Chapter Eighteen.

Chapter Eighteen.Re-appearance of the ‘Francesca’.While Maxwell stole forward to get his wire, I crept up on the poop again, and carefully avoiding the skylight, so that my figure might not be revealed by the coloured rays that streamed from it, found that the boat with José and his companions, and the last of the plunder, was just going alongside the brigantine. The first to scramble out of her was José; and there was light enough about the brigantine’s decks to enable me to see that he went straight aft to the companion, which he descended. He was absent from the deck but a very few minutes, however; and when he re-appeared I supposed that he had been below to make his report to Mendouca and to receive that individual’s orders, for as he passed along the deck I heard him shout to the crew—“Now, then, look alive there with those bales, and get the deck clear as quickly as possible, so that we can get the niggers on deck and the sweeps at work once more. We’ve got all that we can take from the Englishman, and now the sooner we are off the better, for she won’t float above two or three hours longer; and if a breeze was to spring up, and bring a cruiser along with it, it would be bad for us if we were found in this neighbourhood. So bundle those bales down the hatchway anyhow, men, and clear the decks at once. We must stow the goods properly afterwards.”This was excellent—very much better than I had expected; for a dreadful idea had suggested itself to me, that Mendouca might take it into his head to remain by the ship until she should show unmistakable signs of sinking, in which case there would be nothing for us but another fight, which, short-handed as we were, would not suit our book at all.The men on board theFrancesca, woke up a little at José’s order, and soon had the last boat unloaded and the decks clear; the slaves were then ordered on deck, theBangalore’sboats cast adrift, the sweeps rigged out, and, with I think the most fervent emotion of gratitude and delight that I had ever experienced, I at length had the satisfaction of seeing the brigantine stir sluggishly against the background of the star-spangled heavens, turn her bows slightly away from us, and finally glide off, with a quiet, gentle, scarcely-perceptible motion, in a westerly direction.While I was still watching her I caught sight of Maxwell creeping along the deck from forward, under the shelter of the bulwarks, so that the light from the still burning lanterns that the pirates had left behind them might not disclose his moving figure to any of the eyes on board theFrancescathat might be turned upon the ship; and making my way down the companion, I joined him in the vestibule, and we entered the cabin together.I led him straight to the door of the state-room with the occupant of which I had previously held a short conversation, and directed Maxwell to open it, at the same time knocking upon the panel and saying—“Sir, I am happy to inform you that the pirates have at length left us, and we are about to make an attempt to release you.”“Thank God for that!” fervently ejaculated a voice that I had not heard before. “Be as quick as you can, pray, for I fear that my poor husband here is dead or dying; and he should be attended to without a moment’s delay.”“That’s Mrs Maynard’s voice!” exclaimed the carpenter, as he worked away with his wire; “I know it well. Somebody told me that the colonel was hurt—stabbed, I think they said, in protectin’ his daughters from the ill-usage of some of them Spanish ruffians.”“Say you so, man?” I exclaimed. “Then never mind fiddling with that wire any longer. Let us put our shoulders to the door and burst it open!”“Half a second, sir; I’ve got the thing now, and—there, that’s all right! Now try the door, sir!”As the man spoke I heard the click of the lock as it went back, and, turning the handle, the door opened, and I entered.The cabin was a fine, roomy one, and of good height, as cabins went in those days; it contained two standing bunks, one above the other, fitted with brass rods and damask curtains, a sofa against the side of the ship, a wash-stand in a recess between the bunks and the bulkhead adjoining the saloon, a framed mirror above it, a folding mahogany table against the transverse bulkhead, brass pins upon which to hang clothing, a curtain to draw across the doorway, a handsome lamp with a ground-glass globe hung in gimbals in the centre of the transverse bulkhead, two large travelling trunks and three or four smaller cases, broken open and the contents strewn upon the carpeted deck, and prone among them, bound hand and foot and lashed together, were the figures of a man and woman, both evidently elderly, although their precise ages could hardly be guessed by the imperfect light that streamed in from the saloon through the open door.As I entered the apartment, noting these details in a single comprehensive glance, the woman moaned—“Oh, sir, for the love of God pray release us from these cruel bonds as quickly as possible; they are bound so tightly that the circulation of the blood is stopped, and we have been suffering the most excruciating agony for hours.”“I will cut you adrift at once, madam,” said I, unsheathing the long knife which was attached to the belt that Simpson had lent me with the clothes. “Had I known that you were in this cruel plight, I would have risked everything in the endeavour to release you when I first entered the cabin.”I cut the unfortunate couple adrift, and, having first taken the precaution to draw the curtain of the side-light, lighted the lamp, and, with Maxwell’s assistance, raised the lady into a sitting position; after which we lifted her husband and placed him on the bed in the lower berth. He was a very fine, handsome man of about fifty years of age, with that indescribable and unmistakable look of the soldier about him that seems to set its mark upon every military man. His wife was perhaps seven or eight years his junior, still exceedingly good-looking, and must, at her best, have been a singularly lovely woman.The colonel, it appeared, had, in common with the other passengers who had any womankind on board, locked his wife and daughters into their cabins when it was foreseen that an attack upon the ship was inevitable; and it was after the fight was over that he was severely stabbed in resisting an attempt on the part of one of theFrancesca’screw to force open his daughters’ cabin. Probably the poor man would have been murdered outright but for the opportune appearance of Mendouca, who sternly ordered every one of his men out of the cabin, except two, whom he personally supervised as they executed his order to bind all the survivors hand and foot and confine them in the cabins. Luckily for the unfortunate passengers, the first thought of the men had been drink, and the second, plunder; and by the time that these two appetites had been satisfied, all thought of further violence had passed out of their heads.The first thing now to be done was to find the ship’s surgeon—if he were still alive; so, leaving Maxwell in the cuddy to continue his lock-picking operations, I sallied out on deck and, first softly calling to the men aloft that they might now venture to come down, hunted up the steward, and inquired of him whether he knew where the surgeon was to be found. He answered that the surgeon, purser, and three mates were all berthed in the after-house, between the main-mast and the main-hatch, and that probably the man I wanted would be found there, adding that, as he believed the pirates had flung all the keys overboard, he would take the liberty of going into poor Captain Mason’s cabin, and bringing me a bunch of spare keys that he knew were always kept there. This he did, and, finding the key of the after-house, we entered it together, to find the unhappy surgeon and purser bound hand and foot, and lashed together in such a manner that neither of them could move, upon the floor of the cabin. To release the pair was but the work of a moment; after which, having directed the doctor to hasten to the cuddy and attend to the colonel’s injuries, I made a survey of the decks with the result that fourteen more of theBangalore’screw were found, of whom six were dead, and eight more or less seriously wounded; the latter were removed to their bunks in the forecastle forthwith and attended to by Mr Grant, the surgeon, as soon as he had dressed the wounds of Colonel Maynard and two other passengers. I may as well say here, to save time, that, thanks to Grant’s skill and unremitting attention, all the wounded were reported to be doing well and, with the exception of Colonel Maynard, out of danger.The keys of all the cabins having been found, and the doors unlocked by the steward, Maxwell’s services were no longer required in the cuddy; as therefore the brigantine had by this time reached the tolerably safe distance of a mile from us, I sent him down into the run again to drive the plugs well home and make them perfectly secure, and set to work with the steward to release the remaining passengers from their exceedingly uncomfortable condition. This was not a long task, and when it was completed I found that we mustered nine gentlemen, of whom three were wounded, eleven ladies, three children—two boys and a girl—seven maids, and an Indian ayah or nurse. One family, consisting of a lady and her daughter, were in a dreadful state of distress, the husband and father—a Mr Richard Temple, resident magistrate of one of the up-country districts—having been shot dead while gallantly fighting in defence of the ship. The rest were in fairly good spirits, now that they found that there was a hope of ultimate escape from the perils that had so unexpectedly beset them; for I learned that although their personal baggage had been rifled and all money and jewellery taken, they had been spared any further outrage than that of being bound with unnecessary and cruel rigour and confined to their cabins.The poor souls had been without food or drink since tiffin. I thought therefore that it would not be amiss to set them down to a good meal, and with that object directed the steward to find his mates and also the cook, if possible, it appearing that none of the individuals named had been seen either during or since the attack, which gave rise to the suspicion that they had contrived to conceal themselves somewhere about the ship. This proved to be the case, the cook, with his mates, and the three under-stewards being eventually discovered in a disused pig-sty under the topgallant-forecastle, carefully concealed beneath a lot of lumber that they had dragged over themselves. From this secluded retreat they were speedily routed out, and, being solemnly assured that all danger was now past, were at length prevailed upon to resume their duty and to prepare a long-delayed dinner—or supper, as it might be more appropriately called—for the cuddy occupants.When at length the meal was served, I took the liberty of occupying the poor murdered captain’s seat at the table; and while we were eating and drinking, I managed to gain a pretty clear idea of the incidents of the attack upon theBangaloreeach one having passed through some more or less trying experience which he or she was anxious to relate to the rest; and when the meal was over Mr Molyneux, a Calcutta merchant, rose to his feet and, while formally thanking me on behalf of himself and his fellow-passengers for what I had already done, expressed their perfect concurrence in the wish of the surviving crew that I should take command of the ship, merely suggesting the great desirability of navigating her forthwith to the nearest civilised port. This, of course, was my own fixed intention, and I suggested Sierra Leone as the most suitable spot for which to make, it being as near as any other, with the advantage that the necessary officers to navigate the ship home, and a sufficient number of men to make up the full complement of the crew, might almost certainly be reckoned upon being found there.The brigantine had left us, and with her departure everybody appeared to consider the danger as past. This, however, was an opinion which I by no means shared; for, knowing Mendouca so well as I did, I felt that it was by no means unlikely that, having reached an offing of some ten or twelve miles, he might order the sweeps to be laid in until daylight, in order that he might remain in our neighbourhood and assure himself by the actual demonstration of his own—or Pedro’s—eyesight that theBangalorehad foundered, taking with her to the bottom all evidence of the atrocious crime of which he and his crew had been guilty. And, even should no uncomfortable doubts on this point assail him, hemustlearn, ere the lapse of many hours, that I and others were missing; and then, guessing, as he would at once, at the explanation of our absence, nothing would prevent him from returning and taking, or attempting to take, such measures as would insure our eternal silence.I therefore considered it a singular if not an actually providential occurrence that when I went out on deck after dinner—or supper—the sky should have become overcast, with scarcely a star to be seen, with every appearance of both wind and rain ere long. It had become exceedingly dark, so much so that no sign of the brigantine was to be discovered, but by listening intently the roll and clatter of her sweeps were still to be caught; and it was with very deep and fervent thankfulness that, after listening intently for several minutes, I felt convinced that she was still receding from us. I had given strict orders that the lanterns should be allowed to remain burning on deck, just as the pirates had left them, that no other lights should be kindled anywhere about the ship except where it was possible to effectually mask their light, and that no one should show anything of himself above the level of the topgallant-rail upon any consideration; but now, the brigantine having been gone from us rather more than two hours, I gave instructions that all the lanterns on deck and all lights of every kind visible from outside the ship might be simultaneously extinguished, so that, should anybody happen to be watching our lights, they might come to the conclusion that the ship had filled and we were gone to the bottom. This done, I mustered my entire crew and, first hoisting in the long-boat, sent them aloft to stow all the lighter sails, so that we might not be wholly unprepared should the change of weather that now seemed impending be ushered in with a squall. This occupied the men a full hour and a half, at the end of which, having brought the ship into tolerably manageable condition, I gave them permission to lie down and snatch a nap if they could, but to hold themselves ready for any emergency that might arise.It was by this time long past midnight, and so pitchy dark that, all lights having been extinguished, it was impossible to see one end of the poop from the other. The stars had all vanished, and the silence was so profound as to be quite oppressive, not even the sound of the pirate’s sweeps now being audible; though whether they had been laid in, or whether the vessel had increased her distance so greatly as to have passed beyond the range of sound, I knew not, but I strongly suspected the former contingency. This profound silence was maintained for nearly an hour, and then my hearing—rendered unusually acute no doubt by the intense darkness that enveloped me—once more became conscious of a regular, measured, rhythmical sound, the sound of sweeps again being plied, and, without doubt, on board theFrancesca. What did it mean? Had Mendouca, in his feverish and painful condition, grown impatient of delay and ordered the sweeps to be again manned, after having given instructions for them to be laid in? Or, as my forebodings whispered to me, had the absence of myself and others been already discovered, and was the brigantine returning in search of us? For the first quarter of an hour or so after the sounds had once again broken in upon the silence this was a question very difficult to decide; but when half-an-hour had passed the fact was indisputable that the pirateswere returning, for the sounds had become distinctly clearer and stronger than they had at first been.What was now to be done? There was but one course for us; namely, to take every possible measure for the defence of the ship to our last gasp, for I felt assured that, should Mendouca recover possession of her, his fury at the trick that we had played him would be sated by nothing short of our absolute destruction. Having quickly made up my mind upon this point, I was in the act of groping my way along the poop, with the object of calling the men, when I thought I felt a faint stirring of the air, and, pausing for a moment, I moistened the back of my hand and held it up, turning it this way and that until I felt a distinct sensation of coolness. Yes, there was no doubt about it, I had felt a cat’s-paw, and it seemed to be coming over our starboard quarter; while the sound of the sweeps was away broad on our port bow. I could scarcely restrain a cheer as the hope of a breeze thus came to encourage me at the very moment when a new and terrible danger was threatening us. I paused for an instant and reflected; and my thoughts took somewhat this shape: “If Mendouca is returning—and he undoubtedly is—it is because through some unfortunate combination of circumstances my absence has already been discovered, and he has at once jumped to the correct conclusion that I have somehow contrived to escape from the brigantine to the ship. And he knows me well enough to feel assured that, once here, I shall not tamely allow the Indiaman to go down under my feet; or, if that should prove unpreventible, that I shall at least release the prisoners and concoct with them some plan of escape, such as taking to the boats, or constructing a raft. And he also knows that, in either case, should we succeed in preserving our lives until we are fallen in with, or picked up, his atrocious act of piracy and murder will be proclaimed, and every craft in the squadron will be specially ordered to keep a look-out for him and effect his capture at all hazards. Therefore he will spare no effort to find the ship and destroy her. Now—ah, there is another little breath of wind, I felt it distinctly that time!—should he fail to find us, what course will he pursue? Why, he will certainly expect us to make our way northward—for Sierra Leone, most probably, the port that we have already determined to steer for—and he will do his best to overtake and recapture us. Therefore our best course will obviously be to head to thesouthward, and thus increase the distance between the two craft as rapidly as possible, so that they may be out of sight of each other at daybreak; and then to proceed upon our proper course under easy sail.”This seemed to me to be a very fair and sound line of reasoning, and I determined to act upon it forthwith. I accordingly made my way forward, routed out the men, told them there was a breeze coming, and ordered them to brace up the yards and trim the sheets aft for a close-hauled stretch on the port tack, at the same time cautioning them to work silently, as I had only too much reason to fear that the pirates were returning to search for the ship. This news, confirmed as it was by the now perfectly audible sound of the sweeps, was enough for them, and they went about the decks so silently, speaking in whispers, and carefully taking each rope off its belaying-pin, andlayingit down on deck, instead of flinging it down with clatter enough to wake the Seven Sleepers, that I am certain no one in the cabins, even had they been awake, could possibly have been aware of what was happening.By the time that we had got our canvas trimmed the breeze had become quite perceptible, and the ship had gathered steerage-way; we therefore wore her round, and presently had the ineffable satisfaction of hearing a slight but distinct tinkling and gurgle of water under the bows.With the springing up of this most welcome little breeze the sound of the sweeps first became by imperceptible degrees less audible and then was lost altogether, but whether this arose from the fact that the wind carried the sound away from us, or whether it was that they had laid in the sweeps, and were making sail upon the brigantine, it was impossible to tell, nor did I greatly care, provided that the breeze freshened sufficiently to carry us out of sight before daybreak, this now being my great anxiety. Maxwell assured me that theBangalorewas a real clipper, easily beating everything that they had fallen in with, both on the passage out and on their homeward voyage. But no ship can sail fast without a fair amount of wind, and so far this breeze that had come to us was a mere breathing, just enough perhaps to waft us along at a speed of about two knots, or two and a half, maybe, whereas what I wanted was at least a seven-knot breeze, that would take us clean out of sight of our starting-point before dawn. For I knew that, if theBangalorewas a clipper, so too was theFrancesca; and if her people once caught sight of so much as the heads of our royals from their own royal-yard, they would chase us as long as there was the slightest hope of overhauling us. And the knowledge of this fact made me wonder whether I had not acted rather imprudently in stowing all the lighter sails, instead of leaving them abroad to give us all the help of which they were capable. I was just inwardly debating this point, and had arrived at the conclusion that we ought to set them again, when the atmosphere seemed suddenly to grow more dense, and in a moment down came the rain in a regular tropical deluge, like the bursting of a waterspout, the sails flapped to the masts, and we were becalmed again. This was horribly vexatious, not to say disheartening; but, happily for our peace of mind, it was a state of things that did not last long; it merely meant a shift of wind, for presently, when the shower had ceased as abruptly as it had begun, the breeze sprang up again, this time coming out from the northward, and with gay and thankful hearts we squared away before it, or rather, headed just far enough to the eastward of south to permit everything set to draw properly. Moreover, the breeze gradually but steadily freshened, until in about an hour from the time when the ship first began to move we were going seven knots at the very least.This was so far satisfactory, especially as the sky remained overcast and the night intensely dark, rendering it utterly impossible to see anything beyond a distance of three or four of the ship’s lengths on either hand, and I now had good hopes of running the brigantine out of sight before daylight. That she was still engaged in the search for us, however, soon became evident; for about three-quarters of an hour after the springing up of the true breeze our attention was suddenly attracted by the outburst of a brilliant glare of bluish-white light on our port-quarter, which was nothing less than the brigantine burning port-fires, probably in an attempt to discover our whereabouts by the reflection of the light on our sails, or possibly in the expectation of catching sight, by means of the light, either of our boats, or a raft, or perhaps a hen-coop and grating or two floating about as evidence of our having gone down. However, she was about five miles distant from us at that time, and although the light of the port-fires rendered her perfectly visible to us, I had little or no fear that it would betray our whereabouts to her people. She remained dodging about and occasionally burning port-fires for fully another hour—by which time we had sunk her to her foreyard below the horizon, as viewed from our deck—and then, as she discontinued her pyrotechnic display, we lost sight of her. At daybreak I sent a man right up to the main-royal-yard, where he remained until the light was thoroughly strong, and then came down with the report that the horizon was clear.This was highly satisfactory, inasmuch as it confirmed my hope that if Mendouca was still prosecuting a search for us—as I felt sure he was, he having of course failed to discover any evidence of the ship having foundered—he was looking for us in a northerly direction, very probably cracking on in the belief that we had gone that way and that there was still a chance of overtaking us.At eight bells in the morning watch we brought the ship to the wind on the larboard tack, with her head about east-north-east, and I then divided my scanty crew into two watches, with Joe Maxwell, the carpenter, as my chief mate, and a very smart A.B., named Tom Sutcliffe, as second. This done, the watch was set, and put to the job of straightening-up generally and pumping out the ship, this latter job being accomplished and the pumps sucking in just under the ten minutes that Maxwell had allowed for it. It was clear, therefore, that our hull was sound, and that in that respect, at all events, with the best—or rather the worst—intentions in the world, the pirates had done us little or no harm.Our most serious difficulty was the want of water, Mendouca having literally cleared the ship of every drop she possessed, save some eight or ten gallons in the scuttle-butt, which they had either overlooked, or perhaps had considered not worth taking. But here again it appeared as though God in His infinite mercy had taken compassion on us; for about noon the wind died away, and I had only just time to take my meridian observation for the latitude when the heavens clouded over, and toward the close of the afternoon we were visited by a terrific thunderstorm accompanied by a perfect deluge of rain, during which, by loosely spreading all the awnings fore and aft, we were enabled to catch a sufficient quantity of water to carry us without stint as far at least as Sierra Leone.It remained calm until about midnight, when a little breeze sprang up from the eastward which enabled us to lay our course nicely while it fanned us along at a speed of about five knots. The next morning broke bright and clear; and with the first of the light the look-out reported a sail broad on our weather bow. Maxwell, fearing that it might be our old enemy, theFrancescashowing up again, came down at once and called me, stating his fears, and causing me to rush up on the poop just as I had sprung from my cot, quite regardless of appearances, although I could scarcely believe that Mendouca, if indeed we should be so unfortunate as to fall in with him again, would make his appearance in the eastern board. I must confess, however, that when I first reached the deck and beheld the stranger, I experienced a slight qualm of apprehension, for the craft was undoubtedly square-rigged, forward at least, and she was steering as straight as a hair for us, with studding-sails set on both sides, and coming down very fast. A few minutes’ work with the telescope, however, sufficed to remove our apprehensions, so far at least as theFrancescawas concerned, for as the light grew brighter we were enabled to discern that the stranger was a brig, and as I continued working away with the glass the vessel seemed to assume a familiar aspect, as though I had seen her before. At first I thought that it might possibly prove to be the Spanish brig that had been anchored just ahead of us off Banana Peninsula; but as she drew nearer I recognised with intense delight that it was none other than the dear oldBarracoutaherself. “And with her appearance,” thought I, “all my troubles are ended; for doubtless Captain Stopford will not only lend me men enough to carry the ship to Sierra Leone, but will also escort me thither.”

