"You see me now an old and careworn man, with my few scanty locks white
as the driven snow; my eyes dim, my cheeks hollow, my shrunk and
tottering limbs scarce able to support my bent and emaciated body; my
blood languid, and flowing slowly round my heart; my voice weak and
tremulous as a child's; all my faculties deranged but memory, and that
alone survives to tell me who I am. Memory, mysterious, inscrutable
power,--gladly would I have escaped its painful influence! Alas! it
cannot be. Thought alone, while every other faculty has departed, will
pursue me to the grave.
"I was not always thus, young man. Ah! once my blood coursed freely
through my veins as yours, my limbs were stout and strongly knit, my
muscles were firmly strung, my figure was tall and graceful, and with my
arm few dared to compete. No one ever cared a second time to tempt my
anger; my eye was bright and piercing as an eagle's, and my voice was
clear and powerful, so that it might be heard amid the raging of the
fiercest storm. My heart never beat with fear; aloft, no one was more
active, or would so readily spring to the weather earing, when, in the
strongest tempest, the last reef was to be taken in the topsails. Ah!
young man, you look incredulous. I have stood securely on the main
truck when landsmen could scarcely keep their feet on deck. I have hung
by one hand suspended to a single rope, tossing to and fro in mid air.
I have swum for miles on the foaming bosom of the ocean. I have
contended with the wild beast of the desert. I have stood amid showers
of bell and grape when my shipmates have been falling thickly around. I
have with a few daring comrades fought hand to hand against overpowering
numbers on an enemy's deck. I have faced death in a hundred shapes, and
I never trembled; yet now I bend even before the summer's breeze.
Worthless and miserable as I am, I have loved, truly and devotedly, ay,
and have been loved too in return. The eye of beauty has sparkled, her
lip has smiled sweetly on me, her heart has beat with tender emotions;
when I drew near, those lips have uttered words of tenderest endearment
for my ear alone. I have been young, strong, handsome, and bold;--I am
now old and broken, loathsome and nerveless. Learn a moral, young man.
To this all must come whose span of life is lengthened out like mine;
then do the work to which you have been called while you have strength.
Remember that this life, whether passed in sunshine and in calm, or amid
cloud and storm, is like a voyage, speedily over, and that while it
lasts every man on board is bound to do his duty, nor like a coward
skulk idly below. Vain and bitter are the regrets of age, and if all
men did but feel the importance of acting their parts faithfully towards
their Maker and their fellow-men, what an amount of misery and anguish
would be saved them in their latter days! how different would he the
world they are sent to inhabit!
"But I asked you to sit down on this stone by my side, while we watch
the shipping in the harbour below, and the deep blue sea sparkling in
the rays of the setting sun, to listen to a tale of my younger days, and
instead of that, I have been moralising, prating, you will say perhaps,
of things which do not interest you. Well, well, follow my counsel; it
is all I ask; and so to my tale.
"It is now more than half a century ago that I got the berth of second
mate on board a fine ship belonging to the port of Liverpool. Liverpool
was a very different town in those days from what it is now. There were
no fine docks and spacious quays, no broad streets and magnificent
buildings, but yet it was a place of much bustle and trade; and trade is
the true mother of all the improvements. Our ship was called the
_Chameleon_. She was bran new, and had never yet made a voyage; she
measured four hundred and fifty tons burthen, was ship-rigged, and was
well found and fitted in every respect. Her master was as thorough a
sailor as ever stepped, and, take them all in all, I suppose a stouter
ship, a better crew, or a more able master, never sailed from the port
of Liverpool. But I have now more particularly to speak of the master.
His name was Derick--Captain Ashby Derick. He was a young man, about
seven or eight-and-twenty, I suppose, and was very well connected and
educated. He was very good-looking--the women called him remarkably
handsome--he was tall, with a firm, well-made figure and broad chest;
his complexion was naturally fair, though now bronzed by the sun, with
an abundance of light curly hair, and full whiskers; his eyes were large
and grey; his lips firm, and his nose fine, though somewhat hooked,
which prevented his face from having any approach to effeminacy. He had
from boyhood been rather wild; indeed, his principles were none of the
best, and it was for that reason that his father, who was a very strict
man, had sent him to sea, that he might not set a bad example to his
brothers. The world looked on him as a rollicking, careless blade, with
more animal spirits than wisdom to guide him; but his employers knew him
to be a first-rate seaman, and one liked by his crew, and that was all
they had to inquire about. Now for my part, I believe that had he been
well guided at first, and properly instructed in his duty to God and
man, he would not have turned out a bad man; but he had not his fair
play; he was cast like a waif on the waters, without rudder or compass,
to find his way as he best could over the troubled sea of life, and how
could those who sent him expect him to escape shipwreck? His fate has
been the fate of many. He grew up with numerous fine manly qualities.
He was brave and bold as man can be; he was generous to his friends,
kind-hearted to any in distress, and full of life and animation, but his
temper was hot and hasty. He had no religion, though he did not scoff
at it in others; but he did not know what it meant; and he had no
morality; indeed, no one could trust to his principles. With women he
had very winning ways, and was a great favourite with them.
"After his return from his last voyage he went to stay with some friends
living in Lancashire, not many miles from Liverpool. At the distance of
a mile or two from the house where he was staying, there lived on the
borders of a wild heath or common, in an almost ruined cottage, an old
woman. The old woman's name was Kirby--Mother Kirby she was called--and
she was reported to be a witch by the common people, who told all sorts
of stories about her. It is certain that she was of a sour bad temper,
that she was very old and very ugly, and could use her tongue most
fluently. But it is not about her I am going to speak at present. She
had a granddaughter who lived in the hut with her, but was as unlike her
in every respect as light from darkness. Amy Kirby was one of the most
beautiful girls you ever saw--she was slight and graceful, with a
well-rounded form, and tall rather than short; her hair was black as
jet; her eyes large, dark, and lustrous; and her cheeks bore all the
bloom of health and youth; her complexion was clear, but it just showed
that there was a slight touch of gipsy blood in her veins; her step, as
she walked along, was as elastic as a young fawn's; and her voice was
like the skylark's as it mounts into the blue sky at early dawn.
"It was surprising to see how the old woman loved a being so unlike
herself, how carefully she tended her, how well she had brought her up.
