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diff --git a/7281.txt b/7281.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d6cda3 --- /dev/null +++ b/7281.txt @@ -0,0 +1,23540 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Cringle's Log, by Michael Scott + +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: Tom Cringle's Log + +Author: Michael Scott + +Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7281] +Last Updated: August 30, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM CRINGLE'S LOG *** + + + + +Produced by John Edward Heaton + + + + + + +TOM CRINGLE'S LOG + +By Michael Scott + +(1789--1835) + + + + +CHAPTER I.--The Launching of the Log. + + +Dazzled by the glories of Trafalgar, I, Thomas Cringle, one fine morning +in the merry month of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and so +and so, magnanimously determined in my own mind, that the United Kingdom +of Great Britain and Ireland should no longer languish under the want of a +successor to the immortal Nelson, and being then of the great +perpendicular altitude of four feet four inches, and of the mature age of +thirteen years, I thereupon betook myself to the praiseworthy task of +tormenting, to the full extent of my small ability, every man and woman +who had the misfortune of being in any way connected with me, until they +had agreed to exert all their interest, direct or indirect, and +concentrate the same in one focus upon the head and heart of Sir Barnaby +Blueblazes, vice-admiral of the red squadrons a Lord of the Admiralty, +and one of the old plain K.B.'s (for he flourished before the time when a +gallant action or two tagged half of the letters of the alphabet to a +man's name, like the tail of a paper kite), in order that he might be +graciously pleased to have me placed on the quarterdeck of one of his +Majesty's ships of war without delay. + +The stone I had set thus recklessly a-rolling, had not been in motion +above a fortnight, when it fell with unanticipated violence, and crushed +the heart of my poor mother, while it terribly bruised that of me, Thomas; +for as I sat at breakfast with the dear old woman, one fine Sunday morning, +admiring my new blue jacket and snow white trowsers, and shining well +soaped face, and nicely brushed hair, in the pier glass over the chimney +piece, I therein saw the door behind me open, and Nicodemus, the waiting +man, enter and deliver a letter to the old lady, with a formidable looking +seal. + +I perceived that she first ogled the superscription, and then the seal, +very ominously, and twice made as if she would have broken the missive +open, but her heart seemed as often to fail her. At length she laid it +down-heaved a long deep sigh--took off her spectacles, which appeared +dim-wiped them, put them on again, and making a sudden effort, tore open +the letter, read it hastily over, but not so rapidly as to prevent her hot +tears falling with a small tiny tap tap on the crackling paper. + +Presently she pinched my arm, pushed the blistered manuscript under my +nose, and utterly unable to speak to me, rose, covered her face with her +hands, and left the room weeping bitterly. I could hear her praying in a +low, solemn, yet sobbing and almost inarticulate voice, as she crossed the +passage to her own dressing-room.--"Even as thou wilt, oh Lord--not mine, +but thy holy will be done--yet, oh! it is a bitter bitter thing for a +widowed mother to part with her only boy." + +Now came my turn--as I read the following epistle three times over, with +a most fierce countenance, before thoroughly understanding whether I was +dreaming or awake--in truth, poor little fellow as I was, I was fairly +stunned. + +"Admiralty, such a date. + +"DEAR MADAM, +It gives me very great pleasure to say that your son is appointed to the +Breeze frigate, now fitting at Portsmouth for foreign service. Captain +Wigemwell is a most excellent officer, and a good man, and the +schoolmaster on board is an exceedingly decent person I am informed; so I +congratulate you on his good fortune in beginning his career, in which I +wish him all success, under such favourable auspices. As the boy is, I +presume, all ready, you had better send him down on Thursday next, at +latest, as the frigate will go to sea, wind and weather permitting, +positively on Sunday morning." + +"I remain, my dear Madam," + +"Yours very faithfully," + +"BARNABY BLUEBLAZES, K.B." + +However much I had been moved by my mother's grief, my false pride came to +my assistance, and my first impulse was to chant a verse of some old tune, +in a most doleful manner. "All right--all right," I then exclaimed, as I +thrust half a doubled up muffin into my gob, but it was all chew, chew, +and no swallow--not a morsel could I force down my parched throat, which +tightened like to throttle me. + +Old Nicodemus had by this time again entered the room, unseen and unheard, +and startled me confoundedly, as he screwed his words in his sharp cracked +voice into my larboard ear. "Jane tells me your mamma is in a sad taking, +Master Tom. You ben't going to leave us, all on a heap like, be you? +Surely your stay until your sister comes from your uncle Job's? You know +there are only two on ye--You won't leave the old lady all alone, Master +Thomas, win ye?' The worthy old fellow's voice quavered here, and the +tears hopped over his old cheeks through the flour and tallow like peas, +as he slowly drew a line down the forehead of his well-powdered pate, +with his fore-finger. + +"No--no--why, yes," exclaimed I, fairly overcome; "that is--oh Nic, Nic +you old fool, I wish I could cry, man--I wish I could cry!" and +straightway I hied me to my chamber, and wept until I thought my very +heart would have burst. + +In my innocence and ignorance, child as I was, I had looked forward to +several months preparation; to buying and fitting of uniforms, and dirks, +and cocked hat, and swaggering therein, to my own great glory, and the +envy of all my young relations; and especially I desired to parade my +fire--new honours before the large dark eyes of my darling little creole +cousin, Mary Palma; whereas I was now to be bundled on board, at a few +days warning, out of a ready-made furnishing shop, with lots of ill-made, +glossy, hard mangled duck trowsers, the creases as sharp as the backs of +knives, and--"oh, it never rains, but it pours," exclaimed I; "surely all +this promptitude is a little de plus in Sir Barnaby." + +However, away I was trundled at the time appointed, with an aching heart, +to Portsmouth, after having endured the misery of a first parting from a +fond mother, and a host of kind friends; but, miserable as I was, +according to my preconceived determination, I began my journal the very +day I arrived, that nothing connected with so great a man should be lost, +and most weighty did the matters therein related appear to me at the time; +but seen through the long vista of, I won't say how many years, I really +must confess that the Log, for long long after I first went to sea in the +Breeze, and subsequently when removed to the old Kraaken line-of-battle +ship, both of which were constantly part of blockading squadrons, could be +compared to nothing more fitly than a dish of trifle, anciently called +syllabub, with a stray plum here and there scattered at the bottom. But +when, after several weary years, I got away in the dear old Torch, on a +separate cruise, incidents came fast enough with a vengeance--stem, +unyielding, iron events, as I found to my heavy cost, which spoke out +trumpet-tongued and fiercely for themselves, and whose tremendous +simplicity required no adventitious aid in the narration to thrill through +the hearts of others. So, to avoid yarn-spinning, I shall evaporate my +early Logs, and blow off as much of the froth as I can, in order to +present the residuum free of flummery to the reader--just to give him a +taste here and there, as it were, of the sort of animal I was at that +time. Thus: + +Thomas Cringle, his log-book. + +Arrived in Portsmouth by the Defiance at ten, A.M. on such a day. +Waited on the Commissioner, to whom I had letters, and said I was +appointed to the Breeze. Same day, went on board and took up my berth; +stifling hot; mouldy biscuit; and so on. My mother's list makes it +fifteen shirts, whereas I only have twelve. + +Admiral made the signal to weigh, wind at S.W. fresh and squally. +Stockings should be one dozen worsted, three of cotton, two of silk; find +only half a dozen worsted, two of cotton, and one of silk. + +Fired a gun and weighed. + +Sailed for the Fleet off Vigo, deucidly sea-sick was told that fat pork +was the best specific, if bolted half raw; did not find it much of a tonic +passed a terrible night, and for four hours of it obliged to keep watch, +more dead than alive. The very second evening we were at sea, it came on +to blow, and the night fell very dark, with heavy rain. Towards eight +bells in the middle watch, I was standing on a gun well forward on the +starboard side, listening to the groaning of the main-tack, as the +swelling sail, the foot of which stretched transversely right athwart the +ship's deck in a black arch, struggled to tear it up, like some dark +impalpable spirit of the air striving to burst the chains that held him, +and escape high up into the murky clouds, or a giant labouring to uproot +an oak, and wondering in my innocence how hempen cord could brook such +strain when just as the long waited-for strokes of the bell sounded +gladly in mine ear, and the shrill clear note of the whistle of the +boatswain's mate had been followed by his gruff voice, grumbling hoarsely +through the gale, "Larboard watch, ahoy!" The look-out at the weather +gangway, who had been relieved, and beside whom I had been standing a +moment before, stepped past me, and scrambled up on the booms "Hillo, +Howard, where away, my man?" said I. + +"Only to fetch my"-- + +Crack!--the main tack parted, and up flew the sail with a thundering flap, +loud as the report of a cannon-shot, through which, however, I could +distinctly hear a heavy smash, as the large and ponderous blocks at the +clew of the sail struck the doomed sailor under the ear, and whirled him +off the booms over the fore-yard-arm into the sea, where he perished, as +heaving-to was impossible, and useless if practicable, as his head must +have been smashed to atoms. + +This is one of the stray plums of the trifle, what follows is a whisk of +the froth, written when we looked into Corunna, about a week after the +embarkation of the army:-- + + MONODY ON THE DEATH OF SIR JOHN MOORE. + + Farewell, thou pillar of the war, + Warm-hearted soldier, Moore, farewell, + In honour's firmament a star, + As bright as ere in glory fell. + + Deceived by weak or wicked men, + How gallantly thou stood'st at bay, + Like lion hunted to his den, + Let France tell, on that bloody day. + + No boastful splendour round thy bier, + No blazon'd trophies o'er thy grave; + But thou had'st more, the soldier's tear, + The heart-warm offering of the brave. + + On Lusitania's rock-girt coast, + All coffinless thy relics lie, + Where all but honour bright was lost, + Yet thy example shall not die. + + Albeit no funeral knell was rung, + Nor o'er thy tomb in mournful wreath + The laurel twined with cypress hung, + Still shall it live while Britons breathe. + + What though, when thou wert lowly laid, + Instead of all the pomp of woe, + The volley o'er thy bloody bed + Was thunder'd by an envious foe:-- + + Inspired by it in after time, + A race of heroes will appear, + The glory of Britannia's clime, + To emulate thy bright career. + + And there will be, of martial fire, + Those who all danger will endure; + Their first, best aim, but to aspire + To die thy death--the death of Moore. + +To return. On the evening of the second day, we were off Falmouth, and +then got a slant of wind that enabled us to lie our course. + +Next morning, at daybreak, saw a frigate in the northeast quarter, making +signals;--soon after we bore up. Bay of Biscay--tremendous swell--Cape +Finisterre--blockading squadron off Cadiz--in-shore squadron--and so on, +all trifle and no plums. + +At length the Kraaken, in which I had now served for some time, was +ordered home, and sick of knocking about in a fleet, I got appointed to a +fine eighteen-gun sloop, the Torch, in which we sailed on such a day for +the North Sea--wind foul--weather thick and squally; but towards evening +on the third day, being then off Harwich, it moderated, when we made more +sail, and stood on, and next morning, in the cold, miserable, drenching +haze of an October daybreak, we passed through a fleet of fishing-boats +at anchor. "At anchor," thought I, "and in the middle of the sea,"--but so +it was--all with their tiny cabooses, smoking cheerily, and a solitary +figure, as broad as it was long, stiffly walking to and fro on the +confined decks of the little vessels. It was now that I knew the value of +the saying, "a fisherman's walk, two steps and overboard." With regard to +these same fishermen, I cannot convey a better notion of them, than by +describing one of the two North Sea pilots whom we had on board. This +pilot was a tall, raw-boned subject, about six feet or so, with a blue +face--I could not call it red--and a hawk's-bill nose of the colour of +bronze. His head was defended from the weather by what is technically +called a south-west, pronounced sow-west,--cap, which is in shape like +the thatch of a dustman, composed of canvass, well tarred, with no snout, +but having a long flap hanging down the back to carry the rain over the +cape of the jacket. His chin was embedded in a red comforter that rose to +his ears. His trunk was first of all cased in a shirt of worsted +stocking-net; over this he had a coarse linen shirt, then a thick cloth +waistcoat; a shag jacket was the next layer, and over that was rigged the +large cumbrous pea jacket, reaching to his knees. As for his lower spars, +the rig was still more peculiar;--first of all, he had on a pair of most +comfortable woollen stockings, what we call fleecy hosiery--and the +beauties are peculiarly nice in this respect--then a pair of strong +fearnaught trowsers; over these again are drawn up another pair of +stockings, thick, coarse, rig-and-furrowed as we call them in Scotland, +and above all this were drawn a pair of long, well-greased, and liquored +boots, reaching half-way up the thigh, and altogether impervious to wet. +However comfortable this costume may be in bad weather in board, it is +clear enough that any culprit so swathed, would stand a poor chance of +being saved, were he to fall overboard. The wind now veered round and +round, and baffled, and checked us off, so that it was the sixth night +after we had taken our departure from Harwich before we saw Heligoland +light. We then bore away for Cuxhaven, and I now knew for the first time +that we had a government emissary of some kind or another on board, +although he had hitherto confined himself strictly to the captain's +cabin. + + +All at once it came on to blow from the north-east, and we were again +driven back among the English fishing boats. The weather was thick as +buttermilk, so we had to keep the bell constantly ringing, as we could not +see the jib-boom end from the forecastle. Every now and then we heard a +small, hard, clanking tinkle, from the fishing-boats, as if an old pot +had been struck instead of a bell, and a faint hollo, "Fishing-smack," as +we shot past them in the fog, while we could scarcely see the vessels at +all. The morning after this particular time to which I allude, was darker +than any which had gone before it; absolutely you could not see the +breadth of the ship from you; and as we had not taken the sun for five +days, we had to grope our way almost entirely by the lead. I had the +forenoon watch, during the whole of which we were amongst a little fleet +of fishing-boats, although we could scarcely see them, but being +unwilling to lose ground by lying to, we fired a gun every half hour, to +give the small craft notice of our vicinity, that they might keep their +bells a-going. Every three or four minutes, the marine drum-boy, or some +amateur performer,--for most sailors would give a glass of grog any day to +be allowed to beat a drum for five minutes on end--beat a short roll, and +often as we drove along, under a reefed foresail, and close reefed +topsails, we could hear the answering tinkle before we saw the craft from +which it proceeded; and when we did perceive her as we flew across her +stern, we could only see it, and her mast, and one or two well-swathed, +hardy fishermen, the whole of the little vessel forward being hid in a +cloud. + +I had been invited this day to dine with the Captain, Mr Splinter, the +first lieutenant being also of the party; the cloth had been withdrawn, +and we had all had a glass or two of wine a-piece, when the fog settled +down so thickly, although it was not more than five o'clock in the +afternoon, that the captain desired that the lamp might be lit. It was +done, and I was remarking the contrast between the dull, dusky, brown +light, or rather the palpable London fog that came through the skylight, +and the bright yellow sparkle of the lamp, when the second lieutenant, Mr +Treenail, came down the ladder. + +"We have shoaled our water to five fathoms, sir--shells and stones.--Here, +Wilson, bring in the lead." + +The leadsman, in his pea-jacket and shag trowsers, with the raindrop +hanging to his nose, and a large knot in his cheek from a junk of tobacco +therein stowed, with pale, wet visage, and whiskers sparkling with +moisture, while his long black hair hung damp and lank over his fine +forehead and the stand-up cape of his coat, immediately presented himself +at the door, with the lead in his claws, an octagonal-shaped cone, like +the weight of a window-sash, about eighteen inches long, and two inches +diameter at the bottom, tapering away nearly to a point at top, where it +was flattened, and a hole pierced for the line to be fastened to. At the +lower end--the but-end, as I would say there was a hollow scooped out, +and filled with grease, so that when the lead was cast, the quality of the +soil, sand, or shells, or mud, that came up adhering to this lard, +indicated, along with the depth of water, our situation in the North Sea; +and by this, indeed, we guided our course, in the absence of all +opportunity of ascertaining our position by observations of the sun. + +The Captain consulted the chart--"Sand and shells; why, you should have +deeper water, Mr Treenail. Any of the fishing-boats near you?" + +"Not at present, sir; but we cannot be far off some of them." + +"Well, let me know when you come near any of them." + +A little after this, as became my situation, I rose and made my bow, and +went on deck. + +By this time the night had fallen, and it was thicker than ever, so that, +standing beside the man at the wheel, you could not see farther forward +than the booms; yet it was not dark, either,--that is, it was moonlight, +so that the haze, thick as it was, had that silver gauze-like appearance, +as if it had been luminous in itself, that cannot be described to any one +who has not seen it. The gun had been fired just as I came on deck, but +no responding tinkle gave notice of any vessel being in the neighbourhood. +Ten minutes, it may have been a quarter of an hour, when a short roll of +the drum was beaten from the forecastle, where I was standing. At the +moment I thought I heard a holla, but I could not be sure. Presently I +saw a small light, with a misty halo surrounding it, just under the +bowsprit. + +"Port your helm," sung out the boatswain,--"port your helm, or we shall be +over a fishing-boat!" + +A cry arose from beneath a black object was for an instant distinguishable +and the next moment a crash was heard. The sprit-sail-yard rattled, and +broke off sharp at the point where it crossed the bowsprit; and a heavy +smashing thump against our bows told, in fearful language, that we had run +her down. Three of the men and a boy hung on by the rigging of the +bowsprit, and were brought safely on board; but two poor fellows perished +with their boat. It appeared, that they had broken their bell; and +although they saw us coming, they had no better means than shouting, and +showing a light, to advertise us of their vicinity. + +Next morning the wind once more chopped round, and the weather cleared, +and in four-and-twenty hours thereafter we were off the mouth of the +Elbe, with three miles of white foaming shoals between us and the land at +Cuxhaven, roaring and hissing, as if ready to swallow us up. It was low +water, and, as our object was to land the emissary at Cuxhaven, we had to +wait, having no pilot for the port, although we had the signal flying for +one all morning, until noon, when we ran in close to the green mound which +constituted the rampart of the fort at the entrance. To our great +surprise, when we hoisted our colours and pennant, and fired a gun to +leeward, there was no flag hoisted in answer at the flag-staff, nor was +there any indication of a single living soul on shore to welcome us. Mr +Splinter and the Captain were standing together at the gangway--"Why, +sir," said the former, "this silence somewhat surprises me: what say you, +Cheragoux?" to the government emissary or messenger already mentioned, who +was peering through the glass close by. + +"Why, mi Lieutenant, I don't certain dat all ish right on sore dere.' + +"No?" said Captain Deadeye; "why, what do you see?" + +"It ish not so mosh vat I shee, as vat I no shee, sir, dat trembles me. It +cannot surely be possib dat de Prussian an' Hanoverian troop have left de +place, and dat dese dem Franceman ave advance so far as de Elbe autrefois, +dat ish, once more?' + +"French!" said Deadeye, "Poo, nonsense; no French hereabouts; none nearer +than those cooped up in Hamburgh with Davoust, take my word for it." + +"I sall take your vord for any ting else in de large vorld, mi Capitain; +but I see someting glance behind dat rampart, parapet you call, dat look +dem like de shako of de infanterie legere of dat willain de Emperor +Napoleon. Ah! I see de red worsted epaulet of de grenadier also; sacre! +vat is dat pof of vite smoke?" + +What it was we soon ascertained to our heavy cost, for the shot that had +been fired at us from a long 32-pound gun, took effect right abaft the +foremast, and killed three men outright, and wounded two. Several other +shots followed, but with less sure aim. Returning the fire was of no use, +as our carronades could not have pitched their metal much more than +halfway; or, even if they had been long guns, they would merely have +plumped the balls into the turf rampart, without hurting any one. So we +wisely hauled off, and ran up the river with the young flood for about an +hour, until we anchored close to the Hanoverian bank, near a gap in the +dike, where we waited till the evening. + +As soon as the night fell, a boat with muffled oars was manned, to carry +the messenger on shore. I was in it; Mr Treenail, the second lieutenant, +steering. We pulled in right for a breach in the dike, lately cut by the +French, in order to inundate the neighbourhood; and as the Elbe at high +water is hereabouts much higher than the surrounding country, we were soon +sucked into the current, and had only to keep our oars in the water, +pulling a stroke now and then to give the boat steerage way. As we shot +through the gap into the smooth water beyond, we once more gave way, the +boat's head being kept in the direction of lights that we saw twinkling I +in the distance, apparently in some village beyond the inner embankment, +when all at once we dashed in amongst thousands of wild-geese, which rose +with a clang, and a concert of quacking, screaming, and hissing, that was +startling enough. We skimmed steadily on in the same direction "Oars, +men!" We were by this time close to a small cluster of houses, perched on +the forced ground or embankment, and the messenger hailed in German. + +"Qui vive!" sung out a gruff voice; and we heard the clank of a musket, as +if some one had cast it from his shoulder, and caught it in his hands, as +he brought it down to the charge. Our passenger seemed a little taken +aback; but he hailed again, still in German. "Parole," replied the man. +A pause. "The watchword, or I fire." We had none to give. + +"Pull round, men," said the lieutenant, with great quickness; "pull the +starboard oars; we are in the wrong box; back water the larboard. That's +it! give way, men." + +A flash-crack went the sentry's piece, and ping sung the ball over our +heads. Another pause. Then a volley from a whole platoon. Again all was +dark and silent. Presently a field-piece was fired, and several rockets +were let off in our direction, by whose light we could see a whole company +of French soldiers standing to their arms, with several cannon, but we +were speedily out of the reach of their musketry. Several round shots +were now fired, that hissed, recochetting along the water close by us. +Not a word was spoken in the boat all this time; we continued to pull for +the opening in the dike, although, the current being strong against us, we +made but little way; while the chance of being cut off by the Johnny +Crapeau, getting round the top of the embankment, so as to command the gap +before we could reach it, became every moment more alarming. + +The messenger was in great tribulation, and made several barefaced +attempts to stow himself away under the stem sheets. + +The gallant fellows who composed the crew strained at their oars until +every thing cracked again; but as the flood made, the current against us +increased, and we barely held our own. "Steer her, out of the current, +man," said the lieutenant to the coxswain; the man put the tiller to port +as he was ordered. + +"Vat you do soch a ting for, Mr Capitain Lieutenant?" said the emissary. +"Oh! you not pershave you are rone in order de igh bank! How you sall +satisfy me no France infanterie legere dere, too, more as in de fort, eh? +How you sall satisfy me, Mister Capitain Lieutenant, eh?" + +"Hold your blasted tongue, will you," said Treenail, "and the infantry +legere be damned simply. Mind your eye, my fine fellow, or I shall be +much inclined to see whether you will be Legere in the Elbe or no. Hark!" + +We all pricked up our ears, and strained our eyes, while a bright, +spitting sparkling fire of musketry opened at the gap, but there was no +ping pinging of the shot overhead. + +"They cannot be firing at us, sir," said the coxswain; "none of them +bullets are telling hereaway." + +Presently a smart fire was returned in three distinct clusters from the +water, and whereas the firing at first had only lit up the dark figures of +the French soldiery, and the black outline of the bank on which they were +posted, the flashes that answered them shewed us three armed boats +attempting to force the passage. In a minute the firing ceased; the +measured splash of oars was heard, as boats approached us. + +"Who's there?" sung out the lieutenant. + +"Torches," was the answer. + +"All's well, Torches," rejoined Mr Treenail; and presently the jollyboat, +and launch, and cutter of the Torch, with twenty marines, and thirty-six +seamen, all armed, were alongside. + +"What cheer, Treenail, my boy?" quoth Mr Splinter. + +"Why, not much; the French, who we were told had left the Elbe entirely, +are still here, as well as at Cuxhaven, not in force certainly, just +sufficiently strong to pepper us very decently in the outgoing?" + +"What, are any of the people hurt?" + +"No," said the garrulous emissary. "No, not hurt, but some of us +frightened leetle piece--ah, very mosh, je vous assure." + +"Speak for yourself, Master Plenippo," said Treenail. "But, Splinter, my +man, now since the enemy have occupied the dike in front, how the deuce +shall we get back into the river, tell me that?" + +"Why," said the senior lieutenant, "we must go as we came." + +And here the groans from two poor fellows who had been hit were heard from +the bottom of the launch. The cutter was by this time close to us, on the +larboard side, commanded by Mr Julius Caesar Tip, the senior midshipman, +vulgarly called in the ship Bathos, from his rather unromantic name. Here +also a low moaning evinced the precision of the Frenchmen's fire. + +"Lord, Mr Treenail, a sharp brush that was." + +"Hush!" quoth Treenail. At this moment three rockets hissed up into the +dark sky, and for an instant the hull and rigging of the sloop of war at +anchor in the river glanced in the blue-white glare, and vanished again, +like a spectre, leaving us in more thick darkness than before. + +"Gemini! what is that now?" quoth Tip again, as we distinctly heard the +commixed rumbling and rattling sound of artillery scampering along the +dike. + +"The ship has sent up these rockets to warn us of our danger," said Mr +Treenail. "What is to be done? Ah, Splinter, we are in a scrape--there +they have brought up field-pieces, don't you hear?" + +Splinter had heard it as well as his junior officer. "True enough, +Treenail; so the sooner we make a dash through the opening the better." + +"Agreed." + +By some impulse peculiar to British sailors, the men were just about +cheering, when their commanding officer's voice controlled them. "Hark, +my brave fellows, silence, as you value your lives." + +So away we pulled, the tide being now nearly on the turn, and presently we +were so near the opening that we could see the signal lights in the +rigging of the sloop of war. All was quiet on the dike. + +"Thank God, they have retreated after all," said Mr Treenail. + +"Whoo--o, whoo--o," shouted a gruff voice from the shore. + +"There they are still," said Splinter. "Marines, stand by, don't throw +away a shot; men, pull like fury. So--give way, my lads, a minute of that +strain will shoot us alongside of the old brig--that's it--hurrah!" + +"Hurrah!" shouted the men in answer, but his and their exclamations were +cut short by a volley of musketry. The fierce mustaches, pale faces, +glazed shakoes, blue uniforms, and red epaulets, of the French infantry, +glanced for a moment, and then all was dark again. + +"Fire!" The marines in the three boats returned the salute, and by the +flashes we saw three pieces of field. Artillery in the very act of being +unlimbered. We could distinctly hear the clash of the mounted +artillerymen's sabres against their horses' flanks as they rode to the +rear, their burnished accoutrements glancing at every sparkle of the +musketry. + +We pulled like fiends, and being the fastest boat, soon headed the launch +and cutter, who were returning the enemy's fire brilliantly, when crack--a +six-pound shot drove our boat into staves, and all hands were the next +moment squattering in the water. I sank a good bit, I suppose, for when I +rose to the surface, half drowned and giddy and confused, and striking out +at random, the first thing I recollected was a hard hand being wrung into +my neckerchief, while a gruff voice shouted in my ear. + +"Rendez vous, mon cher" + +Resistance was useless. I was forcibly dragged up the bank, where both +musketry and cannon were still playing on the boats, which had, however, +by this time got a good offing. I soon knew they were safe by the Torch +opening a fire of round and grape on the head of the dike, a contain proof +that the boats had been accounted for. The French party now ceased firing, +and retreated by the edge of the inundation, keeping the dike between them +and the brig, all except the artillery, who had to scamper off, running +the gauntlet on the crest of the embankment until they got beyond the +range of the carronades. I was conveyed between two grenadiers along the +water's edge so long as the ship was firing; but when that ceased, I was +clapped on one of the limbers of the field-guns, and strapped down to it +between two of the artillerymen. + +We rattled along, until we came up to the French bivouac, where, round a +large fire, kindled in what seemed to have been a farmyard, were assembled +about fifty or sixty French soldiers. Their arms were piled under the low +projecting roof of an outhouse, while the fire flickered upon their dark +figures, and glanced on their bright accoutrements, and lit up the wall of +the house that composed one side of the square. I was immediately marched +between a file of men into a small room, where the commanding officer of +the detachment was seated at a table, a blazing wood fire roaring in the +He was a genteel, slender, dark man, with very large black mustaches, and +fine sparkling black eyes, and had apparently just dismounted, for the mud +was fresh on his boots and trowsers. The latter were blue, with a broad +gold lace down the seam, and fastened by a strap under his boot, from +which projected a long fixed spur, which to me was remarkable as an +unusual dress for a Dire, the British army being, at the time I write of, +still in the age of breeches and gaiters, or tall boots, long cues and +pipeclay--that is, those troops which I had seen at home, although I +believe the great Duke had already relaxed a number of these absurdities +in Spain. + +His single-breasted coat was buttoned up to his throat, and without an +inch of lace except on his crimson collar, which fitted close round his +neck, and was richly embroidered with gold acorns and oak leaves, as were +the crimson cuffs to his sleeves. He wore two immense and very handsome +gold epaulets. + +"My good boy," said he, after the officer who had captured me had told his +story--"so your Government thinks the Emperor is retreating from the +Elbe?" + +I was a tolerable French scholar as times went, and answered him as well +as I could. + +"I have said nothing about that, sir; but, from your question, I presume +you command the rear-guard, Colonel?" + +"How strong is your squadron on the river?" said he, parrying the +question. + +"There is only one sloop of war, sir"--and I spoke the truth. + +He looked at me, and smiled incredulously; and then continued "I don't +command the rear-guard, sir--but I waste time--are the boats ready?" + +He was answered in the affirmative. + +"Then set fire to the houses, and let off the rockets; they will see them +at Cuxhaven--men," fall in--march--and off we all trundled towards the +river again. + +When we arrived there, we found ten Blankanese boats, two of them very +large, and fitted with sliding platforms. The four fieldpieces were run +on board, two into each; one hundred and fifty men embarked in them and +the other craft, which I found partly loaded with sacks of corn. I was in +one of the smallest boats with the colonel. When we were all ready to +shove off, "Lafont," he said, "are the men ready with their couteaux?" + +"They are, sir," replied the sergeant. + +"Then cut the horses' throats--but no firing." A few bubbling groans, and +some heavy falls, and a struggling splash or two in the water, showed that +the poor artillery horses had been destroyed. + +The wind was fair up the river, and away we bowled before it. It was +clear to me that the colonel commanding the post had overrated our +strength, and, under the belief that we had cut him off from Cuxhaven, he +had determined on falling back on Hamburgh. + +When the morning broke, we were close to the beautiful bank below Altona. +The trees were beginning to assume the russet hue of autumn, and the sun +shone gaily on the pretty villas and bloomin Gartens on the hill side, +while here and there a Chinese pagoda, or other fanciful pleasure-house, +with its gilded trellised work, and little bells depending from the eaves +of its many roofs, glancing like small golden balls, rose from out the +fast thinning recesses of the woods. + +But there was no life in the scene--'twas "Greece, but living Greece no +more,"--not a fishing-boat was near, scarcely a solitary figure crawled +along the beach. + +"What is that?" after we had passed Blankanese, said the colonel quickly. +"Who are those?" as a group of three of four men presented themselves at a +sharp turning of the road, that wound along the foot of the hill close to +the shore. + +"The uniform of the Prussians," said one. + +"Of the Russians," said another. + + +"Poo," said a third, "it is a picket of the Prince's;" and so it was, but +the very fact of his having advanced his outposts so far, showed how he +trembled for his position. + +After answering their hail, we pushed on, and as the clocks were striking +twelve, we were abreast of the strong beams, that were clamped together +with iron, and constituted the boom or chief water defence of Hamburgh. +We passed through, and found an entire regiment under arms, close by the +Custom-house. Somehow or other, I had drank deep of that John Bull +prejudice, which delights to disparage the physical conformation of our +Gallic neighbours, and hugs itself with the absurd notion, "that on one +pair of English legs doth march three Frenchmen." But when I saw the +weather-beaten soldierlike veterans, who formed this compact battalion, +part of the elite of the first corps, more commanding in its aspect from +severe service having worn all the gilding and lace away--"there was not a +piece of feather in the host" I felt the reality before me fast overcoming +my preconceived opinion. I had seldom or ever seen so fine a body of men, +tall, square, and muscular, the spread of their shoulders set off from +their large red worsted epaulets, and the solidity of the mass increased +by their wide trowsers, which in my mind contrasted advantageously with +the long gaiters and tight integuments of our own brave fellows. + +We approached a group of three mounted officers, and in a few words the +officer, whose prisoner I was, explained the affair to the chef de baton, +whereupon I was immediately placed under the care of' a sergeant and six +rank and file, and marched along the chief canal for a mile, where I could +not help remarking the numberless large rafts--you could not call them +boats--of unpainted pine timber, which had arrived from the upper Elbe, +loaded with grain: with gardens, absolute gardens, and cowhouses, and +piggeries on board; while their crews of Fierlanders, men, women, and +children, cut a most extraordinary appearance,--the men in their jackets, +with buttons like pot-lids, and trowsers fit to carry a month's provender +and a couple of children in; and the women with bearings about the +quarters, as if they had cut holes in large cheeses, three feet in +diameter at least, and stuck themselves through them--such sterns--and as +to their costumes, all very fine in a Flemish painting, but the devils +appeared to be awfully nasty in real life. + +But we carried on until we came to a large open space fronting a beautiful +piece of water, which I was told was the Alster. As I walked through the +narrow streets, I was struck with the peculiarity of the gables of the +tall houses being all turned towards the thoroughfare, and with the +stupendous size of the churches. We halted for a moment, in the porch of +one of the latter, and my notions of decency were not a little outraged, +by seeing it filled with a squadron of dragoons, the men being in the very +act of cleaning their horses. + +At length we came to the open space on the Alster, a large parade, faced +by a street of splendid houses on the left hand, with a row of trees +between them, and the water on the right. + +There were two regiments of foot bivouacking here, with their arms piled +under the trees, while, the men were variously employed, some on duty +before the houses, others cleaning their accoutrements, and others again +playing at all kinds of games. Presently we came to a crowd of soldiers +clustered round a particular spot, some laughing, others cracking coarse +jests, but none at all in the least serious. We could not get near enough +to see distinctly what was going on; but we afterwards saw, when the crowd +had dispersed, three men in the dress of respectable burghers, hanging +from a low gibbet,--so low in fact, that although their heads were not six +inches from the beam, their feet were scarcely three from the ground. I +was here placed in a guard-house, and kept there until the evening, when +I was again marched off under my former escort, and we soon arrived at the +door of a large mansion, fronting this parade, where two sentries were +walking backwards and forwards before the door, while five dragoon horses, +linked together, stood in the middle of the street, with one soldier +attending them, but there was no other particular bustle, to mark the +headquarters of the General commanding. We advanced to the entrance--the +sentries carrying arms--and were immediately ushered into a large saloon, +the massive stair winding up along the walls, with the usual heavy wooden +balustrade. We ascended to the first floor, where we were encountered by +three aides-de-camp, in full dress, leaning with their backs against the +hardwood railing, laughing and joking with each other, while two wall-lamps +right opposite cast a bright flashing light on their splendid uniforms. +They were all decorated with one order or another. + +We approached. + +"Whence, and who have we here?" said one of them, a handsome young man, +apparently not above twenty-two, as I judged, with small tiny black, +jet-black, mustaches, and a noble countenance; fine dark eyes, and curls +dark and clustering. + +The officer of my escort answered, "A young Englishman, enseigne de +vaisseau." + +I was no such thing, as a poor middy has no commission, but only his +rating, which even his captain, without a court-martial, can take away at +any time, and turn him before the mast. + +At this moment, I heard the clang of a sabre, and the jingle of spurs on +the stairs, and the group was joined by my captor, Colonel----. + +"Ah, Colonel!" exclaimed the aides, in a volley, "where the devil have you +come from? We thought you were in Bruxelles at the nearest." + +The colonel put his hand on his lips and smiled, and then slapped the +young officer who spoke first with his glove. "Never mind, boys, I have +come to help you here--you will need help before long;--but how is--?" +Here he made a comical contortion of his face, and drew his ungloved hand +across his throat. The young officers laughed, and pointed to the door. + +He moved towards it, preceded by the youngest of them, who led the way +into a very lofty and handsome room, elegantly furnished, with some fine +pictures on the walls, a handsome sideboard of plate, a rich Turkey carpet +an unusual thing in Germany--on the floor, and a richly gilt pillar, at +the end of the room farthest from us, the base of which contained a stove, +which, through the joints of the door of it, appeared to be burning +cheerily. + +There were some very handsome sofas and ottomans scattered through the +room, and a grand piano in one corner, the furniture being covered with +yellow, or amber-coloured velvet, with broad heavy draperies of gold +fringe, like the bullion of an epaulet. There was a small round table +near the stove, on which stood a silver candlestick, with four branches +filled with wax tapers; and bottles of wine, and glasses. At this table +sat an officer, apparently about forty five years of age. There was +nothing very peculiar in his appearance; he Was a middle-sized man, well +made apparently. He sat on one chair, with his legs supported on another. + +His white-topped boots had been taken off, and replaced by a pair of +slipshod slippers; his splashed white kerseymere pantaloons, seamed with +gold, resting on the unfrayed velvet cushion; his blue coat, covered with +rich embroidery at the bosom and collar, was open, and the lapels thrown +back, displaying a crimson-velvet facing, also richly embroidered, and an +embroidered scarlet waistcoat; a large solitary star glittered on his +breast, and the grand cross of the Legion of Honour sparkled at his +buttonhole; his black neckerchief had been taken off; and his cocked hat +lay beside him on a sofa, massively laced, the edges richly ornamented +with ostrich down; his head was covered with a red velvet cap, with a +thick gold cord twisted two or three turns round it, and ending in two +large tassels of heavy bullion; he wore very large epaulets, and his sword +had been inadvertently, as I conjectured, placed on the table, so that the +steel hilt rested on the ornamental part of the metal stove. + +His face was good, his hair dark, forehead without a wrinkle, high and +massive, eyes bright and sparkling, nose neither fine nor dumpy--a fair +enough proboscis as noses go. There was an expression about the upper lip +and mouth that I did not like--a constant nervous sort of lifting of the +lip as it were; and as the mustache appeared to have been recently shaven +off, there was a white blueness on the upper lip, that contrasted +unpleasantly with the dark tinge which he had gallantly wrought for on the +glowing sands of Egypt, and the bronzing of his general features from +fierce suns and parching winds. His bare neck and hands were delicately +fair, the former firm and muscular, the latter slender and tapering, like +a woman's. He was reading a gazette, or some printed paper, when we +entered; and although there was a tolerable clatter of muskets, sabres, +and spurs, he never once lifted his eye in the direction where we stood. +Opposite this personage, on a low chair, with his legs crossed, and eyes +fixed on the ashes that were dropping from the stove, with his brown cloak +hanging from his shoulders, sat a short stout personage, a man about +thirty years of age, with fair flaxen hair, a florid complexion, a very +fair skin, and massive German features. The expression of his face, so +far as such a countenance could be said to have any characteristic +expression, was that of fixed sorrow. + +But before I could make any other observation, the aide-de-camp +approached with a good spice of fear and trembling, as I could see. + +"Colonel----to wait on your Highness." + +"Ah!"--said the officer to whom he spoke,--"ah, colonel, what do you here? +Has the Emperor advanced again?" + +"No," said the officer, "he has not advanced; but the rear-guard were cut +off by the Prussians, and the light, with the grenadiers, are now in +Cuxhaven." + +"Well," replied the general, "but how come you here?" + +"Why, Marshal, we were detached to seize a depot of provisions in a +neighbouring village, and had made preparations to carry them off, when we +were attacked through a gap in the dike, by some armed boats from an +English squadron, and hearing a distant firing at the very moment, which I +concluded to be the Prussian advance, I conceived all chance of rejoining +the main army at an end, and therefore I shoved off in the grain-boats, +and here I am." + +"Glad to see you, however," said the general, "but sorry for the cause why +you have returned.--Who have we got here--what boy is that?" + +"Why," responded the colonel, "that lad is one of the British officers of +the force that attacked us." + +"Ha," said the general again, "how did you capture him?" + +"The boat (one of four) in which he was, was blown to pieces by a +six-pound shot. He was the only one of the enemy who swam ashore. The +rest, I am inclined to think, were picked up by the other boats." + +"So," grumbled the general, "British ships in the Elbe!" + +The colonel continued. "I hope, Marshal, you will allow him his parole? he +is, as you see, quite a child." + +"Parole!" replied the Marshall,--"parole! such a mere lad cannot know the +value of his promise." + +A sudden fit of rashness came over me. + +"He is a mere boy," reiterated the Marshall. "No, no--send him to prison;" +and he resumed the study of the printed paper he had been reading. + +I struck in, impelled by despair, for, young as I was, I knew the +character of the man before whom I stood, and I remembered that even a +tiger might be checked by a bold front--"I am an Englishman, sir, and +incapable of breaking my plighted word." + +He laid down the paper he was reading, and slowly lifted his eyes, and +fastened them on me,--"Ha," said he, "ha--so young--so reckless!" + +"Never mind him, Marshal," said the colonel. "If you will grant him his +parole, I."--"Take it, colonel--take it--take his parole, not to go beyond +the ditch." + +"But I decline to give any such promise," said I, with a hardihood which at +the time surprised me, and has always done so. + +"Why, my good youth," said the Marshal in great surprise, "why will you +not take advantage of the offer--a kinder one, let me tell you, than I am +in the habit of making to an enemy?" + +"Simply, sir, because I will endeavour to escape on the very first +opportunity." + +"Ha!" said the Marshal once more, "this to my face? Lafontaine,"--; to the +aide-de-camp,--"a file of soldiers." The handsome young officer +hesitated hung in the wind, as we say, for a moment--moved, as I imagined, +by my extreme youth. + +This irritated the Marshal rose, and stamped on the floor. The colonel +essayed to interfere. "Sentry--sentry--a file of grenadiers--take him +forth," and--here he energetically clutched the steel hilt of his sword, +and instantly dashed it from him--"Sacre!--the devil--what is that?" and +straightway he began to pirouette on one leg round the room, shaking his +right hand, and blowing his fingers. + +The officers in waiting could not stand it any longer, and burst into a +fit of laughter, in which their commanding officer, after an unavailing +attempt to look serious--I should rather write fierce joined, and there he +was, the bloody Davoust--Duke of Auerstad Prince of Eckmuhl--the Hamburgh +Robespierre--the terrible Davoust--dancing all around the room, in a +regular guffaw, like to split his sides. The heated stove had made his +sword, which rested on it, nearly red-hot. + +All this while the quiet, plain-looking little man sat still. He now +rose; but I noticed that he had been fixing his eyes intently on me. I +thought I could perceive a tear glistening in them as he spoke. + +"Marshal, will you intrust that boy to me?" + +"Poo," said the Prince, still laughing, "take him--do what you will with +him;"--then, as if suddenly recollecting himself, "But, Mr----, you must +be answerable for him--he must be at hand if I want him." + +The gentleman who had so unexpectedly patronized me rose, and said, +"Marshal, I promise." + +"Very well," said Davoust. "Lafontaine, desire supper to be sent up." + +It was brought in, and my new ally and I were shown out. + +As we went down stairs, we looked into a room on the ground floor, at the +door of which were four soldiers with fixed bayonets. We there saw, for +it was well lit up, about twenty or five-and-twenty respectable-looking +men, very English in appearance, all to their long cloaks, an unusual sort +of garment to my eye at that time. The night was very wet, and the +aforesaid garments were hung on pegs in the wall all around the room, +which being strongly heated by a stove, the moisture rose up in a thick +mist and made the faces of the burghers indistinct. + +They were all busily engaged talking to each other, some to his neighbour, +the others across the table, but all with an expression of the most +intense anxiety. + +"Who are these?" said I to my guide. + +"Ask no questions here" said he, and we passed on. + +I afterwards learned that they were the hostages seized on for the +contribution of fifty millions of francs, which had been imposed on the +doomed city, and that this very night they had been tom from their +families, and cooped up in the way I had seen them, where, they were +advertised, they must remain until the money should be forthcoming. + +As we walked along the streets, and crossed the numerous bridges over the +canals and branches of the river, we found all the houses lit up, by order, +as I learned, of the French marshal. The rain descended in torrents, +sparkling past the lights, while the city was a desert, with one dreadful +exception; for we were waylaid at almost every turn by groups of starving +lunatics, their half-naked figures and pale visages glimmering in the +glancing lights, under the dripping rain; and, had it not been for the +numerous sentries scattered along the thoroughfares, I believe we should +have been tom to pieces by bands of moping idiots, now rendered ferocious +from their sufferings, in consequence of the madhouses having been cleared +of their miserable, helpless inmates, in order to be converted into +barracks for the troops. At all of these bridges sentries were posted, +past which my conductor and myself were franked by the sergeant who +accompanied us giving the countersign. At length, civilly touching his +cap, although he did not refuse the piece of money tendered by my friend, +he left us, wishing us good-night, and saying the coast was clear. + +We proceeded, without farther challenge, until we came to a very +magnificent house, with some fine trees before it. We approached the door, +and rung the doorbell. It was immediately opened, and we entered a large +desolate, looking vestibule, about thirty feet square, filled in the centre +with a number of bales of goods, and a variety of merchandise, while a +heavy wooden stair, with clumsy oak balustrades, wound round the sides of +it. We ascended, and, turning to the right, entered a large well furnished +room, with a table laid out for supper, with lights, and a comfortable +stove at one end. Three young officers of cuirassiers, in their superb +uniforms, whose breast and back pieces were glittering on a neighbouring +sofa, and a colonel of artillery, were standing round the stove. The +colonel, the moment we entered, addressed my conductor: + +"Ah,----, we are devilish hungry--Ich bin dem Verhungern nahe and were +just on the point of ordering in the provender had you not appeared." + +"A little more than that," thought I; for the food was already smoking on +the table. + +Mine host acknowledged the speech with a slight smile. + +"But who have we here?" said one of the young dragoons. He waited a +moment "Etes--vous Francais?" I gave him no answer. He then addressed me +in German--"Sprechen sie geldufig Deutsch?" + +"Why," chimed in my conductor, "he does speak a little French +indifferently enough; but still...." + +Here I was introduced to the young officers, and we all sat down at table; +the colonel, civility itself, pressing my host to drink his own wine, and +eat his own food and even rating the servants for not being sufficiently +alert in their attendance on their own master. + +"Well, my dear----, how have you sped with the Prince?" + +"Why, colonel," said my protector, in his calm way, "as well as I expected. +I was of some service to him when he was here before, at the time he was +taken so very ill, and he has not forgotten it; so I am not included +amongst the unfortunate detainees for the payment of the fine. But that is +not all; for I am allowed to go tomorrow to my father's, and here is my +passport." + +"Wonders will never cease," said the colonel; "but who is that boy?" + +"He is one of the crew of the English boats which tried to cut off +Colonel----the other evening, near Cuxhaven. His life was saved by a +very laughable circumstance certainly; merely, by the marshal's sword, +from resting on the stove, having become almost red-hot." And here he +detailed the whole transaction as it took place, which set the party +a-laughing most heartily. + +I will always bear witness to the extreme amenity with which I was now +treated by the French officers. The evening passed over quickly. About +eleven we retired to rest, my friend furnishing me with clothes, and +warning me, that next morning he would call me at daylight, to proceed to +his father's country-seat, where he intimated that I must remain in the +meantime. + +Next morning I was roused accordingly, and a long, low, open carriage +rattled up to the door, just before day--dawn. Presently the reveille was +beaten, and answered by the different posts in the city, and on the +ramparts. + +We drove on, merely showing our passport to the sentries at the different +bridges, until we reached the gate, where we had to pun up until the +officer on duty appeared, and had scrupulously compared our personal +appearance with the written description. All was found correct, and we +drove on. + +It surprised me very much, after having repeatedly heard of the great +strength of Hamburgh, to look out on the large mound of green turf that +constituted its chief defence. + +It is all true that there was a deep ditch and glacis beyond; but there +was no covered way, and both the scarp and counterscarp were simple +earthen embankments; so that, had the ditch been filled up with fascines, +there was no wall to face the attacking force after crossing it,--nothing +but a green mound, precipitous enough, certainly, and crowned with a low +parapet of masonry, and bristling with batteries about half way down, so +that the muzzles of the guns were flush with the neighbouring country +beyond the ditch. Still there was wanting, to my imagination, the +strength of the high perpendicular wall, with its gaping embrasures, and +frowning cannon. All this time it never occurred to me, that to breach +such a defence as that we looked upon was impossible. You might have +plumped your shot into it until you had converted it into an iron mine, +but no chasm could have been forced in it by all the artillery in Europe; +so battering in a breach was entirely out of the question, and this, in +truth, constituted the great strength of the place. + +We arrived, after an hour's drive, at the villa belonging to my +protector's family, and walked into a large room, with a comfortable +stove, and extensive preparations made for a comfortable breakfast. + +Presently three young ladies appeared. They were his sisters,--blue-eyed, +fair-haired, white-skinned, round-sterned, plump little partridges. + +"Haben sie gefruhstucht?" said the eldest. + +"Pas encore," said he in French, with a smile. "But, sisters, I have +brought a stranger here, a young English officer, who was recently +captured in the river." + +"An English officer!" exclaimed the three ladies, looking at me, a poor, +little, dirty midshipman, in my soiled linen, unbrushed shoes, dirty +trowsers and jacket, with my little square of white cloth on the collar; +and I began to find the eloquent blood mangling in my cheeks, and tingling +in my ears; but their kindly feelings got the better of a gentle +propensity to laugh, and the youngest said--"Sie sind gerade zu rechter +zeit gekommen:" when, finding that her German was Hebrew to me, she tried +the other tack "Vous arrivez a propos, le dejeuner est pret." + +However I soon found, that the moment they were assured that I was in +reality an Englishman, they all spoke English, and exceedingly well too. +Our meal was finished, and I was standing at the window looking out on a +small lawn, where evergreens of the most beautiful kinds were checkered +with little round clumps of most luxuriant hollyhocks, and the fruit trees +in the neighborhood were absolutely bending to the earth under their loads +of apples and pears. Presently my friend came up to me; my curiosity +could no longer be restrained. + +"Pray, my good sir, what peculiar cause, may I ask, have you for showing +me, an entire stranger to you, all this unexpected kindness? I am fully +aware that I have no claim on you." + +"My good boy, you say true; but I have spent the greatest part of my life +in London, although a Hamburgher born, and I consider you, therefore, in +the light of a countryman. Besides, I will not conceal that your gallant +bearing before Davoust riveted my attention, and engaged my good wishes." + +"But how come you to have so much influence with the general, I mean?" + +"For several reasons," he replied. "For those, amongst others, you heard +the colonel--who has taken the small liberty of turning me out of my own +house in Hamburgh--mention last night at supper. But a man like Davoust +cannot be judged of by common rules. He has, in short, taken a fancy to +me, for which you may thank your stars although your life has been +actually saved by the Prince having burned his fingers,--But here comes +my father." + +A venerable old man entered the room, leaning on his stick. I was +introduced in due form. + +"He had breakfasted in his own room," he said, "having been ailing; but he +could not rest quietly, after he had heard there was an Englishman in the +house, until he had himself welcomed him." + +I shall never forget the kindness I experienced from these worthy people. +For three days I was fed and clothed by them as if I had been a member of +the family. + +Like a boy as I was, I had risen on the fourth morning at grey dawn, to be +aiding in dragging the fish-pond, so that it might be cleaned out. + +This was an annual amusement, in which the young men and women in the +family, under happier circumstances, had been in the invariable custom of +joining; and, changed as these were, they still preserved the fashion. +The seine was cast in at one end, loaded at the bottom with heavy sinks, +and buoyant at the top with cork floats. We hauled it along the whole +length of the pond, thereby driving the fish into an enclosure, about +twenty feet square, with a sluice towards the pond, and another fronting +the dull ditch that flowed past beyond it. Whenever we had hunted the +whole of the finny tribes--(barring those slippery youths the eels, who, +with all their cleverness, were left to dry in the mud)--into the toils, +we filled all the tubs, and pots, and pans, and vessels of all kinds and +descriptions, with the fat, honest looking Dutchmen, the carp and tench, +who really submitted to their captivity with all the resignation of most +ancient and quiet fish, scarcely indicating any sense of its irksomeness, +except by a lumbering sluggish flap of their broad heavy tails. + +A transaction of this kind could not take place amongst a group of young +folk without shouts of laughter, and it was not until we had caught the +whole of the fish in the pond, and placed them in safety, that I had +leisure to look about me. The city lay about four miles distant from us. +The whole country about Hamburgh is level, except the right bank below it +of the noble river on which it stands, the Elbe. The house where I was +domiciled stood on nearly the highest point of this bank, which gradually +sloped down into a swampy hollow, nearly level with the river. It then +rose again gently until the swell was crowned with the beautiful town of +Altona, and immediately beyond appeared the ramparts and tall spires of +the noble city itself. + +The morning had been thick and foggy, but as the sun rose, the white mist +that had floated over the whole country, gradually concentrated and +settled down into the hollow between us and Hamburgh, covering it with an +impervious veil, which even extended into the city itself, filling the +lower part of it with a dense white bank of fog, which rose so high that +the spires alone, with one or two of the most lofty buildings, appeared a +bove the rolling sea of white fleece-like vapour, as if it had been a +model of the stronghold, in place of the reality, packed in white wool, so +distinct did it appear, diminished as it was in the distance. On the +tallest spire of the place, which was now sparkling in the early sunbeams, +the French flag, the pestilent tricolor, that waved sluggishly in the +faint morning breeze. + +It attracted my attention, and I pointed it out to my patron. Presently +it was hauled down, and a series of signals was made at the yard-arm of a +spar, that had been slung across it. Who can they be telegraphing to? +thought I, while I could notice my host assume a most anxious and startled +look, while he peered down into the hollow. But he could see nothing, as +the fog bank still filled the whole of the space between the city and the +acclivity where we stood. + +"What is that?" said I; for I heard, or thought I heard, a low rumbling +rushing noise in the ravine. Mr ---- heard it as well as I apparently, +for he put his finger to his lips--as much as to say, "Hold your tongue, +my good boy nous verrons." + +It increased--the clattering of horses hoofs, and the clang of scabbards +were heard, and, in a twinkling, the hussar caps of a squadron of light +dragoons emerged from out the fog bank, as, charging up the road, they +passed the small gate of green basket-work at a hand gallop. I ought to +have mentioned before, that my friend's house was situated about half way +up the ascent, so that the rising ground behind it in the opposite +direction from the city shut out all view towards the country. After the +dragoons passed, there was an interval of two minutes, when a troop of +flying artillery, with three six-pound field-pieces, rattled after the +leading squadron, the horses all in a lather, at full speed, with the guns +bounding and jumping behind them as if they had been playthings, followed +by their caissons. Presently we could see the leading squadron file to +the right--clear the low hedge--and then disappear over the crest of the +hill. Twenty or thirty pioneers, who had been carried forward behind as +many of the cavalry, were now seen busily employed in filling up the +ditch, and cutting down the short scrubby hedge; and presently, the +artillery coming up also, filed off sharply to the right, and formed on +the very summit of the hill, distinctly visible between us and the grey +cold streaks of morning. By the time we had noticed, this, the clatter in +our immediate neighbourhood was renewed, and a group of mounted officers +dashed past us, up the path, like a whirlwind, followed at a distance of +twenty yards, by a single cavalier, apparently a general officer. These +did not stop, as they rode at speed past the spot where the artillery were +in position, but, dipping over the summit, disappeared down the road, from +which they did not appear to diverge, until they were lost to our view +beyond the crest of the hill. The hum and buzz, and, anon, the "measured +tread of marching men," in the valley between us and Hamburgh, still +continued. The leading files of a light infantry regiment, now appeared, +swinging along at a round trot, with their muskets poised in their right +hands--no knapsacks on their backs. They appeared to follow the route of +the group of mounted officers, until we could see a puff of white smoke, +then another and a third from the field-pieces, followed by thudding +reports, there being no high ground nor precipitous bank nor water in the +neighborhood to reflect the sound, and make it emulate Jove's thunder. At +this, they struck across the fields, and forming behind the guns, lay down +flat on their faces, where they were soon hid from our view by the wreaths +of white smoke, as the sluggish morning breeze rolled it down the +hill-side towards us. + +"What the deuce can all this mean--is it a review?" said I, in my +innocence. + +"A reconnoissance in force," groaned my friend. "The Allied troops must +be at hand--now, God help us!" + +The women, like frightened hares, paused to look up in their brother's +face, as he kept his eye steadily turned towards the ridge of the hill, +and, when he involuntarily wrung his hands, they gave a loud scream, a +fearful concerto, and ran off into the house. + +The breeze at this moment "aside the shroud of battle cast" and we heard a +faint bugle-call, like an echo, wail in the distance, from beyond the +hill. It was instantly answered by the loud, startling blare of a dozen of +the light infantry bugles above us on the hill-side, and we could see +them suddenly start from their lair, and form; while between us and the +clearing morning sky, the cavalry, magnified into giants in the strong +relief on the outline of the hill, were driven in straggling patrols, like +chaff, over the summit--their sabres sparkling in the level sunbeams, and +the reports of the red flashes of their pistols crackling down upon us. + +"They are driven in on the infantry," said Mr ---- He was right but the +light battalion immediately charged over the hill, with a loud hurrah, +after admitting the beaten horse through their intervals, who, however, to +give the devils their due, formed again in a instant, under the shelter of +the high ground. The artillery again opened their fire the cavalry once +more advanced, and presently we could see nothing but the field-pieces, +with their three separate groups of soldiers standing quietly by them,--a +sure proof that the enemy's pickets were now out of cannon-shot, and had +been driven back on the main body, and that the reconnoissance was still +advancing. + +What will not an habitual exposure to danger do, even with tender women? + +"The French have advanced, so let us have our breakfast, Julia, my dear," +said Mr----as we entered the house. "The Allied Forces would have been +welcome, however; and surely, if they do come, they will respect our +sufferings and helplessness." + +The eldest sister, to whom he spoke, shook her head mournfully; but, +nevertheless, betook herself to her task of making coffee. + +"What rumbling and rattling is that?" said to an old servant who had just +entered the room. + +"Two wagons with wounded men, sir, have passed onwards towards the town." + +"Ah!" said mine host, in great bitterness of spirit. + +But allons, we proceeded to make the best use of our time--ham, good--fish, +excellent eggs, fresh--coffee, superb--when we again heard the fieldpieces +above us open their fire, and in the intervals we could distinguish the +distant rattle of musketry. Presently this rolling fire slackened, and, +after a few scattering shots here and there, ceased altogether; but the +cannon on the hill still continued to play. + +We were by this time all standing in a cluster in the porch of the villa, +before which stood the tubs with the finny spoil of the fish-pond, on a +small paddock of velvet grass, about forty yards square, separated from +the high-road by a low ornamental fence of green basket-work, as already +mentioned. The firing from the great guns increased, and every now and +then I thought I heard a distant sound, as if the reports of the guns +above us had been reflected from some precipitous bank. + +"I did not know that there was any echo here," said the youngest girl. + +"Alas, Janette!" said her brother, "I fear that is no echo;" and he put up +his hand to his ear, and listened in breathless suspense. The sound was +repeated. + +"The Russian cannon replying to those on the hill!" said Mr with startling +energy. "God help us! it can no longer be an affair of posts; the heads +of the Allied columns must be in sight, for the French skirmishers are +unquestionably driven in." + +A French officer at this moment rattled past us down the road at speed, +and vanished in the hollow, taking the direction of the town. + +His hat fell off, as his horse swerved a little at the open gate as he +passed. He never stopped to pick it up. Presently a round shot, with a +loud ringing and hissing sound, pitched over the hill, and knocked one of +the fish-tubs close to us to pieces, scattering the poor fish all about +the lawn. With the recklessness of a mere boy I dashed out, and was busy +picking them up, when Mr----called to me to come back. + +"Let us go in and await what may befall; I dread what the ty"--here he +prudently checked himself, remembering, no doubt, "that a bird of the air +might carry the matter,"--"I dread what he may do, if they are really +investing the place. At any rate, here, in the very arena where the +struggle will doubtless be fiercest, we cannot abide. So go, my dear +sisters, and pack up whatever you may have most valuable, or most +necessary. Nay, no tears; and I will attend to our poor old father, and +get the carriage ready, if, God help me, I dare use it." + +"But where, in the name of all that is fearful, shall we go?" said his +second sister. "Not back to Hamburgh--not to endure another season of such +deep degradation--not to be exposed to the Oh brother, you saw we all +submitted to our fate without a murmur, and laboured cheerfully on the +fortifications, when compelled to do so, by that inhuman monster Davoust, +amidst the ribaldry of a licentious soldiery, merely because poor Janette +had helped to embroider a standard for the brave Hanseatic Legion you know +how we bore this"--here the sweet girl held out her delicate hands, galled +by actual and unwonted labour and many other indignities, until that awful +night, when--"No, brother, we shall await the arrival of the Russians, even +should we see our once happy home converted into a field of battle; but +into the city we shall not go." + +"Be it so, then, my dearest, sister.--Wilhehn, put up the stuhl wagen." + +He had scarcely returned into the breakfast-room, when the door opened, +and the very handsome young officer, the aide-de-camp of the Prince, +whom I had seen the night I was carried before Davoust, entered, splashed +up to the eyes, and much heated and excited. I noticed blood on the hilt +of his sword. His orderly sat on his foaming steed, right opposite where +I stood, wiping his bloody sabre on his horse's mane. The women grew +pale; but still they had presence of mind enough to do the honours with +self-possession. + +The stranger wished us a good morning; and on being asked to sit down to +breakfast, he unbuckled his sword, threw it from him with a clash on the +floor, and then, with all the grace in the world, addressed himself to +discuss the comestibles. He tried a slight approach to jesting now and +then; but seeing the heaviness of heart which prevailed amongst the women, +he, with the good breeding of a man of the world, forbore to press his +attentions. + +Breakfast being finished, and the ladies having retired, he rose, buckled +on his sword again, drew on his gloves, and taking his hat in his hand, he +advanced to the window, and desired his men to "fall in." + +"Men--what men?" said poor Mr----. + +"Why, the Marshal has had a company of sapeurs for these three days back +in the adjoining village--they are now here." + +"Here!" exclaimed----; "what do the sappers here?" Two of the soldiers +carried slow matches in their hands, while their muskets were slung at +their backs. "There is no mine to be sprung here?" + +The young officer heard him with great politeness, but declined giving any +answer. The next moment he turned towards the ladies, and was making +himself as agreeable as time and circumstances would admit; when a shot +came crashing through the roof, broke down the ceiling, and knocking the +flue of the stove to pieces, rebounded from the wall, and rolled +harmlessly beneath the table. He was the only person who did not start, +or evince any dread. He merely cast his eyes upward and smiled. He then +turned to poor----, who stood quite collected, but very pale, near where +the stove had stood, and held out his hand to him. + +"On my honour," said the young soldier, "it grieves me to the very heart; +but I must obey my orders. It is no longer an affair of posts; the enemy +is pressing on us in force. The Allied columns are in sight; their +cannon shot have but now penetrated your roof; we have but driven in their +pickets; very soon they will be here; and in the event of their advance, +my orders are to burn down this house and the neighbouring village." + +A sudden flush rushed into Mr----'s face. + +"Indeed! does the Prince really--" + +The young officer bowed, and with something more of sternness in his +manner than he had yet used, he said, "Mr----, I duly appreciate your +situation, and respect your feelings; but the Prince of Eckmuhl is my +superior officer, and under other circumstances"--Here he slightly touched +the hilt of his sword. + +"For myself I don't care," said----, "but what is to become of my +sisters?" + +"They must proceed to Hamburgh." + +"Very well--let me order the stuhl wagen, and give us, at all events, half +an hour to move our valuables." + +Here Mr----exchanged looks with his sisters. + +"Certainly," said the young officer; "and I will myself see you safe into +the city." + +Who says that eels cannot be made used to skinning? The poor girls +continued their little preparations with an alacrity and presence of mind +that truly surprised me. There was neither screaming nor fainting, and by +the time the carriage was at the door, they, with two female domestics, +were ready to mount. I cannot better describe their vehicle, than by +comparing it to a canoe mounted on four wheels, connected by a long perch, +with a coachbox at the bow, and three gig bodies hung athwart ships, or +slung inside of the canoe, by leather thongs. At the moment we were +starting, Mr ---- came close to me and whispered, "Do you think your ship +will still be in the river?" + +I answered that I made no doubt she was. + +"But even if she be not," said he, "the Holstein bank is open to us. +Anywhere but Hamburgh now." And the scalding tears ran down his cheeks. + +At this moment there was a bustle on the hill top, and presently the +artillery began once more to play, while the musketry breezed up again in +the distance. A mounted bugler rode half way down the hill, and sounded +the recall. The young officer hesitated. He man waved his hand, and blew +the advance. + +"It must be for us--answer it." His bugle did so. "Bring the pitch, men +the flax--so now--break the windows, and let the air in--set the house on +fire; and, Sergeant Guido, remain to prevent it being extinguished I shall +fire the village as we pass through." + +He gave the word to face about; and, desiring the men to follow at the +same swinging run with which the whole of the infantry had originally +advanced, he spurred his horse against the hill, and soon disappeared. + +My host's resolution seemed now taken. Turning to the sergeant, "My good +fellow, the reconnoissance will soon be returning; I shall precede it into +the town." + +The man, a fine vieux moustache, hesitated. + +My friend saw it, and hit him in a Frenchman's most assailable quarter. + +"The ladies, my good man--the ladies!--You would not have them drive in +pell-mell with the troops, exposed most likely to the fire of the +Prussian advanced-guard, would you?" + +The man grounded his musket, and touched his cap--"Pass on." Away we +trundled, until, coming to a cross-road, we turned down towards the +river; and at the angle we could see thick wreaths of smoke curling up +into the air, showing that the barbarous order had been but too effectually +fulfilled. + +"What is that?" said----. + +A horse, with his rider entangled and dragged by the stirrup, passed us at +full speed, leaving a long track of blood on the road. + +"Who is that?" + +The coachman drove on, and gave no answer; until, at a sharp turn, we came +upon the bruised and now breathless body of the young officer, who had so +recently obeyed the savage behests of his brutal commander. There was a +musket-shot right in the middle of his fine forehead, like a small blue +point, with one or two heavy black drops of blood oozing from it. His pale +features wore a mild and placid expression, evincing that the numberless +lacerations and bruises, which were evident through his tom uniform, had +been inflicted on a breathless corpse. + +The stuhl wagen had carried on for a mile farther or so, but the firing +seemed to approximate, whereupon our host sung out, "Fahrt Zu, +Schwager--Wir Kommen nicht weiter." + +The driver of the stuhl wagen skulled along until we arrived at the +beautiful, at a mile off, but the beastly, when close to, village of +Blankanese. + +When the voiture stopped in the village, there seemed to be a +nonplusation, to coin a word for the nonce, between my friend and his +sisters. They said something very sharply, and with a degree of +determination that startled me. He gave no answer. Presently the +Amazonian attack was renewed. + +"We shall go onboard," said they. "Very well," said he; "but have +patience, have patience!" + +"No, no. Wann wird man sich einschiffen mussen?" + +By this time we were in the heart of the village, and surrounded with a +whole lot, forty at the least, of Blankanese boatmen. We were not long +in selecting one of the fleetest-looking of those very fleet boats, when +we all trundled on board; and I now witnessed what struck me as being an +awful sign of the times. The very coachman of the stuhl wagen, after +conversing a moment with his master, returned to his team, tied the legs +of the poor creatures as they stood, and then with a sharp knife cut their +jugular veins through and through on the right side, having previously +reined them up sharp to the left, so that, before starting, we could see +three of the team, which consisted of four superb bays, level with the +soil and dead; the near wheeler only holding out on his fore-legs. + +We shoved off at eleven o'clock in the forenoon; and after having twice +been driven into creeks on the Holstein shore by bad weather, we arrived +about two next morning safely on board the Torch, which immediately got +under weigh for England. After my story had been told to the Captain, I +left my preserver, his father, and his sisters in his hands, and I need +scarcely say that they had as hearty a welcome as the worthy old soul +could give them, and dived into the midshipmen's berth for a morsel of +comfort, where, in a twinkling, I was far into the secrets of a pork pie. + + + +CHAPTER II.--The Cruise of the Torch. + + Sleep, gentle sleep-- + Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast, + Seal up the shipboy's eyes, and rock his brains, + In cradle of the rude imperious surge; + And in the visitation of the winds, + Who take the ruffian billows by the top, + Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them + With deafning clamour in the slippery clouds, + That, with the hurry, death itself awakes-- + Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose + To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude? + + 2 HENRY IV, Ill. 1. 5, 18--27. + + +Heligoland light-north and by west--so many leagues--wind baffling +weather hazy--Lady Passengers on deck for the first time. + +Arrived in the Downs--ordered by signal from the guard--ship to proceed to +Portsmouth. Arrived at Spithead--ordered to fit to receive a general +officer, and six pieces of field artillery, and a Spanish Ecclesiastic, +the Canon of----. Plenty of great guns, at any rate--a regular park of +artillery. + +Received General ---- and his wife, and aide-de-camp, and two poodle +dogs, one white man-servant, one black ditto, and the Canon of ----, and +the six nine-pound field-pieces, and sailed for the Cove of Cork. + +It was blowing hard as we stood in for the Old Head of Kinsale pilot boat +breasting the foaming surge like a sea gull--"Carrol Cove" in her tiny +mainsail-pilot jumped into the main channel a bottle of rum swung by the +lead line into the boat--all very clever. + +Ran in, and anchored under Spike Island. A line-of-battle ship, three +frigates, and a number of merchantmen at anchor-men of war lovely craft, +bands playing--a good deal of the pomp and circumstance of war. Next +forenoon, Mr Treenail, the second lieutenant, sent for me. + +"Mr Cringle," said he, "you have an uncle in Cork, I believe?" + +I said I had. + +"I am going there on duty to-night; I daresay, if you asked the Captain to +let you accompany me, he would do so." This was too good an offer not to be +taken advantage of. I plucked up courage, made my bow, asked leave, and +got it; and the evening found my friend the lieutenant, and myself, after a +ride of three hours, during which I, for one, had my bottom sheathing +grievously rubbed, and a considerable botheration at crossing the Ferry at +Passage, safe in our inn at Cork. I soon found out that the object of my +superior officer was to gain information amongst the crimp shops, where ten +men, who had run from one of the West Indiamen, waiting at Cove for convoy, +were stowed away, but I was not let farther into the secret; so I set out +to pay my visit, and after passing a pleasant evening with my friends, Mr +and Mrs Job Cringle, the lieutenant dropped in upon us about nine o'clock. +He was heartily welcomed, and under the plea of our being obliged to return +to the ship early next morning, we soon took leave, and returned to the +inn. As I was turning into the public room, the door was open, and I could +see it full of blowsy-faced monsters, glimmering and jabbering, through +the mist of hot brandy grog and gin twist; with poodle Benjamins, and +greatcoats, and cloaks of all sorts and sizes, steaming on their pegs, with +Barcelonas and comforters, and damp travelling caps of seal-skin, and blue +cloth, and tartan, arranged above the same. + +Nevertheless, such a society in my juvenile estimation, during my short +escapade from the middy's berth, had its charms, and I was rolling in with +a tolerable swagger, when Mr Treenail pinched my arm. + +"Mr Cringle, come here, into my room." + +From the way in which he spoke, I imagined, in my innocence, that his room +was at my elbow; but no such thing--we had to ascend a long, and not +overclean staircase, to the fourth floor, before we were shown into a +miserable little double-bedded room. So soon as we had entered, the +lieutenant shut the door. + +"Tom," said he, "I have taken a fancy to you, and therefore I applied for +leave to bring you with me; but I must expose you to some danger, and, I +will allow, not altogether in a very creditable way either. You must enact +the spy for a short space." + +I did not like the notion certainly, but I had little time for +consideration. + +"Here," he continued--"here is a bundle." He threw it on the floor. "You +must rig in the clothes it, contains, and make your way into the celebrated +crimp shop in the neighbourhood, and pick up all the information you can +regarding the haunts of the pressable men at Cove, especially with regard +to the ten seamen who have run from the West Indiaman we left below. You +know the Admiral has forbidden pressing in Cork, so you must contrive to +frighten the blue jackets down to Cove, by representing yourself as an +apprentice of one of the merchant vessels, who had run from his indentures, +and that you had narrowly escaped from a press-gang this very night here." + +I made no scruples, but forthwith arrayed myself in the slops contained in +the bundle; in a pair of shag trowsers, red flannel shirt, coarse blue +cloth jacket, and no waistcoat. + +"Now," said Mr Treenail, "stick a quid of tobacco in your cheek, and take +the cockade out of your hat; or stop, leave it, and ship this striped +woollen night-cap--so--and come along with me." + +We left the house, and walked half a mile down the Quay. + +Presently we arrived before a kind of low grog-shop--a bright lamp was +flaring in the breeze at the door, one of the panes of the glass of it +being broken. + +Before I entered, Mr Treenail took me to one side--"Tom, Tom Cringle, you +must go into this crimp shop; pass yourself off for an apprentice of the +Guava, bound for Trinidad, the ship that arrived just as we started, and +pick up all the knowledge you can regarding the whereabouts of the men, for +we are, as you know, cruelly ill manned, and must replenish as we best +may." I entered the house, after having agreed to rejoin my superior +officer, so soon as I considered I had obtained my object. I rapped at the +inner door, in which there was a small unglazed aperture cut, about four +inches square; and I now, for the first time, perceived that a strong glare +of light was cast into the lobby, where I stood, by a large argand with a +brilliant reflector, that like a magazine lantern had been mortised into +the bulkhead, at a height of about two feet above the door in which the +spy-hole was cut. My first signal was not attended to; I rapped again, +and looking round I noticed Mr Treenail flitting backwards and forwards +across the doorway, in the rain with his pale face and his sharp nose, with +the sparkling drop at the end on't, glancing in the light of the lamp. I +heard a step within, and a very pretty face now appeared at the wicket. + +"Who are you saking here, an' please ye?" + +"No one in particular, my dear; but if you don't let me in, I shall be +lodged in jail before five minutes be over." + +"I can't help that, young man," said she; "but where are ye from, darling?" + +"Hush!--I am run from the Guava, now lying at the Cove." + +"Oh," said my beauty, "come in;" and she opened the door, but still kept it +on the chain in such a way, that although, by bobbing, I creeped and slid +in beneath it, yet a common-sized man could not possibly have squeezed +himself through. The instant I entered, the door was once more banged to, +and the next moment I was ushered into the kitchen, a room about fourteen +feet square, with a well sanded floor, a huge dresser on one side, and over +against it a respectable show of pewter dishes in racks against the wall. +There was a long stripe of a deal, table in the middle of the room--but no +tablecloth--at the bottom of which sat a large, bloated, brandy, or rather +whisky-faced savage, dressed in a shabby great-coat of the hodden grey +worn by the Irish peasantry, dirty swan down vest, and greasy corduroy +breeches, worsted stockings, and well-patched shoes; he was smoking a long +pipe. Around the table sat about a dozen seamen, from whose wet jackets +and trowsers the heat of the blazing fire, that roared up the chimney, sent +up a smoky steam that cast a halo round the lamp, that depended from the +roof, and hung down within two feet of the table, stinking abominably of +coarse whale oil. They were, generally speaking, hardy, weather beaten +men, and the greater proportion half, or more than half drunk. When I +entered, I walked up to the landlord. + +"Yo ho, my young un, whence and whither bound, my hearty?" + +"The first don't signify much to you," said I, "seeing I have wherewithal +in the locker to pay my shot; and as to the second, of that hereafter; so, +old boy, let's have some grog, and then say if you can ship me with one of +them cowers that are lying alongside the quay?" + +"My eye, what a lot of brass that small chap has!" grumbled mine host. + +"Why, my lad, we shall see to-morrow morning; but you gammons so bad about +the rhino, that we must prove you a bit; so, Kate, my dear,"--to the pretty +girl who had let me in--"score a pint of rum against--why, what is your +name?" + + +"What's that to you?" rejoined I, "let's have the drink, and don't doubt +but the shiners shall be forthcoming." + +"Hurrah!" shouted the party, most of them now very tipsy. So the rum was +produced forthwith, and as I lighted a pipe and filled a glass of swizzle, +I struck in, "Messmates, I hope you have all shipped?" + +"No, we haven't," said some of them. + +"Nor shall we be in any hurry, boy," said others. + +"Do as you please, but I shall, as soon as I can, I know; and I recommend +all of you making yourselves scarce to-night, and keeping a bright +look-out." + +"Why, boy, why?" + +"Simply because I have just escaped a press-gang, by bracing sharp up at +the corner of the street, and shoving into this dark alley here." + +This called forth another volley of oaths and unsavoury exclamations, and +all was bustle and confusion, and packing up of bundles, and settling of +reckonings. + +"Where," said one of the seamen,--"where do you go to, my lad?" + +"Why, if I can't get shipped to-night, I shall trundles down to Cove +immediately, so as to cross at Passage before daylight, and take my chance +of shipping with some of the outward-bound that are to sail, if the wind +holds, the day after to-morrow. There is to be no pressing when blue +Peter flies at the fore--and that was hoisted this afternoon, I know, and +the foretopsail will be loose to-morrow." + +"D--n my wig, but the small chap is right," roared one. + +"I've a bloody great mind to go down with him," stuttered another, after +several unavailing attempts to weigh from the bench, where he had brought +himself to anchor. + +"Hurrah!" yelled a third, as he hugged me, and nearly suffocated me with +his maudling caresses, "I trundles wid you too, my darling, boy the piper!" + +"Have with you, boy--have with him," shouted half-a-dozen other voices, +while each stuck his oaken twig through the handkerchief that held his +bundle, and shouldered it, clapping his straw or tarpaulin hat, with a slap +on the crown, on one side of his head, and staggering and swaying about +under the influence of the poteen, and slapping his thigh, as he bent +double, laughing like to split himself, till the water ran over his cheeks +from his drunken half-shut eyes, while jets of tobacco juice were +squirting in all directions. + +I paid the reckoning, urging the party to proceed all the while, and +indicating Pat Doolan's at the Cove as a good rendezvous; and promising to +overtake them before they reached passage, I parted company at the corner +of the street, and rejoined the lieutenant. + +Next morning we spent in looking about the town--Cork is a fine town, +contains seventy thousand inhabitants, more or less-safe in that--and +three hundred thousand pigs, driven by herdsmen, with coarse grey +greatcoats. The pigs are not so handsome as those in England, where the +legs are short, and tails curly; here the legs are long, the flanks sharp +and thin, and tails long and straight. + +All classes speak with a deuced brogue, and worship graven images; arrived +at Cove to a large dinner and here follows a great deal of nonsense of the +same kind. + +By the time it was half-past ten o'clock, I was preparing to turn in, when +the master at arms called down to me,--"Mr Cringle, you are wanted in the +gunroom." + +I put on my jacket again, and immediately proceeded thither, and on my way +I noticed a group of seamen, standing on the starboard gangway, dressed in +pea jackets, under which, by the light of a lantern, carried by one of +them, I could see they were all armed with pistol and cutlass. They +appeared in great glee, and as they made way for me, I could hear one +fellow whisper, "There goes the little beagle." When I entered the gunroom, +the first lieutenant, master, and purser, were sitting smoking and enjoying +themselves over a glass of cold grog--the gunner taking the watch on deck +the doctor was piping any thing but mellifluously on the double flageolet, +while the Spanish priest, and aide-de-camp to the general, were playing +at chess, and wrangling in bad French. I could hear Mr Treenail rumbling +and stumbling in his stateroom as he accoutred himself in a jacket similar +to those of the armed boat's crew whom I had passed, and presently he +stepped into the gunroom, armed also with cutlass and pistol. + +"Mr Cringle, get ready to go in the boat with me, and bring your arms with +you." + +I now knew whereabouts he was, and that my Cork friends were the quarry at +which we aimed. I did as I was ordered, and we immediately pulled on shore, +where, leaving two strong fellows in charge of the boat, with instructions +to fire their pistols and shove off a couple of boat-lengths, should any +suspicious circumstance indicating an attack take place, we separated, like +a pulk of Cossacks coming to the charge, but without the hourah, with +orders to meet before Pat Doolan's door, as speedily as our legs could +carry us. We had landed about a cable's length to the right of the high +precipitous bank--up which we stole in straggling parties--on which that +abominable congregation of the most filthy huts ever pig grunted in is +situated, called the Holy Ground. Pat Doolan's domicile was in a little +dirty lane, about the middle of the village. Presently ten strapping +fellows, including the lieutenant, were before the door, each man with his +stretcher in his hand. It was a very tempestuous, although moonlight +night, occasionally clear, with the moonbeams at one moment sparkling +brightly in the small ripples on the filthy puddles before the door, and +on the gem like water-drops that hung from the eaves of the thatched roof, +and lighting up the dark statue like figures of the men, and casting their +long shadows strongly against the mud wall of the house; at another, a +black cloud as it flew across her disk, cast every thing into deep shade, +while the only noise we heard was the hoarse dashing of the distant surf, +rising and falling on the fitful gusts of the breeze. We tried the door. +It was fast. + +"Surround the house, men," said the lieutenant, in a whisper. He rapped +loudly. "Pat Doolan, my man, open the door, will ye?" No answer. "If you +don't, we shall make free to break it open, Patrick, dear." + +All this while the light of a fire, or of candles, streamed through the +joints of the door. The threat at length appeared to have the desired +effect. A poor decrepid old man undid the bolt and let us in. "Ohon a reel +Ohon a reel What make you all this boder for--come you to help us to wake +poor ould Kate there, and bring you the whisky wid you?" + +"Old man, where is Pat Doolan?" said the lieutenant. + +"Gone to borrow whisky, to wake ould Kate, there--the howling will begin +whenever Mother Doncannon and Mistress Conolly come over from Middleton, +and I look for dem every minute." + +There was no vestige of any living thing in the miserable hovel, except the +old fellow. On two low trestles, in the middle of the floor, lay a coffin +with the lid on, on the top of which was stretched the dead body of an old +emaciated woman in her grave-clothes, the quality of which was much finer +than one could have expected to have seen in the midst of the surrounding +squalidness. The face of the corpse was uncovered, the hands were crossed +on the breast, and there was a plate of salt on the stomach. + +An iron cresset, charged with coarse rancid oil, hung from the roof, the +dull smoky red light flickering on the dead corpse, as the breeze streamed +in through the door and numberless chinks in the walls, making the cold, +rigid, sharp features appear to move, and glimmer, and gibber as it were, +from the changing shades. Close to the head, there was a small door +opening into an apartment of some kind, but the coffin was placed so near +it, that one could not pass between the body and the door. + +"My good man," said Treenail, to the solitary mourner, "I must beg leave to +remove the body a bit, and have the goodness to open that door." + +"Door, yere honour! It's no door o'mine--and it's not opening that same, +that old Phil Carrol shall busy himself wid." + +"Carline," said Mr Treenail, quick and sharp, "remove the body." It was +done. + +"Cruel heavy the old dame is, sir, for all her wasted appearance," said one +of the men. + +The lieutenant now ranged the press-gang against the wall fronting the +door, and stepping into the middle of the room, drew his pistol and cocked +it. "Messmates," he sung out, as if addressing the skulkers in the other +room, "I know you are here--the house is surrounded--and unless you open +that door now, by the power, but I'll fire slap into you." There was a +bustle, and a rumbling tumbling noise within. "My lads, we are now sure of +your game," sung out Treenail, with great animation. "Sling that clumsy +bench there." He pointed to an oaken form about eight feet long, and nearly +three inches thick. To produce a two-inch rope, and junk it into three +lengths, and rig the battering-ram, was the work of an instant. "One, +two, three,"--and bang the door flew open, and there were our men stowed +away, each sitting on the top of his bag, as snug as could be, although +looking very much like condemned thieves. We bound eight of them, and +thrusting a stretcher across their backs, under their arms, and lashing +the fins to the same by good stout lanyards, we were proceeding to stump +our prisoners off to the boat, when, with the innate devilry that I have +inherited, I know not how, but the original sin of which has more than +once nearly cost me my life, I said, without addressing my superior +officer, or any one else, directly--"I should like now to scale 'my pistol +through that coffin. If I miss, I can't hurt the old woman; and an eyelet +hole in the coffin itself, will only be an act of civility to the worms." + +I looked towards my superior officer, who answered me with a knowing shake +of the head. I advanced, while all was silent as death--the sharp click of +the pistol lock now struck acutely on my own ear. I presented, when--crash +the lid of the coffin, old woman and all, was dashed off in an instant, the +corpse flying up in the air, and then falling heavily on the floor, rolling +over and over, while a tall handsome fellow, in his stripped flannel shirt +and blue trowsers, with the sweat pouring down over his face in steams, sat +up in the shell. + +"All right," said Mr Treenail--"help him out of his berth." + +He was pinioned like the rest, and forthwith we walked them all off to the +beach. By this time there was an unusual bustle in the Holy Ground, and we +could hear many an anathema, curses, not loud but deep, ejaculated from +many a half-opened door as we passed along. We reached the boat, and time +it was we did so, for a number of stout fellows, who had followed us in a +gradually increasing crowd, until they amounted to forty at the fewest, now +nearly surrounded us, and kept closing in. As the last of us jumped into +the boat, they made a rush, so that if we had not shoved off with the speed +of light, I think it very likely that we should have been overpowered. +However, we reached the ship in safety, and the day following we weighed, +and stood out to sea with our convoy. + +It was a very large fleet nearly three hundred sail of merchant vessel +and a noble sight truly. + +A line-of-battle ship led--and two frigates and three sloops of our class +were stationed on the outskirts of the fleet, whipping them in as it were. +We made Madeira in fourteen days, looked in, but did not anchor; superb +island--magnificent mountains--white town,--and all very fine, but nothing +particular happened for three weeks. One fine evening, (we had by this +time progressed into the trades, and were within three hundred miles of +Barbadoes,) the sun had set bright and clear, after a most beautiful day, +and we were bowling along right before it, rolling like the very devil; but +there was no moon, and although the stars sparkled brilliantly, yet it was +dark, and as we were the sternmost of the men of war, we had the task of +whipping in the sluggards. It was my watch on deck. A gun from the +commodore, who showed a number of lights. "What is that, Mr Kennedy?" +said the captain to the old gunner.--"The commodore has made the night +signal for the sternmost ships to make more sail and close, sir." We +repeated the signal--and stood on hailing the dullest of the merchantmen in +our neighbourhood to make more sail, and firing a musket-shot now and then +over the more distant of them. By and by we saw a large West Indiaman +suddenly haul her wind, and stand across our bows. + +"Forward there!" sung out Mr Splinter, "stand by to fire a shot at that +fellow from the boat gun if he does not bear up. What can he be after? +Sergeant Armstrong,"--to a marine, who was standing close by him in the +waist--"get a musket, and fire over him!" + +It was done, and the ship immediately bore up on her course again; we now +ranged alongside of him on his larboard quarter. + +"Ho, the ship, ahoy!"--"Hillo!" was the reply.--"Make more sail, sir, and +run into the body of the fleet, or I shall fire into you; why don't you, +sir, keep in the wake of the commodore?" No answer. "What meant you by +hauling your wind, just now, sir?" + +"Yesh, Yesh," at length responded a voice from the merchantman. + +"Something wrong here," said Mr Splinter. "Back your maintopsail, sir, and +hoist a light at the peak; I shall send a boat on board of you. +Boatswain's mate, pipe away the crew of the jolly boat." We also hove to, +and were in the act of lowering down the boat, when the officer rattled +out. "Keep all fast, with the boat; I can't comprehend that chap's +manoeuvres for the soul of me. He has not hove to." Once more we were +within pistol-shot of him. "Why don't you heave to, sir?" All silent. + +Presently we could perceive a confusion and noise of struggling on board, +and angry voices, as if people were trying to force their way up the +hatchways from below; and a heavy thumping on the deck, and a creaking of +the blocks, and rattling of the cordage, while the mainyard was first +braced one way, and then another, as if two parties were striving for the +mastery. At length a voice hailed distinctly "We are captured by a"--A +sudden sharp cry, and a splash overboard, told of some fearful deed. + +"We are taken by a privateer or pirate," sung out another voice. This was +followed by a heavy crunching blow, as when the spike of a butcher's axe is +driven through a bullock's forehead deep into the brain. + +By this time all hands had been called, and the word had been passed to +clear away two of the foremost carronades on the starboard side, and to +load them with grape. + +"On board there--get below, all you of the English crew, as I shall fire +with grape," sung out the captain. + +The hint was not taken. The ship at length came to the wind--we rounded +to, under her lee--and an armed boat, with Mr Treenail, and myself, and +sixteen men, with cutlasses, were sent on board. + +We jumped on deck, and at the gangway, Mr Treenail stumbled, and fell over +the dead body of a man, no doubt the one who had hailed last, with his +scull cloven to the eyes, and a broken cutlass blade sticking in the gash. +We were immediately accosted by the mate, who was lashed down to a ringbolt +close by the bits, with his hands tied at the wrists by sharp cords, so +tightly that the blood was spouting from beneath his nails. + +"We have been surprised by a privateer schooner, sir; the lieutenant of +her, and twelve men, are now in the cabin." + +"Where are the rest of the crew?" + +"All secured in the forecastle, except the second mate and boatswain, the +men who hailed you just now; the last was knocked on the head, and the +former was stabbed and thrown overboard." + +We immediately released the men, eighteen in number, and armed them with +boarding pikes. "What vessel is that astern of us?" said Treenail to the +mate. Before he could answer, a shot from the brig fired at the privateer +showed she was broad awake. Next moment Captain Deadeye hailed. "Have you +mastered the prize crew, Mr Treenail?"--"Aye, aye, sir."--"Then keep your +course, and keep two lights hoisted at your mizzen peak during the night, +and blue Peter at the main topsail yardarm when the day breaks; I shall +haul my wind after the suspicious sail in your wake." + +Another shot, and another, from the brig--the time between each flash and +the report increasing with the distance. By this the lieutenant had +descended to the cabin, followed by his people, while the merchant crew +once more took the charge of the ship, crowding sail into the body of the +fleet. + +I followed him close, pistol and cutlass in hand, and I shall never forget +the scene that presented itself when I entered. The cabin was that of a +vessel of five hundred tons, elegantly fitted up; the panels filled with +crimson cloth, edged with gold mouldings, with superb damask hangings +before the stem windows and the side berths, and brilliantly lighted up by +two large swinging lamps hung from the deck above, which were reflected +from, and multiplied in, several plate glass mirrors in the panels. In the +recess, which in cold weather had been occupied by the stove, now stood a +splendid grand piano, the silk in the open work above the keys +corresponding with the crimson cloth of the panels; it was open, a Leghom +bonnet with a green veil, a parasol, and two long white gloves, as if +recently pulled off, lay on it, with the very mould of the hands in them. + +The rudder case was particularly beautiful; it was a richly carved and +gilded palm tree, the stem painted white, and interlaced with golden +fretwork, like the lozenges of a pine-apple, while the leaves spread up +and abroad on the roof. + +The table was laid for supper, with cold meat, and wine, and a profusion of +silver things, all sparkling brightly; but it was in great disorder, wine +spilt, and glasses broken, and dishes with meat upset, and knives, and +forks, and spoons, scattered all about. She was evidently one of those +London West Indiamen, on board of which I knew there was much splendour and +great comfort. But, alas! the hand of lawless violence had been there. +The captain lay across the table, with his head hanging over the side of it +next to us, and unable to help himself, with his hands tied behind his +back, and a gag in his mouth; his face purple from the blood running to +his head, and the white of his eyes turned up, while his loud stentorous +breathing but too clearly indicated the rupture of a vessel on the brain. + +He was a stout portly man, and, although we released him on the instant, +and had him bled, and threw water on his face, and did all we could for +him, he never spoke afterwards, and died in half an hour. + +Four gentlemanly-looking men were sitting at table, lashed to their +chairs, pale and trembling, while six of the most ruffian-looking +scoundrels I ever beheld, stood on the opposite side of the table in a row +fronting us, with the light from the lamps shining full on them. Three of +them were small, but very square mulattoes; one was a South American +Indian, with the square high-boned visage, and long, lank, black glossy +hair of his cast. These four had no clothing besides their trowsers, and +stood with their arms folded, in all the calmness of desperate men, caught +in the very fact of some horrible atrocity, which they knew shut out all +hope of mercy. The two others were white Frenchmen, tall, +bushy-whiskered, sallow desperadoes, but still, wonderful to relate, +with, if I may so speak, the manners of gentlemen. One of them squinted, +and had a hair-lip, which gave him a horrible expression. They were +dressed in white trowsers and shirts, yellow silk sashes round their +waists, and a sort of blue uniform jacket, blue Gascon caps, with the +peaks, from each of which depended a large bullion tassel, hanging down on +one side of their heads. The whole party had apparently made up their +minds that resistance was vain, for their pistols and cutlasses, some of +them bloody, had all been laid on the table, with the buts and handles +towards us, contrasting horribly with the glittering equipage of steel, +and crystal, and silver things, on the snow-white damask table-cloth. +They were immediately seized and ironed, to which they submitted in +silence. We next released the passengers, and were overpowered with +thanks, one dancing, one crying, one laughing, and another praying. But, +merciful Heaven! what an object met our eyes! Drawing aside--the curtain +that concealed a sofa, fitted into a recess, there lay, more dead than +alive, a tall and most beautiful girl, her head resting on her left arm, +her clothes disordered and tom, blood on her bosom, and foam on her mouth, +with her long dark hair loose and dishevelled, and covering the upper part +of her deadly pale face, through which her wild sparkling black eyes, +protruding from their sockets, glanced and glared with the fire of a +maniac's, while her blue lips kept gibbering an incoherent prayer one +moment, and the next imploring mercy, as if she had still been in the +hands of those who knew not the name; and anon, a low hysterical laugh +made our very blood freeze in our bosoms, which soon ended in a long +dismal yell, as she rolled off the couch upon the hard deck, and lay in a +dead faint. + +Alas the day!--a Maniac she was from that hour. She was the only daughter +of the murdered master of the ship, and never awoke, in her unclouded +reason, to the fearful consciousness of her own dishonour and her parent's +death. + +The Torch captured the schooner, and we left the privateer's men at +Barbadoes to meet their reward, and several of the merchant sailors were +turned over to the guardship, to prove the facts in the first instance, and +to serve his Majesty as impressed men in the second, but scrimp measure of +justice to the poor ship's crew. + +Anchored at Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes.--Town seemed built of cards--black +faces--showy dresses of the negroes--dined at Mr C----'s, capital dinner +little breeze mill at the end of the room, that pumped a solution of +saltpetre and water into a trough of tin, perforated with small holes, +below which, and exposed to the breeze, were ranged the wine and liqueurs, +all in cotton bags; the water then flowed into a well, where the pump was +stepped, and thus was again pumped up and kept circulating. + +Landed the artillery, the soldiers, officers, and the Spanish Canon +discharged the whole battery. + +Next morning, weighed at day--dawn, with the trade for Jamaica, and soon +lost sight of the bright blue waters of Carlisle Bay, and the smiling fields +and tall cocoa-nut trees of the beautiful island. In a week after we +arrived off the east end of Jamaica, and that same evening, in obedience to +the orders of the admiral on the Windward Island station, we hove to in +Bull Bay, in order to land despatches, and secure our tithe of the crews of +the merchant-vessels bound for Kingston, and the ports to leeward, as they +passed us. We had fallen in with a pilot canoe off Morant Bay with four +negroes on board, who requested us to hoist in their boat, and take them +all on board, as the pilot schooner, to which they belonged, had that +morning bore up for Kingston, and left instructions to them to follow her +in the first vessel appearing afterwards. We did so, and now, as it was +getting dark, the captain came up to Mr Treenail. + +"Why, Mr Treenail, I think we had better heave-to for the night, and in +this case I shall want you to go in the cutter to Port Royal to deliver the +despatches on board the flag-ship." + +"I don't think the admiral will be at Port Royal, sir," responded the +lieutenant; "and, if I might suggest, these black chaps have offered to +take me ashore here on the Palisadoes, a narrow spit of land, not above one +hundred yards across, that divides the harbour from the ocean, and to haul +the canoe across, and take me to the agent's house in Kingston, who will +doubtless frank me up to the pen, where the admiral resides, and I shall +thus deliver the letters, and be back again by day--dawn." + +"Not a bad plan," said old Deadeye; "put it in execution, and I will go +below and get the despatches immediately." + +The canoe was once more hoisted out; the three black fellows, the pilot of +the ship continuing on board, jumped into her alongside. + +"Had you not better take a couple of hands with you, Mr Treenail?" said the +skipper. + +"Why, no, sir, I don't think I shall want them; but if you will spare me Mr +Cringle I will be obliged, in case I want any help." + +We shoved off, and as the glowing sun dipped under Portland Point, as the +tongue of land that runs out about four miles to the southward, on the +western side of Port Royal harbour, is called, we arrived within a hundred +yards of the Palisadoes. The surf, at the particular spot we steered for, +did not break on the shore in a rolling curling wave, as it usually does, +but smoothed away under the lee of a small sandy promontory that ran out +into the sea, about half a cable's length to windward, and then slid up the +smooth white sand, without breaking, in a deep clear green swell, for the +space of twenty yards, gradually shoaling, the colour becoming lighter and +lighter, until it frothed away in a shallow white fringe, that buzzed as it +receded back into the deep green sea, until it was again propelled forward +by the succeeding billow. + +"I say, friend Bungo, how shall we manage? You don't mean to swamp us in a +shove through that surf, do you?" said Mr Treenail. + +"No fear, massa, if you and toder leetle man-of-war buccra, only keep dem +seat when we rise on de crest of de swell dere." + +We sat quiet enough. Treenail was coolness itself, and I aped him as well +as I could. The loud murmur, increasing to a roar, of the sea, was trying +enough as we approached, buoyed on the last long undulation. + +"Now sit still, massa, bote." + +We sank down into the trough, and presently were hove forwards with a +smooth sliding motion up on the beach--until grit, grit, we stranded on the +cream-coloured sand, high and dry. + +"Now jomp, massa, jomp." + +We leapt with all our strength, and thereby toppled down on our noses; the +sea receded, and before the next billow approached, we had run the canoe +twenty yards beyond high water mark. + +It was the work of a very few minutes to haul the canoe across the +sandbank, and to launch it once more in the placid waters of the harbour +of Kingston. We pulled across towards the town, until we landed at the +bottom of Hanover Street; the lights from the cabin windows of the +merchantmen glimmering as e passed, and the town only discernible from a +solitary sparkle here and there. But the contrast when we landed was very +striking. We had come through the darkness of the night in comparative +quietness; and in two hours from the time we had left the old Torch, we +were transferred from her orderly deck to the bustle of a crowded town. + + +One of our crew undertook to be the guide to the agent's house. We arrived +before it. It was a large mansion, and we could see lights glimmering in +the ground floor; but it was gaily lit up aloft. The house itself stood +back about twenty feet from the street, from which it was separated by an +iron railing. + +We knocked at the outer-gate, but no one answered. At length our black +guide found out a bell-pull, and presently the clang of a bell resounded +throughout the mansion. Still no one answered. I pushed against, the +door, and found it was open, and Mr Treenail and myself immediately +ascended a flight of six marble steps, and stood in the lower piazza, +with the hall, or lower vestibule, before us. We entered. A very +well-dressed brown woman, who was sitting at her work at a small table, +along with two young girls of the same complexion, instantly rose to +receive us. + +"Beg pardon," said Mr Treenail, "pray, is this Mr----'s house?" "Yes, +sir, it is." + +"Will you have the goodness to say if he be at home?" + +"Oh yes, sir, he is dere upon dinner wid company," said the lady. + +"Well," continued the lieutenant, "say to him, that an officer of his +Majesty's sloop Torch is below, with despatches for the admiral." + +"Surely, sir,--surely," the dark lady continued;--"Follow me, sir; and dat +small gentleman,--[Thomas Cringle, Esquire, no less!]--him will better +follow me too." + +We left the room, and, turning to the right, landed in the lower piazza of +the house, fronting the north. A large clumsy stair occupied the +easternmost end, with a massive mahogany balustrade, but the whole affair +below was very ill lighted. The brown lady preceded us; and planting +herself at the bottom of the staircase, began to shout to some one above. + +"Toby!--Toby!--buccra gentlemen arrive, Toby." But no Toby responded to +the call. + +"My dear madam," said Treenail, "I have little time for ceremony. Pray +usher us up into Mr----'s presence." + +"Den follow me, gentlemen, please." + +Forthwith we all ascended the dark staircase until we reached the first +landing-place, when we heard a noise as of two negroes wrangling on the +steps above us. + +"You rascal!" sang out one, "take dat; larn you for teal my wittal!"--then +a sharp crack, as if he had smote the culprit across the pate; whereupon, +like a shot, a black fellow, in a handsome livery, trundled down, pursued +by another servant with a large silver ladle in his hand, with which he +was belabouring the fugitive over his flinthard skull, right against our +hostess, with the drumstick of a turkey in his hand, or rather in his +mouth. + +"Top, you tief--top, you tief!--for me piece dat," shouted the pursuer. + +"You dam rascal!" quoth the dame. But she had no time to utter another +word, before the fugitive pitched, with all his weight, right against her; +and at the very moment another servant came trundling down with a large +tray-full of all kinds of meats--and I especially remember that two large +crystal stands of jellies composed part of his load--so there we were +regularly capsized, and caught all of a heap in the dark landing-place, +half way up the stair; and down the other flight tumbled our guide, with Mr +Treenail and myself, and the two blackies, on the top of her, Tolling in +our descent over, or rather into, another large mahogany tray which had +just been carried out, with a tureen of turtle soup in it, and a dish of +roast-beef, and platefulls of land-crabs, and the Lord knows what all +besides. + +The crash reached the ear of the landlord, who was seated at the head of +his table in the upper piazza, a long gallery about fifty feet long by +fourteen wide, and he immediately rose and ordered his butler to take a +light. When he came down to ascertain the cause of the uproar, I shall +never forget the scene. + +There was, first of all, mine host, a remarkably neat personage, standing +on the polished mahogany stair, three steps above his servant, who was a +very well-dressed respectable elderly negro, with a candle in each hand; +and beneath him, on the landing-place, lay two trays of viands, broken +tureens of soup, fragments of dishes, and fractured glasses, and a chaos of +eatables and drinkables, and table gear scattered all about, amidst which +lay scrambling my lieutenant and myself, the brown housekeeper, and the two +negro servants, all more or less covered with gravy and wine dregs. +However, after a good laugh, we gathered ourselves up, and at length we +were ushered on the scene. Mine host, after stifling his laughter the +best way he could, again sat down at the head of his table, sparkling with +crystal and wax lights, while a superb lamp hung overhead. The company was +composed chiefly of naval and military men, but there was also a sprinkling +of civilians, or Muftees, to use a West India expression. Most of them +rose as we entered, and after they had taken a glass of wine, and had their +laugh at our mishap, our landlord retired to one side with Mr Treenail, +while I, poor little middy as I was, remained standing at the end of the +room, close to the head of the stairs. The gentleman who sat at the foot +of the table had his back towards me, I and was not at first aware of my +presence. But the guest at his right hand, a happy-looking, red-faced, +well-dressed man, soon drew his attention towards me. The party to whom I +was thus indebted seemed a very jovial-looking personage, and appeared to +be well known to all hands, and indeed the life of the party, for, like +Falstaff, he was not only witty in himself, but the cause of wit in others. + +The gentleman to whom he had pointed me out immediately rose, made his bow, +ordered a chair, and made room for me beside himself, where the moment it +was known that we were direct from home, such a volley of questions was +fired off at me, that I did not know which to answer first. At length, +after Treenail had taken a glass or two of wine, the agent started him off +to the admiral's pen in his own gig, and I was desired to stay where I was +until he returned. + +The whole party seemed very happy, my boon ally was fun itself, and I was +much entertained with the mess he made when any of the foreigners at table +addressed him in French or Spanish. I was particularly struck with a small, +thin, dark Spaniard, who told very feelingly how the night before, on +returning home from a party to his own lodgings, on passing through the +piazza, he stumbled against something heavy that lay in his grass-hammock, +which usually hung there. He called for a light, when, to his horror, he +found the body of his old and faithful valet lying in it, dead and cold, +with a knife sticking under his fifth rib--no doubt intended for his +master. The speaker was Bolivar. About midnight, Mr Treenail returned, we +shook hands with Mr----, and once more shoved off; and, guided by the +lights shown on board the Torch, we were safe home again by three in the +morning, when we immediately made sail, and nothing particular happened +until we arrived within a day's sail of New Providence. It seemed, that +about a week before, a large American brig, bound from Havanna to Boston, +had been captured in this very channel by one of our men-of-war +schooners, and carried into Nassau; out of which port, for their own +security, the authorities had fitted a small schooner, carrying six guns +and twenty-four men. She was commanded by a very gallant fellow--there +is no disputing that--and he must needs emulate the conduct of the officer +who had made the capture--for in a fine clear night, when all the officers +were below rummaging in their kits for the killing things they should +array themselves in on the morrow, so as to smite the Fair of New +Providence to the heart at a blow--Whiss--a shot flew over our mast-head. + +"A small schooner lying-to right ahead, sir," sung out the boatswain from +the forecastle. + +Before we could beat to quarters, another sung between our masts. We kept +steadily on our course, and as we approached our pigmy antagonist, he bore +up. Presently we were alongside of him. + +"Heave-to," hailed the strange sail; "heave-to or I'll sink you." + +The devil you will, you midge, thought I. + +The captain took the trumpet--"Schooner, ahoy"--no answer "D--n your blood, +sir, if you don't let every thing go by the run this instant, I'll fire a +broadside. Strike, sir, to his Britannic Majesty's sloop Torch." + +The poor fellow commanding the schooner had by this time found out his +mistake and immediately came on board, where, instead of being lauded for +his gallantry, I am sorry to say he was roundly rated for his want of +discernment in mistaking his Majesty's cruiser for a Yankee merchantman. + +Next forenoon we arrived at Nassau. + + +In a week after we again sailed for Bermuda, having taken on board ten +American skippers, and several other Yankees, as prisoners of war. + +For the first three days after we cleared the Passages. We had fine +weather. Wind at east south-east; but after that it came on to blow from +the north-west, and so continued without intermission during the whole of +the passage to Bermuda. On the fourth morning after we left Nassau, we +descried a sail in the south-east quarter, and immediately made sail in +chase. We overhauled her about noon; she hove-to, after being fired at +repeatedly; and, on boarding her, we found she was a Swede from Charleston, +bound to Havre-de-Grace. All the letters we could find on board were +very unceremoniously broken open, and nothing having transpired that could +identify the cargo as enemy's property, we were bundling over the side, +when a nautical looking subject, who had attracted my attention from the +first, put in his oar. + +"Lieutenant," said he, "will you allow me to put this barrel of New York +apples into the boat as a present to Captain Deadeye, from Captain----of +the United States navy?" + +Mr Treenail bowed, and said he would; and we shoved off and got on board +again, and now there was the devil to pay, from the perplexity old Deadeye +was thrown into, as to whether, here in the heat of the American war, he +was bound to take this American captain prisoner or not. I was no party to +the councils of my superiors, of course, but the foreign ship was finally +allowed to continue her course. + +The next day I had the forenoon watch; the weather had lulled unexpectedly, +nor was there much sea, and the deck was all alive, to take advantage of +the fine blink, when the man at the mast-head sung out--"Breakers right +ahead, sir." + +"Breakers!" said Mr Splinter, in great astonishment. "Breakers! why the +man must be mad--I say, Jenkins!" + +"Breakers close under the bows," sung out the boatswain from forward. + +"The devil," quoth Splinter, and he ran along the gangway, and ascended the +forecastle, while I kept close to his heels. We looked out a-head, and +there we certainly did see a splashing, and boiling, and white foaming of +the ocean, that unquestionably looked very like breakers. Gradually, this +splashing and foaming appearance took a circular whisking shape, as if the +clear green sea, for a space of a hundred yards in diameter, had been +stirred about by a gigantic invisible spurtle, until every thing hissed +again; and the curious part of it was, that the agitation of the water +seemed to keep ahead of us, as if the breeze which impelled us had also +floated it onwards. At length the whirling circle of white foam ascended +higher and higher, and then gradually contracted itself into a spinning +black tube, which wavered about, for all the world, like a gigantic +loch-leech, held by the tail between the finger and thumb, while it was +poking its vast snout about in the clouds in search of a spot to fasten on. + +"Is the boat gun on the forecastle loaded?" said Captain Deadeye. + +"It is, sir." + +"Then luff a bit--that will do--fire." + +The gun was discharged, and down rushed the black wavering pillar in a +watery avalanche, and in a minute after the dark, heaving billows rolled +over the spot whereout it arose, as if no such thing had ever been. + +This said troubling of the waters was neither more nor less than a +waterspout, which again is neither more nor less than a whirlwind at sea, +which gradually whisks the water round and round, and up and up, as you see +straws so raised, until it reaches a certain height, when it invariably +breaks. Before this I had thought that a waterspout was created by some +next to supernatural exertion of the power of the Deity, in order to suck +up water into the clouds, that they, like the wine-skins in Spain, may be +filled with rain. + +The morning after the weather was clear and beautiful, although the wind +blew half-a-gale. Nothing particular happened until about seven o'clock in +the evening. I had been invited to dine with the gunroom officers this day, +and every thing was going on smooth and comfortable, when Mr Splinter +spoke. "I say, master, don't you smell gunpowder?" + +"Yes I do," said the little master, "or something deuced like it." + +To explain the particular comfort of our position, it may be right to +mention that the magazine of a brig sloop is exactly under the gunroom. +Three of the American skippers had been quartered on the gunroom mess, and +they were all at table. Snuff, snuff, smelled one, and another sniffled, + +"Gunpowder, I guess, and in a state of ignition." + +"Will you not send for the gunner, sir?" said the third. + +Splinter did not like it, I saw, and this quailed me. + +The captain's bell rang. "What smell of brimstone is that, steward?" "I +really can't tell," said the man, trembling from head to foot; "Mr Splinter +has sent for the gunner, sir." + +"The devil!" said Deadeye, as he hurried on deck. We all followed. A +search was made. + +"Some matches have caught in the magazine," said one. + +"We shall be up and away like sky-rockets," said another. + +Several of the American masters ran out on the jib-boom, coveting the +temporary security of being so far removed from the seat of the expected +explosion, and all was alarm and confusion, until it was ascertained that +two of the boys, little skylarking vagabonds, had stolen some pistol +cartridges, and had been making lightning, as it is called, by holding a +lighted candle between the fingers, and putting some loose powder into the +palm of the hand, and then chucking it up into the flame. They got a sound +flogging, on a very unpoetical part of their corpuses, and once more the +ship subsided into her usual orderly discipline. The northwester still +continued, with a clear blue sky, without a cloud overhead by day, and a +bright cold moon by night. It blew so hard for the three succeeding days, +that we could not carry more than close reefed topsails to it, and a reefed +foresail. Indeed, towards six bells in the forenoon watch, it came +thundering down with such violence, and the sea increased so much, that we +had to hand the fore-topsail. + +This was by no means an easy job. "Ease her a bit," said the first +lieutenant, "there--shake the wind out of her sails for a moment, until the +men get the canvass"--whirl, a poor fellow pitched off the lee fore yardarm +into the sea. "Up with the helm--heave him the bight of a rope." We kept +away, but all was confusion, until an American midshipman, one of the +prisoners on board, hove the bight of a rope at him. The man got it under +his arms, and after hauling him along for a hundred yards at the least--and +one may judge of the velocity with which he was dragged through the water, +by the fact that it took the united strain of ten powerful men to get him +in--he was brought safely on board, pale and blue, when we found that the +running of the rope had crushed in his broad chest below his arms, as if it +had been a girl's waist, cutting into the very muscles of it and of his +back half an inch deep. He had to be bled before he could breathe, and it +was an hour before the circulation could be restored, by the joint +exertions of the surgeon and gunroom steward, chafing him with spirits and +camphor, after he had been stripped and stowed away between the blankets in +his hammock. + +The same afternoon we fell in with a small prize to the squadron in the +Chesapeake, a dismasted schooner, manned by a prize crew of a midshipman +and six men. She had a signal of distress, an American ensign, with the +union down, hoisted on the jury-mast, across which there was rigged a +solitary lug-sail. It was blowing so hard that we had some difficulty in +boarding her, when we found she was a Baltimore pilot-boat--built +schooner, of about 70 tons burden, laden with flour, and bound for +Bermuda. But three days before, in a sudden squall, they had carried away +both masts short by the board, and the only spar which they had been able +to rig, was a spare topmast which they had jammed into one of the pumps +fortunately she was as tight as a bottle--and stayed it the best way they +could. The captain offered to take the little fellow who had charge of +her, and his crew and cargo, on board, and then scuttle her; but no--all +he wanted was a cask of water and some biscuit; and having had a glass of +grog, he trundled over the side again, and returned to his desolate +command. However, he afterwards brought his prize safe into Bermuda. + +The weather still continued very rough, but we saw nothing until the second +evening after this. The forenoon had been even more boisterous than any of +the preceding, and we were all fagged enough with "make sail," and "shorten +sail," and "all hands," the whole day through; and as the night fell, I +found myself, for the fourth time, in the maintop. The men had just lain +in from the main topsail yard, when we heard the watch called on deck, +"Starboard watch, ahoy,"--which was a cheery sound to us of the larboard, +who were thus released from duty on deck and allowed to go below. + +The men were scrambling down the weather shrouds, and I was preparing to +follow them, when I jammed my left foot in the grating of the top, and +capsized on my nose. I had been up nearly the whole of the previous night, +and on deck the whole of the day, and actively employed too, as during the +greatest part of it it blew a gale. I stooped down in some pain, to see +what had bolted me to the grating, but I had no sooner extricated my foot, +than, over-worked and over fatigued as I was, I fell over in the soundest +sleep that ever I have enjoyed before or since, the back of my neck resting +on a coil of rope, so that my head hung down within it. + +The rain all this time was beating on me, and I was drenched to the skin. I +must have slept for four hours or so, when I was awakened by a rough thump +on the side from the stumbling foot of the captain of the top, the word +having been passed to shake a reef out of the topsails, the wind having +rather suddenly gone down. It was done; and now broad awake, I determined +not to be caught napping again, so I descended, and swung myself in on deck +out of the main rigging, just as Mr Treenail was mustering the crew at +eight bells. When I landed on the quarterdeck, there he stood abaft the +binnacle, with the light shining on his face, his glazed hat glancing, and +the rain-drop sparkling at the brim of it. He had noticed me the moment I +descended. + +"Heyday, Master Cringle, you are surely out of your watch. Why, what are +you doing here, eh?" + +I stepped up to him, and told him the truth, that, being over fatigued, I +had fallen asleep in the top. + +"Well, well, boy," said he, "never mind, go below, and turn in; if you +don't take your rest, you never will be a sailor." + +"But what do you see aloft?" glancing his eye upwards, and all the crew on +deck as I passed them looked anxiously up also amongst the rigging, as if +wondering what I saw there, for I had been so chilled in my noose, that my +neck, from resting in the cold on the coil of rope, had become stiffened +and rigid to an intolerable degree; and although, when I first came on +deck, I had by a strong exertion brought my caput to its proper bearings, +yet the moment I was dismissed by my superior officer, I for my own +comfort was glad to conform to the contraction of the muscle, whereby I +once more staved along the deck, glowering up into the heavens, as if I +had seen some wonderful sight there. + +"What do you see aloft?" repeated Mr Treenail, while the crew, greatly +puzzled, continued to follow my eye, as they thought, and to stare up into +the rigging. + +"Why, sir, I have thereby got a stiff neck--that's all, sir." + +"Go and turn in at once, my good boy--make haste, now--tell our steward to +give you a glass of hot grog, and mind your hand that you don't get sick." + +I did as I was desired, swallowed the grog, and turned in; but I could not +have been in bed above an hour, when the drum beat to quarters, and I had +once more to bundle out on the cold wet deck, where I found all excitement. +At the time I speak of, we had been beaten by the Americans in several +actions of single ships, and our discipline had improved in proportion as +we came to learn by sad experience that the enemy was not to be +undervalued. I found that there was a ship in sight, right a-head of us +apparently carrying all sail. A group of officers were on the forecastle +with night-glasses, the whole crew being stationed in dark clusters round +the guns at quarters. Several of the American skippers were forward +amongst us, and they were of opinion that the chase was a man-of-war, +although our own people seemed to doubt this. One of the skippers +insisted that she was the Hornet, from the unusual shortness of her lower +masts, and the immense squareness of her yards. But the puzzle was, if it +were the Hornet, why she did not shorten sail. Still this might be +accounted for, by her either wishing to make out what we were before she +engaged us, or she might be clearing for action. At this moment a whole +cloud of studdingsails were blown from the yards as if the booms had been +carrots; and to prove that the chase was keeping a bright look-out, she +immediately kept away, and finally bore up dead before the wind, under the +impression, no doubt, that she would draw a-head of us, from her gear +being entire, before we could rig out our light sails again. + +And so she did for a time, but at length we got within gun-shot. The +American masters were now ordered below, the hatches were clapped on, and +the word passed to see all clear. Our shot was by this time flying over +and over her, and it was evident she was not a man-of-war. We peppered +away--she could not even be a privateer; we were close under her +lee-quarter, and yet she had never fired a shot; and her large swaggering +Yankee ensign was now run up to the peak, only to be hauled down the next +moment. Hurrah! a large cotton ship, from Charlestown to Bourdeaux, prize +to H.M.S. Torch. + +She was taken possession of, and proved to be the Natches, of four hundred +tons burden, fully loaded with cotton. + +By the time we got the crew on board, and the second lieutenant, with a +prize crew of fifteen men, had taken charge, the weather began to lour +again, nevertheless we took the prize in tow, and continued on our voyage +for the next three days, without any thing particular happening. It was +the middle watch, and I was sound asleep, when I was startled by a violent +jerking of my hammock, and a cry "that the brig was amongst the breakers." +I ran on deck in my shirt, where I found all hands, and a scene of +confusion such as I never had witnessed before. The gale had increased, +yet the prize had not been cast off, and the consequence was, that by some +mismanagement or carelessness, the swag of the large ship had suddenly hove +the brig in the wind, and taken the sails a-back. We accordingly fetched +stern way, and ran foul of the prize, and there we were, in a heavy sea, +with our stern grinding against the cotton ship's high quarter. + +The main boom, by the first rasp that took place after I came on deck, was +broken short off, and nearly twelve feet of it hove right in over the +taffril; the vessels then closed, and the next rub ground off the ship's +mizzen channel as clean as if it had been sawed away. Officers shouting, +men swearing, rigging cracking, the vessels crashing and thumping together, +I thought we were gone, when the first lieutenant seized his trumpet +"Silence, men,--hold your tongues, you cowards, and mind the word of +command!" + +The effect was magical.--"Brace round the foreyard; round with it--set the +jib--that's it--fore-topmast stay-sail--haul--never mind if the gale +takes it out of the bolt rope"--a thundering flap, and away it flew in +truth down to leeward, like a puff of white smoke.--"Never mind, men, the +jib stands. Belay all that--down with the helm, now don't you see she has +sternway yet? Zounds! we shall be smashed to atoms if you don't mind your +hands, you lubbers--main-topsail sheets let fly--there she pays off, and +has headway once more, that's it--right your helm now--never mind his +spanker-boom, the forestay will stand it--there--up with the helm, sir +we have cleared him hurrah!"--And a near thing it was too but we soon had +every thing snug; and although the gale continued without any intermission +for ten days, at length we ran in and anchored with our prize in Five +Fathom Hole, off the entrance to St George's Harbour. + +It was lucky for us that we got to anchor at the time we did, for that same +afternoon, one of the most tremendous gales of wind from the westward came +on that I ever saw. Fortunately it was steady and did not veer about, and +having good ground-tackle down, we rode it out well enough. The effect +was very uncommon; the wind was howling over our mast-heads, and amongst +the cedar bushes on the cliffs above, while on deck it was nearly calm, and +there was very little swell, being a weather shore; but half a mile out at +sea all was white foam, and the tumbling waves seemed to meet from north +and south, leaving a space of smooth water under the lee of the island, +shaped like the tail of a comet, tapering away, and gradually roughening +and becoming more stormy, until the roaring billows once more owed +allegiance to the genius of the storm. + +There we rode, with three anchors a-head, in safety through the night; and +next day, availing of a temporary lull, we ran up, and anchored off the +Tanks. Three days after this, the American frigate President was brought +in by the Endymion, and the rest of the squadron. + +I went on board, in common with every officer in the fleet, and certainly I +never saw a more superb vessel; her scantling was that of a seventy-four, +and she appeared to have been fitted with great cares. I got a week's +leave at this time, and, as I had letters to several families, I contrived +to spend my time pleasantly enough. + +Bermuda, as all the world knows, is a cluster of islands in the middle of +the Atlantic. There are Lord knows how many of them, but the beauty of the +little straits and creeks which divide them, no man can describe who has +not seen them. The town of Saint George's, for instance, looks as if the +houses were cut out of chalk; and one evening the family where I was on a +visit proceeded to the main island, Hamilton, to attend a ball there. We +had to cross three ferries, although the distance was not above nine miles, +if so far. The Mudian women are unquestionably beautiful--so thought +Thomas Moore, a tolerable judge, before me. By the by, touching this Mudian +ball, it was a very gay affair--the women pleasant and beautiful; but all +the men, when they speak, or are spoken to, shut one eye and spit;--a lucid +and succinct description of a community. + +The second day of my sojourn was fine--the first fine day since our arrival +and with several young ladies of the family, I was prowling through the +cedar wood above St George's, when a dark good-looking man passed us; he +was dressed in tight worsted net pantaloons and Hessian boots, and wore a +blue frock-coat and two large epaulets, with rich French bullion, and a +round hat. On passing he touched his hat with much grace, and in the +evening I met him in society. It was Commodore Decatur. He was very much +a Frenchman in manner, or, I should rather say, in look, for although very +well bred, he, for one ingredient, by no means possessed a Frenchman's +volubility; still, he was an exceedingly agreeable and very handsome man. + +The following day we spent in a pleasure cruise amongst the three hundred +and sixty-five islands, many of them not above an acre in extent--fancy an +island of an acre in extent!--with a solitary house, a small garden, a +red-skinned family, a piggery, and all around clear deep pellucid water. +None of the islands, or islets, rise to any great height, but they all +shoot precipitously out of the water, as if the whole group, had originally +been one huge platform of rock, with numberless grooves subsequently +chiselled out in it by art. + + +We had to wind our way amongst these manifold small channels for two hours +before we reached the gentleman's house where we had been invited to dine; +at length, on turning a corner, with both latteen sails drawing +beautifully, we ran bump on a shoal; there was no danger, and knowing that +the Mudians were capital sailors, I sat still. Not so Captain K----, a +round plump little homo,--"Shove her off, my boys, shove her off." She +would not move, and thereupon he in a fever of gallantry jumped overboard +up to the waist in full fig; and one of the men following his example, we +were soon afloat. The ladies applauded, and the Captain sat in his wet +breaks for the rest of the voyage, in all the consciousness of being +considered a hero. Ducks and onions are the grand staple of Bermuda, but +there was a fearful dearth of both at the time I speak of; a knot of young +West India merchants, who, with heavy purses and large credits on England, +had at this time domiciled themselves in St George's, to batten on the +spoils of poor Jonathan, having monopolized all the good things of the +place. I happened to be acquainted with one of them, and thereby had less +reason to complain, but many a poor fellow, sent ashore on duty, had to put +up with but Lenten fair at the taverns. At length, having refitted, we +sailed, in company with the Rayo frigate, with a convoy of three +transports, freighted with a regiment for New Orleans, and several +merchantmen, bound for the West Indies. + +"The still vexed Bermoothes"--I arrived at them in a gale of wind, and I +sailed from them in a gale of wind. What the climate may be in the summer +I don't know; but during the time I was there, it was one storm after +another. + +We sailed in the evening with the moon at full, and the wind at +west-north-west. So soon as we got from under the lee of the land, the +breeze struck us, and it came on to blow like thunder, so that we were +all soon reduced to our storm staysails; and there we were, transports, +merchantmen, and men-of-war, rising on the mountainous billows one +moment, and the next losing sight of every thing but the water and sky +in the deep trough of the sea, while the seething foam was blown over us +in showers from the curling manes of the roaring waves. But overhead, +all this while, it was as clear as a lovely winter moon could make it, +and the stars shone brightly in the deep blue sky; there was not even a +thin fleecy shred of cloud racking across the moon's disk. Oh, the +glories of a northwester! + +But the devil seize such glory! Glory, indeed! with a fleet of transports, +and a regiment of soldiers on board! Glory! why, I daresay five hundred +rank and file, at the fewest, were all cascading at one and the same +moment, a thousand poor fellows turned outside in, like so many pairs of +old stockings. Any glory in that? But to proceed. + +Next morning the gale still continued, and when the day broke, there was +the frigate standing across our bows, rolling and pitching, as she tore her +way through the boiling sea, under a close-reefed main-topsail and reefed +foresail, with topgallant-yards and royal masts, and every thing that +could be struck with safety in war time, down on deck. There she lay with +her clear black bends, and bright white streaks and long tier of cannon on +the maindeck, and the carronades on the quarterdeck and forecastle grinning +through the ports in the black bulwarks, while the white hammocks, +carefully covered by the hammock-cloths, crowned the defences of the +gallant frigate fore and aft, as she delved through the green surge,--one +minute rolling and rising on the curling white crest of a mountainous sea, +amidst a hissing snowstorm of spray, with her bright copper glancing from +stem to stem, and her scanty white canvass swelling aloft, and twenty feet +of her keel forward occasionally hove into the air clean out of the water, +as if she had been a sea-bird rushing to take wing,--and the next, sinking +entirely out of sight, hull, masts, and rigging, behind an intervening sea, +that rose in hoarse thunder between us, threatening to overwhelm both us +and her. As for the transports, the largest of the three had lost her fore +topmast, and had bore up under her foresail; another was also scudding +under a close reefed fore-topsail; but the third or head-quarter ship was +still lying to windward, under her storm stay-sails. None of the merchant +vessels were to be seen, having been compelled to bear up in the night, and +to run before it under bare poles. + +At length, as the sun rose, we got before the wind, and it soon moderated +so far, that we could carry reefed topsails and foresail; and away we all +bowled, with a clear, deep, cold, blue sky, and a bright sun overhead, and +a stormy leaden-coloured ocean, with whitish green-crested billows, +below. The sea continued to go down, and the wind to slacken, until the +afternoon, when the Commodore made the signal for Torch to send, a boat's +crew, the instant it could be done with safety, on board the dismasted +ship, to assist in repairing damages, and in getting up a +jury-fore-topmast. + +The damaged ship was at this time on our weather-quarter; we accordingly +handed the fore-topsail, and presently she was alongside. We hailed her, +that we intended to send a boat on board, and desired her to heave-to, as +we did, and presently she rounded to under our lee. One of the +quarter-boats was manned, with three of the carpenter's crew, and six good +men over and above her complement; but it was no easy matter to get on +board of her, let me tell you, after she had been lowered, carefully +watching the rolls, with four hands in. The moment she touched the water, +the tackles were cleverly unhooked, and the rest of us tumbled on board, +shin leather growing scarce, when we shoved off. With great difficulty, +and not without wet jackets, we, the supernumeraries, got on board, and the +boat returned to the Torch. The evening when we landed in the lobsterbox, +as Jack loves to designate a transport, was too far advanced for us to do +anything towards refitting that night; and the confusion, and uproar, and +numberless abominations of the crowded craft, were irksome to a greater +degree than I expected even, after having been accustomed to the strict and +orderly discipline of a man-of-war. The following forenoon the Torch was +ordered by signal to chase in the south-east quarter, and hauling out from +the fleet, she was soon out of sight. + +"There goes my house and home," said I, and a feeling of desolateness came +over me, that I would have been ashamed at the time to have acknowledged. +We stood on, and worked hard all day in repairing the damage sustained +during the gale. + +At length dinner was announced, and I was invited, as the officer in charge +of the seamen, to go down. The party in the cabin consisted of an old +gizzened Major with a brown wig, and a voice melodious as the sharpening of +a saw--I fancied sometimes that the vibration created by it set the very +glasses in the steward's pantry a-ringing three captains and six +subalterns, every man of whom, as the devil would have it, played on the +flute, and drew bad sketches, and kept journals. Most of them were very +white and blue in the gills when we sat down, and others of a dingy sort +of whitey-brown, while they ogled the viands in a most suspicious manner. +Evidently most of them had but small confidence in their moniplies; and one +or two, as the ship gave a heavier roll than usual, looked wistfully +towards the door, and half rose from their chairs, as if in act to bolt. +However, hot brandy grog being the order of the day, we all, landsmen and +sailors, got on astonishingly, and numberless long yarns were spun of what +"what's-his-name of this, and so-and-so of t'other, did or did not do." + +About half-past five in the evening, the captain of the transport, or +rather the agent, an old lieutenant in the navy, and our host, rang his +bell for the steward. + +"Whereabouts are we in the fleet, steward?" said the ancient. + +"The stern most ship of all, sir," said the man. + +"Where is the Commodore?" "About three miles a-head, sir." + +"And the Torch, has she rejoined us?" + +"No, sir; she has been out of sight these two hours; when last seen she was +in chase of something in the south-east quarter, and carrying all the sail +she could stagger under." + +"Very well, very well." + +A song from Master Waistbelt, one of the young officers. Before he had +concluded, the mate came down. By this time it was near sun-down. + +"Shall we shake a reef out of the main and mizzen-topsails, sir, and set +the mainsail and spanker? The wind has lulled, sir, and there is a strange +sail in the northwest that seems to be dodging us--but she may be one of +the merchantmen after all, sir." + +"Never mind, Mr Leechline," said our gallant captain. "Mr Bandalier--a +song if you please." + +Now the young soldiers on board happened to be men of the world, and +Bandalier, who did not sing, turned off the request with a good-humoured +laugh, alleging his inability with much suavity; but the old rough Turk of +a tar-bucket chose to fire at this, and sang out--"Oh, if you don't choose +to sing when you are asked, and to sport your damned fine airs...." + +"Mr Crowfoot." + +"Captain," said the agent, piqued at having his title by courtesy withheld. + +"By no mean," said Major Sawrasp, who had spoken--"I believe I am speaking +to Lieutenant Crowfoot, agent for transport No.--, wherein it so happens I +am commanding officer--so"-- + +Old Crowfoot saw he was in the wrong box, and therefore hove about, and +backed out in good time--making the amende as smoothly as his gruff nature +admitted, and trying to look pleased. + +Presently the same bothersome mate came down again--"The strange sail is +creeping up on our quarter, sir." + +"Ay?" said Crowfoot, "how does she lay?" + +"She is hauled by the wind on the starboard tack, sir," continued the mate. + +We now went on deck, and found that our suspicious friend had shortened +sail, as if he had made us out, and wag afraid to approach, or was lying by +until nightfall. + +Sawrasp had before this, with the tact and ease of a soldier and a +gentleman, soldered his feud with Crowfoot, and, with the rest of the +lobsters, was full of fight. The sun at length set, and the night closed +in when the old major again addressed Crowfoot. + +"My dear fellow, can't you wait a bit, and let us have a rattle at that +chap?" And old Crowfoot, who never bore a grudge long, seemed much inclined +to fall in with the soldier's views; and, in fine, although the weather was +now moderate, he did not make sail. Presently the Commodore fired a gun, +and showed lights. It was the signal to close. "Oh, time enough," said +old Crowfoot--"what is the old man afraid of?" Another gun and a fresh +constellation on board the frigate. It was "an enemy in the northwest +quarter." + +"Hah, hah," sung out the agent, "is it so? Major, what say you to a brush +let her close, eh?--should like to pepper her--wouldn't you--three hundred +men, eh?" + +By this time we were all on deck--the schooner came bowling along under a +reefed mainsail and jib, now rising, and presently disappearing behind the +stormy heavings of the roaring sea, the rising moon shining brightly on her +canvass pinions, as if she had been an albatross skimming along the surface +of the foaming water, while her broad white streak glanced like a silver +ribbon along her clear black side. She was a very large craft of her class, +long and low in the water, and evidently very fast; and it was now clear, +from our having been unable as yet to sway up our fore-topmast, that she +took us for a disabled merchantman, which might be cut off from the convoy. + +As she approached, we could perceive by the bright moonlight, that she had +six guns of a side, and two long ones on pivots, the one forward on the +forecastle, and the other choke up to the mainmast. + +Her deck was crowded with dark figures, pike and cutlass in hand; we were +by this time so near that we could see pistols in their belts, and a +trumpet in the hand of a man who stood in the fore rigging, with his feet +on the hammock netting, and his back against the shrouds. We had cleared +away our six eighteen-pound carronades, which composed our starboard +broadside, and loaded them, each with a round shot, and a bag of two +hundred musket-balls, while three hundred soldiers in their foraging +jackets, and with their loaded muskets in their hands, were lying on the +deck, concealed by the quarters, while the blue jackets were sprawling in +groups round the carronades. + +I was lying down beside the gallant old Major, who had a bugler close to +him, while Crowfoot was standing on the gun nearest us; but getting tired +of this recumbent position, I crept aft, until I could see through a spare +port. + +"Why don't the rascals fire?" quoth Sawrasp. + +"Oh, that would alarm the Commodore. They intend to walk quietly on board +of us; but they will find themselves mistaken a little," whispered +Crowfoot. + +"Mind, men, no firing till the bugle sounds," said the Major. + +The word was passed along. + +The schooner was by this time ploughing through it within half pistolshot, +with the white water dashing away from her bows, and buzzing past her +sides her crew as thick as peas on her deck. Once or twice she hauled her +wind a little, and then again kept away from us, as if irresolute what to +do. At length, without hailing, and all silent as the grave, she put her +helm a-starboard, and ranged alongside. + +"Now, my boys, give it him," shouted Crowfoot--"Fire!" + +"Ready, men," shouted the Major--"Present--fire!" + +The bugles sounded, the cannon roared, the musketry rattled, and the men +cheered, and all was hurra, and fire, and fury. The breeze was strong +enough to carry all the smoke forward, and I saw the deck of the schooner, +where the moment before all was still and motionless, and filled with dark +figures, till there scarcely appeared standing room, at once converted into +a shambles. The blasting fiery tempest had laid low nearly the whole mass, +like a maize plant before a hurricane; and such a cry arose, as if "Men +fought on earth, and fiends in upper air." + +Scarcely a man was on his legs, the whole crew seemed to have been levelled +with the deck, many dead, no doubt, and most wounded, while we could see +numbers endeavouring to creep towards the hatches, while the black blood, +in horrible streams, gushed and gurgled through her scuppers down her +sides, and across the bright white streak that glanced in the moonlight. + +Some one on board of the privateer now hailed, "We have surrendered; cease +firing, sir." But devil a bit--we continued blazing away--a lantern was run +up to his main gaff, and then lowered again. + +"We have struck, sir," shouted another voice, "don't murder us don't fire, +sir, for Godsake." + +But fire we still did; no sailor has the least compunction at even running +down a privateer. Mercy to privateersmen is unknown. "Give them the +stem," is the word, the curs being regarded by Jack at the best as +highwaymen; so, when he found we still peppered away, and sailing two feet +for our one, the schooner at length, in their desperation, hauled her +wind, and speedily got beyond range of our carronades, having all this +time never fired a shot. Shortly after this we ran--under the Rayo's stern +she was lying to. + +"Mr Crowfoot what have you been after? I have a great mind to report you, +sir." + +"We could not help it, sir," sung out Crowfoot in a most dolorous tone, in +answer to the captain of the frigate; "we have been nearly taken, sir, by +a privateer, sir--an immense vessel, sir, that sails, like a witch, sir." + +"Keep close in my wake then, sir," rejoined the captain, in a gruff tone, +and immediately the Rayo bore up. + +Next morning we were all carrying as much sail as we could crowd. By this +time we had gotten our jury-fore-topmast up, and the Rayo, having kept +astern in the night, was now under topsails, and top-gallant sails, with +the wet canvass at the head of the sails, showing that the reefs had been +freshly shaken out--rolling wedge like on the swell, and rapidly shooting +a-head, to resume her station. As she passed us, and let fall her +foresail, she made the signal to make more sail, her object being to get +through the Caicos Passage, into which we were now entering, before +nightfall. It was eleven o'clock in the forenoon. A fine clear breezy day, +fresh and pleasant, sometimes cloudy overhead, but always breaking away +again, with a bit of a sneezer, and a small shower. As the sun rose there +were indications of squalls in the north-eastern quarter, and about noon +one of them was whitening to windward. So "hands by the topgallant +clew-lines" was the word, and we were all standing by to shorten sail, +when the Commodore came to the wind as sharp and suddenly as if he had +anchored; but on a second look, I saw his sheets were let fly, haulyards +let go, and apparently all was confusion on board of her. I ran to the +side and looked over. The long hearing dark blue swell had changed into a +light green hissing ripple. + +"Zounds, Captain Crowfoot, shoal water--why it breaks--we shall be ashore!" + +"Down with the helm-brace round the yards," shouted Crow foot; "that's it +steady--luff, my man;" and the danger was so imminent that even the +studding-sail haulyards were not let go and the consequence was, that the +booms snapped off like carrots, as we came to the wind. + +"Lord help us, we shall never weather that foaming reef there set the +spanker--haul out--haul down the foretopmast--staysail--so, mind your luff, +my man." + +The frigate now began to fire right and left, and the hissing of the shot +overhead was a fearful augury of what was to take place; so sudden was the +accident, that they had not had time to draw the round shot. The other +transports were equally fortunate with ourselves, in weathering the shoal, +and presently we were all close hauled to windward of the reef, until we +weathered the easternmost prong, when we bore up. But, poor Rayo! she had +struck on a coral reef, where the Admiralty charts laid down fifteen +fathoms water; and although there was some talk at the time of an error in +judgment, in not having the lead going in the chains, still do I believe +there was no fault lying at the door of her gallant captain. By the time +we had weathered the reef, the frigate had swung off from the pinnacle of +rock on which she had been in a manner impaled, and was making all the sail +she could, with a fothered sail under her bows, and chain-pumps clanging, +and whole cataracts of water gushing from them, clear white jets spouting +from all the scuppers, fore and aft. She made the signal to close. The +next, alas! was the British ensign, seized, union down in the main rigging, +the sign of the uttermost distress. Still we all bowled along together, +but her yards were not squared, nor her sails set with her customary +precision, and her lurches became more and more sickening, until at length +she rolled so heavily, that she dipped both yardarms alternately in the +water, and reeled to and fro like a drunken man. + +"What is that splash?" + +It was the larboard-bow long eighteen-pound gun hove overboard, and +watching the roll, the whole broadside, one after another, was cast into +the sea. The clang of the chain-pumps increased, the water rushed in at +one side of the main-deck, and out at the other, in absolute cascades from +the ports. At this moment the whole fleet of boats were alongside, keeping +way with the ship, in the light breeze. Her main-topsail was hove aback, +while the captain's voice resounded through the ship. + +"Now, men--all hands--bags and hammocks--starboard watch, the starboard +side--larboard watch, the larboard side--no rushing now--she will swim this +hour to come." + +The bags, and hammocks, and officers' kits, were handed into the boats; the +men were told off over the side, as quietly by watches as if at muster, the +officers last. At length the first lieutenant came down. By this time she +was settling perceptibly in the water; but the old captain still stood on +the gangway, holding by the iron stanchion, where, taking off his hat, he +remained uncovered for a moment, with the tears standing in his eyes. He +then replaced it, descended, and took his place in the ship's launch--the +last man to leave the ship; and there was little time to spare, for we had +scarcely shoved off a few yards, to clear the spars of the wreck, when she +sended forward, heavily and sickly, on the long swell.