While Maxwell stole forward to get his wire, I crept up on the poop again, and carefully avoiding the skylight, so that my figure might not be revealed by the coloured rays that streamed from it, found that the boat with José and his companions, and the last of the plunder, was just going alongside the brigantine. The first to scramble out of her was José; and there was light enough about the brigantine’s decks to enable me to see that he went straight aft to the companion, which he descended. He was absent from the deck but a very few minutes, however; and when he re-appeared I supposed that he had been below to make his report to Mendouca and to receive that individual’s orders, for as he passed along the deck I heard him shout to the crew—

“Now, then, look alive there with those bales, and get the deck clear as quickly as possible, so that we can get the niggers on deck and the sweeps at work once more. We’ve got all that we can take from the Englishman, and now the sooner we are off the better, for she won’t float above two or three hours longer; and if a breeze was to spring up, and bring a cruiser along with it, it would be bad for us if we were found in this neighbourhood. So bundle those bales down the hatchway anyhow, men, and clear the decks at once. We must stow the goods properly afterwards.”

This was excellent—very much better than I had expected; for a dreadful idea had suggested itself to me, that Mendouca might take it into his head to remain by the ship until she should show unmistakable signs of sinking, in which case there would be nothing for us but another fight, which, short-handed as we were, would not suit our book at all.

The men on board theFrancesca, woke up a little at José’s order, and soon had the last boat unloaded and the decks clear; the slaves were then ordered on deck, theBangalore’sboats cast adrift, the sweeps rigged out, and, with I think the most fervent emotion of gratitude and delight that I had ever experienced, I at length had the satisfaction of seeing the brigantine stir sluggishly against the background of the star-spangled heavens, turn her bows slightly away from us, and finally glide off, with a quiet, gentle, scarcely-perceptible motion, in a westerly direction.

While I was still watching her I caught sight of Maxwell creeping along the deck from forward, under the shelter of the bulwarks, so that the light from the still burning lanterns that the pirates had left behind them might not disclose his moving figure to any of the eyes on board theFrancescathat might be turned upon the ship; and making my way down the companion, I joined him in the vestibule, and we entered the cabin together.

I led him straight to the door of the state-room with the occupant of which I had previously held a short conversation, and directed Maxwell to open it, at the same time knocking upon the panel and saying—

“Sir, I am happy to inform you that the pirates have at length left us, and we are about to make an attempt to release you.”

“Thank God for that!” fervently ejaculated a voice that I had not heard before. “Be as quick as you can, pray, for I fear that my poor husband here is dead or dying; and he should be attended to without a moment’s delay.”

“That’s Mrs Maynard’s voice!” exclaimed the carpenter, as he worked away with his wire; “I know it well. Somebody told me that the colonel was hurt—stabbed, I think they said, in protectin’ his daughters from the ill-usage of some of them Spanish ruffians.”

“Say you so, man?” I exclaimed. “Then never mind fiddling with that wire any longer. Let us put our shoulders to the door and burst it open!”

“Half a second, sir; I’ve got the thing now, and—there, that’s all right! Now try the door, sir!”

As the man spoke I heard the click of the lock as it went back, and, turning the handle, the door opened, and I entered.

The cabin was a fine, roomy one, and of good height, as cabins went in those days; it contained two standing bunks, one above the other, fitted with brass rods and damask curtains, a sofa against the side of the ship, a wash-stand in a recess between the bunks and the bulkhead adjoining the saloon, a framed mirror above it, a folding mahogany table against the transverse bulkhead, brass pins upon which to hang clothing, a curtain to draw across the doorway, a handsome lamp with a ground-glass globe hung in gimbals in the centre of the transverse bulkhead, two large travelling trunks and three or four smaller cases, broken open and the contents strewn upon the carpeted deck, and prone among them, bound hand and foot and lashed together, were the figures of a man and woman, both evidently elderly, although their precise ages could hardly be guessed by the imperfect light that streamed in from the saloon through the open door.

As I entered the apartment, noting these details in a single comprehensive glance, the woman moaned—

“Oh, sir, for the love of God pray release us from these cruel bonds as quickly as possible; they are bound so tightly that the circulation of the blood is stopped, and we have been suffering the most excruciating agony for hours.”

“I will cut you adrift at once, madam,” said I, unsheathing the long knife which was attached to the belt that Simpson had lent me with the clothes. “Had I known that you were in this cruel plight, I would have risked everything in the endeavour to release you when I first entered the cabin.”

I cut the unfortunate couple adrift, and, having first taken the precaution to draw the curtain of the side-light, lighted the lamp, and, with Maxwell’s assistance, raised the lady into a sitting position; after which we lifted her husband and placed him on the bed in the lower berth. He was a very fine, handsome man of about fifty years of age, with that indescribable and unmistakable look of the soldier about him that seems to set its mark upon every military man. His wife was perhaps seven or eight years his junior, still exceedingly good-looking, and must, at her best, have been a singularly lovely woman.

The colonel, it appeared, had, in common with the other passengers who had any womankind on board, locked his wife and daughters into their cabins when it was foreseen that an attack upon the ship was inevitable; and it was after the fight was over that he was severely stabbed in resisting an attempt on the part of one of theFrancesca’screw to force open his daughters’ cabin. Probably the poor man would have been murdered outright but for the opportune appearance of Mendouca, who sternly ordered every one of his men out of the cabin, except two, whom he personally supervised as they executed his order to bind all the survivors hand and foot and confine them in the cabins. Luckily for the unfortunate passengers, the first thought of the men had been drink, and the second, plunder; and by the time that these two appetites had been satisfied, all thought of further violence had passed out of their heads.

The first thing now to be done was to find the ship’s surgeon—if he were still alive; so, leaving Maxwell in the cuddy to continue his lock-picking operations, I sallied out on deck and, first softly calling to the men aloft that they might now venture to come down, hunted up the steward, and inquired of him whether he knew where the surgeon was to be found. He answered that the surgeon, purser, and three mates were all berthed in the after-house, between the main-mast and the main-hatch, and that probably the man I wanted would be found there, adding that, as he believed the pirates had flung all the keys overboard, he would take the liberty of going into poor Captain Mason’s cabin, and bringing me a bunch of spare keys that he knew were always kept there. This he did, and, finding the key of the after-house, we entered it together, to find the unhappy surgeon and purser bound hand and foot, and lashed together in such a manner that neither of them could move, upon the floor of the cabin. To release the pair was but the work of a moment; after which, having directed the doctor to hasten to the cuddy and attend to the colonel’s injuries, I made a survey of the decks with the result that fourteen more of theBangalore’screw were found, of whom six were dead, and eight more or less seriously wounded; the latter were removed to their bunks in the forecastle forthwith and attended to by Mr Grant, the surgeon, as soon as he had dressed the wounds of Colonel Maynard and two other passengers. I may as well say here, to save time, that, thanks to Grant’s skill and unremitting attention, all the wounded were reported to be doing well and, with the exception of Colonel Maynard, out of danger.

The keys of all the cabins having been found, and the doors unlocked by the steward, Maxwell’s services were no longer required in the cuddy; as therefore the brigantine had by this time reached the tolerably safe distance of a mile from us, I sent him down into the run again to drive the plugs well home and make them perfectly secure, and set to work with the steward to release the remaining passengers from their exceedingly uncomfortable condition. This was not a long task, and when it was completed I found that we mustered nine gentlemen, of whom three were wounded, eleven ladies, three children—two boys and a girl—seven maids, and an Indian ayah or nurse. One family, consisting of a lady and her daughter, were in a dreadful state of distress, the husband and father—a Mr Richard Temple, resident magistrate of one of the up-country districts—having been shot dead while gallantly fighting in defence of the ship. The rest were in fairly good spirits, now that they found that there was a hope of ultimate escape from the perils that had so unexpectedly beset them; for I learned that although their personal baggage had been rifled and all money and jewellery taken, they had been spared any further outrage than that of being bound with unnecessary and cruel rigour and confined to their cabins.

The poor souls had been without food or drink since tiffin. I thought therefore that it would not be amiss to set them down to a good meal, and with that object directed the steward to find his mates and also the cook, if possible, it appearing that none of the individuals named had been seen either during or since the attack, which gave rise to the suspicion that they had contrived to conceal themselves somewhere about the ship. This proved to be the case, the cook, with his mates, and the three under-stewards being eventually discovered in a disused pig-sty under the topgallant-forecastle, carefully concealed beneath a lot of lumber that they had dragged over themselves. From this secluded retreat they were speedily routed out, and, being solemnly assured that all danger was now past, were at length prevailed upon to resume their duty and to prepare a long-delayed dinner—or supper, as it might be more appropriately called—for the cuddy occupants.

When at length the meal was served, I took the liberty of occupying the poor murdered captain’s seat at the table; and while we were eating and drinking, I managed to gain a pretty clear idea of the incidents of the attack upon theBangaloreeach one having passed through some more or less trying experience which he or she was anxious to relate to the rest; and when the meal was over Mr Molyneux, a Calcutta merchant, rose to his feet and, while formally thanking me on behalf of himself and his fellow-passengers for what I had already done, expressed their perfect concurrence in the wish of the surviving crew that I should take command of the ship, merely suggesting the great desirability of navigating her forthwith to the nearest civilised port. This, of course, was my own fixed intention, and I suggested Sierra Leone as the most suitable spot for which to make, it being as near as any other, with the advantage that the necessary officers to navigate the ship home, and a sufficient number of men to make up the full complement of the crew, might almost certainly be reckoned upon being found there.

The brigantine had left us, and with her departure everybody appeared to consider the danger as past. This, however, was an opinion which I by no means shared; for, knowing Mendouca so well as I did, I felt that it was by no means unlikely that, having reached an offing of some ten or twelve miles, he might order the sweeps to be laid in until daylight, in order that he might remain in our neighbourhood and assure himself by the actual demonstration of his own—or Pedro’s—eyesight that theBangalorehad foundered, taking with her to the bottom all evidence of the atrocious crime of which he and his crew had been guilty. And, even should no uncomfortable doubts on this point assail him, hemustlearn, ere the lapse of many hours, that I and others were missing; and then, guessing, as he would at once, at the explanation of our absence, nothing would prevent him from returning and taking, or attempting to take, such measures as would insure our eternal silence.

I therefore considered it a singular if not an actually providential occurrence that when I went out on deck after dinner—or supper—the sky should have become overcast, with scarcely a star to be seen, with every appearance of both wind and rain ere long. It had become exceedingly dark, so much so that no sign of the brigantine was to be discovered, but by listening intently the roll and clatter of her sweeps were still to be caught; and it was with very deep and fervent thankfulness that, after listening intently for several minutes, I felt convinced that she was still receding from us. I had given strict orders that the lanterns should be allowed to remain burning on deck, just as the pirates had left them, that no other lights should be kindled anywhere about the ship except where it was possible to effectually mask their light, and that no one should show anything of himself above the level of the topgallant-rail upon any consideration; but now, the brigantine having been gone from us rather more than two hours, I gave instructions that all the lanterns on deck and all lights of every kind visible from outside the ship might be simultaneously extinguished, so that, should anybody happen to be watching our lights, they might come to the conclusion that the ship had filled and we were gone to the bottom. This done, I mustered my entire crew and, first hoisting in the long-boat, sent them aloft to stow all the lighter sails, so that we might not be wholly unprepared should the change of weather that now seemed impending be ushered in with a squall. This occupied the men a full hour and a half, at the end of which, having brought the ship into tolerably manageable condition, I gave them permission to lie down and snatch a nap if they could, but to hold themselves ready for any emergency that might arise.

It was by this time long past midnight, and so pitchy dark that, all lights having been extinguished, it was impossible to see one end of the poop from the other. The stars had all vanished, and the silence was so profound as to be quite oppressive, not even the sound of the pirate’s sweeps now being audible; though whether they had been laid in, or whether the vessel had increased her distance so greatly as to have passed beyond the range of sound, I knew not, but I strongly suspected the former contingency. This profound silence was maintained for nearly an hour, and then my hearing—rendered unusually acute no doubt by the intense darkness that enveloped me—once more became conscious of a regular, measured, rhythmical sound, the sound of sweeps again being plied, and, without doubt, on board theFrancesca. What did it mean? Had Mendouca, in his feverish and painful condition, grown impatient of delay and ordered the sweeps to be again manned, after having given instructions for them to be laid in? Or, as my forebodings whispered to me, had the absence of myself and others been already discovered, and was the brigantine returning in search of us? For the first quarter of an hour or so after the sounds had once again broken in upon the silence this was a question very difficult to decide; but when half-an-hour had passed the fact was indisputable that the pirateswere returning, for the sounds had become distinctly clearer and stronger than they had at first been.

