Meanwhile the Spaniards were still lying _perdu_ on board the hulk as
they had remained from the moment of our driving them out the battery.
During the discussion of our much-needed meal the question of what steps
we should take with regard to them had been canvassed; and, our
appetites at length satisfied, Armitage and I walked across the island
to make a closer inspection of the position of the craft.
I had wondered greatly, at odd times during our protracted struggle with
the savages, how the Spaniards had managed to transfer so rapidly from
the barrack to the hulk the large number of slaves which the former must
have contained, and now the riddle was solved. On arriving abreast of
the hulk we found that a small timber jetty had been constructed from
the shore to a point within fifty yards of the hulk, and we could see in
a moment that by easing off the moorings of the hulk, the current would
carry her fairly alongside this jetty, where, without doubt, she must
have been lying when we first hove in sight. The slaves had evidently
been marched straight on board her over the jetty, and her bow and stern
moorings then hove in until she had been hauled far enough away from the
jetty to render her capture by its means impossible.
After a little further conversation with Armitage it was agreed that the
Spaniards should be hailed and ordered to surrender, and this was
accordingly done. We had no very great hope of success, as we felt sure
the Spaniards must be fully aware of the difficulty we should experience
in capturing the hulk. As before stated, she towered so high out of the
water and her sides were so bare that the Spaniards, small as was their
number, could effectually resist all our efforts to capture her by
boarding; to fire into and sink her would only result in the destruction
of all the slaves on board her; and as she was moored with heavy chains,
instead of hemp hawsers, to cut her adrift and let her ground upon the
island was quite as impracticable as would have been any attempt to
board her.
We were therefore very agreeably surprised when the Spaniards, in
response to our hail, at once consented to abandon the hulk, provided we
would allow them to depart unmolested in their boat. This arrangement
suited us very well, we being just then anything but anxious to hamper
ourselves with prisoners, and the required promise was unhesitatingly
made. The Spaniards thereupon provisioned their boat, lowered her into
the water, and half an hour later disappeared round a bend of the river
on their way down stream. Taking immediate possession of the hulk, we
dropped her in alongside the jetty once more, and landed the slaves upon
the island. They were all, for a wonder, in fairly good condition,
having evidently been well taken care of, with the view of fitting them
as thoroughly as possible to withstand the terrible hardships of the
notorious Middle Passage.
Having at length cleared the hulk we next transferred the slaves in
batches to the boats, by which they were conveyed across the stream to
the mainland, where they were freed and left to shift for themselves,
the provisions found on board the hulk being distributed as evenly as
possible among them. Landed thus in a possibly hostile country--for
they were evidently a different race of people from those with whom we
had recently had so desperate a struggle--unarmed, and with only a small
supply of provisions, their situation was perhaps not very much better
than it had been when they lay prisoners on board the hulk, but it was
all we had it in our power to do for them under the circumstances, and
we could only hope that their wit would prove equal to the task of
steering them clear of the many dangers to which they were exposed, and
conducting them safely back to their own country. There were rather
more than eight hundred of them altogether, counting in the
piccaninnies, and the transfer of them to the mainland fully occupied us
until within half an hour of sunset. As we were by that time pretty
well fagged out, and as it was manifestly too late to make any progress
worth speaking of on our way back to the creek that night, we resolved
to remain until daylight upon the island, which we did without receiving
molestation or annoyance of any kind from anybody.
At eight o'clock on the following morning, having previously
breakfasted, we started down the river, keeping a bright look-out for
the French boat all the way down, and exploring all the most likely
creeks and indentations on the south bank of the river, without
discovering any trace of her. This protracted search so seriously
delayed our progress that we were two whole days making the passage back
to the creek, and on our arrival there we discovered that three
survivors of the French party had turned up on board the _Vestale_ the
previous day, reporting the capture of the boat by the natives, and the
massacre of all hands except the three who had managed somehow to slip
their bonds and make good their escape in a canoe. They had reported
that their capture was due to our _abandonment_ of them, it appeared,
and the insinuation, which Captain Vernon had indignantly repudiated,
had occasioned a very serious outbreak of ill-feeling between the two
ships, so much so indeed that the commander of the _Vestale_ had left
the river in high dudgeon on the morning of the day of our arrival,
refusing absolutely to co-operate with us any further. I was, of
course, subjected to a very severe cross-examination by Captain Vernon
on the subject; but my detailed narrative of the affair, which was
confirmed in every particular by poor old Mildmay, soon satisfied him
that the fault, if fault there was, rested not with us; and both Mildmay
and myself were fully exonerated from all blame. Nay more--the master
generously represented my defence of the battery in such a light that I
received the skipper's highest commendations and renewed promises of
support and assistance in my career.
