# Sketch Seventh: Charles's Isle and the Dog-King explained — Short Fiction > Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Herman Melville. ## What happens This sketch recounts the history of Charles's Isle, a barren island in the Encantadas, which was granted to a Creole adventurer from Cuba after the Peruvian war of independence. He established himself as its supreme lord, populated it with settlers and a disciplined cavalry of dogs, and ruled with martial law. After a series of rebellions, a mutiny led by deserters from foreign ships overthrew him, establishing a lawless 'Riotocracy.' The island became a refuge for runaway sailors, shunned by passing vessels. The narrator's ship encounters a beacon on the island, but the captain refuses to investigate, knowing its treacherous reputation. ## Themes in this chapter ### Authority and Rebellion The Dog-King's authoritarian rule, enforced by a canine army, is repeatedly challenged by rebellions, culminating in a successful mutiny that overthrows him and establishes a lawless 'Riotocracy.' ### Justice and Injustice The king's 'justice' is arbitrary and violent, involving hunting and shooting subjects, while the rebels' 'liberty' descends into lawlessness, highlighting the failure of both systems. ### The Individual vs. Society The Creole adventurer's individual ambition to create a personal kingdom clashes with the collective will of the settlers and deserters, leading to societal collapse. ### Isolation and Alienation Charles's Isle is a remote, barren place that becomes a refuge for outcasts and deserters, yet its inhabitants are alienated from the rest of the world, shunned by passing ships. ## Character check-ins ### The Narrator (Encantadas) The narrator recounts the history of Charles's Isle and the Dog-King, learned from a shipmate, and later describes his own ship's encounter with the island's beacon. ### Oberlus Not present in this sketch; the focus is on the Creole Dog-King and the island's history. ## Key lines > So with outragious cry, A thousand villeins round about him swarmed Out of the rocks and caves adjoining nye; Vile caitive wretches, ragged, rude, deformed; All threatning death, all in straunge manner armed; Some with unweldy clubs, some with long speares. Some rusty knives, some staves in fier warmd. We will not be of any occupation, Let such vile vassals, born to base vocation, Drudge in the world, and for their living droyle, Which have no wit to live withouten toyle. A mob of ragged, deformed villains armed with crude weapons swarms from the rocks and caves, threatening death, refusing to work like common laborers. _This epigraph sets the tone for the lawless and violent nature of the island's inhabitants._ > Southwest of Barrington lies Charles's Isle. And hereby hangs a history which I gathered long ago from a shipmate learned in all the lore of outlandish life. Charles's Isle is located southwest of Barrington, and the narrator learned its story from a knowledgeable shipmate. _Introduces the setting and source of the tale._ > During the successful revolt of the Spanish provinces from Old Spain, there fought on behalf of Peru a certain Creole adventurer from Cuba, who, by his bravery and good fortune, at length advanced himself to high rank in the patriot army. A Creole adventurer from Cuba fought for Peru during its revolt against Spain and rose to a high rank. _Establishes the background of the Dog-King._ > The war being ended, Peru found itself like many valorous gentlemen, free and independent enough, but with few shot in the locker. In other words, Peru had not wherewithal to pay off its troops. After the war, Peru was independent but too poor to pay its soldiers. _Explains why the Creole was paid in land._ > But the Creole⁠—I forget his name⁠—volunteered to take his pay in lands. So they told him he might have his pick of the Enchanted Isles, which were then, as they still remain, the nominal appanage of Peru. The Creole chose to be paid with land from the Enchanted Isles, which belonged to Peru. _The Creole's name is forgotten, emphasizing his legendary status._ > The soldier straightway embarks thither, explores the group, returns to Callao, and says he will take a deed of Charles's Isle. Moreover, this deed must stipulate that thenceforth Charles's Isle is not only the sole property of the Creole, but is forever free of Peru, even as Peru of Spain. The Creole explored the islands, chose Charles's Isle, and demanded it be his sole property, independent of Peru. _The Creole's ambition for absolute sovereignty._ > To be short, this adventurer procures himself to be made in effect Supreme Lord of the Island, one of the princes of the powers of the earth. In short, the adventurer became the supreme ruler of the island. _His self-appointed kingship._ > He now sends forth a proclamation inviting subjects to his as yet unpopulated kingdom. Some eighty souls, men and women, respond; and being provided by their leader with necessaries, and tools of various sorts, together with a few cattle and goats, take ship for the promised land; the last arrival on board, prior to sailing, being the Creole himself, accompanied, strange to say, by a disciplined cavalry company of large grim dogs. He recruited about eighty settlers and brought them to the island, arriving himself with a company of trained dogs. _The dogs are introduced as a key element of his rule._ > These, it was observed on the passage, refusing to consort with the emigrants, remained aristocratically grouped around their master on the elevated quarterdeck, casting disdainful glances forward upon the inferior rabble there; much as, from the ramparts, the soldiers of a garrison, thrown into a conquered town, eye the inglorious citizen-mob over which they are set to watch. The dogs stayed aloof from the settlers, staying near their master and looking down on the others like soldiers in