As I turned to quit the cabin I suddenly became aware that a bell was
furiously jangling somewhere; and, dashing up the companion ladder to
the deck, I discovered that the sounds proceeded from the shore, where
lights were beginning to flash, one after the other, in rapid succession
until the whole settlement appeared to be awake and stirring.
"On deck, both of you, at once!" I shouted, sending my voice down
through the open companion. "Never mind about the hatch; leave
everything as it is, for the moment, and clap on to these main
halliards; there is an alarm of some sort ashore, and if it happens to
be that they have discovered me to be missing, they will come off to
this felucca the first thing. Yes, and by Jove, if I am not mistaken
there is a boat shoving off already. Look, lads,"--as the two men came
tumbling up on deck--"is that not the sparkle of oars in the water,
there, right in the heart of that deep shadow?"
"Ay, sir, it do look uncommon like it, and no mistake--yes; that's the
sea fire shinin' to the stroke of oars, right enough," exclaimed Cutler.
"And they're comin' along as though they meant business, too! Mr
Delamere, it'd be a good plan, sir, if you was to jump for'ard and cast
that cable off the bitts while Tom and me here sees about mastheadin'
this here yard; there won't be so very much room to spare atween us by
the time that this here hooker's paid off and gathered way."
"You are right, Joe, there will not," answered I; and, dashing forward
to the windlass bitts, I proceeded to throw off turn after turn of the
stiff hempen cable that held the felucca to her anchor, until the last
turn was gone and the flakes went writhing and twisting out through the
hawse-hole; then, as the end disappeared with a splash I dashed aft and
rammed the tiller hard over to port--noticing, as I did so, that a large
boat, pulling eight oars, was less than a hundred fathoms distant from
us, and coming up to us hand over hand. Then, catching a turn of the
main-sheet round a cleat, I jumped forward again to where the two seamen
were dragging desperately at the halliard which hoisted the heavy sail.
"Put your backs into it, men," I cried, as I tailed on to the fall of
the tackle; "there is a large boat close aboard of us! It will be
`touch and go' with us, even if we are able to scrape clear at all."
Fiercely we dragged at the fall of the fourfold tackle that formed the
working end of the halliard, and at each pull the great, heavy, swaying
yard slid a few inches up the short, thick mast, as though reluctantly,
while away on our weather quarter we heard the fierce shouts of the men
in the approaching boat as they encouraged each other, punctuated by the
quick jerk of the oars in the rowlocks, and the swish of the water as
the oar-blades clipped into it. With the passage of every second those
menacing sounds drew appreciably nearer, dominating even the thunderous
rustle and slatting of the sail that slowly climbed into the air over
our heads, while the felucca, now fast gathering stern-way, and at the
same time paying off, was driving steadily down toward the boat at a
rate that seemed to render our capture inevitable.
At length, with a final jerk that made the little craft tremble to her
keel, the big single sail filled, and the felucca careened to her
bearings, as her canvas caught the full pressure of the wind. At the
same instant I heard an oar-blade clatter as it was hastily laid in, and
an exultant cheer arise from immediately under our counter.
"Catch a turn with the halliards, quick, and then lay aft," I gasped.
"The villains are alongside, and will be in over our quarter before we
can do anything to prevent them if we are not smart."
As I spoke I passed the rope under, then over, a belaying-pin before
surrendering it to Cutler to complete the operation of belaying, and
then bounded aft, followed by Tom Brown, who had snatched a handspike
from the rack as he passed it. My first act was to drag the tiller over
to windward and pass a turn of the tiller rope round the head of it, to
help the felucca to pay off; for she was now gathering headway. Then I
sprang to the taffrail and looked over it. The pursuing boat had
actually overtaken us, and the man who pulled "bow," having laid in his
oar, had grabbed the gunwale of the small boat in which I had come off
from the shore--and which I had dropped astern upon boarding the
felucca--and was now hauling his own boat up alongside her, while some
half-dozen of his companions had risen to their feet and were scrambling
into the smaller boat, apparently with some idea of climbing aboard us
by shinning up her painter. But the felucca had by this time gathered
way, and was moving so fast through the water that it was as much as the
man could do to hold on, and quite beyond his power to haul the one boat
any closer to the other. For a couple of breathless seconds longer he
hung on desperately, and then, with a yell of savage disappointment, was
obliged to let go, while somebody in the stern--I fancy it must have
been Fernandez--seeing how things were going, shouted to the crew to
throw out their oars again and give way. But before this could be done
the big boat was half-a-dozen fathoms astern, and we were leaving her so
rapidly that for her to overtake us was a manifest impossibility.
