"But man, proud man,
Dress'd in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven."
SHAKESPEARE.
The reef upon which the brig had been wrecked was one of those extending
along the southward of the Virgin Isles. Newton had intended to steer
well to the eastward, with the view of reaching one of the northernmost
English colonies; but not having a compass, he naturally was not very
equal in his course. The fact was that he steered well to the southward
of it; and after he fell asleep, the boat ran away still further off her
course, for she was on the larboard tack, and having no weight in her
except Newton, who was aft in the stern-sheets, she did not feel
inclined to keep her wind. Newton's sleep was so profound, that neither
the pulling of the main-sheet, which he held with a round turn round
his hand, nor the dancing of the boat, which during the night had run
fast before an increasing breeze, roused him from his lethargy. On
sailed the boat, left to the steerage of Providence; on slept Newton, as
if putting firm reliance in the same. It was not until the break of day
that his repose was very abruptly broken by a shock, which threw him
from the stern-sheets of the boat, right over the aftermost thwart.
Newton recovered his legs, and his senses, and found himself alongside
of a vessel. He had run stem on to a small schooner, which was lying at
anchor. As the boat was drifting fast by, Newton made a spring, and
gained the deck of the vessel.
"Ah! mon Dieu!--les Anglais--les Anglais--nous sommes prisonniers!"
cried out the only man on deck, jumping on his feet, and making a
precipitate dive below.
The vessel, of which Newton had thus taken possession, was one employed
in carrying the sugars from the plantations round to Basse Terre, the
port of Guadaloupe, there to be shipped for Europe,--Newton's boat
having run away so far to the southward, as to make this island. She was
lying at anchor off the mouth of a small river, waiting for a cargo.
It happened that the crew of the schooner, who were all slaves, were
exactly in the same situation as Newton, when their vessels came in
contact--viz., fast asleep. The shock had awakened them; but they were
all below except the one who had kept such a remarkably good watch.
Exhausted as Newton was, he could not but smile at his uninterrupted
possession of the vessel's decks. Anxious to have communication with the
people on board, he sat down, awaiting their coming up from below. In a
minute or two, a black head was seen to rise slowly and fearfully out of
the fore-scuttle; then it disappeared. Another rose up and went down
again as before; and thus it went on until Newton reckoned ten different
faces. Having individually ascertained that there was but one man, and
that one not provided with any weapons, the negroes assumed a degree of
courage. The first head that had made its appearance, the woolly hair of
which was of a grizzly gray from age, was again popped up the
fore-scuttle, with an interrogatory to Newton, in French, who he was,
and what he wanted? Newton, who did not understand a word of the
language, shook his head, and, opening his hands and extending his arms,
to show that he had no means of defence, he beckoned to them to come up.
The man's head had again disappeared, and, after a little demur, nine or
ten negroes crawled up out of the fore-scuttle, one after another, each
with some weapon or another by way of security. They remained on the
forecastle of the vessel until the last was up; and then at a nod given
by their grizzle-headed leader, they advanced aft in a body towards
Newton. Newton rose and pointed to the boat, which had now drifted about
a quarter of a mile astern. He then made signs to give them to
understand that he had been wrecked.
"Apparemment c'est un pauvre misérable, qui a fait naufrage," observed
the old negro, who appeared to have the charge of the vessel; "Gustave
Adolphe, tu parles bien l'Anglais; demandez-lui les nouvelles,"
continued the old man, folding his arms across, and looking very _big_
indeed, as he reclined against the mainmast of the vessel.
Gustave Adolphe stood forward from the rest of the negroes. He was a
short, fat, shiny-faced fellow, with his hair platted into about fifty
little tails. He first bowed to his old commander, then placing his arms
akimbo, walked up to Newton, and looking him full in the face, commenced
his duty of interpreter, as follows:--
"I say--God dam--"
Newton smiled.
"Oui, monsieur, c'est un Anglais."
"Continuez, Gustave Adolphe," replied the old negro, with a majestic
air.
Gustave Adolphe, with another bow, resumed:
"I say--where com?"
"Barbadoes," replied Newton.
