African coast; for there was no mist, and the rain having ceased, the
strong sou'-westerly breeze that was blowing right offshore from the
mainland tempered down the heat of the broiling sun, which only those
who have been on the coast can have an idea of as to how intense it can
be, while the pinnace was moving quickly through the water; and it was
not long before the _Dolphin_ was hull down on the horizon, the white
gleam of her upper canvas vanishing soon after. But, for a long time
succeeding that, we could still see the smoke from her funnel spread out
in the shape of a fan to leeward, where it was blown by the following
wind right across the sky and was clearly apparent in the clear blue air
above as well as reflected in the sea below. Then, too, that
disappeared at length, and we were left alone in our little boat on the
waste of waters!
"I tell you we did feel a bit melancholy and down in the dumps then,
especially as all hands knew the errand on which the old ship had gone
and felt that we were out of the fun! However, I did not give the men
time to think of this too long; for, acting under the directions given
me by the skipper, I steered the pinnace towards the coast to windward
of the Comoro Islands, intending after dark to creep up under the lee of
Saint Juan, where I'd been told the dhows mostly made for when the coast
was clear; and, what with trimming the sails and making taut the sheets,
as well as stationing a special look-out in the bows and one in the
stern behind me at the helm, I soon managed to turn the men's attention
away from the _Dolphin_, though some of them still seemed chop-fallen,
being new to boat cruising and not relishing the work.
"Of course, I knew in what a responsible position I was--almost like
that of the captain of a ship; for, I could order the men to do anything
I pleased, and if they disobeyed me have them tried for mutiny, while I
had the right to attack and capture any native vessels I suspected of
having slaves on board--so, soon after noon, when I piped all hands to
dinner, I made them a little speech after the grub had been stowed away
comfortably, pointing out that their circumstances were considerably
better than they themselves appeared to think. In course, I said, our
shipmates in the _Dolphin_ had a bit the advantage of us in starting off
on another chase, with perhaps the chance of a second scrimmage at the
end of it, the same as we had all had together on the previous evening;
but then, I says, what we were doing was equally for the good of the
service; and, besides, as soon as the steamer had overhauled the slaver
she was after she would have to go back to that beastly Zanzibar in the
thick of fever time, remaining there probably for weeks, until she got
rid of the slaves from the captured dhows, while, on the contrary, we
would be down here cruising about on the free open sea and enjoying
ourselves!
"We lost nothing by remaining there, I said. If our old ship took the
slaver she was now chasing, why, we would share in the prize-money just
the same as if we'd been on board her, without running the risk of any
hard knocks or having some Arab's dagger cutting daylight into us; and
if she didn't succeed in hunting down the dhow, which was more than
likely, considering the long start the latter had got, why, then we
would be well out of a wild-goose chase.
"In addition to such arguments," continued Ben, who sometimes spoke with
a purity of diction that is much more common amongst seamen of the navy
of to-day than it was in "the good old days" of our ancestors before
education was much in vogue, "I hinted that nobody could say we might
not pick up a slave-dhow down there on our own hook quite as good as the
other one we could not go after; and if not, well, at all events we
would have an easier time of it than if we had been kept on board the
ship! There, as they knew, the skipper took jolly good care to serve us
out full purser's allowance of drill if there was nothing else stirring;
for it was beating to quarters, or small-arm exercise, or manning the
big guns, and playing all such fancy tricks with us when he had no
better work to keep us employed with between watches. I can tell you, I
never saw such a hand as Cap'en Wilson for that. He used to say that
the devil always found something for idle hands; and the way he went
about remedying this reminded me of the old poetry lines I once heard a
Yankee sailor call the `Philadelphia Catechism'--
"`Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou art able,
And on the seventh,--holystone the decks and scrape the cable!'
"These words of mine had such an effect on the men that I assure you,
sir, they grew quite cheerful like, chatting and laughing together as
they lolled about on the thwarts under the boat awnings that were spread
fore and aft I allowed them to take it easy, with the exception of the
hands having charge of the sheets of the sails and those on the look-
out, as I don't think discipline is preserved any the better by keeping
fellows continually on the stretch when there's nothing particular to
do, merely to see them slaving their hearts out.