--She never rose to +the opposite heave of the sea again, but gradually sank by the head. The +hull disappeared slowly and dignifiedly, the ensign fluttered and vanished +beneath the dark ocean--I could have fancied reluctantly as if it had been +drawn down through a trap-door. The topsails next disappeared, the +fore-topsail sinking fastest; and last of all, the white pennant at the +main-topgallant-mast head, after flickering and struggling in the wind, +flew up in the setting sun as if imbued with--life, like a stream of white +fire, or as if it had been the spirit leaving the body, and was then drawn +down into the abyss, and the last vestige of the Rayo vanished for ever. +The crew, as if moved by one common impulse, gave three cheers. + +The captain now stood up in his boat--"Men, the Rayo is no more, but it is +my duty to tell you, that although you are now to be distributed amongst +the transports, you are still amenable to martial law; I am aware, men, +this hint may not be necessary, still it is right you should know it." + +When the old hooker clipped out of sight, there was not a dry eye in the +whole fleet. "There she goes, the dear old beauty," said one of her crew. +"There goes the blessed old black b----h," quoth another. "Ah, many a +merry night have we had in the clever little craft," quoth a third; and +there was really a tolerable shedding of tears and squirting of tobacco +juice. But the blue ripple had scarcely blown over the glasslike +surface of the sea where she had sunk, when the buoyancy of young +hearts, with the prospect of a good furlough amongst the lobster boxes +for a time, seemed to be uppermost amongst the men. The officers, I saw +and knew, felt very differently. + +"My eye!" sung out an old quartermaster incur boat, perched well forward +with his back against the ring in the stem, and his arms crossed, after +having been busily employed rummaging in his bag, "my eye, what a pity--oh, +what a pity!" + +Come, there is some feeling, genuine, at all events, thought I. + +"My," said Bill Chestree, the captain of the foretop, "what is can't be +helped, old Fizgig; old Rayo has gone down, and"--"Old Rayo be d----d, +Master Bill," said the man; "but may I be flogged, if I han't forgotten +half a pound of negro head baccy in Dick Catgut's bag." + +"Launch ahoy!" hailed a half drunken voice from one of the boats astern of +us. "Hillo," responded the coxswain. The poor skipper even pricked up his +ears. "Have you got Dick Catgut's fiddle among ye?" This said Dick Catgut +was the corporal of marines, and the prime instigator of all the fun +amongst the men. "No, no," said several voices, "no fiddle here." The hail +passed round among the other boats, "No fiddle." "I would rather lose three +days grog than have his fiddle mislaid," quoth the man who pulled the bow +oar. + +"Why don't you ask Dick himself?" said our coxswain. + +"Aye--true enough--Dick, Dick Catgut!" but no one answered. Alas! poor +Dick was nowhere to be found; he had been mislaid as well as his fiddle. +He had broken into the spirit room, as it turned out, and having got drunk, +did not come to time when the frigate sunk. + +Our ship, immediately after the frigate's crew had been bestowed, and the +boats got in, hoisted the Commodore's light, and the following morning we +fell in with the Torch, off the east end of Jamaica, which, after seeing +the transports safe into Kingston, and taking out me and my people, bore up +through the Gulf, and resumed her cruising ground on the edge of the Gulf +stream, between 25 degrees and 30 degrees north latitude. + + + +CHAPTER III.--The Quenching of the Torch. + + + "Then rose from sea to sky, the wild farewell." + BYRON, DON JUAN, II. 409 + + +The evening was closing in dark and rainy, with every appearance of a gale +from the westward, and the weather had become so thick and boisterous, that +the lieutenant of the watch had ordered the look-out at the mast-head +down on deck. The man, on his way down, had gone into the maintop to bring +away some things he had placed there in going aloft, and was in the act of +leaving it, when he sung out,--"A sail on the weather-bow." + +"What does she look like?" + +"Can't rightly say, sir; she is in the middle of the thick weather to +windward." + +"Stay where you are a little.--Jenkins, jump forward, and see what you can +make of her from the foreyard." + +Whilst the topman was obeying his instructions, the look-out again hailed +"She is a ship, sir, close-hauled on the same tack----the weather clears, +and I can see her now." + +The wind, ever since noon, had been blowing in heavy squalls, with +appalling lulls between them. One of these gusts had been so violent as to +bury in the sea the lee-guns in the waist, although the brig had nothing +set but her close-reefed main-topsail, and reefed foresail. It was now +spending, its fury, and she was beginning to roll heavily, when, with a +suddenness almost incredible to one unacquainted with these latitudes, the +veil of mist that had hung to windward the whole day was rent and drawn +aside, and the red and level rays of the setting sun flashed at once, +through a long arch of glowing clouds, on the black hull and tall spars of +his Britannic Majesty's sloop, Torch. And, true enough, we were not the +only spectators of this gloomy splendour; for, right in the wake of the +moon-like sun, now half sunk in the sea, at the distance of a mile or more, +lay a long warlike-looking craft, apparently a frigate or heavy corvette, +rolling heavily and silently in the trough of the sea, with her masts, +yards, and the scanty sail she had set, in strong relief against the +glorious horizon. + +Jenkins now hailed from the foreyard--"The strange sail is bearing up, sir." + +As he spoke, a flash was seen, followed, after what seemed a long interval, +by the deadened report of the gun, as if it had been an echo, and the +sharp, half-ringing half-hissing sound of the shot. It fell short, but +close to us, and was evidently thrown from a heavy cannon, from the length +of the range. + +Mr Splinter, the first lieutenant, jumped from the gun he stood on. + +"Quartermaster, keep her away a bit"--and dived into the cabin to make his +report. + +Captain Deadeye was a staid, stiff-rumped, wall-eyed, old first +lieutenantish-looking veteran, with his coat of a regular Rodney cut, +broad skirts, long waist, and standup collar, over which dangled either a +queue, or a marlinspike with a tuft of oakum at the end of it,--it would +have puzzled Old Nick to say which. His lower spars were cased in tight +unmentionables of what had once been white kerseymere, and long boots, the +coal-skuttle tops of which served as scuppers to carry off the drainings +from his coat-flaps in bad weather; he was, in fact, the "last of the +sea-monsters," but, like all his tribe, as brave as steel, and, when put +to it, as alert as a cat. + +He no sooner heard Splinter's report, than he sprung up the ladder, +brushing the tumbler of swizzle he had just brewed clean out of the fiddle +into the lap of Mr Saveall, the purser, who had dined with him, and nearly +extinguishing the said purser, by his arm striking the bowl of the pipe he +was smoking, thereby forcing the shank half-way down his throat. + +"My glass, Wilson," to his steward. + +"She is close to, sir; you can see her plainly without it," said Mr +Treenail, the second lieutenant, from the weather nettings, where he was +reconnoitring. + +After a long look through his starboard blinker, (this other skylight had +been shut up ever since Aboukir,) Deadeye gave orders to "clear away the +weather-bow gun;" and as it was now getting too dark for flags to be seen +distinctly, he desired that three lanterns might be got ready for hoisting +vertically in the main-rigging. + +"All ready forward there?" + +"All ready, sir." + +"Then hoist away the lights, and throw a shot across her forefoot I fire!" +Bang went our carronade, but our friend to windward paid no regard to the +private signal; he had shaken a reef out of his topsails, and wars coming +down fast upon us. + +It war clear that old Blowhard had at first taken him for one of our own +cruisers, and meant to signalize him, "all regular and shipshape," to use +his own expression. Most of us, however, thought it would have been wiser +to have made sail, and widened our distance, a little, in place of +bothering with old fashioned manoeuvres, which might end in our catching a +tartar; but the skipper had been all his life in line-of-battle ships, or +heavy frigates; and it was a tough job, under, any circumstances, to +persuade him of the propriety of "up-stick-and-away," as we soon felt to +our cost. + +The enemy, for such he evidently was, now all at once yawed, and indulged +us with a sight of his teeth; and there he was, fifteen ports of a side on +his maindeck, with the due quantum of carronades on his quarterdeck and +forecastle; whilst his short lower masts, white canvass, and the tremendous +hoist in his topsails, showed him to be a heavy American frigate; and it +was equally certain that he had cleverly hooked us under his lee, within +comfortable range of his long twenty-fours. To convince the most +unbelieving, three jets of flame, amidst wreaths of white smoke, now +glanced from his main-deck; but in this instance, the sound of the cannon +was followed by a sharp crackle and a shower of splinters from the +foreyard. + +It was clear we had got an ugly customer--poor Jenkins now called to +Treenail, who was standing forward near the gun which had been fired "Och, +sir, and it's badly wounded we are here." + +The officer was a Patlander, as well as the seaman. "Which of you my boy?" +the growing seriousness of the affair in no way checking his propensity to +fun,--"Which of you,--you, or the yard?" + +"Both of us, your honour; but the yard badliest." + +"The devil!--Come down, then, or get into the top, and I will you looked +after presently." + +The poor fellow crawled off the yard into the foretop, as he was ordered, +where he was found after the brush, badly wounded by a splinter in the +breast. + +Jonathan, no doubt "calculated," as well he might, that this taste of his +quality would be quite sufficient for a little eighteen-gun sloop, close +under his lee; but the fight was not to be so easily taken out of Deadeye, +although even to his optic it was now high time to be off. + +"All hands make sail, Mr Splinter; that chap is too heavy for us. Mr +Kelson," to the carpenter, "jump up and see what the foreyard will carry. +Keep her away, my man," to the seaman at the helm. "Crack on, Mr Splinter, +shake all the reefs out,----set the fore-topsail, and loose +topgallant-sails;--stand by to sheet home; and see all clear to rig the +booms out, if the breeze lulls." + +In less than a minute we were bowling along before it; but the wind was +breezing up again, and no one could say how long the wounded foreyard would +carry the weight and drag of the sails. To mend the matter, Jonathan was +coming up hand over hand with the freshening breeze, under a press of +canvass; it was clear that escape was next to impossible. + +"Clear away the larboard guns!" I absolutely jumped off the deck with +astonishment--who could have spoken it? It appeared such downright +madness to show fight under the very muzzles of the guns of an enemy, half +of whose broadside was sufficient to sink us. It was the captain, +however, and there was nothing for it but to obey. + +In an instant, the creaking and screaming of the carronade slides, the +rattling of the carriage of the long twelve-pounder amidships, the +thumping and punching of handspikes, and the dancing and jumping of jack +himself, were heard through the whistling of the breeze, as the guns were +being shotted and run out. In a few seconds all was still again, but the +rushing sound of the vessel going through the water, and of the rising +gale amongst the rigging. + +The men stood clustered at their quarters, their cutlasses buckled round +their waists, all without jackets and waistcoats, and many with nothing +but their trowsers on. + +"Now, men, mind your aim; our only chance is to wing him. I will yaw the +ship, and as your guns come to bear, slap it right into his bows. +Starboard your helm, my man, and bring her to the wind." As she came round, +blaze went our carronades and long-gun in succession, with goodwill and +good aim, and down came his foretop-sail on the cap, with all the +superincumbent spars and gear; the head of the topmast had been shot away. +The men instinctively cheered. "That will do; now knock off, my boys, and +let us run for it. Keep her away again; make all sail." + +Jonathan was for an instant paralysed by our impudence; but just as we were +getting before the wind, he yawed, and let drive his whole broadside; and +fearfully did it transmogrify us. Half an hour before we were as gay a +little sloop as ever floated, with a crew of 120 as fine fellows as ever +manned a British man-of-war. The iron-shower sped--ten of the hundred +and twenty never saw the sun rise again; seventeen more were wounded, three +mortally; we had eight shot between wind and water, our maintop-mast shot +away as clean as a carrot, and our hull and rigging otherwise regularly cut +to pieces. Another broadside succeeded; but by this time we had bore up +thanks to the loss of our after sail, we could do nothing else; and what +was better luck still, whilst the loss of our maintop-mast paid the brig +off on the one hand, the loss of head-sail in the frigate brought her as +quickly to the wind on the other; thus most of her shot fell astern of us; +and, before she could bear up again in chase, the squall struck her, and +carried her maintop-mast overboard. + +This gave us a start, crippled and bedevilled though we were; and as the +night fell, we contrived to lose sight of our large friend. With +breathless anxiety did we carry on through that night, expecting every +lurch to send our remaining topmast by the board; but the weather +moderated, and next morning the sun shone on our bloodstained decks, at +anchor off the entrance to St George's harbour. + +I was the mate of the watch, and, as day dawned, I had amused myself with +other younkers over the side, examining the shot holes and other injuries +sustained from the fire of the frigate, and contrasting the clean, sharp, +well-defined apertures, made by the 24-pound shot from the long guns, +with the bruised and splintered ones from the 32-pound carronades; but the +men had begun to wash down the decks, and the first gush of clotted blood +an water from the scuppers fairly turned me sick. I turned away, when Mr +Kennedy, our gunner, a good steady old Scotchman, with whom I was a bit of +a favourite, came up to me--"Mr Cringle, the Captain has sent for you; poor +Mr Johnstone is fast going, he wants to see you." + +I knew my young messmate had been wounded, for I had seen him carried below +after the frigate's second broadside; but the excitement of a boy, who had +seldom smelled powder fired in anger before, had kept me on deck the whole +night, and it never once occurred to me to ask for him, until the old +gunner spoke. + +I hastened down to our small confined berth, where I saw a sight that +quickly brought me to myself. Poor Johnstone was indeed going; a grapeshot +had struck him, and torn his belly open. There he lay in his bloody +hammock on the deck, pale and motionless as if he had already departed, +except a slight twitching at the corners of his mouth, and a convulsive +contraction and distension of his nostrils. + +His brown ringlets still clustered over his marble forehead, but they were +drenched in the cold sweat of death. The surgeon could do nothing for him, +and had left him; but our old captain--bless him for it--I little expected, +from his usual crusty bearing, to find him so employed--had knelt by his +side, and, whilst he read from the Prayer-book one of those beautiful +petitions in our Church service to Almighty God, for mercy to the passing +soul of one so young, and so early cut off, the tears trickled down the old +man's cheeks, and filled the furrows worn in them by the washing up of many +a salt spray. On the other side of his narrow bed, fomenting the rigid +muscles of his neck and chest, sate Mistress Connolly, one of three women +on board--a rough enough creature, Heaven knows! in common weather; but her +stifled sobs showed that the mournful sight had stirred up all the woman +within her. She had opened the bosom of the poor boy's shirt, and untying +the riband that fastened a small gold crucifix round his neck, she placed +it in his cold hand. The young midshipman was of a respectable family in +Limerick, her native place, and a Catholic--another strand of the cord that +bound her to him. When the Captain finished reading, he bent over the +departing youth and kissed his cheek. "Your young messmate just now +desired to see you, Mr Cringle, but it is too late, he is insensible and +dying." Whilst he spoke, a strong shiver passed through the boy's frame, +his face became slightly convulsed, and all was over! + +The Captain rose, and Connolly, with a delicacy of feeling which many might +not have looked for in her situation, spread one of our clean mess +tablecloths over the body. "And is it really gone you are, my poor dear +boy!" forgetting all difference of rank in the fulness of her heart. "Who +will tell this to your mother, and nobody here to wake you but ould Kate +Connolly, and no time will they be giving me, nor whisky--Ochon! ochon!" + +But enough and to spare of this piping work. The boatswain's whistle now +called me to the gangway, to superintend the handling up, from a shore boat +alongside, a supply of the grand staples of the island--ducks and onions. +The three Mudians in her were characteristic samples of the inhabitants. +Their faces and sins, where exposed, were not tanned, but absolutely burnt +into a fiery-red colour by the sun. They guessed and drawled like any +buckskin from Virginia, superadding to their accomplishments their insular +peculiarity of always shutting one eye when they spoke to you. They are +all Yankees at bottom; and if they could get their 365 Islands--so they +call the large stones on which they live--under weigh, they would not be +long in towing them into the Chesapeake. + +The word had been passed to get six of the larboard-guns and all the shot +over to the other side, to give the brig a list of a streak or two +a-starboard, so that the stage on which the carpenter and his crew were +at work over the side, stopping the shot holes about the water line, might +swing clear of the wash of the sea. I had jumped from the nettings, where +I was perched, to assist in unbolting one of the carronade slides, when I +slipped and capsized against a peg sticking out of one of the scuppers. I +took it for something else, and d----d the ring-bolt incontinently. Caboose, +the cook, was passing with his mate, a Jamaica negro of the name of John +Crow, at the time. "Don't d----n the remains of your fellow-mortals, Master +Cringle; that is my leg." The cook of a man-of-war is no small beer; he +is his Majesty's warrant-officer, a much bigger wig than a poor little +mid, with whom it is condescension on his part to jest. + +It seems to be a sort of rule, that no old sailor who has not lost a limb, +or an eye at least, shall be eligible to the office; but as the kind of +maiming is so far circumscribed that all cooks must have two arms, a +laughable proportion of them have but one leg. Besides the honour, the +perquisites are good; accordingly, all old quartermasters, captains of +tops, etc. look forward to the cookdom, as the cardinals look to the +popedom; and really there is some analogy between them, for neither are +preferred from any especial fitness for the office. A cardinal is made +pope because he is old, infirm, and imbecile,--our friend Caboose was made +cook because he had been Lord Nelson's coxswain, was a drunken rascal, and +had a wooden leg; for, as to his gastronomical qualifications, he knew no +more of the science than just sufficient to watch the copper where the +salt junk and potatoes were boiling. Having been a little in the wind +overnight, he had quartered himself, in the superabundance of his heroism, +at a gun where he had no business to be, and in running it out, he had +jammed his toe in a scupper hole, so fast that there was no extricating +him; and notwithstanding his piteous entreaty "to be eased out handsomely, +as the leg was made out of a plank of the Victory, and the ring at the end +out of one of her bolts," the captain of the gun finding, after a stout +pull, that the man was like to come home in his hand without the leg, was +forced "to break him short off," as he phrased it, to get him out of the +way, and let the carriage traverse. In the morning when he sobered, he had +quite forgotten where the leg was, and how he broke it; he therefore got +Kelson to splice the stump with the but-end of a mop; but in the hurry it +had been left three inches too long, so he had to jerk himself up to the +top of his peg at every step. The Doctor, glad to breathe the fresh air +after the horrible work he had gone through, was leaning over the side +speaking to Kelson. When I fell, he turned round and drew Cookee's fire +on himself. "Doctor, you have not prescribed for me yet." + +"No, Caboose, I have not; what is wrong?" + +"Wrong, sir? why, I have lost my leg, and the Captain's clerk says I am not +in the Return!--Look here, sir, had Doctor Kelson not coopered me, where +should I have been?--Why, Doctor, had I been looked after, amputation might +have been unnecessary; a fish might have done, whereas I have had to be +spliced." + +He was here cut short by the voice of his mate, who had gone forward to +slay a pig for the gunroom mess. "Oh, Lad, oh!--Massa Caboose!--Dem dam +Yankee!--De Purser killed, massa!--Dem shoot him troo de head!--Oh, Lad!" + +Captain Deadeye had come on deck. "You John Crow, what is wrong with you?" + +"Why, de Purser killed, Captain, dat all." + +"Purser killed?--Doctor, is Saveall hurt?" + +Treenail could stand it no longer. "No, sir, no; it is one of the gunroom +pigs that we shipped at Halifax three cruises ago; I am sure I don't know +how he survived one, but the seamen took a fancy to him, and nicknamed him +the Purser. You know, sir, they make pets of any thing, and every thing, +at a pinch!" + +Here John Crow drew the carcass from the hog-pen, and sure enough a shot +had cut the poor Purser's head nearly off. Blackee looked at him with a +most whimsical expression; they saynno one can fathom a negro's affection +for a pig. "Poor Purser! de people call him Purser, sir, because him +knowing chap; him cabbage all de grub, slush, and stuff in him own corner, +and give only de small bit, and de bad piece, to de older pig; so Captain." + +Splinter saw the poor fellow was like to get into a scrape. "That will do, +John Crow--forward with you now, and lend a hand to cat the anchor.--All +hands up anchor!" The boatswain's hoarse voice repeated the command, and he +n turn was re-echoed by his mates. The capstan was manned, and the crew +stamped, round to a point of wart most villainously performed by a bad +drummer and a worse fifer, in as high glee as if those who were killed had +been snug and well in their hammocks on the berth-deck--, in place of at +the bottom of the sea, with each a shot at his feet. We weighed, and began +to work up, tack and tack, towards the island of Ireland, where the arsenal +is, amongst a perfect labyrinth of shoals, through which the Mudian pilot +conned the ship with great skill, taking his stand, to our no small +wonderment, not at the gangway or poop, as usual, but on the bowsprit end, +so that he might see the rocks under foot, and shun them accordingly, for +they are so steep and numerous, (they look like large fish in the clear +water,) and the channel is so intricate, that you have to go quite close +to them. At noon we arrived at the anchorage, and hauled our moorings on +board. + +We had refitted, and been four days at sea, on our voyage to Jamaica, when +the gunroom officers gave our mess a blow-out. + +The increased motion and rushing of the vessel through the water, the +groaning of the masts, the howling of the rising gale, and the frequent +trampling of the watch on deck, were prophetic of wet jackets to some of +us; still, midshipman-like, we were as happy as a good dinner and some +wine could make us, until the old gunner shoved his weather beaten phiz +and bald pate in at the door. "Beg pardon, Mr Splinter, but if you will +spare Mr Cringle on the forecastle for an hour until the moon rises." + +("Spare, quotha, is his Majesty's officer a joint stool?") + +"Why, Mr Kennedy, why? here, man, take a glass of grog." + +"I thank you, sir. It is coming on a roughish night, sir; the running +ships should be crossing us hereabouts; indeed more than once I thought +there was a strange sail close aboard of us, the scud is flying so low, and +in such white flakes; and none of us have an eye like Mr Cringle, unless it +be John Crow, and he is all but frozen." + +"Well, Tom, I suppose you will go"--Angelice, from a first lieutenant to a +mid--"Brush instanter." + +Having changed my uniform, for shag-trowsers, pea-jacket, and south-west +cap, I went forward, and took my station, in no pleasant humour, on the +stowed foretopmast-staysail, with my arm round the stay. I had been half +an hour there, the weather was getting worse, the rain was beating in my +face, and the spray from the stem was flashing over me, as it roared +through the waste of sparkling and hissing waters. I turned my back to the +weather for a moment, to press my hand on my strained eyes. When I opened +them again, I saw the gunner's gaunt high-featured visage thrust +anxiously forward; his profile looked as if rubbed over with phosphorus, +and his whole person as if we had been playing at snap-dragon. "What has +come over you, Mr Kennedy?--who is burning the bluelight now?" + +"A wiser man than I am must tell you that; look forward, Mr Cringle--look +there; what do your books say to that?" + +I looked forth, and saw, at the extreme end of the jib-boom, what I had +read of, certainly, but never expected to see, a pale, greenish, glowworm +coloured flame, of the size and shape of the frosted glass shade over the +swinging lamp in the gunroom. It drew out and flattened as the vessel +pitched and rose again, and as she sheered about, it wavered round the +point that seemed to attract it, like a soapsud bubble blown from a tobacco +pipe before it is shaken into the air; at the core it was comparatively +bright, but gradually faded into a halo. It shed a baleful and ominous +light on the surrounding objects; the cup of sailors on the forecastle +looked like spectres, and they shrunk together, and whispered when it began +to roll slowly along the spar towards where the boatswain was sitting at my +feet. At this instant something slid down the stay, and a cold clammy hand +passed round my neck. I was within an ace of losing my hold, and tumbling +overboard. "Heaven have mercy on me, what's that?" + +"It's that skylarking son of a gun, Jem Sparkle's monkey, sir. You, Jem, +you'll never rest till that brute is made shark bait of." + +But Jackoo vanished up the stay again, chuckling and grinning in the +ghostly radiance, as if he had been the "Spirit of the Lamp." The light +was still there, but a cloud of mist, like a burst of vapour from a steam +boiler, came down upon the gale, and flew past, when it disappeared. I +followed the white mass as it sailed down the wind; it did not, as it +appeared to me, vanish in the darkness, but seemed to remain in sight to +leeward, as if checked by a sudden flaw; yet none of our sails were taken +aback. A thought flashed on me. I peered still more intensely into the +night. I was now certain. "A sail, broad on the lee bow." + +The ship was in a buz in a moment. The Captain answered from the +quarterdeck--"Thank you, Mr Cringle. How shall we steer?" + +"Keep her away a couple of points, sir, steady." + +"Steady," sung the man at the helm; and the slow melancholy cadence, +although a familiar sound to me, now moaned through the rushing of the +wind, and smote upon my heart as if it had been the wailing of a spirit. + +I turned to the boatswain, who was now standing beside me--"Is that you or +Davy Jones steering, Mr Nipper? if you had not been here bodily at my +elbow, I could have sworn that was your voice." + +When the gunner made the same remark it startled the poor fellow he tried +to take it as a joke, but could not. "There may be a laced hammock with a +shot in it, for some of us ere morning." + +At this moment, to my dismay, the object we were chasing shortened, +gradually fell abeam of us, and finally disappeared. "The Flying +Dutchman." + +"I can't see her at all now." + +"She will be a fore-and-aft-rigged vessel that has tacked, sir," said +the gunner. And sure enough, after a few seconds, I saw the white object +lengthen, and draw out again abaft our beam. + +"The chase has tacked sir," I sung out; "put the helm down, or she will, +go to windward of us." + +We tacked also, and time it was we did so, for the rising moon now showed +us a large schooner under a crowd of sail. We edged down on her, when +finding her manoeuvre detected, she brailed up her flat sails, and bore up +before the wind. This was our best point of sailing, and we cracked on, +the captain rubbing his hands--"It's my turn to be the big un this time." +Although blowing a strong north-easter, it was now clear moonlight and we +hammered away from bow guns, but whenever a shot told amongst the rigging, +the injury was repaired as if by magic. It was evident we had repeatedly +hulled her, from the glimmering white streaks along her counter and, across +her stern, occasioned by the splintering of the timber, but it seemed to +produce no effect. + +At length we drew well up on her quarter. She continued all black hull and +white sail, not a soul to be seen on deck, except a dark object, which we +took for the man at the helm. "What schooner's that?" No answer. +"Heave-to, or I'll sink you." Still all silent. "Sergeant Armstrong, do +you think you could pick off that chap at the wheel?" The marine jumped on +the forecastle, and levelled his piece, when a musket-shot from the +schooner crashed through his skull, and he fell dead. The old skipper's +blood was up. "Forecastle, there! Mr Nipper, clap a canister of grape +over the round shot into the boat-gun, and give it to him." + +"Ay, ay, sir!" gleefully rejoined the boatswain, forgetting the augury and +every thing else in the excitement of the moment. In a twinkling, the +square foresail-topsail-topgallant-royal--and studdingsail haulyards +were let go by the run on board of the schooner, as if they had been shot +away, and he put his helm hard aport as, if to round to. + +"Rake him, sir, or give him the stem. He has not surrendered. I know +their game. Give him your broadside, sir, or he is off to windward of you +like a shot.--No, no! we have him now; heave to, Mr Splinter, heave-to!" +We did so, and that so suddenly, that the studdingsail booms snapped like +pipe-shanks, short off by the irons. Notwithstanding, we had shot two +hundred yards to leeward before we could lay our maintopsail to the mast. I +ran to windward. The schooner's yards and rigging were now black with men, +clustered like bees swanning, her square-sails were being close furled, +her fore and--aft sails set, and away she was, close-hauled and dead to +windward of us. + +"So much for undervaluing our American friends," grumbled Mr Splinter. + +We made all sail in chase, blazing away to little purpose; we had no chance +on a bowline, and when our amigo had satisfied himself of his superiority +by one or two short tacks, he deliberately hauled down his flying jib and +gaff-topsail, took a reef in his mainsail, triced up the bunt of his +foresail, and fired his long thirty-two at us. The shot came in at the +third aftermost port on the starboard side, and dismounted the carronade, +smashing the slide, and wounding three men. The second shot missed, and as +it was madness to remain to be peppered, probably winged, whilst every one +of ours fell short, we reluctantly kept away on our course, having the +gratification of hearing a clear well-blown bugle on board the schooner +play up "Yankee Doodle." + +As the brig fell off, our long-gun was run out to have a parting crack at +her, when the third and last shot from the schooner struck the sill of the +midship-port, and made the white splinters fly from the solid oak like +bright silver sparks in the moonlight. A sharp piercing cry rose into the +air--my soul identified that death-shriek with the voice that I had heard, +and I saw the man who was standing with the lanyard of the lock in his hand +drop heavily across the breech, and discharge the gun in his fall. +Thereupon a blood-red glare shot up into the cold blue sky, as if a +volcano had burst forth from beneath the mighty deep, followed by a roar, +and a shattering crash, and a mingling of unearthly cries and groans, and a +concussion of the air, and of the water, as if our whole broadside had been +fired at once. Then a solitary splash here, and a dip there, and short +sharp yells, and low choking bubbling moans, as the hissing fragments of +the noble vessel we had seen fell into the sea, and the last of her gallant +crew vanished for ever beneath that pale broad moon. We were alone, and +once more, all was dark, and wild, and stormy. Fearfully had that ball +sped, fired by a dead man's hand. But what is it that clings black and +doubled across that fatal cannon, dripping and heavy, and choking the +scuppers with clotting gore, and swaying to and fro with the motion of the +vessel, like a bloody fleece? + +"Who is it that was hit at the gun there?" + +"Mr Nipper, the boatswain, sir. The last shot has cut him in two." + +After this most melancholy incident we continued on our voyage to Jamaica, +nothing particular occurring until we anchored at Port Royal, where we had +a regular overhaul of the old Bark, and after this was completed, we were +ordered down to the leeward part of the island to afford protection to the +coasting trade. One fine morning, about a fortnight after we had left +Port Royal, the Torch was lying at anchor in Bluefields Bay. It was +between eight and nine; the land-wind had died away, and the sea-breeze +had not set in--there was not a breath stirring. The pennant from the +masthead fell sluggishly down, and clung amongst the rigging like a dead +snake, whilst the folds of the St George's ensign that hung from the +mizzen-peak, were as motionless as if they had been carved in marble. + +The anchorage was one unbroken mirror, except where its glass-like surface +was shivered into sparkling ripples by the gambols of a skipjack, or the +flashing stoop of his enemy the pelican; and the reflection of the vessel +was so clear and steady, that at the distance of a cable's length you could +not distinguish the water-line, nor tell where the substance ended and +shadow began, until the casual dashing of a bucket overboard for a few +moments broke up the phantom ship; but the wavering fragments soon +reunited, and she again floated double, like the swan of the poet. The +heat was so intense, that the iron stanchions of the awning could not be +grasped with the hand, and where the decks were not screened by it, the +pitch boiledout from the seams. The swell rolled in from the offing in +long shining undulations, like a sea of quicksilver, whilst every now and +then a flying fish would spark out from the unruffled bosom of the heaving +water, and shoot away like a silver arrow, until it dropped with a flash +into the sea again. There was not a cloud in the heavens, but a quivering +blue haze hung over the land, through which the white sugar-works and +overseers' houses on the distant estates appeared to twinkle like objects +seen through a thin smoke, whilst each of the tall stems of the cocoa--nut +trees on the beach, when looked at steadfastly, seemed to be turning round +with a small spiral motion, like so many endless screws. There was a +dreamy indistinctness about the outlines of the hills, even in the +immediate vicinity, which increased as they receded, until the Blue +Mountains in the horizon melted into sky. The crew were listlessly +spinning oakum, and mending sails, under the shade of the awning; the only +exceptions to the general languor were John Crow the black, and jackoo the +monkey. The former (who was an improvisatore of a rough stamp) sat out on +the bowsprit, through choice, beyond the shade of the canvass, without hat +or shirt, like a bronze bust, busy with his task, whatever that might be, +singing at the top of his pipe, and between whiles confabulating with his +hairy ally, as if he had been a messmate. The monkey was hanging by the +tail from the dolphin-striker, admiring what John Crow called "his own dam +ogly face in the water." + +"Tail like yours would be good ting for a sailor, jackoo, it would leave +his two hands free aloft--more use, more hornament, too, I'm sure, den de +piece of greasy junk dat hangs from de Captain's taffril.--Now I shall sing +to you, how dat Corromantee rascal, my fader, was sell me on de Gold Coast. + + "Two red nightcap, one long knife, + All him get for Quackoo, + For gun next day him sell him wife, + You tink dat good song, lackoo?" + +"Chocko, chocko," chattered the monkey, as if in answer. + +"Ah, you tink so--sensible honimal!--What is dat? shark?--Jackoo, come up, +sir: don't you see dat big shovel--nosed fis looking at you? Pull your +handout of the water--Caramighty!" + +The negro threw himself on the gammoning of the bowsprit to take hold of +the poor ape, who, mistaking his kind intention, and ignorant of his +danger, shrunk from him, lost his hold, and fell into the sea. The shark +instantly sank to have a run, then dashed at his prey, raising his snout +over him, and shooting his head and shoulders three or four feet out of the +water, with poor Jackoo shrieking in his jaws, whilst his small bones +crackled and crunched under the monster's triple row of teeth. + +Whilst this small tragedy was acting--and painful enough it was to the +kind-hearted negro--I was looking out towards the eastern horizon, +watching the first dark-blue ripple of the sea-breeze, when a rushing +noise passed over my head. I looked up and saw a gawnaso, the large +carrion-crow of the tropics, sailing, contrary to the habits of its kind, +seaward over the brig. I followed it with my eye, until it vanished in the +distance, when my attention was attracted by a dark speck far out in the +offing, with a little tiny white sail. With my glass I made it out to be +a ship's boat, but I saw no one on board, and the sail was idly flapping +about the mast. + +On making my report, I was desired to pull towards it in the gig; and as we +approached, one of the crew said he thought he saw some one peering over +the bow. We drew nearer, and I saw him distinctly. + +"Why don't you haul the sheet aft, and come down to us, sir?" + +He neither moved nor answered, but, as the boat rose and fell on the short +sea raised by the first of the breeze, the face kept mopping and mowing at +us over the gunwale. + +"I will soon teach you manners, my fine fellow! give way, men" and I fired +my musket, when the crow that I had seen, rose from the boat into the air, +but immediately alighted again, to our astonishment, vulture-like with +out-stretched wings, upon the head. + +Under the shadow of this horrible plume, the face seemed on the instant to +alter like the hideous changes in a dream. It appeared to become of a +deathlike paleness, and anon streaked with blood. Another stroke of the +oar--the chin had fallen down, and the tongue was hanging out. Another +pull--the eyes were gone, and from their sockets, brains and blood were +fermenting and flowing down the cheeks. It was the face of a putrefying +corpse. In this floating coffin we found the body of another sailor, +doubled across one of the thwarts, with a long Spanish knife sticking +between his ribs, as if he had died in some mortal struggle, or, what was +equally probable, had put an end to himself in his frenzy; whilst along the +bottom of the boat, arranged with some show of care, and covered by a piece +of canvass stretched across an oar above it, lay the remains of a beautiful +boy, about fourteen years of age, apparently but a few hours dead. Some +biscuit, a roll of jerked beef, and an earthen water-jar, lay beside him, +showing that hunger at least could have had no share in his destruction but +the pipkin was dry, and the small water-cask in the bow was staved, and +empty. + +We had no sooner cast our grappling over the bow, and begun to tow the boat +to the ship, than the abominable bird that we had scared settled down into +it again, notwithstanding our proximity, and began to peck at the face of +the dead boy. At this moment we heard a gibbering noise, and saw something +like a bundle of old rags roll out from beneath the stem-sheets, and +whatever it was, apparently make a fruitless attempt to drive the +gallinaso from its prey. Heaven and earth, what an object met our eyes! +It was a full-grown man, but so wasted, that one of the boys lifted him by +his belt with one hand. His knees were drawn up to his chin, his hands +were like the talons of a bird, while the falling in of his +chocolate-coloured and withered features gave an unearthly relief to his +forehead, over which the horny and transparent skin was braced so tightly +that it seemed ready to crack. But in the midst of this desolation, his +deep-set coal-black eyes sparkled like two diamonds with the fever of his +sufferings; there was a fearful fascination in their flashing brightness, +contrasted with the deathlike aspect of the face, and rigidity of the +frame. When sensible of our presence he tried to speak, but could only utter +a low moaning sound. At length--"Agua, agua"--we had not a drop of water +in the boat. "El muchacho esta moriendo de sed--Agua." + +We got on board, and the surgeon gave the poor fellow some weak tepid grog. +It acted like magic. He gradually uncoiled himself, his voice, from being +weak and husky, became comparative strong and clear. "El hijo--Agua para +mi Pedrillo--No le hace pari mi--oh la noche pasado, la noche pasado!" He +was told to compose himself, and that his boy would be taken care of. +"Dexa me verlo entonces, oh Dios, dexa me verlo"----and he crawled, +grovelling on his chest, like a crushed worm, across the deck, until he got +his head over the port sill, and looked down into the boat. He there +beheld the pale face of his dead son; it was the last object he ever saw, +"Ay de mi!" he groaned heavily, and dropped his face against the ship's +side--He was dead. + +After spending several months in the service already alluded to, we were +ordered on a cruise off the coast of Terra Firma. + +Morillo was at this time besieging Carthagena by land, while a Spanish +squadron, under Admiral Enrile, blockaded the place by sea; and it pleased +the officer who commanded the inshore division to conceive, while the old +Torch was quietly beating up along the coast, that we had an intention of +forcing the blockade. + +The night before had been gusty and tempestuous--all hands had been called +three times, so that at last, thinking there was no use in going below, I +lay down on the stern sheets of the boat over the stern--an awkward berth +certainly, but a spare tarpaulins had that morning been stretched over the +after part of the boat to dry, and I therefore ensconced myself beneath it. +just before daylight, however, the brig, by a sudden shift of wind, was +taken aback, and fetching stern-way, a sea struck her. How I escaped I +never could tell, but I was pitched right in on deck over the poop, and +much bruised, where I found a sad scene of confusion, with the captain and +several of the officers in their shirts, and the men tumbling up from below +as fast as they could--while, amongst other incidents, one of our +passengers who occupied a small cabin under the poop, having gone to sleep +with the stern port open, the sea had surged in through it with such +violence as to wash him out on deck in his shirt, where he lay sprawling +among the feet of the men. However, we soon got all right, and in five +minutes the sloop was once more tearing through it on a wind; but the boat +where I had been sleeping was smashed into staves, all that remained of her +being the stem and stern-post dangling from the tackles at the ends of +the davits. + +At this time it was grey dawn, and we were working up in shore, without +dreaming of breaking the blockade, when it fell stark calm. Presently the +Spanish squadron, anchored under Punto Canoa, perceived us, when a +corvette, two schooners, a cutter, and eight gunboats, got under weigh, the +latter of which soon swept close to us, ranging themselves on our bows and +quarters; and although we showed our colours, and made the private +international signal, they continued firing at us for about an hour, +without, however, doing any damage, as they had chosen a wary distance. +At length some of the shot falling near us, the skipper cleared for action, +and with his own hand fired a 32-pounder at the nearest gun-boat, the +crew of which bobbed as if they, had seen the shot coming. This opened +the eyes of the Dons, who thereupon ceased firing; and as a light breeze +had now set down, they immediately made sail in pursuit of a schooner that +had watched the opportunity of their being employed with us to run in +under the walls, and was at this moment chased by a ship and a gun-boat, +who had got within gun-shot and kept up a brisk fire on her. So soon as +the others came up, all hands opened on the gallant little hooker who was +forcing the blockade, and peppered away; and there she was, like a hare, +with a whole pack of harriers after her, sailing and sweeping in under +their fire towards the doomed city. As the wind was very light, the +blockading squadron now manned their boats, and some of them were coming +fast, when a raffle of musketry from the small craft sent them to the +right about, and presently the chase was safely at anchor under the +battery of Santa Catalina. + +But the fun was to come-for by this time some of the vessels that held +her in chase, had got becalmed under the batteries, which immediately +opened on them cheerily; and down came a topgallant-mast here, and a +topsail-yard there, and a studdingsail t'other place-and such a squealing +and creaking of blocks and rattling of the gear, while yards braced hither +and thither, and topping-lifts let go, and sheets let fly, showed that the +Dons were in a sad quandary; and no wonder, for we could see the shot from +the long 32-pounders on the walls, falling very thick all around several +of them. However, at 4 P.M. we had worked up alongside of the Commodore, +when the old skipper gave our friend such a rating, that I don't think he +will ever forget it. + +On the day following our being fired at, I was sent, being a good +Spaniard, along with the second lieutenant--poor Treenail--to Morillo's +headquarters. We got an order to the officer commanding the nearest post +on shore, to provide us with horses; but before reaching it, we had to +walk, under a roasting sun, about two miles through miry roads, until we +arrived at the barrier, where we found a detachment of artillery, but the +commanding officer could only give us one poor broken-winded horse, and +a jackass, on which we were to proceed to headquarters on the morrow; and +here, under a thatched hut of the most primitive construction, consisting +simply of cross sticks and palm branches, we had to spend the night, the +poor fellows being as kind as their own misery would let them. + +Next morning we proceeded, accompanied by a hussar, through dreadful +roads, where the poor creatures we bestrode sunk to the belly at every +flounder, until about four p.m., when we met two negroes and found, to +our great distress, that the soldier who was our guide and escort, had +led us out of our way, and that we were in very truth then travelling +towards the town. We therefore hove-about and returned to Palanquillo, a +village that we had passed through that very morning, leaving the hussar +and his horse sticking fast in a slough. We arrived about nightfall, +and as the village was almost entirely deserted, we were driven to take up +our quarters in an old house, that seemed formerly to have been used as a +distillery. Here we found a Spanish lieutenant and several soldiers +quartered, all of them suffering more or less from dysentery; and after +passing a very comfortless night on hard benches, we rose at grey dawn, +with our hands and faces blistered from musquitto bites, and our hair full +of wood ticks, or garapatos. We again started on our journey to +headquarters, and finally arrived at Torrecilla at two o'clock in the +afternoon. Both the Commander-in-Chief Morillo, and Admiral Enrile, had +that morning proceeded to the works at Boca Chica, so we only found El +Senor Montalvo, the Captain-General of the Province, a little kiln-dried +diminutive Spaniard. Morillo used to call him "uno muneco Creollo," but +withal he was a gentlemanlike man in his manners. + +He received us very civilly; we delivered our despatches; and the same +evening we made our bow, and having obtained fresh horses, set out on our +return, and arrived at the village of Santa Rosa at nine at night, where +we slept; and next morning continuing on our journey, we got once more +safely on board of the old Brig at twelve o'clock at noon, in a miserable +plight, not having had our clothes off for three days. As for me I was +used to roughing it, and in my humble equipment any disarrangement was not +particularly discernible, but in poor Treenail, one of the nattiest +fellows in the service, it was a very different matter. He had issued +forth on the enterprise, cased in tight blue pantaloons that fitted him +like his skin, over which were drawn long well-polished Hessian boots, +each with a formidable tassel at top, and his coat was buttoned close up +to the chin, with a blazing swab on the right shoulder, while a laced +cocked hat and dress sword completed his equipment. But, alas! when we +were accounted for on board of the old Torch, there was a fearful +dilapidation of his external man. First of all, his inexpressibles were +absolutely tom into shreds by the briers and prickly bushes through which +we had been travelling, and fluttered from his waistband like the stripes +we see depending from an ancient Roman or Grecian coat of armour; his coat +had only one skirt, and the bullion of the epaulet was reduced to a strand +or two, while the tag that held the brim, or flaps of the cocked hat up, +had given way, so that, although he looked fierce enough, stem on, still, +when you had a sternview, the after part hung down his back like the tail +of the hat of one of Landseer's flying dustmen. + +After this, we experienced, with little intermission, most dreadful +weather for two weeks, until at length we were nearly torn in pieces, and +the Captain was about abandoning his ground, and returning to Port Royal, +when it came on to blow with redoubled violence. We struggled against it +for twelve hours, but were finally obliged to heave-to, the sea all the +while running tremendously high. + +About noon on the day I speak of, the weather had begun to look a little +better, but the sea had if any thing increased. I had just come on deck, +when Mr Splinter sung out--"Look out for that sea, quartermaster!--Mind +your starboard helm!--Ease her, man--ease her!" + +On it came, rolling as high as the foreyard, and tumbled in over the +bows, green, clear, and unbroken. It filled the deep waist of the Torch +in an instant, and as I rose half smothered in the midst of a jumble of +men, pigs, hencoops, and spare spars, I had nearly lost an eye by a +floating boarding-pike that was lanced at me by the jauglet of the water. +As for the boats on the booms, they had all gone to sea separately, and +were bobbing at us in a squadron to leeward, the launch acting as +commodore, with a crew of a dozen sheep, whose bleating as she rose on the +crest of a wave came back upon us, faintly blending with the hoarse +roaring of the storm, and seeming to cry, "No more mutton for you, my +boys!" + +At length the lee ports were forced out--the pumps promptly rigged and +manned--buckets slung and at work down the hatchways; and although we had +narrowly escaped being swamped, and it continued to blow hard, with a +heavy sea, the men, confident in the qualities of the ship, worked with +glee, shaking their feathers, and quizzing each other. But anon a sudden +and appalling change came over the sea and the sky, that made the stoutest +amongst us quail and draw his breath thick. The firmament darkened--the +horizon seeme to contract--the sea became black as ink--the wind fell to a +dead calm--the teeming clouds descended and filled the murky arch of +heaven with their whirling masses, until they appeared to touch our +mast-heads, but there was neither lightning nor rain, not one glancing +flash, not one refreshing drop--the windows of the sky had been sealed up +by Him who had said to the storm, "Peace, be still." + +During this deathlike pause, infinitely more awful than the heaviest gale, +every sound on board, the voices of the men, even the creaking of the +bulkheads, was heard with startling distinctness; and the water-logged +brig, having no wind to steady her, laboured so heavily in the trough of +the sea, that we expected her masts to go overboard every moment. + +"Do you see and hear that, sir?" said Lieutenant Treenail to the Captain. + +We all looked eagerly forth in the direction indicated. There was a white +line in fearful contrast with the clouds and the rest of the ocean, +gleaming on the extreme verge of the horizon--it grew broader--a low +increasing growl was heard--a thick blinding mist came driving up a-stern +of us, whose small drops pierced into the skin like sharp hail. + +"Is it rain?" + +"No, no--salt, salt." + +And now the fierce Spirit of the Hurricane himself, the sea Azrael, in +storm and in darkness, came thundering on with stunning violence, tearing +off the snowy scalps of the tortured billows, and with tremendous and +sheer force, crushing down beneath his chariot wheels their mountainous +and howling ridges into one level plain of foaming water. Our chainplates, +strong fastenings, and clenched bolts, drew like pliant wires, shrouds and +stays were torn away like the summer gossamer, and our masts and spars, +crackling before his fury like dry reeds in autumn, were blown clean out +of the ship, over her bows, into the sea. + +Had we shown a shred of the strongest sail in the vessel, it would have +been blown out of the bolt-rope in an instant; we had, therefore, to get +her before the wind, by crossing a spar on the stump of the foremast, with +four men at the wheel, one watch at the pumps, and, the other clearing the +wreck. But our spirits were soon dashed, when the old carpenter, one of +the coolest and bravest men in the ship, rose through the forehatch, pale +as a ghost, with his white hairs streaming straight out in the wind. He +did not speak to any of us, but clambered aft, towards the capstan, to +which the Captain had lashed himself. + +"The water is rushing in forward like a mill-stream, sir; we have either +started a but, or the wreck of the foremast has gone through her bows, +for she is fast settling down by the head." + +"Get the boatswain to father a sail then, man, and try it over the leak; +but don't alarm the people, Mr Kelson." + +The brig was, indeed, rapidly losing her buoyancy, and when the next heavy +sea rose ahead of us, she gave a drunken sickening lurch, and pitched +right into it, groaning and trembling in every plank, like a guilty and +condemned thing in the prospect of impending punishment. + +"Stand by, to heave the guns overboard." + +Too late, too late--Oh God, that cry!--I was stunned and drowning, a chaos +of wreck was beneath me, and around me, and above me, and blue agonized +gasping faces, and struggling arms, and colourless clutching hands, and +despairing yells for help, where help was impossible; when I felt a sharp +bite on the neck, and breathed again. My Newfoundland dog, Sneezer, had +snatched at me, and dragged me out of the eddy of the sinking vessel. + +For life, for dear life, nearly suffocated amidst--the hissing spray, we +reached the cutter, the dog and his helpless master. + +For three miserable days, I had been exposed, half naked and bareheaded, +in an open boat, without water, or food, or shade. The third fierce +cloudless West Indian noon was long passed, and once more the dry burning +sun sank in the west, like a red-hot shield of iron. In my horrible +extremity, I imprecated the wrath of Heaven on my defenceless head, and +shaking my clenched hands against the brazen sky, I called aloud on the +Almighty, "Oh, let me never see him rise again!" I glared on the noble dog, +as he lay dying at the bottom of the boat; madness seized me, I tore his +throat with my teeth, not for food, but that I might drink his hot blood +it flowed, and vampire-like, I would have gorged myself; but as he turned +his dull, grey, glazing eye on me, the pulses of my heart stopped, and I +fell senseless. + +When my recollection returned, I was stretched on some fresh plantain +leaves, in a low smoky hut, with my faithful dog lying beside me, whining +and licking my hands and face. On the rude joists that bound the rafters +of the roof together, rested a light canoe with its paddles, and over +against me, on the wall, hung some Indian fishing implements, and a +long-barrelled Spanish gun. Underneath lay a corpse, wrapped in a +boat-sail, on which was clumsily written, with charcoal,--"The body of +John Deadeye, Esq. late Commander of his Britannic Majesty's Sloop, +Torch." + +There was a fire on the floor, at which Lieutenant Splinter, in his shirt +and trowsers, drenched, unshorn, and deathlike, was roasting a joint of +meat, whilst a dwarfish Indian, stark naked, sat opposite to him, +squatting on his hams, more like a large bull-frog than a man, and +fanning the flame with a palm leaf. In the dark corner of the hut half a +dozen miserable sheep shrunk huddled together. Through the open door I +saw the stars in the deep blue heaven, and the cold beams of the newly +risen moon were dancing in a long flickering wake of silver light on the +ever-heaving bosom of the ocean, whilst the melancholy murmur of the surf +breaking on the shore, came booming on the gentle night-wind. I was +instantly persuaded that I had been nourished during my delirium; for the +fierceness of my sufferings was assuaged, and I was comparatively strong. +I anxiously enquired of the Lieutenant the fate of our shipmates. + +"All gone down in the old Torch; and had it not been for the launch and +our four-footed friends there, I should not have been here to have told +it; but raw mutton, with the wool on, is not a mess to thrive on, Tom. +All that the sharks have left of the Captain and five sea men came ashore +last night. I have buried the poor fellows on the beach where they lay +as well as I could, with an oar-blade for a shovel, and the bronze +ornament there [pointing to the Indian] for an assistant." + +Here he looked towards the body; and the honest fellow's voice shook as +he continued. + +"But seeing you were alive, I thought if you did recover, it would be +gratifying to both of us, after having weathered it so long with him +through gale and sunshine, to lay the kind-hearted old man's head on its +everlasting pillow as decently as our forlorn condition permitted." + +As the Lieutenant spoke, Sneezer seemed to think his watch was up, and +drew off towards the fire. Clung and famished, the poor brute could no +longer resist the temptation, but, making a desperate snatch at the joint, +bolted through the door with it, hotly pursued by the Bull-frog. + +"Drop the leg of mutton, Sneezer," roared the Lieutenant, "drop the +mutton-drop it, sir, drop it, drop it." And away raced his Majesty's +officer in pursuit of the canine pirate. + +After a little, he and the Indian returned, the former with the joint in +his hand; and presently the dog stole into the hut after them, and +patiently lay down in a corner, until the Lieutenant good-humouredly +threw the bone to him after our comfortless meal had been finished. + +I was so weak that my shipmate considerately refrained from pressing his +society on me; and we, therefore, all betook ourselves to rest for the +night. + + + +To COMMODORE CHRISTOPHER NORTH. + +DEAR OLD GENTLEMAN, + +Your chief devil has got me into a terrible mess by a misprint in last +Chapter--confound my cramp fist--regarding which Old Splinter +(erst of the Torch,) has ever since quizzed me very nearly up to gunpowder +mark. + +To the matter--The said imp makes me say, in page 84, standing on the +bowsprit, that "the spray from the stern was flashing over me, as it +roared through the waste of sparkling and hissing waters." Now, I don't +dispute the roaring of sterns-in season. But,--me, if you or any other +man shall make Tom Cringle's stern roar, out of season, on compulsion. I +wrote STEM, the cutwater of the ship, the coulter as it were--the head of +her, not the tail, as the devil would have it. And again, when the +privateer hauls his wind suddenly to let the Torch shoot past him, and +thereby gain the weather-gage, when old Splinter should sing out, as it +was written--but, confound the fist once more "Give her the stem"--that +is, run her down and sink her, the stem being the strongest part, as the +stern is the weakest, he, Belzebub, judging, I presume, of the respective +strength of the two ends from his own comparative anatomy, makes him say, +"Give her the stern," as if he were going to let drive at her with that +end. "Poo, nonsense--it don't signify." But it does signify, old man. + +To touch you more near--you yourself have been known to get fou and +pugnacious on great occasions--the visit of royalty, for instance--it is +on record. A mountain foreigner from Rossshire engages you, for some +unknown insult, in single combat, and, leagued with John Barleycorn, +(let us imagine an impossibility,) floors you by a peg on the gnomon--the +wound is in the front--your snout is broken, but your honour is whole. +Would it be so, were the Gael to allege, that "her mainsell had coupit you +by a pig kick on her preach?" By all the gods, he of the laconic garment, +the "thousand hill man," would have been careering on a cloud after his +"freen" Ossian, with the moon shining through him, within that very +hour. + +Still I would not have bothered you; but I know his Most Gracious Majesty +King William, God bless him! (who can forget poor Burns's "Tarry Breeks?") +either has noticed it, or will notice it, the instant he comes to that +part of the Log. Now this, without explanation, is inconvenient, trowsers +being likely to come as high up in these days as pantaloons, and I have +some claim on him, seeing that my uncle, Job Cringle, some +five-and-forty years ago, at Jamaica, in the town of Port Royal, had his +headrails smashed, the neb of his nose (stem) bitten off by a bungo, and +the end of his spine (stern-post), that mysterious point, where man ends, +and monkey begins, grievously shaken in a spree at Kitty Finnans, in +Prince William Henry's company. + +"Poo, nonsense." Indeed!--Why, the very devil himself, the author of the +evil, shall be convinced that there is much peril in the transposition of +ends. I will ask him--"What is a sternutation?" (words being his weapons) +"What is a sternutation?" He shall answer learnedly by the card--"A +sneeze," the nose or stem being the organ. Then he shall ask Jem +Sparkle "What is a sternutation?"--You laugh, old gentleman; but your +devil's "mistack" looks every inch as queer to a sailor as our topman's +answer would sound to you. + +Yours with all cordiality, notwithstanding, + +"THOMAS CRINGLE." + + + +CHAPTER IV.--Scenes on the Costa Firme. + + + "Here lies a sheer hulk, poor Tom Bowline." + + Charles Dibdin, + + "Tom Bowling," Line 1. + + +I was awakened by the low growling, and short bark of the dog. The night +was far spent; the tiny sparks of the fire-flies that were glancing in +the doorway began to grow pale; the chirping of the crickets and lizards, +and the snore of the tree-toad, waxed fainter, and the wild cry of the +tiger-cat was no longer heard. The terral, or land-wind, which is +usually strongest towards morning, moaned loudly on the hillside, and came +rushing past with a melancholy sough, through the brushwood that +surrounded the hut, shaking off the heavy dew from the palm and cocoa-nut +trees, like large drops of rain. + +The hollow tap of the woodpecker; the clear flute-note of the Pavo del +monte; the discordant shriek of the macaw; the shrill chirr of the wild +Guinea fowl; and the chattering of the paroquets, began to be heard from +the wood. The ill-omened gaflinaso was sailing and circling round the +hut, and the tall flamingo was stalking on the shallows of the lagoon, the +haunt of the disgusting alligator, that lay beneath, divided from the sea +by a narrow mud-bank, where a group of pelicans, perched on the wreck of +one of our boats, were pluming themselves before taking wing. In the +east, the deep blue of the firmament, from which the lesser stars were +fast fading, all but the "Eye of Mom," was warming into magnificent +purple, and the amber rays of the yet unrisen sun were shooting up, +streamer-like, with intervals between, through the parting clouds, as +they broke away with a passing shower, that fell like a veil of silver +gauze between us and the first primrose-coloured streaks of a tropical +dawn. + +"That's a musket shot," said the Lieutenant. The Indian crept on his +belly to the door, dropped his chin on the ground, and placed his open +palms behind his ears. The distant wail of a bugle was heard, then three +or four dropping shots again, in rapid succession. Mr Splinter stooped +to go forth, but the Indian caught him by the leg, uttering the single +word "Espanoles." + +On the instant, a young Indian woman, with a shrieking infant in her +arms, rushed to the door. There was a blue gunshot wound in her neck, +from which two or three large black clotting gouts of blood were +trickling. Her long black hair was streaming in coarse braids, and her +features were pinched and sharpened, as if in the agony of death. She +glanced wildly behind, and gasped out "Escapa, Oreeque, escape, para mi, +soi muerto ya." Another shot, and the miserable creature convulsively +clasped her child, whose small shrill cry I often fancy I hear to this +hour blending with its mother's death-shriek, and, falling backwards, +rolled over the brow of the hill out of sight. The ball had pierced the +heart of the parent through the body of her offspring. By this time a +party of Spanish soldiers had surrounded the hut, one of whom, kneeling +before the low door, pointed his musket into it. The Indian, who had seen +his wife and child thus cruelly shot down before his face, now fired his +rifle, and the man feel dead. "Siga mi Querida Bondia--maldito." Then +springing to his feet, and stretching himself to his full height, with his +arms extended towards Heaven, while a strong shiver shook him like an ague +fit, he yelled forth the last words he ever uttered, "Venga la suerte, ya +soi listo," and resumed his squatting position on the ground. + +Half a dozen musket balls were now fired at random through the wattles of +the hut, while the Lieutenant, who spoke Spanish well, sung out lustily, +that we were English officers who had been shipwrecked. + +"Mentira," growled the officer of the party, "Piratas son ustedes." +"Pirates leagued with Indian bravoes; fire the hut, soldiers, and burn the +scoundrels!" + +There was no time to be lost; Mr Splinter made a vigorous attempt to get +out, in which I seconded him with all the strength that remained to me, +but they beat us back again with the butts of their muskets. + +"Where are your commissions, your uniforms, if you be British officers?" +We had neither, and our fate appeared inevitable. + +The doorway was filled with brushwood, fire was set to the hut, and we +heard the crackling of the palm thatch, while thick stifling wreaths of +white smoke burst in upon us through the roof. + +"Lend a hand, Tom, now or never, and kick up the dark man there;" but he +sat still as a statue. We laid our shoulders to the end wall, and heaved +at it with all our might; when we were nearly at the last gasp it gave +way, and we rushed headlong into the middle of the party, followed by +Sneezer with his shaggy coat, that was full of clots of tar, blazing like +a torch. He unceremoniously seized par le queue, the soldier who had +throttled me, setting fire to the skirts of his coat, and blowing up his +cartouche box. I believe, under Providence, that the ludicrousness of +this attack saved us from being bayoneted on the spot. It gave time for +Mr Splinter to recover his breath, when, being a powerful man, he shook +off the two soldiers who had seized him, and dashed into the burning hut +again. I thought he was mad, especially when I saw him return with his +clothes and hair on fire, dragging out the body of the Captain. He +unfolded the sail it was wrapped in, and pointing to the remains of the +naval uniform in which the mutilated and putrefying corpse was dressed, he +said sternly to the officer--"We are in your power, and you may murder us +if you will; but that was my Captain four days ago, and you see, he at +least was a British officer--satisfy yourself." The person he addressed, a +handsome young Spaniard, with a clear olive complexion, oval face, small +brown mustaches, and large black eyes, shuddered at the horrible +spectacle, but did as he was requested. + +When he saw the crown and anchor, and his Majesty's cipher on the +appointments of the dead officer, he became convinced of our quality, and +changed his tone--"Es verdad, son de la marina Englesa. But, gentlemen, +were there not three persons in the hut?" + +There were indeed--the flames had consumed the dry roof and walls with +incredible rapidity, which by this time had fallen in, but Oreeque was +nowhere to be seen. I thought I saw something move in the midst of the +fire, but it might have been fancy. Again, the white ashes heaved, and a +half-consumed hand and arm were thrust through the smouldering mass, then +a human head, with the scalp burnt from the skull, and the flesh from the +chaps and cheekbones; the trunk next appeared, the bleeding ribs laid +bare, and the miserable Indian, with his limbs like scorched rafters, +stood upright before us, like a demon in the midst of the fire. He made +no attempt to escape, but reeling to and fro like a drunken man, fell +headlong, raising clouds of smoke and a shower of sparks in his fall. +Alas! poor Oreeque, the newly risen sun was now shining on your ashes, and +on the dead bodies of the ill-starred Bondia and her child, whose bones, +ere his setting, the birds of the air, and beasts of the forest, will +leave as white and fleshless as your own. The officer, who belonged to +the army investing Carthagena, now treated us with great civility; he +heard our story, and desired his men to assist us in burying the remains +of our late commander. + +We remained all day on the same part of the coast, but towards evening the +party fell back on the outpost to which they belonged--after travelling an +hour or so we emerged from a dry river course, in which the night had +overtaken us, and came suddenly on a small plateau, where the post was +established on the promontory of "Punto Canoa." There may be braver +soldiers at a charge, although that I doubt, if they be properly led, but +none more picturesque in a bivouac than the Spanish. A gigantic wild +cotton-tree, to which our largest English oaks would have been but as +dwarfs, rose on one side, and overshadowed the whole level space. The +bright beams of the full moon glanced among the topmost leaves, and tipped +the higher branches with silver, contrasting strangely with the scene +below, where a large watch-fire cast a strong red glare on the +surrounding objects, throwing up dense volumes of smoke, which eddied in +dun wreaths amongst the foliage, and hung in the still night air like a +canopy, about ten feet from the ground, leaving the space beneath +comparatively clear. + +A temporary guard-house, with a rude verandah of bamboos and palm leaves, +had been built between two of the immense spurs of the mighty tree, that +shot out many yards from the parent stem like wooden buttresses, whilst +overhead there was a sort of stage, made of planks laid across the lower +boughs, supporting a quantity of provisions covered with tarpaulins. The +sentries in the background with their glancing arms, were seen pacing on +their watch; some of the guard were asleep on wooden benches, and on the +platform amongst the branches, where a little baboon-looking old man, in +the dress of a drummer, had perched himself, and sat playing a Biscayan +air on a sort of bagpipe; others were gathered round the fire, cooking +their food, or cleaning their arms. It shone brightly on the long line of +Spanish transports that were moored below, stem on to the beach, and on +the white sails of the armed craft that were still hovering under weigh in +the offing, which, as the night wore on, stole in, one after another like +phantoms of the ocean, and letting go their anchors with a splash, and a +hollow rattle of the cable, remained still and silent like the rest. +Farther off, it fell in a crimson stream on the surface of the sheltered +bay, struggling with the light of the gentle moon, and tinging with blood +the small waves that twinkled in her silver wake, across which a guard +boat would now and then glide, like a fairy thing, the arms of the men +flashing back the red light. + + +Beyond the influence of the hot smoky glare, the glorious planet reassumed +her sway in the midst of her attendant stars, and the relieved eye +wandered forth into the lovely night, where the noiseless sheet-lightning +was glancing, and ever and anon lighting up for an instant some fantastic +shape in the fleecy clouds, like prodigies forerunning the destruction of +the stronghold over which they impended; while beneath, the lofty ridge of +the convent-crowned Popa, the citadel of San Felipe bristling with +cannon, the white batteries and many towers of the fated city of +Carthagena, and the Spanish blockading squadron at anchor before it, slept +in the moonlight. + +We were civilly received by the captain, who apologized for the discomfort +under which we must pass the night. He gave us the best he had, and that +was bad enough, both of food and wine, before showing us into the hut, +where we found a rough deal coffin lying on the very bench that was to be +our bed. This he ordered away with all the coolness in the world. "It +was only one of his people who had died that morning of vomito, or yellow +fever." + +"Comfortable country this," quoth Splinter, "and a pleasant morning we +have had of it, Tom!" + +Next morning, we proceeded towards the Spanish headquarters, provided with +horses through the kindness of the captain of the outpost, and preceded by +a guide on an ass. He was a moreno, or man of colour, who in place of +bestriding his beast, gathered his limbs under him, and sat crosslegged on +it like a tailor; so that when you saw the two "end on," the effect was +laughable enough, the flank and tail of the ass appearing to constitute +the lower part of the man, as if he had been a sort of composite animal, +like the ancient satyr. The road traversed a low swampy country, from +which the rank moisture arose in a hot palpable mist, and crossed several +shallow lagoons, from two to six feet deep of tepid, muddy, brackish +water, some of them half a mile broad, and swarming with wild waterfowl. +On these occasions, our friend the Satyr was signalled to make sail ahead +on his donkey to pilot us; and as the water deepened, he would betake +himself to swimming in its wake, holding on by the tail, and shouting, +"Cuidado Burrico, Cuidado que no te ahogas." + +While passing through the largest of these, we noticed several calabashes +about pistol-shot on our right; and as we fancied one of them bobbed now +and then it struck me they might be Indian fishing floats. To satisfy my +curiosity, I hauled my wind, and leaving the track we were on, swam my +horse towards the group. The two first that I lifted had nothing attached +to them, but proved to be mere empty gourds floating before the wind; but +when I tried to seize the largest, it eluded my grasp in a most +incomprehensible manner, and slid away astern of me with a curious hollow +gabbling sort of noise, whereupon my palfrey snorted and reared, and +nearly capsized me over his bows. What a noble fish, thought I, as I +tacked in chase, but my Bucephalus refused to face it. I therefore bore up +to join my companions again; but in requital of the disappointment, +smashed the gourd in passing with the stick I held in my hand, when, to my +unutterable surprise, and amidst shouts of laughter from our moreno, the +head and shoulders of an Indian, with a quantity of sedges tied round his +neck, and buoyed up by half-a-dozen dead teal fastened by the legs to +his girdle, started up before me. "Ave Maria, purissima! you have +broken my head, senior." But as the vegetable helmet had saved his skull, +of itself possibly none of the softest, a small piece of money spliced the +feud between us; and as he fitted his pate with another calabash, +preparatory to resuming his cruise, he joined in our merriment, although +from a different cause.--"What can these English simpletons see so very +comical in a poor Indian catching wild-ducks?" + +Shortly after, we entered a forest of magnificent trees, whose sombre +shade, on first passing from the intolerable glare of the sun, seemed +absolute darkness. The branches were alive with innumerable tropical +birds and insects, and were laced together by a thick tracery of withes, +along which a guana would occasionally dart, coming nearest of all the +reptiles I had seen to the shape of the fabled dragon. + +But how different from the clean steams and beautiful green sward of our +English woods! Here, you were confined to a quagmire by impervious +underwood of prickly pear, penguin, and speargrass; and when we rode under +the drooping branches of the trees, that the leaves might brush away the +halo of musquittoes, flying ants, and other winged plagues that buzzed +about our temples, we found, to our dismay, that we had made bad worse by +the introduction of a whole colony of garapatos, or wood-ticks, into our +eyebrows and hair. At length, for the second time, so far as I was +concerned, we reached the reached the headquarters at Torrecilla, and were +well received by the Spanish commander-in-chief, a tall, good-looking, +soldierlike man, whose personal qualities had an excellent foil in the +captain-general of the province, an old friend of mine, as already +mentioned, and who certainly looked full as like a dancing-master, or, at +the best, perruquier en general to the staff, as a viceroy. + +General Morillo, however, had a great share of Sancho Panza shrewdness, +and I will add kindness, about him. We were drenched and miserable when +we arrived, yet he might have turned us over, naturally enough, to the +care of his staff. No such thing; the first thing he did was to walk both +of us behind a canvass screen, that shut off one end of the large barnlike +room, where a long table was laid for dinner. This was his sleeping +apartment, and drawing out of a leather bag two suits of uniform, he +rigged us almost with his own hands. Presently a point of war was sounded +by half-a-dozen trumpeters, and Splinter and I made our appearance each +in the dress of a Spanish general. The party consisted of Morillo's +personal staff, the captain-general, the inquisidor general, and several +colonels and majors of different regiments. In all, twenty people sat +down to dinner; among whom were several young Spanish noblemen, some of +whom I had met on my former visit, who, having served in the Peninsular +war under the great Duke, made their advances with great cordiality. +Strange enough--Splinter and I were the only parties present in uniform; +all the others, priests and soldiers, were clothed in gingham coats and +white trowsers. + +The besieging force at this time was composed of about five thousand +Spaniards, as fine troops as I ever saw, and three thousand Creoles under +the command of that desperate fellow Morales. I was not long in +recognising an old friend of mine in the person of Captain Bayer, +an aide-de-camp of Morillo, amongst the company. He was very kind and +attentive, and rather startled me by speaking very tolerable English now, +from a kindly motive I make no question, whereas, when I had known him +before in Kingston, he professed to speak nothing but Spanish or French. +He was a German by birth, and lived to rise to the rank of colonel in the +Spanish army, where he subsequently greatly distinguished himself, but he +at length fell in some obscure skirmish in New Granada; and my old ally +Morillo, Count of Carthagena, is now living in penury, an exile in Paris. + +After being, as related, furnished with food and raiment, we retired to +our quatres, a most primitive sort of couch, being a simple wooden frame, +with a piece of canvass stretched over it. However, if we had no +mattresses, we had none of the disagreeables often incidental to them, +and, fatigue proved a good opiate, for we slept soundly until the drums +and trumpets of the troops, getting under arms, awoke us at daylight. The +army was under weigh to occupy Carthagena, which had fallen through +famine, and we had no choice but to accompany it. + +I knew nothing of the misery of a siege but by description; the reality +even to me, case-hardened as I was by my own recent sufferings, was +dreadful. We entered by the gate of the raval, or suburb. There was not +a living thing to be seen in the street; the houses had been pulled down, +that the fire of the place might not be obstructed in the event of a +lodgment in the outwork. We passed on, the military music echoing +mournfully amongst the ruined walls, to the main gate, or Puerto de Tiera, +which was also open, and the drawbridge lowered. Under the archway, we +saw a delicate female, worn to the bone, and weak as an infant, gathering +garbage of the most loathsome description, the possession of which had +been successfully disputed by a carrion crow. A little farther on, the +bodies of an old man and two small children were putrefying in the sun, +while beside them lay a miserable, wasted, dying negro, vainly +endeavouring to keep at a distance with a palm branch a number of the same +obscene birds that were already devouring the carcass of one of the +infants; before two hours, the faithful servant, and those he attempted to +defend, were equally the prey of the disgusting gallinaso. The houses, as +we proceeded, appeared entirely deserted, except where a solitary spectre +like inhabitant appeared at a balcony, and feebly exclaimed, "Viva, los +Espanoles! Viva, Fernando Septimo!"--We saw no domestic animal +whatsoever, not even a cat or a dog; but I will not dwell on these +horrible details any longer. + +One morning, shortly after our arrival, as we strolled beyond the land +gate, we came to a place where four banquillos (a sort of short bench or +stool, with an upright post at one end firmly fixed into the ground) were +placed opposite a dead wall. They were painted black, and we were not +left long in suspense as to their use; for solemn music, and the roll +of muffled drums in the distance, were fearful indications of what we were +to witness. + +First came an entire regiment of Spanish infantry, which, filing off, +formed three sides of a square,--the wall near which the banquillos were +placed forming the fourth; then eight priests, and as many choristers +chanting the service for the dying; next came several mounted officers of +the staff, and four firing parties of twelve men each. Three Spanish +American prisoners followed, dressed in white, with crucifixes in their +hands, each supported, more dead than alive, by two priests; but when the +fourth victim appeared, we could neither look at nor think of any thing +else. + +On enquiry we found he was an Englishman, of the name of S----: English, +that is, in all except the place of his birth, for his whole education had +been English, as were his parents and all his family; but it came out, +accidentally I believe, on his trial, that he had been born at Buenos +Ayres, and having joined the patriots, this brought treason home to him, +which he was now led forth to expiate. Whilst his fellow-sufferers +appeared crushed down to the very earth, under their intense agony, so +that they had to be supported as they tottered towards the place of +execution, he stepped firmly and manfully out, and seemed impatient when +at any time, from the crowding in front, the procession was obliged to +halt. At length they reached the fatal spot, and his three companions in +misery being placed astride on the banquillos, their arms twisted round +the upright posts, and fastened to them with cords, their backs being +towards the soldiers. Mr S----walked firmly up to the vacant bench, +knelt down, and covering his face with his hands, rested his head on the +edge of it. For a brief space he seemed to be engaged in prayer, during +which he sobbed audibly, but soon recovering himself, he rose, and folding +his arms across his breast, sat down slowly and deliberately on the +banquillo, facing the firing party with an unshrinking eye. + +He was now told that he must turn his back and submit to be tied like the +others. He resisted this, but on force being attempted to be used, he +sprung to his feet, and stretching out his hand, while a dark red flush +passed transiently across his pale face, he exclaimed in a loud voice, +"Thus, thus, and not otherwise, you may butcher me, but I am an Englishman +and no traitor, nor will I die the death of one." Moved by his gallantry, +the soldiers withdrew, and left him standing. At this time the sun was +intensely hot, it was high noon, and the monk who attended Mr S----held +an umbrella over his head; but the preparations being completed, he kissed +him on both cheeks, while the hot tears trickled down his own, and was +stepping back, when the unhappy man said to him, with the most perfect +composure, "Todavia padre, todavia, mucho me gusta la sombra." But the +time had arrived, the kind-hearted monk was obliged to retire. The +signal was given, the musketry rattled, and they were as clods of the +valley "Truly," quoth old Splinter, "a man does sometimes become a horse +by being born in a stable." + +Some time after this we were allowed to go to the village of Turbaco, a +few miles distant from the city, for change of air. On the third morning +after our arrival, about the dawning, I was suddenly awakened by a shower +of dust on my face, and a violent shaking of the bed, accompanied by a low +grumbling unearthly noise, which seemed to pass immediately under where I +lay. Were I to liken it to any thing I had ever experienced before, it +would be to the lumbering and tremor of a large waggon in a tempestuous +night, heard and felt through the thin walls of a London house.--Like--yet +how fearfully different! + +In a few seconds the motion ceased, and the noise gradually died away in +hollow echoes in the distance--whereupon ensued such a crowing of cocks, +cackling of geese, barking of dogs, lowing of kine, neighing of horses, +and shouting of men, women, and children amongst the negro and coloured +domestics, as baffles all description, whilst the various white inmates of +the house (the rooms, for air and coolness, being without ceiling, and +simply divided by partitions run up about ten feet high) were, one and +all, calling to their servants and each other, in accents which did not by +any means evince great composure. In a moment this hubbub again sank into +the deepest silence--man, and the beasts of the field, and the fowls of +the air, became mute with breathless awe, at the impending tremendous +manifestation of the power of that Almighty Being in whose hands the hills +are as a very little thing--for the appalling voice of the earthquake was +once more heard growling afar off, like distant thunder mingling with the +rushing of a mighty wind, waxing louder and louder as it approached, and +upheaving the sure and firm-set earth into long undulations, as if its +surface had been the rolling swell of the fathomless ocean. The house +rocked, pictures of saints fell from the walls, tables and chairs were +overturned, the window frames were forced out of their embrasures and +broken in pieces, beams and rafters groaned and screamed, crushing the +tiles of the roof into ten thousand fragments. In several places the +ground split open into chasms a fathom wide, with an explosion like a +cannon-shot; the very foundation of the house seemed to be sinking under +us; and whilst men and women rushed like maniacs naked into the fields, +with a yell as if the Day of Judgment had arrived, and the whole brute +creation, in an agony of fear, made the most desperate attempts to break +forth from their enclosures into the open air, the end wall of my +apartment was shaken down; and falling outwards with a deafening crash, +disclosed, in the dull grey mysterious twilight of morning, the huge +gnarled trees that overshadowed the building, bending and groaning, amidst +clouds of dust, as if they had been tormented by a tempest, although the +air was calm and motionless as death. + + + +CHAPTER V.--The Piccaroon + + + "Ours the wild life in tumult still to range." + + Byron, The Corsair, I. 7. + + +Some time after this, we once more returned to Carthagena, to be at hand +should any opportunity occur for Jamaica, and we were lounging about one +forenoon on the fortifications, looking with sickening hearts out to +seaward, when a voice struck up the following negro ditty close to us: + + "Fader was a Corramantee, + Moder was a Mingo, + Black picaniny buccra wantee, + So dem sell a me Peter, by jingo, + Jiggery, jiggery, jiggery." + +"Well sung, Massa Bungo," exclaimed Mr Splinter; "where do you hail from, +my hearty?" + +"Hiflo! Bungo, indeed! free and easy dat, anyhow. Who you yousef, eh?" + +"Why, Peter," continued the Lieutenant, "don't you know me?" "Cannot say +dat I do," rejoined the negro, very gravely, without lifting his head, as +he sat mending his jacket in one of the embrasures near the water gate of +the arsenal--"Have not de honour of your acquaintance, sir." + +He then resumed his scream, for song it could not be called:-- + + "Mammy Sally's daughter, + Lose him shoe in an old canoe, + Dat lay halffull of water, + And den she knew not what to do. + Jiggery, jig"-- + +"Confound your jiggery, jiggery, sir! But I know you well enough, my man; +and you can scarcely have forgotten Lieutenant Splinter of the Torch, one +would think?" + +However, it was clear that the poor fellow really had not known us; for +the name so startled him, that, in his hurry to unlace his legs from under +him, as he sat tailor-fashion, he fairly capsized out of his perch, and +toppled down on his nose--a feature fortunately so flattened by the hand +of nature, that I question if it could have been rendered more obtuse had +he fallen out of the maintop on a timber-head, or a marine officer's. + +"Eh!--no--yes, him sure enough; and who is de picaniny hofficer--Oh! I +see, Massa Tom Cringle? Garamighty, gentlemen, where have you drop +from?--Where is de old Torch? Many a time hab I Peter Mangrove, pilot to +Him Britanic Majesty squadron, taken de old brig in and through amongst de +keys at Port Royal!" + +"Ay, and how often did you scour her copper against the coral reefs, +Peter?" + +His Majesty's pilot gave a knowing look, and laid his hand on his breast +"No more of dat if you love me, massa." + +"Well, well, it don't signify now, my boy; she will never give you that +trouble again--foundered--all hands lost, Peter, but the two you see +before you." + +"Werry sorry, Massa Plinter, werry sorry--What! de black cooksmate and +all?--But misfortune can't be help. Stop till I put up my needle, and I +will take a turn wid you." Here he drew himself up with a great deal of +absurd gravity. "Proper dat British hofficer in distress should assist +one anoder--We shall consult togeder.--How can I serve you?" + +"Why, Peter, if you could help us to a passage to Port Royal, it would be +serving us most essentially. When we used to be lying there, a week +seldom passed without one of the squadron arriving from this; but here +have we been for more than a month, without a single pennant belonging to +the station having looked in: our money is running short, and if we are to +hold on in Carthagena for another six weeks, we shall not have a shot +left in the locker--not a copper to tinkle on a tombstone." + +The negro looked steadfastly at us, then carefully around. There was no +one near. + +"You see, Massa Plinter, I am desirable to serve you, for one little +reason of my own; but, beside dat, it is good for me at present to make +some friend wid de hofficer of de squadron, being as how dat I am absent +widout leave." + +"Oh, I perceive--a large R against your name in the master attendant's +books, eh?" + +"You have hit it, sir, werry close; besides I long mosh to return to my +poor wife, Nancy Cator, dat I leave, wagabone dat I is, just about to be +confine." + +I could not resist putting in my oar. + +"I saw Nancy just before we sailed, Peter,--fine child that; not quite so +black as you, though." + +"Oh, massa," said Snowball, grinning and showing his white teeth, "you +know I am soch a terrible black fellow--But you are a leetle out at +present, massa--I meant, about to be confine in de workhouse, for stealing +de admiral's Muscovy ducks;" and he laughed loud and long.--"However, if +you will promise dat you will stand my friends, I will put you in de way +of getting a shove across to de east end of Jamaica; and I will go wid +you, too, for company." + +"Thank you," rejoined Mr Splinter; "but how do you mean to manage this? +There is no Kingston trader here at present, and you don't mean to make a +start of it in an open boat, do you?" + +"No, sir, I don't; but in de first place--as you are a gentleman, will you +try and get me off when we get to Jamaica? Secondly, wi you promise dat +you will not seek to know more of de vessel you may go in, nor of her +crew, than dey are willing to tell you, provided you are landed safe?" + +"Why, Peter, I scarcely think you would deceive us, for you know I saved +your bacon in that awkward affair, when through drunkenness you plumped +the Torch ashore, so"-- + +"Forget dat, sir,----forget dat!--Never shall poor black pilot forget how +you saved him from being seized upt when de gratings, boatswain's mates, +and all, were ready at de gangway@never shall poor black rascal forget +dat." + +"Indeed I do not think you would wittingly betray us into trouble, Peter; +and as I guess you mean one of the forced traders, we will venture in her, +rather than kick about here any longer, and pay a moderate sum for our +passage." + +"Den wait here five minute,"--and so saying he slipt down through the +embrasure into a canoe that lay beneath, and in a trice we saw him jump on +board of a long low nondescript kind of craft, that lay moored within +pistol-shot of the walls. + +She was a large shallow vessel, coppered to the bends, of great breadth of +beam, with bright sides, like an American, so painted as to give her a +clumsy mercantile sheer externally, but there were many things that belied +this to a nautical eye: her copper, for instance, was bright as burnished +gold on her very sharp bows and beautiful run; and we could see from the +bastion where we stood, that her decks were flush and level. She had no +cannon mounted that were visible, but we distinguished grooves on her +well-scrubbed decks, as from the recent traversing of carronade slides, +while the bolts and rings in her high and solid bulwarks shone clear and +bright in the ardent noontide. There was a tarpawling stretched over a +quantity of rubbish, old sails, old junk, and hencoops rather +ostentatiously piled up forward, which we conjectured might conceal a +long gun. + +She was a very taught-rigged hermaphrodite, or brig forward and schooner +aft. Her foremast and bowsprit were immensely strong and heavy, and her +mainmast was so long and tapering, that the wonder was, how the few +shrouds and stays about it could support it: it was the handsomest stick +we had ever seen. Her upper spars were on the same scale, tapering away +through topmast, topgallant-mast, royal and skysail-masts, until they +fined away into slender wands. The sails, that were loose to dry, were +old, and patched, And evidently displayed to cloak the character of the +vessel, by an ostentatious show of their unserviceable condition, but her +rigging was beautifully fitted, every rope lying in the chafe of another +being carefully served with hide. There were several large +bushy-whiskered fellows lounging about the deck, with their hair +gathered into dirty net bags, like the fishermen of Barcelona; many had +red silk sashes round their waists, through which were stuck their long +knives, in shark-skin sheaths. Their numbers were not so great as to +excite suspicion; but a certain daring reckless manner, would at once +have distinguished them, independently of any thing else, from the quiet, +hard-worked, redshirted merchant seaman. + +"That chap is not much to be trusted," said the Lieutenant; "his bunting +would make a few jackets for Joseph, I take it." But we had little time to +be critical before our friend Peter came paddling back with another +blackamoor in the stem, of as ungainly an exterior as could well be, +imagined. He was a very large man, whose weight every now and then, as +they breasted the short sea, cocked up the snout of the canoe with Peter +Mangrove in it, as if he had been a cork, leaving him to flourish his +paddle in the air, like the weatherwheel of a steam-boat in a sea-way. +The new-comer was strong and broad-shouldered, with long muscular arms, +and a chest like Hercules; but his legs and thighs were, for his bulk, +remarkably puny and misshapen. A thick fell of black wool, in close +tufts, as if his face had been stuck full of cloves, covered his chin and +upper lip; and his hair, if hair it could be called, was twisted into a +hundred short plaits, that bristled out, and gave his head, when he took +his hat off, the appearance of a porcupine. There was a large sabre-cut +across his nose, and down his cheek, and he wore two immense gold earings. +His dress consisted of short cotton drawers, that did not reach within two +inches of his knee, leaving his thin cucumber shanks (on which the small +bullet-like calf appeared to have been stuck before, through mistake, in +place of abaft) naked to the shoe; a check shirt, and an enormously large +Panama hat, made of a sort of cane, split small, and worn shovel-fashion. +Notwithstanding, he made his bow by no means ungracefully, and offered his +services in choice Spanish, but spoke English as soon as he heard who we +were. + +"Pray, sir, are you the master of that vessel?" said the lieutenant. + +"No, sir, I am the mate, and I learn you are desirous of a passage to +Jamaica." This was spoken with a broad Scotch accent. + +"Yes, we are," said I, in very great astonishment; "but we will not sail +with the devil; and who ever saw a negro Scotchman before, the spirit of +Nicol Jarvie conjured into a blackamoor's skin!" + +The fellow laughed. "I am black, as you see; so were my father and mother +before me." And he looked at me, as much as to say, I have read the book +you quote from. "But I was born in the good town of Port--Glasgow, +notwithstanding, and many a voyage I have made as cabin-boy and cook, in +the good ship the Peggy Bogle, with worthy old jock Hunter; but that +matters not. I was told you wanted to go to Jamaica; I dare say our +captain will take you for a moderate passage-money. But here he comes to +speak for himself.--Captain Vanderbosh, here are two shipwrecked British +officers, who wish to be put on shore on the east end of Jamaica; will you +take them, and what will you charge for their passage?" + +The man he spoke to was nearly as tall as himself; he was a sunburnt, +angular, raw-boned, iron-visaged veteran, with a nose in shape and +colour like the bowl of his own pipe, but not at all, according to the +received idea, like a Dutchman. His dress was quizzicaly enough, white +trowsers, a long-flapped embroidered waistcoat, that might have belonged +to a Spanish grandee, with an old-fashioned French-cut coat, showing the +frayed marks where the lace had been stripped off, voluminous in the +skirts, but very tight in the sleeves, which were so short as to leave his +large bony paws, and six inches of his arm above the wrist, exposed; +altogether, it fitted him like a purser's shirt on a handspike. + +"Vy, for von hondred thaler, I will land dem safe in Mancheoneal Bay; but +how shall ve manage, Villiamson? De cabin vas point yesterday." + +The Scotch negro nodded. "Never mind; I dare say the smell of the paint +won't signify to the gentlemen." + +The bargain was ratified, we agreed to pay the stipulated sum, and that +same evening, having dropped down with the last of the seabreeze, we set +sail from Bocca Chica, and began working up under the lee of the headland +of Punto Canoa. When off the San Domingo Gate, we burned a blue light, +which was immediately answered by another in shore of us. In the glare, +we could perceive two boats, full of men. Any one who has ever played at +snapdragon, can imagine the unearthly appearance of objects when seen by +this species of firework. In the present instance, it was held aloft on +a boat-hook, and cast a strong spectral light on the band of lawless +ruffians, who were so crowded together, that they entirely filled the +boats, no part of which could be seen. It seemed as if two clusters of +fiends, suddenly vomited forth from hell, were floating on the surface of +the midnight sea, in the midst of brimstone flames. In a few moments, our +crew was strengthened by about forty as ugly Christians as I ever set eyes +on. They were of all ages, countries, complexions, and tongues, and looked +as if they had been kidnapped by a pressgang, as they had knocked off from +the Tower of Babel. From the moment they came on board, Captain +Vanderbosh was shorn of all his glory, and sank into the petty officer, +while, to our amazement, the Scottish negro took the command, evincing +great coolness, energy, and skill. He ordered the schooner to be wore, +as soon as we had shipped the men, and laid her head off the land, then +set all hands to shift the old suit of sails, and to bend new ones. + +"Why did you not shift your canvass before we started?" said I to the +Dutch captain, or mate, or whatever he might be. + +"Vy vont you be content to take a quiet passage and hax no question?" was +the uncivil rejoinder, which I felt inclined to resent, until I remembered +that we were in the hands of the Philistines, where a quarrel would have +been worse than useless. I was gulping down the insult as well as I could, +when the black captain came-aft, and, with the air of an equal, invited +us into the cabin to take a glass of grog. We had scarcely sat down +before we heard a noise like the swaying up of guns, or some other heavy +articles, from the hold. + +I caught Mr Splinter's eye--he nodded, but said nothing. In half an hour +afterwards, when we went on deck, we saw by the light of the moon, twelve +eighteen-pound carronades mounted, six of a side, with their +accompaniments of rammers and sponges, water buckets, boxes of round, +grape, and canister, and tubs of wadding, while the combings of the +hatchways were thickly studded with round shot. The tarpawling and lumber +forward had disappeared, and there lay long Tom ready levelled, grinning +on his pivot. + +The ropes were all coiled away, and laid down in regular man-of-war +fashion; while an ugly gruff beast of a Spanish mulatto, apparently the +officer of the watch, walked the weather-side of the quarter-deck, in +the true pendulum style. Look-outs were placed aft, and at the gangways +and bows, who every now and then passed the word to keep a bright +look-out, while the rest of the watch were stretched silent, but +evidently broad awake, under the lee of the boat. We noticed that each +man had his cutlass buckled round his waist, that the boarding-pikes had +been cut loose from the main boom, round which they had been stopped, and +that about thirty muskets were ranged along a fixed-rack, that ran athwart +ships, near the main hatchway. + +By the time we had reconnoitred thus far, the night became overcast, and a +thick bank of clouds began to rise to windward; some heavy drops of rain +fell, and the thunder grumbled at a distance. The black veil crept +gradually on, until it shrouded the whole firmament, and left us in as +dark a night as ever poor devils were out in. By and by, a narrow streak +of bright moonlight appeared under the lower edge of the bank, defining +the dark outlines of the tumbling multitudinous billows on the horizon, as +distinctly as if they had been pasteboard waves in a theatre. + +"Is that a sail to windward, in the clear, think you?" said Mr Splinter to +me in a whisper. At this moment it lightened vividly. "I am sure it is," +continued he--"I could see her white canvass glance just now." + +I looked steadily, and, at last, caught the small dark speck against the +bright background, rising and falling on the swell of the sea like a +feather. + +As we stood on, she was seen more distinctly, but, to all appearance, +nobody was aware of her proximity. We were mistaken in this, however, for +the captain suddenly jumped on a gun, and gave his orders with a fiery +energy that startled us. + +"Leroux!" A small French boy was at his side in a moment. "Forward, and +call all hands to shorten sail; but, doucement, you land crab!--Man the +fore clew-garnets.--Hands by the topgallant clewlines-peak and throat +haulyards--jib down-haul--rise tacks and sheets--let go--clew up--settle +away the main--gaff there!" + +In almost as short a space as I have taken to write it, every inch of +canvass was close furled--every light, except the one in the binnacle, and +that was cautiously masked, carefully extinguished--a hundred and twenty +men at quarters, and the ship under bare poles. The head yards were then +squared, and we bore up before the wind. The stratagem proved successful; +the strange sail could be seen through the night glasses, cracking on +close to the wind, evidently under the impression that we had tacked. + +"Dere she goes, chasing de Gobel," said the Dutchman. + +She now burned a blue light, by which we saw she was a heavy cutter +without doubt our old fellow-cruiser the Spark. The Dutchman had come to +the same conclusion. + +"My eye, Captain, no use to dodge from her; it is only dat footy little +King's cutter on de Jamaica station." + +"It is her, true enough," answered Williamson; "and she is from Santa +Martha with a freight of specie, I know. I will try a brush with +her by...." + +Splinter struck in before he could finish his irreverent exclamation. "If +your conjecture be true, I know the craft--a heavy vessel of her class, +and you may depend on hard knocks, and small profit if you do take her; +while, if she takes you"-- + +"I'll be hanged if she does"--and he grinned at the conceit--then setting +his teeth hard, "or rather, I will blow the schooner up with my own hand +before I strike; better that than have one's bones bleached in chains on a +key at Port Royal.--But, you see you cannot control us, gentlemen; so get +down into the cable tier and take Peter Mangrove with you. I would not +willingly see those come to harm who have trusted me." + +However, there was no shot flying as yet, we therefore staid on deck. All +sail was once more made; the carronades were cast loose on both sides, and +double-shotted; the long gun slewed round; the tack of the fore-and-aft +foresail hauled up, and we kept by the wind, and stood after the cutter, +whose white canvass we could still see through the gloom like a +snow-wreath. + +As soon as she saw us she tacked and stood towards us, and came bowling +along gallantly, with the water roaring and flashing at her bows. As the +vessels neared each other, they both shortened sail, and finding that we +could not weather her, we steered close under her lee. + +As we crossed on opposite tacks her commander hailed, "Ho, the brigantine, +ahoy!" + +"Hillo!" sung out Blackie, as he backed his maintopsail. + +"What schooner is that?" + +"The Spanish schooner Caridad." + +"Whence, and whither bound?" + +"Carthagena to Porto Rico." + +"Heave-to, and send your boat on board." + +"We have none that will swim, sir." + +"Very well--bring-to, and I will send mine." + +"Call away the boarders," said our captain, in a low stern tone; "let +them crouch out of sight behind the boat." + +The cutter wore, and hove-to under our lee quarter, within pistol shot. +We heard the rattle of the ropes running through the davit blocks, and the +splash of the jolly boat touching the water, then the measured stroke of +the oars, as they glanced like silver in the sparkling sea, and a voice +calling out, "Give way, my lads." + +The character of the vessel we were on board of was now evident; and the +bitter reflection that we were chained to the stake on board of a pirate, +on the eve of a fierce contest with one of our own cruisers, was +aggravated by the consideration that the cutter had fallen into a snare, +by which a whole boat's crew would be sacrificed before a shot was fired. + +I watched my opportunity as she pulled up alongside, and called out, +leaning well over the nettings, "Get back to your ship! treachery! get +back to your ship!" + +The little French serpent was at my side with the speed of thought, his +long clear knife glancing in one hand, while the fingers of the other were +laid on his lips. He could not have said more plainly, "Hold your tongue +or I'll cut your throat;" but Sneezer now startled him by rushing between +us, and giving a short angry growl. + +The officer in the boat had heard me imperfectly; he rose up--"I won't go +back, my good man, until I see what you are made of; and as he spoke he +sprung on board, but the instant he got over the bulwarks he was caught by +two strong hands, gagged and thrown bodily down the main hatchway. + +"Heave," cried a voice, "and with a will!" and four cold 32-pound shot +were hove at once into the boat alongside, which crashing through her +bottom, swamped her in a moment, precipitating the miserable crew into the +boiling sea. Their shrieks still ring in my ears as they clung to the +oars and some loose planks of the boat. + +"Bring up the officer, and take out the gag," said Williamson. + +Poor Walcolm, who had been an old messmate of mine, was now dragged to the +gangway half-naked, his face bleeding, and heavily ironed, when the +blackamoor, clapping a pistol to his head, bid him, as he feared instant +death, hail "that the boat had swamped under the counter, and to send +another." The poor fellow, who appeared stunned and confused, did so, but +without seeming to know what he said. + +"Good God," said Mr Splinter, "don't you mean to pick up the boat's crew?" + +The blood curdled to my heart as the black savage answered in a voice of +thunder, "Let them drown and be d----d! fill, and stand on!" + +But the clouds by this time broke away, and the mild moon shone clear and +bright once more, upon this scene of most atrocious villainy. By her +light the cutter's people could see that there was no one struggling in +the water now, and that the people must either have been saved, or were +past all earthly aid; but the infamous deception was not entirely at an +end. + +The captain of the cutter, seeing we were making sail, did the same, and +after having shot ahead of us, hailed once more. + +"Mr Walcolm, why don't you run to leeward, and heave-to, sir?" + +"Answer him instantly, and hail again for another boat," said the sable +fiend, and cocked his pistol. + +The click went to my heart. The young midshipman turned his pale mild +countenance, laced with his blood, upwards towards the moon and stars, as +one who had looked his last look on earth; the large tears were flowing +down his cheeks, and mingling with the crimson streaks, and a flood of +silver light fell on the fine features of the poor boy, as he said firmly, +"Never." The miscreant fired, and he fell dead. + +"Up with the helm, and wear across her stern." The order was obeyed. +"Fire!" The whole broadside was poured in, and we could hear the shot +rattle and tear along the cutter's deck, and the shrieks and groans of the +wounded, while the white splinters glanced away in all directions. + +We now ranged alongside, and close action commenced, and never do I expect +to see such an infernal scene again. Up to this moment there had been +neither confusion nor noise on board the pirate--all had been coolness and +order; but when the yards locked, the crew broke loose from all control +they ceased to be men they were demons, for they threw their own dead and +wounded, as they were mown down like grass by the cutter's grape, +indiscriminately down the hatchways to get clear of them. They had stript +themselves almost naked; and although they fought with the most desperate +courage, yelling and cursing, each in his own tongue, most hideously, yet +their very numbers, pent up in a small vessel, were against them. At +length, amidst the fire, and smoke, and hellish uproar, we could see that +the deck had become a very shambles; and unless they soon carried the +cutter by boarding, it was clear that the coolness and discipline of my +own glorious service must prevail, even against such fearful odds, the +superior size of the vessel, greater number of guns, and heavier metal. +The pirates seemed aware of this themselves, for they now made a desperate +attempt forward to carry their antagonist by boarding, led on by the black +captain. Just at this moment, the cutter's main-boom fell across the +schooner's deck, close to where we were sheltering ourselves from the shot +the best way we could; and while the rush forward was being made, by a +sudden impulse Splinter and I, followed by Peter and the dog, (who with +wonderful sagacity, seeing the uselessness of resistance, had cowered +quietly by my side during the whole row) scrambled along it as the +cutter's people were repelling the attack on her bow, and all four of us +in our haste jumped down on the poor Irishman at the wheel. + +"Murder, fire, rape, and robbery! it is capsized, stove in, sunk, burned, +and destroyed I am! Captain, Captain, we are carried aft here--Och, +hubbaboo for Patrick Donnally!" + +There was no time to be lost; if any of the crew came aft, we were dead +men, so we tumbled down through the cabin skylight, men and beast, the +hatch having been knocked off by a shot, and stowed ourselves away in the +side berths. The noise on deck soon ceased the cannon were again plied +gradually the fire slackened, and we could hear that the pirate had +scraped clear and escaped. Some time after this, the lieutenant +commanding the cutter came down. Poor Mr Douglas! both Mr Splinter and I +knew him well. He sat down and covered his face with his hands, while the +blood oozed down between his fingers. He had received a cutlass wound on +the head in the attack. His right arm was bound up with his neckcloth, +and he was very pale. + +"Steward, bring me a light.--Ask the doctor how many are killed and +wounded; and, do you hear, tell him to come to me when he is done forward, +but not a moment sooner. To have been so mauled and duped by a cursed +buccaneer; and my poor boat's crew." + +Splinter groaned. He started--but at this moment the man returned again. + +"Thirteen killed, your honour, and fifteen wounded; scarcely one of us +untouched." The poor fellow's own skull was bound round with a bloody +cloth. + +"God help me! God help me! but they have died the death of men. Who +knows what death the poor fellows in the boat have died?" Here he was cut +short by a tremendous scuffle on the ladder, down which an old +quarter-master was trundled neck and crop into the cabin. "How now, +Jones?" + +"Please your honour," said the man, as soon as he had gathered himself up, +and had time to turn his quid, and smooth down his hair; but again the +uproar was renewed, and Donnally was lugged in, scrambling and struggling, +between two seamen--"this here Irish chap, your honour, has lost his wits, +if so be he ever had any, your honour. He has gone mad through fright." + +"Fright be d----d!" roared Donnally; "no man ever frightened me: but as his +honour was skewering them bloody thieves forward, I was boarded and +carried aft by the devil, your honour--pooped by Beelzebub, by--," and he +rapped his fist on the table until every thing on it danced again. "There +were four of them, yeer honour--a black one and two blue ones--and a +piebald one, with four legs and a bushy tail--each with two horns on his +head, for all the world like those on Father M'Cleary's red cow--no, she +was humbled--it is Father Clannachan's I mane--no, not his neither, for +his was the parish bull; fait, I don't know what I mane, except that they +had all horns on their heads, and vomited fire, and had each of them a +tail at his stem, twisting and twining like a conger eel, with a blue +light at the end on't." + +"And dat's a lie, if ever dere was one," exclaimed Peter Mangrove, jumping +from the berth. "Look at me, you Irish tief, and tell me if I have a blue +light or a conger eel at my stem?" + +This was too much for poor Donnally. He yelled out, "You'll believe your +own eyes now, yeer honour, when you see one o'dem bodily before you! Let +me go--let me go" and, rushing up the ladder, he would, in all +probability, have ended his earthly career in the salt sea, had his bullet +head not encountered the broadest part of the purser, who was in the act +of descending, with such violence, that he shot him out of the companion +several feet above the deck, as if he had been discharged from a culverin; +but the recoil sent poor Donnally, stunned and senseless, to the bottom of +the ladder. There was no standing all this; we laughed outright, and made +ourselves known to Mr Douglas, who received us cordially, and in a week we +were landed at Port Royal. + + + +CHAPTER VI.--The Cruise of the Spark + + + "Ours are the tears, though few, sincerely shed." + + Byron, The Corsair, I.35. + + +The only other midshipman on board the cutter beside young Walcolm, whose +miserable death we had witnessed, twas a light delicate little fellow, +about fourteen years old, of the name of Duncan; he was the smallest boy +of his age I ever saw, and had been badly hurt in repelling the attack of +the pirate. His wound was a lacerated puncture in the left shoulder from +a boarding pike, but it appeared to be healing kindly, and for some days +we thought he was doing well. However, about five o'clock in the +afternoon on which we made Jamaica, the surgeon accosted Mr Douglas as we +were walking the deck together. + +"I fear little Duncan is going to slip through my fingers after all, sir." + +"No!--I thought he had been better." + +"So he was till about noon, when a twitching of the muscles came on, which +I fear betokens lock jaw; he wavers, too, now and then, a bad sign of +itself where there is a fretting wound." + +We went below, where, notwithstanding the wind--sail that was let down +close to where his hammock was slung, the heat of the small vessel was +suffocating. The large coarse tallow candle in the purser's lantern, that +hung beside his shoulder, around which the loathsome cockroaches fluttered +like moths in a summer evening, filled the between decks with a rancid oil +smell, and with smoke as from a torch, while it ran down and melted like +fat before a fire. It cast a dull sickly, gleam on the pale face of the +brown-hefted, girlish-looking lad, as he lay in his narrow hammock. +When we entered, an old quartermaster was rubbing his legs, which were +jerking about like the limbs of a galvanized frog, while two of the boys +held his arms, also violently convulsed. The poor little fellow was +crying and sobbing most piteously, but made a strong effort to compose +himself and "be a man" when he saw us. + +"This is so good of you, Mr Cringle! you will take charge of my letter to +my sister, I know you will?--I say, Anson," to the quartermaster, "do lift +me up a little till I try and finish it.--It will be a sore heart to poor +Sarah; she has no mother now, nor father, and aunt is not over kind,"--and +again he wept bitterly. "Confound this jumping hand, it won't keep +steady, all I can do.--I say, Doctor, I shan't die this time, shall I?" + +"I hope not, my fine little fellow." + +"I don't think I shall; I shall live to be a man yet, in spite of that +bloody buccaneer's pike, I know I shall." God help me, the death rattle +was already in his throat, and the flame was flickering in the socket; +even as he spoke, the muscles of his neck stiffened to such a degree that +I thought he was choked, but the violence of the convulsion quickly +subsided. "I am done for, Doctor!" he could no longer open his mouth, but +spoke through his clenched teeth--"I feel it now!--God Almighty receive my +soul, and protect my poor sister!" The arch-enemy was indeed advancing to +the final struggle, for he now gave a sudden and sharp cry, and stretched +out his legs and arms, which instantly became as rigid as marble, and in +his agony he turned his face to the side I stood on, but he was no longer +sensible. "Sister," he said with difficulty--"Don't let them throw me +overboard; there are sharks here." + +"Land on the lee bow,"--sung out the man at the masthead. + +The common life sound would not have moved any of us in the routine of +duty, but bursting in, under such circumstances, it made us all start, as +if it had been something unusual; the dying midshipman heard it, and said +calmly--"Land,--I will never see it.--But how blue all your lips look.--It +is cold, piercing cold, and dark, dark." Something seemed to rise in his +throat, his features sharpened still more, and he tried to gasp, but his +clenched teeth prevented him--he was gone. + +I went on deck with a heavy heart, and, on looking in the direction +indicated, I beheld the towering Blue Mountain peak rising high above the +horizon, even at the distance of fifty miles, with its outline clear and +distinct against the splendid western sky, now gloriously illumined by the +light of the set sun. We stood on under easy sail for the night, and next +morning when the day broke, we were off the east end of the magnificent +Island of Jamaica. The stupendous peak now appeared to rise close aboard +of us, with a large solitary star sparkling on his forehead, and reared +his forest-crowned summit high into the cold blue sky, impending over us +in frowning magnificence, while the long dark range of the Blue Mountains, +with their outlines hard and clear in the grey light, sloped away on each +side of him as if they had been the Giant's shoulders. Great masses of +white mist hung on their sides about half-way down, but all the valleys +and coast as yet slept in the darkness. We could see that the land-wind +was blowing strong in shore, from the darker colour of the water, and the +speed with which the coasters, only distinguishable by their white sails, +slid along; while astern of us, out at sea, yet within a cable's length, +for we had scarcely shot beyond its influence, the prevailing trade-wind +blew a smart breeze, coming up strong to a defined line, beyond which and +between it and the influence of the land-wind, there was a belt of dull +lead-coloured sea, about half a mile broad, with a long heavy +ground-swell rolling, but smooth as glass, and without even a ripple on +the surface, in the midst of which we presently lay dead becalmed. + +The heavy dew was shaken in large drops out of the wet flapping sails, +against which the reef points pattered like hail as the vessel rolled. +The decks were wet and slippery, and our jackets saturated with moisture; +but we enjoyed the luxury of cold to a degree that made the sea water when +dashed about the decks, as they were being holystoned, appear absolutely +warm. Presently all nature awoke in its freshness so suddenly, that it +looked like a change of scene in a theatre. The sun, as yet set to us, +rose to the huge peak, and glanced like lightning on his summit, making it +gleam like a ruby; presently the clouds on his shaggy ribs rolled upwards, +enveloping his head and shoulders, and were replaced by the thin blue +mists which ascended from the valleys, forming a fleecy canopy, beneath +which appeared hill and dale, woods and cultivated lands, where all had +been undistinguishable a minute before, and gushing streams burst from the +mountain sides like gouts of froth, marking their course in the level +grounds by the vapours they sent up. Then breeze--mill towers burst into +light, and cattle--mills, with their cone--shaped roofs, and overseers +houses, and water-mills, with the white spray falling from the wheels, +and sugar-works, with long pennants of white smoke streaming from the +boiling-house chimneys seaward in the morning wind. Immediately after, +gangs of negroes were seen at work; loaded waggons, with enormous teams of +fourteen to twenty oxen dragging them, rolled along the roads; long +strings of mules loaded with canes were threading the fields; drogging +vessels were seen to shove out from every cove; the morning song of the +black fishermen was heard, while their tiny canoes, like black specks, +started up suddenly on all sides of us, as if they had floated from the +bottom of the sea; and the smiling scene burst at once, and as if by +magic, on us, in all its coolness and beauty, under the cheering influence +of the rapidly rising sun. We fired a gun, and made the signal for a +pilot; upon which a canoe, with three negroes in it, shoved off from a +small schooner lying to about a mile to leeward. They were soon +alongside, when one of the three jumped on board. This was the pilot, a +slave, as I knew; and I remember the time, when, in my innocence, I would +have expected to see something very squalid and miserable, but there was +nothing of the kind; for I never in my life saw a more spruce saltwater +dandy, in a small way. He was well dressed, according to a seaman's +notion--clean white trowsers, check shirt, with white lapels, neatly +fastened at the throat with a black ribbon, smart straw hat; and +altogether he carried an appearance of comfort--I was going to write +independence--about him, that I was by no means prepared for. He moved +about with a swaggering roll, grinning and laughing with the seamen. + +"I say, blackie," said Mr Douglas. + +"John Lodge, massa, if you please, massa; blackie is not politeful, sir;" +whereupon he showed his white teeth again. + +"Well, well, John Lodge, you are running us in too close surely;" and the +remark seemed seasonable enough to a stranger, for the rocks on the bold +shore were now within half pistol shot. + +"Mind your eye," shouted old Anson. "You will have us ashore, you black +rascal!" + +"You, sir, what water have you here?" sung out Mr Splinter. + +"Salt water, massa," rapped out Lodge, fairly dumfounded by such a volley +of questions--"You hab six fadom good here, massa;" but suspecting he had +gone too far--"I take de Tonnant, big ship as him is, close to dat reef, +sir, you might have jump ashore, so you need not frighten for your leetle +dish of a hooker; beside, massa, my character is at stake, you know"--then +another grin and bow. + +There was no use in being angry with the poor fellow, so he was allowed to +have his own way until we anchored in the evening at Port Royal. + +The morning after we arrived, I went ashore with a boat's crew to perform +the magnanimous operation of cutting brooms; we pulled ashore for Green +Bay, under the guns of the Twelve Apostles--a heavy battery of twelve +cannon, where there is a tombstone with an inscription, setting forth that +the party over whom it was erected, had been actually swallowed up in the +great earthquake that destroyed the opposite town, but subsequently +disgorged again; being, perchance, an unseemly morsel. + +We approached the beach--"Oars"--the men laid them in. + +"What sort of nuts be them, Peter Coamings?" said the coxswain to a new +hand who had been lately impressed, and was now standing at the bow ready +to fend off. + +Peter broke off one of the branches from the bush nearest him. + +"Smite my timbers, do the trees here bear shellfish?" + +The tide in the Gulf of Mexico does not ebb and flow above two feet, +except at the springs, and the ends of the drooping branches of the +mangrove-trees, that here cover the shore, are clustered, within the wash +of the water, with a small well-flavoured oyster. The first thing the +seamen did when they got ashore, was to fasten an oakum tail to the rump +of one of the most lubberly of the cutter's crew; they then gave him ten +yards' law, when they started in chase, shouting amongst the bushes, and +switching each other like the veriest schoolboys. I had walked some +distance along the beach, pelting the amphibious little creatures, half +crab, half lobster, called soldiers, which kept shouldering their large +claws, and running out and in their little burrows, as the small ripple +twinkled on the sand in the rising sun, when two men-of-wars boats, +each with three officers in the stern, suddenly pulled round a little +promontory that intercepted my view ahead. Being somewhat out of the line +of my duty, so far from my boat, I squatted amongst the brushwood, +thinking they would pass by; but, as the devil would have it, they pulled +directly for the place where I was ensconced, beached their boats, and +jumped on shore. "Here's a mess," thought I. + +I soon made out that one of the officers was Captain Pinkem of the Flash, +and that the parties saluted each other with that stern courtesy which +augured no good. + +"So, so, my masters, not enough of fighting on the coast of America, but +you must have a little private defacing of God's image amongst +yourselves?" + +Pinkem spoke first. "Mr Clinch," (I now knew he addressed the first +lieutenant of the flagship)--"Mr Clinch, it is not too late to prevent +unpleasant consequences; I ask you again, at the eleventh hour, will you +make an apology?" + +He seemed hurried and fidgety in his manner; which rather surprised me, as +I knew he was a seasoned hand in these matters, and it contrasted +unfavourably with the calm bearing of his antagonist, who by this time had +thrown his hat on the ground, and stood with one foot on the handkerchief +that marked his position, the distance, twelve paces, having already been +measured. By the by, his position was deucedly near in a line with the +grey stone behind which I lay perdu; nevertheless, the risk I ran did not +prevent me noticing that he was very pale, and had much the air of a brave +man come to die in a bad cause. He looked upwards for a second for two, +and then answered, slowly and distinctly, "Captain Pinkem, I now repeat +what I said before; this rencontre is none of my seeking. You accuse me +of having spoken slightingly of you seven years ago, when I was a mere +boy. You have the evidence of a gallant officer that I did so; therefore +I may not gainsay it; but of uttering the words imputed to me, I declare, +upon my honour, I have no recollection." He paused. + +"That won't do, my fine fellow," said Pinkem. + +"You are unreasonable," rejoined Clinch, in the same measured tone, "to +expect farther amende for uttering words which I have no conviction of +having spoken; yet to any other officer in the service I would not +hesitate to make a more direct apology, but you know your credit as a +pistol-shot renders this impossible." + +"Sorry for it, Mr Clinch, sorry for it." + +Here the pistols were handed to the principals by their respective +seconds. In their attitudes, the proficient and the novice were +strikingly contrasted; (by this time I had crept round so as to have a +view of both parties, or rather, if the truth must be told, to be out of +the line of fire.) Pinkem stood with his side accurately turned towards +his antagonist, so as to present the smallest possible surface; his head +was, as it struck me, painfully slewed round, with his eye looking +steadily at Clinch, over his right shoulder, whilst his arm was brought +down close to his thigh, with the cock of the pistol turned outwards, so +that his weapon must have covered his opponent by the simple raising of +his arm below the elbow. Clinch, on the other hand, stood fronting him, +with the whole breadth of his chest; holding his weapon awkwardly across +his body, with both hands. Pinkem appeared unwilling to take him at such +advantage, for, although violent and headstrong, and but too frequently +the slave of his passions, he had some noble traits in his character. + +"Turn your feather edge to me, Mr Clinch; take a fair chance, man." + +The lieutenant bowed, and I thought would have spoken, but he was checked +by the dread of being thought to fear; however, took the advice, and in an +instant the word was given--"Are you both ready?" + +"Yes." + +"Then fire!" + +Clinch fired without deliberation. I saw him, for my eyes were fixed on +him, expecting to see him fall. He stood firm, however, which was more +than I did, as at the instant, a piece of the bullion of an epaulet, at +first taken for a pellet of baser metal, struck me sharply on the nose, +and shook my equanimity confoundedly; at length I turned to look at +Pinkem, and there he stood with his arm raised, and pistol levelled, but +he had not fired. He stood thus whilst I might have counted ten, like a +finger-post, then dropping his hand, his weapon went off, but without +aim, the bullet striking the sand near his feet, and down he came headlong +to the ground. He fell with his face turned towards me, and I never shall +forget the horrible expression of it. His healthy complexion had, given +place to a deadly blue, the eyes were wide open and straining in their +sockets, the upper lip was drawn up, showing his teeth in a most frightful +grin, the blood gushed from his mouth as if impelled by the strokes of a +force pump, while his hands griped and dug into the sand. + +Before the sun set, he was a dead man. + +"A neat morning's work, gentlemen," thought I. + +The two surgeons came up, opened his dress, felt his pulse, and shook +their heads; the boats crews grouped around them--he was lifted into his +gig, the word was given to shove off, and--I returned to my +broom-cutters. + +When we got on board, the gunner who had the watch was taking his +fisherman's walk on the starboard side of the quarterdeck, and kept +looking steadily at the land, as if to avoid seeing poor little Duncan's +coffin, that lay on a grating near the gangway. The crew, assisted by +thirty men from the flag-ship, were employed in twenty different ways, +repairing damages, and were bustling about, laughing, joking, and singing, +with small regard to the melancholy object before their eyes, when Mr +Douglas put his head up the ladder--"Now, Jackson, if you please." + +The old fellow's countenance fell as if his heart was wrung by the order +he had to give. + +"Aloft there! lie out, you Perkins, and reeve a whip on the starboard +yard-arm to lower Mr"--The rest stuck in his throat, but, as if +ashamed of his softheartedness, he threw as much gruffness as he could +into his voice as he sung out--"Beat to quarters there!--knock off, men!" + +The roll of the drum stayed the confusion and noise of the people at work +in an instant, who immediately ranged themselves, in their clean frocks +and trowsers, on each side of the quarterdeck. At a given signal, the +white deal coffin, wrapped in its befitting pall, the meteor flag of +England, swung high above the hammock nettings between us and the bright +blue sky, to the long clear note of the boatswain's whistle, which soon +ending in a short chirrup, told that it now rested on the thwarts of the +boat alongside. We pulled ashore, and it was a slight perchance to move a +woman, to see the poor little fellow's hat and bit of a dirk lying on his +coffin, whilst the body was carried by four ships boys, the eldest +scarcely fourteen. I noticed the tears stand in Anson's eyes as the coffin +was lowered into the grave,--the boy had been wounded close to him,--and +when we heard the hollow battle of the earth on the coffin,--an unusual +sound to a sailor,--he shuddered. + +"Yes, Master Cringle," he said, in a whisper, "he was as kind hearted, and +as brave a lad as ever trod on shoe leather,--none of the larkings of the +men in the clear moonlight nights ever reached the cabin through him,--nor +was he the boy to rouse the watch from under the lee of the boats in bad +weather, to curry with the lieutenant, while he knew the look-outs were +as bright as beagles,--and where was the man in our watch that wanted +baccy while Mr Duncan had a shiner left?" The poor fellow drew the back of +his horny hand across his eyes, and grumbled out as he turned away, "And +here am I, Bill Anson, such a swab as to be ashamed of being sorry for +him." + +We were now turned over into the receiving ship the old Spark, and +fortunately there were captains enough in port to try us for the loss of +the Torch, so we got over our court-martial speedily, and the very day I +got back my dirk, the packet brought me out a lieutenant's Commission. +Being now my own master for a season, I determined to visit some relations +I had in the island, to whom I had never yet been introduced; so I shook +hands with old Splinter, packed my kit, and went to the wharf to charter a +wherry to carry me up to Kingston. The moment my object was perceived by +the black boat-men, I was surrounded by a mob of them, pulling and +hauling each other, and shouting forth the various qualifications of their +boats, with such vehemence, that I was nearly deafened. + +"Massa, no see Pam be Civil, sail like a witch, tack like a dolphin?" + +"Don't believe him, massa; Ballahoo is de boat dat can beat him." + +"Dam lie dat, as I am a gentleman!" roared a ragged black vagabond. + +"Come in de Monkey, massa; no flying fish can beat she." + +"Don't boder de gentleman," yelled a fourth,--"massa love de stamp and +go--no so, massa?" as he saw me make a step in the direction of his boat. +"Oh yes--so get out of de way, you black rascals,"--the fellow was as +black as a sloe himself--"make room for man-of-war buccra; him leetle +just now, but will be admiral one day." + +So saying, the fellow who had thus appropriated me, without more ado, +levelled his head like a battering ram, and began to batter in breach all +who stood in his way. He first ran a tilt against Pam be Civil, and shot +him like a rocket into the sea; the Monkey fared no better; the Ballahoo +had to swim for it; and having thus opened a way by main force, I at +length got safely moored in the stern sheets; but just as we were shoving +off, Mr Callaloo, the clergyman of Port Royal, a tall yellow personage, +begged for a passage, and was accordingly taken on board. As it was high +water, my boatmen chose the five foot channel, as the boat channel near to +Gallows Point is called, by which a long stretch would be saved, and we +were cracking on cheerily, my mind full of my recent promotion, when, +scur, scur, scur, we stuck fast on the bank. Our black boatmen, being +little encumbered with clothes, jumped overboard in a covey like so many +wild-ducks, shouting, as they dropped into the water, "We must all get +out,--we must all get out;" whereupon Mr Callaloo, a sort of Dominie +Sampson in his way, promptly leaped overboard up to his waist in the +water. The negroes were thunderstruck. + +"Massa Parson Callaloo, you mad surely, you mad!" + +"Children, I am not mad, but obedient--you said we must all get out" + +"To be sure, massa, and you no see we all did get out?" + +"And did you not see that I got out too?" rejoined the parson, still in +the water, and somewhat nettled. + +"Oh, lud, massa! we no mean you--we meant poor nigger, not white man +parson." + +"You said all, children, and thereupon I leaped," pronouncing the last +word in two syllables--"be more correct in your grammar next time." + +The worthy but eccentric old chap then scrambled on board again, amidst +the suppressed laughter of the boatmen, and kept his seat, wet clothes and +all, until we reached Kingston. + + + +CHAPTER VII.--Scenes in Jamaica + + + 'Excellent--why this is the best fooling when all is done.' + + Twelfth Night, II. iii. 29--30. + + +I confess that I did not promise myself much pleasure from my cruise +ashore; somehow or other I had made up my mind to believe, that in +Jamaica, putting aside the magnificence and natural beauty of the face of +he country, there was little to interest me. I had pictured to myself the +slaves--a miserable, squalid, half fed, ill-clothed, over-worked +race--and their masters, and the white inhabitants generally, as an +unwholesome-looking crew of saffron faced tyrants, who wore straw hats +with umbrella brims, wide trowsers, and calico jackets, living on pepper +pot and land crabs, and drinking sangaree and smoking cigars the whole +day; in a word, that all that Bryan Edwards and others had written +regarding the civilisation of the West Indies was a fable. But I was +agreeably undeceived; for although I did meet with some extraordinary +characters, and witnessed not a few rum scenes, yet, on the whole, I +gratefully bear witness to the great hospitality of the inhabitants, both +in the towns and in the country. In Kingston the society was exceedingly +good, as good, I can freely affirm, as I ever met with in any provincial +town anywhere; and there prevailed a warmth of heart, and a kindliness +both in the males and females of those families to which I had the good +fortune to be introduced, that I never experienced out of Jamaica. + +At the period I am describing, the island was in the hey-day of its +prosperity, and the harbour of Kingston was full of shipping. I had never +before seen so superb a mercantile haven; it is completely landlocked, and +the whole navy of England might ride in it commodiously. + +On the sea face it is almost impregnable, for it would be little short of +a miracle for an invading squadron to wind its way through the labyrinth +of shoals and reefs lying off the mouth of it, amongst which the channels +are so narrow and intricate, that at three or four points the sinking of a +sand barge would effectually block up all ingress; but, independently of +this, the entrance at Port Royal is defended by very strong works, the +guns ranging the whole way across, while, a little farther on, the +attacking ships would be exposed to a cross fire from the heavy metal of +the Apostles' Battery; and even assuming all these obstacles to be +overcome, and the passage into the harbour forced, before they could pass +the narrows to get up to the anchorage at Kingston, they would be blown +out of the water by a raking fire from sixty pieces of large cannon on +Fort Augusta, which is so situated that they would have to turn to +windward for at least half an hour, in a strait which, at the widest, +would not allow them to reach beyond musket-shot of the walls. +Fortunately, as yet Mr Canning had not called his New World into +existence, and the whole of the trade of Terra Firma, from Porto Cavello +down to Chagres, the greater part of the trade of the islands of Cuba and +San Domingo, and even that of Lima and San Blas, and the other ports of +the Pacific, carried on across the Isthmus of Darien, centred in Kingston, +the usual supplies through Cadiz being stopped by the advance of the +French in the Peninsula. The result of this princely traffic, more +magnificent than that of Tyre, was a stream of gold and silver flowing +into the Bank of England, to the extent of three millions of pounds +sterling annually, in return for British manufactures; thus supplying the +sinews of war to the government at home, and, besides the advantage of so +large a mart, employing an immense amount of British tonnage, and many +thousand seamen; and in numberless ways opening up new outlets to British +enterprise and capital. Alas! alas! where is all this now? The echo of +the empty stores might answer "where!" + +On arriving at Kingston, my first object was to seek out Mr the admiral's +agent, and one of the most extensive merchants in the place, in order to +deliver some letters to him, and get his advice as to my future +proceedings. Mr Callaloo undertook to be my pilot, striding along a-beam +of me, and leaving in his wake two serpentine dottings on the pavement +from the droppings of water from his voluminous coat-skirts, which had +been thoroughly soaked by his recent ducking. + +Every thing appeared to be thriving, and as we passed along, the hot sandy +streets were crowded with drays conveying goods from the wharfs to the +stores, and from the stores to the Spanish Posadas. The merchants of the +place, active, sharp-looking men, were seen grouped under the piazzas in +earnest conversation with their Spanish customers, or perched on the top +of the bales and boxes just landed, waiting to hook the gingham-coated, +Moorish-looking Dons, as they came along with cigars in their mouths, and +a train of negro servants following them with fire buckets on their heads, +filled with pesos fuertes. The appearance of the town itself was novel +and pleasing; the houses, chiefly of two stories, looked as if they had +been built of cards, most of them being surrounded with piazzas from ten +to fourteen feet wide, gaily painted green and white, and formed by the +roofs projecting beyond the brick walls or shells of the houses. On the +ground-floor these piazzas are open, and in the lower part of the town, +where the houses are built contiguous to each other, they form a covered +way, affording a most grateful shelter from the sun, on each side of the +streets, which last are unpaved, and more like dry river courses, than +thoroughfares in a Christian town. On the floor above, the balconies are +shut in with a sort of movable blinds, called "jealousies,' like large +bladed Venetian blinds, fixed in frames, with here and there a glazed sash +to admit light in bad weather when the blinds are closed. In the upper +part of the town the effect is very beautiful, every house standing +detached from its neighbour, in its little garden filled with vines, +fruittrees, stately palms, and cocoa-nut trees, with a court of negro +houses and offices behind, and a patriarchal-looking draw-well in the +centre, generally overshadowed by a magnificent wild tamarind. When I +arrived at the great merchant's place of business, I was shown into a +lofty cool room, with a range of desks along the walls, where a dozen +clerks were quill-driving. In the centre sat my man, a small sallow, yet +perfectly gentlemanlike personage. + +"Dat is massa" quoth my black usher. + +I accordingly walked up to him, and presented my letter. He never lifted +his head from his paper, which I had half a mind to resent; but at the +moment there was a bustle in the piazza, and a group of naval officers, +amongst whom was the admiral, came in. My silent friend was now alert +enough, and profuse of his bows and smiles. + +"Who have we here? Who is that boy, L----?" said the admiral to his +secretary. + +"Young Cringle, sir; the only one except Mr Splinter saved from the Torch; +he was first on the Admiralty list t'other day." + +"What, the lad Willoughby spoke so well of?" + +"The same, sir; he got his promotion by last packet." + +"I know, I know. I say, Mr Cringle, you are appointed to the Firebrand, do +you know that?"--I did not know it, and began to fear my cruise on shore +was all up.--"But I don't look for her from Havanna for a month; so leave +your address with L----, that you may get the order to join when she does +come." + +It appeared that I had seen the worst of the agent, for he gave me a very +kind invitation to stay some days with him, and drove me home in his +ketureen, a sort of sedan chair with the front and sides knocked out, and +mounted on a gig body. + +Before dinner we were lounging about the piazza, and looking down into the +street, when a negro funeral came past, preceded by a squad of drunken +black vagabonds, singing and playing on gumbies, or African drums, made +out of pieces of hollow trees, about six feet long, with skins braced +over them, each carried by one man, while another beats it with his open +hands. The coffin was borne along on the heads of two negroes--a negro +carries every thing on his head, from a bale of goods to a wine-glass or +tea-cup. It is a practice for the bearers, when they come near the house +of any one against whom the deceased was supposed to have had a grudge, to +pretend that the coffin will not pass by, and in the present case, when +they came opposite to where we stood, they began to wheel round and round, +and to stagger under their load, while the choristers shouted at the top +of their lungs. + +"We beg you, shipmate, for come along--do, broder, come away;" then +another reel. "What, you no wantee go in a hole, eh? You hab grudge +against somebody lif here, eh?"--Another devil of a lurch "Massa----'s +housekeeper, eh? Ah, it must be!"--A tremendous stagger--"Oh, Massa----, +dollar for drink; someting to hold play [negro wake] in Spring-path, +[the negro burying-ground;] Bediacko say him won't pass 'less you give +it." And here they began to spin round more violently than before; but at +the instant a drove of bullocks coming along, they got entangled amongst +them, and down went body and bearers and all, the coffin bursting in the +fall, and the dead corpse, with its white grave-clothes and black face, +rolling over and over in the sand amongst the feet of the cattle. It was +immediately caught up, however, bundled into the coffin again, and away +they staggered, drumming and singing as loudly as before. + +The party at dinner was a large one; every thing in good style, wines +superb, turtle, &c., magnificent, and the company exceedingly +companionable. A Mr Francis Fyall, (a great planting attorney, that is, +an agent for a number of proprietors of estates, who preferred living in +England, and paying a commission to him for managing in Jamaica, to facing +the climate themselves,) to whom I had an introduction, rather posed me, +by asking me during dinner, if I would take any thing in the long way with +him, which he explained by saying he would be glad to take a glass of +small beer with me. This, after a deluge of Madeira, Champagne, and all +manner of light wines, was rather trying; but I kept my countenance as +well I could. One thing I remember struck me as remarkable; just as we +were rising to go to the drawing-room, a cloud of winged ants burst in +upon us through the open windows, and had it not been for the glass-shades +would have extinguished the candles; but when they had once settled on the +table, they deliberately wriggled themselves free of their wings, as one +would cast off a great-coat, and crept away in their simple and more +humble capacity of creeping things. + +Next day I went to wait on my relation, Mrs Palma. I had had a +confoundedly hot walk through the burning sand streets, and was nearly +blinded by the reflection from them, as I ascended the front stairs. +There are no carpets in the houses in Jamaica; but the floors, which are +often mahogany, are beautifully polished, and shine like a well-kept +dinner table. They are, of course, very slippery, and require wary +walking till one gets accustomed to them. The rooms are made exceedingly +dark during the heat of the day, according to the prevailing practice in +all ardent climates. A black footman, very handsomely dressed, all to his +bare legs, (I thought at first he had black silk stocking on,) preceded +me, and when he reached the drawing-room door, asked my name. I told him, +"Mr Cringle,"--whereupon he sung out, to my dismay--"Massa Captain +Ringtail to wait pan Misses." + +This put me out a little--especially as I heard some one say "Captain +who--what a very odd name?" + +But I had no time for reflection, as I had not blundered three steps out +of the glare of the piazza, into the palpable obscure of the darkened +drawing-room, black as night from the contrast, when I capsized headlong +over an ottoman in the middle of the apartment, and floundered right into +the centre of a group of young ladies, and one or two lapdogs, by whom it +was conjointly occupied. Trying to recover myself, I slipped on the +glasslike floor, and came down stern foremost; and being now regularly at +the slack end, for I could not well get lower, I sat still, scratching my +caput in the midst of a gay company of morning visitors, enjoying the +gratifying consciousness that I was distinctly visible to them, although +my dazzled optics could as yet distinguish nothing. To add to my +pleasurable sensations, I now perceived, from the coldness of the floor, +that in MY downfall the catastrophe of my unmentionables had been +grievously rent, but I had nothing for it but sitting patiently still +amidst the suppressed laughter of the company, until I became accustomed +to the twilight, and they, like bright stars, began to dawn on my +bewildered senses in all their loveliness, and prodigiously handsome women +some of' them were, for the Creoles, so far as figure is concerned, are +generally perfect, while beautiful features are not wanting, and my travel +had reconciled me to the absence of the rose from their cheeks. My eldest +cousin Mary (where is there a name like Mary?) now approached; she and I +were old friends, and many a junketing we used to have in my father's +house during the holydays, when she was a boarding-school girl in +England. My hardihood and self-possession returned, under the double +gratification of seeing her, and the certainty that my blushes (for my +cheeks were glowing like hot iron) could not have been observed in the +subdued green light that pervaded the room.--"Well, Tom, since you are no +longer dazzled, and see us all now, you had better get up, hadn't you--you +see mamma is waiting there to embrace you?" + +"Why, I think myself I had better;--but when I broached--to so suddenly, +I split my lower canvass, Mary, and I cannot budge until your mother lends +me a petticoat." + +"A what? you are crazy, Tom" + +"Not a whit, not a whit, why I have split my--ahem. This is speaking +plain, an't it?" + +Away tripped the sylph-like girl, and in a twinkling reappeared with the +desired garment, which in a convulsion of laughter she slipped over my +head as I sat on the floor; and having fastened it properly round my +waist, I rose and paid my respects to my warm hearted relations. But that +petticoat--it could not have been the old woman's, there could have been +no such virtue in an old woman's petticoat; no, no, it must either have +been a charmed garment, or--Mary's own; for from that hour I was a lost +man, and the devoted slave of her large black eyes, and high pale +forehead. "Oh, murder you speak of the sun dazzling; what is it to the +lustre of that same eye of yours, Mary!" + +In the evening I escorted the ladies to a ball, (by the way, a West India +ball-room being a perfect lantern, open to the four winds of heaven, is +cooler, notwithstanding the climate, than a ball-room anywhere else,) +and a very gay affair it turned out to be, although I had more trouble in +getting admittance than I bargained for, and was witness to as comical a +row (considering the very frivolous origin of it, and the quality of the +parties engaged in it) as ever took place even in that peppery country, +where, I verily believe, the temper of the people, generous though it be +in the main, is hotter than the climate, and that, God knows! is +soporiferous enough. I was walking through the entrance saloon with my +fair cousin on my arm, stepping out like a hero to the opening crash of a +fine military band, towards the entrance of the splendid ball-room filled +with elegant company, brilliantly lighted up and ornamented with the most +rare and beautiful shrubs and flowers, which no European conservatory +could have furnished forth, and arched overhead with palm branches and a +profusion of evergreens, while the polished floor, like one vast mirror, +reflected the fine forms of the pale but lovely black-eyed and black +haired West Indian dames, glancing amidst the more sombre dressed of their +partners, while the whole group was relieved by being here and there +spangled with a rich naval or military uniform. As we approached, a +constable put his staff across the doorway. + +"Beg pardon, sir, but you are not in full dress." + +Now this was the first night whereon I had sported my lieutenant's +uniform, and with my gold swab on my shoulder, the sparkling bullion +glancing in the corner of my eye at the very moment, my dress-sword by my +side, gold buckles in my shoes, and spotless white trowsers, I had, in my +innocence, considered myself a deuced killing fellow, and felt proportion +ably mortified at this address. + +"No one can be admitted in trowsers, sir," said the man. + +"Shiver my timbers!" I could not help the exclamation, the transactions of +the morning crowding on my recollection; "shiver my timbers! is my fate in +this strange country to be for ever irrevocably bound up in a pair of +breeches?" + +My cousin pinched my arm.--"Hush, Tom; go home and get mamma's petticoat." + +The man was peremptory; and as there was no use in getting into a squabble +about such a trifle, I handed my partner over to the care of a gentleman +of the party, who was fortunately accoutred according to rule, and, +stepping to my quarters, I equipped myself in a pair of tight nether +integuments, and returned to the ball-room. By this time there was the +devil to pay; the entrance saloon was crowded with military and naval men, +high in oath, and headed by no less a person than a general officer, and a +one-armed man, one of the chief civil officers in the place, and who had +been a sailor in his youth. I was just in time to see the advance of the +combined column to the door of the ball-room, through which they drove +the picket of constables like chaff, and then halted. The one-armed +functionary, a most powerful and very handsome man, now detached himself +from the phalanx, and strode up to the advanced guard of stewards +clustered in front of the ladies, who had shrunk together into a corner of +the room, like so many frightened hares. + +The place being now patent to me, I walked up to comfort my party, and +could see all that passed. The champion of the Excluded had taken the +precaution to roll up the legs of his trowsers, and to tie them tightly at +the knee with his garters, which gave him the appearance of a Dutch +skipper; and in all the consciousness of being now properly arrayed, he +walked up to one of the men in authority--a small pot bellied gentleman, +and set himself to intercede for the attacking column, the head of which +was still lowering at the door. But the little steward speedily +interrupted him. + +"Why, Mr Singlefist, rules must be maintained, and let me see," here he +peered through his glass at the substantial supporters of our friend,--"as +I live, you yourself are inadmissible." + +The giant laughed. + +"Damn the body, he must have been a tailor!