WE FALL INTO SORE DISASTERS OF RAGING TEMPEST AND BLOODY BATTLE.
As soon as I was got on board I told Captain Wilkins of our
generalissimo's intention, which he heard with much satisfaction, and
did straightway communicate with his crew, who thereupon set up a great
cheer. About two o'clock, the breeze freshening, the _Faithful Friend_
changed her course and we with her, and for two hours we ran west,
though the wind had been more prosperous for making south. Yet did the
black ship follow us in the course persistently as in the other, keeping
always the same distance in our wake. Then did Sir Bartlemy signal us to
open all our ports for the guns to play, and to stand every man to his
post, which we did very cheerfully and as smartly as ever the company on
the _Faithful Friend_ did. And though this preparation might well be
seen from the black ship, we could see with our perspectives no such
preparation on her, so that the simple would have conceived she had no
lower ports for guns, and was an unarmed trader. Then Sir Bartlemy
signaled us to stand-to, yet to be in readiness to come to his help if
need arose, which we did; meanwhile he puts about and sails down on the
black ship, who kept her ports closed, but stayed his coming patiently.
Being come within speaking distance, Sir Bartlemy takes his speaking
horn and spreads out his ancient; whereupon the black ship spread hers,
which was true English, and every way as good as ours. Then our general
through his horn demanded what ship that was and why she did so
persistently dog us. To this a man from the black ship replied, that she
was the _Robin Goodfellow_, of Southampton, commanded by Richard Simons,
and a very peaceable trader, bound for Campeachy Bay to barter for
dye-wood, and that she meant us no harm, but only sought to have
protection against pirates by sailing in the company of two ships so
well armed as we.
"Then," shouts my uncle, "be you like your ship, a good fellow, and
sheer off, for we like your room better than your company; and sheer off
at once (adds he) or I will pepper your jacket to a pretty tune."
To show that he meant to be as good as his word, he bade his gunner fire
a broadside wide of the black ship, which did the gunner very
faithfully, hurting no one. "Though, would to God!" says my uncle
afterwards, "I had been wise enough to fire amongst his rigging for a
better earnest."
The black ship made no response; but, turning about, held off before the
wind half a mile and no more; and my uncle, sailing upon her to make her
go to a greater distance, she sheered off, keeping always the same
distance; and this maneuver was repeated twice or thrice till Sir
Bartlemy, guessing she was endeavoring to lure him away from us, and,
seeing it was useless to try and come up to close quarters with a ship
that could sail two furlongs to his one, gave up this attempt and
rejoined us. Our captain tried to make his men believe that the black
ship was what her captain represented, and that he, in still following
us--which he did as though he had received no warning, or scorned to
accept it--was merely showing a stubborn spirit and not a hostile one,
since he had not showed any guns or fired in defiance to us. Some of our
better men accepted this; but there were many who could not stomach it,
and openly cursed the day when they had come to sea on this venture.
So held we on, and my uncle, hoping the black ship would have to stay
for water and refreshment at the Azores (for we had gone from our course
that if the black ship were indeed bound for Campeachy she might have no
further pretext to hang on our heels), and being himself still very well
victualed, would not stay there, but, passing them, bore down towards
the Bermudas; but neither would the black ship stay there, but kept to
our heels as perversely as ever.
Now, being come to the Bermudas, that befell which I feared, for the
seas, which are greatly disturbed at those parts, rose prodigiously, and
with it there came a most terrible hurricane, which obliged us to run
with a single small sail. This gale did so buffet and hurl us about as
we could with much pain keep to our course and reasonably near our
consort during the day; but at night it was worse, for no lamps of ours
could be kept burning, nor was any of the _Faithful Friend's_ to be
seen, though from time to time we fired off our petereros for a signal,
yet answer got we none. In this terrible tempest we were sorely bruised,
our little sail split to shreds, and no chance to rig another, so that
we tossed helpless on the water, expecting every moment to founder. But
it pleased God to spare us this time.
I shall not dwell on the terrors of that night, nor of the next day, and
the night following, but come briefly to the morning of the third day of
our tribulation, when, by help of such sails as we could set, we drifted
out of that horrid region and came into calmer waters; in which time we
had been swept an incredible distance; but, lord! so broken in our
masts, riggings, and elsewhere as it was pitiable to see; besides three
men short of our number, who we counted were washed away in that
hurricano. Then looking around could we see nothing of the _Faithful
Friend_, nor of the black ship neither; so that we reckoned one or both
had gone to the bottom.
To think that Lady Biddy was no more affected me so grievously that I
threw myself on the deck, not caring what became of me, and lamenting
that I lay not at the bottom of that cruel sea with her. But Captain
Wilkins kept a brave heart (God be praised!), and, hoping yet to see our
consort again, contrived to set up some sort of sails, fresh rig his
rudder, and restore order on board, so that ere long we were making good
way towards Trinidado (as we judged), where it had been agreed we should
in case of separation seek rendezvous. On the morning of the fourth day,
ere yet there was full daylight, but only twilight, as I was standing on
the poop deck very melancholy and dejected, I heard the sound of guns to
the south of the course we were making; and Captain Wilkins, to whom I
ran in all speed to communicate these tidings, did likewise believe he
heard this sound; whereupon he at once shaped our course in that
direction, whereby in a little time we were further assured that these
sounds were real, and not bred of imagination. The reports were not
apart, like signals, but continuous; so that we knew it was the
cannonading of ships in battle, which stirred every man to make all
haste; and indeed we did all we could think on to speed our ship; still
were we slow, for our want of sail, which made us furious with
impatience.
