I arrived at the Pen just in time for dinner, and found myself one of an
unusually large party of guests, several men-o'-war being in port at the
time, while a large contingent of civilians might always be met at the
admiral's table. The old gentleman received me with all his wonted
kindness and cordiality, introducing me to such of his guests as I had
not met before, and relating over the dinner-table, with much gusto, the
story of my abduction and escape. Then I produced Morillo's letter of
defiance, which I took with me to show him, and which added a fillip to
the conversation that lasted us until the cloth was drawn. We sat
rather late over our wine, and when we rose to go the admiral invited me
into his library for a moment, and said--
"Well, my lad, d'ye intend to accept that piratical rascal's challenge?"
"Most assuredly I do, sir, if I can but fall in with him," answered I.
"Very well," said the admiral, "you shall have every opportunity to give
him the thrashing that he so richly deserves. There," handing me a
packet, "are your orders, which you will find are that, while cruising
against the enemy, and doing as much harm as you can to their commerce,
you are to keep a bright lookout for Morillo, and either capture or
destroy him at all costs. When do you sail?"
"The moment that I can get aboard, sir," answered I.
"That's right, that's right; you will then be able to make a good offing
before the land-breeze drops," returned the admiral. "Well," he
continued, "good-bye, my boy, and a successful cruise to you. And if,
when you return, you bring Morillo with you, or can assure me of his
destruction, you shall have t'other swab; for I shall consider that you
have well-earned it."
And therewith I left him and drove into Kingston, where I routed out a
boatman and made the best of my way aboard the _Diane_. An hour later
the brigantine was under way, and threading her passage through the
shoals to seaward under the influence of a roaring land-breeze.
The question that now exercised my mind was, where was I to look for
Morillo? In what direction should I be most likely to find him? It was
a most difficult question to answer; but, after considering the matter
in all its bearings, I came to the conclusion that his most likely haunt
would probably be near one of the great entrances from the Atlantic to
the Caribbean Sea, where he would be conveniently posted to intercept
and plunder both outward and homeward-bound ships; although he would
probably take care not to establish himself _too_ near, lest he should
run foul of any of our cruisers stationed in the same locality for the
protection of British bottoms trading to and from West Indian ports. He
would in all likelihood select a spot some two or three hundred miles
away out in the Atlantic, from which he could command both the outward
and the homeward routes of ships bound from and to Europe. I opened a
chart of the North Atlantic and studied it carefully, trying to imagine
myself in his place, and thinking what I should do under such
circumstances; and reasoning in this way, I at length fixed upon a belt
of ocean suitable for piratical purposes, and thither I determined to
make my way, thoroughly searching every mile of intervening water as I
did so. Then came the question whether I should select the Windward or
the Mona Passage by which to make my way into the Atlantic; and after
much anxious consideration I decided upon the Windward Passage, that
being the channel most frequently used by our merchantmen. I
accordingly set the course for Morant Point, and then went below and
turned in.
When I went on deck next morning, shortly after daybreak, I found that
the _Diane_ had weathered the point and was now on the starboard tack,
heading well up for Cape Mayzi, with the Blue Mountains already assuming
the hue from which they are named, as the brigantine rapidly left them
astern. It was a brilliant morning, with the trade wind piping up to
the tune of half a gale; yet the little ship was showing her
topgallantsail to it, and sheering through the rather short, choppy sea
like a mad thing, with her yards braced hard in against the lee rigging,
and the lower half of her foresail dark with spray, while the white foam
hissed and seethed and raced past her to leeward at a pace that made one
giddy to look at. That the _Diane_ was a perfect marvel in the matter
of speed--and a good sea-boat withal--was undeniable; and as I stood
aft, to windward of the helmsman, and watched the little hooker
thrashing along, I felt sanguine that, should we be fortunate enough to
encounter Senor Morillo, he would have but small chance of escaping us
by showing a clean pair of heels.
