WE ARRIVE AT TABLE BAY AND PROCEED THENCE ON OUR VOYAGE.
But though, after this piece of severe reality, Captain Skevington
had very little to say about such elusive and visionary matters as
had before engaged us, it was clear from some words which he let
fall that he regarded our meeting with the Dutch battleship as a
sort of reflected ill-luck from the snow that had passed the Phantom
Dutchman, and the idea possessing him--as indeed it had seized upon
me--that the Lovely Nancy was sure to meet with misadventure, and
might have the power of injuring the fortune of any vessel that spoke
with her intimately, as we had, caused him to navigate the ship with
extraordinary wariness. A man was constantly kept aloft to watch the
horizon, and repeatedly hailed from the deck that we might know he
was awake to his work; other sharp-eyed seamen were stationed on the
forecastle; at night every light was screened, so that we moved along
like a blot of liquid pitch upon the darkness. On several occasions
I heard Captain Skevington say that he would sooner have parted with
twenty guineas than have boarded, or had anything to do with, the snow.
Happily, the adventure with the Dutchman led the seamen to suppose
that the master's anxiety wholly concerned the ships of the enemy; for
had it got forward that the Lovely Nancy had sighted Vanderdecken's
craft off the Agulhas, I don't question that they would have concluded
our meeting with the snow boded no good to us, that we were likely
ourselves to encounter the spectral ship--if indeed she were a
phantasm, and not a substantial fabric, as I myself deemed--and so
perhaps have refused to work the Saracen beyond Table Bay.
At that Settlement it was necessary we should call for water, fresh
provisions and the like; and on the sixth of July, in the year 1796,
we safely entered the Bay and let go our anchor, nothing of the least
consequence to us having happened since we were chased, the weather
being fine with light winds ever since the strong breeze before which
we had run, died away.
After eighty-one days of sea and sky the meanest land would have
offered a noble refreshment to our gaze; judge then of the delight we
found in beholding the royal and ample scenery of as fair and spacious
a haven as this globe has to offer. But as Captain George Shelvocke,
in the capital account he wrote of his voyage round the world in 1718,
there points out, the Cape of Good Hope, by which he must intend Table
Bay, has been so often described, that, says he, "I can say nothing of
it that has not been said by most who have been here before."
We lay very quietly for a fortnight, feeling perfectly secure, as you
may conclude when I tell you that just round the corner, that is to
say, in Simon's Bay, there were anchored no less than fourteen British
ships of war, in command of Vice-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone, of
which two were seventy-fours, whilst five mounted sixty-four guns
each. Meeting one of the captains of this squadron, Captain Skevington
told him how we had been chased by a Dutch liner, and he replied he
did not doubt it was one of the vessels who were coming to retake--if
they could--the settlement we had captured from the nation that had
established the place. But I do not think the notion probable, as the
Dutch ships did not show themselves off Saldanha Bay for some weeks
after we had sailed.
This, however, is a matter of no moment whatever.
We filled our water casks, laid in a plentiful stock of tobacco,
vegetables, hogs, poultry, and such produce as the country yielded,
and on the morning of the eighteenth of July hove short, with a crew
diminished by the loss of one man only, a boatswain's mate, named
Turner, who, because we suffered none of the men to go ashore for dread
of their deserting the ship, slipped down the cable on the night of
our departure, and swam to the beach naked with some silver pieces
tied round him in a handkerchief. Behold the character of the sailor!
For a few hours of such drunken jollity as he may obtain in the tavern
and amid low company, he will be content to forfeit all he has in the
world. It was known that this man Turner had a wife and two children
at home dependent upon his earnings; yet no thoughts of them could
suppress his deplorable, restless spirit. But I afterwards heard he
was punished even beyond his deserts; for being pretty near spent by
his swim, he lay down to sleep, but was presently awakened by something
crawling over him that proved a venomous snake called a puff-adder,
which, on his moving, stung him, whereof he died.
It was the stormy season of the year off South Africa; but, then, a few
days of westerly winds would blow us into mild and quiet zones, and,
come what might, the ship we stood on was stout and honest, all things
right and true aloft, the provision-space hospitably stocked, and the
health of the crew of the best.
