THE 
 PROMISED ISLE
 
 VAN ZANTEN'S 
 HAPPY DAYS 
 
 Laurids Bru un 
 
 by 
 
 "A beautiful story and quite the best of the 
 South Sea tales which we know." 
 
 HBYWOOD BROUN in Tht Niw York World 
 
 "Here is the South Sea satire done to a turn. 
 Beside it 'The Cruise of the Kawa' is but fair 
 burlesque ... An authentic South Sea atmos- 
 phere which the foolery makes even more inter- 
 esting;. We consider it the best of the South Sea 
 books." 
 
 JOHN V. A. WEAVER in Tht BnMjn Eaglt 
 
 $2.00 ntt at all bookstores or from 
 
 ALFRED A KNOPF 
 
 PUBLISHER NEW TORt
 
 THE 
 PROMISED ISLE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ALFRED A KNOPF 
 1922
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY 
 ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. 
 
 Published, July, 1922 
 
 [Original Title: Den forjoettede 
 
 Set up, electrotvped, and printed t>v the Vail-Ballou Co., Binghamton, If. Y. 
 
 Paper furnished ly W. F. Etherinoton & Co., New York, N. Y. 
 
 Bound on the H. Wolff Estate, New York, N. Y. 
 
 MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 I. DANIEL AND HIS FRIENDS 13 
 
 II. THE GREAT BEAST 23 
 
 III. WITH THE SHIP-OWNER'S MONEY 32 
 
 IV. THE PROMISED ISLE 41 
 V. THE SUN BRETHREN 49 
 
 VI. TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN 56 
 
 VII. JAKOB BEER 65 
 
 VIII. HENDRIK KOORT 70 
 
 IX. DANIEL HOOCH 78 
 
 X. PIETER GOY 85 
 
 XI. THE FIRST MEETING 94 
 
 XII. A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND 102 
 
 XIII. THE MEAT EATERS no 
 
 XIV. ROBBERS IN THE WOOD 118 
 XV. ROUND THE WATCH-FIRB 124 
 
 XVI. "NATURE" 133 
 
 XVII. THE GLANCE OF SOLITUDE 141 
 
 XVIII. A COSY HOME 147 
 
 XIX. GENIUS 157 
 
 2071851
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THIS, the second book of Van Zanten is, 
 like the first, composed piecemeal. 
 There is no definite dating attached to 
 the various parts, but, as far as one can judge 
 from the diaries, the author worked at the subject- 
 matter at all events during the years 1877, 1879, 
 and 1880. 
 
 On one page of the journal, dated "Batavia, 
 March 1877" (at the end of the author's 
 "aesthetic period," vide introduction to Van 
 Zanten's Happy Days), there is written: 
 "Worked at Daniel." A loose page-fragment, 
 dated "Buka, September," but lacking the year, 1 
 contains: "This would do for Pieter Goy!" Fi- 
 nally there is a reference to the autumn of 1880, 
 when Van Zanten had again returned to Batavia, 
 touched in the following terms: "Read and col- 
 lected the old and the new about Daniel and his 
 friends. Shall the child be called 'The Lions' 
 Den' or The Island' ?" 
 
 I gather, from internal evidence, that Chap- 
 ters I VI were written in one burst. In the suc- 
 ceeding chapters, presumably originating from 
 1879, the speed slackened, the tone is less assured. 
 It is my belief that Van Zanten's longing for 
 
 1 Probably from 1879, in which year Van Zanten acted as 
 depot-chief on the Solomon Islands, of which Buka Island 
 is one of the largest. 
 
 9
 
 10 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the Islands, now that he again found himself in a 
 big, modern town, made it difficult for him to 
 maintain the ironical undertone with which the 
 book started. He is himself once more fascin- 
 ated by the dream of happiness which animates his 
 characters the same dream of which Fan Zan- 
 ten's Happy Days is the child and to which he had 
 intended this second book to form the contrast. 
 
 It makes one smile to see how even such a prim- 
 itively unorthodox personality as Van Zanten has 
 been subjugated by the law so often dominant in 
 the annals of historical literature, that a compre- 
 hensive artistic talent has a lawyerlike tendency 
 to move its way forward between opposing points 
 of view. 
 
 The Island, which in Fan Zanten's Happy 
 Days was his promised land, he now turns against 
 ironically, and seeks, with a smile, to free him- 
 self from its fascination. In this, too, he has 
 succeeded until Chapters XV-XVIII. There 
 it is as if the smile grows strained, as if the irony 
 were about to strike back. In this vacillation, 
 this hesitation, I see a natural and sufficient ex- 
 planation of the work being again interrupted. 
 It is only after the author had once more departed 
 from and in 1880 again returned to civiliza- 
 tion, that he regains that superiority which was 
 necessary for the completion of his work, the li- 
 beration of his artistic ego. 
 
 Those who remembered the Introduction to 
 the first published Van Zanten book know that
 
 THE PROMISED ISLE n 
 
 the liberation was only artistic. In life he re- 
 tained the longing to his last hour. 
 
 Some textual alterations have been made by 
 the editor, for the purpose of smoothing the 
 passages between the fragments, in addition to 
 which a few unmistakable inaccuracies, due ob- 
 viously to details of the story having become for- 
 gotten during the gaps in the composition, have 
 been corrected and brought into mutual harmony. 
 
 Both the title, The Promised Isle, as well as 
 several of the chapter headings, are due to the 
 editor. The MS. contains chapters with head- 
 ings, and chapters without, side by side promis- 
 cuously. 
 
 In presenting the second of the Van Zanten 
 MSS. to the Danish-reading public, I shall, in an- 
 swer to many both publicly and privately ex- 
 pressed doubts, make this in my opinion, super- 
 fluous additional remark: that Van Zanten is 
 not identical with Laurids Bruun. 
 
 Would that he were! 
 
 LAURIDS BRUUN. 
 
 COPENHAGEN, March, 1910
 
 I : DANIEL AND HIS 
 FRIENDS 
 
 PIETER GOY was sweeping the floor of the 
 "Lions' Den," the back room of the cafe, 
 which was reserved every evening from 
 nine to ten for Daniel Hooch, the author, and his 
 friends. 
 
 There was to be a feast. 
 
 Daniel had called in before noon and given 
 orders for three lobsters in mayonnaise, three 
 bottles of Chablis, a flask of Geneva rum for the 
 painter, and some good platefuls of cold meat. 
 In addition, a head of cauliflower au naturel for 
 Jakob Beer, who, from conviction and a bad 
 digestion, was a vegetarian. 
 
 Daniel had ostentatiously requested the buffet 
 matron, who had instructions to refuse doubtful 
 orders, to change a note of medium size, and 
 bribed the triumvirate's private waiter with a 
 small payment on account of the sum owing him; 
 and all was arranged. 
 
 The matter was as follows : that Daniel several 
 months previously had had his play, Nature's 
 Bosom, accepted for production at a provincial 
 theatre, which was of course far beneath the dig- 
 nity of the piece. 
 
 Tonight was the first-night performance. 
 13
 
 14 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 The better-class, conservative newspapers had, 
 following their usual custom, maintained an ob- 
 durate silence. But in the radical yellow Press 
 Daniel had an admiring following of young, as 
 yet unrecognized talent, who had promised to 
 appear in a body and make things go. 
 
 For Daniel was also a literary critic, and used 
 his pen like a dagger. 
 
 The author himself and his two most intimate 
 friends Jakob Beer, who eked out a liv- 
 ing as organist in a church for the blind, and the 
 artist, Hendrik Koort, who gave drawing lessons 
 at a girls' school were to absent themselves 
 from the performance from motives of self-re- 
 spect. 
 
 The reason Daniel had allowed his piece to be 
 murdered at "Thieves' Kitchen," as the little 
 theatre was popularly nicknamed, was due only 
 to stern necessity. The trio had one and all over- 
 stepped the limits of human credit for board and 
 lodging, in addition to which the owner of the 
 Lions' Den had made up their accounts and re- 
 fused to serve them further except for cash on the 
 nail; whereupon Pieter Goy also, their own pet 
 waiter, had summoned up courage and, fighting 
 down the claims of sympathy until his soul 
 sweated, had, with a stern glance, asked Daniel to 
 think of him. 
 
 "I am always thinking of you!" Daniel had 
 said, and patted the other's greasy coat. But 
 money there had been no sign of except now,
 
 DANIEL AND HIS FRIENDS 15 
 
 today, a gold ten-guilder and a little silver. 
 Daniel had that morning been out to the thea- 
 tre and received that balance due to him for the 
 first-night performance. Every seat was already 
 sold; and the actors, who were gathered together 
 for a final little extra rehearsal, had greeted him 
 with great respect. The triumvirate were noti- 
 fied of the coming feast, wherewith Daniel en- 
 deavoured to stifle his remorse at having sold his 
 literary conscience for a long series of perform- 
 ances at the Thieves' Kitchen. 
 
 Daniel was a young man, who carried his head 
 like a demi-god. His brown eyes always looked 
 up over the hair of the person with whom he 
 talked. When he became excited, they grew 
 shining and hard, while his lips tightened mock- 
 ingly. His head would go still farther up and his 
 fingers run restlessly through his dark, thin hair. 
 
 He had from his earliest youth lived at war 
 with Society. His dream was a free natural life 
 under lofty skies and haughty tree-tops under 
 an eternal sun where there was no difference be- 
 tween good and evil. 
 
 He had experienced an unhappy boyhood and 
 could not forget it. Life had always disturbed 
 his dreams. Constantly he had to crush them 
 down within him. There they became so heaped 
 up that now and again the pressure burst open 
 the safety valve. Then one of his fits would 
 occur, in which he would fling himself against the
 
 16 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 walls of his cage, cut the few geography and 
 French lessons secured for him through the good- 
 will of an old school comrade, and rush out to the 
 woods, where, for a day or two, he would live 
 the life of a complete child of nature. 
 
 Out there he wandered about with his gaze in- 
 toxicatedly seeking the tree-tops, hatless, with 
 flung-open shirt. 
 
 Whilst the lyric mood poured from him, he 
 felt himself as if called to create by his example 
 a new mankind without society, without duty, 
 without morale. 
 
 Hunger called him back; exhausted and chilly 
 he would return to his attic. Thus had his mind 
 secured peace for a while. He became indus- 
 trious, shut himself in, sat with his head between 
 his hands, staring at the white paper, until at 
 last the devil entered into him and produced one 
 of his ill-natured, witty stories, through which he 
 revenged himself on the world, and which made 
 his name esteemed among the very young, who 
 alone have the power to love or hate without re- 
 serve. 
 
 He himself felt the most utter contempt for 
 this forced labour. He wrote with set teeth, and 
 swore to himself that as soon as he had filled the 
 mouth of the Great Beast this was the public 
 he would put his soul's conviction into verse in a 
 work of eternal brilliance, which should blast 
 Society and annihilate himself as its first victim. 
 
 So far had he now progressed that in Nature's
 
 DANIEL AND HIS FRIENDS 17 
 
 Bosom he had managed for the first time to 
 smuggle in something of his own personality. 
 He had sugared the explosive in small, smooth 
 pills. But not one of the literary theatres had 
 understood his superb creation. Thus it was that 
 stern necessity had forced him down to the level 
 of Thieves' Kitchen. 
 
 Daniel met Jakob at the door of the cafe. The 
 musician was little and deformed. On his thin, 
 unwashed face sat a smile, nailed fast over the 
 discoloured tooth-stumps. Whenever he entered 
 a room his long, pointed nose rose in the air like 
 an enormous feeler sensing whether there was 
 room for him. One was inclined to forget his 
 presence; whenever he began to speak it rather 
 gave an impression as if he had suddenly popped 
 out of a corner. 
 
 He had, in spite of being only twenty-seven, 
 already streaks of grey in his long artistic hair, 
 which when he waxed ecstatic straggled down 
 over his shaggy, grown-together eyebrows, so 
 that he had to toss his head to fling it back. 
 
 His was a non-obtrusive genius, which, like 
 the violet, hid itself shyly under the common herb- 
 age. The best part of his ego moved constantly 
 in a kingdom of melody floating high above every- 
 day existence. 
 
 As he stared before him with his fixed smile 
 he had no idea of what was being said around him. 
 But suddenly he would begin to talk in an intox-
 
 i8 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 icated, hushed voice, with flowing movements of 
 his long, musician's hands, which as it were played 
 his thoughts in octaves about something or 
 other wonderful he had heard played by some 
 famous player at a concert to which he had been 
 given a free ticket. 
 
 No one was so inexorable in his criticism as he 
 was. When his musical ideals were attacked, his 
 little weasel body twisted and writhed in a most 
 weird manner. He flamed up like a gas jet in a 
 draught, while his shadow swept grotesque and 
 threatening over the Lions' Den's dirty yellow 
 walls. 
 
 Oft-times the waiter stood listening with won- 
 dering eyes, when the cripple, as he called him- 
 self, became suddenly seized by the spirit. 
 
 The scene reminded him of a picture in an old 
 book he had seen, when a boy, at his grandfather's 
 house. It depicted Doctor Faustus being 
 tempted by the devil in a sinister cloister-cell with 
 a red fire and a long-horned silhouette on the 
 shadowy walls. 
 
 "Well," said Jakob, thrusting his narrow hand 
 in Daniel's, "how goes it?" 
 
 "Dry up !" muttered Daniel, pushing his com- 
 panion before him up the dark back-staircase. 
 When hungry he was quite unapproachable. 
 
 The painter, Hendrik Koort, came drifting in 
 as usual when the others were already seated at 
 the table.
 
 DANIEL AND HIS FRIENDS 19 
 
 They were so used to his unpunctuality that 
 they never dreamt of waiting for him. But Hen- 
 drik took offence regularly each time. 
 
 He was short, stubby, and wide-hipped. His 
 head was too large; in addition, abnormally wide 
 above the temples, with a prominent convex fore- 
 head which looked every moment as if it were 
 about to butt like a goat. The nape of his neck 
 was flat, and he had close-clipped red hair which 
 was his constant source of pride. As in the case 
 of Daniel, necessity and desire alike called aloud 
 in him for Nature; but whereas the poet 
 aspired to capture and subdue her, Hendrik 
 dreamed only of sinking his ego in her holy mys- 
 teries. 
 
 His longing was for the untouched, the unde- 
 filed. He would paint that which had never be- 
 fore been set to canvas; that which the French 
 painters had imagined but not achieved. Nature, 
 in her primitive purity, exposed the false and dis- 
 appointing symbols which the all-metamorphosing 
 civilization of man had put into things, rendering 
 them invisible except through spectacles. Into 
 things he would put instead the naked truth. 
 Daniel called it mockingly the red-headed art. 
 
 Hendrik had a hard fight for existence with 
 his desire for comfort, which latter was in keep- 
 ing with the tendency of his personality to dis- 
 solve in nature. 
 
 When, during his long morning walks, he found 
 a sufficiently lonely spot, he used to throw off the
 
 20 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 civilized man and take a sun-bath in the sweet- 
 smelling grass. 
 
 Twice he had been reported by a country police- 
 man, but instinct nevertheless continued to de- 
 mand its right. 
 
 He himself declared that when thus com- 
 pletely nude, he had in flashes been able to see 
 without human spectacles, to catch glimpses of 
 things in their primitive state. 
 
 Unfortunately there were no sketches from 
 these moments. But when the evening was well 
 advanced, somewhere about the third glass of 
 rum, he would begin to draw the lines for the 
 others, and in vague, dreamy terms explain to 
 them the unique tones of nature into which the 
 colours had formed under his gaze. He would 
 sit staring before him with the thick lips 
 parted with excitement and the broad, hairy 
 hand painting out into the air. But by this 
 time there were seldom any listeners. Jakob 
 Beer sat apart in his kingdom, and Daniel ruled 
 undisputed in his own world of dreams. 
 
 His enthusiasm infected neither of his com- 
 panions, and his glance and speech were directed 
 unconsciously towards the only silent one, towards 
 the waiter's faithful blue eyes, which fighting 
 against sleep stared, fascinated, towards them 
 from the corner by the stove where his chair was 
 situated. 
 
 It had happened quite without premeditation
 
 DANIEL AND HIS FRIENDS 21 
 
 that Pieter Goy thus became one of the com- 
 pany. 
 
 Originally it had probably been the stove which 
 attracted him; for it was always beautifully warm 
 in the Lions' Den. 
 
 He had by now fallen into the habit of sitting 
 and listening to the many strange new things. 
 Each evening when the lights were put out in the 
 rooms facing the street, and the cafe was shut, 
 and the Lions' Den became the refuge of a pri- 
 vate clique with which the policeman did not con- 
 cern himself, Pieter would step quietly in and sit 
 down in his corner. 
 
 As time passed and the waiter grew more 
 attached to Daniel and his friends, it came to pass 
 as a matter of course that he contributed his 
 share to the proceedings, in the form of small 
 monetary favours. 
 
 In the beginning he had felt honoured when 
 Daniel patted him on the shoulder and asked him 
 for a guilder or two. 
 
 Later on he regarded it as a duty, consequent 
 on his being allowed to remain sitting in there. 
 He paid his entrance fee, and had a right to wit- 
 ness the performance. 
 
 Many a time he had enjoyed himself hugely, 
 especially when the company was feeling extra 
 lively, and Daniel was engaged in pulling the 
 celebrities of the day down from their pedestals. 
 Pieter Goy, who hailed from Groeningen, would
 
 22 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 hold his sides and laugh until the tears glistened 
 on his ruddy cheeks. 
 
 But on other occasions, when the fog of de- 
 spondency hung thick over the Den, and each 
 member lifted up his voice and bewailed his lot, 
 then his heart would be touched and he would suf- 
 fer with them, sitting with folded hands, thinking 
 of the shipwreck of his own private happiness. 
 
 A farmer's daughter back in his native village 
 had jilted him for a counter-jumper from the 
 town, with long, flowing tie and straw-coloured 
 trousers.
 
 II: THE GREAT BEAST 
 
 **/" "A HIS is a fine thing, I must say!" 
 
 Hendrik Koort stood in the door- 
 JL way, and looked indignantly at Daniel 
 and Jakob, who were gobbling down the food at 
 full speed. 
 
 "Sit down!" invited Daniel, with mouth stuffed 
 to bursting point. 
 
 "Invite a man to supper, and then, hang me, if 
 the host has not eaten the lot before the guests 
 arrive!" 
 
 "Rot! You always turn up late. Er 
 waiter, give him the lobster!" 
 
 Pieter Goy reached up after the dish, which he 
 had thoughtfully placed on top of the cupboard 
 so that Daniel should not devour Koort's share. 
 
 The painter squeezed his way to the narrow 
 seat between the table and the wall. 
 
 The waiter served him the splendid red crus- 
 tacean, which the newcomer greeted with a series 
 of tongue noises, a special trick of his which no 
 one had ever been successful in imitating. Glasses 
 were filled, and a busy silence ensued. 
 
 A little later Jakob Beer asked him about his 
 "Promised Isle," but received no answer. 
 
 Daniel thought of his play, which at that very 
 moment was being slaughtered in the Thieves' 
 
 23
 
 24 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Kitchen. With a heavy sigh he turned his atten- 
 tion to Beer's lobster. The musician was indeed 
 a vegetarian ; but lobster he could not altogether 
 resist. He had eaten one claw. 
 
 Hendrik Koort guarded his food interval with 
 rolling eyes, all the while emitting threatening 
 rumbles like a dog gnawing a bone. 
 
 When the worst was over he lifted his glass 
 towards Daniel, and said solemnly: 
 
 "Let us drink to Nature's Bosom. Here's to 
 its feeding us for a long series of evenings with 
 everything that is good and pleasant to eat." 
 
 Daniel sat up and became serious. "It's all 
 very well, Hendrik, you can say all sorts of 
 things against the Great Beast; but, none the less, 
 as soon as you suck up to it, it gives you milk 
 all the same." 
 
 "And, by Jove, you've sucked up splendidly 
 this time." 
 
 Daniel lowered his head remorsefully over his 
 plate, but said nothing. 
 
 "When I think," began Jakob Beer, as with 
 shining eyes he flung himself upon a vegetable 
 salad, "that there exist people who, evening after 
 evening, can drink their wine and eat their half- 
 lobster and have no more idea of music and har- 
 mony and beauty and what do you say?" 
 
 "Yes," said the waiter, and placed a fresh 
 bottle of wine on the table; "it's incredible what 
 that kind of people, with their well-filled purses,
 
 THE GREAT BEAST 25 
 
 can put out of sight in the way of food and drink." 
 
 When Daniel had finished sucking the last thin 
 lobster leg, he lay back in his chair, and hauled 
 out of his pocket a letter received that morning 
 from his rich uncle the ship-owner, whose ships 
 sailed both to Java and Farther India. 
 
 Daniel's fight with Society had, during the last 
 year, culminated in a lively exchange of letters 
 with the old man, who was indignant at his re- 
 fusing to settle down to something "sensible." 
 
 They argued and bargained to no avail. The 
 old man made an offer in connection with a de- 
 gree-examination, which Daniel declined grace- 
 fully. At that the ship-owner made a higher bid. 
 Daniel was, after all, his sole younger relative, 
 and bore his name. 
 
 Daniel feigned acquiescence, and demanded a 
 suitable sum for the purchase of books; and upon 
 this the triumvirate lived in style for a time, un- 
 til it came to the old man's knowledge that Daniel 
 continued to write for the papers. 
 
 The old man could never refrain from reading 
 what Daniel produced, although it preached de- 
 struction to all that which he and his generation 
 had sat tight on and defended in trade and in 
 commerce, and made speeches and earned deco- 
 rations and titles on for the last quarter of a cen- 
 tury. Now he had learnt from the papers that 
 Daniel was about to have one of his shameless 
 pieces produced in a theatre, which in the ship-
 
 26 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 owner's young days had been nothing but a low- 
 class music-hall where girls went round and took 
 drinks with the audience. 
 
 Then it was that the old man decided to put 
 his foot down, and wrote the letter which Daniel 
 had received with his morning coffee. 
 
 The ship-owner offered a gratis voyage on the 
 Atlanta, his largest ship, which was sailing to 
 Australia in a week's time. He would furnish 
 his nephew with a moderate sum of money, which 
 however, he would first receive on arriving at 
 Brisbane ; once over there he must break a way for 
 himself unaided. 
 
 Daniel read the letter aloud to his friends. 
 
 "Accept!" shouted the painter, "and take me 
 with you! There are certain to be some jungle 
 and savages to break a way through over there." 
 
 The waiter broke in upon the discussion anx- 
 iously : 
 
 "And this, just when Hr. Hooch is on the point 
 of success at the theatre; he must be off his 
 head." 
 
 Whilst Daniel in a sudden fit of depression sat 
 silent with his head between his hands, Jakob 
 Beer, his swimming eyes staring at the white wine 
 in his glass, said: 
 
 "Just think of some one having big ships of his 
 own and being able to travel all round the world 
 just for his own pleasure! What do you say?" 
 
 "Pieter Goy's right!" admitted Hendrik 
 Koort.
 
 THE GREAT BEAST 27 
 
 "Let's first squeeze all we can out of Nature's 
 Bosom; then we can break our way afterwards." 
 
 There came a knock at the door. The waiter 
 opened. 
 
 A messenger boy stood outside, cap in hand, 
 and asked for Hr. Hooch the author. 
 
 Daniel's eyes shone with anticipation, and he 
 stretched out his hand for the letter. 
 
 Hendrik took it from the waiter as he brought 
 it, and examined the envelope. 
 
 "It's from the Thieves' Kitchen!" he shouted 
 exultantly. "Give the boy half a guilder, 
 Pieter!" 
 
 Daniel opened the letter with trembling fingers. 
 It was, in spite of all, his own little play, how- 
 ever much it might be in disgrace. 
 
 As he read, his face went suddenly white and his 
 lips began to tremble. 
 
 Hendrik Koort snatched the paper from him 
 and read aloud: 
 
 " 'Utter fiasco ! Hundred guilders' worth of 
 furniture smashed to smithereens. Police have 
 taken the names of your gutter-brigade. Au- 
 dience howled for the author to give him a beat- 
 ing. Thank your stars you were not present, and 
 take your solemn oath that your miserable rub- 
 bish shall never again appear on my boards. 
 Most respectfully, JANSSEN, Director' " 
 
 The painter read this through once again quite 
 slowly, while the waiter, with large, anxious eyes, 
 peeped over his shoulder. Then he looked from
 
 28 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 one to the other, and relieved his feelings with 
 howls of laughter. 
 
 The waiter nudged him indignantly. What 
 was there to laugh at? It was a tragedy ! 
 
 Whilst Hendrik Koort between bursts of hi- 
 larity kept repeating "Most respectfully, Janssen" 
 in varying tones of voice, Daniel, who, till then, 
 had stood quite silent with trembling lips, suddenly 
 crashed his fist down on the table, so that the 
 plates danced and the glasses tinkled. 
 
 "The devil take me," he hissed, "if I stay 
 longer in this plague-stricken country!" 
 
 As he stood thus, breathing heavily, his eyes 
 fell on the ship-owner's letter, which lay neglected 
 among the glasses. They fell on the word "Bris- 
 bane." The strange, almost ludicrous name sud- 
 denly entered his consciousness. It was as if a 
 new world had appeared dimly in the distance. 
 The fairy land of primitive existence, for which 
 he had always longed, stood before him in all the 
 seductive radiance of freedom. It came to him 
 as an angel of hope, making his heart beat 
 violently. 
 
 There before him on the table lay the actual 
 written invitation, formed in stiff, correct business 
 handwriting on hand-made office paper. 
 
 Daniel was not superstitious, but he believed 
 nevertheless in an ironical cosmic control. 
 
 His cheek was still red from the blow which 
 the Great Beast had dealt him. 
 
 Well, after all, he had deserved no better.
 
 THE GREAT BEAST 29 
 
 Why had he disgraced his pen with small, coquet- 
 tish malignities when he should have used it to 
 fling forth scorpions? He, whose soul aspired to 
 free itself from the curse of civilized compulsion 
 and give back to mankind its great unfettered ego. 
 
 This time he would go the whole hog and 
 hang the consequences. 
 
 He stood still for such a long time, hypnotized 
 by the resolution which had pushed its way out 
 from the river of dreams in his inner conscious- 
 ness, swelled by all the small springs so long 
 dammed up, that Jakob Beer at last became un- 
 easy and plucked at his sleeve. 
 
 "What are you thinking of?" he asked. 
 
 "I'm going!" said Daniel simply, and let him- 
 self fall into a chair. 
 
 A smile flickered round his thin lips, while his 
 glance wandered over the spaces between the 
 roof-beams, his hand combing his sparse brown 
 hair. 
 
 "What's that you say?" exclaimed Hendrik, 
 butting towards him with his bulging forehead. 
 
 He felt that something big was in the air. 
 
 "I accept his offer ! I'm going to abandon this 
 land this community, which I hate, which will 
 never understand me. I shall leave for Brisbane 
 on the old man's ship !" 
 
 Hendrik Koort shifted his heavy body sud- 
 denly, sending the chair flying against the wall. 
 
 "Agreed!" he shouted, banging his hand on the 
 table. "I'll come with you."
 
 30 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Daniel looked down from the spaces. 
 
 "You ? Where will you get the money from?" 
 
 Jakob Beer felt restless. The declaration of 
 the others for freedom had opened all the sluices 
 of that wonderful river of dreams which he, also, 
 hid in his soul. 
 
 Cost what it might, he too must escape from 
 this grey, dirty city, must break away from 
 Society's handcuffs, the shamefully paid lessons, 
 the wretched existence in the Church of the Blind. 
 
 Out into the big world where all had equal 
 access to the good things that Nature offered in 
 abundance from her generous bosom! 
 
 Oh, to wander under lofty date-palms; to lis- 
 ten to the love-songs of strange jungle birds; to 
 drink in the deep, mystic coral-music of solitude. 
 
 "Take me with you!" he begged, laying his 
 thin, musician's hand on Daniel's arm, his eyes 
 looking pleadingly up into the other's eagle 
 glance. 
 
 Hendrik Koort sketched with his fat hand 
 over the table ; his eyes grew large and fixed, his 
 red hair bristled. 
 
 "The virginal; do you see? the likeness be- 
 hind the symbols; do you see? there, where no 
 man's foot has trod, where no one has yet se- 
 duced Nature in her nakedness; do you see? 
 that's what I will paint the sunrise; do you see? 
 as an ape a colossal, talented ape would paint 
 it thus will / paint it." 
 
 "We'll live like the first human beings!" said
 
 THE GREAT BEAST 31 
 
 Jakob Beer, "on wild fruits which hang dan- 
 gling from the trees and fall with a thud when 
 you shake the slender stems. The white, flesh- 
 like roots we will eat and " 
 
 "We'll walk naked beneath the burning sun," 
 carried on Hendrik Koort; "as Nature has con- 
 ceived us, we will walk. And the hair will grow 
 and grow until we become furry over our whole 
 bodies, even as the animals." 
 
 Daniel also was carried away. 
 
 "The language of the animals we will speak 
 the primitive, formless sound-signs we will learn. 
 A poem based on instinct alone. Oh, for a life 
 where there's no good nor evil, no mine and 
 thine, no thou shall and thou shalt not!"
 
 Ill : WITH THE SHIP- 
 OWNER'S MONEY 
 
 WHILST the triumvirate thus expatiated 
 in turn on all the great and beautiful 
 that awaited them, the waiter's good- 
 natured eyes wandered from one to the other. 
 His mind worked sluggishly, striving to follow 
 them in their flight. 
 
 Of such riches and happiness he had never 
 even dreamed. He read in the ecstasy of their 
 glance, the tenderness of their words, that here 
 was something infinitely better than trotting him- 
 self dead-tired till far into the night from one 
 dirty room to the other, wiping glasses and pour- 
 ing out beer for people who came and went and 
 were completely indifferent as to whether he were 
 dead or alive. 
 
 "Is it true that you're all going away?" he 
 asked, looking from one to the other, his brain 
 whirling at the thought of all the capital he had 
 invested in the triumvirate. 
 
 "Is it true," he asked, "or is it only something 
 you all sit there making up?" 
 
 Daniel withdrew his eagle-glance from the ceil- 
 ing-spaces, and asked sternly: 
 
 "What was that you said?" 
 32
 
 WITH SHIP-OWNER'S MONEY 33 
 
 The waiter summoned up his courage and 
 straightened himself in his chair: 
 
 "I only said that if it's true that you're going 
 away, all of you, then I'm going with you." 
 
 His blue eyes gazed out trustfully from the 
 ruddy face, whilst his fat hand nervously fingered 
 his waistcoat pocket where he kept his gold watch, 
 not yet paid for, on the instalment system. 
 
 "What?" 
 
 Hendrik swung round and stared at him. 
 
 Jakob Beer's glance became moist and tender. 
 He realized suddenly that he liked Pieter Goy 
 and his blue, faithful eyes. 
 
 Daniel sat down in amazement. Then he ran 
 his eyes slowly over the waiter. From his flaxen, 
 yellow hair, plastered so smoothly and carefully 
 to his scalp from the semicircular curve of the 
 sweat-glistening forehead, the fat, ruddy cheeks, 
 the little snub nose, the light yellow moustache, 
 the slightly protruding red lips, the soft, hanging 
 chin down over the well-nourished breast, which, 
 squeezed between narrow shoulders, bulged out, 
 so to speak, under the grease-spotted coat, to 
 the thick, stubby legs which supported the whole. 
 
 Yes, there was strength there all right. There 
 was respect and readiness to serve, too. Perhaps 
 even allegiance. The trustfulness of the simple 
 nature towards the born leader. 
 
 Daniel felt something approaching emotion. 
 It touched them all three that this waiter, this 
 inoffensive private instrument for feeding them
 
 34 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 and lending them money, sat there filled with de- 
 votion towards them, would not be separated 
 from them. 
 
 Their connection with Pieter Goy suddenly 
 lifted itself to the level of a business acquain- 
 tance. Each one of them was willing to open an 
 account with him. 
 
 "Yes, but what about money, Pieter?" asked 
 Hendrik. "For it's a sight dearer than going to 
 'the Island.' " 
 
 It was a matter of general knowledge that 
 Pieter Goy spent his few summer "Sundays off" 
 on a little grass-covered island out in the Zuyder 
 Zee which was commonly referred to as "the 
 Island." 
 
 Daniel, the possessor of the invitation, felt 
 himself the master of the situation. It was from 
 him that all good and new must come. He filled 
 the glasses, and, as if it were the most natural 
 thing in the world, took a beer-glass (there were 
 no more wine-glasses), filled it, and pushed it to- 
 wards Pieter Goy, who, blushing self-consciously, 
 hesitated a moment, wiping his hand on his 
 trousers before reaching out for the wine. 
 
 They all drank in silence. Daniel lowered his 
 glass, looked from one to the other, and said 
 amiably: 
 
 "You don't believe, surely, that the old man is 
 mad enough to give a free ticket to others than 
 myself?" 
 
 Jakob Beer was struck with a bright idea:
 
 WITH SHIP-OWNER'S MONEY 35 
 
 "Tell him, Daniel, that it's an honour for a 
 man like him to help young, struggling Art. 
 And you, Hendrik, yes, you should really, 
 offer him your 'Promised Isle' when it is finished. 
 And I'll present him with the great nature-sym- 
 phony which I shall compose under the palm 
 trees out there. 'To my noble benefactor. To 
 him without whose fatherly kindness this work 
 would perhaps never have seen the light' or 
 something after that style. What do you say?" 
 
 "And Pieter, there," suggested Hendrik 
 Koort, "can offer to wait on him gratis and for 
 nothing at the Lions' Den when he comes back 
 again." 
 
 Daniel leaned back in his chair and again 
 stared at the ceiling-spaces, stroking his thin hair 
 the while. 
 
 Hendrik Koort could see from his friend's 
 eyes that he was on the verge of finding a solu- 
 tion. He therefore made a sign to silence Jakob, 
 who had relapsed into a state of depression to 
 which he was about to give expression in many 
 vague words. 
 
 Pieter Goy felt a little unbalanced at the new 
 thing that had befallen him. Hendrik Koort had 
 addressed him as Pieter, just as if he were one of 
 the triumvirate, while Daniel, yes, Daniel 
 Hooch himself, had filled his glass for him with 
 his own hands. 
 
 He sat sipping at it still, as he let his glance 
 wander round the dirty yellow walls.
 
 36 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 It was as if the Lions' Den had been suddenly 
 transformed into a room where he had something 
 other to do than to serve food and drink. There 
 floated before his consciousness such ideas as 
 "home" and "cosiness" things which he had 
 known nothing of since he was quite a little boy, 
 and the mere thought of which brought tears into 
 his eyes. 
 
 Whilst the others sat waiting to hear what 
 Daniel was planning, Pieter Goy all at once felt 
 quite at his ease. A sudden happy feeling at be- 
 ing one of the charmed circle swelled up inside 
 his broad breast and filled his blue eyes. He 
 moved his chair nearer the table and said art- 
 lessly : 
 
 "And when is it to be?" 
 
 Daniel felt that he was lord over good and 
 evil an absolutely new sensation, which made 
 him proud and domineering. 
 
 He sat up in his chair and said: 
 
 "The old man offers me a sum of money which 
 I can't get until arrival at Brisbane. I refuse to 
 accept the condition." 
 
 "Yes, we refuse to accept," echoed the painter, 
 making a gesture of rejection. "Perhaps there's 
 nothing called Brisbane at all when we get there. 
 Supposing he has sat down and plotted it all out 
 over his whisky to get rid of us, the old !" 
 
 "As far as I can remember, Brisbane is an ab- 
 solutely modern town." 
 
 Hendrik Koort's face lengthened.
 
