and down the street, thinking it +over. He looked back at the house. Yes, that was the house all right. +And that was Annie all right. Well, what the devil was the matter with +him? There was a public-house at the corner, and he stopped there, +thinking things over, and staring at the window. Then he saw his face in +a mirror, and shouted so that the barman came and ordered him out of +that, sharp now. But he kept looking at the glass, not believing his +eyes. He knew his own face again, but only just knew it. His eyes were +dull and red and gummy, same as those old men have who've lived too +long, and his face was puffed and pimpled, and he had a lousy white +beard." + + + + +II + + +December 28. Lat. 39.10 N., long. 16.3 W. Course, S.W. 1/2 west. We are +nearing the tropics. Now the ship has such a complete set of grumblers, +good fellows who know their work better than anyone less than God, that +our great distance at sea is plain. Our men, casually gathered and +speaking divers tongues, detached from earth and set afloat on a mobile +islet to mix on it if they can, have become one body to deal with the +common enemy. We are corporate to face each trouble as it meets us, and +free to explain afterwards how much better we should have done under +another captain. The skipper knows this broad spirit now possesses us, +and so is contented and blithe, wearing only on deck that weary look +which is the sober badge of high office, as though he were an +unfortunate man to have us about him, we being what we are, but that he +would do his best with the fools, seeing we are in his charge. + +This morning at six, hearing the men at the hosepipes giving the decks +their daily wash, I tumbled out for a cold tub. This is a simple affair. +You leave the cabin with a towel about you, stand in a clear space, and +rotate before the hydrant, to general cheering. A hot bath on the +"Capella" is not so easy, because, although there is a bath-room aboard, +it has become a paint locker. One must descend into the engine-room, +after warning the engineer on duty, who then will have ready a barrel, +filled from the boilers. The ingenious man will fix a shower bath also. +This is a perforated meat tin, hanging from a grating above the tub, and +connected with a pump. After a hot bath in the engine-room, where the +temperature was often well over 120 deg., that shower of cold sea water +would strike loud cries from any man whose self-control was uncertain. + +This morning was the right prelude to the tropics. This was the morning +when, if our planet had been till then untenanted, a world unconsummated +and waiting approval, the divine approval would have come, and a child +would have been born, an immortal, the offspring of Aurora and the Sea +God, flame-haired and lusty, with eyes as bright as joy, and a rosy body +to be kissed from toes to crown. The dancing light, and the warm shower +suddenly born alive in it from one ripe cloud, the golden air, the waves +of the north-east trades, the seas of the world in the first dawn, +moving along like a multitude released to play, their blue passionate +and profound, their crests innocent and dazzling, made me think I might +hear faint cheering, if I listened intently. In the west was a steep +range of cloudland rising from the sea, and against it was inclined the +flame of a rainbow. There was that rainbow, as constant as the pennant +hoisted over an uplighted occasion. The world's noble emblem was aloft. +I demanded of the Skipper if he would run up our ensign in reply to it; +but he only peered at me curiously. + +The heat increased with the day. We had run well down from the bleak +apex of the world with its nimbus of fogs. Here was the entrance to the +place where our youthful dreams began. I recognised it. Every feature +was as we both have seen it from afar, across the roofs from our outlook +in the arid city when the path to it had appeared as hopeless to our +feet as the path to the moon. This pioneer can assure his fellows whose +bright illusions grow fainter with age that their dreams must be +followed up, to be reached. + +At midday we began to cast clothes. As to the afternoon, of that I +remember the less. There was the chief's empty bunk, so much more +alluring than my own. Into that I climbed, my mind steeled against +drowsy weakness. I would digest my dinner with a book, eyes sternly +alert. + +The "Capella" rocked slowly, a big cradle. My body was lax and +responsive. There was about us the silent emptiness which is far from +the centres where many men believe it is necessary to get lots of things +done. The Chief suspired on his settee. The waves were singing to +themselves. A ray of light laughed in my eyes, playing hide and seek +across the wisdom of my book.... I put the book down. + +As you know, where I had come from we do not dare to sleep during +daylight without first arguing with the conscience, which usually we +fail to convince. This comes of our mental trick which takes a pleasure +we wholly desire and puts on it a prohibitive label. Self-indulgence, +you understand; softening of the character; courage, brothers, do not +stumble. The solemn forefinger wags gravely in our faces. Before I fell +asleep, my habit, born of the hard grey weather which makes an +Englishman hard and prosperous, did come with its admonitory forefinger. +Remembering that I was secure in a sunnier world I cried out with ribald +mockery across the abyss I had safely crossed, knowing my old self could +not follow, and shut my eyes happily. And also, let me say--sitting up +again with an urgent afterthought, which I must get rid of before I +sleep--if this were not a plain narrative of travel without any wise +asides I would get off the "Capella" here to argue that what all you +fellows want in the place I have luckily left is not more +self-restraint, in which wan virtue you have long shown yourselves to be +so proficient that our awards for your merit have overcrowded the +workhouses, but more rollicking self-indulgence and a ruddy and bright +eyed insistence on the means to it. Look at me now in this bunk! Not +since I was last in a cradle have I felt the world would buoy me up if I +dared to shut my eyes to affairs while the sun was shining. But I am +going to try it again now, and risk my future. I repeat, I would argue +this with you, only I want to sleep.... + +It is worth recording that when I awoke I found nothing had happened to +me, except benefit. The venture can be made safely. Others had kept the +course for me. The ship had not stopped. Through the door I could see a +half-naked, blackened, and sweating stoker, who had been keeping the +fires while I slept, and he was getting back his breath in loud sobs. +Something had made him sick. These stupid and dirty men will drink too +much while they are attending to the furnaces. They have been warned of +the danger, of which they take no heed, and so they have to suffer. On +the poop was the second officer, busy in the hot sun with a gang, +overhauling a boat. And I found, on enquiry, that a man was still at the +wheel. So thereafter, while in the land of the constant sun, I slept +every afternoon, and was never a penny the worse. Somehow, you know, +things went on. I think I shall become one of the intelligent leisured +class. + +It was within an hour of midnight. The moon had set. I was idling +amidships about the ship's shadowy structure when I was asked to take +charge of the bridge till eight bells. The second mate was ill, and the +first mate was asleep through overwork. The skipper said he would not +keep me up there long. I had but to call if a light came into view, and +to keep an eye on the wheelhouse. Ah, but it is long since I played at +ships, and was a pirate captain. I remembered there are dull folk who +wonder what it feels like to be a king. The king does not know. Ask the +small boy who is surprised with an order to hold a horse's head. I took +my promotion, mounting the steep ladder to the open height in the night. + +I felt then I was more than sundered from my kind. I had been taken and +placed remotely from the comfort of the "Capella's" isolated community +also. There was me, and there were the stars. They were my nearest +neighbours. I stood for you among them alone. When the last man hears +but does not see the deep waters of this dark sphere in that night to +which there shall be no morning sun, he shall know what was my sensation +aloft in the saddle of the "Capella"; the only inhabitant of a congealed +asteroid off the main track in space, with the sun diminished to a point +through travel, and the Milky Way not reached yet; though I could see we +were approaching its bay of light. An appreciable journey had been made. +But by the faintness of its shine there was a timeless vacancy to be +travelled still. We should make that faint glow, that congregation of +suns, that archipelago of worlds; though not yet. But had we not all the +night to travel in? The night would be long. We should not be disrupted +any more by the old day. The final morning had passed. I had no doubt +the drift of the dark lump to which I clung in space, while my hair +streamed with our speed, would at length reach the bright fraternity, no +more than a dimmer of removed promise though it seemed. + +A bell rang beside me in the night. It was answered at once from +somewhere ahead. Others, then, were journeying with me. The void was +peopled, though the travellers were all invisible; and I heard a +confident voice call, "Lights are burning bright." The lights were. I +could see that. But when the profundities are about you, and you think +you are alone in outer night, that is the kind of word to hear. Joyously +I shouted into what seemed to be boundless nothing, "All Right!" + + * * * * * + +One dayfall we saw the Canary Islands a great distance on the port beam. +I do not know which day it was. The Hesperides were as blurred as the +place in the calendar. The days had run together into a measureless +sense of well-being. We had passed the last of the trivial allotments of +time. The islands loomed, and I wondered whether that land was the hint +of something in a past life which the memory saw but could not shape. +Whatever was there it was too long forgotten. That apparition which a +whisper told me was land faded as I gazed at it overseas, lazily trying +to remember what it once meant. It was gone again. It was no matter now. +Perhaps I was deceiving myself. Perhaps I had had no other life. This +"Capella," always under the height of a blue dome, always the centre of +a circular floor of waters, waters to be seen beating against the steep +and luminous walls encompassing us, though nowhere finding an outlet, +was all my experience. I could recall only the faintest shadows of a +past into that limpid present. I could see nothing clearly that was not +confined within the dark faultless line where the sky was inseparably +annealed to the sea. Here I had been always. All I knew was this length +of sheltered deck, and those doors behind me where I leaned on a rail +between the stanchions, doors which sheltered a few familiars with their +clothes on hooks, their pipe racks, and photographs of women, a length +of deck finishing on either hand in two iron ladders, the ladder +forward, just past the radiation and coal grit by the engine-room +casing, descending to a broad walk which led to the forecastle head, +that bare outlook always at a difference with the horizon; and the +ladder aft going down to another broad walk, sticky with new tar, where +the bulwarks were as high as the breast, and Tinker, the dog, glad of a +word from you, trotted about the rusty winches and around the hatches; +and that walk aft finished in the door of the alleyway opening upon the +asylum of the doctor's cabin, and the saloon, the skipper's sanctum, and +the domain of the friendly steward. There was the smell of the cargo +drawing from the ventilators on the deck, when you went by their trumpet +mouths. There was the warm oily gush of air from the engine-room +entrance. And in the saloon alleyway I used to think the store of +potatoes, right behind, was generating gases. (But nobody knows every +origin of the marine smells.) Well, here were all the things my senses +apprehended. I could walk round my universe in five minutes. And when I +had finished I could do it again. Here I had been always. Nothing could +be clearer than that. Looking out from my immediate circumstances I saw +no entrance to the place where we were rocking, the place where the +"Capella" was alone. The walls of the enclosure were flawless. There was +not a door through them anywhere. There was not a rift in the precision +of the dark circle about us where one could crawl out between the sky +and the sea. + +There we indubitably were though, and I dwelt constantly on the miracle +of that lucky existence. I could not doubt that we were there. Yet how +had we got there? I leave that to the metaphysicians. There we were; and +no man who merely trusted his experience could explain our presence. +There was some evidence to my simple mind that such a life in such +surroundings perchance was the gift of the gods, and that we could never +get any nearer the limits of the world in which we had been placed to +see what was beyond, could never approach that enclosure of blue walls +where the distant waves, which beat against them, could not get out. +Morning after morning I watched them, the dark leaping shapes of the far +rebels, mounting their prison at its base, and collapsing, beaten. + +The seas never changed. They followed us and the wind, a living host, +the blue of their slopes and hollows as deep as ecstasy, their crests +white and lambent. They were buoyant, they were leisurely, they were the +right companions of travel. They just kept pace with us. They ran after +us like happy children, as though they had been lagging. They came abeam +to turn up to us their shining faces, calling to us musically, then +dropping behind again in silence. When I looked overside into the +pellucid depths, peering below the surface in long forgetfulness, +leaving the body and gliding the mind in that palpable and hyacinthine +air beneath us where the sunken foam dimmered in pale clouds, I felt +myself not afloat but hovering in the midst of a hollow sphere filled +with light. The blue water was only a heavier and a darker air. I had no +weight there. I was only a quiet thought tinctured with the royal colour +of the space wherein I drifted. + +The upper half of the sphere was blue also, but of a different blue. The +rarer and more volatile ether was above us. The sea was its essence and +precipitate. The sea colour was profound and satisfying; but the colour +of the sky was diffused, as though the heaven were an idea which was +beyond you, which you stood regarding, and azure were it symbol, and +that by concentration you might fathom its meaning. But I can report no +luck from my concentrated efforts on that symbol. The colour may have +been its own reward. + + * * * * * + +Every morning after breakfast the Skipper and the Doctor made a visit to +the forecastle. Then, after the Doctor had carefully searched his dress +for insects, we spent the day together. We mounted the forecastle to +begin with, watching the acre of dazzling foam which the "Capella's" +bows broke around us. Out of that the flying fish would get up, just +under us, to go skimming off, flights of silver locusts. This reminded +the surgeon that we might try for albacore and bonito, which would be a +change from tinned mutton. The Skipper found a long fir pole, to which +was attached sixty fathoms of line, with a large hook which we covered +with a white rag, lapping a cutting of tin round the shank. When this +object was dropped over the stern in its leaps from wave to wave it bore +a distant resemblance to a flying fish. The weight of the trailing line, +breaking a cord "tell-tale," frequently gave us false alarms and long +tiring hauls. But on the second day the scaffold pole vibrated to some +purpose, and we knew we were hauling in more than the bait. We got +aboard a coryphene, the dolphin of the sailors. It gave us in its death +agony the famous display, beautiful, but rather painful to watch, for +the wonderful hues, as they changed, stayed in the eye, and sent to the +mind only a message of a creature in a violent death struggle. + +The contours of this predatory fish express extraordinary speed and +power, and its armed mouth has been upturned by Providence the better to +catch the flying fish as they drop back to sea after an effort to escape +from it. But Providence, or evolution, had never taught the coryphene +that there are times when the little flying fish, as it falls back +exhausted, may be a rag of white shirt and a scrap of bright tin ware +with a large hook in its deceptive little belly. So there the dolphin +was, glowing and fading with the hues of faery. Its life really +illuminating it from within. As its life ebbed, or strove convulsively, +its colours waned and pulsed. It was gold when it came on board, and +darkened to ultramarine as it thrashed the deck, and its broad dorsal +fin showed violet eyes. Its body changed to a pale metallic green; and +then its light went out. + +Now as I look back upon the "Capella" and her company as they were in +that period of our adventure when our place was but somewhere in +mid-ocean between Senegambia and Trinidad, I see us but indifferently, +for we are mellowed in that haze in which retrospection just discerns +those affairs, long since accomplished, that were not altogether +wearisome. It is better to go to my log again, for there the matter was +noted by the stub of a pencil at the very time, and when, unless a +beautiful mist was seen, it had not the remotest chance of being +recorded. When I turn to the diary for further evidence of those days of +blue and gold in the north-east trades its faithfulness is seen at once. + +"_30 Decr._ A grey day. The sun fitful. Wind and seas on the port +quarter, and the large following billows occasionally lopping inboard as +she rolled. The decks therefore are sloppy again. We had a sharp +reminder at six bells that we are not bound to any health resort, as +Sandy put it. We were told to go aft, where the doctor would give each +of us five grains of quinine. This is to be a daily rite. To encourage +the men to take the quinine it is to be given to them in gin. Being +foreigners, they did not understand the advice about the quinine, but +they caught the word gin quite well, and they were outside the saloon +alleyway, a smiling queue, at the stroke of eleven. I went along to see +the harsh truth dawn on them. The first man was a big German deckhand. +He took the glass from the doctor. His shy and puzzled smile at this +unexpected charity from the skipper dissolved instantly when the quinine +got behind it. His eyes opened and stared at nothing. To the surprise of +his fellows he turned violently to the ship's side, rested his hands on +it, and spat; spat carefully, continuously and with grave deliberation. + +"Distance run since noon yesterday 230 miles. Actual knots 9,5. Total +distance 2072 miles. There was not a living thing in sight to-day; not +even a flying fish. + +"The night is fine and starlit, the Milky Way a brilliant arch from east +to west, under which we are steaming. When Venus rose she was a tiny +moon, so refulgent that she gave a faint pallor to a large area of sky, +outlined the coast of a cloud, and made a broad shining path on the sea. +The moon rose after nine, veiled in filmy air, peeping motionless at the +edge of a black curtain. + +"The moon later was quite obscured, and the steamer ceased to exist +except where in my heated cabin the smoky oil lamp showed me my dismal +cubicle. I went in and sat on the mate's sea chest. The mate was on +duty. On the washstand was his mug of cocoa, and on top of the mug two +thick sandwiches of bread and meat. That food was black with +cockroaches. The oil lamp stank but gave little light. The engines were +throbbing, and out of the open door I saw the gleam of the wash, and +heard its harassing note. I could not read. I loathed the idea of +getting into the hot bunk and lying there, stewing, a clear keen, +clangour of thoughts making sleep impossible. The mate appeared, drove +off the cockroaches cheerfully, examined the sandwiches for +inconspicuous deer, opening each to make sure, and then muffled himself +with one. My God! I could have killed him with these two hands. What +right had he to be cheerful? But he is such a ginger-headed boy, and to +break that unconsciously happy smile of his would be sacrilege. Besides, +he began to tell me about his sweetheart. Her portrait hangs in our +cabin. It is an enlargement. You pay for the frame, and the +photographer, overjoyed I suppose, gives you the enlargement. I prefer +the second engineer's sweet-hearts, who are in colours, and are Dutch +picture postcards and cuttings from French comic papers; and he calls +them his recollections of Sundays at home. I listened, patient and kind, +to the second mate's reminiscences of rapturous evening walks under the +lamps of Swansea with this girl in the picture--no doubt it eased his +heart to tell me--till I could have howled aloud, like the dog who hears +music at night. Then I broke away, and ran to the chief's cabin for +sanctuary. + +"The Chief was making an abstract, and was searching through his log for +ten tons of coal which were missing. In the hunt for the lost coal I +lost myself. I grew excited wherever a thick bush of figures promised +the hidden quarry; and in an hour's search found the strayed tons in +hiding at the bottom of a column. They had been left there, and not +transported into the next. Again the dread of that bunk had to be faced +and dealt with. I stood at the chief's door, knocking out my pipe, +looking astern into the night, looking to where Ursa-Major, our +celestial familiar of home, was low down and preparing to leave us +altogether to the strange and perhaps unlucky gods of other skies. O the +nights at sea! + +"_31 Decr._ Wakened with my heart jumping because of a devastating sound +without. In the early morning, Tinker was being thrashed by the Old Man +for eating the saloon mats. When at 11.30 the men congregated amidships +with their tins for dinner the sun was a near furnace and the breeze a +balm. The white of the ship is now a glare, and the sea foam cannot be +looked at. Donkey lumbered out of his place where he attends to the +minor boiler, his face the colour of putty, and held to a rail, gazing +out with dead eyes overside, gasping. He declared he couldn't stick his +job. The flying fish are getting up in flights all day long. I saw one +fish go a distance of about fifty yards in a semi-circle, making a bight +in the direction of the wind. We caught another large coryphene to-day, +and had him in steaks for tea. He was much better cooked than the last, +which had the texture of white wool; and to increase our happiness the +cook had not given us sour bread. At midday we were 17.22 N. and 33.27 +W. + +"I had a lonely evening with the chief. This is New Year's eve. We +talked of the East India Dock Road, and of much else in London Town. At +eight bells, when we held up our glasses in the direction of Polaris, +the moon was bright and the waters hushed. Then we took each a hurricane +lamp, and went about the decks collecting flying fish for breakfast, +finding a dozen of them. + +"_1 Jan._ The uplifted splendour of these days persists; but the +splendour sags now a little at midday with the weight of the heat. The +poop deck is now sheltered with an awning; and lying there in lazy +chairs, with a wind following and barely overtaking us, idly watching +the shadows of the overhead gear move on the bright awning as the ship +rolls, is to get caught in the toils of the droning wake, and to sleep +before you know you are a prisoner. The wake itself, in these seas, when +the sun is on it, a broad road going home straight and white over the +hills, the road which is not for us, is one of the good things of the +voyage. Straight beneath the rail the wake is an upheaval of gems, +sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds, always instantly melting in the sun, +always fusing and fleeting in swift coils of malachite and chrysoprase, +but never gone. As you watch that coloured turmoil it draws your mind +from your body. You feel your careless gaze snatched in the revolving +hues speeding astern, and your consciousness is instantly unwound from +your spinning brain, and you are left standing on the ship, an empty +spool. + +"Under the awning at night, to the Doctor and to me, the first mate +played his accordion. He is a little Welshman, this mate, with a +childish nose and a brutish moustache, and in his face is blended a +girlish innocence of large affairs, and the hirsute nature of the adult +male animal, a nature he relieves on the "Capella" with bawdy talk and +guffaws. He played 'Come, Birdie, Come,' and things like that, and then +told us some Monte Videan stories. As they were true stories about +himself and other young sailors they ought really to be included in a +faithful diary of a sea voyage, yet as I cannot reproduce the Doctor's +antiseptic judgment, of which I know nothing but the glow of his pipe in +the unresponding dark at the end of the stories--the last titter of the +mate had died away--it is better to leave this matter alone. + +"_3 Jan._ The hottest day we have had. I descended at midday to the +engines to see Sandy at work with his shining giants. Standing on the +middle platform, while he was shouting his greetings to me over the +uproar, I felt the heat of the grating through my boot soles, and +shifted. The temperature there was 122 deg.. Sandy was but in his drawers +and a pair of old boots, and the tongues of the boots, properly, were +hanging out. His noble torso was glistening with moisture, and as I +talked, energetically vaulting my words above the roar of the crank +throws in that hot and oleaginous place, the perspiration began a sudden +drop from my own face and hands, and in a copious way which startled me. +For a time I had some difficulty in breathing, as though in a vacuum, +but gradually forgot this danger of suffocation in the love of the +artist Sandy showed while offering me the spectacle of 'his job.' I +think I understood him. At first one would see no order in that haze of +rioting steel. The massive metal waves of the shaft were walloping and +plunging in their pits with an astonishing bird-like alacrity; about +fifteen tons of polished steel were moving with swift and somewhat awful +desperation. The big room shook and hummed with the vigour of it. But +order came as Sandy talked, and presently I found the continuous +thunder, that deadening bass of the crank throws, seemed to lessen as we +conversed, sitting together on a tool chest. Our voices easily +penetrated it. And listening more attentively at length I found what +Sandy said was true, that each tossing and circling part of the +room-full could be heard contributing its strident or profound note to +the chorus, and each became constant and expected, a singing personality +which was heard through the others whenever listened for. Above all, at +regular intervals, a rod rang clear, like the bell in Parsifal; yet, +curiously enough, Sandy declared he could not catch that note, though it +tolled clear and resonant enough in my ears. The skylight was so far +above us that we got little daylight. Hanging from the gratings in a few +places, some black iron pots, shaped like kettles, had cotton rags in +their spouts, and were giving us oil flares instead. The terrific +unremitting energy of the ponderous arms, moving thunderously, and still +with a speed which made tons as aery as flashes of light; and Sandy in +the midst of it, quick in nothing but his eyes, moving about his raging +but tethered monsters cock-sure and casual, rubbing his hands on a pull +of cotton waste, putting his ear down to listen attentively at a +bearing, his face turned from a steel fist which flung violently at his +head, missed him, and withdrew to shoot at him again, gave me the first +distinct feeling that our enterprise had its purpose powerfully +energised and cunningly directed. I felt as I watched the dance of the +eccentrics and the connecting rods that our ship was getting along +famously. I think I detected in Sandy himself a faint contempt for the +chap at the upper end of the telegraph. I stayed two hours, and then my +shirt was as though I had been overboard; and ascending a greasy and +almost perpendicular series of ladders to the upper world, I discovered, +from the drag of my feet and the weight of my body, that I had had just +as much of an engineer's watch in the tropics as I could stand. There +was a burst of cool light. The tumult ceased; and again there was the +old "Capella" rocking in the singing seas, for ever under the tranquil +clouds. We had stopped again. + +"_4 Jan._ A moderate north-east wind and sea, and a bright morning; but +far out a dark cloud formed, and drew, and driving towards us, covered +us presently with a blue-black canopy. The warm torrent fell with +outrageous violence, and for all we could see of our way the "Capella" +might have been in a dense fog. The mosquito curtains were served out +to-day, and we amused ourselves draping our bunks. Later, the weather +cleared. The night was stiflingly hot; and in that reeking bunk, with an +iron bulkhead separating me from the engine room, it was like lying on +the shelf of an oven. Though wide open on its catch, the door admitted +no air, but did allow a miserable tap-tapping as the ship rolled. At +eleven o'clock a pale face floated in the black vacancy of the door, and +I could see the Doctor peering in to find if I were awake. 'I say, +Purser, I can't sleep. Will you come and have a gossip, old dear?' We +went aft in our pyjamas, the Doctor cleared away bottles and things from +his settee, and we disembarked from the 'Capella,' visiting other and +distant stars, returning to our own again not before three next morning. + +"_5 Jan._ We seem to have got to a dead end of the trade winds. The heat +of the forenoon was oppressively humid and dinner was nearly lost +through it. The cook, a fair and plump Dutchman, broke down in the midst +of his pans, and was carried out to find his breath again. This poor +chef is up at four o'clock every morning coffee making; is working in +the galley, which is badly ventilated, all day, getting two hours' rest +in the early afternoon. Then he goes on till the saloon tea is over; +when he begins to bake bread. He fills in his leisure in peeling +potatoes. + +"All round the horizon motionless and permanent storm clouds are banked. +Their forms do not alter, but their colours change with the hours. They +seem to encompass us in a circular lake, a range of precipitous and +intricately piled Alps, high and massive. Cleaving those steeps of +calamitous rocks--for so they looked, and not in the least like +vapour--are chasms full of night, and the upper slopes and summits are +lucent in amber and pearl. In the south and east the ranges are indigo +dark and threatening, and the water between us and that closed country +is opaque and heavy as molten lead. Across the peaks of the mountains +rest horizontal strata of mist. Some petrels were about to-day. The +evening is cool, with a slight head breeze." + + * * * * * + +After weeks at sea, imprisoned within the walls of the sky, walls which +have not opened once to admit another vessel to give the assurance of +communion, you begin to doubt your direction and destination, and the +possibility of change. Only the clouds change. The ship is no nearer +breaking that rigid circle. She cannot escape from her place under the +centre of the dome. The most cheering assurance I had was the pulse of +the steamer, felt whenever I rested against her warm body. Purposeful +life was there, at least. Though the day may have been brazen, and +without a hint of progress, and the sea the same empty wilderness, yet +when most disheartened in the blind and melancholy night I felt under me +the beatings, energetic and insistent, of her lively heart, some of that +vitality was communicated, and I got sleep as a child would in the arms +of a strong and wakeful guardian. + +Poised between two profundities--though nearer the clouds, cirrus and +lofty though they are, than the land straight beneath the keel--and with +morning and night the only variety in the round, the days flicker by +white and black like a magic lantern working without a story. Tired of +watching for the fruits of our enterprise I went to sleep. Old Captain +Morgan must have lived a dull life, monotonous with adventure. What is +the use of travel, I asked myself. The stars are as near to London as +they are to the Spanish main. In their planetary journey through the +void the passengers at Peckham see as much as their fellows who peer +through the windows in Macassar. The sun rises in the east, and the moon +is horned; but some of the passengers on the mudball, strangely enough, +take their tea without milk. Yet what of that? + +In the chart room some days ago I learned we had 3000 fathoms under us. +Well; these waves of the tropics, curling over such abysmal deeps, look +much the same as the waves off Land's End. I began to see what I had +done. I had changed the murk of winter in London for the discomforts of +the dog days. I had come thousands of miles to see the thermometer rise. +Where are the Spanish Main, the Guianas, and the Brazils? At last I had +discovered them. I found their true bearings. They are in Raleigh's +"Golden City of Manoa," in Burney's "Buccaneers of America," with Drake, +Humboldt, Bates, and Wallace; and I had left them all at home. We borrow +the light of an observant and imaginative traveller, and see the foreign +land bright with his aura; and we think it is the country which shines. + + * * * * * + +At eight this morning we crossed the equator. I paid my footing in +whisky, and forgot all about the equator. Soon after that, idling under +the poop awning, I picked up the Doctor's book from his vacant chair. I +took the essays of Emerson carelessly and read at once--the sage plainly +had laid a trap for me--"Why covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and +night, a house and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve as well as +all trades and spectacles." So----. At this moment the first mate +crossed my light, and presently I heard the sounding machine whirring, +and then stop. There was a pause, and then the mate's unimportant voice, +"Twenty-five fathoms, sir, grey sand!" + +Emerson went sprawling. I stood up. Twenty-five fathoms! Then that grey +sand stuck to the tallow of the weight was the first of the Brazils. The +circle of waters was still complete about us, but over the bows, at a +great distance, were thunder clouds and wild lights. The oceanic swell +had decreased to a languid and glassy beat, and the water had become +jade green in colour, shot with turquoise gleams. The Skipper, himself +interested and almost jolly, announced a pound of tobacco to the first +man who spied the coast. We were nearing it at last. Those far clouds +canopied the forests of the Amazon. We stood in at slow speed. + +I know those forests. I mean I have often navigated their obscure +waterways, rafting through the wilds on a map, in my slippers, at night. +Now those forests soon were to loom on a veritable skyline. I should see +them where they stood, their roots in the unfrequented floods. I should +see Santa Maria de Belem, its aerial foliage over its shipping and +squalor. It was quite near now. I should see Santarem and Obydos, and +Itacoatiara; and then, turning from the King of Rivers to his tributary, +the Madeira, follow the Madeira to the San Antonio falls in the heart of +the South American continent. We drew over 23 feet, with this "Capella." +We were going to try what had never been attempted before by an ocean +steamer. This, too, was pioneering. I also was on an adventure, going +two thousand miles under those clouds of the equatorial rains, to live +for a while in the forests of the Orellana. And our vessel's rigging, so +they tell me, sometimes shall drag the foliage in showers on our decks, +and where we anchor at night the creatures of the jungle will call. + +Our nearness to land stirs up some old dreads in our minds also. We +discuss those dreads again, though with more concern than we did at +Swansea. Over the bows is now the prelude. We have heard many unsettling +legends of yellow fever, malaria, blackwater fever, dysentery, and +beri-beri. The mates, looking for land, swear they were fools to come a +voyage like this. They ought to have known better. The Doctor, who does +not always smile when he is amused, advises us not to buy a white sun +umbrella at Para, but a black one; then it will do for the funerals. + +"Land O!" That was the Skipper's own perfunctory cry. He had saved his +pound of tobacco. + +It was two in the afternoon. There was America. I rediscovered it with +some difficulty. All I could see was a mere local thickening of the +horizon, as though the pen which drew the faint line dividing the world +ahead into an upper and a nether opalescence had run a little freely at +one point. That thickening of the horizon was the island of Monjui. +Soon, though, there was a palpable something athwart our course. The +skyline heightened into a bluish barrier, which, as we approached still +nearer, broke into sections. The chart showed that a series of low +wooded islands skirted the mainland. Yet it was hard to believe we were +approaching land again. What showed as land was of too unsubstantial a +quality, too thin and broken a rind on that vast area of water to be of +any use as a foothold. Where luminous sky was behind an island groups of +diminutive palms showed, as tiny and distinct as the forms of mildew +under a magnifying glass, delicate black pencillings along the foot of +the sky-wall. Often that hairlike tracery seemed to rest upon the sea. +The "Capella" continued to stand in, till America was more than a frail +and tinted illusion which sometimes faded the more the eye sought it. +Presently it cast reflections. The islands grew into cobalt layers, with +vistas of silver water between them, giving them body. The course was +changed to west, and we cruised along for Atalaia point, towards the +pilot station. Over the thin and futile rind of land which topped the +sea--it might have undulated on the low swell--ponderous thunder clouds +towered, continents of night in the sky, with translucent areas dividing +them which were strangely illuminated from the hither side. Curtains as +black as bitumen draped to the waters from great heights. Two of these +appalling curtains, trailing over America, were a little withdrawn. We +could look beyond them to a diminishing array of glowing cloud summits, +as if we saw there an accidental revelation of a secret and wonderful +region with a sun of its own. And all, gigantic clouds, the sea, the far +and frail coast, were serene and still. The air had ceased to breathe. I +thought this new lucent world we had found might prove but a lucky dream +after all, to be seen but not to be entered, and that some noise would +presently shatter it and wake me. But we came alongside the white pilot +schooner, and the pilot put off in a boat manned by such a crowd of +grinning, ragged, and cinnamon skinned pirates as would have broken the +fragile wonder of any spell. Ours, though, did not break, and I was able +to believe we had arrived. At sunset the great clouds were full of +explosions of electric fire, and there were momentary revelations above +us of huge impending shapes. We went slowly over a lower world obscurely +lighted by phosphorescent waves. + + * * * * * + +It was not easy to make out, before sunrise, what it was we had come to. +I saw a phantom and indeterminate country; but as though we guessed it +was suspicious and observant, and its stillness a device, we moved +forward slowly and noiselessly, as a thief at an entrance. Low level +cliffs were near to either beam. The cliffs might have been the dense +residuum of the night. The night had been precipitated from the sky, +which was clearing and brightening. Our steamer was between banks of +these iron shades. + +Suddenly the sunrise ran a long band of glowing saffron over the shadow +to port, and the vague summit became remarkable with a parapet of black +filigree, crowns and fronds of palms and strange trees showing in rigid +patterns of ebony. A faint air then moved from off shore as though under +the impulse of the pouring light. It was heated and humid, and bore a +curious odour, at once foreign and familiar, the smell of damp earth, +but not of the earth I knew, and of vegetation, but of vegetation exotic +and wild. For a time it puzzled me that I knew the smell; and then I +remembered where we had met before. It was in the palm house at Kew +Gardens. At Kew that odour once made a deeper impression on me than the +extraordinary vegetation itself, for as a boy I thought that I inhaled +the very spirit of the tropics of which it was born. After the first +minute on the Para River that smell went, and I never noticed it again. + +Full day came quickly to show me the reality of one of my early visions, +and I suppose I may not expect many more such minutes as I spent when +watching from the "Capella's" bridge the forest of the Amazon take +shape. It was soon over. The morning light brimmed at the forest top, +and spilled into the river. The channel filled with sunshine. There it +was then. In the northern cliff I could see even the boughs and trunks; +they were veins of silver in a mass of solid chrysolite. This forest had +not the rounded and dull verdure of our own woods in midsummer, with +deep bays of shadow. It was a sheer front, uniform, shadowless, and +astonishingly vivid. I thought then the appearance of the forest was but +a local feature, and so gazed at it for what it would show me next. It +had nothing else to show me. Clumps of palms threw their fronds above +the forest roof in some places, or a giant exogen raised a dome; but +that was all. Those strong characters in the growth were seen only in +passing. They did not change the outlook ahead of converging lines of +level green heights rising directly from a brownish flood. + +Occasionally the river narrowed, or we passed close to one wall, and +then we could see the texture of the forest surface, the microstructure +of the cliff, though we could never look into it for more than a few +yards, except where, in some places, habitations were thrust into the +base of the woods, as in lower caverns. An exuberant wealth of forms +built up that forest which was so featureless from a little distance. +The numerous palms gave grace and life to the facade, for their plumes +flung in noble arcs from tall and slender columns, or sprayed directly +from the ground in emerald fountains. The rest was inextricable +confusion. Vines looped across the front of green, binding the forest +with cordage, and the roots of epiphytes dropped from upper boughs, like +hanks of twine. + +In some places the river widened into lagoons, and we seemed to be in a +maze of islands. Canoes shot across the waterways, and river schooners, +shaped very like junks, with high poops and blue and red sails, were +diminished beneath the verdure, betraying the great height of the woods. +Because of its longitudinal extension, fining down to a point in the +distance, the elevation of the forest, when uncontrasted, looked much +less than it really was. The scene was so luminous, still, and +voiceless, it was so like a radiant mirage, or a vivid remembrance of an +emotional dream got from books read and read again, that only the +unquestionable verity of our iron steamer, present with her smoke and +prosaic gear, convinced me that what was outside us was there. Across a +hatch a large butterfly hovered and flickered like a flame. Dragon flies +were suspended invisibly over our awning, jewels in shimmering enamels. + + * * * * * + +We anchored just before breakfast, and a small launch flying a large +Brazilian flag was soon fussing at our gangway. The Brazilian customs +men boarded us, and the official who was left in charge to overlook the +"Capella" while we remained was a tall and majestic Latin with dark eyes +of such nobility and brooding melancholy that it never occurred to me +that our doctor, who has travelled much, was other than a fellow with a +dull Anglo-Saxon mind when he removed some loose property to his cabin +and locked his door, before he went ashore. So I left my field glasses +on the ice-chest; and that was the last I saw of them. Yet that fellow +had such lovely hair, as the ladies would say, and his smile and his +courtesy were fit for kings. He carried a scented pink handkerchief and +wore patent leather boots. Our surgeon had but a faint laugh when these +explanations were made to him, taking my hand fondly, and saying he +loved little children. + +Para, a flat congestion of white buildings and red roofs in the sun, was +about a mile beyond our anchorage, over the port bow; and as its name +has been to me one that had the appeal of the world not ours, like +Tripoli of Barbary, Macassar, the Marquesas, and the Rio Madre de Dios, +the agent's launch, as it took us towards the small craft lying +immediately before the front of that spread of houses between the river +and the forest, was so momentous an occasion that the small talk of the +dainty Englishmen in linen suits, a gossiping group around the agent and +the Skipper, hardly came into the picture, to my mind. The launch rudely +hustled through a cluster of gaily painted native boats, the dingiest of +them bearing some sonorous name, and I landed in Brazil. + +There was an esplanade, shadowed by an avenue of mangoes. We crossed +that, and went along hot narrow streets, by blotched and shabby walls, +to the office to which our ship was consigned. We met a fisherman +carrying a large turtle by a flipper. We came to a dim cool warehouse. +There, some negroes and half-breeds were lazily hauling packages in the +shadows. It had an office railed off where a few English clerks, in +immaculate white, overlooked a staff of natives. The warehouse had a +strange and memorable odour, evasive, sweet, and pungent, as barbaric a +note as I found in Para, and I understood at once I had come to a place +where there were things I did not know. I felt almost timorous and yet +compelled when I sniffed at those shadows; though what the eye saw in +the squalid streets of the riverside, where brown folk stood regarding +us carelessly from openings in the walls, I had thought no more than a +little interesting. + +What length of time we should have in Belem was uncertain, but presently +the Skipper, looking most morose, came away from his discussion with the +agent and told us, at some length, what he thought of people who kept a +ship waiting because of a few unimportant papers. Then he mumbled, very +reluctantly, that we had plenty of time to see all Para. The Doctor and +I were out of that office before the Skipper had time to change his +mind. Our captain is a very excellent master mariner, but occasionally +he likes to test the security of his absolute autocracy, to see if it is +still sound. I never knew it when it was not; but yet he must, to assure +himself of a certainty, or to exercise some devilish choler in his +nature, sometimes beat our poor weak bodies against the adamant thing, +to see which first will break. I will say for him that he is always +polite when handing back to us our bruised fragments. Here he was giving +us a day's freedom, and one's first city of the tropics in which to +spend it; and we agreed with him that such a waste of time was almost +unbearable, and left hurriedly. + +Outside the office was a small public square where grew palms which ran +flexible boles, swaying with the weight of their crowns, clear above the +surrounding buildings, shadowing them except in one place, where the +front of a ruinous church showed, topped by a crucifix. The church, a +white and dilapidated structure, was hoary with ficus and other plants +which grew from ledges and crevices. Through the crowns of the palms the +sunlight fell in dazzling lathes and partitions, chequering the stones. +An ox-cart stood beneath. + +The Paraenses, passing by at a lazy gait--which I was soon compelled to +imitate--in the heat, were puzzling folk to one used to the features of +a race of pure blood, like ourselves. Portuguese, negro, and Indian were +there, but rarely a true type of one. Except where the black was the +predominant factor the men were impoverished bodies, sallow, meagre, and +listless; though there were some brown and brawny ruffians by the +foreshore. But the women often were very showy creatures, certainly +indolent in movement, but not listless, and built in notable curves. +They were usually of a richer colour than their mates, and moved as +though their blood were of a quicker temper. They had slow and insolent +eyes. The Indian has given them the black hair and brown skin, the negro +the figure, and Portugal their features and eyes. Of course, the ladies +of Para society, boasting their straight Portuguese descent, are not +included in this insulting description; and I do not think I saw them. +Unless, indeed, they were the ladies who boldly eyed us in the +fashionable Para hotel, where we lunched, at a great price, off imported +potatoes, tinned peas, and beef which in England would be sold to a glue +factory; I mean the women in those Parisian costumes erring something on +the sides of emphasis, and whose remarkable pallor was even a little +greenish in the throat shadows. + +After lunch some disappointment and irresolution crept into our +holiday....There had been a time--but that was when Para was only in a +book; that was when its mere printed name was to me a token of the +tropics. You know the place I mean. You can picture it. Paths that go at +noon but a little way into the jungle which overshadows an isolated +community of strange but kindly folk, paths that end in a twilight +stillness; ardent hues, flowers of vanilla, warm rain, a luscious and +generative earth, fireflies in the scented dusk of gardens; and +mystery--every outlook disappearing in the dark of the unknown. + +Well, here I was, placed by the ordinary moves of circumstance in the +very place the name of which once had been to me like a chord of that +music none hears but oneself. I stood in Para, outside a picture +postcard shop. Electric cars were bumping down a narrow street. The +glitter of a cheap jeweller's was next to the stationer's; and on the +other side was a vendor of American and Parisian boots. There have been +changes in Para since Bates wrote his idylls of the forest. We two +travellers, after ordering some red earthenware chatties, went to find +Bates' village of Nazareth. In 1850 it was a mile from the town. It is +part of the town now, and an electric tram took us there, a tram which +drove vultures off the line as it bumped along. The heat was a serious +burden. The many dogs, which found energy enough to limp out of the way +of the car only when at the point of death, were thin and diseased, and +most unfortunate to our nice eyes. The Brazilian men of better quality +we passed were dressed in black cloth suits, and one mocked the equator +with a silk hat and yellow boots. I set down these things as the tram +showed them. The evident pride and hauteur, too, of these Latins, was a +surprise to one of a stronger race. We stopped at a street corner, and +this was Nazareth. Bates' pleasant hamlet is now the place of Para's +fashionable homes--pleasant still, though the overhead tram cables, and +the electric light standards which interrupt the avenues of trees, place +you there, now your own turn comes to look for the romance of the +tropics, in another century. But the villas are in heliotrope, primrose, +azure, and rose, bowered in extravagant arbours of papaws mangoes, +bananas, and palms, with shrubberies beneath of feathery mimosas, and +cassias with orange and crimson blooms. And my last walk ashore was in +Swansea High Street in the winter rain! From Nazareth's main street the +side turnings go down to the forest. For, in spite of its quays, its +steamers, and its electric trams, Para is but built in a larger clearing +of the wilderness. The jungle stood at the bottom of all suburban +streets, a definite city wall. The spontaneity and savage freedom of the +plant life in this land of alternate hot sun and warm showers at last +blurred and made insignificant to me the men who braved it in silk hats +and broadcloth there, and the trams, and the jewellers' shops, for my +experience of vegetation was got on my knees in a London suburb, praying +things to come out of the cold mud. Here, I began to suspect, they +besieged us, quick and turbulent, an exhaustible army, ready to +reconquer the foothold man had hardly won, and to obliterate his works. + +We passed through by-ways, where naked brown babies played before the +doors. We happened upon the cathedral, and went on to the little dock +where native vessels rested on garbage, the tide being out. Vultures +pulled at stuff beneath the bilges. The crews, more Indian than +anything, and men of better body than the sallow fellows in the town, +sprawled on the hot stones of the quays and about the decks. There was a +huge negress, arms akimbo, a shapeless monument in black indiarubber +draped in cotton print, who talked loudly with a red boneless mouth to +two disregarding Indians sitting with their backs to a wall. She had a +rabbit's foot, mounted in silver, hanging between her dugs. The +schooners, ranged in an arcade, were rigged for lateen sails, very like +Mediterranean craft. The forest was a narrow neutral tinted ribbon far +beyond. The sky was blue, the texture of porcelain. The river was +yellow. And I was grievously disappointed; yet if you put it to me I +cannot say why. There was something missing, and I don't know what. +There was something I could not find; but as it is too intangible a +matter for me to describe even now, you may say, if you like, that the +fault was with me, and not with Para. We stood in a shady place, and the +doctor, looking down at his hand, suddenly struck it. "Let us go," he +said. He showed me the corpse of a mosquito. "Have you ever seen the +yellow fever chap?" the Doctor asked. "That is he." We left. + +Near the agent's office we met an English shipping clerk, and he took us +into a drink shop, and sat us at a marble-topped table having gilded +iron legs, and called for gin tonics. We began to tell him what we +thought of Para. It did not seem much of a place. It was neither here +nor there. + +He was a pallid fellow with a contemplative smile, and with weary eyes +and tired movements. "I know all that," he said. "It's a bit of a hole. +Still--You'd be surprised. There's a lot here you don't see at first. +It's big. All out there--he waved his arm west inclusively--it's a world +with no light yet. You get lost in it. But you're going up. You'll see. +The other end of the forest is as far from the people in the streets +here as London is--it's farther--and they know no more about it. I was +like you when I first came. I gave the place a week, and then reckoned I +knew it near enough. Now, I'm--well, I'm half afraid of it ... not +afraid of anything I can see ... I don't know. There's something dam +strange about it. Something you never can find out. It's something +that's been here since the beginning, and it's too big and strong for +us. It waits its time. I can feel it now. Look at those palm trees, +outside. Don't they look as if they're waiting? What are they waiting +for? You get that feeling here in the afternoon when you can't get air, +and the rain clouds are banking up round the woods, and nothing moves. +'Lord,' said a fellow to me when I first came, 'tell us about Peckham. +But for the spicy talk about yellow fever I'd think I was dead and +waiting wide awake for the judgment day.' That's just the feeling. As if +something dark was coming and you couldn't move. There the forest is, +all round us. Nobody knows what's at the back of it. Men leave Para, +going up river. We have a drink in here, and they go up river, and don't +come back. + +"Down by the square one day I saw an old boy in white ducks and a sun +helmet having a shindy with the sentry at the barracks. The old fellow +was kicking up a dust. He was English, and I suppose he thought the +sentry would understand him, if he shouted. English and Americans do. + +"You have to get into the road here, when you approach the barracks. +It's the custom. The sentry always sends you off the pavement. The old +chap was quite red in the face about it. And the things he was saying! +Lucky for him the soldier didn't know what he meant. So I went over, as +he was an Englishman, and told him what the sentry wanted. 