It was the commander of the vessel who thus spoke.
At these words, Ned Land rose suddenly. The steward, nearly strangled,
tottered out on a sign from his master; but such was the power of the
commander on board, that not a gesture betrayed the resentment which
this man must have felt towards the Canadian. Conseil, interested in
spite of himself, I stupefied, awaited in silence the result of this
scene.
The commander, leaning against the corner of a table with his arms
folded, scanned us with profound attention. Did he hesitate to speak?
Did he regret the words which he had just spoken in French? One might
almost think so.
After some moments of silence, which not one of us dreamed of breaking,
"Gentlemen," said he, in a calm and penetrating voice, "I speak French,
English, German, and Latin equally well. I could, therefore, have
answered you at our first interview, but I wished to know you first,
then to reflect. The story told by each one, entirely agreeing in the
main points, convinced me of your identity. I know now that chance has
brought before me M. Pierre Aronnax, Professor of Natural History at
the Museum of Paris, entrusted with a scientific mission abroad,
Conseil, his servant, and Ned Land, of Canadian origin, harpooner on
board the frigate _Abraham Lincoln_ of the navy of the United States of
America."
I bowed assent. It was not a question that the commander put to me.
Therefore there was no answer to be made. This man expressed himself
with perfect ease, without any accent. His sentences were well turned,
his words clear, and his fluency of speech remarkable. Yet, I did not
recognise in him a fellow-countryman.
He continued the conversation in these terms:
"You have doubtless thought, sir, that I have delayed long in paying
you this second visit. The reason is that, your identity recognised, I
wished to weigh maturely what part to act towards you. I have hesitated
much. Most annoying circumstances have brought you into the presence of
a man who has broken all the ties of humanity. You have come to trouble
my existence."
"Unintentionally!" said I.
"Unintentionally?" replied the stranger, raising his voice a little;
"was it unintentionally that the _Abraham Lincoln_ pursued me all over
the seas? Was it unintentionally that you took passage in this frigate?
Was it unintentionally that your cannon balls rebounded off the plating
of my vessel? Was it unintentionally that Mr. Ned Land struck me with
his harpoon?"
I detected a restrained irritation in these words. But to these
recriminations I had a very natural answer to make and I made it.
"Sir," said I, "no doubt you are ignorant of the discussions which have
taken place concerning you in America and Europe. You do not know that
divers accidents, caused by collisions with your submarine machine,
have excited public feeling in the two continents. I omit the
hypotheses without number by which it was sought to explain the
inexplicable phenomenon of which you alone possess the secret. But you
must understand that, in pursuing you over the high seas of the
Pacific, the _Abraham Lincoln_ believed itself to be chasing some
powerful sea-monster, of which it was necessary to rid the ocean at any
price."
A half-smile curled the lips of the commander: then, in a calmer tone—
"M. Aronnax," he replied, "dare you affirm that your frigate would not
as soon have pursued and cannonaded a submarine boat as a monster?"
This question embarrassed me, for certainly Captain Farragut might not
have hesitated. He might have thought it his duty to destroy a
contrivance of this kind, as he would a gigantic narwhal.
"You understand then, sir," continued the stranger, "that I have the
right to treat you as enemies?"
I answered nothing, purposely. For what good would it be to discuss
such a proposition, when force could destroy the best arguments?
"I have hesitated some time," continued the commander; "nothing obliged
me to show you hospitality. If I chose to separate myself from you, I
should have no interest in seeing you again; I could place you upon the
deck of this vessel which has served you as a refuge, I could sink
beneath the waters, and forget that you had ever existed. Would not
that be my right?"
"It might be the right of a savage," I answered, "but not that of a
civilised man."
"Professor," replied the commander, quickly, "I am not what you call a
civilised man! I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I
alone have the right of appreciating. I do not therefore obey its laws,
and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!"
This was said plainly. A flash of anger and disdain kindled in the eyes
of the Unknown, and I had a glimpse of a terrible past in the life of
this man. Not only had he put himself beyond the pale of human laws,
but he had made himself independent of them, free in the strictest
acceptation of the word, quite beyond their reach! Who then would dare
to pursue him at the bottom of the sea, when, on its surface, he defied
all attempts made against him? What vessel could resist the shock of
his submarine monitor? What cuirass, however thick, could withstand the
blows of his spur? No man could demand from him an account of his
actions; God, if he believed in one—his conscience, if he had one—were
the sole judges to whom he was answerable.
These reflections crossed my mind rapidly, whilst the stranger
personage was silent, absorbed, and as if wrapped up in himself. I
regarded him with fear mingled with interest, as doubtless, Œdipus
regarded the Sphinx.