a conquered town. _The dogs' aristocratic demeanor foreshadows their role as enforcers._ > Now Charles's Isle not only resembles Barrington Isle in being much more inhabitable than other parts of the group, but it is double the size of Barrington, say forty or fifty miles in circuit. Charles's Isle is larger and more habitable than Barrington, about 40-50 miles around. _Geographical description of the island._ > Safely debarked at last, the company, under direction of their lord and patron, forthwith proceeded to build their capital city. They make considerable advance in the way of walls of clinkers, and lava floors, nicely sanded with cinders. The settlers built a capital city with walls of volcanic rock and lava floors. _The construction of the settlement._ > On the least barren hills they pasture their cattle, while the goats, adventurers by nature, explore the far inland solitudes for a scanty livelihood of lofty herbage. Cattle graze on the less barren hills, while goats roam the interior for food. _The island's limited agriculture._ > Meantime, abundance of fish and tortoises supply their other wants. Fish and tortoises provide additional food. _Natural resources of the island._ > The disorders incident to settling all primitive regions, in the present case were heightened by the peculiarly untoward character of many of the pilgrims. His Majesty was forced at last to proclaim martial law, and actually hunted and shot with his own hand several of his rebellious subjects, who, with most questionable intentions, had clandestinely encamped in the interior, whence they stole by night, to prowl barefooted on tiptoe round the precincts of the lava-palace. The settlers' unruly nature led the king to declare martial law and personally hunt and kill rebels who camped in the interior and sneaked around the palace. _The king's violent suppression of dissent._ > It is to be remarked, however, that prior to such stern proceedings, the more reliable men had been judiciously picked out for an infantry bodyguard, subordinate to the cavalry bodyguard of dogs. Before the killings, the king had selected loyal men for an infantry guard, under the dogs. _The hierarchy of the king's forces._ > But the state of politics in this unhappy nation may be somewhat imagined, from the circumstance that all who were not of the bodyguard were downright plotters and malignant traitors. Anyone not in the bodyguard was considered a traitor. _The paranoid nature of the regime._ > At length the death penalty was tacitly abolished, owing to the timely thought, that were strict sportsman's justice to be dispensed among such subjects, ere long the Nimrod King would have little or no remaining game to shoot. The king stopped executing people because he was running out of subjects to kill. _A darkly humorous turn._ > The human part of the lifeguard was now disbanded, and set to work cultivating the soil, and raising potatoes; the regular army now solely consisting of the dog-regiment. The human guards were disbanded and made to farm, leaving only the dogs as the army. _The dogs become the sole military force._ > These, as I have heard, were of a singularly ferocious character, though by severe training rendered docile to their master. Armed to the teeth, the Creole now goes in state, surrounded by his canine janizaries, whose terrific bayings prove quite as serviceable as bayonets in keeping down the surgings of revolt. The dogs were ferocious but trained to be obedient, and their barking was as effective as bayonets in suppressing rebellion. _The dogs' role as enforcers._ > But the census of the isle, sadly lessened by the dispensation of justice, and not materially recruited by matrimony, began to fill his mind with sad mistrust. Some way the population must be increased. The population had dwindled due to executions and low birth rates, so the king sought to increase it. _The king's concern about depopulation._ > Now, from its possessing a little water, and its comparative pleasantness of aspect, Charles's Isle at this period was occasionally visited by foreign whalers. These His Majesty had always levied upon for port charges, thereby contributing to his revenue. But now he had additional designs. Whalers occasionally visited the island for water, and the king charged them fees, but now he had other plans. _The king's revenue source and new scheme._ > By insidious arts he, from time to time, cajoles certain sailors to desert their ships, and enlist beneath his banner. Soon as missed, their captains crave permission to go and hunt them up. Whereupon His Majesty first hides them very carefully away, and then freely permits the search. In consequence, the delinquents are never found, and the ships retire without them. The king tricked sailors into deserting, then hid them when their captains searched, so the ships left without them. _The king's method of increasing his population._ > Thus, by a two-edged policy of this crafty monarch, foreign nations were crippled in the number of their subjects, and his own were greatly multiplied. He particularly petted these renegado strangers. This policy weakened foreign nations and strengthened his own, and he favored these deserters. _The king's cunning strategy._ > But alas for the deep-laid schemes of ambitious princes, and alas for the vanity of glory. As the foreign-born Pretorians, unwisely introduced into the Roman state, and still more unwisely made favorites of the Emperors, at last insulted and overturned the throne, even so these lawless mariners, with all the rest of the bodyguard and all the populace, broke out into a terrible mutiny, and defied their master. Like the Praetorian Guard in Rome, these favored deserters eventually mutinied against the king. _The mutiny parallels Roman history._ > He marched against them with all his dogs. A deadly battle ensued upon the beach. It raged for three hours, the