What was now to be done? There was but one course for us; namely, to take every possible measure for the defence of the ship to our last gasp, for I felt assured that, should Mendouca recover possession of her, his fury at the trick that we had played him would be sated by nothing short of our absolute destruction. Having quickly made up my mind upon this point, I was in the act of groping my way along the poop, with the object of calling the men, when I thought I felt a faint stirring of the air, and, pausing for a moment, I moistened the back of my hand and held it up, turning it this way and that until I felt a distinct sensation of coolness. Yes, there was no doubt about it, I had felt a cat’s-paw, and it seemed to be coming over our starboard quarter; while the sound of the sweeps was away broad on our port bow. I could scarcely restrain a cheer as the hope of a breeze thus came to encourage me at the very moment when a new and terrible danger was threatening us. I paused for an instant and reflected; and my thoughts took somewhat this shape: “If Mendouca is returning—and he undoubtedly is—it is because through some unfortunate combination of circumstances my absence has already been discovered, and he has at once jumped to the correct conclusion that I have somehow contrived to escape from the brigantine to the ship. And he knows me well enough to feel assured that, once here, I shall not tamely allow the Indiaman to go down under my feet; or, if that should prove unpreventible, that I shall at least release the prisoners and concoct with them some plan of escape, such as taking to the boats, or constructing a raft. And he also knows that, in either case, should we succeed in preserving our lives until we are fallen in with, or picked up, his atrocious act of piracy and murder will be proclaimed, and every craft in the squadron will be specially ordered to keep a look-out for him and effect his capture at all hazards. Therefore he will spare no effort to find the ship and destroy her. Now—ah, there is another little breath of wind, I felt it distinctly that time!—should he fail to find us, what course will he pursue? Why, he will certainly expect us to make our way northward—for Sierra Leone, most probably, the port that we have already determined to steer for—and he will do his best to overtake and recapture us. Therefore our best course will obviously be to head to thesouthward, and thus increase the distance between the two craft as rapidly as possible, so that they may be out of sight of each other at daybreak; and then to proceed upon our proper course under easy sail.”

This seemed to me to be a very fair and sound line of reasoning, and I determined to act upon it forthwith. I accordingly made my way forward, routed out the men, told them there was a breeze coming, and ordered them to brace up the yards and trim the sheets aft for a close-hauled stretch on the port tack, at the same time cautioning them to work silently, as I had only too much reason to fear that the pirates were returning to search for the ship. This news, confirmed as it was by the now perfectly audible sound of the sweeps, was enough for them, and they went about the decks so silently, speaking in whispers, and carefully taking each rope off its belaying-pin, andlayingit down on deck, instead of flinging it down with clatter enough to wake the Seven Sleepers, that I am certain no one in the cabins, even had they been awake, could possibly have been aware of what was happening.

By the time that we had got our canvas trimmed the breeze had become quite perceptible, and the ship had gathered steerage-way; we therefore wore her round, and presently had the ineffable satisfaction of hearing a slight but distinct tinkling and gurgle of water under the bows.

With the springing up of this most welcome little breeze the sound of the sweeps first became by imperceptible degrees less audible and then was lost altogether, but whether this arose from the fact that the wind carried the sound away from us, or whether it was that they had laid in the sweeps, and were making sail upon the brigantine, it was impossible to tell, nor did I greatly care, provided that the breeze freshened sufficiently to carry us out of sight before daybreak, this now being my great anxiety. Maxwell assured me that theBangalorewas a real clipper, easily beating everything that they had fallen in with, both on the passage out and on their homeward voyage. But no ship can sail fast without a fair amount of wind, and so far this breeze that had come to us was a mere breathing, just enough perhaps to waft us along at a speed of about two knots, or two and a half, maybe, whereas what I wanted was at least a seven-knot breeze, that would take us clean out of sight of our starting-point before dawn. For I knew that, if theBangalorewas a clipper, so too was theFrancesca; and if her people once caught sight of so much as the heads of our royals from their own royal-yard, they would chase us as long as there was the slightest hope of overhauling us. And the knowledge of this fact made me wonder whether I had not acted rather imprudently in stowing all the lighter sails, instead of leaving them abroad to give us all the help of which they were capable. I was just inwardly debating this point, and had arrived at the conclusion that we ought to set them again, when the atmosphere seemed suddenly to grow more dense, and in a moment down came the rain in a regular tropical deluge, like the bursting of a waterspout, the sails flapped to the masts, and we were becalmed again. This was horribly vexatious, not to say disheartening; but, happily for our peace of mind, it was a state of things that did not last long; it merely meant a shift of wind, for presently, when the shower had ceased as abruptly as it had begun, the breeze sprang up again, this time coming out from the northward, and with gay and thankful hearts we squared away before it, or rather, headed just far enough to the eastward of south to permit everything set to draw properly. Moreover, the breeze gradually but steadily freshened, until in about an hour from the time when the ship first began to move we were going seven knots at the very least.

This was so far satisfactory, especially as the sky remained overcast and the night intensely dark, rendering it utterly impossible to see anything beyond a distance of three or four of the ship’s lengths on either hand, and I now had good hopes of running the brigantine out of sight before daylight. That she was still engaged in the search for us, however, soon became evident; for about three-quarters of an hour after the springing up of the true breeze our attention was suddenly attracted by the outburst of a brilliant glare of bluish-white light on our port-quarter, which was nothing less than the brigantine burning port-fires, probably in an attempt to discover our whereabouts by the reflection of the light on our sails, or possibly in the expectation of catching sight, by means of the light, either of our boats, or a raft, or perhaps a hen-coop and grating or two floating about as evidence of our having gone down. However, she was about five miles distant from us at that time, and although the light of the port-fires rendered her perfectly visible to us, I had little or no fear that it would betray our whereabouts to her people. She remained dodging about and occasionally burning port-fires for fully another hour—by which time we had sunk her to her foreyard below the horizon, as viewed from our deck—and then, as she discontinued her pyrotechnic display, we lost sight of her. At daybreak I sent a man right up to the main-royal-yard, where he remained until the light was thoroughly strong, and then came down with the report that the horizon was clear.

This was highly satisfactory, inasmuch as it confirmed my hope that if Mendouca was still prosecuting a search for us—as I felt sure he was, he having of course failed to discover any evidence of the ship having foundered—he was looking for us in a northerly direction, very probably cracking on in the belief that we had gone that way and that there was still a chance of overtaking us.

At eight bells in the morning watch we brought the ship to the wind on the larboard tack, with her head about east-north-east, and I then divided my scanty crew into two watches, with Joe Maxwell, the carpenter, as my chief mate, and a very smart A.B., named Tom Sutcliffe, as second. This done, the watch was set, and put to the job of straightening-up generally and pumping out the ship, this latter job being accomplished and the pumps sucking in just under the ten minutes that Maxwell had allowed for it. It was clear, therefore, that our hull was sound, and that in that respect, at all events, with the best—or rather the worst—intentions in the world, the pirates had done us little or no harm.

Our most serious difficulty was the want of water, Mendouca having literally cleared the ship of every drop she possessed, save some eight or ten gallons in the scuttle-butt, which they had either overlooked, or perhaps had considered not worth taking. But here again it appeared as though God in His infinite mercy had taken compassion on us; for about noon the wind died away, and I had only just time to take my meridian observation for the latitude when the heavens clouded over, and toward the close of the afternoon we were visited by a terrific thunderstorm accompanied by a perfect deluge of rain, during which, by loosely spreading all the awnings fore and aft, we were enabled to catch a sufficient quantity of water to carry us without stint as far at least as Sierra Leone.

It remained calm until about midnight, when a little breeze sprang up from the eastward which enabled us to lay our course nicely while it fanned us along at a speed of about five knots. The next morning broke bright and clear; and with the first of the light the look-out reported a sail broad on our weather bow. Maxwell, fearing that it might be our old enemy, theFrancescashowing up again, came down at once and called me, stating his fears, and causing me to rush up on the poop just as I had sprung from my cot, quite regardless of appearances, although I could scarcely believe that Mendouca, if indeed we should be so unfortunate as to fall in with him again, would make his appearance in the eastern board. I must confess, however, that when I first reached the deck and beheld the stranger, I experienced a slight qualm of apprehension, for the craft was undoubtedly square-rigged, forward at least, and she was steering as straight as a hair for us, with studding-sails set on both sides, and coming down very fast. A few minutes’ work with the telescope, however, sufficed to remove our apprehensions, so far at least as theFrancescawas concerned, for as the light grew brighter we were enabled to discern that the stranger was a brig, and as I continued working away with the glass the vessel seemed to assume a familiar aspect, as though I had seen her before. At first I thought that it might possibly prove to be the Spanish brig that had been anchored just ahead of us off Banana Peninsula; but as she drew nearer I recognised with intense delight that it was none other than the dear oldBarracoutaherself. “And with her appearance,” thought I, “all my troubles are ended; for doubtless Captain Stopford will not only lend me men enough to carry the ship to Sierra Leone, but will also escort me thither.”