The following midnight found us handsomely weathering Cape Mayzi, the
most easterly extremity of the island of Cuba, after which we held on
until we had brought the southern extremity of Great Inagua broad abeam,
when we again tacked, and so worked our way out to sea between the
Handkerchief shoal and Grand Caicos, passing an inward-bound Indiaman on
the way. I spoke this vessel, asking if they had sighted any suspicious
craft of late; to which the skipper replied that four days previously he
had been chased by a French brig, which he had contrived to elude in the
darkness; and that he had on the following day sighted and spoken the
British frigate _Euterpe_, which had forthwith proceeded in quest of the
brig. Thenceforth we sighted nothing until our fifth day out, when we
fell in with the _Euterpe_, which had just returned to her station after
an unsuccessful search. Two days later we sighted a British privateer,
which made sail and tried to run away from us as soon as she made out
our pennant, fearing--so the skipper said when we overhauled and
compelled him to heave-to--that we should impress some of his men. But,
as I had as many hands as I required, I let him go without compelling
him to pay toll. His report was that the Atlantic was absolutely empty
of shipping, he having sighted nothing but a British line-of-battle ship
and three frigates during his passage across.
Finally, we reached the cruising-ground that I had selected as being the
most likely spot in which to meet Morillo; and there we cruised for a
full fortnight, just reaching to and fro athwart the wind, under
mainsail, topsail, and jib, and still there was no sign of the
_Guerrilla_ or of any other craft. At length I became so thoroughly
discouraged that one night, soon after sundown, I went below, got out my
chart, and proceeded to study it afresh, with a view to the selection of
some other cruising-ground; and at length, after long and anxious
consideration, I fixed upon a new spot, for which I determined to bear
up next day if by noon nothing had hove in sight.
It chanced, however, that at dawn next morning a craft was made out some
ten miles to windward of us, and the officer of the watch at once came
down below and called me. I went on deck immediately, to find that the
day was just breaking, and the stranger even then only barely visible
against the faint light that was spreading along the eastern horizon.
As we stood looking, we made her out to be a square-rigged vessel,
apparently of no great size, running down toward us under easy canvas;
and the thought came to me that here was the _Guerrilla_ at last, and
that my patience was about to meet its reward. But a few minutes
later--by which time, as I supposed, it had grown light enough to reveal
our canvas to the approaching stranger--the craft suddenly hauled her
wind; and I then saw that she was a brig. That she was not a
merchantman was obvious from the fact that she was under such short
canvas, all she showed being her two topsails, spanker, and jib--just
such canvas as a privateer or gun-brig would show, in fact, on her
cruising-ground; and I at once set her down for one or the other. Of
her nationality, however, it was impossible to correctly judge at that
distance and in the still imperfect light; but there was a certain
subtle something in her appearance that suggested France as the land of
her birth. Meanwhile, as she had rounded-to on the same tack as
ourselves, evidently with the intention of taking a good look at us
before approaching too near, we held on as we were going, taking no
notice whatever of her. In about a quarter of an hour, however, it
became apparent that we were head-reaching upon her; whereupon she
dropped her foresail, to keep pace with us, while we on our part took a
small pull upon the lee braces, which enabled us to head up a point
higher, and so gradually edge up toward her.
Such excessive caution as the stranger was now exhibiting convinced me
that she could not be British; she must, consequently, be an enemy. And
having once made up my mind upon this point, I very gradually braced our
yards as flat in against the rigging as they would come, flattened in
the main and jib-sheets, and thus brought the _Diane_ on a taut bowline,
without, as I hoped, arousing the suspicion of the stranger, meanwhile
keeping the telescope constantly levelled upon her in order that, should
I see any hands in her rigging going aloft to make sail, we might follow
suit without loss of time. But I did not wish to take the initiative,
because by so doing I might possibly alarm them; while, so long as we
both kept on as we were, we were gradually and almost imperceptibly
closing her.
This state of affairs prevailed for about an hour, when suddenly--with
the view, perhaps, of compelling us to disclose our intentions--the
stranger tacked. Obliged thus to throw off the mask, we at once did the
same, the hands--who had been standing by, waiting for orders--at the
same time springing into the rigging to loose our additional canvas; and
by the time that the little hooker was fairly round on the starboard
tack, and the yards swung, our topgallant sail and gaff-topsail were
sheeted home and in the act of being hoisted, together with the flying-
jib, foretopmast staysail, and main and maintopmast staysails, while the
fore tack was being boarded and the sheet hauled aft. This caused an
immediate stir aboard the stranger, who, in her turn, at once set all
plain sail to her topgallant sails, the wind being altogether too fresh
for either of us to show a royal to it.
The manoeuvres just described brought the brig about three points before
our starboard beam and some eight miles to windward of us, both craft
being now close-hauled on the starboard tack. There was a strong breeze
blowing from the north-east, with a fair amount of sea on, and the day
was brilliantly fine, with a rich, clear, crystalline blue sky, dappled
here and there with puffs of white trade-cloud sailing solemnly athwart
our mastheads; a splendid day for sailing, and we had the whole of it
before us.
