THE EVENING AFTER THE BRUSH.
On mustering, we found our loss had been exceedingly severe--no fewer
than seven missing, five of whom, I knew, had been killed outright, and
fourteen wounded, some of them seriously enough. The first thing we
did was to weigh and drop down out of gunshot of the fort, when we
again anchored close under the bank on the opposite side of the river.
By the time we were all snug it was near six o'clock in the evening;
and the wild cries and uproar on the bank had subsided, no sound
marking the vicinity of our dangerous neighbours, excepting a startling
shout now and then, that gushed from the mangrove jungle; while a thick
column of smoke curled up into the calm evening sky from the smoking
ruins of the house. Presently, thin grey vapours arose from the
surface of the water on each bank, and rolled sluggishly towards us
from the right and left, until the two sheets of mist nearly met.
Still a clear canal remained in the middle of the noble stream, as if
its dark flow had been narrowed to a space that a pistol-shot would
have flown across point-blank. For an hour, the fog increased, until
it became like wreaths of wool, and then, when at the densest, it rose
gradually, until the bushes on each side of the river became dimly
visible, as if a gauze screen had been interposed between us and them.
It continued gradually to roll back, right and left, landward; until it
folded over and overlapped the trees on the banks, creeping along the
tops of them, yet leaving the air clear as crystal above its influence,
where presently the evening star rose sparkling as brightly as if it
had been a frosty sunset. But we were not long to enjoy this pure
atmosphere, for right ahead of us a thicker body of vapour than what
had come off previously began to roll down the river, floating in the
air about ten or twelve feet from the surface of the water, where it
hung in a well-defined cloud, without in any way melting into the clear
atmosphere overhead. When it reached within a cable's length of us, it
became stationary, and owned allegiance to the genius of the
sea-breeze, growing thin and smoke-like, and diffusing itself, and
poisoning the air all round. It was the most noxious I ever breathed.
"Palpable marsh miasmata; the yellow fever in visible perfection,"
quoth Lieutenant Sprawl.
Through this mist, the glowing sun, now near his setting, suddenly
became shorn of his golden hair, and obliged us with a steady view of
his red bald globe; while his splendid wake, that half an hour before
sparkled on the broad rushing of the mighty stream, converting its
whirling eddies into molten gold, was suddenly quenched under the chill
pestilential fen-damp; and every thing looked as like the shutting in
of a winter's night in Ould Ireland as possible, with a dash of vapour
from my own river Lee, which has mud enough to satisfy even a Cork pig,
and that is saying a good deal. Had we only had the cold, the
similitude would have been perfect.
The sun set; and all hands, men and officers, carried on in getting
themselves put to rights as well as they could, after a day of such
excitement and stirring incidents. None of the wounded, I was rejoiced
to find, were likely to slip through our fingers; but the fate of the
poor fellows who were missing--What was it? Had they been fairly shot
down, or sabred on the spot, or immolated afterwards--after the scenes
we had witnessed, what might it not have been? The surgeon's mate, who
constituted part of our appointment, was a skilful fellow in his way,
and I had soon the gratification to see all the men who had been hurt
properly cared for. As for my own wound, thanks to the profuse
hæmorrhage, the sensation was now more that of a stunning blow than any
thing else; and, with the exception of the bandage round my head, I was
not a great deal the worse, neither to look at, nor indeed in reality.
Old Davie Doublepipe, Dick Lanyard, and myself, had dived into the
small cabin; and having taken all the precautions that men could do in
our situation, we sat down, along with Pumpbolt the master, the two
reefers, who had come in the frigate's boats, and little Binnacle, to
our salt junk and grog.
"A deuced comfortable expedition, Brail, my darling, we have had this
same day," _quod_ Dick.
"Very," responded Benjamin Brail, Esquire. "But, here's to you, my
man, _Dum vivimus vivamus_--so spare me that case bottle of rum."
However, we were too awkwardly placed to spend much time over our
frugal repast, as the poets say; so presently we were all on deck
again. How beautiful, and how different the scene. A small cool
breath of wind from the land had again rolled away the impure air from
the bosom of the noble river, and every thing overhead was once more
clear and transparent. The bright new risen moon was far advanced in
the second quarter, and cast a long trembling wake of silver light on
the water, sparkling like diamonds on the tiny ripples, while the
darkened half of the chaste planet herself was as perfectly visible, as
if her disk had been half silver and half bronze. Her mild light,
however, was not strong enough to quench the host of glorious stars
that studded the cloudless firmament. On either hand, the black banks
were now clearly defined against the sky; the one shore being lit up by
the rising moon, and the other by the last golden tints of the recently
set sun.
The smoke over the site of the conflagration, which had been pale grey
during the daylight, became gradually luminous and bright as the night
closed in; and every now and then, as if part of the building we had
seen on fire had fallen in, a cloud of bright sparks would fly up into
the air, spangling the rolling masses of the crimson-tinged wreaths of
smoke. At length the light and flame both slowly decreased, until they
disappeared altogether; leaving no indication as to their whereabouts.
"Come," said I, "we may all turn in quietly for the night. The savages
ashore there seem at length to be asleep."
The words were scarcely out of my mouth, when a bright glare, as if a
flame from a heap of dry wood chips had suddenly blazed up, once more
illuminated the whole sky right over where we had seen the sparks and
luminous smoke, while a loud concert of Eboe drums, horns, and wild
shouts, arose in the distance.