"Monsieur, il vient de Barbadoes."
"Continuez, Gustave Adolphe," replied his superior, with a wave of his
hand.
"I say--where go?"
"Where go?" replied Newton, "go to the bottom."
"Monsieur, il allait au port de Bo--tom."
"Bo--tom," repeated the old negro. "Où diable est ça?"
Here a general consultation was held, by which it appeared that such a
port had never been heard of in the West Indies.
"Gustave Adolphe, demandez-lui si c'est un port Anglais."
"I say--Bo--tom--English port?"
"No," replied Newton, amused with the mistake; "I should rather call it
_neutral_."
"C'est un port neutral, monsieur."
"Gustave Adolphe, demandez-lui de quelle île."
"I say, what isle--Bo--tom?"
Newton, who was faint with hunger and thirst, was not inclined at the
moment to continue the conversation, which otherwise would have been a
source of amusement. He replied by making signs that he wished to eat
and drink.
"Monsieur," said Gustave Adolphe to the old negro, "le prisonnier refuse
de faire réponse, et demande à manger et à boire."
"Va l'en chercher, Gustave Adolphe," replied the old man. "Allons,
messieurs," continued he, addressing the other negroes. "Il faut lever
l'ancre de suite, et amener notre prisonnier aux autorités; Charles
Philippe, va chercher mon porte-voix."
The negro captain walked up and down the deck of the schooner, a vessel
about thirty feet long, until Charles Philippe made his appearance with
the speaking-trumpet. He then proceeded to get the vessel under weigh,
with more noise and fuss than is to be heard when the proudest
three-decker in the English navy expands her lofty canvas to the gale.
Gustave Adolphe, in obedience to the commands he had received, brought
up to Newton a bunch of bananas, a large piece of salt fish, and a
calabash of water. The latter was immediately applied to his lips, and
never removed while a drop remained, much to the astonishment of the
negro, who again sported his English.
"I say--very good--ab more?"
"If you please," replied Newton.
"Monsieur," said Gustave Adolphe to his commander, "le prisonnier a
soif, et demande encore de l'eau."
"Va l'en chercher donc," replied the old negro, with a wave of his
speaking-trumpet. "Charles Philippe, attention à la barre,[1] sans venir
au vent, s'il vous plaît. Matelots[2] du gaillard d'avant," continued
he, roaring through his speaking-trumpet! "bordez le grand foc."
[Footnote 1: Mind your weather-helm.]
[Footnote 2: Forecastlemen, haul aft the jib-sheet.]
In the space of two hours, the schooner was brought to an anchor, with
as much noise and importance as she had been got under weigh. A boat
capable of holding three people--one rower and two sitters--was shoved
off the vessel's deck, and the negro captain, having first descended to
his cabin for a few minutes, returned on deck dressed in the extremity
of _their_ fashion, and ordered the boat to be manned.
Gustave Adolphe accordingly manned the boat with his own person, and the
negro captain politely waved his hand for Newton to enter; and then,
following himself, Gustave Adolphe rowed to a landing-place, about
twenty yards from the schooner.
"Gustave Adolphe, suivez en arrière, et gardez bien que le prisonnier
n'échappe pas;" so saying, monsieur le capitaine led the way to a large
white house and buildings, about two hundred yards from the river's
banks. On their arrival, Newton was surrounded by twenty or thirty
slaves of both sexes, who chattered and jabbered a thousand questions
concerning him to the negro captain and Gustave Adolphe, neither of whom
condescended to reply.
"Monsieur de Fontanges--où est-il?" inquired the old negro.
"Monsieur dort," replied a little female voice.
The captain was taken aback at this unfortunate circumstance; for no one
dared to wake their master.
"Et Madame?" inquired he.
"Madame est dans sa chambre."
There again he was floored--he could not venture there; so he conducted
Newton, who was not very sorry to escape from the burning rays of the
sun, to his own habitation, where an old negress, his wife, soon
obtained from the negro that information relative to the capture of
Newton which the bevy of slaves in the yard had attempted in vain--but
wives have such winning ways with them!