THE MIDGE IN THE HORNET'S NEST.
When I came to myself I was sitting in the small muddy path through
which our antagonists had been driven. About a fathom from me, partly
hid by the mangrove bushes, lay the dead body of one of the white crew
of the polacre. He had fallen on his back across a stout branch, that
shot out horizontally from one of the trees at a height of about a foot
from the ground, so that, while his feet and legs rested on the soft
black alluvial soil on one side of it, his head, with the face turned
upwards, and relaxed arms, hung down on the other. He was dressed in
the striped shirt already mentioned, largely open at the breast, and
wide white petticoat trowsers, that reached to the knee, made of some
strong cotton stuff of the same fabric as the India salampore, so that
the garment looked like a Greek kilt. It was fastened at the waist by
a red silk sash, one end of which hung down over the branch across
which he lay, apparently saturated and heavy with black blood, that
gave it the appearance of a large purple tassel. His collapsed loins,
where he was doubled over the branch, looked as thin and attenuated as
if he had been shot in two, and his prominent chest and lower
extremities merely connected by his clothing. His feet and legs, as
well as his arms, were bare--his shirt-sleeves extending only three
inches below his shoulder; and it was a fearful sight to look on the
death-blue colour of the muscles, which no longer stood out in
well-defined and high relief, but had fallen and assumed the rounded
appearance of a woman's limbs. The crown of his head touched the
ground, resting on his long black hair, that had been worn turned up
into a knot, but was now spread out in a rich tress, a foot beyond him.
He had ear-rings in his ears, and a broad gold crucifix tied round his
neck by a cord of spun hair--Alas for her whose raven locks composed
the strands of it! His mouth was open, but his eyes were closed as if
he slept; and a small coal black tuft of hair on his chin, under his
nether lip, startled one, from its conspicuousness in contrast with the
deathly pallor of his face. He was a very handsome youth, yet the
features inverted, as his head hung down, assumed from this
circumstance an expression so unusual, yet so soft and so touchingly
melancholy, that although I had often looked on death before, even in
my own miserable plight I could not help noticing it, and being moved
by it. There was no wound that I could see, but thick black gouts were
slowly trickling from the white fresh splintered end of the branch that
had been split off in the rush, across which he lay; but this was only
noticeable at the splinter-mark, the sluggish stream being invisible,
while it crept from his body along the dark green bark of the limb of
the mangrove-tree. A small pyramid had already been formed on the
ground, directly below the end of the branch, by the dropping of the
coagulating blood. The whole scene was pervaded by the faint
mysterious light of the subdued sunbeams, as they struggled through the
screen of motionless leaves above; while the dead corse slept in the
deep cold shadow below, that to the eye of one suddenly withdrawn from
the glare of the tropical noontide, appeared to approach absolute
darkness; still a soft green ray, or _pensil_, like moonlight piercing
the thick woven foliage of a summer arbour, fell on and floated over
the face and one of the naked arms, until the still features appeared
to become radiant of themselves--as if they had been blanched by it
into the self-luminous whiteness of fresh hewn alabaster.
It was in truth a most piteous sight, and as the image of my aged
parent rose up, in my extremity, before my mind's eye at the moment, I
held up my feeble hands to heaven, and prayed fervently unto the
Almighty to bless her declining years; and, if that my race were indeed
run, and now in very truth my place was to know me no more, that my
sins might, for Christ's sake, be forgiven me. "Alas, alas!" thought
I, bowed down by intense suffering to the very dust, "may he too not
have had a mother?"
For a minute, as I slowly recovered from the stunning effects of the
shot, I sat observing all this, and pressing the torn skin of my
forehead to my temples with one hand, whilst with the other I kept
clearing away the blood as it flowed into my eyes; but by the time I
had perfectly recovered my recollection, my sympathy vanished, all my
thoughts became absorbed, and my energies, small as they were at the
time, excited in almost a supernatural degree by the actual approach of
a hideous, and, in my helpless condition, probably the most appalling
danger that a human being could be threatened with.
For a second or two I had noticed that the branch across which the dead
Spaniard lay, was slightly moved now and then, and that some object was
advancing from beneath it, out of the thicket beyond. I was not long
left in doubt, for one of the noble bloodhounds now dragged himself
into the light, and wriggled from amongst the mangroves to within a
fathom of me. At first when he struggled from beneath his master's
body, he began to lick his face and hands, and then threw his head back
with a loud whine, as if disappointed in his expectation of some
acknowledgment. Alas! none came; and after another vain attempt, pain
seemed to drive the creature furious, for he seized the arm next me,
that he had been licking the minute before, by the wrist, making the
dead bones crackle between his teeth in his agony. All at once he
began to yell and bark, and at intervals turned his fierce eyes on me,
then swung his head violently back, and again howled most piteously.
