PURSUIT AGAIN.
Without pausing for a moment to express friendly or other signs, we
rushed down with headlong speed towards the creek, where the canoes
lay beached upon the thick fringe of mangrove leaves, and eight of
the sixteen hunters pursued us; but notwithstanding the swiftness of
foot they possessed--a swiftness acquired by a savage and roving
life--we distanced them with ease, for despair seemed to lend us the
strength and speed of ostriches as we rushed towards the beach.
An asseguy, aimed with almost fatal precision, glanced over my left
shoulder, and shivered as it sank into the turf beyond me. Then a
war-club, thrown with fatal force and dexterity, struck poor Hartly
between the shoulders, and nearly prostrated him; but in less than
two minutes we were in the creek, and had one of the largest canoes
afloat.
"In, in, Jack--leap in!" cried Hartly, while he lightly and adroitly
pushed the other three into the water, and setting them all afloat to
cut off pursuit, sprang in after me.
His presence of mind was most fortunate, for on the steep brow of an
eminence which overhung the creek on the side opposite to our more
immediate pursuers, there suddenly burst a storm of shrill yells and
discordant shouts, mingled with the beating of tum-tums and the
snorting of ferocious dogs, as a number of Benin savages, who
doubtless had tracked us thither with the most fell intentions,
rushed to the shore in pursuit--but thank Heaven, happily too late!
Hartly's sinewy hand had shot two of the canoes some thirty yards or
so from the beach; and while towing a third by its bow-knob, he
proceeded to row most vigorously with one of the spade-like paddles
which lay in our craft.
Ere we got out of the wooded creek its water smoked and boiled under
the shower of missiles--arrows, asseguys, clubs, and stones--which
were sent after us, while five negroes and several dogs plunged in to
pursue or to slay.
These tracking dogs were animals of strange aspect--sharp-nosed, with
skins spotted black and white, or red--they had slender legs, sharp
tusks, and a low, but ferocious bark.
While four of the negroes busied themselves in bringing back the
drifting canoes--an operation during which one of them was shot by
the musket of some blundering comrade--the fifth, a man of fierce and
resolute bearing, having red and yellow circles painted round his
eyes, and a knife in his teeth, swam after us, accompanied by a dog,
the most formidable of the whole.
Swiftly though our canoe shot through the water, and vigorously
though we paddled, they were soon alongside of us. The dog had his
fore paws, and the man his black hands, upon the gunnel at the same
moment.
The time was painfully critical!
I struck the dog with my paddle, and broke both his fore legs; unable
to swim, he floated away sinking, yelping, and drowning; while Hartly
relinquishing the canoe he was towing, dealt the painted savage--in
whom I recognised Amoo, my former master--a tremendous blow on the
head. Though the latter proved _harder_ than the hard wood paddle,
which was split and splintered, Amoo sank with a yell of rage and
pain.
After the danger was past, I was pleased to see that he rose to the
surface again and reached the shore; for this negro chief was not, in
some respects, and apart from a general inclination to homicide,
ungenerous.
The three canoes were quickly crowded by armed warriors, and rowed
out of the creek at a speed that bade fair soon to overhaul us,
though we paddled away, each on his own side, with all the rapidity
our strength and our desperation enabled as to exert.
We were now entirely clear of the creek, and about a quarter of a
mile from the shore, when a hearty English cheer rang across the
water towards us.
On turning and looking ahead, we saw two large and well-manned boats,
which had been put off from the ship (the craft nearest the shore),
pulled rapidly towards us; while two rifles from the headmost one
were discharged into the canoes, as a hint for their owners to sheer
off, which they immediately did with great expedition.
We were soon alongside of the nearest boat, the crew of which pulled
us on board, canoe and all, continuing to cheer the while so lustily,
that some time elapsed before we could inform them that we were
countrymen.
The steersman then inquired whether there were any more fugitives
ashore.
