A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  THE SIGHT OF HUMAN BEINGS

  The sight of human beings, thus unexpectedly found, filled us withstrange feelings--feelings which I cannot explain. The country wasstill iron-bound and dark and forbidding, and the stream ran on in astrong current, deep, black as ink, and resistless as fate; the skybehind was lighted up by the volcanic glare which still shone fromafar; and in front the view was bounded by the icy heights of amountain chain. Here was, indeed, a strange country for a humanhabitation; and strange, indeed, were the human beings whom we saw.

  "Shall we land?" said Agnew.

  "Oh no," said I. "Don't be hasty. The elements are sometimes kinderthan men, and I feel safer here, even in this river of death, thanashore with such creatures as those."

  Agnew made no reply. We watched the figures on the shore. We saw themcoming down, staring and gesticulating. We drew on nearer to them tillwe were able to see them better. A nearer view did not improve them.They were human beings, certainly, but of such an appalling aspectthat they could only be likened to animated mummies. They were small,thin, shrivelled, black, with long matted hair and hideous faces. Theyall had long spears, and wore about the waist short skirts that seemedto be made of the skin of some sea-fowl.

  We could not imagine how these creatures lived, or where. There wereno signs of vegetation of any kind--not a tree or a shrub. There wereno animals; but there were great flocks of birds, some of which seemeddifferent from anything that we had ever seen before. The long spearswhich the natives carried might possibly be used for catching these,or for fishing purposes. This thought made them seem less formidable,since they would thus be instruments of food rather than weapons ofwar. Meanwhile we drifted on as before, and the natives watched us,running along the shore abreast of us, so as to keep up with the boat.There seemed over a hundred of them. We could see no signs of anyhabitations--no huts, however humble; but we concluded that theirabodes were farther inland. As for the natives themselves, the longerwe looked at them the more abhorrent they grew. Even the wretchedaborigines of Van Dieman's Land, who have been classed lowest in thescale of humanity, were pleasing and congenial when compared withthese, and the land looked worse than Tierra del Fuego. It looked likea land of iron, and its inhabitants like fiends.

  Agnew again proposed to land, but I refused.

  "No," I said; "I'd rather starve for a week, and live on hope. Let usdrift on. If we go on we may have hope if we choose, but if we landhere we shall lose even that. Can we hope for anything from suchthings as these? Even if they prove friendly, can we live among them?To stay here is worse than death; our only hope is to go on."

  Agnew made no reply, and we drifted on for two hours, still followedby the natives. They made no hostile demonstrations. They merelywatched us, apparently from motives of curiosity. All this time wewere drawing steadily nearer to the line of lofty mountains, whichwith their icy crests rose before us like an inaccessible andimpassable barrier, apparently closing up all farther progress; norwas there any indication of any pass or any opening, however narrow,through which the great stream might run. Nothing was there but oneunbroken wall of iron cliffs and icy summits. At last we saw that thesloping shores grew steeper, until, about a mile or two before us,they changed to towering cliffs that rose up on each side for about athousand feet above the water; here the stream ran, and became lost toview as completely as though swallowed up by the earth.

  "We can go no farther," said Agnew. "See--this stream seems to make aplunge there into the mountains. There must be some deep canyon therewith cataracts. To go on is certain death. We must stop here, if onlyto deliberate. Say, shall we risk it among these natives? After all,there is not, perhaps, any danger among them. They are littlecreatures and seem harmless. They are certainly not very good-looking;but then, you know, appearances often deceive, and the devil's not soblack as he's painted. What do you say?"

  "I suppose we can do nothing else," said I.

  In fact, I could see that we had reached a crisis in our fate. To goon seemed certain death. To stop was our only alternative; and as wewere armed we should not be altogether at the mercy of thesecreatures. Having made this decision we acted upon it at once, for insuch a current there was no time for delay; and so, seizing the oars,we soon brought the boat ashore.

  As we approached, the crowd of natives stood awaiting us, and lookedmore repulsive than ever. We could see the emaciation of their bonyframes; their toes and fingers were like birds' claws; their eyes weresmall and dull and weak, and sunken in cavernous hollows, from whichthey looked at us like corpses--a horrible sight. They stood quietly,however, and without any hostile demonstration, holding their spearscarelessly resting upon the ground.

  "I don't like the looks of them," said I. "I think I had better fire agun."

  "Why?" cried Agnew. "For Heaven's sake, man, don't hurt any of them!"

