As soon as the darkness had closed down sufficiently to conceal our
movements, I filled away again upon the schooner, and stood in until we
were within two miles of the southern extremity of the island,--which
also forms the southern headland of the harbour mentioned by Garcia,--
when, having run well in behind the head, I again hove-to and, launching
the dinghy, proceeded toward the harbour's mouth; my crew being two men
who, like myself, were armed to the teeth.
We pulled in with muffled oars, and in due time arrived within a stone's
throw of the shore. The coast here proved to be precipitous and rocky,
the swell which set round the southern extremity of the island breaking
with great violence upon the shore and rendering landing absolutely
impossible; moreover, the night was so dark that--although in every
other respect admirably suited for my purpose--it was impossible to
clearly see where we were going, and two or three times we inadvertently
got so close to the rocks that we narrowly and with the utmost
difficulty avoided being dashed upon them. At length, however, we
rounded the southernmost head and entered the harbour, and almost
immediately afterwards made out a narrow strip of sandy beach, upon
which I landed without difficulty, leaving the two men to look after the
dinghy and lay off a few yards from the shore, ready to pull in again
and take me aboard at a moment's notice if necessary.
Having landed, I ascended a rather steep, grassy slope, some seventy or
eighty feet high, and stood to look about me. The harbour was quite a
spacious affair, the entrance being about half a mile wide, while the
harbour itself seemed--so far as I could make out in the darkness--to be
quite two miles long. The general shape of this inlet immediately
suggested to me the conviction that if, as Garcia had informed me,
Morillo really had established his headquarters here, he would be almost
certain to have constructed a couple of batteries--one on each
headland--to defend the place; and I at once set about the task of
ascertaining how far my conjecture might happen to be correct. Toward
the eastward from where I had halted the land continued to rise in a
sort of ridge, culminating in what had the appearance of a knoll, and it
struck me that, if a battery really existed on that side of the harbour,
I ought to find it not far from this spot. I accordingly wended my way
toward it as best I could, forcing a passage for myself through the
grass and scrub, with a most unpleasant conviction that I might at any
moment place my hand or foot upon a venomous snake or reptile of some
sort; and finally, after about twenty minutes of most unpleasant
scrambling, found myself alongside the "knoll," which, as I had more
than half suspected, now proved to be nothing less than a rough
earthwork, mounting four thirty-two pounders.
My devious path had brought me to the face of the battery, so I had to
clamber up the steep face of the slope before I could get a view of the
interior. This I did, entering the battery through one of the
embrasures, when I found myself standing upon a level platform
constituting the floor of the battery. Keeping carefully within the
deep shadow of the gun, and crouching down upon my hands and knees, I at
once proceeded to reconnoitre the place, and presently made out a couple
of huts, the smaller of which I concluded must be the magazine, while
the larger probably accommodated the garrison. Both were in utter
darkness, however, and my first impression was that they were
untenanted; but, to make quite certain, I crept very softly up to the
larger building, and, finding a closed door, listened intently at it.
For a few seconds I heard nothing save the sough of the night breeze
through the branches of some cotton-wood trees that grew close at hand,
but presently I detected a sound of snoring in the interior, which, as I
listened, grew momentarily more distinct and unmistakable. The sounds
certainly emanated from more than one sleeper; I thought that there were
probably at least three or four of them at work, but my hearing was not
quite keen enough to enable me to accurately differentiate the sounds
and thus arrive at the correct number of those who emitted them. They
were, however, sound asleep, and therefore not likely to be disturbed by
a slight noise. Moreover, the hut was well to windward, and the sough
and swish of the wind through the cotton-woods seemed powerful enough to
drown such slight sounds as I might be likely to make; so I stole softly
across the open area to the nearest gun, which I at once proceeded to
carefully spike with the aid of some nails and a leather-covered hammer
with which I had provided myself. Despite the deadening effect of the
leather the hammer still made a distinct "clink," which to my ears
sounded loud enough to wake the dead; but a few seconds' anxious work
sufficed to effectually spike the first gun, and as nobody appeared to
have heard me, I then proceeded to spike the next, and the next, until I
had rendered all four of them harmless. This done, I slipped out of the
same embrasure by which I had entered, and successfully made my way back
to the beach and to the spot off which the dinghy lay awaiting me.