--Charge, my fine fellows, and +throw the constables out of the window, and the stewards after them. +Every man his bird; and here goes for my Cock Robin." With that he made a +grab at his Lilliputian antagonist, but missed him, as he slid away +amongst the women like an eel, while his pursuer, brandishing his wooden +arm on high, to which I now perceived, for the first time, that there was +a large steel hook appended, exclaimed in a broad Scotch accent, "Ah, if I +had but caught the creature, I would have clapt this in his mouth, and +played him like a salmon." + +At this signal, in poured the mass of soldiers and sailors; the constables +vanished in an instant; the stewards were driven back upon the ladies; and +such fainting and screaming, and swearing and threatening, and shying of +cards, and fixing of time and place for a cool turn in the morning, it had +never been my good fortune to witness before or since. My wig! thought I, +a precious country, where a man's life may be periled by the fashion of +the covering to his nakedness! + +Next day, Mr Fyall, who, I afterwards learned, was a most estimable man +in substantials, although somewhat eccentric in small matters, called and +invited me to accompany him on a cruise amongst some of the estates under +his management. This was the very thing I desired, and three days +afterwards I left my kind friends in Kingston, and set forth on my visit +to Mr Fyall, who lived about seven miles from town.. + +The morning was fine as usual, although about noon the clouds, thin and +fleecy and transparent at first, but gradually settling down more dense +and heavy, began to congregate on the summit of the Liguanea Mountains, +which rise about four miles distant, to a height of near 5000 feet, in +rear of the town. It thundered too a little now and then in the same +direction, but this was an every-day occurrence in Jamaica at this +season, and as I had only seven miles to go, off I started in a gig of +mine host's, with my portmanteau well secured under a tarpawlin, in +defiance of all threatening appearances, crowding sail, and urging the +noble roan that had me in tow close upon thirteen knots. I had not gone +above three miles, however, when the sky in a moment changed from the +intense glare of a tropical noontide to the deepest gloom, as if a bad +angel had suddenly overshadowed us, and interposed his dark wings between +us and the blessed sun; indeed, so instantaneous was the effect, that it +reminded me of the withdrawing of the foot-lights in a theatre. The road +now wound round the base of a precipitous spur from the Liguanea +Mountains, which, instead of melting onto the level country by gradual +decreasing undulations, shot boldly out nearly a mile from the main range, +and so abruptly, that it seemed mortised into the plain, like a rugged +promontory running into a frozen lake. On looking up along the ridge of +this prong, I saw the lowering mass of black clouds gradually spread out, +and detach themselves from the summits of the loftier mountains, to which +they had clung the whole morning, and begin to roll slowly down the hill, +seeming to touch the tree tops, while along their lower edges hung a +fringe of dark vapour, or rather shreds of cloud in rapid motion, that +shifted about, and shot out and shortened like streamers. + +As yet there was no lightning nor rain, and in the expectation of escaping +the shower, as the wind was with me, I made more sail, pushing the horse +into a gallop, to the great discomposure of the negro who sat beside me. + +"Massa, you can't escape it, you are galloping into it; don't massa hear +de sound of de rain coming along against de wind, and smell de earthy +smell of him like one new-made grave?" + +"The sound of the rain." In another clime, long, long ago, I had often +read at my old mother's knee, "And Elijah said unto Ahab, there is a sound +of abundance of rain, prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the +rain stop thee not; and it came to pass, in the meanwhile, that the heaven +was dark with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain." + +I looked, and so it was, for in an instant a white sheet of the heaviest +rain I had ever seen (if rain it might be called, for it was more like a +water-spout) fell from the lower edge of the black cloud, with a strong +rushing noise, that increased as it approached to a loud roar like that of +a waterfall. As it came along, it seemed to devour the rocks and trees, +for they disappeared behind the watery screen the instant it reached them. + +We saw it a-head of us for more than a mile coming along the road, +preceded by a black line from the moistening of the white dust, right in +the wind's eye, and with such an even front, that I verily believe it was +descending in bucketsful on my horse's head, while as yet not one drop had +reached me. At this moment the adjutant-general of the forces, Colonel +F----, of the Coldstream Guards, in his tandem, drawn by two sprightly +blood bays, with his servant, a light boy, mounted Creole fashion on the +leader, was coming up in my wake at a spot where the road sank into a +hollow, and was traversed by a watercourse already running knee deep, +although dry as a bone but the minute before. + +I was now drenched to the skin, the water pouring out in cascades from +both sides of the vehicle, when just as I reached the top of the opposite +bank, there was a flash of lightning so vivid, accompanied by an explosion +so loud and tremendous, that my horse, trembling from stem to stem, stood +dead still; the dusky youth by my side jumped out, and buried his snout in +the mud, like a porker in Spain nuzzling for acorns, and I felt more +queerish than I would willingly have confessed to. I could have knelt and +prayed. The noise of the thunder was a sharp ear-piercing crash, as if +the whole vault of heaven had been made of glass, and had been shivered at +a blow by the hand of the Almighty. + +It was, I am sure, twenty seconds before the usual roar and rumbling +reverberation of the report from the hills, and among the clouds, was +heard. + +I drove on, and arrived just in time to dress for dinner, but I did not +learn till next day, that the flash which paralysed me, had struck dead +the Colonel's servant and leading horse, as he ascended the bank of the +ravine, by this time so much swollen, that the body of the lad was washed +off the road into the neighbouring gully, where it was found, when the +waters subsided, entirely covered with sand. + +I found the party congregated in the piazza around Mr Fyall, who was +passing his jokes, without much regard to the feelings of his guests, and +exhibiting as great a disregard of the common civilities and courtesies of +life as can well be imagined. One of the party was a little red-faced +gentleman, Peregrine Whiffle, Esquire, by name who, in Jamaica parlance, +was designated an extraordinary master in Chancery; the overseer of the +pen, or breeding farm, in the great house as it is called, or mansionhouse +of which Mr Fyall resided, and a merry, laughing, intelligent, round, +red-faced man, with a sort of Duncan Knockdunder nose, through the wide +nostrils of which you could see a cable's length into his head; he was +either Fyall's head clerk, or a sort of first lieutenant; these personages +and myself composed the party. The dinner itself was excellent, although +rather of the rough and round order; the wines and food intrinsically +good; but my appetite was not increased by the exhibition of a deformed, +bloated negro child, about ten years old, which Mr Fyall planted at his +elbow, and, by way of practical joke, stuffed to repletion with all kinds +of food and strong drink, until the little dingy brute was carried out +drunk. + +The wine circulated freely, and by and by Fyall indulged in some +remarkable stories of his youth, for he was the only speaker, which I +found some difficulty in swallowing, until at length, on one thumper being +tabled, involving an impossibility, and utterly indigestible, I +involuntarily exclaimed, "by Jupiter!" + +"You want any ting, massa?" promptly chimed in the black servant at my +elbow, a diminutive kiln-dried old negro. + +"No," said I, rather caught. + +"Oh, me tink you call for Jupiter." + +I looked in the baboon's face--"Why, if I did; what then?" + +"Only me Jupiter, at massa service, dat all." + +"You are, eh, no great shakes of a Thunderer; and who is that tall square +man standing behind your master's chair?" + +"Daddy Cupid, massa." + +"And the old woman who is carrying away the dishes in the piazza?" + +"Mammy Weenus." + +"Daddy Cupid, and Mammy Weenus--Shade of Homer!" + +Jupiter, to my surprise, shrunk from my side, as if he had received a +blow, and the next moment I could hear him communing with Venus in the +piazza. + +"For true, dat leetle man-of-war buccra must be Obeah man: how de debil +him come to sabe dat it was stable-boy Homer who broke de candle shade on +massa right hand, dat one wid de piece broken out of de edge?" and here he +pointed towards it with his chin--a negro always points with his chin. + +I had never slept on shore out of Kingston before; the night season in the +country in dear old England, we all know, is usually one of the deepest +stillness--here it was any thing but still;--as the evening closed in, +there arose a loud humming noise, a compound of the buzzing, and chirping, +and whistling, and croaking of numberless reptiles and insects, on the +earth, in the air, and in the water. I was awakened out of my first sleep +by it, not that the sound was disagreeable, but it was unusual; and every +now and then a beetle, the size of your thumb, would bang in through the +open window, cruise round the room with a noise like a humming-top, and +then dance a quadrille with half-a-dozen bats; while the fire-flies +glanced like sparks, spangling the folds of the muslin curtains of the +bed. The croak of the tree-toad, too, a genteel reptile, with all the +usual loveable properties of his species, about the size of the crown of +your hat, sounded from the neighbouring swamp, like some one snoring in +the piazza, blending harmoniously with the nasal concert got up by +Jupiter, and some other heathen deities, who were sleeping there almost +naked, excepting the head, which every negro swathes during the night with +as much flannel and as many handkerchiefs as he can command. By the way, +they all slept on their faces--I wonder if this will account for their +flat noses. + +Next morning we started at daylight, cracking along at the rate of twelve +knots an hour in a sort of gig, with one horse in the shafts, and another +hooked on a-breast of him to a sort of studdingsail-boom, or outrigger, +and followed by three mounted servants, each with a led horse and two +sumpter mules. + +In the evening we arrived at an estate under Mr Fyall's management, having +passed a party of maroons immediately before. I never saw finer men tall, +strapping fellows, dressed exactly as they should be and the climate +requires; wide duck trowsers, over these a loose shirt, of duck also, +gathered at the waist by a broad leathern belt, through which, on one +side, their short cutlass is stuck, while on the other hangs a leathern +pouch for ball, and a loose thong across one shoulder, supports, on the +opposite hip, a large powder-horn and haversack. This, with a straw hat, +and a short gun in their hand, with a sling to be used on a march, +completes their equipment--in better keeping with the climate, than the +padded coats, heavy caps, tight cross-belts, and ponderous muskets of our +regulars. As we drove up to the door, the overseer began to bawl, "Boys, +boys!" and kept blowing a dog-call. All servants in the country in the +West Indies, be they as old as Methuselah, are called boys. In the +present instance, half-a-dozen black fellows forthwith appeared, to take +our luggage, and attend on massa in other respects. The great man was +as austere to the poor overseer, as if he had been guilty of some +misdemeanour, and after a few short, crabbed words, desired him to get +supper, "do you hear?" + +The meat consisted of plantation fare-salted fish, plantains and yams, +and a piece of goat mutton. Another "observe,"--a South Down mutton, +after sojourning a year or two here, does not become a goat exactly, but +he changes his heavy warm fleece, and wears long hair; and his progeny +after him, if bred on the hot plains, never assume the wool again. Mr +Fyall and I sat down, and then in walked four mutes, stout young fellows, +not over-well dressed, and with faces burnt to the colour of brick-dust. +They were the bookkeepers, so called because they never see a book, their +province being to attend the negroes in the field, and to superintend the +manufacture of sugar and rum in the boiling and distilling-houses. + +One of them, the head bookkeeper, as he was called, appeared literally +roasted by the intensity of the sun's rays. + +"How is Baldy Steer?" said the overseer to this person. + +"Better to-day, sir--I drenched him with train--oil and sulphur." + +"The devil you did," thought I--"alas! for Baldy." "And Mary, and +Caroline, and the rest of that lot?" "Are sent to Perkin's Red Rover, sir; +but I believe some of them are in calf already by Bullfinch--and I have +cut Peter for the lampas." The knife and fork dropped from my hands. +"What can all this mean? is this their boasted kindness to their slaves? +One of a family drenched with train-oil and brimstone, another cut for +some horrible complaint never heard of before, called lampas, and the +females sent to the Red Rover, some being in calf already!" But I soon +perceived that the baked man was the cowboy or shepherd of the estate, +making his report of the casualties amongst his bullocks, mules, and +heifers. + +"Juliet Ridge will not yield, sir," quoth another. + +"Who is this next? a stubborn concern she must be." + +"The liquor is very poor." Here he helped himself to rum and water, the +rum coming up about an inch in the glass, regular half and half, fit to +float a marlinspike. + +"It is more than yours is," thought I; and I again stared in wonderment, +until I perceived he spoke of the juice of a cane patch. + +At this time a tall, lathy gentleman came in, wearing a most original cut +coatee. He was a most extraordinary built man; he had absolutely no body, +his bottom being placed between his shoulders, but what was wanted in +corpus was made up in legs, indeed he looked like a pair of compasses, +buttoned together at the shoulders, and supporting a yellow phiz half a +yard long, thatched with a fell of sandy hair, falling down lank and +greasy on each side of his face. Fyall called him Buckskin, which, with +some other circumstances, made me guess that he was neither more nor less +than an American smuggler. + +After supper, a glass of punch was filled for each person, the overseer +gave a rap on the table with his knuckles, and off started the +bookkeepers, like shots out of shovels, leaving the Yankee, Mr Fyall, the +overseer, and myself, at table. + +I was very tired, and reckoned on going to bed now--but no such thing. +Fyall ordered Jupiter to bring a case from his gig-box, containing some +capital brandy. A new brewage of punch took place, and I found about the +small hours that we were all verging fast towards drunkenness, or +something very like that same. The Yankee was specially plied by Fyall, +evidently with an object, and he soon succeeded in making him helplessly +drunk. + +The fun now "grew fast and furious,"--a large wash-tub was ordered in, +placed under a beam at the corner of the room, and filled with water; a +sack and a three-inch rope were then called for, and promptly produced by +the blackies, who, apparently accustomed to Fyall's pranks, grinned with +delight.--Buckskin was thrust into the sack, feet foremost; the mouth of +it was then gathered round his throat with a string, and I was set to +splice a bight in the rope, so as to fit under his arms without running, +which might have choked him. All things being prepared, the slack end was +thrown over the beam. He was soused in the tub, the word was given to +hoist away, and we ran him up to the roof, and then belayed the rope round +the body of the overseer, who was able to sit on his chair, and that was +all. The cold bath, and the being hung up to dry, speedily sobered the +American, but his arms being within the sack, he could do nothing for his +own emancipation; he kept swearing, however, and entreating, and dancing +with rage, every jerk drawing the cord tighter round the waist of the +overseer, who, unaware of his situation, thought himself bewitched as he +was drawn with violence by starts along the floor, with the chair as it +were glued to him. At length the patient extricated one of his arms, and +laying hold of the beam above him, drew himself up, and then letting go +his hold suddenly, fairly lifted the drunken overseer, chair and all, +several feet from the ground, so as to bring him on a level with himself, +and then, in mid air, began to pummel his counterpoise with right +goodwill. At length, fearful of the consequences from the fury into which +the man had worked himself, Fyall and I dashed out the candles, and fled +to our rooms, where, after barricading the doors, we shouted to the +servants to let the gentlemen down. + +The next morning had been fixed for duck-shooting, and the overseer and I +were creeping along amongst the mangrove bushes on the shore, to get a +shot at some teal, when we saw our friend the pair of compasses crossing +the small bay in his boat, towards his little pilotboat-built schooner, +which was moored in a small creek opposite, the brushwood concealing every +thing but her masts. My companion, as wild an Irishman as I ever knew, +hailed him,-- + +"Hillo, Obadiah--Buckskin--you Yankee rascal, heave-to. Come ashore +here--come ashore." + +Obed, smoking his pipe, deliberately uncoiled himself--I thou as he rose, +there was to be no end of him--and stood upright in the boat, like an +ill-rigged jurymast. + +"I say, Master Tummas, you ben't no friend of mine, I guess, a'ter last +night's work; you hears how I coughs?"--and he began to wheezle and crow +in a most remarkable fashion. + +"Never mind," rejoined the overseer; "if you go round that point, and put +up the ducks--by the piper, but I'll fire at you!" + +Obed neighed like a horse expecting his oats, which was meant as a laugh +of derision. "Do you think your birding-piece can touch me here away, +Master Tummas?" And again he nichered more loudly than before. + +"Don't provoke me to try, you yellow snake, you!" + +"Try, and be d----d, and there's a mark for thee," unveiling a certain part +of his body, not his face. + +The overseer, or bushes, to give him his Jamaica name, looked at me and +smiled, then coolly lifted his long Spanish barrel, and fired. Down +dropped the smuggler, and ashore came the boat. + +"I am mortally wounded, Master Tummas," quoth Obed; and I was +confoundedly frightened at first, from the unusual proximity of the +injured part to his head; but the overseer, as soon as he could get off +the ground, where he had thrown himself in an uncontrollable fit of +laughter, had the man stripped and laid across a log, where he set his +servant to pick out the pellets with a penknife. + +Next night I was awakened out of my first sleep by a peculiar sort of +tap, tap, on the floor, as if a cat with walnut shells had been moving +about the room. The feline race, in all its varieties, is my detestation, +so I slipped out of bed to expel the intruder; but the instant my toe +touched the ground, it was seized as if by a smith's forceps. I drew it +into bed, but the annoyance followed it; and in an agony of alarm and +pain, I thrust my hand down, when my thumb was instantly manacled to the +other suffering member. I now lost my wits altogether, and roared murder, +which brought a servant in with a light, and there I was, thumb and toe, +in the clinch of a land-crab. + +I had been exceedingly struck with the beauty of the negro villages on the +old settled estates, which are usually situated in the most picturesque +spots, and I determined to visit the one which lay on a sunny bank full in +view from my window, divided on two sides from the cane pieces by a +precipitous ravine, and on the other two by a high logwood hedge, so like +hawthorn, that I could scarcely tell the difference, even when close to it. + +At a distance it had the appearance of one entire orchard of fruit trees, +where were mingled together the pyramidal orange, in fruit and in flower, +the former in all its stages from green to dropping ripe,--the citron, +lemon, and lime-trees, the stately, glossy-leaved star-apple, the +golden shaddock and grape-fruit, with their slender branches bending +under their ponderous yellow fruit,--the cashew, with its apple like +those of the cities of the plain, fair to look at, but acrid to the taste, +to which the far-famed nut is appended like a bud,--the avocada, with its +brobdignag pear, as large as a purser's lantern,--the bread-fruit, with a +leaf, one of which would have covered Adam like a bishop's apron, and a +fruit for all the world in size and shape like a blackamoor's head; while +for underwood you had the green, fresh, dew-spangled plantain, round +which in the hottest day there is always a halo of coolness,--the coco +root, the yam and granadillo, with their long vines twining up the +neighbouring trees and shrubs like hop tendrils,--and peas and beans, in +all their endless variety of blossom and of odour, from the Lima bean, +with a stalk as thick as my arm, to the mouse pea, three inches high,--the +pineapple, literally growing in, and constituting, with its prickly +leaves, part of the hedgerows,--the custard-apple, like russet bags of +cold pudding,--the cocoa and coffee bushes, and the devil knows what all, +that is delightful in nature besides; while aloft, the tall graceful +cocoa-nut, the majestic palm, and the gigantic wild cotton-tree, shot up +here and there like minarets far above the rest, high into the blue +heavens. + +I entered one of the narrow winding footpaths, where an immense variety of +convolvuli crept along the penguin fences, disclosing their delicate +flowers in the morning freshness, (all that class here shut shop at noon,) +and passion flowers of all sizes, from a soup plate to a thumb ring. + +The huts were substantially thatched with palm leaves, and the walls woven +with a basket-work of twigs, plastered over with clay, and whitewashed; +the floors were of baked clay, dry and comfortable. They all consisted of +a hall and a sleeping-room off each side of it: in many of the former I +noticed mahogany sideboards and chairs, and glass decanters, while a whole +lot of African drums and flutes, and sometimes a good gun, hung from the +rafters; and it would have gladdened an Irishman's heart to have seen the +adjoining piggeries. Before one of the houses an old woman was taking +care of a dozen black infants, little naked, glossy, black guinea pigs, +with party coloured beads tied round their loins, each squatted like a +little Indian pagod in the middle of a large wooden bowl, to keep it off +the damp ground. + +While I was pursuing my ramble, a large conch-shell was blown at the +overseer's house, and the different gangs turned in to dinner; they came +along, dancing and shouting, and playing tricks on each other in the +little paths, in all the happy anticipation of a good dinner, and an hour +and a half to eat it in, the men well clad in Osnaburg frocks and +trowsers, and the women in baize petticoats and Osnaburg shifts, with a +neat printed calico short gown over all. + +"And these are slaves," thought I, "and this is West Indian bondage! Oh +that some of my well-meaning anti-slavery friends were here, to judge +from the evidence of their own senses!" + +The following night there was to be a grand play or wake in the negro +houses, over the head cooper, who had died in the morning, and I +determined to be present at it, although the overseer tried to dissuade +me, saying that no white person ever broke in on these orgies, that the +negroes were very averse to their doing so, and that neither he, nor any +of the white people on the estate, had ever been present on such an +occasion. This very interdict excited my curiosity still more; so I rose +about midnight, and let myself gently down through the window, and shaped +my course in the direction of the negro houses, guided by a loud drumming, +which, as I came nearer, every now and then sunk into a low murmuring +roll, when a strong bass voice would burst forth into a wild recitative; +to which succeeded a loud piercing chorus of female voices, during which +the drums were beaten with great vehemence; this was succeeded by another +solo, and so on. There was no moon, and I had to thread my way along one +of the winding footpaths by starlight. When I arrived within a +stone-cast of the hut before which the play was being held, I left the +beaten track, and crept onwards, until I gained the shelter of the stem of +a wild cotton-tree, behind which I skulked unseen. + +The scene was wild enough. Before the door a circle was formed by about +twenty women, all in their best clothes, sitting on the ground, and +swaying their bodies to and fro, while they sung in chorus the wild dirge +already mentioned, the words of which I could not make out; in the centre +of the circle sat four men playing on gumbies, or the long drum formerly +described, while a fifth stood behind them, with a conch-shell, which he +kept sounding at intervals. Other three negroes kept circling round the +outer verge of the circle of women, naked all to their waist cloths, +spinning about and about with their hands above their heads, like so many +dancing dervishes. It was one of these three that from time to time took +up the recitative, the female chorus breaking in after each line. Close +to the drummers lay the body in an open coffin, supported on two low +stools or trestles; a piece of flaming resinous wood was stuck in the +ground at the head, and another at the feet; and a lump of kneaded clay, +in which another torchlike splinter was fixed, rested on the breast. An +old man, naked like the solo singer, was digging a grave close to where +the body lay. The following was the chant:-- + +"I say, broder, you can't go yet." + +THEN THE CHORUS OF FEMALE VOICES + +"When de morning star rise, den we put you in a hole." + +CHORUS AGAIN + + +"Den you go in a Africa, you see Fetish dere." + +CHORUS + +"You shall nyam goat dere, wid all your family." + +CHORUS + +"Buccra can't come dere; say, dam rascal, why you no work?" + +CHORUS + +"Buccra can't catch Duppy, no, no." + +CHORUS + +Three calabashes, or gourds, with pork, yams, and rum, were placed on a +small bench that stood close to the head of the bier, and at right angles +to it. + +In a little while, the women, singing-men, and drummers, suddenly gave a +loud shout, or rather yell, clapped their hands three times, and then +rushed into the surrounding cottages, leaving the old grave-digger alone +with the body. + +He had completed the grave, and had squatted himself on his hams beside +the coffin, swinging his body as the women had done, and uttering a low +moaning sound, frequently ending in a loud pech, like that of a paviour +when he brings down his rammer. + +I noticed he kept looking towards the east, watching, as I conjectured, +the first appearance of the morning star, but it was yet too early. + +He lifted the gourd with the pork, and took a large mouthful. + +"How is dis? I can't put dis meat in Quacco's coffin, dere is salt in de +pork; Duppy can't bear salt," another large mouthful--"Duppy hate salt too +much,"--here he ate it all up, and placed the empty gourd in the coffin. +He then took up the one with boiled yam in it, and tasted it also. + +"Salt here too--who de debil do such a ting?--must not let Duppy taste +dat." He discussed this also, placing the empty vessel in the coffin as he +had done with the other. He then came to the calabash with the rum. +There is no salt there, thought I. + +"Rum! ah, Duppy love rum--if it be well strong, let me see Massa Niger, +who put water in a dis rum, eh? Duppy will never touch dat"--a long +pull--"no, no, never touch dat." Here he finished the whole, and placed +the empty vessel beside the others; then gradually sunk back on his hams +with his mouth open, and his eyes starting from the sockets, as he peered +up into the tree, apparently at some terrible object. I looked up also, +and saw a large yellow snake, nearly ten feet long, let itself gradually +down directly over the coffin, between me and the bright glare, (the +outline of its glossy mottled skin glancing in the strong light, which +gave its dark opaque body the appearance of being edged with flame, and +its glittering tongue, that of a red hot wire,) with its tail round a limb +of the cottontree, until its head reached within an inch of the dead man's +face, which it licked with its long forked tongue, uttering a loud hissing +noise. + +I was fascinated with terror, and could not move a muscle; at length the +creature slowly swung itself up again, and disappeared amongst the +branches. + +Quashie gained courage, as the rum began to operate, and the snake to +disappear. "Come to catch Quaccols Duppy, before him get to Africa, sure +as can be. De metody parson say de debil old sarpant--dat must be old +sarpant, for I never see so big one, so it must be debil." + +He caught a glimpse of my face at this moment; it seemed that I had no +powers of fascination like the snake, for he roared out, "Murder, murder, +de debil, de debil, first like a sarpent, den like himself; see him white +face behind de tree; see him white face behind de tree;" and then, in the +extremity of his fear, he popt, head foremost, into the grave, leaving his +quivering legs and feet sticking upwards, as if he had been planted by the +head, like a forked parsnip reversed. + +At this uproar, a number of negroes ran out of the nearest houses, and, to +my surprise, four white seamen appeared suddenly amongst them, who, the +moment they got sight of my uniform, as I ran away, gave chase, and having +overtaken me, as I stumbled in the dark path, immediately pinioned me. +They were all armed, and I had no doubt were part of the crew of the +smuggling schooner, and that they had a depot amongst the negro houses. + +"Yo ho, my hearty, heave-to, or here goes with a brace of bullets." + +I told them who I was, and that curiosity alone brought me there. + +"Gammon, tell that to the marines; you're a spy, messmate, and on board +you go with us, so sure as I be Paul Brandywine." + +Here was a change with a vengeance. An hour before I was surrounded by +friends, and resting comfortably, in my ward bed, and now I was a prisoner +to a set of brigands, who were smugglers at the best, and what might they +not be at the worst? I had no chance of escape by any sudden effort of +strength or activity, for a piece of a handspike had been thrust across my +back, passing under both of my arms, which were tightly lashed to it, as +if I had been trussed for roasting, so that I could no more run, with a +chance of escape, than a goose without her pinions. After we left the +negro houses, I perceived, with some surprise, that my captors kept the +beaten tract, leading directly to, and past the overseer's dwelling. +"Come, here is a chance, at all events," argued I to myself. "If I get +within hail, I will alarm the lieges, if a deuced good pipe don't fail +me." + +This determination had scarcely been framed in my mind, when, as if my +very thoughts had been audible, the smuggler next me on the right hand +drew a pistol, and held it close to my starboard ear. + +"Friend, if you tries to raise the house, or speaks to any Niger, or other +person we meets, I'll walk through your skull with two ounces of lead." + +"You are particularly obliging," said I; "but what do you promise +yourselves by carrying me off? Were you to murder me, you would be none +the richer; for I have no valuables about me, as you may easily ascertain +by searching me." + +"And do you think that freeborn Americans like we have kidnapped you for +your dirty rings, and watch, and mayhap a few dollars, which I takes you +to mean by your waluboles, as you calls them?" + +"Why, then, what, in the devil's name, have you kidnapped me for?" And I +began to feel my choler overpowering my discretion, when Mr Paul +Brandywine, who I now suspected to be the mate of the smuggler, took the +small liberty of jerking the landyard, that had been made fast to the +middle of the handspike, so violently, that I thought both my shoulders w +ere dislocated; for I was fairly checked down on my back, just as you may +have seen a pig-merchant on the Fermoy road bring an uproarious boar to +his marrowbones; while the man who had previously threatened to blow my +brains out, knelt beside me, and civilly insinuated, that "if I was tired +of my life, he calculated I had better speak as loud again." + +There was no jest in all this; so I had nothing for it but to walk +silently along with my escort, after having gathered myself up as well as +I could. We crept so close under the windows of the overseer's house, +where we picked up a lot of empty ankers, slung on a long pole, that I +fancied I heard, or really did hear, some one snore--oh how I envied the +sleeper! At length we reached the beach, where we found two men lying on +their oars, in what, so far as I could distinguish, appeared to be a sharp +swift-looking whale boat, which they kept close to, with her head +seaward, however, to be ready for a start should any thing suspicious +appear near to them. + +The boat-keeper hailed promptly, "Who goes there?" as they feathered +their oars. + +"The tidy little Wave," was the answer. + +No more words passed, and the men who had, in the first instance, pulled a +stroke or two to give the boat way, now backed water, and tailed her on to +the beach, when we all stepped on board. + +Two of my captors now took each an oar; we shoved off, and glanced away +through the darkness, along the smooth surface of the sparkling sea, until +we reached the schooner, by this time hauled out into the fairway at the +mouth of the cove, where she lay hove short, with her mainsail hoisted +up, riding to the land-wind, and apparently all ready to cants and be off +the moment the boat returned. + +As we came alongside, the captain of her, my friend Obediah, as I had no +difficulty in guessing, from his very out of the way configuration, dark +as it was, called out, "I says, Paul, who have you got in the +starn-sheets there?" + +"A bloody spy, captain; he who was with the overseer when he peppered your +sheathing t'other morning." + +"Oho, bring him on board--bring him on board. I knows there be a +man-of-war schooner close aboard of the island somewheres hereabouts. I +sees through it all, smash my eyes!--I sees through it. But what kept +you, Paul? Don't you see the morning star has risen?" + +By this time I stood on the deck of the little vessel, which was no above +a foot out of the water; and Obediah, as he spoke, pointed to the small +dark pit of a companion, for there was no light below, nor indeed anywhere +on board, except in the binnacle, and that carefully masked, indicating by +his threatening manner, that I was to get below as speedily as possible. + +"Don't you see the morning star, sir? Why, the sun will be up in an hour, +I calculate, and then the sea-breeze will be down on us before we get any +thing of an offing." + +The mention of the morning star recalled vividly to my recollection the +scene I had so recently witnessed at the negro wake; it seemed there was +another person beside poor Quacco, likely to be crammed into a hole before +the day broke, and to be carried to Africa too, for what I knew; but one +must needs go when the devil drives, so I slipped down into the cabin, and +the schooner having weighed, made sail to the northward. + + + +CHAPTER VIII.--The Chase of the Smuggler + + + Would I were in an alehouse in London, + I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.' + + Henry V, III. II. 12--13. + + +The crib in which I was confined was as dark as pitch, and, as I soon +found, as hot as the black-hole in Calcutta. I don't pretend to be +braver than my neighbours, but I would pluck any man by the beard who +called me coward. In my small way I had in my time faced death in various +shapes; but it had always been above board, with the open heaven overhead, +and generally I had a goodly fellowship in danger, and the eyes of others +were upon me. No wonder, then, that the sinking of the heart within me, +which I now experienced for the first time, was bitter exceedingly, and +grievous to be 'borne. Cooped up in a small suffocating cabin, scarcely +eight feet square, and not above four feet high, with the certainty of +being murdered, as I conceived, were I to try to force my way on deck, and +the knowledge that all my earthly prospects, all my dreams of promotion, +were likely to be blasted, and for ever ruined by my sudden spiriting away, +not to take into the heavy tale the misery which my poor mother and my +friends must suffer, when they came to know it--and "who will tell this to +thee, Mary?" rose to my throat, but could get no farther for a cursed bump +that was like to throttle me. Why should I blush to own it--when the +gipsy, after all, junked an old rich goutified coffee-planter at the +eleventh hour, and married me, and is now the mother of half-a-dozen +little Cringles or so? However, I made a strong effort to bear my +misfortunes like a man, and, folding my arms, I sat down on a chest to +abide my fate, whatever that might be, with as much composure as I could +command, when half-a-dozen cockroaches flew flicker against my face. + +For the information of those who have never seen this delicious insect, I +take leave to mention here, that, when full grown, it is a large dingy +brown-coloured beetle, about two inches long, with six legs, and two f +eelers as long as its body. It has a strong anti-hysterical flavour, +something between rotten cheese and assafoetida, and seldom stirs aboard +when the sun is up, but lies concealed in the most obscure and obscene +crevices it can creep into; so that, when it is seen, its wings and body +are thickly covered with dust and dirt of various shades, which any culprit +who chances to fall asleep with his mouth open, is sure to reap the benefit +of, as it has a great propensity to walk into it, partly for the sake of +the crumbs adhering to the masticators, and also, apparently, with a +scientific desire to inspect, by accurate admeasurement with the aforesaid +antennae, the state and condition of the whole potato trap. + +At the same time I felt something gnawing the toe of my boot, which I +inferred to be a rat--another agreeable customer for which I had a special +abhorrence; but, as for beetles of all kinds, from my boyhood up, they had +been an abomination unto me, and a cockroach is the most abominable of all +beetles; so between the two I was speedily roused from my state of supine, +or rather dogged endurance; and, forgetting the geography of my position, I +sprung to my feet, whereby I nearly fractured my skull against the low deck +above. I first tried the skylight; it was battened down--then the companion +hatch; it was locked--but the ladder leading up to it being cooler than the +noisome vapour bath I had left, I remained standing in it, trying to catch +a mouthful of fresh air through the joints of the door. All this while we +had been slipping along shore with the land-wind on our beam, at the rate +of five or six knots, but so gently and silently, that I could distinctly +hear the roar of the surf, as the long smooth swell broke on the beach, +which, from the loudness of the noise, could not be above a mile to +windward of us. I perceived at the same time that the schooner, although +going free, did not keep away nor take all the advantage of the land-wind +to make his easting, before the sea-breeze set down, that he might have +done, so that it was evident he did not intend to beat up, so as to fetch +the Crooked Island Passage, which would have been his course, had he been +bound for the States; but was standing over to the Cuba shore, at that time +swarming with pirates. + +It was now good daylight, and the terral gradually died away, and left us +rolling gunwale under, as we rose and fell on the long seas, with our sails +flapping, bulkheads creaking and screaming, and mainboom jig-jigging, as +if it would have torn every thing to pieces. I could hear my friend Obed +walking the deck, and whistling manfully for the sea-breeze, and +exclaiming from time to time in his barbarous lingo, "Souffle, souffle, San +Antonio." But the saint had no bowels, and there we lay roasting until near +ten o'clock in the forenoon. During all this period, Obed, who was +shortsighted, as I learned afterwards, kept desiring his right arm, Paul +Brandywine, to keep a bright look-out for the sea-breeze to windward, or +rather to the eastward, for there was no wind--because he knowed it +often times tumbling down right sudden and dangerous at this season about +the corner of the island hereabouts; and the pride of the morning often +brought a shower with it, fit to level a maize plat smooth as his hand. + +"No black clouds to windward yet, Paul?" + +Paul could see nothing, and the question was repeated three or four times. + +"There is a small black cloud about the size of my hand to windward, sir, +right in the wake of the sun, just now, but it won't come to any thing; I +sees no signs of any wind." + +"And Elijah said to his servant, Go up now, and look towards the sea, and +he went up and looked, and said there is nothing; and he said go again +seven times, and it came to pass the seventh time, that he said behold +there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." + +I knew what this foreboded, which, as I thought, was more than friend Obed +did; for he shortened no sail, and kept all his kites abroad, for no use as +it struck me, unless he wished to wear them out by flapping against the +masts. He was indeed a strange mixture of skill and carelessness; but, +when fairly stirred up, one of the most daring and expert and +self-possessed seamen I had ever seen, as very soon had an ugly +opportunity of ascertaining. + +The cloud on the horizon continued to rise rapidly, spreading over the +whole eastern sky, and the morning began to lower very ominously; but there +was no sudden squall, the first of the breeze coming down as usual in cats' +paws, and freshening gradually; nor did I expect there would be, although +I was certain it would soon blow a merry capful of wind, which might take +in some of the schooner's small sails, and pretty considerably bother us, +unless we could better our offing speedily, for it blew right on shore, +which, by the setting in of the sea-breeze, was now close under our lee. + +At length the sniffler reached us, and the sharp little vessel began to +speak, as the rushing sound through the water is called; while the wind +sang like an Eolian harp through the taut weather-rigging. Presently I +heard the word given to take in the two gaff-topsails and flying jib, +which was scarcely done, when the moaning sound roughened into a roar, and +the little vessel began to yerk at the head seas, as if she would have cut +through them, in place of rising to them, and to lie over, as if Davy Jones +himself had clapperclawed the mast heads, and was in the act of using them +as levers to capsize her, while the sails were tugging at her, as if they +would have torn the spars out of her, so that I expected every moment, +either that she would turn over, keel up, or that the masts would snap +short off by the deck. + +All this, which I would without the smallest feeling of dread, on the +contrary with exhilaration, have faced cheerily on deck in the course of +duty, proved at the time, under my circumstances, most alarming and painful +to me; a fair-strae death out of the maintop, or off the weather-yard +arm, would to my imagination have been an easy exit comparatively; but to +be choked in this abominable hole, and drowned darkling like a blind +puppy--the very thought made me frantic, and I shouted and tumbled about, +until I missed my footing and fell backwards down the ladder, from the +bottom of which I scuttled away to the lee-side of the cabin, quiet, +through absolute despair and exhaustion from the heat and closeness. + +I had remarked that from the time the breeze freshened, the everlasting +Yankee drawling of the crew, and the endless confabulation of the captain +and his mate, had entirely ceased, and nothing was now heard on deck but +the angry voice of the raging elements, and at intervals a shrill piercing +word or two from Obed, in the altered tone of which I had some difficulty +in recognising his pipe, which rose clear and distinct above the roar of +the sea and wind, and was always answered by a prompt, sharp, "ay, ay, +sir," from the men. There was no circumlocution, nor calculating, nor +guessing now, but all hands seemed to be doing their duty energetically and +well. "Come, the vagabonds are sailors after all, we shan't be swamped +this turn;" and I resumed my place on the companion ladder, with more ease +of mind, and a vast deal more composure, than when I was pitched from it +when the squall came on. In a moment after I could hear the captain sing +out, loud even above the howling of the wind and rushing of the water, +"There it comes at last--put your helm hard a-port-down with it, Paul, +down with it, man-luff, and shake the wind out of her sails, or over we +goes, clean and for ever.' Everything was jammed, nothing could be let go, +nor was there an axe at hand to make short work with the sheets and +haulyards; and for a second or two I thought it was all over, the water +rushing half way up her decks, and bubbling into the companion through the +crevices; but at length the lively little craft came gaily to the wind, +shaking her plumage like a wild duck; the sails were got in, all to the +foresail, which was set with the bonnet off, and then she lay-to like a +seagull, without shipping a drop of water. In the comparative stillness I +could now distinctly hear every word that was said on deck. + +"Pretty near it; rather close shaving that same, captain," quoth Paul, with +a congratulatory chuckle; "but I say, sir, what is that wreath of smoke +rising from Annotta Bay over the headland?" + +"Why, how should I know, Paul? Negroes burning brush, I guess." + +"The smoke from brushwood never rose and flew over the bluff with that +swirl, I calculate; it is a gun, or I mistake." + +And he stepped to the companion for the purpose, as I conceived, of taking +out the spy-glass, which usually hangs there in brackets fitted to hold +it; he undid the hatch and pushed it back, when I popped my head out, to +the no small dismay of the mate; but Obed was up to me, and while with one +hand he seized the glass, he ran the sliding top sharp up against my neck, +till he pinned me into a kind of pillory, to my great annoyance; so I had +to beg to be released, and once more slunk back into my hole. There was a +long pause; at length Paul, to whom the skipper had handed the spy-glass, +spoke. + +"A schooner, sir, is rounding the point." + +As I afterwards learned, the negroes who had witnessed my capture, +especially the old man who had taken me for his infernal majesty, had +raised the alarm, so soon as they could venture down to the overseer's +house, which was on the smuggling boat shoving off, and Mr Fyall +immediately despatched an express to the Lieutenant commanding the Gleam, +then lying in Annotta Bay, about ten miles distant, when she instantly +slipped and shoved out. + +"Well, I can't help it if there be," rejoined the captain. Another pause. + +"Why, I don't like her, sir; she looks like a man-of-war-and that must +have been the smoke of the gun she fired on weighing.' + +"Eh?" sharply answered Obed, "if it be, it will be a hanging matter if we +are caught with this young splice on board; he may belong to her for what I +know. Look again, Paul." + +A long, long look. + +"A man-of-war schooner, sure enough, sir; I can see her ensign and +pennant, now that she is clear of the land." + +"Oh Lord, oh Lord!" cried Obed, in great perplexity, "what shall we do?" + +"Why, pull foot, Captain," promptly replied Paul; "the breeze has lulled, +and in light winds she will have no chance with the tidy little Wave." + +I could now perceive that the smugglers made all sail, and I heard the +frequent swish--swish of the water, as they threw bucketfuls on the sails, +to thicken them and make them hold more wind, while we edged away, keeping +as close to the wind, however, as we could, without stopping her way. + +"Starboard," quoth Obed--"rap full, Jem--let her walk through it, my +boy--there, main and foresail, flat as boards; why, she will stand the +main-gaff-topsail yet--set it, Paul, set it;" and his heart warmed as he +gained confidence in the qualifications of his vessel. "Come, weather me +now, see how she trips it along--poo, I was an ass to quail, wan't I, +Paul?" + +No chance, now, thought I, as I descended once more; "I may as well go and +be suffocated at once." I knocked my foot against something, in stepping +off the ladder, which, on putting down my hand, I found to be tinder-box, +with steel and flint. I had formerly ascertained there was a candle in the +cabin, on the small table, stuck into a bottle; so I immediately struck a +light, and as I knew that meekness and solicitation, having been tried in +vain, would not serve me, I determined to go on the other tack, and to see +how far an assumption of coolness and self-possession, or, it might be, a +dash of bravado, whether true or feigned, might not at least ensure me some +consideration and better treatment from the lawless gang into whose hands I +had fallen. + +So I set to and ransacked the lockers, where, amongst a vast variety of +miscellaneous matters, I was not long in finding a bottle of very tolerable +rum, some salt junk, some biscuit, and a goglet or porous earthen jar of +water, with some capital cigars. By this time I was like to faint with the +heat and smell; so I filled a tumbler with good half-and-half and swigged +it off. The effect was speedy; I thought I could eat a bit, so I attacked +the salt junk and made a hearty meal, after which I replenished my tumbler, +lighted a cigar, pulled off my coat and waistcoat, and, with a sort of +desperate glee, struck up at the top of my pipe, "Ye Mariners of England." +My joviality was soon noticed on deck. + +"Eh, what be that?" quoth Obed,--"that be none of our ditties, I guess? who +is singing below there?' + +"We be all on deck, sir,' responded Paul. + +"It can't be the spy, eh?--sure enough it must be he, and no one else; the +heat and choke must have made him mad." + +"We shall soon see," said Paul, as he removed the skylight, and looked down +into the cabin. + +Obed looked over his shoulder, peering at me with his little short-sighted +pig's eyes, into which, in my pot valiancy, I immediately chucked half a +tumbler of very strong grog, and under cover of it attempted to bolt +through the scuttle, and thereby gain the deck; but Paul, with his shoulder +of mutton fist, gave me a very unceremonious rebuff, and down I dropped +again. + +"You makes yourself at home, I sees, and be hanged to you," said Obed, +laying the emphasis on the last word, pronouncing it "yoo--oo" in two +syllables. + +"I do, indeed, and be d----d to yoo--oo," I replied; "and why should I not? +the visit was not volunteered, you know so come down, you long-legged +Yankee smuggling scoundrel, or I'll blow your bloody buccaneering craft out +of the water like the peel of an onion. You see I have got the magazine +scuttle up, and there are the barrels of powder, and here is the candle, +so"-- + +Obed laughed like the beginning of the bray of the jackass before he swings +off into his "heehaw, heehaw."--"Smash my eyes, man, but them barrels be +full of pimento, all but that one with the red mark, and that be crackers +fresh and sharp from the Brandywine mills." + +"Well, well, gunpowder or pimento, I'll set fire to it if you don't be +civil." + +"Why, I will be civil; you are a curious chap, a brave slip, to carry it +so, with no friend near; so, civil I will be." + +He unlocked the companion hatch and came down to the cabin, doubling his +long limbs up like foot-rules, to suit the low roof. + +"Free and easy, my man," continued the Captain, as he entered. "Well, I +forgive you--we are quits now--and if we were not beyond the Island Craft, +I would put you ashore, but I can't stand back now." "Why, may I ask?" +"Simply, because one of your men-of-war schooners an't more than hull +down astarn of me at this moment; she is working up in shore, and has not +chased me as yet; indeed she may save herself the trouble, for ne'er a +schooner in your blasted service has any chance with the tidy little Wave." + +I was by no means so sure of this. + +"Well Master Obediah, it may turn up as you say, and in a light wind, I +know you will either sail or sweep away from any one of them; but, to be on +the square with you, if it comes on to blow, that same hooker, which I take +to be his Britannic Majesty's schooner Gleam, will, from his greater beam, +and superior length, out carry and forereach on you, ay, and weather on you +too, hand over hand; so this is my compact--if he nails you, you will +require a friend at court, and I will stand that friend; if you escape--and +I will not interfere either by advice or otherwise, either to get you taken +or to get you clear will you promise to put me on board of the first +English merchant vessel we fall in with, or, at the longest, to land me at +St Jago de Cuba, and I will promise you, on my honour, notwithstanding all +that has been said or done, that I will never hereafter inform against you, +or in any way get you into trouble if I can help it. Is it done? Will you +ive me your hand upon it?" + +Obed did not hesitate a moment; he clenched my hand, and squeezed it till +the blood nearly spouted from my finger-ends; one might conceive of +Norwegian bears greeting each other after this fashion, but I trust no +Christian will ever, in time coming, subject my digits to a similar species +of torture. + +"Agreed, my boy, I have promised, and you may depend on me; smuggler though +I be, and somewhat worse on occasion mayhap, I never breaks my word." + +There was an earnestness about the poor fellow, in which I thought there +could be no deception, and from that moment we were on what I may call a +very friendly footing for a prisoner and his jailer. + +"Well, now, I believe you, so let us have a glass of grog, and"-- + +Here the mate sung out, "Captain, come on deck, if you please; quickly, +sir, quickly." + +By this time it had begun to breeze up again, and as the wind rose, I could +see the spirits of the crew fell, as if conscious they had no chance if it +freshened. When we went on deck, Paul was still peering through the +telescope. + +"The schooner has tacked, sir." A dead silence; then giving the glass a +swing, and driving the joints into each other, with such vehemence as if he +would have broken them in pieces, he exclaimed, "She is after us, so sure +as I ben't a niger." + +"No! is she though?" eagerly enquired the captain, as he at length seized +the spy-glass, twisting and turning it about and about, as he tried to hit +his own very peculiar focus. At length he took a long, long, breathless +look, while the eyes of the whole crew, some fifteen hands or so, were +riveted upon him with the most intense anxiety. + +"What a gaff-topsail she has got--my eye!--and a ringtail with more cloths +in it than our squaresail--and the breeze comes down stronger and +stronger!" + +All this while I looked out equally excited, but with a very different +interest. "Come, this will do,' thought I; 'she is after us; and if old +Dick Casket brings that fiery sea-breeze he has now along with him, we +shall puzzle the smuggler, for all his long start." + +"There's a gun, sir," cried Paul, trembling from head to foot. + +"Sure enough," said the skipper; "and it must be a signal. And there go +three flags at the fore.--She must, I'll bet a hundred dollars, have taken +our tidy little Wave for the Admiral's tender that was lying in Morant +Bay." + +"Blarney," thought I; "tidy as your little Wave is, she won't deceive old +Dick--he is not the man to take a herring for a horse; she must be making +signals to some man-of-war in sight." + +"A strange sail right a-head," sung out three men from forward all at +once. + +"Didn't I say so?"--I had only thought so. "Come, Master Obediah, it +thickens now, you're in for it," said I. + +But he was not in the least shaken; as the matter grew serious, he seemed +to brace up to meet it. He had been flurried at the first, but he was +collected and cool as a cucumber now, when he saw every thing depending on +his seamanship and judgment. Not so Paul, who seemed to have made up his +mind that they must be taken. + +"Jezebel Brandywine, you are but a widowed old lady, I calculate. I shall +never see the broad, smooth Chesapeake again--no more peach brandy for +Paul;" and folding his arms, he set himself doggedly down on the low +tafferel. + +Little did I think at the time how fearfully the poor fellow's foreboding +was so soon to be fulfilled. + +"There again," said I, "a second puff to windward." This was another signal +gun I knew; and I went forward to where the captain was reconnoitring the +sail a-head through the glass. "Let me see," said I, "and I will be +honest with you, and tell you if I know her." + +He handed me the glass at once, and the instant I saw the top of her +courses above the water, I was sure, from the red cross in her foresail, +that she was the Firebrand, the very corvette to which I was appointed. +She was so well to windward, that I considered it next to impossible that +we should weather her, but Obediah seemed determined to try it. After +seeing his little vessel snug under mainsail, foresail, and jib, which was +as much as she could stagger under, and every thing right and tight, and +all clear to make more sail should the breeze lull, he ordered the men +below, and took the helm himself. What queer animals sailors are! We were +rising the corvette fast; and on going aft again from the bows, where I had +been looking at her, I cast my eye down the hatchway into the men's berth, +and there were the whole crew at breakfast, laughing and joking, and +enjoying themselves, as heartily, apparently, nay, I verily believe in +reality, as if they had been in a yacht on a cruise of pleasure, in place +of having one enemy nearly within gunshot astern, and another trying to cut +them off ahead. + +At this moment the schooner in chase luffed up in the wind, and I noticed +the foot of the foresail lift. "You'll have it now, friend Obed; there's +at you in earnest." While I spoke, a column of thick white smoke spouted +over the bows of the Gleam, about twenty yards to windward, and then blew +back again amongst the sails and rigging, as if a gauze veil had for an +instant been thrown over the little vessel, rolling off down the wind to +leeward, in whirling eddies, growing thinner and thinner, until it +disappeared altogether. I heard the report this time, and the shot fell +close alongside of us. + +"A good mark with that apple," coolly observed the Captain; "the Long Tom +must be a tearer, to pitch its mouthful of iron this length." + +Another succeeded; and if I had been still pinned up in the companion, +there would have been no log now, for it went crash through +into the hold. + +"Go it, my boys," shouted I; "a few more as well aimed, and heigh for the +Firebrand's gunroom!" + +At the mention of the Firebrand I thought Obed started, but he soon +recovered himself, and looking at me with all the apparent composure in the +world, he smiled as he said, "Not so fast, Lieutenant; you and I have not +drank our last glass of swizzle yet, I guess. If I can but weather that +chap ahead, I don't fear the schooner." + +The corvette had by this time answered the signal from the Gleam, and had +hauled his wind also, so that I did not conceive it possible that the Wave +could scrape clear, without coming under his broadside. + +"You won't try it, Obed, surely?' + +"Answer me this, and I'll tell you," rejoined he. "Does that corvette now +carry long 18's or 32-pound carronades?" + +"She carries 32-pound carronades.' + +"Then you'll not sling your cot in her gunroom this cruise." + +All this time the little Wave was carrying to it gallantly, her jib-boom +bending like whalebone, and her long slender topmasts whipping about like a +couple of fishing-rods, as she thrashed at it, sending the spray flashing +over her mastheads at every pitch; but notwithstanding her weatherly +qualities, the heavy cross sea, as she drove into it, headed her off +bodily, and she could not prevent the Gleam from creeping up on her weather +quarter, where she peppered away from her long 24-pounder, throwing the +shot over and over us. + +To tack, therefore, would have been to run into the lion's mouth, and to +bear up was equally hopeless, as the corvette, going free, would have +chased her under water; the only chance remaining was to stand on, and +trust to the breeze taking off, and try to weather the ship, now about +three miles distant on our lee bow, braced sharp up on the opposite tack, +and evidently quite aware of our game. + +As the corvette and the Wave neared each other, he threw a shot at us from +the boat gun on his topgallant forecastle, as if to ascertain beyond all +doubt the extent of our insanity, and whether we were serious in our +attempt to weather him and escape. + +Obed held right on his course, like grim Death. Another bullet whistled +over our mastheads, and, with the aid of the glass, I could see by the +twinkling of feet, and here and there a busy peering face through the +ports, that the crew were at quarters fore and aft, while fourteen marines +or so were all ready rigged on the poop, and the nettings were bristling +through the whole length of the ship, with fifty or sixty small-arm men. + +All this I took care to communicate to Obediah. "I say, my good friend, I +see little to laugh at in all this. If you do go to windward of him at +all, which I greatly doubt, you will have to cross his fore-foot within +pistol-shot at the farthest, and then you will have to rasp along his +whole broadside of great and small, and they are right well prepared and +ready for you, that I can tell you; the skipper of that ship has had some +dedication, I guess, in the war on your coast, for he seems up to your +tricks, and I don't doubt but he will tip you the stem, if need be, with as +little compunction as I would kill a cockroach, devil confound the whole +breed! There,--I see his marines and small-arm men handling their +firelocks, as thick as sparrows under the lee of a hedge in a snow-storm, +and the people are training the bull-dogs fore and aft. Why, this is +downright, stark staring lunacy, Obed; we shall be smashed like an +eggshell, and all hands of us whipped off to Davy, from your cursed +foolhardiness." + +I had made several pauses in my address, expecting an answer, but Obed was +mute as a stone. At length I took the glass from my eye, and turned round +to look at him, startled by his silence. + +I might have heard of such things, but I had never before seen the working +of the spirit so forcibly and fearfully demonstrated by the aspect of the +outward man. With the exception of myself, he was the only man on deck, as +before mentioned, and by this time he was squatted down on it, with his +long legs and thighs thrust down into the cabin, through the open skylight. +The little vessel happened to carry a weather helm, so that his long sinewy +arms, with their large veins and leaders strained to cracking, covered but +a small way below the elbow by his jacket, were stretched as far as they +could clutch the tiller to windward, and his enormous head, supported on +his very short trunk, that seemed to be countersunk into the deck, gave him +a most extraordinary appearance. But this was not all; his complexion, +usually sallow and sunburnt, was now ghastly and blue, like that of the +corpse of a drowned man; the muscles of the neck, and the flesh of the +cheeks and chin were rigid and fixed, and shrunk into one half of their +usual compass; the lips were so compressed that they had almost entirely +disappeared, and all that marked his mouth was a black line; the nostrils +were distended, and thin and transparent, while the forehead was shrivelled +into the most minute and immovable wrinkles, as if done with a crimping +instrument while over his eyes, or rather his eye, for he kept +one closed as if it had been hermetically sealed, he had lashed with half a +dozen turns of spun-yarn a wooden socket, like the but-end of an opera +glass, fitted with some sort of magnifier, through which he peered out +ahead most intensely, stooping down, and stretching his long bare neck to +its utmost reach, that he might see under the foot of the foresail. + +I had scarcely time to observe all this, when a round shot came through the +head of the mainsail, grazing the mast, and the very next instant a bushel +of grape, from one of the bow guns, a 32-pound carronade, was crashed in +on us amidships. I flung down the glass, and dived through the companion +into the cabin--I am not ashamed to own it; and any man who would +undervalue my courage in consequence, can never, taking into consideration +the peculiarities of my situation, have known the appalling sound, or +infernal effect of a discharge of grape. Round shot in broadsides is a +joke to it; musketry is a joke to it; but only conjure up in your +imagination, a shower of iron bullets, of the size of well-grown plums, to +the number of from sixty to one hundred and twenty, taking effect within a +circle, not above ten feet in diameter, and that all this time there was +neither honour nor glory in the case, for I was a miserable captive, and I +fancy I may save myself the trouble of farther enlargement. + +I found that the crew had by this time started and taken up the planks of +the cabin floor, and had stowed themselves well down into the run, so as to +be as much out of harm's way as they could manage, but there was neither +fear nor flinching amongst them; and although totally devoid of all +gasconade--on the contrary, they had taken all the precautions men could do +in their situation, to keep out of harm's way, or at least to lessen the +danger--there they sat, silent, and cool, and determined. "I shall never +undervalue an American as an enemy again," thought I. I lay down on the +side of the little vessel, now nearly level as she lay over, alongside of +Paul Brandywine, in a position that commanded a view of Obed's face through +the small scuttle. Ten minutes might have elapsed--a tearing crash--and a +rattle on the deck overhead, as if a shower of stones had been thrown from +aloft on it. + +"That's through the mainmast, I expect," quoth Paul. + +I looked from him to the Captain; a black thick stream of blood was +trickling down behind his ear. Paul had noticed it also. + +"You are hurt by one of them splinters, I see; give me the helm now, +Captain;" and, crushed down as the poor fellow appeared to be under some +fearful and mysterious consciousness of impending danger, he nevertheless +addressed himself to take his Captain's place. + +"Hold your blasted tongue"--was the polite rejoinder. + +"I say, Captain,"--shouted your humble servant, "you may as well eat pease +with a pitchfork, as try to weather him. You are hooked, man, flounder as +you will. Old Nick can't shake you clear--so I won't stand this any +longer;" and making a spring, I jammed myself through the skylight, until I +sat on the deck, looking aft, and confronting him, and there we were, stuck +up like the two kings of Brentford, or a couple of smiling cherries on one +stalk. I have often laughed over the figure we must have cut, but at the +time there was that going on that would have made Comus himself look grave. +I had at length fairly aroused the sleeping devil within him. + +"Look out there, Lieutenant--look out there,"--and he pointed with his +sinister claw down to leeward. I did so--whew!--what a sight for poor +Master Thomas Cringle! "You are booked for an outside place, Master +Tommy," thought I to myself--for there was the corvette in very truth--she +had just tacked, and was close aboard of us on our lee quarter, within +musket-shot at the farthest, bowling along upon a wind, with the green, +hissing, multitudinous sea surging along her sides, and washing up in foam, +like snow flakes, through the mid-ship ports, far aft on the quarterdeck, +to the glorification of jack, who never minds a wet jacket, so long as he +witnesses the discomfiture of his ally, Peter Pipeclay. The press of +canvass she was carrying laid her over, until her copper sheathing, clear +as glass, and glancing like gold, was seen high above the water, throughout +her whole length, above which rose her glossy jet black bends, surmounted +by a milk-white streak, broken at regular intervals into eleven goodly +ports, from which the British cannon, ugly customers at the best, were +grinning, tompion out, open-mouthed at us; and above all, the clean, +well-stowed white hammocks filled the nettings, from tafferel to cathead +oh! that I had been in one of them, snug on the berth deck! Aloft, a cloud +of white sail swelled to the breeze, till the cloth seemed inclined to say +goodby to the bolt ropes, bending the masts like willow-wands, as if the +devil, determined to beat Paganini himself, was preparing fiddlesticks to +play a spring with, on the cracking and straining weather shrouds and +backstays, and tearing her sharp wedge-like bows out of the bowels of the +long swell, until the cutwater, and ten yards of the keel next to it, were +hove clean out of the sea, into which she would descend again with a +roaring plunge, burying every thing up to the hause-holes, and driving the +brine into mist, over the fore-top, like vapour from a waterfall, through +which, as she rose again, the bright red copper on her bows flashed back +the sunbeams in momentary rainbows. We were so near, that I could with the +naked eye distinctly see the faces of the men. There were at least 150 +determined fellows at quarters, and clustered with muskets in their hands, +wherever they could be posted to most advantage. + +There they were in groups about the ports, (I could even see the captains +of the guns, examining the locks,) in their clean white frocks and +trowsers, the officers of the ship, and the marines, clearly +distinguishable by their blue or red jackets. I could discern the very +sparkle of the epaulets. + +High overhead, the red cross, that for a thousand years "has braved the +battle and the breeze," blew out strong from the peak, like a sheet of +flickering white flame, or a thing instinct with life, struggling to tear +away the ensign haulyards, and to escape high into the clouds; while, from +the main-royal-masthead, the long white pennant streamed upwards into the +azure heavens, like a ray of silver light. Oh! it was a sight "most +beautiful to see," as the old song hath it,-----but I confess I would have +preferred that pleasure from t'other side of the hedge. + +There was no hailing nor trumpeting, although, as we crossed on opposite +tacks when we first weathered her, just before she hove in stays, I had +heard a shrill voice sing out, "Take good aim, men--Fire"; but now each +cannon in thunder shot forth its glance of flame, without a word being +uttered, as she kept away to bring them to bear in succession, while the +long feathery cloud of whirling white smoke that shrouded her sides from +stem to stem, was sparkling brilliantly throughout with crackling musketry, +for all the world like fire-flies in a bank of night fog from the hills, +until the breeze blew it back again through the rigging, and once more +unveiled the lovely craft in all her pride and glory. + +"You see all that?' said Obed. + +"To be sure I do, and I feel something too'; for a sharp rasping jar was +repeated in rapid succession three or four times, as so many shot struck +our hull, and made the splinters glance about merrily; and the musketballs +were mottling our top sides and spars, plumping into the timber, whit whit! +as thick as ever you saw schoolboys' plastering a church door with +clay-pellets. There was a heavy groan, and a stir amongst the seamen in +the run. + +"And, pray, do you see and hear all that yourself, Master Obed? The iron +has clenched some of your chaps down there.--Stay a bit, you shall have a +better dose presently, you obstinate old"-- + +He waved his hand, and interrupted me with great energy--"I dare not give +in, I cannot give in; all I have in the world swims in the little hooker, +and strike I will not so long as two planks stick together. + +"Then," quoth I, "you are simply a damned, cold-blooded, calculating +scoundrel--brave I will never call you." I saw he was now stung to the +quick. + +"Lieutenant, smuggler as I am, don't goad me to what worse I may have been; +there are some deeds done in my time, which at a moment like this I don't +much like to think upon. I am a desperate man, Master Cringle; don't, for +your own sake, as well as mine, try me too far.' + +"Well but"--persisted I. He would hear nothing. + +"Enough said, sir, enough said; there was not an honester trader nor a +happier man in all the Union, until your infernal pillaging an burning +squadron in the Chesapeake captured and ruined me; but I paid it off on the +prize-master, although we were driven on the rocks after all. I paid it +off, and, God help me, I have never thriven since, enemy although he was. +I see the poor fellow's face yet, as I!"--He checked himself suddenly, as +if aware that he might say more than could be conveniently retracted. "But +I dare not be taken; let that satisfy you, Master Cringle, so go +below--below with you, sir"--I saw he had succeeded in lashing himself into +a fury--"or, by the Almighty God, who hears me, I shall be tempted to do +another deed, the remembrance of which will haunt me till my dying day." + +All this passed in no time, as we say, much quicker than one can read it; +and I now saw that the corvette had braced up sharp to the wind again, on +the same tack that we were on; so I slipped down like an eel, and once more +stretched myself beside Paul, on the lee side of the cabin. We soon found +that she was indeed after us in earnest, by the renewal of the cannonade, +and the breezing up of the small arms again. Two round shot now tore right +through the deck, just beneath the larboard coamings of the main hatchway; +the little vessel's deck, as she lay over, being altogether exposed to, the +enemy's fire, they made her whole frame tremble again, smashing every thing +in their way to shivers, and going right out through her bottom on the +opposite side, within a dozen streaks of her keel, while the rattling of +the clustered grapeshot every now and then made us start, the musketry all +the while peppering away like a hail shower. Still the skipper, who I +expected every moment to see puffed away from the tiller like smoke, held +upon deck as if he had been bullet-proof, and seemed to escape the hellish +tornado of missiles of all sorts and sizes by a miracle. + +"He is in league with the old one, Paul," said I; "howsoever, you must be +nabbed, for you see the ship is forereaching on you, and you can't go on +t'other tack, surely, with these pretty eyelet holes between wind and water +on the weather side there? Your captain is mad why will you, then, and all +these poor fellows, go down, because he dare not surrender, for some good +deed of his own, eh?" + +The roar of the cannon and noise of the musketry made it necessary for me +to raise my voice here, which the small scuttle, like Dionysius's ear, +conveyed unexpectedly to my friend, the captain, on deck. + +"Hand me up my pistols, Paul." + +It had struck me before, and I was now certain, that from the time he had +become so intensely excited as he was now, he spoke with a pure English +accent, without the smallest dash of Yankeeism. + +"So, so; I see--no wonder you won't strike, you renegade," cried I. + +"You have tampered with my crew, sir, and abused me," he announced, in a +stem, slow tone, much more alarming than his former fierceness, "so take +that, to quiet you;" and deuce take me if he did not, the moment he +received the pistols from his mate, fire slap at me, the ball piercing the +large muscle of my neck on the right side, missing the artery by the merest +accident. Thinking I was done for, I covered my face with my hands, and +commanded myself to God, with all the resignation that could be expected +from a poor young fellow in my grievous circumstances, expecting to be cut +off in the prima vera of his days, and to part for ever from--. Poo, that +there line is not my forte. However, finding the haemorrhage by no means +great, and that the wound was in fact slight, I took the captain's rather +strong hint to be still, and lay quiet, until a 32-pound shot struck us +bang on the quarter. The subdued force with which it came, showed that we +were widening our distance, for it did not drive through and through with a +crash, but lodged in a timber; nevertheless it started one of the planks +across which Paul and I lay, and pitched us both with extreme violence +bodily into the run amongst the men, three of them lying amongst the +ballast, which was covered with blood, two badly wounded, and one dead. I +came off with some slight bruises, however; not so the poor mate. He had +been nearest the end or but that was started, which thereby struck him so +forcibly, that it fractured his spine, and dashed him amongst his +shipmates, shrieking piercingly in his great agony, and clutching whatever +he could grasp with his hands, and tearing whatever he could reach with his +teeth, while his limbs below his waist were dead and paralysed. + +"Oh, Christ! water, water," he cried, "water, for the love of God, water!" +The crew did all they could; but his torments increased--the blood began to +flow from his mouth--his hands became clay--cold and pulseless--his +features sharp, blue, and death--like--his respiration difficult--the +choking death--rattle succeeded, and in ten minutes he was dead. + +This was the last shot that told--every report became more and more faint, +and the musketry soon ceased altogether. + +The breeze had taken off, and the Wave, resuming her superiority in light +winds, had escaped. + + + +CHAPTER IX.--Cuba Fishermen + + + "El Pescador de Puerto Escondido, + Pesca mas que Peseado, + Quando la Luna redonda Reflexado en la mar profunda. + Pero cuidado, + El pobre sera el nino perdido Si esta por Anglisman cogido. + Ay de mi". + + +It was now five in the afternoon, and the breeze continued to fall, and +the sea to go down, until sunset, by which time we had I run the +corvette hull down, and the schooner nearly out of sight. Right ahead +of us rose the high land of Cuba, to the westward of Cape Maize, clear +and well-defined against the northern sky; and as we neither hauled our +wind to weather the east end of the island, nor edged away for St Jago, +it was evident, beyond all doubt, that we were running right in for some +one of the piratical haunts on the Cuba coast. + +The crew now set to work, and removed the remains of their late +messmate, and the two wounded men, from where they lay upon the ballast +in the Run, to their own berth forward in the bow of the little vessel; +they then replaced the planks which they had started, and arranged the +dead body of the mate along the cabin floor, close to where I lay, faint +and bleeding, and more heavily bruised than I had at first thought. + +The captain was still at the helm; he had never spoken a word either to +me or any of the crew, since he had taken the trifling liberty of +shooting me through the neck, and no thanks to him that the wound was +not mortal; but he now resumed his American accent, and began to drawl +out the necessary orders for repairing damages. + +When I went on deck shortly afterwards, I was surprised beyond measure +to perceive the injury the little vessel had sustained, and the uncommon +speed, handiness, and skill, with which it had been repaired. However +lazily the command might appear to have been given, the execution of it +was quick as lightning. The crew, now reduced to ten working hands, +had, with an almost miraculous promptitude, knotted and spliced the +rigging, mended and shifted sails, fished the sprung and wounded spars, +and plugged and nailed lead over the shot-holes, and all within half an +hour. + +I don't like Americans; I never did, and never shall like them; I have +seldom met with an American gentleman, in the large and complete sense +of the terms. I have no wish to eat with them, drink with them, deal +with, or consort with them in any way; but let me tell the whole truth, +nor fight with them, were it not for the laurels to be acquired, by +overcoming an enemy so brave, determined, and alert, and every way so +worthy of one's steel, as they have always proved. One used to fight +with a Frenchman, as a matter of course, and for the fun of the thing as +it were, never dreaming of the possibility of Johnny Crapeau beating us, +where there was any thing approaching to an equality of force; but, say +as much as we please about larger ships and more men, and a variety of +excuses which proud John Bull, with some truth very often I will admit, +has pertinaciously thrust forward to palliate his losses during the +short war, a regard for truth and fair dealing, which I hope are no +scarce qualities amongst British seamen, compels me to admit, that +although I would of course peril my life and credit more readily with an +English crew, yet I believe a feather would turn the scale between the +two countries, so far as courage and seamanship goes; and let it not be +forgotten, although we have now regained our superiority in this +respect, yet, in gunnery and smallarm practice, we were as thoroughly +weathered on by the Americans during the war, as we overtopped them in +the bulldog courage with which our boarders handled those genuine +English weapons, the cutlass and the pike. + +After the captain had given his orders, and seen the men fairly at work, +he came down to the cabin, still ghastly and pale, but with none of that +ferocity stamped on his grim features, from the outpouring of which I +had suffered so severely. He never once looked my way, no more than if +I had been a bundle of old junk; but folding his hands on his knee, he +sat down on a small locker, against which the feet of the dead mate +rested, and gazed earnestly on his face, which was immediately under the +open skylight, through which, by this time, the clear cold rays of the +moon streamed full on it, the short twilight having already fled, +chained as it is in these climates to the chariot wheels of the burning +sun. My eye naturally followed his, but I speedily withdrew it. I had +often bent over comrades who had been killed by gunshot wounds, and +always remarked, what is well-known, that the features wore a benign +expression, bland and gentle, and contented as the face of a sleeping +infant, while their limbs were composed decently, often gracefully, like +one resting after great fatigue, as if nature, like an affectionate +nurse, had arranged the deathbed of her departing child with more than +usual care, preparatory to his last long sleep; whereas those who had +died from the thrust of a pike, or the blow of a cutlass, however mild +the living expression of their countenance might have been, were always +fearfully contorted both in body and face. + +In the present instance, the eyes were wide open, white, prominent, and +glazed like those of a dead fish; the hair, which was remarkably fine, +and had been worn in long ringlets, amongst which a large gold earring +glittered, the poor fellow having been a nautical dandy of the first +water was drenched and clotted into heavy masses with the death-sweat, +and had fallen back on the deck from his forehead, which was well +formed, high, broad and massive. His nose was transparent, thin, and +sharp, the tense skin on the bridge of it glancing in the silver light, +as if it had been glass. His mouth was puckered on one side into +angular wrinkles, like a curtain drawn up awry, while a clotted stream +of black gore crept from it sluggishly down his right cheek, and +coagulated in a heap on the deck. His lower jaw had fallen, and there +he lay agape with his mouth full of blood. + +His legs, indeed his whole body below his loins, where the fracture of +the spine had taken place, rested precisely as they had been arranged +after he died; but the excessive swelling and puffing out of his broad +chest, contrasted shockingly with the shrinking of the body at the pit +of the stomach, by which the arch of the ribs was left as well defined +as if the skin had been drawn over a skeleton, and the distortion of the +muscles of the cheeks and throat evinced the fearful strength of the +convulsions which had preceded his dissolution. It was evident, indeed, +that throughout his whole person above the waist, the nervous system had +been utterly shattered; the arms, especially, appeared to have been +awfully distorted, for when crossed on his breast, they had to be +forcibly fastened down at the wrists by a band of spun-yam to the +buttons of his jacket. His right hand was shut, with the exception of +the forefinger, which was extended, pointing upwards; but the whole arm, +from the shoulder down, had the horrible appearance of struggling to get +free from the cord which confined it. + +Obed, by the time I had noticed all this, had knelt beside the shoulder +of the corpse, and I could see by the moonlight that flickered across +his face as the vessel rolled in the declining breeze, that he had +pushed off his eye the uncouth spyglass which he had fastened over it +during the chase, so that it now stood out from the middle of his +forehead like a stunted horn; but, in truth, "it was not exalted," for +he appeared crushed down to the very earth by the sadness of the scene +before him, and I noticed the frequent sparkle of a heavy tear as it +fell from his iron visage on the face of the dead man. At length he +untied the string that fastened the eyeglass round his head, and taking +a coarse towel from a locker, he spunged poor Paul's face and neck with +rum, and then fastened up his lower jaw with the lanyard. Having +performed this melancholy office, the poor fellow's feelings could no +longer be restrained by my presence. + +"God help me, I have not now one friend in the wide world. When I had +neither home, nor food, nor clothing, he sheltered me, and fed me, and +clothed me, when a single word would have gained him five hundred +dollars, and run me up to the fore yardarm in a wreath of white smoke; +but he was true as steel; and oh that he was now doing for me what I +have done for him! who would have moaned over me,--me, who am now +without wife or child, and have disgraced all my kin! alack-a-day, +alack-a-day!"--And he sobbed and wept aloud, as if his very heart +would have burst in twain.--"But I will soon follow you, Paul; I have +had my warning already; I know it, and I believe it." At this instant +the dead hand of the mate burst the ligature that kept it down across +his body, and slowly rose up and remained in a beckoning attitude. I was +seized with a cold shivering from head to foot, and would have shrieked +aloud, had it not been for very shame, but Obed was unmoved.--"I know +it, Paul. I know it. I am ready, and I shall not be long behind you." + +He fastened the arm down once more, and having called a couple of hands +to assist him, they lashed up the remains of their shipmate in his +hammock, with a piece of iron ballast at his feet, and then, without +more ado, handed the body up through the skylight; and I heard the heavy +splash as they cast it into the sea. When this was done, the captain +returned to the cabin, bringing a light with him, filled and drank off a +glass of strong grog. Yet he did not even now deign to notice me, which +was by no means soothing; and I found that, since he wouldn't speak, I +must, at all hazards. + +"I say, Obed, do you ever read your Bible?" He looked steadily at me +with his lacklustre eyes. "Because, if you do, you may perhaps have +fallen in with some such passages as the following:--Behold I am in your +hand; but know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall +surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves." + +"It is true, Mr Cringle, I feel the truth of it here," and he laid his +large bony hand on his heart. "Yet I do not ask you to forgive me; I +don't expect that you can or will; but unless the devil gets possession +of me again--which, so sure as ever there was a demoniac in this world, +he had this afternoon when you so tempted me--I hope soon to place you +in safety, either in a friendly port, or on board of a British vessel; +and then what becomes of me is of little consequence, now since the only +living soul who cared a dollar for me is at rest amongst the coral +branches at the bottom of the deep green sea." + +"Why, man," rejoined I, "leave off this stuff; something has turned your +brain, surely; people must die in their beds, you now, if they be not +shot, or put out of the way somehow or other; and as for my small +affair, why I forgive you, man--from my heart I forgive you; were it +only for the oddity of your scantling, mental and corporeal, I would do +so; and you see I am not much hurting--so lend me a hand, like a good +fellow, to wash the wound with a little spirits--it will stop the +bleeding, and the stiffness will soon go off." + +"Lieutenant Cringle, I need not tell what I know you have found out, +that I am not the vulgar Yankee smuggler, fit only to be made a butt of +by you and your friends, that you no doubt at first took me for; but who +or what I am, or what I may have been, you shall never know--but I will +tell you this much...." + +"Devil confound the fellow!--why this is too much upon the brogue, Obed. +Will you help me to dress my wound, man, and leave off your cursed +sentimental speeches, which you must have gleaned from some old novel or +another? I'll hear it all by and by." + +At this period I was a reckless young chap, with strong nerves, and my +own share of that animal courage, which generally oozes out at one's +finger ends when one gets married and turned of thirty; nevertheless I +did watch with some anxiety the effect which my unceremonious +interruption was to have upon him. I was agreeably surprised to find +that he took it all in good part, and set himself, with great alacrity +and kindness even, to put me to rights, and so successfully, that when I +was washed and cleansed, and fairly coopered up, I found myself quite +able to take my place at the table; and having no fear of the College of +Surgeons before my eyes, I helped myself to a little of the needful, and +in the plenitude of my heart, I asked Obed's pardon for my ill-bred +interruption. + +"It was not quite the thing to cut you short in the middle of your +Newgate Calendar, Obed--beg pardon, your story I mean; no offence now, +none in the world--eh? But where the deuce, man, got you this fine +linen of Egypt?" looking at the sleeves of the shirt Obed had obliged me +with, as I sat without my coat. "I had not dreamt you had any thing so +luxurious in your kit." + +I saw his brow begin to lower again, so the devil prompted me to advert, +by way of changing the subject, to a file of newspapers, which, as it +turned out, might have proved to be by far the most dangerous topic I +could have hit upon. He had laid them aside, having taken them out of +the locker when he was rummaging for the linen. "What have we here? +Kingston Chronicle, Montego Bay Gazette, Falmouth Advertiser. A great +newsmonger you must be. What arrivals?--let me see;--you know I am a +week from headquarters. Let me see." + +At first he made a motion as if he would have snatched them out of my +hands, but speedily appeared to give up the idea, merely murmuring +"What can it signify now?" + +I continued to read--"Chanticleer from a cruise--Tonnant from Barbadoes +Pique from Port-au-Prince. Oh, the next interests me the Firebrand +is daily expected from Havanna; she is to come through the gulf, round +Cape Antonio, and beat up the haunts of the pirates all along the Cuba +shore." I was certain now that at the mention of this corvette mine host +winced in earnest. This made me anxious to probe him farther. "Why, +what means this pencil mark--'Firebrand's number off the Chesapeake was +1022?' How the deuce, my fine fellow, do you know that?" + +He shook his head, but said nothing, and I went on reading the pencil +memoranda--"But this is most probably changed; she now carries a red +cross in the head of her foresail, and has very short lower masts like +the Hornet." Still he made me no answer. I proceeded--"Stop, let me see +what merchant ships are about sailing. Loading for Liverpool, the John +Gladstone, Peter Ponderous master;" and after it, again in pencil +"Only sugar: goes through the gulf.--Only sugar," said I, still fishing; +"too bulky, I suppose.--Ariel, Jenkins Whitehaven;" remark--"sugar, +coffee, and logwood. Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, to sail for +Chagres on 7th proximo;" remark--"rich cargo of bale goods, but no +chance of overtaking her." "El Rayo to sail for St Jago de Cuba on the +10th proximo;" remark--"sails fast; armed with a long gun and musketry; +thirty hands; about ten Spanish passengers; valuable cargo of dry goods; +mainmast rakes well aft; new cloth in the foresail about half-way up; +will be off the Moro about the 13th.--And what is this written in ink +under the above?--The San Pedro from Chagres, and Marianita from Santa +Martha, although rich, have both got convoy.--Ah, too strong for your +friends, Obed--I see, I see.--Francis Baring, Loan French, master--an +odd name, rather, for a skipper;" remark--"forty seroons of cochineal +and some specie; is to sail from Morant Bay on 5th proximo, to go +through the windward passage; may be expected off Cape St Nicolas on the +12th, or thereby." I laid down the paper and looked him full in the +face. "Nicolas is an ominous name. I fear the good ship Francis Baring +will find it so. Some of the worthy saint's clerks to be fallen in with +off the Mole, eh? Don't you think as I do, Obed?" Still silent. "Why +you seem to take great delight in noting the intended departures and +expected arrivals, my friend--merely to satisfy your curiosity, of +course; but, to come to close quarters with you, captain, I now know +pretty well the object of your visiting Jamaica now and then you are +indeed no vulgar smuggler." + +"It is well for you and good for myself, Mr Cringle, that something +weighs heavy at my heart at this moment, and that there is that about +you which, notwithstanding your ill-timed jesting, commands my respect, +and engages my goodwill--had it not been so, you would have been +alongside of poor Paul at this moment." He leant his arms upon the +table, and gazed intensely on my face as he continued in a solemn +tremulous tone--"Do you believe in auguries, Mr Cringle? Do you believe +that coming events cast their shadows before?'"--oh, that little Wiggy +Campbell had been beside me to have seen the figure and face of the man +who now quoted him! + +"Yes, I do, it is part of the creed of every sailor to do so; I do +believe that people have had forewarnings of peril to themselves or +their friends." + +"Then what do you think of the mate beckoning me with his dead hand to +follow him?" + +"Why, you are raving, Obed; you saw that he had been much convulsed, and +that the limb, from the contraction of the sinews, was forcibly kept +down in the position it broke loose from--the spunyarn gave way, and of +course it started up--nothing wonderful in all this although it did at +the time somewhat startle me, I confess." + +"It may be so, it may be so. I don't know," rejoined he, "but taken +along with what I saw before"--Here his voice sank into so hollow and +sepulchral a tone as to be almost unintelligible. "But there is no use +in arguing on the subject. Answer me this, Lieutenant Cringle, and +truly, so help you God at your utmost need, did the mate leave the cabin +at any moment after I was wounded by the splinter?" And he seized one of +my hands convulsively with his iron paw, while he pointed up through the +open scuttle towards heaven with the other, which trembled like a reed. +The moon shone strong on the upper part of his countenance, while the +yellow smoky glare of the candle over which he bent, blending harshly +and inharmoniously with the pale silver light, fell full on his uncouth +figure, and on his long scraggy bare neck and chin and cheeks, giving +altogether a most unearthly expression to his savage features, from the +conflicting tints and changing shadows cast by the flickering moonbeams +streaming fitfully through the skylight, as the vessel rolled to and +fro, and by the large torchlike candle as it wavered in the night wind. +The Prince of the Powers of the Air might have sat for his picture by +proxy. It was just such a face as one has dreamed of after a hot supper +and cold ale, when the whisky had been forgotten--horrible, changing, +vague, glimmering, and undefined; and as if something was still wanting +to complete the utter frightfulness of his aspect, the splinter wound in +his head burst out afresh from his violent agitation, and streamed down +in heavy drops from his forehead, falling warm on my hand. I was much +shaken at being adjured in this tremendous way, with the hot blood +gluing our hands together, but I returned his grasp as steadily as I +could, while I replied, with all the composure he had left me, and that +would not have quite filled a Winchester bushel. + +"He never left my side from the time he offered to take your place after +you had been wounded." + +He fell back against the locker as if he had been shot through the +heart. His grasp relaxed, he drew his breath very hard, and I thought +he had fainted. + +"Then it was not him that stood by me; I thought it might have been him, +but I was a fool, it was impossible." + +He made a desperate effort to recover his composure, and succeeded. + +"And, pray, Master Obediah," quoth I, "what did you see?" + +He answered me sharply--"Never mind, never mind--here, Potomac, lend us +a hand to sling a cot for this gentleman; there now, see the lanyard is +sound, and the lacing all tight and snug--now put that mattrass into it, +and there is linen in the chest." + +In a trice my couch was rigged, all comfortable, snow-white linen, nice +pillow, soft mattrass, &c. and Obed, filling me another tumbler, helped +himself also; he then drank to my health, wished me a sound sleep, +promised to call me at daylight, and as he left the cabin he said, "Mr +Cringle, had it been my object to have injured you, I would not have +waited until now. You are quite safe so far as depends on me, so take +your rest--good night, once more." + +I tumbled into bed, and never once opened my eyes until Obed called me +at daylight, that is, at five in the morning, according to his promise. + +By this time we were well in with the Cuba shore; the land might be two +miles from us, as we could see the white surf. Out at sea, although all +around was clear as crystal, there was nothing to be seen of the Gleam +or Firebrand, but there were ten or twelve fishing canoes, each manned +with from four to six hands, close aboard of us;--we seemed to have got +becalmed in the middle of a small fleet of them. The nearest to us +hailed in Spanish, in a very friendly way. + +"Como estamos Capitan, que hay de nuevo; hay algo de bueno, para los +pobres Pescadores?" and the fellow who had spoken laughed loudly. + +The Captain desired him to come on board, and then drew him aside, +conversing earnestly with him. The Spanish fisherman was a very +powerful man; he was equipped in a blue cotton shirt, Osnaburg trowsers, +sandals of untanned bullock's hide, a straw hat, and wore the eternal +greasy red sash and long knife. He was a bold, daring looking fellow, +and frequently looked frowningly on me, and shook his head impatiently, +while the Captain, as it seemed, was explaining to him who I was. Just +in this nick of time my friend Potomac handed up my uniform coat, (I had +previously been performing my ablutions on deck in my shirt and +trowsers,) which I put on, swab and all, thinking no harm. But there +must have been mighty great offence nevertheless, for the fisherman, in +a twinkling, casting a fierce look at me, jumped overboard like a +feather, clearing the rail like a flying fish, and swam to his canoe +that had shoved off a few paces. + +When he got on board he stood up and shook his clenched fist at Obed, +shouting, "Picaro, traidor, Ingleses hay abordo, quieres enganarnos!" He +then held up the blade of his paddle, a signal which all the canoes +answered in a moment in the same manner, and then pulled towards the +land, from whence a felucca, invisible until that moment, now swept out, +as if she had floated up to the surface by magic, for I could see +neither creek nor indentation on the shore, nor the smallest symptom of +any entrance to a port or cove. For a few minutes the canoes clustered +round this necromantic craft, and I could notice that two or three hands +from each of them jumped on board; they then paddled off in a string, +and vanished one by one amongst the mangrove bushes as suddenly as the +felucca had appeared. All this puzzled me exceedingly I looked at Obed +he was evidently sorely perplexed. + +"I had thought to have put you on board a British vessel before this, or +failing that, to have run down, and landed you at St Jago, Mr Cringle, +as I promised; but you see I am prevented by these honest men there. +Get below, and as you value your life, and, I may say, mine, keep your +temper, and be civil." + +I did as he suggested but peeped out of the cabin skylight to see what +was going on, notwithstanding. The felucca was armed with a heavy +carronade on a pivot, and as full of men as she could hold, fierce, half +naked, savage looking fellows,--she swept rapidly up to us, and closing +on our larboard quarter, threw about five-and-twenty of her genteel +young people on board, who immediately secured the crew, and seized +Obed. However, they, that is, the common sailors, seemed to have no +great stomach for the job, and had it not been for the fellow I had +frightened overboard, I don't think one of them would have touched him. +Obed bore all this with great equanimity. + +"Why, Francisco," he said, to this personage, in good Spanish, "why, +what madness is this? your suspicions are groundless; it is as I tell +you, he is my prisoner, and whatever he may have been to me, he can be +no spy on you." + +"Cuchillo entonces," was the savage reply. + +"No, no," persisted Obediah, "get cool, man, get cool; I am pledged that +no harm shall come to him; and farther I have promised to put him ashore +at St Jago, and I will be as good as my word." + +"You can't if you would," rejoined Francisco; "the Snake is at anchor +under the Moro." + +"Then he must go with us." + +"We shall see as to that," said the other; then raising his voice he +shouted to his ragamuffins, "Comrades, we are betrayed; there is an +English officer on board, who can be nothing but a spy; follow me!" + +And he dashed down the companion ladder, knife in hand, while I sprung +through the small scuttle, like a rat out of one hole when a ferret is +put in at the other, and crept as close to Obed as I could; Francisco +when he missed me, came on deck again. The Captain had now seized a +cutlass in one hand, and held a cocked pistol in the other. It appeared +he had greater control, the nature of which I now began to comprehend, +over the felucca's people, than Francisco bargained for, as the moment +the latter went below, they released him, and went forward in a body. +My persecutor again advanced close up to me, seized me by the collar +with one hand, and tried to drag me forward, brandishing his naked knife +aloft in the other. + +Obed promptly caught his sword-arm--"Francisco," he exclaimed, still in +Spanish, "fool, madman, let go your hold! let go, or by the Heaven above +us, and the hell we are both hastening to, I will strike you dead!" + +The man paused, and looked round to his own people, and seeing one or +two encouraging glances and gestures amongst them, he again attempted to +drag me away from my hold on the tafferel. Something flashed in the +sun, and the man fell! his left arm, the hand of which still clutched my +throat, while mine grasped its wrist, had been shred from his body by +Obed's cutlass, like a twig; and, oh God, my blood curdles to my heart +even now when I think of it! the dead fingers kept the grasp +sufficiently long to allow the arm to fall heavily against my side, +where it hung for some seconds, until the muscles relaxed and it dropped +on the deck. The instant that Obed struck the blow, he caught hold of +my hand, threw away his cutlass, and advanced towards the group of the +felucca's men, pistol in hand. + +"Am I not your captain, ye cowards--have I ever deceived you yet--have I +ever flinched from heading you where the danger was greatest--have you +not all that I am worth in your hands, and will you murder me now?" + +"Viva, el noble capitan, viva!" + +And the tide turned as rapidly in our favour as it had lately ebbed +against us. + +"As for that scoundrel, he has got no more than he deserves," said he, +turning to where Francisco lay, bleeding like a carcass in the shambles; +"but tie up his arm some of ye, I would be sorry he bled to death." + +It was unavailing, the large arteries had emptied his whole lifeblood +he had already gone to his account. + +This most miserable transaction, with all its concomitant horrors, to my +astonishment, did not seem to make much impression on Obed, who now, +turning to me, said, with perfect composure,--"You have there another +melancholy voucher for my sincerity," pointing to the body; "but time +presses, and you must now submit to be blindfolded, and that without +further explanation at present." + +I did so with the best grace I could, and was led below, where two +beauties, with loaded pistols, and a drawn knife each, obliged me with +their society, one seated on each side of me on the small locker, like +two deputy butchers ready to operate on an unfortunate veal. It had now +fallen dead calm, and, from what I heard, I conjectured that the felucca +was sweeping in towards the land with us in tow, for the sound of the +surf grew louder and louder. By and by we seemed to slide beyond the +long smooth swell into broken water, for the little vessel pitched sharp +and suddenly, and again all was still, and we seemed to have sailed into +some landlocked cove. From the loud echo of the voices on deck, I +judged that we were in a narrow canal, the banks of which were +reflecting the sound; presently this ceased, and although we skimmed +along as motionless as before, I no longer heard the splash of the +felucca's sweeps; the roar of the sea gradually died away, until it +sounded like distant thunder, and I thought we touched the ground now +and then, although slightly. All at once the Spanish part of the crew, +for we still had a number of the felucca's people with us, sang out +"Palanca," and we began to pole along a narrow marshy lagoon, coming so +near the shore occasionally, that our sides were brushed by the branches +of the mangrove bushes. Again the channel seemed to widen, and I could +hear the felucca once more ply her sweeps. In about ten minutes after +this the anchor was let go, and for a quarter of an hour, nothing was +heard on deck but the bustle of the people furling sails, coiling down +the ropes, and getting every thing in order, as is usual in coming into +port. It was evident that several boats had boarded us soon after we +anchored, as I could make out part of the greetings between the +strangers and Obed, in which my own name recurred more than once. In a +little while all was still again, and Obed called down the companion to +my guards, that I might come on deck,--a boon I was not long in availing +myself of. + +We were anchored nearly in the centre of a shallow swampy lagoon, about +a mile across, as near as I could judge; two very large schooners, +heavily armed, were moored ahead of us, one on each bow, and another +rather smaller lay close under our stern; they all had sails bent, and +every thing apparently in high order, and were full of men. The shore, +to the distance of a bow-shot from the water all around us, was low, +marshy, and covered with an impervious jungle of thick strong reeds and +wild canes, with here and there a thicket of mangroves; a little farther +off, the land swelled into lofty hills, covered to the very summit with +heavy timber, but every thing had a moist, green, steamy appearance, as +if it had been the region of perpetual rain. "Lots of yellow fever +here," thought I, as the heavy rank smell of decayed vegetable matter +came off on the faint sickly breeze, and the sluggish fog banks crept +along the dull clay-coloured motionless surface of the tepid water. +The sea view was quite shut out--I looked all round and could discern no +vestige of the entrance. Right ahead there was about a furlong of land +cleared at the only spot which one could call a beach,--that is, a hard +shore of sand and pebbles. Had you tried to get ashore at any other +point, your fate would have been that of the Master of Ravenswood; as +fatal, that is, without the gentility; for you would have been +suffocated in black mud, in place of clean sea-sand. There was a long +shed in the centre of this cleared spot, covered in with boards, and +thatched with palm leaves; it was open below, a sort of capstan-house, +where a vast quantity of sails, anchors, cordage, and most kinds of sea +stores were stowed, carefully covered over with tarpawling. Overhead +there was a flooring laid along the couples of the roof, the whole +length of the shed, forming a loft of nearly sixty feet long, divided by +bulkheads into a variety of apartments, lit by small rude windows in the +thatch, where the crews of the vessels, I concluded, were occasionally +lodged during the time they might be under repair. The boat was manned, +and Obed took me ashore with him. + +We landed near the shed I have described, beneath which we encountered +about forty of the most uncouth and ferocious-looking rascals that my +eyes had ever been blessed withal; they were of every shade, from the +woolly Negro and long-haired Indian, to the sallow American and fair +Biscayan; and as they intermitted their various occupations of mending +sails, fitting and stretching rigging, splicing ropes, making spun-yam, +coopering gun carriages, grinding pikes and cutlasses, and filling +cartridges, to look at me, they grinned and nodded to each other, and +made sundry signs and gestures which made me regret many a past +peccadillo that in more prosperous times I little thought on or repented +of, and I internally prayed that I might be prepared to die as became a +man, for my fate appeared to be sealed. The only ray of hope that shot +into my mind, through all this gloom, came from the respect the thieves, +one and all, paid the Captain; and, as I had reaped the benefit of +assuming an outward recklessness and daring, which I really did not at +heart possess, I screwed myself up to maintain the same port still, and +swaggered along, jabbering in my broken Spanish, right and left, and +jesting even with the most infamous-looking scoundrels of the whole +lot, while, God he knows, my heart was palpitating like a girl's when +she is asked to be married. Obed led the way up a ladder into the loft, +where we found several messes at dinner; and passing through various +rooms, in which a number of hammocks were slung, we at length arrived at +the eastern end, which was boarded off into an apartment eighteen or +twenty feet square, lighted by a small port-hole in the end, about ten +feet from the ground. I could see several huts from this window, built +just on the edge of the high wood, where some of the country people +seemed to be moving about, and round which a large flock of pigs and +from twenty to thirty bullocks were grazing. All beyond, as far as the +eye could reach, was one continuous forest, without any vestige of a +living thing; not even a thin wreath of blue smoke evinced the presence +of a fellow-creature; I seemed to be hopelessly cut off from all +succour, and my heart again died within me. + +"I am sorry to say you must consider yourself a prisoner here for a few +days," said Obed. + +I could only groan. + +"But the moment the coast is clear, I will be as good as my word, and +land you at St Jago." + +I groaned again. The man was moved. + +"I would I could do so sooner," he continued; "but you see by how +precarious a tenure I hold my control over these people; therefore I +must be cautious, for your sake as well as my own, or they would make +little of murdering both of us, especially as the fellow who would have +cut your throat this morning has many friends amongst them; above all, I +dare not leave them for any purpose for some days. I must recover my +seat, in which, by the necessary severity you witnessed, I have been +somewhat shaken. So goodbye; there is cold meat in that locker, and +some claret to wash it down with. Don't, I again warn you, venture out +during the afternoon or night. I will be with you betimes in the +morning. So goodbye so long. Your cot, you see, is ready slung." + +He turned to depart, when, as if recollecting himself, he stooped down, +and taking hold of a ring, he lifted up a trap door, from which there +was a ladder leading down to the capstan-house. "I had forgotten this +entrance; it will be more convenient for me in my visits." + +In my heart I believe he intended this as a hint that I should escape +through the hole at some quiet opportunity; and he was descending the +ladder, when he stopped and looked round, greatly mortified, as it +struck me. + +"I forgot to mention that a sentry has been placed, I don't know by +whose orders, at the foot of the ladder, to whom I must give orders to +fire at you, if you venture to descend. You see how the land lies; I +can't help it." + +This was spoken in a low tone, then aloud--"There are books on that +shelf behind the canvass screen; if you can settle to them, they may +amuse you." + +He left me, and I sat down disconsolate enough. I found some Spanish +books, and a volume of Lord Byron's poetry, containing the first canto +of Childe Harold, two numbers of Blackwood, with several other English +books and magazines, the names of the owners on all of them being +carefully erased. + +But there was nothing else that indicated the marauding life of friend +Obediah, whose apartment I conjectured was now my prison, if I except a +pretty extensive assortment of arms, pistols, and cutlasses, and a range +of massive cases, with iron clamps, which were ranged along one side of +the room. I paid my respects to the provender and claret; the hashed +chicken was particularly good; bones rather large or so, but flesh white +and delicate. Had I known that I was dining upon a guana, or large wood +lizard, I scarcely think I would have made so hearty a meal. Long cork, +No. 2, followed ditto, No. 1; and as the shades of evening, as poets +say, began to fall by the time I had finished it, I toppled quietly into +my cot, said my prayers such as they were, and fell asleep. + +It must have been towards morning, from the damp freshness of the air +that came through the open window, when I was roused by the howling of a +dog, a sound which always moves me. I shook myself; but before I was +thoroughly awake, it ceased; it appeared to have been close under my +window. + +I was turning to go to sleep again, when a female, in a small suppressed +voice, sung the following snatch of a vulgar Port Royal ditty, which I +scarcely forgive myself for introducing here to polite society. + + "Young hofficer come home at night, + Him give me ring and kisses; + Nine months, one picaniny white, + Him white almost like missis. + But missis fum my back wid switch, + Him say de shild for massa; + But massa say him" + + +The singer broke off suddenly, as if disturbed by the approach of some +one. + +"Hush, hush, you old foolish--" said a man's voice, in the same low +whispering tone; "you will waken de dronken sentry dere, when we shall +all be put in iron. Hush, he will know my voice more better." + +It was now clear that some one wished to attract my attention; besides, +I had a dreamy recollection of having heard both the male and female +voices before. I listened, therefore, all alive. The man began to sing +in the same low tone. + +"Newfoundland dog love him master de morest +Of all de dog ever I see; +Let him starve him, and kick him, and cuff him de sorest, +Difference none never makee to he." + +There was a pause for a minute or two. + +"It no use," the same voice continued; "him either no dere, or he won't +hear us." + +"Stop," said the female, "stop; woman head good for someting. I know who +he shall hear.--Here, good dog, sing psalm; good dog, sing psalm,' and +thereupon a long loud melancholy howl rose wailing through the night +air. + +"If that be not my dear old dog Sneezer, it is a deuced good imitation +of him," thought I. + +The woman again spoke--"Yowl leetle piece more, good dog," and the howl +was repeated. + +I was now certain. By this time I had risen, and stood at the open +window; but it was too dark to see any thing distinctly below. I could +barely distinguish two dark figures, and what I concluded was the dog +sitting on end between them. + +"Who are you?" "What do you want with me?" + +"Speak softly, massa, speak softly, or the sentry may hear us, for all +de rum I give him." + +Here the dog recognised me, and nearly spoiled sport altogether; indeed +it might have cost us our lives, for he began to bark and frisk about, +and to leap violently against the end of the capstan-house, in vain +endeavours to reach the window.. "Down, Sneezer, down, sir; you used to +be a dog of some sense; down." + +But Sneezer's joy had capsized his discretion, and the sound of my voice +pronouncing his name drove him mad altogether, and he bounded against +the end of the shed, like a battering-ram. + +"Stop, man, stop," and I held down the bight of my neckcloth, with an +end in each hand. He retired, took a noble run, and in a trice hooked +his forepaws in the handkerchief, and I hauled him in at the window. +"Now, Sneezer, down with you, sir, down with you, or your rampaging will +get all our throats cut." He cowered at my feet, and was still as a lamb +from that moment. I stepped to the window. "Now, who are you, and what +do you want?" said I. + + +"Ah, massa, you no know me?" + +"How the devil should I? Don't you see it is as dark as pitch?" + +"Well, massa, I will tell you; it is me, massa." + +"I make no great doubt of that; but who may you be?" + +"Lord, you are de foolis person now; make me talk to him," said the +female. "Massa, never mind he, dat stupid fellow is my husband, and +surely massa know me?" + +"Now, my very worthy friends, I think you want to make yourselves known +to me; and if so, pray have the goodness to tell me your names, that is, +if I can in any way serve you." + +"To be sure you can, massa; for dat purpose I come here." + +The woman hooked the word out of his mouth. "Yes, massa, you must know +me is Nancy, and dat old stupid is my husband Peter Mangrove, him who" +here Peter chimed in--"Yes, massa, Peter Mangrove is de person you have +de honour to address, and"--here he lowered his voice still more, +although the whole dialogue from the commencement had been conducted in +no higher tone than a loud whisper--"we have secured one big large +canoe, near de mout of dis dam hole, which, wid your help, I tink we +shall be able to launch troo de surf; and once in smoot water, den no +fear but we shall run down de coast safely before de wind till we reach. +St Jago." + +My heart jumped against my ribs. Here's an unexpected chance, thought +I. "But, Peter, how in the name of mumbo jumbo, came you here?" + +"Why, massa, you do forget a leetle, dat I am a Creole negro, and not a +naked tatooed African, whose exploits, dat is de wonderful ting him +never do in him's own country, him get embroidered and pinked in +gunpowder on him breach; beside, I am a Christian gentleman like +youshef; so d----n mumbo jumbo, Massa Cringle." + +I saw where I had erred. "So say I, Peter, d----n mumbo jumbo +particularly; but how came you here, man? tell me that." + +"Why, massa, I was out in de pilot boat schooner, wid my wife here, and +five more hands, waiting for de outward bound, finking no harm, when dem +piratical rascal catch we, and carry us off. Yankee privateer bad +enough; but who ever hear of pilot being carry off? blasphemy dat--carry +off pilot! Who ever dream of such a ting? every shivilized peoples +respect pilot--carry off pilot!--oh Lord" and he groaned in spirit for +several seconds. + +"And the dog?" enquired I. + +"Oh, massa, I could not leave him at home; and since you was good enough +to board him wid us, he has messed wid us, ay and slept wid us; and when +we started last, although he showed some dislike at going on board, I +had only to say, Sneezer, we go look for you master and he make such a +bound, dat he capsize my old woman dere, heel, over head; oh dear, what +display, Nancy, you was exhibit!" + +"Hold your tongue, Peter; you hab no decency, you old willain." + +"Well, but, Peter, speak out; when are we to make the attempt? where are +the rest of your crew?" + +"Oh dear! oh dear! dat is de worstest; oh dear!" and he began to cry and +sob like the veriest child. "Oh, massa,"--after he had somewhat +recovered himself;--"Oh, massa, dese people debits. Why, de make all de +oder on board walk de plank, wid two ten pound shot, one at each foot. +Oh, if you had seen de clear shining blue skin, as de became leetle and +leetle, and more leetler, down far in de clear green sea! Oh dear! oh +dear! Only to tink dat each wavering black spot was fellow-creature +like one-shef, wid de heart's blood warm in his bosom at de very +instant of time we lost sight of him for ever!" + +"God bless me," said I; "and how did you escape, and the black dog, and +the black--ahem--beg pardon--your wife I mean; how were you spared?" + +"Ah, massa! I can't say; but bad as de were, de seemed to have a liking +for brute beasts, so dem save Sneezer, and my wife, and myshef; we were +de only quadrupeds saved out of de whole crew Oh dear! Oh dear!" + +"Well, well; I know enough now. I will spare you the pain of any farther +recital, Peter; so tell me what I am to do." + +"Stop, massa, till I see if de sentry be still sound. I know de fellow, +he was one on dem; let me see"--and I heard him through the loose +flooring boards walk to the foot of the trap ladder leading up to my +berth. The soliloquy that followed was very curious of its kind. The +negro had excited himself by a recapitulation of the cruelties exercised +on his unfortunate shipmates, and the unwarrantable caption of himself +and rib, a deed that in the nautical calendar would rank in atrocity +with the murder of a herald or the bearer of a flag of truce. He kept +murmuring to himself, as he groped about in the dark for the sentry +"Catch pilot! who ever hear of such a ting? I suppose dem would have +pull down light-house, if dere had been any for pull. Where is dis +sentry rascal?--him surely no sober yet?" + +The sentry had fallen asleep as he leant back on the ladder, and had +gradually slid down into a sitting position, with his head leaning +against one of the steps, as he reclined with his back towards it, thus +exposing his throat and neck to the groping paw of the black pilot. + +"Ah--here him is, snoring heavy as my Nancy--well, dronk still; no fear +of him overhearing we--nice position him lie in--quite convenient--could +cut his troat now--slice him like a pumpkin--de debil is surely busy wid +me, Peter. I find de very clasp--knife in my starboard pocket beginning +to open of himshef." + +I tapped on the floor with my foot. + +"Ah, tank you, Massa Tom--de debil nearly get we all in a scrape just +now. However, I see him is quite sound--de sentry dat is, for de oder +never sleep, you know." He had again come under the window. "Now, +Lieutenant, in two word, to-morrow night at two bells, in de middle +watch, I will be here, and we shall make a start of it; will you +venture, sir?" + +"Will I?--to be sure I will; but why not now, Peter? why not now?" + +"Ah, massa, you no smell de daylight; near daybreak already, sir. Can't +make try dis night, but to-morrow night I shall be here punctual." + +"Very well, but the dog, man? If he be found in my quarters, we shall +be blown, and I scarcely think he will leave me." + +"Garamighty! true enough, massa; what is to be done? De people know de +dog was catch wid me, and if he be found wid you, den de will sospect we +communication togidder. What is to be done?" + +I was myself not a little perplexed, when Nancy whispered, "De dog have +more sense den many Christian person. Tell him he must go wid us dis +one night, no tell him dis night, else him won't; say dis one night, and +dat if him don't, we shall all be deaded; try him, massa." + +I had benefited by more extraordinary hints before now, although, well +as I knew the sagacity of the poor brute, I could not venture to hope it +would come up to the expectations of Mrs Mangrove. But I'll try. "Here, +Sneezer, here, my boy; you must go home with Peter tonight, or we shall +all get into a deuced mess; so here, my boy, here is the bight of the +handkerchief again, and through the window you must go; come, Sneezer, +come." + +To my great joy and surprise, the poor dumb beast rose from where he had +coiled himself at my feet, and after having actually embraced me, by +putting his forepaws on my shoulders, as he stood on his hind legs, and +licked my face from ear to ear, uttering a low, fondling, nuzzling sort +of whine, like a nurse caressing a child, he at once leapt on the window +sill, put his forepaws through the handkerchief, and was dropped to the +ground again. I could immediately perceive the two dark figures of the +pilot and his wife, followed by the dog, glide away as noiselessly as if +they had been spirits of the night, until they were lost under the shade +of the thick jungle. + +I turned in, and--what will not youth and fatigue do?--I fell once more +fast asleep, and never opened my eyes until Obed shook me in my cot +about eight o'clock in the morning. + +"Good morning, Lieutenant. I have sent up your breakfast, but you don't +seem inclined to eat it." + +"Don't you believe it, my dear Obed. I have been sound asleep till this +moment; only stop till I have slipped on my--those shoes, if you please +thank you--waistcoat--that will do. Now--coffee, fish, yams, and +plantains, and biscuit, white as snow, and short as--and eggs and +zounds! claret to finish with?--Why, Obed, you surely don't desire that +I should enjoy all these delicacies in solitary blessedness?" + +"Why, I intend to breakfast with you, if my society be not +disagreeable." + +"Disagreeable! Not in the least, quite the contrary. That black +grouper looks remarkably beautiful. Another piece of yam, if you +please.--Shall I fill you a cup of coffee, Obed? For my own part, I +always stow the ground tier of my cargo dry, and then take a +topdressing. Write this down as an approved axiom with all thorough +breakfast eaters. Why, man, you are off your feed; what are you turning +up your ear for, in that incomprehensible fashion, like a duck in +thunder? A little of the claret--thank you. The very best butter I +have ever eaten out of Ireland--now, some of that avocado pear--and as +for biscuit, Leman never came up to it. I say, man,--hillo, where are +you?--rouse ye out of your brown study, man." + +"Did you hear that, Mr Cringle?" + +"Hear what?--I heard nothing," rejoined I; "but hand me over that land +crab.--Thank you, and you may send the spawl of that creeping thing +along with it; that guana. I had a dislike to eating a lizard at first, +but I have got over it somehow;--and a slice of ham, a small taste of +the unclean beast, Obed--peach-fed, I'll warrant." + +There was a pause. The report of a great gun came booming along, +reverberated from side to side of the lagoon, the echoes growing shorter +and shorter, and weaker and weaker, until they growled themselves asleep +in a hollow rumble like distant thunder. + +"Ha, ha! Dick Casket for a thousand! Old Blowhard has stuck in your +skirts, Master Obed--but Lord help me, man! let us finish our breakfast; +he won't be here this half hour." + +I expected to see mine host's forehead lowering like a thunder cloud +from my ill-timed funning; but to my surprise, his countenance +exhibited more amenity than I thought had been in the nature of the +beast, as he replied,-- + +"Why, lieutenant, the felucca put to sea last night, to keep a bright +look-out at the mouth of our cove here. I suppose that is him +overhauling some vessel." + +"It may be so;--hush! there's another gun--Two!" + +Obed changed countenance at the double report. + +"I say, Obed, the felucca did not carry more than one gun when I saw +her, and she has had no time to load and fire again." + +He did not answer a word, but continued, with a piece of guana on the +end of, his fork in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, as if he +had been touched by the wand of a magician. Presently we heard one or +two dropping shots, quickly thickening into a rattle of musketry. He +threw down his food, picked up his hat, and trundled down stairs, as if +the devil had kicked him. "Pedro, que hay?" I could hear him say to +some one below, who appeared to have arrived in great haste, for he +gasped for breath. + +"Aqui viene la feluca," answered Pedro; "perseguido por dos Lanchas +Canoneras llenas de Gente." + +"Abordo entonces, abordo todo el mundo; arma arma, aqui vienen los +Engleses; arma, arma!" + +And all from that instant was a regular hillabaloo. The drums on board +the schooners beat to quarters, a great bell, formerly the ornament of +some goodly ship, no doubt, which had been slung in the fork of a tree, +clanged away at a furious rate, the crews were hurrying to and fro, +shouting to each other in Creole Spanish, and Yankee English, while +every cannon-shot from the felucca or the boat guns came louder and +louder, and the small arms peppered away sharper and sharper. The +shouts of the men engaged, both friends and foes, were now heard, and I +could hear Obed's voice on board the largest schooner, which lay full in +view from my window, giving orders, not only to his own crew, but to +those of the others. I heard him distinctly sing out, after ordering +them to haul upon the spring on his cable, "Now, men, I need not tell +you to fight bravely, for if you are taken every devil of you will be +hanged, so hoist away the signal," and a small black ball flew up +through the rigging, until it reached the main topgallant-masthead of +the schooner, where it hung a moment, and in the next blew out in a +large black swallow-tailed flag, like a commodore's broad pennant. + +"Now," shrieked he, "let me see who dares give in with this voucher for +his honesty flying aloft!" I twisted and craned myself out of the +window, to get a view of what--was going on elsewhere; however, I could +see nothing but Obed's large schooner from it, all the other craft were +out of the range of my eye, being hid by the projecting roof of the +shed. The noise continued--the shouting rose higher than ever--the +other schooners opened their fire, both cannon and musketry; and from +the increasing vehemence of the Spanish exclamations, and the cheering +on board Obed's vessels, I concluded the attacking party were having the +worst of it. My dog Sneezer now came jumping and scrambling up the trap +stair, his paws slipping between the bars at every step, his mouth wide +open, and his tongue hanging out, while he barked, and yelled, and +gasped to get at me, as if his life depended on it. After him I could +see the round woolly pate of Peter Mangrove, Esquire, as excited +apparently as the dog, and as anxious to get up; but they got jammed +together in the small hatch, and stuck there, man and beast. At length +Peter spoke-- + +"Now, sir, now! Nancy has run on before to the beach wid two paddles; +now for it, now for it." + +Down trundled master, and dog, and pilot. By this time there was no one +in the lower part of the shed, which was full of smoke, while the +infernal tumult on the water still raged as furiously as ever, the shot +of all sorts and sizes hissing, and splashing, and ricochetting along +the smooth surface of the harbour, as if there had been a sleet of +musket and cannonballs and grape. Peter struck out at the top of his +speed, Sneezer and I followed: we soon reached the jungle, dashed +through a path that had been recently cleared with a cutlass or +billhook, for the twigs were freshly shred, and in about ten minutes +reached the high wood. However, no rest for the wicked, although the +row seemed lessening now. + +"Some one has got the worst of it," said I. + +"Never mind, massa," quoth Peter, "or we shan't get de betterest +ourshef." + +And away we galloped again, until I had scarcely a rag an inch square on +my back, or anywhere else, and my skin was tom in pieces by the prickly +bushes and spear grass. The sound of firing now ceased entirely, +although there was still loud shouting now and then. + +"Push on, massa--dem will soon miss we." + +"True enough, Peter--but what is that?" as we came to a bundle of clouts +walloping about in the morass. + +"De debil it must be, I tink," said the pilot. "No, my Nancy it is, +sticking in the mud up to her waist; what shall us do? you fink, massa, +we hab time for can stop to pick she out?" + +"Heaven have mercy, Peter--yes, unquestionably." + +"Well, massa, you know best." + +So we tugged at the sable heroine, and first one leg came home out of +the tenacious clay, with a plop, then the other was drawn out of the +quagmire. We then relieved her of the paddles, and each taking hold of +one of the poor half-dead creature's hands, we succeeded in getting +down to the beach, about half a mile to leeward of the entrance to the +cove. We found the canoe there, plumped Nancy stem foremost into the +bottom of it for ballast, gathered all our remaining energies for a +grand shove, and ran her like lightning into the surf, till the water +flashed over and over us, reaching to our necks. Next moment we were +both swimming, and the canoe, although full of water, beyond the surf, +rising and falling on the long swell. We scrambled on board, set Nancy +to bale with Peter's hat, seized our paddles, and skulled away like fury +for ten minutes right out to sea, without looking once about us, until a +musket-shot whistled over our heads, then another, and a third; and I +had just time to hold up a white handkerchief, to prevent a whole +platoon being let drive at us from the deck of his Britannic Majesty's +schooner Gleam, lying-to about a cable's length to windward of us, with +the Firebrand a mile astern of her out at sea. In five minutes we got +on board of the former. + +"Mercy on me, Tom Cringle, and is this the way we are to meet again?" +said old Dick Gasket, as he held out his large, bony, sunburnt hand to +me. "You have led me a nice dance, in a vain attempt to redeem you from +bondage, Tom; but I am delighted to see you although I have not had the +credit of being your deliverer--very glad to see you, Tom; but come +along man, come down with me, and let me rig you, not quite a Stultze's +fit, you know, but a jury rig you shall have, as good as Dick Casket's +kit can furnish forth, for really you are in a miserable plight, man." + +"Bad enough indeed. Mr Casket--many thanks though--bad enough, as you +say; but I would that your boats crew were in so good a plight." + +Mr Gasket looked earnestly at me--"Why, I have my own misgivings, +Cringle; this morning at day-break, the Firebrand in company, we fell +in with an armed felucca. It was dead calm, and she was out of gun shot, +close in with the land. The Firebrand immediately sent the cutter on +board full armed, with instructions to me to man the launch, and arm +her with the boat-gun, and then to send both boats to overhaul the +felucca. I did so, standing in as quickly as the light air would take +me, to support them; the felucca all this while sweeping in shore as +fast as she could pull. But the boats were too nimble for her, and our +launch had already saluted her twice from the six pounder in the bow, +when the sea-breeze came thundering down in a white squall, that reefed +our gaff-topsail in a trice, and blew away a whole lot of light sails, +like so many paper-kites. When it cleared away, the devil a felucca, +boat, or any thing else, was to be seen. Capsized they could not have +been, for all three were not likely to have gone that way; and as to any +creek they could have run into, why we could see none. That they had +pulled in shore, however, was our conclusion; but here have we been, the +whole morning, firing signal guns every five minutes without success." + +"Did you hear no firing after the squall?" said I. + +"Why, some of my people thought they did, but it was that hollow, +tremulous, reverberating kind of sound, that it might have been thunder; +and the breeze blew too strong to have allowed us to hear musketry a +mile and a half to windward. I did think I saw some smoke rise, and blow +off now and then, but" "But me no buts, Master Richard Casket; Peter +Mangrove here, as well as myself, saw your people pursue the felucca +into the lion's den, and I fear they have been crushed in his jaws." I +briefly related what we had seen--Casket was in great distress. + +"They must have been taken, Cringle. The fools! to allow themselves to +be trepanned in this way. We must stand out and speak the corvette. +All hands make sail!" + +I could not help smiling at the grandeur of Dick's emphasis on the all, +when twenty hands, one-third of them boys, and the rest landsmen, +scrambled up from below, and began to pull and haul in no very +seamanlike fashion. He noticed it. + +"A--h, Tom, I know what you are grinning at, but I fear it has been no +laughing matter to my poor boats crew--all my best hands gone, God help +me!" + +Presently being under the Firebrand's lee quarter, we lowered down the +boat and went on board, where, for the first time, the extreme +ludicrousness of my appearance and following flashed on me. There we +were all in a bunch, the dog, Mr and Mrs Mangrove, and Thomas Cringle, +gentleman, such in appearance as I shall shortly describe them. + +Old Richard Gasket, Esq., first clambered up the side and made his bow +to the Hon. Captain Transom, who was standing near the gangway, on the +snow-white deck, amidst a group of officers, where every thing was in +the most apple-pie order, himself, both in mind and apparel, the most +polished concern in the ship; while the whole crew, with the exception +of the unfortunate absentees in the cutter, were scrambling, to get a +good view of us. + +I have already said, that my uniform was torn to pieces; trowsers ditto; +my shoes had parted company in the quagmire; and as for hat, it was left +in my cot. I had a dirty bandage tied round my neck, performing the +twofold office of a cravat and a dressing to my wound; while the blood +from the scratches had dried into black streaks adown and across my face +and paws, and I was altogether so begrimed with mud that my mother would +not have known me. Dick made his salaam, and then took up a position +beside the sally-port, with an important face, like a showman +exhibiting wild beastesses, a regular "stir-him-up-with-a-long +pole" sort of look. I followed him "This is Lieutenant Cringle, Captain +Transom." + +"The devil it is!" said Transom, trying in vain to keep his gravity. +"Why, I see it is--How do you do, Mr Cringle? glad to see you." + +"This is Peter Mangrove, branch-pilot," continued Casket, as Peter, +bowing, tried to slide past out of sight. + +Till this instant I had not time to look at him--he was even a much +queerer-looking figure than myself. He had been encumbered with no +garment besides his trowsers when we started, and these had been +reduced, in the scramble through the brake, to a waistband and two knee +bands, from which a few shreds fluttered in the breeze, the rest of his +canvass having been entirely torn out of the bolt-ropes. For an upper +dress he had borrowed a waistcoat without sleeves from the purser of the +schooner, which hung loose and unbuttoned before, while behind, being +somewhat of the shortest, some very prominent parts of his stem frame +were disclosed, as even an apology for a shirt he had none. Being a +decent man, however, he had tied his large straw hat round his waist, by +strings fastened to the broad brims, which nearly met behind, so that +the crown covered his loins before, like a petard, while the sameness of +his black naked body was relieved by being laced with blood from +numberless lacerations. + +Next came the female--"This is the pilot's wife, Captain Transom," again +sung out old Dick; but decency won't let me venture on a description of +poor Nancy's equipment, beyond mentioning, that one of the Gleam's crew +had given her a pair of old trowsers, which, as a sailor has no bottom, +and Nancy was not a sailor, were most ludicrously scanty at top, and +devil another rag of any kind had the poor creature on, but a +handkerchief across her bosom. There was no standing all this; the crew +forward and in the waist were all on the broad grin, while the officers, +after struggling to maintain their gravity until they were nearly +suffocated, fairly gave in, and the whole ship echoed with the most +uproarious laughter; a young villain, whether a Mid or no I could not +tell, yelling out in the throng, "Hurra for Tom Cringle's Tail!" + +I was fairly beginning to lose countenance, when up jumped Sneezer to my +relief out of the boat, with an old cocked hat lashed on his head, a +marine's jacket buttoned round his body, and his coalblack muzzle +bedaubed with pipe-clay, regularly monkeyfied, the momentary handiwork +of some wicked little reefers, while a small pipe sung out quietly, as +if not intended to reach the quarterdeck, although it did do so, "And +here comes the last joint of Mr Cringle's Tail." The dog began +floundering and jumping about, and walloping amongst the people, most of +whom knew him, and immediately drew their attention from me and my party +to himself; for away they all bundled forward, dog and men tumbling and +scrambling about like so many children, leaving the coast clear to me +and my attendants. The absurdity of the whole exhibition had for an +instant, even under the very nose of a proverbially taught hand, led to +freedoms which I had believed impossible in a man-of-war. However, +there was too much serious matter in hand, independently of any other +consideration, to allow the merriment created by our appearance to last +long. + +Captain Transom, immediately on being informed how matters stood, with +seamanlike promptitude determined to lighten the Gleam, and send her in +with the boats, for the purpose of destroying the haunt of the pirates, +and recovering the men, if they were still alive; but before any thing +could be done, it came on to blow, and for a week we had great +difficulty in maintaining our position off the coast against the +strength of the gale and lee current. + +It was on the Sunday morning after I had escaped that it moderated +sufficiently for our purpose, when both vessels stood close in, and +Peter and I were sent to reconnoitre the entrance of the port in the +gig. Having sounded and taken the bearings of the land, we returned on +board, when the Gleam's provisions were taken out and her water started. +The ballast was then shifted, so as to bring her by the head, that she +might thus draw less water by being on an even keel, all sharp vessels +of her class requiring much deeper water aft than forward; the +corvette's launch, with a 12-pound carronade fitted, was then manned +and armed with thirty seamen and marines, under the command of the +second lieutenant; the jolly boat and the two quarter boats, each with +twelve men, followed in a string, under the third lieutenant, the +master, and the senior midshipman; thirty picked hands were added to the +schooner's crew, and I was desired to take the gig with six smart hands +and Peter Mangrove, and to accompany the whole as pilot; but to pull out +of danger so soon as the action commenced, so as to be ready to help any +disabled boat, or to carry orders from the commanding officer. + +At nine in the morning, we gave three cheers, and leaving the corvette, +with barely forty hands on board, the Gleam made sail towards the +harbour's mouth, with the boats in tow; but when we got within musket +shot of the entrance, the breeze failed us, when the order of sailing +was reversed, the boats now taking the schooner in tow, preceded by your +humble servant in the gig. We dashed safely through the small canal of +blue water, which divided the surf at the harbour's mouth, having hit it +to a nicety; but when about a pistolshot from the entrance, the channel +narrowed to a muddy creek, not more than twenty yards wide, with high +trees, and thick underwood close to the water's edge. All was silent, +the sun shone clown upon us like the concentrated rays of a burning +glass, and there was no breeze to dissipate the heavy dank mist that +hovered over the surface of the unwholesome canal, nor was there any +appearance of a living thing, save and except a few startled waterfowl, +and some guanoes on the trees, and now and then an alligator, like a +black log of charred wood, would roll off a slimy bank of brown mud, +with a splash into the water. + +We rowed on, the schooner every now and then taking the ground, but she +was always quickly warped off again by a kedge; at length, after we had +in all proceeded, it might be, about a mile from the beach, we came to a +boom of strong timber clamped with iron, stretching across the creek. +We were not unprepared for this; one of two old 32-pound carronades, +which, in anticipation of some obstruction of the sort, had been got on +deck from amongst the Gleam's ballast, and properly slung, was now made +fast to the middle timber of the boom, and let go, when the weight of it +sunk it to the bottom, and we passed on. We pulled on for about half a +mile further, when I noticed, high up on a sunny cliff, that shot boldly +out into the clear blue heavens, a small red flag suddenly run up to the +top of a tall, scathed, branchless palm tree, where it flared for a +moment in the breeze like the flame of a torch, and then as suddenly +disappeared. "Come, they are on the look-out for us I see." + +The hills continued to close on us as we advanced, and that so +precipitously, that we might have been crushed to pieces had half-a +dozen active fellows, without any risk to themselves, for the trees +would have screened them, simply loosened some of the fragments of rock +that impended over us, so threateningly, it seemed, as if a little +finger could have sent them bounding and thundering down the mountain +side; but this either was not the game of the people we were in search +of, or Obed's spirit and energy had been crushed out of him by the heart +depressing belief that his hours were numbered, for no active +obstruction was offered. + +We now suddenly rounded an abrupt corner of the creek, and there we were +full in front of the schooners, who, with the felucca in advance, were +lying in line of battle, with springs on their cables. The horrible +black pennant was, in the present instance, nowhere to be seen; indeed, +why such an impolitic step as ever to have shown it at all was taken in +the first attack, I never could understand; for the force was too small +to have created any serious fear of being captured, (unless indeed it +had been taken for an advanced guard, supported by a stronger,) while it +must have appeared probable to Obediah, that the loss of the two boats +would in all likelihood lead to a more powerful attempt, when, if it +were successful, the damning fact of having fought under such an +infernal emblem must have ensured a pirate's death on the gibbet to +every soul who was taken, unless he had intended to have murdered all +the witnesses of it. But since proof in my person and the pilot's +existed, now, if ever, was the time for mortal resistance, and to have +hoisted it, for they knew that they all fought with halters about their +necks. They had all the Spanish flag flying except the Wave, which +showed American colours, and the felucca, which had a white flag +hoisted, from which last, whenever our gig appeared, a canoe shoved off, +and pulled towards us. The officer, if such he might be called, also +carried a white flag in his hand. He was a daring-looking fellow, and +dashed up along-side of me. The incomprehensible folly of trying at +this time of day to cloak the real character of the vessels, puzzled me, +and does so to this hour. I have never got a clew to it, unless it was +that Obed's strong mind had given way before his superstitious fears, +and others had now assumed the right of both judging and acting for him +in this his closing scene. The pirate officer at once recognised me, +but seemed neither surprised nor disconcerted at the strength of the +force which accompanied me. He asked me in Spanish if I commanded it; I +told him I did not, that the captain of the schooner was the senior +officer. + +"Then will you be good enough, to go on board with me, to interpret for +me?" + + +"Certainly." + +In half a minute we were both on the Gleam's deck, the crews of the +boats that had her in tow lying on their oars. + +"You are the commander of this force?" said the Spaniard. + +"I am," said old Gasket, who had figged himself out in full puff, after +the manner of the ancients, as if he had been going to church, instead +of to fight; "and who the hell are you?" + +"I command one of these Spanish schooners, sir, which your boats so +unwarrantably attacked a week ago, although you are at peace with Spain. +But even had they been enemies, they were in a friendly port, which +should have protected them." + +"All very good oysters," quoth old Dick; "and pray was it an honest +trick of you to cabbage my young friend, Lieutenant Cringle there, as if +you had been slavers kidnapping the Bungoes in the Bight of Biafra, and +then to fire on and murder my people when sent in to claim him?" + +"As to carrying off that young gentleman, it was no affair of ours; he +was brought away by the master of that American schooner; but so far as +regards firing on your boats, I believe they fired first. But the crews +are not murdered; on the contrary, they have been well used, and are now +on board that felucca. I am come to surrender the whole fifteen to +you." + +"The whole fifteen! and what have you made of the other twelve?" + +"Gastados," said the fellow, with all the sangfroid in the world, +"gastados, (spent or expended) by their own folly." + +"Oh, they are expended, are they? then give us the fifteen." + +"Certainly, but you will in this case withdraw your force, of course." + +"We shall see about that--go and send us the men." He jumped down into +the canoe, and shoved off;--whenever he reached the felucca, he struck +the white flag, and hoisted the Spanish in its stead, and by hauling on +a spring, he brought her to cover the largest schooner so effectually, +that we could not fire a shot at her without going through the felucca. +We could see all the men leave this latter vessel in two canoes, and go +on board one of the other craft. There was now no time to be lost, so I +dashed at the felucca in the gig, and broke open the hatches, where we +found the captured seamen and their gallant leader, Lieutenant----, in a +sorry plight, expecting nothing but to be blown up, or instant death by +shot or the knife. We released them, and, sending to the Gleam for +ammunition and small arms, led the way in the felucca, by Mr Gasket's +orders, to the attack, the corvette's launch supporting us; while the +schooner with the other craft were scraping up as fast as they could. +We made straight for the largest schooner, which with her consorts now +opened a heavy fire of grape and musketry, which we returned with +interest. I can tell little of what took place till I found myself on +the pirate's quarterdeck, after a desperate tussle, and having driven +the crew overboard, with dead and wounded men thickly strewn about, and +our fellows busy firing at their surviving antagonists, as they were +trying to gain the shore by swimming. + +Although the schooner we carried was the Commodore, and commanded by +Obediah in person, yet the pirates, that is, the Spanish part of them, +by no means showed the fight I expected. While we were approaching, no +fire could be hotter, and their yells and cheers were tremendous; but +the instant we laid her along-side with the felucca, and swept her +decks with a discharge of grape from the carronade, under cover of which +we boarded on the quarter, while the launch's people scrambled up at the +bows, their hearts failed, a regular panic overtook them, and they +jumped overboard, without waiting for a taste either of cutlass or +boarding-pike. The captain himself, however, with about ten Americans, +stood at bay round the long gun, which, notwithstanding their great +inferiority in point of numbers to our party, they manfully fired three +several times at us, after we had carried her aft; but we were so close +that the grape came past us like a round shot, and only killed one hand +at each discharge, whereas at thirty yards farther off, by having had +room to spread, it might have made a pretty tableau of the whole party. +I hailed Obed twice to surrender, while our people, staggered by the +extreme hardihood of the small group, hung back for an instant; but he +either did not hear me, or would not, for the only reply he seemed +inclined to make was by slewing round the gun so as to bring me on with +it, and the next moment a general rush was made, when the whole party +was cut down, with three exceptions, one of whom was Obed himself, who +getting on the gun, made a desperate bound over the men's heads, and +jumped overboard. He struck out gallantly, the shot pattering round him +like the first of a thunder shower, but he dived apparently unhurt, and +I lost sight of him. + +The other vessels having also been carried, the firing was all on our +side by this time, and I, along with the other officers, was exerting +myself to stop the butchery. + +"Cease firing, men; for shame, you see they no longer resist." And my +voice was obeyed by all except the fifteen we had released, who were +absolutely mad with fury-perfect fiends; such uncontrollable fierceness +I had never witnessed, indeed, I had nearly cut one of them down before +I could make them knock off firing. + +"Don't fire, sir," cried I to one. + +"Ay, ay, sir; but that scoundrel made me wash his shirts," and he let +drive at a poor devil, who was squattering and swimming away towards the +shore, and shot him through the head. + +"By heavens! I will run you through, if you fire at that man!" shouted +I to another, a marine, who was taking aim at no less a personage than +friend Obed, who had risen to breathe, and was swimming after the +others, but the very last man of all. + +"No, by G--? he made me wash his trowsers, sir." + +He fired--the pirate stretched out his arms, turned slowly on his back, +with his face towards me. I thought he gave me a sort of "Et tu, Brute" +look, but I dare say it was fancy--his feet began to sink, and he +gradually disappeared, a few bubbles of froth and blood marking the spot +where he went down. He had been shot dead. I will not attempt to +describe my feelings at this moment, they burned themselves in on my +heart at the time, and the impression is indelible. Whether I had or +had not acted, in one sense, unjustly, by ousting myself so +conspicuously forward in the attempt to capture him, after what had +passed between us, forced itself upon my judgment. I had certainly +promised that I would, in no way that I could help, be instrumental in +his destruction or seizure, provided he landed me at St Jago, or put me +on board a friendly vessel. He did neither, so his part of the compact +might be considered broken; but then it was out of his power to have +fulfilled it; besides, he not only threatened my life subsequently, but +actually wounded me; still, however, on great provocation. But what "is +writ, is writ." He has gone to his account, pirate as he was, murderer +if you will; yet I had, and still have, a tear for his memory,--and many +a time have I prayed on my bare knees that his blue agonized dying look +might be erased from my brain; but this can never be. What he had been +I never learned; but it is my deliberate opinion, that, with a clear +stage and opportunity, he would have forced himself out from the surface +of society for good or for evil. The unfortunates who survived him, but +to expiate their crimes on the gibbet at Port Royal, said he had joined +them from a New York privateer, but they knew nothing farther of him +beyond the fact, that by his skill and desperate courage, within a month +he had by common acclaim been elected captain of the whole band. There +was a story current on board the corvette, of a small trading craft, +with a person answering his description, having been captured in the +Chesapeake, by one of the squadron, and sent to Halifax for +adjudication, (the master, as in most cases of the kind, being left on +board,) which from that hour had never been heard of, neither vessel, +nor prize crew, nor captain, until two Americans were taken out of a +slaver, off the Cape de Verds by the Firebrand, about a year afterwards, +after a most brave and determined attempt to escape, both of whom were +however allowed to enter, but subsequently deserted off Sandy Hook by +swimming ashore, in consequence of a pressed hand hinting that one of +them, surmised to be Obed, had been the master of the vessel above +mentioned. + +All resistance having ceased, the few of the pirates who escaped having +scampered into the woods, where it would have been vain to follow them, +we secured our prisoners, and at the close of a bloody day, for fatal +had it been to friend and foe, the prizes were got under weigh, and +before nightfall we were all at sea, sailing in a fleet, under convoy of +the corvette and Gleam. + + + +CHAPTER X.--Vomito Prieto. + + + "This disease is beyond my practice." + + Macbeth, Vi.59. + + +The second and acting third-lieutenants were on board the prizes--the +purser was busy in his vocation--the doctor ditto Indeed, he and his +mates had more on their hands than they could well manage. The first +lieutenant was engaged on deck, and the master was in his cot, suffering +from a severe contusion; so when got on board the corvette, and dived +into the gunroom in search ol some crumbs of comfort, the deuce a living +soul was there to welcome me, except the gunroom steward, who speedily +produced some cold meat, and asked me if I would take a glass of swizzle. + +The food I had no great fancy to, although I had not tasted a morsel +since six o'clock in the morning, and it was now eight in the evening; +but the offer of the grog sounded gratefully in mine ear, and I was about +tackling to a stout rummer of the same, when a smart dandified shaver, +with gay mother-of-pearl buttons on his jacket, as thick set as peas, +presented his tallow chops at the door. + +"Captain Transom desires me to say, that he will be glad of your company +in the cabin, Mr Cringle." + +"My compliments--I will wait on him so soon as I have had a snack. We +have had no dinner in the gunroom to-day yet, you know, Mafame." + +"Why, it was in the knowledge of that the Captain sent me, sir. He has +not had any dinner either; but it is now on the table, and he waits for +you." + +I was but little in spirits, and, to say sooth, was fitter for my bed +than society; but the Captain's advances had been made with so much +kindliness, that I got up, and made a strong endeavour to rouse myself; +and, having made my toilet as well as my slender means admitted, I +followed the Captain's steward into the cabin. + +I started--why, I could not well tell--as the sentry at the door stood to +his arms when I passed in; and, as if I had been actually possessed by +some wandering spirit, who had taken the small liberty of using my +faculties and tongue without my concurrence, I hastily asked the man if +he was an American?