or, Enchanted Isles
by Herman Melville
SKETCH NINTH.
HOOD’S ISLE AND THE HERMIT OBERLUS.
“That darkesome glen they enter, where they find That cursed man low sitting on the ground, Musing full sadly in his sullein mind; His griesly lockes long gronen and unbound, Disordered hong about his shoulders round, And hid his face, through which his hollow eyne Lookt deadly dull, and stared as astound; His raw-bone cheekes, through penurie and pine, Were shronke into the jawes, as he did never dine. His garments nought but many ragged clouts, With thornes together pind and patched reads, The which his naked sides he wrapt abouts.”
Southeast of Crossman’s Isle lies Hood’s Isle, or McCain’s BecloudedIsle; and upon its south side is a vitreous cove with a wide strand ofdark pounded black lava, called Black Beach, or Oberlus’s Landing. Itmight fitly have been styled Charon’s.
It received its name from a wild white creature who spent many yearshere; in the person of a European bringing into this savage regionqualities more diabolical than are to be found among any of thesurrounding cannibals.
About half a century ago, Oberlus deserted at the above-named island,then, as now, a solitude. He built himself a den of lava and clinkers,about a mile from the Landing, subsequently called after him, in a vale,or expanded gulch, containing here and there among the rocks about twoacres of soil capable of rude cultivation; the only place on the islenot too blasted for that purpose. Here he succeeded in raising a sort ofdegenerate potatoes and pumpkins, which from time to time he exchangedwith needy whalemen passing, for spirits or dollars.
His appearance, from all accounts, was that of the victim of somemalignant sorceress; he seemed to have drunk of Circe’s cup; beast-like;rags insufficient to hide his nakedness; his befreckled skin blisteredby continual exposure to the sun; nose flat; countenance contorted,heavy, earthy; hair and beard unshorn, profuse, and of fiery red. Hestruck strangers much as if he were a volcanic creature thrown up by thesame convulsion which exploded into sight the isle. All bepatched andcoiled asleep in his lonely lava den among the mountains, he looked,they say, as a heaped drift of withered leaves, torn from autumn trees,and so left in some hidden nook by the whirling halt for an instant of afierce night-wind, which then ruthlessly sweeps on, somewhere else torepeat the capricious act. It is also reported to have been thestrangest sight, this same Oberlus, of a sultry, cloudy morning, hiddenunder his shocking old black tarpaulin hat, hoeing potatoes among thelava. So warped and crooked was his strange nature, that the very handleof his hoe seemed gradually to have shrunk and twisted in his grasp,being a wretched bent stick, elbowed more like a savage’s war-sicklethan a civilized hoe-handle. It was his mysterious custom upon a firstencounter with a stranger ever to present his back; possibly, becausethat was his better side, since it revealed the least. If the encounterchanced in his garden, as it sometimes did–the new-landed strangersgoing from the sea-side straight through the gorge, to hunt up the queergreen-grocer reported doing business here–Oberlus for a time hoed on,unmindful of all greeting, jovial or bland; as the curious strangerwould turn to face him, the recluse, hoe in hand, as diligently wouldavert himself; bowed over, and sullenly revolving round his murphy hill.Thus far for hoeing. When planting, his whole aspect and all hisgestures were so malevolently and uselessly sinister and secret, that heseemed rather in act of dropping poison into wells than potatoes intosoil. But among his lesser and more harmless marvels was an idea he everhad, that his visitors came equally as well led by longings to beholdthe mighty hermit Oberlus in his royal state of solitude, as simply, toobtain potatoes, or find whatever company might be upon a barren isle.It seems incredible that such a being should possess such vanity; amisanthrope be conceited; but he really had his notion; and upon thestrength of it, often gave himself amusing airs to captains. But afterall, this is somewhat of a piece with the well-known eccentricity ofsome convicts, proud of that very hatefulness which makes themnotorious. At other times, another unaccountable whim would seize him,and he would long dodge advancing strangers round the clinkered cornersof his hut; sometimes like a stealthy bear, he would slink through thewithered thickets up the mountains, and refuse to see the human face.