'Twas a perfectly quiet, cheerful morning when we manned the capstan;
the waters of the bay stretched in an exquisite blue calm to the sandy
wastes on the Blaawberg side, and thence to where the town stands; the
atmosphere had the purity of the object-lens of a perspective glass,
and the far distant Hottentot Holland Mountains, with summits so
mighty that the sky appeared to rest upon them, gathered to their giant
slopes such a mellowness and richness of blue, that they showed as a
dark atmospheric dye which had run and stained before being stanched,
that part of the heavens, rather than as prodigious masses of land of
the usual complexion of mountains when viewed closely. That imperial
height called Table Mountain, guarded by the amber-tinted couchant
lion, reared a marvellously clear sky-line, and there the firmament
appeared as a flowing sea of blue, flushing its full cerulean bosom to
the flat altitude as though it would overflow it. But I noticed a shred
of crawling vapour gather up there whilst the crew were chorussing at
the capstan, and by the time our topsails were sheeted home there was a
mass of white vapour some hundred feet in depth, foaming and churning
atop, with delicate wings of it circling out into the blue, where they
gyrated like butterflies and melted. The air was full of the moaning
noises of the south-east wind flying out of that cloud down the steep
abrupt full of gorges, scars, and ravines; and what was just now a
picture of May-day peace became, on a sudden, a scene of whipped and
creaming ripples; and the flashing on shore of the glass of shaken
window-casements through spiral spirtings of reddish dust; hands aloft
on the various ships at anchor, hastily furling the canvas that had
been loosed to hang idly to the sun; flags, quite recently languid as
streaks of paint, now pulling fiercely at their halliards; and Malay
fishing-boats, darting across the bay in a gem-like glittering of water
sliced out by their sharp stems and slung to the strong wind.
Under small sail we stormed out toward the ocean, with a desperate
screaming of wind in the rigging; but there was no sea, for the gale
was off the land; and after passing some noble and enchanting bays on
whose shores the breakers as tall as our ship flung their resounding
Atlantic thunder, whilst behind stood ranges of mountains putting a
quality of solemn magnificence into the cheerful yellow clothing of
the sunshine, with here and there a small house of an almond whiteness
against the leaves of the silver trees and sundry rich growths
thereabouts, in a moment we ran sheer out of the gale into a light
wind, blowing from the north-west.
I don't say we were astonished, since some-while before reaching the
calm part we could see it clearly defined by the line where the froth
and angry blueness and the fiery agitation of the wind ended. Still,
it was impossible not to feel surprised as the ship slipped out of the
enraged and yelling belt into a peaceful sea and a weak new wind which
obliged us to handle the braces and make sail.
Here happened an extraordinary thing. As we passed Green Point, where
the weather was placid and the strife waged in the bay no longer to be
seen, a large ship of six hundred tons, that we supposed was to call at
Cape Town, passed us, her yards braced up and all plain sail set. She
had some soldiers aboard, showed several guns, had the English colours
flying and offered a very brave and handsome show, being sheathed with
copper that glowed ruddy to the soft laving of the glass-bright swell,
and her canvas had the hue of the cotton cloths which the Spaniards of
the South American main used to spread, and which in these days form a
distinguishing mark of the Yankee ships. Having not the least suspicion
of the turmoil that awaited her round Mouille Point, she slipped along
jauntily, ready to make a free wind of the breeze then blowing. But
all on a sudden, on opening the bay, she met the whole strength of the
fierce south-easter. Down she lay to it, all aback--stopped dead. Her
ports being open, I feared if she were not promptly recovered, she
must founder. They might let go the halliards, but the yards being
jammed would not travel. It swept the heart into the throat to witness
this thing! We brought our ship to the wind to render help with our
boats; but happily her mizzen topmast broke, and immediately after,
her main topgallant-mast snapped short off, close to the cross-trees;
then--though it must have been wild work on those sloping decks--they
managed to bring the main and topsail yards square; whereupon she paid
off, righting as her head swung from the gale, and with lightened
hearts, as may be supposed, they went to work to let go and clew up and
haul down, whilst you saw how severe was the need of the pumps they had
manned, by the bright streams of water which sluiced from her sides.
It was a cruel thing to witness, this sudden wrecking of the beauty of
a truly stately ship, quietly swinging along over the mild heave of
the swell, like a full-robed, handsome princess seized and torn by some
loathsome monster, as we read of such matters in old romances. It was
like the blighting breath of pestilence upon some fair form, converting
into little better than a carcase what was just now a proud and regal
shape, made beauteous by all that art could give her of apparel, and
all that nature could impart of colour and lustre.