WE ARE OVERCOME, AND WITH BARBAROUS TREATMENT SET ASHORE AND LEFT THERE.
Of a truth none are so suspicious as those who should be suspected, and
losing sight of this fact was our undoing.
To begin with 'twas a silly thing to go into the captain's cabin at that
time; it was still more imprudent to sit there with him discussing our
means of escape. For it happened that Ned Parsons, seeing me no longer
inquisitive about the shifting of the crews, became curious to know what
had become of me, and presently sighted me sitting, as I say, with Sir
Harry. Doubtless Rodrigues, in his place, would have taken some crafty
means of discovering our design and circumventing it; but this Parsons
was of another kidney, and prone to reflect upon the advisability of his
actions after they were performed rather than before. Wherefore, at the
first sniff of danger, he goes below, collects a dozen choice rogues,
and having gone into the armory and furnished themselves with weapons,
they slipped on deck, and in a twinkling rushed into the roundhouse and
fell upon us. We were the less prepared for this attack because the
fellows, having no shoes to their feet, came on noiselessly along the
deck; and indeed, from the moment we first spied them to the time they
were in the coach, there was barely time for Sir Harry to catch up a
short sword for his defence, and I a spyglass that lay on the table. Sir
Harry ran the first of the party through the vitals, and I managed to
lay Ned Parsons' head open with the spyglass; but we could do no more,
for we were thrown down by sheer force of weight and numbers, and after
that our bootless struggles did not prolong by a few minutes the work of
binding us hand and foot. From these bonds there was no escaping; Ned
Parsons himself, with the blood yet trickling down his face and grizzled
beard, making fast each knot and testing its security. When this was
done, he went out to the main deck and spoke to the men crowded there,
and they replied with a great cheer, and so betook themselves to their
work, shouting and talking among themselves with much content. But to
make more sure of us, and that all might see we were not contriving our
escape, this Ned Parsons hauled us out of the roundhouse into the midst
of the deck, and there we lay in the burning sun all day, and none had
the humanity to give us meat or drink, though they for the most part
made themselves as drunk as beggars by midday. Nay, when Sir Harry, who
had been as kind to these wretches as any man could be, asked one to
give him a cup of water, the villain would not, but replied, with a
brutal laugh, that he should have more water than he could drink at
sundown, by which cruel speech we preceived that our fate was sealed,
and that they only awaited the occasion of Rodrigues' coming on board to
cast us into the sea.
The breeze continuing very fresh, we pressed onward; but towards evening
the wind abated, as it does in these latitudes about sundown, the sails
flapped against the mast, and the anchor was dropped.
Soon after this Rodrigues came abroad, and first he consulted with
Parsons, who had contrived to keep more sober than the rest; then they
held a council with all the men in the fore part of the ship, after
which Rodrigues comes to us, with his hat in his hand, as civil as may
be, and with a wicked smile on his face that showed all his pointed
teeth, so that with his hypocritical air he did look more like a fiend
than a man.
"Gentlemen," says he, "I am sorry to tell you we must part. The men, one
and all, have resolved to seek their fortunes elsewhere than in Guiana,
and lest their design should be distasteful to you and lead to any
further breaking of heads or spitting with steel, they would have me, as
being now chief in command, drop you overboard with a shot tied round
your necks. I have done my best to alter their disposition, but the most
they will consent to in your favor is that you shall be allowed to go
your way in consideration of your giving them free permission to go
theirs, with a solemn promise on your part that you will hereafter do
nothing, if you have the chance, to bring us to the gallows."
"Do with us what you will," answers Sir Harry.
"Ay, and be cursed for the villain you are," adds I.
"As you do not refuse the offer it is my duty to make, I shall hold it
you accept," says Rodrigues, taking no notice of me; "betwixt gentlemen
no formalities are needed. It is understood that in accepting your life
you agree to the conditions, and this understanding will be as binding
on you to do us no harm--if, as I say, you get the chance--as though you
had put hand and seal to a bond."
Then making us a bow, he went back to the men, who, on hearing what he
had to say, gave another cheer, and some set about lowering Sir Harry's
own barge, while others went below and fetched up all manner of stores
to put in it. All being in readiness, we were taken to the side of the
ship, bound as we were, and with a rope reeved through a block at the
yard-arm, we were hauled up and lowered like cattle into the barge that
lay alongside. For the first time we perceived that the land was distant
no more than half a mile or so. After us the Indian Cazique Putijma,
whom, as I have said, Sir Harry had brought abroad at Punto de Gallo for
a pilot, was made to come down in the barge, and then half a dozen
seamen in that boat that had brought Rodrigues from the _Adventurer_
towed us with a line to the shore, the crew giving us a jeer as we
sheered off, and Rodrigues (with a bow) wishing we might have a pleasant
journey to Manoa, and find a kind reception and store of gold there.
Having brought us to land and made our barge fast, the boat's crew, with
somewhat more humanity than their fellows, bade us good-bye and
god-speed, and then pulled off quickly back towards their ship, for
there was no moon that night, and it was now grown so dark that we could
but just descry the two ships lying off in the bay.
All this time Putijma, who was unbound, had sat in the barge with his
knees up to his chin in profound silence; for such is the stoic
character of these Indians when overcome by misfortune from which they
see no escape. But now Sir Harry, who spoke Spanish, addressed him in
that tongue, begging him to cut our cords, and this he did; but it was
yet some minutes ere either of us could move, so benumbed and stiff were
we with our long confinement. When I got the use of my limbs and hands,
I drew a dram of liquor from the puncheon among our stores, and gave it
to Sir Harry, who was thereby much refreshed. Then did we get out of the
boat to exercise our legs, and finding the sand still warm and pleasant
with the sun's heat, we lay ourselves down to sleep, there being no
better thing to do. But first I got from the boat a couple of muskets,
with powder and ball, and two hatchets, that we might not be unprovided
against the attack of wild beasts or cannibals in the night if any such
there might come upon us.
But Putijma never stirred out of the boat, nor could Sir Harry any way
cheer him out of his despondent mood; and the last I saw of him he was
still sitting with his knees huddled up to his chin, and so we presently
fell asleep.
We slept soundly, and nothing disturbed our slumber all through that
night. The sun was some degrees above the horizon when I awoke, and a
smart breeze ruffling the sea. Sitting up I looked out for the ships,
but they were no longer in the bay; yet methought I spied one sail on
the horizon to the south. Then I got upon my feet and looked for the
barge and the Indian Cazique, but trace or sign of either could I see
none. I rubbed my eyes and looked again; then I ran a hundred yards
along the shore eastward, and again as far to the west; for I could not
at once realize that this man was treacherous to us. But 'twas all in
vain; he was nowhere to be seen. So I roused up Sir Harry, telling him
how the Indian had played us false and gone away with the boat, which
was our only means of getting back to Trinidad, and like distracted
creatures we ran along the shore a mile one way and a mile the other,
hallooing aloud, as trying to cheat ourselves with the hope of that
Putijma had slipped away by accident, and drifted into some creek. But
at length we gave up the quest, and stood gazing before us as still and
silent as statues of stone, quite overwhelmed by this last stroke of
misfortune.
And thus were we two poor men abandoned on an unknown coast. I say we
two poor men, for now were we leveled to the same degree by a cruel
fate, being possessed of no more than a gun and a hatchet apiece besides
the clothes we stood in, and with the same dismal expectation of
perishing unfriended in a wilderness.