"Presently, the look-out forward said he thought he saw the white sail
of a dhow close in to the island we were beating to windward of; and of
course every one immediately must take it for granted that she's a
contraband carrying slaves."
"I suppose you didn't undeceive them?" said I.
"Not I," replied Ben. "I was only too glad of the chance. It banished
at once all thoughts of the old _Dolphin_ out of their heads better than
all my palaver, for all hands were so anxious to come up with the
strange craft that they themselves voted for taking to the oars, which I
certainly wouldn't have ordered their doing in the terrible afternoon
heat, as, while we were having our dinner, the wind had been gradually
dying until it was now almost a dead calm, and the sails flapping
against the masts, with the boat rocking on the heavy rolling swell that
you always meet with out there when the sun is at the meridian."
"I thought you expected a tornado in the early morning?" I here
suggested.
"Ah! never you mind about that," said Ben. "We haven't yet done with
the east-coast weather, as you'll see presently. Howsomever, as I was
saying," he continued, "I told them to take in the sails, being so
minded, and rig out the oars. They didn't lose any time about it
either, for as soon as I gave the order it was all haul down and furl
up; and, getting a good grip of the water, they started pulling like
madmen, putting their hearts into every stroke--although the day was so
hot and sweltry that a fellow seemed to melt away into perspiration,
even lying still in the stern-sheets of the boat, as I was, without
moving a muscle.
"The craft which had been sighted by the look-out forward was a small
Mtpe dhow well under the lee of the island and creeping along-shore, her
light sails and the wider spread of canvas which her lateen rig
permitted enabling her to take advantage of the slightest puff of air;
while our heavy pinnace, with her small-cut sails hardly raised above
the surface of the sea, so as to get the full force of the wind,
required a strong breeze to move her at all, although then she had
pretty fair speed.
"Now that the men had taken to the oars, however, we began to approach
the stranger more rapidly; but she was over five miles off, and a pull
of that length under a burning sun is no joke, I can assure you. Stroke
after stroke, our plucky seamen kept at it in spite of the heat, one
minute appearing to gain and then again to lose distance as a whiff of
air would waft the dhow along; so that, it was not until nearly sunset
that we got within gunshot, and could hail her to see what she was up
to.
"`Now, Adams,' said I to the man in the bows, who had command of the
seven-pounder boat-gun we had fixed there, `I think we may invite the
stranger gentleman to have a little chat. Fire away, my man, and make
her come to.'
"All was ready, so without more ado he fired, the shot ricochetting
across the prow of the Arab craft, which had by this time cleared the
island and seemed making for Madagascar, that lay east and by south some
three hundred miles off. At all events, the dhow was steering in that
direction, with whatever wind there was on her beam, and she paid no
attention to us at all apparently.
"Still, she didn't long keep on that course. The first message from our
seven-pounder did not bring her to, nor did a second, but when a third
went unpleasantly close, right through her broad lug-sail, we could see
her come up to the wind sharp, while a fourth shot, which we now sent to
show those on board that we meant business and would be obeyed, caused
her heavy yard to be dropped by the run in token of surrender.
"We had a long pull yet to come near her; but on getting alongside we
found it had been all labour for nothing. There was not the ghost of a
slave aboard, nor any signs neither of her having carried any recently.
She was only a trading dhow with a lot of Banians taking goods from the
mainland to the islands; and so we had had all our chase for nothing.
Well, the men were so vexed that they would have liked to have scuttled
her. I was glad I hadn't suggested their taking to the oars, or perhaps
they might have turned on me for making them toil so when it wasn't
necessary; but of course I wasn't to blame, and they knew that.
"Having no authority to stop her, I was obliged to let the dhow proceed
on her way, while we lay-to for the night in a sheltered creek under the
lee of Saint Juan; for it was now getting dark, and the navigation being
rather treacherous with a lot of coral reefs about, I thought it best to
wait for daylight before we did any more cruising.
