Chapter 10

Shortly afterward an incident occurred which I am induced to look
upon as more intensely productive of emotion, as far more replete
with the extremes first of delight and then of horror, than even
any of the thousand chances which afterward befell me in nine
long years, crowded with events of the most startling and, in
many cases, of the most unconceived and unconceivable character.
We were lying on the deck near the companion-way, and debating
the possibility of yet making our way into the storeroom, when,
looking toward Augustus, who lay fronting myself, I perceived
that he had become all at once deadly pale, and that his lips
were quivering in the most singular and unaccountable manner.
Greatly alarmed, I spoke to him, but he made me no reply, and I
was beginning to think that he was suddenly taken ill, when I
took notice of his eyes, which were glaring apparently at some
object behind me. I turned my head, and shall never forget the
ecstatic joy which thrilled through every particle of my frame,
when I perceived a large brig bearing down upon us, and not more
than a couple of miles off. I sprung to my feet as if a musket
bullet had suddenly struck me to the heart; and, stretching out
my arms in the direction of the vessel, stood in this manner,
motionless, and unable to articulate a syllable. Peters and
Parker were equally affected, although in different ways. The
former danced about the deck like a madman, uttering the most
extravagant rhodomontades, intermingled with howls and
imprecations, while the latter burst into tears, and continued
for many minutes weeping like a child.

The vessel in sight was a large hermaphrodite brig, of a Dutch
build, and painted black, with a tawdry gilt figure-head. She had
evidently seen a good deal of rough weather, and, we supposed,
had suffered much in the gale which had proved so disastrous to
ourselves; for her foretopmast was gone, and some of her
starboard bulwarks. When we first saw her, she was, as I have
already said, about two miles off and to windward, bearing down
upon us. The breeze was very gentle, and what astonished us
chiefly was, that she had no other sails set than her foremast
and mainsail, with a flying jib—of course she came down but
slowly, and our impatience amounted nearly to phrensy. The
awkward manner in which she steered, too, was remarked by all of
us, even excited as we were. She yawed about so considerably,
that once or twice we thought it impossible she could see us, or
imagined that, having seen us, and discovered no person on board,
she was about to tack and make off in another direction. Upon
each of these occasions we screamed and shouted at the top of our
voices, when the stranger would appear to change for a moment her
intention, and again hold on toward us—this singular conduct
being repeated two or three times, so that at last we could think
of no other manner of accounting for it than by supposing the
helmsman to be in liquor.

No person was seen upon her decks until she arrived within about
a quarter of a mile of us. We then saw three seamen, whom by
their dress we took to be Hollanders. Two of these were lying on
some old sails near the forecastle, and the third, who appeared
to be looking at us with great curiosity, was leaning over the
starboard bow near the bowsprit. This last was a stout and tall
man, with a very dark skin. He seemed by his manner to be
encouraging us to have patience, nodding to us in a cheerful
although rather odd way, and smiling constantly, so as to display
a set of the most brilliantly white teeth. As his vessel drew
nearer, we saw a red flannel cap which he had on fall from his
head into the water; but of this he took little or no notice,
continuing his odd smiles and gesticulations. I relate these
things and circumstances minutely, and I relate them, it must be
understood, precisely as they _appeared_to us.

The brig came on slowly, and now more steadily than before, and—I
cannot speak calmly of this event—our hearts leaped up wildly
within us, and we poured out our whole souls in shouts and
thanksgiving to God for the complete, unexpected, and glorious
deliverance that was so palpably at hand. Of a sudden, and all at
once, there came wafted over the ocean from the strange vessel
(which was now close upon us) a smell, a stench, such as the
whole world has no name for—no conception of—hellish—utterly
suffocating—insufferable, inconceivable. I gasped for breath, and
turning to my companions, perceived that they were paler than
marble. But we had now no time left for question or surmise—the
brig was within fifty feet of us, and it seemed to be her
intention to run under our counter, that we might board her
without putting out a boat. We rushed aft, when, suddenly, a wide
yaw threw her off full five or six points from the course she had
been running, and, as she passed under our stern at the distance
of about twenty feet, we had a full view of her decks. Shall I
ever forget the triple horror of that spectacle? Twenty-five or
thirty human bodies, among whom were several females, lay
scattered about between the counter and the galley in the last
and most loathsome state of putrefaction. We plainly saw that not
a soul lived in that fated vessel! Yet we could not help shouting
to the dead for help! Yes, long and loudly did we beg, in the
agony of the moment, that those silent and disgusting images
would stay for us, would not abandon us to become like them,
would receive us among their goodly company! We were raving with
horror and despair—thoroughly mad through the anguish of our
grievous disappointment.