--He stared in great astonishment for a short space, +turned his quid--and then rapped out, as angrily as respect for a +commissioned officer would let him,--"No, by ----, sir!" + +This startled me as much as the question I had almost unconsciously--and, +I may say, involuntarily--put to the marine had surprised him, and I made +a full stop, and leant back against the door-post. The Captain, who was +walking up and down the cabin, had heard me speak, but without +comprehending the nature of my question, and now recalled me in some +measure to myself, by enquiring if I wanted any thing. I replied, +hurriedly, that I did not. + +"Well, Mr Cringle, dinner is ready--so take that chair at the foot of the +table, will you?" + +I sat down, mechanically, as it appeared to me--for a strange swimming +dizzy sort of sensation had suddenly overtaken me, accompanied by a +whoreson tingling, as Shakespeare hath it, in my ears. I was unable to +eat a morsel; but I could have drunk the ocean, had it been claret or +vin-de-grave-to both of which I helped myself as largely as good +manners would allow, or a little beyond, mayhap. All this while the +Captain was stowing his cargo with great zeal, and tifting away at the +fluids as became an honest sailor after so long a fast, interlarding his +operations with a civil word to me now and then, without any especial +regard as to the answer I made him, or, indeed, caring greatly whether I +answered him or not. + +"Sharp work you must have had, Mr Cringle--should have liked to have been +with you myself. Help yourself, before passing that bottle--zounds, man, +never take a bottle by the bilge--grasp the neck, man, at least in this +fervent climate--thank you. Pity you had not caught the captain though. +What you told me of that man very much interested me, coupled with the +prevailing reports regarding him in the ship--daring dog he must have +been--can't forget how gallantly he weathered us when we chased him." + +I broke silence for the first time. Indeed, I could scarcely have done +so sooner, even had I chosen it, for the gallant officer was rather +continuous in his yam-spinning. However, he had nearly dined, and was +leaning back, allowing the champaigne to trickle leisurely from a glass +half a yard long, which he had applied to his lips, when I said, "Well, +the imagination does sometimes play one strange tricks--I verily believe +in second sight now, Captain, for at this very instant I am regularly the +fool of my senses,----but pray don't laugh at me;" and I lay back on my +chair, and pressed my hands over my shut eyes and hot burning temples, +which were now throbbing as if the arteries would have burst. + +The Captain, who was evidently much surprised at my abruptness, said +something hurriedly and rather sharply in answer, but I could not for the +life of me mark what it was. I opened my eyes again, and looked towards +the object that had before riveted my attention. It was neither more nor +less than the Captain's cloak, a plain, unpretending, substantial blue +garment, lined with white, which, on coming below, he had cast carelessly +down on the locker, that ran across the after part of the cabin behind +him. It was about eighteen feet from me, and as there was no light +nearer it than the swinging lamp over the table at which we were seated, +the whole of the cabin thereabouts was thrown considerably into shade. +The cape of the cloak was turned over, showing the white lining, and was +rather bundled as it were into a round heap, about the size of a man's +head. When first I looked at it, there was a dreamy, glimmering +indistinctness about it that I could not well understand, and I would +have said, had it been possible, that the wrinkles and folds in it were +beginning to be instinct with motion, to creep and crawl as it were. At +all events, the false impression was so strong as to jar my nerves, and +make me shudder with horror. I knew there was no such d--ting, as well +as Macbeth--, but nevertheless it was with an indescribable feeling of +curiosity, dashed with awe, that I stared intently at it, as if +fascinated, while almost unwittingly I made the remark already mentioned. + +I had expected that the unaccountable appearance which had excited my +attention so strongly would have vanished with the closing of my eyes; +but it did not, for when I looked at it again, the working and shifting +of the folds of the cloth still continued, and even more distinctly than +before. + +"Very extraordinary all this," I murmured to myself. + +"Pray, Mr Cringle, be sociable, man," said the Captain; "what the deuce +do you see, that you stare over my shoulder in that way? Were a woman +now, I should tremble to look behind me, while you were glaring aft in +that wild, moonstruck sort of fashion." + +"By all that is astonishing," I exclaimed in great agitation, "if the +folds of the cape have not arranged themselves into the very likeness of +his dying face! Why it is his face, and no fanciful grouping of my +heated brain. Look there, sir--look there--I know it can't be but there +he lies,--the very features and upper part of the body, lith and limb, as +when he disappeared beneath the water when he was shot dead." + +I felt the boiling blood, that had been rushing through my system like +streams of molten lead, suddenly freeze and coagulate about my heart, +impeding my respiration to a degree that I thought I should have been +suffocated. I had the feeling as if my soul was going to take wing. It +was not fear, nor could I say I was in pain, but it was so utterly unlike +any thing I had ever experienced before, and so indescribable, that I +thought to myself--"this may be death." + +"Why, what a changeable rose you are, Master Cringle," said Captain +Transom, good-naturedly; "your face was like the north-west moon in a +fog but a minute ago, and now it is as pale as a lily@blue white, I +declare. Why, my man, you must be ill, and seriously too." + +His voice dissipated the hideous chimera--the folds fell, and relapsed +into their own shape, and the cloak was once more a cloak, and nothing +more--I drew a long breath. "Ah, it is gone at last, thank God!"--and +then aware of the strange effect my unaccountable incoherence must have +had on the skipper, I thought to brazen it out by trying the free and +easy line, which was neither more nor less than arrant impertinence in +our relative positions. "Why, I have been heated a little, and amusing +myself with sundry vain imaginings, but allow me to take wine with you, +Captain," filling a tumbler with vin-de-grave to the brim, as I spoke. +"Success to you, sir--here's to your speedy promotion--may you soon get a +crack frigate; as for me I intend to be Archbishop of Canterbury, or maid +of honour to the Queen of Sheba, or something in the heathen mythology." + +I drank off the wine, although I had the greatest difficulty in steadying +my trembling hand, and carrying it to my lips; but notwithstanding my +increasing giddiness, and the buzzing in my ears, and swimming of mine +eyes, I noticed the Captain's face of amazement as he exclaimed, "The boy +is either mad or drunk, by Jupiter!" + +I could not stand his searching and angry look, and in turning my eye, it +again fell on the cloak, which now seemed to be stretched out at greater +length, and to be altogether more voluminous than it was before. I was +forcibly struck with this, for I was certain no one had touched it. + +"By heavens! it heaves," I exclaimed, much moved--"how is this? I +never thought to have believed such things,----it stirs again--it takes +the figure of a man--as if it were a pall covering his body. Pray, +Captain Transom, what trick is this?--Is there any thing below that cloak +there?" + +"What cloak do you mean?" + +"Why, that blue one lying on the locker there--is there any cat or dog in +the cabin? "--and I started on my legs.--"Captain Transom," I continued, +with great vehemence, "for the love of God tell me what is there below +that cloak." + +He looked surprised beyond all measure. + +"Why, Mr Cringle, I cannot for the soul of me comprehend you; indeed I +cannot; but, Mafame, indulge him. See if there be any thing below my +cloak." + +The servant walked to the locker, and lifted up the cape of it, and was +in the act of taking it from the locker, when I impetuously, desired the +man to leave it alone. + +"I can't look on him again," said I; while the faintishness increased, so +that I could hardly speak. "Don't move the covering from his face, for +God's sake--don't remove it," and I lay back in my chair, screening my +eyes from the lamp with my hands, and shuddering with an icy chill from +head to foot. + +The Captain, who had hitherto maintained the well-bred, patronizing, +although somewhat distant, air of a superior officer to an inferior who +was his guest, addressed me now in an altered tone, and with a brotherly +kindness. + +"Mr Cringle, I have some knowledge of you, and I know many of your +friends; so I must take the liberty of an old acquaintance with you. +This day's work has been a severe one, and your share in it, especially +after your past fatigues, has been very trying, and as I will report it, +I hope it may clap a good spoke in your wheel; but you are overheated, +and have been over-excited; fatigue has broken you down, and I must +really request you will take something warm, and turn in.--Here, Mafame, +get the carpenter's mate to secure that cleat on the weather-side there, +and sling my spare cot for Mr Cringle. You will be cooler here than in +the gunroom." + +I heard his words without comprehending their meaning. I sat and stared +at him, quite conscious, all the time, of the extreme impropriety, not to +say indecency, of my conduct; but there was a spell on me; I tried to +speak, but could not; and, believing that I was either possessed by some +dumb evil, or struck with palsy, I rose up, bowed to Captain Transom, and +straightway hied me on deck. + +I could hear him say to his servant, as I was going up the ladder, "Look +after that young gentleman, Mafame, and send Isaac to the doctor, and bid +him come here now;" and then, in a commiserating tone--"Poor young +fellow, what a pity!" + +When I got on deck all was quiet. The cool fresh air had an +instantaneous effect on my shattered nerves, the violent throbbing in my +head ceased, and I began to hug myself with the notion that my distemper, +whatever it might have been, had beaten a retreat. + +Suddenly I felt so collected and comfortable, as to be quite alive to the +loveliness of the scene. It was a beautiful moonlight night; such a +night as is nowhere to be seen without the Tropics, and not often within +them. There was just breeze enough to set the sail to sleep, although +not so strong as to prevent their giving a low murmuring flap now and +then, when the corvette rolled a little heavier than usual on the long +swell. There was not a cloud to be seen in the sky, not even a stray +shred of thin fleecy gauzelike vapour, to mark the direction of the upper +current of the air, by its course across the moon's disk, which was now +at the full, and about half-way up her track in the liquid heavens. + +The small twinkling lights from millions of lesser stars, in that part of +the firmament where she hung, round as a silver pot-lid shield I mean, +were swamped in the flood of greenish-white radiance shed by her, and it +was only a few of the first magnitude, with a planet here and there, that +were visible to the naked eye, in the neighbourhood of her crystal bright +globe; but the clear depth, and dark translucent purity of the profound, +when the eye tried to pierce into it at the zenith, where the stars once +more shone and sparkled thick and brightly, beyond the merging influence +of the pale cold orb, no man can describe now----one could, once--but +rest his soul, he is dead and then to look forth far into the night, +across the dark ridge of many a heaving swell of living water--but, +"Thomas Cringle, ahoy where the devil are you cruising to" So, to come +back to my story. I went aft, and mounted the small poop, and looked +towards the aforesaid moon, a glorious resplendent tropical moon, and not +the paper lantern affair hanging in an atmosphere of fog and smoke, about +which your blear-eyed poets haven't so much. By the by, these gentry +are fond of singing of the blessed sun--were they sailors they would +bless the moon also, and be--to them, in place of writing much +wearisome poetry regarding her blighting propensities. But I have lost +the end of my yarn once more, in the strands of these parentheses. Lord, +what a word to pronounce in the plural!--I can no more get out now, than +a girl's silk worm from the innermost of a nest of pill boxes, where, to +ride the simile to death at once, I have warped the thread of my story so +round and round me, that I can't for the life of me unravel it. Very odd +all this. Since I have recovered of this fever, every thing is slack +about me; I can't set up the shrouds and backstays of my mind, not to +speak of bobstays, if I should die for it. The running rigging is all +right enough, and the canvass is there; but I either can't set it, or +when I do, I find I have too little ballast, or I get involved amongst +shoals, and white water, and breakers--don't you hear them roar?--which I +cannot weather, and crooked channels, under some lee-shore, through +which I cannot scrape clear. So down must go the anchor, as at present, +and there--there goes the chain cable, rushing and rumbling through the +hausehole. But I suppose it will be all right by and by, as I get +stronger. + +"But rouse thee, Thomas! Where is this end of your yarn, that you are +blameying about?" + +"Avast heaving, you swab you--avast--if you had as much calomel in your +corpus as I have at this present speaking--why you would be a lad of more +mettle than I take you for, that is all.--You would have about as much +quicksilver in your stomach, as I have in my purse, and all my silver has +been quick, ever since I remember, like the jests of the gravedigger in +Hamlett--but, as you say, where the devil is the end of this yarn?" + +Ah, here it is! so off we go again--and looked forward towards the rising +moon, whose shining wake of glow-worm-coloured light, sparkling in the +small waves, that danced in the gentle wind on the heaving bosom of the +dark blue sea, was right a-head of us, like a river of quicksilver with +its course diminished in the distance to a point, flowing towards us, +from the extreme verge of the horizon, through a rolling sea of ink, with +the waters of which for a time it disdained to blend. Concentrated, and +shining like polished silver afar off--intense and sparkling as it +streamed down nearer, but becoming less and less brilliant as it Widened +in its approach to us, until, like the stream of the great Estuary of the +Magdalena, losing itself in the salt waste of waters, it gradually melted +beneath us and around us into the darkness. + +I looked aloft--every object appeared sharply cut out against the dark +firmament, and the swaying of the mast-heads to and fro, as the vessel +rolled, was so steady and slow, that they seemed stationary, while it was +the moon and stars which appeared to vibrate and swing from side to side, +high over head, like the vacillation of the clouds in a theatre, when the +scene is first let down. + +The masts, and yards, and standing and running rigging, looked like black +pillars, and bars, and wires of iron, reared against the sky, by some +mighty spirit of the night; and the sails, as the moon shone dimly +through them, were as dark as if they had been tarpawlings. But when I +walked forward and looked aft, what a beauteous change! Now each mast, +with its gently swelling canvass, the higher sails decreasing in size, +until they tapered away nearly to a point, though topsail, topgallant +sail, royal and skysails, showed like towers of snow, and the cordage +like silver threads, while each dark spar seemed to be of ebony, fished +with ivory, as a flood of cold, pale, mild light streamed from the +beauteous planet over the whole stupendous machine, lighting up the sand +white decks, on which the shadows of the men, and of every object that +intercepted the moonbeams, were cast as strongly as if the planks had +been inlaid with jet. + +There was nothing moving about the decks. The lookouts, aft, and at the +gangways, sat or stood like statues half bronze, half alabaster. The old +quartermaster, who was cunning the ship, and had perched himself on a +carronade, with his arm leaning on the weather nettings, was equally +motionless. The watch had all disappeared forward, or were stowed out of +sight under the lee of the boats; the first Lieutenant, as if captivated +by the serenity of the scene, was leaning with folded arms on the weather +gangway, looking abroad upon the ocean, and whistling now and then +either for a wind, or for want of thought. The only being who showed +sign of life was the man at the wheel, and he scarcely moved, except now +and then to give her a spoke or two, when the cheep of the tiller-rope, +running through the well-greased leading blocks, would grate on the ear +as a sound of some importance; while in daylight, in the ordinary bustle +of the ship, no one could say he ever heard it. + +Three bells!--"Keep a bright look-out there," sung out the Lieutenant. + +"Ay, ay, sir," from the four look-out men, in a volley. + +Then from the weather-gangway, "All's well" rose shrill into the night +air. + +The watchword was echoed by the man on the forecastle, re-echoed by the +lee-gangway look-out, and ending with the response of the man on the +poop. My dream was dissipated--and so was the first lieutenant's, who +had but little poetry in his composition, honest man. + +"Fine night, Mr Cringle. Look aloft, how beautifully set the sails are; +that mizzen-topsail is well cut, eh? Sits well, don't it? But confound +the lubbers! Boatswain's mate, call the watch." + +Whi--whew, whi--whew, chirrup, chip, chip--the deck was alive in an +instant, "as bees biz out wi" angry fyke. + +"Where is the captain of the mizzen-top?" growled the man in authority. + +"Here, sir." + +"Here, sir!--look at the weather-clew of the mizzen-topsail, sir, look +at that sail, sir,--how many turns can you count in that clew, sir? +Spring it, you no--sailor you--spring it, and set the sail again." + +How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable all this appeared to me at the +time I will remember; but the obnoxious turns were shaken out, and the +sail set again so as to please even the fastidious eye of the Lieutenant, +who, seeing nothing more to find fault with, addressed me once more. + +"Have had no grub since morning, Mr Cringle; all the others are away in +the prizes; you are as good as one of us now, only want the order to +join, you know--so will you oblige me, and take charge of the deck, until +I go below and change my clothes, and gobble a bit?" + +"Unquestionably,--with much pleasure." + +He forthwith dived, and I walked aft a few steps towards where the old +quartermaster was standing on the gun. + +"How is her head, Quartermaster?" + +"South-east and by south, sir. If the wind holds, we shall weather +Morant Point, I think, sir." + +"Very like, very like.--What is that glancing backwards and forwards +across the port-hole there, Quartermaster?" + +"I told you so, Mafame," said the man; "what are you skylarking about the +mizen-chains for, man?--Come in, will you, come in." + +The Captain's caution to his servant flashed on me. + +"Come in, my man, and give my respects to the Captain, and tell him that +I am quite well now; the fresh air has perfectly restored me." + +"I will, sir," said Mafame, half ashamed at being detected in his office +of inspector-general of my actions; but the Doctor, to whom he had been +sent, having now got a leisure moment from his labour in the shambles, +came up and made enquiries as to how I felt. + +"Why, Doctor, I thought I was in for a fever half an hour ago, but it is +quite gone off, or nearly so--there, feel my pulse."--It was regular, and +there was no particular heat of skin. + +"Why, I don't think there is much the matter with you. Mafame, tell the +Captain so; but turn in and take some rest as soon as you can, and I will +see you in the morning--and here," feeling in his waistcoat pocket, "here +are a couple of capers for you; take them now, will you?" (And he handed +me two blue pills, which I the next moment chucked overboard, to cure +some bilious dolphin of the liver complaint.) I promised to do so +whenever the Lieutenant relieved the deck, which would, I made no +question, be within half an hour. + +"Very well, that will do--good-night. I am regularly done up myself," +quoth the Medico, as he descended to the gunroom. + +At this time of night, the prizes were all in a cluster under our lee +quarter, like small icebergs covered with snow, and carrying every rag +they could set. The Gleam was a good way a-stern, as if to whip them +in, and to take care that no stray piccaroon should make a dash at any of +them. They slid noiselessly along like phantoms of the deep, every thing +in the air and in the water was so still--I crossed to the lee side of +the deck to look at them--The Wave, seeing some one on the hammock +nettings, sheered close to, under the Firebrand's lee quarter, and some +one asked, "Do you want to speak us?" The man's voice, reflected from the +concave surface of the schooner's mainsail, had a hollow, echoing sound, +that startled me. + +"I should know that voice," said I to myself, "and the figure steering +the schooner." + +The throbbing in my head and the dizzy feel, which had capsized my +judgment in the cabin, again returned with increased violence--"It was no +deception after all," thought I, "no cheat of the senses--I now believe +such things are." + +The same voice now called out, "Come away, Tom, come away," no doubt to +some other seaman on board the little vessel, but my heated fancy did not +so construe it. The col real again overtook me, and I ejaculated, "God +have mercy upon me a sinner!" + +"Why don't you come, Tom?" said the voice once more. + +It was Obed's. At this very instant of time, the Wave forged a-head +into the Firebrand's shadow, so that her sails, but a moment before white +as wool in the bright moonbeams suffered a sudden eclipse, and became +black as ink. + +"His dark spirit is there," said I, audibly, "and calls me--go I will, +whatever may befall." + +I hailed the schooner, or rather I had only to speak, and that in a low +tone, for she was now close under the counter "Send your boat, for since +you call, I know I must come." + +A small canoe slid off her deck; two ship boys got into it, and pulled +under the starboard mizzen-chains, which entirely concealed them, as +they held on for a moment with a boat-hook in the dark shadow of the +ship. This was done so silently, that neither the lookout on the poop, +who was rather on the weather-side at the moment, nor the man at the lee +gangway, who happened to be looking out forward, heard them, or saw me, +as I slipped down unperceived. + +"Pull back again, my lads; quick now, quick." + +In a moment, I was along-side, the next I was on deck, and in this short +space a change had come over the spirit of my dream, for I now was again +conscious that I was on board the Wave with a prize crew. My imagination +had taken another direction. + +"Now Mr----, I beg pardon, I forget your name,"--I had never heard it, +"make more sail, and haul out from the fleet for Mancheoneal Bay; I have +despatches for the admiral--So, crack on." + +The midshipman who was in charge of her never for an instant doubted but +that all was right; sail was made, and as the light breeze was the very +thing for the little Wave, she began to snorer through it like smoke. +When she had shot a cable's length a-head of the Firebrand, we kept away +a point or two, so as to stand more in for the land, and, like most +maniacs, I was inwardly exulting at the success of my manoeuvre, when we +heard the corvette's bell struck rapidly. Her maintop-sail was suddenly +laid to the mast, whilst a loud voice echoed amongst the sails--"Any one +see hi--in in the waist--anybody see him forward there?" + +"No, sir, no." + +"After guard, fire, and let go the life--buoy--lower away the quarter +boats--jolly-boat also." + +We saw the flash, and presently the small blue light of the buoy, blazing +and disappearing, as it rose and fell on the waves, in the corvette's +wake, sailed away astern, sparkling fitfully, like an ignis fatuus. The +cordage rattled through the davit blocks, as the boats dashed into the +water--the splash of the oars was heard, and presently the twinkle of the +life-buoy was lost in the lurid glare of the blue lights, held aloft in +each boat, where the crews were standing up, looking like spectres by the +ghastly blaze, and anxiously peering about for some sign of the drowning +man. + +"A man overboard," was repeated from one to another of the prize crew. + +"Sure enough," said I. + +"Shall we stand back, sir?" said the midshipman. + +"To what purpose?--there are enough there without us--no, no; crack on, +we can do no good--carry on, carry on!" + +We did so, and I now found severe shooting pains, more racking than the +sharpest rheumatism I had ever suffered, pervading my whole body. They +increased until I suffered the most excruciating agony, as if my bones +had been converted into red-hot tubes of iron, and the marrow in them +had been dried up with fervent heat, and I was obliged to beg that a +hammock might be spread on deck, on which I lay down, pleading great +fatigue and want of sleep as my excuse. + +My thirst was unquenchable; the more I drank, the hotter it became. My +tongue, and mouth, and throat, were burning, as if molten lead had been +poured down into my stomach, while the most violent retching came on +every ten minutes. The prize crew, poor fellows, did all they could +once or twice they seemed about standing back to the ship, but, "make +sail, make sail," was my only cry. They did so, and there I lay without +any thing between me and the wet planks but a thin sailor's blanket and +the canvass of the hammock, through the livelong night, and with no +covering but a damp boatcloak, raving at times during the hot fits, at +others having my power of utterance frozen up during the cold ones. The +men, once or twice, offered to carry me below, but the idea was horrible +to me. + +"No, no--not there--for heaven's sake not there! If you do take me down, +I am sure I shall see him, and the dead mate--No, no overboard rather, +throw me overboard rather." + +Oh, what would I not have given for the luxury of a flood of tears!--But +the fountains of mine eyes were dried up, and seared as with a red-hot +iron--my skin was parched, and hot, hot, as if every pore had been +hermetically sealed; there was a hell within me and about me as if the +deck on which I lay had been steel at a white heat, and the gushing +blood, as under the action of a force-pump, throbbed through my head, +like it would have burst on my brain--and such a racking, splitting +headache--no language can describe it, and yet ever and anon in the midst +of this raging fire, this furnace at my heart, seven times heated, a +sudden icy shivering chill would shake me, and pierce through and through +me, even when the roasting fever was at the hottest. + +At length the day broke on the long, long, moist, steamy night, and once +more the sun rose to bless every thing but me. As the morning wore on, +my torments increased with the heat, and I lay sweltering on deck, in a +furious delirium, held down forcibly by two men, who were relieved by +others every now and then, while I raved about Obed, and Paul, and the +scenes I had witnessed on board during the chase, and in the attack. +None of my rough but kind nurses expected I could have held on till +nightfall; but shortly after sunset I became more collected, and, as I +was afterwards told, whenever any little office was performed for me, +whenever some drink was held to my lips, I would say to the gruff +sunburnt, black-whiskered, square shouldered topman who might be my +Ganymede for the occasion, "Thank you, Mary; Heaven bless your pale face, +Mary; bless you, bless you!" + +It seemed my fancy had shaken itself clear of the fearful objects that +had so pertinaciously haunted me before, and occupying itself with +pleasing recollections, had produced a corresponding cahn in the animal; +but the poor fellow to whom I had expressed myself so endearingly, was, I +learned, most awfully put out and dismayed. He twisted and turned his +iron features into all manner of ludicrous combinations, under the +laughter of his mates--"Now, Peter, may I be--but I would rather be +shot at, than hear the poor young gentleman so quiz me in his madness." + +Then again--as I praised his lovely taper fingers--they were more like +bunches of frosted carrots, dipped in a tar-bucket, with the tails snapt +short off, where about an inch thick. + +"My taper fingers--oh lord! Now, Peter, I can't stomach this any longer, +I'll give you my grog for the next two days, if you will take my spell +here--My taper fingers--murder!" + +As the evening closed in we saw the high land of Jamaica, but it was the +following afternoon before we were off the entrance of Mancheoneal Bay. +All this period, although it must have been one of great physical +suffering, has ever, to my ethereal part, remained a dead blank. The +first thing I remember afterwards, was being carried ashore in the dark +in a hammock slung on two oars, so as to form a sort of rude palanquin, +and laid down at a short distance from the overseer's house where my +troubles had originally commenced. I soon became perfectly sensible and +collected, but I was so weak I could not speak; after resting a little, +the men again lifted me and proceeded. The door of the dining-hall, +which was the back entrance into the overseer's house, opened flush into +the little garden through which we had come in--there were lights, and +sounds of music, singing, and jovialty within. The farther end of the +room, at the door of which I now rested, opened into the piazza, or open +veranda, which crossed it at right angles, and constituted the front of +the house, forming, with this apartment, a figure somewhat like the +letter T. I stood at the foot of the letter, as it were, and as I looked +towards the piazza, which was gaily lit up, I could see it was crowded +with male and female negroes in their holyday apparel, with their +wholesome clear brown-black skins, not blue-black as they appear in our +cold country, and beautiful white teeth, and sparkling black eyes, +amongst whom were several gumbie-men and flute-players, and John +Canoes, as the negro Jack Pudding is called; the latter distinguishable +by wearing white false faces, and enormous shocks of horsehair, fastened +on to their woolly pates. Their character hovers somewhere between that +of a harlequin and a clown, as they dance about, and thread through the +negro groups, quizzing the women and slapping the men; and at Christmas +time, the grand negro carnival, they don't confine their practical jokes +to their own colour, but take all manner of comical liberties with the +whites equally with their fellow bondsmen. + +The blackamoor visitors had suddenly, to all appearance, broken off their +dancing, and were now clustered behind a rather remarkable group, who +were seated at supper in the dining-room, near to where I stood, +forming, as it were, the foreground in the scene. Mr Fyall himself was +there, and a rosy-gilled, happy-looking man, who I thought I had seen +before; this much I could discern, for the light fell strong on them, +especially on the face of the latter, which shone like a star of the +first magnitude, or a lighthouse in the red gleam--the usual family of +the overseer, the book-keepers that is, and the worthy who had been the +proximate cause of all my sufferings, the overseer himself, were there +too, as if they had been sitting still at table where I saw them now, +ever since I left them three weeks before--at least my fancy did me the +favour to annihilate, for the nonce, all intermediate time between the +point of my departure on the night of the cooper's funeral, and the +moment when I now revisited them. + +I was lifted out of the hammock, and supported to the door between two +seamen. The fresh, nice-looking man before mentioned, Aaron Bang, +Esquire, by name, an incipient planting attorney in the neighbourhood, of +great promise, was in the act of singing a song, for it was during some +holyday-time, which had broken down the stiff observances of a Jamaica +planter's life. There he sat, lolling back on his chair, with his feet +upon the table, and a cigar, half consumed, in his hand. He had twisted +up his mouth and mirth-provoking nose, which, by an unaccountable +control over some muscle, present in the visage of no other human being, +he made to describe a small circle round the centre of his face, and +slewing his head on one side, he was warbling, ore Yotundo, some +melodious ditty, with infinite complacency, and, to all appearance, to +the great delight of his auditory, when his eyes lighted on me,--he was +petrified in a moment, I seemed to have blasted him,----his warbling +ceased instantaneously, the colour faded from his cheeks, but there he +sat, with open mouth, and in the same attitude as if he still sung, and I +had suddenly become deaf, or as if he and his immediate compotators, and +the group of blackies beyond, had all been on the instant turned to stone +by a slap from one of their own John Canoes. I must have been in truth a +terrible spectacle; my skin was yellow, not as saffron, but as the skin +of a ripe lime; the white of my eyes, to use an Irishism, ditto; my mouth +and lips had festered and broke out, as we say in Scotland; my head was +bound round with a napkin--none of the cleanest, you may swear; my dress +was a pair of dirty duck trowsers, and my shirt, with the boat-cloak +that had been my only counterpane on board of the little vessel, hanging +from my shoulders. + +Lazarus himself could scarcely have been a more appalling object, when +the voice of him who spoke as never man spake, said, "Lazarus come +forth." + +I made an unavailing attempt to cross the threshold, but could not. I +was spellbound, or there was an invisible barrier erected against me, +which I could not overleap. The buzzing in my ears, the pain and +throbbing in my head, and racking aches, once more bent me to the earth, +ill and reduced as I was, a relapse, thought I; and I felt my judgment +once more giving way before the sweltering fiend, who had retreated but +for a moment to renew his attacks with still greater fierceness. The +moment he once more entered into me--the instant that I was possessed--I +cannot call it by any other name--an unnatural strength pervaded my +shrunken muscles and emaciated frame, and I stepped boldly into the hall. +While I had stood at the door, listless and feeble as a child, hanging on +the arms of the two topmen, after they had raised me from the hammock, +the whole party had sat silently gazing at me, with their faculties +paralysed with terror. But now, when I stumped into the room like the +marble statue in Don Juan, and glared on them, my eyes sparkling with +unearthly brilliancy under the fierce distemper which had anew thrust its +red hot fingers into my maw, and was at the moment seething my brain in +its hellish caldron, the negroes in the piazza, one and all, men, women, +and children, evanished into the night, and the whole party in the +foreground started to their legs, as if they had been suddenly +galvanized; the table and chairs were overset, and whites and blacks +trundled, and scrambled, and bundled over and over each other, neck and +crop, as if the very devil had come to invite them to dinner in propria +personal horns, tail, and all. + +"Duppy come! Duppy come! Massa Tom Cringle ghost stand at for we door; +we all shall dead, oh--we all shall go dead, oh!" bellowed the father of +gods, my old ally Jupiter. + +"Guid guide us, that's an awful sicht!" quod the Scotch bookkeeper. + +"By the hockeytt speak if you be a ghost, or I'll exercise [exorcise] ye +wid this butt of a musket," quoth the cowboy@an Irishman to be sure, +whose round bullet head was discernible in the human mass, by his black, +twinkling, half-drunken-looking eyes. + +"Well-a-day," groaned another of them, a Welshman, I believe, with a +face as long as my arm, and a drawl worthy of a Methodist parson; "and +what can it be-flesh and blood, it is not--can these dry bones live?" + +Ill as I was, however, I could perceive that all this row had now more of +a tipsy frolic in it--whatever it might have had at first--than absolute +fear; for the red-faced visitor, and Mr Fyall, as if half ashamed, +speedily extricated themselves from the chaos of chairs and living +creatures, righted the table, replaced the candles, and having sat down, +looking as grave as judges on the bench, Aaron Bang exclaimed--"I'll bet +a dozen, it is the poor fellow himself returned on our hands, half-dead +from the rascally treatment he has met with at the hands of these +smuggling thieves!" + +"Smugglers, or no," said Fyall, "you are right for once, my peony rose, I +do believe." + +But Aaron was a leetle staggered, notwithstanding, when I stumped towards +him, as already described, and he shifted back and back as I advanced, +with a most laughable cast of countenance, between jest and earnest, +while Fyall kept shouting to him--"If it be his ghost, try him in Latin, +Mr Bang--speak Latin to him, Aaron Bang--nothing for a ghost like Latin, +it is their mother tongue." + +Bang, who, it seemed, plumed himself on his erudition, forthwith began +"Quae maribus solum tribuunter." Aaron's conceit of exorcising a spirit +with the fag-end of an old grammar rule would have tickled me under most +circumstances; but I was far past laughing. I had more need, God help +me, to pray. I made another step. He hitched his chair back. "Bam, Bo, +Rem!" shouted the incipient planting attorney. Another hitch, which +carried him clean out of the supper-room, and across the narrow piazza; +but, in this last movement, he made a regular false step, the two back +feet of his chair dropping over the first step of the front stairs, +whereupon he lost his balance, and toppling over, vanished in a +twinkling, and rolled down half-a-dozen steps, heels over head, until +he lay sprawling on the manger or mule-trough before the door, where the +Ceases are fed under busha's own eye on all estates--for this excellent +and most cogent reason, that otherwise the maize or guinea-com, +belonging of right to poor mulo, would generally go towards improving the +condition, not of the quadruped, but of the biped quashiet who had charge +of him--and there he lay in a convulsion of laughter. + +The two seamen, who supported me between them, were at first so +completely dumfoundered by all this, that they could not speak. At +length, however, Timothy Tailtackle lost his patience, and found his +tongue. + +"This may be Jamaica frolic, good gentlemen, and all very comical in its +way; but, d----n me, if it be either gentlemanlike or Christian like, to be +after funning and fuddling, while a fellow creature, and his Majesty's +commissioned officer to boot, stands before you, all but dead of one of +your blasted fevers." + +The honest fellow's straightforward appeal, far from giving offence to +the kindhearted people to whom it was made, was not only taken in good +part, but Mr Fyall himself took the lead in setting the whole household +immediately to work, to have me properly cared for. The best room in the +house was given up to me. I was carefully shifted and put to bed; but +during all that night and the following day, I was raving in a furious +fever, so that I had to be forcibly held down in my bed, sometimes for +half an hour at a time. + +I say, messmate, have you ever had the yellow fever, the vomito prieto, +black vomit, as the Spaniards call it?--No?--have you ever had a bad +bilious fever then? No bad bilious fever either?--Why, then, you are a +most unfortunate creature; for you have never known what it was to be in +Heaven, nor eke the other place. Oh the delight, the blessedness of the +languor of recovery, when one finds himself in a large airy room, with a +dreamy indistinct recollection of great past suffering, endured in a +small miserable vessel within the tropics, where you have been roasted +one moment by the vertical rays of the sun, and the next annealed hissing +hot by the salt sea spray;--in a broad luxurious bed, some cool sunny +morning, with the fresh sea breeze whistling through the open windows +that look into the piazza, and rustling the folds of the clean wire +gauze musquitto net that serves you for bed-curtains; while beyond you +look forth into the sequestered court-yard, overshadowed by one vast +umbrageous kennip tree, that makes every thing look green and cool and +fresh beneath, and whose branches the rushing wind is rasping cheerily on +the shingles of the roof-and oh, how passing sweet is the lullaby from +the humming of numberless glancing bright-hued flies, of all sorts and +sizes, sparkling among the green leaves like chips of a prism, and the +fitful whirring of the fairy-flitting humming bird, now here, now there, +like winged gems, or living atoms of the rainbow, round which their tiny +wings, moving too quickly to be visible, form little haloes--and the palm +tree at the house-corner is shaking its long hard leaves, making a sound +for all the world like the pattering of rain; and the orange-tree top, +with ripe fruit, and green fruit, and white blossoms, is waving to and +fro flush with the window-sill, dashing the fragrant odour into your +room at every whish; and the double Jessamine is twining up the papaw +(whose fruit, if rubbed on a bull's hide, immediately converts it into a +tender beef-steak) and absolutely stifling you with sweet perfume; and +then the sangaree old Madeira, two parts of water, no more, and nutmeg +and not a taste out of a thimble, but a rummerful of it, my boy, that +would drown your first-born at his christening, if he slipped into it, +and no stinting in the use of this ocean; on the contrary, the tidy old +brown nurse, or mayhap a buxom young one, at your bedside, with ever and +anon a lettle more panada, (d----n panada, I had forgotten that!) "and den +some more sangaree; it will do massa good, strengthen him tomack"--and, +but I am out of breath, and must lie to for a brief space. + +I opened my eyes late in the morning of the second day after landing, and +saw Mr Fyall and the excellent Aaron Bang sitting one on each side of my +bed. Although weak as a sucking infant, I had a strong persuasion on my +mind that all danger was over, and that I was convalescent. I had no +feverish symptom whatsoever, but felt cool and comfortable, with a fine +balmy moisture on my skin; as yet, however, I spoke with great +difficulty. + +Aaron noticed this. + +"Don't exert yourself too much, Tom; take it coolly, man, and thank God +that you are now fairly round the corner. Is your head painful?" + +"No--why should it?" + +Mr Fyall smiled, and I put up my hand--it was all I could do, for my +limbs appeared loaded with lead at the extremities, and when I touched +any part of my frame, with my hand for instance, there was no concurring +sensation conveyed by the nerves of the two parts; sometimes I felt as if +touched by the hand of another; at others, as if I had touched the person +of some one else. When I raised my hand to my forehead, my fingers +instinctively moved to take hold of my hair, for I was in no small degree +proud of some luxuriant brown curls, which the women used to praise. +Alas and alack-a-day! in place of ringlets, glossy with Macassar oil, I +found a cool young tender plantain-leaf bound round my temples. + +"What is all this?" said I. "A kale-blade, where my hair used to be!" + +"How came this kale-blade here, +And how came it here?" + +Sung friend Bang, laughing, for he had great powers of laughter, and I +saw he kept his quizzical face turned towards some object at the head of +the bed, which I could not see. + +"You may say that, Aaron--where's my wig, you rogue, eh?" + +"Never mind, Tom," said Fyall, "your hair will soon grow again, won't it, +miss?" + +"Miss! miss!" and I screwed my neck round, and lo!--"Ah, Mary, and are +you the Delilah who have shorn my locks--you wicked young female lady +you!" + +She smiled and nodded to Aaron, who was a deuced favourite with the +ladies, black, brown, and white, (I give the pas to the staple of the +country--hope no offence,) as well as with every one else who ever knew +him. + +"How dare you, friend Bang, shave and blister my head, you dog?" said I. +"You cannibal Indian, you have scalped me; you are a regular Mohawk." + +"Never mind, Tom--never mind, my boy," said he. "Ay, you may blush, Mary +Palma. Cringle there will fight, but he will have 'Palmam qui meruit +ferat' for his motto yet, take my word for it." + +The sight of my cousin's lovely face, and the heavenly music of her +tongue, made me so forgiving, that I could be angry with no one.--At this +moment a nice-looking elderly man slid into the room as noiselessly as a +cat. + +"How are you, Lieutenant? Why, you are positively gay this morning! +Preserve me!--why have you taken off the dressing from your head?" + +"Preserve me--you may say that, Doctor--why, you seem to have preserved +me, and pickled me after a very remarkable fashion, certainly! Why, man, +do you intend to make a mummy of me, with all your swaddlings? Now, what +is that crackling on my chest? More plantain-leaves, as I live!" + +"Only another blister, sir." + +"Only another blister--and my feet--Zounds! what have you been doing with +my feet? The soles are as tender as if I had been bastinadoed." + +"Only cataplasms, sir; mustard and bird-pepper poultices nothing more." + +"Mustard and bird-pepper poultices!--and pray, what is that long fiddle +case supported on two chairs in the piazza!" + +"What case?" said the good Doctor, and his eye followed mine. "Oh, my +gun-case. I am a great sportsman, you must know--but draw down that +blind, Mr Bang, if you please, the breeze is too strong." + +"Gun-case! I would rather have taken it for your game-box, Doctor. +However, thanks be to Heaven, you have not bagged me this bout." + +At this moment, I heard a violent scratching and jumping on the roof of +the house, and presently a loud croak, and a strong rushing noise, as of +a large bird taking flight--"What is that, Doctor?" + +"The devil," said he, laughing, "at least your evil genius, Lieutenant, +it is the carrion crows, the large John--Crows, as they are called, +flying away. They have been holding a council of war upon you since +early dawn, expecting (I may tell you, now you are so well) that it might +likely soon turn into a coroner's inquest." + +"John--Crow!--Coroner's inquest!--Cool shavers those West India chaps, +after all!" muttered I; and again I lay back, and offered up my heart, +warm thanks to the Almighty, for his great mercy to me a sinner. + +My aunt and cousin had been on a visit in the neighbourhood, and overnight +Mr Fyall had kindly sent for them to receive my last sigh, for to all +appearance I was fast going. Oh, the gratitude of my heart, the +tears of joy I wept in my weak blessedness, and the overflowing of heart +that I experienced towards that almighty and ever-merciful Being who had +spared me, and brought me out of my great sickness, to look round on dear +friends, and on the idol of my heart, once more, after all my grievous +sufferings! I took Mary's hand--I could not raise it for lack of +strength, or I would have kissed it; but, as she leant over me, Fyall +came behind her and gently pressed her sweet lips to mine, while the dear +girl blushed as red as Aaron Bang's face. By this my aunt herself had +come into the room, and a warm congratulations, and last, although not +least, Timothy Tailtackle made his appearance in the piazza at the +window, with a clean, joyful, well shaven countenance. He grinned, +turned his quid, pulled up his trowsers, smoothed down his hair with his +hand, and gave a sort of half-tipsy shamble, meant for a bow, as he +entered the bedroom. + +"You have forereached on Davy this time, sir. Heaven be praised for it! +He was close aboard of you, howsomdever, sir, once or twice." Then he +bowed round the room again, with a sort of swing or caper, whichever you +choose to call it, as if he had been the party obliged. "Kind folk, +these, sir," he continued, in what was meant for sotto voce, and for my +ear alone, but it was more like the growling of a mastiff puppy than any +thing else. "Kind folk, sir--bad as their mountebanking looked the first +night, sir--why, Lord bless your honour, may they make a marine of me, if +they han't set a Bungo to wait on us, Bill and I, that is--and we has +grog more than does us good--and grub, my eye!--only think, sir--Bill and +Timothy Tailtackle waited on by a black Bungo!" and he doubled himself +up, chuckling and hugging himself, with infinite glee. + +"All now went merry as a marriage bell." I was carefully conveyed to +Kingston, where I rallied under my aunt's hospitable roof, as rapidly +almost as I had sickened, and within a fortnight, all bypast strangeness +explained to my superiors, I at length occupied my berth in the +Firebrand's gunroom, as third lieutenant of the ship. + + + +CHAPTER XI.--More Scenes in Jamaica. + + + There be land-rats and water-rats--water-thieves + and land-thieves I mean pirates. + + The Merchant Of Venice, I. iii. 22--24. + + +The malady from whose fangs I had just escaped, was at this time making +fearful ravages amongst the troops and white inhabitants of Jamaica +generally; nor was the squadron exempted from the afflicting visitation, +although it suffered in a smaller degree. + +I had occasion at this time to visit Uppark camp, a military post about +a mile and a half from Kingston, where two regiments of infantry, and a +detachment of artillery, were stationed. + +In the forenoon, I walked out in company with an officer, a relation of +my own, whom I had gone to visit; enjoying the fresh sea breeze that +whistled past us in half a gale of wind, although the sun was vertical, +and shining into the bottom of a pint pot, as the sailors have it. + +The barracks were built on what appeared to me a very dry situation +(although I have since heard it alleged that there was a swamp to +windward of it, over which the sea breeze blew, but this I did not see,) +considerably elevated above the hot sandy plain on which Kingston +stands, and sloping gently towards the sea. They were splendid, large, +airy two story buildings, well raised off the ground on brick pillars, +so that there was a perfectly free ventilation of air between the +surface of the earth and the floor of the first story, as well as +through the whole of the upper rooms. A large balcony, or piazza, ran +along the whole of the south front, both above and below, which shaded +the brick shell of the house from the sun, and afforded a cool and +convenient lounge for the men. The outhouses of all kinds were well +thrown back into the rear, so that in front there was nothing to +intercept the sea-breeze. The officers' quarters stood in advance of +the men's barracks, and were, as might be expected, still more +comfortable; and in front of all were the field-officer's houses, the +whole of substantial brick and mortar. This superb establishment stood +in an extensive lawn, not surpassed in beauty by any nobleman's park +that I had ever seen. It was immediately after the rains when I visited +it; the grass was luxuriant and newly cut, and the trees, which grew in +detached clumps, were most magnificent. We clambered up into one of +them, a large umbrageous wild cotton-tree, which cast a shadow on the +ground--the sun being, as already mentioned, right overhead--of thirty +paces in diameter; but still it was but a dwarfish plant of its kind, +for I have measured others whose gigantic shadows, at the same hour, +were upwards of one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and their +trunks, one in particular that overhangs the Spanish Town road, twenty +feet through of solid timber; that is, not including the enormous spurs +that shoot out like buttresses, and end in strong twisted roots, that +strike deep into the earth, and form stays, as it were, to the tree in +all directions. + +Our object, however--publish it not in Askalon was, not so much to +admire the charms of nature, as to enjoy the luxury of a real Havannah +cigar, in solitary comfort; and a glorious perch we had selected. The +shade was grateful beyond measure. The fresh breeze was rushing, almost +roaring, through the leaves and groaning branches, and every thing +around was green, and fragrant, and Cool, and delicious; by comparison +that is, for the thermometer would, I daresay, have still vouched for +eighty degrees. The branches overhead were alive with a variety of +beautiful lizards, and birds of the gayest plumage; amongst others, a +score of small chattering green paroquets were hopping close to us, and +playing at bopeep from the lower surfaces of the leaves of the wild +pine, (a sort of Brobdignag parasite, that grows, like the mistletoe, in +the clefts of the larger trees,) to which they clung, as green and +shining as the leaves themselves, and ever and anon popping their little +heads and shoulders over to peer at us; while the red-breasted +woodpecker kept drumming on every hollow part of the bark, for all the +world, like old Kelson, the carpenter of the Torch, tapping along the +top sides for the dry rot. All around us the men were lounging about in +the shade, and sprawling on the grass in their foraging caps and light +jackets, with an officer here and there lying reading, or sauntering +about, bearding Phoebus himself, to watch for a shot at a swallow, as it +skimmed past; while goats and horses, sheep and cattle, were browsing +the fresh grass, or sheltering themselves from the heat beneath the +trees. All nature seemed alive and happy--a little drowsy from the heat +or so, but that did not much signify--when two carts, each drawn by a +mule, and driven by a negro, approached the tree whereon we were +perched. A solitary sergeant accompanied them, and they appeared, when +a bowshot distant, to be loaded with white deal boxes. + +I paid little attention to them until they drove under the tree. + +"I say, Snowdrop," said the non-commissioned officer, "where be them +black rascals, them pioneers--where is the fateague party, my Lily +white, who ought to have the trench dug by this time?" + +"Dere now," grumbled the negro, "dere now--easy ting to deal wid white +gentleman, but debil cannot satisfy dem worsted sash." Then aloud--"Me +no know, sir--me can't tell--no for me business to dig hole--I only +carry what you fill him up wid;" and the vampire, looking over his +shoulder, cast his eye towards his load, and grinned until his white +teeth glanced from ear to ear. + +"Now," said the Irish sergeant, "I could brain you, but it is not worth +while!"--I question if he could, however, knowing as I did the thickness +of their skulls, "Ah, here they come!"--and a dozen half drunken, more +than half-naked, bloated, villainous-looking blackamoors, with shovels +and pick-axes on their shoulders, came along the road, laughing and +singing most lustily. They passed beneath where we sat, and, when about +a stonecast beyond, they all jumped into a trench or pit, which I had +not noticed before, about twenty feet long, by eight wide. It was +already nearly six feet deep, but it seemed they had instructions to +sink it further, for they first plied their pickaxes, and then began to +shovel out the earth. When they had completed their labour, the +sergeant, who had been superintending their operations, returned to +where the carts were still standing beneath the tree. One of them had +six coffins in it, with the name of the tenant of each, and number of +his company, marked in red chalk on the smallest end! + +"I say, Snowdrop," said the sergeant, "how do you come to have only five +bodies, when Cucumbershin there has six?" + +"To be sure I hab no more as five, and weight enough too. You no see +Corporal Bumblechops dere? You knows how big he was." + +"Well, but where is Sergeant Heavystern? why did you not fetch him away +with the others?" + +The negro answered doggedly, "Massa Sergeant, you should remember dem no +die of consumption--cough you call him--nor fever and ague, nor any ting +dat waste dem--for tree day gone--no more--all were mount guard--tout and +fat; so as for Sergeant Heavystern, him left in de dead-house at de +hospital." + +"I guessed as much, you dingy tief," said the sergeant, "but I will +break your bones, if you don't give me a sufficing reason why you left +him."--And he approached Snowdrop, with his cane raised in act to +strike. + +"Top, massa," shouted the negro; "me will tell you--Dr Plaget desire dat +Heavystern should be leave." + +"Confound Dr Plaget"--and he smote the pioneer across the pate, whereby +he broke his stick, although, as I anticipated, without much hurting his +man--but the sergeant instantly saw his error, and with the piece of the +baton he gave Snowdrop a tap on the shin-bone, that set him pirouetting +on one leg, with the other in his hand, like a tee-totum. + +"Why, sir, did you not bring as many as Cucumbershin, sir?" "Becaase" +screamed Snowdrop, in great wrath, now all alive and kicking from the +smart--"Becaase Cucumbershin is loaded wid light infantry, sir, and all +of mine are grenadier, Massa Sergeant--dat dem good reason surely!" + +"No, it is not, sir; go back and fetch Heavystern immediately, or by the +powers but I will"--"Massa Sergeant, you must be mad--Dr Plaget--you +won't yeerie--but him say, five grenadier--especially wid Corporal +Bumblechop for one--is good load--ay, wery tif load--equal to seven +tallion company [battallion, I presume], and more better load, great +deal, den six light infantry--beside him say, tell Sergeant Pivot to +send you back at five in de afternoon wid four more coffin, by which +time he would have anoder load, and in trute de load was ready prepare +in de deadhouse before I come away, only dem were not well cold just +yet." + +I was mightily shocked at all this--but my chum took it very coolly.--He +slightly raised one side of his mouth, and, giving a knowing wink with +his eye, lighted a fresh cigar, and continued to puff away with all the +composure in the world. + +At length the forenoon wore away, and the bugles sounded for dinner, +when we adjourned to the messroom. It was a very large and handsome +saloon, standing alone in the lawn, and quite detached from all the +other buildings, but the curtailed dimensions of the table in the middle +of it, and the ominous crowding together of the regimental plate, like a +show-table in Rundle and Bridge's back shop, gave startling proofs of +the ravages of the "pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the +destruction that wasteth at noonday;" for although the whole regiment +was in barracks, there were only nine covers laid, one of which was for +me. The lieutenant-colonel, the major, and, I believe, fifteen other +officers, had already been gathered to their fathers, within four months +from the day on which the regiment landed from the transports. Their +warfare was o'er, and they slept well. At the first, when the insidious +disease began to creep on apace, and to evince its deadly virulence, all +was dismay and anxiety--downright, slavish, unmanly fear, even amongst +casehardened veterans, who had weathered the whole Peninsular war, and +finished off with Waterloo. The next week passed over--the mortality +increasing, but the dismay decreasing and so it wore on, until it +reached its horrible climax, at the time I speak of, by which period +there was absolutely no dread at all. A reckless gaiety had succeeded +not the screwing up of one's courage for the nonce, to mount a breach, +or to lay an enemy's frigate aboard, where the substratum of fear is +present, although cased over by an energetic exertion of the will; but +an unnatural light-heartedness, for which account, ye philosophers, for +I cannot--and this, too, amongst men who, although as steel in the +field, yet whenever a common cold overtook them in quarters, or a small +twinge of rheumatic pain, would, under other circumstances, have caudled +and beflannelled themselves, and bored you for your sympathy, at no +allowance, as they say. + +The major elect, that is, the senior captain, was in the chair; as for +the lieutenant-colonel's vacancy, that was too high an aspiration for +any man in the regiment. A stranger of rank, and interest, and money, +would of course get that step, for the two deaths in the regimental +staff made but one captain a major, as my neighbour on the left hand +feelingly remarked. All was fun and joviality; we had a capital dinner, +and no allusion whatever, direct or indirect, was made to the prevailing +mortal epidemic, until the surgeon came in, about eight o'clock in the +evening. + +"Sit down, doctor," said the president--"take some wine; can recommend +the Madeira, claret but so, so your health." + +The doctor bowed, and soon became as happy and merry as the rest; so we +carried on, until about ten o'clock, when the lights began to waltz a +little, and propagate also, and I found I had got enough, or, +peradventure, a little more than enough, when the senior captain rose, +and walked very composedly out of the room--but I noticed him pinch the +doctor's shoulder as he passed. + +The Medico thereupon stole quietly after him; but we did not seem to +miss either--a young sub had usurped the deserted throne, and there we +were all once more in full career, singing and bousing, and cracking. +bad jokes to our hearts' content. By-and-by, in comes the doctor once +more. + +"Doctor," quoth young sub, "take some wine; can't recommend the Madeira +this time," mimicking his predecessor very successfully; "the claret, +you know, has been condemned, but a little hot brandy and water, eh?" + +The doctor once more bowed his pate, made his hot stuff, and volunteered +a song.--After he had finished, and we had all hammered on the table to +his honour and glory, until every thing danced again as if it had been a +matter of very trivial concern, he said, "Sorry I was away so long; but +old Spatterdash has got a damned thick skin, I can tell you--could +scarcely get the lancet into him--I thought I should have had to send +for a spring phleme--to tip him the veterinary, you know--and he won't +take physic: so I fear he will have but a poor chance." + +Spatterdash was no other than mine host who had just vacated! + +"What, do you really think he is in for it?" said the second oldest +captain who sat next me; and as he spoke he drew his leg from beneath +the table, and, turning out his dexter heel, seemed to contemplate the +site of the prospective fixed spur. + +"I do, indeed," quoth Dr Plaget. He died within three days! + +But as I do not intend to write an essay on yellow fever, I will make an +end, and get on shipboard as fast as I can, after stating one strong +fact, authenticated to me by many unimpeachable witnesses. It is this; +that this dreadful epidemic, or contagious fever--call it which you will, +has never appeared, or been propagated at or beyond an altitude of 3000 +feet above the level of the sea, although people seized with it on the +hot sultry plains, and removed thither, have unquestionably died. In a +country like Jamaica, with a range of lofty mountains, far exceeding +this height, intersecting the island through nearly its whole length, +might not Government, after satisfying themselves of the truth of the +fact, improve on the hint? Might not a main-guard suffice in Kingston, +for instance, while the regiments were in quarters half-way up the +Liguanea Mountains, within twelve miles actual distance from the town, +and within view of it, so that during the day, by a semaphore on the +mountain, and another at the barrack of the outpost, a constant and +instantaneous communication could be kept up, and, if need were, by +lights in the night? + +The admiral, for instance, had a semaphore in the stationary flagship at +Port Royal, which communicated with another at his Pen, or residence, +near Kingston; and this again rattled off the information to the +mountain retreat, where he occasionally retired to careen; and it is +fitting to state also, that in all the mountain districts of Jamaica +which I visited, there is abundance of excellent water and plenty of +fuel. These matters are worth consideration, one would think; however, +allons--it is no business of Tom Cringle's. + +Speaking of telegraphing, I will relate an anecdote here, if you will +wait until I mend my pen. I had landed at Greenwich wharf on duty--this +was the nearest point of communication between Port Royal and the +Admiral's Pen--where, finding the flag lieutenant, he drove me up in his +ketureen to lunch. While we were regaling ourselves, the old signalman +came into the piazza, and with several most remarkable obeisances, gave +us to know that there were flags hoisted on the signalmast, at the +mountain settlement, of which he could make nothing, the uppermost was +neither the interrogative, the affirmative, nor the negative, nor in +fact any thing that with the book he could make sense of. + +"Odd enough," said the lieutenant; "hand me the glass," and he peered +away for half a minute. "Confound me if I can make heads or tails of it +either; there, Cringle, what do you think? How do you construe it?" + +I took the telescope. Uppermost there was hoisted on the signal mast a +large tablecloth, not altogether immaculate, and under it a towel, as I +guessed, for it was too opaque for bunting, and too white, although I +could not affirm that it was fresh out of the fold either. + +"I am puzzled," said I, as I spied away again. Meanwhile there was no +acknowledgment made at our semaphore--"There, down they go," I continued +"Why, it must be a mistake, Stop, here's a new batch going up above the +green trees--There goes the tablecloth once more, and the towel, and +deuce take me, if I can compare the lowermost to any thing but a +dishclout--why, it must be a dishclout." + +The flags, or substitutes for them, streamed another minute in the +breeze, but as there was still no answer made from our end of the +string, they were once more hauled down--We waited another minute--"Why, +here goes the same signal up again, tablecloth, towel, dishclout, and +all--What the diable have we got here? A red ball, two pennants under. +What can that mean?--Ball--it is the bonnet-rouge, or I am a Dutchman, +with two short streamers" Another look--"A red night-cap and a pair of +stockings, by all that is portentous!" exclaimed I. + +"Ah, I see, I see!" said the lieutenant, laughing, "signal-man, +acknowledge it." + +It was done, and down came all the flags in a trice. It appeared, on +enquiry, that the washing cart, which ought to have been sent up that +morning, had been forgotten; and the Admiral and his secretary having +ridden out, there was no one who could make the proper signal for it. +So the old housekeeper took this singular method of having the cart +despatched, and it was sent off accordingly. + +For the first week after I entered on my new office, I was busily +engaged on board; during which time my mind was quite made up, that the +most rising man in his Majesty's service, beyond all compare, was +Lieutenant Thomas Cringle, third of the Firebrand. During this eventful +period I never addressed a note to any friend on shore, or to a brother +officer, without writing in the left-hand lower corner of the envelope, +"Lieutenant Cringle," and clapping three dashing, &c. &c. &c below the +party's name for whom it was intended. + +"Must let 'em know that an officer of my rank in the service knows +somewhat of the courtesies of life, eh?" + +In about ten days, however, we had gotten the ship into high order and +ready for sea, and now the glory and honour of command, like my only +epaulet, that had been soaked while on duty in one or two showers, and +afterwards regularly bronzed in the sun, began to tarnish, and lose the +new gloss, like every thing else in this weary world. It was about this +time, while sitting at breakfast in the gunroom one fine morning, with +the other officers of our mess, gossiping about I hardly remember what, +that we heard the captain's voice on deck. + +"Call the first lieutenant." + +"He is at breakfast, sir," said the man, whoever he might have been, to +whom the order was addressed. + +"Never mind then--Here, boatswain's mate--Pipe away the men who were +captured in the boats; tell them to clean themselves, and send +Mr----to me"--(This was the officer who had been taken prisoner along +with them in the first attack)--"they are wanted in Kingston at the trial +today. Stop, tell Mr Cringle also to get ready to go in the gig." + +The pirates, to the amount of forty-five, had been transferred to +Kingston jail some days previously, preparatory to their trial, which, +as above-mentioned, was fixed for this day. + +We pulled cheerily up to Kingston, and, landing at the Wherry wharf, +marched along the hot dusty streets, under a broiling sun, Captain +Transom, the other Lieutenant, and myself, in full puff, leading the +van, followed by about fourteen seamen, in white straw hats, with broad +black ribbons, and clean white frocks and trowsers, headed by a +boatswain's mate, with his silver whistle hung round his neck--as +respectable a tail as any Christian could desire to swinge behind him; +and, man for man, I would willingly have perilled my promotion upon +their walloping, with no offensive weapons but their stretchers, the +Following, claymores and all, of any proud, disagreeable, would-be +mighty mountaineer, that ever turned up his supercilious, whisky +blossomed snout at Bailie Jarvie. On they came, square-shouldered, +narrow-flanked, tall, strapping fellows, tumbling and rolling about the +piazzas in knots of three and four, until, at the corner of King Street, +they came bolt up upon a well-known large, fat, brown lady, famous for +her manufacture of spruce beer. + +"Avast, avast a bit"--sung out one of the topmen--"let the nobs heave a +head, will ye, and let's have a pull." + +"Here, old mother Slush," sung out another of the cutter's crew. "Hand +us up a dozen bottles of spruce, do you hear?" + +"Dozen battle of pruce!" groaned the old woman--"who shall pay me?" + +"Why, do you think the Firebrands are thieves, you old canary, you?" + +"How much, eh?" said the boatswain's mate. + +"Twelve feepennies," quoth the matron. + +"Oh, ah!" said one of the men--"Twelve times five is half a crown; +there's a dollar for you, old mother Popandchokem--now give me back five +shillings." + +"Eigh, oh!" whined out the spruce merchant; "you dem rascal, who tell +you dat your dollar more wort den any one else money eh? How can give +you back five shilling and keep back twelve feepenny--eh?" The culprit, +who had stood the Cocker of the company, had by this time gained his +end, which was to draw the fat damsel a step or two from the large tub +half-full of water, where the bottles were packed, and to engage her +attention by stirring up her bile, or corruption, as they call it in +Scotland, while his messmates instantly seized the opportunity, and a +bottle a-piece also, and, as I turned round to look for them, there +they all were in a circle taking the meridian altitude of the sun, or as +if they had been taking aim at the pigeons on the eaves of the houses +above them with Indian mouth tubes. + +They then replaced the bottles in the tub, paid the woman more than she +asked; but, by way of taking out the change, they chucked her stern +foremost into the water amongst her merchandise, and then shouldered the +vessel, old woman and all, and away they staggered with her, the empty +bottles clattering together in the water, and the old lady swearing and +bouncing and squattering amongst them, while jack shouted to her to hold +her tongue, or they would let her go by the run bodily. Thus they +stumped in the wake of their captain, until he arrived at the door of +the Courthouse, to the great entertainment of the bystanders, cutting +the strings that confined the corks of the stone bottles as they bowled +along, popping the spruce into each other's faces, and the faces of the +negroes, as they ran out of the stores to look at jack in his frolic, +and now and then taking a shot at the old woman's cockemony itself, as +she was held kicking and spurring high above their heads. + +At length the captain, who was no great way ahead, saw what was going +on, which was the signal for doucinog the whole affair, spruce-woman, +tub, and bottles; and the party gathering themselves up, mustered close +aboard of us, as grave as members of the General Assembly. + +The regular courthouse of the city being under repair, the Admiralty +Sessions were held in a large room occupied temporarily for the purpose. +At one end, raised two steps above the level of the floor, was the +bench, on which were seated the Judge of the Admiralty Court, supported +by two post captains in full uniform, who are ex-officio judges of this +court in the colonies, one on each side. On the right, the jury, +composed of merchants of the place, and respectable planters of the +neighbourhood, were enclosed in a sort of box, with a common white pine +railing separating it from the rest of the court. There was a long +table in front of the bench, at which a lot of blackrobed devil's limbs +of lawyers, were ranged--but both amongst them, and on the bench, the +want of the cauliflower wigs was sorely felt by me, as well as by the +seamen, who considered it little less than murder, that men in +crops-black shock-pated fellows--should sit in judgment on their +fellow-creatures, where life and death were in the scales. + +On the left hand of the bench, the motley public, white, black, and of +every intermediate shade--were grouped; as also in front of the dock, +which was large. It might have been made with a view to the possibility +of fifteen unfortunates or so being arraigned at one time; but now there +were no fewer than forty-three jammed and pegged together into it, like +sheep in a Smithfield pen the evening before market-day. These were +the forty thieves--the pirates. They were all, without exception, +clean, well shaven, and decently rigged in white trowsers, linen or +check shirts, and held their broad Panama sombreros in their hands. + +Most of them wore the red silk sash round the waist. They had generally +large bushy whiskers, and not a few had earrings of massive gold, (why +call wearing earrings puppyism? Shakspeare wore earrings, or the +Chandos portrait lies,) and chains of the same metal round their necks, +supporting, as I concluded, a crucifix, hid in the bosom of the shirt. +A Spaniard can't murder a man comfortably, if he has not his crucifix +about him. + +They were, collectively, the most daring, intrepid, Salvator Rosa +looking men I had ever seen. Most of them were above the middle size, +and the spread of their shoulders, the grace with which their arms were +hung, and finely developed muscles of the chest and neck, the latter +exposed completely by the folding back of their shirt collars, cut large +and square, after the Spanish fashion, beat the finest boat's-crew we +could muster all to nothing. Some of them were of mixed blood, that is, +the cross between the European Spaniard and the aboriginal Indian of +Cuba, a race long since sacrificed on tile altar of Mammon, the white +man's god. + +Their hair, generally speaking, was long, and curled over the forehead +black and glossy, or hung down to their shoulders in ringlets, that a +dandy of the second Charles's time would have given his little finger +for. The forehead in most was high and broad, and of a clear olive, the +nose straight, springing boldly from the brow, the cheeks oval, and the +mouth--every Spaniard has a beautiful mouth, until he spoils it with the +beastly cigar, as far as his well-formed firm lips can be spoiled; but +his teeth he generally does destroy early in life. Take the whole, +however, and deduct for the teeth, I had never seen so handsome a set of +men; and I am sure no woman, had she been there, would have gainsayed +me. They stood up, and looked forth upon their judges and the jury like +brave men, desperadoes though they were. They were, without exception, +calm and collected, as if aware that they had small chance of escape, +but still determined not to give that chance away. One young man +especially attracted my attention, from the bold, cool self-possession +of his bearing. He was in the very front of the dock, and dressed in no +way different from the rest, so far as his under garments were +concerned, unless it were that they were of a finer quality. He wore a +short green velvet jacket, profusely studded with knobs and chains, like +small chain-shot, of solid gold, similar to the shifting button lately +introduced by our dandies in their waistcoats. It was not put on, but +hung on one shoulder, being fastened across his breast by the two empty +sleeves tied together in a knot. He also wore the red silk sash, +through which a broad gold cord ran twining like the strand of a rope. +He had no earrings, but his hair was the most beautiful I had ever seen +in a male--long and black, jet black and glossy. It was turned up and +fastened in a club on the crown of his head with a large pin, I should +rather say skewer, of silver; but the outlandishness of the fashion was +not offensive, when I came to take into the account the beauty of the +plaiting, and of the long raven lovelocks that hung down behind each of +his small transparent ears, and the short Hyperion-like curls that +clustered thick and richly on his high, pale, broad forehead. His eyes +were large, black, and swimming, like a woman's; his nose straight and +thin; and such a mouth, such an under-lip, full and melting; and teeth +regular and white, and utterly free from the pollution of tobacco; and a +beautifully moulded small chin, rounding off, and merging in his round, +massive, muscular neck. + +I had never seen so fine a face, such perfection of features, and such a +clear, dark, smooth skin. It was a finer face than Lord Byron's, whom I +had seen more than once, and wanted that hellish curl of the lip; and, +as to figure, he could, to look at him, at any time have eaten up his +lordship stoop and roop to his breakfast. It was the countenance, in a +word, of a most beautiful youth, melancholy, indeed, and anxious +evidently anxious; for the large pearls that coursed each other down his +forehead and cheek, and the slight quivering of the under-lip, every +now and then evinced the powerful struggle that was going on within. +His figure was, if possible, superior to his face. It was not quite +filled up, set, as we call it, but the arch of his chest was +magnificent, his shoulders square, arms well put on; but his neck--"Have +you seen the Apollo, neighbour?"--"No, but the cast of it at Somerset +House."--"Well, that will do--so you know the sort of neck he had." +His waist was fine, hips beautifully moulded; and although his under +limbs were shrouded in his wide trowsers, they were evidently of a piece +with what was seen and developed; and this was vouched for by the turn +of his ankle and well-shaped foot on which he wore a small Spanish +grass slipper, fitted with great nicety. He was at least six feet two +in height, and such as I have described him; there he stood, with his +hands grasping the rail before him and looking intently at a wigless +lawyer who was opening the accusation, while he had one ear turned a +little towards the sworn interpreter of the court, whose province it +was, at every pause, to explain to the prisoners what the learned +gentleman was stating. From time to time he said a word or two to a +square-built, dark, ferocious-looking man standing next him, +apparently about forty years of age, who, as well as his fellow +prisoners, appeared to pay him great respect; and I could notice the +expression of their countenances change as his rose or fell. + +The indictment had been read before I came in, and, as already +mentioned, the lawyer was proceeding with his accusatory speech, and, as +it appeared to me, the young Spaniard had some difficulty in +understanding the interpreter's explanation. Whenever he saw me, he +exclaimed, "Ah! aqui viene, el Senor Teniente--ahora sabremos ahora, +ahora;" and he beckoned to me to draw near. I did so. + +"I beg pardon, Mr Cringle," he said in Spanish, with the ease and grace +of a nobleman "but I believe the interpreter to be incapable, and I am +certain that what I say is not fittingly explained to the judges; +neither do I believe he can give me a sound notion of what the advocate +(avocado) is alleging against us. May I entreat you to solicit the +bench for permission to take his place? I know you will expect no +apology for the trouble from a man in my situation." + +This unexpected address in open court took me fairly aback, and I +stopped short while in the act of passing the open space in front of the +dock, which was kept clear by six marines in white jackets, whose +muskets, fixed bayonets, and uniform caps, seemed out of place to my +mind in a criminal court. The lawyer suddenly suspended his harangue, +while the judges fixed their eyes on me, and so did the audience, +confound them! To be the focus of so many eyes was trying to my +modesty; for, although unacquainted with bettermost society, still, +below any little manner that I had acquired, there was, and always will +be, an under stratum of bashfulness, or sheepishness, or mauvaise honte, +call it which you will; and the torture, the breaking on the wheel, with +which a man of that temperament perceives the eyes of a whole courthouse, +for instance, attracted to him, none but a bashful man can +understand. At length I summoned courage to speak. + +"May it please your honours, this poor fellow, on his own behalf, and on +the part of his fellow-prisoners, complains of the incapacity of the +sworn interpreter, and requests that I may be made the channel of +communication in his stead." + +This was a tremendous effort, and once more the whole blood of my body +rushed to my cheeks and forehead, and I "sweat extremely." The judges, +he of the black robe and those of the epaulet, communed together. + +"Have you any objection to be sworn, Mr Cringle?" + +"None in the least, provided the court considers me competent, and the +accused are willing to trust to me." + +"Si, si!" exclaimed the young Spaniard, as if comprehending what was +going on--"Somos contentos--todos, todos!" and he looked round, like a +prince, on his fellow--culprits. A low murmuring, "Si, si--contento, +contento!" passed amongst the group. + +"The accused, please your honours, are willing to trust to my +correctness." + +"Pray, Mr Cringle, don't make yourself the advocate of these men, mind +that," said the--, lawyer sans wig. + +"I don't intend it, sir," I said, slightly stung; "but if you had +suffered what I have done at their hands, peradventure such a caution to +you would have been unnecessary." + +The sarcasm told, I was glad to see; but remembering where I was, I +hauled but of action with the man of words, simply giving the last shot +"I am sure no English gentleman would willingly throw any difficulty in +the way of the poor fellows being made aware of what is given in +evidence against them, bad as they may be." + +He was about rejoining, for a lawyer would as soon let you have the last +word as a sweep or a baker the wall, when the officer of court +approached and swore me in, and the trial proceeded. + +The whole party were proved by fifty witnesses to have been taken in +arms on board of the schooners in the Cove; and farther, it was proved +that no commission or authority to cruise whatsoever was found on board +any of them, a strong proof that they were pirates. + +"Que dice, que dice?" enquired the young Spaniard already mentioned. + +I said that the court seemed to infer, and were pressing it on the jury, +that the absence of any commission or letter of marque from a superior +officer, or from any of the Spanish authorities, was strong evidence +that they were marauders--in fact pirates. + +"Ah!" he exclaimed; "gracias, gracias!" Then, with an agitated hand, he +drew from his bosom a parchment, folded like the manifest of a merchant +ship, and at the same moment the gruff fierce-looking elderly man did +the same, with another similar instrument from his own breast. + +"Here, here are the commissions--here are authorities from the Captain +General of Cuba. Read them." + +I looked over them; they were regular to all appearance; at least as +there were no autographs in court of the Spanish Viceroy, or any of his +officers, whose signatures, either real or forged, were affixed to the +instruments, with which to compare them, there was a great chance, I +conjectured, so far as I saw, that they would be acquitted: and in this +case we, his majesty's officers, would have been converted into the +transgressing party; for if it were established that the vessels taken +were bona fide Guarda Costas, we should be placed in an awkward +predicament, in having captured them by force of arms, not to take into +account the having violated the sanctity of a friendly port. + +But I could see that this unexpected production of regular papers by +their officers had surprised the pirates themselves, as much as it had +done me,--whether it was a heinous offence of mine or not to conceal +this impression from the court, (there is some dispute about the matter +to this hour between me and my conscience,) I cannot tell; but I was +determined to stick scrupulously to the temporary duties of my office, +without stating what I suspected, or even translating some sudden +expressions overheard by me, that would have shaken the credibility of +the documents. + +"Comissiones, comissiones!" for instance, was murmured by a weather +beaten Spaniard, with a fine bald head, from which two small tufts of +grey hair stood out above his ears, and with a superb Moorish face +"Comissiones es decir patentes--Si hay comissiones, el Diablo, mismo, +les ha hecho!" + +The court was apparently nonplussed--not so the wigless man of law. His +pea green visage assumed a more ghastly hue, and the expression of his +eyes became absolutely blasting. He looked altogether like a cat sure +of her mouse, but willing to let it play in fancied joy of escaping, as +he said softly to the Jew crier, who was perched in a high chair above +the heads of the people, like an ugly corbie in its dirty nest--"Crier, +call Job Rumbletithump, mate of the Porpoise." + +"Job Rumbletithump, come into court!" + +"Here," quoth Job, as a stout, bluff honest-looking sailor rolled into +the witnessbox. + +"Now, clerk of the crown, please to swear in the mate of the Porpoise." +It was done. "Now, my man, you were taken going through the Caicos +Passage in the Porpoise by pirates, in August last--were you not?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Turn your face to the jury, and speak up, sir. Do you see any of the +honest men who made free with you in that dock, sir? Look at them, +sir." + +"The mate walked up to the dock, stopped, and fixed his eyes intently on +the young Spaniard. I stared breathlessly at him also. He grows pale as +death--his lip quivers--the large drops of sweat once more burst from +his brow. I grew sick, sick. + +"Yes, your honour," said the mate. + +"Yes--ah!" said the devil's limb, chuckling--"we are getting on the +trail at last. Can you swear to more than one?" + +"Yes, your honour." + +"Yes!" again responded the sans wig. "How many?" + +The man counted them off. "Fifteen, sir. That young fellow there is +the man who cut Captain Spurtel's throat, after violating his wife +before his eyes." + +"God forgive me, is it possible?" gasped Thomas Cringle. + +"There's a monster in human form for you, gentlemen," continued devil's +limb. "Go on, Mr Rumbletithump." + +"That other man next him hung me up by the heels, and seared me on the +bare"--Here honest job had just time to divert the current of his speech +into a loud "whew." + +"Seared you on the whew!" quoth the facetious lawyer, determined to have +his jest, even in the face of forty-three of his fellow creatures +trembling on the brink of eternity. "Explain, sir, tell the court where +you were seared, and how you were seared, and all about your being +seared." + +Job twisted and lolloped about, as if he was looking out for some +opening to bolt through; but all egress was shut up. + +"Why, please your honour," the eloquent blood mantling in his honest +sunburnt cheeks; while from my heart I pitied the poor fellow, for he +was absolutely broiling in his bashfulness--"He seared me onon--why, +please your honour, he seared me on--with a redhot iron!" + +"Why, I guessed as much, if he seared you at all; but where did he sear +you? Come now," coaxingly, "tell the court where and how he applied the +actual cautery." + +Job being thus driven to his wit's end, turned and stood at bay. "Now I +will tell you, your honour, if you will but sit down for a moment, and +answer me one question." + +"To be sure; why, Job, you brighten on us. There, I am down now for +your question." + +"Now, sir," quoth Rumbletithump, imitating his tormentor's manner much +more cleverly than I expected, "what part of your honour's body touches +your chair?" + +"How, sir!" said the man of words--"how dare you, sir, take such a +liberty, sir?" while a murmuring laugh hummed through the court. + +"Now, sir, since you won't answer me, sir," said Job, elevated by his +victory, while his hoarse voice roughened into a loud growl, "I will +answer myself. I was seared, sir, where"-- + +"Silence!" quoth the crier at this instant drowning the mate's voice, so +that I could not catch the words he used. + +"And there you have it, sir. Put me in jail, if you like, sir." + +The murmur was bursting out into a guffaw, when the judge interfered. +But there was no longer any attempt at ill-timed jesting on the part of +the bar, which was but bad taste at the best on so solemn an occasion. + +Job continued, "I was burnt into the very muscle until I told where the +gold was stowed away." + +"Aha!" screamed the lawyer, forgetting his recent discomfiture in the +gladness of his success. "And all the rest were abetting, eh?" + +"The rest of the fifteen were, sir." + +But the prosecutor, a glutton in his way, had thought he had bagged the +whole forty-three. And so he ultimately did before the evening closed +in, as most of the others were identified by other witnesses; and when +they could not actually be sworn to, the piracies were brought home to +them by circumstantial evidence; such, for instance, as having been +captured on board of the craft we had taken, which again were identified +as the very vessels which had plundered the merchantmen and murdered +several of their crews, so that by six o'clock the jury had returned a +verdict of Guilty--and I believe there never was a juster--against the +whole of them. The finding, and sentence of death following thereupon, +seemed not to create any strong effect upon the prisoners. They had all +seen how the trial was going; and, long before this, the bitterness of +death seemed to be past. + +I could hear one of our boat's crew, who was standing behind me, say to +his neighbour, "Why, Jem, surely he is in joke. Why, he don't mean to +condemn them to be hanged seriously, without his wig, eh?" + +Immediately after the judgment was pronounced, which, both as to import, +and literally, I had translated to them, Captain Transom, who was +sitting on the bench beside his brother officers, nodded to me, "I say, +Mr Cringle, tell the coxswain to call Pearl, if you please." + +I passed the word to one of the Firebrand's marines, who was on duty, +who again repeated the order to a seaman who was standing at the door. + +"I say, Moses, call the clergyman." + +Now this Pearl was no other than the seaman who pulled the stroke-oar +in the gig; a very handsome negro, and the man who afterwards forked +Whiffle out of the water--tall, powerful, and muscular, and altogether +one of the best men in the ship. The rest of the boat's crew, from his +complexion, had fastened the sobriquet of the clergyman on him. + +"Call the clergyman." + +The superseded interpreter, who was standing near, seemingly took no +notice, immediately traduced this literally to the unhappy men. A +murmur arose amongst them. + +"Que--el padre ya! Somos en Capilla entonces--poco tiempo, poco +tiempo!" + +They had thought that the clergyman having been sent for, the sentence +was immediately to be executed, but I undeceived them; and, in ten +minutes after they were condemned, they were marched off under a strong +escort of foot to the jail. + +I must make a long story short. Two days afterwards, I was ordered with +the launch to Kingston, early in the morning, to receive twenty-five of +the pirates who had been ordered for execution that morning at Gallows +Point. It was little past four in the morning when we arrived at the +Wherry wharf, where they were already clustered, with their hands +pinioned behind their backs, silent and sad, but all of them calm, and +evincing no unmanly fear of death. + +I don't know if other people have noticed it, but this was one of +several instances where I have seen foreigners--Frenchmen, Italians, and +Spaniards, for instance--meet death, inevitable death, with greater +firmness than British soldiers or sailors. Let me explain. In the +field, or grappling in mortal combat, on the blood-slippery quarterdeck +of an enemy's vessel, British soldier or sailor is the bravest of the +brave. No soldier or sailor of any other country, saving and excepting +those damned Yankees, can stand against them--they would be utterly +overpowered--their hearts would fail them--they would either be cut down +thrust through, or they would turn and flee. Yet those same men who +have turned and fled, will meet death, but it must be as I said, +inevitable, unavoidable death, not only more firmly than their +conquerors would do in their circumstances, but with an intrepidity oh, +do not call it indifference!--altogether astonishing. Be it their +religion, or their physical conformation, or what it may, all I have to +do with, is the fact, which I record as undeniable. Out of five-and +twenty individuals, in the present instance, not a sigh was heard, nor a +moan, nor a querulous word. They stepped lightly into the boats, and +seated themselves in silence. When told by the seamen to make room, or +to shift so as not to be in the way of the oars, they did so with +alacrity, and almost with an air of civility, although they knew that +within half an hour their earthly career must close for ever. + +The young Spaniard who had stood forward so conspicuously on the trial, +was in my boat; in stepping in he accidentally trod on my foot in +passing forward; he turned and apologized, with much natural politeness +"he hoped he had not hurt me?" + +I answered kindly, I presume--who could have done so harshly? This +emboldened him apparently, for he stopped, and asked leave to sit by me. +I consented, while an incomprehensible feeling crept over me; and when +once I had time to recollect myself, I shrunk from him, as a blood +stained brute, with whom even in his extremity it was unfitting for me +to hold any intercourse. When he noticed my repugnance to remain near +him, he addressed me hastily, as if afraid that I would destroy the +opportunity he seemed to desire. + +"God did not always leave me the slave of my passions," he said, in a +low, deep, most musical voice. "The day has been when I would have +shrunk as you do--but time presses. You have a mother?" said he--I +assented--"and an only sister?" As it happened, he was right here too. +"And--and"--here he hesitated, and his voice shook and trembled with the +most intense and heart-crushing emotion--"y una mas cara que ambos?" +Mary, you can tell whether in this he did not also speak truth. I +acknowledged there was another being more dear to me than either. +"Then," said he, "take this chain from my neck, and the crucifix, and a +small miniature from my bosom; but not yet--not till I leave the boat. +You will find an address affixed to the string of the latter. Your +course of service may lead you to St Jago if not, a brother officer may." +His voice became inaudible; his hot scalding tears dropped fast on my +hand, and the ravisher, the murderer, the pirate, wept as an innocent +and helpless infant. "You will deliver it. Promise a dying +man--promise a great sinner." But it was momentary--he quelled the +passion with a fierce and savage energy, as he said sternly, "Promise! +promise!" I did so, and I fulfilled it. + +The day broke. I took the jewels and miniature from his neck, as he led +the way with the firm step of a hero, in ascending the long gibbet. The +halters were adjusted, when he stepped towards the side I was on, as far +as the rope would let him, "Dexa me verla--dexa me verla, una vez mas!" +I held up the miniature. He looked--he glared intensely at it. "Adios, +Maria, seas feliz mi querida, feliz--feliz Maria--adios--adios--Maria +Mar". + +The rope severed thy name from his lips, sweet girl; but not until it +also severed his soul from his body, and sent him to his tremendous +account--young in years, but old in wickedness--to answer at that +tribunal, where we must all appear, to the God who made him, and whose +gifts he had so fearfully abused, for thy broken heart and early death, +amongst the other scarlet atrocities of his short but ill spent life. + +The signal had been given--the lumbering flap of the long drop was +heard, and five-and-twenty human beings were wavering in the sea +breeze in the agonies of death! The other eighteen suffered on the same +spot the week following; and for long after, this fearful and bloody +example struck terror into the Cuba fishermen. + +"Strange now, that the majority--ahem--of my beauties and favourites +through life have been called Mary. There is my own Mary--un peu passee +certainly--but deil mean her, for half a dozen lit"--"Now, Tom Cringle, +don't bother with your sentimentality, but get along, do."--"Well, I +will get along--but have patience, you Hottentot Venus--you Lord Nugent, +you. So once more we make sail." + + +Next morning, soon after gunfire, I landed at the Wherry wharf in Port +Royal. It was barely daylight, but, to my surprise, I found my friend +Peregrine Whiffle seated on a Spanish chair, close to the edge of the +wharf, smoking a cigar. This piece of furniture is an arm-chair +strongly framed with hard-wood, over which, back and bottom, a tanned +hide is stretched, which, in a hot climate, forms a most luxurious seat, +the back tumbling out at an angle of 45 degrees, while the skin yields +to every movement, and does not harbour a nest of biting ants, or a +litter of scorpions, or any other of the customary occupants of a +cushion that has been in Jamaica for a year. + +He did not know me as I passed; but his small glimmering red face +instantly identified the worthy little old man to me. + +"Good morning, Mr Whiffle--the top of the morning to you, sir." + +"Hillo," responded Peregrine--"Tom, is it you?--how d'ye do, man--how +d'ye do?" and he started to his feet, and almost embraced me. + +Now, I had never met the said Peregrine Whiffle but twice in my life; +once at Mr Fyall's, and once during the few days I remained in Kingston, +before I set out on my travels; but he was a warm hearted kindly old +fellow, and, from knowing all my friends there very intimately, he, as a +matter of course, became equally familiar with me. + +"Why the diable came you not to see me, man? Have been here for change +of air, to recruit, you know, after that demon, the gout, had been so +perplexing me, ever since you came to anchor--the Firebrand, I mean--as +for you, you have been mad one while, and philandering with those +inconvenient white ladies the other. You'll cure of that, my boy +you'll come to the original comforts of the country soon, no fear!" + +"Perhaps I may, perhaps not." + +"Oh, your cousin Mary, I forgot--fine girl, Tom--may do for you at home +yonder," (all Creoles speak of England as home, although they may never +have seen it,) "but she can't make pepper-pot, nor give a dish of land +crabs as land crabs should be given, nor see to the serving up of a +ringtail pigeon, nor rub a beefsteak to the rotting turn with a bruised +papaw, nor compose a medicated bath, nor, nor--oh, confound it, Tom, she +will be, when you marry her, a cold, comfortless, motionless Creole +icicle!" + +I let him have his swing. "Never mind her then, never mind her, my dear +sir; but time presses and I must be off, I must indeed, so good morning; +I wish you a good morning, sir." + +He started to his feet, and caught hold of me. "Sha'n't go, Tom, +impossible--come along with me to my lodgings, and breakfast with me. +Here, Pilfer, Pilfer," to his black valet, "give me my stick, and massu +the chair, and run home and order breakfast--cold calipiver--our Jamaica +salmon, you know, Tom-tea and coffee pickled mackerel, eggs, and cold +tongue--any thing that Mother Dingychops can give us; so bolt, Pilfer, +bolt!" + +I told him that before I came ashore I had heard the gig's-crew piped +away, and that I therefore expected, as Jonathan says, that the captain +would be after me immediately; so that I wished at all events to get +away from where we were, as I had no desire to be caught gossiping about +when my superior might be expected to pass. + +"True, boy, true"--as he shackled himself to me, and we began to crawl +along towards the wharf-gate leading into the town. Captain Transom by +this time had landed, and came up with us. + +"Ah, Transom," said Whiffle, "glad to see you. I say, why won't you +allow Mr Cringle here to go over to Spanish Town with me for a couple of +days, eh?" + +"Why, I don't remember that Mr Cringle has ever asked leave." + +"Indeed, sir, I neither did ask leave, nor have I thought of doing so," +said I. + +"But I do for you," chimed in my friend Whiffle. "Come, captain, give +him leave, just for two days, that's a prime chap. Why, Tom, you see +you have got it, so off with you and come to me with your kit as soon as +possible; I will hobble on and make the coffee and chocolate; and, +Captain Transom, come along and breakfast with me too. No refusal, I +require society. Nearly drowned yesterday, do you know that? Off this +same cursed wharf too--just here. I was looking down at the small fish +playing about the piles, precisely in this position; one of them was as +bright in the scales as a gold fish in my old grandmother's glass globe, +and I had to crane over the ledge in this fashion," suiting the action +to the word, "when away I went"-- + +And, to our unutterable surprise, splash went Peregrine Whiffle, +Esquire, for the second time, and there--he was shouting, and puffing, +and splashing in the water. We were both so convulsed with laughter +that I believe he would have been drowned for us; but the boat-keeper +of the gig, the strong athletic negro before mentioned, promptly jumped +on the wharf with his boat-hook, and caught the dapper little old beau +by the waistband of his breeches, swaying him up, frightened enough, +with his little coat skirts fluttering in the breeze, and no wonder, but +not much the worse for it all. + +"Diable porte l'amour," whispered Captain Transom. + +"Swallowed a Scotch pint of salt water to a certainty--run, Pilfer, +bring me some brandy--gout will be into my stomach, sure as fate--feel +him now--run, Pilfer, run, or gout will beat you--a dead heat that will +be!" And he keckled at his small joke very complacently. + +We had him carried by our people to his lodgings, where, after shifting +and brandying to some tune, he took his place at the breakfast table, +and did the honours with his usual amenity and warm heartedness. + +After breakfast Peregrine remembered, what the sly rogue had never +forgotten I suspect, that he was engaged to dine with his friend Mr +Pepperpot Wagtail, in Kingston. + +"But it don't signify, Wagtail will be delighted to see you, Tom +hospitable fellow Wagtail--and, now I recollect myself, Fyall and Aaron +Bang are to be there; dang it, were it not for the gout, we should have +a night on't!" + +After breakfast we started in a canoe for Kingston, touching at the +Firebrand for my kit. + +Moses Yerk, the unpoetical first lieutenant, was standing well forward +on the quarterdeck as I passed over the side to get into the canoe, with +the gunroom steward following me, carrying my kit under his arm. + +"I say, Tom, good for you, one lark after another." + +"Don't like that fellow," quoth Whiffle; "he is quarrelsome in his drink +for a thousand, I know it by the cut of his jib." + +He had better have held his tongue, honest man; for as he looked up +broad in Yerk's face, who was leaning over the hammocks, the scupper +immediately over head, through whose instrumentality I never knew, was +suddenly cleared, and a rush of dirty water, that had been lodged there +since the decks had been washed down at daydawn, splashed slapdash over +his head and shoulders and into his mouth, so as to set the dear little +man a-coughing so violently that I thought he would have been +throttled. Before he had recovered sufficiently to find his tongue, we +had pulled fifty yards from the ship, and a little farther on we +overtook the captain, who had preceded us in the cutter, into which we +transhipped ourselves. But Whiffle never could acquit Yerk of having +been, directly or indirectly, the cause of his suffering from the impure +shower. + +This day was the first of the Negro Carnival or Christmas Holydays, and +at the distance of two miles from Kingston the sound of the negro drums +and horns, the barbarous music and yelling of the different African +tribes, and the more mellow singing of the Set Girls, came off upon the +breeze loud and strong. + +When we got nearer, the wharfs and different streets, as we successively +opened them, were crowded with blackamoors, men, women, and children, +dancing and singing and shouting, and all rigged out in their best. +When we landed on the agents wharf we were immediately surrounded by a +group of these merry-makers, which happened to be the Butchers John +Canoe party, and a curious exhibition it unquestionably was. The +prominent character was, as usual, the John Canoe or Jack Pudding. He +was a light, active, clean made young Creole negro, without shoes or +stockings; he wore a pair of light jean small-clothes, all too wide, +but confined at the knees, below and above, by bands of red tape, after +the manner that Malvolio would have called cross-gartering. He wore a +splendid blue velvet waistcoat, with old-fashioned flaps coming down +over his hips, and covered with tarnished embroidery. His shirt was +absent on leave, I suppose, but at the wrists of his coat he had tin or +white iron frills, with loose pieces attached, which tinkled as he +moved, and set off the dingy paws that were stuck through these strange +manacles, like black wax tapers in silver candlesticks. His coat was an +old blue artillery uniform one, with a small bell hung to the extreme +points of the swallow-tailed skirts, and three tarnished epaulets; one +on each shoulder, and, O ye immortal gods! O Mars omnipotent! the +biggest of the three stuck at his rump, the point d'appuit for a sheep's +tail. He had an enormous cocked hat on, to which was appended in front +a white false-face or mask, of a most methodistical expression, while, +Janus like, there was another face behind, of the most quizzical +description, a sort of living Antithesis, both being garnished and +overtopped with one coarse wig, made of the hair of bullocks tails, on +which the chapeau was strapped down with a broad band of gold lace. +He skipped up to us with a white wand in one hand and a dirty +handkerchief in the other, and with sundry moppings and mowings, first +wiping my shoes with his mouchoir, then my face, (murder, what a flavour +of salt fish and onions it had!) he made a smart enough pirouette, and +then sprung on the back of a nondescript animal, that now advanced +capering and jumping about after the most grotesque fashion that can be +imagined. This was the signal for the music to begin. The performers +were two gigantic men, dressed in calf-skins entire, head, four legs, +and tail. The skin of the head was made to fit like a hood, the two +fore-feet hung dangling down in front, one over each shoulder, while +the other two legs, or hind-feet, and the tail, trailed behind on the +ground; deuce another article they had on in the shape of clothing +except a handkerchief, of some flaming pattern, tied round the waist. +There were also two flute-players in sheepskins, looking still more +outlandish from the horns on the animals heads being preserved; and +three stout fellows, who were dressed in the common white frock and +trowsers, who kept sounding on bullocks horns. These formed the band +as it were, and might be considered John's immediate tail or following; +but he was also accompanied by about fifty of the butcher negroes, all +neatly dressed-blue jackets, white shirts, and Osnaburgh trowsers, with +their steels and knife-cases by their sides, as bright as Turkish +yataghans, and they all wore clean blue and white striped aprons. I +could see and tell what they were; but the Thing John Canoe had perched +himself upon I could make nothing of. At length I began to comprehend +the device. + +The Magnus Apollo of the party, the poet and chief musician, the +nondescript already mentioned, was no less than the boatswain of the +butcher-gang, answering to the driver in an agricultural one. He was +clothed in an entire bullock's hide horns, tail, and the other +particulars, the whole of the skull being retained, and the effect of +the voice growling through the jaws of the beast was most startling. +His legs were enveloped in the skin of the hind-legs, while the arms +were cased in that of the fore, the hands protruding a little above the +hoofs, and, as he walked reared up on his hind-legs, he used, in order +to support the load of the John Canoe who had perched on his shoulders, +like a monkey on a dancing bear, a strong stick, or sprit, with a crutch +top to it, which he leant his breast on every now and then. +After the creature, which I will call the Device for shortness, had +capered with its extra load, as if it had been a feather, for a minute +or two, it came to a stand-still, and, sticking the end of the sprit +into the ground, and tucking the crutch of it under its chin, it +motioned to one of the attendants, who thereupon handed, of all things +in the world, a fiddle to the ox. He then shook off the John Canoe, who +began to caper about as before, while the Device set up a deuced good +pipe, and sung and played, barbarously enough, I will admit, to the tune +of Guinea Corn, the following ditty: + + "Massa Buccra lobfor see, + Bullock caper like monkee, + Dance, and shump, and poke him toe, + Like one humane person--just so." + +And hereupon the tail of the beast, some fifty strong, music men, John +Canoe and all, began to rampauge about, as if they had been possessed by +a devil whose name was Legion: + + "But Massa Buccra have white love, + soft and silken like one dove. + To brown girl--him barely shivel, + to black girl--oh, Lord, de Devil!" + +Then a tremendous gallopading, in the which Tailtackle was nearly +capsized over the wharf. He looked quietly over the edge of it. + +"Boat keeper, hand me up that switch of a stretcher," (Friend, if thou +be'st not nautical, thou knowest what a rack-pin, something of the +stoutest is.) + +The boy did so, and Tailtackle, after moistening well his dexter claw +with tobacco juice, seized the stick with his left by the middle, and +balancing it for a second or two, he began to fasten the end of it into +his right fist, as if he had been screwing a bolt into a socket. Having +satisfied himself that his grip was secure, he let go the hold with his +left hand, and crossed his arms on his breast, with the weapon +projecting over his left shoulder, like the drone of a bagpipe. + +The Device continued his chant, giving the seaman a wide berth, however: + + "But when him once two tree year here, + Him tink white lady wery great boder; + De coloured peoples, never fear, + Ah, him lob him de morest nor any oder." + +Then another tumblification of the whole party. + + + "But top-one time bad fever catch him, + colour'd peoples kindly watch him + in sick-room, nurse voice like music + from him hand taste sweet de physic. + Another trampoline." + + "So alway come--in two tree year, + and so wid you, massa never fear + brown girl for cook--for wife--for nurse: + buccra lady--poo--no wort a curse." + +"Get away, you scandalous scoundrel," cried I; "away with you, sir!" + +Here the morrice-dancers began to circle round old Tailtackle, keeping +him on the move, spinning round like a weathercock in a whirlwind, while +they shouted, "Oh, massa, one macaronilt if you please." To get quit of +their importunity, Captain Transom gave them one. "Ah, good massa, tank +you, sweet massa!" And away danced John Canoe and his tail, careering up +the street. + +In the same way all the other crafts and trades had their Gumbimen, +Hornblowers, John Canoes, and Nondescript. The Gardeners came nearest +of any thing I had seen before to the Mayday boys in London; with this +advantage, that their jack-in-the--Green was incomparably more +beautiful, from the superior bloom of the larger flowers used in +composing it. + +The very workhouse people, whose province it is to guard the Negro +culprits who may be committed to it, and to inflict punishment on them, +when required, had their John Canoe and Device; and their prime jest +seemed to be every now and then to throw the fellow down who enacted the +latter at the corner of a street, and to administer a sound flogging to +him. The John Canoe, who was the workhouse driver, was dressed up in a +lawyer's cast off gown and bands, black silk breeches, no stockings nor +shoes, but with sandals of bullock's hide strapped on his great splay +feet, a small cocked hat on his head, to which were appended a large +cauliflower wig, and the usual white false-face, bearing a very +laughable resemblance to Chief-justice S----, with whom I happened to +be personally acquainted. + +The whole party which accompanied these two worthies, musicians and +tail, were dressed out so as to give a tolerable resemblance of the Bar +broke loose, and they were all pretty considerably well drunk. As we +passed along, the Device was once more laid down, and we could notice a +shield of tough hide strapped over the fellow's stem frame, so as to +save the lashes of the cat, which John Canoe was administering with all +his force, while the Device walloped about and yelled, as if he had been +receiving the punishment on his naked flesh. Presently, as he rolled +over and over in the sand, bellowing to the life, I noticed the leather +shield slip upwards to the small of his back, leaving the lower story +uncovered in reality; but the driver and his tail were too drunk to +observe this, and the former continued to lay on and laugh, while one of +his people stood by in all the gravity of drunkenness, counting, as a +first Lieutenant does, when a poor fellow is polishing at the +gangway,--"Twenty-twenty-one twenty-two"--and so on, while the patient +roared you, an it were any thing but a nightingales At length he broke +away from the men who held him, after receiving a most sufficient +flogging, to revenge which he immediately fastened on the John Canoe, +wrenched his cat from him, and employed it so scientifically on him and +his followers, giving them passing taps on the shins now and then with +the handle, by way of spice to the dose, that the whole crew pulled foot +as if Old Nick had held them in chase. + +The very children, urchins of five and six years old, had their +Lilliputian John Canoes and Devices. But the beautiful part of the +exhibition was the Set Girls. They danced along the streets, in bands +of from fifteen to thirty. There were brown sets, and black sets, and +sets of all the intermediate gradations of colour. Each set was dressed +pin for pin alike, and carried umbrellas or parasols of the same colour +and size, held over their nice showy, well put on toques, or Madras +handkerchiefs, all of the same pattern, tied round their heads, fresh +out of the fold.--They sang, as they swam along the streets, in the most +luxurious attitudes. I had never seen more beautiful creatures than +there were amongst the brown sets--clear olive complexions, and fine +faces, elegant carriages, splendid figures,--full, plump, and magnificent. + +Most of the Sets were as much of a size as Lord----'s eighteen +daughters, sailing down Regent Street, like a Charity School of a +Sunday, led by a rum-looking old beadle--others again had large Roman +matron-looking women in the leading files, the figurantes in their +tails becoming slighter and smaller, as they tapered away, until they +ended in leetle picaniny, no bigger as my tumb, but always preserving +the uniformity of dress, and colour of the umbrella or parasol. +Sometimes the breeze, on opening a corner, would strike the stern most +of a set composed in this manner of small fry, and stagger the little +things, getting beneath their tiny umbrellas, and fairly blowing them +out of the line, and ruffling their ribbons and finery, as if they had +been tulips bending and shaking their leaves before it. But the colours +were never blended in the same set--no blackie ever interloped with the +browns, nor did the browns in any case mix with the sables--always +keeping in mind--black woman--brown lady. + +But, as if the whole city had been tom-fooling, a loud burst of +military music was now heard, and the north end of the street we were +ascending, which leads out of the Place d'Armes or parade, that occupies +the centre of the town, was filled with a cloud of dust, that rose as +high as the house tops, through which the head of a column of troops +sparkled; swords, and bayonets, and gay uniforms glancing in the sun. +This was the Kingston regiment marching down to the Court-house in the +lower part of the town, to mount the Christmas guards, which is always +carefully attended to, in case any of the John Canoes should take a +small fancy to burn or pillage the town, or to rise and cut the throats +of their masters, or any little innocent recreation of the kind, out of +compliment to Dr Lushington, or Messrs Macauley and Babington. + +First came a tolerably good band, a little too drummy, but still not +amiss--well dressed, only the performers being of all colours, from +white, down to jet-black, had a curious hodge-podge, or piebald +appearance. Then came a dozen mounted officers at the very least +colonels-in-chief, and colonels, and lieutenant-colonels, and majors +all very fine, and very bad horsemen. Then the grenadier company, +composed of white clerks of the place, very fine-looking young men +indeed--another white company followed, not quite so smart looking--then +came a century of the children of Israel, not over military in +appearance--the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, had passed away, the +glory had long departed from their house,--a phalanx of light browns +succeeded, then a company of dark browns, or mulattoes; the regular half +and--half in this, as well as in grog, is the best mixture after all, +then quashie himself, or a company of free blacks, who, with the browns, +seemed the best soldiers of the set, excepting the flank companies--and +after blackie the battalion again gradually whitened away, until it +ended in a very fine light company of buccras, smart young fellows as +need be--all the officers were white, and all the soldiers, whatever +their caste or colour, free of course. Another battalion succeeded, +composed in the same way, and really I was agreeably surprised to find +the indigenous force of the colony so efficient. I had never seen any +thing more soldier-like amongst our volunteers at home. Presently a +halt was called, and a mounted officer, evidently desirous of showing +off, galloped up to where we were standing, and began to swear at the +drivers of a wagon, with a long team of sixteen bullocks, who had placed +their vehicle, whether intentionally or not I could not tell, directly +across the street, where being met by another wagon of the same kind, +coming through the opposite lane, a regular jam had taken place, as they +had contrived, being redolent of new rum, to lock their wheels, and +twist their lines of bullocks together in much admired confusion. + +"Out of the way, sir, out of the way, you black rascals--don't you see +the regiment coming?" + +The men spanked their long whips, and shouted to the steers by name +"Back, back--Caesar--Antony--Crab, back, sir, back;" and they whistled +loud and long, but Caesar and the rest only became more and more +involved. + +"Order arms," roared another officer, fairly beaten by the bullocks and +wagons--"Stand at ease." + +On this last signal, a whole cloud of spruce-beer sellers started +fiercely from under the piazzas. + +"An insurrection of the slave population, mayhap,"--thought I, but their +object was a very peaceable one, for presently, I verily believe, every +man and officer in the regiment, had a tumbler of this, to me, most +delicious beverage at his head--the drawing of the corks was more like +street--firing than any thing else--a regular feu de joue. In the +meantime, a council of war seemed to be holden by the mounted officers, +as to how the obstacle in front was to be overcome; but at this moment +confusion became worse confounded, by the approach of what I concluded +to be the white man's John Canoe party, mounted by way of preeminence. +First came a trumpeter John Canoe with a black face, which was all in +rule, as his black counterparts wore white ones; but his Device, a +curious little old man, dressed in a sort of blue uniform, and mounted +on the skeleton, or ghost, of a gig-horse, I could make nothing of. It +carried a drawn sword in its hand, with which it made various +flourishes, at each one of which I trembled for its Rosinante's ears. +The Device was followed by about fifty other odd-looking creatures all +on horseback; but they had no more seat than so many pairs of tongs, +which in truth they greatly resembled, and made no show, and less fun. +So we were wishing them out of the way, when some one whispered that the +Kingston Light Horse mustered strong this morning. I found afterwards +that every man who kept a good horse, or could ride, invariably served +in the foot--all free persons must join some corps or other; so that the +troop, as it was called, was composed exclusively of those who could not +ride, and who kept no saddle horses. + +The line was now formed, and after a variety of cumbrous manoeuvres out +of Dundas, sixteen at the least, the regiment was countermarched, and +filed along another street, where they gave three cheers, in honour of +their having had a drink of spruce, and of having circumvented the +bullocks and wagons. A little farther on we encountered four beautiful +nine-pounder fieldpieces, each lumbering along, drawn by half a dozen +mules, and accompanied by three or four negroes, but with no escort +whatsoever. + +"I say, quashie, where are the bombardiers, the artillerymen?" + +"Oh, massa, dem all gone to drink pruce." + +"What, more spruce!--spruce--nothing but spruce!" quoth I. + +"Oh, yes, massa--after dem drink pruce done, dem all go to him +breakfast, massa--left we for take de gun to de barrack--beg one +feepenny, massa"--as the price of the information, I suppose. + +"Are the guns loaded?" said I. + +"Me no sabe, massa--top, I shall see." And the fellow to whom I +addressed myself stepped forward, and began to squint into the muzzle of +one of the fieldpieces, slewing his head from side to side, with absurd +gravity, like a magpie peeping into a marrow-bone. "Him most be load-- +no daylight come troo de touch-hole--take care make me try him." And +without more ado he shook out the red embers from his pipe right on the +touch-hole of the gun, when the fragment of a broken tube spun up in a +small jet of flame, that made me start and jump back. + +"How dare you, you scoundrel?" said the captain. + +"Eigh, massa, him no hax me to see if him be load--so I was try see. +Indeed, I tink him is load after all yet." + +He stepped forward, and entered his rammer into the cannon, after an +unavailing attempt to blow with his blubber-lips through the touch +hole. + +Noticing that it did not produce the ringing sound it would have done in +an empty gun, but went home with a soft thud, I sung out, "Stand clear, +sir. By Jupiter, the gun is loaded." + +The negro continued to bash at it with all his might. + +Meanwhile, the fellow who was driving the mules attached to the +fieldpiece, turned his head, and saw what was going on. In a trice he +snatched up another rammer, and, without any warning, came crack over +the fellow's cranium to whom we had been speaking, as hard as he could +draw, making the instrument quiver again. + +"Dem you, ye, ye Jericho--ah so you bash my brokefast--eh? You no see +me tick him into de gun before we yoke de mule, dem, eh? You tief you, +eh?" + +"No!" roared the other--"You Walkandyam, you hab no brokefast, you liard, +at least I never see him." + +"Dem lie dat!" replied Walkandnyam--"look in de gun." Jericho peered +into it again. + +"Dere, you son of a--" (I sha'n't say what)--"dere, I see de red +flannin wadding over de cartridge--Your brokefast!--you be dem!" roared +Jericho. + +And he made at him as if he would have eaten him alive. + +"You be dem youshef!" shrieked Walkandnyam--"and de red wadding be dem!" +as he took a screw, and hooked out, not a cartridge certainly, but his +own nightcap, full of yams and salt fish, smashed into a paste by +Jericho's rammer. + +In the frenzy of his rage, he dashed this into his opponent's face, and +they both stripped in a second. Separating several yards, they levelled +their heads like two telescopes on stands, and ran butt at each other +like ram-goats, and quite as odoriferous, making the welkin ring again +as their flint-hard skulls cracked together. Finding each other +invulnerable in this direction, they closed, and began scrambling and +biting and kicking, and tumbling over and over in the sand; while the +skipper and I stood by cheering them on, and nearly suffocated with +laughter. They never once struck with their closed fists I noticed; so +they were not much hurt. It was great cry and little wool; and at +length they got tired, and hauled off by mutual consent, finishing off +as usual with an appeal to us--"beg one feepenny, massa!" + +At six o'clock we drove to Mr Pepperpot Wagtail's. The party was a +bachelor's one, and, when we walked up the front steps, there was our +host in person, standing to receive us at the door; while, on each side +of him, there were five or six of his visitors, all sitting with their +legs cocked up, their feet resting on a sort of surbase, above which the +jealousies, or movable blinds of the piazza, were fixed. + +I was introduced to the whole party seriatim--and as each of the cock +legs dropped his trams, he started up, caught hold of my hand, and wrung +it as if I had been his dearest and oldest friend. + +Were I to designate Jamaica as a community, I would call it a +handshaking people. I have often laughed heartily upon seeing two +cronies meeting in the streets of Kingston after a temporary separation; +when about pistol-shot asunder, both would begin to tug and rug at the +right-hand glove, but it is frequently a mighty serious affair in that +hissing hot climate to get the gauntlet off; they approach,--one, a +smart urbane little man, who would not disgrace St James's Street, being +more kiln-dried and less moist in his corporeals than his country +friend, has contrived to extract his paw, and holds it out in act to +shake. + +"Ah! how do you do, Ratoon?" quoth the Kingston man. + +"Quite well, Shingle," rejoins the gloved, a stout red-faced +sudoriferous yam-fed planter, dressed in blue-white jean trowsers and +waistcoat, with long Hessian boots drawn up to his knee over the former, +and a spannew square-skirted blue coatee, with lots of clear brass +buttons: a broad brimmed black silk hat, worn white at the edge of the +crown--wearing a very small neckcloth, above which shoots up an enormous +shirt collar, the peaks of which might serve for winkers to a starting +horse, and carrying a large whip in his hand--"Quite well, my dear +fellow," while he persists in dragging at it--the other homo all the +while standing in the absurd position of a finger-post--at length off +comes the glove--piecemeal perhaps--a finger first, for instance--then a +thumb--at length they tackle to, and shake each other like the very +devil--not a sober pump-handle shake, but a regular jiggery jiggery, as +if they were trying to dislocate each other's arms--and, confound them, +even then they don't let go--they cling like sucker fish, and talk and +wallop about, and throw themselves back and laugh, and then another +jiggery jiggery. + +On horseback, this custom is conspicuously ridiculous--I have nearly +gone into fits at beholding two men careering along the road at a hand +gallop each on a goodish horse, with his negro boy astern of him on a +mule, in clean frock and trowsers, and smart glazed hat with broad gold +band, with massa's umbrella in a leathem case slung across his +shoulders, and his portmanteau behind him on a mail pillion covered with +a snow white sheep's fleece--suddenly they pull up on recognising each +other, when, tucking their whips under their arms, or crossing them in +their teeth, it may be they commence the rugging and riving operation. +In this case, Shingle's bit of blood swerves, we may assume--Ratoon +rides at him--Shingle fairly turns tail, and starts out at full speed, +Ratoon thundering in his rear, with out-stretched arm; and it does +happen, I am assured, that the hot pursuit often continues for a mile, +before the desired clapperclaw is obtained. But when two lusty planters +meet on horseback, then indeed Greek meets Greek. They, begin the +interview by shouting to each other, while fifty yards off, pulling away +at the gloves all the while--"How are you, Canetop?--glad to see you, +Canetop. How do you do, I hope."--"How are you, Yamfu, my dear fellow?" +their horses fretting and jumping all the time--and if the Jack +Spaniards or gadflies be rife, they have, even when denuded for the +shake, to spur at each other, more like a Knight Templar and a Saracen +charging in mortal combat, than two men merely struggling to be civil; +an after all they have often to get their black servants alongside to +hold their horses, for shake they must, were they to break their necks +in the attempt. Why they won't shake hands with their gloves on, I am +sure I can't tell. It would be much cooler and nicer--lots of Scotchmen +in the community too. + +This hand-shaking, however, was followed by an invitation to dinner +from each individual in the company. I looked at Captain Transom, as +much as to say, "Can they mean us to take them at their word?" He +nodded. + +"We are sorry, that being under orders to go to sea on Sunday morning, +neither Mr Cringle nor myself can have the pleasure of accepting such +kind invitations." + +"Well, when you come back you know--one day you must give me." + +"And I won't be denied," quoth a second. + +"Liberty Hall, you know, so to me you must come, no ceremony," said a +third--and so on. + +At length, no less a man drove up to the door, than Judge----. When he +drew up, his servant, who was sitting behind on a small projection of +the ketureen, came round and took a parcel out of the gig, closely +wrapped in a blanket--"Bring that carefully in, Leonidas," said the +Judge, who now stumped up stairs with a small saw in his hand. He +received the parcel, and, laying it down carefully in a corner, he +placed the saw on it, and then came up and shook hands with Wagtail, and +made his bow very gracefully. + +"What--can't you do without your ice and sour claret yet?" said Wagtail. + +"Never mind, never mind," said the Judge; and here dinner being +announced, we all adjourned to the dining room, where a very splendid +entertainment was set out, to which we set to, and in the end, as it +will appear, did the utmost justice to it. + +The wines were most exquisite. Madeira, for instance, never can be +drunk in perfection anywhere out of the Tropics. You may have the wine +as good at home, although I doubt it, but then you have not the climate +to drink it in--I would say the same of most of the delicate French +wines--that is, those that will stand the voyage--Burgundy of course not +included; but never mind, let us get along. + +All the decanters were covered with cotton bags, kept wet with saltpetre +and water, so that the evaporation carried on powerfully by the stream +of air that flowed across the room, through the open doors and windows, +made the fluids quite as cool as was desirable to worthies sitting +luxuriating with the thermometer at 80 or thereby; yet, from the free +current, I was in no way made aware of this degree of heat by any +oppressive sensation; and I found in the West Indies as well as in the +East, although the wind in the latter is more dry and parching, that a +current of heated air, if it be moderately dry, even with the +thermometer at 95 in the shade, is really not so enervating or +oppressive as I have found it in the stagnating atmosphere on the sunny +side of Pall Mall, with the mercury barely at 75. A cargo of ice had a +little before this arrived at Kingston, and at first all the inhabitants +who could afford it iced every thing, wine, water, cold meats, fruits, +and the Lord knows what all, tea, I believe, amongst other things; (by +the way, I have tried this, and it is a luxury of its kind;) but the +regular old stagers, who knew what was what, and had a regard for their +interiors, soon began to eschew the ice in every way, saving and +expecting to cool the water they washed their thin faces and hands in; +so we had no ice, nor did we miss it, but the judge had a plateful of +chips on the table before him, one of which he every now and then popped +into his long thin bell-glass of claret, diluting it, I should have +thought, in rather a heathenish manner; but n'importe, he worked away, +sawing off pieces now and then from the large lump in the blanket, (to +save the tear and wear attending a fracture,) which was handed to him by +his servant, so that by eleven o'clock at night, allowing for the water, +he must have concealed his three bottles of pure claret, besides +garnishing with a lot of white wines. In fine, we all carried on +astonishingly, some good singing was given, a practical joke was tried +on now and then by Fyall, and we continued mighty happy. As to the +singing part of it,--the landlord, with a bad voice, and worse ear, +opened the rorytory, by volunteering a very extraordinary squeak; +fortunately it was not very long, but it gave him a plea to screw a song +out of his right-hand neighbour, who in turn acquired the same right of +compelling the person next to him to make a fool of himself; at last it +came to Transom, who, by the by, sung exceedingly well, but he had got +more wine than usual, and essayed the coquette a bit. + +"Bring the wet nightcap!" quoth our host. + +"Oh, it is that you are at?" said Transom, and he sung as required; but +it was all pearls before swine, I fear. + +At last we stuck fast at Fyall. Music! there was not one particle in +his whole composition; so the wet nightcap already impended over him, +when I sung out, "Let him tell a story, Mr Wagtail! Let him tell a +story!" + +"Thank you, Tom," said Fyall; "I owe you a good turn for that, my boy." + +"Fyall's story--Mr Fyall's story!" resounded on all hands. Fyall, glad +to escape the song and wet nightcap, instantly began. + +"Why, my friends, you all know Isaac Grimm, the Jew snuff merchant and +cigar maker, in Harbour Street. Well, Isaac had a brother, Ezekiel by +name, who carried on business in Curacao; you may have heard of him too. +Ezekiel was often down here for the purpose of laying in provisions, and +purchasing dry goods. You all know that?" + +"Certainly!" shouted both Captain Transom and myself in a breath, +although we had never heard of him before. + +"Hah, I knew it!"--Well then, Ezekiel was very rich; he came down in +August last, in the Pickle schooner, and, as bad luck would have it, he +fell sick of the fever.--"Isaac," quoth Ezekiel, "I am wery sheek; I +tink I shall tie." "Hope note, dear proder; you hab no vife, nor +shildir; pity you should tie, Ezekiel. Ave you make your vill, Ezekiel?" +"Yesh; de vill is make. I leavish every ting to you, Isaac, on von +condition, dat you send my pody to be bury in Curacao. I love dat place; +twenty years since I lef de Minories, all dat time I cheat dere, and +tell lie dere, and lif dere happily. Oh, you most sent my pody for its +puryment to Curacao!" "I will do dat, mine proder." "Den I depart in +peace, dear Isaac;" and the Israelite was as good as his word for once. +He did die. Isaac, according to his promise, applied to the captains of +several schooners; none of them would take the dead body. "What shall I +do?" thought Isaac, "de monish mosh not be loss." So he straightway had +Ezekiel (for even a Jew won't keep long in that climate) cut up and +packed with pickle into two barrels, marked, "Prime mess pork, +Leicester, M'Call and Co. Cork" He then shipped the same in the Fan +Fan, taking bills of lading in accordance with the brand, deliverable to +Mordecai Levi of Curacao, to whom he sent the requisite instructions. +The vessel sailed. Off St Domingo she carried away a mast, tried to +fetch Carthagena under a jury-spar--fell to leeward, and finally +brought up at Honduras. + +Three months after, Isaac encountered the master of the schooner in the +streets of Kingston. "Ah, mine goot captain--how is you you lookish tin +ave you been sheek?" "No, Moses I am well enough, thank you--poor a +bit, but sound in health, thank God. You have heard of my having +carried away the mainmast, and, after kicking about fifteen days on +short allowance, having been obliged to bear up for Honduras?" "I know +noting of all dat," said Isaac; "sorry for it, captain--very sad inteed" +"Sad--you may say that, Moses. But I am honest although poor, and here +is your bill of lading for your two barrels of provisions; Prime mess, +it says damned tough, say I--Howsomedever," pulling out his purse, "the +present value on Bogle, Jopp, and Co's. wharf is L.5, 6s. 8d. the +barrel; so there are two doubloons, Moses, and now discharge the account +on the back of the bill of lading, will you?" "Vy should I take payment, +captain? if de"--(pork stuck in his throat like 'amen' in Macbeth,) +"if de barrel ish lost, it can't be help--de act of God, you know." "I +am an honest man, Isaac," continued the captain, "although a poor one, +and I must tell the truth--we carried on with our own as long as it +lasted, at length we had to break bulk, and your two barrels being +nearest the hatchway, why we ate them first, that's all. Lord, what has +come over you?"--Isaac grew pale as a corpse.--"Oh, mine Got--mine poor +proder, dat you ever was live, to tie in Jamaic--Oh tear, oh tear!" + +"Did they eat the head and hands and--" + +"Hold your tongue, Tom Cringle, don't interrupt me; you did not eat +them; I tell it as it was told to me. So Isaac Grimm," continued Fyall, +"was fairly overcome; the kindly feelings of his nature were at length +stirred up, and as he turned away, he wept--blew his nose hard, like a +Chaldean trumpet in the new moon--and while the large tears coursed each +other down his care-worn cheeks, he exclaimed, wringing the captain's +hand, in a voice tremulous and scarcely audible from extreme emotion," +"Oh, Isaac Grimm, Isaac Grimm--tid not your heart mishgive you, ven you +vas commit te great blasphemy of invoish Ezekiel--flesh of your flesh, +pone of your pone--as por--de onclean peast, I mean. If you hat put +invoish him ash peef, surely te earthly tabernacle of him, as always +sheet in de high places in te Sinacogue, would never have been allow to +pass troo te powels of te pershicuting Nazareen. Ah, mine goot captain +mine very tear friend--vat--vat--vat av you done wid de cask, captain?" + +"Oh most lame and impotent conclusion," sung out the judge, who by this +time had become deucedly prosy, and all hands arose, as if by common +consent, and agreed that we had got enough. + +So off we started in groups.--Fyall, Captain Transom, Whiffle, Aaron +Bang, and myself, sallied forth in a bunch, pretty well inclined for a +lark, you may guess. There are no lamps in the streets of Kingston, and +as all the decent part of the community are in their cavies by +half-past nine in the evening, and as it was now "the witching time o' +night," there was not a soul in the streets that we saw, except a +solitary town guard now and then, lurking about some dark corner under +the piazzas. These same streets, which were wide and comfortable enough +in the daytime, had become unaccountably narrow and intricate since six +o'clock in the evening; and, although the object of the party was to +convoy Captain Transom and myself to our boat at the Ordnance Wharf, it +struck me that we were as frequently on a totally different tack. + +"I say, Cringle, my boy," stuttered out my superior, Lieutenant and +Captain being both drowned in and equalized by the claret--"why, Tom, +Tom Cringle, you dog--don't you hear your superior officer speak, sir, +eh?" + +My superior officer, during this address, was standing with both arms +round a pillar of the piazza. + +"I am here, sir," said I. + +"Why, I know that; but why don't you speak when I Hillo where's Aaron, +and Fyall, and the rest, eh?" + +They had been attracted by sounds of revelry in a splendid mansion in +the next street, which we could see was lit up with great brilliancy, +and had at this time shot about fifty yards ahead of us, working to +windward, tack and tack, like Commodore Trunnion. + +"Ah, I see," said Transom; "let us heave ahead, Tom--now, do ye hear?-- +stand you with your white trowsers against the next pillar." The ranges +supporting the piazza were at distances of about twenty feet from each +other.--"Ah, stand there now--I see it."--So he weighted from the one he +had tackled to, and making a staggering bolt of it, ran up to the pillar +against which I stood, its position being marked by my white vestments, +where he again hooked on for a second or two, until I had taken up a new +position. + +"There, my boy, that's the way to lay out a warp--right in the wind's +eye, Tom--we shall fairly beat those lubbers who are tacking in the +stream--nothing like warping in the dead water near the shore--mark that +down, Tom--never beat in a tideway when you can warp up along shore in +the dead water--Damn the judge's ice" (hiccup) "he has poisoned me with +that piece he plopped in my last whitewash of Madeira. He a judge! He +may be a good crim--criminal judge, but no judge of wine--Why don't you +laugh, Tom, eh?--and then his saw--the rasp of a saw I hate--wish it, +and a whole nest more, had been in his legal stomach--full of old saws +Shakespeare--he, he--why don't you laugh, Tom?--Poisoned by the judge, +by Jupiter--Now, here we are fairly abreast of them--Hillo! Fyall, what +are you after?" + +"Hush, hush," said Fyall, with drunken gravity. + +"And hush, hush," said Aaron Bang. + +"Come here, Tom, come here," said Whiffle, in a whisper. We were now +directly under the piazza of the fine house, in the first floor of which +some gay scene was enacting. "Here, Tom, here--now stand there--hold by +that pillar there. I say, Transom, give me a lift." + +"Can't, Whiffle, can't, for the soul of me, Peregrine, my dear--but +I see, I see." + +With that the gallant captain got down on all fours; Whiffle, a small +light man, got on his back, and, with the aid of Bang and Fyall, managed +to scramble up on my shoulders, where he stood, holding by the window +sill above, with a foot on each side of my head. His little red face +was thus raised flush with the window sill, so that he could see into +the dark piazza on the first floor, and right through into the +magnificent and sparkling drawing room beyond. + +"Now tell us what's to be seen," said Aaron. + +"Stop, stop," rejoined Whiffle--"My eye, what a lot of splendid women +no men--a regular lady party--Hush! a song." A harp was struck, and a +symphony of Beethoven's played with great taste--A song, low and +melancholy, from two females followed. + +"The music of the spheres!" quoth Whiffle. + +We were rapt--we had been inspired before--and, drunk as we were, there +we sat or stood, as best suited us, exhibiting the strange sight of a +cluster of silent tipsy men. At length, at one of the finest swells, I +heard a curious gurgling sound overhead, as if some one was being +gagged, and I fancied Peregrine became lighter on my shoulders--Another +fine dieaway note--I was sure of it. + +"Bang, Bang--Fyall--He is evaporating with delight--no weight at all, +growing more and more ethereal--lighter and lighter, as I am a gentleman +he is off--going, going, gone--exhaled into the blue heavens, by all +that is wonderful!" + +Puzzled beyond measure, I stept hurriedly back, and capsized over the +captain, who was still enacting the joint-stool on all-fours behind +me, by which Whiffle had mounted to my crosstrees, and there we rolled +in the sand, master and man. + +"Murdered, Tom Cringle--murdered--you have hogged me like the old +Ramilies--broke my back, Tom--spoiled my quadrilling for ever and a day; +d----n the judge's ice though, and the saw particularly." + +"Where is he--where is Whiffle?" enquired all hands, in a volley. + +"The devil only knows," said I; "he has flown up into the clouds, catch +him who can. He has left this earth anyhow, that is clear." + +"Ha, ha!" cried Fyall, in great glee, who had seen him drawn into the +window by several white figures, after they had tied a silk handkerchief +over his mouth; "Follow me, my boys;" and we all scrambled after him to +the front door of the house, to which we ascended by a handsome flight +of marble steps, and when there, we began to thunder away for +admittance. The door was opened by a very respectable looking elderly +gentleman, with well powdered hair, and attended by two menservants in +handsome liveries, carrying lights. His bearing and gentlemanlike +deportment had an immediate effect on me, and I believe on the others +too. He knew Fyall and Whiffle, it appeared. + +"Mr Fyall," he said, with much gentleness, "I know it is only meant as a +frolic, but really I hope you will now end it. Amongst yourselves, +gentlemen, this may be all very well, but considering my religion, and +the slights we Hebrews are so often exposed to, myself and my family are +more sensitive and pervious to insult than you can well understand." + +"My dear fellow," quoth Fyall, "we are all very sorry; the fact is, we +had some d----d bad shaddock after dinner, which has made us very giddy +and foolish somehow. Do you know, I could almost fancy I had been +drinking wine." + +"Cool and deliciously impudent that same, (hiccup,)" quoth the skipper. + +"But hand us back little Whiffle," continued Fyall, "and we shall be +off." + +Here Whiffie's voice was heard from the drawing room. "Here, Fyall!-- +Tom Cringle!--Here, here, or I shall be murdered!" + +"Ah! I see," said Mr H. "this way, gentlemen. Come, I will deliver the +culprit to you;" and we followed him into the drawing room, a most +magnificent saloon, at least forty feet by thirty, brilliantly lit up +with crystal lamps, and massive silver candelabra, and filled with +elegant furniture, which was reflected, along with the chandeliers that +hung from the centre of the coach roof, by several large mirrors, in +rich frames, as well as in the highly polished mahogany floor. + +There, in the middle of the room, the other end of it being occupied by +a bevy of twelve or fifteen richly-dressed females, visitors, as we +conjectured, sat our friend Peregrine, pinioned into a large easy chair, +with shawls and scarfs, amidst a sea of silk cushions, by four beautiful +young women, black hair and eyes, clear white skins, fine figures, and +little clothing. A young Jewess is a beautiful animal, although, like +the unclean--confound the metaphor--which they abhor--they don't improve +by age. + +When we entered, the blushing girls, who had been beating Whiffle over +his spindle shins, with their large garden fans, dashed through a side +door, unable to contain their laughter, which we heard long after they +had vanished, echoing through the lofty galleries of the house. Our +captive knight being restored to us, we made our bows to the other +ladies, who were expiring with laughter, and took our leave, with little +Whiffle on our shoulders--the worthy Hebrew, whom I afterwards knew in +London, sending his servant and gig with Captain Transom and myself to +the wharf. There we tumbled ourselves into the boat, and got on board +the Firebrand about three in the morning. We were by this time pretty +well sobered; at four a gun was fired, the topsails were let fall, and +sheeted home, and topgallant-sails set over them, the ship having +previously been hove short; at half-past, the cable being right up and +down--another gun the drums and fifes beat merrily, spin flew the +capstan, tramp went the men that manned it. We were under weigh-- +Eastward, ho!--for Santiago de Cuba. + + + +CHAPTER XII.--The Cruise o the Firebrand + + + Shewing, amongst other pleasant matters well worthy of being + recorded, how Thomas communed with his two Consciences. + + + "Oh, who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried, + And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide, + The exulting sense, the pulse's maddening play, + That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way?" + + Byron, The Corsair, 1.9--16. + + +We had to beat up for three days before we could weather the east end of +Jamaica, and tearing work we had of it. I had seen bad weather and +heavy seas in several quarters of the globe--I had tumbled about under a +close-reefed main-topsail and reefed foresail, on the long seas in the +Bay of Biscay--I had been kicked about in a seventy-four, off the +Cape of Good Hope, as if she had been a cork--I had been hove hither and +thither, by the short jumble of the North Sea, about Heligoland, and the +shoals lying off the mouth of the Elbe, when every thing over head was +black as thunder, and all beneath as white as snow--I had enjoyed the +luxury of being tom in pieces by a northwester, which compelled us to +lie-to for ten days at a stretch, under storm stay-sails, off the +coast of Yankeeland, with a clear, deep, cold, blue sky above us, +without a cloud, where the sun shone brightly the whole time by day, and +a glorious harvest moon by night, as if they were smiling in derision +upon our riven and strained ship, as she reeled to and fro like a +wounded Titan; at one time buried in the trough of the sea, at another +cast upwards towards the heavens by the throes of the tormented waters, +from the troubled bosom of the bounding and roaring ocean, amidst +hundreds of miniature rainbows, (ay, rainbows by night as well as by +day,) in a hissing storm of white, foaming, seething spray, torn from +the curling and rolling bright green crests of the mountainous billows. +And I have had more than one narrow squeak for it in the neighbourhood +of the "still vexed Bermoothes," besides various other small affairs, +written in this Boke; but the devil such another tumblefication had I +ever experienced-not as to danger, for there was none except to our +spars and rigging, but as to discomfort as I did in that short, cross, +splashing, and boiling sea, off Morant Point. By noon, however, on the +second day, having had a slant from the land wind in the night previous, +we got well to windward of the long sandy spit that forms the east end +of the island, and were in the act of getting a small pull of the weather +braces, before edging away for St Jago, when the wind fell suddenly, and +in half an hour it was stark calm--'una furiosa calma,' as the Spanish +sailors quaintly enough call it. + +We got rolling tackles up, and the topgallant-masts down, and studding +sails out of the tops, and lessened the lumber and weight aloft in +every way we could think of, but, nevertheless, we continued to roll +gunwale under, dipping the main-yardarm into the water every now and +then, and setting every thing adrift, below and on deck, that was not +bolted down, or otherwise well secured. + +When I went down to dinner, the scene was extremely good. Old Yerk, the +first lieutenant, was in the chair--one of the boys was jammed at his +side, with his claws fastened round the foot of the table, holding a +tureen of boiling pease-soup, with lumps of pork swimming in it, which +the aforesaid Yerk was baling forth with great assiduity to his +messmates. Hydrostatics were much in vogue--the tendency of fluids to +regain their equilibrium (confound them, they have often in the shape of +claret destroyed mine) was beautifully illustrated, as the contents of +each carefully balanced soup-plate kept swaying about on the principle +of the spirit level. The Doctor was croupier, and as it was a return to +dinner to the captain, all hands were regularly figged out, the +lieutenants, with their epaulets and best coats, and the master, purser, +and doctor, all fittingly attired. When I first entered, as I made my +obeisance to the captain, I thought I saw an empty seat next him, but +the matter of the soup was rather an engrossing concern, and took up my +attention, so that I paid no particular regard to the circumstance; +however, when we had all discussed the same, and were drinking our first +glass of Tenerife, I raised my eyes to hob and nob with the master, when +ye gods and little fishes--who should they light on, but the merry phiz +merry, also! no more--of Aaron Bang, Esquire, who, during the soup +interlude, had slid into the vacant chair unperceived by me. + +"Why, Mr Bang, where, in the name of all that is comical, where have you +dropped from?" Alas! poor Aaron--Aaron in a rolling sea was of no +kindred to Aaron ashore. His rosy gills were no longer rosy, his round +plump face seemed to be covered with parchment from an old bass drum, +cut out from the centre where most bronzed by the drumstruck--there was +no speculation in his eyes that he did glare withal--and his lips, which +were usually firm and open, disclosing his nice teeth, in frequent grin, +were held together, as if he had been in grievous pain. At length he +did venture to open them--and, like the ghost of Hamlet's father, "it +lifted up its head and did address itself to motion, as it would speak." +But they began to quiver, and he once more screwed them together, as if +he feared the very exertion of uttering a word or two might unsettle his +moniplies. + +The master was an odd garrulous small man, who had a certain number of +stated jokes, which, so long as they were endured, he unmercifully +inflicted on his messmates. I had come in for my share, as a new comer, +as well as the rest; but even with me, although I had been but recently +appointed, they had already began to pall, and wax wearisome; and blind +as the beetle of a body was, he could not help seeing this. So poor +Bang, unable to return a shot, sea-sick and crestfallen, offered a +target that he could not resist taking aim at. Dinner was half over, +and Bang had not eaten any thing, when, unseasonable as the hour was, +the little pot--valiant master, primed with two tumblers of grog, in +defiance of the captain's presence, fairly fastened on him, like a +remora, and pinned him down with one of his longwinded stories about +Captain David Jones, in the Phantome, during a cruise off Cape Flyaway, +having run foul of a whale, and thereby nearly foundered; and that at +length having got the monster harpooned and speared, and the devil knows +what, but it ended in getting her alongside, when they scuttled the +leviathan, and then, wonderful to relate, they found a Greenlandman, +with royal yards crossed, in her maw, and the captain and mate in the +cabin quarrelling about the reckoning. + +"What do you think of that, Mr Bang--as well they might be, Mr Bang--as +well they might be?" Bang said nothing, but at the moment--whether the +said Aaron lent wings to the bird or no I cannot tell--a goose, swimming +in apple sauce, which he was, with a most stern countenance, endeavouring +to carve, fetched away right over the gunwale of the dish; and taking a +whole boat of melted butter with it, splashed across the table during a +tremendous roll, that made every thing creak and groan again, right into +the small master's lap who was his vis-a-vis. I could hear Aaron +grumble out something about--"Strange affinity-birds of a feather." But +his time was up, his minutes were numbered, and like a shot he bolted +from the table, skulling or rather clawing away towards the door, by the +backs of the chairs, like a green parrot, until he reached the marine at +the bottom of the ladder, at the door of the captain's cabin, round +whose neck he immediately fetterlocked his fins. + +He had only time to exclaim to his new ally, "My dear fellow, get me +some brandy and water, for the love of mercy"--when he blew up, with an +explosion like the bursting of a steam-boiler--"Oh dear, oh dear," we +could hear him murmuring in the lulls of his agony then another loud +report--"there goes my yesterday's supper-hot grog and toasted cheese" +another roar, as if the spirit was leaving its earthly tabernacle +"dinner-claret--Madeira--all cruel bad in a second edition-cheese, +teal, and ringtail pigeon--black crabs calapi and turtle soup"--as his +fleshly indulgences of the previous day rose up in judgment against him, +like a man's evil deeds on his death-bed. At length-the various +strata of his interior were entirely excavated--"Ah!--I have got to my +breakfast-to the simple tea and toast at last.--Brandy and water, my +dear Transom, brandy and water, my darling, hot, without sugar"--and +"Brandy and water" died in echoes in the distance as he was stowed away +into his cot in the captain's cabin. It seems that it had been all +arranged between him and Transom, that he was to set off for St Thomas +in the East, the morning on which we sailed, and to get a shove out in +the pilot-boat schooner, from Morant Bay, to join us for the cruise; +and accordingly he had come on board the night previous when I was +below, and being somewhat qualmish he had wisely kept his cot; the fun +of the thing depending, as it seemed, on all hands carefully keeping it +from me that he was on board. + +I apprehend most people indulge in the fancy that they have Consciences, +such as they are. I myself now--even I, Thomas Cringle, Esquire, +amongst sundry vain imaginings, conceive that I have a Conscience +somewhat of the caoutchouc order I will confess stretching a little upon +occasion, when the gale of my passions blows high, nevertheless a highly +respectable Conscience, as things go a stalwart unchancy customer, who +will not be gainsaid or contradicted; but he may be disobeyed, although +never with impunity. It is all true that a young, well-fledged +gentlewoman, for she is furnished with a most swift pair of wings, +called Prosperity, sometimes gets the better of Master Conscience, and +smothers the Grim Feature for a time, under the bed of eider down, +whereon you and her ladyship are reposing. But she is a sad jilt in +many instances, this same Prosperity; for some fine morning, with the +sun glancing in through the crevices of the window-shutters, just at +the nick when, after turning yourself, and rubbing your eyes, you +courageously thrust forth one leg, with a determination to don your +gramashes without more delay. "Tom," says she "Tom Cringle, I have got +tired of you, Thomas; besides, I hear my next door neighbour, Madame +Adversity, tirling at the door pin; so give me my down bed, Tom, and +I'm off." With that she bangs open the window, and before I recover from +my surprise, launches forth, with a loud whir, mattrass and all, leaving +me, Pilgarlic, lying on the paillasse. Well, her nest is scarcely cold, +when in comes me Mistress Adversity, a wee outspoken sour crabbit +gizzened anatomy of an old woman--"You ne'erdoweel, Tam," quoth she, "is +it no enough that you consort with that scarlet limmer, who has just +yescaped thorough the winday, but ye maun smoors my firstborn, puir +Conscience, atween ye? Whare hae ye stowed him, mantell me that?" And +the ancient damosel gives me a shrewd clip on the skull with the poker. +"That's right, mother," quoth Conscience, from beneath the straw +mattrass--"Give it to him--he'll no hear me another devel, mother." And +I found that my own weight, deserted as I was by that--ahem--Prosperity, +was no longer sufficient to keep him down. So up he rose, with a loud +pech; and while the old woman keelhauled me with a poker on one side, he +yerked at me on the other, until at length he gave me a regular cross +buttock, and then between them they diddled me outright. When I was +fairly floored, "Now, my man," said Adversity, "I bear no spite; if you +will but listen to my boy there, we shall be good friends still. He is +never unreasonable. He has no objections to your consorting even with +Madame Prosperity, in a decent way; but he will not consent to your +letting her get the better of you, nor to your doting on her, even to +the giving her a share of your bed, when she should never be allowed to +get farther than the servants hall, for she should be kept in +subjection, or she'll ruin you for ever, Thomas.--Conscience is a rough +lad, I grant you, and I am keen and snell also; but never mind, take his +advice, and you'll be some credit to your freens yet, ye scoonrel." I did +so, and the old lady's visits became shorter and shorter, and more and +more distant, until at length they ceased altogether; and once more +Prosperity, like a dove with its heaven-borrowed hues all glowing in +the morning sun, pitched one morning on my windowsill. It was in June. +"Tom, I am come back again." I glowered at her with all my bir. She made +a step or two towards me, and the lesson of Adversity was fast +evaporating into thin air, when, lo! the sleeping lion himself awoke. +"Thomas," said Conscience, in a voice that made my flesh creep, "not +into your bed, neither into your bosom, Thomas. Be civil to the young +woman, but remember what your best friend Adversity told you, and never +let her be more than your handmaiden again; free to come, free to go, +but never more to be your mistress." I screw myself about, and twist, +and turn in great perplexity--Hard enough all this, and I am half +inclined to try to throttle Conscience outright. + +But to make a long story short--I was resolute--"Step into the parlour, +my dearest I hope we shall never part any more; but you must not get the +upper hand, you know. So step into the other room, and whenever I get +my inexpressibles on, I will come to you there." + +But this Conscience, about which I am now hovering, seldom acts the +monitor in this way, unless against respectable crimes, such as murder, +debauching your friend's wife, or stealing. But the chield I have to do +with for the present, and who has led to this rigmarole, is a sort of +deputy Conscience, a looker--out after small affairs--peccadilloes. The +grewsome carle, Conscience Senior, you can grapple with, for he only +steps forth on great occasions, when he says sternly--and the mischief +is, that what he says, we know to be true--says he, "Thomas Cringle"--he +never calls me Tom, or Mister, or Lieutenant--"Thomas Cringle," says he, +"if you do that thing, you shall be damned." "Lud-a mercy," quoth I, +Thomas, "I will perpend, Master Conscience" and I set myself to eschew +the evil deed, with all my might. But Conscience the Younger--whom I +will take leave to call by Quashie's appellative hereafter, Conshy--is a +funny little fellow, and another guess sort oft a chap altogether. An +instance--"I say, Tom, my boy--Tom Cringle--why the deuce now"--he +won't say "the Devil" for the world--"Why the deuce, Tom, don't you +confine yourself to a pint of wine at dinner, eh?" quoth Conshy. "Why +will you not give up your toddy after it? You are ruining your +interior, Thomas, my fine fellow--the gout is on the look out for you, +your legs are spindling, and your paunch is increasing. Read Hamlet's +speech to Polonius, Tom, and if you don't find all the marks of +premature old age creeping on you, then am I, Conshy, a Dutchman, that's +all." Now Conshy always lectures you in the watches of the night; I +generally think his advice is good at breakfast time, and during the +forenoon, egad, I think it excellent and most reasonable, and I determine +to stick by it and if Conshy and I dine alone, I do adhere to his maxims +most rigidly; but if any of my old allies should topple in to dinner, +Conshy, who is a solitary mechanic, bolts instanter. Still I remember +him for a time--we sit down--the dinner is good. "I say, Jack, a glass +of wine, Peter what shall we have?" and until the pint a-piece is +discussed, all is right between Conshy and I. But then comes some +grouse. Hook, in his double-refined nonsense, palavers about the +blasphemy of white wine after brown game--and he is not far wrong +either;--at least I never thought he was, so long as my Hermitage +lasted; but at the time I speak of, it was still to the fore--so the +moment the pint a-piece was out, "Hold hard, Tom, now," cheeps little +Conshy. "Why, only one glass of Hermitage, Conshy." Conshy shakes his +head. Cheese--after the manner of the ancients--Hook again--"Only one +glass of port, Conshy." He shakes his head, and at length the cloth is +drawn, and a confounded old steward of mine, who is now installed as +butler, brings in the crystal decanters, sparkling to the wax lights +poor as I am, I consider mutton fat still damnable--and every thing as +it should be, down to a finger-glass. "Now, Mary, where are the +children?" I am resolute. "Jack, I can't drink--out of sorts, my boy +so mind yourself, you and Peter.