ADVENTURES OF JOHN RENTON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4571, 13 November 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

ADVENTURES OF JOHN RENTON.

No. 11. The capture of the shark supplied one of the things necessary to avert the destruction which had so nearly overwhelmed the crew of the boat. A few blows with the butt of an oar quickly despatched the fish, but its bulk and weight rendered it impossible for them in their exhausted state to get it into the boat. They secured it alongside, however, and labored by turns at cutting the flesh off it. The meat they cut into thin strips, and laid on the thwarts, &0., to dry in the sun. Before, however, setting down to steady labor at this, they hastened to appease their irrepressible immediate cravings. One or two, unable to hold out even a moment, seized the first morsels and greedily tore at them, reeking from the carcase. Others broke up the biscuit box and kindled a fire in the fryingpan, under which they placed a blanket saturated with seawater, to prevent the boat from burning. On this fire they broiled morsels, and indulged in the first meal they had enjoyed for days. Before evening they had sufficiently reduced the weight of the carcase to be enabled, by cutting off the head, to haul the remainder on board. They had worked the more zealously that the continued calms appeared about to terminate, and rising clouds threatened another gale.. They watched the approach of the clouds with mingled hope and apprehension; hope that they might be blessed with rain, for the tortures of thirst seemed to be increased by having eaten, and apprehension lest in their weakened state they should prove incapable of exertions such as the former gale had necessitated, and that they should perish just as fortune had appeared disposed to favor them. Their luck, however, had taken a decided turn. The night, indeed, brought a sky so overcast that they once more were compelled to head the boat wherever chance directed, but the breeze was no more than fresh, and it rained in torrents. They struck their sails and spread them so as to catch as much water as possible. As the drops fell from the clouds they turned upwards their faces, and caught what precious moisture they could in their parched mouths. A few moments, however, sufficed to saturate everything and fill the belly of the spread sails with water, and they quenched with repeated draughts their long-continued torments. In a very brief time they had filled both their kegs, and the sails held all that their adjustments would permit. The clouds, however, passed over before morning ; and as the water gradually escaped through the thin canvas, and the breeze was fair, they drank their fill, and again setting sails, slammed along in better plight than they had been since starting. Their suspense was, however, still most painful. The manner in which they had beeudriven about on the ocean had left them entirely confused as to their position. They had been driven about till they feared they might be not only entirely out of the course they had intended to follow, but perhaps too distant from any land to be able to reach it after all. The shark’s flesh proved also anything but grateful to men reduced so low as they had been, and after they had broken up every plank which could be made use of without injury to the actual strength of the boat, and had used them as fuel, they were compelled to devour the sun-dried meat raw. With regard to water they wei’e, after the first showex", particularly well off. The weather proved unsettled, without being boisterous, and it rained frequently. The moisture, however, greatly damaged the dried shark’s flesh, which commenced to putrify and become more repulsive. Their condition consequently was still extremely critical, as they became weaker every day. Each day brought its hopes and disappointments, and, after more than a week had elapsed since the capture of the shark, the boat was still a solitary speck on the unbroken expanse of the ocean. The night of the thirty-fourth day since leaving the ship passed dismally. It poured with rain, and the unfortunate men lay about the boat shivering and sleeping, except Benton, who was steering. As morning broke, the clouds began to lift, and he gazed as usual round the horizon as the light flickered up in the east. The boat was running steadily before the wind, and clouds hid the sky at the horizon