IN WHICH MUTINY, LIKE FIRE, IS QUENCHED FOR WANT OF FUEL AND NO WANT OF
WATER.
Although we have made the African negro hitherto talk in his own mixed
jargon, yet, as we consider that, in a long narration, it will be
tedious to the reader, we shall now translate the narrative part into
good English, merely leaving the conversation with which it may be
broken in its peculiar dialect.
"The first thing I recollect," said Mesty, "is that I was carried on the
shoulders of a man with my legs hanging down before, and holding on by
his head.
"Every one used to look at me, and get out of the way, as I rode through
the town and market place, so loaded with heavy gold ornaments that I
could not bear them, and was glad when the women took them off: but, as
I grew older I became proud of them, because I knew that I was the son
of a king--I lived happy, I did nothing but shoot my arrows, and I had a
little sword which I was taught to handle, and the great captains who
were about my father showed me how to kill my enemies. Some times I lay
under the shady trees, sometimes I was with the women belonging to my
father, sometimes I was with him and played with the skulls, and
repeated the names of those to whom they had belonged, for in our
country, when we kill our enemies, we keep their skulls as trophies.
"As I grew older, I did as I pleased; I beat the women and the slaves; I
think I killed some of the latter--I know I did one, to try whether I
could strike well with my two-handed sword made of hard and heavy wood--
but that is nothing in our country. I longed to be a great captain, and
I thought of nothing else but war and fighting, and how many skulls I
should have in my possession when I had a house and wives of my own, and
I was no longer a boy. I went out in the woods to hunt, and I stayed
for weeks. And one day I saw a panther basking in the sun, waving his
graceful tail. I crept up softly till I was behind a rock within three
yards of it, and drawing my arrow to the head I pierced him through the
body. The animal bounded up in the air, saw me, roared and made a
spring, but I dropped behind the rock, and he passed over me. He turned
again to me, but I had my knife ready, and, as he fixed his talons into
my shoulder and breast, I pierced him to the heart. This was the
happiest day of my life; I had killed a panther without assistance, and
I had wounds to show. Although I was severely hurt, I thought nothing
of it. I took off the skin as my blood dropped down and mixed with that
of the beast--but I rejoiced in it. Proudly did I go into the town
dripping with gore and smarting with pain. Every one extolled the feat,
called me a hero and a great captain. I filed my teeth, and I became a
man.
"From that day I ranked among the warriors, and, as soon as my wounds
were healed, I went out to battle. In three fights I had gained five
skulls, and when I returned they weighed me out gold. I then had a
house and wives, and my father appointed me a Caboceer. I wore the
plume of eagle and ostrich feathers, my dress was covered with fetishes,
I pulled on the boots with bells, and with my bow and arrows slung on my
back, my spear and blunderbuss, my knives and my double-handed sword, I
led the men to battle and brought back skulls and slaves. Every one
trembled at my name, and, if my father threatened to send me out,
gold-dust covered the floor of his hall of council--Now, I boil the
kettle for the young gentlemen.
"There was one man I liked. He was not a warrior, or I should have
hated him, but he was brought up with me in my father's house, and was a
near relative. I was grave and full of pride, he was gay and fond of
music; and although there was no music to me equal to the tom-tom, yet I
did not always wish for excitement. I often was melancholy, and then I
liked to lay my head in the lap of one of my wives, under the shady
forest behind my house, and listen to his soft music. At last he went
to a town near us where his father lived, and as he departed I gave him
gold-dust. He had been sent to my father to be formed into a warrior,
but he had no strength of body, and he had no soul; still I loved him
because he was not like myself. There was a girl in the town who was
beautiful; many asked for her as their wife, but her father had long
promised her to my friend; he refused even the greatest warrior of the
place, who went away in wrath to the fetish-man, and throwing him his
gold armlets asked for a fetish against his rival. It was given, and
two days before he was to be married my friend died. His mother came to
me, and it was enough. I put on my war dress, I seized my weapons, sat
for a whole day with my skulls before me, working up my revenge, called
out my men, and that night set off for the town where the warrior
resided, killed two of his relatives and carried off ten of his slaves.
