"However, the Indiaman's officers and crew had work enough in managing
her at present: after a sunset more like the putting out of him than
anything else, with a flaring snuff and a dingy sort of smoke that
followed, the wind grew from sou'-west into a regular long gale, that
drove the tops of the heavy seas into the dead-lights astern, rising aft
out of the dark like so many capes, with the snow drifting off them over
the poop. At midnight, it blew great guns, with a witness; the ship,
under storm staysails and close-reefed main-topsail, going twelve knots
or more, when, as both the captain and mate reckoned, we were near St
Helena on our present course, and to haul on a wind was as much as her
spars were worth; her helm was put hard down, and we lay-to for morning,
the ship drifting off bodily to leeward with the water. The night was
quite dark, the rain coming in sudden spits out of the wind; you only
heard the wet gale sob and hiss through the bare rigging into her storm
canvas, when the look-out men ahead sung out, 'Land--land close to
starboard!' 'Bless me, sir,' said the mate to the captain, 'it's the
Rock--well that we _did_--' 'Hard up! hard up with the helm!' yelled the
men again, 'it's a _ship_!'
"I ran to the weather main-chains and saw a broad black mass, as it
were, rising high abeam, and seeming to come out from the black of the
night, with a gleam or two in it which they had taken for lights ashore
in the island. The _Seringapatam's_ wheel was put up already, but she
hung in the gale, doubtful whether to fall off or not; and the moment
she _did_ sink into the trough, we should have had a sea over her
broadside fit to wash away men, boats, and all--let alone the other
ship bearing down at twelve knots. 'Show the _head_ of the
_fore-topmast-staysail_!' shouted I with all my strength to the
forecastle, and up it went slapping its hanks to the blast--the Indiaman
sprang round heeling to her ports on the next sea, main-topsail before
the wind, and the staysail down again. Next minute a large ship, with
the foam washing over her cat-heads, and her martingale gear dripping
under the huge white bowsprit, came lifting close past us--as black as
shadows aloft, save the glimmer of her main-tack to the lanterns
aboard--and knot after knot of dim faces above her bulwarks shot by,
till you saw her captain standing high in the mizzen-chains, with a
speaking-trumpet. He roared out something or other through it, and the
skipper sung out under both his hands, 'Ay, ay, sir,' in answer; but it
turned out after that nobody knew what it was, unless it might be, as I
thought, '_Where_ are you going?' The minute following, we saw her
quarter-lanterns like two will-o'-the-wisps beyond a wave, and she was
gone--a big frigate running under half her canvas, strong though the
gale blew.
"'Why, Mr Finch,' said Captain Williamson, as soon as we had time to
draw breath, 'who was _that_ bid show the fo'topmast-stays'l; twan't
_you_?' 'No,' said the mate, 'I'd like to know who had the hanged
impudence to give orders here without----' 'Well now, Finch,' continued
the old skipper, 'I'm not sure but that was our only chance at the
moment, sir; and if 'twas one of the men, why I'd pass it over, or even
give him an extra glass of grog in a quiet way.' No one could say who it
was, however; and, for my part, the sight of the frigate made me still
more cautious than before of letting out what Westwood and I were. In
fact, I couldn't help feeling rather uneasy, and I was glad to hear the
superstitious old sailmaker whispering about how he feared there was no
luck to be looked for 'when drowned men and _ghostesses_ began to work
the ship!'
"The first streak of dawn was hardly seen, when a sail could be made out
in it, far on our lee bow, which the officers supposed to be the
frigate. Westwood and I, however, were of opinion it was the French
brig, although by sunrise we lost sight of her again. Everyone in the
cuddy talked of our unfortunate friends and their melancholy fate; even
Ford and Winterton were missed, while old Mr Rollock had been the life
of the passengers. But there was naturally still more felt for the poor
girl Fortescue; it made all of us gloomy for a day or two; though the
fresh breeze and the Indiaman's fast motion, after our wearisome spell
of a calm, did a great deal to bring things round again. Westwood was
greatly taken up with my account of the brig and her people, both of us
agreeing there was somewhat suspicious about her, though I thought she
was probably neither more nor less than a slaver, and he had a notion
she was after something deeper: what that might be, 'twas hard to
conceive, as they didn't appear like pirates. One thing, however, we
_did_ conclude from the matter, that the brig couldn't have been at all
inclined for visitors; and, in fact, there was little doubt but she
_would_ actually refuse letting the boat aboard, if they reached her; so
in all likelihood our unhappy friends had been swamped on that very
account, just as the squall came on. When this idea got about the ship,
of course you may suppose neither passengers nor crew to have felt
particularly amiable towards the French vessel; and if we had met her
again, with any good occasion for it, all hands were much inclined to
give her a right-down thrashing, if not to make prize of her as a bad
character.
