Being an Account of Certain Adventures that Befell Henry Mostyn Under
Capt. H. Morgan in the Year 1665-66
I.
ALTHOUGH this narration has more particularly to do with the taking of
the Spanish vice admiral in the harbor of Porto Bello, and of the rescue
therefrom of Le Sieur Simon, his wife and daughter (the adventure
of which was successfully achieved by Captain Morgan, the famous
buccaneer), we shall, nevertheless, premise something of the earlier
history of Master Harry Mostyn, whom you may, if you please, consider as
the hero of the several circumstances recounted in these pages.
In the year 1664 our hero's father embarked from Portsmouth, in England,
for the Barbados, where he owned a considerable sugar plantation.
Thither to those parts of America he transported with himself his whole
family, of whom our Master Harry was the fifth of eight children--a
great lusty fellow as little fitted for the Church (for which he was
designed) as could be. At the time of this story, though not above
sixteen years old, Master Harry Mostyn was as big and well-grown as many
a man of twenty, and of such a reckless and dare-devil spirit that no
adventure was too dangerous or too mischievous for him to embark upon.
At this time there was a deal of talk in those parts of the Americas
concerning Captain Morgan, and the prodigious successes he was having
pirating against the Spaniards.
This man had once been an indentured servant with Mr. Rolls, a sugar
factor at the Barbados. Having served out his time, and being of lawless
disposition, possessing also a prodigious appetite for adventure, he
joined with others of his kidney, and, purchasing a caravel of three
guns, embarked fairly upon that career of piracy the most successful
that ever was heard of in the world.
Master Harry had known this man very well while he was still with Mr.
Rolls, serving as a clerk at that gentleman's sugar wharf, a tall,
broad-shouldered, strapping fellow, with red cheeks, and thick red lips,
and rolling blue eyes, and hair as red as any chestnut. Many knew him
for a bold, gruff-spoken man, but no one at that time suspected that he
had it in him to become so famous and renowned as he afterward grew to
be.
The fame of his exploits had been the talk of those parts for above a
twelvemonth, when, in the latter part of the year 1665, Captain Morgan,
having made a very successful expedition against the Spaniards into the
Gulf of Campeche--where he took several important purchases from
the plate fleet--came to the Barbados, there to fit out another such
venture, and to enlist recruits.
He and certain other adventurers had purchased a vessel of some five
hundred tons, which they proposed to convert into a pirate by cutting
portholes for cannon, and running three or four carronades across
her main deck. The name of this ship, be it mentioned, was the Good
Samaritan, as ill-fitting a name as could be for such a craft, which,
instead of being designed for the healing of wounds, was intended to
inflict such devastation as those wicked men proposed.
Here was a piece of mischief exactly fitted to our hero's tastes;
wherefore, having made up a bundle of clothes, and with not above a
shilling in his pocket, he made an excursion into the town to seek
for Captain Morgan. There he found the great pirate established at an
ordinary, with a little court of ragamuffins and swashbucklers gathered
about him, all talking very loud, and drinking healths in raw rum as
though it were sugared water.
And what a fine figure our buccaneer had grown, to be sure! How
different from the poor, humble clerk upon the sugar wharf! What a deal
of gold braid! What a fine, silver-hilled Spanish sword! What a gay
velvet sling, hung with three silver-mounted pistols! If Master Harry's
mind had not been made up before, to be sure such a spectacle of glory
would have determined it.
This figure of war our hero asked to step aside with him, and when they
had come into a corner, proposed to the other what he intended, and that
he had a mind to enlist as a gentleman adventurer upon this expedition.
Upon this our rogue of a buccaneer captain burst out a-laughing, and
fetching Master Harry a great thump upon the back, swore roundly that he
would make a man of him, and that it was a pity to make a parson out of
so good a piece of stuff.
Nor was Captain Morgan less good than his word, for when the Good
Samaritan set sail with a favoring wind for the island of Jamaica,
Master Harry found himself established as one of the adventurers aboard.
II
Could you but have seen the town of Port Royal as it appeared in the
year 1665 you would have beheld a sight very well worth while looking
upon. There were no fine houses at that time, and no great counting
houses built of brick, such as you may find nowadays, but a crowd of
board and wattled huts huddled along the streets, and all so gay with
flags and bits of color that Vanity Fair itself could not have been
gayer. To this place came all the pirates and buccaneers that infested
those parts, and men shouted and swore and gambled, and poured out money
like water, and then maybe wound up their merrymaking by dying of fever.
