A sweet but solitary beam,
An emanation from above,
Glimmers o’er life’s uncertain dream.
We hail that ray, and call it — Love.
The aborigines of Australia erect no dwellings of any kind. In wet weather or when a storm appears to be approaching they strip a few sheets of some kind of bark, which they rear up on the side towards the wind, supporting them by a sort of ridge-pole placed on two forked sticks driven into the earth. On the lee side of this they light their fire and then, creeping under the bark, lie both warm and dry enough, never seeking or wishing for any better habitation, as appears from the fact that those blacks who haunt the sea-coast, at any rate, might always find caverns and places sheltered by overhanging cliffs sufficient to lodge them most comfortably, but will not make any use of them whatever.
Whether it was owing to the previous seasoning Rashleigh had received in his life of hardship, or to the robust nature of his constitution, this rude mode of life, so different from any led by white men, even of the most abject poverty, did not do him the least injury; and our adventurer, recollecting the sufferings he had lately undergone, felt tolerably at ease even in the life of a savage. And knowing that he might expect death if he should fall again into the hands of his countrymen, he prepared to end his days with the blacks.
But about four years and a half after Rashleigh’s captivity, the ancient carandjie, his foster-father, died. He had been gradually getting more and more decrepit until for some time prior to his decease he had sunk into such a state of absolute torpor that his breathing could scarcely be discerned. During his last illness the whole tribe were most unremitting in their attentions, offering him portions of everything they procured as food; and when at length it became certain that he had ceased to exist such a peal of cries and yells of lamentations burst from all present, warriors as well as gins, as Rashleigh had never deemed possible for human throats to utter. He was somewhat shocked at one portion of the proceedings that followed, however; for a lusty black, who was ambitious of filling in the tribe the place that the deceased had so long occupied, now threw himself at full length upon the inanimate remains and applied his mouth to the dead man’s lips, appearing to inhale something very strongly for several moments. Shortly after this one of the gins, suddenly and as if by stealth, cut an incision with a sharp-pointed stone into gin, from which she hastily drew forth the kidneys, and throwing them upon the breast of the corpse, ran off, several of the other gins pursuing her, with loud cries and bitter reproaches, for a short distance; but all this seemed to be assumed anger, as the gin who had performed this operation returned in a few moments to the others, whom she mixed with, and they took no angry notice of her.
In the mean time the carandjie-elect took up the kidneys and very quickly stripped them of the small portion of shrivelled and yellow fat that disease had left appertaining to them. They were then replaced in the dead man’s intestines, the orifice being sewn up by Lorra with a length of kangaroo sinew and one of their bone needles. Gin was now rubbed all over with gum of the same kind as that which the blacks use instead of pitch for their canoes or weapons, and the head was decorated with parti-coloured feathers, stuck on the skull with the same adhesive material. After this the corpse was wrapped up in a new rug, or cloak, made of opossum skins, the fur being inside and the part that was exposed fancifully daubed with rude designs in coloured earths. A kind of stage or rude table being formed of green boughs, the deceased was laid upon it, a great number of little fires being made at a short distance upon every side in two rows, between which walked four warriors without arms, but bearing green boughs that they continued to wave over and around the body, at times running a few feet as if in pursuit of some imaginary object, and chanting a monotonous doleful sound. These watchers, or mourners, were occasionally relieved by others, who followed their example in all things; and this ceremonial was continued until the funeral, which was fixed for the next morning, as usual, at sunrise.
Several of the men now departed with the wooden paddles used by the gins, for the purpose of digging the grave. All that night the tribe were in commotion. None lay down to sleep. Nor was anything to be eaten until the conclusion of the obsequies from the death of the carandjie; but the fires being well maintained, some parties occasionally yelled forth their wild lament, while others danced or leaped, as it were in accompaniment to these rude sounds. The sable sextons having returned at dawn of day to announce that the grave was prepared, as soon as it became light the whole tribe were assembled. They were all unarmed, but frightfully smeared over their whole bodies with colours, of which white and red predominated; and all carried in one hand a shell, and in the other a green bough.
The body was now raised upon the stage, which was borne along by eight blacks, and Rashleigh could not help remarking as a singular coincidence that they also carry their dead feet first to the grave, which evidently was not accidental, as the corpse originally lay reversed; but the bearers, on taking it up, went round backwards until they had at length attained the proper position.
The instant that the march commenced, all the assembly, even the gins aNd children, began to cut, or at least to scratch, themselves with the shells they carried; and before they reached the grave the greater part of them were streaming with gore, as they seemed to vie with each other in the eagerness with which they inflicted these wounds in testimonial of their grief for the loss the tribe had sustained.
When the melancholy cavalcade arrived at their burial-place, which, like their council ground, commanded a view of the sea, Rashleigh perceived that it was a tract of open land very lightly timbered. The graves all appeared to be made near some tree, and there were several round a few of the largest. But what struck him as curious was that he had not observed the place before, though he must have passed either through it or at least very near it, and the more so because upon the nearest tree to each grave a portion of bark about two feet high and one foot wide had been removed, leaving the bare white trunk, on which the rude figure of a kangaroo, bandicoot, snake or bird of some kind had been carved, those trees that lay near more graves than one having a considerable portion of their rind stripped off and a corresponding number of emblems cut upon them.
The body was now laid upon the ground and a green bough placed in the right hand of the inanimate carandjie, which was drawn across his breast. Then every individual of the tribe, man, woman and child, walked round the corpse, making, as it seemed, a farewell obeisance to the departed ruler, repeating as they did so their wailings and gashes of sorrow. The pit, or grave, was about five feet square and eight feet deep. in its bottom four stout stakes had been set upright, and two poles leaned after the manner of skids on one side. When all the tribe had passed in review, the corpse was rested on the upper part of the skids, being held there by Rashleigh and the new carandjie. Exactly at sunrise they let go the arms of the body, which then slid gently down into its final resting-place. Sheets of bark were now fixed inside the upright stakes, the corpse being placed on its feet within the latter, leaning against one of the sides with its face turned towards the ocean; and many paddles being employed, the loose earth was quickly thrown in between the bark and the bank, which was trodden heavily in until it reached the level of the dead man’s head. All his customary weapons were now placed in the square pit that encompassed him, and it was covered up with another piece of bark, so that the corpse was, as it were, enclosed in a sort of cavity formed of the thick outer coat of the eucalyptus tree, which did not permit the earth to touch, much less to press it. A sufficient quantity of soil was now thrown on and over the whole so as to form a neat mound nearly three feet in height, which was beaten smooth with their paddles; and the whole ceremony was completed by the rude figure of a fish-hawk carved on the nearest tree, that being the emblem apparently suggested by the name of the deceased, which might be translated “the swooping warrior”.
Ralph Rashleigh viewed this whole ceremony with much the same degree of melancholy feelings that are apt to impress themselves on the minds of men when they are bereaved of some such humble friend as a dog or horse they value; for in spite of the service rendered to him by the old carandjie, who doubtless had saved his life, yet the form of this disgusting specimen of antiquity was so very revolting that our exile had much ado to consider him as being at all human. And yet it was no very long time before Rashleigh found that in him he had sustained the loss of a most powerful friend, who had hitherto controlled the savage humours of the males belonging to the tribe, who of themselves would have been now ready enough to mark their hatred of one every way so much superior to any of them by treacherously depriving him of life, if they could have divested themselves of the superstitious belief that haunted their minds, of the spirit of the departed carandjie being ever watchful and ready to avenge any injury which might be inflicted on his adopted white son.
A month had not elapsed from the funeral before these impressions seemed to be weakened, for Rashleigh was one day informed by the new chief, Terrawelo, that he must either resign the dead man’s two gins to him or fight for liberty to retain them. Now our exile had no desire to keep all three of the females; but the latter, having been treated very well by him, dreaded the idea of going to any of the blacks. Besides, the manner of the claimant indicated a kind of contemptuous superiority which Ralph had no notion of, seeing that he well knew his own muscular strength was greater than that of any warrior in the tribe. In fact, he had in sport wrestled with two of them at once, whom he overcame without much difficulty, because, though they look large in many instances, yet the aborigines of Australia are physically very weak.
Rashleigh told the chief at once that he intended to fight, according to the usage of these savages, which prescribes that if a man have two or more wives, any other who proves himself to be stronger or more expert at the use of their weapons than he may take all his gins away from him but one. The answer given by Terrawelo to this intimation was an attempted blow from his nullah nullah at Ralph’s head; but the latter, having been carefully watching the eyes of his opponent, dodged the threatened part on one side, and then, thrusting his head between Terrawelo’s legs, by that means threw the chief violently over his back to the ground; then, snatching up his fallen weapon, dealt the prostrate warrior such a blow that on its alighting on the black’s arm, which was held up to save his head, the limb was broken. Rashleigh was about to repeat tile stroke, but recovering from his fit of passion, he threw away the waddy and called out for the wounded man’s gin to help him away. Tumba here came up, and saying something about the chief being killed, attempted to secure the white man, who, after telling him in vain to keep off, struck him senseless to the earth and then went quietly away to his own fire, where neither Tumba nor the chief thought fit to molest him any more during the day, though ever after this all the blacks appeared both to fear and hate him. His gins dared not go with the others to fish or dig roots, because the latter never failed to beat them. In fact, the whole tribe seemed not only to shun but also to be bent upon playing all kinds of malevolent tricks towards him and them when they could do so with secrecy.