All this time I could hear the loud shouting of our people in the
distance, and a scattering shot now and then, but the work nearer home
was more than sufficient to occupy me; for the dog, after another
moment of comparative repose, suddenly raised himself on his fore-paws;
for the first time I could see that he had been shot through the spine,
near the flank, so that his two hind-legs were utterly powerless, and
trailing on the ground.
He scrambled on a foot or two nearer--again all was still, and he lay
quiet with his nose resting on the ground, as if he had been watching
his prey; but pain appeared suddenly to overcome him again, as,
stretching out his fore-paws straight before him, and throwing his head
back, he set up the most infernal howl that ear ever tingled to.
"Merciful powers! can he mean to attack me?" thought I, as the fierce
creature left the dead body, and reared himself on his forelegs, with
open mouth, and tongue hanging out, uttering the most fearful cries,
between a fierce bark and a howl, and again attempting to drag himself
towards me. I made a desperate effort to rise, but could not; and in
the prospect of so dreadful a death, I shouted for aid, as loud as my
feebleness would let me. Once more suffering seemed to overcome the
creature's ferocity, and he stopped and yelled again.
Although I was still in some degree bewildered, and almost blinded from
the blood that continued to flow down my forehead, and the flap of skin
that covered my left eye, so as effectually to seal it, acting as a
deadlight as it were, still, for dear life, I grasped my cutlass--alas,
the blade was broken short off by the hilt! My left hand then
mechanically clutched my belt where my pistol hung--"Ah, it _is_ there,
any how." I instantly changed the broken blade into my other hand, and
with the coolness of despair cocked the pistol in my right, and lay
still, awaiting the approach of my fierce antagonist, under the
tremendous persuasion that my fate was inevitable if I missed him. As
I looked in breathless dread, he suddenly gave a scrambling wallop
towards me--"I am done for--God have mercy on me, and receive my soul!"
Another scramble. I felt his hissing hot breath; and the foam that he
champed from his fangs, as he tossed his head from side to side in a
paroxysm of rage and pain, fell like flakes of hot sulphur over my
face. "Now is the time!" I thrust the pistol into his mouth, and
pulled the trigger. Almighty powers! it flashed in the pan! With my
remaining strength I endeavoured to thrust it down his throat, as he
coughed up blood and froth into my face; he shook his head, clutched
the weapon in his teeth, and then threw it from him, as if in
disappointment that it had not been part and portion of his enemy; and
again made a snap at my shoulder. I struck at him with my broken
cutlass--he seemed not to feel the blow--and throwing myself back as
far as I could, I shrieked in my extremity to that God whom I had so
often slighted and forgotten, for mercy to my miserable soul. Crack--a
bullet whizzed past me. The dog gave a long, loud howl, gradually
sinking into a low murmur as his feet slid from under him, and his head
lay open-jawed on the mud--a quivering kick of his feet--and he was
dead--as I nearly was through fear.
"Hillo," quoth old Clinker, the master-at-arms, one of those who had
come up from the boats, "who is this fighting with beasts at Ephesus,
eh?" The moment he recognised me, the poor fellow made his apology,
although, Heaven knows, none was required.
"Beg pardon, sir; I little thought it was you, Mr Brail, who was so
near being worried by that vile beast."
I breathed again. The bullet that had so nearly proved my quietus at
the commencement of the action, had struck me on the right temple, and,
glancing, had ran along my whole forehead, ploughing up the skin, until
it reached the left eye, where it detached a large flap, that, as
already mentioned, hung down by a tag over my larboard daylight; fairly
blinding me on that side.
"Here, Quinton, and Mornington," said Clinker, to two of the people,
who followed him, "here, lend a hand to bring Mr Brail along, will ye?"
They raised me on my legs, and gave me a mouthful of grog from a
canteen, and we proceeded, following the voices of our shipmates.
Comforted by the cordial, I found my strength return in some measure;
and when I was once satisfied that no bones were broken, that I was in
fact only and simply _kilt_, my spirits revived, and before we overtook
our allies, having bathed my wound with rum, and bound it with my
handkerchief, I was able to walk without support, and in a certain
degree to take care of myself.
The path continued for about half a mile farther, and in all that route
we no longer heard or saw any indications of our comrades. "Why, there
is no use in all this," said old Clinker; "they must have taken another
direction, so we had better return, and wait the young flood to enable
us to back out of the scrape."
I considered this the wisest advice that could be given, and
right-about-face was the word, when a scapegrace of a marine, who had
straggled from the main body, suddenly came running at the top of his
speed from the advance, and sung out,--"Lord, sir and messmates, come
here, come here!"
"Why, what do you see?" responded Clinker.
"Why, sir, here is the queerest sight I ever see'd in all my born days."
