"On, on the vessel flies; the land is gone,
And winds are rude in Biscay's sleepless bay;
Four days are sped, but with the fifth anon,
New shores descried make every bosom gay."
Byron.
Scene: The Spanish Senor and his two guests, Kenneth and Archie, once
more together, not in the mountain cottage to-night, but in a cave,
close down by the edge of the sea. It was the sea that was lisping on
the sands not far from where they sat on the rocks, but the view beyond
was one of moonlight, trees, rocks, and water combined, altogether very
beautiful, and in some respects almost English-like.
Yes, now by moonlight it looked thoroughly English, but if by day you
had rowed round these rocks, you would soon have been undeceived, for
sharks in dozens visited the deep water, and in the cracks beyond were
alligators, active and strong, and very hideous-looking crabs often
crawled up the wet black cliffs; and among the trees themselves were
great snakes, deadly and venomous; but it all looked very quiet and
lovely now.
Kenneth was fond of caves, and there were plenty of them about here. He
kept his boat in one. That very day, together the two friends had
launched it, and spent all the long hours of sunlight in sailing or
rowing about among the lovely islands of this sparkling sea, that look
on a calm day as if they were actually afloat not in the water, but in
the sky itself.
"My life," said Kenneth, resuming his narrative of the day before, "my
life, I thought, was going to be all rose-tinted now.
"Alas! Archie, lad, I soon found it quite the reverse, and it does
really seem to me that those writers of books who paint a sailor's
existence as one long picnic do grievous wrong to the young folks who
read them.
"A sailor's life is like the billowy ocean on which he resides, all ups
and downs, Archie."
"I can easily believe that," said his friend.
"But Captain Pendrey was very good to me, and there was an old boatswain
on board who became my friend from the very first. He taught me to
reef, to splice, and to steer, ay, and a deal more; in fact, during the
two years I sailed in the old _Miranda_, he made a man of me.
"You see, Archie, I was already so far a seaman that I was not afraid of
the ocean; and I was good at an oar.
"I was downright seasick when I first went out of Plymouth Sound. We
had a head wind, and being only a sailing craft, had to beat and beat
for days. I didn't care much then what became of me. But the rough old
bo'sun came and shook me up--I was lying nearly dead on a
sea-chest--`Pull yourself together, youngster. Go on deck,' he said,
`and look at the waves. Ain't they mountains, just! It won't do to
give in.'
"I did go on deck and look at the waves, just for a moment. A green sea
came thundering over the bows, took me off my legs, and washed me away
down into the lee-scuppers, where I would have been drowned if the
bo'sun hadn't caught me up.
"`I'm not going below again, though,' I said to myself.
"Nor did I.
"The boats were all on board; I got into one of these as night fell,
lashed myself to a thwart, and wet though I was, I slept with my head on
a coil of ropes all through that stormy night. Stiff in the morning?
Yes, a little, but I was better. I got my clothes off, and a man dashed
buckets of sea water over me, and this revived me so much that I went
below.
"The men in my mess were at breakfast; they were sitting on deck, jammed
into corners anyhow, with their sou'wester hats between their legs to
steady their coffee mugs.
"`Salt pork, my lad,' said the bo'sun. `You're just at that stage that
salt pork will turn the scale.'
"I took the hunk of pork he gave me and devoured it.
"Well, the bo'sun was right. It did turn the scale with a vengeance: I
went on deck and hove the lead apparently. The steward passed me and
said,--
"`You're not sick, are you, Sandie?'
"`No,' I said, `I'm only shamming. Ugh!'
"But by the time we were over the bay I was as sea-fast as any one on
board. I got my sea legs, too.
"How blue the sea was now! How white the birds that skimmed over its
surface! And the sails of ships that appeared in the distance were like
snow when the sun shone over them.
"It wasn't all sunshine even then, for a smart breeze was blowing, and
cloud shadows chasing each other over the sea, just as I had often seen
them do over fields of ripening grain in Glen Alva.
"I settled down to sea-life very easily now and very naturally. I soon
knew every rope and spar and bolt in her, and was as happy as the
sea-gulls. I cannot say more.
"We touched at Madeira, and here the captain took me on shore, and all
over the place. What an isle of romance and beauty it is!
"We called in both at Saint Helena and Ascension, the former not the
lonely sea-girt rock that old books describe, but a charming island of
mountain, strath, and glen. Nor did I find Ascension to be a cinder
with a few turtles on its beach. It has been cultivated to a wonderful
extent, and I never did see a bluer, brighter ocean than that which
laves its shores. The Cape of Good Hope hove in sight at last. I
watched its bold and rugged coast as we came nearer and still more near
to it.