"On the wind rising again, towards midnight, I anchored the pinnace
about a cable's-length off the beach, where we were pretty secure from
drifting ashore on account of the tide setting the other way. Towards
morning, however, it came on to blow more strongly, and as the boat
rocked uneasily I hauled up the kedge again, for it was bad holding
ground, the tackle chafing against the coral banks and sawing away in a
manner that promised to make it part if it remained down much longer,
the boat's head bobbing down and up every wave with a jerk that must
snap our painter in time.
"Setting the mainsail reefed, and a small storm-staysail forwards, we
ran before the wind, which had now increased to a gale, blowing stiffly,
as it had done in the early part of the day before, from the south-west.
It was of no use trying to lay-to in the open sea, for the rollers were
too heavy for the boat to ride over, so we bore right away across the
channel towards the north part of Madagascar, having a clear space of
water in front of us with no chance of running ashore, for the next
twenty-four hours or so at all events, if we kept on to the same point
of the compass that the wind was now carrying us to. The pinnace being
a good sea-boat, we were all right otherwise, that was, unless the gale
shifted, when we would be driven back on to the rocky reef which
encircled the Comoro Islands, and no doubt go to pieces there.
"`Let her drive,' said I to the men, whom I kept baling out the
occasional seas that came in over the weather gunwale. `As long as she
keeps on running like this we can come to no harm, but you mustn't stop
baling, for if she once gets waterlogged she'll founder and then we'll
all be lost.'
"This made them stick to it, although most of them were tired out with
the long pull they had had in the afternoon after the dhow, and when
morning broke we were still all right and buoyant, although the tornado
showed no appearance of slackening, and we were quite out of sight of
land, nothing but sky and sea being around us, and the waves rolling
that high as they followed in our wake that if we had not scudded on we
would have been swamped in an instant.
"All that day we continued driving ahead, for we could not stop, or wear
the boat round, or do anything but simply let her go where the wind
chose to take her. We could not even lower the mainsail, as if we had
done so it might have capsized her, besides which, as long as it held
out without being blown away, although it almost made the pinnace bury
her nose in the waves in front, it prevented the following rollers
behind from coming too close, just keeping way enough on her to be out
of their reach. But, it was a perilous run of it, and every big comber
that raced after us looked as if it would overtake our tiny craft and
swamp her!
"By about four o'clock in the afternoon, as near as we could reckon, we
sighted the highlands of Madagascar, for it couldn't be any other coast
from the direction we had been sailing in ever since midnight. The land
was right ahead and some distance off yet; but approaching it rapidly as
we did, it made us tremble, for unless we could manage to steer inside
the reef that lay outside the shore of the island, the same as at Saint
Juan, we must be dashed against the cliffs. It was wonderful to think
we had run all that distance in less than twenty-four hours.
"How we did it I'm sure I can't tell, but I believe in addition to the
force of the wind, that must have driven us at the rate of twenty knots
an hour, more or less, there was a strong easterly current in the
Mozambique Channel with the south-west monsoon, and this must have
carried us so speedily across from the Comoro Islands. I can't account
for it otherwise.
"Be that as it may, sir, there was Madagascar now before us, with the
pinnace closing in with the land every second, seeming as if she were
flying towards it rather than sailing; soon, too, we could distinguish
the noise of breakers, which grew every minute more distinct. We were
rushing rapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly power
could save the boat from being dashed to pieces.
"However, there was a power above watching over us.
"Presently I noticed from the contour of the land that we were near Cape
Tangan, which I well knew from a coasting voyage I had made round the
island in a cruiser the year before when I came out to join the
_London_, and I recollected that this headland ran out into the sea in a
north-westerly point, so that, if we could contrive to get the boat to
leeward of the cape, we would soon be in comparatively still water and
protected alike from the force of the wind and the rolling waves.
