When we got sufficiently near the beach to distinguish objects, we saw
the captain standing with a pistol in his hand, which was pointed at the
mate, who held a long knife in his hand, with which he was about, it
seemed, to make a rush at his opponent, while three or four men had
arranged themselves on either side, and were nourishing various weapons.
The shots we heard told us that they had already fired at each other
several times, but were too tipsy to take a steady aim. One man,
however, lay wounded on the ground, and from the gestures of the mate,
he would in another instant plunge his knife in the bosom of the
captain, unless stopped by the latter's bullet.
"You knock up the skipper's arm, while I seize the other fellow,"
exclaimed O'Carroll to me, springing forward.
I did as he bid me; he ran a great risk of being shot. The mate turned
on O'Carroll with an oath, and the captain snapped his pistol at me, but
fortunately he had already discharged it, and in another instant I
brought him, as he attempted to grapple with me, to the ground.
O'Carroll had mastered the mate, and the other men stood staring at us,
but offering no opposition. "Is this the way for men to behave who have
just been saved from death, to make yourselves worse than the brute
beasts? This--this is the cause of it!" exclaimed O'Carroll, kicking a
cask from which a stream of spirit was even then running out. "It would
have been no loss to us if you had killed each other, but we could not
see our fellow-creatures perish without trying to save them."
The bold and determined tone in which O'Carroll spoke, aided by the
arrival of the rest of our friends, had such an effect on the seamen,
that those who were still able to move slunk away to a distance, while
the captain and his mate, when we let them go, sat down helplessly on
the sand, forgetting entirely their quarrel and its cause. There they
sat, laughing stupidly at each other, as if the affair had been a good
joke. While O'Carroll was emptying the rum cask, which it appeared had
been washed on shore and secreted by the captain, his men went to the
wounded man. He did not speak: he seemed scarcely to breathe. I took
his hand: it was already cold. All this time he had been bleeding to
death: an artery had been shot through. We did our best in the dark to
bind up the wound and stop the bleeding; the spirit which might have
kept his heart beating till nature, in her laboratory, had formed more
blood, was gone; indeed, probably in his then condition it would not
have had its due effect. The wretched man's breath came fainter and
fainter. There was no restorative that we could think of to be
procured. We lifted him up to carry him to the camp, but before we had
gone many paces, we found that we were bearing a corpse.
"That man has been murdered," exclaimed O'Carroll, turning to the
captain. "By whose hand the shot was fired which killed him I know not,
but I do know that his blood is on the head of the man who ought to have
set a good example to his inferiors, and prevented them from broaching
the cask they had found."
Whether this address had any good effect we could not tell, but hoping
that the men would remain quiet and sleep off the effect of their
debauch, we returned to our tent, leaving the body on the ground. The
next morning we returned to the beach. The captain and his drunken
companions still lay on the sand asleep. They were out of the reach of
the sea, but the hot rays of the rapidly rising sun, which were striking
down on their unprotected heads, would, I saw, soon give them brain
fever or kill them outright, if they were to be left long exposed to
their influence. I therefore proposed that we should rouse them up, and
advise them to go and lie down in the shade of some shrubs and rocks at
a little distance.
"Before we do so, we'll take away their weapons, and at all events make
it more difficult for them to do mischief to us or to themselves," said
O'Carroll. Some of the men grumbled on being disturbed, as we turned
them round to take away their knives. We left the unloaded pistols,
which, as they had no powder, could do little harm. Having taken their
arms to our tents, we returned and awoke them, not without difficulty,
by shaking them and shouting in their ears. One after the other they
got up, lazily rubbing their eyes and stretching themselves, and staring
stupidly about them. The captain was one of the last to come to his
senses. He started when he saw the dead body of his companion.
"Who killed that man?" he exclaimed, in an anxious tone.
"You did, most probably," answered O'Carroll. "We heard shots fired and
found the man dead."
The captain felt in his pocket, and drew out a pistol with the hammer
down: it had been discharged. "Then I am a murderer!" he exclaimed, in
a tone of horror, his countenance expressing his feelings. "It wanted
but that to make up the measure of my crimes."
"It is but too true, I fear," said O'Carroll.