As our first loud yell of terror broke forth, it was replied to
by something, from near the bowsprit of the stranger, so closely
resembling the scream of a human voice that the nicest ear might
have been startled and deceived. At this instant another sudden
yaw brought the region of the forecastle for a moment into view,
and we beheld at once the origin of the sound. We saw the tall
stout figure still leaning on the bulwark, and still nodding his
head to and fro, but his face was now turned from us so that we
could not behold it. His arms were extended over the rail, and
the palms of his hands fell outward. His knees were lodged upon a
stout rope, tightly stretched, and reaching from the heel of the
bowsprit to a cathead. On his back, from which a portion of the
shirt had been torn, leaving it bare, there sat a huge sea-gull,
busily gorging itself with the horrible flesh, its bill and
talons deep buried, and its white plumage spattered all over with
blood. As the brig moved farther round so as to bring us close in
view, the bird, with much apparent difficulty, drew out its
crimsoned head, and, after eyeing us for a moment as if
stupefied, arose lazily from the body upon which it had been
feasting, and, flying directly above our deck, hovered there a
while with a portion of clotted and liver-like substance in its
beak. The horrid morsel dropped at length with a sullen splash
immediately at the feet of Parker. May God forgive me, but now,
for the first time, there flashed through my mind a thought, a
thought which I will not mention, and I felt myself making a step
toward the ensanguined spot. I looked upward, and the eyes of
Augustus met my own with a degree of intense and eager meaning
which immediately brought me to my senses. I sprang forward
quickly, and, with a deep shudder, threw the frightful thing into
the sea.

The body from which it had been taken, resting as it did upon the
rope, had been easily swayed to and fro by the exertions of the
carnivorous bird, and it was this motion which had at first
impressed us with the belief of its being alive. As the gull
relieved it of its weight, it swung round and fell partially
over, so that the face was fully discovered. Never, surely, was
any object so terribly full of awe! The eyes were gone, and the
whole flesh around the mouth, leaving the teeth utterly naked.
This, then, was the smile which had cheered us on to hope! this
the—but I forbear. The brig, as I have already told, passed under
our stern, and made its way slowly but steadily to leeward. With
her and with her terrible crew went all our gay visions of
deliverance and joy. Deliberately as she went by, we might
possibly have found means of boarding her, had not our sudden
disappointment and the appalling nature of the discovery which
accompanied it laid entirely prostrate every active faculty of
mind and body. We had seen and felt, but we could neither think
nor act, until, alas! too late. How much our intellects had been
weakened by this incident may be estimated by the fact, that when
the vessel had proceeded so far that we could perceive no more
than the half of her hull, the proposition was seriously
entertained of attempting to overtake her by swimming!

I have, since this period, vainly endeavoured to obtain some clew
to the hideous uncertainty which enveloped the fate of the
stranger. Her build and general appearance, as I have before
stated, led us to the belief that she was a Dutch trader, and the
dresses of the crew also sustained this opinion. We might have
easily seen the name upon her stern, and, indeed, taken other
observations, which would have guided us in making out her
character; but the intense excitement of the moment blinded us to
every thing of that nature. From the saffron-like hue of such of
the corpses as were not entirely decayed, we concluded that the
whole of her company had perished by the yellow fever, or some
other virulent disease of the same fearful kind. If such were the
case (and I know not what else to imagine), death, to judge from
the positions of the bodies, must have come upon them in a manner
awfully sudden and overwhelming, in a way totally distinct from
that which generally characterizes even the most deadly
pestilences with which mankind are acquainted. It is possible,
indeed, that poison, accidentally introduced into some of their
sea-stores, may have brought about the disaster, or that the
eating of some unknown venomous species of fish, or other marine
animal, or oceanic bird, might have induced it—but it is utterly
useless to form conjectures where all is involved, and will, no
doubt, remain for ever involved, in the most appalling and
unfathomable mystery.