"Only ten days longer?" roared Mendouca, his face livid with fury and
consternation. "Nonsense, Juan! you must have made some stupid mistake;
there surely is--there _must_ be--more than that!"
"I have not made any mistake at all, senor," answered the man sulkily;
"it is just as I have said; there are only provisions and water enough
to last us, on a full allowance, ten days longer."
"Then, if that is the case, all hands must be put on short allowance--
half rations--at once!" exclaimed Mendouca, with an oath. "But, stop a
little; there _must_ be some mistake. Light your lantern again, and I
will go down below with you, and satisfy myself on the point."
Accordingly Mendouca and the steward went down into the hold together,
and gave the stores an exhaustive overhaul, with the result that the
original report of the latter was fully confirmed!
Mendouca came up from the hold, raging like a maniac, cursing the
weather, the provisions, and everything else that he could think of,
including myself, whom he denounced as a Jonah, his ill-luck having
commenced, according to his assertion, with the sparing of my life and
my reception on board the _Francesca_. As for the calm, he declared
that it should detain him no longer; and, having searched the sky and
examined the barometer in vain for any signs of a change, he gave orders
for all canvas to be furled, and for the negroes to be set to work
forthwith upon the sweeps, his intention being, as he stated, to keep
them at it in relays or gangs until the region of apparently eternal
calm had been left, and a breeze of some sort found. There were ten of
these sweeps, or long, heavy oars, working through the ports, in beckets
firmly lashed to ringbolts in the stanchions, that were evidently placed
there expressly for that particular purpose. The loom of the sweep was
long enough to admit of four men working at it, and accordingly the
boatswain, having received his orders from Mendouca, selected forty of
the strongest-looking of the negroes, and set them to this exhausting
labour, the rest of the unfortunate creatures being driven below out of
the way. The vessel, lying there inert as a log on the water, proved
very heavy to start, especially as the blacks knew not how to handle the
sweeps, having evidently never touched one before; but, once fairly
started, the craft was kept moving with comparative ease at a speed of
about three and a half knots per hour. But it was cruel work for the
unhappy blacks, who, naked as when they were born, were remorselessly
kept at it by the boatswain and his mate, both of whom paced the deck,
fore and aft, armed with a heavy "colt," which they plied unmercifully
upon the shoulders of any man whom they chose to believe was not fully
exerting himself, although the perspiration poured from the dark naked
hides like rain. "Short spells and hard work" was, however, the order
of the day, and after half-an-hour of almost superhuman exertion a
relief was called, a fresh gang was set to work, and the exhausted
toilers were hustled below to rest and recover themselves as best they
could. I remonstrated hotly with Mendouca upon the needless cruelty
practised by the boatswain and his mate, but I was roughly told that I
did not know what I was talking about; that negroes would never work
unless kept continually in wholesome dread of the lash; and that it was
absolutely necessary to get every ounce of work out of them if we were
not one and all to perish miserably of hunger and thirst. So, as I
could do no better, I got a piece of the oldest and softest canvas I
could find, and a bucket of water, with which I descended to the
slave-deck and carefully bathed the poor lacerated shoulders of those
unfortunates who had suffered most severely at the hands of the
boatswain and his mate, a little piece of attention that I saw was most
gratefully received.
We made fully twenty miles of westing that day, from the time when the
negroes were first set to work up to sunset, to Mendouca's great
gratification. Indeed, so delighted was he with his own brilliant idea,
that he did that night what I had never known him to do before, he
indulged rather too freely in the contents of the rum-bottle. And, as a
consequence, he grew garrulous and good-humouredly sarcastic over the
efforts made for the suppression of the slave-trade, which he
emphatically asserted would never be put down.
"One very serious disadvantage which you labour under," he remarked,
referring particularly to the operations of the British slave-squadron,
"is that you are altogether too confiding and credulous; you accept
every man as honest and straightforward until you have learned, to your
cost, that he is the reverse. Take the case, for example, of your
attack upon Chango Creek. You were led to undertake it upon the
representations made and the information given by Lobo, the Portuguese
trader of Banana Point, weren't you? Oh, I know all about it, I have
heard the whole story," he interrupted himself to say, in reply to my
ejaculation of surprise. "You were all very much obliged to Lobo, of
course; and your captain paid him handsomely for his information and
assistance. I suppose there was not one of you, from the captain
downward, who ever had the ghost of a suspicion that the fellow was
playing you false, and that the affair was a bold yet carefully arranged
plot to exterminate the whole of you, and destroy your ship, eh? No; of
course you hadn't; yet I give you my word that it _was_. Ay; and the
only wonder to me was that it did not succeed. I suppose it was that
you had a good deal more fight in you than any of them gave you credit
for; and that is where so many excellently arranged traps have failed;
the plotters have never made sufficient allowance for the fighting
powers of the British, as I have told them over and over again. It was
just that important oversight that caused what ought to have been a
splendid success to result in a serious disaster; the intention was
good, but, as is much too often the case, they had reckoned without
their host."
