"I fixed my eyes at once, breathless as we of the boat party were, on the weather-signs and the other vessel, which everybody on the poop was looking at, as soon as we were safe, and our friends in the gig had to be thought of. The short top-swell was beginning to soften in long regular seas, with just air enough aloft to give our light sails a purchase on it, and put an end to the infernal clatter; but the vapour had gathered quicker than you could well fancy behind the brig in the distance, so that she looked already a couple of miles nearer, rising up two or three times on as many huge swells that shone like blue glass, while she steadied herself like a tight-rope dancer on the top of them, by a studding-sail set high from each side. On the far horizon beyond her, you'd have thought there was a deep black ditch sunk along under the thickening blue haze, as it stretched out past her to both hands, till actually the solid breast of it seemed to shove the brig bodily forward over the oily-like water, every spar and rope distinct; then the fog lifted below as if the teeth of a saw came splitting through it, and we saw her bearing down towards us—cloud, water, and all, as it were—with a white heap of foam at her bows.
"'Brace up sharp, Mr Finch!' said the old skipper hastily, 'and stand over to meet her. Confound this! wemusthavethese people out of that brig in a trice; we shall soon have a touch of the Horse Latitudes, or my name's not Richard Williamson—ay, and bid good-bye to 'em too, I think!'
"For a quarter of an hour or so, accordingly, we kept forging slowly ahead, while the brig continued to near us. No one spoke, almost—you heard the lazy swash of the water round our fore-chains, and the stillness aboard had a gloomy enough effect, as one noticed the top of the haze creep up into round vapoury heads upon the sky, and felt it darkening aloft besides. We were scarce three-quarters of a mile apart, and could see her sharp black bows drip over the bright sheathing, as she rolled easily on the swell; when the Indiaman suddenly lost way again, sheered head round, and slap went all her sails from the royals down, as if she had fired a broadside. Almost the next moment, a long low growl ran muttering and rumbling far away round the horizon, from the clouds and back to them again, as if they had been some huge monster or other on the watch, with its broad green muzzle shooting quietly over us as it lay; the brig dipped her gilt figure-head abeam of us, and then showed her long red streak; the swell sinking fast, and the whole sea far and wide coming out from the sky as dark and round as the mahogany drum-head of the capstan.
"'Bless me, Small,' said the captain, 'but I hope they've not knocked a hole in my gig—ay, theretheyare, I think, looking over the brig's quarter—but don't seem to have a boat to swim! Get the cutter hauled alongside, Mr Stebbing,' continued he to the fourth mate, 'and go aboard for them at once—confounded bothering, this! Mind get my gig safe, sir, if you please—can yeparley-voo, though, Mr Stebbing?' 'Not a word, sir,' said the young mate, a gentlemanly, rather soft fellow, whom the other three all used to snub. 'Bless me, can't we muster a bit o' French amongst us?' said the skipper; 'catch amonshoorthat knows a word of English like any other man—'specially if they've a chance of keeping my gig!' 'Well, sir,' said I, 'I'll be happy to go with the officer, as I can speak French well enough!' 'Thank ye, young gentleman, thank ye,' said he, 'you'll do it as well as any man, I'm sure—only look sharp, if you please, and bring my gig with you!' So down the side we bundled into the cutter, and pulled straight for the brig, which had just hoisted French colours, not old 'three-patches,' of course, but the new Restoration flag.
"I overhauled her well as we got near, and a beautiful long schooner-model she was, with sharp bows, and a fine easy-run hull from stem to stern, but dreadfully dirty and spoilt with top-bulwarks, as if they meant to make her look as clumsy as possible; while the brig-rig of her aloft, with the ropes hanging in bights and hitches, gave her the look of a hedge-parson on a race-horse; at the same time, I counted six closed ports of a side, in her red streak, the exact breadth and colour of itself. Full of men, with a long gun, and schooner-rigged, she could have sailed round the Indiaman in a light breeze, and mauled her to any extent.
"They hove us a line out of the gangway at once, the mate got up her side as she rolled gently over, and I followed him: the scene that met our eyes as soon as we reached the deck, however, struck me a good deal on various accounts. We couldn't at first see where Mr Rollock and his party might be, for the shadow of a thick awning after the glare of the water, and the people near the brig's gangway; but I saw two or three dark-faced, very French-like individuals, in broad-brimmed straw hats and white trousers, seemingly passengers; while about twenty Kroomen and negroes, and as many seamen with unshaven chins, earrings, and striped frocks, were in knots before the long-boat, turned keel up amidships, careless enough, to all appearance, about us. One of the passengers leant against the mainmast, with his arms folded over his broad chest, and his legs crossed, looking curiously at us as we came up; his dark eyes half closed, the shadow of his hat down to his black moustache, and his shirt-collar open, showing a scar on his hairy breast; one man, whom I marked for the brig's surgeon, beside him; and another waiting for us near the bulwarks—a leathery-faced little fellow, with twinkling black eyes, and a sort of cocked hat fore-and-aft on his cropped head. 'Moi, monsieur,' said he, slapping his hand on his breast as the mate looked about him, 'oui, je suis capitaine, monsieur.'
"'Good-day, sir,' said Stebbing, 'we've just come aboard for our passengers—and the gig—sir, if you please.' 'Certainement, monsieur,' said the French skipper, bowing and taking a paper from his pocket, which he handed to the mate, 'I comprind, sare—monsieur le capitaine d' la frégate Anglaise, il nous demande nos—vat you call—peppares—voilà! I have 'ad le honneur, messieurs, to be already sarch by vun off voscrusoes—pour desesclaves! vous imaginezcela, messieurs!' and here the worthy Frenchman cast up his hands and gave a grin which seemed meant for innocent horror. 'Slaifs! chezle brigantinLouis Bourbon, Capitaine Jean Duprez?Non!' said he, talking away like a windmill, 'de Marseilles à l'Isle de France, avec les vins choisis——' 'You mistake, monsieur,' said I, in French; 'the ship is an Indiaman, and we have only come for ourfriends, who are enjoying your wine, I daresay, but we must——' 'Comment?' said he, staring, 'what, monsieur? have de gotness to——'
"Here the moustached passenger suddenly raised himself off the mast, and made one stride between us to the bulwarks, where he looked straight out at the Indiaman, his arms still folded, then from us to the French master. He was a noble-looking man, with an eye I never saw the like of in anyone else, 'twas so clear, bold, and prompt—it actually wentintoyou like a sword, and I couldn't help fancying him in the thick of a battle, with thousands of men and miles of smoke. 'Duprez,' said he, quickly, 'je vous le dis encore—debarquez ces misérables!—nouscombattrons!' 'Then, mon ami,' said the surgeon, in a low, cool, determined tone, stepping up and laying a hand on his shoulder, 'aussi,nous couperons les ailes de l'Aigle, seulement!—Hush, mon ami, restrain this unfortunate madness of yours!—c'est bien mal-à-propos à present!' and he whispered something additional, on which the passenger fell back and leant against the mainmast as before. 'Ah!' said the French master in his own language, shaking his head, and giving his forehead a tap, 'le pauvre homme-là! He has had a coup-de-soleil, messieurs, or rather of themoon, you perceive, from sleeping in its rays!Ma foi!' exclaimed he, on my explaining the matter, 'c'est pos-sible?—wedidsuppose your boat proposed us the honour to visit, when evidently deterred by the excessive undulation!—My friends, resign yourselves to a misfort——' 'Great heavens! Mr Stebbing,' said I, 'the boat islost!' 'By George! whatwillthe captain say, then!' replied he; however as soon as I told him the sad truth, poor Stebbing, being a good-hearted fellow, actually put his hands to his face and sobbed.
"All this time the brig's crew were gabbling and kicking up a confounded noise about something they were at with the spare spars, and in throwing tarpaulins over the hatches; forit was fearfully dark, and going to rain heavy; the slight swell shone and slid up betwixt the two vessels like oil, and the clouds to south-westward had gathered up to a steep black bank, with round coppery heads, like smoke over a town on fire. 'Will you go down, messieurs,' said the Frenchman, politely, 'and taste myvin de——' 'No, sir,' said I, 'we must make haste off, or else—besides, by-the-way, we couldn't, for you've got all your hatches battened down!' 'Diable, so they are!' exclaimed he, 'par honneur, gentlemen, I regret the occasion of—ha!' Just before, a glaring brassy sort of touch had seemed to come across the face of the immense cloud; and though everything, far and wide, was as still as death, save the creaking of the two ships' yards, it made you think of the last trumpet's mouth! But at this moment a dazzling flash leaped zigzag out of it, running along from one cloud to another, while the huge dark mass, as it were, tore right up, changing and turning it inside out like dust—you saw the sea far away under it, heaving from glassy blue into unnatural-like brown—when crash broke the thunder over our very heads, as if something had fallen out of heaven, then a long bounding roar. The mad French passenger stood up, walked to the bulwarks, and looked out with his hand over his eyes for the next; while the young mate and I tumbled down the brig's side without further to-do, and pulled fast for the ship, where we hardly got aboard before there was another wild flash, another tremendous clap, and the rain fell in one clash, more like stone than water, on sea and decks. For half an hour we were rolling and soaking in the midst of it, the lightning hissing through the rain, and showing it glitter; while every five minutes came a burst of thunder and then a rattle fit to split one's ears. At length, just as the rain began to slacken, you could see it lift bodily, the standing sheets of it drove right against our canvas and through the awnings—when we made out the French brig with her jib, topsails, and boom-mainsail full, leaning over as she clove through it before the wind.
