Of course nothing of this was perceptible from my look-out in the
crow's-nest; the only thing of a suggestive character that came to my
notice was that when, looking through my telescope, I saw the ship hove
in stays, I observed that the operation of swinging the after yards
seemed to be only partially performed, while the head sails remained
aback for an unconscionable length of time, from which I concluded that
at that precise moment events were happening on board her. When, some
five minutes later, I saw her yards trimmed, and presently observed her
come about again and bear away for the lagoon, instead of holding her
luff down the river, I was able to make a pretty accurate guess as to
what had happened. I remained aloft, however, until she slid through
the narrow channel leading from the river into the lagoon, when I saw
that she had all our boats towing astern of her in a string; whereupon I
descended, for I knew that to betoken the fact that she was now in the
possession of our people.
She came along very fast, and as she drew nearer I saw that she was an
exceedingly handsome vessel, by far the most handsome, indeed, that I
had ever seen. She was frigate-built, seven hundred and forty tons
measurement, her three masts accurately parallel, raking slightly aft,
and stayed to a hair, while her snow-white canvas was more beautifully
cut than that of many a yacht. She was painted black all over--hull,
masts, and yards; and her royal yards hoisted close up under the trucks,
like those of a man-o'-war. If she was anything like as good as she
looked we had secured a prize that was indeed worth having.
The skipper had instructed me that he might possibly bring the prize
directly alongside the wharf, and that I was to make all the necessary
preparations to assist in the operation. I accordingly turned out my
contingent and mustered them on the wharf, at the next berth ahead of
that occupied by _La Belle Estelle_, with an ample supply of hawsers and
heaving-lines at the bollards; and by the time that I was quite ready
the ship was in sight, luffing round the point and hauling up for the
anchorage. But instead of making a board across to the mainland, as all
the others had done, the skipper kept his helm down until she was all a-
shiver, when everything was let go at the same instant, the square
canvas shrivelled up to the yards, the fore and aft canvas was brailed
in, or hauled down, and then, as a strong party of men sprang aloft and
laid out upon the yards, the beautiful craft came sliding along, with
the way which she still had on her, straight for the wharf. The skipper
had calculated his distance to a nicety, for her momentum was sufficient
to bring her handsomely up to her berth, but not enough to impose any
undue strain upon the hawsers in checking her and bringing her
alongside; this part of the work being done by my gang, while the men
who had captured her were still aloft busily furling the canvas.
As soon as she was securely moored and a gangway plank rigged, I went
aboard and had a good look at our latest acquisition. There could be no
doubt as to the fact that she was a slaver; for her slave-decks were
already fitted, and she carried all the requisites, including meal and
water, for the transport of a very large cargo of slaves. She was, in
fact, the largest slaver I ever saw, and had accommodation to--I had
almost said _comfortably_--carry at least eight hundred slaves. She was
Spanish; named the _Dona Josefa_; hailed from Havana; was oak-built,
coppered, and copper-fastened; was a brand-new ship, worth half a dozen
_Psyches_; and her cabin accommodation aft was the most spacious and
elegantly fitted that I had ever seen. She was armed with eighteen
twenty-four pounders, and carried a crew of ninety-eight, all told. She
was, in short, a most formidable ship; and, but for the fact of our
having taken her by surprise as we did, she might have bade defiance to
the slave squadron for years, and paid for herself twenty times over.
Naturally, the skipper was in high feather at so brilliant a series of
successes as we had met with, for he had not been altogether without his
anxious moments as to what might be the result of the inevitable court-
martial that awaited us all for the loss of the _Psyche_; but he
flattered himself that the authorities could not possibly be hard upon
officers who brought in four such rich prizes as ours.