She had taught her many things which girls in her rank of life never
learn; she even got all sorts of books for her to read. Amy was always
neatly dressed, and while the rest of the cottage was almost in ruins,
her room was as good as any in a well-to-do house. No one knew how the
old woman got the money for these purposes, but whenever any was wanted
for Amy it was always forthcoming. One thing, alas! she had not taught
her--that was religion; and neither the old woman nor her grandchild was
ever seen to enter a church.
"Amy was about seventeen when Ashby Derick first saw her. He met her on
the common near her grandmother's cottage, and as he was a stranger
there he stopped to ask his way, and from one question another was
asked, and a few words led to many. His heart in a moment was struck by
her beauty, and he felt that he had never seen any one he admired so
much. She, too, was pleased with his look and fine manly bearing, but
she would not tell him who she was, nor where she came from. She
laughingly said that she was the spirit of the heath, that she dwelt in
the air, and that her carriage was the storm, and that whenever he would
seek her he must come there to find her. This excited his curiosity,
and if she had told him that she lived in the ruined cottage hard by,
from her dress and language he would not have believed her. Every day
he visited the heath, and each time he found her there on the same spot,
and hour after hour he spent with her, more and more captivated by her
charms. What was extraordinary was, that he could never find out her
name, nor anything about her, or he might perhaps have not gone so far
as he did. The strangeness of the affair pleased him, for he was of a
romantic turn, and I believe fancied her some well-born lady in disguise
who had fallen in love with him. She must have been, from what I heard,
full of life and wit, and of course showed out more to him than she had
ever done to others. Indeed, her mind was of no ordinary character, and
had it been well guided she would have been equal to any lady in the
land. At last he offered her marriage. She laughed, and told him that
he would be marrying a spirit, and that he must come to her home, for
that she would never go to his. He had better think over it, for that
no good could come of it. This only made him more vehement, and he
vowed and swore that he would marry her and her alone. The belief is
that she was of the gipsy religion as well as of the gipsy race, and
gipsies look upon an oath as binding as any other form of marriage, and
therefore after that she considered Ashby Derick as her husband. I
cannot say if what she told him about her being the spirit of the heath
had anything of truth in it, as some people believed, but her heart and
soul were his, and she loved him with all the passionate ardour of a
child of a race which comes from the lands of the burning sun of Egypt.
The consequence was, that she went to reside with him at his house near
Liverpool.
"Her grandmother had never come to see her, but at last the old woman
could no longer resist the strong wish she had of visiting her. Derick
came in and saw the witch-like creature sitting by the side of the
beautiful girl he professed to love so much. He did not like the look
of her, and in an angry tone he asked her what she did there.
"`I've as much right to be here as you have,' answered the old woman.
`I've come to see my grandchild, and I should like to know what fault
you can find with that!'
"`You come to see your grandchild!--you Amy's grandmother! I don't
believe it,' he exclaimed, starting back from her with a look of horror.
`You, you wizen-faced, shrivelled old hag!'
"`What! you dare to call me names!' screamed the old woman; `you'll
repent it--that you will, my master.'
"On this, Derick turned to Amy and asked if the old woman spoke the
truth. Amy confessed that she was her grandmother, and then burst into
tears, which so enraged the dame that she went away muttering curses
between her teeth, which Derick could not understand. They had a great
effect upon him, and from that time his love for the beautiful gipsy
began to cool. I ought to have said that before Derick had fallen in
with the poor girl he had been paying his addresses to a young lady of
family and fortune who had been captivated by his handsome face and
figure. While the above affair had been going on he had neglected his
former attentions to this lady, but he now began to resume them. He
never told her the reason of his absence, and he made so much play to
recover his lost ground, that he was soon reinstated in her good graces.
She was not only rich, but handsome and clever, and she so quickly
enslaved the heart of Derick, that he neglected poor Amy altogether. He
next proposed marriage to her; he was accepted, and the day of the
wedding was fixed.
"Poor Amy had heard nothing about it, whatever she might have suspected,
and she had grown accustomed to his long absences, though her heart was
breaking at his coldness. Well, Captain Derick and his beautiful bride
went to church to be married, and a very grand wedding it was, and
numbers of relations and friends attended. Just as the service began, a
alight female figure, wrapped close in a cloak with a hood, was seen to
steal into the church, and to hide itself behind one of the pillars
which supported the roof. Derick observed the circumstance and changed
colour, and his hand trembled as he put the ring on his wife's finger.
Just at that moment a piercing scream was heard ringing through the
aisles and vaulted roof of the church, and filling the hearts of
everybody present with dismay. They searched the church throughout for
the stranger in the hooded cloak, they looked around in every direction,
but she was nowhere to be found, and no one had seen her quit the
church, nor had any one observed her in the neighbourhood. That night
there was a fierce storm of thunder and lightning, wind and rain, and on
the following morning the young and once beautiful Amy Kirby was found a
blackened corpse on the very spot where Ashby Derick had first met her.
Some said that she had been killed by lightning, but it was generally
supposed that she had died by poison, which she had taken in her
despair.
"The old grandmother was the first person to tell Derick of what had
happened, though he was a hundred miles or so from the spot on his
wedding tour. She came into the room where he and his young wife were
sitting, without any one announcing her, and nearly frightened the bride
to death by the way she swore and cursed Derick, so that at last he
became so enraged that he called up the servants and turned her out of
the house by main force. She went away threatening that she would
shortly wreak a bitter vengeance on him for his murder of the only being
she loved on earth. The same evening she was back again in her now
desolate hut near Liverpool. If she had with some reason been before
suspected of being a witch, she was thought to be one now to a certainty
from her strange look and ways of going on, and she took delight in
making everybody believe her one. The sudden appearance of the old
woman so frightened the young bride that she fell ill, and the doctors
all agreed that the best thing to restore her shattered nerves would be
for her to take a long voyage to a southern climate. Derick was not
sorry to hear of this advice, for though he loved his wife, so he did
his profession, and had no intention of giving that up, especially when
he could take her with him. At first her friends did not like the idea
of her going, but he soon persuaded them, and she, poor young thing! was
delighted at the thought of accompanying him, and of visiting foreign
countries. She had been nurtured in every sort of luxury, and had never
been to sea before, so she little knew what she had to undergo.