"But I do not understand," I cut in, as Mendouca paused. "What was the
plot? and how was Lobo concerned in it? It appears to me that the man
acted in perfect good faith; he gave us certain information which proved
to be substantially correct--except that he was mistaken as to the force
that we should have to encounter--and he safely piloted us to the spot
from which our boat attack was to be made; I can see nothing like a plot
or treachery in that."
"No; of course you cannot, you sweet innocent," retorted Mendouca, with
fine sarcasm, "for the simple reason, as I say, that the British are
altogether too trustful and confiding to see treachery or double-dealing
until it is thrust openly in their faces. You are altogether too simple
and unsuspicious, you navy men, to deal with the tricks and ruses of the
slave-dealing fraternity; and before your eyes are opened you either die
of fever, or are killed in some brush with us, or are invalided home."
"It may be so," I agreed; "but so general a statement as that does not
in the least help me to see what was the character of Lobo's plot, or
even that there was a plot at all."
"Well, I will tell you," said Mendouca thickly, helping himself to
another caulker of rum--he had already swallowed two tumblers of stiff
grog since the subject had been broached, in addition to what he had
previously taken--"I will tell you, because, having made up my mind that
you shall never rejoin your own people, the information is not likely to
do Lobo any harm. When you arrived at Banana Point on that particular
morning, your presence seriously threatened to entirely upset a very
important transaction which Senor Lobo had in hand, namely, the disposal
and shipment of a prime lot of nearly a thousand able-bodied,
full-grown, male blacks that he had got snugly stowed away in two big
barracoons a short distance up the creek from his factory. Had your
captain taken it into his head to land a party and make a search of the
peninsula, the barracoons would have been discovered, and friend Lobo
would have been a ruined man. So, as soon as your brig was identified
as a man-o'-war--and that was as soon as she could be distinctly made
out--another mistake that you man-o'-war's men make, friend Dugdale; you
can scarcely ever bring yourselves to disguise your ships; they declare
their character as far as it is possible to see them.--Let me see, what
was I saying? I have run clean off my course, and don't know where I
am."
"You were going to tell me what happened when the _Barracouta_ was
identified from Banana Point as a man-o'-war," said I.
"Ah, yes, exactly," answered Mendouca. "Well, as soon as it was
discovered that your brig was a British man-o'-war, every available hand
was set to work to clear everything of an incriminating character out of
the two brigs that were going to ship the slaves; so that, should you
overhaul them--as I was told you did--nothing might be found on board to
justify their seizure. This job was successfully completed only a few
minutes before you entered the creek. But that would have availed Lobo
nothing had your captain happened to have thought of landing upon the
peninsula; the next thing, therefore, was to furnish him with a totally
different subject to think about; and this Lobo found in the opportune
presence of the four craft in Chango Creek. The captains of three out
of the four vessels happened to be down at Banana when you arrived; and
Lobo--who is gifted with quite an unusual measure of persuasiveness--had
very little difficulty in convincing them that you would be absolutely
certain to discover their hiding-place sooner or later, and that
consequently it would be a good plan to inveigle you into making an
immediate attack upon them; when, by concerting proper measures of
defence, they might succeed in practically annihilating you, and so
sweeping a formidable enemy out of their path. The three skippers fell
in readily with his plan, when he had propounded it, and also undertook
to secure the cooperation of the fourth; and as the creek offered
exceptional facilities for a successful defence, it was accepted that
you were all as good as done for, especially as Lobo had undertaken to
cut the brig adrift at the right moment, so that she might be driven
ashore and rendered useless for the time being, if not altogether. This
matter arranged, the slave-captains left Banana forthwith to carry out
their plans for the defence of the creek, taking a short cut by way of
the back of the creek, and taking with them also every available man
that Lobo could spare; the idea being to allow you to advance unmolested
as far as the boom--which, they never dreamed that you would succeed in
forcing--and then destroy you by a musketry fire from the banks, when,
weakened by your unavailing attack upon the boom, you should at length
be compelled to retire. Your astounding pluck and perseverance in
forcing the boom completely upset all their plans, and converted what
would have been for them an easy and bloodless victory into a disastrous
defeat, while it saved the lives of the survivors of the attacking
party. But though it turned out disastrously for Aravares, of the
_Mercedes_, and his friends, the plot served Lobo's purpose perfectly;
the shipping of the slaves on board the two brigs which were waiting for
them proceeding immediately that you were clear of the creek, and both
vessels getting away to sea that same night. So that, you see, it is by
no means as difficult a matter to deceive and hoodwink you man-o'-war
people as you choose to suppose."
