THE ATTACK.
We stood in, and as we approached I went aloft on the little stump of a
mast to look about me. The leaden-coloured sea generally becomes
several shades lighter in tropical countries as you approach the shore,
unless the latter be regularly up and down, and deep close to. In the
present instance, however, although it gradually shoaled, the blue
water, instead of growing lighter and greener, and brightening in its
approach to the land; became gradually of a chocolate colour, as the
turbid flow of the river feathered out like a fan, all round the mouth
of it. But as the tide made, the colour changed, by the turgid stream
being forced back again, and before it was high water, the bar was
indicated by a semicircle of whitish light green, where the long swell
of the sea gradually shortened, until it ended in small tumbling waves
that poppled about and frothed as if the ebullitions had been hove up
and set in motion by some subterraneous fire. But, as yet, the water
did not break on any part of the crescent-shaped ledge of sand.
In the very middle of the channel there were three narrow streaks of
blue water. We chose the centre one; and while the frigate hove-to in
the offing, dashed over with a fine breeze, that, from the eddy round
the point to windward, was nearly a fair wind up the river. For a
minute I thought we were in some peril when passing the _boiling_ water
on the bar; but presently we were gliding along the smooth surface of
the noble river.
On rounding the first point, right in the middle of the stream lay our
friend of the preceding night, moored stem and stern, with boarding
nettings up, and Spanish colours flying at the mizen-peak; but we could
see no one on board. Sprawl therefore called a halt, and made the men
lie on their oars, as some savage pranks had lately been played by
slavers in these rivers, such as laying trains to their magazines when
they found capture inevitable, and various other pleasant little
surprises, one of which generally served a man for a lifetime. So
being desirous of avoiding all chance of a hoist of this kind, we
dropped anchor in the felucca, and got the boats alongside, all to the
cutter, which was sent to pull round the polacre and reconnoitre. On
the officer returning, he said he had seen nothing. We therefore
determined to remain quiet for some time longer, to give any trick of
the nature glanced at, time to develope itself. We lay for two hours
under the most intense heat I ever remember; the sun was absolutely
broiling us alive, for there was not the least breath of air, and the
surface of the sluggish river was one polished sheet of silver--the low
swampy banks being covered with mangrove bushes and dwarf palms,
preventing any breeze there might be from finding its way to us.
"Now," said Lieutenant Sprawl, "this is really very unentertaining. I
say, Benjie, my dear, I think I had better pull under the stern of the
polacre to reconnoitre a bit. I will take care that I do not go too
near."
"I see no objections to it," said I, "none in the world; but mind your
hand, my hearty--don't go too far, as they are slippery chaps these
same slaving gentry--that _I_ can tell you."
The boat shoved off--we were eating our hasty dinner on deck at the
moment--and proceeded without let or hinderance until she arrived
within pistol-shot of the polacre, when lo! from amongst the green
bushes on the river bank, about musket-shot from them, a burst of white
smoke flew up, and several round shot hopped along the calm surface,
stirring up the water with whizzing splashes. The next moment the
shrieks of the cutter's crew gave notice that they had told in a
fearful manner. We looked out a-head. The wreck of the boat, with
eight of her crew, including the lieutenant, holding on by it, came
floating down to us; she had been knocked to pieces by the fire of the
masked battery that had so unexpectedly opened, but the poor devils
were promptly picked up; all to one unfortunate fellow who had been
killed and now floated past us on his back, with his chest up, and his
head down. Old Davie Doublepipe scrambled on board, in nowise greatly
put out by his rough reception.
"Why now," said he, "a surprise of this kind is extremely inconvenient."
"But where the deuce came the shot from?" said I.
"The devil only knows," quoth he; "every thing seemed as quiet as could
be, when all at once--crash--the shot took us right amidships, and the
next moment we were all floundering in the water, like so many pigs
overboard."
"Well, well, lucky it is no worse," rejoined honest Dick Lanyard; "but
I say, Master Marline," to the senior midshipman of the frigate, who
commanded one of the other boats, "we can't lie here to be murdered, so
strike out for the polacre, keeping t'other side of the river, and her
hull between you and the skulkers; then pull straight for her, but haul
off if you see any one on board; and if any annoyance is offered from
the shore this time, I will weigh and give our concealed friends a dose
of grape."
