Commodore James was greatly astonished at the easy success which he
had gained. The extraordinary cessation of fire from the sea face, and
the sound of artillery within the walls, had convinced him that a
mutiny among the garrison must have taken place; but upon entering the
fort he was surprised, indeed, at being received with a hearty English
cheer, from a little body of men on the summit of an interior work.
The gate of this was at once thrown open, and Charlie, followed by his
party, advanced towards the commodore.
"I am Captain Marryat, sir, of the Company's service in Madras; and
was captured three months ago by these pirates. When you attacked the
place, yesterday, I arranged to effect a small diversion; and with the
assistance of these five native officers, of my soldier servant, here,
and these ten men of the merchant service, we have, I hope, been able
to do so. The native officers disabled the greater portion of the
guns, during the night; and when you opened fire this morning we
seized this inner work, which is also the magazine, and opened fire
upon the rear of the sea defences. By dint of our guns, and of menaces
to blow up the place if they assaulted it, we kept them at bay until
their flag was hauled down."
"Then, sir," Commodore James said, warmly; "I have to thank you, most
heartily, for the assistance you have given. In fact, it is you who
have captured the fortress. I was by no means prepared to find it so
strong; and, indeed, had come to the conclusion, last night, that the
force at my command was wholly insufficient for its capture.
Fortunately, I determined to try the effect of another day's fire.
But, had it not been for you, this would assuredly have been as
ineffectual as the first. You have, indeed, performed a most gallant
action; and I shall have great pleasure in reporting your conduct to
the authorities at home."
The sailors had now landed in considerable force. The garrison were
disarmed, and taken as prisoners on board the ships. Very large
quantities of powder were found, stored up, and strong parties at once
began to form mines, for the blowing up of the fortifications.
This was a labour of some days. When they were completed and charged,
a series of tremendous explosions took place. Many of the bastions
were completely blown to pieces. In others, the walls were shattered.
The prisoners were again landed, and set to work, aided by the
sailors. The great stones, which composed the walls, were toppled over
the steep faces of the rock on which the fort stood; and, at the end
of a fortnight, the pirate hold of Suwarndrug, which had so long been
the terror of the Indian Seas, had disappeared.
The fleet returned to Bombay; for it was, evidently, wholly
insufficient to attempt an assault on Gheriah; defended, as that place
would be, by the whole pirate fleet; which had, even without the
assistance of its guns, proved itself a match for a squadron double
the strength of that under the command of Commodore James.
The rejoicings at Bombay were immense, for enormous damage had been
inflicted on the commerce of that place, by this pirate hold, situated
but eighty miles from the port. Commodore James and his officers were
feted, and Charlie Marryat had his full share of honor; the gallant
sailor, everywhere, assigning to him the credit of its capture.
Charlie would now have sailed, at once, for Madras; but the
authorities wished him to remain, as Clive was shortly expected to
arrive, with a considerable force, which was destined to act against
the French at Hyderabad. The influence of Bussy, with the nizam,
rendered this important province little better than a French
possession; and the territory of our rivals, upon the seacoast, had
been immensely increased by the grant of the five districts, known as
the Northern Sirdars, to Bussy.
It was all that the English could do to hold their own, around Madras;
and it was out of the question for them to think of attempting, single
handed, to dislodge Bussy from Hyderabad. Between the nizam, however,
and the Peishwar of the Deccan, there was a longstanding feud; and the
Company had proposed, to this prince, to aid him with a strong English
force, in an attack upon Hyderabad.
Colonel Scott had, in the first place, been sent out to command this
expedition; but when Clive, wearied with two years' life of inactivity
in England, applied to be appointed to active service, the directors
at once appointed him governor of Fort Saint David, and obtained for
him the rank of lieutenant colonel in the royal army. They directed
him to sail at once for Bombay, with three companies of the Royal
Artillery, each a hundred strong, and three hundred infantry recruits.
Upon his arrival there, he was to give Colonel Scott any assistance he
required. That officer, however, had died before Clive arrived.
Upon reaching Bombay, Clive found that events had occurred, in the
south, which would prevent the intended expedition from taking place.
