The attacking flotilla was composed of the launch, under Mr Smellie,
with me for an _aide_; the first cutter, in charge of Mr Armitage, the
third lieutenant; and the second cutter, in charge of Mr Williams, the
master's mate; the force consisting of forty seamen and four officers--
quite strong enough, in Captain Vernon's opinion, to give a satisfactory
account of the three slavers, which, it was arranged, we were to attack
simultaneously, one boat to each vessel.
The last parting instructions having been given to Smellie by the
skipper, and rounded off with a hearty hand-shake and an earnest
exclamation of "I wish you success;" with a still more hearty hand-shake
and a "Good-bye, Harold, old boy; good luck attend you!" from Mr
Austin, the second lieutenant motioned me into the launch; followed me
closely down; the word to shove off was given, and away we went
punctually at half-past nine to the minute.
The fog was still as thick as ever; so thick, indeed, that it was as
much as we could do to see one end of the boat from the other; and,
notwithstanding the care with which, as I had had an opportunity of
seeing, the second lieutenant had worked out all his calculations, I own
that it seemed to me quite hopeless to expect that we should find the
place of which we were in search. Nevertheless, we pushed out boldly
into the opaque darkness, and the boats' heads were at once laid in the
required direction, each coxswain steering by compass, the lighted
binnacle containing which had been previously masked with the utmost
care. Our object being to take the slavers by surprise the oars were of
course muffled, and the strictest silence enjoined. Thus there was
neither light nor sound to betray our whereabouts, and we slid over the
placid surface of the river almost as noiselessly as so many mist-
wreaths.
In so dense a fog it was necessary to adopt unusual precautions in order
to prevent the boats from parting company. We therefore proceeded in
single file, the launch leading, with the first cutter attached by her
painter, the second cutter, in her turn, attached by her painter to the
first cutter, bringing up the rear. The cutters were ordered to
regulate their speed so that the connecting rope between each and the
boat ahead should be just slack enough to dip into the water and no
more, thus insuring that each boat's crew should do its own fair share
of work at the oars.
Once fairly away from the ship's side we were immediately swallowed up
by the impenetrable mist; and for a considerable time the flotilla
glided gently along, without a sight or sound to tell us whether we were
going right or wrong; without the utterance of a word on board either of
the boats; and with only the slight muffled sound of the oars in the
rowlocks and the gurgle of the water along the boats' sides to tell that
we were moving at all. The silence would have been oppressive but for
the slight murmuring swirl and ripple of the great river and the
chirping of the countless millions of insects which swarmed in the bush
on both banks of the stream. The latter sent forth so remarkable a
volume of sound that when first told it was created by insects alone I
found my credulity taxed to its utmost limit; and it was not until I was
solemnly assured by Mr Austin that such was the case that I quite
believed it. It was not unlike the "whirr" of machinery, save that it
rose and fell in distinct cadences, and occasionally--as if by
preconcerted arrangement on the part of every individual insect in the
district--stopped altogether for a few moments. Then, indeed, the
silence became weird, oppressive, uncanny; making one involuntarily
shuffle nearer to one's neighbour and glance half-fearfully over one's
shoulder. Then, after a slight interval, a faint, far-off signal
_chirp! chirp_! would be heard, and in an instant the whole insect-world
would burst into full chorus once more, and the air would fairly vibrate
with sound. But the night had other voices than this. Mingled with the
_chirr_ of the insects there would occasionally float off to us the
snarling roar of some forest savage, the barking call of the deer, the
yelping of a jackal, the blood-curdling cry of a hyena, the grunt of a
hippopotamus, the weird cry of some night-bird; and--nearer at hand,
sometimes apparently within a yard or so of the boats--sundry mysterious
puffings and blowings, and sudden faint splashings of the water, which
latter made me for one, and probably many of the others who heard them,
feel particularly uncomfortable, especially if they happened to occur in
one of the brief intervals of silence on shore. Once, in particular,
during one of those silent intervals, my hair fairly bristled as the
boat was suddenly but silently brought up all standing by coming into
violent collision with some object which broke water directly under our
bows; the shock being instantly followed by a long moaning sigh and a
tremendous swirl of the water as the creature--whatever it was--sank
again beneath the surface of the river.
