In which mutiny, like fire, is quenched for want of fuel and no want
of water.
Although we have made the African negro hitherto talk in his own mixed
jargon, yet, as we consider that, in a long narration, it will be
tedious to the reader, we shall now translate the narrative part into
good English, merely leaving the conversation with which it may be
broken, in its peculiar dialect.
"The first thing I recollect," said Mesty, "is, that I was carried on
the shoulders of a man with my legs hanging down before, and holding
on by his head.
"Everyone used to look at me and get out of the way, as I rode through
the town and market-place, so loaded with heavy gold ornaments that I
could not bear them, and was glad when the women took them off; but as
I grew older I became proud of them, because I knew that I was the son
of a king. I lived happy. I did nothing but shoot my arrows, and I
had a little sword which I was taught to handle, and the great
captains who were about my father showed me how to kill my enemies.
Sometimes I laid under the shady trees, sometimes I was with the women
belonging to my father; sometimes I was with him and played with the
skulls, and repeated the names of those to whom they had belonged, for
in our country, when we kill our enemies, we keep their skulls as
trophies.
"As I grew older, I did as I pleased; I beat the women and the slaves;
I think I killed some of the latter--I know I did one, to try whether
I could strike well with my two-handed sword made of hard and heavy
wood,--but that is nothing in our country. I longed to be a great
captain, and I thought of nothing else but war and fighting, and how
many skulls I should have in my possession when I had a house and
wives of my own, and I was no longer a boy. I went out in the woods
to hunt, and I stayed for weeks. And one day I saw a panther basking
in the sun, waving his graceful tail. I crept up softly till I was
behind a rock within three yards of it, and drawing my arrow to the
head, I pierced him through the body. The animal bounded up in the
air, saw me, roared and made a spring, but I dropped behind the rock,
and he passed over me. He turned again to me, but I had my knife
ready, and, as he fixed his talons into my shoulder and breast, I
pierced him to the heart. This was the happiest day of my life; I had
killed a panther without assistance, and I had the wounds to show.
Although I was severely hurt, I thought nothing of it. I took off the
skin as my blood dropped down and mixed with that of the beast--but I
rejoiced in it. Proudly did I go into the town dripping with gore and
smarting with pain. Everyone extolled the feat, called me a hero and
a great captain. I filed my teeth, and I became a man.
"From that day I ranked among the warriors, and, as soon as my wounds
were healed, I went out to battle. In three fights I had gained five
skulls, and when I returned they weighed me out gold. I then had a
house and wives, and my father appointed me a Caboceer. I wore the
plume of eagle and ostrich feathers, my dress was covered with
fetishes, I pulled on the boots with bells, and with my bow and arrows
slung on my back, my spear and blunderbuss, my knives and my
double-handed sword, I led the men to battle and brought back skulls
and slaves. Everyone trembled at my name, and, if my father
threatened to send me out, gold-dust covered the floor of his hall of
council--Now, I boil the kettle for the young gentlemen!
"There was one man I liked. He was not a warrior, or I should have
hated him, but he was brought up with me in my father's house, and was
a near relative. I was grave and full of pride, he was gay and fond
of music; and although there was no music to me equal to the tom-tom,
yet I did not always wish for excitement. I often was melancholy, and
then I liked to lay my head in the lap of one of my wives, under the
shady forest behind my house, and listen to his soft music. At last
he went to a town near us where his father lived, and as he departed I
gave him gold-dust. He had been sent to my father to be formed into a
warrior, but he had no strength of body, and he had no soul; still I
loved him, because he was not like myself. There was a girl in the
town who was beautiful; many asked for her as their wife, but her
father had long promised her to my friend; he refused even the
greatest warrior of the place, who went away in wrath to the
fetishman, and throwing him his gold armlets asked for a fetish
against his rival. It was given, and two days before he was to be
married my friend died. His mother came to me, and it was enough. I
put on my war dress, I seized my weapons, sat for a whole day with my
skulls before me, working up my revenge, called out my men, and that
night set off for the town where the warrior resided, killed two of
his relatives and carried off ten of his slaves. When he heard what I
had done, he trembled and sent gold; but I knew that he had taken the
girl home as his wife, and I would not listen to the old man who
sought to pacify me.
