Munroe Island, 12th March.
Whatever has happened over the last three weeks prior to my journey has been noted in my diary, but in a very hap-hazard way.
Now as we have reached this island and have some time in hand, I am going to re-organize those notes.
It’s needless to say that I am again a part of an expedition.
The island, on which I am sitting now, possibly had a name because three hundred years back people from mainland arrived here, but that name never reached the civilized world. So, let us call it ‘Munroe Island’ for the time being.
We are five in the group - my old friend Jeremy Saunders is the one who has actually initiated this expedition.
To start the story of this expedition, I need to give an introduction of Bill Callenbauch, who is also a part of this expedition – a professional photographer from California; tall, well built and adventure-loving. He is touching forty-five but looks half his age. Saunders knows Callenbauch for quite a long time. Last December, National Geographic magazine sent Callenbauch to the Northwestern Africa to shoot some local festivals. He was visiting different small cities of that region. Something surprising happened at a town called ‘Agadir’ in Morocco. Agadir is a coastal town and a large number of its population lives on fishing. Callenbauch went to the fishermen’s’ locality to talk to them and to take some photographs. While talking to a fisherman, Callenbauch noticed a three-year-old kid playing with a corked bottle. Callenbauch could also see a folded paper in the bottle and got intrigued to ask the fisherman if he could have the bottle to have a closer look.
The bottle was sealed and the paper inside was a letter, written in English. The writing style suggested that it was a letter written long time ago.
The father of the kid said that the bottle was there in their house since his grandfather’s time. The fishermen were Muslims and they write in Arabic, so no one thought of opening the bottle and reading the letter.
Callenbauch took the letter out of the bottle and read it, within another few days he finished his work and went back to London, where he visited Saunders and showed him the letter. The letter had just a few lines written with a pencil, which goes like –
Latitude 33º East – Longitude 33º North,
13 December 1622
We have discovered a wonder plant here in this unknown island whose miraculous medicinal values can revolutionise human civilization. I am sending this letter in this bottle against Brandon’s strict orders. As he asked all of us to not to talk about the plant and not to spread the news. Black-hole Brandon is the ruler of this island now. Thus, if anyone comes to explore this place after reading this letter, he should be prepared to fight with Brandon. Black-hole Brandon is after my life, and I am sure that my death is close.
Hector Munroe
Saunders went to the Naval office in London and enquired about the ship wrecks occurred during 1621-1622 in the Atlantic Ocean. Generally the naval departments preserve all the documents in the archives even if they are centuries old. There were three shipwrecks in 1622. Dr Hector Munroe’s name was found in the passenger list of a ship named ‘Conquest’. It was destined to the Virgin Islands in the Atlantic Ocean and was coming from Gibraltar. The ship drowned near Bermuda – and the reason was never known. The naval department report says there were no survivors; but now we have enough proof to believe that Hector Munroe survived.
At the same time the passenger list of Conquest did not show any Brandon’s name. Saunders investigated further to learn that in the early years of seventeenth century there was one Greg Brandon – the most infamous pirate of that time. Brandon was one eyed – in the place of the second eye there was a hole – which gave him the name ‘Black hole Brandon’. Brandon had killed over a thousand people for his lust for gold. That time Jamaica was one of the main shelters for the English pirates. It could also be possible that Brandon and his gang had attacked Conquest and drowned it. And Munroe had survived possibly because he was a doctor. Those days a doctor’s demand was very high on a pirate ship.
Diseases like Scurvy, pellagra, Berry-Berry were very common in the seas, and they could kill all the sailors in no time. For that reason a doctor, who could treat these ailments and could also do surgery if needed – used to be a very important person for a voyage. Hector Munroe was surely a doctor of that competence. But how did he and Brandon reached that unknown island is still a mystery.
To sum it up – after learning all these facts Saunders decided to visit the unknown island in-spite of the fact that centuries had passed since the letter was written. He wrote to me about this. I agreed immediately and joined him in London within seven days. When I arrived London the preparation for the expedition was almost over. Callenbauch had told Saunders that if the expedition finally happens, he would surely be a part of it. And when I talked to him I could make out that he is dreaming of making a lot of money from the TV channels by selling the film rights, which he is planning to shoot during the expedition.
The fourth one of our group is a Japanese scientist called Hidechi Suma. One of his innumerable inventions is just there on the beach in front of my eyes. This is a jet driven sea vehicle called Sumacraft, and what a magical thing it is! We realized it pretty well during this one thousand five hundred miles sea journey. Sumacraft had never caused any problem for us and overcame all the hurdles of such a long voyage. Suma came to London for a demonstration of this jet boat and there he met Saunders.
Sumacraft is not the only thing he had invented. He is also carrying some of his other inventions, which he thinks will be useful in our expedition. Above all Suma is one of the finest Biochemists of the world. The other thing I should mention about him is that - I have never seen such a well dressed person in my life; you look at him at any hour of the day, you would be forced to believe that he is in his own city Osaka and in a while he would take his briefcase and start for office.
