pungent expression of Don Silvio's opinion of the capacity of a Governor
who could permit his city to be captured and held by a handful of
English pirates; then proceeded succinctly to refuse to accede to any of
those pirates' demands; and wound up by saying that if the garrison and
citizens of Nombre were such fools as to allow themselves to be
surprised, they must take the consequences, whatever they might be.
But, Don Silvio concluded by saying, if the city of Nombre were sacked
by the English, the citizens might console themselves with the assurance
that they would be amply avenged, for he (Don Silvio) was dispatching
every soldier in Panama to the assistance of Nombre, and if, upon their
arrival, any English were found in the city, they would be exterminated
with the utmost promptitude!
Like Don Sebastian, George read this precious effusion of a pompous,
consequential, pig-headed official twice before commenting upon it.
Then he turned to the secretary and said:
"Senor, are you cognisant of the contents of this letter?"
"I believe so, in a general way, Illustrissimo," answered Senor
Montalvo. "Of course," he continued, "I have not read the communication
itself, but I was able to pretty well gather from Don Silvio's remarks
when I explained my mission to him what was the nature of the reply he
intended to make to Don Sebastian's request."
"Describe Don Silvio to me," demanded George.
"He is a man somewhat above medium height," replied the secretary, "of
rather striking appearance, dark complexioned, sallow, hasty and
irascible of temper, has a very exalted opinion of his position and
dignity, is very impatient of anything in the most remote degree
approaching to dictation, and has a profound belief in his own judgment,
and in his qualifications generally for the post which he occupies. He
is of opinion, for example, that had he been Governor of Nombre, you and
your followers would never have succeeded in establishing yourselves in
the city."
"I see," said George. "Yes, I think from your description I can form a
tolerably accurate picture of the man. Is he a man of his word?"
"As how, precisely, Senor Captain?" demanded the secretary.
"Well," explained George, "in this letter he announces his intention to
dispatch every soldier at his disposal in Panama to the relief of this
city. Do you think he will really do so?"
"Undoubtedly, senor," was the answer. "I was present when Don Silvio
issued the order, and when I left Panama the soldiers were already
mustering for the march."
"And how many soldiers do you suppose are available for this service?"
demanded George.
"Five hundred cavalry, and twelve hundred foot soldiers, with six
batteries of horse artillery," was the startling reply.
It was a reply for which young Saint Leger was wholly unprepared; it
startled him, while at the same time it inspired him with a most
audacious idea. He carefully controlled his features, however, quite
conscious of the fact that both Don Sebastian and his secretary were
intently watching him, and proceeded with his questioning in the same
level, quiet tones as before.
"And when do you think we may look for the arrival of those soldiers?"
he asked.
"The cavalry may arrive at any moment," answered Senor Montalvo, "while
as for the artillery and the foot soldiers, they should be here by to-
morrow's noon."
"Ah! I thank you, senor, for the frankness with which you have replied
to my questions," said George. "This news is important and unexpected;
I must ask you to excuse me, gentlemen, while I retire to confer with my
officers. What you, Senor Montalvo, have told me may possibly
necessitate an alteration of my plans." And, so saying, the young
Englishman bowed to the two Spaniards and left them, going out to find
Basset and Dyer, that he might communicate to them the momentous news as
to the dispatch of the soldiers from Panama, and also to broach to them
the audacious project that had just suggested itself to him.
The three Englishmen conversed together earnestly and eagerly for the
best part of an hour, while they paced to and fro upon the parapet of
the battery, well out of earshot of anybody else; and at length they
came to a certain decision which they at once proceeded to put into
effect, George going off to rejoin the Governor and his secretary, while
Basset and Dyer hastened to muster their respective forces, and put into
effect the preliminaries of the plan which they had agreed upon.
