SLAVER HUNTING (_continued_).
Now to return to my 'experiences.' As proud as the young sportsman when
he has killed his first stag, I returned, keen as mustard, to my ship,
which I found still cruising near to where I had left her. Some secret
information that I had received while at Rio led me to ask my captain to
again send me away with a force similar to that which I had under me
before (with percussion caps this time), and allow me to station myself
some fifty miles further down the coast. My request was granted, and
away I went. This time, instead of taking shelter under an island, I
ensconced my little force behind a point of land which enabled me by
mounting on the rocks to sweep the horizon with a spy-glass, so that I
could discover any vessel approaching the land while she was yet at a
considerable distance.
There happened to be a large coffee plantation in my immediate
neighbourhood, and I remarked that the inhabitants favoured us with the
darkest of scowls whenever we met them. This made me believe (and I
wasn't far out) that the slave-vessel I was looking out for was bringing
recruits to the already numerous slaves employed on the said plantation.
Two or three mornings after my arrival, I discovered a sail on the very
far horizon; a vessel evidently bound to the immediate neighbourhood I
had chosen as my look-out place. The winds were baffling and light, as
usual in the morning in these latitudes, where, however, there is always
a sea-breeze in the afternoon. So, being in no hurry, I sauntered about
the shore with my double-barrelled gun in my hand, occasionally taking a
look seaward. Suddenly I saw within a hundred yards of me a man leading
two enormous dogs in a leash. The dogs were of a breed well known among
slave-owners, as they were trained to run down runaway slaves. I believe
the land of their origin is Cuba, as they are called Cuba bloodhounds.
Suspecting nothing I continued my lounge, turning my back on the man and
his dogs. A few minutes afterwards I was startled by a rushing sound
behind me. On turning quickly round I saw to my horror two huge dogs
galloping straight at me. Quick as lightning I stood on the defensive,
and when they with open mouths and bloodshot eyes were within five
yards, I pulled the trigger. The gun missed fire with the first barrel.
The second barrel luckily went off, scattering the brains of the nearest
dog, the whole charge having entered his mouth, and gone through the
palate into his brain. This occurrence seemed to check the advance of
the second brute, who, while hesitating for a moment before coming at
me, received a ball in his side from one of my sailors, who fortunately
had observed what was going on and had come to my rescue. Without
waiting an instant to see what had become of the man who had played me
this murderous trick, I called my men together, launched the boats, and
put out to sea.
By this time the sea-breeze had set in, and I could see the vessel I had
been watching, though still a considerable distance from the shore, was
trimming her sails to the sea-breeze, and steering straight in for the
very spot where I had been concealed. Signal after signal was made to
her by her friends on the shore, in the shape of lighted fires (not much
avail in the daytime) and the hoisting of flags, &c., but she seemed
utterly to disregard the action of her friends. Satisfied, I imagine,
that she had all but finished her voyage, seeing no cruiser and
unsuspicious of boats, on she came.[1]
We got almost alongside of her before the people on board seemed to see
us. When she did, evidently taken by surprise, she put her helm down,
and throwing all her sails aback, snapped some of her lighter spars,
thus throwing everything into confusion--confusion made worse by the
fact that, with the view of immediate landing, two hundred or three
hundred of the niggers had been freed from their confinement and were
crowded on the deck. Taking advantage of this state of things we made
our capture without a shot being fired.
In fact everything was done, as sailors say, 'before you could look
round you,' the man at the helm replaced by one of my men, the crew
bundled down into the slave-hold to give them a taste of its horrors,
and the sails trimmed for seaward instead of towards the land. The
captain, who seemed a decent fellow, cried like a child. He said: 'If I
had seen you five minutes before you would never have taken me. Now I am
ruined.' I consoled him as well as I could and treated him well, as he
really seemed half a gentleman, if not entirely one. I found about six
hundred slaves, men and women and children, on board this vessel, who as
they had made a very rapid and prosperous voyage, were in a somewhat
better state than those on board the last capture. Still goodness knows
their state was disgusting enough. Ophthalmia had got a terrible hold of
the poor wretches. In many of the cases the patient was stone blind. I
caught this painful disease myself, and for several days couldn't see a
yard.