And now there began to be general talk about leaving the river and
reporting ourselves at Sierra Leone; for not only had we ships in plenty
to accommodate all hands, but those among us who were most experienced
felt that, after having made such a clean sweep as we had, it was
exceedingly unlikely that there would be any more chances to capture
either slaves or ships in the Fernan Vaz for some time to come. Still,
it would not be possible for us to go quite at once; for even now there
remained several matters to be attended to, the most important being the
disposal of the blacks whom we had captured from the slave-traders.
Although these had come a long distance down from the interior, there
was no doubt that they would be able to find their way back to their
homes; whereas, if we carried them to Sierra Leone, the chances were
that they would never see either home or relatives again. Therefore
although, strictly speaking, it was our duty to take them to Sierra
Leone with us, the skipper decided to strain a point, if necessary, and
give the poor wretches the opportunity to decide for themselves which
alternative should be adopted. Accordingly, the question was put to
them, through Cupid, with the result that they decided, unanimously, to
return by the way that they came rather than trust themselves to the
tender mercies of the sea, which none of them had seen, and few had
heard of, before. But they begged a few days longer in which to rest
and recuperate before they were despatched on their long journey; and
this the skipper cheerfully accorded them, although he was now all
anxiety to get away.
After the negroes had been given a full week in which to recover their
health and strength, they were mustered early on a certain morning,
given a good breakfast, allowed to load themselves up with as much meal
as they chose to take, furnished with a few boarding-pikes and cutlasses
from the prizes wherewith to defend themselves on the way, and
transported across the harbour and fairly started upon their journey.
Then, having already completed our own preparations for departure, our
prisoners were apportioned out among the four prizes, put down in the
holds on top of the ballast and made perfectly secure, and the officers
and men then proceeded to take up their quarters on board the vessels to
which they had severally been appointed by the skipper.
The captain himself naturally took command of the _Josefa_, with Mr
Purchase as his first lieutenant; Mr Hoskins was given the command of
the _Don Miguel_, with Copplestone and Parkinson from our old
midshipman's berth to bear him company and keep him from becoming too
completely satisfied with life; Mr Marline, the master, was placed in
charge of _La Belle Estelle_, with the boatswain's mate to assist him;
and, lastly, the skipper was good enough to show his confidence in me by
giving me the brigantine to navigate to Sierra Leone--our common
destination--with the gunner's mate and Jack Keene as my deck officers.
As there was not very much room in the anchorage for manoeuvring, we got
under way in succession, the _Josefa_ taking the lead, followed by _Don
Miguel_, after which went _La Belle Estelle_, while _El Caiman_, with
her canvas set, strained at the cable which secured her to the buoy, as
though she were afraid of being left behind.
But _I_ had a duty to perform before I cast off from the buoy at which
the brigantine was straining; therefore, while the other vessels got
under way, I and my boat's crew stood on the wharf and quietly watched
them go. Then, as soon as the brig was fairly clear of the anchorage, I
went, with two of my boat's crew, to the leewardmost building of the
settlement and set light to a little pile of combustibles that had been
carefully arranged in each room, finally thrusting a blazing torch into
the thatch upon quitting the building. And in the same way we proceeded
to each building in turn, until the entire settlement, barracoons and
all, was a roaring furnace of flame. Then, bidding my crew get down
into the boat and stand by to shove off in a hurry, I proceeded to a
certain spot and set fire to an end of slow match that was protruding
from a box sunk into the ground near the wharf face, after which I
picked up my heels and scampered off, best leg foremost, for the boat,
into which I sprang, without much consideration for my dignity, and gave
the word to shove off. The boat's crew, who were fully aware of my
reasons for haste, lost no time in obeying the order, and the next
instant we were foaming away toward the brigantine, from the deck of
which the hoarse voice of Tasker, the gunner's mate, now reached us,
bawling an order for those for'ard to "stand by to slip!" But before we
were half-way across the intervening stretch of water a dull "boom"
resounded astern of us, and a length of some fifty feet of wharf face
suddenly leapt outward and fell with a heavy splash into the water,
followed, about half a minute later, by a second "boom" and splash, then
a third, fourth, fifth, and so on, until the entire wharf was completely
destroyed and the whole place a ghastly, fire-swept ruin. Then we, too,
turned our backs upon what, a short time before, had been one of the
most extensive, important, and conveniently situated slave factories on
the whole of the West Coast, and made sail to rejoin our companions. We
overtook them about half a mile outside the bar; and when I had
signalled the commodore that my mission of destruction was fulfilled, he
hoisted a general signal setting a course of north-west by west for Cape
Palmas; and, when this had been acknowledged, hoisted another to "try
rate of sailing." This, of course, was the same thing as giving the
word for a race, and, the weather being moderate at the time, we each at
once proceeded to pile upon our respective commands every rag of canvas
that we could find a yard, boom, or stay for.
