Finally the long, harassing, anxious day drew to a close, the sun set,
the night-mists gathered once more about us, and the hoped-for rescue
had not appeared.
We were by this time completely worn out, and I foresaw that unless the
men could obtain a little rest our pertinacious enemies must inevitably
prove victorious.
Of course in this matter of rest everything depended upon the behaviour
of the foe. If from principle or superstition, or for any other reason,
it was their invariable habit to abstain from fighting at night all
might yet be well with us, for though our stock of provisions and water
was getting low, and the ammunition for our muskets was getting short, I
felt convinced that, could our lads but secure three or tour hours of
unbroken rest, they were quite equal to holding the battery for another
twenty-four hours at least. Unfortunately I knew nothing whatever about
the fighting customs of the natives, and was consequently quite without
a guide of any kind beyond my own reason. I felt convinced that the
blacks had fully realised the advantage to them of our fagged condition
during the past day, and had little doubt but that they were acute
enough to trace it to its correct source; the question then was, would
they allow us to pass an undisturbed night and thus sacrifice an
important advantage? I greatly doubted it. But they might allow a few
hours' cessation of hostilities in the hope of lulling us into a feeling
of false security, and thus making us the victims of an easy, yet well-
executed surprise. The more I thought about the matter the more
probable did this course of action appear; and at last I resolved to put
it to the test by dividing the men into watches and allowing them an
hour's sleep at a time.
But before doing this I thought I would repeat my experiment of the
previous night and endeavour to secure a little more water, and this I
did with such signal success that we actually refilled all our breakers,
besides giving every man an opportunity to completely slake his thirst.
It was just eight o'clock p.m. by the time that we had completed our
preparations, and I then made half the men lie down, which they did,
falling instantly asleep. This of course necessitated increased
vigilance on the part of the watchers, each of whom had to guard a
double length of parapet; but the first hour passed peacefully away, and
the sleepers were awakened in order that we might have our turn. It was
really amusing, notwithstanding the gravity of our situation, to hear
each man protest as he sat up and rubbed his eyes that we had not
treated them fairly, and that they had only that moment fallen asleep.
But when assured to the contrary they roused up at once, and I was
greatly gratified to see that, short as had been their period of rest,
it had undoubtedly done them a world of good. The "watch on deck" was
placed under the command of the man Tom who had done such good service
with the carronade on board the cutter, he being, in my opinion, the
most trustworthy man in the party; and giving him the most stringent
orders to keep a bright look-out, to fire at once and unhesitatingly on
any moving object which might make its appearance, and to call me in the
event of anything taking place out of the common, I flung myself upon
the ground with my back to the sod parapet, and in the act of folding my
arms across my chest fell asleep.
To be cruelly awakened the next instant, almost before I had had time to
fully realise the blessedness of the gift of sleep.
"Well, Tom, what is it? Has the enemy hove in sight!" I exclaimed
pettishly, rubbing away at my eyes to force them open.
"No, sir; everything's still quiet, thank God."
"Then what did you wake me for, in Heaven's name!"
"Four bells, sir; our turn for a spell of sleep again, sir," was the
exasperating reply.
"Four bells! Nonsense!"
I could not believe it. As in the case of the others it really seemed
as though I had not actually had time to get to sleep at all, yet I had
slept soundly for an hour, and on staggering to my feet, though the
abrupt awakening had inflicted upon me positive suffering, I found when
fairly awake, that I was very distinctly the better for my short nap,
which seemed to have made up, at least partially, in soundness what it
lacked in duration.
Another hour passed peacefully--and this time not quite so laggingly--
away; our turn again arrived for a rest; and once more did we enjoy for
a brief space the bliss of perfect oblivion. At midnight we were called
again, Tom reporting that neither sight nor sound had occurred during
his watch to disturb him. We now began to feel really refreshed, and
during the next hour some of the men in my watch actually found
superfluous energy enough to hum under their breath a snatch or two of a
forecastle song as they paced vigilantly to and fro over the short
stretch of ground which constituted their "beat."
As the silent hour flitted away without disquieting sight or sound of
any kind I began to feel sanguine that we were going to be blessed with
uninterrupted peace for the remainder of the night, and inwardly
resolved that if matters still continued satisfactory after my watch had
had its next hour's sleep I would extend the period of sleep to two
hours for the next watch, which, with what they had already had, ought
to put them in excellent trim for the fatigues of the succeeding day,
whatever they might be. And with this resolve still uppermost in my
mind I laid down and once more dropped to sleep when my turn came at one
o'clock a.m.