At sunrise next morning we weighed and stood out to sea, bound on a
cruise to the westward.
The next two months passed away in the most drearily uneventful manner,
the ship being at sea the whole time. At the end of that period, being
in latitude 4 degrees south and longitude 5 degrees east on our way back
to the Congo, the ship standing to the northward and eastward at the
time, under all plain sail, with light baffling south-easterly airs, the
look-out aloft, just before being relieved at noon, reported two sail,
close together, hove-to broad on our lee bow. The usual form of
questions being duly put by Armitage, who happened to be the officer of
the watch, the further information was elicited that one of them was a
brig and the other a full-rigged ship, but of what nationality they were
it was difficult to say, nothing but the heads of their topgallant-sails
being visible above the horizon from our fore-topmast crosstrees. The
matter being reported to Captain Vernon, orders were given for our
course to be so altered as to allow of our edging down upon the
strangers; the fact of their being hove-to so close together having a
somewhat suspicious appearance.
By three o'clock p.m. we had neared the two vessels sufficiently to
bring their hulls into view from the main-royal-yard; they were then
lying broadside-on to us with their heads to the eastward, the ship
being between us and the brig; but by the aid of our glasses we were
able to make out that they had apparently dropped alongside each other,
and the skipper gave it as his decided opinion that foul play was going
on on the part of one or the other of the two craft. This opinion was
shortly afterwards confirmed by the appearance of thick clouds of black
smoke arising from the ship; the brig hauling off and standing to the
westward under every stitch of canvas she could spread.
"Undoubtedly a most daring act of piracy, committed under our _very_
noses, too," commented the skipper to me as the smoke rose up into the
clear atmosphere and hung like a great pall immediately over the doomed
ship. We were walking together fore and aft upon the quarter-deck at
the time, whistling most earnestly and devoutly for a wind, as indeed
were all hands fore and aft. Suddenly Captain Vernon paused, and,
wetting the back of his hand, held it up to the air.
"The wind is failing us," he remarked, and abruptly dived below to his
cabin.
At the same moment I noticed that the corvette was heading three or four
points to the eastward of her course.
"Hard up with your helm, man," I exclaimed impatiently to the man at the
wheel. "Where are you taking the ship?"
"The wheel _is_ hard over, sir," explained the poor fellow with patient
deference; "but she's lost steerage-way."
Just then the skipper returned to the deck.
"Pipe away the first and second cutters, Mr Hawkesley," he exclaimed
sharply. "Take charge of them yourself with one of the midshipmen to
help you, and pull down to the burning ship. As likely as not you will
find that a similar trick has been played there to the one by which that
unfortunate man Richards and his crew so nearly lost their lives. Let
the crews of the boats take their cutlasses and pistols with them, so as
to be prepared in the event of interference from the brig's crew, and
make all the haste you can. Your first duty is to save the crew; your
next to save the ship if possible. The glass is rising, so there will
be no wind; but I shall do what I can to shorten the distance between us
and the brig yonder. When you have done all that is possible on board
the ship, make a dash for the brig, unless you see the recall signal
flying."
Three minutes later the two cutters were darting swiftly away over the
long glassy undulations of the ground-swell toward the great cloud of
smoke on the horizon which served as a beacon for us; the men pulling a
long steady stroke, which, whilst it sent the boats through the water at
a very fair pace, could be maintained for three or four hours at least.
We were scarcely a mile away from the _Daphne_ when she had the rest of
her boats in the water and ahead of her towing, whilst, dangling from
the yard-arms aloft, could be seen hammocks and bags of shot suspended
there to assist--by the swinging motion imparted to them by the rise and
fall of the vessel over the swell--the ship's progress through the
water. The brig was hull-down to us; but from the steadiness with which
her head was kept pointing to the westward I conjectured that she was
either sweeping or being towed by her boats.
The sun set in a perfectly clear and cloudless sky, just as we had
brought the ship hull-up; but by that time she was a mass of flame fore
and aft, and I began to fear that we should be too late to save her crew
or to do any good whatever on board her. We kept steadily on, however,
and reached her half an hour later.
The three masts went over the side when we were within a cable's length
of the burning ship, and on arriving within fifty feet of her we found
it impossible to approach any nearer, owing to the intense heat. It was
manifestly impossible that any living thing could be in the midst of
that fiercely flaming furnace, so we were compelled to content ourselves
with merely ascertaining the name of the unfortunate craft, which with
considerable difficulty we at length made out to be the _Highland
Chieftain_ of Glasgow--after which we left her.