"I sang out to the men therefore to get their oars out ready, and,
watching my opportunity when we were just almost abreast of Cape Tangan,
I told Adams, who was in the centre of the boat now, to lower away the
mainsail, directing the others at the same time to pull with a will, as
their lives depended on our rounding the promontory, against which it
looked as if we were going to be hurled as we came up to it--it was so
terribly near and frowning over us!
"This plan fortunately succeeded, for in another minute, during which I
held my breath in suspense, we were round the cape and in still water,
although close to a coral reef that girdled the land, which was still
some three miles off. We really were safe for the time and dropped our
anchor, glad enough at our escape; but I saw that the haven could only
be of temporary assistance to us, for should the wind shift more to the
northwards we would even be in a worse position than when scudding
before the gale, as the reef would then be immediately to leeward of us
and the gale in our face.
"It would serve no good, however, to meet evil half-way, so as the men
were all dead tired out and exhausted with hunger, having eaten nothing
since dinner the day before the storm set in, I ordered the provisions
to be served out, telling them after that to lie down and have a good
sleep in the bottom of the boat while I remained on the watch till
morning, having had less exertion than any of them.
"But the poor fellows did not have half so long a rest as that. Towards
midnight--it seemed indeed as if all our misfortunes came at that time--
the pinnace dragged her anchor and drifted on to the reef, when I had to
rouse all hands to jump out in the darkness and shove her off again
before she knocked a hole in her bottom. Then, no sooner were we afloat
again than the wind veered round, just as I had fancied it would do,
without the slightest warning, to the northward.
"This of course rendered it impossible for us to remain any longer under
the lee of the cliff, our anchorage there being now untenable; and,
putting out to sea again, we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale in
the offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail, so as not to
be in too close proximity to the reef, which was doubly dangerous to us
now.
"Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the storm,
until shortly after daybreak; when, the rollers coming rolling in
heavier and more heavily each hour, the poor pinnace sank below the
surface of the sea in twenty-five fathoms of water, leaving thirteen of
us struggling for our lives some seven miles away from shore."
"That must have been awful!" said I sympathisingly.
"It was awful," replied Ben gravely. "I can hardly bear to tell of it
now."
VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.
A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
"The only things left floating in the water after the pinnace sank down
under us," resumed Ben after a lengthened pause, during which he puffed
vigorously at his pipe as if to make up for lost time as well as to
restore his equanimity, "were, the rain awning, a sort of long
tarpaulin; the sun awning, which was of lighter stuff, and soon got
saturated by the sea, making it go to the bottom too; a couple of oars
that had become, somehow or other, unfastened from the rowlocks and went
adrift; a pork breaker or barrel; and two water barricoes, one of which
was empty, while the other contained only about a couple of gallons of
the precious fluid which in a short time would be worth more to us than
gold--but, I'm anticipating matters.
"Five of the boat's crew went down almost as soon as the pinnace, thus
leaving only eight of us to battle against the waves and try to swim
ashore if we could; although I, for one, didn't believe a soul would
ever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to it
at all!
"What the others did at the moment I can't say; for with that selfish
instinct of self-preservation which makes a man in the instant of danger
grasp anything, regardless of what his comrades in distress might be
doing, I grappled hold of one of the oars and the pork breaker, besides
the stern-sheet grating, which I forgot to say also floated from the
wreck. These I lashed together into a sort of raft with a long woollen
comforter, which I had fortunately wound round my neck the night before
while keeping watch to protect me from the damp dew, and now took off
for the purpose. I was treading water all the time I was doing this,
and the sea being very buoyant in the Indian Ocean on account of its
extra saltness, I managed to rig up my raft pretty well. Then, when I
had finished it to my satisfaction, I looked around me, being too busy
to do that before; and, seeing Bellamy, one of the crew who I knew could
not swim, holding on to the other oar, and Russell, another chap in the
same predicament, clutching tight to the gaskets of one of the
barricoes, I helped them both on to my little platform, keeping them and
myself afloat as well as I was able by swimming alongside and pushing
it; for neither of the poor fellows could aid me--they seemed perfectly
helpless.
