"Hurrah! hurrah! Erin-go-bragh!" Such were the cries which the Irish
part of our crew uttered, and in which I through sympathy joined, as
once more the capstan was manned, and the anchor being hove up, and the
topsails sheeted home, we made sail for Dublin. We had been longer than
usual at Kingston; for the damage the brig had received in the
hurricane, and the illness of the captain, which impeded the collection
of freight, had much delayed us. In reality our return home brought
very little satisfaction to me. I had no friends to see, no one to care
for me. I therefore remained on board to assist the ship-keeper; and
the whole time we were in the Dublin dock I scarcely ever set my foot on
shore.
The same thing occurred after my second voyage. I did not attempt to
form a friendship with anyone. Not that I was of a sulky disposition;
but I was not inclined to make advances, and no one offered me his
friendship. The ship-keeper, old Pat Hagan, had seen a great deal of
the world, and picked up a good deal of information in his time, and I
was never tired of listening to his yarns; and thus, though I had no
books, I learned more of things in general than if I had bad; for I was
but a bad reader at any time. Pat trusted to a good memory, for he had
never looked into a book in his life. Thus, with a pretty fair
second-hand knowledge of the world, I sailed on my third voyage to the
West Indies in the _Rainbow_. We had the same officers, and several of
the crew had rejoined her, who were in her when I first went to sea. I
had now become strong and active, and though still little and
young-looking, I had all my wits wide-awake, and knew well what I was
about. The captain had taken another boy in the cabin instead of me,
and I was sent forward to learn seamanship; which was, in reality, an
advantage to me, though I had thus a rougher life of it than aft. Still
I believe that I never lost the captain's good-will, though he was not a
man to talk to me about it.
Once more, then, the stout old brig was following her accustomed track
across the Atlantic. Peter Poplar was also on board. We had been about
a fortnight at sea, when, the ship lying almost becalmed with a blue sky
overhead, a large white cloud was seen slowly approaching us. The lower
part hung down and grew darker and darker, till it formed almost a
point. Below the point was a wild bubbling and boiling of the water,
although the surrounding sea was as smooth as glass.
"What can that be?" said I to Peter. "Are there any fish there?"
"No--fish! certainly not; but you'll soon see," he answered. "I wish it
were further off; I don't like it so near."
"Why, what harm can it do?" I asked.
"Send as stout a ship as we are to the bottom with scant warning!" he
answered. "That's a water-spout. I've seen one rise directly ahead of
a ship, and before there was time to attempt to escape it, down it came
bodily on her deck like a heavy sea falling over a vessel. She never
rose again, but went down like a shot."
"I hope that won't be our fate," said I.
At that moment the captain came on deck. "Get ready a gun there,
forward!" he sung out. "Quick now!" While I had been talking to Peter,
a pillar of water had risen out of the sea, so it seemed; and, having
joined the point hanging from the cloud, came whirling towards us. Had
there been sufficient wind to send the ship through the water, we might
have avoided it; but there was scarcely steerage-way on her. I thought
of what Peter had just told me, and I thought if it does break over us,
it will certainly send us to the bottom. The captain ordered the slow
match to be brought to him, and went forward to the gun, which had been
loaded and run out. On came the water-spout. I could not conceive what
he was going to do. He stooped down, and, running his eye along the
gun, fired a shot right through the watery pillar. Down came the liquid
mass with a thundering sound into the sea, but clear of the ship, though
even our deck got a little sprinkling; and when I looked up at the sky,
not a sign of a cloud was there. Peter told me that we ought to be
thankful that we had escaped the danger so well, for that he had never
been in greater risk from a water-spout in his life.
We used frequently to catch dolphins during the passage, by striking
them with a small harpoon as they played under the bow of the brig.
They are not at all like the creatures I remember carved in stone at the
entrance of some gentleman's park near Dublin. They measure about four
feet in length; are thick in the middle, with a green back and a yellow
belly, and have a sinking between the tip of the snout and the top of
the head; indeed, they are something like a large salmon. We used to
eat them, and they were considered like a fat turbot.
