the valley, perching on the branch of a tree near the waterfall, where
he began to croak away; so Denis Brown ups with a piece of stone and
chucking it at the bird brings it down. In a moment he had picked off
the feathers, when Magellan, taking out his knife again, cuts the parrot
into six portions, entrails and all, and distributes it amongst us.
That was the first thing we had between our teeth in the shape of meat
for nearly six days, for we had our last meal on board the pinnace the
day before she upset; so the fowl tasted better to us than the best
fancy dish ever served up at the lord-mayor's dinner--the only thing
against it being that there was so little of it, divided amongst the six
of us! However, it was a godsend any way; and it gave us so much
additional strength and courage, combined with the effects of the yams
we had already eaten and the plentiful supply of good water, that it was
unanimously resolved, after having a thorough rest that day by the side
of the river, to resume our march to Majunga the next morning at
daybreak and to keep on till we got there.
"But, `Man proposes and God disposes,' says the old proverb, and a very
wise one too, as we proved before the next forty-eight hours went over
our heads.
"There was no breakfast this morning of our second day's rest by the
banks of the river that had so providentially been sighted in time to
save our lives; but, notwithstanding that drawback, the whole party of
us started gaily afresh on our way through the jungle, resuming our
southerly course towards Majunga. Magellan and I regretted very much
that we had omitted bringing the empty water barrico from Cocoa-nut Bay
with us, for now we could have filled it and carried a supply with us in
the event of our being unable to come across another spring; but none of
the other men would carry it, and he and I after taking it along for a
time had thrown it away before the end of our first day's pilgrimage, it
being as much as we could do to drag ourselves along without being
hampered with an empty cask that might after all be a useless
incumbrance.
"So, once more depending on the chance of what we might meet with on the
way, we set out; our way was, as at first starting, lying again uphill
and the steepest bit of climbing we had yet had. In spite of our good
intentions of the previous night, what with prospecting our journey and
one thing and another, it was past mid-day before we got well off from
the valley, and it was nightfall when we reached the top of the third
mountain; but the men were not near so tired as they had been on the
last two days of our wandering before getting water, and even now did
not complain again of thirst as they had done at their former halts for
the night--moaning through their sleep and bursting out sometimes in
incoherent ravings as if they were going mad. From the top of this
eminence, too, we had more of an outlook than we had yet been able to
gain, seeing a distant peep of the sea through the trees, and below us
far away, wandering in and out between the masses of thick foliage, the
silvery gleam of a river coursing its way to the coast. We went to
sleep, therefore, with the comfortable assurance that everything would
turn out well for us on the morrow, when we should be in clover if
appearances were to be trusted.
"Alas, it was a day of calamity and greater peril than we had yet
undergone!
"Our downward progress this morning was as rapid as that into the oasis
we had discovered in the wilderness on the day before, and indeed seemed
much easier, the vegetation not being so thick and the ground shelving
less abruptly; but then, in compensation for this, we did not receive a
similar thankful reward for our toil on reaching the bottom, for,
although we came to a river, its water was utterly unlike that of the
spring in the glade, being muddy and brackish. However, to men thirsty
like ourselves it was drinkable, and we had to content ourselves with
it, taking as little of it as we could help and that only sufficient to
quench our cravings.
"What upset us more than this, though, was that this river was some
three hundred yards across from bank to bank, so that we would have to
wade it or swim it to get over to the other side, our investigations on
the shore where we were deliberating showing us that it would be
impossible to circle round it without going for miles out of our way.
We were not frightened at the mere fact of having to venture into
unknown depths--men who had swam the distance we had done in the
Mozambique Channel could afford to laugh at the paltry width of the
stream. What troubled us was the sight of innumerable crocodiles,
sluggishly dragging themselves up the slimy mud banks on either side and
swimming about in the centre of the stream as if on guard over its
precincts. We did not care about tackling these; and so it was we
hesitated, none wishing to be the first to venture the passage.
"At last, Jem Magellan, as usual, came to the fore.
