Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

feared the worst, and yet would not willingly destroy the hope of his less experienced friends, with which they were continually flattering themselves. Overwhelming and sorrowful news is always soon enough.

66

"How well it is for us," he said, "that we can sit here in a dry place!" He spoke with a beating heart. The fate of his comrades presented itself to him; the thought that they might now be wandering about on the ice in this frightful weather, in the impenetrable darkness, and the conviction that the torch could no longer burn, disquieted his heart; scarcely could he hide from his friends what he feared. To examine whether the torch was yet burning was impossible; the storm would have dashed any one to the chasm below who ventured to leave the cavern. It was perfectly impossible, in the darkness, to climb the ledge of rocks, as the ascent, even by the glimmer of daylight, was dangerous to life. "God Almighty only can grant that our friends should not be lost!" he cried out almost against his will; May his angels direct them!" A wish in which they all participated, although the others felt not the same anxiety that he did. They went back into the cavern; and notwithstanding their disturbed thoughts, soon fell asleep again. After a long while, the poor men awoke. In the whole region there reigned a deathlike stillness; the storm was entirely laid the air was pure and clear, but exceedingly cold, and our unfortunates almost felt ready to imagine that they had only been dreaming. It was yet dark, indeed; but they observed in the southern part of the sky that always increasing arch of light which indicated the rising of the sun. With longing they waited for the day, and scarcely had it broken than they clambered up the rocky ledge; this time with still greater risk of life, as it was rendered smooth by the ice and snow. But what a view!-what horror! That vast field of ice over which they had come yesterday had disappeared! High waves were rolling close in to the shore, and broke foaming on the rocks; only single cakes of ice were driven on the coast. Of the wreck there was not the slightest trace to be discovered.

MARIA. I was just thinking about that. What, then, had become of it? JULIA. Where, then, were the poor men they had left?

FATHER. Who could answer these questions? Nothing could be more certain than the destruction of the unfortunates, whether they had been wandering on the ice or had remained on the sinking wreck.

MAX. But, father, was there not some piece of the wreck or a corpse driven on the shore?

FATHER. Not the slightest trace of one. MARIA. But might not some of the unfortunate crew have wandered somewhere on a field of ice? Might they not have landed on some other place on the coast?

Gus. This last supposition was not very likely, for they would keep looking towards the burning torch.

FATHER. Alas! they had little benefit from this. It lay overthrown, extinguished, and hardly burnt down a few inches, on the rock.

Overwhelmed and almost annihilated, stood the three friends on the spot. They reflected not on their own sad lot, they felt nothing but for the calamity of their comrades, and this the more, the less they knew whether the unfortunate men had been overwhelmed, or whether they were still driven about, a sport for the ocean billows. No one of the three friends spoke a word; every one of them was tortured by the most sorrowful thoughts, and every one took care not to communicate his painful ideas to the others. With their eyes filled with tears, they looked out towards the place in which, a few hours before, they saw the wreck. Their hearts were greatly oppressed and ready to burst, and their bosoms most deeply weighed down.

"Might not, then, our friends have been saved? It was not impossible. God may lead them to find us, probably, wholly unexpectedly," finally said the pilot, more in order to raise Ivan and Gregory's sunken spirits than from his own conviction.

"And if we should not see them again," replied Ivan, "if only they are saved! I should be glad of it with all my soul. Our friends may then take measures, in their own country, for our rescue." But he was well convinced, while expressing

Q

this wish, as well as was the pilot, that it could not be so.

MARIA. But, father, that does not quite please me. Ivan and the pilot should not utterly despair of the fulfilment of their

desire.

MOTHER. This was owing to the feeling of their hearts, produced by misfortune. The fates of men have a great influence on their mode of thinking. Whoever sees himself often favoured by Providence becomes thereby more easily assured, and not rarely too presumptuous. He flatters himself that he will always be so favoured. But if he is visited by misfortune, he then becomes spiritless, he sees nothing but his own wretchedness-hope forsakes him, and he is always timid.

FATHER. At least, he acts thus at the first moments in which misfortune affects him the more seriously. When he first comes to reflection, then new hope is excited; the unhappy man feels the benefits of the same, and then clings to it the stronger the more innocent he is, and the more reasons of calmness he can create for himself out of religion.

