"Lieutenant Robinson," said he to our persecutor, who looked ill at ease
as he stood before him, the sextant which he had snatched up in a hurry
to calculate the angle of distance of the whale and its antagonists now
hanging listlessly in his hand, "be good enough, sir, to tell those boys
that they may remain on the upper deck and look over the side, but that
they must not stand on the hammock nettings. I like discipline to be
preserved on board the ship I may have the honour to command, but I
never allow any unnecessary severity being shown to the men or boys of
the ship's company!"
Much against his will, the lieutenant, thus rebuked on the quarter-deck
in the presence not only of his own brother-officers, but in that of all
of us on the deck below as well, had now to `eat humble pie' and give us
the commodore's message; and, though Mick and I could not repress a grin
on his bowing to us with mock politeness, we could see from the look in
his underhung eyes that he intended to pay us out bye-and-bye when he
had the chance for having been obliged to beg our pardon, as he had to
do almost then.
Unhappily, though, the permission for us to look over the side again
came too late; for the thrasher and the swordfish had been too much for
the poor whale, whose huge lifeless body was now floating away to
leeward, half a cable's length astern of the ship, surrounded by an eddy
of bloody water, while its assailants had both disappeared.
"Begorrah," cried Mick, much disgusted at this, "sure, we're jist in
toime to be too late!"
In our passage from Madeira to the Canary Islands we steered south by
west, in order to avoid the Salvages.
These are a number of rocky islets, named the `Great Piton,' the `Little
Piton,' and `Ilha Grande,' lying in latitude 30 degrees 8 minutes north,
and longitude 15 degrees 55 minutes west. The largest island is covered
with bushes, amongst which thousands of sea-fowl make their nests; and,
from the fact of its not being seen until a ship be close in to it, when
these very birds tell of its propinquity, by darkening the air almost as
they rise, it is a great danger to mariners.
A little farther to the eastward is Lanzarote, which is very
mountainous, possessing a volcano of its own, where a violent eruption
took place not very long ago, when a stream of lava from two hundred to
three hundred yards broad spread out into the sea like a river, the
floating pumice-stone being picked up by passing vessels miles away.
For this piece of information I am indebted to the navigating officer,
who happened to be telling one of the young midshipmen all about the
place as I was attending to a job the boatswain had set me to aft.
I also heard him tell the same young gentleman a queer yarn about a
buried treasure which is supposed to be concealed near a little cove on
the southern extremity of the island, called `Janubio.' The story goes
that, in the beginning of the century--I think the navigator said it was
in the year 1804, but I am not quite certain--the crew of a South
American Spanish treasure ship, bound to Cadiz from Lima with produce
and which had besides over two millions of dollars in chests aboard,
mutinied, and murdered their captain and officers; the rascals then
making off in the long boat with this treasure towards an island, which,
from the description given, must have been either Lanzarote or one of
the Salvages.
On this island, whichever it was, the dollars were carried ashore and
buried above high-water mark in a snug little bay to the south; the
mutineers, according to the prevailing superstition of such gentry,
burying the body of their murdered captain on top of the treasure, so
that his ghost might prevent any unprivileged intruders from meddling
with their cache.
The navigator said, just as I was going down below after finishing my
job, that this tale was told to an English sailor by one of the
surviving mutineers; and he added that the Admiralty were so much
impressed by its appearance of truth that Admiral Hercules Robinson, the
grandfather, I believe, of our present High Commissioner at the Cape of
Good Hope, was actually sent out to make a search for the treasure when
in command of HMS _Prometheus_, in 1813.
We coaled at Teneriffe, putting into the harbour of Santa Cruz for this
purpose; and Mick and I were much struck by the fact of the black ladies
who carried the baskets of coal on their heads along the jetty from the
shore to the ship, doing the job, too, in first-rate style and as good
as any gang of wharfingers at home, all of them wearing the most
expansive crinolines, which, with their thin dresses and black
stockings, of nature's own provision, had a very comical effect!