The boat shoved off, and pulled towards the enemy in the manner
directed. All was quiet until she reached within ten yards of her,
when a blaze of six pieces of cannon at the fewest once more took
place, and eddies of smoke again gushed from the bushes. The boat
instantly took the hint, put about, and returned to us. Her stern had
been nearly knocked to pieces, and she was leaking so much, that by the
time she was alongside, she was full of water, and the men had only
time to get out, when she sank to the gunwale.
"By the powers!" said Lanyard, driven off his balance, cool as he was,
"but there is mighty little fun in all this. What see you, my
man?"--to one of the people who had scrambled up the long yard to
reconnoitre from whence the shots had proceeded; but he could give no
information. The smoke rolled away down the dull river in white
wreaths, growing more and more gauzelike and transparent, as they
passed us, and all was quiet, and green, and noiseless on the bank as
before; while the sun continued to shine down on us with the same
sickening intensity, heating the thick unwholesome air, until it was
almost unfit for breathing.
"Something must be done," said I--"we must dislodge these fellows or be
off, that is clear."
"Do you think," said Lanyard, addressing himself to the discomfited
first lieutenant, who was shaking his feathers, and drying himself as
well as he could, "that there is water for us to sheer alongside where
these scoundrels are ensconced?"
"I consider there must be," said he, "but we had better remain quiet
where we are until night, if they will let us, so that we may be off
with the ebb if need be."
The advice was good and discreet. So Old Bloody Politeful, Dick
Lanyard, and I set to clean our beautiful persons, and make ourselves
as comfortable as our scanty means permitted, while the men did the
same. It was now near five P.M., and the tide began to flow again. As
there were two good hours daylight still, we determined to prove our
friends a little further, rather than lie inactive any longer--the same
restless feeling had spread to the men.
"The tide is on the turn now, sir," said the old quartermaster.
"Then all hands up anchor--weigh, and sweep in close to that dwarf palm
there."
The smoke had come from a spot close under its shade.
"Hurrah!" shouted the men.
The anchor was catted--the sweeps were manned--the guns were loaded
with grape--the marines stood to their arms, and in five minutes we
were once more at anchor, with the two boats in tow, within half-pistol
shot of the bank. All remained still. Not a breath stirred the leaves
of the mangrove bushes, or the jungle of wild cane that grew close to
the river brink. I was sure we were directly opposite the spot from
whence the shots were fired.
Whenever we were fairly settled in our position, we let drive both
guns. The grape pattered in the water, and rattled amongst the leaves
of the trees, but all continued still as death. We loaded and fired
again; but as we had only one boat untouched, Mr Sprawl determined,
instead of attempting a landing, in order to cope with enemies whom we
could not see, to weigh and sweep towards the brig again, with the
intention, if opportunity offered, of boarding her. But the moment we
turned our stern to the shore, and began to pull in that
direction--bang--several cannon were again fired at us, in this
instance loaded with round and grape, but fortunately missed us this
time.
"Pull, men, like fury; give way, and clap the hull of the brig between
you and our honest friends there." Crack--another rally from the
masked battery; the next minute, we had swept round the stern of the
polacre, and were alongside. Lanyard laid hold of the manrope--"Now,
men, there can be no tricks here, or they would have shown themselves
before now; so, follow me." The rope gave in his grasp, and a gun
exploded on board. Dick fell back on the deck of the felucca. "Cast
off your fastenings, and sheer off, my lads, or we may get a hoist we
don't dream of."
At this instant the battery on shore began to play in earnest; not in
broadsides, but by single guns, as fast as they could pepper; some of
the shot coming through and through both sides of the polacre. We
immediately hauled off for the opposite bank of the river, but took the
ground on a bank, where the current, setting strong down, jammed us
hard and fast. We were about two cables' length from the brig at this
time, and the sun was now near setting. The firing continued, the
flashes became brighter, the smoke began, as the sky darkened, to grow
luminous, and presently the polacre appeared to be sinking. "She is
settling fast down forward," said I; "by St Patrick, she is sinking,
sure enough,--there--there she goes; what a list to port she is
getting!" She slowly fell over on her beam-ends, in the mud, with
every thing under water but about ten feet of the quarter bulwark next
us, and the masts and rigging; which the setting sun was now gilding.
