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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Penang Pirate, by John Conroy Hutcheson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Penang Pirate
+       and, The Lost Pinnace
+
+Author: John Conroy Hutcheson
+
+Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21086]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PENANG PIRATE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+
+The Penang Pirate, by John Conroy Hutcheson
+________________________________________________________________
+This is a fairly short book, consisting of two short stories.
+
+The first of these, "The Penang Pirate", describes how the Captain
+of the "Hankow Lin", suspecting that there might be a piratical
+attack on his vessel on her return voyage from Canton to
+Australia, lays plans to spoil the pirates' fun.  As a result of
+this the attacking pirate vessel is soundly beaten, but there
+were some interesting events and confrontations before they
+actually met the pirate schooner.
+
+The second story is "The Lost Pinnace".  HMS London is cruising
+the East Coast of Africa in search of any slaver dhows.  One of
+these is met with and deleted, so the London, a midshipman with
+knowledge of the local language having overheard that there is a
+second slaver not far away, sets off in search of a further
+conquest.
+
+It was the custom at that time for a ship's pinnace to be left
+behind under the command of a junior officer whenever the
+warship left the station on a chase.  No junior officer being
+available the pinnace is left with the bosun in command.
+
+All is well for a time, but there is a severe storm, and the
+pinnace is lost, several miles from the Madagascar shore.
+Some of the crew are lost, but the remainder, including the
+bosun, who is telling the tale years later to a friend back
+in England, reach the shore.  Their journey to the capital of
+Madagascar is very difficult and dangerous, but most of them get
+there in the end.
+________________________________________________________________
+
+THE PENANG PIRATE and THE LOST PINNACE
+
+BY JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON
+
+
+
+VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER ONE.
+
+IN THE PEARL RIVER.
+
+"Bill!"
+
+"Aye, aye, bo!"
+
+"Guess this'll be a rum v'yage, mate."
+
+"Why, old shellback?"
+
+"'Cause I can't make out why we are wasting our time here, with the
+cargo all aboard and the wind fair."
+
+"Don't you fret yourself about that, Jem Backstay.  The skipper knows
+what he's a-doing, and has got a heap o' 'sponsibility on them shoulders
+o' his'n--a fine ship and a valuable cargo to get home safe to old
+h'England with a short crew, and a lot o' murderin', blood-suckin'
+pirates all over the h'Indian seas!"
+
+"Pirates, Bill!"
+
+"Ay, pirates!  I spoke plain enough, didn't I?  But you needn't shiver
+in your skin like one of them white-livered Lascars we've got aboard in
+place of honest sailors, worse luck!  You needn't have no cause to fear
+for the number o' your mess, bo; the cap'en--God bless him!--will see us
+safe through, you may be sure."
+
+"Right you are, Bill; you know the old man better nor I, and I s'pose
+he's taking cautions like?"
+
+"No fear, mate.  He's got his head screwed on right enough, my bo."
+
+"And that's the reason, p'raps, he'd that long palaver with the
+admiral's flagship afore we come up the river?"
+
+"Ay," said Bill sententiously; "may be so."
+
+"Well, Bill, if so be there's pirates about, they might do a'most as
+they likes wi' us, for I don't think there are three cutlasses aboard,
+and ne'er a musket as I can see, and only powder enough to fire off that
+little popgun there to summons a pilot."
+
+"Aye," answered the other nonchalantly.
+
+The _Hankow Lin_ was lying in the Pearl River, off Whampoa, some twelve
+miles below Canton, to which anchorage all sailing vessels having
+business at this port of the Celestial Empire are restricted by the
+mandarins, only steamers being permitted to ascend the reaches of the
+river to the city proper and anchor in front of Shah Mien, the English
+settlement.
+
+The vessel had shipped all her tea and silk, which formed a valuable
+cargo; and, with her anchor hove short, so that she seemed to ride just
+over it, and her topsails loose all handy to let fall and sheet home,
+she appeared ready to start at a moment's notice on her homeward
+voyage--down the ugly Canton River and across the pathless Indian seas
+and the miles of weary ocean journey that lay between her and her final
+destination, "the tight little island," with its now historical "streak
+of silver sea," supposed to guard it from Continental invasion.
+
+What delayed the _Hankow Lin_?
+
+Ah! her captain could tell perhaps, for it might be taken for granted
+that there was some urgent reason for his remaining here with no
+possible object to gain when his cargo was stowed and the ship homeward-
+bound.  The seamen could make nothing of it, however; and there was much
+grumbling forwards at this unlooked-for hitch in their departure from
+the land of "chin chins" and "no bony Johnny."
+
+Jem Backstay, who was a stalwart, able-bodied seaman, and as smart a
+"hand" as could be found in a day's cruise, did not appear at all
+convinced by what his chum Bill, the boatswain, had said, for he
+returned again to the conversation after the latter had apparently ended
+it with his monosyllabic "aye."
+
+"Lor', mate!" said he, "I thinks your old brains are wool-gathering
+about pirates.  I've been sailing in these here China seas since I were
+no higher than your thumb and I never see none."
+
+"Haven't you?" muttered the other disdainfully.
+
+"No, never a one."
+
+"And you've never seen none of 'em h'executed, as I have, at Canton, in
+batches of a dozen or more?"
+
+"No, Bill; how does they do it?"
+
+"Why, mate, they makes the beggars all kneel down in a row, with their
+hands tied behind them so that they can't put 'em up.  Then a chap comes
+along--I s'pose he's called their Jack Ketch--and he carries a sword
+that's partly made like a cutlass and partly like a butcher's cleaver,
+with which he slices off all their heads like so many carrots."
+
+"Lor'!"
+
+"Yes, bo; and the funny thing is to see this executioner chap going
+along behind all the kneeling figures, afore he knocks their heads off,
+and pulling this one here and a-shovin' that one theer, so arrangin' on
+'em that he can have a clean stroke when he ups with his sword."
+
+"Lor'!" exclaimed the other on hearing this description.
+
+"Yes, bo, it's all true as gospel what I'm a-tellin' on you.  The
+hangman chap don't seem to make no more account of them poor devils than
+if they wos so many wooden dummies, like them `Quaker guns' as they
+call--cos they can't hurt nobody, I s'pose--that them silly artful
+Chinese mounted in the Bogue forts to frighten us, as they thought, when
+we went to war with 'em last time, you know."
+
+"But, talkin' about h'executions, Bill, ain't talkin' of pirates, is it,
+bo?  P'raps those poor ignorant chaps you seed have their heads chopped
+off mightn't no more a' been pirates than you or I."
+
+"Mightn't they!" ejaculated the boatswain of the _Hankow Lin_ in the
+most indignant tones.  "Much you know about it, you son of a sea-cook,
+that's all!  Why, Jem, I could tell you stories about them cut-throats
+of the sea in these here waters as would make your hair stand on end.
+No pirates in the China seas, you say, my joker?"
+
+"I didn't say as there wasn't any.  I said as there mightn't ha' been."
+
+"Well, and wot's the difference, I'd like to know?"
+
+"Belay that, and bouse away, old ship, with that yarn o' yours that's
+going to fright my hair off.  I ain't quite frightened yet, I tell you."
+
+"Wait a minute, then, bo," said the other, who was suddenly called aft
+by the officer of the watch to have some order given him for the morning
+which had been forgotten; and on his return to the foc's'le Jem was all
+attention for him to proceed with his promised yarn about the real
+pirates of whom he had spoken, the worthy seaman continuing to express a
+strong disbelief in their entity.
+
+"Heave ahead with that 'ere story o' yourn," he said.
+
+"Don't you know, you onbelievin' swab, as how the Singapore mail steamer
+was nearly as possible plundered by a whole gang o' them gettin' aboard
+of her as make-believe passengers and then setting fire to her and
+plundering the cargo, and that this occurred only last year?"
+
+"No, I never heerd tell of it," said Jem.
+
+"Well, I think I've got a noospaper in my ditty-box down below as will
+tell you all about it, and then, p'r'aps, you'll feel as if you'd
+believe there wos sich things as pirates."
+
+So saying, the boatswain bustled down into the forecastle, and shortly
+reappeared above, holding a rather dirty crumpled piece of printed paper
+in his hand, which he handed to Jem.
+
+"There," he said, "take that and read for yourself."
+
+The brawny seaman turned it over and over with a solemn face, and then
+handed it back to the other.
+
+"I ain't no scholard," he observed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully; "wish
+I was, 'twould ha' been pounds in my pocket now if I could read and
+write as I once did when I war a little shaver, but I've clean forgot
+it.  You reel off the yarn as is printed there, Bill; and then I'll tell
+you what I think of it."
+
+"All right, then," replied the boatswain, nothing loth to display his
+superior attainments.  "Here goes for a full and true 'count of a
+tremenjuous piretical plot to seize a mail steamer, from a special
+despatch of our 'Ong Kong correspondent;" and, holding the dirty scrap
+of paper at arm's-length, as if he were somewhat afraid of it, he went
+on to read the following extract from it.
+
+"The China papers received by the last mail contain full accounts of an
+attempt made to seize and plunder the Eastern and Australian Mail Steam
+Company's steamer _Bowen_ by a party of Chinese who had embarked on
+board the vessel at Singapore as passengers.  The following is extracted
+from the ship's report:--
+
+"On the 8th of June, at 1:30 PM, in latitude 13 degrees 09 minutes north
+and longitude 111 degrees 20 minutes east, Cheang Sioy, Chinese
+interpreter, reported that the Singapore passengers, forty-two in
+number, were pirates, and intended setting fire to and plundering the
+ship, as they had been overheard talking to this effect.  An examination
+was then made below, but the Singapore Chinese passengers were so
+scattered among 313 Australian Chinese passengers that they could not be
+readily identified.  The interpreter was then ordered to pick them out
+and muster them and their effects on the poop-house.  He first brought
+up eight or ten choppers, a house-breaking tool, and a box, for all of
+which no owners could be found.  On opening the box it was found to
+contain twenty-five packages of powder, about one pound weight each, all
+with a fuse attached.  As the matter seemed serious, all hands were
+mustered and armed, and the Singapore Chinese brought up and secured.  A
+further search disclosed another box containing eleven loaded revolvers
+of different sorts and sizes, also a large quantity of ammunition to fit
+the same, a bundle of touch-paper, and a Chinese ship's compass.  On
+examining the Singapore Chinese passengers, seventeen gave a
+satisfactory account of themselves; but twenty-five, who could not do
+so, and had neither money nor luggage, were put into a place of safety
+with an armed guard over them night and day until arrival, when they
+were handed over to the authorities in Hong Kong."
+
+"Is that all?" asked Jem, whose scepticism regarding Chinese pirates
+this printed account appeared somewhat to shake.
+
+"That's all the steamer's log-book say, bo," replied the boatswain; "but
+the newspaper tells further on as how the beggars was brought up for
+trial."
+
+"Let us have it, then," said Jem, bending forward to listen to what the
+other went on to read in a deep sepulchral voice--
+
+"Twenty-six Chinamen were brought before the sitting magistrate at the
+Hong Kong police-court on the 11th of June, when Captain Miller of the
+_Bowen_ gave evidence.  He stated that the vessel carried the Queensland
+mail to Singapore and Hong Kong, and _vice versa_.  It also carried the
+mails to and from Hong Kong.  The passengers are Chinese gold-diggers,
+and have bullion about them.  Every voyage the vessel carries a large
+amount of gold; on the present trip they had ten boxes of the value of
+about L10,000.  This was the cargo, and had nothing to do with what the
+passengers had.  The captain continued:--
+
+"At Singapore we took in forty-two Chinese passengers, who came on board
+the morning we left.  Our Singapore agents had received a telegram from
+Hong Kong, warning them to be careful of what passengers I took.  After
+leaving Singapore, all went well until about half-past one o'clock PM,
+on the 8th inst, when near the Faracel Reefs.  The chief officer then
+came and told me that the Singapore Chinese passengers were pirates, and
+intended to set fire to and plunder the ship.  In consequence of this, I
+went with the chief officer and interpreter to examine the steerage
+passengers.  I found a difficulty in separating the Singapore passengers
+from the Australians, as they were so mixed.  I then ordered a gang to
+pick them out and bring them on the poop with their luggage, for
+examination.  The interpreter knew where the Singapore passengers were
+stowed, and he there found ten choppers, and beneath the forecastle,
+where eight of the passengers were, he found a box.  I ordered the
+carpenter to open this box, which was locked, and which no one claimed,
+and found on the top beneath some clothes, twenty-five packages with a
+fuse attached to each.  After counting the packages, I kept one as a
+sample, and threw the remainder with the box overboard.  I did that as I
+was rather afraid to keep so much loose powder on board.  I next called
+all hands and turned all the Chinese passengers on deck.  We then
+searched the place where they had been, and the box containing eleven
+loaded revolvers and a quantity of ammunition was produced.  I
+questioned all the passengers, and seventeen of the Singapore passengers
+had luggage and dollars, and they gave a satisfactory account of
+themselves.  The prisoners had no property or money.  They could or
+would not tell what they had been doing in Singapore, or give any
+account of themselves.  I then locked them in the mail room--which is of
+iron--and placed an armed guard over them."
+
+"There, now, what do you think o' them murderin' rascals now?" asked the
+boatswain when he had concluded reading the newspaper extract.
+
+"What do I think o' them, hey?  Well, I thinks they ought to ha' been
+keel-hauled, that's what I thinks!  Was these the chaps whose heads
+you'd saw chopped off at Canton?"
+
+"No, no, man, this here occurred at Hong Kong; couldn't you hear wot I
+read, bo?"
+
+"I s'poses it's all true, seein' how't is in print; and if so, mate, why
+I s'pose you're right about there bein' pirates hereabouts arter all?"
+
+"Yes, sure, my hearty.  Why, look here, Jem, it's solemn truth I'm
+tellin' you," and the boatswain looked as grave as a judge when
+speaking, as if to substantiate his words--"only t'other day there was a
+fine clipper tea-ship, just like ourn, that got becalmed off Hainan
+island in the Gulf of Tonquin, when, in less nor half an hour arter the
+wind failed, a lot o' junks sculled up to her and opened fire on the
+crew with their cussed jinghals and matchlocks; and, if it hadn't a'
+been fur a breeze a springin' up as let 'em make sail and get away from
+the pirates, why the ship would ha' been captured and sunk after they
+had taken everything they cared for out of her; and only last year--just
+you hark to this, Jem Backstay--an English brigantine, bound for the
+northern ports, was attacked by pirate junks not a hundred miles from
+Hong Kong--jist think of the impudent rascals having the cheek to come
+so near us!--and the captain and mate were murdered, the rest of the
+crew escaping by taking to one of the boats!"
+
+"Well," said Jem to this, "I hopes we won't come nigh any on 'em, if
+there be any sich like as pirates about, as I've said afore.  I don't
+want to lose the number o' my mess yet awhile!"
+
+"Never you fear, Jem," returned the other; "our old man's as 'cute as
+they make them, out here; and if there's anything to keep a sharp look-
+out for, why he's all there!"
+
+
+
+VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWO.
+
+DARK SUSPICIONS.
+
+At this moment, the conversation between the two was again interrupted
+by Bill the boatswain starting up from the hawser on which he was
+sitting alongside of Jem Backstay on the topgallant forecastle.
+"Hallo!" he exclaimed, "I wonder what that ugly beggar of a Malay is
+prowling about forward for?  He's smelling about them water-casks as
+came aboard yesterday--he means mischief!"
+
+"Lordsakes, Bill," said Jem, "you've so got them pirates on the brain
+that you can think of nuthin else!--Do leave the poor yaller devil
+alone, I'm sure he ain't up to no harm!"
+
+"Ain't he?" said Bill scornfully.  "You jest look arter your own
+bizness.  Hallo, you Lascar!" he shouted out aloud to the object of his
+attention; "Hallo, you Lascar! leave that 'ere cask alone; d'ye hear!"
+
+The man, a short, thick-set, black-haired, and yellow-visaged native--
+who had been apparently endeavouring to unloosen the lashings of the
+tarpaulin cover of one of six large hogsheads like water-casks that were
+placed along the gangway of the ship and securely fastened between the
+ports--started at the sound of Bill's voice; and, seeing that his eye
+was fixed on him, pretended slily for a moment to be intently gazing out
+seawards, and then slunk stealthily along the deck more aft to the bitts
+of the mainmast, where a group of his tawny fellow-countrymen were
+gathered together away from the rest of the crew--squatting on their
+haunches, and gabbling away at a great rate.
+
+"Blow them yaller imps!" said the boatswain to his companion as the
+native retreated out of earshot.  "I don't like 'em, for they're a
+treach'rous lot, and would knife you as soon as look.  Why, as you know,
+Jem, they won't obey no orders, even from the cap'en, 'cept through
+their own serang, or chief--ourang-outang I think'd be a better name for
+him, the ugly beast!  And if you was to strike one with a rope's end--if
+only in lark, mind you, to make him move quicker--why, you'd be a dead
+man 'fore morning, safe as houses!  I shouldn't like, mate, for you and
+me to be the only white men aboard with that 'ere rascal lot of Lascars
+on the high seas, my hearty!  We're short-handed as it is, with only
+four men in each watch, barrin' Snowball the cook and the officers,
+which makes us twelve white men in all, besides little Jack Harper--for
+I count Snowball as one of us, although he is a niggur; and there are
+twenty of them Lascars altogether and their chief.  Howsomedevers, Jem,
+I've spoke to the cap'en, beggin' his pardin for the liberty, an' he
+told me as how he was a lookin' out and not unmindful; so, bo, it's all
+right, you see."
+
+"And you think, Bill, the skipper's goin' to bring off some more hands
+like us?"
+
+"I don't think nothin' about it, Jem Backstay.  When the cap'en tells me
+it's all right, I knows it's all right; and that's enough for me!  Heave
+an eye out to starboard, mate; ain't that a light on shore, like a
+signal or something?"
+
+"Ay, ay!" replied the other, drawing himself up to all the height of his
+six feet, and stretching out his brawny arms lazily as he peered over
+the bows through the hazy light, for the sun had just set, and the shore
+could only be faintly distinguished in the distance.  "Aye, aye, my
+hearty!  A light it is for certain."
+
+"Then it's the cap'en, sure!" said Bill; "he's late to-night.  I hope
+we'll start our anchor at last; I'm tired o' this Canton River."
+
+"Foc's'le, ahoy!" at the same moment shouted out Mr Scuppers, the first
+mate, from the poop, where he was pacing to and fro with young Jack
+Harper, the midshipman.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir!" shouted out in answer Bill and Jem together.
+
+"You are awake, are you?  I thought you were all asleep!  Hoist up a
+lantern at the fore, to show the cap'en where we are, it's getting quite
+dark; and see if that Snowball's asleep in the galley; tell him it's six
+bells, and time for my coffee."
+
+The negro cook, however, was awake for a wonder, and heard the mate's
+message, thus saving the trouble of its being repeated to him.
+
+"Yah, yah! me no sleep, Massa Scuppers," he called out with that
+cheerful good humour that seems characteristic of the darky race, and
+which seems proof against any ill treatment;--"me jus' goin' brin'
+coffee, sah, yes sah!  It am lubly hot, massa, and 'trong as carthoss!"
+
+"Hot and strong is it, Snowball?" said the first mate in his hearty,
+jolly way, as the darky cook stepped gingerly past the group of Lascars,
+and handed the cup of coffee up to him on the poop, with an obsequious
+bow.  "But, how is it you're not asleep?"
+
+"Best to be most circumspectious, massa, wid dem culled pussons aboard;
+no caulking wid dem nasty yaller gen'lemen for me!"
+
+"Well, that's a good un!" laughed Mr Scuppers; "the pot calling the
+kettle black with a vengeance!"
+
+"You mistake sah," said Snowball with dignity.  "I knows, Massa
+Scuppers, I isn't 'xactly like you white gen'lemen; but den I isn't a
+nasty mulatto like dem poor trash; and dey isn't to be trusted!"
+
+"Perhaps you're right, Snowball; but we ought not to suspect them till
+we've found them out, you know."
+
+After another turn or two on deck, Mr Scuppers cabled the boatswain to
+him,--
+
+"Martens," said he, "have those Lascars turned in yet?"
+
+"No, sir," said Bill; "one of 'em at all events was awake just now, and
+spying about forward."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the mate in a tone of surprise, as if the
+information was both unexpected and alarming.  "Pass the word forward
+for the serang to come aft to me at once!"
+
+"Aye, aye, air," replied the boatswain, touching his cap as he left the
+poop; and in another minute or so this Malay--serang is the name given
+to the chief of the gang--appeared, rubbing his eyes as if just awakened
+up from sleep.
+
+He was the very same broad-shouldered, thick-set, tawny-yellow native
+with jet black coarse hair, like that out of a horse's tail, and low
+Mongolian type of face, whom the boatswain had seen inspecting the casks
+on deck.  He now cringed and salaamed before the first mate.
+
+"You wantee me, comprador?" said the man, speaking in that species of
+Portuguese patois which is so common in the Straits Settlements.
+
+"Yes, Kifong," said the first mate, speaking likewise in broken lingo,
+with the idea of making himself better understood.  "Captain sahib say
+he wantee you berry early morning, four bell, to get up anchor.  You go
+below now first chop, and turn in; do you hear that!" he shouted out in
+very unmistakable English, pointing below to the foc's'le hatch.
+
+"Si, Senor Comprador," salaamed again the Malay; then, giving a shrill
+whistle and waving his rattan of office, the gang around the mainmast
+roused up, and followed him to their bunks below as obediently as a
+flock of sheep, without a word.
+
+"Get the side-lines ready for the accommodation ladder, Martens," said
+Mr Scuppers, "and see that the gig-falls are clear to hoist it in; for
+we'll trip anchor at daylight if the wind holds, and leave this blessed
+Canton River in our wake.  Slip down the foc's'le hatch over the yellow
+beggars.  So there, that's all right, and the cap'en can come as soon as
+he pleases!"
+
+Presently the sound of oars was heard approaching the ship; and soon the
+captain's gig, pulled by six oars, came alongside quietly.  The light
+was again shown, the ladder let down and side-ropes manned, and the
+well-known face of the skipper appeared above the gangway.  "This way,
+Mr Meredith," said the latter to a well-wrapped-up gentleman who
+accompanied him, besides the second mate, Mr Sprott, who remained
+behind to see the gig hoisted in.  "This way, Mr Meredith; please tell
+the others to follow!"
+
+The captain thereupon led the way into the saloon--Snowball carrying the
+lantern to light up--followed by the gentleman whom he had addressed by
+name, and ten others in single file bringing up the rear behind him;
+then the cuddy doors were slid to and the saloon cut off from the rest
+of the ship.
+
+The captain came on deck after a time, and ordered the boatswain to tell
+the men to give no hints to the Malays as to the passengers, and then an
+anchor-watch was set, and all hands turned in for the night.
+
+
+
+VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER THREE.
+
+THE SAMPAN.