Meanwhile the small boat, with six men in her, was towing astern of the
felucca, with her nose raised high in the air and the water bubbling and
boiling up to the level of the top of her transom, and even slopping in
over it occasionally, so that it was impossible for any of her occupants
to move, lest by so doing they should cause her to fill and swamp. The
said occupants therefore did what they could in the way of relieving
their feelings by vigorously anathematising us in good sonorous Spanish,
and explaining, in short, pithy sentences, the sort of treatment that we
might confidently look for when next they got us into their power. Then
one of them happened to remember that all this time a brace of loaded
pistols were sticking in his belt, whereupon he whipped them out and
blazed away at us, his companions promptly following suit, but, luckily,
without doing us the slightest injury.
By this time the felucca was rapidly nearing the weathermost extremity
of the island that guarded and masked the entrance of the bay, and
presently we weathered it handsomely and bore up to pass out to sea,
gliding between the two Heads a minute later. We were now fairly
outside, and with the first plunge of the little vessel's sharp stem
into the surges that met us as we swept into the open sea a yell of
dismay arose from the occupants of the boat astern, who cried out that
they were being swamped, and implored us, for the love of all the
saints, to cast them off before they were washed out and drowned. I
could not resist the temptation to retort that even, if that happened,
they would still be getting less than their deserts; then, adding that I
hoped I should soon have the pleasure of seeing them all hanged at
Gallows Point, I cast off the painter and set them adrift, leaving them
to get back into the cove as best they could, with only one pair of
small oars among them. We stood on, close-hauled, until we had gained
an offing of about three miles, when we put the helm down, tacked, and
lay-to, it being my intention to remain off the entrance of the pirates'
cove until daylight, in order that I might obtain bearings and
landmarks, which would enable me to identify the locality of the spot
upon my return to destroy the settlement--as I was determined to do.
It was well that I took this precaution, for when daylight came we found
that, so admirably had nature masked the cove, it was impossible for us
to discover it until we again stood close in; and even then we could by
no means make sure of the spot until we were within a cable's length of
it. Then, however, by means of a carefully taken set of compass
bearings, I obtained the means which would enable me to run in from a
distance and hit off the place with unerring precision.
We duly arrived in Port Royal harbour early on the fourth morning after
our escape from Pirate Cove--as by common consent we called it--our
passage being of a perfectly uneventful character. As may be supposed,
I kept a sharp lookout for the arrival of the Admiral from Kingston; and
the moment that his barge hove in sight I hailed a shore boat--the
felucca not possessing a boat of any kind--and landed for the purpose of
making my report.
He was surprised, but at the same time very pleased to see me, shaking
me warmly by the hand as the office messenger closed the door behind me,
after showing me into his presence.
"Well, youngster," he exclaimed, "I am very glad to see you back again,
all alive and kicking; for to tell you the truth you have been absent so
long that I had given you and the _Wasp_ up for lost. Well, and what
luck have you had? Strange that I did not notice the little schooner at
anchor as I came down; for I have been on the lookout for her now a long
while."
"Ah!" I replied; "I am grieved to say, Sir Peter, that you will never
again set eyes on the _Wasp_, for she lies at the bottom of the Sea of
Hayti, with all her crew, I am afraid, save myself and two others."
"Tut, tut, tut!" exclaimed the Admiral; "that is bad news indeed. Tell
me how it happened."
As briefly as possible I related the entire history of the cruise,
including my adventures upon the island of Hayti, and my escape from the
pirates, winding up by pointing out the felucca, which lay in full view
of the office window.
The old gentleman remained silent and sunk in deep thought for several
minutes after I had concluded my story, shaking his head occasionally as
he thought the matter over. At length, however, he looked up, and said:
"It is a sad business, very sad, losing all those poor fellows, but I do
not blame you, boy, in the least; you did what you could, and did it
very well, too! To fight and beat off so immensely superior a force as
that of the pirates was a very creditable feat, I consider; and all
might have been well had it not been for that gale springing up at so
inopportune a moment. Well, well, it cannot be helped; these things
happen sometimes, in spite of all that we can do. But there is
generally a lesson to be learned from every mishap, if we will but look
for it, and the lesson conveyed in this case is that we made a mistake
in the arming of the _Wasp_. Instead of fitting her with those six long
9-pounders, we ought to have mounted a long 18 and a long 32 upon her
deck, then you would have been able to play a game of long bowls with
the pirates and fight them upon practically equal terms. As it was, you
were badly peppered before you could reach her at all with your own
guns. Well, it cannot now be helped; the little hooker is gone, and
there's an end of it. Now, the thing to consider is what is next to be
done. What is your own idea? You have been among the rascals, and know
their strength; I suppose you have some sort of a notion of how they can
best be circumvented, eh?"
