RALPH ENTERETH INTO THE REGIONS OF ROMANCE AND PRIVATEERING, CARRIED
THITHER BY A PILOT, malgre lui--AN INOPPORTUNE VISIT.
Shortly after the illegal suspension of the Habeas Corpus that I
recorded in the last chapter, the portion of the navy stationed in the
West Indies became actively employed in the conquest of those islands
still in the possession of the French. Some fell almost without a
struggle, others at much expense of life, both of the military and naval
forces. As everyone, who could find a publisher, has written a book on
all these events, from the capture of the little spot Deseada, to the
subduing the magnificent island of Guadaloupe, and the glorious old
stone-built city of Domingo, I may well be excused detailing the
operations.
Among other bellicose incidents that varied the dull monotony of my
life, was the beating off a frigate equal in force to our own; though I
believe that we were a little obliged to her for taking leave of us in a
manner so abrupt, though we could not certainly complain of the want, on
her part, of any attention for the short and busy hour that she stayed
with us, for she assisted us to shift all our topmasts, and as, before
she met us, we had nothing but old sails to display, she considerably
decorated us with a profusion of ribands gaily fluttering about our
lower masts and the topmasts that were still standing gracefully hanging
over our sides.
We were too polite and well-bred not to make some return for all these
_petits soins_. As, between the tropics, the weather is generally very
warm, we evinced a most laudable anxiety that she should be properly
ventilated, so we assiduously began drilling holes through and through
her hull; and, I assure the reader, that we did it in a surpassingly
workmanlike manner. But, in the midst of this spirited exchange of
courtesies, our Gallic friend remembered that he had, or might have,
another _engagement_, so he took his leave; and, as he had given us so
many reasons to prevent our insisting to attend upon him, we parted _en
pleine mer_, leaving us excessively annoyed that we were prevented from
accompanying him any further.
In Captain Reud's despatches he stated, and stated truly, that we beat
him off. Why he went, I could not understand; for, excepting in the
shattered state of her hull, and more particularly in a sad confusion of
her quarter gallery, with her two aftermost main-deck-ports, he sailed
off with her colours flying, and every sail drawing, even to her royals.
But the French used to have their own method of managing these little
matters.
But let us rapidly pass over these follies and hasten to something more
exquisitely foolish. And yet I cannot, I have to clear away many dull
weeds, and tread down many noxious nettles, before I can reach the one
fresh and thornless rose, that bloomed for a short space upon my heart,
and the fragrance of which so intoxicated my senses, that, for a time, I
was under a blessed delusion of believing myself happy.
I had now been two years and a half in the West Indies, and I was fast
approaching my nineteenth year. At this period we had retaken several
English West Indiamen.
In one of these retaken merchant vessels, there was found, as the French
prize-master, and now of course our prisoner, a mercurial little fellow
of the name of Messurier. He was very proud of the glory of his nation,
and still prouder of his own. As France possessed many historians, and
Monsieur Adolphe Sigismund Messurier but one, and that one himself, of
course, he had the duty of, at least, three hundred savants thrown upon
his own shoulders: he performed it nobly, and with an infinite relish.
Now, when a person who is given to much talking is also given to much
drinking, it generally happens, injurious as is the vice of the
grog-bottle, that the vice of the voluble tongue is still worse. When
in his cups, he told of the scores that he had slain, counting them off
by threes and fives upon his fingers, his thumbs indicating captains,
his forefingers first-lieutenants, and so on with the various grades in
our service, until the _aspirants_, or middies, were merely honoured by
his little finger as their representative, we only laughed; and asked
him, if he had been so destructive to the officers, how many men had
fallen by the puissance of his arm. It seemed that these latter were
too numerous and too ignoble to be counted; for that question was always
answered with a _bah_! and a rapidly passing over the extended palm of
his left hand with his open right one.
But when, one evening, he mentioned that he could pilot a frigate into
the inland waters from whence swarmed the crowd of schooner privateers
that infested the islands, and by their swift sailing to windward,
eluded our fastest ships, we laughed still, and I did something more; I
reported this boast to Captain Reud.
"Then," exclaimed my valorous little creole, "by all the virtues of a
long eighteen, he shall take in His Majesty's frigate, _Eos_."
Whenever he protested by a long eighteen, in the efficacy of whose
powers he had the most implicit reliance, we might look upon the matter
as performed.
The next morning, whilst Monsieur Messurier was solacing his aching head
with his hands, oblivious of the events of the preceding evening, he was
feelingly reminded of his consummate skill in pilotage. He then became
most unnaturally modest, and denied all pretensions to the honour. Now
Captain Reud had no idea that even an enemy should wrap up his talent in
a napkin, so he merely said to him, "You must take my ship in." When
the captain had made up his mind, the deed generally trod upon the heels
of the resolve. Poor man! he was always in want of something to do, and
thus he was too happy to do anything that offered excitement, Monsieur
Messurier was in despair; he prayed and swore alternately, talked about
sacrificing his life for the good of his country; and told us in a
manner that convinced us that he wished us to believe the absurdity,
that honour was the breath of his nostrils. However, the captain was
fully intent upon giving him the glorious opportunity of exclaiming with
effect, _Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori_.
