Old Josiah Ward, for such was the name of my storyteller, recounted the legend to about a dozen of us, as we sat in the lee of the long-boat on the deck, the breeze blowing gently, and the ‘Saucy Susan’ running slowly before it. Thus he spoke—
‘Just one score of years after the great Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, there sailed westward, across the Atlantic, a ship, or rather galley, of strange make and fashion. She was very long, shipmates, and floated low and deep in the water, but her prow, all carved and fantastically wrought, rose up above her deck curved like the neck of a swan, and ending in a great eagle’s beak. This head and beak were of iron. At the top of both her masts, for there were two, this galley carried broad, swallow-tailed pendants, quite black, except that there were in the centre of each an eagle’s head and beak of red colour, just like the head and beak at the prow. The galley sailed marvellously fast, and the wind that bore her was ever fair. Yes, shipmates, weeks and weeks rolled on, and not a mariner on board her had need to start sheet, or tack,—and yet tempests swept across[Pg 358] her path, and the crew of the galley saw Spanish caravals founder in the great waves, not a bow-shot from their ship, while they were speeding over water ruffled only by a gentle breeze. And the reason was, shipmates, that an enchanted wind filled the galley’s sails, and before its breath the natural storms of the air could not prevail. There was always, as it were, a spot of fair wind upon the ocean, running rapidly westward, and in the centre of that spot, the galley swept across the waves, going with sails and oars.
‘The sailors who manned this strange bark were men of very fair complexion, of light blue eyes and long flaxen hair, and the language they spoke was the tongue of that far northern land—whence, in the old days, came forth, each in his war-galley, the fierce sea-kings—the Buccaneers of the North—shipmates, to plunder and to spoil. These men were heathens and unbelievers—they worshipped gods, called Odin and Thor, and each had a magic sword, the steel of which was wrought by little demons who live under ground, and in hollow places, which they scoop in great rocks and stones, and where they forge such blades that no weapon, were it even welded by the cunning makers of Damascus, could prevail against them. But the strangest thing of all, comrades, was that the captain of this ship was a woman—a woman of great stature, and fierce and lofty aspect. Her name was Tronda, and she was a sorceress; she could make the winds blow as she listed, and she had a crystal into which those who looked could see the future. This Tronda, mates, was a witch of great power, and she came from one of the northern islands, near that huge whirlpool called Lofoden, which can suck great navies down into the abysses of the sea. She wore a sea-green coloured tunic, with a necklace of beads made of a pebble called adder-stone, which hath strange virtues, and her head-gear was formed of the fur of the wild cat. Likewise she wore a very broad girdle, on which were embroidered strange words and letters in gold, and to it was attached a pouch, in which she kept the charms and[Pg 359] spells with which she conjured. But her great power was over the elements, shipmates, for Tronda was a witch of Lapland—that dreary coast of snow which mariners skirt, sailing into the White Sea—and her name was known as a potent trafficker in such powers as ordinary mortals possess not, and many shipmen came to her and spoke her fair, and gave her money, and she sold them fair winds to waft them on their course. But I have heard, shipmates, that such was the nature of these unnatural breezes, that they wrecked every seventh ship which sailed before them. Six would go prosperously to their port, but the wind which the seventh had purchased, would gradually swell and wax great and mighty, until it became a hurricane, which tore sail and mast before it, and beat the ill-fated ship down into the sea.
‘It was by certain rhymes, comrades, that Tronda and the other Lapland witches ruled the air, and made the storm-clouds fly as they wished. I have heard that she would stand high on a rock, or upon the poop of a ship, when the sea was calm below, and the summer air clear above. Then would she toss her arms above her head, and kneeling down, with her fair hair streaming over her shoulders, sing the magic song, which brought forth clouds upon the heavens, and unchained the wind, to rush over the howling sea. No one understood this song, but its name was Vard lokur—and it was in an ancient northern tongue called Lap, many words of which have power over the swart demons, and dwarfs, and elvish workers in metals, who live under the mountains of Finland and Jutland.