--Now, Conshy," says I, "where are you +now, my boy?" But just at this instant, jack strikes out, with "Cringle, +order me a tumbler--something hot--I don't care what it is."--"Ditto," +quoth Peter; and down crumbles all my fine fabric of resolutions, only +to be rebuilt tomorrow, before breakfast again, or at any odd moment, +when one's flesh is somewhat fishified. Another instance. "I say, Tom," +says Conshy, "do give over looking at that smart girl tripping it along +t'other side of the street."--"Presently, my dear little man," says I. +"Tight little woman that, Conshy; handsome bows; good bearings forward; +tumbles home sweetly about the waist, and tumbles out well above the +hips; what a beautiful run! and spars clean and tight; back-stays well +set up."--"Now, Tom, you vagabond, give over. Have you not a wife of +your own?"--"To be sure I have, Conshy, my darling; but toujours per" +"Have done, now, you are going too far," says Conshy.--"Oh, you be--". +"Thomas," cries a still stern voice, from the very inmost recesses of +my heart. Wee Conshy holds up his finger, and pricks his ear. "Do you +hear him?" says he.--"I hear," says I, "I hear and tremble." Now, to +apply. Conshy has been nudging me for this half hour to hold my tongue +regarding Aaron Bang's sea-sickness.--"It is absolutely indecent," +quoth he. "Can't help it, Conshy; no more than the extra tumbler; those +who are delicate need not read it; those who are indelicate won't be the +worse of it."--"But," persists Conshy--"I have other hairs in your neck, +Master Tommy--you are growing a bit of a buffoon on us, and sorry am I +to say it, sometimes not altogether, as a man with a rank imagination +may construe you, a very decent one. Now, my good boy, I would have you +to remember that what you write is condemned in the pages of Old +Christopher to an amber immortalization," (Ohon for the Provost!) "nay, +don't perk and smile, I mean no compliment, for you are but the straw in +the amber, Tom, and the only wonder is, how the deuce you got there." + +"But, my dear Conshy" + +"Hold your tongue, Tom--let me say out my say, and finish my advice--and +how will you answer to my father, in your old age, when youth, and +health, and wealth, may have flown, if you find any thing in this your +Log calculated to bring a blush on an innocent cheek, Tom, when the time +shall have for ever passed away wherein you could have remedied the +injury? For Conscience will speak to you then, not as I do now, in +friendly confidence, and impelled by a sincere regard for you, you right +hearted, but thoughtless, slapdash vagabond." + +There must have been a great deal of absurd perplexity in my visage, as +I sat receiving my rebuke, for I noticed Conshy smile, which gave me +courage. + +"I will reform, Conshy, and that immediately; but my moral is good, +man." + +"Well, well, Tom, I will take you at your word, so set about it, set +about it." + +"But, Conshy--a word in your starboard lug--why don't you go to the +fountain-head--why don't you try your hand in a curtain lecture on Old +Kit North himself, the hoary sinner who seduced me?" + +Conshy could no longer contain himself; the very idea of Old Kit having +a conscience of any kind or description whatever, so tickled him, that +he burst into a most uproarious fit of laughter, which I was in great +hopes would have choked him, and thus made me well quit of him for ever. +For some time I listened in great amazement, but there was something so +infectious in his fun, that presently I began to laugh too, which only +increased his cachinnation, so there were Conshy and I roaring, and +shouting, with the tears running down our cheeks. + +"Kit listen to me!--Oh, Lord" + +"You are swearing, Conshy," said I, rubbing my hands at having caught +him tripping. + +"And enough to make a Quaker swear," quoth he, still laughing. "No, no, +Kit never listens to me--why, he would never listen even to my father, +until the gout and the Catholic Relief Bill, and last of all, the Reform +Bill, broke him down, and softened his heart." + +So there is an allegory for you, worthy of John Bunyan. + +Next morning we got the breeze again, when we bore away for Santiago de +Cuba, and arrived off the Moro Castle on the fifth evening at sunset, +after leaving Port Royal harbour. The Spaniards, in their better days, +were a kind of coral worms; wherever they planted their colonies, they +immediately set to covering themselves in with stone and mortar; +applying their own entire energies, and the whole strength of their +Indian captives, first to the erection of a fort; their second object +(postponed to the other only through absolute necessity) being then to +build a temple to their God. Gradually vast fabrics appeared, where +before there was nothing but one eternal forest, or a howling +wilderness; and although it does come over one, when looking at the +splendid moles, and firm-built bastions, and stupendous churches of the +New World--the latter surpassing, or at the lest equalling in +magnificence and grandeur those of Old Spain herself--that they are all +cemented by the blood and sweat of millions of gentle Indians, of whose +harmless existence in many quarters, they remain the only monuments, +still it is a melancholy reflection to look back and picture to one's +self what Spain was, and to compare her, in her high and palmy state, +with what she is now--to compare her present condition even with what +she was when, as a young midshipman, I first visited her glorious +Transatlantic colonies. + +Until the Peninsula was overrun by the French, Buenos Ayres, La Guayra, +Porto Cavello, Maracaibo, Santa Martha, and that stronghold of the west, +the key of the Isthmus of Darien, Cartagena de las Indias, with Porto +Bello, and Vera Cruz, on the Atlantic shores of South America, were all +prosperous and happy--"Llenas de plata;" and on the Western coast, +Valparaiso, Lima, Panama, and San Bias, were thriving and increasing in +population and wealth. England, through her colonies, was at that time +driving a lucrative trade with all of them; but the demon of change was +abroad, blown thither by the pestilent breath of European liberalism. +What a vineyard for Abbe Sieyes to have laboured in! Every Capitania +would have become a purchaser of one of his cut and dried constitutions. +Indeed he could not have turned them out of hand fast enough. The +enlightened few, in these countries, were as a drop in the bucket to the +unenlightened many; and although no doubt there were numbers of the +former who were well-meaning men, yet they were one and all guilty of +that prime political blunder, in common with our Whig friends at home, +of expecting a set of semi-barbarians to see the beauty of, and to +conform to, their newfangled codes of free institutions, for which they +were as ready as I am to die at this present moment. Bolivar, in his +early fever of patriotism, made the same mistake, although his shrewd +mind, in his later career, saw that a despotism, pure or impure--I will +not qualify it--was your only government for the savages he had at one +time dignified with the name of fellow-patriots. But he came to this +wholesome conclusion too late; he tried backs it is true, but it would +not do; the fiend had been unchained, and at length hunted him broken +hearted into his grave. + +But the men of mind tell us, that those countries are now going through +the political fermentation, which by and by will clear, when the +sediment will be deposited, and the different ranks will each take their +acknowledged and undisputed stations in society; and the United States +are once and again quoted against we of the adverse faction, as If there +were the most remote analogy between their population, originally +composed of all the cleverest scoundrels of Europe, and the barbarians +of Spanish America, where a few master spirits, all old Spaniards, did +indeed for a season stick fiery off from the dark mass of savages +amongst whom their lot was cast, like stars in a moonless night, but +only to suffer a speedy eclipse from the clouds and storm which they +themselves had set in motion. We shall see. The scum as yet is +uppermost, and does not seem likely to subside, but it may boil over. +In Cuba, however, all was at the time quiet, and still is, I believe, +prosperous, and that too without having come through this said blessed +political fermentation. + +During the night we stood off and on under easy sail, and next morning, +when the day broke, with a strong breeze and a fresh shower, we were +about two miles off the Moro Castle, at the entrance of Santiago de +Cuba. + +I went aloft to look round me. The sea-breeze blew strong, until it +reached within half a mile of the shore, where it stopped short, +shooting in cat's-paws occasionally into the smooth belt of water +beyond, where the long unbroken swell rolled like molten silver in the +rising sun, without a ripple on its surface, until it dashed its +gigantic undulations against the face of the precipitous cliffs on the +shore, and flew up in smoke. The entrance to the harbour is very +narrow, and looked from my perch like a zig-zag chasm in the rock, +inlaid at the bottom with polished blue steel; so clear, and cahn, and +pellucid was the still water, wherein the frowning rocks, and +magnificent trees on the banks, and the white Moro, rising with its +grinning tiers of cannon, battery above battery, were reflected veluti +in speculum, as if it had been in a mirror. + +We had shortened sail, and fired a gun, and the signal for a pilot was +flying, when the Captain hailed me. "Does the sea breeze blow into the +harbour yet, Mr Cringle?" + +"Not yet, sir; but it is creeping in fast." + +"Very well. Let me know when we can run in. Mr Yerk, back the main +topsail, and heave the ship to." + +Presently the pilot canoe, with the Spanish flag flying in the stem, +came alongside; and the pilot, a tall brown man, a Moreno, as the +Spaniards say, came on board. He wore a glazed cocked hat, rather an +out-of-the-way finish to his figure, which was rigged in a simple +Osnaburg shirt, and pair of trowsers. He came on the quarterdeck, and +made his bow to the captain with all the ease in the world, wished him a +good morning, and taking his place by the quartermaster at the conn, he +took charge of the ship. "Senor," quoth he to me, "is de harbour blow +up yet? I mean, you see de viento walking into him?--de terral--dat is +land-wind--has he cease?" + +"No," I answered; "the belt of smooth water is growing narrower fast; +but the sea breeze does not blow into the channel yet. Now it has +reached the entrance." + +"Ah, den make sail, Senior Capitan; fill de main-topsail." We stood in, +the scene becoming more and more magnificent as we approached the land. + +The fresh green shores of this glorious island lay before us, fringed +with white surf, as the everlasting ocean in its approach to it +gradually changed its dark blue colour, as the water shoaled, into a +bright joyous green under the blazing sun, as if in sympathy with the +genius of the fair land, before it tumbled at his feet its gently +swelling billows, in shaking thunders on the reefs and rocky face of the +coast, against which they were driven up in clouds, the incense of their +sacrifice. The undulating hills in the vicinity were all, either +cleared, and covered with the greenest verdure that imagination can +picture, over which strayed large herds of cattle, or with forests of +gigantic trees, from amongst which, every now and then, peeped out some +palm thatched mountain settlement, with its small thread of blue smoke +floating up into the calm clear morning air, while the blue hills in the +distance rose higher and higher, and more and more blue, and dreamy, and +indistinct, until their rugged summits could not be distinguished from +the clouds through the glimmering hot haze of the tropics. + +"By the mark seven," sung out the leadsman in the starboard chains. +"Quarter less three," responded he in the larboard, showing that the +inequalities of the surface at the bottom of the sea, even in the +breadth of the ship, were at least as abrupt as those presented above +water by the sides of the natural canal into which we were now running. +By this time, on our right hand, we were within pistol shot of the Moro, +where the channel is not above fifty yards across; indeed there is a +chain, made fast to a rock on the opposite side, that can be hove up by +a capstan until it is level with the water, so as to constitute an +insurmountable obstacle to any attempt to force an entrance in time of +war. As we stood in, the golden flag of Spain rose slowly on the staff +at the Water Battery, and Cast its large sleepy folds abroad in the +breeze; but, instead of floating over mailclad men, or Spanish soldiers +in warlike array, three poor devils of half naked mulattoes stuck their +heads out of an embrasure under its shadow. "Senor Capitan," they +shouted, 'una Botella de Roma, por el honor del pais.' We were mighty +close upon leaving the bones of the old ship here, by the by; for at the +very instant of entering the harbour's mouth, the land wind checked us +off, and very nearly hove us broadside on upon the rocks below the +castle, against which the swell was breaking in thunder. + +"Let go the anchor," sung out the captain. + +"All gone, sir," promptly responded the boatswain from the forecastle. +And as he spoke, we struck once, twice, and very heavily the third time. +But the breeze coming in strong, we fetched away again; and as the cable +was promptly cut, we got safely off. However, on weighing the anchor +afterwards, we found the water had been so shoal under the bows, that +the ship, when she stranded, had struck it, and broken the stock short +off by the ring. The only laughable part of the story consisted in the +old cook, an Irishman, with one leg and half an eye, scrambling out of +the galley nearly naked, in his trowsers, shirt, and greasy nightcap, +and sprawling on all fours after two tubsful of yams, which the third +thump had capsized all over the deck. "Oh you scurvy-looking tief," +said he, eying the pilot; "if it was running us ashore you were set on, +why the blazes couldn't ye wait until the yams, were in the copper, bad +luck to ye--and them all scraped too! I do believe, if they even had +been taties, it would have been all the same to you." We stood on, the +channel narrowing still more the rocks rising to a height of at least +five hundred feet from the water's edge, as sharply and precipitously as +if they had only yesterday been split asunder; the splintered +projections and pinnacles on one side, having each their corresponding +fissures and indentations on the other, as if the hand of a giant could +have closed them together again. + +Noble trees shot out in all directions wherever they could find a little +earth and a crevice to hold on by, almost meeting overhead in several +places, and alive with all kinds of birds and beasts incidental to the +climate; parrots of all sorts, great and small, clomb, and hung, and +fluttered amongst the branches; and pigeons of numberless varieties; and +the glancing woodpecker, with his small hammer like tap, tap, tap; and +the West India nightingale, and humming birds of all hues; while cranes, +black, white, and grey, frightened from their fishing-stations, stalked +and peeped about, as awkwardly as a warrant-officer in his long +skirted coat on a Sunday; while whole flocks of ducks flew across the +mastheads and through the rigging; and the dragon-like guanas, and +lizards of many kinds, disported themselves amongst the branches, not +lazily or loathsomely, as we, who have only seen a lizard in our cold +climate, are apt to picture, but alert, and quick as lightning, their +colours changing with the changing light or the hues of the objects to +which they clung, becoming literally in one respect portions of the +landscape. + +And then the dark, transparent crystal depth of the pure waters under +foot, reflecting all nature so steadily and distinctly, that in the +hollows, where the overhanging foliage of the laurel-like bushes +darkened the scene, you could not for your life tell where the elements +met, so blended were earth and sea. + +"Starboard," said I. I had now come on deck. "Starboard, or the main +topgallant-masthead will befoul of the limb of that tree. Foretop, +there--lie out on the larboard fore-yardarm, and be ready to shove her +off, if she sheers too close." + +"Let go the anchor," struck in the first lieutenant. + +Splash--the cable rumbled through the hause-hole. + +"Now here are we brought up in paradise," quoth the doctor. + +"Curukity coo-curukity coo," sung out a great bushy-whiskered sailor +from the crows nest, who turned out to be no other than our old friend +Timothy Tailtackle, quite juvenilffied by the laughing scene. "Here am +I, Jack, a booby amongst the singing-birds," crowed he to one of his +messmates in the maintop, as he clutched a branch of a tree in his hand, +and swung himself up into it. But the ship, as Old Nick would have it, +at the very instant dropped astern a yew yards in swinging to her +anchor, and that so suddenly, that she left him on his perch in the +tree, converting his jest, poor fellow, into melancholy earnest. "Oh +Lord, sir!" sung out Timotheus, in a great quandary. "Captain, do heave +ahead a bit--Murder--I shall never get down again! Do, Mr Yerk, if you +please, sir!" And there he sat twisting and craning himself about, and +screwing his features into combinations evincing the most comical +perplexity. + +The captain, by the way of a bit of fun, pretended not to hear him. +"Maintop, there," quoth he. + +The midshipman in the top answered him, "Ay, ay, sir." + +"Not you, Mr Reefpoint; the captain of the top I want." + +"He is not in the top, sir," responded little Reefpoint, chuckling like +to choke himself. + +"Where the devil is he, sir?" + +"Here, sir," squealed Timothy, his usual gruff voice spindling into a +small cheep through his great perplexity. "Here, sir." + +"What are you doing there, sir? Come down this moment, sir. Rig out +the main-topmast-studding-sail-boom, Mr Reefpoint, and tell him to +slew himself down by that long water-withe." + +To hear was to obey. Poor Timothy clambered down to the fork of the +tree, from which the withe depended, and immediately began to warp +himself down, until he reached within three or four yards of the +starboard fore-topsail-yardarm; but the corvette still dropped astern, +so that, after a vain attempt to hook on by his feet, he swung off into +mid air, hanging by his hands. + +It was no longer a joke. "Here, you black fellows in the pilot canoe," +shouted the captain, as he threw them a rope himself. "Pass the end of +that line round the stump yonder--that one below the cliff, there--now +pull like devils, pull." + +They did not understand a word he said; but, comprehending his +gestures, did what he wished. + +"Now haul on the line, men--gently, that will do. Missed it again," +continued the skipper, as the poor fellow once more made a fruitless +attempt to swing himself on to the yard. + +"Pay out the warp again," sung out Tailtackle--"quick, quick, let the +ship swing from under, and leave me scope to dive, or I shall be obliged +to let go, and be killed on the deck." + +"God bless me, yes," said Transom, "stick out the warp, let her swing to +her anchor." + +In an instant all eyes were again fastened with intense anxiety on the +poor fellow, whose strength was fast failing, and his grasp plainly +relaxing. + +"See all clear to pick me up, messmates." + +Tailtackle slipped down to the extreme end of the black withe, that +looked like a scorched snake, pressed his legs close together, pointing +his toes downwards, and then steadying himself for a moment, with his +hands right above his head, and his arms at the full stretch, he +dropped, struck the water fairly, entering its dark blue depths without +a splash, and instantly disappeared, leaving a white frothy mark on the +surface. + +"Did you ever see any thing better done?" said Yerk. "Why he clipped +into the water with the speed of light, as clean and clear as if he had +been a marlinspike." + +"Thank heaven!" gasped the captain; for if he had struck the water +horizontally, or fallen headlong, he would have been shattered in pieces +every bone would have been broken--he would have been as completely +smashed as if he had dropped upon one of the limestone rocks on the +ironbound shore. + +"Ship, ahoy!" We were all breathlessly looking over the side where he +fell, expecting to see him rise again; but the hail came from the water +on t'other side. "Ship, ahoy--throw me a rope, good people--a rope, if +you please. Do you mean to careen the ship, that you have all run to +the starboard side, leaving me to be drowned to port here?" + +"Ah, Tailtackle! well done, old boy," sung out a volley of voices, men +and officers, rejoiced to see the honest fellow alive. He clambered on +board, in the bight of one of twenty ropes that were hove to him. + +When he came on deck the captain slyly said, "I don't think you'll go a +bird nesting in a hurry again, Tailtackle." + +Tim looked with a most quizzical expression at his captain, all blue and +breathless and dripping as he was; and then sticking his tongue slightly +in his cheek, he turned away, without addressing him directly, but +murmuring as he went, "A glass of grog now." + +The Captain, with whom he was a favourite, took the hint. "Go below +now, and turn in till eight bells, Tailtackle. Mafame," to his steward, +"send him a glass of hot brandy grog." + +"A northwester," whispered Tim aside to the functionary; "half and half, +tallow chops--eh!" + +About an hour after this a very melancholy accident happened to a poor +boy on board, of about fifteen years of age, who had already become a +great favourite of mine from his modest, quiet deportment, as well as of +all the gunroom-officers, although he had not been above a fortnight in +the ship. He had let himself down over the bows by the cable to bathe. +There were several of his comrades standing on the forecastle looking at +him, and he asked one of them to go out on the spritsail-yard, and look +round to see if there were any sharks in the neighbourhood; but all +around was deep, clear, green water. He kept hold of the cable, +however, and seemed determined not to put himself in harm's way, until a +little wicked urchin, who used to wait on the warrant-officers mess, a +small meddling snipe of a creature, who got flogged in well-behaved +weeks only once, began to taunt my little mild favourite. + +"Why, you chicken-heart, I'll wager a thimbleful of grog, that such a +tailor as you are in the water can't for the life of you swim out to the +buoy there." + +"Never you mind, Pepperbottom," said the boy, giving the imp the name he +had richly earned by repeated flagellations. "Never you mind. I am not +ashamed to show my naked hide, you know. But it is against orders in +these seas to go overboard, unless with a sail underfoot; so I sha'n't +run the risk of being tattooed by the boatswain's mate, like some one I +could tell of." + +"Coward," muttered the little wasp, "you are afraid, sir;" and the other +boys abetting the mischief-maker, the lad was goaded to leave his hold +of the cable, and strike out for the buoy. He reached it, and then +turned, and pulled towards the ship again, when he caught +my eye. + +"Who is that overboard? How dare you, sir, disobey the standing order +of the ship? Come in, boy; come in." + +My hailing the little fellow shoved him off his balance, and he lost his +presence of mind for a moment or two, during which he, if any thing, +widened his distance from the ship. + +At this instant the lad on the spritsail-yard sung out quick and +suddenly, "A shark, a shark!" + +And the monster, like a silver pillar, suddenly shot up perpendicularly +from out the dark green depths of the sleeping pool, with the waters +sparkling and hissing around him, as if he had been a sea demon rushing +on his prey. + +"Pull for the cable, Louis," shouted fifty voices at once--"pull for +the cable." + +The boy did so--we all ran forward. He reached the cable grasped it +with both hands, and hung on, but before he could swing himself out of +the water, the fierce fish had turned. His whitish green belly glanced +in the sun--the poor little fellow gave a heart splitting yell, which +was shattered amongst the impending rocks into piercing echoes, and +these again were reverberated from cavern, to cavern, until they died +away amongst the hollows in the distance, as if they had been the faint +shrieks of the damned--yet he held fast for a second or two--the +ravenous tyrant of the sea tug, tugging at him, till the stiff, taught +cable shook again. At length he was torn from his hold, but did not +disappear; the animal continuing on the surface crunching his prey with +his teeth, and digging at him with his jaws, as if trying to gorge a +morsel too large to be swallowed, and making the water flash up in foam +over the boats in pursuit, by the powerful strokes of his tail, but +without ever letting go his hold. The poor lad only cried once more +but such a cry--oh God, I never shall forget it!--and, could it be +possible, in his last shriek, his piercing expiring cry, his young voice +seemed to pronounce my name--at least so I thought at the time, and +others thought so too. The next moment he appeared quite dead. No less +than three boats had been in the water alongside when the accident +happened, and they were all on the spot by this time. And there was the +bleeding and mangled boy, torn along the surface of the water by the +shark, with the boats in pursuit, leaving a long stream of blood, +mottled with white specks of fat and marrow in his wake. At length the +man in the bow of the gig laid hold of him by the arm, another sailor +caught the other arm, boat-hooks and oars were dug into and launched at +the monster, who relinquished his prey at last, stripping off the flesh, +however, from the upper part of the right thigh, until his teeth reached +the knee, where he nipped the shank clean off, and made sail with the +leg in his jaws. + +Poor little Louis never once moved after we took him in.--I thought I +heard a small still stem voice thrill along my nerves, as if an echo of +the beating of my heart had become articulate. "Thomas, a fortnight ago +you impressed that poor boy--who was, and now is not--out of a Bristol +ship." Alas conscience spoke no more than the truth. + +Our instructions were to be at St Jago, until three British ships, then +loading, were ready for sea, and then to convey them through the Caicos, +or windward passage. As our stay was therefore likely to be ten days or +a fortnight at the shortest, the boats were hoisted out, and we made our +little arrangements and preparations for taking all the recreation in +our power; and our worthy skipper, taught and stiff as he was at sea, +always encouraged all kinds of fun and larking, both amongst the men and +the officers, on occasions like the present. Amongst his other pleasant +qualities, he was a great boat racer, constantly building and altering +gigs and pulling boats, at his own expense, and matching the men against +each other for small prizes. + +He had just finished what the old carpenter considered his chef +d'oeuvre, and a curious affair this same masterpiece was. In the first +place it was forty-two feet long over all, and only three and a half +feet beam--the planking was not much above an eighth of an inch in +thickness, so that if one of the crew had slipped his foot off the +stretcher, it must have gone through the bottom. There was a standing +order that no man was to go into it with shoes on. She was to pull six +oars, and her crew were the captains of the tops, the primest seamen in +the ship, and the steersman, no less a character than the skipper +himself. + +Her name, for I love to be particular, was the Dragonfly; she was +painted out and in of a bright red, amounting to a flame colour, oars red +the men wearing trowsers and shirts of red flannel, and red net +nightcaps--which common uniform the captain himself wore. I think I +have said before, that he was a very handsome man, but if I have not I +say so now, and when he had taken his seat, and the gigs, all fine men, +were seated each with his oar held upright upon his knees ready to be +dropped into the water at the same instant, the craft and her crew +formed to my eye as pretty a plaything for grown children as ever was +seen. "Give way, men," the oars dipped as clean as so many knives, +without a sparkle, the gallant fellows stretched out, and away shot the +Dragonfly, like an arrow, the green water foaming into white smoke at +the bows, and hissing away in her wake. + +She disappeared in a twinkling round a reach of the canal where we were +anchored, and we, the officers, for we must needs have our boat also, +were making ready to be off, to have a shot at some beautiful cranes +that, floating on their large pinions, slowly passed us with their long +legs stuck straight out astern, and their longer necks gathered into +their crops, when we heard a loud shouting in the direction where the +Captain's boat had vanished. Presently the Devil's Darning Needle, as +the Scotch part of the crew loved to call the Dragonfly, stuck her long +snout round the headland, and came spinning along with a Spanish canoe +manned by four negroes, and steered by an elderly gentleman, a sharp +acute-looking little man, in a gingham coat, in her wake, also pulling +very fast; however, the Don seemed dead beat, and the captain was in +great glee. By this time, both boats were alongside, and the old +Spaniard, Don Ricardo Campana, addressed the captain, judging that he +was one of the seamen. "Is the Captain on board?" said he in Spanish. +The Captain, who understood the language, but did not speak it, answered +him in French, which Don Ricardo seemed to speak fluently, "No, sir, the +Captain is not on board; but there is Mr Yerk, the first lieutenant, at +the gangway." He had come for the letter-bag he said, and if we had any +newspapers, and could spare them, it would be conferring a great favour +on him. + +He got his letters and newspapers handed down, and very civilly gave the +Captain a dollar, who touched his cap, tipped the money to the men, and +winking slightly to old Yerk and the rest of us, addressed himself to +shove off. The old Don, drawing up his eyebrows a little, (I guess he +rather saw who was who, for all his make-believe innocence,) bowed to +the officers at the gangway, sat down, and desiring his people to use +their broad-bladed, clumsy looking oars, or paddles, began to move +awkwardly away. We, that is the gunroom officers, all except the +second Lieutenant, who had the watch, and the master, now got into our +own gig also, rowed by ourselves, and away we all went in a covey; the +purser and doctor, and three of the middies forward, Thomas Cringle, +gentleman, pulling the stroke oar, with old Moses Yerk as coxswain; and as +the Dragonflies were all red, so we were all seagreen, boat, oars, +trowsers, shirts, and nightcaps. We soon distanced the cumbrous looking +Don, and the strain was between the Devil's Darning Needle and our boat +the Watersprite, which was making capital play, for although we had not +the bottom of the topmen, yet we had more blood, so to speak, and we had +already beaten them, in their last gig, all to sticks. But Dragonfly +was a new boat, and now in the water for the first time. + +We were both of us so intent on our own match, that we lost sight of the +Spaniard altogether, and the Captain and the first Lieutenant were +bobbing in the stern sheets of their respective gigs like a couple of +souple Tams, as intent on the game as if all our lives had depended on +it, when in an instant the long black dirty prow of the canoe was thrust +in between us, the old Don singing out, "Dexa mi lugar, paysanos, dexa +mi lugar, mis hijos." We kept away right and left, to look at the +miracle;--and there lay the canoe, rumbling and splashing, with her crew +walloping about, and grinning and yelling like incarnate fiends, and as +naked as the day they were born, and the old Don himself so staid and so +sedate and drawley as he was a minute before, now all alive, shouting +"Tira diablitos, tira!" flourishing a small paddle, with which he +steered, about his head like a wheel, and dancing and jumping about in +his seat, as if his bottom had been a haggis with quicksilver in it. + +"Zounds," roared the skipper,--"why, topmen--why, gentlemen, give way +for the honour of the ship--Gentlemen, stretch out--Men, pull like +devils; twenty pounds if you beat him." + +We pulled, and they pulled, and the water roared, and the men strained +their muscles and sinews to cracking, and all was splash, splash, and +whiz, whiz, and pech, pech, about us, but it would not do the canoe +headed us like a shot, and in passing, the cool old Don again subsided +into a calm as suddenly as he had been roused from it, and sitting once +more, stiff as a poker, turned round and touched his sombrero, "I will +tell that you are coming, gentlemen." + +It was now the evening, near nightfall, and we had been so intent on +beating our awkward-looking opponent, that we had none of us time to +look at the splendid scene that burst upon our view, on rounding a +precipitous rock, from the crevices of which some magnificent trees shot +up--their gnarled trunks and twisted branches overhanging the canal +where we were pulling, and anticipating the fast-falling darkness that +was creeping over the fair face of nature; and there we floated, in the +deep shadow of the cliff and trees Dragonflies and Water Sprites, +motionless and silent, the boats floating so lightly that they scarcely +seemed to touch the water, the men resting on their oars, and all of us +rapt with the magnificence of the scenery around us, beneath us, and +above us. + +The left or western bank of the narrow entrance to the harbour, from +which we were now debauching, ran out in all its precipitousness and +beauty, (with its dark evergreen bushes overshadowing the deep blue +waters, and its gigantic trees shooting forth high into the glowing +western sky, their topmost branches gold-tipped in the flood of +radiance shed by the rapidly sinking sun, while all below where we lay +was grey cold shade,) until it joined the northern shore, when it sloped +away gradually towards the east; the higher parts of the town sparkled +in the evening sun, on this dun ridge, like golden turrets on the back +of an elephant, while the houses that were in the shade covered the +declivity with their dark masses, until it sank down to the water's +edge. On the right hand the haven opened boldly out into a basin about +four miles broad by seven long, in which the placid waters spread out +beyond the shadow of the western bank into one vast sheet of molten +gold, with the canoe tearing along the shining surface, her side +glancing in the sun, and her paddles flashing back his rays, and leaving +a long train of living fire sparkling in her wake. + +It was now about six o'clock in the evening; the sun had set to us, as +we pulled along under the frowning brow of the cliff, where the birds +were fast settling on their nightly perches, with small happy +twitterings, and the lizards and numberless other chirping things began +to send forth their evening hymn to the great Being who made them and +us, and a solitary white sailing owl would every now and then flit +spectre like from one green tuft, across the bald face of the cliff, to +another, and the small divers around us were breaking up the black +surface of the waters into little sparkling circles as they fished for +their suppers. All was becoming brown and indistinct near us; but the +level beams of the setting sun still lingered with a golden radiance +upon the lovely city, and the shipping at anchor before it, making their +sails, where loosed to dry, glance like leaves of gold, and their spars, +and masts, and rigging like wires of gold, and gilding their flags, +which were waving majestically and slow from the peaks in the evening +breeze; and the Moorish-looking steeples of the churches were yet +sparkling in the glorious blaze, which was gradually deepening into +gorgeous crimson, while the large pillars of the cathedral, then +building on the highest part of the ridge, stood out like brazen +monuments, softening even as we looked into a Stonehenge of amethysts. +One half of every object, shipping, houses, trees, and hills, was +gloriously illuminated; but even as we looked, the lower part of the +town gradually sank into darkness, and faded from our sight--the +deepening gloom cast by the high bank above us, like the dark shadow of +a bad spirit, gradually crept on, and on, and extended farther and +farther; the sailing water-fowl in regular lines, no longer made the +water flash up like flame; the russet mantle of eve was fast extending +over the entire hemisphere; the glancing minarets, and the tallest +trees, and the topgallant-yards and masts of the shipping, alone +flashed back the dying effulgence of the glorious orb, which every +moment grew fainter and fainter, and redder and redder, until it shaded +into purple, and the loud deep bell of the convent of La Merced swung +over the still waters, announcing the arrival of even-song and the +departure of day. + +"Had we not better pull back to supper, sir?" quoth Moses Yerk to the +captain. We all started, the men dipped their oars, our dreams were +dispelled, the charm was broken--"Confound the matter-of-fact +blockhead," or something very like it, grumbled the captain--"but give +way, men," fast followed, and we returned towards the ship. We had not +pulled fifty yards, when we heard the distant rattle of the muskets of +the sentries at the gangways, as they discharged them at sundown, and +were remarking, as we were rowing leisurely along, upon the strange +effect produced by the reports, as they were frittered away amongst the +overhanging cliffs in chattering reverberations, when the captain +suddenly sung out, "Oars!" All hands lay on them. "Look there," he +continued--"There--between the gigs--saw you ever any thing like that, +gentlemen?" We all leant over; and although the boats, from the way they +had, were skimming along nearer seven than five knots--there lay a large +shark; he must have been twelve feet long at the shortest, swimming +right in the middle, and equidistant from both, and keeping way with us +most accurately. + +He was distinctly visible, from the strong and vivid phosphorescence +excited by his rapid motion through the sleeping waters of the dark +creek, which lit up his jaws, and head, and whole body; his eyes were +especially luminous, while a long wake of sparkles streamed away astern +of him from the lashing of his tail. As the boats lost their speed, the +luminousness of his appearance faded gradually as he shortened sail +also, until he disappeared altogether. He was then at rest, and +suspended motionless in the water; and the only thing that indicated his +proximity, was an occasional sparkle from the motion of a fin. We +brought the boats nearer together, after pulling a stroke or two, but he +seemed to sink as we closed, until at last we could merely perceive an +indistinct halo far down in the clear black profound. But as we +separated, and resumed our original position, he again rose near the +surface; and although the ripple and dip of the oars rendered him +invisible while we were pulling, yet the moment we again rested on them, +there was the monster, like a persecuting fiend, once more right between +us, glaring on us, and apparently watching every Motion. It was a +terrible spectacle, and rendered still more striking by the melancholy +occurrence of the forenoon. + +"That's the very identical, damnable baste himself, as murthered poor +little Louis this morning, yeer honour; I knows him from the tom flesh +of him under his larboard blinker, sir--just where Wiggens's boathook +punished him," quoth the Irish captain of the mizentop. +"A water-kelpie," murmured another of the Captain's gigs, a Scotchman. + +The men were evidently alarmed. "Stretch out, men; never mind the +shark. He can't jump into, the boat surely," said the skipper. "What +the deuce are you afraid of?" + +We arrived within pistol-shot of the ship. As we approached, the +sentry hailed, "Boat, ahoy!" + +"Firebrand," sung out the skipper, in reply. + +"Man the side-gangway lanterns there," quoth the officer on duty; and +by the time we were close to, there were two sidesmen over the side with +the manropes ready stuck out to our grasp, and two boys with lanterns +above them. We got on deck, the officers touching their hats, and +speedily the Captain dived down the ladder, saying, as he descended, "Mr +Yerk, I shall be happy to see you and your boat's crew at supper, or +rather to a late dinner, at eight o'clock; but come down a moment as you +are. Tailtackle, bring the gigs into the cabin to get a glass of grog, +will you?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," responded Timothy. "Down with you, you flaming thieves, +and see you don't snort and sniffle in your grog, as if you were in your +own mess, like so many pigs slushing at the same trough.' + +"Lord love you, Tim," rejoined one of the topmen, "who made you master +of the ceremonies, old Ironfist, eh? Where learnt you your breeding? +Among the cockatoos up yonder?" + +Tim laughed, who, although he ought to have been in his bed, had taken +his seat in the Dragonfly when her crew were piped over the side in the +evening, and thereby subjected himself to a rap over the knuckles from +the Captain; but where the offence might be said to consist in a too +assiduous discharge of his duty, it was easily forgiven, unfortunate as +the issue of the race had been. So down we all trundled into the cabin, +masters and men. It was brilliantly lighted up, the table sparkling +with crystal and wine, and glancing with silver plate; and there on a +sofa lay Aaron Bang in all his pristine beauty, and fresh from his +toilet, for he had just got out of his cot after an eight-and-forty +hours sojourn therein--nice white neck cloth white jean waistcoat and +trowsers, and span--new blue coat He was reading when we entered; and +the Captain, in his flame-coloured costume, was close aboard of him +before he raised his eyes, and rather staggered him a bit; but when +seven sea-green spirits followed, he was exceedingly nonplussed, and +then came the six red Dragonflies, who ranged themselves three on each +side of the door, with their net-bags in their hands, smoothing down +their hair, and sidling and fidgeting about at finding themselves so far +out of their element as the cabin. + +"Mafame," said the Captain, "a glass of grog apiece to the Dragonflies" +and a tumbler of liquid amber (to borrow from my old friend Cooper) +sparkled in the large bony claw of each of them. "Now, drink Mr Bang's +health." They, as in duty bound, let fly at our amigo in a volley. + +"Your health, Mr Bang." + +Aaron sprung from his seat, and made his salaam, and the Dragonflies +bundled out of the cabin again. + +"I say, Transom, John Canoeing still--always some frolic in the wind." + +We, the Water Sprites, had shifted and rigged, and were all mustered aft +on the poop, enjoying the little air there was, as it fanned gently, and +waiting for the announcement of supper. It was a pitch-dark night, +neither moon nor stars. The murky clouds seemed to have settled down on +the mastheads, shrouding every object in the thickest gloom. + +"Ready with the gun forward there, Mr Catwell?" said Yerk. + +"All ready, sir." + +"Fire!" + +Pent up as we were in a narrow channel, walled in on each side with +towering precipitous rocks, the explosion, multiplied by the echoes into +a whole broadside, was tremendous, and absolutely deafening. + +The cold, grey, threatening rocks, and the large overhanging twisted +branches of the trees, and the clear black water, and the white Moro in +the distance, glanced for an instant, and then all was again veiled in +utter darkness, and down came a rattling shower of sand and stones from +the cliffs, and of rotten branches, and heavy dew from the trees, +sparkling in the water like a shower of diamonds; and the birds of the +air screamed, and, frightened from their nests and perches in crevices, +and on the boughs of the trees, took flight with a strong rushing noise, +that put one in mind of the rising of the fallen angels from the +infernal council in Paradise Lost; and the cattle on the mountain-side +lowed, and the fish, large and small, like darts and arrows of fire, +sparkled up from the black abyss of waters, and swam in haloes of flame +round the ship in every direction, as if they had been the ghosts of a +shipwrecked crew, haunting the scene of their destruction; and the +guanas and large lizards which had been shaken from the trees, skimmed +and struggled on the surface in glances of fire, like evil spirits +watching to seize them as their prey. At length the screaming and +shrieking of the birds, and clang of their the cattle, ceased; and the +startled fish oozy caverns at the bottom of the sea, disappeared; and +all was again black and undistinguishable, the deathlike silence being +only broken by the hoarse murmuring of the distant surf. + +"Magnificent!" burst from the Captain. "Messenger, send Mr Portfire +here." The gunpowder functionary, he of the flannel cartridge, appeared. +"Gunner, send one of your mates into the maintop, and let him bum a blue +light." + +The lurid glare blazed up balefully amongst the spars and rigging, +lighting up the decks, and blasting the crew into the likeness of the +host of Sennacherib, when the day broke on them, and they were all dead +corpses. A--stem of us, indistinct from the distance, the white Moro +Castle reappeared, and rose frowning, tier above tier, like a Tower of +Babel, with its summit veiled in the clouds, and the startled sea-fowl +wheeling above the higher batteries, like snowflakes blown about in +storm; while, near at hand, the rocks on each side of us looked as if +fresh splintered asunder, with the sulphurous flames which had split +them still burning; the trees looked no longer green, but were sicklied +o'er with a pale ashy colour, as if sheeted ghosts were holding their +midnight orgies amongst their branches-cranes, and waterfowl, and birds +of many kinds, and all the insect and reptile tribes, their gaudy +noontide colours merged into one and the same fearful deathlike +sameness, flitted and sailed and circled above us, and chattered, and +screamed, and shrieked; and the unearthly-looking guanas, and +numberless creeping things, ran out on the boughs to peer at us, and a +large snake twined itself up a scathed stump that shot out from a +shattered pinnacle of rock that overhung us, with its glossy skin, +glancing like the brazen serpent set up by Moses in the camp of the +Israelites; and the cattle on the beetling summit of the cliff craned +over the precipitous ledge to look down upon us; and while every thing +around us and above us was thus glancing in the blue and ghastly +radiance, the band struck up a low moaning air; the light burnt out, and +once more we were cast, by the contrast, into even more palpable +darkness than before. I was entranced, and stood with folded arms, +looking forth into the night, and musing intensely on the appalling +scene which had just vanished like a feverish dream--"Dinner waits, +sir," quoth Mafame. + +"Oh! I am coming;" and kicking all my romance to Old Nick, I descended, +and we had a pleasant night of it, and some wine and some fun, and there +an end--but I have often dreamed of that dark pool, and the scenes I +witnessed there that day and night. + + + +CHAPTER XIII.--The Pirate's Leman + + "When lovely woman stoops to folly, + And finds too late that men betray, + What charm can soothe her melancholy, + What art can wash her guilt away?" + + "The only art her guilt can cover, + To hide her shame from every eye, + To give repentance to her lover, + And wring his bosom, is to die." + + --Oliver Goldsmith, "Song" From The Vicar Of Wakefield. + + + "Ay Dios, si sera possible que he ya hallado lugar que pueda + servir de escondida sepultura a la carga pesada deste + cuerpo, que tan contra mi voluntad sostengo?" + + --Don Quixote De La Mancha. + + +The next morning after breakfast I proceeded to Santiago, and landed at +the custom house wharf, where I found everything bustle, dust, and heat; +several of the captains of the English vessels were there, who +immediately made up to me, and reported how far advanced in their lading +they were, and enquired when we were to give them convoy, the latest +news from Kingston, &c. At length I saw our friend Ricardo Campana going +along one of the neighbouring streets, and I immediately made sail in +chase. He at once recognised me, gave me a cordial shake of the hand, +and enquired how he could serve me. I produced two letters which I had +brought for him, but which had been forgotten in the bustle of the +preceding day; they were introductory, and although sealed, I had some +reason to conjecture that my friend, Mr Pepperpot Wagtail, had done me +much more than justice. Campana, with great kindness, immediately +invited me to his house. "We foreigners," said he, "don't keep your +hours; I am just going home to breakfast." It was past eleven in the +forenoon. I was about excusing myself on the plea of having already +breakfasted, when he silenced me. "Why, I guessed as much, Mr +Lieutenant, but then you have not lunched; you can call it lunch, you +know, if it will ease your conscience." There was no saying nay to all +this civility, so we stumped along the burning streets, through a mile +of houses, large massive buildings, but very different in externals from +the gay domiciles of Kingston. Aaron Bang afterwards used to say that +they looked more like prisons than dwelling-houses, and he was not in +this very much out. Most of them were built of brick and plastered +over, with large windows, in front of each of which, like the houses in +the south of Spain, there was erected a large heavy wooden balcony, +projecting far enough from the wall to allow a Spanish chair, such as I +have already described, to be placed in it. The front of these verandas +was closed in with a row of heavy balustrades at the bottom, of a +variety of shapes, and by clumsy carved woodwork above, which +effectually prevented you from seeing into the interior. The whole had +a Moorish air, and in the upper part of the town there was a Sabbath-- +like stillness prevailing, which was only broken now and then by the +tinkle of a guitar from one of the aforesaid verandas, or by the +rattling of a crazy volante, a sort of covered gig, drawn by a broken +kneed and broken winded mule, with a kiln dried old Spaniard or dona in +it. + +The lower part of the town had been busy enough, and the stir and hum of +it rendered the quietude of the upper part of it more striking. + +A shovel hatted friar now suddenly accosted us. + +"Senor Campana--ese pobre familia de Cangrejo! Lastima! Lastima!" +"Cangrejo--Cangrejo!" muttered I; "why, it is the very name attached to +the miniature." + +Campana turned to the priest, and they conversed earnestly together for +some moments, when he left him, and we again held on our way. I could +not help asking him what family that was, whose situation the "padre" +seemed so feelingly to bemoan. + +"Never mind," said he, "never mind; they were a proud family once, but +that is all over now--come along." + +"But," said I, "I have a very peculiar cause of interest with regard to +this family. You are aware, of course, of the trial and execution of +the pirates in Kingston, the most conspicuous of whom was a young man +called Federico Cangrejo, from whom...." + +"Mr Cringle," said he, solemnly, "at a fitting time I will hear you +regarding that matter; at present I entreat you will not press it." + +Good manners would not allow me to push it farther, and we trudged along +together, until we arrived at Don Ricardo Campana's door. It was a +large brick building, plastered over as already described, and +whitewashed. There was a projecting stair in front, with a flight of +steps to the right and left, with a parapet wall towards the street. +There were two large windows, with the wooden veranda or lattice already +described, on the first floor, and on the second a range of smaller +windows, of the same kind. What answered to our ground floor was used +as a warehouse, and filled with dry goods, sugar, coffee, hides, and a +vast variety of miscellaneous articles. We ascended the stairs, and +entered a lofty room, cool and dark, and paved with large diamond-- +shaped bricks, and every way desirable for a West India lounge, all to +the furniture, which was meagre enough; three or four chairs, a worm-- +eaten old leathern sofa, and a large clumsy hardwood table in the midst. + +There were several children playing about, little sallow devils, +although, I dare say, they could all of them have been furnished with +certificates of white parentage, upon whom one or two negro women were +hovering in attendance beyond a large folding door that fronted the +entrance. + +When we entered, the eldest of the children, a little girl of about +eight years old, was sitting in the doorway, playing with a small blue +toy that I could make nothing of, until on a nearer inspection I found +it to be a live land-crab, which the little lady had manacled with a +thread by the foot, the thread being fastened to a nail driven into a +seam of the floor. + +As an article of food, I was already familiar with this creature, but I +had never seen a living one before; it was in every respect like a sea +crab, only smaller, the body being at the widest not above three inches +across the back. It fed without any apparent fear, and while it +pattered over the tiled floor, with its hard claws, it would now and +then stop and seize a crum of bread in its forceps, and feed itself like +a little monkey. By the time I had exchanged a few words with the +little lady, the large door that opened into the hall on the right hand +moved, and mine hostess made her appearance; a small woman, dressed in a +black gown, very laxly fitted. She was the very converse of our old +ship, she never missed stays, although I did cruelly. + +"This is my friend, Lieutenant Cringle," said mine host. + +"A las pies de usted, senora," responded your humble servant. + +"I am very glad to see you," said the lady; "but breakfast is ready; +welcome, sir, welcome." + +The food was not amiss, the coffee decidedly good, and the chocolate, +wherein, if you had planted a teaspoon, it would have stood upright, was +excellent. When we had done with substantials, dulce, that is the fruit +of the guava preserved, in small wooden boxes, (like drums of figs,) +after being made into a kind of jam, was placed on the table, and mine +host and his spouse had eaten a bushel of it apiece, and drank a gallon +of that most heathenish beverage, cold clear water, before the repast +was considered ended. After a hearty meal and a pint of claret, I felt +rather inclined to sit still, and expatiate for an hour or so, but +Campana roused me, and asked whether or not I felt inclined to go and +look at the town. I had no apology, and although I would much rather +have sat still, I rose to accompany him, when in walked Captain Transom +and Mr Bang. They were also kindly received by Don Ricardo. + +"Clad of the honour of this visit," said he in French, with a slight +lift of the corner of his mouth; "I hope neither you nor your boat's +crew took any harm after the heat of yesterday." + +Transom laughed. + +"Why, you did beat us very neatly, Don Ricardo. Pray, where got you +that canoe? But a lady Mrs Campana, I presume?--Have the goodness to +introduce me." + +The skipper was presented in due form, the lady receiving him without +the least mauvaise honte, which, after all, I believe to be indigenous +to our island. Aaron was next introduced, who, as he spoke no lingo, as +I knows of, to borrow Timotheus Tailtackle's phraseology but English, +was rather posed in the interview. + +"I say, Tom, tell her I wish she may live a thousand years. Ah, so, +that will do." + +Madama made her conge, and hoped "El Senora Maria un asiento." "Mucho, +mucho," sung out Bang, who meant by that that he was much obliged. + +At length Don Ricardo came to our aid. He had arranged a party into the +country for next morning, and invited us all to come back to a tertulia +in the evening, and to take beds in his house, he undertaking to provide +bestias to carry us. + +We therefore strolled out, a good deal puzzled what to make of ourselves +until the evening, when we fell in with one of the captains of the +English ships then loading, who told us that there was a sort of hotel a +little way down the street, where we might dine at two o'clock at the +table d'hote. It was as yet only twelve, so we stumbled into this hotel +to reconnoitre, and a sorry affair it was. The public room was fitted +with rough wooden tables, at which Spaniards, Americans, and Englishmen, +sat and smoked, and drank sangaree, hot punch, or cold grog, as best +suited them, and committed a vast variety of miscellaneous abominations +during their potations. We were about giving up all thoughts of the +place, and had turned to go to the door, when in popped our friend Don +Ricardo. He saw we were somewhat abroad. + +"Gentlemen," said he, "if I may ask, have you any engagement to dinner?" + +"No, we have none." + +"Well, then, will you do me the honour of partaking of my family fare, +at three o'clock? I did not venture to invite you before, because I +knew you had other letters to deliver, and I wished to leave you masters +of your own time." We gladly accepted his kind offer; he had made his +bow, and was cruising amongst the smokers, and punch drinkers, where the +blue coated masters of the English merchantmen and American skippers, +were hobbing and nobbing with the gingham-coated Dons, for the whole +Spanish part of the community were figged out in Glasgow and Paisley +ginghams; when the priest, who had attracted our attention in the +morning, came up to him, and drew him aside. They talked earnestly +together, the clerigo, every now and then, indicating by significant +nods and glances towards us, that we formed the burden of his song, +whatever that might be. Campana seemed exceedingly unwilling to +communicate the message, which we guessed he had been entreated to carry +to us, and made one or two attempts to shove the friar in propria +persona towards us, that he might himself tell his own story. At length +they advanced together to where we stood, when he addressed me. + +"You must pardon me, Lieutenant; but as the proverb hath it, strange +countries, strange manners; my friend here, Padre Carera, brings a +message from El Senor Picador Cangrejo, one of our magnates, that he +will consider it an especial favour if you will can on him, either this +forenoon or tomorrow." + +"Why, who is this Cangrejo, Don Ricardo? if he be not the father of the +poor fellow I mentioned, there must be some mystery about him." + +"No mystery," chimed in the monk; "no mystery, God help us, but mucha, +mucha miseria, hijo mio; much misery, sir, and more impending, and none +to help save only"--He did not finish the sentence, but taking off his +shovel hat, and shewing his finely turned bald head, he looked up to +heaven, and crossed himself, the tears trickling down his wrinkled +cheeks. "But," continued he, "you will come, Mr Cringle?" + +"Certainly," said I, "tomorrow I will call, if my friend Don Ricardo +will be my guide." This being fixed, we strolled about until dinnertime, +friend Aaron making his remarks regarding the people and their domiciles +with great naivety. + +"Strange now, Tom, I had expected to see little else amongst the slave +population here than misery and starvation; whereas, so far as I can +observe, they are all deucedly well cared for, and fat, and contented; +and from the enquiries I was making amongst the captains of the +merchantmen"--("Masters," interjected Captain Transom, "Master of a +merchantman, Captain of a man-of-war.") "Well, captains of +merchantmen,--masters, I mean,--I find that the people whom they employ +are generally free; and, farther, that the slaves are not more than +three to one free person, yet they export a great deal of produce, +Captain Transom--must keep my eyes about me." And so he did, as will be +seen by and by. But the dinner hour drew near, and we repaired to Don +Ricardo's, where we found a party of eight assembled, and our appearance +was the signal for the repast being ordered in. It was laid out in the +entrance hall. The table was of massive mahogany, the chairs of the +same material, with stuffed bottoms, covered with a dingy-coloured +morocco, which might have been red once. But devil a dish of any kind +was on the snow-white table-cloth when we sat down, and our +situations, or the places we were expected to fill at the board, were +only indicated by a large knife and silver fork and spoon laid down for +each person. The company consisted of Don Ricardo Campana, la Senora +Campana, and a brother of hers, two dark young men, who were Don +Ricardo's clerks, and three young women, ladies, or senoras, as I ought +to have called them, who were sitting so far back into the shade, at the +dark end of the room, when we entered, that I could not tell what they +were. Our hostess was, although a little woman, a good looking dark +Spaniard, not very polished, but very kind; and seeing that our friend +Aaron was the most helpless amongst us, she took him under her especial +care, and made many a civil speech to him, although her husband did not +fail to advertise her, that he understood not one word of Spanish, that +is, of all she was saying to him. However, he replied to her kindnesses +by his never-failing exclamation of "mucho, mucho," and they appeared to +be getting on extremely well. "Bring dinner," quoth Don Ricardo, "trae +la comida;" and four black female domestics entered, the first with a +large dish of pillaffe, or fowls smothered in rice and onions; the second +with a nondescript melange, flesh, fish, and fowl apparently, strongly +flavoured with garlic; the third bore a dish of jerked beef, cut into +long shreds, and swimming in seba or lard; and the fourth bore a large +dish full of that indescribable thing known by those who read Don +Quixote, as an olla podrida. The sable handmaidens began to circulate +round the table, and every one helped himself to the dish that he most +fancied. At length they placed them on the board, and brought massive +silver salvers, with snow white bread, twisted into strands in the +baking, like junks of a cable; and water jars, and yams nicely roasted +and wrapped in plantain leaves. These were in like manner handed round, +and then deposited on the table, and the domestics vanished. + +We all got on cheerily enough, and both the Captain and myself were +finishing off with the olla podrida, with which, it so happened, we were +familiar, and friend Bang, taking the time from us, took heart of grace +and straightway followed our example. There was a pause rather an +irksome one from its continuance, so much so indeed, that knocking off +from my more immediate business of gorging the aforesaid olla podrida, I +looked up, and as it so happened, by accident towards our friend Bang +and there he was munching and screwing up his energies to swallow a +large mouthful of the mixture, against which his stomach appeared to +rebel. "Smollet's feast after the manner of the ancients," whispered +Transom. At length he made a vigorous effort and straightway sung out +"l'eau de vie, Don Ricardibus--some brandy, mon ami--for the love of all +the respectable saints in your heathenish calendar." + +Mine host laughed, but the females were most confoundedly posed. The +younger ones ran for aromatic salts, while the lady of the house fetched +some very peculiar distilled waters. She, in her kindness, filled a +glass and helped Bang, but the instant he perceived the flavour, he +thrust it away. + +"Anniseed--damn anniseed--no, no--obliged--mucho, mucho but brandy +plaino, that is simple of itself, if you please--that's it Lord love +you, my dear madam--may you live a thousand years though." + +The pure brandy was administered, and once more the dark beauties +reappeared, the first carrying a bottle of vin-de-grave, the second +one of vino tinto, or claret, and the third one of l'eau de vie, for +Aaron's peculiar use. These were placed before the landlord, who helped +himself to half a pint of claret, which he poured into a large tumbler, +and then putting a drop or two of water into it, tasted it, and sent it +to his wife. In like manner, he gave a smaller quantity to each of the +other Senoras, when the whole female part of the family drank our +healths in a volley. But all this time the devil a thing drinkable was +there before we males, but goblets of pure cold water. Bang's "mucho +mucho" even failed him, for he had only in his modesty got a thimbleful +of brandy to qualify the olla podrida. However, in a twinkling a +beautiful long-necked bottle of claret was planted at each of our right +hands, and of course we lost no time in returning the unlooked-for +civility of the ladies. Until this moment I had not got a proper +glimpse of the three Virgins of the Sun, who were seated at table with +us. They were very pretty Moorish-looking girls, as like as peas, dark +hair, black eyes, clear colourless olive complexion, and no stays; but +young and elastic as their figures were, this was no disadvantage. They +were all three dressed in black silk petticoats, over a sort of cambric +chemise, with large frills hanging down at the bosom, but gown, properly +so called, they had none, their arms being unencumbered with any +clothing heavier than a shoulder-strap. The eldest was a fine full +young woman of about nineteen; the second was more tall and stately, but +slighter; and the youngest, was--oh, she was an angel of light--such +hair, such eyes, and such a mouth; then her neck and bosom when the +wearer is, as in the present case she was, young and beautiful. They +all wore a long plain white gauze strap, like a broad ribbon, (little +Reefpoint afterwards said they wore boat pennants at their mastheads,) I +don't know what Madam Maradon Carson would call it, in their hair, which +fell down from amongst the braids nearly to their heels, and then they +replied in their magnificent language, when casually addressed during +dinner, with so much naivete. We, the males of the party, had drank +little or nothing, a bottle of claret or so apiece, and a dram of +brandy, to qualify a little vin-de-grave that we had flirted with +during dinner, when our landlord rose, along with his brother-in-law, +wished us a good afternoon, and departed to his counting house, saying +he would be back by dark, leaving the Captain and I, and friend Bang, to +amuse the ladies the best way we could, as the clerks had taken wing +along with their master. Don Ricardo's departure seemed to be the +signal for all hands breaking loose, and a regular romping match took +place, the girls producing their guitars, and we were all mighty +frolicsome and happy, when a couple of padres from the convent of La +Merced, in their white flannel gowns, black girdles, and shaven crowns, +suddenly entered the hall. We the foreign part of the society, +calculated on being pulled up by the clerigos, but deuce a bit; on the +contrary, the young females clustered round them, laughing and joking, +while the Senora Campana presented them with goblets of claret, in which +they drank our healths, once and again, and before long they were +gamboling about, all shaven and shorn, like a couple of three-year +olds. Bang had a large share of their assiduity, and to see him +waltzing with a fine active, and what I fancy to be a rarity, a clean +looking priest, with his ever recurring "mucho, mucho," was rather +entertaining. + +The director of the postoffice, and a man who was called the "Corregidor +de Tabaco," literally the "corrector of tobacco," dropped in about this +time, and one or two ladies, relatives of Mrs Campana, and Don Ricardo +returning soon after, we had sweet meats and liqueurs, and coffee, and +chocolate, and a game at monte, and maco, and were, in fact, very happy. +But the happiest day, as well as the most miserable, must have an end, +and the merry party dropped off, one after another, until we were left +all alone with our host's family. Madama soon after took her departure, +wishing us a goodnight. She had no sooner gone, than Bang began to +shoot out his horns a bit. "I say, Tom, ask the Don to let us have a +drop of something hot, will you, a tumbler of hot brandy and water after +the waltzing, eh? I don't see the bedroom candles yet." Nor would he, +if we had sat there till doomsday. Campana seemed to have understood +Bang, the brandy was immediately forthcoming, and we drew in to the +table to enjoy ourselves, Bang waxing talkative. "Now what odd names,-- +why, what a strange office it must be for his Majesty of Spain to employ +at every port a corrector of tobacco; that his liege subjects may not be +imposed on, I suppose--what capital cigars this same corrector must +have, eh?" + +I suppose it is scarcely necessary to mention, that throughout all the +Spanish American possessions, tobacco is a royal monopoly, and that the +officer above alluded to is the functionary who has the management of +it. Don Ricardo, hearing something about cigars, took the hint, and +immediately produced a straw case from his pocket, and handed it to +Bang. + +"Mucho, mucho," quoth Bang; "capital, real Havannah." + +So now, since we had all gotten fairly into the clouds, there was no +saying how long we should have remained in the seventh heaven much would +have depended upon the continuance of the supply of brandy--but two +female slaves presently made their appearance, each carrying a quatre. I +believe I have already described this easily rigged couch somewhere; it +is a hard-wood frame, like what supports the loose top of a laundry +table, with canvass stretched over the top of it, but in such a manner +that it can be folded up flat, and laid against the wall when not in +use, while a bed can be immediately constructed by simply opening it and +stretching the canvass. The handmaidens accordingly set to work to +arrange two beds, or quatres, one on each side of the table where we +were sitting, while Bang sat eyeing them askance, in a kind of +wonderment as to the object of the preparations, which were by no means +new either to the Captain or me, who, looking on them as matters of +course, continued in close confabulation with Don Ricardo during the +operations. + +"I say, Tom," at length quoth Bang, "are you to be laid out on one of +those outlandish pieces of machinery--eh?" + +"Why, I suppose so; and comfortable enough beds they are, I can assure +you." + +"Don't fancy them much, however," said Bang; "rather flimsy the +framework." + +The servants now very unceremoniously, no leave asked, began to clear +away all the glasses and tumblers on the table. + +"Hillo!" said the skipper, casting an enquiring glance at Campana, who, +however, did not return it, but, as a matter of course apparently, rose, +and taking a chair to the other end of the room, close by the door of an +apartment which opened from it, began in cold blood to unlace and +disburden himself of all his apparel, even unto his shirt. + +This surprised us all a good deal, but our wonderment was lost on the +Don, who got up from his seat, and in his linen garment, which was +deucedly laconic, made his formal bow, wished us goodnight, and +presenting the reverse of his medal, which was extremely picturesque, he +vanished through the door. By this, the ebony ladies had cleared the +table of the crystal, and had capped it with a yellow leather mattrass, +with pillows of the same, both embossed with large tufts of red silk; on +this they placed one sheet, and leaving a silver apparatus at the head, +they disappeared--"Buenos noches, senores--las camas estan listas." + +Bang had been unable to speak from excess of astonishment; but the +skipper and I, finding there was no help for it, had followed Campana's +example, and kept pace with him in our peeling, so that by the time he +disappeared, we were ready to topple into our quatres, which we +accordingly did, and by this time we were both at full length, with our +heads cased each in one of Don Ricardo's silk nightcaps, contemplating +Bang's appearance, as he sat in disconsolate mood in his chair at the +head of the table, with the fag-end of a cigar in the corner of his +cheek. + +"Now, Bang," said Transom, "turn in, and let us have a snooze, will ye?" + +Bang did not seem to like it much. + +"Zounds, Transom, did you ever hear of a gentleman being put to bed on a +table? Why, it must be a quiz. Only fancy me dished out and served up +like a great calipi in the shell! However, here goes--But surely this +is in sorry taste; we had our chocolate a couple of hours ago--capital +it was by the by--in vulgar Staffordshire china, and now they give us +silver...." + +"Be decent, Bang," cut in the skipper, who was by this time more than +half asleep. "Be decent, and go to bed--that's a good fellow." + +"Ah, well" Aaron undressed himself, and lay down; and there he was laid +out, with a candle on each side of his head, his red face surmounted by +a redder handkerchief tied round his head, sticking out above the white +sheet; and supported by Captain Transom and myself, one on each side. +All was now quiet. I got up and put out the candles, and as I fell +asleep, I could hear Aaron laughing to himself "Dished, and served up, +deuced like Saint Barts. I was intended for a doctor, Tom, you must +know. I hope the Don is not a medical amateur; I trust he won't have a +touch at me before morning. Rum subject I should make. Possibly he may +want to practice cutting for the stone--he! he!" All was silent for some +time. + +"Hillo--what is that?" said Aaron again, as if suddenly aroused from his +slumbers--"I say, none of your fun, Transom." + +A large bat was flaffing about, and I could hear him occasionally whir +near our faces. + +"Oh, a bat--hate bats--how the skipper snores! I hope there be no +resurrection-men in St Jago, or I shall be stolen away to a certainty +before morning. How should I look as a skeleton in a glass-case, eh?" + +I heard no more, until, it might be, about midnight, when I was +awakened, and frightened out of my wits, by Bang rolling off the table +on to my quatre, which he broke in his fall, and then we both rolled +over and over on the floor. + +"Murder!" roared Bang. "I am bewitched and bedevilled. Murder! a +scorpion has dropped from the roof into my mouth, and stung me on the +nose. Murder! Tom--Tom Cringle--Captain--Transom, my dear fellows, +awake and send for the doctor. Oh my wig--oh dear oh dear." + +At this uproar I could hear Don Ricardo striking a light, and presently +he appeared with a candle in his hand, more than half naked, with la +senora peering through the half-opened door behind him. + +"Ave Maria purissima--what is the matter? Where is el Senior +Bang?" + +"Mucho, mucho," shouted Bang from below the table. "Send for a +doctoribus, Senor Richarsum. I am dead and t'other thing help!--help!" + +"Dios guardo usted," again ejaculated Campana. "What has befallen him?" +addressing the skipper, who was by this time on his head's antipodes in +bed, rubbing his eyes, and in great amazement. + +"Tell him, my dear Transom, that a scorpion fell from the roof, and +stung me on the nose." + +"What says he?" enquired the Spaniard. + +Poor Transom's intellect was at this time none of the clearest, being +more than half asleep, and not quite so sober as a hermit is wont to be; +besides, he must needs speak Spanish, of which he was by no means +master, which led to a very comical blunder. Alacran, in Spanish, means +scorpion, and Cayman, an alligator, not very similar in sound certainly, +but the termination being the same, he selected in the hurry the wrong +phrase. + +"He says," replied Transom in bad Spanish, "that he has swallowed an +alligator, or something of that sort, sir." Then a loud yawn. + +"Swallowed a what?" rejoined Campana, greatly astonished. + +"No, no," snorted the captain--"I am wrong--he says he has been stung by +an alligator." + +"Stung by an alligator!--impossible." + +"Why, then," persisted the skipper, "if he be not stung by an alligator, +or if he has not really swallowed one, at all events an alligator has +either stung or swallowed him--so make the most of it, Don Ricardo." + +"Why this is absurd, with all submission," continued Campana; "how the +deuce could he swallow an alligator, or an alligator get into my house +to annoy him?" + +"D--n it," said Transom, half tipsy and very sleepy, "that's his look +out. You are very unreasonable, Don Ricardo; all that is the affair of +friend Bang and the alligator; my purpose is solely to convey his +meaning faithfully"--a loud snore. + +"Oh," said Campana, laughing, "I see, I see; I left your friend sobre +mesa, [on the table,] but now I see he is sub rosa." + +"Help, good people, help!" roared Bang--"help, or my nose will reach +from this to the Moro Castle--Help!" + +We got him out, and were I to live a thousand years, which would be a +tolerably good spell, I don't think I could forget his appearance. His +nose, usually the smallest article of the kind that I ever saw, was now +swollen as large as my fist, and as purple as a mulberry--the distension +of the skin, from the venomous sting of the reptile--for stung he had +been by a scorpion--made it semi--transparent, so that it looked like a +large blob of currant jelly hung on a peg in the middle of his face, or +a gigantic leech, gorged with blood, giving his visage the semblance of +some grotesque old-fashioned dial, with a fantastic gnomon. + +"A poultice--a poultice--a poultice, good people, or I shall presently +be all nose together,"--and a poultice was promptly manufactured from +mashed pumpkin, and he was put to bed, with his face covered up with it, +as if an Italian artist had been taking a cast of his beauties in +plaster of Paris. + +In the application of this said poultice, however, we had nearly +extinguished poor Aaron amongst us, by suffocating him outright; for the +skipper, who was the operating surgeon in the first instance, with me +for his mate, clapped a whole ladleful over his mouth and nose, which, +besides being scalding hot, sealed those orifices effectually, and +indeed about a couple of tablespoonfuls had actually been forced down +his gullet, notwithstanding his struggles, and exclamations of "Pumpkin +bad--softened with castor oil--d----n it, skipper, you'll choke me" +spurt--sputter--sputter--"choke me, man." + +"Cuidado," said Don Ricardo; "let me manage"--and he got a small tube of +wild cane, which he stuck into Bang's mouth, through a hole in the +poultice-cloth, and set a negro servant to watch that it did not sink +into his gullet, as he fell asleep, and with instructions to take the +poultice off whenever the pain abated; and there he lay on his back, +whistling through this artificial beak, like a sick snipe. + +At length, however, all hands of us seemed to have fallen asleep, but +towards the dawning I was awakened by repeated bursts of suppressed +laughter, and upon looking in the direction from whence the sounds +proceeded, I was surprised beyond all measure to observe Transom in a +corner of the room in his trowsers and shirt, squatted like a tailor on +his hams, with one of the sable damsels on her knees beside him holding +a candle, while his Majesty's Post Captain was plying his needle in a +style and with a dexterity that would have charmed our friend Stultze +exceedingly, and every now and then bending double over his work, and +swinging his body backwards and forwards with the water welling from his +eyes, laughing all the while like to choke himself. As for his bronze +candlestick, I thought she would have expired on the spot, with her +white teeth glancing like ivory, and the tears running down her cheeks, +as she every now and then clapped a handkerchief on her mouth to smother +the uncontrollable uproariousness of her mirth. + +"Why, captain, what spree is this?" said I. + +"Never you mind, but come here. I say, Mr Cringle, do you see him +piping away there"--and there he was, sure enough, still gurgling +through the wild cane--with his black guardian, whose province it was to +have removed the poultice, sound asleep, snoring in the huge chair at +Bang's head, wherein he had established himself, while the candle at his +patient's cheek was flickering in the socket. + +My superior was evidently bent on wickedness. + +"Get up and put on your trowsers, man." + +I did so. + +"Now wait a bit till I cooper him--Here, my darling"--to the sable +virgin who was now on the qui vive, bustling about--"here," said the +captain, sticking out a leg of Bang's trowsers, "hold you there, my +dear." + +She happened to be a native of Haiti, and comprehended his French. + +"Now hold you that, Mr Cringle." + +I took hold of the other leg, and held it in a fitting position, while +Transom deliberately sewed them both up. + +"Now for the coat sleeves" + +We sealed them in a similar manner. + +"So--now for his shirt." + +We sewed up the stem, and then the stern, converting it into an +outlandish-looking pillow-case, and finally both sleeves; and last of +all, we got two live land-crabs from the servants, by dint of +persuasion and a little plata, and clapped one into each stocking foot. + +We then dressed ourselves, and when all was ready, we got a piece of +tape for a landyard, and made one end fast to the handle of a large +earthen water-jar, full to the brim, which we placed on Bangs pillow, +and passed the other end round the neck of the sleeping negro. + +"Now get you to bed," said the captain to the dingy handmaiden, "and +stand by to be off, Mr Cringle." + +He stepped to Don Ricardo's bedroom door, and tapped loudly. + +"Hillo!" quoth the Don. On this hint, like men springing a mine, the +last who leave the sap, we sprang into the street, when the skipper +turned, and taking aim with a large custard apple which he had armed +himself with (I have formerly described this fruit as resembling a +russet bag of cold pudding), he let fly. Spin flew the apple--bash on +the blackamoor's obtuse snout. He started back, and in his terror and +astonishment threw a somersault over the back of his chair--gush poured +the water--smash fell the pipkin--"murder" roared Bang, dashing off the +poultice--cast, with such fury that it lighted in the street--and away +we raced at the top of our speed. + +We ran as fast as our legs could carry us for two hundred yards, and +then turning, walked deliberately home again, as if we had been out +taking a walk in the cool morning air. + +As we approached, we heard the yells of a negro, and Bang high in oath. + +"You black rascal, nothing must serve your turn but practising your John +Canoe tricks upon a gentleman--take that, you villain, as a small +recompense for floating me out of my bed--or rather off the table," and +the ludicrousness of his couch seemed to come over the worthy fellow +once more, and he laughed loud and long--"Poor devil, I hope I have not +hurt you? here, Quashi, there's a pistole, go buy a plaster for your +broken pate." + +By this we had returned in front of the house, and as we ascended the +front stairs, we again heard a loud racketing within; but blackie's +voice was now wanting in the row, wherein the Spaniard and our friend +appeared to be the dramatis personae--and sure enough there was Don +Ricardo and Bang at it, tooth and nail. + +"Allow me to assist you," quoth the Don. + +"Oh no--mucho--mucho," quoth Bang, who was spinning round and round in +his shirt on one leg, trying to thrust his foot into his trowsers; but +the garment was impervious; and after emulating Noblet in a pirouette, +he sat down in despair. We appeared--"Ah, Transom, glad to see you +some evil spirit has bewitched me, I believe--overnight I was stung to +death by a scorpion--half an hour ago I was deluged by an invisible +spirit--and just now when I got up, and began to pull on my stockings, +Lord! a land crab was in the toe part, and see how he has scarified me" +forking up his peg--"I then tried my trowsers," he continued in a most +doleful tone--"and lo! the legs are sealed. And look at my face, saw +you ever such an unfortunate? But the devil take you, Transom, I see +through your tricks now, and will pay you off for this yet, take my word +for it." + +The truth is, that our amigo Aaron had gotten an awful fright on his +first awakening after his cold bath, for he had given the poor black +fellow an ugly blow upon the face, before he had gathered his senses +well about him, and the next moment seeing the blood streaming from his +nose, and mixing with the custard-like pulp of the fruit with which his +face was plastered, he took it into his noodle that he had knocked the +man's brains out. However, we righted the worthy fellow the best way we +could, and shortly afterwards coffee, was brought, and Bang having got +himself shaven and dressed began to forget all his botherations. But +before we left the house, madama, Don Ricardo's better-half, insisted +on anointing his nose with some mixture famous for reptile-bites. His +natural good-breeding made him submit to the application, which was +neither more nor less than an infusion of indigo and ginger, with which +the worthy lady painted our friend's face and muzzle in a most ludicrous +manner--it was heads and tails between him and an ancient Briton. +Reefpoint at this moment appeared at the door with a letter from the +merchant captains, which had been sent down to the corvette, regarding +the time of sailing, and acquainting us when they would be ready. While +Captain Transom was perusing it, Bang was practising Spanish at the +expense of Don Ricardo, whom he had boxed into a corner; but all his +Spanish seemed to be scraps of schoolboy Latin, and I noticed that +Campana had the greatest difficulty in keeping his countenance. At +length Don Ricardo approached us--"Gentlemen, I have laid out a little +plan for the dav; it is my wife's saint's day, and a holyday in the +family, so we propose going to a coffee property of mine about ten miles +from Santiago, and staying till morning--What say you?" + +I chimed in--"I fear, sir, that I shall be unable to accompany you, even +if Captain Transom should be good enough to give me leave, as I have an +errand to do for that unhappy young fellow that we spoke about last +evening--some trinkets which I promised to deliver here they are"--and I +produced the miniature and crucifix. + +Campana winced--"Unpleasant, certainly, Lieutenant"--said he. + +"I know it will be so myself, but I have promised" + +"Then far be it from me to induce you to break your promise," said the +worthy man. "My son," said he, gravely, "the friar you saw yesterday is +confessor to Don Picador Cangrejo's family; his reason for asking to +obtain an interview with you was from its being known that you were +active in capturing the unfortunate men with whom young Federico +Cangrejo, his only son, was leagued. Oh that poor, poor boy! Had you +known him, gentlemen, as I knew him, poor, poor Federico!" + +"He was an awful villain, however, you must allow," said the Captain. + +"Granted in the fullest sense, my dear sir," rejoined Campana; "but we +are all frail, erring creatures, and he was hardly dealt by. He is now +gone to his heavy, heavy account, and I may as well tell you the poor +boy's sad story at once. Had you but seen him in his prattling infancy, +in his sunny boyhood!" + +"He was the only son of a rich old father, an honest worldly man, and of +a most peevish, irascible temper. Poor Federico, and his sister +Francisca, his only sister, were often cruelly used; and his orphan +cousin, my sweet god-daughter, Maria Olivera, their playmate, was, if +any thing, more harshly treated; for although his mother was and is a +most excellent woman, and always stood between them and the old man's +ill temper, yet at the time I speak of she had returned to Spain, where +a long period of ill health detained her for upwards of three years. +Federico by this time was nineteen years of age, tall, handsome, and +accomplished beyond all the youth of his rank and time of life in Cuba: +But you have seen him, gentlemen--in his extremity; it is true--yet, +fallen as he was, I mistake if you thought him a common man or good, or +for evil, my heart told me he would be conspicuous, and I was, alas the +day! too true a prophet. His attachment to his cousin, who, on the death +of her mother, had become an inmate of Don Picador's house, had been +evident to all but the purblind old man for a long time; and when he did +discover it, he imperatively forbade all intercourse between them, as, +forsooth, he had projected a richer match for him, and shut Maria up in +a corner of his large mansion, Federico, haughty and proud, could not +stomach this. He ceased to reside at his father's estate, which had +been confided to his management, and began to frequent the billiard +table, and monte-tables, and taverns, and in a thousand ways gave, from +less to more, such unendurable offence, that his father at length shut +his door against him, and turned him, with twenty doubloons in his +pocket, into the street." + +"Friends interceded, for the feud soon became public, and, amongst +others, I essayed to heal it; and with the fond, although passionate +father, I easily succeeded; but how true it is, 'that evil communication +corrupts good manners!' I found Federico, by this time, linked in bands +of steel with a junto of desperadoes, whose calling was any thing but +equivocal; and implacable to a degree, that, knowing him as I had known +him, I had believed impossible. But, alas, the human heart is indeed +desperately wicked. I struggled long with the excellent Father Carera +to bring about a reconciliation, and thought we had succeeded, as +Federico was induced to return to his father's house once more, and for +many days and weeks we all flattered ourselves that he had reformed; +until one morning, about four months ago, he was discovered coming out +of his cousin's room about the dawning by his father, who immediately +charged him with seducing his ward. High words ensued. Poor Maria +rushed out and threw herself at her uncle's feet. The old man, in a +transport of fury, kicked her on the face as she lay prostrate; +whereupon, God help me, he was felled to the earth by his own flesh, and +bone, and blood--by his abandoned son." + + 'What rein can hold licentious wickedness, + When down the hill he holds his fierce career?' + + +"The rest is soon told;--he joined the pirate vessels at Puerto +Escondido, and, from his daring and reckless intrepidity, soon rose to +command amongst them, and was proceeding in his infernal career, when +the God whom he had so fearfully defied at length sent him to expiate +his crimes on the scaffold." + +"But the priest"--said I, much excited. + +"True," continued Don Ricardo, "Padre Carera brought a joint message +from his poor mother, and sister, and--and, oh my darling god-child, my +heart--dear Maria!". And the kind old man wept bitterly. I was much +moved. + +"Why, Mr Cringle," said Transom, "if you have promised to deliver the +trinkets in propria persona, there's an end, take leave--nothing doing +down yonder--send Tailtackle for clothes. Mr Reefpoint, go to the boat +and send up Tailtackle; so go you must to these unfortunates, and we +shall then start on our cruise to the Coffee Estate with our worthy +host." + +"Why," said Campana; "the family are in the country; they live about +four miles from Santiago, on the very road to my property, and we shall +call on our way; but I don't much admire these interviews there will be +a scene, I fear." + +"Not on my part," said I; "but call I must, for I solemnly promised," +and presented the miniature to Don Ricardo. + +Campana looked at it. It was exquisitely finished, and represented a +most beautiful girl, a dark, large-eyed, sparkling, Spanish beauty. +"Oh, my dear, dear child," murmured Don Ricardo, "how like this was to +what you were; how changed you are now from what it is--alas! alas! But +come, gentlemen, my wife is ready, and my two nieces," the pretty girls +who were of our party the previous evening--"and here are the horses." + +At this moment the little midshipman, Master Reefpoint, a great +favourite of mine, by the by, reappeared, with Tailtackle behind him, +carrying my bundle. I was regularly caught, as the clothes, on the +chance of a lark, had been brought from the ship, although stowed out of +sight under the stern-sheets of the boat. + +"Here are your clothes, Mr Cringle," quoth middy. + +"Devil confound your civility," internally murmured I. + +The captain twigged, and smiled. Upon which little Reefy stole up to me +"Lord, Mr Cringle, could you but get me leave to go, it would be such +a...." + +"Hold your tongue, boy, how can I...." + +Transom struck in--"Master Reefpoint, I see what you are driving at; but +how shall the Firebrand be taken care of when you are away, eh? besides, +you have no clothes, and we shall be away a couple of days most +probably." + +"Oh, yes, sir, I have clothes; I have a hair-brush and a tooth-brush, +and two shirt collars, in my waistcoat pocket." + +"Very well, can we venture to lumber our kind friends with this giant, +Mr Cringle, and can we really leave the ship without him?" Little Reefy +was now all alive. "Tailtackle, go on board--say we shall be back to +dinner the day after tomorrow," said the Captain. + +We now made ready for the start, and certainly the cavalcade was rather +a remarkable one. First, there was an old lumbering family volante, a +sort of gig, with four posts or uprights supporting a canopy covered +with leather, and with a high dash-iron or splashboard in front. There +were curtains depending from this canopy, which on occasion could be let +down, so as to cover in the sides and front. The whole was of the most +clumsy workmanship that can be imagined, and hung by untanned leather +straps in a square wooden frame, from the front of which again protruded +two shafts, straight as Corinthian pillars, and equally substantial, +embracing an uncommonly fine mule, one of the largest and handsomest of +the species which I had seen. The harnessing partook of the same kind +of unwieldy strength and solidity, and was richly embossed with silver +and dirt. Astride on this mulo sat a household negro, with a huge thong +of bullock's hide in one hand, and the reins in the other. In this +voiture were ensconced La Senora Campana, a portly concern, as already +mentioned, two of her bright black-eyed laughing nieces, and Master +Reefpoint, invisible as he lay smothered amongst the ladies, all to his +little glazed cocked hat, and jabbering away in a most unintelligible +fashion, so far as the young ladies, and eke the old one, were +concerned. However, they appeared all mightily tickled by little Reefy, +either mentally or physically, for off they trundled, laughing and +skirting loud above the noise and creaking of the volante. Then came +three small, ambling, stoutish long-tailed ponies, the biggest not +above fourteen hands high; these were the barbs intended for mine host, +the skipper, and myself, caparisoned with high demipique old-fashioned +Spanish saddles, mounted with silver stirrups, and clumsy bridles, with +a ton of rusty iron in each poor brute's mouth for a bit, and curbs like +a piece of our chain cable, all very rich, and, as before mentioned with +regard to the volante, far from clean. Their pace was a fast run, a +compound of walk, trot, and canter, or rather of a trot and a canter, +the latter broken down and frittered away through the instrumentality of +a ferocious Mameluke bit, but as easy as an armchair; and this was, I +speak it feelingly, a great convenience, as a sailor is not a Centaur, +not altogether of a piece with his horse, as it were; yet both Captain +Transom and myself were rather goodish horsemen for nauticals, although +rather apt to go over the bows upon broaching-to suddenly. Don +Ricardo's costume would have been thought a little out of the way in +Leicestershire; most people put on their boots when they do a riding +go, but he chose to mount in shoes and white cotton stockings, and +white jean small-clothes, with a flowing yellow-striped gingham coat, +the skirts of which fluttered in the breeze behind him, his withered +face shaded by a huge Panama hat, and--with enormous silver spurs on his +heels, the rowels two inches in diameter. + +Away lumbered the volante, and away we pranced after it. For the first +two miles the scenery was tame enough; but after that, the gently +swelling eminences on each side of the road rose abruptly into rugged +mountains; and the dell between them, which had hitherto been verdant +with waving guinea grass, became covered with large trees, under the +dark shade of which we lost sight of the sun, and the contrast made +every thing around us for a time almost undistinguishable. The forest +continued to overshadow the high-road for two miles further, only +broken by a small cleared patch now and then, where the sharp-spiked +limestone rocks shot up like minarets, and the fire scathed stumps of +the felled trees stood out amongst the rotten earth in the crevices, +from which, however, sprang yams and cocoas, and peas of all kinds, and +granadillos, and a profusion of herbs and roots, with the greatest +luxuriance. + +At length we came suddenly upon a cleared space; a most beautiful spot +of ground, where, in the centre of a green plot of velvet grass, +intersected with numberless small walks, gravelled from a neighbouring +rivulet, stood a large one-story wooden edifice, built in the form of a +square, with a court-yard in the centre. From the moistness of the +atmosphere, the outside of the unpainted weatherboarding had a green +damp appearance, and so far as the house itself was concerned, there was +an air of great discomfort about the place. A large open balcony ran +round the whole house on the outside; and fronting us there was a clumsy +wooden porch supported on pillars, with the open door yawning behind it. + +The hills on both sides were cleared, and planted with most luxuriant +coffee-bushes, and provision grounds, while the house was shaded by +several splendid star-apple and kennip-trees, and there was a border +of rich flowering shrubs surrounding it on all sides. The hand of woman +had been there! + +A few half-naked negroes were lounging about, and on hearing our +approach they immediately came up and stared wildly at us. + +"All fresh from the ship these," quoth Bang. + +"Can't be," said Transom. "Try and see." + +I spoke some of the commonest Spanish expressions to them, but they +neither understood them, nor could they answer me. But Bang was more +successful in Eboe and Mandingo, both of which he spoke fluently +accomplishments which I ought to have expected, by the by, when I +declared he was little skilled in any tongue but English. + +Large herds of cattle were grazing on the skirts of the wood, and about +one hundred mules were scrambling and picking their food in a rocky +river-course which bisected the valley. The hills, tree-covered, rose +around this solitary residence in all directions, as if it had been +situated in the bottom of a punch-bowl; while a small waterfall, about +thirty feet high, fell so near one of the corners of the building, that +when the wind set that way, as I afterwards found, the spray moistened +my hair through the open window in my sleeping apartment. We proceeded +to the door and dismounted, following the example of our host, and +proceeded to help the gentlewomen to alight from the volante. When we +were all accounted for in the porch, Don Ricardo began to shout, +"Criados, criados, ven aca-pendejos, ven aca!" the call was for some +time unattended to; at length, two tall, good-looking, decently-- +dressed negroes made their appearance, and took charge of our bestias +and carriage; but all this time there was no appearance by any living +creature belonging to the family. + +The dark hall, into which the porch opened was paved with the usual +diamond-shaped bricks or tiles, but was not ceiled, the rafters of the +roof being exposed; there was little or no furniture in it, that we +could see, except a clumsy table in the centre of the room, and one or +two of the leather-backed reclining chairs, such as Whiffle used to +patronize. Several doors opened from this comfortless saloon, which was +innocent of paint, into other apartments, one of which was ajar. + +"Estrailo," murmured Don Ricardo, "muy estrailo!" + +"Coolish reception this, Tom." quoth Aaron Bang. + +"Deucedly so," said the skipper. + +But Campana, hooking his little fat wife under his arm, while we did the +agreeable to the nieces, now addressed himself to enter, with the +constant preliminary ejaculation of all well-bred Spaniards in crossing +a friend's threshold, "Ave Maria purissima," when we were checked by a +loud tearing fit of coughing, which seemed almost to suffocate the +patient, and female voices in great alarm, proceeding from the room +beyond. + +Presently a little anatomy of a man presented himself at the door of the +apartment, wringing his hands, and apparently in great misery. Campana +and his wife, with all the alacrity of kind hearted people, immediately +went up to him, and said something which I did not overhear, but the +poor creature to whom they spoke appeared quite bewildered. "What is +it, Don Picador?" at length we could hear Campana say,--"what is it? Is +it my poor dear Maria who is worse, or what--speak, man--may my wife +enter?" + +"Si, si--yes, yes," said the afflicted Don Picador--"yes, yes, let her +go in--send--for I am unable to think or act--send one of my people back +post to Santiago for the doctor--haste, haste. Sangre--hecha sangre por +la boca." + +"Good God, why did you not say so before?" rejoined Campana. + +Here his wife called loudly to her husband, "Ricardo, Ricardo, por amor +de su alma, manda por el medico, she has burst a blood vessel Maria is +dying!" + +"Let me mount myself; I will go myself."--And the excellent man rushed +for the door, when the poor heart-broken Picador clung to his knees. + +"No, no, don't leave me. Send some one else" + +"Take care, man, let me go" + +Transom and I volunteered in a breath--"No, no, I will go myself," +continued Don Ricardo; "let go, man--God help me, the old creature is +crazed,--el viejo no vale." + +"Here, here! help, Don Ricardo!" cried his wife. + +Off started Transom for the doctor, and into the room rushed Don Picador +and Campana, and, from the sounds in the sick-chamber, all seemed +bustle and confusion; at length the former appeared to be endeavouring +to lift the poor sufferer, so as to enable her to sit up in bed; in the +meantime her coughing had gradually abated into a low suffocating +convulsive gasp. + +"So, so, Ii ft her up, man,' we could hear Campana say; 'lift her up +quick--or she will be suffocated." + +At length, in a moment of great irritation, excited on the one hand by +his intense interest in the poor suffering girl, and anger at the +peevish, helpless Don Picador, Don Ricardo, to our unutterable surprise, +rapped out, in gude broad Scotch, as he brushed away Senor Cangrejo from +the bedside with a violence that spun him out of the door--"God--the +auld doited deevil is as fusionless as a docken." + +My jaw dropped--I was thunderstruck--Bang's eye met mine "Murder!" quoth +Bang, so soon as his astonishment let him collect breath enough, "and +here I have been for two whole days practising Spanish, to my great +improvement no doubt, upon a Scotchman how Edified he must have been!" + +"But the docken, man," said I--"fusionless as a docken--how classic! +what an exclamation to proceed from the mouth of a solemn Don!" + +"No gibes regarding the docken," promptly chimed in Bang; "it is a +highly respectable vegetable, let me tell you, and useful on occasion, +which is more." + +The noise in the room ceased, and presently Campana joined us. "We must +proceed," said he, "it will never do for you to deliver the jewels now, +Mr Cringle; she is too much excited already, even from seeing me." + +But it was more easy to determine on proceeding than to put it in +execution, for a heavy cloud, that had been overhanging the small valley +the whole morning, had by this time spread out and covered the entire +face of nature like a sable pall; the birds of the air flew low, and +seemed perfectly gorged with the superabundance of flies, which were +thickly betaking themselves for shelter under the evergreen leaves of +the bushes. All the winged creation, great and small, were fast +hastening to the cover of the leaves and branches of the trees. The +cattle were speeding to the hollows under the impending rocks; negroes, +men, women, and children, were hurrying with their hoes on their +shoulders past the windows to their huts. Several large bloodhounds had +ventured into the hall, and were crouching with a low whine at our feet. +The huge carrion crows were the only living things which seemed to brave +the approaching chubasco, and were soaring high up in the heavens, +appearing to touch the black agitated fringe of the lowering +thunderclouds. All other kinds of winged creatures, parrots, and +pigeons, and cranes, had vanished by this time under the thickest trees, +and into the deepest coverts, and the wild-ducks were shooting past in +long lines, piercing the thick air with outstretched neck and clanging +wing. + +Suddenly the wind fell, and the sound of the waterfall increased, and +grew rough and loud, and the undefinable rushing noise that precedes a +heavy fall of rain in the tropics, the voice of the wilderness, moaned +through the high woods, until at length the clouds sank upon the valley +in boiling mists, rolling halfway down the surrounding hills; and the +water of the stream, whose scanty rill but an instant before hissed over +the precipice, in a small transparent ribbon of clear glass-green, +sprinkled with white foam, and then threaded its way round the large +rocks in its capacious channel, like a silver eel twisting through a dry +desert, now changed in a moment to a dark turgid chocolate colour; and +even as we stood and looked, lo! a column of water from the mountains +pitched in thunder over the face of the precipice, making the earth +tremble, and driving up from the rugged face of the everlasting rocks in +smoke, and forcing the air into eddies and sudden blasts which tossed +the branches of the trees that overhung it, as they were dimly seen +through clouds of drizzle, as if they had been shaken by a tempest, +although there was not a breath stirring elsewhere out of heaven; while +little wavering spiral wreaths of mist rose up thick from the surface of +the boiling pool at the bottom of the cataract, like miniature water +spouts, until they were dispersed by the agitation of the air above. + +At length the swollen torrent rolled roaring down the narrow valley, +filling the whole water-course, about fifty yards wide, and advancing +with a solid front a fathom high--a fathom deep does not convey the idea +like a stream of lava, or as one may conceive of the Red Sea, when, at +the stretching forth of the hand of the prophet of the Lord, its mighty +waters rolled back and stood heaped up as a wall to the host of Israel. +The channel of the stream, which but a minute before I could have leaped +across, was the next instant filled, and utterly impassable. + +"You can't possibly move," said Don Picador; "you can neither go on nor +retreat; you must stay until the river subsides." And the rain now began +pattering in large drops, like scattering shots preceding an engagement, +on the wooden shingles with which the house was roofed, gradually +increasing to a loud rushing noise, which, as the rooms were not ceiled, +prevented a word being heard. + +Don Ricardo began to fret and fidget most awfully,--"Beginning of the +seasons--why, we may not get away for a week and all the ships will be +kept back in their loading." + +All this time, the poor sufferer's tearing cough was heard in the lulls +of the rain; but it gradually became less and less severe, and the lady +of the house, and Senora Campana, and Don Picador's daughter, at length +slid into the room on tiptoe, leaving one of Don Ricardo's nieces in the +room with the sick person. + +"She is asleep--hush." The weather continued as bad as ever, and we +passed a very comfortless forenoon of it, Picador, Campana, Bang, and +myself, perambulating the large dark hall, while the ladies were +clustered together in a corner with their work. At length the weather +cleared, and I could get a glimpse of mine hostess and her fair +daughter. The former was a very handsome woman, about forty; she was +tall, and finely formed; her ample figure set off by the very simple, +yet, to my taste, very elegant dress formerly described: it was neither +more nor less than the plain black silk petticoat over a chemise, made +full at the bosom, with a great quantity of lace frills; her dark glossy +hair was gathered on the crown of her head in one long braid, twisted +round and round, and rising up like a small turret. Over all she wore a +loose shawl of yellow silk crape. But the daughter, I never shall +forget her! Tall and full, and magnificently shaped--every motion was +instinct with grace. Her beautiful black hair hung a yard down her +back, long and glossy, in three distinct braids, while it was shaded, +Madonna-like, off her high and commanding forehead; her eyebrows--to +use little Reefy's simile--looked as if cut out of a mouse's skin; and +her eyes themselves, large, dark, and soft, yet brilliant and sparkling +at the same time, however contradictory this may, read; her nose was +straight, and her cheeks firm and oval, and her mouth, her full lips, +her ivory teeth, her neck and bosom, were perfect, the latter if any +giving promise of too matronly a womanhood; but at the time I saw her, +nothing could have been more beautiful; and, above all, there was an +inexpressible charm in the clear transparent darkness of her colourless +skin, into which you thought you could look; her shoulders, and the +upper part of her arms, were peculiarly beautiful. Nothing is so +exquisitely lovely as the upper part of a beautiful woman's arm, and yet +we have lived to see this admirable feature shrouded and lost in those +abominable gigots.--Why won't you, Master Kit North, lend a hand, and +originate a crusade against those vile appendages? I will lead into +action if you like--"Woe unto the women that sew pillows to all +armholes," Ezekiel, xiii. 18. May I venture on such a quotation in such +a place?--She was extremely like her brother; and her fine face was +overspread with the pale cast of thought a settled melancholy, like the +shadow of a cloud in a calm day on a summer landscape, mantled over her +fine features; and although she moved with the air of a princess, and +was possessed of that natural politeness which far surpasses all +artificial polish, yet the heaviness of her heart was apparent in every +motion, as well as in all she said. + +Many people labour under an unaccountable delusion, imagining, in their +hallucination, that a Frenchwoman, for instance, or even an Englishwoman +nay, some in their madness have been heard to say that a Scotchwoman +has been known to walk. Egregious errors all! An Irishwoman of the +true Milesian descent can walk a step or two sometimes, but all other +women, fair or brown, short or tall, stout or thin, only stump, shuffle, +jig, or amble--none but a Spaniard can walk. + +Once or twice she tried to enter into conversation with me on +indifferent subjects; but there was a constant tendency to approach +(against her own prearranged determination) the one, all-absorbing one, +the fate of her poor brother. "Oh, had you but known him, Mr Cringle +had you but known him in his boyhood, before bad company had corrupted +him!" exclaimed she, after having asked me if he died penitent and she +turned away and wept. "Francisca," said a low hoarse female voice from +the other room; "Francisca, ven aca, mi querida hermana." The sweet girl +rose, and sped across the floor with the grace of Taglioni, (oh, the +legs Taglionis! as poor dear Bang would have ventured to have said, if +the sylphide had then been known,) and presently returning, whispered +something to her mother, who rose and drew Don Picador aside. The +waspish old man shook himself clear of his wife, as he said with +indecent asperity--"No, no, she will but make a fool of herself." + +His wife drew herself up. + +"She never made a fool of herself, Don Picador, but once; and God +forgive those who were the cause of it. It is not kind of you, it is +not kind." + +"Well, well," rejoined the querulous old man, "do as you will, do as you +will,--always crossing me, always crossing." + +His wife took no farther notice, but stepped across the room to me, +"Our poor dying Maria knows you are here; and probably you are not aware +that he wrote to her after his"--her voice quavered after his +condemnation, the night before he suffered, that you were the only one +who shewed him kindness; and she has also read the newspapers giving an +account of the trial. She wishes to see you will you pleasure her? +Senora Campana has made her acquainted that you are the bearer of some +trinkets belonging to him, from which she infers you witnessed his last +moments, as one of them, she was told, was her picture, poor dear girl; +and she knew that must have grown to his heart till the last. But it +will be too agitating. I will try and dissuade her from the interview +until the doctor comes, at all events.' + +The worthy lady stepped again into Maria's apartment, and I could not +avoid hearing what passed. + +"My dear Maria, Mr Cringle has no objection to wait on you; but after +your severe attack this morning, I don't think it will be wise. Delay +it until Dr Bergara comes--at any rate, until the evening, Maria." + +"Mother," she said, in a weak, plaintive voice, although husky from the +phlegm which was fast coagulating in her throat--"Mother, I already have +ceased to be of this world; I am dying, dearest mother, fast dying; and +oh, thou All-good and All-merciful Being, against whom I have fearfully +sinned, would that the last struggle were now o'er, and that my weary +spirit were released, and my shame hidden in the silent tomb, and my +sufferings and very name forgotten!" She paused and gasped for breath; I +thought it was all over with her; but she rallied again and proceeded +"Time is rapidly ebbing from me, dearest mother,--for mother I must call +you, more than a mother have you been to me--and the ocean of eternity +is opening to my view. If I am to see him at all, I must see him now; I +shall be more agitated by the expectation of the interview than by +seeing him at once. Oh! let me see him now, let me look on one who +witnessed his last moments." + +I could see Senora Cangrejo where she stood. She crossed her hands on +her bosom, and looked up towards heaven, and then turned mournfully +towards me, and beckoned me to approach. I entered the small room, +which had been fitted up by the poor girl with some taste; the furniture +was better than any I had seen in a Spanish house before, and there was +a mat on the floor, and some exquisite miniatures and small landscapes +on the walls. It was her boudoir, opening apparently into a bedroom +beyond. It was lighted by a large open unglazed window, with a row of +wooden balustrades beyond it, forming part of a small balcony. A +Carmelite friar, a venerable old man, with the hot tears fast falling +from his old eyes over his wrinkled cheeks, whom I presently found to be +the excellent Padre Carera, sat in a large chair by the bedside, with a +silver cup in his hand, beside which lay a large crucifix of the same +metal; he had just administered extreme unction, and the viaticum, he +fondly hoped, would prove a passport for his dear child to another and a +better world. As I entered he rose, held out his hand to me, and moved +round to the bottom of the bed. + +The shutters had been opened, and, with a suddenness which no one can +comprehend who has not lived in these climates, the sun now shone +brightly on the flowers and garden plants which grew in a range of pots +on the balcony, and lighted up the pale features of a lovely girl, +lovely even in the jaws of death, as she lay with her face towards the +light, supported in a reclining position on cushions, on a red morocco +mattrass, laid on a sort of frame or bed. + +"Light was her form, and darkly delicate, that brow, whereon her native +sun had sat, but had not marr'd." + +She was tall, so far as I could judge, but oh, how attenuated! Her +lower limbs absolutely made no impression on the mattrass, to which her +frame appeared to cling, giving a ghastly conspicuousness to the +oedematoust swelling of her feet, and to her person, for, alas! She was +in a way to have become a mother. + + The offspring of his wayward youth, + When he betrayed Bianca's truth; + The maid whose folly could confide + In him, who made her not his bride. + +Her hand, grasping her pocket-handkerchief, drenched, alas, with blood, +hung over the side of the bed, thin and pale, with her long taper +fingers as transparent as if they had been fresh cut alabaster, with the +blue veins winding through her wrists, and her bosom wasted and shrunk, +and her neck no thicker than her arm, with the pulsations of the large +arteries as plain and evident as if the skin had been a film, and her +beautiful features, although now sharpened by the near approaching death +agony, her lovely mouth, her straight nose, her arched eyebrows, black, +like pencilled jet lines, and her small ears,--and oh, who can describe +her rich black raven hair, lying combed out, and spread all over the bed +and pillow? She was dressed in a long loose gown of white crape; it +looked like a winding-sheet; but the fire of her eyes--I have purposely +not ventured to describe them--the unearthly brilliancy of her large, +full, swimming eye! + +When I entered, I bowed, and remained standing near the door. She said +something, but in so low a voice that I could not catch the words; and +when I stepped nearer, on purpose to hear more distinctly, all at once +the blood mantled in her cheeks and forehead and throat, like the last +gleam of the setting sun; but it faded as rapidly, and once more she lay +pale as her smock. + + "Yet not such blush, as mounts when health would show, + All the heart's hue in that delightful glow; + But 'twas a hectic tint of secret care, + That for a burning moment fever'd there; + And the wild sparkle of her eye seemd caught + From high, and lighten'd with electric thought; + Though its black orb these long low lashes fringe, + Had temper'd with a melancholy tinge." + +Her voice was becoming more and more weak, she said, so she must be +prompt. "You have some trinkets for me, Mr Cringle?" I presented them. +She kissed the crucifix fervently, and then looked mournfully on her own +miniature. "This was thought like once, Mr Cringle.--Are the newspaper +accounts of his trial correct?" she next asked. I answered, that in the +main facts they were. "And do you believe in the commission of all +these alleged atrocities by him?" I remained silent. "Yes, they are but +too true. Hush, hush," said she "look there." + +I did as she requested. There, glancing bright in the sunshine, a most +beautiful butterfly fluttered in the air, in the very middle of the open +window. When we first saw it, it was flitting gaily and happily amongst +the plants and flowers that were blooming in the balcony, but it +gradually became more and more slow on the wing, and at last poised +itself so unusually steadily for an insect of its class, that even had +Maria not spoken, it would have attracted my attention. Below it, on +the window sill, near the wall, with head erect, and its little basilisk +eyes upturned towards the lovely fly, crouched a camelion lizard; its +beautiful body, when I first looked at it, was a bright sea-green. It +moved into the sunshine, a little away from the shade of the laurel +bush, which grew on the side it first appeared on, and suddenly the back +became transparent amber, the legs and belly continuing green. From its +breast under the chin, it every now and then shot out a semicircular +film of a bright scarlet colour, like a leaf of a tulip stretched +vertically, or the pectoral fin of a fish. + +This was evidently a decoy, and the poor fly was by degrees drawn down +towards it, either under the impression of its being in reality a flower, +or impelled by some impulse which it could not resist. It gradually +fluttered nearer and more near, the reptile remaining all the while +steady as a stone, until it made a sudden spring, and in the next moment +the small meally wings were quivering on each side of the camelion's +tiny jaws. While in the act of gorging its prey, a little fork, like a +wire, was projected from the opposite corner of the window; presently a +small round black snout, with a pair of little fiery blasting eyes, +appeared, and a thin black neck glanced in the sun. The lizard saw it. +I could fancy it trembled. Its body became of a dark blue, then ashy +pale; the imitation of the flower, the gaudy fin was withdrawn, it +appeared to shrink back as far as it could, but it was nailed or +fascinated to the window sill, for its feet did not move. The head of +the snake approached, with its long forked tongue shooting out and +shortening, and with a low hissing noise. By this time about two feet +of its body was visible, lying with its white belly on the wooden beam, +moving forward with a small horizontal wavy motion, the head and six +inches of the neck being a little raised. I shrunk back from the +serpent, but no one else seemed to have any dread of it; indeed, I +afterwards learned, that this kind being good mousers, and otherwise +quite harmless, were, if any thing, encouraged about houses in the +country. I looked again; its open mouth was now within an inch of the +lizard, which by this time seemed utterly paralysed and motionless; the +next instant its head was drawn into the snake's mouth, and by degrees +the whole body disappeared, as the reptile gorged it, and I could +perceive from the lump which gradually moved down the snake's neck, that +it had been sucked into its stomach. Involuntarily I raised my hand, +when the whole suddenly disappeared. + +I turned, I could scarcely tell why, to look at the dying girl. A +transient flush had again lit up her pale wasted face. She was +evidently greatly excited. "Can you read me that riddle, Mr Cringle? +Does no analogy present itself to you between what you have seen, +between the mysterious power possessed by these subtle reptiles, and +Look--look again." + +A large and still more lovely butterfly suddenly rose from beneath where +the snake had vanished, all glittering in the dazzling sunshine, and +after fluttering for a moment, floated steadily up into the air, and +disappeared in the blue sky. My eye followed it as long as it was +visible, and when it once more declined to where we had seen the snake, +I saw a most splendid dragonfly, about three inches long, like a golden +bodkin, with its gauze-like wings moving so quickly, as it hung +steadily poised in mid air, like a hawk preparing to stoop, that the +body seemed to be surrounded by silver tissue, or a bright halo, while +it glanced in the sunbeam. + +"Can you not read it yet, Mr Cringle? can you not read my story in the +fate of the first beautiful fly, and the miserable end of my Federico, +in that of the lizard? And oh, may the last appearance of the ethereal +thing, which but now rose, and melted into the lovely sky, be a true +type of what I shall be! But that poor insect, that remains there +suspended between heaven and earth, shall I say hell, what am I to think +of it?" + +The dragonfly was still there. She continued--"En purgatorio, ah Dios, +tu quedas en purgatorio," as if the fly had represented the unhappy +young pirate's soul in limbo. Oh, let no one smile at the quaintness of +the dying fancy of the poor heart-crushed girl. The weather began to +lower again, the wind came past us moaningly--the sun was obscured +large drops of rain fell heavily into the room--a sudden dazzling flash +of lightning took place, and the dragonfly was no longer there. A long +low wild cry was heard. I started, and my flesh creeped. The cry was +repeated. "Es el--el mismo, y ningun otro. Me venga, Federico; me +venga, mi querido!" shrieked poor Maria, with a supernatural energy, and +with such piercing distinctness that it was heard shrill even above the +rolling thunder. + +I turned to look at Maria--another flash. It glanced on the crucifix +which the old priest had elevated at the foot of the bed, full in her +view. It was nearer, the thunder was louder. "Is that the rain-drops +which are falling heavily on the floor through the open window?" Oh God! +Oh God! it is her warm heart's-blood, which was bubbling from her mouth +like a crimson fountain. Her pale fingers were clasped on her bosom in +the attitude of prayer--a gentle quiver of her frame and the poor broken +hearted girl, and her unborn babe, "sleeped the sleep that knows no +waking." + + + +CHAPTER XIV.--Scenes in Cuba + + + Ariel.--Safely in harbour, + Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where, once, + Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew, + From the still--vexed Bermoothes--there she's hid. + + The Tempest, I. ii 227--29. + + +The spirit had indeed fled--the ethereal essence had departed--and the +poor wasted and blood-stained husk which lay before us, could no longer +be moved by our sorrows, or gratified by our sympathy. Yet I stood +riveted to the spot, until I was aroused by the deep-toned voice of +Padre Carera, who, lifting up his hands towards heaven, addressed the +Almighty in extempore prayer, beseeching his mercy to our erring sister +who had just departed. The unusualness of this startled me.--"As the +tree falls, so must it lie," had been the creed of my forefathers, and +was mine; but now for the first time I heard a clergyman wrestling in +mental agony, and interceding with the God who hath said, "Repent before +the night cometh, in which no man can work," for a sinful creature, +whose worn-out frame was now as a clod of the valley. But I had little +time for consideration, as presently all the negro servants of the +establishment set up a loud howl, as if they had lost their nearest and +dearest. "Oh, our poor dear young mistress is dead! She has gone to +the bosom of the Virgin! She is gone to be happy!"--"Then why the deuce +make such a yelling?" quoth Bang in the other room, when this had been +translated to him. Clad to leave the chamber of death, I entered the +large hall, where I had left our friend. + +"I say, Tom--awful work. Hear how the rain pours, and murder--such a +flash! Why, in Jamaica, we don't startle greatly at lightning, but +absolutely I heard it hiss--there, again"--the noise of the thunder +stopped further colloquy, and the wind now burst down the valley with a +loud roar. + +Don Ricardo joined us. "My good friends--we are in a scrape here--what +is to be done?--a melancholy affair altogether."--Bang's curiosity here +fairly got the better of him. + +"I say, Don Ricardibus--do--beg pardon, though--do give over this +humbugging outlandish lingo of yours--speak like a Christian, in your +mother tongue, and leave off your Spanish, which now, since I know it is +all a bam, seems to sit as strangely on you as my grandmother's toupe +would on Tom Cringle's Mary." + +"Now do pray, Mr Bang," said I, when Don Ricardo broke in "Why, Mr Bang, +I am, as you now know, a Scotchman." + +"How do I know any such thing--that is, for a certainty--while you keep +cruising amongst so many lingoes, as Tom there says?" + +"The docken, man," said I.--Don Ricardo smiled. + +"I am a Scotchman, my dear sir; and the same person who, in his youth, +was neither more nor less than wee Richy Cloche, in the long town of +Kirkaldy, and in his old age Don Ricardo Campana of St Jago de Cuba. +But more of this anon,--at present we are in the house of mourning, and +alas the day! that it should be so." + +By this time the storm had increased most fearfully, and as Don Ricardo, +Aaron, and myself, sat in the dark damp corner of the large gloomy hall, +we could scarcely see each other, for the lightning had now ceased, and +the darkness was so thick, that had it not been for the light from the +large funeral wax tapers, which had been instantly lit upon poor Maria's +death, in the room where she lay, that streamed through the open door, +we should have been unable to see our very fingers before us. + +"What is that?" said Campana; "heard you nothing, gentlemen?" + + "By this the storm grew loud apace, + The water-wraith was shrieking; + And in the scowl of heaven each face, + Grew dark as they were speaking." + +In the lulls of the rain and the blast, the same long low cry was heard +which had startled me by Maria's bedside, and occasioned the sudden and +fatal exertion which had been the cause of the bursting out afresh of +the blood vessel. + +"Why," said I, "it is little more than three o'clock in the afternoon +yet, dark as it is; let us sally out, Mr Bang, for I verify believe that +the hollo we have heard is my Captain's voice, and, if I conjecture +rightly, he must have arrived at the other side of the river, probably +with the Doctor." + +"Why, Tom," quoth Aaron, "it is only three in the afternoon, as you say, +although by the sky I could almost vouch for its being midnight,--but I +don't like that shouting--Did you ever read of a water-kelpie, Don +Richy?" + +"Poo, poo, nonsense," said the Don; "Mr Cringle is, I fear, right +enough." At this moment the wind thundered at the door and window +shutters, and howled amongst the neighbouring trees and round the roof, +as if it would have blown the house down upon our devoted heads. The +cry was again heard, during a momentary pause. + +"Zounds!" said Bang, "it is the skipper's voice, as sure as fate--he +must be in danger--let us go and see, Tom." + +"Take me with you," said Campana,--the foremost always when any good +deed was to be done----and, in place of clapping on his great-coat to +meet the storm, to our unutterable surprise, he began to disrobe +himself, all to his trowsers and large straw hat. He then called one of +the servants, "Trae me un lasso." The lasso, a long thong of plaited +hide, was forthwith brought; he coiled it up in his left hand. "Now, +Pedro," said he to the negro servant who had fetched it, (a tall +strapping fellow,) "you and Caspar follow me. Gentlemen, are you +ready?" Caspar appeared, properly accoutred, with a long pole in one +hand and a thong similar to Don Ricardo's in the other, he as well as +his comrade being stark naked all to their waistcloths. "Ah, well done, +my sons," said Don Ricardo, as both the negroes prepared to follow him. +So off we started to the door, although we heard the tormenta raging +without with appalling fury. Bang undid the latch, and the next moment +he was flat on his back, the large leaf having flown open with +tremendous violence, capsizing him like an infant. + +The Padre from the inner chamber came to our assistance, and by our +joint exertions we at length got the door to again and barricaded, after +which we made our exit from the lee-side of the house by a window. +Under other circumstances, it would have been difficult to refrain from +laughing at the appearance we made. We were all drenched in an instant +after we left the shelter of the house, and there was old Campana, naked +to the waist, with his large sombrero and long pigtail hanging down his +back, like a mandarin of twenty buttons. Next followed his two black +assistants, naked as I have described them, all three with their coils +of rope in their hands, like a hangman and his deputies; then advanced +friend Bang and myself, without our coats or hats, with handkerchiefs +tied round our heads, and our bodies bent down so as to stem the gale as +strongly as we could. + +But the planting attorney, a great schemer, a kind of Will Wimble in his +way, had thought fit, of all things in the world, to bring his umbrella, +which the wind, as might have been expected, reversed most +unceremoniously the moment he attempted to hoist it, and tore it from +the staff, so that, on the impulse of the moment, he had to clutch the +flying red silk and thrust his head through the centre, where the stick +had stood, as if he had been some curious flower. As we turned the +corner of the house, the full force of the storm met us right in the +teeth, when flap flew Don Ricardo's hat past us; but the two blackamoors +had taken the precaution to strap each of theirs down with a strong +grass lanyard. We continued to work to windward, while every now and +then the hollo came past us on the gale louder and louder, until it +guided us to the fording which we had crossed on our first arrival. We +stopped there;--the red torrent was rushing tumultuously past us, but we +saw nothing save a few wet and shivering negroes on the opposite side, +who had sheltered themselves under a cliff, and were busily employed in +attempting to light a fire. The holloing continued. + +"Why, what can be wrong?" at length said Don Ricardo, and he shouted to +the people on the opposite side. + +He might as well have spared his breath, for, although they saw his +gestures and the motion of his lips, they no more heard him than we did +them, as they very considerately in return made mouths at us, bellowing +no doubt that they could not hear us. + +"Don Ricardo--Don Ricardo!" at this crisis sung out Caspar, who had +clambered up the rock, to have a peep about him--"Ave Maria--Alla son +dos pobres, que peresquen pronto, si nosotros no pueden Hydros." + +"Whereabouts?" said Campana--"whereabouts? speak, man, speak." + +"Down in the valley--about a quarter of a league, I see two men on a +large rock, in the middle of the stream; the wind is in that direction, +it must be them we heard." + +"God be gracious to us! true enough--true enough--let us go to them +then, my children." And we again all cantered off after the excellent +Don Ricardo. But before we could reach the spot, we had to make a +detour, and come down upon it from the precipitous brow of the beetling +cliff above, for there was no beach nor shore to the swollen river, +which was here very deep and surged, rushing under the hollow bank with +comparatively little noise, which was the reason why we heard the cries +so distinctly. + +The unfortunates who were in peril, whoever they might be, seemed to +comprehend our motions, for one of them held out a white handkerchief, +which I immediately answered by a similar signal, when the shouting +ceased, until, guided by the negroes, we reached the verge of the cliff, +and looked down from the red crumbling bank on the foaming water, as it +swept past beneath. It was here about thirty yards broad, divided by a +rocky wedge like islet, on which grew a profusion of dark bushes and one +large tree, whose topmost branches were on a level with us where we +stood. This tree was divided, about twelve feet from the root, into two +limbs in the fork of which sat, like a big monkey, no less a personage +than Captain Transom himself, wet and dripping, with his clothes +besmeared with mud, and shivering with cold. At the foot of the tree +sat in rueful mood, a small antique beau of an old man in a coat which +had once been blue silk, wearing breeches, the original colour of which +no man could tell, and without his wig, his clear bald pate shining +amidst the surrounding desolation like an ostrich's egg. Beside these +worthies stood two trembling way-worn mules with drooping heads, their +long ears hanging down most disconsolately. The moment we came in +sight, the skipper hailed us. + +"Why, I am hoarse with bawling, Don Ricardo, but here am I and el Doctor +Pavo Real, in as sorry a plight as any two gentlemen need be. On +attempting the ford two hours ago, blockheads as we were beg pardon, Don +Pavo"--the doctor bowed, and grinned like a baboon--"we had nearly been +drowned; indeed, we should have been drowned entirely, had we not +brought up on this island of Barataria here.--But how is the young lady? +tell me that," said the excellent-hearted fellow, even in the midst of +his own danger. + +"Mind Yourself, my beautiful child," cried Bang. "How are we to get you +on terra firma?" + +"Poo--in the easiest way possible," rejoined he, with true seamanlike +self-possession. "I see you have ropes--Tom Cringle, heave me the end +of the line which Don Ricardo carries, will you?" + +"No, no--I can do that myself," said Don Ricardo, and with a swing he +hove the leathern noose at the skipper, and whipped it over his neck in +a twinkling. The Scotch Spaniard, I saw, was pluming himself on his +skill, but Transom was up to him, for in an instant he dropped out of +it, while in slipping through he let it fall over a broken limb of the +tree. + +"Such an eel--such an eel!" shouted the attendant negroes, both expert +hands with the lasso themselves. + +"Now, Don Ricardo, since I am not to be had, make your end of the thong +fast round that large stone there." Campana did so. "Ah, that will do." +And so saying, the skipper warped himself to the top of the cliff with +great agility. He was no sooner in safety himself, however, than the +idea of having left the poor doctor in peril flashed on him. + +"I must return--I must return! If the river rises, the body will be +drowned out and out." + +And notwithstanding our entreaties, he did return as he came, and +descending the tree, began apparently to argue with the little Medico, +and to endeavour to persuade him to ascend, and make his escape as he +himself had done; but it would not do. Pavo Real--as brave a little man +as ever was seen--made many salaams and obeisances, but move he would +not. He shook his head repeatedly, in a very solemn way, as if he had +said, "My very excellent friends, I am much obliged to you, but it is +impossible; my dignity would be compromised by such a proceeding." + +Presently Transom appeared to wax very emphatic, and pointed to a +pinnacle of limestone rock, which had stood out like a small steeple +above the surface of the flashing, dark red eddies, when we first +arrived on the spot, but now only stopped the water with a loud gurgle, +the top rising and disappearing as the stream surged past, like, buov +jangling in a tideway. The small man still shook his head, but the +water now rose so rapidly, that there was scarcely dry standing room for +the two poor devils of mules, while the doctor and the skipper had the +greatest difficulty in finding a footing for themselves. + +Time and circumstances began to press, and Transom, after, another +unavailing attempt to persuade the doctor, began apparently to rouse +himself, and muster his energies. He first drove the mules forcibly +into the stream at the side opposite where we stood, which was the +deepest water, and least broken by rocks and stones, and we had the +pleasure to see them scramble out safe and sound; he then put his hand +to his mouth, and hailed us to throw him a rope, it was done--he caught +it, and then by a significant gesture to Campana, gave him to understand +that now was the time. The Don, comprehending him, hove his noose with +great precision, right over the little doctor's head, and before he +recovered from his surprise, the captain slipped it under his arms, and +signed to haul taught, while the Medico kicked, and spurred, and backed +like a restive horse. At one and the same moment, Transom made fast a +guy round his waist, and we hoisted away, while he hauled on the other +line, so that we landed the Lilliputian Esculapius safe on the top of +the bank, with the wind nearly out of his body, however, from his +violent exertions, and the running of the noose. + +It was now the work of a moment for the Captain to ascend the tree and +again warp himself ashore, when he set himself to apologize with all his +might and main, pleading strong necessity; and having succeeded in +pacifying the offended dignity of the doctor, we turned towards the +house. + +"Look out there," sung out Campana sharply. + +Time indeed, thought I, for right ahead of us, as if an invisible +gigantic ploughshare had passed over the woods, a valley or chasm was +suddenly opened down the hill-side with a noise like thunder, and +branches and whole limbs of trees were instantly torn away, and +tossed into the air like straws. + +"Down on your noses, my fine fellows," cried the skipper. We were all +flat in an instant except the Medico, the stubborn little brute, who +stood until the tornado reached him, when in a twinkling he was cast on +his back, with a violence sufficient, as I thought, to have driven his +breath for ever and aye out of his body. While we lay we heard all +kinds of things hurtle past us through the air, pieces of timber, +branches of trees, coffee-bushes, and even stones. Presently it lulled +again, and we got on end to look round us. + +"How will the old house stand all this, Don Ricardo?" said the drenched +skipper. He had to shout to be heard. The Don was too busy to answer, +but once more strode on towards the dwelling, as I expected something +even worse than we had experienced to be still awaiting us. By the time +we reached it, it was full of negroes, men, women, and children, whose +huts had already been destroyed, poor, drenched, miserable devils, with +scarcely any clothing and to crown our comfort, we found the roof +leaking in many places. By this time the night began to fall, and our +prospects were far from flattering. The rain had entirely ceased, nor +was there any lightning, but the storm was most tremendous, blowing in +gusts, and veering round from east to north with the speed of thought. +The force of the gale, however, gradually declined, until the wind +subsided altogether, and every thing became quite still. The low +murmured conversation of the poor negroes who environed us, was heard +distinctly; the hard breathing of the sleeping children could even be +distinguished. But I was by no means sure that the hurricane was over, +and Don Ricardo and the rest seemed to think as I did, for there was not +a word interchanged between us for some time. + +"Do you hear that?" at length said Aaron Bang, as a low moaning sound +rose wailing into the night air. It approached and grew louder. + +"The voice of the approaching tempest amongst the higher branches of the +trees," said the Captain. + +The rushing noise overhead increased, but still all was so calm where we +sat, that you could have heard a pin drop. Poo, thought I, it has +passed over us after all--no fear now, when one reflects how completely +sheltered we are. Suddenly, however, the lights in the room where the +body lay were blown out, and the roof groaned and creaked as if it had +been the bulkheads of a ship in a tempestuous sea. + +"We shall have to cut and run from this anchorage presently, after all," +said I; "the house will never hold on till morning." + +The words were scarcely out of my mouth, when, as if a thunderbolt had +struck it, one of the windows in the hall was driven in with a roar, as +if the Falls of Niagara had been pouring overhead, and the tempest +having thus forced an entrance, the roof of that part of the house where +we sat was blown up, as if by gunpowder--ay, in the twinkling of an eye; +and there we were with the bare walls, and the angry heaven overhead, +and the rain descending in bucketfuls. Fortunately, two large joists or +couples, being deeply embedded in the substance of the walls, remained, +when the rafters and ridgepole were torn away, or we must have been +crushed in the ruins. + +There was again a deathlike lull, the wind fell to a small melancholy +sough amongst the tree-tops, and once more, where we sat, there was not +a breath stirring. So complete was the calm now, that after a light had +been struck, and placed on the floor in the middle of the room, showing +the surrounding group of shivering half-naked savages, with fearful +distinctness, the flame shot up straight as an arrow, clear and bright, +although the distant roar of the storm still thundered afar off as it +rushed over the mountain above us. + +This unexpected stillness frightened the women even more than the +fierceness of the gale when at the loudest had done. + +"We must go forth," said Senora Campana; "the elements are only +gathering themselves for a more dreadful hurricane than what we have +already experienced. We must go forth to the little chapel in the wood, +or the next burst may, and will, bury us under the walls;" and she moved +towards Maria's room, where, by this time, lights had again been placed. +"We must move the body," we could hear her say; "we must all proceed to +the chapel; in a few minutes the storm will be raging again louder than +ever." + +"And my wife is very right," said Don Ricardo; "so, Caspar, call the +other people; have some mats, and quatres, and mattresses carried down +to the chapel, and we shall all remove, for, with half of the roof gone, +it is but tempting the Almighty to remain here longer." + +The word was passed, and we were soon under weigh, four negroes leading +the van, carrying the uncoffined body of the poor girl on a sofa; while +two servants, with large splinters of a sort of resinous wood for +flambeaux, walked by the side of it. Next followed the women of the +family, covered up with all the cloaks and spare garments that could be +collected; then came Don Picador Cangrejo, with Ricardo Campana, the +skipper, Aaron Bang, and myself; the procession being closed by the +household negroes, with more lights, which all burned steadily and +clear. + +We descended through a magnificent natural avenue of lofty trees (whose +brown moss-grown trunks and fantastic boughs were strongly lit up by +the blaze of the torches; while the fresh white splinter-marks where +the branches had been tom off by the storm, glanced bright and clear, +and the rain-drops on the dark leaves sparkled like diamonds) towards +the river, along whose brink the brimful red-foaming waters rushed past +us, close by the edge of the path, now ebbing suddenly a foot or so, and +then surging up again beyond their former bounds, as if large stones or +trunks of trees above, were from time to time damming up the troubled +waters, and then giving way. After walking about four hundred yards, we +came to a small but massive chapel, fronting the river, the back part +resting against a rocky bank, with two superb cypress-trees growing, +one on each side of the door; we entered, Padre Carera leading the way. +The whole area of the interior of the building did not exceed a +parallelogram of twenty feet by twelve. At the eastern end, fronting +the door, there was a small altar-piece of hard-wood, richly +ornamented with silver, and one or two bare wooden benches standing on +the tiled floor; but the chief security we had that the building would +withstand the storm, consisted in its having no window or aperture +whatsoever, excepting two small ports, one on each side of the altar +piece, and the door, which was a massive frame of hardwood planking. + +The body was deposited at the foot of the altar, and the ladies, having +been wrapped up in cloaks and blankets, were safely lodged in quatres, +while we, the gentlemen of the comfortless party, seated ourselves, +disconsolately enough, on the wooden benches. + +The door was made fast, after the servants had kindled a blazing wood +fire on the floor; and although the flickering light cast by the wax +tapers in the six large silver candlesticks which were planted beside +the bier, as it blended with the red glare of the fire, and fell strong +on the pale uncovered features of the corpse, and on the anxious faces +of the women, was often startling enough, yet being conscious of a +certain degree of security from the thickness of the walls, we made up +our minds to spend the night where we were, as well as we could. + +"I say, Tom Cringle," said Aaron Bang, "all the females are snug there, +you see; we have a blazing fire on the hearth, and here is some comfort +for we men slaves;" whereupon he produced two bottles of brandy. Don +Ricardo Campana, with whom Bang seemed now to be absolutely in league, +or, in vulgar phrase, as thick as pickpockets, had brought a goblet of +water, and a small silver drinking cup, with him, so we passed the +creature round, and tried all we could to while away the tedious night. +But, as if a sudden thought had struck Aaron, he here tucked the brandy +bottle under his arm, and asking me to carry the vessel with the water, +he advanced, cup in hand, towards the ladies. + +"Now, Tom, interpret carefully." + +"Ahem--Madam and Senoras, this is a heavy night for all of us, but the +chapel is damp--allow me to comfort you." + +"Muchisimos gracias," was the gratifying answer, and Bang accordingly +gave each of our fair friends a heart-warming taste of brandy and +water. There was now calm for a full hour, and the Captain had stepped +out to reconnoitre; on his return he reported that the swollen stream +had very much subsided. + +"Well, we shall get away, I hope, tomorrow morning, after all," +whispered Bang. + +He had scarcely spoken when it began to pelt and rain again, as if a +waterspout had burst overhead, but there was no wind. + +"Come, that is the clearing up of it," said Cloche. + +At this precise moment the priest was sitting with folded arms, beyond +the body, on a stool or trestle, in the alcove or recess where it lay. +Right overhead was one of the small round apertures in the gable of the +chapel, which, opening on the bank, appeared to the eye a round black +spot in the whitewashed wall. The bright wax lights shed a strong +lustre on the worthy Clerigo's figure, face, and fine bald head which +shone like silver, while the deeper light of the embers on the floor was +reflected in ruby tints from the large silver crucifix that hung at his +waist. The rushing of the swollen river prevented me hearing +distinctly, but it occurred to me once or twice, that a strange! +gurgling sound proceeded from the aforesaid round aperture. The Padre +seemed to hear it also, for every now and then he looked up, and once he +rose and peered anxiously through it; but apparently unable to +distinguish any thing, he sat down again. However, my attention, had +been excited, and half asleep as I was, I kept glimmering in the +direction of the Clerigo. + +The Captain's deep snore had gradually lengthened out, so as to vouch +for his forgetfulness, and Bang, Ricardo, Dr Pavo Real, and the ladies, +had all subsided into the most perfect quietude, when I noticed, and I +quaked and trembled like an aspen leaf as I did so, a long black paw, +thrust through, and down from the dark aperture immediately over Padre +Carera's head, which, whatever it was, it appeared to scratch sharply, +and then giving the caput a smart cuff, vanished. The Priest started, +put up his hand, and rubbed his head, but seeing nothing, again leant +back, and was about departing to the land of nod, like the others, once +more. However, in a few minutes, the same paw again protruded, and this +time a peering black snout, with two glancing eyes, was thrust through +the hole after it. The paw kept swinging about like a pendulum for a +few seconds, and was then suddenly thrust into the Padre's open mouth as +he lay back asleep, and again giving him another smart crack, vanished +as before. + +"Hobble, gobble," gurgled the Priest, nearly choked. + +"Ave Maria purissima, que bocado--what a mouthful!--What can that be?" + +This was more than I knew, I must confess, and altogether I was +consumedly puzzled, but, from a disinclination to alarm the women, I +held my tongue. Padre Carera this time moved away to the other side +from beneath the hole, but still within two feet of it--in fact, he +could not get in this direction farther for the altar-piece--and being +still half asleep, he lay back once more against the wall to finish his +nap, taking the precaution, however, to clap on his long shovel hat, +shaped like a small canoe, crosswise, with the peaks standing out from +each side of his head, in place of wearing it fore and aft, as usual. +Well, thought I, a strange party certainly; but drowsiness was fast +settling down on me also, when the same black paw was again thrust +through the hole, and I distinctly heard a nuzzling, whining, short +bark. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, but before I was quite awake, the +head and neck of a large Newfoundland dog was shoved into the chapel +through the round aperture, and making a long stretch, with the black +paws thrust down and resting on the wall, supporting the creature, the +animal suddenly snatched the Padre's hat off his head, and giving it an +angry worry--as much as to say, "Confound it--I had hoped to have had +the head in it"--it dropped it on the floor, and with a loud yell, +Sneezer, my own old dear Sneezer, leaped into the midst of us, +floundering amongst the sleeping women, and kicking the firebrands +about, making them hiss again with the water he shook from his shaggy +coat, and frightening all hands like the very devil. + +"Sneezer, you villain, how came you here!" I exclaimed, in great +amazement--"How came you here, sir?" The dog knew me at once, and when +benches were reared against him, after the women had huddled into a +corner, and every thing was in sad confusion, he ran to me, and leaped +on my neck, gasping and yelping; but finding that I was angry, and in no +mood for toying, he planted himself on end so suddenly, in the middle of +the floor, close by the fire, that all our hands were stayed, and no one +could find in his heart to strike the poor dumb brute, he sat so quiet +and motionless. "Sneezer, my boy, what have you to say--where have you +come from?" He looked in the direction of the door, and then walked +deliberately towards it, and tried to open it with his paws. + +"Now," said the Captain, "that little scamp, who would insist on riding +with me to St Jago, to see, as he said, if he might not be of use in +fetching the surgeon from the ship in case I could not find Dr Bergara, +has come back, although I desired him to stay on board. The puppy must +have returned in his cursed troublesome zeal, for in no other way could +your dog be here. Certainly, however, he did not know that I had fallen +in with Dr Pavo Real;" and the good-natured fellow's heart melted, as +he continued--"Returned--why, he may be drowned--Cringle, take care +little Reefpoint be not drowned." + +Sneezer lowered his black snout, and for a moment poked it into the +white ashes of the fire, and then raising it and stretching his neck +upwards to its full length, he gave a short bark, and then a long loud +howl. + +"My life upon it, the poor boy is gone," said I. + +"But what can we do?" said Don Ricardo; "it is as dark as pitch." + +And we again set ourselves to have a small rally at the brandy and +water, as a resolver of our doubts, whether we should sit still till +daybreak, or sally forth now and run the chance of being drowned, with +but small hope of doing any good; and the old priest having left the +other end of the chapel, where the ladies were once more reposing, now +came to join our council of war, and to have his share of the agua +ardiente. + +The noise of the rain increased, and there was still a little puff of +wind now and then, so that the Padre, taking an alfombra, or small mat, +used to kneel on, and placing it on the step where the folding doors +opened inwards, took a cloak on his shoulders, and sat himself down with +his back against the leaves, to keep them closed, as the lock or bolt +was broken, and was in the act of swigging off his cupful of comfort, +when a strong gust drove the door open, as if the devil himself had +kicked it, capsized the Padre, blew out the lights once more, and +scattered the brands of the fire all about us. Transom and I started +up, the women shrieked; but before we could get the door to again, in +rode little Reefpoint on a mule, with the doctor of the Firebrand behind +him, bound, or lashed, as we call it, to him by a strong thong. The +black servants and the females took them for incarnate fiends, I fancy, +for the yells and shrieks they set up were tremendous. + +"Yo, ho!" sung out little Reefy; "don't be frightened, ladies--Lord love +ye, I am half drowned, and the doctor here is altogether so quite +entirely drowned, I assure you.--I say, Medico, an't it true?" And the +little Irish rogue slewed his head round, and gave the exhausted doctor +a most comical look. + +"Not quite," quoth the doctor, "but deuced near it. I say, Captain, +would you have known us? why, we are dyed chocolate colour, you see, in +that river, flowing not with milk and honey, but with something +miraculously like pea soup, water I cannot call it." + +"But Heaven help us, why did you try the ford, man?" said Bang. + +"You may say that, sir," responded wee Reefy; "but our mule was knocked +up, and it was so dark and tempestuous, that we should have perished by +the road if we had tried back for St Jago; so seeing a light here, the +only indication of a living thing, and the stream looking narrow and +comparatively quiet--confound it, it was all the deeper though--we +shoved across." + +"But, bless me, if you had been thrown in the stream, lashed together as +you are, you would have been drowned to a certainty," said the Captain. + +"Oh," said little Reefy, "the doctor was not on the mule in crossing +no, no, Captain, I knew better--I had him in tow, sir; but after we +crossed he was so faint and chill, that I had to lash myself to him to +keep him from sliding over the animal's counter, and walk he could not." + +"But, Master Reefpoint, why came you back? did I not desire you to +remain on board of the Firebrand, sir?" + +The midshipman looked nonplussed. "Why, Captain, I forgot to take my +clothes with me, and--and--in truth, sir, I thought our surgeon would be +of more use than any outlandish Gallipot that you could carry back." + +The good intentions of the lad saved him farther reproof, although I +could not help smiling at his coming back for his clothes, when his +whole wardrobe on starting was confined to the two false collars and a +toothbrush. + +"But where is the young lady?" said the doctor. + +"Beyond your help, my dear doctor," said the skipper; "she is dead--all +that remains of her you see within that small railing there." + +"Ah, indeed!" quoth the Medico, "poor girl--poor girl--deep decline, +wasted, terribly wasted," said he, as he returned from the railing of +the altar-piece, where he had been to look down upon the body; and +then, as if there never had been such a being as poor Maria Olivera in +existence, he continued, "Pray, Mr Bang, what may you have in that +bottle?" + +"Brandy, to be sure, doctor," said Bang. + +"A thimbleful then, if you please." + +"By all means"--and the planting attorney handed the black bottle to the +surgeon, who applied it to his lips, without more circumlocution. + +"Lord love us!--poisoned--Oh, gemini!" + +"Why, doctor," said Transom, "what has come over you?" + +"Poisoned, Captain--only taste." + +The bottle contained soy. It was some time before we could get the poor +man quieted; and when at length he was stretched along a bench, and the +fire stirred up, and new wood added to it, the fresh air of early +morning began to be scented. At this time we missed Padre Carera, and, +in truth, we all fell fast asleep; but in about an hour or so +afterwards, I was awoke by some one stepping across me. The same cause +had stirred Transom. It was Aaron Bang who had been to look out at the +door. + +"I say, Cringle, look here--the Padre and the servants are digging a +grave close to the chapel--are they going to bury the poor girl so +suddenly?" + +I stepped to the door; the wind had entirely fallen--but it rained very +fast--the small chapel door looked out on the still swollen, but +subsiding river, and beyond that on the mountain, which rose abruptly +from the opposite bank. On the side of the hill facing us was situated +a negro village, of about thirty huts, where lights were already +twinkling, as if the inmates were preparing to go forth to their work. +Far above them, on the ridge, there was a clear cold streak towards the +east, against which the outline of the mountain, and the large trees +which grew on it, were sharply cut out; but overhead, the firmament was +as yet dark and threatening. The morning star had just risen, and was +sparkling bright and clear through the branches of a magnificent tree, +that shot out from the highest part of the hill; it seemed to have +attracted the Captain's attention as well as mine. + +"Were I romantic now, Mr Cringle, I could expatiate on that view. How +cold, and clear, and chaste, every thing looks! The elements have +subsided into a perfect calm, every thing is quiet and still, but there +is no warmth, no comfort in the scene." + +"What a soaking rain!" said Aaron Bang; "why, the drops are as small as +pin points, and so thick!