server on board the _York_ man-of-war. In 1726 he went with Sir
John Jennings to Lisbon and Gibraltar. Next he served on board the
_Experiment_ under Captain Radish; but his taste for the sea failed for
a while, and he was lured by the superior attractions of a puppet-show
to engage with the proprietor, named Churchill, and to play the trumpet
at his performances. During four years he travelled with the show,
then tiring of dancing dolls, reverted to woolcombing and dyeing at
Trowbridge. But a travelling menagerie was too much for him, and he
followed that as trumpeter for four years. In 1741, he left the wild
beasts and entered as trumpeter on board the _Revenge_ privateer,
Captain Wemble, commander, who was going on a cruise against the
Spaniards. The privateer fell in with a Spanish vessel from Malaga, and
gave chase. She made all the sail she could, but in four or five hours
the _Revenge_ came up with her. “We fir’d five times at her. She had
made everything ready to fight us, but seeing the number of our hands
(which were one hundred in all, though three parts of them were boys)
she at length brought to. We brought the captain and mate on board our
ship, and put twelve men on board theirs, one of which was the master,
and our captain gave him orders to carry her into Plymouth.” Of the
prize-money Wyatt got forty shillings. The capture did not prove to be
as richly laden as had been anticipated.
We need not follow his adventures in the privateer, though they are
interesting enough, and give a lively picture of the audacity of these
venturers, till we come to his capture. The _Revenge_ was cruising
about among the Canary Islands, when a Spanish vessel ran for Teneriffe
from Palma, and was at once pursued. She sped for Gomera, but unable to
weather the point came to anchor within half a cable’s length of the
shore. She was a bark of sixty tons burthen, and as the _Revenge_ drew
more water and the captain feared sunken rocks, he ordered the yawl to
be hoisted out and to be manned with eleven hands.
[Illustration: James Wyat Ætat. 40.
_Reproduced from the frontispiece to “The Life and Surprizing
Adventures of James Wyatt, Written by Himself,” 1755_]
“We were three hours after we left the ship before we got within
musket-shot of the bark. Our master ask’d us if we were all willing
to board her. We answered, one and all, we were. We saw twelve men
ashore, and made directly towards them. Our master said, ‘My boys,
the bark’s our own, for these men belong’d to her, but have left her;
let us give them one volley, and then board the bark.’ We had two
brass blunderbusses, mounted on swivels, in the bow of the boat. Our
master stepp’d forward to one of them himself, and order’d me to the
other. We had no sooner discharged the blunderbusses, but two or three
hundred men came from behind the rocks. We had been so long getting to
the bark that the men belonging to her, unknown to us, had got out of
her, gone up country, and brought these people to their assistance. Our
blunderbusses being discharged, the men from behind the rocks kept up a
constant fire at us; and, at the very first fire, our master received
a ball just above his right eye, and another went almost through my
right shoulder. We rowed directly to the bark. The lieutenant, myself,
and four more leapt into her, and those that were in the boat handed in
our arms. As soon as we were in the bark, the lieutenant order’d one of
our men to take a pole-axe and cut the cable, saying she would drive
off. I told him if the cable was cut she would certainly drive ashore,
for she was then almost upon the breakers. He seem’d a little angry at
what I said, though had my advice been followed, it had been better for
us all; for, as soon as the cable was cut, she turn’d broadside to the
sea, and in a few minutes after struck ashore against the rocks.
“By the bark’s swinging round, our boat was exposed to the fire of the
enemy; upon which Mr. Perry, our master-at-arms (he had been organist
at Ross parish church) order’d the three men in the boat to row off. In
less than a minute I saw Mr. Perry drop to the bottom of the boat, shot
through the heart.
“While the Spaniards were firing at our boat, we that were in the bark
kept firing at them. We fired as fast as possible, and threw all our
hand-granades ashore, which did some execution. Our lieutenant being
shot, and our powder almost exhausted, we laid down our arms. As soon
as the Spaniards saw this, they came on board us. The first man they
saw was our lieutenant, who, although he was dead, they began to cut in
a very cruel manner. The next man they came to was William Knock, whom
they butcher’d in a most barbarous manner, several of them cutting him
with their long hooks at once, though he cry’d out for mercy all the
time. In the same manner they serv’d all in the bark but myself.
“Being in the bow of the bark, seeing their cruelty to our men, and
expecting the same fate every moment, I took the blunderbuss which I
had in one hand, and laid it on a pease cask, being unable to hold it
high enough to fire, as the ball remain’d still in my right shoulder.