"Some vile Fetish rite is about being celebrated," said I.
The noise and glare continued, and with a sickening feeling, I turned
away and looked towards the rising moon. Her rays trembled on the
gurgling and circling eddies of the river, making every trunk of a
tree, or wreath of foam as it floated down with the current, loom clear
and distinct, as they swam in black chains and dark masses past the
sparkling line her chaste light illuminated. I had leaned for near a
quarter of an hour with folded arms, resting my back against the
lowered yard, admiring the serenity of the scene, and contrasting it
with the thrilling events of the day, pondering in my own mind what the
morrow was to bring forth, when a large branch of a tree, covered with
foliage, floated past and attracted my attention--the black leaves
twinkling in the night breeze between us and the shining river.
Immediately a small canoe, with two dark figures in it, launched out
from the darkness; swam down the river into the bright wake of the
glorious planet, where the water flowed past in a sheet of molten
silver, and floated slowly across it. The next moment it vanished in
the darkness. I saw it distinctly--there could be no mistake.
"I say, friend Sprawl,"--he was standing beside me enjoying the luxury
of a cigar,--"did you see that?" pointing in the direction where the
tiny craft had disappeared. He had also seen it.
"We had better keep a bright look-out," continued I; "those savages may
prove more venturesome in the darkness than we chose this morning to
believe possible."
I kept my eye steadily in the direction where we had seen the canoe
vanish; but she continued invisible, and nothing for some time occurred
to create any alarm. Every thing remained quiet and still. Even the
shouting on shore had entirely ceased. On board of the felucca, the
men were clustered round a blazing fire forward, that cast a bright red
glare on the rushing water as it whizzed past, lap-lapping against our
bows, and closing in on the rudder, making it _cheep_ as it was
_jigged_ from side to side, with a buzzing gurgle; while the small
round whirling eddies, visible by the tiny circles of white froth and
hissing bells, where the divided waters spun away as if glad of their
reunion in our wake, rolled down astern of us, blending together in one
dark eddy, wherein the boats under the tafferel sheered about, with the
water flashing at their bows, like so many captured hippopotami, until
I expected every moment to see the taught painters torn away.
The wounded by this time were all stowed snugly below, but the figures
on the crowded deck of the little vessel glanced wildly round the
crackling fire. Many of the men, who had floundered in the slime of
the creek, appeared like absolute statues of plaster of Paris, when the
mud had dried on them, which they were busily employed in picking off,
great patches of the hardened filth having adhered to their clothes
like greaves and cuisses. Some were engaged cooking their food, others
were cleaning their arms, while the grog went round cheerily, and the
loud laugh and coarse jest evinced the buoyancy of young hearts, even
while they sat within ear-shot of the groans of their wounded comrades,
and the bodies of those who had fallen were scarce cold; while the most
appalling dangers to themselves had just been surmounted.
Lanyard was now called below by the surgeon's mate to inspect the
condition of the wounded. Old Bloody Politeful and myself accompanied
him. None of the sound part of the crew had yet turned in, but, in the
hurry of going ashore, all their hammocks had been left slung, and, as
the between decks was barely five feet high, it was rather a bothersome
matter to navigate between the rows of them, empty and full. Two large
lanterns hung from hooks screwed into the beams amidships, but the
lights within were none of the brightest, nor were the glass panes any
of the clearest; so they did not greatly elucidate the state of
matters; but, in another sense, if to afford heat to the confined
berth-deck had been an object, they constituted a most efficient
apparatus, from the hot fat smoke that screwed out of the little
perforated tin domes at the top. Immediately above the lanterns, that
were suspended by pieces of spunyarn about six inches long, and on each
side of the beam, where it had been bevelled away, was arrayed a whole
swarm of cockroaches in two circles, with their heads inward, and their
long feelers in perpetual motion, like the spears of the serried
phalanx of old,--a more courageous beetle than the rest, every now and
then making a forward movement of a step or two, until the heat of the
ascending flame scorched him back again. However, we soon had to
attend to other matters.
The first amongst the wounded that I had occasion to address was the
corporal of marines, of whom mention has been before made,--one of the
boats'-crews who were leagued with us. He was, although reputed half
crazy in the ship, a fine handsome young fellow--a Scotchman. When we
came down he was speaking to a messmate, who stood beside his hammock
helping him to some drink.
"Oh, man," said he, "did ye no remark the clearness and stillness of
the creek, after leaving the muddy river, just before the action
began--immediately before it was stirred up by that hideous,
highland-cow-looking beast of a hippopotamy; the vile brute that raised
the mud, until it converted the crystal clear water into pease brose,
and be d----d to it? I hate these wee Highland _nowt_. A big sonsy
stot is a manageable animal, and respectable withal, and quiet; but
thae sma' hieland deevils!----Hech! what sharp horns they have! And
although a bold front aye quells them, still they always are on the
look-out to take you at disadvantage--in the louping of a dyke, for
instance, wha will assure ye that they shall not kittle your
hinderlins?--But what am I raving about?--Ou ay! about the clear creek,
with the white scales of the bit fishes turning up their sides to the
light, and glancing like silver far down in the transparent depths of
the deep water, as we lay on our oars. Guid kens--forbye being weak
and worn, and scant o' glee, for a leaden weight lay on my
speerits--yet the sicht drave me aff and awa' in a moment amang my ain
native blue hills and heathery braes--ay, and clear saugh-fringed
sparkling burnies too, rippling bonnily in the sunshine owre their
half-dry channels of bright sand and pebbles, with the trouts louping
_plump, plump_, out of the swirls at the bottom of the ripples at the
grey flies, and then glancing up the rushing streams, zig-zag like
fire-flaughts from ae shadowy bank till another--although all the while
I was conscious that maybe, between disease, and shot, and cauld iron,
I was but a step frae heeven--we'll no name the other place. Oh, that
thocht of my home brack in upon my mind like a gleam of sunshine on a
stormy sea."