"No," answered I; "so it would seem. Yet, by your own showing, we were
not the only deceived parties; and, after all, the attack was
successful, so far as we were concerned."
"That is very true, and only confirms what I have always insisted upon;
namely, that, in making their plans, foreigners do not allow
sufficiently for British pluck and obstinacy. Now _I_ do; I never leave
anything to chance, but always lay my plans so carefully that the
destruction or capture of my enemies is an absolute certainty. But for
such careful forethought on my part, the _Sapphire's_ two boats would
never have fallen into my power."
"The _Sapphire's_ boats?" I exclaimed. "Surely you do not mean to tell
me that _you_ are responsible for the massacre of those two boats'
crews?"
"No, not the massacre of them, certainly, but their capture," answered
Mendouca, with a smile of gratified pride.
"And are the people still alive, then?" I asked.
"They were when I last heard of them," answered Mendouca. "But it is
quite possible that by this time they--or at least a part of them--have
been tortured to death by Matadi--the chief to whom I sold them--as a
sacrifice to his fetish."
"Gracious powers, how horrible!" I exclaimed. "And to think that you,
an Englishman, could consign your fellow-countrymen to such a fate as
that!"
"Why not?" demanded Mendouca fiercely; "why should I be more gentle to
my countrymen than they have been to me? Do you think that, because I
carry my fate lightly and gaily, I do not feel keenly the depth to which
I have fallen? I might have been a post-captain by this time, honoured
and distinguished for great services worthily rendered; but I am instead
a slaver and a pirate masquerading under the disguise of a Spanish name.
Do you think I am insensible of the immeasurable gulf that separates me
from what I might have been? And it is my own countrymen who have
opened that gulf--who have robbed me of the opportunity of reaching that
proud eminence that was at one time all but within my reach, and have
hurled me into the abyss of crime and infamy in which you find me. And
you are surprised, forsooth, that I should avenge myself whenever the
opportunity comes!"
I knew now from experience that it was quite useless to argue with
Mendouca when he got upon the subject of his grievances; I therefore
gave the conversation a turn by asking--
"Where, then, are these wretched people now, if indeed they are still
alive?"
"I presume," answered he, "that, if still alive, as you say, they are
where I last heard of them; namely, at Matadi's village; a place on the
south bank of the Congo, about one hundred miles, or rather more, from
its mouth. But why do you take such a profound interest in them?" he
asked. "Possibly you are contemplating the formation of an expedition
for their rescue, as soon as you have effected your escape from me?" and
he laughed satirically.
My reply and his laugh were alike cut short by the sound of heavy
footsteps on the companion-ladder outside the cabin, and the next moment
the boatswain made his appearance in the doorway with the intimation
that a craft of some sort had just been made out, at a distance of about
three miles broad on the starboard bow; and he wished to know whether
the course of the brigantine was to be altered or not.
Mendouca sprang to his feet and hurried on deck, I following him.
On our first emergence from the brilliantly-lighted cabin the night
appeared to be dark; but as our eyes accommodated themselves to the
change of conditions, it became apparent that the cloudless sky was
thickly gemmed and powdered with stars of all magnitudes, from those of
the first order down to the star-dust constituting the broad belt of the
Milky Way, all gleaming with that soft, resplendent lustre that is only
to be witnessed within the zone of the tropics. Moreover, there was a
young moon, a delicate, crescent-shaped paring, about two days old,
hanging low in the western sky, yet capable, in that pure, translucent
atmosphere, of yielding quite an appreciable amount of light. The water
was still smooth as polished glass, even the swell having gone down so
completely that its undulations were not to be detected by even the
delicate test of watching the star reflections in the polished depths,
while the brigantine was as steady as though still on the stocks where
she took form and substance. The negroes were still toiling at the
sweeps, and the watch, armed to the teeth, were clustered fore and aft,
on the alert to guard against any attempt at an outbreak among them.