"The squall burst into our wet topsails as loud as the thunder, with a flash almost like the lightning itself, taking us broad abeam; the ship groaned and shook for a minute ere gathering way and falling off, and when she rose and began to go plunging through the black surges no brig was to beseen: every man on deck let his breath out almost in a cry, scarce feeling as yet but it was equal to losing sight for ever of our late shipmates, or the least hope of them. The passengers, ladies and all, crowded in the companion-hatch in absolute terror, every face aghast, without thinking of the rain and spray; now and then the sulky crest of a bigger wave would be caught sight of beyond the bulwarks, as the sea rose with its green back curling over into white; and you'd have said the shudder ran down into the cabin, at thought of seeing one or other of the lost boat's crew come weltering up from the mist and vanish again. I knew it was of no use, but I held on in the weather mizzen-rigging, and looked out to westward, against a wild break of light which the setting sun made through the troughs of the sea; once and again I could fancy I saw the boat lift keel up, far off betwixt me and the fierce glimmer.
"'Oh, do you see them?doyou not see it yet?' was passed up to me over and over, from one sharp-pitched voice to another; but all I could answer was to shake my head. At last, one by one, they went below; and after what had happened, I must say I could easily fancy what a chill, dreary-like, awful notion of the sea must have come for the first time on a landsman, not to speak of delicate young girls fresh from home, at sight of the drenched quarter-deck leaning bare down to leeward, the sleet and spray battering bleak against the round-house doors, where I had seen Miss Hyde led sobbing in, with her wet hair about her face; then the ship driving off from where she had lost them, with her three strong lower masts aslant into the gale, ghastly-white and dripping—her soaked sheets of canvas blown grey and stiff into the rigging, anditstrained taut as iron; while you saw little of her higher than the tops, as the scud and the dark together closed aloft. Poor Miss Fortescue's mother was in fits below in her berth—the two watches were on the yards aloft, where no eye could see them, struggling hard to furl and reef; so altogether it was a gloomy enough moment. I stayed awhile on deck, wrapped in a pea-coat, keeping my feet and hanging on, and thinking how right down in earnest matterscouldturn of a sudden. I wasn't remarkably thoughtful in these days, I daresay, but there did I keep, straining my eyes into the mist to see, I couldn't tell what, and repeatingover and over again to myself these few words out of the Prayer-book, 'In the midst of life we are in death,' though scarce knowing what I said.
"However, the Indiaman's officers and crew had work enough in managing her at present: after a sunset more like the putting out of him than anything else, with a flaring snuff and a dingy sort of smoke that followed, the wind grew from sou'-west into a regular long gale, that drove the tops of the heavy seas into the dead-lights astern, rising aft out of the dark like so many capes, with the snow drifting off them over the poop. At midnight, it blew great guns, with a witness; the ship, under storm staysails and close-reefed main-topsail, going twelve knots or more, when, as both the captain and mate reckoned, we were near St Helena on our present course, and to haul on a wind was as much as her spars were worth; her helm was put hard down, and we lay-to for morning, the ship drifting off bodily to leeward with the water. The night was quite dark, the rain coming in sudden spits out of the wind; you only heard the wet gale sob and hiss through the bare rigging into her storm canvas, when the look-out men ahead sung out, 'Land—land close to starboard!' 'Bless me, sir,' said the mate to the captain, 'it's the Rock—well that wedid—' 'Hard up! hard up with the helm!' yelled the men again, 'it's aship!'
"I ran to the weather main-chains and saw a broad black mass, as it were, rising high abeam, and seeming to come out from the black of the night, with a gleam or two in it which they had taken for lights ashore in the island. TheSeringapatam'swheel was put up already, but she hung in the gale, doubtful whether to fall off or not; and the moment shedidsink into the trough, we should have had a sea over her broadside fit to wash away men, boats, and all—let alone the other ship bearing down at twelve knots. 'Show theheadof thefore-topmast-staysail!' shouted I with all my strength to the forecastle, and up it went slapping its hanks to the blast—the Indiaman sprang round heeling to her ports on the nextsea, main-topsail before the wind, and the staysail down again. Next minute a large ship, with the foam washing over her cat-heads, and her martingale gear dripping under the huge white bowsprit, came lifting close past us—as black as shadows aloft, save the glimmer of her main-tack to the lanterns aboard—and knot after knot of dim faces above her bulwarks shot by, till you saw her captain standing high in the mizzen-chains, with a speaking-trumpet. He roared out something or other through it, and the skipper sung out under both his hands, 'Ay, ay, sir,' in answer; but it turned out after that nobody knew what it was, unless it might be, as I thought, 'Whereare you going?' The minute following, we saw her quarter-lanterns like two will-o'-the-wisps beyond a wave, and she was gone—a big frigate running under half her canvas, strong though the gale blew.
"'Why, Mr Finch,' said Captain Williamson, as soon as we had time to draw breath, 'who wasthatbid show the fo'topmast-stays'l; twan'tyou?' 'No,' said the mate, 'I'd like to know who had the hanged impudence to give orders here without——' 'Well now, Finch,' continued the old skipper, 'I'm not sure but that was our only chance at the moment, sir; and if 'twas one of the men, why I'd pass it over, or even give him an extra glass of grog in a quiet way.' No one could say who it was, however; and, for my part, the sight of the frigate made me still more cautious than before of letting out what Westwood and I were. In fact, I couldn't help feeling rather uneasy, and I was glad to hear the superstitious old sailmaker whispering about how he feared there was no luck to be looked for 'when drowned men andghostessesbegan to work the ship!'
"The first streak of dawn was hardly seen, when a sail could be made out in it, far on our lee bow, which the officers supposed to be the frigate. Westwood and I, however, were of opinion it was the French brig, although by sunrise we lost sight of her again. Everyone in the cuddy talked of our unfortunate friends and their melancholy fate; even Ford and Winterton were missed, while old Mr Rollock had been the life of the passengers. But there was naturally still more felt for the poor girl Fortescue; it made all of us gloomy for a day or two; though the fresh breeze and the Indiaman's fast motion, after our wearisome spell of a calm, did a great dealto bring things round again. Westwood was greatly taken up with my account of the brig and her people, both of us agreeing there was somewhat suspicious about her, though I thought she was probably neither more nor less than a slaver, and he had a notion she was after something deeper: what that might be, 'twas hard to conceive, as they didn't appear like pirates. One thing, however, wedidconclude from the matter, that the brig couldn't have been at all inclined for visitors; and, in fact, there was little doubt but shewouldactually refuse letting the boat aboard, if they reached her; so in all likelihood our unhappy friends had been swamped on that very account, just as the squall came on. When this idea got about the ship, of course you may suppose neither passengers nor crew to have felt particularly amiable towards the French vessel; and if we had met her again, with any good occasion for it, all hands were much inclined to give her a right-down thrashing, if not to make prize of her as a bad character.
