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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Chapter 10. THE MAN OF THE SEAS
It was the commander of the vessel who spoke.
At these words, Ned Land rose suddenly.
The steward, nearly strangled, walked out unsteadily after a sign from his master.
But the commander had such power on the ship that no one showed any anger towards the Canadian.
Conseil was interested, in spite of himself.
I was stunned, we waited in silence to see what would happen.
The commander leaned against the corner of a table with his arms crossed and looked at us very carefully.
Did he not want to speak? Did he regret the words he had just said in French? One might almost think so.
After a few moments of silence, which none of us wanted to break, he said in a calm and clear voice,
"Gentlemen, I speak French, English, German, and Latin equally well."
"So I could have answered you at our first meeting."
"But I wanted to know you first, and then to think."
"The story each of you told agreed on the main points."
"That convinced me of who you're."
"I know now that chance has brought before me Mr."
"Pierre Aronnax, Professor of Natural History at the Museum of Paris, who was sent on a scientific mission abroad."
"Conseil, his servant."
"And Ned Land, a Canadian, who's a harpooner on the frigate Abraham Lincoln of the United States Navy."
I bowed to show he was right.
He hadn't asked me a question, so there was no answer to give.
This man spoke very easily, without any accent.
His sentences were well formed, his words were clear, and he spoke very fluently.
But I didn't recognize him as a fellow countryman.
He continued the conversation like this, "You have probably thought, sir, that I waited too long to pay you this second visit."
"The reason is that once I knew who you were, I wanted to think carefully about how to treat you."
"I hesitated a lot."
"Very annoying events have brought you into the presence of a man who has broken all ties with humanity."
"You have come to disturb my life."
"Unintentionally!" I said.
"Unintentionally?" the stranger replied, raising his voice a little.
"Was it unintentionally that the Abraham Lincoln chased me all over the seas?"
"Was it unintentionally that you came on board that frigate?"
"Was it unintentionally that your cannon balls bounced off the metal of my ship?"
"Was it unintentionally that Mr."
"Ned Land hit me with his harpoon?"
I noticed some anger in his words.
But I had a very natural answer to these complaints, and I gave it.
"Sir," I said, "you probably don't know about the discussions about you in America and Europe."
"You don't know that many accidents, caused by ships hitting your underwater machine, have stirred public opinion on both continents."
"I won't mention the many guesses people made to explain the strange thing whose secret only you know."
"But understand when the Abraham Lincoln chased you across the Pacific Ocean, it believed it hunted a powerful sea monster that must be destroyed at any cost".
A half-smile appeared on the commander's lips.
Then, in a calmer tone, he said, "Mr."
"Aronnax, can you say for sure that your frigate wouldn't have chased and shot at a submarine boat just as quickly as it would a monster?"
This question embarrassed me, Captain Farragut might not have hesitated.
He might have thought it was his duty to destroy a machine like this, just as he'd a giant narwhal.
"So you understand, sir," the stranger continued, "that I have the right to treat you as enemies?"
I said nothing on purpose, What good would it be to argue about that, when force could destroy the best arguments?
"I hesitated for some time," the commander went on.
"Nothing forced me to be kind to you."
"If I chose to get rid of you, I wouldn't need to see you again."
"I could put you on the deck of this ship, which has been your refuge."
"I could sink beneath the waters and forget that you ever existed."
"Wouldn't that be my right?"
"It might be the right of a savage," I answered, "but not that of a civilized man."
"Professor," the commander replied quickly, "I'm not what you call a civilized man."
"I have left society completely for reasons only I can understand, so I do not follow its laws and never want them mentioned in my presence".
He said this plainly, a flash of anger and scorn lit up his eyes.
I saw a glimpse of a terrible past in this man's life.
Not only had he put himself outside human laws, but he had made himself independent of them.
He was free in the strictest sense of the word, completely beyond their reach.
Who would dare to chase him at the bottom of the sea, when on the surface he defeated all attacks against him?
What ship could survive hitting his submarine?
What armor, no matter how thick, could withstand the blows of his spur?
No one could ask him to explain his actions.
God, if he believed in one, and his conscience, if he had one, were the only judges he had to answer to.
These thoughts rushed through my mind quickly while the stranger was silent, lost in thought.
I looked at him with fear and interest, just as Oedipus probably looked at the Sphinx.