+
+Towards six bells in the morning watch the intense violet sky of the
+east began to pale into those shades of green and grey which note the
+departure of night, the bright twinkling stars that had up to then lit
+up the firmament disappearing one by one as day broke.  Then, rapidly,
+streaks of warm, salmon-tinted clouds rose across the eastern horizon,
+shot with bright golden gleams of fire, making the water of the Pearl
+River glow as if with life, and lighting up the distant house-tops and
+pagodas of Canton that could be seen far away from Jardyne Point; and
+then, up danced the sun from beyond the paddy fields, mounting higher
+and higher in the heavens each moment with majestic strides, as if he
+wanted to get his day's work done early, so as to get a siesta in the
+afternoon!
+
+With the rising of the sun, all is bustle and excitement on board the
+_Hankow Lin_; for the captain before turning in had told Mr Scuppers
+that they were to sail at daybreak.
+
+"Whee--eo!  Whee--eo!  Whee--ee!"  The boatswain's shrill whistle was
+heard piercing through every nook and cranny of the ship.
+
+"Tumble up, there!  Tumble up!  All hands up anchor!" shouted out Bill
+Martens in stentorian tones that supplemented the call of his whistle.
+"Now, you Lascar beggars, show a leg, will you?  All hands on deck, and
+up anchor.  Here, look alive, serang!  Man the capstan-bars, and be
+sharp with it.  Cheerily, men; cheerily ho!  Walk her up to her anchor.
+Now she rides--heave, men, with a will.  Belay!"
+
+The ship by this time has been brought up, with all the slack of the
+cable in; and the chief mate now lends his voice to add to the bustle
+and movement of the scene.
+
+"'Way aloft there, men; loose topsails; let fall.  There!  Now, serang,
+heave with a will! heave with a will!  Now it's free; heave away, my
+hearties!" and the anchor was run up to the bows with a will, and
+secured with tackles; when, the ship's head being now loosed from her
+hold of the ground, she began to pay off, with her bows dancing up and
+down, as if she were bidding a polite adieu to the Celestial Empire and
+all its belongings.
+
+"Man the topsail halliards; up with the jib; loosen those courses; set
+the spanker sharp, will you?  Hurrah! there she fills!"  The sails
+bellied out and drew; and the ship bore round to her course, and began
+to move, at first slowly, and then more swiftly, down the river, south
+and west, on her way towards England--homeward-bound, as it is joyously
+phrased.
+
+A regular staunch clipper is she--the good ship _Hankow Lin_; one of the
+best of the old-fashioned tea-traders that as yet spurned the modern
+innovation of the Suez Canal, and despised, in the majesty of their
+spreading canvas, the despicable agency of steam!  A sound, teak-built,
+staunch, ship-rigged vessel of 1200 tons register, and classed A1 at
+Lloyd's for an indefinite number of years.
+
+Captain Morton--a bluff old sea-dog, with a jovial red face, and crisp,
+wiry grey hair, and mutton-chop whiskers that projected on either side
+as if electrified--was standing on the poop to windward, with the first
+mate, Mr Scuppers, and the passenger, "Mr Meredith," looking up aloft
+at the nimble topmen, who were adding acre to acre to the sail-surface
+of the ship, and pluming her snowy pinions with a pull here and a shake
+there.  Mr Sprott, the second mate, was to leeward of the helmsman; the
+boatswain on the forecastle, monarch of all he surveyed in that
+department; and little Jack Harper, the middy--a special favourite both
+with the officers and sailors--looking on amidships at the gang of
+Malays, who were hauling away at halliards, and slackening sheets, and
+curling ropes, in a more slipshod and leisurely way than regular jack
+tars are wont.
+
+Jack Harper called out to the serang Kifong to make him rouse up his
+men, but he was nowhere to be seen.  Presently, he perceived him bending
+over the side amidships, partly concealed by the shrouds, and apparently
+talking to some one overboard.  Wondering what was up, Jack cautiously
+approached him without being observed, and peered over the side too.
+His face brightened up with excitement as he heard the sounds of men's
+voices speaking in Chinese rapidly, and then he listened with rapt
+attention for a minute.  Only for a minute, however, as the serang,
+turning rapidly round, saw him, and, calling out something which he
+could not catch, a sampan, or native boat, quickly sheered off from the
+vessel, and, impelled by two rowers, darted off shore wards; the serang,
+with a look of unconsciousness at Jack, sauntering back to his gang, as
+if he were only doing the most natural thing in the world.
+
+The captain perceived the sampan the moment it left the ship's side, and
+hailed Jack.
+
+"Hullo!  What was that boat doing alongside?"
+
+"Can't say, sir," said Jack, touching his cap.  "I suppose some of the
+Lascars' friends bidding them good-bye!"
+
+"That so?" said the captain.  "It isn't discipline, but I suppose we
+can't help it;" and he resumed his conversation with the passenger and
+Mr Scuppers.
+
+By and by, when the serang and his gang had gone forward again, to unbit
+the cable chain and cat and fish the anchor, Jack went up on the poop to
+the captain.
+
+"Beg your pardon, Cap'en Morton," he said, "but I think that Malay chap
+is up to something; can I speak to you privately?"
+
+"Oh, never mind Mr Meredith," said the captain; "we are all friends
+here; speak out."
+
+"Well, you know, sir," said Jack, diffidently--he didn't like spinning a
+yarn, as he called it, before strangers--"that I understand a little
+Chinese; and I caught something of what the serang was saying to those
+two beggars in the boat."
+
+"Did you?" said the captain and Mr Meredith, the passenger, almost
+together, eagerly.  "What was it? what did the rascal say?"
+
+"You may well say rascal, sir," said Jack.  "For though I did not hear
+all their conversation, from what I gathered I think they're up to some
+mischief.  I first heard the chap in the boat say, `And how about the
+passengers?' or something like that as far as I could make out; and the
+serang said, `There's only one come on the ship.'"
+
+The captain nudged Mr Meredith here, and the first mate, and all three
+chuckled.
+
+"And then the man in the boat said, `You are certain there are not
+more aboard?'  And the serang answered, `No, only that one
+passenger'--`strange man,' he called him--`and twelve men besides the
+boy officer,'--I suppose meaning me, sir.  And then the man in the boat,
+who seemed to have some authority over the serang, said, `In about ten
+days, if the wind is good or fair; and don't be in a hurry, but wait for
+the signal!' and then the Malay chap turned and saw me, and the boat
+shoved off."
+
+"Very good, Harper," said the captain; "we'll keep an eye on him, never
+fear;" and then, as Jack went off again to his post he turned to Mr
+Meredith: "I confess that I was wrong, and you and the admiral right,
+sir!" he said.  "And now we must contrive to outwit these yellow devils,
+and as they're half-Chinese and ought to know, show them how to catch a
+Tartar!"
+
+"Ay," said Mr Meredith, laughing, "we'll give them a lesson they'll
+never forget, too, while we're about it!  But, captain, we have plenty
+of time before us--ten days or more, just as I calculated; and all we
+have to do now is to look out sharp for squalls in the meantime."
+
+"Right, sir," said Captain Morton, "we'll all have to look out sharp,
+for they're treacherous rascals at the best, and these seem to be the
+worst!  Keep your weather eye open, Scuppers, and give Sprott a hint--
+although not a word, mind you, to the men yet, with the exception of
+Bill Martens, who can be trusted to bide his time, as he knows already
+as much as ourselves.  As to little Jack Harper, he's a 'cute boy, and
+is not likely to forget what he has heard."  And there the conversation
+ended and the subject dropped.
+
+All that day the _Hankow Lin_ was working her way down the river from
+Canton, which lies some eighty miles from its mouth; and at nightfall
+the ship again anchored, the navigation being somewhat intricate and the
+breeze dying away; but next morning it was up anchor and away again with
+everything hoisted that could draw and the wind right astern, the vessel
+making such good progress through the water that long before mid-day she
+had passed through the Bocca Tigris, or "tiger's mouth" passage, and was
+out in the open ocean.
+
+The nor'-east monsoon, which blows in the China seas as regularly as
+clockwork from October to April, and is the great trade-wind of the tea-
+ships, had nearly blown out its course; but still, for a time it was all
+in the _Hankow Lin's_ favour, and she went through the water at a fine
+rate.  Although she was pretty well laden, and was rather deep for a
+vessel of her size, she walked along as if, as the sailors said, the
+girls at home had got hold of the tow-rope; and when the log was hove at
+noon she was going twelve knots with all sail set--not a bad pace that
+for a trader; but, in the old days, before steam transformed the trade
+through the Red Sea, these tea-ships were built for speed as well as
+freight room.
+
+Sundown came, and the great orb of day set in a crescent of ruby light,
+making the sea like a gorgeous pantomime sea of molten gold as far as
+the eye could reach; and still the wind held up fair and strong, and the
+vessel careered over the expanse of ocean, that looked like living fire,
+without slackening her rate of progress, rising and falling to the waves
+with pendulum-like rhythm.  And now night came on with its azure sky,
+sprinkled with innumerable stars all glorious with scintillating light,
+and the ship preserved the even tenor of her way; morning came again
+with its freshness of roseate hues and golden sun-risings, and purple
+mists, and transparent haze; and yet, onward--onward, without pause--she
+flew upon the wings of the wind like a great white dove released from
+some fowler's snare and panting for the untrammelled freedom of the wide
+wide sea.
+
+So day after day passed, and everything went on in regular routine on
+board, without any incident of note occurring to break the monotony of
+the voyage, the English sailors keeping to themselves, and the Malays
+apart, without either mixing or speaking with the others save when the
+duties of the ship called them into temporary association.
+
+Kifong, the serang, however, they could see was wide-awake, and
+observant of all that went on around him.  He was particularly anxious
+about the saloon and the passenger: and was continually trying to
+interrogate Snowball as to what went on within the privileged retreat,
+to which none else of the crew were admitted.  What struck him more than
+anything else was the amount of food which the black cook was preparing,
+and carrying from the galley into the cabin.
+
+"What for you takee so muchee prog, black-man, in dere for?" he said one
+day to Snowball, much to that individual's indignation at the reference
+to his colour, which he always most studiously ignored.
+
+"What for, mister yaller man?  Why, for eat, sure!"
+
+The Malay's eyes gleamed like a serpent's, and he showed his teeth like
+a snarling dog.
+
+"Five men no eatee that much prog," he said in an angry tone.  "You tell
+one lie, black-man."
+
+"Lie yourself, yaller nigger," said the darky.  "You no tink dat four
+officers and de passenger gen'leman all eat muchee food; very good
+appeta-tites havee."
+
+The serang walked away from Snowball with a strong expression of doubt
+in his face, and ever afterwards seemed to bear a particular ill-will to
+the darky, laying traps to trip him up on his passage to and fro between
+the galley and the cabin when heavily laden with dishes for Mr
+Meredith's gigantic meals.
+
+
+
+VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+A STRANGE SAIL.
+
+The ship sailed on serenely, making from two hundred to two hundred and
+fifty knots in each twenty-four hours run--on some exceptional occasions
+clearing indeed as much as three hundred, to the great jubilation of the
+men--until one day, at noon, Captain Morton announced that they were in
+the same parallel as the Thousand Islands, and rapidly approaching the
+Straits of Sunda.
+
+This wide channel of the sea, separating the islands of Java and
+Sumatra, forms one of the main gateways used by the vast number of ships
+that navigate the China Sea.  All vessels bound thither from the western
+hemisphere pass either to the north or south of Sumatra, entering the
+Eastern Archipelago through the Straits of Singapore or else by the
+Straits of Sunda.  Steam-vessels bound through the Suez Canal and Indian
+Ocean use the former route, and those rounding the Cape of Good Hope the
+latter.  The strait is about seventy miles long, sixty miles broad at
+the south-west end, narrowing to thirteen miles at the north-east; and
+it was here that the terrible earthquake occurred in the summer of 1883,
+by which so many thousands of lives were sacrificed in a moment, through
+the submerging of some of the adjacent islands in the sea, a catastrophe
+only second in the annals of history to the earthquake at Lisbon in the
+last century.
+
+Half-way through the strait, equidistant from the two shores, was a
+group of three islands, the largest of which was Krakatoa, four and a
+half miles long and three miles broad, its volcanic summit reaching to a
+height of 2623 feet above the sea-level, about ten times higher than the
+surrounding sea was deep.  Between it and Java, although the floor of
+the strait was uneven, the channel was clear of dangers; on the Sumatra
+side were several islands and rocks, the two largest of which, Bezee and
+Sebooko, rose respectively 2825 feet and 1416 feet above the sea.  The
+tremendous volcanic eruption, with the accompanying earthquake and
+inundation of the coasts which lately happened here--on the 26th August,
+1883--has now wrought a fearful change here.  According to all accounts,
+it appears that the chain of islets on the Sumatra side of the straits
+has been added to by at least sixteen volcanic craters rising within the
+eight miles of water that formerly separated them from Krakatoa.  With
+so enormous an upheaval it would not be unnatural to expect the
+surrounding floor to be depressed; but when it is learned that the whole
+island of Krakatoa, containing about 8000 million cubic yards of
+material, has fallen in, and the greater part of it disappeared below
+the sea, the magnitude of the convulsion becomes more apparent, and it
+is the easier to realise the formation of the destructive volcanic wave
+that was thrown on the neighbouring shores.  It is almost inconceivable
+that this island, with a mountain summit which rose nearly 2700 feet
+above the sea-level, should have been so extensively submerged; but it
+seems to have been in the very centre of the area of this vast
+earthquake, which convulsed the whole basin of the sea between Lampong
+Bay, on the south coast of Sumatra, and the opposite shores of Java,
+extending across a diameter of more than sixty geographical miles.  The
+disturbance of the sea and consequent flooding of the shores, both those
+of Sumatra to the north and those of Java to the east of the volcanic
+outbreak, had the most destructive effects upon the Dutch settlements at
+Telok Betong, at the head of the bay in Sumatra, and likewise in Java,
+at the well-known commercial port of Anjer, where all homeward-bound
+ships of every nation were accustomed to call in passing the straits to
+obtain needful supplies for the voyage across the Indian Ocean; and
+where also, it may be mentioned, Java sparrows, those delicate little
+feathered creatures that might teach wiser humanity a lesson in their
+touching fondness for each other, used to be purchased by sailors for
+presents to their friends at home--though few, alas, of the poor
+"sparrows" ever reached England alive of the thousands brought away from
+their native clime, the majority dying at sea on the first cold night!
+
+The homeward-bound voyager, too, who passes the Straits of Sunda, is
+sometimes fortunate enough to witness, at the western extremity of the
+channel, a strange yet beautiful optical illusion, probably akin to the
+mirage of the desert.  It presents a magnificent display of natural
+architecture, commencing at one particular point--always at the same
+place--off the coast of Sumatra.  Huge granite pillars tower to the sky
+at nearly regular intervals, beginning at the outlet of one of the
+valleys, and extending five miles out to sea.  So solid and massive is
+the aspect of the apparent structure that the eye refuses to accept its
+unreality; binoculars are involuntarily seized, questions are poured
+into the ear of the captain; or, if no ship's officer be near, such
+guidebooks or sailing directions as may be within reach are consulted
+for a solution of the splendid sight.  But, before the pages can be
+turned the gigantic columns begin to waver and vibrate in the intensely
+heated air: now they come nearer, and the sun glances upon their
+crystalline sides, anon they retreat and fade, until the whole fabric is
+transformed into, or lost in, a luxuriant expanse partly covered with
+enormous trees.  It is probably while the feeling of disappointment is
+rankling in his mind, and the traveller averts his gaze from Sumatra as
+altogether a delusion and a snare, that he obtains his first glimpse of
+the opposite shore to the left hand, and sees the romantic island of
+Java appearing simultaneously from the waves and from the clouds.  As he
+looks at the vast panorama of jagged peaks--some of them, perhaps,
+emitting a thin, scarcely-visible thread of vapour, his train of thought
+may wander to the thrilling fireside tale of how the despairing Dutch
+criminals used to rush, inclosed in leathern hoods, across the "Poison
+Valley," to gather the deadly drippings from the terrible Upas-tree.
+
+But none of these thoughts occurred to those on board the _Hankow Lin_
+as she neared the straits and the group of islands; for, in the first
+place, the terrible earthquake of Krakatoa which has so convulsed the
+face of nature in the vicinity, had not then occurred, and, secondly,
+instead of the fabled Upas-tree being uppermost in their minds, all were
+thinking, with a far keener apprehension, of the much more deadly
+"pirates of the isles," who were reported to haunt the channel-way and
+rendezvous in the neighbourhood, just keeping out of the reach of the
+men-of-war cruising in search of them, so as to pounce on unwary
+merchantmen whenever they had the chance.
+
+Towards sunset on the same day that the captain had remarked on their
+being close to the Thousand Islands, the nor'-east monsoon, which had
+accompanied the vessel so far, suddenly failed, and the wind shifted to
+the southward and westward.  A strange sail was sighted--not ahead, but
+coming up astern, and gaining on them fast as if in pursuit, although
+the light failed before they could distinctly make her out.
+
+The captain had a conference on the poop; and after dark, as the breeze
+came stronger from the south, the ship's course was altered, she running
+off at right angles to her former direction, as if bearing up for
+Singapore, while a strict watch was kept all night on deck.
+
+Morning broke at last, after some eight hours of anxiety, and Bill the
+boatswain, on the forecastle, took a keen look round the horizon with
+the first appearance of the dawning light, as Captain Morton was doing
+on the poop.
+
+Gradually the haze cleared up from the water in widening circles, and as
+the sun rose and the horizon cleared still further off, there, some five
+miles astern, and going quite as fast as themselves, if not faster, was
+the stranger; and now when she could be clearly made out, she did not
+improve on acquaintance.
+
+She was a lateen-rigged schooner, with a long, low, dark hull, almost
+flush with the water, and a wicked look about her which could hardly be
+mistaken.
+
+The captain hailed the boatswain, and summoned him to the poop, where
+they were joined by the first mate and "Mr Meredith," who, strange to
+say, seemed quite as accustomed to early hours as the officers of the
+ship.
+
+"It is she, without doubt," said the captain.  "I could almost swear to
+the description.  Where are those Malays?"
+
+"Down below, sir; leastways, they was just now."
+
+"Well, keep a sharp look-out; and as it seems that it will come to a
+scrimmage you had better tell the men forward, and I will warn those
+here quietly.  I suppose you have got the revolvers all right?"
+continued the captain, as "Mr Meredith" left the deck quietly.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir; mine's here," said the boatswain, tapping the bosom of
+his guernsey, "all ready for action; and I'll soon serve out the
+others."
+
+"Very good; only be cool, Martens, till the time arrives, for we may be
+mistaken after all in the men.  I can't tell why we are not going
+faster, though, with this breeze and all that sail set.  What! only
+three knots!" said he, as the boatswain hove the log and told him the
+result.  "Something must be wrong, Martens; go forward and see at once."
+
+And the long, low, dark-hulled schooner was coming up hand over hand,
+walking almost up into the wind's eye on the weather-gauge, coming on as
+if the _Hankow Lin_ was at anchor or becalmed.
+
+As Bill the boatswain passed forward he saw the Malays were gathered
+together in a cluster by the side, amidships, looking at the vessel
+coming up, and the serang had a peculiar, satisfied, malicious sort of
+smile on his evil countenance.
+
+"Guess they're getting ready too," said Bill to himself.  "I'll give
+Snowball a hail, and rouse up the others."
+
+Snowball, however, was bustling about in his galley, and in response to
+a word from the boatswain he grinned one of his usual broad grins, and
+tapped the long knife in his belt, that looked almost as deadly a weapon
+as one of the Malay creases.
+
+"Golly, Massa Bill, me quite ready for the muss when him come! dat for
+de yaller nigger dat call me black-man; and dese, massa," he said,
+pointing to the ship's coppers, which were full of boiling water, as he
+had lighted the fires again at daybreak, "dere, is de soup for de yaller
+nigger's gang!"
+
+The other hands were just turning out as Bill reached the forecastle,
+and Jem Backstay and the rest were soon made aware of their danger from
+within as well as without; but, before the boatswain could explain
+himself properly or give any orders he was startled at seeing that some
+one had cut the jib halliards, and the sail had come down by the run,
+and was towing in the water right across the ship's bows.
+
+"Treachery, shipmates!" he called out.  "No wonder the poor crippled
+thing couldn't make more'n three knots with that 'ere sail towing under
+her fore-foot.  Those blessed Lascars did this, I suppose!"
+
+He was in the midst of his exclamation when the lateen-rigged schooner,
+as if disdaining further concealment, hoisted the dread black pirate
+flag; and the serang, in response to the signal, gave a shrill whistle,
+at the same time drawing his crease.
+
+With a yell of defiance he and his Lascar gang rushed aft in a body for
+the poop, where the captain and his officers were standing together,
+while the forecastle hands stood for the moment dumbfounded at the
+suddenness of the attack.
+
+Only for a moment, however; for, almost at the same instant, Snowball,
+uttering a shout which might have been heard on board the pirate, now
+little over a mile off, dashed at the Malay chief, with his long knife
+gripped between his teeth and his arms working like windmills; and as he
+clutched the serang in his deadly grip the cabin-doors beneath the poop
+flew open, and the Lascar gang stopped their advance as if struck by
+lightning, uttering at the same time a howl of terror and dismay.
+
+
+
+VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+CATCHING A TARTAR.
+
+No wonder that the murderous band of treacherous Malays stopped
+paralysed in their desperate assault on the poop.
+
+There, right facing them, in front of the saloon doors, stood the whilom
+quiet, delicate-looking passenger "Mr Meredith," dressed in the smart
+uniform of a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, a drawn sword in one hand and
+a revolver in the other; while drawn up behind him were the whole of the
+first cutter's crew of HMS _Albatross_, the name of which vessel stood
+out embossed on the bright ribbons of their straw hats--ten in number of
+stalwart blue-jackets, armed with cutlasses and with pistols stuck in
+their belts--levelling the shining barrels of their Snider rifles point-
+blank at their heads.  No wonder that the swarthy scoundrels recoiled in
+terror.
+
+"Surrender!" exclaimed Lieutenant Meredith in a loud stern voice; and
+the men, frightened by the force opposed to them, might possibly have
+submitted, when, at the moment that Snowball made his onslaught on their
+leader, Jack Harvey, who stood by his captain on the poop, rather
+injudiciously fired off a shot from his revolver, which struck and broke
+one of the Malays' outstretched arms, with crease uplifted ready to stab
+his enemies.
+
+With a ferocious yell the band again rushed forward.
+
+"Fire!" said the lieutenant; and with one report the blue-jackets
+delivered a volley which stretched four Malays in front of them lifeless
+on the deck; and then rushing forward with their drawn cutlasses, a
+terrific hand-to-hand fight ensued.  Captain Morton and his officers on
+the poop fired into the mass of the Malays, and then leaped down to join
+the fray; and the boatswain, with Jem Backstay and the other sailors
+from the forecastle, caught up handspikes and fell upon their rear.
+
+Even in the very midst of the fierce struggle Snowball and the serang,
+in deadly embrace, were rolling on the deck, each trying to get the
+upper hand so as to be able to use their knives.  Neither could succeed
+in shaking the other off; and as the two rolled and twisted together
+about the deck, now a mass of blood and gore, they gradually edged away
+from the thick of the fight, until they rolled together close to the
+fore-hatch; then, with one vigorous effort, the black cook, as if he had
+reserved his final _coup_ until he had wearied the other out, lifted the
+Malay over the combing of the hatchway, and both tumbled into the fore-
+hold, with a smash and crash which even made itself heard above the din,
+the black cook shouting out as he felt himself falling, dragging his
+enemy with him, "Golly, yer yeller beggar, I got you at last!"
