The Book of the Bush - George Dunderdale (life books to read txt) 📗

him coming towards my hut, and I said to piccaninny Charlotte, 'No talk, no English, no nothing;' and when Parker asked her if she knew anything about Cockatoo Bill she shammed stupid, and he couldn't get a word out of her. Who is that cove with the spyglass?"

"That's John Campbell, the company's storeman. He is looking for a schooner every day. He would have gone long ago like the rest, but he does not like to leave the stores behind. Here, Mr. Campbell, wouldn't you like to take a roast egg or two for breakfast? There's plenty for the whole camp."

"I will, Davy, and thank you. Who are the men in the boat down the channel?"

"They are George Scutt and Pately Jim fishing for their breakfast. They were hungry, I reckon, and went away before I brought out the eggs, or they might have had a feed."

While the men were roasting their eggs, their eyes wandered over everything within view, far and near. On land and sea their lives had often depended on their watchfulness. The sun was growing warm, and there was a quivering haze over the waters. While glancing down the channel, Davy observed some dark objects appearing near a mangrove island. He pointed them out to Campbell, and said:

"What kind of birds are they? Do you think they are swans?"

"I can't think what else they can be," said Campbell; "but they have not got the shape of birds, and they don't swim smoothly like swans, but go jerking along like big coots. Take a look through the glass, Davy, and see if you can make them out."

Davy took a long and steady look, and said: "I am blowed if they ain't blackfellows in their canoes. They are poleing them along towards the channel, one, two, three-there's a dozen of 'em or more. I can see their long spears sticking out, and they are after some mischief. The tide is on the ebb, and they are going to drop down with it, and spear those two men in the boat; and they are both landlubbers, and haven't even got a gun with them. We must bear a hand and help them. Get your guns and we'll launch the whaleboat."

John Campbell steered, and Shay and Davy pulled as hard as they could towards the canoes, which were already drifting down with the current. The two fishermen were busy with their lines, every now and then pulling out a fish and baiting their hooks with a fresh piece of shark. They never looked up the channel, nor guessed the danger that was every moment coming nearer, for the blacks as yet had not made the least noise. At last Campbell saw several of them seizing their spears and making ready to throw them, so he fired one of his barrels; and Davy stood up in the boat and gave a cooee that might have been heard at Sunday Island, for when anything excited him on the water he could be heard shouting and swearing at an incredible distance. He yelled at the fishermen, "Boat ahoy! up anchor, you lubbers, and scatter. Don't you see the blacks after you?"

The natives began paddling away as fast as they could towards the nearest land, and Davy and Shay pulled after them; but the blacks soon reached the shore, and, taking their spears, ran into the nearest scrub. When the whaleboat grounded, there was not one of them to be seen. Davy said:

"They are watching us not far off. You two keep a sharp look-out, and if you see a black face fire at it. I am going to cut out the fleet."

He rolled up his trousers, took a fishing line, waded out to the canoes, and tied them together, one behind another, leaving a little slack line between each of them. He then fastened one end of the line to the whaleboat, shoved off, and sprang inside. The blacks came out of the scrub, yelling and brandishing their spears, a few of which they threw at the boat, but it was soon out of their reach. Thus a great naval victory had been gained, and the whole of the enemy's fleet captured without the loss of a man. Nothing like it had been achieved since the days of the great Gulliver.

The two fishermen had taken no part in the naval operations, and when the whaleboat returned with its train of canoes like the tail of a kite, Davy administered a sharp reprimand.

"Why didn't you two lubbers keep your eyes skinned. I suppose you were asleep, eh? You ought to have up anchor and pulled away, and then the devils could never got near you. Look here!" holding up a piece of bark, "that's all they've got to paddle with in deep water, and in the shallows they can only pole along with sticks."

Pately Jim had been a prize runner in Yorkshire, and trifles never took away his breath. He replied calmly:

"Yo're o'reet, Davy. We wor a bit sleepy, but we're quite wakken noo. Keep yor shirt on, and we'll do better next time."

When the canoes, which were built entirely with sheets of bark, were drawn up on the beach, nothing was found in them but a few sticks, bark paddles, and a gown-a lilac cotton gown.

"That goon," said Campbell, "has belonged to some white woman thae deevils have murdered. There is no settler nearer than Jamieson, and they maun ha brocht the goon a' the way frae the Bass."

