A MUTINY.
From time to time Lambourne made Hislop and me rather uneasy, by
expressing suspicions of a collusion among the men forward.
The whispers of the treasure alleged to be in possession of the old
ex-Governor of Surabaya, and the desire of Ojeda and one or two
others to save Antonio from the punishment that would certainly
overtake him, if we reached Teneriffe or signalled a Spanish ship of
war, formed an unpleasant conjunction of ideas.
We, the survivors of the crew of the poor _Eugenie_, knew that if any
revolt broke out among this mixed gang of dingy rascals, Spaniards,
Creoles, and Lascars, our fate would be sealed. We were among the
first who would assuredly be knocked on the head.
There must be great truth in the maxim, that "no human being ever
came near another without influencing them for good or for evil."
On board the _San Ildefonso_ it would seem that Antonio found all the
materials for evil ready to his hand, as more than half the crew were
ragamuffins "engaged by the run," as the phrase is at sea. But the
surmises of Lambourne were much too vague for us to give them any
tangible form as yet; and Antonio, our chief object of dread, was
still secure in the bilboes in the cable-tier.
He had nearly recovered from his wounds. I saw him only once below,
and, in his impotent wrath, he ground his teeth and spat at me like a
baited polecat.
We saw nothing of the island of St. Mathew, so the next land we
expected to sight would be the isles off the Cape de Verd; but the
wind continued to blow freshly and steadily from the west, and as
José Estremera made no allowance for current-sailing, the setting in
of the sea carried us nearer the coast of Africa than was either
necessary or desirable.
Thus one evening, we heard the cry of "_Tierra!_" from the look-out
man in the crow's nest, and, soon after, a low blue and wavy streak
on the lee-bow was declared to be the coast of Africa.
Though sea and sky were reddened by the setting sun, the rising coast
wore a tint of the deepest indigo. It seemed rather flat and low;
but, as we crept in shore, its features changed and became more
broken. Thickets of strange trees were discernible along the
sea-margin, and then mountains rose in the distant background, with
the sunset lingering in gold on their summits.
Night fell, and the ship's head was kept away a few points more to
the west; and when day broke we were all on deck betimes to greet the
land.
We found the ship off Poison Island, which lies far northward of
Sierra Leone, and adjoins the territory of the Felletahs. Many of
the natives came off in their carved and painted canoes (which were
propelled by paddles shaped like shovels), offering fruit,
vegetables, and bananas for sale; and these Africans would
courageously shoot their light boats right across the forefoot of the
ship while still under way.
At last the mainyard was backed for a few minutes, while José
Estremera bought the entire contents of a large canoe for a few empty
bottles, some iron rings, and the links of an old chain.
Some of these craft were rowed by Felletah women, and I could
perceive that though deeply tanned by the sun, their faces were
pleasant and oval, their noses aquiline, and their hair black and
glossy.
All these tawny rowers wore striped cloth tunics, which reached to
their ankles, and had their necks and arms loaded with beads of glass
or coral, and many of them had Spanish dollars attached to their
ear-rings.
A gun was fired as a warning for all boats to keep off, lest some
accident might ensue; and it was amusing to see the consternation of
the poor Felletahs, and with what speed they paddled away toward the
shore.
Orders were now issued to lay the ship's head nearer the wind for the
Cape de Verd, and to bend the cable to the working anchor, that it
might be ready for any emergency; and these directions had the
unexpected effect of bringing matters to a crisis between our captain
and the friends of Antonio.
They assembled in sullen groups about the deck, and clustered out
upon the booms, where they muttered and whispered, and frequently
pointed to the shore and to the native boats that were paddling into
the sandy coves and wooded creeks.
Tom Lambourne, whom Captain Estremera soon discovered to be one of
the best seamen on board, had gone below, with one or two more, to
rouse the cable out of the tier, when, to his surprise, he found the
place filled with Spanish sailors and Lascars, all talking at once,
and in full conference with the fettered Cubana!
He was roughly ordered to sheer off and let the cable lie, while one
or two drew their knives in a threatening manner.
"They are up to something at last!" said he to Carlton; "so it is
high time for the captain and his cabin passengers to look out for a
squall, or that old Dutchman's dollars may change hands at the
capstan-head before night."
Hislop and I had dined with the captain, and were lingering over some
wine of Alicant, fruit, and cigars, listening to a dispute about some
very irrelevant matter between the old Governor of Surabaya and Fra
Anselmo, when the ship's steward came to say that a sailor wished to
speak with us in haste.
Tom was admitted, and bluntly stated at once his conviction that a
plot had been laid by Antonio and others to seize the ship and run
her ashore. If such were not their intentions, why had they refused
to let him bend the cable to the working-anchor?
Hislop hurriedly repeated Tom's statement in Spanish, adding thereto
his own ideas and suspicions on the subject.
The old priest and the rich Dutchman became seriously alarmed; while
the olive visage of Captain Estremera grew dark as night with anger.
"Ave Maria!" said the priest, closing his snuffbox, and putting it
hastily in his pocket.
At the same time the Dutch Governor started up to look for his sword.
"Seize my ship!--A mutiny!--What can their object be?" stammered the
captain.
"With some," replied Hislop, "merely to have a buccaneering ramble
ashore among the Felletahs--with others, to marry and settle for a
time; but with all, to have a scene of plunder and devastation, to
aid in the escape of Antonio, and to murder his English shipmates."
At first the captain was inclined to doubt the whole affair; but a
strange noise was now heard in the forepart of the ship, and Manuel
Gautier, the chief mate, came hurriedly down to report that some of
the men had taken the iron balls from the shot-rack at the
main-hatchway, and were rolling them about the deck; and that, when
he remonstrated with Benito Ojedo, there was a rush made aft, with
cries of "Throw him overboard!"
On hearing this sudden confirmation of Tom's statement, Estremera
started from the table, and buckled on a cutlass that hung on the
after-bulkhead; and then, with the brevity, but characteristic
taciturnity of a Spaniard, he proceeded to act with promptitude and
determination, and instantly breaking open a case of ball-cartridges,
began to distribute them.
"If so be there is a breeze on board, I'll make that Antonio dance
Old Nick's hornpipe before it is over!" said Tom Lambourne, angrily.
"Fortunately, all the ship's muskets are below, I believe?" remarked
Hislop.
"Si, senor. Twenty stand are on a rack in the steerage," replied
Estremera. "Santos! gentlemen, we must work hard. Get all those
arms into the cabin and load them. We have not a moment to lose!"
"Run on deck, Tom; they don't know that we are alarmed yet. Order
all the _Eugenie's_ men, all others you can depend on, aft. I fear
ours are the only lads this poor Spanish skipper can rely on now!"
In less than _five_ minutes we had all the muskets conveyed from the
rack in the steerage into the cabin. We provided ourselves with
ball-cartridges; and then Hislop and I, with Manuel Gautier, the
mate; the old Dutch governor, the captain, and even Fra Anselmo, in
his long black soutan (quoting "that the end justified the means")
proceeded with all speed to load and cap the fire-arms.
Meanwhile, the rolling of the loose shot upon the deck overhead still
continued, and to that noise was now added the hallooing of the
Spanish crew and the screaming of the Lascars, as they proceeded
together from one act of open insubordination and outrage to another.