When at length Saint Leger rejoined Don Sebastian and Senor Montalvo, he
found his guests--or prisoners, they scarcely knew which to consider
themselves--awaiting his return in a state of anxiety and perturbation,
which they took no pains to conceal. Prominent in their minds was
George's threat to sack and burn the city in such an eventuality as had
just arisen, and they had already seen enough of the young man to
convince them that he was quite capable of carrying out his threat.
There was but one hope for them, they felt, and that lay in the
suggestion artfully put forth by Senor Montalvo, that the cavalry might
be expected to arrive at any moment. This statement was the result of a
sudden and brilliant inspiration which had come to the secretary while
George was questioning him. As a matter of fact, Senor Montalvo felt
tolerably certain that the cavalry could not possibly arrive until the
morrow, but it had suddenly occurred to him that if he stated this, it
would show the English that there was still time for them to sack the
town, while by stating that a considerable body of troops might be
momentarily expected to arrive he hoped to frighten the insolent
strangers into immediate abandonment of the town, without waiting to
sack it.
And he had every reason to congratulate himself that his ruse had been
successful, for George's first words when he returned to the room
occupied by the two Spaniards were:
"Your Excellency, the news which Senor Montalvo has brought from Panama
has caused me to very materially modify my plans. When you were
preparing your dispatch to his Excellency the Governor of Panama, I gave
you to understand that in the event of Don Silvio's refusal to entertain
my proposals, I would sack and destroy the city of Nombre de Dios. But
since then I have had time for reflection; I have come to recognise that
it would be unfair of me to visit Don Silvio's obstinacy too severely
upon you and your town; moreover, I am in hopes that by further
correspondence with him he may be brought to see the desirability of
saving you and Nombre by a merely nominal sacrifice on his part;
therefore, after consultation with my officers, I have decided to spare
Nombre for the present, and to withdraw from it in order to afford you
time for further negotiations with Don Silvio. But before withdrawing I
intend to take the precaution of destroying this battery, so that upon
my return I shall, at least, not have it to contend with. And,
understand me, your Excellency, I shall return again, but not until the
soldiers now expected have been withdrawn from the town. That must
certainly happen soon, and when it does you may expect to see me back,
for I shall find means to learn everything of importance that happens in
Nombre. And when I next come, my visit will be a final one; for unless
you are then prepared to hand me over the seventeen prisoners I have
asked for, I will not leave one stone of Nombre upon another. You will
kindly remain here until I am ready to evacuate the battery, when you
will be free to return to Government House."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
HOW THE ENGLISHMEN MARCHED ACROSS THE ISTHMUS TO PANAMA.
As Saint Leger quitted the room Senor Montalvo gave vent to a chuckle of
delighted self-gratulation, much to the surprise, and somewhat to the
annoyance, of his Excellency, Don Sebastian Salvador Alfonso de
Albareda, Governor of the city of Nombre de Dios.
"Senor Montalvo," he said austerely, "you are surely forgetting
yourself. I see nothing at all in that truculent young Englishman's
threat that is in the least degree calculated to excite the risibility
of anyone whose misfortune it is to be a dweller in this god-forsaken
city of Nombre de Dios. Not even its name seems to protect it in the
slightest degree from the sacrilegious violence of these Lutheran dogs.
Pray explain yourself, senor."
"Ten thousand pardons, your Excellency," exclaimed Montalvo, still
grinning delightedly. "It was not so much the Englishman's threats at
which I was amused--although I think we may perhaps permit ourselves to
smile at them, too; what I was chiefly amused at was the stroke of
genius by which I have fortunately been able to save our city from sack
by those pestilent English to-day."
"You--you have saved Nombre from being sacked to-day?" exclaimed Don
Sebastian. "Still I fail to understand you, senor."
