Laura (10 page)

But how could we land there, in this promised land? When we were well within sight of it, we saw that it was surrounded by a vertical cliff two or three thousand metres high, plunging straight down into the tide, smooth as a rampart, black and shining like jade, and nowhere offering the slightest gap through which one might have hope of penetrating. Close up, it was much worse. What had seemed shiny to us in these black walls was indeed so, for this compact belt was made up of large crystals of tourmaline, some of which had attained the size of our largest towers; but, instead of in places presenting horizontal ledges where one might hope to find
depressions
arranged in natural steps, these bizarre rocks were planted like the quills of a porcupine, and their tips pointed towards the sea like the cannon-mouths of a
fortress
of giants.

These shining rocks, some black and opaque, others transparent and the colour of sea-water, were set into an impenetrable mountain, and very finely striated with delicate fluting. They offered a spectacle so strange and so rich, that I now thought of nothing but gazing at them, and yet we had already spent an entire day travelling along them, without being able to get through the furious
waves which broke upon them, and without spotting the slightest sign of shelter on that impregnable coast.

Finally, towards evening, we entered for good or ill into a sort of channel, and we came to land at the narrow, rocky end of a small cove where our canoes were shattered like glass, and two of our men killed by the shock they received as they and their vessel beached on the ground.

This ominous landing was nonetheless hailed with shouts of joy, although the survivors were all wounded or bruised to some degree; but we were rendered almost insensible to the loss of our unfortunate companions by the terror of this prestigious voyage, the thirst which
tortured
us, our fresh water supplies having been exhausted thirty-six hours previously, the despair which had more or less gripped all of us, apart from just one, the indomitable Nasias, and finally by I know not what savage enthusiasm for the peril braved and vanquished.

Wet, broken, too tired to feel hunger, we threw
ourselves
onto the dark shore without asking ourselves if we were on a reef or on solid ground, and we spent more than an hour like this without speaking, without sleeping,
without
thinking of anything, occasionally laughing in a stupid manner, then falling back into a fearful silence beside the furious wave which covered us with sand and foam.

Nasias had disappeared, and I alone had noticed his absence; but suddenly the sea lit up with sparkling fires, and we saw the splendid boreal crown form at the zenith; we were inundated as if enveloped by its immense irradiation.

To your feet! shouted Nasias’s voice above our heads. Here! here! Come, climb up, accommodation and feasting await you!

We were suddenly brought back to life, and we slowly climbed a short ravine, which brought us into a narrow valley filled with unknown trees and grasses. A myriad birds flew around Nasias, who had found their nests on a rocky ledge and filled his robe with eggs of all sizes. They ranged from ones the size of a roc’s eggs to those the size of a goldcrest’s. To this feast were added samples of
magnificent
fruits, and, showing us the trees and the bushes where he had gathered them:

Go, he said, make your own harvest too. You may confidently eat this flavoursome produce, which I have already tested upon myself; there are no poisons here.

So saying, he bent down, tore up a handful of dried grasses with which he stuffed his pipe, and calmly began to smoke, spreading around us exquisitely scented puffs of smoke, while we were stilling our hunger and thirst by eating the most delicate eggs and the most agreeable fruits.

It would have been easy for us to feast on meat, as the birds were just as lacking in timidity as those on the Kennedy islet; but no one thought of that at first, so great was our initial hunger. When it was satisfied our Eskimos, who had learned foresight by dint of dangers and
terrors
, wanted to wring the necks of these poor birds, which reproached us with eloquent cries for the theft of their eggs. This time, Nasias was energetically opposed to the murder.

My friends, he said, here one does not kill; you must take that as read. The earth produces in abundance all that is necessary to man, and man has no enemies here, unless he makes them.

I do not know if our companions understood this admonition, which I judged excellent; overcome by sleep, they fell asleep on the ground, which was made up of a fine dusting of talc. I followed suit, for I did not have the superhuman strength of Nasias, who left us and did not reappear until daylight came.

W
HEN HE AWOKE ME
, I was very surprised not to find any of my companions around me.

I no longer had need of them, he told me calmly, I sent them away.

Sent them away? I cried out, stunned. But where to? How? By what means?

What does it matter to you? he replied with a snigger; surely you cannot be interested in those coarse, voracious and stupid individuals?

Yes indeed, as much as and more, to be sure, than in faithful and submissive domestic animals. Those ten men and the two we lost when we landed here were the elite of our troop; they showed great courage and patience. I was beginning to understand their language, to become accustomed to their costumes, and even those of them who scarcely had human faces harboured truly human feelings. Tell me, Uncle, where have you sent them? This land is doubtless an Eden where they can wander with nothing to fear.

This land, replied Nasias, is an Eden that I am in no way planning to share with beings that are unworthy of possessing it. Those brutes would not have lived here three days without bringing us into conflict with all the animal forces of nature. I have sent them away; accept that you will never see them again, nor their canoes, their companions, their sledges and their dogs. Here and over all the sea that encloses us we are absolute
monarchs
. It falls to us alone to find a way of leaving when
it so pleases us. There is no hurry, we are quite
comfortable
here. Get up, take a bath in this charming stream, which murmurs two paces from you, gather your meal from the first branch you find, and let us think about exploring our island, for it is indeed an island set apart from any visible continent and hollowed out like a cup, as I told you; only, there is a prodigiously tall volcano in the middle; but it is a natural beacon of electric light and nothing more.