"Faith!" exclaimed Mick, after watching these dusky belles with much
interest for some time, the lot of them chattering and laughing away,
showing their teeth, which a dentist would have given something to
possess for his showcase, "Oi'd loike Father O'Flannagan jist for to say
thim quare craychurs, Tom, me hearty, if ownly to say him toorn oop the
whoites ov his oyes. Bedad, he'd be afther sprinklin' 'em wid howly
wather an' exorcisin' on 'em, ez if he'd sayn the divvle, sure!"
Jones the signalman, who was standing near when Mick said this, laughed.
"Your old priest would have his work cut out for him in more ways than
that," said he, with a very significant wink to one of the other hands,
"if he'd only go to Grand Canary instead of Teneriffe!"
The name he mentioned at once made Mick cock his ear.
"Grand Canary," repeated my chum after the signalman, with a puzzled
look on his face. "Ain't thet the place, Tom, whare thim yaller burds
yer sisther Jenny has, sure, at home comes from? She s'id they wor
canaries, Oi'd take me davy!"
"Of course, they are, Mick," said I, in reply to this. "Why, mother
must have a hundred of them in the shop at this very minute, besides
those little ones she brought up herself which Jenny used to act as
nurse to!"
"Och, sure, Oi rimimber thim will enuff," answered Mick, with a
melancholy look on his face, as if his mind had turned back from Santa
Cruz to Bonfire Corner all of a sudden and to our little house there.
"An' thet little chap ov a canary thet had a crist on the top ov his
hid, loike a crown, sure, thet yer sisther Jenny used fur to make so
much ov--the little darlint!"
Whether this term of endearment of his was meant by Mick to apply to
Jenny or the bird, I can't say; but I could see clearly enough in what
direction his thoughts were concentrated.
"Begorrah, Tom," he said after a pause, during which his eyes were
apparently fixed on the celebrated `Peak' for which Teneriffe is better
known in the present day than on account of its canaries; for it is over
four hundred years since these little songsters were first discovered by
the Spaniards and imported into Europe, so that any novelty that might
have been attached to them has long since disappeared, "Oi'll git some
ov the purty craychurs fur yer sisther if we're 'lowed ashore afore we
lave."
"I don't think you will be able to do that," said the signalman, who had
remained alongside of us looking at the darkeys passing to and fro on
the jetty below, from which a gangway of planks led through one of the
midship ports to the coal-bunkers. "We're not likely to stop here after
we've coaled ship."
Mr Jones was mistaken, however; for we remained at Santa Cruz some
four-and-twenty hours longer, so that Mick and I had the opportunity of
landing with the wardroom steward the next morning, when he went to buy
some fresh milk and other things for the officers' mess.
We then, during a short walk we had in the vicinity of the town, saw
numbers of canaries flitting about amid the trees, just like you see
sparrows at home; and it seemed very strange, to me especially,
accustomed as I was to mother's bird-shop and its live stock, that the
little things should be uncaged and roaming about there free, at their
own will and pleasure!
The birds, though, did not have anything like the bright plumage of
those bred in captivity at home; and I would have backed, so far as
their looks went, a splendid little chap Jenny had called `Tubby,'
against the lot of them; while `Corry,' another canary of a more
reflective character and retiring disposition than the first, could have
afforded a dust of the golden hue of his feathers to make his
Teneriffean cousins more presentable without being much less yellow
himself--their hue, so far as Mick and I noticed, being more of a dingy
white than chrome.
As to bringing any of them to England, however, that we found an
impossibility; for there were so many young midshipmen and other
youngsters aboard the various ships of the squadron, that if all of them
had been free to take birds into their cabins, the ships would have been
so many floating aviaries!
So, to prevent this, the commodore had issued strict orders that no pets
of any description were to be taken on board by any one.
