FRANCIS DRAKE.
Now, if you can bring yourself to imagine what he feels like who, having
remained in dire and horrible distress for many weary days, suddenly
sees salvation coming to him, you will know what we felt as we gazed
through the port-hole and saw that noble English ship draw near with the
English flag flying at her mast-head. If you have ever been in like
peril yourself you will understand it better. A man condemned to die and
suddenly reprieved; another suddenly released from awful slavery; a
third suffering from heavy sorrow and suddenly overwhelmed with good
tidings--any of these will know what we felt.
"An English ship!" cried Pharaoh. "Thanks be to God--an English ship!"
And straightway there rose from the crowded benches on our deck a
strange and marvelous babble of sound. Some burst into tears of
thankfulness and relief, some howled like wild beasts because of their
chains, some cursed and blasphemed because there was small chance of the
English ship's folk knowing our condition. Others shouted and yelled for
help; the men sitting next the port-holes thrust forth their heads and
cried loudly across the waters, though the ship was yet a good mile
away. Every man betrayed his emotion and his misery in some way: here
they tugged at the chains which bound them, there they showed their
teeth at the Spaniards, snarling and snapping like dogs chained to a
staple in the wall. And then the overseers fell upon us once more, and
their great hide-whips descended mercilessly upon our shoulders, so that
we were forced to tug at the oars with redoubled force, and the galleon
shot forward again under a storm of yells and cries and loud groans.
"Yon is an English ship, as I live," said Pharaoh, as we tugged at our
oar. "And she will overhaul us. Pray God she does not slay a score of us
in this rat-trap by her first shot. If she only knew what we know.
Listen, master!"
Over the strip of sea that separated us came the dull, heavy roar of a
cannon-shot. They were firing at us in order to make the Spaniard
lay-to. But Captain Manuel Nunez had no intention of acceding to the
Englishman's wishes in that respect, and it was evident that he was
crowding on all sail, and making every possible effort to escape that
terrible ship which overhauled him hand over hand. On deck we heard the
Spaniards rushing hither and thither, the mates and boatswain shrieking
and yelling orders to the crew, the armorer and the soldiers making
ready the ordnance and small arms. Now and then we caught the voice of
Nunez, cool and collected as usual, but very fierce and determined; and
once the pale face of Frey Bartolomeo appeared, and we heard him
admonishing the overseers to lay on with their whips.
"We are like to be flayed alive if this goes on much longer," muttered
Pharaoh as the lash curled about his shoulders again. "Oh, if we were
but free and had some weapon in our hands! Lay on, ye murderous
villains, lay on! Your reign is well-nigh over. Master, hold up a while
longer. See there!"
Another puff of white smoke burst from the English ship's side, followed
by a dull roar, and, immediately after, by a loud crashing and
splintering of the deck above our heads. Then came shrieks, groans, and
loud cries of pain. The shot had swept the deck. Fathom by fathom the
English ship overhauled us. Through our port-hole we could see her deck
swarming with men armed to the teeth. On her poop stood a little knot
of men evidently in command, and one of these was directing the
boatswain with outstretched arm.
"I see their plan," said Pharaoh; "they have seen the oars, and they are
minded not to fire upon us again for fear of killing or wounding the
captives. They are going to lay their ship alongside ours and board us."
So the ship came nearer and nearer, sailing nearly twice as fast as our
great lumbering galleon, and at last we could make out the faces of the
men on deck. And suddenly Pharaoh set up a great cry that made every
Englishman on our deck turn to him with astonishment.
"'Tis Francis Drake!" he cried. "God be thanked, 'tis Francis Drake
himself! See yonder, lads, there he stands on the poop. Are there any
men here that ever served under Francis Drake? If so, let them look out
at yonder captain and speak."
"'Tis Francis Drake and no other!" cried one. "I know him by the gold
band round his scarlet cap. He always wears that at sea. Now may God be
praised for this deliverance."
But there was much to be done ere our deliverance could be accomplished.
Nay, indeed, it seemed as if our cruel jailers were minded to murder us
before ever help would come, for they proceeded to beat us so
unmercifully with their whips that many of us sank down faint and
bleeding, and lay like dead men. But the rest of us kept up because of
the fierce excitement.
Presently the English ship was within a boat's length of us, and then
she slowly crashed against our side, the brass muzzles of her guns, in
some cases, coming through our ports. Meanwhile the Spaniards had not
been idle, for their gunners were plying their cannon with all possible
speed, and the noise and confusion was horrible. But yet never a shot
did the Englishman fire, but their ship closed steadily upon us. At
last we heard the grappling-irons thrown out and made fast, and knew
that the two ships were locked together, like lions that fasten teeth
and claws in each other and will not loose their grip till death comes.
