Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Next Page
OCR
"
" framework for the seaman’s relations.
TRUTH IS POWERFUL,
VOU. IN,
) BICBRACURE,
to
TALES OF A VOYAGER TO'THE ARCTIC OCEAN.
12mo,. 3 vols. . London, 1826. Colburn,
- This story-teller, an invalid, instead of going to the West In-
dies, like our rheumatic and amusing fiiend, Mr, Coleridge,
takes a voyage in a Greenland whaler to the Arctic Ocean, as
a cure for tendency to. consumption. _ This novel remedy is
successful, and he returns convalescent, having seen much
flinching, without experiencing that sensation, and prevent-
ed his family’s tears by revelling in the midst of blubber. , He
has also told and heard sundry tales in the course of his trip ;
for, by singuMr good luck to a person of literary propensities,
the captain, the surgeon, the first-mate, and even the secoud
mate, are addicted to the pleasant method of passing artic
evenings, by sitting round the cabin stove and spinning a yarn
in turn. |: $
"The details of the voyage leave no doubt on our minds that
they are written by a person who bona fide performed it. They
are indeed rather too particular in many places, so that, tho”
good in themselves, they form a rather heavy and icongruous
Of these relations, in-
finitely the best is the Nikkur Holl, a romance of the Shetland
Isles, in which a picture of the islanders and their occupations
is very happily mixed up with their superstitions,. and wound
jato a narrative where thé natural and the supernatural are so
well blended, that we are at a loss to say which interests most.
As an example of the work, we shall endeavour to curtail this
ot onc of the outer Skerries dwelt two fishermen, whom ear-
ly circumstances had mas le the Pylades and Orestes of this
remote region, though “their persons and tem, ers were as un-
Jike as a sealgh and a sillock. Petie Winwig was a thickset,
Dutch built, heavy-headed calf, with a broad, swollen, grin-
ning countenance, | Ilis cheeks rose like too lumps of blubber
on each side of his nose, almost concealing that, as well as his
Tittle eyes, when he Jaughed. A perpetual smile of good hu- |
snour and acquiescence sat upon his face, and his well fattened
limbs and body showed that care and discontent never pre-
vented his stomach’s doing its duty in an able manver, On the
other hand, his associate and partner was a perfect wasp, both
in appearance and activity. He was ‘a lean hungry looking’
rogue, and complete ‘ spare Cassius’ in his way, His figure was
tall and bony, with a length of arm fit for a king, and an eye as
quick as a donkey’s. His looks were prying and inquisitive,
and that shrewdness of his features was greatly heightened b
a long and hooked nose, which obtained “for him. ‘amongst his
countrymen who had been (as.most of theny e) in the Green-
Jand seas, the designation of the Mallemak. ‘This title he in-
deed well sustained, for he was as rapacious, and as constantly
on the wing as that unwearied bird; but be might as justly
have been called a Solan, or a pelican; for if he could not
poise himself in the air, or plunge down, like one of them, on
ashoal of fishes, he knew. no bounds to his desire to obtain
them; nor would the possession of all the inhabitants of the
deep have satisfied his covetousness. . His real name was Da-
niel, but he was commonly called Spief Trosk;, the hardest dii-
ver of a bargain who ever brought goods to Lerwick.” .
™~ By tbe most incessant activity of Spiel, and, the. patient in-
dustry of his co-partner,’ they obtain comparative wealth and
consideration. At length Trosk’s sont became infested with a
superstitions idea that he, would acquire great riches, by some
extraordinary means, and not by persevering labour, .