One night, about a week after this occurrence, Lorra appeared to be unusually silent and depressed. Prior to this period she used to be fond of chattering, generally enquiring about the manners, customs and dresses of white women, not one of whom she had ever seen, and she vented many childish exclamations of surprise at Rashleigh’s account of the costumes of ladies in his country as well as at the manner in which they passed their lives. Upon this evening, however, she scarcely spoke, but often glanced fearfully around. Ralph enquired what ailed her, but her only reply was a mute caress. At length they lay down side by side and our exile quickly went to sleep, but in a short time, as it appeared to him, was awakened by a piercing cry from his gin. On starting up, he found Lorra struggling with her old enemy Tumba. He was about to rush to her assistance, but she cried out, “Look behind you, Yaff; never mind Lorra.”
When he turned his head he saw the chief Terrawelo, who, it seems, taught by former experience to dread the white man’s strength, feared to come too close and was now shipping, or fixing, his second spear in his woomera, having already discharged one at his enemy, who, however, did not give him time to throw, for drawing the spent spear out of the earth in which it stood quivering, he rushed upon the black and pierced him in the abdomen with it, thrusting the weapon clean through his body and out beside his spine.
The cries of Lorra, which had hitherto been most terrific, were now subsiding into low moans; and Rashleigh, looking round, saw that Tumba was beating her, as she lay on the earth, with a nullah nullah which had a knob at its end, weighing at least ten pounds. Rashleigh stooped not to pick up a weapon, though many lay around, but darted at the cowardly miscreant, leaping as he got close so that his two feet alit in the centre of his opponent’s back, whom they of course drove head first to the ground, his club flying out of his hand as he fell. With a single blow of this, Ralph crushed the blackfellow’s skull into a shapeless mass and hastened to raise up the poor gin, who had just sufficient life remaining to endeavour to caress him before she breathed her last.
Our exile was so much enraged at this piteous sight that he absolutely became transported with fury; and seizing the club that still lay embedded in the brains of Tumba, who had not stirred from the moment he received the blow, Ralph now rushed like a raging maniac upon Terrawelo, who was by this time surrounded by his friends, who were deliberating on the propriety of withdrawing the spear from his wounds. But Rashleigh, unheeding a piercing cry from the fallen chief, at one blow of his heavy weapon dashed out his brains. Then, turning upon a warrior who had endeavoured to oppose his intention, he felled him also to the earth; nor was it until two others had shared the same fate that the enraged white man’s weapon, striking against the impending bough of a tree, hampered his exertions so that he was at length disarmed and secured.
Next morning he was brought as a prisoner for trial before the assembled tribe, the dead bodies of Terrawelo and Tumba being also laid before them, surrounded by their wailing gins and connexions. Rashleigh was asked why he had killed the two warriors.
He said, “There were three dead bodies last night. Why are there but two this morning?”
One of the warriors leaped up in a fury and cried, “The white man means, brothers, where is the body of his gin, as if he meant to say he had killed our chief and Tumba to revenge her death. Let my black brothers teach the pale stranger that they do not so far worship weak women as to hold that her fate could be any excuse for the fall of two brave warriors.”
Ralph then rejoined, “It is true. I killed Tumba and Terrawelo because they killed Lorra; but they had also tried to kill myself, which they would have done had not the poor gin lost her life to save mine.”
His opponent shouted scornfully, “You had better cry for your gin like a child. I should like to see the tears of a white man!”
“That you may do,” replied the object of this sarcasm, “provided you can make them flow. Unbind my hands, give me a nullah nullah, and try. . . . You will not? No! You are afraid! For you know well I would quickly make you weaker than a woman!”
An aged black here interposed to stop the progress of this scolding match, whispering something to the other, who appeared to acquiesce, and sat down. The senior next went round to all the older warriors, with whom he held a short parley in suppressed tones.
At last he returned to his seat, and after resting awhile, arose and said, “Pale stranger, you were once thrown out of the sea upon our fishing-ground. A wise man, who is not, but who had been a mighty warrior in his younger days, saw in your face the likeness of a son that had passed away. He saved your life. He made you into a warrior. For these things, which were very good, you have brought evil upon our tribe. Two stout men, who yesterday could have helped to defend us from our foes, have fallen by your hand . . . For all this, justice forbids us to take your life, because those that are gone endeavoured first to kill you before your club was lifted against them. But you may not stay here longer, lest the angry spirits of the departed take vengeance on the tribe for allowing you to live unpunished. Go then! Take your women, your dogs and your weapons. The land is wide. Dwell where you think fit, but come no more near our hunting-grounds . . . I have spoken. Do I say well, my brothers?”
The usual acquiescent grunt was given by all around, and the old man then went on, “Will you go then in peace and leave us?”
Rashleigh replied he would, adding sarcastically, “The sun is as hot and the fish are as fat in other parts as they are here!”
A sign was now made by the ancient orator, and Rashleigh’s bonds were loosened.
The old man, looking round, said, “If any of our black brethren do not like the decision of the old men, now that the pale stranger is free, let them attack him in the face of all the tribe and take better vengeance for the fallen on fair and equal terms.”
Two warriors jumped up at once, but the one who had taunted our adventurer claiming the precedence, it was agreed they should fight out their quarrel at noon, pending which Rashleigh retired to the fires of the surviving gins, whom he found wailing and cutting themselves over the body of poor Lorra, which they had laid out as well as they could without help, ready for interment.
Our exile resolved that he would not bury her lifeless remains near the tribe after what had passed, so he contrived a kind of hand-barrow; and placing the corpse upon it, he directed the two survivors to carry it northwards along the beach until they should arrive at an inlet which was generally looked on as the boundary of the fishing-ground belonging to this tribe. There they were to await his arrival, having also taken with them the dogs, their trifling stock of implements, as fishing-lines, etc., leaving nothing to our exile but his weapons, with which he grimly waited the appointed hour.
The shadows of the trees were at their feet when all the tribe assembled on their council ground, where the fight instantly began by Rashleigh’s opponent, as usual, offering his head to receive a blow of the white man’s weapon. But the latter sternly cried. “Have done with your foolery, for if you put your head in my way again, you will need no second blow.”
The black now began to make several feints of attack, while Ralph, offering at his head, struck him a violent blow upon his knee that was left unguarded, which felled him to the earth. The white man, observing that none came to aid the prostrate black, but rather seemed to expect that he should kill him, cried out, “Take the warrior away. I will not deprive your tribe of any more,” and left the spot for ever.
Our adventurer now pursued the path he had pointed out to his gins, whom he soon overtook, and giving them his weapons, relieved them of their melancholy burden, which he continued to carry the whole day in his arms, never stopping until night. His two sable companions at first expressed their grief by loud cries after the manner of their country, until Rashleigh at last bade them to be silent, in so stern a tone that they did not breathe another whisper until they halted in the evening, when Ralph told them to prepare a fire, and they departed chattering about their usual tasks. Enee went to fish, and very soon returned with a huge bonito which she had killed in a shoal place where it had been left by the receding tide. Some slices of this were prepared and the gins eagerly besought Rashleigh to eat; but his mind was too much oppressed by his recent loss, and he only begged of them to get their own suppers and go to sleep as quickly as possible.
Our adventurer spent a most melancholy night watching the lifeless remains of her who had loved him so truly through that portion of their life during which they had been acquainted that the intensity of her affection, as expressed by every gesture and even glance, might be more fitly compared to that which the olden pagans felt for their divinities than that which is known among mere mortals for each other. That she had at last fallen a victim to her love was also plain enough, for had Rashleigh first attacked Tumba, he might have been speared, but she would undoubtedly have been saved, and yet with generous self-devotion she hindered him from doing so, lest he should be pierced by Terrawelo’s weapon. “Alas, poor girl!” was Rashleigh’s involuntary exclamation, as he took his last glance of her next morning. “Though your skin was black as ebony, yet your heart was pure and true!”
A deep grave after the fashion of his native land, wrought with much labour by Rashleigh’s toil for many hours, received the cold body of poor Lorra, to which our exile mournfully paid all the last offices with his own hands, wrapping her in his best skin cloak and finally depositing her corpse upon an ample couch of silky grass within her narrow resting-place, which lay beside a murmuring rivulet at the foot of a pendant acacia that even now weeps the dews of heaven upon her last bed. And never were tears dropped of more sincere sorrow than those which our exile shed to the memory of this true and affectionate, though ignorant and artless being. He lay beside the grave all that day and night, and the next morning resumed his march along the beach, often looking back upon that spot where he felt that he had left all that was dear to him upon earth, the only female to whom himself was ever dear, except his sister and his mother.
As the tall ship, whose lofty prore
Shall never stem the billows more,
Deserted by her gallant band,
Amid the breakers lies astrand.