The presence of a battery on the south head of the harbour entrance
convinced me that there must also be a similar structure on the north
head. As soon, therefore, as I found myself once more aboard the
dinghy, I headed her straight across the mouth, reaching the northern
side in about twenty minutes. Half an hour's search enabled me to find
the battery which I was looking for,--which proved to be a pretty exact
counterpart of the one I had already visited,--and here again I
succeeded in spiking all four of the guns without discovery. This I
regarded as a fairly successful night's work; so, as we should have to
be stirring pretty early in the morning, I now returned to the schooner,
and, having hove her to with her head off shore, turned in and had a
good night's rest.
At daybreak on the following morning I was called by Black Peter, and
within ten minutes I was on deck. We were then some eight miles off the
land, with the schooner heading to the eastward; but we at once wore
round and bore straight away for the harbour's mouth, clearing for
action and making all our arrangements as we went.
An hour's run, with the wind well over our starboard quarter, brought us
off the mouth of the harbour, which we at once entered; and as soon as
we were fairly inside, the schooner was hove-to, and two boats were
lowered, each carrying eleven men armed to the teeth, in addition to the
officer in command. One of the boats was commanded by Christie and the
other by Lindsay; and their mission was to capture the two batteries
commanding the harbour's mouth, and blow them up before the spiked
cannon could be again rendered serviceable. I brought the telescope to
bear upon the batteries as soon as we were far enough inside the harbour
to get a sight of them, and was amused to observe that there was a
terrible commotion going on in both. Our presence had been promptly
discovered, and the first attempt to open fire upon us had resulted in
the discovery that their guns were all spiked. Of course it was by no
means an easy matter to estimate the strength of the garrisons of these
batteries, but I calculated that it would probably total up to about
thirty men to each battery; and as they would be nearly or quite all
Spaniards, I felt that the boats' crews which I had sent away would be
quite strong enough to satisfactorily account for them. Nor was I
disappointed; for although the pirates opened a brisk musketry fire upon
our lads the moment that they were fairly within range, the latter
simply swarmed up the hill and carried the two batteries with a rush,
the pirates retreating by the rear as the _Terns_ clambered in through
the embrasures. The moment that the boats shoved off from the
schooner's side I saw that the spirit of emulation had seized upon the
two crews, for they both went away at a racing pace, and their actions
throughout were evidently inspired by this same spirit; the result of
which was that the two batteries were destroyed within five minutes of
each other, while the whole affair, from the moment when the boats
shoved off to the moment when they arrived alongside again, was
accomplished within an hour and a quarter, and that, too, without any
loss whatever on our side, or even a wound severe enough to disable the
recipient. The pirates were less fortunate, their loss in the two
batteries amounting to five killed, and at least seven wounded severely
enough to render them incapable of escaping. These seven were brought
on board by our lads, and secured below immediately upon their arrival.
Meanwhile I had not been idle, for while the boats were away I had
employed my time in making, with the aid of the telescope, a most
careful inspection of this piratical stronghold; and I was obliged to
admit to myself that it would be difficult to imagine--and still more
difficult to find--a spot more perfectly adapted in every way for its
purpose. The harbour itself was spacious enough to hold a fleet, and
almost completely land-locked, so that, once inside, a ship was
perfectly concealed; while the fact that the opening faced in a south-
westerly direction rendered it absolutely safe in all weathers. And, so
far as enemies were concerned, the two batteries at the harbour's mouth
were so admirably placed that they _ought_ to have proved amply
sufficient for the defence of the place; and no doubt they _would_ have
so proved in other hands, or had a proper lookout been kept. That they
had fallen so easily to us was the fault, not of Morillo, but of the man
whom he had left in command.