Frequently flying-fish fell on our deck in attempting to escape from
their two enemies--the dolphin and the bonito: but they fell, if not
from the frying-pan into the fire, from the water into the frying-pan;
for we used to eat them also. Indeed nothing comes amiss to a sailor's
mess. The flying-fish, which is about the size of a herring, has two
long fins which serve it as wings; but it can only keep in the air so
long as its fins remain wet. These fish, like herrings, also swim
together in large shoals, which, as their pursuers come among them,
scatter themselves far and wide. Nothing very particular occurred on
the passage, till once more we made the land.
I went aloft when I heard the ever-welcome cry from the
foretopmast-head: "Land! land on the starboard bow!" Then I saw it
rising in a succession of faint blue hills out of the sparkling sea.
Peter told me that it was the large island of Hispaniola, or Saint
Domingo, and that it belonged partly to Spain and partly to France; but
that there were a great number of blacks and coloured people there, many
of whom were free and possessed considerable wealth. Not long after
this, in the year 1791, these coloured people rose on the whites, who
had long tyrannised over them, and having murdered vast numbers,
declared their island an independent kingdom.
We were entering, I found, the Caribbean Sea by the Porto Rico passage;
and were to coast along the southern shore on our course to Jamaica.
Now and then we were sufficiently close in with the land to make out
objects distinctly; but, in general, we kept well out at sea, as it is
not a coast seamen are fond of hugging. The silvery mist of the early
morning still lay over the land, when, right ahead of us, the white
canvas of a vessel appeared shining brightly in the rays of the rising
sun. The officer of the watch called the attention of the captain to
her. Peter and I were also looking out forward. "Why, Jack!" he
exclaimed, "she's the very craft which put that old gentleman aboard the
time we came away from Saint Kitt's, you remember?"
"Of course I do," said I. "She is like her, at all events; and as for
that old gentleman, I shall not forget him and his ways in a hurry."
"He was a strange man, certainly," observed Peter. "The captain seems
to have a suspicion about the craft out there. See, he and the mates
are talking together. They don't like her looks."
Still we stood on with all sails set. Much the same scene occurred
which had happened before, when we saw the felucca off Saint Kitt's.
Ammunition was got up--the guns were all ready to run out--the
small-arms were served out--and the passengers brought out their pistols
and fowling-pieces. Everybody, indeed, became very warlike and heroic.
Still the little craft which called forth these demonstrations, as she
lay dipping her bows into the swell, with her canvas of whiteness so
snowy, the emblem of purity, looked so innocent and pretty, that a
landsman would scarcely have expected any harm to come out of her. Yet
those accustomed to the West Indies had cause to dread that style of
craft, capable of carrying a numerous crew, of pulling a large number of
oars, and of running up a narrow river, or shallow lagoon, to escape
pursuit.
At last we came up with the felucca. She lay hove-to with her head
towards us. There was, certainly, a very suspicious look about her,
from the very apathy with which the few people on deck regarded us.
However, as we looked down on her deck, we saw six guns lashed along her
bulwarks, and amidship there was something covered with a tarpaulin,
which might be a heavier gun than the rest. We stood on till her
broadside was brought to bear on our counter. At that moment, up sprung
from each hatchway some sixty as ugly-looking cut-throats as I ever wish
to see; and they were busily engaged in rapidly casting loose their
guns; and we were on the point of firing, when, who should we see on
their deck, but the old man who had been our passenger! He instantly
recognised Captain Helfrich, who was standing near the taffrail, and
making a sign to the crew of the felucca, they dived below as quickly as
they had appeared. He took off his three-cornered hat and waved it to
our captain, who waved his in return; and then he made a sign that he
would come on board us.
Instantly the captain ordered the sails to be clewed up. Had the old
gentleman been an admiral, he could not have been obeyed more promptly.
A boat shoved off from the felucca with four hands in her, and he came
on board us. The big negro was not with him, nor did I see him on the
deck of the felucca. The captain and the stranger were closeted
together for a quarter of an hour or more; and the latter then coming on
deck, bowed, with somewhat mock politeness to the passengers, who were
assembled staring at him, and stepped into his boat.
No sooner had he gone, than we again made sail. The felucca lay hove-to
some little time. She then wore round, and stood after us. So rapidly
did she come up with us, that it was very clear we had not the slightest
chance of getting away from her, however much we might wish to do so.
She kept us company all the day, and at night, in the first watch, I
could see her shadowy form gliding over the sea astern of us.