“ fis mind grew uneasy and anxious, and instead of wearing
the air of an active man of business, with a keen and decisive
glance of the eye, he shewed the restléss and haggard countet
nance of a person bereft of his dropertyy ~ He began to prow!
and roam abont now, more in the kope of meeting with. the
sifts of chance than in pursuit of any determined object, wand
his looks grew rapacious from avarice, and angry from disap-
intment; still he did not neglect any of his former ocenpa-
ions, though he performed them with less alacrity of spirit and
tel tification than before; but he was wont to fall into reveries
aa ‘calculations upon the nature of the: event which was to fiat
measure of his covetousness, if, indeed, such agdesire
Another phenomenon occurred to perplex him, ever on drop-
ping to sleep he keard a certain word, which he never could
teanember or repeat; and at this period his visionary , hopes
were further excited by finding a piece of pure gold
of abullet, on the shore, early in one of his mo ing prowls,
“Convinced that the treasures he looked for lay in the sea,
whence this specimen had rolled, he fished without interyaission
with a grappnel, about the coust adjoining ;,and while thus oc-
cupied upon atime, “he was interrupted by a heavy squall of
rain, hail, and snow, which drove with blinding fury over the
ocean, full in bis face; and though he cared little for weather,
he thought it ag well to seek shelter ina kind o cavern in the
rocks, not far from where he was standing, foreseeing that the
‘ tempest would not last long. Hither, then, he retreated, not
hy entering at its mouth, for the sea constantly poured in at
WW YORK, SAL
“ Ulaf opening, but by, descending down a wide gap iy its roof,
which led by craggy steps.to the cavity within,. A dark and
dreary retreat was this cavern, and of unusnal formation, for
it was not a blind cave,. penetrating directly into the cliff, but
avast gallery or tannet, which opened on one side of a steep
headland, and pierced through to the other, allowing the waves
torush and tumble along its gloomy gulf, till they foamed out
at the end opposite to that at which they entered. . From the
position of the external rocks, a constant succession of waves
were directed through it, and a perpetual roar reverberated in
its hollow bowels. . Few but adventgrous and thoughtless lads
had ever ventured within its interior, and their curiosity led
them not far; while the more niature, who had no motive for
encountering its difficulties, were contented with warning their
children not to fall down the rift that led. to it, which gaped
amidsta cluster of heather at the back of the promontory, and
with handing down its name of the Nikkur Loll, as they recei-
ved it from their fathers. Trosk left the low beach, and hur-
ried round the hill, to the opening that conducted to the chasm;
for the storm came pelting down more angrily than he had ex-
pected, and so thickly fell the sleet, that he could scarcely see
to pick his way through the peat bogs that lay at the foot ofthe
acclivity, deluged as they were with the little rills that descend-
ed into them. He bad not sought ‘ the yawn,’ as the mouth of
the rift was called, since he had been a youth, but he found jt
with little dificulty. On entering, however, he perceived that
its gulf was much less practicable to him now than he had been
used to consider it, when younger and more yenturesome ; and
though he was the most expert climber within the Skerries, he
felt no inclination to penetrate. farther within its abyss, tha
was requisite to screen him from the driving of the tempest.—
At about ten or twelve feet below the edge, there was a shelf
formed by the projection of a ledge of rock ‘and to this be let
himself down, and haying seated himself at length under the
lee of a block of stone, he drew out his piece of gold from his
pocket, and renewed his contemplations. His chief endea-
vour was3,to recollect if he had ever heard of a vessel having
been cast away near the Skerries; for to some such occurrence
he attributed the presence of the golden bullet, and he wished,
besides, to flatter a hope he had conceived, that this prize was
only the harbinger of a greater treasure ; but, with all his re-
trospection,
Meanwhile, the face of the heavens became less obscure with
clouds, the. wind no longer howled over the mouth of the gulf,
and the deep echoeing bellow of the troubled surge within the
Nikkur Holl was the only sound distinguishable. . The fisher-
man, however, did not awaken from the reverie into which he
had fallen, but remained sitting, almost unconsciously, on the
ledge within * the yawn,’ ’ [le was calling over in his mind the
names of several old persons, from wnom he meant to inquire
what vessels had been lost on the ceust within their memory,
and was scarcely aware that he was no seated by his own
hearth, when a voice whispered slowly in his ear, 'Car-mil-
han,’ ‘Good God!” cried Spiel, starting up and looking fear-
fully down the abyss,’ from whence tke sound seemed to come:
‘this is the word that haunts me in my sleep! what can it
mean?’ Whatis Carmilban? he would have said, but he felt,
unwilling to pronounce the strange term, though he now recog
nized it as that which he had so long endeavoured to utter, He
continued a few. moments .gazing into the dark void benerth,
and listening to the roaring waves, which seemed to wrestle
uaceasingly within the craggy entrails of the hill, tilla degree
jarm overcame him, and he turned to a‘cend the sides of
the rift; but, just as his last foot was withdrawn over the upper
edge, a slight breath of wind passed ont, and muttered ‘ Car-
mitban.’ ‘Carmilhan !? repeated I'rosk with violence ; ‘gra-
cious Heaven, why is this unknown word thus spoken to me?”
