Part 2 - Abandoned: Chapter 3

by Jules Verne

　　The next day, the 30th of October, all was ready for the proposed exploringexpedition, which recent events had rendered so necessary. In fact, thingshad so come about that the settlers in Lincoln Island no longer needed helpfor themselves, but were even able to carry it to others.

　　It was therefore agreed that they should ascend the Mercy as far as theriver was navigable. A great part of the distance would thus be traversedwithout fatigue, and the explorers could transport their provisions andarms to an advanced point in the west of the island.

　　It was necessary to think not only of the things which they should takewith them, but also of those which they might have by chance to bring backto Granite House. If there had been a wreck on the coast, as was supposed,there would be many things cast up, which would be lawfully their prizes.In the event of this, the cart would have been of more use than the lightcanoe, but it was heavy and clumsy to drag, and therefore more difficult touse; this led Pencroft to express his regret that the chest had notcontained, besides "his halfpound of tobacco," a pair of strong New Jerseyhorses, which would have been very useful to the colony!

　　The provisions, which Neb had already packed up, consisted of a store ofmeat and of several gallons of beer, that is to say enough to sustain themfor three days, the time which Harding assigned for the expedition. Theyhoped besides to supply themselves on the road, and Neb took care not toforget the portable stove.

　　The only tools the settlers took were the two woodmen's axes, which theycould use to cut a path through the thick forests, as also the instruments,the telescope and pocket-compass.

　　For weapons they selected the two flint-lock guns, which were likely tobe more useful to them than the percussion fowling-pieces, the first onlyrequiring flints which could be easily replaced, and the latter needingfulminating caps, a frequent use of which would soon exhaust their limitedstock. However, they took also one of the carbines and some cartridges. Asto the powder, of which there was about fifty pounds In the barrel, a smallsupply of it had to be taken, but the engineer hoped to manufacture anexplosive substance which would allow them to husband it. To the firearmswere added the five cutlasses well sheathed in leather, and, thus supplied,the settlers could venture into the vast forest with some chance ofsuccess.

　　It is useless to add that Pencroft, Herbert, and Neb, thus armed, were atthe summit of their happiness, although Cyrus Harding made them promise notto fire a shot unless it was necessary.

　　At six in the morning the canoe put off from the shore; all had embarked,including Top, and they proceeded to the mouth of the Mercy.

　　The tide had begun to come up half an hour before. For several hours,therefore, there would be a current, which it was well to profit by, forlater the ebb would make it difficult to ascend the river. The tide wasalready strong, for in three days the moon would be full, and it was enoughto keep the boat in the center of the current, where it floated swiftlyalong between the high banks without its being necessary to increase itsspeed by the aid of the oars. In a few minutes the explorers arrived at theangle formed by the Mercy and exactly at the place where, seven monthsbefore, Pencroft had made his first raft of wood.

　　After this sudden angle the river widened and flowed under the shade ofgreat evergreen firs.

　　The aspect of the banks was magnificent. Cyrus Harding and his companionscould not but admire the lovely effects so easily produced by nature withwater and trees. As they advanced the forest element diminished. On theright bank of the river grew magnificent specimens of the ulmaceae tribe,the precious elm, so valuable to builders, and which withstands well theaction of water. Then there were numerous groups belonging to the samefamily, among others one in particular, the fruit of which produces a veryuseful oil. Further on, Herbert remarked the lardizabala, a twining shrubwhich, when bruised in water, furnishes excellent cordage; and two or threeebony trees of a beautiful black, crossed with capricious veins.

　　From time to time, in certain places where the landing was easy, thecanoe was stopped, when Gideon Spilett, Herbert, and Pencroft, their gunsin their hands, and preceded by Top, jumped on shore. Without expectinggame, some useful plant might be met with, and the young naturalist wasdelighted with discovering a sort of wild spinach, belonging to the orderof chenopodiaceae, and numerous specimens of cruciferae, belonging to thecabbage tribe, which it would certainly be possible to cultivate bytransplanting. There were cresses, horseradish, turnips, and lastly, littlebranching hairy stalks, scarcely more than three feet high, which producedbrownish grains.