"'Well, Tom,' said I to Westwood one day, 'I wish these good folks
mayn't be disappointed, but I do suspect this blessed mate of ours will
turn out to have run us into some fine mess or other with his
navigation! Did you notice how _blue_ the sky looked this morning, over
to eastward, compared with what it did just now where the sun _set_?'
'No,' said Westwood, 'not particularly; but what of that?' 'Why, in the
_Iris_,' replied I, 'we used always to reckon that a sign, hereabouts,
of our being near the _land_! Just you see now, to-morrow morning, if
the dawn hasn't a hazy yellow look in it before the breeze fails; in
which case 'tis the African coast to a certainty! Pity these "Hyson
Mundungo" men, as Jack calls them, shouldn't have their eyes about them
as well as on the log-slate. I daresay now,' continued I, laughing, 'you
heard the first mate bothering lately about the great variation in the
compass here? Well, what do you suppose was the reason of it, but that
sly devil of a _kitmagar_ shoving in his block for grinding curry under
the feet of the binnacle every time he was done using it! I saw him get
a kick one morning from the man at the wheel, who chanced to look down
and notice him. Good solid iron it is, though painted and polished like
marble, and the circumcised rascal unluckily considered the whole
binnacle as a sort of second Mecca for security.' 'Hang the fellow!'
said Westwood, 'but I don't see much to laugh at, Ned. Why, if you're
right, we shall all be soaked and fried into African fever before
reaching the Cape, and we've had misfortunes enough already. Only think
of an exquisite creature like Miss----' 'Oh,' interrupted I, fancying
Master Tom began lately to show sufficient admiration for her, 'betwixt
an old humdrum and a conceited fool like that, what could you expect?
All I say is, my dear parson, stand by for a pinch when it comes.'
"On going down to tea in the cuddy, we found the party full of spirits,
and for the first time there was no mention of their lost
fellow-passengers, except amongst a knot of cadets and writers rather
elevated by the Madeira after dinner, who were gathered round the
Reverend Mr Knowles, pretending to talk regretfully of his Yankee friend
Mr Daniel Snout. 'Yes, gentlemen,' said the missionary, who was a
worthy, simple-hearted person, 'in spite of some uncouthness, and
perhaps limited views, the result of defective education, he was an
excellent man, I think.' 'Oh certainly, certainly,' said a writer,
looking to his friends, 'and the one thing needful you spoke of just
now, sir, I daresay he had it always in his eye, now?' 'Mixed, I fear,'
replied the missionary, 'with some element of worldly feeling, for in
America they _are_ apt to make even the soul, as well as religious
association, matter of commerce; but Mr Snout, I have reason to be
assured, had the true welfare of India at heart. We had much interesting
conversation on the subject.' 'Ah,' said the sharp civilians, 'he was
fond of getting information, was poor Daniel. Was that why he asked you
so many questions about the Hindoo gods, Mr Knowles?' 'He already
possessed much general knowledge of their strange mythology himself,'
answered the missionary, 'and I confess I was surprised at it,
especially as he confessed to me that that gorgeous country, with its
many boundless capabilities, should have occupied his thoughts more and
more from boyhood, amidst the secular activity of modern life--even as
it occurred unto myself!'
"Here the worthy man took off his large spectacles, gave them a wipe,
and put them on again, while he finished his tea. 'Before this
deplorable dispensation,' continued he again, 'he was on the point of
revealing to me a great scheme at once for the enlightenment, I believe,
of that benighted land, and for more lucrative support to those engaged
in it. I fear, gentlemen, it was enthusiasm--but I have grounds for
thinking that our departed friend has left in this vessel many packages
of volumes translated into several dialects of the great Hindoo
tongue--not omitting, I am convinced, the best of books.' 'Where?'
