It was a little after seven o'clock on June 19 in the year of Our Lord
1577, and business was practically over for the day. The taverns and
alehouses were, of course, still open, and would so remain for three or
four hours to come, for the evening was then, as it is now, their most
busy time; but nearly all the shops in Fore Street of the good town of
Devonport were closed, one of the few exceptions being that of Master
John Summers, "Apothecary, and Dealer in all sorts of Herbs and
Simples", as was announced by the sign which swung over the still open
door of the little, low-browed establishment.
The shop was empty of customers for the moment, its only occupants being
two persons, both of whom were employees of Master John Summers. One--
the tall, thin, dark, dreamy-eyed individual behind the counter who was
with much deliberation and care completing the preparation of a
prescription--was Philip Stukely, the apothecary's only assistant; while
the other was one Colin Dunster, a pallid, raw-boned youth whose
business it was to distribute the medicines to his master's customers.
He was slouching now, outside the counter, beside a basket three-parts
full of bottles, each neatly enwrapped in white paper and inscribed with
the name and address of the customer to whom it was to be delivered in
due course. Apparently the package then in course of preparation would
complete the tale of those to be delivered that night; for as Stukely
tied the string and wrote the address in a clear, clerkly hand, the lad
Dunster straightened himself up and laid a hand upon the basket, as
though suddenly impatient to be gone.
At this moment another youth, with blue-grey eyes, curly, flaxen hair,
tall, broad-chested, and with the limbs of a young Hercules, burst into
the shop, taking at a stride the two steps which led down into it from
the street, as he exclaimed:
"Heyday, Master Phil, how is this? Hast not yet finished compounding
thy potions? My day's work ended an hour and more ago; and the evening
is a perfect one for a sail upon the Sound."
"Ay, so 'tis, I'll warrant," answered Stukely, as he deposited the
package in the basket. "There, Colin, lad," he continued, "that is the
last for to-night; and--listen, sirrah! See that thou mix not the
parcels, as thou didst but a week agone, lest thou bring sundry of her
most glorious Majesty's lieges to an untimely end! There"--as the boy
seized the basket and hurried out of the shop--"that completes my day's
work. Now I have but to put up the shutters and lock the door; and
then, have with thee whither thou wilt. Help me with the shutters,
Dick, there's a good lad, so shall I be ready the sooner."
Five minutes sufficed the two to put up the shutters, and for Stukely to
wash his hands, discard his apron, change his coat, and lock up the
shop; then the two somewhat oddly contrasted friends wended their way
quickly down the narrow street on their way to the waterside.
As they go, let us take the opportunity to become better acquainted with
them both, for, although they knew it not, they were taking their first
steps on the road to many a strange and wild adventure, whither we who
also love adventure propose to accompany them.
Philip Stukely, the elder of the two, aged twenty-three and a half
years, tall, spare, sallow of complexion, with long, straight, black
hair, and dark eyes--the precise colour of which no man precisely knew,
for it seemed to change with his varying moods--was, as we have seen, by
some strange freak of fortune, an apothecary's assistant. But merely to
say that he was an apothecary's assistant very inadequately describes
the man; for, in addition to that, he was both a poet and a painter in
thought and feeling, if not in actual fact. He was also a voracious
reader of everything that treated of adventure, from the story of the
Flood, and Jonah's memorable voyage, to Homer's _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_,
and everything else of a like character that he could lay hands upon.
Altogether, he was a very strange fellow, who evidently thought deeply,
and originally, and held many very remarkable opinions upon certain
subjects.
This it was that made his friendship for and deep attachment to Dick
Chichester, and Chichester's equally deep attachment to him, so strange
a thing; for the two had not a trait in common. To begin with,
Chichester was much younger than Stukely, being just turned seventeen
years of age, although this difference in age was much less apparent
than usual, for while Stukely, in his more buoyant and expansive
moments, seemed considerably younger than his years, Chichester might
easily have been, and indeed often was, mistaken for a young man of
twenty-one or twenty-two. While Stukely was spare of frame and sallow
of complexion, Chichester possessed the frame, stature, and colouring of
a young Viking, being already within a quarter of an inch of six feet
two inches in height, although he had by no means done growing, broad in
proportion, with eyes of steel blue, and a shock of curly hair which his
friends would in these latter days have called auburn, while his
enemies--if he had possessed any--would have tersely described it as
"carrots". In temperament, too, Chichester was the very antithesis of
Stukely, for he was absolutely unimaginative and matter-of-fact.