Then began a noise and confusion as if all the devils of hell had
suddenly been let loose. We heard the shouts of the Englishmen, hoarse
and deep, and the shriller cries of the Spaniards, above the roaring of
the guns. On deck there sounded the wild rush and hurry of feet as the
combatants were driven hither and thither. The overseers had thrown down
their whips and fled to the upper decks as soon as the English boarded,
and now we captives sat breathless and bleeding, listening to the noise
above us and longing for release, so that we too might join in the
fight.
Suddenly there leapt through one of the ports a brawny Englishman, armed
not with sword or pike, but with hammer and chisel, and he was speedily
followed by half-a-dozen more, armed in similar fashion.
"Are there Englishmen here?" roared the first as he tumbled in amongst
us. "Speak, lads, if ye be English!"
And at that there went up such a roar as was like to burst open the
deck above us. Men stretched out their hands and arms to these great
English sailors as if they were angels, and prayed them to knock off
their bonds. So they, staring stupidly at us for a moment,--as is
the manner of Englishmen when they see something which they do not
understand,--suddenly fell to and knocked away our chains and padlocks,
while we wept over them and blessed them as our saviors. And meanwhile
others had handed in pikes and swords and glaives through the ports, and
others were guarding the ladder against the Spaniards, in case any of
them should come below. But they were too busy on the upper decks to
have even a thought of us, and so we were uninterrupted, and ere long
every man of us was free of his chains.
"Now, lads!" cried the big man who had first leapt in upon us, "can ye
fight, or are ye too weak for a brush? If any man thinks he can hold
pike or sword, let him pick his weapon and follow me."
Some of us could fight and some could not. Here and there a man was only
released from his chains to fall upon the deck and die. Others, suddenly
made free, found on striving to rise from the benches that the use of
their legs was gone. Others again, whose minds had suffered under those
long months of fiendish torture, were no sooner released than they
became utterly mad, and fell to laughing and gibbering at their
preservers. But many of us, weak as we were, felt the strength of ten
men come into our arms, and we seized eagerly upon the weapons offered
to us, and followed the sailors up the gangway with a fierce resolve to
call our late oppressors to a final account.
On the upper deck the fight was raging furiously. The Spaniards, furious
and desperate, were massed together in a solid body, keeping back the
Englishmen by sheer skill. Already between the gangways and the bulwarks
lay a great heap of dead and dying. High above the combatants on the
poop stood Nunez, his pale face set and drawn, watching the progress of
the fight with gleaming eyes and compressed lips. From the tops the
sharp-shooters were pouring showers of arrows into the English ship, but
the guns had ceased, and the gunners lay dead beside them.
We dashed on deck with a great cry, and for an instant the whole body of
combatants turned and looked at us. A strange and awful sight we must
needs have presented at that moment. There was scarcely a rag upon us,
our hair was long and unkempt, our shoulders were torn and bleeding from
the effects of the lashes lately laid on them, and our entire aspect
must have resembled that of wild beasts rather than of men. I saw Nunez
turn paler as he caught sight of us, and heard the English storm of
execration burst forth over the noise and confusion of the fight. Then
we fell upon the Spaniards from behind, and after that all was red, and
I seemed to do naught but strike and strike again, unconscious of pain
or wounds or anything but a fierce desire to be avenged on the villains
who had wrought such cruelty upon me.
Howbeit, after a time I felt myself dragged by a friendly hand out of
the thick of the fight and led across the bulwarks to the English ship,
where I was presently conducted on to the poop, into the presence of a
man whom I at once knew to be some great captain. He was of middle
height, with a high forehead, crisp brown hair, very steady gray eyes,
and a hard, fierce mouth, slightly covered by a beard and moustache. He
wore a loose, dark, seaman's shirt, belted at the waist, and about his
neck was a plaited cord, having attached to it a ring, with which his
fingers played as he spoke to me. On his head was a scarlet cap with a
gold band, even as the man in the galleon had said.
Such was my first glimpse of the great captain, Francis Drake, then
thirty years of age, and making his first voyage round the world. I
stood staring at him for a moment, and he at me, and I know not which
was most interested in the other.
"Who art thou, friend?" he inquired, presently.
"An English gentleman, sir, kidnaped by the Spaniards and carried to
Mexico, where I have undergone torments at the hands of the Inquisitors.
I was a galley slave on board yonder vessel."
"How many Englishmen are there with you?"
"At least forty."
"Does the ship carry treasure?"
"Yes, sir," I answered; "and she also carries two of the most cruel
wretches that ever walked the earth."
"Who are they, friend?"
"Manuel Nunez, the captain, and Bartolomeo, the monk. In God's name,
sir, do justice upon them."
He turned and gave some orders to an officer who stood by. Then he gave
his attention to the Spanish ship again, so I caught up my weapon and
rushed back over the side, eager to find Pharaoh Nanjulian.