It soon became apparent that we were gaining upon the brig--weathering
and fore-reaching upon her at the same time; and as it was now broad
daylight, I sent the men to quarters, hoisted our colours, and fired a
shotted gun to windward as an invitation to her to heave-to; but of this
she took no notice whatever. By nine o'clock--at which hour I took an
observation of the sun for my longitude--we had fore-reached upon the
brig sufficiently to bring her a couple of points abaft our weather
beam, and then, in accordance with the rule for chasing, we tacked
again; whereupon she did the same, thus bringing us right astern and
slightly to windward of her. It was now a stern-chase, she being as
nearly as possible seven miles ahead of us. The wind held steady, and
hour after hour the two craft went plunging along at racing speed, the
brigantine gaining steadily all the time, until by one o'clock the chase
was within range, and we opened fire upon her with our long eighteen-
pounder. Our shot flew close to her on either side,--as we could see by
the jets of water thrown up,--but it was fully half an hour before we
hit her, which we then did fair in the centre of her stern. She
immediately shot into the wind, all aback, and it took them fully five
minutes to box her off again, when--seeing, I suppose, that they could
not now possibly escape us--her people clewed up her courses, hauled
down topgallant sails and staysails, until they had reduced their canvas
to what it had been when we first sighted her, hoisted French colours,
and bore up for us.
It was at this time that we first made out the upper canvas of another
vessel just appearing above the horizon in the northern board, and
evidently steering in our direction; and upon sending aloft one of the
midshipmen who were acting as my lieutenants, he reported her as a craft
of apparently about our own size. The fact that she was heading
_toward_ us led me to the conclusion that she must be either a privateer
or a small cruiser like ourselves,--evidently attracted by the sound of
our guns,--and as I did not wish for her assistance, if a friend, or the
additional anxiety of having to fight her at the same time as the brig,
if an enemy, I called the hands aft and made them a brief speech,
impressing upon them the importance of settling the brig's business as
promptly as possible, in order that we might be free to give the other
stranger our undivided attention, if necessary. They answered with a
hearty cheer, and went back to their guns; and a quarter of an hour
later the brig rounded-to within biscuit-toss to windward of us, giving
us her larboard broadside as she did so.
This was the beginning of a regular set-to, hammer and tongs, between
us, the French fighting with the utmost courage and determination, and
playing havoc with our rigging, which they cut up so severely that half
a dozen of our people were kept busy aloft knotting and splicing. At
length, however, when the fight had thus been raging for a full hour,
with heavy loss on both sides, tacking suddenly under cover of the smoke
of our starboard broadside, we shot across the brig's stern, raking her
with a double-shotted broadside from our larboard guns, which had the
effect of bringing both her masts down by the run, rendering her a wreck
and unmanageable; and we now felt that she was ours.
But we were reckoning without our host--or rather, without the second
stranger, whom we had been altogether too busy to give a thought to. As
the smoke of our guns blew away to leeward, and we prepared to tack
again preparatory to passing once more athwart the brig's stern, I got a
full and clear view of the stranger, who--approaching us from to
windward--had hitherto been hidden from us by the brig and by the smoke
of our combined cannonade. She was less than half a mile distant from
us, and was at the moment in the very act of taking in her studding-
sails. She was a brigantine, and a single glance at her sufficed to
assure me that she was the _Guerrilla_, and that at last the feud
between Morillo and myself was to be fought out to the bitter end. I
had long ago prepared a red swallow-tailed burgee, such as the pirate
had dared me to exhibit, and I immediately gave orders to hoist it at
our fore royal masthead. The flag had scarcely reached the truck when I
saw a _black_ flag flutter out over the other brigantine's rail and go
soaring aloft to her gaff-end. Morillo had evidently recognised my
challenge, and was prompt to answer it.
Sweeping under the brig's stern again, at a distance of only a few
fathoms, I hailed, asking whether they surrendered; but a pistol-shot,
which flew close past my ear, was their only reply, so we gave them our
starboard broadside, and then wore round to meet our new antagonist,
leaving the brig meanwhile to her own devices.
I am of opinion that Morillo must have had a very shrewd suspicion as to
our identity long before the exhibition of our burgee, because of the
eager haste with which he bore down upon us. So eager, indeed, was he,
that he carried his studding-sails just a minute or two _too_ long; a
mistake on his part, which enabled us to make a couple of short
stretches to windward and secure the weather-gage before he was ready to
round-to, although as soon as his people detected our purpose they
worked with frantic haste to shorten sail.