The race proved an exceedingly interesting and exciting event, for all
the vessels were fast. The wind being off the land, the water was
smooth for the first three or four hours of the race; and during that
time there was scarcely a pin to choose between the _Josefa_ and the
brigantine, first one and then the other contriving to get the lead by a
length or two, while the brig and the barque also made a neck-and-neck
race of it but very gradually dropped astern until, by the time that we
had run the land out of sight, the _Josefa_ and the brigantine were
leading by nearly a mile, which lead we very gradually increased. By
this time, however, the breeze had freshened up considerably, and the
sea had got up, whereupon the _Josefa_ displayed so marked a superiority
that she had to take in all three royals and her mizzen topgallantsail
to avoid running away from the rest of us. But, contrary to my
expectations, _El Caiman_, which was an exceedingly beamy, shallow
vessel, behaved so well under the new conditions that we also could
spare the barque and brig our royal and still keep ahead of them.
The weather remained fine, and we made a very quick and pleasant passage
to Sierra Leone, where our arrival under such unusual conditions, and
the report of our doings and adventures, created quite a sensation.
Also we happened to arrive at a most opportune moment; for there were
three British men-o'-war in harbour at the time, and we were, therefore,
able to undergo at once, and on the spot, our trial by court-martial for
the loss of the _Psyche_, instead of being obliged to return to England
for the ordeal.
The trial took place on the fourth day after our arrival; and, as a
matter of course, those of us who had been away in the boats at the time
of the wreck were acquitted and exonerated from all blame. But poor
Purchase, who had been left in charge of the ship, was not so fortunate,
the Court finding that, in the first place, he had been negligent in
that he had not maintained a sufficiently careful look-out to preserve
the ship from being maliciously cut adrift; and that, in the second
place, he had let go the two stream anchors prematurely and before the
actual necessity for such a precaution arose, but for which act he would
have had the stream anchors available to let go when he discovered that
the ship was adrift, and might thus have checked her shoreward drift
long enough to permit of other measures being taken for the safety of
the ship, even if the streams had not brought her up altogether. For
these acts of negligence the prisoner was sentenced to be reprimanded,
to lose two years' seniority, and to be dismissed his ship! Fortunately
for Purchase, the sentence was not quite so severe as it sounded, for
the _Osprey_--one of the men-o'-war in harbour--happened to have a
vacancy for a lieutenant, and the Commodore, after hearing Purchase's
story of the disaster from his own lips, unhesitatingly gave him the
appointment.
The fact of the three ships being in port also suggested to me the
possibility of getting through my examination, forthwith; I therefore
ventured to speak to Captain Perry about it, who very kindly explained
my desire to the Commodore. The Commodore, in turn, caused a few
inquiries to be made, when it was ascertained that, among the three
ships, there were sufficient midshipmen desirous of passing to justify
the arrangement of an examination; and within the next fortnight I had
the satisfaction of finding myself a full-blown lieutenant.