"Yes, too true, too true!" cried the captain, rushing off towards the
sea, into which he would have thrown himself, had not O'Carroll,
William, and I held him back. It was some time before we could calm him
sufficiently to leave him alone. He then went and sat down in the shade
at a little distance from his companions, who looked on at him with dull
apathy, while he gave way to the feelings which the prickings of his
awakened conscience had produced. How he and the mate had got possessed
of the pistols we could not guess, till we found the chest of one of the
emigrants, a young man, broken open, and from this they had helped
themselves. One of them soon after came for a spade which had been
landed, and we saw them hurriedly bury the corpse, as if eager to get
the silent witness of their crime out of sight. For the remainder of
the day they were perfectly quiet, the mate coming humbly when the
provisions were served out to ask for their share; still we could not
trust them, as we knew that if they could get at more liquor, they would
very quickly again be drunk. In the evening, indeed, they were seen
walking along the beach, evidently watching for the chance of another
cask being washed on shore. They did not find one, however, and the
next morning were excessively sulky, keeping together and evidently
plotting mischief. They, with the rest of us, were aroused, however,
soon after breakfast by the appearance of a sail in the offing. The
more sanguine at once declared that she was standing towards us, and
that our fears regarding a prolonged stay on the island were groundless;
others thought that she would pass by and leave us to our fate. Every
spyglass was in requisition, and numerous were the surmises as to the
character and nationality of the stranger.
"What if she is an enemy?" observed William.
"She will not find much plunder, at all events," answered Trundle.
"There is nothing like being at the bottom of the hill, so that you
cannot be kicked lower."
"Even an enemy would respect our condition," remarked O'Carroll; "we
have nothing to fear from one, I should hope."
"No, but an enemy would leave us where we are: a friend would carry us
away, or send us assistance," said I. It was dinner-time, and Jacotot
had prepared our messes with his usual skill; but so eager were the
people watching the approaching stranger, that the food was scarcely
touched, except by the children, who of course little knew how much
depended on her character. At length there was no doubt that she was
standing for the island, and the exhibitions of joy and satisfaction
became general among the unfortunate emigrants. They would now be able
to leave the island and reach their land of promise; every countenance
beamed brightly except O'Carroll's. After some time I saw his fall. It
gained a more and more anxious look. He scarcely withdrew the glass
from his eye.
"What do you make her out to be, O'Carroll?" I asked.
"Braithwaite, as I am a living man, she's the _Mignonne_," he answered,
in a hoarse voice, his countenance still further showing the agitation
of his mind: "if that villain La Roche gets hold of me again, he'll not
let me escape with my life. And these poor emigrants to have his
lawless crew come among them,--it will be terrible; better rather that
they had all gone to the bottom in their ill-fated ship with their
drunken captain."
Notwithstanding O'Carroll's opinion, I doubted whether the stranger was
the _Mignonne_, for she was still too far off, I thought, for him to be
certain on the subject. I therefore tried to tranquillise his mind,
wondering that a man so brave, and cool, and collected, as he generally
was, should have such a dread of the French captain.
"I tell you yonder vessel is the _Mignonne_, and if you had been treated
as I was, and had witnessed the scenes I saw enacted on board, you would
not have a less horror of La Roche and his scoundrel crew than I have.
My reason does not help me; I cannot think of that man without
trembling."
I understood him, for I have myself been affected in the same way with
regard to one or two people who have done me some injury, or would, I
have had reason to believe, do me one should they have the opportunity.
"The only way to escape the pirates is to remain concealed while they
are passing," he observed. "As there is no harbour here, and there are
no signs of them having been here, they will, in all probability, go to
the other side of the island, and we may escape them."
As I still further examined the stranger I began to fear that O'Carroll
was right in his conjectures, and I therefore agreed to assist him in
trying to persuade the rest of the people to hide themselves till the
privateer was out of sight. The emigrants, frightened out of their wits
by the account O'Carroll gave of the privateer's men, were ready enough
to do as he advised, and began running here and there, not knowing where
to hide themselves. We advised them simply to pull down the tent, to
put out the fire, and to sit quiet among the rocks and shrubs till the
ship had passed.