After rather a long silence, the commander resumed the conversation.
"I have hesitated," said he, "but I have thought that my interest might
be reconciled with that pity to which every human being has a right.
You will remain on board my vessel, since fate has cast you there. You
will be free; and, in exchange for this liberty, I shall only impose
one single condition. Your word of honour to submit to it will
suffice."
"Speak, sir," I answered. "I suppose this condition is one which a man
of honour may accept?"
"Yes, sir; it is this. It is possible that certain events, unforeseen,
may oblige me to consign you to your cabins for some hours or some
days, as the case may be. As I desire never to use violence, I expect
from you, more than all the others, a passive obedience. In thus
acting, I take all the responsibility: I acquit you entirely, for I
make it an impossibility for you to see what ought not to be seen. Do
you accept this condition?"
Then things took place on board which, to say the least, were singular,
and which ought not to be seen by people who were not placed beyond the
pale of social laws. Amongst the surprises which the future was
preparing for me, this might not be the least.
"We accept," I answered; "only I will ask your permission, sir, to
address one question to you—one only."
"Speak, sir."
"You said that we should be free on board."
"Entirely."
"I ask you, then, what you mean by this liberty?"
"Just the liberty to go, to come, to see, to observe even all that
passes here,—save under rare circumstances,—the liberty, in short,
which we enjoy ourselves, my companions and I."
It was evident that we did not understand one another.
"Pardon me, sir," I resumed, "but this liberty is only what every
prisoner has of pacing his prison. It cannot suffice us."
"It must suffice you, however."
"What! we must renounce for ever seeing our country, our friends, our
relations again?"
"Yes, sir. But to renounce that unendurable worldly yoke which men
believe to be liberty, is not perhaps so painful as you think."
"Well," exclaimed Ned Land, "never will I give my word of honour not to
try to escape."
"I did not ask you for your word of honour, Master Land," answered the
commander, coldly.
"Sir," I replied, beginning to get angry in spite of myself, "you abuse
your situation towards us; it is cruelty."
"No, sir, it is clemency. You are my prisoners of war. I keep you, when
I could, by a word, plunge you into the depths of the ocean. You
attacked me. You came to surprise a secret which no man in the world
must penetrate,—the secret of my whole existence. And you think that I
am going to send you back to that world which must know me no more?
Never! In retaining you, it is not you whom I guard—it is myself."
These words indicated a resolution taken on the part of the commander,
against which no arguments would prevail.
"So, sir," I rejoined, "you give us simply the choice between life and
death?"
"Simply."
"My friends," said I, "to a question thus put, there is nothing to
answer. But no word of honour binds us to the master of this vessel."
"None, sir," answered the Unknown.
Then, in a gentler tone, he continued—
"Now, permit me to finish what I have to say to you. I know you, M.
Aronnax. You and your companions will not, perhaps, have so much to
complain of in the chance which has bound you to my fate. You will find
amongst the books which are my favourite study the work which you have
published on 'the depths of the sea.' I have often read it. You have
carried out your work as far as terrestrial science permitted you. But
you do not know all—you have not seen all. Let me tell you then,
Professor, that you will not regret the time passed on board my vessel.
You are going to visit the land of marvels."
These words of the commander had a great effect upon me. I cannot deny
My weak point was touched; and I forgot, for a moment, that the
contemplation of these sublime subjects was not worth the loss of
liberty. Besides, I trusted to the future to decide this grave
question. So I contented myself with saying—
"By what name ought I to address you?"
"Sir," replied the commander, "I am nothing to you but Captain Nemo;
and you and your companions are nothing to me but the passengers of the
_Nautilus_."
Captain Nemo called. A steward appeared. The captain gave him his
orders in that strange language which I did not understand. Then,
turning towards the Canadian and Conseil—
"A repast awaits you in your cabin," said he. "Be so good as to follow
this man.
"And now, M. Aronnax, our breakfast is ready. Permit me to lead the
way."
"I am at your service, Captain."
I followed Captain Nemo; and as soon as I had passed through the door,
I found myself in a kind of passage lighted by electricity, similar to
the waist of a ship. After we had proceeded a dozen yards, a second
door opened before me.
I then entered a dining-room, decorated and furnished in severe taste.
High oaken sideboards, inlaid with ebony, stood at the two extremities
of the room, and upon their shelves glittered china, porcelain, and
glass of inestimable value. The plate on the table sparkled in the rays
which the luminous ceiling shed around, while the light was tempered
and softened by exquisite paintings.
In the centre of the room was a table richly laid out. Captain Nemo
indicated the place I was to occupy.