Not knowing the strength of the stronghold that it was our intention to
surprise, Captain Reud cruised about for a few days, until he had
collected another frigate, a sloop of war, and two eighteen-gun brigs,
the commanders of all being, of course, his juniors. Having made all
necessary arrangements, one beautiful morning we found ourselves close
off the iron-bound and rocky shores of the east end of Saint Domingo.
We ran along shore for a couple of hours, when we perceived an opening
in the lofty piles of granite, that frowned over the blue ocean. This
was the entrance into the harbour where lay our destined prizes.
Captain Reud taking the responsibility into his own hands, had
determined to lead in. The charts were minutely examined, but they gave
us no hope. The soundings laid down were so shallow and the path so
intricate, that, by them, we wondered much how even a privateer schooner
could make the passage in safety. To a frigate drawing three-and-twenty
feet of water, the attempt seemed only a precursor to destruction.
We hove-to; the captains of the other vessels were signalled on board,
and with them and our first-lieutenant and master, a sort of council of
war was held; and, as everyone present gave his voice against the
attempts our skipper's mind was made up directly. He resolved to go in,
trusting to the chapter of accidents, to a gracious Providence, and
Monsieur Messurier upon the fore-yard, with a seaman with a pistol at
each ear, to scatter his brains the moment the ship struck. The weather
was brilliant, the wind moderate and fair, when we bore up to the mouth
of the passage. It was something at once ludicrous and painful to
witness the agony of our pilot in spite of himself. Between oaths,
protestations and tremors, the perspiration of terror flowing down his
face, mingled with his tears, he conned the ship with a precision that
proved, at least in that matter, that he was no vain boaster.
But we had scarcely advanced a few hundred yards within the gorge, than
I had eyes only for the sublimity of the scenery that opened itself in
succession as we passed. The water was as smooth as the cheek, as
bright as the smile, and as blue as the eye of our first love. Indeed,
it was "_deeply_, beautifully blue," as Lord Byron saith--to that
_deeply_ we owed everything. The channel was so narrow, that, in many
places there was not sufficient room to tack the ship even if she could
have turned within her own length, and, in two remarkable points, we had
not sufficient width to have carried our studding-sails. At one
singularly romantic spot of this pass, the rocks far above our
mast-heads leant over towards each other, and the ancient forest trees
that crowned the heights, mingled their feathery branches, and permitted
us to get a sight of the vaulted blue above us only at intervals,
between the interstices of the dark-green foliage.
The seamen regarded their situation with wonder, not unmixed with awe.
But the view was not the unvaried one of two gigantic walls festooned
with flowers and crowned with trees. At intervals, we found the channel
open into wide lagoons, with shelving and verdant shores, studded with
white stone buildings, and well cultivated plantations, and then the
passage would narrow again suddenly, and the masses of rock rose so high
on each side of us, as almost to exclude the light of the day. The way
was tortuous, but not abruptly so; and, as we wound through it, ever and
anon we came to some picturesque inlet, some cool grotto, so beautiful
that its very beauty must have peopled it with nymphs, for none could
look upon them, without feeling, for a time, like poets. At the
entrance, the heaving water rose and fell with a heavy moaning against
the eternal bases of the rocks, though the surface in mid-channel was
perfectly smooth; but, as we advanced, the dull indulation gradually
subsided, and its measured splash no longer echoed among the cliffs.
The silence, as we proceeded, grew strange to us. An awe crept over us,
like that which is felt upon the first entrance into a vast cathedral:
and the gentle wind came to us noiselessly, and dying away at intervals,
left the ship silently stealing on, impelled for a space, by no visible
means.
The hush throughout the ship was tomb-like, and the few words of command
that from time to time broke upon the ear, sounded hollow and unearthly
from the reverberations of the overhanging precipices.
But quickly the scene would change; the jutting promontories and
overtopping walls would recede, and a fairy spot, encircled by
forest-land, would open upon us, studded with green islands, glorious in
all the beauties of an eternal spring, and crowded and crowned with
flowers of every hue, and of a brilliancy the most intense. We
proceeded in this delightful manner for more than twelve miles, yet no
one had appeared, in the least to notice our approach. Had the most
trivial attempt at defence been made, we could not have proceeded a
quarter of the distance; for I verily believe that we passed by points
so overhanging, that a couple of pounds of gunpowder, properly applied,
and fired at the right moment, would have tumbled fragments of solid
rock upon us, that would have crushed us to the bottom in an instant, to
mention nothing of the several protruding corners of this singular pass,
on which two or three guns could have raked an approaching vessel for
half an hour with impunity, as I have before stated that it would be
impossible in those straitened passages to have turned a broadside to
bear on any impediment. On we came, and at last a noble bay, or rather
salt-water lake, opened upon us, with two wide rivers delivering their
waters into the bottom of it. On our right lay the town of Aniana, with
a fort upon a green mount overlooking the houses, and rising much higher
than our floating pennant.
Our unexpected _entree_, like all other mistimed visits, caused the
visited a terrible degree of confusion. Twelve or thirteen beautiful
schooners had their sweeps out, and all their sails set immediately. We
having anchored opposite the town about noon, the breeze fell away into
almost a perfect calm, and off they went, making the best of their way
up the rivers. There were several other craft lying off the town, into
which the inhabitants were crowding, with all their effects of any
value, no doubt intending to go a little way up into the country also,
to avoid the inconvenience of inopportune calls. The signal was made
for our little squadron to get out their boats, chase, and capture.