At the bottom of the bay or inlet--for it partook of the nature of the
latter rather than of the former--lay the settlement that Morillo had
established, consisting of no less than seventeen buildings. There was
also a small wharf, with a brig lying alongside it.
The moment that the boats arrived alongside I ordered the men out of
them, and had them dropped astern, when sail was made and we stood down
toward the settlement, with our ensign flying at the gaff-end. As we
drew near I was able to make out that here too our presence was
productive of a tremendous amount of excitement; and presently fire was
opened upon us from a battery of six nine-pounders that had been
constructed on the rising ground immediately to the rear of the wharf,
while the black flag was boldly run up on a flagstaff close at hand. It
did not suit my purpose, however, to engage in a running fight; I
therefore bore down upon the brig--discharging our port broadside at the
battery when we were within pistol-shot of it--and, running alongside,
grapnelled her. This done, every man Jack of us swarmed ashore, Lindsay
holding the wharf with a dozen of our lads, while Christie and I, with
the remainder of the crew, made a rush for the battery and took it. Ten
minutes sufficed us to spike the guns and blow up the magazine, which
done, we found ourselves masters of the whole place, the inhabitants
having taken to flight the moment that this third battery fell into our
hands.
We now proceeded to make a leisurely inspection of the place, with the
result that we discovered it to be quite a miniature dockyard, with
storehouses, mast-houses, rigging and sail-lofts all complete; in fact,
there was every possible convenience for repairing and refitting a ship.
Nor was this all; there was also a large magazine full of ammunition,
quite an armoury of muskets, pistols, and cutlasses, and several
dismounted guns, ranging from six-pounders to thirty-two pound
carronades; while the storehouses were well stocked with provisions and
stores of every possible description. One large building immediately
facing the wharf was apparently used as a receptacle for plunder, for we
found several bales of stuff that had evidently formed part of a cargo,
or cargoes, but there was surprisingly little of it, which was accounted
for, later on, by the discovery that the brig was full of plunder to the
hatches. In addition to the buildings which were in use as stores,
there were two most comfortably fitted up as barracks, while at the back
of the settlement and well up the side of the hill stood a little group
of seven handsome timber dwelling-houses, each standing in its own
garden and nestling among the lofty trees that clothed the hillside.
Having secured complete possession of the place, my first care was to
have the small amount of plunder that lay in the storehouse, and the
guns, conveyed on board the _Tern_ and sent down her main hatchway.
This job took us about two hours, during which a few shots were
occasionally fired at us from the woods; but as the bullets all fell
short, we did not trouble ourselves to go in pursuit of the individuals
who were firing upon us. Our next act was to blow up the magazine, thus
destroying the whole of the pirates' stock of ammunition; and when this
had been successfully accomplished, we went systematically to work, and
set fire to the whole of the storehouses and barracks, one after the
other, until the whole place was in flames. Finally, we turned our
attention to the seven dwelling-houses on the hillside. These proved,
to our astonishment, to be most elegantly and sumptuously furnished in
every respect, the only peculiarity noticeable being a lack of
uniformity among the articles contained in some of the houses, plainly
showing that they had been gathered together at different times and from
different places. Evidences of female influence were abundantly present
in all these houses, from which we assumed that they formed the abode of
Morillo and his most important subordinates during their short sojourns
in port. The six largest of these buildings we set fire to, leaving the
seventh as a refuge for the unfortunate women, who were doubtless
concealed at no great distance in the adjacent woods.
The burning of these houses completed the destruction of the settlement,
which was accomplished absolutely without casualties of any kind _on
our_ side. We waited until the houses were well ablaze, and then
retreated in good order to the harbour, a few shots being fired at us
here and there from ambush as we went; but as we were well out of range
I took no notice of them, and in due time we arrived once more on the
wharf.
Our next business was to take possession of the brig, which we did
forthwith, Christie, with eight hands, going on board her as a prize
crew. She was a beamy, bluff-bowed, motherly old craft named the _Three
Sisters_, hailing out of Port-of-Spain, and was evidently British built,
her whole appearance being that of a sober, honest, slow-going trader,
such as one constantly meets with, doing business among the islands.
