Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I (of 2)

Chapter 28

Suspicions Laid, And Something About The Calmuc

Though abounding in details full of the savor of reality, Samoa's

narrative did not at first appear altogether satisfactory. Not that

it was so strange; for stranger recitals I had heard.

But one reason, perhaps, was that I had anticipated a narrative quite

different; something agreeing with my previous surmises.

Not a little puzzling, also, was his account of having seen islands

the day preceding; though, upon reflection, that might have been the

case, and yet, from his immediately altering the Parki's course, the

Chamois, unknowingly might have sailed by their vicinity. Still,

those islands could form no part of the chain we were seeking. They

must have been some region hitherto undiscovered.

But seems it likely, thought I, that one, who, according to his own

account, has conducted himself so heroically in rescuing the

brigantine, should be the victim of such childish terror at the mere

glimpse of a couple of sailors in an open boat, so well supplied,

too, with arms, as he was, to resist their capturing his craft, if

such proved their intention? On the contrary, would it not have been

more natural, in his dreary situation, to have hailed our approach

with the utmost delight? But then again, we were taken for phantoms,

not flesh and blood. Upon the whole, I regarded the narrator of these

things somewhat distrustfully. But he met my gaze like a man. While

Annatoo, standing by, looked so expressively the Amazonian character

imputed to her, that my doubts began to waver. And recalling

all the little incidents of their story, so hard to be conjured up on

the spur of a presumed necessity to lie; nay, so hard to be conjured

up at all; my suspicions at last gave way. And I could no longer

harbor any misgivings.

For, to be downright, what object could Samoa have, in fabricating

such a narrative of horrors--those of the m******e, I mean--unless to

conceal some tragedy, still more atrocious, in which he himself had

been criminally concerned? A supposition, which, for obvious reasons,

seemed out of the question. True, instances were known to me of half-

civilized beings, like Samoa, forming part of the crews of ships in

these seas, rising suddenly upon their white ship-mates, and

murdering them, for the sake of wrecking the ship on the shore of

some island near by, and plundering her hull, when stranded.

But had this been purposed with regard to the Parki, where the rest

of the mutineers? There was no end to my conjectures; the more I

indulged in them, the more they multiplied. So, unwilling to torment

myself, when nothing could be learned, but what Samoa related, and

stuck to like a hero; I gave over conjecturing at all; striving hard

to repose full faith in the Islander.

Jarl, however, was skeptical to the last; and never could be brought

completely to credit the tale. He stoutly maintained that the

hobgoblins must have had something or other to do with the Parki.

My own curiosity satisfied with respect to the brigantine, Samoa

himself turned inquisitor. He desired to know who we were; and whence

we came in our marvelous boat. But on these heads I thought best to

withhold from him the truth; among other things, fancying that if

disclosed, it would lessen his deference for us, as men superior to

himself. I therefore spoke vaguely of our adventures, and assumed the

decided air of a master; which I perceived was not lost upon the rude

Islander. As for Jarl, and what he might reveal, I embraced the first

opportunity to impress upon him the importance of never divulging our

flight from the Arcturion; nor in any way to commit himself on that

head: injunctions which he faithfully promised to observe.

If not wholly displeased with the fine form of Samoa, despite his

savage lineaments, and mutilated member, I was much less conciliated

by the person of Annatoo; who, being sinewy of limb, and neither

young, comely, nor amiable, was exceedingly distasteful in my eyes.

Besides, she was a tigress. Yet how avoid admiring those Penthesilian

qualities which so signally had aided Samoa, in wresting the Parki

from its treacherous captors. Nevertheless, it was indispensable that

she should at once be brought under prudent subjection; and made to

know, once for all, that though conjugally a rebel, she must be

nautically submissive. For to keep the sea with a Calmuc on board,

seemed next to impossible. In most military marines, they are

prohibited by law; no officer may take his Pandora and her bandbox

off soundings.