"What is it, man? body o' me, what is it?" exclaimed the old
quarter-master, as we bowled along, following the Jolly; the fellow
gave no answer, but skipped on before us like a dancing-master.
Presently we arrived at an open space, situated at the head of the
tortuous mangrove-fringed creek that we had landed in. The channel of
it was dry, all above the crook, about fifty yards from us, where it
bent towards the east, and full of black slimy mud, over-arched
entirely by the snake-like roots and branches of the mangroves; whose
upper branches, as usual, supported a thick mat of green leaves, while
all below was bare naked convolutions of green weather-stained stems
and branches. The muddy canal seemed to end at this spot, under the
dark shade of the bushes. Imbedded in its obscene channel, and hauled
close up to the head of the creek, lay a large Eboe canoe, about fifty
feet long; the bottom hollowed out of one single tree, but there was a
washstreak of some kind of hardwood plank, so as to raise the gunwale
about a foot above the ledge of the original vessel. The two bamboo
masts were unshipped, and stowed amidships on the thwarts, and above
twenty paddles were ranged uprightly, with the blades resting on the
bottom, on each side of the masts.
There was a heavy log of unhewn wood, about thirty feet long, laid
across the head of the creek, where it terminated; on which three grey
parrots were clawing up and down, fastened by the legs with pieces of
twine.
Immediately adjoining was an open area of about fifty yards in
diameter--the soil appearing to have been mixed with white ashes, and
then baked, or rammed down into a hard floor. This open space was
closed in by a thick forest of cashaw-trees on the land side, through
which several paths opened; while on every other, except at the head of
the creek, it was surrounded by mangrove jungle. In the centre stood a
native house, a long, low, one-story, mud building, about forty feet in
length, by fifteen wide, thatched with the leaves of the dwarf palm.
It had one large aperture in the roof amidships, raised a foot or two
by piled turf, from which curled up a thick blue smoke; but there was
no opening on the side we approached it by, beyond a low door, not
above three feet high; indeed, the eaves of the house itself were
scarcely four feet from the ground.
Right in front of us, and precisely opposite the door, ensconced in a
curious nondescript chair of wickerwork, sat, very drunk apparently,
and more than half asleep, a ponderous middle-aged negro, dressed in a
most primitive fashion; his sole article of clothing being a common
woollen blanket, with a hole cut in the middle for his head to pass
through, while the sides were fastened together with wooden skewers,
which effectually confined his arms; so that there he was, all blanket
and head, and sound asleep, or pretending to be so, although the sun
shone down into the cleared space with a fierceness that would have
broiled the brains of any other man, had they been covered by a common
skull. We were all speedily congregated round this beauty; there was
no one in attendance on him, and we had no means of judging of his
quality.
"I say, my good man," quoth Lieutenant Sprawl, "pray, did you see any
white men--Spaniards--pass this way?"
The sleeper appeared slowly to recover his faculties; he first stared
at the interrogator, then at old Dick Lanyard and me, and then at our
people. He wished to seem, or really was, overcome with surprise.
Presently--the first lieutenant having for a moment left him, to look
around and reconnoitre the lay of the land--a little reefer, Joe Peake
by name, stole up to him, and whether or no the aforesaid mid had taken
a small pull at his canteen, I cannot tell, but he rattled out in the
ear of the torpid savage, "I say, my sleeping beauty, if you don't tell
us in a twinkling whereabouts these Spanish raggamuffins are stowed
away, by Saint Patrick, but I will make free to waken you with the
point of this cutlass here, and in a way by no means ceremonious at
all, at all;" and suiting the action to the word, he gave the sable
Morpheus a very sufficing progue with the point of his weapon, about
the region of the midriff, which instantaneously extracted a yell,
worthy of any Bengal tiger that I had ever tumbled up to see.
Presently the howling subsided into articulate sounds, but not one of
the party could make any thing ship-shape out of the barbarous
exclamations.
"Now, my darlin'," continued wee middy, "try toder tack, dear;" and he
again excited the savage's corporeals, after a very sharp fashion, with
the same instrument, and the howl was louder than before.
"Now, may the devil fly away with me," quoth the imp, waxing wroth,
"but I will blow your brains out, you drunken thief of the world, if
you don't give me a legitimate reply--spake, you ill-bred spalpeen,
you----Answer me in English, you scoundrel;" whereupon, to our very
great surprise indeed, out spoke our sable acquaintance.
"Hillo, where de debil is I--who you, eh? What you wantee here? I hab
no slave to give you. De Caridad, him do get every one I get. So,
good men, go to hell all of you--do--very mosh go to hell--do."
The barbarian again fell back on his seat, either asleep, or feigning
to be so, and began to snore like a rhinoceros. By this time Davie
Doublepipe's attention was attracted to a noise within the house.