When I saw them coming towards me, I rais’d it up with all my might, as
though I was going to fire it at them, upon which they all ran to the
other side of the bark, and from thence leapt ashore.
“At that very instant a great sea came in, and turned the bark on one
side, with her keel towards the shore. This gave me an opportunity of
pulling off my clothes and jumping into the water, in order to swim to
my ship. As soon as they saw me they began to fire at me from every
side. Five small shot lodg’d between my shoulders, three in the poll of
my neck, and one ball graz’d my left shoulder; besides the ball which I
had before receiv’d in my right shoulder.
“I kept on swimming till I was out of the reach of their balls; and
I should have been able to have swam to our own ship, had not the
Spaniards launch’d their boat and come after me. As soon as they came
up to me, one of the men who stood in the bow of the boat, and had a
half-pike in his hand, pointed towards me and said in the Spanish
language, ‘Down, down, you English dog.’ Then they pulled me into the
boat. As I stood upright in the boat, one of the Spaniards struck me a
blow on the breast with such violence, that it beat me backwards, and
I fell to the bottom of the boat; after which they row’d ashore. When
they came ashore, they haul’d me out of the boat as though I had been
a dog; which I regarded not at the time, being very weak and faint
with swimming and the loss of blood. On their bringing me ashore, the
enraged multitude crowded round me, and carried me a little way from
the place where they had landed; they placed me against a rock to shoot
me, and threatened to run me through with a half-pike if I offered to
stir.
“While I was plac’d against the rock, and expecting death every moment,
I saw a gentleman expostulating with the mob, and endeavouring to
prevail with them to spare my life. After a small time he came directly
to me and said in English, ‘Countryman, don’t be afraid; they want to
kill you, but they shall not.’ He then turn’d his back to me, stood
close before me, opened his breast, and said if they shot me they
should shoot him likewise.”
His preserver was an Irishman, named William Ryan, who spoke Spanish
fluently, and had been in the bark on his way to Santa Cruz in
Teneriffe. He was apparently a man who had lived some time in the
Canaries, and had been a trader. He was very kind to James Wyatt, gave
him some clothes, and washed his wounds with brandy.
After that he was taken to Gomera, where the deputy-governor lived, and
by means of an interpreter Wyatt was able to explain to him that he
was in great pain and had a ball in his shoulder. The deputy-governor
sent for a barber, who with a razor cut across the wound this way and
that till he saw the ball, which he hooked out with a bent nail. The
ball had gone eight inches through the fleshy part of the shoulder
and was lodged against the bone. From Gomera Wyatt was sent by boat
to Teneriffe to the head governor, who received and examined him. The
governor’s mother took compassion on him, saw that he was well fed, and
sent a proper surgeon to dress his wounds, and made him a present of
three shirts and two handkerchiefs to make into a sling for his arm.
Next day the kind old lady sent him a pair of silk stockings, a hat, a
black silk waistcoat, and a dollar in money.
Wyatt was now transferred to the castle at Laguna, above Santa Cruz,
where he found five-and-twenty English prisoners, among whom was a
physician, Dr. Ross. It was some time before he was healed of his
wounds, but eventually did recover.
One day a man came to the castle with a drum on his back, and Wyatt
at once asked him to be allowed to beat it. To this he consented, and
Wyatt beat a march. Though not a skilled drummer, his performance
greatly delighted the owner of the drum, and he rushed off to an
acquaintance, a gentleman, to announce that among the English prisoners
was the first drummer in the world.
The gentleman was much excited and sent for him, and was delighted.
After that at every dinner party, entertainment, gathering, Wyatt was
in requisition to rattle the drum, on which occasions he received
little sums of money, which he employed in relieving the needs of his
fellow prisoners.
After he had been twenty-eight days in the castle he was sent for to
Santa Cruz to the general, who had heard that he drummed, and was eager
to hear the performance. This pleased him so well that he asked Wyatt
if he would teach the black boy of a friend of his how to handle the
drum-sticks. Wyatt consented, and thus obtained much liberty, for the
owner of the black boy, whom he called Don Mathias Caster, took him
into his own house. As instructing the boy did not occupy the whole
of Wyatt’s time, he resolved on turning his knowledge of dyeing to
advantage. The Spanish love black; and as the gentleman told him, black
cloaks and dresses in the sun and with the dust soon turned rusty. He
gave him an old kettle and lent him an outhouse, and Wyatt converted
the latter into a dye-house and re-dyed the cloth garments of most of
the gentlemen of Santa Cruz, and received from each a remuneration.