The long shadows of the palms on the western bank now gradually crept
across the whole breadth of the unwholesome stream, chasing the
blood-red gleam of the sinking sun, first from the water, and then from
the eastern bank, where it lingered for a moment, on the topmost
branches of the trees, from which it also speedily disappeared, until
the only objects that vouched for his being still above the horizon,
were the wand-like tops of the polacre's tall masts, that shone like
burnished brass rods for a brief moment; and then blackened under the
fast falling darkness, which rapidly shrouded the whole melancholy
scene; while creeping churchyard-looking vapours, as if the pestilence
no longer walked in darkness, but had become palpable to the senses of
sight, smell, and feeling, shrouded every object on the shores from our
view, like a London fog. Myriads of musquittoes now began to attack us
in every way, and several white cranes flitted past and around us, like
ghosts, sailing slowly on their wide-spread wings; the chirping and
croaking of numberless insects and reptiles came off strong from the
banks, borne on the putrid exhalations that were like to poison us; the
rushing of the river, that in the daytime we could scarcely hear, now
sounded loud and hoarse, and rippled, lip, lipping against the stem as
we lay aground, before circling away in dark frothy eddies in our wake.
We lay still for several hours without seeing any light, or hearing any
noises on shore that indicated the vicinity of our dangerous
neighbours. Once tempted by the apparent quietude, the boat shoved off
a stroke or two in the direction of the polacre, with the intention of
setting fire to her, if possible; but when within pistol-shot of their
object, a loud voice from the shore sang out in a threatening
tone--"_Cuidado_"[1] when the officer wisely pulled round, and returned
to us.
[1] Literally--Take care--mind your eye.
We could hear the frigate in the offing through the livelong night,
firing signal guns every ten minutes, which we durst not answer,
without the certainty of being speedily blown to pieces by our
invisible antagonists. About ten o'clock, I went along with little
Binnacle, in one of the boats with muffled oars, and made directly for
the bank opposite where he had been fired at; on a nearer approach, I
found it to be free of mangroves, and to consist of a black overhanging
_scaur_, that had been scarped out by the rush of the stream, reflected
across from the jutting point on the side where the slavers had
intrenched themselves. All continued still, and here we skulked for a
full hour, when we stole out, and pulled gently towards the wreck, the
hull of which, either from a fresh in the river, or the rising of the
tide, was now entirely under water. But we had not advanced above
fifty yards towards our object, when the same unearthly "_beware_"
swung booming along the water; reflected in a small echo from the
opposite side, as if a water fiend had been answered by a spirit of the
air. We got back to the felucca, and now made up our minds to while
away the time until the day broke, in the best way we could. All hands
being set to cooper the damaged boat, of which we contrived to make a
very tolerable job, so that she leaked very little.
The lieutenant in command, Lanyard, and I, now went below, and
immediately sent for the three midshipmen detached on the same service.
We had some grog and a piece of rancid mess beef, and as turning in was
out of the question, we planked it on the deck and lockers, and by the
help of boat cloaks and blankets, were endeavouring to make ourselves
as comfortable as we could, when the sound of a cannon-shot was once
more heard.
"Why, what the deuce," said I, "we are making no movement--what can the
fellows mean?"
There was no saying; they might, from the success they had met with in
neutralizing the attempts of the boats to disturb them, or destroy the
wreck, have overvalued the strength of their position, for this shot
had been aimed at us; we had now plenty of water, so we instantly
weighed, and dropped down the river out of range. All now remained
quiet until the day dawned, and streaks of dull grey appeared in the
eastern horizon. There was not a single warm tint in the sky, although
we were in a regular vapour-bath of pestilential effluvia, and were any
thing but cold. An hour before daylight the fog again sank down on us
even thicker than before, so that every thing was hid from our view
beyond ten paces' distance; but as it drew nearer sunrise, this watery
canopy rose, and gradually evaporated in a dropping mist, until the
gorgeous east once more reassumed its glowing blush, and the stars
sparkled brightly as the fast reddening firmament gave token that day
was at hand. The sun rose--
"Midge, ahoy," sang out a voice from the bow of a boat, that had on the
instant stuck its snout round the point below us. Before we could
answer, the yawl, full of enquiring messmates, was alongside.