exclaimed several of the cadets, rather astonished. '_Well!_ poor Snout
can't have been such a bad fellow, after all!' 'All hum!' said the
writer, doubtfully, 'depend upon it. I should like now to have a peep at
Jonathan's bales!' 'I myself have thought also,' said the missionary,
'it would gratify me to look into his apartment--and were it permitted
to use one or two of the volumes, I should cheerfully on our arrival in
Bom----' 'Come along,' said the cadets--'let's have a look!--shouldn't
wonder to see Daniel beside his lion yet, within! or hear "Guess I
ain't."' 'My young friends,' said the missionary, as we all went along
the lighted passage, 'such levity is unseemly'; and indeed the look of
the state-room door, fastened outside, as the steward had left it before
the gale came on, made the brisk cadets keep quiet till the lashing on
it was unfastened--'twas so like breaking in upon a ghost. However, as
it chanced, Mr Snout's goods had got loose during her late roll, and
heaped down to leeward against the door--so, whenever they turned the
handle, a whole bundle of packages came tumbling out of the dark as it
burst open, with a shower of small affairs like so many stones after
them.
"'What's all this?' exclaimed the cadets, stooping to look at the
articles by the lamp-light, strewed as they were over the deck. The
reverend gentleman stooped, too, stood straight, wiped his spectacles,
and fixed them on his nose, then stooped again; at length one long
exclamation of surprise broke out of his mouth. They were nothing but
little ugly images done in earthenware, painted and gilt, and all
exactly the same: the writer dived into a canvas package, and there was
a lot of a different kind, somewhat larger and uglier. Everyone made
free with a bale for himself, shouting out his discoveries to the rest.
'I say, Smythe, this is Vishnu, it's marked in the corner!' 'I say,
Ramsay, here's Brahma!' 'Ha! ha! ha! if I haven't got Seeva!' 'I say,
what's this though?' screamed a young lad, hauling at the biggest bale
of all, while the missionary stood stock upright, a perfect picture of
bewilderment, '_Lo!_' being all he could say. The lad had lighted on a
gross or so of hideous gentlemen and ladies with three heads and five
arms, packed nicely through each other in cotton, but inside the
state-room. At this last prize, however, the poor missionary could stand
it no longer. 'Oh! oh!' groaned he, clapping his hand to his head, and
walking slowly off to his berth; while, as the truth gleamed on the
cadets and us, we sat down on the deck amidst the spoil, and roared with
laughter like to go into fits, at the unfortunate Yankee's scheme for
converting India.[19] I had found the American by no means to my fancy
as a berth-mate, so, after some dealings with the steward, I not only
had secured a pretty comfortable berth for my poor friend Westwood, but
one for myself. This had been, in short, soon afterwards managed, with
the help of some shifting among the best-natured of the young cadets.
[19] It is here due to the credit of our friend the captain, who was
not unusually imaginative for a sailor, to state, that this
speculation, as a commercial one, is strictly and literally a
_fact_, as the Anglo-Indian of Calcutta can probably testify. The
bold and all but poetical catholicity of the idea could have been
reached, perhaps, by the "progressing" American intellect alone,
while Staffordshire, it is certain, furnished its realisation; the
investment, it is nevertheless believed, proved eventually
unprofitable.
"'Well--hang me!' said a writer, as soon as he could speak, 'but this
_is_ a stroke beyond the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge!' 'Every
man his own priest--ha! ha! ha!' shouted another. 'I say, Smythe,' sung
out a cadet, 'just fancy--ha! ha! "D. Snout, Esquire, and Co."--ho! ho!
ho! you know it's too rich to enjoy by ourselves, "_My_thullogy store,"
Bombay, near the cathedral!' 'Cheap Brahmas, wholesale and retail--eh?
families supplied!' 'By George! he's a genius lost!' said Smythe; 'but
the parson needn't have broken with him for that--I shouldn't wonder,
now, if they had joined partnership, but Daniel might have thought of
mining all their clay heads with gunpowder and percussion locks, so that
the missionary could have gone round afterwards and blown up heathenship
by a touch!'
"The noise of all this soon brought along the rest of the gentlemen, and
few could help laughing. When the thing got wind on deck, however,
neither the old skipper nor the men seemed to like it much; what with
the notion of the ship's being taken, as it were, by a thousand or two
of ugly little imps and Pagan idols, besides bringing up a drowned
man's concerns, and 'yawhawing,' as they said, into his very door--it
was thought the best thing to have them all chucked overboard next
morning.
