The Floating Island (16 page)

No matter! The room was still too
small. The dilettanti struggled for places. Evidently this chamber music should
be excellent for health, and no one could entertain a doubt as to its therapeutic
qualities. Again examples of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, as before. Immense
success for the performers to whom Parisian bravos would certainly have given
greater pleasure. But in their absence, Yvernès, Frascolin, and Pinchinat knew
how to be contented with Milliardite hurrahs, for which Sebastien Zorn
continued to profess the most complete disdain.

“What more can we wish for?” said
Yvernès, when they crossed the tropic of Cancer.

“The tropic of Concert!” replied
Pinchinat, taking safety in flight.

And when they came out of the
casino, whom should they see among the poor beggars who could not afford three
hundred and sixty dollars for a stall? The King and Queen of Malecarlie
standing humbly at the door.

There
exists in this portion of the Pacific a submarine mountain range extending from
the west-north-west to the east-south-east for nine hundred leagues, if the
abysses of two thousand fathoms which separate it from the other ocean lands
were emptied away. Of this chain but seven summits appear above the waters:
Nirhau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Kahulaui, and Hawaii. These seven islands,
of unequal size, constitute the Hawaiian Archipelago, otherwise known as the
Sandwich Islands.

Leaving Sebastien Zorn to grumble
in his corner, and shut himself up in his complete indifference to all natural
curiosities as if he were a violoncello in its box, Pinchinat, Yvernès and
Frascolin reasoned in this way, and they were not wrong in doing so.

“I shall not be sorry to visit
these Sandwich Islands! If we have to cruise about the Pacific, we may as well
have a few souvenirs to take away with us.”

“The natives will be a change to
us after the Pawnees, Sioux and other too civilized Indians of the Far West,
and I shall not be sorry to meet a few real savages
—
cannibals.”

“Are they cannibals still?”

“Let us hope so,” replied
Pinchinat. “Their grandfathers ate Captain Cook, and if the grandfathers
enjoyed the illustrious navigator, it is not likely that the grandchildren have
lost the taste for human flesh!”

It must be confessed that his
highness spoke rather irreverently of the celebrated English sailor who
discovered this archipelago in 1778.

The result of this conversation
was that our artistes hoped that the chances of the voyage would bring them
into the presence of natives more authentic than the specimens exhibited in the
Jardin d’Acclimatation
, and in any case in their native country, instead
of that of their production. They experienced a certain impatience to get
there, expecting every day that the look-outs at the observatory would signal
the first heights of the Hawaiian Group.

This they did in the morning of
the 6th of July. The news immediately spread, and the placard at the casino
bore this notice telautographically inscribed, “Sandwich Islands now in sight.”

It is true that the islands were
still fifty leagues away; but the highest summits of the group, those of the
island of Hawaii, are over 4200 metres high, and in fine weather are visible at
this distance.

Coming from the north-east,
Commodore Ethel Simcoe steered for Oahu, having for its capital Honolulu, which
is also the capital of the archipelago. This island is the third of the group
in latitude. Nuhau, which is a vast cattle park, and Kauai being both to the
north-west of it. Oahu is not the largest of the Sandwich Islands; it measures
only 1680 square kilometres, while Hawaii has an area of nearly 17, 000. As to
the other islands, their area is more than 3812 all together.

As a matter of course, our
Parisian artistes had formed agreeable acquaintanceships with the chief
functionaries of Floating Island. All of them, as well as the Governor, the
Commodore, Colonel Stewart and Engineers Somwah and Watson, had done their best
to make them welcome. They frequently visited the observatory, and remained for
hours on the platform of the tower. One need not be astonished therefore that
on this occasion Yvernès and Pinchinat, the most enterprising of the quartette,
had come here, and that about ten o’clock in the morning, the lift hoisted them
to the masthead, as his highness called it.

Commodore Ethel Simcoe was there
already, and lending the two friends his telescope, told them to observe a
point on the horizon to the south-west among the lower mists of the sky.

