—"That may not be, said then the ferryman,
For those same islands seeming now and than,
Are not firme land, nor any certein wonne,
But stragling plots which to and fro do ronne
In the wide waters; therefore are they hight
The Wandering Islands; therefore do them shonne;
For they have oft drawne many a wandring wight
For whosoever once hath fastened
His foot thereon may never it secure
But wandreth evermore uncertein and unsure."
* * * * *
And all about it wandring ghosts did wayle and howl."
Take five-and-twenty heaps of cinders16 dumped here and there in an outside city lot; [pg 288] imagine some of them magnified into mountains, and the vacant lot the sea; and you will have a fit idea of the general aspect of the Encantadas, or Enchanted17 Isles. A group rather of extinct volcanoes than of isles; looking much as the world at large might, after a penal18 conflagration19.
It is to be doubted whether any spot of earth can, in desolateness20, furnish a parallel to this group. Abandoned cemeteries22 of long ago, old cities by piecemeal23 tumbling to their ruin, these are melancholy24 enough; but, like all else which has but once been associated with humanity, they still awaken25 in us some thoughts of sympathy, however sad. Hence, even the Dead Sea, along with whatever other emotions it may at times inspire, does not fail to touch in the pilgrim some of his less unpleasurable feelings.
And as for solitariness26; the great forests of the north, the expanses of unnavigated waters, the Greenland ice-fields, are the profoundest of solitudes29 to a human observer; still the magic of their changeable tides and seasons mitigates30 their terror; because, though unvisited by [pg 289] men, those forests are visited by the May; the remotest seas reflect familiar stars even as Lake Erie does; and in the clear air of a fine Polar day, the irradiated, azure33 ice shows beautifully as malachite.
But the special curse, as one may call it, of the Encantadas, that which exalts35 them in desolation above Idumea and the Pole, is, that to them change never comes; neither the change of seasons nor of sorrows. Cut by the Equator, they know not autumn, and they know not spring; while already reduced to the lees of fire, ruin itself can work little more upon them. The showers refresh the deserts; but in these isles, rain never falls. Like split Syrian gourds36 left withering37 in the sun, they are cracked by an everlasting38 drought beneath a torrid sky. "Have mercy upon me," the wailing40 spirit of the Encantadas seems to cry, "and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented42 in this flame."
Another feature in these isles is their emphatic43 uninhabitableness. It is deemed a fit type of all-forsaken overthrow44, that the jackal [pg 290] should den46 in the wastes of weedy Babylon; but the Encantadas refuse to harbor even the outcasts of the beasts. Man and wolf alike disown them. Little but reptile47 life is here found: tortoises, lizards48, immense spiders, snakes, and that strangest anomaly of outlandish nature, the aguano. No voice, no low, no howl is heard; the chief sound of life here is a hiss50.
On most of the isles where vegetation is found at all, it is more ungrateful than the blankness of Aracama. Tangled51 thickets52 of wiry bushes, without fruit and without a name, springing up among deep fissures53 of calcined rock, and treacherously54 masking them; or a parched55 growth of distorted cactus56 trees.
In many places the coast is rock-bound, or, more properly, clinker-bound; tumbled masses of blackish or greenish stuff like the dross57 of an iron-furnace, forming dark clefts58 and caves here and there, into which a ceaseless sea pours a fury of foam59; overhanging them with a swirl60 of gray, haggard mist, amidst which sail screaming flights of unearthly birds heightening the dismal61 din62. However calm the sea without, there is no rest for these swells63 and those [pg 291] rocks; they lash64 and are lashed65, even when the outer ocean is most at peace with, itself. On the oppressive, clouded days, such as are peculiar66 to this part of the watery67 Equator, the dark, vitrified masses, many of which raise themselves among white whirlpools and breakers in detached and perilous68 places off the shore, present a most Plutonian sight. In no world but a fallen one could such lands exist.
Those parts of the strand69 free from the marks of fire, stretch away in wide level beaches of multitudinous dead shells, with here and there decayed bits of sugar-cane70, bamboos, and cocoanuts, washed upon this other and darker world from the charming palm isles to the westward71 and southward; all the way from Paradise to Tartarus; while mixed with the relics72 of distant beauty you will sometimes see fragments of charred73 wood and mouldering74 ribs75 of wrecks76. Neither will any one be surprised at meeting these last, after observing the conflicting currents which eddy78 throughout nearly all the wide channels of the entire group. The capriciousness of the [pg 292] tides of air sympathizes with those of the sea. Nowhere is the wind so light, baffling, and every way unreliable, and so given to perplexing calms, as at the Encantadas. Nigh a month has been spent by a ship going from one isle2 to another, though but ninety miles between; for owing to the force of the current, the boats employed to tow barely suffice to keep the craft from sweeping79 upon the cliffs, but do nothing towards accelerating her voyage. Sometimes it is impossible for a vessel81 from afar to fetch up with the group itself, unless large allowances for prospective82 lee-way have been made ere its coming in sight. And yet, at other times, there is a mysterious indraft, which irresistibly84 draws a passing vessel among the isles, though not bound to them.
True, at one period, as to some extent at the present day, large fleets of whalemen cruised for spermaceti upon what some seamen86 call the Enchanted Ground. But this, as in due place will be described, was off the great outer isle of Albemarle, away from the intricacies of the smaller isles, where there is plenty of sea-room; and hence, to that vicinity, the above [pg 293] remarks do not altogether apply; though even there the current runs at times with singular force, shifting, too, with as singular a caprice.
Indeed, there are seasons when currents quite unaccountable prevail for a great distance round about the total group, and are so strong and irregular as to change a vessel's course against the helm, though sailing at the rate of four or five miles the hour. The difference in the reckonings of navigators, produced by these causes, along with the light and variable winds, long nourished a persuasion88, that there existed two distinct clusters of isles in the parallel of the Encantadas, about a hundred leagues apart. Such was the idea of their earlier visitors, the Buccaneers; and as late as 1750, the charts of that part of the Pacific accorded with the strange delusion89. And this apparent fleetingness and unreality of the locality of the isles was most probably one reason for the Spaniards calling them the Encantada, or Enchanted Group.
But not uninfluenced by their character, as they now confessedly exist, the modern voyager will be inclined to fancy that the bestowal90 [pg 294] of this name might have in part originated in that air of spell-bound desertness which so significantly invests the isles. Nothing can better suggest the aspect of once living things malignly91 crumbled92 from ruddiness into ashes. Apples of Sodom, after touching93, seem these isles.
However wavering their place may seem by reason of the currents, they themselves, at least to one upon the shore, appear invariably the same: fixed94, cast, glued into the very body of cadaverous death.
Nor would the appellation95, enchanted, seem misapplied in still another sense. For concerning the peculiar reptile inhabitant of these wilds—whose presence gives the group its second Spanish name, Gallipagos—concerning the tortoises found here, most mariners97 have long cherished a superstition98, not more frightful99 than grotesque100. They earnestly believe that all wicked sea-officers, more especially commodores and captains, are at death (and, in some cases, before death) transformed into tortoises; thenceforth dwelling102 upon these hot aridities, sole solitary103 lords of Asphaltum. [pg 295]
Doubtless, so quaintly104 dolorous105 a thought was originally inspired by the woe106-begone landscape itself; but more particularly, perhaps, by the tortoises. For, apart from their strictly108 physical features, there is something strangely self-condemned in the appearance of these creatures. Lasting39 sorrow and penal hopelessness are in no animal form so suppliantly109 expressed as in theirs; while the thought of their wonderful longevity110 does not fail to enhance the impression.
Nor even at the risk of meriting the charge of absurdly believing in enchantments111, can I restrain the admission that sometimes, even now, when leaving the crowded city to wander out July and August among the Adirondack Mountains, far from the influences of towns and proportionally nigh to the mysterious ones of nature; when at such times I sit me down in the mossy head of some deep-wooded gorge114, surrounded by prostrate115 trunks of blasted pines and recall, as in a dream, my other and far-distant rovings in the baked heart of the charmed isles; and remember the sudden glimpses of dusky shells, and long languid necks protruded116 [pg 296] from the leafless thickets; and again have beheld117 the vitreous inland rocks worn down and grooved118 into deep ruts by ages and ages of the slow draggings of tortoises in quest of pools of scanty119 water; I can hardly resist the feeling that in my time I have indeed slept upon evilly enchanted ground.
Nay120, such is the vividness of my memory, or the magic of my fancy, that I know not whether I am not the occasional victim of optical delusion concerning the Gallipagos. For, often in scenes of social merriment, and especially at revels121 held by candle-light in old-fashioned mansions122, so that shadows are thrown into the further recesses124 of an angular and spacious125 room, making them put on a look of haunted undergrowth of lonely woods, I have drawn5 the attention of my comrades by my fixed gaze and sudden change of air, as I have seemed to see, slowly emerging from those imagined solitudes, and heavily crawling along the floor, the ghost of a gigantic tortoise, with "Memento127 * * * * *" burning in live letters upon his back. [pg 297]
* * * * *
SKETCH SECOND.
TWO SIDES TO A TORTOISE.
"Most ugly shapes and horrible aspects,
Or shame, that ever should so fowle defects
From her most cunning hand escaped bee;
All dreadfull pourtraicts of deformitee.
For all that here at home we dreadfull hold
Compared to the creatures in these isles' entrall
* * * * *
For these same monsters are not there indeed,
But are into these fearful shapes disguized.
* * * * *
"And lifting up his vertuous staffe on high,
Then all that dreadful armie fast gan flye
In view of the description given, may one be gay upon the Encantadas? Yes: that is, find one the gayety, and he will be gay. And, indeed, sackcloth and ashes as they are, the isles are not perhaps unmitigated gloom. For while no spectator can deny their claims to a most solemn and superstitious134 consideration, no more than my firmest resolutions can decline to behold135 the spectre-tortoise when emerging [pg 298] from its shadowy recess123; yet even the tortoise, dark and melancholy as it is upon the back, still possesses a bright side; its calipee or breast-plate being sometimes of a faint yellowish or golden tinge136. Moreover, every one knows that tortoises as well as turtle are of such a make, that if you but put them on their backs you thereby137 expose their bright sides without the possibility of their recovering themselves, and turning into view the other. But after you have done this, and because you have done this, you should not swear that the tortoise has no dark side. Enjoy the bright, keep it turned up perpetually if you can, but be honest, and don't deny the black. Neither should he, who cannot turn the tortoise from its natural position so as to hide the darker and expose his livelier aspect, like a great October pumpkin139 in the sun, for that cause declare the creature to be one total inky blot140. The tortoise is both black and bright. But let us to particulars.
Some months before my first stepping ashore141 upon the group, my ship was cruising in its close vicinity. One noon we found ourselves [pg 299] off the South Head of Albemarle, and not very far from the land. Partly by way of freak, and partly by way of spying out so strange a country, a boat's crew was sent ashore, with orders to see all they could, and besides, bring back whatever tortoises they could conveniently transport.
It was after sunset, when the adventurers returned. I looked down over the ship's high side as if looking down over the curb142 of a well, and dimly saw the damp boat, deep in the sea with some unwonted weight. Ropes were dropt over, and presently three huge antediluvian-looking tortoises, after much straining, were landed on deck. They seemed hardly of the seed of earth. We had been broad upon the waters for five long months, a period amply sufficient to make all things of the land wear a fabulous143 hue144 to the dreamy mind. Had three Spanish custom-house officers boarded us then, it is not unlikely that I should have curiously145 stared at them, felt of them, and stroked them much as savages147 serve civilized148 guests. But instead of three custom-house officers, behold these really wondrous149 tortoises—none of your [pg 300] schoolboy mud-turtles—but black as widower's weeds, heavy as chests of plate, with vast shells medallioned and orbed like shields, and dented150 and blistered151 like shields that have breasted a battle, shaggy, too, here and there, with dark green moss113, and slimy with the spray of the sea. These mystic creatures, suddenly translated by night from unutterable solitudes to our peopled deck, affected153 me in a manner not easy to unfold. They seemed newly crawled forth101 from beneath the foundations of the world. Yea, they seemed the identical tortoises whereon the Hindoo plants this total sphere. With a lantern I inspected them more closely. Such worshipful venerableness of aspect! Such furry154 greenness mantling155 the rude peelings and healing the fissures of their shattered shells. I no more saw three tortoises. They expanded—became transfigured. I seemed to see three Roman Coliseums in magnificent decay.
Ye oldest inhabitants of this, or any other isle, said I, pray, give me the freedom of your three-walled towns.
The great feeling inspired by these creatures was that of age:—dateless, indefinite endurance. [pg 301] And in fact that any other creature can live and breathe as long as the tortoise of the Encantadas, I will not readily believe. Not to hint of their known capacity of sustaining life, while going without food for an entire year, consider that impregnable armor of their living mail. What other bodily being possesses such a citadel156 wherein to resist the assaults of Time?
As, lantern in hand, I scraped among the moss and beheld the ancient scars of bruises157 received in many a sullen158 fall among the marly mountains of the isle—scars strangely widened, swollen159, half obliterate160, and yet distorted like those sometimes found in the bark of very hoary161 trees, I seemed an antiquary of a geologist162, studying the bird-tracks and ciphers163 upon the exhumed164 slates165 trod by incredible creatures whose very ghosts are now defunct167.
As I lay in my hammock that night, overhead I heard the slow weary draggings of the three ponderous168 strangers along the encumbered169 deck. Their stupidity or their resolution was so great, that they never went aside for any impediment. One ceased his movements altogether [pg 302] just before the mid-watch. At sunrise I found him butted170 like a battering-ram171 against the immovable foot of the foremast, and still striving, tooth and nail, to force the impossible passage. That these tortoises are the victims of a penal, or malignant172, or perhaps a downright diabolical173 enchanter, seems in nothing more likely than in that strange infatuation of hopeless toil174 which so often possesses them. I have known them in their journeyings ram themselves heroically against rocks, and long abide175 there, nudging, wriggling176, wedging, in order to displace them, and so hold on their inflexible177 path. Their crowning curse is their drudging impulse to straightforwardness178 in a belittered world.
Meeting with no such hinderance as their companion did, the other tortoises merely fell foul180 of small stumbling-blocks—buckets, blocks, and coils of rigging—and at times in the act of crawling over them would slip with an astounding182 rattle183 to the deck. Listening to these draggings and concussions184, I thought me of the haunt from which they came; an isle full of metallic185 ravines and gulches187, sunk bottomlessly [pg 303] into the hearts of splintered mountains, and covered for many miles with inextricable thickets. I then pictured these three straight-forward monsters, century after century, writhing188 through the shades, grim as blacksmiths; crawling so slowly and ponderously189, that not only did toad-stools and all fungus190 things grow beneath their feet, but a sooty moss sprouted191 upon their backs. With them I lost myself in volcanic192 mazes193; brushed away endless boughs194 of rotting thickets; till finally in a dream I found myself sitting crosslegged upon the foremost, a Brahmin similarly mounted upon either side, forming a tripod of foreheads which upheld the universal cope.
Such was the wild nightmare begot195 by my first impression of the Encantadas tortoise. But next evening, strange to say, I sat down with my shipmates, and made a merry repast from tortoise steaks, and tortoise stews196; and supper over, out knife, and helped convert the three mighty197 concave shells into three fanciful soup-tureens, and polished the three flat yellowish calipees into three gorgeous salvers. [pg 304]
* * * * *
SKETCH THIRD.
ROCK RODONDO.
A dangerous and dreadful place,
To which nor fish nor fowl did once approach,
Which still sit waiting on that dreadful clift."
* * * * *
"With that the rolling sea resounding202 soft
In his big base them fitly answered,
And on the Rock, the waves breaking aloft,
A solemn ineane unto them measured."
* * * * *
"Then he the boteman bad row easily,
And let him heare some part of that rare melody."
* * * * *
"Suddeinly an innumerable flight
Of harmefull fowles about them fluttering cride,
And with their wicked wings them oft did smight
And sore annoyed, groping in that griesly night."
* * * * *
"Even all the nation of unfortunate
And fatal birds about them flocked were."
To go up into a high stone tower is not only a very fine thing in itself, but the very best mode of gaining a comprehensive view of the region round about. It is all the better if this tower stand solitary and alone, like that mysterious [pg 305] Newport one, or else be sole survivor203 of some perished castle.
Now, with reference to the Enchanted Isles, we are fortunately supplied with just such a noble point of observation in a remarkable204 rock, from its peculiar figure called of old by the Spaniards, Rock Rodondo, or Round Rock. Some two hundred and fifty feet high, rising straight from the sea ten miles from land, with the whole mountainous group to the south and east. Rock Rodondo occupies, on a large scale, very much the position which the famous Campanile or detached Bell Tower of St. Mark does with respect to the tangled group of hoary edifices205 around it.