The canvas was all closely furled, so that we had an uninterrupted view
of the sky from horizon to zenith, all around, toward the latter of
which the delicate, tapering, naked spars pointed as steadily as the
spires of a church. The boatswain, however, was eagerly directing
Mendouca's attention toward small, dark object, broad on our starboard
bow; and turning my gaze toward it, I made out a brig under her two
topsails, jib, and trysail, with her courses in the brails. Mendouca
had already seized the night-glass, and with its aid was subjecting her
to a prolonged and searching scrutiny, upon the completion of which he
handed the instrument to me, with the remark, in English--
"Take a good look at her, Dugdale, and tell me what you think of her?"
I took the glass, and, having brought the stranger into its field, soon
managed, by an adjustment of the focus, to get a clear, sharply-defined
image of her, as she floated motionless, a black silhouette, against the
deep, velvety, purple-black, star-spangled sky. And as I did so a
certain sense of familiarity with the delicate, diminutive, black
picture upon which I was gazing thrilled through me. Surely I knew that
low, long, shapely hull; those lofty, slightly-raking masts; those
spacious topsails? Even the very steeve of the bowsprit seemed familiar
to me, and I felt certain that the superbly cut jib and handsome trysail
could belong only to the _Barracouta_! And, if so, how was I to act?
It was plainly my duty to do anything and everything that might be in my
power to promote the capture of the daring slaver and unscrupulous
pirate, whose guest--or prisoner--I was; but had I the power to do
_anything_? With that now thoroughly alert and even suspicious
individual at my side, and the watch on deck all about me, it was
clearly evident that nothing in the shape of signalling could even be
attempted with the slightest hope or chance of success; and the only
other mode of action that remained to me appeared to be to carefully
conceal my knowledge--or, rather, very strong suspicion--as to the
identity of the brig. I had barely arrived at this conclusion when
Mendouca, with an accent of impatience, interrupted my reverie with the
exclamation--
"Well, surely you have seen all that it is possible to see by this time?
Or cannot you quite make up your mind as to her character?"
"I have an impression that I have seen her before, and it seems to me
that she bears a very striking resemblance to the Spanish brig that was
lying off Lobo's factory on the day of our first arrival in the Congo,"
said I; the happy idea suggesting itself to me, as I began to speak,
that I might safely make this statement without any breach of the truth,
all of us on board the _Barracouta_ having observed and remarked upon
the striking resemblance between the two craft.
"Um! it _may_ be so," muttered Mendouca, with a strong accent of doubt
in his voice, however. "Let me have another look at her."
I handed over the glass with alacrity, for it was about my last wish
just then to be questioned too closely as to the character of the
stranger; and Mendouca subjected her to a further long and exhaustive
scrutiny. At its termination he turned to me, and, with an accent of
unmistakable suspicion, inquired--
"It hasn't suggested itself to you, I suppose, that yonder craft may be
a British man-o'-war? You have seen nothing so like her in your own
squadron as to lead to the suspicion that she may be a dangerous enemy
whom I ought to be promptly warned to avoid?"
Now, had I not known that he had never seen the _Barracouta_, I should
have scarcely known what reply to give to this home question; as it was,
however, I answered at hazard--
"Well, at this distance yonder vessel offers to my eye very little
resemblance to the usual type of British gun-brig; she is longer, and
much lower in the water, and her masts are certainly further apart than
is the case with our brigs generally, you must see that for yourself;
and it would be unreasonable to expect me to give a more decided opinion
at this distance and in so vague a light."
"Will you swear to me that you are honestly of opinion that yon brig is
_not_ a man-o'-war?"
"Certainly not," answered I, with pretended annoyance at his
pertinacity. "She may be, or she may not be; it is quite impossible to
express a more decided opinion, under the circumstances, and I therefore
must decline to do so."
And I turned and walked away from him with an air of petulance.
Mendouca laid down the telescope, walked to the binnacle, and peered
intently for a moment at the compass.
"Keep her way two points more to the southward," he ordered the
helmsman.
This alteration in our course brought the brig about one point before
our beam, distant about two and a half miles, and if persisted in, would
soon have the effect of increasing the distance between the two craft;
and, unless we were already seen, rendered it quite possible that we
might slip past unobserved, our spars standing naked to the dark sky,
and our hull lying low upon the equally dark water. There was, however,
the hope that, even at the distance separating the two vessels, the roll
and grinding of the heavy sweeps would be heard in the perfect stillness
of air and water; and I felt confident that, if yonder brig were indeed
the _Barracouta_, and the sounds referred to extended so far as to reach
the sharp ears on board her, they would be identified, and their
significance at once understood. But even as the thought passed through
my mind it seemed to have also occurred to Mendouca; for he strode
toward the waist and exclaimed in a low, clear voice that was distinctly
audible fore and aft, but which would probably not have been audible
half a cable's length away--
"Let those niggers knock off sweeping for the present, and send them
below. And as soon as they are there and you have clapped the hatches
on--noiselessly, mind--let all hands set to work to muffle the sweeps
with mats, old canvas, pads of oakum, or anything else that you can lay
your hands upon. It is unfortunate that this was not thought of before;
but it may not yet be too late."