ahead. Astern the weather was lifting, and a strip of clear sky speckled with straggling clouds showed under the denser bank overhead. The line where sky and ocean met was bright with the first rays of the coming sun, and studded with the fringed or solid edges of the last followers of the retreating rain clouds. He scanned each dark line with an interest none the less keen for all the disappointments such observations had inflicted day after day, and for the fiftieth time imagined some line more sharply defined than the rest must be land. Too often already they had turned the boat’s head to some such mirage, and wasted weary hours in pursuit of a shadow, even exhausted as they were rowing for half-a-day at a time after what proved to be but a a cloud, and he hesitated now. As the light increased, however, his hopes strengthened. The dark speck upon which his eyes were fixed, instead of altering its shape or fading away, continued unchanged in form, and momentarily became more sharply defined. Calling his companions to look, he directed their attention to the object which had attracted his notice. All gazed eagerly and searchingly. Some thought it but a similar deception to the many which had already misled them; but it was after all like a straw to drowning men, worth trying for. Ignorant of their position on the ocean’s face, it mattered little whither they voyaged now. The distant object was on the quarter, and they were increasing their distance every moment. Had the clouds not lifted as the morning broke, they would not have seen the thing at all; had the rain continued even but half-an-hour longer, it would have been out of sight before the sky cleared. The boat’s head was turned round, and before a light and variable breeze they slowly slid over the water in nearly the opposite direction to that which they had been pursuing. From time to time a shower would interpose between them and the horizon, and shut out their view altogether, and then their hopes would sink into despondency. After one of these interruptions, however, which had lasted longer than usual, and had been accompanied by a brisk blast which (hove the boat swiftly through the water, when the horizon again cleared, their doubts were passed. It was land beyond all question ! Some wept, some nearly went mad, and some prayed. They had survived thirty-four days, and here was salvation. But the clouds passed away, and it fell calm. They were appallingly weak, and, if they wished to live, must row to the distant shore. From the heighths of elation they sank to despondent forebodings. Their strength would prove insufficient. Currents must be sweeping them back, their progress was so slow. A gale might arise in the night and carry them out of sight of the long-looked for goal, never to see it again. All the long day they strained faintly at the oars, but when night fell it seemed scarcely nearer than before, and they were utterly worn out. They hoisted their sails and courted such light whiffs of air as might ruffle tho surface of the sea. After nightfall, however, a slight breezo sprung up, and kept the boat moving at a fair speed in the desired direction, although the stars were their only guide. At the first peep of day every man was eagerly endeavoring to penetrate the darkness and know his fate. Before the sun rose they saw before them high land, which trended away out of sight on either hand. Whether island or continent they could not tell. They scarcely cared. It was land, and that was all they sought. The breeze continued brisk and favorable, and they sailed all day, getting near enough at length to see, what filled them with delight, smoke ashore. The land then was iuhabftod ; they recked little just then by what manner of men. Sufficient for them that it was a life-sustaining land, and afforded food and drink for human beings. Another night overtook them before they could attain the shore ; but they were close enough to hear the breakers on a reef .which prevented approach. They sailed as close as prudence would permit, and striking sail, once more resumed their oars. They pulled about for some time, seeking an entrance through tho reef while their strength lasted, but without success. All night they kept awake, maintaining their situation, and awaiting the dawn to show them some channel by which they might pass the reef and reach the shore. They were now, though full of hope, undergoing the sufferings of Tantalus.

