During the short time I was in the water, a desperate fight was going on
aboard the _Arrow_. Johnson, seeing how matters were turning out,
rallied his men for a stand.
Five boats from the man-o’-war, filled with blue-jackets, armed and
ready for the fight, drew alongside before the convicts could get the
ship out of irons. She lay with her yards aback, and those who worked
intelligently had their work undone by those who in their frantic haste
worked like maniacs.
The boarders from the first small boat fastened to the mizzen channels,
and, as they did so, Johnson dropped a mass of iron weighing two hundred
pounds into the boat’s bottom, tearing her open. She filled at once and
sank before the men could climb aboard. Benson, though desperately
wounded from my knife, managed to get hauled back aboard by willing
hands. He joined the crowd aft, and, holding to the taffrail for
support, fired a double-barrelled gun with deadly effect into the
approaching boats. A sailor fired at him with a rifle, and the bullet
tore a hole through his chest, but he staggered back to his place at the
rail and fought on. Two of the best, or rather worst, men in the gang
used cutlasses with effect upon the men who crowded over the rail in the
waist. An officer engaged one of these in single combat and for a short
time there was a bit of sword-play. Then a sailor coming in from the
starboard side smote the villain over the head with his cutlass butt and
stretched him out for further orders.
Benson rallied the few followers aft, and together they forced a passage
along that deck, with himself and Johnson leading. They joined the mass
of men forward and crowded under the topgallant forecastle for a last
stand. Within the slanting peak of the ship, and covered from attack
above, they fought with a desperation that called forth all that was in
the crew of the man-of-war. An officer led a charge upon the huddled
villains, and fired again and again into their leader, who received no
less than five bullet-wounds, any one of which would have let the life
out of an ordinary man. But Benson still fought on.
The convicts, being badly armed and improperly drilled, fought at a
disadvantage. The ranking officer of the boat crews formed his men in
line behind those fighting in the press and then called a retreat. The
advanced men fell slowly back, and the convicts were loth to follow and
leave their shelter. Then the sailors fired a volley point-blank into
the crowd. This was more than the ordinary man could stand, and many
wounded threw down their arms and came out to surrender. But not Benson.
The leader, seeing that there was no hope, hurled his empty gun at the
men in uniform. Then he seized a cutlass, and walked staggering and
swaying toward the line of levelled rifles. One or two men fired and a
bullet hit him upon the head, passing through and flinging him half-way
around. He fell upon his hands and knees, but tried to raise himself, a
ghastly sight. Three or four times he almost staggered to his feet,
blinded, half-insensible, and dying, and then a man mercifully struck
him upon the neck with his cutlass. His fight was over.
Johnson still resisted, but, under cover of the guns of the rest, three
men dragged him forth and passed a lashing about him. Then the fight
ended. In a short time the wounded were lowered into the boats and sent
aboard the gunboat, while a few sailors turned to and cleared up the
decks of the _Arrow_. Several men of the gunboat’s crew were killed and
several more badly wounded, and these latter were brought below to where
Brown and I lay.
I now learned how the _Arrow_ had been retaken after desperate
resistance on the part of the convicts. The commander of the man-of-war,
the _Petrel_, at first accused Brown and myself of being with the
convicts in everything, and produced those papers we had written and
signed to prove that they spoke the truth. But those papers did more
than anything we could do or say to clear us of the charge among our
English friends, who were somewhat inclined at first to believe the
statement of Johnson: that we only turned after being caught. Alice
Waters’s statement did much to help our cause.
The result was that Captain Spencer and his officers treated Brown and
myself with every consideration and abstained from passing any private
judgment against us before we could be tried. He told us how he had
sighted the _Arrow_ about the same time we had the _Petrel_, and of his
amazement when he saw us haul our wind and run up the Black Roger to our
peak. He thought, of course, that the skipper of our craft was drunk and
that the affair was intended as a practical joke to the gunboat. After
we had gone through his lee with the American ensign flying he was
afraid that he had already gone too far into the matter, and regretted
his last shot, which had torn our foresail. He would have let us go, for
the _Arrow’s_ name was in his register, and he had not the faintest idea
of the true state of affairs on board. Having heard nothing of the
_Countess of Warwick_, he had no reason to understand matters until
after Brown and I had explained them. He put a prize crew on the clipper
and sent her into the River Plate to be turned over to her agents at
Buenos Ayres. When we reached England, Johnson made things look a little
black for us at first. The villain had no scruples about perjuring
himself to any extent, and he was backed by the rest of the ringleaders.
But finally he and three of the latter were convicted of murder and
piracy and hanged. The rest soon found themselves bound out on a voyage
for the East. They never came back again.
Brown and I were cleared and sent back to the States, where we arrived
safe enough, Brown’s leg having entirely healed and my chest having
become sound again, except for a slight shortness of breath for awhile
when I exerted myself.
The _Petrel’s_ surgeon very gallantly informed me that I owed my
complete recovery to a certain amount of very gentle nursing I had
received, and not entirely to my robust constitution. As he had done
little more than prescribe for me and oversee the dressing of my wound,
it was evident that he did not wish to take this obligation to himself.
As to the nursing, I quite agreed with him, for the three weeks spent in
a bunk on board the _Petrel_ were among the pleasantest of my
existence--up to that time.
When Miss Waters and I separated at Portsmouth, it was understood that I
should meet her again in the States. When I was released, after the
trial, I found that she had already sailed for New York.
When Brown and I arrived there and had given an account of this
disastrous voyage to Mr. Ropesend, it was only natural that I should
inquire for the girl who had passed through so much along with us.
To my great surprise, the old merchant announced that he had heard
nothing of her whatever since she arrived in England.
As soon as possible I hastened to the office of the line of vessels on
which I had heard she had sailed. I found that the vessel on which she
had left England had arrived safely ten days since. Her name was on the
passenger list, showing that she had arrived in America, but all my
efforts to trace her beyond the point of landing were useless. She had
disappeared and had left no clue that might aid any one to follow her.