What Became of the White Savage (2 page)

The girls were half-caste and he ended up with the darkest of them. As she led him towards one of the huts clustered together at the back of the courtyard he made a lewd suggestion with a broad smile on his face. She didn’t understand French, but she murmured something in response as she closed the door. In the half-light he could make out a basin, a mat and a candle. He undressed and lay down beside her. He heard his shipmates’ groans carried on the soft air through the holes in the walls as he turned his attention to his own pleasure.

When he’d finished, he began to doze off, sensing the warmth of her dark skin – when an insistent banging on the doors reminded them that the time paid for was up. He dressed and rejoined his mates and together they drank a last jug, boasting of their prowess.

Now, as the last rays of light faded, he went back to his makeshift shelter. He managed to edge his way in without causing the structure to collapse, and lay down on his bed of ferns. He was used to the swaying of the hammock aboard ship and the hard sand seemed strangely still and flat. He thought of all the times during the voyage when his mind had taken him back to that night with the whore from the Cape. He was sorry he hadn’t asked her name. He couldn’t really remember her delicate face, he had barely glimpsed it. But he could recall the smell and distinctive texture of her skin. His mates had made fun of him and joked about the blackness of her skin. In all his encounters at different ports of call, she was the darkest of the women he’d been with. But so what? It was her dark skin that had filled his thoughts during his nights in the hammock, and now, lying here alone in this alien land, he wrapped himself again in the warmth of those memories.

It was after the Cape that things had started to go wrong. The captain had chosen a southerly route to make the most of the easterly winds. They’d come up against the storm, with heavy, cross seas and snow squalls. For six days, they’d tried night and day to force a passage before finally abandoning the attempt and heading back to calmer latitudes. The ship and the crew had taken a beating: broken rigging, ripped sails, numerous bruises. One fellow, a topman from the Vendée, had broken his shoulder after falling from a topsail and the second mate had done what he could to repair the broken bone. The ship had sustained damage to the hold with several water barrels rendered useless.

In the Cape they’d taken on a man from Brittany, from Guilvinec, who claimed to be a deserter from an English ship. He didn’t look too healthy, but the captain was always short of hands and had agreed to take him on. The man had ignored the abuse hurled at him by the crew and had sat out most of the storm trying to find shelter before finally declaring himself sick. The rumour was that he hadn’t jumped ship but had been put ashore on account of his weakened state. The second mate tried some of his remedies, but the Breton faded away before their eyes and died ten days after they set sail. No one had taken the time to get to know him: they hadn’t really felt any inclination to. But the death of a man aboard ship always leaves a lasting impression.

Their maps showed an island, Saint-Paul, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The captain hoped they’d be able to take on some fresh water there and do something to help the injured man. From that point on, the sea was calm, occasionally disturbed by a long swell. Banks of mist drifted under a milky sky. They found the island of Saint-Paul and sailed around it: an extinct volcano, no sign of a river or a stream, nowhere to put in, nowhere to drop anchor.

They were left with no choice but to continue towards Australia. According to the second mate, the vast west coast was treacherous and sandy, with no shelter or fresh water anywhere. The south coast was virtually unknown. On the east coast, there was the penal colony founded by the English in Sydney, with another one at Hobart Town in Tasmania. They decided to try the north coast, and from there, continue towards Java or one of the Dutch colonies in the Sunda Islands.

After the island of Saint-Paul, the wind dropped almost completely. They could go no further south in the light breeze. The sails shivered and rustled silkily as the heat and humidity became oppressive. The injured man lay on the bridge in agony. And then a cabin boy and the carpenter fell ill and took to calling incessantly for water to drink. The captain decided to ration the water. It was now two months since they had set sail from Bordeaux.

The wind picked up again but now it was a facing wind. For five days they plied windward only to realise that a reverse current was hindering their meagre progress. The seawater was warm, the air stifling; an oppressive humidity engulfed the ship. The wounded sailor and the two sick men lay groaning at the foot of the mainmast. The captain wore a grim expression on his face. In the forecastle, men talked in hushed voices, recounting earlier voyages to China and the dangers they had faced. There was no more singing in the evenings.