"Yes, sir," I said. "It seems to me that there are two ways of dealing
with the pirates. One way is, to waylay their schooner at sea, capture
her, and then go into the Cove and destroy the settlement. To do that
effectively we must have a vessel as fast, as heavily armed, and as
strongly manned as their own craft--"
"Which we don't happen to possess just now, worse luck!" cut in the
Admiral. "What is your other plan?"
I explained the alternative scheme--which I regarded as the more
effective of the two--in pretty full detail; and as I unfolded it I saw
the old gentleman's eyes begin to sparkle. When at length I came to an
end he dashed his fist down upon the table, and exclaimed with
enthusiasm:
"That's the plan, boy; that ought to do the trick! But I've no vessel
to spare you, so you'll have to take the felucca, and do the best you
can with her. Strictly speaking, you know, I ought to put you under
arrest, and not employ you again until after you have been tried for the
loss of the _Wasp_; but the circumstances are such that we cannot afford
to waste time in mere formalities just now; and I will take the
responsibility of sending you to sea again at once. You will be a bit
crowded aboard the little hooker, I'm afraid, but that can't be helped;
and if all goes well it ought not to be for long. Now, go and find
Carline, talk over the matter with him, and then come up to the Pen to
dinner to-night--seven o'clock, sharp--and report to me what you have
arranged."
I took the hint, and went, very well pleased, on the whole, with the
result of my interview. For I must confess that I had gone to that
interview not altogether without trepidation; it was quite possible--I
had told myself--that the Admiral might find fault with the manner in
which I had engaged the pirate schooner; he might have picked holes in
my tactics, or something of that sort; he might even have considered
that the _Wasp_ might have been saved, after the fight, had we acted
otherwise than we did; but, to my great relief, there was not a word of
blame from him; on the contrary, he had murmured a word or two of
approval here and there while I had been telling my tale, and was now
about to prove his undiminished confidence in me by entrusting me with
the command of another expedition against the same formidable foe. I
could not possibly have hoped for a more favourable reception.
I soon found the Master-Attendant, and inexorably button-holed him while
I explained what I wanted done, although the poor man was frightfully
busy just then, several ships being in harbour, refitting after having
been in action with the enemy. But, let him protest as he might, I
would not release him until he had agreed to do everything that I
required; the result being that when the dockyard men knocked off work
to go to dinner that day, the felucca was already alongside the wharf,
and more than half her ballast out of her; while, when the dockyard bell
rang at six o'clock that night, signalling the cessation of work for the
day, her hold had been swept clean, a quantity of dunnage laid in it,
and four 68-pounders stowed on the top thereof, well packed up all round
to prevent them from shifting when the craft was at sea. But although I
remained on the spot until the last moment, supervising matters in order
that everything might be done to my satisfaction, I still managed to
reach the Pen by seven o'clock--a smart sailing boat up to Kingston, and
a ketureen from thence out to the Pen being my means of conveyance.
Sir Peter was as much surprised as pleased when I reported to him the
amount of progress that I had made during the day.
"It is wonderful!" he exclaimed. "How in the world did you manage it?"
"Simply by sticking to the Master-Attendant, and so preventing him from
doing anything else until he had attended to my requirements," I
replied.
The Admiral laughed in enjoyment of the picture his mind conjured up of
the Master-Attendant vainly trying to shake me off.
"Poor Carline!" he remarked. "How he must have suffered before he could
bring himself to the point of setting aside all his other work to attend
to you. He is a good man, a most excellent fellow in every way; but he
has one fault--he allows himself to be too much trammelled by routine.
With him everything, irrespective of its importance, must be attended to
in its proper order; and now that you have jolted him out of his groove
it will be days before he will be able to get comfortably back into it."
I have no doubt Sir Peter was right, but I did not wait to see; all I
know is that by noon the next day I had brought the unhappy man into the
frame of mind that caused him to yield prompt attention to my
requirements, rather than waste valuable time in a fruitless endeavour
to evade them; with the result that, three days later, the felucca was
ready for the next expedition which I was to lead against the pirates.