‘Now, Tronda was a miser, and loved gold, and when mariners came to her and told her legends about a new world lying to the west, far across the ocean, and where the yellow metal and stones still more precious glistened and shone, on every mountain and on every beach, she said—“I, too, will depart and see that golden land, where there is neither frost nor cold, but diamonds bright as icicles, and pearls as white as snow.” Then she embarked in her galley, and raised a magic wind, which bore her[Pg 360] across the Atlantic, and at sunrise one bright morning, she saw before her the land of the New World. But the galley had not coasted far, when two caravals came forth and gave her chase. The Spaniards knew little with whom they had to deal; Tronda stood on the poop of her ship, and stretched her arms forth, singing her magic rhymes in Lap, and straightway a squall came rushing down from the land, and before the Spaniards could lower their sails, it broke upon the caravals, and ships and crews sunk together in the sea.
‘So, the fame of Tronda, the Lapland witch, that could sell winds, was noised abroad all over the Indies. She never went ashore—but in her galley, with the eagle’s beak, she cruised among the islands and along the main. The Spanish captains often went aboard the galley, and humbled themselves before the witch, and bought winds to carry them from isle to isle, and port to port, each wind being purchased with a lump of gold. When the Inquisition, which was established in Cuba, heard of this strange trafficking, they sent caravals of war to capture the sorceress, but her powers baffled all their skill. Sometimes, she stilled the air, so that all the ships lay motionless together. Then, just as the Spaniards would get out their boats to row to the Norse galley, a gentle breeze would fan her sails, and she would glide deftly away, while Tronda, who took a pleasure in tormenting her pursuers, would stand upon the poop, worshipping her strange gods, and singing her unlawful incantations. At other times, she would raise mists, in the midst of which the Spaniards would grope for days, firing guns, and ringing bells—so that, at last, the ships of war gave up the chase, and returned to the Havannah. But no one who sought Tronda to buy a wind, had ever any difficulty in boarding her galley. She received all such with fair words and courteous bearing, and gave them, in return for their gold, each a large stoup, or jar, the mouth of it sealed with wax, bearing strange figures and signs. This jar each captain took with him, and directly the anchor was lifted, Tronda would instruct him to break[Pg 361] the seal, when immediately the fair breeze would fill the sails, and the ship would move gaily on her way. So, by this traffic, Tronda amassed vast riches, and every week the galley sunk lower and deeper in the water, with its increasing freight of precious stones and gold. But it was not alone fair and gentle breezes which the Lapland witch trafficked in. She sold adverse winds and awful storms to the enemies of luckless mariners. She sold calms, too, which haunted a hapless ship, chaining her, as it were, to the unruffled sea, until, drop by drop, the fresh water was drunk out, and the sailors died on the deck, or cast themselves overboard in their raving delirium of thirst. And so many a customer came to Tronda to buy prosperous winds for friends, and wrecking tempests for enemies. The smug merchant purchased a fair wind for himself, and a baffling breeze for his rival in the trade. The love-lorn maiden bought a prosperous gale for her sweetheart’s ship, and the jealous dame paid gold for a tempest to wreck the bark of a faithless lover.
‘Now, comrades, years moved slowly on, and the Norse galley was so deep in the water with gold and precious stones, that, had it not been for enchantment, she would have sunk outright. Then the blue-eyed and long-haired mariners entreated Tronda that she would allow them to look again upon the mountains and the Fiords of Norway, and that she would raise a westerly breeze to carry them home across the ocean. But the witch scoffed at their requests, giving them foul words, and saying that she must have more gold. The chief of the crew was a young man called Torquil, and he it was who sighed most for home, because he had left a maiden there whom he loved, and from whom he had been long parted. Therefore, after Tronda had retired to the great cabin, where she lived alone, Torquil entered it unbidden. It was quite dark, for the cabin was beneath the water, and no light came down to it from the deck, but an ancient lamp of bronze swung slowly from the beams overhead, and in this lamp burnt a flame, although there was neither wick nor oil to feed it. The witch was[Pg 362] sitting in a great chair like a throne, and before her were open boxes crammed with lumps of gold, which gleamed in the flicker of the bronze lamp. On the table lay the magic crystal in which the sorceress could see the future; and upon the high back of the antique chair, in which she sat, perched two ravens, grey with age, both of which uttered a low, hoarse croak as Torquil entered.