"'Well, Tom,' said I to Westwood one day, 'I wish these good folks mayn't be disappointed, but I do suspect this blessed mate of ours will turn out to have run us into some fine mess or other with his navigation! Did you notice howbluethe sky looked this morning, over to eastward, compared with what it did just now where the sunset?' 'No,' said Westwood, 'not particularly; but what of that?' 'Why, in theIris,' replied I, 'we used always to reckon that a sign, hereabouts, of our being near theland! Just you see now, to-morrow morning, if the dawn hasn't a hazy yellow look in it before the breeze fails; in which case 'tis the African coast to a certainty! Pity these "Hyson Mundungo" men, as Jack calls them, shouldn't have their eyes about them as well as on the log-slate. I daresay now,' continued I, laughing, 'you heard the first mate bothering lately about the great variation in the compass here? Well, what do you suppose was the reason of it, but that sly devil of akitmagarshoving in his block for grinding curry under the feet of the binnacle every time he was done using it! I saw him get a kick one morning from the man at the wheel, who chanced to look down and notice him. Good solid iron it is, though painted and polished like marble, and the circumcised rascal unluckily considered the whole binnacle as a sort of second Mecca for security.' 'Hangthe fellow!' said Westwood, 'but I don't see much to laugh at, Ned. Why, if you're right, we shall all be soaked and fried into African fever before reaching the Cape, and we've had misfortunes enough already. Only think of an exquisite creature like Miss——' 'Oh,' interrupted I, fancying Master Tom began lately to show sufficient admiration for her, 'betwixt an old humdrum and a conceited fool like that, what could you expect? All I say is, my dear parson, stand by for a pinch when it comes.'
"On going down to tea in the cuddy, we found the party full of spirits, and for the first time there was no mention of their lost fellow-passengers, except amongst a knot of cadets and writers rather elevated by the Madeira after dinner, who were gathered round the Reverend Mr Knowles, pretending to talk regretfully of his Yankee friend Mr Daniel Snout. 'Yes, gentlemen,' said the missionary, who was a worthy, simple-hearted person, 'in spite of some uncouthness, and perhaps limited views, the result of defective education, he was an excellent man, I think.' 'Oh certainly, certainly,' said a writer, looking to his friends, 'and the one thing needful you spoke of just now, sir, I daresay he had it always in his eye, now?' 'Mixed, I fear,' replied the missionary, 'with some element of worldly feeling, for in America theyareapt to make even the soul, as well as religious association, matter of commerce; but Mr Snout, I have reason to be assured, had the true welfare of India at heart. We had much interesting conversation on the subject.' 'Ah,' said the sharp civilians, 'he was fond of getting information, was poor Daniel. Was that why he asked you so many questions about the Hindoo gods, Mr Knowles?' 'He already possessed much general knowledge of their strange mythology himself,' answered the missionary, 'and I confess I was surprised at it, especially as he confessed to me that that gorgeous country, with its many boundless capabilities, should have occupied his thoughts more and more from boyhood, amidst the secular activity of modern life—even as it occurred unto myself!'
"Here the worthy man took off his large spectacles, gave them a wipe, and put them on again, while he finished his tea. 'Before this deplorable dispensation,' continued he again, 'he was on the point of revealing to me a great scheme at once for the enlightenment, I believe, of that benighted land, andfor more lucrative support to those engaged in it. I fear, gentlemen, it was enthusiasm—but I have grounds for thinking that our departed friend has left in this vessel many packages of volumes translated into several dialects of the great Hindoo tongue—not omitting, I am convinced, the best of books.' 'Where?' exclaimed several of the cadets, rather astonished. 'Well!poor Snout can't have been such a bad fellow, after all!' 'All hum!' said the writer, doubtfully, 'depend upon it. I should like now to have a peep at Jonathan's bales!' 'I myself have thought also,' said the missionary, 'it would gratify me to look into his apartment—and were it permitted to use one or two of the volumes, I should cheerfully on our arrival in Bom——' 'Come along,' said the cadets—'let's have a look!—shouldn't wonder to see Daniel beside his lion yet, within! or hear "Guess I ain't."' 'My young friends,' said the missionary, as we all went along the lighted passage, 'such levity is unseemly'; and indeed the look of the state-room door, fastened outside, as the steward had left it before the gale came on, made the brisk cadets keep quiet till the lashing on it was unfastened—'twas so like breaking in upon a ghost. However, as it chanced, Mr Snout's goods had got loose during her late roll, and heaped down to leeward against the door—so, whenever they turned the handle, a whole bundle of packages came tumbling out of the dark as it burst open, with a shower of small affairs like so many stones after them.
"'What's all this?' exclaimed the cadets, stooping to look at the articles by the lamp-light, strewed as they were over the deck. The reverend gentleman stooped, too, stood straight, wiped his spectacles, and fixed them on his nose, then stooped again; at length one long exclamation of surprise broke out of his mouth. They were nothing but little ugly images done in earthenware, painted and gilt, and all exactly the same: the writer dived into a canvas package, and there was a lot of a different kind, somewhat larger and uglier. Everyone made free with a bale for himself, shouting out his discoveries to the rest. 'I say, Smythe, this is Vishnu, it's marked in the corner!' 'I say, Ramsay, here's Brahma!' 'Ha! ha! ha! if I haven't got Seeva!' 'I say, what's this though?' screamed a young lad, hauling at the biggest bale of all, while the missionary stood stock upright, a perfect pictureof bewilderment, 'Lo!' being all he could say. The lad had lighted on a gross or so of hideous gentlemen and ladies with three heads and five arms, packed nicely through each other in cotton, but inside the state-room. At this last prize, however, the poor missionary could stand it no longer. 'Oh! oh!' groaned he, clapping his hand to his head, and walking slowly off to his berth; while, as the truth gleamed on the cadets and us, we sat down on the deck amidst the spoil, and roared with laughter like to go into fits, at the unfortunate Yankee's scheme for converting India.19I had found the American by no means to my fancy as a berth-mate, so, after some dealings with the steward, I not only had secured a pretty comfortable berth for my poor friend Westwood, but one for myself. This had been, in short, soon afterwards managed, with the help of some shifting among the best-natured of the young cadets.
"'Well—hang me!' said a writer, as soon as he could speak, 'but thisisa stroke beyond the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge!' 'Every man his own priest—ha! ha! ha!' shouted another. 'I say, Smythe,' sung out a cadet, 'just fancy—ha! ha! "D. Snout, Esquire, and Co."—ho! ho! ho! you know it's too rich to enjoy by ourselves, "Mythullogy store," Bombay, near the cathedral!' 'Cheap Brahmas, wholesale and retail—eh? families supplied!' 'By George! he's a genius lost!' said Smythe; 'but the parson needn't have broken with him for that—I shouldn't wonder, now, if they had joined partnership, but Daniel might have thought of mining all their clay heads with gunpowder and percussion locks, so that the missionary could have gone round afterwards and blown up heathenship by a touch!'
"The noise of all this soon brought along the rest of the gentlemen, and few could help laughing. When the thing got wind on deck, however, neither the old skipper nor the men seemed to like it much; what with the notion of the ship's being taken, as it were, by a thousand or two of ugly little imps and Pagan idols, besides bringing up a drownedman's concerns, and 'yawhawing,' as they said, into his very door—it was thought the best thing to have them all chucked overboard next morning.
"'Twas a beautifully fine night, clear aloft, and the moon rising large on our larboard bow, out of a delicate pale sort of haze, as the ship headed south'ard with the breeze; for I marked the haze particularly, as well as the colour of the sky, that lay high over it, like a deep-blue hollow going away down beyond, and filling up with the light. There was no living below for heat, and the showers of cockroaches that went whirring at the lamps, and marching, with their horrid feelers out, straight up your legs; so, fore and aft, the decks were astir with us all. Talk of moonlight on land! but even in the tropics you have to see it pouring right down, as it was then, the whole sky full of it aloft as the moon drew farther up, till it came raining, as it were, in a single sheet from one bend of the horizon to another, the water scarce rippling to the breeze, only heaving in long low swells that you heard just wash her bends; one track brighter than the rest, shining and glancing like a looking-glass drawn out, for a mile or so across our quarter, and the ship's shadow under her other bow. You saw the men far forward in her head, and clustered in a heap on the bowsprit-heel, enjoying it mightily, and looking out or straight aloft, as if to polish their mahogany faces, and get their bushy whiskers silvered; while the awnings being off the poop, the planks in it came out like so much ivory from the shade of the spanker, which sent down a perfect gush of light on everyone moving past. For the air, again, as all the passengers said, it was balmy, though for my part—perhaps it might be a fancy of mine—but now and then I thought it sniffed a little too muchthatway to be altogether pleasant in the circumstances.
"Of course, no sooner had I caught sight of Sir Charles Hyde than I looked for his daughter, and at last saw someone talking to a young lady seated near the after-gratings, with her head turned round seaward, whom it didn't require much guessing for me to name. Not having seen her at all since the affair of the boats, I strolled aft, when I was rather surprised to find that her companion was Tom Westwood, and they seemed in the thick of an interesting discourse. The instant I got near, however, they broke it off; the young lady turnedher head—and never, I'd swear, was woman's face seen fairer than I thought hers at that moment—when the bright moonlight, that had seemed trying to steal round her loose bonnet and peep in, fell straight down at once from her forehead to her chin, appearing, as it were, to dance in under her long eyelashes to meet her eyes: while one fall of her brown hair hung bright in it, glistening against the shadow round her cheek, that drew the charming line of her nose and lip as clear as the horizon on the sky! The very moment, in fact, that a bitter thought flashed into my mind, for to my fancy she looked vexed at seeing me, and a colour seemed mounting up to her cheek, even through the fairy sort of glimmer on it.CouldTom Westwood have been acting no more than the clerical near such a creature? and if a fellow like him took it in his head, what chance hadI? The next minute, accordingly, she rose off her seat, and gave me a slight bow in answer to mine, and walked direct to the gallery stair, where she disappeared.