"Now, Master Blueskin," said he, "have the kindness to open the door
there;" then, as if suddenly recollecting himself, in a voice of
thunder he exclaimed--"Surround the house, men. Shoot any one who
tries to escape."
This seemed to arouse our sluggish friend, who immediately got up, and
staggered a few paces towards the margin of the wood, where a most
remarkable object met our eyes. It was a fetish hut or temple,
composed of a shed about ten feet square, raised on four bamboos. From
the eaves or thatch of the roof, to the ground, might have measured ten
feet; and three feet below the roof there was a platform rigged, on
which sat the most unearthly and hideous production of the hand of man
that I had ever witnessed. It was a round, pot-bellied, wooden figure,
about three feet high, with an enormous head, a mouth from ear to ear,
and little, diminutive, spindly legs and arms. A human skull, with the
brain scooped out, but the red scalp, and part of the hair, and the
flesh of the face adhering to it, while the lower jaw had been torn
away, was hung round this horrible-looking image's neck. Immediately
beneath there was a heap of white smouldering cinders, as if the embers
of a large fire had been swept together, with three or four white bones
protruding from the fissures in the cake of white ashes; which, from
their peculiar shape and extraordinary whiteness, gave me some
shuddering qualms as to the kind of living creature they had belonged
to. The whole space round the heap, under the platform on which the
Fetish stood, as well as the posts of the rude and horrible temple
itself, was sprinkled with fresh black spots like newly dried blood--I
doubted exceedingly whether the same had ever circulated through the
hearts of bulls or goats.
"Now, my good man, bestir you, and let us into the house," said I, by
this time renovated by another small pull at a marine's canteen.
The surly savage, who, in his attempt to escape, had fallen headlong,
and had all this while lain as motionless as a coiled-up hedgehog, now
slowly opened his eyes, and peered at me with a sort of drunken
gravity--but he did not speak. I took the cutlass from the
midshipman--"Now, my man, if you don't speak, it is spitting you on
this same that I will be after;" and accordingly, to corroborate my
word, I made a most furious demonstration with the naked weapon, when
he sung out, in great terror, "Stop, massa, me is Sergeant Quacco of de
-- West India, and not a savage nigir natural to dis dam country. Long
live Kin Shorge, massa!"
"Why," said Lieutenant Sprawl, "how came you here, my beauty?--tell us
that."
"Surely," quoth blackie; "no objection in de wide world, but"----
Here our people had forced the door of the long shed, on the opposite
side from where we were, and we could hear from their shouts that they
were now in the interior of the house. This entirely discomposed our
new friend, and seemed to sober him all on a sudden, if, indeed, the
appearance of inebriety had not been from the first assumed for the
occasion. "Ah, dere--all is known--all known. Call off your people,
gentlemen--call off your people. Oh, what is dat?"
Here several pistol-shots were fired in the house, and the clink of
steel was heard, and loud shouting, in Spanish as well as English.
"Who are in the shed?" Lanyard called out,--"Who are concealed there?"
"How de debil can I tell?" said the man--"How de debil can I say?"--and
he started from his chair, where he had again bestowed himself, and
made a bolt, with intent to escape.--I tripped up his heels.
"Now, you scoundrel," said I, as the fellow lay sprawling on the
ground--"confess who are concealed there, or I will run you through
where you lie."
"I will confess," shrieked he--"I will confess--de crew of dat dam
polacre is dere, and her cargo of one hundred fifty slave, is dere--so
sink, burn, and destroy dem all, if dat will pleasure massa; but don't
cut my troat please, massa--don't, I beg you, cut my troat--God bless
you, massa--Oh--oh--no cut my troat, please, good massa?"
My attention was here attracted by what was going on elsewhere.
Leaving the vagabond where he sat, I turned a step or two towards the
long barn-like building.
The noise in the interior continued. "Hillo," sung out the first
lieutenant--"Hillo, men, what are you after? Haul off--come out, will
ye--come out;" and he began to thunder at the low door, with his
pillar-like trams, each of which might have made a very passable
battering-ram.
The uproar increased. "Zounds!" said he, "the fellows are mad;" and he
started off round the northernmost end of the shed, finding that all
attempts to force the door on the side next us proved futile.
Presently the topman, and two marines, who had remained beside the
negro, also bolted to "see the fun on the other side of the house," and
left me alone with the savage.