Peter and I talked the matter over together in a whisper. "I'll tell
you what I think is something like the truth," said he. "To my mind
it's this:--When the captain was a young man out in these parts, he fell
in with that old gentleman,--who isn't so old though as he pretends to
be. Well, the captain went and did something to put himself in his
power; and that's the reason the captain is so afraid of him. And then,
from what I see, I suspect that the captain saved him from drowning, or
maybe from hanging; or in some way or other preserved his life; and that
makes him grateful, and ready to do the captain a good turn; or, at all
events, prevents him from doing him a bad one. If it was not for that,
we should have had all our throats cut by those gentry, if we hadn't
managed to beat them off; and that would have been no easy job. I may
be wrong altogether, but this is what I think," continued Peter.
"There's one thing, particularly, I want to say to you, Jack: never go
and do anything wrong, and fancy that it will end with the thing done.
There's many a man who has done a wrong thing in his youth, and has gone
through life as if he had a rope round his neck, and he has found it
turning up here and there, and staring him in the face when he has least
expected it. When once a bad thing is done, you can't get rid of it--
you can't undo it--you can't get away from it, any more than you can
call the dead to life. You may try to forget it; but something or other
will always remind you of it, as long as you live. Then, remember there
is another life we've got to look to, when every single thing we've done
on earth must be remembered--must be acknowledged--must be made known.
You and I, and every sailor, should know that any moment we may be sent
into another world to begin that new life, and to stand before God's
judgment-seat. I think of this myself sometimes; but I wish that I
could think of it always; and that I ever had remembered it. Had I
always thought of that awful truth, there are many things I could not
possibly have ventured to do which I have done; and many things which I
have left undone, which I should have done. Jack, my boy, I say I have
done you some little good, but there's no good I could ever possibly do
you greater than teaching you to remember that truth always. But I must
not knock off this matter without warning you, that I may be thinking
unjustly of the captain: and I certainly would not speak to anyone else
aboard as I have done to you."
I thanked Peter for the advice he had given me, and promised that I
would not repeat what he had said.
"Can you see the felucca, Tillson?" I heard Mr Gale say to Tom, who
was reputed to have the sharpest eyes aboard.
"No, sir; she's nowhere where she was," he answered, after peering for
some time into the darkness astern.
We all kept looking out for some time, but she did not reappear. The
mate seemed to breathe more freely, and I must say that I was glad to be
rid of the near neighbourhood of the mysterious stranger. When morning
broke, she was nowhere to be seen. Whenever, during that and the
following days, a sail appeared anywhere abaft the beam, till her rig
was ascertained, it was instantly surmised that she was the felucca
coming back to overhaul us. Even the mates did not seem quite
comfortable about the matter; and the captain was a changed man. His
usual buoyant spirits had deserted him, and he was silent and
thoughtful. I could not help thinking that Peter's surmises were
correct.
At last we brought up once more in Port-Royal Harbour. Having landed
our passengers, and discharged our cargo, we sailed again for Morant
Bay, Saint Thomas's, and other places along the coast, to take in a
freight of sugar, which was sent down in hogsheads from the plantations
in the neighbourhood.
We were rather earlier than usual, and we had some time to wait till the
casks were ready for us. On one of these occasions the captain was
invited by a planter, Mr Johnstone by name, to pay him a visit at his
farm, which was some way up the country. In that climate every
gentleman has a servant to attend on him; and all the planters, and
others who live there, always have negroes to help them to wash and
dress in the morning, to put on their stockings, and all that sort of
thing. As the captain had no black fellow to wait on him, he told me
that he should want me to accompany him, and I was too glad to have a
chance of seeing something of the country. Meantime, to collect our
freight faster, he had chartered a schooner which was lying idle in the
harbour, and sent her round to the various smaller ports to pick it up,
and to bring it to the brig. He had put her under charge of Mr Gale,
who had with him Peter Poplar and several other of our men, and also a
few blacks, who were hired as seamen.
I thought it very good fun when I found myself once more on a horse; I
had not got on the back of one since I was a little boy in Dublin, and
then, of course, there was no saddle nor stirrups, and only an old rope
for a bridle. They are generally razor-backed beasts, with one or two
raws, and blind, at least, of one eye. The captain was mounted on a
strong Spanish horse well able to bear him, and I followed on a frisky
little animal with his valise and carpet-bags.
