The Floating Island (28 page)

The first island of the group to
be met with was Mangaia, the most important and the most peopled
—
in fact the capital
of the archipelago. The plan of campaign allowed of a stay here of a fortnight.

Was it then in this archipelago
that Pinchinat was to make the acquaintance of veritable savages
—
savages like those
of Robinson Crusoe, whom he had vainly sought in the Marquesas, in the Society
Islands, and at Nuka Hiva? Was his Parisian curiosity about to be satisfied?
Would he see absolutely authentic cannibals?

“My dear Zorn,” said he one day
to his comrade, “if there are not cannibals here, there are none anywhere else!”

“I might say what does that
matter to me? But let me ask why nowhere else?”

“Because an island which is
called Mangaia could only be peopled by cannibals.”

And Pinchinat had only just time
to evade the punch that his miserable attempt at a pun deserved.

But whether there were cannibals
or not at Mangaia, his Highness was not to have the chance of entering into
communication with them.

In fact, when Floating Island had
arrived within a mile of Mangaia, a canoe put out and came alongside the pier
at Starboard Harbour. It bore the minister, a German, who, more than the
Mangaian chiefs, exercises his provoking tyranny over the archipelago. In this
island
—
measuring
thirty miles in circumference, peopled by four thousand inhabitants
—
which is carefully
cultivated, rich in plantations of taros, in fields of arrowroot and yams, it
was this gentleman who owned the best lands. His was the most comfortable house
in Ouchora, the capital of the island, at the foot of a hill crowded with
breadfruit trees, cocoanut trees, mango-trees, bourras, pimentos, to say
nothing of a flower-garden, in which coleas, gardenias, and pæonies were in
full bloom. His power was due to the mutois, those native policemen before whom
their Mangaian Majesties have to bow.

When this fat little man landed,
the officer of the port went to meet him, and salutes were exchanged.

“In the name of the King and
Queen of Mangaia,” said the minister, “I present the compliments of their
Majesties to his Excellency the Governor of Floating Island.”

“I am under orders to accept
them, and to thank you,” replied the officer, “until our Governor goes in
person to present his respects.”

“His Excellency will be welcome,”
said the minister. “The sanitary state of Floating Island leaves nothing to be
desired, I suppose?”

“Never has it been better.”

“There might, however, be a few
slight epidemics, influenza, typhus, smallpox
—
”

“Not even a cold, sir. Will you
then give us a clean bill, and as soon as we are at our moorings we can enter
into communication in all due form.”

“That,” said the minister, not
without a certain hesitation, “can only be done if the epidemic
—
”

“I tell you there is no trace of
one.”

“Then the inhabitants of Floating
Island intend to land.”

“Yes, as they have recently done
in the other groups to the eastward.”

“Very well, very well,” replied
the stout little man. “Be sure they will be heartily welcome, from the moment
that no epidemic
—
”

“None, I tell you.”

“Let them land then in large
numbers. The inhabitants will do their utmost to make them welcome, for the
Mangaians are hospitable. Only
—
”

“Only?”

“Their Majesties, in accordance
with the advice of the chiefs, have decided that at Mangaia, as at the other
islands of the archipelago, strangers must pay a landing tax.”

“A tax?”

“Yes, two piastres. It is very
little, you see; two piastres for every person landing on the island.”

It was very evident that the
minister was the author of this proposal, which the King and Queen and council
of chiefs had readily adopted, and of which a fair share was reserved for his
Excellency. As in the groups of the Eastern Pacific there had never been such a
tax heard of before, the officer of the port could not help expressing his
surprise.

“Are you in earnest?” asked he.

“Quite in earnest,” affirmed the
minister, “and in default of payment we shall not let anybody
—
”

“All right!” replied the officer.

Then bowing to his Excellency, he
stepped into the telegraphic office, and reported the matter to the Commodore.
Ethel Simcoe put himself in communication with the Governor. Was it advisable
for Floating Island to stop off Mangaia under the circumstances?

