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Page 52
Sir George Somers and his tempest-tossed comrades, however, hailed them
with rapture, as if they had been a terrestrial paradise. Every sail was
spread, and every exertion made to urge the foundering ship to land.
Before long, she struck upon a rock. Fortunately, the late stormy winds
had subsided, and there was no surf. A swelling wave lifted her from off
the rock, and bore her to another; and thus she was borne on from rock
to rock, until she remained wedged between two, as firmly as if set upon
the stocks. The boats were immediately lowered, and, though the shore
was above a mile distant, the whole crew were landed in safety.
Every one had now his task assigned him. Some made all haste to unload
the ship, before she should go to pieces; some constructed wigwams of
palmetto leaves, and others ranged the island in quest of wood and
water. To their surprise and joy, they found it far different from the
desolate and frightful place they had been taught, by seamen's stories,
to expect. It was well-wooded and fertile; there were birds of various
kinds, and herds of swine roaming about, the progeny of a number that
had swam ashore, in former years, from a Spanish wreck. The island
abounded with turtle, and great quantities of their eggs were to be
found among the rocks. The bays and inlets were full of fish; so tame,
that if any one stepped into the water, they would throng around him.
Sir George Somers, in a little while, caught enough with hook and line
to furnish a meal to his whole ship's company. Some of them were so
large, that two were as much as a man could carry. Crawfish, also,
were taken in abundance. The air was soft and salubrious, and the sky
beautifully serene. Waller, in his "Summer Islands," has given us a
faithful picture of the climate:
"For the kind spring, (which but salutes us here,)
Inhabits these, and courts them all the year:
Ripe fruits and blossoms on the same trees live;
At once they promise, and at once they give:
So sweet the air, so moderate the clime,
None sickly lives, or dies before his time.
Heaven sure has kept this spot of earth uncursed
To shew how all things were created first."
We may imagine the feelings of the shipwrecked marines on finding
themselves cast by stormy seas upon so happy a coast; where abundance
was to be had without labor; where what in other climes constituted the
costly luxuries of the rich, were within every man's reach; and where
life promised to be a mere holiday. Many of the common sailors,
especially, declared they desired no better lot than to pass the rest of
their lives on this favored island.
The commanders, however, were not so ready to console themselves
with mere physical comforts, for the severance from the enjoyment of
cultivated life, and all the objects of honorable ambition. Despairing
of the arrival of any chance ship on these shunned and dreaded islands,
they fitted out the long-boat, making a deck of the ship's hatches,
and having manned her with eight picked men, despatched her, under
the command of an able and hardy mariner, named Raven, to proceed to
Virginia, and procure shipping to be sent to their relief.
While waiting in anxious idleness for the arrival of the looked-for
aid, dissensions arose between Sir George Somers and Sir Thomas Gates,
originating, very probably, in jealousy of the lead which the nautical
experience and professional station of the admiral gave him in the
present emergency. Each commander, of course, had his adherents:
these dissensions ripened into a complete schism; and this handful
of shipwrecked men, thus thrown together, on an uninhabited island,
separated into two parties, and lived asunder in bitter feud, as men
rendered fickle by prosperity instead of being brought into brotherhood
by a common calamity.
Weeks and months elapsed, without bringing the looked-for aid from
Virginia, though that colony was within but a few days' sail. Fears were
now entertained that the long-boat had been either swallowed up in
the sea, or wrecked on some savage coast; one or other of which most
probably was the case, as nothing was ever heard of Raven and his
comrades.
Each party now set to work to build a vessel for itself out of the cedar
with which the island abounded. The wreck of the Sea-Vulture furnished
rigging, and various other articles; but they had no iron for bolts, and
other fastenings; and for want of pitch and tar, they payed the seams of
their vessels with lime and turtle's oil, which soon dried, and became
as hard as stone.
On the tenth of May, 1610, they set sail, having been about nine months
on the island. They reached Virginia without farther accident, but found
the colony in great distress for provisions. The account they gave of
the abundance that reigned in the Bermudas, and especially of the herds
of swine that roamed the island, determined Lord Delaware, the governor
of Virginia, to send thither for supplies. Sir George Somers, with his
wonted promptness and generosity, offered to undertake what was still
considered a dangerous voyage. Accordingly, on the nineteenth of June,
he set sail, in his own cedar vessel of thirty tons, accompanied by
another small vessel, commanded by Captain Argall.
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