Except his occasional visitors from the sea, for a long period, the onlycompanions of Oberlus were the crawling tortoises; and he seemed morethan degraded to their level, having no desires for a time beyondtheirs, unless it were for the stupor brought on by drunkenness. Butsufficiently debased as he appeared, there yet lurked in him, onlyawaiting occasion for discovery, a still further proneness. Indeed, thesole superiority of Oberlus over the tortoises was his possession of alarger capacity of degradation; and along with that, something like anintelligent will to it. Moreover, what is about to be revealed, perhapswill show, that selfish ambition, or the love of rule for its own sake,far from being the peculiar infirmity of noble minds, is shared bybeings which have no mind at all. No creatures are so selfishlytyrannical as some brutes; as any one who has observed the tenants ofthe pasture must occasionally have observed.
“This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother,” said Oberlus to himself,glaring round upon his haggard solitude. By some means, barter ortheft–for in those days ships at intervals still kept touching at hisLanding–he obtained an old musket, with a few charges of powder andball. Possessed of arms, he was stimulated to enterprise, as a tigerthat first feels the coming of its claws. The long habit of soledominion over every object round him, his almost unbroken solitude, hisnever encountering humanity except on terms of misanthropicindependence, or mercantile craftiness, and even such encounters beingcomparatively but rare; all this must have gradually nourished in him avast idea of his own importance, together with a pure animal sort ofscorn for all the rest of the universe.
The unfortunate Creole, who enjoyed his brief term of royalty atCharles’s Isle was perhaps in some degree influenced by not unworthymotives; such as prompt other adventurous spirits to lead colonists intodistant regions and assume political preeminence over them. His summaryexecution of many of his Peruvians is quite pardonable, considering thedesperate characters he had to deal with; while his offering caninebattle to the banded rebels seems under the circumstances altogetherjust. But for this King Oberlus and what shortly follows, no shade ofpalliation can be given. He acted out of mere delight in tyranny andcruelty, by virtue of a quality in him inherited from Sycorax hismother. Armed now with that shocking blunderbuss, strong in the thoughtof being master of that horrid isle, he panted for a chance to prove hispotency upon the first specimen of humanity which should fallunbefriended into his hands.
Nor was he long without it. One day he spied a boat upon the beach, withone man, a negro, standing by it. Some distance off was a ship, andOberlus immediately knew how matters stood. The vessel had put in forwood, and the boat’s crew had gone into the thickets for it. From aconvenient spot he kept watch of the boat, till presently a stragglingcompany appeared loaded with billets. Throwing these on the beach, theyagain went into the thickets, while the negro proceeded to load theboat.
Oberlus now makes all haste and accosts the negro, who, aghast atseeing any living being inhabiting such a solitude, and especially sohorrific a one, immediately falls into a panic, not at all lessened bythe ursine suavity of Oberlus, who begs the favor of assisting him inhis labors. The negro stands with several billets on his shoulder, inact of shouldering others; and Oberlus, with a short cord concealed inhis bosom, kindly proceeds to lift those other billets to their place.In so doing, he persists in keeping behind the negro, who, rightlysuspicious of this, in vain dodges about to gain the front of Oberlus;but Oberlus dodges also; till at last, weary of this bootless attempt attreachery, or fearful of being surprised by the remainder of the party,Oberlus runs off a little space to a bush, and fetching his blunderbuss,savagely commands the negro to desist work and follow him. He refuses.Whereupon, presenting his piece, Oberlus snaps at him. Luckily theblunderbuss misses fire; but by this time, frightened out of his wits,the negro, upon a second intrepid summons, drops his billets, surrendersat discretion, and follows on. By a narrow defile familiar to him,Oberlus speedily removes out of sight of the water.
On their way up the mountains, he exultingly informs the negro, thathenceforth he is to work for him, and be his slave, and that histreatment would entirely depend on his future conduct. But Oberlus,deceived by the first impulsive cowardice of the black, in an evilmoment slackens his vigilance. Passing through a narrow way, andperceiving his leader quite off his guard, the negro, a powerful fellow,suddenly grasps him in his arms, throws him down, wrests his musketoonfrom him, ties his hands with the monster’s own cord, shoulders him, andreturns with him down to the boat. When the rest of the party arrive,Oberlus is carried on board the ship. This proved an Englishman, and asmuggler; a sort of craft not apt to be over-charitable. Oberlus isseverely whipped, then handcuffed, taken ashore, and compelled to makeknown his habitation and produce his property. His potatoes, pumpkins,and tortoises, with a pile of dollars he had hoarded from his mercantileoperations were secured on the spot. But while the too vindictivesmugglers were busy destroying his hut and garden, Oberlus makes hisescape into the mountains, and conceals himself there in impenetrablerecesses, only known to himself, till the ship sails, when he venturesback, and by means of an old file which he sticks into a tree, contrivesto free himself from his handcuffs.