--a Scotch mist is a joke to them. Unusual all +this, Captain. You know our rain in Jamaica usually descends in +bucketfuls, unless it be regularly set in for a week, and them, but then +only, it becomes what in England we are in the habit of calling a +soaking rain. One good thing, however,--while it descends so quietly, +the earth will absorb it all, and that furious river will not continue +swollen." + +"Probably not," said I. + +"Mr Cringle," said the skipper, "do you mark that tree on the ridge of +the mountain, that large tree in such conspicuous relief against the +eastern sky?" + +"I do, Captain. But--heaven help us!--what necromancy is this! It +seems to sink into the mountain-top--why, I only see the uppermost +branches now. It has disappeared, and yet the outline of the hill is as +distinct and well defined as ever; I can even see the cattle on the +ridge, although, they are running about in a very incomprehensible way +certainly." + +"Hush!" said Don Ricardo, "hush!--the Padre is reading the funeral +service in the chapel, preparatory to the body being brought out." + +And so he was. But a low grumbling noise, gradually increasing was now +distinctly audible. The monk hurried on with the prescribed form--he +finished it--and we were about moving the body to carry it forth--Bang +and I being in the very act of stooping down to lift the bier, when the +Captain sung out sharp and quick,--"Here, Tom!" the urgency of the +appeal abolishing the Mister--"Here!--zounds, the whole hill-side is in +motion!" And as he spoke I beheld the negro village, that hung on the +opposite bank, gradually fetch way, houses, trees, and all, with a loud, +harsh, grating sound. + +"God defend us!" I involuntarily exclaimed. + +"Stand clear," shouted the skipper; "the whole hill-side opposite is +under weigh, and we shall be bothered here presently." + +He was right--the entire face of the hill over against us was by this +time in motion, sliding over the substratum of rock like a first rate +gliding along the well-greased ways at launching--an earthy avalanche. +Presently the rough, rattling, and crashing sound, from the disrupture +of the soil, and the breaking of the branches, and tearing up by the +roots of the largest trees, gave warning of some tremendous incident. +The lights in the huts still burned, but houses and all continued to +slide down the declivity; and anon a loud startled exclamation was heard +here and there, and then a pause, but the low mysterious hurtling sound +never ceased. + +At length a loud continuous yell echoed along the hillside. The noise +increased--the rushing sound came stronger and stronger the river rose +higher, and roared louder; it overleaped the lintel of the door--the +fire on the floor hissed for a moment, and then expired in smouldering +wreaths of white smoke--the discoloured torrent gurgled into the chapel, +and reached the altar-piece; and while the cries from the hillside were +highest, and bitterest, and most despairing, it suddenly filled the +chapel to the top of the low doorpost; and although the large tapers +which had been lit near the altar-piece were as yet unextinguished, +like meteors sparkling on a troubled sea, all was misery and +consternation. + +"Have patience, and be composed, now," shouted Don Ricardo. "If it +increases, we can escape through the apertures here, behind the altar +piece, and from thence to the high ground beyond. The heavy rain has +loosened the soil on the opposite bank, and it has slid into the river +course, negro houses and all. But be composed, my dears nothing +supernatural in all this; and rest assured, although the river has +unquestionably been forced from its channel, that there is no danger, if +you will only maintain your self-possession." + +And there we were--an inhabitant of a cold climate cannot go along with +me in the description. We were all alarmed, but we were not chilled +cold is a great daunter of bravery. At New Orleans, the black +regiments, in the heart of the forenoon, were really the most efficient +corps of the army; but in the morning, when the hoarfrost was on the +long wire-grass, they were but as a broken reed. "Him too cold for +brave today," said the sergeant of the grenadier company of the West +India regiment, which was brigaded in the ill-omened advance, when we +attacked New Orleans; but here, having heat, and seeing none of the +women egregiously alarmed, we all took heart of grace, and really there +was no quailing amongst us. + +Senora Campana and her two nieces, Senora Cangrejo and her angelic +daughter, had all betaken themselves to a sort of seat, enclosing the +altar in a semicircle, with the pea soup-coloured water up to their +knees. Not a word--not an exclamation of fear escaped from them, +although the gushing eddies from the open door showed that the soil from +the opposite hill was fast settling down, and usurping the former +channel of the river. + +"All very fine this to read of," at last exclaimed Aaron Bang. "Zounds, +we shall be drowned. Look out, Transom; Tom Cringle, look out; for my +part, I shall dive through the door, and take my chance." + +"No use in that," said Don Ricardo; "the two round openings there at the +west end of the chapel, open on a dry shelf, from which the ground +slopes easily upward to the house; let us put the ladies through them, +and then we males can shift for ourselves as we best may." + +At this moment the water rose so high, that the bier on which the corpse +of poor Maria Olivera lay stark and stiff, was floated off the trestles, +and turning on its edge, after glancing for a moment in the light cast +by the wax tapers, it sank into the thick brown water, and was no more +seen. + +The old priest murmured a prayer, but the effect on us was electric. +"Sauve qui peut" was now the cry; and Sneezer, quite in his element, +began to cruise all about, threatening the tapers with instant +extinction. + +"Ladies, get through the holes," shouted Don Ricardo. "Captain, get you +out first." + +"Can't desert my ship," said the gallant fellow; "the last to quit where +danger is, my dear sir. It is my charter; but, Mr Cringle, go you, and +hand the ladies out." + +"I'll be d----d if I do," said I. "Beg pardon, sir; I simply mean to say, +that I cannot usurp the pas from you." + +"Then," quoth Don Ricardo--a more discreet personage than any one of us +"I will go myself;" and forthwith he screwed himself through one of the +round holes in the wall behind the altar-piece. "Give me out one of +the wax tapers--there is no wind now," said Don Ricardo "and hand out my +wife, Captain Transom." + +"Ave Maria!" said the matron, "I shall never get through that hole." + +"Try, my dear madam," said Bang, for by this time we were all deucedly +alarmed at our situation. "Try, madam;" and we lifted her towards the +hole--fairly entered her into it head foremost, and all was smooth, till +a certain part of the excellent woman's earthly tabernacle stuck fast. + +We could hear her invoking all the saints in the calendar on the +outside to "make her thin;" but the flesh and muscle were obdurate +through she would not go, until--delicacy being now blown to the winds, +Captain Transom placed his shoulder to the old lady's extremity, and +with the regular "Oh, heave oh!" shot her through the aperture into her +husband's arms. The young ladies we ejected much more easily, although +Francesca Cangrejo did stick a little too. The priest was next passed, +then Don Picador; and so we went on, until in rotation we had all made +our exit, and were perched shivering on the high bank. God defend us! +we had not been a minute there when the rushing of the stream increased +the rain once more fell in torrents several large trees came down with +a fearful impetus in the roaring torrent, and struck the corner of the +chapel. It shook--we could see the small cross on the eastern gable +tremble. Another stump surged against it--it gave way--and in a minute +afterwards there was not a vestige remaining of the whole fabric. + +"What a funeral for thee, Maria!" said Don Ricardo. + +Not a vestige of the body was ever found. + +There was nothing now for it. We all stopped, and turned, and looked, +there was not a stone of the building to be seen--all was red +precipitous bank, or dark flowing river--so we turned our steps towards +the house. The sun by this time had risen. We found the northern range +of rooms still entire, so we made the most of it; and, by dint of the +Captain's and my nautical skill, before dinner-time, there was rigged a +canvass jury-roof over the southern part of the fabric, and we were +once-more seated in comparative comfort at our meal. But it was all +melancholy work enough. However, at last we retired to our beds; and +next morning, when I awoke, there was the small stream once more +trickling over the face of the rock, with the slight spray wafting into +my bedroom, a little discoloured certainly, but as quietly as if no +storm had taken place. + +We were kept at Don Picador's for three days, as, from the shooting of +the soil from the opposite hill, the river had been dammed up, and its +channel altered, so that there was no venturing across. Three Negroes +were unfortunately drowned, when the bank shot, as Bang called it. But +the wonder passed away; and by nine o'clock on the fourth morning, when +we mounted our mules to proceed, there was little apparently on the fair +face of nature to mark that such fearful scenes had been. However, when +we did get under weigh, we found that the hurricane had not passed over +us without leaving fearful evidences of its violence. + +We had breakfasted--the women had wept--Don Ricardo had blown his nose-- +Aaron Bang had blundered and fidgeted about and the bestias were at the +door. We embraced the ladies. + +"My son," said Senora Cangrejo, "we shall most likely never meet again. +You have your country to go to--you have a mother. Oh, may she never +suffer the pangs which have wrung my heart But I know--I know that she +never will." I bowed. "We may never indeed, in all likelihood we shall +never meet again!" continued she, in a rich, deep-toned, mellow voice; +"but if your way of life shall ever lead you to Cordova, you will be +sure of having many visitors, and many a door will open to you, if you +will but give out that you have shown kindness to Maria Olivera, or to +any one connected with her." She wept--and bent over me, pressing both +her hands on the crown of my head. "May that great God, who careth not +for rank or station, for nation or for country, bless you, my son--bless +you!" + +All this was sorry work. She kissed me on the forehead, and turned +away. Her daughter was standing close to her, "like Niobe, all tears." +"Farewell, Mr Cringle--may you be happy!" I kissed her hand--she turned +to the Captain. He looked inexpressible things, and taking her hand, +held it to his breast; and then, making a slight genuflection, pressed +it to his lips. He appeared to be amazingly energetic, and she seemed +to struggle to be released. He recovered himself, however--made a +solemn bow----the ladies vanished. We shook hands with old Don Picador, +mounted our mules, and bid a last adieu to the Valley of the Hurricane. + +We ambled along for some time in silence. At length the skipper dropped +astern, until he got alongside of me. "I say, Tom"--I was well aware +that he never called me Tom unless he was fou, or his heart was full, +honest man--"Tom, what think you of Francesca Cangrejo?" + +Oh ho! sits the wind in that quarter? thought I. "Why, I don't know, +Captain--I have seen her to disadvantage--so much misery fine woman +though--rather large to my taste--but...." + +"Confound your buts," quoth the Captain. "But, never mind push on, push +on."--I may tell the gentle reader in his ear, that the worthy fellow, +at the moment when I send this chapter to the press, has his flag, and +that Francesca Cangrejo is no less a personage than his wife. + +However, let us get along. "Doctor Pavo Real," said Don Ricardo,.now +since you have been good enough to spare us a day, let us get the heart +of your secret out of you. Why, you must have been pretty well +frightened on the island there.' + +"Never so much frightened in my life, Don Ricardo; that English captain +is a most tempestuous man--but all has ended well; and after having seen +you to the crossing, I will bid you good-by." + +"Poo--nonsense." "Come along--here is the English Medico, your brother +Esculapius; so, come along, you can return in the morning." "But the +sick folk in Santiago...." + +"Will be none the sicker for your absence, Doctor Pavo Real," responded +Don Ricardo. + +The little Doctor laughed, and away we all cantered--Don Ricardo +leading, followed by his wife and nieces, on three stout mules, sitting, +not on side-saddles, but on a kind of chair, with a foot-board on the +larboard side to support the feet--then followed the two Calens, and +little Reefpoint, while the Captain and I brought up the rear. We had +not proceeded five hundred yards, when we were brought to a stand-still +by a mighty tree, which had been thrown down by the wind fairly across +the road. On the right hand there was a perpendicular rock rising up to +a height of five hundred feet; and on the left an equally precipitous +descent, without either ledge or parapet to prevent one from falling +over. What was to be done? We could not by any exertion of strength +remove the tree; and if we sent back for assistance, it would have been +a work of time. SO we dismounted, got the ladies to alight, and Aaron +Bang, Transom, and myself, like true knights-errant, undertook to ride +the mulos over the stump. + +Aaron Bang led gallantly, and made a deuced good jump of it, Transom +followed, and made not quite so clever an exhibition--I then rattled at +it, and down came mule and rider. However, we were accounted for on the +right side. + +"But what shall become of us?" shouted the English doctor. + +"And as for me, I shall return," said the Spanish Medico. + +"Lord love you, no," said little Reefpoint; "here, lash me to my beast, +and no fear." The doctor made him fast, as desired, round the mule's +neck with a stout thong, and then drove him at the barricade, and over +they came, man and beast, although, to tell the truth, little Reefy +alighted well out on the neck with a hand grasping each ear. However, +he was a gallant little fellow, and in nowise discouraged, so he +undertook to bring over the other quadrupeds; and in little more than a +quarter of an hour we were all under weigh on the opposite side, in full +sail towards Don Ricardo's property. But as we proceeded up the valley, +the destruction caused by the storm became more and more apparent. +Trees were strewn about in, all directions, having been tom up by the +roots--road there was literally none; and by the time we reached the +coffee estate, after a ride, or scramble, more properly speaking, of +three hours, we were all pretty much tired. In some places the road +at the best was but a rocky shelf of Limestone not exceeding twelve +inches in width, where, if you had slipped, down you would have gone a +thousand feet. At this time it was white and clean, as if it had been +newly chiselled, all the soil and sand having been washed away by the +recent heavy rains. + +The situation was beautiful; the house stood on a platform scraped out +of the hillside, with a beautiful view of the whole country down to St +Jago. The accommodation was good; more comforts, more English comforts, +in the mansion than I had yet seen in Cuba; and as it was built of solid +slabs of limestone, and roofed with strong hardwood timbers and rafters, +and tiled, it had sustained comparatively little injury, as it had the +advantage of being at the same time sheltered by the overhanging cliff. +It stood in the middle of a large platform of hard sun-dried clay, +plastered over, and as white as chalk, which extended about forty feet +from the eaves of the house, in every direction, on which the coffee was +cured. This platform was surrounded on all sides by the greenest grass +I had ever seen, and overshadowed, not the house alone, but the whole +level space, by one vast wild fig-tree. + +"I say, Tom, do you see that Scotchman hugging the Creole, eh?" + +"Scotchman!" said I, looking towards Don Ricardo, who certainly did not +appear to be particularly amorous; on the contrary, we had just +alighted, and the worthy man was enacting groom. + +"Yes," continued Bang, "the Scotchman hugging the Creole; look at that +tree--do you see the trunk of it?" + +I did look at it. It was a magnificent cedar, with a tall straight +stem, covered over with a curious sort of fretwork, wove by the branches +of some strong parasitical plant, which had warped itself round and +round it, by numberless snakelike convolutions, as if it had been a +vegetable Laocoon. The tree itself shot up branchless to the uncommon +height of fifty feet; the average girth of the hunk being four-and +twenty feet, or eight-feet in diameter. The leaf of the cedar is +small, not unlike the ash; but when I looked up, I noticed that the +feelers of this ligneous serpent had twisted round the larger boughs, +and blended their broad leaves with those of the tree, so that it looked +like two trees grafted into one; but, as Aaron Bang said, in a very few +years the cedar would entirely disappear, its growth being impeded, its +pith extracted, and its core rotted, by the baleful embraces of the wild +fig, of "this Scotchman hugging the Creole." After we had fairly shaken +into our places, there was every promise of a very pleasant visit. Our +host had a tolerable cellar, and although there was not much of style in +his establishment, still there was a fair allowance of comfort, every +thing considered. The evening after we arrived was most beautiful. The +house, situated on its white plateau of barbicues, as the coffee +platforms are called, where large piles of the berries in their red +cherry like husks had been blackening in the sun the whole forenoon, and +on which a gang of negroes was now employed covering them up with +tarpawlins for the night, stood in the centre of an amphitheatre of +mountains, the front box, as it were, the stage part opening on a bird's +eye-view of the distant town and harbour, with the everlasting ocean +beyond it, the currents and flaws of wind making its surface look like +ice, as we were too distant to discern the heaving of the swell, or the +motion of the billows. The fast falling shades of evening were deepened +by the sombrous shadow of the immense tree overhead, and all down in the +deep valley was now becoming dark and undistinguishable, through the +blue vapours that were gradually floating up towards us. To the left, +on the shoulder of the Horseshoe Hill, the sunbeams still lingered, and +the gigantic shadows of the trees on the right hand prong were strongly +cast across the valley on a red precipitous bank near the top of it. +The sun was descending beyond the wood, flashing through the branches, +as if they had been on fire. He disappeared. It was a most lovely +still evening--the air--but hear the skipper. + + "It is the hour when from the boughs, + The nightingale's high note is heard; + It is the hour when lovers vows, + Seem sweet in every whisper'd word; + And gentle winds and waters near, + Make music to the lonely ear. + Each flower the dews have lightly wet, + And in the sky the stars are met, + And on the wave is deeper blue, + And on the leaf is browner hue, + And in the heaven that clear obscure, + So softly dark, and darkly pure, + Which follows the decline of day, + When twilight melts beneath the moon away." + +"Well recited, skipper," shouted Bang. "Given as the noble poet's +verses should be given. I did not know the extent of your +accomplishments; grown poetical ever since you saw Francesca Cangrejo, +eh?" + +The darkness hid the gallant captain's blushes, if blush he did. + +"I say, Don Ricardo, who are those?"--half-a-dozen well-clad negroes +had approached the house by this time--"Ask them, Mr Bang; take your +friend Mr Cringle for an interpreter." + +"Well, I will. Tom, who are they? Ask them--do." + +I put the question, "Do you belong to the property?" + +The foremost, a handsome Negro answered me, "No, we don't, sir; at +least, not till tomorrow." + +"Not till tomorrow?" + +"No, sir; somos caballeros hoy" (we are gentlemen to-day.) + +"Gentlemen today; and, pray, what shall you be tomorrow?" + +"Esclavos otra ves," (slaves again, sir,) rejoined the poor fellow, +nowise daunted. + +"And you, my darling," said I to a nice well-dressed girl, who seemed +to be the sister of the spokesman, ".what are you today, may I ask?" + +She laughed--"Esclava, a slave to-day, but to-morrow I shall be free." + +"Very strange." + +"Not at all, senor; there are six of us in a family, and one of us is +free each day, all to father there," pointing to an old grey-headed +negro, who stood by, leaning on his staff--"he is free two days in the +week; and as I am going to have a child,"--a cool admission,--"I want to +buy another day for myself too--but Don Ricardo will tell you all about +it." + +The Don by this time chimed in, talking kindly to the poor creatures; +but we had to retire, as dinner was now announced, to which we sat down. + +Don Ricardo had been altogether Spanish in Santiago, because he lived +there amongst Spaniards, and every thing was Spanish about him; so with +the tact of his countrymen he had gradually been merged into the society +in which he moved, and having married a very high caste Spanish lady, he +at length became regularly amalgamated with the community. But here, in +his mountain retreat, sole master, his slaves in attendance on him, he +was once more an Englishman, in externals, as he always was at heart, +and Richie Cloche, from the Lang Toon of Kirkaldy, shone forth in all +his glory as the kind hearted landlord. His head household servant was +an English, or rather a Jamaica negro; his equipment, so far as the +dinner set out was concerned, was pure English; he would not even speak +any thing but English himself. + +The entertainment was exceedingly good,--the only thing that puzzled us +uninitiated subjects, was a fricassee of Macaca worms, that is, the worm +which breeds in the rotten trunk of the cotton-tree, a beautiful little +insect, as big as a miller's thumb, with a white trunk and a black head +in one word, a gigantic caterpillar. + +Bang fed thereon--he had been accustomed to it in Jamaica in some Creole +families where he visited, he said--but it was beyond my compass. +However, all this while we were having a great deal of fun, when Senora +Campana addressed her husband--"My dear, you are now in your English +mood, so I suppose we must go." We had dined at six, and it might now be +about eight. Don Ricardo, with all the complacency in the world, bowed, +as much as to say, you are right, my dear, you may go, when his youngest +niece addressed him. + +"Tio--my uncle," said she, in a low silver-toned voice, "Juana and I +have brought our guitars"-- + +"Not another word to be said," quoth Transom--"the guitars by all +means." + +The girls in an instant, without any preparatory blushing, or other +botheration, rose, slipped their heads and right arms through the black +ribbons that supported their instruments, and stepped into the middle of +the room. + +"The Moorish Maid of Granada," said Senora Campana. They nodded. + +"You shall take Fernando, the sailor's part," said Senora Candalaria, +the youngest sister, to Juana, "for your voice is deeper than mine, and +I shall be Anna." + +"Agreed," said Juana, with a lovely smile, and an arch twinkle of her +eye towards me, and then launched forth in full tide, accompanying her +sweet and mellow voice on that too much neglected instrument, the +guitar. It was a wild, irregular sort of ditty, with one or two +startling arabesque bursts in it. As near as may be, the following +conveys the meaning, but not the poetry. + + The Moorish Maid of Granada + + FERNANDO + + The setting moon hangs over the hill; + On the dark pure breast of the mountain lake + Still trembles her greenish silver wake, + And the blue mist floats over the rill. + And the cold streaks of dawning appear, + Giving token that sunrise is near; + And the fast clearing east is flushing, + And the watery clouds are blushing; + And the day-star is sparkling on high, + Like the fire of my Anna's dark eye. + The ruby-red clouds in the east + Float like islands upon the sea, + When the winds are asleep on its breast; + Ah, would that such calm were for me! + + And see, the first streamer-like ray + From the unrisen god of day, + Is piercing the ruby-red clouds, + Shooting up like golden shrouds: + And like silver gauze falls the shower, + Leaving diamonds on bank, bush, and bower, + Amidst many unopened flower. + Why walks the dark maid of Granada? + + ANNA + + At evening when labour is done, + And cool'd in the sea is the sun; + And the dew sparkles clear on the rose, + And the flowers are beginning to close, + Which at nightfall again in the calm. + + Their incense to God breathe in balm; + And the bat flickers up in the sky, + And the beetle hums moaningly by; + And to rest in the brake speeds the deer, + While the nightingale sings loud and clear. + + Scorched by the heat of the sun's fierce light, + The sweetest flowers are bending most + Upon their slender stems; + More faint are they than if tempest tost, + Till they drink of the sparkling gems + That fall from the eye of night. + + Hark! from lattices guitars are tinkling, + And though in heaven the stars are twinkling, + No tell-tale moon looks over the mountain, + To peer at her pale cold face in the fountain; + And serenader's mellow voice, + Wailing of war, or warbling of love, + Of love, while the melting maid of his choice, + Leans out from her bower above. + + All is soft and yielding towards night, + When blending darkness shrouds all from the sight; + But chaste, chaste, is this cold, pure light, + Sang the Moorish maid of Granada. + +After the song, we all applauded, and the ladies having made their +conges, retired. The Captain and I looked towards Aaron Bang and Don +Ricardo; they were tooth and nail at something which we could not +understand. So we wisely held our tongues. + +"Very strange all this," quoth Bang. + +"Not at all," said Ricardo. "As I tell you, every slave here can have +himself or herself appraised, at any time they may choose, with liberty +to purchase their freedom day by day." + +"But that would be compulsory manunmission," quoth Bang. + +"And if it be," said Ricardo, "what then? The scheme works well here +why should it not do so there--I mean with you, who have so many +advantages over us?" + +This is an unentertaining subject to most people, but having no bias +myself, I have considered it but justice to insert in my log the +following letter, which Bang, honest fellow, addressed to me, some years +after the time I speak of. + + +MY DEAR CRINGLE, + +"Since I last saw you in London, it is nearly, but not quite, three +years ago. I considered at the time we parted, that if I lived at the +rate of L3000 a-year, I was not spending one-half of my average +income, and on the faith of this I did plead guilty to my house in Park +Lane, and a carriage for my wife,----and, in short, I spent my L3000 a +year. Where am I now? In the old shop at Mammee Gully--my two eldest +daughters, little things, in the very middle of their education, hastily +ordered out, shipped as it were, like two bales of goods to Jamaica--my +eldest nephew, whom I had adopted, obliged to exchange from the--Light +Dragoons, and to enter a foot regiment, receiving the difference, which +but cleared him from his mess accounts. But the world says I was +extravagant. Like Timon, however--No, d----n Timon. I spent money when I +thought I had it, and therein I did no more than the Duke of Bedford, or +Lord Grosvenor or many another worthy peer; and now when I no longer +have it, why, I cut my coat by my cloth, have made up my mind to +perpetual banishment here, and I owe no man a farthing." + +But all this is wandering from the subject. We are now asked in direct +terms to free our slaves. I will not even glance at the injustice of +this demand, the horrible infraction of rights that it would lead to; +all this I will leave untouched; but, my dear fellow, were men in your +service or the army to do us justice, each in his small sphere in +England, how much good might you not do us? Officers of rank are, of +all others, the most influential witnesses we could adduce, if they, +like you, have had opportunities of judging for themselves. But I am +rambling from my object. You may remember our escapade into Cuba, a +thousand years ago, when you were a lieutenant of the Firebrand. Well, +you may also remember Don Ricardo's doctrine regarding the gradual +emancipation of the negroes, and how we saw his plan in full operation +at least I did, for you knew little of these matters. Well, last year I +made a note of what then passed, and sent it to an eminent West India +merchant in London, who had it published in the Courier, but it did not +seem to please either one party or the other; a signal proof, one would +have thought, that there was some good in it. At a later period, I +requested the same gentleman to have it published in Blackwood, where it +would at least have had a fair trial on its own merits, but it was +refused insertion. My very worthy friend, who acted for old Kit at that +time as secretary of state for colonial affairs, did not like it, I +presume; it trenched a little, it would seem, on the integrity of his +great question; it approached to something like compulsory manumission, +about which he does rave. Why will he not think on this subject like a +Christian man? The country--I say so--will never sanction the retaining +in bondage of any slave, who is willing to pay his master his fair +appraised value. + +Our friend----injures us, and himself too, a leetle by his ultra +notions. However, hear what I propose, and what, as I have told you +formerly, was published in the Courier by no less a man than Lord----. + +Scheme for the gradual Abolition of Slavery. + +The following scheme of redemption for the slaves in our colonies is +akin to a practice that prevails in some of the Spanish settlements. + +We have now bishops, (a most excellent measure,) and we may presume that +the inferior clergy will be much more efficient than heretofore. It is +therefore proposed,--That every slave, on attaining the age of twenty +one years, should be, by act of Parliament, competent to apply to his +parish clergyman, and signify his desire to be appraised. The +clergyman's business would then be to select two respectable appraisers +from amongst his parishioners, who should value the slave, calling in an +umpire if they disagreed. + +As men even of good principles will often be more or less swayed by the +peculiar interests of the body to which they belong, the rector should +be instructed, if he saw any flagrant swerving from an honest +appraisement, to notify the same to his bishop, who, by application to +the governor, if need were, could thereby rectify it. When the slave +was thus valued, the valuation should be registered by the rector, in a +book to be kept for that purpose, an attested copy of which should be +annually lodged amongst the archives of the colony. + +We shall assume a case, where a slave is valued for L120, Jamaica +currency. He soon, by working by-hours, selling the produce of his +provision grounds, etc. Acquires L20; and how easily and frequently +this is done, every one knows, who is at all acquainted with West India +affairs. + +He then shall have a right to pay to his owner this L20 as the price of +his Monday for ever, and his owner shall be bound to receive it. A +similar sum would purchase him his freedom on Tuesday; and other four +instalments, to use a West India phrase, would buy him free altogether. +You will notice, I consider that he is already free on the Sunday. Now, +where is the insurmountable difficulty here? The planter may be put to +inconvenience, certainly, great inconvenience, but he has compensation, +and the slave has his freedom--if he deserves it; and as his +emancipation in nine cases out of ten would be a work of time, he would, +as he approached absolute freedom, become more civilized, that is, more +fit to be free; and as he became more civilized, new wants would spring +up, so that when he was finally free, he would not be content to work a +day or two in the week for subsistence merely. He would work the whole +six to buy many little comforts, which, as a slave suddenly emancipated, +he never would have thought of. + +As the slave becomes free, I would have his owner's allowance of +provisions and clothing decrease gradually. + +It may be objected--suppose slaves partly free, to be taken in +execution, and sold for debt. I answer, let them be so. Why cannot +three days of a man's labour be sold by the deputy marshal as well as +six? + +Again--Suppose the gang is mortgaged, or liable to judgments against the +owner of it. I still answer, let it be so--only, in this case let the +slave pay his instalments into court, in place of paying them to his +owners, and let him apply to his rector for information in such a case. + +By the register I would have kept, every one could at once see what +property an owner had in his gang--that is, how many were actually +slaves, and how many were in progress of becoming free. Thus well +disposed and industrious slaves would soon become freemen. But the idle +and worthless would still continue slaves, and why the devil shouldn't +they? + +(Signed) A. B----. + + +There does seem to be a rough, yet vigorous sound sense in all this. +But I take leave of the subject, which I do not profess to understand; +only I am willing to bear witness in favour of my old friends, so far as +I can, conscientiously. + +We returned next day to Santiago, and had then to undergo the bitterness +of parting. With me it was a slight affair, but the skipper! However, I +will not dwell on it. We reached the town towards evening. The women +were ready to weep, I saw; but we all turned in, and next morning at +breakfast we were moved, I will admit--some more, some less. Little +Reefy, poor fellow, was crying like a child; indeed he was little more, +being barely fifteen. + +"Oh! Mr Cringle, I wish I had never seen Miss Candalaria de los +Dolores; indeed I do." + +This was Don Ricardo's youngest niece. + +"Ah, Reefy, Reefy," said I, "you must make haste, and be made post, and +then...." + +"What does he call her?" said Aaron. + +"Senora Tomassa Candalaria de los Dolores Gonzales y Vallejo," blubbered +out little Reefy. + +"What a complicated piece of machinery she must be!" gravely rejoined +Bang. + +The meal was protracted to a very unusual length, but time and tide wait +for no man. We rose. Aaron Bang advanced to make his bow to our kind +hostess; he held out his hand, but she, to Aaron's great surprise +apparently, pushed it on one side and regularly closing with our friend, +hugged him in right earnest. I have before mentioned that she was a very +small woman; so, as the devil would have it, the golden pin in her hair +was thrust into Aaron's eye, which made him jump back, wherein he lost +his balance, and away he went, dragging Madama Campana down on the top +of him. However, none of us could--laugh now; we parted, jumped into +our boat, and proceeded straight to the anchorage, where three British +merchantmen were by this time riding all ready for sea. We got on +board. "Mr Yerk," said the Captain, "fire a gun, and hoist blue Peter +at the fore. Loose the foretopsail." The masters came on board for +their instructions; we passed but a melancholy evening of it, and next +morning I took my last look of Santiago de Cuba. + + + +CHAPTER XV.--The Cruise of the Wave. The Action with the Slaver. + + + 'O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, + Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free, + Far as the breeze can bear the billow's foam, + Survey our empire, and behold our home. + These are our realms, no limits to their sway. + Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey.' + + Byron, The Corsair, I. 1-6. + + +At three o'clock next morning, about an hour and a half before daydawn, +I was roused from my cot by the gruff voice of the boatswain on deck +"All hands up anchor." + +The next moment the gunroom steward entered with a lantern, which he +placed on the table--"Gentlemen, all hands up anchor, if you please." + +"Botheration!" grumbled one. + +"Oh dear!" yawned another. + +"How merrily we live that sailors be!" sung another in a most doleful +strain, and in all the bitterness of heart consequent on being roused +out of a warm nest so unceremoniously. But no help for it; so up we all +got, and opening the door of my berth, I got out, and sat me down on the +bench that ran along the starboard side of the table. + +For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me describe a gunroom on board +of a sloop of war. Everybody knows that the Captain's cabin occupies +the after part of the ship; next to it, on the same deck, is the +gunroom. In a corvette, such as the Firebrand, it is a room, as, near +as may be, twenty feet long by twelve wide, and lighted by a long +scuttle, or skylight, in the deck above. On each side of this room runs +a row of small chambers, seven feet long by six feet wide, boarded off +from the main saloon, or, in nautical phrase, separated from it by +bulkheads, each with a door and small window opening into the same, and, +generally speaking, with a small scuttle in the side of the ship towards +the sea. These are the officers' sleeping apartments, in which they +have each a chest of drawers and basin-stand; while overhead is +suspended a cot, or hammock, kept asunder by a wooden frame, six feet +long by about two broad, slung from cleats nailed to the beams above, by +two lanyards fastened to rings, one at the head, and the other at the +foot; from which radiate a number of smaller cords, which are fastened +to the canvass of the cot; while a small strip of canvass runs from head +to foot on each side, so as to prevent the sleeper from rolling out. +The dimensions of the gunroom are, as will be seen, very much +circumscribed by the side berths; and when you take into account, that +the centre is occupied by a long table, running the whole length of the +room, flanked by a wooden bench, with a high back to it, on each side, +and a large clumsy chair at the head, and another at the foot, not +forgetting the sideboard at the head of the table, (full of knives, +forks, spoons, tumblers, glasses &c. &c. &c. stuck into mahogany +sockets,) all of which are made fast to the deck by strong cleats and +staples, and bands of spunyarn, so as to prevent them fetching way, or +moving, when the vessel pitches or rolls, you will understand that there +is no great scope to expatiate upon, free of the table, benches, and +bulkheads of the cabins. While I sat monopolizing the full light of the +lantern, and accoutring myself as decently as the hurry would admit of, +I noticed the officers, in their nightgowns and night-caps, as they +extricated themselves from their coops; and picturesque-looking +subjects enough there were amongst them, in all conscience. At length, +that is in about ten minutes from the time we were called, we were all +at stations--a gun was fired, and we weighed, and then stood out to sea, +running along about four knots, with the land--wind right aft. Having +made an offing of three miles or so, we outran the terral, and got +becalmed in the belt of smooth water between it and the sea-breeze. It +was striking to see the three merchant-ships gradually draw out from +the land, until we were all clustered together in a bunch, with a half a +gale of wind curling the blue waves within musket-shot, while all was +long swell and smooth water with us. At length the breeze reached us, +and we made sail with our convoy to the southward and eastward, the +lumbering merchantmen crowding every inch of canvass, while we could +hardly keep astern, under close-reefed topsails, foresail, jib, and +spanker. + +"Pipe to breakfast," said the Captain to Mr Yerk. + +"A sail abeam of us to windward!" + +"What is she?" sung out the skipper to the man at the masthead who had +hailed. + +"A small schooner, sir; she has fired a gun, and hoisted an ensign and +pennant." + +"How is she steering?" + +"She has edged away for us, sir." + +"Very well.--Mr Yerk, make the signal for the convoy to stand on." Then +to the boatswain-- + +"Mr Catwell, have the men gone to breakfast?" + +"No, sir, but they are just going." + +"Then pipe belay with breakfast for a minute, will you? All hands make +sail!" + +"Crack on, Mr Yerk, and let us overhaul this small swaggerer." + +In a trice we had all sail set, and were staggering along on the +larboard tack, close upon a wind. We hauled out from the merchant ships +like smoke, and presently the schooner was seen from the deck.--"Go to +breakfast now." The crew disappeared, all to the officers, man at the +helm, quartermaster at the conn, and signalman. + +The first lieutenant had the book open on the drum of the capstan before +him. "Make our number," said the Captain. It was done. "What does she +answer?" + +The signalman answered from the fore-rigging, where he had perched +himself with his glass--"She makes the signal to telegraph, sir--3, 9, +2, at the fore, sir"--and so on; which translated was simply this--"The +Wave, with despatches from the admiral." + +"Oh, ho," said Transom; "what is she sent for? Whenever the people have +got their breakfast, tack, and stand towards her, Mr Yerk." + +The little vessel approached.--"Shorten sail, Mr Yerk, and heave the +ship to," said the Captain to the first lieutenant. + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"All hands, Mr Catwell." + +Presently the boatswain's whistle rung sharp and clear, while his gruff +voice, to which his mates bore any thing but mellow burdens, echoed +through the ship--"All hands shorten sail-fore and mainsails haul +up-haul down to jib--in topgallant sails--now back the main-topsail." + +By heaving-to, we brought the Wave on our weather bow. She was now +within a cable's length of the corvette; the captain was standing on the +second foremost, gun, on the larboard side. "Mafame," to his steward, +"hand me up my trumpet." He hailed the little vessel "Ho, the Wave, +ahoy!" + +Presently the responding "hillo" came down the wind to us from the +officer in command of her, like an echo--"Run under our stern and heave +to, to leeward." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +As the Wave came to the wind, she lowered down her boat, and Mr +Jigmaree, the boatswain of the dockyard in Jamaica, came on board, and, +touching his hat, presented his despatches to the Captain. Presently he +and the skipper retired into the cabin, and all hands were inspecting +the Wave in her new character of one of his Britannic Majesty's +cruisers. When I had last seen her she was a most beautiful little +craft, both in hull and rigging, as ever delighted the eye of a sailor; +but the dockyard riggers and carpenters had fairly bedeviled her, at +least so far as appearances went. First, they had replaced the light +rail on her gunwale, by heavy solid bulwarks four feet high, surmounted +by hammock nettings, at least another foot, so that the symmetrical +little vessel, that formerly floated on the foam light as a seagull, now +looked like a clumsy dish-shaped Dutch dogger. Her long slender wands +of masts, which used to swig about, as if there were neither shrouds nor +stays to support them, were now as taut and stiff as church steeples, +with four heavy shrouds of a side, and stays and back-stays, and the +Devil knows what all. + +"Now," quoth Tailtackle, "if them heave'em taughts at the yard have not +taken the speed out of the little beauty, I am a Dutchman." Timotheus, I +may state in the bygoing, was not a Dutchman; he was fundamentally any +thing but a Dutchman; but his opinion was sound, and soon verified to my +cost. Jigmaree now approached. + +"The Captain wants you in the cabin, sir," said he. +I descended, and found the skipper seated at a table with his clerk +beside him, and several open letters lying before him. "Sit down, Mr +Cringle." I took a chair. "There--read that," and he threw an open +letter across the table to me, which ran as follows: + +SIR, + +"The Vice--Admiral, commanding on the Jamaica station, desires me to +say, that the bearer, the boatswain of the dockyard, Mr Luke Jigmaree, +has instructions to cruise for, and if possible to fall in with you, +before you weather Cape Maize, and falling in with you, to deliver up +charge of the vessel to you, as well as of the five negroes, and the +pilot, Peter Mangrove, who are on board of her. The Wave having been +armed and fitted with every thing considered necessary, you are to man +her with thirty-five of your crew, including officers, and to place her +under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Cringle, who is to be furnished +with a copy of this letter authenticated by your signature, and to whom +you will give written instructions, that he is first of all to cruise in +the great Cuba channel, until the 14th proximo, for the prevention of +piracy, and the suppression of the slave-trade carried on between the +island of Cuba and the coast of Africa, and to detain and carry into +Havanna, or Nassau, New Providence, all vessels having slaves on board, +which he may have reason to believe have been shipped beyond the +prescribed limits on the African coast as specified in the margin; and +after the 14th he is to proceed direct to New Providence if +unsuccessful, there to land Mr Jigmaree, and the dockyard negroes, and +await your return from the northward, after having seen the merchantmen +clear of the Caicos passage. When you have rejoined the Wave at Nassau, +you are to proceed with her as your tender to Crooked Island, and there +to await instructions from the Vice-Admiral, which shall be transmitted +by the packet to sail on the 9th proximo, to the care of the +postmaster. I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant." + +--------, Sec. + + +To the Hon. Captain Transom, etc. + + +To say sooth, I was by no means amorous of this independent command, as +an idea had, at the time I speak of, gone abroad in the navy, the +lieutenants, commanding small vessels, seldom rose higher, unless +through extraordinary interest, and I took the liberty of stating my +repugnance to my captain. + +He smiled, and threw over another letter to me; it was a private one +from the Admiral's Secretary, and was as follows:(Confidential.) + +My DEAR TRANSOM, + +"The Vice Admiral has got a hint from Sir----, to kick that wild splice, +young Cringle, about a bit. It seems he is a nephew of Old Blueblazes, +and as he has taken a fancy to the lad, he has promised his mother that +he will do his utmost to give him opportunities of being knocked on the +head, for all of which the old lady has professed herself wonderfully +indebted. As the puppy has peculiar notions, hint, directly or +indirectly, that he is not to be permanently bolted down to the little +and that if half a dozen skippers (you, my darling, among the rest) were +to evaporate during the approaching hot months, he may have some small +chance of t'other swab. Write me, and mind the claret and curacoa. Put +no address on either; and on coming to anchor, send notice to old +Peterkin in the lodge at the Master Attendant's, and he will relieve you +and the pies de gallo, some calm evening, of all farther trouble +regarding them. Don't forget the turtle from Crooked Island, and the +cigars." + +"Always, my dear Transom," + +"Yours sincerely," + +"Oh, I forgot. The Admiral begs you will spare him some steady old +hands to act as gunner, boatswain, &c.--elderly men, if you please, who +will shorten sail before the squall strikes him. If you float him away +with a crew of boys, the little scamp will get bothered, or capsized, in +a jiffy. All this for your worship's government. How do you live with +your passenger--prime follow, an't he? My love to him. Lady----is +dying to see him again." + +"WELL, MR CRINGLE, what say you?" + +"Of course, I must obey, sir;--highly flattered by Mr Secretary's good +opinion, any how." + +The Captain laughed heartily. + +"It is nearly calm, I see. We must set about manning this seventy four +for you, without delay. So, come along, Captain Cringle." + +When we got on deck,--"Hail the Wave to close, Mr Yerk," said Transom. +"Lower away the boat, and pipe away the yaulers, boatswain's mate." + +Presently the Captain and I were on the Wave's deck, where I was much +surprised to find no less personages than Pepperpot Wagtail, and Paul +Gelid, Esquires. Mr Gelid, a conch, or native of the Bahamas, was the +same yawning, drawling, long-legged Creole as ever. He had been ill +with fever, and had asked a passage to Nassau, where his brother was +established. At bottom, however, he was an excellent fellow, warm +hearted, honourable, and upright. As for little Wagtail--oh, he was a +delight!--a small round man, with all the Jamaica Creole irritability of +temper, but also all the Jamaica warmth of heart about him +straightforward, and scrupulously conscientious in his dealings, but +devoted to good cheer in every shape. He had also been ailing, and had +adventured on the cruise in order to recruit. I scarcely know how to +describe his figure better than by comparing his corpus to an egg, with +his little feet stuck through the bottom of the shell; but he was +amazingly active withal. + +Both the Captain and myself were rejoiced to see our old friends; and it +was immediately fixed that they should go on board the corvette, and +sling their cots alongside of Mr Bang, so long as the courses--of the +two vessels lay together. This being carried into execution, we set +about our arrangements. Our precious blockheads at the dockyard had +fitted a thirty-two pound carronade on the pivot, and stuck two long +sixes, one on each side of the little vessel. I hate carronades. I had, +before now, seen thirty-two pound shot thrown by them jump off a ship's +side with a rebound like a football, when a shot from an eighteen-- +pounder long gun went crash, at the same range, through both sides of +the ship, whipping off a leg and arm, or aiblins a head or two, in its +transit. + +"My dear sir," said I, "don't shove me adrift with that old pot there +do lend me one of your long brass eighteen-pounders." + +"Why, Master Cringle, what is your antipathy to carronades?" + +"I have no absolute antipathy to them, sir--they are all very well in +their way. For instance, I wish you would fit me with two twelvepound +carronades instead of those two popgun long sixes. These, with thirty +muskets, and thirty-five men or so, would make me very complete." + +"A modest request," said Captain Transom. + +"Now, Tom Cringle, you have overshot your mark, my fine fellow," thought +I; but it was all right, and that forenoon the cutter was hoisted out +with the guns in her, and the others dismounted and sent back in +exchange; and in fine, after three days' hard work, I took the command +of H.B.M. schooner, Wave, with Timothy Tailtackle as gunner, the senior +midshipman as master, one of the carpenter's crew as carpenter, and a +boatswain's-mate as boatswain, a surgeon's mate as surgeon, the +captain's clerk as purser, and thirty foremast-men, besides the +blackies, as the crew. But the sailing of the little beauty had been +regularly spoiled. We could still in light winds weather on' the +corvette, it is true, but then she was a slow top, unless it blew half a +gale of wind; and as for going any thing free, why a sand barge would +have beaten us.--We kept company with the Firebrand until we weathered +Cape Maize. It was near five o'clock in the afternoon, the corvette was +about half a mile on our lee-bow, when, while walking the deck, after +an early dinner, Tailtackle came up to me. + +"The Commodore has hove-to, sir." + +"Very like," said I; "to allow the merchant-ships to close, I presume." + +"A gun," said little Reefpoint. "Ah--what signal now?"--It was +the signal to close. + +"Put the helm up and run down to him," said I. It was done--and +presently the comfortable feeling of bowling along before the breeze, +succeeded the sharp yerking digging motion of the little vessel, tearing +and pitching through a head sea, close upon a wind. The water was +buzzing under our bows, and we were once more close under the stern of +the corvette. There was a boat alongside ready manned. The Captain +hailed, "I sent your orders on board, Mr Cringle, to bear up on your +separate cruise." At the same moment, the Firebrand's ensign and pennant +were hoisted--we did the same--a gun from the Commodore--ditto from the +tidy little Wave--and lo! Thomas Cringle, esquire, launched for the +first time on his own bottom. + +By this time the boat was alongside, with Messieurs Aaron Bang, +Pepperpot Wagtail, and Paul Gelid--the former with his cot, and half a +dozen cases of wine, and some pigs, and some poultry, all under the +charge of his black servant. + +"Hillo," said I--"Mr Wagtail is at home here, you know, Mr Bang, and so +is Mr Gelid; but to what lucky chance am I indebted for your society, my +dear sir?" + +"Thank your stars, Tom--Captain Cringle, I beg pardon--and be grateful; +I am sick of rumbling tumbling in company with these heavy tools of +merchantmen, so I entreated Transom to let me go and take a turn with +you, promising to join the Firebrand again at Nassau." + +"Why, I am delighted,"--and so I really was. "But, my dear sir--I may +lead you a dance, and, peradventure into trouble--a small vessel may +catch a Tartar, you know. + +"D--n the expense," rejoined my jovial ally; "why, the hot little +epicurean Wagtail, and Gelid, cold and frozen as he is, have both taken +a fancy to me--and no wonder, knowing my pleasant qualities as they do +ahem; so, for their sakes, I volunteer on this piece of knight-errantry +as much as'-- + +"Poo--you be starved, Aaron dear," rapped out little Wagtail; "you came +here, because you thought you should have more fun, and escape the +formality of the big ship, and eke the Captain's sour claret." + +"Ah," said Gelid, "my fine fellow," with his usual Creole drawl, "you +did not wait for my opinion. Ah--oh--why, Captain Cringle, a thousand +pardons. Friend Bang, there, swears that he can't do without you; and +all he says about me is neither more nor less than humbug--ah." + +"My lovely yellowsnake," quoth Aaron, "and my amiable dumpling, +gentlemen both, now, do hold your tongues.--Why, Tom, here we are, never +you mind how, after half a quarrel with the skipper--will you take us, +or will you send us back, like rejected addresses?" + +"Send you back, my boys! No, no, too happy to get you." Another gun +from the corvette. "Firebrands, you must shove off. My compliments, +Wiggins, to the Captain, and there's a trifle for you to drink my +health, when you get into port." The boat shoved off--the corvette +filled her maintopsail. "Put the helm down--ease off the mainsheet +stand by to run up the squaresail. How is her head, Mr Tailtackle?" + +Timothy gave a most extraordinary grin at my bestowing the Mister on him +for the first time. + +"North-west, sir." + +"Keep her so"--and having bore up, we rapidly widened our distance from +the Commodore and the fleet. + +All men know, or should know, that on board of a man-of-war, there is +never any "yo heave oh'ing." That is confined to merchant vessels. But +when the crew are having a strong pull of any rope, it is allowable for +the man next the belaying pin, to sing out, in order t@6 give unity to +the drag, "one-two-three," the strain of the other men increasing with +the figure. The tack of the mainsail had got jammed somehow, and on my +desiring it to be hauled up, the men, whose province it was, were unable +to start it. + +"Something foul aloft," said I. + +Tailtackle came up. "What are you fiddling at, men? Give me here-one +two-three." + +Crack went the strands of the rope under the paws of the Titan, whereby +the head of the outermost sailor pitched right into Gelid's stomach, +knocked him over and capsized him head foremost into the wind sail +which was let down through the skylight into the little well cabin of +the schooner. It so happened that there was a bucket full of Spanish +brown paint standing on the table in the cabin, right below the hoop of +the canvass funnel, and into it plopped the august pate of Paul Gelid, +esquire. Bang had, in the meantime, caught him by the heels, and with +the assistance of Pearl, the handsome negro formerly noticed, who, from +his steadiness, had been spared to me as a quartermaster, the conch was +once more hoisted on deck, with a scalp of red paint, reaching down over +his eyes. + +"I say," quoth Bang, "Gelid, my darling, not quite so smooth as the real +Macassar, eh? Shall I try my hand--can shave beautifully--eh?" + +"Ah," drawled Gelid, "don't require it--lucky my head was shaved in that +last fever, Aaron dear. Ah--let me think--you tall man--you sailor-- +fellow--ah--do me the favour to scrape me with your knife--ah--and pray +call my servant." + +Timothy, to whom he had addressed himself, set to, and scraped the red +paint off his poll; and having called his servant, Chew Chew, handed him +over to the negro, who, giving his arm to him, helped him below, and +with the assistance of Cologne water, contrived to scrub him decently +clean. + +As the evening fell, the breeze freshened; and during the night it blew +strong, so that from the time we bore up, and parted company with the +Firebrand, until day-dawn next morning, we had run 130 miles or thereby +to the northward and westward, and were then on the edge of the Great +Bahama Bank. The breeze now failed us, and we lay roasting in the sun +until mid-day, the current sweeping us to the northward, and still +farther on to the bank, until the water shoaled to three fathoms. At +this time the sun was blazing fiercely right overhead; and from the +shallowness of the water, there was not the smallest swell, or +undulation of the surface. The sea, as far as the eye could reach, was +a sparkling light green, from the snow-white sand at the bottom, as if +a level desert had been suddenly submerged under a few feet of crystal +clear water, which formed a cheery spectacle, when compared with the +customary leaden, or dark blue-colour of the rolling fathomless ocean. +It was now dead calm.--"Fishing lines there--Idlers, fishing lines," +said I; and in a minute there were forty of them down over the side. + +In Europe, fish in their shapes partake of the sedate character of the +people who inhabit the coasts of the seas or rivers in which they swim +at least I think so. The salmon, the trout, the cod, and all the other +tribes of the finny people, are reputable in their shapes, and +altogether respectable-looking creatures. But, within the tropics, +Dame Nature plays strange vagaries; and here, on the great Bahama Bank, +every new customer, as he floundered in on deck--no joke to him, poor +fellow--elicited shouts of laughter from the crew. They were in no +respect shaped like fish of our cold climates; some were all head +others all tail-some, so far as shape went, had their heads where, with +submission, I conceived their tails should have been; and then the +colours, the intense brilliancy of the scales of these monstrous +looking animals! We hooked up a lot of bonitos, 10 Lbs apiece, at the +least. But Wagtail took small account of them. + +"Here," said Bang, at this moment, "by all that is wonderful, look +here!" And he drew up a fish about a foot long, with a crop like a +pigeon of the tumbler kind, which began to make a loud snorting noise. + +"Ah," drawled Gelid, "good fish, with claret sauce." + +"Daresay," rejoined Aaron; "but do your Bahama fish speak, Paul, eh? +Balaam's ass was a joke to this fellow." + +I have already said that the water was not quite three fathoms deep, and +it was so clear that I could see down to the very sand, and there were +the fish cruising about in great numbers. + +"Haul in, Wagtail--you have hooked him," and up came a beautiful black +grouper, about four pounds weight. + +"Ah, there is the regular jiggery-jiggery," sung out little Reefpoint, +at the same moment, as he in turn began to pull up his line. "Stand by +to land him," and a red snapper, for all the world like a gigantic gold +fish, was hauled on board; and so we carried on, black snappers, red +snappers, and rock fish, and a vast variety, for all of which, however, +Wagtail had names pat, until at length I caught a most lovely dolphin--a +beauty to look at--but dry, terribly dry to eat. I cast it on the deck, +and the chameleon tints of the dying fish, about which so many lies have +been said and sung, were just beginning to fade, and wax pale, and ashy, +and deathlike, when I felt another strong jiggery jiggery at my line, +which little Reefpoint had, in the meantime, baited afresh. "Zounds! I +have caught a whale--a shark at the very least" and I pulled him in, +hand over hand. + +"A most noble Jew fish," said I. + +"A Jew fish!" responded Wagtail. + +"A Jew fish!" said Aaron Bang. + +"A Jew fish!" said Paul Gelid. + +"My dear Cringle," continued Wagtail, "when do you dine?" + +"At three, as usual." + +"Then, Mr Reefpoint, will you have the great kindness to cast off your +sink, and hook that splendid fellow by the tail--only through the +gristle--don't prick him in the flesh--and let him meander about till +half-past two?" + +Reefy was half inclined to be angry at the idea of his Majesty's officer +being converted into a cook's mate. + +"Why," said I, "we shall put him in a tub of water, here on deck, Mr +Wagtail, if you please." + +"God bless me, no!" quoth the gastronome. "Why, he is strong as an +eagle, and will smash himself to mummy in half an hour in a tub. No--no +see, he weighs twelve pounds at the very lightest. Lord! Mr Cringle, +I am surprised at you." + +The fish was let overboard again, according to his desire, and hauled in +at the very moment he indicated by his watch, when, having seen him cut +up and cleaned, with his own eyes--I believe I may say with his own +hands--he betook himself to his small crib to dress. + +At dinner our Creole friend was very entertaining. Bang drew him out, +and had him to talk on all his favourite topics in a most amusing +manner. All at once Gelid lay back on his chair. + +"My God," said he, "I have broken my tooth with that confounded hard +biscuit--terrible--really: ah!"--and he screwed up his face, as if he +had been eating sourcrout, or had heard of the death of a dear friend. + +"Poo," quoth Aaron, "any comb maker will furnish you forth as good as +new; those grinders you brag of are not your own, Gelid, you know that." + +"Indeed, Aaron, my dear, I know nothing of the kind; but this I know, +that I have broken a most lovely white front tooth, ah!" + +"Oh, you be hanged," said Aaron; "why, you have been bechopped any time +these ten years, I know." + +The time wore on, and it might have been half past seven when we went on +deck. + +It was a very dark night--Tailtackle had the watch. "Any thing in +sight, Mr Tailtackle?" + +"Why, no, sir; but I have just asked your steward for your night glass, +as, once or twice--but it is so thick--Pray, sir, how far are we off the +Hole in the Wall?" + +"Why, sixty miles at the least." + +The Hole in the Wall is a very remarkable rock in the Crooked Island +Passage, greatly resembling, as the name betokens, a wall breached by +the sea, or by battering cannon, which rises abruptly out of the water, +to a height of forty feet. + +"Then," quoth Tailtackle sharply, "there must be a sail close aboard of +us, to windward there." + +"Where?" said I. "Quick, send for my night-glass." + +"I have it here in my hand, sir." + +"Let me see"--and I peered through it until my eyes ached again. I +could see nothing, and resumed my walk on the quarterdeck. Tailtackle, +in the meantime, continued to look through the telescope, and as I +turned from aft to walk forward, a few minutes after this--"Why, sir," +said he, "it clears a bit, and I see the object that has +puzzled me again." + +"Eh? give me the glass"--in a second I caught it. "By Jupiter, you say +true, Tailtackle! beat to quarters--quick--clear away the long gun +forward there!" + +All was bustle for a minute. I kept my eye on the object, but I could +not make out more, than that it was a strange sail; I could neither +judge of her size nor her rig, from the distance, and the extreme +darkness of the night. At length I handed the glass to Tailtackle +again. We were at this time standing in towards the Cuba shore, with a +fine breeze, and going along seven knots, as near as could be. + +"Give the glass to Mr Jigmaree, Mr Tailtackle, and come forward here, +and see all snug." + +The long gun was slewed round--both carronades were run out, all three +being loaded, double shotted, and carefully primed--the whole crew, with +our black supernumeraries, being at quarters. + +"I see her quite distinct now, sir," sung out Timotheus. + +"Well, what looks she like?" + +"A large brig, sir, by the wind on the same tack--you can see her now +without the glass--there--with the naked eye." + +I looked, and certainly fancied I saw some towering object rising high +and dark to windward, like some mighty spectre walking the deep, but I +could discern nothing more. + +"She is a large vessel, sure enough, sir," said Timothy once more "now +she is hauling up her courses, sir--she takes in topgallant sails why, +she is bearing up across our bows, sir--mind she don't rake us." + +"The deuce!" said I. I now saw the chase very distinctly bear up. "Put +the helm up--keep her away a bit--steady at that will do--fire a shot +across her bows, Mr Tailtackle--and, Mr Reefpoint, show the private +signal." The gun was fired, and the lights shown, but our spectral +friend was all darkness and silence. "Mr Scarfemwell," said I to the +carpenter, "stand by the long gun. Tailtackle, I don't like that chap +open the magazine." By this time the strange sail was on our quarter, we +shortened sail, while he, finding that his manoeuvre of crossing our +bows had been foiled by our bearing up also, got the foretack on board +again, and set his topgallant sails, all very cleverly. He was not far +out of pistol-shot. Tailtackle, in his shirt and trowsers, and felt +shoes, now stuck his head up the main hatchway. + +"I would recommend your getting the hatches on, sir--that fellow is not +honest, sir, take my word for it." + +"Never mind, Mr Tailtackle, never mind. Forward, there; Mr Jigmaree, +slap a round shot into him, since he won't speak, or heave-to--right +between his masts, do you hear--are you ready?" + +"All ready, sir." + +"Fire." The gun was fired, and simultaneously we heard a crash on board +the strange sail, followed by a piercing yell, similar to what the +negroes raise over a dead comrade, and then a long melancholy howl. + +"A slaver, and the shot has told, sir," said Mr Handlead, the master. + +"Then we shall have some fun for it," thought I. I had scarcely spoken, +when the brig once more shortened sail; and the instant that the +foresail rose, he let fly his bow gun at us--then another, another, and +another. + +"Nine guns of a side, as I am a sinner," quoth jigmaree; and three of +the shot struck us, mortally wounded one poor fellow, and damaged poor +little Reefy by a splinter in the side. + +"Stand by, men--take good aim--fire"--and we again let drive the long +gun and carronade; but our friend was too quick for us, for by this time +he had once more hauled his wind, and made sail as close to it as he +could stagger. We crowded every thing in chase, but he had the heels of +us, and in an hour he was once more nearly out of sight in the dark +night, right to windward. + +"Keep, at him, Mr Jigmaree;" and as I feared he was running us in under +the land, I dived to consult the chart. There, in the cabin, I found +Wagtail, Gelid, and Bang, sitting smoking on each side of the small +table, with some brandy and water before them. + +"Ah," quoth Gelid, "ah! fighting a little? Not pleasant in the evening, +certainly." + +"Confound you," said Aaron, "why will you bother at this awkward +moment?" + +Meanwhile Wagtail was a good deal discomposed. + +"My dear fellow, hand me over that deviled biscuit." + +Bang handed him over the dish, slipping into it some fragments of ship +biscuit, as hard as flint. All this time I was busy poring over the +chart. Wagtail took up a piece and popt it into his mouth. + +"Zounds, Bang--my dear Aaron, what dentist are you in league with? +Gelid first breaks his pet fang, and now you"-- + +"Poo, poo," quoth his friend, "don't bother now--hillo--what the deuce +I say, Wagtail--Gelid, my lad, look there"--as one of the seamen, with +another following him, brought down on his back the poor fellow who had +been wounded, and laid his bloody load on the table. + +To those who are unacquainted with these matters, it may be right to +say, that the captain's cabin, in a small vessel like the Wave, is often +in an emergency used as a cockpit--and so it was in the present +instance. + +"Beg pardon, Captain and gentlemen," said the surgeon, "but I must, I +fear, perform an ugly operation on this poor fellow. I fancy you had +better go on deck, gentlemen." + +Now I had an opportunity to see of what sterling metal my friends were +at bottom made. Mr Bang in a twinkling had his coat off. + +"Doctor, I can be of use, I know it--no skill, but steady nerves," +although he had reckoned a leetle without his host here,--"And I can +swathe a bandage too, although no surgeon," said Wagtail. + +Gelid said nothing, but he was in the end the best surgeon's mate +amongst them. The poor fellow, Wiggins, one of the captain's gigs, and +a most excellent man, in quarterdeck parlance, was now laid on the table +a fine handsome young fellow, faint and pale, very pale, but courageous +as a lion, even in his extremity. It appeared that a round shot had +shattered his leg above the knee. A tourniquet had been applied on his +thigh, and there was not much bleeding. + +"Captain," said the poor fellow, while Bang supported him in his arms, +"I shall do yet, sir; indeed I have no great pain." + +All this time the surgeon was cutting off his trowsers, and then, to be +sure, a terrible spectacle presented itself. The foot and leg, blue and +shrunk, were connected with the thigh by a band of muscle about two +inches wide, and an inch thick; that fined away to a bunch of white +tendons or sinews at the knee, which again swelled out as they melted +into the muscles of the calf of the leg; but as for the knee bone, it +was smashed to pieces, leaving white spikes protruding from the +shattered limb above, as well as from the shank beneath. The doctor +gave the poor fellow a large dose of laudanum in a glass of brandy, and +then proceeded to amputate the limb, high up on the thigh. Bang stood +the knife part of it very steadily, but the instant the saw rasped +against the shattered bone he shuddered. + +"I am going, Cringle--can't stand that--sick as a dog"--and he was so +faint that I had to relieve him in supporting the poor fellow. Wagtail +had also to go on deck, but Paul Gelid remained firm as a rock. The +limb was cut off, the arteries taken up very cleverly, and the surgeon +was in the act of slacking the tourniquet a little, when the thread that +fastened the largest, or femoral artery, suddenly gave way and a gush +like the jet from a fire-engine took place. The poor fellow had just +time to cry out, "Take that cold hand off my heart!" when his chest +collapsed, his jaw fell, and in an instant his pulse stopped. + + +"Dead as Julius Caesar, Captain," said Gelid, with his usual +deliberation. Dead enough, thought I; and I was leaving the cabin to +resume my post on deck, when I stumbled against something at the ladder +foot. + +"My, what is that?" grumbled I. + +"It is me, sir," said a small faint voice. + +"You!--who are you?" + +"Reefpoint, sir." + +"Bless me, boy, what are you doing here? Not hurt, I hope?" + +"A little, sir--a graze from a splinter, sir--the same shot that struck +poor Wiggins knocked it off, sir." + +"Why did you not go to the doctor, then, Mr Reefpoint?" + +"I waited till he was done with Wiggins, sir; but now, since it is all +over with him, I will go and be dressed." + +His voice grew fainter and fainter, until I could scarcely hear him. I +got him in my arms, and helped him into the cabin, where, on stripping +the poor little fellow, it was found that he was much hurt on the right +side, just above the hip. Bang's kind heart, for by this time a glass +of water had cured him of his faintness, shone conspicuous on this +occasion. + +"Why, Reefy--little Reefy--you are not hurt, my man--Surely you are not +wounded--such a little fellow,--I should have as soon thought of firing +at a musquitto." + +"Indeed, sir, but I am; see here."--Bang looked at the hurt, as he +supported the wounded midshipman in his arms. + +"God help me," said the excellent fellow, "you seem to me fitter for +your mother's nursery, my poor dear boy, than to be knocked about in +this coarse way here." + +Reefy, at this moment, fell over into his arms, in a dead faint. + +"You must take my berth, with the Captain's permission," said Aaron, +while he and Wagtail undressed him with the greatest care, and placed +him in the narrow crib. + +"Thank you, my dear sir," moaned little Reefpoint; "were my mother here, +sir she would thank you too." + +Stern duty now called me on deck, and I heard no more. The night was +still very dark, and I could see nothing of the chase, but I made all +the sail I could in the direction which I calculated she would steer, +trusting that, before morning, we might get another glimpse of her. In +a little while Bang came on deck. + +"I say, Tom, now since little Reefy is asleep--what think you big craft +that--nearly caught a Tartar--not very sorry he has escaped, eh?" + +"Why, my dear sir, I trust he has not escaped; I hope, when the day +breaks, now since we have less wind, that we may have a tussle with him +yet." + +"No, you don't wish it, do you, really and truly?" + +"Indeed, I do, sir; and the only thing which bothers me is the peril +that you and your friends must necessarily encounter." + +"Poo, poo, don't mind us, Tom, don't mind us; but an't he too big for +you, Tom?" + +He said this in such a comical way, that, for the life of me, I could +not help laughing. + +"Why, we shall see; but attack him I must, and shall, if I can get at +him. However, we shall wait till morning; so I recommend your turning +in, now since they have cleared away the cockpit out of the cabin; so +good-night, my dear sir--I must stay here, I fear." + +"Good-night, Tom; God bless you. I shall go and comfort Wagtail and +Paul." + +I was at this time standing well aft on the larboard side of the deck, +close abaft of the tiller-rope, so that, with no earthly disposition to +be an eavesdropper, I could neither help seeing nor hearing what was +going on in the cabin, as the small open skylight was close to my All +vestiges of the cockpit had been cleared away, and the table was laid +for supper. Wagtail and Gelid were sitting on the side I stood on, so +that I could not see them, although I heard every word they said. +Presently Bang entered, and sat down opposite his allies. He crossed +his arms, and leant down over the table, looking at them steadily. + +"My dear Aaron," I could hear little Wagtail say, "speak, man, don't +frighten a body so." + +"Ah, Bang," drawled out Paul, "jests are good, being well-timed; what +can you mean by that face of yours now, since the fighting is all over?" + +My curiosity fairly overcame my good manners, and I moved round more +amidships, so as to command a view of both parties, as they sat opposite +each other at the narrow table. + +Bang still held his peace for another minute; at length, in a very +solemn tone, he said, "Gentlemen, do you ever say your prayers?" I don't +know if I mentioned it before, but Aaron had a most musical deep mellow +voice, and now it absolutely thrilled to my very soul. + +Wagtail and Paul looked at him, and then at each other, with a most +absurd expression--between fear and jest--between crying and laughing +but gave him no answer. + +"Are you, my lads, such blockheads as to be ashamed to acknowledge that +you say your prayers?" + +"Ah," aid Gelid, "why, ah no--not--that is" + +"Oh, you Catholics are all so bigoted,--I suppose we should cross +ourselves, eh?" said Wagtail hastily. + +"I am a Catholic, Master Wagtail," rejoined Bang--"better that than +nothing. Before sunrise, we may both have proved the truth of our +creeds, if you have one; but if you mean it as a taunt, Wagtail, it does +discredit to your judgment to select such a moment, to say nothing of +your heart. However, you cannot make me angry with you, Pepperpot, you +little Creole wasp, do as you will." A slight smile here curled Aaron's +lip for an instant, although he immediately resumed the solemn tone in +which he had previously spoken.--"But I had hoped that two such old +friends, as you both have been to me, would not altogether have made up +their minds in cold blood, if advertised of their danger, to run the +chance of dying like dogs in a ditch, without one preparatory thought +towards that tremendous Being, before whom we may all stand before +morning." + +"Murder!" quoth Wagtail, fairly frightened; "are you really serious, +Aaron? I did not--would not, for the world, hurt your feelings in +earnest, my dear; why do you desire so earnestly to know whether or not +I ever say my prayers?" + +"Oh, don't bother, man," rejoined Bang, resuming his usual friendly +tone; "you had better say boldly that you do not, without any +roundaboutation." + +"But why, my dear Bang, why do you ask the question?" persisted Wagtail, +in a deuced quandary. + +"Simply,"--and here our friend's voice once more fell to the low deep +serious tone in which he had opened the conference,--"simply because, in +my humble estimation, if you don't say your prayers tonight, it is three +to one you shall never pray again." + +"The deuce!" said Pepperpot, twisting himself in all directions, as if +his inexpressibles had been nailed to his seat, and he was trying to +escape from them. "What, in the devil's name, mean you, man?" + +"I mean neither more nor less than what I say. I speak English, don't I? +I say, that that pestilent young fellow Cringle told me half an hour +ago, that he was determined, as he words it, to stick to this Guineaman, +who is three times his size, has eighteen guns, while Master Tommy has +only three; and whose crew, I will venture to say, triples our number; +and the snipe, from what I know of him, is the very man to keep his word +so what say you, my darling, eh?" + +"Ah, very inconvenient, ah,--I shall stay below," said Paul. + +"So shall I," quoth Pepperpot; "won't stick my nose on deck, Aaron +dear, no, not for the whole world." + +"Why," said Bang, in the same steady low tone, "you shall do as you +please, ah,"--and here he very successfully imitated our amigo Gelid's +drawl--"and as best suits you, ah; but I have consulted the gunner, an +old ally of mine, who, to be plain with you--ah--says that the danger +from splinter wounds below, is much greater than from their musketry on +deck--ah--the risk from the round shot being pretty equal--ah--in either +situation." At this announcement you could have jumped down either +Wagtail's or Gelid's throat,--Wagtail's for choice--without touching +their teeth. "Farther, the aforesaid Timothy, and be hanged to him, +deponeth, that the only place in a small vessel where we could have had +a moderate chance of safety was the Run,--so called, I presume, from +people running to it for safety; but where the deuce this sanctuary is +situated I know not, nor does it signify greatly, for it is now +converted into a spare powder magazine, and of course sealed to us. So +here we are, my lads, in as neat a taking as ever three unfortunate +gentlemen were in, in this weary world. However, now since I have +comforted you, let us go to bed-time enough to think on all this in the +morning, and I am consumedly tired." + +I heard no more, and resumed my solitary walk on deck, peering every now +and then through the night-glass, until my eyes ached again. The +tedious night at length wore away, and the grey dawn found me sound +asleep, leaning out at the gangway. They had scarcely begun to wash +down the decks, when we discerned our friend of the preceding night, +about four miles to windward, close hauled on the same tack, apparently +running in for the Cuba shore, as fast as canvass could carry him. If +this was his object, we had proved too quick for him, as by casting off +stays, and slacking shrouds, and, in every way we could think of, +loosening the rigid trim of the little vessel, we had in a great measure +recovered her sailing; so when he found he was cut off from the land, he +resolutely bore up, took in his top-gallant sails, hauled up his +courses, fired a gun, and hoisted his large Spanish ensign, all in +regular man-of-war fashion. By this time it was broad daylight, and +Wagtail, Gelid, and Bang, were all three on deck, performing their +morning ablutions. As for myself, I was well forward, near the long +gun. Pegtop, Mr Bang's black valet, came up to me. + +"Please, Massa Captain, can you spare me any muskets?" + +"Any muskets?" said I; "why, half a dozen if you choose." + +"De wery number my massa told me to hax for. Tank you, Massa Captain." +And forthwith he and the other two black servants in attendance on +Wagtail and Gelid, each seized his two muskets out of the arm-chest, +with the corresponding ammunition, and, like so many sable Robinson +Crusoes, were stumping aft, when I again accosted the aforesaid Pegtop. + +"I say, my man, now since you have got the muskets, does your master +really intend to fight?" The negro stopped short, and faced right round, +his countenance expressing very great surprise and wonderment. "Massa +Bang fight? Massa Aaron Bang fight?" and he looked up in my face with +the most seriocomic expression that could be imagined. "Ah, massa," +continued the poor fellow,--"you is joking--surely you is joking--my +Massa Aaron Bang fight? Oh, massa, surely you can't know he--surely you +never see him shoot snipe, and wild-duck--oh dear, why him kill wild +duck on de wing--ah, me often see him knock down teal wid single ball, +one hundred--ah, one hundred and fifty yards--and man surely more big +mark den teal?" + +"Granted," I said; "but a teal has not a loaded musket in its claws, a +Spanish buccaneer may have a small difference, Master Pegtop, that?" + +"None at all, master," chimed in Pegtop, "very energetically myshef, +Gabriel Pegtop, Christian man as me is, am one of de Falmouth black +shot. Ah, I have been in de woods wid Massa Aaron, one time particular, +when dem wery debils, Sambo Moses, Corromantee Tom, and Eboe Peter, +took to de bush, at Crabyaw estate--after breakfast--ten black shot +me was one, go out along wid our good massa, Massa Aaron. Oh Lord, we +walk troo de cool wood, and over de hot cleared ground, six hour, when +every body say,--No use dis, Massa Bang--all we tired too much--must +stop here--kindle fire--cook wittal. Ah, top dem who hab white liver, +said Massa Aaron; you, Pegtop, take you fusee and cutlass, and follow +me, my shild--Massa Aaron alway call me him shild, and troo enough, as +parson Calaloo say, him family wery much like Joseph coat--many colour +among dem, massa--though none quite so deep as mine eider"--and here the +negro grinned at his own jest. "Well, I was follow him, or rader was go +before him, opening up de pass wid me cutlass, troo de wery tangle +underwood. We walk four hour--see no one, all still and quiet--no breeze +shake de tree--oh, I sweat too much--dem hot, massa, sun shine right down, +when we could catch glimpse of him--yet no trace of de runaways. At +length, on turning corner, perched on small platform of rock, +overshadowed by plumes of bamboos, like ostrich feather lady wear at de +ball, who shall we see but dem wery dividual d----rascail I was mention, +standing all tree, each wid one carabine pointed at us, at him shoulder, +and cutlass at him side? Pegtop, my boy, said Massa Aaron, we is in +for it--follow me, but don't fire. So him pick off Sambo Moses--oh! +cool as one cucumber. Now, say he, man to man,--and wid dat him tro +him gun on de ground, and drawing him cutlass, we push up--in one moment +him and Corromantee Tom close. Tom put up him hand to fend him head +whip--ah--massa cutlass shred de hand at de wrist, like one carrot +down Tom go--atop of him jump Massa Aaron. I master de leetle one, Eboe +Peter, and we carry dem both prisoners into Falmouth.--Massa Aaron +fight? Ah, massa, no hax dat question again." + +"Well, but will Mr Gelid fight?" said I. + +"I tink him will too--great friend of Massa Bang--good duck--shot too +oh yes, fink Massa Paul will fight." + +"Why," said I, "your friends are all heroes, Pegtop--will Mr Wagtail +fight also?" He stole close up to me, and exchanged his smart Creole +gibberish for a quiet sedate accent, as he whispered. + +"Not so sure of he--nice little fat man, but too fond of him belly. +When I wait behind Massa Aaron chair, Pegtop sometime hear funny ting. +One gentleman say--Ah, dat month we hear Lord Wellington take Saint +Sebastian--when dat is, what time we hear dat news, Massa Wagtail? him +say.--Eh, say Massa Wagtail--oh, we hear of dem news, dat wery day de +first of de ringtail pigeon come to market. Den again, Dat big fight +dem had at soch anoder place, when we hear of dat, Massa Wagtail?--say +somebody else. Oh, oh, de wery day we hab dat beautiful grouper wid +claret sauce at Massa Whiffie's. Oh, make me laugh to hear white +gentleman mark great fight in him memory by what him eat de day de news +come; so, Massa Captain Cringle, me no quite sure weder Massa Wagtail +will fight or no." + +So saying, Pegtop, Chew Chew, and Yampea, each shouldered two muskets +apiece, and betook themselves to the after part of the schooner, where +they forthwith set themselves to scour, and oil, and clean the same, in +a most skilful manner. I expected the breeze would have freshened as +the day broke, but I was disappointed; it fell, towards six o'clock, +nearly calm. Come, thought I, we may as well go to breakfast; and my +guests and I forthwith sat down to our morning meal. Soon after, the +wind died away altogether--and "out sweeps" was the word; but I soon saw +we had no chance with the chase at this game, and as to attacking him +with the boats, it was entirely out of the question; neither could I, in +the prospect of a battle, afford to murder the people, by pulling all +day under a roasting sun, against one who could man his sweeps with +relays of slaves, without one of his crew putting a finger to them; so I +reluctantly laid them in, and there I stood looking at him the whole +forenoon, as he gradually drew ahead of us. At length I piped to +dinner, and the men having finished theirs, were again on deck; but the +calm still continued; and seeing no chance of it freshening, about four +in the afternoon we sat down to ours in the cabin. There was little +said; my friends, although brave and resolute men, were naturally happy +to see the brig creeping away from us, as fighting could only bring them +danger; and my own feelings were of that mixed quality, that while I +determined to do all I could to bring him to action, it would not have +broken my heart had he escaped. We had scarcely finished dinner, +however, when the rushing of the water past the run of the little +vessel, and the steadiness with which she skimmed along, shewed that the +light air had freshened. + +Presently Tailtackle came down. "The breeze has set down, sir; the +strange sail has got it strong to windward, and brings it along with him +cheerily." + +"Beat to quarters, then, Tailtackle; all hands stand by to shorten sail. +How is she standing?" + +"Right down for us, sir." + +I went on deck, and there was the Guineaman about two miles to windward, +evidently cleared for action, with her decks crowded with men, bowling +along steadily under her single-reefed topsails. + +I saw all clear. Wagtail and Gelid had followed me on deck, and were +now busy with their black servants inspecting the muskets. But Bang +still remained in the cabin. I went down. He was gobbling his last +plantain, and forking up along with it most respectable slices of +cheese, when I entered. + +I had seen before I left the deck that an action was now unavoidable, +and judging from the disparity of force, I had my own doubts as to the +issue. I need scarcely say that I was greatly excited. It was my first +command: My future standing in the service depended on my conduct now, +and, God help me, I was all this while a mere lad, not more than twenty +one years old. A strange indescribable feeling had come over me, and +an irresistible desire to disburden my mind to the excellent man before +me. I sat down. + +"Hey day," quoth Bang, as he laid down his coffee cup; "why, Tom, what +ails you? You look deuced pale, my boy." + + +"Up all night, sir, and bothered all day," said I; "wearied enough, I +can tell you." + +I felt a strong tremor pervade my whole frame at this moment; and I was +impelled to speak by some unknown impulse, which I could not account for +nor analyze. + +"Mr Bang, you are the only friend whom I could count on in these +countries; you know all about me and mine, and, I believe, would +willingly do a kind action to my father's son." + +"What are you at, Tom, my dear boy? come to the point, man." + +"I will. I am distressed beyond measure at having led you and your +excellent friends, Wagtail and Gelid, into this danger; but I could not +help it, and I have satisfied my conscience on that point; so I have +only to entreat that you will stay below, and not unnecessarily expose +yourselves. And if I should fall--may I take this liberty, my dear +sir," and I involuntarily took his hand,--"if I should fall, and I doubt +if I shall ever see the sun set again, as we are fearfully overmatched" +Bang struck in. + +"Why, if our friend be too big--why not be off then? Pull foot, man, +eh?--Havannah under your lee?" + +"A thousand reasons against it, my dear sir. I am a young man and a +young officer, my character is to make in the service--No, no, it is +impossible--an older and more tried hand might have bore up, but I must +fight it out. If any stray shot carries me off, my dear sir, will you +take"--Mary, I would have said, but I could not pronounce her name for +the soul of me--"will you take charge of her miniature, and say I died +as I have"--a choking lump rose in my throat, and I could not proceed for +a second; "and will you send my writing desk to my poor mother, there +are letters in"--the lump grew bigger, the hot tears streamed from my +eyes in torrents. I trembled like an aspen leaf, and grasping my +excellent friend's hand more firmly, I sunk down on my knees in a +passion of tears, and wept like a woman, and fervently prayed to that +great God, in whose almighty hand I stood, that I might that day do my +duty as an English seaman. Bang knelt by me. Presently the passion was +quelled. I rose, and so did he. + +"Before you, my dear sir, I am not ashamed to have...." + +"Don't mention it my good boy--don't mention it; neither of us, as the +old general said, will fight a bit the worse." + +I looked at him. "Do you then mean to fight?" said I. + +"To be sure I do--why not? I have no wife,"--he did not say he had no +children--"Fight? To be sure I do." + +"Another gun, sir," said Tailtackle, through the open skylight. Now all +was bustle, and we hastened on deck. Our antagonist was a large brig, +three hundred tons at the least, a long low vessel, painted black, out +and in, and her sides round as an apple, with immensely square yards. +She was apparently full of men. The sun was getting low, and she was +coming down fast on us, on the verge of the dark blue water of the sea +breeze. I could make out ten ports and nine guns of a side. I inwardly +prayed they might not be long ones, but I was not a little startled to +see through the glass that there were crowds of naked negroes at +quarters, and on the forecastle and poop. That she was a contraband +Guineaman, I had already made up my mind to believe; and that she had +some fifty hands of a crew, I also considered likely; but that her +captain should have resorted to such a perilous measure, perilous to +themselves as well as to us, as arming the captive slaves, was quite +unexpected, and not a little alarming, as it evinced his determination +to make the most desperate resistance. + +Tailtackle was standing beside me at this time, with his jacket off, his +cutlass girded on his thigh, and the belt drawn very tight. All the +rest of the crew were armed in a similar fashion; the small-arm-men +with muskets in their hands, and the rest at quarters at the guns; while +the pikes were cast loose from the spars round which they had been +stopped, with tubs of wadding, and boxes of grape, all ready ranged, and +every thing clear for action. + +"Mr Tailtackle" said I, "you are gunner here, and should be in the +magazine. Cast off that cutlass; it is not your province to lead the +boarders." The poor fellow blushed, having, in the excitement of the +moment, forgotten that he was any thing more than captain of the +Firebrand's maintop. + +"Mr Timotheus," said Bang, "have you one of these bodkins to spare?" + +Timothy laughed. "Certainly, sir; but you don't mean to head the +boarders, sir--do you?" + +"Who knows, now since I have learned to walk on this dancing cork of a +craft?" rejoined Aaron, with a grim smile, while he pulled off his coat, +braced on his cutlass, and tied a large red cotton shawl round his head. +He then took off his neckerchief and fastened it round his waist, as +tight as he could draw. + +"Strange that all men in peril--on the uneasiness, like," said he, +"should always gird themselves as tightly as they can." + +The slaver was now within musket-shot, when he put his helm to port, +with the view of passing under our stem. To prevent being raked, we had +to luff up sharp in the wind, and fire a broadside. I noticed the white +splinters glance from his black wales; and once more the same sharp yell +rung in our ears, followed by the long melancholy howl, already +described. + +"We have pinned some of the poor blacks again," said Tailtackle, who +still lingered on the deck; small space for remark, for the slaver again +fired his broadside at us, with the same cool precision as before. + +"Down with the helm, and let her come round," said I; "that will do +master, run across his stern--Out sweeps forward, and keep her there +get the other carronade over to leeward--that is it--now, blaze away +while he is becalmed--fire, small-arm-men, and take good aim." + +We were now right across his stern, with his spanker boom within ten +yards of us; and although he worked his two stem chasers with great +determination, and poured whole showers of musketry from his rigging, +and poop, and cabin-windows, yet, from the cleverness with which our +sweeps were pulled, and the accuracy with which we were kept in our +position, right athwart his stern, our fire, both from the cannon and +musketry, the former loaded with round and grape, was telling, I could +see, with fearful effect. + +Crash--"There, my lads, down goes his main-topmast--pepper him well, +while they are blinded and confused among the wreck. Fire away--there +goes the peak, shot away cleverly, close by the throat. Don't cease +firing, although his flag be down--it was none of his doing. There, my +lads, there he has it again; you have shot away the weather fore +topsail sheet, and he cannot get from under you." + +Two men at this moment lay out on his larboard foreyard-arm, apparently +with the intention of splicing the sheet, and getting the clew of the +fore-topsail once more down to the yard; if they had succeeded in this, +the vessel would again have fetched way, and drawn out from under our +fire. Mr Bang and Paul Gelid had all this time been firing with +murderous precision, from where they had ensconced themselves under the +shelter of the larboard bulwark, close to the taffrail, with their three +black servants in the cabin, loading the six muskets, and little +Wagtail, who was no great shot, sitting on the deck, handing them up and +down. + +"Now, Mr Bang," cried I, "for the love of Heaven"--and may Heaven +forgive me for the ill-placed exclamation--"mark these two men--down +with them?" + +Bang turned towards me with all the coolness in the world "What, those +chaps on the end of the long stick?" + +"Yes--yes," (I here spoke of the larboard foreyard-arm,) "yes, down +with them." + +He lifted his piece as steadily as if he had really been duck shooting. + +"I say, Gelid, my lad, take you the innermost." + +"Ah!" quoth Paul. They fired--and down dropped both men, and squattered +for a moment in the water, like wounded waterfowl, and then sank for +ever, leaving two small puddles of blood on the surface. + +"Now, master," shouted I, "put the helm up and lay him alongside--there +stand by with the grapplings--one round the backstay the other through +the chainplate there--so,--you have it." As we ranged under his counter +"Mainchains are your chance, men--boarders, follow me." And in the +enthusiasm of the moment I jumped into the slaver's main channel, +followed by twenty-eight men. We were in the act of getting over the +netting when the enemy rallied, and fired a volley of small arms, which +sent four out of the twenty-eight to their account, and wounded three +more. We gained the quarterdeck, where the Spanish captain, and about +forty of his crew, shewed a determined front, cutlass and pistol in hand +we charged them--they stood their ground. Tailtackle (who, the moment +he heard the boarders called, had jumped out of the magazine, and +followed me) at a blow clove the Spanish captain to the chine; the +lieutenant, or second in command, was my bird, and I had disabled him by +a sabre-cut on the sword-arm, when he drew his pistol, and shot me +through the left shoulder. I felt no pain, but a sharp pinch, and then a +cold sensation, as if water had been poured down my neck. + +Jigmaree was close by me with a boarding-pike, and our fellows were +fighting with all the gallantry inherent in British sailors. For a +moment the battle was poised in equal scales. At length our antagonists +gave way, when about fifteen of the slaves, naked barbarians, who had +been ranged with muskets in their hands on the forecastle, suddenly +jumped down into the waist with a yell, and came to the rescue of the +Spanish part of the crew. + +I thought we were lost. Our people, all but Tailtackle, poor Handlead, +and Jigmaree, held back. The Spaniards rallied, and fought with renewed +courage, and it was now, not for glory, but for dear life, as all +retreat was cut off by the parting of the grapplings and warps, that had +lashed the schooner alongside of the slaver, for the Wave had by this +time forged a-head, and lay across the brig's bows, in place of being +on her quarter, with her foremast jammed against the slaver's bowsprit, +whose spritsail-yard crossed our deck between the masts. We could not +therefore retreat to our own vessel if we had wished it, as the +Spaniards had possession of the waist and forecastle; all at once, +however, a discharge of round and grape crashed through the bridleport +of the brig, and swept off three of the black auxiliaries before +mentioned, and wounded as many more, and the next moment an unexpected +ally appeared on the field. When we boarded, the Wave had been left +with only Peter Mangrove; the five dockyard negroes; Pearl, one of the +Captain's gigs, the handsome black already introduced on the scene; poor +little Reefpoint, who, as already stated, was badly hurt; Aaron Bang, +Paul Gelid, and Wagtail. But this Pearl without price, at the very +moment of time when I thought the game was up, jumped on deck through +the bowport, cutlass in hand, followed by the five black carpenters and +Peter Mangrove, after whom appeared no less a personage than Aaron Bang +himself and the three blackamoor valets, armed with boarding-pikes. +Bang flourished his cutlass for an instant. + +"Now, Pearl, my darling, shout to them in Coromantee--shout;" and +forthwith the black quartermaster sung out, "Coromantee Sheik Cocoloo, +kockemony populorum fiz;" which, as I afterwards learned, being +interpreted, is, "Behold the Sultan Cocoloo, the great ostrich, with a +feather in his tail like a palm branch; fight for him, you sons of +female dogs." In an instant the black Spanish auxiliaries sided with +Pearl, and Bang, and the negroes, and joined in charging the white +Spaniards, who were speedily driven down the main hatchway, leaving one +half of their number dead, or badly wounded, on the blood slippery deck. +But they still made a desperate defence, by firing up the hatchway. I +hailed them to surrender. + +"Zounds," cried Jigmaree, "there's the clink of hammers they are +knocking off the fetters of the slaves." + +"If you let the blacks loose," I sung out in Spanish, "by the Heaven +above us, I will blow you up, although I should go with you! Hold your +hands, Spaniards! Mind what you do, madmen!" + +"On with the hatches, men," shouted Tailtackle. + +They had been thrown overboard, or put out of the way, they could +nowhere be seen. The firing from below continued. + +"Cast loose that carronade there; clap in a canister of grape, so now run +it forward, and fire down the hatchway." It was done, and taking effect +amongst the pent-up slaves, such a yell arose--oh God! oh God!--I never +can forget it. Still the maniacs continued firing up the hatchway. + +"Load and fire again." My people were now furious, and fought more like +incarnate fiends broke loose from hell than human beings. + +"Run the gun up to the hatchway once more." They ran the carronade so +furiously forward, that the coaming, or ledge, was split off, and down +went the gun, carriage and all, with a crash into the hold. Presently +smoke appeared rising up the fore-hatchway. + +"They have set fire to the brig; overboard!--regain the schooner, or we +shall all be blown into the air like peels of onions!" sung out little +Jigmaree. + +But where was the Wave? She had broke away, and was now a cable's +length ahead, apparently fast leaving us, with Paul Gelid and Wagtail, +and poor little Reefpoint, who, badly wounded as he was, had left his +hammock, and come on deck in the emergency, making signs of their +inability to cut away the halyards; and the tiller being shot away, the +schooner had become utterly unmanageable. + +"UP,--and let fall the foresail, men--down with the fore tack cheerily +now--get way on the brig, and overhaul the Wave promptly, or we are +lost," cried I. It was done with all the coolness of desperate men. I +took the helm, and presently we were once more alongside of our own +vessel. Time we were so, for about one hundred and fifty of the slaves, +whose shackles had been knocked off, now scrambled up the fore hatchway, +and we had only time to jump overboard, when they made a rush aft; and +no doubt, exhausted as we were, they would have massacred us on the +spot, frantic and furious as they evidently were from the murderous fire +of grape that had been directed down the hatchway. + +But the fire was quicker than they. The smouldering smoke that was +rising like a pillar of cloud from the fore hatchway, was now streaked +with tongues of red flame, which, licking the masts and spars, ran up +and caught the sails and rigging. In an instant, the fire spread to +every part of the gear aloft, while the other element, the sea, was also +striving for the mastery in the destruction of the doomed vessel; for +our shot, or the fall of the carronade into the hold, had started some +of the bottom planks, and she was fast settling down by the head. We +could hear the water rushing in like a mill stream. The fire increased +her guns went off as they became heated--she gave a sudden heel--and +while five hundred human beings, pent up in her noisome hold, split the +heavens with their piercing death-yells, down she went with a heavy +lurch, head foremost, right in the wake of the setting sun, whose level +rays made the thick dun wreaths that burst from her as she disappeared, +glow with the hue of the amethyst; and while the whirling clouds, gilded +by his dying radiance, curled up into the blue sky, in rolling masses, +growing thinner and thinner, until they vanished away, even like the +wreck whereout they arose,--and the circling eddies, created by her +sinking, no longer sparkled and flashed in the red light--and the +stilled waters where she had gone down, as if oil had been cast on them, +were spread out like polished silver, shining like a mirror, while all +around was dark blue ripple,--a puff of fat black smoke, denser than any +we had yet seen, suddenly emerged with a loud gurgling noise, from out +the deep bosom of the calmed sea, and rose like a balloon, rolling +slowly upwards, until it reached a little way above our mastheads, where +it melted and spread out into a dark pall, that overhung the scene of +death, as if the incense of such a horrible and polluted sacrifice could +not ascend into the pure heaven, but had been again crushed back upon +our devoted heads, as a palpable manifestation of the wrath of Him who +hath said--"Thou shalt not kill." + +For a few moments all was silent as the grave, and I felt as if the air +had become too thick for breathing, while I looked up like another Cain. + +Presently, about one hundred and fifty of the slaves, men, women, and +children, who had been drawn down by the vortex, rose amidst numberless +pieces of smoking wreck, to the surface of the sea; the strongest +yelling like fiends in their despair, while the weaker, the women, and +the helpless gasping little ones, were choking, and gurgling, and +sinking all around. Yea, the small thin expiring cry of the innocent +sucking infant tom from its sinking mother's breast, as she held it for +a brief moment above the waters, which had already for ever closed over +herself, was there. But we could not perceive one single individual of +her white crew; like desperate men, they had all gone down with the +brig. We picked up about one half of the miserable Africans, and--my +pen trembles as I write it--fell necessity compelled us to fire on the +remainder, as it was utterly impossible for us to take them on board. +Oh that I could erase such a scene for ever from my memory! One +incident I cannot help relating. We had saved a woman, a handsome clear +skinned girl, of about sixteen years of age. She was very faint when +we got her in, and was lying with her head over a port--sill, when a +strong athletic young negro swam to the part of the schooner where she +was. She held down her hand to him; he was in the act of grasping it, +when he was shot through the heart from above. She instantly jumped +overboard, and, clasping him in her arms, they sank, and disappeared +together. "Oh, woman, whatever may be the colour of your skin, your +heart is of one only!" said Aaron. + +Soon all was quiet; a wounded black here and there was shrieking in his +great agony, and struggling for a moment before he sank into his watery +grave for ever; a few pieces of wreck were floating and sparkling on the +surface of the deep in the blood red sunbeams, which streamed in a flood +of glorious light on the bloody deck, shattered hull, and torn rigging +of the Wave, and on the dead bodies and mangled limbs of those who had +fallen; while some heavy scattering drops of rain fell sparkling from a +passing cloud, as if Nature had wept in pity over the dismal scene; or +as if they had been blessed tears, shed by an angel, in his heavenward +course, as he hovered for a moment, and looked down in pity on the +fantastic tricks played by the worm of a day--by weak man, in his little +moment of power and ferocity. I said something--ill and hastily. Aaron +was close beside me, sitting on a carronade slide, while the surgeon was +dressing a pike wound in his neck. He looked up solemnly in my face, +and then pointed to the blessed luminary, that was now sinking in the +sea, and blazing up into the resplendent heavens--"Cringle, for shame +for shame--your impatience is blasphemous. Remember this morning and +thank Him"--here he looked up and crossed himself--"thank Him who, while +he has called poor Mr Handlead, and so many brave fellows to their last +awful reckoning, has mercifully brought us to the end of this fearful +day;--oh, thank Him, Tom, that you have seen the sun set once more!" + + + +CHAPTER XVI.--The Second Cruise of the Wave + + + "I longed to see the Isles that gem, + Old Ocean's purple diadem, + I sought by turns, and saw them all." + + Byron, The Bride Of Abydos, II. 355--57. + + +The puncture in Mr Bang's neck from the boarding-pike was not very +deep, still it was an ugly lacerated wound; and if The had not to use +his own phrase, been somewhat bullnecked, there is no saying what the +consequences might have been. + +"Tom, my boy," said he, after the doctor was done with him, "I am nicely +coopered now--nearly as good as new--a little stiffish or so lucky to +have such a comfortable coating of muscle, otherwise the carotid would +have been in danger. So come here, and take your turn, and I will hold +the candle." + +It was dead calm, and as I had desired the cabin to be again used as a +cockpit, it was at this time full of poor fellows, waiting to have their +wounds dressed, whenever the surgeon could go below. The lantern was +brought, and sitting down on a wadding tub, I stripped. The ball, which +I knew had lodged in the fleshy part of my left shoulder, had first of +all struck me right over the collar-bone, from which it had glanced, +and then buried itself in the muscle of the arm, just below the skin, +where it stood out, as if it had been a sloe both in shape and colour. +The collar-bone was much shattered, and my chest was a good deal +shaken, and greatly bruised; but I had perceived nothing of all this at +the time I was shot; the sole perceptible sensation was the feeling of +cold water running down, and the pinch in the shoulder, as already +described. I was much surprised (every man who has been seriously hit +being entitled to expatiate) with the extreme smallness of the puncture +in the skin through which the ball had entered; you could not have +forced a pea through it, and there was scarcely any flow of blood. + +"A very simple affair this, sir," said the surgeon, as he made a minute +incision right over the ball, the instrument cutting into the cold dull +lead with a cheep, and then pressing his fingers, one on each side of +it, it jumped out nearly into Aaron's mouth. + +"A pretty sugar-plum, Tom--if that collar-bone of yours had not been +all the harder, you would have been embalmed in a gazette, to use your +own favourite expression. But, my good boy, your bruise on the chest is +serious; you must go to bed, and take care of yourself." + +Alas! there was no bed for me to go to. The cabin was occupied by the +wounded, where the surgeon was still at work. Out of our small crew, +nine had been killed, and eleven wounded, counting passengers--twenty +out of forty-two--a fearful proportion. + +The night had now fallen. + +"Pearl, send some of the people aft, and get a spare square-sail from +the sailmaker, and...." + +"Will the awning not do, sir?" + +"To be sure it will," said I--it did not occur to me. "Get the awning +triced up to the stancheons, and tell my steward to get the beds on deck +a few flags to shut us in will make the thing complete." + +It was done; and while the sharp cries of the wounded, who were +immediately under the knife of the doctor, and the low moans of those +whose wounds had been dressed, or were waiting their turn, reached our +ears distinctly through the small skylight, our beds were arranged on +deck, under the shelter of the awning, a curtain of flags veiling our +quarters from the gaze of the crew. Paul Gelid and Pepperpot occupied +the starboard side of the little vessel; Aaron Bang and myself the +larboard. By this time it was close on eight o'clock in the evening. I +had merely looked in on our friends, ensconced as they were in their +temporary hurricane house; for I had more work than I could accomplish +on deck in repairing damages. Most of our standing, and great part of +our running rigging, had been shot away, which the tired crew were +busied in splicing and knotting the best way they could. Our mainmast +was very badly wounded close to the deck. It was fished as +scientifically as our circumstances admitted. The foremast had +fortunately escaped--it was untouched; but there were no fewer than +thirteen round shot through our hull, five of them between wind and +water. + +When every thing had been done which ingenuity could devise, or the most +determined perseverance execute, I returned to our canvass--shed aft, +and found Mr Wagtail sitting on the deck, arranging, with the help of my +steward, the supper equipment to the best of his ability. Our meal, as +may easily be imagined, was frugal in le extreme--salt beef, biscuit, +some roasted yams, and cold grog--some of Aaron's excellent rum. But I +mark it down, that I question if any one of the four who partook of it, +ever made so hearty a supper before or since. We worked away at the +junk until we had polished the bone, clean as an elephant's tusk, and +the roasted yams disappeared in bushelfuls; while the old rum sank in +the bottle, like mercury in the barometer indicating an approaching +gale. + +"I say, Tom," quoth Aaron, "how do you feel, my boy?" + +"Why, not quite so buoyant as I could wish. To me it has been a day of +fearful responsibility." + +"And well it may," said he. "As for myself, I go to rest with the +tremendous consciousness that even I, who am not a professional butcher, +have this blessed day shed more than one fellow-creature's blood-a +trembling consideration-and all for what, Tom? You met a big ship in +the dark, and desired her to stop. She said she would not--You said, +'You shall.'--She rejoined, 'I'll be d----d if I do.' And thereupon you +set about compelling her; and certainly you have interrupted her course +to some purpose, at the trivial cost of the lives of only five or six +hundred human beings, whose hearts were beating cheerily in their bosoms +within these last six hours, but whose bodies are now food for fishes." + +I was stung. + +"At your hands, my dear sir, I did not expect this, and" + +"Hush," said he, "I don't blame you--it is all right; but why will not +the Government at home arrange by treaty that this nefarious trade +should be entirely put down? Surely all our victories by sea and land +might warrant our stipulating for so much, in place of huggermuggering +with doubtful ill-defined treaties, specifying that you Johnny Crapeau, +and you Jack Spaniard, shall steal men, and deal in human flesh, in such +and such a degree of latitude only, while, if you pick up one single +slave a league to the northward or southward of the prescribed line of +coast, then we shall blow you out of the water wherever we meet you. +Why should poor devils, who live in one degree of latitude, be allowed +to be kidnapped, whilst we make it felony to steal their immediate +neighbours?" Aaron waxed warm as he proceeded. "Why will not Englishmen +lend a hand to put down the slave-trade amongst our opponents in sugar +growing, before they so recklessly endeavour to crush slavery in our own +worn-out colonies, utterly disregardless of our rights and lives? +Mind, Tom, I don't defend slavery, I sincerely wish we could do without +it, but am I to be the only one to pay the piper in compassing its +extinction? If, however, it really be that Upas-tree, under whose +baleful shade every kindly feeling in the human bosom, whether of master +or servant, withers and dies, I ask, who planted it? If it possess the +magical, and incredible, and most pestilential quality, that the English +gentleman, who shall be virtuous and beneficent, and just in all his +ways, before he leaves home, and after he returns home, shall, during +his temporary sojourn within its influence become a very Nero for +cruelty, and have his warm heart of flesh smuggled out of his bosom, by +some hocus pocus, utterly unintelligible to any unprejudiced rational +being, or indurated into the flint of the nether millstone, or frozen +into a lump of ice." + +"Lord!" ejaculated Wagtail, "only fancy a snowball in a man's stomach, +and in Jamaica too!" + +"Hold your tongue, Waggy, my love," continued Aaron; "if all this were +so, I would again ask, who planted it?--say not that we did it--I am a +planter, but I did not plant slavery. I found it growing and +flourishing, and fostered by the Government, and made my home amongst +the branches like a respectable corbie craw, or a pelican in a wild-- +duck's nest, with all my pretty little tender black branchers hopping +about me, along with numberless other unfortunates, and now find that +the tree is being uprooted by the very hands that planted and nourished +it, and seduced me to live in it, and all...." + +I laughed aloud--"Come, come, my dear sir, you are a perfect Lord +Castlereagh in the congruity of your figures. How the deuce can any +living thing exist among the poisonous branches of the Upas-tree--or a +wild-duck build...." + +"Get along with your criticism, Tom--and don't laugh, hang it, don't +laugh--but who told you that a corbie cannot?" + +"Why there are no corbies in Java." + +"Pah--botheration--there are pelicans then; but you know it is not an +Upas-tree, you know it is all a chimera, and, like the air-drawn +dagger of Macbeth, 'that there is no such thing.' Now, that is a good +burst, Gelid, my lad, a'nt it?" said Bang, as he drew a long breath, and +again launched forth. + +"Our Government shall quarrel about sixpence here or sixpence there of +discriminative duty in a foreign port, while they have clapped a knife +to our throats, and a flaming fagot to our houses, by absurd edicts and +fanatical intermeddling with our own colonies, where the slave-trade +has notoriously, and to their own conviction, entirely ceased; while, I +say it again, they will not put out their little finger to prevent, nay, +they calmly look on, and permit a traffic utterly repugnant to all the +best feelings of our nature, and baneful to an incalculable degree to +our own West Indian possessions; provided, forsooth, the slaves be +stolen within certain limits, which, as no one can prove, naturally +leads to this infernal contraband, the suppression of which--Lord, what +a thing to think of!--has nearly deprived the world of the invaluable +services of me, Aaron Bang, Esquire, Member of Council of the Island of +Jamaica, and Custos Rotulorum Populorum Jig of the Parish of----" + +"Lord," said Wagtail, "why, the yam is not half done." + +"But the rum is--ah!" drawled Gelid. + +"D----n the yam and the rum too," rapped out Bang. "Why, you belly-gods, +you have interrupted such a torrent of eloquence!" + +I began to guess that our friends were waxing peppery. "Why, gentlemen, +I don't know how you feel, but I am regularly done up--it is quite calm, +and I hope we shall all sleep, so good-night." + +We nestled in, and the sun had risen before I was called next morning. +I hope "I rose a sadder and a wiser man. Upon that morrow's morn." + +"On deck, there," said I, while dressing. Mr Peter Swop, one of the +Firebrand's master-mates, and now, in consequence of poor Handlead's +death, acting-master of the Wave, popped in his head through the +opening in the flags. "How is the weather, Mr Swop?" + +"Calm all night, sir; not a breath stirring, sir." + +"Are the sails shifted?" said I, "and the starboard main-shrouds +replaced?" + +"They are not yet, sir; the sails are on deck, and the rigging is now +stretching, and will be all ready to get over the masthead by breakfast +time, sir." + +"How is her head?" + +"Why," rejoined Swop, "it has been boxing all round the compass, sir, +for these last twelve hours; at present it is north-east." "Have we +drifted much since last night, Mr Swop?" + +"No, sir--much where we were, sir," rejoined the master. "There are +several pieces of wreck, and three dead bodies floating close to, sir." + +By this time I was dressed, and had gone from under the awning on deck. +The first thing I did was to glance my eye over the nettings, and there +perceived on our quarter, three dead bodies, as Mr Swop had said, +floating----one a white Spaniard, and the others the corpses of two +unfortunate Africans, who had perished miserably when the brig went +down. The white man's remains, swollen as they were, from the heat of +the climate, and sudden putrefaction consequent thereon, floated quietly +within pistol-shot, motionless and still; but the bodies of the two +negroes were nearly hidden by the clustering sea-birds which had +perched on them. There were at least two dozen shipped on each carcass, +busy with their beaks and claws, while, on the other hand, the water in +the immediate neighbourhood seemed quite alive, from the rushing and +walloping of numberless fishes, who were tearing the prey piecemeal. +The view was any thing but pleasant, and I naturally turned my eyes +forward to see what was going on in the bows of the schooner. I was +startled from the number of black faces which I saw. + +"Why, Mr Tailtackle, how many of these poor creatures have we on board?" + +"There are fifty-nine, sir, under hatches in the fore-hold," said +Timothy, "and thirty-five on deck; but I hope we shan't have them long, +sir. It looks like a breeze to windward. We shall have it before long, +sir." + +At this moment Mr Bang came on deck. + +"Lord, Tom, I thought it was a flea-bite, last night, but, mercy, I am +as stiff and sore as a gentleman need be. How do you feel? I see you +have one of your fins in a sling--eh?" + +"I am a little stiff, certainly; however, that will go off; but come +forward here, my dear sir; come here, and look at this shot-hole--saw +you ever anything like that?" + +This was the smashing of one of our pumps from a round shot, the +splinters from which were stuck into the bottom of the launch, which +overhung it, forming really a figure very like the letter A. + +"Don't take it to myself, Tom--no, not at all." + +At this moment the black savages on the forecastle discovered our +friend, and shouts of "Sheik Cocoloo" rent the skies. Mr Bang, for a +moment, appeared startled, so far as I could judge, he had forgotten +that part of his exploit, and did not know what to make of it, until at +last the actual meaning seemed to flash on him, when, with a shout of +laughter, he bolted in through the opening of the flags to his former +quarters below the awning. I descended to the cabin, breakfast having +been announced, and sat down to our meal, confronted by Paul Gelid and +Pepperpot Wagtail. Presently we heard Aaron sing out, the small skuttle +being right overhead, "Pegtop, come here, Pegtop, I say, help me on with +my neckcloth--so--that will do; now I shall go on deck. Why, Pearl, my +boy, what do you want?" and before Pearl could get a word in, Aaron +continued, "I say, Pearl, go to the other end of the ship, and tell your +Coromantee friends that it is all a humbug that I am not the Sultan +Cocoloo; farther more, that I have not a feather in my tail like a palm +branch, of the truth of which I offer to give them ocular proof." + +Pearl made his salaam. "Oh, sir, I fear that we must not say too much +on that subject; we have not irons for one half of them savage negirs;" +the fellow was as black as a coal himself; "and were they to be +undeceived, why, reduced as our crew is, they might at any time rise on, +and massacre the whole watch." + +"The devil!" we could hear friend Aaron say; "oh, then, go forward, and +assure them that I am a bigger ostrich than ever, and I shall astonish +them presently, take my word for it. Pegtop, come here, you scoundrel," +he continued; "I say, Pegtop, get me out my uniform coat,"--our friend +was a captain of Jamaica militia--"so--and my sword--that will do--and +here, pull off my trowsers it will be more classical to perambulate in +my shirt, in case it really be necessary to persuade them that the palm +branch was all a figure of speech. Now, my hat--there--walk before me, +and fan me with the top of that herring barrel." + +This was a lid of one of the wadding-tubs, which, to come up to +Jigmaree's notions of neatness, had been fitted with covers, and forth +stumped Bang, preceded by Pegtop doing the honours. But the instant he +appeared from beneath the flags, the same wild shout arose from the +captive slaves forward, and such of them as were not fettered, +immediately began to bundle and tumble round our friend, rubbing their +flat noses and woolly heads all over him, and taking hold of the hem of +his garment, whereby his personal decency was so seriously periled, +that, after an unavailing attempt to shake them off, he fairly bolted, +and ran for shelter, once more, under the awning, amidst the suppressed +mirth of the whole crew, Aaron himself laughing louder than any of them +all the while. "I say, Tom, and fellow sufferers," quoth he, after he +had run to earth under the awning, and looking down the scuttle into the +cabin where we were at breakfast, "how am I to get into the cabin? if I +go out on the quarterdeck but one arm's length, in order to reach the +companion, these barbarians will be at me again. Ah, I see." + +Whereupon, without more ado, he stuck his legs down through the small +hatch right over the breakfast table, with the intention of descending, +and the first thing he accomplished, was to pop his foot into a large +dish of scalding hominy, or hasty-pudding, made of Indian corn meal, +with which Wagtail was in the habit of commencing his stowage at +breakfast. But this proving too hot for comfort, he instantly drew it +out, and in his attempt to reascend, he stuck his bespattered toe into +Paul Gelid's mouth. "Oh! oh!" exclaimed Paul, while little Wagtail lay +back laughing like to die; but the next instant Bang gave another +struggle, or wallop, like a pelloch in shoal-water, whereby Pepperpot +borrowed a good kick on the side of the head, and down came the Great +Ostrich, Aaron Bang, but without any feather in his tail, as I can +avouch, slap upon the table, smashing cups and saucers, and hominy, and +devil knows what all, to pieces, as he floundered on the board. This +was so absurd, that we were all obliged to give uncontrolled course to +our mirth for a minute or two, when, making the best of the wreck, we +contrived to breakfast in tolerable comfort. + +Soon after the meal was finished, a light air enabled us once more to +lie our course, and we gradually crept to the northward, until twelve +o'clock in the forenoon, after which time it fell calm again. I went +down to the cabin; Bang had been overhauling my small library, when a +shelf gave way (the whole affair having been injured by a round shot in +the action, which had tom right through the cabin), so down came several +scrolls, rolled up, and covered with brown paper. + +"What are all these?" I could hear our friend say. "They are my logs," +said I. + +"Your what?" + +"My private journals." + +"Oh, I see," said Aaron. "I will have a turn at them, with your +permission. But what is this so carefully bound with red tape, and +sealed, and marked--let me see, 'Thomas Cringle, his log-book.'" + +He looked at me.--"Why, my dear sir, to say the truth, that is my first +attempt; full of trash, believe me;--what else could you expect, from so +mere a lad as I was when I wrote it?" + +"The child is father to the man, Tom, my boy; so may I peruse it; may +I read it for the edification of my learned allies,--Pepperpot +Wagtail, and Paul Gelid, esquires?" + +"Certainly," I replied, "no objection in the world, but you will laugh +at me, I know; still, do as you please, only, had you not better have +your wound dressed first?" + +"My wound! Poo, poo! just enough to swear by--a flea-bite never mind +it; so here goes"--and he read aloud what is detailed in the "Launching +of the Log," making his remarks with so much naivete, that I daresay the +reader will be glad to hear a few of them. His anxiety, for instance, +when he read of the young aide-de-camp being shot and dragged by the +stirrup, to know "what became of the empty horse," was very +entertaining; and when he had read the description of Davoust's face and +person, where I describe his nose, as neither fine nor dumpy--a fair +enough proboscis as noses go, he laid down the Log with the most +laughable seriousness. + +"Now," quoth he, "very inexplicit all this, Tom. Why, I am most curious +in noses. I judge of character altogether from the nose. I never lose +sight of a man's snout, albeit I never saw the tip of my own. You may +rely on it, that it is all a mistake to consider the regular Roman nose, +with a curve like a shoemaker's paring knife, or the straight Grecian, +with a thin transparent ridge, that you can see through, or the Deutsch +meerschaum, or the Saxon pump-handle, or the Scotch mull, or any other +nose, that can be taken hold of, as the standard gnomon. No, no; I +never saw a man with a large nose who was not a blockhead--eh! Gelid, +my love? The pimple for me--the regular pimple but allons."--And where, +having introduced the German refugees to Captain Deadeye, I go on to say +that I thereupon dived into the midshipmen's berth for a morsel of +comfort, and was soon "far into the secrets of a pork pie,"--he lay +back, and exclaimed with a long drawling emphasis--"A pork pie!" + +"A pork pie!" said Paul Gelid. + +"Why, do you know," said Mr Wagtail--"I--why, I never in all my life saw +a pork pie." + +"My dear Pepperpot," chimed in Gelid, "we both forget. Don't you +remember the day we dined with the Admiral at the pen, in July last?" + +"No," said Wagtail, "I totally forget it." Bang, I saw was all this +while chuckling to himself--"I absolutely forget it altogether." + +"Bless me," said Gelid, "don't you remember the beautiful calipeever we +had that day?" + +"Really I do not," said Pepperpot, "I have had so many good feeds +there." + +"Why," continued Gelid, "Lord love you, Wagtail, not remember that +calipeever, so crisp in the broiling?" + +"No," said Wagtail, "really I do not." + +"Lord, man, it had a pudding in its belly." + +"Oh, now I remember," said Wagtail. + +Bang laughed outright, and I could not help making a hole in my manners +also, even prepared as I was for my jest by my sable crony Pegtop.--To +proceed. + +Aaron looked at me with one of his quizzical grins; "Cringle, my +darling, do you keep these Logs still?" + +"I do, my dear sir, invariably." + +"What," struck in little Wagtail, "the deuce!--for instance shall I, and +Paul, and Aaron there, all be embalmed or preserved" ("Say pickled," +quoth the latter) "in these said Logs of yours?" This was too absurd, +and I could not answer my allies for laughing. As for Gelid, he had +been swaying himself backwards and forwards, half asleep, on the hind +legs of his chair all this while, puffing away at a cigar. + +"Ah!" said he half asleep, and but partly overhearing what was going on; +"ah, Tom, my dear, you don't say that we shall all be handed down to our +poster"--a long yawn--"to our poster" another yawn--when Bang, watching +his opportunity as he sat opposite, gently touched one of the fore-legs +of the balanced chair with his toe, while he finished Gelid's sentence +by interjecting, "iors," as the conch fell back and floundered over on +his stem; his tormentor drawling out in wicked mimicry. + +"Yes, dear Gelid, so sure as you have been landed down on your +posteriors now--ah--you shall be handed down to your posterity +hereafter, by that pestilent little scamp Cringle. Ah, Tom, I know you. +Paul, Paul, it will be paulo postfuturum with you, my lad." + +Here we were interrupted by my steward's entering with his tallow face. +"Dinner on the table, sir." We adjourned accordingly. + +After dinner we carried on very much as usual, although the events of +the previous day had their natural effect; there was little mirth, and +no loud laughter. Once more we all turned in, the calm still +continuing, and next morning after breakfast, friend Aaron took to the +Log again. + + +But the most amusing exhibition took place when he came to the +description of the row in the dark stair at the agent's house, where the +negroes fight for the scraps, and capsize Treenail, myself, and the +brown lady, down the steps. + +"Why, I say, Tom," again quoth Aaron, "I never knew before, that you +were in Jamaica at the period you here write of." + +"Why, my dear sir, I scarcely can say that I was there, my visit was +so hurried." + +"Hurried!" rejoined he, "hurried--by no means; were you not in the +island for four or five hours? Ah, long enough to have authorized your +writing an anti-slavery pamphlet of one hundred and fifty pages." + +I smiled. + +"Oh, you may laugh, my boy, but it is true--what a subject for an anti-- +slavery lecture--listen and be instructed." Here our friend shook +himself as a bruiser does to ascertain that all is right before he +throws up his guard, and for the first five minutes he only jerked his +right shoulder this way and his left shoulder t'other way, while his +fins walloped down against his sides like empty sleeves; at length, as +he warmed, he stretched forth his arms like Saint Paul in the Cartoon +and although he now and then could not help sticking his tongue in his +cheek, still the exhibition was so true and so exquisitely comical, that +I never shall forget it.--"The whole white inhabitants of Kingston are +luxurious monsters, living in more than Eastern splendour; and their +universal practice, during their magnificent repasts, is to entertain +themselves, by compelling their black servants to belabour each other +across the pate with silver ladles, and to stick drumsticks of turkeys +down each other's throats. Merciful heaven! only picture the miserable +slaves, each with the spaul of a turkey sticking in his gob; dwell upon +that, my dearly beloved hearers, dwell upon that--and then let those who +have the atrocious hardihood to do so, speak of the kindliness of the +planters hearts. Kindliness! kindliness, to cram the leg of a turkey +down a man's throat, while his yoke-fellow in bondage is fracturing his +tender woolly skull--for all negroes, as is well known, have craniums, +much thinner, and more fragile than an egg-shell--with so tremendous a +weapon as a silver ladle? Ay, a silver ladle!!! Some people make light +of a silver ladle as an instrument of punishment--it is spoken of as a +very slight affair, and that the blows inflicted by it are mere child's +play. If any of you, my beloved hearers, labour under this delusion, +and will allow me, for your edification, to hammer you about the chops +with one of the aforesaid silver soup-ladles of those yellow tyrants, +for one little half hour, I pledge myself the delusion shall be +dispelled once and for ever. Well then, after this fearful scene has +continued for, I dare not say how long--the black butler--ay, the black +butler, a slave himself--oh, my friends, even the black butlers are +slaves the very men who minister the wine in health which maketh their +hearts glad, and the castor oil in sickness, which maketh them any thing +but of a cheerful countenance--this very black butler is desired, on +peril of having a drumstick stuck into his own gizzard also, and his +skull fractured by the aforesaid iron ladles--red hot, it may be--ay, +and who shall say they are not full of molten lead? yes, molten lead-- +does not our reverend brother Lachrimac Roarem say that the ladles might +have been full of molten lead, and what evidence have we on the other +side, that they were not full of molten lead? Why, none at all, none-- +nothing but the oaths of all the naval and military officers who have +ever served in these pestilent settlements; and of all the planters and +merchants in the West Indies, the interested planters--those planters +who suborn all the navy and army to a man--those planters whose molasses +is but another name for human blood. (Here a large puff and blow, and a +swabification of the white handkerchief, while the congregation blow a +flourish of trumpets.) My friends--(another puff)--my friends--we all +know, my friends, that bullocks blood is largely used in the sugar +refineries in England, but, alas! there is no bullocks blood used in +the refineries in the West Indies. This I will prove to you on the oath +of six dissenting clergymen. No. What then is the inference? Oh, is it +not palpable? Do you not every day, as jurors, hang men on +circumstantial evidence? Are not many of yourselves hanged and +transported every year, on the simple fact being proved, of your being +found stooping down in pity over some poor fellow with a broken head, +with your hands in his breeches pockets in order to help him up? And can +you fail to draw the proper inference in the present case? Oh, no! no! +my friends, it is the blood of the negroes that is used in these +refining pandemoniums of the poor negroes, who are worth one hundred +pounds apiece to their masters, and on whose health and capacity for +work these same planters absolutely and entirely depend." + +Here our friend gathered all his energies, and began to roar like a +perfect bull of Bashan, and to swing his arms about like the sails of a +windmill, and to stamp and jump, and lollop about with his body as he +went on. + +"Well, this butler, this poor black butler--this poor black slave butler +this poor black Christian slave butler--for he may have been a +Christian, and most likely was a Christian, and indeed must have been a +Christian--is enforced, after all the cruelties already related, on pain +of being choked with the leg of a turkey himself, and having molten lead +poured down his own throat, to do what?--who would not weep?--to--to--to +chuck each of his fellow-servants, poor miserable creatures! each with +a bone in his throat, and molten lead in his belly, and a fractured +skull--to chuck them, neck and croup, one after another, down a dark +staircase, a pitch-dark staircase, amidst a chaos of plates and dishes, +and the hardest and most expensive china, and the finest cut crystal-- +that the wounds inflicted may be the keener and silver spoons, and +knives and forks. Yea, my Christian brethren, carving knives and +pitchforks right down on the top of their brown mistresses, who are +thereby invariably bruised like the clown in the pantomime--at least as +I am told he is, for I never go to such profane Places--oh, no!--bruised +as flat as pancakes, and generally murdered outright on the spot. Last +of all the landlord gets up, and kicks the miserable butler himself down +after his mates, into the very heart of the living mass; and this not +once and away, but every day in the week, Sundays not excepted. Oh, my +dear, dear hearers, can you can you, with your fleshy hearts thumping +and bumping against your small ribs, forget the black butler, and the +mulatto concubines, and the pitchforks, and the iron ladles full of +molten lead? My feelings overpower me, I must conclude. Go in peace, +and ponder these things in your hearts, and pay your sixpences at the +doors.--Exeunt omnes, piping their eyes, and blowing their noses." + +Our shouts of laughter interrupted our friend, who never moved a muscle. + +Again, where old Crowfoot asks his steward--"How does the privateer +lay?" + +"There again now," said Aaron, with an irritable grin,--"why, Tom, your +style is most pestilent--you lay here and you lay there--are you sure +that you are not a hen, Tom?" + +One more touch at Massa Aaron, and I have done. After coming to the +description of the horrible carnage that the fire from the Transport +caused on the privateer's deck before she sheered off, I remarked "I +never recall that early and dismal scene to my recollection,--the awful +havoc created on the schooner's deck by our fire, the struggling, and +crawling, and wriggling of the dark mass of wounded men, as they +endeavoured, fruitlessly, to shelter themselves from our guns, even +behind the dead bodies of their slain shipmates--without conjuring up a +very fearful and harrowing image." + +"Were you ever at Biggleswade, my dear sir?" + +"To be sure I have," said Mr Bang. + +"Then did you ever see an eel-pot, with the water drawn off, when the +snake-like fish were twining, and twisting, and crawling, like +Brobdignag maggots, in living knots, a horrible and disgusting mass of +living abomination, amidst the filthy slime at the bottom?" + +"Ach--have done, Tom--hang your similes. Can't you cut your coat by me, +man? Only observe the delicacy of mine." + +"The corby craw for instance," said I, laughing. + +"Ever at Biggleswade!" struck in Paul Gelid. "Ever at Biggleswade! +Lord love you, Cringle, we have all been at Biggleswade. Don't you +know," (how he conceived I should have known, I am sure I never could +tell,) "don't you know that Wagtail and I once made a voyage to England, +ay, in the hurricane months, too--ah--for the express purpose of eating +eels there,--and Lord, Tom, my dear fellow," (here he sunk his voice +into a most dolorous key,) "let me tell you that we were caught in a +hurricane, in the Gulf, and very nearly lost, when, instead of eating +eels, sharks would have eaten usah--and at length driven into Havannah-- +ah. And when we did get home"--(here I thought my excellent friend +would have cried outright)--"Lord, sir! we found that the fall was not +the season to eat eels in after all--ah--that is, in perfection. But we +found out from Whiffle, whom we met in town, and who had learned it from +the guard of the North mail, that one of the last season's pots was +still on hand at Biggleswade; so down we trundled in the mail that very +evening." + +"And don't you remember the awful cold I caught that night, being +obliged to go outside?" quoth Waggy. + +"Ah, and so you did, my dear fellow," continued his ally. + +"But gracious--on alighting, we found that the agent of a confounded +gormandizing Lord Mayor had that very evening boned the entire contents +of the only remaining pot, for a cursed livery dinnerah. Eels, indeed! +we got none but those of the new catch, full of mud, and tasting of mud +and red worms. Wagtail was really very ill in consequence--ah." + +Pepperpot had all this while listened with mute attention, as if the +narrative had been most moving, and I question not he thought so; but +Bang--oh, the rogue!--looked also very grave and sympathizing, but there +was a laughing devil in his eye, that showed he was inwardly enjoying +the beautiful rise of his friends. + +We were here interrupted by a hail from the look-out man at the +masthead,----'Land right a-head.' + +"What does it look like?" said I. + +"It makes in low hummocks, sir. Now I see houses on the highest one." + +"Hurrah, Nassau, New Providence, ho!" + +Shortly after we made the land about Nassau, the breeze died away, and +it fell nearly calm. + +"I say, Thomas," quoth Aaron, "for this night at least we must still be +your guests, and lumber you on board of your seventy-four. No chance, +so far as I see, of getting into port to-night; at least if we do, it +will be too late to go on shore." + +He said truly, and we therefore made up our mind to sit down once more +to our rough and round dinner, in the small, hot, choky cabin of the +Wave. As it happened, we were all in high glee. I flattered myself +that my conduct in the late affair would hoist me up a step or two on +the roster for promotion, and my excellent friends were delighted at the +idea of getting on shore. + +After the cloth had been drawn, Mr Bang opened his fire. + +"Tom, my boy, I respect your service, but I have no great ambition to +belong to it. I am sure no bribe that I am aware of could ever tempt me +to make 'my home upon the deep,' and I really am not sure that it is a +very gentlemanly calling after all.--Nay, don't look glum; what I meant +was, the egregious weariness of spirit you must all undergo from +consorting with the same men day after day, hearing the same jokes +repeated for the hundredth time, and, whichever way you turn, seeing the +same faces morning, noon, and night, and listening to the same voices. +Oh! I should die in a year's time were I to become a sailor." + +"But," rejoined I, "you have your land bores in the same way that we +have our sea bores; and we have this advantage over you, that if the +devil should stand at the door, we can always escape from them sooner or +later, and can buoy up our souls with the certainty that we can so +escape from them at the end of the cruise at the farthest; whereas if +you happen to have taken root amidst a colony of bores on shore, why you +never can escape, unless you sacrifice all your temporalities for that +purpose; ergo, my dear sir, our life has its advantages, and yours has +it disadvantages." + +"Too true--too true," rejoined Mr Bang. "In fact, judging from my own +small experience, Borism is fast attaining a head it never reached +before. Speechifying is the crying and prominent vice of the age. Why +will the ganders not recollect that eloquence is the gift of heaven, +Thomas? A man may improve it unquestionably, but the Promethean fire, +the electrical spark, must be from on high. No mental perseverance or +education could ever have made a Demosthenes, or a Cicero, in the ages +long past; nor an Edmund Burke." + +"Nor an Aaron Bang in times present," said I. + +"Hide my roseate blushes, Thomas," quoth Aaron, as he continued--"Would +that men would speak according to their gifts, study Shakspeare and Don +Quixote, and learn of me; and that the real blockhead would content +himself with speaking when he is spoken to, drinking when he is drunken +to, and ganging to the kirk when the bell rings. You never can go into +a party nowadays, that you don't meet with some shallow, prosing, +pestilent ass of a fellow, who thinks that empty sound is conversation; +and not unfrequently there is a spice of malignity in the blockhead's +composition; but a creature of this calibre you can wither, for it is +not worth crushing, by withholding the sunshine of your countenance from +it, or by leaving it to drivel on, until the utter contempt of the whole +company claps to change the figure--a wet night--cap as an extinguisher +on it, and its small stinking flame flickers and goes out of itself. +Then there is your sentimental water-fly, who blaws in the lugs of the +women, and clips the King's English, and your high-flying dominie body, +who whumles them outright. I speak in a figure. But all these are as +dust in the balance to the wearisome man of ponderous acquirements, the +solemn blockhead who usurps the pas, and if he happen to be rich, +fancies himself entitled to prose and palaver away, as if he were Sir +Oracle, or as if the pence in his purse could ever fructify the cauld +parritch in his pate into pregnant brain. There is a plateful of P's +for you at any rate, Tom. Beautiful exemplification of the art +alliterative--an't it?" + + 'Oh that Heaven the gift would gie us, + To see ourselves as others see us!' + +My dear boy, speechifying has extinguished conversation. Public +meetings, God knows, are rife enough, and why will the numskulls not +confine their infernal dullness to them? why not be satisfied with +splitting the ears of the groundlings there? why will they not consider +that convivial conversation should be lively as the sparkle of musketry, +brilliant, sharp, and sprightly, and not like the thundering of heavy +cannon, or heavier bombs.--But no--you shall ask one of the Drawleys +across the table to take wine. 'Ah,' says he--and how he makes out the +concatenation, God only knows--'this puts me in mind, Mr Thingumbob, of +what happened when I was chairman of the county club, on such a day. +Alarming times these were, and deucedly nervous I was when I got up to +return thanks. My friends, said I, this unexpected and most unlooked-- +for honour--this'--Here blowing all your breeding to the winds, you +fire a question across his bows into the fat pleasant fellow, who speaks +for society beyond him, and expect to find that the dull sailor has +hauled his wind, or dropped astern--(do you twig how nautical I have +become in my lingo under Tailtackle's tuition, Tom?)--but, alas! no +sooner has the sparkle of our fat friend's wit lit up the whole +worshipful society, than at the first lull, down comes Drawley again +upon you, like a heavy-sterned Dutch dogger, right before the wind--'As +I was saying--this unexpected and most unlooked-for honour'--and there +you are pinned to the stake, and compelled to stand the fire of all his +blunt bird-boltst for half an hour on end. At length his mud has all +dribbled from him, and you hug yourself--'Ah,--come, here is a talking +man opening his fire, so we shall have some conversation at last.' But +alas and alack a day! Prosey the second chimes in, and works away, and +hems and haws, and hawks up some old scraps of schoolboy Latin and +Greek, which are all Hebrew to you, honest man, until at length he +finishes off by some solemn twaddle about fossil turnips and vitrified +brickbats; and thus concludes Fozy No. 2. Oh, shade of Edie Ochiltree! +that we should stand in the taunt of such unmerciful spendthrifts of our +time on earth! Besides, the devil of it is, that whatever may be said +of the flippant palaverers, the heavy bores are generally most excellent +and amiable men, so that one can't abuse the sumphs with any thing like +a quiet conscience." + +"Come," said I, "my dear sir, you are growing satirical." + +"Quarter less three," sung out the leadsman in the chains. + +We were now running in past the end of Hog Island to the port of Nassau, +where the lights were sparkling brightly. We anchored, but it was too +late to go on shore that evening, so, after a parting glass of swizzle, +we all turned in for the night. + +To be near the wharf, for the convenience of refitting, I had run the +schooner close in, being aware of the complete security of the harbour, +so that in the night I could feel the little vessel gently take the +ground. This awoke me and several of the crew, for accustomed as +sailors are to the smooth bounding motion of a buoyant vessel, rising +and falling on the heaving bosom of the ocean, the least touch on the +solid ground, or against any hard floating substance, thrills to their +hearts with electrical quickness. Through the thin bulkhead I could +hear the officers speaking to each other. + +"We are touching the ground," said one. + +"And if we be, there is no sea here--all smooth-land-locked entirely," +quoth another. + +So all hands of us, except the watch on deck, snoozed away once more +into the land of deep forgetfulness. We had all for some days +previously been over-worked, and over-fatigued; indeed, ever since the +action had caused the duty of the little vessel to devolve on one half +of her original crew, those who had escaped had been subjected to great +privations, and were nearly worn out. + +It might have been four bells in the middle watch, when I was awakened +by the discontinuance of Mr Swop's heavy step over head; but judging +that the poor fellow might have toppled over into a slight temporary +snooze, I thought little of it, persuaded as I was that the vessel was +lying in the most perfect safety. In this belief I was falling over +once more, when I heard a short startled grunt from one of the men in +the steerage,--then a sudden sharp exclamation from another--a louder +ejaculation of surprise from a third--and presently Mr Wagtail, who was +sleeping on a matrass spread on the locker below me, gave a spluttering +cough. A heavy splash followed, and, simultaneously, several of the men +forward shouted out "Ship MI of water--water up to our hammocks;" while +Waggy, who had rolled off his narrow couch, sang out at the top of his +pipe, "I am drowned, Bang. Tom Cringle, my dear--Gelid, I am drowned-- +we are all drowned--the ship is at the bottom of the sea, and we shall +have eels enough here, if we had none at Biggleswade. Oh! murder! +murder!" + +"Sound the well," I could hear Tailtackle, who had run on deck, sing +out. + +"No use in that," I called out, as I splashed out of my warm cot, up to +my knees in water. + +"Bring a light, Mr Tailtackle; a bottom plank must have started, or a +but, or a hidden-end. The schooner is full of water beyond doubt, and +as the tide is still making, stand by to hoist out the boats, and get +the wounded into them. But don't be alarmed, men; the schooner is on +the ground, and it is near high-water. So be cool and quiet. Don't +bother now--don't." + +By the time I had finished my extempore speech I was on deck, where I +soon found that, in very truth, there was no use in sounding the well, +or manning the pumps either, as some wounded plank had been crushed out +bodily by the pressure of the vessel when she took the ground; and there +she lay--the tidy little Wave--regularly bilged, with the tide flowing +into her. + +Every one of the crew was now on the alert. Bedding and bags and some +provisions were placed in the boats of the schooner; and several craft +from the shore, hearing the alarm, were now alongside; so danger there +was none, except that of catching cold, and I therefore bethought me of +looking in on my guests in the cabin. I descended and waded into our +late dormitory with a candle in my hand and the water nearly up to my +waist. I there found my steward, also with a light, splashing about in +the water, catching a stray hat here, and fishing up a spare coat there, +and anchoring a chair, with a piece of spunyarn, to the pillar of the +small side-berth on the starboard side, while our friend Massa Aaron +was coolly lying in his cot on the larboard, the bottom of which was by +this time within an inch of the surface of the water, and bestirring +himself in an attempt to get his trowsers on, which by some lucky chance +he had stowed away under his pillow overnight, and there he was sticking +up first one peg and then another, until by sidling and shifting in his +narrow lair, he contrived to rig himself in his nether garments. "But, +steward, my good man," he was saying when I entered, "where is my coat, +eh?" The man groped for a moment down in the water, which his nose +dipped into, with his shirt-sleeves tucked up to his arm-pits, and +then held up some dark object, that, to me at least, looked like a piece +of black cloth hooked out of a dyer's vat. Alas! this was Massa Aaron's +coat; and while the hats were bobbing at each other in the other corner +like seventy-fours, with a squadron of shoes in their wakes, and +Wagtail was sitting in the side-berth with his wet night-gown drawn +about him, his muscular development in high relief through the clinging +drapery, and bemoaning his fate in the most pathetic manner--that can be +conceived, our ally Aaron exclaimed, "I say, Tom, how do you like the +cut of my Sunday coat, eh?" while our friend Paul Gelid, who it seems +had slept through the whole row, was at length startled out of his +sleep, and sticking one of his long shanks over the side of his cot in +act to descend, immersed it in the cold salt brine. + +"Lord! Wagtail," he exclaimed, "my dear fellow, the cabin is full of +water--we are sinking--ah! Deucedly annoying to be drowned in this +hole, amidst dirty water, like a tubful of ill--washed potatoes--ah." + +"Tom--Tom Cringle," shouted Mr Bang at this juncture, while he looked +over the edge of his cot on the stramash below, "saw ever any man the +like of that? Why, see there--there, just under your candle, Tom--a +bird's nest floating about with a mavis in it, as I am a gentleman." + +"D----n your bird's nest and mavis too, whatever that may be," roared +little Mr Pepperpot. + +"By Jupiter, it is my wig, with a live rat in it." + +"Confound your wig!--ah," quoth Paul, as the steward fished up what I +took at first for a pair of brimfull water-stoups. "Zounds! look at my +boots." + +"And confound both the wig and boots, say I," sung out Mr Bang. "Look +at my Sunday coat. Why, who set the ship onfire, Tom?" + +Here his eye caught mine, and a few words sufficed to explain how we +were situated, and then the only bother was how to get ashore, and where +we were to sojourn, so as to have our clothes dried, as nothing could +now be done until daylight. I therefore got our friends safely into a +Nassau boat alongside, with their wet trunks and portmanteaus in charge +of their black servants, and left them to fish their way to their +lodging-house as they best could. By this, the wounded and the sound +part of the crew had been placed on board of two merchant brigs, that +lay close to us; and the masters of them proving accommodating men, I +got them alongside, as the tide flowed, one on the starboard, the other +on the larboard side, right over the Wave; and next forenoon, when they +took the ground, we rigged two spare topmasts from one vessel to another, +and making the main and fore rigging of the schooner fast to them, as the +tide once more made, we weighed her, and floated her alongside of the +sheer-hulk, against which we were enabled to heave her out, so as to get +at the leak, and then by rigging bilge-pumps, we contrived to free her +and keep her dry. The damaged plank was soon removed; and, being in a +fair way to surmount all my difficulties, about half-past five in the +evening I equipped myself in dry clothes, and proceeded on shore to call +on our friends at their new domicile. When I entered. I was shown into +the dining hall by my ally, Pegtop. + +"Massa will be here presently, sir." + +"Oh--tell him he need not hurry himself:--But how are Mr Bang and his +friends?" + +"Oh, dem all wery so so, only Massa Wagtail hab take soch a terrible +cold, dat him tink he is going to dead; him wery sorry for himshef, for +true massa." + +"But where are the gentlemen, Pegtop?" + +"All, every one on dem, is in him bed. Wet clothes have been drying all +day." + +"And when do they mean to dine?" + +Here Pegtop doubled himself up, and laughed like to split himself. + +"Dem is all dining in bed, Massa. Shall I show you to dem?" + +"I shall be obliged; but don't let me intrude. Give my compliments, and +say I have looked in simply to enquire after their health." + +Here Mr Wagtail shouted from the inner apartment. + +"Hillo! Tom, my boy! Tom Cringle!--here, my lad, here!" + +I was shown into the room from whence the voice proceeded, which +happened to be Massa Aaron's bedroom: and there were my three friends +stretched on sofas, in their night-clothes, with a blanket, sheet, and +counterpane over each, forming three sides of a square round a long +table, on which a most capital dinner was smoking, with wines of several +kinds, and a perfect galaxy of wax candles, and their sable valets, in +nice clean attire, and smart livery coats, waiting on them. + +"Ah, Tom," quoth Massa Paul, "delighted to see you,--come, you seem to +have dry clothes on, so take the head of the table." + +I did so; and broke ground forthwith with great zeal. + +"Tom, a glass of wine, my dear," said Aaron. "Don't you admire us +classical, after the manner of the ancients, eh? Wagtail's head-dress, +and Paul's night-cap--oh, the comforts of a woollen one! Ah, Tom, Tom, +the Greeks had no Kilmamock--none." + +We all carried on cheerily, and Bang began to sparkle. + +"Well, now since you have weighed the schooner and found not much +wanting I feel my spirits rising again.--A glass of champagne, Tom, +your health, boy.--The dip the old hooker has got must have surprises +the rats and cockroaches. Do you know, Tom, I really have an idea of +writing a history of the cruise; only I am deterred from the melancholy +consciousness that every blockhead nowadays fancies he can write." + +"Why, my dear sir, are you not coquetting for a compliment? Don't we +all know, that many of the crack articles in Ebony's Mag" "Bah," +clapping his hand on my mouth; "hold your tongue; all wrong in that...." + +"Well, if it be not you then, I scarcely know to whom to attribute them. +Until lately, I only knew you as the warm hearted West Indian +gentleman; but now I am certain I am to...." + +"Tom, hold your tongue, my beautiful little man. For, although I must +plead guilty to having mixed a little in literary society in my younger +days--Alas! my heart, those days are gane." + +"Ah, Mr Swop," continued Mr Bang, as the master was ushered into the +room. "Plate and glasses for Mr Swop." + +The sailor bowed, perched himself on the very edge of his chair, +scarcely within long arm's length of the table, and sitting bolt +upright, as if he had swallowed a spare studdingsail-boom, drank our +healths, and smoothed down his hair on his brow. + +"Captain, I come to report the schooner ready to..." + +"Poo," rattled out Mr Bang; "time for your tale by and by;--help +yourself to some of that capital beef, Peter,--So--Yes, my love," +continued our friend, resuming his yarn. "I once coped even with John +Wilson himself. Yea, in the fullness of my powers, I feared not even +the Professor." + +"Indeed!" said I. + +"True, as I am a gentleman. Why, I once, in a public trial of skill, +beat him, even him, by eighteen measured inches, from toe to heel." + +I stared. + +"I was the slighter man of the two, certainly. Still, in a flying leap, +I always had the best of it, until he astonished the world with the Isle +of Palms. From that day forth, my springiness and elasticity left me. +Fallen was my muscles brawny vaunt. I quailed. My genius stood rebuked +before him. Nevertheless, at hop-step-and-jump I was his match +still. When out came the City of the Plague! From that the Great +Ostrich could not hold the candle to the Flying Philosopher. And now, +heaven help me! I can scarcely cover nineteen feet, with every +advantage of ground for the run. It is true, the Professor was always +in condition, and never required training; now, unless I had time for my +hard food, I was seldom in wind." + +Mr Peter Swop, emboldened and brightened by the wine he had so +industriously swilled, and willing to contribute his quota of +conversation, having previously jumbled in his noddle what Mr Bang had +said about an ostrich, and hard food, asked, across the table "Do you +believe ostriches eat iron, Mr Bang?" + +Mr Bang slowly put down his glass, and looking with the most +imperturbable seriousness the innocent master right in the face, +exclaimed: + +"Ostriches eat iron!