CHAPTER 10

Shortly afterward an incident occurred which I am induced to look

upon as more intensely productive of emotion, as far more replete

with the extremes first of delight and then of horror, than even

any of the thousand chances which afterward befell me in nine

long years, crowded with events of the most startling and, in

many cases, of the most unconceived and unconceivable character.

We were lying on the deck near the companion-way, and debating

the possibility of yet making our way into the storeroom, when,

looking toward Augustus, who lay fronting myself, I perceived

that he had become all at once deadly pale, and that his lips

were quivering in the most singular and unaccountable manner.

Greatly alarmed, I spoke to him, but he made me no reply, and I

was beginning to think that he was suddenly taken ill, when I

took notice of his eyes, which were glaring apparently at some

object behind me. I turned my head, and shall never forget the

ecstatic joy which thrilled through every particle of my frame,

when I perceived a large brig bearing down upon us, and not more

than a couple of miles off. I sprung to my feet as if a musket

bullet had suddenly struck me to the heart; and, stretching out

my arms in the direction of the vessel, stood in this manner,

motionless, and unable to articulate a syllable. Peters and

Parker were equally affected, although in different ways. The

former danced about the deck like a madman, uttering the most

extravagant rhodomontades, intermingled with howls and

imprecations, while the latter burst into tears, and continued

for many minutes weeping like a child.

The vessel in sight was a large hermaphrodite brig, of a Dutch

build, and painted black, with a tawdry gilt figure-head. She had

evidently seen a good deal of rough weather, and, we supposed,

had suffered much in the gale which had proved so disastrous to

ourselves; for her foretopmast was gone, and some of her

starboard bulwarks. When we first saw her, she was, as I have

already said, about two miles off and to windward, bearing down

upon us. The breeze was very gentle, and what astonished us

chiefly was, that she had no other sails set than her foremast

and mainsail, with a flying jib—of course she came down but

slowly, and our impatience amounted nearly to phrensy. The

awkward manner in which she steered, too, was remarked by all of

us, even excited as we were. She yawed about so considerably,

that once or twice we thought it impossible she could see us, or

imagined that, having seen us, and discovered no person on board,

she was about to tack and make off in another direction. Upon

each of these occasions we screamed and shouted at the top of our

voices, when the stranger would appear to change for a moment her

intention, and again hold on toward us—this singular conduct

being repeated two or three times, so that at last we could think

of no other manner of accounting for it than by supposing the

helmsman to be in liquor.

No person was seen upon her decks until she arrived within about

a quarter of a mile of us. We then saw three seamen, whom by

their dress we took to be Hollanders. Two of these were lying on

some old sails near the forecastle, and the third, who appeared

to be looking at us with great curiosity, was leaning over the

starboard bow near the bowsprit. This last was a stout and tall

man, with a very dark skin. He seemed by his manner to be

encouraging us to have patience, nodding to us in a cheerful

although rather odd way, and smiling constantly, so as to display

a set of the most brilliantly white teeth. As his vessel drew

nearer, we saw a red flannel cap which he had on fall from his

head into the water; but of this he took little or no notice,

continuing his odd smiles and gesticulations. I relate these

things and circumstances minutely, and I relate them, it must be

understood, precisely as they _appeared_to us.

The brig came on slowly, and now more steadily than before, and—I

cannot speak calmly of this event—our hearts leaped up wildly

within us, and we poured out our whole souls in shouts and

thanksgiving to God for the complete, unexpected, and glorious

deliverance that was so palpably at hand. Of a sudden, and all at

once, there came wafted over the ocean from the strange vessel

(which was now close upon us) a smell, a stench, such as the

whole world has no name for—no conception of—hellish—utterly

suffocating—insufferable, inconceivable. I gasped for breath, and

turning to my companions, perceived that they were paler than

marble. But we had now no time left for question or surmise—the

brig was within fifty feet of us, and it seemed to be her

intention to run under our counter, that we might board her

without putting out a boat. We rushed aft, when, suddenly, a wide

yaw threw her off full five or six points from the course she had

been running, and, as she passed under our stern at the distance

of about twenty feet, we had a full view of her decks. Shall I

ever forget the triple horror of that spectacle? Twenty-five or

thirty human bodies, among whom were several females, lay

scattered about between the counter and the galley in the last

and most loathsome state of putrefaction. We plainly saw that not

a soul lived in that fated vessel! Yet we could not help shouting

to the dead for help! Yes, long and loudly did we beg, in the

agony of the moment, that those silent and disgusting images

would stay for us, would not abandon us to become like them,

would receive us among their goodly company! We were raving with

horror and despair—thoroughly mad through the anguish of our

grievous disappointment.