Ere ascending207, however, to gaze abroad upon the Encantadas, this sea-tower itself claims attention. It is visible at the distance of thirty miles; and, fully34 participating in that enchantment112 which pervades208 the group, when first seen afar invariably is mistaken for a sail. Four leagues away, of a golden, hazy209 noon, it seems some Spanish Admiral's ship, stacked up with glittering canvas. Sail ho! Sail ho! Sail ho! from all three masts. But coming nigh, [pg 306] the enchanted frigate210 is transformed apace into a craggy keep.
My first visit to the spot was made in the gray of the morning. With a view of fishing, we had lowered three boats and pulling some two miles from our vessel, found ourselves just before dawn of day close under the moon-shadow of Rodondo. Its aspect was heightened, and yet softened211, by the strange double twilight212 of the hour. The great full moon burnt in the low west like a half-spent beacon213, casting a soft mellow214 tinge upon the sea like that cast by a waning215 fire of embers upon a midnight hearth216; while along the entire east the invisible sun sent pallid217 intimations of his coming. The wind was light; the waves languid; the stars twinkled with a faint effulgence218; all nature seemed supine with the long night watch, and half-suspended in jaded219 expectation of the sun. This was the critical hour to catch Rodondo in his perfect mood. The twilight was just enough to reveal every striking point, without tearing away the dim investiture of wonder.
From a broken stair-like base, washed, as [pg 307] the steps of a water-palace, by the waves, the tower rose in entablatures of strata220 to a shaven summit. These uniform layers, which compose the mass, form its most peculiar feature. For at their lines of junction222 they project flatly into encircling shelves, from top to bottom, rising one above another in graduated series. And as the eaves of any old barn or abbey are alive with swallows, so were all these rocky ledges223 with unnumbered sea-fowl. Eaves upon eaves, and nests upon nests. Here and there were long birdlime streaks225 of a ghostly white staining the tower from sea to air, readily accounting226 for its sail-like look afar. All would have been bewitchingly quiescent227, were it not for the demoniac din created by the birds. Not only were the eaves rustling229 with them, but they flew densely231 overhead, spreading themselves into a winged and continually shifting canopy233. The tower is the resort of aquatic234 birds for hundreds of leagues around. To the north, to the east, to the west, stretches nothing but eternal ocean; so that the man-of-war hawk235 coming from the coasts of North America, Polynesia, or Peru, makes his first [pg 308] land at Rodondo. And yet though Rodondo be terra-firma, no land-bird ever lighted on it. Fancy a red-robin or a canary there! What a falling into the hands of the Philistines236, when the poor warbler should be surrounded by such locust-flights of strong bandit birds, with long bills cruel as daggers237.
I know not where one can better study the Natural History of strange sea-fowl than at Rodondo. It is the aviary239 of Ocean. Birds light here which never touched mast or tree; hermit240-birds, which ever fly alone; cloud-birds, familiar with unpierced zones of air.
Let us first glance low down to the lowermost shelf of all, which is the widest, too, and but a little space from high-water mark. What outlandish beings are these? Erect241 as men, but hardly as symmetrical, they stand all round the rock like sculptured caryatides, supporting the next range of eaves above. Their bodies are grotesquely242 misshapen; their bills short; their feet seemingly legless; while the members at their sides are neither fin32, wing, nor arm. And truly neither fish, flesh, nor fowl is the penguin243; as an edible166, pertaining244 neither to Carnival245 [pg 309] nor Lent; without exception the most ambiguous and least lovely creature yet discovered by man. Though dabbling246 in all three elements, and indeed possessing some rudimental claims to all, the penguin is at home in none. On land it stumps247; afloat it sculls; in the air it flops248. As if ashamed of her failure, Nature keeps this ungainly child hidden away at the ends of the earth, in the Straits of Magellan, and on the abased249 sea-story of Rodondo.
But look, what are yon wobegone regiments251 drawn up on the next shelf above? what rank and file of large strange fowl? what sea Friars of Orders Gray? Pelicans252. Their elongated253 bills, and heavy leathern pouches254 suspended thereto, give them the most lugubrious255 expression. A pensive256 race, they stand for hours together without motion. Their dull, ashy plumage imparts an aspect as if they had been powdered over with cinders. A penitential bird, indeed, fitly haunting the shores of the clinkered Encantadas, whereon tormented Job himself might have well sat down and scraped himself with potsherds.
Higher up now we mark the gony, or gray [pg 310] albatross, anomalously258 so called, an unsightly unpoetic bird, unlike its storied kinsman259, which is the snow-white ghost of the haunted Capes260 of Hope and Horn.
As we still ascend206 from shelf to shelf, we find the tenants261 of the tower serially263 disposed in order of their magnitude:—gannets, black and speckled haglets, jays, sea-hens, sperm85-whale-birds, gulls of all varieties:—thrones, princedoms, powers, dominating one above another in senatorial array; while, sprinkled over all, like an ever-repeated fly in a great piece of broidery, the stormy petrel or Mother Cary's chicken sounds his continual challenge and alarm. That this mysterious hummingbird264 of ocean—which, had it but brilliancy of hue, might, from its evanescent liveliness, be almost called its butterfly, yet whose chirrup under the stern is ominous265 to mariners as to the peasant the death-tick sounding from behind the chimney jamb—should have its special haunt at the Encantadas, contributes, in the seaman266's mind, not a little to their dreary spell.
As day advances the dissonant267 din augments268. With ear-splitting cries the wild birds celebrate [pg 311] their matins. Each moment, flights push from the tower, and join the aerial choir269 hovering270 overhead, while their places below are supplied by darting271 myriads272. But down through all this discord273 of commotion274, I hear clear, silver, bugle-like notes unbrokenly falling, like oblique275 lines of swift-slanting rain in a cascading276 shower. I gaze far up, and behold a snow-white angelic thing, with one long, lance-like feather thrust out behind. It is the bright, inspiriting chanticleer of ocean, the beauteous bird, from its bestirring whistle of musical invocation, fitly styled the "Boatswain's Mate."
The winged, life-clouding Rodondo had its full counterpart in the finny hosts which peopled the waters at its base. Below the water-line, the rock seemed one honey-comb of grottoes, affording labyrinthine278 lurking-places for swarms280 of fairy fish. All were strange; many exceedingly beautiful; and would have well graced the costliest281 glass globes in which gold-fish are kept for a show. Nothing was more striking than the complete novelty of many individuals of this multitude. Here hues282 [pg 312] were seen as yet unpainted, and figures which are unengraved.
To show the multitude, avidity, and nameless fearlessness and tameness of these fish, let me say, that often, marking through clear spaces of water—temporarily made so by the concentric dartings of the fish above the surface—certain larger and less unwary wights, which swam slow and deep; our anglers would cautiously essay to drop their lines down to these last. But in vain; there was no passing the uppermost zone. No sooner did the hook touch the sea, than a hundred infatuates contended for the honor of capture. Poor fish of Rodondo! in your victimized confidence, you are of the number of those who inconsiderately trust, while they do not understand, human nature.
But the dawn is now fairly day. Band after band, the sea-fowl sail away to forage284 the deep for their food. The tower is left solitary save the fish-caves at its base. Its birdlime gleams in the golden rays like the whitewash285 of a tall light-house, or the lofty sails of a cruiser. This moment, doubtless, while we know it to be a dead desert rock other voyagers [pg 313] are taking oaths it is a glad populous286 ship.
But ropes now, and let us ascend. Yet soft, this is not so easy. [pg 314]
* * * * *
SKETCH FOURTH.
A PISGAH VIEW FROM THE ROCK.
—"That done, he leads him to the highest mount,
From whence, far off he unto him did show:"—
If you seek to ascend Rock Rodondo, take the following prescription287. Go three voyages round the world as a main-royal-man of the tallest frigate that floats; then serve a year or two apprenticeship288 to the guides who conduct strangers up the Peak of Teneriffe; and as many more respectively to a rope-dancer, an Indian juggler290, and a chamois. This done, come and be rewarded by the view from our tower. How we get there, we alone know. If we sought to tell others, what the wiser were they? Suffice it, that here at the summit you and I stand. Does any balloonist, does the outlooking man in the moon, take a broader view of space? Much thus, one fancies, looks the universe from Milton's celestial291 battlements. A boundless292 watery Kentucky. Here Daniel Boone would have dwelt content. [pg 315]
Never heed293 for the present yonder Burnt District of the Enchanted Isles. Look edgeways, as it were, past them, to the south. You see nothing; but permit me to point out the direction, if not the place, of certain interesting objects in the vast sea, which, kissing this tower's base, we behold unscrolling itself towards the Antarctic Pole.
We stand now ten miles from the Equator. Yonder, to the East, some six hundred miles, lies the continent; this Rock being just about on the parallel of Quito.
Observe another thing here. We are at one of three uninhabited clusters, which, at pretty nearly uniform distances from the main, sentinel, at long intervals296 from each other, the entire coast of South America. In a peculiar manner, also, they terminate the South American character of country. Of the unnumbered Polynesian chains to the westward, not one partakes of the qualities of the Encantadas or Gallipagos, the isles of St. Felix and St. Ambrose, the isles Juan-Fernandez and Massafuero. Of the first, it needs not here to speak. The second lie a little above the Southern Tropic; [pg 316] lofty, inhospitable, and uninhabitable rocks, one of which, presenting two round hummocks297 connected by a low reef, exactly resembles a huge double-headed shot. The last lie in the latitude298 of 33°; high, wild and cloven. Juan Fernandez is sufficiently299 famous without further description. Massafuero is a Spanish name, expressive300 of the fact, that the isle so called lies more without, that is, further off the main than its neighbor Juan. This isle Massafuero has a very imposing301 aspect at a distance of eight or ten miles. Approached in one direction, in cloudy weather, its great overhanging height and rugged302 contour, and more especially a peculiar slope of its broad summits, give it much the air of a vast iceberg303 drifting in tremendous poise304. Its sides are split with dark cavernous recesses, as an old cathedral with its gloomy lateral305 chapels306. Drawing nigh one of these gorges307 from sea, after a long voyage, and beholding308 some tatterdemalion outlaw309, staff in hand, descending310 its steep rocks toward you, conveys a very queer emotion to a lover of the picturesque311.
On fishing parties from ships, at various [pg 317] times, I have chanced to visit each of these groups. The impression they give to the stranger pulling close up in his boat under their grim cliffs is, that surely he must be their first discoverer, such, for the most part, is the unimpaired ... silence and solitude28. And here, by the way, the mode in which these isles were really first lighted upon by Europeans is not unworthy of mention, especially as what is about to be said, likewise applies to the original discovery of our Encantadas.
Prior to the year 1563, the voyages made by Spanish ships from Peru to Chili312, were full of difficulty. Along this coast, the winds from the South most generally prevail; and it had been an invariable custom to keep close in with the land, from a superstitious conceit313 on the part of the Spaniards, that were they to lose sight of it, the eternal trade-wind would waft314 them into unending waters, from whence would be no return. Here, involved among tortuous315 capes and headlands, shoals and reefs, beating, too, against a continual head wind, often light, and sometimes for days and weeks sunk into utter calm, the provincial316 vessels317, [pg 318] in many cases, suffered the extremest hardships, in passages, which at the present day seem to have been incredibly protracted318. There is on record in some collections of nautical319 disasters, an account of one of these ships, which, starting on a voyage whose duration was estimated at ten days, spent four months at sea, and indeed never again entered harbor, for in the end she was cast away. Singular to tell, this craft never encountered a gale320, but was the vexed321 sport of malicious322 calms and currents. Thrice, out of provisions, she put back to an intermediate port, and started afresh, but only yet again to return. Frequent fogs enveloped323 her; so that no observation could be had of her place, and once, when all hands were joyously324 anticipating sight of their destination, lo! the vapors326 lifted and disclosed the mountains from which they had taken their first departure. In the like deceptive327 vapors she at last struck upon a reef, whence ensued a long series of calamities328 too sad to detail.
It was the famous pilot, Juan Fernandez, immortalized by the island named after him, [pg 319] who put an end to these coasting tribulations329, by boldly venturing the experiment—as De Gama did before him with respect to Europe—of standing330 broad out from land. Here he found the winds favorable for getting to the South, and by running westward till beyond the influences of the trades, he regained332 the coast without difficulty; making the passage which, though in a high degree circuitous333, proved far more expeditious334 than the nominally336 direct one. Now it was upon these new tracks, and about the year 1670, or thereabouts, that the Enchanted Isles, and the rest of the sentinel groups, as they may be called, were discovered. Though I know of no account as to whether any of them were found inhabited or no, it may be reasonably concluded that they have been immemorial solitudes. But let us return to Redondo.
Southwest from our tower lies all Polynesia, hundreds of leagues away; but straight west, on the precise line of his parallel, no land rises till your keel is beached upon the Kingsmills, a nice little sail of, say 5000 miles.
Having thus by such distant references—with [pg 320] Rodondo the only possible ones—settled our relative place on the sea, let us consider objects not quite so remote. Behold the grim and charred Enchanted Isles. This nearest crater-shaped headland is part of Albemarle, the largest of the group, being some sixty miles or more long, and fifteen broad. Did you ever lay eye on the real genuine Equator? Have you ever, in the largest sense, toed the Line? Well, that identical crater-shaped headland there, all yellow lava337, is cut by the Equator exactly as a knife cuts straight through the centre of a pumpkin pie. If you could only see so far, just to one side of that same headland, across yon low dikey ground, you would catch sight of the isle of Narborough, the loftiest land of the cluster; no soil whatever; one seamed clinker from top to bottom; abounding338 in black caves like smithies; its metallic shore ringing under foot like plates of iron; its central volcanoes standing grouped like a gigantic chimney-stack.
Narborough and Albemarle are neighbors after a quite curious fashion. A familiar diagram will illustrate340 this strange neighborhood: [pg 321]
E on its side.
Cut a channel at the above letter joint341, and the middle transverse limb is Narborough, and all the rest is Albemarle. Volcanic Narborough lies in the black jaws342 of Albemarle like a wolf's red tongue in his open month.
If now you desire the population of Albemarle, I will give you, in round numbers, the statistics, according to the most reliable estimates made upon the spot:
Men, none
Ant-eaters, unknown
Man-haters, unknown
Lizards, 500,000
Snakes, 500,000
Spiders, 10,000,000
Salamanders, unknown
Devils, do
Making a clean total of 11,000,000
exclusive of an incomputable host of fiends, ant-eaters, man-haters, and salamanders.
Albemarle opens his mouth towards the setting sun. His distended343 jaws form a great bay, which Narborough, his tongue, divides into halves, one whereof is called Weather Bay, the other Lee Bay; while the volcanic promontories344, terminating his coasts, are styled South [pg 322] Head and North Head. I note this, because these bays are famous in the annals of the Sperm Whale Fishery. The whales come here at certain seasons to calve. When ships first cruised hereabouts, I am told, they used to blockade the entrance of Lee Bay, when their boats going round by Weather Bay, passed through Narborough channel, and so had the Leviathans very neatly345 in a pen.
The day after we took fish at the base of this Round Tower, we had a fine wind, and shooting round the north headland, suddenly descried346 a fleet of full thirty sail, all beating to windward like a squadron in line. A brave sight as ever man saw. A most harmonious347 concord348 of rushing keels. Their thirty kelsons hummed like thirty harp-strings, and looked as straight whilst they left their parallel traces on the sea. But there proved too many hunters for the game. The fleet broke up, and went their separate ways out of sight, leaving my own ship and two trim gentlemen of London. These last, finding no luck either, likewise vanished; and Lee Bay, with all its appurtenances, and without a rival, devolved to us. [pg 323]
The way of cruising here is this. You keep hovering about the entrance of the bay, in one beat and out the next. But at times—not always, as in other parts of the group—a racehorse of a current sweeps right across its mouth. So, with all sails set, you carefully ply87 your tacks349. How often, standing at the foremast head at sunrise, with our patient prow350 pointed351 in between these isles, did I gaze upon that land, not of cakes, but of clinkers, not of streams of sparkling water, but arrested torrents352 of tormented lava.
As the ship runs in from the open sea, Narborough presents its side in one dark craggy mass, soaring up some five or six thousand feet, at which point it hoods353 itself in heavy clouds, whose lowest level fold is as clearly defined against the rocks as the snow-line against the Andes. There is dire294 mischief354 going on in that upper dark. There toil the demons355 of fire, who, at intervals, irradiate the nights with a strange spectral356 illumination for miles and miles around, but unaccompanied by any further demonstration357; or else, suddenly announce themselves by terrific concussions, and the full [pg 324] drama of a volcanic eruption358. The blacker that cloud by day, the more may you look for light by night. Often whalemen have found themselves cruising nigh that burning mountain when all aglow359 with a ball-room blaze. Or, rather, glass-works, you may call this same vitreous isle of Narborough, with its tall chimney-stacks.