"'We were talking of that unlucky adventure the other day,' said Westwood, glancing at me, but rather taken aback, as I thought. 'Ay?' said I, carelessly. 'Yes,' continued he; 'Miss Hyde had no idea you and I were particularly acquainted, and seems to think me a respectable clergyman, but I must tell you, Ned, she has rather a suspicious opinion of yourself!' 'Oh, indeed!' said I, suddenly. 'Fact, Ned,' said he; 'she even remembers having seen you before, somewhere or other—I hope, my dear fellow, it wasn't on the stage?' 'Ha! ha! how amusing!' I said, with the best laugh I could get up. 'At any rate, Collins,' he went on, 'she sees through your feigned way of carrying on, and knows you're neither griffin nor land-lubber, but a sailor, for I fancy this is not the first time the young lady has met with the cloth!Whatdo you suppose she asked me now, quite seriously?' 'Oh, I couldn't guess, of course,' replied I, almost with a sneer; 'pray don't——' 'Why, she inquired what could be the design of one concealing his profession so carefully—and actually appearing to be on a secret understanding with some of the sailors! Directly after, she asked whether that brig mightn't really have been a pirate, and taken off the poor general, Miss Fortescue, and the rest?' 'Ah,' said I, coldly, 'and if I might venture to ask, what didyou——' 'Oh, of course,' replied Westwood, laughing, 'I could only hide my amusement and profess doubts, you know, Ned!' 'Very good joke, Mr Westwood,' thought I to myself, 'but at least you can't weather onmequite so innocently, my fine fellow! I didn'tthinkit of him, after all! By Heaven, I didnot!'
"'By-the-by, Collins,' exclaimed Westwood in a little, as he kept his eye astern, 'there's something away yonder on our lee quarter that I've been watching for these last ten minutes—what do you think it may be? Look! just in the tail of the moonshine yonder!' What it might be, I cared little enough at the time, but I did give a glance, and saw a little black dot, as it were, rising and falling with the long run of the water, apparently making way before the breeze. 'Only a bit of wood, I daresay,' remarked I; 'but whatever it is, at any rate, the drift will take it far to leeward of us, so you needn't mind.' Here we heard a steward come up and say to the first officer, who was waiting with the rest to take a lunar observation, that Captain Williamson had turned in unwell, but he wanted to hear when they found the longitude; accordingly they got their altitude, and went on making the calculations on deck. 'Well, steward,' said the mate, after a little humming and hawing, 'go down and tell the captain, in the meantime, aboutfive east; but I think it's a good deal over the mark—say I'll be down myself directly.'
"'A long sightbelowthe mark, rather!' said I, walking aft again, where Westwood kept still looking out for the black dot. 'You'll see it nearer now, Ned,' said he; 'more like a negro's head, or his hand, than a bit of wood—eh?' 'Curious!' I said; 'it lies well up for our beam still,'spiteof the breeze. Must be a shark's back fin, I think, making for convoy.' In ten minutes longer the light swell in the distance gave it a lift up fair into the moonshine; it gleamed for a moment, and then seemed to roll across into the blue glimmer of the sea. 'I say, Collins,' said Westwood, gazing eagerly at it, ''tis more like a bottle, tomysight!' We walked back and forward, looking each time over the taffrail, till at length the affair in question could be seen dipping and creeping ahead in the smooth shining wash of the surface, just like to go bobbing across our bows and be missed to windward. 'Crossing our hause Idodeclare!—Hanged ifthatain't fore-reaching onus, with a witness!' exclaimed the two of us together: 'And abottleitis!' said Westwood.
"I slipped down the poop-stair, and along to the forecastle, where I told Jacobs; when two or three of the men went out on the martingale-stays, with the bight of a line and a couple of blocks in it, ready to throw round this said floating oddity, and haul it alongside as it surged past. Shortly after, we had it safe in our hands; a square-built old Dutchman it was, tight corked, with a red rag round the neck, and crusted over with salt—almost like one of Vanderdecken's messages home, coming up as it did from the wide glittering sea, of a tropical moonlight night, seven weeks or so after our leaving land. The men who had got it seemed afraid of their prize, so Westwood and I had no difficulty in smuggling it away below to our berth, where we both sat down on a locker and looked at one another. 'What poor wretch hove this overboard, I wonder, now?' said he; 'I daresay it may have knocked about, God knows how long, sincehisaffair was settled.' 'Why, for that matter, Westwood,' replied I, 'I fancy it's much more important to find there's a strong easterly current hereabouts just now.'20
"Here Westwood got a corkscrew, and pulled out the cork with a true parson-like gravity; as we had expected, there was a paper tacked to it, crumpled up, and scrawled over in what we could only suppose wasblood.
"'No. 20,' read he, 'what does that mean?' 'The twentieth bottle launched, perhaps,' said I, and he went on—'For God's sake, if you find this, keep to the south-west—we are going that way, we think—we've fallen amongst regular Thugs, I fear—just from the folly of these three griffins—(they're looking over my shoulder, though)—we are not ill-treated yet, but kept below and watched—yours in haste——' 'What this signature is I can't say for the life of me, Ned; no date either.' 'Did the fellow think he was writing by post, I wonder?' said I, trying to make it out. 'By the powers, Westwood, though,' and I jumped up, 'that bottlemighthave come from the Pacific, 'tis true—but what if it were old Rollock, after all!Thugs, did you say? Why, I shouldn't wonder if the jolly old planter were on the hooks still.Thatrascally brig!' And accordingly, on trying the scrawl at the end, over and over, we both agreed that it was nothing but 'T. Rollock.'"
The next evening our friend the captain found his fair audience by the taffrail increased to a round dozen, while several of the gentlemen passengers lounged near, and the chief officer divided his attention between the gay group of ladies below and the "fanning" main-topsail high up, with its corresponding studding-sail hung far out aloft to the breeze; the narrative having by this time contracted a sort of professional interest, even to his matter-of-fact taste, which enabled him to enjoy greatly the occasional glances of sly humour directed to him by his superior, for whom he evidently entertained a kind of admiring respect, that seemed to be enhanced as he listened. As for the commander himself, he related the adventures in question with a spirit and vividness of manner that contributed to them no small charm; amusingly contrasted with the cool, dry, indifferent sort of gravity of countenance amidst which the keen grey seawardly eye, under the peak of the naval cap, kept changing and twinkling as it seemed to run through the experience of youth again—sometimes almost approaching to an undeniable wink. The expression of it at this time, however, was more serious, while it appeared to run along the dotted reef-band of the mizzen-topsail above, as across the entry in a log-book, and as if there were something interesting to come.
"Well, my dear captain," asked his matronly relative, "what comes next? You and your friend had picked up a—a—what was itnow!"
"Ah! I remember, ma'am," said the naval man, laughing; "the bottle—that was where I was. Well, as you may conceive, this said scrap of penmanship in the bottledidtake both of us rather on end; and for two or three minutes Westwood and I sat staring at each other and the uncouth-looking fist, in an inquiring sort of way, like two cocks over a beetle. Westwood, for his part, was doubtful of its being the planter'swriting at all; but the whole thing, when I thought of it, made itself as clear to me, so far, as two half-hitches, and so the angrier I was at myself for beingdone—by a frog-eating bloody-politeful set of Frenchmen like these. Could we only have clapped eyes on the villanous thieving craft at the time, by Jove! if I wouldn't have manned a boat from the Indiaman, leave or no leave, and boarded her in another fashion. But where they were now, what they meant, and whether we should ever see them again, Heaven only knew. For all we could say, indeed, something strange might have turned up at home in Europe—a new war, old Boney got loose once more, or what not; and I could scarce fall asleep for guessing and bothering over the matter, as restless as the first night we cruised down the Channel in the oldPandora.