+
+While this episode was being acted, the Malays were still fighting
+desperately with their creases, a formidable weapon in the hands of men
+fighting for their lives; and many of the tars were wounded, and one or
+two killed.  The Malays stood in a group at bay, and fought on
+desperately, like rats driven into a corner, their numbers being still
+but little inferior to those of their opponents.  At this moment the
+woolly head of Snowball appeared above the fore-hold with a triumphant
+grin on his black face, all wet with perspiration; and in a second he
+leaped on the deck, carrying on his shoulder the body of the serang, who
+was knocked senseless by the tumble into the hold, although the darky's
+head, accustomed to such rude shocks, was not one whit the worse.
+Laying down his burden he hurried to the caboose.
+
+The remaining Malays were huddled up in a corner by the capstan, hemmed
+in by the bluejackets.  To all cries of "surrender" they turned a deaf
+ear, and they were evidently trying to prolong the struggle until their
+piratical accomplices, as they no doubt were, in the schooner came up to
+help them.
+
+Lieutenant Meredith, being a humane man, did not wish to slaughter the
+wretches like sheep, so refrained giving the fatal order to fire another
+volley, which would have terminated the contest, and was endeavouring to
+capture them alive.  The struggle was so prolonged, however, and so many
+of his men were wounded, that he was just going to give the word "Fire!"
+when Snowball came to the rescue in a novel way, which completed the
+victory.
+
+The darky emerged from the caboose with a bucket of boiling water filled
+from the galley coppers, which he had got ready with apt forethought,
+and dashed it full on to the group of huddling Malays.
+
+They did not want a second dose.
+
+Giving out an appalling howl of pain, which no cut or shot had evoked,
+they threw down their arms with one accord, and the blue-jackets before,
+and Bill Musters and Jem Backstay in the rear, seized the trembling
+scoundrels.
+
+"Gag them all, as well as bind them, men!" said the lieutenant to the
+blue-jackets.  "I don't want them to give the alarm to the schooner.
+Look alive, men!  Be smart there; we've no time to lose!  She isn't half
+a mile off now, and will be alongside in a few minutes!"
+
+Lieutenant Meredith was right.
+
+It was almost a dead calm, and the _Hankow Lin_,--her way deadened by
+the jib, which still trailed in the water across her bows, for no one
+had time, during the deadly fight in which they had just been engaged,
+to hoist it clear on board again--was almost motionless on the water;
+while every breath of the fast-expiring breeze was gently wafting the
+pirate schooner nearer and nearer.
+
+The sail that obstructed her motion was at last cut away, and the ship
+began to creep along through the water; but it was too late for her to
+have got away from her enemy if those on board had so wished--which,
+however, they didn't!
+
+"Look out, my men," shouted out Captain Morton, who was as keenly alive
+to the urgency of their situation as the naval lieutenant,--"we've all
+our work cut out for us!"
+
+In truth they had; still, although only just out of one fight, in which
+some two or three had already lost their lives, and several were
+severely wounded, the blue-jackets under their gallant officer, who had
+already won the Victoria Cross for his bravery, ably seconded by Captain
+Morton and Mr Scuppers, and the crew of the _Hankow Lin_ set to work to
+prepare for a fresh struggle with all the alacrity and glee of
+schoolboys going out for an unexpected holiday.
+
+The conquered Lascars were tightly bound, and then tumbled below, the
+hatch being secured over them; and all then set to work to unload the
+heavy hogsheads which had caused the tar such uneasiness on account of
+their cumbering his decks, when they had first been shipped on board at
+Canton, some ten days before.
+
+"There, Jem!" said the boatswain, as the staves of the first cask were
+knocked to pieces, and a nine-pounder Armstrong gun disclosed in all its
+ship-shape nicety.  "There, didn't I tell you that the skipper had his
+head screwed on straight?"
+
+"Aye, aye, bo, right you were," answered the brawny foretopman as he
+knocked in the head of another hogshead.  "I'll never doubt him again,
+you be sure."
+
+There were four guns altogether, and the two other casks contained their
+ammunition, and spare rifles for the _Hankow Lin's_ crew.
+
+These cannon the lieutenant now caused to be loaded heavily with grape-
+shot, and placed at the midship ports to windward, on the side that the
+pirate was approaching; the ports still kept closed, but everything
+ready for raising them, and running out the guns to command the
+schooner's deck when she got alongside.
+
+The hands were then mustered.  Captain Morton, Mr Scuppers, the
+lieutenant, and Jack Harper had escaped without a scratch on the part of
+the officers; but Mr Sprott, the second mate, had a cut across his face
+from a Malay crease, which caused him considerable pain, and undoubtedly
+spoiled his beauty; although the brave fellow refused to be put on the
+list of the non-fighters.  Amongst the men, two blue-jackets were killed
+outright, as well as Phillips, the ship's carpenter of the _Hankow Lin_;
+while one blue-jacket was wounded severely, and two slightly, as well as
+another of the ship's regular hands.
+
+Altogether, their defensive force consisted now, therefore, of the
+lieutenant, captain, and three other officers--for Sprott would fight,
+and Jack Harper was quite as good with a revolver as any of his
+seniors--and fifteen men, counting in Snowball, who was as good as two
+others any day, besides Jem Backstay, who was a regular giant.
+
+"Now, men," said the lieutenant addressing them--"Captain, I have your
+permission to take the command?"
+
+"Certainly, sir," said Captain Morton.  "You're my senior officer in the
+service, and I wouldn't wish to fight under a braver!"
+
+"Well then, men," resumed the lieutenant, "we all here, _Albatrosses_
+and _Hankow Lins_ alike, fight under one flag, the Union Jack of Old
+England!  Stop, don't cheer, men, or those pirate scoundrels will hear
+us too soon, and we don't want 'em to hear us till they feel us!  Men, I
+want you to be cool--I know you are brave--and wait my word of command
+before you utter a shout or draw a trigger.  That pirate scoundrel is
+plucky enough, and will take some beating; but he'll get it soon enough
+if you only obey orders.  Captain Morton, will you take charge of the
+guns, please, with Mr Scuppers?  Boatswain, you with that brave black
+fellow, and two other hands, will mind the forecastle, to prevent
+boarders coming up while we are attacking them elsewhere.  I shall want
+eight hands along with me for the gig, to clear her away, and get her
+ready to lower to leeward, when the pirate comes alongside to windward.
+When we've given them a good sweeping discharge, and cleared their deck,
+captain, I shall, after reloading, drop into the gig, and board her on
+her weather-side, so that'll take them between two fires.  Now, men,
+quick to your posts!  Boatswain, to the forecastle with three others;
+gig's men step out, four blue-jackets and four _Hankow Lins_; the others
+of my cutter's crew will work the guns."
+
+"May I come with you, sir?" said Mr Sprott anxiously.  "I have no
+special duty here, and I'd like to pay out that cut across my jib on
+some of them piratical scoundrels!"
+
+"Aye, you can come," said Mr Meredith cordially, "and glad I'll be to
+have such a brave fellow with me.  Now, is everything ready in the gig,
+and the falls all slack for lowering?"
+
+"Aye, aye, sir," said the coxswain.  "Right as a trivet."
+
+"Well, then, see to your small-arms, men.  Have them all loaded ready,
+like the guns.  The surprise will favour us at first, but we shall have
+to fight hard afterwards, as they'll muster pretty numerous if the
+account I have received be true."
+
+All these preparations being complete, the guns loaded, and ready for
+discharging the moment the enemy ranged herself alongside, and each man
+being in his proper station, they awaited with the courage and caution
+of brave men the approach of the pirate.  Fortunately for them, as it
+gave them more time to prepare, the breeze had quite died away, and a
+dead calm had fallen on the surface of the deep, while yet the schooner
+had scarcely decreased her distance, and they had been making their
+preparations for the fight.  The glassy sea heaved up and down under the
+burning sun, which was now high in the heavens, with a sort of heavy,
+waveless throb, as if composing itself uneasily to sleep, the ship
+rolling with the motion to and fro.
+
+The pirates were not asleep, however.  As soon as the breeze failed they
+rigged out long oars from her low sides, and were leisurely sweeping
+nearer and nearer to the _Hankow Lin_ with every pulse of the sea.
+
+They must have heard the reports of the rifles and revolvers, as well as
+seen the smoke of the discharges, and heard the yells of the Malays as
+they fought hand to hand with the blue-jackets, for the air was as clear
+as could be; but the stillness now, and the absence of any attempt to
+trim the sails or to escape, deceived them.  They evidently thought that
+their fellow-conspirators on board had gained the day, or that the
+slaughter had been so great on both sides that there was no longer
+anybody capable of resistance; for after a short pause, when they were a
+cable's-length distant, the sweeps again set to work, and the low black
+hull of the schooner was urged forwards again towards the _Hankow Lin_,
+until those on the watch between the ports could see down on to her
+deck, which was crowded with yellow Malays like those with whom they had
+had such a desperate fight; besides numbers of Chinese, some of the
+black natives of Borneo and New Guinea, Portuguese desperadoes, and such
+ferocious-looking ruffians as herd together in Eastern seas.
+
+"Be ready, men, to lift the ports and run out the guns," said the
+lieutenant, with finger uplifted to impose silence.  "Depress your
+muzzles, and wait till I give the word to fire.  She'll come up on this
+side, as I thought, so we'll give her the benefit of all four at once!"
+
+Up crept the pirate, the ominous black flag still hoisted, although, as
+the breeze had dropped, it hung down limp from the mast; and they could
+hear the chatter of voices on board her quite distinctly.  Nearer and
+nearer she came--until the lieutenant could count every man that stood
+grouped on her flush deck.
+
+There seemed to be sixty or seventy of them, and they clustered
+together, looking over the side of their vessel at their expected prey.
+
+Nearer and nearer she still continued to glide--until the schooner was
+almost alongside the _Hankow Lin_, and not ten yards off.  It looked as
+if the pirate was going to run them aboard!
+
+"Now," whispered the lieutenant again to the expectant Englishmen around
+him--"small-arm men reserve your fire; you at the guns, be ready to run
+them out.  Now, men, altogether, drop the ports!  Run out the guns!
+Fire!"
+
+The concussion shook the ship to her centre, and a perfect hail of
+grape-shot was poured on the deck of the schooner, making long lanes or
+furrows through the ranks of the pirate's crew, as if they had been
+mowed down by a scythe!
+
+"Again, men; sharp's the word.  Load again, and give them another round.
+Quick!  That's right," as a wild yell rose again from the crowded
+pirate.  "Now, Captain Morton, one more round and then I shall board her
+on the weather-side.  Load again as quickly as you can.  Fire!"
+
+The terrific shot-shower again swept into the schooner, which had
+remained in the same position, the first two broadsides having broken
+the sweeps and killed the men manning them; and before the pirates could
+recover from their surprise the guns had been loaded again, and the gig
+of the _Hankow Lin_, with Lieutenant Meredith and his chosen crew, not
+forgetting Mr Sprott, had dashed out from the ship and boarded the
+schooner on her other side, where they least of all expected a foe, and
+the smoke concealed the boat's movements.
+
+At the instant that the naval lieutenant jumped into her rigging with
+his men, another discharge of the Armstrong guns swept her decks, and
+the schooner, impelled by the calm, which makes floating surfaces
+approach each other on the water, ranged up alongside the tea-ship.  At
+this moment, Snowball dropped from the forecastle of the _Hankow Lin_
+into the bows of the schooner, followed by Jem Backstay and half-a-dozen
+others.
+
+Assailed thus on all sides--the lieutenant and his crew clearing all
+before them with a valiant cheer, which Snowball re-echoed with a
+terrific shout like an Indian war-cry, perhaps from some intuitive
+recollections of his native wilds on the banks of the Congo, in which
+the words "golly, take dat now!" could, however, be plainly
+distinguished--the attack proved a trifle too hot for the mongrel lot of
+scoundrels whom the pirate captain, or cut-throat, commanded; and they
+gave way instanter.  Some died fighting to the last; some jumped
+overboard, preferring cold water to English cold steel; and the
+remainder, some twenty in number, who had escaped the murderous grape
+from the guns and the keen cutlasses of the blue-jackets, threw down
+their arms and surrendered, when they were driven into the hold, and the
+hatches battened down over them.
+
+The fight from beginning to end had not lasted ten minutes; and the
+pirate ship was captured in almost quicker time than it had taken to
+overcome the original Malay gang on board the _Hankow Lin_.
+
+"Hoist the Union Jack, Snowball," said the lieutenant to the darky, who
+had done so much to gain the victory--seeing him with the flag in his
+hand, and apparently itching to haul it up.  "Hoist away, darky, and let
+us have honest colours over that dirty black rag!  Now, lads, three
+cheers!"
+
+"Lord bless you!" as Bill the boatswain said to his wife when telling
+her the story of the pirate's repulse when he got home some time
+afterwards, safe and sound, as luck would have it, "you oughter have
+just heard the shout that then went up from our throats to heaven!  It
+sounded a'most like thunder; it were louder nor the report of the
+Armstrong guns as peppered the varmint!"
+
+
+
+VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SIX.
+
+"ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL."
+
+To make a long story short, I may state briefly that in the second part
+of the action--the second act of a tragedy, it was for the Malays--both
+the bluejackets and the men of the _Hankow Lin_ got off scot-free, not
+another casualty happening to swell the death-roll, or a fresh wound of
+any consequence being received by any of those engaged.  The surprise to
+the pirates on finding they had "caught a Tartar," instead of assailing
+a defenceless merchant vessel, as they had expected, was so complete,
+that, in nautical phraseology, they were "taken all aback."
+
+Not expecting any opposition to speak of, and confident that the ship
+they were attacking carried no guns--for how could even the most astute
+of the Malays have supposed, with all their prying and peeping, that the
+_Hankow Lin_ had a set of Armstrongs on board her, headed up in
+hogsheads?--the pirates were stupefied by the first broadside they
+received; and, after that, their resistance amounted to _nil_,
+especially the more as one of the discharges killed their chief, when,
+of course, they had no one to lead them on or rally their drooping
+energies on the pinch.
+
+The schooner, it was found, was none other than the _Diavolo_, a pirate
+craft commanded by a Portuguese renegade, who had already earned for
+himself a somewhat questionable reputation in Eastern seas; and how
+Captain Morton got wind of the intentions of the Malay crew to mutiny
+and bring his ship for destruction may be thus briefly told:--
+
+Several large tea-traders having mysteriously disappeared on their
+voyage home to England, after shipping Malay crews on board, the English
+admiral on the station had conferred with the Chinese authorities, and
+from them learned that the _Diavolo_ was suspected, and that a spy had
+discovered that an attempt would be made on the _Hankow Lin_, which was
+just loading at the time, and which had, like the other missing ships,
+shipped some Malay hands, in consequence of the loss of the main portion
+of her English crew on the voyage out.
+
+Accordingly, precautions were taken to counteract the conspiracy of the
+Malay crew and capture the pirate by putting on board arms and
+munition--of which they supposed the ship to have none--and concealing
+in the saloon a force of blue-jackets to combine with the English part
+of the crew should the contemplated mutiny break out--the result of
+which precautions proved, as we have seen, to be eminently successful.
+
+While the calm lasted, the bodies of the dead pirates were hove
+overboard, and the three bluejackets and Phillips who had lost their
+life in the first struggle with the Malays committed carefully to the
+deep with every solemnity; and then the _Hankow Lin_, as soon as the
+wind sprang up again, as it did by sundown, was headed towards Singapore
+in accordance with Lieutenant Meredith's wish, although it was sorely
+against Captain Morton's will to bear off from his direct course to
+England, which was almost right in front of him, the Straits of Sunda
+bearing a point or two off the lee beam.
+
+However, Captain Morton lost nothing by his compliance with the
+lieutenant's wish.  The _Hankow Lin_ when she arrived at Singapore was
+allotted a half share of the value of the pirate schooner and all she
+contained; and that craft being pretty nearly crammed full of plunder,
+which she had accumulated from the different ships that had been
+captured and scuttled by her in her nefarious career, the sum thus
+awarded to Captain Morton was more than sufficient to compensate his
+owners for any delay that had arisen through the _Hankow Lin's_
+detention at the Dutch port, besides swelling the handsome bounty that
+was paid to each and all of the crew engaged in the affair.
+
+This was not all, either.
+
+At Singapore, Captain Morton was able to obtain what he could not have
+very well voyaged home without, and that was a supply of fresh hands to
+navigate the ship in place of the treacherous scoundrels who had engaged
+with him at Canton only to plot her destruction, although the captain
+had ample satisfaction for all this ere he left the place, for, as Bill
+the boatswain said in mentioning the fact afterwards, he "saw every
+mother's son of them hung before he weighed anchor again."
+
+After bidding adieu to their late active comrades the blue-jackets, all
+went well with the old vessel, from Singapore to the Straits of Sunda,
+across the Indian Ocean, and round the Cape of Good Hope.  Not an
+untoward event happened on the way home, not a mishap occurred, and, as
+Snowball said when he stepped ashore in the East India Dock, "All's well
+dat ends well."  And so ended *The Voyage of the "Hankow Lin*."
+
+
+
+VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER ONE.
+
+AT ZANZIBAR.
+
+"Have I ever been to Madagascar?" he repeated, with a look of amazement
+and wonder quaintly combined on his good-natured, ruddy-brown, weather-
+beaten face.  "Is that what you wanted to know, eh?"
+
+"Yes," I replied, "that is, if you've no objection to answer my
+question."
+
+"Why, no!  I've nothing to keep dark of my doings."
+
+"All right!" said I; "then you can go ahead."
+
+"Well, sir," he began, drawing a deep breath as if he only just took in
+the import of my question and was turning over in his mind the matter in
+all its bearings, "I should rather just think I had been to Madagascar,
+and there's precious little chance too of my forgetting it, either, in a
+hurry.  Ah! if you'd once been wrecked on sich a queer, outlandish,
+wild, desolate sort o' shore as that there, arterwards havin' to swim
+miles upon miles through a heavy rolling sea to get to land, and that
+under a fierce burning sun the while; besides, when got ashore at last,
+being forced to tramp for ten long weary days and nights across slimy
+green marshes filled with alligators, crawling through thick jungles of
+thorny bushes that tore your flesh to pieces before ever you could ha'
+come to a civilised place to get your wants attended--you, that is me,
+not having a morsel of food or a drop of pure water to drink all the
+way--why, sir, I fancy as how you'd remember the blessed place to your
+dying day; and, would recollect all about it in the flash of a moment
+again when any one just mentioned its name again the same as you have
+done just now!"
+
+The speaker was a fine, robust-looking seaman of middle height, and
+probably of middle age also, for there was a slight suspicion of grey in
+the crisp brown beard that covered the lower part of his countenance,
+while several prominent wrinkles were apparent about the corners of his
+merry, twinkling, blue eyes.
+
+He was dressed respectably in a sober suit of some rough material that
+fitted easily to his well-proportioned limbs, and, from his civilian
+costume and nautical look--for he had a sort of briny flavour about him,
+so to speak--I took him for a petty officer of the Royal Navy who had
+retired from the active duties of his profession on account of his
+length of service afloat having entitled him to the _otium cum
+dignitate_ of a pension ashore for the remainder of his days.  Such was
+my surmise at first sight--an impression subsequently in part confirmed;
+but be that as it may, he and I had got into conversation one bright
+summer day not long ago while standing on Portsmouth Hard, watching a
+white-hulled Indian troopship steaming out of the harbour beyond, with
+the marines for Egypt on board.  I had mentioned Madagascar in casually
+commenting on the plucky behaviour displayed at Tamatave by Captain
+Johnstone of HMS _Dryad_ in resisting the high-handed proceedings of the
+French admiral, who appeared to think that he might insult the English
+flag with impunity from the fact of his being in command of a squadron
+flying the Tricolour flag while the representative of the Union Jack had
+only one solitary vessel to oppose to that force.
+
+"Aye, I know the East African station well," continued my friend.  "I
+was invalided home from there, and got my pension three years before my
+twenty years' term of service was up in consequence."
+
+"Indeed!" said I, to lead him on, in expectation of the yarn I could
+perceive looming before me; but playing with my fish gently, as anglers
+know so well how to do, so that I might not frighten him into silence by
+any undue display of anxiety on my part.
+
+"Yes, I served over a year in the _London_ at Zanzibar before being
+drafted off to one of the cruisers on the station.  Beastly unhealthy
+place that Zanzibar--all fevers and agues and malaria in the wet season,
+and as hot as a place you've heard of, sir, when the sou'-west monsoon
+blows off the African shore.  I was there when Sir Bartle Frere came to
+interview the old sultan to try and make him sign a treaty to put down
+the slave-trade; but it was all no go--the old sultan was too wide-awake
+for that, and, indeed, treaty or no treaty, we can never quite stop the
+dealing in slaves between the Arabs on the one hand and the clove-
+growers on the other."
+
+"No?" said I interrogatively, wondering what the harmless clove, which
+forms such an important unit in the "sugar and spice and all things
+nice" combination of culinary seasoning, could possibly have to do with
+the slave-trade of East Africa.
+
+"No, sir," he answered emphatically, with the air of a man who well knew
+what he was talking about and was certain of his facts, "it can't be
+done.  You see, at certain times of the year, about a month after the
+rainy season ends, in September, the cloves ripen, and it takes a good
+many hands to pick 'em all and gather them in.  Did you ever see them
+growing, sir?"
+
+"I can't say I ever have," I responded, "although, of course, I've read
+about them."
+
+"Well, sir, the cloves grow on tall, biggish-sized trees--"
+
+"Dear me!"  I said, interrupting him, "why, I thought they were the
+fruit of some little shrub like currants and capers."
+
+"Oh, no!  They grow on trees, and some of a goodish height too.  The
+cloves are the bud or blossom of the tree before the flower comes; and
+they must be picked early in time, or else they're not fit for anything.
+Their name, `cloves'--I don't know whether you are aware on it, sir--is
+from the little things resembling a small nail--_clavo_, as it's called
+in the Spanish."
+
+"I didn't know that," I said.
+
+"That's it, then," he replied, proceeding with his explanation.  "Now,
+of course you can see that the cloves must be got off the trees before
+the blossom ripens too much, but as the sun is so terribly hot and such
+a miasma comes up from the places where the trees grow only niggers can
+stand the exposure; and so it is that slave labour is wanted, for no
+whites could undertake the job, and the Arab merchants, you may be sure,
+wouldn't do it themselves, in spite of the large demand for cloves in
+the European markets--that is, so long as they can get slaves to do it
+for 'em."
+
+"How do they gather them?"  I asked.
+
+"Why, they have queer-shaped ladders, just of the same sort as those
+little things they put in pots of garden musk to train the plants on,
+broad at one end and narrow at the other--something like a triangular
+grating--so that a lot of the niggers can stand on it at a time and pick
+away from the same tree, on which, perhaps, there are millions of buds
+to be taken off in less than no time.  When they are all gathered
+they're spread out in the sun and dried, and then sent off in bags to
+whoever wants 'em."
+
+"And where are they principally grown?" said I.
