relight his pipe, which had gone out in the interval, and puffing away
vigorously for a few seconds in order to get it in full blast.--"He was
a 'cute chap, though, that skipper," continued Ben presently when he had
got the pipe to go to his satisfaction;--"for no sooner had he perceived
that we had observed him and were in chase, than he threw off all
pretence of attempting to deceive us by passing off as a simple trader.
Abandoning his design of beating up to Cape Delgado, he wore the dhow
round as sharp as lightning and made off down along the coast, right
before the full strength of the monsoon; where, with the wind in his
favour, he would have a better chance of getting away from us, those
dhows, as I've told you, sometimes walking away from a steam-pinnace as
if she were standing still. This time, however, he had no cockle-shell
of a pinnace after him, but a smart paddle-steamer, and one, too, that
could go along well also before the wind, carrying square sails as did
the _Dolphin_ on her foremast and a huge spanker aft. A stern-chase, of
course, is a long chase all the world over, as everybody knows, and ours
was no exception. Still, all the time we gradually overhauled the dhow;
and just about sunset we got within range of a long seven-inch gun,
which we carried forwards. This, Mr Shrapnel, our gunner, trained
right across the slaver's bows, and at the word of command, `Fire!' let
drive with a bang that shook the steamer right down to her kelson and
seemed to stop her way for the moment, sending her back, as it were,
with the recoil.
"The gun was well aimed, the shot pitching up the water some fifty yards
in front of her, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the dhow a
bit, her captain keeping right on with every stitch of his canvas set,
the wide lateen sails bellying out to their full, as we could see, and
the queer-looking craft burying herself in the foam that she churned up
as she dived down into the waves every moment with a plunge, as if she
were going headlong down to the bottom, taking in huge seas over her
cat-heads; for it was blowing more than half a gale at the time, and
even we in our bigger craft found it hard work carrying on as we did
with both wind and steam. And I tell you we were going too! Our
engines were revolving full speed ahead, and our canvas must have helped
us full another five knots, with the wind dead astern as it was, and we
running before it, while, to aid us, there was the usual inshore
current--that runs down the coast of the Mozambique from Cape Delgado to
right opposite Madagascar, where it turns off more in an easterly
direction--carrying us along like a mill-race, some rate of three knots
more. It made the _Dolphin_ quiver and tremble through every timber as
she seemed literally to fly through the water, but it didn't make us
approach the dhow any closer, although we held our own. As the wind got
up more and more, for it was the tail-end of the north-east monsoon, as
I told you, and those blessed monsoons always die out with a brush when
they've got to the end of their tether, the slaver appeared to rise
bodily out of the water and skim along the surface from the top of one
rolling wave on to another--just as you see an albatross does off the
Cape of Good Hope when it has taken its first dart downwards after its
prey, and has then to pursue it over the sea, the large sheets of the
triangular sails of the dhow standing out on either side of her low dark
keel in the same way as the pinions of the albatross touch the water in
its flight.
"Mr Shrapnel was told to fire another gun; but it had no greater effect
than the first one, and our skipper hardly seemed to know what to do;
for the dhow was now heading more towards the land, and the _Dolphin_
would soon be in shoal water, as there are lots of reefs about them
parts. It would never do, either, to fire right into her, although we
were well within range now, as we might probably damage some of the poor
slaves aboard, who were no doubt packed as tightly as herrings in a
barrel; and yet, it was growing dark, the sun being just on the point of
setting over the highlands of the great African continent on our
starboard hand. If we didn't do something pretty soon Mr Arab dhow
would be able to cry, `Walker!' and laugh at us for the wild-goose chase
he had led us!"
"You must have been pretty anxious as the moments flew by, the sun
setting, and the darkness creeping up, without your being able to
overhaul her?" I said.
"We were all that," replied Ben, knocking the ashes out of his pipe
viciously as if he were giving the slave captain a rap on the
head;--"and as we stood grouped around the deck amidships close by the
engine-room hatch, fixing on our cutlasses and getting ready for the
scrimmage, should luck enable us to have one, I don't know what we said
we wouldn't do to the impudent beggars when we got aboard!
"The land was looming well on our beam, some six miles distant, and
those breakers visible between us and it. The situation was a `tight'
one, if there ever was such, for it looked uncommon like as if the
captain of the dhow intended running ashore and risking her breaking to
pieces on the rocks, if he couldn't find an opening in the coast into
some lagoon where he could with his light draught beach the craft in
safety. He was evidently determined to escape us, run what risk he
might!
