登陆注册
4809100000022

第22章 "YAH! YAH! YAH!".(4)

Also they shot the fowls and pigs. We who were not killed got away in canoes and paddled out into the lagoon. Looking back, we could see all the houses on fire. Late in the afternoon we saw many canoes coming from Nihi, which is the village near the Nihi Passage in the northeast. They were all that were left, and like us their village had been burned by a second schooner that had come through Nihi Passage.

"We stood on in the darkness to the westward for Pauloo, but in the middle of the night we heard women wailing and then we ran into a big fleet of canoes.

They were all that were left of Pauloo, which likewise was in ashes, for a third schooner had come in through the Pauloo Passage. You see, that mate, with his black boys, had not been drowned. He had made the Solomon Islands, and there told his brothers of what we had done in Oolong. And all his brothers had said they would come and punish us, and there they were in the three schooners, and our three villages were wiped out.

"And what was there for us to do? In the morning the two schooners from windward sailed down upon us in the middle of the lagoon. The trade wind was blowing fresh, and by scores of canoes they ran us down. And the rifles never ceased talking. We scattered like flying fish before the bonita, and there were so many of us that we escaped by thousands, this way and that, to the islands on the rim of the atoll.

"And thereafter the schooners hunted us up and down the lagoon. In the nighttime we slipped past them. But the next day, or in two days or three days, the schooners would be coming back, hunting us toward the other end of the lagoon. And so it went. We no longer counted nor remembered our dead.

True, we were many and they were few. But what could we do? I was in one of the twenty canoes filled with men who were not afraid to die. We attacked the smallest schooner. They shot us down in heaps. They threw dynamite into the canoes, and when the dynamite gave out, they threw hot water down upon us. And the rifles never ceased talking. And those whose canoes were smashed were shot as they swam away. And the mate danced up and down upon the cabin top and yelled, "Yah! Yah! Yah!'

"Every house on every smallest island was burned. Not a pig nor a fowl was left alive. Our wells were defiled with the bodies of the slain, or else heaped high with coral rock. We were twenty-five thousand on Oolong before the three schooners came. Today we are five thousand. After the schooners left, we were but three thousand, as you shall see.

"At last the three schooners grew tired of chasing us back and forth. So they went, the three of them, to Nihi, in the northeast. And then they drove us steadily to the west. Their nine boats were in the water as well. They beat up every island as they moved along. They drove us, drove us, drove us day by day. And every night the three schooners and the nine boats made a chain of watchfulness that stretched across the lagoon from rim to rim, so that we could not escape back.

"They could not drive us forever that way, for the lagoon was only so large, and at last all of us that yet lived were driven upon the last sand bank to the west. Beyond lay the open sea. There were ten thousand of us, and we covered the sand bank from the lagoon edge to the pounding surf on the other side. No one could lie down. There was no room. We stood hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder. Two days they kept us there, and the mate would climb up in the rigging to mock us and yell, Yah! Yah! Yah!' till we were well sorry that we had ever harmed him or his schooner a month before. We had no food, and we stood on our feet two days and nights. The little babies died, and the old and weak died, and the wounded died. And worst of all, we had no water to quench our thirst, and for two days the sun beat down on us, and there was no shade. Many men and women waded out into the ocean and were drowned, the surf casting their bodies back on the beach. And there came a pest of flies. Some men swam to the sides of the schooners, but they were shot to the last one.

同类推荐
  • The Voyage Out

    The Voyage Out

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 菩萨受斋经

    菩萨受斋经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 刘壮肃公奏议

    刘壮肃公奏议

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说月光童子经

    佛说月光童子经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 病榻遗言

    病榻遗言

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 上清太一金阙玉玺金真纪

    上清太一金阙玉玺金真纪

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 永安县志-顺治本

    永安县志-顺治本

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 坛溪梓舟船禅师语录

    坛溪梓舟船禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 灵界万物有灵

    灵界万物有灵

    一个男孩,带着自己的鱼和梦想,探索着这个万物有灵的世界。(致敬宠物小精灵、宠魅、以及心中那个奇幻的世界。)
  • 大千世界系列:帝佛

    大千世界系列:帝佛

    天地神话,仙佛两界为摆脱昔日群圣逆天之因果,群圣各出手段,创造出地球,仙佛两界为重回真正的大千世界,开启功德,聚群仙,集万佛,功德圆满便可重临大千世界。西游过后,如来等人为了完成鸿均道祖留下最后一道圣计谕运计让猪八戒成佛,不过孙悟空从中捣乱,将女娲留给他的天地大运转到猪八戒身上,猪八戒转世之后成为朱天能,与与仙魔斗智斗勇,最终寻得大千世界阴间三大州,降临大千世界……达成天道屠仙最后……本故事为虚构,想象小说……
  • 丹霞澹归禅师语录

    丹霞澹归禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 月空下的誓言

    月空下的誓言

    虽然少帅我休息了,但是工作还是要做的,做着做着,就没有时间更新了。眼下又是三年的指挥官替补学习。看来,又没有时间更新了。BY——FRN少帅//(少帅最帅233)
  • 拒嫁男神:总裁滚远点

    拒嫁男神:总裁滚远点

    四年前他的背叛让她仓猝离去,四年后,高高在上的总裁却变成了缠人狗。“舒儿,如果可以我想照顾你。”“不要再来打扰我。”“舒儿孩子需要爸爸。”“不要再来打扰我。”“舒儿我依旧还是爱着你。”她瞪着他,止不住的怒气,“滚远点。”叶之宸无辜的眨了眨眼睛,“滚远了,你肚子里的那只怎么办?”{此文极端虐,极端宠,极端爱,喜着入}新文《宠婚366天:Boss禁止入内》已发
  • 文化探谜

    文化探谜

    本套全书全面而系统地介绍了中小学生各科知识的难解之谜,集知识性、趣味性、新奇性、疑问性与科普性于一体,深入浅出,生动可读,通俗易懂,目的是使广大中小学生在兴味盎然地领略百科知识难解之谜和科学技术的同时,能够加深思考,启迪智慧,开阔视野……
  • 侯门庶妃

    侯门庶妃

    霜花变,繁花尽,何人在盼故人归?皇权变,阊阖开,谁人谋了这天下?侯门深宅,中宫之策,康庄大道,谁在回廊挑灯看剑?乱世之中,锦绣坦途,幽怨深深何人等到繁华落尽?于红尘中,谱写一首离歌清唱。犹记梦回当年,一度坚城万里,再度缱绻柔情,三度爱恨别离。