Before I introduce the 5th person I should write how he actually got inside the group. Saunders published an advertisement on all the leading newspapers of London – calling for eligible people to join the group for the expedition. There were five eligibility criteria:
i) Previous experience of sea voyage
ii) Experience of being a part of at least two scientific expeditions.
iii) A degree in any stream of science
iv) Good health
v) Experience to handle weapons
The fifth one of our group could only fulfill the first criteria. He is not a scientist, he is a writer, and he had never been part of any expedition neither scientific nor non-scientific. Only in school once he climbed up 1500 ft on the Ben Nevis Mountains of Scotland with a group of friends. As the total height of Ben Nevis is 4500 ft so climbing up 1500 ft of it was truly not a big deal. But then why was he included in the group?
The reason is simple – David Munroe is a successor of Hector Munroe. The proverb we often use about – ‘fourteen generations up…’ in Bengali, if we truly go those fourteen-generations back, we would find Hector Munroe on the top of David’s family chart. David approached Saunders when he saw the advertisement – and requested to include him in the expedition. He said that he had heard that Dr. Munroe was contemporary to Shakespeare, from his father and grandfather. At the time when the British Navy was fighting the ‘Spanish Armada’, Dr. Munroe was the physician for the British Admiral the Duke of Ephingham. Apart from this when David learnt - that ‘Black hole Brandon’ was also there in his forefather’s story, he became very keen to be a part of this expedition. He had read so many stories about the pirates, even he read so much about ‘Black hole Brandon’. If there were any hidden treasure of Brandon and if he can discover that – it would be really a dream come true for him. And here I should mention one thing, that David is only twenty-two year old.
One single glance at David Munroe and one would know that his hands had never held any weapon. The lost look in his eyes, soft voice, and shoulder touching long golden hair- all of them may vouch for his imagination power but surely not for his physical power.
Saunders had finally selected David, because of only one reason – the blood that is flowing in David’s vein is truly the blood of the person who wrote the letter in the bottle.
There is another member in the group – Rocket – the huge Great Den of David and of course who is in the best shape amongst all of us.
Today in the morning we have arrived here. We had all our doubts when even after traveling 600 miles in two days time we could not see any sign of land. We started thinking whether this part of Atlantic Ocean has any island at all. Today after sunrise when Saunders put on his binoculars and announced that he could see land through the thick fog around, Callenbauch instantly got ready with his movie camera. I was a little surprised because generally long before the land appears, sea gulls come and announce the news in their cracked voices, but here it was so different, not a single sea gull was around.
Things are no more surprising now, because even after surveying the whole day over 5 kilometers of area we could not see any living creature other than some insects and crabs, and not only that, we could not find any uncommon plant either. The plants we have seen here are only those, which are normally found in this part of Atlantic. But we have only seen a part of the western side of the island.
We have made our camp on the beach itself. This is the Southern side of the island, which has only sand and is a little rocky; vegetation is very less on this part. The island is quite small and mostly plain; but the central part – which is nearly five kilometers away from our camp – is quite high and full of rocky hillocks.
David is very happy, he is running on the beach with Rocket throughout the day – and we also are quite enjoying it. He seems to be a very different person now. Much different than the way we have seen him in London and during the voyage.
The one, who has actually created a problem, is Callenbauch. He sneezed at least thirty times continuously from the moment he stepped on the island – and that was followed by a high fever, so we could not take him with us. Suma stayed with him in the camp, as he wanted to prepare all his machinery and also to set up a small laboratory, because some basic chemical analysis will be required if we find some new species of plant.
Though he is so sick but, still Callenbauch has predicted that in two-three days we are going to pack up from here. According to him there are plenty of islands in Atlantic, which are similar to this one.
But then again we could not forget the letter of Dr. Hector Munroe; when the latitude and longitude were correct – I am sure that this is the island mentioned in Munroe’s letter and this is the island where he found the amazing fruit.
13th March, 12 Noon.
Callenbauch’s prediction has failed. No question can arise about leaving this island in two-three days.
Let me explain.
Today in the morning we took bath in the sea and finished our breakfast and then as we were getting ready to go out to explore – David came and proposed that he wanted to go out alone with Rocket.
Yesterday only I could make out that his confidence level was going up. Truly, it’s very tough for a writer to roam around with a bunch of old scientists.
We have come to see things thoroughly, and for that we need time and patience. David said that he wants to visit those hillocks and check whether there is any cave, as he believes that Blackhole Brandon’s treasure can be found in those caves (if there is any). ‘I will surely come back in half an hour’ – said David.
I told him that though there are no big creatures, but poisonous snakes and scorpions can be there, and he should not take this risk. But David was hell bent to go – and said he would take Callenbauch’s pistol and Rocket would be there with him, so there would be nothing to be worried about.
I was thinking how to stop David from this childish venture, and then suddenly heard a loud – ‘No, - No No No No !’
What happened? Such a strong ‘No’ on Suma’s smiling face was looking quite weird. Suma put down a small machine on the beach and said, ‘There is something big here – that side.
look for the next part
in the next issue of Megher Khata
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