Then' shark's meat was all but done, and what remained had been for the last two days but a festering mass of abomination, and their vital powers were fast ebbing, although their kegs were almost full of water. It had again come to be a toss-up between life and death. If they should not find an opening through the reef in the morning, they might yet perish from sheer exhaustion in full view of their promised land. Before the light had grown sufficiently to enable them to commence their search, their fortunes took a new and unexpected turn, and old apprehensions gave way to new ones. A number of large dark objects came looming into sight in the morning twilight, and quickly proved to be four large canoes full of natives. These perceived the boat at the same time that they were themselves perceived, and at once bore down on it. As they approached, the men perceived that the occupants of the canoes were savages plentifully provided with clubs, spears, and bows and arrows. They awaited with trepidation the moment which should settle their fate. They knew by repute that cannibalism prevailed on many islands in the South Seas, and were conscious that in a few moments they might be torn to pieces. They had no option but to await the event, and almost as soon as perceived, the canoes had run them alongside. In a moment their boat was full of armed natives, who seemed too much interested in the articles it contained to notice them at all. Every moveable article found a new proprietor in a delighted savage. Even the clothes the men were wearing would have been appropriated, but the latter, finding their captors showed no disposition to offer them personal violence, plucked up courage to indicate their objection to be denuded, and were allowed to retain a shirt and pair of trousers each. Every other moveable article was put on board the canoes, and five islanders being left 'on board the boat as a sort of prize crew, the remainder re-embarked in their own vessels, and proceeded on their way. Renton afterwards ascertained that the natives in the canoes had just started on a trip to the other side of the island, and did not wish to be delayed. The natives who had taken their places in the boat had brought paddles with them, the oars having been removed like everything else, and they now set themselves briskly to propel the boat through an opening in the reef towards the shore. Before long they had beached the boat at a native village, whose inhabitants quickly surrounded it. The white men were so debilitated as to be unable to walk, and had to be each supported on either side by stalwart savages, who without roughness thus conducted them to the front of one of the huts, where they set them down on the ground. The boat was dragged up out of the water and earned into the shade of the bush. The treatment which the adventurers thus far received was decidedly encouraging, and their anxiety was still further relieved by each being presented with a coooanut, which was smashed up for their convenience. This was to them, who for thirty-five days had tasted no vegetable food, and for the last two or three had been almost famished, owing to the putrid condition of the remains of the shark, the sweetest morsel they had ever tasted. While they were engaged in making a meal upon the nuts, the whole village was in a state of commotion, and they were made the centre of a rapidly increasing crowd of armed natives, and were somewhat uneasy to notice that no women were among the throng. About two hundred were gathered around them, and a sort of extempore consultation appeared to be improvised, which seems to have resembled some sittings of Parliament in more pretentious communities, from the fact that nothing appeared to come of it. They were indeed given to understand that their sole remaining garments were wanted, but on their declining to accede to this request they were not further meddled with. At nightfall they were allowed to occupy the small hut in front of which they had been sitting, which they found to be very dirty. They were, however, able to stretch their limbs, and although the older men were too feeble to recover speedily, Renton’s youth and superior condition enabled him to walk about on the following morning had he thought it prudent to do so. Shortly after daylight fresh visitors commenced to arrive in great numbers. The news of the capture of the boat and white men had been carried along the coast, and from such villages which happened to be on friendly terms with the captors, canoes were continually arriving with eager sightseers. These visitors evidently regarded the white prisoners with somewhat the same feelings as persons hold towards an elephant in a menagerie. They stared and gabbled, but they also fed them. All the morning the men were being given yams and fish to eat, and seemed to have fallen in pleasant places, as no one offered to molest them in any way. Renton, possibly as the most personable of the show animals, was a decided favorite. His companions were all older men, and were grizzled and haggard almost out of human, semblance with the sufferings they had undergone. Among the crowd of visitors was one young fellow whose wealth of ornaments proclaimed him a man of mark. He appeared to take a particular fancy to Renton. There are certain signs and indications of feeling which appear to be common to the whole human race, and are equally used by the most refined and the most savage. In fact, in the latter they are most to be trusted, as the art of concealing the thoughts as expressed by the contenanoe belongs to the deceptions of civilisation. The accost of this young chief gave evidences of a strong favorable impression with regard to Renton ; he approached him smiling, and noth friendly eyes and gestures. He pressed upon the lad more yams and fish than he could eat, and made signs for Renton to come away with him. Renton was sensible of the good fortune which had provided him with an evident friend where he and his companions had hitherto met only a cold curiosity, which was likely enough before long to give place to indifference. He saw that Ids companions must inevitably long prove a burden to the savages, owing to their state of prostration, and thought it possible that, when tired of the novelty, their present hosts might knock them all on the head to relieve themselves of the trouble of maintaining them in idleness, and he feared that he himself might, although more active, be included in their destruction. Eor these or similar reasons, assisted possibly by something of impulse, he made up his mind to follow the friendly youth. Most of the natives by this time had pretty well satiated their curiosity, and be was under no particular observation. His savage tempter found, consequently, little difficulty iu smuggling him, surrounded by a group of natives, into his canoe.