Meanwhile, the Mixed Commission had condemned all four of our prizes--as
indeed they could not avoid doing--and the crews were sentenced to long
terms of imprisonment with hard labour in chains upon the roads. Then
there arose the question of replacing the _Psyche_ on the station; and
at the earnest representation of Captain Perry the Commodore was induced
to take upon himself the responsibility of purchasing the _Josefa_ into
the service, rechristening her the _Eros_, and commissioning her under
the command of Captain Perry, who at once arranged for the whole of the
officers and crew of the _Psyche_ to accompany him.
Then, arising out of the loss of the _Psyche_, another matter was
brought to the fore which was destined to exercise a very important
influence upon my fortunes. This matter had reference to the dearth of
shallow-draught vessels in the slave squadron vessels capable of
following the slavers in over the bars of the African rivers and
fighting them upon equal terms. At the moment in question we had not a
ship in the squadron drawing less than fourteen feet of water;
consequently, when a slaver entered a shallow river, or a river with a
shallow bar, such a course of procedure as that which had led up to the
loss of the _Psyche_ was imperative; and it was very strongly felt that
the time had arrived for an improvement in the conditions. The result
was that _El Caiman_ also was purchased into the service, rechristened
the _Dolphin_, and placed under my command with a crew of sixty, all
told; of whom, however, Jack Keene, midshipman, and Tasker, the gunner's
mate--who in his new ship held the rank of gunner--were the only
individuals with whom I had already been shipmate; the rest were a
motley crowd indeed, collected out of the gutters and slums of Freetown.
The _Dolphin_, it was arranged, was to act in the first instance as
tender to the _Eros_; but, later, might perhaps be detached for certain
special work which was just then beginning to attract the attention of
the authorities.
There was, however, still another matter that was at that moment forcing
itself upon the attention of the Commodore; and that was the doings of
two craft which were pursuing the nefarious business of slavers, with a
measure of audacity that was only equalled by the impunity with which
they worked. They were said to be sister ships, undoubtedly built from
the same model, most probably launched from the same stocks, and made to
resemble each other so absolutely in every respect, down to the most
insignificant detail, that it was impossible to distinguish one from the
other, excepting at close quarters. But one was an American--named the
_Virginia_, hailing from New Orleans, and manned by a Yankee crew--while
the other--the _Preciosa_--sailed under the Spanish flag, and was manned
by Spaniards. They were phenomenally fast vessels, and simply laughed
at the efforts of ships of the squadron to overtake them; but they had
been caught in calms on three or four occasions, and boarded by means of
boats; when, by a curious freak of fortune, if the boarding party
happened to be British, it always proved to be the American that they
had boarded; while, if the boarders happened to be American, it was the
Spaniard that they found themselves meddling with. Thus, as there was
no treaty existing between Spain and the United States of America on the
one hand, and England and the United States on the other, conferring
mutual rights of search and capture, the vessels had thus far escaped.
But now, with two such speedy craft as the _Eros_ and the _Dolphin_, it
was confidently hoped that the Spaniard at least would soon be brought
to book; when, there being no possibility of further confusion, it was
believed that the Americans--who, in consequence of repeated
disappointments, had manifested a disposition to leave both craft
severely alone--might be induced to renew their interest and speedily
capture the _Virginia_.
As soon as Captain Perry learned that his special mission was to put a
stop to the operations of these notorious vessels, he made it his
business to institute exhaustive inquiries in every direction, with the
object of acquiring the fullest possible information relative to their
movements. Although he had been unable to learn anything very definite
he had finally come to the conclusion that at least one of them--which
one he could not be certain--was now well on her way to the other side
of the Atlantic; so he reasoned that if we proceeded with all despatch
to the West Indies, and maintained a careful watch upon the mouth of the
Old Bahama Channel, we should be almost certain to fall in with one or
the other of them upon her next eastward trip.