　　Do you know what this plant is?" asked Herbert of the sailor.

　　"Tobacco!" cried Pencroft, who evidently had never seen his favoriteplant except in the bowl of his pipe.

　　"No, Pencroft," replied Herbert; "this is not tobacco, it is mustard."

　　"Mustard be hanged!" returned the sailor; "but if by chance you happen tocome across a tobacco-plant, my boy, pray don't scorn that!"

　　"We shall find it some day!" said Gideon Spilett.

　　"Well!" exclaimed Pencroft, "when that day comes, I do not know what morewill be wanting in our island!"

　　These different plants, which had been carefully rooted up, were carriedto the canoe, where Cyrus Harding had remained buried in thought.

　　The reporter, Herbert, and Pencroft in this manner frequentlydisembarked, sometimes on the right bank, sometimes on the left bank of theMercy.

　　The latter was less abrupt, but the former more wooded. The engineerascertained by consulting his pocket-compass that the direction of theriver from the first turn was obviously southwest and northeast, and nearlystraight for a length of about three miles. But it was to be supposed thatthis direction changed beyond that point, and that the Mercy continued tothe north-west, towards the spurs of Mount Franklin, among which the riverrose.

　　During one of these excursions, Gideon Spilett managed to get hold of twocouples of living gallinaceae. They were birds with long, thin beaks,lengthened necks, short wings, and without any appearance of a tail.Herbert rightly gave them the name of tinamous, and it was resolved thatthey should be the first tenants of their future poultry-yard.

　　But till then the guns had not spoken, and the first report which awokethe echoes of the forest of the Far West was provoked by the appearance ofa beautiful bird, resembling the kingfisher.

　　"I recognize him!" cried Pencroft, and it seemed as if his gun went offby itself.

　　"What do you recognize?" asked the reporter.

　　"The bird which escaped us on our first excursion, and from which we gavethe name to that part of the forest."

　　"A jacamar!" cried Herbert.

　　It was indeed a jacamar, of which the plumage shines with a metallicluster. A shot brought it to the ground, and Top carried it to the canoe.At the same time half a dozen lories were brought down. The lory is of thesize of a pigeon, the plumage dashed with green, part of the wings crimson,and its crest bordered with white. To the young boy belonged the honor ofthis shot, and he was proud enough of it. Lories are better food than thejacamar, the flesh of which is rather tough, but it was difficult topersuade Pencroft that he had not killed the king of eatable birds. It wasten o'clock in the morning when the canoe reached a second angle of theMercy, nearly five miles from its mouth. Here a halt was made for breakfastunder the shade of some splendid trees. The river still measured from sixtyto seventy feet in breadth, and its bed from five to six feet in depth. Theengineer had observed that it was increased by numerous affluents, but theywere unnavigable, being simply little streams. As to the forest, includingJacamar Wood, as well as the forests of the Far West, it extended as far asthe eye could reach. In no place, either in the depths of the forests orunder the trees on the banks of the Mercy, was the presence of manrevealed. The explorers could not discover one suspicious trace. It wasevident that the woodman's axe had never touched these trees, that thepioneer's knife had never severed the creepers hanging from one trunk toanother in the midst of tangled brushwood and long grass. If castaways hadlanded on the island, they could not have yet quitted the shore, and it wasnot in the woods that the survivors of the supposed shipwreck should besought.

　　The engineer therefore manifested some impatience to reach the westerncoast of Lincoln Island, which was at least five miles distant according tohis estimation.

　　The voyage was continued, and as the Mercy appeared to flow not towardsthe shore, but rather towards Mount Franklin, it was decided that theyshould use the boat as long as there was enough water under its keel tofloat it. It was both fatigue spared and time gained, for they would havebeen obliged to cut a path through the thick wood with their axes. But soonthe flow completely failed them, either the tide was going down, and it wasabout the hour, or it could no longer be felt at this distance from themouth of the Mercy. They had therefore to make use of the oars. Herbert andNeb each took one, and Pencroft took the scull. The forest soon became lessdense, the trees grew further apart and often quite isolated. But thefurther they were from each other the more magnificent they appeared,profiting, as they did, by the free, pure air which circulated around them.