The men in the launch were, like myself, considerably startled at the
circumstance, and one of them--an Irishman--exclaimed, in the first
paroxysm of his dismay:
"Howly ropeyarns! what was that? Is it shipwrecked, stranded, and cast
away we are on the back of a say-crocodile? Thin, Misther Crocodile,
let me tell yez at wanst that I'm not good to ate; I'm so sthrongly
flavoured wid the tibaccy that I'd be shure to disagray wid yez."
This absurd exclamation appealed so forcibly to the men's sense of the
ridiculous that it had the instant effect of steadying their nerves and
raising a hearty laugh, which, however, was as instantly checked by
Smellie, who, though he could not restrain a smile, exclaimed sharply:
"Silence, fore and aft! How dare you cry out in that ridiculous
fashion, Flanaghan? I have a good mind to report you, sir, as soon as
we return to the ship."
"_Who shall say how many of us will live to return_?"
"Merciful God! who spoke?" hoarsely cried the second lieutenant. And
well he might. The words were uttered in a sound scarcely above a
whisper, in so low a tone, indeed, that but for Smellie's startled
ejaculation I should almost have been inclined to accept them as
prompted by my own excited imagination; yet I saw in an instant that
every man in the boat had heard them and was as much startled as myself.
Who had uttered them, indeed? Every man's look, as his horrified
glance sought his neighbour's face, asked the same question. Nobody
seemed to have recognised or to be able to identify the voice; and the
strangest thing about it was that it did not appear to have been spoken
in the boat at all, but from a point close at hand.
The men had, with one accord, laid upon their oars in the first shock of
this new surprise, and before they had recovered themselves the first
cutter had ranged up alongside.
"Did anyone speak on board you, Armitage?" asked Smellie.
"No, certainly not," was the reply.
"Did you hear anyone speak on board the second cutter then?" followed.
"No; I heard nothing. Why?"
"No matter," muttered the second lieutenant. Then, in a low but
somewhat louder tone:
"Give way, launches; someone has been trying to play a trick upon us."
The men resumed their work at the oars; but an occasional scarcely heard
whisper reaching my ears and suggesting rather than conveying such
fragmentary sentences as "Some of us doomed"--"Lose the number of our
mess," etcetera, etcetera, showed that a very unfortunate impression had
been made by the strange incident.
As we proceeded the second lieutenant began to consult his watch, and at
last, turning to me as he slipped it back into his fob, he whispered:
"A quarter after tea. We ought now to be close to Boolambemba Point,
but the fog keeps so dense that I am afraid there is no chance of our
sighting it."
The insect chorus had been silent for an unusually long time when he
spoke; but as the words left Smellie's lips the sounds burst out once
more, this time in startling proximity to our larboard hand.
"By George! there it is, though, sure enough," continued Smellie. "By
the sharpness of the sound we must be close aboard of the point. How is
her head, coxswain?"
Before the man could reply there came in a low murmur from the men
pulling the port oars:
"We're stirring up the mud here, sir, on the port hand."
And at the same moment, looking up, we became aware that the darkness
was deeper--more intense and opaque, as it were, on our port hand than
anywhere else.
"All right!" answered Smellie; "that is the point, sure enough, and very
prettily we have hit it off. If we can only make as good a shot at the
mouth of the creek I shall be more than satisfied. How have you been
steering, coxswain?"
"South-east, sir, as straight as ever I could keep her."
"That's all right. South-east is your course all the way across. Now
we are beginning to draw off from the point and out into mid-stream, and
there must be no more talking upon any pretence whatever. The noise of
the insects will tell us when we are drawing in with the other bank. On
a night like this one has to be guided in a great measure by sound, and
even the chirp of the grasshoppers may be made useful, Mr Hawkesley."
I murmured a whispered assent as in duty bound, and then all hands
relapsed into silence once more.
The men worked steadily away at the oars, not exerting themselves to any
great extent, but keeping the boat moving at the rate of about four
knots per hour. According to our time-reckoning, and the fact that the
volume of sound proceeding from the southern bank of the river had
overpowered that from the northern bank, we had accomplished rather more
than the half of our passage across the stream, when, happening to raise
my head upon emerging from a brown study into which I had fallen, I
thought I caught a momentary glimpse of some object looming through the
fog broad on our port beam. I looked more earnestly still, and
presently felt convinced that there _was_ something there.