--Do I believe ostriches eat iron, did you say, Mr +Swop? Will you have the great kindness to tell me if this glass of +madeira be poison, Mr Swop? Why, when Captain Cringle there was in the +Bight of Benin, from which 'One comes out where a hundred go in,' on +board of the--what--d'ye-call-her? I forget her name--they had a tame +ostrich, which was the wonder of the whole squadron. At the first go +off it had plenty of food, but at length they had to put it on short +allowance of a Winchester bushel of tenpenny nails and a pump-bolt a +day; but their supplies failing, they had even to reduce this quantity, +whereby the poor bird, after unavailing endeavours to get at the iron +ballast, was driven to pick out the iron bolts of the ship in the clear +moonlight nights, when no one was thinking of it; so that the craft +would soon have been a perfect wreck. And as the commodore would not +hear of the creature being killed, Tom there undertook to keep it on +copper bolts and sheathing until they reached Cape Coast. But it would +not do; the copper soured on its stomach, and it died. Believe an +ostrich eats iron, quotha! But to return to the training for the jump +I used to stick to beef-steaks and a thimbleful of Burton ale; and +again I tried the dried knuckle parts of legs of five-year-old black +faced muttons; but, latterly, I trained best, so far as wind was +concerned, on birsled pease and whisky...." + +"On what?" shouted I, in great astonishment. "On what?" + +"Yes, my boys; parched pease and whisky. Charge properly with birsled +pease, and if you take a caulkers just as you begin your run, there is +the linstock to the gun for you, and away you fly through the air on the +self-propelling principle of the Congreve Rocket. Well might that +amiable, and venerable, and most learned Theban, Cockibus Bungo, who +always held the stakes on these great occasions, exclaim, in his +astonishment, to Cheesey, the janitor of many days--as 'Like fire from +flint I glanced away,' disdaining the laws of gravitation--by Mercury, I +swear,--yea, by his winged heel, I shall have at the Professor yet, if I +live, and whisky and birsled pease fail me not." + +Here Paul and I laughed outright; but Mr Wagtail appeared out of sorts, +somehow; and Swop looked first at one, and then at another, with a look +of the most ludicrous uncertainty as to whether Mr Bang was quizzing +him, or telling a verity. + +"Why, Wagtail," said Gelid, "what ails you, my boy?" + +I looked towards our little amiable fat friend. His face was much +flushed, although I learned that he had been unusually abstemious, and +he appeared heated and restless, and had evidently feverish symptoms +about him. + +"Who's there?" said Wagtail, looking towards the door with a raised +look. + +It was Tailtackle, with two of the boys carrying a litter, followed by +Peter Mangrove, as if he had been chief mourner at a funeral. Out of +the litter a black paw, with fishes or splints whipped round it by a +band of spunyam, protruded, and kept swaying about like a pendulum. + +"What have you got there, Mr Tailtackle?" + +The gunner turned round. + +"Oh, it is a vagary of Peter Mangrove's, sir. Not contented with +getting the doctor to set Sneezer's starboard foreleg, he insists on +bringing him away from amongst the people at the capstan-house." + +"True, Massa--Massa Tailtackle say true; de poor dumb dog never shall +cure him leg none at all, mong de men dere; dey all love him so mosh, +and make of him so mosh, and stuff him wid salt wittal so mosh, till him +blood inflammation like a hell; and den him so good temper, and so +gratify wid dere attention, dat I believe him will eat till him +kickeriboo of sorefut, [surfeit, I presumed;] and, beside, I know de dog +healt will instantly mend if him see you. Oh, Massa Aaron, [our friend +was smiling,] it not like you to make fun of poor black fellow, when him +is take de part of soch old friend as poor Sneezer. De Captain dere +cannot laugh, dat is if him will only tink on dat fearful cove at Puerto +Escondido, and what Sneezer did for bote of we dere." + +"Well, well, Mangrove, my man," said Mr Bang, "I will ask leave of my +friends here to have the dog bestowed in a corner of the piazza, so let +the boys lay him down there, and here is a glass of grog for you--so. +Now go back again,"--as the poor fellow had drank our health's. + +Here Sneezer, who had been still as a mouse all this while, put his +black snout out of the hammock, and began to cheep and whine in his +gladness at seeing his master, and the large tears ran down his coal +black muzzle as he licked my hand, while every now and then he gave a +short fondling bark, as if he had said, "Ah, master, I thought you had +forgotten me altogether, ever since the action where I got my leg broke +by a grape-shot, but I find I am mistaken." + +"Now, Tailtackle, what say you?" + +"We may ease off the tackles to-morrow afternoon," said the gunner, +"and right the schooner, sir; we have put in a dozen cashew knees, as +tough as leather, and bolted the planks tight and fast. You saw these +heavy quarters did us no good, sir; I hope you will beautify her again, +now since the Spaniard's shot has pretty well demolished them already. +I hope you won't replace them, sir. I hope Captain Transom may see her +as she should be, as she was when your honour had your first pleasure +cruise in her." Here--but I may have dreamed it I thought the quid in +the honest fellow's cheek stuck out in higher relief than usual for a +short space. + +"We shall see, we shall see," said I. + +"I say, Don Timotheus," quoth Bang, "you don't mean to be off without +drinking our healths?" as he tipped him a tumbler of brandy grog of very +dangerous strength. + +The warrant officer drank it, and vanished, and presently Mr Gelid's +brother, who had just returned from one of the out islands, made his +appearance, and after the greeting between them was over, the stranger +advanced, and with much grace invited us en masse to his house. But by +this time Mr Wagtail was so ill, that we could not move that night, our +chief concern now being to see him properly bestowed; and very soon I +was convinced that his disease was a violent bilious fever. + +The old brown landlady, like all her caste, was a most excellent nurse; +and after the most approved and skilful surgeon of the town had seen +him, and prescribed what was thought right, we all turned in. Next +morning, before any of us were up, a whole plateful of cards were handed +to us, and during the forenoon these were followed by as many +invitations to dinner. We had difficulty in making our election, but +that day I remember we dined at the beautiful Mrs C----'s, and in the +evening adjourned to a ball--a very gay affair; and I do freely avow, +that I never saw so many pretty women in a community of the same size +before. Oh! it was a little paradise, and not without its Eve. But +such an Eve! I scarcely think the old Serpent himself could have found +it in his heart to have beguiled her. + +"I say, Tom, my dear boy," said Mr Bang, "do you see that darling? Oh, +who can picture to himself, without a tear, that such a creature of +light, such an ethereal-looking thing, whose step 'would ne'er wear out +the everlasting flint,' that floating gossamer on the thin air, shall +one day become an anxious-looking, sharp-featured, pale-faced, loud +tongued, thin-bosomed, broad bottomed wife!" + +The next day, or rather in the same night, his Majesty's ship Rabo +arrived, and the first tidings we had of it in the morning were +communicated by Captain Qeuedechat himself, an honest, uproarious +sailor, who chose to begin, as many a worthy ends, by driving up to the +door of the lodging in a cart. + +"Is the Captain of the small schooner that was swamped, here?" he asked +of Massa Pegtop. + +Free and easy this, thought I. + +"Yes, sir, Captain Cringle is here, but him no get up yet." +"Oh, never mind, tell him not to hurry himself; but where is the table +laid for breakfast?" + +"Here, sir," said Pegtop, as he showed him into the piazza. + +"Ah, that will do--so give me the newspaper--tol de rol," and he began +reading and singing, in all the buoyancy of mind consequent on escaping +from shipboard after a three months cruise. + +I dressed and came to him as soon as I could; and the gallant Captain, +whom I had figured to myself a fine light gossamer lad of twenty-two, +stared me in the face as a fat elderly cock of forty at the least; and +as to bulk, I would not have guaranteed that eighteen stone could have +made him kick the beam. However, he was an excellent fellow, and that +day he and his crew were of most essential service in assisting me in +refitting the Wave, for which I shall always be grateful. I had spent +the greater part of the forenoon in my professional duty, but after two +o'clock I had knocked off, in order to make a few calls on the families +to whom I had introductions, and who were afterwards so signally kind to +me. I then returned to our lodgings in order to dress for dinner, before +I sallied forth to worthy old Mr N----'s, where we were all to dine, +when I met Aaron. + +"No chance of our removing to Peter Gelid's this evening." + +"Why?" I asked. + +"Oh, poor Pepperpot Wagtail is become alarmingly ill; inflammatory +symptoms have appeared, and"--Here the colloquy was cut short by the +entrance of Mrs Peter Celid--a pretty woman enough. She had come to +learn herself from our landlady, how Mr Wagtail was, and with the +kindliness of the country, she volunteered to visit poor little Waggy in +his sick-bed. I did not go into the room with her; but when she +returned, she startled us all a good deal, by stating her opinion that +the worthy man was really very ill, in which she was corroborated by the +doctor, who now arrived. So soon as the medico saw him, he bled him, +and after prescribing a lot of effervescing draughts, and various +febrifuge mixtures, he left a large blister with the old brown landlady, +to be applied over his stomach if the wavering and flightiness did not +leave him before morning. We returned early after dinner from Mr N----'s +to our lodgings, and as I knew Gelid was expected at his brother's in +the evening, to meet a large assemblage of kindred, and as the night was +rainy and tempestuous, I persuaded him to trust the watch to me; and as +our brown landlady had been up nearly the whole of the previous night, I +sent for Tailtackle to spell me, while the black valets acted with great +assiduity in their capacity of surgeon's mates. About two in the +morning Mr Wagtail became delirious, and it was all that I could do, +aided by my sable assistants, and an old black nurse, to hold him down +in his bed. Now was the time to clap on the blister, but he repeatedly +tore it off, so that at length we had to give it up for an impracticable +job; and Tailtackle, whom I had called from his pallet, where he had +gone to lie down for an hour, placed the caustico, as the Spaniards call +it, at the side of the bed. + +"No use in trying this any more at present," said I; "we must wait until +he gets quieter, Mr Tailtackle; so go to your bed, and I shall lie down +on this sofa here, where Marie Paparoche" (this was our old landlady) +"has spread sheets, I see, and made all comfortable. And send Mr Bang's +servant, will you;" (friend Aaron had ridden into the country after +dinner to visit a friend, and the storm, as I conjectured, had kept him +there;) "he is fresh, and will call me in case I be wanted, or Mr +Wagtail gets worse." + +I lay down, and soon fell fast asleep, and I remembered nothing, until I +awoke about eleven o'clock next morning, and heard Mr Bang speaking to +Wagtail, at whose bedside he was standing. + +"Pepperpot, my dear, be thankful--you are quite cool--a fine moisture on +your skin this morning--be thankful, my little man how did your blister +rise?" + +"My good friend," quoth Wagtail, in a thin weak voice, "I can't tell--I +don't know; but this I perceive, that I am unable to rise, whether it +has risen or no." + +"Ah--weak," quoth Gelid, who had now entered the room. + +"Nay," said Pepperpot, "not so weak as deucedly sore, and on a very +unromantic spot, my dears." + +"Why," said Aaron, "the pit of the stomach is not a very genteel +department, nor the abdomen neither." + +"Why," said Wagtail, "I have no blister on either of those places, but +if it were possible to dream of such a thing, I would say it had been +clapped on...." + +Here his innate propriety tongue-tied him. + +"Eh?" said Aaron; "what--has the caustico that was intended for the +frontiers of Belgium been clapped by mistake on the broad Pays Bas?" + +And so in very truth it turned out; for while we slept, the patient had +risen, and sat down on the blister that lay, as already mentioned, on a +chair at his bedside, and again toppling into bed, had fallen into a +sound sleep, from which he had but a few moments before the time I write +of awoke. + +"Why, now," continued Aaron, to the doctor of the Wave who had just +entered--"why, here is a discovery, my dear doctor. You clap a hot +blister on a poor fellow's head to cool it, but Doctor Cringle there has +cooled Master Wagtail's brain, by blistering his stern--eh?--Make notes, +and mind you report this to the College of Surgeons." + +I cleared myself of these imputations. Wagtail recovered; our refitting +was completed; our wood, and water, and provisions, replenished; and, +after spending one of the happiest fortnights of my life, in one +continued round of gaiety, I prepared to leave--with tears in my eyes, I +will confess--the clear waters, bright blue skies, glorious climate, and +warm hearted community of Nassau, New Providence. Well might that old +villain Blackbeard have made this sweet spot his favourite rendezvous. +By the way, this same John Teach or Blackbeard, had fourteen wives in +the lovely island; and I am not sure but I could have picked out +something approximating to the aforesaid number myself, with time and +opportunity, from among such a galaxy of loveliness as then shone and +sparkled in this dear little town. Speaking of the pirate Blackbeard, I +ought to have related that one morning when I was at breakfast at +Mrs C----'s, the amiable, and beautiful, and innocent girl matron ay, you +supercilious son of a sea-cook, you may turn up your nose at the +expression, but if you could have seen the burden of my song as I saw +her, and felt the elegancies of her manner and conversation as I felt +them--but let us stick to Blackbeard, if you please. We were all +comfortably seated at breakfast; I had finished my sixth egg, had +concealed a beautiful dried snapper, before which even a rizzard haddock +sank into insignificance, and was bethinking me of finishing off with a +slice of Scotch mutton-ham, when in slid Mr Bang. He was received with +all possible cordiality, and commenced operations very vigorously. + +He was an amazing favourite of our hostess, (as where was he not a +favourite?) so that it was some time before he even looked my way. We +were in the midst of a discussion regarding the beauty of New +Providence, and the West India Islands in general; and I was remarking +that nature had been liberal, that the scenery was unquestionably +magnificent in the larger islands, and beautiful in the smaller; but +there were none of those heart-stirring reminiscences, none of those +thrilling electrical associations, which vibrate to the heart at +visiting scenes in Europe famous in antiquity--famous as the spot in +which recent victories had been achieved--famous even for the very +freebooters, who once held unlawful sway in the neighbourhood. "Why, +there never has flourished hereabouts, for instance, even one thoroughly +melodramatic thief." Massa Aaron let me go on, until he had nearly +finished his breakfast. At length he fired a shot at me. + +"I say, Tom, you are expatiating, I see. Nothing heart stirring, say +you? In new countries it would bother you to have old associations +certainly; and you have had your Rob Roy, I grant you, and the old +country has had her Robin Hood. But has not Jamaica had her Three +fingered Jack? Ay, a more gentlemanlike scoundrel than either of the +former. When did jack refuse a piece of yam, and a cordial from his +horn, to the wayworn man, white or black? When did he injure a woman? +When did Jack refuse food and a draught of cold water, the greatest +boon, in our ardent climate, that he could offer, to a wearied child? +Oh, there was much poetry in the poor fellow! And here, had they not +that most melodramatic (as you choose to word it) of thieves, +Blackbeard, before whom Bluebeard must for ever hide his diminished +head? Why, Bluebeard had only one wife at a time, although he murdered +five of them, whereas Blackbeard had seldom fewer than a dozen, and he +was never known to murder above three. But I have fallen in with such a +treasure! Oh, such a discovery! I have been communing with Noah +himself with an old negro, who remembers this very Blackbeard--the +pirate Blackbeard." + +"The deuce," said I; "impossible!" +"But it is true. Why it is only ninety-four years ago since the +scoundrel flourished, and this old cock is one hundred and ten. I have +jotted it down--worth a hundred pounds. Read, my adorable Mrs C----, +read." + +"But, my dear Mr Bang," said she, "had you not better read it yourself?" + +"You, if you please," quoth Aaron, who forthwith set himself to make the +best use of his time. + + MEMOIR OF JOHN TEACH, ESQUIRE VULGARLY CALLED BLACKBEARD. + BY AARON BANGS, ESQUIRE, F.R.S. + + "He was the mildest mannered man. + That ever scuttled ship, or cut a throat; + With such true breeding of a gentleman, + You never could discern his real thought. + Pity he loved adventurous life's variety, + He was so great a loss to good society." + + +John Teach, or Blackbeard, was a very eminent man--a very handsome man, +and a very devil amongst the ladies. + +He was a Welshman, and introduced the leek into Nassau about the year +1718, and was a very remarkable personage, although, from some singular +imperfection in his moral constitution, he never could distinguish +clearly between meum and tuum. + +He found his patrimony was not sufficient to support him; and as he +disliked agricultural pursuits as much as mercantile, he got together +forty or fifty fine young men one day, and borrowed a vessel from some +merchants that was lying at the Nore, and set sail for the Bahamas. On +his way he fell in with several West Indiamen, and, sending a boat on +board of each, he asked them for the loan of provisions and wine, and +all their gold, and silver, and clothes, which request was in every +instance but one civilly acceded to; whereupon, drinking their good +healths, he returned to his ship. In the instance where he had been +uncivilly treated, to show his forbearance, he saluted them with twenty +one guns; but by some accident the shot had not been withdrawn, so that +unfortunately the contumacious ill bred craft sank, and as Blackbeard's +own vessel was very crowded, he was unable to save any of the crew. He +was a great admirer of fine air, and accordingly established himself on +the island of New Providence, and invited a number of elegant young men, +who were fond of pleasure cruises, to visit him, so that presently he +found it necessary to launch forth in order to borrow more provisions. + +At this period he was a great dandy; and amongst other vagaries, he +allowed his beard to grow a foot long at the shortest, and then plaited +it into three strands, indicating that he was a bashaw of no common +dimensions. He wore red breeches, but no stockings, and sandals of +bullock's hide. He was a perfect Egyptian in his curiousness in fine +linen, and his shirt was always white as the driven snow when it was +clean, which was the first Sunday of every month. In waistcoats he was +especially select; but the cut of them very much depended on the fashion +in favour with the last gentleman he had borrowed from. He never wore +any thing but a full dress purple velvet coat, under which bristled +three brace of pistols, and two naked stilettoes, only eighteen inches +long, and he had generally a lighted match fizzing in the bow of his +cocked scraper whereat he lighted his pipe, or fired off a cannon, as +pleased him. + +One of his favourite amusements, when he got half slewed, was to adjourn +to the hold with his compotators, and kindling some brimstone matches, +to dance and roar, as if he had been the devil himself, until his allies +were nearly suffocated. At another time he would blow out the candles +in the cabin, and blaze away with his loaded pistols at random, right +and left, whereby he severely wounded the feelings of some of his +intimates by the poignancy of his wit, all of which he considered a most +excellent joke. But he was kind to his fourteen wives so long as he was +sober, as it is known that he never murdered above three of them. His +borrowing, however, gave offence to our government, no one can tell how; +and at length two of our frigates, the Lime and Pearl, then cruising off +the American coast, after driving him from his, stronghold, hunted him +down in an inlet in North Carolina, where, in an eight-gun schooner, +with thirty desperate fellows, he made a defence worthy of his +honourable life, and fought so furiously that he killed and wounded more +men of the attacking party than his own crew consisted of; and following +up his success, he boarded, sword in hand, the headmost of the two armed +sloops, which had been detached by the frigates, with ninety men on +board, to capture him; and being followed by twelve men and his trusty +lieutenant, he would have carried her out and out, maugre the disparity +of force, had he not fainted from loss of blood, when, falling on his +back, he died where he fell, like a hero--"His face to the sky, and his +feet to the foe" leaving eleven forlorn widows, being the fourteen +wives, minus the three that he had throttled. + +"NO CHIVALROUS ASSOCIATIONS indeed! Match me such a character as this." + +We all applauded to the echo. But I must end my song, for I should +never tire in dwelling on the happy days we spent in this most +enchanting little island. The lovely blithe girls, and the hospitable +kind hearted men, and the children! I never saw such cherubs, with all +the sprightliness of the little pale-faced creoles of the West Indies, +while the healthy bloom of Old England blossomed on their cheeks. + +"I say, Tom," said Massa Aaron, on one occasion when I was rather +tedious on the subject, "all those little cherubs, as you call them, at +least the most of them, are the offspring of the cotton bales captured +in the American war." + +"The what?" said I. + +"The children of the American war--and I will prove it thus taking the +time from no less an authority than Hamlet, when he chose to follow the +great Dictator, Julius Caesar himself, through all the corruption of our +physical nature, until he found him stopping a beer barrel--(only +imagine the froth of one of our disinterested friend Buxton's beer +barrels, savouring of quassia, not hop, fizzing through the clay of +Julius Caesar the Roman!)--as thus: If there had been no Yankee war, +there would have been no prize cargoes of cotton sent into Nassau; if +there had been no prize cargoes sent into Nassau, there would have been +little money made; if there had been little money made, there would have +been fewer marriages; if there had been fewer marriages, there would +have been fewer cherubs. There is logic for you, my darling." + +"Your last is a non sequitur, my dear sir," said I, laughing. "But, in +the main, Parson Malthus is right, out of Ireland that is, after all." + +That evening I got into a small scrape, by impressing three apprentices +out of a Scotch brig, and if Mr Bang had not stood my friend, I might +have, got into serious trouble. Thanks to him, the affair was soldered. + +When on the eve of sailing, my excellent friends, Messrs Bang, Gelid, +and Wagtail, determined, in consequence of letters which they had +received from Jamaica, to return home in a beautiful armed brig that was +to sail in a few days, laden with flour. I cannot well describe how much +this moved me. Young and enthusiastic as I was, I had grappled myself +with hooks of steel to Mr Bang; and now, when he unexpectedly +communicated his intention of leaving me, I felt more forlorn and +deserted than I was willing to plead to. + +"My dear boy," said he, "make my peace with Transom. If urgent business +had not pressed me, I would not have broken my promise to rejoin him; +but I am imperiously called for in Jamaica, where I hope soon to see +you." He continued, with a slight tremor in his voice, which thrilled to +my heart, as it vouched for the strength of his regard,--"If ever I am +where you may come, Tom, and you don't make my house your home, provided +you have not a better of your own, I will never forgive you." He paused. +"You young fellows sometimes spend faster than you should do, and +quarterly bills are long of coming round. I have drawn for more money +than I want. I wish you would--let me be your banker for a hundred +pounds, Tom." + +I squeezed his hand. "No, no--many, many thanks, my dear sir but I +never outrun the constable. Goodbye, God bless you. Farewell, Mr +Wagtail--Mr Gelid, adieu." I tumbled into the boat and pulled on board. +The first thing I did was to send the wine and sea stock, a most +exuberant assortment unquestionably, belonging to my Jamaica friends, +ashore; but, to my surprise, the boat was sent back, with Mr Bang's +card, on which was written in pencil, "Don't affront us, Captain +Cringle." Thereupon I got the schooner under weigh, and no event worth +narrating turned up until we anchored close to the post office at +Crooked Island, two days after. + +We found the Firebrand there, and the post-office mail-boat, with her +red flag and white horse in it, and I went on board the corvette to +deliver my official letter, detailing the incidents of the cruise, and +was most graciously received by my captain. + +There was a sail in sight when we anchored, which at first we took for +the Jamaica packet; but it turned out to be the Tinker, friend Bang's +flour-loaded brig; and by five in the evening our friends were all +three once more restored to us, but, alas! so far as regarded two of +them, only for a moment. Messrs Gelid and Wagtail had, on second +thoughts, it seems, hauled their wind to lay in a stock of turtle at +Crooked Island, and I went ashore with them, and assisted in the +selection from the turtle crawls filled with beautiful clear water, and +lots of fine lively fresh-caught fish, the postmaster being the turtle +merchant. + +"I say, Paul, happier in the fish way here than you were at Biggleswade +eh?" said Aaron. + +After we had completed our purchases, our friends went on board the +corvette, and I was invited to meet them at dinner, where the aforesaid +postmaster, a stout conch, with a square-cut coatee and red cape and +cuffs, was also a guest. + +He must have had but a dull time of it, as there were no other white +inhabitants that I saw, on the island besides himself; his wife having +gone to Nassau, which he looked on as the prime city of the world, to be +confined, as he told us. Bang said, that she must rather have gone to +be delivered from confinement; and, in truth, Crooked Island was a most +desolate domicile for a lady; our friend the postmaster's family, and a +few negroes employed in catching turtle, and making salt, and dressing +some scrubby cotton-trees, composing the whole population. In the +evening the packet did arrive, however, and Captain Transom received his +orders. + +"Captain Transom, my boy," quoth Bang towards nightfall, "the best of +friends must part--we must move--good--night--we shall be off presently +good--by"--and he held out his hand. + +"Devil a bit," said Transom; "Bang, you shall not go, neither you nor +your friends. You promised, in fact shipped with me for the cruise, and +Lady----has my word and honour that you shall be restored to her longing +eye, sound and safe--so you must all remain, and send down the flour +brig to say you are coming." + +To make a long story short, Massa Aaron was boned, but his friends were +obdurate, so we all weighed that night; the Tinker bearing up for +Jamaica, while we kept by the wind, steering for Conaives in St Domingo. + +The third day we were off Cape St Nicholas, and getting a slant of wind +from the westward, we ran up the Bight of Leogane all that night, but +towards morning it fell calm; we were close in under the highland, about +two miles from the shore, and the night was the darkest I ever was out +in anywhere. There were neither moon nor stars to be seen, and the dark +clouds settled down, until they appeared to rest upon our mastheads, +compressing, as it were, the hot steamy air upon us until it became too +dense for breathing. In the early part of the night it had rained in +heavy showers now and then, and there were one or two faint flashes of +lightning, and some heavy peals of thunder, which rolled amongst the +distant hills in loud shaking reverberations, which gradually became +fainter and fainter, until they grumbled away in the distance in hoarse +murmurs, like the low notes of an organ in one of our old cathedrals; +but now there was neither rain nor wind--all nature seemed fearfully +hushed; for where we lay, in the smooth bight, there was no swell, not +even a ripple on the glasslike sea; the sound of the shifting of a +handspike, or the tread of the men, as they ran to haul on--a rope, or +the creaking of the rudder, sounded loud and distinct. The sea in our +neighbourhood was strongly phosphorescent, so that the smallest chip +thrown overboard struck fire from the water, as if it had been a piece +of iron cast on flint; and when you looked over the quarter, as I +delight to do, and tried to penetrate into the dark clear profound +beneath, you every now and then saw a burst of pale light, like a halo, +far down in the depths of the green sea, caused by the motion of some +fish, or of what Jack, no great natural philosopher, usually calls +blubbers; and when the dolphin or skip-jack leapt into the air, they +sparkled out from the still bosom of the deep dark water like rockets, +until they fell again into their element in a flash of fire. This +evening the corvette had showed no lights, and although I conjectured +she was not far from us, still I could not with any certainty indicate +her whereabouts. It might now have been about three o'clock, and I was +standing on the aftermost gun on the starboard side, peering into the +impervious darkness over the tafferel, with my dear old dog Sneezer by +my side, nuzzling and fondling after his affectionate fashion, while the +pilot, Peter Mangrove, stood within handspike length of me. The dog had +been growling, but all in fun, and snapping at me, when in a moment he +hauled off, planted his paws on the rail, looked forth into the night, +and gave a short, anxious bark, Ii e the solitary pop of the sentry's +musket to alarm the main guard in outpost work. + +Peter Mangrove advanced, and put his arm round the dog's neck. "What +you see, my shild?" said the black pilot. + +Sneezer uplifted his voice, and gave a long continuous growl. + +"Ah!" said Mangrove sharply, "Massa Captain, something near we--never +doubt dat--de dog yeerie someting we can't yeerie, and see someting we +can't see." + +I had lived long enough never to despise any caution, from whatever +quarter it proceeded. So I listened, still as a stone. Presently I +thought I heard the distant splash of oars. I placed my hand behind my +ear, and waited with breathless attention. Immediately I saw the +sparkling dip of them in the calm black water, as if a boat, and a large +one, was pulling very fast towards us. "Look out, hail that boat," said +I. + +"Boat ahoy!" sung out the man, to whom I had spoken. No answer. +"Coming here?" reiterated the seaman. No better success. The boat or +canoe, or whatever it might be, was by this time close aboard of us, +within pistol-shot at the farthest--no time to be lost, so I hailed +myself, and this time the challenge did produce an answer. + +"Sore boat-fruit and wegitab." + +"Shore boat, with fruit and vegetables, at this time of night--I don't +like it," said I. "Boatswain's mate,--all hands--pipe away the boarders. +Cutlasses, men--quick, a piratical row--boat is close to." And verily we +had little time to lose, when a large canoe or row--boat, pulling twelve +oars at the fewest, and carrying twenty--five men, or thereabouts, swept +up on our larboard quarter, hooked on, and the next moment upwards of +twenty unlooked--for visitors scrambled up our shallow side, and jumped +on board. All this took place so suddenly that there were not ten of my +people ready to receive them, but those ten were the prime men of the +ship. + +"Surrender, you scoundrels--surrender. You have boarded a man-of-war. +Down with your arms, or we shall kill you to a man." + +But they either did not understand me, or did not believe me, for the +answer was a blow from a cutlass, which, if I had not parried with my +night-glass, which it broke in pieces, might have effectually stopped +my promotion. + +"Cut them down, boarders, down with them--they are pirates," shouted I; +"heave cold shot into their boat alongside--all hands, Mr Rousemout," to +the boatswain, "call all hands." + +We closed. The assailants had no firearms, but they were armed with +swords and long knives, and as they fought with desperation, several of +our people were cruelly haggled; and after the first charge, the +combatants on both sides became so blended, that it was impossible to +strike a blow, without running the risk of cutting down a friend. By +this time all hands were on deck; the boat alongside had been swamped by +the cold shot that had been hove crashing through her bottom, when down +came a shower from the surcharged clouds, or waterspout--call it which +you will--that absolutely deluged the decks, the scuppers being utterly +unable to carry off the water. So long as the pirates fought in a body, +I had no fears, as, dark as it was, our men, who held together, knew +where to strike and thrust; but when the torrent of rain descended in +bucketfuls, the former broke away, and were pursued singly into various +corners about the deck, all escape being cut off from the swamping of +their boat. Still they were not vanquished, and I ran aft to the +binnacle, where a blue light was stowed away,--one of several that we +had got on deck to bum that night, in order to point out our whereabouts +to the Firebrand. I fired it, and rushing forward cutlass-in-hand, we +set on the gang of black desperadoes with such fury, that after killing +two of them outright, and wounding and taking prisoners seven, we drove +the rest overboard into the sea, where the small-armed men, who by this +time had tackled to their muskets, made short work of them, guided as +they were by the sparkling of the dark water, as they struck out and +swam for their lives. The blue light was immediately answered by +another from the corvette, which lay about a mile off; but before her +boats, two of which were immediately armed and manned, could reach us, +we had defeated our antagonists, and the rain had increased to such a +degree, that the heavy drops, as they fell with a strong rushing noise +into the sea, flashed it up into one entire sheet of fire. + +We--secured our prisoners, all blacks and mulattoes, the most villainous +looking scoundrels I had ever seen, and shortly after it came on to +thunder and lighten, as if heaven and earth had been falling together. +A most vivid flash--it almost blinded me. Presently the Firebrand burnt +another blue light, whereby we saw that her maintopmast was gone close +by the cap, with the topsail, and upper spars, and yards, and gear, all +hanging down in a lumbering mass of confused wreck; she had been struck +by the levin brand, which had killed four men, and stunned several more. + +By this time the cold grey streaks of morning appeared in the eastern +horizon, and soon after the day broke; and by two o'clock in the +afternoon, both corvette and schooner were at anchor at Conaives. The +village, for town it could not be called, stands on a low hot plain, as +if the washings of the mountains on the left hand side as we stood in +had been carried out into the sea, and formed into a white plateau of +sand; all was hot and stunted, and scrubby. We brought up inside of the +corvette, in three fathoms water. My superior officer had made the +private signal to come on board and dine. I dressed, and the boat was +lowered down, and we pulled for the corvette, but our course lay under +the stern of the two English ships that were lying there loading cargoes +of coffee. + +"Pray, sir," said a decent-looking man, who leant on the tafferel of +one of them--"Pray, sir, are you going on board of the Commodore?" + +"I am," I answered. + +"I am invited there too, sir; will you have the kindness to say I will +be there presently?" + +"Certainly--give way, men." + +Presently we were alongside the corvette, and the next moment we stood +on her deck, holystoned white and clean, with my stanch friend Captain +Transom and his officers, all in full fig, walking to and fro under the +awning, a most magnificent naval lounge, being thirty two feet wide at +the gangway, and extending fifty feet or more aft, until it narrowed to +twenty at the tafferel. We were all--the two masters of the +merchantmen, decent respectable men in their way, included--graciously +received, and sat down to an excellent dinner, Mr Bang taking the lead +as usual in all the fun; and we were just on the verge of cigars and +cold grog, when the first lieutenant came down and said that the captain +of the port had come off, and was then on board. + +"Show him in," said Captain Transom, and a tall, vulgar-looking +blackamoor, dressed apparently in the cast-off coat of a French +grenadier officer, entered the cabin with his chapeau in his hand, and a +Madras handkerchief tied round his woolly skull. He made his bow, and +remained standing near the door. + +"You are the captain of the port?" said Captain Transom. The man +answered in French, that he was. "Why, then, take a chair, sir, if you +please." + +He begged to be excused and after tipping off his bumper of claret, and +receiving the Captain's report, he made his bow and departed. + +I returned to the Wave, and next morning I breakfasted on board of the +Commodore, and afterwards we all proceeded on shore to Monsieur B----'s, +to whom Massa Aaron was known. The town, if I may call it so, had +certainly a very desolate appearance. There was nothing stirring; and +although a group of idlers, amounting to about twenty or thirty, did +collect about us on the end of the wharf, which, by the by, was terribly +out of repair, yet they all appeared ill clad, and in no way so well +furnished as the blackies in Jamaica; and when we marched up through a +hot, sandy, unpaved street into the town, the low, one-story, shabby +looking houses were falling into decay, and the streets more resembled +river-courses than thoroughfares, while the large carrion crows were +picking garbage on the very crown of the causeway, without apparently +entertaining the least fear of us, or of the negro children who were +playing close to them, so near, in fact, that every now and then one of +the urchins would aim a blow at one of the obscene birds, when it would +give a loud discordant croak, and jump a pace or two, with outspread +wings, but without taking flight. Still many of the women, who were +sitting under the small piazzas, or projecting eaves of the houses, with +their little stalls, filled with pullicate handkerchiefs, and pieces of +muslin, and ginghams for sale, were healthy-looking, and appeared +comfortable and happy. As we advanced into the town, almost every male +we met was a soldier, all rigged and well dressed, too, in the French +uniform; in fact, the remarkable man, King Henry, or Christophe, +took care to have his troops well fed and clothed in every case. On +our way we had to pass by the Commandant, Baron B----'s house, when it +occurred to Captain Transom that we ought to stop and pay our respects; +but Mr Bang, being bound by no such etiquette, bore up for his friend +Monsieur B----'s. As we approached the house--a long, low, one-story +building, with a narrow piazza, and a range of unglazed windows, staring +open, with their wooden shutters, like ports in a ship's side, towards +the street--we found a sentry at the door, who, when we announced +ourselves, carried arms all in regular style. Presently a very good +looking negro, in a handsome aide-de-camp's uniform, appeared, and, hat +in hand, with all the grace in the world, ushered us into the presence +of the Baron, who was lounging in a Spanish chair half asleep, but on +hearing us announced he rose, and received us with great amenity. He +was a fat elderly negro, so far as I could judge, about sixty years of +age, and was dressed in very wide jean trowsers, over which a pair of +well polished Hessian boots were drawn, which, by adhering close to his +legs, gave him, in contrast with the wide puffing of his garments above, +the appearance of being underlimbed, which he by no means was, being a +stout old Turk. + +After a profusion of congees and fine speeches, and superabundant +assurances of the esteem in which his master King Henry held our master +King George, we made our bows and repaired to Monsieur B----'s, where I +was engaged to dine. As for Captain Transom, he went on board that +evening to superintend the repairs of the ship. + +There was no one to meet us but Monsieur B----and his daughter, a tall +and very elegant brown girl, who had been educated in France, and did +the honours incomparably well. We sat down, Massa Aaron whispering in +my lug, that in Jamaica it was not quite the thing to introduce brown +ladies at dinner; but, as he said, "Why not? Neither you nor I are high +caste creoles--so en avant." + +Dinner was nearly over, when Baron B----'s aide-de-camp slid into the +room. Monsieur B----rose. "Captain Latour, you are welcome--be seated. +I hope you have not dined?" + +"Why no," said the negro officer, as he drew a chair, while he exchanged +glances with the beautiful Eugenie, and sat himself down close to el +Senor Bang. + +"Hillo, Quashie! Whereaway, my lad? a little above the salt, an't you?" +ejaculated our amigo; while Pegtop, who had just come on shore, and was +standing behind his master, stared and gaped in the greatest wonderment. +But Mr Bang's natural good breeding, and knowledge of the world, +instantly recalled him to time and circumstances; and when the young +officer looked at him, regarding him with some surprise, he bowed, and +invited him, in the best French he could muster, to drink wine. The +aide-de-camp was, as I have said, jet-black as the ace of spades, but +he was, notwithstanding, so far as figure went, a very handsome man +tall and well made, especially about the shoulders, which were +beautifully formed, and, in the estimation of a statuary, would probably +have balanced the cucumber curve of the shin; his face, however, was +regular negro-flat nose, heavy lips, fine eyes, and beautiful teeth, +and he wore two immense gold earrings. His woolly head was bound round +with a pullicate handkerchief, which we had not noticed until he took +off his laced cocked hat. His coat was the exact pattern of the French +staff uniform at the time--plain blue, without lace, except at the cape +and cuffs, which were of scarlet cloth, covered with rich embroidery. +He wore a very handsome straight sword, with steel scabbard, and the +white trowsers, and long Hessian boots, already described as part of the +costume of his general. + +Mr Bang, as I have said, had rallied by this time, and with the tact of +a gentleman, appeared to have forgotten whether his new ally was black, +blue, or green, while the claret, stimulating him into self possession, +was evaporating in broken French. But his man Pegtop had been pushed +off his balance altogether; his equanimity was utterly gone. When the +young officer brushed past him, at the first go off, while he was +rinsing some glasses in the passage, his sword banged against Pegtop's +derriere as he stooped down over his work. He started and looked round, +and merely exclaimed--"Eigh, Massa Niger, wurra dat!" But now, when, +standing behind his master's chair, he saw the aide-de-camp consorting +with him whom he looked upon as the greatest man in existence, on terms +of equality, all his faculties were paralysed. + +"Pegtop," said I, "hand me some yam, if you please." + +He looked at me all agape, as if he had been half strangled. + +"Pegtop, you scoundrel," quoth massa Aaron, "don't you hear what Captain +Cringle says, sir?" + +"Oh yes, massa;" and thereupon the sable valet brought me a bottle of +fish sauce, which he endeavoured to pour into my wineglass. All this +while Eugenie and the aide-de-camp were playing the agreeable--and in +very good taste, too, let me tell you. + +I had just drank wine with mine host, when I cast my eye along the +passage that led out of the room, and there was Pegtop dancing, and +jumping, and smiting his thigh, in an ecstasy of laughter, as he doubled +himself up, with the tears welling over his cheeks. + +"Oh, Lord! Oh!--Massa Bang bow, and make face, and drink wine, and do +every ting shivil, to one dam black rascall nigger!--Oh, blackee more +worser clan me, Gabriel Pegtop----Oh, Lard!--ha! ha! ha!"--Thereupon he +threw himself down in the piazza, amongst plates and dishes and shouted +and laughed in a perfect frenzy, until Mr Bang got up, and thrust the +poor fellow out of doors, in a pelting shower, which soon so far quelled +the hysterical passion, that he came in again, grave as a judge, and +took his place behind his master's chair once more, and every thing went +on smoothly. The aide-de-camp, who appeared quite unconscious that he +was the cause of the poor fellow's mirth, renewed his attentions to +Eugenie; and Mr Bang, Monsieur B----, and myself, were again engaged in +conversation, and our friend Pegtop was in the act of handing a slice of +melon to the black officer, when a file of soldiers, with fixed +bayonets, stept into the piazza, and ordered arms, one taking up his +station on each side of the door. Presently another aide-de-camp, +booted and spurred, dashed after them; and, as soon as he crossed the +threshold, sung out, "Place, pour Monsieur le Baron." + +The electrical nerve was again touched--"Oh!--oh!--oh! Caramighty! here +comes anoder on dem," roared Pegtop, sticking the slice of melon, which +was intended for Mademoiselle Eugenie, into his own mouth, to quell the +paroxysm, if possible, (while he fractured the plate on the black aide's +skull,) and immediately blew it out again, with an explosion, and a +scattering of the fragments, as if it had been the blasting of a stone +quarry. + +"Zounds, this is too much,"--exclaimed Bang, as he rose and kicked the +poor fellow out again, with such vehemence, that his skull, encountering +the paunch of our friend the Baron, who was entering from the street at +that instant, capsized him outright, and away rolled his Excellency the +General de Division, Commandant de L'Arrondissement, &c. &c. digging his +spurs into poor Pegtop's transom, and sacring furiously, while the black +servant roared as if he had been harpooned by the very devil. The aides +started to their feet and one of them looked at Mr Bang, and touched the +hilt of his sword, grinding the word 'satisfaction' between his teeth, +while the other ordered the sentries to run the poor fellow, whose mirth +had been so uproarious, through. However, he got off with one or two +brogues in a very safe place; and when Monsieur B----explained how +matters stood, and that the "pauvre diable," as the black Baron coolly +called him, was a mere servant, and an uncultivated creature, and that +no insult was meant, we had all a hearty laugh, and every thing rolled +right again. At length the Baron and his black tail rose to wish us a +good evening, and we were thinking of finishing off with a cigar and a +glass of cold grog, when Monsieur B----'s daughter returned into the +piazza, very pale, and evidently much frightened. "Mon pere," said she +while her voice quavered from excessive agitation--"My father--why do +the soldiers remain?" + +We all peered into the dark passage, and there, true enough, were the +black sentries at their posts beside the doorway, still and motionless +as statues. Monsieur B----, poor fellow, fell back in his chair at the +sight, as if he had been shot through the heart. + +"My fate is sealed--I am lost--oh, Eugenie!" were the only words he +could utter. + +"No, no," exclaimed the weeping girl, "God forbid--the Baron is a kind +hearted man--King Henry cannot--no, no--he knows you are not +disaffected, he will not injure you." + +Here one of the black aides-de-camp suddenly returned. It was the +poor fellow who had been making love to Eugenie during the +entertainment. He looked absolutely blue with dismay; his voice shook, +and his knees knocked together as he approached our host. + +He tried to speak, but could not. "Oh, Pierre, Pierre," moaned, or +rather gasped Eugenie, "what have you come to communicate? what dreadful +news are you the bearer of?" He held out an open letter to poor B----, +who, unable to read it from excessive agitation, handed it to me. It +ran thus: + +"MONSIEUR LE BARON, +Monsieur--has been arrested here this morning; he is a white +Frenchman, and there are strong suspicions against him. Place his +partner M. B----under the surveillance of the police instantly. You are +made answerable for his safe custody." + +"Witness his Majesty's hand and seal, at Sans Souci, this----" + +The Count. + + +"Then I am doomed," groaned poor Mr B----. His daughter fainted, the +black officer wept, and having laid his senseless mistress on a sofa, he +approached and wrung B----'s hand. "Alas, my dear sir--how my heart +bleeds! But cheer up--King Henry is just--all may be right--all may +still be right; and so far as my duty to him will allow, you may count +on nothing being done here that is not absolutely necessary for holding +ourselves blameless with the Government." + +Enough and to spare of this. We slept on shore that night, and a very +neat catastrophe was likely to have ensued thereupon. Intending to go +on board ship at daybreak, I had got up and dressed myself, and opened +the door into the street to let myself out, when I stumbled unwittingly +against the black sentry, who must have been half asleep, for he +immediately stepped several paces back, and presenting his musket, the +clear barrel glancing in the moonlight, snapped it at me. Fortunately it +missed fire, which gave me time to explain that it was not M. B----, +attempting to escape; but that day week he was marched to the prison of +La Force, near Cape Henry, where his partner had been previously lodged; +and from that hour to this, neither of them were ever heard of. Next +evening I again went ashore, but I was denied admittance to him; and, as +my orders were imperative not to interfere in any way, I had to return +on board with a heavy heart. + +The day following, Captain Transom and myself paid a formal I visit to +the black Baron, in order to leave no stone unturned to obtain poor +B----'s release if we could. Mr Bang accompanied us. We found the sable +dignitary lounging in a grass hammock, (slung from corner to corner of a +very comfortless room, for the floor was tiled, the windows were +unglazed, and there was no furniture whatsoever but an old-fashioned +mahogany sideboard and three wicker chairs) apparently half-asleep, or +ruminating after his breakfast. On our being announced by a half-naked +negro servant, who aroused him, he got up and received us very kindly I +beg his lordship's pardon, I should write graciously--and made us take +wine and biscuit, and talked and rattled; but I saw he carefully avoided +the subject which he evidently knew was the object of our visit. At +length, finding it would be impossible for him to parry it much longer +single-handed, with tact worthy of a man of fashion, he called out +"Marie! Marie!" Our eyes followed his, and we saw a young and very +handsome brown lady rise, whom we had perceived seated at her work when +we first entered, in a small dark back porch, and advance after +curtseying to us seriatim, with great elegance, as the old fat niger +introduced her to us as "Madame la Baronne." + +"His wife?" whispered Aaron; "the old rank goat!" + +Her brown ladyship did the honours of the wine-ewer with the perfect +quietude and ease of a well-bred woman. She was a most lovely clear +skinned quadroon girl. She could not have been twenty; tall and +beautifully shaped. Her long coal-black tresses were dressed high on +her head, which was bound round with the everlasting Madras +handkerchief, in which pale blue was the prevailing colour; but it was +elegantly adjusted, and did not come down far enough to shade the fine +development of her majestic forehead--Pasta's in Semiramide was not more +commanding. Her eyebrows were delicately arched and sharply defined, +and her eyes of jet were large and swimming; her nose had not utterly +abjured its African origin, neither had her lips, but, notwithstanding, +her countenance shone with all the beauty of expression so conspicuous +in the Egyptian sphinx Abyssinian, but most sweet--while her teeth were +as the finest ivory, and her chin and throat, and bosom, as if her bust +had been an antique statue of the rarest workmanship. The only +ornaments she wore were two large virgin gold ear-rings, massive yellow +hoops without any carving, but so heavy that they seemed to weigh down +the small thin transparent ears which they perforated; and a broad black +velvet band round her neck, to which was appended a large massive +crucifix of the same metal. She also wore two broad bracelets of black +velvet clasped with gold. Her beautifully moulded form was scarcely +veiled by a cambric chemise, with exceedingly short sleeves, over which +she wore a rose-coloured silk petticoat, short enough to display a +finely formed foot and ankle, with a well-selected pearl white silk +stocking, and a neat low-cut French black kid shoe. As for gown, she +had none. She wore a large-sparkling diamond ring on her marriage +finger, and we were all bowing before the deity, when our attention was +arrested by a cloud of dust at the top of the street, and presently a +solitary black dragoon sparked out from it, his accoutrements and +headpiece blazing in the sun, then three more abreast, and immediately a +troop of five-and-twenty cavaliers, or thereabouts, came thundering +down the street. They formed opposite the Baron's house, and I will say +I never saw a better appointed troop of horse anywhere. Presently an +aide-de-camp scampered up; and having arrived opposite the door, +dismounted, and entering, exclaimed, "Les Comtes de Lemonade et +Marmalade."--"The who?" said Mr Bang; but presently two very handsome +young men of colour, in splendid uniforms, rode up, followed by a +glittering staff, of at least twenty mounted officers. They alighted, +and entering, made their bow to Baron B----. The youngest, the Count +Lemonade, spoke very decent English, and what between Mr Bang's and my +bad, and Captain Transom's very good, French, we all made ourselves +agreeable. I may state here, that Lemonade and Marmalade are two +districts of the island of St Domingo, which had been pitched on by +Christophe to give titles to two of his fire--new nobility. The +grandees had come on a survey of the district, and although we did not +fail to press the matter of poor B----'s release, yet they either had no +authority to interfere in the matter, or they would not acknowledge that +they had, so we reluctantly took leave, and went on shipboard. + +"Tom, you villain," said Mr Bang, as we stepped into the boat, "if my +eye had caught yours when these noblemen made their entree, I should +have exploded with laughter, and most likely have had my throat cut for +my pains. Pray, did his highness of Lemonade carry a punch-ladle in +his hand? I am sure I expected he of Marmalade to have carried a jelly +can? Oh, Tom, at the moment I heard them announced, my dear old mother +flitted before my mind's eye, with the bright, well-scoured, large +brass pans in the background, as she superintended her handmaidens in +their annual preservations." + +After the fruitless interview, we weighed, and sailed for Port au +Prince, where we arrived the following evening. + +I had heard much of the magnificence of the scenery in the Bight of +Leogane, but the reality far surpassed what I had pictured to myself. +The breeze, towards noon of the following day, had come up in a gentle +air from the westward, and we were gliding along before it like a spread +eagle, with all our light sails abroad to catch the sweet zephyr, which +was not even strong enough to ruffle the silver surface of the +landlocked sea, that glowed beneath the blazing midday sun, with a +dolphin here and there cleaving the shining surface with an arrowy +ripple, and a brown-skinned shark glaring on us, far down in the deep, +clear, green profound, like a water fiend, and a slow-sailing pelican +overhead, after a long sweep on poised wing, dropping into the sea like +lead, and flashing up the water like the bursting of a shell, as we +sailed up into a glorious amphitheatre of stupendous mountains, covered +with one eternal forest, that rose gradually from the hot sandy plains +that skirted the shore; while what had once been smiling fields, and +rich sugar plantations, in the long misty level districts at their +bases, were now covered with brushwood, fast rising up into one +impervious thicket; and as the Island of Conave closed in the view +behind us to seaward, the sun sank beyond it, amidst rolling masses of +golden and blood-red clouds, giving token of a goodly day to-morrow, +and gilding the outline of the rocky islet (as if to a certain depth it +had been transparent) with a golden halo, gradually deepening into +imperial purple. Beyond the shadow of the tree-covered islet, on the +left hand, rose the town of Port-au-Prince, with its long streets +rising like terraces on the gently swelling shore, while the mountains +behind it, still gold tipped in the declining sunbeams, seemed to impend +frowningly over it, and the shipping in the roadstead at anchor off the +town were just beginning to fade from our sight in the gradually +increasing darkness, and a solitary light began to sparkle in a cabin +window and then disappear, and to twinkle for a moment in the piazzas of +the houses on shore like a will-of-the-wisp, and the chirping buzz of +myriads of insects and reptiles was coming off from the island a-stem +of us, borne on the wings of the light wind, which, charged with rich +odours from the closing flowers, fanned us "like the sweet south, soft +breathing o'er a bed of violets," when a sudden flash and a jet of white +smoke puffed out from the hill-fort above the town, the report +thundering amongst the everlasting hills, and gradually rumbling itself +away into the distant ravines and valleys, like a lion growling itself +to sleep, and the shades of night fell on the dead face of nature like a +pall, and all was undistinguishable.--When I had written thus far--it +was at Port-au-Prince, at Mr S----'s--Mr Bang entered--"Ah! Tom--at +the log, polishing--using the plane--shaping out something for Ebony +let me see." + +Here our friend read the preceding paragraphs. They did not please him. + +"Don't like it, Tom." + +"No? Pray, why, my dear sir?--I have tried to" "Hold your tongue, my +good boy." + + "Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer, + List old ladies o'er your tea, + At description Tom's a tailor, + When he is compared to me. + Tooral looral loo." + +"Attend--brevity is the soul of wit,--ahem. Listen how I shall crush +all your lengthy yam into an eggshell. 'The Bight of Leogane is a +horseshoe--Cape St Nicholas is the caulker on the northern heel Cape +Tiberoon, the ditto on the south--Port-au-Prince is the tip at the toe +towards the east--Conaives, Leogane, Petit Trouve, &c. &c. &c. are the +nails, and the Island of Gonave is the frog.' Now every human being who +knows that a horse has four legs and a tail--of course this includes all +the human race, excepting tailors and sailors--must understand this at +once; it is palpable and plain, although no man could have put it so +perspicuously, excepting my friend William Cobbettt or myself. By the +way, speaking of horses, that blood thing of the old Baron's nearly gave +you your quietus t'other day, Tom. Why will you always pass the flank +of a horse in place of going ahead of him, to use your own phrase? +Never ride near a led horse on passing when you can help it; give him a +wide berth, or clap the groom's corpus between you and his heels; and +never, never go near the croup of any quadruped bigger than a cat, for +even a cow's is inconvenient, when you can by any possibility help it." + +I laughed--"Well, well, my dear sir--but you undervalue my equestrian +capability somewhat too, for I do pretend to know that a horse has four +legs and a tail." + +There was no pleasing Aaron this morning, I saw. + +"Then, Tummas, my man, you know a deuced deal more than I do. As for +the tail, conceditur--but devilish few horses have four legs nowadays, +take my word for it. However, here comes Transom; I am off to have a +lounge with him, and I will finish the veterinary lecture at some more +convenient season. Tol lol de rol."--Exit singing. + +The morning after this I went ashore at daylight, and, guided by the +sound of military music, proceeded to the Place Republicain, or square +before President Petion's palaces where I found eight regiments of foot +under arms, with their bands playing, and in the act of defiling before +General Boyer who commanded the arrondissement. This was the garrison +of Port-au-Prince, but neither the personal appearance of the troops, +nor their appointments, were at all equal to those of King Henry's well +dressed and well drilled cohorts that we saw at Conaives. The +President's guards were certainly fine men, and a squadron of dismounted +cavalry, in splendid blue uniforms, with scarlet trowsers richly laced, +might have vied with the elite of Nap's own, barring the black faces. +But the materiel of the other regiments was not superfine, as M. Boyer, +before whom they were defiling, might have said. + +I went to breakfast with Mr S----, one of the English merchants of the +place, a kind and most hospitable man; and under his guidance, the +Captain, Mr Bang, and I, proceeded afterwards to call on Petion. +Christophe, or King Henry, had some time before retired from the siege +of Port-au-Prince, and we found the town in a very miserable state. +Many of the houses were injured from shot; the President's palace, for +instance, was perforated in several places, which had not been repaired. +In the antechamber you could see the blue heavens through the shot +holes in the roof.--"Next time I come to court, Tom," said Mr Bang, "I +will bring an umbrella." Turning out of the parade, we passed through a +rickety, unpainted open gate, in a wall about six feet high; the space +beyond was an open green or grass-plot, parched and burned up by the +sun, with a common fowl here and there fluttering and hotching in the +hole she had scratched in the and soil; but there was neither sentry nor +servant to be seen, nor any of the usual pomp and circumstance about a +great man's dwelling. Presently we were in front of a long, low, one +story building, with a flight of steps leading up into an entrance hall, +furnished with several gaudy sofas, and half-a-dozen chairs with a +plain wooden floor, on which a slight approach to the usual West India +polish had been attempted, but mightily behind the elegant domiciles of +my Kingston friends in this respect. In the centre of this room stood +three young officers, fair mulattoes, with their plumed cocked-hats in +their hands, and dressed very handsomely in French uniforms; and it +always struck me as curious, that men who hated the very name of +Frenchman, as the devil hates holy water, should copy all the customs +and manners of the detested people so closely. I may mention here once +for all, that Petion's officers, who, generally speaking, were all men +of colour, and not negroes, were as much superior in education, and, I +fear I must say, in intellect, as they certainly were in personal +appearance, to the black officers of King Henry, as his soldiery were +superior to those of the neighbouring black republic. + +"Ah, Monsieur S----, comment vous portez vous? je suis bien aise de vous +voir," said one of the young officers; "how are you, how have you been?" + +"Vous devenez tout a fait rare," quoth a second. "Le President will be +delighted to see you. Why, he says he thought you must have been dead, +and les messieurs La...." + +"Who?--introduce us." + +It was done in due form--the Honourable Captain Transom, Captain Cringle +of his Britannic Majesty's schooner, Wave, and Aaron Bang, Esquire. And +presently we were all as thick as pickpockets. + +"But come, the President will be delighted to see you." We followed the +officer who spoke, as he marshalled us along, and in an inner chamber, +wherein there were also several large holes in the ceiling through which +the sun shone, we found President Petion, the black Washington, sitting +on a very old ragged sofa, amidst a confused mass of papers, dressed in +a blue military undress frock, white trowsers, and the everlasting +Madras handkerchief bound round his brows. He was much darker than I +expected to have seen him, darker than one usually sees a mulatto, or +the direct cross between the negro and the white, yet his features were +in no way akin to those of an African. His nose was as high, sharp, and +well defined as that of any Hindoo I ever saw in the Hoogly, and his +hair was fine and silky. In fact, dark as he was, he was at least three +removes from the African; and when I mention that he had been long in +Europe--he was even for a short space acting adjutant general of the +army of Italy with Napoleon--his general manner, which was extremely +good, kind and affable, was not matter of so much surprise. + +He rose to receive us with much grace, and entered into conversation +with all the ease and polish of a gentleman--"le me porte assez bien +aujourd'hui; but I have been very unwell, M. S----, so tell me the +news." Early as it was, he immediately ordered in coffee; it was brought +by two black servants, followed by a most sylph-like girl, about twelve +years of age, the President's natural daughter; she was fairer than her +father, and acquitted herself very gracefully. She was rigged, pin for +pin, like a little woman, with a perfect turret of artificial flowers +twined amongst the braids of her beautiful hair; and although her neck +was rather overloaded with ornaments, and her poor little ears were +stretching under the weight of the heavy gold and emerald earrings, +while her bracelets were like manacles, yet I had never seen a more +lovely little girl. She wore a frock of green Chinese crape, beneath +which appeared the prettiest little feet in the world. + +We were invited to attend a ball in the evening, given in honour of the +President's birthday, and after a sumptuous dinner at our friend +M. S----'s, we all adjourned to the gay scene. There was a company of +grenadiers of the President's guard, with their band, on duty in front +of the palace, as a guard of honour; they carried arms as we passed, all +in good style; and at the door we met two aides-de-camp in full dress, +one of whom ushered us into an anteroom, where a crowd of brown, with a +sprinkling of black ladies, and a whole host of brown and black +officers, with a white foreign merchant here and there, were drinking +coffee, and taking refreshments of one kind or another. The ladies were +dressed in the very height of the newest Parisian fashion of the day +hats and feathers, and jewellery, real or fictitious, short sleeves, and +shorter petticoats fine silks, and broad blonde trimmings and flounces, +and low-cut corsages--some of them even venturing on rouge, which gave +them the appearance of purple dahlias; but as to manner, all lady-like +and proper; while the men, most of them militaires, were as fine as gold +and silver lace, and gay uniforms, and dress-swords could make them +and all was blaze, and sparkle, and jingle; but the black officers, in +general, covered their woolly pates with Madras handkerchiefs, as if +ashamed to show them, the brown officers alone venturing to show their +own hair. Presently a military band struck up with a sudden crash in +the inner-room, and the large folding doors being thrown open, the +ballroom lay before us, in the centre of which stood the President, +surrounded by his very splendid staff, with his daughter on his arm. He +was dressed in a plain blue uniform, with gold epaulets, and acquitted +himself extremely well, conversing freely on European politics, and +giving his remarks with great shrewdness, and a very peculiar naivete. +As for his daughter, however much she might appear to have been +overdressed in the morning, she was now simple in her attire as a little +shepherdesses plain white muslin frock, white sash, white shoes, white +gloves, pearl ear-rings and necklace, and a simple, but most beautiful, +camilla japonica in her hair. Dancing now commenced, and all that I +shall say is, that before I had been an hour in the room, I had +forgotten whether the faces around me were black, brown, or white; every +thing was conducted with such decorum. However, I could see that the +fine jet was not altogether the approved style of beauty, and that many +a very handsome woolly-headed belle was destined to ornament the walls, +until a few of the young white merchants made a dash amongst them, more +for the fun of the thing, as it struck me, than any thing else, which +piqued some of the brown officers, and for the rest of the evening +blackee had it hollow. And there was friend Aaron waltzing with a very +splendid woman, elegantly dressed, but black as a coal, with long kid +gloves, between which and the sleeve of her gown, a space of two inches +of the black skin, like an ebony armlet, was visible; while her white +dress, and rich white satin hat, and a lofty plume of feathers, with a +pearl necklace and diamond earrings, set off her loveliness most +conspicuously. At every wheel round Mr Bang slewed his head a little on +one side, and peeped in at one of her bright eyes, and then tossing his +cranium on t'other side, took a squint in at the other, and then cast +his eyes towards the roof, and muttered with his lips as if he had been +shot all of a heap by the blind boy's but-shaft; but every now and then +as we passed, the rogue would stick his tongue in his cheek, yet so +slightly as to be perceptible to no one but myself. After this heat, +Massa Aaron and myself were perambulating the ballroom, quite satisfied +with our own prowess and I was churming to myself, "Voulez vous dansez, +mademoiselle"--"De tout mon coeur," said a buxom brown dame, about +eighteen stone by the coffee-mill in St James's Street. That devil +Aaron gave me a look that I swore I would pay him for, the villain; as +the extensive mademoiselle, suiting the action to the word, started up, +and hooked on, and as a cotillion had been called, there I was, figuring +away most emphatically, to Bang and Transom's great entertainment. At +length the dance was at an end, And a waltz was once more called, and +having done my duty, I thought I might slip out between the acts; so I +offered to hand my solid armful to her seat--"Certainement vouz pouvez +bien restez encore un moment." + +The devil confound you and Aaron Bang, thought I--but waltz I must, and +away we whirled until the room spun round faster than we did, and when I +was at length emancipated, my dark fair and fat one whispered, in a +regular die-away, "J'espere vous revoir bientot." All this while there +was a heavy firing of champagne and other corks, and the fun grew so +fast and furious, that I remembered very little more of the matter, +until the morning breeze whistled through my muslin curtains, or +musquitto net, about noon on the following day. + +I arose, and found mine host setting out to bathe at Madame Le Clerc's +bath, at Marquesan. I rode with him; and after a cool dip we breakfasted +with President Petion at his country-house there, and met with great +kindness. About the house itself there was nothing particularly to +distinguish it from many others in the neighbourhood; but the little +statues, and fragments of marble steps, and detached portions of old +fashioned wrought-iron railing, which had been grouped together, so as +to form an ornamental terrace below it, facing the sea, showed that it +had been a compilation from the ruins of the houses of the rich French +planters, which were now blackening in the sun on the plain of Leogane. +A couple of Buenos Ayrean privateers were riding at anchor in the bight +just below the windows, manned, as I afterwards found, by Americans. +The President, in his quiet way, after contemplating them through his +glass, said, "Ces pavilions sont bien neuf." + +The next morning, as we were pulling in my gig, no less a man than Massa +Aaron steering, to board the Arethusa, one of the merchantmen lying at +anchor off the town, we were nearly run down by getting athwart the bows +of an American schooner standing in for the port. As it was, her +cutwater gave us so smart a crack that I thought we were done for; but +our Palinurus, finding he could not clear her, with his inherent self +possession put his helm to port, and kept away on the same course as the +schooner, so that we got off with the loss of our two larboard oars, +which were snapped off like parsnips, and a good heavy bump that nearly +drove us into staves. + +"Never mind, my dear sir, never mind," said I; "but hereafter listen to +the old song:" + +'Steer clear of the stem of a sailing ship.' + +"Massa Aaron was down on me like lightning" + +"Or the stern of a kicking horse, Tom." + +While I continued-- + +'Or you a wet jacket may catch, and a dip.' + +He again cleverly clipped the word out of my mouth, + +"Or a kick on the croup, which is worse, Tom." + + +"Why, my dear sir, you are an improvisatore of the first quality." + +We rowed ashore, and nothing particular happened that day, until we sat +down to dinner at Mr S--'s. We had a very agreeable party. Captain +Transom and Mr Bang were, as usual, the life of the company; and it was +verging towards eight o'clock in the evening, when an English sailor, +apparently belonging to the merchant service, came into the piazza, and +planted himself opposite to the window where I sat. + +He made various nautical salaams, until he had attracted my attention. +"Excuse me," I said to Mr S----, "there is some one in the piazza +wanting me." I rose. + +"Are you Captain Transom?" said the man. + +"No, I am not. There is the Captain; do you want him?" + +"If you please, sir," said the man. + +I called my superior officer into the narrow dark piazza. + +"Well, my man," said Transom, "what want you with me?" + +"I am sent, sir, to you from the Captain of the Haytian ship, the E----, +to request a visit from you, and to ask for a prayer book." + +"A what?" said Transom. + +"A prayer book, sir. I suppose you know that he and the Captain of that +other Haytian ship, the P----, are condemned to be shot tomorrow +morning." + +"I know nothing of all this," said Transom. "Do you, Cringle?" + +"No, sir," said I. + +"Then let us adjourn to the dining room again; or, stop, ask Mr S----and +Mr Bang to step-here for a moment." + +They appeared; and when Transom explained the affair, so far as +consisted with his knowledge, Mr S----told us that the two unfortunates +in question were, one of them, a Guernsey man, and the other a man of +colour, a native of St Vincent's, whom the President had promoted to the +command of two Haytian ships that had been employed in carrying coffee +to England; but on their last return voyage, they had introduced a +quantity of base Birmingham coin into the Republic; which fact having +been proved on their trial, they had been convicted of treason against +the state, condemned, and were now under sentence of death; and the +government being purely military, they were to be shot tomorrow morning. +A boat was immediately sent on board, the messenger returned with a +prayer book; and we prepared to visit the miserable men. + +Mr Bang insisted on joining us--ever first where misery was to be +relieved--and we proceeded towards the prison. Following the sailor, +who was the mate of one of the ships, presently we arrived before the +door of the place where the unfortunate men were confined. We were +speedily admitted; but the building had none of the common appurtenances +of a prison. There were neither long galleries, nor strong ironbound +and clamped doors, to pass through; nor jailers with rusty keys +jingling; nor fetters clanking; for we had not made two steps past the +black grenadiers who guarded the door, when a sergeant showed us into a +long ill-lighted room, about thirty feet by twelve--in truth, it was +more like a gallery than a room--with the windows into the street open, +and no precautions taken, apparently at least, to prevent the escape of +the condemned. In truth, if they had broken forth, I imagine the kind +hearted President would not have made any very serious enquiry as to the +how. + +There was a small rickety old card table, covered with tattered green +cloth, standing in the middle of the floor, which was composed of dirty +unpolished pitch pine planks, and on this table glimmered two brown wax +candles, in old fashioned brass candlesticks. Between us and the table, +forming a sort of line across the floor, stood four black soldiers, with +their muskets at their shoulders, while beyond them sat, in old +fashioned armchairs, three figures, whose appearance I never can forget. + +The man fronting us rose on our entrance. He was an uncommonly handsome +elderly personage; his age I should guess to have been about fifty. He +was dressed in white trowsers and shirt, and wore no coat; his head was +very bald, but he had large and very dark whiskers and eyebrows, above +which towered a most splendid forehead, white, massive, and spreading. +His eyes were deep-set and sparkling, but he was pale, very pale, and +his fine features were sharp and pinched. He sat with his hands clasped +together, and resting on the table, his fingers twitching to and fro +convulsively, while his under jaw had dropped a little, and from the +constant motion of his head, and the heaving of his chest, it was clear +that he was breathing quick and painfully. + +The figure on his right hand was altogether a more vulgar-looking +personage. He was a man of colour, his caste being indicated by his +short curly black hair, and his African descent vouched for by his +obtuse features; but he was composed and steady in his bearing. He was +dressed in white trowsers and waistcoat, and a blue surtout; and on our +entrance he rose, and remained standing. But the person on the elder +prisoner's left hand riveted my attention more than either of the other +two. She was a respectable looking, little, thin woman, but dressed +with great neatness, in a plain black silk gown. Her sharp features +were high and well formed; her eyes and mouth were not particularly +noticeable, but her hair was most beautiful--her long shining auburn +hair--although she must have been forty years of age, and her skin was +like the driven snow. When we entered, she was seated on the left hand +of the eldest prisoner, and was lying back on her chair, with her arms +crossed on her bosom, her eyes wide open, and staring upwards towards +the roof, with the tears coursing each other down over her cheeks, while +her lower jaw had fallen down, as if she had been dead--her breathing +was scarcely perceptible--her bosom remaining still as a frozen sea, for +the space of a minute, when she would draw a long breath, with a low +moaning noise, to which succeeded a convulsive crowing gasp, like a +child in the hooping-cough, and all would be still again. + +At length Captain Transom addressed the elder prisoner. "You have sent +for us, Mr----what can we do for you, in accordance with our duty as +English officers?" + +The poor man looked at us with a vacant stare--but his fellow sufferer +instantly spoke. "Gentlemen, this is kind--very kind. I sent my mate +to borrow a prayer book from you, for our consolation now must flow from +above--man cannot comfort us." + +The female, who was the elder prisoner's wife, suddenly leant forward in +her chair, and peered intently into Mr Bang's face "Prayer book," said +she--"prayer book--why, I have a prayer book I will go for my prayer +book"--and she rose quickly from her seat, + +"Restez"--quoth the black sergeant--the word seemed to rouse her--she +laid her head on her hands, on the table, and sobbed out as if her heart +were bursting--"Oh God! oh God! is it come to this--is it come to this?" +the frail table trembling beneath her, with her heart crushing emotion. +His wife's misery now seemed to recall the elder prisoner to himself. +He made a strong effort, and in a great degree recovered his composure. + +"Captain Transom," said he, "I believe you know our story. That we have +been justly condemned I admit, but it is a fearful thing to die, +Captain, in a strange country, and by the hands of these barbarians, and +to leave my own dear"--Here his voice altogether failed him--presently +he resumed. "The Government have sealed up my papers and packages, and +I have neither Bible nor prayer book--will you spare us the use of one, +or both, for this night, sir?" + +The Captain said, he had brought a prayer book, and did all he could to +comfort the poor fellows. But, alas! their grief "knew not +consolation's name." + +Captain Transom read prayers, which were listened to by both of the +miserable men with the greatest devotion, while all the while, the poor +woman never moved a muscle, every faculty appearing to be once more +frozen up by grief and misery. At length, the elder prisoner again +spoke. "I know I have no claim on you, gentlemen; but I am an Englishman +at least I hope I may call myself an Englishman, and my wife there is +an Englishwoman--when I am gone oh, gentlemen, what is to become of her? +If I were but sure that she would be cared for, and enabled to return +to her friends, the bitterness of death would be past." Here the poor +woman threw herself round her husband's neck, and gave a shrill sharp +cry, and relaxing her hold, fell down across his knees, with her head +hanging back, and her face towards the roof, in a dead faint. For a +minute or two, the husband's sole concern seemed to be the condition of +his wife. + +"I will undertake that she shall be sent safe to England, my good man," +said Mr Bang. + +The felon looked at him--drew one hand across his eyes, which were misty +with tears, held down his head, and again looked up at length he found +his tongue. "That God who rewardeth good deeds here, that God whom I +have offended, before whom I must answer for my sins by daybreak to +morrow, will reward you--I can only thank you." He seized Mr Bang's hand +and kissed it. + +With heavy hearts we left the miserable group, and I may mention here, +that Mr Bang was as good as his word, and paid the poor woman's passage +home, and, so far as I know, she is now restored to her family. + +We slept that night at Mr S----'s, and as the morning dawned we mounted +our horses, which our worthy host had kindly desired to be ready, in +order to enable us to take our exercise in the cool of the morning. As +we rode past the Place d'armes, or open space in front of the +President's palace, we heard sounds of military music, and asked the +first chance passenger what was going on. "Execution militaire; or +rather," said the man, "the two sea captains, who introduced the base +money, are to be shot this morning--there against the rampart." Of the +fact we were aware, but we did not dream that we had ridden so near the +whereabouts. + +"Ay, indeed?"--said Mr Bang. He looked towards the Captain. "My dear +Transom, I have no wish to witness so horrible a sight, but still--what +say you--shall we pull up, or ride on?" + +The truth was that Captain Transom and myself were both of us desirous +of seeing the execution--from what impelling motive, let learned +blockheads, who have never gloated over a hanging, determine; and +quickly it was determined that we should wait and witness it. + +First advanced a whole regiment of the President's guards, then a +battalion of infantry of the line, close to which followed a whole bevy +of priests clad in white, which contrasted conspicuously with their +brown and black faces. After them marched two firing parties of twelve +men each, drafted indiscriminately, as it would appear, from the whole +garrison; for the grenadier cap was there intermingled with the glazed +shako of the battalion company, and the light morion of the dismounted +dragoon. Then came the prisoners. The elder culprit, respectably +clothed in white shirt, waistcoat, and trowsers, and blue coat, with an +Indian silk yellow handkerchief bound round his head. His lips were +compressed together with an unnatural firmness, and his features were +sharpened like those of a corpse. His complexion was ashy blue. His +eyes were half shut, but every now and then he opened them wide, and +gave a startling rapid glance about him, and occasionally he staggered a +little in his gait. As he approached the place of execution, his +eyelids fell, his under-jaw dropped, his arms hung dangling by his side +like empty sleeves; still he walked on, mechanically keeping time, like +an automaton, to the measured tread of the soldiery. His fellow +sufferer followed him. His eye was bright, his complexion healthy, his +step firm, and he immediately recognised us in the throng, made a bow to +Captain Transom, and held out his hand to Mr Bang, who was nearest to +him, and shook it cordially. The procession moved on. The troops +formed into three sides of a square, the remaining one being the earthen +mound, that constituted the rampart of the place. A halt was called. +The two firing parties advanced to the sound of muffled drums, and +having arrived at the crest of the glacis, right over the counterscarp, +they halted on what, in a more regular fortification, would have been +termed the covered way. The prisoners, perfectly unfettered, advanced +between them, stepped down with a firm step into the ditch, led each by +a grenadier. In the centre of it they turned and kneeled, neither of +their eyes being bound. A priest advanced, and seemed to pray with the +brown man fervently; another offered spiritual consolation to the +Englishman, who seemed now to have rallied his torpid faculties, but he +waved him away impatiently, and taking a book from his bosom, seemed to +repeat a prayer from it with great fervour. At this very instant of +time, Mr Bang caught his eye. He dropped the book on the ground, placed +one hand on his heart, while he pointed upwards towards heaven with the +other, calling out in a loud clear voice, "Remember!" Aaron bowed. A +mounted officer now rode quickly up to the brink of the ditch, and +called out, "Depechez." + +The priests left the miserable men, and all was still as death for a +minute. A low solitary tap of the drum--the firing parties came to the +recover, and presently taking the time from the sword of the staff +officer who had spoken, came down to the present, and fired a rattling, +straggling volley. The brown man sprang up into the air three or four +feet, and fell dead; he had been shot through the heart; but the white +man was only wounded, and had fallen, writhing, and struggling, and +shrieking, to the ground. I heard him distinctly call out, as the +reserve of six men stepped into the ditch, "Dans la tete dans la tete." +One of the grenadiers advanced, and, putting his musket close to his +face, fired. The ball splashed into his skull, through the left eye, +setting fire to his hair and clothes, and the handkerchief bound round +his head, and making the brains and blood flash up all over his face, +and the person of the soldier who had given him the coup de grace. + +A strong murmuring noise, like the rushing of many waters, growled +amongst the ranks and the surrounding spectators, while a short sharp +exclamation of horror every now and then gushed out shrill and clear, +and fearfully distinct above the appalling monotony. + +The miserable man stretched out his legs and arms straight and rigidly, +a strong shiver pervaded his whole frame, his jaw fell, his muscles +relaxed, and he and his brother in calamity became a portion of the +bloody clay on which they were stretched. + + + +CHAPTER XVII.--The Third Cruise of the Wave + + + 'Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll! + Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain: + Man marks the earth with ruin--his control + Stops with the shore,--upon the watery plain + The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain + A shadow of man's ravage, save his own, + When for a moment, like a drop of rain + He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan, + Without a grave, unknell'd, uncoffin'd, and unknown. + + Byron, Childe Harold, IV 1603--11. + + +I had been invited to breakfast on board the corvette, on the morning +after this; and Captain Transom, Mr Bang, and myself, were comfortably +seated at our meal on the quarterdeck, under the awning, skreened off by +flags from the view of the men. The ship was riding to a small westerly +breeze, that was rippling up the bight. The ports on each quarter, as +well as the two in the stern, were open, through which we had an +extensive view of Port-au-Prince, and the surrounding country. + +"Now, Transom," said our amigo Massa Aaron, "I am quite persuaded that +the town astern of us there must always have been, and is now, +exceedingly unhealthy. Only reflect on its situation; it fronts the +west, with the hot sickening afternoon's sun blazing on it every +evening, along the glowing mirror of the calm bight, under whose +influence the fat black mud that composes the beach must send up most +pestilent effluvia; while in the forenoon it is shut out from the +influence of the regular easterly sea-breeze, or trade-wind, by the +high land behind. However, as I don't mean to stay here longer than I +can help, it is not my affair; and as Mr. S----will be waiting for us, +pray order your carriage, my dear fellow, and let us go on shore." + +The carriage our friend spoke of, was the captain's gig, by this time +alongside, ready manned, each of the six seamen who composed her crew, +with his oar resting between his knees, the blade pointed upwards +towards the sky. We all go in "Shove off" dip fell the oars into the +water "Give way, men" the good ash staves groaned, and cheeped, and the +water buzzed, and away we shot towards the wharf. We landed, and having +proceeded to Mr S---'s, we found horses ready for us, to take our +promised ride into the beautiful plain of the Cul de Sac, lying to the +northward and eastward of the town; the cavalcade being led by Massa +Aaron and myself, while Mr S----rode beside Captain Transom. + +Aforetime, from the estates situated on this most magnificent plain, +(which extends about fifteen miles into the interior, while its width +varies from ten to five miles, being surrounded by hills on three +sides,) there used to be produced no less than thirty thousand hogsheads +of sugar. This was during the ancient regime; whereas, now, I believe, +the only articles it yields beyond plantains, yams, and pot herbs for +the supply of the town, are a few gallons of syrup, and a few puncheons +of tafla, a very inferior kind of rum. The whole extent of the sea +like plain, for there is throughout scarcely any inequality higher than +my staff, was once covered with well-cultivated fields and happy homes; +but now, alas! with brushwood from six to ten feet high,--in truth, by +one sea of jungle, through which you have to thread your difficult way +along narrow, hot, sandy bridle-paths, (with the sand flies and +musquittoes flaying you alive,) which every now and then lead you to +some old ruinous court-yard, with the ground strewed with broken +boilers and mill-rollers, and decaying hardwood timbers, and crumbling +bricks; while, a little further on, you shall find the blackened +roofless walls of what was most probably an unfortunate planter's once +happy home, where the midnight brigand came and found peace and comfort, +and all the elegancies of life, and left-blood and ashes; with the wild +flowers growing on the window sills, and the prickly pear on the tops +of the walls, while marble steps, and old shutters, and window hinges, +and pieces of china, are strewn all about; the only tenant now being +most likely an old miserable negro who has sheltered himself in a +coarsely thatched hut, in a corner of what had once been a gay and well +furnished saloon. + +After having extended our ride, under a hot broiling sun, until two +o'clock in the afternoon, we hove about, and returned towards the town. +We had not ridden on our homeward journey above three miles, when we +overtook a tall good-looking negro, dressed in white Osnaburg trowsers, +rolled up to his knees, and a check shirt. He wore neither shoes nor +stockings, but his head was bound round with the usual handkerchief, +over which he wore a large glazed cocked hat, with a most conspicuous +Haytian blue-and-red cockade. He was goading on a jackass before him, +loaded with a goodly burden apparently; but what it was we could not +tell, as the whole was covered by a large sheepskin, with the wool +outermost. I was pricking past the man, when Mr S----sung out to me to +shorten sail, and the next moment he startled me by addressing the +pedestrian as Colonel Gabaroche. The colonel returned the salute, and +seemed in no way put out from being detected in this rather unmilitary +predicament. He was going up to Port-au-Prince to take his turn of +duty with his regiment. Presently up came another half-naked black +fellow, with the same kind of glazed hat and handkerchief under it; but +he was mounted, and his nag was not a bad one by any means. It was +Colonel Gabaroche's Captain of Grenadiers, Papotiere by name. He was +introduced to us, and we all moved jabbering along. At the time I write +of, the military force of the Haytian Republic was composed of one +third of the whole male population capable of bearing arms, which third +was obliged to be on permanent duty for four months every year; but the +individuals of the quota were allowed to follow their callings as +merchants, planters, or agriculturists, during the remaining eight +months; they were, I believe, fed by Government during their four months +of permanent duty. The weather, by the time we had ridden a couple of +miles farther, began to lower, and presently, large heavy drops of rain +fell, and preserving their globular shape, rolled like peas, or rather +like bullets, amidst the small finely pulverized dust of the sandy path. +"Umbrella" was the word--but this was a luxury unknown to our military +friends. However, the colonel immediately unfurled a blanket from +beneath the sheepskin, and sticking his head through a hole in the +centre of it, there he stalked like a herald in his tabard, with the +blanket hanging down before and behind him. As for the captain he +dismounted, disencumbered himself of his trowsers, which he crammed +under the mat that served him for a saddle, and taking off his shirt, he +stowed it away in the capacious crown of his cocked hat, while he once +more bestrid his Bucephalus in puris naturalibus, but conversing with +all the ease in the world, and the most perfect sangfroid, while the +thunder shower came down in bucketfuls. In about half an hour, we +arrived at the skirt of the brushwood or jungle, and found on our left +hand some rice fields, which from appearance we could not have +distinguished from young wheat; but on a nearer approach, we perceived +that the soil, if soil it could be called on which there was no walking, +was a soft mud, the only passages through the fields, and along the +ridges, being by planks, on which several of the labourers were standing +as we passed, one of whom turning to look at us, slipped off, and +instantly sunk amidst the rotten slime up to his waist. The +neighbourhood of these rice swamps is generally extremely unhealthy. At +length we got on board the Firebrand, drenched to the skin, to a late +dinner, after which it was determined by Captain Transom--of which +intention, by the by, with all his familiarity, I had not the smallest +previous notice--that I should cross the island to Jacmel, in order to +communicate with the merchant-ships loading there; and by the time I +returned, it was supposed the Firebrand would be ready for sea, when I +was to be detached in the Wave, to whip in the craft at the different +out ports, after which we were all to sail in a fleet to Port Royal. + +"I say, skipper," quoth Mr Bang, "I have a great mind to ride with Tom +what say you?" + +"Why, Aaron, you are using me ill; that shaver is seducing you +altogether; but come, you won't be a week away, and if you want to go, I +see no objection." + +It was fixed accordingly, and on the morrow Mr Bang and I completed our +arrangements, hired horses, and a guide, and all being in order, clothes +packed, and every thing else made ready for the cruise, we rode out +along with Mr S----(we were to dine and sleep at his house) to view the +fortifications on the hill above the town, the site of Christophe's +operations when he besieged the place; and pretty hot work they must +have had of it, for in two different places the trenches of the +besiegers had been pushed on to the very crest of the glacis, and in one +the counterscarp had been fairly blown into the ditch, disclosing the +gallery of the mine behind, as if it had been a cave, the crest of the +glacis having remained entire. We walked into it, and Mr S----pointed +out where the President's troops, in Fort Republicain, had countermined, +and absolutely entered the other chamber from beneath, after the +explosion, and, sword in hand, cut off the storming party, (which had by +this time descended into the ditch,) and drove them up through the +breach into the fort, where they were made prisoners. + +The assault had been given three times in one night, and he trembled for +the town; however, Petion's courage and indomitable resolution saved +them all. For by making a sally from the south gate at grey dawn, even +when the firing on the hill was hottest, and turning the enemy's flank, +he poured into the trenches, routed the covering party, stormed the +batteries, spiked the guns, and that evening's sun glanced on the +bayonets of King Henry's troops as they raised the siege, and fell back +in great confusion on their lines, leaving the whole of their battering +train, and a great quantity of ammunition, behind them. + +Next morning we were called at daylight, and having accoutred ourselves +for the journey, we descended and found two stout ponies, the biggest +not fourteen hands high, ready saddled, with old fashioned demi piques, +and large holsters at each of the saddlebows. A very stout mule was +furnished for Monsieur Pegtop; and our black guide, who had contracted +for our transit across the island, was also in attendance, mounted on a +very active, well-actioned horse. We had coffee, and started. By the +time we reached Leogane, the sun was high and fierce. Here we +breakfasted in a low one--story building, our host being no smaller man +than Major L----of the Fourth Regiment of the line. We got our +chocolate, and eggs, and fricasseed fowl, and roasted yam, and in fact +made, even according to friend Aaron's conception of matters, an +exceedingly comfortable breakfast. + +Mr Bang here insisted on being paymaster, and tendered a sum that the +black major thought so extravagantly great, considering the +entertainment we had received, that he declined taking more than one +half. However, Mr Bang, after several unavailing attempts to press the +money on the man, who, by the by, was simply a good looking blackamoor, +dressed in a check shirt, coarse but clean white duck trowsers, with the +omnipresent handkerchief bound round his head, and finding that he could +not persist without giving offence, was about pocketing the same, when +Pegtop audibly whispered him, "Massa, you ever shee black niger refuse +money before? but don't take it to heart, massa; me, Pegtop, will pocket +him, if dat foolis black person won't." + +"Thank you for nothing, Master Pegtop," said Aaron. + +We proceeded, and rode across the beautiful plain, gradually sloping up +from the mangrove--covered beach, until it swelled into the first range +of hills that formed the pedestal of the high precipitous ridge that +intersected the southern prong of the island, winding our way through +the ruins of sugar plantations, with fragments of the machinery and +implements employed in the manufacture scattered about, and half sunk +into the soil of the fields, which were fast becoming impervious jungle, +and interrupting our progress along the narrow bridle-paths. At length +we began to ascend, and the comparative coolness of the climate soon +evinced that we were rapidly leaving the hot plains, as the air became +purer, and thinner, at every turn. After a long, hot, hot ride, we +reached the top of the ridge, and turning back had a most magnificent +view of the whole Bight of Leogane, and of the Horseshoe, and Aaron's +Frog; even the tops of the mountains above the Mole, which could not +have been nearer than seventy miles, were visible, floating like islands +or blue clouds in the misty distance. Aaron took off his hat, reined +up, and turning the head of his Bucephalus towards the placid waters we +had left, stretched forth his hand: + + 'Ethereal air, and ye swift-winged winds, + Ye rivers springing from fresh founts, ye waves + That o'er the interminable ocean wreathe + Your crisped smiles, thou all-producing Earth, + And thee, bright Sun, I call, whose flaming orb + Views the wide world beneath. See!' + + +Nearly got a stroke of the sun, Tom--what Whiffle would call a cul de +sac by taking off my chapeau in my poetical frenzy so shove on. + +We continued our journey through most magnificent defiles, and under +long avenues of the most superb trees, until, deeply embosomed in the +very heart of the eternal forest, we came to a shady clump of bamboos, +overhanging, with their ostrich-feather-like plumes, a round pool of +water, mantled or creamed over with a bright green coating, as if it had +been vegetable velvet, but nothing akin to the noisome scum that +ferments on a stagnant pool in England. It was about the time we had +promised ourselves dinner, and in fact our black guide and Pegtop had +dismounted, to make their preparations. + +"Why, we surely cannot dine here? you don't mean to drink of that +stagnant pool, my dear sir?" + +"Siste paulisper, my boy," said Mr Bang, as he stooped down, and skimmed +off the green covering with his hand, disclosing the water below, pure +and limpid as a crystal-clear fountain. We dined on the brink, and +discussed a bottle of vin-de-grave a-piece, and then had a small pull +at brandy and water; but we ate very little, although I was very hungry, +but Mr Bang would not let me feed largely. + +"Now, Tom, you really do not understand things. When one rides a +goodish journey on end--say seventy miles or so--on the same horse, one +never feeds the trusty creature with half a bushel of oats; at least if +any wooden spoon does, the chances are he knocks him up. No, no--you +give him a mouthful of corn, but plenty to drink, little meal and water +here, and a bottle of porter in water there, and he brings you in +handsomely. Zounds! how would you yourself, Tom, like to dine on turtle +soup and venison, in the middle of a hissing hot ride of sixty miles, +thirty of them to be covered after the feed? Lord! what between the +rich food and the punch, you would have fermented like a brewer's vat +before you reached the end of the journey; and if you had not a boll +imperial measure of carbonate of soda with you, the chances are you +would explode like a catamaran, your head flying through some old +woman's window, and capsizing her teapot on the one hand, while on the +other your four quarters are scattered north, south, east, and west. But +Gaudeamus, sweet is pleasure after pains Tom, and all you sailors and +tailors--I love to class you together--are tender--not hearted +creatures. Strange now that there should be three classes of his +Majesty's subjects, who never can be taught to ride,--to whom riding is, +in fact, a physical impossibility; and these three are the aforesaid +sailors and tailors, and dragoon officers. However, hand me the brandy +bottle; and, Pegtop, spate me that black jack that you are rinsing--so. +Useful commodity, a cup of this kind." here our friend dashed in a large +qualifier of cognac, "it not only conceals the quality of the water, for +you can sometimes perceive the animalculae hereabouts without a +microscope, but also the strength of the libation. So--a piece of +biscuit now, and the smallest morsel of that cold tongue--your health, +Thomas"--a long pull--"speedy promotion to you, Thomas." Here our friend +rested the jug on his knee. "Were you ever at a Gaudeamus of +Presbyterian clergymen on the Monday after the Sacrament Sunday, Tom, +that is, at the dinner at the manse?" + +"No, my dear sir; you know I am an Episcopalian." + +"And I am a Roman Catholic. What then? I have been at a Gaudeamus, and +why might not you have been at one too? Oh the fun of such a meeting! +the feast of reason, and the flow of Ferintosh, I and the rich stories, +ay, fatter than ever I would venture on, and the cricket-like chirps of +laughter of the probationer, and the loud independent guffaw of the +placed minister, and the sly innuendos about the land round the Jordan, +when our freens get half foo. Oh how I honour a Gaudeamus! And why," +he continued, "should the excellent men not rejoice, Tom? Are they not +the very men who should be happy? Is a minister to be for ever boxed up +in his pulpit--for ever to be wagging his pow, bald, black, or grizzled +as it may be, beneath his sounding board, like a bullfrog below a +toadstool. And like the aforesaid respectable quadruped or biped (it +has always puzzled me which to call it), is he never to drink any thing +stronger than water? Hath not a minister eyes? hath not a minister +hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the +same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, +healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and +summer, that another man is? If you prick them, do they not bleed? If +you tickle them, do they not laugh? And shall we grudge them a +Caudeamus now and then? Shall opera peracta ludemus be in the mouths of +an mankind, from the dirty little greasy-faced schoolboy, who wears a +red gown and learns the Humanities and Whiggery in the Nineveh of the +West, I as the Bailie glories to call it, to the King upon his throne, +and a dead letter, as well as a dead language, to them, and them only? +Forbid it, the Honourable the Lord Provost--forbid it, the Honourable +the Lord Provost and all the Bailies, and those who sit in Council with +them! Forbid it,--the whole august aggregate of terror to evildoers, +and praise of them who do well! Forbid it, the Devil and Dr Faustus!" + +By this time I had smuggled the jug out of our amigo's claw, and had +done honour to his pledge. "Do you know, my dear Mr Bang, I have always +been surprised that a man of your strong intellect, and clear views of +most matters, should continue, in profession at least, a Roman +Catholic?" + +Aaron looked at me with a seriousness, an unaffected seriousness in his +manner, that possessed me with the notion that I had taken an +unwarrantable liberty. "Profession," at length said he, slowly and +deliberately, apparently weighing every word carefully as it fell from +him, as one is apt to do when approaching an interesting subject, on +which you desire not to be misunderstood--"Profession--what right have +you to assume this of me or any man, that my mode of faith is but +profession?" and then the kind-hearted fellow, perceiving that his +rebuke had mortified me, altering his tone, continued, but still with a +strong tinge of melancholy in his manner--"Alas! Tom, how often will +weak man, in his great arrogance, assume the prerogative of his Maker, +and attempt to judge--honestly, we will even allow, according to his +conception--of the heart and secret things of another, but too often, in +reality, by the evil scale of his own! Shall the potsherd say to his +frail fellow, Thou art weak, but I am strong? Shall the moudiewort say +to his brother mole--(I say, Quashie, mind that mule of yours don't +snort in the water, will ye?)--Blind art thou, but lo, I see? Ah, Tom, +I am a Roman Catholic; but is it thou who shalt venture down into the +depths of my heart, and then say, whether I be so in profession only, or +in stern unswerving sincerity?" + +I found I had unwittingly touched a string that vibrated to his heart. +"I am a Roman Catholic, but, I humbly trust, not a bigoted one; for were +it not against the canons of both our churches, I fear I should incline +to the doctrine of Pope." + +'He can't be wrong whose life is in the right.' + +"My fathers, Tom, were all Catholics before me; they may have been wrong; +but I am only my father's son--not a better, and, I fear, I fear, not +so wise a man.--Pray, Tom, did you ever hear of even a good Jew, who, +being converted, did not become a bad Christian? Have you not all your +life had a repugnance to consort with a sinner converted from the faith +of his fathers, whether they were Jews or Gentiles, Hindoos or +Mahomedans, dwellers in Mesopotamia, or beyond Jordan? You have such a +repugnance, Tom, I know; and I have it too." + +"Well," I proceeded, on the strength of the brandy grog, "in the case of +an unenlightened, or ignorant, or half-educated man, I might indeed +suspect duplicity, or even hypocrisy, at the bottom of the abjuration of +his fathers creed; but in a gentleman of your acquirements and +knowledge...." + +"There again now, Cringle, you are wrong. The clodhopper might be +conscientious in a change of creed, but as to the advantage I have over +him from superior knowledge!--Knowledge, Tom! what do I know--what does +the greatest and the best of us know--to venture on a saying somewhat of +the tritest--but that he knows nothing? Oh, my dear boy, you and I have +hitherto consorted together on the deck of life, so to speak, with the +bright joyous sun sparkling, and the blue heavens laughing overhead, and +the clear green sea dancing under foot, and the merry breeze buzzing +past us right cheerily. We have seen but the fair-weather side of each +other, Thomas, without considering that all men have their deep +feelings, that lie far, far down in the hold of their hearts, were they +but stirred up. Ay, you smile at my figures, but I repeat it--in the +deep hold of their hearts; and may I not follow out the image with +verity and modesty, and say that those feelings, often too deep for +tears, are the ballast that keeps the whole ship in trim, and without +which we should be every hour of our existence liable to be driven out +of our heavenward course, yea, to broach--to and founder, and sink for +ever, under one of the many squalls in this world of storms? And here, +in this most beautiful spot, with the deep, dark, crystal-clear pool at +our feet, fringed with the velvet grass, and the green quivering leaf +above flickering between us and the bright blue cloudless sky, and the +everlasting rocks, with those diamond-like tears trickling down their +rugged cheeks, impending over us,--and those gigantic gnarled trees, +with their tracery of black withes fantastically tangled, whose naked +roots twist and twine amongst the fissures, like serpents trying to +shelter themselves from the scorching rays of the vertical sun, and +those feather-like bamboos high arching overhead, and screening us +under their noble canopy,--and the cool plantains, their broad ragged +leaves bending under the weight of dew-spangles, and the half-opened +wild-flowers,--yea, even here, the ardent noontide sleeping on the +hill, when even the quickeyed lizard lies still, and no longer rustles +through the dry grass, and there is not a breath of air strong enough +out of heaven to stir the gossamer that floats before us, or to wave +that wild flower on its hair like stem, or to ruffle the fairy plumage +of the humming-bird, that, against the custom of its kind, is now +quietly perched thereon; and while the bills of the chattering +paroquets, that are peering at us from the branches above, are closed, +and the woodpecker interrupts his tapping to look down upon us, and the +only sound we hear is the moaning of the wood-pigeon, and the lulling +buzz of myriads of happy insects booming on the ear, loud as the rushing +of a distant waterfall--(Confound these musquittoes, though!)--Even +here, on this:" + +'So sweet a spot of earth, you might, I ween, +Have guessed some congregation of the elves, +To sport by summer moons, had shaped it for themselves.' + +Even in such a place could I look forward without a shudder, to set up +my everlasting rest, to lay my weary bones in the earth, and to mingle +my clay with that whereout it was moulded. No fear of being houcked +here, Thomas, and preserved in a glass case, like a stuffed woodcock, in +Surgeons Hall. I am a barbarian, Tom, in these respects--I am a +barbarian, and nothing of a philosopher. Quiero Paz is to be my +epitaph. Quiero Paz--'Cursed be he who stirs these bones.' Did not even +Shakspeare write it? What poetry in this spot, Thomas! Oh, + + 'There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, + There is a rapture on the lonely shore, + There is society, where none intrudes, + By the deep sea, and music in its roar: + I love not man the less, but nature more, + From these our interviews, in which I steal + From all I may be, or have been before, + To mingle with the universe, and feel + What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.' + +"Yes, even here where nature is all beautiful and every thing, and man +abject and nothing even here, Tom, amidst the loneliness of earth, +rugged and half-mad as you must sometimes have thought me, a fellow +wholly made up of quips and jests,--even I at this moment could, like an +aboriginal Charibl of the land, 'lift up my voice to the Great Spirit,' +and kneel, and weep, and pray." + +I was much moved. + +"You have spoken of knowledge, Tom. Knowledge--what do I know? Of +myself I know as little as I do of any other grub that crawls on the +surface of this world of sin and suffering; and what I do know, adds +little to my self-esteem, Tom, and affords small encouragement to +enquire further.--Knowledge, say you? How is that particle of sand +here? I cannot tell. How grew that blade of grass? I do not know. +Even when I look into that jug of brandy grog, (I'll trouble you for it, +Thomas,) all that I know is, that if I drink it, it will make me drunk, +and a more desperately wicked creature, if that were possible, than I am +already. And when I look forth on the higher and more noble objects of +the visible creation, abroad on this beautiful earth, above on the +glorious universe studded with shining orbs, without number numberless, +what can I make of them? Nothing absolutely nothing--yet they are all +creatures like myself. But--if I try--audaciously try--to strain my +finite faculties, in the futile attempt to take in what is infinite--if +I aspiringly, but hopelessly, grapple with the idea of the immensity of +space, for instance, which my reason yet tells me must of necessity be +boundless--do I not fall fluttering to the earth again, like an owl +flying against the noontide sun? Again, when I venture to think of +eternity--ay, when, reptile as I feel myself to be, I even look up +towards heaven, and bend my erring thoughts towards the Most High, the +Maker of all things, who was, and is, and is to come; whose flaming +minister, even while I speak, is pouring down a flood of intolerable day +on one half of the dry earth, and all that therein is; and when I +reflect on what this tremendous, this inscrutable Being has done for me +and my sinful race, so beautifully shown forth in both our creeds, what +do I know? but that I am a poor miserable worm, crushed before the moth, +whose only song should be the miserere, whose only prayer 'God be +merciful to me a sinner!" + +There was a long pause, and I began to fear that my friend was shaken in +his mind, for he continued to look steadfastly into the clear black +water, where he had skimmed off the green velvet coating with his stick. + +"Ay, and is it even so? and is it Tom Cringle who thinks and says that I +am a man likely to profess to believe what he knows in his heart to be a +lie? A Roman Catholic! Had I lived before the Roman Conquest I would +have been a Druid, for it is not under the echoing domes of our +magnificent cathedrals, with all the grandeur of our ritual, the flaming +tapers, and bands of choristers, and the pealing organ, and smoking +censers, and silver-toned bells, and white-robed priests, that the +depths of my heart are stirred up. It is here, and not in a temple made +with hands, however gorgeous--here, in the secret places of the +everlasting forest,--it is in such a place as this that I feel the +immortal spark within me kindling into a flame, and wavering up +heavenward. I am superstitious, Thomas, I am superstitious, when left +alone in such a scene as this. I can walk through a country churchyard +at midnight, and stumble amongst the rank grass that covers the graves +of those I have lived with and loved, even if they be 'green in death, +and festering in their shrouds,' with the wind moaning amongst the +stunted yew-trees, and the rain splashing and scattering on the moss +covered tombstones, and the blinding blue lightning flashing, while the +headstones glance like an array of sheeted ghosts, and the thunder is +grumbling overhead, without a qualm-direness of this kind cannot once +daunt me; it is here and now, when all nature sleeps in the ardent +noontide, that I become superstitious, and would not willingly be left +alone. Thoughts too deep for tears!--ay, indeed, and there be such +thoughts, that, long after time has allowed them to subside, and when, +to the cold eye of the world, all is clear and smooth above, will, when +stirred up, like the sediment of this fountain of the wood, discolour +and embitter the whole stream of life once more, even after the lapse of +long long years. When my heart crushing loss was recent--when the wound +was green, I could not walk abroad at this to me witching time of day, +without a stock or a stone, a distant mark on the hill-side, or the +outline of the grey cliff above, taking the very fashion of her face, or +figure, on which I would gaze, and gaze, as if spell-bound, until I +knew not whether to call it a grouping of the imagination, or a reality +from without--or her, with whom I fondly hoped to have travelled the +weary road of life. Friends approved--fortune smiled--one little month, +and we should have been one; but it pleased Him, to whom in my present +frame of mind I dare not look up, to blight my beautiful flower, to +canker my rose-bud, to change the fair countenance of my Elizabeth, and +send her away. She drooped and died, even like that pale flower under +the scorching sun; and I was driven forth to worship Mammon, in these +sweltering climes; but the sting remains, the barbed arrow sticks fast." + +Here the cleared surface of the water, into which he was steadfastly +looking, was gradually contracted into a small round spot about a foot +in diameter, by the settling back of the green floating matter that he +had skimmed aside. His countenance became very pale; he appeared even +more excited than he had hitherto been. + +"By heavens! look in that water, if the green covering of it has not +arranged itself round the clear spot into the shape of a medallion into +her features! I had dreamed of such things before, but now it is a +palpable reality--it is her face--her straight nose--her Grecian upper +lip--her beautiful forehead, and her very bust!--even," + + 'As when years apace had bound her lovely waist with woman's zone.' + +"Oh, Elizabeth--Elizabeth!" + + +Here his whole frame shook with the most intense emotion, but at length, +tears, unwonted tears, did come to his relief, and he hid his face in +his hands, and wept bitterly. I was now convinced he was mad, but I +durst not interrupt him. At length he slowly removed his hands, by +which time, however, a beautiful small black diver, the most minute +species of duck that I ever saw--it was not so big as my fist--but which +is common in woodland ponds in the West Indies, had risen in the centre +of the eye of the fountain, while all was so still that it floated +quietly like a leaf on the water, apparently without the least fear of +us. + +"The devil appeared in Paradise under the shape of a cormorant," said Mr +Bang, half angrily, as he gazed sternly at the unlooked for visitor; +"what imp art thou?" + +Tip--the little fellow dived; presently it rose again in the same place, +and lifting up its little foot, scratched the side of its tiny yellow +bill and little red-spotted head, shook its small wings, bright and +changeable as shot silk, with a snow-white pen-feather in each, and +then tipped up its little purple tail, and once more disappeared. + +Aaron's features were gradually relaxing; a change was coming over the +spirit of his dream. The bird appeared for the third time, looked him +in the face, first turning up one little sparkling eye, and then +another, with its neck changing its hues like a pigeon's. Aaron began +to smile; he gently raised his stick--"Do you cock your fud at me, you +tiny thief, you?"--and thereupon he struck at it with his stick. Tip +the duck dived, and did not rise again; and all that he got was a +sprinkling shower in the face, from the water flashing up at his blow, +and once more the green covering settled back again, and the bust of his +dead love, or what he fancied to be so, disappeared. Aaron laughed +outright, arose, and began to shout to the black guide, who, along with +Pegtop, had taken the beasts into the wood in search of provender. +"Ayez le bont de donnez moi mon cheval? Bring us the horsos, Massa +Bungo-venga los quadrupedos--make haste, vite, mucho, mucho." + +Come, there is my Massa Aaron once more, at all events, thought I; but +oh, how unlike the Aaron of five minutes ago! + +"So now let us mount, my boy," said he, and we shoved along until the +evening fell, and the sun bid us good-by very abruptly. "Cheep, +Cheep," sung the lizards--"chirp, chirp," sung the crickets, "snore, +snore," moaned the tree-toad--and it was night. + +"Dame Nature shifts the scene without much warning here, Thomas," said +Massa Aaron; "we must get along, Doechez, mon cher--doechez, diggez +votre spurs into the flankibus of votre cheval, mon ami," shouted Aaron +to our guide. + +"Oui, monsieur," replied the man, 'mais' + +I did not like this ominous "but," nevertheless we rode on. No more did +Massa Aaron. The guide repeated his mais again. "Mais, mon filo," said +Bang, "mais--que meanez vous by baaing comme un sheep, eh? Que vizzy +vous, eh?" + +We were at this time riding in a bridle-road, to which the worst sheep +paths in Westmoreland would have been a railway, with our horses every +now and then stumbling and coming down on their noses on the deep red +earth, while we as often stood a chance of being pitched bodily against +some tree on the path-side. But we were by this time all alive again, +the dullness of repletion having evaporated; and Mr Bang, I fancied, +began to peer anxiously about him, and to fidget a good deal, and to +murmur and grumble something in his gizzard about "arms--no arms," as, +feeling in his starboard holster, he detected a regular long cork of +claret, where he had hoped to clutch a pistol, while in the larboard, by +the praiseworthy forethought of our guide, a good roasted capon was +ensconced. "I say, Tom tohoo mind I don't shoot you," presenting the +bottle of claret. "If it had been soda water, and the wire not all the +stronger, I might have had a chance in this climate--but we are somewhat +caught here, my dear we have no arms." + +"Poo," said I, "never mind--no danger at hand, take my word for it." + +"May be not, may be not--but, Pegtop, you scoundrel, why did you not +fetch my pistols?" + +"Eigh, you go fight, massa?" + +"Fight! no, you booby; but could not your own numscull--the fellow's a +fool--so come--ride on, ride on." + +Presently we came to an open space, free of trees, where the moon shone +brightly; it was a round precipitous hollow, that had been excavated +apparently by the action of a small clear stream or spout of water, that +sparkled in the moonbeams like a web of silver tissue, as it leaped in a +crystal arch over our heads from the top of a rock about twenty feet +high, that rose on our right hand, the summit clearly and sharply +defined against the blue firmament, while, on the left, was a small +hollow or ravine, down which the rivulet gurgled and vanished; while +ahead the same impervious forest prevailed, beneath which we had been +travelling for so many hours. + +The road led right through this rugged hollow, crossing it about the +middle, or, if any thing, nearer the base of the cliff; and the whole +clear space between the rock and the branches of the opposite trees +might have measured twenty yards. In front of us, the path took a turn +to the left, as if again entering below the dark shadow of the wood; but +towards the right, with the moon shining brightly on it, there was a +most beautiful bank, clear of underwood, and covered with the finest +short velvet grass that could be dreamed of as a fitting sward to be +pressed by fairy feet. We all halted in the centre of the open space. + +"See how the moonlight sleeps on yonder bank!" said I. + +"I don't know what sleeps there, Tom," said Aaron; "but does that figure +sleep, think you?" pointing to the dark crest of the precipitous +eminence of the right hand, from which the moonlight rill was gushing, +as if it had been smitten by the rod of the Prophet. + +I started, and looked--a dark half--naked figure, with an enormous cap +of the shaggy skin of some wild creature, was kneeling on one knee, on +the very pinnacle with a carabine resting across his thigh. I noticed +our guide tremble from head to foot, but he did not speak. + +"Vous avez des arms?" said Bang, as he continued with great fluency, but +little grammar; "ayez le bonte de cockez votre pistolettes?" + +The man gave no answer. We heard the click of the carabine lock. + +"Zounds!" said Aaron, with his usual energy when excited, "if you won't +use them, give them to me;" and forthwith he snatched both pistols from +our guide's holsters. "Now, Tom, get on. Shove t'other blackie a-head +of you, Pegtop, will you? Confound you for forgetting my Mantons, you +villain. I will bring up the rear." + +"Well, I will get on," said I. "but here, give me a pistol." + +"Ridez vous en avant, blackimoribus ambos--en avant, you black rascals +laissez le Capitan and me pour fightez"--shouted Bang, as the black +guide, guessing his meaning, spurred his horse against the moonlight +bank. + +"Ah--ah!" exclaimed the man, as he wheeled about after he had ridden a +pace or two under the shadow of the trees--"Voila ces autres brigands +la." + +"Where?" said I. + +"There," said the man in an ecstasy of fear--"there"--and peering up +into the forest, where the checkering dancing moonlight was flickering +on the dun, herbless soil, as the gentle night-breeze made the leaves +of the trees twinkle to and fro, I saw three dark figures advancing upon +us. + +"Here's a catastrophe, Tom, my boy" quoth Aaron, who, now that he had +satisfied himself that the pistols were properly loaded and primed, had +resumed all his wonted coolness in danger. "Ask that fellow who is +enacting the statue on the top of the rock what he wants. I am a +tolerable shot, you know; and if he means evil, I shall nick him before +he can carry his carabine to his shoulder, take my word for it." + +"Who is there, and what do you want?" No answer, the man above us +continued as still as if he had actually been a statue of bronze. +Presently one of the three men in the wood sounded a short snorting note +on a bullock's horn. + +It would seem that until this moment their comrade above us had not been +aware of their vicinity, for he immediately called out in the patois of +St Domingo, "advance, and seize the travellers;" and thereupon was in +the act of raising his piece to his shoulder, when crack--Bang tired his +pistol. The man uttered a loud hah, but did not fall. + +"Missed him, by all that is wonderful!" said my companion. "Now, Tom, +it is your turn." + +I levelled, and was in the very act of pulling the trigger, when the +dark figure fell over slowly and stiffly on his back, and then began to +struggle violently, and to cough loudly, as if he were suffocating. At +length he rolled over and down the face of the rock, where he was caught +by a strong clump of brushwood, and there he hung, while the coughing +and crowing increased, and I felt a warm shower, as of heated water, +sputter over my face. It was hot hot and salt--God of my fathers! it +was blood. But there was no time for consideration; the three figures +by this had been reinforced by six more, and they now, with a most +fiendish yell, jumped down into the hollow basin, and surrounded us. + +"Lay down your arms," one of them shouted. + +"No," I exclaimed; "we are British officers, and armed, and determined +to sell our lives dearly; and if you do succeed in murdering us, you may +rest assured you shall be hunted down by bloodhounds." + +I thought the game was up, and little dreamed that the name of Briton +would, amongst the fastnesses of Haiti, have proved a talisman; but it +did so. "We have no wish to injure you, but you must follow us, and see +our general," said the man who appeared to take the lead amongst them. +Here two of the men scrambled up the face of the rock, and brought their +wounded comrade down from where he hung, and laid him on the bank; he +had been shot through the lungs, and could not speak. After a minute's +conversation, they lifted him on their shoulders; and as our guide and +Monsieur Pegtop had been instantly bound, we were only two to nine armed +men, and accordingly had nothing for it but to follow the bearers of the +wounded man, with our horses tumbling and scrambling up the river +course, into which, by their order, we had now turned. + +We proceeded in this way for about half a mile, when it was evident that +the jaded beasts could not travel farther amongst the twisted trunks of +trees and fragments of rock with which the river-course was now +strewed. We therefore dismounted, and were compelled to leave them in +charge of two of the brigands, and immediately began to scramble up the +hill-side, through a narrow footpath, in one of the otherwise most +impervious thickets that I had ever seen. Presently a black savage, +half-naked like his companions, hailed, and told us to stand. Some +password that we could not understand was given by our captors, and we +proceeded, still ascending, until, turning sharp off to the left, we +came suddenly round a pinnacle of rock, and looked down into a deep +dell, with a winding path leading to the brink of it. It was a round +cockpit of a place, surrounded with precipitous limestone-rocks on all +sides, from the fissures of which large trees and bushes sprung, while +the bottom was a level piece of ground, covered with long hay-like +grass, evidently much trodden down. Close to the high bank, right +opposite, and about thirty yards from us, a wood-fire was sparkling +cheerily against the grey rock; while, on the side next us, the roofs of +several huts were visible, but there was no one moving about that we +could see. The moment, however, that the man with the horn sounded a +rough and most unmelodious blast, there was a buzz and a stir below, and +many a short grunt arose out of the pit, and long yawns, and eigh, +eighs! while a dozen splinters of resinous wood were instantly lit, and +held aloft, by whose light I saw fifty or sixty half-naked, but well +armed blacks, gazing up at us from beneath, their white eyes and whiter +teeth glancing. Most of them had muskets and long knives, and several +wore the military shake, while others had their heads bound round with +the never-failing handkerchief. At length a fierce-looking fellow, +dressed in short drawers, a round blue jacket, a pair of epaulets, and a +most enormous cocked hat, placed a sort of rough ladder, a prank with +notches cut in it with a hatchet, against the bank next us, and in a +loud voice desired us to descend. I did so with fear and trembling, but +Mr Bang never lost his presence of mind for a moment; and, in answer to +the black chief's questions, I again rested our plea on our being +British officers, despatched on service from a squadron (and as I used +the word, the poor little Wave and solitary corvette rose up before me) +across the island to Jacmel, to communicate with another British force +lying there. The man heard me with great patience; but when I looked +round the circle of tatterdemalions, for there was ne'er a shirt in the +whole company--Falstaff's men were a joke to them--with their bright +arms sparkling to the red glare of the torches, that flared like tongues +of flame overhead, while they grinned with their ivory teeth, and glared +fiercely with their white eyeballs on us--I felt that our lives were not +worth an hour's purchase. + +At length the leader spoke--"I am General Sanchez, driven to dispute +President Petion's sway by his injustice to me--but I trust our quarrel +is not hopeless; will you, gentlemen, on your return to Port-au-Prince, +use your influence with him to withdraw his decree against me?" + +This was so much out of the way the idea of our being deputed to +mediate between such great personages as President Petion and one of his +rebel generals, was altogether so absurd, that, under other +circumstances, I would have laughed in the black fellow's face. +However, a jest here might have cost us our lives; so we looked serious, +and promised. + +"Upon your honours"--said the poor fellow. + +"Upon our words of honour"--we rejoined. + +"Then embrace me"--and the savage thereupon, stinking of tobacco and +cocoa-nut oil, hugged me, and kissed me on both cheeks, and then did +the agreeable in a similar way to Mr Bang. Here the coughing and +moaning of the wounded man broke in upon the conference. + +"What is that?" said Sanchez. One of his people told him. "Ah!" said +he, with a good deal of savageness in his tone--"A--ha! blood?" + +We promptly explained how it happened;--for a few moments, I did not +know how he might take it. + +"But I forgive you," at length said he--"however, my men may revenge +their comrade. You must drink and eat with them." + +This was said aside to us, as it were. He ordered some roasted +plantains to be brought, and mixed some cruel bad tafia with water in an +enormous gourd. He ate, and then took a pull himself we followed,--and +he then walked round the circle, and carefully observed that every one +had tasted also. Being satisfied on this head, he abruptly ordered us +to ascend the ladder, and to pass on our way. + +The poor fellow was mad, I believe. However, some time afterwards, the +President hunted him down, and got hold of him, but I believe he never +punished him. As for the wounded man, whether he did live or die, Tom +Cringle does not know. + +We were reconducted by our former escort to where we left our horses, +remounted, and without farther let or hinderance arrived by day dawn at +the straggling town of Jacmel. The situation is very beautiful, the +town being built on the hillside, looking out seaward on a very safe +roadstead, the anchorage being defended to the southward by bright blue +shoals, and white breakers, that curl and roar over the coral reefs and +ledges. As we rode up to Mr S----'s, the principal merchant in the +place, and a Frenchman, we were again struck with the dilapidated +condition of the houses, and the generally ruinous state of the town. +The brown and black population appeared to be lounging about in the most +absolute idleness; and here, as at Port-au-Prince, every second man +you met was a soldier. The women sitting in their little shops, nicely +set out with a variety of gay printed goods, and the crews of the +English vessels loading coffee, were the only individuals who seemed to +be capable of any exertion. + +"I say, Tom," quoth Massa Aaron, "do you see that old fellow there?" + +"What? that old grey-headed negro sitting in the arbour there?" + +"Yes--the patriarch is sitting under the shadow of his own Lima bean." + +And so in very truth he was. The stem was three inches in diameter, and +the branches had been trained along and over a sparred arch, and were +loaded with pods. + +"I shall believe in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, henceforth and +for ever," said I. + +We were most kindly entertained by Mr S----, and spent two or three days +very happily. The evening of the day on which we arrived, we had +strolled out about nine o'clock to take the air--our host and his clerks +being busy in the counting-house--and were on our way home, when we +looked in on them at their desks, before ascending to the apartments +above. There were five clerks and Mr S----, all working away on the top +of their tall mahogany tripods, by the light of their brown home-made +wax candles, while three masters of merchantmen were sitting in a +corner, comparing bills of lading, making up manifests, and I do not +know what beside. + +"It is now about time to close," said Mr S----; "have you any objection +to a little music, gentlemen? or are you too much fatigued?" + +"Music--music," said Mr Bang, "I delight in good music, but"--He was +cut short by the whole bunch, the clerks and their master, closing their +ledgers, and journals, and day-books, and cashbooks with a bang, while +one hooked up a fiddle, another a clarionet, another a flute, &c, while +Mr S----offered, with a smile, his own clarionet to Massa Aaron, and +holding out at the same time, with the true good-breeding of a +Frenchman, a span-new reed. To my unutterable surprise he took it +sucked in his lips--wet the reed in his mouth; then passing his hand +across his muzzle, coolly asked Mr S----what the piece was to be? +"Adeste fideles, if you please," said S----, rather taken aback. Mr +Bang nodded--sounded a bar or two gave another very scientific flourish, +and then calmly awaited the opening. He then tendered a fiddle to me +altogether beyond my compass--but I offered to officiate on the +kettledrum, the drummer being competent to something else. At a signal +from our host away they all launched in full crash, and very melodious +it was too, let me tell you, Aaron's instrument telling most famously. + +The next day we went to visit a tafia property in the neighbourhood. On +our way we passed a dozen miserable-looking blacks, cleaning canes, +followed by an ugly Turk of a brown man, almost naked, with the +omnipresent glazed cocked-hat, and a drawn cutlass in his hand. He was +abusing the poor devils most lustily as we rode along, and stood so +pertinaciously in the path, that I could not for the life of me pass +without jostling him. "Le vous demands pardon," said I, with a most +abject salaam to my saddle-bow. He knit his brows and shut his teeth +hard, as he ground out between the glancing ivory, "Sacre!--voila ces +foutres blancs la,"--clutching the hilt of his couteau firmly all the +while. I thought he would have struck me. But Mr S----coming up, +mollified the savage, and we rode on. + +The tafia estate was a sore affair. It had once been a prosperous sugar +plantation, as the broken panes and ruined houses, blackened by fire, +were melancholy vouchers for; but now the whole cultivation was reduced +to about a couple of acres of wiry sugar canes, and the boiling and +distilling was carried on in a small unroofed nook of the original +works. + +Two days after this we returned to Port-au-Prince, and I could not +help admiring the justness of Aaron's former description; for noisome +exhalations were rising thick, as the evening sun shone hot and sickly +on the long bank of fat black mud that covers the beach beneath the +town. We found Captain Transom at Mr S----'s. I made my report of the +state of the merchantmen loading on the south side of the island, and +returned to rest, deucedly tired and stiff with my ride. Next morning +Bang entered my room. + +"Hillo, Tom--the skipper has been shouting for you this half hour--get +up, man--get up." + +"My dear sir, I am awfully tired." + +"Oh!" sung Bang--"'I have a silent sorrow here' eh?" + +It was true enough; no sailor rides seventy miles on end with impunity. +That same evening we bid adieu to our excellent host Mr S----, and the +rising moon shone on us under weigh for Kingston, where two days after +we safely anchored with the homeward bound trade. "The roaring seas Is +not a place of ease," says a Point ditty. No more is the command of a +small schooner in the West Indies. We had scarcely anchored, when the +boarding officer from the flag-ship brought me a message to repair +thither immediately. I did so. As I stepped on deck, the lieutenant was +leaning on the drumhead of the capstan, with the signal-book open +before him, while the signal-man was telling off the semaphore, which +was rattling away at the Admiral's pen, situated about five miles off. + +"Ah! Cringle," said he, without turning his head, "how are you? glad to +see you--wish you joy, my lad. Here, lend me a hand, will you? it +concerns you." I took the book, and as the man reported, I pieced the +following comfortable sentence together. + +"Desire--Wave--fit--wood--water--instantly--to take convoy to Spanish +Main--to-morrow morning--Mr Cringle--remain on board--orders will be +sent--evening." + +"Heigh ho, says Rowley," sang I Thomas, in great wrath and bitterness of +spirit. "D----d hard--am I a duck, to live in the water altogether, +entirely?" + +"Tom, my boy," sung out a voice from the water. It was Aaron Bang's, +who, along with Transom, had seen me go on board the receiving ship. +"Come along, man--come along--Transom is going to make interest to get +you a furlough on shore; so come along, and dine with us in Kingston." + +"I am ordered to sea to-morrow morning, my dear sir," said I, like to +cry.--"No!"--"Too true, too true." So no help for it, I took a sad +farewell of my friends, received my orders, laid in my provisions and +water, hauled out into the fairway, and sailed for Santa Martha next +morning at daybreak, with three merchant schooners under convoy one for +Santa Martha--another for Carthagena--and the third for Porto-Bello. + +We sailed on the 24th of such a month, and, after a pleasant passage, +anchored at Santa Martha, at 8 AM, on the 31st. When we came to +anchor, we saluted, which seemed to have been a somewhat unexpected +honour, as the return was fired from the fort after a most primitive +fashion. A black fellow appeared with a shovel of live embers, one of +which another sans culotte caught up in his hand, chucking it from one +palm to another, until he ran to the breech of the first gun, where, +clapping it on the touch-hole, he fired it off, and so on seriatim, +through the whole battery, until the required number of guns were given, +several of which, by the by, were shotted, as we could hear the balls +whiz overhead. The town lies on a small plain, at the foot of very high +mountains, or rather on a sand-bank, formed from the washings from +these mountains. The summit of the highest of them, we could see from +the deck, was covered with snow, which at sunrise, in the clear light of +the cool grey dawn, shone, when struck by the first rays of the sun, +like one entire amethyst. Oh, how often I longed for the wings of the +eagle, to waft me from the hot deck of the little vessel, where the +thermometer in the shade stood at 95, far up amongst the shining +glaciers, to be comforted with cold! + +One striking natural phenomenon is exhibited here, arising out of the +vicinity of this stupendous prong of the Cordilleras. The sea breeze +blows into the harbour all day, but in the night, or rather towards +morning, the cold air from the high regions rushes down, and blows with +such violence off the land, that my convoy and myself were nearly blown +out to sea the first night after we arrived; and it was only by +following the practice of the native craft, and anchoring close under +the lee of the beach--in fact, by having an anchor high and dry on the +shore itself--the player, as the Spaniards call it--that we could count +on riding through the night with security or comfort. + +There are several small islands at the entrance of the harbour, on the +highest of which is a fort, that might easily be rendered impregnable; +it commands both the town and harbour. The place itself deserves little +notice; the houses are mean, and interspersed with negro huts, but there +is one fine church, with several tolerable paintings in it. One struck +me as especially grotesque, although I had often seen queer things in +Roman Catholic churches in Europe. It was a representation of Hell, +with Old Nicholas, under the guise of a dragon, entertaining himself +with the soul of an unfortunate heretic in his claws, who certainly +appeared far from comfortable; while a lot of his angels were washing +the sins off a set of fine young men, as you would the dirt off scabbit +potatoes, in a sea of liquid fire. But their saints!