However, he had a cabin fitted up for her very elegantly, so that she
might be as comfortable as possible. The cargo was stowed, the ship was
cleared at the custom-house, the lady and all her things were on board,
our owners and different friends had gone on shore, and Captain Derick
was standing close to the taffrail and waving his hat, as the ship, all
her fastenings being cast off, moved away from the quay, when on a
sudden there appeared at the end of a jetty, close to which we had to
pass, the old hag, Dame Kirby.
"I have not yet described her. She had in her youth been very tall, but
she was now bent nearly double, though she contrived to raise herself at
times of great excitement to nearly her former height. She was thin and
wizened, with large prominent features, and eyes once large, now sunk so
deep in her head that they would have been scarcely perceptible, except
from their extraordinary lustre. In her hand she carried a long twisted
staff to support herself, and she wore a red cloak and a queer little
hat, from under which her long grey locks straggled in the wind. Her
gown, such as it was, all rags and tatters, was looped up in front to
enable her to walk, and as she raised herself up, her long bony leg,
which was advanced forward, looked so like that of a skeleton that it
was impossible to believe that it belonged to a living being. Her arms,
which were also quite bare, appeared composed of nothing but bone and
sinew, and the skin which covered them, like that of her face, was as
yellow as parchment. They, as well as her hands and fingers, were of
great length, and as she walked along in her usual way, she almost
touched the ground with them. When the captain first saw her standing
directly in front of him, with her hideous features scowling malignantly
on him, appearing, as she did, the prominent figure, while his friends
faded in the distance, he started back and trembled violently. He
quickly, however, recovered himself, especially when he found his wife,
who had come upon deck, close to his side. Her presence seemed to
enrage the old woman greatly. She slowly raised up her bent body till
she seemed taller than any woman I ever saw, and stretching out her
staff, waved it round and round in the direction of the ship.
"`Curses attend you, and follow all who sail with you,' she shrieked
out, in a loud shrill voice, which pierced through our ears, and made
the oldest seaman on board turn pale with apprehension. `False-hearted,
perjured murderer, betrayer of innocence, deceiver of a faithful heart,
destroyer of one who would have clung to you through weal and through
woe, through good report and evil report, through life unto death! Now
take the consequence. As you valued not the treasure of her love, you
shall rue the bitterness of my hate. You are proud of your knowledge,
you are proud of your hardy crew, you are proud of your stout ship, but
your knowledge shall not avail you in the fierce tempest I will raise;
the waters shall drown your hardy crew, and the hard rocks shall batter
in pieces your stout ship! Wherever you go I will follow you; in the
furthermost parts of the wide ocean you shall find me, in the howling of
the raging storm you shall hear me, in the flashes of the vivid
lightning you shall see me. My vengeance will not sleep, my hate will
not abate. Your bold heart shall quail and sink like a woman's, your
cheek shall blanch, when you feel that I am nigh, and hiss into your
ears the name of her you murdered, and you see borne before your eyes on
the whirlwind the writhing form of her who was once so lovely, dying in
agony on the wild heath alone and hopeless. Blasted shall be the beauty
of which you are proud, withered shall be your form, frozen your heart,
and she who now stands in youth and loveliness by your side shall learn
to repent she knew you, and shall share your fate. Sail onward on your
course, but never shall your eyes again behold your native land, or hear
the greeting of the friends you leave behind. But me you shall hear,
and me you shall see, when you would give all the wealth of India not to
see me or to hear me, and wish that I never existed. Go now--sail--
sail--sail away over the wide sea! Curses hover over you where'er you
go! Curses attend your hardy crew! Curses follow after the stout ship
which hears you!'
"While uttering these dreadful imprecations, she whirled her staff still
more violently in the air, and uttered shrieks louder than ever, until
she almost drove the captain and everybody on board mad with horror; and
while we were all wondering what she would do next, a sudden squall took
the ship aback, and it was of such violence that we were as nearly as
possible driven stern on to the pier. Everybody had to run to the
braces, tacks, and sheets, and sharp work we had to slew the yards round
in time; and when we looked again for the old woman, she was nowhere to
be seen. I never before or since have met in the Mersey a squall so
sudden, or so violent, and in a minute it was over, and the wind blew as
it had done before. What was also strange was, that not one of the
other ships in the river had felt it. The old pilot who was taking us
clear of the sands shook his head and said he did not at all like the
look of things, that no good ever came of such strange doings; but
Captain Derick, who was himself again the moment Dame Kirby had
disappeared, laughed, and asked him what harm could possibly happen from
the ravings of an old mad woman.
"The young bride also did not at all like it, for she could not help
recognising her as the old hag who had come and frightened her on the
day of their marriage; and though Derick did his best to persuade her
that there was nothing of truth in what she said, she could not bring
herself to believe him. Those dreadful shrieks and curses had pierced
her young heart, and struck her soul with dread.
"`Why, my love,' he said, `what power to do us harm can a wretched old
creature like that have? She is some unfortunate maniac who has escaped
from her keepers, and has got this story about a grandchild she has
lost, and whom, perhaps, some man has neglected, into her head, and has
fixed it upon me. Poor old hag! she is more to be pitied than feared.
It would have been a mercy to have sent a bullet through her head, and
put her out of her misery, when she was howling at us leaving the quay,
and I confess I felt not a little inclined to do so. I don't mean to
say that it would have been right to hurt her--of course, I would not,
poor thing. So now let us laugh at the foolish fears of the crew, and
think no more about the matter.'
"Even while he was speaking, I saw his lip tremble, and his eye belied
his words. His wife, who by this time knew him pretty well, was aware
all the time that he was not speaking his real feelings, though perhaps
he was trying to deceive himself, as well as her and others.
"Mrs Derick was certainly a very handsome woman, and she did not want
wit or sense. She was dotingly fond of her husband, though she had
found out that he had a good number of faults to weigh in the scale
against his good looks, which is what many a woman is apt to discover
when she marries a man for his handsome face, instead of for his sense
and goodness. Though the captain appeared in high spirits, and laughed
and talked as gaily as need be, the crew could not get the thought of
the old hag out of their heads; and when the pilot left us, he looked
very grave, and said that his heart would not be light again till he saw
the ship safe back in the Mersey once more. I believe that at that time
one-half of the men would have left the ship if they could have done so.
Indeed, some attempted to follow the pilot, but Derick rushed on deck
with his pistols in his hands, and swore that he would blow out the
brains of the first man who should attempt such a trick.