"Hillo, Master Sprawl--hillo, Master Brail; Lanyard, my boy, what sort
of an afternoon have you spent?--Slept sound, eh?--But why the devil
did you keep blazing away and wasting his Majesty's powder in minute
guns in this way; what _were_ you after the whole night through?" sung
out old Pumpbolt, the master of the Gazelle.
"Come on board, my lad," said Sprawl--"come on board, will ye, and you
shall hear the whole story."
They did so, and after a lengthier explanation than the reader would
willingly listen to, it was determined, reinforced as we now were, that
if we could make out the whereabouts of the fort that had so annoyed
us, we should make a dash at it, even were we to have broken heads in
prospect. As to attacking the battery in front, where there was no
standing ground, it was utterly out of the question; so, as the tide
was now low ebb, and the slaver nearly high and dry on the bank,
although, in the hole we had dropped into, the felucca was floating
quietly out of cannon-shot, we left her in charge of ten hands, and
crowding the other boats, three in all (the damaged boat having been
repaired, as already mentioned), dropped down with the current along
shore, our whole force amounting to six-and-forty seamen and twenty
marines; and keeping a bright look-out for the smallest gap in the
mangroves that could afford an entrance. At length we did arrive at
such an opening; it was a narrow creek, about thirty feet broad,
overhung with the everlasting mangrove, which formed an arch overhead
by the weaving of the thickly leaved branches together, utterly
impervious to the sun's rays. I was in the sternmost boat; the next to
me was commanded by the first lieutenant of the frigate, old Davie
Doublepipe; and as we sculled along in the clear creek, for here it was
translucent as a mountain lake, whatever the water might be in the
river, our boats were touching, stem and stern. Sprawl, whose
experience of the coast, and, still more, of expeditions of this kind,
greatly surpassed my own, immediately asked me to shift from aft where
I sat, forward to the bow of the boat; the men continuing to pole
along, as there was no room for them to ply their oars.
"I say, Master Brail," quoth he--as soon as we could communicate
without being overheard--"supposing we do carry his position--_cui
bono_, what advantageth it us? The slaves, which, when the Midge first
saw the polacre, and chased him, were on board, are without question
once more back into cover, and must all have been landed; so if we
could even weigh the hooker, and carry her to Cape Coast, I very much
fear we should be unable to condemn her."
"But the honour and glory?" quoth old Dick.
"Both be--ahem," quoth he; "but if you think it an object to have a
brush, why, come along, my hearties, it is all the day's work."
I was a younger man by ten years than our friend, and, boylike, gloried
in the opportunity; so we again began to scull along the creek,
sheltered by the same umbrageous screen of mangroves, now so luxuriant
that it shut out both sun and light as if it had been a continuous
artificial arbour. I cannot describe the beauty and coolness of this
shade--water clear and pellucid as crystal under foot; a long distinct
view through forests of naked mangrove stems on each side, while aloft
there was a perfect web of verdure resting on the trelliswork formed by
the interlacing of their bows, which spread out in a delicious covering
over the whole creek. We dislodged innumerable birds of every variety,
from the tall floating ghostlike crane to the chattering paroquet; and
more than one owl flitted away from us, and flew up through the
branches, until the sun struck him, when, with a _flaff_ and a rustling
_brush_ through the topmost leaves, he came down overhead like a shot;
until, restored by the green twilight, he would recover himself, and
once more sail away along the narrow creek, and disappear round the
corner of it ahead of us. In one instance, a boy in the bow struck one
down with a boat-hook, so that the bird fell against Lieutenant
Sprawl's head as he sat in the stern-sheets of the boat ahead.
"Hillo, Brail, my man," quoth he, "where away--what _are_ you after?"
This narrow canal was absolutely alive with fish--they surrounded us on
all sides; and although we could discern some dark suspicious-looking
figures at the bottom, which we conjectured to be alligators; still
there was no perceptible motion amongst them, and we continued to pull
quietly until the head-most boat took the ground for a moment, and the
others closed upon her.
"What is that?" sung out old Bloody Politeful.
"Lord only knows," answered the midshipman beside him, as a loud
snorting noise, approaching to a roar, a sound that hovered between the
blowing of a whale and the bellowing of a bull half choked in a marsh,
echoed along the green arch.