"Did you not observe, your Excellency, that, in reply to a question by
the young English pirate, I mentioned that the cavalry from Panama might
be expected to appear here at any moment? That was a little slip of the
tongue on my part, the result of a happy inspiration. Had I replied
truthfully I should have said that the cavalry could hardly by any
possibility arrive until some time to-morrow; and the result of that
reply would in all probability have been an instant order by that young
English dog to sack the city, which work might easily be accomplished
before the appearance of the cavalry upon the scene. But did you mark
the expression of Senor Englishman's face when I said that the cavalry
might be expected at any moment? It was terror, your Excellency--terror
and consternation! And the result is an order for the instant
evacuation of this battery and the retreat of the English from the town.
That youngster at once recognised that if the cavalry were close at
hand there would be no time to sack the town: he and his people would be
caught and exterminated to a man. Hence his magnanimous resolve to
spare us for the time being. _Now_ does your Excellency understand?"
"Ah! yes; of course I do, and I beg your pardon for my hasty rebuke,
Montalvo," exclaimed Don Sebastian, seizing his companion's hand and
shaking it heartily. "_Caramba_! that was a brilliant idea of yours
about the cavalry, and it has had the effect that you foresaw; the
rascally Englishmen are much too anxious regarding the safety of their
own skins to think of plundering the town now; and, please the Virgin,
in a few hours we shall be well rid of them, and I shall have escaped
getting into very serious trouble--thanks to you, Montalvo. You have
placed me under a very heavy obligation, my friend, and I shall not
forget it.
"But there is still the future to be thought of. It is true that we
have escaped by the skin of our teeth for the moment, Montalvo; for the
moment only. But if I am any judge of character, that English
_muchacho_ will return, as he threatened he would; and then what are we
going to do?"
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil, your Excellency," answered
Montalvo, "and we shall have time enough to think of that when these
dogs have gone. Did you notice what the boy captain said? He will
return again, but not until the soldiers now expected have been
withdrawn from the town. Well, it must be your care, Excellency, that
the soldiers shall not be withdrawn from Nombre until the patience of
these English pirates has become thoroughly exhausted, and they have
taken themselves off elsewhere--precisely where they go is a matter that
need not concern us so long as it is sufficiently far from Nombre. And
while we are enjoying the protection of the soldiers it must be our
business to so strengthen the defences of the town that--_Madre de
Dios_! what is happening now?"
The worthy secretary might well exclaim, for his illuminating discourse
was at this moment broken in upon and interrupted by a series of
deafening explosions of so violent a character that they set the very
walls of the building trembling. They were caused by the bursting of
the cannon mounted in the battery, and the blowing-up of the defences
which Basset had devised and caused to be constructed with so much
labour, and the destruction of which Saint Leger had ordered as a
preliminary to his abandonment of the place. The Governor and his
secretary had scarcely recovered from the consternation engendered by
those alarming explosions when George appeared with the information that
they were now free to leave the battery and return to Government House
whenever they pleased; and the two Spaniards were still painfully
scrambling through and over the debris of the destroyed defences, on
their way back to the town, when they saw the Englishmen jump into their
boats and push off from the beach.
It was long after sundown on that same day when the anxious watchers on
board the _Nonsuch_, anchored in that tiny unsuspected harbour, heard
the roll and splash of oars sounding from the seaward of them, and were
soon afterward greeted with a hail which told them that their comrades,
as to whose safety they were beginning to feel somewhat anxious, were
returning; and a few minutes later the boats were alongside and a
general reunion had taken place.
It was too late to do anything further that night, apart from the fact
that the returned ones were pretty thoroughly tired out by the time that
they had shaken down and had their supper; but on the following morning
George, Dyer and a guard of two men were landed upon the beach and
forthwith proceeded to make the best of their way to the Cimarrone
village ruled over by the chief named Lukabela.
As it chanced, the chief was "at home" when they reached the village,
and he accorded his visitors a very cordial welcome. He was highly
amused and delighted when he learned that the English had held the city
of Nombre at their mercy for five days, but looked both puzzled and
disgusted when he learned that they had left the place as they found it,
without sacking the city, exacting a ransom, or making the Spaniards
suffer in any way; for the Cimarrones hated the Spaniards with a hatred
that was perfectly fiendish, and woe betide any Spaniard or body of
Spaniards whose evil fortune it was to fall into their hands. Death was
the least of the evils that any man, woman or child of Spanish blood had
to fear at the hands of the ferocious Cimarrones. But he brightened up
again when he learned that the young English captain had hatched a
particularly audacious scheme, in the execution of which he besought
Lukabela's assistance.
