SAVED!
A large double-banked frigate was now shortening sail about a mile
from the coast, and a boat left her side as the mainyards were
backed, and the courses hauled up. Thus, I believed she was merely
shortening sail, to permit a party of explorers to visit the island,
and this surmise proved in the sequel to be a correct one.
On looking again, as she swung round, and the sunshine fell full upon
her shivering maintopsail, I recognized a patch made in the sail
where a ball from Fort Royal had pierced it, and by this mark knew
her to be my old friend and habitation, the _Adder_.
The boat was soon midway between her and the beach; the bright blades
of its sixteen oars were flashing like silver in the sunlight, as it
sped along the rippling waves.
Such was the double emotion caused by the effect of my recent fierce
excitement, and joy at the prospect of release from my miserable
seclusion, that my limbs trembled with feebleness, and my eyes were
so full of tears, that I could scarcely descend the cliffs to meet
the crew, and was without voice to hail them, as they ran their boat
into a little creek, laying in the oars in true man-o'-war fashion;
and then a number of young officers, bent on a "lark" or ramble about
the island, sprang ashore with boisterous glee and laughter, and all
armed with ship-muskets or fowling-pieces.
At last I gathered strength to utter a shout that seemed to come from
my inner heart, while descending a wooded bank to the beach, where
the recently-landed group stood gazing at me with astonishment
expressed in all their faces.
Though the tattered remains of my uniform, my uncombed hair and
shaggy beard, were somewhat fantastic, my aspect was too wild,
haggard, wasted, and forlorn, to excite laughter, while hurrying
toward them.
"Now, in the name of old Davy, who, or what are you?" asked one, whom
I knew to be the first-lieutenant of the _Adder_.
"One who has the pleasure of knowing you well enough, Mr. Percival,"
said I, stretching out my hands to him.
"This is a deuced queer rencontre! are you sailor or soldier, Carib
or what?"
"Come, come, Percival; surely I am not so altered as to be taken for
a Carib, though I have lived like one for many a day. Thanks be to
Providence, you have come to my rescue! Cannot you remember
me--Ellis of the Scots Fusiliers--Lieutenant Ellis, who sailed from
Guadaloupe and Los Santos in the prize privateer _Etna_ on a special
duty?"
"With Ned Stanley--remember you, my dear fellow, of course!" said he,
grasping his hand, as his companions, now assured that I was neither
a satyr, an Orson, a Casper Hauser, or likely to _eat them_, came
round me; and the joy I felt on hearing their voices, and seeing
their open, honest, and weatherbeaten English faces, was so great in
my swelling heart, that it almost amounted to pain.
"How came this about--that we find you here and alone?" asked
Percival.
"We encountered a hurricane----"
"Ah--whereabout?"
"Off the isle of Avis, or the tail of the Avis Bank--the ship
foundered--capsized and went down."
"With all hands on board?"
"All, French passengers and every one."
"Never mind the French," said one, "but poor Ned Stanley----"
"He was swept off the maintopsail-yard, when the mast was lying
horizontally in the water, and so was drowned with four others who
clung to it."
"And you----" they inquired with one voice.
"After long drifting in the sea, and being driven hither and thither
by waves and wind, I was washed ashore with a spare
mizentopsail-yard, and have lived here like Robinson Crusoe ever
since."
"A strange story!" said one.
"It is deuced fortunate for you," said Mr. Percival, "that during the
last day or two, the gale was so stiff that we were driven thus far
out of our intended course. Having sighted this island by our
glasses, a few of us came off to have a lark with the Carib girls, if
there were any, and a shot at the monkeys, or anything else that
might turn up."
"Were you cruising?"
"Yes, in search of any French craft we might find; but there is not a
tricolour pennant to be seen in these waters, so to-night we haul up
for Guadaloupe again."
"What are the news from that quarter?"
"Bad enough," replied several shaking their heads.
"How--the yellow fever, I suppose, has broken out among the troops?"
"We have not wanted for that either," replied Percival, "but the
French have retaken La Fleur d'Epée, and played the devil with your
43rd Regiment; however, you shall hear all about this after.
Meantime, a meal such as befits a Christian, and a glass of good
wine, will not be unacceptable I presume, so come off to the frigate
at once. Gentlemen," he continued, addressing his party, "you can
remain ashore, while I take Mr. Ellis off to the ship--but remember
to assemble here the moment she fires a gun or displays her ensign."
He kindly assisted me into the boat, and now my emotion was such,
that I almost sank down in the stern-sheets.
"In fenders--out oars," said he, assuming the tiller-rope; "and now
give way, lads--give way with a will!"
But the injunction was scarcely required. In their anxiety to place
me on board, the brave fellows bent to their oars with such vigour,
that by every stroke the long, sharp boat was actually lifted clean
out of the water, and we surged through it with the speed of a
race-horse. Then, when again I found myself alongside the noble old
frigate, and saw her triced-up ports, with their tier of artillery
peering through them--her swelling "wooden wall," that towered like a
bastion from the water--her well-squared yards and tapered masts,
that towered away to the long whiplike pennant that streamed on the
wind--I say, when seeing all this, and hearing the sounds of English
voices, of a fiddle and scraps of a song or two from the idlers
between decks--then, more than all, the soldierly aspect of the smart
marine sentinel on the poop in his red coat and well pipe-clayed
belts--I felt myself at _home_ indeed, but with the fear that all
might prove another dream.
On computing dates, we found that I had been exactly _one month and
eighteen days_ on the island.
Once away from it, my past existence there seemed really like a
dream, which I could scarcely recall.