"Hillo, there's poetry for you, Master Lanyard," said I, a good deal
surprised.
The poor fellow had heard me speak, and presently appeared to become
highly excited, and to breathe very hard. Sprawl and I had by this
time stuck our heads up between the rows of hammocks.
"Well, Lennox, what may be wrong with you?" said I.
"Nothing very particular," was the answer; "only I am afraid that I am
about departing for yon place."
"What place?" said I.
"Ou! I just meant to insinuate to your honour, that I was dying."
"Pooh, nonsense!" said Sprawl; "don't be so chicken-hearted, man. No
fear of you, if you will but keep a good heart."
"It may be sae, it may be sae; but I am doomed, and I know it."
"How?" said I, much interested--"How? Tell me what forebodings you
have had--do now?"
To make what passed after this intelligible, it is proper to remark,
that this poor fellow, notwithstanding his peculiarities, was the most
sober and hard-working man in the frigate--a favourite with all hands,
men and officers. It appeared that, for several days before the
setting out of the expedition, he had been suffering from
dysentery,--indeed, he had been so very ill, that this very morning the
surgeon had given him eighty drops of laudanum;--notwithstanding, he
would not on any account be left behind, but insisted on going in the
boats. It was soon evident, however, that even during the attack he
was unnaturally elevated by the effects of the medicine; for although a
known and tried hand, and acknowledged to be one of the bravest men in
the ship, yet his extraordinary conduct had startled many of us, myself
amongst others. When the long shed was set fire to, for instance, I
thought he was drunk, for he kept swaggering about, with half shut
eyes, and speaking to himself, in a manner altogether unaccountable,
knowing as I did the character of the man; but in the tumult I had
after this lost sight of him.
"What makes you so down-hearted, my man?"
I now saw that the poor fellow was evidently still under the influence
of laudanum, although the exhilarating effects had evaporated. It
afterwards came to my knowledge, that the surgeon, seeing his weak
state when the boats got on board again, had given him. another dose,
but this had not yet had time to operate.
"What makes you so down-hearted?" I repeated.
"Down-hearted!" he rejoined, his eyes twinkling brightly, as the fresh
doze began to operate; "down-hearted, bless your honour! I was rather
so, certainly, some time ago, but now I begin to feel myself growing
the happiest fellow in the whole ship,--yes, the
happiest--happy--hap"----and he fell over into a short troubled snooze.
Some time elapsed, and I had removed to another part of the vessel,
when I again heard his voice.
"Stand clear until I get out--don't you hear them call all
hands?--so,"--and before I could prevent him he had floundered on deck.
We lifted him into his hammock again. He still continued to breathe
very hard. At length he looked me right in the face,--
"I say, master-at-arms--Lord! what a comical dream I have had! Why, we
were all ashore cutting out,--what do you think?--a little heathen god,
defended by bull-dogs!--and a devil of a good fight he made of it, ha,
ha, ha!--We were too many for him though; and when we had set fire to
his house, and split the skulls of a thousand of his people or so, the
little grinning, monkeyfied son-of-a-gun, just as I was taking aim at
him, jumped down from his perch, and flew like a cannon-shot right
against me, giving me such a settler, ha, ha, ha!--Zounds! only fancy
Jack Lennox mentioned in the return, as 'Killed by a heathen god! the
bloody little image pitching itself right into his stomach!'--ha, ha,
ha!"
And so in truth it was. For when our friend Sergeant Quacco bolted, on
finding the shrine of the Fetish no sanctuary, and had whirled the
image amongst us, the uncouth missile had brought up in the pit of poor
Lennox's stomach sure enough, where it had told most fearfully.
All the wounded complained greatly of thirst, scarcely one of them in
his groanings saying a word about the _pain_ of his wounds.
Another poor fellow, an Irishman, who belonged to the frigate's
mizen-top, had got a cruel cut transversely down his cheek, which it
had fairly laid open.
"Well, Callaghan," said I, in my new capacity of surgeon's mate, "how
do you get on? Ugly gash that--spoiled your beauty, my fine fellow.
But never mind--Greenwich at the worst under your lee, you know."
He looked at me, with a face as pale as death, but with a comical
expression notwithstanding, and a bright twinkle of his eye--"Please
you, sir, tobacco juice nips like fury."
"I don't doubt it. But what have you to do with it at present? Wait
until your wound gets better. Surely you have not a quid in your cheek
_now_?"
He sucked in his sound cheek; but the exertion started the
plaster-straps that had been applied across the wound in the other, and
the blood began to flow.