The French government had suddenly recalled Dupleix, the great man
whose talent and statesmanship had sustained their cause. On his
return to France, instead of treating him with honor for the work he
had done for them, they even refused to repay him the large sums which
he had advanced, from his private fortune, to carry on the struggle
against the English; and Dupleix died in poverty and obscurity.
In his place, the French governor had sent out a man by the name of
Godchen, who was weak and wholly destitute of ability. At the time of
his arrival the English were hardly pressed, and a strong French fleet
and force were expected on the coast. When, however, Mr. Saunders
proposed to him a treaty of neutrality between the Indian possessions
of the two powers, he at once accepted it; and thus threw away all the
advantages, which Dupleix had struggled so hard to obtain. The result
of this treaty, however, was that the English were unable to carry out
their proposed alliance, with the peishwar, against the nizam and
Bussy.
Upon Clive's arrival, Charlie at once reported himself to him. For a
time, however, no active duty was assigned to him, as it was uncertain
what steps would now be taken. Finally it was resolved that, taking
advantage of the presence of Clive and his troops, and of a squadron
which had arrived under Admiral Watson, the work commenced by
Commodore James should be completed, by the capture of Gheriah and the
entire destruction of the pirate power.
The peishwar had already asked them to aid him in his attack upon
Angria, and Commodore James was now sent, with the Protector and two
other ships, to reconnoitre Gheriah, which no Englishman then living
had seen. The natives described it as of enormous strength, and it was
believed that it was an Eastern Gibraltar.
Commodore James found the enemy's fleet at anchor in the harbour.
Notwithstanding this, he sailed in until within cannon shot, and so
completely were the enemy cowed and demoralized, by the loss of
Suwarndrug, that they did not venture out to attack him.
After ascertaining the position and character of the defences, he
returned, at the end of December, to Bombay; and reported that, while
exceedingly strong, the place was by no means impregnable. The
Mahratta army, under the command of Ramajee Punt, marched to blockade
the place on the land side; and on the 11th of February, 1756, the
fleet, consisting of four ships of the line, of seventy, sixty-four,
sixty, and fifty guns; a frigate of forty-four, and three of twenty; a
native ship called a grab, of twelve guns; and five mortar ships,
arrived before the place. Besides the seamen, the fleet had on board a
battalion of eight hundred Europeans and a thousand Sepoys.
The fortress of Gheriah was situated on a promontory of rock, a mile
and a quarter broad; lying about a mile up a large harbour, forming
the mouth of a river. The promontory projects to the southwest, on the
right of the harbour on entering; and rises sheer from the water in
perpendicular rocks, fifty feet high. On this stood the
fortifications. These consisted of two lines of walls, with round
towers, the inner wall rising several feet above the outer.
The promontory was joined to the land by a sandy slip, beyond which
the town stood. On this neck of land, between the promontory and the
town, were the docks and slips on which the pirate vessels were built
or repaired; and ten of these, among which was the Derby, which they
had captured from the Company, lay moored side by side, close by the
docks, when the fleet arrived off the place.
Charlie Marryat had been sent, by Clive, as commissioner with the
Mahratta army. A party of Mahratta horsemen came down to Bombay to
escort him to Chaule, at which place the Mahratta army were assembled
for their march. He was accompanied by Tim and Hossein, who were of
course, like him, on horseback.
A long day's ride took them to their first halting place, a few miles
from the foot of a splendid range of hills, which rise like a wall
from the low land, for a vast distance along the coast. At the top of
these hills--called in India, ghauts--lay the plateau of the Deccan,
sloping gradually away to the Ganges, hundreds of miles to the east.
"Are we going to climb up to top of them mountains, your honor?"
"No, Tim, fortunately for our horses. We shall skirt their foot, for a
hundred and fifty miles, till we get behind Gheriah."
"You wouldn't think that a horse could climb them," Tim said. "They
look as steep as the side of a house."
"In many places they are, Tim, but you see there are breaks in them.
At some points, either from the force of streams, or from the weather,
the rocks have crumbled away; and the great slopes, which everywhere
extend halfway up, reach the top. Zigzag paths are cut in these, which
can be travelled by horses and pack animals.