"'Twas a beautifully fine night, clear aloft, and the moon rising large
on our larboard bow, out of a delicate pale sort of haze, as the ship
headed south'ard with the breeze; for I marked the haze particularly, as
well as the colour of the sky, that lay high over it, like a deep-blue
hollow going away down beyond, and filling up with the light. There was
no living below for heat, and the showers of cockroaches that went
whirring at the lamps, and marching, with their horrid feelers out,
straight up your legs; so, fore and aft, the decks were astir with us
all. Talk of moonlight on land! but even in the tropics you have to see
it pouring right down, as it was then, the whole sky full of it aloft as
the moon drew farther up, till it came raining, as it were, in a single
sheet from one bend of the horizon to another, the water scarce rippling
to the breeze, only heaving in long low swells that you heard just wash
her bends; one track brighter than the rest, shining and glancing like a
looking-glass drawn out, for a mile or so across our quarter, and the
ship's shadow under her other bow. You saw the men far forward in her
head, and clustered in a heap on the bowsprit-heel, enjoying it
mightily, and looking out or straight aloft, as if to polish their
mahogany faces, and get their bushy whiskers silvered; while the awnings
being off the poop, the planks in it came out like so much ivory from
the shade of the spanker, which sent down a perfect gush of light on
everyone moving past. For the air, again, as all the passengers said, it
was balmy, though for my part--perhaps it might be a fancy of mine--but
now and then I thought it sniffed a little too much _that_ way to be
altogether pleasant in the circumstances.
"Of course, no sooner had I caught sight of Sir Charles Hyde than I
looked for his daughter, and at last saw someone talking to a young lady
seated near the after-gratings, with her head turned round seaward, whom
it didn't require much guessing for me to name. Not having seen her at
all since the affair of the boats, I strolled aft, when I was rather
surprised to find that her companion was Tom Westwood, and they seemed
in the thick of an interesting discourse. The instant I got near,
however, they broke it off; the young lady turned her head--and never,
I'd swear, was woman's face seen fairer than I thought hers at that
moment--when the bright moonlight, that had seemed trying to steal round
her loose bonnet and peep in, fell straight down at once from her
forehead to her chin, appearing, as it were, to dance in under her long
eyelashes to meet her eyes: while one fall of her brown hair hung bright
in it, glistening against the shadow round her cheek, that drew the
charming line of her nose and lip as clear as the horizon on the sky!
The very moment, in fact, that a bitter thought flashed into my mind,
for to my fancy she looked vexed at seeing me, and a colour seemed
mounting up to her cheek, even through the fairy sort of glimmer on it.
_Could_ Tom Westwood have been acting no more than the clerical near
such a creature? and if a fellow like him took it in his head, what
chance had _I_? The next minute, accordingly, she rose off her seat, and
gave me a slight bow in answer to mine, and walked direct to the gallery
stair, where she disappeared.
"'We were talking of that unlucky adventure the other day,' said
Westwood, glancing at me, but rather taken aback, as I thought. 'Ay?'
said I, carelessly. 'Yes,' continued he; 'Miss Hyde had no idea you and
I were particularly acquainted, and seems to think me a respectable
clergyman, but I must tell you, Ned, she has rather a suspicious opinion
of yourself!' 'Oh, indeed!' said I, suddenly. 'Fact, Ned,' said he; 'she
even remembers having seen you before, somewhere or other--I hope, my
dear fellow, it wasn't on the stage?' 'Ha! ha! how amusing!' I said,
with the best laugh I could get up. 'At any rate, Collins,' he went on,
'she sees through your feigned way of carrying on, and knows you're
neither griffin nor land-lubber, but a sailor, for I fancy this is not
the first time the young lady has met with the cloth! _What_ do you
suppose she asked me now, quite seriously?' 'Oh, I couldn't guess, of
course,' replied I, almost with a sneer; 'pray don't----' 'Why, she
inquired what could be the design of one concealing his profession so
carefully--and actually appearing to be on a secret understanding with
some of the sailors! Directly after, she asked whether that brig
mightn't really have been a pirate, and taken off the poor general, Miss
Fortescue, and the rest?' 'Ah,' said I, coldly, 'and if I might venture
to ask, what did you----' 'Oh, of course,' replied Westwood, laughing,
'I could only hide my amusement and profess doubts, you know, Ned!'
'Very good joke, Mr Westwood,' thought I to myself, 'but at least you
can't weather on _me_ quite so innocently, my fine fellow! I didn't
_think_ it of him, after all! By Heaven, I did _not_!'