After a long silence, the commander started speaking again.
"I hesitated," he said, "but I thought that my own interest could be combined with the pity that every human being deserves."
"You'll stay on my ship, since fate has brought you here, and you'll be free."
"And in exchange for this freedom, I'll only ask one condition, your word of honor to accept it will be enough".
"Speak, sir," I answered.
"I suppose this condition is one that a man of honor can accept?"
"Yes, sir, it's this."
"It's possible that unexpected events might force me to keep you in your rooms for a few hours or a few days, depending on the situation."
"Since I never want to use violence, I ask more of you than of the others, obey without question, and I take all responsibility for this."
"I free you from all blame because I make it impossible for you to see what shouldn't be seen, do you accept this condition"?
Then things happened on board that were, to say the least, strange.
They shouldn't be seen by people who weren't outside social laws.
Among the surprises the future had for me, this might not be the smallest.
"We accept," I answered.
"But I ask your permission, sir, to ask you one question. Just one."
"Speak, sir."
"You said that we'd be free on board."
"Completely."
"Then I ask you what you mean by this freedom?"
"Just the freedom to come and go, to see, to observe everything that happens here, except in rare cases."
"In short, the freedom that my companions and I enjoy."
It was clear that we didn't understand each other.
"Excuse me, sir," I continued, "but this freedom is only what every prisoner has when he walks around his cell. It's not enough for us."
"But it must be enough for you."
"What? We must give up forever seeing our country, our friends, our families again?"
"Yes, sir. But giving up that unbearable worldly burden that people think is freedom might not be as painful as you think."
"Well," Ned Land shouted, "I'll never give my word of honor not to try to escape."
"I didn't ask for your word of honor, Master Land," the commander answered coldly.
"Sir," I replied, starting to get angry in spite of myself, "you're abusing your position with us. This is cruel."
"No, sir, it's mercy."
"You're my prisoners of war."
"I keep you, when I could, with one word, throw you into the depths of the ocean."
"You attacked me."
"You came to discover a secret that no one in the world must know."
"The secret of my whole existence."
"You think I'll send you back to that world, which must never know me again? Never. By keeping you, I'm not guarding you. I'm guarding myself."
These words showed that the commander had made a decision that no arguments could change.
"So, sir," I said, "you're simply giving us the choice between life and death?"
"Simply."
"My friends," I said, "when a question is asked like that, there's nothing to say. But no word of honor ties us to the master of this ship."
"None, sir," the stranger answered.
Then, in a gentler tone, he continued,
"Now let me finish what I have to say to you."
"I know you, Mr. Aronnax, you and your companions might not have so much to complain about being tied to my fate."
"You'll find among the books that I love to read the work you published on the depths of the sea."
"You don't know everything."
"You haven't seen everything."
"So let me tell you, Professor, that you won't regret the time you spend on my ship."
"You're going to visit the land of wonders."
These words had a strong effect on me.
I can't deny it, My weak point was touched.
For a moment, I forgot that looking at these wonderful things wasn't worth losing my freedom.
Besides, I trusted the future to decide this serious question.
So I just said, "What name should I call you?"
"Sir," the commander replied, "I'm 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 orders in that strange language I didn't understand.
Then, turning to the Canadian and Conseil, he said, "A meal is waiting for you in your room. Please follow this man."
"And now, Mr. Aronnax, our breakfast is ready. Please let me lead the way."
"I'm at your service, Captain."
I followed Captain Nemo down the corridor, my heart beating with quiet curiosity.
As soon as I went through the door, I found myself in a kind of hallway lit by electricity, like the middle of a ship.
After we walked about ten yards, a second door opened in front of me.
Then I entered a dining room, it was decorated and furnished in a simple but elegant style.
Tall oak cabinets, decorated with ebony, stood at both ends of the room.
On their shelves, china, porcelain, and glass of great value sparkled.
The plates on the table shone in the light from the ceiling.
The light was softened by beautiful paintings.
In the center of the room was a table with a rich meal.
Captain Nemo showed me where to sit.
The breakfast had several dishes, All of them came from the sea.
I didn't know what some of them were or how they were prepared.
I admit they were good, but they had a strange taste, I got used to it easily.
These different foods seemed to be rich in phosphorus, and I thought they must come from the sea.
Captain Nemo looked at me, I didn't ask him any questions, but he guessed my thoughts.