For the sky in these torrid latitudes is all full of clouds overhead,
and as hot as any blanket, and when the sun shone forth it streamed down
upon the smoking sands so that the houses were ovens and the streets
were furnaces; so it was little wonder that men died like rats in a
hole. But little they appeared to care for that; so that everywhere you
might behold a multitude of painted women and Jews and merchants and
pirates, gaudy with red scarfs and gold braid and all sorts of odds and
ends of foolish finery, all fighting and gambling and bartering for that
ill-gotten treasure of the be-robbed Spaniard.
Here, arriving, Captain Morgan found a hearty welcome, and a message
from the governor awaiting him, the message bidding him attend His
Excellency upon the earliest occasion that offered. Whereupon, taking
our hero (of whom he had grown prodigiously fond) along with him, our
pirate went, without any loss of time, to visit Sir Thomas Modiford, who
was then the royal governor of all this devil's brew of wickedness.
They found His Excellency seated in a great easy-chair, under the shadow
of a slatted veranda, the floor whereof was paved with brick. He
was clad, for the sake of coolness, only in his shirt, breeches, and
stockings, and he wore slippers on his feet. He was smoking a great
cigarro of tobacco, and a goblet of lime juice and water and rum stood
at his elbow on a table. Here, out of the glare of the heat, it was all
very cool and pleasant, with a sea breeze blowing violently in through
the slats, setting them a-rattling now and then, and stirring Sir
Thomas's long hair, which he had pushed back for the sake of coolness.
The purport of this interview, I may tell you, concerned the rescue of
one Le Sieur Simon, who, together with his wife and daughter, was held
captive by the Spaniards.
This gentleman adventurer (Le Sieur Simon) had, a few years before, been
set up by the buccaneers as governor of the island of Santa Catharina.
This place, though well fortified by the Spaniards, the buccaneers
had seized upon, establishing themselves thereon, and so infesting the
commerce of those seas that no Spanish fleet was safe from them. At last
the Spaniards, no longer able to endure these assaults against their
commerce, sent a great force against the freebooters to drive them out
of their island stronghold. This they did, retaking Santa Catharina,
together with its governor, his wife, and daughter, as well as the whole
garrison of buccaneers.
This garrison was sent by their conquerors, some to the galleys, some
to the mines, some to no man knows where. The governor himself--Le Sieur
Simon--was to be sent to Spain, there to stand his trial for piracy.
The news of all this, I may tell you, had only just been received in
Jamaica, having been brought thither by a Spanish captain, one Don
Roderiguez Sylvia, who was, besides, the bearer of dispatches to the
Spanish authorities relating the whole affair.
Such, in fine, was the purport of this interview, and as our hero
and his captain walked back together from the governor's house to the
ordinary where they had taken up their inn, the buccaneer assured his
companion that he purposed to obtain those dispatches from the Spanish
captain that very afternoon, even if he had to use force to seize them.
All this, you are to understand, was undertaken only because of the
friendship that the governor and Captain Morgan entertained for Le Sieur
Simon. And, indeed, it was wonderful how honest and how faithful were
these wicked men in their dealings with one another. For you must know
that Governor Modiford and Le Sieur Simon and the buccaneers were all of
one kidney--all taking a share in the piracies of those times, and all
holding by one another as though they were the honestest men in the
world. Hence it was they were all so determined to rescue Le Sieur Simon
from the Spaniards.
III
Having reached his ordinary after his interview with the governor,
Captain Morgan found there a number of his companions, such as usually
gathered at that place to be in attendance upon him--some, those
belonging to the Good Samaritan; others, those who hoped to obtain
benefits from him; others, those ragamuffins who gathered around him
because he was famous, and because it pleased them to be of his court
and to be called his followers. For nearly always your successful pirate
had such a little court surrounding him.
Finding a dozen or more of these rascals gathered there, Captain Morgan
informed them of his present purpose that he was going to find the
Spanish captain to demand his papers of him, and calling upon them to
accompany him.
With this following at his heels, our buccaneer started off down the
street, his lieutenant, a Cornishman named Bartholomew Davis, upon one
hand and our hero upon the other. So they paraded the streets for the
best part of an hour before they found the Spanish captain. For whether
he had got wind that Captain Morgan was searching for him, or whether,
finding himself in a place so full of his enemies, he had buried himself
in some place of hiding, it is certain that the buccaneers had traversed
pretty nearly the whole town before they discovered that he was lying
at a certain auberge kept by a Portuguese Jew. Thither they went, and
thither Captain Morgan entered with the utmost coolness and composure of
demeanor, his followers crowding noisily in at his heels.