Two o'clock arrived, our watch was called, and still there had been no
sign of the enemy. I thought we might now safely reckon upon being
allowed to pass the remainder of the night undisturbed; I accordingly
informed the retiring watch that unless we happened to be attacked in
the interim they would now be allowed to sleep for a spell of two hours
instead of one, and they forthwith composed themselves for a good long
nap.
But it was not to be. An hour later one of the men startled us all into
instant wakefulness by sharply giving the challenge, which was instantly
repeated all round the battery, and peering anxiously into the fog I
detected the indistinct presence of several shapeless objects lying
prone upon the ground where I knew that nothing of the kind ought to be.
These objects were quite motionless; but the man who had first given
the challenge assured me that his attention had first been attracted to
them by a stealthy movement. Ordering the man to at once rouse the
sleepers, cautioning them individually to take up their proper stations
an noiselessly behind the parapet, I waited until every man had gained
his post, and then taking a steady aim at one of the objects I
discharged my musket. With a shriek of pain the object at which I had
fired half raised itself to an erect position and then fell heavily
forward. At the same moment a loud blood-curdling yell resounded upon
the heavy night air, and the foggy background instantly became alive
with the forms of the savages who sprang to their feet and came bounding
toward the battery, hurling their spears as they came.
"Take steady aim, my men; select your mark, and each bring down your man
if possible; keep cool now. Ah! I am hit!" I exclaimed, as a spear
came whizzing in over the parapet, passing clean through the fleshy part
of my right thigh. In the excitement of the moment it did not take me a
second to relieve myself of my unpleasant encumbrance by drawing the
spear shaft right through the wound; and the next moment I found myself
engaged with the rest in resisting the hottest and most determined
assault to which we had hitherto been subjected. Luckily for us the
battery was only a small affair, and our party was therefore large
enough to take pretty good care of it, otherwise that night attack would
have ended the business. But our men had now had the benefit and
refreshment of three hours' sound sleep, and they fought with such
renewed energy, such dogged determination, that the assault again
failed, and the savages were once more driven off. That satisfied them
for the time being. They had deferred their attack until the early
hours of the morning, doubtless hoping to find us worn out with
ceaseless watching, and perchance at length overcome with sleep; and
instead of that we had been found more alert than ever; in their anxiety
to take us unawares they had rather overdone it, in fact, and the result
was that they left us undisturbed for the short remainder of the night.
There was, however, no more rest for us; after this well-planned attempt
at a surprise I dare not allow any of my small party to again go off
duty, and sunrise found us still anxiously watching for another attack.
When the mist at length cleared away we discovered the hostile canoes
still closely hemming us in; but they now seemed to have tired of their
fruitless efforts to take the battery by assault, and had apparently
made up their minds to try the effect of a regular siege. This was bad
enough; for our provisions, though husbanded with the utmost care, were
only sufficient to allow us a mere mouthful each for two meals during
that day; but to be spared the fatigue of constantly fighting was
something to be grateful for; and I felt certain that the relief
expedition _must_ appear before the lapse of many hours longer. We
consequently sat down to our scanty morning meal not only with excellent
appetites but also in very fair spirits, considering what we had lately
been called upon to endure; and, the meal over, I next devoted my
attention to the wounded, of whom there were by this time several, and
did what I could to make them and myself as comfortable as possible.
About an hour after sunrise a little air from the eastward sprang up,
and by nine a.m. it was blowing quite a free breeze, which, though it
certainly refreshed us greatly, and was in pleasing contrast to the
suffocating heat of the day before, I was rather sorry to see; for I
knew that, combined with the current, it would seriously retard the
advance of our friends up the river. To tell the truth, I was getting
to be a trifle anxious about this matter; I could not at all understand
why it was that we had been left to take care of ourselves so long. If
the French boat had reached the creek in safety she would doubtless
arrive about ten or eleven p.m., or a few hours only after our
establishment of ourselves upon the island. Forty hours or thereabouts
had elapsed since then, yet there was no sign of help. Could it be
possible that the Frenchmen had _not_ escaped after all? In that case
we might have to wait another day, or even a couple of days; for I
thought it scarcely probable that Captain Vernon would take alarm on the
instant of our becoming overdue. I was anxiously weighing all these
surmises in my mind, and endeavouring to arrive at a fair and reasonable
estimate of the longest possible time we might still be expected to hold
out, when the look-out men raised a simultaneous cheer, followed by a
joyous shout of--
"The boats! The boats! Here they come. _Hurrah_!" With one bound I
reached the parapet; and, sure enough, at a distance of only three-
quarters of a mile away, and just sweeping fairly into view from behind
the next island below us, the launch, pinnace, and second cutter of the
_Daphne_ appeared, with their ensigns streaming in the breeze and the
quick-flashing oar-blades and the bayonets of the "jollies" gleaming
brightly in the sun.