The breakfast consisted of a certain number of dishes, the contents of
which were furnished by the sea alone; and I was ignorant of the nature
and mode of preparation of some of them. I acknowledged that they were
good, but they had a peculiar flavour, which I easily became accustomed
These different aliments appeared to me to be rich in phosphorus,
and I thought they must have a marine origin.
Captain Nemo looked at me. I asked him no questions, but he guessed my
thoughts, and answered of his own accord the questions which I was
burning to address to him.
"The greater part of these dishes are unknown to you," he said to me.
"However, you may partake of them without fear. They are wholesome and
nourishing. For a long time I have renounced the food of the earth, and
am never ill now. My crew, who are healthy, are fed on the same food."
"So," said I, "all these eatables are the produce of the sea?"
"Yes, Professor, the sea supplies all my wants. Sometimes I cast my
nets in tow, and I draw them in ready to break. Sometimes I hunt in the
midst of this element, which appears to be inaccessible to man, and
quarry the game which dwells in my submarine forests. My flocks, like
those of Neptune's old shepherds, graze fearlessly in the immense
prairies of the ocean. I have a vast property there, which I cultivate
myself, and which is always sown by the hand of the Creator of all
things."
"I can understand perfectly, sir, that your nets furnish excellent fish
for your table; I can understand also that you hunt aquatic game in
your submarine forests; but I cannot understand at all how a particle
of meat, no matter how small, can figure in your bill of fare."
"This, which you believe to be meat, Professor, is nothing else than
fillet of turtle. Here are also some dolphins' livers, which you take
to be ragout of pork. My cook is a clever fellow, who excels in
dressing these various products of the ocean. Taste all these dishes.
Here is a preserve of holothuria, which a Malay would declare to be
unrivalled in the world; here is a cream, of which the milk has been
furnished by the cetacea, and the sugar by the great fucus of the North
Sea; and lastly, permit me to offer you some preserve of anemones,
which is equal to that of the most delicious fruits."
I tasted, more from curiosity than as a connoisseur, whilst Captain
Nemo enchanted me with his extraordinary stories.
"You like the sea, Captain?"
"Yes; I love it! The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the
terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense
desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all
sides. The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful
existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the 'Living
Infinite,' as one of your poets has said. In fact, Professor, Nature
manifests herself in it by her three kingdoms, mineral, vegetable, and
animal. The sea is the vast reservoir of Nature. The globe began with
sea, so to speak; and who knows if it will not end with it? In it is
supreme tranquillity. The sea does not belong to despots. Upon its
surface men can still exercise unjust laws, fight, tear one another to
pieces, and be carried away with terrestrial horrors. But at thirty
feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched,
and their power disappears. Ah! sir, live—live in the bosom of the
waters! There only is independence! There I recognise no masters! There
I am free!"
Captain Nemo suddenly became silent in the midst of this enthusiasm, by
which he was quite carried away. For a few moments he paced up and
down, much agitated. Then he became more calm, regained his accustomed
coldness of expression, and turning towards me—
"Now, Professor," said he, "if you wish to go over the _Nautilus_, I am
at your service."
Captain Nemo rose. I followed him. A double door, contrived at the back
of the dining-room, opened, and I entered a room equal in dimensions to
that which I had just quitted.
It was a library. High pieces of furniture, of black violet ebony
inlaid with brass, supported upon their wide shelves a great number of
books uniformly bound. They followed the shape of the room, terminating
at the lower part in huge divans, covered with brown leather, which
were curved, to afford the greatest comfort. Light movable desks, made
to slide in and out at will, allowed one to rest one's book while
reading. In the centre stood an immense table, covered with pamphlets,
amongst which were some newspapers, already of old date. The electric
light flooded everything; it was shed from four unpolished globes half
sunk in the volutes of the ceiling. I looked with real admiration at
this room, so ingeniously fitted up, and I could scarcely believe my
eyes.
"Captain Nemo," said I to my host, who had just thrown himself on one
of the divans, "this is a library which would do honour to more than
one of the continental palaces, and I am absolutely astounded when I
consider that it can follow you to the bottom of the seas."
"Where could one find greater solitude or silence, Professor?" replied
Captain Nemo. "Did your study in the Museum afford you such perfect
quiet?"
"No, sir; and I must confess that it is a very poor one after yours.
You must have six or seven thousand volumes here."
"Twelve thousand, M. Aronnax. These are the only ties which bind me to
the earth. But I had done with the world on the day when my _Nautilus_
plunged for the first time beneath the waters. That day I bought my
last volumes, my last pamphlets, my last papers, and from that time I
wish to think that men no longer think or write. These books,
Professor, are at your service besides, and you can make use of them
freely."