The space within was very dark, being lighted only by the doorway and by
two large slatted windows or openings in the front.
In this dark, hot place not over-roomy at the best--were gathered twelve
or fifteen villainous-appearing men, sitting at tables and drinking
together, waited upon by the Jew and his wife. Our hero had no trouble
in discovering which of this lot of men was Captain Sylvia, for not
only did Captain Morgan direct his glance full of war upon him, but the
Spaniard was clad with more particularity and with more show of finery
than any of the others who were there.
Him Captain Morgan approached and demanded his papers, whereunto the
other replied with such a jabber of Spanish and English that no man
could have understood what he said. To this Captain Morgan in turn
replied that he must have those papers, no matter what it might cost him
to obtain them, and thereupon drew a pistol from his sling and presented
it at the other's head.
At this threatening action the innkeeper's wife fell a-screaming, and
the Jew, as in a frenzy, besought them not to tear the house down about
his ears.
Our hero could hardly tell what followed, only that all of a sudden
there was a prodigious uproar of combat. Knives flashed everywhere,
and then a pistol was fired so close to his head that he stood like one
stunned, hearing some one crying out in a loud voice, but not knowing
whether it was a friend or a foe who had been shot. Then another pistol
shot so deafened what was left of Master Harry's hearing that his ears
rang for above an hour afterward. By this time the whole place was
full of gunpowder smoke, and there was the sound of blows and oaths and
outcrying and the clashing of knives.
As Master Harry, who had no great stomach for such a combat, and no very
particular interest in the quarrel, was making for the door, a little
Portuguese, as withered and as nimble as an ape, came ducking under the
table and plunged at his stomach with a great long knife, which, had
it effected its object, would surely have ended his adventures then and
there. Finding himself in such danger, Master Harry snatched up a heavy
chair, and, flinging it at his enemy, who was preparing for another
attack, he fairly ran for it out of the door, expecting every instant to
feel the thrust of the blade betwixt his ribs.
A considerable crowd had gathered outside, and others, hearing the
uproar, were coming running to join them. With these our hero stood,
trembling like a leaf, and with cold chills running up and down his back
like water at the narrow escape from the danger that had threatened him.
Nor shall you think him a coward, for you must remember he was hardly
sixteen years old at the time, and that this was the first affair of the
sort he had encountered. Afterward, as you shall learn, he showed that
he could exhibit courage enough at a pinch.
While he stood there, endeavoring to recover his composure, the while
the tumult continued within, suddenly two men came running almost
together out of the door, a crowd of the combatants at their heels. The
first of these men was Captain Sylvia; the other, who was pursuing him,
was Captain Morgan.
As the crowd about the door parted before the sudden appearing of these,
the Spanish captain, perceiving, as he supposed, a way of escape opened
to him, darted across the street with incredible swiftness toward an
alleyway upon the other side. Upon this, seeing his prey like to get
away from him, Captain Morgan snatched a pistol out of his sling, and
resting it for an instant across his arm, fired at the flying Spaniard,
and that with so true an aim that, though the street was now full of
people, the other went tumbling over and over all of a heap in the
kennel, where he lay, after a twitch or two, as still as a log.
At the sound of the shot and the fall of the man the crowd scattered
upon all sides, yelling and screaming, and the street being thus pretty
clear, Captain Morgan ran across the way to where his victim lay, his
smoking pistol still in his hand, and our hero following close at his
heels.
Our poor Harry had never before beheld a man killed thus in an instant
who a moment before had been so full of life and activity, for when
Captain Morgan turned the body over upon its back he could perceive at a
glance, little as he knew of such matters, that the man was stone-dead.
And, indeed, it was a dreadful sight for him who was hardly more than
a child. He stood rooted for he knew not how long, staring down at the
dead face with twitching fingers and shuddering limbs. Meantime a great
crowd was gathering about them again. As for Captain Morgan, he went
about his work with the utmost coolness and deliberation imaginable,
unbuttoning the waistcoat and the shirt of the man he had murdered with
fingers that neither twitched nor shook. There were a gold cross and
a bunch of silver medals hung by a whipcord about the neck of the dead
man. This Captain Morgan broke away with a snap, reaching the jingling
baubles to Harry, who took them in his nerveless hand and fingers that
he could hardly close upon what they held.
The papers Captain Morgan found in a wallet in an inner breast pocket of
the Spaniard's waistcoat. These he examined one by one, and finding them
to his satisfaction, tied them up again, and slipped the wallet and its
contents into his own pocket.