"Blazes!" said he, "if that d--d quid won't be the death of me!" and
thereupon he hooked it out of his potato-trap with his finger, and
threw the cherished morsel with great violence from him.
Here our Scotch friend again broke in upon us--"I say, you Clinker--you
master-at-arms--damn me (gude forgie me for swearing) if I think it is
a dream after all. I am now sure it was a _bona fide_ spree that we
have had on shore, and that my days are numbered from the thump I
received from the graven image. Lord, that Saunders Skelp should have
been left _to dree such weird_! Hech, but _the contusion_ was most
awful sair!"
I pricked up my ears when, first of all in his ravings, I heard the
poor fellow pronounce the words _bona fide_, but followed up as this
was by his speaking of a _contusion_, a word utterly unknown amongst
the crew on the berth-deck, I became riveted to the spot, and most
anxiously desirous to know something more of our marine. I had stepped
a few paces towards the ladder, but my curiosity again drew me to the
side of his hammock.
"I say, friend, wha may ye be?" said the man--in the common routine of
the ship, I had never noticed his Scotch accent before; more Scotch
now, by the way, than it usually was--"I say, friend, what for do you
persevere in haunting me in this way?"
"Why, my good man, I am only lending a hand to see you and the rest of
the wounded properly cared for--believe me, I have no desire to bother
you or any one else."
"It may be all vera true," said he, turning himself, apparently with
great pain, on his back; "it may be vera true--but noo, sin' I am
persuaded that I dinna dream, let me gather the sma' wits God has gi'en
me weel about me. Let me see--let me see--we all ken the service we
were ordered on this blessed morning--nane better than Saunders
Skelp--what am I dreaming o'? Jack Lennox, I mean--gude hae a care o'
us, my harns[1] are strangely confused." Then, after a pause, during
which he appeared to be exerting himself to call in his scattered
thoughts--"Weel a-weel, ye a' ken wha focht, and wha sang sma, and mony
a stalwart blow was struck--_that_ I ken--and sickly as I was, it
behoved me, the son o' auld Pate Skelp of Lincomdodie, to do my
_devoir_, as Sir Walter says, and to it I buckled; but I shall believe
in second sicht or any other miracle noo, for we drave a' obstruction
before us like chaff, until we encountered wi' that wee wudden goddity;
when, to stop our advance (I saw it as plain as peas), the creature
whirled aff its perch, and flew crack against the midriff of me,
Saunders, like a stane frae a _testudo_--Hoot, no, of Jack Lennox, I
mean."
[1] Brains.
"My good friend," said I, "you must be very ill--compose yourself."
Then aside to one of the men, "Are you sure Lennox is not tipsy?" The
poor fellow overheard me.
"Tipsy! me foo!" and he lay back and drew a long breath like a
porpoise. He immediately continued--"Ay, and I believe I am foo after
all--but wha may ye be that taunts me thereanent sae unceremoniously,
and me mair than half dead? It was na _yeer_ siller that slokened me,
I'se warrant, if foo I am--Foo!--sma' manners have ye to taunt a puir
chiel like me with being foo--my certie, whisky maun hae been plentier
than gentlemen among us the day; or foo I neer wad hae been--Foo!"
I was now much interested about the poor fellow, and as I incommoded
the wounded man who lay in the cot next him to port, I moved round to
the other side, and again addressed our eccentric friend. "Now, my
good man," said I, "I don't want to teaze you; but as the doctor says
he has great doubts of you, I again ask you if I can do any thing for
you; have you any bequest to leave?"
"I say, freen'," rapped out the poor fellow, "the doctor may go be
damned,"--this was certainly very plain, if not very
complimentary;--"and it will not break my heart if ye're no that far
ahint him. But I shall live to dance at his _dregy_[2] yet. What can
he say to a man like me? But you, sir, it was you that accused me of
getting drunk--and drunk I may be after all, for my head sooms most
awfu'."
[2] Dirge--burial.
The poor creature's mind was now utterly a wool-gathering. Presently
he called out, "I say, my lad, what are you abusing that brute beast
for? Haud aff the dog, sir--that's the beast that wanted to worry Mr
Brail; but never mind, dinna massacre him, noo since you have ta'en
him--never abuse a prisoner."
I began to get tired of this, and was about moving from where I stood,
and going on deck, when, on turning round, I found the ladder had been
unshipped on purpose to afford access to some locker behind it, and
Sprawl and I, unless we had chosen to give additional trouble to poor
devils who were most of them sufficiently _done_ already, were obliged
to remain a little longer where we were. Immediately after this Lennox
again sung out, "Neebour, can you tell me whar about we are, eh?"--and
before I could answer he continued, "Hech, man, he's but a puir shilpit
cretur, that Brail lad." I was half inclined to be angry at this
unceremonious opinion of my personal qualifications, but to be thus
apostrophized to my face, was so very absurd, that I laughed in spite
of myself. "A puir bit animal, sir," the man continued--"and tak my
word for it, Saunders Skelp's word, that he must have been ony thing
but gleg at the uptak. The chiel, I'se warrant, was slow, slow at his
lair--a kind of _yird taid_ as it were--and what the deevil that
hairum-scairum captain of ours, Sir Oliver, could see in the animal to
take him to sea with him, I'm sure I canna tell. But then the
commodore is siccan a throughither kind o' chap himsell, that when ane
has time to reflect on't, there is nay miracle in his drawing to this
camsteerie callant, Benjie Brail, after all."