“That is Mauna Loa of Hawaii,”
said he; “or it is Mauna Kea, two superb volcanoes which in 1852 and 1855
precipitated on to the island a flood of lava covering seven hundred square
metres, and whose craters in 1880 hurled forth seven hundred million cubic
metres of eruptive substances.”

“Famous!”  replied Yvernès. “Do
you think, Commodore, that we shall have the good luck to see such a spectacle?”

“I do not know, Monsieur Yvernès,”
replied Ethel Simcoe. “Volcanoes do not erupt to order.”

“Oh! on this occasion only, and
under distinguished patronage!” added Pinchinat. “If I were rich like Messrs.
Tankerdon and Coverley, I would pay for eruptions when I liked.”

“Well, we will talk to them about
it,” said the Commodore, smiling, “and I have no doubt they will do even the
impossible to make themselves agreeable to you.”

Thereupon Pinchinat asked what
was the population of the Sandwich Islands. The Commodore told him that it had
been two hundred thousand at the beginning of the century, and was then reduced
to about half.

“Good! Mr. Simcoe, a hundred
thousand savages, that is quite enough, and if only they have remained
cannibals, and lost nothing of their appetite, they will make only a mouthful
of all the Milliardites of Floating Island.”

It was not the first time that
the island had visited this archipelago. The preceding year it had been in
these waters attracted by the salubrity of the climate. And in fact invalids
went there from America, sent by the doctors, as the doctors send Europeans to
breathe the humid air of the Pacific? Why not? Honololu is not more than
twenty-five days from Paris, and when you can there impregnate your lungs with
an oxygen you can get nowhere else
—

Floating Island arrived within
sight of the group in the morning of the 9th of July. The island of Oahu lay
about five miles off to the south-west. Above, pointing to the east, was
Diamond Head, an ancient volcano dominating the roadstead behind, and another
cone called the Punch Bowl by the English. As the Commodore observed, if this
enormous cup were filled with brandy or gin, John Bull could have no difficulty
in emptying it.

They passed between Oahu and
Molokai. Floating Island, like a ship under the action of its rudder, was
steered by its starboard and larboard screws. The floating island stopped after
rounding the south-east cape of Oahu, at ten cables’ lengths from the shore,
its draught of water being considerable. As it was necessary for the purpose of
keeping a clear berth to remain at some distance from the land, it did not moor
in the strict sense of the word, that is to say, it did not use anchors, which
would have been impossible, owing to the depth of a hundred metres and more. By
means of the engines, which were kept working during the stay, it lay as
motionless as the eight principal islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago. The
quartette contemplated the heights which developed before their eyes. In the
distance they could see nothing but masses of trees
—
clumps of orange trees, and other
magnificent specimens of the temperate flora. To the west, through a narrow break
in the reef, appeared a little lake, the Lake of Pearls, a sort of lacustrine
plain pierced with ancient craters.

The aspect of Oahu was smiling
enough, and the anthropophagi so desired by Pinchinat had nothing to complain
of the theatre of their exploits. If they still abandoned themselves to their
cannibalistic instincts, his Highness could wish for nothing more.

But this is what he suddenly
exclaimed,
—

“Great Heaven! what is it I see?”

“What do you see?” asked
Frascolin.

“There. Steeples
—
”

“Yes
—
and towers
—
and palace façades!” said Yvernès. “It
cannot be possible that they ate Captain Cook, there!”

“We are not at the Sandwiches!”  said
Sebastien Zorn, shrugging his shoulders. “The Commodore has made a mistake as
to the route.”

“Assuredly,” replied Pinchinat.
No! Commodore Simcoe had not gone astray. It was really Oahu, and the town
extending over many square kilometres was Honolulu.

Evidently the quartette were
mistaken. What changes there had been since the great English navigator
discovered this group! Missionaries had excelled each other in devotion and
zeal. Not only had the original language disappeared before the Anglo-Saxon
tongue, but the archipelago contained Americans, Chinese
—
for the most part employed by the
owners of the soil, from whom had arisen a race of semi-Chinese, the Hapa-Paké
—
and even
Portuguese, owing to the line of vessels between the Sandwich Islands and the
Azores. Aborigines were still to be found, however, and enough of them to
satisfy our four artistes, although these natives had been decimated by
leprosy, a malady of Chinese importation. But they were hardly of the type of
eaters of human flesh.