"`You confounded idiots!' he exclaimed. `I thought I had shipped a crew
of men, who would face the devil if I led them; instead of that, I've
got a number of sucking babies on board. Pity I did not ship some casks
of pap to feed you on! But now I've got you, I intend to keep you, and
to try if I can't make men of you; so I don't mean to part company just
now, and shall keep my powder dry for ready use.'
"This speech had the effect of shaming the men into their duty, and for
some time we heard no more of the old witch. I ought to have said that
we were bound for Chili and the western coast of South America, and were
to visit some of the islands in the Pacific before we returned home, so
that we thus expected to be away the best part of two years. We had a
fair wind after leaving the Mersey, and enjoyed a fine run clear of the
Channel, and until we got into the latitude of Gibraltar, so that the
men entirely recovered their spirits and good humour, and, with the
carelessness of seamen, even began to laugh at their former fears. Mrs
Derick took a great liking to the sea, and told her husband that she
should always be ready to go with him. Poor thing! she had only yet
seen the bright face of it. Those who know the ocean can say, that,
like many a beautiful woman, it wears two very different aspects at
different times. We all began to like the lady very much, which
officers and crew do not always do the skipper's wife; but she was like
a gleam of sunshine on a cloudy day, and stood between us and the
somewhat dark temper which the captain now often showed. Thus things
went on very well on board the _Chameleon_, and there appeared to be
every prospect of a pleasant voyage.
"I said that we were bound for Chili and the western coast of South
America. In those days the jealous and narrow-minded commercial policy
of Spain prohibited the ships of any other nation than their own trading
with her colonies. The consequence was, that those provinces,
notwithstanding their internal sources of wealth, remained poor and
insignificant, and their inhabitants ignorant and bigoted, while in
North America a state was springing up which not only surpassed their
whole united provinces in power and influence, but soon became in a
condition to bid defiance to the rest of the world. We, therefore, did
not hope to carry on a regular trade with these degenerate Spaniards,
but our intention was to call off different parts of the coast, and to
sell our goods wherever we found people ready to buy them, without
troubling ourselves by entering at any custom-house. There was some
risk, it is true, in this species of traffic, but there was also some
adventure, and it required considerable sagacity and courage, and this
exactly suited Derick's taste. I forgot to say that we carried four
guns on a side, and were well supplied with muskets, pistols, and
boarding-pikes, both to defend ourselves against the Spanish
custom-house officers, and also against any piratical rovers, who, in
that day, were known at times to frequent those seas, to rob any unarmed
merchantmen they might fall in with.
"The plan, in dealing with the Spaniards, when I had been in that part
of the world before, was to call off the coast two or three leagues away
from a town, and to send on shore, by some fishing-boat, to the
merchants, to say what goods we had, and that we were ready to deal with
them. They would then send back word when they would come, probably on
that or the following night. If the weather were fine we used to anchor
close in shore, always keeping a bright look out in case of treachery.
As soon as it was dark, the merchant", or their agents, would come off
in their boats, and take the goods on shore, and pay us good prices in
hard dollars. So much for restrictive duties. Scarcely a ship entered
at the custom-house at any of those ports, and the Government got no
revenue, while, on account of the difficulties and risks, the people had
to pay just as much as they would have done for the goods had moderate
dues been levied, and the trade been regular and above board. But I am
running away from the subject of my story. Well, as I was saying, we
made very fine weather of it, though the wind was seldom fair, till we
reached about twenty-seven degrees north latitude, when we got into the
north-east trade-winds, which carried us along at a spanking pace, with
studding sails alow and aloft on either side, till we were nearly in the
latitude of Rio do Janeiro. It was enough to make a man vain of his
ship, of himself, and of the art which formed her, to see her thus
walking along the water, with her wide spread of snowy canvas proudly
sweeping the blue vault of heaven. Captain Derick rubbed his hands, and
smiled with satisfaction, as he walked the deck and looked up at the
well-set sails, and then over the side, to watch the sparkling foam as
it quickly flew past and formed a long wake astern. He amused his young
wife and himself in teaching her the names of the ropes and sails, and
she fully shared his pleasure and satisfaction. I remember them as if
it were yesterday; she was sitting on the bench, on the after-part of
the deck, with one arm resting on his shoulder, and her face looking up
at his, while he was explaining some point she could not at first
understand. They certainly were a handsome couple. The sea was smooth,
the sky was blue, and the air was pure and warm. That evening was the
last we saw of fine weather. It seemed sent us on purpose to show how
pleasant the world could be, and to make us wish the more to remain in
it. On the morning following the one I have described, a dark mass of
clouds was seen gathering in the south-west, rising out of the sea, and
every instant growing denser and broader, as recruits from all quarters
arrived; then, like some mighty host, which has been waiting the arrival
of its various divisions, onward it began its march towards us. As the
dark body advanced, its movement became more rapid, and at last, as if
urged on by some irresistible impulse, it rushed forward in an impetuous
charge, covering the whole sky with its overwhelming masses. The
captain had been called on deck the moment the sky had assumed this
threatening aspect, and he immediately ordered all the lighter sails to
be handed, the courses to be brailed up, and the ship to be kept on the
starboard tack, under her topsails. As yet there had been a perfect
calm, and the sails flapped idly against the masts, though the ship
rolled heavily in the smooth ominous billows, which had been rising for
some hours past. Suddenly, the wind burst forth from the dark clouds,
accompanied with rain and hail, and struck the ship on her broadside,
while the forked lightning played round her on every side, as if eager
to make her feel its power. Like a reed bent before the wind, the stout
ship yielded to the fierce blast. It howled in triumph over her. In an
instant, her gunwale was under water, and the waves washed up her decks
and threatened to fill her hold. She was in as bad a position as a ship
can be placed in, and it seemed that every moment would he her last.
Derick now showed that he was a good seaman, cool and fearless in
danger.
"`Furl the mizzen-topsail,' he shouted out. `Up with her helm--brail up
the main-topsail--furl it--she'll not steer without it.' The
mizzen-topsail and main-topsail were furled, the fore-topsail was backed
against the mast, the fore-staysail and jib were set, but to no purpose.
Still she lay like a log upon the waters with her broadside to the
sea."
Story 13--CHAPTER TWO.
