After breakfast that morning the men were mustered on the quarter-deck;
and Farmer, with some half a dozen of the other mutineers, discussed in
their presence and hearing the question of what should be done with the
ship now that they had her. There was, of course, a great deal of wild
talk, especially among the foreigners--of whom, most unfortunately for
the ill-fated officers of the ship, there were far too many on board--
and at one period of the discussion it seemed by no means improbable
that the frigate would be converted into a pirate, in which event there
can be no doubt but that, for a time at least, she would have proved a
terrible scourge to all honest navigators in those seas. Farmer,
however, was strongly in favour of going over to the Spaniards; and in
the end his counsels prevailed, though he met with a great deal of
opposition.
This point settled, the ship's head was laid to the southward; and
sunrise on the fourth morning succeeding the mutiny found us off La
Guayra, with a flag of truce flying. The signal was duly observed and
answered from the shore; upon which the gig was lowered, and, with a
white flag floating from her ensign staff, her crew in their holiday
rig, and Farmer with three other ringleaders of the mutiny in her stern-
sheets, she shoved off for the harbour. She was absent for the greater
part of the day, it being seven bells in the afternoon watch before she
was observed pulling out of the harbour again; and when she made her
appearance it was at once observed that she was accompanied by several
heavy launches full of men. It took the flotilla fully an hour to pull
off to us, and when they reached the frigate it was seen that the
occupants of the shore-boats were Spanish seamen, with a sprinkling of
officers among them. On coming alongside the entire rabble at once
boarded; the ship was formally handed over by Farmer to an officer in a
resplendent uniform, whose first act was to direct one of his aides to
strike the white flag and hoist the Spanish ensign at the peak; and the
surviving officers--five of us in number--were then mustered and ordered
into one of the boats alongside. We were compelled to bundle down over
the side just as we were, without a single personal belonging, or
article of clothing except what we stood in; and, the boat being manned
by some twenty as bloodthirsty-looking desperadoes as I ever clapped
eyes on, we were forthwith pulled ashore and at once marched off to
prison.
It was dark by the time that we reached the harbour; we were
consequently unable to see much of the place that night beyond the fact
that it lay at the base of a lofty range of hills. We were received at
the landing-place by a party of soldiers with fixed bayonets, who had
evidently been awaiting our arrival, and, escorted by them, we arrived--
after a march of about a mile--at the gates of a most forbidding-looking
edifice constructed of heavy blocks of masonry, and which had all the
appearance of being a fortress. Passing through the gloomy gateway--
which was protected by a portcullis--we found ourselves in a large open
paved courtyard, across which we marched to a door on the opposite side.
Entering this door, we wheeled to the right and passed along a wide
stone passage which conducted us to a sort of guard-room. We were here
received by a lanky, cadaverous-looking individual with a shrivelled
yellow parchment skin, hands like the claws of a vulture, piercing black
eyes, and grizzled locks and moustache, who, with but scant courtesy,
took down the name and rank of each of us in a huge battered volume;
after which we were conducted through another long echoing passage, and
finally ushered into a sort of hall, about sixty feet long by forty feet
wide, with a lofty stone groined roof, and six high, narrow, lancet-
shaped windows in each of the two longer walls. These windows we
subsequently found were closely grated on the outside with heavy iron
bars. The moment that we crossed the threshold the heavy oaken door was
closed and barred upon us, and we were left to shift for ourselves as
best we could.
The first thing of which I was distinctly conscious on entering the hall
was the volume of sound which echoed from the walls and the groined
roof. Singing, laughter, conversation, altercation were all going on at
the same moment at the utmost pitch of the human voice, and apparently
with the whole strength of the assembled company, which, after winking
and blinking like an owl for several moments, I succeeded in dimly
making out through the dense cloud of suffocating smoke which pervaded
the place, and which appeared to emanate from a wood fire burning on the
pavement at the far end of the hall, and from some three or four flaring
oil lamps which were suspended from nails driven into the walls between
the joints of the masonry.
It was a minute or two before any of the noisy company appeared to
notice us. At length, however, one man, rising to his feet and shading
his eyes with his hand as he looked in our direction, ejaculated:
"Who have we here? More companions in misfortune?"
Then advancing with outstretched hand he exclaimed uproariously:
"What cheer, my hearties? Welcome to Equality Hall!"
Then, as he for the first time noticed our uniforms, he muttered:
"Why, dash my old frizzly wig if they ain't navy gents!" adding in a
much more respectful tone of voice: "Beg pardon, gentlemen, I'm sure,
for my familiarity. Didn't notice at first what you was. Come forward
into the range of the light and bring yourselves to an anchor. I'm
afraid you'll find these but poor quarters, gentlemen, after what you've
been used to aboard a man-o'-war. And you'll find us a noisy lot too;
but the fact is we're just trying to make the best of things here,
trying to be as happy as we can under the circumstances, as you may say.
Here, you unmannerly lubbers," he continued, addressing a group who
were sprawling at full length on a rough wooden bench, "rouse out of
that and make room for your betters."