　　What splendid specimens of the flora of this latitude! Certainly theirpresence would have been enough for a botanist to name without hesitationthe parallel which traversed Lincoln Island.

　　"Eucalypti!" cried Herbert.

　　They were, in fact, those splendid trees, the giants of the extratropicalzone, the congeners of the Australian and New Zealand eucalyptus, bothsituated under the same latitude as Lincoln Island. Some rose to a heightof two hundred feet. Their trunks at the base measured twenty feet incircumference, and their bark was covered by a network of farrowscontaining a red, sweet-smelling gum. Nothing is more wonderful or moresingular than those enormous specimens of the order of the myrtaceae, withtheir leaves placed vertically and not horizontally, so that an edge andnot a surface looks upwards, the effect being that the sun's rays penetratemore freely among the trees.

　　The ground at the foot of the eucalypti was carpeted with grass, and fromthe bushes escaped flights of little birds, which glittered in the sunlightlike winged rubies.

　　"These are something like trees!" cried Neb; "but are they good foranything?"

　　"Pooh!" replied Pencroft. "Of course there are vegetable giants as wellas human giants, and they are no good, except to show themselves at fairs!"

　　"I think that you are mistaken, Pencroft," replied Gideon Spilett, "andthat the wood of the eucalyptus has begun to be very advantageouslyemployed in cabinet-making."

　　"And I may add," said Herbert, "that the eucalyptus belongs to a familywhich comprises many useful members; the guava-tree, from whose fruit guavajelly is made; the clove-tree, which produces the spice; the pomegranate-tree, which bears pomegranates; the Eugeacia Cauliflora, the fruit of whichis used in making a tolerable wine; the Ugui myrtle, which contains anexcellent alcoholic liquor; the Caryophyllus myrtle, of which the barkforms an esteemed cinnamon; the Eugenia Pimenta, from whence comes Jamaicapepper; the common myrtle, from whose buds and berries spice is sometimesmade; the Eucalyptus manifera, which yields a sweet sort of manna; theGuinea Eucalyptus, the sap of which is transformed into beer byfermentation; in short, all those trees known under the name of gum-treesor iron-bark trees in Australia, belong to this family of the myrtaceae,which contains forty-six genera and thirteen hundred species!"

　　The lad was allowed to run on, and he delivered his little botanicallecture with great animation. Cyrus Harding listened smiling, and Pencroftwith an indescribable feeling of pride.

　　"Very good, Herbert," replied Pencroft, "but I could swear that all thoseuseful specimens you have just told us about are none of them giants likethese!"

　　"That is true, Pencroft."

　　"That supports what I said," returned the sailor, "namely, that thesegiants are good for nothing!"

　　"There you are wrong, Pencroft," said the engineer; "these giganticeucalypti, which shelter us, are good for something."

　　"And what is that?"

　　"To render the countries which they inhabit healthy. Do you know whatthey are called in Australia and New Zealand?"

　　"No, captain."

　　"They are called 'fever trees.'"

　　"Because they give fevers?"

　　"No, because they prevent them!"

　　"Good. I must note that," said the reporter.

　　"Note it then, my dear Spilett; for it appears proved that the presenceof the eucalyptus is enough to neutralize miasmas. This natural antidotehas been tried in certain countries in the middle of Europe and the northof Africa where the soil was absolutely unhealthy, and the sanitarycondition of the inhabitants has been gradually ameliorated. No moreintermittent fevers prevail in the regions now covered with forests of themyrtaceae. This fact is now beyond doubt, and it is a happy circumstancefor us settlers in Lincoln Island."

　　"Ah! what an island! What a blessed island!" cried Pencroft. "I tell you,it wants nothing--unless it is--"

　　"That will come, Pencroft, that will be found," replied the engineer;"but now we must continue our voyage and push on as far as the river willcarry our boat!"