"Now, what customer can that be?" quoth your humble servant.
"A hippopotamus," said one of the launch's crew; and before we could
hear any thing more, an animal, with a coarse black leather skin, and a
most formidable head, about the size of a small Highland cow (it must
have been but a young one), floundered down the creek past us, stirring
up the mud as thick as tar all round about--but we had other work in
hand, so he escaped without a shot. We pulled on, and presently the
mangroves settled down right across the narrow creek, twisting their
snake-like branches together into an impervious net. Ahead, our course
was thus most effectually stopped by this ligneous portcullis, but
close to the obstacle a small muddy path branched off to the right, and
we determined to follow it.
It appeared a good deal poached, as if from the passing of a number of
people recently along it; and we had not proceeded above twenty yards
when we came upon a spare studding-sail boom, to which some heavy
weight had been attached, for two slings were fastened round it,
showing, by the straight and wire-like appearance of the rope, how
severe the strain had been; the spar itself was broken in the midst, as
if the weight attached to it had been more than it could bear.
"Aha," thought I, "we are getting near the earth of the fox any
how--the scent is high."
We carried on. The path became more and more cut up, but no other
evidences of our being on the proper trail occurred; and as we could
not fall in with a tree tall enough to afford us a glimpse of the lay
of the land about us, had we ascended it, we had no alternative but to
stand on.
"No chance of doing any good here," grumbled an old quartermaster,
close to where I was struggling nearly knee-deep in mud. "We shall
catch nothing but fever here."
"Hillo!" said a little middy, as we braced up sharp round a
right-angled corner of the pestiferous path--"hillo, the road stops
here;" and so it certainly appeared to do about pistol-shot, or nearer,
ahead of us, where a mound of fresh cut prickly bushes was heaped up
about six feet high right across the path. Whether this was a casual
interruption thrown up by the natives, or an impediment cast in our way
by our concealed _amigos_, I could not tell. A loud barking of dogs
was now heard ahead of us--presently a halt was called, and the word
was passed along to see that the priming of the muskets was dry and
sound; and all of us instinctively drew his cutlass a finger's breadth
or so from its sheath, to see that it would come readily to one's hand,
should need be. The first lieutenant, who, disdaining the common ship
cutlass, had buckled on a most enormous Andrea Ferrara with a huge
rusty basket-hilt, advanced boldly towards the enclosure, when a
smooth-faced, very handsome dark young man suddenly raised his head
above the green defence--"_Que quieren ustedes, amigos mios_?"
"What's that to you?" rejoined Sprawl; "give us a clear road, my
darling, or maybe we shall cooper you, after a very comical fashion."
We had scarcely uttered the words when a discharge of grape burst from
the green mound, crashing amongst the branches, and sending them down
in a shower on our heads; while all the neighbouring trees, like
Jacob's wands, became, in the twinkling of an eye, patched with white
spots, from the rasping of the shot.
"Forward!" shouted Davie Doublepipe--"follow me, men!" when--rattle--a
platoon of musketry was fired at us. The grape had missed, from a
wrong elevation of the gun; not so the small arms--one of our party was
shot dead and three wounded; but the spring was nevertheless made. We
scrambled across the brushwood that had been heaped on the road, and to
the top of the stockade, about six feet high, that it masked, and
presently found ourselves in the presence of thirty determined fellows,
who were working like fiends in the endeavour to slew round seven
eighteen-pound carronades, that had been mounted on a stage of loose
planks, and pointed towards the river. Apparently they had been unable
to accomplish this with more than one, the gun that had just been
fired, which in the recoil had slid off the platform, and was now
useless, from sinking in the semisolid black soil, two of the others
having already, in the attempt to train them round on us, capsized and
sunk right out of sight in it. So aid from the cannon they now had
none; but never did men show a more daring front--as they stood their
ground, exchanging blow for blow most manfully.