He answered the questions I wanted to ask him.
"Most of these dishes are unknown to you," he said.
"But you can eat them without fear."
"They're healthy and nourishing."
"I gave up eating food from the land a long time ago, and I'm never sick now."
"My crew, who are healthy, eat the same food."
"So," I said, "all this food comes from the sea?"
"Yes, Professor. The sea provides everything I need. Sometimes I drag my nets behind the ship,"
"And I pull them in when they're almost breaking."
"Sometimes I hunt in this element, which seems impossible for man to reach."
"I catch the animals that live in my underwater forests."
"My herds, like those of Neptune's old shepherds, graze without fear in the huge prairies of the ocean."
"I have a large property there, which I farm myself."
"It's always planted by the hand of the Creator of all things."
"I understand perfectly, sir, that your nets give you excellent fish for your table."
"I also understand that you hunt water animals in your underwater forests."
"But I can't understand at all how any piece of meat, no matter how small, can be on your menu."
"This, which you think is meat, Professor, is nothing but fillet of turtle."
"Here are also some dolphin livers, which you think is pork stew."
"My cook is a clever man."
"He's very good at preparing these different products of the ocean."
"Taste all these dishes."
"Here's a preserve of sea cucumbers, which a Malay would say is the best in the world."
"Here's a cream."
"The milk comes from whales, and the sugar comes from a large seaweed of the North Sea."
"And finally, let me offer you some preserve of sea anemones."
"It's as good as the most delicious fruits."
I tasted them more out of curiosity than as an expert, while Captain Nemo delighted me with his amazing stories.
"Do you like the sea, Captain?"
"Yes, I love it."
"The sea is everything."
"It covers seven-tenths of the earth."
"Its breath is pure and healthy."
"It's a huge desert where man is never lonely, because he feels life moving all around."
"The sea is only the form of a supernatural and wonderful existence."
"It's nothing but love and emotion."
"It's the 'Living Infinite,' as one of your poets said."
"In fact, Professor, Nature shows itself in the sea through its three kingdoms, mineral, vegetable, and animal."
"The sea is the great reservoir of Nature."
"The world began with the sea, so to speak."
"And who knows if it won't end with it?"
"In it there's perfect peace."
"The sea doesn't belong to dictators."
"On its surface, men can still use unfair laws, fight, tear each other apart, and be carried away by earthly horrors."
"But thirty feet below its level, their rule ends."
"Their influence is gone."
"Their power disappears."
"Ah, sir, live."
"Live in the heart of the waters."
"There only is independence."
"There I recognize no masters."
"There I'm free."
Captain Nemo suddenly became silent in the middle of this excitement, which had carried him away.
He walked back and forth for a few moments, very agitated.
Then he became calmer, his expression became cold again.
He turned to me and said, "Now, Professor, if you want to look around the Nautilus, I'm at your service."
Captain Nemo stood up, I followed him.
A double door at the back of the dining room opened.
And I entered a room the same size as the one I had just left.
It was a library, filled with tall ebony bookcases and thousands of bound volumes.
Tall pieces of furniture, made of black violet ebony with brass decorations, held a large number of books on their wide shelves.
The books were all bound the same way.
They followed the shape of the room.
At the bottom, there were large sofas covered with brown leather.
They were curved to be very comfortable.
Light movable desks, which could slide in and out, allowed you to rest your book while reading.
In the center was a huge table covered with pamphlets.
Among them were some newspapers that were already old.
The electric light filled everything, it came from four unpolished globes half hidden in the curves of the ceiling.
I looked at this room with real admiration.
It was so cleverly designed, I could hardly believe my eyes.
"Captain Nemo," I said to my host, who had just sat down, "this is a library that would do honor to more than one palace on land."
"I'm absolutely amazed when I think that it can follow you to the bottom of the seas".
"Where could one find more solitude or silence, Professor?" Captain Nemo replied.
"Did your study at the Museum give you such perfect quiet?"
"No, sir. And I must admit that it's very poor compared to yours. You must have six or seven thousand volumes here."
"Twelve thousand, Mr. Aronnax. These are the only things that tie me to the earth."
"I was done with the world on the day when my Nautilus first went under the water."
"That day I bought my last volumes, my last pamphlets, my last papers."
"Since then, I want to think that men no longer think or write."