"Again I collected a larger force and attacked him in the night: we
fought, for he was prepared with his men, but after a struggle he was
beaten back. I fired his house, wasted his provision ground, and
taking away more slaves, I returned home with my men, intending soon
to assault him again. The next day there came more messengers, who
knelt in vain; so they went to my father, and many warriors begged him
to interfere. My father sent for me, but I would not listen; the
warriors spoke, and I turned my back: my father was wroth and
threatened, the warriors brandished their two-handed swords--they
dared to do it; I looked over my shoulder with contempt, and I
returned to my house. I took down my skulls, and I planned. It was
evening, and I was alone, when a woman covered up to the eyes
approached; she fell down before me as she exposed her face.
"I am the girl who was promised to your relation, and I am now the
wife of your enemy. I shall be a mother. I could not love your
relation, for he was no warrior. It is not true that my husband asked
for a fetish--it was I who bought it, for I would not wed him. Kill
me and be satisfied.
"She was very beautiful, and I wondered not that my enemy loved her--
and she was with child--it was his child, and she had fetished my
friend to death. I raised my sword to strike, and she did not shrink:
it saved her life. 'Thou art fit to be the mother of warriors,' said
I, as I dropped my sword, 'and thou shalt be my wife, but first his
child shall be born, and I will have thy husband's skull.'
"'No, no,' replied she, 'I will be the mother of no warriors but by my
present husband, whom I love; if you keep me as your slave I will
die.'
"I told her she said foolish things, and sent her to the women's
apartment, with orders to be watched--but she hardly had been locked
up before she drew her knife, plunged it into her heart, and died.
"When the king my father heard this he sent me a message--'Be
satisfied with the blood that has been shed, it is enough'; but I
turned away, for I wished for mine enemy's skull. That night I
attacked him again, and met him hand to hand; I killed him, and
carried home his skull, and I was appeased.
"But all the great warriors were wroth, and my father could not
restrain them. They called out their men, and I called out my men,
and I had a large body, for my name was terrible. But the force
raised against me was twice that of mine, and I retreated to the
bush--after awhile we met and fought, and I killed many, but my men
were too few, and were overpowered--the fetish had been sent out
against me, and their hearts melted; at last I sank down with my
wounds, for I bled at every pore, and I told my men who were about me
to take off my feathers, and my dress and boots, that my enemies might
not have my skull: they did so, and I crawled into the bush to die.
But I was not to die; I was recovering, when I was discovered by those
who steal men to sell them: I was bound, and fastened to a chain with
many more. I, a prince and a warrior, who could show the white skulls
of his enemies--I offered to procure gold, but they derided me; they
dragged me down to the coast, and sold me to the Whites. Little did I
think, in my pride, that I should be a slave. I knew that I was to
die, and hoped to die in battle: my skull would have been more prized
than all the gold in the earth, and my skin would have been stuffed
and hung up in a fetish-house--instead of which, I now boil the kettle
for the young gentlemen!"
"Well," replied Jack, "that's better than being killed and stuffed."
"Mayhap it is," replied Mesty, "I tink very different now dan I tink
den--but still, it women's work and not suit me."
"They put me with others into a cave until the ship came, and then we
were sent on board, put in irons, and down in the hold, where you
could not sit upright--I wanted to die, but could not: others died
every day, but I lived--I was landed in America, all bone, and I
fetched very little money--they laughed at me, as they bid their
dollars: at last a man took me away, and I was on a plantation with
hundreds more, but too ill to work, and not intending to work. The
other slaves asked me if I was a fetish man; I said yes, and I would
fetish any man that I did not like: one man laughed, and I held up my
finger; I was too weak to get up, for my blood had long boiled with
fever, and I said to him 'you shall die'; for I meant to have killed
him as soon as I was well.