Where we still stand, here on Rodondo, we cannot see all the other isles, but it is a good place from which to point out where they lie. Yonder, though, to the E.N.E., I mark a distant dusky ridge360. It is Abington Isle, one of the most northerly of the group; so solitary, remote, and blank, it looks like No-Man's Land seen off our northern shore. I doubt whether two human beings ever touched upon that spot. So far as yon Abington Isle is concerned, Adam and his billions of posterity361 remain uncreated.
Ranging south of Abington, and quite out of sight behind the long spine362 of Albemarle, lies James's Isle, so called by the early Buccaneers after the luckless Stuart, Duke of York. Observe here, by the way, that, excepting the [pg 325] isles particularized in comparatively recent times, and which mostly received the names of famous Admirals, the Encantadas were first christened by the Spaniards; but these Spanish names were generally effaced363 on English charts by the subsequent christenings of the Buccaneers, who, in the middle of the seventeenth century, called them after English noblemen and kings. Of these loyal freebooters and the things which associate their name with the Encantadas, we shall hear anon. Nay, for one little item, immediately; for between James's Isle and Albemarle, lies a fantastic islet, strangely known as "Cowley's Enchanted Isle." But, as all the group is deemed enchanted, the reason must be given for the spell within a spell involved by this particular designation. The name was bestowed364 by that excellent Buccaneer himself, on his first visit here. Speaking in his published voyages of this spot, he says—"My fancy led me to call it Cowley's Enchanted Isle, for, we having had a sight of it upon several points of the compass, it appeared always in so many different forms; sometimes like a ruined fortification; upon [pg 326] another point like a great city," etc. No wonder though, that among the Encantadas all sorts of ocular deceptions365 and mirages366 should be met.
That Cowley linked his name with this self-transforming and bemocking isle, suggests the possibility that it conveyed to him some meditative368 image of himself. At least, as is not impossible, if he were any relative of the mildly-thoughtful and self-upbraiding poet Cowley, who lived about his time, the conceit might seem unwarranted; for that sort of thing evinced in the naming of this isle runs in the blood, and may be seen in pirates as in poets.
Still south of James's Isle lie Jervis Isle, Duncan Isle, Grossman's Isle, Brattle Isle, Wood's Isle, Chatham Isle, and various lesser369 isles, for the most part an archipelago of aridities, without inhabitant, history, or hope of either in all time to come. But not far from these are rather notable isles—Barrington, Charles's, Norfolk, and Hood's. Succeeding chapters will reveal some ground for their notability. [pg 327]
* * * * *
SKETCH FIFTH.
THE FRIGATE, AND SHIP FLYAWAY.
"Looking far forth into the ocean wide,
A goodly ship with banners bravely dight,
Through the main sea making her merry flight."
Ere quitting Rodondo, it must not be omitted that here, in 1813, the U.S. frigate Essex, Captain David Porter, came near leaving her bones. Lying becalmed one morning with a strong current setting her rapidly towards the rock, a strange sail was descried, which—not out of keeping with alleged371 enchantments of the neighborhood—seemed to be staggering under a violent wind, while the frigate lay lifeless as if spell-bound. But a light air springing up, all sail was made by the frigate in chase of the enemy, as supposed—he being deemed an English whale-ship—but the rapidity of the current was so great, that soon all sight was lost of him; and, at meridian372, the Essex, spite of her drags, was driven so close under the foam-lashed cliffs of Rodondo that, for a time, all hands gave her up. A smart breeze, however, at last helped her off, though the escape was so critical as to seem almost miraculous373. [pg 328]
Thus saved from destruction herself, she now made use of that salvation374 to destroy the other vessel, if possible. Renewing the chase in the direction in which the stranger had disappeared, sight was caught of him the following morning. Upon being descried he hoisted376 American colors and stood away from the Essex. A calm ensued; when, still confident that the stranger was an Englishman, Porter dispatched a cutter, not to board the enemy, but drive back his boats engaged in towing him. The cutter succeeded. Cutters were subsequently sent to capture him; the stranger now showing English colors in place of American. But, when the frigate's boats were within a short distance of their hoped-for prize, another sudden breeze sprang up; the stranger, under all sail, bore off to the westward, and, ere night, was hull378 down ahead of the Essex, which, all this time, lay perfectly379 becalmed.
This enigmatic craft—American in the morning, and English in the evening—her sails full of wind in a calm—was never again beheld. An enchanted ship no doubt. So, at least, the sailors swore. [pg 329]
This cruise of the Essex in the Pacific during the war of 1812, is, perhaps, the strangest and most stirring to be found in the history of the American navy. She captured the furthest wandering vessels; visited the remotest seas and isles; long hovered380 in the charmed vicinity of the enchanted group; and, finally, valiantly381 gave up the ghost fighting two English frigates382 in the harbor of Valparaiso. Mention is made of her here for the same reason that the Buccaneers will likewise receive record; because, like them, by long cruising among the isles, tortoise-hunting upon their shores, and generally exploring them; for these and other reasons, the Essex is peculiarly associated with the Encantadas.
Here be it said that you have but three, eye-witness authorities worth mentioning touching the Enchanted Isles:—Cowley, the Buccaneer (1684); Colnet the whaling-ground explorer (1798); Porter, the post captain (1813). Other than these you have but barren, bootless allusions384 from some few passing voyagers or compilers. [pg 330]
* * * * *
SKETCH SIXTH.
BARRINGTON ISLE AND THE BUCCANEERS.
"Let us all servile base subjection scorn,
And as we be sons of the earth so wide,
Let us our father's heritage divide,
And challenge to ourselves our portions dew
hold on hugger-mugger in their hand."
* * * * *
"Lords of the world, and so will wander free,
Whereso us listeth, uncontroll'd of any."
* * * * *
first inheritance, without fear, how free from little troubles!"
Near two centuries ago Barrington Isle was the resort of that famous wing of the West Indian Buccaneers, which, upon their repulse387 from the Cuban waters, crossing the Isthmus388 of Darien, ravaged389 the Pacific side of the Spanish colonies, and, with the regularity390 and timing391 of a modern mail, waylaid392 the royal treasure-ships plying393 between Manilla and Acapulco. After the toils394 of piratic war, here they came to say their prayers, enjoy their free-and-easies, count their crackers395 from the cask, their doubloons from the keg, and measure their silks of Asia with long Toledos for their yard-sticks. [pg 331]
As a secure retreat, an undiscoverable hiding-place, no spot in those days could have been better fitted. In the centre of a vast and silent sea, but very little traversed—surrounded by islands, whose inhospitable aspect might well drive away the chance navigator—and yet within a few days' sail of the opulent countries which they made their prey397—the unmolested Buccaneers found here that tranquillity398 which they fiercely denied to every civilized harbor in that part of the world. Here, after stress of weather, or a temporary drubbing at the hands of their vindictive399 foes400, or in swift flight with golden booty, those old marauders came, and lay snugly401 out of all harm's reach. But not only was the place a harbor of safety, and a bower402 of ease, but for utility in other things it was most admirable.
Barrington Isle is, in many respects, singularly adapted to careening, refitting, refreshing403, and other seamen's purposes. Not only has it good water, and good anchorage, well sheltered from all winds by the high land of Albemarle, but it is the least unproductive isle of the group. Tortoises good for food, trees good for [pg 332] fuel, and long grass good for bedding, abound339 here, and there are pretty natural walks, and several landscapes to be seen. Indeed, though in its locality belonging to the Enchanted group, Barrington Isle is so unlike most of its neighbors, that it would hardly seem of kin14 to them.
"I once landed on its western side," says a sentimental405 voyager long ago, "where it faces the black buttress406 of Albemarle. I walked beneath groves407 of trees—not very lofty, and not palm trees, or orange trees, or peach trees, to be sure—but, for all that, after long sea-faring, very beautiful to walk under, even though they supplied no fruit. And here, in calm spaces at the heads of glades408, and on the shaded tops of slopes commanding the most quiet scenery—what do you think I saw? Seats which might have served Brahmins and presidents of peace societies. Fine old ruins of what had once been symmetric lounges of stone and turf, they bore every mark both of artificialness and age, and were, undoubtedly410, made by the Buccaneers. One had been a long sofa, with back and arms, just such a sofa as the poet Gray [pg 333] might have loved to throw himself upon, his Crebillon in hand.
"Though they sometimes tarried here for months at a time, and used the spot for a storing-place for spare spars, sails, and casks; yet it is highly improbable that the Buccaneers ever erected411 dwelling-houses upon the isle. They never were here except their ships remained, and they would most likely have slept on board. I mention this, because I cannot avoid the thought, that it is hard to impute412 the construction of these romantic seats to any other motive413 than one of pure peacefulness and kindly414 fellowship with nature. That the Buccaneers perpetrated the greatest outrages415 is very true—that some of them were mere179 cutthroats is not to be denied; but we know that here and there among their host was a Dampier, a Wafer, and a Cowley, and likewise other men, whose worst reproach was their desperate fortunes—whom persecution416, or adversity, or secret and unavengeable wrongs, had driven from Christian417 society to seek the melancholy solitude or the guilty adventures of the sea. At any rate, long as those ruins of [pg 334] seats on Barrington remain, the most singular monuments are furnished to the fact, that all of the Buccaneers were not unmitigated monsters.
"But during my ramble418 on the isle I was not long in discovering other tokens, of things quite in accordance with those wild traits, popularly, and no doubt truly enough, imputed419 to the freebooters at large. Had I picked up old sails and rusty420 hoops421 I would only have thought of the ship's carpenter and cooper. But I found old cutlasses and daggers reduced to mere threads of rust230, which, doubtless, had stuck between Spanish ribs ere now. These were signs of the murderer and robber; the reveler likewise had left his trace. Mixed with shells, fragments of broken jars were lying here and there, high up upon the beach. They were precisely422 like the jars now used upon the Spanish coast for the wine and Pisco spirits of that country.
"With a rusty dagger238-fragment in one hand, and a bit of a wine-jar in another, I sat me down on the ruinous green sofa I have spoken of, and bethought me long and deeply of these [pg 335] same Buccaneers. Could it be possible, that they robbed and murdered one day, reveled the next, and rested themselves by turning meditative philosophers, rural poets, and seat-builders on the third? Not very improbable, after all. For consider the vacillations of a man. Still, strange as it may seem, I must also abide by the more charitable thought; namely, that among these adventurers were some gentlemanly, companionable souls, capable of genuine tranquillity and virtue424." [pg 336]
* * * * *
SKETCH SEVENTH.
CHARLES'S ISLE AND THE DOG-KING.
—So with outragious cry,
Out of the rocks and caves adjoining nye;
All threatning death, all in straunge manner armed;
Some with unweldy clubs, some with long speares.
Some rusty knives, some staves in fier warmd.
* * * * *
We will not be of any occupation,
Which have no wit to live withouten toyle.
Southwest of Barrington lies Charles's Isle. And hereby hangs a history which I gathered long ago from a shipmate learned in all the lore383 of outlandish 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 high rank in the patriot431 army. The war being ended, Peru found itself like many valorous gentlemen, free and independent enough, but with few shot in [pg 337] the locker433. In other words, Peru had not wherewithal to pay off its troops. But the Creole—I forget his name—volunteered to take his pay in lands. So they told him he might have his pick of the Enchanted Isles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal335 appanage of Peru. The soldier straightway embarks434 thither435, explores the group, returns to Callao, and says he will take a deed of Charles's Isle. Moreover, this deed must stipulate437 that thenceforth Charles's Isle is not only the sole property of the Creole, but is forever free of Peru, even as Peru of Spain. To be short, this adventurer procures438 himself to be made in effect Supreme440 Lord of the Island, one of the princes of the powers of the earth.1
He now sends forth a proclamation inviting441 subjects to his as yet unpopulated kingdom. Some eighty souls, men and women, respond; [pg 338] and being provided by their leader with necessaries, and tools of various sorts, together with a few cattle and goats, take ship for the promised land; the last arrival on board, prior to sailing, being the Creole himself, accompanied, strange to say, by a disciplined cavalry442 company of large grim dogs. These, it was observed on the passage, refusing to consort443 with the emigrants444, remained aristocratically grouped around their master on the elevated quarter-deck, casting disdainful glances forward upon the inferior rabble445 there; much as, from the ramparts, the soldiers of a garrison446, thrown into a conquered town, eye the inglorious citizen-mob over which they are set to watch.
Now Charles's Isle not only resembles Barrington Isle in being much more inhabitable than other parts of the group, but it is double the size of Barrington, say forty or fifty miles in circuit.
Safely debarked at last, the company, under direction of their lord and patron, forthwith proceeded to build their capital city. They make considerable advance in the way of walls of clinkers, and lava floors, nicely sanded with [pg 339] cinders. On the least barren hills they pasture their cattle, while the goats, adventurers by nature, explore the far inland solitudes for a scanty livelihood447 of lofty herbage. Meantime, abundance of fish and tortoises supply their other wants.
The disorders448 incident to settling all primitive449 regions, in the present case were heightened by the peculiarly untoward450 character of many of the pilgrims. His Majesty451 was forced at last to proclaim martial452 law, and actually hunted and shot with his own hand several of his rebellious453 subjects, who, with most questionable454 intentions, had clandestinely455 encamped in the interior, whence they stole by night, to prowl barefooted on tiptoe round the precincts of the lava-palace. It is to be remarked, however, that prior to such stern proceedings456, the more reliable men had been judiciously457 picked out for an infantry458 body-guard, subordinate to the cavalry body-guard of dogs. But the state of politics in this unhappy nation may be somewhat imagined, from the circumstance that all who were not of the body-guard were downright plotters and malignant traitors459. At length [pg 340] the death penalty was tacitly abolished, owing to the timely thought, that were strict sportsman's justice to be dispensed460 among such subjects, ere long the Nimrod King would have little or no remaining game to shoot. The human part of the life-guard was now disbanded, and set to work cultivating the soil, and raising potatoes; the regular army now solely461 consisting of the dog-regiment250. These, as I have heard, were of a singularly ferocious462 character, though by severe training rendered docile463 to their master. Armed to the teeth, the Creole now goes in state, surrounded by his canine464 janizaries, whose terrific bayings prove quite as serviceable as bayonets in keeping down the surgings of revolt.
But the census465 of the isle, sadly lessened466 by the dispensation of justice, and not materially recruited by matrimony, began to fill his mind with sad mistrust. Some way the population must be increased. Now, from its possessing a little water, and its comparative pleasantness of aspect, Charles's Isle at this period was occasionally visited by foreign whalers. These His Majesty had always levied467 upon for port charges, [pg 341] thereby contributing to his revenue. But now he had additional designs. By insidious468 arts he, from time to time, cajoles certain sailors to desert their ships, and enlist469 beneath his banner. Soon as missed, their captains crave permission to go and hunt them up. Whereupon His Majesty first hides them very carefully away, and then freely permits the search. In consequence, the delinquents470 are never found, and the ships retire without them.
Thus, by a two-edged policy of this crafty471 monarch472, foreign nations were crippled in the number of their subjects, and his own were greatly multiplied. He particularly petted these renegado strangers. But alas473 for the deep-laid schemes of ambitious princes, and alas for the vanity of glory. As the foreign-born Pretorians, unwisely introduced into the Roman state, and still more unwisely made favorites of the Emperors, at last insulted and overturned the throne, even so these lawless mariners, with all the rest of the body-guard and all the populace, broke out into a terrible mutiny, and defied their master. He marched against them with all his dogs. A deadly battle [pg 342] ensued upon the beach. It raged for three hours, the dogs fighting with determined474 valor432, and the sailors reckless of everything but victory. Three men and thirteen dogs were left dead upon the field, many on both sides were wounded, and the king was forced to fly with the remainder of his canine regiment. The enemy pursued, stoning the dogs with their master into the wilderness475 of the interior. Discontinuing the pursuit, the victors returned to the village on the shore, stove the spirit casks, and proclaimed a Republic. The dead men were interred476 with the honors of war, and the dead dogs ignominiously477 thrown into the sea. At last, forced by stress of suffering, the fugitive478 Creole came down from the hills and offered to treat for peace. But the rebels refused it on any other terms than his unconditional479 banishment480. Accordingly, the next ship that arrived carried away the ex-king to Peru.
The history of the king of Charles's Island furnishes another illustration of the difficulty of colonizing481 barren islands with unprincipled pilgrims.