It was now "the uproar, with variations," as old Bloody Politeful's two
voices swelled the row. I looked at the negro, and weak and worn-out
as I was, I began to feel rather comical. "Can I manage him, in case
he shows fight?" thought I. He seemed to be taking the same measure
himself; for by this time he had gathered himself up, and advancing a
stride or two from his seat or bench, he appeared to balance himself,
and weigh his gigantic proportions against my comparatively tiny thews
and sinews. All at once, like a tiger about to make his spring, he
drew suddenly back, and crouched; evidently concentrating all his
energies. Time to make a demonstration, thought I; and thereupon drew
a pistol from my belt, and opening the pan, slapped it with my right
hand, to see that the priming was all right, and in immediate
communication with the charge in the barrel. He looked rapidly, but
keenly, all round, and then at me. I grasped the weapon firmly in my
right hand. He rose--upset the bench on which he sat, in a twinkling
screwed out a leg of it, and was in the very act of making a blow at
me, when the shouts and yells in the long shed increased to an infernal
degree of vivacity, and a hot sharp crackling, and a thick stifling
smoke, that burst in white wreaths from the corners of the building,
arrested his uplifted arm. "You infamous renegade, if you don't lay
down the leg of that stool, I will, on the credit of a Kilkenny man, by
the mother's side, send a bullet through your breadbasket--If I don't,
never fear me."
He had now made up his mind, and advancing, nothing daunted, made a
spring and a blow at my head, which, if I had not dodged, would have
sent me to answer for many a sin unrepented of; as it was, it descended
with great force on my left shoulder, but on the instant I shot him
through the muscle of his uplifted arm, and down he tumbled, roaring
like the very devil. I had started up the instant I pulled the
trigger. The door of the long building, at that very instant of time,
gave way, and out rushed five white men--evidently part of the crew of
the polacre brig--followed by our people. Weak as I was, I stood up to
the headmost; and this appeared to have quelled him, for he instantly
threw down his arms. The crackling of the fire continued; bursts of
smoke spouted from the roof; presently they were intermingled with
bright sparks, and the yells arose even louder, if possible, than
before, from the inside; when out rushed our people, headed by the
redoubtable Davie Doublepipe himself.
"Hillo, Brail," said he, "you seem to have your own share of it to-day:
why, what _has_ come over you?--who has wounded you?"
"That black rascal there."
"The devil!" quoth Lanyard; "shall we immolate the savage where he
lies?"
"No, no--attend to what is going on in the other end of the house--for
Godsake mind what may befall there!"
With the gallant fellow it was a word and a blow--"Here,--here--try
back, my fine fellows, try back."
The yells increased. "Merciful Providence!" exclaimed Mr Sprawl, as he
saw his people recoil from the heat and flame, "what is to be done?
These poor creatures will be roasted alive where they are made fast."
Our party turned; made as if they would have re-entered the house, but
the scorching fire kept them back. The cries were now mixed with low
moans and suffocating coughs, and presently a string of miserable naked
savages appeared streaming out of the door, as fast as they could run,
as if flying from instant death--men, old and young, well-grown
children of both sexes, and several elderly women--the ancients
staggering along after the more nimble as fast as their feebler
strength would admit. They rushed forth, all as fast as they could,
never halting, until they had landed up to the waist in the muddy
creek, and an interval of half a minute elapsed, when several of the
women made signs that there were still some of the miserable creatures
within; and, indeed, this was but too sadly vouched for, by the shrill
and heartrending cries that continued to issue from the burning shed,
as if women and children had been confined in some part of it, and
unable to escape. Old Bloody Politeful was at this time standing in
the middle of the open space, with the four middies, Pumpbolt, and
about ten men grouped around him; the rest being employed in various
ways--some in an unavailing attempt to extinguish the fire--the others
in guarding the prisoners, when all at once the first lieutenant sung
out--"Men, there are women and children burning there--follow me." He
spoke to British seamen--could he have said more? And away they rushed
after their heroic leader, stumbling over each other in their anxiety
to succour the poor helpless beings within. A minute of most intense
suspense followed, when upwards of a dozen women rushed out from the
flaming hut, sheltering, with their bent bodies and naked arms, their
helpless infants from the sparks, and fire, and falling timbers; and
even after they had escaped, and had couched at our feet, the cries and
groans from amongst the burning mass too fearfully evinced that numbers
of our fellow-creatures, in all likelihood the most helpless of the
party, were still in jeopardy, nay, in very truth, were at that instant
giving up the ghost. Our crew did all they could to get the remainder
of the poor creatures out, but many perished in the flames.
About fifty human beings, chiefly women, were saved, and placed,
huddled together, in the centre of the open space; presently several of
the white Spaniards, who had held on in the shed amidst flame and
smoke, that I thought more than sufficient to have suffocated any man
of woman born, started off into the woods, and disappeared, all to the
five whom we had seized, and who were placed beside, and secured along
with the captive blacks. Those we had taken were surly, fierce-looking
bravoes; who, when asked any questions as to the name and character of
their vessel, only smiled savagely, as much as to say--"_Our_ vessel!
where is she _now_? You are none the better for _her_ at all events!"
"Brail, my dear," said Lieutenant Sprawl, "since you stand pilot, what
is to be done? Had we not better be off with our white prisoners while
the play is good?"