For nearly six months after his separation from the tribe with whom he had abode so long did Ralph Rashleigh pursue his course northward along the beach, only turning inland when the mouth of some wide river intervened, whose bank he then followed until it became narrow enough to cross it upon a catamaran or bark canoe, lodging at night under the cliffs, in caverns, or in the open air, as the weather dictated or as such conveniences were readily attained, and living chiefly upon fish caught by torchlight as the least troublesome mode of obtaining them, varied occasionally by a meal of cockles, oysters, limpets, or roots, if any such presented themselves.
He passed through many tribes of coast blacks, some of whose language he very imperfectly understood; but having assumed the character of a wandering carandjie, or doctor-priest, which his experience with his old black patron had sufficiently taught him how to sustain and to support by painted marks and other appliances on his person, he was never molested by any of the aborigines, who on the contrary always treated him with abundance of rude hospitality, suffering him to remain in their camps as long as he chose and to depart when he pleased, though they seldom failed to exert their utmost powers of persuasion to induce him to fix his abode among them altogether.
At length he reached the utmost north-eastern point of land on the coast of New Holland and just at the entrance of Torres straits. From the summit of a lofty mountain he could see many small islands, which he doubted not formed part of the Indian archipelago; and he fixed his longing eyes upon them as abodes of that civilization which he felt he was perhaps never more destined to enjoy. How ardently did he now wish for the assistance of some of his unfortunate boat companions, and reflected with bitter regret that if only Roberts had been spared, they might together have contrived some means of crossing the strait, which is not very wide in several places, though it is full of many intricate channels formed by adverse currents.
Rashleigh lay nearly the whole day upon this eminence, and only returned to the beach at nightfall, where he found the two gins, who were much alarmed at his absence. The next morning, having resumed their march, he was greatly surprised to see, at about a mile from the shore, the remains of a wrecked vessel which he had taken for a portion of the rocks on which she lay when he had been upon his elevated point of observation.
The tide was running out, the water was calm, but there was great danger from the sharks, that are very numerous in those seas, so that our adventurer feared to swim, and there was no wood at hand fit for making into a catamaran. But he explained to the gins his wish of reaching the wreck and dispatched them along the shore to look for any timbers that might have floated in, while he laid together all the fishing-lines they possessed into cordage, for the purpose of tying and securing the timbers of a raft.
After some delay, Tita, one of the gins, cooeed loudly to him from a considerable distance, making signs of surprise and lamentation. Rashleigh hastened to her side, and there he found one of the tops of the ill-fated vessel, with the remains of no less than four unfortunate persons lashed fast to it. They presented a most revolting sight, being in an advanced state of decomposition and washed by the salt waves ever and anon, that as they retired carried off portions of the flesh.
Nothing therefore could be done but to cut loose the fastenings that yet bound them to the frame they had so vainly put their trust in; and scraping a deep hole in the sand, the remains were thus inhumed together. But as Tita was turning over one of the corpses, the pocket of a pair of canvas trousers worn by the deceased gave way, and a considerable quantity of gold coin rolled on the beach, part of which went into the water. The gins were attracted by the glitter of these shining pieces of metal, and they collected all they could find before they would pay any attention to the requests of our exile, who wished to hasten with his sad task of performing the last offices of humanity to his unfortunate fellow-countrymen, and who looked upon money as being perfectly worthless to him in his present circumstances.
When this was performed they set to work, and with two strong booms that lay near, and the top, they quickly formed a raft of most respectable dimensions. Then, cutting out two rude paddles of some broken wood, Rashleigh gave one to each of the gins, reserving a long one for himself to steer with, and he thus put to sea with all his family, for the eight or nine curs that constantly followed either himself or the women would by no means be left behind on the present occasion, but leaped into the water and swam stoutly after them, until Ralph found they distracted the attention of Enee and Tita, who kept calling to and encouraging them, instead of plying their paddles, so that he at length told them to stop, and all the dogs were then placed on the catamaran, which, assisted by the ebbing tide, soon reached the wreck.
The ill-fated vessel appeared to have been of about five or six hundred tons burden. All her masts, her bulwarks and her forecastle had been totally carried away. In fact, not so much as a hen-coop had been left on her spar deck, which was clean swept by the violence of the gale, that also seemed to have nearly parted her in two a little abaft the main-chains. She lay canted, or leaning slightly, to one side in a sort of indentation upon the reef that upheld her as firmly as the stocks upon which she had been erected; and from her great height it appeared almost a hopeless task to think of getting on board of her, as the fury of the storm had torn away every particle of rope, so that no friendly end hung down, and the bowsprit being also swept off close to the head, neither bridle nor martingale remained that he could throw a rope over.
At length he bethought himself of a scheme. There was part of a stanchion left erect, belonging to the bulwark near the fore-chains, so, going under the lowermost side of the wreck, he took the cord he had made on shore, and fastening a stone to it that Enee used for a sinker to her fishing-line, he cast it over the stanchion after the manner of the lasso wielded by South American horsemen, hoping the stone might twist round the piece of wood and thus enable him to haul himself up by the cord. His attempts failed, and after repeating them until he was tired, he sat down in utter despair to try to invent some other plan.
Enee took up the rejected line, and laughing, said, “Me try now.”
Rashleigh only smiled; but the gin, coiling up the line in her left hand, swung the stone round her head two or three times, let it go with a peculiar jerk, and it was fast in an instant.
Our exile quickly ascended, and the only place that he could see open on the deck being the companion-way, he went down this into the principal cabin, where of course everything was in great confusion; but in one of the sleeping-berths he thought he heard a moaning sound, as of some human being in pain. He had some difficulty in opening the door which led to this apartment, but at length knocked out the panels with his tomahawk. Here upon a cot lay what he at first took to be merely a heap of clothing. He went over and then discovered it was in fact two females and a child, all three attenuated by famine and apparently dead.
In order to ascertain whether life had actually departed, Rashleigh gently turned over the nearest one to him. She feebly opened her eyes and emitted another of those piteous moans that had at first attracted our adventurer to the place. Yet, apparently exhausted as she was, a mother’s feelings prevailed over all others, for at the sight of the sooty-looking being that stood beside her, she shuddered convulsively and clasped the child more closely. There was something so exquisitely pathetic in the mutely imploring glance she gave our exile the next moment that quite melted him, and he burst into tears.
This was neither a time nor a place, however, for indulging in useless grief; so, after a moment’s thought, our adventurer returned to the main cabin, which he searched all over, and then went forward through an opening that he found in the bulkhead along the deck, which was empty, until he reached the sailors’ berths, where it was very dark, until by dint of hard labour he partly cut and partly broke up the hatchway. Here he soon found some wine and a keg of water, with which he returned, and picking up a whole tumbler that lay among a heap of rubbish in a corner, he mixed some wine, water and sugar together. Re-entering the sleeping-cabin where these poor creatures lay, he moistened the lips of each and soon had the gratification to find that all three lived. The child drank most eagerly and soon afterwards began to cry, “Mamma, Mamma, take black man away.”
The mother could only reply by a feeble embrace, but Rashleigh left their presence and returned to the main-deck, where he threw the end of a rope, which he took out of the sailors’ quarters, to his gins, bidding them make fast the raft to it and come on board. While they did this he anxiously gazed around to see what kind of weather seemed to promise for the night, as the day was now far advanced, and he wished to remain on board until morning, which would have been highly dangerous if it should come on to blow, as in that case the vessel must have gone to pieces at the furthest in four or five hours. Never had he before looked so anxiously at the horizon. But he could see nought that boded wind.
Being unwilling, however, in a matter of so much moment to rely solely upon his own judgment, as soon as Enee got upon the deck he asked what she thought the weather would be on the morrow. She looked round for an instant and replied, “Very hot day will be to-morrow.”
He then directed her to go below, and when Tita came up repeated his question. This gin took rather longer to scan the heavens; but at last she said, “That sun very saucy . . . Very much hot to-morrow;” which set Rashleigh’s mind at rest, for almost the smallest indications of a change in the weather are visible to these untutored children of nature, to whom the knowledge is in fact absolutely necessary, as they spend their whole lives in the open air.
Ralph now went once more below, where he found Enee examining all she saw with many an exclamation of wonder, and the child crying lustily for food. He set both the gins to work to make a fire in the cabin stove, which luckily was uninjured, and departed to discover some food if possible. After some research. he made shift to force his way into the hold, where among the cases, casks and hampers that formed the trifling cargo there was on board, a small place had been apparently formed as a kind of steward’s room. At least, from articles he found there fit for table and culinary purposes, that was the opinion our exile formed of the use of the little apartment, where, among other things, were some tins of preserved meat, fine biscuit, flour, sugar, etc., with some of which and a tea-kettle he returned to the cabin, where a good fire had been made by the gins out of the fragments of the broken door and articles of furniture that plentifully strewed the deck. The stove roared very much as the flames acquired power, and Enee and Tita were greatly afraid, as they thought the noise proceeded from something supernatural, until Rashleigh pointed out to them the smoke going astern out of a funnel pipe, to which he placed Enee’s ear, and bade her listen, telling her at the same time it was the pent-up smoke that made the noise. This seemed to remove their fear, and in a short time they willingly assisted in preparing a mess of weak soup with some biscuit broken up very small in it, which Rashleigh judged the most fitting food for the invalids, and of which they all very gratefully partook.