Dr. Ross had been released from prison on condition that he set up as
a physician in Santa Cruz, where the Spanish doctors were ignorant and
unsuccessful. But Ross had no house to go into. He consulted Wyatt.
“I will build you one of wood,” said this Jack-of-all-trades. “I know
something of carpentering.” Accordingly he set to work, built a shanty,
painted it gaily, enclosed a garden, surrounded it with a palisade, and
dug the ground up for flowers and vegetables and herbs.
A Spanish gentleman was so delighted with the house of Dr. Ross that
he asked Wyatt to build him one. Wyatt agreed, but in the midst of the
work was arrested by soldiers from Grand Canary and conveyed thither to
be examined by the Inquisition, which supposed him to be a Freemason.
He had happily provided himself with letters of recommendation from
a number of leading men in the isle of Teneriffe to whom he had done
services, and in return for blackening their suits they did their best
to whiten his character. After several hearings he was discharged, but
one unfortunate Englishman languished for two years in their dungeons,
labouring under the suspicion of being a Freemason.
On his return to Santa Cruz, Wyatt completed the house on which he had
begun, and then looked about for more work. Don Mathias Caster said to
him one day, “Our hats cost us a deal of money and soon get shabby.” “I
know how to dye, and I know something about the hatting trade,” said
Wyatt promptly, “for when I was an apprentice, there was a hatter next
door, and I kept my eyes open and watched his proceedings.”
Accordingly Don Mathias gave him one of his old hats to dress. Wyatt
immediately had a hat-block made, dyed the hat, cleaned the lace, and
carried it to the Don the same day.
“When I show’d it to him, he was surpriz’d to see how well I had made
it look. He told me, if I would do other gentlemen’s hats as well as I
had done his, I might get an estate in a few years, and that he would
help me to business enough.” That same evening in came two hats, next
morning five--and then they rained on him, and he charged half a dollar
for renovating each. He had soon realized £20.
One night he was roused by the cry of fire, and running out saw a crowd
standing gaping at the house of the Portuguese consul that was on fire
in the top story. No one did anything--there was no one to take the
lead, and the family was fast asleep within. Wyatt got a crowbar and
an axe, broke down the door, and rescued the consul and his wife and
all the family save one child that was burnt. The fire rapidly spread,
as the houses were of wood, to the next house belonging to the French
consul. He and his were rescued. The next, but not adjoining, house
was that of the general. But what intervened made its destruction
probable, for this was a cellar full of brandy and rum casks. The
general’s house had a flat roof. Wyatt organized a chain of water
carriers, and standing on the roof poured water incessantly over the
side of the house licked by the flames, and this he continued to do
till the fire burnt itself out.
Next day the general sent for him, thanked him for having saved his
house, and presented him with a passport authorizing him to carry on
his trade and travel freely between the seven islands.
In the beginning of June, 1742, an English vessel was brought into
harbour, the _Young Neptune_, Captain Winter, that had been captured
by a Spanish privateer. Wyatt soon became intimate with the captain
and his mate, and after a while they confided to him a plan they had
discussed of escaping to Madeira, whence they could easily obtain a
passage to England or Holland. The scheme was that he, Winter, the
captain, Burroughs, the mate, and four other Englishmen should steal
a boat from a galleon laid up in the bay and make their escape in
the night. Wyatt eagerly agreed to be one of the party; and the plan
was carried into effect on the 29th of June. There were seven in
the boat, the captain and mate aforenamed, Smith, Swanwick, Larder,
Newell, and Wyatt. The boat had five oars and a sprit-sail. The
captain had a compass, but no quadrant. At first the wind blew fair,
but speedily turned to the contrary direction desired, so that all
hopes of making Madeira had to be abandoned. The wind rose to a gale
and the men were worn out with bailing. They had to clear the boat of
water with two pails and their hats. On 2 July they sighted a point of
land which they took to be Cape Bojadore, and they steered south in
hopes of reaching Gambia. On 7 July they saw a low sandy island, and
a sloop ashore, and made at once for land. On disembarking they were
surrounded by a swarm of Moors and negroes, the former of whom could
speak a little Portuguese, and two of them spoke broken English. Wyatt
and the rest were conducted inland to where there was a village of
squalid huts. Here they were given some fish and a little water. They
speedily discovered that the Moors had no intention of letting them go
to Gambia, but purposed making off with their boat and leaving them
to perish on the island where there was no water, all that was used
having to be brought in skins from the mainland. Presently a number
of the Moors departed in the boat of the Europeans, leaving behind
only one large boat that was rotten, and a small one; and some of the
Moors remained to see that the English carpenter repaired the decayed
vessel, intending when that was done to leave the Europeans behind.
