or, Enchanted Isles
by Herman Melville
SKETCH SEVENTH.
CHARLES’S ISLE AND THE DOG-KING. —
So with outragious cry, A thousand villeins round about him swarmed Out of the rocks and caves adjoining nye; Vile caitive wretches, ragged, rude, deformed; All threatning death, all in straunge manner armed; Some with unweldy clubs, some with long speares. Some rusty knives, some staves in fier warmd.
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We will not be of any occupation, Let such vile vassals, born to base vocation, Drudge in the world, and for their living droyle, Which have no wit to live withouten toyle.
Southwest of Barrington lies Charles’s Isle. And hereby hangs a historywhich I gathered long ago from a shipmate learned in all the lore ofoutlandish life.
During the successful revolt of the Spanish provinces from Old Spain,there fought on behalf of Peru a certain Creole adventurer from Cuba,who, by his bravery and good fortune, at length advanced himself to highrank in the patriot army. The war being ended, Peru found itself likemany valorous gentlemen, free and independent enough, but with few shotin the locker. In other words, Peru had not wherewithal to pay off itstroops. But the Creole–I forget his name–volunteered to take his payin lands. So they told him he might have his pick of the EnchantedIsles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal appanage ofPeru. The soldier straightway embarks thither, explores the group,returns to Callao, and says he will take a deed of Charles’s Isle.Moreover, this deed must stipulate that thenceforth Charles’s Isle isnot only the sole property of the Creole, but is forever free of Peru,even as Peru of Spain. To be short, this adventurer procures himself tobe made in effect Supreme Lord of the Island, one of the princes of thepowers of the earth.[A]
[Footnote A: The American Spaniards have long been in the habit ofmaking presents of islands to deserving individuals. The pilot JuanFernandez procured a deed of the isle named after him, and for someyears resided there before Selkirk came. It is supposed, however, thathe eventually contracted the blues upon his princely property, for aftera time he returned to the main, and as report goes, became a verygarrulous barber in the city of Lima.]
He now sends forth a proclamation inviting subjects to his as yetunpopulated kingdom. Some eighty souls, men and women, respond; andbeing provided by their leader with necessaries, and tools of varioussorts, together with a few cattle and goats, take ship for the promisedland; the last arrival on board, prior to sailing, being the Creolehimself, accompanied, strange to say, by a disciplined cavalry companyof large grim dogs. These, it was observed on the passage, refusing toconsort with the emigrants, remained aristocratically grouped aroundtheir master on the elevated quarter-deck, casting disdainful glancesforward upon the inferior rabble there; much as, from the ramparts, thesoldiers of a garrison, thrown into a conquered town, eye the ingloriouscitizen-mob over which they are set to watch.
Now Charles’s Isle not only resembles Barrington Isle in being much moreinhabitable than other parts of the group, but it is double the size ofBarrington, say forty or fifty miles in circuit.
Safely debarked at last, the company, under direction of their lord andpatron, forthwith proceeded to build their capital city. They makeconsiderable advance in the way of walls of clinkers, and lava floors,nicely sanded with cinders. On the least barren hills they pasturetheir cattle, while the goats, adventurers by nature, explore the farinland solitudes for a scanty livelihood of lofty herbage. Meantime,abundance of fish and tortoises supply their other wants.
The disorders incident to settling all primitive regions, in the presentcase were heightened by the peculiarly untoward character of many of thepilgrims. His Majesty was forced at last to proclaim martial law, andactually hunted and shot with his own hand several of his rebellioussubjects, who, with most questionable intentions, had clandestinelyencamped in the interior, whence they stole by night, to prowlbarefooted on tiptoe round the precincts of the lava-palace. It is to beremarked, however, that prior to such stern proceedings, the morereliable men had been judiciously picked out for an infantry body-guard,subordinate to the cavalry body-guard of dogs. But the state of politicsin this unhappy nation may be somewhat imagined, from the circumstancethat all who were not of the body-guard were downright plotters andmalignant traitors. At length the death penalty was tacitly abolished,owing to the timely thought, that were strict sportsman’s justice to bedispensed among such subjects, ere long the Nimrod King would havelittle or no remaining game to shoot. The human part of the life-guardwas now disbanded, and set to work cultivating the soil, and raisingpotatoes; the regular army now solely consisting of the dog-regiment.These, as I have heard, were of a singularly ferocious character, thoughby severe training rendered docile to their master. Armed to the teeth,the Creole now goes in state, surrounded by his canine janizaries, whoseterrific bayings prove quite as serviceable as bayonets in keeping downthe surgings of revolt.