Then for the first time he appeared to observe Master Harry, who,
indeed, must have been standing, the perfect picture of horror and
dismay. Whereupon, bursting out a-laughing, and slipping the pistol he
had used back into its sling again, he fetched poor Harry a great slap
upon the back, bidding him be a man, for that he would see many such
sights as this.
But indeed, it was no laughing matter for poor Master Harry, for it was
many a day before his imagination could rid itself of the image of the
dead Spaniard's face; and as he walked away down the street with his
companions, leaving the crowd behind them, and the dead body where it
lay for its friends to look after, his ears humming and ringing from
the deafening noise of the pistol shots fired in the close room, and the
sweat trickling down his face in drops, he knew not whether all that
had passed had been real, or whether it was a dream from which he might
presently awaken.
IV
The papers Captain Morgan had thus seized upon as the fruit of the
murder he had committed must have been as perfectly satisfactory to him
as could be, for having paid a second visit that evening to Governor
Modiford, the pirate lifted anchor the next morning and made sail toward
the Gulf of Darien. There, after cruising about in those waters for
about a fortnight without falling in with a vessel of any sort, at the
end of that time they overhauled a caravel bound from Porto Bello to
Cartagena, which vessel they took, and finding her loaded with nothing
better than raw hides, scuttled and sank her, being then about twenty
leagues from the main of Cartagena. From the captain of this vessel
they learned that the plate fleet was then lying in the harbor of Porto
Bello, not yet having set sail thence, but waiting for the change of the
winds before embarking for Spain. Besides this, which was a good deal
more to their purpose, the Spaniards told the pirates that the Sieur
Simon, his wife, and daughter were confined aboard the vice admiral of
that fleet, and that the name of the vice admiral was the Santa Maria y
Valladolid.
So soon as Captain Morgan had obtained the information he desired he
directed his course straight for the Bay of Santo Blaso, where he might
lie safely within the cape of that name without any danger of discovery
(that part of the mainland being entirely uninhabited) and yet be within
twenty or twenty-five leagues of Porto Bello.
Having come safely to this anchorage, he at once declared his intentions
to his companions, which were as follows:
That it was entirely impossible for them to hope to sail their vessel
into the harbor of Porto Bello, and to attack the Spanish vice admiral
where he lay in the midst of the armed flota; wherefore, if anything was
to be accomplished, it must be undertaken by some subtle design rather
than by open-handed boldness. Having so prefaced what he had to say, he
now declared that it was his purpose to take one of the ship's boats and
to go in that to Porto Bello, trusting for some opportunity to occur to
aid him either in the accomplishment of his aims or in the gaining of
some further information. Having thus delivered himself, he invited any
who dared to do so to volunteer for the expedition, telling them plainly
that he would constrain no man to go against his will, for that at best
it was a desperate enterprise, possessing only the recommendation that
in its achievement the few who undertook it would gain great renown, and
perhaps a very considerable booty.
And such was the incredible influence of this bold man over his
companions, and such was their confidence in his skill and cunning, that
not above a dozen of all those aboard hung back from the undertaking,
but nearly every man desired to be taken.
Of these volunteers Captain Morgan chose twenty--among others our Master
Harry--and having arranged with his lieutenant that if nothing was heard
from the expedition at the end of three days he should sail for Jamaica
to await news, he embarked upon that enterprise, which, though never
heretofore published, was perhaps the boldest and the most desperate of
all those that have since made his name so famous. For what could be a
more unparalleled undertaking than for a little open boat, containing
but twenty men, to enter the harbor of the third strongest fortress of
the Spanish mainland with the intention of cutting out the Spanish vice
admiral from the midst of a whole fleet of powerfully armed vessels, and
how many men in all the world do you suppose would venture such a thing?
But there is this to be said of that great buccaneer: that if he
undertook enterprises so desperate as this, he yet laid his plans
so well that they never went altogether amiss. Moreover, the very
desperation of his successes was of such a nature that no man could
suspect that he would dare to undertake such things, and accordingly his
enemies were never prepared to guard against his attacks. Aye, had he
but worn the king's colors and served under the rules of honest war, he
might have become as great and as renowned as Admiral Blake himself.
But all that is neither here nor there; what I have to tell you now is
that Captain Morgan in this open boat with his twenty mates reached the
Cape of Salmedina toward the fall of day. Arriving within view of the
harbor they discovered the plate fleet at anchor, with two men-of-war
and an armed galley riding as a guard at the mouth of the harbor, scarce
half a league distant from the other ships. Having spied the fleet in
this posture, the pirates presently pulled down their sails and rowed
along the coast, feigning to be a Spanish vessel from Nombre de Dios. So
hugging the shore, they came boldly within the harbor, upon the opposite
side of which you might see the fortress a considerable distance away.