Brooding among the ruins of his hut, and the desolate clinkers andextinct volcanoes of this outcast isle, the insulted misanthrope nowmeditates a signal revenge upon humanity, but conceals his purposes.Vessels still touch the Landing at times; and by-and-by Oberlus isenabled to supply them with some vegetables.
Warned by his former failure in kidnapping strangers, he now pursues aquite different plan. When seamen come ashore, he makes up to them likea free-and-easy comrade, invites them to his hut, and with whateveraffability his red-haired grimness may assume, entreats them to drinkhis liquor and be merry. But his guests need little pressing; and so,soon as rendered insensible, are tied hand and foot, and pitched amongthe clinkers, are there concealed till the ship departs, when, findingthemselves entirely dependent upon Oberlus, alarmed at his changeddemeanor, his savage threats, and above all, that shocking blunderbuss,they willingly enlist under him, becoming his humble slaves, and Oberlusthe most incredible of tyrants. So much so, that two or three perishbeneath his initiating process. He sets the remainder–four of them–tobreaking the caked soil; transporting upon their backs loads of loamyearth, scooped up in moist clefts among the mountains; keeps them on theroughest fare; presents his piece at the slightest hint of insurrection;and in all respects converts them into reptiles at his feet–plebeiangarter-snakes to this Lord Anaconda.
At last, Oberlus contrives to stock his arsenal with four rustycutlasses, and an added supply of powder and ball intended for hisblunderbuss. Remitting in good part the labor of his slaves, he nowapproves himself a man, or rather devil, of great abilities in the wayof cajoling or coercing others into acquiescence with his own ulteriordesigns, however at first abhorrent to them. But indeed, prepared foralmost any eventual evil by their previous lawless life, as a sort ofranging Cow-Boys of the sea, which had dissolved within them the wholemoral man, so that they were ready to concrete in the first offeredmould of baseness now; rotted down from manhood by their hopeless miseryon the isle; wonted to cringe in all things to their lord, himself theworst of slaves; these wretches were now become wholly corrupted to hishands. He used them as creatures of an inferior race; in short, hegaffles his four animals, and makes murderers of them; out of cowardsfitly manufacturing bravos.
Now, sword or dagger, human arms are but artificial claws and fangs,tied on like false spurs to the fighting cock. So, we repeat, Oberlus,czar of the isle, gaffles his four subjects; that is, with intent ofglory, puts four rusty cutlasses into their hands. Like any otherautocrat, he had a noble army now.
It might be thought a servile war would hereupon ensue. Arms in thehands of trodden slaves? how indiscreet of Emperor Oberlus! Nay, theyhad but cutlasses–sad old scythes enough–he a blunderbuss, which byits blind scatterings of all sorts of boulders, clinkers, and otherscoria would annihilate all four mutineers, like four pigeons at oneshot. Besides, at first he did not sleep in his accustomed hut; everylurid sunset, for a time, he might have been seen wending his way amongthe riven mountains, there to secrete himself till dawn in somesulphurous pitfall, undiscoverable to his gang; but finding this at lasttoo troublesome, he now each evening tied his slaves hand and foot, hidthe cutlasses, and thrusting them into his barracks, shut to the door,and lying down before it, beneath a rude shed lately added, slept outthe night, blunderbuss in hand.
It is supposed that not content with daily parading over a cinderysolitude at the head of his fine army, Oberlus now meditated the mostactive mischief; his probable object being to surprise some passing shiptouching at his dominions, massacre the crew, and run away with her toparts unknown. While these plans were simmering in his head, two shipstouch in company at the isle, on the opposite side to his; when hisdesigns undergo a sudden change.
The ships are in want of vegetables, which Oberlus promises in greatabundance, provided they send their boats round to his landing, so thatthe crews may bring the vegetables from his garden; informing the twocaptains, at the same time, that his rascals–slaves and soldiers–hadbecome so abominably lazy and good-for-nothing of late, that he couldnot make them work by ordinary inducements, and did not have the heartto be severe with them.
The arrangement was agreed to, and the boats were sent and hauled uponthe beach. The crews went to the lava hut; but to their surprise nobodywas there. After waiting till their patience was exhausted, theyreturned to the shore, when lo, some stranger–not the Good Samaritaneither–seems to have very recently passed that way. Three of the boatswere broken in a thousand pieces, and the fourth was missing. By hardtoil over the mountains and through the clinkers, some of the strangerssucceeded in returning to that side of the isle where the ships lay,when fresh boats are sent to the relief of the rest of the haplessparty.