I thanked Captain Nemo, and went up to the shelves of the library.
Works on science, morals, and literature abounded in every language;
but I did not see one single work on political economy; that subject
appeared to be strictly proscribed. Strange to say, all these books
were irregularly arranged, in whatever language they were written; and
this medley proved that the Captain of the _Nautilus_ must have read
indiscriminately the books which he took up by chance.
"Sir," said I to the Captain, "I thank you for having placed this
library at my disposal. It contains treasures of science, and I shall
profit by them."
"This room is not only a library," said Captain Nemo, "it is also a
smoking-room."
"A smoking-room!" I cried. "Then one may smoke on board?"
"Certainly."
"Then, sir, I am forced to believe that you have kept up a
communication with Havannah."
"Not any," answered the Captain. "Accept this cigar, M. Aronnax; and,
though it does not come from Havannah, you will be pleased with it, if
you are a connoisseur."
I took the cigar which was offered me; its shape recalled the London
ones, but it seemed to be made of leaves of gold. I lighted it at a
little brazier, which was supported upon an elegant bronze stem, and
drew the first whiffs with the delight of a lover of smoking who has
not smoked for two days.
"It is excellent, but it is not tobacco."
"No!" answered the Captain, "this tobacco comes neither from Havannah
nor from the East. It is a kind of sea-weed, rich in nicotine, with
which the sea provides me, but somewhat sparingly."
At that moment Captain Nemo opened a door which stood opposite to that
by which I had entered the library, and I passed into an immense
drawing-room splendidly lighted.
It was a vast four-sided room, thirty feet long, eighteen wide, and
fifteen high. A luminous ceiling, decorated with light arabesques, shed
a soft clear light over all the marvels accumulated in this museum. For
it was in fact a museum, in which an intelligent and prodigal hand had
gathered all the treasures of nature and art, with the artistic
confusion which distinguishes a painter's studio.
Thirty first-rate pictures, uniformly framed, separated by bright
drapery, ornamented the walls, which were hung with tapestry of severe
design. I saw works of great value, the greater part of which I had
admired in the special collections of Europe, and in the exhibitions of
paintings. The several schools of the old masters were represented by a
Madonna of Raphael, a Virgin of Leonardo da Vinci, a nymph of Corregio,
a woman of Titan, an Adoration of Veronese, an Assumption of Murillo, a
portrait of Holbein, a monk of Velasquez, a martyr of Ribera, a fair of
Rubens, two Flemish landscapes of Teniers, three little "genre"
pictures of Gerard Dow, Metsu, and Paul Potter, two specimens of
Géricault and Prudhon, and some sea-pieces of Backhuysen and Vernet.
Amongst the works of modern painters were pictures with the signatures
of Delacroix, Ingres, Decamps, Troyon, Meissonier, Daubigny, etc.; and
some admirable statues in marble and bronze, after the finest antique
models, stood upon pedestals in the corners of this magnificent museum.
Amazement, as the Captain of the _Nautilus_ had predicted, had already
begun to take possession of me.
"Professor," said this strange man, "you must excuse the unceremonious
way in which I receive you, and the disorder of this room."
"Sir," I answered, "without seeking to know who you are, I recognise in
you an artist."
"An amateur, nothing more, sir. Formerly I loved to collect these
beautiful works created by the hand of man. I sought them greedily, and
ferreted them out indefatigably, and I have been able to bring together
some objects of great value. These are my last souvenirs of that world
which is dead to me. In my eyes, your modern artists are already old;
they have two or three thousand years of existence; I confound them in
my own mind. Masters have no age."
"And these musicians?" said I, pointing out some works of Weber,
Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Meyerbeer, Hérold, Wagner, Auber,
Gounod, and a number of others, scattered over a large model
piano-organ which occupied one of the panels of the drawing-room.
"These musicians," replied Captain Nemo, "are the contemporaries of
Orpheus; for in the memory of the dead all chronological differences
are effaced; and I am dead, Professor; as much dead as those of your
friends who are sleeping six feet under the earth!"
Captain Nemo was silent, and seemed lost in a profound reverie. I
contemplated him with deep interest, analysing in silence the strange
expression of his countenance. Leaning on his elbow against an angle of
a costly mosaic table, he no longer saw me,—he had forgotten my
presence.
I did not disturb this reverie, and continued my observation of the
curiosities which enriched this drawing-room.
Under elegant glass cases, fixed by copper rivets, were classed and
labelled the most precious productions of the sea which had ever been
presented to the eye of a naturalist. My delight as a professor may be
conceived.
