"What say you, then, if we cut your throats, and heave you overboard?"
he asked; and as I looked at the twinkle of his one eye, and the
expression of his lips, I thought that he was capable of any act of
atrocity; but I determined to put a good face on the matter.
"I do not see why you should murder us," I replied, calmly. "We neither
wish to harm you, nor can we; and as you have just preserved our lives,
it would be something like destroying your own work."
"We will see about that," he remarked. "You might find us sometimes in
a humour when there would not be much doubt about the matter. Your men
are safe enough, as they will doubtless join us, and three stout hands
will be welcome. You may think yourself fortunate, if you ever set foot
ashore alive."
I saw Jack, who was listening, put his tongue in his cheek, as much as
to say, "Do not reckon on my joining your villainous crew." I had
remarked that the captain of the slaver, for such I guessed the little
man to be, improved in his way of speaking English as he proceeded, and
I therefore warned Jack and the others to be careful what they said,
lest they should offend him. After this conversation we were left
alone, and sitting down on deck, I was very soon fast asleep. I was
awoke by a man bringing me a mess of some sort to eat, and when I had
devoured it I should have fallen asleep again, but the captain came up
and told me that I might turn into a spare cabin on deck. Taking off my
clothes, I threw myself on the bed, and slept without moving till the
grey light of dawn came in at the scuttle. I was awoke by a loud
jabbering and swearing, and presently the sound of a gun came booming
over the water. There was then the noise of blocks creaking and ropes
rattling, denoting that more sail was being made on the vessel. I
dressed quickly and opened the door of my cabin, but scarcely had I
stepped out on deck when my shoulder was roughly seized by the captain
of the slaver, while with his other hand he pointed to a large brig
about three miles off, under all sail, standing directly for our
larboard quarter.
"What craft is that?" he asked, fiercely. "Your men say they do not
know her. Do you?"
I looked again. I had no doubt she was the _Opossum_. "If I am not
mistaken, she is the ship to which I belong," I replied, calmly.
"Is she fast?" he asked.
"She is reputed so," I answered. "But I doubt it she is so fast as this
vessel."
"For your sakes, as well as for ours, it is to be hoped not," he
observed, with a grin which I thought perfectly demoniacal. "If she
overhauls us, we shall be obliged to put into execution a trick we play
at times, when too hotly pursued by your cruisers; only, instead of
expending our negroes, who are valuable, we shall be compelled to make
use of you and your people. It will be happy for you, if there are no
sharks ready to grab you before your ship lowers a boat to pick you up.
You understand me?"
I did, too well. The slavers, when hotly pressed by a cruiser, will
throw overboard some of their blacks, one by one, lashed to something to
float them, trusting that the humanity of the British commander will
induce him to heave-to, and to pick them up, although thus delaying him
in his chase.
I felt very sure my one-eyed friend would put his threat into execution;
and though it certainly afforded us a way of getting back to our ship,
the risk in the interim of being caught by a shark was far too great to
be contemplated with equanimity.
"If you do throw us overboard, I only hope that you will provide us with
sticks, or some weapons with which to defend ourselves against the
sharks," said I.
"You are a brave boy," said he, "and deserve a better fate; but it
cannot be helped."
There was a fine breeze, but nothing more; and by the time the
schooner's sails were trimmed, as I looked over the side I saw that she
was making good way through the water. I doubted whether the _Opossum_
could go faster; and I saw, at all events, that, like other stern
chases, this would be a long one. It very probably would last two or
three days, perhaps longer. I scarcely knew what to wish. Were it not
for those dreadful sea monsters, we all of us might be able to get on
board the brig, and help to capture the schooner afterwards, I thought
to myself. We were allowed perfect liberty to walk about the decks as
we liked; so I went up to Jack, and asked him what he thought about the
probability of the brig overtaking us.
"Why, sir," he replied, after contemplating her, and looking over the
schooner's side for some time, "this craft has got as clean a pair of
heels as any vessel I was ever aboard; and though our brig, I'll allow,
is no laggard, I doubt if she'll overtake her, if the wind holds steady,
before we reach the West Indies, where, I take it, we are bound."
Jack was right, with regard to the relative speed of the two vessels, at
all events. As I kept my eye on the brig, I could not but acknowledge
that we were slowly but surely increasing our distance from her. This
put the captain in good humour.