'What,' said +the man, 'walk in the road? Not me. I'd sooner go back.' + +"Go back he did, too. I walked with him and we got rather pally. We came +in here. We sat at that table in the corner. He said he was Captain +Davis, of Barry. Ever heard of him? He said he had brought out a +shallow-draught river boat, and he was taking her up the Rio Japura. The +way he talked! Do you know the Japura? Well, it's a deuce of a way from +here. But that old captain talked--he talked like a child. He was so +obstinate about it. He was going to take that boat up the Japura, and +you'd have thought it was above Boulter's Lock. Then he began to swear +about the dagoes. + +"The old chap got quite wild again when he thought of that soldier. He +was a little man, nothing of him, and his face was screwed up as if he +was always annoyed about something. You have to take things as they +come, here, and let it go. But this Davis man was an irritable old boy, +and most of his talk was about money. He said he was through with the +boat running jobs. No more of 'em. It was as bare as boards. Nothing to +be made at the game, he said. Over his left eye he had a funny hairy +wart, a sort of knob, and whenever he got excited it turned red. I may +say he let me pay for all the drinks. I reckon he was pretty close with +his money. + +"He told me he knew a man in Barry who'd got a fine pub--a little +gold-mine. He said there was a stuffed bear at the pub and it brought +lots of customers. Seemed to think I must know the place. He said he was +going to try to get an alligator for the chap who kept the pub. The +alligator could stand on its hind legs at the other side of the door, +with an electric bulb in its mouth, like a lemon. That was his fine +idea. He reckoned that would bring customers. Then old Davis started to +fidget about. I began to think he wanted to tell me something, and I +wondered what the deuce it was. I thought it was money. It generally is. +At last he told me. He wanted one of those dried Indian heads for that +pub. 'You know what I mean,' he said. 'The Indians kill somebody, and +make his head smaller than a baby's, and the hair hangs down all round.' + +"Have you ever seen one of those heads? The Indians bone 'em, and stuff +'em with spice and gums, and let 'em dry in the sun. They don't look +nice. I've seen one or two. + +"But I tried to persuade him to let the head go. The Government has +stopped that business, you know. Got a bit too thick. If you ordered a +head, the Johnnies would just go out and have somebody's napper. + +"I missed old Davis after that. I was transferred to Manaos, up river. I +don't know what became of him. It was nearly a year when I came back to +Para. Our people had had the clearing of that boat old Davis brought +out, and I found some of his papers, still unsettled. I asked about him, +in a general way, and found he hadn't arrived. His tug had been back +twice. When it was here last it seemed the native skipper explained +Davis went ashore, when returning, at a place where they touched for +rubber. He went into the village and didn't come back. Well, it seems +the skipper waited. No Davis. So he tootled his whistle and went on up +stream, because the river was falling, and he had some more stations to +do in the season. He was at the village again in a few days, though, and +Davis wasn't there then. The tug captain said the village was deserted, +and he supposed the old chap had gone down river in another boat. But +he's not back yet. The boss said the fever had got him, somewhere. +That's the way things go here. + +"A month ago an American civil engineer touched here, and had to wait +for a boat for New York. He'd been right up country surveying for some +job or another, Peru way. I went up to his hotel with the fellows to see +him one evening. He was on his knees packing his trunks. 'Say, boys,' he +said, sitting on the floor, 'I brought a whole lot of truck from way up, +and now it hasn't got a smile for me.' He offered me his collection of +butterflies. Then the Yankee picked up a ball of newspaper off the +floor, and began to peel it. 'This goes home,' he said. 'Have you seen +anything like that? I bet you haven't.' He held out the opened packet in +his hand, and there was a brown core to it. 'I reckon that is thousands +of years old,' said the American. + +"It was a little dried head, no bigger than a cricket ball, and about +the same colour. Very like an Indian's too. The features were quite +plain, and there was a tiny wart over the left eyebrow. 'I bet you +that's thousands of years old,' said the American. 'I bet you it isn't +two,' I said." + + * * * * * + +We returned to the steamer in the late afternoon, bringing with us two +Brazilian pilots, who were to take us as far as Itacoatiara. We sailed +next morning for the interior. Para, like all the towns on the Amazon, +has but one way out of it. There is a continent behind Para, but you +cannot go that way; when you leave the city you must take the river. +Para stands by the only entrance to what is now the greatest region of +virgin tropics left in the world. Always at anchor off the city's front +are at least a dozen European steamers, most of them flying the red +ensign. A famous engineering contractor, also British, is busy +constructing modern wharves there; and Thames tugs and mudhoppers, +flying the Brazilian flag, as the law insists, but bawling London +compliments as they pass your ship, help the native schooners with their +rakish lateen sails, blue and scarlet, to make the anchorage brisk and +lively. Looking out from the "Capella's" bridge she appeared to be +within a lagoon. The lake was elliptical, and so large it was a world +for the eye to range in. It was bound by a low barrier of forest, a +barrier distant enough to lose colour, nature, and significance. Para, +white and red, lay reflecting the sunset from many facets in the +south-west, with a cheerful array of superior towers and spires. From +the ship Para looked big, modern, and prosperous; and with those vast +rounded clouds of the rains assembling and mounting over the bright +city, and brooding there, impassive and dark, but with impending keels +lustrous with the burnish of copper and steel, and seeing a rainbow +curving down from one cloud over the city's white front, I, being a +new-comer, and with a pardonable feeling of exhilaration which was of my +own well-being in a new and a wide and radiant place, thought of man +there as a conqueror who had overcome the wilderness, builded him a +city, bridled the exuberance of a savage land, and directed the sap and +life, born in a rich soil of ardent sun and rain, into the forms useful +to him. So I entered the chart-room, and looked with a new interest on +the chart of the place. Then I felt less certain of the conqueror and +his taming bridle. I saw that this lagoon in which the "Capella" showed +large and important was but a point in an immense area of tractless +islands and meandering waterways, a region intricate, and, the chart +confessed, little known. The coast opposite the city, which I had taken +for mainland, was the trivial Ihla des Oncas. The main channel of the +river was beyond that island, with the coast of Marajo for the farther +shore; and Marajo also was but an island, though as large as Wales. The +north channel of the Amazon was beyond again, with more islands, about +which the chart confessed less knowledge. One of the pilots was with me; +and when I spoke of those points in the ultimate Amazons, the alluring +names on maps you read in England, here they were, at Para, just what +they are at home, still vague and far, journeys thither to be reckoned +by time; a shrug of the shoulders and a look of amusement; two months, +Senhor, or perhaps three or four. The idea came slowly; but it dawned, +something like the conception of astronomy's amplitudes, of the +remoteness of the beyond of Amazonas, that new world I had just entered. + +I crept within the mosquito curtain that night, and the still heated +dark lay on my mind, the pressure of an unknown full of dread. I thought +of the pale shipping clerk and his tired smile, and of Captain Davis, +his face no bigger than a cricket ball, and the same colour, with a wart +over his eye; and recalled the anxious canvass I had heard made for news +of sickness up-river. A ship had passed outwards that morning, the +consul told us, with twenty men on board down with fever. + +And Thorwaldsen. I forgot to tell you about Thorwaldsen. He was a +trader, and last rainy season he took his vessel up some far backwater, +beyond Manaos, with his wife and his little daughter. News had just come +from nowhere to Para that his wife had died in childbirth in the wilds, +and Thorwaldsen had been murdered; but nothing was known of his +daughter. There it was. I did not know the Thorwaldsens. But the +trader's little girl who might then be alone in the gloom of the jungle +with savages, helped to keep me awake. And the wife, that fair-haired +Swede; she was in the alien wilderness, beyond all gentlehood, when her +time came. I could see two mosquitoes doing their best to work backwards +through the curtain mesh. They were after me, the emissaries of the +unknown, and their pertinacity was astonishing. + + * * * * * + +"_Jan. 9._ The 'Capella' left Para at three o'clock this morning, and +continued up the Para River. Daylight found us in a wide brownish +stream, with the shores low and indistinguishable on either beam. When +the sun grew hot, the jungle came close in; it was often so close that +we could see the nests of wasps on the trees, like grey shields hanging +there. Between the Para River and the Amazon the waters dissipate into a +maze of serpenting ditches. In width these channels usually are no more +than canals, but they were deep enough to float our big tramp steamer. +They thread a multitude of islands, islands overloaded with a massed +growth which topped our mast-heads. Our steamer was enclosed within +resonant chasms, and the noise and incongruity of our progress awoke +deep protests there. + +"The dilated loom of the rains, the cloud shapes so continental that +they occupied, where they stood not so far away, all the space between +the earth and sky, bulged over the forest at the end of every view. The +heat was luscious; but then I had nothing to do but to look on from a +hammock under the awning. The foliage which was pressed out over the +water, not many yards from the hurrying 'Capella,' had a closeness of +texture astonishing, and even awful, to one who knew only the thin woods +of the north. It ascended directly from the water's edge, sometimes out +of the water, and we did not often see its foundation. There were no +shady aisles and glades. The sight was stopped on a front of polished +emerald, a congestion of stiff leaves. The air was still. Individual +sprays and fronds, projecting from the mass in parabolas with flamboyant +abandon and poise, were as rigid as metallic and enamelled shapes. The +diversity of forms, and especially the number and variety of the palms, +so overloaded an unseen standing that the parapets of the woods +occasionally leaned outwards to form an arcade above our masts. One +should not call this the jungle; it was even a soft and benignant Eden. +This was the forest I really wished to find. Often the heavy parapets of +the woods were upheld on long colonnades of grey palm boles; or the +whole upper structure appeared based on low green arches, the pennate +fronds of smaller palms flung direct from the earth. + +"There was not a sound but the noise of our intruding steamer. +Occasionally we brushed a projecting spray, or a vine pendent from a +cornice. We proved the forest then. In some shallow places were +regiments of aquatic grasses, bearing long plumes. There were trees +which stood in the water on a tangle of straight pallid roots, as though +on stilts. This up-burst of intense life so seldom showed the land to +which it was fast, and the side rivers and paranas were so many, that I +could believe the forest afloat, an archipelago of opaque green vapours. +Our heavy wash swayed and undulated the aquatic plants and grasses, as +though disturbing the fringe of those green clouds which clung to the +water because of their weight in a still air. + +"There was seldom a sign of life but the infrequent snowy herons, and +those curious brown fowl, the ciganas. The sun was flaming on the +majestic assembly of the storm. The warm air, broken by our steamer, +coiled over us in a lazy flux. I did not hear the bell calling to meals. +We all hung over the 'Capella's' side, gaping, like a lot of boys. + +"Sometimes we passed single habitations on the water side. Ephemeral +huts of palm-leaves were forced down by the forest, which overhung them, +to wade on frail stilts. A canoe would be tied to a toy jetty, and on +the jetty a sad woman and several naked children would stand, with no +show of emotion, to watch us go by. Behind them was the impenetrable +foliage. I thought of the precarious tenure on earth of these brown folk +with some sadness, especially as the day was going. The easy dominance +of the wilderness, and man's intelligent morsel of life resisting it, +was made plain when we came suddenly upon one of his little shacks +secreted among the aqueous roots of a great tree, cowering, as it were, +between two of the giant's toes. Those brown babies on the jetties never +cheered us. They watched us, serious and forlorn. Alongside their +primitive hut were a few rubber trees, which we knew by their scars. +Late in the afternoon we came to a large cavern in the base of the +forest, a shadowy place where at last we did see a gathering of the +folk. A number of little wooden crosses peeped above the floor in the +hollow. The sundering floods and the forest do not always keep these +folk from congregation, and the comfort of the last communion. + +"There was a question at night as to whether our pilots would anchor or +not. They decided to go on. We did not go the route of Bates, _via_ +Breves, but took the Parana de Buyassa on our way to the Amazon. It was +night when we got to the Parana, and but for the trailing lights, the +fairy mooring lines of habitations in the woods, and what the silent +explosions of lightning revealed of great heads of trees, startlingly +close and monstrous, as though watching us in silent and intent regard, +we saw nothing of it." + + * * * * * + +Once I knew a small boy, and on a summer day too much in the past now to +be recalled without some private emotion, he said to his father, on the +beach of a popular East Anglian resort, "And where is the sea?" He stood +then, for the first time, where the sea, by all the promises of pictures +and poems, should have been breaking on its cold grey crags. "The sea?" +said the father, in astonishment, "why, there it is. Didn't you know?" + +And that father, being an exact man, there beyond appeal the sea was. +And what was it? A discoloured wash, of mean limit, which flopped +wearily on some shabby sands littered with people and luncheon papers. +Such a flat, stupid, and leaden disillusion surely never before fell on +the upturned, bright and expectant soul of a young human, who, I can +vouch, began life, like most others, believing the noblest of +everything. It was an ocean which was inferior even to the +bathing-machines, and could be seen but in division when that child, +walking along the rank of those boxes on wheels, peeped between them. + +You will have noticed with what simple indifference the people who +really know what they call the truth will shatter an illusion we have +long cherished; though, as we alone see our private dreams, those honest +folk cannot be blamed for poking their feet through fine pictures they +did not know were there. + +I had a picture of the Amazon, which I had long cherished. I was leaning +to-day over the bulwarks of the "Capella," watching the jungle pass. The +Doctor was with me. I thought we were still on the Para River, and was +waiting for our vessel to emerge from that stream, as through a narrow +gate, dramatically, into the broad sunlight of the greatest river in the +world, the king of rivers, the Amazon of my picture. We idly scanned the +forest with binoculars, having nothing to do, and saw some herons, and +the ciganas, and once a sloth which was hanging to a tree. Para, I felt, +was as distant as London. The silence, the immobility of it all, and the +pour of the tropic sun, were just beginning to be a little subduing. We +had come already to the wilderness. There was, I thought, a very great +deal of this forest; and it never varied. + +"We shall be on the Amazon soon," I said hopefully, to the doctor. + +"We have been on it for hours," he replied. And that is how I got there. + +But the Amazon is not seen, any more than is the sea, at the first +glance. What the eye first gathers, is, naturally (for it is but an +eye), nothing like commensurate with your own image of the river. The +mind, by suggestive symbols, builds something portentous, a vague and +tremendous idea. What I saw was only a very swift and opaque yellow +flood, not much broader, it seemed to me, than the Thames at Gravesend, +and the monotonous green of the forest. It was all I saw for a +considerable time. + +I see something different now. It is not easily explained merely as a +yellow river, with a verdant elevation on either hand, and over it a +blue sky. It would be difficult to find, except by luck, a word which +would convey the immensity of the land of the Amazons, something of the +aloofness and separation of the points of its extremes, with months and +months of adventure between them. What a journey it would be from Ino in +Bolivia, on the Rio Madre de Dios, to Conception in Colombia, on the Rio +Putumayo; there is another "Odyssey" in a voyage like that. And think of +the names of those places and rivers! When I take the map of South +America now, and hold it with the estuary of the Amazon as its base, my +thoughts are like those might be of a lost ant, crawling in and over the +furrows and ridges of an exposed root as he regards all he may of the +trunk rising into the whole upper cosmos of a spreading oak. The Amazon +then looks to me, properly symbolical, as a monstrous tree, and its +tributaries, paranas, furos, and igarapes, as the great boughs, little +boughs, and twigs of its ascending and spreading ramifications, so +minutely dissecting the continent with its numberless watercourses that +the mind sees that dark region as an impenetrable density of green and +secret leaves; which, literally, when you go there, is what you will +find. You enter the leaves, and vanish. You creep about the region of +but one of its branches, under a roof of foliage which stays the midday +shine and lets it through to you in the dusk of the interior but as +points of distant starlight. Occasionally, as we did upon a day, you see +something like Santarem. There is a break and a change in the journey. +Moving blindly through the maze of green, there, hanging in the clear +day at the end of a bough, is a golden fruit. + + * * * * * + +"_Jan. 10._ The torrid morning, tempered by a cooling breeze which +followed us up river, was soon overcast. Disappointingly narrow at +first, the Amazon broadened later, but not to one's conception of its +magnitude. But the greatness of this stream, I have already learned, +dawns upon you in time, and if you sufficiently endure. It persists +about you, this forest and this river, like the stark desolation of the +sea. The real width of the river is not often seen because of the +islands which fringe its banks, many of them of considerable size. The +side channels, or paranas-miris, between the islands and the shores, are +used in preference to the main stream by the native sailing craft, to +avoid the strength of the current. We had the river to ourselves. The +'Capella' was taken by the pilots, first over to one side and then to +the other, dodging the set of the stream. The forest has changed. It has +now a graceless and savage aspect when we are close to it. There are not +so many palms. At a little distance the growth appears a mass of spindly +oaks and beeches, though with a more vivid and lighter green foliage. +But when near it shows itself alien enough, a front of nameless and +congested leaves. I suppose it would be more than a hundred feet in +altitude. Sometimes the forest stands in the water. At other times a +yellow bank shows, a narrow strip under the trees, rarely more than four +feet high, and strewn with the bleaching skeletons of trees and +entanglements of vine. There is rarely a sign of life. Once this morning +a bird called in the woods when we were close. Butterflies are +continually crossing the ship, and dragonflies and great wasps and +hornets are hawking over us. The sight of one swallowtail butterfly, a +big black and yellow fellow, sent the cook insane. The insect stayed its +noble flight, poised over our hatch, and then came down to see what we +were. It settled on a coil of rope, leisurely pulsing its wings. The +cook, at the sight of this bold and bright being, sprang from the +galley, and leaped down to the deck with a dish cloth. To our surprise +he caught the insect, and explained with eagerness how that the +shattered pattern of colours, which more than covered his gross palm, +would improve his firescreen in a Rotterdam parlour. + +"Early in the forenoon sections of the forest vanished in grey rain +squalls, though elsewhere the sun was brilliant. The plane of the dingy +yellow flood was variegated with transient areas of bright sulphur and +chocolate. We were hugging the right bank, and so saw the mouth of the +Xingu as we passed. At midday some hills ahead, the Serra de Almerim, +gave us relief from the dead level of the wearying green walls. The +sight of those blue heights with their flat tops--they were perhaps no +more than 1000 feet above the forest--curiously stimulated the eye and +lifted one's humour, long depressed by the everlasting sameness of the +prospect and the heat. Later in the day we passed more of the welcome +hills, the Serra de Maranuaqua, Velha Pobre, and Serras de Tapaiunaquara +and Paranaquara, their cones, truncated pyramids, knolls and hog backs, +ranging contrary to our course. Bates says some of them are bare, or +covered only with a short herbage; but all those I examined with a good +telescope had forest to the summits; though a few of the inferior +heights, which stood behind the island of Jurupari (the island where +dreams come at night) were grassy. Those cobalt prominences rose like +precipitous islands from a green sea. We were the only spectators. One +high range, as we passed, was veiled in a glittering mesh of rain. The +river, after we left Jurupari, bent round, and brought the heights +astern of us. The sun set. + +"The river and the forest are best at sundown. The serene level rays +discovered the woods. We saw trees then distinctly, almost as a +surprise. Till then the forest had been but a gloom by day. Behind us +was the jungle front. It changed from green to gold, a band of light +between the river and the darkling sky. Some greater trees emerged +majestically. It was the first time that day we had really seen the +features of the jungle. It was but a momentary revelation. The clouds +were reflectors, throwing amber lights below. In the hills astern of us +ravines hitherto unsuspected caught the transitory glory. The dark +heights had many polished facets. One range, round-shouldered and +wooded, I thought resembled the promontories about Clovelly, and for a +few minutes the Amazon had the bright eyes of a friend. On a ridge of +those heights I could see the sky through some of its trees. The light +quickly gave out, and it was night. + +"We continued cruising along the south shore. The usual pulsations of +lightning made night intermittent; the forest was not more than 150 feet +from our vessel, and sitting under the awning the trees kept jumping out +of the night, startlingly near. The night was still and hot, and my +cabin lamp had attracted myriads of insects through the door which had +been left open for air. A heap of crawlers lay dead on the desk, and the +bunk curtain was smothered with grotesque winged shapes, flies, cicadas, +mantis, phasmas, moths, beetles, and mosquitoes." + + * * * * * + +Next morning found us running along the north shore. Parrots were +squawking in the woods alongside. A large alligator floated close by the +ship, its jaws open in menace. At breakfast time a strip of white beach +came into view on the opposite coast, a place in that world of three +colours on which one's tired eyes could alight and rest. That was +Santarem. Sharp hills rose immediately behind the town. The town is in a +saddle of the hills, slipping down to the river in terraces of white, +chrome, and blue houses. The Rio Tapajos, a black water tributary and a +noble river, enters the main stream by Santarem, its dark flood sharply +contrasted with the tawny Amazon. But the Amazon sweeps right across its +mouth in a masterful way. There is a definite line dividing black from +yellow water, and then no more Tapajos. + +We passed numerous floating islands (Ilhas de Caapim) and trees adrift, +evidence, the pilots said, that the river was rising. These grass +islands are a feature of the Amazon. They look like lush pastures +adrift. Some of them are so large it is difficult to believe they are +really afloat till they come alongside. Then, if the river is at all +broken by a breeze, the meadow plainly undulates. This floating cane and +grass grows in the sheltered bays and quiet paranas-miris, for though +the latter are navigable side-channels of the river in the rainy season, +in the dry they are merely isolated swamps. But when the river is in +flood the earth is washed away from the roots of this marsh growth, and +it moves off, a flourishing, mobile field, often twenty feet in +thickness. Such islands, when large, can be dangerous to small craft. +Small flowers blossom on these aquatic fields, which shelter snakes and +turtles, and sometimes the peixe-boi, the manatee. + +Obydos was in sight in the afternoon, but presently we lost it in a +violent squall of rain. The squall came down like a gun burst, and +nearly carried away the awnings. It was evening before we were abreast +of that most picturesque town I saw on the river. Obydos rests on one of +the rare Amazon cliffs of rufus clay and sandstone. The forest mounts +the hill above it, and the scattered red roofs of the town show in a +surf of foliage. The cliffs glowed in cream and cherry tints, with a +cascade of vines falling over them, though not reaching the shore. The +dainty little houses sit high in a loop of the cliffs. We left the city +behind, with a huge cumulus cloud resting over it, and the evening light +on all. + +But Obydos and sunsets and rain squalls, and the fireflies which flit +about the dark ship at night in myriads, tiny blue and yellow glow-lamps +which burn with puzzling inconstancy, as though being switched on and +off, though they help me with this narrative, yet candour compels me to +tell you that they take up more space in this book than they do in the +land of the Amazon. They were incidental and small to us, dominated by +the shadowing presence of the forest. + +We have been on the river nearly a week. But our steamer's decks, even +by day, are deserted now. We lean overside no longer looking at this +strange country. The heat is the most noteworthy fact, and drives every +one to what little leeward to the glare there is. Our cook, who is a +salamander of a fellow, and has no need to fear the possibilities of his +future life--though I do not remember he ever told me he was really +thoughtful for them--feeling a little uncomfortable one day when at work +on our dinner, glanced at his thermometer, and fled in terror. It +registered 134 deg.. He begged me to go in and verify it, and once inside I +was hardly any time doing that. We have such days, without a breath of +air, and two vivid walls of still jungle, and between them a yellow +river serpentining under the torrid sun, and a silence which is like +deafness. + +Under the shadow of the awning aft, in his deck chair, the Doctor is +preparing our defences by sounding a profound volume on tropical +diseases. This gives us but little confidence; though, as to our +surgeon, recently I overheard one fireman to another, "I tell yer +the--doc's a Man. That's what he is." (This is the result of the gin +with the quinine.) Yet, good man as he is, his book on the consequences +of the tropics is so large that we fear we all cannot escape so many +impediments to joy. But our health's guardian is careful we do not +anticipate anything from peeps into the mysteries. He never leaves his +big book about, much as some of us would like to see the pictures in it, +after what the donkeyman told us. + +This is how it was. Donkey, in spite of instructions, and I know how +emphatic the Skipper usually is, slept on deck away from his mosquito +bar a few nights ago. He said at the time that he wasn't afraid of them +little fanciful biters, or something of the kind. I have no doubt the +Doctor would have had some trouble in making clear to Donkey's +understanding exactly what are the links, delicate but sure, between +mosquitoes and dissolution and decay in man. So he showed Donkey a +picture. I wish I knew what it was--but the surgeon preserves the usual +professional reticence in the affairs of his patients. For now Donkey is +convinced it is very bad to sleep outside his curtain, and when he tries +to tell us how unwholesome such sleeping can be, just at the point when +he gets most entertaining his vocabulary wears into holes and tatters. +You could not conjure that man from his curtain now, no, not if you +showed him, in a vision, Cardiff, and the fairy lights of all its dock +hotels. I know that in the Doctor's book there is a picture of a negro +who acquired, in a superb way, a wonderful form of elephantiasis, for +the Doctor showed it to me once, as a treat, when he thought I was +growing slack and bored. + +We require now such childish laughter at each other's discomfiture to +break the spell of this land into which we are sinking deeper. Still the +forest glides by. It is a shadow on the mind. It stands over us, an +insistent riddle, every morning when I look out from my bunk. I watch it +all day, drawn against my will; and as day is dying it is still there, +paramount, enigmatic, silent, its question implied in its mere +persistence--meeting me again on the next day, still with its mute +interrogation. + +We have been passing it for nearly a week. It should have convinced me +by now that it is something material. But why should I suppose it is +that? We have had no chance to examine it. It does not look real. It +does not remind me of anything I know of vegetation. When you sight your +first mountains, a delicate and phantom gleam athwart the stars, are you +reminded of the substance of the hills? I have been watching it for so +long, this abiding and soundless forest, that now I think it is like the +sky, intangible, an apparition; what the eye sees of the infinite, just +as the eye sees a blue colour overhead at midday, and the glow of the +Milky Way at night. For the mind sees this forest better than the eye. +The mind is not deceived by what merely shows. Wherever the steamer +drives the forest recedes, as does the sky at sea; but it never leaves +us. + +The jungle gains nothing, and loses nothing, at noon. It is only a +sombre thought still, as at midnight. It is still, at noon, so obscure +and dumb a presence that I suspect the sun does not illuminate it so +much as reveal our steamer in its midst. We are revealed instead. The +presence sees us advancing into its solitudes, a small, busy, and +impudent intruder. But the forest does not greet, and does not resent +us. It regards us with the vacancy of large composure, with a lofty +watchfulness which has no need to show its mind. I think it knows our +fears of its domain. It knows the secret of our fate. It makes no sign. +The pallid boles of the trees, the sentinels by the water with the press +of verdure behind them, stand, as we pass, like soundless exclamations. +So when we go close in shore I find myself listening for a chance +whisper, a careless betrayal of the secret. There is not a murmur in the +host; though once a white bird flew yauping from a tree, and then it +seemed the desolation had been surprised into a cry, a prolonged and +melancholy admonition. Following that the silence was deepened, as +though an indiscretion were regretted. A sustained and angry protest at +our presence would have been natural; but not that infinite line of +lofty trees, darkly superior, silently watching us pass. + + * * * * * + +One night we anchored off the south shore in twenty fathoms, but close +under the trees. At daybreak we stood over to the opposite bank. The +river here was of great width, the north coast being low and indistinct. +These tacks across stream look so purposeless, in a place where there +are no men and all the water looks the same. You go over for nothing. +But this morning, high above the land ahead, some specks were seen +drifting like fragments of burnt paper, the sport of an idle and distant +wind. Those drifting dots were urubus, the vultures, generally the first +sign that a settlement is near. To come upon a settlement upon the +Amazons is like landfall at sea. It brings all on deck. And there, at +last, was Itacoatiara or Serpa. From one of the infrequent, low, +ferruginous cliffs of this river the jungle had been cleared, and on +that short range of modest, undulating heights which displaced the green +palisades with soft glowings of rose, cherry, and orange rock, the sight +escaped to a disorder of arboured houses, like a disarray of little +white cubes; Serpa was, in appearance, half a basketful of white bricks +shot into a portico of the forest. + +That morning was no inducement to exertion, but when an Indian paddled +his canoe alongside our anchored steamer the Doctor and the Purser got +into it, and away. The hot earth would be a change from hot iron. +Besides, I was eager for my first walk in equatorial woods. Our steamer +was anchored below the town, off a small campo, or clearing. The native +swashed his canoe into a margin of floating plants, which had rounded +leaves and inflated stalks, like buoys. I looked at them, and indeed at +the least thing, as keenly as though we were now going to land in the +moon. Nothing should escape me; the colour of the mud, the water tepid +to my hand, the bronze canoeman in his pair of old cotton pants split +just where they should have been scrupulous, and the weeds and grass. I +would drain my tropics to the last precious drop. I myself was seeing +what I had thought others lucky to have seen. It was like being born +into the world as an understanding adult. We got to a steep bank of red +clay, fissured by the heat, and as hard as brickwork. Green and brown +lizards whisked before us as we broke the quiet. From the top of the +bank the anchored steamer looked a little stranger. Aboard her, and she +is a busy village. Now she appeared but a mark I did not recognise in +that reticent solitude. The Amazon was an immensity of water, a plain of +burnished silver, where headlands, islands, and lines of cliff were all +cut in one level mass of emerald veined with white. The canoe going +downstream appeared to dissolve in candent vapour. Cloudland low down +over the forest to the south, a far disorder of violet heights, waiting +to fill the sky at sunset and to shock our unimportance then with +convulsions of blue flames, did not seem more aloof and inaccessible to +me than our immediate surroundings. + +The clearing was a small bay in the jungle. A few statuesque silk-cotton +trees, buttressed giants, were isolated in its centre. A bunch of +dun-coloured cattle with twisted horns stood beneath them, though the +trees gave them no shade, for each grey trunk was as bare of branches +for sixty feet of its length as a stone column. The wall of the jungle +was quite near, and as I stood watching it intently, I could hear but +the throb of my own life. The faint sibilation of insects was only as +if, in the silence, you heard the sharp rays of the sun impinge on the +earth; your finer ear caught that sound when you forgot the ring and +beat of your body. It was something below mere silence. + +We approached the wall to the west, as a path went through the harsh +swamp herbage that way, and entered the jungle. The sun went out almost +at once. It was cellar cool under the trees. We had no idea where the +path would lead us. That did not matter. No doubt it would be the place +desired. The Doctor walked ahead, and I could just see his helmet, the +way was so narrow and uncertain. I kept missing the helmet, for +everything in the half-lighted solitude was strange. One could not keep +an eye on a white hat on one's first equatorial ramble, and only when +the quiet was heavy enough to be a burden did I look up from a puzzling +leaf, or some busy ants, to find myself alone. There was a feeling that +you were being watched; but there were no eyes, when you glanced round +quickly. Do you remember that dream which sometimes came when we were +children? There were, I remember, empty corridors prolonging into the +shadows of a nameless house where not a sign showed of what was there. +We went on, and no words we could think of when we woke could tell what +we felt when we looked into those long silent aisles of the house +without a name; for we knew something was there; but there was no +telling what the thing would be like when it showed. That is your +sensation in a first walk in a Brazilian forest. + +I stopped at lianas, and curious foliage, trying to trace them to a +beginning, but rarely with any success. There were some mantis, which +commenced to run on a tree while I was examining its bark. They were +like flakes of the bark. For a moment the tree seemed to quiver its hide +at my irritating touch. Then the Doctor called, and I pushed along to +find him stooping over a land snail, the size of a man's fist, which +rather puzzled him, for it had what he called an operculum; that is, a +cap such as a winkle's, only in this case it was as large as a crown +piece. I do not know if it was the operculum, for my knowledge of such +things is small; but I did feel this was the only twelfth birthday which +had come to me for many years. + +Presently we saw light, as you would from the interior of a tunnel. Some +beams of sunshine slanted from a break in the roof to where a tree had +fallen, making a bridge for us across an igaripe, a stream, that is, +large enough to be a way for a canoe. The sundered, buttressed roots of +the tree formed a steep climb to begin with, but the buttresses going +straight along the trunk as handrails made crossing the bridge an easy +matter. Raising my hand to a root which was hot in the sun, and watching +a helicon butterfly, a black and yellow fellow, which settled near us, +slowly open and shut his wings, I jumped, because it felt as though a +lighted match had dropped into my sleeve. But I couldn't douse it. It +burned in ten places at once. It was a first lesson in constant +watchfulness in this new world. I had placed my hand in a swarm of +inconspicuous fire ants. The dead tree was alive with them, and our +passage quickened. We rubbed ourselves hysterically, for the Doctor had +got some too; and there was no professional reserve about him that time. + +After crossing the igaripe the character of the forest changed. It was +now a growth of wild cacao trees. Nothing grew beneath them. The floor +was a black paste, littered with dead sticks. The woods were more open, +but darker and more dank than before. The sooty limbs of the cacao trees +grew low, and filled the view ahead with a perplexity of leafless and +tortured boughs. They were hung about with fruit, pendent lamps lit with +a pale greenish light. We saw nothing move there but two delicate +butterflies, which had transparent wings with opaque crimson spots, such +as might have been served Titania herself; yet the gloom and black ooze, +and the eerie globes, with their illusion of light hung upon distorted +shapes, was more the home of the fabulous sucuruja, the serpent which is +forty feet long. + +A dry stick snapping underfoot had the same effect as that crash which +resounds for some embarrassing seconds when your umbrella drops in a +gallery of the British Museum. The impulse was to apologise to +something. We had been so long in the twilight, recoiling at nameless +objects in the path, a monstrous legume perhaps a yard long and coiled +like a reptile, seeing things only with a second look, that the sudden +entrance into a malocal, a forest clearing, which, as though it were a +reservoir, the sun had filled with bright light, was like a plunge into +a warm, fluid, and lustrous element. + +In the clearing were the huts of an Indian village. Only the roofs could +be seen, through some plantations of bananas. Around the clearing, a +side of which was cut off by a stream, was the overshadowing green +presence. Some chocolate babies, as serious as gnomes, looked up as we +came into daylight, opened their eyes wide, and fled up the path between +the plantains. + +If I could sing, I would sing the banana. It has the loveliest leaf I +know. I feel intemperate about it, because I came upon it after our +passage through a wood which could have been underground, a tangle of +bare roots joining floor and ceiling in limitless caverns. We stood +looking at the plantation till our mind was fed with grace and light. +The plantain jets upwards with a copious stem, and the fountain returns +in broad rippled pennants, falling outwardly, refined to points, when +the impulse is lost. A world could not be old on which such a plant +grows. It is sure evidence of earth's vitality. To look at it you would +not think that growing is a long process, a matter of months and natural +difficulties. The plantain is an instant and joyous answer to the sun. +The midribs of the leaves, powerful but resilient, held aloft in +generous arches the broad planes of translucent green substance. It is +not a fragile and dainty thing, except in colour and form. It is lush +and solid, though its ascent is so aerial, and its form is content to +the eye. There is no green like that of its leaves, except at sea. The +stout midribs are sometimes rosy, but the banners they hold well above +your upturned face are as the crest of a wave in the moment of collapse, +the day showing through its fluid glass. And after the place of dead +matter and mummied husks in gloom, where we had been wandering, this +burst of leaves in full light was a return to life. + +We continued along the path, in the way of the vanished children. Among +the bananas were some rubber trees, their pale trunks scored with brown +wounds, and under some of the incisions small tin cups adhered, fastened +there with clay. In most of the cups the collected latex was congealed, +for the cups were half full of rain-water, which was alive with mosquito +larvae. The path led to the top of the river bank. The stream was narrow, +but full and deep. A number of women and children were bathing below, +and they looked up stolidly as we appeared. Some were negligent on the +grass, sunning themselves. Others were combing their long, straight hair +over their honey- and snuff-coloured bodies. The figures of the women +were full, lissom, and rounded, and they posed as if they were aware +that this place was theirs. They were as unconscious of their grace as +animals. They looked round and up at us, and one stayed her hand, her +comb half through the length of her hair, and all gazed intently at us +with faces having no expression but a little surprise; then they turned +again to proceed with their toilets and their gossip. They looked as +proper with their brown and satiny limbs and bodies, in the secluded and +sunny arbour where the water ran, framed in exuberant tropical foliage, +as a herd of deer. + +I had never seen primitive man in his native place till then. There he +was, as at the beginning, and I saw with a new respect from what a +splendid creature we are derived. It was, I am glad to say, to cheer the +existence of these people that I had put money in a church plate at +Poplar. Poplar, you may have heard, is a parish in civilisation where an +organised community is able, through its heritage of the best of two +thousand years of religion, science, commerce, and politics, to eke out +to a finish the lives of its members (warped as they so often are by +arid dispensations of Providence) with the humane Poor Law. The Poor Law +is the civilised man's ironic rebuke to a parsimonious Creator. It is a +jest which will ruin the solemnity of the Judgment Day. Only the man of +long culture could think of such a shattering insult to the All Wise who +made this earth too small for the children He continues to send to it, +trailing their clouds of glory which prove a sad hindrance and get so +fouled in the fight for standing room on their arrival. But these +savages of the Brazilian forest know nothing of the immortal joke +conceived by their cleverer brothers. They have all they want. +Experience has not taught them to devise such a cosmic mock as a Poor +Law. How do these poor savages live then, who have not been vouchsafed +such light? They pluck bananas, I suppose, and eat them, swinging in +hammocks. They live a purely animal existence. More than that, I even +hear that should you find a child hungry in an Indian village, you may +be sure all the strong men there are hungry too. I was not able to prove +that; yet it may be true there are people to-day to whom the law that +the fittest must survive has not yet been helpfully revealed. (This is +really the Doctor's fault. I should never have thought of Poplar if he +had not wondered aloud how those bathers under the palms managed without +a workhouse.) + +Behind us were the shelters of these settled Indians, the "cabaclos," as +they are called in Brazil (literally, copper coloured). Each house was +but a square roof of the fronds of a species of attalea palm, upheld at +each corner by poles seven feet high. The houses had no sides, but were +quite open, except that some had a quarter of the interior partitioned +off with a screen of leaves. There was a rough attempt at a garden about +each dwelling, with rose bushes and coleas in the midst of gourds and +patches of maize. The roses were scented, and of the single briar kind. +We entered one of the dwellings, and surprised a young woman within who +was swinging in a hammock smoking a native pipe of red clay through a +grass stem. One fine limb, free of her cotton gown to the thigh, hung +indolently over the hammock, the toes touching the earth and giving the +couch movement. Her black hair, all at first we could see of her head, +nearly reached the ground. + +A well-grown girl, innocent from head to feet, saw us enter, and cried +to her mother, who rose in the hammock, threw her gown over her leg, +smiled gravely at us, and alighted, to vanish behind the screen with the +child, reappearing presently with the girl neatly attired. Other +children came, and soon had confidence to examine us closely and +critically, grave little mortals with eyes which spoke the only language +I understood there. The men and women who gathered stood behind the +children, smiling sadly and kindly. They were gentle, undemonstrative, +and observant, with features of the conventional Indian type. The men +were spare and lithe, of medium height, wearing only shorts tied with +string below their bronze busts. The women were of fuller build, with +heavier but more cheerful features, and each was dressed in a single +cotton garment, open above, revealing the breasts. + +The noon shadows of the hut, and the trees, were deep as the stains of +ink. A tray of mandioca root, farinha, was set in the hot sun to dry. +Under a gourd tree was a heap of turtle shells. A little game, a +capybara, and a bird like a crow with a brown rump, were hung on the +screen. But the most remarkable feature of the house in the forest was +its pets. A pair of parraquets ran in and out the bushes like green +mice. My helmet was tipped over my eyes, and, looking