--I often rejoiced +that Aaron Bang was not with me; we should unquestionably have +quarrelled; for as to the manner in which they were dressed and +decorated, the most fantastic mode a girl ever did up her doll in, was a +joke to it. Still these wooden deities are treated with such +veneration; that I do believe their ornaments, which are of massive gold +and silver, are never, or very rarely, stolen. + +On the evening of the 2nd of the following month we sailed again, but +having been baffled by calms and light winds, it was the 4th before we +anchored off the St Domingo gate at Carthagena, and next morning we +dropped down to Boca Chica, and saw our charge, a fine dashing schooner +of 150 tons, safe into the harbour. About 9 AM, we had weighed, but +we had scarcely got the anchor catted, when it came on to blow great +guns from the northwester most unusual thing hereabouts--so it was down +anchor again; and as I had made up my mind not to attempt it again +before morning, I got the gig in the water with all convenient speed; +and that same forenoon I reached the town, and immediately called on the +Viceroy, but under very different circumstances from the time Mr +Splinter and I had entered it along with the conquering army. + +We dined with the magnate, and found a very large party assembled. +Amongst others, I especially recollect that the Inquisidor--General was +conspicuous; but every one, with the exception of the Captain General +and his immediate staff, was arrayed in gingham jackets; so there was +not much style in the affair. + +I had before dinner an opportunity to inspect the works of Carthagena at +my leisure. It is unquestionably a very strong place, the walls, which +are built of solid masonry, being armed with at least three hundred +pieces of brass cannon, while the continued ebb and flow of the tide in +the ditch creates a current so strong, that it would be next to +impossible to fill it up, as fascines would be carried away by the +current--so that, were the walls even breached, it would be +impracticable to storm them. The appearance of Carthagena from the sea, +that is, from a vessel anchored off the St Domingo gate, is very +beautiful, and picturesque. It is situated on a sandy island, or rather +a group of islands; and the beach here shoals so gradually, that boats +of even very small draught of water cannot approach within musket-shot. +The walls and numerous batteries have a very commanding appearance. The +spires and towers on the churches are numerous, and many of them were +decorated with flags when we were there; and the green trees shooting up +amidst the red-tiled houses afforded a beautiful relief to the +prospect. A little behind the town, on a gentle acclivity, is the +citadel, or fort San Felipe, whose appearance conveys an idea of +impregnable strength; (but all this sort of thing, is it not written in +Roderick Random?) and on the ship like hill beyond it, the only other +eminence in the neighbourhood, stands the convent of the Popa, like a +poop lantern on the high stern of a ship, from which indeed it takes its +name. This convent had been strongly fortified; and, commanding San +Felipe, was of great use to Morillo, who carried it by assault during +the siege, and held it until the insurgents shelled him out from the +citadel. The effect, when I first saw it, was increased by the whole +scene--city, and batteries, and Popa--being reflected in the calm smooth +sea, as distinctly as if it had been glass; so clear, in fact, was the +reflection, that you could scarcely distinguish the shadow from the +reality. We weighed next morning--that is on the sixth of the month, +and arrived safe at Porto-Bello on the 11th, after a tedious passage, +during which we had continual rains, accompanied with vivid lightning +and tremendous thunder. I had expected to have fallen in with one of +our frigates here; but I afterwards learned that, although I had slid +down cheerily along shore, the weather current that prevailed farther +out at sea had swept her away to the eastward; so I ran in and anchored, +and immediately waited on the Governor, who received me in what might +once have been a barn, although it did not now deserve the name. + +Porto--Bello was originally called Nombre de Dios, having received the +former name from the English when we took it. It is a miserable, dirty, +damp hole, surrounded by high forest-clad hills, round which +everlasting mists curl and obscure the sun, whose rays, at any chance +moment when they do reach the steamy swamp on which it is built or the +waters of the lead-coloured, land-locked cove that constitutes the +harbour, immediately exhale the thick sickly moisture, in clouds of +sluggish white vapours, smelling diabolically of decayed vegetables, and +slime, and mud. I will venture a remark that will be found, I am +persuaded, pretty near the truth, that there were twenty carrion crows +to be seen in the streets for every inhabitant--the people seem every +way worthy of such an abode, saffron, dingy, miserable, emaciated +looking devils. As for the place itself, it appeared to my eyes one +large hospital, inhabited by patients in the yellow fever. During the +whole of the following day, there was still no appearance of the +frigate, and I had in consequence now to execute the ulterior part of my +orders, which were, that if I did not find her at anchor when I arrived, +or if she did not make her appearance within forty eight hours +thereafter, I was myself to leave the Wave in Porto--Bello, and proceed +overland across the isthmus to Panama, and to deliver, on board of H. M. +S. Bandera, into the Captain's own hands, a large packet with despatches +from the Government at home, as I understood, of great importance, +touching the conduct of our squadron, with reference to the vagaries of +some of the mushroom American Republics on the Pacific. But if I fell +in with the frigate, then I was to deliver the said packet to the +Captain, and return immediately in the Wave to Port Royal. + +Having, therefore, obtained letters from the Governor of Porto--Bello to +the Commandant at Chagres, I chartered a canoe with four stout canoemen +and a steersman, or patron, as he is called, to convey me to Cruzes; and +having laid in a good stock of eatables and drinkables, and selected the +black pilot, Peter Mangrove, to go as my servant, accompanied by his +never-failing companion, Sneezer, and taking my hammock and double +barrelled gun, and a brace of pistols with me, we shoved off at Six A.M. +on the morning of the 14th. + +It was a rum sort of conveyance this said canoe of mine. In the first +place, it was near forty feet long, and only five broad at the broadest, +being hollowed out of one single wild cotton-tree; how this was to be +pulled through the sea on the coast, by four men, I could not divine. +However, I was assured by the old thief who chartered it to me, that it +would be all right; whereas, had my innocence not been imposed on, I +might, in a caiuco, or smaller canoe, have made the passage in one half +the time it took me. + +About ten feet of the after part was thatched with palm leaves, over a +framework of broad ash hoops; which awning, called the toldo, was open +both towards the steersman that guided us with a long broad-bladed +paddle in the stern, and in the direction of the men forward, who, on +starting, stripped themselves stark naked, and, giving a loud yell every +now and then, began to pull their oars, or long paddles, after a most +extraordinary fashion. First, when they lay back to the strain, they +jumped backwards and upwards on to the thwart with their feet, and then, +as they once more feathered their paddles again, they came crack down on +their bottoms with a loud skelp on the seats, upon which they again +mounted at the next stroke, and so on. + +When we cleared the harbour it was fine and serene, but about noon it +came on to blow violently from the northeast. All this while we were +coasting it along about pistol-shot from the white coral beach, with +the clear light green swell on our right hand, and beyond it the dark +and stormy waters of the blue rolling ocean; and the snow-white roaring +surf on our left. By the time I speak of, the swell had been lashed up +into breaking waves, and after shipping more salt water than I had +bargained for, we were obliged, about four PM, to shove into a cove +within the reef, called Naranja. + +Along this part of the coast there is a chain of salt-water lagoons, +divided from the sea by the coral beach, the crest of which is covered +here and there with clumps of stunted mangroves. + +This beach, strangely enough, is higher than the land immediately behind +it, as if it had been a dike, or natural breakwater, thrown up by the +sea. Every here and there, there were gaps in this natural dike, and it +was through one of these we shoved, and soon swung to our grapnel in +perfect security, but in a most outlandish situation certainly. + +As we rode to the easterly breeze, there was the beach as described, +almost level with the water, on our left hand, the land or lee side of +it covered with most beautiful white sand and shells, with whole warrens +of land-crabs running out and in their holes like little rabbits, their +tiny green bodies seeming to roll up and down, for I was not near enough +to see their feet, or the mode of their locomotion, like bushels of +grapeshot trundling all about on the shining white shore. Beyond, the +roaring surf was flashing up over the clumps of green bushes, and +thundering on the seaward face. On the right hand, ahead of us, and +astern of us, the prospect was shut in by impervious thickets of +mangroves, while in the distance the blue hills rose glimmering and +indistinct, as seen through the steamy atmosphere. We were anchored in +a stripe of clear water, about three hundred yards long by fifty broad. +There, was a clear space abeam of us landward, of about half an acre in +extent, on which was built a solitary Indian hut close to the water's +edge, with a small canoe drawn up close to the door. We had not been +long at anchor when the canoe was launched, and a monkey--looking naked +old man paddled off, and brought us a most beautiful chicken turtle, +some yams, and a few oranges. I asked him his price. He rejoined, "Por +amor de Dios"--that it was his saint's day, and he meant it as a gift. +However, he did not refuse a dollar when tendered to him before he +paddled away. + +That night, when we were all at supper, master and men, I heard and felt +a sharp crack against the side of the canoe. "Hillo, Peter, what is +that?" said I. + +"Nothing, sir," quoth Peter, who was enjoying his scraps abaft, with the +headman, patron, or whatever you may call him, of my crew. There was a +blazing fire kindled on a bed of white sand, forward in the bow of the +canoe, round which the four bogas, or canoemen, were seated, with three +sticks stuck up triangularly over the fire, from which depended an +earthen pot, in which they were cooking their suppers. + +I had rigged my hammock between the foremost and aftermost hoops of the +toldo, and as I was fatigued and sleepy, and it was now getting late, I +desired to betake myself to rest; so I was just flirting with a piece of +ham, preparatory to the cold grog, when I again felt a similar thump and +rattle against the side of the canoe. There was a small aperture in the +palm thatch, right opposite to where I was sitting, on the outside of +which I now heard a rustling noise, and presently a long snout was +thrust through, and into the canoe, which kept opening and shutting with +a sharp rattling noise. It was more like two long splinters of mud +covered and half-decayed timber, than any thing I can compare it to; +but as the lower jaw was opened, like a pair of Brobdignag scissors, a +formidable row of teeth was unmasked, the snout from the tip to the eyes +being nearly three feet long. The scene at this moment was exceedingly +good, as seen by the light of a small, bright, silver lamp, fed with +spirits of wine, that I always travelled with, which hung from one of +the hoops of the toldo. First, there was our friend Peter Mangrove, +cowering in a corner under the after part of the awning, covered up with +a blanket, and shaken as if with an ague-fit, with the patron peering +over his shoulder, no less alarmed. Sneezer, the dog, was sitting on +end, with his black nose resting on the table, waiting patiently for his +crumbs; and the black boatmen were forward in the bow of the canoe, +jabbering, and laughing, and munching, as they clustered round a +sparkling fire. When I first saw the apparition of the diabolical +looking snout, I was in a manner fascinated, and could neither speak nor +move. Mangrove and the patron were also paralysed with fear, and the +others did not see it; so Sneezer was the only creature amongst us, +aware of the danger, who seemed to have his wits about him, for the +instant he noticed it, he calmly lifted his nose off the table, and gave +a short startled bark, and then crouched and drew himself back as if in +the act to spring, glancing his eyes from the monstrous jaws to my face, +and nuzzling and whining with a laughing expression, and giving a small +yelp now and then, and again riveting his eyes with intense earnestness +on the alligator, telling me as plainly as if he had spoken it--"If you +choose, master, I will attack it, as in duty bound, but really such a +customer is not at all in my way." And not only did he say this, but he +shewed his intellect was clear, and no way warped through fear, for he +now stood on his hind legs, and holding on the hammock with his fore +paws, he thrust his snout below the pillow, and pulled out one of my +pistols, which always garnished the head of my bed, on such expeditions +as the present. + +My presence of mind returned at witnessing the courage and sagacity of +my noble dog. I seized the loaded pistol, and as by this time the eyes +of the alligator were inside of the toldo, I clapped the muzzle to the +larboard one, and fired. The creature jerked back so suddenly and +convulsively, that part of the toldo was tom away: and as the dead +monster fell off, the canoe rolled as if in a seaway. My crew shouted +"Que es esto?" Peter Mangrove cheered--Sneezer barked and yelled at a +glorious rate, and could scarcely be held in the canoe--and looking +overboard, we saw the monster, twelve feet long at least, upturn his +white belly to the rising moon, struggle for a moment with his short +paws, and after a solitary heavy lash of his scaly tale, he floated away +astern of us, dead and still. To proceed poor Peter Mangrove, whose +nerves were consumedly shaken by this interlude, was seized during the +night with a roasting fever, brought on in a great measure, I believe, +by fear, at finding himself so far out of his latitude; and that he had +grievous doubts as to the issue of our voyage, and as to where we were +bound for, was abundantly evident. I dosed him most copiously with salt +water, a very cooling medicine, and no lack of it at hand. + +We weighed at grey dawn, on the morning of the 15th, and at 11 o'clock, +AM arrived at Chagres, a more miserable place, were that credible, even +than Porto--Bello. The eastern side of the harbour is formed by a small +promontory that runs out into the sea about five hundred yards, with a +bright little bay to windward; while a long muddy mangrove-covered spit +forms the right hand bank as you enter the mouth or estuary of the river +Chagres on the west. The easternmost bluff is a narrow saddle, with a +fort erected on the extreme point facing the sea, which, so far as +situation is concerned, is, or ought to be, impregnable, the rock being +precipitous on three faces, while it is cut off to landward by a deep +dry ditch, about thirty feet wide, across which a movable drawbridge is +let down, and this compartment of the defences is all very regular, with +scarp and counterscarp, covered--way and glacis. The brass guns mounted +on the castle were numerous and beautiful, but every thing was in +miserable disrepair; several of the guns, for instance, had settled down +bodily on the platform, having fallen through the crushed rotten +carriages. I found an efficient garrison in this stronghold of three old +negroes, who had not even a musket of any kind, but the commandant was +not in the castle when I paid my visit; however, one of the invincibles +undertook to pilot me to El Senor Torre's house, where his honour was +dining. The best house in the place this was, by the by, although only +a thatched hut; and here I found his Excellency the Commandant, a little +shrivelled insignificant-looking creature. He was about sitting down +to his dinner, of which he invited me to partake, and as I was very +hungry, I contrived to do justice to the first dish, but my stomach was +grievously offended at the second, which seemed to me to be a compound +of garlic, brick dust, and train oil, so that I was glad to hurry on +board of my canoe, to settle all with a little good Madeira. + +At four P.m. I proceeded up the river, which is here about a hundred +yards across, and very deep; it rolls sluggishly along through a low +swampy country, covered to the water's edge with thick sedges and +underwood, below which the water stagnates, and generates myriads of +musquittoes, and other troublesome insects, and sends up whole clouds of +noxious vapours, redolent of yellow fever, and ague, and cramps, and all +manner of comfortable things. + +At ten P.M. we anchored by a grapnel in the stream, and I set Peter +Mangrove forthwith to officiate in his new capacity of cook, and really +he made a deuced good one. I then slung my hammock under the toldo, and +lighting a slow match, at the end of it forwards, to smoke away the +musquittoes, having previously covered the aftermost end with a mat, I +wrapped myself in my cloak, and turned in to take my snooze. We weighed +again about two in the morning. As the day dawned the dull grey steamy +clouds settled down on us once more, while the rain fell in a regular +waterspout. It was anything but a cheering prospect to look along the +dreary vistas of the dull brimful Lethe-like stream, with nothing to be +seen but the heavy lowering sky above, the red swollen water beneath, +and the gigantic trees high towering overhead, and growing close to the +water's edge, laced together with black snake-like withes, while the +jungle was thick and impervious, and actually grew down into the water, +for beach, or shore, or cleared bank, there was none,--all water and +underwood, except where a heavy soft slimy steaming black bank of mud +hove its shining back from out the dead waters near the shore, with one +or more monstrous alligators sleeping on it, like dirty rotten logs of +wood, scarcely deigning to lift their abominable long snouts to look at +us as we passed, or to raise their long scaly tails, with the black mud +sticking to the scales in great lumps--oh--horrible--most horrible! But +the creatures, although no beauties certainly, are harmless after all. +For instance, I never heard a well-authenticated case of their +attacking a human being hereabouts; pigs and fowls they do tithe, +however, like any parson. I don't mean to say that they would not make +free with a little fat dumpling of a piccaniny, if he were thrown to +them, but they seem to have no ferocious propensities. I shot one of +them; he was about twelve feet long; the bullet entered in the joints of +the mail, below the shoulder of the fore paw, where the hide was tender; +but if you fire at them with the scale, that is, with the monster +looking at you, a musket ball will glance. I have often in this my log +spoken of the Brobdignag lizards, the guanas. I brought down one this +day, about three feet long, and found it, notwithstanding its dragon +like appearance, very good eating. At eleven AM on the 18th, we +arrived at the village of Cruzes, the point where the river ceases to be +navigable for canoes, and from whence you take horse, or rather mule, +for Panama. For about fifteen or twenty miles below Cruzes, the river +becomes rapid, and full of shoals, when the oars are laid aside, and the +canoes are propelled by long poles. + +The Town, as it is called, is a poor miserable place, composed chiefly +of negro huts; however, a Spanish trader of the name of Villaverde, who +had come over in the Wave as a passenger, and had preceded me in a +lighter canoe, and to whom I had shown some kindness, now repaid it, as +far as lay in his power. + +He lodged me for the night, and hired mules for me to proceed to Panama +in the morning; so I slung my hammock in an old Spanish soldier's house, +who keeps a kind of posada, and was called by my friend Villaverde at +daydawn, whose object was, not to tell me to get ready for my journey, +but to ask me if I would go and bathe before starting. Rather a rum +sort of request, it struck me; nevertheless, a purification, after the +many disagreeables I had endured, could not come amiss; and slipping on +my trowsers, and casting my cloak on my shoulders, away we trudged to a +very beautiful spot, about a mile above Cruzes, where, to my surprise, I +found a score of Crusafios, all Altering in the water, puffing and +blowing and shouting. Now an alligator might pick and choose, thought +I; however, no one seemed in the least afraid, so I dashed amongst them. +Presently, about pistol-shot from us, a group of females appeared. +Come, thought I, rather too much for a modest young man this too; and +deuce take me, as I am a gentleman, if the whole bevy did not disrobe in +cold blood, and squatter, naked as their mother Eve was in the garden of +Eden, before she took to the herbage, right into the middle of the +stream, skirting and laughing, as if not even a male musquitto had been +within twenty miles. However, my neighbour took no notice of them; it +seemed all a matter of course. But let that pass. About eight o'clock +A.M. I got under weigh, with Peter Mangrove, on two good stout mules, +and a black guide running before me with a long stick, with which he +sprung over the sloughs and stones in the road with great agility; I +would have backed him against many a passable hunter, to do four miles +over a close country in a steeple-chase. + +Panama is distant from Cruzes about seven leagues. The road is somewhat +like what the Highland ones must have been before General Wade took them +in hand, and only passable for mules; indeed, in many places where it +had been hewn out of the rock in zigzags on the face of the hill, it is +scarcely passable for two persons meeting. But the scenery on each side +is very beautiful, as it winds, for the most part, amongst steep rocks, +over shadowed by magnificent trees, amongst which birds of all sizes, +and of the most beautiful plumage, are perpetually glancing, while a +monkey, every here and there, would sit grimacing, and chattering, and +scratching himself in the cleft of a tree. + +I should think, judging from my barometer--but I may have made an +inaccurate calculation, and I have not Humboldt by me--that the ridge of +the highest is fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea, so that +it would be next to impossible to join the two seas at this point by a +canal with water in it. However, I expect to see a joint Stock Company +set a-going some fine day yet for the purpose of cutting it, that is, +when the national capital next accumulates (and Lord knows when that +will be) to a plethora, and people's purses become so distended that +they require bleeding. + +After travelling about twenty miles, the scene gradually opens, and one +begins to dream about Vasco Nunez and the enthusiastic first explorers +of the Isthmus; but my first view of the Pacific was through a drenching +shower of rain, that wet me to the skin, and rather kept my imagination +under, for this said imagination of mine is like a barn-door chuckey +brisk and crouse enough when the sun shines, and the sky is blue, and +plenty of grub at hand, but I can't write poetry when I am could, and +hungry, and drooked. Still, when I caught my first glimpse of the +distant Pacific, I felt that, even through a miserable drizzle, it was a +noble prospect. + +As you proceed, you occasionally pass through small open savannahs, +which become larger, and the clear spaces wider, until the forest you +have been travelling under gradually breaks into beautiful clumps of +trees, like those in a gentleman's park, and every here and there a +placid clear piece of water spreads out, full of pond turtle, which I +believe to be one and the same with the tortoise, and eels; the latter +of which, by the by, are very sociable creatures, for in the clear +moonlight nights, with the bright sparkling dew on the short moist +grass, they frequently travel from one pond to another, wriggling along +the grass like snakes. I have myself found them fifty yards from the +water; but whether the errand was love or war, or merely to drink tea +with some of the slippery young females in the next pool, and then +return again, the deponent sayeth not. + +As you approach the town, the open spaces before-mentioned become more +frequent, until at length you gain a rising ground, about three miles +from Panama, where, as the sun again shone out, the view became truly +enchanting. + +There lay the town of Panama, built on a small tongue of land, jutting +into the Pacific, surrounded by walls, which might have been a +formidable defence once, but I wish my promotion depended on my rattling +the old bricks and stones about their ears, with one single frigate, if +I could only get near enough; but in the impossibility of this lies the +strength of the place, as the water shoals so gradually, that the tide +retires nearly a mile and a half from the walls, rising, I consider, +near eighteen feet at the springs, while, on the opposite side of the +Isthmus, at Chagres for instance, there is scarcely any at all, the gulf +stream neutralizing it almost entirely. + +On the right hand a hill overhangs the town, rising precipitously to the +height of a thousand feet or thereabouts, on the extreme pinnacle of +which is erected a signal station, called the Vigia, which, at the +instant I saw it, was telegraphing to some craft out at sea. As for the +city, to assume our friend Mr Bang's mode of description, it was shaped +like a tadpole, the body representing the city, and the suburb the tail; +or a stewpan, the city and its fortifications being the pan, while the +handle, tending obliquely towards us, was the Raval, or long street, +extending Savannahward, without the walls. At the distance from which +we viewed it, the red-tiled houses, cathedral, with its towers, and the +numerous monasteries and nunneries, seemed girt in with a white ribbon, +while a series of black spots here and there denoted the cannon on the +batteries. To the left of the town, there was a whole flotilla of small +craft, brigs, schooners, and vegetable boats; while farther out at sea, +beyond the fortifications, three large ships rode at anchor; and beyond +them again, the beautiful group of islands lying about five miles off +the town, appeared to float on and were reflected in the calm, glasslike +expanse of the Pacific, like emeralds chased in silver, while the ocean +itself, towards the horizon, seemed to rise up like a scene in a +theatre, or a burnished bright silver wall, growing more and more blue, +and hazy and indistinct, as it ascended, until it melted into the +cloudless heaven, so that no one could tell where water and sky met. + + "Thou glorious mirror, in all time, + Calm or convulsed--in breeze, or gale, or storm, + Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime + Dark heaving boundless, endless, and sublime, + The image of Eternity--the throne + Of the Invisible." + +While a sperm whale every now and then rose between us and the islands, +and spouted up a high double jet into the air, like a blast of steam, +and then, with a heavy flounder of his broad tail, slowly sank again; +and a boat here and there glided athwart the scene, and a sleepy sail +arose with a slow motion and a fitful rattle, and a greasy cheep, on the +mast of some vessel, getting all ready to weigh, while small floating +trails of blue smoke were streaming away astern from the tiny cabooses +of the craft at anchor, and a mournful distant "yo heave oh" came +booming past us on the light air, and the everlasting tinkle of the +convent bells sounded cheerily, and the lowing of the kine around us +called up old associations in my bosom, as I looked forth on the +glorious spectacle from beneath a magnificent bower of orange-trees and +shaddocks, while all manner of wild-flowers blossomed and bloomed +around us. + +We arrived at Panama about three PM, covered to the eyes with mud, and +after some little difficulty, I found out Senor Hombrecillo Justo's +house, who received me very kindly. Next morning I waited on the +Governor, made my bow and told him my errand. He was abundantly civil; +professing himself ready to serve me in any way, and promising to give +me the earliest intelligence of the arrival of the Bandera. I then +returned to mine host's, to whom I had strong letters of introduction +from some Kingston friends. + +I soon found that I had landed amongst a family of originals. Mine host +was a little thin withered body, with a face that might have vied with +the monkey whom the council of Aberdeen took for a sugar planter. He +wore his own grey hair in a long greasy queue, and his costume, when I +first saw him, was white cotton stockings, white jean small clothes and +waistcoat, and a little light-blue silk coat; he wore large solid gold +buckles in his shoes, and knee-buckles of the same. His voice was +small and squeaking, and when heated in argument, or crossed by any +member of family,--and he was very touchy--it became so shrill and +indistinct that it pierced the ear without being in the least +intelligible. In those paroxysms he did not walk, but sprung from place +to place like a grasshopper, with unlooked-for agility, avoiding the +chairs and tables and other movables with great dexterity. I often +thought he would have broken whatever came in his way; but although his +erratic orbit was small, he performed his evolutions with great +precision and security. His general temper, however, was very kind, +humane, and good-humoured, and he seldom remained long under the +influence of passion. His character, both as a man and a merchant, was +unimpeachable, and, indeed, proverbial in the place. His better half +appeared to be some years older, and also a good deal of an original. +She was a little short thick woman; but, stout as she was when I had the +honour of an embrace, she must have been once much stouter, for her skin +appeared from the colour and texture to have come to her at second +hand, and to have originally belonged to a much larger person, for it +bagged and hung in flaps about her jowls and bosom, like an ill-cut +maintopsail, which sits clumsily about the clews. I think I could have +reefed her with advantage, below the chin. + +Her usual dress was a shift, with a whole sailroom of frills about the +sleeves and bosom, and a heavy pink taffeta petticoat, (gowns being only +worn by these fair ones as you put on a greatcoat, that is, when they go +abroad,) and a small round apron like a flap of black silk. Over these +she wore a Spanish aroba, or twenty-five pounds weight of gold chains, +saints, and crucifixes, and a large black velvet patch, of the size of a +wafer, on each temple, which I found, by the by, to be an ornament very +much in fashion amongst the fair of Panama. Her hair, or rather the +scanty remnant thereof, was plaited into two grizzled braids, with a +black bow of ribbon at the end of each, and hung straight down her back. +Like may excellent wives, she loved to circulate her spouse's blood by a +little well-timed opposition now and then; but she never tried her +strength too far, and she always softened down in proportion as he waxed +energetic, and began to accelerate his motions, so that by the time he +had given one or two hops, she had either fairly given in, or moved out. +They had no children, but had in a manner adopted a little black +creature about four years old, which, being a female, the lady had +christened by the familiar diminutive of Diablita. + +Another curiosity was the maternal aunt of Don Hombrecillo, a little +superannuated woman about four feet high, if she could have stood erect, +but old age had long since bent her nearly double; she was on the verge +of eighty-five years of age, and had outlived all her faculties. This +poor old creature, in place of being respectably lodged and taken care +of, was allowed to go about the house, tame, without any fixed abode so +far as I could learn; nor did she always meet with that attention, I am +sorry to say it, from the family, or even from the servants, that she +was entitled to from her extreme helplessness. She had a droll custom +of eating all her meals walking, and it was her practice to move around +the dinner-table in this her dotage, and to commit pranks, that, +against my will, made me laugh, and even in despite of the feelings of +pity and self-humiliation that arose in my bosom at the sight of such +miserable imbecility in a fellow-creature. Thus keeping on the wing as +I have described, it was her practice to cruise about behind the chairs, +occasionally snatching pieces of food from before the guests, so slyly, +that the first intimation of her intentions was the appearance of her +yellow shrivelled birdlike claw in your plate. + +The brother of our host was a little stout man, but still very like +Senor Justo himself. For instance, I always gloried in likening the +latter to a dried prune; then, to conceive of his plump brother, imagine +him boiled, and so swell out the creases in his skin, and there you have +him. + +This little dumpling was very asthmatic, and used to blow like a +porpoise by the time he reached the top of the stairs. The only time he +had ever been out of Panama was whilst he made a short visit to Lima, +the wonders of which he used to chant unceasingly. But the continual +cause of my annoyance--I fear I must write disgust--was the stepmother +of mine host, a large fat dirty old woman. She had a pouch under her +chin like a pelican, while her complexion, from the quantity of oil and +foul feeding in which she delighted, was a greasy mahogany. She +despised the unnatural luxuries of knives and forks, constantly +devouring her meat with her fingers, whatever its consistency might be; +if flesh, she tore it with both hands; if soup, she--bah! and, as the +devil would have it, the venerable beauty chose to take a fancy to me. +Oh, she was a balloon! I have often expected to see her rise to the +roof. + +These polished personages may be called Senor Justo's family, but it was +occasionally increased by various others; none of whom, however, can I +heave-to to describe at present. + +The day after my arrival, the operation of covering dollar boxes with +wet hides had been going on in the dinner saloon the whole forenoon, +which drove me forth to look about me; but I returned about half-past +two, this being the hour of dinner, and found all the family, excepting +mine hostess, assembled, and my appearance was the signal for dinner +being ordered in. I may mention here, that this worthy family were all +firmly impressed with the idea, that an Englishman was an ostrich, +possessing a stomach capable of holding and digesting four times as much +as any other person; and under this belief they were so outrageously +kind, that I was often literally stuffed to suffocation when I first +came amongst them; and when at length I resolutely refused to be +immolated after this fashion, they swore I was sick, or did not like my +food, which was next door to insulting them. El Senor Justo's fat +dumpling of a brother thought medical advice ought to be taken, for when +he was in Lima several seamen belonging to an English whaler had died, +and he had remarked, the twaddling body, that they had invariably lost +their appetites previous to their dissolution. + +But to return. Dinner being ordered, was promptly placed on the table, +and mine host insisted on planting me at the foot thereof, while he sat +on my left hand; so the party sat down; but the chair opposite, that +ought to have been filled by Madama herself, was still vacant. + +"Adonde esta su ama," quoth Don Hombrecillo to one of the black waiting +wenches. The girl said she did not know, but she would go and see. It +is necessary to mention here that the worthy Senor's counting-house was +in a back building, separated from the house that fronted the street by +a narrow court, and in a small closet off this counting-house, my +quatre had been rigged the previous night, and there had my luggage been +deposited. Amongst other articles in my commissariat, there was a +basket with half-a-dozen of champagne, and some hock, and a bottle of +brandy, that I had placed under Peter Mangrove's care to comfort us in +the wilderness. We all lay back in our chairs to wait for the lady of +the house, but neither did she nor Tomassa, the name of the handmaiden +who had been despatched in search of her, seem inclined to make their +appearance. Don Hombrecillo became impatient. + +"Josefa,"--to another of the servants--"run and desire your mistress to +come here immediately." Away she flew, but neither did this second +pigeon return. Mine host now lost his temper entirely, and spluttered +out, as loud as he could roar, "Somos comiendo, Panchita, somos +comiendo;" and forthwith, as if in spite, he began to fork up his food, +until he had nearly choked himself. Presently a short startled scream +was heard from the counting-house, then a low suppressed laugh, then a +loud shout, a long uproarious peal of laughter, and the two black +servants came thundering across the wooden gangway or drawbridge, that +connected the room where we sat with the outhouse, driven onwards by +their mistress herself. They flew across the end of the dining room +into the small balcony fronting the lane and began without ceremony to +shout across the narrow street to a Carmelite priest, who was in a +gallery of the opposite monastery, "that their mistress was possessed." + +Presently in danced our landlady, in propria persona, jumping and +screaming and laughing, and snapping her fingers, and spinning round +like a Turkish dervish, "mira el fandango, mira el fandangodexa me +baylar, dexa me baylar--See my fandango, see my fandangolet me dance +let me dance--ha, ha, ha." + +"Panchita," screamed Justo, in extreme wrath, "tu es loco, you are mad +sit down, por amor de Dios--seas decente--be decent." + +She continued gamboling about, "loven soy y virgin--I am young and a +virgin--y tu Viejo diablo que queres tu,--and you, old devil, what do +you want, eh?--Una virgin por Dios soy--I am young," and seizing a +boiled fowl from the dish, she let fly at her husband's head, but missed +him, fortunately; whereupon she made a regular grab at him with her paw, +but he slid under the table, in all haste, roaring out,--"Ave Maria, que +es esso--manda por el Padre--Send for the priest, y trae una puerco, en +donde echar el demonio, manda, manda--send for a priest, and a pig, into +which the demon may be cast,--send--" "Dexa me, dexa me baylar" +continued the old dame--"tu no vale, Bobo viejo, you are of no use, you +old blockhead--you are a forked radish, and not a man--let me catch you, +let me catch you," and here she made a second attempt, and got hold of +his queue, by which she forcibly dragged him from beneath the table, +until fortunately, the ribbon that tied it slid off in her hand, and the +little Senor instantly ran back to this burrow, with the speed of a +rabbit, while his wife sung out, "tu gastas calzones, eh? para que, +damelos damelos, yo los quitare?" and if she had caught the worthy man, +I believe she would really have shaken him out of his garments, peeled +him on the spot, and appropriated them to herself as her threat ran. "I +am a cat, a dog, and the devilhoo--hoo--hoo--let me catch you, you +miserable wretch, you forked radish, and if I don't peel off your +breeches,--I shall wear them, I shall wear them,--Ave Maria." Here she +threw herself into a chair, being completely blown; but after a gasp or +two, she started to her legs again, dancing and singing and snapping her +fingers, as if she had held castanets between them, "Venga--Venga--dexa +me baylar Dankee, Dankee la--Dankee, Dankee la--mi guitarra--mi +guitarra Dankee, Dankee la--ha, ha, ha,"--and away she trundled down +stairs again, where she met the priest who had been sent for, in the +lower hall, who happened to be very handsome young man. Seeing the +state she was in, and utterly unable to account for it, he bobbed, as +she threw herself on him, eluded her embraces, and then bolted up +stairs, followed by Mrs Potiphart at full speed.--"Padre, father," cried +she, "stop till I peel that forked radish there, and I will give you his +breeches--Dankee, Dankee." All this while, Don Hombrecillo was squeaking +out from his lair, at the top of his pipe--"Padre, padre, trae el +puerco, venga el puerco--echar el demonio--echar el demonio bring the +pig, the pig, and cast out the devil."--"Mi guitarra, canta, canta y +bayle, viejo diablito, canta o yo te matarras--Bring my guitar, dance, +dance and sing, you little old devil you, or I'll murder you, dankee, +dankee." + +In fine, I was at length obliged to lend a hand, and she was bodily laid +hold of, and put to bed, where she soon fell into a sound sleep, and +next morning awoke in her sound senses, totally unconscious of all that +had passed, excepting that she remembered having taken a glass of the +Englishman's small beer. + +Now the secret was out. The worthy woman, like most South American +Spaniards, was distractedly fond of cervesa blanca, or small beer, and +seeing the champagne bottles with their wired corks (beer requiring to +be so secured in hot climates,) in my basket, she could not resist +making free with a bottle, and, as I charitably concluded, small beer +being a rarity in those countries, she did not find out the difference +until it was made evident by the issue; however, I have it from +authority, that she never afterwards ventured on any thing weaker than +brandy, and from that hour, utterly eschewed that most dangerous liquor, +cervesa blanca. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. Tropical High-links + + + "Now, massa, pipe belay + Wid your weary, weary Log, O; + Peter sick of him, me say, + Ah! sick more as one dog, O." + + --The Humble Petition Of + Peter Mangrove, Branch Pilot. + + +Like all Portuguese towns, and most Spanish, Panama does not realize the +idea which a stranger forms of it from the first view, as he descends +from the savannah. The houses are generally built of wood, and three +stories high: in the first or ground floor, are the shops; in the +second, the merchants have their warehouses; and in the third, they +usually live with their families. Those three different regions, sorry +am I to say it, are all very dirty; indeed they may be said to be the +positive, comparative, and superlative degrees of uncleanness. There +are no glazed sashes in the windows, so that when it rains, and the +shutters are closed, you are involved in utter darkness. The furniture +is miserably scanty--some old fashioned, high backed, hardwood chairs, +with a profusion of tarnished gilding; a table or two, in the same +style, with a long grass hammock slung from corner to corner, +intersecting the room diagonally, which, as they hang very low, about +six inches only from the floor, it was not once only, that entering a +house during the siesta, when the windows were darkened, I have tumbled +headlong over a Don or Dofia, taking his or her forenoon nap. But if +movables were scarce, there was no paucity of silver dishes; basins, +spit boxes, censers, and utensils of all shapes, descriptions, and +sizes, of this precious metal, were scattered about without any order or +regularity, while some nameless articles, also of silver, were thrust +far out of their latitude, and shone conspicuously in the very centre of +the rooms. The floors were usually either of hard-wood plank, ill +kept; or terraced, or tiled; some indeed were flagged with marble, but +this was rare; and as for the luxury of a carpet, it was utterly +unknown, the nearest approach to it being a grass mat, plaited prettily +enough, called an estera. Round the walls of the house are usually hung +a lot of dingy faced, worm eaten pictures of saints, and several +crucifixes, which appear to be held in great veneration. The streets +are paved, but exceedingly indifferently; and the frequent rains, or +rather waterspouts, (and from the position of the place, between the two +vast oceans of the Atlantic and Pacific, they have considerably more +than their own share of moisture,) washing away the soil and sand from +between the stones, render the footing for bass of all kinds extremely +insecure. There are five monasteries of different orders, and a convent +of nuns, within the walls, most of which, I believe, are but poorly +endowed. All these have handsome churches attached to them; that of La +Merced is very splendid. The cathedral is also a fine building, with +some good pictures, and several lay relics of Pizarro, Almagro, and +Vasco Nufiez, that riveted my attention; while their fragments of the +Vera Cruz, and arrow points that had quivered in the muscles of St +Sebastian, were passed by as weak inventions of the enemy. + +The week after my arrival was a fast, the men eating only once in the +twenty our hours, (as for the women, who the deuce can tell how often a +woman eats?) and during this period all the houses were stripped of +their pictures, lamps, and ornaments, to dress out the churches, which +were beautifully illuminated in the evenings, while a succession of +friars performed service in them continually. High mass is, even to the +eye of a heretic, a very splendid ceremony; and the music in this +outlandish corner was unexpectedly good, every thing considered; in the +church of La Merced, especially, they had a very fine organ, and the +congregation joined in the Jubilate with very good taste. By the way, +in this same church, on the right of the high altar, there was a deep +and lofty recess, covered with a thick black veil, in which stood +concealed a figure of our Saviour, as large as life, hanging on a great +cross, with the blood flowing from his wounds, and all kinds of horrible +accompaniments. At a certain stage of the service, a drum was beaten by +one of the brethren, upon which the veil was withdrawn, when the whole +congregation prostrated themselves before the image, with every +appearance of the greatest devotion. Even the passengers in the streets +within ear-shot of the drum, stopped and uncovered themselves, and +muttered a prayer; while the inmates of the houses knelt, and crossed +themselves, with all the externals of deep humility; although, very +probably, they were at the moment calculating in their minds the profits +on the last adventure from Kingston. One custom particularly struck me +as being very beautiful. As the night shuts in, after a noisy prelude +on all the old pots in the different steeples throughout the city, there +is a dead pause; presently the great bell of the cathedral tolls slowly, +once or twice, at which every person stops from his employment, whatever +that may be, or wherever he may be, uncovers himself, and says a short +prayer--all hands remaining still and silent for a minute or more, when +the great bell tolls again, and once more every thing rolls on as usual. + +On the fourth evening of my residence in Panama, I had retired early to +rest. My trusty knave, Peter Mangrove, and trustier still, my dog +Sneezer, had both fallen asleep on the floor, at the foot of my bed, if +the piece of machinery on which I lay deserved that name, when in the +dead of night I was awakened by a slight noise at the door. I shook +myself and listened. Presently it opened, and the old woman that I have +already described as part and portion of Don Hombrecillo Justo's family, +entered the room in her usual very scanty dress, with a lighted candle +in her hand, led by a little naked negro child. I was curious to see +what she would do, but I was not certain how the dog might relish the +intrusion; so I put my hand over my quatre, and snapping my finger and +thumb, Sneezer immediately rose and came to my bedside. I immediately +judged, from the comical expression of his face, as seen by the taper of +the intruder, that he thought it was some piece of fun, for he walked +quietly up, and confronting the old lady, deliberately took the +candlestick out of her hand. The little black urchin thereupon began +shouting, "Perro Demonio--Perro Demonio" and in their struggle to +escape, she and the old lady tumbled headlong over the sleeping pilot, +whereby the candle was extinguished, and we were left in utter darkness. +I had therefore nothing for it but to get out of bed, and go down to the +cobbler, who lived in the entresol, to get a light. He had not gone to +sleep and I gave him no small alarm; indeed he was near absconding at +my unseasonable intrusion, but at length I obtained the object of my +visit, and returned to my room, when, on opening the door, I saw poor +Mangrove lying on his back in the middle of the floor, with his legs and +arms extended as if he had been on the rack, his eyes set, his mouth +open, and every faculty benumbed by fear. At his feet sat the negro +child, almost as much terrified as he was, and crying most lamentably; +while, at a little distance, sat the spectre of the old woman, +scratching its head with the greatest composure, and exclaiming in +Spanish, "a little brandy for love of the Holy Virgin." But the most +curious part of it was the conduct of our old friend Sneezer. There he +was sitting on end upon the table, grinning and showing his ivory teeth, +his eyes of jet sparkling like diamonds with fun and frolic, and +evidently laughing, after his fashion, like to split himself, as he +every now and then gave a large sweeping whisk of his tail, like a cat +watching a mouse. At length I got the cobbler and his sable rib to take +charge of the wanderers, and once more fell asleep. + +On my first arrival, I was somewhat surprised at my Spanish +acquaintances always putting, up their umbrellas when abroad after +nightfall in the streets; the city had its evil customs, it seemed, as +well as others of more note, with this disadvantage, that no one had the +discretion to sing out gardyloo. + +There was another solemn fast about this time, in honour of a saint +having had a tooth drawn, or some equally important event, and Don +Hombrecillo and I had been at the evening service in the church of the +convent of La Merced, situated, as I have already mentioned, directly +opposite his house, on the other side of the lane; and this being over, +we were on the eve of returning home, when the flannel-robed superior +came up and invited us into the refectory, whereunto, after some +palaver, we agreed to adjourn, and had a good supper, and some bad +Malaga wine, which, however, seemed to suit the palates of the Frailes, +if taking a very decent quantity thereof were any proof of the same. +Presently two of the lay brothers produced their fiddles, and as I was +determined not to be outdone, I volunteered a song, and, as a key-stone +to my politeness, sent to Don Hombrecillo's for the residue of my +brandy, which, coming after the bad wine, acted most cordially, opening +the hearts of all hands like an oyster knife, the Superior's especially, +who in turn drew on his private treasure also, when out came a large +green vitrified earthen pipkin, one of those round-bottomed jars that +won't stand on end, but must perforce lie on their sides, as if it had +been a type of the predicament in which some of us were to be placed ere +long through its agency. The large cork, buried an inch deep in green +wax, was withdrawn from the long neck, and out gurgled most capital old +Xeres. So we worked away until we were all pretty well fou, and anon we +began to dance; and there were half-a-dozen friars, and old Justo and +myself, in great glee, jumping and gamboling about, and making fools of +ourselves after a very fantastic fashion--the witches in Macbeth as an +illustration. + +At length, after being two months in Panama, and still no appearance of +the Bandera, I received a letter from the Admiral, desiring me to rejoin +the Wave immediately, as it was then known that the line of battle ship +had returned to the River Plate. Like most young men, who have hearts +of flesh in their bosoms, I had in this short space begun to have my +likings--may I not call them friendships?--in this, at the time I write +of, most primitive community; and the idea of bidding farewell to it, +most likely for ever, sank deep. However, I was His Majesty's officer, +and my services and obedience were his, although my feelings were my +own; and, accordingly, stifling the latter, I prepared for my departure. + +On the very day whereon I was recalled, a sister of mine host's--a most +reverend mechanic, who had been fourteen years married without chick or +child--was brought to bed, to the unutterable surprise of her spouse, +and of all the little world in Panama, of a male infant. It had rained +the whole day, notwithstanding which, and its being the only +authenticated production ever published by the venerable young lady, the +piccaniny was carried to the Franciscan church, a distance of half a +mile, at nine o'clock at night, through a perfect storm, to be +christened, and the evil star of poor Mangrove rose high in the +ascendant on the occasion. + +After the ceremony, I was returning home chilled with standing uncovered +for an hour in a cold damp church, and walking very fast, in order to +bring myself into heat, when, on turning a corner, I heard a sound of +flutes and fiddles in the street, and from the number of lanterns and +torches that accompanied it, I conjectured rightly that it was a +Function of no small importance--no less, in fact, than a procession in +honour of the Virgin. Poor Mangrove at this time was pattering close to +my heels, and I could hear him chuckling and laughing to himself. + +"What dis can be--I say, Sneezer"--to his never-failing companion +"what you tink, John Canoe--after Spanish fashion, it mosh be, eh?" + +The dog began to jump and gambol about. + +"Ah," continued the black pilot, "no doubt it must be John Canoe I may +dance--why not--eh?--oh, yes--I shall dance." + +And as the music struck into rather a quicker tune at the moment, our +ebony friend began to caper and jump about as if he had been in Jamaica +at Christmas time, whereupon one of the choristers, or music boys, as +they were called, a beautiful youth, about forty years of age, six feet +high, and proportionally strong, without the least warning incontinently +smote our amigo across the pate with a brazen saint that he carried, and +felled him to the earth; indeed, if el Senor Justo had not been on the +spot to interfere, we should have had a scene of it in all likelihood, +as the instant the man delivered his blow, Sneezer's jaws were at his +throat, and had he not fortunately obeyed me, and let go at the sound of +my voice, we might have had a double of Macaire and the dog of +Montargis. As it was, the noble animal, before he let go, brought the +culprit to the ground like a shot. I immediately stood forward, and got +the feud soldered as well as I could, in which the worthy Justo +cordially lent me a hand. + +Next morning I rode out on my mule, to take my last dip in the Quebrada +of the Loseria, which was a rapid in a beautiful little rivulet, distant +from Panama about three miles, and a most exquisite bath it was. Let me +describe it. After riding a couple of miles, and leaving the open +savannah, you struck off sharp to the left through a narrow bridle-path +into the wood, with an impervious forest on either hand, and proceeding +a mile farther, you came suddenly upon a small rushing, roaring, +miniature cascade, where the pent-up waters leaped through a narrow gap +in the limestone rock, that you could have stepped across, down a tiny +fall about a fathom high, into a round foaming buzzing basin, twenty +feet in diameter, where the clear cool water bubbled and eddied round +and round like a boiling cauldron, until it rushed away once more over +the lower ledge, and again disappeared, murmuring beneath the thick +foliage of the rustling branches. The pool was about ten feet deep, +and never was any thing more luxurious in a hot climate. + +After having performed my morning ablutions, and looking with a heavy +heart at the sweet stream, and at every stock and stone, and shrub and +tree, as objects I was never to see again; I trotted on, followed by +Peter Mangrove, my man-at-arms, who bestrode his mule gallantly, to +Don Hombrecillo's pen, as the little man delighted to call his country +house, situated about five miles from Panama, and which I was previously +informed had been given up to the use of his two maiden sisters. I got +there about half past ten in the forenoon, and found that el Senor Justo +had arrived before me. The situation was most beautiful; the house was +embosomed in high wood; the lowest spurs put forth by the gigantic trees +being far above the ridge-pole of the wooden fabric. It was a low one +story building of unpainted timber, which, from the action of the +weather, had been bleached on the outside into a whitish grey +appearance, streaked by numerous green weather-stains, and raised about +five feet on wooden posts, so that there was room for a flock of goats +to shelter themselves below it. Access was had to the interior by a +rickety rattle-trap of a wooden ladder, or stair of half-a-dozen +steps, at the top of which you landed in an unceiled hall, with the +rafters of the roof exposed, and the bare green vitrified tiles for a +canopy, while a small sleeping apartment opened off each end. In the +centre room there was no furniture except two grass hammocks slung +across the room, and three or four old-fashioned leather, or rather +hide covered chairs, and an old rickety table; while overhead the tiles +were displaced in one or two places, where the droppings from the leaves +of the trees, and the sough of their rustling in the wind, came through. +There were no inmates visible when we entered but a little negro girl, +of whom el Senor Hombrecillo asked "where the Senoras were?"--"En +capillo," said the urchin. Whereupon we turned back and proceeded to a +little tiny stone chapel, little bigger than a dog-house, the smallest +affair in the shape of a church I had ever seen, about a pistol-shot +distant in the wood, where we found the two old ladies and Senor Justo's +natural son engaged at their devotions. On being aware of our presence, +they made haste with the service, and, having finished it, arose and +embraced their brother, while the son approached and kissed his hand. + +One of the ancient demoiselles appeared in bad health; nevertheless, +they both gave us a very hearty reception, and prepared breakfast for +us; fricasseed fowls, a little too much of the lard, but still, fish +from the neighbouring stream, &c., and I was doing the agreeable to the +best of my poor ability, when el Senor Justo asked me abruptly if I +would go, and bathe. A curious country, thought I, and a strange way +people have of doing things. After a hearty meal, instead of giving you +time to ruminate, and to allow the gastric juices to operate, away they +lug you to be plumped over head and ears into a pool of ice cold water. +I rose, confoundedly against my inclinations I will confess, and, we +proceeded to a small rocky waterfall, where a man might wash himself +certainly, but as to swimming, which is to me the grand desideratum, it +was impossible, so I prowled away down the stream, to look out for a +pool, and at last I was successful. On returning, as I only took a dip +to swear by, the situation of my venerable Spanish ally was entertaining +enough. There he was, the most forlorn little mandrake eye ever rested +on, cowering like a large frog under the tiny cascade, stark naked, with +his knees drawn up to his chin, and his grey queue gathered carefully +under a green gourd or calabash that he wore on his head, while his +natural son was dashing water in his face, as if the shower bath +overhead had not been sufficient. + +"Soy banando--soy banando, capitan--fresco--fresquito," squealed +Hombrecillo; while, splash between every exclamation, his dutiful son +let fly a gourdfull of agua at his head. + +That same evening we returned to Panama; and next morning, being the 22d +of such a month, I left my kind friends, and, with Peter Mangrove, +proceeded on our journey to Cruces, mounted on two stout mules. I got +there late in the evening, the road, from the heavy rains, being in sad +condition; but next morning the recua, or convoy of silver, which was to +follow me for shipment on merchants account to Kingston, had not +arrived. Presently I received a letter from Don Justo, sent express, to +intimate that the muleteers had proceeded immediately after we had +started for about a mile beyond the suburbs, where they were stopped by +the officer of a kind of military post or barrier, under pretence of the +passport being irregular; and this difficulty was no sooner cleared up, +than the accounts of a bullfight, that was unexpectedly to take place +that forenoon, reached them, when the whole bunch, half drunk as they +were, started off to Panama again, leaving the money with the soldiers; +nor would they return, or be prevailed on to proceed, until the +following morning. However, on the 24th, at noon, the money did arrive, +which was immediately embarked on board of a large canoe that I had +provided; and, having shipped a beautiful little mule also, of which I +had made a purchase at Panama, we proceeded down the river to the +village of Gorgona, where we slept. My apartment was rather a primitive +concern. It was simply a roof or shed, thatched with palm-tree leaves, +about twelve feet long by eight broad, and supported on four upright +posts at the corners, the eaves being about six feet high. Under this I +slung my grass hammock transversely from corner to corner, tricing it +well up to the rafters, so that it hung about five feet from the ground; +while beneath Mangrove lit a fire, for the twofold purpose, as it struck +me, of driving off the musquittoes, and converting his Majesty's officer +into ham or hung beef; and after having made mulo fast to one of the +posts, with a bundle of malojo, or the green stems of Indian corn or +maize, under his nose, he borrowed a plank from a neighbouring hut, and +laid himself down on it at full length, covered up with a blanket, as if +he had been a corpse, and soon fell fast asleep. As for Sneezer, he lay +with his black muzzle resting on his fore paws, which were thrust out +straight before him, until they almost stirred up the white embers of +the fire; with his eyes shut, and apparently asleep, but from the +constant nervous twitchings and pricking up of his ears, and his +haunches being gathered up well under him, and a small quick switch of +his tail now and then, it was evident he was broad awake, and considered +himself on duty. All continued quiet and silent in our bivouac until +midnight, however, except the rushing of the river hard by, when I was +awakened by the shaking of the shed from the violent struggles of mulo +to break loose, his strong trembling thrilling along the taught cord +that held him, down the lanyard of my hammock to my neck, as he drew +himself in the intervals of his struggles as far back as he could, +proving that the poor brute suffered under a paroxysm of fear. "What +noise is that?" I roused myself. It was repeated. It was a wild cry, +or rather a loud shrill mew, gradually sinking into a deep growl. "What +the deuce is that, Sneezer?" said I. The dog made no answer, but merely +wagged his tail once, as if he had said, "Wait a bit now, master; you +shall see how well I shall acquit myself, for this is in my way." Ten +yards from the shed under which I slept, there was a pigsty, surrounded +by a sort of tiny stockade a fathom high, make of split cane, wove into +wickerwork between upright rails sunk into the ground; and by the clear +moonlight I could, as I lay in my hammock, see an animal larger than an +English bulldog, but with the stealthy pace of the cat, crawl on in a +crouching attitude until within ten feet of the sty, when it stopped, +looked round, and then drew itself back, and made a scrambling jump +against the cane defence, hooking on to the top of it by its fore paws. +the claws of its hind feet scratching and rasping against the dry cane +splits, until it had gathered its legs into a bunch, like the aforesaid +puss, on the top of the enclosure; from which elevation the creature +seemed to be reconnoitring the unclean beasts within. I grasped my +pistols. Mangrove was still sound asleep. The struggles of mulo +increased; I could hear the sweat raining off him; but Sneezer, to my +great surprise, remained motionless as before. We now heard the alarmed +grunts, and occasionally a sharp squeak, from the piggery, as if the +beauties had only now become aware of the vicinity of their dangerous +neighbour, who, having apparently made his selection, suddenly dropped +down amongst them; when mulo burst from his fastenings with a yell +enough to frighten the devil, tearing away the upright to which the +lanyard of my hammock was made fast, whereby I was pitched like a shot +right down on Mangrove's corpus, while a volley of grunting and +squeaking split the sky, such as I never heard before; while, in the +very nick, Sneezer, starting from his lair with a loud bark, sprang at a +bound into the enclosure, which he topped like a first rate hunter; and +Peter Mangrove, awakening all of a heap from my falling on him, jumped +upon his feet as noisy as the rest. + +"Caramighty in a tap--wurra all dis--my tomach bruise home to my +backbone like one pancake;" and, while the short fierce bark of the +noble dog was blended with the agonized cry of the gatto del monte, the +shrill treble of the poor porkers rose high above both, and mulo was +galloping through the village with the post after him, like a dog with a +pan at his tail, making the most unearthly noises; for it was neither +bray nor neigh. The villagers ran out of their huts, headed by the +Padre Cura, and all was commotion and uproar. Lights were procured. +The noise in the sty continued, and Mangrove, the warm hearted creature, +unsheathing his knife, clambered over the fence to the rescue of his +four footed ally, and disappeared, shouting, "Sneezer often fight for +Peter, so Peter now will fight for he;" and soon began to blend his +shouts with the cries of the enraged beasts within. At length the mania +spread to me upon hearing the poor fellow shout, "Tiger here, Captain +tiger here tiger too many for we--Lud-a-mercy--tiger too many for we, +sir,--if you no help we, we shall be torn in piece." Then a violent +struggle, and a renewal of the uproar, and of the barking, and yelling, +and squeaking. It was now no joke; the life of a fellow-creature was +at stake. So I scrambled up after the pilot to the top of the fence, +with a loaded pistol in my hand, a young active Spaniard following with +a large brown wax candle, that burned like a torch; and looking down on +the melee below, there Sneezer lay with the throat of the leopard in his +jaws, evidently much exhausted, but still giving the creature a cruel +shake now and then, while Mangrove was endeavouring to throttle the +brute with his bare hands. As for the poor pigs, they were all huddled +together, squeaking and grunting most melodiously in the corner. I held +down the light. "Now, Peter, cut his throat, man--cut his throat." + +Mangrove, the moment he saw where he was, drew his knife across the +leopard's weasand, and killed him on the spot. The glorious dog, the +very instant he felt he had a dead antagonist in his fangs, let go his +hold, and making a jump with all his remaining strength, for he was +bleeding much, and terribly torn, I caught him by the nape of the +neck, and, in my attempt to lift him over and place him on the outside, +down I went, dog and all, amongst the pigs, upon the bloody carcass; out +of which mess I was gathered by the Cura and the standers by in a very +beautiful condition; for, what between the filth of the sty and blood of +the leopard, and so forth, I was not altogether a fit subject, for a +side box at the Opera. + +This same tiger or leopard had committed great depredations in the +neighbourhood for months before, but he had always escaped, although he +had been repeatedly wounded; so Peter and I became as great men for the +two hours longer that we sojourned in Gorgona, as if we had killed the +dragon of Wantley. Our quarry was indeed a noble animal, nearly seven +feet from, the nose to the tip of the tail. At day dawn, having +purchased his skin for three dollars, I shoved off; and, on the 25th, at +five in the evening, having had a strong current with us the whole way +down, we arrived at Chagres once more. I found a boat from the Wave +waiting for me, and to prevent unnecessary delay, I resolved to proceed +with the canoe along the coast to Porto Bello, as there was a strong +weather current running, and no wind; and, accordingly, we proceeded +next morning, with the canoe in tow, but towards the afternoon it came +on to blow, which forced us into a small cove, where we remained for the +night in a very uncomfortable situation, as the awning proved an +indifferent shelter from the rain, that descended in torrents. + +We had made ourselves as snug as it was possible to be in such weather, +under an awning of boat sails, and had kindled a fire in a tub at the +bottom of the boat, at which we had made ready some slices of beef, and +roasted some yams, and were, all hands, master and men, making ourselves +comfortable with a glass of grog, when the warp by which we rode +suddenly parted, from a puff of wind that eddied down on us over the +little cape, and before we could get the oars out, we were tailing on +the beach at the opposite side of the small bay. However, we soon +regained our original position, by which time all was calm again where +we lay; and this time, we sent the end of the line ashore, making it +fast round a tree, and once more rode in safety. But I could not sleep, +and the rain having ceased, the clouds broke away, and the moon once +more shone out cold, bright, and clear. I had stepped forward from +under the temporary awning, and was standing on the thwart, looking out +to windward, endeavouring to judge of the weather at sea, and debating +in my own mind whether it would be prudent to weigh before daylight, or +remain where we were. But all in the offing, beyond the small headland, +under the lee of which we lay, was dark and stormy water, and white +crested howling waves, although our snug little bay continued placid and +clear, with the moonbeams dancing on the twinkling ripple, that was lap, +lapping, an& sparkling like silver on the snow-white beach of sand and +broken shells; while the hills on shore that rose high and abrupt close +to, were covered with thick jungle, from which, here and there, a +pinnacle of naked grey rock would shoot up like a gigantic spectre, or a +tall tree would cast its long black shadow over the waving sea of green +leaves that undulated in the breeze beneath. + +As the wind was veering about rather capriciously, I had cast my eye +anxiously along the warp, to see how it bore the strain, when to my +surprise it appeared to thicken at the end next the tree, and presently +something like a screw, about a foot long, that occasionally shone like +glass in the moonlight, began to move along the taught line, with a +spiral motion. All this time one of the boys was fast asleep, resting +on his folded arms on the gunwale, his head having dropped down on the +stem of the boat; but one of the Spanish bogas in the canoe, which was +anchored close to us, seeing me gazing at something, now looked in the +same direction; the instant he caught the object, he thumped with his +palms on the side of the canoe exclaiming, in a loud alarmed tone-- +"Culebra--culebra,--a snake, a snake,"--on which the reptile made a +sudden and rapid slide down the line towards the bow of the boat where +the poor lad was sleeping, and immediately afterwards dropped into the +sea. + +The sailor rose and walked aft, as if nothing had happened, amongst his +messmates, who had been alarmed by the cries of the Spanish canoe man, +and I was thinking little of the matter, when I heard some anxious +whispering amongst them. + +"Fred," said one of the men, "what is wrong, that you breathe so hard?" + +"Why, boy, what ails you?" said another. + +"Something has stung me," at length said the poor little fellow, +speaking thick, as if he had laboured under sore throat. The truth +flashed on me, a candle was lit, and, on looking at him, he appeared +stunned, complained of cold, and suddenly assumed a wild startled look. + +He evinced great anxiety and restlessness, accompanied by a sudden and +severe prostration of strength--still continuing to complain of great +and increasing cold and chilliness, but he did not shiver. As yet no +part of his body was swollen, except very slightly about the wound; +however, there was a rapidly increasing rigidity of the muscles of the +neck and throat, and within half an hour after he was bit, he was +utterly unable to swallow even liquids. The small whip-snake, the most +deadly asp in the whole list of noxious reptiles peculiar to South +America, was not above fourteen inches long; it had made four small +punctures with its fangs, right over the left jugular vein, about an +inch below the chin. There was no blood oozing from them, but a circle +about the size of a crownpiece of dark red surrounded them, gradually +melting into blue at the outer rim, which again became fainter and +fainter, until it disappeared in the natural colour of the skin. By the +advice of he Spanish boatman, we applied an embrocation of the leaves of +the palma Christi, or castor-oil nut, as hot as the lad could bear it, +but we had neither oil nor hot milk to give internally, both of which +they informed us often proved specifics. Rather than lie at anchor, +until morning, under these melancholy circumstances, I shoved out into +the rough water, but we made little of it, and when the day broke, I saw +that the poor fellow's fate was sealed. His voice had become +inarticulate, the coldness had increased, all motion in the extremities +had ceased, the legs and arms became quite stiff, the respiration slow +and difficult, as if the blood had coagulated, and could no longer +circulate through the heart; or as if, from some unaccountable effect of +the poison on the nerves, the action of the former had been impeded;-- +still the poor little fellow was perfectly sensible, and his eye bright +and restless. His breathing became still more interrupted--he could no +longer be said to breathe, but gasped--and in another half hour, like a +steam-engine when the fire is withdrawn, the strokes, or contractions +and expansions of his heart became slower and slower, until they ceased +altogether. + +From the very moment of his death, the body began rapidly to swell, and +become discoloured; the face and neck, especially, were nearly as black +as ink within half an hour of it, when blood began to flow from the +mouth, and other symptoms of rapid decomposition succeeded each other so +fast, that by nine in the morning we had to sew him up in a boat sail, +with a large stone, and launch the body into the sea. + +We continued to struggle against the breeze until eleven o'clock in the +forenoon of the 27th, when the wind again increased to such a pitch, +that we had to cast off our tow, and leave her on the coast under the +charge of little Reefpoint, with instructions to remain in the creek +where he was, until the schooner picked him up; we then pushed once more +through the surf for Porto Bello, where we arrived in safety at five +P.m. Next morning at daylight we got under weigh, and stood down for the +canoe, and having received the money on board, and the Spaniards who +accompanied it, and poor mulo, we made sail for Kingston, Jamaica, and +on the 4th of the following month were off Carthagena once more, having +been delayed by calms and light winds. The captain of the port shoved +out to us, and I immediately recognized him as the officer to whom poor +old Deadeye once gave a deuced fright, when we were off the town, in the +old Torch, during the siege, and about a fortnight before she foundered +in the hurricane; but in the present instance he was all civility; on +his departure we made sail, and arrived at Kingston, safe and sound, in +the unusually short passage of sixty hours from the time we left +Carthagena. + +Here the first thing I did was to call on some of my old friends, with +one of whom I found a letter lying for me from Mr Bang, requesting a +visit at his domicile in St Thomas in the Vale so soon as I arrived; and +through the extreme kindness of my Kingston allies, I had, on my +intention of accepting it being known, at least half a dozen gigs +offered to me, with servants and horses, and I don't know what all. I +made my selection, and had arranged to start at day-dawn next morning, +when a cousin of mine, young Palma, came in where I was dining, and said +that his mother and the family had arrived in town that very day, and +were bound on a picnic party next morning to visit the Falls in St +David's. I agreed to go, and to postpone my visit to friend Aaron for +the present; and very splendid scenery did we see; but as I had seen the +Falls of Niagara, of course I was not astonished. There was a favourite +haunt and cave of Three-fingered Jack shown to us in the neighbourhood, +very picturesque and romantic, and all that sort of thing, but I was +escorting my Mary, and the fine scenery and roaring waters were at this +time thrown away on me. However, there was one incident amusing enough. +Mary and I had wandered away from the rest of the party, about a mile +above the cascade, where the river was quiet and still, and divided into +several tiny streams or pools, by huge stones that had rolled from the +precipitous banks, down into its channel; when on turning an angle of +the rock, we came unexpectedly on my old ally Whiffle, with a cigar in +his mouth, seated on a cane bottomed chair, close to the brink of the +water, with a little low table at his right hand, on which stood a plate +of cold meat, over which his black servant held a green branch, with +which he was brushing the flies away, while a large rummer of cold +brandy grog was immersed in the pool at his feet, covered up with a cool +plantain leaf. He held a long fishing rod in his hands, eighteen feet +at the shortest, fit to catch salmon with, which he had to keep nearly +upright, in order to let his hook drop into the pool, which was not +above five feet wide--why he did not heave it by hand I am sure I cannot +tell; indeed, I would as soon have thought of angling for gold fish in +my aunt's glass globe--and there he sat fishing with great complacency. +However, he seemed a little put out when we came up. "Ah, Tom, how do +you do?--Miss, your most obsequious--no rain mullet deucedly shy, Tom-- +ah! what a glorious nibble--there--there again--I have him;" and sure +enough, he had hooked a fine mountain mullet, weighing about a pound and +a half, and in the ecstasy of the moment, and his hurry to land him +handsomely, he regularly capsized in his chair, upset the rummer of +brandy grog and table and all the rest of it. We had a good laugh, and +then rejoined our party, and that evening we all sojourned at Lucky +Valley, a splendid coffee estate, with a most excellent man and an +exceedingly obliging fellow for a landlord. + +Next day we took a long ride, to visit a German gentleman, who had +succeeded in a wonderful manner in taming fish. He received us very +hospitably, and after lunch, we all proceeded to his garden, through +which ran a beautiful stream of the clearest water. It was about four +feet broad, and a foot deep, where it entered the garden, but gradually +widened in consequence of a dam with stakes at the top having been +erected at the lower part of it, until it became a pool twelve feet +broad, and four feet deep, of the most beautiful crystal clear water +that can be imagined, while the margin on both sides was fringed with +the fairest flowers that Europe or the tropics could afford. We all +peered into the stream, but could see nothing except an occasional +glance of a white scale or fin now and then.--"Liverpool!" shouted the +old German who was doing the honours--"Liverpool, come bring de food for +de fis." Liverpool, a respectable-looking negro, approached, and +stooping down at the water's edge, held a piece of roasted plantain +close to the surface of it. In an instant, upwards of a hundred mullet, +large fine fish, some of them above a foot long, rushed from out the +dark clear depths of the quiet pool, and jumped, and walloped, and +struggled for the food, although the whole party were standing close by. +Several of the ladies afterwards tried their hand, and the fish, +although not apparently quite so confident, after a tack here and a tack +there, always in the end came close to and made a grab at what was held +to them. + +That evening I returned to Kingston, where I found an order lying for me +to repair as second-lieutenant on board the Firebrand once more, and to +resign the command of the Wave to no less a man than Moses Yerk, +esquire; and a happy man was Moses, and a gallant fellow he proved +himself in her, and earned laurels and good freights of specie, and is +now comfortably domiciled amongst his friends. + +The only two Waves, that I successfully made interest at their own +request to get back with me, were Tailtackle, and little Reefpoint. + +Time wore on--days and weeks and months passed away, during which we +were almost constantly at sea, but incidents worth relating had grown +scarce, as we were now in piping times of peace, when even a stray +pirate had become a rarity, and a luxury denied to all but the small +craft people. On one of our cruises, however, we had been working up +all morning to the southward of the Pedro shoals, with the wind strong +at east, a hard fiery sea-breeze. We had hove-about, some three hours +before, and were standing in towards the land, on the starboard tack, +when the look-out at the masthead hailed. + +"The water shoals on the weather bow, sir;" and presently, "breakers +right ahead." + +"Very well," I replied--"all right." + +"We are nearing the reefs, sir," said I, walking aft and addressing +Captain Transom; "shall we stand by to go about, sir?" + +"Certainly--heave in stays as soon as you like, Mr Cringle." + +At this moment the man aloft again sung out--"There is a wreck on the +weather most point of the long reef, sir." + +"Ay! what does she look like?" + +"I see the stumps of two lower masts, but the bowsprit is gone, sir--I +think she must be a schooner or a brig, sir." + +The Captain was standing by, and looked up to me, as I stood on the long +eighteen at the weather-gangway. + +"Is the breeze not too strong, Mr Cringle?" + +I glanced my eye over the side--"Why, no, sir--a boat will live well +enough--there is not so much sea in shore here." + +"Very well--haul the courses up, and heave-to." + +It was done. + +"Pipe away the yawlers, boatswain's mate." + +The boat over the lee-quarter was lowered, and I was sent to +reconnoitre the object that had attracted our attention. As we +approached, we passed the floating swollen carcasses of several +bullocks, and some pieces of wreck; and getting into smooth water, under +the lee of the reef, we pulled up under the stem of the shattered hull +which lay across it, and scrambled on deck by the boat tackles, that +hung from the davits, as if the jolly-boat had recently been lowered. +The vessel was a large Spanish schooner, apparently about one hundred +and eighty tons burden, nearly new; every thing strong and well fitted +about her, with a beautiful spacious flush-deck, surrounded by high +solid bulwarks. All the boats had disappeared; they might either have +been carried away by the crew, or washed overboard by the sea. Both +masts were gone about ten feet above the deck; which, with the whole of +their spars and canvass, and the wreck of the bowsprit, were lumbering +and rattling against the lee-side of the vessel, and splashing about in +the broken water, being still attached to the hull by the standing +rigging, no part of which had been cut away. The mainsail, foresail, +fore-topsail, fore-staysail, and jib were all set, so she must most +likely have gone on the reef, either under a press of canvass in the +night, in ignorance of its vicinity, or by missing stays. + +She lay on her beam-ends across the coral rock, on which there was +about three feet water where shallowest, and had fallen over to leeward, +presenting her starboard broadside to the sea, which surged along it in +a slanting direction, while the lee gunwale was under water. The +boiling white breakers were dashing right against her bows, lifting them +up with every send, and thundering them down again against the flint-- +hard coral spikes, with a loud gritting rumble; while every now and then +the sea made a fair breach over them, flashing up over the whole deck +aft to the tafferel in a snow storm of frothy flakes. Forward in the +bows there lay, in one horrible fermenting and putrefying mass, the +carcasses of about twenty bullocks, part of her deck-load of cattle, +rotted into one hideous lump, with the individual bodies of the poor +brutes almost obliterated and undistinguishable, while streams of +decomposed animal matter were ever and anon flowing down to leeward, +although as often washed away by the hissing waters. But how shall I +describe the scene of horror that presented itself in the after part of +the vessel, under the lee of the weather-bulwarks! + +There, lashed to the ring-bolts, and sheltered from the sun and sea, by +a piece of canvass, stretched across a broken oar, lay, more than half +naked, the dead bodies of an elderly female, and three young women; one +of the latter with two lifeless children fastened by handkerchiefs to +her waist, while each of the other two had the corpse of an infant +firmly clasped in her arms. + +It was the dry season, and as they lay right in the wake of the windward +ports, exposed to a thorough draft of air, and were defended from the +sun and the spray, no putrefaction had taken place; the bodies looked +like mummies, the shrunken muscles, and wasted features, being covered +with a dry horny skin, like parchment; even the eyes remained full and +round, as if they had been covered over with a hard dim scale. + +On looking down into the steerage, we saw another corpse, that of a tall +young slip of a Spanish girl, surging about in the water, which reached +nearly to the deck, with her long black hair floating and spread out all +over her neck and bosom, but it was so offensive and decayed, that we +were glad to look another way. There was no male corpse to be seen, +which, coupled with the absence of the boats, evinced but too clearly +that the crew had left the females, with their helpless infants, on the +wreck to perish. There was a small roundhouse on the after-part of the +deck, in which we found three other women alive, but wasted to +skeletons. We took them into the boat, but one died in getting her over +the side; the other two we got on board, and I am glad to say that they +both recovered. For two days neither could speak; there seemed to be +some rigidity about the throat and mouth that prevented them; but at +length the youngest--(the other was her servant)--a very handsome woman, +became strong enough to tell us, "that it was the schooner Caridad that +we had boarded, bound from Rio de la Hache to Savana la Mar, where she +was to have discharged her deck-load of cattle, and afterwards to have +proceeded to Batabano, in Cuba. She had struck, as I surmised, in the +night, about a fortnight before we fell in with her; and next morning, +the crew and male passengers took to the boats, which with difficulty +contained them, leaving the women under a promise to come back that +evening, with assistance from the shore, but they never appeared, nor +were they ever after heard of." And here the poor thing cried as if her +heart would break. "Even my own Juan, my husband, left me and my child +to perish on the wreck. Oh God! Oh God! I could not have left him--I +could not have left him." + +There had been three families on board, with their servants, who were +emigrating to Cuba, all of whom had been abandoned by the males, who, as +already related, must in all human probability have perished after their +unmanly desertion. As the whole of the provisions were under water, and +could not be got at, the survivors had subsisted on raw flesh so long as +they had strength to cut it, or power to swallow it; what made the poor +creature tell it, I cannot imagine, if it were not to give the most +vivid picture possible, in her conception, of their loneliness and +desolation, but she said, "no sea-bird even ever came near us." + +It were harrowing to repeat the heart-rendering description given by +her, of the sickening of the heart when the first night fell, and still +no tidings of the boats; the second sun set--still the horizon was +speckless; the next dreary day wore to an end, and three innocent +helpless children were dead corpses; on the fourth, madness seized on +their mothers, and--but I will not dwell on such horrors. + +During these manifold goings and comings I naturally enlarged the circle +of my acquaintance in the island, especially in Kingston, the mercantile +capital; and often does my heart glow within me, when the scenes I have +witnessed in that land of fun and fever rise up before me after the +lapse of many years, under the influence of a good fire and a glass of +old Madeira. Take the following sample of Jamaica High Jinks as one of +many. On a certain occasion I had gone to dine with Mr Isaac Shingle, +and extensive American merchant, and a most estimable man, who +considerately sent his gig down to the wherry wharf for me. At six +o'clock I arrived at my friend's mansion, situated in the upper part of +the town, a spacious one-story house, overshadowed by two fine old +trees, and situated back from the street about ten yards; the +intervening space being laid out in a beautiful little garden, raised +considerably above the level of the adjoining thoroughfare, from which +it was divided by a low parapet wall, surmounted by a green painted +wooden railing. There was a flight of six brick steps from the street +to the garden, and you ascended from the latter to the house itself, +which was raised on brick pillars a fathom high, by another stair of +eight, broad marble slabs. The usual verandah, or piazza, ran along the +whole front, beyond which you entered a large and lofty, but very +darksome hall, answering to our European drawing room into which the +bedrooms opened on each side. It did strike me at first as odd, that +the principal room in the house should be a dark dungeon of a place, +with nothing but borrowed lights, until I again recollected that +darkness and coolness were convertible terms within the tropics. +Advancing through this room you entered, by a pair of folding doors, on +a very handsome dining room, situated in what I believe is called a back +jamb, a sort of outrigger to the house, fitted all round with movable +blinds, or jealousies, and open like a lantern to all the winds of +heaven except the west, in which direction the main body of the house +warded off the sickening beams of the setting sun. And how sickening +they are, let the weary sentries under the pillars of the Jamaica +viceroy's house in Spanish Town tell, reflected as they were there from +the hot brick walls of the palace. + +This room again communicated with the back yard, in which the negro +houses, kitchen, and other offices were situated, by a wooden stair of +the same elevation as that in front. Here the table was laid for +dinner, covered with the finest diaper, and snow-white napkins, and +silver wine-coolers, and silver forks, and fine steel, and cut glass, +and cool green finger-glasses with lime leaves floating within, and +tall wax lights shaded from the breeze in thin glass barrels, and an +epergne filled with flowers, with a fragrant fresh-gathered lime in +each of the small leaf-like branches, and salt-cellars with red +peppers in them, &c. &c. all of which made the tout ensemble the most +captivating imaginable to a hungry man. + +I found a large party assembled in the piazza and the dark hall, to whom +I was introduced in due form. In Jamaica, of all countries I ever was +in, it is a most difficult matter for a stranger to ascertain the real +names of the guests at a bachelor dinner like the present, where all the +parties were intimate--there were so many soubriquets amongst them; for +instance, a highly respectable merchant of the place, with some fine +young women for daughters, by the way, from the peculiarity of a +prominent front tooth, was generally known as the Grand Duke of Tuscany; +while an equally respectable elderly man, with a slight touch of +paralysis in his head, was christened Old Steady in the West, because he +never kept his head still; so, whether some of the names of the present +party were real or fictitious, I really cannot tell. + +First, there was Mr Seco, a very neat gentlemanlike little man, +perfectly well bred, and full of French phrases. Then came Mr Eschylus +Stave, a tall, raw-boned, well-informed personage; a bit of a quiz on +occasion, but withal a pleasant fellow. Mr Isaac Shingle, mine host, a +sallow, sharp, hatchet-faced, small, but warm hearted and kind, as I +often experienced during my sojourn in the west, only sometimes a little +peppery and argumentative. Then came Mr Jacob Bumble, a sleek fat-- +pated Scotchman. Next I was introduced to Mr Alonzo Smoothpate, a very +handsome fellow, with an uncommon share of natural good-breeding and +politeness. Again I clapper-clawed, according to the fashion of the +country, a violent shake of the paw being the Jamaica investment to +acquaintanceship, with Mr Percales, whom I took for a foreign Jew +somehow or other at first, from his uncommon name, until I heard him +speak, and perceived he was an Englishman; indeed, his fresh complexion, +very neat person, and gentlemanlike deportment, when I had time to +reflect, would of themselves have disconnected him from all kindred with +the sons of Levi. Then came a long, dark-complexioned, curly-pated +slip of a lad, with white teeth and high strongly marked features, +considerably pitted with small-pox. He seemed the great promoter of +fun and wickedness in the party, and was familiarly addressed as the +Don, although I believe his real name was Mr Lucifer Longtram. Then +there was Mr Aspen Tremble, a fresh-looking, pleasant, well informed +man, but withal a little nervous, his cheeks quivering when he spoke +like shapes of calf's foot jelly; after him came an exceedingly polite +old gentleman, wearing hair-powder and a queue, ycleped Nicodemus; and +a very devil of a little chap, of the name of Rubiochico, a great ally +in wickedness with Master Longtram; the last in this eventful history +being a staid, sedate looking, elderly-young man, of the name of Onyx +Steady, an extensive foreign merchant, with a species of dry caustic +readiness about him that was dangerous enough.--We sat down, Isaac +Shingle doing the honours, confronted by Eschylus Stave, and all was +right, and smooth, and pleasant, and in no way different from a party +of well bred men in England. + +When the second course appeared, I noticed that the blackie, who brought +in two nice tender little ducklings, with the concomitant green peas, +both just come in season, was chuckling, and grinning, and showing his +white teeth most vehemently, as he placed both dishes right under Jacob +Bumble's nose. Shingle and Longtram exchanged looks. I saw there was +some mischief toward, and presently, as if by some preconcerted signal, +every body asked for duck, duck, duck. Bumble, with whom the dish was a +prime favourite, carved away with a most stern countenance, until he had +got half through the second bird, when some unpleasant recollection +seemed to come over him, and his countenance fell; and lying back on his +chair, he gave a deep sigh. But "Mr Bumble, that breast, if you please +thank you,"--"Mr Bumble, that back, if you please," succeeded each +other rapidly, until all that remained of the last of the ducklings was +a beautiful little leg, which, under cover of the following story, Jacob +cannily smuggled on to his own plate. + +"Why, gentlemen, a most remarkable circumstance happened to me while +dressing for dinner. You all know I am next door neighbour to our +friend Shingle--our premises being only divided by a brick wall, about +eight feet high. Well, my dressing room window looks out on this wall, +between which and the house, I have my duck pen...." + +"Your what?" said I. + +"My poultry yard--as I like to see the creatures fed myself--and I was +particularly admiring two beautiful ducklings which I had been carefully +fattening for a whole week"--(here our friend's voice shook, and a tear +glistened in his eye)--"when first one and then another jumped out of +the little pond, and successively made a grab at something which I could +not see, and immediately began to shake their wings, and struggle with +their feet, as if they were dancing, until, as with one accord--deuce +take me!"--(here he almost blubbered aloud)--"if they did not walk up +the brick wall with all the deliberation in the world, merely helping +themselves over the top by a small flaff of their wings; and where they +have gone, none of Shingle's people know." + +"I'll trouble you for that leg, Julius," said Longtram, at this +juncture, to a servant, who whipped away the plate from under Bumble's +arm, before he could prevent him, who looked after it as if it had been +a pound of his own flesh. It seemed that Longtram, who had arrived +rather early, had found a fishing-tackle in the piazza, and knowing the +localities of Bumble's premises, as well as his peculiarities, he, by +way of adding his quota to the entertainment, baited two hooks with +pieces of raw potatoes, and throwing them over the wall, had, in +conjunction with Julius the black, hooked up the two ducklings out of +the pen, to the amazement of Squire Bumble. + +By and by, as the evening wore on, I saw the Longtram lad making +demonstrations to bring on a general drink, in which he was nobly +seconded by Rubiochico; and, I grieve to say it, I was no ways loath, +nor indeed were any of the company.--There had been a great deal of +mirth and frolic during dinner,--all within proper bounds, however,--but +as the night made upon us, we set more sail--more, as it turned out, +than some of us had ballast for--when lo! towards ten of the clock, up +started Mr Eschylus to give us a speech. His seat was at the bottom of +the table, with the back of his chair close to the door that opened into +the yard; and after he had got his breath out, on I forget what topic; +he sat down, and lay back on his balanced chair, stretching out his long +legs with great complacency. However, they did not prove a sufficient +counterpoise to his very square shoulders, which, obeying the laws of +gravitation, destroyed his equilibrium, and threw him a somersault, when +exit Eschylus Stave, esquire, head foremost, with a formidable rumble +tumble and hurry--scurry, down the back steps, his long shanks +disappearing last, and clipping between us, and the bright moon like a +pair of flails. + +However, there was no damage done; and, after a good laugh, Stave's own +being loudest of all, the Don and Rubiochico righted him, and helped him +once more into his chair. + +Jacob Bumble now favoured us with a song, that sounded as if he had been +barrelled up in a puncheon, and was cantando through the bunghole; then +Rubiochico sang, and the Don sang, and we all sang and bumpered away; +and Mr Seco got on the table, and gave us the newest quadrille step; +and, in fine, we were all becoming dangerously drunk. Longtram, +especially, had become uproarious beyond all bounds, and, getting up +from his chair, he took a short run of a step or two, and sprang right +over the table, whereby he smashed the epergne full of fruit and +flowers, scattering the contents all about like hail, and driving a +volley of preserved limes like grapeshot, in all their syrup and +stickiness, slap into my face--a stray one spinning with a sloppy whit +into Jacob Bumble's open mouth as he sang, like a musket-ball into a +winter turnip; while a fine preserved pineapple flew bash on Isaac +Shingle's sharp snout, like the bursting of a shrapnel shell. + +"D----n it," hiccuped Shingle, "wont stand this any longer, by JuJu +jupiter! Give over your practicals, Lucifer. Confound it, Don, give +over--do, now, you mad long legged son of a gun!"--Here the Don caught +Shingle round the waist, and whipping him bodily out of his chair, +carried him kicking and spurring into the hall, now well lit up, and +laid him on a sofa, and then returning, coolly installed himself in his +seat. + +In a little we heard the squeaking of a pig in the street, and our +friend Shingle's voice high in oath. I sallied forth to see the cause of +the uproar, and found our host engaged in single combat with a drawn +sword-stick that sparkled blue and bright in the moonbeam, his +antagonist being a strong porker that he had taken for a town guard, and +had hemmed into a corner formed by the stair and the garden wall, which, +on being pressed, made a dash between his spindleshanks, and fairly +capsized him into my arms. I carried him back to his couch again; and, +thinking it was high time to be off, as I saw that Smoothpate, and +Steady, and Nicodemus, and the more composed part of the company, had +already absconded, I seized my hat, and made sail in the direction of +the former's house, where I was to sleep, when that devil Longtram made +up to me. + +"Hillo, my little man of war--heave-to a bit, and take me with you. +Why what is that? what the deuce is that?" We were at this time +staggering along under the dark piazza of a long line of low wooden +houses, every now and then thundering against the thin boards or +bulkheads that constituted the side next the street, making, as we could +distinctly hear, the inmates start and snort in the inside, as they +turned themselves in their beds. In the darkest part of the piazza, +there was the figure of a man in the attitude of a telescope levelled on +its stand, with its head, as it were, counter-sunk or morticed into the +wooden partition. Tipsy as we both were, we stopped in great surprise. + +"D--n it, Cringle," said the Don, his philosophy utterly at fault, "the +trunk of a man without a head,--how is this?" + +"Why, Mr Longtram," I replied, "this is our friend Mr Smoothpate, or I +mistake greatly." + +"Let me see," said Longtram,--"if it be him, he used to have a head +somewhere, I know.--Let me see.--Oh, it is him; you are right, my boy; +and here is his head after all, and a devil of a size it has grown to +since dinner-time to be sure.--But I know his features bald pate--high +forehead and cheekbones." + +Nota Bene. We were still in the piazza, where Smoothpate was +unquestionably present in the body, but the head was within the house, +and altogether, as I can avouch, beyond the Don's ken. + +"Where?" said I, groping about--"very odd, for deuce take me if I can +see his head.--Why, he has none--a phenomenon--four legs and a tail, but +no head, as I am a gentleman--lively enough, too, he is, don't seem to +miss it much." Here poor Smoothpate made a violent walloping in a vain +attempt to disentangle himself. + +We could now hear shouts of laughter within, and a voice that I was sure +belonged to Mr Smoothpate, begging to be released from the pillory he +had placed himself in by removing a board in the wooden partition, and +sliding it up, and then thrusting his caput from without into the +interior of the house, to the no small amazement of the brown fiddler +and his daughter who inhabited the same, and who had immediately secured +their prize by slipping the displaced board down again, wedging it +firmly on the back of his neck, as if he had been fitted for the +guillotine, thus nailing him fast, unless he had bolted, and left his +head in pawn. + +We now entered, and perceived it was really Don Alonzo's flushed but +very handsome countenance that was grinning at us from where it was +fixed, like a large peony rose stuck against the wall. After a hearty +laugh we relieved him, and being now joined by Percales, who came up in +his gig, with Mr Smoothpate's following in his wake, we embarked for an +airing at half-past one in the morning--Smoothpate and Percales, +Longtram and Tom Cringle. Amongst other exploits, we broke into a +proscribed conventicle of drunken negroes--but I am rather ashamed of +this part of the transaction, and intended to have held my tongue, had +Aaron managed his, although it was notorious as the haunt of all the +thieves and slight ladies of the place; here we found parson Charley, a +celebrated black preacher, three parts drunk, extorting, as Mawworm +says, a number of devotees, male and female, all very tipsy, in a most +blasphemous fashion, the table being covered with rummers of punch, and +fragments of pies and cold meat; but this did not render our conduct +more excusable, I will acknowledge. Finally, as a trophy, Percales, who +was a wickeder little chap than I took him for, with Longtram's help, +unshipped the bell of the conventicle from the little belfry, and +fastening it below Smoothpate's gig, we dashed back to Mr Shingle's with +it clanging at every jolt. In our progress the horse took fright, and +ran away, and no wonder. + +"Zounds, Don, the weather-rein has parted--what shall we do?" said I. + +"Do?" rejoined Lucifer, with drunken gravity--"haul on the other, to be +sure--there is one left, an't there?--so hard a-port, and run him up +against that gun at the street corner, will ye? That will stop him, or +the devil is in it." + +Crash--it was done--and over the horse's ears we both flew like +skyrockets; but, strange to tell, although we had wedged the wheel of +the ketureen fast as a wreck on a reef, with the cannon that was stuck +into the ground postwise between it and the body, there was no damage +done beyond the springing of the starboard shaft, so, with the +assistance of the negro servant, who had been thrown from his perch +behind, by a shock that frightened him out of his wits, we hove the +voiture off again, and arrived in safety at friend Shingle's once more. +Here we found the table set out with devilled turkey, and a variety of +high-spiced dishes; and, to make a long story short, we had another set +to, during which, as an interlude, Longtram capsized Shingle out of the +sofa he had again lain down on, in an attempt to jump over it, and broke +his arm; and, being the soberest man of the company, I started off, +guided by a negro servant, for Doctor Greyfriars. On our return, the +first thing that met our eyes was the redoubted Don himself, lying on +his back where he had fallen at his leap, with his head over the step at +the door of the piazza. I thought his neck was broken; and the doctor, +considering that he was the culprit to be carved, forthwith had him +carried in, his coat taken off, and was about striking a phleme into +him, when Isaac's voice sounded from the inner apartment, where he had +lain all the while below the sofa like a crushed frog, the party in the +background, who were boosing away, being totally unconscious of his +mishap, as they sat at table in the room beyond, enjoying themselves, +impressed apparently with the belief that the whole affair was a lark. + +"Doctor, doctor," shouted he in great pain,--"here, here--it is me that +is murdered--that chap is only dead drunk, but I am really dead, or will +be, if you don't help." + +At length the arm was set, and Shingle put to bed, and the whole crew +dispersed themselves, each moving off as well as he could towards his +own home. + +But the cream of the jest was richest next day. Parson Charley, who, +drunk as he had been overnight, still retained a confused recollection +of the parties who had made the irruption, in the morning applied to Mr +Smoothpate to have his bell restored, when the latter told him, with the +utmost gravity, that Mr Onyx Steady was the culprit, who, by the by, had +disappeared from Shingle's before the bell interlude, and, in fact, was +wholly ignorant of the transaction. "Certainly," quoth Smoothpate, with +the greatest seriousness, "a most unlikely person, I will confess, +Charley, as he is a grave, respectable man; still, you know, the most +demure cats sometimes steal cream, Charley; so, parson, my good man, Mr +Onyx Steady has your bell, and no one else." + +Whereupon, away trudged Charley to Mr Steady's warehouse, pulling off +his hat with a formal salaam, "Good Massa Onyx--sweet Massa Teady--pray +give me de bell." Here the sable clerigo gathered himself up, and leant +composedly on his long staff, hat still in hand, and ear turned towards +Mr Steady, awaiting his answer. + +"Bell!" ejaculated Steady, in great amazement,--"bell! what bell?" + +"Oh, good, sweet Massa Onyx, dear Massa Onyx Teady, every body know you +good person--quiet, wise somebody you is--all person sabe dat," whined +Charley; then slipping near our friend, he whispered to him--"but de +best of we lob bit of fon now and dende best of we lef to himshef +sometime." + +"Confound the fellow!" quoth Onyx, rather pushed off his balance by such +an unlooked--for attack before his clerks; "get out of my house, sir +what the mischief do I know of you or your infernal bell? I wish the +tongue of it was in your stomach--get out, sir, away with you." + +Charley could stand this no longer, and losing patience, "D--n me eye, +you is de tief, sir--so give me de bell, Massa Teady, or I sall pull you +go before de Mayor, Massa Teady, and you sall be shame, Massa Teady; and +it may be you sall be export to de Bay of Honduras, Massa Teady. Aha, +how you will like dat, Massa Teady? you sall be export may be for break +into chapel, during sarvice, and teal bell--aha, teal bell--who ever +yeerie one crime equal to dat!" + +"My good man," quoth Onyx, who now felt the absurdity of the affair, "I +know nothing of all this--believe me there is a mistake. Who sent you +here?" + +"Massa Smoothpate," roared Charley, "Massa Smoothpate, he who neber tell +lie to nobody, Massa Smoothpate sent me, sir, so de debil if you no give +up de bell I sall...." + +"Mr Smoothpate--oh ho!" sung out Steady, 'I see, I see'--Finally the +affair was cleared up, a little hush-money made him snug, and Charley +having got back his instrument, bore no malice, so he and Steady resumed +their former friendly footing--the "statu quo ante bellum." + +Another story and I have done. + +About a week after this, several of the same party again met at dinner, +when my excellent friend Mr Nicodemus amused us exceedingly by the +following story, which, for want of a better title, I shall relate under +the head of: + +A Slippery Youth + +"We all know," quoth old Nic, "that house robberies have been very rife +of late, and on peril even of having the laugh against me, I will tell +you how I suffered, no longer than three nights ago; so, Tom Cringle, +will you and Bang have the charity to hold your tongues, and be +instructed? + +"Old Gelid, Longtram, Steady, and myself, had been eating ratoons, at +the Fortner's domicile, and it was about nine in the evening when I got +home. We had taken next to no wine, a pint of Madeira apiece during +dinner, and six bottles of claret between us afterwards, so I went to +bed as cool as a cucumber, and slept soundly for several hours, until +awakened by my old gander--now do be quiet, Cringle--by my old watchman +of a gander, cackling like a hero. I struck my repeater--half past one +so I turned myself, and was once more falling over into the arms of +Morpheus, when I thought I saw some dark object flit silently across the +open window that looks into the piazza, between me and the deep blue and +as yet moonless sky. This somewhat startled me, but it might have been +one of the servants. Still I got up and looked out, but I could see +nothing. It did certainly strike me once or twice, that there was some +dark object cowering in the deep gloom caused by the shade of the orange +tree at the end of the piazza, but I persuaded myself it was fancy, and +once more slipped into my nest. However, the circumstance had put sleep +to flight. Half an hour might have passed, and the deep dark purity of +the eastern sky was rapidly quickening into a greenish azure, the +forerunner of the rising moon," ("oh, confound your poetry," said +Rubiochico,) "which was fast swamping the sparkling stars, like a bright +river flowing over diamonds, when the old gander again set up his +gabblement and trumpeted more loudly than before. 'If you were not so +tough, my noisy old cock'--thought I--'next Michaelmas should be your +last.' So I now resolutely shut my eyes, and tried to sleep +perforce, in which usually fruitless attempt, I was actually beginning +to succeed, do you know, when a strong odour of palm oil came through +the window, and on opening my eyes, I saw by the increasing light a +naked negro standing at it, with his head and shoulders in sharp relief +against the pale broad disk of the moon, at that moment just peering +over the dark summit of the Long mountain. + +"I rubbed my eyes, and looked again; the dark figure was still there, +but as if aware that some one was on the watch, it gradually sank down, +until nothing but the round bullet head appeared above the window sill. +This was trying enough, but I made an effort, and lay still. The +stratagem succeeded; the figure, deceived by my feigned snoring and +quietude, slowly rose, and once more stood erect. Presently it slipped +one foot into the room, and then another, but so noiselessly that when I +saw the black figure standing before me on the floor, I had some +misgivings as to its being really a being of this world. However, I had +small space for speculation, when it slid past the foot of the bed +towards my open bureau--I seized the opportunity--started up--turned the +key of the door--and planted myself right between the thief and the open +window. 'Now, you scoundrel, surrender, or I will murder you on the +spot.' I had scarcely spoken the word, when with the speed of light, the +fellow threw himself on me--we closed--I fell--when, clip, he slipped +through my fingers like an eel--bolted through the window--cleared the +balcony at a bound, and disappeared. The thief had stripped himself as +naked as he was born, and soaped his woolly scull, and smeared his whole +corpus with palm oil, so that in the struggle I was charmingly +lubricated." + +Nicodemus here lay back on his chair, evidently desirous of our +considering this the whole of the story, but he was not to be let off so +easily, for presently Longtram, with a wicked twinkle of his eye, chimed +in. + +"Ay, and what happened next, old Nic--did nothing follow, eh?" + +Nic's countenance assumed an irresolute expression; he saw he was jammed +up in the wind, so at a venture he determined to sham deafness. + +"Take wine, Lucifer--a glass of Hermitage?" + +"With great pleasure," said his Satanic majesty. The propitiatory +libation, however, did not work, for no sooner had his glass touched the +mahogany again, than he returned to the charge. + +"Now, Mr Nicodemus, since you won't, I will tell the company the reason +of so nice an old gentleman wearing Baltimore flour in his hair instead +of perfumed Mareschale powder, and none of the freshest either, let me +tell you; why, I have seen three weavels take flight from your august +pate since we sat down to dinner." + +Old Nic, seeing he was caught, met the attack with the greatest good +humour. + +"Why, I will tell the whole truth, Lucifer, if you don't bother." ("The +devil thank you," said Longtram.)--"So you must know," continued +Nicodemus, "that I immediately roused the servants, searched the +premises in every direction without success--nothing could be seen; but, +at the suggestion of my valet, I lit a small spirit lamp, and placed it +on the table at my bed-side, on which it pleased him to place my brace +of Mantons, loaded with slug, and my naked small sword, so that, thought +I, if the thief ventures back, he shall not slip through my fingers +again so easily. I do confess that these imposing preparations did +appear to me somewhat preposterous, even at the time, as it was not, to +say the least of it, very probable that my slippery gentleman would +return the same night. However, my servant in his zeal was not to be +denied, and I was not so fit to judge as usual, from having missed my +customary quantity of wine after dinner the previous day; so, seeing all +right, I turned in, thus bristling like a porcupine, and slept soundly +until daylight, when I bethought me of getting up. I then rose-slipped +on my nightgown--and,"--here Nicodemus laughed more loudly than ever, +"as I am a gentleman, my spirit lamp--naked sword--loaded pistols--my +diamond breast-pin, and all my clothes, even unto my unmentionables, +had disappeared; but what was the cruelest cut of all, my box of +Mareschale powder, my patent puff, and all my pomade divine had also +vanished; and true enough, as Lucifer says, it so happened that from the +delay in the arrival of the running ships, there was not an ounce of +either powder or pomatum to be had in the whole town, so I have been +driven in my extremity--oh most horrible declension!--to keep my tail on +hog's lard and Baltimore flour ever since." + +"Well but"--persisted Lucifer--"who the deuce was the man in the moon? +Come, tell us. And what has become of the queue you so tenderly +nourished, for you sport a crop, Master Nic, now, I perceive?" + +Here Nicodemus was neither to hold nor to bind; he was absolutely +suffocating with laughter, as he shrieked out, with long intervals +between. + +"Why, the robber was my own favourite body-servant, Crabclaw, after +all, and be d----d to him--the identical man who advised the warlike +demonstrations; and as for the pigtail, why, on the very second night of +the flour and grease, it was so cruelly damaged by a rat while I slept, +that I had to amputate the whole affair, stoop and roop, this very +morning." And so saying, the excellent creature fell back in his chair, +like to choke from the uproariousness of his mirth, while the tears +streamed down his cheeks and washed channels in the flour, as if he had +been a tattooed Mandingo. + + + +CHAPTER XIX.--The Last of the Log--Tom Cringle's Farewell. + + + "And whether we shall meet again, I know not." + + Julius Caesar, VI. 114. + + +One fine morning about this time, we had just anchored on our return +from a cruise, when I received, as I was dressing, a letter from the +secretary, desiring me instantly to wait on the Admiral, as I was +promoted to the rank of commander, (how I did dance and sing, my eye!) +and appointed to the Lotus--Leaf, of eighteen guns, then refitting at +the dockyard, and under orders for England. + +I accordingly, after calling and making my bow, proceeded to the +dockyard to enter on my new command, and I was happy in being able to +get Tailtackle and Reefpoint once more removed along with me. + +The gunner of Lotus--Leaf having died, Timotheus got an acting warrant, +which I rejoice to say was ultimately confirmed, and little Reefy, now a +commander in the service, weathered it many a day with me afterwards, +both as midshipman and lieutenant. + +After seeing every thing in a fair train on board, I applied for a +fortnight's leave, which I got, as the trade which I was to convoy had +not yet congregated, nor were they likely to do so before the expiry of +this period. + +Having paid my respects at the Admiral's pen, I returned to Kingston. +Most of the houses in the lower part of the town are surmounted by a +small lookout, as it is called, like a little belfry, and usually +furnished with one or more good telescopes, fitted with green blinds. +It is the habit of the Kingstonians to resort in great numbers to those +gardemange-looking boxes, whenever a strange sail appears in the +offing, or any circumstance takes place at sea worth reconnoitring. It +was about nine o'clock on a fine morning, and I had taken my stand in +one of them, peering out towards the east, but no white speck on the +verge of the horizon indicated an approaching sail, so I slewed round +the glass to the westward, to have a squint at the goings on amongst the +squadron, lying at anchor at Port Royal, about six miles off, then +mustering no fewer than eighteen pennants, viz. one line of battle ship, +one fifty, five frigates, two corvettes, one ship-sloop, four eighteen +gun brigs, three schooners, and a cutter. All was quiet, not even one +solitary signal making amongst them; so I again scoured the horizon +towards the east, when I noticed a very dashing schooner, which had +sailed that morning, as she crept along the Palisadoes. She was lying +up the inner channel, taking advantage of the land-wind, in place of +staggering away to the southward through the ship-channel, already +within the influence of the sea breeze, but which was as yet neutralized +close in shore where she was by the terral. The speed of the craft--the +rapidity with which she slid along the land with the light air, riveted +my attention. On enquiry, I found she was the Carthagenian schooner +Josefa. At this moment the splash of oars was heard right below where +we stood, and a very roguish-looking craft, also schooner-rigged, +about a hundred tons burden apparently, passed rapidly beneath us, +tearing up the shining surface of the sleeping harbour, with no fewer +than fourteen sweeps. She was very heavily rigged, with her main mast +raking over the tafferel, and full of men. I noticed she had a long gun +on a pivot, and several carronades mounted. Presently there was a good +deal of whispering amongst the group of half-a-dozen gentlemen who +were with me in the lookout, who, from their conversation, I soon found +were underwriters on the schooner outside. + +"Heyday," said one, "the Antonio is off somewhat suddenly this morning." + +"Where may that schooner, that is sweeping so handsomely down harbour, +belong to?" said I to the gentleman who had spoken. + +'To Havanna,' was the answer; "but I fear he intends to overhaul the +Josefa there, and she would be a good prize to him, now since Carthagena +has thrown off allegiance to Spain." + +"But he will never venture to infract the neutrality of the waters +surely," rejoined I, "within sight of the squadron too?" + +The gentleman I spoke to smiled incredulously; and as I had nothing +particular to do for a couple of hours, I resolved to remain and see the +issue. In a few minutes, the sea-breeze came thundering down, in half +a gale of wind, singing through the rigging of the ships alongside of +the wharfs, and making the wooden blinds rattle again. The Antonio laid +in her sweeps, spread her canvass in an instant, and was lying-to, off +the fort at Port Royal, to land her pass, in little more than half-an-hour +from the time she passed us, a distance of no less than seven +miles, as she had to sail it. In a minute the jib sheet was again +hauled over to leeward, and away she was like an arrow, crowding all +sail. I had seldom seen a vessel so weatherly before. In an hour more, +she was abreast of the town, and abeam of the Josefa, who, from being +cooped up in the narrow inner channel, had, ever since the sea-breeze +set down, been bothering with short tacks, about, and about, every +minute. Presently the Antonio dashed in through a streak of blue water +in the reef, so narrow, that to look at it, I did not think a boat could +have passed, and got between the Josefa and Port Royal, when he took in +his gaff-topsail, and hauled down his flying-jib, but made no hostile +demonstration, beyond keeping dead to leeward, tack for tack with the +Josefa; and once, when the latter seemed about to bear up and run past +him, I noticed the foot of his foresail lift, and his sails shiver as he +came to the wind, as much as to say, "Luff again, my lady, or I'll fire +at you." It was now clear Josefa did not like her playmate, for she +cracked on all the canvass she could carry; and, having tried every +other manoeuvre to escape without effect, she at length, with reckless +desperation, edged away a point, and flew like smoke through another +gap, even smaller and shallower than the one the Antonio had entered by. +We all held our breath until she got into blue water again, expecting +every moment to see her stick fast, and her masts tumble over the side; +but she scraped clear very cleverly, and the next moment was tearing and +plunging through the tumbling waves outside of the reefs. Antonio, as I +expected, followed her, but all very quietly, still keeping well to +leeward, however. Thus they continued for half an hour, running to the +southward and eastward, when I noticed the Havanero, who had gradually +crept up under the Josefa's lee-quarter, hoist his colours and pennant, +and fire a gun at her. She immediately tacked in great confusion, and +made all sail to get back through the canal into the inner channel, with +the other schooner close at her heels, blazing away from his long gun as +fast as he could load. A Spaniard, who was one of the principal owners +of the Josefa's cargo, happened to be standing beside me in the lookout; +at every shot, he would, with a face of the most intense anxiety, while +the perspiration hailed off his brow, slap his hands on his thighs, and +shrink down on his hams, cowering his head at the same time, as if the +shot had been aimed at him, and he was trying to shun it, apostrophizing +himself, with an agitated voice, as follows: + +"Valga me Dios, que demonio, que demonio! Ah, Pancho Roque, tu es +ruinado, mi amigo." Another shot. "Tu es ruinado, chicatico, tan cierto +como navos no son coles." A third flash. "Oh, rabo de lechon de San +Antonio, que es eso, que es eso!" + +Neck and neck, however, in came the Josefa, staggering right through the +narrow channel once more, persecuted by the Antonio, with the white +breakers foaming and flashing close to on each side of her, but by this +time there was a third party in the game. I had noticed a lot of signals +made in the flag-ship. Presently one of the sloops of war fired a gun, +and before the smoke blew off, she was under weigh, with her topsails, +spanker, and fore-topmast-staysail set. This was his Majesty's sloop +of war Seaflower, which had slipped from her moorings, and was now +crowding all sail in chase of the arrogant Don, who had dared to fire a +shot in anger in the sanctuary of British waters. All this while, the +Antonio had been so intent on hooking the Carthagenian, that the sloop +was nearly up to him before he hove about and gave up the chase; and now +the tables were beautifully turned on him, for the Seaflower's shot was +flying over and over him in whole broadsides, and he must have been +taken, when, crack, away went the sloop's foretopgallant mast, which +gave the rogue a start. In an hour he was away to windward as far as +you could see, and his pursuer and the Josefa were once more at anchor +in Port Royal. + +That evening I returned to the dockyard, where I found every thing going +on with Lotus--Leaf as I could wish. So I returned, after a three days +sojourn on board, to Kingston, and next afternoon mounted my horse, or +rather a horse that a friend was fool enough to lend me, at the agent's +wharf, with the thermometer at ninety-five in the shade, and cantering +off, landed at my aunt Mrs Palma's mountain residence, where the mercury +stood at sixty-two at nightfall, just in time to dress for dinner. I +need not say that we had a pleasant party, as Mary was there; so, having +rigged very killingly as I thought, I made my appearance at dinner, a +mighty man, indeed, with my two epaulets; but to my great +disappointment, when I walked into the piazza, not a soul seemed to +acknowledge my promotion. How blind people are! thought I. Even my +cousins, little creole urchins, dressed in small transparent cambric +shifts, tied into a knot over their tails, and with devil the thing else +on, seemed to perceive no difference, as they pulled me about, with a +volley of "Cousin Taam, what you bring we?" + +At length, dinner was announced, and we adjourned from the dark balcony +to the dining room. "Come, there is light enough here; my rank will be +noticed now, surely--but no, so patience." The only males of the party +were the doctor of the district, two Kingston gentlemen, and Colonel +B---- of the Guards; the ladies at dinner being my aunt, Mary, and her +younger sister. We sat down all in high glee; I was sitting opposite +my dearie. "Deuced strange--neither does she take any notice of my two +epaulets;" and I glanced my eye, to be sure that they were both really +there. I then, with some small misgiving, stole a look towards the +Colonel--a very handsome fellow, with all the ease and polish of a +soldier and a gentleman about him. "The devil, it cannot be, surely," +for the black-eyed and black-haired pale face, seemed annoyingly +attentive to the militaire. At length this said officer addressed me, +"Captain Cringle, do me the honour to take wine." Mary started at the +Captain. + +"She gazed, she redden'd like a rose, Syne pale as ony lily." + +Aha, thought I, all right still. She trembled extremely, and her mother +at length noticed it, I saw; but all this while, B---- was balancing a +land-crab on his silver fork, while, with a wine-glass in his other +claw, he was ogling me in some wonderment. I saw the awkwardness of the +affair, and seizing a bottle of catchup for one of sercial, I filled my +glass with such vehemence, that I spilt a great part of it; but even the +colour and flavour did not recover me; so, with a face like a northwest +moon, I swilled off the potion, and instantly fell back in my chair +"Poisoned! by all that is nonsensical--poisoned catchup oh Lord!" and +off I started to my bedroom, where, by dint of an ocean of hot water, I +got quit of the sauce, and clinching the whole with a caulker of brandy, +I returned to the dinner-table a good deal abashed, I will confess, but +endeavouring most emphatically all the while to laugh it off as a good +jest. But my Mary was flown; she had been ailing for some days, her +mother alleged, and she required rest. Presently my aunt rose, and we +were left to our bottle, and sorry am I to say it, I bumpered away, from +some strong unaccountable impulse, until I got three parts drunk, to the +great surprise of the rest of the party, for guzzling wine was not +certainly a failing of mine, unless on the strong provocation of good +fellowship. + +Mary did not appear that evening, and I may as well tell the whole +truth, that she was pledged to marry me whenever I got my step; and next +morning all this sort of thing was duly communicated to mamma, &c. &c. +&c., and I was the happiest, and so forth--all of which, as it concerns +no one but myself, if you please, we shall say no more about it. + +The beautiful cottage where we were sojourning was situated about three +thousand feet above the level of the sea, and half way up the great +prong of the Blue Mountains, known by the name of the Liguanea range, +which rises behind, and overhangs the city of Kingston. The road to it, +after you have ridden about five miles over the hot plain of Liguanea, +brings you to Hope estate, where an anatomy of an old watchman greeted +me with the negro's constant solicitation--"Massa, me beg you for one +fee-penny." This youth was, as authentic records show, one hundred and +forty years old only.--The Hope is situated in the very gorge of the +pass, wherein you have to travel nine miles farther, through most +magnificent scenery; at one time struggling among the hot stones of the +all but dry river-course; at others, winding along the breezy cliffs, +on mule-paths not twelve inches wide, with a perpendicular wall of rock +rising five hundred feet above you on one side, while a dark gulf, a +thousand feet deep, yawned on the other, from the bottom of which arose +the hoarse murmur of the foliage-screened brook. Noble trees spread +their boughs overhead, and the most beautiful shrubs and bushes grew and +blossomed close at hand, and all was moist, and cool, and fresh, until +you turned the bare pinnacle of some limestone-rock, naked as the +summit of the Andes, where the hot sun, even through the thin attenuated +air of that altitude, would suddenly blaze on you so fiercely, that your +eyes were blinded and your face blistered, as if you had been suddenly +transported within the influence of a sirocco. Well, now, since you +know the road, let us take a walk after breakfast. It shall be a +beautiful clear day--not a speck or cloud in the heavens. Mary is with +me. + +"Well, Tom," says she, "you were very sentimental last evening." + +"Sentimental! I was deucedly sick, let me tell you--a wineglassful of +cold catchup is rather trying even to a lover's stomach, Mary. Murder, +I never was so sick, even in my first cruise in the old Breeze! Bah! +Do you know I did not think of you for an hour afterwards?--not until +that bumper of brandy stayed my calamity. But come, when shall we be +married, Maria? Oh! have done with your blushing and botheration +tomorrow or next day? It would not be quite the thing this evening, +would it?" + +"Tom, you are crazy. Time enough, surely, when we all meet in England." + +"And when may that be?" said I, drawing her arm closer through mine. +"No, no--tomorrow I will call on the admiral; and as you are all going +to England in the fleet at any rate, I will ask his leave to give you a +passage." + +All of which, as I said before, being parish news, we shall drop a veil +over it--so a small touch at the scenery again. + +Immediately under foot rose several lower ranges of mountains those +nearest us, covered with the laurel-looking coffee-bushes, +interspersed with negro villages hanging amongst the fruit-trees like +clusters of birds nests on the hillside, with a bright green patch of +plantain suckers here and there, and a white painted overseer's house +peeping from out the wood, and herds of cattle in the Guinea-grass +pieces. Beyond these, stretched out the lovely plain of Liguanea, +covered with luxuriant cane-pieces, and groups of negro houses, and +Guinea-grass pastures of even a deeper green than that of the canes; +and small towns of sugar-works rose every here and there, with their +threads of white smoke floating up into the clear sky, while, as the +plain receded, the cultivation disappeared, and it gradually became +sterile, hot, and sandy, until the Long Mountain hove its back like a +whale from out the sea-like level of the plain; while to the right of +it appeared the city of Kingston, like a model, with its parade, or +place d'armes, in the centre, from which its long lines of hot sandy +streets stretched out at right angles, with the military post of Up +park camp, situated about a mile and a half to the northward and +eastward of the town. Through a tolerably good glass, the church spire +looked like a needle, the trees about the houses like bushes, the tall +cocoa-nut trees like harebells; a slow crawling black speck here and +there denoted a carriage moving along, while waggons, with their teams +of eighteen and twenty oxen, looked like so many centipedes. At the +camp, the two regiments drawn out on parade, with two nine-pounders on +each flank, and their attendant gunners, looked like a red sparkling +line, with two black spots at each end, surrounded by small black dots. +Presently the red line wavered, and finally broke up, as the regiments +wheeled into open column, when the whole fifteen hundred men crawled +past three little scarlet spots, denoting the general and his staff. +When they began to manoeuvre, each company looked like a single piece in +a game at chess; and as they fired by companies, the little tiny puffs +of smoke floated up like wreaths of wool, suddenly surmounting and +overlaying the red lines, while the light companies breaking away into +skirmishers, seemed, for all the world, like two red bricks suddenly +cast down, and shattered on the ground, whereby the fragments were +scattered all over the green fields, and under the noble trees, the +biggest of which looked like small cabbages. At length the line was +again formed, and the inspection being over, it broke up once more, and +the minute red fragments presently vanished altogether like a nest of +ants, the guns, looking like so many barleycorns, under the long lines +of barracks, that looked no bigger than houses in a child's toy. As for +the other arm, we of the navy had no reason to glorify ourselves. For, +while the review proceeded on shore, a strange man-of-war hove in +sight in the offing, looming like a mussel-shell, although she was a +forty-four-gun frigate, and ran down before the wind, close to the +Palisadoes, or natural tongue of land, which juts out like a bow from +Rock Fort, to the eastward of Kingston, and hoops in the harbour, and +then lengthens out, trending about five miles due west, where it widens +out into a sandy flat, on which the town and forts of Port Royal are +situated. She was saluting the admiral when I first saw her. A red +spark and a small puff on the starboard side--a puff, but no spark, on +the larboard, which was the side farthest from us, but no report from +either reached our ears; and presently down came the little red flag, +and up went the St George's ensign, white, with a red cross, while the +sails of the gallant craft seemed about the size of those of a little +schoolboy's plaything. After a short interval, the flag ship, a seventy +four, lying at Port Royal, returned the salute. She, again, appeared +somewhat loftier; she might have been an oyster-shell; while the +squadron of four frigates, two sloops of war, and several brigs and +schooners, looked like ants in the wake of a beetle. As for the dear +little Wave, I can compare her to nothing but a musquitto, and the large +500--ton West Indiamen lying off Kingston, five miles nearer, were but +as small cock-boats to the eye. In the offing the sea appeared like +ice, for the waves were not seen at all, and the swell could only be +marked by the difference in the reflection of the sun's rays as it rose +and fell, while a hot haze hung over the whole, making every thing +indistinct, so that the water blended into sky, without the line of +demarcation being visible. But even as we looked forth on this most +glorious scene, a small black cloud rose to windward. At this time we +were both sitting on the grass on a most beautiful bank, beneath an +orange-tree--the ominous appearance increased in size--the sea breeze +was suddenly stifled--the swelling sails of the frigate that had first +saluted, fell, and, as she rolled, flattened in against the masts the +rustling of the green leaves overhead ceased. + +The cloud rolled onward from the east, and spread out, and out, as it +sailed in from seaward, and on, and on, until it gradually covered the +whole scene from our view, (shipping, and harbour, and town, and camp, +and sugar estates,) boiling and rolling in black eddies under our feet. +Anon the thunder began to grumble, and the zigzag lightning to fork out +from one dark mass into another, while all, where we sat, was bright and +smiling under the unclouded noon-day sun. This continued for half an +hour, when at length the sombre appearance of the clouds below us +brightened into a sea of white fleecy vapour like wool, which gradually +broke away into detached masses, discovering another layer of still +thinner vapour underneath, which again parted, disclosing through the +interstices a fresh gauze-like veil of transparent mist, through which +the lower ranges of hills, and the sugar estates, and the town and +shipping, were once more dimly visible; but this in turn vanished, and +the clouds, attracted by the hills, floated away, and hung around them +in festoons, and gradually rose and rose until presently we were +enveloped in mist, and Mary spoke. "Tom, there will be thunder here +what shall we do?" + +"Poo, never mind. Mary, you have a conductor on the house." + +"True," said she; "but the servants, when the post that supported it was +blown down t'other day, very judiciously unlinked the rods, and now, +since I remember me, they are, to use your phrase, 'stowed away' below +the house;" and so they were, sure enough. However, we had no more +thunder, and soon the only indications of the spent storm were the red +discoloured appearance of the margin of the harbour, from the rush of +muddy water off the land, and the chocolate colour of the previously +snow-white sandy roads, that now twisted through the plain like black +snakes, and a fleecy dolphin-shaped cloud here and there stretching +out, and floating horizontally in the blue sky, as if it had been hooked +to the precipitous mountain tops above us. Next day it was agreed that +we should all return to Kingston, and the day after that, we proceeded +to Mr Bangs's Pen, on the Spanish Town road, as a sort of halfway house, +or stepping stone to his beautiful residence in St Thomas in the Vale, +where we were all invited to spend a fortnight. Our friend himself was +on the other side of the island, but he was to join us in the valley, +and we found our comforts carefully attended to; and as the day after +we had set up our tent at the Pen was to be one of rest to my aunt, I +took the opportunity of paying my respects to the admiral, who was then +careening at his mountain retreat in the vicinity with his family. +Accordingly, I took horse, and rode along the margin of the great lagoon, +on the Spanish Town road, through tremendous defiles; and after being +driven into a watchman's hut by the rain, I reached the house, and was +most graciously received by Sir Samuel Semaphore and his lady, and their +lovely daughters. Oh, the most splendid women that ever were built! The +youngest is now, I believe, the prime ornament of the Scottish Peerage; +and I never can forget the pleasure I so frequently experienced in those +days in the society of this delightful family. The same evening I +returned to the Pen. On my way I fell in with three officers in white +jackets, and broad-brimmed straw hats, wading up to the waist amongst +the reeds of the lagoon, with guns held high above their heads. They +were shooting ducks, it seemed; and their negro servants were heard +ploutering and shouting amidst the thickets of the crackling reeds, +while their dogs were swimming all about them. + +"Hillo!" shouted the nearest--"Cringle, my lad--whither bound? how is +Sir Samuel and Lady Semaphore, eh? Capital sport, ten brace of teal +there"--and the spokesman threw two beautiful birds ashore to me. This +wise man of the bulrushes was no less a personage than Sir Jeremy Mayo, +the commander of the forces, one of the bravest fellows in the army, and +respected and beloved by all who ever knew him, but a regular dare +devil of an Irishman, who, not satisfied with his chance of yellow fever +on shore, had thus chosen to hunt for it with his staff, in the Caymanas +Lagoon. + +Next morning, we set out in earnest on our travels for St Thomas in the +Vale, in two of our friend Bang's gigs, and my aunt's ketureen, laden +with her black maiden and a lot of bandboxes, while two mounted servants +brought up the rear, and my old friend Jupiter, who had descended, not +from the clouds, but from the excellent Mr Fyall, who was by this time +gathered to his fathers, to Massa Aaron, rode a musket shot ahead of the +convoy to clear away, or give notice of any impediments, of wagons or +carts, or droves of cattle, that might be meeting us. + + +After driving five miles or so, we reached the seat of government, +Spanish Town. Here we stopped at the Speaker's house--by the way, one +of the handsomest and most agreeable men I ever saw--intending to +proceed in the afternoon to our destination. But the rain in the +forenoon fell so heavily, that we had to delay our journey until next +morning; and that afternoon I spent in attending the debates in the +House of Assembly, where every thing was conducted with much greater +decorum than I ever saw maintained in the House of Commons, and no great +daring in the assertion either. The Hall itself, fitted with polished +mahogany benches, was handsome and well aired, and between it and the +grand court, as it is called, occupying the other end of the building, +which was then sitting, there is a large cool saloon, generally in term +time well filled with wigless lawyers and their clients. The House of +Assembly (this saloon and the court-house forming one side of the +square) is situated over against the Government House; while another +side is occupied by a very handsome temple, covering in a statue erected +to Lord Rodney, the saviour of the Island, as he is always called, from +having crushed the fleet of Count de Grasse. + +At length, at grey-dawn the next day, as the report of the morning gun +came booming along the level plain from Port Royal, we weighed and +finally started on our cruise. As we drove up towards St Thomas in the +Vale, from Spanish Town, along the hot sandy road, the plain gradually +roughened into small rocky eminences, covered with patches of bushes +here and there, with luxuriant Guinea-grass growing in the clefts; the +road then sank between abrupt little hills the Guinea corn fields began +to disappear, the grass became greener, the trees rose higher, the air +felt fresher and cooler, and proceeding still farther, the hills on +either side swelled into mountains, and became rocky and precipitous, +and drew together, as it were, until they appeared to impend over us. +We had now arrived at the gorge of the pass, leading into the valley, +through which flowed a most beautiful limpid clear blue stream, along +the margin of which the road wound, while the tree-clothed precipices +rose five hundred feet perpendicularly on each brink. Presently we +crossed a wooden bridge, supported by a stone pier in the centre, when +Jupiter pricked a-head to give notice of the approach of waggons, that +our cavalcade might haul up, out of danger, into some nook in the rock, +to allow the lumbersome teams to pass. + +"What is that?"--I was driving my dearie in the leading gig--"is that a +pistol shot?" It was the crack of the long whip carried by the negro +waggoner, reverberated from hill to hill, and from cliff to cliff; and +presently the father of gods came thundering down the steep acclivity +we were ascending. + +"Massa, draw up into dat corner; draw up." + +I did as I was desired, and presently the shrill whistle of the negro +waggoners, and the increasing sharpness of the reports of their loud +whips, the handles of which were as long as fishing-rods, and their +wild exclamations to their cattle, to whom they addressed themselves by +name, as if they had been reasonable creatures, gave notice of the near +approach of a train of no fewer than seven waggons, each with three +drivers, eighteen oxen, three hogsheads of sugar, and two puncheons of +rum. + +Come, thought I--if the negroes are overworked, it is more than the +bullocks are, at all events. They passed us with abundance of yelling +and cracking, and as soon as the coast was clear, we again pursued our +way up the ravine, than which nothing could be more beautiful or +magnificent. On our right hand now rose, almost perpendicularly, the +everlasting rocks, to a height of a thousand feet, covered with the +richest foliage that imagination can picture, while here and there a +sharp steeple-like pinnacle of grey-stone, overgrown with lichens, +shot up, and out from the face of them, into the blue sky, mixing with +the tall forest trees that overhung the road, festooned with ivy and +withes of different kinds, like the rigging of a ship, round which the +tendrils of many a beautiful wild-flower crept twining up, while all +was fresh with the sparkling dew that showered down on us, with every +breath of wind, like rain. On our left foamed the roaring river, and on +the other brink the opposite bank rose equally precipitously, clothed +also with superb trees, that spread their blending boughs over the +chasm, until they wove themselves together with those that grew on the +side we were on, qualifying the noonday fierceness of a Jamaica sun into +a green cool twilight, while the long misty reaches of the blue river, +with white foaming rapids here and there, and the cattle wading in them, +lengthened out beneath in the distance. Oh! the very look of it +refreshed one unspeakably. + +Presently a group of half-a-dozen country Buccras-overseers, or +coffee-planters, most likely, or possibly larger fish than either--hove +in sight, all in their blue-white jean trowsers, and long Hessian boots +pulled up over them, and new blue square-cut, bright-buttoned coatees, +and thread-bare silk broad-brimmed hats. They dashed past us on +goodish nags, followed at a distance of three hundred yards by a covey +of negro-servants, mounted on mules, in white Osnaburg trowsers, with a +shirt or frock over them, no stockings, each with one spur, and the +stirrup-iron held firmly between the great and second toes, while a +snow-white sheep's fleece covered their massas portmanteaus, strapped +on to the mail pillion behind. We drove on for about seven miles, after +entering the pass, the whole scenery of which was by far the finest +thing I had ever seen, the precipices on each side becoming more and +more rugged and abrupt as we advanced, until all at once we emerged from +the chasm on the parish of St Thomas in the Vale, which opened on us +like a magical illusion, in all its green luxuriance and freshness. But +by this time we were deucedly tired, and Massa Aaron's mansion, situated +on its little airy hill above a sea of canes, which rose and fell before +the passing breeze like the waves of the ocean, was the most consolatory +object in the view; and thither we drove is fast as our wearied horses +could carry us, and found every thing most carefully prepared for our +reception. Having dressed, we had a glorious dinner, lots of good wine; +and, the happiest of the happy, I tumbled into bed, dreaming of leading +a division of line-of-battle ships into action, and of Mary, and of +our eldest son being my first lieutenant. + +"Massa"--quoth Jupiter--"you take cup of coffee, dis marning, massa?" + +"Thank you--certainly." + +It was by this time grey dawn. My window had been left open the evening +before, when it was hot and sultry enough, but it was now cold and damp, +and a wetting mist boiled in through the open sash, like rolling wreaths +of white smoke. + +"What is that--where are we in the North Sea, or on the top of Mont +Blanc? Why, clouds may be all in your way, Massa Jupiter, but...." + +"Cloud!" rejoined the Deity--"him no more den marning fag, massa; +always hab him over de Vale in de morning, until de sun melt him. And +where is you?--why, you is in Massa Aaron house, here in St Thomas in de +Vale--and Miss." + +"Miss"--said I--"what Miss?" + +"Oh, for you Miss," rejoined Jupiter with a grin, "Miss Mary up and +dress already, and de horses are at de door; him wait for you to ride +wid him before breakfast, massa, and to see de clearing of de fag." + +"Ride before breakfast!--see the clearing of the fog!" grumbled I. +"Romantic it may be, but consumedly inconvenient." However, my +knighthood was at stake; so up I got, drank my coffee, dressed, and +adjourned to the piazza, where my adorable was all ready rigged with +riding-habit and whip; straightway we mounted, she into her side +saddle with her riding-habit, and who knows how many petticoats beneath +her, while I, Pilgarlic, embarked in thin jean trowsers upon a cold, +damp, indeed wet, saddle, that made me shiver again. But I was +understood to be in love; ergo, I was expected to be agreeable. +However, a damp saddle and a thin pair of trowsers allays one's ardour a +good deal too. But if any one had seen the impervious fog in which we +sat--why, you could not see a tree three yards from you--a cabbage +looked like a laurel bush, and Sneezer became a dromedary, and the +negroes passing the little gate to their work were absolute Titans. +Boom, a long reverberating noise thundered in the distance, and amongst +the hills, gradually dying away in a hollow rumble. "The admiral +tumbling down the hatchway, Tom--the morning gun fired at Port Royal," +said Mary; and so it was. + +The fire-flies were still glancing amongst the leaves of the beautiful +orange-trees in front of the house; but we could see no farther, the +whole view being shrouded under the thick watery veil which rolled and +boiled about us, sometimes thick, and sometimes thinner; hovering +between a mist and small rain, and wetting ones hair, and face, and +clothes, most completely. We descended from the eminence on which the +house stood, rode along the level at the foot of it, and, after a canter +of a couple of miles, we began to ascend a bridle-path, through the +Guinea-grass pastures, which rose rank and soaking wet, as high as +one's saddlebow, drenching me to the skin, in the few patches where I +was not wet before. All this while the fog continued as thick as ever; +at length we suddenly rose above it--rode out of it, as it were. + +St Thomas in the Vale is, as the name denotes, a deep valley, about ten +miles long by six broad, into which there is but one inlet comfortably +passable for carriages--the road along which we had come. The hills, by +which it is surrounded on all sides, are, for the most part, covered +with Guinea--grass pastures on the lower ranges, and with coffee +plantations and provision grounds higher up. When we had ridden clear +of the mist, the sun was shining brightly overhead, and every thing was +fresh and sparkling with dewdrops near us; but the vale was still +concealed under the wool-like sea of white mist, only pierced here and +there by a tall cocoa--nut tree rising above it, like the mast of a +foundered vessel. But anon the higher ridges of the grass pieces +appeared, as the fog undulated in fleecy waves in the passing breeze, +which, as it rose and sank like the swell of the ocean, disclosed every +now and then the works on some high-lying sugar estate, and again +rolled over them like the tide covering the shallows of the sea, while +shouts of laughter, and the whooping of the negroes in the fields, rose +from out the obscurity, blended with the signal cries of the sugar +boilers to the stockholemen of "Fire, fire grand copper, grand copper," +and the ca cawing, like so many rooks, of the children driving the mules +and oxen in the mills, and the everlasting splashing and panting of the +water-wheel of the estate immediately below us, and the crashing and +smashing of the canes, as they were crushed between the mill rollers; +and the cracking of the wain and waggonmen's long whips, and the +rumbling, and creaking, and squealing of the machinery of the mills, and +of the carriage-wheels; while the smoke from the unseen chimney stalks +of the sugar-works rose whirling darkly up through the watery veil, +like spinning waterspouts, from out the bosom of the great deep. Anon +the veil rose, and we were once more gradually enveloped in clouds. +Presently the thickest of the mist floated up, and rose above us like a +gauze-like canopy of fleecy clouds overhanging the whole level plain, +through which the red quenched sun, which a moment before was flaming +with intolerable brightness overhead, suddenly assumed the appearance of +a round red globe in an apothecary's window, surrounded by a broad +yellow sickly halo, which dimly lit up, as if the sun had been in +eclipse, the cane-fields, then in arrow, as it is called, (a lavender +coloured flower, about three feet long, that shoots out from the top of +the cane, denoting that it is mature, and fit to be ground,) and the +Guinea-grass plats, and the nice-looking houses of the bushas, and the +busy mill-yards, and the noisy gangs of negroes in the field, which +were all disclosed, as if by the change of a scene. + +At length, in love as we were, we remembered our breakfast; and +beginning to descend, we encountered in the path a gang of about three +dozen little glossy black piccaninies going to their work, the oldest +not above twelve years of age, under the care of an old negress. They +had all their little packies, or calabashes, on their heads, full of +provisions; while an old cook, with a bundle of fagots on her head, and +a fire stick in her hand, brought up the rear, her province being to +cook the food which the tiny little work-people carried. Presently one +or two book-keepers, or deputy white superintendents on the plantation, +also passed,--strong healthy looking young fellows, in stuff jackets and +white trowsers, and all with good cudgels in their hands. The mist, +which had continued to rise up and up, growing thinner and thinner as it +ascended, now rent overhead about the middle of the vale, and the +masses, like scattered clouds, drew towards the ledge of the hills that +surrounded it, like floating chips of wood in a tub of water, sailing in +long shreds towards @he most precipitous peaks, to which as they +ascended they attached themselves, and remained at rest. And now the +fierce sun, reasserting his supremacy, shone once more in all his +tropical fierceness right down on the steamy earth, and all was glare, +and heat, and bustle. + +Next morning, I rode out at daylight along with Mr Bang, who had arrived +on the previous evening. We stopped to breakfast at a property of his +about four miles distant, and certainly we had no reason to complain of +our fare-fresh fish from the gully, nicely roasted yams, a capital junk +of salt beef, a dish I always glory in on shore, although a hint of it +at sea makes me quake; and, after our repast, I once more took the road +to see the estate, in company of my learned friend. There was a long +narrow saddle, or ridge of limestone, about five hundred feet high, that +separated the southern quarter of the parish from the northern. The +cane-pieces, and cultivated part of the estate, lay in a dead level of +deep black mould, to the southward of this ridge, from out which the +latter rose abruptly. The lower part of the ridge was clothed with the +most luxuriant orange, shaddock, lime, star-apple, breadfruit, and +custard apple-trees, besides numberless others that I cannot +particularize, while the summit was shaded by tall forest timber. +Proceeding along a rough bridle path for the space of two miles, we +attained the highest part of the saddle, and turned sharp off to the +right, to follow a small footpath that had been billed in the bush, +being the lines recently run by the land-surveyor between Mr Bang's +property and the neighbouring estate, the course of which mine host was +desirous of personally inspecting. We therefore left our horses in +charge of the servants, who had followed us running behind, holding on +by the tails of our horses, and began to brush through the narrow path +cut in the hot underwood. After walking a hundred yards or so, we +arrived at the point where the path ended abruptly, abutting against a +large tree that had been felled, the stump of which remained, being +about three feet high, and at least five in diameter. Mr Bang +immediately perched himself on it to look about him, to see the lay of +the land over the sea of brushwood. I remained below, complaining loudly +of the heat and confined air of my situation, and swabbing all the while +most energetically, when I saw my friend start. + +"Zounds, Tom, look behind you!" We had nothing but our riding switches +in our hands. A large snake, about ten feet long, had closed up the +path in our rear, sliding slowly from one branch to another, and hissing +and striking out its forked tongue, as it twisted itself, at the height +of my head from the ground, amongst the trees and bushes, round and +round about, occasionally twining its neck round a tree as thick as my +body, on one side of the path, and its tail round another, larger in +girth than my leg, on the other; when it would, with prodigious +strength, but the greatest ease, and the most oily smoothness, bend the +smaller tree like a hoop, until the trunks nearly touched, although +growing full six feet asunder; as if a tackle fall, or other strong +purchase, had been applied; but continuing all the while it was putting +forth its power, to glide soapily along, quite unconcernedly, and to all +appearance as pliant as a leather thong,--shooting out its glancing +neck, and glowering about with its little blasting fiery eyes,--and +sliding the forepart of the body onwards without pausing, as if there had +been no strain on the tail whatsoever, until the stems of the two trees +were at length brought together, when it let the smaller go with a loud +spank, that shook the dew off the neighbouring branches, and the +perspiration from Tom Cringle's forehead-whose nerves were not more +steady than the tree-like rain, and frightened all the birds in the +neighbourhood; while it, the only unstartled thing, continued steadily +and silently on its course,--turning and looking at us, and poking its +head within arm's length, and raising it with a loud hiss, and a +threatening attitude, on our smallest motion. + +"A modern group of the Laocoon--lord, what a neckcloth we shall both have +presently!" thought I. + +Meanwhile, the serpent seemed to be emboldened from our quietude, and +came so near, that I thought I perceived the hot glow of its breath, +with its scales glancing like gold and silver, and its diamond-like +eyes sparkling; but all so still and smooth, that unless it were an +occasional hiss, its motions were noiseless as those of an apparition. + +At length the devil came fairly between us, and I could stand it no +longer. We had both up to this period been really and truly fascinated; +but the very instant that the coast was clear in my wake, by the snake +heading me, and gliding between me and Mr Bang, my manhood forsook me +all of a heap, and, turning tail, I gave a loud shout, and started off +down the path at speed, never once looking behind, and leaving Bang to +his fate, perched on his pedestal, like the laughing satyr; however, the +next moment I heard him thundering in my rear. My panic had been +contagious, for the instant my sudden motion had frightened the snake +out of his way, he started forth after me at speed, and away we both +raced, until a stump caught my foot, and both of us, after flying +through the air a couple of fathoms or so, trundled head over heels, +over and over, shouting and laughing. Pegtop now came up to us in no +small surprise, but the adventure was at an end, and we returned to Mr +Bangs to dinner. + +Here we had an agreeable addition to our party in Sir Jeremy Mayo, and +the family of the Admiral, Sir Samuel Semaphore, his lady, his two most +amiable daughters, and the husband of the eldest. + +Next morning we rode out to breakfast with a very worthy man, Mr +Stornaway, the overseer of Mount Olive estate, in the neighbourhood of +which there were several natural curiosities to be seen. Although the +extent of our party startled him a good deal, he received us most +hospitably. He ushered us into the piazza, where breakfast was laid, +when uprose ten thousand flies from the breakfast table, that was +covered with marmalade, and guava jelly, and nicely roasted yams, and +fair white bread; and the fragrant bread-fruit roasted in the ashes, +and wrapped in plantain leaves; while the chocolate and coffee pots--the +latter equal in cubic content to one of the Wave's water-butts +emulated each other in the fragrance of the odours which they sent +forth; and avocado pears, and potted calipiver, and cold pork hams, and +really, I cannot repeat the numberless luxuries that flanked the main +body of the entertainment on a side table, all strong provocative to +fall to. + +"You, Quacco--Peter--Monkey"--shouted Stornaway--"where are you, with +your brushes; don't you see the flies covering the table?" The three +sable pages forthwith appeared, each with a large green branch in his +hand, which they waved over the viands, and we sat down and had a most +splendid breakfast. Lady Semaphore and I--for I have always had a touch +of the old woman in me--were exceedingly tickled with the way in which +the piccaniny mummas, that is, the mothers of the negro children, +received our friend Bang. After breakfast, a regular muster took place +under the piazza of all the children on the property, under eight years +of age, accompanied by their mothers. + +"Ah, Massa Bang," shouted one, "why you no come see we oftener? you +forget your poor piccaniny hereabout." + +"You grow foolish old man now," quoth another. + +"You no wort--you go live in town, an no care about we who make Massa +money here; you no see we all tarving here;" and the nice cleanly +looking fat matron, who made the remark, laughed loudly. + +He entered into the spirit of the affair with great kindliness, and +verily, before he got clear, his pockets were as empty as a half-pay +lieutenant's. His fee pennies were flying about in all directions. + +After breakfast we went to view the natural bridge, a band of rock that +connects two hills together, and beneath which a roaring stream rushes, +hid entirely by the bushes and trees that grow on each side of the +ravine. We descended by a circuitous footpath into the river course, +and walked under the natural arch, and certainly never was any thing +finer; a regular Der Freyschutz dell. The arch overhead was nearly +fifty feet high, and the echo was superb, as we found, when the sweet +voices of the ladies, blending in softest harmony--(lord, how fine you +become, Tom!)--in one of Moore's melodies, were reflected back on us at +the close with the most thrilling distinctness; while a stone, pitched +against any of the ivy-like creepers, with which the face of the rock +was covered, was sure to dislodge a whole cloud of birds, and not +infrequently a slow-sailing white-winged owl. Shortly after the +Riomagno Gully, as it is called, passes this most interesting spot, it +sinks, and runs for three miles under ground, and again reappears on the +surface, and gurgles over the stones, as if nothing had happened. By +the by, this is a common vagary of nature in Jamaica. For instance, the +Rio Cobre, I think it is, which, after a subterranean course of three +miles, suddenly gushes out of the solid rock at Bybrook estate, in a +solid cube of clear cold water, three feet in diameter; and I remember, +in a cruise that I had at another period of my life, in the leeward part +of the Island, we came to an estate, where the supply of water for the +machinery rose up within the bounds of the mill-dam itself, into which +there was no flow, with such force, that above the spring, if I might so +call it, the bubbling water was projected into a blunt cone, like the +bottom of a cauldron, the apex of which was a foot higher than the level +of the pond, although the latter was eighteen feet deep. + +After an exceedingly pleasant day we returned home, and next morning, +when I got out of bed, I complained of a violent itching and pain, a +sort of nondescript sensation, a mixture of pain and pleasure in my +starboard great toe, and on reconnoitring, I discovered it to be a good +deal inflamed on the ball, round a blue spot about the size of a +pinhead. Pegtop had come into the room, and while he was placing my +clothes in order, I asked him "What this could be--gout, think you, +Massa Pegtop--gout?" + +"Gote, massa--gote--no, no, him chiger, massa--chiger--little something +like one flea; poke him head under de kin, dere lay egg; ah, great +luxury to creole gentleman and lady, dat chiger; sweet pain, creole miss +say--nice for cratch him, him say." + +"Why, it may be a creole luxury, Pegtop, but I wish you would relieve me +of it." + +"Surely, massa surely, if you wish it," said Pegtop, in some surprise at +my want of taste. "Lend me your penknife den, massa;" and he gabbled +away as he extracted from my flesh the chiger bag-like a blue pill in +size and colour. + +"Oh, massa, top till you marry creole wife,--she will tell you me say +true; ah, daresay Miss Mary himself love chiger to tickle him--to be +sure him love to be tickle--him love to be tickle--ay, all Creole miss +love to be tickle--he, he, he!" + +By agreement, Mr Bang and I met Mr Stornaway this morning, in order to +visit some other estates together, and during our ride I was +particularly gratified by his company. He was a man of solid and very +extensive acquirements, and far above what his situation in life at that +time led one to expect. When I revisited the island some years +afterwards, I was rejoiced to find that his intrinsic worth and ability +had floated him up into a very extensive business, and I believe he is +now a man of property. I rather think he is engaged in some statistical +work connected with Jamaica, which, I am certain, will do him credit +whenever it appears. Odd enough, the very first time I saw him, I said +I was sure he would succeed in the world; and I am glad to find I was a +true prophet. To return: Our chief object at present was to visit a +neighbouring estate, the overseer of which was, we were led to believe +from a message sent to Mr Bang, very ill with fever. He was a most +respectable young man, Mr Stomaway told me, a Swede by birth, who had +came over to England with his parents at the early age of eight years, +where both he and his cousin Agatha had continued, until he embarked for +the West Indies. This was an orphan girl whom his father had adopted, +and both of them, as he had often told Mr Stornaway, had utterly +forgotten their Swedish,--in fact, they understood no language but +English at the time he embarked. I have been thus particular, from a +very extraordinary phenomenon that occurred immediately, preceding his +dissolution, of which I was a witness. + +We rode up in front of the door, close to the fixed manger, where the +horses and mules belonging to the busha are usually fed, and encountered +a negro servant on a mule, with an umbrella-case slung across his back, +and a portmanteau behind him, covered with the usual sheep's fleece, and +holding a saddle horse. + +"Where is your master?" said Mr Bang. + +"De dactor is in de hose," replied quashie. "Busha dere upon dying." + +We ascended the rocky unhewn steps, and entered the cool, dark hall, +smelling strong of camphor, and slid over the polished floors towards an +open door, that led into the back piazza, where we were received by the +head book-keeper and carpenter. They told us that the overseer had +been seized three days before with fever, and was now desperately ill; +and presently the doctor came forth out of the sick-room. + +"Poor Wedderfelt is fast going, sir--cold at the extremities already +very bad fever--the bilious remittent of the country, of the worst type." + +All this while the servants, male and female, were whispering to each +other; while a poor little black fellow sat at the door of the room, +crying bitterly--this was the overseer's servant. We entered the room. +which was darkened from the jealousies being, all shut, except one of +the uppermost, which happening to be broken, there was a strong pencil +of light cast across the head of the bed where the sick man lay while +the rest of the room was involved in gloom. + +The sufferer seemed in the last stage of yellow fever; his skin was a +bright yellow, his nose sharp, and his general features very much +pinched. His head had been shaven, and there was a handkerchief bound +round it over a plantain leaf, the mark of the blister coming low down +on his forehead, where the skin was shrivelled like dry parchment +apparently it had not risen. There was also a blister on his chest. He +was very restless, clutching the bedclothes, and tossing his limbs +about; his mouth was ulcerated, and blood oozed from the corners; his +eyes were a deep yellow, with the pupil much dilated, and very, +lustrous; he was breathing with a heavy moaning noise when we entered, +and looked wildly round, mistaking Mr Bang and me for some other +persons. Presently he began to speak very quickly, and to lift one of +his hands repeatedly close to his face, as if there was something in it +he wished to look at. I presently saw that it held a miniature of a fair +haired, blue-eyed Scandinavian girl; but apparently he could not see +it, from the increasing dimness of his eyes, which seemed to distress +him greatly. After a still minute, during which no sound was heard but +his own heavy breathing, he again began to speak very rapidly, but no +one in the room could make out what he said. I listened attentively--it +struck me is being like--I was certain of it--it was Swedish, which in +health he had entirely forgotten, but now in his dying moments vividly +remembered. Alas, it was a melancholy and a moving sight, to perceive +all the hitherto engrossing thoughts and incidents of his youth and +manhood, all save the love of one dear object, suddenly vanish from the +tablet of his memory, ground away and abrased, as it were, by his great +agony--or like worthless rubbish, removed from above some beautiful +ancient inscription, which for ages it had hid, disclosing in all their +primeval freshness, sharp cut into his dieing heart, the long +smothered, but never to be obliterated impressions of his early, +childhood. I could plainly distinguish the name Agatha, whenever he +peered with fast glazing eyes on the miniature. All this while a nice +little brown child was lying playing with his watch and seals on the bed +beside him, while a handsome coloured girl, a slight young creature, +apparently its mother, sat on the other side of the dying man, +supporting his head on her lap, and wetting his mouth every now and then +with a cloth dipped in brandy. + +As he raised the miniature to his face, she would gently endeavour to +turn away his hand, that he might not look at one whom she, poor thing, +no doubt considered was usurping the place in his fluttering heart, that +she long fancied had been filled by herself solely; and at other times +she would vainly try to coax it out of his cold hand, but the dieing +grasp was now one of iron, and her attempts evidently discomposed the +departing sinner; but all was done kindly and quietly, and a flood of +tears would every now and then stream down her cheeks, as she failed in +her endeavours, or as the murmured, gasped name, Agatha, reached her +ear. + +"Ah!" said she, "him heart riot wid me now--it far away in him own +country, him never will make me yeerie what him say again no more." + +Oh, woman, woman! who can fathom that heart of thine! By this time the +hiccup grew stronger, and all at once he sat up strong in his bed +without assistance, "light as if he felt no wound;" but immediately +thereafter gave a strong shudder, ejecting from his mouth a jet of dark +matter like the grounds of chocolate, and fell back dead whereupon the +negroes began to howl and shriek in such a horrible fashion, that we +were glad to leave the scene. + +Next day, when we returned to attend the poor fellow's funeral, we found +a complete bivouac of horses and black servants below the trees in front +of the house, which was full of neighbouring planters and overseers, all +walking about, and talking, and laughing, as if it had been a public +meeting on parish business. Some of them occasionally went into the +room to look at the body as it lay in the open coffin, the lid of which +was at length screwed down, and the corpse carried on four negroes +shoulders to its long home, followed by the brown girl and all the +servants, the latter weeping and howling,--but she, poor thing, said not +a word, although her heart seemed, from the convulsive heaving of her +bosom, like to burst. He was buried under a neighbouring orange-tree, +the service being read by the Irish carpenter of the estate, who got +half a page into the marriage service by mistake before either he or any +one else noticed he was wrong. + +Three days after this the admiral extended my leave for a fortnight, +which I spent in a tour round this most glorious island with friend +Aaron, whose smiling face, like the sun, (more like the nor'west moon in +a fog, by the by,) seemed to diffuse warmth, and comfort, and happiness, +wherever he went, while Sir Samuel and his charming family, and the +general, and my dearie, and her aunt, returned home; and after a three +weeks philandering, I was married, and all that sort of thing, and a +week afterwards embarked with my treasure for I had half a million of +dollars on freight, as well as my own particular jewel; and don't grin +at the former, for they gave me a handsome sum, and helped to rig us +when we got to Ould England, where Lotus--Leaf was paid off, and I +settled for a time on shore, the happiest, &c. &c. &c., until some years +afterwards, when the wee Cringles began to tumble home so deucedly fast, +that I had to cut and run, and once more betake myself to the salt sea. +My aunt and her family returned at the same time to England, in a +merchant ship under my convoy, and became our neighbours. Bang also got +married soon after to Miss Lucretia Wagtail, by whom he got the Slap +estate. But old Gelid and my other allies remain, I believe, in single +blessedness until this hour. + + +MY TALE is told--my yarn is ended,--and were I to spin it longer, I fear +it would be only bending it "end for end;" yet still I linger, "like the +sough of an auld sang" on the ear, loath to pronounce that stern heart +crushing word, that yet "has been, and must be," and which, during my +boisterous and unsettled morning, has been, alas! a too familiar one +with me. I hope I shall always bless Heaven for my fair Blinks, +although, as the day has wore on, I have had my own share of lee +currents, hard gales, and foul weather; and many an old and dear friend +has lately swamped alongside of me, while few new ones have shoved out +to replace them. But suffering, that scathes the heart, does not always +make it callous; and I feel much of the woman hanging about mine still, +even now, when the tide is on the turn with me, and the iron voice of +the inexorable First--Lieutenant, Time, has sung out, "Strike the bell +eight,"--every chime smiting on my soul as if an angel spoke, to warn +me, that my stormy forenoon watch is at length over--that the sun, now +passing the meridian, must soon decline towards the western horizon, and +who shall assure himself of a cloudless setting. + +I have, in very truth, now reached the summit of the bald spray washed +promontory, and stand on the slippery ledge of the cliff, that trembles +to the thundering of the surge beneath; but the plunge must be made--so +at once, Farewell all hands, and God bless ye. If, while chucking the +cap about at a venture--but I hope and trust there has been no such +thing--it has alighted on the head of some ancient ally, and pinched in +any the remotest degree, I hereby express my most sincere and heartfelt +regret; and to such a one I would say, as he said, who wrote for all +time, + + "I have shot Mine arrow o'er the house, and hurt my brother." + + +Thus I cut my stick while the play is good, and before the public gets +wearied of me; and, as for the Log, it is now launched, swim, or +founder; if those things be good, it will float from its own buoyancy; +if they be naught, let it sink at once and for ever--all that Tom +Cringle expects at the hands of his countrymen is--A CLEAR STAGE, AND NO +FAVOUR. + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Cringle's Log, by Michael Scott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM CRINGLE'S LOG *** + +***** This file should be named 7281.txt or 7281.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/7/2/8/7281/ + +Produced by John Edward Heaton + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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