"Ah! my young friend," he said, tapping me on the shoulder, "you have
escaped the sharks this time, I believe." At night I turned in and went
to sleep, for I had not yet recovered from my want of rest and unusual
anxiety. The next morning, there, however, was the brig, right astern
of us, though we had much increased our distance from her. When I
appeared, the captain gave me no friendly look; and it was only towards
the evening, when we had brought her topsails beneath the horizon, that
his good humour was re-established. Another night passed, and the brig
was out of sight. I thought it more than probable, however, that
Captain Idle was still following, in the hopes of finding us becalmed,
or in some other way falling in with us. I cannot stop to describe the
scenes of gambling and fighting continually going on among the
schooner's lawless crew, though their outbreaks of fury were generally
repressed, before arriving at extremities, by the energy of the little
captain. We got on tolerably well with them. Jack danced his hornpipe,
I sang, and the other two men made themselves generally useful. I,
therefore, no longer had any great fears about our present safety.
A dreadful doom was, however, prepared for most on board. One night I
was awoke by a terrific noise, and, rushing on deck, I found that one of
those fierce hurricanes which occur at times in the tropics had just
commenced. Amid a mass of spoondrift the schooner drove helplessly
before it. The night was dark as pitch, except when vivid flashes of
forked lightning darted from the clouds and shed a bright blue glare on
our decks, exhibiting a scene of horror and confusion seldom surpassed.
The seamen ran to and fro shrieking with terror, calling on their saints
to help them, and vowing candles and other offerings at their shrines,
the fiercest and most quarrelsome generally showing the most abject
fear. The little captain, to do him justice, kept his presence of mind,
and endeavoured to restore order, but he had lost all control over his
crew. Jack found his way aft to where I was standing, and I was truly
glad to have him near me.
"It's to be hoped there's no land under our lee, or it will fare ill
with us," said he. "But I'm not quite certain. Just now, when there
was a bright flash of lightning, I thought I saw something very like it
right ahead of us. We must be ready for the worst, I'm thinking, Mr
D'Arcy."
I felt this to be the case, and prayed earnestly to God to stretch forth
His hand to save us. Scarcely a minute had elapsed after Jack had
spoken, when the tempest, thundering down on the accursed slave ship
more violently than before, the lightning flashing more vividly, a
terrific shock was felt, which made her tremble as if about to part
asunder; the tall masts bent like willow wands, and fell with a crash
into the sea; and the voracious waves came curling up, foam-crested,
astern, and sweeping everything before them. The howling of the fierce
hurricane overpowered the agonised shrieks of the drowning crew, as they
were carried overboard; while from the hold arose the heart-piercing
cries of despair and terror of the helpless negroes who were confined
there, deprived of even a chance of escape. Our two shipmates had found
their way aft, to where Jack and I were holding on for our lives,
sheltered partly by the raised poop. Still we drove on. We had
evidently been forced over a reef, and we hoped that we might reach
smooth water. The sea no longer broke over us.
"What say you, lads? Let's try to give those poor fellows down there a
chance for their lives," cried Jack.
All agreed to the proposal. There were scarcely any Spaniards left to
stop us; and had there been, I do not think they would have ventured to
interfere. I had observed some axes hung up inside the cabin-door, and
seizing them, we tore off the hatches, and leaped down among the
terror-stricken wretches below. Sandy had bethought him of securing
some lanterns, for in the dark we could do nothing. As soon as he had
brought them, and we had got them lighted, Jack singing out,
"_Amigos_!--_amigos_!--have no fear, my hearties!" we set to work with a
right good will, and knocked the fetters off a considerable number of
the unfortunate negroes. The operation was nearly completed, when we
felt another terrific shock vibrate through the ship. Again and again
she struck. We had just time to spring up the main-hatchway, followed
by the howling terrified blacks, when the sides of the ship seemed to
yawn asunder; a foaming wave rushed towards us, and at the same moment a
vivid flash of lightning showed us the shore, not a hundred yards off.
"There's hope yet," I heard Jack exclaim.