When he heard what I had done, he trembled and sent gold; but I knew
that he had taken the girl home as his wife, and I would not listen to
the old man who sought to pacify me. Again I collected a larger force,
and attacked him in the night: we fought, for he was prepared with his
men, but after a struggle he was beaten back. I fired his house, wasted
his provision ground, and taking away more slaves, I returned home with
my men, intending soon to assault him again. The next day there came
more messengers, who knelt in vain, so they went to my father, and many
warriors begged him to interfere. My father sent for me, but I would
not listen; the warriors spoke, and I turned my back: my father was
wroth and threatened, the warriors brandished their two-handed swords--
they dared to do it; I looked over my shoulder with contempt, and I
returned to my house. I took down my skulls, and I planned. It was
evening, and I was alone, when a woman covered up to the eyes
approached; she fell down before me as she exposed her face.
"`I am the girl who was promised to your relation, and I am now the wife
of your enemy. I shall be a mother. I could not love your relation,
for he was no warrior. It is not true that my husband asked for a
fetish--it was I who bought it, for I would not wed him. Kill me and be
satisfied.'
"She was very beautiful, and I wondered not that my enemy loved her--and
she was with child--it was his child, and she had fetished my friend to
death. I raised my sword to strike, and she did not shrink: it saved
her life. `Thou art fit to be the mother of warriors,' said I, as I
dropped my sword, `and thou shalt be my wife, but first his child shall
be born, and I will have thy husband's skull.'
"`No, no,' replied she, `I will be the mother of no warriors but my
present husband, whom I love; if you keep me as your slave I will die.'
"I told her she said foolish things, and sent her to the women's
apartment, with orders to be watched--but she hardly had been locked up
before she drew her knife, plunged it into her heart, and died.
"When the king my father heard this he sent me a message--`Be satisfied
with the blood that has been shed, it is enough'--but I turned away, for
I wished for mine enemy's skull. That night I attacked him again, and
met him hand to hand; I killed him, and carried home his skull, and I
was appeased.
"But all the great warriors were wroth, and my father could not restrain
them. They called out their men, and I called out my men, and I had a
large body, for my name was terrible. But the force raised against me
was twice that of mine, and I retreated to the bush--after a while we
met and fought and I killed many, but my men were too few and were
overpowered--the fetish had been sent out against me, and their hearts
melted; at last I sank down with my wounds, for I bled at every pore,
and I told my men who were about me to take off my feathers, and my
dress and boots, that my enemies might not have my skull: they did so,
and I crawled into the bush to die. But I was not to die; I was
recovering, when I was discovered by those who steal men to sell them: I
was bound, and fastened to a chain with many more. I, a prince and a
warrior, who could show the white skulls of his enemies--I offered to
procure gold, but they derided me; they dragged me down to the coast,
and sold me to the Whites. Little did I think, in my pride, that I
should be a slave. I knew that I was to die, and hoped to die in
battle: my skull would have been more prized than all the gold in the
earth, and my skin would have been stuffed and hung up in a
fetish-house--instead of which, I now boil the kettle for the young
gentlemen."
"Well," replied Jack, "that's better than being killed and stuffed."
"Mayhap it is," replied Mesty, "I tink very different now dan I tink
den--but still, its women's work and not suit me.
"They put me with others into a cave until the ship came, and then we
were sent on board, put in irons, and down in the hold, where you could
not sit upright--I wanted to die, but could not: others died every day,
but I lived--I was landed in America, all bone, and I fetched very
little money--they laughed at me as they bid their dollars: at last a
man took me away, and I was on a plantation with hundreds more, but too
ill to work, and not intending to work. The other slaves asked me if I
was a fetish-man; I said yes, and I would fetish any man that I did not
like: one man laughed, and I held up my finger; I was too weak to get
up, for my blood had long boiled with fever, and I said to him, `_you
shall die_;' for I meant to have killed him, as soon as I was well. He
went away, and in three days he was dead. I don't know how, but all the
slaves feared me, and my master feared me, for he had seen the man die,
and he, although he was a white man, believed in fetish, and he wished
to sell me again, but no one would buy a fetish-man, so he made friends
with me; for I told him, if I was beat he should die, and he believed
me. He took me into his house, and I was his chief man, and I would not
let the other slaves steal, and he was content. He took me with him to
New York, and there after two years, when I had learned English, I ran
away, and got on board of an English ship--and they told me to cook. I
left the ship as soon as I came to England, and offered myself to
another, and they said they did not want a cook; and I went to another,
and they asked me if I was a good cook: everybody seemed to think that a
black man must be a cook, and nothing else. At last I starve, and I go
on board man-of-war, and here I am, after having been a warrior and a
prince, cook, steward and everyting else, boiling kettle for de young
gentlemen."