 WITH SHIP-OWNER'S MONEY 37 
 
 "Then we might just as well remain at home, 
 where we at least know the cafes and pawnshops, 
 and how to keep things going when we're hard 
 op." 
 
 "Shut up, Hendrik! Brisbane, therefore, I 
 reject. And, generally speaking, I will have 
 nothing to do with promises. Whatever I'm to 
 have, I'll have at once." 
 
 Jakob Beer looked up admiringly at him, and 
 Hendrik nodded vigorously. 
 
 "On the other hand," continued Daniel, lei- 
 surely lighting a cigarette, "on the other hand, I 
 am willing to leave the country on the Atlanta on 
 condition that I am guaranteed travelling ex- 
 penses from Brisbane to to an island to some 
 island or other chosen by myself in some neigh- 
 bouring archipelago." 
 
 "An archipelago!" exclaimed Pieter Goy. 
 "What's that?" 
 
 "It is a group of islands. There's the Indian 
 archipelago and and many others." 
 
 "An island with jungles and palms," added 
 Jakob Beer dreamily. 
 
 "With coral reefs and monkeys and cocoa-nuts, 
 and the usual tropical animal and plant life," ex- 
 plained Hendrik Koort. 
 
 "An uninhabited island," emphasized Daniel; 
 "an island completely uninhabited by any kind of 
 human life whatever." 
 
 The painter nodded with open mouth and fixed 
 glance. Beer rocked to and fro on his chair. He
 
 38 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 was already away under the shadow of the palm 
 trees, listening to the music of tropical nature. 
 Only Pieter Goy was staring tensely at Daniel's 
 pale face, with its quickly changing expressions, 
 waiting anxiously to hear how it was to be ar- 
 ranged so that they could all go away together. 
 
 The more Daniel realized the fact that all 
 things emanated from him, the greater became 
 his confidence, the firmer his standpoint. 
 
 His head grew bigger and bigger, he leaned 
 forward importantly over the table as if, instead 
 of meek, faithful Pieter Goy, it were the ship- 
 owner himself who sat, anxious and respectful, 
 on the chair opposite, waiting for Daniel to dic- 
 tate his terms. 
 
 "My terms are" Daniel craned his long body 
 forward and thrust his keen eyes right into Pieter 
 Goy's face, so that the waiter cowered back ter- 
 rified in his chair "my final terms are that the 
 sum of money that I was to receive in Brisbane 
 be delivered to me unconditionally, before my 
 departure to a destination to be decided by my- 
 self. And this sum this money I shall employ 
 not only to equip myself with but also my dear 
 friends, whom I shall take with me; in that I am 
 willing to furnish a share of their expenses for 
 the journey out of the above-mentioned sum, 
 which must be sufficient for the purpose. " 
 
 Hendrik Koort sprang to his feet, sending his 
 chair reeling against the wall, and flung himself 
 across the table to embrace his friend.
 
 WITH SHIP-OWNER'S MONEY 39 
 
 Jakob Beer began to weep with emotion, and in 
 vain sought for words to express his gratitude. 
 
 But Pieter Goy, the blood deserting his cheeks 
 at the decision, stood up from his chair, stretched 
 out his fleshy red hand, and said, with obvious 
 emotion, at the same time cancelling in his mind 
 the many small sums owed him by Daniel: 
 
 u Many thanks, Hooch." 
 
 But suddenly Hendrik Koort felt doubtful. 
 
 "Do you think the ship-owner will agree? Of 
 course you know him best!" 
 
 Daniel had sat down. Self-satisfied and 
 gorged with his power, he was in no mood to 
 be disturbed by doubts. 
 
 "He must agree," he said, shrugging his 
 shoulders superciliously. 
 
 He closed his eyes and blew a cloud of smoke 
 through his nostrils. 
 
 The plan succeeded. 
 
 The old man wriggled, both verbally and by 
 letter, but gave way finally. For Daniel stood 
 firm, and was not to be turned from his purpose. 
 
 A month later, by which time Nature's Bosom 
 had been long since forgotten, Daniel and his 
 friends departed unostentatiously the ship- 
 owner having made his acceptance conditional on 
 the Press not thrusting its nose in his private af- 
 fairs for Marseilles, where they were to embark 
 on board the Atlanta, which in the meanwhile had 
 called at Le Havre, Bordeaux, and Malaga. 
 
 From Marseilles they went direct to Port Said.
 
 40 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Thereafter they would touch at Ceylon, Freman- 
 tle, and Melbourne; and the Atlanta having ar- 
 rived at Brisbane, the friends would proceed 
 farther on board a Pacific steamer calling at the 
 Fiji Islands en route for San Francisco. 
 
 The ship-owner had himself booked the tickets 
 from Brisbane, thus avoiding unnecessary risks. 
 By means of his foreign connections he had suc- 
 ceeded in arranging for the steamer to put the 
 party ashore on a small, palm-grown, coral is- 
 land, one of the outermost members of the Fiji 
 group, and lying not far out of the ship's regular 
 course. 
 
 Daniel had paid several visits to the public 
 library, poring over imposing geographical vol- 
 umes and atlases, before he had succeeded in 
 finding an island fulfilling all the necessary con- 
 ditions.
 
 IV: THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 ON the bosom of the enormous dark-green 
 rollers the boat with Daniel and his 
 friends glided towards the distant spot 
 of mist. 
 
 Their glowing expectation, woven together of 
 longings and dreams, had raced ahead of them 
 with infinitely greater horse-power than even the 
 largest steamer ever built could have displayed. 
 
 It hovered over the unknown island towards 
 which they now strained their eyes. Perhaps it 
 was that which greeted them welcome there out 
 on the distant horizon. 
 
 The mist took form. It separated into two 
 parts, one darker than the other. The darker 
 portion floated over the lighter; and as the little 
 motor chaloop approached nearer and nearer to 
 the low white coast, where the swell broke on 
 the outermost coral reef in a bubbling belt of foam 
 which hid the narrow strip of smooth water be- 
 hind the reef, the darker-coloured mist turned 
 deep green against the blue background of the 
 sky. It became domed in form; and something 
 vague rose above something else in slow, preor- 
 dained disorder, until the whole became quite sud- 
 denly a palm grove. 
 
 They sat staring wide-eyed, holding fast to the 
 41
 
 42 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 railings, as the boat's movements on approaching 
 the coast became more unquiet and the waves 
 shorter. 
 
 None of them spoke. Each single day during 
 the long journey they had talked of the island, 
 and each one separately had taken possession of 
 it in his imagination; but now that it lay before 
 them in the sharp daylight of reality, it suddenly 
 so to speak evaded their mastery. 
 
 It seemed almost as if it were laughing at them. 
 They realized that time and labour would be 
 necessary before they could compel it to acknowl- 
 edge them as its lords. 
 
 The painter sat with open mouth and lowered 
 forehead, while his eyes strove to pierce the dark 
 confusion of century-old liana creepers which 
 bound the trees together in an unseparable whole. 
 
 Where were the green spots in the shade of 
 graceful cocoa-nut palms where he should recline 
 on soft grass beneath the crystal dome of sun- 
 filled air? 
 
 Perhaps the sailors were secretly laughing at 
 him and his companions! He threw a side glance 
 at them, but could read nothing in their weather- 
 beaten faces. Each one did his duty and thought 
 only of finding an inlet into the smooth water the 
 other side of the reef. 
 
 Jakob Beer trembled like a sick monkey. His 
 dark eyebrows twitched nervously. He had 
 suffered periodically during the whole voyage 
 from sea-sickness, and more than once in the
 
 THE PROMISED ISLE 43 
 
 worst period had wished himself back between the 
 dirty yelJow walls of the Lions' Den. But when 
 the weather turned fine he repented with a very 
 bad conscience. He felt that he had committed 
 sacrilege against the wonder that was growing 
 nearer day by day. 
 
 Now he sat there and huddled himself together, 
 but could not get comfortable. Besides, he was 
 hungry and exhausted, because of late he had been 
 unable to eat or sleep properly for excitement 
 and expectation. 
 
 He had imagined it in advance as a moment of 
 ecstasy that moment when the marvellous is- 
 land should rise before their eyes. But of delight 
 there was no trace. With shame he admitted to 
 himself that what he felt, most of all, was fear. 
 
 Things would be all right, he comforted him- 
 self. Once they had set foot on the blessed is- 
 land, tasted its exquisite fruits, baked their backs 
 in its sun, joy life's elemental joy would hold 
 its entry singing into their hearts. 
 
 Pieter Goy sat with folded hands, his eyes 
 directed towards the island. He himself did not 
 understand what he felt, neither was he accus- 
 tomed thus to analyse things. It was something 
 approaching adoration which possessed him, 
 mingled with curiosity adoration for the tall 
 palm crowns with their long, narrow leaves wav- 
 ing in the fresh sea-breeze, like pennants on a 
 summer day back there at home. 
 
 Lack of knowledge had prevented his forming,
 
 44 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 like the others, a definite conception of the island 
 beforehand. He had busied himself more with 
 the practical side of matters. How, for example, 
 would they manage with regard to food ! For it 
 could not very well be that the trees hung laden 
 with fruit both winter and summer. 
 
 During the long voyage he had enjoyed thought- 
 fully and understandingly all the many things that 
 were new to him. He had left no one behind 
 whom he missed, and therefore was all the more 
 able to concentrate his interest in the moment. 
 
 Of anxiety for the future he felt no trace. It 
 would always be difficult for life to be more joy- 
 less than the existence he had led in the dim, dirty 
 rooms from morning till evening ever since leav- 
 ing his love romance behind, and deserting Groen- 
 ingen for Amsterdam. It was the Lions' Den 
 and its triumvirate which had been the light in 
 his daily life. When the light went away, he 
 went away with it. 
 
 Now it lay there, the island lifelike before 
 his eyes. 
 
 Yes, it was quite a nice island, just to look at. 
 Only the grove appeared a trifle forbidding in the 
 distance. 
 
 The boat slowed down. One of the sailors in 
 the bow began to take soundings. A sharp shout, 
 and the tiller was pulled over, causing the boat 
 to swing round in a narrow semicircle, broadside 
 on to the swell. 
 
 It heeled over so violently that the painter
 
 THE PROMISED ISLE 45 
 
 slipped off his seat and had to make a hurried 
 grasp at the railings to save himself from rolling 
 down against the engine-box at the bottom of the 
 boat. 
 
 As the boat now went slowly forward, the 
 island disclosed itself in all its length. 
 
 There, where the cliffs jutted farthest out to 
 the coast, the wood ceased, giving place to a 
 wilderness of bushes. 
 
 There, the coast-line retreated, forming a bay, 
 the interior of which they could not see. But 
 beyond the bay the land continued towards the 
 misty sky-line, where it turned to lowland, clothed 
 in dark green woods. 
 
 The island seemed much larger than they had 
 expected. 
 
 At last the boatswain found a place where the 
 reef sank and formed an inlet to the calm water 
 behind the ring of coral. 
 
 The helm was shifted and the speed increased 
 so that the spray from the bows splashed those 
 who sat foremost. 
 
 Jakob Beer felt his sea-sickness returning. He 
 clung to the gunwale, stretched out his head and 
 stared down into the dark-green crystalline 
 waters, in whose depths he could distinguish 
 dark shadows which came and went. 
 
 They were probably the big, ogreish wonder- 
 fish of which he had seen pictures in an encyclo- 
 paedia. They lurked there, deep down under the 
 water, puzzling over the immense creature which
 
 46 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 swam so high up that half its body was out of 
 water. How terrified they must be of its weird 
 tail which went tirelessly round and round at full 
 speed! 
 
 "A monkey a monkey!" shouted Hendrik 
 Koort, pointing to something living and brown 
 which he could see in a tall palm standing by it- 
 self near the shore. 
 
 "There are no large mammals on the small 
 islands," quoted Daniel from his recently acquired 
 knowledge; "and monkeys are not found even on 
 the big ones." 
 
 But the painter would not abandon his belief in 
 the monkey. It made the island real for him. It 
 was what he had waited for, before finally believ- 
 ing that this really was the island which he had 
 carried about for two months in his head, taken 
 into his heart. 
 
 They crawled forward at lowest speed, pre- 
 pared every moment to reverse the engine. 
 Straight ahead of them lay the rocky coast where 
 the water rippled in small, quiet waves over the 
 uneven ground. 
 
 They were now barely fifty yards from the 
 firm strand, where a dark line of washed-up 
 aquatic plants and dead marine animals marked 
 the extent of the flood tide. 
 
 The first strange bird-shriek sounded to them 
 from the edge of the wood, which lay a little 
 farther inland. 
 
 Simultaneously multi-coloured bird feathers
 
 THE PROMISED ISLE 47 
 
 flashed like lightning through the air from tree- 
 top to tree-top. 
 
 "Listen to the parrots!" shouted the painter, 
 straining his eyes forward. 
 
 Then he saw again something large and dark 
 glide swiftly down the bare tree-stems. First 
 one, then two, then many. He felt sure that they 
 were monkeys bidding them welcome. 
 
 Pieter Goy became thoughtful at the sight. 
 What attitude would they take? Could they 
 really be sure that none of the large beasts of prey 
 were to be found on the island? When no 
 human beings lived there, who could know for 
 certain? Daniel, after all, had made a mistake 
 with regard to the monkeys. 
 
 Supposing a tiger were to come suddenly sneak- 
 ing out from under the gigantic hanging roots 
 over there in front of where the wood was dark- 
 est that would be a nice thing. 
 
 Thank Heaven he had his gun. Hendrik 
 Koort had declared vehemently that they should 
 come to the island bringing peace. The animals 
 should be their friends, and in the end would eat 
 out of their hands. 
 
 Jakob Beer, too, had fought indignantly against 
 the gun. As long as they carried that weapon of 
 Cain with them, the hated civilization would be 
 still with them; besides which they would all the 
 time be tempted to attack animate nature. 
 
 It was Daniel finally who had backed up Pieter 
 Goy, because, as he said, one could not know
 
 48 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 whether at some time or other savages might 
 not land on the island and attack the white men, 
 regarding them as enemies. 
 
 Now the boat came to a stop among the rocks. 
 One of the sailors swung himself over the side 
 and made the rope fast to a piece of rock jutting 
 up out of the water, while another sailor fixed the 
 anchor in a crevice. 
 
 Then two boards were put out for a gangway. 
 
 The painter hurried forward to be the first on 
 shore. He jumped from rock to rock, balancing 
 with arms in the air, until he reached the place 
 where the ground was unbroken and the water 
 glided smoothly in narrow channels between white 
 rocks, motionless starfish, and great empty sea- 
 shells, which gaped at him with faintly blushing 
 mouths. 
 
 Daniel remained on board to ensure that all 
 the baggage belonging to the quartette came 
 safely to land. 
 
 There, where the strand sloped upwards to the 
 cliff, with its covering of dislodged roots, each 
 clinging to its mouthful of earth, lay a natural 
 harbour sheltered on every side except towards 
 the sea. 
 
 Here, under the direction of Pieter Goy, who 
 quite calmly took command the moment they 
 reached land, the sailors piled the trunks and 
 boxes up against the face of the cliff.
 
 V: THE SUN BRETHREN 
 
 WHEN Daniel had made sure that every- 
 thing was disembarked, and the boat- 
 swain stood ready to return to the boat 
 with his sailors, there was a sudden silence, dur- 
 ing which all both those about to return to hu- 
 manity, and those who were surrendering them- 
 selves unconditionally to Nature felt a solemn 
 spasm of emotion shake their hearts. 
 
 Daniel realized that the moment demanded 
 something unusual. 
 
 Of the money given him by his uncle, there 
 were about one hundred guilders left. 
 
 As he took out his purse to give the crew a 
 reward, the thought crossed his mind that this 
 was the last occasion on which he would have 
 an opportunity to give Society that which be- 
 longed to it, to draw a distinction between mine 
 and thine by means of the Emperor's that was 
 to say, the Queen of Holland's picture. 
 
 These round golden pieces which now weighed 
 down his hand these, for which he and his com- 
 rades had fought a vain and bitter fight in the 
 
 old country these, whose gleam two short 
 
 months ago would have caused their eyes to shine, 
 their hearts to beat were now suddenly meta- 
 morphosed to useless objects, which could serve 
 
 49
 
 50 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 neither for food nor for drink, and at best could 
 be made into a chain for a watch or for the neck 
 
 of a woman if there had been a woman's 
 
 neck to hang them on. Nay, more, the purse in 
 which he had kept them, however old and soiled 
 it might be, had become in a flash more valuable; 
 that, at any rate, could be used as a receptacle 
 for something or other. 
 
 He turned and looked towards the strand; to- 
 wards the limitless sea, where the smoke of the 
 steamer still hung low down and sluggish on the 
 gentle curve of the horizon; towards the palm 
 trees whose leaves were rubbing against one an- 
 other with a faint rustling sound. . . . 
 
 It had all suddenly become clear to him that 
 money now no longer barred the way. 
 
 Life was no longer a matter of pursuing these 
 small, round, shiny symbols. Now it was the 
 essentials themselves that must be grasped. 
 
 Which was the more difficult? he thought in- 
 voluntarily, anxiety throwing its shadow over 
 his mind. 
 
 But only for a moment. 
 
 Then he poured out all the coins into his hands, 
 enjoying their clinking for the last time. 
 
 "All this is yours!" he said, showing the men 
 the gold. "Share it among yourselves and your 
 friends!" 
 
 The sailors raised their hands to their caps; 
 but at the same time looked askance at his proudly
 
 THE SUN BRETHREN 51 
 
 erect head, as if doubtful whether he were in his 
 full senses. 
 
 The boatswain, on the contrary he was some- 
 thing approaching an educated man shook 
 Daniel by the hand, stood to attention, and said: 
 
 "We wish you the best of luck, and hope that 
 you will find here all that you have come out to 
 find, and a lot more besides; that no illness or 
 other misfortune will befall you, flood or hurri- 
 cane or whatever else may happen in these parts, 
 such as you read and hear about. And God 
 grant that you may all come back safe and sound." 
 
 "Men!" he shouted, holding up his hand ancl 
 turning towards the sailors. 
 
 They pulled off their* caps. Their surly faces 
 flung three solemn cheers towards Daniel and his 
 friends. 
 
 The painter tore the tropical helmet from his 
 red hair, went round with tears in his eyes, and 
 gave each sailor his broad, hairy hand, which was 
 shaken thoroughly. 
 
 When he had finished, he took out his pocket- 
 case and emptied it of its remaining contents. He 
 also had realized that, in future, money was 
 worthless. 
 
 Jakob Beer, who, all his life, had had a fatal- 
 istic contempt for money, also gave away his last 
 coin with a light heart. 
 
 Pieter Goy, however, went alternately red and 
 white. His hand made an involuntary move-
 
 52 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 ment towards his treasure, as if to guard it against 
 assault. 
 
 Before his departure from home he had con- 
 verted all his worldly goods into cash, besides 
 realizing the remaining portion of the small for- 
 tune left him by his mother, the whole being hid- 
 den inside his shirt sewn in a small leather bag 
 made by himself. 
 
 To him the generosity of the others seemed in- 
 comprehensible, almost criminal. How could 
 Daniel throw away the last coin he possessed to 
 these strangers, who would only laugh at them the 
 moment they returned to their boat, and probably 
 squander their good money in drink and black 
 girls on their first leave ashore ! 
 
 Even if they were now going to be brothers, 
 with everything in common, it might easily occur 
 that one or other of them might find something 
 good which the others also wished to possess; 
 then they would have to fight for it. Or were 
 you to give it away here you are, you can have 
 it? 
 
 But even if things were to be thus, it would still 
 be impossible for them to leave the island with- 
 out money. 
 
 Was it, then, really the intention of Daniel and 
 his friends never to return home? 
 
 Pieter Goy looked in sudden helplessness from 
 one to the other. Then he glanced round at the 
 palms, at the roots clutching at the cliff, at the
 
 THE SUN BRETHREN 53 
 
 sun-dried starfish and other wonderful creatures 
 of the sea as they lay glistening in the sun. 
 
 A sudden terror of it all, so alluring, so strange, 
 gripped his heart. He wished himself with his 
 whole soul back on his little green island in the 
 Zuyder Zee. 
 
 He'd be hanged if he would! Be hanged if 
 he would throw away the last thing that connected 
 him with the old country. If everything went 
 wrong, then he would still have the leather bag 
 with the pieces of gold. Sooner or later there 
 would pass a steamer which, in exchange for an 
 appeal and his good gold, would take them on 
 board. 
 
 Not that he thought for a moment of saving 
 his own skin at the expense of the others ; far less 
 of hoarding. 
 
 But all the same, he would hide the money. 
 None of the others should know that he had it. 
 Perhaps some time or other it would be the means 
 of salvation for them all. 
 
 Pieter Goy, now that his turn had come, pro- 
 duced his purse deliberately. 
 
 He opened it and held it out to show that this 
 couple of guilders and the new coppers were all 
 that he had left. 
 
 The sailors should have them. Yes, by Jingo, 
 they should have every single one of them 1 And 
 Pieter Goy went from man to man, giving a fair 
 and equal share to each. And when at the end
 
 54 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 there was a half-guilder left, he asked the boat- 
 swain to give him change, sharing that also among 
 them. 
 
 It was like the widow and her last mite. The 
 sailors felt instinctively that Pieter Goy, in spite 
 of his clothes, was socially inferior to his com- 
 panions, and more of the same class as them- 
 selves; they grew quite jovial, and shook his hand 
 in a much more hearty manner than they had done 
 with the others. 
 
 Once more they said good-bye. Then the 
 sailors, headed by the boatswain, turned and left 
 them. 
 
 Thoughtfully they walked down towards the 
 water. 
 
 Daniel and his friends watched them jump 
 from rock to rock. The boatswain was the last 
 to leave. 
 
 They swung themselves up over the railings 
 into the boat. The mooring-rope was unhitched 
 from the rock, and the anchor freed from the 
 crevice in the cliff. 
 
 Each man took up his position. In the deep 
 silence rose the slow, cautious tuff-tuff of the 
 engine. 
 
 As the boat finally swung free and circled round 
 to bring its bow foremost, the boatswain rose to 
 his feet aft. Caps swung in the sunlit air, and 
 three lusty cheers resounded towards the island. 
 
 The painter sprang to his feet and, followed 
 by the others, ran down to the edge of the water.
 
 THE SUN BRETHREN 55 
 
 There they stood bareheaded in the sun and 
 shouted their answering salute. 
 
 In silence they stared after the boat until their 
 eyes could no longer distinguish it. When it at 
 last vanished behind the coral reef's line of foam, 
 Daniel turned towards the island, with its low 
 cliffs, its thickly interlaced trees, its parrots and 
 whatever other living creatures it might be hid- 
 ing from them. 
 
 "This island," said he solemnly, "which we 
 herewith take possession of, shall from now on- 
 wards be called Sun Island, and we, the Brethren 
 of the Sun." 
 
 A parrot from a neighbouring tree shrieked an 
 angry protest.
 
 VI : TOWARDS THE 
 
 UNKNOWN 
 
 WHEN the Sun Brethren had seen the 
 last remnants of Society disappear in 
 the form of a line of smoke on the blue 
 horizon, they betook themselves to exploring the 
 strand. 
 
 North of the bay, at the base of which they had 
 been set ashore on the island, the ground sloped 
 gently towards the still, crystal water, called by 
 Daniel the lagoon, because it lay inside the coral 
 reef. 
 
 Here, on a small cape or point, the palm trees 
 persisted right down to the strand. They clung 
 tightly to the coral subsoil and stretched their 
 supple bodies out over the surface of the water, 
 which mirrored back the reflection with a pellucid 
 clarity that made Hendrik's heart throb with an- 
 ticipation. 
 
 On the farther side of the point they found a 
 small stream which wriggled forward in hiding be- 
 tween banks covered so densely with bushes and 
 tall-stemmed grass as to appear impenetrable. 
 
 It shivered down its back in the dancing 
 light like a young girl running down naked to the 
 sea to bathe. 
 
 Whilst Daniel stood lost in contemplation of 
 56
 
 TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN 57 
 
 all this untouched beauty now viewed for the first 
 time by human eyes, Pieter Goy stooped down and 
 tasted the water. 
 
 It was fresh and tepid, like rain-water that had 
 been standing in a barrel all night in the garden. 
 
 The painter pushed his way along the bank. 
 The grass stood breast-high, but yielded easily to 
 his passage; and a little farther up the slope it 
 became less tall. Under his feet the coral rock 
 showed plainly, gleaming through a thin cover- 
 ing of close, stiff moss. 
 
 He beckoned to the others. Walking in Indian 
 file they followed the stream through palm trees 
 and long grass until the banks dipped into a gully 
 dotted with blocks of coral. 
 
 Here the stream spread itself out into a number 
 of dancing, jingling rivulets. 
 
 Stepping from rock to rock they arrived at the 
 other side, and then followed the bank of the gully 
 towards its extremity. 
 
 Broad, dark-green trees stretched out their 
 arms to one another across the water. Under- 
 neath their leaves each as big as a man's breast 
 dangled catkins, twisting and shaking in the 
 wind. Some fruit also, round and as large as 
 cocoa-nuts, shone green and succulent through the 
 gloom. 
 
 "They're bread-fruit trees 1" shouted Daniel, 
 who had studied carefully before the journey; 
 "and those with the large green leaves, flapping 
 there higher up, are plantain-banana palms.
 
 58 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Can't you see the clusters close in against the 
 violet trunks? They are almost ripe." 
 
 Upon reaching the plantain palms they saw 
 that the gully was shut by a steep bank of about 
 the height of a man. 
 
 It had evidently once formed a waterfall, for 
 the earth was washed away completely, leaving 
 the coral rag jutting forth in knobs, knots, and 
 knuckles. 
 
 At one place the bank jutted out over their 
 heads like a roof. The hole thus formed Daniel 
 proposed they should use as a common storehouse ; 
 it was protected by the wood at its back, the river 
 in front, and was not far from the sea. 
 
 In addition, it was rainproof, and could easily 
 be closed by a wall of loose coral blocks which 
 were scattered about in large numbers everywhere. 
 The holes in the wall could be stopped with foli- 
 age, so that when complete it would harmonize 
 with its surroundings. 
 
 They began at once to shift the baggage. Two 
 by two they carried trunks and boxes up by the 
 way they had come. 
 
 When all was at last in order, they struck work 
 for the day. 
 
 Pieter Goy made a fire in front of the hole. 
 Dry grass, dead liana cords, and touchwood lay 
 about in abundance. 
 
 The scented smoke poured up into the dark 
 bread-fruit trees, the flames paling before the 
 strong white light of day.
 
 TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN 59 
 
 They themselves sat in the shadow under the 
 bank, and looked out along the gully with its pale, 
 waving plantain banners, its dark, massive bread- 
 fruit foliage towards the blue sky, in which a 
 long, narrow white cloud floated, bathed in light 
 from the sun even now sinking behind the trees. 
 
 Pieter Goy's excellent coffee steamed up to them 
 from the kettle, hung in gypsy fashion between 
 three sticks stuck in the ground. They smoked 
 the last pipefuls of their good Dutch tobacco as 
 they sat thus in silence, each dreaming of the won- 
 derful things he was to snatch from the heart o-f 
 long-suffering Nature, which gazed at them in 
 wonder with its brooding, dark-green eyes. 
 
 Hendrik sprang to his feet. 
 
 "What was that laughing?" 
 
 None of the others had heard anything, and 
 they rebuked him irritably. But the painter con- 
 tinued for a long time to stare in the direction of 
 the tree-trunks by the gully, where he thought he 
 could see things brown and living among the foli- 
 age ; he felt certain that they were monkeys come 
 to welcome them, watching them all the while in- 
 quisitively from their hiding-places among the 
 trees. 
 
 The four were longing to commence their new 
 life. Before the sun set they opened the baggage 
 and each one took out what he was to have with 
 him during his solitary wanderings over the island. 
 
 The whole thing had been planned long before 
 by Daniel, whose brain had worked at it as if it
 
 60 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 were the preparation for a new play, instead of 
 the consecration of a new humanity, the re-birth 
 of primitive life close to the warm, throbbing 
 mother-heart of Nature. 
 
 Biscuits and preserves for a week, a saucepan 
 for cooking water and vegetables, spoons, knives, 
 and matches, a blanket, an axe. That was all. 
 Jakob Beer carried in addition his violin in a 
 case. Finally, each was given the diary which 
 Daniel, as leader and outfitter of the expedition, 
 demanded should be kept, the contents to be 
 Daniel's unconditional property. 
 
 The sun set in purple clouds which spread like 
 the spots on a tiger skin over the entire western 
 sky. 
 
 No twilight smoothed the way between day and 
 night. All the green foliage surrounding them 
 changed abruptly to- dark shadows shutting out 
 the light. 
 
 The thin melody of dancing, buzzing insects 
 rose in the air; the distant shriek of a bird. Un- 
 known creatures glowered at them with gleam- 
 ing, phosphorescent eyes from under the black 
 cowl of Nature. 
 
 These were the last things they saw as they 
 fell asleep in their new world, lying wrapped in 
 blankets in the shelter of the bank, their heads 
 resting on their knapsacks. 
 
 They were wakened by the cries of birds. 
 The light blinked alrea.dy on the dancing
 
 TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN 61 
 
 streams in the gully. Through its crystal air- 
 bell, heaven sparkled like a huge blue diamond 
 with countless facets. 
 
 A fresh wind breathed up the gully from the 
 sea. The air was so pure and clear, that even 
 the most distant tree-tops stood out sharply 
 against the sky. 
 
 Hendrik Koort sprang up and lifted his voice 
 in song towards the listening trees, which now 
 heard human music for the first time- 
 
 Daniel, who was no vocalist, leapt about like 
 a young ram, proud of his work. Was it not he 
 who had discovered Sun Island? Now, there- 
 fore, he took posession of it as his rightful 
 property. 
 
 Jakob Beer forgot his feelings of sea-sickness 
 he had dreamed of nothing else the whole night 
 long. Throwing off his blanket he stretched his 
 crooked body, the blazing light playing full upon 
 him. 
 
 Even Pieter Goy neglected to dwell on ma- 
 terial necessities, and stared amazed with his 
 round blue eyes out into the swelling splendour. 
 
 Hendrik went down to the stream to fetch 
 water for coffee, but forgot it and took a bath 
 instead. 
 
 It was a long time before Goy started to light 
 the fire and prepare the breakfast, which was to 
 be their last meal in common. 
 
 As soon as they finished eating and drinking, 
 Daniel gave the signal for dispersal.
 
 62 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 They all took off their old civilized clothes, re- 
 taining only straw hat, shirt, trousers, socks, and 
 shoes; it was their intention later on to replace 
 both shoes and clothing with natural garments of 
 their own manufacture. 
 
 In the burning heat it was a real luxury to be 
 free of superfluous clothing. The painter even 
 went so far as to remove his shirt and socks, 
 which he put in his knapsack. 
 
 The boxes, which contained an emergency sup- 
 ply of food, medicines, and similar things, were 
 then closed, and the entrance to the hole carefully 
 concealed. From whom they were hiding them, 
 on this island where there existed neither human 
 beings nor other large animals, was doubtful. 
 They were acting more from old European force 
 of habit. 
 
 They climbed up on top of the bank over the 
 hole. From here they could see towards the 
 south-east through the ravine, along the stream, 
 as it gleamed among the coral rocks. In all 
 other directions the wood shut out the view. 
 To the north-west it stood, dense as a hawthorn 
 hedge, with bread-fruit trees waving in the back- 
 ground, while here and there a single cocoa-nut 
 palm stretched out its long leaflike fingers trem- 
 ulously over the undergrowth. Towards the 
 north-east the land rose abruptly and the trees 
 were more scattered; while to the south a gleam 
 of light could be seen among the tree-stems. 
 
 According to Daniel's plan Jakob Beer should
 
 TOWARDS THE UNKNOWN 63 
 
 choose first, Hendrik Koort next, then Daniel him- 
 self, and last of all Pieter Goy. Each was to wan- 
 der without halting until he found the place 
 which, in his opinion, was best fitted to be his 
 future abode. 
 
 They were to mark their path, keep exact count 
 of the days, and meet together each Sunday morn- 
 ing at the storehouse to relate their experiences. 
 
 Jakob stood so long hesitating on his thin legs 
 before making up his mind, that his knapsack and 
 violin began to weigh him down. At last he 
 chose to go towards the south-east, down the hill 
 along the gully, with which he was already ac- 
 quainted and behind which he knew he would find 
 palm trees. 
 
 Hendrik Koort, on the contrary, decided at 
 once where he would go. There to the northwest, 
 where the undergrowth was densest, the wild, jun- 
 gle-like wood drew him with its hidden treasure. 
 
 Daniel chose the rising land to the north-east. 
 He intended to seek the island's highest point, 
 from which he could survey his entire kingdom. 
 
 Pieter Goy looked resignedly towards the 
 south-west the point of the compass left him by 
 the other three. There was nothing to be seen 
 except wood, and again, wood. Goy, however, 
 had from the beginning determined to live near 
 the sea. As the island was small, it must be 
 possible to reach it even in that direction. And, 
 having reached the sea, he would follow the coast 
 until he found a stream.
 
 64 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 They shook hands all round. Daniel stood 
 looking at his watch. On the exact stroke of 
 twelve they faced about and marched, each in 
 his own direction, towards the unknown.
 
 VII : JAKOB BEER 
 
 JAKOB little Jakob Beer, with the long, 
 pointed nose under the dark, grown-together 
 brows, with the shy look in the dreamy 
 eyes, the fixed smile on the thin lips pushed 
 his way, knapsack and violin on his crooked back, 
 through the tall grass. 
 
 It scratched his thin, artistic fingers as 'he 
 pushed it aside. It pricked his cheeks and 
 whipped his nose; but he felt nothing. In the 
 shadow of the lofty trees he walked with bowed 
 head, thinking of the new life he was commencing. 
 
 It was a unique experience to walk thus, listen- 
 ing to the heart-beat of the island. Through 
 the closely intertwined tree-tops overhead even 
 the sun could not penetrate. The air was hot, 
 the sweat dripped from his forehead at each step 
 he took; but he felt nothing. 
 
 He walked on and on without a pause, bending 
 his footsteps to the will of the forest, following 
 the path which opened before him. 
 
 His soul, floating out into the green world, 
 came in contact with the rustling melodies of the 
 long, narrow leaves. It quivered at the shrieks, 
 of warning flung by one brightly coloured bird- 
 to another as they swept hither and thither high, 
 up under the mighty heaven of foliage. 
 
 65
 
 66 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Escaped sun-rays lay roguishly in ambush wait- 
 ing for an opening in the tree-crowns; sprang 
 forward and pressed a quivering kiss on the 
 gleaming feathers. The bird laughed, turned 
 towards the ray in its flight, and stroked with 
 its beak the place caressed. 
 
 At last Jakob felt tired, and sat down on the 
 grass, with his back resting against a smooth 
 white trunk. Slender threads hung down from 
 the dark foliage, twining round one another, 
 whirling with the motion of the wind in the tree- 
 tops, as they swayed to and fro in rhythmical 
 tune like the sound of water rippling over moss- 
 covered stones. 
 
 Fruit broke loose high above his head. It 
 glided along smooth leaves which sought in vain 
 to capture it, broke its way through the dense 
 undergrowth, and fell to the earth with a splash, 
 as of an oar dropping among reeds. 
 
 He thought of rising, but Solitude held him 
 fast. 
 
 Deep harp-notes rose in waves from the earth 
 around him, whilst from the solar rays dancing 
 above the tree-tops, chained to their green peaks, 
 clear 'cello tones vibrated to his ear. 
 