"`Come now, men,' says he; `what are you minding them air crocodiles
for? They won't harm you, when the sharks let you t'other day in
swimming ashore from the pinnace! Jest follow me, and you'll soon see
that my splashing in the water will frighten them off! They are as
cowardly as they're big and ugly!'
"With these words, he leaped into the river and was very shortly across
safely on the other side, the hideous reptiles taking no more notice of
him than if he had been one of themselves, continuing to wallow about in
the green slime.
"Seeing this, I too followed, for I own to being a bit skeared of the
animals before Jem put courage into me; and so did two of the others;
but Denis Brown and the sixth man got terrified when they were in mid
stream, shouting out and hollering that the crocodiles were after them.
Jem, who was as brave as a lion, opening his knife and putting it
between his teeth, plunged into the water again, swimming back to where
Denis Brown was struggling in the river alone, the other chap having
abandoned him and made for the shore. But, the true-hearted fellow was
too late; just as he was within a yard or two of Denis, the other gave
out a shriek which went right through us all like an electric shock and
disappeared below the water, into whose muddy depths one of the hideous
brutes we had seen had dragged him down. I declare, it affected us
more, that did, than all we had gone through; and we were not calm till
Jem Magellan stood once more amongst us, for we thought the crocodile
might capture him next. We did not any of us like Brown much; but our
misfortunes had drawn us all closer together and we felt his loss
deeply.
"That wasn't the end of our troubles for the day either.
"Resuming our course sadly across the level marshy land which adjoined
the river and apparently extended some distance before we could reach
our last hill, we had just entered within the outskirts of another
forest of jungle when our ears were assailed with the most terrible
yells. The next moment, without the slightest warning, a band of
natives rushed at us with savage cries--hurling spears and darts at us,
before we could put ourselves into a posture of defence--poor, unarmed,
defenceless fellows that we were!"
VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SEVEN.
RESCUED AT LAST.
"The savages," continued Ben, "in their rapid onslaught on us,
fortunately, missed their aim, only one of us getting a spear-wound
through the body, the rest of their weapons expending their force
harmlessly in the bush, and by the time they were ready for a second go
at us we were better prepared to receive them, although sadly wanting in
the means of defence, only Jem Magellan having a knife. This he at once
drew, however, while the rest of us, using the sticks we had previously
cut in the forest, as I had forgotten to tell you previously, made an
effort to save our lives with the determination of fighting to the last.
"But, Jem was our guardian angel now, as he had been before. Darting at
one of the natives before he was apparently aware of his intention, he
stabbed him through the heart, and then catching him up without a
second's deliberation by his legs, and using his body as a club, he
floored three others in rapid succession. We, too, were not behindhand
with our sticks; and the savages--struck more with consternation at
Magellan's tremendous strength, for he was built like a giant, and stood
over six feet high, than by our prowess--ran away back into the jungle
as fast as they had come upon us; leaving some four of their number
struck lifeless on the ground, besides the one Jem had first settled,
and whom the club exercise to which his body had been subjected had
knocked out of any semblance it had originally possessed to the human
form.
"We breathed hard when the scrimmage was over, for it was warm work
while it lasted; and then, our sadly-lessened little party thinking
discretion the better part of valour, and that our foes might get
reinforced and return to attack us in numbers, only ten altogether
having belonged to the body assailing us, we too took to our heels in
the opposite direction. This was the very one, indeed, in which our
proper course lay; and we ran on without giving a thought as to whether
any of those we had knocked on the head would come to life again or not,
or that we had to answer for their deaths.
"It would weary you to hear all the further trials we had to go through.
We had three other rivers to ford before reaching the base of the next
mountain; and, on essaying to climb this latter, we found it so steep
and matted with rank vegetation that it was impossible to ascend it.
Besides, the mosquitoes stung us almost to pieces on our going into the
forest here; and, seeing that our route southwards was impracticable any
longer, we bent our steps due west, following the track of the last
river we had crossed so as to gain the beach again, which latter course
seemed to offer now the best chance of escape.