"I was standing alongside our skipper on the bridge; and I could see
that he, too, was bound not to be licked, for he had screwed up his
mouth in a way that he had when he had made up his mind to something,
and then the admiral himself wouldn't have turned him from it!--He was a
bold, courageous officer, was Captain Wilson, and every inch a sailor.
Poor chap! he afterwards fell a victim to the fatal coast fever at
Zanzibar.
"Well, I could see from the look on his face now, that if the Arab
skipper was a determined fellow, and had resolved to circumvent us, why,
Captain Wilson was equally determined, too, that he shouldn't, and that
it was a case of `pull baker, pull devil' atween the two!
"`Campion,' say he to me, `pass the word forra'd for Mr Shrapnel to
come here to me for a moment.'
"Of course I did as he told me; and soon the gunner arrives on the
bridge, where, as I still stopped, it being my station there for the
time, I heard all that was said between the skipper and him.
"`Mr Shrapnel,' says Captain Wilson, `we'll have to fire at the fellow
in earnest now, or else he'll escape us; but I don't want to hurt any of
those poor creatures, who are on board against their will. Can't you
manage to shoot away a spar so as to cripple his wings a bit, so that we
can manage to get alongside before he gets too close inshore?'"
"`I'll try, sir,' says the gunner, turning to go away.
"`Do,' replies our skipper, `and look sharp about it, too, or else it
will be too late. Mind, though, and aim high. I wouldn't have the
slaves hurt for anything. As for the Arab crew, we'll give 'em a taste
of cold steel when we come across them, and that will be better than all
the shot and shell we can send after them now!'
"`Aye, aye, sir,' said Mr, Shrapnel, going forwards again without any
delay; and the gun detachment being all ready, our seven-inch spoke out
again to the slaver, with more purpose than it had done before.
"The first shot went wide of the mark, and so did the second; but the
third carried away her main halliards apparently, for the big sail came
down all at once by the run, making the dhow broach-to as it fell over
the side to leeward. Our men gave a tremendous cheer at this, but the
slaver captain was a smart chap, as you might have noticed before, and
would not give in yet; as before you could say `Jack Robinson,' he had
the halliards spliced again, and the sail hoisted, bearing away straight
for the land now, and not edging along it as he had previously done. He
was evidently determined to destroy the vessel rather than give in.
"`Silence, men!' shouted out Captain Wilson to stop our fellows
cheering, which, as you know, sir, is against the rules of the service,
although winked at sometimes in the enthusiasm of the moment. `We
haven't got the slaver yet, and it will be time to cheer when we've
captured him! Mr Shrapnel,' he added then, as soon as all was quiet,
the men being as mum as a mouse fore and aft--`you must send another
messenger after, my joker; try if you can't do him a little more damage
this time!'
"`Aye, aye, sir,' sang out the gunner; and he set to work again with a
will, for the brief time during which the dhow's big main lug had been
down had enabled us to get within half a mile of her, and Mr Shrapnel
was better able to see what he was shooting at. He was a knowing hand,
was the gunner! Watching his opportunity when the _Dolphin_ rose on the
top of the heavy rolling swell that set in towards the land, and when
the dhow was right down in the hollow of the combers, he pulled the
lanyard of the trigger, and with a bang and a belch of flame and smoke a
heavy conical shot went rotating through the air, making as much noise
as a railroad train as it hurtled forwards at the chase, whose hull was
hidden from view, but whose masts seemed quite close to us.
"He didn't require to fire a second shot this time.
"No sooner had the report sounded and the roaring rumbling thunder of
the discharge died away in the distance, rolling in towards the coast--
the smoke being blown away, too, as quickly by the wind--than we could
see the dhow dismasted before us, swaying about in the trough of the
sea.
"She was a hopeless wreck, for both her masts had been snapped off short
by the shot, and the yards to which the sails had been attached were
lying athwart the deck. The _Dolphin_ now ranged up alongside her on
the leeward bow, and the captain hailed her to know if she surrendered,
when one of the Arabs on board, who must have been the skipper, waved a
red handkerchief or cloth of some kind in token of truce. He was a
tall, swarthy chap, with a turban instead of a fez, which the others
wore, on his head; and the belt round his body, as we could see from
looking down on to the deck of the dhow, which was much below the level
of our vessel, was filled choke-full with long-barrelled pistols and
dirks, and a round-shaped scimitar-like sword without a sheath that
seemed as if it could give a fellow a very tidy cut.