The negroes, grateful for this unexpected respite from their exhausting
toil, and of course quite ignorant as to its cause, gladly tumbled
below, and the gratings were carefully secured over them. Meanwhile the
boatswain, with one hand, dived below, and in a short time the two men
re-appeared with a load of miscellaneous stuff and some balls of
spun-yarn; and all hands went diligently to work under Mendouca's
personal supervision, to muffle the sweeps, which was so effectually
done that when, half-an-hour later, they were again manned, they worked
with scarcely a sound beyond the rather heavy splash of their blades in
the water. Meanwhile, during the progress of the muffling process--in
which I had not offered to participate--I kept a keen watch upon the
distant brig, taking an occasional squint at her through the night-glass
when I thought it possible to do so without attracting Mendouca's
attention. I do not quite know what I expected to see, for of course I
knew perfectly well that every eye in the brig might be steadfastly
watching us, without our being able to detect any sign of such scrutiny;
and I was moreover fully aware that should we have been discovered, and
our character suspected, no visible indication of such discovery or
suspicion would be permitted to reveal itself to our eyes; and the same
studied concealment would equally apply to the preparations for any
investigation that they might be moved to undertake. Still, I thought
it just barely possible that by maintaining a strict watch I might
chance to detect some sign of alertness on board the brig, if she were
indeed the _Barracouta_, as I strongly suspected. Nor was I
disappointed, for I did at length detect such an indication, not on
board the brig herself, but at some considerable distance from her, and
immediately under the slender crescent of the setting moon, where, while
sweeping the surface of the water, moved by some vague instinct, I
caught two faint momentary flashes of dim orange radiance that to me had
very much the appearance of reflected moonlight glancing off the wet
blades of oars. And if this were so it meant that we had been seen, our
character very shrewdly suspected--most probably from the steady plying
of the sweeps for no more apparently urgent reason than that we were
becalmed--and that a surprise attack was about to be attempted from the
very quarter where, under the circumstances, it was least likely to be
looked for, namely, straight ahead. Of course what I had seen might
merely have been a ray of moonlight glancing off the wet body of a
porpoise, a whale, or some other sea creature risen to the surface to
breathe; but it had so much the appearance of the momentary flash of
oars that I was loath to believe it anything else. Assuming it to be
what I hoped, my cue was now of course to distract attention as much as
possible from that part of the ocean that lay immediately ahead of us;
and this could not be better done than by concentrating it upon the
brig, which now lay practically abeam of us, a short three miles away.
I therefore--no longer surreptitiously but ostentatiously--again brought
the night-glass to bear upon her, and allowed myself to be found thus
when Mendouca came aft, after having personally superintended the
muffling of the sweeps and the putting of them in motion again.
"Well," he said, as he rejoined me, "have you not yet been able to
satisfy yourself as to the character of that brig?"
"No," said I; "but, whatever she is, they all seem to be asleep on board
her. If she is a slaver, her skipper has more care and consideration
for his property than you have, for he at least allows his slaves to
rest at night."
"That is quite patent to us all," answered Mendouca drily. "But then,
you know, he may not be running short of food and water, as we are.
Or--he may not be a slaver."
"Of course," I assented, with the best accent of indifference that I
could assume. "But, slaver or no slaver, I have not been able to detect
a sign of life on board that brig for the last half-hour, or indeed from
the moment when I first began to watch her. I can make out the faint
light of her binnacle lamps, and that is all. But the fact of their
being allowed to continue shining would seem to argue, to my mind at
least, that, be they what they may, they have no reason for attempting
to conceal their presence from us. If you feel differently toward them
I think you would do well to extinguish your binnacle lights for awhile;
the helmsman can steer equally well by a star, of which there are plenty
to choose from."
"Yes, of course; you are right," he assented hastily; "there can be no
harm in doing that."
And going to the binnacle, he glanced into it, saw that the ship was
heading on the course he had last set for her, directed the helmsman to
choose a star to steer by, and then himself carefully withdrew the lamps
and extinguished them.