The fort, or battery, was a stockaded enclosure, about fifty yards
square. Towards the river face, before we attempted to turn it, the
guns had been mounted on a stage of loose planks, a most unstable
foundation, from resting on running mud. The brushwood between them
and the river grew thick and close, and opposite the muzzle of each
cannon the leaves were scorched and blackened. The wooden platform
extended about twelve feet in breadth landward, but beyond it the whole
inside of the fort was soft black mud, through which, on the side
farthest from the river, protruded the stumps of the haggled brushwood,
where it had been cleared by the hatchet; while branches were thickly
strewed on the surface nearer the guns, to afford a footing across it.
These branches, however, had been removed for a space of ten feet, at
the spot we boarded at, where the slimy ground appeared poached into a
soft paste, so that no footing might be afforded to an attacking force.
The desperadoes already mentioned, were all armed with boarding pikes,
or cutlasses, while several had large brass bell-mouthed _trabucos_, or
blunderbusses, which threw five or six musket-balls at a discharge.
Most of them were naked to their trowsers, and they all wore a blue,
yellow, or red sash, drawn tight round the waist, through which several
had pistols stuck; while their heads were covered, in general, by a
blue or red cloth cap, like a long stocking, to the end of which was
fastened a thick silk or woollen tassel, either hanging down the back,
or falling over the side of the head. Some wore shirts of a striped
woollen stuff, common amongst the Biscayan boatmen. One elderly man, a
large athletic Hercules of a fellow, bareheaded, and very bald; with
his trowsers rolled up to his knees, displaying his dark brawny legs
and naked feet, dressed in one of the aforesaid striped shirts, and
wearing a broad-brimmed, narrow conical-crowned hat, with a flaming red
riband tied round it close to the spreading brim, stood in advance of
the others, with a _trabuco_ in his hand, the piece held in a way that
it might be instantly levelled at us.
These ferocious-looking rascals had most formidable auxiliaries, in
three Spanish blood-hounds, as yet held in leather-leashes; but who
were jumping and struggling, open-mouthed, and barking, and panting to
get at us, until they were almost strangled; their eyes straining in
their heads, or rather starting from their sockets, as they champed and
dashed the foam right and left from their coal-black muzzles. They
were indeed superb creatures, all three of a bright bay colour, and
about the height of a tall English stag-hound; but much stronger, as if
there had been a cross of the bull-dog in their blood. The moment
Lieutenant Sprawl stuck his very remarkable snout over the stockade,
several of us having scrambled up abreast of him, the man already
mentioned as apparently the leader of the party hailed--
"_Que quieren ustedes--somos Españoles--y unde esta la guerra entre
ustedes i nosotros._"
He was answered by a volley from all our pieces, and simultaneously, in
the struggle to get over, half-a-dozen of us tumbled down, right into
the soft mud; those who had the luck to fall on their feet sank to
their knees in an instant, whilst several who fell head foremost, left
a beautiful cast of their phrenological developements in the mire. We
fought with all our might, you may imagine, to extricate ourselves, but
two out of the group were instantly pinned in their clay moulds, by the
boarding-pikes of the slaver's crew, and died miserably where they
fell, while several others were wounded by shot; but more of our
fellows continued to pour in after us, and there we soon were, thirty
men at the fewest, struggling and shouting, and blazing away, using the
dead bodies of our fallen comrades as stepping-stones to advance over;
while about fifteen more, as a reserve under little Binnacle, had
perched themselves on the top of the stockade in our rear, and kept
pouring in a most destructive fire over our heads. The yells of the
men, and the barking and worrying of the dogs, who had now been let
loose, and who were indiscriminately attacking whoever was next them,
were appalling in the highest degree.
The bipeds whoso manfully opposed us, it was our duty and our glory to
encounter; but the dogs were the very devil,--altogether out of our
reckoning. It was curious to see those who feared not the face of man,
hanging back, and looking behind them to see if the coast was clear for
a bolt, when attacked by one of the bloodhounds. So our antagonists,
although so largely overmatched in numbers, had, from the ferocity of
their allies, and the soundness of their footing, the advantage over
us, and made good their position on the wooden stage, notwithstanding
all our attempts to dislodge them; and they were in the act of getting
another of the carronades, no doubt loaded with grape, slewed round and
pointed at us, when five marines, who had scrambled through the brake,
took them in flank, and attacked them from the sea face, with
unexampled fury. The serjeant of the party instantly shot the leader
of the Spanish crew in the back, between the shoulders, when he made a
staggering rush, and to my utter consternation bore me to the ground,
and then fell forward right on the top of me. Oh for the mahogany desk
jammed into the pit of my stomach, thought I; all your accounts are
closed, Master Benjie. Still in my dreams I often fancy that I feel
the convulsive clutches of the dying man, and the hot blood gurgling
from his mouth, down my neck, and the choking gasp, and the death
quiver.