I could no longer contain, so smothering my laughter the best way I
could, I left him, and was in the act of ascending when I heard our
friend Skelp again maundering to himself.
"God, to have seen the birr with which the wee deevil of a heathen god
flew right through the air, and gied me siccan a devel in the wame.
Hech, it is ominous--vary ominous, and I'll die o't, I'll die o't."
Then, as he hove about on the other tack, "it is maist awfu' het in
this cursed hole; oh for a green tree and a cool breeze!
'Tityre, tu patulæ recubans sub tegmine fagi.'"
A long pause.
"Lord, but it's chokey!"
I laughed outright, and so did Sprawl. Saunders noticed this, and in
his delirium began to laugh too.
"What's that skirling like the curlew one moment, and grunting like a
nine farrow pig the other? I say, friend, what kittles ye sae? Come
here, my wee man, come here;" and raising himself in his hammock, he
stared idly into my face, and then shook his head violently. "Heard
ever any Christian the like o' that?" said the poor corporal; "hear
till that," and he again walloped his _cabeza_ from side to side;
"dinna ye hear hoo my brain is dried up and knotted in my _cranium_ by
this vile fever? Safe us, it's a' into lumps like aitmeal in brose,
and noo the lumps have hardened into a consistence like flint,--losh!
how they rattle in my skull like chucky stanes in a wean's
rash-basket!" Another shake of his head. "Ech, the very fire-sparks
are fleeing from my ee. I wonder if they can be hardened ideas; at ony
rate they have struck fire frae ilk ither. Do ye ken I could write
poetry the noo--I'll be up and overboard, if you dinna haud me--I'll be
up and overboard."
Discreet even in his madness, he had given warning and time for the
hint to be taken by his mess-mates, and he was now forcibly held down.
As he lay back he continued to murmur, "Oh, puir Saunders Skelp, puir
Saunders Skelp, that ye should hae gotten yer death-blow frae a bloody
wee heathen god, and you the son of a minister's man--a godly bairn of
the Reformation!" Then lifting his head, as if his own exclamation had
startled him, "Saunders Skelp--wha ca's on Saunders Skelp--there is nae
Saunders Skelp here, I trow? As for you, ye wee blackened deevil,"
(me, Benjie Brail, viz.) "Oh, man, if I had gotten the educating o' ye,
my taws wad hae driven mair lair intil ye at the but-end, than ten
Southern maisters wha appeal till the head."
Our attention was here diverted by the hail of the look-out on deck.
"Boat, ahoy!" A pause. "Coming here?" Still no answer.
I scrambled up the ladder, by this time replaced, accompanied by Mr
Sprawl and Lanyard, who, during my idle palaver with the Scotch
corporal, had made an overhaul of all the poor fellows, and seen every
one's wants attended to. When we came on deck, we found a cluster of
people at the aftermost part of the felucca. The moment we advanced,
little Binnacle said, "Some one has twice hailed us from the water
astern, sir, but we can make nothing of it. We hear the voice, but we
cannot see the man who shouts, sir."
Both Davie Doublepipe and myself strained our eyes to catch the object;
for although it was a bright moonlight overhead, yet astern of us the
thick mist that had rolled down the river, and still hovered in that
direction, concealed everything under its watery veil.
Presently we heard the splash of a paddle, and a voice shouted out,
"Oh, dis current, dis current! I never sall be able to stem him. Send
a boat to pick me up; do--send a boat, massa."
This was one thing we begged to decline doing.
"My man, whoever you may be, you must shove ahead, and get alongside
yourself, for no boat shall be sent to you until we make you out," sung
out old Dick.
Here we could hear the creature, whatever it was, puff and blow, and
the splashing of the paddle became louder, while every now and then it
gave a thump with its open palm on the side of the canoe, or whatever
it might be it was in. At length a small dory, as it is called in the
West Indies, a tiny sort of canoe, shot out of the fog, with a dark
figure paddling with all his might in the stern, while a slighter one
was sitting in the bow. He was soon alongside, and who should scramble
on board but our friend the resetter. He took no notice of any of us,
but, turning round, stooped down over the side, and said something in
an African dialect, that I could not understand, to the figure in the
boat, who immediately handed up what appeared to me to be a log of
wood, which he put away carefully beside the long-gun. He then called
out again to the party remaining in the canoe to come on deck, when a
handsome young Eboe woman stepped on board.
"Now, captain," said our free-and-easy friend--"now, captain, will you
hab de goodness to hoist in my dory?"
"And for what should I do that same?" said the fourth lieutenant, a
little taken aback by the fellow's cool impudence. "Little reason why
I should not knock you overboard, my darling, after the transactions of
this morning."
"Transaction, captain? O, massa, I don't know him; but dis I knows, if
you hab got into one scrape dis day, you desarve it--ah, very mosh."
A momentary feeling of irritation shot across Lanyard, but the
absurdity of the whole affair instantly quelled it, and, in spite of
himself, he could not help laughing.
"Well, well, Clinker, take care of this man, and the woman who is with
him, will ye? and tell Jerry to get supper in the cabin."