Being now come so near to the consummation of their adventure, Captain
Morgan required every man to make an oath to stand by him to the last,
whereunto our hero swore as heartily as any man aboard, although his
heart, I must needs confess, was beating at a great rate at the approach
of what was to happen. Having thus received the oaths of all his
followers, Captain Morgan commanded the surgeon of the expedition that,
when the order was given, he, the medico, was to bore six holes in the
boat, so that, it sinking under them, they might all be compelled to
push forward, with no chance of retreat. And such was the ascendancy of
this man over his followers, and such was their awe of him, that not one
of them uttered even so much as a murmur, though what he had commanded
the surgeon to do pledged them either to victory or to death, with no
chance to choose between. Nor did the surgeon question the orders he had
received, much less did he dream of disobeying them.
By now it had fallen pretty dusk, whereupon, spying two fishermen in a
canoe at a little distance, Captain Morgan demanded of them in Spanish
which vessel of those at anchor in the harbor was the vice admiral, for
that he had dispatches for the captain thereof. Whereupon the fishermen,
suspecting nothing, pointed to them a galleon of great size riding at
anchor not half a league distant.
Toward this vessel accordingly the pirates directed their course, and
when they had come pretty nigh, Captain Morgan called upon the surgeon
that now it was time for him to perform the duty that had been laid upon
him. Whereupon the other did as he was ordered, and that so thoroughly
that the water presently came gushing into the boat in great streams,
whereat all hands pulled for the galleon as though every next moment was
to be their last.
And what do you suppose were our hero's emotions at this time? Like all
in the boat, his awe of Captain Morgan was so great that I do believe he
would rather have gone to the bottom than have questioned his command,
even when it was to scuttle the boat. Nevertheless, when he felt the
cold water gushing about his feet (for he had taken off his shoes and
stockings) he became possessed with such a fear of being drowned that
even the Spanish galleon had no terrors for him if he could only feel
the solid planks thereof beneath his feet.
Indeed, all the crew appeared to be possessed of a like dismay, for they
pulled at the oars with such an incredible force that they were under
the quarter of the galleon before the boat was half filled with water.
Here, as they approached, it then being pretty dark and the moon not
yet having risen, the watch upon the deck hailed them, whereupon Captain
Morgan called out in Spanish that he was Capt. Alvarez Mendazo, and that
he brought dispatches for the vice admiral.
But at that moment, the boat being now so full of water as to be
logged, it suddenly tilted upon one side as though to sink beneath them,
whereupon all hands, without further orders, went scrambling up the
side, as nimble as so many monkeys, each armed with a pistol in one hand
and a cutlass in the other, and so were upon deck before the watch could
collect his wits to utter any outcry or to give any other alarm than to
cry out, "Jesu bless us! who are these?" at which words somebody knocked
him down with the butt of a pistol, though who it was our hero could not
tell in the darkness and the hurry.
Before any of those upon deck could recover from their alarm or those
from below come up upon deck, a part of the pirates, under the carpenter
and the surgeon, had run to the gun room and had taken possession of the
arms, while Captain Morgan, with Master Harry and a Portuguese called
Murillo Braziliano, had flown with the speed of the wind into the great
cabin.
Here they found the captain of the vice admiral playing at cards
with the Sieur Simon and a friend, Madam Simon and her daughter being
present.
Captain Morgan instantly set his pistol at the breast of the Spanish
captain, swearing with a most horrible fierce countenance that if he
spake a word or made any outcry he was a dead man. As for our hero,
having now got his hand into the game, he performed the same service for
the Spaniard's friend, declaring he would shoot him dead if he opened
his lips or lifted so much as a single finger.
All this while the ladies, not comprehending what had occurred, had sat
as mute as stones; but now having so far recovered themselves as to find
a voice, the younger of the two fell to screaming, at which the Sieur
Simon called out to her to be still, for these were friends who had come
to help them, and not enemies who had come to harm them.
All this, you are to understand, occupied only a little while, for in
less than a minute three or four of the pirates had come into the cabin,
who, together with the Portuguese, proceeded at once to bind the
two Spaniards hand and foot, and to gag them. This being done to our
buccaneer's satisfaction, and the Spanish captain being stretched out
in the corner of the cabin, he instantly cleared his countenance of its
terrors, and bursting forth into a great loud laugh, clapped his hand
to the Sieur Simon's, which he wrung with the best will in the world.