There is, after that, a wild confusion in my mind of shrieks and groans;
of foaming, tossing waters; of pieces of plank driven to and fro; of
arms outstretched; of despairing countenances, some pale or livid, some
of ebon hue, lighted up ever and anon by a flash of lightning. I was
clinging, I found, to a small piece of timber torn from the wreck. Now
I was driven near the sands; now carried out to sea; tossed about on the
tops of the foaming waves, rolled over and over, and almost drowned with
the spray. Still I held on convulsively, half conscious only of my
awful position. It seemed rather like some dreadful dream than a
palpable reality. How long I had been tossing about in this way, I knew
not. Daylight had been stealing on even before the final catastrophe
had occurred. At length I know that I felt myself carried near the
sands, and while I was trying to secure a footing, some black figures
rushed into the water and dragged me on shore. My preservers were, I
discovered, some of the negroes who had escaped from the wreck. I was
too much exhausted to stand; so they carried me up out of the reach of
the waves, and laid me on the sands, while they returned once more to
the edge of the water. Their object was evident. By the increasing
light I saw several figures clinging to the rocks, against which I
concluded the vessel had struck. Full twenty negroes were on the beach,
which was strewed with bits of plank and spars, and coils of rope, and
other portions of the wreck. Presently I saw four or five of them
plunge into the water together, holding the end of a rope. They struck
out bravely, and though more than once driven back, they still made way,
till they reached the rock, up which they clambered. The people on the
rock helped them out of the water. There were several negroes, a few of
whom were women, and three white men. One of the white men held a black
infant in his arms, and as the light increased, I recognised my friend
Jack Stretcher. "Just like the gallant fellow!" thought I. At that
dreadful moment, when most people would have been thinking only of their
own preservation, he looked out for the most helpless being, that he
might try and save it, even at the risk of his own life. I hope the
mother of the infant has escaped to thank him; but, at all events, he
will have his reward. The other two men were my shipmates. Of the
slaver's crew, not a man had escaped. After this I remember nothing;
for, from exhaustion, consequent on the blows I had received in the
water, I fainted. I had a dreamy notion of being lifted up and carried
along some distance, and of the hot sun scorching me; and then of
entering the cool shade of a house, and of hearing a voice which I
fancied I recollected, and thought very sweet, say, "Why, papa, it's
that little officer again. Poor, poor fellow! how ill and wretched he
looks!" I tried to open my eyes to look at the speaker, but had no
strength left to lift even my eyelids. How long I had remained in a
state of unconsciousness I could not tell, though I afterwards found it
was some weeks. The next time I recollect opening my eyes, they rested
on the features of Miss Alice Marlow, and by her side was a young man in
a lieutenant's uniform while at the foot of my couch stood Jack
Stretcher. "Where am I? How's all this?" I asked, in a faint voice.
"You are in Mr Marlow's house, in the island of Barbadoes," said the
young officer. "As to the rest, it's a long yarn, and we'll spin it
another time."
"Ah, and now I know you. You are Waller," replied I. "Well, old
fellow, I'm glad you've got your promotion."
"But the doctor says we must on no account have any talking; so come
away, Henry; and here, Jack, is the fruit for Mr D'Arcy. He may eat as
much of it as he likes," said Miss Alice.
I recollect this scene; but I fancy after it I got a relapse, through
which, however, I was mercifully carried, after a tough contest with
death. Oh! how tenderly and kindly I was nursed; every want was
attended to--every wish gratified, almost before expressed--by an old
black woman, who, day or night, scarcely ever left my bedside. I quite
loved her good, old, ugly face--for ugly it was, without the possibility
of contradiction, according to all European notions of beauty, though
some of the descendants of Ham, in her own torrid land, might at one
time have thought it lovely. She was assisted in her labours by a
damsel of the same ebon hue, who had been saved out of the slave ship;
and I believe that the attention of the two women was redoubled on
account of the way I had treated their unhappy countrymen on board that
vessel. Jack Stretcher had been obliged to rejoin the brig, and had
gone away in her. I was, however, frequently favoured by a visit from
Miss Alice Marlow and her kind father, in whose house I remained for
many months, treated as if I had been a well-loved son. At length I was
one morning riding down by the seashore, when the wide-spread canvas of
a man-of-war caught my sight, standing in for the land. I recognised
her at once as the _Opossum_, and was therefore not surprised when, some
hours afterwards, Waller walked into Mr Marlow's drawing-room. Captain
Idle and the doctor followed soon afterwards, and a consultation having
been held, I was pronounced fit for duty, and compelled, with many
regrets, to leave my kind friends, and to go on board. The brig soon
afterwards returned to the coast of Africa, where we took some slavers,
went through various adventures, and lost several officers and men with
fever; and I again fell sick, so that my life was despaired of. Now,
entertaining as these sort of things may be to read about, no one was
sorry when, one fine morning, another brig-of-war hove in sight,
bringing us orders to return home. "Hurra for old England!" was the
general cry, fore and aft. "Hurra! hurra!"