The cabin boy died. He was a good lad, a Breton, from Quimper. The crew were deeply affected by his suffering. Squalls streaked the horizon, but no rain came their way. And then another man fell ill, a fellow from Sète. The captain seemed more and more at a loss. Shouts were heard, angry words exchanged between the captain and the second mate. After two weeks with no wind at all, followed by a period of foul wind, a good breeze from the south finally set in and they were able to breathe again. But then, two more men fell ill; no one could understand why. Two deaths, one wounded man, three sick: there weren’t enough hands to hoist full sail and the captain had no choice but to go on under reduced sail even though the winds were favourable. Water rations were reduced.

They sailed well clear of the west coast and the north-western tip of Australia. Coming into the Gulf of Carpentaria they followed the coastline at a distance. With the aid of a telescope, they could make out nothing but inhospitable mangrove swamps and long stretches of sand. The captain never dared to give the order to take a closer look, sailing further from the coast in the evening, and only approaching again in the morning. The Arafura Sea seemed to go on for ever. They spent a week navigating in this cautious manner. The islands of the Torres Strait came into view, but the captain did not want to make landfall there for fear of being attacked by savages. The heat had once more become intolerable. There was no improvement in the sick men’s condition.

The schooner headed full south and tried to find a passage through the maze of sandy islands and coral reefs that rose out of the water and threatened constantly to rip open the ship’s hull. On the third day, they managed to get reasonably close to shore and found a welcoming bay, bordered by a ring of trees, behind a rocky peninsular. The captain decided to explore it, telling the men that if this area proved to be as arid as the others, they would abandon Australia and head for Java. The dinghy was launched, the larboard watch called; they rowed to shore, pulling hard on the oars and landed on the beach with four empty barrels to be filled with fresh water.

Yes, it was after the Cape that things had gone from bad to worse. Now, lying on his bed of ferns, he thought longingly of water: a great jug of fresh water.

He went to sleep, forgetting his hunger. Several times in the night, he woke up with a start, expecting to be roused by an order for more sails, with the reassuring sound of bare feet on the boards and the snoring of his shipmates. But no, there was only the silence of this alien land, a bed of leaves instead of his hammock. He closed his eyes again, amazed that he was still alive.

In the morning, it took him a few moments to recall the previous day’s events. He leapt up, knocking down his makeshift hut. The sun had just risen, but no birdsong had announced the dawn. He headed back along the wooded valley towards his lookout point at the top of the cliff. One glance was enough for him to realise there would be no rescue that day: heavy clouds were scudding across a lowering sky, the sea was flecked with white horses, huge rollers were breaking on the reef that bounded the bay, the surface of the water alive with waves criss-crossing it. No mariner would risk sailing his ship into this.

He felt crushed by the physical sensation of his solitude. Letting himself slide to the ground, he put his head on his knees and fought back the tears of rage that engulfed him. Thirst made his tongue stick to the roof of his mouth. On the ridge, the sand blew up in whirls, whipped up by gusts of wind into short-lived tornadoes.

He went back down to the beach and followed the bay towards the south. The trees he’d guessed at in vague outline the day before became a forest, and by the time he reached them, he realised he was in a mangrove swamp. Trunks rose out of the muddy, murky water, where there lurked God knows what kind of creatures. Turning away from the sea, he began to walk along the side of the gully. The plateau dropped down into a vague plain, the swamp stretching inland as far as the eye could see. Discouraged, he turned back and retraced his steps. Even if he had found a way through, what would he have done? Crossed the mangrove swamp to get to the next beach? The only European settlement he knew of was Sydney and that was hundreds of leagues away. Without food or water, with no map, he’d have no chance of surviving. And the rescue party would only look for him where they had last seen him.