Chapter Nineteen.To the Congo again upon a Special Mission.There was very great delight manifested fore and aft when I was able to announce that it was a British man-o’-war that was bearing down upon us; for all hands felt, like myself, that we had only to state our recent experiences to secure her protection at least until our arrival in safer waters. There was one exception to this, however, in the person of Simpson, who no sooner learned the true character of the strange sail, than he came aft and told me his story; which, in brief, was to the effect that he had originally belonged to our navy, but had deserted, out of affection for Mendouca—who had shown him great kindness—when that individual chose to shake off his allegiance and abjure his country. And now, of course, he dreaded nothing so much as recognition and seizure, for not only was he a deserter, but he had also been guilty of taking an active part in more than one deed of piracy perpetrated by his chief; he therefore implored me to let him keep below out of sight during the presence of the man-o’-war—which clearly meant to speak us—and also to omit all mention of or reference to him in the narrative of my own personal adventures. This I readily promised to do; for although I was fully conscious that, in making such a promise, I was screening an individual who had most seriously transgressed the laws of his country, I could not help feeling that he had also contributed in a very important degree toward the saving of theBangalore, and all on board her; and I considered that this to a very great extent made amends for his past misdeeds, although it was quite probable that if he were arraigned for it, his judges might not take quite as lenient a view of the case. There it was, however; but for him I might never have succeeded in effecting my escape from theFrancesca, and in that case theBangaloreand all on board her would have gone to the bottom. I therefore felt fully justified in promising to afford him all the protection that lay in my power.When the brig was within a mile of us she hoisted British colours, and fired a gun for us to heave-to, which we of course at once did, displaying our ensign at the mizen-peak at the same time. The ladies and gentlemen in the cuddy, learning from the stewards what was happening, at once turned out to do honour to the occasion, so that when, a few minutes later, theBarracouta, with all her studding-sails collapsing and coming in together, rounded-to within biscuit-toss of our weather quarter, our poop must have presented quite an animated appearance.As the beautiful craft swept gracefully yet with a rush up into the wind, a figure that I recognised with delight as that of Young, our beloved first luff, sprang on to the hammock-rail with a speaking-trumpet in his hand. The next moment he had raised it to his lips, and was hailing—“Ho, the ship ahoy! What ship is that?”“TheBangalore, eighty-two days out from Calcutta, bound to London; and plundered two days ago by a pirate. I hope you are none the worse for your boat adventure, Mr Young, in the attack upon that same pirate last week? I have news and to spare for you, so shall I lower a boat, or will you? If you can conveniently do so it will perhaps be better, for I am rather short-handed,” I replied.I saw Young staring at me with all his eyes; evidently he had not as yet recognised me in the longshore rig with which I had been fitted by the kindness of one of the cuddy passengers.He raised the trumpet to his lips, and began—“Who in the name of —?” when I saw little Freddy Pierrepoint scramble up alongside him excitedly and utterly regardless of etiquette, and say something eagerly. Young lowered the trumpet, stared hard at me, raised it again, and roared through it—“Can it be possible that you are Dugdale—the Harry Dugdale that we have all been mourning as lost?”“Ay, ay, Mr Young, it is myself, sure enough, alive and well, I am thankful to say; and more glad than I can express to see the dear oldBarracoutaagain!”As I uttered these words the watch on deck gave a ringing cheer, which thrilled me to the heart, for it told me better than words how sincerely attached to me the honest fellows were, and how delighted to see me again; and although the outburst was by no means in accordance with strict discipline, Young—thoroughly good fellow that he was—never checked them, but, as their voices died away, simply waved his trumpet, and shouted, “I will come on board you!” and disappeared behind the brig’s high bulwarks.A short pause now ensued, during which I suspected that the first luff was conferring with Captain Stopford, theBarracouta’speople gazing curiously at us meanwhile through the brig’s open ports; and then the sound of the boatswain’s pipe came floating to us from the brig across the tumbling waters, and we heard his gruff voice bellowing—“Gigs away!”The call was followed by a slight, muffled scurrying of feet, and the gig’s crew were seen leaping, light as figures of india-rubber, into the elegantly-moulded craft that hung at the brig’s davits, the falls were eased away, and in a moment the boat, light as a bubble, was dancing upon the sparkling blue tumble at the brig’s lee gangway. Then the first lieutenant and Freddy Pierrepoint appeared at the head of the side-ladder, the latter descending first and the lieutenant instantly following, the boat’s bow was borne off from the ship’s side, the oars dropped with a clean cut into the water, the men bent their backs as they gave way, and the dancing craft came bounding over the long surges towards us.Meanwhile, on board theBangaloreI had caused the side-ladder to be shipped and the ropes rove in readiness for the lieutenant’s arrival; and in a few minutes he and Freddy were standing on the Indiaman’s broad deck and greeting me with a hand grip the heartiness of which there was no mistaking.I told my story as briefly as possible, and at its conclusion Young said—“Well, we must of course let you have a few men; but it will be a few only that we shall be able to spare, for I am sorry to say that our loss was terribly heavy in our boat attack upon your friend Mendouca, no less than eight killed and twenty-three wounded, only four of the latter having as yet been able to return to duty. You must, however, lay your case before Captain Stopford—who, by the way, hopes you will take breakfast with him—and I dare say that when he learns how very short-handed you are, he will strain a point to spare you a dozen men to take the ship to Sierra Leone. And now, suppose you introduce us to your passengers, who, judging from what I have been able to see of them from here, appear to be a very pleasant lot of people.”Upon this hint I led the way to the poop, where by this time nearly the entire cuddy party had assembled, and introduced my companions in due form, and in a few minutes Young and Freddy were each surrounded by a large party, Master Freddy’s, I noticed, being mainly composed of the younger members of the gentler sex, who petted and made much of the juvenile warrior, to that young gentleman’s entire content.In due time I proceeded on board my old ship; and on reaching the deck was fully repaid for all that I had gone through by the heartiness of the greeting that I received from my shipmates, one and all of whom seemed sincerely delighted at finding that I was still in the land of the living. For, as fate would have it, theBarracoutahad fallen in with theFelicidadwith the French schoonerMouettein company as a prize—the latter vessel having pursued theFelicidadout of the creek, only to find that she had caught a Tartar, which captured her after a short but determined struggle—and from her theBarracouta’speople had learned all particulars of our somewhat disastrous enterprise, including the news that I was missing, and was believed to have been killed in the unsuccessful attack upon the schooner in the creek.Captain Stopford was kindness itself in his reception of me, commiserating with me upon all the hardships of my late adventure, and heartily congratulating me upon my escape from theFrancesca, and the saving of the Indiaman, the latter of which, he assured me, he would take care to report in the proper quarter in such a way as should further my advancement in the service. With regard to supplying me with men, he promised to do the best that he could; and at Young’s suggestion—he being one of the rather large party that the captain had invited to meet me at breakfast—it was arranged that I should have a dozen; and as he fully agreed with me that there was just a chance that theFrancesca, might be at no great distance to the northward, still actively pursuing her search for us, it was further arranged that I should crowd sail for Sierra Leone, in the hope of turning the tables upon Mendouca by overtaking him, in which case we were to do our best to detain him until the arrival of theBarracoutaupon the scene, it being the captain’s plan to follow us at a distance of some fifteen or twenty miles. As an incentive to expedition—and no doubt, incidentally, to the promotion of the capture of theFrancesca—the captain informed me that if we managed to accomplish a quick run to Sierra Leone, I should probably be in time to rejoin theFelicidad, which schooner was then at that port, refitting after her engagement with theMouette. I was very grieved to learn that poor Ryan, although not nearly so severely wounded as I had believed, was lying in the hospital at Sierra Leone, prostrate with a bad attack of fever, from which, when theBarracoutaleft, it was greatly feared that he would not recover.As soon as breakfast was over the crew were mustered, and Young picked out for me twelve good, stout men, who were ordered to pass their bags down into the boat and go on board theBangalorewith me; and, this most welcome addition to our crew having been received, I made sail, packing upon the good ship every rag that would draw, theBarracoutaremaining hove-to until we had placed a sufficient distance between her and ourselves. But although we carried on day and night—the Indiaman proving such a flyer that theBarracouta’speople had their hands full to keep us in sight—nothing more was seen of theFrancesca, and we were at length driven to the conclusion that, failing to find us, Mendouca had resumed his voyage at a much earlier period than we had anticipated. We reached Sierra Leone on the afternoon of the third day after falling in with theBarracouta; and there I left the Indiaman, which, after a detention of four days, sailed for England with a full complement, made up of the officers and men of a large barque that had been wrecked upon the coast only a week or two before, supplemented by a few out of the many white seamen who had been left behind in hospital when their ships were ready to sail for home, and who, contrary to the general rule, had recovered from, instead of succumbing to, the deadly malaria of the coast.As for me, I found that I had arrived most opportunely, so far as theFelicidadwas concerned, for the repairs to that small hooker were completed, as it happened, on the very day of our arrival; and Captain Stopford very generously offered me the command of her, asserting that my conduct with regard to the Indiaman had conclusively demonstrated my entire fitness for the post, and that if I chose to accept it he should have no anxiety whatever, either on the score of my courage or my discretion. Ryan, poor fellow, was, contrary to expectation, still alive, and hopes were now entertained that he might ultimately recover; but he was still so weak that when I went to the hospital to see him, he was so overcome with emotion at the sight of me—although he had been carefully prepared for the meeting—that he burst into tears and was seized with a fit of hysterical sobbing so violent that I had to retire again at once without exchanging a word with him; and, to my very deep regret, I had not another opportunity to see him. I grieve to say that although, when I paid him that unfortunate visit, he appeared to be making slow but sure progress toward recovery, he suffered a relapse a few days afterwards, from which he never rallied; and his ashes now repose, with those of many another gallant spirit, in the spot that is known throughout the world as “The White Man’s Grave.”The repairs to theFelicidadbeing completed, her final preparations for sea were vigorously pushed forward, and on the third day after our arrival, having first visited theBangaloreand bade farewell to her passengers—each and every one of whom insisted that he (or she) owed his (or her) life to me, and that henceforward I must regard myself as a dearly cherished friend—I joined the little hooker as her commander, and sailed the same afternoon for the Congo; my especial mission being to test the truth, or otherwise, of Mendouca’s statement respecting the fate of theSapphire’sboats’ crews, and—in the event of its being true—to attempt the rescue of any of the unfortunate people who might perchance be still alive.We made the high land to the northward of the river mouth about midnight, after a rather long and uneventful passage; and, the wind being light, and the river current strong, even at a considerable distance from the entrance, we then reached in toward the land, and anchored in fourteen fathoms, at about as many miles from the shore, where we remained, rolling and tumbling about on the heavy swell, until the sea-breeze set in, about eight o’clock the next morning. We then hove up our mud-hook, and ran in, anchoring in Banana Creek, opposite Lobo’s factory, about six bells in the forenoon. There was only one other vessel in the creek at the time, a Portuguese brig; and her build and general appearance so unmistakably proclaimed her honest, that I never gave her a second thought. Besides, I had a special mission to accomplish—namely, the discovery and deliverance, if possible, of between thirty and forty of my own countrymen, languishing in a bitter captivity, and in daily, if not hourly, peril of death by torture as cruel and protracted as the fiendish malignity of merciless savages can possibly devise.Now, I was as well equipped for such an expedition as I could possibly wish, save in one particular. I had a smart, light-draught vessel, capable of “going anywhere where a duck can swim,” as we say at sea; we were well armed, had plenty of ammunition, mustered a crew of twenty-six prime seamen, the pick of theBarracouta’screw—men who would go anywhere, and face anything—we carried an ample supply of blankets, beads, brass wire, old muskets, and tawdry finery of various descriptions, priceless in the eyes of savages, for the purpose of peaceable ransom, if such could be accomplished; but we lacked an interpreter, a man acquainted with the barbaric language of the up-river natives, through whom we should be able to communicate with them and carry on the necessary negotiations. And such a man it was now my first duty and anxiety to secure. I had given this matter a great deal of careful consideration during our passage, and had at length determined upon the course of action that seemed to promise the most successful results; and it was in accordance with this determination that I anchored in Banana Creek instead of proceeding forthwith up the river to the spot named by Mendouca as the scene of the captivity of theSapphire’sboats’ crews.I entered the river without any disguise of any sort, showing British colours and the man-o’-war’s pennant; and, as I had expected, our old friend Lobo soon came alongside in his gig, with his usual stereotyped smiles and bows, and offers to supply us with anything and everything that we might happen to want. I took care to be below when he boarded us; and, in accordance with previous arrangements, Gowland, who met the fellow upon his arrival, proposed that he should go down into the cabin and see me personally upon the business of his visit. He at once assented, willingly, Gowland following him down, and when the two had entered, the sentry at the cabin-door closed it after them.