Our adventurer now resumed his researches, after having made a plentiful meal — the first in nearly five years — of European food, consisting of boiled salt beef, biscuit and tea, the only part of which that pleased Tita or Enee was biscuit soaked in tea, which they first saturated with sugar. Ralph next began to consider how he could get the rescued sufferers on shore, as it was plain they would not be able to help themselves in any way for some time, and every hour might be the last of the wreck. He at length determined on forming a large raft of all the hatches and gratings he could find, and of lowering the ladies with the child down to it in a cot, then to load it with anything he could get in the shape of provisions which it would contain and tow it to the shore.
All night himself and the gins worked at this. Fortunately they found a coil of coir rope of a small size, which made good lashings; and besides, it was moonlight. So after they had collected the whole of the movable articles they could find and placed them under the main hatchway, Enee lowered them down the vessel’s side to Rashleigh as fast as Tita handed them up to her. Our adventurer, placed on his own catamaran beneath the side of the wreck, received the materials as they came to him, selecting first the gratings which he intended for the lowest part of the new raft, and bound them as firmly together as possible by passing ropes between the bars over and under, across and athwart again, in every direction, until he had made a sort of floor about seven feet wide and more than twelve feet long. On this he bound another tier of gratings and lastly the hatches, with doors knocked off the cabins to make a level deck on the top of all. These last he secured by driving a nail or two here and there into them, Tita having found some nails and a hammer put up in a bag, where they had apparently been thrown after securing the hatches by their means in the storm.
It was just daylight when this undertaking was completed, and Rashleigh found, by throwing in some chips, that the tide was running out again; so he lay down to sleep for a while, after having attended to the wants of his invalid charges. When he awoke the sun was high in the heavens, and he began to fear he had slept too long; but on repeating his experiment, he was glad to perceive the tide was now set in strongly towards the shore. He therefore got a large cot on deck, lashed it fast to the only standing stanchion before referred to, and soon placed his rescued freight into it; for though he was obliged to carry the child and mother together, as they clung so closely one to the other that he could not have separated them without using force, yet both were scarcely so heavy as a good-sized infant.
Our adventurer eased them all down in the cot himself. They were received and placed on the raft by the gins, upon whom the feeble invalids appeared to gaze with much surprise. The fear of the child for their colour had apparently been overcome, probably because Rashleigh had fed it twice. A loading of useful articles having been soon made up, the gins took to their paddles and they all reached the shore in a very short time, near some beetling cliffs, selected by Ralph for that purpose from the prospect they afforded of shelter and concealment.
Having discovered a place where an impending rock formed a kind of roof, he disembarked the passengers by carrying the cot between himself and Tita. He then placed them beneath the shelter and transferred them to another more spacious resting-place, formed with sails which he had brought on shore with him. Lastly he put all his freight on the land and left it, together with the invalids, in charge of Enee, giving her directions as to supplying the latter with food, also how to make a signal in case any blacks should approach; although he deemed the last scarcely a possible contingency, as he had not seen the traces of any human footsteps for several days, nor were there any of the usual indications for miles along the coast that this part was frequented by any tribe whatever, which Rashleigh attributed to the nature of the surrounding soil, it being exceedingly dry and poor, without either swamps or dense thickets, which afford the most favourite food of the aborigines of Australia.
Rashleigh returned to the wreck and instituted a very strict search over it for articles that might be serviceable, in particular female apparel suitable to his charge, and provisions, of both which he found an ample supply. A desk placed in the main cabin contained a quantity of writing materials and a large sum in bills of exchange, both of which he also secured, far more for the sake of the former than of the latter. After these the only things he thought of any real value to them under their circumstances were some carpenters’ tools, fire-arms and ammunition.
The conveyance of these stores to the shore occupied Rashleigh and the gin Tita the whole of that day and a great part of the ensuing night, although they laboured unremittingly, as they observed indications of a storm. And they had not been upon the shore more than half an hour with their last freight before a tempest came on from the south-cast, accompanied with that low moaning sound which betokens the awakening of the mighty winds, that in a very short time covered the ocean with foam and gave great reason to our adventurer for heartfelt rejoicing at his singularly opportune arrival, because it now became evident that if his coming had been delayed but for thirty-six hours the wreck must have gone to pieces, and the poor sufferers been whelmed in the deep, even if they had survived any longer the assaults of famine, which had indeed obviously reduced them to the last gasp of existence when they were so fortunately relieved by Rashleigh.
Despite the roaring of the elemental war, our adventurer, who was quite worn out with fatigue, soon slept soundly, though not before he had satisfied himself by examination that their place of refuge was safe both from the waves and from the rain, which shortly began to fall in torrents. A sail hung up at the entrance secured them from the latter, even in case of a shift of wind, and the distance, not being less than 150 feet from high-water mark assured him they were out of reach of the former.
By daybreak next morning Rashleigh was on the beach. The rain and wind had both ceased, and all the surrounding country gratefully acknowledged the refreshing moisture. The ocean, however, presented the wildest scene of mountain billows our adventurer had ever witnessed. Around the reef that had proved so fatal to the ship, in particular, the wreaths of spray were foaming many yards up towards the sky. Ralph could not identify the exact spot on which the wreck had been, of which, however, he saw no vestige near the rocks where she had lain the day before; but many fragments that floated on the billows, and a few that strewed the shore, told too plainly what had been her fate.
For a week or more after this our exile occupied himself in forming a dwelling under the rock he had at first selected, which he resolved on retaining because he could find none superior in accommodation. Upon the one hand, it presented the double advantage of being open to the sea, so that they were enabled to see any passing vessel; while it was perfectly invisible, as well as inaccessible, from the shore, the only mode of approach being by a catamaran or boat, owing to projecting cliffs that stretched on either side, far into the sea.
As might have been expected, their habitation was both simple and rude, consisting only of the cave, along the exposed front of which our exile had set up stanchions picked up from the wreck. On these he had nailed boards derived from the same source. Thus he had formed a front and had contrived to afford air, light and entrance to the interior by fixing in it a door and four small sash windows, also procured from the cabins of the unfortunate vessel. For the floor of the interior they had the solid rock, which, if not very level, was at least very hard, and easily kept clean.
They had no lack of really necessary furniture, as all that had been in the cabins, with very slight exceptions, had either been brought by our exile or had washed on the beach after the wreck broke up. The domicile was divided, within, into three apartments, one of which, in the centre, comprising nearly as much space as both the others, contained the chief part of their stores, and was common to all parties. On either hand of this were the sleeping apartments, one appropriated to the invalids, the other to Rashleigh and the gins. Both the latter rooms were hung round with sails to cover the damp rocky sides of the cavern, and the partitions between the apartments were formed of the same articles.
In a few days the ladies recovered sufficiently to converse, and the first use they made of their organs of speech was to return the warmest thanks to their preserver. The child also was soon able to run about, and Rashleigh now learned with surprise that he was nearly seven years of age, though from his size the former scarcely thought it much more than as many months. Ralph also ascertained that the name of the ill-fated vessel had been the Tribune, which had brought out convicts from England, and was then bound in ballast for Calcutta, to which place these ladies were proceeding to join the husband of one of them, a Captain Marby, H.E.I.C.S. The other was her sister, and the little boy was the son of the Captain.
It appeared that a week or ten days (for the ladies had no means of telling exactly how long) before Rashleigh saw the wreck, the Tribune had struck very suddenly upon the reef. It was not blowing hard at the time, but both the females were confined to their cabin by sickness, and it appears the crew thought it too troublesome to make any effort for their safety, as the door could not easily be opened; and overpowered by alarm, the ladies heard them take to their boats, thus abandoning the wreck. The entrance to their sleeping apartment had become too firmly fixed when the ship struck for the unfortunate females to open it, and although driven frantic at the thought of the fate that awaited them, they exerted all their strength in ill-directed efforts; yet being without implements of any kind, the door defied all their attempts, which only exhausted their feeble frames, until at last they lay down to die in despair, where Rashleigh had so happily found them.
Many were the consultations held in the cave by the two ladies with Ralph as to the best mode of escaping from the inhospitable coast which formed their present retreat; but all ended in acquiescing with him that it was better for them to remain in the place of security they now occupied than to brave the labour and danger attending a journey of many hundred miles along the beach, exposed to the hostility or ill usage of the aborigines, from whom Rashleigh felt his assumed character of a carandjie or his personal strength might fail to prove a protection for so many women.
Their retreat being in the direct route pursued by vessels between Sydney and India, of which there were even then two or three at least passing annually, Rashleigh hoped it would riot be long before they might be relieved. And in order to attract the attention of any passing voyager he selected the point of a promontory that jutted out far into the sea, where he set up a post and hoisted upon it a union Jack reversed. Beside this post he or the gins every morning made a fire, hoping the smoke might excite observation, when the flag would show it was Europeans in distress that had caused it.