  "Oh no," said I; "I only mean to inspire a little wholesome respect."

  Saying this I fired in the air. The report rang out with long echoes,and as the smoke swept away it showed us all the natives on theground. They had seated themselves with their hands crossed on theirlaps, and there they sat looking at us as before, but with nomanifestation of fear or even surprise. I had expected to see themrun, but there was nothing of the kind. This puzzled us. Still, therewas no time now for any further hesitation. The current was sweepingus toward the chasm between the cliffs, and we had to land withoutdelay. This we did, and as I had another barrel still loaded and apistol, I felt that with these arms and those of Agnew we should beable to defend ourselves. It was in this state of mind that we landed,and secured the boat by means of the grappling-iron.

  The natives now all crowded around us, making many strange gestures,which we did not understand. Some of them bowed low, others prostratedthemselves; on the whole these seemed like marks of respect, and itoccurred to me that they regarded us as superior beings of some sort.It was evident that there was nothing like hostility in their minds.At the same time, the closer survey which I now made of them filled mewith renewed horror; their meagre frames, small, watery, lack-lustreeyes, hollow, cavernous sockets, sunken cheeks, protruding teeth,claw-like fingers, and withered skins, all made them look more thanever like animated mummies, and I shrank from them involuntarily, asone shrinks from contact with a corpse.

  Agnew, however, was very different, and it was evident that he felt norepugnance whatever. He bowed and smiled at them, and shook hands withhalf a dozen of them in succession. The hand-shaking was a new thingto them, but they accepted it in a proper spirit, and renewed theirbows and prostrations. After this they all offered us their lances.This certainly seemed like an act of peace and good-will. I shook myhead and declined to touch them; but Agnew accepted one of them, andoffered his rifle in return. The one to whom he offered it refused totake it. He seemed immensely gratified because Agnew had taken hislance, and the others seemed disappointed at his refusal to taketheirs. But I felt my heart quake as I saw him offer his rifle, andstill more when he offered it to one or two others, and only regainedmy composure as I perceived that his offer was refused by all.

  They now made motions to us to follow, and we all set forth together.

  "My dear More," said Agnew, cheerily, "they're not a bad lot. Theymean well. They can't help their looks. You're too suspicious andreserved. Let's make friends with them, and get them to help us. Do asI do."

  I tried to, but found it impossible, for my repugnance was immovable.It was like the horror which one feels toward rats, cockroaches,earwigs, or serpents. It was something that defied reason. Thesecreatures seemed like human vermin.

  We marched inland for about half a mile, crossed a ridge, and came toa valley, or rather a kind of hollow, at the other side of which wefound a cave with a smouldering fire in front. The fire was made ofcoal, which must exist here somewhere. It was highly bituminous, andburned with a great blaze.

  The day was now drawing to a close; far away I could see the luridglow of the volcanoes, wh
ich grew brighter as the day declined: above,the skies twinkled with innumerable stars, and the air was filled withthe moan of rushing waters.

  We entered the cave. As we did so the natives heaped coal upon thefire, and the flames arose, lighting up the interior. We found here anumber of women and children, who looked at us without either fear orcuriosity. The children looked like little dwarfs; the women werehags, hideous beyond description. One old woman in particular, whoseemed to be in authority, was actually terrible in her awful andrepulsive ugliness. A nightmare dream never furnished forth a morefrightful object. This nightmare hag prostrated herself before each ofus with such an air of self-immolation that she looked as though shewished us to kill her at once. The rough cave, the red light of thefire, all made the scene more awful; and a wild thought came to methat we had actually reached, while yet living, the infernal world,and that this was the abode of devils. Yet their actions, it must beconfessed, were far from devilish. Everyone seemed eager to serve us.Some spread out couches formed of the skins of birds for us to sit on;others attended to the fire; others offered us gifts of large andbeautiful feathers, together with numerous trinkets of rare andcurious workmanship. This kind attention on their part was a greatpuzzle to me, and I could not help suspecting that beneath all thisthere must be some sinister design. Resolving to be prepared for theworst, I quietly reloaded the empty barrel of my rifle and watchedwith the utmost vigilance. As for Agnew, he took it all in the mostunsuspicious manner. He made signs to them, shook hands with them,accepted their gifts, and even tried to do the agreeable to theformidable hags and the child-fiends around him. He soon attracted thechief attention, and while all looked admiringly upon him, I was leftto languish in comparative neglect.