The division containing the zoophytes presented the most curious
specimens of the two groups of polypi and echinodermes. In the first
group, the tubipores, were gorgones arranged like a fan, soft sponges
of Syria, ises of the Moluccas, pennatules, an admirable virgularia of
the Norwegian seas, variegated unbellulairæ, alcyonariæ, a whole series
of madrepores, which my master Milne Edwards has so cleverly
classified, amongst which I remarked some wonderful flabellinæ oculinæ
of the Island of Bourbon, the "Neptune's car" of the Antilles, superb
varieties of corals—in short, every species of those curious polypi of
which entire islands are formed, which will one day become continents.
Of the echinodermes, remarkable for their coating of spines, asteri,
sea-stars, pantacrinæ, comatules, astérophons, echini, holothuri, etc.,
represented individually a complete collection of this group.
A somewhat nervous conchyliologist would certainly have fainted before
other more numerous cases, in which were classified the specimens of
molluscs. It was a collection of inestimable value, which time fails me
to describe minutely. Amongst these specimens I will quote from memory
only the elegant royal hammer-fish of the Indian Ocean, whose regular
white spots stood out brightly on a red and brown ground, an imperial
spondyle, bright-coloured, bristling with spines, a rare specimen in
the European museums—(I estimated its value at not less than £1000); a
common hammer-fish of the seas of New Holland, which is only procured
with difficulty; exotic buccardia of Senegal; fragile white bivalve
shells, which a breath might shatter like a soap-bubble; several
varieties of the aspirgillum of Java, a kind of calcareous tube, edged
with leafy folds, and much debated by amateurs; a whole series of
trochi, some a greenish-yellow, found in the American seas, others a
reddish-brown, natives of Australian waters; others from the Gulf of
Mexico, remarkable for their imbricated shell; stellari found in the
Southern Seas; and last, the rarest of all, the magnificent spur of New
Zealand; and every description of delicate and fragile shells to which
science has given appropriate names.
Apart, in separate compartments, were spread out chaplets of pearls of
the greatest beauty, which reflected the electric light in little
sparks of fire; pink pearls, torn from the pinna-marina of the Red Sea;
green pearls of the haliotyde iris; yellow, blue and black pearls, the
curious productions of the divers molluscs of every ocean, and certain
mussels of the water-courses of the North; lastly, several specimens of
inestimable value which had been gathered from the rarest pintadines.
Some of these pearls were larger than a pigeon's egg, and were worth as
much, and more than that which the traveller Tavernier sold to the Shah
of Persia for three millions, and surpassed the one in the possession
of the Imaum of Muscat, which I had believed to be unrivalled in the
world.
Therefore, to estimate the value of this collection was simply
impossible. Captain Nemo must have expended millions in the acquirement
of these various specimens, and I was thinking what source he could
have drawn from, to have been able thus to gratify his fancy for
collecting, when I was interrupted by these words—
"You are examining my shells, Professor? Unquestionably they must be
interesting to a naturalist; but for me they have a far greater charm,
for I have collected them all with my own hand, and there is not a sea
on the face of the globe which has escaped my researches."
"I can understand, Captain, the delight of wandering about in the midst
of such riches. You are one of those who have collected their treasures
themselves. No museum in Europe possesses such a collection of the
produce of the ocean. But if I exhaust all my admiration upon it, I
shall have none left for the vessel which carries it. I do not wish to
pry into your secrets; but I must confess that this _Nautilus_, with
the motive power which is confined in it, the contrivances which enable
it to be worked, the powerful agent which propels it, all excite my
curiosity to the highest pitch. I see suspended on the walls of this
room instruments of whose use I am ignorant."
"You will find these same instruments in my own room, Professor, where
I shall have much pleasure in explaining their use to you. But first
come and inspect the cabin which is set apart for your own use. You
must see how you will be accommodated on board the _Nautilus_."
I followed Captain Nemo, who, by one of the doors opening from each
panel of the drawing-room, regained the waist. He conducted me towards
the bow, and there I found, not a cabin, but an elegant room, with a
bed, dressing-table, and several other pieces of furniture.
I could only thank my host.
"Your room adjoins mine," said he, opening a door, "and mine opens into
the drawing-room that we have just quitted."
I entered the Captain's room: it had a severe, almost a monkish,
aspect. A small iron bedstead, a table, some articles for the toilet;
the whole lighted by a skylight. No comforts, the strictest necessaries
only.
Captain Nemo pointed to a seat.
"Be so good as to sit down," he said. I seated myself, and he began
thus: