In the favoring current off Cape St. Roque, Brazil--All at sea
regarding the Spanish-American war--An exchange of signals with the
battle-ship _Oregon_--Off Dreyfus's prison on Devil's
Island--Reappearance to the _Spray_ of the north star--The light on
Trinidad--A charming introduction to Grenada--Talks to friendly
auditors.
On May 10 there was a great change in the condition of the sea; there
could be no doubt of my longitude now, if any had before existed in my
mind. Strange and long-forgotten current ripples pattered against the
sloop's sides in grateful music; the tune arrested the oar, and I sat
quietly listening to it while the _Spray_ kept on her course. By these
current ripples I was assured that she was now off St. Roque and had
struck the current which sweeps around that cape. The trade-winds, we
old sailors say, produce this current, which, in its course from this
point forward, is governed by the coastline of Brazil, Guiana,
Venezuela, and, as some would say, by the Monroe Doctrine.
The trades had been blowing fresh for some time, and the current, now
at its height, amounted to forty miles a day. This, added to the
sloop's run by the log, made the handsome day's work of one hundred
and eighty miles on several consecutive days, I saw nothing of the
coast of Brazil, though I was not many leagues off and was always in
the Brazil current.
I did not know that war with Spain had been declared, and that I might
be liable, right there, to meet the enemy and be captured. Many had
told me at Cape Town that, in their opinion, war was inevitable, and
they said: "The Spaniard will get you! The Spaniard will get you!" To
all this I could only say that, even so, he would not get much. Even
in the fever-heat over the disaster to the _Maine_ I did not think
there would be war; but I am no politician. Indeed, I had hardly given
the matter a serious thought when, on the 14th of May, just north of
the equator, and near the longitude of the river Amazon, I saw first a
mast, with the Stars and Stripes floating from it, rising astern as if
poked up out of the sea, and then rapidly appearing on the horizon,
like a citadel, the _Oregon!_ As she came near I saw that the great
ship was flying the signals "C B T," which read, "Are there any
men-of-war about?" Right under these flags, and larger than the
_Spray's_ mainsail, so it appeared, was the yellowest Spanish flag I
ever saw. It gave me nightmare some time after when I reflected on it
in my dreams.
[Illustration: The _Spray_ passed by the _Oregon_.]
I did not make out the _Oregon's_ signals till she passed ahead, where
I could read them better, for she was two miles away, and I had no
binoculars. When I had read her flags I hoisted the signal "No," for I
had not seen any Spanish men-of-war; I had not been looking for any.
My final signal, "Let us keep together for mutual protection," Captain
Clark did not seem to regard as necessary. Perhaps my small flags were
not made out; anyhow, the _Oregon_ steamed on with a rush, looking for
Spanish men-of-war, as I learned afterward. The _Oregon's_ great flag
was dipped beautifully three times to the _Spray's_ lowered flag as
she passed on. Both had crossed the line only a few hours before. I
pondered long that night over the probability of a war risk now coming
upon the _Spray_ after she had cleared all, or nearly all, the dangers
of the sea, but finally a strong hope mastered my fears.
On the 17th of May, the _Spray_, coming out of a storm at daylight,
made Devil's Island, two points on the lee bow, not far off. The wind
was still blowing a stiff breeze on shore. I could clearly see the
dark-gray buildings on the island as the sloop brought it abeam. No
flag or sign of life was seen on the dreary place.
Later in the day a French bark on the port tack, making for Cayenne,
hove in sight, close-hauled on the wind. She was falling to leeward
fast, The _Spray_ was also closed-hauled, and was lugging on sail to
secure an offing on the starboard tack, a heavy swell in the night
having thrown her too near the shore, and now I considered the matter
of supplicating a change of wind. I had already enjoyed my share of
favoring breezes over the great oceans, and I asked myself if it would
be right to have the wind turned now all into my sails while the
Frenchman was bound the other way. A head current, which he stemmed,
together with a scant wind, was bad enough for him. And so I could
only say, in my heart, "Lord, let matters stand as they are, but do
not help the Frenchman any more just now, for what would suit him well
would ruin me!"
I remembered that when a lad I heard a captain often say in meeting that
in answer to a prayer of his own the wind changed from southeast to
northwest, entirely to his satisfaction. He was a good man, but did this
glorify the Architect--the Ruler of the winds and the waves? Moreover,
it was not a trade-wind, as I remember it, that changed for him, but one
of the variables which will change when you ask it, if you ask long
enough. Again, this man's brother maybe was not bound the opposite way,
well content with a fair wind himself, which made all the difference in
the world.[H]
[H] The Bishop of Melbourne (commend me to his teachings) refused to set
aside a day of prayer for rain, recommending his people to husband water
when the rainy season was on. In like manner, a navigator husbands the
wind, keeping a weather-gage where practicable.
On May 18,1898, is written large in the _Spray's_ log-book: "To-night,
in latitude 7 degrees 13' N., for the first time in nearly three years
I see the north star." The _Spray_ on the day following logged one
hundred and forty-seven miles. To this I add thirty-five miles for
current sweeping her onward. On the 20th of May, about sunset, the
island of Tobago, off the Orinoco, came into view, bearing west by
north, distant twenty-two miles. The _Spray_ was drawing rapidly
toward her home destination. Later at night, while running free along
the coast of Tobago, the wind still blowing fresh, I was startled by
the sudden flash of breakers on the port bow and not far off. I luffed
instantly offshore, and then tacked, heading in for the island.