On pulling out clear of the smoke and glare of the flames once more we
found ourselves to be about six miles distant from the brig, a distance
of about eleven miles intervening between us and the _Daphne_. Night
had by this time closed completely down upon us; the deep clear violet
sky above us was thickly powdered with stars, which were waveringly
reflected in the deep indigo of the water beneath, and away to the
eastward the broad disc of the full moon was just rising clear of the
horizon and casting a long rippling wake of golden light from the
ocean's rim clear down to us.
Our first glance was of course in the direction of the _Daphne_. Her
towering spread of canvas alternately appeared and vanished as the
enormous idly flapping sails caught and lost again, with the heave of
the vessel, the glint of the golden moon-beams; but, save this, all was
dark and still on board her; no lanterns flashed in her rigging as a
recall signal, so I exultingly gave the order for the boats to be headed
straight for the brig, determined to win her if dash and courage could
do it.
"Pull steadily, lads," I cautioned, as the two crews bent their backs,
and with a ringing cheer started the boats in racing style; "no racing
now, we cannot afford the strength for it, all you have will be wanted
when we get alongside the chase; she is doubtless well manned with a
determined crew who will not give in without a tough struggle, so
husband your strength as much as possible. Mr Peters," to the
midshipman in charge of the second cutter, "drop in my wake, sir, if you
please, and see that your men do not overtask themselves."
The men obediently eased down at once, and we jogged steadily along at a
pace of about four knots an hour; but their eagerness soon got the
better of them, the pace gradually increased, and I had to constantly
check them, or we should soon have been tearing away as fiercely as
ever.
This state of things lasted for about half an hour, and then the gleam
of lanterns suddenly appeared in the _Daphne's_ rigging. It was the
recall signal, and the men gave audible vent to their feeling of
disappointment in an involuntary groan.
"Never mind, men," I said; "I have no doubt Captain Vernon has some good
reason for it. Answer the signal, coxswain. Ah! I told you so; the
sloop has a little breeze, and here it comes creeping up astern of us.
Step the mast, take the covers off the sails, and get the canvas on the
boats. Do you see that bright red star close to the horizon, coxswain?
Starboard a bit. So, steady, now you have it fair over the boat's stem.
Steer for it, and we shall just drop alongside the loop nicely, without
troubling her to wait for us."
The breeze soon reached us, toying coyly with the boat's canvas at
first, but gradually bellying out the sails until at last they "went to
sleep." The breeze was, after all, merely the gentlest of zephyrs, only
just sufficient to give a ship steerage-way; but, very fortunately for
us, the boats were provided, by a whim of poor Austin's, with a suit
each of enormous lateen sails made of light duck, with yards of such a
length that they had to be jointed in the middle to enable them to be
stowed in the boats; they were just the thing for light airs, and under
their persuasive influence we were soon gliding smoothly through the
scarcely ruffled water quite as fast as the men could have propelled us
with the oars. An hour later we slid handsomely up alongside the sloop,
which by this time was slipping along at the rate of about five knots
under studding-sails and everything else that would hold a breath of
wind, and the boats were hoisted in without any interruption to the
ship's progress.
"Well, Mr Hawkesley, what news from the burning ship?" exclaimed the
skipper as I stepped up to him to make my report.
I explained to him the state in which we had found the vessel when we
reached her, and gave him her name.
"Ah!" he remarked. "Well, it is a bad job, a very bad business
altogether. I can only hope we may find the crew uninjured on board the
brig when we catch her; but I think it is rather doubtful. Now run away
down into my cabin and tell Baines to give you some dinner. I expect
everything will be cleared away in the ward-room by this."
On descending to the cabin I found that the skipper had been considerate
enough to give orders that a nice little dinner should be ready for me
on my return, and those orders having been carried out to the letter I
was enabled to sit down in peace and enjoy the meal for which the long
pull in the boats had given me a most voracious appetite. The meal
over, it being then my watch below, I turned in.
On relieving Mr Armitage at midnight I found that the weather was still
fine, the wind the merest shade fresher than it had been when I left the
deck, and the chase directly ahead, about twelve miles distant, her
upper canvas showing distinctly in the brilliant rays of the moon. We
had gained upon her about a couple of miles during the four hours I had
been below, and Captain Vernon--who had been on deck during the whole of
the previous watch, and was just about to retire for the night--was in
high spirits, and confident in his belief that, if all went well, we
should make the capture before sunset on the following day. The best
helmsman in my watch was ordered to the wheel. I made a regular tour of
the decks, taking an extra pull at a halliard here, easing off an inch
or so of this brace or that sheet, and, in short, doing everything
possible to increase the speed of the ship, and so my watch passed away;
the _Daphne_ having crept another couple of miles nearer to the chase
during the interval.