All objections, all recriminations, were perfectly
useless
. I was alone in this unknown world with a man who was stronger, more intelligent, more implacable and more of a believer than I was. I must not fight him, but equal him, if that were possible for me to do.

I cast a last glance behind me, and, climbing up onto a promontory, I looked again at the place where we had landed. Either the sea had turned them to dust, or Nasias had saved and hidden them, but there was no trace of our vessels. As for the men, what had become of them? Even the imprint of their footsteps in the sand had been wiped away. I looked down at my feet, and saw light pools of blood; my hands were impregnated with it. I shivered and asked myself if, like my unfortunate companions from the
Tantalus
, I had not taken part in some frightful scene of delirium and carnage.

Nasias, who was watching me, began to laugh, and, picking a wild blackberry the size of a pomegranate, he squeezed out the juice before me.

What you see there, he told me, are the traces of your supper last night.

I wanted to question him further; he turned his back
on me and refused to answer. I must indeed submit to him. As he had already explored the surrounding area, he had one goal, and he headed towards it. I followed him in silence, without weapons or munitions, and as if we had conquered a land where man has nothing left to conquer.

Nevertheless it was not long before we encountered beings that would have been infinitely formidable, had they shown any hostility towards us: these were bison, mouflon, reindeer, aurochs, and elands far larger than those known to us, and all belonging to species which had been entirely lost on the rest of the planet. There were even several that should not have been called by the names I have given them, unsure which one is appropriate for them, for almost all appeared to me to be
intermediaries
between types which had vanished and present-day fauna. We saw no reptiles there, nor carnivorous animals. As for these great herbivores, which moved in immense herds through the grassy or marshy regions, they were content to look at us with a touch of astonishment, but without fear or aversion. They scarcely bestirred
themselves
to let us pass, and we could have drawn them at our leisure, had we been armed with the necessary drawing equipment.

In any case, Nasias paid them scant attention and did not allow me to stop for very long. I followed him
regretfully
, for, now that we were in no danger of any kind, no one was waiting for us anywhere any more, and we belonged entirely to this new life into which we had
resolutely
thrown ourselves, I scarcely knew what we were looking for any more, and why my uncle, instead of being content with seeing his premonitions made real within the
limits of the possible, still insisted on pursuing their
chimerical
aspect. I shared my reflections with him at my own risk and peril, for he had become imperious, feverish, wild, and I saw clearly that in the event of open resistance, he would not hesitate to rid himself of me. He scarcely answered me, or, when he deigned to explain, it was to reproach me bitterly for my lack of faith and the wilful dulling of my most precious faculties.

What struck me most in the region we were crossing, was not that we constantly encountered new species within all types of animals, plants and minerals: that was to be expected in these latitudes; it was seeing them grow in size as we walked northwards and this fact, which destroyed all my rational notions, could not be explained except by the rapid increase in the heat of the climate. Nevertheless we had not yet reached the region of humid heat and gigantic development.

We had reached the high plateaux supported by the tourmaline cliff. Once again the central peak appeared to us in all its splendour; but it was impossible for us to make out its base, which lay in a misty circle. I calculated that it was five or six good days’ walk away, assuming that we could reach it in a straight line; and, assuming again that it occupied the central part of the island, I calculated that in this direction this island was at least one hundred leagues in diameter.

After two days’ march, during which we continued to walk across hills that were easily climbed, we halted on a last high point, from where the entire island was laid out at our feet. It was a magnificent view of the place as a whole. This entire land had resulted from an immense
movement of the earth, which took place in various
different
geological periods. I was able to make out the traces of great volcanic disturbances; but, in general, the primitive stages were laid bare, and the
sedimentary
lands occupied only a small surface area. Moreover, none had resisted violent dislocations or the continuous action of a general subsidence, increasingly marked by crumbling the more the eye inspected the central point, which now presented only a terrifying collection of
confused
ruins.

After three or four days we left the fertile regions inhabited by quadrupeds. The shady ravines and forests picturesquely spread over imposing rocks, the narrow ravines irrigated by lively waters and dotted with bright flowers, were succeeded by interminable slopes of peaty meadow so deeply waterlogged that the herbivores no
longer
ventured there, and it soon became impossible for us to go any further.

As these slopes—which were probably supported by a wall of tourmaline equivalent to that which extended on the other, maritime, side—overhung the bottom of the cirque, we could only assume there were considerable freshwater courses running along the lower part of our plateaux. The parts ahead of us seemed more arid; but the distance was too great for us to be certain.