The lieutenants and I resumed our walk on the confined deck of the
little vessel for a quarter of an hour, when the steward came and
announced that supper was ready. We went below, where our comforts in
a small way had been excellently well attended to; the lamp was burning
cheerily, the small table was covered with an immaculate table-cloth,
although none of the finest; and two well-filled decanters of Teneriffe
sparkled on the board, while a beautiful junk of cold salt beef, and a
dish of taties in their skins, with the steam smoking up through the
cracks in them, and a large case-bottle of capital old Jamaica, gave
assurance of a small streak of comfort after the disasters and fatigues
of the day.
Speaking of potatoes, stop till I immortalize my old mother's receipt.
"To dress a potato--_wash_ it well, but no _scraping_; at the thickest
end cut off a piece"--(I beg the dear old woman's pardon--_pace_)--"cut
off a piece the size of a sixpence. This is the safety-valve through
which the steam escapes, and all rents in the skin are thereby
prevented---just as the aforesaid valve prevents a rupture in the
steam-boiler; and if you do this carefully, oh for the mealiness
(_maliness_) thereof!"
Lanyard had asked old Pumpbolt the master, little Binnacle his only
mid, the youngster who had behaved so gallantly at the start, to sup
with him; along with Mr Marline, one of the master's mates of the
Gazelle; and young De Walden, another reefer of the dear old barky, a
most beautiful, tall, handsome, although slightly framed, boy. So far
as I can judge, the youngster stood about five feet ten. He might have
been more. He had his shoes on, but no stockings--very wide
trowsers--no waistcoat nor jacket, but a broad white-and-blue striped
shirt, folded very far back at the throat, and no neckcloth. He wore
an enormously broad-brimmed straw hat, with a black ribbon round it, in
rather a natty bow on the left side, while his loins were still girt
with his by no means maiden sword. As I was diving into the cabin
through the small companion, he came up to me--"Do you know, sir, that
I cannot sup with Mr Lanyard to-night? I wish you would ask him to
excuse me, sir"--
"Indeed, Master de Walden," said I, "I cannot; you must come; I am sure
a glass of wine will do you good."
"I know, sir, I know, and am very much obliged to you; but--but I have
no clothes, sir. I wet my jacket this morning in weighing the
stream-anchor, and my only other one is so covered with mud, that
really I am unable decently to appear in it."
"Poo, never mind, boy; come down in any way you choose."
We adjourned to the cabin. Old David, as pleasant a fellow as ever
stepped, notwithstanding his peculiarities; Dick Lanyard, a darling in
his way; Pumpbolt and myself sat down at one side of the table, having
first deliberately taken our coats off. We were confronted by little
Binnacle, and the other midshipmen, who came down immediately after.
Young de Walden sat in his trowsers and shirt, with his black silk
cravat tied only once round his neck, and a red silk handkerchief round
his waist. The dress set off the handsome young fellow's figure to
great advantage, the fineness of his waist giving a splendid relief to
the spread of his shoulders, while his beautifully moulded neck, white
as the driven snow, contrasted strikingly with his noble but sun-burnt
countenance; while his hair curled in short black ringlets far back on
his large marble forehead.
The salt junk was placed on the table, and we all began our operations
with great zeal; the biscuit vanished in bushelsful,--the boys were
happy as princes, the smallest, little Binnacle, becoming talkative
from the comfortable meal, and the exhilarating effects of a stiffish
glass of grog, when who should walk into the cabin but Sergeant Quacco
himself? He had diversified his loveliness after a most remarkable
manner; first, he was naked as the day his mother bore him, all to his
waistcloth of red serge. He had sandals of coarse untanned leather on
his feet, a cross belt of black leather slung over his right shoulder,
which supported a bayonet without a sheath, and into which the rust had
eaten--the whole affair being much honeycombed--while his broad chest
and brawny arms were tatooed in gunpowder or indigo, with the most
fantastic shapes. On his head he wore an old military shacko, the
brass ornaments cruelly tarnished, and carried a long wand of wild cane
in his hand, of the thickness of my thumb, and about ten feet high, the
top of which kept rasp, rasping, slantingly against the roof of the low
cabin as he spoke.
"Hillo, steward, what do you mean by this, that you let these savages
turn us out of house and home in this manner?" cried the fourth
lieutenant.--Then addressing the interloper--"My fine fellow, you are a
little off your cruising ground, so be making yourself
scarce--Bolt--vanish--get on deck with you, or I shall be after
swearing a very ugly oath."
"Massa, massa," quoth the man, "easy for you chuck me oberboard--nobody
can say you shan't--but only listen leetle bit, and I know you yousef
shall say my hargument good for someting."
There was a pause, during which he civilly waited for Lanyard to speak,
when finding he had no inclination to do so, he continued--
"Ah I know, and I older man den you, massa; people never should trike
when dem blood is up, unless in de case of fight for Kin Shorge. Ah,
alway wait, massa, until you see and consider of de reason of de ting."
The good-hearted fellow was rebuked before the poor black savage; I
suppose the latter saw it in his face, for all at once he gathered
courage, and approached close to him, and placing his large black
paw--I noticed the palm was a dingy white--on his arm between the elbow
and wrist, he looked up into Dick's face,--
"Massa, you have not got one wife?"
"No I have not."