+
+"Why, Pemba.  That's an island up above Zanzibar, about sixty miles from
+the coast, though they're very good cloves grown on Zanzibar Island too;
+but Pemba is the chief place, and it is to there that the chief runs of
+slaves are made by the Arab dhows.  That is why the _London_ was so long
+stationed thereabouts: it was in order to intercept these craft and stop
+the traffic."
+
+"I suppose you've seen some service chasing the dhows yourself, eh?"  I
+said, thinking this a good opening for getting him back to his yarn, as
+he seemed inclined to end the conversation at this point, hinting that
+he had an appointment "in the yard"--meaning Portsmouth dockyard--and
+that it was getting on late, and they would soon be closing up.
+
+"Oh yes, sir!  I served my time dhow-chasing when I was in the _London_;
+and saw a few sights, too, in the different craft we overhauled that
+would ha' made your blood boil against slavery.  One dhow, I remember,
+we captured with nearly a hundred on board, all crammed into a space
+that you couldn't have thought would have held half that number of human
+beings, for it was a small dhow, of probably not more than forty tons at
+the outside.  On the ballast at the bottom of the vessel were huddled up
+twenty-three women, some with infants in their arms.  They were
+literally doubled up, sir, as they could not stand from the position
+they were in, as right over them was placed a bamboo deck not three feet
+above the keel of the boat, on which forty men were jammed together in
+the same way.  This was not all, either, for, right above the men, right
+on to their heads almost as they squatted down, was another deck of
+bamboo, on which were over fifty children of all ages.  The whole lot,
+too, when we boarded the dhow, were in the last stages of starvation and
+dysentery, not to speak of what they must have suffered from the cramped
+position in which they were confined and the want of air.  They smelled
+something awful when we unkiverd them; it was enough to knock down a
+horse."
+
+"It was horrible," I said in sympathy.
+
+"No doubt it were all that," replied my friend the pensioner.  "But from
+what I saw out there I do believe the very attempts our government make
+to put down the slave-trade only increases the evils of the poor
+wretches we are trying to liberate."
+
+"How is that?"  I asked.
+
+"Why, you see, when the traffic used to be permitted, as it was once for
+a period of eight months in the year, just as you have at home a set
+time for shooting game, the slaves used to be carried in large dhows,
+more comfortably, and well supplied with food and water in their passage
+from the mainland to Pemba and Zanzibar; but when our cruisers began to
+look out for them and stopped the trade, no matter whether it was in the
+dry season or not, then the Arabs would pack 'em up in small craft that
+could lie hid in the creeks or shallows of the coast and smuggle the
+niggers in during the night-time, for these Arabs are just like cats,
+and can see in the dark when our men couldn't perceive their hands afore
+their face.  Once upon a time, when I first went on the station, we used
+to capture good big dhows that were of a hundred and eighty tons burden
+and upwards; now our men only get hold of little Mtpe dhows that are
+hardly worth taking--I suppose you know, sir, as how we get a bounty or
+prize-money, according to the size of the vessels and the number of
+slaves we liberate?"
+
+"Yes," said I, "I'm aware of that, as I have noticed advertisements in
+the _London Gazette_ about the distribution of the bounty for such and
+such slave-dhows `captured by the boats of HMS _London_' or some other
+cruiser named.  How are these dhows built?"
+
+"Of a sort of close hard wood like African oak, but harder than our
+English timber of the same nature.  The planks of the small Mtpe dhows
+are sewn together with a thread-like stuff they get from the reeds in
+the lagoons.  They are built broad and shallow, with a keel deepening
+towards the stern, almost like a wedge, so that they can turn quickly.
+They're good sea-boats, too, and can sail almost up into the wind's eye,
+with their large lateen sails, which are cut something like an old-
+fashioned leg of mutton, or short tack lug.  The stem of them rises high
+out of the water, having a poop on it, which is thatched over with
+matting and banana leaves; and altogether they don't look unlike a
+Chinese junk.  Some of the bigger dhows, which are used as war craft by
+the Arab chiefs of Lamoi and Mozambique, are fine craft, and carry six
+and twelve brass guns sometimes, like the old carronades of the
+service."
+
+"They sail well, you say?"  I inquired.
+
+"Don't they, that's all!  Why, none of our quickest steam-pinnaces can
+overhaul them when they're going on a wind, for even with the lightest
+breeze their sails, being made of twilled calico and light, waft them
+along as if by magic.  There are twenty that escape us for every one we
+catch, as, in the busy season, the caravans from the interior bring the
+slaves down to the coast wholesale.  The Portuguese and Arabs are the
+chaps that manage the business; and once the slaves are aboard the
+dhows, they sneak along the land until night-time, when, if the wind
+blows fair for them, they're off and away to Pemba, or further up
+towards the Arabian coast, where our boats can whistle for them for all
+the chance they have of overhauling them!"
+
+"What becomes of the slaves that are liberated when the dhows are
+captured?" said I.
+
+"Oh, the boys are sent to the Boy's Mission Schools at Zanzibar, and the
+girls to the Female Mission there also; while the men folk, at least all
+the able-bodied and strong ones that are not too old, are enlisted into
+the sultan's army--the Sultan of Zanzibar, I mean, the Seyyid Burgash
+that was.  When I was there, the commander of his army was a lieutenant
+of our navy who had been `lent' by government for the purpose for three
+years, and now he has left the service altogether and is known as
+`General Matthews' on the east coast.  A right smart chap he is too, for
+he drilled the niggers as well as if he were a born sojer instead of a
+sailor!"
+
+"Do the slaves like this business?"  I asked, thinking that their
+"freedom" seemed rather questionable; and then, too, consider the cost
+both in men and money it is to England every year.
+
+"Well, I don't believe they do," answered the ex-man-o'-war's-man--"I've
+heard some of them say that they were quite contented to work on the
+clove plantations, and preferred that to loafing about the streets of
+Zanzibar, where hundreds of them are to be seen every day, with nothing
+to do and very little to eat, unless they take to thieving!"
+
+"What sort of a place is Zanzibar?" said I now.
+
+"Well, sir," replied the pensioner, "like all them oriental towns I have
+ever seen in the Levant and elsewhere, it looks ever so much better as
+seen from the sea than it does at close quarters.  Coming into the
+harbour from the southwards, as I've entered it many a time when
+returning from a trip down to the Mozambique, your vessel has to wind
+slowly along through numerous little coral islands, which are, however,
+grown with stunted trees and bush quite close down to the water."
+
+"That must be lovely!"  I remarked.
+
+"Aye, aye, so it is," said my friend; "but the navigation is awfully
+difficult, not to say dangerous, even with a man in the chains heaving
+the lead and singing out the depth every moment, for the soundings shoot
+from the `deep nine' to the `short five,' and less nor that too, before
+you know where you are!  Howsomdever, once you've got inside and cast
+anchor, it's as pretty a roadstead as I ever clapped eyes on--as pretty
+as Rio in South America, which I daresay you've heard of?"
+
+"Yes, and seen too," I said in response.
+
+"Have you, sir?" replied the ex-man-o'-war's-man--"then all I can say is
+that you've seen the handsomest harbour in the world!  But, still,
+Zanzibar ain't far behind it.  The front of the town, which faces the
+anchorage, looks quite imposing like.  The water of the bay is clear
+too, so that you can see the bottom down to any depth; and the white
+sandy beach fringing it round is just like snow against the dark
+background of palm-trees and green foliage.  Along the beach are the
+warehouses and residences of the English-speaking merchants, the grand
+mansions of the richer sort of citizens, and the offices of the
+different foreign consuls--each with its own national flag fluttering
+gaily from the top, the British Union Jack and the Yankee Stars and
+Stripes being very prominent; while, in the very centre of the lot, is
+the palace of the sultan, a fine concern.  From the top of this flies
+the red ensign of Arabia, and around it may be seen sentries in a sort
+of zouave uniform, selected from that very slave army I told you of just
+now."
+
+"What struck you as most peculiar about the place?"  I asked.
+
+"Well, I'm hanged if it weren't the niggers, sir!" said my informant.
+"You see there the most extraordinary number of little darkies you ever
+saw in your life, all with nothing on 'em, no more than Adam--not even a
+fig-leaf!  The next thing to strike you, if a stranger, would be the
+heat, for it is far hotter, strange to say, ashore there than it is
+aboard your own ship.  Some of the houses are curious to look at, for
+they have neither windows nor doors; for the best dwellings are built
+round an open court, and the windows, or air-holes as they might more
+properly be called, open on to that.  Instead of being light and built
+of some flimsy stuff, as you might expect, the houses are all put up `on
+the heat-resisting principle,' as I heard an engineer describe them--
+just like the Irishman that wore his Connemara frieze coat in summer to
+keep out the sun, as he said, in the same way as he put it on in winter
+to keep out the cold!"
+
+"Indeed!"  I said.
+
+"Yes, sir," continued my friend; "the walls of all the large houses at
+Zanzibar are many feet thick of solid stone masonry; and even the floors
+and partitions dividing the rooms are of several thicknesses too, all
+made of wood and stone and lime, the wood being covered over with
+mortar.  The roof is the best part of them, however.  It is made quite
+flat, and it is the principal spot for the family to go of an evening
+when the sun has gone down and the night-breeze begins to blow.  The
+Arabs and Parsees go on top in the mornings too, at sunrise, to say
+their prayers, spreading out a bit of sacred carpet over the stone
+flagging that forms the floor of the roof."
+
+"Are there many shops?"  I next inquired.
+
+"Bless you, the town's crammed full of them! but they're only open
+sheds, in the centre of which some Hindoo or Banian merchant is to be
+seen squatting all day long, chewing hashish or smoking his hubble-
+bubble, as if he hadn't a stroke of business to do, and didn't care
+about doing it either if he got the chance!"
+
+"I suppose they have goods to sell, though, eh!"  I said.
+
+"Oh, yes, shawls and sandals and silks and such like; while in the
+eatable line you can get coffee and sherbet, and arrack too, or what
+they call English rum, besides pine-apples and mangoes, oranges,
+citrons, guavas, green cocoa-nuts, and every fruit you could think of,
+as well as cakes and sweetmeats.  The streets in the town are very
+narrow and are crowded with these sorts of shops or rather stalls, for
+they're just like the places you see old apple-women rig up at the
+corners in London; but the bazaars are the best spots to look at--
+they're just like those in India, and some that I've seen too in
+Constantinople.  Lor' sakes! why, they're crowded with Arabs and
+Hindoos, Persians, Africans, Somali Arabs, and every sort of coloured
+native you can imagine, sir, from the lightest coffee-tinted mulatto
+down to the jettiest black of the pure nigger brought originally from
+the interior as a slave.
+
+"The funniest thing, too, about these bazaars is to see the different
+trades or handicraftsmen at work, the goldsmiths making rings by
+hammering and beating the metal, the jewellers stringing pearls together
+for necklaces and bracelets, the toy-makers rigging up the queerest
+curios you ever saw, and the sandal-makers cutting out shoes of leather;
+but the biggest treat of all is to watch a Parsee school and see how the
+master instructs the little shavers.  The children, to the number of
+fifty or more, all squat on the floor of the school-room, which is a
+large open shed on a raised platform, each holding in one hand the
+blade-bone taken from the shoulder of a camel to serve as a slate, on
+which they make marks with a pencil-like brush.  They are pretty little
+trots, the children; and are mostly all smartly dressed in little
+jackets and trousers of various coloured silks, green, yellow, and red,
+with turbans on top of their heads, just like their fathers, to complete
+the picture."
+
+"The end of the rainy season, you say, is the best time for catching the
+dhows?"  I asked now, to bring my friend back to the main point of all
+my interrogatories.
+
+"Yes, there's the greatest demand then for the slaves; besides which the
+south-west monsoon sets in at that time, and is favourable for their
+crossing from the mainland."
+
+"Do they ever show fight?"  I inquired.
+
+"Bather!" ejaculated my informant; "they're about as treacherous a lot
+as you could ever come across, them Arabs; for, I tell you what, they'll
+sometimes let a boat's crew overhaul 'em, and come up alongside as if
+everything was ship-shape and clear sailing--that is to say, sir, that
+they have nothing contraband aboard and could show a clean bill o'
+lading; when, drat 'em, they'll turn round on you like a parcel o'
+tigers with their sharp knives and spears.  It was in this way my poor
+skipper, Capt'in Brownrigg, was killed in December '81--just at
+Christmas time, when I were out there."
+
+"That was a sad thing," said I sympathisingly.
+
+"Yes," replied the pensioner; "but, saddest of all, it was to know his
+poor wife had just come out from England to join him, and was aboard the
+_London_ at the very time his body was brought alongside the ship in the
+steam-pinnace in which he had met his death.  Ah! he was a fine officer
+was Capt'in Brownrigg, and liked by everybody--not only by his brother
+officers and equals, but by the men under him.  Bless you, they'd a'
+gone anywheres to win a smile from his cheery face.  Hullo, though, sir,
+look there, they're shutting up the dockyard gate!"
+
+Such indeed was the case, showing that the afternoon was pretty nearly
+"expended," as they say in the service.
+
+"Ah! that comes along o' yarning with you and not minding the business
+that brought me down here, for now I'm too late."
+
+"Well, in that case," said I, seeing my chance now for getting the oft-
+evaded yarn of my friend's long service, "suppose you come home to my
+place and have a cup of tea, when you can tell me the story of your
+shipwreck off Madagascar, eh?"
+
+He hemmed and hawed for a moment; but seeing that my invitation was
+cordially given, and I suppose having nothing else particularly to do,
+he accepted--whence this story.
+
+
+
+VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER TWO.
+
+WIND AND STEAM.
+
+When I had made the pensioner as comfortable as I could at my little
+place--attending carefully to the wants of his inner man before
+appearing to have any curiosity regarding the matter that had made me
+invite him home--and the tea-things were cleared away, I gave a sort of
+inquiring cough, which he immediately took as my signal for him to begin
+his yarn.
+
+"After serving a year in the _London_, as I told you before, sir," he
+commenced, without any preliminary beating about the bush, as many a
+landsman would have done, "I was drafted on to an old cruiser called the
+_Dolphin_.  She's been broken up now, like the old _London_, though I
+hear they've got a rare smart despatch-boat just building called by the
+same name; but the _Dolphin_ as I'm speaking of is quite different and
+not the same vessel--remember that, sir, please, in case anybody should
+try to throw doubts on my yarn, as some of them sea-lawyers will."
+
+"I assure you," said I to encourage him, "that I am quite satisfied as
+to the truth of your story."
+
+"Well, then," he resumed, "the _Dolphin_ I am speaking of to you, sir,
+was a pretty fast boat for a paddle-steamer, and had already made some
+tidy captures of slave-dhows--that is, since she had been commissioned
+and sent out from England, about six months before, to replace an old
+sailing brig that formerly did duty on the station as tender to the old
+_London_; so I fully expected when I jined her to have some smart work
+afore me--and I warn't disapinted neither!"
+
+"No?" said I questioningly to lead him on, settling myself cosily in my
+chair.
+
+"You're right, sir, I warn't," replied my friend Ben.  "The very first
+day I shipped aboard the _Dolphin_ we took two Mtpe dhows close inshore
+near Pemba.  That brought me in a niceish bit of prize-money for a
+start; and, just a week arter that exactly, when we had got down to our
+proper cruising ground--that was, sir, just atween Zanzibar and the
+Mozambique Channel, which, as I daresay you know, sir, is about two
+hundred and fifty miles wide and runs between Madagascar and the
+mainland of Africa--why, we came upon the biggest haul that had been
+made on the coast for years; but we had to work for it, I tell you.
+That was a chase and no mistake!"
+
+"Was it?"  I asked, glad of Ben's coming now to an actual yarn
+concerning some of the stirring events of his life; for he had
+previously only been "beating about the bush," so to speak.
+
+"Yes, sir; and not only a chase that was something to boast of, but a
+fight as well at the end of it--one of the smartest scrimmages I ever
+had all the time I was out there.  If you don't mind my lighting a pipe,
+for I allers, sir, can tell a yarn better when I'm smoking, I'll just
+haul my jaw-tackle aboard and give you a full account of the whole
+adventure."
+
+"Do," I said.
+
+"There!" exclaimed he with a grunt of satisfaction, carefully filling a
+briar-root pipe with some dark tobacco, which he produced from out of a
+little round brass box that he carried in his waistcoat pocket, telling
+me it was "the right sort," and proceeding to light it--"now, we can go
+on serenely."
+
+"Fire away!" said I, to encourage him, "I'm all attention."
+
+He did not waste any more time; but at once began his story.
+
+"The _Dolphin_ had run down south with the fag-end of the north-east
+monsoon, economising her coals as much as possible, as all the men-of-
+war have to do nowadays, worse luck--sometimes when it's a question
+between saving a few pounds or sacrificing a ship!  We had passed
+Mazemba island, and had just weathered Cape Delgado, which is some ten
+degrees south of the equator, when--it was close on sunset at the time,
+and it grows dark all at once after that, you know, in the tropics--the
+look-out man sang out, `sail-ho!'  This was just as we were piped down
+to tea.  Bless you, we didn't think no more of going below, I can tell
+you!"
+
+"I suppose not," I put in, to show I was listening attentively to what
+he was saying, for he paused at this juncture, as if waiting for me to
+say something.
+
+"No, sir.  Of course, although we were running down under easy sail the
+engine-fires were ready banked up, so that it didn't take us long to get
+up steam; and we were soon round like a shot, and retracing our way,
+right in the face of the wind, after a large dhow which we could see
+stealing up along-shore and hugging the land.  She was what the Arabs
+called a batilla, and had two large lugs, or lateen sails set, besides a
+sort of square-cut jib forwards on her high-peaked bowsprit, by the aid
+of which she was sailing close-hauled, almost in the very teeth of the
+nor'-easter that was blowing pretty stiffly at the time, making it risky
+work for a vessel to approach so near a lee-shore as she was doing.
+However, I suppose her captain thought he would be able to slip by us in
+the darkness, when he might have got under the shelter of the island we
+had passed only a short while previously in our downward passage to the
+Mozambique; and, once he was out of sight of the _Dolphin_, of course he
+could have put out to sea again at his leisure, making his way north as
+soon as the coast seemed clear, and thus escaping us altogether."
+
+"But he reckoned without his host that time, eh?" said I.
+
+"Aye, that he did," responded the ex-man-o'-war's-man, warming up to his
+subject as he proceeded.  "He made a great mistake, did that there Arab
+slave skipper when he thought he'd hoodwink us aboard the _Dolphin_ this
+evening I'm a-talking of--a mistake, sir, as I'll soon show you, that
+cost him not only his vessel, but his life as well!"
+
+"Indeed?"  I interposed, beginning to get interested in Ben's yarn now
+that he had actually got under weigh with it in earnest.
+
+"Yes, that it did," replied Ben Campion, striking another match to
+relight his pipe, which had gone out in the interval, and puffing away
+vigorously for a few seconds in order to get it in full blast.--"He was
+a 'cute chap, though, that skipper," continued Ben presently when he had
+got the pipe to go to his satisfaction;--"for no sooner had he perceived
+that we had observed him and were in chase, than he threw off all
+pretence of attempting to deceive us by passing off as a simple trader.
+Abandoning his design of beating up to Cape Delgado, he wore the dhow
+round as sharp as lightning and made off down along the coast, right
+before the full strength of the monsoon; where, with the wind in his
+favour, he would have a better chance of getting away from us, those
+dhows, as I've told you, sometimes walking away from a steam-pinnace as
+if she were standing still.  This time, however, he had no cockle-shell
+of a pinnace after him, but a smart paddle-steamer, and one, too, that
+could go along well also before the wind, carrying square sails as did
+the _Dolphin_ on her foremast and a huge spanker aft.  A stern-chase, of
+course, is a long chase all the world over, as everybody knows, and ours
+was no exception.  Still, all the time we gradually overhauled the dhow;
+and just about sunset we got within range of a long seven-inch gun,
+which we carried forwards.  This, Mr Shrapnel, our gunner, trained
+right across the slaver's bows, and at the word of command, `Fire!' let
+drive with a bang that shook the steamer right down to her kelson and
+seemed to stop her way for the moment, sending her back, as it were,
+with the recoil.
+
+"The gun was well aimed, the shot pitching up the water some fifty yards
+in front of her, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the dhow a
+bit, her captain keeping right on with every stitch of his canvas set,
+the wide lateen sails bellying out to their full, as we could see, and
+the queer-looking craft burying herself in the foam that she churned up
+as she dived down into the waves every moment with a plunge, as if she
+were going headlong down to the bottom, taking in huge seas over her
+cat-heads; for it was blowing more than half a gale at the time, and
+even we in our bigger craft found it hard work carrying on as we did
+with both wind and steam.  And I tell you we were going too!  Our
+engines were revolving full speed ahead, and our canvas must have helped
+us full another five knots, with the wind dead astern as it was, and we
+running before it, while, to aid us, there was the usual inshore
+current--that runs down the coast of the Mozambique from Cape Delgado to
+right opposite Madagascar, where it turns off more in an easterly
+direction--carrying us along like a mill-race, some rate of three knots
+more.  It made the _Dolphin_ quiver and tremble through every timber as
+she seemed literally to fly through the water, but it didn't make us
+approach the dhow any closer, although we held our own.  As the wind got
+up more and more, for it was the tail-end of the north-east monsoon, as
+I told you, and those blessed monsoons always die out with a brush when
+they've got to the end of their tether, the slaver appeared to rise
+bodily out of the water and skim along the surface from the top of one
+rolling wave on to another--just as you see an albatross does off the
+Cape of Good Hope when it has taken its first dart downwards after its
+prey, and has then to pursue it over the sea, the large sheets of the
+triangular sails of the dhow standing out on either side of her low dark
+keel in the same way as the pinions of the albatross touch the water in
+its flight.
+
+"Mr Shrapnel was told to fire another gun; but it had no greater effect
+than the first one, and our skipper hardly seemed to know what to do;
+for the dhow was now heading more towards the land, and the _Dolphin_
+would soon be in shoal water, as there are lots of reefs about them
+parts.  It would never do, either, to fire right into her, although we
+were well within range now, as we might probably damage some of the poor
+slaves aboard, who were no doubt packed as tightly as herrings in a
+barrel; and yet, it was growing dark, the sun being just on the point of
+setting over the highlands of the great African continent on our
+starboard hand.  If we didn't do something pretty soon Mr Arab dhow
+would be able to cry, `Walker!' and laugh at us for the wild-goose chase
+he had led us!"
+
+"You must have been pretty anxious as the moments flew by, the sun
+setting, and the darkness creeping up, without your being able to
+overhaul her?"  I said.
+
+"We were all that," replied Ben, knocking the ashes out of his pipe
+viciously as if he were giving the slave captain a rap on the
+head;--"and as we stood grouped around the deck amidships close by the
+engine-room hatch, fixing on our cutlasses and getting ready for the
+scrimmage, should luck enable us to have one, I don't know what we said
+we wouldn't do to the impudent beggars when we got aboard!
+
+"The land was looming well on our beam, some six miles distant, and
+those breakers visible between us and it.  The situation was a `tight'
+one, if there ever was such, for it looked uncommon like as if the
+captain of the dhow intended running ashore and risking her breaking to
+pieces on the rocks, if he couldn't find an opening in the coast into
+some lagoon where he could with his light draught beach the craft in
+safety.  He was evidently determined to escape us, run what risk he
+might!