I wish that I could describe the wonderful trees we passed. I remember
the wild plantains, with huge leaves split into slips, and their red
seed-pods hanging down at the end of twisted ropes; the tall palms, with
their feathery tops; the monster aloes, with their long flashy thorny
leaves; and the ferns as large as trees, and yet as beautifully cut as
those in our own country, which clothed every hillside where a fountain
flowed forth; and then the countless variety of creepers, whose
beautiful tracery crowned every rock, and hung down in graceful festoons
from the lofty trees. Now and then, as passing through a valley and
mounting a hill, we stopped and looked back, we caught sight of the blue
sparkling sea, with the brig and other vessels in the harbour; a few
white sails glancing in the sun, between it and the horizon; and nearer
to us, valleys with rich fields and streams of water, and orchards of
oranges, limes, and shaddocks; and planters' houses with gardens full of
beautiful flowers, and negro huts under the shade of the plantain-trees.
Then there were those forest-giants, the silk-cotton-trees, and various
kinds of fig-trees and pines, such as in the old world are never seen.
But the creepers I have spoken of make the woods still more curious, and
unlike anything at home. First, a creeper drops down from a branch 150
feet high, and then another falls close to it, and the wind blows and
twists them together; others grow round it till it takes root, and form
a lofty pillar which supports the immense mass of twisting and twining
stems above. As we rode along, I saw from many a lofty branch the
net-like nests of the corn-bird hanging at the end of long creepers.
Those mischievous rascals, the monkeys, are fond of eggs, and will take
great pains to get them; so the corn-bird, to outwit them, thus secures
her nest. It has an entrance at the bottom, and is shaped like a
net-bag full of balls. There the wise bird sits free from danger,
swinging backwards and forwards in the breeze.
We slept that night at the house of a friend of the captain's, who had
come out with him in the brig. It was a low building of one storey,
with steps leading up to it, and built chiefly of wood. A veranda ran
all the way round it. The rooms were very large, but not so handsomely
furnished, I thought, as the captain's cabin. People do eat curious
food in the West Indies. Among other things, there was a monkey on the
table; but if it had not been for the name of the thing, I cannot say
there was any harm in it. I got a bit of it after it was taken from the
table, and it was very like chicken. There were lizards and snakes,
which were very delicate. There was a cabbage cut from the very top of
a lofty tree, the palmetto; but that tree is too valuable to be cut down
often for the purpose. Then there were all sorts of sweetmeats and
dishes made with them. I recollect a mass of guava-jelly swimming in a
bowl full of cream, and wine, and sugar, and citron. There were plenty
of substantials also; and wines and liquids of all sorts. I know that I
thought I should very much like to live on shore, and turn planter. I
had reason afterwards to think that they had bitters as well as sweets
to taste, so I remained contented, as I have ever been, with my lot.
At night, the captain had a sofa given him to sleep on in the
dining-room, and I had a rug in another corner. It was many a long
night since I had slept on shore, and I was constantly startled by the
strange noises I heard. Often it was only the wind rustling in the
palm-trees; but when I opened my eyes, I saw one whole side of the room
sparkling with flashes of light; then it would burst forth on the other
side; and then here and there single bright stars would gleam and
vanish; and lastly, the entire roof would be lighted up. I dared not
wake the captain to ask what was the matter, and it was not till
afterwards that I discovered that the light was produced by fireflies,
which are far more brilliant than the glow-worms of more northern
climes. I had gone to sleep, when, just before daybreak, I was again
awoke by a most terrific yelling, and screeching, and laughing, and
roaring. I thought that the savages were down upon us, or that all the
wild beasts in the country were coming to devour us. I could stand it
no longer, but shrieked out, "O captain, captain! what's going to happen
us?" The captain started up, and listened, and then burst into a fit of
laughter. "Why, you young jackanapes, they are only some of your
brothers, the monkeys, holding a morning concert," said he. "Go to
sleep again; don't rouse me up for such nonsense as that."
I found afterwards that the noise did proceed only from monkeys, though
I did not suppose that such small animals could have made such hideous
sounds. To go to sleep again, however, I found was impossible, as I had
already enjoyed much more than I usually got on a stretch. The captain,
on the contrary, went off again directly; but his sleep was much
disturbed, for he tumbled about and spoke so loudly, that at times I
thought he was awake and calling me. "You'll make me, will you?" I
heard him say. "I don't fear you, Captain Ralph. I--a pirate--so I
might have been called--I was but a lad--I consented to no deed of
blood--It cannot be brought against me--Well, I know--I know--I
acknowledge my debt to you.--You exact it to the uttermost--I'll obey
you--The merchants deem me an honest trader--What would they say if they
heard me called pirate?--Ha, ha, ha?" He laughed long and bitterly.