By the way, this self-same appellative, Pandora, has been bestowed

upon vessels. There was a British ship by that name, dispatched in

quest of the mutineers of the Bounty. But any old tar might have

prophesied her fate. Bound home she was wrecked on a reef off New

South Wales. Pandora, indeed! A pretty name for a ship: fairly

smiting Fate in the face. But in this matter of christening ships of

war, Christian nations are but too apt to be dare-devils. Witness the

following: British names all--The Conqueror, the Defiance, the

Revenge, the Spitfire, the Dreadnaught, the Thunderer, and the

Tremendous; not omitting the Etna, which, in the Roads of Corfu, was

struck by lightning, coming nigh being consumed by fire from above.

But almost potent as Moses' rod, Franklin's proved her salvation.

With the above catalogue, compare we the Frenchman's; quite

characteristic of the aspirations of Monsieur:--The Destiny, the

Glorious, the Magnanimous, the Magnificent, the Conqueror, the

Triumphant, the Indomitable, the Intrepid, the Mont-Blanc. Lastly,

the Dons; who have ransacked the theology of the religion of peace

for fine names for their fighting ships; stopping not at designating

one of their three-deckers, The Most Holy Trinity. But though, at

Trafalgar, the Santissima Trinidada thundered like Sinai, her

thunders were silenced by the victorious cannonade of the Victory.

And without being blown into splinters by artillery, how many of

these Redoubtables and Invincibles have succumbed to the waves, and

like braggarts gone down before hurricanes, with their bravadoes

broad on their bows.

Much better the American names (barring Scorpions, Hornets, and

Wasps;) Ohio, Virginia, Carolina, Vermont. And if ever these Yankees

fight great sea engagements--which Heaven forefend!--how glorious,

poetically speaking, to range up the whole federated fleet, and pour

forth a broadside from Florida to Maine. Ay, ay, very glorious

indeed! yet in that proud crowing of cannon, how shall the shade of

peace-loving Penn be astounded, to see the mightiest murderer of them

all, the great Pennsylvania, a very namesake of his. Truly, the

Pennsylvania's guns should be the wooden ones, called by men-of-

war's-men, Quakers.

But all this is an episode, made up of digressions. Time to tack

ship, and return.

Now, in its proper place, I omitted to mention, that shortly after

descending from the rigging, and while Samoa was rehearsing his

adventures, dame Annatoo had stolen below into the forecastle, intent

upon her chattels. And finding them all in mighty disarray, she

returned to the deck prodigiously, excited, and glancing angrily

toward Jarl and me, showered a whole torrent of objurgations into

both ears of Samoa.

This contempt of my presence surprised me at first; but perhaps women

are less apt to be impressed by a pretentious demeanor, than men.

Now, to use a fighting phrase, there is nothing like boarding an

enemy in the smoke. And therefore, upon this first token of Annatoo's

termagant qualities, I gave her to understand--craving her pardon--

that neither the vessel nor aught therein was hers; but that every

thing belonged to the owners in Lahina. I added, that at all hazards,

a stop must be put to her pilferings. Rude language for feminine

ears; but how to be avoided? Here was an infatuated woman, who,

according to Samoa's account, had been repeatedly detected in the act

of essaying to draw out the screw-bolts which held together the

planks. Tell me; was she not worse than the Load-Stone Rock, sailing

by which a stout ship fell to pieces?

During this scene, Samoa said little. Perhaps he was secretly pleased

that his matrimonial authority was reinforced by myself and my

Viking, whose views of the proper position of wives at sea, so fully

corresponded with his own; however difficult to practice, those

purely theoretical ideas of his had hitherto proved.

Once more turning to Annatoo, now looking any thing but amiable, I

observed, that all her clamors would be useless; and that if it came

to the worst, the Parki had a hull that would hold her.

In the end she went off in a fit of the sulks; sitting down on the

windlass and glaring; her arms akimbo, and swaying from side to side;

while ever and anon she gave utterance to a dismal chant. It sounded

like an invocation to the Cholos to rise and dispatch us.