The mode of living pursued by the secluded party was at once simple and rather abstemious, at least as regarded the provisions rescued from the wreck, because they desired to make the latter hold out as long as possible. The only food in which they indulged unsparingly was fish, of which the ocean presented them an inexhaustible supply. There was a small spring of fresh water that oozed out of a joint in a neighbouring cliff, which by frugality sufficed for their wants. And they discovered a wild sort of spinach that grew luxuriously in a spot near their beacon, which they usually boiled in salt water or with a piece of salt meat, when they proved very palatable vegetables where none better could be obtained.
It may be here observed that Rashleigh did not allow the ladies to imagine he was aught beside what he seemed, an aboriginal native of New Holland, and he accounted to them for his knowledge of the English tongue and the appliances of civilized life by stating that he had been brought up from infancy until his twentieth year in the family of an eminent officer of the colonial government at Sydney, but that death having deprived him of his white protector, he had, like many others of his countrymen and women similarly bred, returned to the erratic life of a savage, the independence of which he preferred to the labour and restraint of civilized society. Our exile had carefully cautioned the gins not to betray the secret of his colour; and he confidently relied upon their secrecy, because they not only were really attached to him, but they also feared him for a superstitious reason as well as for his superiority in strength and his knowledge of all the rude arts practised by the savages.
This superstition arose from an idea very prevalent among these simple beings that all the whites who have made their appearance in Australia are animated by the spirits of departed blacks, so that when any aborigine sees a white person for the first time he or she will give the latter a native name derived from a fancied resemblance to some deceased member of their own tribe. In conformity with this absurd notion the ancient carandjie, on adopting our adventurer, had bestowed upon him the name of Bealla, which referred in a very distant manner to a peculiarity in the walk of one of the old chief’s sons, who had fallen in battle with a hostile tribe many years before. This is the nearest approach they ever dare to make towards recalling the memory of the dead, and this is never done except in cases like the present. The blacks also believe that persons thus adopted by them still possess all the knowledge they had acquired of native usages, besides skill in the arts of civilization derived from the whites, the former having remained to them since their previous state of existence; and they therefore generally hold them in great awe as persons who from their double attainments are able to know even the motives of actions and all things both past and present.
Several months passed away in a very monotonous manner to the inhabitants of the rocky retreat on the coast, the ladies chiefly amusing themselves by teaching the gins Enee and Tita the manners of white females, which the others learned with great avidity and soon became exceedingly partial to such dress as came within their reach, though the natural predilection of the savage still betrayed itself in their love of gaudy colours and their repugnance to any covering upon the head or feet. Rashleigh occupied himself in providing fuel or fish, in cleaning and arranging his unused arms, or at night in teaching the gins to read.
One day, in the eighth month of their sojourn here, our exile had walked up the beacon hill which commanded the view over a wide expanse of land and sea. At a considerable distance towards the north he saw the smoke of several fires, which he knew at once could proceed from none but blacks encamped. He therefore resolved that he would reconnoitre them more closely, as it was of great consequence he should ascertain their dispositions and intentions, in case they might become aware of the occupancy of the cliff.
He therefore did not make any fire on the hill and pulled down both the post and flag, so that it might not excite observation. He then returned to the cave and intimated cautiously to the ladies that there was a tribe of his countrymen at some distance, whose motions it was necessary that he should go and observe. A very affecting scene now ensued; for the mother, fearing for the safety of her child as well as that of herself and sister, with many tears implored our exile that he would neither betray nor desert them. The younger lady and the little boy also added their tears and entreaties, nor was it for some time that the earnest assurances of our exile could pacify them.
At nightfall Ralph lay aside the sailor’s dress which he had constantly worn since the wreck, and resumed the old, character of a carandjie, the only things he retained of European make being a double-barrelled gun, some ammunition and a pair of pistols concealed in his opossum-skin belt. It was several miles to the camp and our adventurer did not reach it until nearly morning. By the number of fires the tribe appeared to be numerous, and according to custom the disguised white man went straight to the fire belonging to the chief. He was unmolested in passing through the camp by the dogs, who, if awoke by his stealthy, springy step, only snuffled about him and slunk off in silence. The chief lay asleep and alone; so Rashleigh made up the fire, filled a pipe with tobacco, sat down and smoked in silence for some time. At last the savage awoke, and seeing as he judged a strange carandjie sitting by the fire eating smoke, he sat up and a conversation ensued.
“Is my brother carandjie hungry, that he devours the wind of the fire?” enquired the stranger black.
“I devour the fire wind to make me wise but not to satisfy my hunger,” replied the mock magician.
“Is the tribe of my brother far away?” was the next question.
“My fathers dwelt many moons’ joumey nearer to the rain than this,” returned Rashleigh. “But I wander through the land at my pleasure.”
“Does my brother,” now asked the strange chief, “travel so far without a gin to wait upon him?”
“A wise man waits on himself,” replied the sham carandjie with great solemnity . . . “But,” added he more briskly, “all the gins of the weakest are mine.”
“True, it is just,” assented the black. “But is not my brother lonely for want of company?”
“I need no company but my own thoughts, and the spirits of wise men that are departed, but who hover around us everywhere, ready to come if anyone is bold enough to call them,” returned the disguised white man.
At this the recumbent chief arose, casting a fearful glance around him as he did so. Then, having procured a quantity of dry fuel that lay close at hand, he put it on the fire, and by the glare that sprung up he looked long and earnestly at his untimely visitor. Rashleigh during this investigation refilled his pipe very calmly, adding a few grains of gunpowder to the tobacco.
At length the stranger remarked in a kind of awe-stricken whisper, “’Tis very true, our fathers have told us: the spirits of the dead are everywhere, but none of our tribe ever thought it safe to call on them. Do these fearful visitants never try to injure the hardy warrior that seeks their company?
“Be certain, oh my brother,” replied Ralph, “that not every carandjie can control the tempers of the dead. He, however, who can speak to them with words of fire need never fear aught they can do!”
At the moment the gunpowder in his pipe blazed up and formed such a striking commentary upon his words that he at once perceived he had attained his object in exacting a high degree of respect from his new acquaintance.
At daylight the camp was in commotion, for the warriors thronged around the strange carandjie, eager to learn the news respecting the movements of the tribes along the coast. Rashleigh told them all he knew; but as he expected, this was fresh to them, for they had not learned aught of it. In fact, the coast tribes rarely have any communication.
A hunt was proposed, when our adventurer displayed the power of his weapons to great advantage before these savages, who had never seen any fire-arms used before; and amid the drunkenness of a great feast that ensued in honour of our adventurer’s visit, he made his exit from among them unobserved, having gained his end of making an impression upon them that in case of a collision he knew would be highly advantageous to him.
Having gone part of his way in the salt water so as effectually to prevent the blacks from tracking him, he reached the cavern unmolested. But after this, as he wished not to excite their observation, he abstained from lighting a fire or hoisting his flag on the beacon bill, contenting himself with keeping a sharp look-out all day upon the sea. In his absence he deputed Enee to do so in his room, having given her instructions what to do in case any vessel should heave in sight.
For many weeks the tribe of blacks remained near the spot where Rashleigh had at first seen them, and during this period our exile paid them repeated visits, always taking care, however, to leave them in a sudden and mysterious manner, so that they could never trace him; which, with other arts used for this purpose, induced the savages at length to look upon him as being a very great magician, who could make himself invisible at will.
One night our exile, oppressed by anxiety at the flight of time without any means being afforded of his leaving the place he was in, had wandered to the top of a neighbouring eminence, from which, on looking in that direction, he was greatly surprised to observe that the blacks were holding a night council, which is never done among these people except in cases of great emergency. Stopping only therefore to prepare himself for his assumed character of a carandjie, our adventurer hastened towards the camp of the tribe, on approaching nearer to which he found the whole of the warriors, armed and equipped for fight, were engaged in the performance of that frightful war-dance with which they stimulate themselves to a pitch of ferocity prior to engaging in any arduous enterprise, accompanying their motions by an extemporaneous song all the while, which, referring to the past exploits of their most renowned warriors and magnifying their valorous deeds with more than eastern exaggeration, promised to exceed them all in acts of daring upon the present occasion. From expressions relating to their present purpose, made use of in this song, Rashleigh quickly found that there was a ship manned by white men in some sort of distress not far off, whose commander, foolishly thinking to purchase the goodwill of these treacherous savages, had treated them very kindly, making them large presents of glittering gew-gaws used in barter. Besides, which was greater folly than all, he had given them a portion of that bane to the uncivilized of all colours, rum, and this had stimulated them, for the sake of getting more, to seek his destruction.
After our exile had elicited this information from the terms of their savage song, taking an opportunity in the evolutions of the dance, he stepped forth from his place of concealment and placed his hand upon the shoulder of the chief before any eye had observed his approach.
“Hu!” cried the stranger with a start, as on turning he observed the mysterious carandjie; but added, though rather in a sulky tone, “My brother is welcome, if he comes as a friend.”
“Your lips speak words that are not in your heart,” replied the sham conjurer. “You do not wish me to be here lest I should defeat your intended attack on the white strangers’ big canoe!”