Her hold, however, was full of booty; and I conjectured that Morillo
had, through his agents, purchased her in a perfectly straightforward
manner for use in the conveyance of booty from Cariacou to such ports as
afforded opportunity for its disposal without the asking of too many
inconvenient questions.
It was the work of but a few minutes for the prize crew to transfer
their few belongings from the schooner to the brig; and, this done, we
got both craft under way and stood out to sea--the brig under every
stitch of canvas that she could show to the breeze, while the schooner,
under topsail, foresail, and jib, had to heave-to at frequent intervals
to wait for her.
My first intention was to send the brig to Port Royal in charge of the
prize crew alone, remaining off the island in the _Tern_ until Morillo
should appear--as he would be certain to do, sooner or later--in his
brigantine. A little reflection, however, caused me to alter my plans
and to determine upon escorting the _Three Sisters_ to her destination,
lest she should haply encounter Morillo on the way, in which case the
fate of her defenceless prize crew would probably be too dreadful to
bear thinking about. As soon, therefore, as we were clear of the
harbour I set the course for Jamaica, and away we both went, cheek by
jowl, the brig--with a roaring breeze over her starboard quarter--
reeling off her six and a half knots per hour with as much fuss and
splutter as though she were going fifteen!
For the first two days nothing of any importance occurred. On the third
night out from Cariacou, however,--or, to be strictly accurate, about
two o'clock in the morning,--it being my watch on deck, the night dark
and somewhat overcast, two sails were sighted on our starboard bow,
heading to the eastward on the port tack, and steering a course which
would bring them close to us. One of them was a craft of considerable
size, the other a small vessel; and from the moment that these two facts
became apparent, I made up my mind that one was the prize of the other,
though which of the two was the captor, there was just then no means of
ascertaining. The smaller craft was perhaps a privateer, and the big
one her prize; or--quite as likely--the big craft might be a frigate,
and the small craft her prize. In either case, however, it behoved me
to be very careful; for one of the two was almost certain to be an
enemy, and if she happened to be also the captor of the other it was
more than probable she would tackle us. From the moment, therefore,
when we first sighted them, I never allowed the night-glass to be off
them for more than a few seconds at a time.
When first discovered, they were hull down, and only just
distinguishable in the darkness as two vague blots of black against the
lowering gloom of the night sky; but the trade wind was piping up rather
stronger than usual that night, while we and the strangers were
approaching each other on a nearly straight line. We consequently
closed each other rapidly, and within about twenty minutes from the
moment of their discovery we were able to make out that one of the twain
was a full-rigged ship, while the other seemed to be a large brigantine;
and a few minutes later I discovered that the ship was showing a much
broader spread of canvas than the brigantine, thus proving the latter to
be the faster craft of the two. It was scarcely likely, therefore, that
the ship was a frigate; and if not that, she must be a merchantman, and
doubtless the prize of the brigantine.
At this point, the question suggested itself to me: Might not the
brigantine be Morillo's craft? She appeared to be about the same size,
so far as it was possible to distinguish in the darkness; and if so, it
would fully account for the boldness with which she held on upon her
course, instead of heaving about and endeavouring to avoid a possible
enemy--for doubtless they had made us out almost if not quite at the
same time as we had discovered them. I most fervently hoped it might be
as I surmised, for, if so, I should have the fellow at advantage,
inasmuch as he would doubtless have put a fairly strong prize crew on
board the ship, which would proportionately weaken his own crew. Full
of the hope that this Ishmael of the sea might be about to place himself
within my power, I caused all hands to be called, and, having first made
sail, sent them to quarters, the gunner at the same time descending to
the magazine and sending up a plentiful supply of powder and shot. By
the time that we were ready, the brigantine and her consort had neared
us to within a couple of miles, the two craft closing meanwhile,
doubtless for the purpose of communicating instructions. That they were
quite prepared to fight aboard the brigantine was perfectly evident, for
we could see that her deck was lit up with lanterns, the light of which,
shining through her ports, enabled me to ascertain that she mounted six
guns of a side. Both craft held their luff, but it was now quite clear
that the brigantine was much the faster and more weatherly of the two,
she walking away out to windward of the big fellow as though the latter
had been at anchor the moment that she made sail in answer to our
challenge.