 Then the wind began to stroke the violins. 
 From distant palm tops the 'cello mingled its 
 complaint. Flutes whistled from tense bird- 
 throats. 
 
 The notes rang together in a mighty harmony,
 
 JAKOB BEER 67 
 
 lifting his body from the earth, swaying it hither 
 and thither on waves of sound, as in a storm. 
 
 He awoke. The symphony still filled his ears ; 
 but it seemed to him now to be the sea which sang. 
 Giant waves were rocking the ship, as he lay in 
 his bunk. Warnings of sea-sickness again an- 
 nounced themselves, while the green light under 
 the tree-tops had grown chill and gloomy. 
 
 He looked about him. Knapsack and violin- 
 case lay at his side. His back was sore from con- 
 tact with the hard tree-stem. The birds were 
 silent. Through the breathless air Solitude sank 
 slowly towards him, filling his heart with dread. 
 He thought of God and of Death, and lifted his 
 hands 'n prayer towards the Eternity which stared 
 at him from every side with the stiff, unseeing eye 
 of Corruption. 
 
 How long he had slept he knew not, knew only 
 that he lay on an island which floated in the midst 
 of the ocean that separated the worlds into parts 
 and mankind into races. Not even the sky above 
 there behind the tree-tops brought a greeting 
 from his past. The sun alone was the same, but 
 now it had probably gone to rest. 
 
 Shirt, trousers he ran his hands over his body, 
 and reminded himself of the sole relics from the 
 old life, garment by garment. A sudden violent 
 feeling of oppression crushed out his breath. He 
 sprang up, terrified, and began to run; but had 
 scarcely moved when he came to a halt with 
 bowed head.
 
 68 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Was it not in search of Solitude, this same 
 alluring Solitude, that he had abandoned civiliza- 
 tion? And now that it stared at him from be- 
 hind the bushes over there, he was afraid of its 
 glance. 
 
 Daniel was right. It was the knapsack, his 
 clothes, things belonging to the old life, which 
 bound him. Only when everything belonging 
 to Society had been given back, would Solitude 
 rouse to life what slumbered deep within; the 
 primeval man would be born anew in all his 
 glory. 
 
 Seizing knapsack and violin he hurried for- 
 ward in the dying light of day. He knew well 
 enough that the moment the sun sank beneath the 
 horizon, darkness would seize everything in its 
 treacherous hands. No merciful twilight drew its 
 soft fingers over the eyes here. 
 
 He sought the distant flute-like sound he had 
 heard in his dream. He guessed it must be the 
 noise made by the passage of the split-up streams 
 through the gully. He would gain its bank and 
 there seek cover for the night. 
 
 But it was wood, never-ending wood. No 
 clearing was to be seen. Darkness already 
 threatened. Finally he gave up his search, and 
 examined his immediate surroundings. 
 
 Close by stood a dense group of shrubs. They 
 stood as if in prayer, with long, swaying leaves. 
 He believed they were young plantain palms. 
 Their stems were soft and elastic to the touch,
 
 JAKOB BEER 69 
 
 and their leaves stretched out over the ground 
 like a sheltering roof. 
 
 He laid his knapsack on the ground under his 
 head, wrapped himself in his blanket, although the 
 night was as warm as a hot July night at home, 
 and closed his eyes beneath the slim, swaying 
 leaves. 
 
 It was a long time before he fell asleep. He 
 lay listening to the numberless mysterious noises 
 that crept out of the dense, black void surround- 
 ing him. But at last Sleep came and took him to 
 herself.
 
 VIII: HENDRIK KOORT 
 
 HENDRIK KOORT sang as he marched 
 along on his short, thick legs, which 
 filled his black-striped pants almost to 
 bursting point. 
 
 With his wide straw hat pressed down over his 
 flat neck, his broad bull's forehead, down which 
 the perspiration ran in streams, pushed forward 
 as if to butt his way through the wilderness, he 
 ploughed his way along through the tall grass 
 covering the open space beyond the bank of the 
 stream. 
 
 When he reached the thicket he swung his axe 
 to right and left and hacked his way forward. 
 
 The lianas twisted and wriggled in his firm 
 grasp. The slim aerial-roots groaned on the 
 damp earth beneath his clumsy feet. Broad, 
 sappy green leaves stuck to his sweating face like 
 clammy hands. Laughing joyously he pulled 
 them off, like a playful young elephant out for its 
 first walk by itself. 
 
 How splendid it was to feel all this opposition I 
 It was like receiving an embrace from the jungle 
 nature he loved. 
 
 In his fresh, morning ecstasy he flung his arms 
 70
 
 HENDRIK KOORT 71 
 
 round a young innocent plant of different appear- 
 ance to the rest. She covered her slim nakedness 
 with soft, smooth maiden leaves which had never 
 before encountered the eye of man. 
 
 He cooled his heated forehead against her 
 green cheek, which she shyly withdrew; then re- 
 leased her from his embrace and ploughed along 
 farther. 
 
 The lianas met over his head in luxuriant con- 
 fusion beneath the tree-tops. Long, graceful 
 palm-fans stroked their fingers over each other, 
 and stared in breathless amazement at the in- 
 credible animal which burst its way forward be- 
 neath tiiem. 
 
 The sunshine, which lay behind baking the 
 whole, now and again let some of its golden fire 
 slip between the branches. 
 
 Hendrik halted abruptly with open mouth, 
 drinking in all the green that suddenly sprang to 
 life. The sun-rays danced on the sharp leaf 
 edges, played in the light, or sifted through to 
 the shadow, where they became transparent and 
 golden-green. They broke into sparks on the 
 twigs, and lay as white embers on all that was flat. 
 They shone red through half-ripened fruit as it 
 pressed childishly close to its mother stem. 
 
 The palm fingers stretched themselves in the 
 light, sucking it into their cell-soul until it 
 quivered; then turned aside, striving to avoid the, 
 burning kiss devouring their vitality. 
 
 Then the tree-foliage, taking pity, closed to*
 
 72 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 gether again the tough, battered old tree-foli- 
 age. 
 
 Hendrik stood fascinated by the scene. He 
 seized his sketch-book, but dropped it again with 
 a sigh. 
 
 He could not do it. Not yet. The impres- 
 sions must first assemble and bear fruit in his soul. 
 
 To see, to feel, to sense, with all the pores of 
 his being, as if he were one great single eye that 
 wandered through the wood gathering the first- 
 fruits of its untouched beauty. 
 
 He walked and walked continuously, but felt 
 no fatigue in the hot, damp air. 
 
 At one time it was the long leaf-banners of a 
 group of plantains moving in and out like gills, 
 first filling themselves with air and then sifting it 
 through their quivering fibres. Just as the light 
 shines red through gills, so did it shine green 
 through them, clear as a breaking wave, but warm 
 and living like the body of a sun-drunken grape. 
 
 Another time it was the reddening fruit as it 
 hung like enormous drops on bent, coiled stalks. 
 
 Yet again: cocoa-nut palms clawing the air, 
 seeking nourishment for their heavy, strong off- 
 spring which clung still green to their breasts. 
 
 Or the heart-shaped leaves of the bread-fruit 
 trees, huge as shields, stretched forth edgewise 
 on long, straight branches. 
 
 He saw the miraculous interplay of all created 
 colours, the reciprocal struggle of all known 
 shapes, to fill space and shut out the sun.
 
 HENDRIK KOORT 73 
 
 After wandering for a very long time he at 
 length began to feel hungry, and sat down at the 
 foot of a palm. 
 
 The wood had grown thinner but at the same 
 time taller. He could now see a little way ahead 
 throujgh the tree-stems; and the ground, which 
 hitherto had sloped upwards, now appeared 
 smooth and level. 
 
 He took out food from his knapsack, lay down 
 on his back, and gazed, fascinated, up at the leaf- 
 heaven. 
 
 Some birds sat up there flapping their blue- 
 green feathers; they looked down inquisitively at 
 him as he ate. 
 
 When he turned from them to take another 
 biscuit, he saw something living sitting by his side, 
 looking at him with fixed, glassy eyes. 
 
 It was small and thin and had a pointed head. 
 Hendrik drew his legs away. He did not like 
 its stare. It was not a snake. No, no it was 
 a snake! Daniel had assured them that there 
 were no snakes to be found on the island. And 
 yet it crept along the ground, and it was more 
 than half a yard long and then it had those 
 big, glassy eyes with their nasty, insolent expres- 
 sion. 
 
 Hendrik tried to hiss it away. But the beast 
 merely blinked slyly as if it found him funny. 
 
 Then he clapped his hands; but now its look 
 became vicious. 
 
 It suddenly occurred to him that the creature
 
 74 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 had never seen a man before. Of course it was 
 only inquisitive, exactly as he was, too. 
 
 The explanation relieved him. He began to 
 discuss the situation with it. 
 
 "These stumps here they're only human legs, 
 your lordship. They are perhaps a trifle too 
 thick; but hang it, you yourself are not any too 
 pretty, with those horrid little knobs all down your 
 back." 
 
 The beast blinked with its green eyes, as though 
 it understood what he said. 
 
 "What is it exactly you are staring at? Is it 
 the food you are jealous of?" 
 
 He obligingly threw a piece of biscuit to it. 
 But the thing merely revolved its eyes in its head, 
 as if to say: Good heavens, what next? 
 
 Its pertinacity annoyed him; but when all his 
 attempts at displacing it failed, he began to feel 
 really uncomfortable, especially as the thing 
 wriggled the knobs on its back and made signs of 
 coming nearer. 
 
 He packed his food hastily together and 
 moved away to find a better place. But when 
 he looked back he discovered the animal running 
 after him on its small curved legs. 
 
 Then it was not a serpent after all; neverthe- 
 less it was a nasty, untrustworthy, and offensive 
 creature. 
 
 Hendrik had always disliked reptiles. The 
 incident affected him so disagreeably that he
 
 HENDRIK KOORT 75 
 
 started running as fast as he could through the 
 bushes. 
 
 When at last he stopped breathless and turned, 
 the creature had disappeared; but his heart was 
 beating more violently than usual. He felt very 
 sure that he did not wish his new acquaintance to 
 come along and glower at him while he lay asleep. 
 
 The ground sloped evenly and the undergrowth 
 grew less dense. It became suddenly a forest of 
 palms and foliferous trees which he did not recog- 
 nize. Their branches ran diagonally upwards 
 and crossed one another in a curiously awkward 
 manner. 
 
 Slim palms stretched their curved, scaly sterns 
 aloft in graceful arches. Everywhere the lianas 
 ran up and down, in and out, like rigging and 
 rope-ladders. 
 
 He tried whether they could bear. Some 
 broke, but others were old and tough, resembling 
 intertwined bamboos. They held all right. He 
 could pull himself up by his hands. 
 
 A splendid idea occurred to him. He must 
 make use of the solution offered him by Nature 
 itself. He would sleep like a second Robinson 
 Crusoe up in one of the tall trees with the criss- 
 crossed branches. There at any rate he would 
 be certain of the reptile not reaching him. 
 
 He chose a tall, well-grown tree. It was as 
 hung with dry, sluggish lianas as a door-post with 
 spiders' webs. At its foot lay a wind-felled
 
 76 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 tree with a half-rotten trunk overgrown with long- 
 leaved creepers smelling nauseatingly of vanilla. 
 
 He stepped up on the trunk and clambered aloft 
 by means of the liana cords, past the thick nether- 
 most branches which were white with bird drop- 
 pings. 
 
 Higher up, where the light showed from above, 
 he found a corner formed by two crossed branches 
 as thick as human arms, surrounded by and inter- 
 laced with lianas and a yellowish-leaved creeper 
 which clung with ivy-like tenacity. 
 
 He swung himself in against the trunk, sat 
 down in the fork where the branches met, and 
 pulling the lianas hanging on the other side to- 
 wards him, severed them with his axe, twisting 
 them round about and in between the intercross- 
 ing branches until they formed a closely woven 
 trellis-work, impenetrable to the eye. Then he 
 fastened the lianas to the trunk, so that the whole 
 resembled an elongated basket, out of which it 
 would be impossible to tumble. 
 
 He had thus constructed an excellent hammock. 
 Over his head also was a roof of branches. To- 
 morrow he would cover them with plantain leaves 
 to serve as a shelter in rainy weather. 
 
 Only the approach was awkward. But that 
 could easily be remedied. He would make a 
 rope ladder of the lianas which had already borne 
 his weight. 
 
 He must hurry. The sun was low down. He 
 hacked at the toughest cords he could find, it
 
 HENDRIK KOORT 77 
 
 was almost impossible to cut through them, 
 these he wound crosswise between the two lianas 
 up which he had swarmed. 
 
 The work was rough and ready ; the steps were 
 insecure; they slipped down when he trod on 
 them; but it could all be improved later. 
 
 Proud of his achievement, he descended after 
 his knapsack, clambered again aloft, spread his 
 blanket over the liana mattress, placed the knap- 
 sack under his head as a pillow, tied it fast, rolled 
 himself in his blanket, thought with satisfaction 
 that the animal with the glassy eyes and the horrid 
 knobs on its back could not come near him, and, 
 tired out, fell asleep.
 
 IX : DANIEL HOOCH 
 
 DANIEL HOOCH thrust out his chest, 
 straightened his back, and marched with 
 head erect through the tall grass, with- 
 out once looking round after the others. 
 
 All his life he had been full of confidence in 
 himself; and now that the matter in hand was to 
 realize the most beautiful dream of his life, he 
 felt like a young Adam about to go out into the 
 world and subject it to his will. 
 
 For him alone the palm-trees waved. For 
 him the closely packed bread-fruit trees spread 
 their cooling shadows over the hot earth. For 
 him gleamed the reddening fruit as it hung dang- 
 ling aloft in rows. 
 
 He walked slowly, so that nothing might escape 
 the mastery of his glance, halted every few 
 minutes to examine trees and bushes; and, when- 
 ever he succeeded in recognizing them from his 
 preparatory studies, felt himself richer and 
 stronger. But, unfortunately, most of what he 
 saw was utterly strange, and that which he did 
 know understood only too well how to defy his 
 mastery, with a real and living personality which 
 he would have deemed impossible. 
 
 Daniel nodded sagely to himself. It should 
 all end by serving him. 
 
 78
 
 DANIEL HOOCH 79 
 
 The ground kept rising, slowly, persistently. 
 The perspiration ran down his cheeks in the hot 
 air; but he thought of nothing but reaching the 
 highest point, from which he would be able to 
 view the island, and with his glance fathom the 
 borders of the limitless sea on every side. 
 
 The wood became denser and denser. The 
 foliage shut out the sky like a heavy blanket. 
 The lianas writhed in and out, now tensed like 
 springs, now slack and crooked, like loose cords, 
 absorbing sound and strangling echo as in a room 
 crowded with too much furniture. 
 
 He was forced to lower his glance, defend him- 
 self with arms and feet against long-limbed 
 shrubs which flipped his ears with their small 
 cheeky leaves. 
 
 Large, red, cup-shaped flowers jumped and 
 swayed like bells when he pulled at the creeper 
 cords; but they did not fall. 
 
 The exhalations from the trees and from the 
 ground flowed together in a half-decayed odour, 
 causing him a tight sensation at the chest and hin- 
 dering his breathing. 
 
 At last he came to a clearing. A patch of 
 white-glowing sunshine lay right in front of him; 
 and behind it stood that which he had long been 
 seeking a lordly cocoa-nut palm, bowing its 
 supple stem in greeting towards him, playing in 
 the light with its glistening leaf-fingers. 
 
 High up in the top he could see great green 
 clusters gleaming. He stood for a long while,
 
 80 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 lost in admiration for this giant of the jungle. 
 
 How grand, how arrogant, and yet how mild 
 in its fruitful power, standing in the midst of the 
 flaming sunshine. 
 
 See how it arched its noble crown, shading and 
 protecting the fruits of its body, whilst with its 
 ever-moving fingers it wafted cool air to their 
 cheeks, whispering loving words down upon their 
 heads; crooning at their cradles and sucking up 
 sap into its slender body from deep down under 
 the earth so as to pump nourishment through its 
 thin arterial branches to the green shells, whose 
 hard crust defied even the power of the sun. 
 
 Thus also would his poet's mind draw inspira- 
 tion from the hidden springs in this luxuriant 
 nature, of which no human eye before had drunk; 
 in the still majesty of solitude he would give 
 life to his dreams, that round them might be 
 formed poetic crystals, the like of which had 
 never before seen the light. 
 
 The sun stood high in the heavens and com- 
 pelled him to seek the shade. 
 
 He lay down at the foot of the lonely palm, 
 and stared up its smooth form until thought and 
 recollection left him. 
 
 He was awakened by the buzzing of mosqui- 
 toes in his ears. One had already stung him on 
 the hand. They were larger than those he was 
 acquainted with from home; but their buzzing 
 sounded so familiar that a smile came to his lips.
 
 DANIEL HOOCH 81 
 
 The sun had crossed right over the clearing, and 
 now stood glowing at the edge of the trees where 
 the wood again thickened. 
 
 He sprang up and walked across the clearing 
 through the dry, stubborn grass. 
 
 He was thirsty, but, having nothing drinkable 
 with him, was compelled to hasten on. 
 
 And the farther he went the more thirsty he 
 became. His tongue stuck to his palate. With 
 lowered head he plunged along, his one consum- 
 ing thought being to find water. 
 
 His poetic fantasies had long since been for- 
 gotten when at last he heard tinkling stream- 
 sounds. 
 
 A brook hurried forward through a split in the 
 cliff. It reached the edge and threw itself joy- 
 fully down the cliff side. At the base it first 
 scattered in bubbling foam, then collected into a 
 basin, finally flowing slowly onwards as a small, 
 sedate stream. 
 
 He flung himself down and sucked up the clear, 
 cool water. Then he followed the cliff edge, 
 dotted with moss and some plants resembling 
 ferns, until he arrived at an open space which 
 sloped evenly downwards towards the east. 
 
 Here he could see out over the tops of the 
 trees clothing the slopes of the hill. Beneath him 
 lay the shimmering surface of the lagoon, crystal- 
 clear and green ; beyond it the swell, frothing over 
 the coral reef. Farthest out of all, the blue
 
 82 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 ocean stretched its smooth body towards the line 
 of the horizon which, veiled in mist, glided into 
 the sky. 
 
 Northwards the rocky hill rose sharply. Up 
 there strutted some tall trees which were unknown 
 to him. 
 
 The summit called to him. Although tired 
 and hot, he obeyed and struggled upwards. 
 
 From the hill's naked crown, cooled by the fresh 
 breeze from the sea, he saw, in a glorious panor- 
 ama, the whole island, with its woods and palm 
 groves, clearings and deeply indented coast-line. 
 Whichever way he turned, the sea stared back at 
 him with its calm, dark-blue glance. 
 
 He loosened his hat and swept it dramatically 
 round the horizon. 
 
 "I will live here," was his first thought when 
 he again arrived at the clearing "here, with my 
 back to the precipice and my face towards the ris- 
 ing sun, I will woo slumber night after night." 
 
 He lay down on the slope where the long, deep 
 shadows from the wood reached. His gaze 
 swam out into the endless blue. His mind lost 
 itself in awe and thankfulness, returning to reality 
 only when he began to feel hungry. It was now 
 late in the afternoon, and he had eaten nothing 
 since breakfast. 
 
 He opened his knapsack and ate voraciously, 
 his eyes at the same time seeking a suitable dwell- 
 ing-place.
 
 DANIEL HOOCH 83 
 
 The cliff which flanked the place where he sat 
 was about twelve feet deep, its face covered with 
 moss and liana creepers. At the bottom of the 
 cliff was a narrow terrace. He grasped the lianas, 
 swung himself down, and saw that farther down 
 lay still another terrace. He now lost sight of 
 the mountain side, and became shut in by the thick 
 underwood of large-leafed bushes and creepers, 
 of which the former seemed somehow familiar 
 to him. 
 
 Judging by the leaves they were the wild yams 
 of which he had read, the root of which was an 
 excellent food. 
 
 Delighted with this important discovery, he 
 climbed up once more to the top of the cliff, and 
 began at once to construct a home. 
 
 Daniel all his life had disliked being cramped 
 or shut in. The steep cliff side therefore particu- 
 larly attracted him. He himself could swarm 
 down whenever he wished to the terrace; but 
 once he had loosened the lianas and pulled them 
 up at night like a rope-ladder, nobody could ap- 
 proach him from behind. The place resembled a 
 fortress. 
 
 He collected stones and lumps of rock, which 
 lay round about in large numbers, built a wall 
 at the edge of the cliff, and stuffed up the crevices 
 with earth. Then he added two side-walls, also 
 of earth and stones, so that the house lay open 
 to the east, with a view over the water.
 
 84 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 The sun was now so low down in the sky that 
 the shadows of the trees to the south stretched 
 right up to his dwelling-place. 
 
 He covered the ground with leaves and dry 
 moss, stretched his knapsack from wall to wall 
 for a roof, placed a few stones round the edges 
 to hold it in position, and lay down at last to rest, 
 wrapped in his blanket. 
 
 He was utterly tired-out; but what did it 
 matter? Proud and happy in the consciousness 
 of his mastery, confident that none of the others 
 had found such a good refuge as his, he fell asleep 
 as King of the Promised Isle, facing the direction 
 in which the sun must rise. 
 
 He awoke in the middle of the night, bathed in 
 sweat and half eaten by mosquitoes. He swore, 
 scratched, and defended himself against the evil 
 creatures, as they hung buzzing round his ears in 
 his dark prison. 
 
 It was some time before he recollected that he 
 was the Lord of the Island. But once he had 
 quite grasped the thought, he became calm and 
 thankful, and went to sleep again.
 
 X : PIETER GOY 
 
 PIETER GOY bound the knapsack comfort- 
 ably on his broad back, and resignedly 
 plodded off through the thick wood, in the 
 direction allotted to him. 
 
 It was advisable to put his best foot foremost, 
 he thought, so as to have plenty of time to choose 
 a safe place for dinner and arrange himself as 
 comfortably as possible for the night. 
 
 He peered doubtfully up at the tree-tops from 
 under the shadow of his broad straw hat. 
 
 He wondered whether they would be reduced 
 to eating those big red tubers hanging up there 
 among the long, curious catkins. If they had 
 only been cocoa-nuts they would at all events, have 
 known what they were consuming. 
 
 When he had progressed some distance, he saw 
 a plantain palm. A cluster of green bananas 
 hung down below the leaves. 
 
 "I'll have a try with the axe," he thought, and 
 chopped at the trunk; the cluster fell at the first 
 blow. 
 
 He pulled off all the bananas. They were 
 small and green. He peeled one and thrust in 
 his teeth. It was juicy enough, but neither sweet 
 nor palatable. 
 
 "Never mind," he thought, "I'll boil them like 
 85
 
 86 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 cauliflower. I know, at any rate, that they are 
 not poisonous, and I can't afford to despise any- 
 thing as long as the future is uncertain." 
 
 He put them in his knapsack, and walked on. 
 
 A gust of wind blew the tree-tops apart, so 
 that light streamed through the foliage. The 
 little green parrots flapped and revelled at the 
 top, shrieking lustily towards the sun. 
 
 He looked up, but the sun's rays blinded him, 
 and he could see nothing. 
 
 "Hang the sun!" he thought; "how can I shoot 
 with the glare in my eyes?" 
 
 Then he suddenly remembered that meat-eat- 
 ing was forbidden, and that his gun lay at the 
 depot. So much for that! 
 
 The perspiration literally poured from him, 
 owing to the speed at which he was marching, 
 smashing and crushing all slender plants in his 
 reckless progress. 
 
 "Oh, for a bath!" he thought, mopping his 
 brow. 
 
 But one thing was certain; he would not be 
 content until he had found his way to the sea. 
 He could not do without it. He had lived by 
 the water from his earliest childhood in Groen- 
 ingen, and, since then, in Amsterdam. If the 
 land on which he now stood was not an island 
 then he wished he had stayed at home. 
 
 In fact, on the whole 1 
 
 Well, well, it was no use speculating more on 
 that. Besides, Daniel knew best, after all.
 
 PIETER GOY 87 
 
 Besides, there were no large beasts of prey, 
 such as lions or tigers or apes, nor were there 
 serpents on the island. Daniel had taken his 
 oath on it. So much for that! 
 
 He looked at his watch, and tried it to see 
 if he had remembered to wind it up. It would 
 not do to forget out here, where there was no 
 Castle clock to set it by. 
 
 As far as that went, the sun shone here the 
 whole day long; he could reckon from that. So 
 much for that! 
 
 What nice soft moss that was on the tree- 
 trunks ! He would use something of the sort for 
 his bed. For a good soft bed was one of the 
 most important things to see about. 
 
 Then he began thinking about how he would 
 make his house. 
 
 See all those great broad plantain leaves he 
 would use them for roofing. They were quite 
 smooth to the touch, and thick. The rain 
 would run off them as if they were oilcloth. And 
 the light would shine sufficiently through them, 
 so that it would be unnecessary to make windows. 
 The only difficulty was, how to keep out the 
 mosquitoes and flies, and all such winged rep- 
 tiles, of which there were, of course, swarms 
 here, with all this sun, so that he could sit and 
 eat in peace, or meditate over a pipeful of tobacco. 
 
 Yes, for surely there were real tobacco plants 
 on the island? 
 
 Smoking; that he would never give up!
 
 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Even if they had to live with Nature and in 
 
 solitude, and be away from all worry and 
 
 Why shouldn't they be allowed to have an occa- 
 sional smoke? Daniel had strange ideas in this 
 respect. 
 
 Even if he had to smoke hay or withered 
 chestnut leaves smoke he would, somehow. 
 No he wasn't spoilt! So much for that! 
 
 Pieter suddenly felt hungry. He found a tree- 
 trunk where there was plenty of shade, sat down 
 comfortably, with his back against it, and un- 
 packed his food. 
 
 Pieter Goy also, while he was eating, received 
 a visit from the queer animal with the glassy 
 eyes and bumps on its back. 
 
 After taking a good look at it, he made an 
 encouraging noise to it with his lips; but the 
 creature did not stir. 
 
 "You shall move, see if you don't! Can you 
 go backwards then, goggle-eyes?" he said, lash- 
 ing out at it with his stick. 
 
 The giant lizard removed its gaze, turned 
 bluish along its spine, and vanished under the 
 hollow tree-stump where it lived. 
 
 Parrots flapped high up over his head, shriek- 
 ing scandal to one another. 
 
 Pieter Goy thought of the crows at home, 
 collecting in a flock on the farmer's field in spring. 
 His heart softened, and his eyes became watery. 
 
 He got up, packed his knapsack, and hastened 
 on his way.
 
 PIETER GOY 89 
 
 When he had walked for about half an hour, 
 listening all the while in the silence for the ripple 
 of water, and peering in all directions, he 
 judged by the sun that he was still going towards 
 the south-west, and the island could not be so 
 big but that he would soon reach the sea, 
 the wood ahead suddenly appeared much 
 denser. 
 
 Soon afterwards he found himself at the 
 borders of a thicket of thin, very long, and very 
 straight stems. They were grey-green in colour, 
 and their leaves were narrow and pointed like 
 arrows. 
 
 He tried to break one of them, but it was too 
 tough and whipped back again when released. 
 
 Then he saw that the stem was divided into a 
 number of joints of equal length, like the canes at 
 home. And suddenly it struck him that they 
 were real, living, fresh, wild bamboo plants 
 standing there, crowded in a mighty thicket 
 through which his fat body could not imaginably 
 squeeze. 
 
 Pieter Goy saw at once how he would build 
 his house. He cut off a couple of bamboos with 
 his axe and tried them in his hand. Yes, they 
 were excellent. 
 
 He followed the outskirts of the thicket, pay- 
 ing close attention to the direction. 
 
 When he had passed the thicket the ground 
 began to slope suddenly downwards. 
 
 "The coast at last!" he thought, and followed
 
 QO THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 the slope, until a loud, monotonous noise broke 
 the silence. 
 
 He halted and listened. 
 
 Yes, it was water splashing over there. 
 
 He walked in the direction of the sound, and 
 stood a moment later at 'the base of a hollowed- 
 out chalk cliff, down which the water poured in 
 broad, cooling streams. 
 
 Goy went foward and tasted it. It was de- 
 liciously fresh. 
 
 He stood still a moment, enjoying the fresh 
 coolness which breathed out from the wall of 
 water. 
 
 Then he threw down his knapsack, flung off 
 his shirt, trousers, and socks, leaped in under the 
 cataract, and took a natural shower-bath until his 
 very joints shivered. 
 
 Snorting and panting he ran out into the sun, 
 put on his straw hat, and in a couple of minutes 
 was as dry as a bone. 
 
 "I will live near here," he thought, "so that I 
 can take my morning bath, as I used to at home, 
 without being afraid of crocodiles and sharks and 
 other sea reptiles." 
 
 Pieter Goy followed the course of the stream 
 formed by the waterfall. It hopped along, just 
 like the first one they had seen, over stone and 
 blocks of coral, forcing him to jump and wade. 
 
 Less than ten minutes later he saw the lagoon 
 shining through the tree-stems. 
 
 When he approached he found himself on a flat
 
 PIETER GOY 91 
 
 and narrow strand curving round a tiny bay. 
 The latter was situated at the base of a larger 
 bay, squeezed in beween two wooded tongues of 
 land, which shot out into the sea, one overlapping 
 the other, like moles of a harbour. Scarcely a 
 couple of hundred yards separated the two points 
 and the water was quite smooth. 
 
 Over the extreme low-lying end of the one 
 tongue of land he could see out into the blue 
 lagoon, with the foam-belt of the coral reef in the 
 background. 
 
 Pieter Goy was as happy as if he had won a 
 prize in a lottery. He wasted no time looking at 
 the view. He thought only of the fish he could 
 catch, and suddenly felt quite at home. 
 
 He walked along the coast to the base 
 of the bay, and thence up among the tree-trunks, 
 until he reached the cliff. 
 
 He followed this until he could see the water- 
 fall and stream, with the bay on the farther 
 side, examined the face of the cliff carefully, and 
 found at last a place where the ground was dry, 
 level, and free from roots. 
 
 "Here Pieter Goy's house shall be!" he said to 
 himself as he threw down his knapsack; went 
 then, without wasting a minute, back to the water- 
 fall, from which it was but ten minutes' walk to 
 the bamboo grove. 
 
 Once there he let fly with the axe until the 
 sweat-drops literally leaped from him and his 
 saturated shirt stuck to his back every time he
 
 92 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 bent down. But not for a moment did he slacken 
 his exertions. 
 
 He took back with him as many bamboos as he 
 could carry. He then bored a hole about level 
 with his head in the face of the cliff, having first 
 cleared it of moss and plants, and hammered the 
 ground level with the blunt end of his axe. 
 
 Then he chose one bamboo stick three yards 
 long and two shorter ones. 
 
 The short ones he fixed diagonally in the 
 ground so that their tops crossed one another. 
 
 He bound the ends together with the strap of 
 his knapsack, stuck one end of the long bamboo 
 into the hole in the chalk wall, and laid the other 
 end in the cross formed by the two shorter sticks. 
 
 There was no time to make the walls of bam- 
 boos. That he could do on the morrow. He 
 contented himself with a single stick up the middle 
 of each side. 
 
 Then he plucked some of the largest plantain 
 leaves he could find, and, beginning from the top, 
 laid a thick layer down each side. He made the 
 leaves fast at the bottom with stones so that no 
 reptile should creep in during the night. 
 
 He stretched the canvas of the knapsack be- 
 tween the two cross bamboos as a door. A space 
 was left at the bottom, but he covered it with 
 plantain leaves. He left the small triangle at 
 the top uncovered, so that light and air could 
 enter. 
 
 He stood for a moment admiring his work.
 
 PIETER GOY 93 
 
 Then he lit a fire before the hut, and cooked a 
 delicious soup of biscuits, tinned food, and fresh 
 bananas he had plucked on his way. 
 
 Whilst he sat eating, he heard whistling and 
 rustling noises in the tops of the tall trees be- 
 hind him. 
 
 Apparently a large flock of birds were settling 
 for the night in the branches; but the noise 
 sounded less like birds calling than like rats fight- 
 ing or monkeys quarrelling. 
 
 He knew not what it was and did not care suffi- 
 ciently to get up and investigate. 
 
 Parrots mixed up in the disturbance with their 
 hoarse shrieks. He thought again of the crows 
 at home, settling in the trees towards evening, and 
 his heart once more whispered regret. But only 
 for a moment. 
 
 Well-fed, tired, and satisfied with himself, he 
 lay down on his soft couch of moss, wrapped in 
 his blanket. 
 
 It became still in the tree-tops. Finally only 
 the distant splash of the little waterfall could be 
 heard. It reminded him of the water-mills at 
 Groeningen and soon lulled him into a deep, still 
 slumber.
 
 XI: THE FIRST MEETING 
 
 THE first Sunday on the island dawned 
 threatening and chilly. 
 It had rained in the night, and Daniel 
 in his castle was roused by the water dripping 
 on to his face through the canvas of the knap- 
 sack. 
 
 The sun was just about to rise. The advanc- 
 ing light of dawn fought with the heavy rain- 
 clouds drifting across the face of the ocean. 
 
 The Lord of the Island shivered with cold, 
 and made haste to creep outside and stir up the 
 circulation in his stiff limbs. 
 
 Whilst he strode to and fro on the cleared 
 place before his "castle," his thoughts went back 
 to the little murky canal beneath his window 
 in Amsterdam, in which he had so often seen the 
 breaking day reflected as he stared hopelessly 
 towards a hopeless sky, asking himself if it were 
 worth while getting up and continuing his useless 
 strife with Society for another long, weary day. 
 
 He hastened to blot the evil memories from his 
 mind, thought of the joyful fact that at last it 
 was Sunday, covered the entrance of his den with 
 the door-mat he had woven of liana cords, and 
 hurried away. 
 
 The direction was not difficult to find. He had 
 
 94
 
 THE FIRST MEETING 95 
 
 only to follow his own trodden-down path to the 
 wood, and once inside, the broken loose-hanging 
 lianas showed the course used by him constantly 
 during the past week. 
 
 He shivered in the chill morning air, and 
 walked so quickly that it was barely half-past 
 nine when he arrived at the meeting-place in the 
 cave. 
 
 He was on the point of climbing down to the 
 entrance when he heard the crackling of leaves 
 from the south, and caught sight of Pieter Goy's 
 sturdy form approaching through the dim light of 
 the wood. 
 
 He sat down with his long legs on the slope, 
 picked up a straw, and began picking his teeth. 
 
 "Hallo !" shouted Pieter from among the trees. 
 
 Daniel waved his hand, but remained quietly 
 seated. Was he not Lord of the Island? 
 
 Pieter Goy came out into the light, red and 
 puffy in the face, bearing his knapsack in the 
 same manner as when he had left a week pre- 
 viously. 
 
 "Why have you brought all your baggage with 
 you?" 
 
 "I'm not mad enough to leave it behind. It's 
 all I have in the world." 
 
 "Who is there to steal it?" 
 
 "You never know." 
 
 Goy relieved himself of the knapsack, and 
 stretched his stiff limbs till the joints cracked, 
 
 It annoyed him to see Daniel sitting there
 
 96 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 calmly picking his teeth. He himself had had 
 neither sup nor bite, having left home as early 
 as possible in order to have some reserve time in 
 the event of not being able to find the way. 
 
 He glanced towards the hole. Yes, it was 
 untouched. 
 
 "We'd better light a fire," said Daniel, getting 
 up. "Fire is a symbol of meeting among all 
 children of Nature." 
 
 "I don't know anything about that. But I do 
 know that it warms, and that it's fiendishly cold 
 now." 
 
 Pieter Goy sneezed. He had caught cold and 
 was sulky. 
 