"Early in the morning-watch a sudden stir of the men on deck woke me, and I bundled up in five minutes' time. But it was only the second mate setting them to wash decks, and out they came from all quarters, yawning, stretching themselves, and tucking up their trousers, as they passed the full buckets lazily along; while a couple of boys could be seen hard at work to keep the head-pump going, up against the grey sky over the bow. However, I was so anxious to have the first look-out ahead, that I made a bold push through the thick of it for the bowsprit, where I went out till I could see nothing astern of me but the Indiaman's big black bows and figure-head, swinging as it were round the spar I sat upon, with the spread of her canvas coming dim after me out of the fog, and a lazy snatch of foam lifting to her cutwater as the breeze died away.
"The sun was just beginning to rise; ten minutes before it had been almost quite dark; there was a mist on the water, and the sails were heavy with dew; when a circle began to open round us, where the surface looked as smooth and dirty as in a dock, the haze seeming to shine through, as the sunlight came sifting through it, like silver gauze. You saw the big red top of the sun glare against the water-line, and a wet gleam of crimson came sliding from one smooth blue swell to another; while the back of the haze astern turned from blue to purple, and went lifting away into vapoury streaks and patches. All of a sudden the ship came clear out aloft and on the water, with her white streak as brightas snow, her fore-royal and truck gilded, her broad foresail as red as blood, and every face on deck shining as they looked ahead, where I felt like a fellow held up on a toasting fork, against the fiery wheel the sun made ere clearing the horizon. Two or three strips of cloud melted in it like lumps of sugar in hot wine; and after overhauling the whole seaboard round and round, I kept straining my eyes into the light, with the notion there was something to be seen in that quarter, but to no purpose; there wasn't the slightest sign of the brig or any other blessed thing. What struck me a little, however, was the look of the water just as the fog was clearing away; the swell was sinking down, the wind fallen for the time to a dead calm; and when the smooth face of it caught the light full from aloft, it seemed to come out all over long-winding wrinkles and eddies, running in a broad path, as it were, twisted and woven together, right into the wake of the sunrise.
"When I came in-board from the bowsprit, big Harry and another grumpy old salt were standing by the bitts, taking a forecastle observation, and gave me a squint, as much as to ask if I had come out of the east, or had been trying to pocket the flying-jibboom. 'D'younotice anything strange about thewaterat all?' I asked in an offhand sort of way, wishing to see if the men had remarked aught of what I suspected. The old fellow gave me a queer look out of the tail of his eye, and the ugly man seemed to be measuring me from head to foot. 'No, sir,' said the first, carelessly; 'can't say as how I does'; while Harry coolly commenced sharpening his sheath-knife on his shoe. 'Did you ever hear of currents hereabouts?' said I to the other man. 'Hereaway!' said he. 'Why, bless ye, sir, it's unpossible as Icouldha' heerd tell on sich a thing, 'cause, ye see, sir, there ain't none so far out at sea, sir—al'ays axin'yourparding, ye know, sir!' while he hitched up his trousers and looked aloft, as if there were somewhat wrong about the jib-halliards.
"The Indiaman by this time had quite lost steerage-way and came sheering slowly round, broadside to the sun, while the water began to glitter like a single sheet of quicksilver, trembling and swelling to the firm edge of it far off; the pale blue sky filling deep aloft with light, and a long white hazegrowing out of the horizon to eastward. I kept still looking over from the fore-chains with my arms folded, and an eye to the water on the starboard side, next the sun, where, just a fathom or two from the bright copper of her sheathing along the water-line, you could see into it. Every now and then little bells and bubbles, as I thought, would come up in it, and break short of the surface; and sometimes I fancied the line of a slight ripple, as fine as a rope-yarn, went turning and glistening round one of the ship's quarters, across her shadow. Just then the old sailor behind me shoved his face over the bulwark, too, all warts and wrinkles, like a ripe walnut-shell, with a round knob of a nose in the middle of it, and seemed to be watching to see it below, when he suddenly squirted his tobacco-juice as far out as possible alongside, and gave his mouth a wipe with the back of his tarry yellow hand; catching my eye in a shame-faced sort of way, as I glanced first at him and then at his floating property.
"I leant listlessly over the rail, watching the patch of oily yellow froth as it floated quietly on the smooth face of the water; till all at once I started to observe that beyond all question it had crept slowly away past our starboard bow, clear of the ship, and at last melted into the glittering blue brine. The two men noticed my attention, and stared along with me; while the owner of the precious cargo himself kept looking after it wistfully into the wake of the sunlight, as if he were a little hurt; then aloft and round about, in a puzzled sort of way, to see if the ship hadn't perhaps taken a sudden sheer to port. 'Why, my man,' I said, meeting his oyster-like old sea-eye, 'what's the reason ofthat?—perhaps there is some current or other here, after all, eh?' Just as he meant to answer, however, I noticed his watch-mate give him a hard shove in the ribs with his huge elbow, and a quick screw of his weather top-light, while he kept the lee one doggedly fixed on myself. I accordingly walked slowly aft as if to the quarter-deck, and came round the long-boat again, right abreast of them.
"Harry was pacing fore and aft with his arms folded, when his companion made some remark on the heat, peering all about him, and then right up into the air aloft. 'Well then, shipmate,' said Harry, dabbing his handkerchief back into histarpaulin again, 'I've seen worse, myself—ownly, 'twas in the Bight o' Benin, look ye—an' afore the end o' it, d'ye see, we hove o'erboard nine o' a crew, let alone six dozen odds of a cargo!' 'Cargo!' exclaimed his companion, in surprise. 'Ay, blackpassingersthey was, ye know, old ship!' answered the ugly rascal, coolly; 'an' I tell ye what it is, Jack, I never sails yet with passengers aboard, but some'at bad turned up in the end—al'ays one or another on 'em's got a foul turn in his conscience, ye see! I say, mate,' continued he, looking round, 'didn't ye note that 'ere longshore looking customer as walked aft just now, with them soft quest'ns o' his about——' 'Why,' says Jack, 'it's him Jacobs and the larboard watch calls the Green Hand, an' a blessed good joke they has about him, to all appearance, but they keeps it pretty close.' 'Close, do they,' growled Harry, 'I doesn't like the cut of his jib, I tell ye, shipmate! Jist you take my word for it, that 'ere fellow's done some'at bad at home, or he's bent on some'at bad afloat—it's all one! Don't ye mark how he keeps boxhaulin' and skulking fore an' aft, not to say looking out to wind'ard every now an' again, as much as he expected a sail to leave in sight?' 'Well, I'm blowed, but you're right, Harry!' said the other, taking off his hat to scratch his head, thoughtfully. 'Ay, and what's more,' went on Harry, 'it's just comed ath'art me as how I've clapped eyes on the chap somewheres or other afore this—if I don't think it was amongst a gang o' Spanish pirates I saw tried for their lives, and let off, in the Havanney!'
"'Thank you, my man,' thought I, as I leant against the booms on the other side. 'Did you?—a wonder it wasn't in the Old Bailey, which would have been more possible, though less romantic—seeing in the Havannah I never was!' The curious thing was that I began to have a faint recollection, myself, of having seen this same cross-grained beauty, or heard his voice, before; though where and how it was I couldn't for the life of me say at the moment.
"'Lor' bless us, Harry!' faltered out the old sailor, 'ye don't mean it!—sich a young, soft-looked shaver, too!' 'Them smooth-skinned sort o' coves is kimmonly the worst, mate,' replied Harry; 'for that matter ye may be quite sure he's got his chums aboard—an' how doesweknow but the ship'ssold, from stem to starn? There's that 'ere blackavizzedparson, now, and one or two more aft—cuss me if that 'ere feller smells brine for the first time! An' as for this here Bob Jacobs o' yours, blow me if there ain't over many of his kind in the whole larboard watch, Jack! A man-o'-war's-man's al'ays a blackguard out on a man-o'-war, look-ye!' 'Why, bless me, shipmate,' said Jack, lowering his voice, 'by that recknin', a man don't know his friends in this here craft! The sooner we gives the mate a hint the better, to my thinking?' 'No, blow me, no, Jack,' said Harry, 'keep all fast, or ye'll kick up a worse nitty, old boy! Just you hould on till ye see what's to turn up—ownly stand by and look out for squalls, that's all! There's the skipper laid up below in his berth, I hears—and to my notions, that 'ere mate of ours is no more but a blessed soldier, with his navigation an' his head-work, an' be blowed to him: where's he runned the ship, I'd like to know, messmate!' 'Well, strike me lucky if I'm fit to guess!' answered Jack, gloomily. 'No, s'help me Bob, if he knows hisself!' said Harry. 'But here's whatIsays, anyhow—if so be we heaves in sight of a pirate, or bumps ashore on a ileyand i' the dark, shiver my tawsels if I doesn't have a clip with a handspike at that 'ere soft-sawderin' young blade in the straw hat!' 'Well, my fine fellow,' thought I, 'many thanks to you again, but I certainly shall look out foryou!'