dogs fighting with determined valor, and the sailors reckless of everything but victory. Three men and thirteen dogs were left dead upon the field, many on both sides were wounded, and the king was forced to fly with the remainder of his canine regiment. The king and his dogs fought a three-hour battle on the beach, losing three men and thirteen dogs, and the king fled with the surviving dogs. _The battle and the king's defeat._ > The enemy pursued, stoning the dogs with their master into the wilderness of the interior. Discontinuing the pursuit, the victors returned to the village on the shore, stove the spirit casks, and proclaimed a Republic. The rebels chased the king and dogs into the interior, then returned, broke open the liquor casks, and declared a republic. _The rebels' victory and establishment of a republic._ > The dead men were interred with the honors of war, and the dead dogs ignominiously thrown into the sea. The dead men were buried with honors, but the dead dogs were thrown into the sea. _The contrasting treatment of men and dogs._ > At last, forced by stress of suffering, the fugitive Creole came down from the hills and offered to treat for peace. But the rebels refused it on any other terms than his unconditional banishment. Accordingly, the next ship that arrived carried away the ex-king to Peru. The starving king tried to negotiate, but the rebels demanded his exile, and he was taken away by the next ship to Peru. _The king's exile._ > The history of the king of Charles's Island furnishes another illustration of the difficulty of colonizing barren islands with unprincipled pilgrims. This story shows how hard it is to colonize barren islands with immoral settlers. _The moral of the tale._ > Doubtless for a long time the exiled monarch, pensively ruralizing in Peru, which afforded him a safe asylum in his calamity, watched every arrival from the Encantadas, to hear news of the failure of the Republic, the consequent penitence of the rebels, and his own recall to royalty. Doubtless he deemed the Republic but a miserable experiment which would soon explode. The exiled king likely hoped the republic would fail and he would be recalled, but it did not. _The king's hopes for restoration._ > But no, the insurgents had confederated themselves into a democracy neither Grecian, Roman, nor American. Nay, it was no democracy at all, but a permanent Riotocracy , which gloried in having no law but lawlessness. The rebels formed not a true democracy but a 'Riotocracy' that celebrated lawlessness. _The nature of the new regime._ > Great inducements being offered to deserters, their ranks were swelled by accessions of scamps from every ship which touched their shores. Charles's Island was proclaimed the asylum of the oppressed of all navies. Each runaway tar was hailed as a martyr in the cause of freedom, and became immediately installed a ragged citizen of this universal nation. The island attracted more deserters, who were hailed as martyrs for freedom and made citizens. _The island becomes a haven for deserters._ > In vain the captains of absconding seamen strove to regain them. Their new compatriots were ready to give any number of ornamental eyes in their behalf. They had few cannon, but their fists were not to be trifled with. Captains could not recover their men, as the islanders were ready to fight with fists if needed. _The islanders' defiance._ > So at last it came to pass that no vessels acquainted with the character of that country durst touch there, however sorely in want of refreshment. It became Anathema⁠—a sea Alsatia⁠—the unassailed lurking-place of all sorts of desperadoes, who in the name of liberty did just what they pleased. Ships avoided the island, which became a lawless refuge for desperadoes acting in the name of liberty. _The island's reputation as a dangerous place._ > They continually fluctuated in their numbers. Sailors, deserting ships at other islands, or in boats at sea anywhere in that vicinity, steered for Charles's Isle, as to their sure home of refuge; while, sated with the life of the isle, numbers from time to time crossed the water to the neighboring ones, and there presenting themselves to strange captains as shipwrecked seamen, often succeeded in getting on board vessels bound to the Spanish coast, and having a compassionate purse made up for them on landing there. The population fluctuated as sailors came to the island and others left, pretending to be shipwrecked to get passage to the Spanish coast. _The transient nature of the island's population._ > One warm night during my first visit to the group, our ship was floating along in languid stillness, when someone on the forecastle shouted 'Light ho!' We looked and saw a beacon burning on some obscure land off the beam. Our third mate was not intimate with this part of the world. Going to the captain he said, 'Sir, shall I put off in a boat? These must be shipwrecked men.' The captain laughed rather grimly, as, shaking his fist towards the beacon, he rapped out an oath, and said⁠—'No, no, you precious rascals, you don't juggle one of my boats ashore this blessed night. You do well, you thieves⁠—you do benevolently to hoist a light yonder as on a dangerous shoal. It tempts no wise man to pull off and see what's the matter, but bids him steer small and keep off shore⁠—that is Charles's Island; brace up, Mr. Mate, and keep the light astern.' The narrator's ship saw a beacon on Charles's Isle, but the captain, knowing its reputation, refused to investigate, calling the islanders thieves and ordering the ship to keep the light astern. _The captain's caution and the island's dangerous allure._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_28_se/chapters/sketch-seventh-charles-s-isle-and-the-dog-king - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_28_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_28_se/chapters