Finding myself, shortly after, close in with the land, I tacked again
offshore, but without much altering the bearings of the danger. Sail
whichever way I would, it seemed clear that if the sloop weathered the
rocks at all it would be a close shave, and I watched with anxiety,
while beating against the current, always losing ground. So the matter
stood hour after hour, while I watched the flashes of light thrown up
as regularly as the beats of the long ocean swells, and always they
seemed just a little nearer. It was evidently a coral reef,--of this I
had not the slightest doubt,--and a bad reef at that. Worse still,
there might be other reefs ahead forming a bight into which the
current would sweep me, and where I should be hemmed in and finally
wrecked. I had not sailed these waters since a lad, and lamented the
day I had allowed on board the goat that ate my chart. I taxed my
memory of sea lore, of wrecks on sunken reefs, and of pirates harbored
among coral reefs where other ships might not come, but nothing that I
could think of applied to the island of Tobago, save the one wreck of
Robinson Crusoe's ship in the fiction, and that gave me little
information about reefs. I remembered only that in Crusoe's case he
kept his powder dry. "But there she booms again," I cried, "and how
close the flash is now! Almost aboard was that last breaker! But
you'll go by, _Spray_, old girl! 'T is abeam now! One surge more! and
oh, one more like that will clear your ribs and keel!" And I slapped
her on the transom, proud of her last noble effort to leap clear of
the danger, when a wave greater than the rest threw her higher than
before, and, behold, from the crest of it was revealed at once all
there was of the reef. I fell back in a coil of rope, speechless and
amazed, not distressed, but rejoiced. Aladdin's lamp! My fisherman's
own lantern! It was the great revolving light on the island of
Trinidad, thirty miles away, throwing flashes over the waves, which
had deceived me! The orb of the light was now dipping on the horizon,
and how glorious was the sight of it! But, dear Father Neptune, as I
live, after a long life at sea, and much among corals, I would have
made a solemn declaration to that reef! Through all the rest of the
night I saw imaginary reefs, and not knowing what moment the sloop
might fetch up on a real one, I tacked off and on till daylight, as
nearly as possible in the same track, all for the want of a chart. I
could have nailed the St. Helena goat's pelt to the deck.
My course was now for Grenada, to which I carried letters from
Mauritius. About midnight of the 22d of May I arrived at the island,
and cast anchor in the roads off the town of St. George, entering the
inner harbor at daylight on the morning of the 23d, which made
forty-two days' sailing from the Cape of Good Hope, It was a good run,
and I doffed my cap again to the pilot of the _Pinta_.
Lady Bruce, in a note to the _Spray_ at Port Louis, said Grenada was a
lovely island, and she wished the sloop might call there on the voyage
home. When the _Spray_ arrived, I found that she had been fully
expected. "How so?" I asked. "Oh, we heard that you were at
Mauritius," they said, "and from Mauritius, after meeting Sir Charles
Bruce, our old governor, we knew you would come to Grenada." This was
a charming introduction, and it brought me in contact with people
worth knowing.
The _Spray_ sailed from Grenada on the 28th of May, and coasted along
under the lee of the Antilles, arriving at the island of Dominica on
the 30th, where, for the want of knowing better, I cast anchor at the
quarantine ground; for I was still without a chart of the islands, not
having been able to get one even at Grenada. Here I not only met with
further disappointment in the matter, but was threatened with a fine
for the mistake I made in the anchorage. There were no ships either at
the quarantine or at the commercial roads, and I could not see that it
made much difference where I anchored. But a negro chap, a sort of
deputy harbormaster, coming along, thought it did, and he ordered me
to shift to the other anchorage, which, in truth, I had already
investigated and did not like, because of the heavier roll there from
the sea. And so instead of springing to the sails at once to shift, I
said I would leave outright as soon as I could procure a chart, which
I begged he would send and get for me. "But I say you mus' move befo'
you gets anyt'ing't all," he insisted, and raising his voice so that
all the people alongshore could hear him, he added, "An' jes now!"
Then he flew into a towering passion when they on shore snickered to
see the crew of the _Spray_ sitting calmly by the bulwark instead of
hoisting sail. "I tell you dis am quarantine" he shouted, very much
louder than before. "That's all right, general," I replied; "I want to
be quarantined anyhow." "That's right, boss," some one on the beach
cried, "that's right; you get quarantined," while others shouted to
the deputy to "make de white trash move 'long out o' dat." They were
about equally divided on the island for and against me. The man who
had made so much fuss over the matter gave it up when he found that I
wished to be quarantined, and sent for an all-important half-white,
who soon came alongside, starched from clue to earing. He stood in the
boat as straight up and down as a fathom of pump-water--a marvel of
importance. "Charts!" cried I, as soon as his shirt-collar appeared
over the sloop's rail; "have you any charts?" "No, sah," he replied
with much-stiffened dignity; "no, sah; cha'ts do'sn't grow on dis
island." Not doubting the information, I tripped anchor immediately,
as I had intended to do from the first, and made all sail for St.
John, Antigua, where I arrived on the 1st of June, having sailed with
great caution in midchannel all the way.
The _Spray_, always in good company, now fell in with the port
officers' steam-launch at the harbor entrance, having on board Sir
Francis Fleming, governor of the Leeward Islands, who, to the delight
of "all hands," gave the officer in charge instructions to tow my ship
into port. On the following day his Excellency and Lady Fleming, along
with Captain Burr, R. N., paid me a visit. The court-house was
tendered free to me at Antigua, as was done also at Grenada, and at
each place a highly intelligent audience filled the hall to listen to
a talk about the seas the _Spray_ had crossed, and the countries she
had visited.