"Very well, let it be as you say; I _will go_ below and rest. And if it
is any comfort to you to know it, I do not mind acknowledging _now_ that
I am glad you intervened to prevent me from firing on that boat. Keep
her as she is going and let the niggers man the sweeps again; you are
right about that brig, she will follow us to the world's end--if she
can, so we must put all the distance possible between ourselves and her
while this calm lasts."
And, repeating to the boatswain his orders respecting the manning of the
sweeps, this singular man nodded shortly to me and dived out of sight
down the companion-way.
In a few minutes a gang of slaves was again brought on deck and put to
the sweeps; and steering a course of about south-south-west, we were
soon once more moving through the water at a speed of about three knots.
This course was followed all through the night and up to eight o'clock
the next morning, at which hour--one of the men having been sent aloft
as far as the royal-yard to see whether any sign of the brig could be
discovered, and having returned to the deck again with an intimation
that the horizon was clear all round--the brigantine's position was
pricked off upon the chart and her head once more pointed straight for
Cuba.
We had by this time traversed a distance of fully sixty miles under the
impulsion of the sweeps alone, and everybody was anxiously watching for
some sign of a coming breeze; yet, despite the already long continuance
of the calm, the heavens were still as brass to us, clear, cloudless,
blue as the fathomless depths beneath our feet, not the merest vestige
of cloud to be seen, the mercury still persistently steady at an
abnormal height, the sea as smooth and motionless as a sheet of glass,
and not the smallest sign to justify us in hoping for any change. The
heat was something absolutely phenomenal; the deck planking was so hot
that we all had to wear shoes to protect our feet from being scorched; a
gang of negroes was kept constantly at work drawing water with which to
flood the deck; yet, despite this precaution, and despite, too, the
awnings which were now spread fore and aft, the pitch in the seams of
the planking became so soft that if I stood still for only a few seconds
I found myself stuck fast. I pitied the unfortunate blacks from the
bottom of my heart, for they were relentlessly kept toiling at those
horrible sweeps without intermission all through the day, and that, too,
upon a short allowance of water; but it was useless to interfere, for
even I had begun to understand by this time that, unless the brigantine
could be taken out of that awful region of apparently eternal calm,
every one of us, black and white together, must inevitably perish
miserably of thirst.
This terrible weather lasted all through that and the following day,
during which, with torment indescribable from thirst and the lash of the
boatswains' colts, the miserable slaves propelled the ship no less a
distance than one hundred and fifty miles. Oh, how fervently I begged
and entreated Mendouca to have mercy upon the unhappy creatures, and to
at least give orders that they must be no more flogged, even if
inexorable necessity demanded that they must be kept toiling at the
sweeps. But the wretch was as adamant, he laughed and jeered at my
sympathy with the poor creatures, and--as much, I believe, to annoy me
as for any other reason--persistently refused to give the order,
declaring that, since they would receive many a sound flogging when they
got ashore--if indeed they ever lived to reach it--it was just as well
that they should learn to endure the lash at once. At which brutal
statement I went temporarily mad, I think--at all events I did what
looked like a thoroughly mad thing; I went on deck and, walking up to
the boatswain, informed him that if he or his mate dared to strike a
negro again I would knock them both down. Mendouca, highly amused at my
heat and excitement on behalf of the negroes, had followed me on deck,
probably to see what I would next do; and upon hearing this threat he
called out, jeeringly--
"Look out, Jose, my man! Senor Dugdale has warned you, and you may be
sure that if you strike one of those niggers again he will carry out his
threat!"
The boatswain saw at once how the land lay, and that Mendouca was only
amusing himself at my expense; feeling confident therefore of his
captain's countenance and protection, I suppose, he, for answer, raised
his colt and smote the nearest negro a savage blow over the shoulders
with it.
Of course, after my possibly foolhardy threat there was but one thing to
do, and I did it forthwith, hitting out with my whole strength, catching
the boatswain fair between the eyes, and rolling him over like a
ninepin.
"Ha, ha! well hit!" exclaimed Mendouca, laughing heartily at the sight
of the boatswain as he reeled and fell under the feet of the negroes.
"I warned you, Jose, my lad; and now you see the evil results of
neglecting my warning! No, no," he hastily continued, starting to his
feet; "put up your knife, man; that will never do! I cannot afford to
spare Senor Dugdale--at least not just yet--ah! would you? Look out,
Dugdale! bravo! well hit again! Serves you right, Jose; you should
never draw your knife upon an unarmed man."