Doubtless for a long time the exiled monarch, [pg 343] pensively482 ruralizing in Peru, which afforded him a safe asylum483 in his calamity484, watched every arrival from the Encantadas, to hear news of the failure of the Republic, the consequent penitence485 of the rebels, and his own recall to royalty486. Doubtless he deemed the Republic but a miserable487 experiment which would soon explode. But no, the insurgents488 had confederated themselves into a democracy neither Grecian, Roman, nor American. Nay, it was no democracy at all, but a permanent Riotocracy, which gloried in having no law but lawlessness. Great inducements being offered to deserters, their ranks were swelled489 by accessions of scamps from every ship which touched their shores. Charles's Island was proclaimed the asylum of the oppressed of all navies. Each runaway490 tar27 was hailed as a martyr491 in the cause of freedom, and became immediately installed a ragged citizen of this universal nation. In vain the captains of absconding492 seamen strove to regain331 them. Their new compatriots were ready to give any number of ornamental493 eyes in their behalf. They had few cannon494, but their fists were not to be trifled with. So at [pg 344] last it came to pass that no vessels acquainted with the character of that country durst touch there, however sorely in want of refreshment495. It became Anathema—a sea Alsatia—the unassailed lurking-place of all sorts of desperadoes, who in the name of liberty did just what they pleased. They continually fluctuated in their numbers. Sailors, deserting ships at other islands, or in boats at sea anywhere in that vicinity, steered496 for Charles's Isle, as to their sure home of refuge; while, sated with the life of the isle, numbers from time to time crossed the water to the neighboring ones, and there presenting themselves to strange captains as shipwrecked seamen, often succeeded in getting on board vessels bound to the Spanish coast, and having a compassionate499 purse made up for them on landing there.
One warm night during my first visit to the group, our ship was floating along in languid stillness, when some one on the forecastle shouted "Light ho!" We looked and saw a beacon burning on some obscure land off the beam. Our third mate was not intimate with this part of the world. Going to the captain he said, [pg 345] "Sir, shall I put off in a boat? These must be shipwrecked men."
The captain laughed rather grimly, as, shaking his fist towards the beacon, he rapped out an oath, and said—"No, no, you precious rascals500, you don't juggle289 one of my boats ashore this blessed night. You do well, you thieves—you do benevolently501 to hoist375 a light yonder as on a dangerous shoal. It tempts502 no wise man to pull off and see what's the matter, but bids him steer497 small and keep off shore—that is Charles's Island; brace503 up, Mr. Mate, and keep the light astern." [pg 346]
* * * * *
SKETCH EIGHTH.
NORFOLK ISLE AND THE CHOLA WIDOW.
A seemly woman sitting by the shore,
That with great sorrow and sad agony
"Black his eye as the midnight sky.
White his neck as the driven snow,
Red his cheek as the morning light;—
Cold he lies in the ground below.
My love is dead,
Gone to his death-bed, ys
All under the cactus tree."
"Each lonely scene shall thee restore,
For thee the tear be duly shed;
Belov'd till life can charm no more,
And mourned till Pity's self be dead."
Far to the northeast of Charles's Isle, sequestered507 from the rest, lies Norfolk Isle; and, however insignificant508 to most voyagers, to me, through sympathy, that lone126 island has become a spot made sacred by the strangest trials of humanity.
It was my first visit to the Encantadas. Two days had been spent ashore in hunting tortoises. [pg 347] There was not time to capture many; so on the third afternoon we loosed our sails. We were just in the act of getting under way, the uprooted509 anchor yet suspended and invisibly swaying beneath the wave, as the good ship gradually turned her heel to leave the isle behind, when the seaman who heaved with me at the windlass paused suddenly, and directed my attention to something moving on the land, not along the beach, but somewhat back, fluttering from a height.
In view of the sequel of this little story, be it here narrated510 how it came to pass, that an object which partly from its being so small was quite lost to every other man on board, still caught the eye of my handspike companion. The rest of the crew, myself included, merely stood up to our spikes511 in heaving, whereas, unwontedly exhilarated, at every turn of the ponderous windlass, my belted comrade leaped atop of it, with might and main giving a downward, thewey, perpendicular512 heave, his raised eye bent513 in cheery animation514 upon the slowly receding515 shore. Being high lifted above all others was the reason he perceived the object, [pg 348] otherwise unperceivable; and this elevation516 of his eye was owing to the elevation of his spirits; and this again—for truth must out—to a dram of Peruvian pisco, in guerdon for some kindness done, secretly administered to him that morning by our mulatto steward517. Now, certainly, pisco does a deal of mischief in the world; yet seeing that, in the present case, it was the means, though indirect, of rescuing a human being from the most dreadful fate, must we not also needs admit that sometimes pisco does a deal of good?
Glancing across the water in the direction pointed out, I saw some white thing hanging from an inland rock, perhaps half a mile from the sea.
"It is a bird; a white-winged bird; perhaps a—no; it is—it is a handkerchief!"
Quickly now—like the running out and training of a great gun—the long cabin spy-glass was thrust through the mizzen rigging from the high platform of the poop; whereupon a human figure was plainly seen upon the inland rock, [pg 349] eagerly waving towards us what seemed to be the handkerchief.
Our captain was a prompt, good fellow. Dropping the glass, he lustily ran forward, ordering the anchor to be dropped again; hands to stand by a boat, and lower away.
In a half-hour's time the swift boat returned. It went with six and came with seven; and the seventh was a woman.
It is not artistic519 heartlessness, but I wish I could but draw in crayons; for this woman was a most touching sight; and crayons, tracing softly melancholy lines, would best depict520 the mournful image of the dark-damasked Chola widow.
Her story was soon told, and though given in her own strange language was as quickly understood; for our captain, from long trading on the Chilian coast, was well versed396 in the Spanish. A Cholo, or half-breed Indian woman of Payta in Peru, three years gone by, with her young new-wedded husband Felipe, of pure Castilian blood, and her one only Indian brother, Truxill, Hunilla had taken passage on the main in a French whaler, commanded by a joyous325 [pg 350] man; which vessel, bound to the cruising grounds beyond the Enchanted Isles, proposed passing close by their vicinity. The object of the little party was to procure439 tortoise oil, a fluid which for its great purity and delicacy521 is held in high estimation wherever known; and it is well known all along this part of the Pacific coast. With a chest of clothes, tools, cooking utensils522, a rude apparatus523 for trying out the oil, some casks of biscuit, and other things, not omitting two favorite dogs, of which faithful animal all the Cholos are very fond, Hunilla and her companions were safely landed at their chosen place; the Frenchman, according to the contract made ere sailing, engaged to take them off upon returning from a four months' cruise in the westward seas; which interval295 the three adventurers deemed quite sufficient for their purposes.
On the isle's lone beach they paid him in silver for their passage out, the stranger having declined to carry them at all except upon that condition; though willing to take every means to insure the due fulfillment of his promise. Felipe had striven hard to have this payment [pg 351] put off to the period of the ship's return. But in vain. Still they thought they had, in another way, ample pledge of the good faith of the Frenchman. It was arranged that the expenses of the passage home should not be payable524 in silver, but in tortoises; one hundred tortoises ready captured to the returning captain's hand. These the Cholos meant to secure after their own work was done, against the probable time of the Frenchman's coming back; and no doubt in prospect83 already felt, that in those hundred tortoises—now somewhere ranging the isle's interior—they possessed525 one hundred hostages. Enough: the vessel sailed; the gazing three on shore answered the loud glee of the singing crew; and ere evening, the French craft was hull down in the distant sea, its masts three faintest lines which quickly faded from Hunilla's eye.
The stranger had given a blithesome526 promise, and anchored it with oaths; but oaths and anchors equally will drag; naught else abides528 on fickle529 earth but unkept promises of joy. Contrary winds from out unstable530 skies, or contrary moods of his more varying mind, or [pg 352] shipwreck498 and sudden death in solitary waves; whatever was the cause, the blithe527 stranger never was seen again.
Yet, however dire a calamity was here in store, misgivings531 of it ere due time never disturbed the Cholos' busy mind, now all intent upon the toilsome matter which had brought them hither. Nay, by swift doom532 coming like the thief at night, ere seven weeks went by, two of the little party were removed from all anxieties of land or sea. No more they sought to gaze with feverish533 fear, or still more feverish hope, beyond the present's horizon line; but into the furthest future their own silent spirits sailed. By persevering534 labor535 beneath that burning sun, Felipe and Truxill had brought down to their hut many scores of tortoises, and tried out the oil, when, elated with their good success, and to reward themselves for such hard work, they, too hastily, made a catamaran, or Indian raft, much used on the Spanish main, and merrily started on a fishing trip, just without a long reef with many jagged gaps, running parallel with the shore, about half a mile from it. By some bad tide or hap, or natural [pg 353] negligence536 of joyfulness537 (for though they could not be heard, yet by their gestures they seemed singing at the time) forced in deep water against that iron bar, the ill-made catamaran was overset, and came all to pieces; when dashed by broad-chested swells between their broken logs and the sharp teeth of the reef, both adventurers perished before Hunilla's eyes.
Before Hunilla's eyes they sank. The real woe of this event passed before her sight as some sham129 tragedy on the stage. She was seated on a rude bower among the withered538 thickets, crowning a lofty cliff, a little back from the beach. The thickets were so disposed, that in looking upon the sea at large she peered out from among the branches as from the lattice of a high balcony. But upon the day we speak of here, the better to watch the adventure of those two hearts she loved, Hunilla had withdrawn539 the branches to one side, and held them so. They formed an oval frame, through which the bluely boundless sea rolled like a painted one. And there, the invisible painter painted to her view the wave-tossed and disjointed raft, its once level logs slantingly upheaved, as raking masts, [pg 354] and the four struggling arms indistinguishable among them; and then all subsided541 into smooth-flowing creamy waters, slowly drifting the splintered wreck77; while first and last, no sound of any sort was heard. Death in a silent picture; a dream of the eye; such vanishing shapes as the mirage367 shows.
So instant was the scene, so trance-like its mild pictorial542 effect, so distant from her blasted bower and her common sense of things, that Hunilla gazed and gazed, nor raised a finger or a wail41. But as good to sit thus dumb, in stupor543 staring on that dumb show, for all that otherwise might be done. With half a mile of sea between, how could her two enchanted arms aid those four fated ones? The distance long, the time one sand. After the lightning is beheld, what fool shall stay the thunder-bolt? Felipe's body was washed ashore, but Truxill's never came; only his gay, braided hat of golden straw—that same sunflower thing he waved to her, pushing from the strand—and now, to the last gallant, it still saluted544 her. But Felipe's body floated to the marge, with one arm encirclingly outstretched. Lock-jawed in grim death, the lover-husband [pg 355] softly clasped his bride, true to her even in death's dream. Ah, heaven, when man thus keeps his faith, wilt545 thou be faithless who created the faithful one? But they cannot break faith who never plighted546 it.
It needs not to be said what nameless misery547 now wrapped the lonely widow. In telling her own story she passed this almost entirely548 over, simply recounting the event. Construe549 the comment of her features as you might, from her mere words little would you have weened that Hunilla was herself the heroine of her tale. But not thus did she defraud550 us of our tears. All hearts bled that grief could be so brave.
She but showed us her soul's lid, and the strange ciphers thereon engraved283; all within, with pride's timidity, was withheld551. Yet was there one exception. Holding out her small olive hand before her captain, she said in mild and slowest Spanish, "Se?or, I buried him;" then paused, struggled as against the writhed552 coilings of a snake, and cringing553 suddenly, leaped up, repeating in impassioned pain, "I buried him, my life, my soul!"
Doubtless, it was by half-unconscious, automatic [pg 356] motions of her hands, that this heavy-hearted one performed the final office for Felipe, and planted a rude cross of withered sticks—no green ones might be had—at the head of that lonely grave, where rested now in lasting un-complaint and quiet haven221 he whom untranquil seas had overthrown554.
But some dull sense of another body that should be interred, of another cross that should hallow another grave—unmade as yet—some dull anxiety and pain touching her undiscovered brother, now haunted the oppressed Hunilla. Her hands fresh from the burial earth, she slowly went back to the beach, with unshaped purposes wandering there, her spell-bound eye bent upon the incessant555 waves. But they bore nothing to her but a dirge556, which maddened her to think that murderers should mourn. As time went by, and these things came less dreamingly to her mind, the strong persuasions557 of her Romish faith, which sets peculiar store by consecrated558 urns436, prompted her to resume in waking earnest that pious559 search which had but been begun as in somnambulism. Day after day, week after week, she trod the cindery560 beach, [pg 357] till at length a double motive edged every eager glance. With equal longing404 she now looked for the living and the dead; the brother and the captain; alike vanished, never to return. Little accurate note of time had Hunilla taken under such emotions as were hers, and little, outside herself, served for calendar or dial. As to poor Crusoe in the self-same sea, no saint's bell pealed561 forth the lapse562 of week or month; each day went by unchallenged; no chanticleer announced those sultry dawns, no lowing herds257 those poisonous nights. All wonted and steadily563 recurring564 sounds, human, or humanized by sweet fellowship with man, but one stirred that torrid trance—the cry of dogs; save which naught but the rolling sea invaded it, an all-pervading monotone; and to the widow that was the least loved voice she could have heard.
No wonder, that as her thoughts now wandered to the unreturning ship, and were beaten back again, the hope against hope so struggled in her soul, that at length she desperately565 said, "Not yet, not yet; my foolish heart runs on too fast." So she forced patience for some further weeks. But to those whom earth's sure [pg 358] indraft draws, patience or impatience566 is still the same.
Hunilla now sought to settle precisely in her mind, to an hour, how long it was since the ship had sailed; and then, with the same precision, how long a space remained to pass. But this proved impossible. What present day or month it was she could not say. Time was her labyrinth279, in which Hunilla was entirely lost.
And now follows—
Against my own purposes a pause descends567 upon me here. One knows not whether nature doth not impose some secrecy568 upon him who has been privy569 to certain things. At least, it is to be doubted whether it be good to blazon570 such. If some books are deemed most baneful571 and their sale forbid, how, then, with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting572 men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books, should be forbid. But in all things man sows upon the wind, which bloweth just there whither it listeth; for ill or good, man cannot know. Often ill comes from the good, as good from ill.
When Hunilla— [pg 359]
Dire sight it is to see some silken beast long dally573 with a golden lizard49 ere she devour574. More terrible, to see how feline575 Fate will sometimes dally with a human soul, and by a nameless magic make it repulse a sane576 despair with a hope which is but mad. Unwittingly I imp80 this cat-like thing, sporting with the heart of him who reads; for if he feel not he reads in vain.
—"The ship sails this day, to-day," at last said Hunilla to herself; "this gives me certain time to stand on; without certainty I go mad. In loose ignorance I have hoped and hoped; now in firm knowledge I will but wait. Now I live and no longer perish in bewilderings. Holy Virgin577, aid me! Thou wilt waft back the ship. Oh, past length of weary weeks—all to be dragged over—to buy the certainty of to-day, I freely give ye, though I tear ye from me!"
As mariners, tost in tempest on some desolate21 ledge224, patch them a boat out of the remnants of their vessel's wreck, and launch it in the self-same waves, see here Hunilla, this lone shipwrecked soul, out of treachery invoking578 trust. Humanity, thou strong thing, I worship thee, [pg 360] not in the laureled victor, but in this vanquished579 one.
Truly Hunilla leaned upon a reed, a real one; no metaphor580; a real Eastern reed. A piece of hollow cane, drifted from unknown isles, and found upon the beach, its once jagged ends rubbed smoothly581 even as by sand-paper; its golden glazing582 gone. Long ground between the sea and land, upper and nether583 stone, the unvarnished substance was filed bare, and wore another polish now, one with itself, the polish of its agony. Circular lines at intervals cut all round this surface, divided it into six panels of unequal length. In the first were scored the days, each tenth one marked by a longer and deeper notch584; the second was scored for the number of sea-fowl eggs for sustenance585, picked out from the rocky nests; the third, how many fish had been caught from the shore; the fourth, how many small tortoises found inland; the fifth, how many days of sun; the sixth, of clouds; which last, of the two, was the greater one. Long night of busy numbering, misery's mathematics, to weary her too-wakeful soul to sleep; yet sleep for that was none. [pg 361]
The panel of the days was deeply worn—the long tenth notches586 half effaced, as alphabets of the blind. Ten thousand times the longing widow had traced her finger over the bamboo—dull flute587, which played, on, gave no sound—as if counting birds flown by in air would hasten tortoises creeping through the woods.
After the one hundred and eightieth day no further mark was seen; that last one was the faintest, as the first the deepest.
"There were more days," said our Captain; "many, many more; why did you not go on and notch them, too, Hunilla?"
"Se?or, ask me not."
"And meantime, did no other vessel pass the isle?"
"Nay, Se?or;—but—"
"You do not speak; but what, Hunilla?"
"Ask me not, Se?or."
"You saw ships pass, far away; you waved to them; they passed on;—was that it, Hunilla?"
"Se?or, be it as you say."
Braced588 against her woe, Hunilla would not, durst not trust the weakness of her tongue. [pg 362] Then when our Captain asked whether any whale-boats had—
But no, I will not file this thing complete for scoffing589 souls to quote, and call it firm proof upon their side. The half shall here remain untold590. Those two unnamed events which befell Hunilla on this isle, let them abide between her and her God. In nature, as in law, it may be libelous591 to speak some truths.