upwards, there was +an audience of monkeys in the shadow, quite beside themselves with +curiosity. My sudden movement sent them off like fireworks. One was a +most engaging little fellow, a jet-black tamarin slightly larger than a +squirrel. Presently he found courage to come closer, with a companion, a +brown monkey of his own size. As they sat side by side the Doctor +pointed out that the expressions in the faces of these monkeys showed +temperaments separating them even more widely than they were separated +by those physical differences which made them species. I saw at once, +with some pleasure and a little vanity, that I might be more nearly +related to the friendly cabaclos than I am to some people in England. +The brown chap would be no doubt a master of industry on the tree tops, +keeping a whole tree to himself, and living on nuts which others +gathered. You could see it in his keen and domineering look, and in the +quick, casual way he crowded his fellow, who always made room for him. I +have seen such a face, and such manners, in great industrial centres. +They are the marks of the ablest and best, who get on. His hard, eager +eyes showed censoriousness, cruelty, and acquisitiveness. But his +companion, with a sooty and hairless face, and black hair parted in the +middle of a frail forehead, was a pal of ours, and knew it. The brown +midget showed angry distrust of us, knowing what devilry was in his own +mind. But the black, though more delicate and nervous a monkey, his mind +being innocent of secret plots, had gentleness and faith in his looks, +and showed a laughable and welcome curiosity in us. He made friendly +twitterings--not the harsh and menacing chatter of the other--and +perfectly self-possessed, his pure soul giving him quiethood, examined +us in a brotherly way with an ebon paw which was as small and fragile as +a black fairy's. + +A jabiru stork stood on one leg, beak on breast, meditating, caring +nothing for all that was outside its ruminating mind. There were parrots +on the cross-ties of the roof, on the floor, on the shoulders of the +women, and in the hands of the children, and they were getting an +interesting time through the monkeys when their faces were not cocked +sideways at us in a knowing fashion. And what looked like a crow was +giving bitter and ruthless chase to a young agouti, in and out of the +bare feet of the company. I have never seen creatures so tame. But +Indian women, as I learned afterwards, have a fine gift for winning the +confidence of wild things, and that afternoon they took hold of the +creatures, anyhow and anywhere, to bring them for our inspection, +without the captives showing the least alarm or anger. There were the +dogs, too. But they were like all the dogs we saw in Brazil, looking +sorry for themselves; and they sat about in case they should fall if +they attempted to stand. Our audience broke up suddenly, in an uproar of +protests, to chase the brown monkey, who was towing a frantic parrot by +the tail. + +We continued our walk, entering the forest again on another path. Here +the growth was secondary, and the underbush dense on both sides of the +trail. The voices of the village stopped as we entered the shades, and +there was no more sound except when a bird scurried away heavily, and +again, when some cicadas, the "scissors grinders," suddenly sprang an +astonishing whirring from a tree. The sound was as loud as that of a +locomotive letting steam escape in a covered station. At a clearing so +small that the roof of the jungle had been but little broken, where a +hut stood as though at a well-bottom sunk in a depth of trees, we turned +back. That deep well in the trees contained but little light, for +already it was being choked with vines. The hut was of the usual light +construction, though its sides were of leaves, as well as its roof. I +think it was the most melancholy dwelling I have ever happened on in my +wanderings. It did not look as though it had been long deserted. There +were ashes and a broken flesh-pot outside it. The entrance was veiled +with gross spiders' webs. On the earth floor within were puddles of +rain. Round it the forest stood, like night in abeyance. The tree tops +overhung, silently intent on what man had been doing at their feet. A +child's chemise was stretched on a thorn, and close by was a small +grave, separated by little sticks from the secular earth. A dead plant +was in the centre of the grave, and a crude wooden crucifix. + + * * * * * + +We had plenty of opportunities for exploring Serpa, for the Amazon that +rainy season was slow in rising, and consequently it would have been +unsafe for us to venture into the Madeira. The tributary would have been +full, but it was necessary for the waters of the main stream to dam and +heighten the flood of its tributary before we could trust our draught +there. We were nine days at Serpa. The Amazon would rise as much as a +foot one day, and our distance from the shore would increase +perceptibly, with strong whirling eddies which made the trip ashore more +difficult. Then it would fall again. Some of the yellow Amazon porpoises +showed alongside occasionally, and alligators floated about, though +nothing was seen of them but their snouts. + +Serpa is a small but growing place. It was but a missionary settlement +of Abacaxis Indians from the Madeira in 1759, and was called +Itacoatiara. When I was there it was renewing its old importance, +because the Madeira-Mamore railway undertaking had placed a depot a +little to the west of the village. The Doctor and I spent many memorable +days in its neighbourhood, butterfly-hunting and sauntering. Though +mosquitoes, anopeline and culex, are as common here as elsewhere in the +Brazils--the lighters which came alongside with cargo for us conveyed +clouds of them, and they took possession of every dark nook of the +"Capella"--it is noteworthy that Serpa has the reputation, in Amazonas, +of a health resort. I could find no explanation of that. There was +malaria at Serpa, of course; but compared with the really lethal +country, a country not so different in appearance and climate, of the +upper Madeira, the salubrity of Serpa is perplexing. That virulent form +of malaria peculiar to some tropical localities is a phenomenon which +medical research has not yet explained. In the almost unexplored region +of the Rio Madeira the fever is certain to every traveller, though the +land is largely without inhabitants; and it is almost equally certain +that it will be of the malignant type. Yet at an old settlement like +Serpa, where probably every inhabitant has had malaria, and every +mosquito is likely to be a host, the fever is but mild, and the +traveller may escape it entirely. + +By now you will be asking what Itacoatiara is like, that community +contentedly lost in the secret forest. I am afraid you will not learn, +unless, in the happy future, you and I select a few friends, a few +books, and erect some houses of palm leaves to protect us from the too +vigorous sun there, and so, secure from all the really urgent and +important matters which do not matter a twinkle to the eternal stars, +noon it far and secure until the time comes for the gentle villagers to +carry us out and forget us; remembering us again when the annual Day of +the Dead comes round. They will leave some comfortable candles above us +that night. + +There the earth is a warm and luscious body. The lazy paths are cool +with groves, and in the middle hours of the sun, when only a few +butterflies are abroad, and the grasshoppers are shrilling in the quiet, +you swing in a hammock under a thatch--the air has been through some +tree in blossom--and gossip, and drink coffee. Beyond the path of the +village there is--nobody knows what; not even the Royal Geographical +Society. One heard of a large and mysterious lake a day's journey +inland. Nobody knew anything about it. Nobody cared. One old man once, +when hunting, saw its mirror through the forest's aisles, and heard the +multitude of its birds. + +The foreshore of the village is rugged with boulders richly tinctured +with iron oxide, and often having a scoriaceous surface. There we would +land, and scramble up to a street which ends on the height above the +river. It is a broad road, with white, substantial, one-story houses on +either side. The dwellings and stores have no windows, but are built +with open fronts, for ventilation. This is Serpa's main street. It is +shaded with avenues of trees. In the narrower side turnings the trees +meet to form arcades. One day we saw such an avenue covered with yellow, +trumpet-shaped blossoms. Ox-carts with solid wheels stand in the walks. +The sunlight, broken in the leaves of the trees, patterned the roads +with white fire, and so dappled the cattle that they were obscure; you +saw the oxen only when they moved. There is a large square, grass-grown, +in the centre of the village, where stands the church, a white, simple +building with an open belfry in which the bell hangs plain, bright with +verdigris. About here the merchants and tradesmen of Serpa have their +places. The men, hearty and friendly souls, walk abroad in clean linen +suits and straw hats, and their ladies, pallid, slight, but often +singularly beautiful, are dressed as Europeans, but without hats; +sometimes, when out walking late in the day, a lady would have a scarlet +flower in her hair. + +By the foreshore were the cabins, of mud and wood, of the negroes. +Beyond the town, the roads run through the clearings, and end on the +forest. In the clearings were the huts, wattle and daub, and of leaves, +of the settled Indians and half-breeds. These were often prettily placed +beneath groups of graceful palms. It was in the last direction that most +often we made our way with our butterfly nets while other folk were +sleeping during the sun's height. The humid heat, I suppose, was really +a trial. One did perspire in an alarming way and with the least +exertion. The Doctor, who carries substance, would have dark patches in +his khaki uniform, and would wonder, with foreboding, whether any more +in this life he would catch hold of a cold jug which held a straight +pint in which ice tinkled. But to me the illumination, the heat, the +odour, and the quiethood of those noons made life a great prize. I will +say that my comrade, the Doctor, did much to make it so, with his gentle +fun, and his wide knowledge of earth-lore. There was so much, wherever +we went, to keep me on the magic side of time, and out of its shadow. On +the west of the town were some huts, with plantations of bananas, +pineapples, papaws, and maize, where blossomed cannas, mimosas, +passion-flowers, and where other unseen blooms, especially after rain, +made breathing a sensuous pleasure. There we tried to intercept the +swallow-like flight of big sulphur and orange butterflies, though never +with success. We had more success with the butterflies in the clearings, +where some new huts stood, beyond the village. Over the stagnant pools +in those open spaces dragonflies hovered, fellows that moved, when we +approached, like lines of red light. The butterflies, particularly a +vermilion beauty with black bars on his wings, and a swift flier, used +to settle and gem the mud about these pools. Other species frequented +the flowering shrubs which had grown over the burnt wreckage and stumps +of the forest. That area was full of insects and birds. There we saw +daily the Sauba ants, sometimes called the parasol ants, in endless +processions, each ant holding a piece of leaf, the size of a sixpenny +bit, over its tiny body. Tanagers shot amongst the bushes like blue +projectiles. We saw a ficus there on one occasion, of fair size, with +large leathery leaves, which carried a colony of remarkable +caterpillars, each about seven inches long, thick in proportion, blue +black in colour with yellow stripes, and a coral head, and filaments at +the latter end. They were pugnacious worms, fighting each other +desperately when two met on a leaf. The larvae stripped that tree in a +day. We were not always sure that the people in this part of Serpa were +friendly. Mostly they were half-breeds, varying mixtures of Indian and +negro, and no doubt very superstitious. The rodent's foot was commonly +worn by the women, who, if we took notice of their children, sometimes +would spit, to avert the evil eye. But when the thunder clouds banked +close, and the air, being still, became loaded with the scent of the +wood fires of the villagers, promising rain, we would enter a hut, and +then always found we were welcome. + +Even when kept to the ship for any reason this country offered constant +new things to keep our thoughts moving. A regatao, the river pedlar, +would bring his roomy montario, the gipsy van of the river, his family +aboard--the wife, the grandmother, and the sad, shy, little +children--and offer us fruits, and perhaps his monkey and parrots. +Gradually the "Capella" added to her company. The Chief bought a parrot +which had many Indian and Portuguese phrases. It tried to climb a funnel +guy, in escaping the curiosity of our terrier, and fell into the river. +We fished her out with a bucket. The vampire bats came aboard every +night. They were not very terrible creatures to look at; but we +discovered they frequented the forecastle for no good purpose. Again, +stories filtered through to us of sickness on the Madeira, and abruptly +they gave the palms and the sunsets a new light. One man was brought in +from beyond and died of beri-beri. This shook the nerves of one of our +Brazilian pilots, and he refused to go beyond where we were. As for me, +there at Serpa the "Capella" was at anchor, and we were not near the +Madeira, and seemed never likely to go. I watched the sunsets. The +brief, cool evenings prompted me (fever in the future or not) to praise +and grace. Crickets chirped everywhere on the ship then, and the air was +full of the sparks of fireflies. You could smell this good earth. + +There was one sunset when the overspreading of violet clouds would have +shut out the day quite, but that the canopy was not closely adjusted to +the low barrier of forest to the westward. Through that narrow chink a +yellow light streamed, and traced shapes on the lurid walls and roof +which narrowly enclosed us. This was the beginning of the most alarming +of our daily electrical storms. There was no wind. Serpa and all the +coast facing that rift where the light entered our prison, stood +prominent and strange, and surprised us as much as if we had not looked +in that direction till then. The curtain dropped behind the forest, and +all light was shut out. We could not see across the ship. Knowing how +strong and bright could be the electrical discharges (though they were +rarely accompanied by thunder) when not heralded in so portentous a way, +we waited with some anxiety for this display to begin. It began over the +trees behind Serpa. Blue fire flickered low down, and was quickly +doused. Then a crack of light sprang across the inverted black bowl from +east to west in three quick movements. Its instant ramifications +fractured all the roof in a network of dazzling blue lines. The +reticulations of light were fleeting, but never gone. Night contracted +and expanded, and the sharp sounds, which were not like thunder, might +have been the tumbling flinders of night's roof. We saw not only the +river, and the shapes of the trees and the village, as in wavering +daylight, but their colours. One flash sheeted the heavens, and its +overbright glare extinguished everything. It came with an explosion, +like the firing of a great gun close to our ears, and for a time we +thought the ship was struck. In this effort the storm exhausted itself. + + * * * * * + +The day before we left for the Madeira we took aboard sixty head of +cattle. They were wild things, which had been collected in the campo +with great difficulty, and driven into lighters. A rope was dropped over +the horns of each beast: this was attached to a crane hook, the winch +was started, and up the poor wretch came, all its weight on its horns, +bumping inertly against the ship's side in its passage, like a bale, and +was then dumped in a heap on deck. This treatment seemed to subdue it. +Each quietly submitted to a halter. Several lost horns, and one hurt its +leg, and had to be dragged to its place. But, to our great joy--we were +watching the scene from the bridge--the Brazilian herdsmen on the +lighter shouted an anxious warning to their fellows on our deck as a +small black heifer, a potbellied lump with a stretched neck, rotated in +her unusual efforts to free her horns. She even bellowed. She bumped +heavily against the ship's side, and tried desperately to find her feet. +She was, and I offered up thanks for this benefit, most plainly an +implacable rebel. The cattlemen, as punishment for the trouble she had +given them ashore, kept her dangling over the deck, and one got level +with her face and mocked her, slapping her nose. She actually defied +him, though she was quite helpless, with some minatory sounds. She was +no cow. She was insurrection, she was the hate for tyrants incarnated. +They dropped her. She was up and away like a cat, straight for the +winchman, and tried to get the winch out of her path, bellowing as she +worked. She put everybody on that deck in the shrouds or on the +forecastle head as she trotted round, with her tail up, looking for +brutes to put them to death. None of the cows (of course) helped her. By +a trick she was caught, and her horns were lashed down to a ring bolt in +a hatch coaming. Then she tried to kick all who passed. If the rest of +the cattle had been like her none would have suffered. Alas! They were +probably all scientific evolutionists, content to wait for men to become +kindly apple-lovers by slow and natural uplift; and gravely deprecated +the action of the heifer, from which, as peaceful cows, they +disassociated themselves. + +The Indian says that if he eats a morsel of tiger he becomes fierce and +strong. I have not the faith of the Indian, or I would have begged the +heart of that heifer, and of it I would have brewed gallons of precious +liquor, and brought it home in jars for incomparable gifts to the meek +at heart who always do what the herdsmen tell them. The Doctor and I +made a pet of that black cow, to the extent of seeing she got her +rations regularly. It was no joke wading through manure among a press of +nervous animals on a ship's deck in the tropics, in order to see that a +brave creature was justly dealt with; particularly as she swore +violently whenever she saw us, looking up from her tightly tethered head +with eyes full of unabated fury, and tried to get at us on the hatch +above her, bound though she was. What a heart! For her head was fixed +immovably, unlike the others; yet, till we arrived at Porto Velho she +kept her fierce spirit, often kicking over her water bucket with her +forefeet. Curse their charity! + +With two new pilots, we upanchored next morning; and full of cattle, +flies, and new odours, and a gang of cattlemen who at least appeared +villainous, and carried long knives, the "Capella" continued up stream +for the Madeira. The cattle were sheltered, as far as possible, with +awnings improvised from spare canvas, and their fodder was bales of +American hay. The Skipper did his best to meliorate the harsh native +methods with dumb things. + +And now it seems time to explain why we are bound for the centre of the +American continent, where the unexplored jungle still persists, and +disease or death, so the legends tell us, come to all white men who stay +there for but a few months. If you will get your map of the Brazils, +begin from Para, and cruise along the Amazon to the Madeira River--you +turn south just before Manaos--when you have reached Santo Antonio on +the tributary stream you have traversed the ultimate wilderness of a +continent, and stand on the threshold of Bolivia, almost under the +shadow of the Andes. If you find any pleasure in maps, flying in shoes +of that kind when affairs pursue you too urgently (and I suppose you do, +or you would not be so far into this narrative), you will hardly thank +me when I tell you it is possible for an ocean steamer exceeding 23 feet +in draught to make such a journey, and so break the romance of the +obscure place at the end of it. But it must be said. Even one who +travels for fun should keep to the truth in the matter of a ship's +draught. As a reasonable being you would prefer to believe the map; and +that clearly shows the only way there (when the chance comes for you to +take it) must be by canoe, a long and arduous journey to a seclusion +remote, and so the more deeply desired. It certainly hurts our faith in +a favourite chart to find that its well-defined seaboard is no barrier +to modern traffic, but that, journeying over those pink and yellow +inland areas, which should have no traffic with great ships, a large +cargo steamer, full of Welsh coal, can come to an anchorage, still with +many fathoms under her, at a point where the cartographer, for lack of +place-names and other humane symbols, has set the word Forest, with the +letters spread widely to the full extent of his ignorance, and so +promised us sanctuary in plenty. I suppose that in a few years those +remote wilds, somehow cleared of Indians, jungle, and malaria--though I +do not see how all this can be done--will have no further interest for +us, because it will possess many of the common disadvantages of +civilisation's benefits: it will be a point on a regular route of +commerce. I am really sorry for you; but in the sad and cruel code of +the sailor I can only reply as Jack did when he got the sole rag of beef +in the hash, "Blow you, Bill. I'm all right." I had the fortune to go +when the route was still much as it was in the first chapter of Genesis. +"But after all," you question me, hopeful yet, "nothing can be done with +5000 tons of Welsh cargo in a jungle." + +People with the nose for dollars can do wonders. It would be unwise to +back such a doughty opponent as the pristine jungle with its malaria +against people who smell money there. In the early 'seventies there was +a man with one idea, Colonel George Church. His idea was to give to +Bolivia, which the Andes shuts out from the Pacific, and two thousand +miles of virgin forest from the Atlantic, a door communicating with the +outside world. He said, for he was an enthusiast, that Bolivia is the +richest country in the world. The mines of Potosi are in Bolivia. Its +mountains rise from fertile tropical plains to Arctic altitudes. The +rubber tree grows below, and a climate for barley is found in a few +days' journey towards the sky. But the riches of Bolivia are locked up. +Small parcels of precious goods may be got out over the Andean barrier, +on mule back; or they may dribble in a thin stream down the Beni, +Mamore, and Madre de Dios rivers--rivers which unite not far from the +Brazilian boundary to form the Rio Madeira. The Beni is a very great and +deep river which has a course of 1500 miles before it contributes its +volume to the Madeira. The Rio Madeira, a broad and deep stream in the +rainy season, reaches the Amazon in another 1100 miles. But between +Guajara-Merim and San Antonio the Madeira comes down a terrace 250 miles +in length of nineteen dangerous cataracts. The Bolivian rubber +collectors shoot those rapids in their batelaoes, large vessels carrying +sometimes ten tons of produce and a crew of a dozen men, when the river +is full. Many are overturned, and the produce and the men are lost. The +Madeira traverses a country notorious even on the Amazon for its fever, +and quite unexplored a mile inland anywhere on its banks; the rubber +hunters, too, have to reckon with wandering tribes of hostile Indians. + +The country is like that to-day. Then judge its value for a railway +route in the early 'seventies. But Colonel Church was a New Englander, +and again he was a visionary, so therefore most energetic and +compelling; he soon persuaded the practical business folk, who seldom +know much, and are at the mercy of every eloquent dreamer, to part with +a lot of money to buy his Bolivian dream. We do really find the Colonel, +on 1st November 1871, solemnly cutting the first sod of a railway in the +presence of a party of Indians, with the wild about him which had +persisted from the beginning of things. What the Indians thought of it +is not recorded. Anyhow, they seem to have humoured the infatuated man +who stopped to cut a square of grass in the land of the Parentintins, +the men who go stark naked, and make musical instruments out of the shin +bones of their victims. + +An English company of engineering contractors was given the job of +building the line, and a small schooner, the "Silver Spray," went up to +San Antonio with materials in 1872. Her captain, and some of her +officers, died on the way. A year later the contractors confessed utter +defeat. The jungle had won. They declared that "the country was a +charnel-house, their men dying like flies, that the road ran through an +inhospitable wilderness of alternating swamp and porphyry ridges, and +that, with the command of all the capital in the world, and half its +population, it would be impossible to build the road." (There is a +quality of bitterness in their vehement hate which I recognise. I heard +the same emotional chord expressed concerning that land, though not +because of failure there, only two years ago.) + +But the Bank of England held a large sum in trust for the pursuance of +this enterprise, and after the lawyers had attended to the trust money +in long debate in Chancery, there was yet enough of it left to justify +the indefatigable colonel in beginning the railway again. That was in +1876. Messrs. Collins, of Philadelphia, obtained the contract. The road, +of metre gauge, was to be built in three years. The matter excited the +United States into a wonderful attention. The press there went slightly +delirious, and the excited _Eagle_ was advised that "two Philadelphians +are to overcome the Madeira rapids, and to open up to the world a land +as fair as the Garden of the Lord." The little steamer "Mercedita," of +856 tons, with 54 engineers and material, was despatched to San Antonio +on 2nd January 1878. Her departure was made an important national +occasion, and it is an historic fact, which may be confirmed by a +reference to the files of Philadelphian papers of that date, that strong +men, as well as women and children, sobbed aloud on the departure of the +steamer. The vessel arrived at San Antonio on the 16th February. They +had barely started operations when, so they said, a Brazilian official +told them, betraying some feeling, "when the English came here they did +nothing but smoke and drink for two days, but Americans work like the +devil." Yet, by all accounts, the English method was right. I prefer it, +on the Amazon. The preface to work there should be extended to three or +even more days of drinking and smoking. + +Yet it must be said that if ever men should have honour for holding to a +duty when it was far more easy, and even more reasonable, to leave it, +then I submit the claim of those American engineers. Having lived in the +place where many of them died, and knowing their story, I feel a certain +kinship. There is no monument to them. No epic has been written of their +tragedy. But their story is, I should think, one of the saddest in the +annals of commerce. Of the 941 who left for San Antonio at different +times, 221 lost their lives, mostly of disease, though 80 perished in +the wreck of a transport ship. That is far higher a mortality rate than +that of, say, the South African or the American Civil War. + +Few of those men appeared to know the tropics. They thought "the +tropics" meant only prodigal largess of fruits and sun and a wide +latitude of life--a common mistake. The enterprise became a lingering +disaster. Their state was already bad when a supply ship was lost; and +they hopefully waited, ill and starving, but with a gallant mockery of +their lot, as their letters and diaries attest, for food and medicine +which were not to reach them. The doctors continued the daily round of +the host of the fever-stricken, giving them quinine, which was a deceit +made of flour. The wages of all ceased for legal reasons, and they were +in a place where little is cultivated, and so most food has to be +imported in spite of a tariff which usually doubles the price of every +necessary of life. Some of the survivors, despairing and heroic souls, +attempted to escape on rafts down the river; they might as well have +tried to cut their way through the thousand miles of forest between them +and Manaos. The railway undertaking collapsed again, and the clearing, +the huts, and the workshops, and the short line that was actually laid, +were left for the vines and weeds to bury. But now again the conquering +forest is being attacked. The Madeira-Mamore Railway has been +recommenced, and our steamer, the "Capella," is taking up supplies for +the establishment at Porto Velho, from which the new railway begins, +three miles this side of San Antonio. + + + + +III + + +On the morning of the 23rd January, while we were still considering, +seeing what the sun was like, and the languid air, and that we were +reduced to tinned beans, fat bacon, and butter which was oil and flies, +whether it was worth while to note our breakfast bell--the steward stood +swinging it, with the gravity of a priest, under the break of the +poop--a shout came from the bridge that the Rio Madeira was in view. + +As far back as Swansea we had heard legends of this stream, and they +were sufficiently disturbing. When we arrived at Para we heard more, and +worse. The pilot we engaged there called the Madeira the "long +cemetery." At Serpa, for the first time, we saw what happened to frail +humanity when it ventured far on the Madeira. One day a river steamer +came to Serpa, with a cargo of men from San Antonio. The river steamers +of the Amazon are vessels of broad beam and shallow draft, painted the +dingy hue of the river itself, and they have two tiers of decks, +open-air shelves, between the supports of which the passengers sling +their hammocks. The passengers do not sleep in bunks. This paddleboat +came throbbing towards where we were at anchor. It was night, and she +was unseen, a palpitation in the dark accompanied somehow by a fountain +of sparks. Such boats burn wood in their furnaces. When her noise had +ceased, and her lights imperceptibly enlarged as the current dropped her +down abeam of us, a breath of her, a draught of air, passed our way. I +am more familiar now with the odour malaria causes, but then I thought +she must have a freight of the dead. She anchored. We could see her +loaded hammocks in the light of the few lamps she carried. Through the +binoculars next morning I inspected with peculiar interest the row of +cadaverous heads, with black tousled hair, lemon-coloured skins, open +mouths and vacant eyes, which stared at us over her rails. Each looked +as though once it had peered into the eyes of doom, and then was but +waiting, caring nothing. + +There, ahead, was the Madeira now for us. We were then nearly a thousand +miles from the sea, well within South America. But that meeting-place of +the Amazon and its chief tributary was an expanse of water surprising in +its immensity. As much light was reflected from the floor as at sea. The +water was oceanic in amplitude. The forest boundaries were so far away +that one could not realise, even when the time we had been on the river +was remembered as a prolonged monotony, that this was the centre of a +continent. The forest on our port side was near enough for us to see its +limbs and its vines; but to the south-west, where we were heading for +Bolivia, and to the north, the way to the Guianas, and to the east, out +of which we had come, and to the west, where was Peru, the land was but +a low violet barrier, varying in altitude with distance, and with silver +sections in it, marking the river roads. In the north-west there was a +broad silver path through the wall, the way to the Rio Negro, Manaos, +and the Orinoco. In the south the near forest, being flooded, was a +puzzle of islands. As we progressed they opened out as a line of green +headlands. The Madeira appeared to have three widely separated mouths, +with a complexity of intermediate and connective minor ditches. Indeed, +the gate of the river was a region of inundated jungle. One began to +understand why travellers here sometimes find themselves on the wrong +river. + +Our bows turned in to the forest wall, and for a few minutes I could not +see any way for us there. The jungle parted, and we were on a narrow +turgid flood, the colour of the main river, but swifter; a majestic +forest was near to either beam. We were enclosed. And after we entered +the Madeira my dark thoughts of our future at once left me. If they +returned, it was only to be joked about, in the dry way one does refer +to a dread that has been long in the distance, and then one day takes +shape, becomes material, and settles down with us. Its form, as you +know, nearly always allays your alarms. Your simple mind has expected +something with the lowering face of evil. Lo! evil has even bright eyes. +Its nature, its dark craft which you have dreaded, is not seen, and your +mind grows light with surprise. What, only this, then? + +I never saw earth look more resplendent and chromatic than on the day +when we entered that river with a bad name. Presently, I thought--here +was a brief resurgence of the old gloom which had shrouded my +conjectural Madeira--I might be called upon to pay the price for this +surprising gift of intense colour, light, and luscious heat, for the +quickening of the blood, as though the tropic air were a stimulant as +well as a narcotic. Well, it does seem but fair, if chance, being happy, +gives you a place in the tropics, to expect to have less time there than +is given for the job of eking out a meagre existence in the north. It +would not be right to look for gain both ways. (You will have noticed +already, I suppose, that I have not been on the Madeira fifteen +minutes.) This, I thought, as I walked to and fro on the "Capella," is +different from that endurance, bitter and prolonged, in the land where +there is no sun worth mentioning, where the north-east wind blows, where +the poor rate is so and so in the pound (and you are one of the +fortunate if you pay it), and Lord Rosebery lectures on Thrift. I +mentioned this to the Doctor. He did not remove his pipe from his mouth. + +Because (the idea dawned on me as I sank into a deck chair beside the +surgeon under the poop awning, and borrowed his silver tobacco-box), +because, as to thrift and parching winds, abstinence and prudence, and +lectures by the solemn on how to thin out your life in cold climates +where all that is worth having is annexed, why praise a man who is +willing to deprave his life to sand and frost? There in merry England +the poor wretch is, where the riches of earth are not broadcast largess +as I see they are here, but are stacked on each side of the road, and +guarded by police, leaving to him but the inclement highway, with +nothing but Lord Rosebery's advice and benediction to help him keep the +wind out of the holes in his trousers; that benefit, and the bleak +consideration that he may swink all day for a handful of beans, or go +without. What is prudence in that man? It is his goodwill for the +police. To be blue nosed and meek at heart, and to hoard half the crust +of your stinted bread, is to blaspheme the King of Glory. Some men will +touch their crowns to Carnegie in heaven. + +Thrift and abstinence! They began to look the most snivelling of sins as +I watched, with spacious leisure, the near procession of gigantic trees, +that superb wild which did not arise from such niggard and flinty +maxims. Frugality and prudence! That is to regard the means to death in +life, the pallor and projecting bones of a warped existence, as good men +dwell on courage, motherhood, rebellion, and May time, and the other +proofs of vitality and growth. Now, I thought, I see what to do. All +those improving lectures, reform leagues, university settlements, labour +exchanges, and other props for crippled humanity, are idle. It is a +generative idea that is wanted, a revelation, a vision. It would be +easier and quicker to take regiments of folk out of Ancoats, Hanley, +Bethnal Green, and the cottages of the countryside, for one long glance +at the kind of earth I see now. The world would expand as they looked. +They would get the dynamic suggestion. In vain, afterwards, would the +monopolists and the superior persons chant patriotic verse to drown the +noise of chain forging at the Westminster foundry. Not the least good, +that. The folk would not hear. Their minds would be absent and outward, +not locked within to huddle with cramped and respectful thoughts. They +would not start instinctively at the word of command. They would begin +with dignity and assurance to compass their own affairs, and in an +enormous way; and they would make hardly a sound as they moved forward, +and they would have uplifted and shining eyes. ("Then you think more of +'em than I do," said the surgeon.) + +It would be no use, I saw clearly, sending the folk to Algeria, Egypt, +or New York. Such places never betray to the traveller that our world is +not a shapeless parcel of fields and buildings, tied up with bylaws, and +sealed by the Grand Lama as his last act in the stupendous work of +creation. There it is, an angular package in the sky, which the sun +reads, and directs on its way to heaven in advance of its limited +syndicate of proprietors. + +Here on the Madeira I had a vision instead of the earth as a great and +shining sphere. There were no fences and private bounds. I saw for the +first time an horizon as an arc suggesting how wide is our ambit. That +bare shoulder of the world effaced regions and constellations in the +sky. Our earth had celestial magnitude. It was warm, a living body. The +abundant rain was vital, and the forest I saw, nobler in stature and +with an aspect of intensity beyond what the Amazon forests showed, rose +like a sign of life triumphant. + +You see what that tropical wilderness did for me, and with but a single +glance. Whatever comes after, I shall never be the same again. The +complacent length of the ship was before us. Amidships were some of the +fellows staring overside, absorbed. Now and then, when his beat brought +him to the port side, I could see the head of the little pilot on the +bridge. His colleague was sleeping in one of the hammocks slung between +the stanchions of the poop awning. The Doctor was scrutinising a pair of +motuca flies which hovered about his ankles, waiting for him to go to +sleep. He wanted them for specimens. The Skipper, looking a little +anxious, came slowly up the poop ladder, crossed over, and stood by our +chairs. "The river is full of big timber," he said. He went to stare +overside, and then came back to us. "The current is about five knots, +and those trees adrift are as big as barges. I hope they keep clear of +the propeller." The Skipper's eye was uneasy. He was glum with +suspicion; he spoke of the way his fools might meet the wiles of fortune +at a time when he was below and his ship was without its acute +protective intelligence. He stood, a spare figure in white, in a limp +grass hat with flapping eaves, gazing forward to the bridge +mistrustfully. He had brought us in a valuable vessel to a place +unknown, and now he had to go on, and afterwards get us all out again. I +began to feel a large respect for this elderly master mariner (who did +not give the beard of an onion for any man's sympathy) who had skilfully +contrived to put us where we were, and now was unaware what mischance +would send us to rot under the forest wall, the bottom to fall out of +our adventure just when we were in its narrowest passage and achievement +was almost within view. "This is no place for a ship," the captain +mumbled. "It isn't right. We're disturbing the mud all the time; and +look at those butterflies now, dodging about us!" He was continuing this +monologue as a dirty cap appeared at the head of the ladder, and a long +and ragged length of sorrowful sailor mounted there, and doffed the cap. +The Skipper brusquely signed to him to approach. He was a youngster in +an advanced stage of some trouble, and he had no English. I think he was +a Swede. He demonstrated his sickness, baring his arm, muttering +unintelligibly. The limb, like his hand, was distorted with large +blisters. There was his face, too. I mistrusted my equanimity for some +moments, but braced my eyes, compelling them to be scientific and +impersonal. By signs we gathered he had been sleeping on deck, such was +the heat of the forecastle, and the mosquitoes, the Doctor said, had +poisoned a body already tainted from the stews of Rotterdam. The +corroding spirit of the jungle was beginning to permeate through our +flaws. + +The Doctor went to his surgery. The pilot sat up in his hammock, glanced +indifferently at the sick sailor, yawning and stretching his arms, his +dainty little brown feet dangling just clear of the deck. He began to +roll a cigarette of something which looked like tea. Then he dropped +out, and went forward to release his mate on the bridge, and the senior +pilot came up as the Doctor had finished his job. The junior pilot, a +fragile, girlish fellow, rather taciturn, greets us always with a +faintly supercilious smile. His chief is a round, jolly little man, +hearty, and lavish with ornamental gestures. We both smiled +involuntarily as he marched across to us, with his uniform cap, bearing +our ship's badge, stuck on the back of his head with a bias to the right +ear. There is not enough of Portuguese in our ship's company to serve +one conversation adequately, but we get on well with this pilot, and he +with us. He sits in a hammock, making pantomime explanatory of Brazil to +us strangers, and we pick him up with alacrity, after but brief pauses. +While the Doctor beguiled him into dramatic moments, I lay back and +watched him, searching for Brazilian characteristics, to report here. + +You know that, when you have returned from a far country, you are asked +unanswerable questions about its people, and especially about its women. +We are easily flattered by the suggestion that we are authoritative, +with opinions got from uncommon experience, especially where women with +strange eyes and dark skins are concerned. So, once upon a time, I +caught myself--or rather, I caught that cold, critical, and impartial +part of me, which is a solemn fake--when answering a question of this +kind, explaining in a comprehensive way the character of the Brazilian +people, as though I were telling of the objective phenomena of one +simple soul. Presently the wise and ribald part of me woke, caught the +note of that inhuman voice, and raised a derisive cry, heard by me with +grave deprecation, but not heard at all by my listener. I stopped. For +what do I know of the Brazilian character? Very little. Is there such a +thing? I suppose the true Brazilian is like the true Englishman, or the +typical bird which is known by its bones, but may be anything from a +crow to a nightingale, but is more likely a lark. You can imagine the +foreigner taking his knowledge of the British pick-pocket who met him at +the landing-stage, the pen-portraits of Bernard Shaw, the Rev. Jeremiah +Hardshell, Father O'Flynn, You, Me, the cabman who swore at him, his +landlady and her daughter, Lloyd-George, Piccadilly by night, and Tom +Bowling, carefully adjusting all that valuable British data, just as +Professor Karl Pearson does his physical statistics, and explaining the +result as the modern English; adding, in the usual footnote, what +decadent tendencies are to be deduced, in addition, from the facts which +could not be worked into the major premises. + +Now, there was the handsome Brazilian customs officer, tall, august, +with dark eyes haughty and slow with thought, the waves of his romantic +black hair faintly traced in silver, who might have been a poet, or a +philosophic revolutionist; but who was the man, as the first mate told +us (after we had searched everywhere for the articles) who "pinched your +bloomin' field-glasses and my meerschaum." + +Take, if you like, the ultra-fashionable ladies at the Para hotel, who +looked at us with sleepy eyes, and who, I suspect, were not Brazilians +at all. Supposing they were, there must be counted the wife of the +official at Serpa. She came aboard there with her husband to see an +English ship; she reminded me of that picture of the Madonna by +Sassoferrato in the National Gallery; I am unable to come nearer to +justice to her than that. Again, there was a certain vain native +apothecary, and he had the idea that I was bottle-washer to the +"Capella's" surgeon, much to that fellow's secret delight. The chemist +treated me with a studied difference in consequence; and though our +surgeon could have undeceived the mistaken man, having some Portuguese, +he refused to do so. I remember the pilot who, when he left us at Serpa, +and I bade him farewell, did, before all our ship's company, embrace me +heartily, rest his cheek against mine, and make loving noises in his +throat. And there is our present chief guide, now swinging in his +hammock, and looking down upon us waggishly. + +He had not been a pilot always. Once he was a clown in a circus; that +little fact is a clue to much which otherwise would have been obscure in +him. When he boarded us at Serpa to take the place of the man who shrank +from the thought of the Madeira, the chart-room under the bridge was +given to him, and as the mate put it, "he moved in." He had bundles, +boxes, bags, baskets, a tin trunk, a chair, a parrot, a hammock, and +some pictures. He was going to be with us for two months, but his affair +had the conclusive character of a migration, a final severance from his +old life. His friends came to see him depart, and they wound themselves +in each others arms, head laid in resignation on shoulders. "Looks as if +we're bound for the Golden Shore," commented the boatswain. + +This little rounded man, the pilot, with his unctuous olive skin, tiny +moustache of black silk, and impudent eyes, looked ripe in middle age, +though actually he was but thirty. He wore a suit of azure cotton, +ironed faultlessly, and his tunic fitted with hooks and eyes across his +throat. His boots were sulphur coloured and Parisian. A massive gold +ring, which carried a carbonado nearly as large as the stopper of a beer +bottle, was embedded in a fat finger of his right hand. In the front of +his cap he had sewn the badge of our line, and he was curiously proud of +that gaudy symbol. He would wear the cap on one ear, and walk up and +down in display, with a lofty smile, and a carriage supposed to +appertain to a British officer in a grand moment. He had a great +admiration for all that was British, except our food. If you were up at +sunrise you could see him at his toilet, and the spectacle was worth the +effort. His array of toilet vesicles reminded me of the shelves in a +barber's shop. Oiled and fragrant, he took his seat for breakfast with +much formal politeness. He shook our saloon company into a sense of its +responsibilities, for we had grown indifferent as to dress, and +sometimes we had three-day beards. His handkerchiefs and linen were +scented, and dainty with floral designs. And ours--oh, ours--! He took +wine at breakfast, and after idling a little with our foreign dishes he +would wipe his mouth on our tablecloth, and then leave for the bridge. +As he passed across the poop we would hear him hawk violently, and spit +on the deck. Then the Skipper would glare, and drive his chair backwards +in a dark passion. + + * * * * * + +Gazing at the foliage as it unfolded, our pilot named the paranas, +tributaries, and islands, when they drew abeam. He told us what the +trees were; and then with head shakes and uplifted hands and eyes, +indicated what grave things were behind that screen of leaves. (Though I +don't suppose he knew.) His mimicry was so spontaneous and exact that it +was more entertaining and just as instructive as speech. He taught us +how the Indians kill you, and what some villagers did to a naughty +padre, and how the sucuruju swallows a deer, and how to make love to a +Brazilian girl. He kicked the slippers from his little feet, and +smuggled into the hammock mesh for a snooze, waving a hand coyly to us +over the edge of his nest. + +The dinner bell rang. Because the saloon is now hot beyond endurance, +the steward has fixed a table on deck, and so, as we eat, we can see the +jungle pass. That keeps some of our mind from dwelling over much on the +dreary menu. The potatoes have begun to ferment. The meat is out of +tins; sometimes it is served as fritters, sometimes we recognise it in a +hash, and sometimes, shameless, it appears without dress, a naked and +shiny lump straight from its metal bed. Often the bread is sour. The +butter, too, is out of tins. Feeding is not a joy, but a duty. But it is +soon over. Although everybody now complains of indigestion, we have far +to go yet, and the cheerfulness which faces all circumstances brazenly +must be our manna. Our table, some deal planks on trestles, is mellowed +by a white tablecloth. We sit round on boxes. Over head the sun flames +on the awning, making it golden and translucent. I let the soup pass. +The next dish is a hot pot of tinned mutton and preserved vegetables. +Something must be done, and I do it then. There is some pickled beef and +pickled onions. I watch the forest pass. Then, for desert, the steward, +the hot beads touring about the mounts of his large pale face, brings +along oleaginous fritters of plum duff. The Doctor leaves. I follow him +to the chairs again, and we exchange tobacco-boxes and fill our pipes. +This may seem to you unendurable for long. I did not think so, though of +habits so regular and engrained that my chances of survival, when viewed +comparatively, for my ship mates were hardened and usually were more +robust, seemed poor enough. But I enjoyed it. There was nourishment, a +tonic stay, in our desire to greet every onset of the miseries, which +now were camped about us, besieging our souls, with sansculotte +insolence. We called to the Eumenides with mockery. Like Thoreau, I +believe I could live on a tenpenny nail, if it comes to that. + +There is no doubt the forest influences our moods in a way you at home +could not understand. Our minds take its light and shade, and just as +our little company, gathered in the Chief's room at a time when the seas +were running high, recalled sombre legends which told of foredoom, so +this forest, an intrusive presence which is with us morning, noon, and +night, voiceless, or making such sounds as we know are not for our ears, +now shadows us, the prescience of destiny, as though an eyeless mask sat +at table with us, a being which could tell us what we would know, but +though it stays, makes no sign. + +This forest, since we entered the Para River, now a thousand miles away, +has not ceased. There have been the clearings of the settlements from +Para inwards; but as Spruce says in his Journal, those clearings and +campos alter the forest of the Amazon no more than would the culling of +a few weeds alter the aspect of an English cornfield. The few openings I +have seen in the forest do not derange my clear consciousness of a +limitless ocean of leaves, its deep billows of foliage rolling down to +the only paths there are in this country, the rivers, and there +overhanging, arrested in collapse. There is no land. One must travel by +boat from one settlement to another. The settlements are but islands, +narrow foot-holds, widely sundered by vast gulfs of jungle. + +The forest of the Amazons is not merely trees and shrubs. It is not +land. It is another element. Its inhabitants are arborean; they have +been fashioned for life in that medium as fishes to the sea and birds to +the air. Its green apparition is persistent, as the sky is and the +ocean. In months of travel it is the horizon which the traveller cannot +reach, and its unchanging surface, merged through distance into a mere +reflector of the day, a brightness or a gloom, in his immediate vicinity +breaks into a complexity of green surges; then one day the voyager sees +land at last and is released from it. But we have not seen land since +Serpa. There are men whose lives are spent in the chasms of