+
+"I was standing alongside our skipper on the bridge; and I could see
+that he, too, was bound not to be licked, for he had screwed up his
+mouth in a way that he had when he had made up his mind to something,
+and then the admiral himself wouldn't have turned him from it!--He was a
+bold, courageous officer, was Captain Wilson, and every inch a sailor.
+Poor chap! he afterwards fell a victim to the fatal coast fever at
+Zanzibar.
+
+"Well, I could see from the look on his face now, that if the Arab
+skipper was a determined fellow, and had resolved to circumvent us, why,
+Captain Wilson was equally determined, too, that he shouldn't, and that
+it was a case of `pull baker, pull devil' atween the two!
+
+"`Campion,' say he to me, `pass the word forra'd for Mr Shrapnel to
+come here to me for a moment.'
+
+"Of course I did as he told me; and soon the gunner arrives on the
+bridge, where, as I still stopped, it being my station there for the
+time, I heard all that was said between the skipper and him.
+
+"`Mr Shrapnel,' says Captain Wilson, `we'll have to fire at the fellow
+in earnest now, or else he'll escape us; but I don't want to hurt any of
+those poor creatures, who are on board against their will.  Can't you
+manage to shoot away a spar so as to cripple his wings a bit, so that we
+can manage to get alongside before he gets too close inshore?'"
+
+"`I'll try, sir,' says the gunner, turning to go away.
+
+"`Do,' replies our skipper, `and look sharp about it, too, or else it
+will be too late.  Mind, though, and aim high.  I wouldn't have the
+slaves hurt for anything.  As for the Arab crew, we'll give 'em a taste
+of cold steel when we come across them, and that will be better than all
+the shot and shell we can send after them now!'
+
+"`Aye, aye, sir,' said Mr, Shrapnel, going forwards again without any
+delay; and the gun detachment being all ready, our seven-inch spoke out
+again to the slaver, with more purpose than it had done before.
+
+"The first shot went wide of the mark, and so did the second; but the
+third carried away her main halliards apparently, for the big sail came
+down all at once by the run, making the dhow broach-to as it fell over
+the side to leeward.  Our men gave a tremendous cheer at this, but the
+slaver captain was a smart chap, as you might have noticed before, and
+would not give in yet; as before you could say `Jack Robinson,' he had
+the halliards spliced again, and the sail hoisted, bearing away straight
+for the land now, and not edging along it as he had previously done.  He
+was evidently determined to destroy the vessel rather than give in.
+
+"`Silence, men!' shouted out Captain Wilson to stop our fellows
+cheering, which, as you know, sir, is against the rules of the service,
+although winked at sometimes in the enthusiasm of the moment.  `We
+haven't got the slaver yet, and it will be time to cheer when we've
+captured him!  Mr Shrapnel,' he added then, as soon as all was quiet,
+the men being as mum as a mouse fore and aft--`you must send another
+messenger after, my joker; try if you can't do him a little more damage
+this time!'
+
+"`Aye, aye, sir,' sang out the gunner; and he set to work again with a
+will, for the brief time during which the dhow's big main lug had been
+down had enabled us to get within half a mile of her, and Mr Shrapnel
+was better able to see what he was shooting at.  He was a knowing hand,
+was the gunner!  Watching his opportunity when the _Dolphin_ rose on the
+top of the heavy rolling swell that set in towards the land, and when
+the dhow was right down in the hollow of the combers, he pulled the
+lanyard of the trigger, and with a bang and a belch of flame and smoke a
+heavy conical shot went rotating through the air, making as much noise
+as a railroad train as it hurtled forwards at the chase, whose hull was
+hidden from view, but whose masts seemed quite close to us.
+
+"He didn't require to fire a second shot this time.
+
+"No sooner had the report sounded and the roaring rumbling thunder of
+the discharge died away in the distance, rolling in towards the coast--
+the smoke being blown away, too, as quickly by the wind--than we could
+see the dhow dismasted before us, swaying about in the trough of the
+sea.
+
+"She was a hopeless wreck, for both her masts had been snapped off short
+by the shot, and the yards to which the sails had been attached were
+lying athwart the deck.  The _Dolphin_ now ranged up alongside her on
+the leeward bow, and the captain hailed her to know if she surrendered,
+when one of the Arabs on board, who must have been the skipper, waved a
+red handkerchief or cloth of some kind in token of truce.  He was a
+tall, swarthy chap, with a turban instead of a fez, which the others
+wore, on his head; and the belt round his body, as we could see from
+looking down on to the deck of the dhow, which was much below the level
+of our vessel, was filled choke-full with long-barrelled pistols and
+dirks, and a round-shaped scimitar-like sword without a sheath that
+seemed as if it could give a fellow a very tidy cut.
+
+"The sea was rough and both the dhow and the _Dolphin_ were rolling
+about terribly, we dipping our foreyard-arms as we lay-to; but Captain
+Wilson at once ordered the first cutter to be piped away, with one of
+the lieutenants in charge; while nothing would suit him also but to have
+his own gig manned.  He said he mistrusted the slaver and would board
+her also himself, as she had a number of Arab rascals on her deck who
+would probably show fight.
+
+"The boats were soon in the water, under our lee, the men shinning down
+into them by the falls, each chap with his cutlass tucked into his
+waistband; and, in another moment, rounding under the stem of the
+_Dolphin_, and getting nearly swamped as we breasted the sea, we made
+for the dhow, that now lay about half a cable's-length from our vessel,
+which had drifted a bit astern.
+
+"`Put your backs into the stroke!' sang out Captain Wilson from his
+gig--for I was in the cutter; and with grim earnestness we stretched out
+as hard as we could, gripping the water firmly and then pulling with all
+our strength.  It was hard work against such a sea as was then running
+and in the face of the wind, which was still rising and more gusty than
+before; but we were soon alongside the chase, both the boats boarding
+her of course to leeward, although the captain in his gig dashed at the
+high poop astern, while we in the cutter made for her bows, which lay
+lower in the water and would thus enable us to get more easily on board.
+
+"Captain Wilson was right in his suspicions about the Arab skipper's
+surrender.  Although he had waved that red rag of his to make-believe
+that he had given in, so that we might not give him a broadside as he
+probably expected--for of course he didn't know that we would not fire
+the big guns for fear of killing the poor slaves in the hold--no sooner
+had we got alongside than the beggars showed fight.
+
+"I and another chap managed to grab hold of the bowsprit gear to haul
+ourselves up by into the fo'c'sle of the dhow, when chop came a cut that
+severed the ropes we had clutched, causing us to let go and drop back
+again into the bottom of the cutter with a thump that nearly knocked the
+bottom out of her, while another Arab shoved out the muzzle of a long
+matchlock right amongst us and fired it off so closely that the charge
+singed my whiskers.  That did one good job, however, for it made us
+pretty angry, as you might imagine, and the whole cutter's crew tumbled
+aboard in a way that astonished them, I can tell you.  They fought
+pluckily though, but they were more like mad cats than men, screaming
+and tearing us with their nails when we had knocked their long knives
+out of their hands and disarmed them.  As for the skipper of the dhow,
+he was a perfect demon, and would have settled Captain Wilson had it not
+been for the coxswain of the gig giving him a drive through with his
+cutlass just as he had got our captain down and, kneeling on his chest,
+was preparing coolly to cut his throat with the keen curving scimitar
+that we had seen in his belt.  Captain Wilson looked, sir, as pale as a
+ghost when he got on his feet again; for although he was as brave an
+officer as ever stepped, it does give a fellow a bit of a turn sometimes
+to be face to face with death, as he was then, and know that nothing,
+probably, can save you!
+
+"When we had got the better hand of the slave crew, in which we did not
+quite get off scot-free, five of our men being killed outright and
+several wounded with ugly gashes from the sharp knives of the Arabs, we
+set about opening the hatches to release the slaves, who had all this
+while been kicking up a thundering row below, yelling and hollering as
+if they were all being murdered.
+
+"Well, bless you! why, there were no less than three hundred and fifty
+crammed in the hold fore and aft on the two decks that were underneath
+the main one, and which had not four feet of space between them; the
+people, men, women, and children, being packed together so close that
+you couldn't have got a sheet of paper edgeways between them.  As for
+the smell; well, sir, I think you'd prefer that of a gas main just
+opened, or the foulest scent you could think of, to what we all smelt in
+the hold of that there dhow; for it seemed to smother us and make the
+strongest men aboard turn faint just like a girl does when she cuts her
+finger and sees the blood.
+
+"After releasing half of them and bringing them up on the upper deck of
+the dhow, for there was not space to let the whole of them out of the
+hold at once, we had to rig up the masts of the craft again so that she
+could make sail, the weather being too ticklish for the _Dolphin_ to
+take her in tow; although she did so for awhile, just in order to get a
+little further away from the coast, which was not too pleasant a
+neighbour with a north-east monsoon blowing and a heavy sea setting in
+towards the land.
+
+"By the time we had rigged up jury-masts on the dhow it was dark, so,
+warning the prize-crew that was on board, of which I was one, to keep a
+sharp look-out and mind that our tow-rope didn't part, Captain Wilson
+went back to his own vessel--he wouldn't leave us till everything was
+ship-shape again with the slaver and everybody seemed comfortable-like;
+taking with him the majority of the Arabs who had been uninjured in the
+scuffle, and who might have tried perhaps to recapture the dhow from the
+small lot of men whom our captain was able only to spare to man her.  Of
+course, there was very little chance of their attempting this now that
+their skipper was dead, the coxswain's thrust with his cutlass having
+lost the dark gentleman the `number of his mess'; but still, after the
+treachery they had already shown, it was best to take all proper
+precautions to spoil any little game they might try on.
+
+"During the night, the _Dolphin_ kept under easy steam head to sea, only
+just preventing us from drifting ashore, as our tow-rope was hardly ever
+taut the whole time, for the wind blew so strongly still from the
+northward and eastward, the very direction we had to make for to reach
+Zanzibar with our prize, that it was impossible for the steamer to make
+any way against it, especially with the dhow in tow.  The sea, too, was
+also very rough, breaking over the frail craft so frequently that we had
+to pack down all the slaves again below to prevent their being washed
+overboard.
+
+"Towards morning, the wind gradually lessened, showing signs of
+shifting, which was to be expected at the season, being near the end of
+March.  The sea, too, calmed down a bit, but there was still a heavy
+ground-swell, and from all appearances it looked as if there was going
+to be a squall, the more especially as it began to rain heavily.  I had
+been left by Captain Wilson in charge of the prize-crew, and this change
+in the weather made me feel somewhat uneasy of the tow-rope breaking
+from the increased strain there was now on it through the labouring of
+the dhow; for I thought it would be better for both the _Dolphin_ and
+ourselves that we should cast loose and each sail on her own account, as
+at this time of the year the south-west monsoon, which takes the place
+of the north-eastern `kizkasi,' as it is cabled, or Indian trade-wind,
+generally sets in with a violent tornado blowing from off the land.
+
+"Accordingly, as soon as daylight I hailed the steamer to send a boat
+aboard for me as I wished to speak to the captain.  I had something more
+to tell him, however, than about my fears concerning the weather; for,
+while I was keeping watch during the night, I had heard some words
+dropped from the Arab prisoners on the foc's'le which I thought it best
+for him to know."
+
+"Did you?"  I said.
+
+"Yes," said Ben, continuing his story.  "While I was at Zanzibar I made
+it a point to study the lingo of the natives there, and had learned a
+good many words of the Kisawahili tongue, which is the _lingua Franca_
+of the coast; and hearing these half-caste Arabs talking together I
+listened to what they said, for being a Feringhee in their eyes they did
+not think I could understand them.  Of course I couldn't manage to
+stumble to everything I heard, some of their words being
+incomprehensible to me; but I gathered enough to learn that the dhow we
+had captured was in company with another one equally as large, loaded
+with slaves, that had got off clear and was now probably making its way
+towards the Persian Gulf out of reach of the _Dolphin_.
+
+"This would be good news, I knew, for Captain Wilson; for, although the
+Arabs believed that this dhow had escaped us, if the _Dolphin_ at once
+went in pursuit of her in the right direction there was not the
+slightest doubt of her being able to overhaul her before she reached her
+destination, which was, I learned through the chatter of the prisoners,
+first to Mafiyah, as a sort of hiding-place until we should be reported
+out of the way, and then on to Muscat on the Arabian coast.
+
+"I had no sooner got on board the _Dolphin_ in the dinghy sent for me,
+than, the skipper confirmed my own opinion as to the importance of the
+information I had obtained, although he said something which slightly
+damped my enthusiasm, in giving me a job I had not bargained for.
+
+"`You've done quite right, Campion, my man,' said he, `in not losing
+time.  I am glad you hailed me when you did, for every hour is precious
+in getting up with a chase that has got such a good start.  I shall take
+care to mention you in my despatches for your prompt assistance in
+giving me news of this vessel, as well as for your gallantry in the
+capture of the _Fatima_,'--that was the name of the one we had already
+taken, sir, and now had in tow.
+
+"So far Captain Wilson quite flabbergasted me with his compliments and
+made me feel as proud as Punch; but his next words lowered me down a
+peg, I can tell you!
+
+"`I'm sorry, however, I sha'n't be able to take you with me, Campion,'
+he went on, `to see the end of this other affair; for now that I have to
+start off in chase of the other slaver, which will take me off the
+station, where some of the little Mtpe dhows will be trying to make runs
+from the mainland, thinking the coast unguarded, I intend leaving the
+pinnace behind to cruise about the Comoro Islands until I get back with
+the _Dolphin_, and, as you are the only responsible man I could trust to
+take charge of the boat and crew, you must remain here.  Pass the word
+at once for the boatswain to pipe away the pinnace and see that she is
+properly stowed and provisioned.'
+
+"This was a good deal more than I had bargained for.  I thought I should
+have been allowed to remain as prize-master of the _Fatima_ and sail her
+up to Zanzibar, as that was what the captain had hinted the night
+before.  However, of course I put the best face I could on the matter,
+and contented myself with seeing that the water barricoes and stores
+were properly put on board the pinnace, while all the other men who had
+not to remain behind with me and the boat were in high glee getting
+ready for the fresh chase, the news being already whispered about in the
+messes--hoping that they would have just such another scrimmage again as
+they had had the day before at the capture of the _Fatima_.
+
+"Captain Wilson did not `let the grass grow under his feet,' as the
+saying goes--though it's rather a queer one for a seaman to use--in
+carrying out what he had decided on.
+
+"Before the blazing African sun was an hour old, by which time too the
+rain had stopped falling, the second lieutenant of the _Dolphin_ was
+transferred to the command of the captured dhow, our `First Swab' having
+been wounded, taking with him all the prisoners that had been previously
+removed to our vessel for safety, although they were now bound securely
+with ropes and had a guard set over them to prevent their doing
+mischief, besides some additional hands to navigate the _Fatima_--which,
+hoisting her big lugs on the jury-masts we had rigged up the previous
+evening, and casting off the _Dolphin's_ tow-rope, was soon standing up
+the coast on her way to Zanzibar, keeping well inshore now, as that
+course was safest since the wind had changed.
+
+"Hardly had the dhow got well off than the pinnace was lowered into the
+water alongside the steamer, her crew dropping in one by one, and I, of
+course, descending last.  We had provisions and water on board to last
+us for six weeks, the usual time that boats are sent away from the
+vessels to which they belong on the east coast when cruising
+independently, as they all take it in turn to do; and Captain Wilson
+told me I was to hover about between Madagascar and the mainland in the
+Mozambique Channel until we might expect him back, which would be a
+month at farthest, even making allowances for his being detained at
+Zanzibar about the condemning of the slave-dhows which we had already
+captured and the one which he now hoped to get hold of.
+
+"The _Dolphin_ then took us in tow till we were abreast of the Comoro
+Isles, when she cast us adrift, starting off up the channel full speed
+and steering north-east and by north, so as to get well out to sea
+before stretching in to the land towards Mafiyah, where she expected to
+pick up the slaver; while we, hoisting the sails of the pinnace, and
+taking it easy under the boat's awning that was spread fore and aft,
+bore away for Madagascar.  Ah! sir, that was the commencement of an
+unfortunate voyage, for it was months before some of those that formed
+the pinnace's crew ever met their old shipmates again on board the
+_Dolphin_; the majority of those with me in the boat never met the hands
+we left on board the steamer again at all, nor will they till that great
+last day of all when the sea gives up its dead!"
+
+"I suppose you refer to that time when you said you were capsized off
+the coast of Madagascar, eh?" said I, noticing that Ben Campion paused
+at this point.
+
+"Aye," he replied; "but I'm afraid it'll take a precious long time to
+reel off the yarn concerning that period of the story!"
+
+"Never mind, please go on," I replied.  "Now you've begun and got so
+far, I'm sure I should like to hear the end of it."
+
+"All right, then," he replied; but, before proceeding, he had to load up
+a fresh pipe, and while performing this interesting little operation he
+informed me, _en passant_, that the _Dolphin_ he afterwards heard had
+succeeded in capturing the second dhow, and her first prize the _Fatima_
+had safely reached Zanzibar; and, consequently, that his prize-money for
+both seizures was safe, the sum accrueing to him amounting to over L50,
+being subsequently paid over to him when he rejoined his ship some time
+afterwards--"and spent, too, long since," as he said.
+
+These little matters, relevant and irrelevant, being thus disposed of,
+Ben continued his narrative as follows.
+
+
+
+VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THREE.
+
+IN THE MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL.
+
+"Where was I, sir?"
+
+"You had just been turned adrift from the ship, I think," said I, "and
+left to cruise on your own account--wasn't that so?"
+
+"Ah! yes, I remember now, sir.  Well, then, when the _Dolphin_ had got
+well away from us, leaving us poor chaps to our own resources, we in the
+pinnace, now well under her canvas, were sailing along on a course
+almost at right angles to that taken by our old ship, which somewhat
+took away from the nasty feeling of being sort of left behind, you know;
+but, we could not help watching her with longing eyes as she sped away
+northward under full steam and with all her fore-and-aft sails set that
+could draw, going fourteen knots at the least!
+
+"It was a lovely morning that there--the loveliest I ever saw on the
+African coast; for there was no mist, and the rain having ceased, the
+strong sou'-westerly breeze that was blowing right offshore from the
+mainland tempered down the heat of the broiling sun, which only those
+who have been on the coast can have an idea of as to how intense it can
+be, while the pinnace was moving quickly through the water; and it was
+not long before the _Dolphin_ was hull down on the horizon, the white
+gleam of her upper canvas vanishing soon after.  But, for a long time
+succeeding that, we could still see the smoke from her funnel spread out
+in the shape of a fan to leeward, where it was blown by the following
+wind right across the sky and was clearly apparent in the clear blue air
+above as well as reflected in the sea below.  Then, too, that
+disappeared at length, and we were left alone in our little boat on the
+waste of waters!
+
+"I tell you we did feel a bit melancholy and down in the dumps then,
+especially as all hands knew the errand on which the old ship had gone
+and felt that we were out of the fun!  However, I did not give the men
+time to think of this too long; for, acting under the directions given
+me by the skipper, I steered the pinnace towards the coast to windward
+of the Comoro Islands, intending after dark to creep up under the lee of
+Saint Juan, where I'd been told the dhows mostly made for when the coast
+was clear; and, what with trimming the sails and making taut the sheets,
+as well as stationing a special look-out in the bows and one in the
+stern behind me at the helm, I soon managed to turn the men's attention
+away from the _Dolphin_, though some of them still seemed chop-fallen,
+being new to boat cruising and not relishing the work.
+
+"Of course, I knew in what a responsible position I was--almost like
+that of the captain of a ship; for, I could order the men to do anything
+I pleased, and if they disobeyed me have them tried for mutiny, while I
+had the right to attack and capture any native vessels I suspected of
+having slaves on board--so, soon after noon, when I piped all hands to
+dinner, I made them a little speech after the grub had been stowed away
+comfortably, pointing out that their circumstances were considerably
+better than they themselves appeared to think.  In course, I said, our
+shipmates in the _Dolphin_ had a bit the advantage of us in starting off
+on another chase, with perhaps the chance of a second scrimmage at the
+end of it, the same as we had all had together on the previous evening;
+but then, I says, what we were doing was equally for the good of the
+service; and, besides, as soon as the steamer had overhauled the slaver
+she was after she would have to go back to that beastly Zanzibar in the
+thick of fever time, remaining there probably for weeks, until she got
+rid of the slaves from the captured dhows, while, on the contrary, we
+would be down here cruising about on the free open sea and enjoying
+ourselves!
+
+"We lost nothing by remaining there, I said.  If our old ship took the
+slaver she was now chasing, why, we would share in the prize-money just
+the same as if we'd been on board her, without running the risk of any
+hard knocks or having some Arab's dagger cutting daylight into us; and
+if she didn't succeed in hunting down the dhow, which was more than
+likely, considering the long start the latter had got, why, then we
+would be well out of a wild-goose chase.
+
+"In addition to such arguments," continued Ben, who sometimes spoke with
+a purity of diction that is much more common amongst seamen of the navy
+of to-day than it was in "the good old days" of our ancestors before
+education was much in vogue, "I hinted that nobody could say we might
+not pick up a slave-dhow down there on our own hook quite as good as the
+other one we could not go after; and if not, well, at all events we
+would have an easier time of it than if we had been kept on board the
+ship!  There, as they knew, the skipper took jolly good care to serve us
+out full purser's allowance of drill if there was nothing else stirring;
+for it was beating to quarters, or small-arm exercise, or manning the
+big guns, and playing all such fancy tricks with us when he had no
+better work to keep us employed with between watches.  I can tell you, I
+never saw such a hand as Cap'en Wilson for that.  He used to say that
+the devil always found something for idle hands; and the way he went
+about remedying this reminded me of the old poetry lines I once heard a
+Yankee sailor call the `Philadelphia Catechism'--
+
+  "`Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou art able,
+  And on the seventh,--holystone the decks and scrape the cable!'
+
+"These words of mine had such an effect on the men that I assure you,
+sir, they grew quite cheerful like, chatting and laughing together as
+they lolled about on the thwarts under the boat awnings that were spread
+fore and aft I allowed them to take it easy, with the exception of the
+hands having charge of the sheets of the sails and those on the look-
+out, as I don't think discipline is preserved any the better by keeping
+fellows continually on the stretch when there's nothing particular to
+do, merely to see them slaving their hearts out.
+
+"Presently, the look-out forward said he thought he saw the white sail
+of a dhow close in to the island we were beating to windward of; and of
+course every one immediately must take it for granted that she's a
+contraband carrying slaves."
+
+"I suppose you didn't undeceive them?" said I.
+
+"Not I," replied Ben.  "I was only too glad of the chance.  It banished
+at once all thoughts of the old _Dolphin_ out of their heads better than
+all my palaver, for all hands were so anxious to come up with the
+strange craft that they themselves voted for taking to the oars, which I
+certainly wouldn't have ordered their doing in the terrible afternoon
+heat, as, while we were having our dinner, the wind had been gradually
+dying until it was now almost a dead calm, and the sails flapping
+against the masts, with the boat rocking on the heavy rolling swell that
+you always meet with out there when the sun is at the meridian."