Perhaps his occupation may have had something to do with this; for he
was apprenticed to a shipwright, and delighted in his work. He was also
an orphan; his nearest relative being his uncle Michael Chichester, a
merchant of Plymouth, who had adopted him upon the death of his parents,
and with whom he now lived.
Not much was said as the strangely assorted pair strode along side by
side on their way to the water, for both of them loved boats, and
sailing, and all that pertained to the sea life, and both were equally
eager to get afloat as quickly as possible, so as not to waste
unnecessarily a moment of that glorious evening. At last, however, as
Dick turned unexpectedly into a narrow side alley, Stukely pulled up
short with:
"Hillo, Master Dick! whither away, my lad? This is not the way to the
spot where our boat is moored."
"No," answered Dick, "it is not, I know. But we are not going to take
our own boat to-night, Phil; we are going to take Gramfer Heard's
lugger. Gramfer is to Tavistock to-night; and he told me this morning
that I might use the lugger whenever I pleased, if he did not want her
himself. We'll have something like a sail to-night, Phil, for there is
enough wind blowing to just suit the lugger, while it and the sea would
be rather too much for our own boat."
So saying, Chichester led the way down the alley, and halted at a door
in the wall, nearly at its farthest extremity. Then, drawing a key from
his pocket, he unlocked the door, flung it open, and Stukely found
himself looking in upon Gramfer Heard's shipyard, the scene of Dick
Chichester's daily labours. He gazed, for a few seconds, with
appreciative eyes at the forms of three goodly hulls in varying stages
of progress, inhaled with keen enjoyment the mingled odours of pine
chips and Stockholm tar, and then hurried after Dick, who was already
busily engaged in unmooring a small skiff, in which to pull off to a
handsome five-ton lugger-rigged boat that lay lightly straining at her
moorings in the tideway.
A few minutes later they were aboard the lugger, busily engaged in
loosing and setting the sails; and presently they were under way, having
slipped their moorings and transferred them to the skiff, which they
left behind to serve as a buoy to guide them to the moorings upon their
return. The lugger was a beautiful boat, according to the idea of
beauty that then prevailed, having been constructed by Mr George
Heard--familiarly known as Gramfer Heard--shipbuilder of Devonport, and
Dick Chichester's master, as a kind of yacht, for his own especial use
and enjoyment. She was a very roomy boat, being entirely open from stem
to stern, and was conveniently rigged with two masts, the main and
mizzen, upon which were set two standing lugs and a jib, the mizzen
sheet being hauled out to the end of a bumpkin; consequently when once
her sails were set she could easily be handled by one man.
Stukely, who was the master spirit, took the tiller, quite as a matter
of course, while Dick was perfectly content to tend the jib and main
sheets; and away they went down the Hamoaze, with the water buzzing and
foaming from the boat's lee bow and swirling giddily in her wake as she
sped swiftly along under the impulse of a fresh westerly breeze, the
full strength of which was however not yet felt, the lugger being under
the lee of Mount Edgecumbe, beautiful then as it is to-day. But the
prospect which delighted the eyes of the two friends--or of Stukely
rather, for Dick Chichester somehow seemed almost entirely to lack the
keen sense of beauty with which his friend was so bountifully endowed--
was very different from that which greets the eye of the beholder
to-day. Devonport and Stonehouse were mere villages; Mount Wise was
farm land; where the citadel now stands was a trumpery fort which a
modern gunboat would utterly destroy in half an hour; Drake's island was
fortified, it is true, but with a battery even more insignificant than
the citadel fort; while the Hoe showed a bare half-dozen buildings,
chief of which was the inn, afterwards re-named the Pelican Inn, in
honour of Drake's ship, famous as the spot behind which, eleven years
later, Drake and Hawkins played their never-to-be-forgotten game of
bowls.