Forced to halt and sustain ourselves with purslane and mosses, which moreover were extremely good, we were thinking about retracing our steps to seek an easier slope, when I was terrified by a roaring sound of such a
peculiar
nature that no comparison with the cries of animals we know can describe it. It was like the prolonged sound
from a belfry, mixed with the purring of a steam-powered machine. As I was looking around on all sides, I heard this sound above my head and saw something so
enormous
fly over, that instinctively I ducked down so as not to be struck by this incomprehensible being as it passed by.

It came down close to us, and I recognised an
individual
that—apart from its unfeasible size—appeared to me to belong more or less to the genus
megalosoma
. It was the size of a buffalo, and it had, moreover, a buffalo’s flat horns and dark pelt. Although this monster caused me real terror, I could not prevent myself admiring it, for it was in all respects a fine animal. Its wing cases and its
impenetrable
cuirass were clad in a thick olive-green fur highlighted with gold, and from its back rose up that majestic,
fork-shaped
framework made of horn that is characteristic of the male. Only it appeared not to notice our presence, and began to browse around us as a tame animal might do; then it raised its powerful wing cases, opened up the folds of its broad, iridescent, gauzy wings, and, without rising more than two or three metres, set off and landed a few hundred feet further away.

That animal, which nothing astonished, must live on foliage, said Nasias, for it did not enjoy browsing on the low plants that grow here, and it disdained them. I would have thought that, having left the forested areas we have just crossed ourselves, it was going to go back up there, but it is descending towards the arid deserts. So the nooks and crannies of this great heap of shattered rocks must conceal leaf-bearing plants, and consequently a healthy soil. I regret now not having climbed on to the back of
that
coleoptera
, whose heavy but steady flight would have spared us much futile walking.

That is a fantasy we can manage without, I replied, showing my uncle a dozen of those same scarab beetles, which were flying above us and seemed to be following the one which had served as their scout.

We must reach the place where they will land before they fly off again, for, if they do the same as the first one, they will not make long flights.

Indeed the scarab beetles landed quite close to us, and we were able to approach without alarming them. I do not know if our images appeared quite clear to them, through the horny substance that covered their eyes. They seemed very stupid to us, and, although they could have crushed us with their terrible mandibles or torn us apart with the sharp hooks of their claws, they allowed us to mount without resisting. We chose two good-sized males, seated ourselves on the corselet, our arms and legs in the forked horns to hold us on securely, and allowed ourselves to be carried off without a trace of emotion. This mode of riding is very gentle; only, the sound of the wing casings and the wind produced by the wings are disagreeable in the extreme.

I think, I said to my uncle the first time we set foot on the ground, that the future colonists of this island will use the
megalosoma
only to carry burdens. It seems docile enough to obey an instruction and even …

What are you saying about colonists? cried my uncle with a shrug of his shoulders. Do you by chance
imagine
that I have spent so much, and confronted so many dangers, to bring a few days’ wealth to this stupid human
species, which knows only how to lay waste and sterilise the richest of nature’s shrines? We would not have more than a handful of men here for a month before they blindly wiped out these rare and curious animal species and destroyed the beautiful essences of the forests, instead of husbanding them. Man is an animal that does more evil than all the others, do you not know that? No, no! let us leave the beasts in peace, and keep for ourselves alone the discovery of this precious island.

And yet, I went on, I do not see that we, who are only two, are absolutely respecting these animals’ freedom. I do not know if they like carrying us, and you must agree that, in your thoughts, they seem most appropriate to help you transport the riches you intend to discover.

Not in the least, replied Nasias. The riches I wish to discover will stay where they are until I have taken the measures necessary for me to appropriate them. This entire island, with all it contains in its flanks, belongs to me; no-one will exploit it but my slaves, and, if I need many of them, I shall find many.

In any other circumstances, I would have combated my uncle’s antisocial and anti-human theories; but my
megalosoma
was heavily raising its wing-casings and
beginning
to make them purr. I hastily climbed astride and took the beast by the horns, never was an expression more
literally
exact, and several consecutive flights brought us to the edge of the tourmaline ravine, as I had anticipated. There, our large
coleoptera
were of great help, for without them we would never have been able to descend that wall, bristling with gigantic crystals.

Scarcely had we reached the bottom of it, I admit not
without a touch of vertigo on my account, when we saw a broad, raging torrent, gushing through magnificent forests; but, instead of taking us across it, the
megalosomae
landed on some trees resembling monkey-puzzles, five hundred metres tall, and began greedily sucking their sticky bark. Their fantastic progress through the
sharp-bladed
leaves of these giant plants rendered our situation impossible, and we had to leave our mounts and—
cautiously
and slowly—climb down from branch to branch until we reached the ground.

There, we found flowers and fruits completely different from those of the higher regions. Instead of the berries of rosaceous plants, which had formed the basis of our diet in previous days, we found types of edible thistle with flesh resembling the artichoke and the pineapple, and the eggs of birds (we did not see a single one in these forests) were replaced by butterfly larvae of extraordinary size and a most refined taste.

But we had to get across the river, and we were
fortunate
in spotting on its banks some amphibious tortoises between five and six metres long. These allowed us to climb onto their carapaces, and, after several rather annoying spontaneous halts on the islets that were dotted all over the river, they brought us slowly to the other bank.