"The sea was rough and both the dhow and the _Dolphin_ were rolling
about terribly, we dipping our foreyard-arms as we lay-to; but Captain
Wilson at once ordered the first cutter to be piped away, with one of
the lieutenants in charge; while nothing would suit him also but to have
his own gig manned. He said he mistrusted the slaver and would board
her also himself, as she had a number of Arab rascals on her deck who
would probably show fight.
"The boats were soon in the water, under our lee, the men shinning down
into them by the falls, each chap with his cutlass tucked into his
waistband; and, in another moment, rounding under the stem of the
_Dolphin_, and getting nearly swamped as we breasted the sea, we made
for the dhow, that now lay about half a cable's-length from our vessel,
which had drifted a bit astern.
"`Put your backs into the stroke!' sang out Captain Wilson from his
gig--for I was in the cutter; and with grim earnestness we stretched out
as hard as we could, gripping the water firmly and then pulling with all
our strength. It was hard work against such a sea as was then running
and in the face of the wind, which was still rising and more gusty than
before; but we were soon alongside the chase, both the boats boarding
her of course to leeward, although the captain in his gig dashed at the
high poop astern, while we in the cutter made for her bows, which lay
lower in the water and would thus enable us to get more easily on board.
"Captain Wilson was right in his suspicions about the Arab skipper's
surrender. Although he had waved that red rag of his to make-believe
that he had given in, so that we might not give him a broadside as he
probably expected--for of course he didn't know that we would not fire
the big guns for fear of killing the poor slaves in the hold--no sooner
had we got alongside than the beggars showed fight.
"I and another chap managed to grab hold of the bowsprit gear to haul
ourselves up by into the fo'c'sle of the dhow, when chop came a cut that
severed the ropes we had clutched, causing us to let go and drop back
again into the bottom of the cutter with a thump that nearly knocked the
bottom out of her, while another Arab shoved out the muzzle of a long
matchlock right amongst us and fired it off so closely that the charge
singed my whiskers. That did one good job, however, for it made us
pretty angry, as you might imagine, and the whole cutter's crew tumbled
aboard in a way that astonished them, I can tell you. They fought
pluckily though, but they were more like mad cats than men, screaming
and tearing us with their nails when we had knocked their long knives
out of their hands and disarmed them. As for the skipper of the dhow,
he was a perfect demon, and would have settled Captain Wilson had it not
been for the coxswain of the gig giving him a drive through with his
cutlass just as he had got our captain down and, kneeling on his chest,
was preparing coolly to cut his throat with the keen curving scimitar
that we had seen in his belt. Captain Wilson looked, sir, as pale as a
ghost when he got on his feet again; for although he was as brave an
officer as ever stepped, it does give a fellow a bit of a turn sometimes
to be face to face with death, as he was then, and know that nothing,
probably, can save you!
"When we had got the better hand of the slave crew, in which we did not
quite get off scot-free, five of our men being killed outright and
several wounded with ugly gashes from the sharp knives of the Arabs, we
set about opening the hatches to release the slaves, who had all this
while been kicking up a thundering row below, yelling and hollering as
if they were all being murdered.
"Well, bless you! why, there were no less than three hundred and fifty
crammed in the hold fore and aft on the two decks that were underneath
the main one, and which had not four feet of space between them; the
people, men, women, and children, being packed together so close that
you couldn't have got a sheet of paper edgeways between them. As for
the smell; well, sir, I think you'd prefer that of a gas main just
opened, or the foulest scent you could think of, to what we all smelt in
the hold of that there dhow; for it seemed to smother us and make the
strongest men aboard turn faint just like a girl does when she cuts her
finger and sees the blood.
"After releasing half of them and bringing them up on the upper deck of
the dhow, for there was not space to let the whole of them out of the
hold at once, we had to rig up the masts of the craft again so that she
could make sail, the weather being too ticklish for the _Dolphin_ to
take her in tow; although she did so for awhile, just in order to get a
little further away from the coast, which was not too pleasant a
neighbour with a north-east monsoon blowing and a heavy sea setting in
towards the land.
