第15章

However, I fixed up a flagstaff on the highest point of the island--(poor "island,"--THAT was not many inches)--and floated an ensign UPSIDE DOWN from it, in the hope that this signal of distress might be sighted by some stray vessel, and indicate the presence of a castaway to those on board.Every morning I made my way to the flagstaff, and scanned the horizon for a possible sail, but Ialways had to come away disappointed.This became a habit; yet, so eternal is hope, that day by day, week by week, and month by month the bitter disappointment was always a keen torture.By the way, the very reefs that made those seas so dangerous served completely to protect my little island in stormy weather.The fury of the billows lost itself upon them, so that even the surf very rarely reached me.I was usually astir about sunrise.I knew that the sun rose about 6 A.M.in those tropical seas and set at 6 P.M.;there was very little variation all the year round.A heavy dew descended at night, which made the air delightfully cool; but in the day it was so frightfully hot that I could not bear the weight of ordinary clothes upon my person, so I took to wearing a silk shawl instead, hung loosely round my waist.

Another reason why I abandoned clothes was because I found that when a rent appeared the sun blazed down through it and raised a painful blister.On the other hand, by merely wearing a waist-cloth, and taking constant sea baths, I suffered scarcely at all from the scorching tropical sun.I now devoted all my energies to the wreck of the Veielland, lest anything should happen to it, and worked with feverish energy to get everything I possibly could out of the ship.It took me some months to accomplish this, but eventually I had removed everything--even the greater part of the cargo of pearl shells.The work was rendered particularly arduous in consequence of the decks being so frequently under water; and Ifound it was only at the full and new moons that I could actually WALK round on the rocks to the wreck.In course of time the ship began to break up, and I materially assisted the operation with an axe.I wanted her timbers to build a boat in which to escape.

The casks of flour I floated ashore were very little the worse for their immersion; in fact, the water had only soaked through to the depth of a couple of inches, forming a kind of protecting wet crust, and leaving the inner part perfectly dry and good.Much of this flour, however, was afterwards spoiled by weevils; nor did my spreading out the precious grain in the sunlight on tarpaulins and sails save it from at least partial destruction.I also brought ashore bags of beans, rice, and maize; cases of preserved milk and vegetables, and innumerable other articles of food, besides some small casks of oil and rum.In fact, I stripped the ship's interior of everything, and at the end of nine months very little remained of her on the rocks but the bare skeleton of the hull.Imoved all the things out day by day according to the tides.

In a large chest that came ashore from the captain's cabin I found a stock of all kinds of seeds, and I resolved to see whether Icould grow a little corn.Jensen himself had put the seeds aboard in order to plant them on some of the islands near which we might be compelled to anchor for some length of time.Another object was to grow plants on board for the amusement of the Malays.The seeds included vegetables, flowers, and Indian corn, the last named being in the cob.The Malays are very fond of flowers, and the captain told them that they might try and cultivate some in boxes on board;but when he saw that this would mean an additional drain upon his supply of fresh water he withdrew the permission.I knew that salt water would not nourish plants, and I was equally certain I could not spare fresh water from my own stock for this purpose.

Nevertheless, I set my wits to work, and at length decided upon an interesting experiment.I filled a large turtle shell with sand and a little clay, and thoroughly wetted the mixture with turtle's blood, then stirring the mass into a puddle and planting corn in it.

The grain quickly sprouted, and flourished so rapidly, that within a very short time I was able to transplant it--always, however, nourishing it with the blood of turtles.This most satisfactory result induced me to extend my operation, and I soon had quaint little crops of maize and wheat growing in huge turtle shells; the wheat-plants, however, did not reach maturity.

For a long time I was content with the simple awning I have described as a place of shelter, but when I began to recover the pearl shells from the ship, it occurred to me that I might use them as material with which to build some kind of a hut.Altogether there were about thirty tons of pearl shells on board, and at first I took to diving for them merely as a sort of pastime.

I spent many weeks getting enough shells ashore to build a couple of parallel walls, each about seven feet high, three feet thick, and ten feet in length.The breeze blew gratefully through them.

I filled the interstices of these walls with a puddle of clayey sand and water, covered in the top with canvas, and made quite a comfortable living-place out of it.The walls at any rate had a high commercial value! When the wet season set in I built a third wall at one end, and erected a sort of double awning in front, under which I always kept my fire burning.I also put a straw thatch over the hut, proudly using my own straw which I had grown with blood.