"Well," replied Jack, "at all events that is better than being a slave."
Mesty made no reply: any one who knows the life of a midshipman's
servant will not be surprised at his silence.
"Now, tell me, do you think you were right in being so revengeful, when
you were in your own country?" inquired Jack.
"I tink so den, Massa Easy, sometimes when my blood boil, I tink so
now--oder time, I no know what to tink--but when a man love very much,
he hate very much."
"But you are now a Christian, Mesty."
"I hear all that your people say," replied the negro, "and it make me
tink--I no longer believe in fetish, anyhow."
"Our religion tells us to love our enemies."
"Yes, I heard parson say dat--but den what we do with our friends, Massy
Easy?"
"Love them too."
"I no understand dat, Massa Easy--I love you, because you good, and
treat me well--Mr Vigors, he bully, and treat me ill--how possible to
love him? By de power, I hate him, and wish I had him _skull_. You
tink little Massa Gossett love him?"
"No," replied Jack, laughing, "I'm afraid that he would like to have his
skull as well as you, Mesty--but at all events we must try and forgive
those who injure us."
"Then, Massa Easy, I tink so too--too much revenge very bad--it very
easy to hate, but not very easy to forgive--so I tink that if a man
forgive he hab _more soul_ in him, he more of a _man_."
"After all," thought Jack, "Mesty is about as good a Christian as most
people."
"What that?" cried Mesty, looking out of the cabin window--"Ah! damn
drunken dogs--they set fire to tent."
Jack looked, and perceived that the tent on shore was in flames.
"I tink these cold nights cool their courage any how," observed
Mesty--"Massa Easy, you see they soon ask permission to come on board."
Jack thought so too, and was most anxious to be off, for, on looking
into the lockers in the state-room, he had found a chart of the
Mediterranean, which he had studied very attentively--he had found out
the rock of Gibraltar, and had traced the _Harpy's_ course up to Cape de
Gatte, and thence to Tarragona--and, after a while, had summoned Mesty
to a cabinet council.
"See, Mesty," said Jack, "I begin to make it out; here is Gibraltar, and
Cape de Gatte, and Tarragona--it was hereabout we were when we took the
ship, and, if you recollect, we had passed Cape de Gatte two days before
we were blown off from the land, so that we had gone about twelve
inches, and had only four more to go."
"Yes, Massa Easy, I see all dat."
"Well, then, we were blown off shore by the wind, and must of course
have come down this way; and here you see are three little islands,
called Zaffarine Islands, and with no names of towns upon them, and
therefore uninhabited; and you see they lie just like the islands we are
anchored among now--we must be at the Zaffarine Islands--and only six
inches from Gibraltar."
"I see, Massa Easy, dat all right--but six debbelish long inches."
"Now, Mesty, you know the compass on the deck has a flourishing thing
for the north point--and here is a compass with a north point also. Now
the north point from the Zaffarine Islands leads out to the Spanish
coast again, and Gibraltar lies five or six points of the compass to
this side of it--if we steer that way we shall get to Gibraltar."
"All right, Massa Easy," replied Mesty; and Jack was right, with the
exception of the variation, which he knew nothing about.
To make sure, Jack brought one of the compasses down from deck, and
compared them. He then lifted off the glass, counted the points of the
compass to the westward, and marked the corresponding one on the
binnacle compass with his pen.
"There," said he, "that is the way to Gibraltar, and as soon as the
mutiny is quelled, and the wind is fair, I'll be off."