These consulted and resolved on getting possession of the little boat
and escaping in it. As a precaution they contrived to get hold of the
fishing spears of the Moors, so that these might have as few weapons as
possible, should it come to a fight.
The carpenter then, with the tools that had been given to him for the
purpose of repairing the large boat, set to work to knock holes in her
bottom, so that she might not be used in pursuit.
Then the little party, having got together, made for the small boat.
“I had got the hammer and the adze, the carpenter had the hatchet, and
the rest of our people had fishing spears. The Moors, perceiving us
make towards the boat, ran between that and us, in order to prevent our
getting into her. This began the fight, for the carpenter beat Marta
into the water, which was about three feet deep, with the hatchet,
and Duckamar presently after him. I struck Mahomet with the adze, and
took off a piece of flesh and part of his ear. In an instant every one
was out of their huts, and pulling them down in order to get sticks to
fight us. Seeing this, we ran to the assistance of our countrymen as
fast as we could, leaving the two Moors that fell into the water for
dead.
“The Moors came very near us with the sticks they pulled out of their
huts, and threw them at us, one of which hit Robert Larder and broke
his thumb. One of our men, looking round, saw the two Moors who we
thought were dead standing up against the side of the boat. Upon his
saying they were there, I ran towards them, having still the hammer in
one hand and the adze in the other. When they saw me coming, they ran
round the boat, got to their companions, and fought as well as though
they had not been hurt.
“We were obliged to keep our ground, for fear some of the Moors should
get into the little boat, in which we intended to make our escape, and
which was not an hundred yards behind us. At length one of the Moors
came running behind Mr. Burroughs, and gave him a terrible blow on the
head with a stick. Mr. Burroughs immediately turned round and struck
at him, but missed him. The man ran directly up the island; and Mr.
Burroughs, in the hurry not thinking of the consequence, ran after him.
We kept calling to him to come back to us, when, on a sudden, the Moors
took to their heels and ran after him. Some of them presently came up
with him, knocked him down with their sticks, and cut his throat from
ear to ear. Some of them then turned back and made towards their little
boat, thinking to have got her off in order to prevent our escape. As
soon as we saw that, we all ran as fast as possible to secure the
boat. As I was the nearest to the boat I got soonest to her; but there
was one of the Moors had got to the boat before me, and was getting up
her side. I gave him a blow on his back with the hammer; upon which he
let go his hold and fell into the water. As he was falling I hit him
another blow on the head; upon which he fell under the boat, and rose
on the other side.
“While we were in the fight, three of our men got into the boat, and
kept calling to the rest to come in likewise; which at length we did,
retreating all the way with our faces towards the Moors. When we came
to the boat, the other three, with the fishing spears, kept off the
Moors till we got in, cut the grappling loose, and drove away with the
tide.”
It was not possible to get far in this little boat, and the party made
for the mainland, where they were at once set upon by other Moors,
who stripped them of their shirts, and held them prisoners till those
from the island arrived, and these latter fell on them and beat and
trampled on them unmercifully, and would have cut their throats had not
the mainland Moors restrained them by saying that the King or Sultan
of the Gum Coast must be informed that there were European prisoners
there, and that he would decide what was to be done with them. They
were then tied in pairs back to back and carried back to the island,
where they were cast on the floor of a tent, and left thus without food
or water for four days. After that they were sparingly fed, untied,
and made to work as slaves. After some weeks an officer called Abede
arrived with nineteen men, reviewed them, and left. As soon as he was
gone Swanwick, the carpenter, was taken away by the island Moors, and
no tidings of what became of him ever reached the rest. Sixteen days
after the officer had left he returned with orders from the King or
Sultan that all who remained of the prisoners were to be transferred to
the mainland and conducted across the desert to the French factory at
Senegal, where he hoped to receive pay from the French for surrendering
them.