"In anything partaking of the nature of an attack upon the Spaniards,
Senor Englishman, you have only to command me, and you may rest assured
of the whole-hearted assistance of myself and every man of my tribe," he
assured George.
The latter bowed. "Well," he explained, "the matter stands thus: A year
ago, as you may have heard, certain of my countrymen, among whom was
your friend El Draque, were treacherously attacked in the harbour of San
Juan de Ulua, and several of them were killed or wounded, while a number
of others--among whom was my elder brother--were taken prisoners. Of
these last, all have been accounted for in one way or another save
seventeen who, I learn, were sent from San Juan to Nombre, and from
Nombre to Panama, where I am given to understand they were put aboard
the galleys, to end their lives toiling at the oars.
"Now, I and my companions have crossed the Great Water for the express
purpose of finding and rescuing my brother--and incidentally his English
fellow prisoners--from the Spaniards; and, accordingly, we first went to
San Juan, where I learned that the seventeen survivors of the attack had
been sent to Nombre. Therefore from San Juan we came to _Nombre_, where
I learn that the seventeen were sent to Panama. At my request the
Governor of Nombre sent a message to the Governor of Panama, informing
the latter that Nombre was in my possession, and that I required the
surrender of the seventeen English prisoners as ransom for the town.
But the Governor of Panama, instead of finding and returning the
Englishmen, has dispatched every soldier from Panama to Nombre, to drive
us out of the city. Learning this, and knowing that it would be
impossible for us to hold Nombre in the face of the overwhelming force
that was being sent against us, I decided to quit the city; but I
accompanied the announcement of this determination to the Governor of
Nombre with certain threats of return which I believe will cause him to
retain those soldiers--the whole garrison of Panama, you understand--in
Nombre for a full month, or perhaps longer.
"Panama, you will perceive, is thus left defenceless; and it is my idea
to at once make a dash across the isthmus, seize the biggest, or at
least the most formidable, ship in the harbour, exact from the Governor,
by threats or even force, if possible, full information respecting the
galleys aboard which the Englishmen have been shipped, and then go in
search of them until I have found them and liberated my countrymen.
"You can help me in this project, if you will, in the following manner.
My ship lies at anchor in the little cove of which you know, not far
from here. I shall be obliged to leave her there, since I intend to
take my entire company with me; and I propose to leave her in your
charge. I shall dismantle her, stowing her spars, sails, gear and
ordnance below, and roofing her over with a thatch of palm leaves to
protect her hull from the sun and weather, and if you will lend me a few
of your people, they will be helpful in that part of my work. Then,
when that is done, you can further help me by furnishing me with a guide
who will lead me to Panama, and by lending me either mules or men who
will help me and my people to transport across the isthmus such stores
and ammunition as it will be necessary for us to take with us. Will you
do this?"
"Senor," exclaimed Lukabela, "we Cimarrones live but to wreak our
righteous vengeance upon the Spaniard. We are his enemies; and you,
too, are his enemies; therefore in any attempt of yours which has for
its object the spoiling of the Spaniard we are your natural allies, and
you may command our help to any extent which you may deem needful. I
can place fifty men at your service; and if these be not enough I can
increase the number to five hundred in the course of a week if you care
to wait so long."
"A thousand thanks!" said George. "Your fifty men will no doubt prove
ample, for I do not anticipate that there will be any fighting to do,
except at sea, and for that my own men will be sufficient. When can I
have your men to assist me aboard the ship?"
"I will bring them to you within the hour, senor, if that will suffice,"
answered Lukabela.