"By the time we had rigged up jury-masts on the dhow it was dark, so,
warning the prize-crew that was on board, of which I was one, to keep a
sharp look-out and mind that our tow-rope didn't part, Captain Wilson
went back to his own vessel--he wouldn't leave us till everything was
ship-shape again with the slaver and everybody seemed comfortable-like;
taking with him the majority of the Arabs who had been uninjured in the
scuffle, and who might have tried perhaps to recapture the dhow from the
small lot of men whom our captain was able only to spare to man her. Of
course, there was very little chance of their attempting this now that
their skipper was dead, the coxswain's thrust with his cutlass having
lost the dark gentleman the `number of his mess'; but still, after the
treachery they had already shown, it was best to take all proper
precautions to spoil any little game they might try on.
"During the night, the _Dolphin_ kept under easy steam head to sea, only
just preventing us from drifting ashore, as our tow-rope was hardly ever
taut the whole time, for the wind blew so strongly still from the
northward and eastward, the very direction we had to make for to reach
Zanzibar with our prize, that it was impossible for the steamer to make
any way against it, especially with the dhow in tow. The sea, too, was
also very rough, breaking over the frail craft so frequently that we had
to pack down all the slaves again below to prevent their being washed
overboard.
"Towards morning, the wind gradually lessened, showing signs of
shifting, which was to be expected at the season, being near the end of
March. The sea, too, calmed down a bit, but there was still a heavy
ground-swell, and from all appearances it looked as if there was going
to be a squall, the more especially as it began to rain heavily. I had
been left by Captain Wilson in charge of the prize-crew, and this change
in the weather made me feel somewhat uneasy of the tow-rope breaking
from the increased strain there was now on it through the labouring of
the dhow; for I thought it would be better for both the _Dolphin_ and
ourselves that we should cast loose and each sail on her own account, as
at this time of the year the south-west monsoon, which takes the place
of the north-eastern `kizkasi,' as it is cabled, or Indian trade-wind,
generally sets in with a violent tornado blowing from off the land.
"Accordingly, as soon as daylight I hailed the steamer to send a boat
aboard for me as I wished to speak to the captain. I had something more
to tell him, however, than about my fears concerning the weather; for,
while I was keeping watch during the night, I had heard some words
dropped from the Arab prisoners on the foc's'le which I thought it best
for him to know."
"Did you?" I said.
"Yes," said Ben, continuing his story. "While I was at Zanzibar I made
it a point to study the lingo of the natives there, and had learned a
good many words of the Kisawahili tongue, which is the _lingua Franca_
of the coast; and hearing these half-caste Arabs talking together I
listened to what they said, for being a Feringhee in their eyes they did
not think I could understand them. Of course I couldn't manage to
stumble to everything I heard, some of their words being
incomprehensible to me; but I gathered enough to learn that the dhow we
had captured was in company with another one equally as large, loaded
with slaves, that had got off clear and was now probably making its way
towards the Persian Gulf out of reach of the _Dolphin_.
"This would be good news, I knew, for Captain Wilson; for, although the
Arabs believed that this dhow had escaped us, if the _Dolphin_ at once
went in pursuit of her in the right direction there was not the
slightest doubt of her being able to overhaul her before she reached her
destination, which was, I learned through the chatter of the prisoners,
first to Mafiyah, as a sort of hiding-place until we should be reported
out of the way, and then on to Muscat on the Arabian coast.
"I had no sooner got on board the _Dolphin_ in the dinghy sent for me,
than, the skipper confirmed my own opinion as to the importance of the
information I had obtained, although he said something which slightly
damped my enthusiasm, in giving me a job I had not bargained for.
"`You've done quite right, Campion, my man,' said he, `in not losing
time. I am glad you hailed me when you did, for every hour is precious
in getting up with a chase that has got such a good start. I shall take
care to mention you in my despatches for your prompt assistance in
giving me news of this vessel, as well as for your gallantry in the
capture of the _Fatima_,'--that was the name of the one we had already
taken, sir, and now had in tow.
"So far Captain Wilson quite flabbergasted me with his compliments and
made me feel as proud as Punch; but his next words lowered me down a
peg, I can tell you!
"`I'm sorry, however, I sha'n't be able to take you with me, Campion,'
he went on, `to see the end of this other affair; for now that I have to
start off in chase of the other slaver, which will take me off the
station, where some of the little Mtpe dhows will be trying to make runs
from the mainland, thinking the coast unguarded, I intend leaving the
pinnace behind to cruise about the Comoro Islands until I get back with
the _Dolphin_, and, as you are the only responsible man I could trust to
take charge of the boat and crew, you must remain here. Pass the word
at once for the boatswain to pipe away the pinnace and see that she is
properly stowed and provisioned.'