 Daniel looked up at him but said nothing. 
 
 Then Goy began to collect leaves and twigs. 
 
 It was no easy task to make the fire burn, for 
 most of the fuel was wet. 
 
 He was on his chubby knees blowing for more 
 than half an hour before success crowned his 
 efforts. 
 
 It spluttered and hissed, smoked and smelled, 
 but at last a cheerful flame sprang up. 
 
 Daniel arranged himself in the best place, with 
 his back to the slope. At intervals he stretched 
 himself forward to warm his stomach, while 
 Pieter Goy warmed his hands over the flames and 
 kept a sharp look-out for the others. 
 
 There came the cripple, poor fellow, toiling 
 forward through the damp grass on the farther 
 side of the stream.
 
 THE FIRST MEETING 97 
 
 Good heavens, how down-hearted he looked ! 
 
 Goy gazed at him commiseratingly, and waved 
 both hands in greeting. 
 
 When Jakob Beer finally succeeded in strug- 
 gling to the top of the slope, he flopped down 
 limply in front of the fire. 
 
 He was so out of breath that at first he could 
 not speak. But he smiled at Daniel and Pieter 
 with eyes that seemed unnaturally large and 
 clear. 
 
 "Well, how have you got on?" inquired Goy, 
 patting him carefully on his crooked back. 
 
 "Splendidly ! Isn't it a lovely island ?" 
 
 Goy did not answer, but began poking the fire, 
 while Daniel talked enthusiastically of the won- 
 derful endless peace. 
 
 "I don't know so much about that!" mumbled 
 Pieter to himself. He thought of the green 
 parrots that woke him every morning with their 
 ill-natured gossip. 
 
 Presently Beer began coughing, and crouched 
 nearer to the fire, which reflected itself in his clear 
 eyes. 
 
 Daniel grew impatient. Hendrik Koort al- 
 ways came too late, confound him. And they 
 were all frightfully hungry. 
 
 They set to work to clear the entrance to the 
 storehouse. 
 
 "It looks as if someone had been here," said 
 Goy, looking thoughtfully at the leaves stuffed 
 between the stones.
 
 98 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 "Rotl" said Daniel; "there's nobody here but 
 ourselves. It must be the rain that has washed 
 the leaves away." 
 
 The food-case, which had been placed nearest 
 the entrance of the cave because it would be re- 
 quired first, was opened, and Daniel took out 
 what was required biscuits, meat, soup tablets, 
 sugar, and coffee. 
 
 Goy felt deeply moved when he saw the labels 
 with their good Dutch words. It was like a 
 greeting from home. And his teeth watered 
 when the delicious homelike smell of meat rose 
 from the tin he opened. 
 
 "Meat is forbidden really!" said Daniel; "but 
 we brought this from home." 
 
 "That would be the last straw I" Pieter held 
 tight to the tin, fearful of its being taken from 
 him. 
 
 Just as he was hanging the pot over the fire, 
 Hendrik's familiar native call sounded from the 
 thicket at the top of the bank. 
 
 Daniel sprang up and shouted, "Hallo!" so 
 that he could know where they were; for the 
 slope hid them. 
 
 A crashing among the undergrowth followed. 
 Hendrik's bass voice began thundering the 
 national anthem, and suddenly the songster him- 
 self appeared above their heads. 
 
 "This is a nice time to turn up," said Daniel 
 reprovingly. 
 
 "I lost my way in the wood!"
 
 THE FIRST MEETING 99 
 
 Hendrik flung first his baggage down the 
 bank and then himself after it, landing on all 
 fours. 
 
 His red hair stuck out in all directions from 
 beneath his broad straw hat, which was wet 
 through from the dripping foliage in the wood. 
 
 Hair sprouted luxuriantly on his sunburnt face 
 and chest. 
 
 He shook hands all round, and triumphantly 
 thrust out his feet for inspection. 
 
 Socks there were none, nor boots either, but 
 fastened to each bare foot was a weird-looking 
 bandage, plaited of liana cords, with a broad 
 piece of bark for sole. 
 
 "What on earth's that?" 
 
 "Natural clothing!" he said, looking pleased. 
 "Sandals! I have got so far." 
 
 He began at once to talk of his adventures 
 and his Crusoe tree, until Daniel shut him up. 
 
 "We shall hear all about that when the diaries 
 are read. Let's eat now!" 
 
 "Are any of you cold?" asked the painter, 
 glancing contemptuously round the gathering. 
 
 He sat down some distance from the fire and 
 loosened his shirt at the neck. He looked as 
 fit as a fiddle. He was a real son of the Sun 
 Isle. But as he sat down he pressed one hand 
 covertly to his hip. He had been suffering from 
 rheumatism ever since his first night in the tree. 
 
 Steam rose from the pot with a delicious 
 odour, which even Daniel could not resist.
 
 ioo THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Goy bent over it with distended nostrils and 
 a happy smile on his smooth, round lips, while 
 Jakob Beer arranged himself with his thin legs 
 crossed like a Chinaman. 
 
 While they were dispatching the soup, with 
 the meat and the biscuits in it, water was put on 
 to boil for coffee. As the beloved familiar odour 
 began to scent the air the general tone became so 
 boisterous that Hendrik Koort burst out with 
 his native call again. 
 
 Pieter Goy had finished his work. He leant 
 back comfortably against the slope and put the 
 coffee-dish at his side. 
 
 Then he pulled out his short "bulldog" pipe, 
 stuffed it with something he took from his pocket, 
 and lit it with a glowing stick from the fire. 
 
 An aromatic smoke, smelling of ! something 
 other than tobacco, mingled with the odour of 
 the coffee. 
 
 Hendrik stole a glance at the smoker. 
 
 "Where did you get that?" 
 
 "It's a tobacco I discovered myself." 
 
 They all took a sniff at it. 
 
 "Pff, what a stink!" exclaimed Daniel, with- 
 drawing his nose hastily. 
 
 "It smells like burnt cloves I" said Jakob Beer. 
 
 "Let me try it!" asked Hendrik. 
 
 The entire company then took each a pull at 
 Pieter Goy's pipe ; and although they all wrinkled 
 their noses and spat out the taste, in reality they
 
 THE FIRST MEETING 101 
 
 were secretly jealous, and resolved also to find 
 some plant which was smokable. 
 
 Even if it did not taste particularly attractive, 
 it meant at least a warm cutty under one's nose. 
 The island was all very well in fact, it was a 
 splendid island but one felt the loss of tobacco 
 keenly. 
 
 While the coffee was being disposed of, the 
 heavy rain-clouds scattered and floated out over 
 the sea. The sun began to shine with great 
 power, and they moved back from the fire into 
 the shadow of the trees. 
 
 Daniel declared that the diaries should now be 
 produced. 
 
 "Jakob begins!" 
 
 Hendrik mumbled something about "lording 
 it," but Daniel pretended not to hear. 
 
 Jakob Beer leant his crooked back against the 
 tree, and fumbled among the pages of his pocket- 
 book with his thin violinist fingers, which were 
 full of splits, while Daniel leant back in the grass. 
 Goy laid down on his chest, his head resting be- 
 tween his hands, and fastened his round, good- 
 natured eyes on the cripple's mobile face. 
 
 Hendrik Koort flung himself down OR his 
 back and stared up through the tall tree-tops, at 
 the same time stretching out his sandalled feet 
 and scratching his numerous mosquito bites, 
 which were beginning again to torture him as the 
 air grew warmer.
 
 XII: A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND 
 
 B 
 
 "Y^EAUTIFUL is Sun Island!" began 
 Jakob in his thin, enthusiastic voice, 
 which was, however, slightly hoarse 
 from the said island's night air "beautiful when 
 the sun rises over the sea, stretching his golden 
 strings from east to west, and sounding his 
 eternal music over the island in a dim cre- 
 scendo." 
 
 "What's that?" asked Pieter. 
 
 Hendrik looked up. 
 
 "No interruptions!" 
 
 Jakob Beer, however, turned his clear eyes 
 towards Pieter, and explained gently: 
 
 "Crescendo ! that is when the sound becomes 
 louder slowly and evenly, as when light in- 
 creases from dawn to daylight you under- 
 stand?" 
 
 "Crescendo means 'growing' !" said Daniel 
 curtly. 
 
 Jakob then continued reading, while the little 
 parrots sitting high up above his head listened 
 intently to the strange animal's voice. 
 
 He read his description of his first tentative 
 wanderings through the wood, of how his soul, 
 released from his body, floated out into the green 
 virgin world and was filled with its elemental 
 
 102
 
 A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND 103 
 
 sounds, until, overwhelmed by the mighty sym- 
 phony, he had sunk into blessed slumber. 
 
 His thin fingers played through the air. Two 
 red spots of enthusiasm burned in his thin cheeks 
 as he described how the immense solitude, after 
 having first frightened and discouraged him, 
 finally took him to its bosom, as a mother 
 gathers a child in her arms. 
 
 He read of how he had built his nest under the 
 roof of palms, and, evening after evening, had 
 listened to the secret tones floating down to him 
 through the infinite stillness of the wood. 
 
 Goy gazed up at him in astonishment. 
 
 "If it was infinitely still, then where did the 
 tones come from?" 
 
 Jakob absently fixed his tired, dreamy eyes on 
 Goy's round face, but Daniel irritably bade him 
 not to interrupt. 
 
 Jakob Beer then read of the sparkling clarity 
 of the morning light, as it stole in between the 
 tree-trunks and kissed his cheek. 
 
 A fit of coughing seized him, forcing him to 
 cease reading. When he had once more re- 
 covered his breath he related how he clambered 
 up into the towering palm and drank the wine 
 of the cocoa-nut. He told how he ate to reple- 
 tion of the banana's purple meat, and described 
 how they hung, yellow and heavy in thick clus- 
 ters, screened from the sun by huge, waving 
 leaf-banners. 
 
 Pieter Goy raised his head eagerly.
 
 104 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 "Take me along and show me the place, Jakob. 
 I've only seen little green ones that are no good 
 except for cooking." 
 
 Daniel glared sternly at him; and Jakob con- 
 cluded his recital by declaring life in solitude 
 to be the greatest discovery he had ever made in 
 his life. 
 
 "Solitude is all very fine!" said Pieter Goy, 
 as he scratched his mosquito bites; "but if I am 
 to give my opinion, there is not much fun in lying 
 still, twiddling your thumbs, when you might be 
 reading a newspaper or having a chat with some 
 other sensible human being. And I don't think 
 much of the stillness either; for where I live the 
 little green parrots kick up a fearful shindy when- 
 ever I begin to take a nap." 
 
 Everybody ignored Goy's criticisms. Jakob 
 replaced his diary in his pocket, while Hendrik 
 Koort sat up and began to read in his deep bass. 
 
 He related how he had walked blindly along 
 under the tall, dark trees, until the sun burst forth 
 and forced its rays through the leafy canopy. 
 
 He described the marvellous play of colour 
 on the flat green surfaces, the thin curved twigs y 
 and the light effects through the ripe fruits. 
 How his vision had been filled with fire and 
 ecstasy of which he had never before been capable 
 and which he would now set to work to paint. 
 
 He talked of the sun above the island as if 
 it were quite a special sun; and of colours which 
 no living eye had ever seen.
 
 A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND 105 
 
 Then he told of his first meal in the bosom 
 of Nature, of how a wonderful animal had ap- 
 peared from under the foliage, had approached 
 him trustfully, as brother to brother, and had 
 eaten out of his hand. 
 
 "Then you were luckier than I was," inter- 
 rupted Goy; "for when I sat eating, there came 
 an animal too. It was a kind of lizard, with 
 clear, green eyes and horrid bumps all the 
 way down its back. But it wasn't a bit trustful. 
 It sat and grudged me my food and wouldn't 
 move. But perhaps I " 
 
 "Shut up until your turn comes!" wheezed 
 Hendrik, and continued his reading. 
 
 He read of how he had taken up his residence 
 in a tree like Robinson Crusoe, and dwelt on the 
 fact that the tree was the primitive and ideal 
 human dwelling. Protected against reptiles and 
 wild beasts, floating freely in the air, yet at the 
 same time close to the mother-heart of earth, 
 wakened by the first blushing rays of the morn- 
 ing sun. 
 
 Goy looked up in astonishment. 
 
 "Have you slept up in a tree for seven nights?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "By Gosh, you must be stiff all over!" 
 
 Hendrik disdained to answer. After touch- 
 ing lightly on the events of the succeeding days, 
 he concluded with a panegyric on the sun, which 
 in such a motherly way had received its children 
 who now at last had found their rightful home.
 
 io6 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Daniel had listened attentively to Jakob's and 
 Hendrik's reports, expressing his approval by 
 nod or monosyllabic word. It was a great satis- 
 faction to him that none of the others had come 
 so closely in touch with the island or understood 
 how to adapt themselves to circumstances as 
 well as he. It helped to confirm his conviction 
 that he was the true and rightful Lord of the 
 Island. 
 
 In the full consciousness of this fact he now 
 drew forth his diary from his pocket, made 
 himself comfortable, and began to read, Pieter 
 Goy meanwhile moving nearer the better to hear. 
 
 He gave a long, poetical representation of 
 his progress over the island ; up, ever up ; lingered 
 over the lonely cocoa-nut palm, describing so 
 solemnly its symbolical significance that Goy, 
 from sheer force of habit, folded his hands. 
 
 He told how all the things on the island should 
 serve him: the cocoa-nut and the banana palms 
 with their fruit and leaves, the taro plant with 
 its roots if the latter existed on the island. 
 He described it in minute detail in case any of the 
 others should have happened upon it. 
 
 He related how he had found the wild yams, 
 whose root was as nourishing as cabbage, and 
 could be stored for months. It grew just outside 
 his house, climbing up towards him from the 
 terrace in his garden. 
 
 Hendrik's eyes grew round. 
 
 "Terrace?" he repeated, interrogatively.
 
 A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND 107 
 
 Daniel then told of his lonely castle built of 
 earth and rock just below the summit of the cliff, 
 from which he could view the whole of his king- 
 dom. 
 
 "Our kingdom!" corrected Hendrik. 
 
 He talked of the "castle" in such a way that 
 his listeners visualized a complete house with 
 walls and windows and doors. He talked of 
 terrace and garden so that they could not but 
 believe them to be the work of his own hands. 
 He described the ladder which led down from the 
 castle and could be drawn up like the mediaeval 
 drawbridge; but he did not mention that it was 
 a growth of humble liana creepers. 
 
 He held forth on freedom and the instinct to 
 rule, until Pieter Goy felt proud and happy at 
 being allowed to listen. 
 
 But when he mentioned the spell of evening 
 as he sat like a king before his castle, looking 
 out over the waters, whilst the mosquitoes swung 
 in humming dance before his eyes, Pieter could 
 not restrain himself. 
 
 "I don't think!" he said, and scratched his 
 fat arms, which were covered with red and 
 swollen souvenirs from the same mosquitoes. 
 
 When Daniel had finished his recital he lifted 
 his chin and looked proudly and expectantly 
 round the assembly. 
 
 "Extraordinary!" exclaimed Goy, staring awe- 
 struck with his good-natured eyes. 
 
 He had always admired Daniel; but that he
 
 io8 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 could accomplish so much in so short a space of 
 time was far beyond his expectations. 
 
 Jakob, too, expressed, in his usual vague man- 
 ner, his unqualified admiration. 
 
 Hendrik Koort alone sat silent, apparently 
 quite unimpressed, staring into space. He had 
 been so certain that none of the others could 
 beat his Crusoe tree and then came Daniel with 
 his castle, ladder, garden, and terrace. 
 
 "Yes, you are a poet!" he said at last enigmat- 
 ically. 
 
 "What do you mean by that?" exclaimed 
 Daniel, leaping to his feet. 
 
 "I mean, it all looks very well on paper !" 
 
 Daniel was on the point of replying angrily, 
 when he calmed himself with the thought that he 
 was Lord of the Island, of whom was demanded 
 self-control and superiority. 
 
 "Among Brothers of the Sun there should be 
 trust and forbearance," he said ponderously, and 
 turned to Pieter Goy. 
 
 "Now it's your turn!" 
 
 Pieter was quite unused to expressing himself 
 in writing. Full of respect for the fine words 
 and beautiful descriptions of the others, he felt 
 afraid of being laughed at for his homely phrases. 
 
 He glanced from one to the other, and asked 
 if -he might not be let off. 
 
 "No!" 
 
 "I think I've left it at home!" he said ten- 
 tatively, growing red in the face.
 
 A BEAUTIFUL ISLAND 109 
 
 "Rot! you have all your baggage with you." 
 
 Pieter saw there was no escape. 
 
 "It's easy enough for you to make fun of one 
 who's never been taught properly," he said ex- 
 tenuatingly. 
 
 "There is no one here who will make fun!" 
 said Daniel. "Fire away!"
 
 XIII: THE MEAT EATERS 
 
 GOY had divided his account according 
 to the pages in his diary. 
 He had counted them. There were 
 one hundred in all. If he gave each day one 
 page, the book would last one hundred days, 
 and at the same time serve as an effective little 
 calendar. 
 
 Each page started with the date. After that 
 came a short report of the weather. Then 
 followed his experiences in chronological order 
 without internal connection. 
 
 The first day read as follows: 
 
 "Ten o'clock. Departure from meeting-place. 
 Southwards through the wood. Hot sun. 
 Sweat. Bananas, small and green, in knapsack." 
 
 All went well, the audience maintaining a suit- 
 able gravity, until Pieter Goy came to his ac- 
 count of the meal in the wood. 
 
 "Damned beastliness with a bird, that made 
 a mess on my food!" he read. 
 
 At this Hendrik could control himself no 
 longer. He slapped his fat legs and laughed so 
 loudly that the little parrots fled terrified from 
 the tree-tops. 
 
 Daniel and Jakob, who both sat scratching their 
 no
 
 THE MEAT EATERS 111 
 
 mosquito bites, shouted with amusement also. 
 
 Pieter looked from one to the other, and de- 
 manded in an offended voice whether a diary 
 should be a reliable and exact account, or merely 
 lies and highfalutin phrases. 
 
 Daniel succeeded after a while in calming him. 
 Hendrik turned his back to avoid temptation; 
 and Pieter started off again in a high, solemn 
 voice, like that of the deacon reading the lessons 
 in church at home. 
 
 When he reached the description of the bam- 
 boo grove, Hendrik turned round again. 
 
 And when he told of his delicious shower-bath 
 in the waterfall, the painter hung on his every 
 word. 
 
 Pieter reported how he had followed the 
 stream in order to find the coast, and how he 
 had chosen his dwelling-place close to the water- 
 fall in order to have fresh water always near 
 at hand and be able to take his customary bath 
 every morning. 
 
 He described his bamboo house which he had 
 already completed on the day, following, and 
 made so high that he could easily stand upright 
 inside. 
 
 He told how he had made soup from bananas, 
 how he had constructed a permanent fireplace 
 of stone just outside his hut, and had built a shed 
 with thatched roof in which to keep fuel and food. 
 
 As the account progressed and the others heard 
 how he had occupied every hour of the day in
 
 112 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 doing something useful, improving his conditions, 
 laying in stores for the winter, condescension 
 turned to admiration, interest to envy. 
 
 Daniel shifted uneasily. Secretly he had to 
 acknowledge to himself that this was something 
 other than his hard, cold, stone castle. 
 
 Goy told curtly, almost scientifically, how 
 he had experimented with all kinds of roots 
 until he had found something tasting like pota- 
 toes. 
 
 He had tried many different kinds of leaves 
 before deciding which one to use for tobacco. 
 
 On the third day he had succeeded in construct- 
 ing a real bedstead, with thin bamboos in a double 
 layer for framework and springs, and a mat- 
 tress made of the fibres of the long plantain 
 leaves, woven together and stuffed with soft, sun- 
 dried moss. 
 
 Finally there stood: 
 
 "Captured two small turtles on the strand. 
 Cooked soup for two days. Tasted splendid." 
 
 "Turtles!" interrupted Daniel, looking sternly 
 at him. "They are forbidden!" 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "Meat-eating is against the rules." 
 
 "What next?" exclaimed Pieter, disgustedly 
 slamming his diary. "Did you think I would 
 let a turtle escape when I met it? One helping 
 of turtle at home costs two guilders, and mine 
 gave four times as much as that. It was justifi- 
 able if only for the sake of my health, considering
 
 THE MEAT EATERS 113, 
 
 all that stodgy plant food we stuff ourselves with." 
 
 Hendrik rose to his feet and said: 
 
 "Pieter Goy is right. It is of no use our dam- 
 aging our health. Hanged if I'm not swollen 
 like a balloon with all these everlasting roots." 
 
 He joined his hands over his stomach, and 
 showed Daniel that his trousers would barely 
 meet round it. 
 
 "A law is a law!" said Daniel. 
 
 "Then perhaps it's forbidden to eat a young 
 pigeon which falls out of its nest and is sure to die 
 in any case ! Why, such an act is sheer kindness 
 of heart!" 
 
 Daniel read the guilty tonscience in Hendrik's 
 eyes, as he stood there butting towards him with 
 his bulging forehead. 
 
 "Perhaps that is what you've already done?" 
 
 "Exactly. It was wounded in the head, and 
 lay gasping on the ground before me, so that I 
 almost trod on it." 
 
 Jakob Beer turned to him with interest. 
 
 "Did you eat it raw?" 
 
 "I plucked it and cooked it in my pot with 
 v/ater and an unripe bread-fruit. Um m, it 
 tasted good!" 
 
 Jakob Beer, who had been the one to introduce 
 vegetarianism, confessed with emotion his own 
 falling from virtue. 
 
 "Come, now, Daniel, it's no good being so 
 strict, you know to begin with. Will you 
 believe it! I was walking along and saw some
 
 114 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 cocoa-nuts which I had looked forward to eating 
 for supper. But when I was climbing up to fetch 
 them I became quite giddy half-way up, and had 
 to scramble down as best I could. Oh, I was so 
 humgry! It was yesterday evening. I had 
 finished all my ration, and then I ate some red 
 berries which grew on a bush near my sleeping- 
 tree. Will you believe it! I was frightfully 
 sick; and afterwards I became so ravenous that 
 I simply had to " 
 
 "Had to what?" 
 
 "To eat some bird's eggs, which I had seen in 
 a nest. I made holes in the shells and sucked out 
 the insides. I had half a biscuit left which I ate 
 with them. 'Pon my soul, I don't believe I could 
 over have managed to reach here to-day if I had 
 not had them to eat." 
 
 Daniel sat awhile considering. He himself 
 had a clear conscience in the matter of meat-eat- 
 ing. He had not been able to get anything of 
 that kind. He had strenuously but vainly en- 
 deavoured to capture one of the wild pigeons 
 which sat in flocks at the border of the wood look- 
 ing at him in astonishment. That was yesterday, 
 when food had run short. 
 
 "It cannot be denied," said he at last, "that 
 things will be rather difficult until we learn to 
 know the island better and find the proper plants 
 to eat. I have, for example, at home in my gar- 
 den, just beneath the terrace, as I told you, a gen- 
 uine wild yam. It is excellent food, when cooked ;
 
 THE MEAT EATERS 115 
 
 but I committed the indiscretion I was hungry, 
 and too impatient to wait of eating a piece of 
 the root raw. I won't say that I got internal 
 pains from it, nor that I was sick; but my stomach 
 has been out of order for two whole days. It is 
 therefore that I have grown so thin." 
 
 They looked more closely at him, and remarked 
 now that Daniel's features had become even 
 sharper than before. 
 
 Pieter Goy looked from him to the others, and 
 said sympathetically: 
 
 "Then it's clear that you've all had a damned 
 bad time of it, every man Jack of you." 
 
 "Well, mistakes are always to be expected in 
 the beginning," said Daniel, running his fingers 
 through his hair in his customary manner. 
 
 Pieter Goy pondered a moment over this; then 
 he said innocently: 
 
 "You have all forgotten to write about that in 
 your diaries. There it was all light and sun- 
 shine." 
 
 This was more than Daniel could stand. He 
 turned upon the ex-waiter, and said sternly and 
 reprovingly : 
 
 "Pieter Goy you are a person without love 
 of Nature, and without understanding of the 
 greater things in life. The humble country con- 
 ditions in which you grew up deprived you of the 
 ability to distinguish between the essential and the 
 non-essential in life. The many years you spent 
 subsequently among glasses and bottles between
 
 n6 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 the dark and dirty walls of a wretched cafe 
 have still further narrowed your outlook. 
 That is your excuse. When we, nevertheless, de- 
 cided to take you with us to Sun Island as a mem- 
 ber of our clique, it was because we felt sympathy 
 for you, and nursed the hope that we should suc- 
 ceed, through the medium of friendly intercourse, 
 in developing the superior qualities which lie slum- 
 bering within you. This hope we expect you not 
 to bring to shame." 
 
 Pieter Goy looked dazedly and uncomprehend- 
 ingly up into Daniel's brown eyes, which he knew 
 so well. 
 
 He suddenly felt himself back in his old place 
 as waiter in the back room of the Lions' Den, 
 flushed deeply, and was silent. 
 
 "Then we are agreed," said Daniel turning to 
 the others, "that meat-eating is to be permitted 
 for the present. Taking into consideration the 
 difficulties connected with putting our decision 
 into execution, there's likely to be no pressing 
 danger of our overdoing it." 
 
 Hendrik thrust his fat arm through Goy's, and 
 said: 
 
 "That was splendid about those turtles ! You 
 bet I shall go down to the strand and look too." 
 
 Pieter was sulky, and drew his arm away. 
 
 "Not where I live. The rule is that each 
 keeps to his own district. What is mine, is 
 mine!"
 
 THE MEAT EATERS 117 
 
 Daniel turned again towards him, and said re- 
 proachfully : 
 
 '"We did not flee from the old Society with its 
 mine and thine, its good and bad, its shall and 
 must, for the purpose of establishing a like one 
 over here." 
 
 Goy fell back, with his mouth open. How 
 could he know that one of Daniel's pet weak- 
 nesses when living in the old Dutch Society 
 was real turtle soup; but he had tasted it only 
 three times in his life.
 
 XIV: ROBBERS IN THE 
 WOOD 
 
 IN the afternoon the sun ceased to shine. 
 Great heavy rain-clouds once more ap- 
 proached from the north towards the island. 
 A cold wind blew in long gusts through the tree- 
 tops. 
 
 Jakob Beer doubled up over his pointed knees, 
 and began to cough so that it tore Pieter Goy's 
 heart. 
 
 Daniel got up and did some gymnastic exer- 
 cises, while Hendrik sang at the top of his voice 
 to keep warm. 
 
 Pieter Goy raked at the fire, but it had long 
 since gone out. He had had nasal catarrh for 
 the last couple of days.. He had believed it cured, 
 but now he began once more to run at the nose. 
 
 Hendrik massaged his loins to shift his rheu- 
 matism. Daniel held his hands over his stomach 
 to keep it warm. Since his first severe attack he 
 had had the feeling that a lump of ice lay inside 
 him all the time; but he was too proud to admit 
 that he was cold, and waited for one of the 
 others to complain first. 
 
 Goy lay down on his back and stared up at the 
 heavy, drifting clouds. He dreamed himself 
 back in Amsterdam, and wondered who had taken 
 over his post at the cafe. Even if it had the 
 
 118
 
 ROBBERS IN THE WOOD 119 
 
 drawback of being dingy and dark, it was, at all 
 events, always beautifully warm. 
 
 As he lay dreaming, a big wet drop fell on the 
 tip of his nose. He looked round, held up his 
 hand to try, listened, and 
 
 Yes, it was rain all right. Now a drop fell 
 on his hand, and again one on his face. 
 
 He got up, and glanced at the others. 
 
 Beer was asleep, with open mouth, and arms 
 hugging his knees. His long, thin face wore 
 such a look of suffering, in spite of his permanent 
 smile, that Pieter's heart again smote him. 
 
 He looked towards Daniel; but the latter sat 
 engrossed in his diary, writing hard, and had not 
 as yet noticed the rain. 
 
 Hendrik, on the contrary, humped his broad 
 shoulders into the air, pulled his shirt up round 
 his ears, and leaned forward under the bushes; 
 Goy could see by his thick lips that he sat swear- 
 ing. 
 
 Then Jakob Beer was wakened by a fresh fit of 
 coughing which drove the blood into his pallid 
 cheeks. He looked round with a helpless look in 
 his large, clear eyes, while his smile contracted 
 with pain. 
 
 Simultaneously the rain began to patter on the 
 leaves. Now it poured so hard that the "rays" 
 were discernible between the tree-stems. 
 
 Pieter Goy could stand it no longer. 
 
 "Daniel!" said he, planting himself right in 
 front of the Lord of the Island, "I ask you, don't
 
 120 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 you think we ought to put on our old clothes 
 again? My nose runs so that I do nothing but 
 sniff. And look at Jakob I He shivers and 
 coughs enough to make one's heart bleed." 
 
 Although Daniel sat with an icy stomach, and 
 inwardly longed with all his heart for his warm 
 coat so solemnly relinquished but a week before, 
 he would, however, not be one of those to com- 
 plain of the island, for the good qualities of 
 which he, as discoverer and "lord," felt a moral 
 responsibility. 
 
 "You look unwell, Jakob," he said. "Are you 
 cold?" 
 
 Jakob smiled and huddled up. He said noth- 
 ing, but speech was unnecessary. One could both 
 see and hear his teeth chattering in his mouth. 
 
 "After all, there is no sense in our sitting here 
 glowering," said Daniel, rising; "such in- 
 activity is opposed to mankind's primitive in-* 
 stincts." 
 
 Jakob Beer raised his clever eyes to Daniel and 
 smiled. 
 
 He was so inured to suffering that he considered 
 it of little importance. He had accustomed him- 
 self to seek refuge in sound dreams just as 
 others seek opium or morphine. 
 
 Daniel cast a glance at the sky, there was not 
 a blue spot to be seen, thought of his good warm 
 coat, and said, after a pause: 
 
 "Although I personally disapprove entirely of 
 our going back on what we have once agreed upon,
 
 ROBBERS IN THE WOOD 121 
 
 yet it is evident to me that, in consideration of 
 Jakob's health, which is not so satisfactory as it 
 should be, we had better temporarily relinquish 
 our plan to wear clothing of a primitive nature in 
 keeping with Sun Island climate. Society, after 
 all, is not founded on clothes. Therefore I pro- 
 pose that for the present each one of us be 
 allowed to put on whichever of his old garments 
 he finds desirable that is to say, which are in 
 keeping with the exigencies of his health." 
 
 "Agreed!" shouted Goy, hastening over to 
 help Jakob to his feet. 
 
 Hendrik crept out from his bush. 
 
 "Damnation!" he burst out, as he rubbed his 
 back vigorously. "I've got a touch of rheuma- 
 tism from sitting too near the fire this morning. 
 Now I suppose I shall have to put on some extra 
 clothing." 
 
 Daniel fought the good fight in silence; but be- 
 fore arriving, in company with the others, at the 
 entrance to the cave, he had also capitulated. 
 
 "It's extraordinary how my strength is under- 
 mined through my stomach being in such disorder. 
 I feel as though I shall never be warm inside 
 again. I believe, in spite of all, that Goy is right. 
 One must be careful of one's health in the begin- 
 ning, until one is used to the new conditions. I 
 think that I too would be best advised to put on 
 my old clothes." 
 
 Pieter Goy was, as usual, foremost when it 
 was a question of work.
 
 122 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 With the rain splashing down on his broad back 
 he shifted the provision-case standing in the en- 
 trance to one side. But he had scarcely entered 
 the cave when he uttered a shout of astonishment, 
 and again appeared in the opening. 
 
 "Someone has been at the chest!" he exclaimed, 
 looking searchingly from one to the other. But 
 no signs of guilt were to be detected. 
 
 "Do you remember, Daniel it was you and I 
 who packed the clothes?" 
 
 "In the green chest" 
 
 "Yes, in the green chest; and we shut it after 
 us, didn't we?" 
 
 "Yes and put a large stone on the lid to hold 
 it down and keep out the damp." 
 
 "Quite right, for it was over-full. Now, look 
 here ! The stone is on the ground and the chest 
 is open." 
 
 They all crowded to the entrance and leant 
 forward to see. Then they stood back again and 
 looked suspiciously in one another's faces. 
 
 "Well, I'll be hanged if / am guilty !" exclaimed 
 Hendrik in an injured voice. 
 
 Jakob looked at Daniel with large, frightened 
 eyes, and said : 
 
 "You don't believe I did it?" 
 
 "Let's see if there is anything missing!" said 
 Daniel, pushing the others aside. 
 
 Goy followed him. 
 
 The chest was curiously easy to lift as they
 
 ROBBERS IN THE WOOD 123 
 
 brought it forth into the light. Then they flung 
 the lid wide open. 
 
 In the same instant Pieter shouted: 
 
 "Well, I'm !" 
 
 Neither coats, nor vests, nor trousers were to 
 be seen. Daniel went white in the face, and 
 reached down to the bottom of the chest with 
 trembling fingers. 
 
 Then he felt something, hauled it up, and held 
 it out at arm's length. 
 
 It proved to be two woolen jerseys and a pair 
 of Hendrik Koort's well-known black-striped 
 pants. 
 
 Nothing else was left of their entire stock of 
 clothing.
 
 XV: ROUND THE WATCH- 
 FIRE 
 
 WHILST Pieter Goy stood gaping at the 
 clothes as if they had fallen from 
 heaven, Hendrik sprang forward, 
 pulled the chest right out into the open, and turned 
 it upside down. 
 
 Jakob shook with cold until the teeth chattered 
 in his mouth. 
 
 "There must have been thieves in our cave," 
 he said. 
 
 "Where should they come from?" Daniel 
 looked involuntarily towards the wood, where two 
 parrots sat shrieking, as if they knew and were en- 
 joying the perplexity of the Sun Brothers. 
 
 Pieter Goy was the first to arrive at a conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 "As it's not one of us who has taken the clothes, 
 then there must be other human beings on the 
 island!" 
 
 Daniel said nothing. The logic in Pieter Goy's 
 words overwhelmed him. He felt more insignifi- 
 cant than he had done for a long time. Had 
 Sun Island, after all, been discovered by others 
 before him? Was he not its lord? Had some- 
 one got wind of his plans at home in Antwerp 
 when he went about studying the matter, and 
 
 124
 
 ROUND THE WATCH-FIRE 125 
 
 stolen a march on him? Was it a trick of the old 
 man the ship-owner wishing even out here to 
 keep a watch on him? 
 
 He clung for a moment to the solution that one 
 of his companions had stolen the clothes and hid- 
 den them; but relinquished it immediately. The 
 astonishment in their eyes had been unmistakable. 
 
 At last he found a clue. And simultaneously 
 both Hendrik and Pieter thought of the same 
 thing. 
 
 "They haven't touched the provision-case!" 
 exclaimed Pieter Goy. 
 
 "Then they were not hungry!" deduced 
 Hendrik, and went into the cave where Daniel 
 had already begun to investigate. 
 
 "The medicine-case is also undisturbed!" 
 
 "Yes, but it was locked!" added Pieter. 
 
 "The tool-case, too, they have left alone; and 
 that wasn't locked. Tools, in short, they have 
 not stood in need of," said Pieter. "Therefore 
 they must be better equipped than we." 
 
 "Or else they didn't know how to use them!" 
 put in Daniel. 
 
 "The books are untouched!" he added, a 
 moment later. 
 
 "Then they haven't been able to understand 
 Dutch!" exclaimed Jakob Beer. 
 
 "Or they cannot read!" said Daniel. 
 
 "Here's my gun. Hooray!" rejoiced Pieter, 
 taking it in his arms as if it were a beloved 
 child. "Thank goodness that's all right!"
 