light where +the rivers are sunk in the dominant element, but who never venture +within its green surface, just as one would not go beneath the waves to +walk in the twilight of the sea bottom. + +Now I have been watching it for so long I see the outer aspect of the +jungles does vary. When I saw it first on the Para River it appeared to +my wondering eyes but featureless green cliffs. Then in the Narrows +beyond Para I remember an impression of elegance and placidity, for +there, the waters still being tidal and saline, the palms were +conspicuous and in profuse abundance. The great palms are the chief +feature of that forest elevation, with their graceful columns, and their +generous and symmetrical fronds which sometimes are like gigantic green +feathers, and again are like fans. A tall palm, whatever its species, +being a definite expression of life--not an agglomeration of leaves, but +body and crown, a real personality--the forest of the Narrows, populous +with such exquisite beings, had marges of straight ascending lines and +flourishing and geometrical crests. + +Beyond the river Xingu, on the main stream, the forest, persistent as a +presence, again changed its aspect. It was ragged and shapeless, an +impenetrable tangle, its front strewn with fallen trees, the vision of +outer desolation. By Obydos it was more aerial and shapely again, but +not of that light and soaring grace of the Narrows. It was contained, +yet mounted not in straight lines, as in the country of the palms, but +in convex masses. Here on the lower Madeira the forest seems of a nature +intermediate between the rolling structure of the growth by Obydos, and +the grace of the palm groves in the estuarine region of the Narrows. It +is barbaric and splendid, easily prodigal with illimitable riches, +sinking the river beneath a wealth of forms. + +On the Madeira, as elsewhere in the world of the Amazons, some of the +forest is on "terra-firma," as that land is called which is not flooded +when the waters rise. There the trees reach their greatest altitude and +diameter; it is the region of the caaapoam, the "great woods" of the +Indians. A stretch of _terra firma_ shows as a low, vertical bank of +clay, a narrow ribbon of yellow earth dividing the water from the +jungle. More rarely the river cuts a section through some undulating +heights of red conglomerate--heights I call these cliffs, as heights +they are in this flat country, though at home they would attract no more +attention than would the side of a gravel-pit--and again the bank may be +of that cherry and saffron clay which gives a name to Itacoatiara. On +such land the forest of the Madeira is immense, three or four species +among the greater trees lording it in the green tumult expansively, +always conspicuous where they stand, their huge boles showing in the +verdant facade of the jungle as grey and brown pilasters, their crowns +rising above the level roof of the forest in definite cupolas. There is +one, having a neat and compact dome and a grey, smooth, and rounded +trunk, and dense foliage as dark as that of the holm oak; and another, +resembling it, but with a flattened and somewhat disrupted dome. I +guessed these two giants to be silk-cottons. Another, which I supposed +to be of the leguminous order, had a silvery bole, and a texture of pale +green leafage open and light, which at a distance resembled that of the +birch. These three trees, when assembled and well grown, made most +stately riverside groups. The trunks were smooth and bare till somewhere +near ninety feet from the ground. Palms were intermediate, filling the +spaces between them, but the palms stood under the exogens, growing in +alcoves of the mass, rising no higher than the beginning of the branches +and foliage of their lords. The whole overhanging superstructure of the +forest--not a window, an inlet, anywhere there--was rolling clouds of +leaves from the lower rims of which vines were catenary, looping from +one green cloud to another, or pendent, like the sundered cordage of a +ship's rigging. Two other trees were frequent, the pao mulatto, with +limbs so dark as to look black, and the castanheiro, the Brazil nut +tree. + +The roof of the woods lowered when we were steaming past the igapo. The +igapo, or aqueous jungle, through which the waters go deeply for some +months of the year, is of a different character, and perhaps of a lesser +height--it seems less; but then it grows on lower ground. I was told to +note that its foliage is of a lighter green, but I cannot say I saw +that. It is in the igapo that the Hevea Braziliensis flourishes, its +pale bole, suggestive of the white poplar, deep in water for much of the +year, and its crown sheltered by its greater neighbours, so that it +grows in a still, heated, and humid twilight. This low ground is always +marked by growths of small cecropia trees. These, with their white +stems, their habit of free and regular branching, and their long leaves, +digital in the manner of the horse-chestnut, have the appearance of +great candelabra. Sometimes the igapo is prefaced by an area of cane. +The numberless islands, being of recent formation, have a forest of a +different nature, and they seldom carry the larger trees. The upper ends +of many of the islands terminate in sandy pits, where dwarf willows +grow. So foreign was the rest of the vegetation, that notwithstanding +its volume and intricacy, I detected those humble little willows at +once, as one would start surprised at an English word heard in the +meaningless uproar of an alien multitude. + +The forest absorbed us; as one's attention would be challenged and drawn +by the casual regard, never noticeably direct, but never withdrawn, of a +being superior and mysterious, so I was drawn to watch the still and +intent stature of the jungle, waiting for it to become vocal, for some +relaxing of its static form. Nothing ever happened. I never discovered +it. Rigid, watchful, enigmatic, its presence was constant, but without +so much as one blossom in all its green vacuity to show the least +friendly familiarity to one who had found flowers and woodlands kind. It +had nothing that I knew. It remained securely aloof and indifferent, +till I thought hostility was implied, as the sea implies its impartial +hostility, in a constant presence which experience could not fathom, nor +interest soften, nor courage intimidate. We sank gradually deeper +inwards towards its central fastnesses. + +By noon on our first day on the Madeira we reached the village of +Rozarinho, which is on the left bank, with the tributary of the same +name a little more up stream, but entering from the other side. Here, as +we followed a loop of the stream, the Madeira seemed circumscribed, a +tranquil lake. The yellow water, though swift, had so polished a surface +that the reflections of the forest were hardly disturbed, sinking below +the tops of the inverted trees to the ultimate clouds, giving an +illusion of profundity to the apparent lake. The village was but a +handful of leaf huts grouped about the nucleus of one or two larger +buildings with white walls. There was the usual jetty of a few planks to +which some canoes were tied. The forest was a high background to those +diminished huts; the latter, as we came upon them, suddenly increased +the height of the trees. + +In another place the shelter of a family of Indians was at the top of a +bank, secretive within the base of the woods. A row of chocolate babies +stood outside that nest, with four jabiru storks among them. Each bird, +so much taller than the babies, stood resting meditatively on one leg, +as though waiting the order to take up an infant and deliver it +somewhere. None of them, storks or infants, took the least notice of us. +Perhaps the time had not yet come for them to be aware of mundane +things. Certainly I had a feeling myself, so strange was the place, and +quiet and tranquil the day, that we had passed world's end, and that +what we saw beyond our steamer was the coloured stuff of dreams which, +if a wind blew, would wreathe and clear; vanish, and leave a shining +void. The sunset deepened this apprehension. There came a wonderful sky +of orange and mauve. It was over us and came down and under the ship. We +moved with glowing clouds beneath our keel. There was no river; the +forest girdled the radiant interior of a hollow sphere. + +The pilots could not proceed at night. Shortly after sundown we +anchored, in nine fathoms. The trees were not many yards from the +steamer. When the ship was at rest a canoe with two Indians came +alongside, with a basket of guavas. They were shy fellows, and each +carried in his hand a bright machete, for they did not seem quite sure +of our company. After tea we sat about the poop, trying to smoke, and, +in the case of the Doctor and the Purser, wearing at the same time veils +of butterfly nets, as protection from the mosquito swarms. The netting +was put over the helmet, and tucked into the neck of the tunic. Yet, +when I poked the stem of the pipe, which carried the gauze with it, into +my mouth, the veil was drawn tight on the face. A mosquito jumped to the +opportunity, and arrived. Alongside, the frogs were making the deafening +clangour of an iron foundry, and through that sound shrilled the +cicadas. I listened for the first time to the din of a tropical night in +the forest. There is no word strong enough to convey this uproar to ears +which have not listened to it. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 24._ A bright still sunrise, promising heat; and before breakfast +the ship's ironwork was too hot to touch. The novelty of this Madeira is +already beginning to merge into the yellow of the river, the blue of the +sky, and the green of the jungle, with but the occasional variation of +low roseous cliffs. The average width of the river may be less than a +quarter of a mile. It is loaded with floating timber, launched upon it +by "terras-cahidas," landslides, caused by the rains, which carry away +sections of the forest each large enough to furnish an English park with +trees. Sometimes we see a bight in the bank where such a collapse has +only recently occurred, the wreckage of trees being still fresh. Many of +the trees which charge down on the current are of great bulk, with half +their table-like base high out of the water. Occasionally rafts of them +appear, locked with creepers, and bearing flourishing gardens of weeds. +This characteristic gives the river its Portuguese name, "river of +wood." The Indians know the Madeira as the Cayary, "white river." + +Its course to-day serpentines so freely that at times we steer almost +east, and then again go west. Our general direction is south-west. At +eight this morning, after some anxious moments when the river was +dangerous with reefs, we passed the village of Borba, 140 miles from +Serpa. Here there is a considerable clearing, with kine browsing over a +hummocky sward that is well above the river on an occurrence of the red +clay. This release of the eyes was a smooth and grateful experience +after the enclosing walls. Some steps dug in the face of the low cliff +led to the white houses, all roofed with red tiles. The village faced +the river. From each house ascended the leisurely smoke of early +morning. The church was in the midst of the houses, its bell conspicuous +with verdigris. Two men stood to watch us pass. It was a pleasant +assurance to have, those roofs and the steeple rising actually into the +light of the sky. The dominant forest, in which we were sunk, was here +definitely put down by our fellow-men. + +We were beyond Borba, and its parana and island just above it, before +the pilot had finished telling us, where we watched from the "Capella's" +bridge, that Borba was a settlement which had suffered much from attacks +of the Araras Indians. The river took a sharp turn to the east, and +again went west. Islands were numerous. These islands are lancet-shaped, +and lie along the banks, separated by side channels, their paranas, from +the land. The smaller river craft often take a parana instead of the +main stream, to avoid the rush of the current. The whole region seems +lifeless. There is never a flower to be seen, and rarely a bird. +Sometimes, though, we disturb the snowy heron. On one sandy island, +passed during the afternoon, and called appropriately, Ilho do Jacare, +we saw two alligators. Otherwise we have the silent river to ourselves; +though I am forgetting the butterflies, and the constant arrival aboard +of new winged shapes which are sometimes so large and grotesque that one +is uncertain about their aggressive qualities. As we idle on the poop we +keep by us two insect nets, and a killing-bottle. The Doctor is making a +collection, and I am supposed to assist. + +When I came on deck on the morning of our arrival in the Brazils it was +not the orange sunrise behind a forest which was topped by a black +design of palm fronds, nor the warm odour of the place, nor the height +and intensity of the vegetation, which was most remarkable to me, a +new-comer from the restricted north. It was a butterfly which flickered +across our steamer like a coloured flame. No other experience put +England so remote. + +A superb butterfly, too bright and quick to be anything but an escape +from Paradise, will stay its dancing flight, as though with intelligent +surprise at our presence, hover as if puzzled, and swoop to inspect us, +alighting on some such incongruous piece of our furniture as a coil of +rope, or the cook's refuse pail, pulsing its wings there, plainly +nothing to do with us, the prismatic image of joy. Out always rush some +of our men at it, as though the sight of it had maddened them, as would +a revelation of accessible riches. It moves only at the last moment, +abruptly and insolently. They are left to gape at its mocking retreat. +It goes in erratic flashes to the wall of trees and then soars over the +parapet, hope at large. + +Then there are the other things which, so far as most of us know, have +no names, though a sailor, wringing his hands in anguish, is usually +ready with a name. To-day we had such a visitor. He looked a fellow the +Doctor might require, so I marked him down when he settled near a hatch +on the afterdeck. He was a bee the size of a walnut, and habited in dark +blue velvet. In this land it is wise to assume that everything bites or +stings, and that when a creature looks dead it is only carefully +watching you. I clapped the net over that fellow and instantly he +appeared most dead. Knowing he was but shamming, and that he would give +me no assistance, I stood wondering what I could do next; then the cook +came along. The cook saw the situation, laughed at my timidity with +tropical forms, went down on his knees, and caught my prisoner. The cook +raised a piercing cry. + +On the bridge I saw them levelling their glasses at us; and some +engineers came to their cabin doors to see us where we stood on the +lonely deck, the cook and the Purser, in a tableau of poignant tragedy. +The cook walked round and round, nursing his suffering member, and I did +not catch all he said, for I know very little Dutch; but the spirit of +it was familiar, and his thumb was bleeding badly. The bee had resumed +death again. The state of the cook's thumb was a surprise till the +surgeon exhibited the bee's weapons, when it became clear that thumbs, +especially when Dutch and rosy, like our cook's, afforded the right +medium for an artist who worked with such mandibles, and a tail that was +a stiletto. + +In England the forms of insect life soon become familiar. There is the +housefly, the lesser cabbage white butterfly, and one or two other +little things. In the Brazils, though the great host of forms is +surprising enough, it is the variety in that host which is more +surprising still. Any bright day on the "Capella" you may walk the +length of the ship, carrying a net and a collecting-bottle, and fill the +bottle (butterflies, cockroaches, and bugs not admitted), and perhaps +have not three of a species. The men frequently bring us something +buzzing in a hat; though accidents do happen half-way to where the +Doctor is sitting, and the specimen is mangled in a frenzy. A hornet +came to us that way. He was in violet armour, as hard as a crab, was +still stabbing the air with his long needle, and working on a fragment +of hat he held in his jaws, But such knights in mail are really +harmless, for after all they need not be interfered with. It is the +insignificant little fellows whose object in life it is to interfere +with us which really make the difference. + +So far on the river we have not met the famous pium fly. But the motuca +fly is a nuisance during the afternoon sleep. It is nearly of the size +and appearance of a "blue-bottle" fly, but its wings, having black tips, +look as though their ends were cut off. The motucas, while we slept, +would alight on the wrists and ankles, and where each had fed there +would be a wound from which the blood steadily trickled. + +The mosquitoes do not trouble us till sundown. But one morning in my +cabin I was interested in the hovering of what I thought was a small, +leggy spider which, because of its colouration of black and grey bands, +was evasive to the sight as it drifted about on its invisible thread. At +last I caught it, and found it was a new mosquito. In pursuing it I +found a number of them in the cabin. When I exhibited the insect to the +surgeon he did not well disguise his concern. "Say nothing about it," he +said, "but this is the yellow-fever brute," So our interest in our new +life is kept alert and bright. The solid teak doors of our cabins are +now permanently fixed back. Shutting them would mean suffocation; but as +the cabins must be closed before sundown to keep out the clouds of +gnats, the carpenter has made wooden frames, covered with copper gauze, +to fit the door openings at night, and rounds of gauze to cap the open +ports; and with a damp cloth, and some careful hunting each morning, one +is able to keep down the mosquitoes which have managed to find entry +during the night and have retired at sunrise to rest in dark corners. +For our care notwithstanding the insects do find their way in to assault +our lighted lamps. The Chief, partly because as an old sailor he is a +fatalist, and partly because he thinks his massive body must be +invulnerable, and partly because he has a contempt, anyway, for +protecting himself, each morning has a new collection of curios, alive +and dead, littered about his room. (I do not wonder Bates remained in +this land so long; it is Elysium for the entomologist.) One of the live +creatures found in his room the Chief retains and cherishes, and hopes +to tame, though the object does not yet answer to his name of Edwin. +This creature is a green mantis or praying insect, about four inches +long, which the Chief came upon where it rested on the copper gauze of +his door-cover, holding a fly in its hands, and eating it as one would +an apple. This mantis is an entertaining freak, and can easily keep an +audience watching it for an hour, if the day is dull. Edwin, in colour +and form, is as fresh, fragile, and translucent as a leaf in spring. He +has a long thin neck--the stalk to his wings, as it were--which is quite +a third of his length. He has a calm, human face with a pointed chin at +the end of his neck; he turns his face to gaze at you without moving his +body, just as a man looks backwards over his shoulder. This uncanny +mimicry makes the Chief shake with mirth. Then, if you alarm Edwin, he +springs round to face you, frilling his wings abroad, standing up and +sparring with his long arms, which have hooks at their ends. At other +times he will remain still, with his hands clasped up before his face, +as though in earnest devotion, for a trying period. If a fly alights +near him he turns his face that way and regards it attentively. Then +sluggishly he approaches it for closer scrutiny. Having satisfied +himself it is a good fly, without warning his arms shoot out and that +fly is hopelessly caught in the hooked hands. He eats it, I repeat, as +you do apples, and the authentic mouthfuls of fly can be seen passing +down his glassy neck. Edwin is fragile as a new leaf in form, has the +same delicate colour, and has fascinating ways; but somehow he gives an +observer the uncomfortable thought that the means to existence on this +earth, though intricately and wonderfully devised, might have been +managed differently. Edwin, who seems but a pretty fragment of +vegetation, is what we call a lie. His very existence rests on the fact +that he is a diabolical lie. + +Gossamers in the rigging to-day led the captain to prophesy a storm +before night. Clouds of an indigo darkness, of immense bulk, and +motionless, reduced the sunset to mere runnels of opaline light about +the bases of dark mountains inverted in the heavens. There was a rapid +fall of temperature, but no rain. Our world, and we in its centre on the +"Capella," waited for the storm in an expectant hush. Night fell while +we waited. The smooth river again deepened into the nadir of the last of +day, and the forest about us changed to material ramparts of cobalt. The +pilot made preparations to anchor. The engine bell rang to stand-by, a +summons of familiar urgency, but with a new and alarming note when heard +in a place like that. The forest made no response. A little later the +bell clanged rapidly again, and the pulse of our steamer slowed, ceased. +We could hear the water uncoiling along our plates. The forest itself +approached us, came perilously near. The Skipper's voice cried abruptly, +"Let go!" and at once the virgin silence was demolished by the uproar of +our cable. The "Capella" throbbed violently; she literally undulated in +the drag of the current. We still drifted slowly down stream. The second +anchor was dropped, and held us. The silence closed in on us instantly. +Far in the forest somewhere, while we were whispering to each other in +the quiet, a tree fell with a deep, significant boom. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 25._ We had been under way for more than an hour when my eyes +opened on the illuminated panorama of leaves and boles unfolding past +the door of my cabin. The cicadas were grinding their scissors loudly in +the trees alongside. I spent much of this day on the bridge, where I +liked to be, watching the pilot at work. The Skipper was there, and in a +cantankerous mood. The pilot wants us to make a chart of the river. He +has given the captain and me a long list of islands, paranas, +tributaries, villages, and sitios. Every map and reference to the river +we have on board is valueless. A map of the river indicates many +settlements with beautiful names; and at each point, when we arrive, +nothing but the forest shows. How the cartographers arrived at such +results is a mystery. This river, which their generous imaginings have +seen as a tortuous bough of the Amazon, laden with villages which they +indicate on their maps with marks like little round fruits, is almost +barren. Every day we pass small sitios or clearings; maybe the +map-makers mean such places as those. Yet each clearing is but a brief +security, a raft of land--the size of the garden of an English +villa--lonely in an ocean of deep leaves, where a rubber man has built +himself a timber house, and some huts for his serfs. It will have a +jetty and a huddle of canoes, and usually a few children on the bank +watching us. We salute that place with our syren as we pass, and +sometimes the kiddies spring for home then as though we were shooting at +them. Or we see a little embowered shack with a pile of fuel logs beside +it, and a crude name-board, where the river boats replenish when +traversing this stream, during the season, for rubber. Our pilots have +much to say of these stations, and of all the rubber men on the river +and their wealth. But away with their rubber! I am tired of it, and will +keep it out of this book if I can. For it is blasphemous that in such a +potentially opulent land the juice of one of its wild trees should be +dwelt upon--as it is in the states of Amazonas and Para--as though it +were the sole act of Providence. The Brazilians can see nothing here but +rubber. The generative qualities of this land through fierce sun and +warm showers--for rarely a day passes without rain, whatever the +season--a land of constant high summer with a free fecundity which has +buried the earth everywhere under a wild growth nearly two hundred feet +deep, is insignificant to them. They see nothing in it at all but the +damnable commodity which is its ruin. Para is mainly rubber, and Manaos. +The Amazon is rubber, and most of its tributaries. The Madeira +particularly is rubber. The whole system of communication, which covers +34,000 miles of navigable waters, waters nourishing a humus which +literally stirs beneath your feet with the movements of spores and +seeds, that system would collapse but for the rubber. The passengers on +the river boats are rubber men, and the cargoes are rubber. All the talk +is of rubber. There are no manufactures, no agriculture, no fisheries, +and no saw-mills, in a region which could feed, clothe, and shelter the +population of a continent. There was a book by a Brazilian I saw at +Para, recently published, and called the "Green Hell" (Inferno Verde). +On its cover was the picture of a nude Indian woman, symbolical of +Amazonas, and from wounds in her body her blood was draining into the +little tin cups which the rubber collector uses against the incisions on +the rubber tree. From what I heard of the subject, and I heard much, +that picture was little overdrawn. I begin to think the usual commercial +mind is the most dull, wasteful, and ignorant of all the sad wonders in +the pageant of humanity. + +It is only on the "Capella's" bridge that you feel the stagnant air +which is upset by the steamer's progress. There it spills over us, heavy +with the scent of the lairage on the fore deck. The bridge is a narrow, +elevated outlook, full in the sun's eye, where I can get a view of the +complete ship as she serpentines in her narrow way. On the port side of +it the Skipper has a seat, and there now he sits all day, gazing moodily +ahead. The dapper little pilot stands centrally, throwing brief commands +over his shoulder into the open window of the wheelhouse, where a +sailor, gravely chewing tobacco, his hands on the wheel, is as rapt as +though in a trance. I think the pilot finds his way by divination. The +depth of the river is most variable. In the dry season I hear the stream +becomes but a chain of pools connected by threads which may be no more +than eighteen inches deep, the rest of its bed being dry mud +cross-hatched by sun cracks. The rains in far Bolivia, overflowing the +swamps there, during some months of the year increase the depth of the +Madeira by forty-five feet. The local rainy season would make hardly any +difference to it. The river is fed from reservoirs which stretch beneath +the Andes. + +There is rarely anything to show why, for a spell, the pilot should take +us straight ahead in mid-stream, and then again tack to and fro across, +sometimes brushing the foliage with our shrouds. I have plucked a bunch +of leaves in an unexpected swoop in-shore. And the big timber comes down +afloat to meet us in a never-ending procession; there are the propellor +blades to be thought of. I see, now and then, the swirls which betray +rocks in hiding, and when dodging those dangerous places the screw +disturbs the mud and the stinks. But the pilot takes us round and about, +we with our 300 feet of length and 23 feet draught, as a man would steer +a motor car. To aid it our rudder has had fixed to it a false wooden +length. The "Capella" is a very good girl, as responsive to the pilot's +word as though she knew that he alone can save her. She stems this +powerful current at but four knots, and sometimes we come to places +where, if she hesitated for but two seconds, we should be put athwart +stream to close the channel. And what would happen to us with nothing +but unexplored malarial forest each side of us is not useful to brood +on. Occasionally the pilot, grasping the top of the "dodger," stares +beyond us fixedly to where the refracted sunshine is blinding between +the green cliffs, and gives quick and numerous orders to the wheelhouse +without turning his head. The Skipper gets up to watch. The "Capella" +makes surprising swerves, the pilot nervously taps the boards with his +foot.... Then he says something quietly, relaxes, and comes to us +blithely, the funny dog with a nonsense story, and the Skipper sinks +couchant again. Once more I watch the front of the jungle for what may +show there. Seldom there is anything new which shows. It is rare, even +when close alongside, that one can trace the shape of a leaf. There are +but the conspicuous grey nests of the ants and wasps. Yet several times +to-day I saw trees in blossom; domes of lilac in the green forest roof. +Again, to-day we put up a flight of hundreds of ducks; and another +incident was a blackwater stream, the Rio Mataua, the line of +demarcation between the Madeira's yellow flood and its dark tributary +being distinct. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 26._ The forest is lower and more open, and the pao mulatto is +more numerous. We saw the important village of Manicore to-day, and +Oncas, a little place within a portico of the woods which was veiled in +grey smoke, for they were coagulating rubber there. For awhile before +sunset the sky was scenic with great clouds, and glowing with the usual +bright colours. The wilderness was transformed. Each evening we seem to +anchor in a region different, in nature and appearance, under these +extraordinary sunset skies, from the country we have been travelling +since daylight. Transfiguration at eventime we know in England. Yet +sunset there but exalts our homeland till it seems more intimately ours +than ever, as though then came a luminous revelation of its rare +intrinsic goodness. We see, for some brief moments, its aura. But this +tropical jungle, at dayfall, is not the earth we know. It is a celestial +vision, beyond physical attaining, beyond knowledge. It is ulterior, +glorious, transient, fading before our surprise and wonder fade. We of +the "Capella" are its only witnesses, except those pale ghosts, the +egrets about the dim aqueous base of the forest. + +Darkness comes quickly, the swoop and overspread of black wings. The +stopping of the ship's heart, because the pulsations of her body have +had unconscious response in yours, as by an incorporeal ligament, is the +cessation of your own life. At a moment there is a strange quiet, in +which you begin to hear the whisper of inanimate things. A log glides +past making faint labial sounds. You are suddenly released from prison, +and float lightly in an ether impalpable to the coarse sounds and +movements of earth, but which is yet sensitive to the most delicate +contact of your thoughts and emotions. The whispering of your fellows is +but the rustling of their thoughts in an illimitable and inviolate +silence. + +Then, almost imperceptibly, the frogs begin their nightlong din. The +crickets and cicadas join. Between the varying pitch of their voices +come other nocturnes in monotones from creatures unknown to complete the +gamut. There are notes so profound, but constant, that they are a mere +impression of obscurity to the hearing, as when one peers listening into +an abysm in which no bottom is seen, and others are stridulations so +attenuated that they shrill beyond reach. + +A few frogs begin it. There are ululations, wells of mellow sound +bubbling to overflow in the dark, and they multiply and unite till the +quality of the sound, subdued and pleasant at first, is quite changed. +It becomes monstrous. The night trembles in the powerful beat of a +rhythmic clangour. One cannot think of frogs, hearing that metallic din. +At one time, soon after it begins, the chorus seems the far hubbub, +mingled and levelled by distance, of a multitude of people running and +disputing in a place where we who are listening know that no people are. +The noise comes nearer and louder till it is palpitating around us. It +might be the life of the forest, immobile and silent all day, now +released and beating upwards in deafening paroxysms. + +Alongside the engine room casing amidships the engineers have fixed an +open-air mess-table, with a hurricane lamp in its midst, having but a +brief halo of light which hardly distinguishes the pickle jar from the +marmalade pot. A haze of mosquitoes quivers round the light. The air is +hot and lazy, and the engineers sit about limply in trousers and shirts, +the latter open and showing bosoms as various as faces. The men cheer +themselves with comical plaints about the heat, the food, the Brazils, +and make sudden dabs at bare flesh when the insects bite them. The Chief +rallies his boys as would a cheery dad--Sandy, though, is nearly his own +age, but still much of a lad, quietly despondent--and the Chief heartily +insists on food, like it or lump it. I go forward to the captain's tea +table on the poop deck, where we have two hurricane lamps, and where the +figures of us round the table, in that dismal glim, are the thin +phantoms of men. The lamps have been lighted only that moment, and as we +take our seats, the insects come. Just as sharply as though something +derisive and invisible were throwing them at us, big mole crickets +bounce into our plates. A cicada, though I was then unaware of his +identity, a monstrous fly which looked as large as a rat, and with a +head like a lantern, alighted before me on the cloth, and remained +still. Picking it up tentatively it sprang a startling police rattle +between my finger and thumb, and the other chaps shouted their +merriment. The steward places a cup of tea before each of us, and in an +interval of the talk the Skipper announces a smell of paraffin in his +cup. We experiment with ours, and gravely confirm. The surgeon, bending +close to a light with his cup, the deep characteristics of his face +strongly accentuated--he seems but a bodiless head in the dark--says he +detects globules of fat. The Skipper crudely outlines this horror to the +steward, who makes an inaudible reply in German, and disappears down the +companion. We get a new and innocent brew. + +There is hash for us. There is our familiar the pickled beef. There are +saucers of brown onions. There are saucers of jam and of butter. +To-night the steward has baked some cakes, and their grateful smell and +crisp brown rugged surface, studded with plums, determine in my mind a +resolution to eat four of them, if I can get them without open shame. I +assert that our Skipper has a counting eye for the special dishes; +though you may eat all the hash you want. Damn his hash! The bread is +sour. I want cakes. + +After tea the pilots get into their hammocks and under their curtains, +out of the way of the mosquitoes. We know where they are because of the +red ends of their cigarettes. We sit around anywhere, the Skipper, the +Chief, the Doctor and the Purser. There is little to be said. We talk of +the mosquitoes, in ejaculations, for the little wretches quite easily +penetrate linen, and can manage even worsted socks. Occasionally flying +insects bump into the tin lamp placed above us on the ice chest. (No; +there is no ice.) Thin divergent arrows of light, the fireflies, lace +the gloom, and the trees alongside are gemmed with them. We find still +less to say to each other, but fear to retire to our heated berths, for +as it is just possible to breathe in the open we continue to defy the +mosquitoes. The first mate serenades us on his accordion. At last there +is no help for it. The steward comes to tell the master that his cot is +ready. The "old man" sleeps in a cot draped with netting, and slung from +the awning beams on the starboard side. Nightly he turns in there, and +unfailingly a rain cloud bursts in the very early morning, pounding on +the awning till the cool spray compels him, and he retreats in his +pyjamas for shelter, taking his pillow with him. It is for that reason I +do not use the cot he made for me, which hangs on the port side; though +it is delightful for the afternoon nap. + +The Skipper disappears. The Doctor and I go below to the surgery, and +from the settee there he removes books, tobacco tins, fishing tackle, +phials, india rubber tubing, and small leather cases, making room for us +both, and first we have some out of his bottle, and then we try some out +of mine. The stuff is always tepid, for the water in the carafe has a +temperature of 80 degrees. The perspiration begins a steady permeation +as we talk, for now we can talk, and talk, being together, and talking +is better than sleep, which at its best is but a fitful doze in the +tropics. We fall, as it were, on each other's necks. Though the Doctor's +breast--I say nothing of mine--is not one which appears to invite the +weak tear of a fellow mortal who is harassed by solitude. You might +judge it too cold, too hard and unresponsive a support, for that; and I +have seen his eye even repellent. He is not elderly, but he is grey, and +pallid through too much of the tropics. The lines descending his face +show he has been observing things for long, and does not think much of +them. When disputing with him, he does not always reply to you; he +smiles to himself; a habit which is an annoyance to some people, whose +simple minds are suspicious, and who are unaware that the surgeon is +sometimes forgetful that his weaker brethren, when they are most heated +and disputative with him, then most lack confidence in their case, and +need the confirmation of the wit they know is superior. That is no time +when one should look at the wall, and smile quietly. The "Capella's" +company feel that the surgeon stands where he overlooks them, and they +see, where he stands unassumingly superior, that he looks upon them +politely. They do not know he is really sad and forgetful; they think he +is amused, but that he prefers to pretend he is well bred. I must +confess it is known he has prescience having a certain devilish quality +of penetration. There was one of our stokers, and one night he was drunk +on stolen gin, and latitudinous, and so attempted a curious answer to +the second engineer, who sought him out in the forecastle concerning +work. Now the second engineer is a young man who has a number of +photographs of himself which display him, clad but in vanity and shorts, +back, front, and profile, arms folded tightly to swell his very large +muscles. He has really a model figure, and he knows it. The cut over the +stoker's nose was a bad one. + +To the surgeon the stoker went, early next morning, actually for a hair +of the dog, but with a story that he was then to go on duty, and so +would miss his ration of quinine, which is not served till eleven +o'clock. The quinine, as you know, is given in gin. The surgeon +complimented the man on such proper attention to his health, and +willingly gave him the quinine--in water. He also stood at the door of +the alleyway to watch the man retained the quinine as far as the engine +room entrance. + +Eight bells! Presently I also must go and pretend to sleep. The +surgeon's last cheery comment on the cosmic scheme remains but as a wry +smile on our faces. We grope in our minds desperately for a topic to +keep the talk afloat. There goes one bell! + +I arrive at my haunt of cockroaches, where the second mate is already +asleep on the upper shelf. The brown light of the oil lamp has its +familiar flavour, and the cabin is like an oven. What a prospect for +sleep! Raising the mosquito curtain carefully I slip through the opening +like an acrobat, hoping to be ahead of the insidious little malaria +carriers. A drove of cockroaches scuttles wildly over my warm mattress +as I arrive. Striking matches within what the sailor overhead calls my +meat safe, I examine my enclosure carefully for mosquitoes, but none +seems to be there, though I know very well I shall find at least a +dozen, gorged with blood, in the morning. The iron bulkhead which +separates my bed from the engine room is, of course, hot to the touch. +The air is a passive weight. The old insect bites begin to irritate and +burn. I kick the miserable sheet to the foot, and lie on my back without +a movement, for I fear I may suffocate in that shut box. My chest seems +in bonds, and for long there is no relief, though the body presently +grows indifferent to the misery, and the anxiety goes. It is remarkable +to what brutality the body will submit, when it knows it must. Yet +nothing but a continuous effort of will kept the panic suppressed, and +me in that box, till the feeling of anxiety had passed. Thenceforward +the sleepless mind, like a petty balloon giddy on a thin but unbreakable +thread of thought, would tug at my consciousness, revolving and dodging +about, in spite of my resolution to keep it still. If I could only break +that thread, I said to myself, turning over again, away it would fly out +of sight, and I should forget all this ... all this.... And presently it +broke loose, and dwindled into oblivion. + +Then I knew nothing more till I saw, fixed where I was in hopeless +horror, the baby face of one I dwell much upon, in moments of solitude, +and it had fallen wan and thin, and was full of woe unutterable, and its +appealing eyes were blind. I woke with a cry, sitting up suddenly, the +heart going like a rapid hammer. There was the curtained box about me. +The clothes were on the hooks. I could see the black shape of the cabin +doorway. By my watch it was four o'clock. The air had cooled, and as I +sat waiting for the next thing in the silence the mate snored profoundly +overhead. Ah! So that was all right. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 27._ This has been a day of anxious navigation, for the river has +had frequent reefs. We remain in a stagnant chasm of trees. The surgeon +and I, accompanied by a swarm of flies, went forward into the cattle +stew this morning to see how the beasts fared. The patient brutes were +suffering badly, and some, quite plainly, were dying. The change from +the lush green stuff of the Itacoatiara swamps to compressed American +hay put under their noses on an iron deck, and the stifling heat under +partial awnings, had ruined them. Some stood, heads down, legs +straddled, too indifferent to disperse the loathly clouds of parasites. +Most were plagued by ticks, which had the tenacity and appearance of +iron bolt heads. But the little black cow, the rebel, blared at us, +bound and suffering as she was. Vive la revolution! We drove the flies +from her hide, and she tried to kick us, the darling. We found a steer +with his shoulder out of joint, lying inert in the sun, indifferent to +further outrage. That had to be seen to, and we told the Skipper, who +ordered it to be killed. We wanted some fresh meat badly, he added. The +boatswain explained that he knew the business, and he brought a long +knife, and quite calmly thrust it into the front of the prone creature, +and seemed to be trying to find its heart. Nothing happened, except a +little blood and some convulsive movements. Another sailor produced a +short knife and a hammer, and tapped away behind the horns as though he +were a mason and this were stone. The frowning surgeon supposed the +fellow was trying to sever the vertebrae. I don't know. Yet another +fellow jumped on its abdomen. At last it died. I put down merely what +happened. No two voyages are alike, and as this episode came into mine, +here it is, to be worked in with the sunsets and things. There was some +cheerful talk at the prospect of the first fresh meat since England, and +later, passing the cook's galley, I saw an iron bin, and lifted its +cover to see what was there. And there was, as I judged there would be, +liver for tea that evening. But I learned that though I am a carnivore +yet I have not the pluck to be a vulture. + +The next day we passed the Cidada de Humayta, the chief town on the +Madeira. Actually it was of the size of an unimportant home village. +There was nothing there to support the pilot's sonorous title of cidada. +For some reason we were visited to-day by an extraordinary number of +butterflies. One large specimen was of an olive green, barred with +black. Another had wings of a bluish grey, striped with vermilion. +Helicons came, and once a morpho, the latter a great rarity away from +the interior of the woods. At four in the afternoon the sky grew +ominous. We had just time to notice the trees astern suddenly convulsed, +writhing where they stood, and the storm sprang at us, roaring, ripping +away awnings and loose gear. The noise in the forest round us was that +of cataclysm. The rain was an obscurity of falling water, and the trees +turned to shadows in a grey fog. The ship became full of waterspouts, +large streams and jets curving away from every prominence. This lasted +for but twenty minutes; but the impending clouds remained to hasten +night when we were in a place which, more than anything I have seen, was +the world before the coming of man. The river had broadened and +shallowed. The forest enclosed us. There were islands, and the rank +growth of swamps. We could see, through breaks in the igapo, extensive +lagoons beyond, with the high jungle brooding over empty silver areas. +Herons, storks, and egrets were white and still about the tangle of +aqueous roots. It was all as silent and other world as a picture. