"Well, William, as soon as they had let go their anchor in Table Bay, we
were all ordered on shore, and sent up to a prison close to the
Government Gardens. We were not very carefully watched, as it appeared
impossible for us to get away, and I must say we were well treated in
every respect; but we were told that we should be sent to Holland in the
first man-of-war which came into the bay, and we did not much like the
idea.
"There were, as I told you, some other boys as well as myself, who
belonged to the Indiaman, and we kept very much together, not only
because we were more of an age, but because we had been shipmates so
long. Two of these boys, one of whom I have mentioned as Jack Romer,
and the other Will Hastings, were my particular friends; and one day, as
we were sitting under the wall warming ourselves, for it was winter
time, Romer said, `How very easy it would be for us to get away, if we
only knew where to go to!'
"`Yes,' replied Hastings; `but where are we to go to, if it is not to
the Hottentots and wild savages; and when we get there, what can we
do?--we can't get any further.' `Well,' said I, `I would rather be
living free among savages, than be shut up in a prison.' That was our
first talk on the subject, but we had many others afterwards; and as the
one or two Dutch soldiers who stood sentry spoke English, and we could
talk a little Dutch, we obtained a good deal of information from them;
for they had very often been sent to the frontiers of the colony. We
continued to ask questions, and to talk among ourselves for about two
months, and at last we resolved that we would make our escape. We
should have done much better if we had remained where we were; but there
is no putting old heads upon young shoulders. We saved up our
provisions, bought some long Dutch knives, tied our few clothes up in
bundles, and one dark night we contrived to remain in the yard without
being perceived, when the prisoners were locked up; and raising a long
pole, which lay in the yard, to the top of the wall, with a good deal of
scrambling we contrived to get over it, and made off as fast as we could
for the Table Mountain."
"What was your reason for going there, Ready?"
"Why, Hastings, who was the oldest, and, I will say, the sharpest of the
three, said that we had better stay up there for a few days, till we had
made up our minds what to do, and try if we could not procure a musket
or two, and ammunition; for, you see, we had money, as, when the
Indiaman was first taken, the captain divided a keg of rupees, which was
on board, among the officers and men, in proportion to the wages due to
them, thinking it was better for the crew to have the money than to
leave it for the Frenchmen; and we had spent very little while in
prison. There was also another reason why he persuaded us to go to the
Table Mountain, which was, that as soon as our escape was found out,
they would send parties to look for us; thinking, of course, that we had
made for the interior; and we should have less chance of being retaken
if we travelled after the first search was over. The soldiers had told
us of the lions, and other wild animals, and how dangerous it was to
travel, and Hastings said, that not finding us, they would suppose we
had been destroyed by the wild beasts, and would not look for us any
more."
"Foolish indeed," observed Mrs Seagrave, "to set off you knew not
where, in a country full of wild beasts and savages."
"True enough, madam," replied Ready. "We ran at first until we were out
of breath, and then we walked on as fast as we could--not going right up
the mountain, but keeping a slanting direction to the south-west, so as
to get away from the town, and more towards False Bay.
"We had walked about four hours, and began to feel very tired, when the
day dawned, and then we looked out for a place to conceal ourselves in.
We soon found a cave with a narrow entrance, large enough inside to hold
half-a-dozen of such lads as we were, and we crawled in. It was quite
dry, and, as we were very tired, we lay down with our heads on our
bundles, intending to take a nap; but we had hardly made ourselves
comfortable and shut our eyes, when we heard such a screaming and
barking that we were frightened out of our lives almost. We could not
think what it could be. At last Hastings peeped out, and began to
laugh; so Romer and I looked out also, and there we saw about one
hundred and fifty large baboons leaping and tumbling about in such a way
as I never saw; they were bigger than we were--indeed, when they stood
on their hind legs they were much taller, and they had very large white
tusks. Some of them were females, with young ones on their backs, and
they were just as active as the males. At last they played such antics,
that we all burst out into a loud laugh, and we had not ceased when we
found the grinning face of one of the largest of those brutes close to
our own. He had dropped from the rock above us, like magic. We all
three backed into the cave, very much frightened, for the teeth of the
animal were enormous, and he looked very savage. He gave a shrill cry,
and we perceived all the rest of the herd coming to him as fast as they
could. I said that the cave was large enough to hold six of us; but
there was a sort of inner cave which we had not gone into, as the
entrance was much smaller. Romer cried out, `Let us go into the inside
cave--we can get in one by one;' and he backed in; Hastings followed
with his bundle, and I hurried in after him just in time; for the
baboons, who had been chattering to each other for half a minute, came
into the outer cave just as I crawled into the inner. Five or six of
them came in, all males, and very large. The first thing they did was
to lay hold of Romer's bundle, which they soon opened--at once they
seized his provisions and rammed them into their pouches, and then they
pulled out the other things and tore them all to pieces. As soon as
they had done with the bundle, two of them came towards the inner cave
and saw us. One put his long paw in to seize us; but Hastings gave him
a slash with his knife, and the animal took his paw out again fast
enough. It was laughable to see him hold out his hand to the others,
and then taste the blood with the tip of his tongue, and such a
chattering I never heard--they were evidently very angry, and more came
into the cave and joined them; then another put in his hand, and
received a cut just as before. At last, two or three at once tried to
pull us out, but we beat them all off with our knives, wounding them all
very severely. For about an hour they continued their attempts, and
then they went away out of the cave, but remained at the mouth shrieking
and howling. We began to be very tired of this work, and Romer said
that he wished he was back in prison again; and so did I, I can assure
you; but there was no getting out, for had we gone out the animals would
have torn us to pieces. We agreed that we had no chance but the animals
becoming tired and going away; and most anxious we were, for the
excitement had made us very thirsty, and we wanted water. We remained
for two hours in this way imprisoned by baboons, when all of a sudden a
shrill cry was given by one of the animals, and the whole herd went
galloping off as fast as they could, screaming louder than ever. We
waited for a short time to see if they would return, and then Hastings
crawled out first, and looking out of the cave very cautiously, said
that they were all gone, and that he could see nothing but a Hottentot
sitting down watching some cattle; we therefore all came out, very happy
at our release. That was our first adventure; we had plenty afterwards;
but I think it is now time we should go to bed. It is my opinion we
shall have a fine day to-morrow, sir; but there's no saying."
"I do so want to hear what happened to you afterwards, Ready," said
William.
"Well, so you shall; but there's a time for everything, and this is
bed-time, unless you like to go with me; the weather has cleared up, and
I want to catch a fish or two for to-morrow."