However amazed at the treachery of Oberlus, the two captains, afraid ofnew and still more mysterious atrocities–and indeed, half imputing suchstrange events to the enchantments associated with these isles–perceiveno security but in instant flight; leaving Oberlus and his army in quietpossession of the stolen boat.
On the eve of sailing they put a letter in a keg, giving the PacificOcean intelligence of the affair, and moored the keg in the bay. Sometime subsequent, the keg was opened by another captain chancing toanchor there, but not until after he had dispatched a boat round toOberlus’s Landing. As may be readily surmised, he felt no littleinquietude till the boat’s return: when another letter was handed him,giving Oberlus’s version of the affair. This precious document had beenfound pinned half-mildewed to the clinker wall of the sulphurous anddeserted hut. It ran as follows: showing that Oberlus was at least anaccomplished writer, and no mere boor; and what is more, was capable ofthe most tristful eloquence.
“Sir: I am the most unfortunate ill-treated gentleman that lives. I ama patriot, exiled from my country by the cruel hand of tyranny.
“Banished to these Enchanted Isles, I have again and again besoughtcaptains of ships to sell me a boat, but always have been refused,though I offered the handsomest prices in Mexican dollars. At length anopportunity presented of possessing myself of one, and I did not let itslip.
“I have been long endeavoring, by hard labor and much solitarysuffering, to accumulate something to make myself comfortable in avirtuous though unhappy old age; but at various times have been robbedand beaten by men professing to be Christians.
“To-day I sail from the Enchanted group in the good boat Charity boundto the Feejee Isles.
“FATHERLESS OBERLUS.
“P.S.–Behind the clinkers, nigh the oven, you will find the old fowl.Do not kill it; be patient; I leave it setting; if it shall have anychicks, I hereby bequeath them to you, whoever you may be. But don’tcount your chicks before they are hatched.”
The fowl proved a starveling rooster, reduced to a sitting posture bysheer debility.
Oberlus declares that he was bound to the Feejee Isles; but this wasonly to throw pursuers on a false scent. For, after a long time, hearrived, alone in his open boat, at Guayaquil. As his miscreants werenever again beheld on Hood’s Isle, it is supposed, either that theyperished for want of water on the passage to Guayaquil, or, what isquite as probable, were thrown overboard by Oberlus, when he found thewater growing scarce.
From Guayaquil Oberlus proceeded to Payta; and there, with that namelesswitchery peculiar to some of the ugliest animals, wound himself into theaffections of a tawny damsel; prevailing upon her to accompany him backto his Enchanted Isle; which doubtless he painted as a Paradise offlowers, not a Tartarus of clinkers.
But unfortunately for the colonization of Hood’s Isle with a choicevariety of animated nature, the extraordinary and devilish aspect ofOberlus made him to be regarded in Payta as a highly suspiciouscharacter. So that being found concealed one night, with matches in hispocket, under the hull of a small vessel just ready to be launched, hewas seized and thrown into jail.
The jails in most South American towns are generally of the leastwholesome sort. Built of huge cakes of sun-burnt brick, and containingbut one room, without windows or yard, and but one door heavily gratedwith wooden bars, they present both within and without the grimmestaspect. As public edifices they conspicuously stand upon the hot anddusty Plaza, offering to view, through the gratings, their villainousand hopeless inmates, burrowing in all sorts of tragic squalor. Andhere, for a long time, Oberlus was seen; the central figure of a mongreland assassin band; a creature whom it is religion to detest, since it isphilanthropy to hate a misanthrope. Note.–They who may be disposed to question the possibility of the character above depicted, are referred to the 2d vol. of Porter’s Voyage into the Pacific, where they will recognize many sentences, for expedition’s sake derived verbatim from thence, and incorporated here; the main difference–save a few passing reflections–between the two accounts being, that the present writer has added to Porter’s facts accessory ones picked up in the Pacific from reliable sources; and where facts conflict, has naturally preferred his own authorities to Porter’s. As, for instance, his authorities place Oberlus on Hood’s Isle: Porter’s, on Charles’s Isle. The letter found in the hut is also somewhat different; for while at the Encantadas he was informed that, not only did it evince a certain clerkliness, but was full of the strangest satiric effrontery which does not adequately appear in Porter’s version. I accordingly altered it to suit the general character of its author.
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