Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.) Page 14

  CHAPTER X.

  Lays in great store of provisions--Resolves to traverse the rock--Sails for three weeks, still seeing it only--Is sucked under the rock, and hurried down a cataract--Continues there five weeks--His description of the cavern--His thoughts and difficulties--His arrival at a great lake--And his landing in the beautiful country of Graundevolet

  I had for a long time wanted to see the other side of the rock, andat last resolved to try if I could not coast it quite round; for, asI reasoned with myself, I might possibly find some landing-places, andperhaps a convenient habitation on shore. But as I was very uncertainwhat time that might take up, I determined on having provisions,instruments of divers kinds, and necessary utensils in plenty, to guardagainst accidents as well as I could. I therefore took another sea-chestout of the hold of the ship, and letting it into my boat, replenished itwith a stock of wine, brandy, oil, bread, and the like, sufficient fora considerable voyage. I also filled a large cask with water, and tooka good quantity of salt to cure what fish I should take by the way. Icarried two guns, two brace of pistols, and other arms, with ammunitionproportionable; also an axe or two, a saw to cut wood if I should seeany, and a few other tools, which might be highly serviceable if I couldland. To all these I added an old sail, to make a covering for my goodsand artillery against the weather. Thus furnished and equipped, havingsecured my hatches on board, and everything that might spoil by wet, Iset out, with a God's speed, on my expedition, committing myself oncemore to Providence and the main ocean, and proceeding the same way Iwent the first time.

  I did not sail extraordinary fast, but frequently fished in properplaces, and caught a great deal, salting and drying the best of what Itook. For three weeks' time and more, I saw no entrance into the island,as I call it, nor anything but the same unscalable rock. This uniformprospect gave me so little hopes of landing, that I was almost of a mindto have returned again. But, on mature deliberation, resolving to goforward a day or two more, I had not proceeded twenty-four hours, when,just as it was becoming dark, I heard a great noise, as of a fall ofwater, whereupon I proposed to lie by and wait for day, to see what itwas; but the stream insensibly drawing me on, I soon found myself in aneddy; and the boat drawing forward beyond all my power to resist it, Iwas quickly sucked under a low arch, where, if I had not fallen flat inmy boat, having barely light enough to see my danger, I had undoubtedlybeen crushed to pieces or driven overboard. I could perceive the boatto fall with incredible violence, as I thought, down a precipice, andsuddenly whirled round and round with me, the water roaring on allsides, and dashing against the rock with a most amazing noise.

  I expected every moment my poor little vessel would be staved againstthe rock, and I overwhelmed with waters; and for that reason never onceattempted to rise up, or look upon my peril, till after the commotionhad in some measure ceased. At length, finding the perturbation of thewater abate, and as if by degrees I came into a smoother stream, I tookcourage just to lift up my affrighted head; but guess, if you can, thehorror which seized me, on finding myself in the blackest of darkness,unable to perceive the smallest glimmer of light.

  However, as my boat seemed to glide easily, I roused myself and struck alight; but if I had my terrors before, what must I have now! I was quitestupefied at the tremendous view of an immense arch over my head, towhich I could see no bounds; the stream itself, as I judged, was aboutthirty yards broad, but in some places wider, in some narrower. It waswell for me I happened to have a tinder-box, or, though I had escapedhitherto, I must have at lust perished; for in the narrower parts of thestream, where it ran swiftest, there were frequently such crags stoodout from the rock, by reason of the turnings and windings, and suchsets of the current against them, as, could I not have seen to manage myboat, which I took great care to keep in the middle of the stream, musthave thrown me on them, to my inevitable destruction.

  Happy it was for me, also, I was so well victualled, and that I hadtaken with me two bottles of oil (as I supposed, for I did not imagineI had any more), or I had certainly been lost, not only through hunger,for I was, to my guess, five weeks in the vault or cavern, but forwant of light, which the oil furnished, and without which all otherconveniences could have been of no avail to me. I was forced to keep mylamp always burning; so, not knowing how long my residence was to be inthat place, or when I should get my discharge from it, if ever, I wasobliged to husband my oil with the utmost frugality; and notwithstandingall my caution, it grew low, and was just spent, in little above halfthe time I stayed there.

  I had now cut a piece of my shirt for a wick to my last drop of oil,which I twisted and lighted. I burnt the oil in my brass tobacco-box,which I had fitted pretty well to answer the purpose Sitting down, I hadmany black thoughts of what must follow the loss of my light, which Iconsidered as near expiring, and that, I feared, for ever. I am here,thought I, like a poor condemned criminal, who knows his executionis fixed for such a day, nay, such an hour, and dies over and over inimagination, and by the torture of his mind, till that hour comes: thathour, which he so much dreads! and yet that very hour which releases himfrom all farther dread! Thus do I--my last wick is kindled--my last dropof fuel is consuming!--and I am every moment apprehending the shocks ofthe rock, the suffocation of the water; and, in short, thinking over mydying thoughts, till the snuff of my lamp throws up its last curling,expiring flame, and then my quietus will be presently signed, and Ireleased from my tormenting anxiety! Happy minute! Come then; I onlywait for thee! My spirits grew so low and feeble upon this, that I hadrecourse to my brandy bottle to raise them; but, as I was just going totake a sip, I reflected that would only increase thirst, and, therefore,it were better to take a little of my white Madeira; so, puttingmy dram-bottle again into the chest, I held up one of Madeira, as Ifancied, to the lamp, and seeing it was white (for I had red too) Iclapped it eagerly to my mouth, when the first gulp gave me a greaterrefreshment, and more cheered my heart, than all the other liquors I hadput together could have done; insomuch, as I had almost leaped over theboat's side for joy. "It is oil!" cried I aloud, "it is oil!" I set itdown carefully, with inexpressible pleasure; and examining the rest ofthe bottles I had taken for white Madeira, I found two more of thoseto be filled with oil. "Now," says I, "here is the counterpart of mycondemned prisoner! For let but a pardon come, though at the gallows,how soon does he forget he has been an unhappy villain! And I, too, havescarce a notion now, how a man, in my case, could feel such sorrow as Ihave for want of a little oil."

  After my first transport, I found myself grow serious, reflecting uponthe vigilance of Providence over us poor creatures, and the variousinstances wherein it interposes to save or relieve us in cases ofthe deepest distress, where our own foresight, wisdom, and power haveutterly failed, and when, looking all around, we could discover nomeans of deliverance. And I saw a train of circumstances leading tothe incident I have just mentioned, which obliged me to acknowledge thesuperintendence of Heaven over even my affairs; and as the goodnessof God had cared for me thus far, and manifested itself to me now, inrescuing me, as it were, from being swallowed up in darkness, I hadground to hope He intended a complete deliverance of me out ofthat dismal abyss, and would cause me yet to praise Him in the fullbrightness of day.

  A series of these meditations brought me (at the end of five weeks, asnearly as I could compute it by my lamp) to a prodigious lake of water,bordered with a grassy down, about half a mile wide, of the finestverdure I had ever seen: this again was flanked with a wood or grove,rising like an amphitheatre, of about the same breadth; and behind, andabove all, appeared the naked rock to an immense height.