As our first loud yell of terror broke forth, it was replied to

by something, from near the bowsprit of the stranger, so closely

resembling the scream of a human voice that the nicest ear might

have been startled and deceived. At this instant another sudden

yaw brought the region of the forecastle for a moment into view,

and we beheld at once the origin of the sound. We saw the tall

stout figure still leaning on the bulwark, and still nodding his

head to and fro, but his face was now turned from us so that we

could not behold it. His arms were extended over the rail, and

the palms of his hands fell outward. His knees were lodged upon a

stout rope, tightly stretched, and reaching from the heel of the

bowsprit to a cathead. On his back, from which a portion of the

shirt had been torn, leaving it bare, there sat a huge sea-gull,

busily gorging itself with the horrible flesh, its bill and

talons deep buried, and its white plumage spattered all over with

blood. As the brig moved farther round so as to bring us close in

view, the bird, with much apparent difficulty, drew out its

crimsoned head, and, after eyeing us for a moment as if

stupefied, arose lazily from the body upon which it had been

feasting, and, flying directly above our deck, hovered there a

while with a portion of clotted and liver-like substance in its

beak. The horrid morsel dropped at length with a sullen splash

immediately at the feet of Parker. May God forgive me, but now,

for the first time, there flashed through my mind a thought, a

thought which I will not mention, and I felt myself making a step

toward the ensanguined spot. I looked upward, and the eyes of

Augustus met my own with a degree of intense and eager meaning

which immediately brought me to my senses. I sprang forward

quickly, and, with a deep shudder, threw the frightful thing into

the sea.

The body from which it had been taken, resting as it did upon the

rope, had been easily swayed to and fro by the exertions of the

carnivorous bird, and it was this motion which had at first

impressed us with the belief of its being alive. As the gull

relieved it of its weight, it swung round and fell partially

over, so that the face was fully discovered. Never, surely, was

any object so terribly full of awe! The eyes were gone, and the

whole flesh around the mouth, leaving the teeth utterly naked.

This, then, was the smile which had cheered us on to hope! this

the—but I forbear. The brig, as I have already told, passed under

our stern, and made its way slowly but steadily to leeward. With

her and with her terrible crew went all our gay visions of

deliverance and joy. Deliberately as she went by, we might

possibly have found means of boarding her, had not our sudden

disappointment and the appalling nature of the discovery which

accompanied it laid entirely prostrate every active faculty of

mind and body. We had seen and felt, but we could neither think

nor act, until, alas! too late. How much our intellects had been

weakened by this incident may be estimated by the fact, that when

the vessel had proceeded so far that we could perceive no more

than the half of her hull, the proposition was seriously

entertained of attempting to overtake her by swimming!

I have, since this period, vainly endeavoured to obtain some clew

to the hideous uncertainty which enveloped the fate of the

stranger. Her build and general appearance, as I have before

stated, led us to the belief that she was a Dutch trader, and the

dresses of the crew also sustained this opinion. We might have

easily seen the name upon her stern, and, indeed, taken other

observations, which would have guided us in making out her

character; but the intense excitement of the moment blinded us to

every thing of that nature. From the saffron-like hue of such of

the corpses as were not entirely decayed, we concluded that the

whole of her company had perished by the yellow fever, or some

other virulent disease of the same fearful kind. If such were the

case (and I know not what else to imagine), death, to judge from

the positions of the bodies, must have come upon them in a manner

awfully sudden and overwhelming, in a way totally distinct from

that which generally characterizes even the most deadly

pestilences with which mankind are acquainted. It is possible,

indeed, that poison, accidentally introduced into some of their

sea-stores, may have brought about the disaster, or that the

eating of some unknown venomous species of fish, or other marine

animal, or oceanic bird, might have induced it—but it is utterly

useless to form conjectures where all is involved, and will, no

doubt, remain for ever involved, in the most appalling and

unfathomable mystery.