+
+"I thought you expected a tornado in the early morning?"  I here
+suggested.
+
+"Ah! never you mind about that," said Ben.  "We haven't yet done with
+the east-coast weather, as you'll see presently.  Howsomever, as I was
+saying," he continued, "I told them to take in the sails, being so
+minded, and rig out the oars.  They didn't lose any time about it
+either, for as soon as I gave the order it was all haul down and furl
+up; and, getting a good grip of the water, they started pulling like
+madmen, putting their hearts into every stroke--although the day was so
+hot and sweltry that a fellow seemed to melt away into perspiration,
+even lying still in the stern-sheets of the boat, as I was, without
+moving a muscle.
+
+"The craft which had been sighted by the look-out forward was a small
+Mtpe dhow well under the lee of the island and creeping along-shore, her
+light sails and the wider spread of canvas which her lateen rig
+permitted enabling her to take advantage of the slightest puff of air;
+while our heavy pinnace, with her small-cut sails hardly raised above
+the surface of the sea, so as to get the full force of the wind,
+required a strong breeze to move her at all, although then she had
+pretty fair speed.
+
+"Now that the men had taken to the oars, however, we began to approach
+the stranger more rapidly; but she was over five miles off, and a pull
+of that length under a burning sun is no joke, I can assure you.  Stroke
+after stroke, our plucky seamen kept at it in spite of the heat, one
+minute appearing to gain and then again to lose distance as a whiff of
+air would waft the dhow along; so that, it was not until nearly sunset
+that we got within gunshot, and could hail her to see what she was up
+to.
+
+"`Now, Adams,' said I to the man in the bows, who had command of the
+seven-pounder boat-gun we had fixed there, `I think we may invite the
+stranger gentleman to have a little chat.  Fire away, my man, and make
+her come to.'
+
+"All was ready, so without more ado he fired, the shot ricochetting
+across the prow of the Arab craft, which had by this time cleared the
+island and seemed making for Madagascar, that lay east and by south some
+three hundred miles off.  At all events, the dhow was steering in that
+direction, with whatever wind there was on her beam, and she paid no
+attention to us at all apparently.
+
+"Still, she didn't long keep on that course.  The first message from our
+seven-pounder did not bring her to, nor did a second, but when a third
+went unpleasantly close, right through her broad lug-sail, we could see
+her come up to the wind sharp, while a fourth shot, which we now sent to
+show those on board that we meant business and would be obeyed, caused
+her heavy yard to be dropped by the run in token of surrender.
+
+"We had a long pull yet to come near her; but on getting alongside we
+found it had been all labour for nothing.  There was not the ghost of a
+slave aboard, nor any signs neither of her having carried any recently.
+She was only a trading dhow with a lot of Banians taking goods from the
+mainland to the islands; and so we had had all our chase for nothing.
+Well, the men were so vexed that they would have liked to have scuttled
+her.  I was glad I hadn't suggested their taking to the oars, or perhaps
+they might have turned on me for making them toil so when it wasn't
+necessary; but of course I wasn't to blame, and they knew that.
+
+"Having no authority to stop her, I was obliged to let the dhow proceed
+on her way, while we lay-to for the night in a sheltered creek under the
+lee of Saint Juan; for it was now getting dark, and the navigation being
+rather treacherous with a lot of coral reefs about, I thought it best to
+wait for daylight before we did any more cruising.
+
+"On the wind rising again, towards midnight, I anchored the pinnace
+about a cable's-length off the beach, where we were pretty secure from
+drifting ashore on account of the tide setting the other way.  Towards
+morning, however, it came on to blow more strongly, and as the boat
+rocked uneasily I hauled up the kedge again, for it was bad holding
+ground, the tackle chafing against the coral banks and sawing away in a
+manner that promised to make it part if it remained down much longer,
+the boat's head bobbing down and up every wave with a jerk that must
+snap our painter in time.
+
+"Setting the mainsail reefed, and a small storm-staysail forwards, we
+ran before the wind, which had now increased to a gale, blowing stiffly,
+as it had done in the early part of the day before, from the south-west.
+It was of no use trying to lay-to in the open sea, for the rollers were
+too heavy for the boat to ride over, so we bore right away across the
+channel towards the north part of Madagascar, having a clear space of
+water in front of us with no chance of running ashore, for the next
+twenty-four hours or so at all events, if we kept on to the same point
+of the compass that the wind was now carrying us to.  The pinnace being
+a good sea-boat, we were all right otherwise, that was, unless the gale
+shifted, when we would be driven back on to the rocky reef which
+encircled the Comoro Islands, and no doubt go to pieces there.
+
+"`Let her drive,' said I to the men, whom I kept baling out the
+occasional seas that came in over the weather gunwale.  `As long as she
+keeps on running like this we can come to no harm, but you mustn't stop
+baling, for if she once gets waterlogged she'll founder and then we'll
+all be lost.'
+
+"This made them stick to it, although most of them were tired out with
+the long pull they had had in the afternoon after the dhow, and when
+morning broke we were still all right and buoyant, although the tornado
+showed no appearance of slackening, and we were quite out of sight of
+land, nothing but sky and sea being around us, and the waves rolling
+that high as they followed in our wake that if we had not scudded on we
+would have been swamped in an instant.
+
+"All that day we continued driving ahead, for we could not stop, or wear
+the boat round, or do anything but simply let her go where the wind
+chose to take her.  We could not even lower the mainsail, as if we had
+done so it might have capsized her, besides which, as long as it held
+out without being blown away, although it almost made the pinnace bury
+her nose in the waves in front, it prevented the following rollers
+behind from coming too close, just keeping way enough on her to be out
+of their reach.  But, it was a perilous run of it, and every big comber
+that raced after us looked as if it would overtake our tiny craft and
+swamp her!
+
+"By about four o'clock in the afternoon, as near as we could reckon, we
+sighted the highlands of Madagascar, for it couldn't be any other coast
+from the direction we had been sailing in ever since midnight.  The land
+was right ahead and some distance off yet; but approaching it rapidly as
+we did, it made us tremble, for unless we could manage to steer inside
+the reef that lay outside the shore of the island, the same as at Saint
+Juan, we must be dashed against the cliffs.  It was wonderful to think
+we had run all that distance in less than twenty-four hours.
+
+"How we did it I'm sure I can't tell, but I believe in addition to the
+force of the wind, that must have driven us at the rate of twenty knots
+an hour, more or less, there was a strong easterly current in the
+Mozambique Channel with the south-west monsoon, and this must have
+carried us so speedily across from the Comoro Islands.  I can't account
+for it otherwise.
+
+"Be that as it may, sir, there was Madagascar now before us, with the
+pinnace closing in with the land every second, seeming as if she were
+flying towards it rather than sailing; soon, too, we could distinguish
+the noise of breakers, which grew every minute more distinct.  We were
+rushing rapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly power
+could save the boat from being dashed to pieces.
+
+"However, there was a power above watching over us.
+
+"Presently I noticed from the contour of the land that we were near Cape
+Tangan, which I well knew from a coasting voyage I had made round the
+island in a cruiser the year before when I came out to join the
+_London_, and I recollected that this headland ran out into the sea in a
+north-westerly point, so that, if we could contrive to get the boat to
+leeward of the cape, we would soon be in comparatively still water and
+protected alike from the force of the wind and the rolling waves.
+
+"I sang out to the men therefore to get their oars out ready, and,
+watching my opportunity when we were just almost abreast of Cape Tangan,
+I told Adams, who was in the centre of the boat now, to lower away the
+mainsail, directing the others at the same time to pull with a will, as
+their lives depended on our rounding the promontory, against which it
+looked as if we were going to be hurled as we came up to it--it was so
+terribly near and frowning over us!
+
+"This plan fortunately succeeded, for in another minute, during which I
+held my breath in suspense, we were round the cape and in still water,
+although close to a coral reef that girdled the land, which was still
+some three miles off.  We really were safe for the time and dropped our
+anchor, glad enough at our escape; but I saw that the haven could only
+be of temporary assistance to us, for should the wind shift more to the
+northwards we would even be in a worse position than when scudding
+before the gale, as the reef would then be immediately to leeward of us
+and the gale in our face.
+
+"It would serve no good, however, to meet evil half-way, so as the men
+were all dead tired out and exhausted with hunger, having eaten nothing
+since dinner the day before the storm set in, I ordered the provisions
+to be served out, telling them after that to lie down and have a good
+sleep in the bottom of the boat while I remained on the watch till
+morning, having had less exertion than any of them.
+
+"But the poor fellows did not have half so long a rest as that.  Towards
+midnight--it seemed indeed as if all our misfortunes came at that time--
+the pinnace dragged her anchor and drifted on to the reef, when I had to
+rouse all hands to jump out in the darkness and shove her off again
+before she knocked a hole in her bottom.  Then, no sooner were we afloat
+again than the wind veered round, just as I had fancied it would do,
+without the slightest warning, to the northward.
+
+"This of course rendered it impossible for us to remain any longer under
+the lee of the cliff, our anchorage there being now untenable; and,
+putting out to sea again, we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale in
+the offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail, so as not to
+be in too close proximity to the reef, which was doubly dangerous to us
+now.
+
+"Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the storm,
+until shortly after daybreak; when, the rollers coming rolling in
+heavier and more heavily each hour, the poor pinnace sank below the
+surface of the sea in twenty-five fathoms of water, leaving thirteen of
+us struggling for our lives some seven miles away from shore."
+
+"That must have been awful!" said I sympathisingly.
+
+"It was awful," replied Ben gravely.  "I can hardly bear to tell of it
+now."
+
+
+
+VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
+
+"The only things left floating in the water after the pinnace sank down
+under us," resumed Ben after a lengthened pause, during which he puffed
+vigorously at his pipe as if to make up for lost time as well as to
+restore his equanimity, "were, the rain awning, a sort of long
+tarpaulin; the sun awning, which was of lighter stuff, and soon got
+saturated by the sea, making it go to the bottom too; a couple of oars
+that had become, somehow or other, unfastened from the rowlocks and went
+adrift; a pork breaker or barrel; and two water barricoes, one of which
+was empty, while the other contained only about a couple of gallons of
+the precious fluid which in a short time would be worth more to us than
+gold--but, I'm anticipating matters.
+
+"Five of the boat's crew went down almost as soon as the pinnace, thus
+leaving only eight of us to battle against the waves and try to swim
+ashore if we could; although I, for one, didn't believe a soul would
+ever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to it
+at all!
+
+"What the others did at the moment I can't say; for with that selfish
+instinct of self-preservation which makes a man in the instant of danger
+grasp anything, regardless of what his comrades in distress might be
+doing, I grappled hold of one of the oars and the pork breaker, besides
+the stern-sheet grating, which I forgot to say also floated from the
+wreck.  These I lashed together into a sort of raft with a long woollen
+comforter, which I had fortunately wound round my neck the night before
+while keeping watch to protect me from the damp dew, and now took off
+for the purpose.  I was treading water all the time I was doing this,
+and the sea being very buoyant in the Indian Ocean on account of its
+extra saltness, I managed to rig up my raft pretty well.  Then, when I
+had finished it to my satisfaction, I looked around me, being too busy
+to do that before; and, seeing Bellamy, one of the crew who I knew could
+not swim, holding on to the other oar, and Russell, another chap in the
+same predicament, clutching tight to the gaskets of one of the
+barricoes, I helped them both on to my little platform, keeping them and
+myself afloat as well as I was able by swimming alongside and pushing
+it; for neither of the poor fellows could aid me--they seemed perfectly
+helpless.
+
+"By this time the sun was high in the heavens and blazing right down
+upon our heads with an intensity of heat that almost seemed to shrivel
+up our hair, making us feel as if a red-hot cinder was laid on top of
+it.  There was not much wind, that having died away soon after daybreak,
+the tornado having spent all its force and blown itself out; but the sea
+was still rough, the heavy rolling waves washing over us every now and
+then as they broke against the raft.  Perhaps this moisture was good for
+us, the rapid evaporation of the water under the burning heat keeping us
+cool; but, what with the exposure and the fright he had sustained at our
+sudden upset, poor Russell went clean out of his mind, becoming as mad
+as a March hare.  Although I was trying all I could to keep him on the
+raft to preserve his life, he thought I was struggling to prevent his
+holding on; and he commenced fighting with me, clutching hold of my neck
+and trying to force me under the water.  I stood this for some time;
+when, seeing he only got worse instead of better, and that I had no
+means of fastening him down to the raft, I thought the best thing I
+could do for my own safety, as well as to give the other two a chance
+for their lives, was to trust to my own unaided strength and strike out
+for the shore, leaving the two on the raft to look after themselves.
+Before abandoning that frail support, however, I adopted the precaution
+of taking off every stitch of clothing I had on--my boots I had chucked
+away when in the boat, preparing even then for the worst.  Had I not
+done this, I'm certain I would never have reached land or be now telling
+you this tale."
+
+"I'm sure I'm very glad you took the precaution," I observed, "it was a
+sensible one."
+
+"Yes," said Ben, "there's no use a man attempting to swim any distance
+with his things on.  A fellow can do it in a bath, as a sort of
+exhibition like; but when he comes to battle for his life against the
+sea, the only chance he has is when he's stripped; for his clothes suck
+in the water and weigh him down so as to take all the buoyancy out of
+him and cripple his efforts to keep afloat--that's my opinion from
+painful experience.
+
+"Soon after I quitted the raft," continued Ben, proceeding again with
+his narrative after my interruption, "I saw on looking back that Russell
+had clutched hold of Bellamy the same as he had done with me.  But
+Bellamy hadn't half my strength, for the other soon got the better of
+him, and although I tried to swim back against the rollers so as to
+prevent the mishap, I couldn't make headway in spite of all my efforts,
+so in a minute or so I saw both tumble off the raft into the sea, and go
+down locked together in an embrace of death.  Poor fellows, the madman
+had caused both to perish, when, by keeping quiet, they might have been
+washed safely ashore in time.  I tried myself to regain the raft then,
+it being now vacant and ample enough to support me alone comfortably;
+but the waves were too much for me, so I had to give up that hope and
+strike out once more for the shore, although the latter was so far off
+and low down too in the water that I couldn't even get a glimpse of it
+now to cheer me up and lead me on.  I could only judge the direction of
+it by the set of the tide and the sun; and although I swam as manfully
+as I could, the thought occurred to me more than once that I might be
+making for the open ocean instead of the land after all, and was only
+prolonging my last agony!
+
+"However, a little way on, the sight of one of my lost shipmates gave me
+fresh courage, for I had believed up till then, when Bellamy and Russell
+sank under water, that I was the only one of the pinnace's crew left
+alive.
+
+"His name was Magellan, one of the smartest topmen of the old _Dolphin_,
+and he seemed now to rival the reputation of the fish after which our
+vessel was named, as he was swimming ahead of me with a proper breast
+stroke, and going well through the waves.  I first saw him as he rose on
+top of a roller; and he, looking back at the same moment, when turning
+his head to avoid the wash of the wave, caught sight of me.
+
+"`Hullo, Campion!' he sang out, `where are you bound for?'
+
+"`For the shore, you lubber,' I retorted jokingly, for seeing him put
+such fresh life in me that I felt almost inclined to laugh out aloud
+with joy!
+
+"`Have you got anything to support you in the water?' he asked with
+surprise.
+
+"`No,' said I, `nothing but my own carcass and the use of my hands and
+legs.'
+
+"`The same with me, old ship,' he replied, `let's see who'll get to land
+first.'
+
+"`All right!'  I cried, `start away!' and we both of us struck out hard;
+but he was a far better swimmer than I was, and I soon lost sight of him
+although I followed in the same track as well as I could steer.
+
+"About noontide, when the sun had got vertical in the sky overhead and
+blazed down with even greater power than it had done before, I had
+another cheer up; for, as I rose on the send of the sea I could faintly
+discover the tops of two trees in the distance standing out amidst the
+waste of waters.  This put additional pluck into me, and made me exert
+myself to the utmost, as before then I could not see any sign of land at
+all; but, after swimming on for some time I began to lose heart again
+and became assailed by all manner of miserable fancies that almost made
+me despair!
+
+"I thought it was strange that I could not see Magellan, if he were
+still in front of me, in the same way that I could observe the two
+trees.  He must have gone down at last and got drowned like the others,
+I said to myself; or else a shark has snapped him up and made an end of
+him, so that I alone was left out of all the thirteen of the pinnace's
+crew.  What was I reserved for?--a worse fate perhaps than the others--
+possibly to reach a desolate shore, where I would starve to death in
+solitude without a single soul to share my misery!  The idea of sharks,
+however, haunted me more than any other thought, for I knew that there
+were plenty of these sea monsters in the Mozambique Channel, and I
+dreaded more being caught by one of them than the mere fear of drowning,
+which now seemed to lose all its terrors, although I still swam on
+mechanically.  Every time a wave broke over me, or when I splashed up
+the water with my own feet, the haunting horror seized me that the wide
+capacious maw and gaping saw-like teeth of a shark were ready to close
+upon me, paralysing my heart nerves, and making my blood run cold right
+through me.  I never wish to pass through such a terrible time again,
+sir--not for the mere peril I was in from the sea and the long distance
+of water I had to traverse before I could hope to reach the end, so much
+as from the thought that my shipmates were all drowned, and the nervous
+dread I suffered on account of those devils of the deep, although all
+the while I actually never saw one.  This was fortunate for me, as I'm
+sure only the sight of one in my then state of mind would have taken all
+the fight out of me and made me an easy prey!
+
+"My fear of the sharks indeed grew so strong upon me that I absolutely
+tried to drown myself, but I could not keep myself down below the
+surface of the water long enough to carry out my intention.  The
+attempt, however, did one good thing for me, as, seeing that I could not
+sink, try as hard as I could, it appeared to me that I wasn't born to be
+drowned--sailors,--you know, are rather superstitious sometimes--so,
+thinking this, and assured that I was certain now to get to land, if
+only the sharks left me alone, I struck again towards the direction of
+the two trees that I saw every now and then to encourage me as I rose up
+on the crest of each alternate wave, determined to persevere to the last
+as long as the breath was left in me.
+
+"Why, sir, it was a swim that beat poor Captain Webb's exploit in
+crossing the Channel, for the pinnace had gone down soon after daybreak,
+and I had been swimming ever since, while now the sun was sinking in the
+west, looking as if it were going to dip in another hour at the most.
+Yet, I seemed as far off from the land as ever, those two trees that I
+watched so earnestly, and shaped my course by never appearing to rise
+out of the water or come nearer to me than two miles off--for, whether
+the tide had turned or there was a current carrying me along in a
+parallel direction with the shore, or some other cause, for ever so long
+a time I never got any closer than that.  It was very hard, I thought,
+with the land so near to me now, and I unable to reach it, strive how I
+may!  Perhaps, I fancied, those trees are a mere fanciful dream like the
+fairy-like mirage of the desert that tortures poor lost wanderers with
+pictures of cool lakes and rivers, while they are really in the middle
+of burning sandy plains.  I began to doubt they were real trees at all,
+for I should have got up to them long since; and so, harassed again with
+despair, I tried a second time to drown myself, clenching my hands
+tightly to my side and making no effort to swim--but it was all in vain,
+I could not keep down.  I must have been delirious I think then, and
+perhaps imagined it all, going out of my senses as poor Russell had done
+previously, and wandering in my mind, for I can recollect perfectly
+seeing the faces of people I knew in England--my father and mother and
+my young wife--beckoning to me and holding out their hands to drag me
+out of the water, when I knew all the while that I saw them that I was
+swimming for my life in the Mozambique Channel, and that they were safe
+at home in the old country!  I suppose in my delirium two different
+trains of thought were running through my head?
+
+"After that, I forget what happened.  I must have become insensible, for
+I don't remember what occurred between.  I seemed to wake up to
+consciousness all at once, and then I found myself lying on a low sandy
+beach, where I must have been washed up and left by the retreating tide.
+
+"Although the sun had now set--which showed that I must have been
+unconscious for some time, as the last thing I recollected was its
+scorching my back, for of course as I was swimming in an easterly
+direction towards Madagascar, as it sank down the horizon it got behind
+me,--it was still light; and, looking about me, I perceived that I was
+on a small island or sand-bank, some distance still off the mainland,
+from which it was separated by a wide channel of water.  I tried to get
+up on my feet to notice better how wide this channel-way was; but I was
+so weak from my long immersion in the sea, having stopped all
+circulation, that I fell back again flat on my back like a dead man.
+The exertion of trying to rise, however, made me bring up a considerable
+quantity of sea-water, some two gallons or more, which I must have
+swallowed when insensible, for I certainly never took down half that
+quantity while swimming, having carefully avoided letting any get into
+my mouth for fear of its increasing my thirst; but, however it got into
+me, the emetic did me good, and I felt much better after thus disgorging
+it from my inside.
+
+"Resting a bit, stretched out on the sand-bank, I could not help
+thanking the merciful Providence that had thus preserved my life when I
+had abandoned myself to despair, and had been powerless to aid myself;
+and I wondered whether any of my comrades had been saved too, or if I
+were the sole survivor of the ill-fated boat's crew?
+
+"The evening growing darker my mind was soon brought back to thoughts of
+action, especially as the tide rising on the beach where I was lying
+began to lap against my body.  Crawling on my hands and knees, for I was
+still unable to rise to my feet and walk, my limbs being perfectly numb
+from the thighs downward, I managed to get out of the way of the water
+for a while; but as it yet continued to rise, and I thought it might
+possibly cover the whole sand-bank at high tide, I determined to attempt
+to swim across the intervening channel that lay between the little islet
+I was on and the main coast--although the latter in the evening gloom
+seemed more than a mile away, and I felt utterly feeble and worn out.
+But, I had to do it somehow or other, so I nerved myself up for the
+task.
+
+"Strange to say, however, the moment I rolled myself into the water
+again, for I cannot say I walked in, I found I could use my arms and
+legs again as freely as ever when swimming, albeit so cramped and
+powerless when I tried to move them ashore; and so, striking out again
+for the last time with all my remaining strength, I crossed the little
+channel that separated me from the Madagascar coast in much less time
+than I had calculated on, the haze having made it appear wider than it
+really was.
+
+"It was dark, however, when I grounded on the other side, where the land
+fortunately shelved down into the water gradually--for if there had been
+any steep bank or cliff to climb I could never have succeeded in
+surmounting it, the last exertion of swimming the channel having
+exhausted all my energies.  Now, completely prostrated with all I had
+gone through, as soon as I had crawled up far enough to be out of reach
+of the tide, I laid down under the trunks of the two trees that had been
+my beacon guides to safety, and which grew close together out of a clump
+of sand on the shore, falling asleep at once.  I was so utterly worn out
+that I was not only powerless to proceed any further, but I had no dread
+of the savage country I was in, or any fear of being attacked by wild
+beasts!"
+
+
+
+VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+HUNGER AND THIRST.
+
+"When day broke next morning," Ben went on to say, "there I found myself
+under the shade of the two cocoa-nut palms, as I discovered my beacon
+trees to be, lying on the warm sandy bed covered over with leaves which
+I had accidentally selected for my night's couch--being the first
+comfortable spot I came to on crawling up from the beach.  I felt
+thoroughly rested and restored to my old self, although still somewhat
+stiff and sore all over, as if somebody had given me a good thrashing--
+which of course was owing to my long exposure to the waves and the
+beating about they gave me; but, I was able to stand on my feet now and
+work my limbs more freely than I could on first landing, which was
+decidedly a point to the good, as I had thought I was paralysed.