  At length a savory odor came through the cave, and a repast was spreadbefore us. It consisted of some large fowl that looked like a goose,but was twice as large as the largest turkey that I had ever seen. Thetaste was like that of a wild-goose, but rather fishy. Still to us itseemed delicious, for our prolonged diet of raw seal had made us readyto welcome any other food whatever; and this fowl, whatever it was,would not have been unwelcome to any hungry man. It was evident thatthese people lived on the flesh of birds of various sorts. All aroundus we saw the skins of birds dried with the feathers on, and used forclothing, for mats, and for ornaments.

  The repast being finished, we both felt greatly strengthened andrefreshed. Agnew continued to cultivate his new acquaintances, andseeing me holding back, he said,

  "More, old fellow, these good people give me to understand that thereis another place better than this, and want me to go with them. Willyou go?"

  At this a great fear seized me.

  "Don't go!" I cried--"don't go! We are close by the boat here, and ifanything happens we can easily get to it."

  Agnew laughed in my face.

  "Why, you don't mean to tell me," said he, "that you are stillsuspicious, and after that dinner? Why, man, if they wanted to harmus, would they feast us in this style? Nonsense, man! Drop yoursuspicions and come along."

  I shook my head obstinately.

  "Well," said he, "if I thought there was anything in your suspicions Iwould stay by you; but I'm confident they mean nothing but kindness,so I'm going off to see the place."

  "You'll be back again?" said I.

  "Oh yes," said he, "of course I'll come back, and sleep here."

  With these words he left, and nearly all the people accompanied him. Iwas left behind with the women and children and about a dozen men.These men busied themselves with some work over bird-skins; the womenwere occupied with some other work over feathers. No one took anynotice of me. There did not seem to be any restraint upon me, nor wasI watched in any way. Once the nightmare hag came and offered me asmall roasted fowl, about the size of a woodcock. I declined it, butat the same time this delicate attention certainly surprised me.

  I was now beginning to struggle with some success against my feelingsof abhorrence, when suddenly I caught sight of something which chasedaway every other thought, and made my blood turn cold in my veins. Itwas something outside. At the mouth of the cave--by the fire which wasstill blazing bright, and lighting up the scene--I saw four men whohad just come to the cave: they were carrying something which I atfirst supposed to be a sick or wounded companion. On reaching the firethey put it down, and I saw, with a thrill of dismay, that theirburden was neither sick nor wounded, but dead, for the corpse layrigid as they had placed it. Then I saw the nightmare hag approach itwith a knife. An awful thought came to me--the crowning horror! Thethought soon proved to be but too well founded. The nightmare hagbegan to cut, and in an instant had detached the arm of the corpse,which she thrust among the coals in the very place where lately shehad cooked the fowl. Then she went back for more.

  For a moment my brain reeled, and I gasped for breath. Then I rose andstaggered out, I know not how. No one tried to stop me, nor did anyonefollow me; and, for my part, I was ready to blow out the brains of thefirst who dared to approach me. In this way I reached the open air,and passed by the hag and the four men as they were busy at theirawful work. But at this point I was observed and followed. A number ofmen and women came after me, jabbering their uncouth language andgesticulating. I warned them off, angrily. They persisted, and thoughnone of them were armed, yet I saw that they were unwilling to have meleave the cave, and I supposed that they would try to prevent me byforce.

  The absence of Agnew made my position a difficult one. Had it not beenfor this I would have burst through them and fled to the boat; but aslong as he was away I felt bound to wait; and though I longed to fly,I could not for his sake. The boat seemed to be a haven of rest. Ilonged to be in her once more, and drift away, even if it should be tomy death. Nature was here less terrible than man; and it seemed betterto drown in the waters, to perish amid rocks and whirlpools, than tolinger here amid such horrors as these. These people were not likehuman beings. The vilest and lowest savages that I had ever seen werenot so odious as these. A herd of monkeys would be far more congenial,a flock of wolves less abhorrent. They had the caricature of the humanform; they were the lowest of humanity; their speech was a mockery oflanguage; their faces devilish, their kindness a cunning pretence; andmost hideous of all was the nightmare hag that prepared the cannibalrepast.