"These books, Professor, are at your service."
"You can use them freely."
I thanked Captain Nemo and went up to the shelves of the library.
Works on science, morals, and literature were there in every language.
But I didn't see a single work on political economy.
That subject seemed to be completely forbidden.
Strangely, all these books were arranged without order, no matter what language they were written in.
This mixture showed that the Captain of the Nautilus must have read whatever books he picked up by chance.
"Sir," I said to the Captain, "I thank you for putting this library at my disposal. It contains treasures of science, and I'll use them."
"This room isn't only a library," Captain Nemo said.
"It's also a smoking room."
"A smoking room!" I cried.
"So one can smoke on board?"
"Certainly."
"Then, sir, I must believe that you still have contact with Havana."
"Not at all," the Captain answered.
"Accept this cigar, Mr. Aronnax. Even though it doesn't come from Havana, you'll like it if you're an expert."
I took the cigar he offered me.
Its shape reminded me of London cigars, but it seemed to be made of gold leaves.
I lit it at a small burner that was held by an elegant bronze stand.
I took the first puffs with the pleasure of a smoker who hasn't smoked for two days.
"It's excellent, but it's not tobacco."
"No," the Captain answered.
"This tobacco comes neither from Havana nor from the East."
"It's a kind of seaweed rich in nicotine."
"The sea provides it to me, but not very much."
At that moment, Captain Nemo opened a door opposite the one I had used to enter the library.
I went into a huge drawing room that was splendidly lit.
It was a large four-sided room, it was thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and fifteen feet high.
A bright ceiling, decorated with light arabesques, gave a soft clear light to all the wonders collected in this museum.
It was, in fact, a museum, a clever and generous hand had gathered all the treasures of nature and art there.
They were arranged with the artistic disorder that marks a painter's studio.
Thirty first-rate pictures, all in the same frames, separated by bright fabric, decorated the walls.
The walls were covered with simple tapestry.
I saw works of great value, Most of them I had admired in special collections in Europe and in art exhibitions.
The old masters were shown through many paintings.
These included a Madonna by Raphael and a Virgin by Leonardo da Vinci.
A nymph by Corregio and a woman by Titan were also displayed.
An Adoration by Veronese and an Assumption by Murillo were present.
A portrait by Holbein and a monk by Velasquez were shown.
A martyr by Ribera and a fair by Rubens were included.
Two Flemish landscapes by Teniers appeared, Three small genre pictures by Gerard Dow, Metsu, and Paul Potter were there.
Two works by Gericault and Prudhon were shown.
Some seascapes by Backhuysen and Vernet completed the collection.
Among the works of modern painters were pictures signed by Delacroix, Ingres, Decamps, Troyon, Meissonier, Daubigny, and others.
Some beautiful statues in marble and bronze, based on the finest ancient models, stood on pedestals in the corners of this wonderful museum.
Amazement, as the Captain of the Nautilus had predicted, had already started to take hold of me.
"Professor," this strange man said, "you must excuse the informal way I receive you and the disorder of this room."
"Sir," I answered, "without trying to know who you're, I recognize an artist in you."
"Just an amateur, nothing more, sir."
"I used to love to collect these beautiful works created by the hand of man."
"I looked for them eagerly."
"I searched for them tirelessly."
"And I was able to bring together some objects of great value."
"These are my last memories 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 mix them up in my mind."
"Masters have no age."
"And these musicians?" I said, pointing to some works by Weber, Rossini, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Meyerbeer, Herold, Wagner, Auber, Gounod, and many others.
They were scattered over a large piano-organ that took up one of the panels of the drawing room.
"These musicians," Captain Nemo replied, "are the contemporaries of Orpheus."
"In the memory of the dead, all differences in time disappear. I'm dead, Professor, as dead as your friends sleeping six feet under the earth."
Captain Nemo was silent, he seemed lost in deep thought.
I looked at him with deep interest, silently studying the strange expression on his face.
He leaned on his elbow against the corner of an expensive mosaic table.
He no longer saw me, he had forgotten I was there.
I didn't disturb his thoughts, I continued to look at the curiosities that filled this drawing room.
Under elegant glass cases, held by copper rivets, the most precious products of the sea were arranged and labeled.
A naturalist had never seen such things.
You can imagine how happy I was as a professor.
The section with the zoophytes showed the most curious examples of the two groups of polyps and echinoderms.