Ie then, rushed down the hiil, and Stopped not till he had has-
tened a great way towards his cottage."
On another occasion, at night, Spiel, while pursuing his sub-
marine inquisition, saw a figure on the ridge of the Nikkur
Holl, and after gazing on the spirit, began to haul with care
upon his line. He pulled with force, butthe hooks still clang
firmly to the bottom, and though the swell of the waves jerked
hard upon the rope, it kept its grasp. \Spiet palled still stron-
ger, and brought his shill close over the spot by his tugging;
but the grapnel kept its held. - He strained hard, just as the
clouds were about to shut out the light of the moon; the impe-
diment gave way, and he believed the line had broken, for he
felt no weight; but, in an instant, something large and dark
rose up above the surface of the water, ever which he bent, as
if disposed to spring into the boat. Me. fixed his eyes upon it,
with his hands extended to grasp it, whatever it might be; and
as the water, Which had now assumed a sparkling appearance,
separated to give it passage, he saw inscribed spon a round
black mass of something, though what he could not define, the
hateful word ‘Carmilban,’ It stopped scarce half an instant
above the surface, and again sunk, as quicnly as it had risen ;
but ‘Trosk, readeved desperate by thss repetition of his torment,
pluoged his arm swiftly after it, and caught it by its hair ¥ this
gave way, and therest was gone... He drew. beck his hand,
but the moon had disappeared, and he could not see what sort
of slippery matter remained in it. A groan of despair, urged
alingst to madacss, cbrst from the Tips of. the fisherman at this
AYy WARCH 8, UsBe..
-| ‘and it was in the night; so that, though
AND WILL PREYAIL.
®
BS.
UtOs
defeat, and he gnashed his‘ teeth and tore bis hair with vera.
Tone Sees oy, feeth and tore his hai
His next adventure is that of meeting with a strange figure
in.a magic boat, “a little withered old man, who sat quite sift
and upright on the rowers” kench, and neithen moved his head
nor body to the right nor to the left. His face was thi and
sharp, and covered by a dry, wrinkled, tawny skin, stietched
tightly over the stringy muscles which formed his cheeks anid
lips, His dress was of bright yellow canvass, or something
like it, anda red night-eap covered his head, with its point
sticking upright in the air, while in his hand he held a kind of
instrument that resembled @ harpoon at one end aud a blubber
fork at the other.” . .
After a while, during which this visitor to the Skerries seems »
ed to be a lifeless corpse, “it slowly began to move. Its eyes
opened, but at first they were Mifeless, and void of sicht, and
turned in their sockets with a ghastly rclling, which, if it did
not terrify the Shetlander, made him push off the strange boat
from his own with a feeling of horror. Shortly after, the lips
quivered, and were drawn apart into a tearful grin, which”
shewed gums large and toothless, and expanded into a frightful
gape, from whence a deep sigh, or rather groan, issued, along
with a blast of vapour, more liké the smoke of gunpowder than
the steam of breath. Upon seeing this, Spiel mechanically
shipped his oar over the stern of his boat, and begun to skuit .