  I could not begin hostilities, for I had to wait for Agnew; so I stoodand looked, and then walked away for a little distance. They followedme closely, with eager words and gesticulations, though as yet no onetouched me or threatened me. Their tone seemed rather one ofpersuasion. After a few paces I stood still, with all of them aroundme. The horrible repast showed plainly all that was in store for us.They received us kindly and fed us well only to devote us to the mostabhorrent of deaths. Agnew, in his mad confidence, was only insuringhis own doom. He was putting himself completely in the power ofdevils, who were incapable of pity and strangers to humanity. To makefriends with such fiends was impossible, and I felt sure that our onlyplan was to rule by terror--to seize, to slay, to conquer. But still Ihad to wait for him, and did not dare to resort to violence while hewas absent; so I waited, while the savages gathered round me,contenting themselves with guarding me, and neither touching me northreatening me. And all this time the hag went on, intent on herpreparation of the horrible repast.

  While standing there looking, listening, waiting for Agnew, I noticedmany things. Far away the volcanoes blazed, and the northern sky wasred with a lurid light. There, too, higher up, the moon was shiningoverhead, the sky was gleaming with stars; and all over the heavensthere shone the lustre of the aurora australis, brighter than any Ihad ever seen--surpassing the moon and illuminating all. It lighted upthe haggard faces of the devils around me, and it again seemed to meas though I had died and gone to the land of woe--an iron land, a landof despair, with lurid fires all aglow and faces of fear.

  Suddenly, there burst upon my ears the report of a gun, which soundedlike a thunder-peal, and echoed in long reverberations. At once Iunderstood it. My fear
s had proved true. These savages had enticedAgnew away to destroy him. In an instant I burst through the crowdaround me, and ran wildly in the direction of that sound, calling hisname, as I ran, at the top of my voice.

  I heard a loud cry; then another report. I hurried on, shouting hisname in a kind of frenzy. The strange courage of these savages hadalready impressed me deeply. They did not fear our guns. They were allattacking him, and he was alone, fighting for his life.

  Then there was another report; it was his pistol. I still ran on, andstill shouted to him.

  At last I received an answer. He had perhaps heard me, and wasanswering, or, at any rate, he was warning me.

  "More," he cried, "fly, fly, fly to the boat! Save yourself!"

  "Where are you?" I cried, as I still rushed on.

  "Fly, More, fly! Save yourself! You can't save me. I'm lost. Fly foryour life!"

  Judging from his cries, he did not seem far away. I hurried on. Icould see nothing of him. All the time the savages followed me. Nonewere armed; but it seemed to me that they were preparing to flingthemselves upon me and overpower me with their numbers. They wouldcapture me alive, I thought, bind me, and carry me back, reserving mefor a future time!

  I turned and waved them back. They took no notice of my gesture. ThenI ran on once more. They followed. They could not run so fast as Idid, and so I gained on them rapidly, still shouting to Agnew. Butthere was no response. I ran backward and forward, crossing andrecrossing, doubling and turning, pursued all the time by the savages.At last, in rage and despair, I fired upon them, and one of them fell.But, to my dismay, the others did not seem to care one whit; they didnot stop for one moment, but pursued as before.

  My situation was now plain in all its truth. They had enticed Agnewaway; they had attacked him. He had fought, and had been overpowered.He had tried to give me warning. His last words had been for me tofly--to fly: yes, for he well knew that it was better far for me to goto death through the raging torrent than to meet the fate which hadfallen upon himself. For him there was now no more hope. That he waslost was plain. If he were still alive he would call to me; but hisvoice had been silenced for some time. All was over, and that nobleheart that had withstood so bravely and cheerily the rigors of thestorm, and the horrors of our desperate voyage, had been stilled indeath by the vilest of miscreants.

  I paused for a moment. Even though Agnew was dead, I could not bear toleave him, but felt as though I ought to share his fate. The savagescame nearer. At their approach I hesitated no longer. That fate wastoo terrible: I must fly.

  But before I fled I turned in fury to wreak vengeance upon them fortheir crimes. Full of rage and despair, I discharged my remainingrifle-barrel into the midst of the crowd. Then I fled toward the boat.On the way I had a frightful thought that she might have been sentadrift; but, on approaching the place, I found her there just as I hadleft her. The savages, with their usual fearlessness, still pursued.For a moment I stood on the shore, with the grapple in my hand and theboat close by, and as they came near I discharged my pistol into themidst of them. Then I sprang into the boat; the swift current bore meaway, and in a few minutes the crowd of pursuing demons disappearedfrom view.