"Up, lads! and give them a cheer, just to let them know where we are," I
exclaimed exultantly; and at the word up scrambled the whole of our
little party except poor old Mildmay, who was too seriously hurt to move
without assistance--and from the top of the parapet we sent echoing down
to them upon the wings of the breeze three such ringing cheers as must
have assured them of the sincerity of our delight at their appearance.
As the sound reached the boats I saw the officers rise in the stern-
sheets and wave their caps to us in response; the oar-blades flashed
quicker in the sun; the foam gathered in increasing volume under the
bows of the boats as their crews put on an extra spurt; and presently a
flash and a puff of fleecy smoke started out simultaneously from each
boat, and the _boom_ of the three reports came dull and heavy to us
against the opposing breeze.
Of course we fully expected that the mere appearance of the boats would
suffice to put our sable enemies to flight, but nothing of the kind
happened; on the contrary, the canoes resolutely faced the new-comers,
and evinced a very decided disposition to dispute their passage up the
river.
We should beat them to a certainty; no one in their sober senses could
for a moment doubt that; but in the meantime, if it actually came to a
hand-to-hand tussle between whites and blacks we in the battery, who had
already had so many opportunities of observing their perfect
fearlessness, knew very well that the latter could make matters
decidedly difficult and unpleasant for our friends.
But it was no time just then for cogitation, the moment for decisive
action had arrived, and I forthwith took the necessary steps to enable
our party to do their share of the work in hand.
"That will do, lads," I exclaimed, as the men on the parapet paused to
recover the breath they had expended in their vociferous greeting to the
boats. "Jump down and man the guns. Load and double shot them; and
you, Tom, place the remainder of those fuzes in the magazine in such a
way that they will do their work effectually when required. We will
give the canoes another broadside, just to `freshen their way' and show
them that we are in earnest; and then I shall abandon and blow up the
battery previous to shoving off to join our lads yonder."
The men turned to with a will; the guns were loaded; and I then went
with Tom to personally inspect the arrangement of the fuzes.
When all was ready I gave the word to fire; the six guns belched forth
their contents simultaneously; and without waiting to see what damage
had been done, the men seized their muskets, the water-kegs, and our few
other belongings; and with two hands specially detailed to convey the
master carefully down to the boat, all hands, excepting Tom and myself,
left the battery and made the best of their way down to the cutter,
which, after depositing poor old Mildmay as comfortably as possible in
the stern-sheets, they got afloat.
"Step your mast," I shouted, "and see all ready for hoisting the sail."
We waited patiently until we saw that everything was ready on board the
cutter; and then Tom and I ignited the fuzes in the three magazines. It
was awfully risky work, as the fuzes were fearfully short; but it had to
be done, and it was done coolly and smartly, after which we bounded over
the low parapet and ran for our lives down to the boat. "Shove off and
give way for your lives, men," I panted, as we tumbled in over the
gunwale with a considerable loss of shin-leather; and in another instant
we were surging away from the island as fast as the oars and sail would
drive us. The men were just belaying the halliards of the lug
when--_boom_--a dull heavy report came from the battery; a great black
cloud of smoke and dust, liberally intermixed with clods and stones and
masses of earth, shot up into the air; and when it cleared away _the
battery was gone_.
"Now, Tom, jump forward, my man, and get that carronade loaded with
grape or canister or langridge, _anything_ you happen to have handy, and
be smart about it, my fine fellow," I exclaimed, as I saw a group of
canoes separate themselves from the rest and form in line across our
course, evidently for the purpose of opposing our passage and preventing
our effecting a junction with our friends. "Load your muskets, men, and
draw your cutlasses; we must get through that line of canoes somehow,
and I mean to do it."
The men obeyed without a word; their blood was by this time thoroughly
aroused; they were all a-quiver with eager excitement; and as I looked
at them sitting there upon the thwarts, facing forward, with their naked
cutlasses beside them and their loaded muskets firmly grasped in their
hands, their fingers just feeling the triggers, their teeth clenched,
and their eyes flashing, I felt that nothing short of a frigate with her
crew at quarters would stop them.
The rescuing party was by this time smartly engaged with the main body
of the canoes, and by their tardy progress I knew that they already had
their hands fully occupied. The detachment which had assumed the
responsibility of intercepting us had separated itself some distance
from the main body, and was now formed in a double line right across our
course, altering its position from time to time in such a manner as to
keep always square ahead of us. I saw that it would be useless to
attempt to dodge them; we had not time for that; so I directed the
coxswain to steer straight for the broadside of the midship canoe, the
craft, that is to say, which occupied the centre of the opposing line.