Accordingly, on a certain day, the _Eros_ and the _Dolphin_ sailed in
company from Sierra Leone, and, having made a good offing, caught the
trade-wind, blowing fresh, to which we in the _Dolphin_ showed every rag
of canvas we could set, while the _Eros_ kept us company by furling her
royals and letting run the topgallant halliards from time to time when
she manifested a disposition to creep away from us. We did the run
across in the quickest time on record, up to that date, making the
Sombrero in a fortnight, almost to the hour, from the moment of leaving
Sierra Leone, without starting tack, sheet, or halliard--so far as the
_Dolphin_ was concerned--during the entire passage.
But now, with the Sombrero in sight and Anegada only about one hundred
miles ahead, we felt that we were practically on our cruising ground;
the _Eros_ therefore shortened sail to her three topsails and jib and
signalling to the _Dolphin_ to do the like in proportion and to close,
requested me to proceed on board for fresh orders. I was glad enough to
obey these instructions, particularly the one relative to shortening
sail, for the past fortnight of "carrying on" had been a distinctly
anxious time for me; moreover it was a pleasant change to find myself on
the comparatively spacious deck of the _Eros_, and once more surrounded
by the familiar faces of my former shipmates. There was scant time,
however, for the interchange of greetings, for Captain Perry was in a
perfect fever of anxiety to complete his arrangements, and I was no
sooner through the gangway than he hustled me off to his handsome and
delightfully cool cabin under the poop, where, over a large-scale chart
of the West Indies, he explained to me in much detail the course of
action that he had planned for the two craft. This, in brief, consisted
in the adoption of measures which enabled us, while remaining within
signalling distance of each other all day, to keep an effective watch
upon a stretch of sea some forty miles wide--over which we felt certain
the vessel of which we were in search must sooner or later pass--while
at sunset we were to close and remain in touch all night. This, of
course, was an excellent plan so far as it went, but it was open to the
objection that the craft for which we were on the look-out might slip
past us unobserved during the night. That, however, was something that
could not be helped; moreover, there was a moon coming which would help
us, and according to Captain Perry's calculations one or the other of
the two craft was almost certain to turn up ere that waxing moon had
materially waned.
And turn up she did, shortly after midnight on the fifth night following
our arrival upon our cruising ground. The moon was by that time
approaching her second quarter, was well above the horizon by sunset,
and was affording enough light to enable us to distinguish the rig and
chief characteristics of a vessel eight miles away. To my very great
gratification it was the look-out aboard the _Dolphin_ who first sighted
her, she being at that time hull-down in the south-western quarter and
reaching athwart our hawse on the starboard tack; thus as the _Eros_ and
ourselves were hove-to, also on the starboard tack, she rapidly neared
us. At first the only thing that we could clearly distinguish was that
she was a full-rigged ship--as were the _Virginia_ and the _Preciosa_--
but, even so, there were certain details connected with her rig which,
while not being exactly peculiar, corresponded with similar details
referred to in the description of the two notorious slavers, as
ascertained by Captain Perry; I therefore made a lantern signal to the
_Eros_--under the shelter of our mainsail, so that the stranger to
leeward might not see our lights and take the alarm--calling attention
to the fact that there was a suspicious sail in sight to the south-west;
and this signal was simply acknowledged without comment. But I saw that
almost immediately afterwards the _Eros_ swung her main-yard, boarded
her fore and main tacks, and hauled to the wind with the object, of
course, of preventing the strange sail from working out to windward of
us; and a few minutes later I got a signal from the commodore
instructing me to remain hove-to for the present, and, later, to act as
circumstances might require.
The stranger was under all plain sail, to topgallantsails, and was
slipping through the water like a witch; but I had very little fear of
her outsailing the _Eros_, for, fast as that ship had been when she
first fell into our hands, the skipper had improved her speed on a wind
nearly a knot, merely by a careful readjustment of the ballast; and now
she fully justified my faith in her by handsomely holding her own, and
perhaps rather more, but this I could scarcely judge, for since we
remained hove-to, the others rapidly drew away from us.