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 29._ When shouting awakened me this morning I saw the Chief hurry +by my cabin, half-dressed, and looking very anxious. By the almost +stationary foliage I could see the ship had merely way on her. Out I +jumped. On the forecastle head a crowd was gathered, peering overside. A +large tree was balanced accurately athwart our stem, and refused to +move. What worried the staff was that it would, when free, sidle along +our plates till it fouled the propeller. The propeller had to be kept +moving, for the river was narrow and its current unusually rapid. There +the log obstinately remained for the most of an hour, but suddenly made +up its mind, and went, clearing the stern by inches. After that the +engines were driven full, for the pilot hoped to get us to Porto Velho +by nightfall. In the late afternoon, when passing the Rio Jamary, the +clouds again banked astern, bringing night before its time, and another +violent storm compelled an early anchorage. The forest was remarkably +quiet after the tumult of the squall, and the "Capella" had been put +over to the left bank, when close to us on the opposite shore there was +a landslip. We saw a section of the jungle wall sway, as though that +part was taken by a local tempest, and then the green cliff and its +supports fell bodily into the river, raising thunderous submarine +explosions. Such landslides, terras cahidas, can be rarely foreseen, and +are a grave danger to craft when they come close in to rest at night. +To-day we passed a small raft drifting down. A hut was erected in its +middle, and we saw two men within. + + * * * * * + +_Jan. 30._ Talk enough there has been of a place called Porto Velho, a +name I heard first when I signed the articles of the "Capella" at +Swansea, and of what would happen to us when we arrived. But I am +looking upon it all as a strange myth. There has been time to prove +those superstitions of Porto Velho. And what has happened? There was a +month we had of the vacant sea, and one day we came upon a low coast +where palms grew. There has been a month which has striped the vacant +mind in three colours, constant in relative position, but without form, +yellow floor, green walls, and a blue ceiling. Plainly we have got +beyond all the works of man now. We have intrigued an ocean steamer +thousands of miles along the devious waterways of an uninhabited +continental jungle, and now she must be near the middle of the puzzle, +with voiceless regions of unexplored forest reeking under the equatorial +sun at every point of the compass. The more we advance up the Amazon and +Madeira rivers the less the likelihood, it seems to me, of getting to +any place where our ship and cargo could be required. We shall steam and +steam till the river shallows, the forest closes in, and we are trapped. +Yet the Madeira looks now much the same as when we entered it, still as +broad and deep. I was thinking this morning we might go on so for ever; +that this adventure was all of the casual improbabilities of a dream was +in my mind when, smoking the after breakfast pipe on the bridge, we +turned a corner sharply, and there was the end of the passage within a +mile of us, Porto Velho at last. + +The forest on the port side ahead was uplifted on an unusually high +cliff of the red rock. Beyond that cliff was a considerable clearing, +with many buildings of a character different from any we had seen in the +country. At the end of the clearing the forest began again, unconquered +still, standing across our course as a high barrier; for, leaving Porto +Velho, the river turned west almost at a right angle, and vanished; as +though now it were done with us. We had arrived. A rough pier was being +thrown out on palm boles to receive us, but it was not ready. We +anchored in five fathoms, about thirty yards from the shore, and in the +quiet which came with the stop of the ship's life we waited for the next +thing, all hands lining the "Capella's" side surveying this place of +which we had heard so much. + +Plainly this was not the usual village. Many acres of trees had been +newly cleared, leaving a great bay in the woods. The earth was still raw +from a recent attack on what had been inviolate from time's beginning. +Trenches, new red gashes, scored it, and holes were gouged in the hill +side. You could think man had attacked the forest here in a fury, but +had spent his force on one small spot, as though he had struck one wound +again and again. The fight was over. The footing had been won, a base +perhaps for further campaigns because wooden emergency houses, sheds and +barracks, had been built. The assailant evidently had made up his mind +to settle on his advantage, though he was tolerating a little quickly +rebellious scrub. Just then he was resting, as if the whole affair had +been over but five minutes before we came, and now the conqueror was +sleeping on his first success. Completely round the conquered space the +jungle stood indifferently regarding the trifle of ground it had lost. +The jungle on the near opposite shore rose straight and uninterrupted +from the river, the front rank, lost each way in distance, of an +innumerable army. At the upper end of the clearing the jungle began +again on our side, and turned to run across our bows, the complement of +the host across the water, and both ranks continued up stream, dark and +indeterminate lines converging, till, three miles away, a delicate +flickering of light, a mere dimmer, faint but constant, bridged the two +walls. No doubt that delicate light would be the San Antonio cataracts, +the first of the nineteen rapids of the Madeira. + +Porto Velho behaved as though we were not there. A pitiless sun flamed +over that deep red wound in the forest, and they who had made it were in +their shelters, resting out of sight after such a recent riot of +exertion. Nothing was being done then. Two or three white men stood on +the dismantled foreshore, placidly regarding us. We might have been +something they were not quite sure was there, a possibility not +sufficiently interesting for them to verify. There was a hint of +mockery, after all our anxiety and travail, in this quiet disregard. Had +we arrived too late to help, and so were not wanted? I confess I should +not have been surprised to have heard suppressed laughter, some light +hilarity from the unseen, at us innocently puzzling as to what was to +happen next. There was a violent scream in the forest near our bows, and +we turned wondering to that green wall. A locomotive ran out from the +base of the trees, still screaming. + +In a little while a man left a house, striding down over the debris to +the foreshore, and some half-breeds brought him in a canoe to the +"Capella." He was a tall youngster, an American, and his slow body +itself was but a thin sallow drawl; only his eyes were alert, and they +darted at ours in quick scrutiny. His solemn occupying assurance and +accent precipitated reality. He was a doctor and he ordered us to be +mustered on the after deck for inspection for yellow fever. We were +passed; and then this doctor went below to the saloon, distributing his +long limbs and body over several chairs and part of the table, and began +with lazy words and gestures to give us a place in the scene. We learned +we should stay as we were till the pier was finished and that the +railway was actually in being for a short distance. He said something +about Porto Velho being hell. + +He left us. We sat about on deck furniture, and waited on the unknown +gods of the land to see what they would send us. All day in the clearing +figures moved about on some mysterious business, but seldom looked at +us. We had nothing to do but to watch the raft of timber and flotsam +expand about our hawsers, a matter of some concern to us, for the +current ran at six knots. Our brief sense of contact got from the +medical inspection had gone by night. Reality contracted, closing in +upon the "Capella" with rapidly diminishing radii as the light went, +till we had lost everything but our steamer. + +Into the saloon, where some of us sat listening in sympathy to the +Skipper's growls that night, burst our cook, disrespectful and tousled, +saying he had seen a canoe, which bore a light, overturn in the river. +There was a stampede. We each seized a lantern and leaned overside with +it, with that fatuous eagerness to help which makes a man strike matches +when looking for one who is lost on a moor. Ghostly logs came floating +noiselessly out of darkness into the brief domain of our lanterns, and +faded into night again. From somewhere in the collection of driftwood +beyond our bows we thought we heard an occasional cry, though that might +have been the noise of water sucking through the rubbish, or the +creaking of timbers. Our chief mate got out a small boat, and vanished; +and we were already growing anxious for him when his luminous grin +appeared below in the range of my lantern, and with him came the +ponderous figure of a man. The latter, deft and agile, came up the rope +ladder, and stepped aboard with innocent inconsequence, shocking my +sense of the gravity of the affair; for this streaming object, lifted +from the grip of the boney one just in time, was chuckling. "Say," said +this big ruddy man to our gaping crowd, "I met a nigger ashore with a +letter for the captain of this packet. Said he didn't know how to get. +So I brought it, but a tree overturned the canoe. I came up under the +timber jam all right, all right, but it took me quite a piece to get my +head through." In the saloon, with a pool of water spreading round him, +while we got him some dry clothes, he produced this pulpy letter. "Dear +Captain" (it ran), "I'm as dry as hell, have you brought drinks in the +ship?" + +The bland indifference of Porto Velho to the "Capella," which had done +so much to get there; the locomotive which ran screaming out of those +woods where, till then, was the same unbroken front which from Para +inwards had surrendered nothing; the inconsequential doctor who +carefully examined us for what we had not got; the ruddy man who rose to +us streaming out of the deeps, as though that were his usual approach, +bearing another stranger's unreasonable letter complaining of thirst, +were most puzzling. I even felt some anxiety and suspicion. What, then, +were all the other incidents of our difficult six thousand mile voyage? +What was this place to which we had come on urgent business long and +carefully deliberated, where men merely looked at the whites of our +eyes, or changed wet clothes in the saloon, or lightly referred to +hell--they all did that--as if hell were an unremarkable feature of +their day? Were all these unrelated shadows and movements but part of a +long and witless jest? The point of it I could not see. Was there any +point to it or did casual episodes appear at unexpected places till they +came, just as unexpectedly, to an empty end? The man the mate had +rescued sat at the saloon table opposite me, leaning a yard wide chest, +which was almost bare, on the red baize, his bulging arms resting before +him, and his hairy paws easily clasped. I thought that perhaps this +imperturbable being, who could come with easy assurance, his bright +friendly eyes merely amused, his large firm mouth merely mocking, and +his face heated, from a desperate affair in which his life nearly went, +to announce to strangers, "Boys, I'm old man Jim," must have had the +point of the joke revealed to him long since, and so now had no respect +for its setting, and could have no care and understanding of my anxious +innocence. He sat there for hours in quiet discourse. I listened to him +with my ears only, his words jostling my thoughts, as one would puzzle +over and listen to a superior being which had unbent to be intimate, but +was outside our experience. I heard he had been at this place since +1907. He began the work here. Porto Velho did not then exist. Off where +we were anchored, the jungle rose. He had his young son with him, a +cousin, and two negroes, and he began the railway. Inside the trees, he +said, they could not see three yards, but down it all had to come. There +is a small stingless bee here, which "old man Jim" called the sweat bee. +It alights in swarms on the face and hands, and prefers death to being +dislodged from its enjoyment. The heat, these bees, the ants, the pium +flies, the mosquitoes, made the existence of Jim and his mates a misery. +Jim merely drawled about in a comic way. Fever came, and mistrust of +natives compelled him to dress a dummy, put that in his hammock at +night, while he slept in a corner of the hut, one eye open, nursing a +gun. I could not see "old man Jim" ever having faith that trains would +run, or needed to run, where Indians lurked in the bush, and jaguars +nosed round the hut at night. Why these sufferings then? But we learned +the line now penetrated into the forest for sixty miles, and that beyond +it there were camps, where surveyors were seeing that further way was +made, and beyond them again, among the trees of the interior, the +surveyors were still, planning the way the line should run when it had +got so far. + + * * * * * + +Though we could not get ashore, there was enough to watch, if it were +only the men leisurely driving palm boles into the river, making a pier +for us. While at breakfast to-day a canoe of half-breeds came flying +towards us in pursuit of an object which kept a little ahead of them in +the river. It passed close under our stern, and we saw it was a peccary. +The canoe ran level with it then, and a man leaned over, catching the +wild pig by a hind leg, keeping its snout under water while another +secured its feet with rope. It was brought aboard in bonds as a present +for the Skipper, who begged the natives to convey it below to the +bunkers and there release it. He said he would tame it. I saw the eye of +the beast as it lay on the deck champing its tusks viciously, and +guessed we should have some interesting moments while kindness tried to +reduce that light in its eye. The peccary disappeared for a few days. + +There being nothing to do this fine morning, we watched the cattle put +ashore. This was not so difficult a business as shipping them, for the +beasts now submitted quietly to the noose which was put on their horns. +The steam tackle hoisted them, they were pushed overside, and dropped +into the river. Some natives in a canoe cleared the horns, and the +brute, swimming desperately in the strong current, was guided to the +bank. Some of the beasts being already near death they were merely +jettisoned. The current bore them down stream, making feeble efforts to +swim--food for the alligators. We waited for the turn of the black +heifer. She was one of the last. She was not led to the ship's side. The +tackle was attached to her horns, and made taut before her head was +loosed. She made a furious lunge at the men when her nose was free, but +the winch rattled, and she was brought up on her hind legs, blaring at +us all. In that ugly manner she was walked on two legs across the deck, +a heroine in shameful guise, while the men laughed. She was hoisted, and +lowered into the river. She fought at the waiting canoe with her feet, +but at last the men released her horns from the tackle. With only her +face above water she heaved herself, open mouthed, at the canoe, trying +to bite it, and then made some almost successful efforts to climb into +it. The canoe men were so panic-stricken that they did nothing but +muddle one another's efforts. The canoe rocked dangerously. This wicked +animal had no care for its own safety like other cattle. It surprised +its tormentors because it showed its only wish was to kill them. Just in +time the men paddled off for their lives, the cow after them. Seeing she +could not catch them, she swam ashore, climbed the bank, looking round +then for a sight of the enemy--but they were all in hiding--and then +began browsing in the scrub. + +As leisurely as though life were without end, the work on the pier +proceeded; and we on the "Capella," who could not get ashore, with each +of our days a week long, looked round upon this remote place of the +American tropics till it seemed we had never looked upon anything else. +The days were candent and vaporous, the heat by breakfast-time being +such as we know at home in an early afternoon of the dog-days. The +forest across the river, about three hundred yards away, from sunrise +till eight o'clock, often was veiled in a white fog. There would be a +clear river, and a sky that was full day, but not the least suspicion of +a forest. We saw what seemed a limitless expanse of bright water, which +merged into the opalescent sky walls. Such an invisible fog melted from +below, and then the revelation of the dark base of the forest, in +mid-distance, was as if our eyes were playing tricks. The forest +appeared in the way one magic-lantern picture grows through another. The +last of the vapour would roll upwards from the tree-tops for some time, +and you could believe the woods were smouldering heavily. Thenceforward +the quiet day would be uninterrupted, except for the plunge of a heavy +fish, the passing of a canoe, a visit from an adventurous visitor from +the shore, or the growing of a cloud in the sky. We tried fishing, +though never got anything but some grey scaleless creatures with feelers +hanging about their gills. It was not till the evening when the visitors +usually came that the day began really to move. The new voices gave our +saloon and cabins vivacity, and the stories we heard carried us far and +swiftly towards the next breakfast-time. They were strange characters, +those visitors, usually Americans, but sometimes we got an Englishman or +a Frenchman. They took possession of the ship. + +There was an elderly man, Neil O'Brien, who was often with us. At first +I thought he was a very exceptional character. He was one of the first +to visit our ship. I even felt a little timidity when alone with him, +for he had a habit of sitting limply, looking at nothing in particular, +and dumb, and plainly he was a man whose thoughts ran in ways I could +not even surmise. His pale blue eyes would turn upon me with that +searching openness which may mean childish innocence or madness, and I +could not forget the whispers I had heard of his dangerously inflammable +nature. I could not find common footing with him for some time. My +trouble was that I had come out direct from a country where few men are +free, and so most of us live in doubt of what would happen to us if we +were to act as though we were free men. Where, if a self-reliant man +contemptuously dares to a bleak and perilous extremity, he makes all his +lawful fellows in-draw their timid breaths; that land where even a +reward has been instituted, as for merit, for uncomplaining endurance +under life-long hardships, and called an old-age pension. You cannot +live much of your life with natural servants, the judicious and +impartial, the light shy, and those who look twice carefully, but never +leap, without betraying some reflected pallor of their anaemia. O'Brien, +the quiet master of his own time, with his eyes I could not read, and +his gun, betrayed obliquely in our casual talks together such an +ingenuous indifference to accepted things and authority, that I had +nothing to work with when gauging him. He was his own standard of +conduct. I judged his bearing towards the authority of officials would +be tolerant, and even tender, as men use with wilful children. He was +not a rebel, as we understand it, one who at last grows impatient and +angry, and so votes for the other party. I suppose he was not opposed to +authority, unless it were opposed to him. He was outside any authority +but his own. He lived without State aid. He himself carried the gun, +always the symbol of authority, whether of a man or of a State, and if +any man had attempted to rob him of his substance, certainly O'Brien +would have shot that man according to his own law and his own prophecy, +and would then have cooked his supper. He surprised me for a day or two. +I puzzled much over this phenomenon of a free man, who took his freedom +so quietly and naturally that he never even discussed the subject, as we +do, with enthusiasm, in England. What else? It was long since he was +separated from his mother. Soon I found he was but a type. I met others +like him in this country. Their innocence of the limitations of a +careful man like myself was disconcerting. Once O'Brien casually +proposed that I should "beat it," cut the ship, and make a traverse of +that wild place to distant Colombia, to some unknown spot by the +approximate source of a certain Amazon tributary, where he knew there +was gold. First I laughed, and then found, from his glance of resentful +candour, that he was quite serious. He generously meant this honour for +me; and I think it was an honour for an elderly, quiet, and seasoned +privateer like O'Brien, to invite me to be his only companion in a +region where you must travel with alert courage and wide experience, or +perish. I have learned since he has gone to that far place alone. But +what a time he will have. He will have all of it to himself. Well--I was +thinking, when I refused him, of my old age pension. I should like to +get it. + +Men like O'Brien are called here, quite respectfully, "bad men," and +"land sailors." The lawless lands of the South American +republics--lawless in this sense, that their laws need be little +reckoned by the daring, the strong, and the unscrupulous--seem +particularly attractive to men of the O'Brien type. I got to like them. +I found them, when once used to their feral minds, always entertaining, +and often instructive, for their naive opinions cut our conventions +across the middle, showing the surprising insides. They dwell without +bounds. As I have read somewhere, we do not think of the buffalo, which +treats a continent as pasturage, as we do of the cow which kicks over +the pail at milking time and jumps the yard fence. These men regard +priest, magistrate and soldier with an indifference which is not even +contemptible indifference. They are merely callous to the calculated +effect of uniforms. When in luck, they are to be found in the cities, +shy and a little miserable, having a good time. Their money gone, they +set out on lonely journeys across this continent which show our fuss +over authentic explorers to be a little overdone. O'Brien was such a +man. He told me he had not slept under a roof for years. He had no home, +he confessed to me once. Any place on the map was the same to him. He +had spent his life drifting alone between Patagonia and Canada, looking +for what he never found, if he knew what he was looking for. His travels +were insignificant to him. He might have been a tramp talking of English +highways. As he droned on one evening I began to doubt he was unaware +that his was an extraordinary narrative. I guessed his unconcern must be +an air. It would have been, in my case. I looked straight over at him, +and he hesitated nervously, and stopped. Was he wasting my time, he +asked? Prospecting for his illusion, his last journey was over the +Peruvian Andes into Colombia. He broke an arm in a fall on the +mountains, set it himself, and continued. On the Rio Japura an Indian +shot an arrow through his leg, and O'Brien dropped in the long grass, +breaking the arrow short each side of the limb, and in an ensuing long +watchful duel presently shot the Indian through the throat. And then, +coming out on the Amazon, his canoe overturned, and the pickle jar full +of gold dust was lost. He put no emphasis on any particular, not even on +the loss of his gold. + +He was pointed out to me first as a singular fellow who kept doves; a +tall, gaunt man, with a deliberate gait, perhaps fifty years of age, in +old garments, long boots laced to the knees, and a battered pith helmet. +He strolled along with his eyes cast down. If you met him abroad, and +stopped him, he answered you with a few mumbles while looking away over +your shoulder. His big mouth drew down a grizzled moustache cynically, +and one of his front teeth was gold plated. Before he passed on he +looked at you with the haughty but doubtful stare of an animal. He +seemed too slow and dull to be combustible. I ceased to credit those +tales of his berserker rage. He always moved in that deliberate way, as +if he were careful, but bored. Or he stood before his doves, and made +bubbling noises in his loose, stringy throat. He embarrassed me with a +present of many of the trophies he had secured in years of travel in the +wilds. One day a negro and O'Brien were in mild dispute on the jetty, +and the negro called the white a Yankee. The river was twenty feet below +swiftly carrying its logs. O'Brien took the big black, and with vicious +ease threw him into the water. The negro missed the floating rubbish, +and struck out for the bank. No one could help him. By good luck he +managed to get to the waterside; yet O'Brien meanwhile had hurried his +long legs over the ties of the skeleton structure, his face +transfigured, and was waiting for the negro to emerge, a spade in his +hand. But under other circumstances I have not the least doubt he would +have fought the Brazilian army single-handed, and so finished, in +defence of that same negro. + + + + +IV + + +Night brought one of these men to each of our cabins, and put a party of +them drinking in the saloon. After my habit of thinking of people in +crowds, as an Anglican Church, or an ethical society, a labour movement, +a federation of proprietors, or suffragists, or Jews, or stockbrokers' +clerks, crowds moving with massed exactitude by the thousand at least, +when prompted, this man O'Brien standing on his two legs by himself, old +man Jim, and the rest, each of them defending and running his own +particular kingdom, and governing that, ill or well--for I saw them +fairly drunk now and then--and never waiting for a word from any master +or delegate, made me wonder whether till then I had met a living man, or +had heard merely of a population of bundles of newspapers. These men had +no leaders. They attended to all that. Each had to find his own way. +They were unrelated to anything I knew, and beyond the help of even a +candidate for Parliament. I suppose they had never heard of a Defence +League. They could have found no use for it, because a challenge to +defend themselves would never catch them unwilling or unable. Each man +soldiered himself, and perhaps was rather too ready to deal with a show +of insolence, or an assumption of power in another. Yet they were not +the violent and headstrong fellows of romantic tales. They were simple +and kind, submitting with a sick smile to the prickly ridicule of their +fellows round the board. They regarded meat, drink, and tobacco as +common; they were ready to leap into the dark for a friend. + +There was one young bearded Englishman among them who was more than a +friendly figure to me. All were friendly; but the Americans bore +themselves with the easy assurance of the favoured heirs of Adam; though +their successful work in that tropical swamp perhaps justified them. The +Englishman had less of that assurance of a unique favour which was so +completely bestowed that irresolution never shook the aplomb of its +lucky inheritors. He came into my cabin one night, hoping he was not +disturbing me, and bringing as a present a sheaf of native arrows tipped +with red and blue macaw feathers, as he had promised. + +"They come from Bolivia--forest Indians--three hundred miles from here." +He explained he had reached our point in the Brazilian forest from the +Pacific side. He had crossed the mountains, descended to the level +jungle at the base of the Andean wall, and followed the rivers eastward, +alone in a canoe till he chanced upon our steamer unloading Welsh fuel +into a forest clearing. To a new-comer in a mysterious land, this was a +clear invitation to listen, and I looked at the man expectantly. He was +lighting his pipe. The country through which he must have passed was +unknown, as our maps showed. But he simply indicated that manner of his +advent, as though it were the same as any other, and sat looking through +the door of my cabin, smoking, absently gazing at the night scene on the +afterdeck. + +The hombres were working at the hold immediately below us, their labours +made obscurely bright by a roaring flame of volatalised oil. The light +pulsed on the face of the Englishman, and chequered my cabin in black +and luminous gold. Of all the region of forest about us nothing showed +but a cloud of leaves, which leaned towards us out of the night, +supported on two pale, tremulous columns. The hold of the ship was a +black rectangle, and the almost naked negroes and brown men moving about +it, or peering into the chasm, were like sinister figures on an +inscrutable business about the verge of the pit. They were not men, but +the debris of men, moving with awful volition, merely a bright +cadaverous mask hovering in a void, or two arms upheld, or a black +headless trunk. For the roaring illuminant on deck dismembered the ship +and its occupants, bursting into the weight of surrounding night as a +fixed explosion, beams rigid and glowing, and shadows in long solid bars +radiating from its incandescent heart. + +"I'm glad you're here," said my companion. He never gave me his name, +and I do not know it now. "I hav'n't heard home talk for a year. Hav'n't +heard much of anything. A little Spanish coming along; and here some +American." + +We continued looking at the puzzling, disrupted scene outside for some +time without speaking, secure in a chance and lucky sympathy. Then a +basket of coal tipped against a hatch coaming and whirled away, +scattering the men. We rose to see if any were hurt. + +"Curious, this desperate haste, isn't it?" said the Englishman. "At +every point of the compass from here there's at least a thousand miles +of wilderness. Excepting at this place it wouldn't matter to anybody +whether a thing were done to-night, or next week, or not at all. But +look at those fellows--you'd think this was a London wharf, and a tide +had to be caught. Here they are on piece-work and overtime, where +there's nothing but trees, alligators, tigers, and savages. An unknown +Somebody in Wall Street or Park Lane has an idea, and this is what it +does. The potent impulse! It moves men who don't know the language of +New York and London down to this desolation. It begins to ferment the +place. The fructifying thought! Have you seen the graveyard here? We've +got a fine cemetery, and it grows well. Still, this railway will get +done. Yes, people who don't know what it's for, they'll make a little of +it, and die, and more who don't know what it's for, and won't use it +when it's made, they'll finish it. This line will get its freights of +precious rubber moving down to replenish the motor tyres of +civilisation, and the chap who had the bright idea, but never saw this +place, and couldn't live here a week, or shovel dirt, or lay a track, +and wouldn't know raw rubber if he saw it, he'll score again. Progress, +progress! The wilderness blossoms as the rose. It's wonderful, isn't +it?" + +I was just a little annoyed. After all, I was part of the job. I'd made +my sacrifices, too. But I admitted what he said. Why not? It was +something, that fancy, that every rattle of the winch outside, bringing +up another load, moved abruptly under the impulse of another thought +from London Town--six thousand miles away; two months' travel. Great +London Town! It was true. If London shut off its good will that winch +would stop, and the locomotives would come to a stand to rot under the +trees, and the lianas would lock their wheels; and in a month the forest +would have foundered the track under a green flood. Where the American +accent was dominant, the jaguars would moan at night. That long wound in +the forest would be annealed and invisible in a year. While it +persisted, the idea could conquer and maintain. + +"Yes, but it's all chance," said the Englishman. + +"That uncertain and impersonal will controls us. Have you ever worked +desperately, the fever in your bones, at a link in a job the rest of +which was already abandoned, though you didn't know it? Yet perhaps even +so there is something gained, the knowledge that all you do is fugitive, +that there is nothing but an idea, which may be withdrawn without +warning at any moment, under the most complicated and inspiring +structure. Having that fore-knowledge you can work with a light heart, +secure against betrayal, ready with your own laugh when the mockery +comes. A community finds it must have a bridge; Wall Street hears of it, +and finances a contractor, who finds an architect to design it. An army +builds it. And then this blessed old planet moves in its sleep, and the +obstructing river flows another way. Well for us we can rarely see the +beginning and the end of the work we are doing. Most of the men on this +job have not been here three months. They come and shovel a little dirt, +and die. Or they get frightened, and go. But that idea, that remains +here, using up men and forests, using up all that comes within its +invisible influence, drawing in material and pressing it into its unseen +mould, so that out of the invisible sprouts a railway, projecting length +by length, transmuted men and timber. A courtier once gave his cloak to +Queen Elizabeth to save her feet; but what is that when these men give +their bodies to make an easier road for the commerce of their fellows? +They say every sleeper on a tropical line represents a man. The +conquering human, who lives by dying! + +"The unseen idea remains--some stranger's idea--of gain; profit out of a +necessity not his, filled by other men unknown to him. You can't escape +it. First and last, it uses you. It uses you up. You may twist and +double, but 'when me you fly, I am the wings,' as Emerson says. Once, +once, I deliberately tried to escape from it, to get out of its range. I +thought it was local, that idea, a mean and local urge. I believed I had +escaped it too. I was young, though, then. But we all try when we're +young. There is but one way of escape--you may use up others; but that +isn't an easy way of escape, for some of us. + +"No alternative but that, and a man cannot take it. There you are; use, +or be used. Once I thought I had escaped. Once upon a time, every +morning at eight o'clock, I went to an office in Leadenhall Street. Know +that place? My first job. I was one in a crowd of fifty clerks. We sat +on high stools, facing each other across double-desks. There were brass +rails above each desk, where we rested ledgers and letter baskets. Each +of us marked his stool somewhere with a personal symbol. My own, my sole +point of vantage there, my support in life, that high stool; and I would +have been prepared to maintain it upright--following our office code of +honour, I as firm as may be upon it--even if, treacherously blabbing, I +had had to deprive all my fellow-clerks of their supports in life. We +were not a community, working out a common ideal. An idea used us. And +that was a job I got as a favour, mark you. Some one had known my dead +father. + +"I knew the name of my boss, but that was all. I never spoke to him. I +used to see him, a middle-aged man with sad eyes and a petulant mouth, +clean shaved, and bald headed. He came in a carriage every morning, and +went straight to a room kept from us by opaque glass. I used to wonder +what he did in there. He rarely came into the office. When he did come +into it, his was the only voice which ever spoke there above a whisper; +a sharp, startling, and minatory voice. But we rarely saw him there. A +bell would ring, a sinister summons on the ceiling over the desk of a +principal clerk, and that chap would drop anything he was doing, +anything, and go. I've seen my senior clerk, an elderly man in +spectacles, jump as if he'd been struck when his bell whirred. It was +such an awfully solemn place. Nobody ever thought of calling across that +room, but would go round to another desk, and whisper. You felt you were +part of a grave and secret plot, scribbling away to bring it to a +completion, and that all your fellow-conspirators were possible +traitors. + +"But the plot was never complete. It went on and on, day after day, in +an everlasting, suffocating sanctity, with the opaque shining glass +front of the private room overlooking us, a luminous face entirely +blank, though you knew the brain behind it saw everything, and was aware +of all. It even knew old Beckwith, my senior, had got deeply into debt +through his wife's doctor's bills, and had been fool enough to go to the +moneylenders. His bell sprang a summons one morning; in Beckwith went; +came out again, looking grey, poor old perisher, went straight to the +hat rack, passed awkwardly through the swing doors, letting in a burst +of traffic noise from the street, while we watched him furtively, and +that was the last of Beckwith. I have heard our boss was a rigid +moralist. He said a man who drank, gambled, or got into debt, not being +able to control his own life, was no good for the business of another +man. A system should have no bowels. Out the incompetent had to go. It +was Spartan, but it paid twenty per cent., I've heard. Once we had a +rebellious interruption of our sacred quiet, but only once. I never knew +exactly why it was. We had a huge factory somewhere in the East +End--Cubitt Town way--and one afternoon a woman came to the counter, and +asked for the cashier. She was so obviously East End, in a shawl, that +the counter clerk was shocked at the bare idea of it. She kept demanding +the cashier. The clerk politely, but nervously, because of her rising, +emotional voice, resisted her. She began to shout. We all stopped to see +what would happen. Shouting there! She was still crying out--she wanted +justice for a daughter whose body had got into a machine, I think--and +the cashier was forced to appear. I was surprised that he was so quiet +with her. She was weeping hysterically at our polished mahogany counter, +with its immaculate blotters, and flat, crystal ink-pots, where there +were men in silk hats, looking at the unusual scene sideways and +smiling. She could not be pacified; and suddenly she picked up an +ink-pot, and hurled it through that frozen glass face of the private +room. A devastating crash. The shocking, raucous horror of blasphemy. +The silence following was unendurable. We looked to the private door for +outraged power to appear. Nothing happened. A policeman came and removed +the woman, the cashier smiling indulgently at the officer, and shaking +his head. The system, after a momentary halt, moved on again, broad, +serene, and irresistible. + +"I never catch the smell of an open Bible now but it conjures a picture +of that arid office, angular, polished, and hard, where the ledgers +before the disciplined men exude a dusty, leathery smell. But there I +stayed for years, smelling it, and making out bills of lading and +invoices. It was my lot. There was a junior who assisted me, a chap with +flat, shiny hair parted in the middle. He had a habit of whispering +about girls, when he was not whispering about the music hall last night, +or the football next Saturday. When the cashier, a young man, and a +relative of the boss, came walking down the avenue of desks, his sharp +eyes narrowed to slits, and his mouth a little open, it was funny to see +my junior put on speed, and get an intent and earnest look in his face. + +"When I was done for the day, I'd get my book out of my bag, and wonder, +going home, whether I'd ever see those places I read about, Java, India, +and the Congo, where you went about in a white helmet and a white +uniform, and did things in a large, directive way, helping Indians and +niggers to make something of their country. Not this niggling, selfish, +pretty chandlery written large in stone, mahogany, and glass, disguised +in magnitude and gravity. Cocoanut palms and forests with untold tales. +But like the boys who found fun with the girls, with music halls and +football, but were afraid of the sack. I did nothing. I was even afraid +of the girls. + +"One day as usual I went with some of the other fellows to lunch, at an +A.B.C. shop. We always went there. The girls knew us and would smile at +our jokes. Small coffee and a scone and butter. My life! I found a +_Telegraph_ some one had left on a chair, and I read it more because I +didn't want to listen to that virulent abuse of our mean cashier--he +certainly was mean--than because I wanted to read. In it, by chance, I +noticed an advertisement for a book-keeper who would go to the tropics. +That I noted. Of course, I stood no chance. But I could try. + +"That night at home I wrote an application. I wrote it, I think, a dozen +times, till the letter was impeccable, a thing of beauty and precision. +I felt this was a most momentous affair. Whether it was the excitement +of doing something in the veritable direction of romance, or whether it +was through reading 'Waterman's Wanderings' I don't know, but I remember +a curious dream I had that night. I was alone in a forest which made me +afraid and expectant. It was still and secretive. You know the empty +stage in an unnatural, rosy light, with a glorified distance in which +you expect a devil or a fairy queen to appear. There was a hammock +hanging motionless from a branch. Something was in it, but I could not +see what. That hammock was as still as the leaves hanging over it. Then +the hammock shook, and a girl rose in it and smiled at me. She was tiny, +but adult, and her eyes were shining in the dusk of her hair, which fell +thickly over her little, coffee-coloured breasts. + +"A telegram came for me, just as I was leaving for the office one +morning. It required me to call on Mr. Utah R. Brewster at the Hotel +Palace, that very day, but at a time when I should have been +industriously at work for another. The question was, should I catch that +morning 'bus I had never missed--or take all the possibilities beyond +this door which promised to open on romance? I made up my mind, which +went drunk with rebellion. I got into my seventh-day clothes. Utah R. +Brewster and freedom! The Blackwall 'bus--do you remember those old +hearses, with a straight companion-ladder to the upper deck where the +outside passengers sat, knees up, back to back along the middle?--well, +it had to go by the office, and I was actually in doubt whether, aware +of my unprecedented revolt, it would stop outside the familiar glum +office and lawfully refuse to budge till I alighted. It went on, +blundering past the place, all strangely unconscious of what it was +doing, bearing me with my courage screwed down to bursting-point. The +driver even said what a lovely May morning it was. + +"The Hotel Palace! I had often seen that ornate building when Saturday +afternoon release took me west. Red carpeting on the steps, a glimpse of +ferns, women all as strange as exotics going in and out, and between me +and it a chasm which cut clear to the very centre of the earth. I +carried my attack beyond the portals. It was nothing, after all. A +flunkey put me in a chair too full of cushions to be easy, and I watched +men and women who, at that time of the day, when all the folk I knew +were making desperate and cunning efforts to keep their places here +safe--I watched those men and women behaving as though all eternity were +theirs, and it was the angels' business to bear them up. It was as great +a mystery to me whose every week-day morning was the inviolate +possession of another, as Joshua's solar miracle. I was called, led +along a silent corridor full of shut doors, and after a long walk found +myself beyond all the noise of London, far in solitude with a man in a +dressing-gown, who stood before a fire, working a cigar with strong, +mobile lips. He put up a monocle, and looked at me shyly. Then began to +walk up and down the hearth-rug, talking. + +"'Well,' he said. 'All right. I guess you'll do. Say, you look pretty +fit. You don't drink, eh? Don't get nervous when you see the dead, huh? +All right.' He put his monocle back into his eye, and grinned at me. I +told him, in a rush, how much I wanted to see the tropics. He said +nothing. He got a large blue map, intricate with white lines, and told +me of The Company. The Job. + +"I did not fully comprehend it then. I don't now. He left out too much. +There was no beginning and no ending. There was hardly a middle. He +merely indicated unrelated points; but at any rate the points were so +widely sundered and so different that the bare indication of them +conveyed a sense of an enormous undertaking, difficult, important, and +necessary. Work for an army. I should be but an insignificant sutler in +that army. But at least I should be one in it, one of those putting this +important affair through for future generations. The communal idea, +this. The very size of it gave me a sense of security. It was too +broad-based to collapse. Success was inherent in its impersonal nature. +A state affair. Brewster briefly mentioned some showy names, names of +great financiers. They were my generals, and I should never see them. +But their reputations were partly in my keeping. + +"Hallelujah! I had escaped. I never went back to the office. I never +replied to its curt inquiry. In a week I sailed from Liverpool. Much I +heard, on the mail boat, of The Company, this new enterprise which was +going to make a tropical region one of the richest countries in the +world; develop it, fling its riches to all. In four weeks more I arrived +at a small tropical island, at which I had to wait for The Company's tug +to take me to the mainland and my business. + +"There was a club-house ashore, where I stayed for a few days. There I +met some men who had been working for The Company, but for +incomprehensible reasons were leaving this work to which I had come so +eagerly; they were returning home. They were strangely pallid and limp +as though the dark of some hot damp underground had turned their blood +white. Their talk was drawled out, the weary utterance of the +disillusioned who yet showed fate no resentment. They might have been +the dead speaking, long untouched by any warm human vanity. I was really +glad to get away from them. A tug conveyed me to the mouth of the river, +up which I was to proceed to my station. I joined a shallow-draught +river steamer. + +"The river, that gateway to my dream come true, was a narrow place, a +cleft in universal trees, every tree the same. Mangroves, I suppose. +Soon the forest changed, often rising on each bank to meet overhead. +Those were uncertain places of leaves and dead timber, and as quiet and +still as churchyard yews at midnight. The thumps of our paddle-wheels +did not sound pleasant. Deeper and deeper we went, making turns so often +that I wondered how we could ever be got out again. Sometimes in an open +space we saw a flock of birds. I saw no other sign of life. There were +no men. All my fellow-passengers--there were ten of us--were newcomers; +some from the States, some from Germany, and a Frenchman. I was the only +Englishman. Each of us knew what was expected of himself; none of us +knew what that was which all would be doing. There were clerks with us, +miners, civil engineers, timber men, and a metallurgist. We speculated +much, were perhaps a trifle anxious, but reposed generally on the great +idea. + +"In two hundred miles we reached a clearing. Why it should have been at +that particular place did not show. But there it was, the tangible link +in an invisible, encompassing scheme. It was my place. I landed with my +box. There was a white man on the river bank, sitting on a sea-chest, +his head in his hands. He looked up. 'You the victim?' he said. 'Well, +there you are'--sweeping a lazy arm round the small enclosed +ground--'that's your job. There's your store. There's your house. That's +where the niggers live.' + +"'Pedro!' he called. A copper-coloured native, in shorts and a wide +grass hat, loafed over to us. 'This is your servant,' he said. 'He's a +bit mad, but he's not a fool. He's all right. Keep your eye on the +niggers though. They are fools, and they're not mad. You'll find the +inventory and the accounts in the desk in your hut. The quinine's there +too. Take these keys. Oh, the mosquito curtain's got holes in it. See +you mend it. I couldn't. Had the shakes too bad. Cheer up!' + +"He went aboard. The steamer saluted me with its whistle, turned a +corner, and the sound of its paddles diminished, died. I seemed to +concentrate, as though I had never known myself till that instant when +the sound of the steamer failed, when the last connection with busy +outer life was gone. I could smell something like stephanotis. In that +dead silence my hearing was so acute that I caught a faint rustling, +which I thought might be the sound of things growing. I turned and went +to my hut, sad Pedro following with my box. The cheap American clock in +the hut made a terrific noise, filling the afternoon with its rapid and +ridiculous beat, trying to recall to me that time still was moving +quickly, when it was quite evident that time had now come for me to an +absolute stand in a broad-glowing noon. I sat surveying things from a +chair. Then leisurely took my envelope and read my instructions--how I +was to receive and take charge of shovels, lanterns, machinery parts, +railway metals, soap, cooking utensils, axes, pumps, and so on, which +consignments I must divide and parcel according to directions to come, +marking each consignment for its own destination. The names of a hundred +destinations I should hear about in my future work were given. They were +names meaning nothing to me. Then followed some brief rules for a novice +in the governing of men. Through all the rules ran an incongruous note +for such a place as that, a reminiscence of Leadenhall Street and its +miserable whine. Yet it hardly disturbed me. I sat and thought over this +expansion of my life. A melancholy bird called in two notes at +intervals. The leaves which formed the thatch of my hut hung a long +coarse black fringe at the door. My walls were of leaves, and the floor +a raft of small logs, still with the bark on, just clear of the ground. +The sunlight came through one dark wall, studding it with sparks. No. +That dubious and familiar note in the instructions was nothing. I was +clear beyond all that now--all those occasions for carking anxiety which +deprave the worker, and make him hate the task to which whipping +necessity drives him. The domineering manner of my instructions, the +fretfulness of the old correspondence I found carelessly scattered +about, addressed to my predecessor, was the illusion. The forest behind +the hut, the black river, the quiet, the insects, the foreign smell, the +puzzling men, my men to command, who kept passing without in the violent +light, they were not from books any more, they made evidence direct to +my own senses now. I was authority and providence, moulding and +protecting as I thought right. This place should be kept reasonable, +four square, my plot of earth to be clean and unashamed, frankly open to +the eye of the sky. I would see what I could do; and I would start now. +I laughed at authority--all I could see of it--reflected in a fragment +of mirror kept to a door tree by nail heads; the funny hat and the shirt +which did not matter, bad as it was, for I was authority there by every +reason of that white shirt; and the beard which was coming. Latitude, my +boy, latitude! I strolled out to survey my little world. + +"Of the weeks that followed, nothing comes back so strongly as some +quite irrelevant incidents. A tiger I saw one morning, swimming the +river. Pedro, insensible for two days with fever; and death, which came +to over-rule my viceroy authority. The first blow! There was a flock of +parrots which visited us one day, and it surprised me that the men +should regard them merely as food. But there was work to be done, and in +a definite way; but why we did it--and I know we did it well--and how it +joined up with the Job, I could not see. That was not my affair. There +was the inventory to be checked, for one thing, and before I was through +with it the work had fairly imprisoned me, and the new romantic +circumstances became blurred and over written. That inventory was so +extravagantly wrong that in a week I was going about heated and swearing +at the least provocation. It was fraudulent. There was a sporadic +disorder of goods irreconcilable with their neat records, though each +record bore the signs and counter-signs of Heaven knows how many +departments of the Company. All an inextricable welter of calm errors, +neatly initialled by unknown fools. + +"Every few days a steamer of the Company would call, loaded with more +goods, or would come down river to me to take goods away. The confusion +grew and interpenetrated, till I felt that nothing but dumping all that +was there into the river, and beginning again with a virgin station, +would ever clear the muddle. The place grew maddening through ridiculous +blundering from outside. I had six men to attend to, all with +temperatures and all useless. The arrears of accounts, my work on +sweltering nights while the very niggers slept, the arrears grew. A +steam-shovel came, without its shovel, and not all my written protests +to headquarters could complete that irrational creature lying in +sections rotting in sun and rain, minus the very reason for its +existence, an impediment to us and an irritation. Constant urgent orders +came to me from up country to ship there this abortion. I declined, in +the name of sanity. There followed peremptory demands for a complete +steam-shovel, violent with animosity for me, the unknown idiot who +obstinately refused to let a steam-shovel go, just as though I was in +love with the damned thing, and could not part with it. But I understood +those letters. They were from chaps, irritated, like myself, by all this +awful tomfoolery. And from headquarters came other letters, shot with a +curt note of innocent insolence, asking whether I was asleep there, or +dead, and adding, once, that if I could not keep up communications +better I had better make way for one who could. There were plenty who +could do it. Pleasant, wasn't it? They complained querulously of my +accounts, almost insinuating that I debited more wages to the Company +than I credited to the men. I had too many sick men, they said. Did I +pamper them? And again, I had too many who died; I must take care; they +did not want the local government to get alarmed. + +"The time came when I got amusement out of those letters from +headquarters; for their faults were so plain that I conceived the +headquarters staff having much time to spend, and a sort of instruction +at large to administer ginger to men, like myself, on the spot, on +general principles, so to keep us not only alive, but brisk and anxious; +and doing it with the inconsequential abandon of little children playing +with sharp knives. I got comfort from that view; and when I looked round +my placid domain where my men, with whom I was on good terms, laboured +easily and rightly under the still woods, I told myself I was still +fretting because the business was new, that things would come easier +soon. But at night I felt I was anxious exactly because it was all so +old and familiar to me. + +"One day, having given a group of men at work in a distant corner of the +clearing some advice, I noticed a little path enter the wood beside a +big tree. I had never been into the forest. To tell the truth, I had had +no time. The trees stood round us, keeping us from--what? I had always +felt a little doubt of what was there and could not be seen. I turned +inwards. I found myself at once in a cool gloom. I went on curiously, +peering each side into those shadows, where nothing moved, and in an +hour came to another clearing, smaller than my own, and with no river in +view. By the sun, which now I saw again, this place was north of our +station. The opening was being rapidly choked by a new growth. I was +turning for home again, for the afternoon was late, when I saw a hammock +slung between two saplings beside a dismantled hut. I could just see the +hammock and hut through the scrub. I went over there, and was so +carefully looking for snakes and beastly things in the bush that I had +arrived before I knew it. The hut had been long abandoned. The hammock +had something in it, and I was turning something in my mind as I went up +to it. There were some ragged clothes in the bottom of it, partly +covering bones, and among the rags was a globe of black hair. + +"Next morning I woke late, feeling I had gone wrong. My hands were +yellow and my finger nails blue, and I was shaking with cold. But the +tootling of an up-coming steamer forced me to business. The steamer was +towing six lighters, filled with labourers. They were Poles, I think. +Afterwards, I learned, some hundreds of these men had been collected for +us somewhere by a clever, business-like recruiting agent, who promised +each poor wretch a profitable time in the Garden of Eden. My +responsibility, thirty of them, was landed. They stood by the river, +gaping about them, wondering, some alarmed, more of them angry, most +clad in stuffy woollens, poor souls. Having the fever, I was not very +interested. I told my negro foreman to find them shelter and to put them +to work. We were making our clearing larger, and were building more +store-houses. + +"Something like the pale morning light which wakens you, weary from a +fitful sleep, to the clear apprehension again of an urgent trouble which +has filled the night with dreams, I came through each bout of fever to +know there was really trouble outside with the new men. Daily I had to +crawl about, shivering, my head dizzy with quinine, till the fever came +near its height, when I got into my hammock, and would lie there, +waiting, burning and dry, tremulous with an anxiety I could not shape. +Sometimes then I saw my big negro foreman come to the door, look at me, +as though wishing to say something, but leave, reluctantly, when I +motioned him away. + +"One morning I was better, but hardly able to walk, when shouts and a +running fight, which I could see through the door, showed me the Poles +had mutinied. There was a hustling gang of them outside my door, filling +it with haggard, furious faces. I could not understand them, but one +presently began to shout in French. They refused to work. The food was +bad. They wanted meat. They wanted their contracts fulfilled. They +wanted bread, clothes, money, passages out of the country. They had been +fooled and swindled. They were dying. I argued plaintively with that +man, but it made him shout and gesticulate. At that the voices of all +rose in a passionate tumult, knives and axes flourishing in the +sunlight. In a sudden cold ferocity, not knowing what I was doing, I +picked up my empty gun--I had no ammunition--and moved down on them. +They held for a moment, then broke ground, and walked away quickly, +looking back with fear and malice. Next day they had gone. Yes, +actually. The poor devils. They had gone, with the exception of a few +with the fever. They had taken to that darkness around us, to find a way +to the coast. Talk of the babes in the wood! The men had no food, no +guide, and had they known the right direction they could not have +followed it. If the Company did not take you out of that land, you +stayed there; and if the Company did not feed you there, you died. No +creature could leave that clearing, and survive, unless I willed it. The +forest and the river kept my men together as effectively as though they +were marooned without a boat on a deep-sea island. Those men were never +heard of again. Nobody was to blame. Whom could you blame? The Company +did not desire their death. Simply, not knowing what they were doing, +those poor fellows walked into the invisibly moving machinery of the +Job, not knowing it was there, and were mutilated. + +"We had news of the same trouble with the Poles up river. Some of the +mutineers tried to get to the sea on rafts. Such amazing courage was but +desperation and a complete ignorance of the place they were in. One such +raft did pass our place. Some of them were prone on it, others +squatting; one man got on his feet as the raft swung by our clearing, +and emptied his revolver into us. A few days later another raft floated +by, close in, with six men lying upon it. They were headless. Somewhere, +the savages had caught them asleep. + +"No. I was not affected as much as you might think. I began to look upon +it all with insensitive serenity. I was getting like the men I met on +the islands, months before. I saw us all caught by something huge and +hungry, a viewless, impartial appetite which swallowed us all without +examination; which was slowly eating me. I began to feel I should never +leave that place, and did not care. Why should others want to leave it, +then? Often, through weakness, the trees around us seemed to me to sway, +to be veiled in a thin mist. The heat did not weigh on my skin, but on +my dry bones. I was parched body and mind, and when the men came with +their grievances I felt I could shoot any of them, for very weariness, +to escape argument. The insolence from headquarters I filed for +reference no longer, but lit my pipe with it. But the correspondence +ceased at length, and because now I was callous to it, I failed to +notice it had stopped. + +"Some vessels passed down river, coming suddenly to view, a rush of +paddles, and were gone, tootling their whistles. The work went on, +mechanically. The clearing grew. The sheds spread one by one. The +inventory was kept, the accounts were dealt with. There came a time when +I was forced to remember that the steamer had not called for ten days. +We were running short of food. I had a number of sick, but no quinine. +The men, those quick, faithful fellows with the dog-like, patient eyes, +they looked to me, and I was going to fail them. I made pills of flour +to look like quinine, for the fever patients, trying to cure them by +faith. I wrote a report to headquarters, which I knew would get me my +discharge; I was not polite. There was no meat. We tried dough fried in +lard. When I think of the dumb patience of those black fellows in their +endurance for an idea of which they knew nothing, I am amazed at the +docility and kindness inherent in common men. They will give their lives +for nothing, if you don't tell them to do it, but only let them trust +you to take them to the sacrifice they know nothing about. + +"That went on for a month. We were in rags. We were starved. We were +scarecrows. No steamer had been by the place, from either direction, for +a month. Then a vessel came. I did not know the chap in charge. He +seemed surprised to see us there. He opened his eyes at our gaunt crew +of survivors, shocked. Then he spoke. + +"'Don't you know?' he asked. + +"Even that ridiculous question had no effect on me. I merely eyed him. I +was reduced to an impotent, dumb query. I suppose I was like Jack the +foreman, a gaping, silent, pathetic interrogation. At last I spoke, and +my voice sounded miles away. 