"If the tide will let us," said I; "but the boats as yet are high and
dry in the creek, and we have lost the only opportunity that offered
for burning the polacre; had we confined ourselves to that object, and
kept the boats afloat, we might have accomplished it where she lies at
low water."
"Better as it is," rejoined Sprawl--"better as it is; we found no
slaves on board, and might have got into a scrape had we set fire to
her in cold blood.--No, no! let us be off, and try and launch the
boats. Here, men, secure your prisoners; shall we carry the black
Broker--this respectable resetter of human beings--with us, Brail--eh?"
"Why, we had better," said I; "we may get some information out of the
vagabond; so kick him up, Moses;"--he was at this moment lying on his
back, again shamming a trance--"up with him, pique him with your
boarding pike, my man."
The seaman I had addressed did as he was desired; but the fellow was
now either dead-drunk, or had sufficient nerve to control any
expression of pain, for the deuced hard thumps and sharp progues he
received, produced no apparent effect. He lay like a log through them
all; even the pain of the wound in his arm seemed insufficient to keep
him awake.
"Why, what is that--do you hear that?" said Lanyard, in great alarm;
for several dropping shots now rattled in the direction of the boats.
All was still for a minute, and every ear was turned to catch the
sound, during which time we distinctly heard in the distance a loud
voice hail,--
"Come out from beneath the bushes there, you villains, or we shall fire
a volley."
Again there was a long pause--a horn was sounded--then another--then a
wild confused yell, mingled with which the musketry again breezed up,
and we could hear, from the shouts of our people, that the covering
party at the boats had been assailed. When the first shot was fired,
the black resetter lifted his head, anxiously, as if to listen; but
seeing my eyes were fixed on him, he instantly dropped it again. But
the instant he heard the negro horns, the noise of their onset, and the
renewal of the firing, he started to his legs, as active as a lynx; and
before any of us could gather our senses about us, he was on the verge
of the wood; when all at once a thought seemed to come across him; he
stopped, and hung in the wind for a moment, as if irresolute whether to
bolt or turn back. At this moment one of our people let drive at him,
but missed him, although the ball nipped off a dry branch close above
his head. He instantly ran and laid hold of one of the pillars of the
frame that supported the abominable little idol. Another shot was
fired, when down tumbled his godship on the head of his worshipper, who
caught the image by the legs, and seeing some of our people rushing to
seize him, he let go his hold of the upright, and whirling the figure
round, holding on by its legs, he let drive with it at the man nearest
him, and dropped him like a shot. He then bolted out of sight, through
one of the several muddy paths that opened into the mangrove thicket
landward.
"No time to be lost, my lads," whistled old Davie; "keep
together;"--then, in his thorough bass, "Don't throw away a shot; so
now bring along your prisoners, and let us fall back on the
boats----that's it--march the Dons to the front--shove on, my fine
fellows--shove on."
The firing at the boats had by this time slackened, but the cries
increased, and were now rising higher and fiercer as we approached. We
reached the fort, the place of our former conflict. Heavens! what a
scene presented itself! It makes one's blood run cold to reflect on
it, even after the lapse of years. On the platform lay two Spaniards,
and close to them three of our crew, stark and stiff, and already
stripped naked as the day they were born, by whom Heaven only knows;
while half a dozen native dogs were tearing and _riving_ the yet
scarcely cold carcasses, and dragging the dead arms hither and thither,
until our near approach frightened them away, with a loud unearthly
scream, of no kindred to a common bark.
One fierce brute, with his forepaws planted, straight and stiff, before
him, on a dead body, was tugging with his front teeth at the large
pectoral muscle; occasionally letting go his hold to look at us, and
utter a short angry bark, and again tearing at the bleeding flesh, as
if it had been a carcass thrown to him for food. Another dog had lain
down, with a hold of one of the same poor fellow's cold hands. Every
now and then he would clap his head sideways on the ground, so as to
get the back grinders to bear on his prey; and there the creature was,
with the dead blue fingers across his teeth, crunching and crunching,
and gasping, with his mouth full of froth and blood, and marrow, and
white splinters of the crushed bones, the sinews and nerves of the dead
limb hanging like bloody cords and threads from----Bah!--you have given
us a little _de trop_ of this, Master Benjie.
Two wounded Spaniards were all this time struggling in the soft mud
beyond the platform; their lower limbs, and in fact their whole bodies
up to the arm-pits, had already settled down into the loathsome chaos.
Some of our people were soft-hearted enough to endeavour to extricate
them, but, "Get along, get along--be off to the boats, will ye? be off
to the boats, if you wish to sleep in a sound skin," shouted by Mr
Sprawl, made all hands turn to the more engrossing affair of
self-preservation.