Laying my hand on the second lieutenant's arm to call his attention, I
whispered:
"Can you see anything out there, sir, abreast of us on our port hand?"
Smellie looked eagerly in the indicated direction for some moments, and
then turning to the coxswain, whispered:
"Starboard--hard!"
The boat's helm was put over, her bows swept round; and then I was
certain _that we were being watched_, for as the launch swerved out of
her course the object became suddenly more distinct, only to vanish
completely into the fog next moment, however, its course being as
suddenly and promptly altered as our own, thus proving that there were
other eyes at least as sharp as ours. But that single momentary glance
had been sufficient to show me that the object was a native canoe
containing three persons.
The second lieutenant was seriously disconcerted at this discovery, and
was evidently in great doubt as to whether it would be more prudent to
push on or to turn back. If the occupants of the canoe happened to be
associated with the slavers, and had been sent out as scouts in
anticipation of an attack from us, then there could be little doubt that
it would be wiser to turn back, since a light craft like a canoe could
easily reach the creek far enough ahead of us to give the alarm, in
which case we should find a warm reception prepared for us; and in so
dense a fog all the advantage would be on the side of those manning the
slave fleet.
On the other hand, the _rencontre_ might possibly have been purely
accidental, and its occupants supremely indifferent to the movements of
ourselves and the slavers alike, in which case it would be not only
mortifying in the extreme but possibly fatal to Smellie's prospects in
the service if he allowed himself to be frightened out of the advantage
of so excellent an opportunity for effecting a surprise.
It was a most embarrassing problem with which he thus suddenly found
himself brought face to face; but with a brave man the question could
not long remain an open one; a few seconds sufficed him to determine on
proceeding and taking our chance.
The sounds from the shore now rapidly increased in intensity, and by and
by we suddenly found that they proceeded from both sides of the boats.
Smellie drew out his watch and consulted it by the light of the boat's
binnacle.
"Twenty minutes to twelve! and we are now entering the creek," he
whispered to me.
The slavers, we knew, were anchored about two miles up the creek, and
the conviction suddenly smote me that in another half-hour I should in
all probability be engaged in a fierce and deadly struggle. Somehow up
to that moment I had only regarded the attack as a remote possibility--a
something which _might_ but was not very likely to happen. I suppose I
had unconsciously been entertaining a doubt as to the possibility of our
finding the creek. Yet, there we were in it, and nothing could now
avert a combat, and more or less bloodshed. Nothing, that is, except
the exceedingly unlikely circumstance of our finding the birds flown.
Did I wish this? Was I _afraid_?
Honestly, I am unable to say whether I was or not; but I am inclined to
acquit myself of the charge of cowardice. My sensations were peculiar
and rather unpleasant, I freely admit; but looking back upon them now in
the light of long years of experience, I am disposed to attribute them
entirely to nervous excitement. Hitherto my nostrils had never sniffed
the odour of powder burned in anger; I was about to undergo a perfectly
new experience; I was about to engage with my fellow-men in mortal
combat; to come face to face with and within arm's-length of those who,
if the opportunity occurred, would take my life deliberately and without
a moment's hesitation. In a short half-hour I might be dying--or
_dead_. As this disagreeable and inopportune reflection flashed through
my mind my heart throbbed violently, the blood rushed to my head, and my
breathing became so laboured that I felt as though I was stifling.
These disagreeable--indeed I might more truthfully call them _painful_--
sensations lasted in their intensity perhaps as long as five minutes,
after which they rapidly subsided, to be succeeded by a feverish longing
and impatience for the moment of action. My excitement ceased; my
breathing again became regular; but the period of suspense--that period
which only a few minutes before had seemed so short--now felt as though
it were lengthening out to a veritable eternity. I wanted to begin at
once, to know the worst, and to get it over.
I had not much longer to wait. We had advanced about a mile up the
creek when a deep hoarse voice was heard shouting something from the
shore.
"Oars!" exclaimed Smellie; and the men ceased pulling. "What was it the
fellow said?" continued the second lieutenant, turning to me.
"Haven't the slightest idea, but it sounded like Spanish," I replied.
The hail was repeated, but we could make nothing of it. Mr Armitage,
however, who boasted a slight knowledge of Spanish, informed us--the
first cutter having by this time drifted up abreast of us--that it was a
caution to us to return at once or take the consequences.