As the boat slid out from under the lee of Drake's island, however, and
headed straight for the Eddystone, she gradually began to feel the full
strength of the breeze, and her two occupants settled themselves down to
enjoy thoroughly a good long evening's sail, perhaps to be extended into
the small hours of the next morning, if the conditions continued
favourable. For there was nothing that these two more thoroughly
enjoyed than a good tussle, in a well-found boat, against a strong
breeze and a heavy sea; and they were like enough to have both to-night,
so soon as they cleared the Sound and reached open water. In fact,
although probably neither of them had thus far suspected it, both were
strongly imbued with the spirit of born adventurers.
An hour's sailing sufficed to carry them to seaward of Penlee Point,
when they found that there was just wind and sea enough to make for
perfect enjoyment, therefore instead of contenting themselves with a
mere sail round the Eddystone and back they determined to make a night
of it; and the sheets were accordingly hauled aft for a long stretch to
windward, close-hauled, towards the chops of the Channel.
Away sped the boat to the southward and westward, careening gunwale-to,
and sending the spray flying in such drenching showers over the weather
bow, that presently the water rose above the bottom boards and splashed
like a miniature sea in the lee bilge, compelling Dick to abandon the
mainsheet to Stukely while he took a bucket and proceeded to bale. But
the wind showed a disposition to freshen, careening the boat so steeply
that, despite Stukely's utmost care, the water began to slop in over the
lee gunwale, as well as over the bows; and at length they decided to
take a reef in the mainsail, for Dick had no fancy for spending the rest
of the cruise in an ineffectual endeavour to free the boat of water that
came in faster than he could throw it out. This was done, and the boat
resumed her headlong rush to the southward, until by the time that the
sun sank, red and angry, beneath the western wave, the land lay a mere
film of grey along the northern board.
Then occurred a thing common enough in the tropics but much less usual
in our more temperate climate; the wind suddenly dropped to a stark
calm, and then, a few minutes later, came away in a terrific squall from
about north-north-east.
So violent was the outfly that there was but one thing to do, namely, to
keep the boat away dead before it; and away went the lugger, still
heading to the southward and westward, but with the wind now dead aft
instead of over the starboard bow. But they had scarcely been scudding
five minutes when there occurred a sudden rending crack of timber, and
the mainmast, weakened by an unsuspected flaw in the heart of it,
snapped, about midway between the heel of it and the sheave, and went
over the bows, broaching-to the lugger with the drag of the mainsail in
the water, and nearly filling her as she came slowly round head to wind.
The friends were now in a situation of imminent peril, the squall raised
a very awkward choppy sea with almost magical rapidity, and, more than
half-full of water as the boat now was, she was liable to be swamped out
of hand by some unlucky sea pouring in over her bows; the occupants,
therefore, set to work with a will to bale her out, Stukely taking the
bucket from Dick and handing him the baler instead. But it was both
back-breaking and heartbreaking work; for, rendered heavy and sluggish
by the large quantity of water in her, the boat frequently failed to
rise to the lift of the seas, several of which poured in over her bows
from time to time, filling her faster than she could be freed by the
joint efforts of her crew; so that at length the unwelcome conviction
forced itself upon the two friends that, unless something quite
unforeseen happened, the boat must inevitably founder under them.
This conviction caused the toiling pair to cease from their labours for
a moment and glance about them anxiously, in the hope that the twilight
might reveal to them some craft to which they might signal for
assistance. To their great relief, they perceived that there was indeed
such a craft within a short two miles to the eastward of them; moreover
she was outward-bound, and was heading in such a direction that she
would probably pass within half a mile of the waterlogged lugger.
"Thanks be!" devoutly exclaimed Stukely, as his eyes fell upon her. "If
we can but attract her attention before the boat founders, we shall
escape, after all. Go on with your baling, Dick, while I wave my coat.
The thing to do is to catch the eye of somebody aboard that ship and
make it understood that we are in distress; then, since we can both
swim, it will not greatly matter if the lugger should go down before
yonder ship reaches us."