And now ensued a little bit of manoeuvring on both sides, with the
twofold object of discovering whether the stranger happened to be an
enemy, and if so, to secure the weather-gage of him. We had the
advantage, however, as we were running free and could haul our wind at
any moment; and this advantage I kept by hauling up on the starboard
tack and then heaving in stays with the topsail aback, waiting for the
brigantine to close; which she presently did, ranging up within biscuit-
toss of our lee quarter. She was now so close to us that, despite the
darkness, it was quite possible to make out details; and it was with a
feeling of mingled disgust and disappointment that I discovered that,
whatever she might be, she certainly was not Morillo's beautiful but
notorious brigantine.
She was, however, in all probability an enemy,--it seemed to me that, so
far as I could make out in the uncertain light of the partially clouded
stars, she had a French look about her,--so, with the idea of securing
the advantage of the first hail, I sprang upon the rail as she ranged up
alongside, and hailed, in Spanish--
"Ho, the brigantine ahoy! What vessel is that?"
"The _Belle Diane_, French privateer. What schooner is that?" came the
reply, also in Spanish of the most execrable kind, uttered with an
unmistakable French accent.
"His Britannic Majesty's schooner _Tern_, monsieur, to which ship I must
request you to surrender, or I shall be under the painful necessity of
blowing you out of the water," answered I, firmly persuaded of the
policy of rendering oneself as formidable as possible to one's enemy.
But my well-meant endeavour proved to be a signal failure; the enemy was
not in this case to be so easily frightened.
"Les Anglais! mille tonneres!" I heard the Frenchman in the
brigantine's main rigging exclaim, as he waved his clenched fist in the
air. Then he retorted, in what he doubtless believed to be the purest
English--
"Vat is dat you say, Monsieur Angleeshman? If I do not surrendaire, you
vill blow me out of de vattar? Ha, ha! Sacre! It is _I_, monsieur,
who vill blow dat footy leetle schooner of yours into ze sky, if you do
not surrendaire yourshelf plus promptement, eh!"
"All right, monsieur; blaze away, then, as soon as you like!" retorted
I, in the best attempt at French I could muster. Then, to my own
people, who were at quarters--
"Stand by, starboard guns! Wait until she rolls toward us. _Now,
fire_!"
Our imposing broadside of three guns rang out at the precise moment when
the brigantine rolled heavily toward us, exposing her deck to our fire;
and I heard the shot go crashing through her bulwarks to the
accompaniment of sundry yells and screams, that told me they had not
been altogether ineffective. Almost at the same instant _three_ of her
guns replied; but their muzzles were so deeply depressed, and she was
just then rolling so heavily toward us, that the shot struck the water
between her and ourselves, and we neither saw nor felt any more of them.
Meanwhile, our square canvas being aback, our antagonist swept rapidly
ahead of us; seeing which, I filled upon the schooner and bore up under
the brigantine's stern, raking with our port broadside as we crossed her
stern, immediately hauling my wind and making a half-board across her
stern again to regain my position upon her weather quarter. Our
starboard guns were by this time reloaded, and we gave her the three of
them, double-shotted, as we recrossed her; and the tremendous clatter,
with the howls and shrieks that followed this discharge, showed that we
had wrought a considerable amount of execution among the Frenchmen.
"There's _something_ gone aboard of him, but what it is I can't make
out," exclaimed Lindsay, who was standing close beside me. "Ah!" he
continued, "I see what it is now; it is her mainboom that we have shot
away. I can see the outer end of it towing overboard. And see, she is
paying off; with the loss of their after-sail they can no longer keep
their luff!"