"Oh! that's it, is it?" remarked Smellie. "Well, it seems that we are
discovered, so any further attempt at a surprise is useless. Cast the
boats adrift from each other, and we will make a dash for it. Our best
chance now is to board and carry the three craft simultaneously with a
rush--if we can. Give way, lads!"
The boats' painters were cast off; the crews with a ringing cheer
plunged their oars simultaneously into the water, and away we went at
racing speed through the dense fog along the channel.
We had scarcely pulled half a dozen strokes when the report of a musket
rang out from the bank on our starboard hand; and at the same instant a
line of tiny sparks of fire appeared on either hand through the thick
haze, rapidly increasing in size and luminosity until they stood
revealed as huge fires of dry brushwood. They were twelve in number,
six on either bank of the channel, and were spaced about three hundred
yards apart. So large were they that they rendered the fog quite
luminous; and it seemed pretty evident that they had been built and
lighted for the express purpose of illuminating the channel and
revealing our exact whereabouts. I was congratulating myself upon the
circumstance that the dense fog would to a considerable extent defeat
their purpose, when, in an instant, as though we had passed out through
a solid wall, we emerged from the fog, and there lay the three slave-
craft before us, moored with springs on their cables, boarding-nettings
triced up, and guns run out, evidently quite ready to receive us.
The three craft were moored athwart the channel in a slightly curved
line, with their bows pointing to the eastward, the brig being ahead,
the schooner next, and the brigantine the sternmost of the line. Thus
moored, their broadsides commanded the whole channel in the direction of
our advance, and could, if required, be concentrated upon any one point
in it.
"Hurrah!" shouted Smellie, rising to his feet and drawing his sword;
"hurrah, lads, there is our game! Give way and go at them. I'll take
the brig, Armitage; you tackle the brigantine, and leave Williams to
deal with the schooner. Now bend your backs, launches; there is a glass
of grog all round waiting for you if we are alongside first."
"Hurroo! pull, bhoys, and let's shecure that grog annyhow," exclaimed
the irrepressible Flanaghan; and with another cheer and a hearty laugh
the men stretched themselves out and plied the stout ashen oars until
the water fairly buzzed again under the launch's bows, and it almost
seemed as though they would lift her bodily out of the water.
As for Armitage and Williams, they were evidently quite determined not
to be beaten in the race if they could help it. Both were on their
feet, their drawn swords in their right hands, pistols in their left,
and their bodies bobbing energetically forward, in approved racing
fashion, at every stroke of the oars; whilst the voice of first one and
then the other could be heard encouraging their respective crews with
such exclamations as:
"Pull now! pull _hard! There_ she lifts! _Now_ she travels! There we
draw ahead. _Well_ pulled; again so," and so on, she men all the while
straining at the oars with a zeal and energy which left in the wake of
each boat a long line of swirling, foamy whirlpools.
We were within about eighty yards of the slavers--the launch leading by
a good half length--when a voice on board the brig uttered some word of
command, and that same instant--_crash_! came a broadside at us, fired
simultaneously from the three ships. The guns were well-aimed, the shot
flying close over and all round us, tearing and thrashing up the placid
surface of the water about the boats, and sprinkling us to such an
extent that, for the moment, we seemed to be passing through a heavy
shower; yet, strange to say, no damage was done.
Before the guns could be again loaded we were alongside, and then
ensued--so far at least as the launch was concerned--a few minutes of
such desperate hand-to-hand fighting as I have never since witnessed.
We dashed alongside the brig in the wake of her larboard main rigging,
and as the boat's side touched that of the slaver every man dropped his
oar, seized his cutlass, and sprang for the main channels. Here,
however, we were received so warmly that it was found utterly impossible
to make good our footing, the men springing up only to fall back again
into the boat wounded with pike-thrust, pistol-bullet, or cutlass-gash.