“Ah, good-morning, sar,” exclaimed Lobo to me, as he entered. “Glad to see you back in the river, sar! I hope dat de capitan and officers of de beautifulBarracoutaare all well? Ah, gentlemen, dat was a ver’ fine bit of vork, dat attack of yours upon Chango Creek; ver’ fine and ver’ successful. I ’ave alvays been proud ofmyshare in dat exploit. But, gentlemen, you mus’ please never so much as vhisper dat I, Joaquin Miguel Lobo, had anything to do vid it. My vord, if you did, de rascal slavers vould cut my t’roat for me, and de man-o’-war gentlemen vould lose a fait’ful ally.”“No doubt, Señor Lobo,” agreed I genially. “But, never fear, you are perfectly safe from betrayal to the slavers, so far as we are concerned; you shall find us as faithful to you as you have been to us. But sit down, man, and let me offer you a glass of wine.”With many bows and wreathed smiles, and deprecating elevations of the shoulders, Lobo took the seat to which I pointed him, and I touched a bell.“Steward, put the wine and some glasses on the table, will you; and also a box of cigars that you will find on the shelf in my cabin.”The wine and cigars were brought; we helped ourselves; and I began—“I am very much obliged to you for coming aboard, Señor Lobo, for you are the very man that I most desired to see. I require some assistance of a rather peculiar kind, and I believe that you, above all others, are the one who can best help me to it.”Lobo bowed and smiled, sipped his wine, and assured us that he was in all things our very obedient, humble servant, and that nothing pleased him so much as to be of assistance to the man-o’-war gentlemen, who honoured the river by paying it an occasional visit. At the same time—he pointed out—his friendly relations with those same man-o’-war gentlemen, and the services that he had been so glad to render them from time to time were, if not well known, at least very strongly suspected by the slavers and slave-dealing fraternity generally who used the Congo for their nefarious purposes; and in incurring this suspicion he also incurred a very serious risk, both to property and life, for which he considered that he was justly entitled to be remunerated on a generous scale.“Most assuredly,” I agreed. “And I may tell you at once, Señor Lobo, that I am prepared to reward you very munificently for the efficient and faithful performance of the service that I require of you; I am prepared, in fact, to offer you no less a reward thanyour life. Ah, you turn pale, I see; and well you may when I inform you that your true character is by this time known to probably every British commander on the coast; you are known as a bare-faced traitor to the cause that you have pretended so zealously to serve, and I don’t mind mentioning to you, in confidence, that, if this ship had happened to be theBarracoutainstead of theFelicidadyou would now in all probability have been dangling from one of that ship’s yard-arms, as a wholesome warning and example to all betrayers— Nay, keep your seat, man; there is a sentry outside the door, and you are a prisoner beyond all possibility of escape. But you have no cause for fear on that account, provided that you can prevail upon yourself to act honestly for once. I require a certain service from you, and I promise you that if you render that service faithfully I will set you free at the termination of the adventure, with full liberty to seek safety by flight elsewhere. But until the adventure of which I speak is brought to a favourable conclusion, you are my prisoner; and I give you my word of honour that upon the first attempt to escape which you may be ill-advised enough to make, I will put you in irons and chain you to the deck. If, therefore, you are wise, you will submit to your present predicament with a good grace, rather than tempt a worse one. And now, tell me everything you know with regard to the fate of the crews of theSapphire’sboats.”“TheSapphire’sboats?” ejaculated the now thoroughly terrified wretch. “I swear to Gad, sar, dat I had not’ing to do vid dat! I know not’ing about dem; not’ing whatever! But I can tell you de name of de man who had; ay, and I can put him into your power, if you like; he is a villain, and it would be only doing a good action to betray him to justice. I vill do it, too, if you vill release me at vonce; I vill tell you all about him, vhere he is to be found vhen he visits de river, de name of his cheep, and—and—all dat is necessairey for you to know.”“Yes; no doubt,” I answered. “But you will have to purchase your release in some other way, señor; unfortunately for you we know all about Don Fernando de Mendouca, captain of the brigantineFrancescaand have every confidence in our ability to get hold of him without your assistance. And I may tell you that,up to the present, no charge has been made against you in connection with the disappearance of theSapphire’sboats; you have therefore nothing to fear from us just now on that score.Now, will you tell us what you know about those unfortunate missing men?”“Yes; yes, I vill, gentlemen; I vill tell you all dat I know; but it is not much,” answered Lobo, with evident relief. “I only know dat de scoundrel Mendouca managed to trap de two boats in some vay—how, I know not—and dat he gave dem de choice of being massacred, dere and den, or of surrendering and having dheir lives spared. And vhen dhey had surrendered he exchanged dhem to Matadi for slaves—t’ree slaves for every white man—so dat Matadi might have plenty of victims—white victims dhey considerverygood—for de annual—de annual—what you call it, eh? festa.”“Festival, I suppose you mean,” said I, with an involuntary shudder. “And, pray, Señor Lobo, do you happen to know the date of this festival?”“No, I cannot say dat I do; but I t’ink about one week from now,” was the answer.“Then, thank God, we are still in time!” I ejaculated. “Now, Señor Lobo, I presume you are acquainted with this chief, Matadi, are you not? You have probably had dealings with him, eh? Do not be afraid to give a truthful answer, because by so doing you cannot betray anything about yourself that we do not know already. We are fully aware, for instance, that you are a slave-dealer—among other things—and I have very little doubt that, if I chose to land a party, we should find a choice lot of negroes in that barracoon of yours in the bush, yonder—you look surprised, but, you see, I know all about you; so your best plan will be to answer my questions truthfully and unreservedly. Now, as to this Matadi, who is he, and what is he?”“Sair,” said Lobo, in great perturbation, “I see dat you know all about me, so I will be perfectly open and frank wid you. Idoknow Matadi. He is a very powerful chief, de head of a tribe numbering quite t’ree t’ousand warriors; and his chief town is far up de river—four, five days’ journey in a canoe. It lies on de sout’ bank of de river ’bout eight miles below de first—what you call?—where de water runs very furious over de rocks, boiling like—like de water in a pot.”“Ah, rapids, you mean, I suppose?” suggested I.“Yes, yes; rapids; dat is de word,” agreed Lobo. “His town is near de first rapids; and he is very powerful, very dangerous, very fierce. What do you want wid him, señor?”“I want those white men that he holds in captivity; and I mean to have them, by fair means or foul!” said I. “I will buy them of him, if he is willing to part with them in that way; and if not, I intend to take them from him by force, for have them ImustandwillAnd I require your assistance in this matter, señor, as an interpreter, through whom I can treat with the fellow and carry on the necessary negotiations; and if those negotiations are successful, you will be released on our return here, and allowed thirty days to complete your arrangements for removal elsewhere. But if we fail you will be retained as a prisoner, and taken to Sierra Leone, to be dealt with as your past treacheries deserve. Now, do you quite understand the position?”“Yes, señor, I understand,” answered Lobo, in great distress. “But, oh, gentlemen, I beg, I pray you, do not take me away from my business; it will all go wrong widout me, and I shall lose hundreds, t’ousands of dollars,allmy property will be gone before I can get back! I shall be ruin’!”“I am sorry to hear that,” I remarked; “but even supposing that matters go as badly with you as you seem to fear, that will be better thanhanging, will it not? And, you see, Imusthave somebody with me, as interpreter, whose interest it will be that I shall be successful in my mission; and I know of no one whose interests can be made more completely identical with my own than yourself, señor. Therefore I shall take you with me, regardless of consequences. But if you have any assistants ashore to whom you would like to send a very brief message to the effect that you are taking a little business-trip up the river with me for a few days, and that they must do the best they can for you during your absence, I have no objection to your sending it. Otherwise, I will dismiss your boat; for we must not miss this fine sea-breeze, which ought to take us a good many miles up-stream before it dies away.”“Well, gentlemen, if you are quite determined, I must submit,” answered Lobo, with a very disconsolate air. “But I protest against being thus carried off against my will; I protest against it as a—an—a—what do you call him?—yes, an outrage—an outrage, gentlemen; and the Portuguese Government will inquire into the matter.”“All right,” said I cheerfully; “there can be no objection to that, so far asweare concerned. And now that we have arranged this little matter, shall I dismiss your boat?”“No, no; not yet, not yet,” hastily answered Lobo. “Give me one littl’ piece of paper, if you please, and I will write a few words to Diego, my manager, telling him what to do in my absence.”“No,” said I determinedly, “I can permit no written messages; averbalone, if you like, but nothing more.”“Ver’ well,” answered Lobo resignedly. “Then I will go up and speak to my boatmen.”“No need for that,” said I. “Tell us which of your men you wish to see, and I will send for him to come here.”Poor Lobo made a gesture of impatience, but saw that I had quite determined to afford him no shadow of an opportunity to make any secret communication whatever; so he submitted to the inevitable, and sent for one of his men, to whom he delivered such a message as I suggested, adding a request that a small supply of clothing might be sent off to him at once. This ended the matter, so far as the obtaining of an efficient interpreter was concerned; the clothes were brought off; and shortly after noon we weighed and, with a brisk breeze, stood out of the creek on our way up the river.For the first twelve miles or so our course was the same as that which we had followed in our memorable expedition to attack Chango Creek; the river being, up to that point, about three miles wide, with a fine deep channel averaging perhaps a quarter of that width up as far as abreast the southern extremity of Monpanga island, where this deep channel terminates, and the average depth of the entire stream dwindles to about six fathoms for the next fourteen miles, the channel at the same time narrowing down to a width varying from about two miles to less than half-a-mile in some parts, notably at the spot where it begins to thread its devious way among the islands that cumber the stream for a length of fully thirty miles, at a distance of about twenty-eight miles from Shark Point.By carrying a press of sail, and hugging the northern bank, keeping as close to the shore as our little draught of water would permit, thus to a great extent cheating the current, we contrived to get as far as the spot where the above-mentioned chain of islands commences; and there, the wind failing us toward sunset, we came to an anchor close to the southern shore, on a sand-bank, in three fathoms, under the lee of a large island that sheltered us from the rush of the main current; and there we remained all night, a strict anchor-watch of course being kept not only to see that the schooner did not drive from her berth, but also to guard against possible attack on the part of the natives. In this spot, to my inexpressible chagrin, we were compelled to spend the following two days, the wind blowing down the river, when it blew at all, a little variety being infused into the weather by the outburst of a most terrific thunderstorm which brought with it a perfect hurricane of wind and a deluge of rain; after which we again got a fair wind and were able to pursue our way for a time, getting ashore occasionally upon unsuspected sand-banks, but always contriving to heave off again, undamaged, thanks to the fact that we were proceeding up-stream against the current instead of down-stream with it. And—not to dwell unduly upon incidents that were exciting enough to us, although the recital of them would prove of but little interest to the reader—in this way we contrived to creep up the river the hundred and twelve miles or so that were necessary to bring us to Matadi’s town—having passed, and with some difficulty avoided, two whirlpools on the way, reaching our destination about two bells in the afternoon watch on the fifth day after leaving Banana Creek.