Thus matters went on until noon of the following day, when the wind once
more showed symptoms of failing, whilst the sky became overcast,
threatening a change of weather. We had by this time shortened the
distance between ourselves and the chase until a space of only some
seven miles or so separated us, and everybody on board, fore and aft,
was in a fever of impatience to get alongside the brig, which our
glasses had already assured us was none other than the notorious _Black
Venus_. She had already proved herself so slippery a customer that an
almost superstitious feeling had sprung up in our breasts with regard to
her; we felt that however closely we might succeed in approaching her,
however helplessly she might seem to be in our power, there could be no
dependence whatever upon appearances, and that until we had absolutely
succeeded in placing a prize crew upon her decks, and her own crew in
irons, we could not feel by any means certain that she was ours. Hence
the extraordinary feeling of excitement and impatience which prevailed
on board the _Daphne_ on that memorable afternoon.
About two o'clock the wind changed, and we were obliged to take in the
studding-sail on the port side and get a pull upon the port braces.
Meanwhile a heavy bank of clouds had gathered in the south-western
quarter, and was gradually working up against the wind, until by three
o'clock p.m. the sun was obscured and the entire heavens blotted out by
the huge murky mass of seething vapour. It was my watch below, but,
like everybody else, I was much too excited to remain anywhere but on
deck, and, to confess the truth, I did not half like the appearance of
things in general. According to my notions we were about to experience
one of those sudden and violent atmospheric changes which are so
frequently met with in the tropics; yet there was the ship with a whole
cloud of studding-sails set on the starboard side, as well as every
other rag of canvas that could be coaxed to do an ounce of work. "If,"
thought I, "my knowledge of weather is worth anything, all hands of us
will be pretty busy before long, and we shall be lucky indeed if we do
not lose some of our spars, as well as an acre or two of those flying-
kites up aloft there." I even forgot myself so far as to gently
insinuate such a possibility to Mr Armitage, but I was so sharply
snubbed for my pains that I determined to interfere no further whilst
off duty, but to keep my eyes open and be ready to lend a hand whenever
and wherever required.
Captain Vernon was of course on deck, and from the anxious way in which
he from time to time glanced, first at the portentous sky overhead, next
at the chase, and finally at our immense spread of canvas, I felt sure
that he, to some extent, shared my apprehensions.
At length, after a more than usually anxious glance round, he went to
the skylight and took a peep apparently at the barometer. I was
watching him, and I saw him start and take another keen look at it.
Then he suddenly dived down the companion-way into the cabin to make a
closer inspection of it, as I conjectured. My curiosity was aroused,
and I was walking aft to take a look at the instrument through the
skylight on my own account, when the canvas suddenly flapped, and the
next second, without further warning of any description, a perfect
tornado burst upon us.
The ship was taken flat aback, and over she went, bowing helplessly
before the irresistible strength of the hurricane. I thought I heard
Armitage's voice shouting an order of some kind, but if such was the
case it was impossible to distinguish the words through the deafening
rush of the wind, which completely swallowed up all other sounds. As I
felt the deck rapidly heeling under my feet I made a desperate
scrambling spring for the nearest port on the weather side; for I
somehow seemed to realise instinctively that the _Daphne's_ brief career
was ended--that she would never again recover herself, but would "turn
the turtle" altogether. The ominous words of the riggers on that day
when, in the first flush of my new-born dignity, I went down to inspect
the craft which was to be my future home, recurred to my mind as vividly
as though they had that moment been spoken, and I felt that the prophecy
lurking behind them was then in the very act of fulfilment. I was
fortunate enough to reach and grasp one of the gun-tackles, and drawing
myself up to windward by its aid, I passed out through the open port on
to the upturned weather side of the ship, where I paused for a moment to
glance behind, or rather beneath me. I shall never forget the sight
which then met my gaze. The ship was lying over on her beam-ends with
her lower yard-arms deeply buried in the sea. The whole of the lee side
of the deck was submerged; the water was pouring in tons down the open
hatchways, the lee coamings of which were already under water, and the
watch below could be seen ineffectually endeavouring to make their way
up on deck through these openings, the rush of water down which
irresistibly drove them back again at each attempt. As for the watch on
deck they were already either swimming about in the sea to leeward or
clinging convulsively to the rigging, whither a few had instinctively
betaken themselves when the ship first went over. But I had time only
for a momentary glance; the sloop had hung stationary in this position
for just the barest perceptible space of time; then with a sudden jar
she began to settle once more, and I had time only to scramble
breathlessly along her wet and slippery sides and on to her bilge when
she rolled fairly over and floated keel upwards. And as she did so, a
hideous shriek rang out from her interior and became audible even above
the awful rush of the gale.