The party had been taken prisoners by the Moors on 7 July, 1742, and
they were not released and committed to the charge of Abede till
13 November, so that they had remained in durance and in miserable
condition for four months and six days. At one time, when deprived of
their shirts and exposed to the sun, their faces and bodies were so
blistered that they were unable to recognize each other, save by their
voices. They had now a long and painful journey over the desert, under
the charge of Abede, that lasted till the 23rd December, when they were
near Senegal, and Abede dispatched a messenger to the French factors to
announce that the European prisoners were at hand, and to bargain for a
sum to be paid for their release. They had been tramping over burning
sands, insufficiently fed, for forty days. Whilst waiting for news from
the factory the Moors killed an ox, and gave the head and guts to the
English prisoners. They boiled the meat on the sand and devoured it
greedily--it was the first flesh they had tasted for upwards of six
months.
“Sometime after we got some caravances. Having eaten no pulse for
several months, we hardly knew when we had enough. But we suffered
severely for it, for we were presently afterwards taken extremely ill.
The Moors seeing we were very bad, gave us the urine of goats to drink.
This purged us prodigiously, and we remained ill for several hours;
but, when it had worked off, we grew speedily well.”
Five days more elapsed before an answer arrived from the factory. On 28
December the messenger returned in a sloop sent from the factory to
bring the prisoners to Senegal. The captain brought clothes for them,
and gave them “an elegant entertainment, consisting of fowls, fresh
meat, etc.”
On 29 December they were conveyed to the factory at Senegal, and were
most kindly received by the French, and they remained there for a month
all but a day; and then were sent in a French sloop to Gambia, on 28
January, 1743, which they reached on 31 January. Gambia was an English
settlement, a fort, and a factory; and there also the poor fellows were
kindly and hospitably entertained, provided with money and all they
required.
The time of their sufferings was now over.
“The 1st February I went on board the _Robert_, Captain Dent,
commander, lying in Gambia River. He was hir’d by the African Company
and was laden with gum arabick, elephants’ teeth, bees-wax, &c. I told
him our case, and that I wanted to come to England; upon which he
kindly promised me, or all of us, if we were so disposed, our passage
to England _gratis_, provided we would work our way home. Captain
Winter, however, had business to transact in Jamaica, and preferred
to wait till a vessel would take him thither; two of the men remained
at Gambia, and the rest, saying that they had no homes or friends in
England, preferred to go to the West Indies and earn some money before
they returned to the right and tight little island.
“It was an unfortunate decision of Captain Winter. He and Larder sailed
in a schooner bound for Jamaica, but never reached his destination,
as the vessel was lost, and every one of the crew and passengers was
drowned.
“We set sail from Gambia the 3rd of February, 1743, and arrived in the
river Thames on the 16th of April following; so that we were just two
months and thirteen days in our passage to England.”
On the 29th May, 1741, James Wyatt had entered as trumpeter on board
the _Revenge_, privateer, and was away on her almost two years, during
which time he had undergone as many hardships as ever man did--enough
to break down the health of one who did not possess a constitution of
iron.
Wyatt now visited his friends, and was warmly welcomed, and all would
have given him money to start him in some business. One gentleman
offered to advance him a thousand pounds; but he declined these
generous offers. The French at Senegal and the English at Gambia had
been so liberal that he had enough for his purpose. He now bought an
electrical machine, and turned showman in London, giving people shocks
at a shilling a head. This answered for a while, and then public
interest in the machine slackened there, so he toured in the country.
“At some towns I scarce took money enough to bear my expenses, the
people not knowing the meaning of the word Electricity; nor would they
give the price I usually got in London; for, talking of a shilling each
person, frightened them out of their wits. In some towns in Kent I had
very good business, and saved a pretty deal of money; but, even then,
I was forced to lower my price. In these towns the people knew what it
meant, and that the thing was very curious and surprising. They came,
when the price was not so high, in great numbers, and sometimes many
miles, to be electrified.”
He remained in Kent two months and made twelve pounds. Then it occurred
to him that he would go with his battery to Jamaica, where the novelty
of the machine was certain to create a stir.
Whilst preparing for the voyage, he undertook to manufacture an optical
contrivance for a gentleman, and was well paid for it.
Then he bought a pair of gloves and abundance of clothes, as clothes he
learned were very dear in the West Indies.
“At length the time of the ship’s sailing being near at hand, I settled
my affairs, took my leave of my friends, and went on board the ship on
the 25th April, 1747.