‘“Mother,” he said, for all who spoke to the witch so addressed her—“mother, I would go home to my own country; I long again to see the face of my father and of my betrothed. Therefore, I bid you raise a favouring westerly gale; for, if you do not, neither I nor one of my comrades will put hand to rope on board this galley again.”
‘With that the witch rose slowly to her feet. ‘Look you, Torquil Randa,’ quoth she, ‘whoso in this galley disobeys my orders, the elements, which are at my beck and bidding, shall overwhelm him.’
‘But Torquil stood erect, nothing daunted. “I know your powers, mother,” he answered; “but as well be sunk in the sea as wander for ever upon its surface, homeless and friendless. You heard what I have spoken; I will not live longer away from kindred and home.”
‘And so saying, the bold mutineer left the cabin. Tronda followed him on deck, muttering her Lapland rhymes, and waving her arms aloft in the air. As she did so, great banks of black clouds began to rise from out the ocean, and the sea-birds flew round the masts of the galley, screaming with affright. There was a dead calm in the air, and it grew so hot that the mariners gasped for breath. The bright tropic day, shipmates, seemed to be changing into night, and the clouds got lower and lower until they appeared to rest upon the topmasts of the galley. All this time the witch was kneeling upon the poop, chanting her accursed rhymes, and Torquil was standing alone beside the mainmast, for his comrades were terrified, and slunk away from him as from a man under a curse.
[Pg 363]
‘Suddenly the witch stopped, and shaded back from her eyes her long flowing hair, gazing intently at the sky. In the next moment, a flash of lightning—so bright that every one on board the galley, except the sorceress, was dazzled and blinded by the glare—tore out of the dark heavens; struck the main topmast of the galley; and with a crash, like that of all the artillery in the world fired off in one salvo, passed gleaming down the wood, shaking the ship as though she had been lifted a hundred feet, and then allowed to fall splash into the sea. The explosion was followed by a thick sulphurous smoke, which seemed to come steaming up out of the inmost recesses of the galley, and while the crew, blinded and almost choking in the yellow sulphurous fume, were groping about the deck, they heard the loud screaming laughter of the witch, followed by the croak of the ravens from the cabin.
‘At length the smoke or mist gradually cleared away, and as it did so, and the men recovered their eyesight, they saw Tronda standing as usual on the poop, with her old aspect of haughty command. Her first words, comrades, were—
‘“Fling that carrion into the sea, and take warning by the fate of Torquil Randa how you dispute the will of such as I.”
‘So the sailors advanced, all trembling, to the foot of the mainmast, where lay the body of the man of whom the witch spoke. He had been struck by the lightning, comrades, but there was neither scaith nor scar upon his flesh, only on the forehead a small round blue spot. So the mariners lifted up the body, and while it was yet warm plunged it over the side. It sunk feet first, and as the head disappeared, the crew thought that the dead face frowned.
‘That night Tronda sat alone in her cabin, beneath the bronze lamp, as she had done when her victim entered. The crystal lay upon the table as before. All at once, the flame of the lamp flashed high up, and then sank down into the bronze, so that the cabin was almost in[Pg 364] darkness, and the two ravens fluttered and croaked. Tronda lifted up her head, and her livid face became as the face of a statue carved out of blue and grey marble, for before her, standing as he had already done that day, was the form of Torquil Randa, with the blue spot upon his forehead where the lightning had struck it.
‘There was silence for the space of a minute, and then the form of Torquil spoke.
‘“I am sent from the dead,” it said, “to give you a last warning.”
‘“Return to those who sent you,” answered the witch; “I take no warnings.”
‘“I am bid to tell you,” said the spirit, “that the measure of your iniquities is nearly full.”
‘The witch of Lapland rose erect, and stood confronting the apparition.
‘“I have no fear of aught, either dead or living, spirit or flesh,” she replied. “Get you gone, or I will call up the spectres of the winds, who will chase you to the uttermost ends of the earth.”
‘The figure of Torquil Randa gave a sad smile, and stretching forth its hand, touched the magic crystal, which immediately crumbled into black dust. “The powers which are given to me,” said the spirit, “are greater than yours.”
‘Tronda’s frame shivered as she saw this, but she lost no whit of countenance, and looked her terrible visitant steadily in the face.