"I ought to have said that all this time Mrs Derick, who had refused to
stay below, was on deck seated aft under the weather bulwarks, and
looking on less frightened perhaps than awe-struck at the wild scene
before her. On finding that the ship still refused to wear, the captain
summoned the mates with some of the best hands aft, and gave them the
order to cut away the mizzen mast. With gleaming axes in our hands we
set to work, the shrouds were severed, and after a few sharp strokes the
mast tottered and fell with a crash into the boiling sea. The
looked-for effect was not produced--still the ship would not wear.
Another mast must be sacrificed; no other remedy remained. Again we
gave the fatal strokes which must reduce our ship to a wreck upon the
waters; over fell the tall mast with its spars and rigging, and a few
more cuts served to sever it from the labouring hull. The effect was
instantly perceptible--the ship righted, the helm was kept up, and away
she flew before the howling tempest.
"Scarcely was she before the wind than the storm increased with tenfold
fury, the wind blew more fiercely, the thunder rolled more loudly, the
rain and hail came down in thicker torrents, the lightning flashed more
vividly, while the waves rose on every side in black mountainous ridges
covered with curling crests of foam, which the wind sent in showers on
our decks even when the water itself did not break over us.
"The foremast had hitherto stood secure, though weakened by the loss of
the mainmast, but now as the tempest came down stronger on us, that too
tottered, and went by the board, carrying the bowsprit with it. As this
last accident happened, the captain's wife shrieked with terror; it was
answered by a shout of shrill laughter, so loud, so piercing, and so
unnatural, that it made the heart of every one on board tremble. It
might well do so, for as we looked over the side of the driving ship,
what should we see right abreast of us, in a small skiff, gliding over
the frothy summits of the waves, but the very old woman who had uttered
such dreadful curses at us as we were quitting Liverpool--Dame Kirby!
There she sat in the stern sheets of the boat, steering by an oar with
one hand, while the left bony arm was stretched out pointing derisively
at us, and her countenance, as full of malignant revenge as is possible
for any being possessing human features, was turned full upon us. A
large sail was hoisted on the single mast, enough, one would have
supposed, to lift the light skiff right out of the water; but she sat as
composedly as if she were floating on a lake on a summer's evening; her
boat did not seem to ship a drop of water, nor ever to sink into the
trough of the sea, but it somehow or other went along on the summit of
every wave.
"Every one on board saw the old woman, and knew her to be Dame Kirby.
So did poor Mrs Derick; and after gazing at her wildly for some time,
she could bear the dreadful sight no longer, and fell back in a swoon.
Her husband ran to raise her, and as he supported her in his arms, he
shouted out to the old woman to begone, and to be content with the
mischief she had already caused. Indeed, there was not a soul on board
who did not believe that she had done all the damage we had suffered.
The hag only laughed and jeered at him the more he stormed, and so madly
enraged did he become at her mockery, that I do believe had he not been
holding his wife in his arms, he would in his passion have flung himself
overboard to get hold of her.
"It must not be supposed that the officers and crew were idle all this
time, for as soon as the foremast went we set to work to get up a jury
mast on the stump of the foremast, to prevent the ship from broaching
to; this, three men at the wheel had meantime the greatest difficulty in
preventing her doing. At length, after much labour, we got up a spare
topgallant mast, and set a topgallant sail on it, and all present danger
was over. No sooner had we done this, than the witch uttered a loud
`Ha, ha, ha,' which sounded like what one might suppose to be the croak
of a frog in a merry mood, only a hundred times louder and shriller than
any frog ever croaked; and about she put her skiff, and away she went
right in the wind's eye, accompanied by a storm of lightning and rain,
at the rate of not less than twenty knots an hour. When she had
disappeared, the poor lady began to come to herself again, and her
husband tried to persuade her that what she had seen was all fancy, and
laughed heartily at the idea of an old woman in a red cloak coming out
into the middle of the Atlantic in a skiff, which could not live a
moment in such a sea as there was running.
"But she knew well enough all the time what she had seen, and nothing he
could say to the contrary could persuade her that some dreadful disaster
would not happen to them. I will do him the justice to say that, with
all his faults, he was as brave a fellow as ever stepped, or he would
not have borne up as he did. Any one to look at him, or to hear him,
would suppose that he had no more seen the old woman than if she had
never existed, while all the time it was on his account especially that
she thus haunted us.
"Where we should have got to, I don't know, at the rate we were driving,
but the next day the wind shifted right round again to the north-east,
and sent us back as fast as we came till we were off the city of Rio de
Janeiro, in the Brazils.
"We managed to steer into that magnificent harbour, and as we were in
evident distress we were allowed to remain and refit; but the Portuguese
in those days were not a bit wiser than their Spanish neighbours, and
would allow no foreign trader to come into their ports.
"The harbour of Rio is a magnificent expanse of water, and the country
would be the finest in the world in the hands of any of the northern
nations of Europe; but the Portuguese did not know how to take advantage
of the blessings given them by Heaven, either at home or in the
colonies, and except in the neighbourhood of Rio itself, the greater
portion of the Brazils was uncultivated. It is, however, a very
pleasant place to visit, and our captain, leaving the ship in charge of
the first mate, took his wife on shore, where, among the delightful
orange groves and gardens, she soon recovered from the shock her spirits
had received from the events I have described.
"We remained here for several weeks refitting the ship, for the
Portuguese carpenters and riggers, though they did their work well, got
through it very slowly, and though our owners suffered by the delay, we
had no reason to complain. At last the ship was all ataunto and ready
for sea. As Captain Derick with his pretty wife on his arm came down on
the quay before going on board, he stopped to admire the appearance of
the _Chameleon_. He pointed out her beauties with satisfaction as she
lay in all her pride a short distance from the shore, looking as if
nothing had ever hurt her.
"`There she is, my love, as stout and brave a ship as ever sailed the
salt ocean,' he exclaimed. `We may bid defiance to the old woman, if
she ever thinks fit to come near us again. Not that I believe one was
really seen--it was fancy, my love, fancy, the work of the imagination,
that often plays strange freaks. I was wrong to allude to the subject.'
He spoke hurriedly, and afterwards broke into a laugh, for fear his
wife should suspect he and the rest of us really had seen the witch.
They came on board, the anchor was run up cheerily to the bows, the
sails were loosened, and with a fine northerly breeze we stood out of
the harbour, and kept away once more on our course. We had beautiful
weather for some days, and as our spirits rose in the pure fresh air, we
forgot all our former fears, and fully believed that we were going to
have a prosperous cruise.