The first group had tubipores and gorgones arranged like fans.
It also included soft sponges from Syria and ises from the Moluccas.
There were sea pens, a beautiful virgularia from the Norwegian seas, and colorful umbellulairae.
Alcyonariae and a whole series of madrepores were there too.
My teacher Milne Edwards had classified them so cleverly.
Among them I noticed some wonderful flabellinae oculinae from the Island of Bourbon, the "Neptune's car" from the Antilles, and superb varieties of corals.
In short, every species of those curious polyps that form entire islands, which will one day become continents.
Of the echinoderms, which are known for their spiny covering, there were starfish, sea stars, pantacrinae, comatules, asterophons, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and others.
Each one represented a complete collection of this group.
A somewhat nervous shell collector would certainly have fainted in front of other, larger cases.
In them were classified the specimens of mollusks.
It was a collection of great value.
I don't have time to describe it in detail.
Among these specimens, I'll mention from memory only the elegant royal hammer-fish of the Indian Ocean.
Its regular white spots stood out brightly on a red and brown background.
There was an imperial spondyle, bright-colored and covered with spines.
It was a rare specimen in European museums.
I estimated its value at no less than a thousand pounds.
There was a common hammer-fish from the seas of New Holland, which is only obtained with difficulty.
There were exotic buccardia from Senegal, there were fragile white bivalve shells that a breath could shatter like a soap bubble.
There were several varieties of the aspirgillum from Java, a kind of calcareous tube with leafy folds, much debated by collectors.
There was a whole series of trochi.
Some were greenish-yellow, found in American seas.
Others were reddish-brown, from Australian waters, Others came from the Gulf of Mexico and were known for their layered shell.
There were stellari found in the Southern Seas.
And finally, the rarest of all, the beautiful spur of New Zealand.
And every kind of delicate and fragile shell that science has given appropriate names.
In separate compartments, there were strings of pearls of the greatest beauty.
They reflected the electric light in little sparks of fire.
There were pink pearls, taken from the pinna-marina of the Red Sea.
There were green pearls from the haliotyde iris.
There were yellow, blue, and black pearls.
They were the curious products of different mollusks from every ocean and certain mussels from the rivers of the North.
Finally, there were several specimens of great value that had been taken from the rarest pearl oysters.
Some of these pearls were larger than a pigeon's egg.
They were worth as much as, or more than, the one the traveler Tavernier sold to the Shah of Persia for three million.
They were larger than the one owned by the Imaum of Muscat, which I had believed to be the best in the world.
So it was simply impossible to estimate the value of this collection.
Captain Nemo must have spent millions to get these various specimens.
I was thinking about where he could have gotten the money to satisfy his love of collecting, when I was interrupted by these words,
"You're looking at my shells, Professor?"
"They must certainly be interesting to a naturalist."
"But for me, they have a much greater charm."
"I collected them all with my own hand."
"There isn't a sea on the face of the earth that I haven't explored."
"I can understand, Captain, the joy of wandering among such riches."
"You're one of those who have collected their own treasures."
"No museum in Europe has such a collection of the products of the ocean."
"But if I use up all my admiration on this, I'll have none left for the ship that carries it."
"I don't want to pry into your secrets."
But I must admit that this Nautilus, with its power, its devices, and the force that moves it, excites my curiosity.
"I see instruments on the walls of this room that I don't know how to use."
"You'll find these same instruments in my own room, Professor."
"I'll be happy to explain their use to you."
"But first, come and see the room that's set aside for you."
"You must see how you'll be accommodated on board the Nautilus."
I followed Captain Nemo through the corridor, watching the polished brass and panels.
He went through one of the doors that opened from each panel of the drawing room and returned to the middle of the ship.
He led me towards the front, there I found, not a cabin, but an elegant room.
It had a bed, a dressing table, and several other pieces of furniture.
I could only thank my host with deep gratitude and a humble bow.
"Your room is next to mine," he said, opening a door.
"And my room opens into the drawing room we just left."
I entered the Captain's room, it had a simple, almost monk-like appearance.
There was a small iron bed, a table, and some toilet items.
Everything was lit by a skylight, there were no comforts, only the strictest necessities.
Captain Nemo pointed to a seat near the small iron bed and waited silently.
"Please sit down," he said.
I sat down, and he began to speak.