Shortly after, having despatched our prize into Rio in charge of a
brother midshipman, we were joined by another man-of-war cruiser, which
had been sent to assist us in our work. As the officer in command of
this vessel was of senior rank to my commander, he naturally took upon
himself to organise another boat expedition, placing one of his own
officers in command. With this expedition I was allowed to go, taking
with me my old boats and their crews, with orders to place myself under
the direction of Lieutenant A.C., the officer chosen by the senior in
command.
So we started with five boats provisioned and otherwise prepared for a
cruise of twenty days. The lieutenant in charge did not think it wise to
land, as a bad feeling towards us was known to exist among the
inhabitants, who were all more or less slave-dealers, or interested in
the success of the slave-vessels, so we had to live in our boats. Rather
hard lines, sleeping on the boat's thwarts, &c. Still we had that 'balm
of Gilead,' hope, to keep us alive, and our good spirits. Many a longing
eye did I cast to the shore, where, in spite of the bloodhounds, I
should like to have stretched my cramped limbs. Ten or twelve days
passed in dodging about, doing nothing but keeping a good look-out, and
we almost began to despair, when one fine morning we saw a large brig,
evidently a slaver, running in towards the shore with a fresh breeze.
Our boats were painted like fishing boats, and our men disguised as
fishermen, as usual; so, apparently occupied with our pretended
business, we gradually approached the slave-vessel. My orders were
strictly to follow the movements or action of my superior. Then I
witnessed a gallant act, such as I have not seen surpassed during forty
years of active service that I have gone through since that time.
Lieutenant A.C., who was in the leading boat, a large twelve-oared
cutter, edged pretty near to the advancing vessel, and when quite close
under her bows one man seemed to me to spring like a chamois on board. I
saw the boat from which the man jumped make an ineffectual attempt to
get alongside the vessel, that was going at the rate of six miles an
hour, and then drop astern. I heard a pistol shot, and suddenly the
vessel was thrown up in the wind with all her sails aback, thus entirely
stopping her way (sailors will understand this). Not knowing precisely
what had happened, we pulled like maniacs alongside of the slaver. To do
this was, now that the vessel's way was stopped, comparatively easy. We
dashed on board, and after a slight resistance on the part of the
slaver's crew, in which two or three more men, myself among the number,
were wounded, we took possession of the brig. There we found our
lieutenant standing calmly at the helm, which was a long wooden tiller.
He it was who had jumped on board alone, shot the man at the helm, put
the said helm down with his leg, while in his hand he held his other
pistol, with which he threatened to shoot any one who dared to touch
him.
I fancy that his cool pluck had caused a panic among the undisciplined
crew, a panic that our rapid approach tended much to increase. What
astonished me was that nobody on board thought of shooting him before he
got to the helm, in which case we never could have got on board the
vessel, considering the speed she was going through the water. What he
did was a glorious piece of pluck, that in these days would have been
rewarded with the Victoria Cross as the least recompense they could have
given to so gallant an officer. Poor fellow! all the reward he got,
beyond the intense admiration of those who saw him, was a bad attack of
small-pox from the diseased _animals_ (there is no other name for
negroes in the state they were in) on board the slave-vessel, which
somewhat injured the face of one of the handsomest men I ever saw. He is
now an admiral, has done many gallant acts since then, but none could
beat what he did on that memorable morning.
I have said that I was among those who were wounded on this occasion.
What my friend A.C. did so far outshone anything that I had
accomplished, that it is hardly worth while speaking of my share in the
fray. However, as I am writing sketches from my life, I will not omit to
describe the way in which I was wounded. We were, as I have said, making
a rush to assist our gallant leader, who was alone on board the slaver.
The reader will have seen that our business was boarding and fighting
our enemy hand to hand. As I was making a jump on board I saw the white
of the eye of a great black man turned on me; he brandished a huge axe,
which I had a sort of presentiment was intended for me. I sprang as it
were straight at my destiny, for as I grasped the gunnel down came the
axe, and I received the full edge of the beastly thing across the back
of my hand. I fell into the water, but was picked up by my sailors, and
managed to get on board again. Had it not been for a clever young
assistant surgeon, who bound up the wound in a most scientific manner, I
should probably have quite lost the use of my hand; the mark remains
across my knuckles to this day.