Indeed the pilot and Ivan had little reason for hope. If their friends had not landed on the island-and how little probability there was of this!-the miserable broken wreck could not hold together long in the open sea, at least not long enough for them to reach land. How could the unfortunate men guide it without mast and sail? They must look on quietly as the wreck caught by the tempest and driven on by the foaming billows, finally was dashed to pieces on the heaps of ice, or was swallowed up by the raging waves.

This hour of hopelessness was certainly horrible for the three unfortunates. The poor creatures over whose fate they lamented were their friends. Could they have landed on the island, and had they brought supplies for their wants from the wreck, then it would have been tolerable; were the country ever so desolate or barren, it would be a great comfort to them that there were so many of them together. Union and friendship would have softened the horrors of their solitude; their united strength would have lightened every burden, and even the severe toil would have been thus sweetened. But now they were three unfortunates,

[ocr errors]

and hardly provided with the necessary supply of their wants for a single day. How would it be with them in the approaching winter, lasting for almost half a year? How should the poor men withstand the cold and hunger? Where should they find a protecting shelter, and from whence could they obtain for themselves warm clothing?

There

Happy and hopeful as these sufferers had been when, a few hours before, they left the cavern, thus wretched, almost brought to despair, like men who seemed to be abandoned by God, they now returned back to this their retreat. lay the few remnants of the provisions they had taken with them, their scanty meal; not one of them touched it-not one of them felt hunger or thirst; they had only one feeling, which must have wrought horribly upon them, the thought of their boundless misfortune.

JULIA. What a frightful situation! They could not be more wretched!

FATHER. Do you think so?

JULIA. I cannot really conceive how there could be anything in their situation that could be called good fortune!

FATHER. I do not exactly blame your view; at the first moment the unfortunate men themselves would not have thought differently. But scarcely had the first storm been laid in their breasts, than calm reflection also again renewed its sway; and then they soon found, too, that even in the most doubtful situation there still remained to them many good things. What do you think there was, MAX?

MAX. I should think, father, it was a great piece of good fortune that there were three of them. If there had been only one of them, this solitary man would certainly have felt himself very unhappy.

FATHER. Very true. But suppose the three had not been friends?

MARIA. Yet here they would have become so?

FATHER. But supposing they had not, could they then have reasonably hoped that they could have overcome all their obstacles?

MARIA. No! One would have wronged the others, and thus everything would have been ruined.

FATHER. So the three were friends who lived in unity and concord; and this was

[blocks in formation]

MARIA. They were active, laborious men, who had the best of dispositions FATHER. This is also true. And now I will tell you of yet another advantage. Had they brought themselves into this situation by rashness and folly? Gus. No; they were in the discharge of their duty, and at their posts.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

FATHER. Had they anything to reproach themselves? I will except Ivan and Gregory, who must always have felt painfully that they had secretly left their father.

Gus. No; they had a quiet conscience. FATHER. Right; and so you see then, that they were not so wholly wretched. Friendship, good will, health, strength, and a good conscience were left to them; and so long as a man possesses these advantages, so long he is not wretched or forsaken. Besides this, they were pious, religious men, who did not put God and his commandment out of their sight. Therefore faith was ever increasing in their heart, that God would not leave them, and that his wisdom would find means and ways for their sustenance. Besides, I may tell you beforehand thus much, that their wretchedness was to rise yet higher and almost to become intolerable. I resume again, therefore, the thread of their history. To the question which everyone of them made respecting the fate of his companions, there was joined also another and as important a onewhich, indeed was easier put than answered -I mean the inquiry, what they must now begin upon?

The pilot,-a worthy old sailor, who had made many voyages, and lived through many adventures, had encountered and triumphed over many dangers,—was, as it

were, an angel of deliverance for his
friends. He was a man of a sound un-
derstanding, of a correct view, of a pious,
firm character, a man whom a peril might
for a moment render daring, but who did
not lose his head in the most desperate
condition, but aroused his courage and
soon found means of aid, and then did not
allow himself to be diverted again from
his path once entered upon.
Gus. That is my man! He pleases
me! He would make an able general,
like Ziethen or old Blucher!