“My brother knows everything!” cried Tocalli in surprise. “But he will join with our tribe in plundering the pale rulers of the wind!”
“First tell me, oh Tocalli, whether you love your own people?” enquired the disguised white man.
“Why should the wise carandjie ask that?” demanded the chief. “He knows I do.”
“Then if you do, allow the white men to depart in peace. They have plenty of weapons, such as mine. If you conquer them many of your tribe must die. And what will happen to those that are left? Can you tell, oh Tocalli?”
The black shook his head, but answered nothing.
“Then I can! The fire-water of the white men will make them mad. They will drink till they fight, fight till they kill, and kill till none remain alive!”
“’Tis no matter!” cried Tocalli. “My brother speaks the words of a coward. He looks like a man, but his heart is that of a gin!”
In conversing thus, they had strayed close to die edge of the sea at a spot that Rashleigh knew, where some rocks lay that had moderately deep water beside them. Our exile, while the strange chief Tocalli was last speaking, had put a small quantity of powder in his pipe; and they walked upon the rock in silence for a second or two, when, the fire reaching it, the gunpowder exploded. While the blackfellow was dazzled and confounded, Rashleigh slipped into the tide and swam off as quietly as he could, making his way to a side of the bay, where, by the signs of his late companion, he understood that some goods belonging to the white men had been landed to lighten their distressed vessel.
It was some time after Ralph had reached the shore before he could find out the pile of stores; but at length he did so and concealed himself among them, anxiously waiting for morning in the hope that he might find some means of communicating to the seamen intelligence of the proposed attack of the blacks, and resolved, if he could do so by no other means, that he would swim off to the vessel, though the danger from sharks was so imminent that in that case it was but a chance he would ever reach it.
When morning dawned our exile could see that the big canoe spoken of by the blacks was, in reality, a schooner of about 150 tons burden, which had apparently got on shore on the point of a low sandy islet nearly two miles from the land. While he was yet gazing on her he saw two boats loaded with goods putting off from her side, which made for his place of concealment. The blacks were also all in motion, many of them pretending to fish along the shore, while a few others, among whom was Tocalli, walked loungingly up to the pile of stores. They were apparently unarmed; but Rashleigh could see that in the tufts of opossum skin that depended behind from his belt, each man bad a nullah nullah concealed.
The boats meantime had reached the shore, and a person who seemed to be the captain landing, Tocalli went up to him. The white man said, “Shake hands, chief,” offering his own to the savage for that purpose.
Rashleigh was so close to both that he could even see the malignant gleam of satisfaction that sparkled from Tocalli’s eye as he extended his left hand to the unsuspecting stranger, while his right hand sought the weapon with which he designed to immolate the white man on the spot.
In the mean time each of the savages had got close to one of the sailors. There was not an instant to be lost. Just as the black chief had drawn out his waddy, a bullet from the piece of our exile entered his brain, and he fell dead without a cry or a struggle.
Ralph, springing out of his hiding-place, called aloud, “Beware, white men, the treacherous rascals are going to murder you!”
The blacks had, in fact, each seized his man at a signal from Tocalli; but the sudden report of the gun, accompanied by his fall, so much amazed them that the sailors easily shook off their grips and hastily retreated to their boats.
The captain cried out to recall them; but Rashleigh recommended him to let them go for some arms, returning from the ship with all speed, as, so little had they dreamed of any danger from the savages, that not a man had brought so much as a pistol, and the greater part of the cargo was lying strewn close by their present position. In the mean time, the blacks, having recovered in some degree from their first affright, enraged at the death of their chief and being strengthened by many others of the stragglers, now rushed upon the white men with spears, boomerangs and clubs, of which they poured in a volley that knocked the captain and a sailor down. But the fall of one of their own number staggered them in their advance, and the discharge of both barrels of Rashleigh’s piece, together with his pistols, immediately afterwards completed their discomfiture, and they fled pell-mell to the nearest thicket.
It was now high water of a spring tide, and a stock of fire-arms being brought by the boat, her crew also reported to the captain the welcome intelligence that the schooner floated, needing nothing, as they believed, but a pull or two by the capstan on the anchor they had dropped ahead to heave her off altogether. The commander, who at present had not time to express either his thanks for or his amazement at the opportune assistance rendered by our adventurer, whom he knew not what to think of, unless he might be an angel in mourning, was now anxious to return on board with all the hands he could obtain to man the vessel for this purpose; and our adventurer volunteered his services, provided they would load and leave all the fire-arms they had brought with them, that he on his part would mount guard over the goods. The captain would not at first hear of this, saying that he would not for the sake of twenty times as much goods wish that harm should happen to the man who had saved all their lives. But Rashleigh, persisting in his request, absolutely refused to go on board the schooner with them, saying that he knew his countrymen too well to believe there could be any danger of their so soon attacking him after they were once fairly beaten off, but if they did, he could give them so warm a reception, having the means of twenty discharges, that they would quickly turn tail again. At length the captain returned with all his men to the schooner, and Ralph, having laid the fire-arms ready cocked upon a row of cases, paced to and fro in their front with a double-barrelled gun in his hand.
For some time not a sign nor a sound disturbed the solitude and silence of the lonely beach. The blacks all appeared to have retreated for good, and Rashleigh ventured to look round at last at the schooner, whence the song of the mariners heaving at the capstan now began faintly to reach his ear. For a few seconds the labour seemed ineffectual; but at length Rashleigh plainly saw her move. She appeared about to plunge into the water, when he received a spear in the leg, and several others rattled around him upon the various casks and packages that strewed the beach. Doubly vexed at his wound and the inattention that had permitted his enemies thus to surprise him, he looked around without at first being able to perceive from what quarter the attack emanated; but all at once he caught the glare of a human eye, fixed upon him from behind a sand-bank. In an instant his gun was at his shoulder; another, and he had pulled the trigger. The black at whom he fired, leaping up convulsively, fell dead upon the sand-bank, while another volley of spears, one of which passed through his shoulder, hurtled into the sand on every side of him.
Rashleigh now withdrew behind a cask, crouching down to pull the spear from his leg, and the blacks, deeming perhaps he had fallen by their last weapons, leaped up and came running towards him. Another of them fell in the advance; but now, inured to the noise of fire-arms, and their passions roused to fury, the survivors rushed upon Ralph, who had not time to pick up another musket, but clubbing his fowling-piece, defended himself with the butt end of it until one of his assailants got within the sweep of it and grappled him round the body. In a short time both were on the ground, with eyes flashing fire. They tugged and strained for the mastery, rolling over and over each other so quickly that more than one blow intended by his sable antagonists for the white man fell upon his unlucky opponent. At length something seemed to divert the attention of the blacks from the affray for an instant. Our adventurer was now uppermost, and drawing a pistol from his belt, he blew the skull off his struggling enemy. A few shots fired from an approaching boat drove away all the others.
The captain of the schooner landed a few moments after, and finding Rashleigh alive though much hurt and bleeding, he hastily but heartily congratulated him on his escape with life, insisting that he should forthwith go on board to have his wounds dressed by the steward. After this able medico had fulfilled his office, our exile learned that the schooner was the Sea Mew, of Sydney, which was returning from a trip of trade among the Fiji islands. Ralph now acquainted the captain with the circumstance of his having saved the ladies from the wreck of the Tribune, which the latter had heard of and had left at Timor Coupang a vessel that had been dispatched from New South Wales by Colonel Woodville, Mrs Marby’s father. in search of his daughters, who, with the child, had been reported as left on board the wreck by a party that had escaped after the Tribune struck and had made their way southwards along the coast until they arrived at Port Macquarie, then newly formed as a penal settlement. The commander of the Sea Mew was well pleased to hear of the safety of Mrs Marby and her sister, their father being much respected by all classes of the colonists, and the loss of his children having been a severe blow to the old gentleman. It was speedily arranged that as soon as the schooner could he reloaded she should go round to the other bay for the purpose of receiving the ladies; and as the depth of water where they were was now known to her commander, the vessel was enabled to stand in close to the shore, so that by the next morning all her cargo was reshipped, and in a very few hours the Sea Mew had anchored in the offing abreast of the cavern.
The condition of the ladies, who had been plunged into complete despair by the absence of Rashleigh, whom they looked up to as their only protector, and who were now almost intoxicated with joy at the prospect of a happy release from their gloomy place of confinement, may be more easily conceived than described.
Let it suffice to say that before evening the whole party, with all that was thought worth removal, had been transferred to the schooner, which weighed anchor about sunset with a favourable breeze and pursued her voyage to Sydney.
One, midst the forests of the west,
By a dark stream is laid ——
The indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.
The Sea Mew swiftly breasted the bounding billows, bearing the lost children to the arms of their sorrowing parent; but the thoughts of our exile, as he marked hill after hill of the coast that were so rapidly left behind him on his return but had cost him so much toil to pass upon his journey northward, were of a very foreboding cast.