"I s'pose, though, my corns don't count," observed the wardroom steward,
as we were stepping into the boat on our return to the ship and one of
his assistants trod on his foot. "I've a favourite one on my starboard
toe, Smith, as might be called a pet o' mine; and, by jingo, you lubber,
you just then made marmalade of it. You wait till we get aboard and
I'll put you on short rations! See if I don't!"
Later on in the afternoon the squadron sailed for Barbados, starting off
out of Santa Cruz harbour before a spanking ten-knot breeze in line of
single column ahead, the old _Active_ leading and showing her heels to
our less speedy consorts.
This was early in the month of December, the weather being beautiful and
balmy, as it continued all the time we were bowling across the Atlantic
on our way to our goal, the West Indies; and, as we enjoyed the warmth
of the southern latitudes through which our good ship ploughed her way,
Mick and I could not help contrasting our surroundings with those of the
poor folk at home shivering in all the dreariness of an English mid-
winter, when, if it isn't freezing or snowing or hailing, it is bound to
be raining--a cold, raw, nasty sort of rain--and damp and foggy and
dirty, at all events, such being the pleasurable conditions of our
delightful climate usually at that time of year!
With us, now, things were very different!
A blue sky above, unflecked by a single cloud, was reflected in a sea
that was yet more blue, its hue turning to azure as we approached
farther west in the tropics; until, on reaching the confines of the
Caribbean Sea, the colour of the water verged into that of the purest
ultramarine.
Day after day the scene was ever the same--blue sky above, blue sea
below; while a bright sun shone down, ever lighting up both sky and sea
with a sort of opal glow and lending warmth to the buoyant,
exhilarating, champagne air.
Under these circumstances, washing decks every morning used to be a
positive pleasure to everybody on board, as we careered about in our
bare feet with our trousers rolled up above the knee, when the cold
water, instead of being `moighty onpleasint,' as Mick would have said,
was gratifying in the extreme.
Such of the officers, too, who had not been on duty keeping the middle
watch, used to turn out in their oldest pyjamas, accompanied by most of
the midshipmen, when we were at this task and have a regular sluice down
on the forecastle; some of them catching hold of the hose and playing it
on each other in turn, skylarking and making no end of fun.
Our drills, of course, went on all the time in the usual clockwork
fashion observed on board ship, `quarters' and `divisions' and all the
rest; all of the men and boys belonging to the ship's company being
polished up quite as smartly as the brasswork and drilled to the highest
state of efficiency.
It was not all work, though, on board the _Active_; for our commodore,
taut disciplinarian as he was and as anxious to lick us all into shape
as he was to make the ships of his squadron manoeuvre handily,
exercising them at all hours both of day and night to this end, did not
forget the old adage that a bow should not always be bent.
No, he always allowed us plenty of time for relaxation and enjoyment,
besides permitting us to fish overboard, which some commanders would not
have allowed.
This was rare sport, I can tell you, the bonetta, a fish common to the
tropics and eating uncommonly well when fried, biting freely at a piece
of white bunting or any other attractive object attached to a hook, as
did the many-hued dolphin, and many a hearty supper did we have on the
lower deck through the kindly aid of these beneficent denizens of the
deep.
One of the foretopmen who hailed from Newfoundland was an expert with
the harpoon, spearing with that weapon as many dolphins as he liked;
these beggars being in the habit of plying to and fro under the
corvette's cutwater as she sailed onward, delighting apparently in
showing us the dexterity with which they could wheel about and leap
athwart the ship's course as they pleased, keeping up with her or going
ahead according to their bent.
We saw lots of flying-fish also; and they, when we had the chance of
catching the few that came aboard, were even better fare for hungry
sailor-boys of an evening than the dolphins and bonetta.
These latter used to hunt the poor flying-fish like a pack of hounds
after some prey on land, the fish leaping out of the sea and making
short flights by the aid of the membraneous fins they have, which they
extended like wings, flying for some twenty yards or so till exhaustion
compelled their return to their native element--a characteristic feature
that has gained the `flying-fish' its name.