The wind grew stronger, cracking the branches. Black clouds gathered, squalls forming somewhere out on the horizon. Long strands of seaweed littered the beach, thrown up by the roiling seas. The tide was drawing out, and he waded into the water to examine the coral blocks revealed by the receding waters. He found five shells that looked like mussels and wondered if they were edible. Without a second thought he consumed them, but these few grammes of tender salty flesh only sharpened his growing hunger and intensified his thirst.

A feeling of dizziness overcame him and he went to sit in the shade of a eucalyptus tree. To avoid thinking of his misfortunes, he slept, unperturbed by thoughts of protecting himself from danger: there were no wild beasts, no human beings living in this place.

When he awoke, the worst of the bad weather seemed to have past, leaving only the leaden skies and oppressive heat. Feeling despondent, he walked to pass the time; without any particular plan in mind, he headed for the rocky point that bounded the bay to the north, with little hope of finding anything that might be of use in this chaotic pile of sterile coral blocks. Heaving himself up to the top, he looked out at the coastline of steep cliffs and sheer drops, intercut by creeks that would be impossible to penetrate from the coast. And beyond stretched the plateau with its endless monotony of dusty green vegetation.

The tide seemed to be out and it occurred to him to build a fish trap; he’d heard talk of them and would lose nothing by trying. He spent the next hour shifting rocks and stones around, erecting a sort of low curved wall turned towards the beach. At high tide, some of the less agile fish would obligingly linger there and he’d be able to catch them with his bare hands once the tide went out.

With the trap completed he was overcome by obsessive hunger, and by an even stronger, all-consuming thirst. Water had been rationed on the ship for more than two weeks. And he hadn’t passed water for more than a day now; he knew this was a bad sign. There was no fruit on the trees, no hidden reserves of moisture to be sucked from the woody branches of the bushes. He went back to sit at his lookout post at the top of the small cliff, in the shade. Dusk was gathering. Out beyond the bay, the sea seemed to be gradually smoothing out, a long swell the only remaining sign of the storm’s passage. Aboard the
Saint-Paul
it would be time for the evening meal, for tales and songs after a day’s work and before the night. Was there talk of him? Had the captain made known his intentions with regard to him? With water supplies low, one crew member injured and three sick men on board, the captain would surely be in a hurry to pick up the missing man, and continue the voyage to Java and China. Two days ashore without food, water or any means of communication would surely be punishment enough for his foolishness. A fitting price to pay for thinking he could flout orders and strike out alone to explore beyond the cliff. Dawn would bring high tide, the ship would be there, lying-to beyond the bay while the dinghy came ashore. The oarsmen would be worried at first, unsparing in their sarcasm when they found him, but they’d give him water to drink and offer him a biscuit to eat.

What was he thinking? With water supplies low, one wounded man and three ailing, would the captain waste precious time searching for one foolhardy individual who’d got himself left behind on shore? He would first have to think of getting help for the injured and wounded. What chance was there that he’d opt to wait out the storm, tacking into the wind until they could come ashore again. And for what? To find that the lost man had been devoured by wild beasts or eaten by savages? Four lives against one. Why try to rescue one man who was in all probability already dead? Who would take such a risk? The only reasonable choice would be to set sail for Java without delay as soon as the dinghy returned. They’d try to get ahead of the storm. By now the
Saint-Paul
had probably been heading due north for two days. And here he was, watching out for the ship from the top of his perch. No. There would be no rescue party.

But then again. Even if the captain had taken the heartless decision to abandon a man, the entire crew would have mutinied, wouldn’t they? Forced the captain to let them come to his rescue? All of the men? Who would actually have spoken up in his favour? Pierre? Joseph? Yvon? He started to count off on his fingers the men who might stick up for him, hesitated, started again, and finally gave up.

Such speculations were unhealthy. They served no purpose. His only concern must be to stay alive, and first of all to find water. That was the only thing that mattered.

He stood up quickly. Dizziness overcame him again and he had to lean against the tree to regain his balance and stop himself falling to his knees. Hunger continued to gnaw away at him. He went to the edge of the cliff, faced the hard blue darkening sea, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted: