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the weather been promising. His wish was to ascertain how he might
manage the boat, single-handed, while he slept, and also to learn the
extent of the shoals. As the extraordinary fertility of the crater
superseded the necessity of his labouring much to keep himself supplied
with food, he had formed a plan of cruising off the shoals, for days at
a time, in the hope of falling in with something that was passing, and
which might carry him back to the haunts of men. No vessel would or
could come in sight of the crater, so long as the existence of the reefs
was known; but the course steered by the Rancocus was a proof that ships
did occasionally pass in that quarter of the Pacific. Mark had indulged
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in no visionary hopes on this subject, for he knew he might keep in the
offing a twelvemonth and see nothing; but an additional twenty-four
hours might realize all his hopes.
The weather, however on this his first experiment, did not encourage him
to remain out the whole night. On the contrary, by the time the crater
was in sight, Mark thought he had not seen a more portentous-looking sky
since he had been on the Reef. There was a fiery redness in the
atmosphere that alarmed him, and he would have rejoiced to be at home,
in order to secure his stock within the crater. From the appearances, he
anticipated another tempest with its flood. It is true, it was not the
season when the last occurred, but the climate might admit of these
changes. The difference between summer and winter was very trifling on
that reef, and a hurricane, or a gale, was as likely to occur in the one
as in the other.
Just as the Bridget was passing the two buoys by which the ship-channel
had been marked, her sail flapped. This was a bad omen, for it betokened
a shift of wind, which rarely happened, unless it might be from six
months to six months, without being the precursor of some sort of a
storm. Mark was still two miles from the Reef, and the little wind there
was soon came ahead. Luckily, it was smooth water, and very little air
sufficed to force that light craft ahead, while there was usually a
current setting from that point towards the crater. The birds, moreover,
seemed uneasy, the air being filled with them, thousands flying over the
boat, around which they wheeled, screaming and apparently terrified. At
first Mark ascribed this unusual behaviour of his feathered neighbours
to the circumstance of their now seeing a boat for the commencement of
such an acquaintance; but, recollecting how often he had passed their
haunts, in the dingui, when they would hardly get out of the way, he
soon felt certain there must be another reason for this singular
conduct.
The sun went down in a bank of lurid fire, and the Bridget was still a
mile from the ship. A new apprehension now came over our hermit. Should
a tempest bring the wind violently from the westward, as was very likely
to be the case under actual circumstances, he might be driven out to
sea, and, did the little craft resist the waves, forced so far off as to
make him lose the Reef altogether. Then it was that Mark deeply felt how
much had been left him, by casting his lot on that beautiful and
luxuriant crater, instead of reducing him to those dregs of misery which
so many shipwrecked mariners are compelled to swallow! How much, or how
many of the blessings that he enjoyed on the Reef, would he not have
been willing to part with, that evening, in order to secure a safe
arrival at the side of the Rancocus! By the utmost care to profit by
every puff of air, and by handling the boat with the greatest skill,
this happy result was obtained, however, without any sacrifice.
About nine o'clock, and not sooner, the boat was well secured, and Mark
went into his cabin. Here he knelt and returned thanks to God, for his
safe return to a place that was getting to be as precious to him as the
love of life could render it. After this, tired with his day's work, the
young man got into his berth and endeavoured to sleep.
The fatigue of the day, notwithstanding the invigorating freshness of
the breeze, acted as an anodyne, and our young man soon forgot his
adventures and his boat, in profound slumbers. It was many hours ere
Mark awoke, and when he did, it was with a sense of suffocation. At
first he thought the ship had taken fire, a lurid light gleaming in at
the open door of the cabin, and he sprang to his feet in recollection of
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the danger he ran from the magazine, as well as from being burned. But
no cracking of flames reaching his ears, he dressed hastily and went out
on the poop. He had just reached this deck, when he felt the whole ship
tremble from her truck to her keel, and a rushing of water was heard on
all sides of him, as if a flood were coming. Hissing sounds were heard,
and streams of fire, and gleams of lurid light were seen in the air. It
was a terrible moment, and one that might well induce any man to imagine
that time was drawing to its close.
Mark Woolston now comprehended his situation, notwithstanding the
intense darkness which prevailed, except in those brief intervals of
lurid light. He had felt the shock of an earthquake, and the volcano had
suddenly become active. Smoke and ashes certainly filled the air, and
our poor hermit instinctively looked towards his crater, already so
verdant and lively, in the expectation of seeing it vomit flames.
Everything there was tranquil; the danger, if danger there was, was
assuredly more remote. But the murky vapour which rendered breathing
exceedingly difficult, also obstructed the view, and prevented his
seeing where the explosion really was. For a brief space our young man
fancied he must certainly be suffocated; but a shift of wind came, and
blew away the oppressive vapour, clearing the atmosphere of its
sulphurous and most offensive gases and odours. Never did feverish
tongue enjoy the cooling and healthful draught, more than Mark rejoiced
in this change. The wind had got back to its old quarter, and the air he
respired soon became pure and refreshing. Had the impure atmosphere
lasted ten minutes longer, Mark felt persuaded he could not have
breathed it with any safety.
The light was now most impatiently expected by our young man. The
minutes seemed to drag; but, at length, the usual signs of returning day
became apparent to him, and he got on the bowsprit of the ship, as if to
meet it in its approach. There he stood looking to the eastward, eager
to have ray after ray shoot into the firmament, when he was suddenly
struck with a change in that quarter of the ocean, which at once
proclaimed the power of the effort which the earth had made in its
subterranean throes. Naked rocks appeared in places where Mark was
certain water in abundance had existed a few hours before. The sea-wall,
directly ahead of the ship, and which never showed itself above the
surface more than two or three inches, in any part of it, and that only
at exceedingly neap tides, was now not only bare for a long distance,
but parts rose ten and fifteen feet above the surrounding sea. This
proved, at once, that the earthquake had thrust upward a vast surface
of the reef, completely altering the whole appearance of the shoal! In a
word, nature had made another effort, and islands had been created, as
it might be in the twinkling of an eye.
Mark was no sooner assured of this stupendous fact, than he hurried on
to the poop, in order to ascertain what changes had occurred in and
about the crater. It had been pushed upward, in common with all the
rocks for miles on every side of it, though without disturbing its
surface! By the computation of our young man, the Reef, which previously
lay about six feet above the level of the ocean, was now fully twenty, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]