'Well, what do you want here?' + +"'I've come for that steam shovel. I've bought it.' + +"The man was mad. My sick men wanted physic. We all wanted food. But +this stranger had come to us just to take away our useless steam shovel. +'I thought you knew,' he said. 'The Company's bought out. Some +syndicate's bought 'em out. A month ago. Thought the Company would be +too successful. Spoil some other place. There's no Company now. They're +selling off. What about that steam shovel?'" + + + + +V + + +We had 5200 tons of cargo, and nearly all of it was patent fuel. This +was to be put into baskets, hauled up, and emptied into railway trucks +run out on the jetty alongside. We watched the men at work for a few +days and nights, and judged we should be at Porto Velho for a month. I +saw for myself long rambles in the forest during that time of golden +leisure, but saw them no more after the first attempt. The clearing on +its north side rose steeply to about a hundred feet on the hard red +conglomerate; to the south, on the San Antonio side, it ended in a creek +and a swamp. But at whatever point the Doctor and I attempted to leave +the clearing we soon found ourselves stopped by a dense undergrowth. At +a few places there were narrow footpaths, subterranean in the quality of +their light, made by timbermen when searching for suitable trees for the +saw-mill. These tracks never penetrated more than a few hundred yards, +and always ended in a well of sunshine in the forest where some big +trees would be prone in a tangle of splintered branches, and a deep +litter of leaves and broken fronds. And that was as far as man had got +inwards from the east bank of the Madeira river. Beyond it was the +undiscovered, and the Araras Indians. On the other side of the river the +difficulty was the same. The Rio Purus, the next tributary of the Amazon +westward from the Madeira, had its course, it was guessed, perhaps not +more than fifty miles across country from the river bank opposite Porto +Velho; but no one yet has made a traverse of the land between the two +streams. The dark secrecy of the region was even oppressive. Sometimes +when venturing alone a little beyond a footpath, out of hearing of the +settlement, surrounded by the dim tangle in which there was not a +movement or a sound, I have become suspicious that the shapes about me +in the half light were all that was real there, and Porto Velho and its +men an illusion, and there has been a touch of panic in my haste to find +the trail again, and to prove that it could take me to an open prospect +of sunny things with the solid "Capella" in their midst. + +We carried our butterfly nets ashore and went of a morning across the +settlement, choosing one of the paths which ended in a small forest +opening, where there was sunlight as well as shadow. Few butterflies +came to such places. You could really think the forest was untenanted. A +tanager would dart a ray of metallic sheen in the wreckage of timber and +dead branches about us, or some creature would call briefly, melancholy +wise, in the woods. Very rarely an animal would go with an explosive +rush through the leaves. But movements and sounds, except the sound of +our own voices, were surprises; and a sight of one of the larger +inhabitants of the jungle is such a rarity that we knew we might be +there for years and never get it. Yet life about its various business in +the woods kept us interested till the declining sun said it was time to +get aboard again. Every foot of earth, the rotting wood, the bark of the +standing trees, every pool, and the litter of dead leaves and husks, +were populous when closely regarded. Most of the trees had smooth barks. +A corrugated trunk, like that of our elm, was exceptional. But when a +bole had a rough surface it would be masked by the grey tenacious +webbing of spiders; on one such tree we found a small mantis, which so +mimicked the spiders that we were long in discovering what it really +was. Many of the smooth tree trunks were striated laterally with lines +of dry mud. These lines were actually tunnels, covered ways for certain +ants. The corridors of this limitless mansion had many such surprises. +There were the sauba ants; they might engross all a man's hours, for in +watching them he could easily forget there were other things in the +world. They would move over the ground in an interminable procession. +Looked at quickly, that column of fluid life seemed a narrow brook, its +surface smothered with green leaves, which it carried, not round or +under obstructions, but upwards and over them. Nearly every tiny +creature in that stream of life held upright in its jaws a banner, much +larger than itself, cut from a fresh leaf. It bore its banner along +hurriedly and resolutely. All the ants carrying leaves moved in one +direction. The flickering and forward movement of so many leaves gave +the procession of ants the wavering appearance of shallow water running +unevenly. On both sides of the column other ants hurried in the reverse +direction, often stopping to communicate something, with their antennae, +to their burdened fellows. Two ants would stop momentarily, and there +would be a swift intimation, and then away they would go again on their +urgent affairs. We would see rapid conversations of that kind everywhere +in the host. Other ants, with larger heads, kept moving hither and +thither about the main body; having an eye on matters generally, I +suppose, policing or superintending them. There was no doubt all those +little fellows had a common purpose. There was no doubt they had made up +their minds about it long since, had come to a decision communally, and +that each of them knew his job and meant to get it done. There did not +appear to be any ant favoured by the god of the ants. You have to cut +your own leaf and get along with it, if you are a sauba. + +There they were, flowing at our feet. I see it now, one of those +restricted forest openings to which we often went, the wall of the +jungle all round, and some small attalea palms left standing, the green +of their long plumes as hard and bright as though varnished. Nothing +else is there that is green, except the weeds which came when the +sunlight was let in by the axe. The spindly forest columns rise about, +pallid in a wall of gloom, draped with withered stuff and dead cordage. +Their far foliage is black and undistinguishable against the irregular +patch of overhead blue. It never ceased to be remarkable that so little +that was green was there. The few pothos plants, their shapely parasitic +foliage sitting like decorative nests in some boughs half-way to the +sky, would be strangely conspicuous and bright. The only leaves of the +forest near us were on the ground, brown parchments all of one simple +shape, that of the leaf of the laurel. I remember a stagnant pool there, +and over it suspended some enamelled dragonflies, their wings vibrating +so rapidly that the flies were like rubies shining in obscure nebulae. +When we moved, the nymphs vanished, just as if a light flashed out. We +sat down again on our felled tree to watch, and magically they +reappeared in the same place, as though their apparition depended on the +angle and distance of the eye. When a bird called one started +involuntarily, for the air was so muffled and heavy that it was strange +to find it open instantly to let free the delicate sibilation. + +In the low ground beyond Porto Velho up stream there was another place +in the forest where sometimes we would go, the approach to it being +through a deep cutting made by the railwaymen in the clay. This clay, a +stiff homogeneous mass mottled rose and white, was saturated with +moisture, and the helicon butterflies frequented it, probably because it +was damp; and a sight of their black and yellow, or black and crimson +wings, spread on the clean plane of the beautifully tinted rock, was far +better than putting them in the collecting box. The helicons are bold +insects, and did not seem to mind our close inspecting eyes. Beyond the +cutting was a long narrow clearing, with a giant silk cotton tree, a +province in itself, on the edge of the forest. Looking straight upward +we could see its foliage, but so far away was the spreading canopy of +leaves that it was only a black cloud, the outermost sprays mere wisps +of dark vapour melting in the intense brightness of the sky. The smooth +grey trunk was heavily buttressed, the "sapeomas" (literally, flat +roots) ascending the bole for more than fifty feet, and radiating in +walls about the base of the tree; the compartments were so large that +they could have been used as stabling for four or five horses. From its +upper limbs a wreckage of lianas hung to the ground. Beyond this giant +the path rose to a place where the clearing was already waist high with +scrub. Then it descended again to the woods. But the woods there were +flooded. That was my first near view of the igapo. We had approached the +trees, for they seemed free of the usual undergrowth, and passed into +the sombre colonnades. The way appeared clear enough, and we thought we +could move ahead freely at last, but found in a few steps the bare floor +was really black water. The base of the forest was submerged, the +columns which supported the unseen roof, through which came little +light, diminished down soundless distance into night. After the flaming +day from which we had just come this darkness was repellant. The forest, +that austere, stately and regarding Presence draped interminably in +verdant folds, while we gazed upon it suspecting no new thing of it, as +by a stealthy movement had withdrawn its green robe, and our sight had +fallen into the cavernous gloom of its dank and hollow heart. + +It was about the little wooden town itself, where the scarified earth +was already sparsely mantled with shrubs, flowering vines, and weeds, +and where the burnt tree stumps, and even the door posts in some cases, +were freshly budding--life insurgent, beaten down by fire and sword, but +never to its source and copious springs--that most of the butterflies +were to be found. In a land where blossoms were few, these were the +winged flowers. About the squalid wooden barracks of the negro and +native labourers, which were built off the ground to allow of +ventilation, and had a trench round them foul with drainage and evil +with smells, a Col[oe]nis, a scarlet butterfly with narrow, swallow-like +wings, used to flash, and frequently would settle there. Over the +flowering weeds on the waste ground there would be, in the morning +hours, or when the sky was overcast, glittering clouds of the smaller +and duller species, though among them now and then would stoop a very +emperor of butterflies, a being quick and unbelievably beautiful to +temperate eyes. After midday, when the sun was intense, the butterflies +became scarce. When out of the shade of the woods, and stranded, at that +time, in the hopeless heat of the bare settlement, we could turn into +one of the houses of the officials of the company for shelter. These +also were of timber, cool, with a verandah that was a cage of fine +copper gauze to keep out the insects. All the doors were self-closing. +The fewest chances were offered to the mosquitoes. There was no glass, +for the window openings also were covered with copper mesh. Here we +could sit in shaded security, in lazy chairs, and look out over the +clearing to the river below, and to the level line of forest across the +river, while listening to stories which had come down to Porto Velho +from the interior, brought by the returning pioneers. + +Porto Velho had a population of about three hundred. There were +Americans, Germans, English, Brazilians, a few Frenchmen, Portuguese, +some Spaniards, and a crowd of negroes and negresses. There was but one +white woman in the settlement. I was told the climate seemed to poison +them. The white girl, who persisted in staying in spite of warnings from +the doctors, was herself a Brazilian, the wife of one of the labourers. +She refused to leave, and sometimes I saw her about, petite, frail, +looking very sad. But her husband was earning good money. It was a busy +place, most of it being workshops, stores, and offices, with an engine +and trucks jangling inconsequentially on the track by the shore. The +line crossed a creek by a trestle bridge, and disappeared in the forest +in the direction of San Antonio. The hospital for the men was nearly two +miles up the track. + +It was along the railway track towards the hospital, with the woods to +the left, and a short margin of scrub and forest, and then the river, on +the right hand, that I saw one morning in sauntering a few miles as many +butterflies as there are flowers in an English garden in June. They were +the blossoms of the place. The track was bright with them. They settled +on the hot metals and ties, clustered thickly round muddy pools, a +plantation there as vivid and alive, in the quick movements of their +wings, as though a wind shook the petals of a bed of flowers. They +flashed by like birds. One would soar slowly, wings outspread and +stable, a living plane of metallic green and black. There was a large +and insolent beauty--he did not move from his drink at a puddle though +my boot almost touched him--his wings a velvety black with crimson eyes +on the underwings, and I caught him; but I was so astonished by the +strength of his convulsive body in the net that I let him go. Near the +hospital some bushes were covered with minute flowers, and seen from a +distance the countless insects moving about those bushes were a +glistening and puzzling haze. + +All that morning I had felt the power of the torrid sun, which clung to +the body like invisible bonds, and made one's movements slow, was a +luscious benefit, a golden bath, a softening and generative balm; a +mother heat and light whose ardent virtues stained pinions crimson and +cobalt, and made bodies strong and convulsive, and caused the earth to +burst with rushing sap, to send up green fountains; for so the palms, +which showed everywhere in the woods, looked to me. You could hear the +incessant low murmur of multitudinous wings. And I had been warned to +beware of all things. I felt instead that I could live and grow for ever +in such a land. + +Presently, becoming a little weary of so much strong light, I found it +was midday, and looking back, there was the ship across a curve of the +river. It was two good miles away; two intense, shadeless, silent +afternoon miles. I began the return journey. An increasing rumbling +sound ahead made me look up, as I stepped from tie to tie, and there +came at me a trolley car, pumped along slowly, four brown bodies rising +and falling rhythmically over its handle. A man in a white suit was its +passenger. As it passed me I saw it bore also something under a white +cloth; the cloth moulded a childish figure, of which only the hem of a +skirt and the neat little booted feet showed beyond the cloth, and the +feet swayed limply with the jolts of the car in a way curiously +appealing and woful. The car stopped, and the white man, a cheerful +young doctor chewing an extinct cigar, came to me for a light. He stood +to gossip for a few minutes, giving his men a rest. "That's the +Brazilian girl," he said; "she wouldn't go home when told, poor thing." + + * * * * * + +This Madeira river had the look of very adventurous fishing, and the +Doctor had brought with him an assortment of tackle. The water was +opaque, and it was deep. Its prospects, though the forest closed round +us, were spacious. It flowed silently, with great power, and its surface +was often coiled by profound movements. The coils of the river, as we +were looking over the side one morning, began to move in our minds also, +and the Doctor mentioned his tackle. There was the forest enclosing us, +as mute as the water, its bare roots clenched in aqueous earth. Nobody +could tell us much about the fish in this river, but we heard stories of +creatures partly seen. There was one story of a thing taken from the +very place in the river where we were anchored, a fish in armour which +the natives declared was new to them; a fearful ganoid I guessed it, +reconstructing it in vision from fragments of various tales about it, +such as is pictured in a book on primeval rocks. There were alligators, +too, and there was the sucuruju, which I could call the great water +serpent, only the Indian name sounds so much more right and awful; and +that fellow is forty feet long in his legend, but spoils a good story +through reducing himself by half when he is actually killed. Still, +twenty feet of stout snake is enough for trouble. I saw one, just after +it was killed, which was twenty-two feet in length, and was three feet +round its middle. So to fish in the Madeira was as if one's hook and +line were cast into the deeps where forms that are without name stir in +the dark of dreams. We got out our tackle, and the cook had an +assortment of stuff he did not want, and that we put on the hooks, and +waited, our lines carried astern by the current, for signals from the +unknown. Yet excepting for a few catfish, nothing interrupted the placid +flow of stream and time. The Doctor put a bight of the lime round his +wrist, sat down, and slept. We had fine afternoons, broad with the +wealth of our own time. + +Old man Jim came aboard and saw our patience with amusement. He +suggested dynamite, and no waiting. The river was full of good fish, and +he would come next day with a canoe and take us where we could get a +load. It was a suggestion which needed slurring, to look attractive to +sportsmen. Jim took it for granted that we simply wanted fish to eat, +and as many as we could get; and next morning there he was alongside +with his big boat and its crew. Jim himself was in the stern, the +navigator, and he was sitting on what I was told was a box of dynamite. +Now, there were two others of our company who, but the day before, were +even eager to see what dynamite would send up from the bottom of that +river; but when they saw the craft alongside with its wild-looking crew, +and Jim with his rifle sitting on a power which could lift St. Paul's, +they considered everything, and decided they could not go that day. I +went alone. + +I suppose men do plucky things because they are largely thoughtless of +the danger of the things they do. As soon as I was sitting on the level +of the water in that crazy boat, with Jim and his explosive, and beside +him what whisky he had not already consumed, and saw under my nose the +eddies and upheavals of the current, I knew I was doing a very plucky +thing indeed, and wished I was high and safe on the "Capella." But we +had pushed off. + +Jim, with his eyes dreamy through barley juice, was the pilot, and there +was a measure of confidence to be got from the way he navigated us past +the charging trees afloat. There was no drink in the steering paddle, at +least. But the shore was a long swim away; yet perhaps it would have +been as pleasant to be drowned or blown-up as to be lost in the jungle. +We turned into a still creek, where the trees met overhead. Jim +continued his course till the inundated forest was about us. The gloom +was hollow, the pillars rising from the black floor were spectral, and +our voices and paddles sounded like a noisy irruption among the aisles +of a temple. The echoes fled from us deeper into the dark. But Jim was +all unconscious of this; he but stopped our progress, and opened the box +of cartridges. + +I had never seen dynamite, but only heard of it. I understood it had +unexpected qualities. Jim had a cartridge in his hand, and was digging a +knife into it. I repeat, the flooded wilderness was round us, and below +was the black deep. Jim fitted a detonator to a length of fuse, and +stuck it in the cartridge. He was in no hurry. He stopped now and then +for another drink. Having got the cartridge ready, with its potent +filament, he tied four more cartridges round it. I put these things down +simply, but my hand ached with the way I gripped the gunwale, and I +could hear myself breathing. + +Then Jim struck a match on his breeches, with all the fumbling +deliberation of the fully ripe--brushing the vine leaves from his eyes +the better to see what he was doing--and he lit the fuse, after it had +twice dodged the match. It fizzed. The splutter worked downwards +energetically. Jim did not deign to look at it, though it fascinated me. +He slowly scratched his back with his disengaged hand, and gazed +absently into the forest. + +The spark and its spurts of smoke were now near the bottom. Jim changed +the menace into his right hand, in order to reach another part of his +back with his leisurely left. His eyes were still on the forest. I kept +swallowing. + +"Jim," I said eagerly--though I did not know I was going to +speak--"don't--don't you think you'd better throw it away now?" + +He regarded me steadily, with eyes half shut. The spark spurted, and +dropped another inch. He looked at it. He looked round the waters +without haste. Then, and I could have cried aloud, he threw the shocking +handful away from us. + +It sank. There were a few bubbles, and we sat regarding each other in +the quiet of a time which had been long dead, waiting for something to +happen in a time to come. At the end of two weeks the bottom of the +river fell out, with the noise of the collapse of an iron foundry on a +Sunday. Our boat tried to leap upwards, but failed. The water did not +burst asunder. It vibrated, and was then convulsed. + +Dead fish appeared everywhere, patches of white all round; but we hardly +saw them. There was a great head which emerged from the floor, looking +upwards sleepily, and two hands moved slowly. These quietly sank again. +The tail of the saurean appeared, slowly described a half circle, and +went. The big alligator then lifted itself, and performed some grotesque +antics with deliberation and gravity. Then it gathered speed. It +rotated, thrashed, and drummed. It did all that a ten-horse-power maniac +might. I think the natives shrieked. I think Jim kept saying "hell"; for +I was conscious only with my eyes. When the dizzy reptile recovered, it +shot away among the trees like a torpedo. + +We went home. That night I understand the second mate was kept awake +listening to me, as I slept, bursting into spasms of dreadful merriment. + + * * * * * + +When you are lost in the map of a country that is beyond the worn +routes, trying to discover therein the place name which is the most +secluded and inaccessible, if the map should happen to be that of South +America, then your thought would naturally wander to the neighbourhood +of San Antonio of the Rio Madeira. There you stay, to wonder what +strange people and rocks and trees are to be found at San Antonio. It +looks remote, even on the map. The sign which stands for the village is +caught in a central loop of the mesh which is the river system of the +Amazon forest. San Antonio must be beyond all, and a great journey. It +is far outside the radius. And that would be enough, to be beyond the +last ripple of the traffic and at peace, where that dark disquiet, that +sombre emanation which rises from the soured earth where myriads have +their chimneys, their troubles and their strife, staining even the +morning and the morning thought, is no more. A place where the light has +the clarity of the first dawn, and one might hear, while sure of +absolute solitude, the winding of a strange horn, and suspect, when +coming to an opening in the woods, the flight of a shining one; for +somewhere the ancient gods must have sanctuary. A land where the rocks +have the moss of unvisited fastnesses, and you can snuff the scents of +original day. + +Where we were anchored, San Antonio was in view, about five miles up +stream. Where at the end of that reach of river a line of tremulous +light, which we thought was the cataracts, bridged the converging +palisades of the jungle, in the trees of the right bank it was sometimes +easy to believe there was a glint of white buildings. But looking again, +to reassure your sight, the apparition of dwellings vanished. At night, +in the quiet, sometimes the ears could detect the shudder of the weighty +rapids by San Antonio; but it was merely a tremor felt; there was no +sound. The village remained to us for some time just that uncertain +gleam by day, and the rapids but a minute reduction of a turmoil that +was far. For in that languorous heat we counted miles differently, and +it was pleasanter to suspect than to go and prove, and much easier. + +One day I went. When in a small boat the jungle towered. The river, too, +had a different character. From the shore, or from the big "Capella," +the river was an expanse of light, an impression of shining peace. +Whenever you got close to its surface it became alive and menacingly +intimate. Our little boat seemed to roll in the powerful folds of a +monster which wallowed ponderously and without ceasing. The trees +afloat, charging down swiftly and in what one felt was an ominous quiet, +stood well above our tiny craft. + +We steered close in-shore to avoid the drifting wood and the set of the +current. The jungle's sheer height, confusion, and intensity were more +awesome than when seen from the steamer. Not many of the trees were of +great beam, but their consistent height, with the lianas in a wreck from +the far overhanging cornice, dwarfed our boat to an unimportant straw. +At times the forest had a selvage of cane, and growths of arrow grass, +bearing long white plumes twelve feet above us, and a pair of fan-shaped +leaves resembling palm leaves. + +The sound of the cataracts increased, and a barrier grew in height +athwart the Madeira. Mounting high right ahead of us at last was a mass +of granite boulders, with broad smooth surfaces, having the structure of +gigantic masonry in ruin which weathered plutonic rock so often assumes. +Beyond the barrier the river was plainly above our level. It was seen, +resplendent as quicksilver, through the crenellations of the black +rocks. One central mass of rock, higher than the rest, had a crown of +dark and individual palms, standing paramount in the upper light. Yet, +with that gleam of wide river behind, no great rush of water broke +there. A few fountains spurted, apparently without source, and +collapsed, and pulsed again. The white runnels of foam which laced the +contours of the piled boulders gave the barrier the appearance of being +miraculously uplifted, as though one saw thin daylight through its +interstices. Not till the village was in view did we see where the main +river avoided the barrier. The course here was looped. Above the barrier +the river turned from the right bank, and heaped itself in a smooth +steep glide through a narrow pass against the opposite shore, the +roaring welter then running obliquely across the foot of the rocks to +the front of San Antonio on the right bank again. The forest beside the +falls seemed to be tremulous with continuous and profound underground +thunder. + +The little huddle of San Antonio's white houses is on slightly rising +ground, and the lambent green of the jungle is beside them and over +them. The foliage presses the village down to the river. Like every +Amazonian town and village, it appears, set in that forest, as rare a +human foothold as a ship in mid-ocean; a few lights and a few voices in +the dark and interminable wastes. So I landed from our little craft +elated with a sense of luckily acquired security. + +The white embowered village, the leaping fountains and the rocks, the +air in a flutter with the shock of ponderous water collapsing, the +surmounting island in mid-stream with its coronet of palms, the +half-naked Indians idling among the Bolivian rubber boats hauled up to +the foreshore below, the unexplored jungle which closed in and framed +the scene, the fierce sun set in the rounded amplitude of the clouds of +the rains, made the tropical picture which was the right reward for a +great journey. I had come down long weeks of empty leisure, in which the +mind got farther and farther away from the cities where time is so +carefully measured and highly valued. The centre of the ultimate +wilderness was more than a matter of fact. It was now a personal +conviction which needed no verification. + +The village had but one street. There were two rows of houses of a +single storey, built of clay and plaster, dilapidated, the whitewash +stained and peeling, every house open and cavernous below, without +doors, in the way of Brazilian dwellings, to give coolness. The street +was almost deserted when we entered it. A few children played in the +shadows, and outside one house a merchant in a white cotton suit stood +overlooking the scales while the half-breeds weighed balls of rubber; +for this town is in the midst of the richest rubber country of the +world, and all the wealth of the rivers Mamore, Beni, and Madre de Dios +comes this way. And that was why, as we idled through its single +thoroughfare, some dark girls came to stand at the house openings, +dressed in odorous muslin, red flowers in their shiny black hair, and +their smiling eyes full of interest in us. The rough road between the +dwellings was overgrown with grass, and in the centre of it, partly +hidden by the grass, was the line laid long ago by the railway +enterprise which ended so tragically. To-day the rubber men use it as a +portage for their boats. There were several inns, half-obliterated names +painted on their outer walls. They had crude interior walls of mud, and +floors of bare earth. In such an inn would be a few iron tables and +chairs, and there a visitor might drink from bottles which at least bore +European labels, though the contents and cost were past all European +understanding. I forgot to say that by the foreshore of this little +village is the head depot of a great rubber house, a building apparently +out of all proportion to the size of San Antonio. But I looked on that +place with the less interest, though from what my native companion told +me the head of the house is a monarch more absolute and undisputed in +this wild country than most eastern kings are to-day. + +I was more interested in the huge boulders of smooth granite which rose +strangely from the street in places, and broke its regularity. These +rounded and noble rocks often topped the houses. What man had built +looked mean and transitory beside the poise and fine contours of the +rocks. The colony of giant rocks had a look of settled and tranquil +solidity, a friendly and hospitable aspect. They might have been old +friends which time had proved; the houses beside them were alien by +contrast. I felt that San Antonio had merely imposed itself on them, +that they tolerated the village because it was but an incident; that +they could afford to wait. When I saw them there I recognised the +village of my map. I climbed to the summit of one, over its weather-worn +shelves. It had a skin of lichen, warm in the sun and harshly familiar. +The curious hieroglyphics of the lichen were intelligible enough, and +more easily read than the signs on the walls of the inns. I learned +where I was; and knew that when the day of the great rubber house had +long passed, my village would still be there, and prospering. + +Below my rock, on the land side--to which I had turned my back--was a +monstrous cesspool. It was in the centre of the village. It was the +capital of all flies, and the source and origin of all smells, varying +smells which reposed, as I had found when below in the hot and stagnant +street, in strata, each layer of smell invisible but well-defined. Among +the weeds in the roads were many derelict cans. Over the empty tins, and +the garbage, pulsed and darted hundreds of Brazil's wonderful insects. + +But I was above all that, on my high rock. Its height released me to a +wide and splendid liberty. I cannot tell you all that my vantage +surveyed. But chiefly I was assured by what I saw that I was more +central even than my eyes showed; they merely found for me the +intimation. Here was all the proof I wanted; for faith is not blind, but +critical, yet instantly transcends to knowledge at the faintest glimmer +of authentic light, as when an exile who is beset by inexplicable and +puissant circumstance among strangers whose tongue is barbarous, is +surprised at a secret sign passed there of fellowship, and is at once +content. Yet I can report but a broad river flowing smooth and bright +out of indefinite distance between dark forests to the wooded islands +below; and by the islands suddenly accelerated and divided, in a slight +descent, pouring to a lower level in taut floods as smooth, noiseless, +and polished as mercury. Lower still was the gleaming turmoil of the +falls, pulsing, and ever on the point of vanishing, but constant, its +shouting riot baffled by the green cliffs everywhere. But I could +escape, for once, over the parapets of the jungle to the upper rolling +ocean of leaves; to the distance, dim and blue, the region where man has +never been. + + * * * * * + +There was a man who looked like a sensational ruffian who boarded us one +morning at Porto Velho, and said he had come to find me. He was going up +into the forest, beyond the track, and would I go with him? That made me +look at him again, and with some anxiety; for I had tried before to get +away, but the crowd on the "Capella" disliked the idea. The Doctor +talked dysentery and things. He said it was safer to keep to the ship +during the month we had still to spend at Porto Velho. I felt, overborne +by their arguments, a rather thin sort of adventurer. That mysterious +railway would have drawn the mind of any man who had not lost his +curiosity, and who valued being alive more than his chance of old age. +The track went from Porto Velho into outer darkness. It left the +clearing and the village of mushroom buildings, the place where the +inhuman had been moderately subdued, where a modicum of industry was +established in a continent of primitive wild, crossed a creek by a +trestle bridge in view of our steamer, and vanished; that was the end of +it, so far as we knew. Men came back to the settlement through that hole +of the forest, and boarded the "Capella" to tell us, in long hot nights, +something of what the forest of the Madeira was hiding; and they were +bearded like Crusoe, pallid as anaemic women, and speckled with insect +bites. These men said that where they had been working the sun never +shone, for his light was stopped on the unbroken green which, except +where the big rivers flowed, roofed the whole land. I liked the look of +the stranger who had come to persuade me to this rare holiday. He said +his name was Marion Hill, of Texas. He wore muddy riding breeches, and a +black shirt open at the throat, and boots of intricately embossed +leather which came well up his thighs, spurs that would have ravelled a +pachyderm, and the insolent hat of a bandit. He had a waistbelt heavy +with guns and ammunition. I saw his face, and divined instantly that +this was a man, and that the memory of a time with him would serve me as +a refuge in the grey and barren years, and as a solace. I told him I +would get my things together. The Skipper called after me that if I +returned too late I should have to walk home. + +There was a commissary train next morning, taking men and supplies to +the camps. It had a number of open waggons, loaded with material, about +which the labourers going up to replenish the gangs made themselves as +comfortable as they could. I had an indiarubber bag for all my +belongings, being told that it was best for strapping to a mule, and a +valuable lifebuoy when a canoe overturned. I accepted it with perfect +faith, for I knew nothing of mules or canoes. The train moved off, a +bell on the engine ringing sepulchrally. Hill and I were packed into a +box car, which had a door open on either side for light and air. Two +American engineers were in charge, there was an Austrian to superintend +the distribution at each camp of the provisions, the Austrian had an +Italian assistant, and a few Barbadian blacks were there to move about +the packages. I sat on a case of tinned fruit. Hill reposed on one of +the shelves where we should stow fever victims, when we collected them. +There was no more room in the car, and another degree of heat would have +meant complete ruin. + +When Porto Velho is left for the place where the line is to end, when +completed, though it is but 250 miles away, two months at least is +required for the return journey. That way goes the paymaster, with his +armed escort, and every bundle of shovels and tin of provisions. When I +went, too, the train helped for sixty miles. Then most of the material +was transported at the Rio Caracoles, a tributary of the Madeira, and +taken by boats in stages up the main stream, cargoes and boats being +hauled round each cataract. Travellers could shorten the journey by +going overland part of the way, mules being kept on the hither side of +the Caracoles river for that purpose. + +We delivered some patients at the hospital, went through a cutting of +red granite to the back of San Antonio, and then entered the forest. +That absorbed us. Thenceforward, and until I reached the ship again, I +was dominated by the lofty, silent, confused, and brooding growth. +Everywhere it was dramatically passionate in its intensity, an arrested +riot of green life, and its muteness kept expectant attention fixed upon +it. The right of way through the forest was a hundred feet wide. On each +side of us the trees rose like virid cliffs. The trees usually were of +slender girth, almost as straight as fir poles, rising perhaps for sixty +feet without a branch. Occasionally there was a giant, a silk cotton +tree, or the strange tree with its grey trunk and pale birch-like habit +of foliage which I had noticed on the riverside; but they were not +common. Palms were numerous. From ground to high parapet the spaces +between the columns were filled with lianas, unrelated big leaves, and +the characteristic fronds of the endogens. In this older part of the +track, though it had been made but little more than a year, the scrub +was dense. The undergrowth was often so strong and aggressive as to +brush the train as we slowly bumped along. Sometimes we went through +deep cuttings in the red clay, close enough for me to notice it was +interstratified with waterworn but angular quartz peebles. But the track +usually was over flat country, only rarely crossing a gulley. + +At every maintenance camp we stopped to deliver supplies. From out of a +small huddle of shanties made of leaves and poles, insignificant beneath +the forest wall, a number of languid half-breeds, merely in pants and +hats, would loiter through the hot sun to us for their sustenance. The +men of those secluded huts must have been glad of our temporary uproar, +and our new faces. The bell rang, and we left them to burial in their +deep silence again. There were intervening camps, which had been +deserted as the work progressed. These were even more interesting to me. +The work of the human, when he leaves it to the wild from which he has +won it with so much pain, has an appeal of its own, with its abandoned +ruin returning to the ground again. There would be a sandy swamp, and +standing back from the line some weather-worn shanties with roofs awry. +I am sure there were ghosts in those camps. One we passed, and it was +called Camp 10-1/2, and resting against its open front where the posts +were giving was a butterfly net. I pointed this out. "Oh, that," said +Hill. "Old man Biddell. I knew him. He was all right. He was great on +bugs and butterflies. Used to wear spectacles. He was a good engineer +though. Died of blackwater fever before the line got past this camp. +That was his shack." And that was his butterfly net, all of Biddell now, +his sole monument and reminder. As we bumped by the huts the helicons +and swallow tails rose precipitously from the mangled cans and cast +rubbish. I never knew Biddell, the man with spectacles and a butterfly +net, but a first rate railway man, who left that net outside his hut one +morning, and at evening was buried, but now I am doomed to think of him +while I live. + +It was near midnight when we reached the last active camp but one on the +line, where we alighted. It was wiser, I was told, to run the remaining +length of the track by daylight. Here a doctor and a few engineers, +bearing handlamps against which moths were blundering, met us in a place +which seemed to be the bottom of a well, for the black shadows which +rose round us shut out all but a few stars. The men raised joyous cries +at the sight of Hill; and they took this stranger on trust. We fed in a +hut which was four poles and a roof. One pole had a hurricane lamp tied +to it. There was an enormous quiet, which the men seemed to delight in +breaking with their voices. Four planks nailed unevenly to uprights was +our table, and we sat crooked on a similar but lower construction. We +ate out of enamelled plates with iron instruments, and it was very good +indeed. There were four of us who were white, and we were babes in the +wood. One of us pretended he was playing on a Jew's-harp, sang songs +riotously, and then began to talk long and earnestly of New York. These +men lived in four railway waggons which had doors made of copper gauze, +berths with mosquito bars, and portraits of the folk at home; and in the +case of the doctor the waggon smelt of iodoform, had one wall full of +bottles, and a table with a board and chessmen. In one of those waggons +I lay down to sleep under a net; but the blanket felt damp and had a +foreign smell. My thoughts crowded me. For long I listened to so much +jungle pressing close to my bed, waiting for it to make known its near +but unseen presence with a voice; but it did not. + +Next morning at sunrise the train moved forward to the construction camp +at the Rio Caracoles. I rode on a truck pushed in front of the +locomotive, perched there with some engineers who kept a careful eye on +the track. I saw at once why the train did not proceed at night. It was +too speculative altogether. Behind us the locomotive's smoke stack +rolled like a steamer's funnel when a beam sea is running. This part of +the line crossed many ravines, where we looked down upon the tree tops; +and when on a frail wooden bridge which crossed a vacancy like that such +movements of the drunken engine behind us became dazzling. Then, too, +there were some high "fills," or embankments. After heavy rains these +have a habit of retiring from the metals, which are left looped and +twisted in mid-air. An engineer told me that one cannot always tell when +an embankment is on the point of retiring. He was carefully watching, +however. But we reached the construction camp. + +At the construction camp by the side of the Rio Caracoles we stayed two +days. There was the end of the line, and the men who were growing the +track were so busy that I was left to my own devices. Till the +railwaymen came none but the Caripuna Indians knew what was there; so +into the woods, of course, I would go, trying every track which led from +the camp. A botanist might have seen some difference from the forest at +Porto Velho, but I could not discover any. In appearance it was exactly +the same. The trees mostly were arborescent laurels I believe, with +smooth brown boles which were blotched through their outer cuticle +peeling away, much in the manner of that of the plane tree. The brown +parchments of their laurel-like leaves covered the floor of the woods. +The trees were rarely of great diameter, but their crowns were so +distant that nothing could be made of their living foliage. I saw no +flowers at all. There were few orchids, but the large shapely emerald +coloured leaves of pothos plants were very frequent, sitting in the +angles of branches and trunk. Aloft was always the wreckage of vines +suspended, as vaguely seen and as motionless as cobwebs and +dilapidations in the overhead darkness of high vaults. I rarely heard a +sound in that forest, though there was a bird which called. I often +heard it in the woods of the upper Madeira. It called thrice, as a boy +who whistles shrilly through his fingers; a long call, and then another +whistle in the same key followed instantly by a falling note. One +delightful walk was along a path which had not been made by the +railwaymen, for it was evidently old, as it ran, a cleft in the trees, +not through broken timber, but in partial sunshine, with a mesh of vines +and freely growing plants on either side. It led downwards to a small +stream, which was cumbered with fallen and rotting timber, a cool hollow +where ferns were abundant. It was in the woods at the Caracoles that I +first saw the great morpho butterfly at home. This species, peculiar to +South America, is rarely seen except in the shades of the virgin forest. +One day in the twilight aisles near the Caracoles camp, where nothing +moved, and all was a grey monotone, it so surprised me with its happy +undulating flight--as though it danced along, and were in no hurry--its +great size, and its bright blue wings, that I rose mesmerised, stumbling +after it through the dank litter, thoughtless of direction, not thinking +of the danger of losing my way, thinking of nothing but that joyous +resplendent creature dancing aloft ahead of me in the gloom and just +beyond my reach. Its polished blue wings flashed like speculae. It might +have been a drifting fragment of sunny sky. I had never seen anything +alive so beautiful. A fall over a log brought me to sobriety, and when I +looked up it was gone. Afterwards I saw many of them; sometimes when +walking the forest there would be morphos always in sight. + +The construction camp was not more than a month old. Perched on an +escarpment by the line was a row of tents, and at the back of the tents +some flimsy huts built of forest stuff. They stood about a ruin of +felled trees, with a midden and its butterflies in the midst. Probably +thirty white men were stationed there. They were then throwing a wooden +bridge across the Caracoles. Most of them were young American civil +engineers, though some were English; and when I found one of them--and +he happened to be a countryman of mine--balancing himself on a narrow +beam high over a swift current, and, regardless of the air heavy with +vapour and the torrid sun, directing the disposal of awkward weights +with a concentration and keenness which made me recall with regret the +way I do things at times, I saw his profession with a new regard. I +noticed the men of that transient little settlement in the wilds were in +constant high spirits. They betrayed nothing of the gravity of their +undertaking. They might have been boys employed at some elaborate jest. +But it seemed to me to be a pose of heartiness. They repelled reality +with a laugh and a hand clapped to your shoulder. At our mess table, +over the dishes of toucan and parrot supplied by the camp hunters, they +rallied each other boisterously. There was a touch of defiance in the +way they referred to the sickness and the shadow; for it was notorious +that changes were frequent in their little garrison. They were forced to +talk of these changes, and this was the way they chose to do it. As if +laughter was their only prophylactic! But such laughter, to a visitor +who did not have to wait till fever took him, but could go when he +liked, could be answered only with a friendly smile. Some of my cheery +friends of the Caracoles were but the ghosts of men. + + * * * * * + +Hill warned me late one afternoon to be ready to start at sunrise, and +then went to play poker. On my way to my hut, at sunset, I stopped to +gossip with the young doctor, where he was busy dressing wounds at his +surgery. The labourers, half-breeds, Brazilians, and Bolivian Spaniards, +work being over, were giving the doctor a full evening with their +ailments. Mostly these were skin troubles. The least abrasion in the +tropics may spread to a horrid and persistent wound. The legs of the +majority of these natives were unpleasant with livid scars. In one case +a vampire bat had punctured a man's arm near the elbow while he slept, +and that little wound had grown disastrously. We were in a region where +the pium flies swarmed, tiny black insects which alight on the hands and +face, perhaps a dozen at a time, and gorge themselves, though you may be +unconscious of it. Where the pium fly feeds it leaves a dot of +extravasated blood which remains for weeks, so that most of us were +speckled. Even these minute wounds were liable to become deep and bad. +There were larger flies which put their eggs in the human body, where +they hatch with dire results. (Do not think the splendid tropics have +nothing but verdure, orchids, butterflies, and coral snakes banded +orange and black and crimson and black.) So the doctor was a busy man +that evening. The floor of his surgery was made of unequal boughs; the +walls and roof were of dried fronds. A lamp was slung on a doorpost. He +was a young American, and