"This was a good deal more than I had bargained for. I thought I should
have been allowed to remain as prize-master of the _Fatima_ and sail her
up to Zanzibar, as that was what the captain had hinted the night
before. However, of course I put the best face I could on the matter,
and contented myself with seeing that the water barricoes and stores
were properly put on board the pinnace, while all the other men who had
not to remain behind with me and the boat were in high glee getting
ready for the fresh chase, the news being already whispered about in the
messes--hoping that they would have just such another scrimmage again as
they had had the day before at the capture of the _Fatima_.
"Captain Wilson did not `let the grass grow under his feet,' as the
saying goes--though it's rather a queer one for a seaman to use--in
carrying out what he had decided on.
"Before the blazing African sun was an hour old, by which time too the
rain had stopped falling, the second lieutenant of the _Dolphin_ was
transferred to the command of the captured dhow, our `First Swab' having
been wounded, taking with him all the prisoners that had been previously
removed to our vessel for safety, although they were now bound securely
with ropes and had a guard set over them to prevent their doing
mischief, besides some additional hands to navigate the _Fatima_--which,
hoisting her big lugs on the jury-masts we had rigged up the previous
evening, and casting off the _Dolphin's_ tow-rope, was soon standing up
the coast on her way to Zanzibar, keeping well inshore now, as that
course was safest since the wind had changed.
"Hardly had the dhow got well off than the pinnace was lowered into the
water alongside the steamer, her crew dropping in one by one, and I, of
course, descending last. We had provisions and water on board to last
us for six weeks, the usual time that boats are sent away from the
vessels to which they belong on the east coast when cruising
independently, as they all take it in turn to do; and Captain Wilson
told me I was to hover about between Madagascar and the mainland in the
Mozambique Channel until we might expect him back, which would be a
month at farthest, even making allowances for his being detained at
Zanzibar about the condemning of the slave-dhows which we had already
captured and the one which he now hoped to get hold of.
"The _Dolphin_ then took us in tow till we were abreast of the Comoro
Isles, when she cast us adrift, starting off up the channel full speed
and steering north-east and by north, so as to get well out to sea
before stretching in to the land towards Mafiyah, where she expected to
pick up the slaver; while we, hoisting the sails of the pinnace, and
taking it easy under the boat's awning that was spread fore and aft,
bore away for Madagascar. Ah! sir, that was the commencement of an
unfortunate voyage, for it was months before some of those that formed
the pinnace's crew ever met their old shipmates again on board the
_Dolphin_; the majority of those with me in the boat never met the hands
we left on board the steamer again at all, nor will they till that great
last day of all when the sea gives up its dead!"
"I suppose you refer to that time when you said you were capsized off
the coast of Madagascar, eh?" said I, noticing that Ben Campion paused
at this point.
"Aye," he replied; "but I'm afraid it'll take a precious long time to
reel off the yarn concerning that period of the story!"
"Never mind, please go on," I replied. "Now you've begun and got so
far, I'm sure I should like to hear the end of it."
"All right, then," he replied; but, before proceeding, he had to load up
a fresh pipe, and while performing this interesting little operation he
informed me, _en passant_, that the _Dolphin_ he afterwards heard had
succeeded in capturing the second dhow, and her first prize the _Fatima_
had safely reached Zanzibar; and, consequently, that his prize-money for
both seizures was safe, the sum accrueing to him amounting to over L50,
being subsequently paid over to him when he rejoined his ship some time
afterwards--"and spent, too, long since," as he said.
These little matters, relevant and irrelevant, being thus disposed of,
Ben continued his narrative as follows.
VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THREE.
IN THE MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL.
"Where was I, sir?"
"You had just been turned adrift from the ship, I think," said I, "and
left to cruise on your own account--wasn't that so?"
"Ah! yes, I remember now, sir. Well, then, when the _Dolphin_ had got
well away from us, leaving us poor chaps to our own resources, we in the
pinnace, now well under her canvas, were sailing along on a course
almost at right angles to that taken by our old ship, which somewhat
took away from the nasty feeling of being sort of left behind, you know;
but, we could not help watching her with longing eyes as she sped away
northward under full steam and with all her fore-and-aft sails set that
could draw, going fourteen knots at the least!