It was even as Lindsay had said; we had shot away the brigantine's
mainboom, and thus rendered her big, powerful mainsail useless; so that,
despite the lee helm that they were giving her, she was gradually
falling off, until within a minute or two she was nearly dead before the
wind. This placed her almost completely at our mercy, for we were now
enabled to sail to and fro athwart her stern, raking her alternately
with our port and starboard guns, and with our nine-pounder as well,
while she could only reply with two guns which her people had run out
through her stern ports. Still, although disabled, she was by no means
beaten, her plucky crew keeping up a brisk fire upon us from these two
guns until by a lucky broadside we dismounted them both. But even then
they would not give in; despite the relentless fire that we continued to
pour into them, they contrived after a time to get two more guns into
position, with which they renewed their fire upon us as briskly as ever.
This sort of thing, however, could not continue for very long; our fire
was so hot and our guns were so well aimed, that we fairly drove the
plucky fellows from the only two guns that they could bring to bear upon
us, and within a couple of minutes of the cessation of their fire, a
lantern was waved aboard the brigantine, and someone hailed that they
surrendered, while at the same moment all sheets and halliards were let
go and her canvas came down by the run, as a further intimation that
they had had enough of it.
Upon this we of course at once ceased firing, and ranged up alongside
the prize, hailing her that we would send a boat aboard. Then, for the
first time, we discovered that both our large boats were so severely
damaged that neither of them would float; whereupon Lindsay offered to
board the prize in the dinghy, with two hands, and take possession.
Accordingly, the little cockleshell of a craft was dropped over the
side, and in less than two minutes my chum hailed to say that he was
safely aboard, and that the execution wrought by our fire had been
terrible, the brigantine having lost nearly half her crew, both the
captain and the chief mate being among the killed. He added that the
brigantine's long-boat was undamaged, and that he proposed to hoist her
out, with the assistance of the prisoners, and send her to us by the two
hands who had manned the dinghy, if we would look out to pick her up in
the event of their being unable to bring her alongside. To this I of
course agreed; and a quarter of an hour later the boat was safely
alongside us, with a prize crew of twelve picked men tumbling themselves
and their traps into her.
Meanwhile, what had become of the _Three Sisters_ and the big ship? I
looked round for them, and behold! there they both were, about half a
mile to windward, and bearing down upon us _in company_!
"Phew!" thought I, "here is a nice business! While we have been playing
the game of hammer and tongs down here, the big ship--doubtless manned
by a strong prize crew--has run alongside the old brig and taken her!
And yet--can it be so? Christie has eight hands with him, and I believe
the fellow would make a stout fight for it before giving in. I cannot
understand it; but we shall soon see. If they have captured him we
shall have to recapture him, that is all!" Then, turning to the men,
who were busy securing the guns and repairing such slight damage as had
been inflicted upon our rigging, I said--
"Avast, there, with those guns! Load them again, lads, for we may have
to fight once more in a few minutes. Here is the big ship running down
upon us, and it looks very much as though she had taken the brig. Fill
your topsail, and let draw the headsheets!"
Getting sufficient way upon the schooner, we tacked and stood toward the
new-comers, passing close under the stern of the ship, with the
intention of hailing her. But before I could get the trumpet to my
lips, a figure sprang into the ship's mizzen rigging, and Christie's
well-known voice hailed--
"_Tern_ ahoy! is Mr Courtenay aboard?"
"Ay, ay," I answered; "I am here, Mr Christie. What are you doing
aboard there?"
"Why," answered Christie, "I am in charge, you know. Seeing you busy
with the brigantine, I thought I might as well try my luck at the same
time; so I managed somehow to put the brig alongside this ship, and--
and--well, _we just took her_!"
"Well done, Mr Christie!" I shouted; but before I could get out
another word, my voice was drowned in the roaring cheer that the _Terns_
gave vent to as they heard the news, told in Christie's usual gentle,
drawling tones; and by the time that the cheers had died away the two
craft had drawn so far apart that further conversation was, for the
moment, impossible.