he did not grumble at his bumpy floor, the bad +light, the appliances and remedies which were all one should expect in +the jungle, nor the number of his patients, except comically. He told me +he was rather keen on the diseases of the tropics. He liked them. (I +should think he must have liked them.) He was merrily insolent with +those swarthy and melancholy men, and they smiled back sadly at the +clever, handsome, and lively youngster. He was quick in his decisions, +deft, insistent, kind, and thorough, working down that file of pitiable +humanity, as careful with the last of the long row as with the first; +telling me, as he went along, much that I had never heard before, with +demonstrations. "Don't go," he cried, when I would have left him; for I +thought it might be he was as kind with this stranger as he was with the +others. "Ah! don't go. Let me hear a true word or two." He said he would +give me a treat if I stayed. He finished, put his materials away +deliberately, accurately, his back to me, while I saluted him as a fine +representative of ours. He turned, free of his task and jolly, and +produced that treat of his, two bottles of treasured and precious ginger +ale. It was a miracle performed. We talked till the light went out. + +Much later a cry in the woods woke me. It was yet dark, but I could see +Hill up, and fumbling with his accoutrements. Out I jumped, though still +unreasonably tired; and sleepily dressed. When I turned to Hill, to see +if he were ready, he was then under his net, watching me. He explained +he had just returned from poker, and was wondering why I was dressing, +but did not like to ask, knowing that Englishmen have ways that are not +American. So the sun was up long before we were, though presently, in a +small canoe, we embarked on the Caracoles. This tributary of the Madeira +comes from nobody knows where. It is a river of the kind which explorers +in these forests have sometimes mentioned, to our fearful joy. The +sunlight hardly reached the water. The river was merely a drain +burrowing under the jungle. The forest on its banks met overhead. There +was little foliage below; we saw but the base of the forest, grey +columns that might have been of stone upholding a darkness from which +dead stuff suspended. The canoe had to dodge the lianas, which dropped +to the water. The noise of our paddles convoyed us down stream, a rout +of panic echoes trying to escape. We came to an opening and full +daylight presently, and landed by a mule corral; and I began a lonely +ride with Hill through the forest. The mule was such a docile little +brown creature that I was left in the silence to my thoughts, which were +interrupted now and then by the wandering blue flame of a morpho. My +mule followed Hill's mule along a winding trail, and our leader was +nearly always out of sight. I do not remember much of my first ride in +the forest. I had an impression of being at a viewless distance from the +sun. We were on the abysmal floor of a growth which was not trees, but +the hoary pediments of a structure which was too high and vast for human +sight. We rode in the basal gloom of it, no more than lost ants there, +at an immeasurable depth in the atmosphere. The roof of the world was +far away. Somewhere was the sun, for occasionally there was a well which +its light had filled, and a grove of green palms, complete and personal, +standing at the bottom of the well, living and reasonable shapes. Or one +of the morphos would flicker among those spectral bastions, aerial and +bright as a fairy in Hades. The sombre mind caught it at once, an +unexpected gleam of hope, a bright blue thought to set among one's +shapeless fears. We descended into hollows, going down into darker +fathoms of the shades; mounted again through brighter suffusions of day, +and in a while came out upon the open lane in the woods, the long cut in +the jungle made for the railway, when it should get so far. + +Now I could see my companion. He was from Texas, and it was easy to +guess that. In the long rides which followed in the land where we looked +upon what was there for the first time since genesis, where we might +have been in the hush of the seventh day, so new, strange, and quiet was +all, the figure ahead of me, with its long boots, negligent black shirt, +the guns about the waist, and the hat with its extravagant size nobly +raked, made me stop at times to assure myself that I was not pursuing a +day-dream of boyhood, too much Mayne Reid in my head, especially when my +wild and improbable companion paused under a group of statuesque palms +and looked back at me--I suppose to make sure that I was still there, +and that the silence had not absorbed me utterly, a faint rustle of +intruding sound in a virgin and absorbent world. And again I remember +the sparkle and lift of early morning there. The air was new, it was +stimulative, it recharged me with buoyant youth. To breathe that air in +the fresh of the morning was exaltation, and to see the young sunlight +on the ardent foliage was to know the springs of life were full. That +was at the breakfast hour, when the camp fires crackled and were +aromatic, the smoke going straight to the tree tops. Then quickly the +narrow track through the forest filled with day, increased in heat till +I felt I could bear no more of it, and so gazed vacantly at the mule's +ears, merely enduring and numbed. The vitality of the morning went, and +in the fierce pour of light I looked no more to the strange leaves and +vines, the curious fronds, the anthills by the way, the butterflies and +birds, but had only a dull dread that the avenue through which we were +riding was straight and interminable. There was no escape from this +heat. There were no openings through which we could retreat under the +trees. The air was immobile; the air itself was the incumbent heat. The +only shadows were under the mules' bellies. Cruel and relentless noons! +How the surveyors endured it, standing for long eyeing their exacting +instruments in such a defeating glare, I do not know. At the end of each +day my pigskin leggings were like wet brown paper with sweat, and my +hands crinkled and bleached as though they had been in a soda bath. + +We reached another and greater tributary of the Madeira, the Rio +Jaci-Parana. Here there was a very extensive clearing as great as the +one at Porto Velho. The bridging of the Jaci would be a considerable +undertaking, consequently there were numerous huts dotted about the +rough open ground; but I think the original intention in cutting back +the jungle to such an extent was that in the days to come a town would +grow there. I imagine it will not, and that the project is abandoned. In +one of my early walks in the woods I came by chance upon the new +cemetery; it was already large. The Jaci country has proved to be more +than usually unhealthy. The ground was cleared down to a coarse herbage, +round which stood shadowing trees. Little crucifixes, made by splitting +a stick and putting another stick crosswise in the slit, were planted at +all sorts of drunken angles in the ground. One large cross in the centre +stood for all the dead. There were no names given. A Brazil nut-tree +grew alongside this graveyard in the jungle, so tall that the flock of +screaming parrots about its foliage were but drifting black specks. + +Because Hill had a touch of the fever we stayed for some days by the +Jaci. I had a hut given to me, typical of the rest; but I was so much +alone in it that that hut on the Jaci, where our remoteness from human +things tested and known, the aloofness and quiet of the forest, the +deadly nature of the romantic and beautiful river bank where we were +marooned, and the sickness of my friend Hill, threw me upon my centre, +until I began even to talk to myself, and received such an impress of +the minute details of my little habitation that, ephemeral as it was and +now long since gone, it endures, of coloured and indestructible stuff, +with a sunny portal I still can enter whenever my mind turns that way. +It was of four palm trunks, lapped round and over with mats of leaves. +The floor was of untrimmed branches, two feet from the earth, and their +unexpected inequalities, never remembered, were always jolting my +thoughts as I walked across. They were crooked, and I could see the +dusty earth two feet beneath where brown and green lizards ran. At one +end was a verandah with a narrow floor made of the lids of soap and +dynamite boxes, and laid without any idea that some curious tenant might +wish to read the manufacturers' full names and see their complete +trademarks. It was a puzzle. There was nothing to do, and I searched +long on my verandah floor for the clue to one embarrassing fragment of a +stencilled word. Hill sometimes huddled in a hammock on one side of the +verandah, a leg hanging limply over, his thin sallow face drawn and +resting on his breast, and his eyes shut; and I sat near him on the +rail, silent, alone with any thought I met, and gazing blankly down the +steep slope, past two tall Brazil nut-trees, to the half-hidden Rio Jaci +below, and the roof of the forest opposite, over which the sun set each +day in uplifted splendour. I remembered but one conversation during that +wait. An elderly white man came up to the verandah one evening, and +murmured something to Hill, who opened his eyes, and looked at his +visitor under weary lids. This man was one of Hill's subordinates. He +had something to say of the work; but one would hardly call it speech. +The flow of his life was so weak that he could do no more than lift a +few small words from his gaping mouth between his breaths. He held on to +the verandah. His loose clothes hung straight down from his bones. The +veins were in blue knots on his forehead. "Say," said Hill, rousing +himself, "I want you to ride to the Caracoles, go down to Porto Velho, +and take this note to the hospital." The man said nothing, but nodded. +Hill scrawled his note, and the man left. "He'll be dead in a month," +said Hill, five minutes after the man had gone. "But he would not go to +the hospital for his health. I have to pretend that he must go for mine. +He may as well die in a comfortable bed.... I wish those damned parrots +would cease!" They were somewhere down by the river, unseen, but all the +sound there was, their voices long, keen and distracting flaws in the +pellucid and coloured dayfall. + +One morning we crossed the Jaci, and on the opposite shore some mules +were already geared with Texan saddles, the hombres at their heads, +waiting for us. I considered my mule. He was a big, grey, upstanding +fellow, with the legs and feet of a racehorse, the head of a hammer, and +alert and inquisitive ears. He was very much alive. I had no doubt he +could leave anywhere like light, when he had a mind for it. So that I +turned to Hill, and said, "Is mine a quiet animal? Is he vicious?" "O +say," said my guide, glancing carelessly at my dubious mount, "I guess +he's just a mule." When a hombre shouted at my mule he stepped briskly, +with more than a hint of the malicious rebel in his gait. + +I knew it would happen, and it did. One foot was no sooner buried in a +wooden shoe called a stirrup than he was off, like an explosion. A +desperate leap got my other leg over my travelling sack, lashed on his +rump, and I came down in the saddle, much surprised. Texan saddles are +not leather pads for riding domestic creatures, but thrones for ruling +devils, and the bit would have broken the mouth of a hippopotamus. The +brute stopped, turned back one ear, and his thought was in his swivel +eye. "You wait," I saw him say. In the few engrossing moments when his +body was expanding and contracting under me I got some idea of the force +I was supposed to guide, and it did not make my mind easy, for an office +chair had been my most unstable seat till then. Yet off we went quietly, +along the track, and Hill was in front, and my mule was as meek as a +sheep. There came a swamp, into which he went to the knees, and I +dismounted, jumping from hummock to hummock, encouraging him, and +showing him the best places. His brown eyes were then like those of a +good woman. So leaning forward, when we were through, I patted his sleek +neck, and gave him pleasant words. Afterwards, when he showed a certain +precious care in difficult places, for the country was very broken, +stepping like a tight-rope walker, I was fool enough to think it was +because of our understanding. Though I believe he would have deceived +anybody. + +At noon we left the track and entered the forest by a path so narrow +that the trees touched our legs, and sometimes we had just time to duck +beneath a noose which a liana dangled in our faces. It was a low and +narrow tunnel, and it descended to a bottom where a shallow stream +brawled among granite boulders; thence up the trail went through the +trees and vines again, and at last we came to a little clearing, where +there was a hut, and men who would give us meat and drink. We +dismounted. I rubbed my mule's soft nose, and spoke him playfully, as a +familiar; but when entering the hut was rebuked by a man there for +making a short cut round the heels of my mule. "Never do it. Don't give +him a chance. A mule will be peaches for ten years waiting for the sure +chance of getting his heels right on your stomach. They're not horses, +them mules. They don't bite, and they don't muzzle you and show +friendly. They've got no feelings. That chap of yours, his mother was an +ass, and his father was old Solfernio himself. But they've all got one +good point--they're barren." + +The mule stood deep in thought till I was mounted again; then instantly +bolted back along the path which led to the ravine. The idle hombre had +mishandled the reins, and I could get no pull. I went across that +clearing like (so Hill said afterwards) Tod Sloan up. The beast, his +ears back, was in a frenzy, and the convulsions of his powerful body +made my thoughts pallid and ghastly. Nothing but disaster could stop +him, and the black mouth of that steep tunnel in the forest yawned +before us, and grew larger, though not large enough. He took the opening +as clean as a lucky shot; but I was laid carefully along his back. Why +we missed the tangle of woods and the rocks in that precipitate descent +is known only to my lucky stars. I had my feet from the stirrups, my +toes hooked on his rump, one arm round the horn of the saddle, and the +other stretched along his sawing neck. I saw the roots and stones leap +up and by us, close to my face. Several things occurred to me, and one +was that some methods of dire fate were fatuous and undignified. I +wondered also whether I should be taken back to the ship, or buried +there. The impetus of the brute, which I expected would send us +somersaulting among the rocks of the bottom, took him partly up the +hither slope, and soon he had to gather his haunches for the upward +leaps. I slipped off. He swung round at the length of the reins, and +eyed me, cocking his ears derisively. A horse's nerves are human-like, +and a horse would have been in a muck, but this murderous mule was calm +and mocking. I watched him, and listened for an obscene and confident +guffaw. + +I found afterwards that punishment has no more effect on them than +kindness. There is no guidance in this matter, take the mule all round. +It is dealing with the uncanny. It is better to cross yourself when you +go near a mule. Every morning about a camp we would watch the hombres +gear up those pensive and placid creatures. They were sleek, lissom, and +beautiful, and it was a pleasure to watch them. But as soon as the +business of the day began one of the mules (and there was no prophecy as +to which one it would be) became a homicidal maniac. At one camp it was +necessary to keep a hundred or more mules in reserve, and there, for +their health, a sane old horse was kept also. The horse was a knacker's +body, a sorry spectacle, and in that climate he but pottered about +waiting for disease to take him. He was smaller than the fine and +healthy mules, but the respect the hammer-heads had for him was comical, +and a great help to the men. Without the horse, it would have been +opening the door of an asylum to have let the mules out of the corral to +water at the river. But he led the way, and they bunched round him +bashfully, and followed him to the stream. He took no notice of them +whatever. He did not flatter them by pretending to be aware of their +existence. When he had had his fill, he turned, and ambled through them, +scorning to see them, and returned to the corral. Round went all the +mules nearest to him, and any of them on the outskirts of the mob that +stayed on because they did not see him go lost their heads, when they +looked up, and risked their necks in short cuts through the timber. "Ho, +mule!" would shout the hombres in alarm; for even mules cost money. + + * * * * * + +The land through which we were riding shall have a little railway there +some day, if the men who are building it keep their hearts of brass, and +refuse in working hours to remember London and New York. When it is +there, that short line, it will begin and end in places having names +which will convey little meaning to people outside Brazil; but to know +what endurance of valour, but chiefly what raillery and light-hearted +disregard of the gods who put baleful forests guarded by dragons--the +dragons of mythology were lambs to what mosquitoes are--in the path of +weak men pursuing their purpose, to know what has gone to the building +of that track, though it nowhere plainly shows, for the graveyards are +casual and obscure, brings you to a stand, surprised into awe of your +fellows, as though through a coarse disguise you caught a gleam of +divinity. Something shows, a light shows, which is beyond human. Would +men be so prodigal of life and time if they were not aware of their +great wealth? I don't know. My travels never brought me to that ultimate +assurance. But I did see that my fellow-men are indifferent, spendthrift +with their known and scanty store as though they were immortals, the +remittance men of Great Jove. I have no doubt now the line will be +finished some day; but there were times, riding along the roughly +cleared trail where it is to be, and we came upon places where men, in a +spasm of pointless and soon expiring energy had scratched and mauled the +pristine earth, when I did not think so. Always the same dumb mystery +was about us at noon as at nightfall. I felt we were lost at the back of +the world, that we had crossed the boundary beyond which the voice of +traffic never goes, and were idly wandering on the confines of oblivion. +Sometimes I had that consciousness of futility which comes to us when, +in sleep, we are earnest in the absurd activities of a dream, one point +of the reason remaining awake to wonder at the antics of the busy but +blind mind. Why was I there at all? Was I there? Those forlorn spots in +the forest where our fellows had been before us, which we two riders +overlooked alone, seemed to show that those men, while in the midst of +their feverish labour, had recovered their minds, and had seen the +wilderness was too vast, was unconquerable; and they had fled. There +before us was what they had done. A deep trench would be in the track, +the sand thrown up on either side. Some dead trees would be prone in our +path, and we had to ride round them. There would be a few empty huts of +leaves, with old ashes at the entrances, and a midden with its usual +gorgeous butterflies. There would not be a sign of life, except the +butterflies over the refuse, and not a sound or a movement but a clink +from our own harness, and the heads of our mules impatient with the +flies. Over the evidence of man's far-fetched enterprise and industry, +his short and ferocious attack on the wild, brooded the forest. That +bent over us, and it might have been solicitous and compassionate, or it +might have been merely curious about the behaviour of the surprising +creatures who had come there for the first time, and had been so active +for a while. Sitting in the pour of the sun, looking upon the scanty +work of my fellows, and then upon the near watchful ranks of that +continent of trees pressing close to regard the grave-like trench into +which man's hope might have been thrown, I had a dread of the easy and +enduring dominion of those powers which were before man. + +We would ride on then, sometimes up to our saddles in swamps, and every +day I lost faith that there was any company of our fellows in that +desolation, who would take our mules at nightfall, and show hammocks for +our rest. But always before night caught us we would spy a few huts +diminutive under the cliffs of forest--land ho!--and the little outpost +of two or three engineers and a doctor would meet us as we came up. Such +a camp was like finding security and fellowship again after the +uncertainty and emptiness of the sea. The voices of new friends disarmed +the forest. It was not curious that we found it so easy to talk and +laugh. + +One such camp I remember well. We came upon it late, and my bones, +through a longer ride than usual in the wooden saddle, had grown into an +unjointed frame. This was the real meaning of fatigue. My body was a +comprehensive ache. Yet my mind was alert and buoyant; and I remembered +that perhaps it was so because I had been well bitten by the mosqitoes +of the Jaci-Parana, a first effect of the inoculation; so I swallowed +twenty grains of my store of quinine. + +You in settled lands, unless you have been very poor indeed and know +what trouble is and what friends are, have never seen the face of your +brother, nor the serenity of evening when you have found, without +expecting it, shelter for the night; you don't know what the taste of +bread and meat is, nor the savour of tobacco, nor what comfortable +security is the whispering of a comrade unseen in the shadows of a +resting place, nor what it is to sleep. I found those gifts are not +means to life only, but reasons for living too; something to live for. +With these at nightfall, our frail little hut, beleaguered in the +limitless woods, the shack in which the ants and spiders swarmed and +gross insects rang on the metal lamp, where we loafed in hammocks, +smoking, and listened to the cries of we knew not what in the unknown +about us, was impregnable to the hosts of darkness. + +Perhaps I remember that camp so well because it was a night of full +moon. There were three huts. We were deep in the trees. The dark walls +of that well in the jungle rose sheer all round us. Nobody knew what was +beyond the huts. The moon appeared just clear of the lofty parapet of +the well, and poured down to us an imponderable rarity of bluish fire. +Wherever this fire lodged it stayed. Half-way up projected palm fronds, +and they were heavy patterns in burnished silver. Nameless shapes grew +luminous in the dark about us. The ragged thatch of a hut fell from its +apex in a cascade of lustrous fluid metal suddenly congealed. The gloom +beneath that shining roof was hollowed by the pale yellow light of a +lamp; so I could see, under the eaves, the three hammocks slung from the +posts. The quiet talk of my companions was the only sound. I limped with +weariness towards the voices, and sat in a shadow listening; and looked +beyond to sprays of motionless shining foliage leaning out from +inscrutable darkness. I seemed to have escaped from my tired body; my +disembodied mind was free and at large. A camp hunter had killed a +jaguar there, during the afternoon, they were saying. There were many +about, for we were beyond the railway men, the track being but a lane of +felled trees. They were saying the country there abounded with wild +life. Just as we arrived that evening one of the men brought in a +wounded animal, its nature so disguised that I thought it was a kind of +sloth. It was about two feet long, and covered with long grizzled hair +from its snout to the end of its considerable tail; but when I lifted +it, and the poor injured creature shook its hair from its eyes, I saw it +was a monkey; that anguished and fearful gaze which met mine was of my +own tiny brother. It was a rare and little-known creature, the Hairy +Saki, the first of its kind I had seen. The native took it away to eat +it. I may say that at every camp we ate what we could get; and being by +nature squeamish I never asked what it was that was put before me. +Whatever it was, there it was, and it was all they could give me. I only +emphatically directed that monkey flesh would be worse to me than +hunger. + +"There are plenty of tigers about here," called one of our hosts to me; +"I'll fix you with a gun to-morrow, and we'll have some fun." But thank +you, no. I did not carry arms throughout my journey. The jaguars did me +no hurt when I went exploring o' mornings; and as for me, I was not +looking for trouble. Quite politely the jaguars retired while I wandered +about alone; though I should have been delighted to have sighted one. +The whiffs of feral odour I got, especially in the neighbourhood of the +mules, about which the jaguars prowled at night, were my only big game +trophies. Sometimes an indistinguishable object would step across ahead +of me, or stir in a bush close by, drawing ear and eye at once in a +place where trees and leaves were always as fixtures, like the air. I +never met one of the larger natives of the place. I knew the parrots by +their voices. I heard and smelt the cats. The monkeys called from a +great distance; or a body would slip round a tree so like a shadow +moving that when I examined the place, and saw nothing, it was easy to +believe the eye was only suspicious. + +The men began to talk of the Indians. They said we were in the land of +the Caripunas. "You won't see them," said Hill. "I expect they are +watching us now though," he added, after a pause. I glanced up with some +interest at the spectral foliage, where right before me the pale +moonfire on leaves and trunks framed portals in the night. I could see +nothing. + +"It's odds that some of them have been following us all day," continued +Hill. "They watch us. They can't make us out. The rubber men told us the +Caripunas would kill and eat us. They kill the rubber men all right, and +a good job too. But they only slip through the forest watching us. I saw +some once. On the Jaci. I jollied them into putting their canoe ashore. +It was only a bark contraption, the roughest thing of its kind I've +seen, sharpened fore and aft by lacing the ends together with sinews. +They were fine light brown fellows, well made, and stark naked. The +black hair of some of them was frizzy. Curious, isn't it? But I've heard +that in the slave days runaway niggers got down here, and the forest +Indians collared them to improve their own miserable stock. The +Brazilians have always had a tradition of a frizzy-haired race on the +Madeira; and here they are. They had bows and arrows, those chaps, made +entirely of cane and wood. The arrows were tipped with macaw feathers, +and were over six feet long. I couldn't bend the bloomin' bow. These +fellows keep to the side rivers, and their villages are always hidden in +the woods. It's a funny thing, but whenever the surveyors come on a +village they find it has been vacated about a week." + +We were silent for a time, and then a half-breed crept up to a hammock +and spoke in Spanish to the doctor. The doctor laughed, and the fellow +went away. "He's asking for a piece of that onca to eat. He says it will +make him strong." They began to talk of that, and the talk went on to +what the Indians say of the mai d'aqua, the mother of the waters, who +frequents islands in the rivers and is the ruin of young men, and of +such dreads as the jurupari, and the curupira, and the maty tapere. + +They admitted it was easy to imagine such things into the forest. It +wasn't what was seen there. Only the trees and the shadows were seen. +But sometimes there were sounds. One of us, when alone making a traverse +in the forest, had heard a scream, as if a woman had been frightened, +and then there was no more sound. The camp doctor began to talk. He was +an Englishman. He sat upright in the middle of his hammock, swinging it +with one foot. "There was a curious yarn I heard about a tiger in +Hampshire. Ah! Hampshire! I had a practice there once, you know. It made +me so busy and popular that at last I began to wonder whether I wasn't +altogether too successful. It was the practice or me. As I wanted to +live on and do some useful work I slew the practice. I've got one or two +ideas about that beri-beri you chaps die of here. A doctor cannot serve +God and a lot of old women with colds.... Oh yes, about that tiger. +Well, one of those travelling shows came to our village. I could see the +steam of its roundabout engines from my surgery windows, and I told the +farmer who rented the field to the showmen that if he let a mechanical +organ come anywhere near my place again he could take his gallstone +somewhere else in future. + +"Late one night I got an urgent message to go over to the show. There +had been an accident. I was taken into a caravan. There was a fat woman +dressed as a pink fairy kneeling over a man stretched on a bunk, shaking +him, and crying. The man was dead all right. But I couldn't find a mark +on him. Diseased heart, I supposed, but he looked a good 'un. Some of +the well-made, powerful chaps have most unreliable hearts. The woman +kept crying out something about 'that beast of a tiger.' Curious sort of +remark, and I asked the boss afterwards what she meant. He shuffled +about a bit, pretending that she was talking silly. 'Nothing to do with +the tigress,' he said, 'although the man was found unconscious in her +cage.' 'It's such a tame thing,' said the showman. 'Anybody could handle +it. Never shows vice. Old Jackson'--that was the dead chap--'he'd been +inside tinkering with a partition. When we found him she was lying in a +corner as if asleep, and only sat up and yawned when we got him out of +her cage. Come and see for yourself.' + +"I went. There was nothing to see, except a slit-eyed tigress sitting up +in a corner of her cage, blinking at the lantern, and looking rather +spooky. A rather small creature, and prettily marked--one of the +melantic variety. + +"Well, the chap was buried after an inquest, and that inquest made me +ask a lot of questions afterwards. It was a simple affair, the inquest. +Death from natural causes. But there was something behind the evidence +of the man's wife, and I wanted to find out about that. + +"She told me she had a little girl, who got one night into the tent +where the big cats were kept. Nobody was there at the time. Next morning +she said to her mother, 'Mummie, who was the funny lady in Lucy's cage?' + +"Lucy was the name of the tigress. The child said that there was only +the lady in the cage, and the lady watched her. And that was all they +could get out of the kiddie. The funny thing about it is that once +before the child had come back with a yarn like that, after straying +into the menagerie tent late at night. The wife's idea was her husband +had died of fright. + +"Don't ask me what I want to make out, boys. I'm only just telling you +the yarn. There you are. + +"Well, before the show left our village, I heard they'd got a nigger to +look after the big cats. He was with the show two days. On the third day +he was missing. He went without drawing his money, and he had left open +the door of Lucy's cage. She hadn't attempted to get out. The nigger was +found some days after, wandering about the country, and a little +cracked, by all accounts. And that's all." The doctor struck a match, +and then hoisted his legs into the hammock. Somewhere far in the forest +the monkeys were howling. + +"That doctor is a good body mender," said Hill to me. "He is the most +entertaining liar on this job." + + + + +VI + + +When in the neighbourhood of the Girau Falls we returned to a camp known +as 22, which was merely a couple of huts, the station of two English +surveyors, who had with them a small party of Bolivians. The Bolivian +frontier was then but a little distance to the south-west. We rested for +a day there, and planned to make a journey of ten miles across country, +to the falls of the Caldeirao do Inferno. By doing so we should save the +wearying return ride along the track to the Rio Jaci-Parana, for at the +Caldeirao a launch was kept, and in that we could shoot the rapids and +reach the camp on the Jaci two days earlier. Some haste was necessary +now, for my steamer must be nearing her sailing time. And again, I +agreed the more readily to the plan of making a traverse of the forest +because it would give me the opportunity of seeing the interior of the +virgin jungle away from any track. Though I had been so long in a land +which all was forest I had not been within the universal growth except +for little journeys on used trails. A journey across country in the +Amazon country is never made by the Brazilians. The only roads are the +rivers. It is a rare traveller who goes through those forests, guided +only, by a compass and his lore of the wilderness. That for months I had +never been out of sight of the jungle, and yet had rarely ventured to +turn aside from a path for more than a few paces, is some indication of +its character. At the camp where we were staying I was told that once a +man had gone merely within the screen of leaves, and then no doubt had +lost, for a few moments, his sense of direction of the camp, for he was +never seen again. + +The equatorial forest is popularly pictured as a place of bright and +varied colours, with extravagant flowers, an abundance of fruits, and +huge trees hung with creepers where lurk many venomous but beautiful +snakes with gem-like eyes, and a multitude of birds as bright as the +flowers; paradise indeed, though haunted by a peril. Those details are +right, but the picture is wrong. It is true that some of the birds are +decorated in a way which makes the most beautiful of our temperate birds +seem dull; but the toucans and macaws of the Madeira forest, though +common, are not often seen, and when they are seen they are likely to be +but obscure atoms drifting high in a white light. About the villages and +in the clearings there are usually many superb butterflies and moths, +and a varied wealth of vegetation not to be matched outside the tropics, +and there will be the fireflies and odours in evening pathways. But the +virgin forest itself soon becomes but a green monotony which, through +extent and mystery, dominates and compels to awe and some dread. You +will see it daily, but will not often approach it. It has no splendid +blossoms; none, that is, which you will see, except by chance, as by +luck one day I saw from the steamer's bridge some trees in blossom, +domes of lilac surmounting the forest levels. Trees are always in +blossom there, for it is a land of continuous high summer, and there are +orchids always in flower, and palms and vines that fill acres of forest +with fragrance, palms and other trees which give wine and delicious +fruits, and somewhere hidden there are the birds of the tropical +picture, and dappled jaguars perfect in colouring and form, and brown +men and women who have strange gods. But they are lost in the ocean of +leaves as are the pearls and wonders in the deep. You will remember the +equatorial forest but as a gloom of foliage in which all else that +showed was rare and momentary, was foundered and lost to sight +instantly, as an unusual ray of coloured light in one mid-ocean wave +gleams, and at once goes, and your surprise at its apparition fades too, +and again there is but the empty desolation which is for ever but +vastness sombrely bright. + +One morning, wondering greatly what we should see in the place where we +should be the first men to go, Hill and I left camp 22 and returned a +little along the track. It was a hot still morning. A vanilla vine was +in fragrant flower somewhere, unseen, but unescapable. My little unknown +friend in the woods, who calls me at odd times--but I think chiefly when +I am near a stream--by whistling thrice, let me know he was about. Hill +said he thinks he has seen him, and that my little friend looks like a +blackbird. On the track in many places were objects which appeared to be +long cups inverted, of unglazed ware. Picking up one I found it was the +cap to a mine of ants, the inside of the clay cup being hollowed in a +perfect circle, and remarkably smooth. A paca dived into the scrub near +us. It was early morning, scented with vanilla, and the intricacy of +leaves was radiant. Nowhere in the screen could I see a place through +which it was possible to crawl to whatever was behind it. The front of +leaves was unbroken. Hill presently bent double and disappeared, and I +followed in the break he made. So we went for about ten minutes, my +leader cutting obstructions with his machete, and mostly we had to go +almost on hands and knees. The undergrowth was green, but in the +etiolated way of plants which have little light, though that may have +been my fancy. One plant was very common, making light-green feathery +barriers. I think it was a climbing bamboo. Its stem was vapid and of no +diameter, and its grasslike leaves grew in whorls at the joints. It +extended to incredible distances. We got out of that margin of +undergrowth, which springs up quickly when light is let into the woods, +as it was there through the cutting of the track, and found ourselves on +a bare floor where the trunks of arborescent laurels grew so thickly +together that our view ahead was restricted to a few yards. We were in +the forest. There was a pale tinge of day, but its origin was uncertain, +for overhead no foliage could be seen, but only deep shadows from which +long ropes were hanging without life. In that obscurity were points of +light, as if a high roof had lost some tiles. Hill set a course almost +due south, and we went on, presently descending to a deep clear stream +over which a tree had fallen. Shafts of daylight came down to us there, +making the sandy bottom of the stream luminous, as by a lantern, and +betraying crowds of small fishes. As we climbed the tree, to cross upon +it, we disturbed several morphos. We had difficulties beyond in a +hollow, where the bottom of the forest was lumbered with fallen trees, +dry rubbish, and thorns, and once, stepping on what looked timber solid +enough, its treacherous shell collapsed, and I went down into a cloud of +dust and ants. In clearing this wreckage, which was usually as high as +our faces, and doubly confused by the darkness, the involutions of dead +thorny creepers, and clouds of dried foliage, Hills got at fault with +our direction, but reassured himself, though I don't know how--but I +think with the certain knowledge that if we went south long enough we +should strike the Madeira somewhere--and on we went. For hours we +continued among the trees, seldom knowing what was ahead of us for any +distance, surviving points of noise intruding again after long in the +dusk of limbo. So still and nocturnal was the forest that it was real +only when its forms were close. All else was phantom and of the shades. +There was not a green sign of life, and not a sound. Resting once under +a tree I began to think there was a conspiracy implied in that murk and +awful stillness, and that we should never come out again into the day +and see a living earth. Hills sat looking out, and said, as if in answer +to an unspoken thought of mine which had been heard because there was +less than no sound there, that men who were lost in those woods soon +went mad. + +Then he led on again. This forest was nothing like the paradise a +tropical wild is supposed to be. It was as uniformly dingy as the old +stones of a London street on a November evening. We did not see a +movement, except when the morphos started from the uprooted tree. Once I +heard the whistle call us from the depths of the forest, urgent and +startling; and now when in a London by-way I hear a boy call his mate in +a shrill whistle, it puts about me again the spectral aisles, and that +unexpectant quiet of the sepulchre which is more than mere absence of +sound, for the dead who should have no voice. This central forest was +really the vault of the long-forgotten, dank, mouldering, dark, +abandoned to the accumulations of eld and decay. The tall pillars rose, +upholding night, and they might have been bastions of weathered +limestone and basalt, for they were as grim as ancient and ruinous +masonry. There was no undergrowth. The ground was hidden in a ruin of +perished stuff, uprooted trees, parchments of leaves, broken boughs, and +mummied husks, the iron globes of nuts, and pods. There was no day, but +some breaks in the roof were points of remote starlight. The crowded +columns mounted straight and far, almost branchless, fading into +indistinction. Out of that overhead obscurity hung a wreckage of +distorted cables, binding the trees, and often reaching the ground. The +trees were seldom of great girth, though occasionally there was a +dominant basaltic pillar, its roots meandering over the floor like +streams of old lava. The smooth ridges of such a fantastic complexity of +roots were sometimes breast high. The walls ran up the trunk, projecting +from it as flat buttresses, for great heights. We would crawl round such +an occupying structure, diminished groundlings, as one would move about +the base of a foreboding, plutonic building whose limits and meaning +were ominous and baffling. There were other great trees with compound +boles, built literally of bundles of round stems, intricate gothic +pillars, some of the props having fused in places. Every tree was the +support of a parasitic community, lianas swathing it and binding it. One +vine moulded itself to its host, a flat and wide compress, as though it +were plastic. We might have been witnessing what had been a riot of +manifold and insurgent life. It had been turned to stone when in the +extreme pose of striving violence. It was all dead now. + +But what if these combatants had only paused as we appeared? It was a +thought which came to me. The pause might be but an appearance for our +deception. Indeed, they were all fighting as we passed through, those +still and fantastic shapes, a war ruthless but slow, in which the battle +day was ages long. They seemed but still. We were deceived. If time had +been accelerated, if the movements in that war of phantoms had been +speeded, we should have seen what really was there, the greater trees +running upwards to starve the weak of light and food, and heard the +continuous collapse of the failures, and have seen the lianas writhing +and constricting, manifestly like serpents, throttling and eating their +hosts. We did see the dead everywhere, shells with the worms at them. +Yet it was not easy to be sure that we saw anything at all, for these +were not trees, but shapes in a region below the day, a world sunk +abysmally from the land of living things, to which light but thinly +percolated down to two travellers moving over its floor, trying to get +out to their own place. + +Late in the afternoon we were surprised by a steep hill in our way, +where the forest was more open. Palms became conspicuous on the slopes, +and the interior of the sombre woods was lighted with bright and +graceful foliage. The wild banana was frequent, its long rippling +pennants showing everywhere. The hill rose sharply, perhaps for six +hundred feet, and over its surface were scattered large stones, and +stones are rare indeed in this land of vegetable humus. They were often +six inches in diameter, and I should have said they were waterworn but +that I had seen them _in situ_ at one camp, where they occurred but +little below the surface in a friable sandstone, the largest of them +easily broken in the hand, for they were but ferrous concretions of +quartz grains. After exposure to the air they so hardened that they +could be fractured only with difficulty. We kept along the ridge of the +hill, finding breaks in the forest through which, as through unexpected +windows, we could see, for a wonder, over the roof of the forest, +looking out of our prison to a wide world where the sun was declining. +In the south-west we caught the gleam of the Madeira, and beyond it saw +a continuation of the range of hills on which we stood. + +In the low ground between the hill range and the river the forest was +lower, and was so tangled a mass that I doubted whether we could make a +way through it. We happened upon a deserted Caripuna village, three +large sheds, without sides, each but a ragged thatch propped on four +legs. The clearing was just large enough to hold them. I could find no +relics of the forest folk about. Damp leaves were thick on the floor of +each shelter. But it was lucky we found the huts, for thence a trail led +us to the river. We emerged suddenly from the forest, just as one goes +through a little door into the open street. We were on the bank of the +Madeira by the upper falls of the Caldeirao. It was still a great river, +with the wall of the forest opposite, just above which the sunset was +flaming, so far away that its tree trunks were but vertical lines of +silver in dark cliffs. A track used by the Bolivian rubber boatmen led +us down stream to the camp by the lower falls. + +It was night when we got to the three huts of the camp, and the river +could not be seen, but it was heard, a continuous low thundering. +Sometimes a greater shock of deep waters falling, an orgasm of the flood +pouring unseen, more violent than the rest, made the earth tremulous. +Men held up lanterns to our faces, and led us to a hut. It was but the +usual roof of leaves. We rested in hammocks slung between the posts, and +I ached in every limb. But here we were at last; and there is no more +luxurious bed than a hammock, yielding and resilient, as though you were +cradled on air; and there is no pipe like that smoked in a hammock at +night in the tropics after a day of toil and anxiety in a dissolving +heat, for the heat makes a pipe bitter and impossible; but if a tropic +night is cool and cloudless it comes like a benediction, and the silence +is a peace that is below you and around, and as high as the stars +towards which your face is turned. The ropes of the hammock creaked. +Sometimes a man spoke quietly, as though he were at a great distance. +The sound of the water receded, was heard only as in a sleep, and it +might have been the loud murmur of the spinning globe, heard because we +had left this world and had leisure for trifles in a securer world +apart. + +In the morning, while they prepared the little steam launch for its +journey down the rapids, I had time to climb about the smooth granite +boulders of the foreshore below the hut. A rock is so unusual in this +country that it is a luxury when found. The granite was bare, but in its +crevices grew cacti and other plants with fleshy leaves and swollen +stems. Shadowing the hut was a tree bearing trumpet-shaped flowers, and +before the blossoms humming birds were hovering, glowing and evanescent +morsels, remaining miraculously suspended when inserting their long +bills into the flowers, their little wings beating so rapidly that the +air seemed visible and radiant about them. Another tree here interested +me, for it was Bates Assacu, the only one I saw. It was a large tree, +with palmate leaves having seven fingers. Ugly spines studded even its +brown trunk. + +I looked out on the river dubiously. A rocky island was just off shore, +crowned with trees. Between us and the island, and beyond, the waters +heaved and circled, evidently of great depth, and fearfully disturbed +and swift. It looked all its name, the Caldeirao do Inferno--hell's +cauldron. There was not much white and broken water. But its surface was +always changing, whirlpools forming and revolving, then disappearing in +long wrenched strands of water. Sometimes a big tree would leap out of +the water, as though it had travelled upwards from the bottom, and then +would vanish again. + +We set out upon it, with an engineman and two half-breeds, and went off +obliquely for mid-stream. The engineman and navigator was a fair-haired +German. If the river had been sane and usual I should have had my eyes +on the forest which stood along each shore, for few white men had ever +looked upon it. But the river took our minds, and never in bad weather +in the western ocean have I seen water so full of menace. Yet below the +falls it was silent and unbroken. It was its smooth swiftness, its +strange checks and mysterious and deep convulsions, as though the river +bed itself was insecure, the startling whirlpools which appeared without +warning, circling depressions on the surface in which our launch would +have been but a straw, which shocked the mind. It was stealthy and +noiseless. The water was but an inch or two below our gunwale. We saw +trees afloat, greater and heavier than our midget of a craft, shooting +down the gently inclined shining expanse just as we were, and express; +and then, as if an awful hand had grasped them from below, they were +pulled under, and we saw them no more; or, again, and near to us and +ahead, a tree bole would shoot from below like an arrow, though no tree +had been drifting there. The shores were far away. + +The water ahead grew worse. The German crouched by his little throbbing +engine, looking anxiously--I could see his fixed stare--over the bows. +We were travelling indeed now. The boat, in a rapid tremor, and +oscillating violently, was clutched at the keel by something which +coiled strongly about us, gripped us, and held us; and the boat, mad and +terrified, in an effort to escape, made a circuit, the water lipping at +her gunwale and coming over the bows. The river seemed poised a foot +above the bows, ready to pour in and swamp us. The German tried to get +her head down stream. Hills began tearing at his ammunition belt, and I +stooped and tugged at my boot laces.... + +The boat jumped, as if released. The German turned round on us grinning. +"It ees all right," he said. He began to roll a cigarette nervously. "We +pull it off all right," said the German, wetting his cigarette paper. +The boat was free, dancing lightly along. The little engine was singing +quickly and freely. + +The Madeira here was as wide as in its lower reaches, with many islands. +There were hosts of waterfowl. We landed once at a rubber hunter's sitio +on the right bank. Its owner, a Bolivian, and his pretty Indian wife, +who had tattoo marks on her forehead, made much of us, and gave us +coffee. They had an orchard of guavas, and there, for it was long since +I had tasted fruit, I was an immoderate thief, in spite of a pet +curassow which followed me through the garden with distracting pecks. +The Rio Jaci-Parana, a blackwater stream, opened up soon after we left +the sitio. The boundary between the clay-coloured flood of the Madeira +and the dark water of the tributary was straight and distinct. From a +distance the black water seemed like ink, but we found it quite clear +and bright. The Jaci is not an important branch river, but it was, at +this period of the rains, wider than the Thames at Richmond, and without +doubt very much deeper. The appearance of the forest on the Jaci was +quite different from the palisades of the parent stream. On the Madeira +there is commonly a narrow shelf of bank, above which the jungle rises +as would a sheer cliff. The Jaci had no banks. The forest was deeply +submerged on either side, and whenever an opening showed in the woods we +could see the waters within, but could not see their extent because of +the interior gloom. The outer foliage was awash, and mounted, not +straight, but in rounded clouds. For the first time I saw many vines and +trees in flower, presumably because we were nearer the roof of the +woods. One tree was loaded with the pendent pear-shaped nests of those +birds called "hang nests," and scores of the beauties in their black and +gold plumage were busy about their homes, which resembled monstrous +fruits. Another tree was weighted with large racemes of orange-coloured +blossoms, but as the launch passed close to it we discovered the blooms +were really bundles of caterpillars. The Jaci appeared to be a haunt of +the alligators, but all we saw of them was their snouts, which moved +over the surface of the water out of our way like rubber balls afloat +and mysteriously propelled. I had a sight, too, of that most regal of +the eagles, the harpy, for one, well within view, lifted from a tree +ahead, and sailed finely over