 126 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 "I have it!" Hendrik went out of the cave, 
 and waited till they were all gathered round 
 him. "It is savages who have stolen the clothes. 
 The food they have not touched because they 
 didn't know what biscuits and tinned food were. 
 Tools they don't understand how to use. Of 
 books they know nothing, and a gun they have 
 never seen before. Clothes were the only things 
 which seemed of use to them. They have prob- 
 ably pulled them all to pieces and shared them 
 out among them for ornament. Or else the 
 chief is strutting about togged up in the lot.'* 
 
 "Hendrik is right!" said Daniel. "Some 
 savages must have landed on the island shortly 
 in advance of us. They have spied on us and 
 watched us hide the clothes, to which they have 
 taken a fancy." 
 
 "Well, I'll be hanged!" 
 
 Pieter Goy turned quickly towards the wood 
 to see whether he could not catch sight of a 
 black visage in the act of spying on them from 
 behind one of the trees. 
 
 "The only thing I don't understand," said 
 Hendrik thoughtfully, "is why they have left 
 my clothing behind when they've taken all the 
 rest." 
 
 In spite of the gravity of the situation, 
 Daniel could not resist a joke: 
 
 "I suppose they had better taste!" 
 
 Pieter missed the point. He looked up and 
 said thoughtfully:
 
 ROUND THE WATCH-FIRE 127 
 
 "If they have better taste than Hendrik, they 
 cannot be completely savage." 
 
 Hendrik laughed in spite of himself. He 
 took the garments from Goy, who stood with 
 them still in his hand, rolled them together in 
 a bundle, and thrust them under his arm. 
 
 "Is he to have them all himself?" asked Goy, 
 looking up at Daniel. 
 
 "Give me one of your turtles, and you shall 
 have one of my jerseys," proposed Hendrik. 
 
 Goy agreed instantly; but Daniel remarked 
 that on Sun Island communism reigned. Trade 
 was one of the worst institutions of the old 
 Society one of the things from which they had 
 fled. 
 
 Hendrik protested; but Daniel accused him of 
 effeminacy. Was it not he who had been the 
 keenest of them all for natural clothing? He 
 had, indeed, before reaching the island, bragged 
 of how he would go about naked, like the first 
 human beings. 
 
 Finally it was agreed at Pieter Goy's sug- 
 gestion that Jakob should be given the pants 
 and one of the jerseys on account of his feeble 
 state of health. 
 
 Jakob put the clothes on at once, and became 
 quite pink in the face as he felt the soft wool 
 on his poor chilled body. 
 
 The other woollen jersey should be worn by 
 the others in turn, the last user being under the 
 obligation of washing it for his successor.
 
 128 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Daniel was to have it first, so that the ice in 
 his stomach could melt. 
 
 The rain stopped, but the air continued cold 
 and damp ; and the prospect of having to manage 
 without extra clothing made them all feel more 
 disheartened than they would have liked to 
 admit. 
 
 Hendrik and Pieter went away together to 
 gather wood for a new fire; but everything was 
 so wet that it was found impossible to make it 
 burn. 
 
 "We can use the lid of the green chest," said 
 Pieter; "it's of no use now!" 
 
 They broke up the lid of the chest and got 
 the fire started, afterwards laying the damp 
 wood on top; and once the dampness had splut- 
 tered, fizzed, and steamed its way out, a 
 cheerful bonfire soon blazed in front of the 
 cave. 
 
 But in spite of the roaring fire the general at- 
 mosphere was one of despondency. The feeling 
 of no longer having things entirely to themselves 
 put the Sun Island in a totally different light. 
 
 They no longer felt themselves its masters. 
 There was something round about them, perhaps 
 in their immediate neighbourhood, which med- 
 itated evil against them. And they were de- 
 fenceless. 
 
 At each unexpected sound from the wood, 
 their eyes searched anxiously among the trees.
 
 ROUND THE WATCH-FIRE 129 
 
 Daniel had not yet finished making plans for 
 the future, when Hendrik lost patience and 
 broke the silence. 
 
 "Then the island is inhabited after all!" he 
 said, with a sharp glance at Daniel, "and we 
 must, first and foremost, think of defending our- 
 selves. I think you must all admit that the best 
 dwelling-place, in the circumstances, is mine, 
 because it lies so high up that no one can attack 
 from behind." 
 
 "Yes," said Jakob, thinking of his wretched 
 shelter of plantain shrubs. 
 
 "It is not certain," said Daniel, "that the 
 savages wish us ill. Probably they are just as 
 much afraid of us as we are of them. Perhaps 
 more so." 
 
 "There are probably also very few of them," 
 said Pieter, "as there are of us. Otherwise it's 
 extraordinary that none of us has seen any sign 
 of them. We have all travelled over the island 
 in different directions, and rummaged about all 
 over the place for a whole week." 
 
 "Why should they do us harm?" said Jakob. 
 "We don't harm them." 
 
 "That's nonsense!" said Hendrik. "One 
 should rather say, that if they wish us ill and 
 spy on us, why, then, have they not already 
 attacked us?" 
 
 It began to grow dark under the trees. The; 
 thought that possibly evil eyes lurked there, hid- 
 den by the darkness, while they themselves sat:
 
 130 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 fully exposed around the fire, made them feel so 
 uncomfortable that they huddled all together in 
 a bunch under the bank, and agreed that each one 
 should keep a look-out in a different direction so 
 as to discover immediately if anything suspicious 
 appeared. 
 
 But after Pieter Goy had prepared supper, 
 the warm soup and coffee made them again strong 
 and courageous. 
 
 They talked matters over quietly and sensibly, 
 and agreed that the presence of danger was un- 
 likely. The savages were obviously few and 
 cowardly. Why otherwise had they covered up 
 the entrance to the cave so carefully, instead of 
 taking what they wanted and destroying the rest? 
 
 But as it seemed probable that the thieves 
 would come again, it was agreed that the Sun 
 Brethren should keep watch in turns during the 
 night, loaded gun in hand, with the exception of 
 Jakob Beer, who was voted too weak. 
 
 The moment anything suspicious occurred, the 
 others were to be roused and the gun fired to 
 frighten the enemy. 
 
 The night passed quietly. Nothing at all sus- 
 picious occurred and the gun was not discharged. 
 
 When morning came the wind had gone down; 
 the weather was mild, and the Sun Brethren felt 
 merry and full of hope once more. 
 
 Hendrik made jokes about the poor devils who 
 had stolen the old clothes, and looked forward to
 
 ROUND THE WATCH-FIRE 131 
 
 witnessing them come trotting up in their new 
 finery. 
 
 Pieter Goy, who had kept the dog-watch, was 
 so happy at once more having his beloved week- 
 end gun over his arm, that he offered to remain 
 at the meeting-place for another day. He would 
 give the impression of going away with the others, 
 but in reality would lie in hiding in the vicinity 
 and keep a look-out for trespassers. For it 
 seemed probable that whoever had spied upon 
 them the first time would come back to the cave 
 also after this their second meeting, if for no 
 other reason than curiosity. 
 
 Thereupon each one went his way. 
 
 Goy lay in hiding in the plantain thicket, from 
 which he had a good view of the mouth of the 
 cave. 
 
 He lay with the shot-gun in his arms, delighting 
 in its company, until, overpowered by the great 
 heat, he fell asleep at his post. 
 
 When he awoke, the day was well advanced. 
 He jumped up and looked towards the cave; but 
 only the ashes of the fire were to be seen, exactly 
 as they had left them. 
 
 The mouth of the cave was stopped with stones 
 and foliage, and there was no sign at all of human 
 presence. 
 
 He was hungry, and felt strongly tempted to 
 shoot one of the numerous pigeons flapping 
 about in the tree-tops; but he desisted, thinking
 
 132 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 it might scare the savages if they were on their 
 way. Or perhaps his comrades would hear the 
 shot and take it for a danger-signal. 
 
 Besides, it was much easier to make a meal of 
 tinned food. He could not be expected to feel 
 scruples at eating from the stores while he 
 remained stationed here at the post of danger. 
 A sentinel is worthy of his hire. 
 
 He therefore walked to the cave, lighted the 
 fire, opened a tin of food, and made a hearty 
 meal. 
 
 During the night he lay down and slept peace- 
 fully, with his gun by his side. But when the 
 next morning also dawned calm and cloudless, 
 without sign of hostile operations, he grew tired 
 of keeping watch. He longed to return home to 
 his good soft mattress and his dry bamboo house, 
 missed his morning bath, and was afraid that 
 thieves might be ravaging his home while he lay 
 waiting for them here. 
 
 He equipped himself with a small supply of 
 tinned food as payment for his inconvenience and 
 danger, took his gun with him there had been 
 nothing said about his not taking it together 
 with the entire supply of ammunition, and wan- 
 dered through the wood by the path he had fol- 
 lowed on the first occasion, until he reached the 
 waterfall. Immediately afterwards he found 
 himself at home. 
 
 The bamboo house was untouched. All was as 
 he had left it. But Pieter Goy was the richer 
 by his gun and ammunition.
 
 XVI: "NATURE' 
 
 AS Jakob Beer wandered home to his sleep- 
 ing-tree on Monday morning, he was 
 feeling considerably less cheerful than on 
 the first occasion when he plunged into the 
 unknown. 
 
 He thought of the savages who had stolen the 
 clothes, and fancied every moment that he saw 
 brown faces staring at him from among the trees. 
 
 But presently, as the clouds dispersed and the 
 light grew stronger, while the warmth sifted down 
 through the tree-tops, his state of mind also be- 
 came less gloomy. 
 
 Soon he found it too warm, and had to take off 
 Hendrik's woollen jersey and carry it on his arm. 
 
 He had neglected to mark the path to his plan- 
 tain shrubs. So many broken lianas were to be 
 seen, and there were crowds of young plantain 
 shoots standing pressed against one another be- 
 tween the scattered cocoa-nut palms; but each 
 time he approached one of the trees he found it 
 was the wrong one. 
 
 Then he returned to the clearing, which was all 
 the time visible, went from tree to tree, and tried 
 a new direction; but the result was the same. 
 
 He threw himself, dead-beat, under some 
 shrubs, ate what he had left over from Sunday, 
 
 133
 
 134 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 drank rain-water which had collected in the deep, 
 dark-green, cuplike leaves, and fell asleep. 
 
 When he awoke, the sun was sinking. The 
 clearing was almost covered with shadows from 
 the wood. He became again frightened of the 
 savages, and imagined he could hear their 
 stealthy footsteps through the undergrowth. 
 
 He stared and stared, until his eyes ran water 
 and his heart beat so violently that he could hear 
 it. Then he pulled himself together and deter- 
 mined on a last attempt. 
 
 He hurried back to the clearing, and peered 
 round after the cocoa-nut-tree stem which he 
 remembered seeing on his first passage through 
 the wood. It had allured him with its slim, pale 
 beauty, standing amid all the dark green. But 
 on that occasion the sun had shone on it; now it 
 was nearly night. 
 
 He turned from one side to the other until he 
 felt quite confused. 
 
 In the sky immediately above him still remained 
 a glimpse of day. Darkness stared at him from 
 between the tree-trunks surrounding the clearing 
 on every side. 
 
 He thought of his priceless violin, now perhaps 
 lost forever. What, then, remained in life for 
 him? Of what use to him the gentle whisper of 
 the palms, the deep innocence of the green shad- 
 ows, the birds twittering over the hanging fruit, 
 when he had no means to glorify them! 
 
 He began to weep, and wished himself with all
 
 "NATURE" 135 
 
 his heart once more back in the old country. 
 
 It was now quite dark. He was so exhausted 
 with emotion and his wanderings that he had 
 barely strength left to creep in on all fours among 
 some young stems. 
 
 He put on Hendrik's jersey, rolled the blanket 
 round him, and arranged himself as best he could 
 under the dense roof of leaves, with his back 
 against the elastic stems and his thin legs doubled 
 up beneath him. He sat thus as still as a mouse, 
 listening breathlessly to every sound, until at last 
 exhaustion overwhelmed him and forced him to 
 sleep. 
 
 When he awoke at daybreak, his limbs were so 
 stiff from his cramped position that they hurt him 
 terribly when he moved; but he was thoroughly 
 warmed through in the stifling air, beads of per- 
 spiration standing on his forehead. 
 
 He looked round in astonishment and knew not 
 where he was. Not until later did he remember 
 the events of the previous evening. He thought 
 of his lost violin and began again to weep. 
 
 The light increased. The parrots shrieked 
 good morning high up above his head. Over in the 
 tops of the bread-fruit trees gasping and whistling 
 noises began. The branches rocked and whipped 
 upwards. The vampire bats he imagined 
 them to be birds unfolded their flying-membrane 
 and burst their way up through the great leaves.. 
 
 As he lay looking despondently among the
 
 136 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 young plantain stems surrounding his sleeping- 
 place, his eye fell on a slim, pale cocoa-nut palm 
 slanting up through the thicket close by. 
 
 It was the tree which on one of the first days 
 he had endeavoured to climb, tempted by the ripe 
 fruit which hung in clusters under the fan-shaped 
 leaves. 
 
 He must, then, be quite close to his old sleep- 
 ing place ! 
 
 He sprang up with beating heart, thrust his 
 way through herbs, grass, and lianas, until he 
 reached the cocoa-nut palm. 
 
 Barely fifty yards from the place where the 
 night before he had lain down in despair to rest, 
 the plantain palms strutted with their waving 
 leaves; and there through the trunks he could see 
 the heap of foliage under which he had hidden his 
 knapsack and violin. 
 
 Shouting aloud with glee he ran to the spot. 
 He clasped the violin-case in his arms and kissed 
 it as if it were a loved child returned from the 
 dead. 
 
 He smiled to his plantain tree. The island was 
 once more kind and cheerful. It gazed at him 
 with glowing eyes, fresh from its night's slumber, 
 while the parrots over his head guffawed loudly at 
 the good joke, as if it had been they who had led 
 him astray. 
 
 Jakob thought of neither food nor drink. He 
 lay down on his back against a tree-stem, opened
 
 "NATURE" 137 
 
 his violin-case, and tuned the precious instrument. 
 
 With eyes looking up into the top of the cocoa- 
 nut palm with its clusters of nuts, which from the 
 ground looked so insignificant, his long, thin fin- 
 gers played the joyful music of meeting out over 
 the island from his grateful soul. 
 
 The parrots became silent in amazement. 
 They swarmed into the neighbouring trees, flew 
 down to the lowermost branches, and sat with 
 outstretched necks watching the weird animal that 
 writhed beneath. 
 
 The trees also seemed to listen. The plantain 
 shrubs relaxed and held their breath in wonder. 
 The cocoa-nut palm stretched his leaf-fingers up in 
 the air as if hushing his fellows in the wood. 
 
 The animal with the glassy eyes, which had not 
 until now felt any respect for Jakob, came forth 
 from its tree-stump, sat down on its tail, and 
 thrust its cleft tongue in and out after the sound. 
 
 The very moment he ceased playing the parrots 
 began again to shriek. They flew aloft and made 
 a terrible din as if offended. Or perhaps they 
 wished to show that they could do it equally well 
 themselves. 
 
 Jakob remarked now that he was hungry. He 
 skirmished round to find something to eat And 
 lo ! when he reached the cocoa-nut palm, there 
 lay on the grass, shaken down by the Sunday's 
 wind, three fresh cocoa-nuts, as big as children's 
 heads. He dug the eyes out of one of them with
 
 138 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 his pocket knife, drank the cool cocoa-nut wine, 
 and ate some of the fresh kernel. It was his 
 breakfast. 
 
 He felt lighthearted and happy, and resolved 
 to build a house like Pieter Goy's. 
 
 He explored the wood until he found a tree 
 with straight branches. These he chopped off; 
 and when he had collected a bundle of them, he 
 marked off a square on the ground, went down on 
 his knees and cleared it of weeds as well as he 
 was able. 
 
 Then he placed a branch at each corner, ham- 
 mering them into the soft earth with the reversed 
 axe. 
 
 Whilst he stood admiring his work, a bird be- 
 gan to sing above his head. 
 
 It was a combination of flute and 'cello 
 three long, deep notes succeeded by a twittering 
 flat, so triumphant and beautiful, as only the sun- 
 glowing, joy-vibrating throat of a bird can give 
 it forth. 
 
 Forgetting his work he looked up in the air; but 
 it was impossible to see the happy songster. 
 
 He listened with beaming eyes and open mouth. 
 It was as if the notes poured from the throbbing 
 heart of Nature herself. 
 
 It was Love singing his spell. Love calling, 
 rejoicing, alluring, asking and importuning. 
 Jakob had found the elemental notes of which he 
 had dreamt so long. 
 
 At last it was silent. Then from an adjacent
 
 "NATURE" 139 
 
 tree another bird voice answered, briefly, sweetly, 
 half intoxicated, tinged with pain. 
 
 It broke off in the middle of a chord, and im- 
 mediately the first one burst in with victory in its 
 voice, whilst the gentle swishing of the palm-fin- 
 gers played accompaniment as on a ghostly zither. 
 
 It was Nature's own music, with its broken and 
 breaking chords, mocking all the rules of har- 
 mony, and yet in its mysterious, unfathomable 
 code giving utterance not to mere love of Life and 
 Nature, as understood by human ears and born in 
 pain on a dead instrument no it was Life, it was 
 Nature itself expressed in terms of sound. 
 
 Oh, if only he could succeed in gathering these 
 tones into his soul, so that they might push out all 
 the laboriously acquired things now clinging there 
 so that it be not he playing of Life, but Life let- 
 ting its primal notes sound through him, even as 
 they sounded through this happy, ignorant, uncon- 
 trolled bird-throat. 
 
 He sank down, sick with longing, listening to 
 his own soul, to see whether Nature even now an- 
 swered itself through him. 
 
 But it was silent, deserted. He closed his eyes 
 in pain, and sought to recall to his mind the bird 
 notes. In vain. It was as if they fled shyly be- 
 fore all the artificial music, all the superfluous 
 knowledge that crowded the convolutions of his 
 brain. 
 
 He did not despair. He would prepare a
 
 140 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 house inside him for the tones and wait patiently 
 until they came and took possession of their own 
 accord. 
 
 It should be a symphony. "Nature" simply 
 "Nature" it should be called. 
 
 In it should be heard the low whistle of palms, 
 the love-song of birds, the sun's play on smooth 
 green surface, the drip of raindrops from leaf 
 to leaf, the ripening of fruit all these and more 
 should be there, played with Nature's own divine 
 chords alone. 
 
 This work should be accomplished through 
 him. For this alone Destiny had brought him 
 to the island.
 
 XVII: THE GLANCE OF 
 SOLITUDE 
 
 WHEN at last Jakob opened his eyes 
 again to his surroundings, he looked 
 in astonishment at the four poles 
 which stood there looking questioningly at him. 
 
 "What on earth are they for?" he thought. 
 Then he remembered that he had been about to 
 build a house, dry and safe like Pieter Goy's. 
 
 He had no desire at all to continue. Such 
 things seemed so superfluous now that he had 
 found the one great thing he had sought and 
 which now awaited him the symphony. 
 
 "Heaven knows I am not cut out for practical 
 work," he thought, and gave up the house with 
 a sigh. 
 
 He was tired and his head ached. He lay 
 down on his back, and stared up towards the 
 leafy sky, which was already growing dark. 
 
 The birds were silent. Not a breath of wind 
 stirred. The leaves hung as if listening with 
 bated breath. 
 
 As he lay there in the deep silence, seeking 
 vainly to call forth the sound-dreams again, an 
 overpowering feeling of oppression seized him. 
 
 It was as if some nameless danger lay in 
 
 141
 
 142 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 wait near him. He raised himself on his elbows 
 and looked fearfully around. 
 
 But the tree-stems stood motionless, with 
 the empty semi-darkness between both the old 
 wrinkled trunks with their thick foliage of in- 
 terwoven creepers, and the slim cocoa-nut stems, 
 rising slantwise as if seeking support for their 
 heavy fruit. 
 
 He spoke aloud to reassure himself; but it was 
 of no use. The oppression did not leave him 
 until he had got up and thoroughly explored 
 the bushes in the vicinity. 
 
 Next morning he awoke feeling ravenously 
 hungry. He hurried to the cocoa-nut tree and 
 picked up the nuts which had fallen during the 
 night; but the milk and cocoa-nut meat failed to 
 satisfy him. 
 
 He then went towards the bread-fruit trees 
 where a few days before he had found the birds' 
 eggs. Close in against the stem, covered by the 
 thick foliage of creepers, he had seen the almost 
 spherical nests. 
 
 For a long time he fumbled in vain with his 
 thin fingers among the leaves; then suddenly a 
 shrieking bird flapped past his head. 
 
 He looked up and saw that he had been 
 searching too low down. Higher up, the trunk 
 was streaked with traces of the birds, as were 
 the other trees near by. 
 
 Clinging to the tough cords of creeper, which
 
 THE GLANCE OF SOLITUDE 143 
 
 here and there broke loose from their support, 
 he clambered up until he reached the white 
 stripes. 
 
 A moment later the air was filled with in- 
 furiated birds about as big as pigeons. They 
 whirled round and round his head, shrieking 
 through their small yellow beaks, but not daring 
 to come nearer than arm's length. 
 
 Here under the foliage ranged nest after nest, 
 packed so closely together that they presented 
 an almost continuous outer wall. He had only 
 to put out his hand and take. 
 
 Jakob felt sorry for the screaming mothers as 
 they hung in the air flapping their dark-blue 
 wings. He would fain have taken but one egg 
 from each nest. But their entrances faced to- 
 wards the tree-stem and were not large enough 
 to admit his hand, so that he was compelled to 
 destroy the entire home. 
 
 He collected as many as he could carry. On 
 each tree, about twelve feet from the ground, 
 there was a broad belt of bird droppings, as if 
 a bricklayer had been white-washing the foliage 
 above and had splashed about with his brush. 
 
 Jakob fetched water from the little pond in 
 the clearing, lighted a fire, and cooked his eggs. 
 They were hard-boiled, but nevertheless tasted 
 splendid, eaten together with fresh cocoa-nut 
 milk and half-ripe bananas. 
 
 The same thing happened as on the day before. 
 As the morning progressed, Nature started tuning
 
 144 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 its bird throats, palm fingers, plantain leaves, in- 
 sect wings. Then the full orchestra played, 
 while Jakob listened with parted lips and half- 
 closed eyes. 
 
 After the midday meal, his thoughts turned 
 again to "Nature," his great symphony; he took 
 out his violin and began to grope on the strings, 
 while the birds became silent, listening in aston- 
 ishment. 
 
 When at last, exhausted, he returned to earth 
 from his kingdom of sound and stretched him- 
 self on the grass, his eyes towards the sky of 
 leaves, the same mysterious oppression as before 
 again made itself felt. 
 
 He started up, sure there was something hidden 
 among the stems. 
 
 Suddenly he realized that it was Solitude, 
 watching him with its huge, vacant stare. 
 
 He talked loudly to himself to drive it away. 
 There was no echo, and yet it seemed to him that 
 the wood nevertheless repeated his words, 
 whispering them back to him in a changed voice 
 which he could not recognize. 
 
 He went early to rest, but lay for a long time 
 wakeful, listening fearfully to the mysterious 
 noises which night sprinkles down on the sleep- 
 less. 
 
 Several days passed in exactly the same manner. 
 
 As long as he remained in his sound-kingdom, 
 fumbling after "Nature" his great symphony 
 he was happy. But hardly had environment
 
 THE GLANCE OF SOLITUDE 145 
 
 once more taken him in its grasp than Solitude 
 sat down and stared at him until his heart con- 
 tracted with uncontrollable terror. 
 
 One evening he was tortured with an over- 
 whelming longing for his comrades; but it was 
 only Thursday. There were two whole days 
 and three long nights still to pass. 
 
 On Friday the feeling grew worse. 
 
 He awoke with the oppression in his heart. 
 Immediately after breakfast he took out his violin 
 to escape from his thoughts. He played vio- 
 lently, madly, old hackneyed tunes, but he knew all 
 the while he was playing to escape; and therefore 
 he failed. 
 
 When at last, perspiration covering his brow, 
 he lowered the violin and let his eyes wander 
 hopelessly among the trees, he shrank back in 
 terror. 
 
 He thought he saw himself, little and crooked 
 in his old lost coat, steal to one side behind the 
 ancient tree in which he had found the birds' nests. 
 
 He remained sitting for a long while, white 
 and rigid, staring after the vision, his heart ham- 
 mering at his ribs. 
 
 "I am mad!" he thought. "Solitude has 
 turned my brain!" 
 
 Then he rushed to his sleeping-tree. Scarcely 
 conscious of what he was doing, he grabbed some 
 bananas, filled one of the spherical nests with eggs 
 and thrust it in his breast, covering up his fruit 
 and belongings with blanket and knapsack.
 
 146 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Only the violin he could not leave behind; he put 
 it in its case and flung it over his shoulder. 
 
 Without daring to look back, he hurried 
 through the thicket to the clearing, paused a 
 moment to make certain of his way, and dis- 
 appeared on the opposite side by the path lead- 
 ing to the meeting-place.
 
 XVIII : A COSY HOME 
 
 PIETER GOY sat in the sun before his bam- 
 boo house weaving a fishing-net of plantain 
 threads, at the same time whistling the 
 last barrel-organ tune acquired before leaving 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 Suddenly he heard a crashing in the under- 
 growth behind him, as of a large animal approach- 
 ing. 
 
 This was something quite new. He jumped 
 up, seized his gun from its resting-place behind 
 the open bamboo door, and peered out in the 
 direction of the sound. It came from the wood 
 above the cliff against which his house leaned. 
 
 "Here's a nice to-do!" he thought. "Then 
 there are large animals on the island after all." 
 
 He expected every moment to see a hungry 
 lion open its ravenous maw on the cliff-top over 
 his head, ready to spring. 
 
 With beating heart he made sure that both 
 barrels were loaded, felt his pocket to see that 
 the cartridges were there, and tested the triggers. 
 Then, walking backwards, he retreated across 
 the cleared space before his hut until he reached 
 the thicket. Here he concealed himself and 
 waited, ready to shoot, his eyes fixed on the bushes 
 at the top of the cliff. 
 
 147
 
 148 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Then he heard the puffing and blowing of a 
 human being. He saw something light and parti- 
 coloured moving in the sun-rays through the thick 
 undergrowth, and a moment later recognized 
 Jakob Beer's narrow face and wide straw 
 hat. 
 
 There followed a delighted exchange of greet- 
 ings. 
 
 Jakob was just as glad to have at last reached 
 his destination he had followed the path all the 
 way from their meeting-place as Pieter was re- 
 lieved that his visitor was not a dangerous beast 
 of prey. 
 
 The cripple's eyes opened wide, as, guided by 
 Pieter, he arrived before the house. 
 
 Of such luxury he had not dreamed. Not only 
 was there a strongly-made, spacious bamboo 
 house, finished off with leaves and bast, and sur- 
 rounded by a real courtyard, but there were, in 
 addition, chopping-block, chair, three-legged 
 table, and a stone fireplace with a hook on which 
 to hang the cooking-pot. The door fitted closely 
 both at top and bottom, so that neither insects 
 nor draught could force an entry. 
 
 And what a bed Pieter Goy had! Jakob 
 stretched himself out at full length on the soft, 
 woven spring-mattress. 
 
 In the yard there was a small shed with lean-to 
 roof resting against the cliff. In it lay chopped- 
 up wood all ready to be put on the fire. 
 
 Before the house stood three young saplings
 
 A COSY HOME 149 
 
 in a triangle; between them was stretched a sail 
 plaited of long dark-green leaves. 
 
 "This is my awning," explained Pieter with 
 pride; "here I can sit in the shade with my work 
 and see right down to the shore through the 
 trees." 
 
 But best of all was the food-cupboard. It was 
 fixed on four poles in the angle formed by the 
 house and the face of the cliff, so that never a ray 
 of sun reached it. The chinks in the wall were 
 stopped with bast both internally and externally, 
 so that no insect could enter; but the door and one 
 of the sides were woven of the thinnest liana 
 threads as fine as fly-netting, permitting the air to 
 percolate freely. 
 
 Here lay bananas, dried roots, and fresh cocoa- 
 nuts. The empty shells were used for bowls, in 
 which Pieter kept food left over from one meal 
 to another. Finally there were hanging three 
 tender young birds, of the sort Jakob knew so 
 well, with a bump on the reddish-yellow beak. 
 
 Outside in the yard was stretched a liana cord 
 between house and shed. On it hung some large 
 leaves drying in the sun; they were already be- 
 ginning to turn brown. 
 
 "My tobacco!" said Pieter, fingering them 
 affectionately. 
 
 "Now you shall have a real good feed!" said 
 he, rubbing his hands together delightedly. 
 
 Whilst he lit the fire, Jakob was given one of 
 the birds to pluck.
 
 150 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 "Daniel should know about this!" Pieter look- 
 ed up and winked. 
 
 "For you're not ill, are you?" 
 
 Jakob was too ashamed to confess his fear of 
 being alone. 
 
 "No, I am not ill, Pieter, and really it is wrong 
 of me to come here to you it's against the law, 
 of course. But the point is " 
 
 Jakob racked his brain to find an excuse. His 
 eyes fell on the splendid house. 
 
 "The point is that I have such a wretched place 
 to live in. My sleeping-place in the bushes has 
 neither roof nor walls, only flapping leaves which 
 drip on to my face when it has rained during the 
 day. And there are draughts from every direc- 
 tion, so that I have to sleep with my head under 
 the blanket to escape toothache. I haven't a soft 
 matress to lie on like you, worse luck." 
 
 "Why don't you build a proper house?" 
 
 "That's easier said than done. There are no 
 bamboo canes over in my direction." 
 
 "There must be some trees with long straight 
 branches." 
 
 "Yes, there are; but I don't understand that 
 sort of thing, Pieter. Just imagine it being so 
 difficult to build a house with walls and roof and 
 everything! I have tried it; but I couldn't make 
 things fit, and so I gave up." 
 
 Pieter lay down and blew thoughtfully at the 
 fire, the fuel of which was not yet quite dry.
 
 A COSY HOME 151 
 
 "What a pity!" said he, getting up. "A 
 house one must have, and a roof over one's head; 
 even if Daniel does call it Sun Island neverthe- 
 less" 
 
 "Just think, Pieter; if only you could come 
 over with me and make it for me!" 
 
 Pieter glanced sharply at Jakob, as he sat all 
 huddled together, his crooked back curved over 
 the bird on his lap. 
 
 "What a way to pluck a bird !" he said. "See 
 50 and 50, with little, quick jerks." 
 
 Pieter scratched his flaxen yellow hair doubt- 
 fully; it was bleached by the sun and had begun 
 to curl round his ears. He pondered the sug- 
 gestion while he filled the pot with fresh water 
 from a cocoa-nut shell. 
 
 "It would never do!" said he finally; "suppos- 
 ing the others came to hear of it! But you can 
 just see here how I have made mine." 
 
 Jakob let his gaze wander up and down the 
 bamboo walls, and sighed. 
 
 Pieter prepared a splendid bird soup with 
 roots and herbs, while Jakob moved his chair 
 nearer the fireplace and snuffed in the delicious 
 odour that bubbled up from the pot. 
 
 "It smells good what?" 
 
 Pieter rubbed his hands, showing all the dim- 
 ples in his fat face, which glistened with count- 
 less drops of sweat. 
 
 "What's that you have under your shirt?"
 
 152 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Jakob had quite forgotten the eggs. He 
 pulled out the nest. It was a little crushed, so 
 that some of them were broken. 
 
 "Eggsl" 
 
 Pieter's eyes lit up as he carefully extracted 
 them. 
 
 "Have you many of these at home?" 
 
 "Many more than I can eat. The nests are 
 so close together that they touch." 
 
 "Some people have luck! Now you shall see 
 what a soup it will be! Eggs! They're just 
 what I have been looking for all the time." 
 
 Pieter broke the shells and poured both white 
 and yolk into the saucepan. Splendidly fresh 
 they were, with yellow yolks, like real little 
 bantams' eggs. 
 
 "Chicken soup with eggs!" said Pieter, as he 
 served it to Jakob in a cup. 
 
 For one melancholy moment he thought of 
 the Lions' Den's dirty yellow walls. Then, sip- 
 ping the hot soup, he said: 
 
 "Now all that's wanting is a good Dutch 
 schnapps!" 
 
 He stared before him, wiped his eyes, and 
 sighed. Then he fell to thinking of what Jakob 
 had said about the eggs. 
 
 When Pieter had gnawed his last bone clean, 
 he wiped his mouth thoughtfully with the back of 
 his hand and said: 
 
 "It's not that I don't want to help you, Jakob."
 
 A COSY HOME 153 
 
 "Of course, I understand perfectly. Don't 
 let us say any more about it!" 
 
 Jakob looked guiltily downwards. He re- 
 pented that he had tried to tempt Pieter to 
 treachery against the holy laws of solitude and 
 self-help. 
 
 "But, on the other hand," continued Pieter, 
 undisturbed, "I cannot allow that you, who have 
 a weak back and are generally rather delicate, 
 shall remain without shelter and sleep badly 
 and supposing it begins to rain again ?" 
 
 "I shall manage somehow. A law is a law, 
 as Daniel says." 
 
 "Puh, Daniel!" exclaimed Pieter, wrinkling 
 his nose and scratching his mosquito bites. "It's 
 always Daniel this and Daniel that!" 
 
 Jakob looked at him, horrified. It was not 
 like Pieter to be so lacking in respect. 
 
 Pieter Goy turned red and drew in his horns. 
 
 "I mean only that laws and such things are 
 all very well; but, hang it, health is the most 
 important. Heaven save us, all respect for 
 Daniel! I have never meant otherwise but 
 neither he nor Hendrik will suffer injury even if 
 I do help you with your house.. In fact, it's my 
 duty, I had almost said; the stronger shall help 
 the weaker." 
 
 Jakob, as he sat there so warm and comfort- 
 able, before a genuine house and on a real chair, 
 understood now for the first time what a miser-
 
 154 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 able existence he had endured in the last days. 
 
 He realized quite suddenly that he must have 
 
 a proper house. Therefore he no longer opposed 
 
 Pieter, but thanked him for his noble-minded- 
 
 ness. 
 
 u 
 
 The others need know nothing about itl" 
 said Pieter, yawning. 
 
 Jakob felt the impulse to do something for him 
 in return. 
 
 "Now you shall hear my masterpiece!" he 
 said, taking out his violin. 
 
 "Yes, let's have some music." 
 
 Pieter lay down at full length in the shadow of 
 the sun-sail; while Jakob, leaning back against 
 the bamboo door, tuned the strings, and began to 
 play the first fumbling notes of his great sym- 
 phony. 
 
 He sat with half-closed eyes and played his 
 soul out through his finger-tips, while all around 
 him was silence. 
 
 When at last he lowered his bow and turned 
 towards his audience, he found Pieter sound 
 asleep in the grass with his hands under his head. 
 
 Jakob looked down at him with a patient, dis- 
 appointed smile. At the same moment Pieter 
 awoke. "Yes, that was very pretty," he said, 
 and yawned. 
 
 Shortly afterwards they broke camp and went 
 off together. Before evening Pieter Goy had
 
 A COSY HOME 155 
 
 made Jakob a house in front of his plantain 
 shrubs. 
 
 It was rather jerry-built, not nearly so well 
 constructed as Pieter's own house; but it was, at 
 any rate, roof and walls, and inside was laid out 
 a couch of leaves and moss. 
 
 Darkness fell before Pieter had finished; he 
 had to stay the night with Jakob. 
 
 When Pieter awoke next morning and had 
 stretched his limbs thoroughly, his first thought 
 was of the birds' nests. 
 