"There must be quantities of game," Charlie said to the leader of the
escort, "on the mountain sides."
"Quantities?" the Mahratta said. "Tigers and bears swarm there, and
are such a scourge that there are no villages within miles of the foot
of the hills. Even on the plateau above, the villages are few and
scarce near the edge, so great is the damage done by wild beasts.
"But that is not all. There are numerous bands of Dacoits, who set the
authority of the peishwar at defiance, plunder travellers and
merchants going up and down, make raids into the Deccan, and plunder
the low land nearly up to the gates of Bombay. Numerous expeditions
have been sent against them, but the Dacoits know every foot of the
hills. They have numerous, impregnable strongholds on the rocks; which
you can see rising sheer up hundreds of feet, from among the woods on
the slopes; and can, if pressed, shift their quarters, and move fifty
miles away among the trees, while the troops are, in vain, searching
for them."
"I suppose there is no chance of their attacking us," Charlie said.
"The Dacoit never fights if he can help it, and then only when driven
into a corner, or when there appears a chance of very large plunder.
He will always leave a strong party of armed men, from whom nothing
but hard blows is to be got, in peace."
The journey occupied five days, and was most enjoyable. The officer of
the escort, as the peishwar's agent, would have requisitioned
provisions at each of the villages; but Charlie insisted, under one
pretence or another, on buying a couple of sheep or kids at each
halting place, for the use of his own party and the escort. For a few
copper coins an abundant supply of fruit and vegetables was
obtainable; and as, each night, they spread their rugs under the shade
of some overhanging tree, and smoked their pipes lazily after the very
excellent meal which Hossein always prepared, Charlie and Tim agreed
that they had spent no pleasanter time in India than that occupied by
their journey.
Charlie was received with much honor by Ramajee Punt, and was assigned
a gorgeous tent, next to his own.
"People in England, Mister Charles," said Tim that evening, "turn up
their noses at the thought of living in tents, but what do they know
of them? The military tent is an uncomfortable thing, and as for the
gipsy tent, a dacent pig wouldn't look at it. Now this is like a
palace, with its carpet under foot, and its sides covered with silk
hangings, and its furniture fit for a palace. Father Murphy wouldn't
believe me, if I told him about it on oath. If this is making war, yer
honor, I shall be in no hurry for pace."
The Mahratta force took up its position, beleaguering the town on the
land side, some weeks before the arrival of the fleet; Commodore
James, with his two ships, blockading it at sea. There was little to
do, and Charlie accepted with eagerness an offer of Ramajee Punt, that
they should go out for two or three days' tiger hunting, at the foot
of the hills.
"Well, Mr. Charles," Tim said, when he heard of the intention, "if you
want to go tiger hunting, Tim Kelly is not the boy to stay behind. But
shure, yer honor, if the creeturs will lave ye alone, why should you
meddle with them? I saw one in a cage at Arcot, and it's a baste I
shouldn't wish to see on a lone road on a dark night. It had a way of
wagging its tail that made you feel uncomfortable like, to the sole of
yer boots; and after looking at me for some time, the baste opened its
mouth, and gave a roar that shook the whole establishment. It's a
baste safer to let alone than to meddle with."
"But we shall be up on the top of an elephant. We shall be safe enough
there, you know."
"Maybe, yer honor," Tim said doubtfully; "but I mind me that, when I
was a boy, me and my brother Peter was throwing sods at an old tomcat
of my mother's, who had stolen our dinners, and it ran up a wall ten
feet high. Well, yer honor, the tiger is as big as a hundred tomcats,
and by the same token he ought to be able to run up a wall--"
"A thousand feet high, Tim? He can't do that. Indeed, I question
whether he could run up much higher than a cat.
"We are to start this evening, and shall be there by midnight. The
elephants have gone on ahead."
At sunset the party started. It consisted of Ramajee Punt, one of his
favourite officers, and a score of soldiers. An officer had already
gone on, to enlist the services of the men of two or three villages as
beaters. A small but comfortable tent had been erected for the party,
and supper prepared.
