"I am obliged for your Excellency's good opinion of me; and still more
so for the information that you have been good enough to give us
to-night. I have been very fortunate, so far, in the schooner, and I
suppose I may reckon upon my promotion as certain; but I am eager to
have further opportunities of distinguishing myself, and if we can only
be lucky enough to find two or three slavers up that creek, and to
capture them, it would afford me just the opportunity that I require. I
shall sail to-morrow, and shall hope to be back here again in a month or
six weeks, with two or three prizes in company, and the assurance that
the establishment in question is completely destroyed."
We sat a few minutes longer, drank a final glass of wine, and then took
our leave and walked down to the schooner together, Ryan having
determined to sleep on board her that night.
We sailed from Sierra Leone on the following day, as Ryan had resolved
we should; but, as usually happens when matters are hurried, we met with
an endless succession of petty delays at the last moment that detained
us at anchor until nearly nightfall, and occasioned us a vast amount of
trotting about in the broiling sun to put some life into the dilatory
people who were keeping us waiting; the consequence of which was that
when at last we lifted the anchor and stood out of the bay with the very
last of the sea-breeze, to run into a calm when we had attained an
offing of some two miles, I felt altogether too tired and knocked up to
eat or drink; while, as for Ryan, he was in a state of high fever once
more.
We got the land breeze about eight o'clock that night, and stood away to
the southward and westward until midnight, in order that we might obtain
a good offing, when we hauled up on a south-east course for the Congo.
I remained on deck until midnight--at which hour I was relieved by
Pierrepoint--and then was obliged to send for the doctor, who, after
feeling my pulse, ordered me to my bunk at once, and when I was there
administered to me a tremendous dose of some frightfully bitter
concoction, telling me at the same time, for my comfort, that he would
not be in the least surprised if, when he next visited me, he should
find me suffering from a severe attack of coast fever. Happily, his
anticipations, so far as I was concerned, were unfounded; but by
daybreak poor Ryan was in a state of raving delirium, with three men in
his cabin told off to keep him in his bunk and prevent him from
inflicting upon himself some injury. As for me, the medicine that I had
taken threw me first into a profuse perspiration, and afterwards into a
deep sleep, from which I awoke next morning cool, free from pain, and
with a quiet, steady pulse, but very weak; and I did not fully recover
my strength until a day or two before we made the land about the Congo
mouth, which we did after a long passage that was uneventful in
everything save the persistency with which we were beset by calms and
light, baffling airs. By this time Ryan, too, had recovered to a
certain extent; that is to say, he was able to leave his bunk and to
stagger up on deck for an hour or so at a time, but he was still
frightfully weak; and it often appeared to me, from the rather wild talk
in which he sometimes indulged, that he had not thus far fully recovered
his mental balance.
We made the land about six bells in the forenoon watch, and stood
straight in for Shark Point, which we hugged pretty closely, in order to
cheat the current, which, as usual at that time of the year, was running
out pretty strongly. The sea-breeze was blowing half a gale, however,
and despite the current the little _Felicidad_ slid over the ground
bravely, arriving abreast the mouth of the creek to which we were bound
about four bells in the afternoon watch. We here cleared the schooner
for action, sent the men to their quarters, and, with a leadsman in the
fore-chains, both on the port and on the starboard sides, and with Ryan,
sketch-chart in hand, conning the vessel, steered boldly into the creek.
The soundings which we obtained at the entrance proved the chart to be
so far correct, and with our confidence thus strengthened we glided
gently forward over the glassy waters of the creek, every eye being
directed anxiously ahead, for we knew not at what moment we might
encounter our enemy, nor in what force he might be. To me it appeared
that we were acting in rather a foolhardy manner in thus rushing
blindfold as it were upon the unknown, and earlier in the day--in fact,
just after we had entered the river--I had suggested to Ryan the
advisability of taking the schooner somewhat higher up the stream and
anchoring her in a snug and well-sheltered spot that we had noticed when
last in the river in the _Barracouta_, and sending the boats away at
night to reconnoitre. But this happened to be one of the captain's bad
days--by which I mean that it was one of the days when the fever from
which he had been suffering seemed to partially regain its hold upon
him, making him impatient, irritable, and unwilling to receive anything
in the shape of a suggestion from anybody; and my proposal was therefore
scouted as savouring of something approaching to timidity. I had long
ago got over any such feeling, however; and even now, when we
momentarily expected to come face to face with the enemy, I found myself
sufficiently calm and collected to note and admire the many beauties of
the scene as the creek opened up before us.