I was very glad that no one else was in the room to hear what the
captain was saying. A stranger would certainly have thought much worse
of him than he deserved. I had now been so long with him that I was
confident, whatever he might have done in his youth, that he was now an
honest and well-intentioned man. At the same time I could no longer
have any doubts that Peter's surmises about him were correct, "That old
gentleman aboard the felucca is Captain Ralph, then," I thought to
myself, "If I ever fall in with him, I shall know how to address him, at
all events." At length the captain awoke; and after an early breakfast,
the owner took him round the plantation, and I was allowed to follow
them.
The sugar-cane grows about six feet high, and has several stalks on one
root. It is full of joints, three or four inches apart. The leaves are
light green; the stalk yellow when ripe. The mode of cultivation is
interesting. A trench is dug from one end of the field to the other,
and in it longways are laid two rows of cane. From each joint of these
canes spring a root and several sprouts. They come up soon after they
are planted, and in twelve weeks are two feet high. If they come up
irregularly, the field is set on fire from the outside, which drives the
rats, the great destroyers of the cane, to the centre, where they are
killed. The ashes of the stalks and weeds serve to manure the field,
which often produces a better crop than before. The canes are cut with
a billhook, one at a time; and being fastened together in faggots, are
sent off to the crushing-mill on mules' backs or in carts. Windmills
are much in use. The canes are crushed by rollers and as the juice is
pressed out, it runs into a cistern near the boiling-house. There it
remains a day, and is then drawn off into a succession of boilers, where
all the refuse is skimmed off. To turn it into grains, lime-water is
poured into it; and when this makes it ferment, a small piece of tallow,
the size of a nut, is thrown in. It is next drawn into pots to cool,
with holes in the bottom through which the molasses drain off. Rum is
made from the molasses, which being mixed with about five times as much
water, is put into a still.
There are three sorts of _cotton-trees_. One creeps on the earth like a
vine; another is a bushy dwarf tree; and the third is as high as an oak.
The second-named, after it has produced very beautiful flowers about
the size of a rose, is loaded with a fruit as large as a walnut, the
outward coat of which is black. This fruit, when it is fully ripe,
opens, and a down is discovered of extreme whiteness, which is the
cotton. The seeds are separated from it by a mill.
The stem of the cacao-tree is about four inches in diameter. In height
it is about twelve feet from the ground. The cacao grows in pods shaped
like cucumbers. Each pod contains from three to five nuts, the size of
small chestnuts, which are separated from each other by a white
substance like the pulp of a roasted apple. The pods are found only on
the larger boughs, and at the same time the tree bears blossoms and
young fruit. The pods are cut down when ripe, and allowed to remain
three or four days in a heap to ferment. The nuts are then cut out, and
put into a trough covered with plantain-leaves, where they remain nearly
twenty days; and, lastly, dried three or four weeks in: the sun. Indigo
is made from an herb not unlike hemp. This is cut, and put into pits
with water; and being continually stirred up, forms a sort of mud,
which, when dry, is broken into bits for exportation.
I will mention one plant more of general use--coffee. It is a shrub,
with leaves of a dark-green colour. The berries grow in large clusters.
The bean is enclosed in a scarlet pulp, often eaten, but very luscious.
One bush produces several pounds. When the fruit is ripe, it turns
black, and is then gathered; and the berries, being separated from the
husk, are exposed to the sun till quite dry, when they are fit for the
market.
However, I might go on all day describing the curious plants, and trees,
and animals, and birds I saw. I must speak of the ginger. The blade is
not unlike that of wheat. The roots, which are used, are dug up and
scraped free from the outward skin by the negroes. This is the best way
of preparing it, and it is then soft and white; but often, from want of
hands, it is boiled, when the root becomes hard and tough, and is of
much less value.
I shall never forget the beautiful humming-birds, with magnificent
plumage gleaming in the sun, and tongues fine as needles, yet hollow,
with which they suck the juices from flowers.
