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A Footnote to History-Part22_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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broached to in rising; and the sea heaved her bodilyupward and



cast her down with a concussion on the summit of the reef, where

she lay on her beam-ends, her back broken, buried in breaching



seas, but safe. Conceive a table: the EBER in the darkness had

been smashed against the rim and flung below; the ADLER, cast free



in the nick of opportunity, had been thrown upon the top. Many

were injured in the concussion; many tossed into the water; twenty



perished. The survivors crept again on board their ship, as it now

lay, and as it still remains, keel to the waves, a monument of the



sea's potency. In still weather, under a cloudless sky, in those

seasons when that ill-named ocean, the Pacific, suffers its vexed



shores to rest, she lies high and dry, the spray scarce touching

her - the hugest structure of man's hands within a circuit of a



thousand miles - tossed up there like a schoolboy's cap upon a

shelf; broken like an egg; a thing to dream of.



The unfriendly consuls of Germany and Britain were both that

morning in Matautu, and both displayed their nobler qualities. De



Coetlogon, the grim old soldier, collected his family and kneeled

with them in an agony of prayer for those exposed. Knappe, more



fortunate in that he was called to a more active service, must,

upon the striking of the ADLER, pass to his own consulate. From



this he was divided by the Vaisingano, now a raging torrent,

impetuously charioting the trunks of trees. A kelpie might have



dreaded to attempt the passage; we may conceive this brave but

unfortunate and now ruined man to have found a natural joy in the



exposure of his life; and twice that day, coming and going, he

braved the fury of the river. It was possible, in spite of the



darkness of the hurricane and the continualbreaching of the seas,

to remark human movements on the ADLER; and by the help of Samoans,



always nobly forward in the work, whether for friend or enemy,

Knappe sought long to get a line conveyed from shore, and was for



long defeated. The shore guard of fifty men stood to their arms

the while upon the beach, useless themselves, and a great deterrent



of Samoan usefulness. It was perhaps impossible that this mistake

should be avoided. What more natural, to the mind of a European,



than that the Mataafas should fall upon the Germans in this hour of

their disadvantage? But they had no other thought than to assist;



and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved (as they supposed)

in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea and the



weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam

ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but



in pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from

the drenching of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain



valorous Samoans succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with

a line; but it was speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts



proved unavailing, the strongest adventurers being cast back again

by the bursting seas. Thenceforth, all through that day and night,



the deafened survivors must continue to endure their martyrdom; and

one officer died, it was supposed from agony of mind, in his



inverted cabin.

Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming



desperately to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The

CALLIOPE was the nearest in; she had the VANDALIA close on her port



side and a little ahead, the OLGA close a-starboard, the reef under

her heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship



fenced with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried

away the VANDALIA'S quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment



later, the OLGA had near rammed her from the other side. By nine

the VANDALIA dropped down on her too fast to be avoided, and



clapped her stern under the bowsprit of the English ship, the

fastenings of which were burst asunder as she rose. To avoid



cutting her down, it was necessary for the CALLIOPE to stop and

even to reverse her engines; and her rudder was at the moment - or



it seemed so to the eyes of those on board - within ten feet of the

reef. "Between the VANDALIA and the reef" (writes Kane, in his



excellent report) "it was destruction." To repeat Fritze's




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