"But, massa, you can fancy yourself to hab one wife."
Lanyard nodded.
"Well, den, I go on. Suppose you hab one comfortable house, plenty pig
dere, yam grow all round, orange tree blossom close to, plantain trow
him cool shadow over all, bending heavily in de breeze, over de house;
wid de fruit ready for drop into your mout, when you look up at him; de
leetle guinea pig squeak here and snort dere; we hab pineapple and
star-apple--oh, wery sweet--de great corn (maise dem call him) grow all
round de house; pease cover him like one vine; and your servants are
working and singing, and de comfortable sunshine is drying every ting,
and closing all de beautiful flowers in him sleepy heat. You yousef
are sitting in your chair, wid some small drop of grog, after you hab
eat good dinner of goat, and maybe one broiled fis; and just when you
take your pipe, light him, and put him into your mout--crack--one
musket-shot sing over your head--you jomp--(who would not jomp?--Debil
himself would jomp)--and before you can tink--flash--one sailor make
blow at you wid him glass-clear cutlass. And ah, massa, suppose de
worstest to come, and dese strangers to set fire to your quiet hut,
after beating and bruising _you_; and de flames begin to crackle and
hiss over de wery apartment where you know your wife is, and are
consuming all your goods at de same time; and dem black people _were my
goods_: for if you had left we to oursef dis morning, I should have got
two hundred doubloon, and five hundred piece of check clot, from de
Spanish captain, for dose one hundred and fifty slave; who," (his smile
here might have been the envy of the Fiend himself,) "to prevent dem
from being miserable as you call in Havanna, you hab sent to be happy
in heaven." And he groaned in great bitterness of spirit.
I was much struck with all this, and looked steadfastly at the poor
creature, who was standing right opposite me with his arms folded, in
all the dignity of a brave man, who considers his fate sealed. There
was a long pause. When he next spoke, it was in a low melancholy tone.
"De morning sun, when him first sparkle on de waterdrop dat hang like
diamond on de fresh green leaf, shine on me dis wery morning, one reesh
and happy man--one leetle chief--master of all dem ting I speak about.
White man-of-war peoples come. Sun set in de west,--red trou de sickly
fog, leaving every wegitable yellow, and dry, and dusty--who him shine
on now--on me, Quacco, once more--aye, but Quacco widout house, or
home, or friend, or goods, more as he hab on him back--on Quacco
standing up in him kin, desolate as one big large baboon de day him new
catch." Here the poor fellow could no longer control his feelings, but
wept bitterly--after a burst of grief, he continued, with a voice
almost inarticulate from intense emotion--"If all dis was pass wid you,
captain, in one leetle hot day, in one small twelve hour!" But his
manhood once more rallied in his bosom, and making a step towards
Lanyard, with all the native independence of a noble savage, he said,
laying one of his hands on his heart, "Yes, massa, I ask you, had all
dis happen to you, let alone one poor black debil like myself, white
man as you is--Kin's officer as you is--Christian person on de back of
bote--can you put your hand where mine is now, and say, dat your spirit
would not have been much move--dat it would not have been a bitter,
bitter ting to look back to what you was when dat sun rose, and den to
consider what his last light glanced on?" He now slowly drew his
bayonet--I started at the motion, and Sprawl half rose from his chair,
and seized the carving knife that lay on the table.
The man did not move a muscle, but continued looking steadfastly in the
fourth lieutenant's face, while he placed the handle or pipe of the
naked weapon in his right hand.
"Massa," at length he said, coolly and deliberately, "I am helpless and
unarmed, and a poor drunken rascal beside, and in your power--one
moment and you can make cut my troat." Dick returned the weapon, and
signed to him to sheath it, which he did--he then unexpectedly turned
round to me----"And as for you massa, if I have ill used _you_ dis day,
you know of de provocation--you best know what you would have done in
my place. But, massa, bote for we blood is red, and you should not
forget dis ting, dat one time dis forenoon it might hab been for you
place to hax Serjeant Quacco to save you from dem brute beast on sore."
I was taken regularly aback, and blackie saw it; so he now assumed an
easier mien, as if conscious he had made a favourable impression.
"But what brought you here, my good man?" said I.
"De fear of death," he promptly replied. "It has enter de foolis head
of de blacks dat I was de cause of de attack--dat I was in league wid
you, being, as you see, one Englis gentleman like yousefs." (I had
great difficulty in maintaining my gravity at all this.) "So my wife
dere creep to where I hide when de evening come, and say"--here he took
hold of Sprawl's hand in both of his, and looked up tenderly into his
face--(any one having our friend Liston's countenance, when the Beauty
is shamming Bashful, painted on the retina of his mind's eye, has a
tolerable idea of the expression of Davie's face. Oh for an hour of
Wilkie to have caught the two cherubs as a group!)--"'Quacco'--him say
'_Hokey doodle doo_.'"
"Say what?" quoth Sprawl, like to choke with suppressed laughter--"Say
what?"
The poor fellow regarded the lieutenant for some time with the greatest
surprise, murmuring aside, "What can de good gentleman see to amuse him
so mosh?" then aloud, "Him say in de Eboe tongue, 'you old willain,
your troat is to be slice dis wery night.'--'De debil,' say I, '_Jooram
junkee pop_, say I; dat is, it shan't if I can help it. So I bolt--run
away--launch dory--and here I is, Serjeant Quacco, ready once more to
serve his Majesty Kin Shorge--God save de Kin!"