Still, how it was that, although our vessel had lain three days anchored nigh the isle, its one human tenant262 should not have discovered us till just upon the point of sailing, never to revisit so lone and far a spot, this needs explaining ere the sequel come.
The place where the French captain had landed the little party was on the further and opposite end of the isle. There, too, it was that they had afterwards built their hut. Nor did the widow in her solitude desert the spot where her loved ones had dwelt with her, and where the dearest of the twain now slept his last long sleep, and all her plaints awaked him not, and he of husbands the most faithful during life. [pg 363]
Now, high, broken land rises between the opposite extremities592 of the isle. A ship anchored at one side is invisible from the other. Neither is the isle so small, but a considerable company might wander for days through the wilderness of one side, and never be seen, or their halloos heard, by any stranger holding aloof593 on the other. Hence Hunilla, who naturally associated the possible coming of ships with her own part of the isle, might to the end have remained quite ignorant of the presence of our vessel, were it not for a mysterious presentiment594, borne to her, so our mariners averred595, by this isle's enchanted air. Nor did the widow's answer undo409 the thought.
"How did you come to cross the isle this morning, then, Hunilla?" said our Captain.
"Se?or, something came flitting by me. It touched my cheek, my heart, Se?or."
"What do you say, Hunilla?"
"I have said, Se?or, something came through the air."
It was a narrow chance. For when in crossing the isle Hunilla gained the high land in the centre, she must then for the first have perceived [pg 364] our masts, and also marked that their sails were being loosed, perhaps even heard the echoing chorus of the windlass song. The strange ship was about to sail, and she behind. With all haste she now descends the height on the hither side, but soon loses sight of the ship among the sunken jungles at the mountain's base. She struggles on through the withered branches, which seek at every step to bar her path, till she comes to the isolated596 rock, still some way from the water. This she climbs, to reassure597 herself. The ship is still in plainest sight. But now, worn out with over tension, Hunilla all but faints; she fears to step down from her giddy perch598; she is fain to pause, there where she is, and as a last resort catches the turban from her head, unfurls and waves it over the jungles towards us.
During the telling of her story the mariners formed a voiceless circle round Hunilla and the Captain; and when at length the word was given to man the fastest boat, and pull round to the isle's thither side, to bring away Hunilla's chest and the tortoise-oil, such alacrity599 of both cheery and sad obedience600 seldom before [pg 365] was seen. Little ado was made. Already the anchor had been recommitted to the bottom, and the ship swung calmly to it.
But Hunilla insisted upon accompanying the boat as indispensable pilot to her hidden hut. So being refreshed with the best the steward could supply, she started with us. Nor did ever any wife of the most famous admiral, in her husband's barge601, receive more silent reverence602 of respect than poor Hunilla from this boat's crew.
Rounding many a vitreous cape107 and bluff603, in two hours' time we shot inside the fatal reef; wound into a secret cove138, looked up along a green many-gabled lava wall, and saw the island's solitary dwelling.
It hung upon an impending604 cliff, sheltered on two sides by tangled thickets, and half-screened from view in front by juttings of the rude stairway, which climbed the precipice605 from the sea. Built of canes606, it was thatched with long, mildewed607 grass. It seemed an abandoned hay-rick, whose haymakers were now no more. The roof inclined but one way; the eaves coming to within two feet of the [pg 366] ground. And here was a simple apparatus to collect the dews, or rather doubly-distilled and finest winnowed608 rains, which, in mercy or in mockery, the night-skies sometimes drop upon these blighted609 Encantadas. All along beneath the eaves, a spotted610 sheet, quite weather-stained, was spread, pinned to short, upright stakes, set in the shallow sand. A small clinker, thrown into the cloth, weighed its middle down, thereby straining all moisture into a calabash placed below. This vessel supplied each drop of water ever drunk upon the isle by the Cholos. Hunilla told us the calabash, would sometimes, but not often, be half filled overnight. It held six quarts, perhaps. "But," said she, "we were used to thirst. At sandy Payta, where I live, no shower from heaven ever fell; all the water there is brought on mules611 from the inland vales."
Tied among the thickets were some twenty moaning tortoises, supplying Hunilla's lonely larder612; while hundreds of vast tableted black bucklers, like displaced, shattered tomb-stones of dark slate152, were also scattered613 round. These were the skeleton backs of those great tortoises [pg 367] from which Felipe and Truxill had made their precious oil. Several large calabashes and two goodly kegs were filled with it. In a pot near by were the caked crusts of a quantity which had been permitted to evaporate. "They meant to have strained it off next day," said Hunilla, as she turned aside.
I forgot to mention the most singular sight of all, though the first that greeted us after landing.
Some ten small, soft-haired, ringleted dogs, of a beautiful breed, peculiar to Peru, set up a concert of glad welcomings when we gained the beach, which was responded to by Hunilla. Some of these dogs had, since her widowhood, been born upon the isle, the progeny614 of the two brought from Payta. Owing to the jagged steeps and pitfalls616, tortuous thickets, sunken clefts and perilous intricacies of all sorts in the interior, Hunilla, admonished617 by the loss of one favorite among them, never allowed these delicate creatures to follow her in her occasional birds'-nests climbs and other wanderings; so that, through long habituation, they offered not to follow, when that morning she crossed [pg 368] the land, and her own soul was then too full of other things to heed their lingering behind. Yet, all along she had so clung to them, that, besides what moisture they lapped up at early daybreak from the small scoop-holes among the adjacent rocks, she had shared the dew of her calabash among them; never laying by any considerable store against those prolonged and utter droughts which, in some disastrous618 seasons, warp619 these isles.
Having pointed out, at our desire, what few things she would like transported to the ship—her chest, the oil, not omitting the live tortoises which she intended for a grateful present to our Captain—we immediately set to work, carrying them to the boat down the long, sloping stair of deeply-shadowed rock. While my comrades were thus employed, I looked and Hunilla had disappeared.
It was not curiosity alone, but, it seems to me, something different mingled620 with it, which prompted me to drop my tortoise, and once more gaze slowly around. I remembered the husband buried by Hunilla's hands. A narrow pathway led into a dense232 part of the thickets. [pg 369] Following it through many mazes, I came out upon a small, round, open space, deeply chambered there.
The mound621 rose in the middle; a bare heap of finest sand, like that unverdured heap found at the bottom of an hour-glass run out. At its head stood the cross of withered sticks; the dry, peeled bark still fraying622 from it; its transverse limb tied up with rope, and forlornly adroop in the silent air.
Hunilla was partly prostrate upon the grave; her dark head bowed, and lost in her long, loosened Indian hair; her hands extended to the cross-foot, with a little brass623 crucifix clasped between; a crucifix worn featureless, like an ancient graven knocker long plied96 in vain. She did not see me, and I made no noise, but slid aside, and left the spot.
A few moments ere all was ready for our going, she reappeared among us. I looked into her eyes, but saw no tear. There was something which seemed strangely haughty624 in her air, and yet it was the air of woe. A Spanish and an Indian grief, which would not visibly lament625. Pride's height in vain abased [pg 370] to proneness626 on the rack; nature's pride subduing627 nature's torture.
Like pages the small and silken dogs surrounded her, as she slowly descended628 towards the beach. She caught the two most eager creatures in her arms:—"Mia Teeta! Mia Tomoteeta!" and fondling them, inquired how many could we take on board.
The mate commanded the boat's crew; not a hard-hearted man, but his way of life had been such that in most things, even in the smallest, simple utility was his leading motive.
"We cannot take them all, Hunilla; our supplies are short; the winds are unreliable; we may be a good many days going to Tombez. So take those you have, Hunilla; but no more."
She was in the boat; the oarsmen, too, were seated; all save one, who stood ready to push off and then spring himself. With the sagacity of their race, the dogs now seemed aware that they were in the very instant of being deserted629 upon a barren strand. The gunwales of the boat were high; its prow—presented inland—was [pg 371] lifted; so owing to the water, which they seemed instinctively630 to shun631, the dogs could not well leap into the little craft. But their busy paws hard scraped the prow, as it had been some farmer's door shutting them out from shelter in a winter storm. A clamorous632 agony of alarm. They did not howl, or whine633; they all but spoke423.
"Push off! Give way!" cried the mate. The boat gave one heavy drag and lurch634, and next moment shot swiftly from the beach, turned on her heel, and sped. The dogs ran howling along the water's marge; now pausing to gaze at the flying boat, then motioning as if to leap in chase, but mysteriously withheld themselves; and again ran howling along the beach. Had they been human beings, hardly would they have more vividly635 inspired the sense of desolation. The oars200 were plied as confederate feathers of two wings. No one spoke. I looked back upon the beach, and then upon Hunilla, but her face was set in a stern dusky calm. The dogs crouching636 in her lap vainly licked her rigid637 hands. She never looked be her: but sat motionless, till we turned a [pg 372] promontory638 of the coast and lost all sights and sounds astern. She seemed as one who, having experienced the sharpest of mortal pangs639, was henceforth content to have all lesser heartstrings riven, one by one. To Hunilla, pain seemed so necessary, that pain in other beings, though by love and sympathy made her own, was unrepiningly to be borne. A heart of yearning640 in a frame of steel. A heart of earthly yearning, frozen by the frost which falleth from the sky.
The sequel is soon told. After a long passage, vexed by calms and baffling winds, we made the little port of Tombez in Peru, there to recruit the ship. Payta was not very distant. Our captain sold the tortoise oil to a Tombez merchant; and adding to the silver a contribution from all hands, gave it to our silent passenger, who knew not what the mariners had done.
The last seen of lone Hunilla she was passing into Payta town, riding upon a small gray ass10; and before her on the ass's shoulders, she eyed the jointed540 workings of the beast's armorial cross. [pg 373]
* * * * *
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,
His griesly lockes long gronen and unbound,
Disordered hong about his shoulders round,
And hid his face, through which his hollow eyne
His raw-bone cheekes, through penurie and pine,
Were shronke into the jawes, as he did never dine.
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 Beclouded Isle; and upon its south side is a vitreous cove with a wide strand of dark pounded black lava, called Black Beach, or Oberlus's Landing. It might fitly have been styled Charon's.
It received its name from a wild white creature who spent many years here; in the person of a European bringing into this savage146 region qualities more diabolical than are to be found among any of the surrounding cannibals.
About half a century ago, Oberlus deserted [pg 374] 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 gulch186, containing here and there among the rocks about two acres of soil capable of rude cultivation644; the only place on the isle not too blasted for that purpose. Here he succeeded in raising a sort of degenerate645 potatoes and pumpkins646, which from time to time he exchanged with needy647 whalemen passing, for spirits or dollars.
His appearance, from all accounts, was that of the victim of some malignant sorceress; he seemed to have drunk of Circe's cup; beast-like; rags insufficient648 to hide his nakedness; his befreckled skin blistered by continual exposure to the sun; nose flat; countenance649 contorted, heavy, earthy; hair and beard unshorn, profuse650, and of fiery651 red. He struck strangers much as if he were a volcanic creature thrown up by the same convulsion which exploded into sight the isle. All bepatched and coiled asleep in his lonely lava den among the mountains, he looked, they say, as a heaped [pg 375] drift of withered leaves, torn from autumn trees, and so left in some hidden nook by the whirling halt for an instant of a fierce night-wind, which then ruthlessly sweeps on, somewhere else to repeat the capricious act. It is also reported to have been the strangest sight, this same Oberlus, of a sultry, cloudy morning, hidden under his shocking old black tarpaulin652 hat, hoeing potatoes among the lava. So warped653 and crooked654 was his strange nature, that the very handle of his hoe seemed gradually to have shrunk and twisted in his grasp, being a wretched bent stick, elbowed more like a savage's war-sickle than a civilized hoe-handle. It was his mysterious custom upon a first encounter with a stranger ever to present his back; possibly, because that was his better side, since it revealed the least. If the encounter chanced in his garden, as it sometimes did—the new-landed strangers going from the sea-side straight through the gorge, to hunt up the queer green-grocer reported doing business here—Oberlus for a time hoed on, unmindful of all greeting, jovial655 or bland656; as the curious stranger would turn to face him, the [pg 376] recluse657, hoe in hand, as diligently658 would avert659 himself; bowed over, and sullenly660 revolving661 round his murphy hill. Thus far for hoeing. When planting, his whole aspect and all his gestures were so malevolently662 and uselessly sinister663 and secret, that he seemed rather in act of dropping poison into wells than potatoes into soil. But among his lesser and more harmless marvels664 was an idea he ever had, that his visitors came equally as well led by longings665 to behold the mighty hermit Oberlus in his royal state of solitude, as simply, to obtain potatoes, or find whatever company might be upon a barren isle. It seems incredible that such a being should possess such vanity; a misanthrope666 be conceited667; but he really had his notion; and upon the strength of it, often gave himself amusing airs to captains. But after all, this is somewhat of a piece with the well-known eccentricity668 of some convicts, proud of that very hatefulness which makes them notorious. At other times, another unaccountable whim669 would seize him, and he would long dodge670 advancing strangers round the clinkered corners of his hut; sometimes like a stealthy [pg 377] bear, he would slink through the withered thickets up the mountains, and refuse to see the human face.
Except his occasional visitors from the sea, for a long period, the only companions of Oberlus were the crawling tortoises; and he seemed more than degraded to their level, having no desires for a time beyond theirs, unless it were for the stupor brought on by drunkenness. But sufficiently debased as he appeared, there yet lurked671 in him, only awaiting occasion for discovery, a still further proneness. Indeed, the sole superiority of Oberlus over the tortoises was his possession of a larger capacity of degradation672; and along with that, something like an intelligent will to it. Moreover, what is about to be revealed, perhaps will show, that selfish ambition, or the love of rule for its own sake, far from being the peculiar infirmity of noble minds, is shared by beings which have no mind at all. No creatures are so selfishly tyrannical as some brutes673; as any one who has observed the tenants of the pasture must occasionally have observed.
"This island's mine by Sycorax my mother," [pg 378] said Oberlus to himself, glaring round upon his haggard solitude. By some means, barter674 or theft—for in those days ships at intervals still kept touching at his Landing—he obtained an old musket675, with a few charges of powder and ball. Possessed of arms, he was stimulated676 to enterprise, as a tiger that first feels the coming of its claws. The long habit of sole dominion677 over every object round him, his almost unbroken solitude, his never encountering humanity except on terms of misanthropic678 independence, or mercantile craftiness679, and even such encounters being comparatively but rare; all this must have gradually nourished in him a vast idea of his own importance, together with a pure animal sort of scorn for all the rest of the universe.
The unfortunate Creole, who enjoyed his brief term of royalty at Charles's Isle was perhaps in some degree influenced by not unworthy motives680; such as prompt other adventurous681 spirits to lead colonists682 into distant regions and assume political preeminence683 over them. His summary execution of many of his Peruvians is quite pardonable, considering the desperate [pg 379] characters he had to deal with; while his offering canine battle to the banded rebels seems under the circumstances altogether just. But for this King Oberlus and what shortly follows, no shade of palliation can be given. He acted out of mere delight in tyranny and cruelty, by virtue of a quality in him inherited from Sycorax his mother. Armed now with that shocking blunderbuss, strong in the thought of being master of that horrid684 isle, he panted for a chance to prove his potency685 upon the first specimen686 of humanity which should fall unbefriended into his hands.
Nor was he long without it. One day he spied a boat upon the beach, with one man, a negro, standing by it. Some distance off was a ship, and Oberlus immediately knew how matters stood. The vessel had put in for wood, and the boat's crew had gone into the thickets for it. From a convenient spot he kept watch of the boat, till presently a straggling company appeared loaded with billets. Throwing these on the beach, they again went into the thickets, while the negro proceeded to load the boat.
Oberlus now makes all haste and accosts687 the [pg 380] negro, who, aghast at seeing any living being inhabiting such a solitude, and especially so horrific a one, immediately falls into a panic, not at all lessened by the ursine688 suavity689 of Oberlus, who begs the favor of assisting him in his labors690. The negro stands with several billets on his shoulder, in act of shouldering others; and Oberlus, with a short cord concealed691 in his bosom, kindly proceeds to lift those other billets to their place. In so doing, he persists in keeping behind the negro, who, rightly suspicious of this, in vain dodges692 about to gain the front of Oberlus; but Oberlus dodges also; till at last, weary of this bootless attempt at treachery, or fearful of being surprised by the remainder of the party, Oberlus runs off a little space to a bush, and fetching his blunderbuss, savagely693 commands the negro to desist work and follow him. He refuses. Whereupon, presenting his piece, Oberlus snaps at him. Luckily the blunderbuss misses fire; but by this time, frightened out of his wits, the negro, upon a second intrepid694 summons, drops his billets, surrenders at discretion695, and follows on. By a narrow defile696 familiar to [pg 381] him, Oberlus speedily removes out of sight of the water.