We did not, on account of the heat, recommence our journey till the
afternoon. The planter accompanied us. I heard him and the captain
talking about the outbreaks of the fugitive negroes in former days.
"They are a little inclined to be saucy just now," I heard him remark.
"But we taught them a lesson which they will not easily forget. Those
we caught we punished in every way we could think of. Hanging was too
mild for them. Some we burned before slow fires; others were tied up by
the heels; and others were lashed to stakes, their bodies covered over
with molasses to attract the flies, and then allowed to starve to death.
Oh, we know how to punish rebels in this country."
I listened to what the planter was saying. I could scarcely believe the
testimony of my ears. Was it really a man professing to be a Christian
thus talking, thus boasting of the most horrible cruelties which even
the fiercest savages could not surpass?
The captain replied, that he supposed they deserved what they got,
though, for his part, he thought if a man was deserving of death, he
should be hung or shot outright, but that he did not approve of killing
people by inches.
From what I heard I was not surprised to find that there were large
numbers of these revolted negroes, under the name of Maroons, living
among the mountain-fastnesses in the interior of the island, where they
could not be reached; that their numbers were continually augmented by
runaway slaves; and that they declined to submit to the clemency of the
whites. It was quite dark before we reached the house of the planter,
where the captain proposed to spend a few days. It stood on the side of
a hill covered with trees, and had a considerable slope below it. It
was a rough wooden edifice, of one storey, though of considerable size,
and had a veranda running round it. Besides the owner, there were the
overseer, and two or three white assistants; and an attorney, a
gentleman who manages the law business of an estate; and two English
friends. Altogether, there was a large party in the house. During
dinner the company began to talk about pirates, and I saw the captain's
colour change. The attorney said that several piracies had been
committed lately in the very neighbourhood of Jamaica; and that unarmed
vessels, in different parts of the West Indies, were constantly attacked
and plundered. They remarked that it was difficult to find out these
piratical craft. Sometimes the pirates appeared in one guise and
sometimes in another; at one time in a schooner, at others in a felucca,
or in a brig; and often even in open boats. "Yes," observed the
attorney, "they seem to have excellent information of all that goes on
in Kingston. I suspect that they have confederates on shore, who tell
them all they want to know." I thought the captain would have fallen
off his chair, but he quickly recovered himself, and no one appeared to
have remarked his agitation. They did carry on, to be sure! What
quantities of wine and rum-punch they drank! How their heads could
stand it I don't know. Two or three of them did roll under the table,
when their black slaves came and dragged them off to bed; which must
have raised them in the negroes' opinion. Even the captain, who was
generally a very sober man, got up and sang songs and made speeches for
half an hour when no one was listening. At last the slaves cleared the
dining-room, and beds were made up there for several of the party. I
was afraid that the captain might begin to talk again in his sleep of
his early days, and accuse himself of being a pirate; and I was anxious
to warn him, lest anyone might be listening; but then, I thought to
myself, they are all so drunk no one will understand him, and he won't
like to be reminded by me of such things as that.
The night seemed to be passing quietly away. As I lay on a rug in the
corner of the room, I could hear the sound of some night-birds, or
frogs, or crickets, and the rustling of the wind among the
plantain-leaves, till I fell asleep. Before long, however, I started
up, and thought that the monkeys had begun their concert at an earlier
hour than usual. There were the most unearthly cries and shrieks
imaginable, which seemed to come from all sides of the house, both from
a distance and close at hand. For a moment all was silent, and then
they were repeated louder than before. Had not the company been heavy
with drink, they must have been awoke at once. As it was, the second
discharge of shrieks and cries roused them up, and in another minute
people came rushing into the dining-hall from different parts of the
house, their pale countenances showing the terror they felt. "What's
the matter? what's all this?" they exclaimed.
"That the negroes have come down from the hills, and that we shall all
be murdered!" exclaimed the master of the house, who had just hurried in
with a rifle in his hand. "Gentlemen, we may defend ourselves, and sell
our lives dearly, but that is all I can hope for."
"Let us see what can be done," said Captain Helfrich coolly. "This
house may not stand a long siege, perhaps, though we'll do our best to
prepare it. We'll block up the windows and all outlets as fast as we
can. See, get all the rice and coffee bags to be found, and fill them
with earth; we may soon build up a tolerably strong fortification."