 Jakob showed him the trees. Pieter crept 
 aloft. With the birds shrieking and flapping 
 round his ears so that Jakob's heart bled, he stole 
 as many as he could get hold of. Then he ex- 
 amined the tree minutely so as to recognize it 
 again if he met it on his path. 
 
 "I shall take these home with me," he said, and 
 made a bag out of some plantain leaves. 
 
 As he stood waving farewell through the tree- 
 stems, Jakob's eyes filled with tears. 
 
 "I shall come again all right some other time," 
 said Pieter, glancing towards the nesting-tree. 
 "And we won't say anything to the others." 
 
 Jakob sighed deeply. It was deceitful and 
 ignominious, he thought; but Pieter must take the 
 responsibility. 
 
 Solitude no longer held terrors for him. It 
 was as if it were afraid of Pieter and his capable
 
 156 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 hands, his good-natured round eyes and his 
 sound sleeping powers; as if it dared not return 
 as long as the force of his personality filled the 
 house which he had built for Jakob.
 
 XIX : GENIUS 
 
 LIFE was glorious on the Sun Island; but 
 Hendrik Koort nevertheless crept down 
 from his eagle's nest in the tall tree. 
 
 The fact was that he could not escape the 
 monkeys. It did not help him at all that Daniel 
 assured him, Sunday after Sunday, that the vola- 
 tile creatures which he had seen running up and 
 down the trees the very first day they arrived 
 existed only in his own thick head. Hendrik 
 heard them all the same, breathing in the branches 
 above him, whenever he lay sleepless at night. 
 He thought he caught glimpses of them in bunches 
 among the palm foliage, and expected every 
 moment to feel a cocoa-nut on his cranium. 
 
 He descended therefore from his lofty perch, 
 and made a new retreat in a hollow, windfallen 
 tree near by. 
 
 But on the first occasion rheumatism kept him 
 awake, he heard rustling and whistling noises in 
 the layer of moss beneath him. 
 
 He felt sure that the animal with the glassy 
 eyes had at last located him. Perhaps it had 
 moved into the floor beneath and was afraid of 
 the roof being pressed down on itself and its 
 young. 
 
 iS7
 
 158 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 He emptied his nest right down to the bark, 
 rummaged and ransacked in every hole and 
 cranny. Only when he found nothing at all suspi- 
 cious did he at last secure peace of mind. 
 
 He cut a path in the undergrowth right round 
 the tree. Here he took exercise of an evening in 
 the moonlight, or else pulled himself up by the li- 
 anas, with arms bent and thick legs stuck straight 
 out, until the sweat poured off him, and he was 
 so exhausted that he fell asleep the moment he lay 
 down. 
 
 Hendrik had at last begun to paint. He sat 
 hour after hour in the shade of an ancient fan- 
 palm, staring with screwed-up eyes after the ele- 
 mental colours which no human eye had seen. 
 
 He was not altogether successful. Although 
 he saw the colours, they escaped him on the way 
 between his eye and his hand; and those that did 
 appear on the canvas, both he and others had 
 seen before. 
 
 He sat there, butting with bulging forehead, 
 his red hair bristling towards the fan-palm which 
 looked on in silence. He fought the good fight 
 until the shirt clung to his back, but nevertheless 
 he failed. 
 
 Then he would fling the brush disconsolately 
 from him, and throw himself sighing and grum- 
 bling on the grass, until he could hear his heart 
 beat in the silence, and Solitude laid its strangling 
 grasp upon his throat, forcing him to sing 
 and shout to get breath.
 
 GENIUS 159 
 
 One evening, after many hours' vain work, he 
 fell asleep in the grass where he had lain down. 
 
 The sun had not yet set. The air was still and 
 heavy; and Hendrik slept, exhausted with his un- 
 successful fight, until a new day pushed its 
 way like a young maiden through the woods, and 
 lighted the unfathomable colours. 
 
 Hendrik sat up and rubbed his eyes. 
 
 He looked dazedly about him and failed to 
 recognize where he was, until his glance fell on 
 the picture which still hung on the home-made 
 easel. 
 
 Then he remembered, and turned away with a 
 sigh. 
 
 He stretched out his arms towards the sun-rays 
 which all the while dazzled his eyes; then went 
 off to his den to procure some breakfast. 
 
 He avoided looking towards the picture, and 
 felt most of all like smashing a hole through the 
 canvas and never touching a brush or palette 
 again; but as he passed by, he could not resist 
 throwing it a glance to see how it looked. 
 
 "What on earth ?" 
 
 Hendrik's jaw dropped, and his eyes almost 
 started from their sockets. 
 
 That picture there was it that he had sworn 
 and cursed about? 
 
 He wiped the perspiration doubtfully from 
 his brow and ran his fingers through his bris- 
 tling hair before approaching nearer. 
 
 He bent down over his painting-case. There
 
 160 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 lay the palette. The paints he had put up the 
 day before were jumbled all together in the 
 middle in one indescribable colour-mixture. 
 
 Then he looked again at the canvas. In the 
 foreground there still stood the tall grass and 
 a part of the palm-trunk. But in the middle dis- 
 tance palm crown, bushes, leaves, and fruit 
 merged into a sky of the same indescribable yellow 
 which shone from the palette and the still wet 
 brush. 
 
 There it stood, patch upon patch of vivid 
 colour, streaked with wonderful shafts of light, 
 the green palm-trunk shining palely through ; the 
 faint film of azure. 
 
 Hendrik scratched his head and rubbed his 
 brow. He screwed up his eyes and divided the 
 picture both vertically and horizontally with his 
 hand. He went quite close and examined the 
 brush strokes, then drew back again to get in 
 focus,. Abruptly it flashed upon him what had 
 happened. 
 
 The riddle was solved. 
 
 Sunrise in the Jungle that was what he had 
 painted ! 
 
 These yellow tones there these glowing az- 
 ures these wonderful brush strokes, annihilating 
 all form to reproduce it in light 
 
 It was not painted it was created, breathed 
 on it was Nature herself naked, trembling, 
 divine Nature. 
 
 The construction was haphazard the concep-
 
 GENIUS 161 
 
 tion inconceivable the composition incompre- 
 hensible but seen without glasses peered at 
 from behind the scenes right through symbols 
 and technique and art and hocus-pocus . . . 
 
 Awake, he had fought like a madman; and then 
 by night, whilst his body slept, his soul had con- 
 tinued the struggle. In the mists of daybreak 
 genius had lifted its wings. It had risen in its 
 pristine strength, broken the bonds of ego, flung 
 convention and art and all connected with hurry- 
 scurry aside, grasped the brush, made Nature 
 come forth before his dreaming eye, and forced 
 her to unveil herself. 
 
 "Hurrah! Hurrah . . . !" 
 
 Long live the great Hendrik Koort! 
 
 Daniel ! Jakob ! Pieter ! why was there no 
 one to see it with him, and bow down in worship 
 before the masterpiece that had sprung into 
 being? 
 
 When his excitement had subsided a little, 
 Hendrik sat down cross-legged on the ground, 
 and with folded hands gazed devoutly at the 
 picture. 
 
 How perfect it was how utterly, how sub- 
 limely perfect! 
 
 Not a stroke of it would he alter now that he 
 was awake. 
 
 Would that he could always sleep in such a 
 manner !
 
 XX : THE POETIC 
 CRYSTALS 
 
 EACH morning, when Daniel awoke in his 
 lofty dwelling, he stood before his stone 
 castle and, facing the sun, once more 
 took possession of his kingdom. 
 
 But he had a feeling that something was miss- 
 ing. 
 
 There were plenty of proud tree-tops to gaze 
 out over; but they were silent, and he was not at 
 all certain that they noticed his glance. 
 
 There was no one to fight with, no one to hate, 
 no one of whom to make cutting remarks in 
 short, he missed the Great Beast. 
 
 What should he shatter? Whose great un- 
 mutilated ego should he restore? 
 
 There were big spaces enough, but no one to 
 exalt himself over, and this depressed him. 
 
 He listened to the language of the animals, 
 and noticed one or two new things; but the ele- 
 mental significant sounds, of which he had hoped 
 so much, evaded him. As soon as he began to 
 ask, they became silent; he failed to extract a 
 single poetic crystal from Solitude's solemnity. 
 
 Daniel worried and suffered because he could 
 not crush the island's stubborn opposition. 
 
 One morning, awaking full of fresh energy 
 after a deep sleep, he said to himself: 
 
 162
 
 THE POETIC CRYSTALS 163 
 
 "You must get closer to the body of Nature if 
 you would learn her soul. You must use force. 
 Nature is a woman with a deep secret behind a 
 shut mouth." 
 
 What was it he, so Daniel-like, had written 
 in his little unfortunate drama which the Thieves' 
 Kitchen dishonoured The Bosom of Nature: 
 
 "There is a lock to the bosom; but it is neither 
 fire- nor sword-proof." 
 
 He must begin mankind's Odyssey all over 
 again from the beginning, play the whole piece 
 through, so to speak from the leaf, the fig-leaf. 
 
 "From the fig-leaf to the dinner-jacket and 
 back again!" 
 
 It was an excellent title. With a sigh he aban- 
 doned it; for he now no longer sat piping small, 
 vicious beggar's songs for the Great Beast. 
 
 Now it was the silver trombone that should re- 
 sound with his poet's frenzy. 
 
 And Daniel followed Robinson Crusoe's ex- 
 ample. He made himself bow and arrows, not 
 only for aesthetical reasons, but also because of 
 the many cheeky little fat birds which the fickle 
 island smiled forth over his head and which, even 
 in the midst of his inspiration, reminded him of 
 food. 
 
 The day on which he succeeded in killing a 
 giddy little she-pigeon, which fell as a victim of 
 its curiosity, was one of the most festive in his 
 new existence. 
 
 He gazed long into its glazing eyes, stroked
 
 164 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 gently its soft feathers clotted with its oozing 
 blood, cursed in a rhymeless poem, "Little Sister, 
 
 thou ," the fraternal hand which had so 
 
 brutally caused her life's blood to flow, and 
 devoured it with satisfaction in a delicious soup 
 of peas, yams, and unripe bananas. 
 
 The same afternoon he completed another 
 masterpiece, a coat, woven of the finest grass 
 he could find. It hung like a cuirass round his 
 ribs, and formed a first-class substitute for 
 Hendrik Koort's woollen jersey, which had now 
 to be washed and passed on according to agree- 
 ment. 
 
 That evening when Daniel, after pulling his 
 draw-bridge up the cliff side as usual, turned and 
 gazed out in all directions, searching for signs 
 of the savages who had stolen the clothes, he 
 felt more like the Lord of the Island than ever 
 before. 
 
 Now inspiration would come, he thought. He 
 could feel the poetic crystals welling up in his 
 brain, and resolved to make a start on his great 
 poem. 
 
 "The Voice of Solitude" it should be called. 
 
 The very next day, whilst his Crusoe hands 
 plaited a rope of thin liana creepers, the shuttle 
 of poetry shot to and fro through the warp ; and 
 before the evening he had completed the first 
 stanza. 
 
 "The Lord of the Island" was its title, and it 
 extolled Daniel in supernatural size.
 
 THE POETIC CRYSTALS 165 
 
 He was proud and happy over it. In his first 
 spasm of creative joy he uttered a sigh of long- 
 ing for the Great Beast at home in Amsterdam; 
 but he caught himself at it, heaped ridicule on 
 his weakness, and even determined not to court 
 the applause of his fellow-islanders on the follow- 
 ing Sunday. 
 
 Whilst the golden sun glided into the bosom of 
 the distant palms, and all living things stretched 
 their heads to catch the vanishing rays; whilst 
 the birds sat listening, each on the edge of its bed, 
 and began to preen their plumage for the night, 
 Daniel stood before his castle, his head lifted 
 high, his glance on the glowing palm-tops, and 
 recited his lordship poem over the island. 
 
 In the same instant as the last stanza passed 
 his lips, it sounded as if some one laughed among 
 the bushes. 
 
 His heart stopped beating. He was seized 
 with panic but only for a moment. Then he 
 took his bow and arrow, strode over the open 
 place, and for fully ten minutes stood on guard 
 before the thicket, every sense on the alert. 
 
 Dearly would he sell his life, now that the 
 poetic crystals had begun to break loose. 
 
 Nothing appeared. Daniel lay down to rest 
 like a hero, convinced that it was Nature itself, 
 laughing defiance to his master poem. 
 
 It was the voice of Solitude answering him, 
 the voice his poem strove to capture. 
 
 Now he longed for his fellows with a tenfold
 
 166 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 force, yes, even if it were only Pieter Goy. Not 
 from fear of loneliness, Daniel was never 
 afraid, but only to report to them the great and 
 terrible thing that Nature had condescended to 
 defy him. 
 
 Upon waking next morning after a restless, 
 dream-disturbed night, he examined the rope lad- 
 der carefully to see whether it had been tampered 
 with. He looked round cautiously in all direc- 
 tions before venturing out, armed himself with 
 bow and arrow, and went forward to explore the 
 wood. 
 
 Supposing it had not been Nature, but the 
 savages instead, who had mocked him yesterday; 
 in that case his bow was but a feeble weapon. 
 
 The instinct to rule sank slowly through him, 
 from his heart to his stomach, down to his knees, 
 where it remained. 
 
 Suddenly a distant shot reached his ears. His 
 knees began trembling. Then the blood rushed 
 to his cheeks in relief. 
 
 Of course, it was Pieter Goy. He had had 
 the gun for his night-watch. Daniel now remem- 
 bered that he had given no order for it to be 
 replaced in the depot. 
 
 So Pieter had been swaggering about with the 
 gun the whole week, while Daniel the island's 
 ruler had but a miserable home-made bow to 
 play with. 
 
 Daniel went red with vexation, and determined 
 to call him to account at once.
 
 THE POETIC CRYSTALS 167 
 
 Not because he, Daniel, desired human com- 
 panionship, not because he was afraid, he who 
 loved Solitude and by it would beget the great 
 poem; far less because he expected that Pieter 
 had shot birds or other delicious game, but 
 merely because Daniel was offended to the depths 
 of his being at this defiance of the law, and be- 
 cause it was his duty once and for all to teach 
 Pieter Goy who was real master of the island. 
 
 Daniel set off at once. When by way of the 
 depot he at last reached Pieter Goy's house, the 
 latter was preparing his midday meal. 
 
 Pieter had just opened the last of the tinned 
 preserves he had taken from the stores; suddenly 
 he heard a noise, and saw Daniel himself peer- 
 ing down over the cliff. 
 
 When the Lord of the Island at length stood 
 before him, it was with a stern, gloomy face. 
 
 Goy hastened to show him all that he owned 
 house and shed, food-cupboard, sun-sail, and fish- 
 ing-net; but it did not mollify his visitor. Quite 
 the reverse ! And when Daniel at last caught 
 sight of the gun, he demanded an explanation 
 both regarding that and the tins, of which he 
 counted five in all, now doing duty as house uten- 
 sils,. 
 
 Goy turned red in the face, and said in excuse 
 that nothing had been said about replacing the 
 gun. He hastened to offer Daniel a home-made 
 cigar, and invited him to dinner. But when all 
 his attempts at conciliation failed he blew out his
 
 168 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 fat cheeks, struck his arms akimbo, and said that 
 after all the tins belonged just as much to him 
 as to any one else. Had not Daniel himself said 
 that property rights were one of the old Society's 
 worst evils ! And now he came along just like a 
 policeman at home. 
 
 Daniel smiled patronizingly. 
 
 "You are quite right," he said, "and it is for 
 that very reason that you may not retain the gun." 
 
 Pieter rallied his thoughts. Then it suddenly 
 struck him that Daniel did not grudge him the 
 gun. He had, of course, heard him shoot, and 
 wanted something nice to eat for himself. 
 
 "Quite true," said Pieter meekly. "I had not 
 thought of that. I only thought it was a pity 
 for the gun to lie there and rust. But if any one 
 is to have it, then, of course, it must be you, 
 Daniel, who are the rightful master of the island. 
 Here you are !" 
 
 He held out the gun to Daniel. At the same 
 moment he glanced up towards the bushes at the 
 edge of the cliff, where a pair of love-sick pigeons 
 were playing tag. 
 
 "Ssh!" he whispered. "See those pigeons 
 there I Quick, shoot them, and we'll have a rare 
 feed!" 
 
 Daniel looked up. He had never in his life 
 fired off a gun; but he could not dream of ac- 
 knowledging the fact, and therefore raised the 
 gun as best he could to his shoulder.
 
 THE POETIC CRYSTALS 169 
 
 But he could not sight it properly, neither did 
 he feel at all tiappy at the thought of the thing 
 going off so near his face; it kicked like a horse, 
 he had heard; and then, supposing he fired and 
 missed, the birds would fly away and a good din- 
 ner vanish before his eyes. 
 
 "I am so out of practice," he whispered, and 
 handed the gun to Pieter; "my sight is not very 
 good either. You had better shoot." 
 
 Pieter did so, and brought down both the birds. 
 
 Daniel made himself comfortable; and while 
 Pieter prepared the game for the pot, talking 
 volubly the whole time without a moment's pause, 
 the island king's heart began to soften. 
 
 As he thought over the matter and remembered 
 that neither Hendrik nor Jakob was any more 
 expert with the gun than himself, he decided it 
 would be perfectly justifiable to leave it with 
 Pieter to whom, after all, it had belonged in the 
 old Society on condition that Pieter provided 
 a Sunday dinner of game for all. 
 
 Daniel had forgotten for the moment that 
 animal food was unlawful. Goy remembered 
 well that it should be used only in necessity; but 
 he did not like to remind the other of this it 
 would look as if he were setting himself up 
 against Daniel. 
 
 On the contrary he hastened to clinch the agree- 
 ment with Daniel ; and when, towards evening, he 
 took leave of his visitor, after having accom-
 
 170 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 panied him a considerable distance on his journey, 
 Daniel was more subdued and mild than he had 
 ever known him before. 
 
 The Lord of the Island, after what seemed 
 an endless journey, reached his rocky fortress; 
 he was terribly tired in the arms through carrying 
 all the game and other delicacies presented him 
 by Pieter as a foretaste of his Sunday portion.
 
 XXI: EVE FROM THE SEA 
 
 ONE calm, sweltering afternoon Pieter Goy 
 at last finished his fishing-trap, and carry- 
 ing it down to the point of land which 
 formed one arm of the lagoon, prepared to put 
 it in the water. 
 
 Just as he had found a place for the poles, and 
 had bound the trap fast between them, he noticed 
 a sinister, low-lying cloud out beyond the foam 
 belt of the coral reef. 
 
 It was so dark and compact that the wings of 
 the seagulls shone white against its background. 
 
 Pieter scratched his head doubtfully; but the 
 sweat ran off him in the stifling air, and he was 
 aching with fatigue all over his back. 
 
 Supposing there did come a violent shower 
 what then? The trap would not come to any 
 harm. Besides, he had heard that fish were more 
 willing to enter the net in dull weather. In 
 bright weather they preferred lying about, sun- 
 bathing, near the surface. 
 
 So he left the net in the lap of the gods and 
 sauntered homewards. But before he had pro- 
 gressed farther than the end of the bay, a violent 
 gust of wind came rushing through the young 
 tree-crowns above his head. 
 
 It was as if the wood had emitted a long- 
 171
 
 172 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 drawn-out howl. With such violence did it come. 
 
 Pieter buttoned Hendrik's jersey well up under 
 his chin to protect him from the sudden cold. 
 He hesitated for a while and then, with a sigh, 
 began to retrace his steps to take in the net again. 
 
 But he had scarcely gone three-score paces to- 
 wards the point when there came another gust 
 even more violent than the first. It threw itself 
 from the tree-tops and swept along so close to the 
 ground that it struck him on the head and then 
 fled whistling out over the lagoon, which was 
 now as black as ink and looked as if it were being 
 flayed alive by the wind. 
 
 Again 'came a blast, this time almost flinging 
 him to the ground. He gasped for breath. 
 Simultaneously the rain crackled down over 
 leaves and stems, whipping the shallow water of 
 the lagoon so that the spray rose in the air like 
 the rays of a fountain. 
 
 Pieter, abandoning all idea of reaching his net, 
 fought his way back, step by step, against the 
 storm; but long before he reached his house he 
 was as wet as it was humanly possible to be. 
 
 He had only his old shirt into which to change, 
 except for a mat which he had woven for his bed- 
 cover. 
 
 These he put on, afterwards wringing the 
 water out of Hendrik's woollen jersey, the rain 
 meanwhile beating incessantly upon his plantain- 
 leaf roof. 
 
 Pieter's house stood in the lee of the cliff.
 
 EVE FROM THE SEA 173 
 
 But through the opening over the door he could 
 see the trees beyond the courtyard reeling under 
 the whiplash of the storm. He heard them 
 shrieking and groaning, while in the distance 
 through the tree-stems he could see white foam- 
 topped waves in the previously so calm la- 
 goon. 
 
 Pieter rescued his awning in time. But before 
 he got it into the house it was so dark he could 
 see nothing but the wall of rain, which, grey and 
 compact, shut out the last light of day. 
 
 Pieter thought no longer of his net. Now it 
 was the music overhead which made him hold 
 his breath in fear. 
 
 It came from the old trees on the slope above 
 the cliff. Creaking and howling, they lifted 
 their voices, stretching out their arms towards 
 the hut in despair, as if beseeching its occupant 
 for help. 
 
 He dared not lie down to rest. Supposing a 
 tree were to lose its hold and smash through his 
 roof! He stood before the door, listening iftto 
 the frightful night. 
 
 Minutes passed and became hours. In the 
 distance beyond the shriek of the trees and the 
 water's eternal streaming, now sounded a dull 
 roar. 
 
 It was the sea, he thought. Perhaps it was 
 rising, driven by the storm. Perhaps it would 
 come rushing in over the lagoon, up through the 
 bay, trampling all things under foot, until, reach-
 
 174 TH E PROMISED ISLE 
 
 ing the cliff, it would lift his house like a door 
 from its hinges and tear away with it out over 
 the reef. 
 
 Rigid with horror he folded his hands and in 
 the same moment thought of Jakob Beer, the 
 cripple, with his wretched plantain hut. If only 
 he had built him a better one ! 
 
 Whilst he listened, his head almost bursting, 
 he raked together all the prayers he could re- 
 member. 
 
 He knew not whether it was the waterfall 
 swollen with the cloud-burst, or the streams of 
 rain, grown to a flood, that seethed and bubbled 
 through treeroots and grass. Or whether the 
 ghastly noise really was the sea, stretching its 
 octopus arms over the island. 
 
 The night was as black as a bottomless hole, 
 but every cubic inch of it was filled with incom- 
 prehensible sounds, amorphous activity. 
 
 Suddenly something that sounded like a human 
 shriek rose from the sea. Could it be one of his 
 comrades? Or was it the savages who had 
 plundered the clothes? 
 
 At last the wind swung round to the west. It 
 released its hold of the trees on the slope. They 
 rose up sighing in their rags and drew breath 
 again, while the storm now flung itself upon the 
 bamboo grove. 
 
 His house was no longer in danger. The sin- 
 ister bubbling and seething had ceased. He 
 threw himself down on the bed, intending only to
 
 EVE FROM THE SEA 175 
 
 rest for a few moments; but he fell almost im- 
 mediately into a sleep of utter exhaustion. 
 
 It was broad daylight when Pieter awoke. 
 
 The light poured in through the opening over 
 the door more strongly than usual. 
 
 With a start he leapt to his feet and looked 
 out. It was the storm which had thinned out 
 the trees between his dwelling-place and the 
 strand. 
 
 There they were, stretched helter-skelter, 
 naked and broken, the young, slim trees in the 
 oozing water. The ocean had been right up to 
 the waterfall. There lay horrid sea-animals 
 clinging to the wet limestone which shone 
 smoothly in the morning sun. 
 
 Another yard, and Pieter would have had the 
 sea up in his bed. Now it had retreated 
 with the ebbing tide, its track clearly marked 
 through the reeds and grass. 
 
 Pieter shouldered his home-made mattock and 
 ventured out towards the point to see what had 
 become of his priceless fish-trap. 
 
 As he walked along the steeply-sloping strand, 
 slipping on the wet limestone at the edge of the 
 sea, he heard a rustling on the slope of the point 
 as of a large animal. He grasped his mattock 
 firmly and looked round. 
 
 Why on earth had he left the gun at home? 
 He dared not proceed before he was sure that no 
 danger threatened. For it was necessary to se- 
 cure his line of retreat.
 
 176 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 He turned aside towards the sound, and 
 walked cautiously upwards. 
 
 Again the heavy breathing near him as of a 
 wounded animal. 
 
 He held his breath, hesitated for a moment 
 with beating heart, and then went forward again, 
 at the same time pushing aside the tall reeds 
 which the shelter of the slope had saved from 
 destruction. 
 
 A shriek rang out so close to him that his legs 
 almost collapsed. 
 
 There cowering back against the wet side of 
 the slope sat a naked brown creature, with arms 
 stretched out stiffly in deadly terror. The pupils 
 glittered like phosphorus out of the dazzling 
 whites of the eyes. The thick lips were rigidly 
 parted over the chattering teeth. 
 
 It was a woman. 
 
 Round her hips hung the tattered remnants of 
 a loin-cloth. In other respects she was fresh 
 from the hands of the Creator. Her breast went 
 in and out convulsively, and from under the 
 short, curly black hair the sweat of fear trickled 
 down over her smooth forehead. 
 
 When Pieter had recovered a little from the 
 shock, he looked carefully in either direction 
 along the slope to see if there were more of the 
 same sort. Then he moved nearer to her. 
 
 But at the first step he made, she flung herself 
 down before him, with palms and face flat on the 
 wet earth.
 
 EVE FROM THE SEA 177 
 
 Pieter gazed down in astonishent at her bare 
 brown back. 
 
 "She believes I am an evil spirit," he thought, 
 and began to speak kindly to her. 
 
 "I shall do you no harm," said he, in a child- 
 like voice, at the same time touching her firm 
 shoulder to comfort her. 
 
 She bounded to her feet, and would have fled; 
 but Pieter seized her arm and held fast. 
 
 How she trembled ! 
 
 He felt sorry for her, and began patting the 
 slim, cinnamon-brown arm, whi'ch was quite warm 
 to his touch. 
 
 "She is only about eighteen years old," he 
 thought, running his glance over her hips. 
 
 Her face contracted. She stammered a whole 
 volley of trembling words, pointing at the same 
 time with her free arm in a certain direction, and 
 thereupon carrying her hand to her mouth. 
 
 Pieter shook his head. But at last he under- 
 stood that she begged him urgently to follow her. 
 
 He walked behind, without releasing his hold 
 on her. Several hundred steps farther on he 
 caught sight of a canoe, lying shattered between 
 the rocks on the strand. When they approached 
 quite close he saw, lying behind the canoe, the 
 dead body of a naked brown man. 
 
 Before Pieter had time to recover from his 
 surprise, the woman threw herself upon the 
 corpse, tears streaming from her eyes and sobs 
 choking her throat.
 
 178 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Between her spasms of grief she kept trying to 
 explain something to him. And when he merely 
 gaped at her non-comprehendingly, she lifted the 
 dead man's arm, while her tear-filled eyes, re- 
 sembling dark, ripe grapes, invited him to do 
 something he could not guess. 
 
 She raised the dead man's shoulder on to her 
 lap, smoothed it with both hands, looked up again 
 at Pieter, and, seeing he did not understand, bent 
 down over the shoulder and made as if to set her 
 teeth in the brown skin. 
 
 The truth suddenly flashed upon Pieter Goy. 
 
 "She is afraid I shall eat her; that's why she 
 shrieked when I touched her shoulder," he 
 thought. 
 
 "Now she beseeches me, while she weeps over 
 the dead, to fix my teeth in the fresh corpse in- 
 stead of in her. 
 
 "See, he is much fatter and tastier than I", say 
 her anxious eyes, as she points with trembling 
 hands to the flesh on the young man's shoulder." 
 
 Pieter could not refrain from laughing, al- 
 though her suggestion nauseated him. But he 
 stopped immediately with a feeling of shame, 
 After all, it was a dead man. 
 
 Then he thought of a means of calming her. 
 He took a dried banana out of his food-bag, sat 
 down on the canoe, broke the banana in two, 
 offered her one piece, and began to eat the other 
 himself. 
 
 She looked at him with open mouth. Then
 
 EVE FROM THE SEA 179 
 
 her whole face cleared. She took the banana, 
 let the fear of death slip from her, and, sitting 
 down with her arms crossed on her lap, began to 
 eat ravenously. 
 
 It was such a long time since Pieter Goy had 
 seen a woman. He sighed, and thought of 
 Marie of Groeningen, she who had jilted him for 
 the counter-jumper. 
 
 His brow reddened, as he fully realized the 
 brown woman's nakedness, and he turned his eyes 
 aside honourably, but nevertheless threw a smile 
 to her occasionally. 
 
 She sat there like a small, obedient, and watch- 
 ful dog, now that she was reassured. Every ex- 
 pression that crossed his face she copied to the 
 best of her ability. 
 
 He gave her another banana ; then made a sign 
 for her to help him. He hacked up the ground 
 with his mattock. She dug with her hands in 
 the wet places. After much labour they suc- 
 ceeded in excavating a hole large enough to con- 
 tain the dead man. 
 
 As Pieter began to throw the earth upon him, 
 the girl burst into tears. 
 
 "She is used to cremation, I suppose," thought 
 Pieter. "But we won't have any of that kind of 
 heathenism here." 
 
 He made a large cross in the air, and said the 
 Lord's Prayer in a loud voice over the grave. 
 
 Then he grasped the bow of the canoe, and 
 made a sign to her to lift the other end. He
 
 i8o THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 wished to take the boat home and repair it. 
 
 Not until he began to drag the boat along by 
 himself did she understand. 
 
 Without a word she wrenched it from him, 
 dragged it up on her shoulders, and placed her- 
 self before him, like a beast of burden waiting 
 for orders from its master. 
 
 Pieter was touched. He felt ashamed at al- 
 lowing a woman to carry for them both, but re- 
 solved, nevertheless, to humour her. 
 
 He walked behind, his eyes on her slim, strong 
 legs as she rocked herself along under the heavy 
 burden. The sight affected him strangely, and 
 he decided to call her "Eve" because she was so 
 naked. 
 
 When Eve caught sight of Pieter's house she 
 dropped the canoe in amazement. She crouched 
 down on her haunches before the door, rubbing 
 her hands to and fro over her shins. 
 
 While Pieter was preparing breakfast she fol- 
 lowed his movements with the greatest interest. 
 
 Her lips moved incessantly, but he could not 
 hear what she said. 
 
 When she had eaten what he gave her of his 
 abundance, she expressed her gratitude in vari- 
 ous natural sounds, and when they had finished, 
 lay down at his feet, her black grape-eyes, 
 bursting with humility, staring straight up into 
 his.
 
 EVE FROM THE SEA 181 
 
 Pieter pondered for a long while whether he 
 should immediately seek out his comrades to 
 report the great event and show them the girl. 
 Or whether he should wait till Sunday. 
 
 While thinking, he kept stroking her, now on 
 the back, now along the arms, his heart becoming 
 more and more tender with each movement he 
 made. 
 
 When he endeavoured to open a conversation 
 with her, she showed her teeth in a smile, and cop- 
 ied all the movements of his mouth. 
 
 By the time evening came, he had built her a 
 hut a few steps distant from his own. He had 
 tied Hendrik's woolen jersey round her waist so 
 that she might be more decently clad. 
 
 But as he was showing her to bed the thought 
 suddenly occurred to him that she might run away 
 during the night. 
 
 Perhaps she had not been washed up at all 
 from a neighbouring island, as he had at once 
 concluded. Possibly she was one of the savages 
 who had lain in ambush on him and his comrades 
 and stolen their clothes. Perhaps she had come 
 to spy on them! Now that the night had come, 
 perhaps it was her intention to sneak back to her 
 own people and report what she had learnt. 
 
 He could tie her to the hut. But what was 
 there to tie her with which she or others could 
 not break? 
 
 No! there was nothing else to do he must
 
 182 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 have her in with him so as to be safe against 
 treachery. 
 
 Pieter's face reddened at the thought. He 
 was an honourable soul, and had never quite for- 
 gotten Marie from Groeningen. 
 
 And once more, as he dragged back the bed he 
 had made for her and arranged it under his own 
 roof merely to be safe against treachery once 
 more his thoughts dwelt on his life's great dis- 
 appointment, until his heart began to beat more 
 violently. 
 
 But when he saw Eve's white teeth shining in 
 the evening sun, while her large eyes sought to 
 stare every wish out of his white body; when he 
 felt her warm skin against his hand, as she pushed 
 past him through the doorway of their common 
 sleeping-chamber, then he once for all bid 
 defiance to his past and to Marie of Groenin- 
 gen. 
 
 "Probably she has forgotten all about me and 
 is perfectly happy," he thought; and went in after 
 Eve, who had already stretched herself at full 
 length on her couch and lay gazing at him with 
 her large, worshipping eyes. Her gaze sent a 
 curious thrill through him. 
 
 Pieter slept little that night for he had to keep 
 watch on his charge. And when Eve began to 
 move and sigh, he talked kindly to her, telling her 
 she must not be afraid and believe after all that 
 he was an evil spirit or a cannibal.
 
 EVE FROM THE SEA 183 
 
 Next morning Pieter Goy changed his mind. 
 
 He would not take Eve with him to his com- 
 rades, neither on that day nor on the Sunday 
 following. It would only lead to misunderstand- 
 ings, he thought; better to keep her hidden. 
 
 As he sat at ease in the sunshine before his 
 door, watching Eve bustling round after twigs for 
 the fire, according to his directions, his glance 
 dwelt delightedly on her firm, graceful figure. 
 
 He laughed softly to himself, as he thought 
 of Daniel and Hendrik and Jakob poor brutes, 
 wandering about chasing their poetry and their 
 painting and their music 1 
 
 "Y.es Pieter Goy, you rogue 1" he thought 
 "I, too, have found an object in life but it is one 
 of flesh and blood, which you can take hold of 
 and feel. I, too, can create something, and it 
 shall be to make this pretty brown girl into a real 
 Eve after my own heart one who will stick to a 
 man through thick and thin, and admire and be 
 thankful for what he does for her. One who 
 will not fly to the arms of the first-come-first- 
 served counter-jumper that happens to come 
 along. 
 
 "When she is a little more decently dressed 
 during the day" he added "there will be noth- 
 ing she need be ashamed of. 
 
 "So much for that!"
 
 XXII : PETER GOY'S 
 STRENGTH OF MIND 
 
 PIETER looked forward to a care-free, 
 happy future. 
 He no longer needed to make his own fire. 
 He had a woman to fetch water for him, to clean 
 up, to sit at home and look after the hut when he 
 went out shooting, to pluck and prepare birds 
 for cooking. 
 
 He had some one to answer his every nod, to 
 scratch the mosquito bites on his back, to fan him 
 when he found it too warm to snarl at when he 
 had slept badly and was sulky. 
 
 She could, of course, wrinkle her black brow 
 in anger and pout her thick lips. But answer him 
 back or oppose a man's will, after the manner 
 of bad women, she neither wished nor dared. 
 
 In short, she served him faithfully by day and 
 by night. 
 
 Pieter Goy no longer missed his beloved 
 Amsterdam. It is true he would have liked to 
 keep chickens and rabbits, but as that was im- 
 possible he spent more and more of his time in 
 the work with which God had entrusted him: 
 to educate Eve into a faithful assistant according 
 to the good old Dutch ideas inherited from his 
 forefathers. 
 