On their way up the mountains, he exultingly697 informs the negro, that henceforth he is to work for him, and be his slave, and that his treatment would entirely depend on his future conduct. But Oberlus, deceived by the first impulsive698 cowardice699 of the black, in an evil moment slackens his vigilance. Passing through a narrow way, and perceiving his leader quite off his guard, the negro, a powerful fellow, suddenly grasps him in his arms, throws him down, wrests700 his musketoon from him, ties his hands with the monster's own cord, shoulders him, and returns 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 a smuggler701; a sort of craft not apt to be over-charitable. Oberlus is severely702 whipped, then handcuffed, taken ashore, and compelled to make known his habitation and produce his property. His potatoes, pumpkins, and tortoises, with a pile of dollars he had hoarded703 from his mercantile operations were secured on the spot. But while the too vindictive [pg 382] smugglers were busy destroying his hut and garden, Oberlus makes his escape into the mountains, and conceals704 himself there in impenetrable recesses, only known to himself, till the ship sails, when he ventures back, and by means of an old file which he sticks into a tree, contrives705 to free himself from his handcuffs.
Brooding among the ruins of his hut, and the desolate clinkers and extinct volcanoes of this outcast isle, the insulted misanthrope now meditates706 a signal revenge upon humanity, but conceals his purposes. Vessels still touch the Landing at times; and by-and-by Oberlus is enabled to supply them with some vegetables.
Warned by his former failure in kidnapping strangers, he now pursues a quite different plan. When seamen come ashore, he makes up to them like a free-and-easy comrade, invites them to his hut, and with whatever affability his red-haired grimness may assume, entreats707 them to drink his liquor and be merry. But his guests need little pressing; and so, soon as rendered insensible, are tied hand and foot, and pitched among the clinkers, are there concealed till the [pg 383] ship departs, when, finding themselves entirely dependent upon Oberlus, alarmed at his changed demeanor708, his savage threats, and above all, that shocking blunderbuss, they willingly enlist under him, becoming his humble709 slaves, and Oberlus the most incredible of tyrants710. So much so, that two or three perish beneath his initiating711 process. He sets the remainder—four of them—to breaking the caked soil; transporting upon their backs loads of loamy earth, scooped712 up in moist clefts among the mountains; keeps them on the roughest fare; presents his piece at the slightest hint of insurrection; and in all respects converts them into reptiles713 at his feet—plebeian garter-snakes to this Lord Anaconda.
At last, Oberlus contrives to stock his arsenal714 with four rusty cutlasses, and an added supply of powder and ball intended for his blunderbuss. Remitting715 in good part the labor of his slaves, he now approves himself a man, or rather devil, of great abilities in the way of cajoling or coercing716 others into acquiescence717 with his own ulterior designs, however at first abhorrent718 to them. But indeed, prepared for [pg 384] almost any eventual719 evil by their previous lawless life, as a sort of ranging Cow-Boys of the sea, which had dissolved within them the whole moral man, so that they were ready to concrete in the first offered mould of baseness now; rotted down from manhood by their hopeless misery on the isle; wonted to cringe in all things to their lord, himself the worst of slaves; these wretches were now become wholly corrupted720 to his hands. He used them as creatures of an inferior race; in short, he gaffles his four animals, and makes murderers of them; out of cowards fitly manufacturing bravos.
Now, sword or dagger, human arms are but artificial claws and fangs721, 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 of glory, puts four rusty cutlasses into their hands. Like any other autocrat722, he had a noble army now.
It might be thought a servile war would hereupon ensue. Arms in the hands of trodden slaves? how indiscreet of Emperor Oberlus! Nay, they had but cutlasses—sad old scythes723 [pg 385] enough—he a blunderbuss, which by its blind scatterings of all sorts of boulders724, clinkers, and other scoria would annihilate725 all four mutineers, like four pigeons at one shot. Besides, at first he did not sleep in his accustomed hut; every lurid726 sunset, for a time, he might have been seen wending his way among the riven mountains, there to secrete727 himself till dawn in some sulphurous pitfall615, undiscoverable to his gang; but finding this at last too troublesome, he now each evening tied his slaves hand and foot, hid the cutlasses, and thrusting them into his barracks, shut to the door, and lying down before it, beneath a rude shed lately added, slept out the night, blunderbuss in hand.
It is supposed that not content with daily parading over a cindery solitude at the head of his fine army, Oberlus now meditated728 the most active mischief; his probable object being to surprise some passing ship touching at his dominions729, massacre730 the crew, and run away with her to parts unknown. While these plans were simmering in his head, two ships touch in company at the isle, on the opposite side to his; when his designs undergo a sudden change. [pg 386]
The ships are in want of vegetables, which Oberlus promises in great abundance, provided they send their boats round to his landing, so that the crews may bring the vegetables from his garden; informing the two captains, at the same time, that his rascals—slaves and soldiers—had become so abominably731 lazy and good-for-nothing of late, that he could not make them work by ordinary inducements, and did not have the heart to be severe with them.
The arrangement was agreed to, and the boats were sent and hauled upon the beach. The crews went to the lava hut; but to their surprise nobody was there. After waiting till their patience was exhausted732, they returned to the shore, when lo, some stranger—not the Good Samaritan either—seems to have very recently passed that way. Three of the boats were broken in a thousand pieces, and the fourth was missing. By hard toil over the mountains and through the clinkers, some of the strangers succeeded 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 hapless party. [pg 387]
However amazed at the treachery of Oberlus, the two captains, afraid of new and still more mysterious atrocities—and indeed, half imputing733 such strange events to the enchantments associated with these isles—perceive no security but in instant flight; leaving Oberlus and his army in quiet possession of the stolen boat.
On the eve of sailing they put a letter in a keg, giving the Pacific Ocean intelligence of the affair, and moored734 the keg in the bay. Some time subsequent, the keg was opened by another captain chancing to anchor there, but not until after he had dispatched a boat round to Oberlus's Landing. As may be readily surmised735, he felt no little inquietude till the boat's return: when another letter was handed him, giving Oberlus's version of the affair. This precious document had been found pinned half-mildewed to the clinker wall of the sulphurous and deserted hut. It ran as follows: showing that Oberlus was at least an accomplished736 writer, and no mere boor737; and what is more, was capable of the most tristful eloquence738.
"Sir: I am the most unfortunate ill-treated [pg 388] gentleman that lives. I am a patriot, exiled from my country by the cruel hand of tyranny.
"Banished739 to these Enchanted Isles, I have again and again besought740 captains of ships to sell me a boat, but always have been refused, though I offered the handsomest prices in Mexican dollars. At length an opportunity presented of possessing myself of one, and I did not let it slip.
"I have been long endeavoring, by hard labor and much solitary suffering, to accumulate something to make myself comfortable in a virtuous741 though unhappy old age; but at various times have been robbed and beaten by men professing742 to be Christians743.
"To-day I sail from the Enchanted group in the good boat Charity bound to 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 any chicks, I hereby bequeath them to you, whoever you may be. But don't count your chicks before they are hatched." [pg 389]
Oberlus declares that he was bound to the Feejee Isles; but this was only to throw pursuers on a false scent228. For, after a long time, he arrived, alone in his open boat, at Guayaquil. As his miscreants745 were never again beheld on Hood's Isle, it is supposed, either that they perished for want of water on the passage to Guayaquil, or, what is quite as probable, were thrown overboard by Oberlus, when he found the water growing scarce.
From Guayaquil Oberlus proceeded to Payta; and there, with that nameless witchery peculiar to some of the ugliest animals, wound himself into the affections of a tawny746 damsel; prevailing747 upon her to accompany him back to his Enchanted Isle; which doubtless he painted as a Paradise of flowers, not a Tartarus of clinkers.
But unfortunately for the colonization748 of Hood's Isle with a choice variety of animated749 nature, the extraordinary and devilish aspect of Oberlus made him to be regarded in Payta as a highly suspicious character. So that [pg 390] being found concealed one night, with matches in his pocket, under the hull of a small vessel just ready to be launched, he was seized and thrown into jail.
The jails in most South American towns are generally of the least wholesome750 sort. Built of huge cakes of sun-burnt brick, and containing but one room, without windows or yard, and but one door heavily grated with wooden bars, they present both within and without the grimmest aspect. As public edifices they conspicuously751 stand upon the hot and dusty Plaza752, offering to view, through the gratings, their villainous and hopeless inmates753, burrowing754 in all sorts of tragic755 squalor. And here, for a long time, Oberlus was seen; the central figure of a mongrel and assassin band; a creature whom it is religion to detest756, since it is philanthropy to hate a misanthrope.
Note.—They who may be disposed to question the possibility of the character above depicted757, are referred to the 2d vol. of Porter's Voyage into the Pacific, where they will recognize many sentences, for expedition's sake derived758 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 [pg 391] 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 satiric759 effrontery760 which does not adequately appear in Porter's version. I accordingly altered it to suit the general character of its author.
[pg 392]
* * * * *
SKETCH TENTH.
"And all about old stocks and stubs of trees,
Whereon nor fruit nor leaf was ever seen,
On which had many wretches hanged been."
Some relics of the hut of Oberlus partially764 remain to this day at the head of the clinkered valley. Nor does the stranger, wandering among other of the Enchanted Isles, fail to stumble upon still other solitary abodes765, long abandoned to the tortoise and the lizard. Probably few parts of earth have, in modern times, sheltered so many solitaries. The reason is, that these isles are situated766 in a distant sea, and the vessels which occasionally visit them are mostly all whalers, or ships bound on dreary and protracted voyages, exempting767 them in a good degree from both the oversight768 and the memory of human law. Such is the character of some commanders and some seamen, that under these untoward circumstances, it is quite impossible but that scenes of unpleasantness and discord should occur between them. A sullen [pg 393] hatred769 of the tyrannic ship will seize the sailor, and he gladly exchanges it for isles, which, though blighted as by a continual sirocco and burning breeze, still offer him, in their labyrinthine interior, a retreat beyond the possibility of capture. To flee the ship in any Peruvian or Chilian port, even the smallest and most rustical, is not unattended with great risk of apprehension770, not to speak of jaguars771. A reward of five pesos sends fifty dastardly Spaniards into the wood, who, with long knives, scour772 them day and night in eager hopes of securing their prey. Neither is it, in general, much easier to escape pursuit at the isles of Polynesia. Those of them which have felt a civilizing773 influence present the same difficulty to the runaway with the Peruvian ports, the advanced natives being quite as mercenary and keen of knife and scent as the retrograde Spaniards; while, owing to the bad odor in which all Europeans lie, in the minds of aboriginal774 savages who have chanced to hear aught of them, to desert the ship among primitive Polynesians, is, in most cases, a hope not unforlorn. Hence the Enchanted Isles become [pg 394] the voluntary tarrying places of all sorts of refugees; some of whom too sadly experience the fact, that flight from tyranny does not of itself insure a safe asylum, far less a happy home.
Moreover, it has not seldom happened that hermits775 have been made upon the isles by the accidents incident to tortoise-hunting. The interior of most of them is tangled and difficult of passage beyond description; the air is sultry and stifling776; an intolerable thirst is provoked, for which no running stream offers its kind relief. In a few hours, under an equatorial sun, reduced by these causes to entire exhaustion777, woe betide the straggler at the Enchanted Isles! Their extent is such-as to forbid an adequate search, unless weeks are devoted778 to it. The impatient ship waits a day or two; when, the missing man remaining undiscovered, up goes a stake on the beach, with a letter of regret, and a keg of crackers and another of water tied to it, and away sails the craft.
Nor have there been wanting instances where the inhumanity of some captains has led them to wreak779 a secure revenge upon seamen who [pg 395] have given their caprice or pride some singular offense780. Thrust ashore upon the scorching781 marl, such mariners are abandoned to perish outright782, unless by solitary labors they succeed in discovering some precious dribblets of moisture oozing783 from a rock or stagnant784 in a mountain pool.
I was well acquainted with a man, who, lost upon the Isle of Narborough, was brought to such extremes by thirst, that at last he only saved his life by taking that of another being. A large hair-seal came upon the beach. He rushed upon it, stabbed it in the neck, and then throwing himself upon the panting body quaffed786 at the living wound; the palpitations of the creature's dying heart injected life into the drinker.
Another seaman, thrust ashore in a boat upon an isle at which no ship ever touched, owing to its peculiar sterility787 and the shoals about it, and from which all other parts of the group were hidden—this man, feeling that it was sure death to remain there, and that nothing worse than death menaced him in quitting it, killed seals, and inflating788 their skins, made a float, [pg 396] upon which he transported himself to Charles's Island, and joined the republic there.
But men, not endowed with courage equal to such desperate attempts, find their only resource in forthwith seeking some watering-place, however precarious789 or scanty; building a hut; catching790 tortoises and birds; and in all respects preparing for a hermit life, till tide or time, or a passing ship arrives to float them off.
At the foot of precipices791 on many of the isles, small rude basins in the rocks are found, partly filled with rotted rubbish or vegetable decay, or overgrown with thickets, and sometimes a little moist; which, upon examination, reveal plain tokens of artificial instruments employed in hollowing them out, by some poor castaway or still more miserable runaway. These basins are made in places where it was supposed some scanty drops of dew might exude792 into them from the upper crevices793.
The relics of hermitages and stone basins are not the only signs of vanishing humanity to be found upon the isles. And, curious to say, that spot which of all others in settled communities [pg 397] is most animated, at the Enchanted Isles presents the most dreary of aspects. And though it may seem very strange to talk of post-offices in this barren region, yet post-offices are occasionally to be found there. They consist of a stake and a bottle. The letters being not only sealed, but corked794. They are generally deposited by captains of Nantucketers for the benefit of passing fishermen, and contain statements as to what luck they had in whaling or tortoise-hunting. Frequently, however, long months and months, whole years glide795 by and no applicant796 appears. The stake rots and falls, presenting no very exhilarating object.
If now it be added that grave-stones, or rather grave-boards, are also discovered upon some of the isles, the picture will be complete.
Upon the beach of James's Isle, for many years, was to be seen a rude finger-post, pointing inland. And, perhaps, taking it for some signal of possible hospitality in this otherwise desolate spot—some good hermit living there with his maple797 dish—the stranger would follow on in the path thus indicated, till at last he would come out in a noiseless nook, and find [pg 398] his only welcome, a dead man—his sole greeting the inscription798 over a grave. Here, in 1813, fell, in a daybreak duel799, a lieutenant800 of the U.S. frigate Essex, aged377 twenty-one: attaining801 his majority in death.
It is but fit that, like those old monastic institutions of Europe, whose inmates go not out of their own walls to be inurned, but are entombed there where they die, the Encantadas, too, should bury their own dead, even as the great general monastery802 of earth does hers.
It is known that burial in the ocean is a pure necessity of sea-faring life, and that it is only done when land is far astern, and not clearly visible from the bow. Hence, to vessels cruising in the vicinity of the Enchanted Isles, they afford a convenient Potter's Field. The interment over, some good-natured forecastle poet and artist seizes his paint-brush, and inscribes803 a doggerel804 epitaph. When, after a long lapse of time, other good-natured seamen chance to come upon the spot, they usually make a table of the mound, and quaff785 a friendly can to the poor soul's repose805.
As a specimen of these epitaphs, take the [pg 399] following, found in a bleak806 gorge of Chatham Isle:—
As you are now, so once was I.
Just so game, and just so gay,
But now, alack, they've stopped my pay.
No more I peep out of my blinkers,
Here I be—tucked in with clinkers!"