the river and away. + +That night I slept again in my old hut at the Jaci camp, and with Hill +and another official set off early next morning for the construction +camp on Rio Caracoles, which we hoped to reach before the commissary +train left for Porto Velho. At Porto Velho the "Capella" was, and I +wished, perhaps as much as I have ever wished for anything, that I +should not be left behind when she departed. I knew she must be on the +point of sailing. + +My two companions had reasons of their own for thinking the catching of +that train was urgently necessary. In our minds we were already settled +and safe in a waggon, comfortable among the empty boxes, going back to +the place where the crowd was. But still we had some way to ride; and, I +must tell you, I was now possessed of all I desired of the tropical +forest, and had but one fixed idea in my dark mind, but one bright star +shining there; I had turned about, and was going home, and now must +follow hard and unswervingly that star in the east of my mind. The +rhythmic movements of the mule under me--only my legs knew he was +there--formed in my darkened mind a refrain: get out of it, get out of +it. + +And at last there were the huts and tents of the Caracoles, still and +quiet under the vertical sun. No train was there, nor did it look a +place for trains. My steamer was sixty miles away, beyond a track along +which further riding was impossible, and where walking, for more than +two miles, could not be even considered. The train, the boys told us +blithely, went back half an hour before. The audience of trees regarded +my consternation with the indifference which I had begun to hate with +some passion. The boys naturally expected that we should take it in the +right way for hot climates, without fuss, and that now they had some new +gossip for the night. But they should have understood Hill better. My +tall gaunt leader waved them aside, for he was a man who could do +things, when there seemed nothing that one could do. "The terminus or +bust!" he cried. "Where's the boss?" He demanded a handcart and a crew. +I thought he spoke in jest. A handcart is a contrivance propelled along +railway metals by pumping at a handle. The handle connects with the +wheels by a crank and cogs through a slot in the centre of the platform, +and you get five miles an hour out of it, while the crew continues. For +sixty miles, in that heat, it was impossible. Yet Hill persisted; the +cart was put on the metals, five half-breeds manned the pump handle, +three facing the track ahead, two with their backs to it. We three +passengers sat on the sides and front of the trolley. Away we went. + +The boys cheered and laughed, calling out to us the probabilities of our +journey. We trundled round a corner, and already I had to change my +cramped position; fifty-eight miles to go. We sat with our legs held up +out of the way of the vines and rocks by the track, and careful to +remember that our craniums must be kept clear of the pump handle. The +crew went up and down, with fixed looks. The sun was the eye of the last +judgment, and my lips were cracked. The trees made no sign. The natives +went up and down; and the forest went by, tree by tree. + +My tired and thoughtless legs dropped, and a thorn fastened its teeth +instantly in my boots, and nearly had me down. The trees went by, one by +one. There was a large black and yellow butterfly on a stone near us. I +was surprised when no sound came as it made a grand movement upwards. +Then, in the heart of nowhere, the trolley slackened, and came to a +stand. We had lost a pin. Half a mile back we could hardly credit we +really had found that pin, but there it was; and the men began to go up +and down again. Hill got a touch of fever, and the natives had changed +to the colour of impure tallow, and flung their perspiration on my face +and hands as they swung mechanically. The poor wretches! We were done. +The sun weighed untold tons. + +But the sun declined, some monkeys began to howl, and the sunset tempest +sprang down on us its assault, shaking the high screens on either hand, +and the rain beat with the roll of kettle-drums. Then we got on an up +grade, and two of the spent natives collapsed, their chests heaving. So +I and the other chap stood up in the night, looked to the stars, from +which no help could be got, took hold of the pump handle like gallant +gentlemen, and tried to forget there were twenty miles to go. Away we +went, jog, jog, uphill. I thought that gradient would not end till my +heart and head had burst; but it did, just in time. + +We gathered speed on a down grade. We flew. Presently the man with the +fever yelled, "The brake, the brake!" But the brake was broken. The +trolley was not running, but leaping in the dark. Every time it came +down it found the metals. A light was coming towards us on the line; and +the others prepared to jump. I could not even see that light, for my +back was turned to our direction, and I could not let go the flying +handle, else would all control have gone, and also I should have been +smashed. I shut my eyes, pumped swiftly and involuntarily, and waited +for doom to hit me in the back. The blow was a long time coming. Then +Hill's gentle voice remarked, "All right, boys, it's a firefly." + +... I became only a piece of machinery, and pumped, and pumped, with no +more feeling than a bolster. Shadows undulated by us everlastingly. I +think my tongue was hanging out.... + +Lights were really seen at last. Kind hands lifted us from the engine of +torture; and I heard the remembered voice of the Skipper, "Is he there? +I thought it was a case." + + * * * * * + +That night of my return a full moon and a placid river showed me the +"Capella" doubled, as in a mirror, and admiring the steamer's deep +inverted shape I saw a heartening portent--I saw steam escaping from the +funnel which was upside down. A great joy filled me at that, and I +turned to the Skipper, as we strode over the ties of the jetty. "Yes. We +go home to-morrow," he said. The bunk was super-heated again by the +engine room, but knowing the glad reason, I endured it with pleasure. +To-morrow we turned about. + +Yet on the morrow there was still the persistence of the spacious +idleness which encompassed us impregnably, beyond which we could not go. +The little that was left of the fuel in the holds went out of us with +dismal unhaste. The Skipper and the mates fumed, and the Doctor took me +round to see the "Capella's" pets, so that we might fill up time. A +monkey, an entirely secular creature once with us, had died while I was +away. It was well. He had no name; Vice was his name. There were no +tears at his death, and Tinker the terrier began to get back some of his +full and lively form again after that day when, in a sudden righteous +revolution, he slew, and barbarously mangled, the insolent tyrant of the +ship. The monkey had feared none but Mack, our red, blue and yellow +macaw, a monstrous and resplendent fowl in whose iron bill even Brazil +nuts were soft. + +But we all respected Mack. He was the wisest thing on the ship. If an +idle man felt high-spirited and approached Mack to demonstrate his +humour, that great bird gave an inquiring turn to its head, and its +deliberate and unwinking eyes hid the rapid play of its prescient mind. +The man stopped, and would speak but playfully. Nobody ever dared. + +When Mack first boarded the ship, a group of us, gloved, smothered him +with a heavy blanket and fastened a chain to his leg. He knew he was +overpowered, and did not struggle, but inside the blanket we heard some +horrible chuckles. We took off the blanket and stood back expectantly +from that dishevelled and puzzling giant of a parrot. He shook his +feathers flat again, quite self-contained, looked at us sardonically and +murmured "Gur-r-r" very distinctly; then glanced at his foot. There was +a little surprise in his eye when he saw the chain there. He lifted up +the chain to examine it, tried it, and then quietly and easily bit it +through. "Gur-r-r!" he said again, straightening his vest, still +regarding us solemnly. Then he moved off to a davit, and climbed the +mizzen shrouds to the top-mast. + +When he saw us at food he came down with nonchalance, and overlooked our +table from the cross beam of an awning. Apparently satisfied, he came +directly to the mess table, sitting beside me, and took his share with +all the assurance of a member, allowing me to idle with his beautiful +wings and his tail. He was a beauty. He took my finger in his awful bill +and rolled it round like a cigarette. I wondered what he would do to it +before he let it go; but he merely let it go. He was a great character, +magnanimously minded. I never knew a tamer creature than Mack. That +evening he rejoined a flock of his wild brothers in the distant +tree-tops. But he was back next morning, and put everlasting fear into +the terrier, who was at breakfast, by suddenly appearing before him with +wings outspread on the deck, looking like a disrupted and angry rainbow, +and making raucous threats. The dog gave one yell and fell over +backwards. + +We had added a bull-frog to our pets, and he must have weighed at least +three pounds. He had neither vice nor virtue, but was merely a squab in +a shady corner. Whenever the dog approached him he would rise on his +legs, however, and inflate himself till he was globular. This was +incomprehensible to Tinker, who was contemptuous, but being a little +uncertain, would make a circuit of the frog. Sitting one day in the +shadow of the box which enclosed the rudder chain was the frog, and we +were near, and up came Tinker a-trot all unthinking, his nose to the +deck. The frog hurriedly furnished his pneumatic act when Tinker, who +did not know froggie was there, was close beside him, and Tinker snapped +sideways in a panic. Poor punctured froggie dwindled instantly, and +died. + +I could add to the list of our creatures the anaconda which was found +coming aboard by the gangway but that a stoker saw him first, became +hysterical, and slew the reptile with a shovel; there were the coral +snakes which came inboard over the cables and through the hawse pipes, +and the vampire bats which frequented the forecastle. But they are +insignificant beside our peccary. I forgot to tell you the Skipper never +made a tame creature of her. She refused us. We brought her up from the +bunkers where first she was placed, because the stokers flatly refused +her society in the dark. She was brought up on deck in bonds, snapping +her tushes in a direful way, and when released did most indomitably +charge all our ship's company, bristles up, and her automatic teeth +louder and more rapid than ever. How we fled! When I turned on my +vantage, the manner of my getting there all unknown, to see who was my +neighbour, it was my abashed and elderly captain, who can look upon sea +weather at its worst with an easy eye, but who then was striving +desperately to get his legs (which were in pyjamas) ten feet above the +deck, in case the very wild pig below had wings. + +After the peccary was released we could not call the ship ours. We crept +about as thieves. It was fortunate that she always gave warning of her +proximity by making the noise of castanets with her tusks, so that we +had time to get elevated before she arrived. But I never really knew how +fast she could move till I saw her chase the dog, whom she despised and +ignored. One morning his valiant barking at her, from a distance he +judged to be adequate, annoyed her, and she shot at him like a +projectile. Her slender limbs and diminutive hooves were those of a +deer, and they became merely a haze beneath her body, which was a flying +passion. The terrified dog had no chance, but just as she closed with +him her feet slipped, and so Tinker's life was saved. + +Her end was pitiful. One day she got into the saloon. The Doctor and I +were there, and saw her trot in at one door, and we trotted out at +another door. Now, the saloon was the pride of the Skipper; and when the +old man tried to bribe her out of it--he talked to her from the open +skylight above--and she insulted him with her mouth, he sent for his +men. From behind a shut door of the saloon alley way we heard a fusilade +of tusks in the saloon, shrieks from the maddened dog, uproar from the +parrots, and the hoarse shouts of the crew. The pig was charging ten +ways at once. Stealing a look from the cabin we saw the boatswain appear +with a bunch of cotton waste, soaked in kerosene, blazing at the end of +a bamboo, and the mate with a knife lashed to another pole. The peccary +charged the lot. There broke out the cries of Tophet, and through chaos +champed insistently the high note of the tusks. She was noosed and +caged; but nothing could be done with the little fury, and when I peeped +in at her a few days later she was full length, and dying. She opened +one glazing eye at me, and snapped her teeth slowly, game to the end. + + * * * * * + +_March 6._--It was reported at breakfast that we sail to-morrow. The +bread was sour, the butter was oil, the sugar was black with flies, the +sausages were tinned and very white and dead, and the bacon was all fat. +And even the awning could not keep the sun away. + +_March 7._--We got the hatches on number four hold. It is reported we +sail to-morrow. + +_March 8._--The ship was crowded this night with the boys, for a last +jollification. We fired rockets, and swore enduring friendships with +anybody, and many sang different songs together. It is reported that we +sail to-morrow. + +_March 9._--It is reported that we sail to-morrow. + +_March 10._--The "Capella" has come to life. The master is on the +bridge, the first mate is on the forecastle head, the second mate is on +the poop, and the engineers are below. There are stern and minatory +cries, and men who run. At the first slow clanking of the cable we +raised wild cheers. The ship's body began to tremble, and there was +thunder under her counter. We actually came away from the jetty, where +long we had seemed a fixture. We got into mid-stream--stopped; slowly +turned tail on Porto Velho. There was old man Jim, diminished on the +distant jetty, waving his hat. Porto Velho looked strange again. Away we +went. We reached the bend of the river, and turned the corner. There was +the last we shall ever see of Porto Velho. Gone! + +The forest unfolding in reverse order seemed brighter, and all would +have been quite well, but the fourth engineer came up from his duty, and +fell insensible. He was very yellow, and the Doctor had work to do. Here +was the first of our company to succumb to the country. + + * * * * * + +There were but six more days of forest; for the old "Capella," empty and +light as a balloon, the collisions with the floating timber causing +muffled thunder in her hollow body, came down the swift floods of the +Madeira and the Amazon rivers "like a Cunarder, at sixteen knots," as +the Skipper said. And there on the sixth day was Para again, and the sea +near. Our spirits mounted, released from the dead weight of heat and +silence. But I was to lose the Doctor at Para, for he was then to return +to Porto Velho, having discharged his duty to the "Capella's" company. +The Skipper took his wallet, and we went ashore with him, he to his +day-long task of clearing his vessel, and we for a final sad excursion. +Much later in the day, suspecting an unnameable evil was gathering to my +undoing, I called at the agent's office, and found the Skipper had +returned to the ship, that she was sailing that night, and, the +regulations of Para being what they were, it being after six in the +evening I could not leave the city till next morning. My haggard and +dismayed array of thoughts broke in confusion and left me gibbering, +with not one idea for use. Without saying even good-bye to my old +comrade I took to my heels, and left him; and that was the last I saw of +the Doctor. (Aha! my staunch support in the long, hot and empty time at +the back of things, where were but trees, bad food, and a jest to brace +our souls, if ever you should see this--How!--and know, dear lad, I +carried the damnable regulations and a whole row of officials, the Union +Jack at the main, firing every gun as I bore down on them. I broke +through. Only death could have barred me from my ship and the way home.) + +Next morning we were at sea. We dropped the pilot early and changed our +course to the north, bound for Barbados. Though on the line, the +difference in the air at sea, after our long enclosure in the rivers of +the forest, was keenly felt. And the ship too had been so level and +quiet; but here she was lively again, full of movements and noises. The +bows were at their old difference with the skyline, and the steady wind +of the outer was driving over us. Before noon, when I went in to the +Chief, my crony was flat and moribund with a temperature at 105 deg., and he +had no interest in this life whatever. I had added the apothecary's +duties to those of the Purser, and here found my first job. (Doctor, I +gave him lots of grains of quinine, and lots more afterwards; and plenty +of calomel when he was at 98 again. Was that all right?) + +The sight of the big and hearty Chief, when he was about once more, +yellow, insecure, and somewhat shrunken, made us dubious. Yet now were +we rolling home. She was breasting down into a creaming smother, the +seas were blue, and the world was fresh and wide all the way back. There +was one fine night, as we were climbing slowly up the slope of the +globe, when we lifted the whole constellation of the Great Bear, the +last star of the tail just dipping below the seas, straight over the +"Capella's" bows, as she pitched. Then were we assured affairs were +rightly ordered, and slept well and contented. + + * * * * * + +Late one afternoon we sighted Barbados. The sea was dark and the light +was golden. The island did not look like land. It was a faint but +constant pearl-coloured cloud. The empty sky came down to the dark sea +in bright walls which had but a bloom of azure. Overhead it was day, but +the sea was fluid night. Above the island was a group of cirrus, turned +to the setting sun like an audience of intent faces. Near to starboard +was a white ship, fully rigged, standing towards the island with royals +set, and even a towering main skysail. Tall as she was, she looked but a +multiple cloud which had dropped from the sky, and had settled on the +dark sea, and over it was drifting in a faint air, buoyant, but unable +to lift. We overhauled that stately ship. She was reflecting the dayfall +from the white rounds of her many sails. She was regal, she was +paramount in her world, and the sun seemed to be watching her, and +shining solely for her illustrious progress. The clarity and the peace +of it was in us as we leaned against the rail, watching Barbados grow, +and watching that exalted ship. "This is all right," said the Chief. + +We were coming to the things we knew and understood. In the island near +us were men, quays, and shops. This evening had a familiar and friendly +look. Barbados at last! There would be something to eat, too, and we +kept talking of that. Do you know what good bread and butter tastes +like? Or mealy baked potatoes? Or fruit from which the juice runs when +you bite? Or crisp salads? Not you; not if you haven't lived for long on +tinned stuffs, bread which smelt like vinegar, and butter to which a +spoon had to be used. + +To the door of the saloon alley way we saw the steward come, and begin +to swing his bell. "Tea ho!" said the mate. "Keep it," said the Chief. +"I know it. Sardines and hash. Not for me. We shall get some grub in the +morning. Oranges and bananas, boys. I'm tired of oil. My belt is in by +three holes." + +When the sun once touched the sea it sank visibly, like a weight. Night +came at once. We passed a winking light, and soon ahead of us in the +dark was grouped a multitude of lower stars. That was Bridgetown. Those +stars opened and spread round us, showing nothing of the wall of night +in which they were fixed. Well, there it was. We could smell the good +land. We should see it in the morning. We had really got there. + +The engines stopped. There was a shout from the steamer's bridge and a +thunderous rumbling as the cable ran out, and then a remarkable quiet. +The old man came sideways down the bridge ladder with a hurricane lamp, +and stood with us, striking a light for his cigar. "Here we are, Chief," +he said. "What about coals in the morning?" The night was hot, there was +no wind, and as we sat yarning on the bunker hatch another cluster of +stars moved in swiftly together, came to a stand near us, and a +peremptory gun was fired. That was the British mail steamer. + +We looked at her with awe. We could see the toffs in evening dress +idling in the glow of her electric lights. What a feed they had just +finished! But the greatest wonder of her deck was the women in white +gowns. We could hear the strange laughter of the women, and listened for +it. That was music worth listening to. Our little mob of toughs in turns +used the night glasses on those women, and in a dead silence. There were +some kiddies, too. + +We were looking at the benign lights of the island and trying to make +out what they meant. The sense of our repose, and the touch of those +warm and velvet airs, and the scent of land, were like the kindness and +security of home. "I know this place," drawled Sandy. "I was here once. +Before I went into steam I used to come out to the islands, when I was a +young 'un. I made two voyages in the 'Chocolate Girl.' She was my first +ship. She was a daisy, too. Once we lifted St. Vincent twenty-five days +out of Liverpool. That was going, if you like. If old Wager--he was the +old man of the 'Chocolate Girl'--if he could only get a trip in a ship +like this, like an iron street with a factory stack in the middle! But +he can't. He's dead. He had the 'Mignonette,' and she went missing among +the Bahamas. There's millions of islands in the Bahamas. They're north +of this place. You couldn't visit all those islands in a lifetime. + +"If you ask me, some of the islands in these seas are very funny. +There's something wrong about a few of them. They're not down in the +chart, so I've heard. One day you lift one, and you never knew it was +there. 'What's that?' says the old man. 'Can't make that place out.' +Then he reckons he's found new land, and takes his position. He calls it +after his wife, and cables home what he's done. The next thing is a +gunboat goes there and beats about and lays over the spot, but she +doesn't find no island. The gunboat cables home that the merchant chap +was drunk or something, and that he steamed over the spot and got +hundreds of fathoms. They're always so clever, in the navy. But I've +heard some of these islands are not right. You see one once, and nobody +ever sees it again. + +"I knew a man, and he was marooned on one of those islands. He sailed +with me afterwards on one of the Blue Anchor steamers to Sydney. One +time he was on a craft out of Martinique for Cuba. She was a schooner of +the islands, and fine vessels they are. You'll see a lot about us in the +morning. This man's name was Moffat--Bill Moffat. His schooner had a +mulatto for a master, and that nigger was a fool and very superstitious, +by all accounts. They ran short of water, and it's pretty bad if you +fall short of water in these seas. Off the regular routes there's +nothing. You might drift for weeks, and see nothing, off the track. + +"Then they sighted an island. The mulatto chap pretended he knew all +about that island. He said he had been there before. But he was a liar. +It was only a little island, like some trees afloat. They came down on +it, and anchored in ten fathoms and waited for daylight. + +"Next morning some wind freshened off shore, and Moffat takes a nigger +and rows to the beach. There was only a light swell breaking on the +coral, and landing was easy. Moffat told the nigger to stay by the boat +while he took a look round. There was a bit of a coral beach with a pile +of high rocks at the ends of it, like pillars each side of a doorstep. +What was inside the island Moffat couldn't see, because at the back of +the beach was a wood. He said he heard a sound like a bird calling, but +he reckoned there wasn't a soul in that place. The schooner was riding +just off. He turned and was crunching his way up the coral with the idea +of looking for a way inside. He got to the trees, and then heard the +nigger shout in a fright. The black beggar was pushing out the boat. He +got in it too, and began rowing back to the schooner as if somebody was +coming after him. + +"Moffat yelled, and ran down to the surf, but the nigger kept right on. +There was Moffat up to his knees in the water, and in a fine state. The +boat reached the schooner--and now, thinks Moffat, there'll be trouble. +Do you know what happened though? For a little while nothing happened. +Then they began to haul in her cable. She upanchored and stood out. +That's a fact. Bill told me he felt pretty sick when he saw it. He +didn't like the look of it. He watched the schooner turn tail, and soon +she found more wind and got out of sight past the island, close-hauled. +He watched her dance past one of the piles of rocks till there was +nothing but empty sea behind the rock. Then his eye caught something +moving on the rock. Something moved round it out of his sight. He never +saw what it was. He wished he had. + +"Well, he had a pretty bad time. He couldn't find anyone on the island, +in a manner of speaking. But somebody was always going round a corner, +or behind a tree. He caught them out of the tail of his eye. He said it +was enough to get on a man's nerves the way that thing always just +wasn't there, whatever it was. 'Curse the goats,' Bill used to say to +himself. + +"One day Bill was strolling round figuring out what he could do to that +mulatto when he met him again, and then he found a sea cave. He went in. +It was a silly thing to do, because the way in was so low that he had to +crawl. But the cave was big enough inside for a music-hall. The walls +ran up into a vault, and the water came up to the bottom of the walls +nearly all round. The water was like a green light. A bright light came +up through the water, and the reflections were wriggling all over the +rocks, making them seem to shake. The water was like thick glass full of +light. He could see a long way down, but not to the bottom. While he was +looking at it the water heaved up quietly full three feet, and the +reflections on the walls faded. Then he saw the hole through which he +had crawled was gone. 'Now, Bill Moffat, you're in a regular mess,' he +says to himself. + +"He dived for the hole. But he never found that way out, and the funny +thing was he couldn't come to the top again. Bill saw it was a proper +case that time, and no more Sundays in Poplar. He was surprised to find +that the deeper he went the thinner the water was. It was thin and +clear, like electric light. He could see miles there, and down he kept +falling till he hit the bottom with a bang. It scared a lot of fishes, +and they flew up like birds. He looked up to see them go, and there was +the sun overhead, only it was like a bright round of green jelly, all +shaking. Bill found it was dead easy to breathe in water that was no +thicker than air, so he got up, brushed the sand off, and looked round. +A flock of fishes flew about him quite friendly, and as beautiful as +Amazon parrots. A big crab walked ahead, and Bill thought he had better +follow the crab. + +"He came to a path which was marked with shells, and at the end of the +path he saw the fore half of a ship up-ended. While he was looking at +it, somebody pushed the curtains from the hatchway, and came out, and +looked at him. 'Good lord, it's Davy Jones,' said Bill to himself. + +"'Hullo, Bill,' said Davy. 'Come in. Glad to see you, Bill. What a time +you've been.' + +"Moffat said that Davy wasn't a decent sight, having barnacles all over +his face. But he shook hands. 'You're hand is quite cold, Bill,' said +Davy. 'Did you lose your soul coming along? You nearly did that before, +Bill Moffat. You nearly did it that Christmas night off Ushant. I +thought you were coming then. But not you. But here you are at last all +right. Come in! Come in!' + +"Bill went inside with Davy. There was sea junk all over the place. 'I +find these things very handy, old chap,' said Davy to Bill, seeing he +was looking at them. 'It's good of you to send them down, though I don't +like the iron, for it won't stand the climate. See that old hat? It's a +Spanish admiral's. I clap it on, backwards, whenever I want to go +ashore.' + +"So they sat down, and yarned about old times, though Bill told me that +Davy seemed to remember people after everybody else had forgotten them, +which was confusing. 'Oh, yes,' Davy would say, 'old Johnson. Yes. He +used to talk of me in a rare way. He was a dog, was Johnson. I've heard +him, many a time. But he's changed since his ship came downstairs. He's +a better man. He's not so funny as he was.' + +"Then they had a pipe, and after a bit things began to drag. 'Come into +the garden, Bill,' said Davy. 'Come and have a look round.' + +"All round the garden Bill noticed the name-boards of ships nailed up. +Some of the names Bill knew, and some he didn't, being Spanish. 'What do +you think of my collection?' said Davy. 'Ever seen as fine a one? I lay +you never have!' + +"Then they came to a door. 'Come in,' said Davy. 'This is my locker. +Ever heard of my locker?' + +"Bill said it was pretty dark inside. Just light enough to see. But +there was only miles and miles of crab-pots, all set out in rows, with a +label on each. 'What do you think of that lot, Bill?' asked Davy. 'I +shall have to get larger premises soon.' Bill choked a bit, for the +place smelt stale and seaweedy. 'What's in the crab-pots, Davy?' said +Bill. + +"'Souls!' said Davy. 'But there's a lot of trash, though now and then I +get a good one. Here, now. See this? This is a fine one, though I +mustn't tell you where I got it. And people said he hadn't got one. But +I knew better, and there it is.' + +"But Bill couldn't see anything in the pots. He could only hear a +rustling, as if something was rubbing on the wicker, or a twittering. At +last Davy came to a new pot. 'Do you know who's in this one, Bill,' he +said. But Bill couldn't guess. 'Well, Bill, it's your soul, and a poorer +one I never see. It was hardly worth setting the pot for a soul like +that.' Then Davy began to shake the pot, and soon got wild. 'Here, where +the deuce has that soul gone,' he said, and put his ear to the bars. +Then he put the pot down and made a rush at Bill, to get it back; but +Bill jumped backwards, got through the door, ran through the house, +grabbed the admiral's cocked hat, and clapped it on backwards. Then he +shot out of the water at once, and found himself on the rocks outside +the cave, with the cocked hat still on his head. He's kept that hat ever +since, and money wouldn't buy it." + + * * * * * + +When I woke next morning it was like waking to a great occasion. The +tropic sun was blazing outside. The day seemed of a superior quality. An +old negress shuffled by my cabin door, through which was a peep of the +town across the harbour, and she had some necklaces of shells strung on +one skinny black arm and carried a basket of oranges on the other. I +jumped up, and bought all the oranges. A boat came to our gangway and +some of us went ashore. I don't know what a man feels like who is +released one fine day from imprisonment into the stream of his fellows, +but I should think he is first a little stunned, and afterwards becomes +like a child's balloon in a breeze. The people we had met in the Brazils +never laughed; and I myself had always felt that there we had been +watched and followed unseen, that something was there, watching us, +waiting its time, knowing well it could get us before we escaped. + +We were at last outside it and free. The anchorage of Bridgetown seemed +anarchic, after our level sombre experience, for the sea was a green +light, flashing and volatile, with white schooners driving upon it, +negroes shouting and laughing over the bulwarks, or frantically hauling +on the sheets. The rushing water was crowded with leaping boats, all +gaudily painted; and even the sunshine, moving rapidly on quivering +white sails and the white hulls buoyantly swinging, was a kind of +shaking laughter. Our negro boatmen sang as they rowed, when they were +not swearing at other boatmen. The world had got wine in its head. + +We went to the Ice House, and bought English beer. (Oh, the taste of +beer!) In the brisk and sunny streets there were English women, cool, +dainty, a little haughty, their dresses smelling of new linen, and they +were looking in at shop windows. We had got our feet down on home +pavements, and the streets had the newness and sparkle of holiday. "Hi, +cabby!" + +He drove us along coral roads, under cocoanut palms, and there were +golden hills (hills once more!) one way, and on the other hand was a +beach glowing like white fire, with a sea beyond of a blue that was +ultimate, profound, and as tense and as still as rapture. We came to a +hotel where there was stiff napery, with creases in it, on a breakfast +table. There was a silver coffee-pot. There was sweet-smelling and +crusty bread, butter in ice, and new milk. There was a heaped plate of +fruit. There was a crystal jug filled with cold water and sunshine, and +it threw a wavering light on the damask. + +We had some of everything. We ate for more than an hour, steadily. A man +could not have done it alone, and without shame. There was one superior +lady tourist, with grey curls on her cheeks and a face like doom, and +she sent for the manager, and asked if we were to breakfast there again. +She wanted to know. The Chief begged me, as the youngest of the party, +to go over and kiss her. But I pointed out that, seeing where we had +come from, and what we had suffered, it was the plain duty of any really +dear old soul to come over and kiss us on a morning like that. + + * * * * * + +In the afternoon we were aboard again, waiting for the Skipper to return +with the new orders. To what part of the world would the power in +Leadenhall Street now consign us? Sandy thought New Orleans; but we +could rule that out, for there was no cotton just then. Pensacola was +more likely, the Chief said, with a deck cargo of lumber for Hamburg. +That guess made the crowd glum. Winter in the Atlantic, she rolling her +heart out, and the timber that was level with the engine-room casing +groaning and straining at every roll--to dwell on that prospect was to +feel a cold draught out of the Valley of Shadows. + +Two nigger boys were overside, diving for coins. You threw a +coin--Brazil's nickel muck, a handful worth nothing--and it went below +oscillating, as though sentiently dodging the contorted and convulsive +figure of the boy diving after it. The transparency of the fathoms was +that of a denser air. When the sea was still, at the slack of the tides, +this tropic anchorage was not like water. You did not look upon it, but +into it, being hardly aware of its surface. It was surprising to see our +massive iron plates stand upright in it. We were still an ugly black +bulk, as we were on the ditch water of Swansea, but our sea wagon had +lost its look of squat heaviness. Even our iron ship was transmuted, +such was the lift and radiance of Barbados and its sea, into the +buoyancy of the unsubstantial stuff of that scene about us, the low +hills of greenish gold so delicate under the sky of malachite blue that +you doubted whether mortals could walk there. Bridgetown was between +those hills and the sea, a cluster of white cubes, with inconsequential +touches of scarlet, orange, and emerald. Beneath our keel was a boy who +might have been flying there. + +On one side of the town was a belt of coral beach. It was a-fire, and +the palms above the beach, with their secretive villas, and the +green-gold hills beyond, floated on that white glow. The sea below the +beach was an incandescent green; it might have been burning through +contact with the island. Then the sea spread down to us in areas of +opaque violet and blue, till in the neighbourhood of the ship it became +transparent and was but a denser atmosphere. You, in the hard and bitter +north, on the exposed summit of the world where Polaris glitters in the +forehead of a frozen god, hardly know what young and luscious stuff this +earth is, where the constant sun and tepid rains and salt air have +preserved its bloom and flush of abounding life. + +There came the Skipper's boat, he in his shore-going white ducks and +Panama hat in the stern sheets, his wallet in his hand. He knew that we +all looked at him with assumed indifference, when he stepped among us on +deck. That was his time to show he was the ship's master. He feigned +that we were not there. He turned to the chief mate: "All ready, Mr. +Brown?" "All ready, sir." Then the master walked slowly, knowing our +eyes were on his back, to his place aft, first going in to speak to the +Chief. The Chief came out some minutes after. "Tampa, boys," said he. +"Florida for phosphate, then home." + +That evening we were on our way, and turned inwards through the line of +the Caribbees, passing between the islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent, +high purple masses of rock, St. Lucia's mass ascending into cones. The +Skipper had been to most of the West Indian islands, and remembered +them, while I listened. We stood at the chart-room door, watching the +islands across the evening seas. The sun, just above the sharply dark +rim of ocean, touched the sea, and sank. A thin paring of silver moon +had the sky to itself. I went into the chart-room; and the old man who, +grim and sour as you might think him, mellows into confidential +friendliness when he has you to himself, spread his charts of the +Spanish Main under the yellow lamp, which was a slow pendulum as she +rolled, and he put his spectacles on his lean brown face, talked of +unfrequented cays, and of the negro islands, and debated which route we +should take. + +The fourth morning at breakfast-time, was a burning day, with a sky +almost cloudless, and a slow sea which had the surface of its rich blue +deeps shot with turquoise lights, while fields of saffron gulfweed +stained it; and we had, close over our port bow, the most beautiful +island in the world. It is useless to deny it, and to declare you know a +better island. Can't I see Jamaica now? I see it most plain. It descends +abruptly from the meridian, pinnacles and escarpments trembling in the +upper air with distance and delicate poise, and comes down in rolling +forests and steep verdant slopes, where facets of bare rock glitter, to +more leisurely open glades and knolls; and then, being not far from the +sea, drops in sheer cliffs to where the white combers pulse. It is a +jewel which smells like a flower. The "Capella" went close in till Port +Antonio under the Blue Mountains was plain, and though I could see the +few scattered houses, I could not see the narrow ledges where men could +stand in such a steep land. We crawled over the blue floor in which that +sea mountain is set, and cruised along, feeling very small, under the +various and towering shape. For long I watched it, declaring continually +that some day I must return. (And that is the greatest compliment a +traveller on his way home can pay to any spot on earth.) + +It faded as we drew northwards. Over seas to the north was a long low +stratum of permanent cloud, and beneath it was the faint presentiment of +Cuba. Still we were in the spell of the very halcyon weather of old +tales, with the world our own, though once this day there was a great +rain burst, and the "Capella" was lost in falling water, her syren +blaring. We neared the Cuban coast by the Isle of Pines, a pallid desert +shore, apparently treeless and parched. The next morning we came to the +western cape of the island, rounding it in company with a white island +schooner, its crew of toughs watching us from her shadeless deck; and +changed our course almost due north. + +Now we were in the Gulf of Mexico, and soon upset its notoriously +uncertain temper, for a "norther" met us and piped till it was a full +gale, end-on, and it kicked up a nasty sea which flung about the empty +"Capella" like a band-box. There was a night of it. Towards morning it +eased up, and I woke to a serene sunrise, and found we were in the pale +green water of coral soundings, with the Floridan pilot even then +standing in to us, his tug bearing centrally on its bridge a gilded +eagle with rampant wings. In a little while we were fast to the +quarantine quay at Mullet Island, detained as a yellow fever suspect. +The medical officers boarded us, ranged amidships the "Capella's" crowd +from the master down, and put in the mouth of each of us a thermometer; +and so for a time we stood ridiculously smoking glass cigarettes. One +stoker was put aside, for he had a temperature. Then into the cabins, +and the saloon, the forecastle, and into the holds, were put gallipots +of burning sulphur, and the doors were closed. We became a great and +dreadful stench; and I went ashore. + +There was a deserted beach of comminuted shells, its glare as bright as +snow in sunshine. It was littered with the relics of old wrecks, with +sea rubbish, and the carapaces of crabs. Beyond the beach was a +calcareous desert, with a scrub of palmetto and evergreen, and patches +of flowering coreopsis and blue squills. Hidden by the scrub were +shallow lagoons. It is hard to tell the sea from the land in warm and +aqueous Florida, for sea and land so invade each other's dominions. +Water and land were asleep in the sun. I was alone in the island, and +sat in a decaying boat by the shore of a lagoon where nothing moved but +the little crabs playing hide and seek in the moist crevices of the +boat, and the pelicans which sat round the interminable flat shores. +Sometimes the pelicans woke, and yawned, and fanned the heat with great +slow wings. + +In the early afternoon we were allowed to proceed to Tampa, which we +reached in three hours; and there we came once more to the press of the +busy and indifferent world. The muddle of roofs and steeples of a great +city were about us, and men met us and talked to us, but they had no +leisure for interest in the wonders of the strange land from which we +had come, and would not have cared if afterwards we were going to +Gehenna. We made fast under a new structure of timber and iron which was +something between a flour mill and the Tower of Babel, for it was wan +and powdered, and full of strange noises; and it had a habit of eating, +in a mechanical way, an interminable length of railway trucks, wagon +after wagon, one every minute. A great weariness and yearning filled me +that night. The strangulating fumes of the sulphur clung to all the +cabin, and puffed in clouds from the pillow when I changed sides; for +the wagons clanked and banged till daylight. I sat up and beat my +breast, and swore I would leave her and go home. The next morning that +inexplicable structure beside us began from many mouths to vomit floods +of powdered phosphate into us, and the "Capella," in and out, turned +pale through an almost impalpable dust. Everybody took bronchitis and +cursed Tampa and its phosphate. + +I spoke to the Skipper and the Chief about it, and they agreed that +nobody would stop with her now, who could leave her; but that yet was I +no pal to desert them. What about them? They had yet to see her safe +across the most ruthless of seas at a time when its temper would be at +its worst; and what about them? Though they admitted that, were they in +my case, they would certainly take the train to New York, and catch +there the fastest steamer for England. Then come with me to the British +Consul like an honest man, said I to the captain, and get me off your +articles. + +The three of us left her, I for the last time. I turned upon the +"Capella," and the boys stood leaning on her taffrail watching me; and I +am not going to put down here what I felt, nor what the lads cried to +me, nor what I said when I stood beneath her counter, and called up to +them. We came to a corner by a warehouse, and I turned to look upon the +"Capella" for the last time. + +Tampa, the noisy city about us, was rawly new, most of its site but +lately a shallow lagoon, and one of its natives, the ship's agent who +was entertaining us at lunch, did not fail to impress that enterprise +and industry upon us with great earnestness. Tampa was a large, hasty, +makeshift standing of depots, railway sidings, cigar factories, wharves, +and huge elevators which could load I forget how many thousands of tons +of bulk cargo into a steamer in twelve hours, as though she were an iron +bucket under a pump. A town spontaneous unexpected and complete, with a +hurrying population in its sidewalks, pushing to secure foothold in +life, and not a book-shop there, and no talk but in its saloons and +commercial exchanges. We went into many of those saloons, the Skipper, +and the Chief, and the late Purser, shaking hands for the last time in +each, and then dropping into another to recall old affairs; and shaking +hands finally again, and so to the next bar. + +That night I was alone in Tampa, with a torrent of urgent affairs +surging past. I could not find the railway station. Standing at a +corner, outside a tobacconist's shop, a huge corridor train shaped among +the lights of the street, trundled down the centre of the roadway, then +edged close to the sidewalk, bumping past a row of shops as casually as +a tram for a penny journey, and stopped just where I stood with a +hand-bag wondering how I was to get to New York. New York was a thousand +miles away. The train was but a mere episode of the open street, and I +could not feel it bore out the promise of my railway vouchers. This +train, a row of lighted villas in motion, came down the roadway, out of +nowhere, while carts and women with market baskets waited for it to +pass, stopped outside a tobacconist's shop, and the light of the shop +window illuminated a round of a huge wheel which stood higher than my +head. The wheel came to rest upon an abandoned newspaper. A negro was +passing me, and I stopped him. "Noo Yark? Step aboard right now!" His +word was all I had to go upon that this train would take me to the +precise point in a continent I did not know. A struggle for existence +eddied fiercely round the train, and assuming it was the right train, +and I missed it--it was an unbearable thought! The train had to be +mounted. It was like climbing a wall; but I would have cast my luggage, +scaled more than walls, and dealt conclusively with any obstruction if +the way home left me no other choice. The traveller who has been in the +wilds and has lived with the barbarous, though he has not allowed his +thoughts to look back there, yet he knows something of that eagerness +which dumb things feel when he turns about. I took my train on trust, as +one does so many things in the United States, found we should really get +to New York, in time, and lay listening to the beat of the flying wheels +beneath my berth; tried to count their pulse, and fell asleep. + +There were some more days and nights, and all the passengers of the +earlier stages of the journey had passed away. Then the train slowed +through imperceptible gradations, and stopped. I thought a cow was on +the line. But the negro attendant came to me and told me to get out. +This was New York. Outside there was a street in the rain, the stones +were deep with yellow reflections, and some cabmen stood about in shiny +capes. No majestic figure of Liberty met me. A cab met me, on a rainy +night. + + * * * * * + +It was on one of those huge liners, and the steward told him they would +reach Plymouth in the morning. He was packing up his things in his +cabin. England to-morrow! The things went into his trunks in the lump, +with a compressing foot after each. It did not matter. All the clothes +were in ruins. The only care he took was with the toucans brilliant +skins, the bundle of arrows, the biscuit tins full of butterflies--they +would excite the Boy--and the barbaric Indian ornaments for Miss Muffet +and the Curly Nob; how their eyes would shine. His telegram from +Plymouth would surprise them. They did not know where he was. + +But he knew, when they did not, that there was but one more day to tick +off the calendar to complete the exile. He had turned back that day to +the earlier pages of the diary and found some illuminating entries; +"Gone," or "That's another," were written across some spaces which +otherwise were blank. It was curious that those cryptic entries recalled +the hours they stood for more vividly to his mind than those which had +happenings minutely recorded. He threw the diary into a trunk; the long +job was finished. + +The sunshine all that day was different from the well remembered burning +weight of the tropics. It was a frail and grateful spring warmth, and +the incidence of its rays was happy and illuminating, as though the +light had only just reached the world, and so things looked just +discovered and interesting. A faint silver haze hung upon a pallid sea, +and the slow smooth mounds of water were full of fugitive glints and +flashes. You hardly knew the sea was there. The mist was the luminous +nimbus of a new world, a world not yet fully formed, for it had no +visible bounds. Night came, and a nearly full moon, and the only reality +was the stupendous bulk of the liner. She might have been in the clouds, +herself a dark cloud near the moon, with but rumours of light in the +aerial deeps beneath. It seemed another of the dreams. Would he wake up +presently to the reality of the forest, with the sun blazing on the +enamel of its hard foliage? + +He wanted some assurance of time and space. He would stay on deck till +the first sign came of England. So he leaned motionless for hours on the +rail of the boat-deck, gazing ahead, where the outlook remained as +unshapen as it had since he left home. Far on the port bow appeared the +headlight of a steamer. + +He watched that light. This, then, was no dream sea. Others were there. +But was it a headlight? ... No! + +The Bishop's! England now! + +The steward came again, peeping through his curtain, and said, +"Plymouth, sir!" and turned on the glow lamp, for it was not yet dawn. +There was an early breakfast laid in the saloon; but he went on deck. +The liner had hardly way on her; the water was but uncoiling noiselessly +alongside. There were shapes of hills near, with villas painted on them, +but so bluish and immaterial was all that it might have rippled like the +flat water, being but a flimsy background which could be easily shaken. +The hills drew nearer imperceptibly, grew higher. A touch of real day +gave a hill-top body; and there was a confident shout from somebody +unseen in plain English. The vision grounded and got substance. Not only +home, but spring in Devon. + +From the train window the countryside in the tones and flush of the +renascence absorbed him. He went from side to side of the carriage. What +was most extraordinary was the sparsity and lowness of the trees and +bushes, the fineness of the growth. The outlines of the trees could be +seen, and they crouched so near to the ground and were so very meagre. +The colours were faint enough to be but tinted mists. The biggest of the +trees were manageable, looked like toys. The orderly hedges, the clean +roads, the geometrical patterns of the fields, gave him assurance once +more of order and security. Here was law again, and the permanence of +affairs long decided upon. He closed his eyes, sinking into the cushions +of the carriage as though the arms under him were proved friendly and +could be trusted.... + +The slowing of the train woke him. They were running into Paddington. He +got his feet fair and solid on London before the train stopped, and +looked into the crowd waiting there. A flushed youngster ran towards him +out of a group, then stopped shyly. He caught The Boy, and held him +up.... Here again was the centre of the world. + + THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Sea and the Jungle, by H. M. Tomlinson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE *** + +***** This file should be named 37205.txt or 37205.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/2/0/37205/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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