The native shikari, or sportsman of the neighbourhood, had brought in
the news that tigers were plentiful; and that one of unusual size had
been committing great depredations; and had, only the day before,
carried off a bullock into the thickets, a mile from the spot at which
they were encamped.
"The saints preserve us!" Tim said, when he heard the news; "a cat big
enough to carry off a mouse in her mouth as big as a bullock."
"It seems almost impossible, Tim, but it is a fact that tigers can
carry in their mouths full-sized bullocks, for considerable distances,
and that they can kill them with one stroke of their paw. However,
they are not as formidable as you would imagine, as you will see,
tomorrow."
In the morning the elephants were brought out. Charlie took his place
in the front of a howdah, with Tim behind him. Three rifles were
placed in the seat, and these Tim was to hand to his master, as he
discharged them. Ramajee Punt and his officer were also mounted on
elephants, and the party started for their destination.
"It's as bad as being at sea, Mr. Charles," Tim said.
"It does roll about, Tim. You must let your body go with the motion,
just as on board ship. You will soon get accustomed to it."
On reaching the spot, which was a narrow valley, with steep sides
running up into the hill, the elephants came to a stand. The mouth of
the valley was some fifty yards wide, and the animal might break from
the trees at any point. The ground was covered with high, coarse
grass.
Ramajee Punt placed himself in the centre, assigning to Charlie the
position on his right, telling him that it was the best post, as it
was on this side the tiger had been seen to enter. Soon after they had
taken their places, a tremendous clamour arose near the head of the
valley. Drums were beaten, horns blown, and scores of men joined in,
with shouts and howls.
"What on arth are they up to, Mr. Charles?"
"They are driving the tiger this way, Tim. Now, sit quiet and keep a
sharp lookout, and be ready to hand me a rifle, the instant I have
fired."
The noise increased, and was plainly approaching. The elephant
fidgeted uneasily.
"That baste has more sinse than we have," said Tim; "and would be off,
if that little black chap, astraddle of his neck, didn't keep on
patting his head."
Presently, the mahout pointed silently to the bushes ahead, and
Charlie caught sight, for a moment, of some yellow fur. Apparently the
tiger had heard or scented the elephants, for it again turned and made
up the valley. Presently a redoubled yelling, with the firing of guns,
showed that it had been seen by the beaters. Ramajee Punt held up his
hand to Charlie, as a signal that next time the tiger might be
expected.
Suddenly there was a movement among the bushes. A tiger sprang out,
about halfway between Charlie's elephant and that of Ramajee Punt. It
paused for a moment, on seeing them; and then, as it was about to
spring forward, two balls struck it. It sprang a short distance,
however, and then fell, rolling over and over. One ball had broken a
foreleg, the other had struck it on the head. Another ball from
Ramajee Punt struck it, as it rolled over and over, and it lay
immovable.
"Why didn't you hand me the next rifle, Tim?" Charlie said sharply.
"It went clane out of my head, altogether. To think now, and you kilt
it in a moment. The tiger is a poor baste, anyhow. I've seen a cat
make ten times as strong a fight for its life.
"Holy Moses!"
The last exclamation was called from Tim's lips by a sudden jerk. A
huge tiger, far larger than that which had fallen, had sprung up from
the brushwood and leaped upon the elephant. With one forepaw he
grasped the howdah, with the other clung to the elephant's shoulder,
an inch or two only behind the leg of the mahout.
Charlie snatched the rifle from Tim's hand, and thrust the muzzle into
the tiger's mouth, just as the elephant swerved round with sudden
fright and pain. At the same moment the weight of the tiger on the
howdah caused the girths to give way; and Charlie, Tim and the tiger
fell together on the ground. Charlie had pulled his trigger, just as
he felt himself going; and at the same moment he heard the crack of
Ramajee Punt's rifle.
The instant they touched the ground, Tim and Charlie cast themselves
over and over, two or three times; and then leaped to their feet,
Charlie grasping his rifle, to make the best defence he could if the
tiger sprang upon him. The creature lay, however, immovable.