her alittle way off; but, reflecting that he was acting like a
coward, he put her head about again, In the meanwhile. life
seemed to have taken possession of the stranger, and he turned
his eyes towards Trosk, and said, in a voice of uncommon ex-
pression,‘ Wheream1?!. ‘This was'uttered in Dutch; and the
fisherman, who was partly acquainted with that language, from
having associated with whale-catchers and traders from Lat,
land, exclaimed in the same tongue, ¢ Wogsre you?’
one sii a boat,’ answered the sira *
‘to whom it would have been better
answer than a questicn.’ ‘Why? said Spiel dryly, for he wes
not a man to be lectured. ‘ Because,” said the other, ¢ could, :
have satisfied questions you might have liked to ask.” “You
have not satisfied the’one [ asked just now,’ cried the fisher-
man} ‘but I have no mind to wrangle with you.» You are at -
one of the Shetland isles—one of the outer Skerries—whence
do you come? and why do you come in this strange fashion?”
‘What is strange to you is not strange to, me,’ replied the little
man.’ ‘I came over the sea to look for the Carmilhan.’ © * Por
the Devil!’ ejaculated Spiel. ‘Ihave no need to look for Aim,’ ~
said the stranger. .“In the name of God! what is the Carmit-
han?’ cried the fisherman tervently. ‘I answer no questions
put in that manner,” exclaimed the little man, wriggling about
as if in pain, and groaning as if he growled. ‘Tsay what is
the Carmilhan?’ repeated Spiel, not heeding: the anguish of
the stranger. ‘The Carmilhan in nothing now,’ said the other;
‘but once he wasas brave a ship .as ever bore a mast.’ «A
ship “cried Trosk. ‘Yes, a ship,’ repeated the stranger:
‘and when she was lost.among these islands, she carried more
gold than had. floated in any vessel before her. “Wh
she lost, and when?’ exclaimed the fisherman.
handred years since she was wrecked,’
‘Lam.
nger, somewhat sharp."
for you to have given an
‘Itis nearly a
replied the little man, ~
. I was on board her at
the time, F know not the precise. spot, but Lam come hither to
discover it.’. ‘A hundred years ago!” cries the Shetlandman—
“you on board a ship a hundred years ago! Pray, how old are:
yout’ ‘Old enough to have sailed in the Carmilhan," replied
he stranger, ‘But why do you marvel 1—Pray, how old is
Chriss Mabillt” | ¢ A handred and ten, Lam told,* said Spiel
“yet how come you
said the other, y
the fisherman—‘ what need lias a man of your years of money ?-
—Teach me how to find the gold; Iwill take the trouble of
raising it, and we will share it between us.’ ‘Yes, and how
shall L be sure of your keeping your engagement?” said the lit.
tle man, sneeringly, ‘ Be always with me,’ answered the other, | |
‘We will divide the maney as we obtain it; and should I offer *.
to wrong, you, do you reveal the secret to my enemies,
Sear lest another should Jearn the situation of the wreck, will
be a bond sufficiently strong to insure my Sdelity.’
it so,” replied the stranger.: ‘ But art thou a inan of
The first step requires a strong heart, Spiel Trosk,? « You
know ny name, oll carl!’ cried the fisherman, i !
‘How comes this 3’: ‘1 knew-your father,
answered the litue man, in his evasive way; ¢
than you could demand, though you s3* here to %stion, and I
to make replies, till another century were added te my age an
ask you, are you a man of courage?’ ¢ ang leone "re
1 Te
y ry me
plied the Shetlander. ‘You must try yourself,” said the man
you will
learn the spot where ihe riches of the Carmithan }j hi
down, and lef
the wild heath, and eve the clock sirikes the first hou
ing, your desircs will be satisfied, . «T
son was lost, body and soul! exclaim
abhorrence. ‘Thou art,Satan!?
n Trosk, i
continued he, again skulling