"An event, however, soon occurred, to make us think differently. We
were within sight of land, with the sky overhead bright and blue, and
the sea calm as a millpond, when on a sudden a tremendous squall struck
the ship, carrying away our topgallant masts, sails, and yards, and
throwing her on her beam ends. The topsails were clewed up, and the men
were sent on the yards to furl them. I was at the weather earing, on
the main-topsail-yard, when just as she was righting, a second squall
struck and hove her down again so suddenly that three of our best hands
were shaken from their hold and hurled into the hissing waters under our
lee. Their loud shrieks reached our ears, but when we looked for them
they were nowhere to be seen. At that moment, I, as well as every man
on board, beheld as clearly as I do you, right to windward of us, the
old witch, in her skiff, skimming over the frothy waters, and pointing
jeeringly at us with her bony hand.
"There was not much sea on, and as soon as we could we hove the ship to,
and Captain Derick ordered a boat to be lowered to look for the men.
Now I believe our crew were as brave men as any fellows of their class,
but when they prepared to lower the boat, instead of flying as usual on
such occasions, to try and be the first in her, they all hung back, and
not one of them would go. They did not like the look of the old woman,
even when they were comparatively safe on the deck of the vessel, but
the idea of finding her close to them in the boat, perhaps of feeling
the touch of her staff or the gripe of her bony fingers, was too
dreadful to be thought of.
"`What, you cowards, are you afraid of?' shouted the captain, in a
furious rage. `Your shipmates will be drowned while you're skulking
there--lower away the boat, or I'll shoot some of you.'
"These words had the desired effect. Three hands sprang into the boat
to be lowered in her, the third mate and another were following, when
through the fright and carelessness of some of the people, one of the
falls was let run too soon, the boat was swamped alongside, and the
three hands were washed out of her before they could get hold of
anything to save themselves. A loud cackling peal of laughter was heard
as this second catastrophe occurred, and the witch was seen whirling her
staff round on the other side of the ship.
"I thought most of the crew would have jumped overboard in their fright
as they saw what she was about. The captain all the time was as cool as
if nothing out of the way had happened, though his wife, who was
unfortunately on deck at the time, and saw it all, had fallen down again
in a swoon from terror. He scarcely heeded her; he was intent on
something else.
"`Lower the starboard quarter-boat,' he sang out. `I shall go in her;
who'll follow me?'
"I and three hands declared our readiness, and this time more caution
being used, the boat was got safely into the water with us in her.
"`Take care of my wife, Mr Tanner,' cried the captain to the first
mate, as he sprang over the side; `see if you can bring her to.'
"We got clear of the ship, and with very misdoubting hearts pulled away
in the direction where we hoped to find any of our shipmates who might
still have kept themselves afloat. By this time there was a good deal
of sea running, stirred up by the violence of the squall, though not so
much as there would have been had we not been under the lee of the land.
As the boat rose to the top of a wave we fancied that we could see one
of the poor fellows who had been cast off the yard struggling in the
distance, but when we got up to the spot he had disappeared. A cry from
a drowning man was heard in another direction, and away we pulled
towards it, but before we could clutch the poor fellow he had sunk
beneath the waves.
"A third man was seen at a distance still striking out boldly--now he
rose to the top of a wave, now he sank into the trough of the sea. We
made sure that we at least should save him. Every nerve was strained as
we bent to our oars to reach the swimmer. He saw us coming--he felt
certain of being saved; but a power greater than his or ours was his
enemy, and when we were within twenty yards of him we saw him throw up
his arms in despair, his eyeballs started from his head, and with a
shriek of agony he sank beneath the foaming waves. He was the last--the
others had disappeared, and no trace of them was to be seen.
"Our search had been fruitless. Intent upon our object, we had not
observed where we were going. Now, as we looked up to search around for
our other shipmates, we saw directly before us the ill-looking witch in
her skiff, turning her countenance, with a malignant scowl, over her
shoulder to look at us. The hideous sight seemed to drive the captain
mad.
"`Give way my men, give way,' he shouted, in a voice trembling with
earnestness; `give way; we'll overtake the cursed hag, and I'll punish
her for haunting us in this way.'
"With a strange species of infatuation we bent to our oars as ordered,
in the hopes of catching her. We might as well have attempted to
overtake the whirlwind. The more we strained at our oars, the louder
and more insulting became her cackling shrieks of derisive laughter.
"`You hell-born hag, stay and speak, and tell me whence you come and
where you are going!' shouted Derick, but the witch did nothing but grin
more maliciously, and jeer and laugh the louder. Still we continued the
pursuit, but we never got an inch nearer to her, though she was going
away with her sail set, right in the wind's eye. The harder we pulled
the faster she went, and at last disappeared in a squall of thick rain,
which drove down upon us. This was fortunate for us, for so mad had the
captain become, that I believe he would have followed her till we all
dropped down from fatigue, and he was not the man, in his present mood,
the boldest of us dared disobey. We now looked round for the ship. She
was nowhere to be seen.
"I cannot describe to you the feelings which took possession of our
hearts. It was the blankest despair: Derick alone seemed indifferent to
our fate, and only felt enraged at not having been able to overtake the
witch. I believe we were capable of jumping overboard, or of rushing at
each other with our knives and fighting till we had stabbed each other
to death, when, as I was standing upon the thwarts to look around, I saw
the ship dead to leeward. I pointed her out to the captain and men.
"`We'll return on board then,' he answered, coolly, as if nothing had
happened. `And mind, let none of you talk about our chase after that
accursed old hag--we shall have the people fancying next, I suppose,
that the ship is doomed.'
"`Ay, ay, sir,' we answered; but though I said nothing about it, I
believe the men did not hold their tongues a moment after, they got down
into the fore-peak. As the sea went down after this we had little
difficulty in getting on board again. When we did so, we found that for
some time they had given us up as lost.
"Fortunately, poor Mrs Derick did not return to consciousness till just
as her husband got on board, so that she was spared the misery of
believing him lost. He had her taken below, and sat up watching her
most tenderly till she recovered. In two days she was better, and on
deck again, but I observed a great change in her. She looked pale and
anxious, and all her life and spirits were gone. I fear she began to
suspect that there was good reason for the old witch to haunt us. The
loss of six of our best hands was very serious, especially as we had no
prospect of supplying their places in any port at which we were likely
to touch. On, however, we must go, and make the best of it. The wind
now came ahead, and we were obliged to make tack and tack, scarcely ever
getting a fair slant till we reached the latitude of Cape Horn.