Smellie and I happened to make a dash for the same spot, but being the
lighter of the two I was jostled aside by him and narrowly avoided
tumbling overboard. He succeeded in gaining a temporary footing on the
chain-plate, and was evidently about to scramble thence upon the sheer-
pole, when I saw a pike thrust out at him from over the topgallant
bulwarks. The point struck him in the right shoulder, passing
completely through it; the thrust upset his balance, and down he came by
the run into the boat. Our lads meanwhile were cutting and hacking most
desperately at the boarding netting, endeavouring to make a passage-way
through it, but unfortunately they had emptied their pistols in the
first rush, and, unable to reach their enemies through the netting, were
completely at their mercy. In less than three minutes all hands were
back in the boat, every one of us more or less hurt, and no nearer to
getting on board than we had been before the beginning of the attack.
The cutters had evidently fared no better, for they were already hauling
off, discomfited; seeing which, Smellie, who seemed scarcely conscious
of his wound, reluctantly gave the order for us to follow their example,
which we promptly did. Poor Smellie! I pitied him, for I could see he
was deeply mortified at our defeat. The three boats converged toward
each other as they hauled off, and as soon as we were within speaking
distance of them the second lieutenant inquired of Armitage and Williams
whether they had suffered much.
"We have one man killed, and I think none of us have escaped quite scot-
free," was Armitage's reply; whilst Williams reported that two of his
men were seriously hurt and seven others slightly wounded.
"Well," said Smellie, "it is evident that we can do nothing with them
unless we change our tactics. We will, therefore, all three of us
attack the schooner, the two cutters boarding her, one on each bow,
whilst we in the launch will make a feint of attacking the brigantine,
passing her, however, at the last moment, and boarding the schooner aft.
Now--away we go!"
The boats upon this were quickly swept round, and off we dashed toward
our respective points of attack. We were still fully a hundred yards
distant when another broadside was poured into us, this time with very
destructive effect so far as the launch was concerned. We were struck
by no less than five nine-pound shot, two of which played havoc with our
oars on the starboard side, a third tore out about twelve feet of
planking and gunwale on the same side, and the remaining two struck the
boat's stem close together, completely demolishing the bows and, worst
of all, killing three men.
The launch was now a wreck and sinking. Smellie, therefore, conceiving
it to be our best chance under the circumstances, gave orders to steer
straight for the schooner's main-chains. We succeeded in reaching our
quarry before the boat sank, and that was all, the launch capsizing
alongside as we sprang from her gunwale to that of the schooner. Very
fortunately for us, the two cutters had arrived nearly a minute before
us, and when we boarded the entire crew of the schooner was on her
forecastle fully occupied in the endeavour to repel their attack.
Taking advantage of this we quietly but rapidly slipped in on deck
through her open ports aft, and then made a furious charge forward,
attacking the Spaniards in their rear. Our presence on board seemed to
take them considerably by surprise. They wavered and hesitated, but,
incited by a burly ruffian who forced his way through the crowd, rallied
once more and attacked us hotly. This was exactly what we wanted. Our
fellows, by Smellie's order, contented themselves with acting for the
time being strictly on the defensive, giving way gradually before the
impetuous attack of the Spaniards, and drawing them by degrees away from
the forecastle. A diversion was thus effected in favour of the cutters'
crews, of which they were not slow to avail themselves; and in less than
five minutes after the attack of the launch's crew our entire party had
gained a footing upon the schooner's deck. Even then the Spanish crew
continued to fight desperately, inflicting several very severe wounds
upon our lads, until at last, thoroughly roused by such obstinacy, the
blue-jackets made such a determined charge that they cleared the decks
by actually and literally driving their opponents overboard. Not that
this entailed much loss upon the Spaniards, however; for they all, or
very nearly all, swam either to the brig or the brigantine, where they
were promptly hauled on board.
On our side Smellie lost not a moment in availing himself to the fullest
extent of our partial victory. He ordered the cutters to be dropped
under the schooner's stern, and whilst this was being done the springs
were veered away and hauled upon until the schooner was brought
broadside-on to her former consorts, now her antagonists. This done our
lads went to the guns, double-shotted them, and succeeded in delivering
an awfully destructive raking broadside fore and aft along the decks of
both the brig and the brigantine. The frightful outcries and the
confusion which ensued on board these craft assured us that our fire had
wrought a tremendous amount of execution among the men crowding their
decks; but they were too wise to give us an opportunity to repeat the
dose. Their springs were promptly manned, and by the time that the
schooner's batteries were again loaded our antagonists had brought their
broadsides to bear upon us.