Here old Bloody Politeful fairly exploded into the most uproarious
mirth. The negro looked at him in great amazement for some time, until
at length the infection caught me, when blowing all my manners to the
winds, off I went at score after our friend. The peculiarities of
Davie Doublepipe's voice were more conspicuous in his joyous moments,
if that were possible, than when he spoke calmly; and as he shouted
out, "I say, Benjie, _Jooram junkee pop_," in one tune, and "Why,
Lanyard, _Hokey doodle doo_," in the other, the alternations were so
startling to poor Quacco's ear, that he looked at the lieutenant and
then at me first of all in great alarm, and with his eye on the door,
as if to ascertain that there was no impediment to a rapid retreat. At
last he seemed to comprehend the mystery, and caught the contagion of
our mirth also, shouting as loud as either of us--"What dem white
gentlemen can see to laugh at--what funny ting it can be? ha, ha,
ha--dat big one speak wery comical; one time squeak squeak like one
leetle guinea-pig, den grunt grunt like de big boar; he must surely be
two mans tie up in one kin--ha, ha, ha!" The negro instantly saw the
advantage he had gained over us, in being the cause of so much
merriment, and he appeared determined not to lose it. "So you shee,
massa Captain--you really mosh not be asame, after all, to be shivel to
me and my vife--who is here cowering behind de door; I bring him dat
you may see him take care of, for de men dere forward don't behave
well--none at all."
"Why, Mr Serjeant," said Sprawl, "show the lady in, and no more about
it." The man said something in Eboe, and forthwith in stepped one of
the most startling apparitions that ever I witnessed. It was a tall,
exquisitely formed young Eboe woman--fair enough to have passed for a
mulatto. She wore neatly worked grass buskins, that fitted round the
ankle, as close as a laced boot made by Gundry. Her only dress was
composed of a long web of some sort of native cloth, about a foot wide,
and composed of red, blue, and yellow stripes alternately. Three or
four turns of it were wrapped round her loins, and then an end hung
down before, with a deep fringe of the blended colours of the stripes;
while the other end was carried up from the right hip, across her back,
and brought over the left shoulder, where it was again festooned, by
being twined two or three turns round the left arm; which, when she
entered, was folded across her bosom. Her skin was thickly tatooed at
the waist, but her beautiful bosom was untouched; all to a dark peak,
that projected upwards, giving the tatooing the appearance of a
dark-coloured stomacher. Her cheeks and forehead were also thickly
marked, but without impairing the beauty of the expression of her
bland, although African features--such an eye, and such teeth! She
wore large gold ear-rings; and anklets and armlets of solid silver.
Her head was bound round with a large green or blue cotton shawl; and
there she stood, looking at us with the greatest composure; totally
unconscious of the unusualness of her costume, or the scantiness
thereof.
"Well, my good man, take a glass of grog, will ye? and here, give your
wife a glass of wine, and then go and betake yourselves to rest, in the
quietest corner you can find.--Here, steward, see that Serjeant Quacco
and his wife are cared for--a corner forward of some kind or another
until morning."
"Never say such a ting, massa--de men were unpleasant company--can't go
to dem--so I bring my vife to sleep wid you."
"Mighty obliged, master serjeant--but would rather be excused, if it be
the same thing to you."
"Ho, ho, ho," laughed the savage--"I mean, massa, dat you would permit
we to sleep at foot of de ladder dere, and not be obliged to go among
de rude peoples in de oder part of de sip."
"Well, well, do as you please; but let me go and secure a couple of
hours' sleep, before the tide turns, will ye?"
"Certainly, massa--would like to drink your health, though,
massa--Leetle more grog, please, massa."
"Not another drop, sir.--Steward, see Serjeant Quacco and his wife
safely bestowed under the ladder there, and then fasten the door."
Here Quacco once more stuck his round head in at the door. "Massa, I
beg one fowl to kill before de fetish."
"Get along with you, sir--away."
Our black visitors finally disappeared, and I turned round to look at
my shipmates. The first lieutenant had fallen back, with his head
resting against the small side-berth, sound asleep, with a piece of
beef on his fork, the latter firmly clutched in his hands; Dick Lanyard
had fairly slipped down, until he hung by his chin on the edge of the
table, like a parrot suspended by his beak; old Pumpbolt had slid off
his chair altogether, and was fast enough on the bare deck, with his
unquenched pipe sticking in his mouth; while the poor little reefers
had fallen forward with their heads on the table; Dick Marline having
actually dropped with his nose into his plate, amongst the beef and
potatoes; and all snoring most melodiously. We were in truth
completely done up; so, leaving our friends stretched on the lockers
and in the berths, and bestowed as well as the slender means of the
small vessel permitted, I adjourned to the deck once more, in my
capacity of pilot, to see how the weather looked.
I then returned to the cabin, and having desired the steward, who was
comparatively fresh, to call me when the tide turned, I offered up my
short but heart-warm prayer of thanksgiving to the God of my fathers
for his great mercy vouchsafed to me during the past day; and imploring
his gracious protection during the coming night, I lay down in my
berth, where in a minute I was as sound asleep as the others.