 Naturally he found it annoying that there was 
 184
 
 STRENGTH OF MIND 185 
 
 no one to envy him his good fortune. And, when 
 Sunday came round, it was a disappointment that 
 he could not take her with him to the meeting- 
 place. 
 
 He exhorted her by word and sign to vigilance 
 and industry. He directed her to finish plaiting 
 the mat which he had on hand, in order that sin- 
 ful thoughts should not take possession of her 
 and cause her to steal things which Pieter had 
 hidden in what he called his safe. He sought by 
 means of signs to impress upon her that up above 
 an Eye is always watching; but she misunderstood 
 him, and fetched the sun-shade which he had made 
 out of plantain leaves. 
 
 He gave it up and started off, while she stood 
 for a long while in the doorway watching him. 
 Each time he turned, his eyes met her honest face, 
 her obvious depression at his departure filling 
 him with elation. 
 
 Pieter had spent many unhappy Sundays on Sun 
 Island, but this one seemed to him the most un- 
 satisfactory of them all. 
 
 Perhaps it was because he himself felt so well 
 and happy that the others appeared even more 
 sulky and bad-tempered by contrast. 
 
 Jakob Beer was so hoarse that he could not 
 speak. The terrible cloud-burst had broken the 
 plantain framework of his house, smashed in the 
 roof, and put him and his bed under water. The 
 damage was now repaired, but his chill remained. 
 And what was even worse for the cripple his
 
 186 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 poor violin had also got wet and was as hoarse 
 as himself. 
 
 Hendrik Koort extolled the wonders of the 
 island with a wealth of sarcasm that made Daniel 
 alternately flush and turn pale. Even the good- 
 natured Pieter Goy felt indignant. 
 
 Hendrik had been forced to spend the night of 
 the storm up in his old nest, the water having 
 flooded his hollow tree. Not only had he been 
 tortured with rheumatism ever since, but when, 
 towards dawn, he had succeeded in wooing slum- 
 ber, he had been awakened by a branch, broken 
 off by the storm, falling down on to his left leg, 
 making it green and yellow right up to the knee. 
 
 Daniel's only misfortune lay in one of his home- 
 made garments having been carried away by the 
 hurricane over the tree-tops somewhere into the 
 lagoon or sea. It had been hanging up on some 
 branches, and Daniel had forgotten to take it in. 
 
 Pieter comforted his brethren as well as he 
 could. He spoke with conviction of all they owed 
 to Sun Island. He extolled the blessings of 
 Solitude to such lengths that even Daniel lost 
 patience and told him to shut up. 
 
 Hendrik glanced irritably at him and said: 
 
 "Perhaps you slept through it all since you are 
 so cheerful." 
 
 They closed in round him to hear how he had 
 managed to weather the storm so well. 
 
 Pieter, with a beaming face, told of that
 
 STRENGTH OF MIND 187 
 
 terrible night which threatened to shatter his 
 house, and of the sea which had climbed to within 
 a few feet of his court-yard. 
 
 Finally, he mentioned quite casually the loss 
 of his valuable net as if it were merely a cocoa-nut 
 the sea had stolen. As he sat there with legs 
 crossed comfortably before the fire, luxuriously 
 puffing his home-made tobacco, the dimples twink- 
 ling in his fat, smiling countenance at the thought 
 of what the sea had given him instead of his net, 
 they marvelled at the development of their erst- 
 while waiter, and envied his strength of mind. 
 
 Jakob Beer thought of the cosy house with its 
 sun-sail and food-cupboard. He looked down 
 guiltily, afraid lest the others should read in his 
 eyes of his secret excursion. 
 
 "It's only because Pieter is so stupid," thought 
 Hendrik; but nevertheless promised himself to 
 steal a visit to learn his system. 
 
 Daniel looked Pieter steadily in the eyes and 
 thought of the good dinner he had had at his 
 house. He preferred not to mention his visit, al- 
 though of course he had only been there on a law- 
 ful errand in his capacity as Lord of the Island. 
 
 Pieter, as he produced his Sunday tribute, also 
 kept silent with regard to the visit and the agree- 
 ment. They merely appeared to be gifts. 
 There were two fine birds to each, and one extra 
 for Daniel on account of his delicate digestion.
 
 i88 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Hendrik's sulky face lit up. He patted Goy 
 on the back, and for the first time in many days 
 uttered his native call. 
 
 Jakob Beer stroked the birds' plumage with 
 his long, thin fingers, speaking touching words 
 on mankind as Nature's brutal enemy. Then 
 fearing to offend Pieter, who had been so kind 
 to him, he said, "It's not you I mean. You 
 understand that, don't you, Pieter?" 
 
 Pieter nodded and smiled. He had not been 
 listening. He was wondering what Eve was do- 
 ing in his absence. 
 
 If the others only knew 
 
 Should he tell them ? 
 
 No, thanks he was not quite mad! 
 
 Pieter, however, could not restrain his elation. 
 It must have an outlet somehow. As he stood, 
 keeping an eye on the soup, he began suddenly to 
 sing with reckless gaiety: 
 
 "Oh, God is good! He gives us, 
 To bless our life, a loving wife." 
 
 He did not know he had the good old song in his 
 head until the words burst from his lips of their 
 own accord. But once having found them, he 
 fairly revelled in them, singing them over and 
 over again the same two lines; that was all he 
 knew. 
 
 Jakob was the only one to notice that Pieter 
 sang out of tune. The other two saw only that
 
 STRENGTH OF MIND 189 
 
 their steady, sedate old ex-waiter had suddenly 
 become another being. 
 
 His round eyes glowed delightedly, his flat feet 
 tripped in waltz time, his arms swayed in the air 
 just as at home at Groeningen he had danced with 
 Marie at the gun-club ball before the counter- 
 jumper appeared in the offing. 
 
 None of them had seen him behave in such a 
 manner before. 
 
 Hendrik was nonplussed for a moment. Then, 
 laughing until the tears trickled down in his red 
 beard, he joined in the dance, and slid into 
 Marie's place in Pieter's open arms. 
 
 Daniel wondered at first whether it was possible 
 that Pieter had managed to smuggle some Dutch 
 schnapps with him to the island or whether he 
 had perhaps succeeded in distilling some home- 
 made intoxicant in the same way as he had fab- 
 ricated tobacco. 
 
 But finding the riddle insoluble, he sat with 
 half-closed eyes, and contented himself with study- 
 ing the phenomenon.
 
 XXIII : A GOOD AND 
 RIGHT-MINDED WOMAN 
 
 JAKOB BEER again had one of his attacks. 
 As he opened his eyes to the world after an 
 extra long spell at the great symphony, his 
 eyes encountered once more Solitude's vacant, 
 motionless stare from the trees. 
 
 Shaking with terror he crept into his hut, hung 
 the leaves over the opening, and, closing his eyes, 
 endeavoured to sleep. But he could not. He 
 heard all Nature's inexplicable noises surrounding 
 him, and saw daylight creep in through the chinks 
 in the foliage before at last he managed to snatch 
 a couple of hours' restless slumber. 
 
 He awoke, sprang up, slung his violin on his 
 back, swallowed some eggs and bananas, and 
 crept, with a guilt-stricken conscience, along the 
 path leading to Pieter Goy's house, to seek from 
 him some of the marvellous spiritual strength 
 with which Pieter had astonished them all on the 
 last occasion they were together. Perhaps also 
 Pieter had something good to eat lying about 
 somewhere or other. For Jakob was famished 
 after his long day's work, his spasm of terror, 
 and his restless night. 
 
 On the occasion of his last visit he had discov- 
 ered a short cut leading directly to Pieter's bam- 
 
 190
 
 A GOOD WOMAN 191 
 
 boo grove, so that he no longer had to make the 
 long detour past the meeting-place. 
 
 It was a beautiful morning, with the songs of 
 birds overhead and a fresh breeze from the sea, so 
 that Jakob little by little forgot that he followed 
 forbidden paths. He hummed the piece of sym- 
 phony he had struggled with the day before ; and 
 almost before he was aware of it, Pieter's bam- 
 boo grove lay before him, shimmering in the sun- 
 light, there just on the other side of the clearing. 
 
 Ten minutes later he stood peering down over 
 the edge of the cliff behind Pieter's house. 
 
 The cooking-pot hung over the ashes of a fire. 
 The sun-sail was erected. Jakob could see by the 
 shadow that the door of the hut stood ajar; but 
 not a sound was to be heard. 
 
 Could he have left his house without shutting 
 it up, thought Jakob, and called out in a cautious 
 voice : 
 
 "Pieter Pieter Goy!" 
 
 Once. Twice. Then the shadow of the door 
 moved. 
 
 Thank goodness, then, he was at home. Jakob 
 hesitated no longer. He hurried on until he 
 found the descending place, where the path zig- 
 zagged down the face of the cliff. 
 
 Reaching the bottom, he turned towards the 
 house. The next moment he stopped, rigid with 
 amazement. 
 
 There, standing before the doorway, was a
 
 192 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 brown creature with Hendrik's jersey round the 
 loins as sole garment. 
 
 He jumped immediately to the conclusion that 
 Pieter had been attacked, perhaps killed, by the 
 savages, who had thereupon taken possession of 
 the hut. But when he saw that it was a female, 
 who stood staring at him just as terrified as him- 
 self, he thought that perhaps Pieter had captured 
 her while out shooting. 
 
 He felt rather like running away, but curiosity 
 drew him forward. 
 
 He approached slowly and cautiously, while the 
 woman cowered back against the door and looked 
 round for a means of escape. 
 
 When he had reached the fire and cooking-pot, 
 the woman made a sudden decision. Without for 
 a moment removing her shining black eyes from 
 his face, she stooped down, drew out a bundle of 
 peeled bananas from behind the door, and held 
 them out to him, at the same time showing all her 
 white teeth. 
 
 Jakob was so taken by surprise at her sudden 
 friendliness that he almost forgot to accept the 
 gift. But, understanding that it was a sign of 
 friendship and hospitality, he hastened forward 
 and took them in his hand. 
 
 His eyes fell upon her bare breasts, but he re- 
 moved his glance immediately, his face flushing 
 deeply as he ate the bananas with lowered eyes. 
 
 Eve looked him over from head to foot. He
 
 A GOOD WOMAN 193 
 
 was much smaller than her master, besides being 
 crooked and thin. The only thing about him 
 that still caused her anxiety was that curious 
 weapon on his back. 
 
 Jakob, as if reading her thoughts, at the same 
 moment removed the violin and hung it over the 
 door. 
 
 She uttered a guttural sound of joy, retreated 
 for a moment behind the hut, and reappeared 
 with a bowl of fresh cocoa-nut milk, which she 
 held out towards him with both her brown hands 
 again exposing her teeth. 
 
 She was so friendly that Jakob began to feel 
 quite bashful. He had never been a favourite 
 with ladies, and seldom mixed with them at home. 
 And the fact that his hostess now stood so close 
 to him, her brown breasts exposed in the glare of 
 the sunlight, caused him such embarrassment 
 he had not been near an uncovered female bosom 
 since the time when, nine months' old, he was 
 weaned that he grew quite confused, and felt 
 it somehow to be impolite to stand with head 
 covered while his hostess was so airily clad. 
 
 As he grasped the bowl with one hand he took 
 off his hat with the other, said, "Thank very 
 much," and made a clumsy bow. 
 
 He drank a couple of mouthfuls, mostly out of 
 politeness, and- was preparing to make signs to 
 inquire Pieter's whereabouts, when something 
 happened which filled him with horror. 
 
 When Eve fully realized that he came in peace
 
 194 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 had he not accepted her gift of bananas and 
 put off his weapons? she soon guessed that this 
 white man must be a friend of her own white 
 master; it was therefore her duty as a good and 
 right-minded woman to fulfil in her lord's absence 
 the visitor's every wish. 
 
 She had offered him food and he had eaten. 
 She had offered him drink and he had drunk. 
 There was now only one thing remaining which 
 she, being a woman, could give her master's guest 
 and friend. 
 
 The fact that he doffed his head-dress indicated 
 clearly that also the third gift would be acceptable 
 to him. Because, where Eve came from, for a 
 warrior to bare his head before a woman meant 
 considerably more than it signifies in Europe. 
 
 Eve, being an honourable brown woman, 
 thought only of fulfilling her duties. As, in addi- 
 tion, the weather was so warm and she had seized 
 the opportunity in Pieter's absence to have a good 
 long sleep in the sun, her duty in this case seemed 
 to her by no means unpleasing. 
 
 As she stood there, her plump, round body 
 curving towards him, Jakob saw her dark eyes 
 suddenly change. Their expression became dull 
 and torpid as of one who had been drinking. 
 She lowered her black, be-curled head humbly and 
 with a fixed smile, began slowly to loosen the 
 knot behind her in which the arms of Hendrik's 
 jersey were tied to keep the garment in position 
 round her hips, let it slide slowly down over her
 
 A GOOD WOMAN 195 
 
 shapely cinnamon-brown legs, gracefully lifted 
 her feet outof it, and stood facing Jakob as the 
 mother of her race stood before Adam, before 
 the fig-leaf made its appearance into the world 
 and religious history. 
 
 Jakob Beer was by nature neither a hero nor a 
 warrior. Life had not taught him to meet the 
 unexpected with a smile. He was chaste and in- 
 experienced, and although it is true he had looked 
 forward to resting awhile naked on the breast of 
 mother earth under the shadows of the palms, he 
 had not imagined for a moment that there would 
 be ladies present. 
 
 His eyes had scarcely followed the jersey on 
 its downward course over the slim female legs, 
 when he started blushing to the roots of his hair 
 and trembling over his whole body. Eve, as- 
 suming from his hesitation that the white man, 
 even as her own master, was too great a chief to 
 help himself off with all his chest- and loin-cloths, 
 dutiful to the last, stretched out her arms to un- 
 button his shirt, at the same time purring like a 
 cat stroked the wrong way. Her touch roused 
 Jakob. 
 
 Horror-struck he flung down the cocoa-nut 
 shell, which he still held in his hands, jammed on 
 his hat, seized the violin from the door, and tore 
 away as fast as his heels could carry him towards 
 the path up the cliff, without casting a single 
 glance behind. 
 
 It was a considerable time before Jakob suffi-
 
 196 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 ciently recovered his presence of mind to think 
 dispassionately over his astounding adventure. 
 
 But when at last he found himself lying in his 
 lonely retreat, gazing, with his hands behind his 
 head, up at the ribs of his leaf-roof, he saw the 
 brown woman so distinctly before his eyes, smiling 
 and unashamed as from the hand of her Maker, 
 that he could have drawn her every curve. 
 
 He went hot and cold alternately, and got no 
 peace from the picture before he had seized his 
 violin and played it out through his finger-tips. 
 
 A totally new theme, quite new tones, flooded 
 forth. They so amazed and intoxicated him that 
 he was within an ace of regretting that he had 
 not tarried a few moments longer and met the 
 naked reality courageously like a man. 
 
 Jakob Beer had now food for thought with a 
 vengeance. So that was the secret of Pieter 
 Goy's new-found optimism! He knew that he 
 ought to feel scandalized, yes, angry, with him 
 for it; but he could not. And before three days 
 had passed he had progressed so far that he en- 
 vied him shamelessly and with his whole heart. 
 
 Then he found comfort in the thought that as 
 there was one woman on the island there might 
 also be others. 
 
 He began to play the most bewitching music 
 he knew; perhaps he would succeed in attracting 
 one of the island's female inhabitants. He 
 called and beguiled on the strings; and when this 
 proved unsuccessful, he dug out from the depths
 
 A GOOD WOMAN 197 
 
 of his memory all the worst jingle-jangle he had 
 ever heard in street or eating-house. Although 
 the sounds tortured him, he climbed up into a 
 bread-fruit tree and played them as loudly as he 
 could to every corner of the island until sud- 
 denly, with a thrill of horror, he lowered his bow. 
 
 For in the gathering darkness it seemed to him 
 that he saw not one but many dusky female forms 
 peering in amazement at him from between the 
 tree-trunks. 
 
 They were small and short-legged, black rather 
 than brown. Over them hung nothing of the 
 splendour which glowed in his memory of the 
 straight, slim legs and the smooth, sun-kissed, 
 cinnamon-brown breasts. 
 
 He stared and stared, and at last knew not 
 whether they were realities or merely creatures 
 of his own phantasy. 
 
 Then he climbed down from the tree and, with 
 a long-drawn sigh, lay down to rest.
 
 XXIV: THE BLESSINGS OF 
 SOLITUDE 
 
 ONE morning, as Hendrik was wandering 
 about under the trees with his sketch- 
 book, he found a beaten track in the 
 grass. 
 
 "Savages," he thought, and considered whether 
 he should turn back; for he had no weapon. But 
 curiosity was too strong for him; he followed the 
 path with long, cautious steps and wide, vigilant 
 eyes. 
 
 He passed through a dense thicket and 
 arrived at a circular clearing. There, on the 
 opposite side, crackled a grove of stiff bamboo 
 canes as close to one another as streaks of water 
 in a rain-storm. 
 
 He remarked that many of the outer canes had 
 been cut down at the point where the path turned, 
 hugging the outskirts of the grove until again 
 entering the thicket. 
 
 He crept along the path and soon reached a 
 sharp ascent, from the top of which could be seen 
 a wood of half-grown saplings, with the waters 
 of the lagoon gleaming through the stems. 
 
 Hearing the splashing of a waterfall, he 
 followed the direction of the sound, and saw the 
 cool, clear waters of a spring toppling down over 
 a low lime-stone cliff. 
 
 198
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF SOLITUDE 199 
 
 Hendrik forgot the danger, threw off his 
 clothes, and took a bath. Then imagining he 
 heard a human voice, he hurriedly dressed again, 
 and sneaked along the foot of the cliff until be- 
 tween the scattered scaplings he saw a man-high, 
 human dwelling with bamboo walls and plantain- 
 leaf roof, with courtyard and sun-sail and chopp- 
 ing-block. 
 
 There, in the bright sunshine, squatted a brown 
 woman peeling bananas. 
 
 "Heavens, it is the village of the savages!" 
 he thought, and glided noiselessly behind a bush. 
 
 But as he crouched there watching, he saw, 
 suspended from a forked branch, a cooking-pot 
 similar to his own; and surely that was Pieter's 
 shirt hanging on a string to dry! 
 
 His first conclusion was that the ex-waiter had 
 fallen a victim to the savages, who had thereupon 
 taken possession of his hut. 
 
 But when he saw that there were no more 
 houses, and no living being other than the brown 
 creature before the door, peace and comfort pre- 
 vailing everywhere, the explanation suddenly 
 flashed upon him; and he realized in the same 
 moment the real nature of the remarkable change 
 in Pieter Goy. 
 
 Hendrik was not bashful. He stamped for- 
 ward on his thick supports, at the same time utter- 
 ing his native call so that Pieter might under- 
 stand who was approaching and come out and 
 receive him.
 
 200 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 The woman dropped the banana, and looked 
 up in the air after the extraordinary bird. 
 
 Then she heard Hendrik' s footsteps and leapt 
 to her feet with a shriek. She was about to flee 
 when she saw that it was another white man like 
 her master, and dared not move. Perhaps it was 
 one of his friends coming to have a chat or strike 
 a bargain. 
 
 When Hendrik reached the courtyard, she 
 shrank back in the doorway trembling; for this 
 white man was big and strong like her own mas- 
 ter, and had a red beard and strange bumps on 
 his forehead. 
 
 "What a sweet little girl!" said Hendrik, wink- 
 ing from force of former habit. 
 
 What a treat to see a woman again, even if she 
 did have cinnamon-coloured skin! 
 
 He looked at her curly hair, her black, grape- 
 like eyes, her firm round bosom agitatedly rising 
 and falling; he looked at her round, protruding 
 stomach, and when he had got thus far he 
 recognized his own old woollen Amsterdam 
 jersey. 
 
 When Hendrik had finished laughing, he 
 pinched her cheek softly, and asked: 
 
 "Where the devil did Pieter Goy get hold of 
 you?" 
 
 Eve had learnt by this time that when a white 
 man touched her on a soft place, it was not as 
 she had at first believed to feel whether she was 
 fat enough and suitable for food, but merely a
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF SOLITUDE 201 
 
 ceremony which meant nothing ill; quite the re- 
 verse, in fact. 
 
 She felt reassured, and showed her white teeth 
 in a smile. 
 
 Hendrik examined the hut and yard in amaze- 
 ment. Here was all that a man needed, and 
 something besides. 
 
 When he found the food-cupboard he helped 
 himself to whatever took his fancy, he was 
 hungry after his bath, squatted on the mat 
 under the sun-sail before the door, and motioned 
 to Eve to sit down also. 
 
 While he ate, his blue eyes never left her. She 
 did not as yet feel sure of him, for he had taken 
 the food himself; but upon his giving her a bone 
 from a cold pigeon he had found in the larder, 
 she regained confidence, and shortly afterwards 
 got up to fetch him something to drink. 
 
 He took the bowl of milk with both hands, 
 poured the entire contents into himself, then 
 smacked his lips and wiped his mouth. When 
 he had finished eating and drinking he put aside 
 his straw hat, dried the sweat from his forehead, 
 and sat up to study her more closely while waiting 
 for Pieter. 
 
 Eve remembered how badly things had gone 
 some days previously with the other white man, 
 who, in spite of having bared his head, had run 
 away just as she was about to perform her su- 
 preme duty. 
 
 She herself did not know what mistake she had
 
 202 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 made, but had nevertheless not dared to mention 
 the visit to her master, since it had terminated so 
 unfortunately. 
 
 Now this fat chief here with the queer bumps 
 on the forehead came along and did not even 
 give her time to offer him the dish of welcome. 
 And now when he removed his head-dress, she 
 really did not know what he meant by it The 
 food he had taken himself. 
 
 As far as she was concerned she preferred the 
 little thin chief, who had smiled so amiably at 
 her. This one was rather too fat, and reminded 
 her too much of her own master. But, on the 
 other hand, he kept edging nearer and nearer to 
 her, and looked at her in a manner she recognized. 
 
 If she were only certain what her duty was 
 towards him, she would, as a good and right- 
 minded woman, do whatever was required of her, 
 especially as it was so warm to-day and she had 
 had a good sleep since her lord departed shooting. 
 
 It was best to feel her way forward, she de- 
 cided, and began to stare into his sky-blue eyes 
 with her dull, torpid look. 
 
 "Oho !" thought Hendrik, feeling moved, and 
 shifting so close to her that there was no longer 
 any space between them. 
 
 "What are you doing with my jersey, you little 
 brown huzzy?" he whispered playfully, at the 
 same time fingering the knot tied by the sleeves, 
 which to-day hung in front of her body. 
 
 Eve purred like a cat. With humbly lowered
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF SOLITUDE 203 
 
 head and thick lips pressed together she hastened 
 to anticipate him, so that the guest should not 
 be placed to the incovenience of helping him- 
 self, as he had with regard to the food. 
 
 Deftly she slipped the jersey down over her 
 slim legs, and when this chief made not the slight- 
 est sign of covering his head and bolting, she felt 
 sure of herself, and in a very short space of time 
 had disencumbered him also of all that could 
 hinder his natural movements. 
 
 Hendrik Koort decided, upon consideration, 
 not to wait any longer for Pieter's return. 
 
 Delighted and grateful for her hospitality, 
 he gazed deep into the brown woman's moist, 
 trustful eyes. 
 
 He sought vainly for something to give her in 
 reward; and, finding nothing else, he at last cut 
 off a brace-button from his trousers. 
 
 She stared joyfully at the shining disc, tried 
 whether it would stick in her hair, and at last put 
 it into her mouth. 
 
 Before they parted, Hendrik endeavoured to 
 explain that he would soon come again. 
 
 She understood perfectly. 
 
 But when he thereupon tried to make it clear 
 that there was no necessity for her to report his 
 visit to her master, he was not sure whether the set 
 look in her black grape-eyes indicated a promise 
 or a refusal. But, putting his trust in woman's 
 natural instinct, he departed in confidence.
 
 204 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 After this discovery, Hendrik frequently took 
 his morning walk in the same direction. He used 
 to lie and listen on the top of the cliff until he 
 was sure that the coast was clear. 
 
 Then he trilled a tiny strophe of his native call. 
 
 Eve always knew it at once. When she was 
 alone, she sprang out of the hut and beckoned 
 eagerly. 
 
 They did not talk of Pieter they found such 
 difficulty in talking at all but otherwise they 
 spent their time well, and Hendrik usually had 
 some little present or other for her which he had 
 found on the way. 
 
 There was a little hole behind a loose piece of 
 rock in the wall of the cliff. Here she hoarded 
 all her small private treasures. It was this hiding 
 place which first convinced Hendrik that her in- 
 nate womanly tact would teach her that a good 
 and right-minded woman should not make mis- 
 chief between friends. 
 
 In this way Hendrik also, after a while, ac- 
 quired the same optimism, the same strength of 
 mind in adversity as displayed by the ex-waiter; 
 and he and Pieter competed at the Sunday meet- 
 ings in singing the praises of Sun Island and the 
 blessings of Solitude. 
 
 Hendrik painted from sunrise to sunset, and 
 made huge progress, inasmuch as he came in much 
 closer contact with life. 
 
 He painted beautiful things from naked, trem-
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF SOLITUDE 205 
 
 bling Nature seen without glasses and behind 
 symbols. 
 
 He no longer painted in his sleep. For 
 Hendrik now slumbered soundly without anx- 
 iety.
 
 XXV : THE BONE OF 
 CONTENTION 
 
 AT last Pieter found some wood suitable 
 for repairing the canoe. He cut wooden 
 pegs with his pocket-knife, bored holes 
 with a pointed wedge of rock, and drove them 
 in instead of nails. 
 
 As time passed affd the work progressed, he 
 became more and more enthusiastic. Having 
 pegged fast the covering, he plugged it with lianas 
 and bast, which he glued tight with the sticky sap 
 of a palm, the name of which he did not know. 
 
 When quite sure that the boat was watertight, 
 he felt proud and happy, and thenceforth spent 
 every moment of his time constructing oars, rud- 
 der, mast, and sail. 
 
 He dreamt of it by night, and neglected his 
 shooting by day to sit at home whistling or weav- 
 ing. 
 
 Hendrik, coming at his usual time, when form- 
 erly Pieter used to be out, could hear him from 
 afar whistling or singing over his work. 
 
 Early one morning, however, when all was quite 
 quiet, Hendrik ventured to the cliff-edge and per- 
 formed a bar of his native call. 
 
 Eve's face, convulsed with anxiety, appeared 
 suddenly from behind the open door. She had 
 scarce time to wave him away before Pieter thrust 
 
 206
 
 THE BONE OF CONTENTION 207 
 
 his bullet head out of the hut, he was in deepest 
 morning neglige, and stared in the direction of 
 the sound, which seemed somehow familiar. 
 
 Hendrik ducked down just in time; while Eve 
 looked innocent, and helped Pieter to stare round 
 after the strange bird. 
 
 Hendrik Koort cursed his evil genius and aban- 
 doned his attempts. 
 
 On the following Sunday, as they all sat gath- 
 ered round the fire moodily drinking coffee, Pieter 
 being the only cheerful member of the company, 
 the painter, remarking Daniel's sullen silence and 
 Jakob's hopeless sighs, seized the opportunity to 
 speak his mind. 
 
 "Brethren," he said, "this state of affairs can't 
 go on any longer!" 
 
 Daniel and Jakob looked up quickly. Hendrik 
 read from the gleam in their eyes that he had 
 touched an internal growth, and cut daringly. 
 
 "It is not the fault of Sun Island," said he, 
 throwing an apologetic glance to the Lord of the 
 Island. "The island is good enough ; but we have 
 treated it wrongly. That's my belief; I don't 
 care what anyone says." 
 
 Hendrik slapped himself on the thigh to em- 
 phasize his words, and looked before him de- 
 fiantly. 
 
 Pieter glanced sideways at him, and said sourly: 
 
 "What is it that can't go on? It seems to ijje 
 everything is going splendidly."
 
 208 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 "There you are! Pieter considers everything 
 goes splendidly; while others are almost dying 
 of solitude and rheumatism and indigestion. 
 Granted that Society is a Great Beast and an evil 
 thing and Heaven knows what else, it's none the 
 less a fact, that man is not constituted to live 
 alone. Either he degenerates into laziness and 
 melancholy, or he goes about seeing ghosts in 
 broad daylight. 
 
 "And why does Pieter think it goes splendid- 
 ly?" he continued, fixing his gaze on Goy's round, 
 shining face, with the flaxen yellow hair that had 
 grown so long and curly. 
 
 Pieter dropped his eyes, grew red on the fore- 
 head, and began stirring the fire with a stick. 
 
 "Because he has health like a horse and is 
 more nimble with his fingers than we others, who 
 did not wash bottles in our cradles and pour 
 out beer before learning to walk. It's an easy 
 enough matter for those who are manual workers 
 to make a good solid hut, with wood-shed and 
 food-cupboard and sun-sail and chopping-block ; 
 but for us who work with our brains " 
 
 Daniel picked up his ears. 
 
 "How do you know," he asked, "what Pieter's 
 house is like?" 
 
 Pieter also started and looked up. 
 
 "Yes, what do you know about it?" 
 
 Jakob, who himself had so much to conceal, 
 hastened to join in to avoid being suspected: 
 
 '"Just fancy your knowing that, Hendrik!"
 
 THE BONE OF CONTENTION 209 
 
 "I've done it this time," thought the painter 
 regretfully. "Better make a clean breast of it." 
 
 "Obviously, because I have seen it with my own 
 eyes, one day when I was out with my sketch- 
 book. Oh, it's ages ago!" he added hastily, to 
 conceal his acquaintance with Eve. 
 
 He immediately began to talk rapidly of 
 Pieter's wonderful home in order to distract 
 Daniel's and Jakob's thoughts. 
 
 Beer looked guiltily on the ground, while 
 Daniel lay back and watched the flight of the 
 clouds. 
 
 "Well what about it?" demanded Pieter 
 sulkily, when Hendrik's eulogies at last ran dry. 
 
 "What about it? Naturally, that as man is 
 not constituted for living alone, we must therefore 
 all move together. And as Pieter Goy is so ex- 
 pert at building and carpentering and making food 
 and such-like there is no sense in us others fool- 
 ing about here making a muddle of what we know 
 nothing about. Good Lord, no for we have so 
 much more important things in our head to work 
 at! I propose therefore that we all shift down 
 to the neighbourhood of Goy's hut. I don't know 
 whether you live near the shore, Daniel you 
 have never told us anything about that; and you, 
 Jakob, I am sure, are not any too comfortable. 
 But down where Pieter lives, there is a waterfall, 
 and a cliff to give shelter from the wind, and a 
 flat beach with turtles, and a view out over the 
 reef, and fishing. Think how splendidly we could
 
 210 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 get on together down there ! I don't mean we 
 shall all live side by side like rabbits. There can 
 be a hundred yards or so between each of us. 
 Why, after all, should Pieter hold a monopoly 
 of the best dwelling-place on the island?" 
 
 Pieter went as red as a lobster with emotion. 
 Perspiration started to his forehead. 
 
 "Do you hear what he says, Daniel?" he ex- 
 claimed almost tearfully, stretching out his arms 
 beseechingly to the Lord of the Island, who 
 seemed all the time lost in thought. "Do you 
 hear what he says? Wasn't it Solitude we came 
 here for? Wasn't it Society we should escape 
 with mine and thine and shall and may and the 
 primitive people and and fruits an-d palms 
 and one thing with another ? And just as we have 
 all got it working nicely, along comes Hendrik 
 and throws cold water on it. I myself am quite 
 content with my work and my solitude. How 
 can I help it if Hendrik does not take the trouble 
 to build a proper house instead of loafing or drift- 
 ing about with his sketch-book!" 
 
 "Pieter," said Daniel, looking sternly at him, 
 "you talk of things which are beyond your under- 
 standing. You are so clever with your hands 
 that you should be glad of the opportunity of 
 following your vocation and working for us 
 others, now that you have long ago put your own 
 house in order and have nothing more to do- 
 for you have no serious call in life as we have." 
 
 "What?" Pieter leapt to his feet, his marvel-
 
 THE BONE OF CONTENTION 211 
 
 lous equanimity completely gone. "Nothing 
 more to do? Don't I shoot birds for the whole 
 lot of us? Haven't I caught the fish we have 
 just been sitting and eating? Nothing more to 
 do ? Heaven help us ! We have our hands full 
 the whole day long, both of us." 
 
 "Both of us?" Hendrik butted his bulging 
 forehead towards him. "Who are both of us?" 
 
 Damnation! Pieter turned crimson with vexa- 
 tion. . . . He was caught now with a vengeance. 
 
 "Has Pieter begun to think double?" asked 
 Hendrik teasingly. 
 
 Jakob dared not look up. He was weighed 
 down with his guilty knowledge. But Daniel 
 arose in his full majesty, walked right up to 
 Pieter, fixed the vacillating eyes with his eagle 
 glance, and exclaimed sternly: 
 
 "Pieter Goy! As you hope for forgiveness, 
 tell the truth!" 
 
 Pieter almost wept with vexation and shame. 
 He repented now that he had not shown them 
 the girl at once. 
 
 When he had told them what had happened, 
 enlightened Daniel as to Eve's age and appear- 
 ance, vainly sought to wriggle away from his 
 reasons for hiding her from his brethren, 
 Hendrik, with deep indignation in his bass voice, 
 said: 
 
 "For shame, Pieter, that you could do such a 
 thing ! Here we have freed you from your long 
 slavery in the Lions' Den; we have expended
 
 212 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 money on your journey and equipment; we have 
 accepted and treated you as a brother in order to 
 raise you to our level. And then you reward us 
 first of all by selfishly taking the gun " 
 
 "None of you knew how to use it!" inter- 
 rupted Pieter, shamefaced, his breath coming in 
 gasps. 
 
 "And then, when God mercifully washes up a 
 young brown girl on the island, you take her also 
 and keep her hidden from us others." 
 
 "Yes, but " 
 
 Pieter was about to interrupt again, but Hen- 
 drik cut him short sharply: 
 
 "Perhaps none of us knew how to use her?" 
 
 Jakob lowered his eyes and blushingly rubbed 
 his thin hands together. 
 
 Pieter tried to look indignant; but before he 
 could find words, Daniel, whose imagination the 
 extraordinary occurrence had set working, said: 
 
 "All that is washed up on the shore belongs 
 to the Lord of the Island. You ought to know 
 quite well, Pieter, that the girl belongs to me!" 
 
 There was a general uproar. 
 
 Even the inoffensive Jakob, who preserved the 
 memory of his short meeting as one of the most 
 beautiful of his life, jumped up and protested. 
 
 "You!" shouted Hendrik. "Are there then 
 such things as property rights on the island? 
 Have we escaped from Society to reconstruct it 
 here with its mine and thine, its shall and may, 
 and its Heaven knows what else? The girl be-
 
 THE BONE OF CONTENTION 213 
 
 longs to us all! and I don't mind telling you and 
 Pieter Goy that 7 have already taken my share I" 
 
 Hendrik clenched his fists in an attitude of 
 defence. Now the murder was out! He was 
 ready to defend his standpoint to the last gasp. 
 
 Pieter failed to grasp his meaning immediately. 
 He looked him up and down. Then he recol- 
 lected that Hendrik had seen his hut, that it 
 was Hendrik who had caught him in saying "we" ; 
 he thought of the morning when he had heard 
 the strange bird-cry which so much resembled 
 the painter's native call. All these small things 
 shed a sudden light upon certain inexplicable 
 changes in Eve's marital development in the last 
 months. 
 
 The full shameful comprehension burst sud- 
 denly upon him. 
 
 "Then you also have " he spluttered furi- 
 ously, shaking his clenched fists at Hendrik's 
 red beard. "What a beating she shall have!" 
 