For the scene _was_ beautiful exceedingly with a wild, tropical
lavishness of strange and, in some cases, grotesque forms and rich
magnificence of colour that no words can adequately describe, and even
the artist's palette would be taxed to its utmost capacity to merely
suggest. The creek was, as usual in the Congo, lined with an almost
unbroken, impassable belt of mangroves, their multitudinous roots,
gnarled and twisted, springing from the thick, mud-stained water, and
presenting a confused, inextricable tangle to the eye, from the deep
shadows of which flitted kingfishers of many species and brilliant
plumage; while above swayed and rustled in the gentle breeze the
delicate grey-green foliage of the trees themselves, now in full and
luxuriant leaf, affording a delicious contrast of cool green shadow,
with the glints of dazzling sunshine that streamed here and there
through the verdant masses. Great clusters of magnificent orange-tinted
orchids gleamed like galaxies of golden stars between the mangrove
trunks at frequent intervals; clumps of feathery bamboo swayed gently in
the soft warm breeze; the dense background of bush displayed every
conceivable tint of foliage, from brilliant gold to deepest purple
bronze; and magnificent forest trees towered in stately majesty over
all, rearing their superb heads a hundred and fifty feet into the
intense blue of the cloudless sky; while everywhere, over bush and tree
and withered stump, blazed in thousands the trailing blossoms of
brilliant-hued climbing plants that loaded the air to intoxication with
the sweetness of their mingled perfumes. Parrots and other
gaily-plumaged birds flitted busily hither and thither with loud and--it
must be admitted--more or less discordant cries; inquisitive monkeys
swung from branch to branch, and either peered curiously at us as we
passed, or dashed precipitately, with loud cries of alarm, into the
concealment of the deepest shadows at our approach; and at one point,
where the belt of mangroves was interrupted, and a small, open, grassy
space reached down to the water's edge, a stately antelope stepped
daintily down into the water, as though to slake his thirst, but
catching sight of the approaching schooner, bounded off again into the
contiguous bush, where he was instantly lost sight of in the sombre
green gloom.
At a distance of about two miles from the mouth of the creek we reached
a spot where it forked, one arm--the wider of the two--running in a due
east-by-south direction, while the other trended away to the
west-south-west, communicating--as we afterwards discovered--with
another creek which, although too shoal for navigation by sea-going
craft, would have afforded us excellent facilities for a reconnaissance
with the boats. At this point the southern shore of the creek exhibited
signs of cultivation, small patches of bush having been cleared here and
there and planted with maize, or sugarcane, or yams, a small reed-hut
thatched with palm-leaves usually standing in one corner of the plot,
with a tethered goat close by, a few fowls, or other traces of its being
inhabited. Of the human inhabitants themselves, however, strangely
enough, nothing was to be seen. But it was clear that we were nearing
our goal; and word was passed along the deck for the men to hold
themselves prepared for instant action.
There were several memoranda jotted down upon the chart for our
guidance, and among these was an intimation to look out for a clump of
exceptionally tall trees on the southern bank of the creek, under the
broad shadow of which the slave barracoons were stated to be built. A
few minutes after passing the branch creek already referred to we
arrived at a bend, and as the schooner glided round it, and entered a
new reach, these trees swept into view; there could be no mistaking
them, for they lifted their majestic heads--there were five of them--
fully fifty feet clear above those of their brethren. Moreover, they
stood quite close to the margin of the creek, thus confirming the
statement made upon the sketch-chart. But had there been any lurking
doubt in our minds about the matter they would have been quickly
dispelled, for as we glided forward, a small sandy beach--also referred
to in the chart--was made out projecting from the southern bank, at
which some twenty or thirty large canoes lay with their bows hauled
sufficiently out of the water to prevent their going adrift. That a
vigilant watch was being kept upon the waters of the creek became
quickly apparent, for we had scarcely made out the canoes when we saw
several negroes rush down to one of them, launch it, and paddle swiftly
away up the creek and round another bend, while, as we advanced, a crowd
of naked blacks, armed with spears, shields, and muskets, gathered upon
the beach, and, from their actions, seemed fully prepared to forcibly
resist any attempt on our part to effect a landing.
Still advancing up the creek, we gradually opened the vista of the reach
beyond--that in which the canoe had a few minutes previously vanished--
and at length, when only a short half-mile intervened between us and the
beach--which projected boldly nearly half-way across the channel--the
main-mast of a schooner crept into view beyond the concealment of the
hitherto intervening bush and trees; and bringing our glasses to bear
upon her, we detected signs of great bustle and confusion on board her,
and made out that her crew were busily engaged in tricing up boarding
nettings, and otherwise making preparations for her defence.
Ryan now ordered our ensign and pennant to be hoisted, thus boldly
announcing at once our nationality and the fact of our being an enemy--
an announcement which I should have deemed it perfectly justifiable to
defer until the last possible moment--and the schooner at once replied
by hoisting French colours and firing a gun of defiance. This greatly
amused our people, to whom the act seemed a piece of ridiculous
braggadocio--for the stranger was no bigger than ourselves--but the
laugh left their faces and was succeeded by a look of grim resolution
when presently we opened out another and a larger schooner and a heavy,
handsome brigantine, the first flying Spanish colours and the brigantine
_a black flag_! But this was not all, for before we arrived abreast the
beach we had opened out still another schooner with the Spanish flag
floating from her mast-head; and by what we saw going on board the four
craft it became evident that we had by no means caught these bold rovers
napping, and that we might confidently reckon upon meeting with a very
warm reception. Moreover, it was clear that, snug as was their place of
concealment, and unlikely as it was to be discovered save, as in our
case, by betrayal, they had left nothing to chance, but had taken every
possible precaution to insure their safety, the four craft being moored
in pairs, with springs on their cables, stern to stern right across the
stream, so that, the fair-way being very narrow, they would have to be
fought and taken in succession, a necessity which I at once recognised,
and which, to my limited experience, seemed to militate very strongly
against our chances of success. It was, however, altogether too late
now to hesitate or alter our plans; we had plunged headlong and, as it
were, blindfold into a hornet's nest from which nothing but the coolest
courage and determination could extricate us, and, while I had long ago
completely conquered the feeling of trepidation and anxiety that almost
everybody experiences more or less when going into action for the first
time, I could not altogether suppress a doubt as to whether Ryan, in his
then very indifferent state of health, possessed quite all the coolness
and clear-headedness as well as the nerve that I anticipated would be
necessary to see us safely out of our present entanglement.