"One would have supposed that we had had enough of storms and accidents
for one voyage, but we had soon to learn that we had something more to
go through. Mrs Derick had by this time become something like herself
again, and as for the captain, though he felt more than any one, he
never changed. He sang and joked as much as ever, and even sneered at
the old woman and her jolly-boat, as he called it. I cannot describe
what happened every day of the voyage, so I must merely mention the most
remarkable events. It was in the afternoon watch, when, as I was
sweeping the horizon with my glass, I observed an unusual dark
appearance on the water. Some said that it was a sand-bank, others an
island, some a shoal fish, but I saw that it was a heavy squall driving
furiously over the hitherto smooth unruffled sea. I was not mistaken.
I called Captain Derick on deck, and the hands were sent aloft to lower
topgallant yards and to furl every sail, except the fore-topsail, which
was closely reefed. The men sprang to their duty, for they saw that not
a moment was to be lost. The ship was put before the wind just in time.
Down came the squall upon us, roaring, and tearing, and hissing along
the ocean. Away we flew before it like a sea-bird on the wing. Our
only danger was lest we should not be far enough to the south to clear
the land of the Patagonians--the renowned Cape Horn.
"Every moment the fury of the gale increased, the waves rose higher, and
the wind roared louder. Everything on deck was secured, and preventer
braces were put on the fore and fore-topsail yards to assist in securing
them. As night approached the terrific contest increased. The sea,
which ran on either beam in high mountainous surges, broke with an awful
roar; the stern of the ship now lifted on the summit of a wave, and the
next instant her bow was plunging madly into the dark trough which
yearned apparently to engulf her. The thunder rattled loudly through
the heavy sky, the vivid lightning played threateningly round the masts,
and the wind howled and whistled through the rigging. Those who had
never before felt fear in a storm, now trembled with alarm. On we drove
with impetuous violence, the hands at the wheel scarcely able to keep
the ship before the boiling seas, which, as they curled up astern,
seemed ready to rush down on our decks and overwhelm us.
"It was in the middle watch, and the captain had just joined me on deck,
when one of the look-outs shouted, `Land on the starboard bow.' The
startling cry was echoed through the ship, and every man sprang on deck.
We were clearly in dangerous proximity to the coast, and with the
foreboding of mischief on the minds of all, many thought that our time
had arrived. All eyes were directed anxiously towards the coast, which
every instant was growing more distinct. The wheel was kept a few
spokes more to starboard, but we could not venture to haul the ship more
up lest she should broach to, and as no land appeared ahead, we hoped to
be able, if it were Cape Horn we saw, to scrape round it; at all events
a short time would decide our fate.
"The captain went into the cabin with me to consult the chart, and we
had every reason to hope that the land we saw was the southernmost part
of Cape Horn. When we returned on deck we had drawn awfully near the
coast, but it was broad on our starboard beam.
"`We shall be round the Cape in another half hour,' exclaimed the
captain in a cheerful tone, `and then, my lads, we shall be clear of the
accursed witch and her devilish tricks.'
"I do not know what madness induced him to remind the people of the old
hag; it showed what his own mind was running on, notwithstanding all his
pretended indifference and disbelief. At all events he had better have
let the subject alone; for at that instant, as if to refute his
assertion, a roll of thunder, louder than was ever heard before, sounded
in our ears, and in a blaze of forked lightning which flashed
continually from the skies, the old woman herself was seen, increased
into gigantic proportions, standing on a lofty rock at the very
southernmost point of the Cape, exactly as she had appeared on the pier
at Liverpool, and waving round in the air her long twisted staff, about
which the most vivid flashes played in fiery circles. Her face full of
malignant fury, lighted up as now, was of a livid hue, her garments and
her grey looks streamed in the wind, and as she pointed towards the
western ocean she seemed by her gestures to threaten us with further
mishaps. Her lips moved and gibbered, but if she spoke, not a sound
reached us.
"We had two of the guns mounted, and on beholding the terrific figure,
Derick ordered one of them to be loaded and run out.
"`I'll see what impression a cannon ball can make on her,' he exclaimed,
in a voice of mingled excitement, rage, and horror. `Bring a lighted
match here, one of you.'
"While the match was being brought, he stood eyeing the witch with a
look of defiance. He seized the light eagerly from the hand of a
seaman, and though, as you may suppose, in the tremendous way the ship
was rolling and pitching, it was impossible to take an aim, he fired.
The gun went off with an explosion louder than I ever heard before, and
a flash far more vivid. The noise was answered by a shriek of mocking
laughter, and the flash only served to show still more clearly the
hideous figure of the witch, jeering at us and threatening us with her
staff.
"Onward we rushed, and while the lightning lasted there she was seen as
clearly, I tell you, as we had seen her at home. When the lightning
ceased, the darkness of the night shut her out from our sight, but some
even then affirmed that they saw the dim outline of her form against the
northern sky.
"Not a man on board turned in again that night, you may be sure, but all
the watch who should have been below shrunk together in knots uttering
their forebodings to each other, and earnestly wishing for the return of
day. The longest night must have an end, and so had this, and, as the
morning broke, the wind settled down into a moderate gale, which sent as
forward on our course at the rate of twelve knots an hour.
"The land was no longer in sight, the glorious sun came out bright and
warm, and cheered our hearts, and we almost forgot the terrors of the
night. I said that Mrs Derick had not witnessed the sight we had, but
from her husband's manner, when he went below, she discovered that there
was something wrong, and she would not rest till he had told her. He,
as usual, tried to laugh it off, and to declare that there was nothing
in it, but I saw that she was not satisfied, and that the circumstance
was preying sadly on her mind.
"In two days, by an observation made, we found that we were well to the
westward of the south coast of America, and the wind veering round to
the south, we kept away on a northerly course. Every day, as we got
into more temperate latitudes, the weather became finer and warmer, and
the spirits of the seamen rose proportionably, though they were not the
men they would have been in the natural course of things. They had
plenty of work to do, which kept their minds employed, in preparing for
our visit to the Spanish coast; we got up the remainder of the guns from
the hold and shipped them on their carriages, we sent up topgallant
masts and yards, got out the flying jib-boom, and repaired the damages
we had received in the gale. The carpenters also set to work to build a
boat to supply the place of the one we had lost; while the captain and
supercargo made arrangements for their transactions on the coast.