Once more was our double-shotted broadside hurled upon the foe, and
then, before our lads had time to run-in their guns, we received the
combined fire of the brig and the brigantine in return. Through the
sharp ringing explosion of our antagonists' nine-pounders we distinctly
heard the crashing of the shot through the schooner's timbers, and
then--O God! I shall never forget it--the piercing shrieks and groans
of mortal agony which uprose beneath our feet! Not a man of us upon the
schooner's decks was injured by that terrible double broadside; for the
Spaniards, resolved to sink the craft, had depressed the muzzles of
their guns and sent their shot through the schooner's sides just above
the water-line on the one side and out through her bottom on the other,
regardless of the fact that _the vessel's hold was packed full of
slaves_. The slaughter which resulted among these unhappy creatures,
thus closely huddled together, I must leave to the reader's
imagination--it was simply indescribable.
For a moment all hands of us on board the schooner were struck dumb and
motionless with horror at this act of cowardice and wanton barbarity;
then, with a yell of righteous fury our lads turned again to their guns,
which thenceforward were loaded and fired independently, and as rapidly
as possible. The slavers on their part were not behindhand in alacrity,
and presently we received another broadside from the brig, closely
followed by one from the brigantine, the guns being in both cases aimed
as before, with similar murderous results, and with a repetition of
those heart-rending shrieks of agony and despair.
"My God! I can't bear this!" I heard Smellie exclaim, as the dying
shrieks of the negroes below again pealed out upon the startled air.
"Mr Williams, take half a dozen men below and free those unhappy
blacks. I don't know whether I am acting prudently or not, but I cannot
leave them chained helplessly down there to be cut to pieces by the shot
of those Spanish fiends. Let them come on deck and take their chance
with us. Some of them at least may possibly effect their escape, either
in the schooner's boats or by swimming to the shore."
Williams lost no time in setting about his perilous work of mercy; and a
few minutes after his disappearance down the main hatchway the unhappy
slaves began to make their appearance on deck, where they first stared
in terrified wonder about them, and then crouched down helplessly on the
deck wherever they might happen to find themselves.
In the meantime the cannonade was kept briskly up on both sides, and
presently the Spaniards began to pepper us with musketry in addition.
The bullets, fired at short range, flew thickly about us; and the
casualties quickly increased, several of the unfortunate blacks falling
victims to the first discharge. Seeing this, Smellie ordered the
schooner's boats, three in number, to be lowered and the slaves passed
into them. This was done, our lads leaving the guns for a few minutes
for the purpose; but--will it be credited? The Spaniards no sooner
became aware of our purpose than they directed their fire upon the boats
and their hapless occupants; so that we were compelled to quickly drag
the unhappy blacks back on board the schooner again, to save them from
being ruthlessly slaughtered. The worst of it was, that though Williams
had succeeded in freeing many of them from the heavy chains with which
they were secured together in the schooner's hold, most of them still
wore heavy fetters on their ankles. These we now proceeded to knock off
as fast as we could, afterwards pitching the poor wretches overboard--
with scant ceremony, I fear--to take their chances of being able to
reach the shore. And during all this the Spaniards never ceased firing
upon us for an instant; so there we were in the midst of a perfect
hailstorm of round-shot and bullets; the air about us thick and
suffocating with the smoke from the guns, our only light the quick
intermittent flashes of the cannon and musketry; the whole atmosphere
vibrating with the roar and rattle of the fusillade, the shouts of the
combatants, and the shrieks of the wounded and dying; struggling with
the unhappy negroes who, driven almost frantic with the unwonted sights
and sounds around them, seemed quite unable to comprehend our
intentions, and resisted to the utmost our well-meant endeavours to pass
them over the ship's side into the water.
In the midst of all this tumult and confusion we were suddenly
confronted by an additional horror--Williams, badly wounded in the head
by a splinter, staggering on deck, closely followed by his men, with the
news that the schooner was rapidly sinking, and that it was impossible
to free any more of the blacks.
I glanced down the hatchway. Merciful Heaven! shall I ever forget the
sight which met my eyes in that brief glimpse! The intelligence was
only too literally true. By the dim light of a horn lantern which
Williams had suspended from the beams I could see the black water
welling and bubbling rapidly up from the shot-holes below, and the
wretched negroes, still chained below, surrounded by the mangled corpses
of their companions and already immersed to their chins, with their
heads thrown as far back as possible so as to keep their mouths and
nostrils free until the last possible moment, their faces contorted and
their eyes protruding from their sockets with mortal fear.