The moment that my preparations were complete I reported to the Admiral,
and received his formal instructions to proceed to sea at once; and that
same evening we weighed and stood out of harbour with the first of the
land-breeze. We now had to make a passage to windward; and although I
hugged the southern coast of Jamaica as closely as I dared, thus
availing myself to the fullest possible extent of the land-breeze as far
as Morant Point, it was not until daybreak of the ninth day after
sailing from Port Royal that we arrived off the entrance to the Pirate
Cove. Here we were baffled for a couple of hours, waiting for the
springing up of the sea-breeze; but we caught the first breathing of it,
and took it in with us, arriving at the anchorage about one bell in the
forenoon watch.
My plan of campaign was perfectly simple. I intended to enter the Cove,
and, if the pirate schooner should happen to be in harbour, run straight
alongside her, and board before her crew should have time to clear away
their guns and bring them to bear upon the felucca.
I had a strong enough crew to do this, and had no doubt as to our
ability to carry the schooner in the face of the most determined
resistance that the pirates could offer. Then, the schooner captured
and her crew safely confined below, the establishment ashore would have
no alternative but to surrender at discretion, or be annihilated by the
schooner's guns. There was only one weak point that I could see in this
scheme, which was that a considerable number of the men constituting the
shore portion of the establishment might escape into the interior of the
island, unless some means were devised to prevent them. It was,
however, not very difficult to accomplish this; for it will be
remembered that there was but one way of entrance to--and egress from--
the Cove on the land side, namely, a narrow and very dangerous zigzag
path down the face of the perpendicular cliff, a gap in which, wide
enough to prevent all effectual possibility of passage that way, might
easily be made by the explosion of a bag of powder. The preparations
for the little expedition which was to accomplish this piece of work
were made during the time that we were lying becalmed off the mouth of
the Cove; and when at length we entered, a boat, containing four seamen
in charge of a midshipman, who had been most carefully instructed
concerning the precise nature of the duty which he was to perform, was
cast adrift, just inside the Heads, but outside the islet which masked
the entrance. While they pulled away for the shore we in the felucca
stood on into the Cove, every man of us with his sword or cutlass girded
to his waist, and a brace of loaded pistols thrust into his belt,
standing ready to leap aboard the schooner--should she happen to be in
the roadstead.
We had no sooner cleared the islet, however, and fairly entered the
Cove, than we discovered that the schooner was not in harbour, and that
consequently we should be obliged to adopt the modification of plan
which I had devised in view of such a very possible contingency. But
although the _Tiburon_ was not in the Cove, the anchorage was not
tenantless, a brig of some two hundred and seventy tons being moored
therein, while apparently every boat belonging to the settlement, as
well as her own, was passing to and fro between her and the shore, those
bound shoreward being loaded to the gunwale, while those coming from it
were light. At the first glimpse of this somewhat unexpected sight, I
jumped to the conclusion that the vessel was a prize; but almost
instantly I remembered that, in addition to the _Tiburon_, the pirates
owned a brig, by means of which they disposed of such captured booty as
they did not require for their own use, purchasing with the proceeds
other goods of which they stood in need; and I had very little doubt
that the craft before us was the brig in question. Be that as it might,
our first task was, obviously, to secure possession of the vessel; and
the felucca was accordingly at once headed for her.
So busily employed were the pirates aboard the brig in the task of
hoisting out cargo and striking it into the boats alongside that we were
quite half-way across the bay before they discovered our presence,
although the people ashore, who were unloading the boats, did their
utmost to warn their comrades, by hailing and pointing. But no sooner
was the felucca seen and recognised than the whole place was thrown into
a state of consternation. The alarm bell ashore was rung, the people
made a dash for their weapons, and then, tumbling the goods haphazard
out of the boats on to the sand, sprang in and pulled might and main for
the brig, while those on board her swarmed up out of the hold and down
over the side into the half-loaded or empty boats, and gave way for the
shore in a very panic of confusion.