Having done this, and being in a fine humor after this his first
success, he turned to the two ladies. "And this, ladies," said he,
taking our hero by the hand and presenting him, "is a young gentleman
who has embarked with me to learn the trade of piracy. I recommend him
to your politeness."
Think what a confusion this threw our Master Harry into, to be sure,
who at his best was never easy in the company of strange ladies! You may
suppose what must have been his emotions to find himself thus introduced
to the attention of Madam Simon and her daughter, being at the time in
his bare feet, clad only in his shirt and breeches, and with no hat upon
his head, a pistol in one hand and a cutlass in the other. However,
he was not left for long to his embarrassments, for almost immediately
after he had thus far relaxed, Captain Morgan fell of a sudden serious
again, and bidding the Sieur Simon to get his ladies away into some
place of safety, for the most hazardous part of this adventure was yet
to occur, he quitted the cabin with Master Harry and the other pirates
(for you may call him a pirate now) at his heels.
Having come upon deck, our hero beheld that a part of the Spanish crew
were huddled forward in a flock like so many sheep (the others being
crowded below with the hatches fastened upon them), and such was the
terror of the pirates, and so dreadful the name of Henry Morgan, that
not one of those poor wretches dared to lift up his voice to give any
alarm, nor even to attempt an escape by jumping overboard.
At Captain Morgan's orders, these men, together with certain of his own
company, ran nimbly aloft and began setting the sails, which, the night
now having fallen pretty thick, was not for a good while observed by any
of the vessels riding at anchor about them.
Indeed, the pirates might have made good their escape, with at most only
a shot or two from the men-of-war, had it not then been about the full
of the moon, which, having arisen, presently discovered to those of the
fleet that lay closest about them what was being done aboard the vice
admiral.
At this one of the vessels hailed them, and then after a while,
having no reply, hailed them again. Even then the Spaniards might not
immediately have suspected anything was amiss but only that the
vice admiral for some reason best known to himself was shifting his
anchorage, had not one of the Spaniards aloft--but who it was Captain
Morgan was never able to discover--answered the hail by crying out that
the vice admiral had been seized by the pirates.
At this the alarm was instantly given and the mischief done, for
presently there was a tremendous bustle through that part of the fleet
lying nighest the vice admiral--a deal of shouting of orders, a beating
of drums, and the running hither and thither of the crews.
But by this time the sails of the vice admiral had filled with a strong
land breeze that was blowing up the harbor, whereupon the carpenter,
at Captain Morgan's orders, having cut away both anchors, the galleon
presently bore away up the harbor, gathering headway every moment with
the wind nearly dead astern. The nearest vessel was the only one that
for the moment was able to offer any hindrance. This ship, having by
this time cleared away one of its guns, was able to fire a parting shot
against the vice-admiral, striking her somewhere forward, as our hero
could see by a great shower of splinters that flew up in the moonlight.
At the sound of the shot all the vessels of the flota not yet disturbed
by the alarm were aroused at once, so that the pirates had the
satisfaction of knowing that they would have to run the gantlet of
all the ships between them and the open sea before they could reckon
themselves escaped.
And, indeed, to our hero's mind it seemed that the battle which followed
must have been the most terrific cannonade that was ever heard in the
world. It was not so ill at first, for it was some while before the
Spaniards could get their guns clear for action, they being not the
least in the world prepared for such an occasion as this. But by and by
first one and then another ship opened fire upon the galleon, until it
seemed to our hero that all the thunders of heaven let loose upon them
could not have created a more prodigious uproar, and that it was not
possible that they could any of them escape destruction.
By now the moon had risen full and round, so that the clouds of smoke
that rose in the air appeared as white as snow. The air seemed full of
the hiss and screaming of shot, each one of which, when it struck the
galleon, was magnified by our hero's imagination into ten times its
magnitude from the crash which it delivered and from the cloud of
splinters it would cast up into the moonlight. At last he suddenly
beheld one poor man knocked sprawling across the deck, who, as he raised
his arm from behind the mast, disclosed that the hand was gone from it,
and that the shirt sleeve was red with blood in the moonlight. At this
sight all the strength fell away from poor Harry, and he felt sure that
a like fate or even a worse must be in store for him.
But, after all, this was nothing to what it might have been in
broad daylight, for what with the darkness of night, and the little
preparation the Spaniards could make for such a business, and
the extreme haste with which they discharged their guns (many not
understanding what was the occasion of all this uproar), nearly all the
shot flew so wide of the mark that not above one in twenty struck that
at which it was aimed.