FATHER. The comparison is a good one; for it was by their firmness, and their unshaken courage in the greatest dangers, that those two heroes showed their character. For some hours the three friends had lain there silent and inactive. It was not yet dark, the moon's cresent, which was scarcely to be observed in the stormy night, and the glimmering stars cast a feeble twilight into the cavern, when the brave pilot at once raised himself up. "Friends!" said he, 66 we cannot, and must not, remain as we now are. We have sat here more than two hours, with our heads on our hands. That this does us no good, you see; we must behave differently. So up, and forward! Let us eat something. I am hungry, and we onght not to injure our stomachs if we wish to hold up our heads. We will eat, and then we must go out to explore. The night is not so very dark, we are armed, and, what is better yet, our hearts keep their right places. Possibly we may find our comrades, and probably not; or it may happen to us to discover that hut, or some other cavern; and even if we do not accomplish all this, we shall have done our duty."

These words of the brave man and his example, operated on the two others; they felt themselves lightened their courage returned again-they were ashamed of their sluggishness, and their despairing distrust of God's government and their own powers. The small remnants of the food they had brought with them were eaten; and when nothing more was left, the old pilot led the way-" Now, in God's name, forward! I have satisfied my appetite, and I feel new strength in myself."

JULIA. And they really went out? In the night ?

tune can at once very much cheer the
unfortunate. So it was here. The three
friends sat each on a stone which lay on
the margin of the fountain, and drank to
refresh themselves. The pilot, who care-
fully observed everything, now began: “I
know not whether I err, but it seems to
me as if we were here in the neighbour-
hood of men."-With these words he
pointed to some stones, regularly laid as
if for a table and seats."That is the
work of men's hands!" he added.
"The
basin of the fountain too has been pre-
pared with art, and here are stairs made
in the soft sandstone.
Either persons
have formerly inhabited here, or we shall
have the good fortune to-day to become
acquainted with our new neighbours."

FATHER. Which you must recollect was not yet so very dark. The cold air is purer; the stars shine more brightly; even the snow diffuses a certain light, and besides this, the moon stood in her first quarter. All this gave our wanderers light enough to see the path, and avoid the dangers in which a total darkness would have precipitated them. They descended from the height, and went again into the valley, and now turned themselves to the opposite side. But the way still led along between walls of rock, in which certain forms and shapes stood forth like statues. In the weak light, these often appeared terrific and fearful; the sight of them produced even in these courageous men many disturbed thoughts, to which was joined the overwhelming idea that they had consumed the last remnants of their food. This circumstance filled the otherwise so firm and composed pilot, with dis- FATHER. The man was too well extressing anxiety. In vain he related his perienced to be under such a deception. former voyages; recollections could as It is indeed true that Nature, especially in little enable him to avoid disquietude as rocks and cliffs, often produces forms and the solicitude of his companions. He shapes of which a man at the first sight sought in every way to keep up his friends' might believe that they were fashioned by courage; but the wilder the country grew the hand of man: as for example, we find so much the more he felt in himself how towers, pyramids, wedges, and even figures his former strong courage was shaken. of beasts and men. But this was not the The rocks continually rougher, the over- case here; they soon became convinced, hanging cliffs ever more frightful, and that, in truth, the hand of man had been every moment threatened to fall, while there employed. the entire region around increased in hor

ror.

Our friends however still kept on the way they had chosen, and soon they perceived a clearer, milder air, as the high walls of rock kept off the keen draught of the cold wind. They saw that the points of the cliffs became clearer and more illuminated, and justly concluded that the short day had broken, and the sun had risen. All at once they saw on the side a little running brook, which, pure as silver, gushed forth from a cliff, and lost itself behind a distant rock. "Thank God!" cried the pilot, one principal want is satisfied! Heaven will help us yet further!"-All were now full of new courage from this discovery. The water was beautiful, and was of so much the greater benefit for them, as the provisions taken from the wreck consisted of biscuit and salted meat.

66

MAX. But did not the pilot deceive himself? Possibly he only imagined that he saw something?