　　The exploration was therefore continued for another two miles in themidst of country covered with eucalypti, which predominated in the woods ofthis portion of the island. The space which they occupied extended as faras the eye could reach on each side of the Mercy, which wound along betweenhigh green banks. The bed was often obstructed by long weeds, and even bypointed rocks, which rendered the navigation very difficult. The action ofthe oars was prevented, and Pencroft was obliged to push with a pole. Theyfound also that the water was becoming shallower and shallower, and thatthe canoe must soon stop. The sun was already sinking towards the horizon,and the trees threw long shadows on the ground. Cyrus Harding, seeing thathe could not hope to reach the western coast of the island in one journey,resolved to camp at the place where any further navigation was preventedby want of water. He calculated that they were still five or six miles fromthe coast, and this distance was too great for them to attempt during thenight in the midst of unknown woods.

　　The boat was pushed on through the forest, which gradually became thickeragain, and appeared also to have more inhabitants; for if the eyes of thesailor did not deceive him, he thought he saw bands of monkeys springingamong the trees. Sometimes even two or three of these animals stopped at alittle distance from the canoe and gazed at the settlers withoutmanifesting any terror, as if, seeing men for the first time, they had notyet learned to fear them. It would have been easy to bring down one ofthese quadramani with a gunshot, and Pencroft was greatly tempted to fire,but Harding opposed so useless a massacre. This was prudent, for themonkeys, or apes rather, appearing to be very powerful and extremelyactive, it was useless to provoke an unnecessary aggression, and thecreatures might, ignorant of the power of the explorers' firearms, haveattacked them. It is true that the sailor considered the monkeys from apurely alimentary point of view, for those animals which are herbivorousmake very excellent game; but since they had an abundant supply ofprovisions, it was a pity to waste their ammunition.

　　Towards four o'clock, the navigation of the Mercy became exceedinglydifficult, for its course was obstructed by aquatic plants and rocks. Thebanks rose higher and higher, and already they were approaching the spursof Mount Franklin. The source could not be far off, since it was fed by thewater from the southern slopes of the mountain.

　　"In a quarter of an hour," said the sailor, "we shall be obliged to stop,captain."

　　"Very well, we will stop, Pencroft, and we will make our encampment forthe night."

　　"At what distance are we from Granite House?" asked Herbert.

　　"About seven miles," replied the engineer, "taking into calculation,however, the detours of the river, which has carried us to the northwest."

　　"Shall we go on?" asked the reporter.

　　"Yes, as long as we can," replied Cyrus Harding. "To-morrow, at break ofday, we will leave the canoe, and in two hours I hope we shall cross thedistance which separates us from the coast, and then we shall have thewhole day in which to explore the shore."

　　"Go ahead!" replied Pencroft.

　　But soon the boat grated on the stony bottom of the river, which was nownot more than twenty feet in breadth. The trees met like a bower overhead,and caused a half-darkness. They also heard the noise of a waterfall, whichshowed that a few hundred feet up the river there was a natural barrier.

　　Presently, after a sudden turn of the river, a cascade appeared throughthe trees. The canoe again touched the bottom, and in a few minutes it wasmoored to a trunk near the right bank.

　　It was nearly five o'clock. The last rays of the sun gleamed through thethick foliage and glanced on the little waterfall, making the spray sparklewith all the colors of the rainbow. Beyond that, the Mercy was lost in thebushwood, where it was fed from some hidden source. The different streamswhich flowed into it increased it to a regular river further down, but hereit was simply a shallow, limpid brook.

　　It was agreed to camp here, as the place was charming. Thecolonists disembarked, and a fire was soon lighted under a clumpof trees, among the branches of which Cyrus Harding and hiscompanions could, if it was necessary, take refuge for the night.

　　Supper was quickly devoured, for they were very hungry, and then therewas only sleeping to think of. But, as roarings of rather a suspiciousnature had been heard during the evening, a good fire was made up for thenight, so as to protect the sleepers with its crackling flames. Neb andPencroft also watched by turns, and did not spare fuel. They thought theysaw the dark forms of some wild animals prowling round the camp among thebushes, but the night passed without incident, and the next day, the 31stof October, at five o'clock in the morning, all were on foot, ready for astart.