There was a haze upon the water, so that when the tumult of guns was
loud in our ears, we could see nothing; but now the sun getting up
strong over the horizon and sucking up the mist, we of a sudden caught
sight of the flashing guns, and then of a ship not many furlongs off,
broadside towards us, which we presently descried to be the black ship;
though now her whole side was open with ports, from which her guns shone
out like teeth. At the same time we perceived that she was grappled on
stem and stern to another ship on the further side, which we doubted not
was the _Faithful Friend_; upon which we did all set up a prodigious
cheer; and Captain Wilkins putting about, we passed the black ship at
less than a furlong distance, and dealt into her the whole weight of our
great guns on that side without getting a single shot in return. The
reason of this was that all the ship's company were occupied on the
other side plying their cannon and boarding the _Faithful Friend_ (which
we recognized in nearing the black ship), as was evident from the rattle
of muskets and small arms between the peals of the great guns.
But after getting this dose from us, they were not long in manning their
guns on the hither side, as we found to our cost when, putting about
once more, we sailed down to give him the other broadside; for their
cannon belched out with such fury as laid many a stout seamen between
our decks low, besides shooting away our rudder, which rendered us
helpless, as it were.
Seeing this, I begged Captain Wilkins to give me a boat and such of his
men as could be spared to go and succor our friends, to which he agreed
readily enough, and forthwith lowered our barge; whereupon I, with a
score of hearty fellows, all armed to the teeth, sprang in, and rowed
with all our might to that side of the grappled ships where lay the
_Faithful Friend_. Through one of her lower ports we scrambled, one
after the other, but I the first, you may be sure; and there it was all
thick with stinking gunpowder and smoke, and strewn with dead men, and
such as were too sorely wounded to join in the battle above, and no man
ever heard greater din than there was of big guns and small, the
clashing of steel, the trampling on the decks, the shouting and cursing
of men fighting, and the sad groaning of the hurt, and such confusion as
you could not tell one sound from another scarcely.
This did but spur us on to be doing, and like so many cats we sprang up
through the hatchways and ladders, and so came on the main deck, taking
no heed of the poor fellows who lay heaped at the foot of those ladders,
nor of the blood that trickled in thick drops from step to step,
splashing in our faces as if it had been mere rain-water, and smeared
down the handrails, where many a good man had pressed his bleeding body
for support.
Now, as I sprang on deck, did I find myself in the very midst and thick
of these wicked pirates, who were readily to be distinguished from
honest seamen by red skirts which they wear who bind themselves to the
regulations of their Order.
Just before me was a culverdine pointed against the roundhouse, into
which the crew of the _Faithful Friend_ (such as were not laid low) had
retired, and were there barricaded, and a fellow stood over against it,
blowing his match to fire the piece. And this man I knew full well for a
villain of the old _Sure Hawk's_ company, and with the axe in my hand, I
struck him between the teeth right through to his neck-joint. He was the
first man I had ever slain; but I counted it as nothing, being wrought
to very madness with passion, and wrenching my axe from his bone, I
turned upon another rascal who was making at my side with his knife, and
with a back-handed blow, the hinder part of my weapon crashed his
forehead into his brains as you might with your thumb break the shell of
an egg into the yolk. By this time my good comrades had sprung up behind
me to my help, else had my fight soon come to an end; for the pirates,
getting over the amazement into which my sudden attack had thrown them,
with a shout of rage turned all upon me. Then did we so lay about us
that we beat the pirates back into the fore part of the ship, and truly
I do think that if those of our friends in the roundhouse could then
have come to our help we should have won the day; but, as ill-luck would
have it, they had taken such pains to barricado themselves, to prevent
the pirates coming at them, that they could not immediately get out to
come at them, and so, for want of support, were we undone. For there
were of the pirates two score, I take it, and more coming to their
succor over the side every moment, while we, not counting those who may
have fallen, were but one score, all told.
Foremost among our enemies was Rodrigues himself, who did look a very
devil for rage, with the grime of smoke and blood about his face, his
white, pointed tusks bared to the gums, and his eyes flaming with fury.
His head was bound about with a bloody clout, for he had got a wound,
and through the grime of powder-smoke on his face there was a bright
channel where the blood still wept. But for all his wounds he fought
better and more desperately than any of the rest; and seeing that those
in the roundhouse were struggling to get out to our help, and that his
only chance lay in beating us down ere they succeeded, he threw himself
forward with nothing but a long curved knife in his hands. His intention
was to settle my business, seeing that I had done him this mischief; and
surely he would (for I was closely grappled with a fellow, my arms about
him and his about me, each seeking to get freedom for the use of the
knives in our hands), but that a comrade, seeing my peril, dealt at him
with his brown bill, driving the spike into his shoulder. On this,
Rodrigues, with a howl of rage, struck out the point from his shoulder,
and turning on this poor man with his hooked knife ripped him up from
the navel as you might a rabbit. At that moment I threw my man on his
back, and in falling on the deck my knife was driven up to the hilt
through his loins. Then did I get a terrible blow on the head (from whom
I know not), so that I lost all consciousness, and lay like one dead.