At length I once more found myself an inmate of Daisy Cottage, and many
happy weeks I spent there--perhaps the happiest in my life--in the
society of my uncle and aunt and young cousins. I there slowly, but
effectually, recovered from the effects of the African climate, and the
hardships I had lately gone through, and was ultimately pronounced as
fit as ever for service. When Larry Harrigan heard that I was ill, he
came over to Ryde, and could scarcely be persuaded to leave me for a
moment, till assured by the doctor that I was in no danger whatever, but
even he seemed much to doubt the judgment of the learned disciple of
Galen. Afterwards he allowed very few days to pass without coming to
set me, till I was strong enough to return his visits, which I did not
fail to do. The good, kind old man! He never went back to Ireland, but
lived on at Southsea, in perfect comfort, till he and his wife reached a
green old age. He used to tell me, confidentially, that there was an
honest navy agent, who had found him out, and insisted on paying him a
wonderful interest for a certain share of prize-money, which he had
fortunately neglected to claim in his younger days. It was, in truth, a
way I took of contributing to maintain the old man in comfort, without
his feeling that he was a pensioner on my bounty.
Some time after I had been at home, I heard from my gallant friend
Waller, who had gone back to Barbadoes. He gave me a piece of
information, at which I own I was not very much surprised, namely, that
he was on the point of bringing Miss Alice Marlow to England as his
bride. "I hope that she will prove worthy of him, for a finer fellow
does not exist," said I.
A short time before I left Daisy Cottage to join my next ship, I was
sitting in the drawing-room, when Sir Richard Sharpe was announced, and
in walked Dicky himself. We almost wrung each other's hands off before
we could speak, and then we did indeed rattle away. His father was
dead, he told me.
"I have been compelled to deprive the navy of my services," said he,
with perfect gravity. "But you see that I have my estates to look
after, and my mother and sisters' welfare to attend to; and I could not
fulfil my duties in these respects were I to remain afloat. Do you
know, D'Arcy, I am very glad indeed that I went to sea," he continued,
more seriously. "It made me think much less of myself, and cured me of
many faults; for I am very sure that I should have been spoiled had I
remained at home. They always let me have too much of my own way, and
that is bad for the best of us. Now in the service I got cobbed and
mast-headed, and made to do what I was told; and I'm all the better for
the discipline, though I did not like it at the time. Then I learned a
very important lesson,--that every man, whatever his position, has his
duties to perform; and that, if he does not do them to the best of his
power, he must certainly expect to be disrated."
"You mean to say that you learned this out of the man-of-war's
Homily-book,--the Station Bill," said I, smiling at my own conceit.
I must explain that this Station Bill is a book in which is entered the
place which every man on board is to occupy, as well as the duties he is
especially to attend to, though at the same time he is expected to do
his very utmost in performing any other work which may be necessary.
"That's just it," replied Sir Richard. "I used to think that the
captain of a man-of-war had a good deal to do to keep his ship in good
order; but I can tell you that I feel that the owner of a large estate
has many more and multifarious duties; and that in a great degree every
soul upon it is committed by God to his care, and at his hands will they
be required."
I fully agreed with my old messmate in these matters, and was rejoiced
to find that he had really discovered the true object of life. I am
happy to say that he was after this a very frequent visitor at Daisy
Cottage, and that ultimately one of my cousins became Lady Sharpe.
They, the Vernons and the Wallers, are among my most valued friends; and
at the houses also of Admiral Poynder and Captain Idle, and most of my
subsequent commanders, I am a welcome guest.
I must not forget to mention, once more, my gallant companion in so many
adventures, honest Jack Stretcher. He volunteered into the next ship to
which I was appointed, to my very great satisfaction; and afterwards
taking out his warrant as a boatswain, he was with me for several years,
and a better boatswain there is not in the service. I have never
revisited my ancestral halls since I left them with Larry to go to sea;
and, to say the truth, the Encumbered Estates Court knows more about
them than I do. The ocean is my only heritage; my ship is my wife, and
I look on my crew as my children. I went to sea again as a midshipman;
then, after passing, I spent four years as a mate, and six as a
lieutenant; during which time I saw a good deal of hard service. At
length I got my promotion as a commander, and have still to look for my
post step.
Every career has its trials. A naval life has many; but we must always
bear in mind that we were sent into this world for the express purpose
of undergoing them, and that while some persons are proved by hardships
and poverty, others are so by abundance of ease and wealth. I, for my
own part, feel that I have much for which to be grateful; and though I
have neither rank nor riches, I do not consider myself unfortunate nor
ill-treated. And once more I say, that, had I to begin my career again,
I should prefer to every other a life on Salt Water.