"All this time I couldn't exactly conceive whether the sulky rascal really suspected anything of the kind, or whether he wasn't in fact sounding his companion, and perhaps others of the crew, as to how far they would go in case of an opportunity for mischief; especially when I heard him begin to speculate if 'that 'ere proud ould beggar of a naboob, aft yonder, musn't have a sight o' gould and jowels aboard with him! Why, for the matter o' that, mate,' continued he, 'I doesn't signify the twinklin' of a marling-spike, mind ye, what lubberly trick they sarves this here craft, so be ownly ye can get anyhow ashore, when all's done! It's nouther ship-law nor shore-law, look ye, mate, as houlds good on a lonely dazart!' 'Ay, ay, true enough, bo',' said the other, 'but what o' that? there ain't much signs of a dazart, I reckon, in this here blue water!' 'Ho!' replied Harry, rather scornfully, 'that's 'cause you blue-water, long-v'yage chaps isn't up to them, brother. There's you and that 'ere joker in the striped slops,Jack, chaffing away over the side jist now about a current—confounded sharp he thinks hisself, too—but d'ye think Harry Foster ain't got his weather-eye open? For my part, I thinks more of the streak o' haze yonder-away, right across the starboard bow, nor all the currents in——' 'Ay, ay,' said Jack, stretching out again to look, 'the heat, you means?' 'Heat!' exclaimed the ugly topman, 'heat be blowed! Hark ye, mate, itmaybe a strip o' cloud, no doubt, or the steam over a sand-bank; but so be the calm lasts so long, and you sees that 'ere streak again by sundown with a touch o' yallow in 't——'
"'What—what—shipmate?' asked Jack, breathless with anxiety. 'Then it's the black coast iv Africay, andnomistake,' said Harry. 'And what's more,' continued the fellow, coolly, after taking a couple of short turns, 'if therebe'sa current, why look ye, it'll set dead in to where the land lays—an' I'm blessed if there's one aboard, breeze or no breeze, as is man enough for to take her out o' the suck of a Africane current.' 'The Lord be with us!' exclaimed the other sailor, in alarm, 'what's to be done, Harry, bo'; when do you mean for to let them know aft?' 'Why, maybe I'm wrong, ye know, old ship,' said Harry, 'an' a man mustn't go for to larn his betters, ye know; by this time half o' the watch has a notion on it, at any rate. There's Dick White, Jack Jones, Jim Sidey, an' a few more Wapping men, means to stick together in case o' accidents; so Jack, man, ye needn't be in sich an a taking. What the' (here he came out with a regular string of top-gallant oaths), 'when you finds a good chance shoved into your fist, none o' your doin', ain't a feller to haul in the slack of it 'cause he's got a tarry paw and ships before the mast? I tell ye what it is, old ship, 'tain't the first time you an' me's been cast away, an' I doesn't care the drawin' of a rope-yarn, in them 'ere latitudes, if I'm cast away again. Hark ye, ould boy: grog to the mast-head, a grab at the passengers' wallibles, when they ha'n't no more use for 'em, in course; and the pick of the ladies, jist for the takin' o' them ashore!'
"'Lord love ye, Harry, belay there!' said Jack; 'what's the good o' talkin' on what ain't like to be?' 'Less like things turn up,' said Harry. 'More by token, if I hasn't pitched upon my fancy lass a'ready; an' who knows, old ship,but you marries a naboob's darter yet, and gets yourself shoved all square, like a riglar hare, into his heestate, as they calls it? For my part, I've more notion of themaid! An' it'll go hard with me if we doesn't manage to haul that 'ere mishynar parson safe ashore on the strength of it.' 'God bless ye, Harry,' answered Jack, somewhat mournfully, 'I'm twice spliced already!' 'Third time's lucky, though,' replied Harry, with a chuckle, as he walked towards the side again and looked over; the rest of the watch being gathered on the other bow, talking and laughing; the passengers beginning to appear on the poop, and the Scotch second mate standing up aft on the taffrail, feeling for a breath of wind. The big topman came slowly back to his companion, and leant himself on the spars again. 'Blowed if I don't think you're right, mate,' said he, 'you and that 'ere lawyer. You'd a'most say there's a ripple round her larboard bow just now, sure enough—like she were broadside on to some drift or another. Hows'ever, that's neither here nor there; for my part, I sets more count by the look o' the sky to east'ard; an' be blowed, shipmate, if that same yonder don't make me think ofwoods.' 'Well,' said Jack, 'Igoes by sunrise, messmate, an' I didn't like it overmuch myself, d' ye see! That 'ere talk o' yours, Harry, consarnin' dazarts and what not—why, bless me, it's all my eye—this bout, at any rate—seein' as how, if we doesn't have a stiff snuffler out o' that very quarter afore twenty-four hours is over, you call me lubber!'
"'Ho, ho! old salt,' chuckled Harry, 'none o' them saws holds good hereaway; if it's the coast of Africay, mate,twowatches 'll settle our hash in them longitudes, without going the length o'six! Ha'n't I knocked about the bloody coast of it six weeks at a time, myself, let alone livin' as many months in the woods?—so I knows the breedin' of a turnady a cussed sight too well, not to speak on the way the landblink looms afore you sights it!'
"'Livedin them there woods, did ye?' inquired Jack. 'Ay, bo', an' a rum rig it was too, sure enough,' said Harry; 'the very same time I told you on, i' the Bight o' Benin.' 'My eye,' exclaimed the other, 'a man never knows what he may come to. Let's into the rights of it, Harry, can't ye, afore eight bells strikes?'
"'Woods!' said Harry, 'I b'lieve ye, ould ship. I see'denough o' woods, that time, arter all—and 'twan't that long agone, either—I'll not sayhowlong, but it wa'n'tlastv'yage. A sharp, clinker-built craft of a schooner she wor; I'm not goin' to give ye her right name, but they called her theLubberhater21—an' if there wa'n't all sorts on us aboard, it's blaming ye—an' a big double-jinted man-eatin' chap of a Yankee was our skipper, as sly as slush—more by token, he had a wart alongside o' one eye as made him look two ways at ye—Job Price by name—an' arter he'd made his fortin, I heard he's took up a teetotal chapel afloat on the Missishippey. She'd got a strapping long nose, that 'ere schooner, so, my boy, we leaves everything astarn, chase or race, I promise ye; an' as for a blessed ould ten-gun brig what kept a-cruising thereaway, why, we jest got used to her, like, and al'ays lowers our mainsail afore takin' the wind of her, by way o' good-bye, quite perlite. Blowed if it warn't rum, though, for to see the brig's white figger'ed over the swell, rollin' under a cloud o' canvas, stens'ls crowded out alow an' aloft, as she jogged arter us. Then she'd haul her wind an' fire a gun, an' go beating away up in chase of some other craft, as caught the chance for runnin' out whenever they sees theLubberhaterwell to sea—why, s' help me Bob, if the traders on the coast didn't pay Job Price half-a-dozen blacks apiece every trip, jist for to play that 'ere dodge. At last, one time, not long after I joined the craft, what does he do but nigh-hand loses her an' her cargo, all owin' to reckonin' over much on this here traverse. Out we comes one night in the tail of a squall, an' as soon as it clears, there sure enough we made out the brig, hard after us, as we thinks—so never a rag more Job claps on, 'cause two of his friends, ye see, was jist outside the bar in the Noon river. Well, very soon the cruiser begins to overhaul us, as one gaff-taups'l wouldn't do, nor yet another, till the flying-jib and bonnets made her walk away from them in right 'arnest—when slap comes a long-shot that that took the fore-topmast out of us in a twinkling. So when the moonlight comed out, lo an' behold, instead o' the brig's two masts stiff and straight against the haze, there wasthreespanking sticks all ataunto, my boy, in a fine new sloop-o'-war as had fresh come on the station—theIris,they called her—and a fast ship she wor. But all said and done, the schooner had the heels of her in aught short of a reef-taups'l breeze—though, as for the other two, the sloop-o'-war picked off both on 'em in the end.'
"At this point of the fellow's account, I, Ned Collins, began to prick up my ears, pretty sure it was the dear oldIrishe was talking of; and, thought I, 'Oho, my mate, we shall have you directly—listening's all fair with a chap of this breed.'
