"Please do. Sometimes I think you are holding back ... that you are reluctant to tell me. You say you will and then... you hesitate. What is it about this island?"
He was silent for a few seconds, then he said, "The sea was calm ... so calm ... you scarcely would think you were sailing. And then suddenly the storm blows up... storms such as you have never dreamed of, Ann Alice. You cannot imagine the fury of a hurricane. The wind is like a thousand demons, screeching, whipping up the waves so that the sea becomes a seething cauldron. The rain, caught in the wind, beats down horizontally. It seems as though the storm is intent on destroying everything in its path. What chance has a ship on such a sea, in such a storm. I knew it was going to happen. We prayed for a miracle but none thought one would come. We knew she could not stand up to all that fury—nor could she. I thought my last moment had come. Oddly enough, I felt calm and my great regret was that I was never going to discover all those tracts of land which yet were unknown. My name would die with me. My life was insignificant. Yet I had had grandiose dreams. Magellan, Henry the Navigator, Drake, Cook, Ptolemy, Mercator, Hondius ... I had dreamed of being one of them. A man needs time to prove himself. I have often since then thought of all the men who were taken in their youth and never had a chance of doing what they dreamed of doing. I thought then, I shall be one of those.
"The sea took us up as though we were a cardboard box. It tossed us this way and that. The wind shrieked as though with demonical laughter at our plight and the rain, thunder and lightning did what they could to discomfort us. Right out there in that violent sea we broke up. The deck seemed to roll from under us... parts of our ship were flung out into the sea like debris. All hope was gone. We were a wreck.
"I found myself clinging to a spar of wood. Part of the deck, I imagine. 1 felt half-dead and believed the end was not far off. No one could survive in such a sea.
"I knew roughly where we were before the storm hit us, but could not calculate how far we had come and where the sea had thrown us. I could think of nothing but clinging to my piece of wood. The sea tossed it hither and thither. I was submerged... and then I was afloat again. I closed my eyes and waited for death.
"They say that when you are drowning your whole life comes back to you. You remember the details... childhood ... schooldays. I don't know whether I was too numb to do so. I don't know how I clung to my raft. But I must have done and I remembered nothing of the past. There was only the need to cling to that piece of wood which was all I had to help me against that raging sea. I was exhausted by the battering I was receiving and I felt consciousness slipping away.
"When I opened my eyes everything had changed. I could hear the gentle swishing of waves against the sand. There was a scented breeze, very faint. I opened my eyes to a brilliant blue sky and a sea that was as gentle as a lake. How soft it was... translucent blue. Later I was to discover it could be a pellucid green. It was a sea which seemed different from any other sea I had known. But I had reached the island and everything was different there."
"So that is how you came to the island?"
"Yes, that is how I came to it. When I opened my eyes the first thing I noticed was... people. They were squatting some little distance from me—tall men and women and naked children watching me with great wondering dark eyes. Their skin was light brown colour, their hair dark and abundant. I noticed that they all wore ornaments which looked as though they had been made from gold and the women wore flowers round their necks and ankles.
"The biggest of the men—whom I took to be the chief—came to me and said something which I could not understand. I tried to explain ... but little explanation was needed. My condition, the spar of wood which had carried me to those shores was enough.
"All the time I was there we communicated mainly by signs, gesticulation and mime. They brought pieces of wood held together by fibres and they laid me on this for I was too exhausted to walk. Two of the men carried me ... it was a sort of stretcher... into one of their houses. I realized later that it was the house of the chief. It was round, with a roof of straw; the floor was earth and there were rough benches there. I was laid down gently and several of them came round to examine me. They brought me food... fruit such as I had never tasted before ... mangoes and papaya, sweet bananas and nuts. They gave me something to drink which was fiery hot and made my head swim; and when I turned from it they brought me the milk of a coconut in its shell.
"I wondered what they would do with me. I had heard stories of the fierceness of the natives of some far-off lands. Captain Cook had been clubbed to death when he went to the Sandwich Islands to recover a stolen boat. I might have thought of a hideous fate which they were preparing for me—but I did not. Strangely enough I sensed the goodness of these people. They were tall and strong; they could have been warlike, but there was a gentleness about them and in spite of my position and the strangeness of it all, I felt no fear.
"I was completely exhausted and slept for a long time. When I awoke there was always at least one pair of dark eyes watching me. They gave me food—fruit milk and something which I had never tasted before but which I believe is known as breadfruit.
"I think I must have been at least four days and nights in their care before I was fully conscious.
"When I stood up they clapped their hands. They began to shout and one of the men ran out of the house and began beating with his hands on a drum which I learned later was the way in which they summoned the company. I shall never forget the hour or so which followed. They came in to look at me. They walked round me. They touched me, marvelling, I guessed, at my white skin. They looked with wonder into my light eyes; but it was my fair hair which intrigued them most.
"I had no fear of them. That was what was so wonderful. They stood around me, those tall men and women with their shining golden ornaments and their flowers. They could have tortured me, killed me in the most horrible manner... and that did not occur to me. It was only after I left the island that I thought of it.
"They were happy people. They laughed continually. They squatted round me, touching my hair again and again, offering me fruit and coconut shells full of liquor.
"I sat beside the chief. I guessed he was the chief because he wore more gold ornaments than the others. Moreover he had an air of authority.
"Well... that was my island."
"And how long were you there?"
"I don't know. I lost count of time." He turned to me. "I have to find it. It was all so strange. I could at times believe that there is no such place ... that I imagined it."
"How could you have done so?"
"No. It is impossible. I went there."
"Tell me more. Tell me everything. I want to share all your adventures."
"We talked to each other by signs. I learned one or two of their words. Go; Come. Words like that. It was a thriving community because they had all they wanted on the island. They had fish and fruit in abundance. They grew certain crops, the like of which I have never seen elsewhere. They cooked in earth ovens with pots made of gold buried in the ground with the sun's rays beating down on them... and sometimes in an apparatus like a haybox. They lived mainly on fish which abounded in the seas and could be caught with little effort. Any clothes they wore were woven from leaves and fibres of plants. They lived simply and I have never known harmony such as I found on that island. They had a simple faith in goodness... they worked together... one for all and all for each ... It was paradise, Ann Alice.
"There was gold there—the metal which we call precious was as plentiful as the fish in the sea and the fruit on the trees. One could see it in the streams... on the surface of the earth. One picked up handfuls of earth and there was gold. They had learned how to weld it into necklaces and bangles. They polished it and held it up to the sun. I fancy they thought the gold had captured something of the sun itself and that was why they used it to such an extent. They worshipped the sun. The life giver. They watched it rise every morning and welcomed it with joy; and they were always very solemn when they watched it disappear at night. I remember standing there on the shore with them watching the great red ball drop below the horizon. It seemed to disappear suddenly. There is no twilight. Sunset is different there from how we know it. It is hard to believe that it is the same sun. But I shall go on talking for ever about my island."