But as it was some time before we could all string over the stockade,
and the single plank that led to it from the platform across the mud, I
could not help remarking one of the poor fellows who appeared to have
been badly wounded, for there was blood on his ghastly visage. His
struggles had gradually settled him up to the chin in the mire--he was
shrieking miserably--he sunk over the mouth--his exertions to escape
increased--the mud covered his nose--he began to cough and splutter for
breath--while he struggled hard with his arms to keep himself above the
surface--had he been one of the best swimmers alive--alas! he was now
neither on earth nor in water--his eyes were still visible. Father of
mercies, let me forget their expression--their hopeless dying glare, as
he gradually sunk deeper and deeper into the quagmire. Oh! what a
horrible grave! he disappeared, but his hands were still visible--he
clasped them together--then opened them again--the fingers spread out,
and quivered like aspen leaves, as he held them up towards heaven in an
attitude of supplication. There--he is gone.
By the time the last of our stragglers had dragged their weary limbs
into the enclosure, the shouting and firing again waxed warm in the
direction of the boats; so we made all sail towards them the instant we
had scrambled over the rude stockade, leaving the other wounded
Spaniard, who lay in a harder part of the mud, to his fate,
notwithstanding the poor fellow's heart-piercing supplication not to be
left to perish in so horrible a manner as his comrade, who had just
disappeared. We advanced as rapidly as we could, and presently came in
sight of this new scene of action. The boats were filled with our
people who had been left to guard them, but were still aground,
although the flood was fast making. They had evidently made the most
desperate attempts to get them afloat, and had been wading up to their
waists in the mud. Four white Spaniards were blazing away at them, and
at least one hundred and fifty naked negroes were crowding round the
head of the creek, and firing from half-a-dozen old rusty muskets, and
throwing spears made of some sort of hard wood burnt at the ends, while
several were employed cutting down the mangroves and throwing them into
the mud, so as to be able to pass over them like a mat, and get at the
boats. One or two of the demon-like savages were _routing_ on
bullocks' horns, while six or seven had already fallen wounded, and lay
bellowing and struggling on the ground before the well-directed fire of
our people.
"Advance, Mr Sprawl, for the love of heaven," the midshipman in charge
of the party in the boats sung out--"advance, or we are lost; our
ammunition is almost out."
Our own danger made it sufficiently evident, without this hint, that
our only chance of safety was by a desperate effort to drive our
opponents back into the wood, and there keep them at bay until the
boats floated.
"Ay, ay, my boys," cried Lanyard, "keep your fire--don't run short."
"Confound you, don't fire," shouted Mr Sprawl, "or you will hit some of
us," as several of the boat's crew nearest us continued,
notwithstanding, to pepper away; then, to his own people--"Follow me,
men; if we don't drive them into the wood, as Mr Lanyard says, till the
tide makes, we are lost."
"Hurrah!" shouted the brave fellows, "give them a touch of the pike and
cutlass, but no firing.--Hurrah!"
When we charged them, the negroes and their white leaders were in an
instant driven into the recesses of the jungle, but not before we had
captured three more of the Spaniards and seven of their black allies.
Our object being in the mean time attained, we called a halt, and sent
back a man to the boats, with orders to advise us the moment they were
afloat. Worn out and feeble as most of the party were, from want of
food and fatigue, many fell asleep in a moment, leaning against trees,
or slipped down on the twisted roots of the mangroves. Every thing had
continued quiet for about a quarter of an hour, no sound being heard
beyond an occasional shout or wild cry in the recesses of the
brushwood, when all at once the man we had despatched to the rear, came
rushing up to us at the top of his speed.
"The boats will be afloat in ten minutes, sir."
"Thank heaven, thank heaven," I exclaimed.
"But an Eboe canoe," continued the man, suddenly changing my joy into
sadness, "with more than fifty people on board, is now paddling up the
creek."
"The devil!" exclaimed Mr Sprawl, "are we never to get clear of this
infernal corner?" And then recollecting who he was, and where he was,
and that the lives of the whole party were dependent on his courage and
self-possession, he rose, calm and resolute, from where he had sat
himself down on the root of a bush.
"Men, we may go to the right about now and be off to the boats--so send
the wounded forward; the officers and marines will bring up the rear.
So heave ahead, will ye? but no rushing now--be cool, for the credit of
the ship."
The instant we retreated, the sound of the negro horns and drums again
commenced, showing that our movements were watched; the yells rose
higher than ever, and dropping shots whistled over-head, clipping off a
leaf here and a dry branch there. We sculled along, the noises behind
us increasing, until we once more reached the head of the creek. The
boats were by this time not afloat exactly, but the advance of the tide
had so _thinned_ the mud, that it was clear, if we could once get the
people on board, we should have little difficulty in sliding them into
deep water. However, the nearest could not be got within boat-hook
length of the bank, and two of the oars being laid out to form a
gangway, no sooner did the first seaman step along them,
than--crack--one gave way, and the poor fellow plumped up to the waist
in the mud. If we were to get disabled in our fins, certain
destruction must ensue; this was palpable to all of us; so we had to
scramble on board through the abominable stinking slime the best way we
could, without risking any more of the ash staves. In the mean time
the uncouth noises and firing in the rear came nearer and increased.