"By this time the sun was high in the heavens and blazing right down
upon our heads with an intensity of heat that almost seemed to shrivel
up our hair, making us feel as if a red-hot cinder was laid on top of
it. There was not much wind, that having died away soon after daybreak,
the tornado having spent all its force and blown itself out; but the sea
was still rough, the heavy rolling waves washing over us every now and
then as they broke against the raft. Perhaps this moisture was good for
us, the rapid evaporation of the water under the burning heat keeping us
cool; but, what with the exposure and the fright he had sustained at our
sudden upset, poor Russell went clean out of his mind, becoming as mad
as a March hare. Although I was trying all I could to keep him on the
raft to preserve his life, he thought I was struggling to prevent his
holding on; and he commenced fighting with me, clutching hold of my neck
and trying to force me under the water. I stood this for some time;
when, seeing he only got worse instead of better, and that I had no
means of fastening him down to the raft, I thought the best thing I
could do for my own safety, as well as to give the other two a chance
for their lives, was to trust to my own unaided strength and strike out
for the shore, leaving the two on the raft to look after themselves.
Before abandoning that frail support, however, I adopted the precaution
of taking off every stitch of clothing I had on--my boots I had chucked
away when in the boat, preparing even then for the worst. Had I not
done this, I'm certain I would never have reached land or be now telling
you this tale."
"I'm sure I'm very glad you took the precaution," I observed, "it was a
sensible one."
"Yes," said Ben, "there's no use a man attempting to swim any distance
with his things on. A fellow can do it in a bath, as a sort of
exhibition like; but when he comes to battle for his life against the
sea, the only chance he has is when he's stripped; for his clothes suck
in the water and weigh him down so as to take all the buoyancy out of
him and cripple his efforts to keep afloat--that's my opinion from
painful experience.
"Soon after I quitted the raft," continued Ben, proceeding again with
his narrative after my interruption, "I saw on looking back that Russell
had clutched hold of Bellamy the same as he had done with me. But
Bellamy hadn't half my strength, for the other soon got the better of
him, and although I tried to swim back against the rollers so as to
prevent the mishap, I couldn't make headway in spite of all my efforts,
so in a minute or so I saw both tumble off the raft into the sea, and go
down locked together in an embrace of death. Poor fellows, the madman
had caused both to perish, when, by keeping quiet, they might have been
washed safely ashore in time. I tried myself to regain the raft then,
it being now vacant and ample enough to support me alone comfortably;
but the waves were too much for me, so I had to give up that hope and
strike out once more for the shore, although the latter was so far off
and low down too in the water that I couldn't even get a glimpse of it
now to cheer me up and lead me on. I could only judge the direction of
it by the set of the tide and the sun; and although I swam as manfully
as I could, the thought occurred to me more than once that I might be
making for the open ocean instead of the land after all, and was only
prolonging my last agony!
"However, a little way on, the sight of one of my lost shipmates gave me
fresh courage, for I had believed up till then, when Bellamy and Russell
sank under water, that I was the only one of the pinnace's crew left
alive.
"His name was Magellan, one of the smartest topmen of the old _Dolphin_,
and he seemed now to rival the reputation of the fish after which our
vessel was named, as he was swimming ahead of me with a proper breast
stroke, and going well through the waves. I first saw him as he rose on
top of a roller; and he, looking back at the same moment, when turning
his head to avoid the wash of the wave, caught sight of me.
"`Hullo, Campion!' he sang out, `where are you bound for?'
"`For the shore, you lubber,' I retorted jokingly, for seeing him put
such fresh life in me that I felt almost inclined to laugh out aloud
with joy!
"`Have you got anything to support you in the water?' he asked with
surprise.
"`No,' said I, `nothing but my own carcass and the use of my hands and
legs.'
"`The same with me, old ship,' he replied, `let's see who'll get to land
first.'
"`All right!' I cried, `start away!' and we both of us struck out hard;
but he was a far better swimmer than I was, and I soon lost sight of him
although I followed in the same track as well as I could steer.