"'Well,' said he, ''twas the next trip after that, we finds the coast clear, as commonly was—for, d' ye see, they couldn't touch us if so be we hadn't a slave aboard—in fact, we heerd as how the cruiser was up by Serry Lony, and left some young leftenant or other on the watch with a sort o' lateen-rigged tender. A precious raw chap he was, by all accounts—and, sure enough, there he kept plying off and on, in-shore, 'stead of out of sight to seaward till the craft would make a bolt; an' as soon as ye dropped an anchor, he'd send a boat aboard with a reefer, to ax if ye'd got slaves in the hold. In course, ye know, Job Price sends back a message, "palm-ile an' iv'ry, an' gould if we can"—h'ists the Portingee colours, brings up his Portingee papers, and makes the Portingee stoo'rd skipper for the spell—but anyhow, bein' no less nor three slavers in the mouth of the Bonny river at the time, why, he meant to show fight if need be, and jest man-handle the young navy sprig to his heart's content. Hows'ever, the second or third night, all on a suddent we found he'd sheered off for a decency's sake, as it might be, an hour or two afore we'd began to raft off the niggers. Well, mate, right in the midst of it there comes sich a fury of a turnady off the land, as we'd to slip cable and run fair out to sea after the other craft what had got sooner full—one on 'em went ashore in sight, an' we not ninety blacks aboard yet, with barely a day's water stowed in.
"'The next morning, out o' sight of land, we got the sea-breeze, and stood in again under everything, till we made Fernandy Po ileyand, three leagues off, or thereby, an' the two ebony-brigs beating out in company, so the skipper stands over across their course for to give them a hail, heaves to and pulls aboard the nearest, where he stays a good long spell and drinks a stiff glass, as ye may fancy, afore partin'. Backcomes Job Price in high glee, and tould the mate as how that mornin' the brigs had fell foul o' the man-o'-war tender, bottom up, an' a big Newfoundling dog a-howlin' on the keel—no doubt she'd turned the turtle in that 'ere squall—more by token, he brought the dog alongst with him in a present. So away we filled again to go in for the Bonny river, when the breeze fell, and shortly arter there we was all three dead becalmed, a couple o' miles betwixt us, sticking on the water like flies on glass, an' as hot, ye know, as blazes—the very moral o' this here. By sundown we hadn't a drop of water, so the skipper sent to the nearest brig for some; but strike me lucky if they'd part with a bucketful for love, bein' out'ard bound. As the Spanish skipper said, 'twas either hard dollars or a stout nigger, and t' other brig said the same. A slight puff o' land-wind we had in the night, though next day 'twas as calm as ever, and the brigs farther off—so by noon, my boy, for two blessed casks, if Job Price hadn't to send six blacks in the boat. Shorter yarn, Jack, but the calm held that night too, and blowed if the brigs would sell another breaker—what we had we couldn't spare to the poor devils under hatches, and the next day, why they died off like rotten sheep, till we hove the last on 'em o'board; and frighterful enough it was, mind ye, for to see about fifty sharks at work all round the schooner at once, as long as it lasted.
"'Well, in the arternoon we'd just commenced squabbling aboard amongst ourselves, round the dreg water, or whether to board one o' the brigs and have a fair fight, when off come a bit of a breeze, betwixt the two high peaks on Fernandy Po, both the brigs set stensails, and begins slipping quietly off—our skipper gived orders to brace after them, and clear away the long gun amidships; but all on a suddent we made out a lump of a brig dropping down before it round the ileyand, which we knowed her well enough for a Bristol craft as had lost half her hands up the Callebar, in the gould an' iv'ry trade. Down she comed, wonderful fast for the light breeze, if there hadn't been one o' yer currents besides off the ileyand, till about half-a-mile away she braces up, seemingly to sheer across it and steer clear of us. Out went our boat, an' the skipper bids every man of her crew to shove a short cutlash inside his trousers. Says he, "I guess we'll first speak 'em fair, but if we don't ha' water enough, it'll be 'tarnall queer, that's all,"says he—an' Job was a man never swore, but helookedmightybadthat time, I must say; so we outs oars and pulls right aboard the trader, without answerin' ever a hail, when up the side we bundled on deck, one arter the other, mad for a drink, and sees the master with five or six of a crew, all as white as ghostesses, and two or three Kroomen, besides a long-legged young feller a-sittin' and kicking his feet over the kimpanion hatch, with a tumblerful o' grog in his fist, as fresh to all seemin' as a fish, like a supper-cargo or some'at o' the sort, as them craft commonly has.
"'"What schooner's that?" axes the master, all abroad like; an' says Job—says he, out o' breath, "Never you mind; I guess you'll let 's have some water, for we wants it mighty keen!" "Well," says the other, shaking his head, "I'm afeared we're short ourselves—anyhow," says he, "we'll give ye a dipper the piece"—and accordingly they fists us along a dozen gulps, hand over hand. "'Twon't do, I guess, mister," says our skipper; "we wants a cask!" Here the master o' the brig shakes his head again, and guv a look to the young long-shore-like chap aft, which sings out as we couldn't have no more for love nor money—an' I see Captin Price commence for to look savitch again, and feel for the handle on his cutlash. "Rather you'd ax iv'ry or gould-dust!" sings out the supper-cargo; "hows'ever," says he, "as ye've tooken sich a fancy to it, short o' water as we is, why a fair exchange ain't no robbery," says he: "you wants water, an' we wants hands; haven't ye a couple o' niggers for to spare us, sir, by way of a barter now?" he says. "Well, mate, I'll be blowed if I ever see a man turn so wicked fur'ous as Job Price turns at this here, an says he, through his teeth, "If ye'd said a nigger's nail-parin', I couldn't done it, so it's no use talkin'." "Oh come, captin," says the young fellow, wonderful angshis-like, "sayone, jist—it's all on the quiet, ye know. Bless me, captin," says he, "I'd do a deal for a man in a strait, 'tickerly for yerself—an' I think we'd manage with a single hand more. I'll give ye two casks and a bag o' gould dust foroneblack, and we'll send aboard for him just now, ourselves!" "No!" roars Job Price, walkin' close up to him; "ye've riz me, ye cussed Britisher ye, an' I tell ye we'lltakewhat we wants!" "No jokes though, captin!" says the feller; "what'soneto a whole raftful I heerd of yeshipping?" "Go an' ax the sharks, ye beggar!" says the skipper; "here, my lads!" says he, an' makes a grab at the other's throat, when slap comes a jug o' rum in his eye-lights, and the young chap ups fist in quick-sticks, and drops him like a cock, big as he was. By that time, though, in a twinklin' the master was flat on deck, and the brig's crew showed no fight—when, lo an' behold, my boy, up bundles a score o' strapping man-o'-war's-men out of the cabing. One or two on us got a cut about the head, an' my gentleman supper-cargo claps a pistol to my ear from aft, so we knocked under without more to-do. In five minutes' time every man jack of us had a seizing about his wrists and lower pins; and says Job Price, in a giving-up sort o' v'ice, "You're too cust spry for playin' jokes on, I calc'late, squire," he says. "Jokes!" says the young feller, "why, it's no joke—in course you knows me?" "Niver see'd ye atween the eyes afore," says Job, "but don't bear no malice, mister, now." "That's it," says the t'other, lookin' at the schooner again, "no more I does, so jist think a bit; ha'n't you really a nigger or so aboard o' ye—if it was jist one?" "Squash the one!" says Job, shakin' his head nellicholly like—an' "Sorry for it," says the chap, "'cause ye see I'm the leftenant belongin' to theIrish, an' I carn't titch yer schooner if so be ye ha'n't a slave aboard." "Lawk a'mighty!—no!" sings out Job Price, 'cause, bein' half-blinded he couldn't ha' noted the lot o' man-o'-war's-men sooner. "But Ican," says the other, "for piratecy, ye see; an' what's more," he says, "there's no help for it now, I'm afeard, mister what-they-call-ye."
"'Well, mate, after that ye may fancy our skipper turns terrible down in the mouth; so without a word more they parbuckles us all down below into the cabin—an' what does this here leftenant do but he strips the whole lot, rigs out as many of his men in our duds, hoists out a big cask o' water on the brig's far side, and pulls round for the schooner—hisself togged out like the skipper, and his odd hands laid down in the boat's bottom.' You won't wonder at my being highly amused with the fellow's yarn, since the fact was that it happened to be one of my own adventures in the days of theIris, two or three years before, when we saw a good many scenes together, far more wild and stirring, of course, in thethick of the slave trade; but really the ugly rascal described it wonderfully well.