There was very great delight manifested fore and aft when I was able to announce that it was a British man-o’-war that was bearing down upon us; for all hands felt, like myself, that we had only to state our recent experiences to secure her protection at least until our arrival in safer waters. There was one exception to this, however, in the person of Simpson, who no sooner learned the true character of the strange sail, than he came aft and told me his story; which, in brief, was to the effect that he had originally belonged to our navy, but had deserted, out of affection for Mendouca—who had shown him great kindness—when that individual chose to shake off his allegiance and abjure his country. And now, of course, he dreaded nothing so much as recognition and seizure, for not only was he a deserter, but he had also been guilty of taking an active part in more than one deed of piracy perpetrated by his chief; he therefore implored me to let him keep below out of sight during the presence of the man-o’-war—which clearly meant to speak us—and also to omit all mention of or reference to him in the narrative of my own personal adventures. This I readily promised to do; for although I was fully conscious that, in making such a promise, I was screening an individual who had most seriously transgressed the laws of his country, I could not help feeling that he had also contributed in a very important degree toward the saving of theBangalore, and all on board her; and I considered that this to a very great extent made amends for his past misdeeds, although it was quite probable that if he were arraigned for it, his judges might not take quite as lenient a view of the case. There it was, however; but for him I might never have succeeded in effecting my escape from theFrancesca, and in that case theBangaloreand all on board her would have gone to the bottom. I therefore felt fully justified in promising to afford him all the protection that lay in my power.