“True,” thought he, “I may fairly claim sorne consideration from the Colonel for preserving the lives of his children and for restoring them to his embrace in safety and in honour. But is it likely that an officer so high in the service will deem that he can even owe thanks to a doubly convicted felon? Will it not appear to him to be his duty to give me up to the law for punishment, which cannot fail to award me an ignominious death as having participated in an act of piracy, for such no doubt they will call the seizure of the little boat, especially as it was attended with a resistance to the authorities of Newcastle that ended in the death of at least one commissioned officer in the army.”
At length he bethought himself that as all his boat companions were dead it would be impossible for anyone to prove he had ever been of their party, and as there were every day, generally, some prisoners running away from the limeburners, who for the most part either perished miserably in the bush of starvation or joined the blacks, why might he not be believed if he stated that he had absconded by land as so many others had done before him? This result appeared so probable, and in case it should prove to be true, the consequences so trifling, that he resolved to attempt this method of escaping from the difficulty of his position, as he knew that at the worst the period of his banishment to the Coal river having long since expired, the only punishment likely to be inflicted on him for absconding would be perhaps fifty lashes, when he would revert to the condition of an ordinary convict.
The day prior to that of their expected arrival at Sydney, Rashleigh sought an interview with Mrs Marby and acquainted her, after apologizing for not having told her the truth before, that he was, in fact, a runaway, and that he trusted, in consideration of his services to her, she would endeavour to prevail upon Colonel Woodville to use Ins interest in obtaining pardon from the Governor for his colonial offences.
The lady heard his tale with great surprise, though she remarked she had often wondered at his superior intelligence; but with ready female wit she added, “As you have deceived me and all that are on board this vessel, you may deceive many others into the belief you are really an aboriginal black. So, for fear the Colonel may not have the power to get you your liberty, I desire you will not perrnit any other person to share in the secret you have told me until I shall request it. For, to say the least of it, it would be such a dreadful thing that you should lose your freedom through saving our lives as I cannot bear to think of; and it were better for you to fly into the wildest bush again, there to persevere in the savage mode of life you have now become accustomed to, than that you should again be subject to the miseries you relate having suffered at the place you ran away from. At any rate, I will do my best to interest my father in your behalf; but until I can do this, pray remain black, although I should like to see what kind of a white man you would make!”
There was an air of truthfulness in this lady’s address which inspired Rashleigh with confidence, so he lay down to rest with a much lighter heart; and ere he awoke next morning the Sea Mew was running up the harbour of Port Jackson. To the surprise of Captain Bell, our exile, instead of dressing himself in the best European clothes he had got, stripped himself of those he then wore, and assuming the opossum cloak and other paraphernalia of a native warrior, caused Enee to paint his body and dress up his hair with grass and feathers before he went on shore.
Colonel Woodville, having been informed of the safe arrival of his daughters, sent a carriage for them to the wharf, himself being confined to his bed of sickness. Mrs Marby requested our adventurer to accompany them to his residence, and Rashleigh left the schooner, promising the captain, who was very loath to part with him, that he would soon return. The Colonel’s domestics, who idolized their young ladies and had understood the obligations they lay under to the sooty personage who followed them, received Rashleigh very cordially, welcoming him to the house, where they said it was their master’s order an apartment was to be provided for Bealla — the native name of our exile — and his two gins. The former, however, was rather puzzled and not a little annoyed at the absurd remarks that greeted his every word and action, proceeding from the female servants, who were not long in the Colony and appeared to consider a native black of Australia as only a higher sort of brute; and they were consequently much astonished to observe that Ralph knew the usages of civilized life, until he told them he had been bred in a white family, when their exclamations of surprise at his having again taken to the bush almost deafened him.
In the afternoon Mrs Marby sent for our exile and informed him that the joy of their meeting had so much overpowered the Colonel as to make him rather worse. She said she had therefore postponed until another day any mention of the real position of their deliverer, whom, however, their father was most anxious to see, that he might return thanks in person for those exertions that had preserved his daughters. The lady also offered Rashleigh money and begged of him to bring Tita and Enee home to their house, which she insisted none of them were to quit any more, as the Colonel had declared, while he had a shilling left, Bealla and his gins should have a portion of it.
Ralph returned thanks for all this kindness and promised next day to bring the two females with him. He declined to receive any money, however, as he had several pieces of gold in his belt, and besides, only intended to go back on board the Sea Mew for that night. He then took his leave and returned to the vessel, where he found Captain Bell eagerly awaiting his arrival, and Tita and Enee not less so, the latter being very impatient to display a whole milliner’s shop of finery, which the captain and crew had purchased for their use, and both these sable specimens of feminine loveliness were now arrayed in costume which, considering that expense had not been spared to make a show, and that the steward, who purveyed the “rigging”, as he called it, had endeavoured as closely as he could to copy the dress worn by Poll Blazer of Portsmouth point, had at least the merit, perhaps a questionable one, of being exceedingly original; though to judge from the extraordinary attitudes assumed by both Tita and Enee, the latter considered their pink silk bonnets with enormous green veils streaming behind them in the breeze — as Captain Bell swore, like the commodious broad pendant — and surmounted by a host of magnificent blue and white feathers, as being the very ne plus ultra of black elegance. A burst of uproarious laughter from Ralph, as he surveyed the extraordinary. garb of the gins, rather discomposed the majestic airs of the latter; but Captain Bell, taking their part against our adventurer, good-humouredly said that he only laughed to conceal his anger at not being able to cut such a dash himself, when Enee at once pulled off her bonnet and begged Bealla to put it on. Nor was it until Ralph promised to go and dress himself that the gin could he induced to desist in pressing that novel head-dress for a male upon his notice.
At length they, and the urgent entreaties of the sailors, induced Rashleigh to array himself once more in European clothing; and although he put on a pair of broad pink-striped seaman’s trousers and an anchor-patterned shirt, with a flowing handkerchief, and all else to correspond, he was scarcely fine enough for the fastidious taste of the crew, who, with their captain at their head, now insisted on the whole party adjourning to a public-house, known as the Old Black Dog, on the Rocks, where a separate room, two fiddlers and a proportionate number of nymphs of the pavé being engaged, the jovial mariners passed the night in having what they called “a jolly good spree”, the party not breaking up until an hour after sunrise next morning, when they were fairly dead beat.
Night after night the same sport was pursued by the crew, and they would fain have had both Rashleigh and the gins to accompany them; but the former often excused himself, and the latter, who now lived with the ladies at Colonel Woodville’s mansion, could not be induced to go among the females on the Rocks any more, for they had been quite frightened by a fight that took place the first night between two of the ladies, and they used to say, “White man sometimes pretty quiet, but white woman big devil when they drink fire-water.”
It was nearly a month before Colonel Woodville recovered sufficiently to see our adventurer. When he did so he returned his warmest thanks to him as the preserver of three beings so dear to him that he declared he felt as if he could not have survived their loss. And the old gentleman, moved even to tears, on concluding, said, “Now, Bealla, if there’s anything in the world I can do for you, you have only got to name it. At any rate, you will always stop here, and I will take care neither you nor yours shall ever want.”
Rashleigh was much affected, and on looking to Mrs Marby, who was present, he thought he read in that lady’s eye permission to tell his true history to her father. So he said, “I hope, Colonel Woodville, for your daughter’s sake, you will pardon my having attempted to deceive you, for it was Mrs Marby that desired me to wait your recovery before I sought to make you acquainted with my true position. You see before you, Colonel, a runaway convict, one driven to abscond by such sufferings as rarely fall to the lot of human beings, but whose colonial career, at least, has been unstained by the commission of any crime, save that of attempting his escape from too galling a servitude.”
Colonel Woodville looked with amazement upon our exile, but spoke not for several minutes. At length he said, “I never felt until now how hard it may become to perform a duty. Still, hard though it be, it must be done. So long as I thought you to be unstained by crime, my home and all its comforts were free to you; but now that you have yourself avowed you are a fugitive criminal, I have but one course to adopt.”
Mrs Marby here stopped her father’s hand as he was about to ring the bell, saying in tones of the deepest emotion. “Oh papa, what are you about to do?”
“My duty, child, to give the runaway up,” replied her father, almost as much agitated as his daughter.
“What! Because he has saved all our lives and confided in your generosity, will you hand him back to those cruel beings that tortured him nearly to death before? Fly, Rashleigh! Seek the bush again! There you can live and there you must strive to forget the ingratitude of your countrymen; but if ever I can help you, you shall not reproach a woman with ingratitude.”
“No, lady!” replied our exile. “I do not blame the Colonel, for I know he is only about to do his duty. But I trust, if he should find what I have stated respecting my colonial career being free from crime is true, that he will intercede to prevent my being again sent back to the horrid scenes which I absconded to avoid.”
The Colonel had sunk into a seat. His head was buried in his hands. He said, “Neither man nor woman before could ever accuse Hugh Woodville of ingratitude. And you, Lucy, know not how you have wrung your father’s heart. But listen to me,” he added, seeing Mrs Marby about to speak, “I will do all and more than Rashleigh requests. A strict investigation shall take place into his colonial history; and if I find he is not all corrupt, I will exert my interest to procure his freedom.”
“That’s spoken like my own papa!” said the lady, embracing her sire. “And I am sure from Rashleigh’s conduct towards two helpless women that he will be proved to merit your interference.”