"'Well,' said Harry, 'I gets my chin shoved up in the starn-windy, where I seed the whole thing, and tould the skipper accordently. The schooner's crew looked out for the water like so many oysters in a tub; the leftenant jumps up the side with his men after him, an' not so much as the cross of two cutlashes did we hear afore the onion-jack flew out a-peak over her mains'l. In five minutes more, the schooner fills away before the breeze, and begins to slide off in fine style after the pair o' brigs, as was nigh half-hull down to seaward by this time. There we was, left neck and heel below in the trader, and he hauled up seemin'ly for the land; an' arter a bit, says the skipper to me, "Foster, my lad, I despise this way o' things," says he; "ain't there no way on gettin' clear?" "Never say die, captin!" I says; an' says he, "I calc'late they left considerable few hands aboard?" "None but them sleepy-like scum o' iv'ry men," I says, but be blowed if I see'd what better we was, till down comes a little nigger cabin-boy for some'at or other, with a knife in his hand. Job fixes his eye on him—I've heerd he'd a way in his eye with niggers as they couldn't stand—an' says he, soft-sawderin' like, "Come here, will ye, my lad, an' give us a drink," so the black come for'ard with a pannikin, one foot at a time, an' he houlds it out to the skipper's lips—for, d'ye see, all on us had our flippers lashed behind our backs. "Now," says he, "thankee, boy—look in atwixt my legs, and ye'll find a dollar." With that, jest as the boy stoops, Job Price ketches his neck fast betwixt his two knees, an' blowed if he didn't jam them harder, grinning all the time, till down drops the little black throttled on the deck. "That's for thankin' a nigger!" says he, lookin' as savitch as a fiend, and got the knife in his teeth, when he turned to and sawed through the seizing round my wrists—an' in course I sets every man clear in quick-sticks. "Now!" says Job, looking round, "the quicker the better—that cussed lubber-ratin' hound's got my schooner, but maybe, my lads, this here iv'ry man'll pay expenses: if I'm made out a pirate, I'll arn the name!"
"'Well, we squints up the hatchway, and see'd a young midshipman a-standing with his back to us, watching thebrig's crew at the braces, an' a pistol in one hand—when all at once our skipper slips off his shoes, runs up the stair as quiet as a cat, an' caught the end of a capstan-bar as lay on the scuttle. With that down he comes crash on the poor fellow's scull from aft, and brained him in a moment. Every man of us got bloody-minded with the sight, so we scarce knowed what we did, ye know, mate, afore all hands o' them was gone—how, I ain't goin' for to say, nor the share as one had in it more nor another. The long an' the short on it was, we run the brig by sundown in amongst the creeks up the Camaroons river, thinkin' to lie stowed away close thereabouts till all wor cold. Hows'ever, they kicked up the devil's delight about a piratecy, and the sloop-o'-war comes back shortly, when night an' day there was that young shark of a leftenant huntin' arter us, as sharp as a marling-spike—we dursn't come down the river nohow, till what with a bad conscience, fogs, and sleepin' every night within stink o' them blasted muddy mangroves an' bulrushes together, why, mate, the whole ten hands died off one arter the other in the fever—leaving ownly me an' the skipper. Job Price was like a madman over the cargo, worth good knows how many thousand dollars, as he couldn't take out; but for my part, I gets the brig's punt one night and sculls myself ashore, and off like a hare into the bush by moonlight. No use, ye know, for to say what rum chances I meets with in the woods, livin' up trees and the like for fear o' illiphants, sarpents, an' high-annies; but, blow me, if I didn't think the farther ye went aloft, the more monkeys an' parrykeets you roused out, jabberin' all night so as a feller couldn't close an eye—an' as for the sky, be blowed if I ever once sighted it. So, d' ye see, it puts all notions o' fruits an' flowers out o' my head, an' all them jimmy-jessamy sort o' happy-go-lucky yarns about barbers' ileyands and shipherdresses what they used for to spell out o' dicshinars at school—all gammon, mate!'
"'Lor' love ye, no, surely,' said Jack; 'it's in the Bible!'
"'Ay, ay,' said Harry, 'that's arter ye've gone to Davy Jones, no doubt; but I've been in the Southsy ileyands since, myself, an' be blowed if it's much better there! Hows'ever, still anon, I took a new fancy, an' away I makes for the river, in sarch of a nigger villache, as they calls 'em; and sure enough it warn't long ere right I plumps in the midst on a lot o' canehuts amongst trees. But sich a shine and a nitty as I kicks up, ye see, bein' half-naked, for all the world like a wild man o' the woods, an' for a full hour I has the town to myself, so I hoists my shirt on a stick over the hut I took, by way of a flag o' truce, an' at last they all begins for to swarm in again. Well, ye see, I knowed the ways o' the natifs thereabouts pretty well, an' what does I do but I'd laid myself flat afore an ugly divvle of a wooden himmache, as stood on the flour, an' I wriggles and twists myself, and groans like a chap in a fit—what they callsfittish, thereaway—an' in course, with that they logs me down at once for a rig'lar holy 'possel from Jerusalem. The long an' the short on it was, the fittish-man takes me under charge, and sets me to tell fortins or the like with an ould quadrant they got somewheres—gives me a hut an' two black wives, begad! and there I lives for two or three weeks on end, no doubt, as proud as Tommy; when, one fine morning, what does I see off shore in the river but that confounded man-o'-war tender, all ship-shape an' ataunto again. So, my boy, I gives 'em to understand as how, bein' over vallible at home with the king of England, in course he'd sent for to puckalow me away—an' no sooner said, but the whole town gets in a fluster—the fittish-man, which a knowin' chap he was, takes and rubs me from heel to truck with ile out on a sartin nut as turned me coal-black in half-an-hour, an' as soon as I looks in the creek, mate, be blowed if I'd a knewn myself from a nigger, somehow!'
"To tell the truth, asIthought to myself, it was no wonder, as Master Harry's nose and lips were by no means in the classic style, and his skin, as it was, didn't appear of the whitest.
"'So there, ye know, I sits before a hut grindin' away at maize, with nothink else but a waist-cloth round me, and my two legs stuck out, till such a time as the leftenant an' two boats' crews had sarched the villache, havin' heerd, no doubt, of a white man thereabouts—an' at last off they went. Well, in course, at first this here affair gives the fittish-man a lift in the niggers' eyes, by reason o' havin' turned a white man black—'cause, ye see, them fittish-men has a rig'lar-bred knowledge on plants and sich-like. But hows'ever, in a day or two I begins for to get rayther oneasy, seein' it didn't wash off, an' accordently I made beknown as much to the fittish-man, when, my boy, if he doesn't shake his mop-head, andrubs noses, as much as to say, "We ain't agoin' to part." 'Twas no use, and thinks I, "Ye man-eating scum, be blowed if I don't put your neck out, then!" So I turns too with my knife on a log o' wood, carves a himmache twice as big an' ugly as his'n, and builds a hut over it, where I plays all the conjerin' tricks I could mind on—till, be hanged if the niggers didn't begin to leave the fittish-man pretty fast, and make a blessed sight more o' me. I takes a couple more wives, gets drunk every day on palm-wine and toddy juice—as for the hogs an' the yams they brought me, why I couldn't stow 'em away; an' in place o' wanting myself white again, I rubs myself over and over with that 'ere nut, let alone palm-ile, till the ould fittish-man looks brown alongside o' me. At last the king o' the niggers thereaway—King Chimbey they called him, or some'at o' that sort—he sends for to see me, an' away to his town they takes me, a mile or two up the country, where I see'd him; but I'm blowed, Jack, if he'd got a crown on at all, ownly a ould red marine's coat, an' a pair o' top-boots, what was laid away when he warn't in state. Hows'ever, he gives me two white beans an' a red un in sign o' high favour, and gives me to know as I wor to stay there. But one thing I couldn't make out, why the black king's hut an' the josst-house as they calls it, was all stuck round with bones an' dead men's skulls!—'twan't long, though, ere I finds it out, mate! That 'ere fittish-man, d 'ye see, wor a right-down imp to look at, and wicked enough he eyed me; but still anon I sends over for my wives, turns out a black feller out on his hut, an' slings a hammock in it, when the next day or so I meets the first fittish-man in the woods, an' the poor divvle looks wonderful friendly-like, makin' me all kinds o' woful signs, and seemin'ly as much as to say for to keep a bright look-out on the other one. All on a suddent what does he do, but he runs a bit as far as a tree, picks up a sort of a red mushroom, an' he rubs with it across the back o' my hand, gives a wink, and scuttles off. What it meaned I couldn't make out, till I gets back to the town, when I chanced to look at my flipper, and there I see a clean white streak alongst it! Well, I thinks, liberty's sweet, an' I'm blessed if a man's able to cruise much to windward o' right-down slavery, thinks I, if he's black! Howsomever, thinks I, I'll jest hold on abitlonger.