"Thanks," answered George, "that will do most admirably. And now, that
matter being settled, I will return at once and make all the necessary
preparations. The boats shall be waiting to convey you aboard the ship
in one hour's time."
And therewith he and his party rose and, bidding Lukabela a temporary
farewell, hurried back to the _Nonsuch_, where preparations were at once
made for the dismantling of the ship prior to the adventurous expedition
across the isthmus.
That day and the one that followed it were days of strenuous labour
indeed, not only for the crew of the _Nonsuch_, but also for their black
allies, who turned up on the beach in full strength, and with most
commendable punctuality, under Lukabela, and were promptly taken aboard.
For there was a very considerable amount of heavy work to be done:
sails were to be loosed and dried, unbent, rolled up and stowed away
below; yards and topmasts to be sent down, scraped and thoroughly
greased before they, too, were stowed below; gear unrove, overhauled,
made up in coils and labelled; the ordnance dismounted, and, in short,
the ship dismantled to her three lower masts, and every movable thing
stowed away out of reach of covetous hands--for George felt that it
would be unwise to trust his black allies too far or too implicitly.
Then every anchor and cable belonging to the ship was used to moor her
securely, for it was impossible to estimate how long she would have to
lie there at the mercy of the elements. And all this had to be done in
a small land-locked cove, hemmed-in on every side by high, densely-
wooded land, where the trade-wind could not penetrate, and where the
land and sea-breezes were represented by merely fitful breathings of
suffocatingly hot air drifting by at infrequent intervals. And this,
too, with a blazing sun almost immediately overhead; for it was now mid-
August, and the cove lay almost immediately under the ninth parallel of
north latitude.
Then, when all this was done, there was the fixing up of the framework
for a roof or awning of palm-leaf thatch for the protection of the deck
and hull of the ship from the sun's rays; but Lukabela assured George
that there was no need to delay the departure of the expedition until
the roof had been thatched, for he undertook that the women of his
village, who were, according to him, experts in the art of thatching,
should attend to that part of the business.
The evening of the second day witnessed the completion of the
preparations for the Englishmen's daring descent upon Panama; and within
an hour after sunrise on the following day the entire party, with fifty
Cimarrones under Lukabela, and a train of twenty mules, also furnished
by the Cimarrone chief, mustered on the beach of the little secret cove
and made their final preparations for the march. These merely consisted
in loading the indispensable baggage of the party upon the mules; and as
this work was performed by the deft hands of the Cimarrones, twenty
minutes sufficed for the accomplishment of the task, when the expedition
at once started, taking the way, in the first instance, toward
Lukabela's village.
Until the adventurers reached the village the march was accomplished in
a very loose and happy-go-lucky fashion, half the Cimarrones leading the
way, with the Englishmen following in small chattering parties of twos
and threes as the path through the bush would permit, while the mule
train, in charge of the other half of the Cimarrones, brought up the
rear. But with their departure from the village silence and strict
military discipline became the order of the day, because although
Lukabela was going to lead them, not by the Gold road, upon which they
would be liable to encounter travellers at any moment, but by a devious
and secret path, known only to the Cimarrones, they would still be
passing through the enemy's country, and would be liable to detection
unless the utmost caution was observed. Therefore the order of march
was thus arranged: In the lead went, as guide and scout, fully armed
with bow and spear, the Cimarrone who of the whole tribe was most
intimately acquainted with the route which was to be followed. Then, in
single file, distant from each other about fifty yards, went five other
Cimarrones in the track of the leader, their duty being to watch for and
transmit to the main body any signals which the leader might make.
Then, some fifty yards in the rear of the rearmost of these five,
marched twenty Cimarrones whose duty it would be to make a stand should
the enemy by any chance appear in force, while the main body retired
upon the nearest defensive position. Fifty yards to the rear again
followed the aforesaid main body, consisting of half the Englishmen, the
mule train, and the other half of the Englishmen, while the remainder of
the Cimarrones constituted the rear guard.