One of the unhappy creatures was a woman--a mother. Actuated by that
loving and devoted instinct which constrains all animals to seek the
safety of their helpless offspring before their own, she had raised her
infant in her arms as high as possible above the surface of the bubbling
water, and had fixed her dying gaze yearningly upon the little
creature's face with an expression of despairing love which it was truly
pitiful to see. I could not bear it. The mother was lost--chained as
she was to the submerged deck, nothing could then save her--but the
child might still be preserved. I sprang down the hatchway and,
splashing through the rapidly-rising water, seized the child, and, as
gently as possible, tried to disengage it from the mother's grasp. The
woman turned her eyes upon me, looked steadfastly at me for a moment as
though she would read my very soul, and then--possibly because she saw
the flood of compassion which was welling up from my heart into my
eyes--pressed her child's lips once rapidly and convulsively to her own
already submerged mouth, loosed her grasp upon its body, and with a wild
shriek of bitter anguish and despair threw herself backwards beneath the
flood.
My heart was bursting with grief and indignation--grief for the
miserable dying wretches around me, and indignation at our utter
inability to prevent such wholesale human suffering. But there was no
time to lose; the schooner was already settling down beneath our feet,
and I saw that it would very soon be "Every man for himself and God for
us all;" so I passed my charge on deck and quickly followed it myself.
I was just in time to see Smellie spinning the schooner's wheel hard
over to port and lashing it there. Divining in an instant that he hoped
by this manoeuvre to sheer the schooner alongside the brig, I seized the
child I had brought up from below, dropped it into one of our own boats
astern, and then stood by to make a spring for the brig with the rest of
our party. Half a minute more and the sides of the two ships touched.
"Now, lads, follow me! Spring for your lives--the schooner is sinking!"
I heard Smellie shout; and away we went--Armitage leading one party
forward, and Smellie showing the way to the rest of them aft. And, even
as we made our spring, the schooner heeled over and sank alongside.
We were met, as before, by so stubborn a resistance that I believe every
one of us received some fresh hurt more or less serious before we
actually reached the deck of the brig; but our lads were by this time
fully aroused--neither boarding-nettings nor anything else could any
longer restrain them; and in a few seconds, though more than one poor
fellow fell back dead, we were in possession of the brig, the crew, in
obedience to an order from their captain, suddenly flinging down their
weapons and tumbling headlong into their boats, which for some reason--a
reason we were soon to learn--they had lowered into the water.
To our surprise our antagonists, instead of taking refuge on board the
brigantine, as we fully expected they would, took to their oars and
pulled in frantic haste up the creek. In the dense darkness which now
ensued consequent upon the cessation of firing it was impossible to send
a shot after them with any chance of success; and so they were allowed
to go free.
The hot pungent fumes which arose through the grating of the brig's main
hatchway very convincingly testified to the presence of slaves on board
that craft also; and, warned by his recent experience on board the
schooner, Smellie resolved to warp the brig in alongside the bank and
land the unfortunate creatures before resuming hostilities. A gang of
men was accordingly sent forward to clear away the necessary warps and
so on; and I was directed to go with a boat's crew into one of the
cutters to run the ends of the warps on shore.
The boats, it will be remembered, had been passed astern of the
schooner, and there they still remained uninjured, that craft having
settled down in water so shallow that her deck was only submerged to a
depth of about eighteen inches. In order to reach either of the boats,
however, it was necessary to pass along the deck of the sunken craft;
and I was just climbing down the brig's side to do so--the men having
preceded me--when the bulwarks to which I was clinging suddenly burst
outward, the brig's hull was rent open by a tremendous explosion, and,
enveloped for an instant in a sheet of blinding flame, I felt myself
whirled upwards and outwards for a considerable distance, to fall
finally, stunned, scorched, and half-blinded, into the agitated waters
of the creek. Moved more by instinct than anything else I at once
struck out mechanically for the shore. It was at no great distance from
me, and I had almost reached it when some object--probably a piece of
falling wreckage from the dismembered brig--struck me a violent blow on
the back of the head, and I knew no more.