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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isle
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| n.小岛，岛 | |
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isles
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| 岛( isle的名词复数 ) | |
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hap
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| n.运气；v.偶然发生 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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distressed
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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carrion
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| n.腐肉 | |
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ass
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| n.驴；傻瓜，蠢笨的人 | |
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crave
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| vt.渴望得到，迫切需要，恳求，请求 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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cinders
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| n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 )；炭渣；煤渣路；煤渣跑道 | |
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enchanted
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| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
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penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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desolateness
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| 孤独 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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cemeteries
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piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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26
solitariness
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| n.隐居；单独 | |
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27
tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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solitudes
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| n.独居( solitude的名词复数 )；孤独；荒僻的地方；人迹罕至的地方 | |
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30
mitigates
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| v.减轻，缓和( mitigate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31
mote
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| n.微粒；斑点 | |
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32
fin
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| n.鳍；(飞机的)安定翼 | |
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33
azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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34
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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35
exalts
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| 赞扬( exalt的第三人称单数 )； 歌颂； 提升； 提拔 | |
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36
gourds
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| n.葫芦( gourd的名词复数 ) | |
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37
withering
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| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
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38
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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39
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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40
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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41
wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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42
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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43
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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44
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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45
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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46
den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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47
reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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48
lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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49
lizard
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| n.蜥蜴，壁虎 | |
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50
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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51
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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52
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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53
fissures
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| n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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54
treacherously
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| 背信弃义地； 背叛地； 靠不住地； 危险地 | |
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55
parched
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| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
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56
cactus
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| n.仙人掌 | |
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57
dross
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| n.渣滓；无用之物 | |
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58
clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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59
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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60
swirl
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| v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形 | |
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61
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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62
din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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63
swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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64
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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65
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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66
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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67
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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68
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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69
strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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70
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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71
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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72
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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73
charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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74
mouldering
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| v.腐朽( moulder的现在分词 )；腐烂，崩塌 | |
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75
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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76
wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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77
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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78
eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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79
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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80
imp
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| n.顽童 | |
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81
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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82
prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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83
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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84
irresistibly
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| adv.无法抵抗地，不能自持地；极为诱惑人地 | |
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85
sperm
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| n.精子，精液 | |
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86
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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87
ply
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| v.(搬运工等)等候顾客，弯曲 | |
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88
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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89
delusion
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| n.谬见，欺骗，幻觉，迷惑 | |
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90
bestowal
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| 赠与，给与； 贮存 | |
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91
malignly
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| 污蔑，诽谤； 中伤，说坏话 | |
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92
crumbled
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| （把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏 | |
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93
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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94
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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95
appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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96
plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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97
mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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98
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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99
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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100
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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101
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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102
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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103
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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104
quaintly
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| adv.古怪离奇地 | |
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105
dolorous
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| adj.悲伤的；忧愁的 | |
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106
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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107
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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108
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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109
suppliantly
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| adv.恳求着，哀求着 | |
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110
longevity
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| n.长命；长寿 | |
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111
enchantments
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| n.魅力( enchantment的名词复数 )；迷人之处；施魔法；着魔 | |
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112
enchantment
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| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
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113
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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114
gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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115
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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116
protruded
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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117
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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118
grooved
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| v.沟( groove的过去式和过去分词 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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119
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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120
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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121
revels
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| n.作乐( revel的名词复数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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122
mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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123
recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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124
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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125
spacious
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| adj.广阔的，宽敞的 | |
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126
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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127
memento
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| n.纪念品，令人回忆的东西 | |
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128
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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129
sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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130
appall
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| vt.使惊骇，使大吃一惊 | |
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131
bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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132
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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133
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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134
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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135
behold
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| v.看，注视，看到 | |
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136
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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137
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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138
cove
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| n.小海湾，小峡谷 | |
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139
pumpkin
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| n.南瓜 | |
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140
blot
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| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
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141
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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142
curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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143
fabulous
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| adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的 | |
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144
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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145
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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146
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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147
savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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civilized
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| a.有教养的，文雅的 | |
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149
wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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dented
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| v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
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151
blistered
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| adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂 | |
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152
slate
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| n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订 | |
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153
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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154
furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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155
mantling
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| 覆巾 | |
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156
citadel
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| n.城堡；堡垒；避难所 | |
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157
bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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158
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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159
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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160
obliterate
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| v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去 | |
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161
hoary
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| adj.古老的；鬓发斑白的 | |
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162
geologist
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| n.地质学家 | |
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163
ciphers
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| n.密码( cipher的名词复数 )；零；不重要的人；无价值的东西 | |
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164
exhumed
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| v.挖出，发掘出( exhume的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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165
slates
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| （旧时学生用以写字的）石板( slate的名词复数 )； 板岩； 石板瓦； 石板色 | |
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166
edible
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| n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的 | |
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167
defunct
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| adj.死亡的；已倒闭的 | |
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168
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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169
encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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170
butted
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| 对接的 | |
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171
ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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172
malignant
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| adj.恶性的，致命的；恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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173
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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174
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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175
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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176
wriggling
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| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的现在分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等）；蠕蠕 | |
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177
inflexible
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| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
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178
straightforwardness
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| n.坦白，率直 | |
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179
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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180
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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181
astound
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| v.使震惊，使大吃一惊 | |
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182
astounding
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| adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词) | |
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183
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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184
concussions
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| n.震荡( concussion的名词复数 )；脑震荡；冲击；震动 | |
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185
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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186
gulch
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| n.深谷，峡谷 | |
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187
gulches
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| n.峡谷( gulch的名词复数 ) | |
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188
writhing
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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189
ponderously
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190
fungus
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| n.真菌，真菌类植物 | |
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191
sprouted
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| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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192
volcanic
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| adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的 | |
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193
mazes
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| 迷宫( maze的名词复数 )； 纷繁复杂的规则； 复杂难懂的细节； 迷宫图 | |
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194
boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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195
begot
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| v.为…之生父( beget的过去式 )；产生，引起 | |
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196
stews
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| n.炖煮的菜肴( stew的名词复数 )；烦恼，焦虑v.炖( stew的第三人称单数 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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197
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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198
vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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199
gulls
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| n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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200
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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201
ravenous
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| adj.极饿的，贪婪的 | |
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202
resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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203
survivor
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| n.生存者，残存者，幸存者 | |
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204
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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205
edifices
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| n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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206
ascend
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| vi.渐渐上升，升高；vt.攀登，登上 | |
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207
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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208
pervades
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| v.遍及，弥漫( pervade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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209
hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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210
frigate
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| n.护航舰，大型驱逐舰 | |
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211
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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212
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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213
beacon
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| n.烽火，（警告用的）闪火灯，灯塔 | |
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214
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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215
waning
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| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
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216
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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217
pallid
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| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
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218
effulgence
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| n.光辉 | |
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219
jaded
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| adj.精疲力竭的；厌倦的；（因过饱或过多而）腻烦的；迟钝的 | |
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220
strata
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| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
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221
haven
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| n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所 | |
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222
junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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223
ledges
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| n.（墙壁，悬崖等）突出的狭长部分( ledge的名词复数 )；（平窄的）壁架；横档；（尤指）窗台 | |
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224
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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225
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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226
accounting
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| n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表 | |
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227
quiescent
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| adj.静止的，不活动的，寂静的 | |
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228
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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229
rustling
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| n. 瑟瑟声，沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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230
rust
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| n.锈；v.生锈；(脑子)衰退 | |
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231
densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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232
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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233
canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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234
aquatic
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| adj.水生的，水栖的 | |
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235
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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236
philistines
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| n.市侩，庸人( philistine的名词复数 )；庸夫俗子 | |
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237
daggers
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| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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238
dagger
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| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
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239
aviary
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| n.大鸟笼，鸟舍 | |
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240
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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241
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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242
grotesquely
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| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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243
penguin
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| n.企鹅 | |
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244
pertaining
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| 与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to) | |
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245
carnival
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| n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演 | |
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246
dabbling
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| v.涉猎( dabble的现在分词 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资 | |
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247
stumps
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| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
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248
flops
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| n.失败( flop的名词复数 )v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的第三人称单数 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅 | |
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249
abased
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| 使谦卑( abase的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到羞耻； 使降低（地位、身份等）； 降下 | |
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250
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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251
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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252
pelicans
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| n.鹈鹕( pelican的名词复数 ) | |
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253
elongated
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| v.延长，加长( elongate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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254
pouches
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| n.（放在衣袋里或连在腰带上的）小袋( pouch的名词复数 )；（袋鼠等的）育儿袋；邮袋；（某些动物贮存食物的）颊袋 | |
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255
lugubrious
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| adj.悲哀的，忧郁的 | |
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256
pensive
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| a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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257
herds
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| 兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众 | |
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258
anomalously
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259
kinsman
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| n.男亲属 | |
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260
capes
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| 碎谷； 斗篷( cape的名词复数 )； 披肩； 海角； 岬 | |
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261
tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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262
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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263
serially
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| adv.连续地，连续刊载地 | |
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264
hummingbird
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| n.蜂鸟 | |
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265
ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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266
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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267
dissonant
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| adj.不和谐的；不悦耳的 | |
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268
augments
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| 增加，提高，扩大( augment的名词复数 ) | |
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269
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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270
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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271
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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272
myriads
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| n.无数，极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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273
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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274
commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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275
oblique
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| adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的 | |
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276
cascading
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| 流注( cascade的现在分词 )； 大量落下； 大量垂悬； 梯流 | |
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277
vocation
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| n.职业，行业 | |
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278
labyrinthine
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| adj.如迷宫的；复杂的 | |
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279
labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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280
swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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281
costliest
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| adj.昂贵的( costly的最高级 )；代价高的；引起困难的；造成损失的 | |
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282
hues
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| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
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283
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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284
forage
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| n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻 | |
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285
whitewash
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| v.粉刷，掩饰；n.石灰水，粉刷，掩饰 | |
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286
populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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287
prescription
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| n.处方，开药；指示，规定 | |
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288
apprenticeship
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| n.学徒身份；学徒期 | |
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289
juggle
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|
| v.变戏法，纂改，欺骗，同时做；n.玩杂耍，纂改，花招 | |
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290
juggler
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| n. 变戏法者, 行骗者 | |
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291
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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292
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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293
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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294
dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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295
interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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296
intervals
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|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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297
hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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298
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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299
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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300
expressive
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|
| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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301
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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302
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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303
iceberg
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|
| n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人 | |
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304
poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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305
lateral
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| adj.侧面的，旁边的 | |
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306
chapels
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| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
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307
gorges
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|
| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
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308
beholding
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|
| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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309
outlaw
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|
| n.歹徒，亡命之徒；vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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310
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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311
picturesque
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|
| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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312
chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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313
conceit
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|
| n.自负，自高自大 | |
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314
waft
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|
| v.飘浮，飘荡；n.一股；一阵微风；飘荡 | |
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315
tortuous
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|
| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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316
provincial
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|
| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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317
vessels
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|
| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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318
protracted
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|
| adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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319
nautical
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|
| adj.海上的，航海的，船员的 | |
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320
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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321
vexed
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|
| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
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322
malicious
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|
| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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323
enveloped
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|
| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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324
joyously
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|
| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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325
joyous
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|
| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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326
vapors
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|
| n.水汽，水蒸气，无实质之物( vapor的名词复数 )；自夸者；幻想 [药]吸入剂 [古]忧郁（症）v.自夸，（使）蒸发( vapor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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327
deceptive
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|
| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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328
calamities
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| n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事 | |
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329
tribulations
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|
| n.苦难( tribulation的名词复数 )；艰难；苦难的缘由；痛苦 | |
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330
standing
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|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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331
regain
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|
| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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332
regained
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|
| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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333
circuitous
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|
| adj.迂回的路的，迂曲的，绕行的 | |
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334
expeditious
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|
| adj.迅速的，敏捷的 | |
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335
nominal
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|
| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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336
nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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337
lava
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|
| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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338
abounding
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|
| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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339
abound
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|
| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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340
illustrate
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|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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341
joint
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|
| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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342
jaws
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|
| n.口部；嘴 | |
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343
distended
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|
| v.（使）膨胀，肿胀( distend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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344
promontories
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|
| n.岬，隆起，海角( promontory的名词复数 ) | |
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345
neatly
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|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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346
descried
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|
| adj.被注意到的，被发现的，被看到的 | |
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347
harmonious
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|
| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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348
concord
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|
| n.和谐；协调 | |
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349
tacks
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|
| 大头钉( tack的名词复数 )； 平头钉； 航向； 方法 | |
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350
prow
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|
| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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351
pointed
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|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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352
torrents
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|
| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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353
hoods
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| n.兜帽( hood的名词复数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩v.兜帽( hood的第三人称单数 )；头巾；（汽车、童车等的）折合式车篷；汽车发动机罩 | |