The men scrambled to their feet and made way for us good-naturedly
enough; and we seated ourselves on the vacated bench, feeling--at least
I may answer for myself--forlorn enough in the great dingy, dirty,
comfortless hole into which we had been so unceremoniously thrust. Our
new friend seated himself alongside Mr Southcott, and, first informing
that gentleman that the company in which we found ourselves were the
crews of sundry British merchantmen which had been captured by the
Spaniards, and that he was the ex-chief mate of a tidy little Liverpool
barque called the _Sparkling Foam_, proceeded to inquire into the
circumstances which had led to our captivity. The account of the mutiny
was received by the party, most of whom had gathered round to listen to
it, with expressions of the most profound abhorrence and indignation,
which were only cut short by the appearance of a sergeant and a file of
soldiers bearing the evening's rations, which were served out raw, to be
immediately afterwards handed over to a black cook who answered to the
name of "Snowball," and who had good-naturedly constituted himself the
cook of the party. The rations, which included a portion for us
newcomers, consisted of a small modicum of meat, a few vegetables, a
tolerably liberal allowance of coarse black bread, and water _ad
libitum_. The little incident of the serving out of rations having come
to an end, and the sergeant having retired with his satellites, our
friend of the _Sparkling Foam_--whose name, it transpired, was Benjamin
Rogers--resumed his conversation with us by proceeding to "put us up to
a thing or two."
"I've no doubt, gentlemen," he said, "but what you'll be asked to give
your parole to-morrow, if you haven't already--you haven't, eh? well, so
much the better; you'll be asked to-morrow. Now, if you'll take my
advice you won't give it; if you do, you'll simply be turned adrift into
the town to shift for yourselves and find quarters where you can. If
you've got money, and plenty of it, you might manage to rub along pretty
well for a time; but when your cash is gone where are you? Why, simply
nowheres. Now, this is a roughish berth for gentlemen like you, I'll
allow; but within the last few days we've been marched out every morning
and set to work patching up an old battery away out here close to the
beach, and we've been kept at it all day, so that we get plenty of fresh
air and exercise, and merely have to ride it out here during the night.
There's only some half-a-dozen soldiers sent out to watch us; and it's
my idea that it might be no such very difficult matter to give these
chaps the slip some evening, and at nightfall make our way down to the
harbour, seize one of the small coasting craft which seem to be always
there, and make sail for Jamaica. At least that's my notion, gentlemen;
you are welcome to it for what it's worth, and can think it over."
We thanked our new friend for his advice, which we followed so far as to
think and talk it over before stowing ourselves away for the night upon
the bundle of straw which constituted the sole apology for a bed and
covering allowed us by the Spaniards.
Mr Southcott, the master, was indignant beyond measure at the scurvy
treatment thus meted out to us as prisoners of war, and talked a great
deal about the representations he intended to make to the authorities
with regard to it; but in the meantime he decided to give his parole, in
the hope of a speedy exchange, and strongly recommended us to do the
same. He was possessed of a little money, it seemed, which he had taken
the precaution of secreting about his person immediately on the ship
making the land, in anticipation of his speedily finding a use for it;
and this money he most generously offered to share with us as far as it
would go. To this, however, none of us would listen; and as we were
wholly without means the only alternative left to us was to refuse our
parole, and put up as best we could with such board and lodging as the
Spaniards might be disposed to give us, and to bend all our energies to
the accomplishment of a speedy escape. As for me, I still held in vivid
remembrance the statement which my father had made to me on the eve of
my departure for school, and the caution he had given me against
expecting any assistance from him after I had once fairly entered upon
my career; and I resolved to endure the worst that could possibly befall
me rather than act upon a suggestion which the master threw out, to the
effect that possibly someone might be found in the town willing to cash
(for a heavy premium) a draft of mine upon my father.
Rogers' expectation that we should be asked for our parole was verified
next morning; and Southcott, giving his, bade us a reluctant farewell
after a further ineffectual effort to persuade us to reconsider our
decision. Finding that we were not to be persuaded he bade us take
heart and keep up our spirits, as his very first task should be to make
such representations to the authorities as must result in a very speedy
and considerable amelioration of our condition. We parted with many
expressions of mutual regret; and that was the last any of us ever saw
of the poor fellow, nor were our subsequent inquiries as to what had
become of him in the slightest degree successful.
As for us who remained, upon our explaining, through the medium of a
very inefficient interpreter, that the lack of means to support
ourselves precluded the possibility of our giving our parole upon the
terms offered us, we were brusquely informed that we must then be
content to be classed among the common prisoners, to put up with their
accommodation, and to take part in the tasks allotted to them. We were
then abruptly dismissed, and, without further ceremony, marched off to
the scene of our labours, which we found to be the fort mentioned by
Rogers--an antiquated structure in the very last stage of dilapidation,
which it was the task of the prisoners to repair.