But although the brig was moored well in, so that the boats passing to
and fro might have but a short distance to travel, we in the felucca
were alongside and had secured undisputed possession of the vessel
before the boats with their armed crews had traversed half the distance
between her and the shore; seeing which, the occupants paused and drew
together, as if to confer and to await further developments. Of this
brief pause we promptly availed ourselves by getting the brig under way
and working her and the felucca out toward the entrance, when, much to
our astonishment, the boats with one accord turned round and pulled back
to the beach. This unexpected action on their part was a great relief
to me, for I had fully expected that they would make a concerted effort
to recapture the brig, or the felucca, or both, by boarding, in which
case we should have had our hands full, and must almost certainly have
lost a few men. But probably they believed the felucca to be armed with
cannon, and fully expected to be received with liberal doses of grape
and canister, which would fully account for their sudden and unexpected
display of prudence. Be that as it may, we were allowed to work both
craft out to sea without molestation; when, having hurriedly overhauled
our prize and found that she was amply provisioned for a much longer
voyage than that to Port Royal, I put her in command of my second
midshipman, with a prize-crew of ten men, and, giving him instructions
to report to the Admiral without delay, dispatched him forthwith. Then,
transferring myself and the remainder of my following back to the
felucca, we re-entered the Cove and came to an anchor outside of but
close to the islet that masked the entrance, and in such a position that
the little craft could be warped right in alongside a bit of cliff that
dropped sheer down into the water. We had scarcely done this when a
deep, hollow _boom_, echoing and re-echoing along the face of the cliff
that enclosed the Cove, told us that the party which had been dispatched
to breach the road up the face of the cliff, and so cut off the retreat
of the pirates toward the interior of the island, had accomplished its
task.
Time was now all important to us; for, of course, we could not tell at
what moment Garcia, the arch-pirate, and his crew in the _Tiburon_,
might put in an appearance upon the scene; and we had a few very
important preparations to make before we could consider ourselves ready
to deal with him; therefore we had no sooner let go the felucca's anchor
than we lowered the only other boat that we had brought with us, and ran
warps away to the shore of the islet, securing them to such rocks as
were most convenient for our purpose. This done, we warped the little
craft right in alongside the cliff, and made her secure; after which our
next task was to carry ashore two stout hawsers which we had brought
with us for the purpose, and convey them to the top of the cliff under
which the felucca lay moored. Then we rigged a pair of sheers over the
vessel's hatchway, and proceeded to hoist our 68-pounders out of the
hold--one at a time, of course. Then, having got the first gun on
deck--already prepared in Port Royal dockyard, by being encased in a
stout cylindrical packing of planks--we passed the bights of our two
hawsers round it, one at each end, and with all hands tailing on--except
one, whom we set to watch as a sentinel--proceeded to parbuckle it up
the face of the cliff. It was a stiff job, but, all our preparations
having been made beforehand, everything went without a hitch; and when
we knocked off work for the night all four guns were landed, together
with their carriages; while, so far as we could discover, the pirates
ashore remained in absolute ignorance not only of our doings but also of
our whereabouts.
The same night, waiting until the darkness was sufficient to hide our
movements from the pirates ashore, the gunner, the boatswain, the
carpenter and I ascended to the highest point of the little islet, in
search of a suitable spot upon which to construct our projected battery,
and were fortunate enough to find it on the very summit itself. It was,
indeed, perfectly ideal for its purpose, for it commanded not only the
whole of the interior of the Cove, with the settlement ashore, but also
both entrances, and the open sea, for a space of about a mile. And it
possessed the further advantage that it needed but very little labour to
completely adapt it for our purpose. So eager was I to complete our
preparations that I would fain have set the men to work upon it that
night; but they had already done extraordinarily well in getting the
four guns landed and mounted upon their carriages; I therefore decided,
though somewhat reluctantly, to let them have a long, unbroken night's
rest; and when the next day arrived I was glad that I had been wise
enough to do so, for they came to their work fresh, and laboured with a
will. As for me, I spent the night doing sentry-go, for I fully
expected to receive a visit from the shore some time during the hours of
darkness. But nothing happened; and when at length day dawned and I was
relieved, I was inclined to believe that our efforts to conceal our
presence on the island from the pirates had been successful.
With the dawning of a new day, however, the critical period was past,
and I cared very little whether the inhabitants of the settlement did or
did not discover our whereabouts. We, therefore, got all hands to work
the moment that it was light enough to see; and by the time that the
pirates ashore began to show themselves, two of our four 68-pounders
were in place on the spot which we had chosen for our battery, and were
ready to open fire at a moment's notice. But the Cove was too small,
and the islet too close to the settlement for us to conceal our
whereabouts or our movements, when once we began to work upon the
summit, where we were in full view of every eye within a range of a
couple of miles; and the pirates ashore had not been on the move more
than half-an-hour before it became apparent that our presence had been
discovered. The indications that this was the case were clear and
unmistakable; the alarm bell clanged out its summons, and instantly all
work ceased and every man was seen to be hurrying toward the building in
which I had been interviewed by Fernandez upon my arrival in the
settlement. This could mean but one thing, namely, a speedy attack upon
the islet; and in anticipation of this we hastened the completion of our
preparations, so that we might be quite ready to meet that attack when
it came. Our first business was to get the remaining two guns into
position, and bring up to the battery our entire stock of ammunition.