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354
mischief
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|
| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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355
demons
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| n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念 | |
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356
spectral
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|
| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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357
demonstration
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| n.表明，示范，论证，示威 | |
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358
eruption
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| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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359
aglow
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| adj.发亮的；发红的；adv.发亮地 | |
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360
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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361
posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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362
spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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363
effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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364
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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365
deceptions
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| 欺骗( deception的名词复数 )； 骗术，诡计 | |
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366
mirages
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| n.海市蜃楼，幻景( mirage的名词复数 ) | |
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367
mirage
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| n.海市蜃楼，幻景 | |
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368
meditative
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|
| adj.沉思的，冥想的 | |
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369
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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370
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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371
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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372
meridian
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|
| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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373
miraculous
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|
| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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374
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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375
hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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376
hoisted
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|
| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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377
aged
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|
| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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378
hull
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|
| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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379
perfectly
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|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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380
hovered
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|
| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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381
valiantly
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|
| adv.勇敢地，英勇地；雄赳赳 | |
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382
frigates
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| n.快速军舰( frigate的名词复数 ) | |
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383
lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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384
allusions
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|
| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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385
patrimony
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|
| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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386
jocund
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|
| adj.快乐的，高兴的 | |
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387
repulse
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|
| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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388
isthmus
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| n.地峡 | |
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389
ravaged
|
|
| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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390
regularity
|
|
| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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391
timing
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|
| n.时间安排，时间选择 | |
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392
waylaid
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|
| v.拦截，拦路( waylay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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393
plying
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|
| v.使用（工具）( ply的现在分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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394
toils
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| 网 | |
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395
crackers
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|
| adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘 | |
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396
versed
|
|
| adj. 精通，熟练 | |
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397
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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398
tranquillity
|
|
| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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399
vindictive
|
|
| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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400
foes
|
|
| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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401
snugly
|
|
| adv.紧贴地；贴身地；暖和舒适地；安适地 | |
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402
bower
|
|
| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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403
refreshing
|
|
| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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404
longing
|
|
| n.（for）渴望 | |
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405
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
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406
buttress
|
|
| n.支撑物；v.支持 | |
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407
groves
|
|
| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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408
glades
|
|
| n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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409
undo
|
|
| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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410
undoubtedly
|
|
| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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411
ERECTED
|
|
| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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412
impute
|
|
| v.归咎于 | |
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413
motive
|
|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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414
kindly
|
|
| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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415
outrages
|
|
| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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416
persecution
|
|
| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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417
Christian
|
|
| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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418
ramble
|
|
| v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延 | |
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419
imputed
|
|
| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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420
rusty
|
|
| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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421
hoops
|
|
| n.箍( hoop的名词复数 )；（篮球）篮圈；（旧时儿童玩的）大环子；（两端埋在地里的）小铁弓 | |
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422
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
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423
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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424
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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425
swarmed
|
|
| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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426
wretches
|
|
| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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427
ragged
|
|
| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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428
deformed
|
|
| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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429
vassals
|
|
| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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430
drudge
|
|
| n.劳碌的人；v.做苦工，操劳 | |
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431
patriot
|
|
| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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432
valor
|
|
| n.勇气，英勇 | |
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433
locker
|
|
| n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人 | |
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434
embarks
|
|
| 乘船( embark的第三人称单数 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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435
thither
|
|
| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
参考例句： |
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436
urns
|
|
| n.壶( urn的名词复数 )；瓮；缸；骨灰瓮 | |
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437
stipulate
|
|
| vt.规定，（作为条件）讲定，保证 | |
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438
procures
|
|
| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的第三人称单数 )；拉皮条 | |
参考例句： |
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439
procure
|
|
| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
参考例句： |
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440
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
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441
inviting
|
|
| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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442
cavalry
|
|
| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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443
consort
|
|
| v.相伴；结交 | |
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444
emigrants
|
|
| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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445
rabble
|
|
| n.乌合之众，暴民；下等人 | |
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446
garrison
|
|
| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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447
livelihood
|
|
| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
参考例句： |
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448
disorders
|
|
| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
参考例句： |
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449
primitive
|
|
| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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450
untoward
|
|
| adj.不利的，不幸的，困难重重的 | |
参考例句： |
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451
majesty
|
|
| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
参考例句： |
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452
martial
|
|
| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
参考例句： |
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453
rebellious
|
|
| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
参考例句： |
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454
questionable
|
|
| adj.可疑的，有问题的 | |
参考例句： |
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455
clandestinely
|
|
| adv.秘密地，暗中地 | |
参考例句： |
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456
proceedings
|
|
| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
参考例句： |
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457
judiciously
|
|
| adv.明断地，明智而审慎地 | |
参考例句： |
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458
infantry
|
|
| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
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459
traitors
|
|
| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
参考例句： |
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460
dispensed
|
|
| v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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461
solely
|
|
| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
参考例句： |
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462
ferocious
|
|
| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
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463
docile
|
|
| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
464
canine
|
|
| adj.犬的，犬科的 | |
参考例句： |
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465
census
|
|
| n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查 | |
参考例句： |
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466
lessened
|
|
| 减少的，减弱的 | |
参考例句： |
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467
levied
|
|
| 征（兵）( levy的过去式和过去分词 )； 索取； 发动（战争）； 征税 | |
参考例句： |
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468
insidious
|
|
| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
参考例句： |
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469
enlist
|
|
| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
参考例句： |
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470
delinquents
|
|
| n.（尤指青少年）有过失的人，违法的人( delinquent的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
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471
crafty
|
|
| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
参考例句： |
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472
monarch
|
|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
参考例句： |
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473
alas
|
|
| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句： |
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|
474
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
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475
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
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476
interred
|
|
| v.埋，葬( inter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
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|
477
ignominiously
|
|
| adv.耻辱地，屈辱地，丢脸地 | |
参考例句： |
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|
478
fugitive
|
|
| adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者 | |
参考例句： |
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479
unconditional
|
|
| adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的 | |
参考例句： |
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480
banishment
|
|
| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
参考例句： |
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481
colonizing
|
|
| v.开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
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|
482
pensively
|
|
| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
参考例句： |
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|
483
asylum
|
|
| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
参考例句： |
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484
calamity
|
|
| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
参考例句： |
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|
485
penitence
|
|
| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
参考例句： |
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|
486
royalty
|
|
| n.皇家，皇族 | |
参考例句： |
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|
487
miserable
|
|
| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
参考例句： |
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488
insurgents
|
|
| n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
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489
swelled
|
|
| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
参考例句： |
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490
runaway
|
|
| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
参考例句： |
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491
martyr
|
|
| n.烈士，殉难者；vt.杀害，折磨，牺牲 | |
参考例句： |
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492
absconding
|
|
| v.（尤指逃避逮捕）潜逃，逃跑( abscond的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
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493
ornamental
|
|
| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
参考例句： |
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494
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
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|
495
refreshment
|
|
| n.恢复，精神爽快，提神之事物；（复数）refreshments:点心，茶点 | |
参考例句： |
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496
steered
|
|
| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
参考例句： |
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497
steer
|
|
| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
参考例句： |
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498
shipwreck
|
|
| n.船舶失事，海难 | |
参考例句： |
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|
499
compassionate
|
|
| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
500
rascals
|
|
| 流氓( rascal的名词复数 )； 无赖； （开玩笑说法）淘气的人（尤指小孩）； 恶作剧的人 | |
参考例句： |
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501
benevolently
|
|
| adv.仁慈地，行善地 | |
参考例句： |
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502
tempts
|
|
| v.引诱或怂恿（某人）干不正当的事( tempt的第三人称单数 )；使想要 | |
参考例句： |
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503
brace
|
|
| n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备 | |
参考例句： |
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504
espy
|
|
| v.（从远处等）突然看到 | |
参考例句： |
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|
505
deplore
|
|
| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
参考例句： |
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|
506
succor
|
|
| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
参考例句： |
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|
507
sequestered
|
|
| adj.扣押的；隐退的；幽静的；偏僻的v.使隔绝，使隔离( sequester的过去式和过去分词 )；扣押 | |
参考例句： |
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|
508
insignificant
|
|
| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
509
uprooted
|
|
| v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
参考例句： |
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|
510
narrated
|
|
| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
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|
511
spikes
|
|
| n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划 | |
参考例句： |
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|
512
perpendicular
|
|
| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
参考例句： |
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|
513
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
514
animation
|
|
| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
参考例句： |
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|
515
receding
|
|
| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
参考例句： |
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|
516
elevation
|
|
| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
参考例句： |
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|
517
steward
|
|
| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
518
apprised
|
|
| v.告知，通知( apprise的过去式和过去分词 )；评价 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
519
artistic
|
|
| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
520
depict
|
|
| vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
521
delicacy
|
|
| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
522
utensils
|
|
| 器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
523
apparatus
|
|
| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
524
payable
|
|
| adj.可付的，应付的，有利益的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
525
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
526
blithesome
|
|
| adj.欢乐的，愉快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
527
blithe
|
|
| adj.快乐的，无忧无虑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
528
abides
|
|
| 容忍( abide的第三人称单数 )； 等候； 逗留； 停留 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
529
fickle
|
|
| adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
530
unstable
|
|
| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
531
misgivings
|
|
| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
532
doom
|
|
| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
533
feverish
|
|
| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
534
persevering
|
|
| a.坚忍不拔的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
535
labor
|
|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
536
negligence
|
|
| n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
537
joyfulness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
538
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
539
withdrawn
|
|
| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
540
jointed
|
|
| 有接缝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
541
subsided
|
|
| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
542
pictorial
|
|
| adj.绘画的；图片的；n．画报 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
543
stupor
|
|
| v.昏迷；不省人事 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
544
saluted
|
|
| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
545
wilt
|
|
| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
546
plighted
|
|
| vt.保证，约定（plight的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
547
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
548
entirely
|
|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
549
construe
|
|
| v.翻译，解释 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
550
defraud
|
|
| vt.欺骗，欺诈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
551
withheld
|
|
| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
552
writhed
|
|
| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
553
cringing
|
|
| adj.谄媚，奉承 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
554
overthrown
|
|
| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
555
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
556
dirge
|
|
| n.哀乐，挽歌，庄重悲哀的乐曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
557
persuasions
|
|
| n.劝说，说服（力）( persuasion的名词复数 )；信仰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
558
consecrated
|
|
| adj.神圣的，被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣，给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 )；奉献 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
559
pious
|
|
| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
560
cindery
|
|
| adj.灰烬的，煤渣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
561
pealed
|
|
| v.（使）（钟等）鸣响，（雷等）发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
562
lapse
|
|
| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
563
steadily
|
|
| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
564
recurring
|
|
| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
565
desperately
|
|
| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
566
impatience
|
|
| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
567
descends
|
|
| v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 )；下去；下降；下斜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
568
secrecy
|
|
| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
569
privy
|
|
| adj.私用的；隐密的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
570
blazon
|
|
| n.纹章，装饰；精确描绘；v.广布；宣布 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
571
baneful
|
|
| adj.有害的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
572
doting
|
|
| adj.溺爱的，宠爱的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
573
dally
|
|
| v.荒废(时日)，调情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
574
devour
|
|
| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
575
feline
|
|
| adj.猫科的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
576
sane
|
|
| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
577
virgin
|
|
| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
578
invoking
|
|
| v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
579
vanquished
|
|
| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
580
metaphor
|
|
| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
581
smoothly
|
|
| adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
582
glazing
|
|
| n.玻璃装配业；玻璃窗；上釉；上光v.装玻璃( glaze的现在分词 )；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
583
nether
|
|
| adj.下部的，下面的；n.阴间；下层社会 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
584
notch
|
|
| n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
585
sustenance
|
|
| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
586
notches
|
|
| n.（边缘或表面上的）V型痕迹( notch的名词复数 )；刻痕；水平；等级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
587
flute
|
|
| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
588
braced
|
|
| adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
589
scoffing
|
|
| n. 嘲笑, 笑柄, 愚弄 v. 嘲笑, 嘲弄, 愚弄, 狼吞虎咽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
590
untold
|
|
| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
591
libelous
|
|
| adj.败坏名誉的，诽谤性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
592
extremities
|
|
| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
593
aloof
|
|
| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
594
presentiment
|
|
| n.预感，预觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
595
averred
|
|
| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
596
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
597
reassure
|
|
| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
598
perch
|
|
| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
599
alacrity
|
|
| n.敏捷，轻快，乐意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
600
obedience
|
|
| n.服从，顺从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
601
barge
|
|
| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
602
reverence
|
|
| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
603
bluff
|
|
| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
604
impending
|
|
| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
605
precipice
|
|
| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
606
canes
|
|
| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
607
mildewed
|
|
| adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
608
winnowed
|
|
| adj.扬净的，风选的v.扬( winnow的过去式和过去分词 )；辨别；选择；除去 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
609
blighted
|
|
| adj.枯萎的，摧毁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
610
spotted
|
|
| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
611
mules
|
|
| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
612
larder
|
|
| n.食物贮藏室，食品橱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
613
scattered
|
|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
614
progeny
|
|
| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
615
pitfall
|
|
| n.隐患，易犯的错误；陷阱，圈套 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
616
pitfalls
|
|
| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
617
admonished
|
|
| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
618
disastrous
|
|
| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
619
warp
|
|
| vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
620
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
621
mound
|
|
| n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
622
fraying
|
|
| v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
623
brass
|
|
| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
624
haughty
|
|
| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
625
lament
|
|
| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
626
proneness
|
|
| n.俯伏，倾向 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
627
subduing
|
|
| 征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
628
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
629
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
630
instinctively
|
|
| adv.本能地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
631
shun
|
|
| vt.避开，回避，避免 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
632
clamorous
|
|
| adj.吵闹的，喧哗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
633
whine
|
|
| v.哀号，号哭；n.哀鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
634
lurch
|
|
| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
635
vividly
|
|
| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
636
crouching
|
|
| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
637
rigid
|
|
| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
638
promontory
|
|
| n.海角；岬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
639
pangs
|
|
| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
640
yearning
|
|
| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
641
musing
|
|
| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
642
nought
|
|
| n.／adj.无，零 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
643
clouts
|
|
| n.猛打( clout的名词复数 )；敲打；（尤指政治上的）影响；（用手或硬物的）击v.（尤指用手）猛击，重打( clout的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
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|
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|
644
cultivation
|
|
| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
645
degenerate
|
|
| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
参考例句： |
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|
646
pumpkins
|
|
| n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉，南瓜囊 | |
参考例句： |
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|
647
needy
|
|
| adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
648
insufficient
|
|
| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
649
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
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|
650
profuse
|
|
| adj.很多的，大量的，极其丰富的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
651
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
652
tarpaulin
|
|
| n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
653
warped
|
|
| adj.反常的；乖戾的；（变）弯曲的；变形的v.弄弯，变歪( warp的过去式和过去分词 )；使（行为等）不合情理，使乖戾， | |
参考例句： |
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|
654
crooked
|
|
| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
655
jovial
|
|
| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
656
bland
|
|
| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
657
recluse
|
|
| n.隐居者 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
658
diligently
|
|
| ad.industriously;carefully | |
参考例句： |
|
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|
|
659
avert
|
|
| v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
660
sullenly
|
|
| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
参考例句： |
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|
661
revolving
|
|
| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
|
662
malevolently
|
|
参考例句： |
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|
|
|
663
sinister
|
|
| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
664
marvels
|
|
| n.奇迹( marvel的名词复数 )；令人惊奇的事物（或事例）；不平凡的成果；成就v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
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|
|
|
665
longings
|
|
| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
666
misanthrope
|
|
| n.恨人类的人；厌世者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
667
conceited
|
|
| adj.自负的，骄傲自满的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
668
eccentricity
|
|
| n.古怪，反常，怪癖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
669
whim
|
|
| n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
670
dodge
|
|
| v.闪开，躲开，避开；n.妙计，诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
671
lurked
|
|
| vi.潜伏，埋伏（lurk的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
672
degradation
|
|
| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
673
brutes
|
|
| 兽( brute的名词复数 )； 畜生； 残酷无情的人； 兽性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
674
barter
|
|
| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
675
musket
|
|
| n.滑膛枪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
676
stimulated
|
|
| a.刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
677
dominion
|
|
| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
678
misanthropic
|
|
| adj.厌恶人类的，憎恶（或蔑视）世人的；愤世嫉俗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
679
craftiness
|
|
| 狡猾，狡诈 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
680
motives
|
|
| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
681
adventurous
|
|
| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
682
colonists
|
|
| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
683
preeminence
|
|
| n.卓越,杰出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
684
horrid
|
|
| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
685
potency
|
|
| n. 效力，潜能 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
686
specimen
|
|
| n.样本，标本 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
687
accosts
|
|
| v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的第三人称单数 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
688
ursine
|
|
| adj.似熊的，熊的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
689
suavity
|
|
| n.温和；殷勤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
690
labors
|
|
| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
691
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
692
dodges
|
|
| n.闪躲( dodge的名词复数 )；躲避；伎俩；妙计v.闪躲( dodge的第三人称单数 )；回避 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
693
savagely
|
|
| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
694
intrepid
|
|
| adj.无畏的，刚毅的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
695
discretion
|
|
| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
696
defile
|
|
| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
697
exultingly
|
|
| 兴高采烈地，得意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
698
impulsive
|
|
| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
699
cowardice
|
|
| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
700
wrests
|
|
| （用力）拧( wrest的第三人称单数 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
701
smuggler
|
|
| n.走私者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
702
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
703
hoarded
|
|
| v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
704
conceals
|
|
| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
705
contrives
|
|
| （不顾困难地）促成某事( contrive的第三人称单数 )； 巧妙地策划，精巧地制造（如机器）； 设法做到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
706
meditates
|
|
| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的第三人称单数 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
707
entreats
|
|
| 恳求，乞求( entreat的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
708
demeanor
|
|
| n.行为；风度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
709
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
710
tyrants
|
|
| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
711
initiating
|
|
| v.开始( initiate的现在分词 )；传授；发起；接纳新成员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
712
scooped
|
|
| v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
713
reptiles
|
|
| n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
714
arsenal
|
|
| n.兵工厂，军械库 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
715
remitting
|
|
| v.免除（债务），宽恕( remit的现在分词 )；使某事缓和；寄回，传送 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
716
coercing
|
|
| v.迫使做( coerce的现在分词 )；强迫；（以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段）控制；支配 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
717
acquiescence
|
|
| n.默许；顺从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
718
abhorrent
|
|
| adj.可恶的，可恨的，讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
719
eventual
|
|
| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
720
corrupted
|
|
| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
721
fangs
|
|
| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
722
autocrat
|
|
| n.独裁者；专横的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
723
scythes
|
|
| n.（长柄）大镰刀( scythe的名词复数 )v.（长柄）大镰刀( scythe的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
724
boulders
|
|
| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
725
annihilate
|
|
| v.使无效；毁灭；取消 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
726
lurid
|
|
| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
727
secrete
|
|
| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
728
meditated
|
|
| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
729
dominions
|
|
| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
730
massacre
|
|
| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
731
abominably
|
|
| adv. 可恶地，可恨地，恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
732
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
733
imputing
|
|
| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
734
moored
|
|
| adj. 系泊的 动词moor的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
735
surmised
|
|
| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
736
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
737
boor
|
|
| n.举止粗野的人；乡下佬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
738
eloquence
|
|
| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
739
banished
|
|
| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
740
besought
|
|
| v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的过去式和过去分词 )；(beseech的过去式与过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
741
virtuous
|
|
| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
742
professing
|
|
| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
743
Christians
|
|
| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
744
posture
|
|
| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
745
miscreants
|
|
| n.恶棍，歹徒( miscreant的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
746
tawny
|
|
| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
747
prevailing
|
|
| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
748
colonization
|
|
| 殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
749
animated
|
|
| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
750
wholesome
|
|
| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
751
conspicuously
|
|
| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
752
plaza
|
|
| n.广场，市场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
753
inmates
|
|
| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
754
burrowing
|
|
| v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的现在分词 )；翻寻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
755
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
756
detest
|
|
| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
757
depicted
|
|
| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
758
derived
|
|
| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
759
satiric
|
|
| adj.讽刺的，挖苦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
760
effrontery
|
|
| n.厚颜无耻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
761
runaways
|
|
| （轻而易举的）胜利( runaway的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
762
solitaries
|
|
| n.独居者，隐士( solitary的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
763
knotty
|
|
| adj.有结的，多节的，多瘤的，棘手的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
764
partially
|
|
| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
765
abodes
|
|
| 住所( abode的名词复数 )； 公寓； （在某地的）暂住； 逗留 | |
参考例句： |
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766
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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767
exempting
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| 使免除[豁免]( exempt的现在分词 ) | |
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768
oversight
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| n.勘漏，失察，疏忽 | |
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769
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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770
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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771
jaguars
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| n.（中、南美洲的）美洲虎( jaguar的名词复数 ) | |
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772
scour
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| v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷 | |
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773
civilizing
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| v.使文明，使开化( civilize的现在分词 ) | |
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774
aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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775
hermits
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| （尤指早期基督教的）隐居修道士，隐士，遁世者( hermit的名词复数 ) | |
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776
stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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777
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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778
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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779
wreak
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| v.发泄；报复 | |
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780
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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781
scorching
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| adj. 灼热的 | |
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782
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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783
oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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784
stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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785
quaff
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| v.一饮而尽；痛饮 | |
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786
quaffed
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| v.痛饮( quaff的过去式和过去分词 )；畅饮；大口大口将…喝干；一饮而尽 | |
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787
sterility
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| n.不生育，不结果，贫瘠，消毒，无菌 | |
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788
inflating
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| v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的现在分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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789
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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790
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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791
precipices
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| n.悬崖，峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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792
exude
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| v.(使)流出，(使)渗出 | |
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793
crevices
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| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
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794
corked
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| adj.带木塞气味的，塞着瓶塞的v.用瓶塞塞住( cork的过去式 ) | |
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795
glide
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| n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝 | |
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796
applicant
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| n.申请人，求职者，请求者 | |
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797
maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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798
inscription
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| n.（尤指石块上的）刻印文字，铭文，碑文 | |
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799
duel
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| n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争 | |
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800
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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801
attaining
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的现在分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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802
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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803
inscribes
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| v.写，刻( inscribe的第三人称单数 ) | |
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804
doggerel
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| n.拙劣的诗，打油诗 | |
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805
repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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806
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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