‘“There will be given you one last opportunity,” the apparition said. “Will you repent?”
‘“No!” said the witch of Lapland.
‘The figure of Torquil Randa grew less and less distinct, and as it disappeared, the flame of the lamp brightened up again, and the ravens, which had nestled at Tronda’s feet, flew back to their perches on her chair.
‘The next day, the galley meanwhile lying not far from Cape Tiberoon, in Hispaniola, there came on board, in a small canoe, a Spanish girl, who seemed, shipmates, to[Pg 365] have hardly life in her to climb up the low side of the galley. This girl was of a beauty rarely seen upon the earth, but those who looked upon the bright red spot in her white cheek, and the sickly flash of her black floating eyes, knew that there was hardly a month’s life flickering in her bosom; so she went slowly into the cabin, and fell upon her knees before the witch.
‘“Mother,” she said, “I am dying fast, as you can see. I have a lover, my betrothed. He is coming across the ocean to bid me farewell. Oh, that I might live to see him! I have little gold, but for what I have, grant him a fair breeze, that his ship may come to land before I die, and that I may give up my spirit in his arms.”
‘So saying, the Spanish girl held forth a piece of gold the size of a walnut. Tronda had opened her mouth to speak, when a third woman entered the cabin. She was a tall and haughty dame, and as she observed the dying girl, a smile like that of a fiend passed over her face. Her cheeks flushed, and her eyes glanced with the fire of deadly spite. The younger girl started back at her aspect, and then sunk all trembling and sobbing upon the floor.
‘Then the elder spoke thus—
‘“I hate that woman. She is my rival. She has won from me the man I love. I would prevent their meeting. She is poor, but I am rich. This, for a wind which will keep back his ship, until she be no more.”
‘With that, shipmates, the woman laid upon the table a lump of virgin ore, as big as a cocoa-nut. The other girl said nothing, but still held out her smaller offering. Tronda stood between them musing. At last, she took the large lump, and dropped it into the great chestfull at her feet.
‘“You shall have a baffling wind,” she said to the jealous rival. The poor girl, who was dying, rose feebly, and passed out weeping; the crew let her down with careful hands into her canoe.
‘But at the moment when Tronda had made her decision, the sudden moan of a hollow sounding wind[Pg 366] passed through the air, and the galley rocked and laboured, as though an invisible hand had smote her. The witch remained long musing in the cabin, until, hearing the dash of oars, she rose and went on deck. The galley was deserted, the whole crew, embarked in the boats, were pulling fast for the land, while the horizon was again clouded as it had been when the witch drew lightning from the heavens. Tronda mounted upon the poop, and stretched forth her arms, to curse the faithless crew, when her eye suddenly fell upon Torquil, standing as he had stood, beneath the mainmast, when the levin bolt struck him. Then she forbore, and remained with drooping head, gazing into the sea below. But what was remarkable, was, that when the whole crew of the galley left her at once, instead of rising, she sunk still deeper in the water; and as a heavy swell began to lift and heave around, the ship rolled and pitched with a strange sickly motion.
‘Then came another portent. Tronda still stood upon the poop, when she started to hear a sudden pattering of feet, and a squeaking and scratching all around her. Immediately there poured forth from every hatchway a whole legion of rats—young ones and old—brown and grey—all of them making for the side of the vessel, and then plunging with a loud shrill squeaking into the sea, which was speedily dotted with their little heads, all swimming merrily to land. When the last had leaped overboard, the figure of Torquil Randa glided softly aft and confronted the witch.
‘“Rats,” quoth the figure, “leave a sinking ship.” And, as he spoke, the galley appeared to float in the water more heavily and deeply than ever, while the swells rose in great rocking billows, and the moan of a coming wind hurtled over the sea. Still Tronda confronted the apparition with a lip which never quivered, and an eye which never blinked.
“My ancestors,” said she, “were champions and heroes; one of them—Eric Westra—descended into the tomb of Sigismund, the sea king, and bore from thence[Pg 367] the bronze sepulchral lamp which burns beneath, although it was guarded by monsters and potent spells. What art thou, then, that one in whose veins runs the blood of such a hero, should tremble and quake before thee?”