"I am not giving you extracts from my log, so that I need only tell you
that about a month was consumed in successful trading with the
Spaniards, in spite of the men-of-war on the look out for us at sea, and
the custom-house officers and soldiers sent to intercept us in shore.
We touched, I remember, at Conception, Coquimbo, Huasco, Point Negra,
and other places on the coast of Chili.
"At last the vigilance of the Spanish authorities being completely
aroused, it was thought better to keep away from the shore for a short
time, to throw them off their guard. Captain Derick accordingly
determined to visit a group of islands some distance to the westward, to
lay in a stock of turtle, with which those islands abound. I think they
were the Gallipagos, but as we never reached them, I am not certain.
The Pacific is very properly so called, but when the wind does take it
into its head to blow, then it makes up for its general idleness. The
weather had long continued calm and beautiful, and everything went well
on board. Captain Derick once more laughed and joked, and his wife
looked happy and contented. Not satisfied, however, to let things
alone, he must bring up the subject of the old witch again, and declared
that the whole story, from first to last, was trumped up by the crew,
and that neither he nor any one else on board had ever set eyes on her
since the day we left Liverpool. How he could venture on such
assertions I don't know, but he wanted to persuade others of what he
wished to believe himself.
"The evening was beautifully calm and serene: it put me in mind of the
one we had before the night on which we had lost our masts off the coast
of Brazil, only this was calmer and warmer. Not a breath of air was
felt, the sails hung listlessly down against the masts, the sea was
smooth as a polished mirror, and the sky of the purest blue; the
atmosphere, notwithstanding the warmth, was pleasant, and every one on
board was in good spirits. As the night drew on, however, the air
became more stagnant, the heat increased, and as there was not even a
swell moving the bosom of the Pacific, the dead silence which prevailed
became absolutely oppressive.
"The captain and his wife were sitting aft and leaning against the
taffrail with their hands clasped in each other's, for they were as fond
now as when they were bride and bridegroom; the work of the day was
over, and the crew were lying listlessly about the decks, not even
amusing themselves with talking as usual. I do not believe a person on
board had uttered a word for a quarter of an hour. I never felt so
complete a silence; when on a sudden it was broken by a loud, piercing,
derisive cackle, sounding close under our quarter. Every one knew the
voice, and as we sprang up and looked over the bulwarks, we saw, as we
expected, the old witch, gliding along the smooth sea, and taking a
course directly ahead of us, while she howled and jeered, and pointed
with her staff just as she had done before.
"The captain saw her too. `Damn her!' he exclaimed, fiercely; `what
does she want here?'
"The words were scarcely out of his mouth, when an answer was given back
which fully accounted for her presence. Right astern there appeared,
where a moment before the sky had been of beautiful blue, a cloud black
as ink, spreading across the whole eastern horizon. We all saw what was
coming--the men instinctively sprang to the brails.
"`Clew up, haul down, let fly everything!' shouted the captain.
"It was too late: before a tack could be let go, or a brail hauled on,
the fierce hurricane struck us. In a moment, ere we could look round,
the stout ship heeled over, and trembled in every timber. Crash upon
crash was heard, mingled with the shrieks of the seamen, and she was
left without a mast standing, a mere hull upon the water. Derick was
the most undaunted, though he must have felt on whose account all these
disasters were happening. He sprang up with an axe in his hand, and
summoning the crew, set to work to cut away the shrouds to clear the
shattered spars from the ship. It was done, and the ship drove
furiously on before the howling blast.
"`We shall ride it out and disappoint the accursed old hag; so never
mind, my boys!' he shouted, as he worked away.
"`Land right ahead,' sang out a man forward.
"`Land on the starboard bow,' cried another.
"`Land on the larboard bow,' exclaimed a third.
"`Then we are lost!' shrieked out many voices, in an agony of despair.
"Onward we drove before the hurricane. `Breakers on the starboard and
larboard bows,' cried the first mate, who had rushed forward to look out
for any passage among the reefs through which to steer the ship, while
I, with the third mate and another hand, went to the helm.
"The darkness of the night came down, and added to the horrors of the
scene. `Breakers right ahead!' he shouted; `all's lost!' He had
scarcely uttered the words when the ship struck with tremendous violence
on some rocks; the sea lifted her, but it was to let her fall with still
greater force, amid a foaming caldron of waters. The surges fiercely
broke over us, and washed man after man from his hold. Shrieks and
cries rose on every side from the manly bosoms which had never before
felt fear.
"The captain stood firm, clasping his wife in his arms, for she had from
the first refused to go below. His countenance, as the lightning
flashed brightly round him, looked deadly pale; she had fainted, and was
happily senseless. A third time the ship lifted, and down she came with
a tremendous crash, every timber in her parting at the instant. Two
things I saw at that awful moment: the despairing countenance of the
captain as the foaming waves whirled him and her he loved away in their
wild embrace, his starting eyeballs to the last fixed on the malignant
features of the fearful witch, whom I beheld sailing round us in her
skiff, unharmed, among the breakers, her loud shrieks of triumphant
laughter sounding high above the roaring of the tempest.
"Notwithstanding the horrors of the scene, the principle of
self-preservation prompted me to seize a plank, and supported by it, I
found myself, I scarcely know how, carried by the waves on to a sandy
beach. A rock was near. I climbed to its summit, and from thence I
beheld, amid successive flashes of lightning, the old witch whirling her
staff in triumph over her head, while her skiff scudded at lightning
speed in the direction of Cape Horn. I was on an uninhabited island. I
searched anxiously on every side to see if any of my shipmates had
escaped, but alas! none appeared, and I discovered with sorrow that I
was the sole survivor of the _Chameleon's_ gallant crew.
"After living some months on the island, I was taken off, and in two
years found my way back to Liverpool. I had the curiosity to make
inquiries for old Dame Kirby, and learned that she had been for months
absent from home, and that nobody knew what had become of her, but that
at length she returned, and was heard to boast that she had been doing a
deed much to her satisfaction, but would tell no one what it was. I
inquired the date of her return; it was exactly five days after our
shipwreck, so that although she must have made a quick passage, there
could be no longer any doubt on the mind of a reasonable man that she
had been the cause of all the disasters which had happened to us, and of
the destruction of the Doomed Ship."