They now yet more eagerly searched into everything with anxious observation; the whole region was thoroughly examined, they went further into a dark hollow, and all at once saw themselves enclosed in a vast chasm of rock. It was now fully day. The friends could not enough look at the wild stones lying around them, and the strange forms of the cliffs. "Men have inhabited here, or they still do so,” said Ivan. "See! here are foot-prints; here, where no tree is to be found, lie shavings. We must search further!"

With these words he went round a cliff; and a kind of stairs made of flat stones, rudely laid on each other, led on behind the cliff on the wall of rock. He called out to the two others; they came, and all mounted some tolerably convenient steps, and soon reached an ascending foot-path which wound around spirally through some stones lying about, and which they

Gus. Yes, then a drink relishes.
FATHER. A small piece of good for- now followed.

There, all at once, the three friends found themselves on the ridge of the mountain ledge;-opposite stood the low sun in its most beautiful splendour, and deep beneath them lay a fine valley which was bounded on the opposite side by mountains and rocks. In the midst of the valley there ran up a narrow bay, or basin.

JULIA. Do they not call it a bay when a part of the ocean runs up deep into the land?

FATHER. Yes: they name it a gulf or a bay. The soil of the valley from the hill to the bay was of a beautiful meadow green, through which ran little brooks. The view was beautiful and enlivening: the vale lay exactly opposite the sun which shone into it. The air was without mist, and pure, and the mingling of colours charming, which the green of the meadow ground, the glassy surface of the bay, the dark cliffs, the projecting distant points of snow and ice, of the mountains and the clear blue heavens produced.

MARIA. Who would have looked for this in Spitzbergen?

FATHER. And yet this was the case. That vale was sheltered by the rocks from the cold north and east winds, and as it lay open towards the south the sun could warm it. In the summer therefore the heat in this valley was almost intolerable. To proceed, however, with our story. But what caused the greatest joy to our friends, was the sight of a vast collection of dry trees which lay on the shore of the bay.

MAX. Trees?

FATHER. Large whole trees, with branches and roots.

MAX. Then there must have been forests and groves in a pretty good condition!

FATHER. Forests and groves? On the whole island there did not grow a single tree or shrub, from which you could cut the smallest stick.

and winds then do the rest, to float these trees into that uninhabited region, where they are driven on the shore or left lying in the gulfs and bays." And now we ought not to stop half-way," said the pilot, interrupting the joyful expressions of his friends. "If the history of the cooper's hut is not a mere fable, it must be found here in this vale. We have yet almost two hours left us of day, and this we will use in the right way!" They immediately went down into the vale, towards which the way was more convenient than that which they had taken to climb the height. They betook themselves to the shore and found it grown over with spoon-wort, and other plants of the cress kind; a discovery which was of the greatest value to them.

MARIA. Thus one perplexity was relieved after another.

MOTHER. An observation which you will often find confirmed, in the life of man.

GUSTAVUS. Yes, they had wood and water, but with regard to provisions and lodging, they indeed do not appear to be very well off

JULIA. And who knows whether a remedy will not be found for this too?

FATHER. We will hope for it. Ivan, who had observed some large fish in the bay, now luckily thought of something. "We have," said he, "not much more day. On this account I advise that two of us search for the hut, or some other lodging, while the third takes care and secures the fish and collects a heap of dry wood. When it becomes later we shall probably be hungry." This proposal met with approbation, and they concluded they would carry it into execution. Ivan offered himself to take charge of the cooking, and the two others immediately went along the wall of rock to search out a lodging. The former, on the other hand, turned towards the water. Scarcely had he advanced some hundred steps than he noticed something thick on the shore, which drew his whole observation on it. JULIA. And this was?

MARIA. But whence so much dry wood? FATHER. The providence of God had taken care that these regions without wood, should yet not be wholly destitute of this necessary of life. The great streams in FATHER. In a little pool left by the North America lay waste by their overflow-water when it was higher, there was waling large tracts of woodland; their swell-lowing about a large fish like a salmon, ing waters tear up the strongest trees, and and was making all possible efforts to get bear them off into the sea. The storms out of his prison inclosure and to reach

« FöregåendeFortsätt »