"So now, hand the prisoners on board, and place them beside their
comrades there," shouted Mr Sprawl.
Easier said than done. Taking advantage of the uproar, they had hung
back, and now as the first of the savages appeared from under the green
trees, evidently with an intention of again attacking us, they fairly
turned tail, and before we could prevent them, they were off, and for
ever beyond our ken. The last of our people had got on board, all to a
poor boy, who had been badly wounded, indeed ham-strung with a knife,
and as he had fainted on the brink from pain and loss of blood, for a
moment he had been forgotten. But only for a moment.
"God help me, God help me," said I, "why, it is poor little Graham, my
own servant; shove close to, and let me try to get him on board." The
lad spoken of was a slight brown-haired boy, about fifteen years of
age. The sound of my voice seemed to revive him; he lifted his head;
but the four Spanish prisoners, whom we had secured on board, on the
instant, as if moved by one common impulse, made a bound overboard;
although they sank up to the waist, they made a desperate attempt to
reach the bank; the leading one, who seemed to have been an officer,
shouting out to their allies in the wood, "_Camaradas, una golpe bueno,
y somos salvados--una golpe fuerte, y somos libres_." This was the
signal for a general rush of the combined column from the thicket; the
black naked savages, led on by the white crew of the slaver. As they
rushed down to the brink, the poor wounded lad made a desperate attempt
to rise; and as he ran a step or two staggering towards the creek, he
looked behind him at the negroes, who were advancing with loud shouts.
He then, with his face as pale as ashes, and lips blue as indigo, and
eyes starting from the socket, called out, "For the dear love of Jesus,
shove ahead, and save me; Oh! Mr Sprawl, save me! Mr Brail, for God
Almighty's sake, don't desert me, Oh sir!" A black savage had rushed
forward and seized him--I fired--he dropped, dragging the boy down with
him; and I could see him in his agony try to tear him with his teeth,
while the helpless lad struggled with all his might to escape from the
dying barbarian. He did get clear of him; and with a strength that I
could not believe he had possessed, he once more got on his legs, and
hailed me again; but the uproar was now so loud, and the firing so hot,
that I could not hear what he said.
"The boats are afloat, the boats are afloat!" shouted twenty voices at
once. At this very moment a negro caught the lad round the waist,
another laid hold of him by the hair, and before he could free himself,
the latter drew his knife round his neck--the next instant the trunk,
with the blood gushing from the severed arteries, was quivering amongst
the mud, while the monster held aloft the bleeding head with its
quivering and twitching features.
"Heaven have mercy on us--Heaven have mercy on us!" said I; but we were
now widening our distance fast, although I could see them strip the
body with the speed of the most expert camp-follower; and while the
Spaniards on shore were, even under our fire, trying to extricate their
comrades, all of them wounded, who were floundering in the slime and
ooze, their black allies were equally active in cutting up and
mutilating the poor boy with the most demoniacal ferocity and ..... I
dare not attempt further description of a scene so replete with horror
and abomination. We poled along, with all the little strength that a
day of such dreadful incidents, and a climate of the most overpowering
heat and fearful insalubrity, had left us. At length the creek widened
so as to allow us to ply our oars, when we perceived the large Eboe
war-canoe, already mentioned, in the very act of entering the narrow
canal we were descending. As we approached, we had an opportunity of
observing the equipment of this remarkable craft; it was upwards of
sixty feet long, and manned by forty hands--twenty of a side, all
plying their great broad-bladed paddles. These men sat close to the
gunwale of the vessel on each side, looking forward, and delving up the
water with their shovel-shaped paddles, the two rows sufficiently apart
to leave room for upwards of fifty naked men and women to be stowed
amidships. These last were all bound with withes, or some kind of
country rope; and although there were no serious or very evident
demonstrations of grief amongst them, yet it at once occurred to me,
that they were slaves sent down to our black friend's depot, to await
the arrival of the next vessel, or probably they were intended to have
completed the polacre's cargo. An old white-headed, yellow-skinned
negro, bearing the tatooed marks of a high-caste man of his tribe on
his square-featured visage, as if the skin had been peeled off his
temples on each side, was seated in the bow. He evidently took us for
part of the crew of some slaver lying below. He shouted to us, and
pointed to his cargo; but we had other fish to fry, and accordingly
never relaxed in our pulling, until at five in the afternoon, we were
once more on board of the felucca.