+
+"Looking about me, I noticed that I had managed to fetch a low curving
+bay or arm of the sea considerably to the south of Cape Tangan, which I
+could recognise stretching away to the northward.  The shore was of fine
+white sand; and in the background was a dense bush of jungle and forest
+trees, principally palms and such like tall upright trunks, that had no
+branches, all their foliage being on the top in a cluster like a lady's
+parasol.
+
+"My two cocoa-nut trees were evidently the outlying sentinels, or
+advance-guards of these; for they stood alone on the beach a hundred
+yards or more in front of the jungle and brushwood, which extended back
+from the shore in a mass of green that stood well out, in pleasant
+relief to the gleaming sand, as far away as the eye could reach,
+clothing the slopes of the high mountains which rose up in the centre of
+the island running like a backbone or rocky spine all along its length
+from its extreme nor'-easterly point down far away to the south.
+
+"This forest belt of green encircles the whole coast of Madagascar, I've
+been told, beginning close almost to the water's edge in some places and
+extending back inland until the higher levels are reached; and it is of
+a uniform width of some fifteen miles across, except where, of course,
+it has been cleared away at the different settlements and colonies at
+the heads of the various bays with which the coast is indented.  I know,
+at all events, that this jungle seemed endless and impenetrable; for I
+had quite enough to do with it in the following ten days that I was thus
+brought face to face with it, as I can tell you!
+
+"As soon as I woke up, the first thought that crossed my mind was, where
+could I find water?  I was so parched with thirst that my tongue seemed
+glued to the roof of my palate, and I believe it was feeling this that
+roused me; so, naturally, I turned about, hunting for some brook or
+streamlet where I could get a drink, as rivers mostly run to the shores
+of the majority of islands I ever heard of.  However, there were none
+close in sight that I could see from the beach, and all the water there
+was salt; and, as I argued to myself that all the green jungle must have
+been produced and kept alive by moisture of some sort, I abandoned the
+sea-shore as hopeless and directed my steps towards the bush, with the
+expectation of finding there the object of my quest.  I didn't go with
+any lagging steps either, for by this time my thirst was almost
+unbearable, becoming the more intense the longer I waited for water.
+
+"I proceeded after getting into the bush to where the ground sloped down
+into a sort of valley, fancying that such would be the likeliest place
+for a river; but I had not got very far through the rough thicket, which
+scratched my exposed skin pretty sorely by the way, when, as I emerged
+again into the open, I saw before me a group of men in front amongst
+some detached trees.  Two or three were moving about, while the rest
+were lying on the ground; so, taking them to be natives, and knowing
+that the Sakalavas who inhabited this part of the coast were, unlike the
+Hovas, friendly to foreigners, many Hindoo families and Portuguese being
+settled amongst them, besides a few stray Frenchmen and Americans, I at
+once made towards the group.  Judge of my surprise, however, on coming
+up to the men, to find that they were none other than Magellan and four
+others of the pinnace's crew, whom I had supposed to be lost, but who
+had managed to get ashore safely long before myself!
+
+"Well, what a hand-shaking there was that went round them--why, it was
+like meeting chaps that had been dead and buried over again!  We none of
+us could say anything for some time, the emotion of seeing each other
+again being too much, for I was a pretty good favourite with all the
+hands, and Magellan had told the rest about his having passed me
+swimming ashore early in the day they all got to land; and then, through
+my not turning up, of course they all believed I had gone down to Davy
+Jones!  One thing was now certain, however; and that was, that we were
+the whole number that were saved; for, if you will recollect, five out
+of the thirteen comprising the crew of the boat had gone down with her
+when she filled and sank, leaving eight only struggling in the water.
+Of these remaining eight, six of us were now together on the Madagascar
+coast, and the other two, Bellamy and Russell, I had myself seen drown
+when they tumbled off the raft on which I had left them in that last
+deadly embrace of theirs.
+
+"I was so knocked of a heap at meeting my old shipmates so unexpectedly
+that I declare to you I forgot all about my raging thirst for the
+moment; but as soon as the excitement had calmed down and all sorts of
+questions and answers had been asked and replied to, with much
+palavering and congratulating of one another, the intense feeling
+returned to me worse than ever--my tongue being so swollen up that it
+seemed to fill my mouth!
+
+"`Have you got any water?' says I to Magellan; `I'm dying with thirst!'
+
+"`Bless you, my hearty!' replied he, `why didn't you say that afore?
+But mind now, you must go gingerly.  This is all we've got till we find
+some more, and we've agreed to allowance ourselves.  Half a pint is all
+you can have, shipmate, now, and if you drinks it all you'll get no more
+to-day.  I advise you to rinse your mouth out with it, for that'll make
+it go further, bo!'
+
+"So saying, Magellan hands me a pannikin into which he had drawn off the
+quantity of water he had said was the allowance out of the barrico,
+which I told you contained some when the pinnace was wrecked.  It had
+floated ashore all right, fortunately for us all; and Magellan, picking
+it up, had had the good sense to economise it for the advantage of the
+lot.  I can't tell you how it felt as I drank it down!  Nothing that I
+ever tasted before or since all the world over ever came up to that
+drink of water.  It was like the nectar as I've read of that the old
+Greek gods used to drink on Mount Olympus, for it was sweeter than any
+wine or liquor that ever crossed my lips before I learnt to wear the
+blue ribbon!
+
+"I took Magellan's advice and drank it sparingly, washing my mouth out
+to make it go further before I swallowed it and spinning it out as long
+as I could, giving a great gasp of satisfaction as I drained down the
+last drop.  I never thought such a chap as Magellan would have had the
+sense to lay hands on the barrico as he did and serve it out on
+allowance--considering the little amount of water there was, and how all
+must have been pretty nigh as thirsty as myself; but, I suppose the
+peril he had been in and the fact of his not seeing any river near
+taught him caution!
+
+"Now, on seeing me drink, the others wanted the pannikin passed round;
+but Jem Magellan said `No,' putting the barrico back under some leaves
+alongside of where he had been sitting when I came up, which was the
+reason I hadn't noticed it as I was certain to have done; and I, taking
+command of the party again, as I was entitled to do as senior petty
+officer, endorsed his authority, saying that it was for the good of all
+that some restriction should be placed on the water so as to make it
+last out till we got more.  I daresay, sir, as how you must have thought
+it strange that Captain Wilson should have put me in charge of the
+pinnace, instead of a warrant officer or middy?"
+
+"Yes, I must say I have been wondering at that," I replied to Ben's
+question.
+
+"Well, it seems rather queer," said Ben; "but you must know that when
+the _Dolphin_ captured the dhow that time, the only officers on board
+fit for duty that weren't down in the sick bay with fever were the first
+and second lieutenants, one middy and the boatswain, besides Chips the
+carpenter, who couldn't be spared from the ship; and in boarding the
+_Fatima_, the first swab, as I told you, got an ugly scrape in the leg
+that prevented him from moving; so when the second lieutenant was put in
+charge of the dhow to take her up to Zanzibar, I was the only
+responsible man the captain could think of to send cruising with the
+pinnace, as the middy was a harum-scarum youngster, who hadn't got
+thought enough, and neither the boatswain nor Chips could be taken away
+from their duties without perhaps the ship suffering.  Besides, I had a
+very good character, standing on the books for promotion, with three
+good-conduct badges; and being at the time well acquainted with the
+coast and the ways of the slave-dhows I was just the man to be put in
+charge of the boat as `jaunty,' as we say in the service."
+
+"All right, I've no doubt the captain selected you as a fit person for
+so responsible a post," said I.  "Fire away with the yarn."
+
+"Very good, sir," said Ben, continuing his narrative now that he had
+given this explanation.  "I was in command of the party anyway, though I
+must say I wasn't very much like an officer in appearance, for I hadn't
+a rag of clothing on.  Indeed, most of us were in the same condition;
+for, only Magellan and one other chap had trousers, the remaining three
+being, like myself, as naked as when they were born!  However, that did
+not trouble us much then, as we were under the shade of the trees, and
+in those parts of the world the less you have on the more comfortable
+you are; although, when exposed directly to the sun it soon raises
+blisters on a bare skin.
+
+"Before doing anything else, as soon as I resumed my proper post as
+headman of the crew, I thought the best thing was to organise a proper
+search for water, that being our principal necessity for the moment;
+and, accordingly, directing the lot to separate, each going a different
+way so as to properly overhaul the ground, but not keeping too far apart
+to be out of hail of one another lest we might get lost, we dispersed
+through the bush--I taking the beach line for my course, and telling the
+rest to keep the two cocoa-nut trees in sight for a general rendezvous
+and report progress in an hour's time or thereabouts if they had not
+found water before.  If they found it, of course they were to sing out
+at once.
+
+"Our courage was pretty well up then, for we had yet only seen the
+beginning, so to speak, of our trials, and the men went off laughing and
+skylarking; one calling out as how he'd soon be piping us down to a real
+good feed, with lashings of grog; and another saying he'd look in and
+ask the Queen of Madagascar to send down a carriage and fetch us to the
+palace.  Bless you! you know what light-hearted chaps sailors are, even
+in the midst of danger.  As for myself, I was more serious like; for,
+besides having the responsibility of the whole party on my shoulders and
+wishing to do the best for all, I couldn't help thinking we were in a
+very sorry mess altogether.  I knew what the coast was, you see; for it
+was a wide extent of savage country all the way from Cape Tangan to
+Majunga, with only some little native settlement here and there between,
+all of which were separated by this endless belt of jungle I've
+mentioned, and wide lagoons and rivers, in addition to high mountains in
+many places--that would have been tough climbing at the best of times,
+without the heavy brushwood and tangled thickets that ran up from their
+bases to their summits, and the deep crevices and gorges in which they
+abruptly ended, making one come to a dead stop on the edge of some awful
+abyss, over which one step further would precipitate you.  I knew all
+this, sir, from my own past acquaintance with the coast, as well as from
+what I had learned from others who had seen more of it than I had; so, I
+did not see quite such a satisfactory end to our difficulties as all the
+rest did, with the exception of Magellan, who had been shipwrecked
+before, on the coast of China, and knew it wasn't child's play.  But, as
+for the other poor fellows, they had to learn the reality in bitter
+earnestness.  Now that they had succeeded in getting ashore such
+distance from where the pinnace had sunk under us, they believed they
+had passed through the worst peril they could possibly have to contend
+against and that thenceforth all was plain sailing for them.  Ah! before
+that first day of their experiences in Madagascar was over they would
+have a very different tale to tell, as you'll see.
+
+"So thinking, and, as luck would have it, anticipating exactly what
+happened, though perhaps this was more owing to the melancholy frame of
+mind I was in than any pretence of being able to foretell the future, as
+some folks set up for doing, I went from the little clearing in the
+bush, where we had been assembled, down to the sea, the glimmer and
+shimmering of which, from the sun shining on it, could be seen through
+the openings in the foliage of the trees--first directing my footsteps,
+being now able to walk easily and well, to the bank at the foot of the
+twin cocoa-nut trees where I had rested for the night, and from thence
+to the place where I had crawled ashore; for, I could trace my way
+without any difficulty by the tracks and marks I had made in the clear
+white sand, which being above high-water mark had not been washed out by
+the tide, as would otherwise have been the case.
+
+"From this spot, I followed along the beach the whole curve of the bay,
+a good two mile or more, to where it ended in a precipitous cliff,
+without finding the mouth of any stream or river emptying itself into
+the sea; but I found one thing of some service, for, attached to an oar,
+which must have formed part of the raft I had made and abandoned to
+Russell and Bellamy, was the comforter that I had taken off my neck and
+bound the spars together with.  It came in now even handier than ever;
+as, wrapping it round my loins I converted the old comforter into a sort
+of petticoat that did duty for my missing `unmentionables,' as delicate
+people call them, and I confess I felt more comfortable with this
+apology on, even though I was in those savage wilds with but my own
+messmates to see me.
+
+"Only the oar had been cast up by the waves; neither the pork breaker,
+which had contained one or two junks of meat that might have been useful
+to us, nor the stern-sheet grating, which I had lashed together with it,
+being observable anywhere on the strand, so they must have been carried
+by the current round the cape.
+
+"I retraced my way sadly to our meeting-place; for, as I argued, if I
+couldn't see the mouth of any river there they wouldn't find one in the
+bush, as the ground shelved down gradually towards the sea in the
+neighbourhood, so if there was any water stream, it was bound to find
+its way there, not being able to run uphill!
+
+"During all this time I could hear our chaps hollering and calling out
+to each other, sometimes the voices being far away and then again close
+at hand; but when I had got up to the cocoa-nut trees there they all
+were once more, with the same story of an unsuccessful search.  Diving
+beneath the brushwood and jungle they had peeped and peered into every
+likely spot they came across, without finding a trace of water, nor even
+the empty bed of what had been a stream in the rainy season.  It was
+evident that the valley we were in was too northerly for the rivers that
+I had heard entered the sea mostly on the west side of the island; and
+that to come to such we would have to make our way over one of the
+intervening chains of hilly land lying between.
+
+"The men, however, were too tired to attempt this now, for instead of an
+hour, we had been nigher three searching through the forest and coast;
+and, it being close on noontide, from the elevation of the sun, which
+being in the zenith was right over our heads, I called a halt--all of us
+lying down under the trees till it should get a bit cooler towards
+evening.  All, too, were so thirsty, and clamouring out so much for
+water, that I and Magellan had to give in to their entreaties and serve
+out another half-pint apiece, which we told them would have to last them
+until noon next day; but still, this second allowance all round made a
+serious drain on our store, for there being six of us now, and each,
+including myself, having had half a pint in the pannikin before, that
+made six pints out of the two and a half gallons the water barrico
+originally held--nearly a third of the whole quantity.  If we went on at
+that rate, why it would only last for three days, or two more at the
+outside, when, as I calculated, it would take us a week at least to
+reach Majunga, that is if we could manage to surmount the mountain
+ranges that I was aware lay between where we were and that port.  I said
+a word or two to that effect to the men, but they didn't pay much
+attention to my caution, all being tired out and the majority falling
+asleep as soon as they drank their allowance, without waiting to see the
+next served out even, they were so drowsy.
+
+"I tried to keep watch for a bit, but the exertion of walking about had
+been too much for me too, and I soon followed suit in dropping off with
+the others, not waking up until it was close on sunset, when the
+slanting rays of the fiery orb shining right into my eyes roused me and
+made me turn out, although I took care not to wake the rest.
+
+"I felt thirsty now no longer but hungry as a hunter, and started up to
+see if I could find anything to eat.  I thought there might be cocoa-
+nuts about, for these when they are old, as you generally only see them
+in England, contain, instead of juice, or `milk' as they term it in the
+tropics, which the nut is filled with when young, a valuable amount of
+solid matter, which is not only tasty to eat but nourishing as well,
+being mostly a kind of vegetable fat or oil.  However, on looking up at
+the trees over our sheltering place I could see no cocoa-nuts; while a
+hunt amongst the bushes disclosed nothing there in the fruit line
+either.  I saw some tamarind trees certainly, but the beans on these
+were only just sprouting out from the blossom; and although I gathered
+some of these and chewed them, thinking they might have an acid taste
+which would alleviate thirst if it did not allay hunger, they were so
+nasty that I had to spit them out again and wash my mouth out with sea-
+water to take away their flavour, going down to the shore for this
+purpose, as well as to see if there was anything eatable there to pick
+up.
+
+"Presently, Magellan woke up too, and then the others, all suffering
+like myself from hunger.  One chap said he could eat his boots; but then
+we had all pulled those off when the pinnace was labouring in the sea
+before she foundered.  I told them about my unsuccessful try for cocoa-
+nuts and fruit, so they were perfectly satisfied that if I failed it
+would be useless for them to worry themselves by searching; and after a
+time chatting together and planning out that, next day, we would try to
+cross the mountains to Majunga, we all settled down to sleep again after
+the sun had gone down in the west--when night came on suddenly, without
+any twilight the same as you have here, enveloping the forest and all
+our surroundings in a darkness so dense that it could almost be felt, no
+moon rising or any stars peeping out until long after we were snoring,
+that is, if any at all came out then.
+
+"The next morning, we made a terrible discovery.
+
+"Through some carelessness or other in putting back the bung-stopper of
+the barrico, or from one of the chaps getting up in the night and
+`sucking the monkey' while we were all asleep, every drop of water had
+disappeared from the vessel, and although we all awoke thirsty, the same
+as we had done the previous morning, there was nothing left now to
+quench our drought with.
+
+"The men were so angry over it that they nearly came to blows, Magellan
+and I having much difficulty in pacifying them; the more especially, as
+some of them complained that if they had been allowed to have had their
+fill before going to sleep, at all events the water would have done some
+good then instead of being wasted, and they would besides not have been
+so thirsty as they now were, while they also would have been able to
+hold out longer till they got more.
+
+"Of course this was absurd on their part, although very aggravating; so
+to stop any more hard words and argufying in the matter, I suggested
+that as there was nothing to be gained by our remaining any longer in
+the vicinity of the bay where we had first come ashore, we had better
+start off at once on our journey to Majunga while we were fresh in the
+early morning, before the sun got high in the heavens to enervate us
+with its scorching heat.
+
+"This motion was carried, with one or two dissentients, and we
+accordingly at once started off due south, as nearly as I could
+calculate by the position of the sun and sea, making our way through the
+stiff jungle up the side of the mountain that spurted right across our
+course in that direction, the way getting steeper and steeper each step
+that we took forwards, and the jungle thicker and more dense.
+
+"Gracious goodness! what a climb that was!  Up and up we struggled and
+toiled, perspiring all the way and gasping with heat and thirst.  We
+tore all the skin off our arms and legs in forcing ourselves through the
+prickly patches of jungle, and almost splintered our feet against the
+rocks and gnarled roots of some of the trees, besides bruising our
+bodies all over with the repeated falls we had; and, all the while, we
+were suffering the most unmitigated pangs of hunger and thirst that
+mortal man could experience when in full strength.
+
+"To add, too, to the misery of the toilsome journey, we could hardly see
+an inch before us, although the sun took right good care to blaze down
+right immediately over our heads through the tops of the trees.  We
+could only tell we were ascending from the extra fatigue it entailed in
+lifting our weary feet in stepping upwards; and although we climbed up
+several trees that looked taller than the rest near, so that we might
+better observe our whereabouts, when perchance we might discover some
+welcome oasis in sight in the midst of this desert of green, not a
+single yard could we see beyond the tree tops immediately near, which
+closed in the view completely--the only break apparent being the intense
+glaring blue of the burning sky just overhead, with its molten coppery
+disc of a sun darting down fiery rays from the zenith.
+
+"At last, when every man Jack of us felt that he could not proceed a
+single step beyond if we had any more climbing to do, the ground
+suddenly began to descend, telling us that we had reached the slope that
+led into the next valley.
+
+"This put fresh life into us and made us press onwards with renewed
+vigour, everyone hoping that, as soon as we got to the bottom of the
+declivity, we would reach one of those rivers which, as I had told the
+men, emptied themselves from the west coast of Madagascar into the
+Mozambique Channel--buoying up their drooping energies whenever they
+appeared to falter on their toilsome way by holding out this dream to
+them, for I believed in it fully myself.
+
+"It was but a futile hope, however; and one, too, that was doubly
+disappointing.
+
+"On getting to the lower part of the hill, something was seen shining
+through the trees, like as the sea had been observed shimmering in the
+sun on the other side of the mountain, but this now evidently could not
+be any portion of the Indian Ocean or Mozambique Channel, from the
+direction we had been proceeding in since the morning?
+
+"No, it could not be the sea.
+
+"It could be nothing else, thought the men, than the much-longed-for
+river which I had led them shortly to expect to see in sight; so, with a
+glad cheer they rushed between the trunks and branches of the
+intervening trees in mad, hot haste to quench their thirst in the
+cooling stream.
+
+"But oh! the terrible surprise!
+
+"The water was salt and brackish, not fresh.  It was a lagoon, or arm of
+the sea, running up between a gorge of the hills, and not a river after
+all."
+
+
+
+VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX.
+
+THE CROCODILE'S VICTIM.
+
+"You won't think I'm exaggerating, sir, or that we were unmanly; but I
+assure you that one and all of us broke down under this disappointment,
+and cried as if we were a parcel of children.  It was like the last
+straw, you know, that broke the camel's back!
+
+"As soon as we all recovered a bit from the disappointment, I told the
+men that we must make the best or worst of it, and that it would
+probably ease their thirst if they bathed in the lagoon.  This some of
+them did, but the majority gave way to despair; and if we had not lugged
+one chap out he would have drowned himself.
+
+"We had a long rest here, if rest you can call it when fellows felt
+utterly burnt up with the heat, and so parched with thirst and famished
+with hunger that their whole inside was all one gnawing crave for food
+and drink; but it eased us a bit, and Magellan and I held a council of
+war, as you might say, looking matters in the face and studying our
+position.
+
+"As near as I could judge from what I had observed when cruising off the
+coast, we should have to cross three more mountains similar to the one
+we had just got over, and travel through three more valleys like this in
+the same way, before arriving within hail of Majunga; for I knew there
+were three bays between Cape Tangan and the port we were aiming for--
+Pasanda, Radama, and another whose name I forget.  The question was,
+would we ever get over the distance?  If we did not meet with water
+soon, it would be utterly impossible for us to accomplish the journey;
+and, as the dry season had now set in, our chance of finding stray
+rivulets and mountain streams would grow each day less and less--unless,
+sir, you've ever been in the tropics you can't tell how quickly the
+appearance of the country alters with the change of the season!  A
+place, one day, may be all foaming down with cataracts and mountain
+torrents, with a river perhaps lying in your way that you would have to
+swim through to get over to the other side of it; while, the next time
+you visit the same locality, even within a week, the mountain torrents
+and cataracts will have vanished as if by magic, and the river you had
+to swim over or found impassable will now have dwindled down to a tiny
+streamlet that a child could paddle in, or else have completely dried
+up, leaving only a rocky channel in the ground with huge boulders tossed
+about here and there to show where it had been.
+
+"It was fortunate for us we had the sun to guide us through all this
+forest waste, as otherwise we could not possibly have steered in any
+constant direction, but would probably have gone round in a circle like
+a horse in a mill.  As it was, however, even amidst the depth of
+brushwood and jungle by the side of the salt-water lagoon where we were
+camping for the time, we could easily distinguish the western point of
+the compass from the sun circling almost directly towards that quarter
+after it had passed the meridian, for we were only some fifteen degrees
+south of the equator; and in the morning, likewise, we had no difficulty
+in telling when we faced east.
+
+"Under these circumstances, therefore, I advised all hands to get up
+when they felt a little less tired and trudge on steadily due south,
+where our only hope of safety lay, as long as the light through the
+trees enabled us to see where we were going.  Once the light became
+uncertain, it would be better to stop for the night than to wander about
+and fatigue ourselves unnecessarily, only perhaps to find out when the
+sun rose again at dawn that we had been merely retracing our previous
+day's steps to no good.