When the brig was within a mile of us she hoisted British colours, and fired a gun for us to heave-to, which we of course at once did, displaying our ensign at the mizen-peak at the same time. The ladies and gentlemen in the cuddy, learning from the stewards what was happening, at once turned out to do honour to the occasion, so that when, a few minutes later, theBarracouta, with all her studding-sails collapsing and coming in together, rounded-to within biscuit-toss of our weather quarter, our poop must have presented quite an animated appearance.

As the beautiful craft swept gracefully yet with a rush up into the wind, a figure that I recognised with delight as that of Young, our beloved first luff, sprang on to the hammock-rail with a speaking-trumpet in his hand. The next moment he had raised it to his lips, and was hailing—

“Ho, the ship ahoy! What ship is that?”

“TheBangalore, eighty-two days out from Calcutta, bound to London; and plundered two days ago by a pirate. I hope you are none the worse for your boat adventure, Mr Young, in the attack upon that same pirate last week? I have news and to spare for you, so shall I lower a boat, or will you? If you can conveniently do so it will perhaps be better, for I am rather short-handed,” I replied.

I saw Young staring at me with all his eyes; evidently he had not as yet recognised me in the longshore rig with which I had been fitted by the kindness of one of the cuddy passengers.

He raised the trumpet to his lips, and began—

“Who in the name of —?” when I saw little Freddy Pierrepoint scramble up alongside him excitedly and utterly regardless of etiquette, and say something eagerly. Young lowered the trumpet, stared hard at me, raised it again, and roared through it—

“Can it be possible that you are Dugdale—the Harry Dugdale that we have all been mourning as lost?”

“Ay, ay, Mr Young, it is myself, sure enough, alive and well, I am thankful to say; and more glad than I can express to see the dear oldBarracoutaagain!”

As I uttered these words the watch on deck gave a ringing cheer, which thrilled me to the heart, for it told me better than words how sincerely attached to me the honest fellows were, and how delighted to see me again; and although the outburst was by no means in accordance with strict discipline, Young—thoroughly good fellow that he was—never checked them, but, as their voices died away, simply waved his trumpet, and shouted, “I will come on board you!” and disappeared behind the brig’s high bulwarks.

A short pause now ensued, during which I suspected that the first luff was conferring with Captain Stopford, theBarracouta’speople gazing curiously at us meanwhile through the brig’s open ports; and then the sound of the boatswain’s pipe came floating to us from the brig across the tumbling waters, and we heard his gruff voice bellowing—“Gigs away!”

The call was followed by a slight, muffled scurrying of feet, and the gig’s crew were seen leaping, light as figures of india-rubber, into the elegantly-moulded craft that hung at the brig’s davits, the falls were eased away, and in a moment the boat, light as a bubble, was dancing upon the sparkling blue tumble at the brig’s lee gangway. Then the first lieutenant and Freddy Pierrepoint appeared at the head of the side-ladder, the latter descending first and the lieutenant instantly following, the boat’s bow was borne off from the ship’s side, the oars dropped with a clean cut into the water, the men bent their backs as they gave way, and the dancing craft came bounding over the long surges towards us.

Meanwhile, on board theBangaloreI had caused the side-ladder to be shipped and the ropes rove in readiness for the lieutenant’s arrival; and in a few minutes he and Freddy were standing on the Indiaman’s broad deck and greeting me with a hand grip the heartiness of which there was no mistaking.

I told my story as briefly as possible, and at its conclusion Young said—

“Well, we must of course let you have a few men; but it will be a few only that we shall be able to spare, for I am sorry to say that our loss was terribly heavy in our boat attack upon your friend Mendouca, no less than eight killed and twenty-three wounded, only four of the latter having as yet been able to return to duty. You must, however, lay your case before Captain Stopford—who, by the way, hopes you will take breakfast with him—and I dare say that when he learns how very short-handed you are, he will strain a point to spare you a dozen men to take the ship to Sierra Leone. And now, suppose you introduce us to your passengers, who, judging from what I have been able to see of them from here, appear to be a very pleasant lot of people.”

Upon this hint I led the way to the poop, where by this time nearly the entire cuddy party had assembled, and introduced my companions in due form, and in a few minutes Young and Freddy were each surrounded by a large party, Master Freddy’s, I noticed, being mainly composed of the younger members of the gentler sex, who petted and made much of the juvenile warrior, to that young gentleman’s entire content.

In due time I proceeded on board my old ship; and on reaching the deck was fully repaid for all that I had gone through by the heartiness of the greeting that I received from my shipmates, one and all of whom seemed sincerely delighted at finding that I was still in the land of the living. For, as fate would have it, theBarracoutahad fallen in with theFelicidadwith the French schoonerMouettein company as a prize—the latter vessel having pursued theFelicidadout of the creek, only to find that she had caught a Tartar, which captured her after a short but determined struggle—and from her theBarracouta’speople had learned all particulars of our somewhat disastrous enterprise, including the news that I was missing, and was believed to have been killed in the unsuccessful attack upon the schooner in the creek.

Captain Stopford was kindness itself in his reception of me, commiserating with me upon all the hardships of my late adventure, and heartily congratulating me upon my escape from theFrancesca, and the saving of the Indiaman, the latter of which, he assured me, he would take care to report in the proper quarter in such a way as should further my advancement in the service. With regard to supplying me with men, he promised to do the best that he could; and at Young’s suggestion—he being one of the rather large party that the captain had invited to meet me at breakfast—it was arranged that I should have a dozen; and as he fully agreed with me that there was just a chance that theFrancesca, might be at no great distance to the northward, still actively pursuing her search for us, it was further arranged that I should crowd sail for Sierra Leone, in the hope of turning the tables upon Mendouca by overtaking him, in which case we were to do our best to detain him until the arrival of theBarracoutaupon the scene, it being the captain’s plan to follow us at a distance of some fifteen or twenty miles. As an incentive to expedition—and no doubt, incidentally, to the promotion of the capture of theFrancesca—the captain informed me that if we managed to accomplish a quick run to Sierra Leone, I should probably be in time to rejoin theFelicidad, which schooner was then at that port, refitting after her engagement with theMouette. I was very grieved to learn that poor Ryan, although not nearly so severely wounded as I had believed, was lying in the hospital at Sierra Leone, prostrate with a bad attack of fever, from which, when theBarracoutaleft, it was greatly feared that he would not recover.

As soon as breakfast was over the crew were mustered, and Young picked out for me twelve good, stout men, who were ordered to pass their bags down into the boat and go on board theBangalorewith me; and, this most welcome addition to our crew having been received, I made sail, packing upon the good ship every rag that would draw, theBarracoutaremaining hove-to until we had placed a sufficient distance between her and ourselves. But although we carried on day and night—the Indiaman proving such a flyer that theBarracouta’speople had their hands full to keep us in sight—nothing more was seen of theFrancesca, and we were at length driven to the conclusion that, failing to find us, Mendouca had resumed his voyage at a much earlier period than we had anticipated. We reached Sierra Leone on the afternoon of the third day after falling in with theBarracouta; and there I left the Indiaman, which, after a detention of four days, sailed for England with a full complement, made up of the officers and men of a large barque that had been wrecked upon the coast only a week or two before, supplemented by a few out of the many white seamen who had been left behind in hospital when their ships were ready to sail for home, and who, contrary to the general rule, had recovered from, instead of succumbing to, the deadly malaria of the coast.

As for me, I found that I had arrived most opportunely, so far as theFelicidadwas concerned, for the repairs to that small hooker were completed, as it happened, on the very day of our arrival; and Captain Stopford very generously offered me the command of her, asserting that my conduct with regard to the Indiaman had conclusively demonstrated my entire fitness for the post, and that if I chose to accept it he should have no anxiety whatever, either on the score of my courage or my discretion. Ryan, poor fellow, was, contrary to expectation, still alive, and hopes were now entertained that he might ultimately recover; but he was still so weak that when I went to the hospital to see him, he was so overcome with emotion at the sight of me—although he had been carefully prepared for the meeting—that he burst into tears and was seized with a fit of hysterical sobbing so violent that I had to retire again at once without exchanging a word with him; and, to my very deep regret, I had not another opportunity to see him. I grieve to say that although, when I paid him that unfortunate visit, he appeared to be making slow but sure progress toward recovery, he suffered a relapse a few days afterwards, from which he never rallied; and his ashes now repose, with those of many another gallant spirit, in the spot that is known throughout the world as “The White Man’s Grave.”

The repairs to theFelicidadbeing completed, her final preparations for sea were vigorously pushed forward, and on the third day after our arrival, having first visited theBangaloreand bade farewell to her passengers—each and every one of whom insisted that he (or she) owed his (or her) life to me, and that henceforward I must regard myself as a dearly cherished friend—I joined the little hooker as her commander, and sailed the same afternoon for the Congo; my especial mission being to test the truth, or otherwise, of Mendouca’s statement respecting the fate of theSapphire’sboats’ crews, and—in the event of its being true—to attempt the rescue of any of the unfortunate people who might perchance be still alive.

We made the high land to the northward of the river mouth about midnight, after a rather long and uneventful passage; and, the wind being light, and the river current strong, even at a considerable distance from the entrance, we then reached in toward the land, and anchored in fourteen fathoms, at about as many miles from the shore, where we remained, rolling and tumbling about on the heavy swell, until the sea-breeze set in, about eight o’clock the next morning. We then hove up our mud-hook, and ran in, anchoring in Banana Creek, opposite Lobo’s factory, about six bells in the forenoon. There was only one other vessel in the creek at the time, a Portuguese brig; and her build and general appearance so unmistakably proclaimed her honest, that I never gave her a second thought. Besides, I had a special mission to accomplish—namely, the discovery and deliverance, if possible, of between thirty and forty of my own countrymen, languishing in a bitter captivity, and in daily, if not hourly, peril of death by torture as cruel and protracted as the fiendish malignity of merciless savages can possibly devise.

Now, I was as well equipped for such an expedition as I could possibly wish, save in one particular. I had a smart, light-draught vessel, capable of “going anywhere where a duck can swim,” as we say at sea; we were well armed, had plenty of ammunition, mustered a crew of twenty-six prime seamen, the pick of theBarracouta’screw—men who would go anywhere, and face anything—we carried an ample supply of blankets, beads, brass wire, old muskets, and tawdry finery of various descriptions, priceless in the eyes of savages, for the purpose of peaceable ransom, if such could be accomplished; but we lacked an interpreter, a man acquainted with the barbaric language of the up-river natives, through whom we should be able to communicate with them and carry on the necessary negotiations. And such a man it was now my first duty and anxiety to secure. I had given this matter a great deal of careful consideration during our passage, and had at length determined upon the course of action that seemed to promise the most successful results; and it was in accordance with this determination that I anchored in Banana Creek instead of proceeding forthwith up the river to the spot named by Mendouca as the scene of the captivity of theSapphire’sboats’ crews.