"He went away, and in three days he was dead. I don't know how, but all
the slaves feared me, and my master feared me, for he had seen the man
die, and he, although he was a white man, believed in fetish, and he
wished to sell me again, but no one would buy a fetish man, so he made
friends with me; for I told him if I was beat he should die, and he
believed me. He took me into his house, and I was his chief man, and
I would not let the other slaves steal and he was content. He took me
with him to New York, and there, after two years, when I had learnt
English, I ran away, and got on board of an English ship--and they
told me to cook. I left the ship as soon as I came to England, and
offered myself to another, and they said they did not want a cook; and
I went to another, and they asked me if I was a good cook: everybody
seemed to think that a black man must be a cook, and nothing else. At
last I starve, and I go on board a man-of-war, and here I am, after
having been a warrior and a prince, cook, steward and everything else,
boiling kettle for de young gentlemen."
"Well," replied Jack, "at all events that is better than being a
slave." Mesty made no reply: anyone who knows the life of a
midshipman's servant will not be surprised at his silence.
"Now, tell me, do you think you were right in being so revengeful,
when you were in your own country?" inquired Jack.
"I tink so den, Massa Easy; sometimes when my blood boil, I tink so
now--oder time, I no know what to tink--but when a man love very much,
he hate very much."
"But you are now a Christian, Mesty."
"I hear all that your people say," replied the negro, "and it make me
tink--I no longer believe in fetish, anyhow."
"Our religion tells us to love our enemies."
"Yes, I heard parson say dat--but den what we do with our friends,
Massa Easy?"
"Love them too."
"I no understand dat, Massa Easy--I love you, because you good,
and treat me well--Mr Vigors, he bully, and treat me ill--how possible
to love him? By de power, I hate him, and wish I had him skull. You
tink little Massa Gossett love him?"
"No," replied Jack, laughing, "I'm afraid that he would like to have
his skull as well as you, Mesty--but at all events we must try and
forgive those who injure us."
"Then, Massa Easy, I tink so too--too much revenge very bad--it very
easy to hate, but not very easy to forgive--so I tink that if a man
forgive, he hab more soul in him, he more of a man."
"After all," thought Jack, "Mesty is about as good a Christian as most
people."
"What that?" cried Mesty, looking out of the cabin window--"Ah! d---n
drunken dogs--they set fire to tent."
Jack looked, and perceived that the tent on shore was in flames. "I
tink these cold nights cool their courage, anyhow," observed--"Massa
Easy, you see they soon ask permission to come on board."
Jack thought so too, and was most anxious to be off; for, on looking
into the lockers in the state-room, he had found a chart of the
Mediterranean, which he had studied very attentively--he had found out
the rock of Gibraltar, and had traced the Harpy's course up to Cape de
Catte, and thence to Tarragona--and, after a while, had summoned Mesty
to a cabinet council.
"See, Mesty," said Jack, "I begin to make it out, here is Gibraltar,
and Cape de Catte, and Tarragona--it was hereabout we were when we
took the ship, and, if you recollect, we had passed Cape de Gatte two
days before we were blown off from the land, so that we had gone about
twelve inches, and had only four more to go."
"Yes, Massa Easy, I see all dat."
"Well, then, we were blown off shore by the wind, and must of course
have come down this way; and here you see are three little islands,
called Zaffarine Islands, and with no names of towns upon them, and
therefore uninhabited; and you see they lie just like the islands we
are anchored among now--we must be at the Zaffarine Islands--and only
six inches from Gibraltar."
"I see, Massa Easy, dat all right--but six debbelish long inches."
"Now, Mesty, you know the compass on deck has a flourishing thing for
the north point--and here is a compass with a north point also. Now
the north point from the Zaffarine Islands leads out to the Spanish
coast again, and Gibraltar lies five or six points of the compass to
this side of it--if we steer that way we shall get to Gibraltar."
"All right, Massa Easy," replied Mesty, and Jack was right, with the
exception of the variation, which he knew nothing about.
To make sure, Jack brought one of the compasses down from deck, and
compared them. He then lifted off the glass, counted the points of
the compass to the westward, and marked the corresponding one on the
binnacle compass with his pen.
"There," said he, "that is the way to Gibraltar, and as soon as the
mutiny is quelled, and the wind is fair, I'll be off."