+
+"It was a hard job to make the poor chaps buckle to their tramp again,
+and it was as much as Magellan and I could do to get them to start.  One
+of them, Denis Brown, he was a faint-hearted man even on board ship,
+entreated us to let him lie down there and die where he was; but of
+course we would not leave him behind, and he had to come on with us
+whether he liked it or not, Magellan and I forcing him on his legs and
+dragging him on.
+
+"Our first task was to get round the lagoon, which was so overgrown with
+reeds and suchlike rank vegetation as grows in swamps that we couldn't
+tell where it began or ended; but as the sea must lay towards the west,
+I came to the conclusion that if we skirted the bank in the opposite
+direction we would soon come to the neck of the water and be able to
+wade across it.  This we did, but it was arduous walking--through mud
+and slime, with snakes darting out every now and then upon us, and huge
+crocodiles crawling out of our way, just as we almost set foot on them,
+which frightened some of the timid ones pretty much, I can tell you!
+
+"At last we managed to get round the lagoon; and then, steering steadily
+again to the south, this bit of easting having taken us a good deal out
+of our straight course southwards, we had a second mountain to climb up
+through tangled brushwood and jungle.  This seemed harder work a good
+deal than the first one, for we were almost tired out when we started on
+the journey, while our feet were so swollen and blistered with all the
+walking we had already done, besides being torn to pieces with the
+stones and jagged bits of tree roots we had trodden on, that we could
+hardly crawl up, although we grasped hold of the branches of the shrubs
+and brushwood to drag ourselves up by.  When we arrived at the top of
+this chain of hills--for it was first up and then down most of the way--
+the sun was just setting; so, down we squatted in the first open place
+we reached, resting for the night and leaving the descent into the
+valley for the next morning.  Indeed, we were so weary and worn out that
+if we had known for a certainty that water was within reach of us at the
+bottom of the hill, although we were so thirsty that we couldn't hardly
+speak to one another, I don't believe a man of us would have stirred
+after once lying down to get a drink--we really couldn't have stirred a
+step!
+
+"The sun had been up a good time before we rose from the ground, on
+this, the third day of our being in the bush, and when we got up it was
+as much as we could do to stand in an erect position at all, our
+energies being so exhausted that hardly a man had a scrap of strength
+left to drag himself up.  Of all the miserable scarecrows you ever saw
+in your life, we must have then looked the worst--with our bare pelts
+burnt and blistered, our tangled hair and beards, our woebegone faces,
+out of which our eyes were almost starting from their sockets, and our
+bleeding feet and limbs, the latter all scratched, and with pieces of
+flesh torn out of them by the briars and thorns through which we had to
+scramble in our climb up the mountain!
+
+"`We look just fit for Madame Tussaud's chamber of horrors,' said
+Magellan, contemplating himself ruefully, and then looking at the rest
+of us, who were all in the same sorry plight--like a parcel of naked
+white savages.
+
+"`Aye,' said I, `and I wouldn't mind being there in London now!
+Howsomdever, old ship'--I added on to what I was saying, seeing that the
+fellows laughed and cheered up a bit at Magellan's comical way--`if we
+ever hopes to get there we must trudge on now.  Our course is all
+downhill, thank goodness, and perhaps we'll meet with a river at last--
+as soon as we get down to the gully.'
+
+"`That's your sort,' shouted out Magellan heartily; `rouse up, my
+hearties, and let us push on.  There's no good our remaining here, and
+the sooner we start, why, the sooner we'll get to Majunga.  Yo, heave
+ho!  Up anchor, men, and make sail!  Heave ahead with a will and follow
+me!'
+
+"With that, we got under way again, with Magellan leading, as he was
+stronger than me now, and the first man of course made the path easier
+for those coming after him--which was the reason I went in advance as
+long as I was able.  In proportion as it had been harder to climb, so
+was this mountain steeper and more dangerous to descend than the first
+one we had surmounted, for it sloped down so suddenly in some places
+that it seemed as if we were sliding down the pointed roof of a house;
+while we had to look out narrowly for several ugly chasms or crevices in
+the ground on which we popped every now and then most unexpectedly.
+Denis Brown, the most unlucky of the party, as generally happens to
+timid nervous people, nearly got his neck broken in one of these gullies
+soon after we started, and it was only by the exertions of all our party
+that we saved his life.
+
+"Slipping, sliding, swinging ourselves forward sometimes by the branches
+of the trees from one foothold to another, but still ever descending, we
+made our way down the side of the mountain for ever so long, going on
+till we thought we must be diving into the heart of the earth, the gorge
+was so deep.  Occasionally, when we arrived at some little open space,
+we could see the tops of the trees underneath us, as if under our feet,
+and felt inclined to jump on them and go right through to the ground
+below with a crash, and have done with it at once.  The work, however,
+was so different to the climbing we had the day before that the men went
+at it more cheerily, besides which it was like running downhill, and
+when once they had begun descending they could not stop themselves, but
+had to go on like a rolling ball.
+
+"Thank God, though, it was toil well spent!  As we got nearer the
+bottom, I could fancy I heard the noise of water running, the sound
+coming to my ear in the silence of the still solemn forest when the
+noise we made crashing through the brushwood had ceased.  I couldn't
+believe it, however, at first, and thought it was a dream, or arose out
+of the delirium occasioned by the thirst from which I was suffering; but
+it grew clearer and more distinct as we proceeded, and being assured of
+this I halted of a sudden.
+
+"`Jem,' I sang out to Magellan, who was still in front forcing a way for
+us, `stop a minute!  Don't you hear anything?'
+
+"He therefore halted like myself, and so did the rest, who were pressing
+on between us, he leading and I bringing up the rear, the other four
+being in the middle like a wedge.
+
+"`Listen!'  I cried.  All was stillness for a moment, but soon, above
+the hush that succeeded the noise of our movement through the bush, we
+could hear a faint silvery trickling sound that was sweeter than the
+sweetest music to our ears.  It was the murmur of running water, with an
+occasional splash as it leaped over a stone.
+
+"`Hooray, boys!' exclaimed Jem.  `We've fetched the water at last--
+follow my leader now, and we'll be able to slake our thirst!'
+
+"So saying, he plunged again downwards through the jungle, and we after
+him, helter skelter through the forest in our mad race for the precious
+element of which we had been so long deprived, and whose real value we
+did not properly appreciate till we had lost it.  Our rush must have
+resembled what I've read takes place on the prairies of America when
+there is a stampede of the wild animals frightened by the forests
+catching fire or some other scare.
+
+"Thank God, as I said then, it was not another deception this time like
+the salt lagoon that had disappointed us so sorely that time when we
+thought we had a drink at last!
+
+"As we got nearer and nearer the bottom of the valley, the sound of the
+running water increased, and mingled with it was heard that bubbling and
+splashing that echoes so delightfully on one's ears on a warm summer day
+in England from a garden fountain; so you can imagine how it appealed to
+our parched senses.  Why, we wouldn't have stopped then in our progress
+towards it if a fiery volcano lay between us, or if a thousand bayonets
+tried to arrest our movement!
+
+"Another moment of suspense, and then, there lay the stream before us.
+I never experienced before that saying in Scripture so thoroughly, about
+the sight of the water in a thirsty land.  It was like heaven to us!
+
+"It wasn't a big river--only a little streamlet of about six feet in
+width, yet pretty deep, for it came up to our shoulders when we stood in
+it; but it was quite enough for us, and we dashed into it, plunging in
+and rolling over in our hot haste and eagerness to drink, so wildly, so
+madly that it was a wonder that we did not drown one another, all
+clumped up together as we were.  We swilled and swilled till we well-
+nigh felt that we were bursting; while some continued to drink even
+after their stomachs were unable to contain any more, and the water
+rolled back out of their mouths.  We were more like beasts than human
+beings for over a quarter of an hour; and then, we roared with an agony
+of pain from the distension this sudden repletion gave us.  After a
+time, however, this passed off and we felt more comfortable, when we
+were able to sit down by the green banks through which the stream leaped
+and raced along in its course down to the sea to the westwards beyond.
+The river, we could now see, when we had more leisure to contemplate it,
+came from a little cataract or waterfall that sprang down a niche in the
+rocks at the point where two gorges met, and if we had gone half a mile
+further to the eastward we must have missed it.  Providence surely
+guided our steps that day, for I'm certain we could not have lived
+another twenty-four hours without water, nay, not twelve!
+
+"As soon as our thirst was appeased, all of us began to feel ravenously
+hungry; the men, to my eyes, seeming by the looks they were casting at
+each other as if they would turn cannibals if no other proper food
+turned up.  Glancing about the little glade where we were resting, I
+fortunately saw just by the side of the streamlet some lace-like leaves
+of a climbing plant which resembled very much what I knew in the West
+Indies as the water yam--a very good vegetable that serves the niggers
+there instead of our potato, and indeed some folks, myself included,
+like it better than that even, when roasted, with lots of butter on it.
+
+"I told Jem of this; and he, fortunately having his knife with him slung
+on to the lanyard round his trouser band--he was the only one of us that
+had a weapon of any sort--at once began to dig about the roots of the
+plants, soon dragging out from the ground a large bulb something like an
+elongated beet-root.  It was the water yam, sure enough.  I recognised
+it the moment I looked at it, and I was glad that the leaf had attracted
+my attention; so, telling Jem it was all right, he at once sliced it up
+into six pieces and shared it out to us.  I can't say it tasted nice,
+being raw; but it was something in the food line at any rate, and we ate
+it all ravenously, the same as we would have eaten the leather of our
+boots if we had any.
+
+"Jem Magellan dug out three more yams, one of which he shared out in the
+same way and which was just as quickly demolished; but the two others he
+reserved for the next day, in case we should not chance to come across
+any more plants.  Then, we had another good drink of water, which tasted
+not the less sweet the more we had of it; and as the sun was now setting
+we turned in for the night by the bank of the stream, intending to stay
+there a bit until we had recruited ourselves after all the exhausting
+privation and terribly hard work we had experienced in getting through
+the bush since quitting Cocoa-nut Bay, as we had christened the place we
+had come ashore from the wreck of the pinnace.
+
+"Next morning we woke up more at our usual time aboard ship, soon after
+the sun rose, the rest and food and drink having refreshed us so greatly
+that we felt almost ourselves again; but we were still mighty hungry and
+polished off our two yams for breakfast in a brace of shakes, the men
+not listening to the injunctions of Magellan and myself that perhaps
+they would feel the want of them more before the day was out.  Now they
+had had their ravenous cravings appeased, they thought they had come to
+the end of all their privations.  Poor chaps, they and myself had to
+suffer a good deal more yet before we had quite done with Madagascar!
+
+"A little later on, a sort of large parrot or cockatoo came flying down
+the valley, perching on the branch of a tree near the waterfall, where
+he began to croak away; so Denis Brown ups with a piece of stone and
+chucking it at the bird brings it down.  In a moment he had picked off
+the feathers, when Magellan, taking out his knife again, cuts the parrot
+into six portions, entrails and all, and distributes it amongst us.
+That was the first thing we had between our teeth in the shape of meat
+for nearly six days, for we had our last meal on board the pinnace the
+day before she upset; so the fowl tasted better to us than the best
+fancy dish ever served up at the lord-mayor's dinner--the only thing
+against it being that there was so little of it, divided amongst the six
+of us!  However, it was a godsend any way; and it gave us so much
+additional strength and courage, combined with the effects of the yams
+we had already eaten and the plentiful supply of good water, that it was
+unanimously resolved, after having a thorough rest that day by the side
+of the river, to resume our march to Majunga the next morning at
+daybreak and to keep on till we got there.
+
+"But, `Man proposes and God disposes,' says the old proverb, and a very
+wise one too, as we proved before the next forty-eight hours went over
+our heads.
+
+"There was no breakfast this morning of our second day's rest by the
+banks of the river that had so providentially been sighted in time to
+save our lives; but, notwithstanding that drawback, the whole party of
+us started gaily afresh on our way through the jungle, resuming our
+southerly course towards Majunga.  Magellan and I regretted very much
+that we had omitted bringing the empty water barrico from Cocoa-nut Bay
+with us, for now we could have filled it and carried a supply with us in
+the event of our being unable to come across another spring; but none of
+the other men would carry it, and he and I after taking it along for a
+time had thrown it away before the end of our first day's pilgrimage, it
+being as much as we could do to drag ourselves along without being
+hampered with an empty cask that might after all be a useless
+incumbrance.
+
+"So, once more depending on the chance of what we might meet with on the
+way, we set out; our way was, as at first starting, lying again uphill
+and the steepest bit of climbing we had yet had.  In spite of our good
+intentions of the previous night, what with prospecting our journey and
+one thing and another, it was past mid-day before we got well off from
+the valley, and it was nightfall when we reached the top of the third
+mountain; but the men were not near so tired as they had been on the
+last two days of our wandering before getting water, and even now did
+not complain again of thirst as they had done at their former halts for
+the night--moaning through their sleep and bursting out sometimes in
+incoherent ravings as if they were going mad.  From the top of this
+eminence, too, we had more of an outlook than we had yet been able to
+gain, seeing a distant peep of the sea through the trees, and below us
+far away, wandering in and out between the masses of thick foliage, the
+silvery gleam of a river coursing its way to the coast.  We went to
+sleep, therefore, with the comfortable assurance that everything would
+turn out well for us on the morrow, when we should be in clover if
+appearances were to be trusted.
+
+"Alas, it was a day of calamity and greater peril than we had yet
+undergone!
+
+"Our downward progress this morning was as rapid as that into the oasis
+we had discovered in the wilderness on the day before, and indeed seemed
+much easier, the vegetation not being so thick and the ground shelving
+less abruptly; but then, in compensation for this, we did not receive a
+similar thankful reward for our toil on reaching the bottom, for,
+although we came to a river, its water was utterly unlike that of the
+spring in the glade, being muddy and brackish.  However, to men thirsty
+like ourselves it was drinkable, and we had to content ourselves with
+it, taking as little of it as we could help and that only sufficient to
+quench our cravings.
+
+"What upset us more than this, though, was that this river was some
+three hundred yards across from bank to bank, so that we would have to
+wade it or swim it to get over to the other side, our investigations on
+the shore where we were deliberating showing us that it would be
+impossible to circle round it without going for miles out of our way.
+We were not frightened at the mere fact of having to venture into
+unknown depths--men who had swam the distance we had done in the
+Mozambique Channel could afford to laugh at the paltry width of the
+stream.  What troubled us was the sight of innumerable crocodiles,
+sluggishly dragging themselves up the slimy mud banks on either side and
+swimming about in the centre of the stream as if on guard over its
+precincts.  We did not care about tackling these; and so it was we
+hesitated, none wishing to be the first to venture the passage.
+
+"At last, Jem Magellan, as usual, came to the fore.
+
+"`Come now, men,' says he; `what are you minding them air crocodiles
+for?  They won't harm you, when the sharks let you t'other day in
+swimming ashore from the pinnace!  Jest follow me, and you'll soon see
+that my splashing in the water will frighten them off!  They are as
+cowardly as they're big and ugly!'
+
+"With these words, he leaped into the river and was very shortly across
+safely on the other side, the hideous reptiles taking no more notice of
+him than if he had been one of themselves, continuing to wallow about in
+the green slime.
+
+"Seeing this, I too followed, for I own to being a bit skeared of the
+animals before Jem put courage into me; and so did two of the others;
+but Denis Brown and the sixth man got terrified when they were in mid
+stream, shouting out and hollering that the crocodiles were after them.
+Jem, who was as brave as a lion, opening his knife and putting it
+between his teeth, plunged into the water again, swimming back to where
+Denis Brown was struggling in the river alone, the other chap having
+abandoned him and made for the shore.  But, the true-hearted fellow was
+too late; just as he was within a yard or two of Denis, the other gave
+out a shriek which went right through us all like an electric shock and
+disappeared below the water, into whose muddy depths one of the hideous
+brutes we had seen had dragged him down.  I declare, it affected us
+more, that did, than all we had gone through; and we were not calm till
+Jem Magellan stood once more amongst us, for we thought the crocodile
+might capture him next.  We did not any of us like Brown much; but our
+misfortunes had drawn us all closer together and we felt his loss
+deeply.
+
+"That wasn't the end of our troubles for the day either.
+
+"Resuming our course sadly across the level marshy land which adjoined
+the river and apparently extended some distance before we could reach
+our last hill, we had just entered within the outskirts of another
+forest of jungle when our ears were assailed with the most terrible
+yells.  The next moment, without the slightest warning, a band of
+natives rushed at us with savage cries--hurling spears and darts at us,
+before we could put ourselves into a posture of defence--poor, unarmed,
+defenceless fellows that we were!"
+
+
+
+VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+RESCUED AT LAST.
+
+"The savages," continued Ben, "in their rapid onslaught on us,
+fortunately, missed their aim, only one of us getting a spear-wound
+through the body, the rest of their weapons expending their force
+harmlessly in the bush, and by the time they were ready for a second go
+at us we were better prepared to receive them, although sadly wanting in
+the means of defence, only Jem Magellan having a knife.  This he at once
+drew, however, while the rest of us, using the sticks we had previously
+cut in the forest, as I had forgotten to tell you previously, made an
+effort to save our lives with the determination of fighting to the last.
+
+"But, Jem was our guardian angel now, as he had been before.  Darting at
+one of the natives before he was apparently aware of his intention, he
+stabbed him through the heart, and then catching him up without a
+second's deliberation by his legs, and using his body as a club, he
+floored three others in rapid succession.  We, too, were not behindhand
+with our sticks; and the savages--struck more with consternation at
+Magellan's tremendous strength, for he was built like a giant, and stood
+over six feet high, than by our prowess--ran away back into the jungle
+as fast as they had come upon us; leaving some four of their number
+struck lifeless on the ground, besides the one Jem had first settled,
+and whom the club exercise to which his body had been subjected had
+knocked out of any semblance it had originally possessed to the human
+form.
+
+"We breathed hard when the scrimmage was over, for it was warm work
+while it lasted; and then, our sadly-lessened little party thinking
+discretion the better part of valour, and that our foes might get
+reinforced and return to attack us in numbers, only ten altogether
+having belonged to the body assailing us, we too took to our heels in
+the opposite direction.  This was the very one, indeed, in which our
+proper course lay; and we ran on without giving a thought as to whether
+any of those we had knocked on the head would come to life again or not,
+or that we had to answer for their deaths.
+
+"It would weary you to hear all the further trials we had to go through.
+We had three other rivers to ford before reaching the base of the next
+mountain; and, on essaying to climb this latter, we found it so steep
+and matted with rank vegetation that it was impossible to ascend it.
+Besides, the mosquitoes stung us almost to pieces on our going into the
+forest here; and, seeing that our route southwards was impracticable any
+longer, we bent our steps due west, following the track of the last
+river we had crossed so as to gain the beach again, which latter course
+seemed to offer now the best chance of escape.
+
+"Arrived here, we sat down facing the sea, without a single sail passing
+by within hail, as we had hoped would soon have been the case, for two
+long weary days and nights--one of us always keeping watch that we
+should not miss a vessel, in the first place, and, secondly, for fear of
+another attack from the natives.  During all this time, recollect, we
+had nothing to eat since we swallowed the last fragment of the solitary
+parrot that poor Denis Brown had knocked down, although plenty of
+brackish water was at our disposal from the river.
+
+"On the third morning, however, just when we were pretty nigh done up
+with the heat and hunger, thinking each moment would be our last, an
+Arab dhow passed by close inshore to where we were stretched almost
+lifeless on the sand, watching the monotonous sea that broke with a
+heavy wash on the beach.
+
+"We hailed the people on board, but they took no notice of us, and we
+abandoned ourselves to despair.  However, another trading dhow came by
+soon afterwards, luckily for us, and the skipper of this showed more
+sympathy to shipwrecked seamen in distress, for, responding to our
+appeals for help, he said he would lie to for us, but as he had no boat
+we would have to swim off to the vessel.
+
+"This we did, braving our fear of the sharks, though we had seen plenty
+of them about during the two days we had been staring at the sea; and,
+plunging into the waves, were soon hauled aboard in safety, the
+revulsion of feeling at being thus saved from a lingering death almost
+making us helpless at the last!
+
+"The captain of the dhow, who was in the employ of some Banian traders,
+carried us to Majunga, where we were most hospitably treated, a house
+being set apart for our accommodation, and the Queen of Madagascar
+herself sending down provisions for our use during our stay there.  I
+recollect, on the very day of our arrival, she despatched three casks of
+rice, along with a dozen ducks and twelve fowls, for us to have a feast
+with; and I don't think we had left a bone of the poultry or a grain of
+rice by the end of the following day.
+
+"I shall never forget the kindness we all met with at Majunga.  It is an
+Arab colony, with lots of Hindoos and Portuguese there besides, although
+only a small mud town.  It was this place that the French bombarded the
+other day for no cause whatever that I can see save to get a foothold on
+the island and establish their blessed republic there.  But then, we
+need not talk.  I've known English men-of-war set fire to native
+villages amongst the islands in the South Pacific just to avenge a
+fancied insult which some blackbirding schooner had once received when
+its crew were trying to kidnap the natives, and I have known cruelties
+committed because the merchants were unable to get the proper price for
+their Manchester cottons and Brummagem goods; while when serving on the
+west coast of Africa, up the Congo river, I have seen whole colonies of
+poor niggers annihilated, with their little towns wrecked over their
+heads, simply because they did not choose to do exactly what we told
+them.  You may say that the French have no right to do as they have done
+and are doing in Madagascar; but circumstances alter cases, sir.  We
+only think these bombardments and colonising schemes bad when they are
+carried out by other nations; when we do similar things, of course it is
+all right and just."
+
+"Did you rejoin your ship ultimately?"  I asked, when Ben had finished
+his little bit of moralising, apropos of international differences.
+
+"Oh yes, sir.  The _Dolphin_ came cruising in search of us down the
+coast after capturing the second slaver and settling all her business at
+Zanzibar; and, on her putting in to Majunga, of course we went on board,
+reporting the accident that had happened to the pinnace.  The excitement
+had borne us up to then; but, soon after we found ourselves once more in
+the old ship, the whole lot of us broke down and went raving mad, being
+out of our minds for weeks.  Magellan and the others recovered out
+there, but I was invalided home and sent to Haslar Hospital--being
+ultimately allowed to leave the service on a pension before I had quite
+finished my time, all through that exposure I had had when swimming
+ashore in the Mozambique Channel and journeying through the bush
+afterwards.  I have quite recovered since, however, and am now as hale
+and hearty a man, thank God, as ever I was in all my life."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that," said I cordially.
+
+"Aye, I am," he repeated, as if to impress that point carefully on my
+mind; and then, seeing me looking at my watch, he asked me what the hour
+was.
+
+"Just eleven o'clock," I answered.
+
+"Lord bless us!" he exclaimed, "I'd no idea what time it was.  Why
+didn't you stop me?  I must be off home or my wife will be thinking I'm
+lost.  Good-night, sir.  Hope I haven't wearied you with my yarn?"
+
+"Oh no," I said, "I have not found it a bit too long.  Good-night."  And
+so ends Ben Campion's story of "The Lost Pinnace."
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Penang Pirate, by John Conroy Hutcheson
+
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