Dick obediently did as he was told, while Stukely, whipping off his
coat, sprang upon the mast thwart and, with his left arm flung round the
splintered stump to steady himself, proceeded to wave his coat
energetically. Luckily for the pair in distress, they were to the
westward of the approaching ship, with the evening sky, in which still
lingered a pale primrose glow, behind them, and against this background
their figures and that of the boat stood out black as silhouettes cut in
ebony. It is possible that, even with this advantage, they might have
escaped notice, had not Phil thought of waving his coat; but the figure
of him standing there, apparently upon nothing--for it was only now and
then that a small portion of the hull became visible--waving frantically
something big enough to show up strongly, soon attracted attention on
board the approaching ship, and Stukely had scarcely been ten minutes
engaged on his waving operations when he had the gratification of seeing
a flag float out over the rail and go soaring up to the main truck,
while the stranger's helm was slightly shifted and she swerved
perceptibly toward them.
"Glory be! they have seen us, and are bearing away for us, so it matters
little now whether the lugger sinks or swims," exclaimed Stukely, as he
sprang off the thwart and resumed his task of baling with renewed zest.
"Nevertheless," he continued, "it will be well to keep her afloat as
long as we may, since she affords a bigger mark to steer for than would
the heads of us two afloat upon the darkling water."
The stranger--a tall and stately ship of some two hundred and forty tons
measurement--was now close aboard of the dismasted lugger; and well was
it for the occupants of the latter that such was the case; for as the
ship cleverly rounded-to, with her topsails lowered, alongside and to
windward of the boat, so near was the latter to foundering that the bow
wave of the rescuing craft completed the disaster by surging in over the
gunwale in sufficient volume to fill her; and down she went, at the
precise moment when some half a dozen ropes, hurled by the sailors
above, came whirling down about the shoulders of Dick and Stukely.
"Haul away!" shouted the two, with one accord, each grasping the rope's
end that came first to hand as they felt the lugger sinking and
themselves going down with her; and the next moment they were dragged,
dripping wet, up the lee side of the ship and in over her high bulwarks.
"Better late than never; iss, fegs!" exclaimed a stout, burly man of
middle height, clad in a crimson doublet of slashed silk, and trunk
hose, with a crimson velvet cap, in front of which was stuck a feather
of the same hue, secured by a gold brooch, set jauntily upon his head.
"But by my faith, my masters, we were only just in time. Mr Bascomb,
put up your helm, and hoist away your topsails again. And now, gentles
both, who be ye; and how came ye to be in so awkward a scrape as that
from which we have just rescued ye?"
This was evidently the captain of the ship; so Stukely, taking the lead
as usual, explained in a few brief words the particulars of their
mishap, thanked the unknown for his kindness in taking the trouble to
pick them up, and concluded by expressing the hope that the individual
to whom he was speaking would have the great goodness to stand inshore
and land them on the nearest point that he could conveniently fetch.
The captain--for such he proved to be, introducing himself as John
Marshall, captain of the good ship _Adventure_ of Topsham, westward
bound to the Indies in quest of Spanish booty--shook his head
good-naturedly but firmly.
"Nay, friend, that I cannot and will not do, for here have we spent the
whole of last night and to-day working down channel as far as this, and
now that we have at last caught a fair slant of wind I will make the
most thereof, not risking the loss of it to land any man, yea, even
though he were my own brother! The utmost that I can promise is, that
if we should fall in with a coaster, or other ship, bound up-channel, or
should sight a fishing boat, I will delay my voyage just long enough to
put ye on board, but not a minute longer. And if so be we do not
encounter another craft, you will e'en both have to join us, for we have
here no room for idlers. And now, hie you both away into the cabin, and
take off your wet clothes; Mr Bascomb, the master, will furnish you
with dry clothing from the slop chest--though I misdoubt me," he
continued, running his eye dubiously over Chichester's stalwart frame,
"whether he will find any ample enough to clothe your friend withal.
And when ye have changed, sup with us in the cabin, and we will talk
further together."
Marshall then beckoned to Bascomb, and gave the latter instructions to
open the slop chest and do his best to provide the newcomers with dry
clothes; whereupon the master, in turn, beckoned to Philip and Dick to
follow him below, where in due time both were provided with a change of
clothing, the resources of the slop chest happily proving fully equal to
the strain upon its resources imposed by Chichester's bulky proportions.