This did not cost us more than half-an-hour's strenuous labour, at the
completion of which all hands went to work to tumble a sufficient
quantity of ballast into the felucca to enable her to stand up under
sail; and the moment that this was done I sent her out to sea, with a
midshipman and four hands on board--in order that she might not fall
into the hands of the pirates--with instructions to return only when the
British ensign should be displayed from the battery.
Scarcely was the felucca under way when the sentinel who had been left
in the battery, to keep watch upon the movements of the pirates ashore,
summoned us to our posts; and upon our arrival there we at once saw that
our preparations had not been completed a moment too soon. For, as we
topped the hill that obstructed the view of the Cove from the seaward
side of the islet, we saw the whole male population of the settlement,
numbering about one hundred and forty, marching down to the beach, with
the evident intention of embarking in their boats and pulling off to
attack us. With the aid of my telescope I could distinctly distinguish
the figure of Fernandez, who was assuming the direction of operations;
and I could not but admire the strictness of the discipline which he
appeared to exercise over his followers, for the fellows seemed amenable
to his briefest order. They possessed exactly twenty boats in all,
ranging in size from a craft capable of accommodating forty men down to
the little Norwegian dinghy in which I had made my escape, and it was
evident that every man of the party had been previously told off to some
particular boat; for upon their arrival at the beach the hitherto
compact body at once dissolved into twenty separate detachments, each of
which made its way, in a perfectly orderly manner, to a particular boat;
the whole flotilla being launched and manned at Fernandez' word of
command. This done, the boats were turned round with their bows
pointing straight for the islet, and--again at the word of command--the
oars, as one, dropped into the water and the expedition advanced to the
attack in a long straight line.
The boats had not so much as a single gun among them, their crew being
armed simply with cutlass, pistol, and musket; I therefore felt no
apprehension at all concerning the result of the coming conflict, but
rather a somewhat unaccountable pity for the unfortunate wretches who
seemed to be quite unaware that they were advancing to their doom. But
this singular feeling of pity was quickly swamped by the reflection of
the fate that would certainly be ours, should we by any chance be
foolish enough to let the pirates get the better of us; and since it was
important that we should make the utmost of our opportunities, I gave
orders for the four guns to be loaded with grape and carefully aimed at
the four largest boats. This was done, and the four pieces spoke their
deadly message almost simultaneously, the smoke momentarily obscuring
our vision, while the thunder of the discharge echoed and re-echoed
round the cliffs in a long series of slowly decreasing reverberations.
But long before these had died away the breeze had swept aside the pall
of smoke that hid the boats from us, and we saw that, so carefully had
the guns been aimed, each shot had taken effect, the four boats at which
they had been discharged being now mere shapeless masses of wreckage,
among which a few men struggled, here and there, to keep themselves
afloat.
The casualties among the pirates must have been appalling, for I
estimated that those four boats, being the largest in the entire
flotilla, must have contained at least half the total number of men
comprising the expedition, and, so far as I could ascertain, with the
aid of my telescope, the survivors of the four crews scarcely numbered a
dozen in all! Of course the nearest boats at once closed in upon the
wreckage, with the object of rescuing those few survivors, and in so
doing some half-a-dozen of them became bunched close together for about
a minute. Such an opportunity was too good to be missed, and our guns
having meanwhile been smartly loaded again, two of them were brought to
bear upon the bunch, and simultaneously discharged. The result of these
two shots was scarcely as effective as that of the previous discharge--
possibly because the gun-captains had become a little flurried and
excited--nevertheless two of the boats aimed at were blown to pieces,
while two or three of the others showed signs of more or less serious
damage, and the occupants were thrown into such dire confusion that,
abandoning all further effort to save their comrades, they took to their
oars and seemed intent only upon getting apart as quickly as possible,
an example which was immediately followed by the remaining boats, the
crews of which opened out until there was at least a couple of fathoms
of clear water separating boat from boat.
For a few seconds I was under the impression that the havoc thus quickly
wrought by our guns had so far discouraged the pirates that they
intended to abandon the attack upon the islet--for there were several
very evident signs of hesitation among them--but presently, apparently
in response to the exhortations of Fernandez, who pulled along the line
in a fast gig, the oars dipped once more, and the remnant of the
flotilla most gallantly resumed its advance, amid cheers and yells of
encouragement and defiance that clearly reached us on the islet.