To be obliged to work was, after all, no very great hardship. We were
in the fresh open air all day, which was infinitely better than
confinement between four walls, even had those walls inclosed a far
greater measure of comfort than was to be found within the confines of
our prison-house. The physical exertion kept us in a state of excellent
health, and consequently in fairly good spirits; the labour, though of
anything but an intellectual character, kept our minds sufficiently
employed to prevent our brooding over our ill fortune; we were allowed
to take matters pretty easily so long as we did not dawdle too much, and
thus entail upon our lounging guard the unwelcome necessity of
scrambling to their feet and hunting up our whereabouts; our daily
labours brought with them just that amount of fatigue which ensured
sound sleep and a happy oblivion of the dirt and manifold discomforts of
our night quarters; and finally, there was the prospect that at any
moment some lucky chance might favour our escape.
Four days from the date of our incarceration the muster-roll of the
prison was increased by the addition of the names of half a dozen
Spanish smugglers, who had been captured a few miles up the coast by one
of the guarda-costas and brought into La Guayra. They were a rough,
reckless-looking set of vagabonds; but their looks were the worst part
of them, for they all turned out to be gay, jovial spirits enough,
taking their reverse of fortune with the utmost nonchalance, and having
a laugh and a jest for everything and everybody, the guards included,
with whom they soon became upon the most amicable terms. One of these
men, a fellow named Miguel--I never learned his other name--was attached
to the gang of labourers to which I belonged; and though I fought rather
shy of him for a time his hearty good-nature and accommodating
disposition soon overcame my reserve, and I gradually grew to be on the
best of terms with him. He could speak a word or two of English, and,
seeming to have taken a fancy to me, he would strike up a conversation
with me as often as the opportunity offered, much to his own amusement
and mine, since we rarely succeeded in comprehending each other. These
efforts at conversation, however, inspired me with the idea that this
man's companionship afforded me an opportunity to acquire a knowledge of
Spanish, which could not fail to be of service to me; and this idea I at
length with some difficulty succeeded in conveying to my smuggler
friend. He pantomimically expressed himself as charmed with the
suggestion, which he intimated might be improved upon by my undertaking
in return to teach him English; and, a satisfactory understanding being
arrived at, we commenced our studies forthwith. We were of course
utterly destitute of all aid from books, and we were therefore compelled
to fall back upon the primitive method of pointing out objects to each
other and designating them alternately in English and Spanish, each
repeating the word until the other had caught its proper pronunciation.
From this we advanced to short simple sentences, the meaning of which we
conveyed as well as we could by appropriate gestures; and though we
sometimes made the most ridiculous mistakes through misunderstanding the
meaning of those gestures, yet on the whole we managed tolerably well.
The first steps were the most difficult, but every word mastered cleared
the way to the comprehension of two or three others; so that by the time
we had been a couple of months at our studies we found ourselves making
really satisfactory progress. And when seven months had been thus
spent, though neither could speak the language of the other like a
native, each could converse in the other's language with tolerable
fluency and make himself perfectly understood. I had, long before this,
however, after considerable hesitation and cautious feeling of my
ground, broached to Miguel the question of escape, and had been
considerably chagrined to learn from him that, unless aided by friends
outside the prison, there was hardly the remotest chance of success.
The only way in which it could be done was, in his opinion, to obtain
shelter and concealment for, say a month, in some family in the
immediate neighbourhood; and _then_, when the scent had grown cold and
the zeal of the pursuers had died away, a dark night and some assistance
might enable one to get safely off the coast. If _he_ were free now, he
was good enough to say, the thing might be managed, for a consideration,
without any very great difficulty; but--a shrug of the shoulders and a
glance at the prison dress which he was condemned to wear for more than
a year longer eloquently enough closed the sentence.
About this time--or, to speak more definitely, some eight months from
the date of our landing at La Guayra--a change in our fortunes occurred,
which, whilst it had the immediate result of considerably ameliorating
Courtenay's and my own condition, was destined to ultimately--but avast!
I must not get ahead of my story. It happened in this way. One
morning after we had been out at work about a couple of hours the
military engineer who was in charge of our operations rode up to the
battery, accompanied by a very fine, handsome, middle-aged man,
evidently also a soldier, for he was attired in an undress military
uniform.
"Hillo!" exclaimed Miguel, as he noticed the new arrivals, "what is in
the wind now? That is the commandant of the district with Senor
Pacheco."
The appearance of such a notability naturally created a profound
sensation; but we were of course obliged to go on with our work all the
same. The commandant dismounted, and, accompanied by Senor Pacheco,
proceeded to make an inspection of the battery, which by this time was
beginning to assume the appearance of a tolerably strong fortification.
That done, the sergeant of the guard was summoned, and something in the
nature of a consultation ensued, which terminated in Courtenay and
myself being ordered to drop our tools and step forward to where the
commandant was standing.
The great man regarded us both fixedly for a moment or two, and then
said, of course in Spanish:
"I understand that you are two of the officers who were landed here from
the British frigate _Hermione_?"