The change was effected in good time to allow the two friends to join
the occupants of the poop cabin at supper, where Captain Marshall made
them duly acquainted with his fellow adventurers. These were five in
number, consisting respectively of Mr George Lumley and Mr Thomas
Winter, Marshall's lieutenants, Mr Walter Dyer and Mr Edmund Harvey,
gentlemen adventurers who, with Marshall, had provided the wherewithal
for the fitting out of the expedition, and Mr William Bascomb, the
master aforesaid. They were all fellow Devonians, a genial and hearty
company, in the best of good spirits at the prospect of stirring times
before them, with the chance of returning home made men. It is true
that--not to put too fine a point upon it--they were pirates, of a sort;
but so were Grenvile, Drake, Hawkins, and the rest of their illustrious
contemporaries; and piracy was at that time regarded as a quite
honourable profession--provided that the piracies were perpetrated
solely against the hated Spaniard.
It was by this time dark enough to render necessary the lighting of the
great cabin lamp which swung in the skylight; and the apartment, with
its long table draped with snowy napery and abundantly furnished with
smoking viands flanked with great flagons of foaming ale, presented a
particularly cosy and inviting appearance as Dick and Phil, having been
introduced in due form to the others, took their seats; the more so,
perhaps, from the fact that both of them, having been too eager for
their sail to wait for a meal at the conclusion of their day's labours,
had tasted neither bite nor sup since midday, and were now each in
possession of a truly voracious appetite. Then, the conversation as the
meal progressed--the wonderful, almost incredible, stories of past
adventure related by Marshall and Bascomb, both of whom had already once
visited the Indies, and the confidence with which all anticipated their
return to England laden with wealth unimaginable--exercised an almost
irresistible fascination over the two newcomers, one at least of whom--
Philip Stukely to wit--began to feel, before the meal was over, that he
cared not a jot though he should be compelled by force of circumstances
to join those daredevil adventurers who made it clearly understood that,
so far as the outside world was concerned, they intended to be a law
unto themselves. Marshall's and Bascomb's talk, especially, of
cloudless skies of richest blue, out of which the sun darted his flaming
rays by day, and in which the stars blazed like jewels at night; of
tranquil seas of sapphire in which creatures of strange forms and
brilliant hues disported themselves; of tropic shores, coral fringed and
clothed with graceful feathery palms backed by noble forest trees of
precious woods, made glorious by flowers of every conceivable hue and
shape, amid which hovered birds of such gorgeous plumage that they
gleamed and shone in the sun like living gems; of rich and luscious
fruits to be had for the mere trouble of plucking; of fireflies
spangling the velvet darkness with their fairy lamps; and of the gentle
Indians who--at least when not brought under the malign influence of the
cruel Spaniard--regarded white men as gods; all these appealed with
singular force and fascination to Stukely, who sat listening
breathlessly and with glowing eyes to everything that the two sailors
said about these wonders.
For, singularly enough, although the man had never until now been out of
sight of English soil, and although he had never read about them, all
these things seemed strangely familiar to him. Times without number, as
he had sat meditating over the fire on a winter's night, or had sprawled
among the hay or upon the sandy beach on a summer evening, had visions
of just such lands and just such enchanting scenes as Marshall and
Bascomb described come floating to him like vague and distant but
cherished memories.
He awoke, as from a delightful dream, when, the meal being finished,
Marshall arose from his chair and invited his guests to accompany him
out on deck. It was quite dark when they emerged from the cabin; so
dark indeed that for a moment, their eyes being still dazzled by the
bright light of the cabin lamp, they groped their way like blind men,
and were fain to stand still, clinging to whatsoever their hands
happened to find. Then, their sight coming to them again, they followed
Marshall up the poop ladder, and stood, staring out upon a night of
blusterous wind and faintly phosphorescent, foam-capped sea; of flying
clouds amid which the stars twinkled mistily and vanished, to re-appear
presently with the tall spars and swelling canvas of the ship swaying
dizzily and black among them; a night full of unaccustomed sounds of
creaking and groaning timbers, of the splashing and roaring of water
under the ship's bows, along her bends, and about her rudder; of strange
sighings and moanings aloft; and of the low murmur of men's voices as
the watch clustered under the shelter of the towering forecastle,
discussing, mayhap, like their superiors aft, the prospects of the
voyage.