The pirates opened the ball by giving us their whole larboard broadside
while we were in stays, tacking toward them; but the guns were fired
hurriedly, and did us no harm, the shot flying high over us and between
our masts, without touching so much as a ropeyarn. Five minutes later
we passed close across the _Guerrilla's_ stern, making a half-board to
clear her, and delivered our larboard broadside, with the eighteen-
pounder thrown in, every shot taking effect and raking her from end to
end. Morillo was standing aft by the taffrail, and as we passed near
enough to hear the wash of the water about the pirate vessel's rudder,
he suddenly snatched up a blunderbuss, and, singling me out, fired
point-blank at me, one bullet knocking my cap off, while another lodged
in my left shoulder, a third killing the man at our wheel, close behind
me. The _Guerrilla_ immediately ported her helm, while I, springing to
our wheel, put it hard a-starboard, thus passing a second time athwart
our antagonist's stern; and again we raked her mercilessly, this time
with our starboard broadside. Keeping our wheel hard over, we swept
round until we were once more in stays, the _Guerrilla_ having tacked
toward us a minute earlier, with the evident intention of raking us in
her turn. We were just a little too quick for her, however, gathering
way so smartly that, as we neared each other, it became evident that,
unless one or the other of us tacked again, we must inevitably run foul
of each other. I had no mind for this sort of thing, however, as we
should probably hurt ourselves quite as much as our antagonist; so,
holding on until we had only just room to clear the _Guerrilla_, and
singing out for a second shot to be rammed home in the larboard guns, I
eased our helm down just at the right moment, ranging up so close to the
other brigantine that we almost grazed her side, when we exchanged
broadsides at precisely the same instant, with terrible effect on both
sides. At the same moment our topsail was thrown aback to deaden our
way, and as the _Guerrilla_ passed ahead our helm was put hard up and we
paid square off across her stern, firing our starboard broadside into
her as we did so. The result this time was absolutely disastrous to the
pirates, for the guns were fired at the precise moment when the
_Guerrilla's_ stern was lifted up on the crest of a sea, while we were
in the trough beyond; in consequence of which, our shot all struck her a
trifle below her normal water-line, producing a very serious leak,
which, even under the most favourable circumstances, it would have been
exceedingly difficult to stop. But this was not the worst of it; the
shot, by a lucky accident, so far as we were concerned, had somehow
become concentrated, all of them taking effect upon the pirate's rudder
and stern-post, with the result that the former was shot away, and the
latter, as well as two or three hood-ends, so badly started that ere ten
minutes had elapsed it became apparent that the _Guerrilla_ was rapidly
filling.
Meanwhile, however, we held on across her stern, filling our topsail
again, and tacking as soon as we had room; while the pirate brigantine,
deprived of her rudder, shot into the wind and got in irons, obstinately
refusing to pay off on either tack. This enabled us to sweep across her
bows, pouring in our port broadside as we passed, raking her fore and
aft, and bringing down her foremast by the run. Holding on for a few
minutes, we next wore round--getting her starboard broadside as we
passed--and then cut close across her stern again, raking her as before.
By this time, however, it had become apparent that she was sinking, so,
having once more tacked, we ranged up close athwart her stern, with our
topsail aback, when, instead of firing, I hailed to ask if they
surrendered.
"No, senor," replied Morillo himself, who was standing aft close to the
now useless wheel, "we will _never_ surrender! I wrote you a letter--
which I hope you received--in which I said that I would fight you until
my ship sinks under me; and I mean to do so. I also told you that my
feud with you is to the death; so, take that!" and therewith the
scoundrel quickly levelled a pistol and, for the second time that day,
fired point-blank at me! And there is no doubt whatever that this time
he would have slain me--for the pistol was pointed so truly that I
actually looked for a moment right into the barrel of it--had it not
been for the _Diane's_ helmsman, who unceremoniously seized me by the
arm in the very nick of time and quickly pulled me aside. As it was,
the bullet whistled close past my ear. This dastardly act so
exasperated our people that forthwith, without waiting for orders, they
poured the whole of our port broadside into the devoted craft,
completely demolishing her stern, so that for a few seconds, as we drew
slowly athwart her wake, we got a full view of her decks, which were
cumbered with killed and wounded, and literally streaming with blood.
Still, by a miracle, Morillo himself survived this last destructive
broadside of ours; for when the smoke blew away I saw him still standing
erect and shaking his fist defiantly at us.