It was now decided that next morning the Colonel should wait upon the chief convict officer, to whom he was to speak on Ralph’s behalf, the latter giving himself up at the same time, while Mrs Marby, her sister, and son were to solicit an audience from the Governor and acquaint him with their rescue.
About ten o’clock the next forenoon, our exile repaired to Hyde Park Barracks, where in a little while Colonel Woodville arrived on horseback. In a short time the former was summoned into the presence of the head of his department, who, with ill-subdued austerity, questioned him as to where he had spent his servitude, and being replied to, Mr H. ordered an attending official to bring that volume of the records of convicts’ punishmerit which contained the letter “R”.
On opening this huge and melancholy tome, the chief enquired what ship our exile had arrived in the Colony by, and being answered, he turned over the leaves muttering, “Ralph Rashleigh, per Magnet . . . Um . . . Aye, here he is . . . First offence, absconding and robbery, sentenced death, respited . . . Hum . . . Newcastle, three years . . . Hum . . . Aye . . . How many times did you get punished at Newcastle?” addressing our adventurer.
“Nine times, sir,” replied Ralph.
“Hum . . . A troublesome fellow, I’ll be bound. How many robberies did you commit while you were in the bush?”
“Not one, sir,” answered the accused.
“Oh, of course not,” remarked the haughty official with a sneer. “But how did you live then?”
Rashleigh here related the circumstances attending his first meeting with Foxley and made much the same defence as he had done at his trial.
“A very pretty and well-got-up story, indeed!” observed the great man. “Now, sir, can you bring any tittle of evidence that you have spoken the truth?”
Rashleigh related what had happened at Shanavan’s and mentioned how Mrs McGuffin had interfered on his behalf.
Colonel Woodville paid the greatest attention to all that passed. He took down Shanavan’s direction, saying that he would go thither and ascertain the truth of this statement, while the Superintendent of Convicts engaged to write to Newcastle forthwith in order to see under what circumstances our exile had absconded.
Rashleigh was now ordered to be strictly confined; but the Colonel interceded to prevent this, saying, “He came to me of his own accord yesterday, Mr H., and told me his tale, which I rather think is true. So I cannot believe he will run away any more, and I wish therefore you would oblige me by treating him well until these enquiries are made.”
This was courteously complied with by the great officer, who fully marked his estimation of the wide difference between a colonel and a convict by exhibiting as much fawning servility towards the former as he displayed haughty scorn to the latter. Our adventurer went among the other prisoners in the barrack yard, who all, taking him for a negro, a race that was rather scarce at that period in the Colony, began to play an manner of tricks with him, having christened him “Sambo”. And they annoyed him so much that at length in self-defence he thrashed two or three of the foremost.
The same evening Colonel Woodville’s footman was sent by his young lady to acquaint our exile that His Excellency had received them very kindly but would promise nothing in his behalf until his colonial character could he ascertained. Mrs Marby requested that her preserver — for so she still called our convict — would keep up his spirits, as he should not be forgotten by her, in proof of which she sent him an ample supply of money and directed if he required anything that he should send to her for it. Rashleigh was very grateful and requested the man to bring him some nitrous ether from a chemist’s shop, with two or three other compounds; and having procured these, he set himself sedulously to work to remove the now useless disguise of his sable skin.
The application of the lotion he had mixed caused the skin to peel off; so that the morning after he had first put it on, the outer coat that had been stained black was all hanging in rags on every part of him, to the great amazement of his convict companions, who now called him the piebald man. And it was fully a week before his person had resumed its former appearance, when the newly-formed cuticle, though extremely tender at first, appeared to him much more delicate and pure than ever he could recollect it to have been before; and it produced such a youthful effect in his appearance as quite surprised him when he looked at his face in a mirror.
Ten days had elapsed, during which our exile continually received. kind messages from Mrs Marby and her sister but began to sigh for even savage freedom, when one bright morning, the brightest indeed that had ever beamed for Ralph Rashleigh in New South Wales, Colonel Woodville rode into Hyde Park Barracks, and directly after the name of our adventurer was lustily shouted by the boatswain of the yard.
He was ushered once more into the office of the Chief Superintendent, who stared at him for a moment and then said, “Who are you, sir?”
“Ralph Rashleigh, sir,” was the reply.
At the sound of the voice the Colonel burst out laughing and said, “I am sure, so strong are first impressions, I always expected to see you black! And I can hardly be sure it is the same man now that saved my daughters.”
The Superintendent then said, using rather a kinder tone than customary while addressing a convict, “You may thank Colonel Woodville all the days of your life, and you ought to serve him very faithfully, for he has saved you from going back to the Coal river to finish your sentence there, and you are now assigned to him for the present.”
The Colonel here remarked that was all the favour he could as yet obtain from the Governor for our exile, and a promise, if the latter behaved himself well for one year, that he should be recommended to the home government for a pardon.
Rashleigh was now directed to repair to the house of the Colonel; but the latter requested he would await his arrival ere he saw Mrs Marby, as he had a desire to be present at the first interview of his daughter with one whom she had always known as a black, but who was now turned white.
In compliance with this request, it was three o’clock before Ralph was sent for to the drawing-room. having spent the intermediate hours in the apartment of the stewards, who had by the Colonel’s command provided him with a respectable suit of clothes.
Mrs Marby, her son and sister were seated with their father when the latter sent for Rashleigh, and on his entrance the Colonel said, “Ladies, permit me to introduce my new servant to you.”
Mrs Marby looked at the stranger — so did the others — then at the old gentleman, who smiled and said, “Have you no tongue, sire. Pray, what’s your name?”
Our exile felt that he must look simple enough, so he merely replied, “Ralph Rashleigh, sir.”
At the sound of his voice the little boy ran to him and sought his favourite resting-place in our adventurer’s arms. But the ladies absolutely screamed with surprise, while Mrs Marby remarked, “Well, to be sure, it ought not to excite any surprise in us that you have resumed your natural colour again. And yet I shall always think of my preserver as a black man, such is the power of habit. However, black or white, you are welcome, for I am certain you will prove to my papa that my good opinion of you was well founded.”
“I do not doubt it, Lucy,” here observed the Colonel, “for I have heard another excellent account of his conduct in trying to save a poor girl from destruction. And I cannot believe that a person who is amenable to such generous impulses as have prompted Rashleigh can possess a corrupt heart!”
“Well, well, let us hope all our troubles are over now,” exclaimed Mrs Marby. “Rashleigh shall go and be overseer on my farm at the Hawkesbury and for his wages shall have half the profits of the land. Will that satisfy you?” turning to our exile, who of course thanked her for so liberal an offer.
One thing rather surprised our adventurer, and that was neither Tita nor Enee could ever be brought to treat him with any familiarity after his metamorphosis; for though they had seen him as a white man once before, yet suffering and toil had then so much embrowned his complexion that it differed but little from the hue he had so long borrowed. His attempts to enter into conversation in the native tongue with either were ever after repulsed with distant respect, and though he saw them repeatedly in subsequent years and sometimes playfully addressed them in aboriginal terms of endearment, they would resist all his attempts to lead them into any lengthened converse, generally saying, “You white gentleman now. No more blackfellow!” and depart to attend upon their mistresses, in whose service both still remain, though Mrs Marby now resides in India, and Miss Woodville in England.
Shortly after our adventurer’s liberation from Hyde Park Barracks, he went to take charge of an estate on the Hawkesbury, the property of the former lady, and having received a conditional pardon for his services to her and her sister, in a few years removed to New England, then a recently opened pastoral country. The attention of the Australian settlers having been more directed to sheep-farming than before, Captain Marby had purchased some sheep, and Rashleigh was retained to manage them.
The sufferings of his early career in the Colony produced such an effect of reformation in his mind that he was ever after respected as a man of scrupulous integrity by all that knew him, who united sincerely in lamenting his premature death, which took place in 1844 after the following manner.
A party of hostile aborigines had been long committing depredations on the flocks of the squatters near Beardie Plains, and Rashleigh chanced to be visiting a friend there on an occasion when a breathless messenger entered to acquaint the latter that one of his shepherds had been killed and the flock driven off by the blacks. The two superintendents mounted their horses and galloped away in pursuit. It was nearly sunset ere they overtook the marauding party, who were encamped, having penned up the sheep in a rude stockyard formed of houghs. The sable plunderers instantly took to flight on the appearance of the horsemen, who proceeded to drive the flock homewards; but as they passed a dense thicket, the native war-whoop sounded as the prelude to a volley of spears, seven of which piercing the unfortunate Rashleigh, he fell from his horse and could only urge his friend to fly and save his life ere he died. His companion galloped off to the nearest station and returned as quickly as possible to the spot; but the unhappy Ralph had long been dead, his remains having been cruelly maltreated by these bloodthirsty barbarians, whom the mock philanthropy of the age characterises as inoffensive and injured beings.
Reader, the corpse of the exile slumbers in peace on the banks of the Barwon, far from his native land. Let us hope that his sufferings and untimely death, alas, have expiated the errors of his early years.
The End