The Captain peered about him on either side of the ship, anon stooping
to send his glances forward into the darkness beyond the heaving bows;
then he hailed the lookouts upon the forecastle, demanding in sharp,
imperative tones whether there were sail of any kind in sight. The
answer was in the negative.
"Well, my masters," said he, turning to Stukely and Chichester, "you see
how it is; there is nothing in sight; and every mile that we travel
lessens your chance of our falling in with anything into which we can
transfer you. If this good breeze holds--as I trust in God that it
will--we shall be off Falmouth shortly after midnight, but much too far
out to render it at all likely that we shall sight any of its fishing
craft; and, once to the westward of Falmouth, your last chance of
getting ashore will be gone. Now, what say ye? Will ye, without more
ado, up and join us? I talked the matter over with my partners while
you were changing your duds before supper, and I can find room in the
ship for both of you. We have no surgeon with us, so that berth will
fit you finely, Mr Stukely; while, as for you, my young son of Anak,"
turning to Chichester, "a lad of your thews and sinews can always earn
his keep aboard ship. But I can offer ye something better than the
berth of ship's boy; we have but one carpenter among us, and I will
gladly take you on with the rating of carpenter's mate, if that will
suit ye. Iss, fegs, that I will! Now, what say ye? Shall us call it a
bargain, and have done wi' it?"
"So far as I am concerned, you certainly may--if Dick will join, too,"
answered Stukely. "I will not let him go ashore alone to answer for the
loss of the boat; for the accident which caused the plight in which you
found us was at least as much my fault as his. But I do not believe
that we are going to have the chance to get ashore, therefore--what say
you, Dick, shall we accept Captain Marshall's very generous offer, and
so settle the matter?"
"I am not thinking of the boat--Gramfer Heard is rich enough to bear the
loss of her without feeling it--but it is my uncle that I'm troubling
about. I am afraid that he will be greatly distressed at my sudden and
unaccountable disappearance," answered Dick.
"True," assented Stukely; "doubtless he will. But what about thy aunt,
Dick? Will not she rejoice that your worthy uncle's exchequer is
relieved of the cost of your maintenance? I have heard that she keeps a
tight hold upon her husband's purse strings; and it has been whispered
that she begrudges every tester that the good man spends upon thee.
Believe me, she will soon find words to console him for thy loss."
"That is true, Phil," returned Dick, with a sigh. "She would sit and
watch me eating, like any cat, so that often enough, for very shame, I
rose from the table still hungry. But my uncle is not a rich man, and
he has three maidens of his own to feed and clothe, so that perhaps it
may be just as well that I should take advantage of this opportunity to
relieve him of the cost of an extra mouth to fill, and an extra body to
cover. But what of Master Summers, Phil? How will he manage without
thee?"
"Master Summers must e'en get another dispenser," answered Stukely, with
a shrug. "I trow there are plenty of them to be had. But I would that
I had my books with me. Not having them, however, I must contrive as
best I can to do without them."
"Then," cut in the Captain, somewhat impatiently, "may I understand that
you are willing to join us? You will never have another such an
opportunity to make your fortunes."
Phil looked enquiringly at Dick, who, after a moment's hesitation,
nodded; whereupon Stukely, speaking for both, announced that they were
ready to sign the agreement whenever it might be convenient for them to
do so.
"No time like the present," asserted Marshall. "You may as well do it
now." And, leading the way into the cabin, he produced a parchment
setting forth the articles of agreement, which he read over to them.
The two friends then took the pen and inscribed their names at the foot
of the document, thus forging the last link in a chain which was to drag
them into a series of adventures of so extraordinary a character that it
is doubtful whether even Stukely, with all his inborn love of adventure,
would have been willing to proceed, could he but have foreseen what
awaited him in the future.