She was a biggish craft for a canoe, being somewhere about fifty feet
long, and manned by forty negroes; the canoe which lay on her starboard
side, or beyond her, being about the same size. There were sixteen more
canoes in the line; and altogether they presented the appearance of a
very formidable barrier. But I had had an opportunity of learning
pretty well what they were when Smellie and I, bound hand and foot, took
our memorable cruise up the river in one of them, and I knew that they
were, after all, but very crank, flimsy, fragile affairs, not to be
compared for a moment in strength with the stout boat which carried us
at such a gallant pace over the swirling river. So I determined to give
our foolhardy opponents the stem, trusting to the weight and momentum of
the boat to enable us to break through the line.
On rushed the cutter, the breeze roaring merrily over her, and the broad
lag-sail dragging at her like a team of cart-horses; whilst Tom crouched
in the bows, squinting along the sights of his piece, and holding
himself in readiness to fire at the instant that he should get the
order. We were within a hundred feet of the line of canoes when the
crew of the big craft began to see danger; they had hoped, by their
persistent demonstration of barring our path, to intimidate us, but, now
that it was too late, they saw that they had failed, that we meant
mischief; and, setting up a loud yell of consternation, they plied their
paddles desperately in an effort to avoid the impending collision. It
was unavailing; the canoes ahead and astern of them, confused like
themselves, and only imperfectly comprehending what their comrade would
be at, closed in upon instead of separating from them; and immediate
dire confusion was the result. When within twenty yards of them Tom
delivered the contents of his carronade; and an immediate outburst of
groans, yells, and shrieks bore testimony to the accuracy of his aim.
Before the smoke had fairly cleared away the cutter was upon them. The
big canoe nearest us had been torn nearly in halves by the discharge of
the carronade, and we swept over her almost without feeling it. The
other big fellow was, however, afloat and apparently uninjured. Another
yell of terror went up from her occupants as our sail overshadowed them;
there was a violent shock as our strong iron-bound stem crashed down
upon their gunwale; the canoe heeled over; and the cutter leaped upward
as she crushed her way through and over this second adversary.
For a few seconds we were involved in a confused medley of canoes and
wreckage, of drowning savages wildly clutching at the gunwales of the
boat in an ineffectual effort to save themselves; there was a rattling
volley of musketry, a flash or two of cutlass blades, and then away sped
the cutter once more. _We were through_.
Our carronade was quickly loaded again, but happily further destruction
of human life was unnecessary. The savages, who seemed to have depended
implicitly upon the power of their detached squadron to stop us, became
demoralised when they saw the cutter dash irresistibly through the
opposing line, and receiving at the same time very severe treatment at
the hands of the rescuing party, they broke up suddenly and beat a
precipitate retreat, each canoe seemingly striving to outdo the rest in
the speed of its flight. And thus ended victoriously for us the fight
which we had been for over forty hours maintaining against such
apparently overwhelming odds.
We soon found ourselves alongside the launch; and hearty were the
congratulations and eager the questions which were showered upon us by
her crew, quickly repeated by those of the other two boats, which joined
in almost immediately afterwards.
"You seem to have been in rather a bad fix," exclaimed Armitage, who was
in command of the boats, as he shook me heartily by the hand. "Tell us
all about it."
I detailed as succinctly as possible all that had transpired since our
departure from the ship, and wound up by a suggestion that if they had
any spare rations they would be most acceptable.
"Rations!" exclaimed Armitage; "to be sure we have, my boy; but let us
adjourn to this island of yours, where we can get them properly cooked.
I feel curious to see the spot which you held so pluckily for so long a
time. But, by the by, where is the French boat all this time?"
"The French boat? Has she not turned up at the creek?" I exclaimed in
surprise. "We felt certain of her escape, and indeed depended upon the
information she would convey of our predicament for the despatch of
assistance."
"She had not put in an appearance up to the time of our starting at noon
yesterday, nor have we seen any sign of her during our passage up the
stream," was the reply. "You were due to return, you know, the evening
before last, and when yesterday morning came, without your appearance,
Captain Vernon became uneasy. He allowed you until noon, however; but
when noon passed, leaving you still _non est_, he came to the conclusion
that something was amiss, and despatched us in quest of you at once. So
this is the scene of the struggle, eh?" as the boats grounded on the
beach of the island. "A pretty scene of ruin it is."
And so it was. The battery had been completely obliterated by the
explosion, nothing remaining to mark its site but the scattered
fragments of the sod walls and the dismounted guns; the charred remains
of the barrack, a short distance away, aiding to complete the picture of
destruction. An immense number of native spears were lying scattered
about all over the ground, and these were promptly collected by the
seamen as souvenirs of the struggle.