But Campbell was mistaken. There had been another white woman in Gippsland.


THE ISLE OF BLASTED HOPES.

There is a large island where the Ninety-Mile Beach ends in a wilderness of roaring breakers. It is the Isle of Blasted Hopes. Its enchanting landscape has allured many a landsman to his ruin, and its beacon, seen through the haze of a south-east gale, has guided many a watchful mariner to shipwreck and death.

After the discovery of Gippsland, Pearson and Black first occupied the island under a grazing license, and they put eleven thousand sheep on it, with some horses, bullocks, and pigs. The sheep began to die, so they sold them to Captain Cole at ten shillings a head, giving in the other stock. They were of the opinion that they had made an excellent bargain, but when the muster was made nine thousand six hundred of the sheep were missing. The pigs ran wild, but multiplied. When the last sheep had perished, Cole sold his license to a man named Thomas, who put on more sheep, and afterwards exchanged as many as he could find with John King for cattle and horses. Morrison next occupied the island until he was starved out. Then another man named Thomas took the fatal grazing license, but he did not live on the land. He placed his brother in charge of it, to be out of the way of temptation, as he was too fond of liquor. The brother was not allowed the use of a boat; he, with his wife and family, was virtually a prisoner, condemned to sobriety. But by this time a lighthouse had been erected, and Watts the keeper of it had a boat, and was, moreover, fond of liquor. The two men soon became firm friends, and often found it necessary to make voyages to Port Albert for flour, or tea, or sugar. The last time they sailed together the barometer was low, and a gale was brewing. When they left the wharf they had taken on board all the stores they required, and more; they were happy and glorious. Next day the masthead of their boat was seen sticking out of the water near Sunday Island. The pilot schooner went down and hauled the boat to the surface, but nothing was found in her except the sand-ballast and a bottle of rum. Her sheet was made fast, and when the squall struck her she had gone down like a stone. The Isle of Blasted Hopes was useless even as an asylum for inebriates.

The 'Ecliptic' was carrying coals from Newcastle. The time was midnight, the sky was misty, and the gale was from the south-east, when the watch reported a light ahead. The cabin boy was standing on deck near the captain, when he held a consultation with his mate, who was also his son. Father and son agreed; they said the light ahead was the one on Kent's Group, and then the vessel grounded amongst the breakers. The seamen stripped off their heavy clothing, and went overboard; the captain and his son plunged in together and swam out of sight. There were nine men in the water, while the cabin boy stood shivering on deck. He, too, had thrown away his clothes, all but the wrist-bands of his shirt, which in his flurry he could not unbutton. He could not make up his mind to jump overboard. He heard the men in the water shouting to one another, "Make for the light." That course led them away from the nearest land, which they could not see. At length a great sea swept the boy among the breakers, but his good angel pushed a piece of timber within reach, and he held on to it until he could feel the ground with his feet; he then let the timber go, and scrambled out of reach of the angry surge; but when he came to the dry sand he fainted and fell down. When he recovered his senses he began to look for shelter; there was a signal station not far off, but he could not see it. He went away from the pitiless sea through an opening between low conical hills, covered with dark scrub, over a pathway composed of drift sand and broken shells. He found an old hut without a door. There was no one in it; he went inside, and lay down shivering.

At daybreak a boy, the son of Ratcliff, the signal man, started out to look for his goats, and as they sometimes passed the night in the old fowlhouse, he looked in for them. But instead of the goats, he saw the naked cabin boy. "Who are you?" he said, "and what are you doing here, and where did you come from?"

"I have been shipwrecked," replied the cabin boy; and then he sat up and began to cry.

Young Ratcliff ran off to tell his father what he had found; and the boy was brought to the cottage, put to bed, and supplied with food and drink. The signal for a wreck was hoisted at the flagstaff, but when the signallman went to look for a wreck he could not find one. He searched along the shore and found the dead body of the captain, and a piece of splintered spar seven or eight feet long, on which the cabin boy had come ashore. The 'Ecliptic', with her cargo and crew, had completely disappeared, while the signalman, near at hand, slept peacefully, undisturbed by her crashing timbers, or the shouts of the drowning seamen. Ratcliff was not a seer, and had no mystical lore. He was a runaway sailor, who had, in the forties, travelled daily over the Egerton run, unconscious of the tons of gold beneath his