Meantime Captain Morgan, with the Sieur Simon, who had followed him
upon deck, stood just above where our hero lay behind the shelter of the
bulwark. The captain had lit a pipe of tobacco, and he stood now in the
bright moonlight close to the rail, with his hands behind him, looking
out ahead with the utmost coolness imaginable, and paying no more
attention to the din of battle than though it were twenty leagues away.
Now and then he would take his pipe from his lips to utter an order to
the man at the wheel. Excepting this he stood there hardly moving at
all, the wind blowing his long red hair over his shoulders.
Had it not been for the armed galley the pirates might have got the
galleon away with no great harm done in spite of all this cannonading,
for the man-of-war which rode at anchor nighest to them at the mouth
of the harbor was still so far away that they might have passed it by
hugging pretty close to the shore, and that without any great harm being
done to them in the darkness. But just at this moment, when the open
water lay in sight, came this galley pulling out from behind the point
of the shore in such a manner as either to head our pirates off entirely
or else to compel them to approach so near to the man-of-war that that
latter vessel could bring its guns to bear with more effect.
This galley, I must tell you, was like others of its kind such as you
may find in these waters, the hull being long and cut low to the water
so as to allow the oars to dip freely. The bow was sharp and projected
far out ahead, mounting a swivel upon it, while at the stern a number of
galleries built one above another into a castle gave shelter to several
companies of musketeers as well as the officers commanding them.
Our hero could behold the approach of this galley from above the
starboard bulwarks, and it appeared to him impossible for them to
hope to escape either it or the man-of-war. But still Captain Morgan
maintained the same composure that he had exhibited all the while, only
now and then delivering an order to the man at the wheel, who, putting
the helm over, threw the bows of the galleon around more to the
larboard, as though to escape the bow of the galley and get into the
open water beyond. This course brought the pirates ever closer and
closer to the man-of-war, which now began to add its thunder to the din
of the battle, and with so much more effect that at every discharge you
might hear the crashing and crackling of splintered wood, and now and
then the outcry or groaning of some man who was hurt. Indeed, had it
been daylight, they must at this juncture all have perished, though,
as was said, what with the night and the confusion and the hurry, they
escaped entire destruction, though more by a miracle than through any
policy upon their own part.
Meantime the galley, steering as though to come aboard of them, had now
come so near that it, too, presently began to open its musketry fire
upon them, so that the humming and rattling of bullets were presently
added to the din of cannonading.
In two minutes more it would have been aboard of them, when in a moment
Captain Morgan roared out of a sudden to the man at the helm to put it
hard a starboard. In response the man ran the wheel over with the utmost
quickness, and the galleon, obeying her helm very readily, came around
upon a course which, if continued, would certainly bring them into
collision with their enemy.
It is possible at first the Spaniards imagined the pirates intended to
escape past their stern, for they instantly began backing oars to keep
them from getting past, so that the water was all of a foam about them,
at the same time they did this they poured in such a fire of musketry
that it was a miracle that no more execution was accomplished than
happened.
As for our hero, methinks for the moment he forgot all about everything
else than as to whether or no his captain's maneuver would succeed, for
in the very first moment he divined, as by some instinct, what Captain
Morgan purposed doing.
At this moment, so particular in the execution of this nice design,
a bullet suddenly struck down the man at the wheel. Hearing the sharp
outcry, our Harry turned to see him fall forward, and then to his hands
and knees upon the deck, the blood running in a black pool beneath him,
while the wheel, escaping from his hands, spun over until the spokes
were all of a mist.
In a moment the ship would have fallen off before the wind had not our
hero, leaping to the wheel (even as Captain Morgan shouted an order for
some one to do so), seized the flying spokes, whirling them back again,
and so bringing the bow of the galleon up to its former course.
In the first moment of this effort he had reckoned of nothing but of
carrying out his captain's designs. He neither thought of cannon balls
nor of bullets. But now that his task was accomplished, he came suddenly
back to himself to find the galleries of the galley aflame with musket
shots, and to become aware with a most horrible sinking of the spirits
that all the shots therefrom were intended for him. He cast his eyes
about him with despair, but no one came to ease him of his task, which,
having undertaken, he had too much spirit to resign from carrying
through to the end, though he was well aware that the very next instant
might mean his sudden and violent death. His ears hummed and rang, and
his brain swam as light as a feather. I know not whether he breathed,
but he shut his eyes tight as though that might save him from the
bullets that were raining about him.