I waited with what patience I could muster until the stranger had worked
out to a position some five miles ahead of us, and two points on our lee
bow, and then I determined to wait no longer, for I felt that if,
perchance, anything were to happen aboard the _Eros_--if, for example,
she were to carry away or even spring a spar--and the trade-wind was
piping up strongly--our unknown friend might very easily give us the
slip; I therefore gave orders to swing the foreyard and make sail,
piling on the brigantine everything we could show, even to the royal and
flying-jib. And it was well that we did so, for half an hour later,
strangely enough, my fears with regard to the _Eros_ were realised, an
extra heavy puff of wind snapping our consort's fore-topgallant-mast
short off at the cap, and causing her to luff sharply into the wind with
her big flying-jib dragging in the water under her forefoot.
That the stranger was not anxious to make our closer acquaintance at
once became apparent, for no sooner did her people perceive the accident
that had befallen the _Eros_--which was within a minute of its
occurrence--than they put down their helm, tacked, and endeavoured to
slip away out to windward clear of us both. The _Dolphin_, however, was
doing exceptionally well just then, the combination of wind and sea
seemed to exactly suit her, and I felt that, although I had perhaps
unduly delayed taking action, we could more than hold our own with the
stranger provided that it blew no harder--and I therefore held on
grimly, presently receiving a signal from the _Eros_ to take up the
chase, which she would resume as soon as she had repaired damages.
Shortly afterward the stranger reached out across the bows of the
_Eros_, beyond cannon-shot, and although the skipper fired two blank
charges and a shotted gun to bring her to she took no notice, a fact
which made me more determined than ever, if possible, to get within
speaking distance of her.
The _Eros_, meanwhile, having cleared away her wreckage, had stowed her
mizen topgallantsail, brailed up her spanker, and filled away again; and
when we passed her, some three-quarters of an hour later, and about a
mile to windward, they had already sent down the stump of her
topgallant-mast and had prepared the topgallant rigging for the
reception of the new spar.
The moment that we arrived in the wake of the stranger we tacked and
stood directly after her; and we had not been on the new tack more than
ten minutes when I found, to my great gratification, that the _Dolphin_,
despite the exceeding shallowness of her hull, was quite as weatherly a
vessel as the chase, which was now nearly four miles ahead of us. But
it was not until we had been in direct pursuit of her for a full hour
that I was able to assure myself that we were undoubtedly gaining on
her.
Yes, we were gaining on her, but it was _so_ slowly that it was not
until sunrise next morning that we were within gun-shot of her; and now,
in response to our first shot, she let fly her royal and topgallant
halliards, flowed her jib-sheet, and backed her main-yard to allow us to
come up with her.
As, still carrying on, we rapidly approached the handsome craft, I was
busily engaged, with the aid of my glass, in discovering, one after the
other, the various points of resemblance between her and the vessels
that had been described to us, and I could have kicked myself with
vexation when, in answer to the hoisting of our ensign, we saw the Stars
and Stripes of the United States flutter out over her taffrail and go
soaring aloft to her gaff-end. And almost at the same instant, she now
being out of the dazzle of the sun, I was able to read, legibly
inscribed on her stern, the words "Virginia. New Orleans!" With the
usual perverse luck that had attended the efforts of the British, we had
dropped upon the wrong ship of the pair; the _Virginia_ was American,
and we had no power to interfere with her. Nevertheless, having gone so
far in the matter as to bring her to, I was determined to board her and
get a sight of her papers; a Spanish vessel might hoist American colours
if she happened to find herself in a tight corner and believed that she
might thereby escape. While, as for the name--ah! that certainly was a
difficulty not to be easily got over; a ship could scarcely change the
name painted on her stern as easily as a chameleon changes his colour,
without affording some indication that the change had been made. Still,
the slavers were up to all sorts of extraordinary dodges, and--well, I
would at least inspect the _Virginia's_ papers, and satisfy myself that
they were in order.