I was not stunned however, although I must have been overlaid some
time, for when I wriggled myself clear of the horrible load, our
fellows had already gained the platform, led by old Davie Doublepipe,
who was laying about him with his rusty weapon like a Paladin of old;
at one moment shredding away showers of twigs from the branches that
overhung us; at another inflicting deep and deadly gashes on his
antagonists; his sword raining blood, as he whirled it round his head
flashing like lightning; while his loud growl, like the roaring of the
surf after a gale, alternated rapidly with his _tootletoo_, that gushed
shrill and sharp from out the infernal noise and smoke and blaze of the
tumult. The Gazelles and Midges had now closed hand to hand with their
antagonists, and the next minute the survivors of the latter fairly
turned tail, and fled along a narrow path, equally muddy as the one we
had entered by; where many of them stuck up to the knees, and were
there shot down by our people, but no attempt was made to follow them.
Several men had been terribly torn by the bloodhounds, who, when their
masters had fled, noble brutes as they were, stood gasping and barking;
and handling at us, at the entrance of the opening. thus covering
their retreat;--spouting out in abound or two towards us every now and
then, and immediately retiring, and yelling and barking at the top of
their pipes. I was going to fire at one of them, when the Scotch
corporal of marines, already introduced on the scene, took the liberty
of putting in his oar. "Beg pardon, Mr Brail, but let abee for let
abee with mad dogs and daft folk, is an auld but a very true adage." I
looked with an enquiring eye at the poor fellow, who appeared worn to
the bone with illness, so that I was puzzled to understand how Sprawl
had brought him with him; but I took his hint, and presently the canine
rear-guard beat a retreat, and all was quiet for a time.
We now spiked the cannon and capsized them into the mud, where they
instantly sank, and I had time to look around on the scene of conflict.
There lay two of our people stark and stiff, countersunk into the soft
soil, which was gradually settling over the bodies in a bloody mire;
while four wounded men were struggling to extricate themselves, and
endeavouring to attain the hard footing of the platform of planks.
Three of them, with the assistance of their mess-mates, did accomplish
this, but the fourth was too badly hurt, and too faint from the loss of
blood, to persevere, and in despair threw himself back, gasping on the
bloody quagmire.
"What is that?" said I, while half a dozen dropping shots sparkled out
from beneath the thick jungle, and at the very instant one of the
boat-keepers stuck his head over the stockade.
"The tide has left us, sir, and the mouth of the creek has not six
inches of water in it, sir. The boats must stick hard and fast until
next flood."
Startling enough this. What was to be done? To retreat, for the time,
was out of the question, so we had no chance but in a forward
demonstration.
"After these miscreants, men," cried old Sprawl, having previously
ordered ten hands back to cover the boats--"after them, and drive them
from the jungle."
"Hurrah!" We shoved along the narrow path through which the enemy had
vanished, and the first we overtook was a poor devil shot through the
neck, writhing in agony, and endeavouring to extricate himself from the
slough. He was thrust through on the instant, as unceremoniously as if
he had been a crushed beetle. A little farther on we encountered in
another small by-track that took away to the left, three others,
evidently part of the gang who had been peppering us from beneath the
covert of the bushes. These were shot down as unceremoniously where
they stood. I cannot forget the imploring glances of the poor fellows
as they vainly beseeched our mercy, and the fearful sight of their
stretching themselves out, and falling crash back amongst the branches
when we fired. Two of them seemed to fall at once quite dead amongst
the bloody leaves; but the third, shrieking aloud, had wrestled himself
a fathom or two into the brake before he received his quietus from a
marine, who walked close up to him, and shot him deliberately through
the heart. Still we heard the shouts of the rest of the party who had
retreated, and were now well ahead of us, and we pushed on in
pursuit--when all at once, as if I had been struck by the levin-brand,
a flash of light blazed across my eyes, and I came to the ground by the
run.