But the census of the isle, sadly lessened by the dispensation ofjustice, and not materially recruited by matrimony, began to fill hismind with sad mistrust. Some way the population must be increased. Now,from its possessing a little water, and its comparative pleasantness ofaspect, Charles’s Isle at this period was occasionally visited byforeign whalers. These His Majesty had always levied upon for portcharges, thereby contributing to his revenue. But now he had additionaldesigns. By insidious arts he, from time to time, cajoles certainsailors to desert their ships, and enlist beneath his banner. Soon asmissed, their captains crave permission to go and hunt them up.Whereupon His Majesty first hides them very carefully away, and thenfreely permits the search. In consequence, the delinquents are neverfound, and the ships retire without them.
Thus, by a two-edged policy of this crafty monarch, foreign nations werecrippled in the number of their subjects, and his own were greatlymultiplied. He particularly petted these renegado strangers. But alasfor the deep-laid schemes of ambitious princes, and alas for the vanityof glory. As the foreign-born Pretorians, unwisely introduced into theRoman state, and still more unwisely made favorites of the Emperors, atlast insulted and overturned the throne, even so these lawless mariners,with all the rest of the body-guard and all the populace, broke out intoa terrible mutiny, and defied their master. He marched against them withall his dogs. A deadly battle ensued upon the beach. It raged for threehours, the dogs fighting with determined valor, and the sailors recklessof everything but victory. Three men and thirteen dogs were left deadupon the field, many on both sides were wounded, and the king was forcedto fly with the remainder of his canine regiment. The enemy pursued,stoning the dogs with their master into the wilderness of the interior.Discontinuing the pursuit, the victors returned to the village on theshore, stove the spirit casks, and proclaimed a Republic. The dead menwere interred with the honors of war, and the dead dogs ignominiouslythrown into the sea. At last, forced by stress of suffering, thefugitive Creole came down from the hills and offered to treat for peace.But the rebels refused it on any other terms than his unconditionalbanishment. Accordingly, the next ship that arrived carried away theex-king to Peru.
The history of the king of Charles’s Island furnishes anotherillustration of the difficulty of colonizing barren islands withunprincipled pilgrims.
Doubtless for a long time the exiled monarch, pensively ruralizing inPeru, which afforded him a safe asylum in his calamity, watched everyarrival from the Encantadas, to hear news of the failure of theRepublic, the consequent penitence of the rebels, and his own recall toroyalty. Doubtless he deemed the Republic but a miserable experimentwhich would soon explode. But no, the insurgents had confederatedthemselves into a democracy neither Grecian, Roman, nor American. Nay,it was no democracy at all, but a permanent Riotocracy, which gloriedin having no law but lawlessness. Great inducements being offered todeserters, their ranks were swelled by accessions of scamps from everyship which touched their shores. Charles’s Island was proclaimed theasylum of the oppressed of all navies. Each runaway tar was hailed as amartyr in the cause of freedom, and became immediately installed aragged citizen of this universal nation. In vain the captains ofabsconding seamen strove to regain them. Their new compatriots wereready to give any number of ornamental eyes in their behalf. They hadfew cannon, but their fists were not to be trifled with. So at last itcame to pass that no vessels acquainted with the character of thatcountry durst touch there, however sorely in want of refreshment. Itbecame Anathema–a sea Alsatia–the unassailed lurking-place of allsorts of desperadoes, who in the name of liberty did just what theypleased. They continually fluctuated in their numbers. Sailors,deserting ships at other islands, or in boats at sea anywhere in thatvicinity, steered for Charles’s Isle, as to their sure home of refuge;while, sated with the life of the isle, numbers from time to timecrossed the water to the neighboring ones, and there presentingthemselves to strange captains as shipwrecked seamen, often succeeded ingetting on board vessels bound to the Spanish coast, and having acompassionate purse made up for them on landing there.
One warm night during my first visit to the group, our ship was floatingalong in languid stillness, when some one on the forecastle shouted”Light ho!” We looked and saw a beacon burning on some obscure land offthe beam. Our third mate was not intimate with this part of the world.Going to the captain he said, “Sir, shall I put off in a boat? Thesemust be shipwrecked men.”
The captain laughed rather grimly, as, shaking his fist towards thebeacon, he rapped out an oath, and said–”No, no, you precious rascals,you don’t juggle one of my boats ashore this blessed night. You do well,you thieves–you do benevolently to hoist a light yonder as on adangerous shoal. It tempts no wise man to pull off and see what’s thematter, but bids him steer small and keep off shore–that is Charles’sIsland; brace up, Mr. Mate, and keep the light astern.”
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