“O local colour!” exclaimed the
first violin, “what hand has wiped thee from the modern palette!”

Yes! Time, civilization, progress,
which is a law of nature, had almost effaced this colour; and this had to be
recognized, not without regret, when one of the electric launches of Floating
Island passed the long line of reefs and put Sebastien Zorn and his comrades
ashore.

Between two lines of piles
meeting at an acute angle opened the harbour sheltered from the dangerous winds
by an amphitheatre of mountains. Since 1794 the reefs which protect it from the
ocean waves had risen more than a yard in height.

Nevertheless, there was sufficient
water for vessels drawing from eighteen to twenty feet of water to come
alongside the quays.

“What a deception!” murmured
Pinchinat. “It is really deplorable that we should have to get rid of so many
illusions when we travel.”

“And we would do much better to
stay at home,” retorted the ‘cellist.

“No!” exclaimed Yvernès, always
enthusiastic. “What spectacle can be compared to that of this artificial island
coming to visit the oceanic archipelagoes?”

Nevertheless, if the moral
condition of the Sandwich Islanders had regrettably changed to the lively
displeasure of our artistes, it was not the same with the climate. It is one of
the most salubrious in these parts of the Pacific, notwithstanding that the
group is in a region known as the Hot Sea. If the thermometer does not stand at
a high level when the north-east trade winds are not in force, if the northern
trades cause violent storms known as kouas, the mean temperature of Honolulu
does not exceed twenty-one degrees centigrade. It would be bad taste to
complain of this on the borders of the torrid zone; and the inhabitants did not
complain of it, and, as we have indicated, American invalids crowded into the
archipelago.

But the more the quartette
penetrated into the secrets of this archipelago, the more their illusions fell,
fell like the leaves at the end of autumn. They pretended to have been
mystified when they should have accused themselves of inviting this
mystification.

“It is this Calistus Munbar who
has again taken a rise out of us,” said Pinchinat, remembering what the
superintendent had told them as to the Sandwich Islands being the last rampart
of native savagery in the Pacific. And when they bitterly reproached him,
—

“What would you have, my dear
friends?” he replied, with a wink of his right eye. “The place has changed so
since my last voyage that I no longer recognize it.”

“Joker!” retorted Pinchinat,
amusing himself with a dig in the superintendent’s stomach.

There could be no doubt that if
changes had taken place, they must have occurred with extraordinary rapidity.
The Sandwich Islands had rejoiced in a constitutional monarchy, founded in
1837, with two chambers, that of the nobles and that of the deputies. The first
was nominated by the proprietors of the land, the second elected by all the
people who knew how to read and write, the nobles for six years, the deputies
for two years.

Each chamber was composed of
twenty-four members, who held their deliberations together in the presence of
the royal ministry, formed of four of the King’s councillors.

“And then,” said Yvernès, “they
had a King, a constitutional King, instead of a monkey in feathers, and to whom
foreigners could offer their humble respects.”

“I am sure,” affirmed Pinchinat, “that
his Majesty did not even wear rings in his nose, and that he was provided with
false teeth by the best dentists in the New World.”

“Ah! civilization, civilization!”
repeated the first violin, “These Kanakas had no need of false teeth when they
ate their prisoners of war.”

Floating Island was prepared for
a stay of ten days, and a number of its inhabitants took advantage of this to
explore Honolulu and its environs. The Coverley and Tankerdon families, the
chief notables of Milliard City, went ashore daily. On the other hand, although
it was the second appearance of the island in these parts of Hawaii, the
admiration of the Hawaiians was boundless, and they came in crowds to visit
this marvel. It is true that the policy of Cyrus Bikerstaff made the admission
of strangers difficult, and required that when evening came the visitors
returned at the stated hour. Owing to these measures of security it would have
been anything but pleasant for an intruder to remain on the Pearl of the
Pacific without a permit, which was not easily obtained. There were thus
nothing but good relations on both sides, but there were no official receptions
between the two islands.