"'By-the-by, Collins,' exclaimed Westwood in a little, as he kept his
eye astern, 'there's something away yonder on our lee quarter that I've
been watching for these last ten minutes--what do you think it may be?
Look! just in the tail of the moonshine yonder!' What it might be, I
cared little enough at the time, but I did give a glance, and saw a
little black dot, as it were, rising and falling with the long run of
the water, apparently making way before the breeze. 'Only a bit of wood,
I daresay,' remarked I; 'but whatever it is, at any rate, the drift will
take it far to leeward of us, so you needn't mind.' Here we heard a
steward come up and say to the first officer, who was waiting with the
rest to take a lunar observation, that Captain Williamson had turned in
unwell, but he wanted to hear when they found the longitude; accordingly
they got their altitude, and went on making the calculations on deck.
'Well, steward,' said the mate, after a little humming and hawing, 'go
down and tell the captain, in the meantime, about _five east_; but I
think it's a good deal over the mark--say I'll be down myself directly.'
"'A long sight _below_ the mark, rather!' said I, walking aft again,
where Westwood kept still looking out for the black dot. 'You'll see it
nearer now, Ned,' said he; 'more like a negro's head, or his hand, than
a bit of wood--eh?' 'Curious!' I said; 'it lies well up for our beam
still, _'spite_ of the breeze. Must be a shark's back fin, I think,
making for convoy.' In ten minutes longer the light swell in the
distance gave it a lift up fair into the moonshine; it gleamed for a
moment, and then seemed to roll across into the blue glimmer of the sea.
'I say, Collins,' said Westwood, gazing eagerly at it, ''tis more like a
bottle, to _my_ sight!' We walked back and forward, looking each time
over the taffrail, till at length the affair in question could be seen
dipping and creeping ahead in the smooth shining wash of the surface,
just like to go bobbing across our bows and be missed to windward.
'Crossing our hause I _do_ declare!--Hanged if _that_ ain't
fore-reaching on us, with a witness!' exclaimed the two of us together:
'And a _bottle_ it _is_!' said Westwood.
"I slipped down the poop-stair, and along to the forecastle, where I
told Jacobs; when two or three of the men went out on the
martingale-stays, with the bight of a line and a couple of blocks in it,
ready to throw round this said floating oddity, and haul it alongside as
it surged past. Shortly after, we had it safe in our hands; a
square-built old Dutchman it was, tight corked, with a red rag round the
neck, and crusted over with salt--almost like one of Vanderdecken's
messages home, coming up as it did from the wide glittering sea, of a
tropical moonlight night, seven weeks or so after our leaving land. The
men who had got it seemed afraid of their prize, so Westwood and I had
no difficulty in smuggling it away below to our berth, where we both sat
down on a locker and looked at one another. 'What poor wretch hove this
overboard, I wonder, now?' said he; 'I daresay it may have knocked
about, God knows how long, since _his_ affair was settled.' 'Why, for
that matter, Westwood,' replied I, 'I fancy it's much more important to
find there's a strong easterly current hereabouts just now.'[20]
[20] Currents are designated from the direction they run _towards_;
winds, the quarter they blow _from_.
"Here Westwood got a corkscrew, and pulled out the cork with a true
parson-like gravity; as we had expected, there was a paper tacked to it,
crumpled up, and scrawled over in what we could only suppose was
_blood_.
"'No. 20,' read he, 'what does that mean?' 'The twentieth bottle
launched, perhaps,' said I, and he went on--'For God's sake, if you find
this, keep to the south-west--we are going that way, we think--we've
fallen amongst regular Thugs, I fear--just from the folly of these three
griffins--(they're looking over my shoulder, though)--we are not
ill-treated yet, but kept below and watched--yours in haste----' 'What
this signature is I can't say for the life of me, Ned; no date either.'
'Did the fellow think he was writing by post, I wonder?' said I, trying
to make it out. 'By the powers, Westwood, though,' and I jumped up,
'that bottle _might_ have come from the Pacific, 'tis true--but what if
it were old Rollock, after all! _Thugs_, did you say? Why, I shouldn't
wonder if the jolly old planter were on the hooks still. _That_
rascally brig!' And accordingly, on trying the scrawl at the end, over
and over, we both agreed that it was nothing but 'T. ROLLOCK.'"