‘But the apparition said—
‘“I come from a power which is mightier than that of Odin and of Thor, and I am commissioned to pronounce to thee the doom thou shalt undergo as a punishment for thy wicked sorceries, even until the end of time.”
‘At that there rose a mighty wind, and the galley started away before it. In vain Tronda bade the elements to cease their strife—in vain she knelt upon the poop, and, with her drenched hair all streaming in the tempest, sung her magic rhymes and screamed out her most potent charms. The winds blew, and the clouds lowered, and the waves rose, unheedful of her spells, and so at last she started up from the deck, and cried in a lamentable voice—
‘“Alas! alas! my power is gone from me, and the elements obey me no more!”
‘At these words there was a flutter and a croak, and the ravens, flying from the cabin, soared up into the tempest-tossed air, wheeling round and round the rocking masts of the labouring ship.
‘“And you too,” said Tronda, looking up at them, “leave me!”
‘The sentence, comrades, was no sooner spoken than the foul birds darted off, each his separate way, and were speedily lost in the darkness. Then the storm burst out with all its fury. Had it been a bark manned by mortals, the galley would not have lived an hour in that sea; but enchantment kept it afloat until it had finished its destined course. For some space the Lapland witch and the figure of Torquil Randa were the only forms visible in the ship. But as the night fell, and the darkness grew intense, pale flashes of lightning showed troops of phantoms upon the deck, who worked the ropes and sails as mariners in a gale. These shapes, comrades, were the spirits of the seamen whom Tronda by her incantations[Pg 368] had drowned. But still the witch stood erect and fearless through all this tumult of horror, lifting up her unabashed forehead to the gale, and flashing all around her wild grey eyes. The figure of Torquil stayed ever by her side.
‘At length, comrades, in the thick of the roaring tornado, with all the gibbering ghosts dimly seen flitting on the deck amid the flying spray and foam, there was shouted from the prows, in a voice which boomed like the tones of a church bell, “Land.”
‘At this the spectre of the Norse mariner turned to Tronda, and said—
‘“Now hear your doom. From this time forth you will haunt the cape on which we are driving; and there you will have power over the winds which blow. Your evil nature, which is as a mighty devil within you, will ever impel you to retard rather than to advance the course of mariners; but yet, for every moment of time a ship is hindered on her course, will you pass a year of torment, such as it is not in the breast of man to conceive. And this shall last even to the day when the sea shall give up its dead.”
‘In a moment after, mates, the galley was crushed into splinters, and not a vestige of her, or of her precious cargo of pearls, and jewels, and gold, were ever seen by man. But Tronda, the evil spirit of Cape Morant, still haunts that desolate beach and these stormy breakers, and sometimes in wild mid-watches, the mariner has caught a glimpse of her pale face and stony eyes, and floating locks, driving through the scud of the storm, with her arms tossed above her head, as though she were still singing the chaunt which raised wind and waves. I never spoke, comrades, with those who saw her; but I have heard tell of a sailor of Sir Francis Drake, who being, in a night of storm, clinging to the end of the bowsprit furling a split sail, beheld the ancient face of the hag, with her grey, fishy eyes, looking into his own, and who came near letting go hold of the spar in his fright, and tumbling into the boiling sea below. But he[Pg 369] managed to make his way, all pale and shaking, on board the ship, where he told what he had witnessed; and certain old men of the crew said it was a most evil omen, and that either the ship would be lost, or he who saw the appearance would be drowned. Now, word being passed through the ship of what had happened, it came to the ears of the stout-hearted admiral himself; and presently Sir Francis appeared out of the main cabin.
‘“What is this I hear, men,” says he, “that one of you has been frightened by a demon?”
‘“It was the devil, Sir Francis!” said the sailor, by name James Gilbert.
‘“And what if it were?” quoth the admiral. “He is but a coward. If he shows his face to you again, pluck the grisly fiend by the beard. The devil fears all who do not fear him.”
‘But for all these bold words of the admiral, the old sailors were right. Before the ship had made Porto Bello, whither she was bound, Gilbert was flung from the lee foretop-sail yard-arm into the sea. After the first plunge, he never came to the surface, and the old sailors knew that what had happened was in consequence of his having seen the demon who haunts Point Morant.’