"It was but like a long irregular cloud lying along the horizon at
first. Then this cloud grew higher and darker and more defined. Then
it grew bluer in parts, and lines stood boldly out towards us, then it
turned blue and purple, oh! so lovely, and last of all it was a cloud no
longer, but mountains stern and wild, and braelands covered half-way up
with purple heath and wild flowers--geraniums I found afterwards these
were--with rocks on the shore and a long white line of surf and sand.
"We did our business at the Cape and bore up for Australia.
"What a stretch of sea we had to cross, and what a length of time it was
ere we reached Sydney!
"But I was not idle all these months. It was so good of Captain
Pendrey, but he seemed to take a delight in teaching me navigation. He
flattered me, too, I fear.
"`You're far too good and bright a boy,' he said, `to stick before the
mast.'
"So I worked and worked not only to please him, but because there was a
prospect of my one day walking on the snowy quarter-deck of some
beautiful barque, her proud commander.
"Every one on board loved our captain, although they called him the old
man behind his back. From Australia we went to Hong Kong, then to
Ceylon, from there to Calcutta, and then back again to Ceylon, and
returned to India, lying up for repairs at the city of Bombay. And my
kind captain never once went on shore without taking me with him, so
that I saw so much that was strange in life, lad, that I could sit and
talk in this cave for a month if my good friend here would bring us
prog, and then I wouldn't have half told you all my strange experiences.
"I had been now nearly two years at sea, and had passed one examination,
so things were looking up.
"I dearly loved the sea and sea-life now. I would not have changed
places with a land-lubber for all the world.
"We had many narrow escapes, of course, for our ship was a clipper, and
the captain `cracked on.' He did not mind risk so long as he made good
voyages. But somehow I never dreamt of danger, not even while in the
centre of a tornado in the Indian Ocean at night, and if there be a more
fearful experience than that in the life of a mariner, I have yet to
encounter it.
"Nor did I dream of danger even when seated of a night under the bright
stars at the fo'c'stle head, while the men spun yarn after yarn of the
awful dangers they had come through.
"`I've been wrecked often and often,' said our old `bo'sun' one night.
`I was in the _Bombay_ when she was burned; I was a man-o'-war's man
then. Ah! Kennie, lad, it is a fearful thing, a fire at sea. I hope
you'll never see a burning ship. Over seventy of my shipmates were
doomed that night, and some of them met worse deaths than drowning.
"`Another time,' he went on, `I was the only one saved out of a gunboat.
I was taken off a bit of wreckage and rigging by the lifeboat after
drifting about for twelve wet, cold, weary hours. Strange thing was
this. I had been made captain of the foretop only a week before we were
wrecked. 'Tis funny, mate, but it was on that same foretop I floated
about so long. He! he! I was captain of the foretop then, and no
mistake, and monarch of all I surveyed.'
"Just three weeks after this particular evening, Archie, I was away
aloft one beautiful day. We were well down over the line, and bearing
about South-South-East.
"There was a kind of haze over the ocean that day which made seeing
distinctly difficult at any great distance, but I noticed what at first
sight I thought was a bird or a shark's fin. I hailed the deck as soon
as I made out it was something afloat with men on it.
"`Where away?' came the reply.
"On pointing in the direction, the yards were trimmed, and we soon got
nearer.
"The sight that met my eyes I will not forget till my dying day. The
survivors of a ship that had foundered they were, half-naked, half-dead,
sun-blistered, sinking wretches, five in all.
"They had been afloat on a raft for nine days without food to eat, and
with hardly a drop of water to quench their awful thirst.
"From that day, Archie, I began to think that a sailor's life had its
dark as well as its rosy side.
"A year after this grief came. We were homeward bound. We got nearly
to the Cape, and there our ship was dashed on a lee-shore, and I lost
two of the best friends ever I had at sea, our poor captain and the dear
old bo'sun.
"I was landed at Symon's Town at last, and there, Archie, I got your
letter, and found I was an orphan. And all this great grief came to me
within a fortnight.
"I had been bound for English shores; my hopes beat high; in a few
months longer, at most, I would once again clasp my dear mother in my
arms, once more visit my home. Changed I knew the glen would be, but
old friends would give me a warm greeting.
"Heigho! the blow fell; I determined not to return, and, Archie, from
that day to this I have been a wanderer.
"But bless Providence for all His mercies! Archie, lad, I'm not badly
off, and I have you.
"Shake hands, old boy. Now I've been doing all the talking, I shall
take it out of you next, for I dearly love to hear your voice.
"Senor Gasco, _mon ami_, suppose we launch our little boat, and be off.
I'm longing for supper and longing to sit down and rest in our mountain
cottage. I don't think I've been so happy for many and many a long
year.
"Come along, Archie. How lovely the moonlight is playing over the
water!"