At this moment the Spaniards must have discovered for the first time the
pirates' design, for of a sudden they ceased firing, and began to shout
out a multitude of orders, while the oars lashed the water all about
with a foam. But it was too late then for them to escape, for within a
couple of seconds the galleon struck her enemy a blow so violent upon
the larboard quarter as nearly to hurl our Harry upon the deck, and then
with a dreadful, horrible crackling of wood, commingled with a yelling
of men's voices, the galley was swung around upon her side, and the
galleon, sailing into the open sea, left nothing of her immediate enemy
but a sinking wreck, and the water dotted all over with bobbing heads
and waving hands in the moonlight.
And now, indeed, that all danger was past and gone, there were plenty
to come running to help our hero at the wheel. As for Captain Morgan,
having come down upon the main deck, he fetches the young helmsman a
clap upon the back. "Well, Master Harry," says he, "and did I not tell
you I would make a man of you?" Whereat our poor Harry fell a-laughing,
but with a sad catch in his voice, for his hands trembled as with an
ague, and were as cold as ice. As for his emotions, God knows he was
nearer crying than laughing, if Captain Morgan had but known it.
Nevertheless, though undertaken under the spur of the moment, I protest
it was indeed a brave deed, and I cannot but wonder how many young
gentlemen of sixteen there are to-day who, upon a like occasion, would
act as well as our Harry.
V
The balance of our hero's adventures were of a lighter sort than those
already recounted, for the next morning the Spanish captain (a very
polite and well-bred gentleman) having fitted him out with a shift of
his own clothes, Master Harry was presented in a proper form to the
ladies. For Captain Morgan, if he had felt a liking for the young man
before, could not now show sufficient regard for him. He ate in the
great cabin and was petted by all. Madam Simon, who was a fat and
red-faced lady, was forever praising him, and the young miss, who was
extremely well-looking, was as continually making eyes at him.
She and Master Harry, I must tell you, would spend hours together, she
making pretense of teaching him French, although he was so possessed
with a passion of love that he was nigh suffocated with it. She, upon
her part, perceiving his emotions, responded with extreme good nature
and complacency, so that had our hero been older, and the voyage proved
longer, he might have become entirely enmeshed in the toils of his
fair siren. For all this while, you are to understand, the pirates were
making sail straight for Jamaica, which they reached upon the third day
in perfect safety.
In that time, however, the pirates had well-nigh gone crazy for joy; for
when they came to examine their purchase they discovered her cargo to
consist of plate to the prodigious sum of L180,000 in value. 'Twas a
wonder they did not all make themselves drunk for joy. No doubt they
would have done so had not Captain Morgan, knowing they were still in
the exact track of the Spanish fleets, threatened them that the first
man among them who touched a drop of rum without his permission he would
shoot him dead upon the deck. This threat had such effect that they all
remained entirely sober until they had reached Port Royal Harbor, which
they did about nine o'clock in the morning.
And now it was that our hero's romance came all tumbling down about his
ears with a run. For they had hardly come to anchor in the harbor when
a boat came from a man-of-war, and who should come stepping aboard but
Lieutenant Grantley (a particular friend of our hero's father) and his
own eldest brother Thomas, who, putting on a very stern face, informed
Master Harry that he was a desperate and hardened villain who was sure
to end at the gallows, and that he was to go immediately back to his
home again. He told our embryo pirate that his family had nigh gone
distracted because of his wicked and ungrateful conduct. Nor could our
hero move him from his inflexible purpose. "What," says our Harry, "and
will you not then let me wait until our prize is divided and I get my
share?"
"Prize, indeed!" says his brother. "And do you then really think that
your father would consent to your having a share in this terrible bloody
and murthering business?"
And so, after a good deal of argument, our hero was constrained to go;
nor did he even have an opportunity to bid adieu to his inamorata. Nor
did he see her any more, except from a distance, she standing on the
poop deck as he was rowed away from her, her face all stained with
crying. For himself, he felt that there was no more joy in life;
nevertheless, standing up in the stern of the boat, he made shift,
though with an aching heart, to deliver her a fine bow with the hat he
had borrowed from the Spanish captain, before his brother bade him sit
down again.
And so to the ending of this story, with only this to relate, that our
Master Harry, so far from going to the gallows, became in good time a
respectable and wealthy sugar merchant with an English wife and a
fine family of children, whereunto, when the mood was upon him, he has
sometimes told these adventures (and sundry others not here recounted),
as I have told them unto you.