For the fellow had hastily scrambled to his feet, and, with his drawn
knife in his hand, made a rush at me, his eyes blazing with fury. And,
as the only way of defending myself at the moment, I had seized his
uplifted right hand with my left, giving it a wrench that sent the knife
spinning over the bulwarks into the sea, while with my right I again
knocked him down.
"Now, Jose," exclaimed Mendouca, "that ends the matter; do you hear? I
cannot spare Senor Dugdale, so if he is found with a knife between his
ribs I shall hold you responsible for it, and I give you my solemn
promise that I will run you up to the yard-arm and leave you there until
it will not matter to you what becomes of your miserable carcase. And I
hope that the thrashing you have received will make you use a little
more discrimination in the use of your colt. If a nigger _won't_ work,
_make_ him, by all means; but so long as they are willing to work
without thrashing, leave them alone, I say. As for you, Dugdale," he
continued, in English, "had I suspected that you really meant to carry
out your threat, I would have taken steps to prevent it. I will not
have my men interfered with in the execution of their duty. If they do
not perform their duty to my satisfaction, _I_ will take such steps as
may seem necessary for their correction, so you need not trouble
yourself further in that direction. Why, man, if I were to give you a
free hand, we should have a mutiny in less than a week. Moreover, you
have made one deadly enemy by knocking Jose down, and you may consider
yourself exceedingly fortunate if my authority proves sufficient to
protect you from his knife. Take care you make no other enemies among
the men, or I will not be answerable for your safety."
This occurred shortly before sunset, and all through the hot and
breathless night the unhappy negroes were kept toiling at the sweeps in
gangs or relays, the result being that when morning dawned the poor
wretches seemed, one and all, to be utterly worn-out. Yet still there
was no respite for them; and when I again attempted to remonstrate with
Mendouca, that individual simply pointed to the serene, cloudless sky,
with the blazing, merciless sun in the midst, and savagely asked whether
I wanted all hands to perish of hunger and thirst. This occurred while
we were at breakfast; and when we went on deck at the conclusion of the
meal, my enemy the boatswain drew Mendouca's attention to the upper
spars and sails of a ship just rising slowly above the horizon on our
starboard bow. I never saw so sudden a change in a man's demeanour as
took place in that of Mendouca when his eye rested upon that distant
object; hitherto he had been growing every day more savage and morose,
but now his good-humour suddenly returned to him, and, ordering the
brigantine's head to be pointed straight for the stranger, he shouted,
in the gladness of his heart--
"Hurrah, lads, there is relief for us at last! We shall find what we
want--food and water--on board yon stranger, and also a way of
persuading them to let us have it, or I am greatly mistaken!"
The significance of the last part of this remark was, to my mind,
unmistakable. If he could not get by fair means what he wanted,
Mendouca had already made up his mind to take it by force; in other
words, to commit an act of piracy.
I was sorry for the crew of the unlucky craft, for I felt convinced that
Mendouca would have but scant consideration for their future wants while
satisfying his own; yet the sight of the stranger filled me with almost
delirious delight, for here was a chance--if I could but contrive to
avail myself of it--to make my escape from my present surroundings.
True, if I were permitted, or could contrive, to throw in my lot with
those people yonder, I should probably have to face terrible suffering
in the shape of hunger and thirst, but, after all, that would be less
unendurable than my present situation; and I determined that, whatever
might happen, I would certainly make an attempt to join them, always
provided, of course, that the craft was honest, and not of a similar
character to the _Francesca_.
As we neared the stranger she proved to be a handsome, full-rigged ship
of about a thousand tons measurement, or thereabouts, and I thought that
she had somewhat of the look of one of the new British clipper Indiamen
that were just at this time beginning to supersede the old-fashioned,
slow, lumbering tubs that had been considered the correct kind of thing
by John Company; if she were, she would probably have a crew strong
enough not only to successfully resist the demands of Mendouca, but also
to protect me, should I be able by any pretext to get on board her. The
difficulty, of course, would be to do this; but if, as I rather
expected, Mendouca should elect to lay the _Francesca_, alongside the
ship and endeavour to carry the latter by a _coup de main_, I would
board with the rest, taking my chance of being run through or shot down
in the attempt, and immediately place myself under the protection of the
stranger's crew. It was of course easy enough to arrange this scheme in
my own mind, but even a very slight deviation on Mendouca's part from
the programme which I expected him to adopt might suffice to nullify it;
nevertheless, it appeared probable that my surmise as to Mendouca's
intentions would prove correct, for if he did not mean to lay the
stranger aboard and carry her with a rush, I could scarcely understand
the boldness with which he was approaching her in broad daylight, with
his strongly-manned sweeps proclaiming to the most unsuspicious eye the
dubious character of the brigantine.