It was by this time evident to us all that the _Guerrilla_ was a doomed
ship; she was settling fast in the water, and to continue firing upon
her would only be a waste of ammunition. We therefore filled our
topsail and, a few minutes later, tacked, again getting a broadside from
the sinking ship, when we stationed ourselves square athwart her bows--
where we were pretty well out of the way of her fire--and, with topsail
aback and mainsheet eased off, waited patiently for the final moment,
which we saw was rapidly approaching. Yet, even now, Morillo persisted
in firing at us with his two bow guns, compelling us to fire upon him in
return; and so the useless fight went on, until the _Guerrilla_ had
settled so low in the water that the sea welled in over her bows at
every plunge of her, rendering it impossible to any longer maintain
their fire. Then, with folded hands, we all stood by, watching for the
end.
And a very melancholy picture it was upon which we looked. There was
the illimitable expanse of ocean all round us, blue as sapphire, heaving
in long, regular ridges of swell, and whipped into foam here and there
by the scourging of the strong trade wind, with a rich blue sky above,
dappled with wisps of trade-cloud, and the sun shining brilliantly down
from the midst of them, causing the heaving waters to flash and glitter
under his fiery beams, so that the sea that way was too dazzling to look
at. And there, right in the centre of the glowing picture, lay the two
brigantines--we with our bulwarks torn and splintered to pieces, our
sails riddled with shot-holes, our rigging badly cut up, and our decks
scored with shot-marks and littered with dead and wounded men; while the
_Guerrilla_ was an even more melancholy wreck than ourselves, as she lay
heaving and rolling sluggishly, with her covering-boards awash and the
sea sweeping her decks from stem to taffrail at every plunge, and the
wreck of her foremast towing under her bows. There was not a soul
visible on board her. When she first engaged us her decks had appeared
to be crowded with men, but now most of them were either killed or
wounded, and the few who had escaped seemed to have flung themselves
down exhausted, for they had all disappeared. As for the craft herself,
it was now only when she rose heavily upon the ridges of the swell that
we could see her hull at all; and every plunge that she took into a
hollow threatened to be her last. Yet she lingered, as though reluctant
to leave the brilliant sunshine and the warm, strong breeze; lingered
until I began to wonder whether she would not after all remain afloat, a
water-logged wreck; and then, all in a moment, her stern rose high in
the air, revealing her shattered rudder and stern-post, and with a long,
slow, diving movement, she plunged forward, like a sounding whale, and
silently vanished in a little swirl of water. We at once bore up for
the spot where she had disappeared,--finding it easily by the torn and
splintered fragments of wreckage that came floating up to the surface,--
but her crew went down with her, to a man; for although we cruised about
the spot for fully half an hour, we never saw even so much as a dead
body come to the surface.
And so ended that terror of the seas, the _Guerrilla_, with her
bloodthirsty pirate crew; and with her destruction ended the feud that
had been thrust upon me by one of the most fiendish monsters in human
form that ever sailed the ocean. It may perhaps seem to the reader a
cold-blooded deed on our part to remain passively by and calmly watch
the passing of those wretches to their account; but in reality it was an
act of mercy, for their end was at least swift; whereas, had we saved
any of them, it would only have been that they might terminate their
career upon the gallows.
Meanwhile, the brig had dropped some six miles to leeward during the
fight, and her crew had made the best of the opportunity by endeavouring
to get some jury-spars aloft. The time, however, was too short for
that, and when we ran down to them they were still in the thick of their
work. But they had now had enough of fighting, for when I again hailed
to ask if they surrendered, they at once replied in the affirmative; and
in due course we took possession of the _Nereide_ of Bordeaux, armed
with twelve long nine-pounders, and with a crew originally of eighty-six
men, of whom twenty-three were killed and fifty-seven wounded in her
fight with us. We spent the remainder of that day in completing the
rigging of the jury-masts that her people had begun, and made sail upon
both craft just after sunset that same evening, arriving safely in Port
Royal harbour some three weeks later.
And now, what remains to be said? The tale of my association with the
fate of Morillo the Pirate is told; and all I need add is that when the
account of my exploit was told, I received a great deal more credit and
praise than I felt I really deserved; while, as for my friend the
admiral--well, he was as good as his word, for within twenty-four hours
of my arrival with my prize in Port Royal harbour, he handed me, with
hearty congratulations and many kind words, the commission that entitled
me to mount "t'other swab."