The reply was not long in coming.
After conferring with his assistants, Cyrus Bikerstaff refused to submit to
this vexatious tax.. ‘Floating Island would not stop at Mangaia, nor at any
island of the archipelago. The greedy minister would get nothing by his
proposition, and the Milliardites would, in the neighbouring archipelagoes,
visit natives less rapacious and less exacting.

Orders were sent to the engineers
to give the rein to their million horses, and that is why Pinchinat was
deprived of the pleasure of shaking hands with cannibals
—
if there were any.
But they do not eat each other now in Cook’s Islands
—
which is perhaps regrettable.

Floating Island crossed the wide
arm which projects up to the group of four islands, the line of which lies
northward. A number of canoes were seen, some fairly well built and rigged,
others merely dug out of the trunk of a tree, but manned with hardy fishermen
who venture in pursuit of the whales so numerous in these seas.

These islands are very verdant,
very fertile. When off Mangaia, there could be seen its rocky coasts, bordered
by a bracelet of coral, its houses of dazzling whiteness, rough cast with
quicklime made from the coral reefs, its hills clothed with the sombre verdure
of tropical vegetation, their altitude not exceeding two hundred metres.

Next morning Commodore Simcoe
sighted the wooded heights of Rarotonga. Near the centre rises a volcano,
fifteen hundred metres high, whose summit emerges from a crown of brushwood.
Among the foliage is a white building with Gothic windows. This is the
Protestant temple, built amid large forests of mape trees, which descend to the
shore. The trees
—
of
great height, and much branched and with curious trunks
—
are crooked and gnarled, like the old
apple-trees of Normandy or the old olive-trees of Provence.

Cyrus Bikerstaff did not think it
convenient to land at this island, and he was supported by the council of
notables, who were accustomed to be received like Kings on their travels.

At the end of the day no more of
the island could be seen than the peak of the volcano, rising like a pillar on
the horizon. Myriads of sea birds landed without permission and flew over
Floating Island, but when night came they flew off to regain the islets
incessantly lashed by the surges to the north of the archipelago.

Then a meeting was held, presided
over by the Governor, in which it was proposed to modify the route of Floating
Island. Continuing to the westward along the twentieth parallel, as had been
decided, they would pass the Tonga Islands and the Fijis. But what had happened
at Cook’s Islands was not very encouraging. Would it not be better to make for
New Caledonia and the Loyalty Archipelago, where the Pearl of the Pacific would
be received with French urbanity? Then after the December solstice they could
return towards the Equator. It is true this would take them away from the New
Hebrides, where they had promised to land the shipwrecked crew of the ketch.

During this deliberation as to a
new route, the Malays were evidently a prey to very intelligible anxiety, for
if the change were adopted their return home would be difficult. Captain Sarol
could not conceal his disappointment, or even his anger, and anyone who had
heard him speaking to his men would probably have thought his irritation rather
suspicious.

“You see,” he said, “they will
drop us at the Loyalties or at New Caledonia. And our friends are expecting us
at Erromango. Our plans were so well arranged for the New Hebrides! Is this
stroke of fortune to escape us?”

Fortunately for the Malays
—
unfortunately for
Floating Island
—
the
proposal for changing the route was not carried. The campaign would be proceeded
with according to the programme arranged at the departure from Madeleine Bay.
Only, so as to make up for the fortnight which was to have been spent at Cook’s
Islands, it was decided to go to Samoa, steering north-west so as to touch at
the Tonga Islands.

When this decision was known the
Malays could not hide their satisfaction.

After all, what could be more
natural, and had they not reason to be glad that the council of notables had
not renounced its plan of putting them ashore at the New Hebrides?