 "Beating! did you say beating? Will you 
 beat a woman because she disposes as she likes 
 of her own free person? Here, we are not in 
 Amsterdam, my lad ! we are free, naked people, 
 we are, with neither priest nor mayor nor Society 
 nor police." 
 
 "God grant we were at home," whimpered 
 Pieter. "There at any rate is law and justice 
 for each and every one. No decent Dutch girl 
 would have repaid me in such a manner. Here 
 have I pulled her out of the water, clothed her,
 
 214 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 slaved for her, and cherished her as if she had 
 been as good as the other one and then and 
 then " 
 
 Pieter broke down. Heaven had sent him a 
 naked brown girl; he had set himself the task 
 of making her into an Eve after his own heart 
 one who would serve a man through thick and 
 thin. And yet nevertheless things went just as 
 in Groeningen, that the first counter-jumper- 
 
 "But suppposing," he stammered, in a state 
 of the greatest excitement, "supposing she has 
 a child, which everything gives the impression she 
 is going to have surely the child will be mine ! 
 Daniel, hear what I say! Is it law and justice, 
 too, that the child shall belong to all of us in 
 common?" 
 
 Daniel had not thought of this. The child 
 was a consequence he had not foreseen. But he 
 now weighed the whole matter in his mind quickly. 
 And the child turned the scales. 
 
 He stepped with authority between Pieter and 
 Hendrik, who still stood in threatening attitudes. 
 He waited till every one had cooled down a little. 
 Then he gathered all the Sun Brethren round him, 
 and, as Lord of the Island, delivered his judg- 
 ment. 
 
 It should be as Hendrik proposed. They 
 should all move over to Pieter's beach, because it 
 had proved itself to be the most advantageous 
 position on the island. They should each build a 
 house there after the style of Pieter Goy's at
 
 THE BONE OF CONTENTION 215 
 
 a distance of two hundred paces from one an- 
 other, so that the law of solitude should not be 
 broken. Pieter should, as hitherto, retain the 
 gun and the woman the latter, however, only in 
 so far as she chose, of her own inclination, free 
 from ties or compulsion; for it would be unworthy 
 of the Sun Brethren to violate a woman's free 
 personality, even if she were brown and wild. 
 But, in return, Goy and his woman should under- 
 take the household duties and make the food, 
 the others to assist in the collection of edible 
 articles according to their several abilities and 
 opportunities, definite rules on the matter to be 
 agreed on later. 
 
 And if it were the will of Fate that their com- 
 munity ahem ! that was to say, their numbers 
 were to be augmented by a child, in that case the 
 child should be Pieter Goy's. He should look 
 after it like a father, and alone bear the respon- 
 sibility for its upkeep. 
 
 "Even if it's born with red hair and a bulging 
 forehead?" asked Hendrik, glancing maliciously 
 towards Pieter, as he stood with bowed head re- 
 ceiving the judgment. 
 
 "Even then!" decided Daniel, and did not 
 smile. 
 
 When evening came, all the Sun Brethren, at 
 Daniel's suggestion, departed to Pieter Goy's hut 
 to make the acquaintance of his woman, 
 and, following a night spent under a common
 
 2i6 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 roof, choose each a spot for his new dwelling. 
 
 Pieter, before reaching home, had resigned him- 
 self to his fate. He had told of the canoe he had 
 completed, and by the time the Brethren, having 
 passed the bamboo grove, saw the slope of the 
 cliff before them, a spirit of reconciliation, fos- 
 tered by Jakob, was already in evidence between 
 him and Hendrik. 
 
 In the semi-darkness they scrambled down the 
 zigzag path; and when the hut appeared in view 
 behind the trees Pieter, with a kind of fatherly 
 pride, raised his voice and called out, as was his 
 custom when returning from his shooting excur- 
 sions. 
 
 But Eve did not appear. 
 
 "She is such a one for sleeping!" he said ex- 
 cusingly, running towards the open door. 
 
 The hut was empty. The bed was empty. 
 When he went out into the courtyard he saw that 
 the shed was empty also. The cooking-pot was 
 not hanging in its place, and the empty food-tins 
 containing the stores had vanished. 
 
 A frightful thought seized him. 
 
 Gun in hand he rushed through the thicket to 
 the strand, where he had finished repairing the 
 canoe. 
 
 That also had vanished, with oars and rudder, 
 sail and mast. 
 
 "She has bolted with the lot!" he shouted, and 
 fell sobbing in Hendrik's arms.
 
 XXVI: HOME-SICKNESS 
 
 THE Sun Brethren moved down to Pieter 
 Goy's strand; but Daniel asserted em- 
 phatically that it was not a community. 
 .True, the work was shared among them ; but the 
 rules of solitude were as formerly maintained to 
 the utmost; for the huts stood several hundred 
 steps apart. Dropping in for a chat or anything 
 of that sort was strictly forbidden, visits being 
 permitted only when absolutely necessary. 
 
 Daniel, Hendrik, and Jakob could as hitherto 
 work at their art independently of one another. 
 They met only at the common meal on Sundays, 
 and every day at noon, when each one fetched 
 his ration's from the big common kitchen by Pieter 
 Goy's hut. 
 
 Pieter once more supplied them with food as 
 in Lions' Den days. On him fell the duty of 
 shooting the necessary amount of game, supplying 
 fuel, and preparing the food. But in addition he 
 acted as builder, carpenter, smith, mat-maker, 
 doctor, and chemist. 
 
 The others also performed a share in the 
 practical work. 
 
 Jakob Beer had conquered his giddiness; and 
 as he was so slim and light, the duty devolved on 
 him of securing eggs and bananas. 
 
 217
 
 218 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Hendrik looked after the cocoa-nut supply. 
 For no one could carry as well as he ; and the nuts, 
 which had to be plucked some distance away, were 
 both large and heavy. He also had to open them 
 and pour out the milk. 
 
 Daniel, whose house lay nearest the point, 
 fished with Pieter's net and his own hook and line. 
 He could spend half the day waiting for a bite, 
 at the same time composing poetry. 
 
 When the catch was meagre, Hendrik always 
 alleged that Daniel's verse frightened the fish 
 away. 
 
 Each one was supposed to look after his own 
 supply of tobacco and salt. But as Art is a stern 
 god who causes his votaries to be slack and 
 neglectful towards earthly things, it came to pass 
 that both Hendrik and Jakob, as in the old days 
 in the Lions' Den, came to borrow from Pieter 
 Goy, enjoying at the same time a little covert 
 gossip. 
 
 Daniel looked askance at all that transgressed 
 the island laws- He was on the whole much 
 stricter now than in the first period, and exercised 
 such stern authority as Lord of the Island that 
 the others put their heads together behind his back 
 and murmured mutinously. 
 
 Pieter Goy began to lose his optimism. 
 It was not so much that he missed the work 
 with which Heaven had entrusted him in respect
 
 HOME-SICKNESS 219 
 
 to Eve's education. Pieter Goy had indeed work 
 enough besides. 
 
 But the truth was, that he was home-sick. 
 Pieter Goy was home-sick for Holland for 
 his native town for the canals yes, even for 
 the dirty walls of the Lions' Den. 
 
 He had all the time kept close count of the days 
 in his pocket-book. When he now began to write 
 down the month of March his blood tingled with 
 spring. Here on the island Nature did not 
 change, it was the same everlasting sunshine as 
 before, but none the less he felt the change in 
 himself. 
 
 Now the snow was melting in Groeningen, he 
 thought. The grass was growing green and the 
 cattle were being sent to pasture. 
 
 Of an evening as he sat before his door, blow- 
 ing out clouds of smoke and looking through the 
 tree-stems at the lagoon, memory and longing 
 moistened his eyes; one sigh after another crept 
 from his contracted throat. 
 
 The big hyacinths' white, blue, and light-red 
 glory spread before his dreaming gaze. For at 
 this time of the year he was wont to take the holi- 
 day train to Haarlem and feast his eyes on the 
 gorgeous carpet of flowers. 
 
 To kill thought he began to make another 
 canoe of the same design as the one Eve had 
 taken away with her. The idea of the others 
 knowing of it was repugnant to him; therefore
 
 220 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 he set up a bitts behind the point, on the shores of 
 the large bay. Here he stood hidden by the 
 wooded bank, which also absorbed the noise, 
 working with his axe and pocket-knife after the 
 day's work was done. 
 
 He grew so absorbed in his new task it gave 
 him so much to think about and appeared almost 
 impossible of achievement that he did not 
 remark how the others were becoming more 
 and more depressed with each day that 
 passed. 
 
 When Jakob came at noon to bring his eggs and 
 fetch his soup in a saucepan, he usually sat awhile 
 on the chopping-block, chatting with Goy on 
 things in general, and thinking of his one secret 
 meeting with the brown girl. 
 
 But one day he collapsed as he sat there. Goy 
 looked up, and discovered for the first time how 
 terribly thin the cripple had become. 
 
 His eyes were bigger and clearer, the nose more 
 pointed, the fixed smile rested on his thin, pale 
 lips like a withered flower. With his crooked 
 shoulder in the air and arms crossed on his lap he 
 stared mournfully before him. 
 
 "What's the matter with you?" asked Pieter, 
 seizing him by the arm. 
 
 Jakob pulled himself together, looked vacantly 
 at him, and smiled: 
 
 "Nothing!" he said. 
 
 On the following day Jakob did not come. 
 Daniel and Hendrik had long since fetched their
 
 HOME-SICKNESS 221 
 
 food, and Pieter himself had eaten but Jakob 
 did not come. 
 
 "He is ill, poor chap," thought the tender- 
 hearted Goy, put a generous helping in his own 
 pot, and approached his hut. 
 
 Some* steps away he halted and listened. 
 Jakob was playing on his violin. Old Dutch 
 melodies, which Goy knew so well, floated out 
 through the flimsy walls. He sought the words 
 in vain, although he knew them; but there was no 
 time to recall them. As he started to hum the 
 tune of one, the music would glide over to an- 
 other, which he knew equally well, but of which 
 also he could not recall the words. 
 
 Goy gave up the attempt. He stood with 
 hands folded over his stomach and listened to 
 the sounds with tears in his eyes. 
 
 When at last he entered the hut, he saw Jakob 
 Beer lying crouched on his bed of moss, his violin 
 in his arms. 
 
 His thin lips moved as if he were singing an 
 accompaniment; but no sound was to be heard 
 other than that which his fingers, now so thin and 
 bloodless, drew forth from the strings. 
 
 His eyes were wide open. Great transparent 
 tears overflowed from them down on to the couch 
 on which he lay. 
 
 "Jakob!" called Pieter gently. 
 
 Jakob turned his head slowly towards him and 
 looked at him, but did not cease to play. 
 
 Pieter Goy relinquished the pot, drew out the
 
 222 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 three-legged chair, and, overwhelmed by all the 
 memories of his dear fatherland, sat down and 
 wept. 
 
 He knew now the name of the illness from 
 which Jakob was suffering. 
 
 Before they parted, Jakob told him that he 
 had destroyed his great symphony, "Nature." 
 He would have nothing more to do with it. 
 It hurt him so much when he played it. The 
 act had upset him frightfully; but there was 
 nothing else to do if he were to obtain peace in 
 his soul. 
 
 It had happened yesterday evening; and this 
 morning, to deaden his remorse, he had seized the 
 violin and played everything he knew of home. 
 
 It sounded like worn-out old melodies. Yet it 
 was, nevertheless, all his own composition, and 
 now he was happy; in this moment he was happy. 
 
 Pieter understood it very well. He too had 
 thought the whole time that what Jakob was com- 
 posing was fearful bosh that "Nature" stuff. 
 But this ah, this was something worth listening 
 to. 
 
 "What a success it will be at home !" he said, as 
 he clapped his fat hands in applause. "People 
 will go mad over it." 
 
 "Do you really think so?" said Jakob, looking 
 up eagerly. But he suddenly remembered that 
 they would never be able to hear it at home; he 
 would never again play for the Great Beast. 
 Then he wept.
 
 HOME-SICKNESS 223 
 
 One afternoon, when Pieter Goy on his way 
 home passed Hendrik's hut, he saw him sitting 
 before his door painting. 
 
 Goy had often watched him from a distance. 
 Hendrik usually stood with his legs straddled 
 before the easel, throwing glances forward and 
 backward between the trees and the canvas, glar- 
 ing like a madman. 
 
 But on this occasion he sat with lowered head, 
 and worked as if in a dream. 
 
 Pieter yielded to his curiosity. He tiptoed 
 cautiously forward so that Hendrik should not 
 hear him and chase him away; for the artist never 
 liked being watched while he was painting. 
 
 In spite of his caution Hendrik heard him. He 
 turned his head towards the sound; but he said 
 nothing, nor did he move away. 
 
 The motive he was working at depicted Hol- 
 land his home in spring-time. In the level 
 green field walked a cow, treading through the 
 tall grass. The sunlight lit up its brown side 
 and shoulder. The fresh spring air flooded in 
 from the sea under the lofty blue sky. Sparrows 
 twittered and starlings whistled so that it was a 
 pleasure to listen. And there on the right? oh 
 yes, of course there lay before the little red 
 houses one large field of hyacinths after the other. 
 
 Oh how beautiful they were this year! and 
 how they smelled! 
 
 "Hendrik!" said Pieter Goy, resting his hand 
 on the painter's shoulder, his eyes wet with
 
 224 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 emotion. "How beautiful it is how beautiful I 
 What is it called?" 
 
 "The Promised Land!" said Hendrik, without 
 looking up. He felt ashamed of the picture. It 
 was only sketched from memory. 
 
 Jakob Beer became ill. 
 
 Goy came every day with food for him. On 
 these occasions they sat chatting surreptitiously 
 of the canals, of the wide, wide land, of the hya- 
 cinths and tulips and the green lime-trees' odorous 
 blooms. 
 
 A plan gradually ripened in Pieter Goy's mind. 
 He did not tell the cripple of it, for he shrank 
 from instilling a hope which he was not yet sure 
 of fulfilling. 
 
 Pieter was nearing the end of the ammunition. 
 First there had only been one hundred cartridges 
 left. Then there were only fifty. But when the 
 day came on which there were not more than 
 twenty, he pulled himself together. 
 
 Now he would get to business. 
 
 Pieter Goy began to grow silent and reserved. 
 
 The depression of the others had damped his 
 good spirits ever since they had moved into their 
 new quarters. Finally, despair hung like a heavy 
 cloud over the huts. 
 
 It had always been a tonic for Hendrik to stand 
 wrangling with Pieter on something or other or 
 nothing. It was a relaxation for Daniel to have
 
 HOME-SICKNESS 225 
 
 him to talk down to and taunt. But now it was 
 all over. Pieter performed his job dutifully; but 
 there was no fooling with him any more. When 
 they spoke to him he answered in monosyllables. 
 They noticed that he went out each day with 
 his gun. He was always away a long while, but 
 they never heard him shoot; and they had never 
 before been so meagrely supplied with game. 
 And yet when he returned home he was always 
 dead-tired, and dragged his legs after him.
 
 XXVII: PIETER GOY/S 
 INHERITANCE 
 
 SO came the first Sunday when Jakob Beer 
 again appeared at the weekly meeting. 
 He was by no means fully recovered, and 
 still as thin as a skeleton; but he himself insisted 
 that he was quite well again. 
 
 They had finished eating, and sat round the fire 
 digesting. 
 
 Then Pieter cleared his throat several times, 
 until all heard it and turned their silent, gloomy 
 faces towards him. 
 
 Pieter raised his voice and said: 
 
 "Do you know that to-day is the anniversary 
 of our arrival here on the island?" 
 
 "Yes," said Daniel, gazing up to the clouds; 
 "it is a year to-day since we took possession of 
 Sun Island." 
 
 Pieter Goy hesitated a little. His breast 
 worked spasmodically. They all saw that some- 
 thing long suppressed was about to break its way 
 out. 
 
 "What's the use of it all?" came the words 
 with a rush. 
 
 They sat up straight; but no one spoke. They 
 waited, for they saw that more, much more, was 
 to come. 
 
 "Is any single one of us transformed into 
 
 226
 
 PIETER GOY'S INHERITANCE 227 
 
 another person, or suchlike? Perhaps you are, 
 Daniel; but I can't see it or you, Hendrik? 
 for certainly Jakob and I are not." 
 
 He paused, but the silence remaining unbroken, 
 he wiped the perspiration from his round fore- 
 head and continued: 
 
 "Is it possible thus to change from what you 
 are born, just by running away from everything? 
 I have been thinking about it for a long time 
 but I don't believe 1 it is possible! For you drag 
 the same old self round the whole time, even if 
 you go about naked. And even when you throw 
 off clothes you cannot get rid of what you are born 
 with. And all this with Society and mine and 
 thine and police and property-rights and shall and 
 must and Heaven knows what else, which 
 Daniel says is evil, and I, too, believe it is, 
 is nevertheless something which has surrounded 
 you and grown into you ever since early child- 
 hood. It is something that has grown so fast 
 that it is impossible to sweat it out, neither in one 
 year nor in two be it never so much a Sun Island 
 with no beast of prey and no serpents. And if 
 you were to succeed in sweating it out, I don't 
 believe, on my word, that you would be able to 
 recognize yourself it must be like slipping out 
 of your skin, with the result that you only run 
 about trying to put it on again. See, I can recog- 
 nize myself again quite easily there are no pieces 
 gone from me, neither in one way nor in another. 
 And now as we sit here together, so far away from
 
 228 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 all the old life, it seems to me we have merely 
 got the old life here again in a different manner 
 we have Society as well as law and right, for 
 you are the island's master, Daniel, and one of 
 us works for the others just as we do at home 
 only with the difference that no money changes 
 hands. Therefore I say it again, and ask: 
 What's the use of it all?" 
 
 Pieter Goy gasped with exhaustion. Never 
 in his life had he made such a long speech, but 
 now at last he had got it off his mind, thank heav- 
 ens! 
 
 Daniel sat chewing at his pipe. Everybody 
 looked towards him, for they expected to see him 
 spring up like a jinn from a bottle. Daniel was 
 that sort of fellow. 
 
 But nothing of the sort happened. He looked 
 down into Pieter's round eyes, and said gently: 
 
 "That is a matter of which you know nothing, 
 Pieter Goy. Look about you! We live here 
 under simple, natural conditions, in solitude and 
 in peace." 
 
 Pieter Goy rolled his round eyes up to him and 
 said innocently: 
 
 "If only you had said that before!" 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 "Yes had I only known at home that it was 
 simple, natural conditions and solitude and such- 
 like things you wanted, we could have spared our- 
 selves the trouble of journeying so far. For all
 
 PIETER GOY'S INHERITANCE 229 
 
 these we have them in Groeningen, where I come 
 from and we have always had them." 
 
 Hendrik burst out laughing. He smacked 
 himself on his thick elephant legs, threw back his 
 head and laughed incessantly and immoderately. 
 It was of no use for Daniel to frown and cough. 
 For now Hendrik would laugh. It was so long 
 since he had had a real, honest laugh. 
 
 Daniel stood up. He was very pale, and his 
 eyes gleamed. 
 
 "What do you mean, Pieter Goy, by coming 
 here and putting yourself up against me?" 
 
 Pieter went scarlet. He hesitated a little, 
 dried the perspiration off his forehead, and said 
 quietly: 
 
 "Daniel, the point is this, that we have now 
 only twenty cartridges left after that, no more 
 meat." 
 
 Hendrik stopped laughing at once. Even 
 Daniel had to swallow hurriedly before he could 
 answer : 
 
 "Very well, we will manage without." 
 
 "And then," continued Pieter in the same gentle 
 voice, "then there is also this, that if we continue 
 in this manner, Jakob Beer will die before our 
 very eyes. 
 
 Jakob looked up horrified. He tried to pro- 
 test, but lacked the strength. For of late he had 
 been telling himself the very same thing. 
 
 "Just look at him, Daniel ! and you, Hendrik ! 
 There's scarcely meat enough on him to nourish
 
 230 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 a mosquito. And I have been fattening him now 
 for the last three weeks." 
 
 Daniel looked closely at Jakob. He had not 
 had time before to observe how ill he was. But 
 now he saw it only too plainly, and looked away 
 again at once. 
 
 Jakob Beer dropped his head on his breast. 
 He wished to hide the fact that he was crying, 
 but he could not; they could see it by his shoulders. 
 
 There was a long silence. Then Daniel lifted 
 his head again. 
 
 "Even supposing we agree to give it all up," 
 he said in a subdued voice, as they had never heard 
 him speak before, "it would be of no use; we 
 cannot get away!" 
 
 Hendrik lowered his bulging forehead between 
 his hands. In the deep silence only Jakob's 
 laboured breathing could be heard; he sat 
 bowed over his lap as if life were already de- 
 parting. 
 
 Then Pieter arose and said: 
 
 "Yes but that's not quite certain. For I have 
 managed to make a boat; and even if not a first- 
 class one, it is at least as good as the one she ran 
 away with Eve, I mean. I did not like to say 
 anything about it before it was finished. There- 
 fore I built it over there behind the point by the 
 big bay." 
 
 Jakob began to tremble with excitement. Hen- 
 drik's glance shone darkly; even in Daniel's eyes 
 there flared a sudden light.
 
 PIETER GOY'S INHERITANCE 231 
 
 "How had you planned to go to work?" he 
 asked. 
 
 "Well, you see the steamer we came with 
 it follows a regular route. Every sixth week 
 so the captain said it comes past here from 
 Brisbane to some other place, I forget. Now, 
 according to my calculations, it will soon be due. 
 And in my opinion we should make up our minds 
 to risk the attempt and collect food for a couple 
 of weeks. Then we can set off in our boat with 
 our food-chest and the gun, and use oars and sail 
 alternately according to the direction of the wind 
 until we reach the steamer's track. I wrote 
 down in my diary how long it took in the mo.tor- 
 launch from the ship, so that we can't go far 
 wrong. Once out there, we can lie to and wait; 
 and the twenty shots we can keep for emergencies. 
 Even if we don't strike our ship, we may run 
 across another one and if there comes a storm 
 then the worst that can happen is that we take 
 refuge on one of the many small islands we passed 
 on our way here you remember them, of course ! 
 One island is, after all, very much the same as 
 another to live on." 
 
 Daniel sat for a long time in deep thought. 
 
 "Well, supposing we are so fortunate as to 
 meet some ship or other, we shall be taken to the 
 nearest port on one of the islands. And what 
 then?" 
 
 "Then we go to the Dutch Consul," said 
 Hendrik.
 
 232 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 "And you expect him to pay our passages to 
 Europe just for love?" 
 
 "He will telegraph." 
 
 "To whom the Queen of Holland? For 
 you don't believe that the ship-owner, who paid 
 to get rid of us, will now pay to get us back 
 again? He will pay for me perhaps. But for 
 you others ?" 
 
 Hendrick pondered in silence. 
 
 "Damn it!" he growled. "Why on earth 
 were we such fools as to chuck away our last 
 shillings on those sailors?" 
 
 Pieter Goy put in softly: 
 
 "Yes, why? I, too, think it was wrong." 
 
 Daniel lost his temper. He swung round, 
 flashing with his eagle glance. 
 
 "Nobody asks you what you think!" 
 
 "Keep calm!" said Hendrik, butting threat- 
 eningly towards him with his forehead bumps; 
 "That is just what we do ask. For if we had 
 not had Pieter Goy, then God have mercy 
 on our souls. Put that in your pipe and smoke 
 it!" 
 
 Daniel flushed and bit his lip; but he kept si- 
 lent. 
 
 Then Pieter, with lowered eyes, continued: 
 
 "Yes, I thought that at the time and there- 
 fore I was not honest with you, Daniel. When 
 it came to my turn to give everything to the 
 sailors, I only emptied my purse of small change. 
 But I had some gold in a bag around my neck. It
 
 PIETER GOY'S INHERITANCE 233 
 
 was the remainder of the money inherited from my 
 mother, and what I raised on my furniture." 
 
 Pieter unbuttoned his shirt, and pulled a dirty 
 wash-leather bag from his hairy bosom. He 
 shook it in his hands so that they heard the gold 
 tinkle. 
 
 "There's enough here at any rate to take us 
 home third-class." 
 
 Hendrik rushed round the fire and folded 
 Pieter in his arms. 
 
 Jakob had also risen. He was as red in the 
 cheeks as a young, love-sick maiden. His eyes 
 shone with light as he took Pieter's hand and 
 held it between both his own. 
 
 Daniel said nothing, for he knew not what to 
 say. His brain formed the thought that that is 
 just how it goes in life, the baser natures always 
 conquer the finer; but he did not express it in 
 words, for he could not feel quite sure which of 
 them was the baser and which the finer. 
 
 At last he won a victory of which he was after- 
 wards proud the victory over himself. He 
 stretched out his hand to Pieter across the dead 
 fire, and said: 
 
 "From now onwards it is you who are the 
 leader, not I." 
 
 Pieter's face turned as red as it was possible to 
 turn. 
 
 "Daniel, what nonsense ! Nothing of the 
 sort! It is you who are master of the island; 
 you have been master all the time."
 
 234 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 "Oh, to blazes with who is what!" shouted 
 Hendrik. "We are all as good as one another. 
 The only thing that matters is to get away from 
 this damned island." 
 
 Then, having joyfully yelled his native call at 
 the very top of his voice, he flung his straw hat in 
 the air, and began to roar the national anthem.
 
 XXVIII: THE MONKEYS 
 
 A MONTH later the canoe lay equipped 
 for the long journey. The food-chest 
 was on board, and all the clothes and 
 mats they possessed for shelter against the rain 
 and night cold; but otherwise only the most neces- 
 sary articles. For room was very limited, and 
 the boat might not be too low in the water. 
 
 Daniel suggested that they should row round 
 the point, to the place where they had landed a 
 year previously. There they had taken pos- 
 session of the island, and there they would say 
 farewell to it. 
 
 It was the same coast which lay before their 
 eyes, fair and smiling. The same palm trees 
 stretched their scaly stems up towards the blue 
 sky. The same cliff, under which the sailors had 
 put their boxes ashore. Now, as then, flickered 
 variegated bird-plumage like lightning through 
 the air. Perhaps, even, they were the very same 
 parrots, now shrieking at them from the border 
 of the wood. 
 
 And yet how the picture had changed in their 
 eyes, now that a year of their life an industrious 
 and extraordinary year lay hidden there in be- 
 hind the trees ! 
 
 235
 
 236 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 They sat for a long time in silence, staring the 
 island in its unfathomable eyes. 
 
 At last Daniel rose to his feet in the bows of the 
 boat. He took off his hat and spoke: 
 
 "Sun Island, you did not fulfil all that was 
 expected of you, it is true. But now, as we re- 
 linquish our mastery and give you back to your- 
 self, you shall know that you hide in your bosom 
 a portion of our ego. In return we take away 
 something that is yours. Before we learnt to 
 know you, we understood not the meaning of 
 solitude. Now the mystic voice of your solitude 
 will for ever sound in my ears, as I lie awake at 
 night in the old country; and under the war to the 
 knife with the Great Beast, to which we now re- 
 turn, the memory of your peace will for ever 
 struggle like a sigh of longing within our breasts. 
 Farewell, Sun Island I Farewell, dear island! 
 Farewell farewell !" 
 
 Daniel waved his hat. They all waved their 
 hats. Hendrik and Pieter, like Daniel, shouted, 
 "Farewell farewell!" But Jakob could not 
 speak; he sat gazing yearningly after his great 
 symphony, big tears trembling in his eyes. 
 
 Simultaneously the spaces between the dark 
 tree-stems sprang to life. An uncanny sound 
 reached their ears across the short stretch of 
 water. 
 
 "It was some one laughing!" said Hendrik, 
 calling to mind the first occasion he had heard
 
 THE MONKEYS 237 
 
 the weird laughter between the stems as they were 
 sitting round the fire before their boxes. 
 
 Despite Daniel's superior knowledge, Hendrik 
 had never given up his monkeys. Now, for the 
 last time he looked towards the island, while 
 Pieter with powerful strokes of the oars drove 
 the boat over the lagoon's calm, shining surface. 
 
 And lo ! both he and the others saw the bushes 
 at the edge of the slope begin to move. They 
 saw as Hendrik had seen the very first day 
 dark forms swarming down the slim bodies of the 
 palms. There was one, there were two, there 
 were many. 
 
 The strange creatures ran out of the shadow 
 of the slope down towards the white, sun-baked 
 strand. 
 
 And look! as they reached the light they 
 resolved themselves into small, short-legged, long- 
 armed human beings. They were clad only in 
 coat and waistcoat; but one of them had a striped 
 jersey twisted round his black head. 
 
 Pieter dropped the oars in amazement. But 
 before any of them could speak, they saw the 
 creatures raise their arms towards them; the one 
 with the jersey round his head pulled it off and 
 waved it, in the same manner as Daniel had waved 
 his hat. 
 
 At the same time uncouth laughter jangled 
 across the water. 
 
 The Sun Brethren recognized their own pre-
 
 238 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 cious clothes. They gaped at each other; now 
 they knew who had plundered their chest. 
 
 Hendrik was the first to recover his self-pos- 
 session. 
 
 "We came to the island" he said shame- 
 facedly "intending to go naked like the first 
 human beings. But the monkeys were more 
 sensible. Whilst we got rheumatism, colds, and 
 bad stomachs, they swaggered about in our good, 
 despised clothes. Can you hear how they are 
 laughing at us?" 
 
 Jakob sat staring big-eyed at a little crooked 
 fellow who wore his own good coat and stood 
 grinning with all his white teeth. He seemed 
 somehow to have seen him before. He had it I 
 It was the spectre which had chased him, terror- 
 stricken, from his sleeping-place. Were they 
 then she-monkeys he had enticed to him with his 
 jingle-jangle music, when he was longing for Eve? 
 
 Hendrik said not another word. He sat think- 
 ing over things. So much of the island's mys- 
 terious soul was now clear to him. 
 
 He thought of the wonderful "sunrise." Was 
 it really Koort the genius who had painted it 
 whilst his body slept? Or ? 
 
 He looked again, to see whether the insolent 
 creature with the nasty lumps on its back was also 
 sitting on its tail on the shore, grinning at them 
 with its glassy eyes. But he could not find it. 
 
 Daniel thought of the voice of Solitude, which 
 had mocked him when he had declaimed his first
 
 THE MONKEYS 239 
 
 poetic crystals over the island. But he said 
 nothing to the others about it, and drove it 
 quickly from his mind. 
 
 "So there were monkeys on the island !" said 
 Pieter Goy, resting a moment on his oars. 
 
 When they reached the reef and Pieter, with 
 careful strokes, guided the boat past the line of 
 breakers to the place of exit, he remarked some 
 woodwork lying gripped by two coral sticks in the 
 reef. The water washed and foamed over it, 
 forwards and backwards. 
 
 Pieter rowed as near as he dared, in order to 
 look more closely. 
 
 It looked like the lid of a large case. Iron 
 bands crossed its surface. The coral sticks had 
 pushed themselves under the bands and held on 
 so firmly that the sea had not been able to take 
 it. 
 
 Near the lid the side of a box stuck up on edge 
 from the coral. Some letters were burnt into 
 the wood. 
 
 Pieter could not distinguish them; but Daniel 
 read, "Hamburg." Then it struck him that it 
 was the remains of a cage they had found. 
 
 He was right, then, after all. The monkeys 
 were not natives of Sun Island. They had emi- 
 grated there just like himself and his friends. 
 The ship which was to have carried them to a 
 European zoological garden had been wrecked, 
 and their cage smashed to pieces on the reef; but 
 the monkeys had escaped to land.
 
 XXIX : HOME AGAIN 
 
 OF Daniel and his friends there is still to be 
 related that, thanks to Pieter's inheri- 
 tance, they came at last, as deck passen- 
 gers on board a Bremen steamer, to Antwerp, 
 whence they crossed safely to Amsterdam. 
 
 Daniel called on his uncle, and related to him 
 the extraordinary adventures which had befallen 
 them. When he took his leave, he accidentally 
 left behind a collection of poems, which he had 
 written during the long, sad days on the island 
 when autumn began to approach and their courage 
 to desert them. 
 
 He had said nothing of them to any of his 
 comrades; for he was a little ashamed of them. 
 
 They were called "Home," and dealt with 
 hyacinths and tulips, with Amsterdam canals and 
 the scent of the lime-trees. 
 
 When the ship-owner read them through, his 
 eyes filled with tears. He had aged during the 
 last year, had often thought of death; and Daniel, 
 after all, was his sole male relative to carry on the 
 family name. 
 
 He once more received Daniel into favour, and 
 paid the expenses of publishing his poems on best 
 Dutch parchment, with vignettes by the artist 
 
 Hendrik Koort. 
 
 240
 
 HOME AGAIN 241 
 
 And as the ship-owner took good care that the 
 intimate history of the poems became known in 
 the right circles, they had such a success that 
 Daniel sprang into fame at a bound. 
 
 Hendrik Koort courted the Great Beast with 
 his "Promised Land," painted in his days of 
 home-sickness the picture in which the starlings 
 whistled amid the sweet scent of hyacinths. It 
 was exhibited at an art-dealer's in Kalverstraat. 
 Even stock-brokers and coffee-testers felt patriotic 
 at the sight and the smell of it. And Hendrik 
 received many commissions. 
 
 Rut Jakob Beer, who could never forget his 
 lost symphony, had the most wonderful fortune of 
 them all. 
 
 Upon his applying again for his old post at the 
 Church for the Blind, he was graciously rein- 
 stated. 
 
 One day as he sat playing on the organ, his 
 fingers ran of their own accord into the hymn to 
 the fatherland which Pieter had heard him play 
 during his illness in his hut. 
 
 Now the Dowager Queen, who was the church's 
 patron, that day paid an unexpected visit to view 
 the new altar-panel presented by herself, and 
 which had just been placed in position. 
 
 She listened delightedly to the wonderful mel- 
 ody, and ascertained from the priest the name of 
 the organist. The day following, Jakob was 
 "commanded" to play for Her Majesty at the 
 royal castle. He hired a dress-suit in Koorte
 
 242 THE PROMISED ISLE 
 
 Nieuwendijk, drove there in a cab with his violin 
 and played so beautifully that both the Queen 
 and the ladies of the Court were constrained to 
 blow their noses. 
 
 From that day onwards he enjoyed the royal 
 favour, and a small yearly stipendium with which 
 to educate himself. But what was more, all the 
 ladies of the Court took him maternally under 
 their wings, and recommended him to the Great 
 Beast. He soon became the vogue, and secured 
 so many pupils that he had not time to attend to 
 them all. And almost the greatest honour that 
 can befall a composer in Holland the hymn was 
 played at Her Majesty's table whenever a foreign 
 prince came on a visit. 
 
 Neither Daniel nor his friends forgot their old 
 friend in need. 
 
 The poet introduced Goy to the ship-owner, 
 and related the story of his inheritance. The old 
 man paid him back with interest, and invested the 
 money in a small cafe which Pieter desired to 
 establish. He had been independent so long now 
 that it no more suited his fancy to pour out beer 
 for other people's guests than his own. 
 
 Pieter christened the cafe "The Lions' Den" 
 in honour of Daniel and his friends. It was 
 fitted with a back room having yellow walls 
 exactly like the old one. Every Saturday eve- 
 ning the clique met here and talked of old times, 
 whilst Pieter himself waited on them in person 
 just as before.
 
 HOME AGAIN 243 
 
 But out in the public bar he gathered round 
 him a faithful circle of customers, who were never 
 weary of hearing of his marvellous battles with 
 lions, tigers, and boa-constrictors on the distant 
 isle or of his little brown Eve with the timid 
 eyes, whose faithful love death alone succeeded 
 in destroying. 
 
 THE END
 
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