I entered the river without any disguise of any sort, showing British colours and the man-o’-war’s pennant; and, as I had expected, our old friend Lobo soon came alongside in his gig, with his usual stereotyped smiles and bows, and offers to supply us with anything and everything that we might happen to want. I took care to be below when he boarded us; and, in accordance with previous arrangements, Gowland, who met the fellow upon his arrival, proposed that he should go down into the cabin and see me personally upon the business of his visit. He at once assented, willingly, Gowland following him down, and when the two had entered, the sentry at the cabin-door closed it after them.

“Ah, good-morning, sar,” exclaimed Lobo to me, as he entered. “Glad to see you back in the river, sar! I hope dat de capitan and officers of de beautifulBarracoutaare all well? Ah, gentlemen, dat was a ver’ fine bit of vork, dat attack of yours upon Chango Creek; ver’ fine and ver’ successful. I ’ave alvays been proud ofmyshare in dat exploit. But, gentlemen, you mus’ please never so much as vhisper dat I, Joaquin Miguel Lobo, had anything to do vid it. My vord, if you did, de rascal slavers vould cut my t’roat for me, and de man-o’-war gentlemen vould lose a fait’ful ally.”

“No doubt, Señor Lobo,” agreed I genially. “But, never fear, you are perfectly safe from betrayal to the slavers, so far as we are concerned; you shall find us as faithful to you as you have been to us. But sit down, man, and let me offer you a glass of wine.”

With many bows and wreathed smiles, and deprecating elevations of the shoulders, Lobo took the seat to which I pointed him, and I touched a bell.

“Steward, put the wine and some glasses on the table, will you; and also a box of cigars that you will find on the shelf in my cabin.”

The wine and cigars were brought; we helped ourselves; and I began—

“I am very much obliged to you for coming aboard, Señor Lobo, for you are the very man that I most desired to see. I require some assistance of a rather peculiar kind, and I believe that you, above all others, are the one who can best help me to it.”

Lobo bowed and smiled, sipped his wine, and assured us that he was in all things our very obedient, humble servant, and that nothing pleased him so much as to be of assistance to the man-o’-war gentlemen, who honoured the river by paying it an occasional visit. At the same time—he pointed out—his friendly relations with those same man-o’-war gentlemen, and the services that he had been so glad to render them from time to time were, if not well known, at least very strongly suspected by the slavers and slave-dealing fraternity generally who used the Congo for their nefarious purposes; and in incurring this suspicion he also incurred a very serious risk, both to property and life, for which he considered that he was justly entitled to be remunerated on a generous scale.

“Most assuredly,” I agreed. “And I may tell you at once, Señor Lobo, that I am prepared to reward you very munificently for the efficient and faithful performance of the service that I require of you; I am prepared, in fact, to offer you no less a reward thanyour life. Ah, you turn pale, I see; and well you may when I inform you that your true character is by this time known to probably every British commander on the coast; you are known as a bare-faced traitor to the cause that you have pretended so zealously to serve, and I don’t mind mentioning to you, in confidence, that, if this ship had happened to be theBarracoutainstead of theFelicidadyou would now in all probability have been dangling from one of that ship’s yard-arms, as a wholesome warning and example to all betrayers— Nay, keep your seat, man; there is a sentry outside the door, and you are a prisoner beyond all possibility of escape. But you have no cause for fear on that account, provided that you can prevail upon yourself to act honestly for once. I require a certain service from you, and I promise you that if you render that service faithfully I will set you free at the termination of the adventure, with full liberty to seek safety by flight elsewhere. But until the adventure of which I speak is brought to a favourable conclusion, you are my prisoner; and I give you my word of honour that upon the first attempt to escape which you may be ill-advised enough to make, I will put you in irons and chain you to the deck. If, therefore, you are wise, you will submit to your present predicament with a good grace, rather than tempt a worse one. And now, tell me everything you know with regard to the fate of the crews of theSapphire’sboats.”

“TheSapphire’sboats?” ejaculated the now thoroughly terrified wretch. “I swear to Gad, sar, dat I had not’ing to do vid dat! I know not’ing about dem; not’ing whatever! But I can tell you de name of de man who had; ay, and I can put him into your power, if you like; he is a villain, and it would be only doing a good action to betray him to justice. I vill do it, too, if you vill release me at vonce; I vill tell you all about him, vhere he is to be found vhen he visits de river, de name of his cheep, and—and—all dat is necessairey for you to know.”

“Yes; no doubt,” I answered. “But you will have to purchase your release in some other way, señor; unfortunately for you we know all about Don Fernando de Mendouca, captain of the brigantineFrancescaand have every confidence in our ability to get hold of him without your assistance. And I may tell you that,up to the present, no charge has been made against you in connection with the disappearance of theSapphire’sboats; you have therefore nothing to fear from us just now on that score.Now, will you tell us what you know about those unfortunate missing men?”

“Yes; yes, I vill, gentlemen; I vill tell you all dat I know; but it is not much,” answered Lobo, with evident relief. “I only know dat de scoundrel Mendouca managed to trap de two boats in some vay—how, I know not—and dat he gave dem de choice of being massacred, dere and den, or of surrendering and having dheir lives spared. And vhen dhey had surrendered he exchanged dhem to Matadi for slaves—t’ree slaves for every white man—so dat Matadi might have plenty of victims—white victims dhey considerverygood—for de annual—de annual—what you call it, eh? festa.”

“Festival, I suppose you mean,” said I, with an involuntary shudder. “And, pray, Señor Lobo, do you happen to know the date of this festival?”

“No, I cannot say dat I do; but I t’ink about one week from now,” was the answer.

“Then, thank God, we are still in time!” I ejaculated. “Now, Señor Lobo, I presume you are acquainted with this chief, Matadi, are you not? You have probably had dealings with him, eh? Do not be afraid to give a truthful answer, because by so doing you cannot betray anything about yourself that we do not know already. We are fully aware, for instance, that you are a slave-dealer—among other things—and I have very little doubt that, if I chose to land a party, we should find a choice lot of negroes in that barracoon of yours in the bush, yonder—you look surprised, but, you see, I know all about you; so your best plan will be to answer my questions truthfully and unreservedly. Now, as to this Matadi, who is he, and what is he?”

“Sair,” said Lobo, in great perturbation, “I see dat you know all about me, so I will be perfectly open and frank wid you. Idoknow Matadi. He is a very powerful chief, de head of a tribe numbering quite t’ree t’ousand warriors; and his chief town is far up de river—four, five days’ journey in a canoe. It lies on de sout’ bank of de river ’bout eight miles below de first—what you call?—where de water runs very furious over de rocks, boiling like—like de water in a pot.”

“Ah, rapids, you mean, I suppose?” suggested I.

“Yes, yes; rapids; dat is de word,” agreed Lobo. “His town is near de first rapids; and he is very powerful, very dangerous, very fierce. What do you want wid him, señor?”

“I want those white men that he holds in captivity; and I mean to have them, by fair means or foul!” said I. “I will buy them of him, if he is willing to part with them in that way; and if not, I intend to take them from him by force, for have them ImustandwillAnd I require your assistance in this matter, señor, as an interpreter, through whom I can treat with the fellow and carry on the necessary negotiations; and if those negotiations are successful, you will be released on our return here, and allowed thirty days to complete your arrangements for removal elsewhere. But if we fail you will be retained as a prisoner, and taken to Sierra Leone, to be dealt with as your past treacheries deserve. Now, do you quite understand the position?”

“Yes, señor, I understand,” answered Lobo, in great distress. “But, oh, gentlemen, I beg, I pray you, do not take me away from my business; it will all go wrong widout me, and I shall lose hundreds, t’ousands of dollars,allmy property will be gone before I can get back! I shall be ruin’!”

“I am sorry to hear that,” I remarked; “but even supposing that matters go as badly with you as you seem to fear, that will be better thanhanging, will it not? And, you see, Imusthave somebody with me, as interpreter, whose interest it will be that I shall be successful in my mission; and I know of no one whose interests can be made more completely identical with my own than yourself, señor. Therefore I shall take you with me, regardless of consequences. But if you have any assistants ashore to whom you would like to send a very brief message to the effect that you are taking a little business-trip up the river with me for a few days, and that they must do the best they can for you during your absence, I have no objection to your sending it. Otherwise, I will dismiss your boat; for we must not miss this fine sea-breeze, which ought to take us a good many miles up-stream before it dies away.”

“Well, gentlemen, if you are quite determined, I must submit,” answered Lobo, with a very disconsolate air. “But I protest against being thus carried off against my will; I protest against it as a—an—a—what do you call him?—yes, an outrage—an outrage, gentlemen; and the Portuguese Government will inquire into the matter.”

“All right,” said I cheerfully; “there can be no objection to that, so far asweare concerned. And now that we have arranged this little matter, shall I dismiss your boat?”

“No, no; not yet, not yet,” hastily answered Lobo. “Give me one littl’ piece of paper, if you please, and I will write a few words to Diego, my manager, telling him what to do in my absence.”

“No,” said I determinedly, “I can permit no written messages; averbalone, if you like, but nothing more.”

“Ver’ well,” answered Lobo resignedly. “Then I will go up and speak to my boatmen.”

“No need for that,” said I. “Tell us which of your men you wish to see, and I will send for him to come here.”

Poor Lobo made a gesture of impatience, but saw that I had quite determined to afford him no shadow of an opportunity to make any secret communication whatever; so he submitted to the inevitable, and sent for one of his men, to whom he delivered such a message as I suggested, adding a request that a small supply of clothing might be sent off to him at once. This ended the matter, so far as the obtaining of an efficient interpreter was concerned; the clothes were brought off; and shortly after noon we weighed and, with a brisk breeze, stood out of the creek on our way up the river.

For the first twelve miles or so our course was the same as that which we had followed in our memorable expedition to attack Chango Creek; the river being, up to that point, about three miles wide, with a fine deep channel averaging perhaps a quarter of that width up as far as abreast the southern extremity of Monpanga island, where this deep channel terminates, and the average depth of the entire stream dwindles to about six fathoms for the next fourteen miles, the channel at the same time narrowing down to a width varying from about two miles to less than half-a-mile in some parts, notably at the spot where it begins to thread its devious way among the islands that cumber the stream for a length of fully thirty miles, at a distance of about twenty-eight miles from Shark Point.

By carrying a press of sail, and hugging the northern bank, keeping as close to the shore as our little draught of water would permit, thus to a great extent cheating the current, we contrived to get as far as the spot where the above-mentioned chain of islands commences; and there, the wind failing us toward sunset, we came to an anchor close to the southern shore, on a sand-bank, in three fathoms, under the lee of a large island that sheltered us from the rush of the main current; and there we remained all night, a strict anchor-watch of course being kept not only to see that the schooner did not drive from her berth, but also to guard against possible attack on the part of the natives. In this spot, to my inexpressible chagrin, we were compelled to spend the following two days, the wind blowing down the river, when it blew at all, a little variety being infused into the weather by the outburst of a most terrific thunderstorm which brought with it a perfect hurricane of wind and a deluge of rain; after which we again got a fair wind and were able to pursue our way for a time, getting ashore occasionally upon unsuspected sand-banks, but always contriving to heave off again, undamaged, thanks to the fact that we were proceeding up-stream against the current instead of down-stream with it. And—not to dwell unduly upon incidents that were exciting enough to us, although the recital of them would prove of but little interest to the reader—in this way we contrived to creep up the river the hundred and twelve miles or so that were necessary to bring us to Matadi’s town—having passed, and with some difficulty avoided, two whirlpools on the way, reaching our destination about two bells in the afternoon watch on the fifth day after leaving Banana Creek.

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