I
f
the horizon of Floating Island seemed to be clearer in one respect, inasmuch as
relations were much less acute between the Larboardites and Starboardites owing
to the feelings mutually experienced by Walter Tankerdon and Di Coverley, so
that the governor and superintendent believed that the future would not be
complicated by intestine quarrels, the Pearl of the Pacific was none the less
in danger of its existence. It was difficult to see how it could escape a
catastrophe which had been so long in preparation. The farther it went towards
the west the nearer it became to the regions where its destruction was certain.
And the author of this criminal machination was no other than Captain Sarol.

In fact it was not by mere
accident that the Malays had come to the Sandwich Islands. The ketch had put in
at Honolulu with the intention of waiting for Floating Island at its annual
visit. To follow it after its departure, to cruise in its waters without
exciting suspicion, to be received as a shipwrecked crew, as they could not
obtain admittance as passengers, and then, under pretext of being returned to
their own country, to direct it towards the New Hebrides, had been Captain
Sarol’s plan all through.

We know how this plan in its
first developments had been put into execution. The collision between the ketch
and the other vessel was imaginary. No ship had run into them in the vicinity
of the Equator. It was the Malays who had scuttled their ship, but in such a
way that they could keep it afloat until the arrival of the assistance demanded
by the signal of distress, and then sink when the launch from Starboard Harbour
had taken off the crew. In this manner no suspicion could exist with regard to
the collision, and no one could doubt they were a shipwrecked crew when their
ship was seen to sink, so that a shelter could not well be denied them.

It is true that the governor
might not care to keep them. Perhaps there were regulations forbidding
strangers to reside on the island? Perhaps it might be decided to land them on
the nearest archipelago? That was a risk to run, and Captain Sarol ran it. But
after the favourable opinion of the company it was resolved to keep the
shipwrecked crew on the island, and take them within sight of the New Hebrides.

Such had been the course of
events. For four months Captain Sarol and his ten Malays had been living at
liberty on Floating Island. They had been exploring it throughout and
penetrating all its secrets, and had neglected nothing in this respect. That
suited them exactly. For a moment they had reason to fear that the itinerary
would be modified by the council of notables, and they had been anxious to such
an extent that their anxiety might seem suspicious. Fortunately for their
plans, the itinerary had not been altered. In another three months Floating
Island would arrive among the New Hebrides, and then would take place a
catastrophe unequalled among disasters of the sea.

This archipelago of the New
Hebrides is dangerous to navigation, not only by reason of the reefs which are
scattered about it, and the rapidity of the currents, but also on account of
the native ferocity of a part of its population. Since the epoch when it had
been discovered by Quiros in 1706, since it had been explored by Bougainville
in 1768, and by Cook in 1773, it had been the theatre of horrible massacres,
and its evil reputation was enough to justify the fears of Sebastien Zorn
regarding the result of this maritime campaign. Kanakas, Papuans, Malays, are
there mingled with Australian blacks
—
perfidious,
dastardly, refractory to every attempt at civilization. A few of the islands of
the group are regular nests of rascals, and their inhabitants only live by
piracies.

Captain Sarol, a Malay by birth,
belonged to this class of pirates, whalers, sandalwood traders, slave dealers,
who, as has been noticed by Doctor Hagon in his voyage in the New Hebrides,
infest these regions. Audacious, enterprising, well acquainted with these
archipelagoes of ill-repute, thoroughly master of his trade, having more than
once been in command of bloodthirsty expeditions, this Sarol was no novice, and
his deeds had made him notorious in this part of the Western Pacific.

A few months before, Captain
Sarol and his companions having for their accomplices the murderous population
of the Island of Erromango, one of the New Hebrides, had prepared an attempt
which, if it succeeded, would enable them to live as respectable people
wherever they pleased. They knew the reputation of this Floating Island, which
the year before had voyaged in the tropics. They knew what incalculable riches
were to be found in this opulent Milliard City. But as it was not likely to
venture so far to the west, it was necessary to allure it within sight of this
savage Erromango, where everything was prepared for assuring its complete
destruction.