"It is dead, Tim," Charlie exclaimed. "You needn't be afraid."
"And no wonder, yer honor, when I pitched, head first, smack onto his
stomach. It would have killed a horse."
"It might have done, Tim, but I don't think it would have killed a
tiger. Look there."
Charlie's gun had gone off at the moment when the howdah turned round,
and had nearly blown off a portion of the tiger's head; while, almost
at the same instant, the ball of Ramajee Punt had struck it in the
back, breaking the spine. Death had, fortunately for Tim, been
instantaneous.
The tiger last killed was the great male which had done so much
damage; the first, a female. The natives tied the legs together,
placed long bamboos between them, and carried the animals off, in
triumph, to the camp. The elephant on which Charlie had ridden ran
some distance, before the mahout could stop him. He was, indeed, so
terrified by the onslaught of the tiger, that it was not considered
advisable to endeavour to get him to face another, that day. Ramajee
Punt, therefore, invited Charlie to take his seat with him, on his
elephant, an arrangement which greatly satisfied Tim, whose services
were soon dispensed with.
"I'd rather walk on my own feet, Mister Charles, than ride any more on
those great bastes. They're uncomfortable, anyhow. It's a long way to
fall, if the saddle goes round; and next time one might not find a
tiger handy, to light on."
Two more tigers were killed that afternoon and, well pleased with his
day's sport, Charlie returned to the hunting camp.
The next day, Hossein begged that he might be allowed to accompany
Charlie in Tim's place; and as the Irishman was perfectly willing to
surrender it, the change was agreed upon. The march was a longer one
than it had been, on the previous morning. A notorious man-eating
tiger was known to have taken up his abode, in a large patch of
jungle, at the foot of an almost perpendicular wall of rock, about ten
miles from the place where the camp was pitched. The patch of jungle
stood upon a steep terrace, whose slopes were formed of boulders, the
patch being some fifty or sixty yards long and thirty deep.
"It is a nasty place," Ramajee Punt said, "to get him from. The
beaters cannot get behind to drive him out, and the jungle is too
thick to penetrate."
"How do you intend to proceed?" Charlie asked.
"We will send a party to the top of the hill, and they will throw down
crackers. We have brought some rockets, too, which we will send in
from the other side. We will take our places, on our elephants, at the
foot of the terrace."
The three elephants took their posts, at the foot of the boulder
covered rise. As soon as they had done so, the men at the top of the
rock began to throw down numbers of lighted crackers; while, from
either side, parties sent rockets whizzing into the jungle.
For some time the tiger showed no signs of his presence, and Charlie
began to doubt whether he could be really there. The shikaris,
however, declared that he was certainly in the jungle. He had, on the
day before, carried off a woman from a neighbouring village; and had
been traced to the jungle, round which a watch had been kept all
night.
Suddenly, uttering a mighty roar, the tiger bounded from the jungle,
and stood at the edge of the terrace. Startled at his sudden
appearance, the elephants recoiled, shaking the aim of their riders.
Three shots were, however, fired almost at the same moment; and the
tiger, with another roar, bounded back into the jungle.
"I think," the rajah said, "that he is badly hit. Listen to his
roarings."
The tiger, for a time, roared loudly at intervals. Then the sounds
became lower and less frequent, and at last ceased altogether. In vain
did the natives above shower down crackers. In vain were the rockets
discharged into the jungle. An hour passed, since he had last been
heard.
"I expect that he's dead," Charlie said.
"I think so, too," Ramajee Punt replied; "but one can never be
certain. Let us draw off a little, and take our luncheon. After that,
we can try the fireworks again. If he will not move, then we must
leave him."
"But surely," Charlie said, "we might go in and see whether he's dead
or not."
"A wounded tiger is a terrible foe," the Ramajee answered. "Better
leave him alone."
Charlie, however, was anxious to get the skin to send home, with those
of the others he had shot, to his mother and sisters. It might be very
long before he had an opportunity of joining in another tiger hunt;
and he resolved that, if the tiger gave no signs of life when the
bombardment of the jungle with fireworks recommenced, he would go in
and look for his body.