Unfortunately for the poor beggars, however, they have an enemy aloft as
well as one below; and, when they leave the water to escape the bonetta,
they fall into the clutches of the sea-hawks that hover over the surface
on the watch for them; and so, thus situated `between two stools,' as it
were, `their lot,' like that of the `Bobby' in the song, being `not a
happy one!'
Amid such varied changes of life and scene, our three weeks' voyage from
Teneriffe to Barbados passed quickly and pleasantly enough, all hands
being surprised one fine morning when we cast anchor in Carlisle Bay,
the harbour of `Little England,' as the Barbadians proudly style their
happy island, which is of the same size and shape nearly as the Isle of
Wight and is the gem of the Antilles!
Here we had a rare time of it for a week, it being Christmastide, and
the inhabitants, who are English to the backbone, black, mongrel, and
copper-coloured, as well as white, keeping up that festival with like
enthusiasm to what we do at home.
As at Madeira, the ship's company were allowed leave to go on shore,
watch and watch in turn: so, belonging as we both did to the starboard
division, Mick and I were amongst those who had the first go-off.
I recollect, as if it were but yesterday, our landing alongside the
jetty on the carenage, right in front of one of Da Costa's big
warehouses, whose green jalousies relieved the effect of the staring
white building under the hot West Indian sun; the glare of which, cast
back by the rippling translucent water that laved the stone jetty,
through which one could see the little fishes gliding about as clearly
as in the Brighton Aquarium, almost blinded us with its intensity.
There were a lot of negro women hanging round the wharf in front of Da
Costa's place, all of whom had big baskets, either balanced on their
heads or put down on the ground by their side, which were filled with
huge melons and pine-apples and bananas, besides many other tropical
fruits the names of which are unknown to me.
Of course, we made for these at once; and there was a lot of chaffering
and bargaining between our fellows and the negresses, who were all
laughing and showing their white teeth, trying their best to wheedle the
`man-o'-war buckras' to buy their luscious wares at double the price,
probably, such would fetch in open market from regular customers in
Bridgetown.
Presently, we all got skylarking and pitching the fruit about; when a
big mulatto, who was along with one of the fruit-sellers--her husband
most likely and doing nothing just as likely, like most of his colour,
for the household of which he was the head, save to collect the money
his better half in every respect earned--seemed very much aggrieved at
some damage Mick did to a bunch of ripe bananas, claiming a `bit' or
fourpence as compensation.
Mick, who, you must know, had grown a strapping fellow by now, took the
tawny-complexioned gentleman's demand very good-humouredly.
"All roight, ould Patchwork," he called out, with a laugh. "Thare's a
shellin' fur ye, which is more, bedad, than yer howl sthock-in-thrade is
worth! Changee fur changee, black dog fur whoite moonkey, sure, as my
ould fayther used fur to say!"
Whatever mollifying effect the sight of the silver coin might have
produced on the mulatto's mind was entirely swamped by Mick's
unfortunate quotation from his paternal archives.
"Say, you sailor buckra, who dat you call one black dog, hi!" said he,
coming up to my chum in a threatening manner, brandishing his arms and
working his head about like a teetotum in a fit. "I'se no niggah slabe,
you white trash! I'se free 'Badian born, an' 'low no man make joke ob
me!"
Mick roused up in a minute.
"Faith, ye oogly yaller-faced raskil," he cried, putting up his fists in
the scientific way we had learnt from long practice on board with the
gloves under our gymnasium instructor, "Oi'll knock ye into the middle
of nixt Soonday wake, ef ye don't kape a civil toongue in yer hid an'
put yer owld dhrumsticks behint ye!"
Instead of acting on Mick's advice, however, the mulatto, screaming with
rage, and his whole face distorted with passion, made a wild rush at
him, trying to butt him in the stomach.