We replied "No;" on which the boat's head was turned towards the
ship; the oars again fell into the water, and the creek soon lessened
and melted, as it were, into the general scenery of the wooded shore.
The vessel by which we were so providentially rescued, proved to be
the _Havelock_, of London, a fine clipper ship of a thousand tons
register, belonging, by a singular coincidence, to my father--at
least, to the firm of Manly and Skrew, homeward bound from the Cape;
but which had been, like the barque of poor Captain Baylis, driven
out of her course by the hurricane of the other night, and had
anchored in the Bight to procure fresh water, and repair some
trifling damages.
Soon her spars and hull (old England's wooden wall), a welcome sight,
rose higher from the water as we pulled towards her; and as they
rose, the low, level, and marshy shore we had left, with all its
mangrove creeks and reedy lagunes--its wildernesses of giant leaves,
and long and fibrous creepers--its dense jungles, where serpents
hissed, monkeys chattered, and crocodiles laid their eggs; where the
great yellow gourd and coarse serrated grass flourished under the
feathery palm and broad baobab trees, amid slime and miasma, that
carry death to the vitals of the European--soon all these diminished
and sank astern, as our boat sped through the shining sea; and, ere
long, Robert Hartly and I shook each other's hands with honest warmth
and joy, when we found ourselves among our own countrymen, treading a
deck of good English oak, with the old scarlet bunting floating from
the peak halyards above us.
Three days the _Havelock_ remained in the bay; and during that time,
you may be assured, neither Hartly nor I had any wish to venture on
shore.
I shall never forget the glow of happiness that thrilled through me,
when, on the third evening, the Captain gave orders to hoist the
boats on board and prepare for sea.
"Man the windlass!" was the cry; "hands, up anchor!"
The bars were inserted by sturdy hands in the huge beam, and then the
pauls clattered cheerily, while the iron cable rattled as it was
dragged aft along the deck, and soon the great clipper ship came
round with her head to the wind.
"Cast loose the courses; away aloft--shake out the topsails, and let
fall!"
And anon the snowy canvas fell like white curtains on the lower
spars, as the topsail yards ascended to the crosstrees.
"Heave on the cable--weigh!" was the next order.
Tight as if its iron rings would snap like pack-thread grew the
mighty chain, for strong hands and muscular arms were tugging with
united strength at the bars of bending ash.
"Together, lads--together--hurrah!" cried Hartly, who had supplied
himself with a handspike.
"Uptorn, reluctant, from its oozy cave,
The ponderous anchor rises o'er the wave."
And soon the great iron flukes were dripping with glittering brine,
as the ring rattled at the cathead; then the yards were trimmed; the
larboard tacks were brought on board, and with a fine spanking
breeze, that came from the burning shores of Benin, our fleet clipper
ship bore away for Old England.
* * * * *
CONCLUSION.
Such were my adventures in the lands of snow and sunshine--the
latitudes of ice and fire!
On the 17th of December, exactly nine months after the day on which
Hartly and I had sailed through the Narrows of St. John, we found
ourselves bowling along the crowded and busy streets of London in a
hackney cab, with our African canoe--all the property we
possessed--lashed on the roof thereof.
We separated for a time at the Bank; he to look after another ship,
and I--like he of old, who came to the husks and the swine trough--to
return to my father's house at Peckham (a tamer and wiser youth than
when I left it) and to the circle of my family, who had long since
gone into mourning for me.
I am delighted to add that my worthy Robert Hartly soon got another
vessel. As sole survivors of the crew of the _Leda_, we obtained,
after a world of trouble with the Red-tapists of the Circumlocution
Office, the 500_l._ offered by the Governor of Newfoundland for the
destruction of the _Black Schooner_.
My share I made over to Hartly, who invested it in the capital of his
new owner.
He still preserves, with religious care, the ring of old Mother
Jensdochter; and undeterred by all he has undergone, sails from
Blackwall for China on the 10th of next month.
THE END.