"Arrived here, we sat down facing the sea, without a single sail passing
by within hail, as we had hoped would soon have been the case, for two
long weary days and nights--one of us always keeping watch that we
should not miss a vessel, in the first place, and, secondly, for fear of
another attack from the natives. During all this time, recollect, we
had nothing to eat since we swallowed the last fragment of the solitary
parrot that poor Denis Brown had knocked down, although plenty of
brackish water was at our disposal from the river.
"On the third morning, however, just when we were pretty nigh done up
with the heat and hunger, thinking each moment would be our last, an
Arab dhow passed by close inshore to where we were stretched almost
lifeless on the sand, watching the monotonous sea that broke with a
heavy wash on the beach.
"We hailed the people on board, but they took no notice of us, and we
abandoned ourselves to despair. However, another trading dhow came by
soon afterwards, luckily for us, and the skipper of this showed more
sympathy to shipwrecked seamen in distress, for, responding to our
appeals for help, he said he would lie to for us, but as he had no boat
we would have to swim off to the vessel.
"This we did, braving our fear of the sharks, though we had seen plenty
of them about during the two days we had been staring at the sea; and,
plunging into the waves, were soon hauled aboard in safety, the
revulsion of feeling at being thus saved from a lingering death almost
making us helpless at the last!
"The captain of the dhow, who was in the employ of some Banian traders,
carried us to Majunga, where we were most hospitably treated, a house
being set apart for our accommodation, and the Queen of Madagascar
herself sending down provisions for our use during our stay there. I
recollect, on the very day of our arrival, she despatched three casks of
rice, along with a dozen ducks and twelve fowls, for us to have a feast
with; and I don't think we had left a bone of the poultry or a grain of
rice by the end of the following day.
"I shall never forget the kindness we all met with at Majunga. It is an
Arab colony, with lots of Hindoos and Portuguese there besides, although
only a small mud town. It was this place that the French bombarded the
other day for no cause whatever that I can see save to get a foothold on
the island and establish their blessed republic there. But then, we
need not talk. I've known English men-of-war set fire to native
villages amongst the islands in the South Pacific just to avenge a
fancied insult which some blackbirding schooner had once received when
its crew were trying to kidnap the natives, and I have known cruelties
committed because the merchants were unable to get the proper price for
their Manchester cottons and Brummagem goods; while when serving on the
west coast of Africa, up the Congo river, I have seen whole colonies of
poor niggers annihilated, with their little towns wrecked over their
heads, simply because they did not choose to do exactly what we told
them. You may say that the French have no right to do as they have done
and are doing in Madagascar; but circumstances alter cases, sir. We
only think these bombardments and colonising schemes bad when they are
carried out by other nations; when we do similar things, of course it is
all right and just."
"Did you rejoin your ship ultimately?" I asked, when Ben had finished
his little bit of moralising, apropos of international differences.
"Oh yes, sir. The _Dolphin_ came cruising in search of us down the
coast after capturing the second slaver and settling all her business at
Zanzibar; and, on her putting in to Majunga, of course we went on board,
reporting the accident that had happened to the pinnace. The excitement
had borne us up to then; but, soon after we found ourselves once more in
the old ship, the whole lot of us broke down and went raving mad, being
out of our minds for weeks. Magellan and the others recovered out
there, but I was invalided home and sent to Haslar Hospital--being
ultimately allowed to leave the service on a pension before I had quite
finished my time, all through that exposure I had had when swimming
ashore in the Mozambique Channel and journeying through the bush
afterwards. I have quite recovered since, however, and am now as hale
and hearty a man, thank God, as ever I was in all my life."
"I'm glad to hear that," said I cordially.
"Aye, I am," he repeated, as if to impress that point carefully on my
mind; and then, seeing me looking at my watch, he asked me what the hour
was.
"Just eleven o'clock," I answered.
"Lord bless us!" he exclaimed, "I'd no idea what time it was. Why
didn't you stop me? I must be off home or my wife will be thinking I'm
lost. Good-night, sir. Hope I haven't wearied you with my yarn?"
"Oh no," I said, "I have not found it a bit too long. Good-night." And
so ends Ben Campion's story of "The Lost Pinnace."
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Penang Pirate, by John Conroy Hutcheson