The captain's confidence and coolness encouraged others, and every one
set to work with a will to make the proposed preparations. All the
household slaves, and several blacks residing in the neighbouring huts
had come into the house to share their master's fortunes but the greater
number had run away and hid themselves. There was no lack of muskets
and ammunition; indeed, there were among us weapons sufficient to arm
twice as many men as were assembled. The white gentlemen were generally
full of fight, and began to talk hopefully of quickly driving back the
Maroons: but the blacks were in a great state of excitement, and ran
about the house chattering like so many monkeys, tumbling over each
other, and rather impeding than forwarding the work to be done.
Though matters were serious enough, I, with a youngster's
thoughtlessness, enjoyed a fit of laughter while we were in the middle
and hottest hurry of our preparations. It happened that two stout
blackies rushed into the hall from different quarters, one bearing on
his back a sack of earth, the other a bundle of canes or battens. Tilt
they went with heads stooping down right against each other. Their
skulls met with a clap like thunder, and both went sprawling over on
their backs, with their legs up in the air. The sack burst, and out
tumbled the earth; and the bundle of canes separating, lay in a confused
heap.
"For what you do dat, Jupiter?" exclaimed he of the canes, as he jumped
up ready to make another butt at his opponent.
"Oh, ki! you stupid Caesar, you 'spose I got eyes all round," replied
Jupiter, leaping on his legs with the empty sack hanging round his nook,
and stooping down his head ready to receive the expected assault.
The black knights were on the point of meeting, and would probably each
have had another fall, when one of the overseers passing bestowed a few
kicks upon Caesar. Off ran the hero, and Jupiter expecting the same
treatment, took himself off to bring in a fresh bag of earth.
Ten minutes or a quarter of an hour passed away, but still the rebels
did not commence their attack. The overseer said that they had uttered
the shrieks to frighten us, and also to get the slaves to desert us,
that they might murder us alone. I should have supposed that, like
other savages, they would have crept silently on us, so as to have taken
us unawares; but negroes, I have remarked, seldom act like other races
of people.
During the short time which had passed since the alarm was given, we had
made very tolerable preparations to receive the rebels. I had been
running about, trying to make myself as useful as I could, when the
captain called me up to him.
"I'm glad to see you wide-awake, Jack," said he. "Remember, when the
fight begins, as it will before long, stick close to me. I may want to
send you here and there for something or other; and if the worst comes,
and we are overpowered, we must try to cut our way out through the
rascals. Now set to work, and load those muskets; you know how, I
think. Ay, that will do; keep loading them as fast as I discharge them.
We may teach the Niggers a lesson they don't expect."
I was very proud of being thus spoken to by the captain, for it was the
first time that he had ever condescended to address me in so familiar a
way. It was generally--"Boy, bring me my shoes;" "Jump forward there,
and call the carpenter." I resolved to do my best not to disappoint
him.
I placed the powder-flask and bullets on one side of me, and the muskets
on the other, so that I could load one after the other without altering
my position. It never occurred to me all the time that there was the
slightest degree of danger. I thought that we had only to blaze away at
the Niggers, and that they would run off as fast as their legs could
carry them.
Never was I more mistaken. Soon after the captain had spoken to me we
were startled by another thunder-clap of shouts, and shrieks, and
unearthly cries, followed by several shot, the ringing taps which
succeeded each showing that the bullets had struck the house. Presently
a negro, who had been sent to keep a look-out on the roof, came tumbling
through a skylight, exclaiming, "Dey is coming, dey is coming, oh ki!"
Directly after this announcement, the shrieks and cries were heard like
a chorus of demons, and it was evident that our enemies were closely
surrounding us. Whichever way we turned, looking up the hill or down
the valley, the terrific noises seemed to come loudest and most
continuous from that quarter.
Captain Helfrich, as if by the direct appointment of all, took the
command. "Now, my lads, be steady," he exclaimed; "don't throw your
shots away. You'll want all you've got, and a bullet is worth the life
of a foe."
Each man on this grasped his musket; but the negroes held theirs as if
they were very much more afraid of the weapons doing them harm than of
hurting their enemies. The greater number of the lights in the house
had been put out, a few lanterns only remaining here and there,
carefully shaded, to show us our way about. Not a word or a sound was
uttered by any of us, and thus in darkness and silence we awaited the
onslaught of our enemies.