We then went on to see the captain and his men. As we got in sight of
where they were, we saw that they had already got up a spar, which had
been washed on shore, and were in the act of hoisting a man's shirt to
the top of it in order to attract the attention of the stranger. On
this O'Carroll shouted out to them in no very gentle tones, "Fools!
idiots! what are you about? would you bring an enemy on shore to murder
us?" I then told them the character of the vessel in sight. "What's
that to us?" answered one of the men. "All masters are much the same to
us; they'll use us while they want us, and cast us adrift when they've
done with us. Whether French or Spaniards, they'll not harm us.
They'll have liquor aboard, and that is what we shan't have as long as
we remain here."
It was useless attempting to argue with such men. I turned to the
captain. He had lost all authority over his people, who treated him as
an equal, or rather as an inferior. He shrugged his shoulders and
walked away without speaking. I saw that it was time, therefore, to
interfere, and William and I, rushing forward, hauled down the signal,
which one of the men was on the point of hoisting. "If you are willing
to become slaves, we are not!" I exclaimed, in a determined tone,
seizing the halliards and hauling down the signal. The men threatened,
but as they had no arms, and we were firm, they did not attempt to
prevent us from carrying off the spar.
The ship approached, and as she passed along the coast so that we had a
broadside view of her, I had no longer any doubt that she was the
_Mignonne_. I observed that even the seamen, notwithstanding their
bravado, kept so far among the rocks, that unless the privateer's men
had been especially examining the shore there was not much probability
of our being discovered. We watched the vessel from the highest point
of ground we could reach, and we conjectured that she must have touched
at the other side of the island, concealed by an intervening ridge of
elevated land. "If we are careful we shall escape all molestation from
the privateer's men," I remarked, addressing the emigrants. "They are
not likely to come to our part of the island."
It was curious to observe the change which had come over O'Carroll. He
was no longer the bold and sagacious seaman, but an anxious, nervous,
timid man. At night I frequently heard him crying out in his sleep,
thinking that the dreaded La Roche was on him, and was about to carry
him on board the privateer. As we could not do without a fire to obtain
fresh water, we were compelled to light one, though we thus ran the
risk, should any of the privateer's men wander into the country, of
being discovered. Still that was a risk which must be run. It was
curious, also, to observe the humble way in which, after a few hours,
the seamen came to beg for a draught of the pure liquid. I was very
glad of this, as I saw that it would enable us to exert an influence
over them and to keep them in order. The wretched captain held out for
some time, but at last came, with parched lips and bloodshot eyes,
entreating even for a few drops of the precious fluid to cool the tip of
his tongue. It raised our pity to see how the wretched man suffered,
physically and mentally, and all the time without hope. In vain I urged
him to seek for mercy as a penitent. "Impossible! impossible!" he
exclaimed, with a wild laugh. "You do not know what I have done, what I
am doomed to do." And tearing himself away from me, he rushed off, and
was hid from sight among the rocks and bushes. Day after day passed by,
and we kept anxiously hoping that the privateer would take her
departure. It was suggested that if she came to the island to refit,
the Frenchman might possibly have a storehouse, with boats, perhaps, or
means of building one, and that we might thus be assisted to make our
escape. At last, so long a time had elapsed since her arrival, that we
began to fancy that she had gone out of harbour during a moonlight
night, and reached the offing without our perceiving her. To settle the
point, William and Trundle volunteered to reconnoitre, and I, afraid
that they might venture too far, resolved to go with them. We fixed on
that very afternoon to start, our intention being to get as close to the
harbour as we could before dark, and then to rest till the moon rose and
afforded us light.
"I hope that you'll have success, but it is a dangerous work you are
going on, young gentlemen," observed one of the emigrants, a Mr Peter
Lacy, or Lazy, as he was generally called, for it was most difficult to
arouse him to any exertion.
"Never fear, Mr Lazy, danger is a sweet nut we midshipmen are fond of
cracking to get at the kernel--honour. We shall be back all safe before
morning, and able to give a satisfactory report."
In good spirits we set off, for a considerable part of the distance
keeping along the shore, to avoid the tangled bush and rocks of the
interior. As, however, we approached the harbour, or rather the place
where we supposed the harbour to be, we left the beach and kept a more
inland course, taking advantage of all the cover we could find to
conceal ourselves. At last the sun went down and it quickly grew dark,
so we called a halt, and ate some of our provisions with a good
appetite. We listened attentively, but could hear no sound, so we
agreed to push on directly the moon got up. As we did not speak above a
whisper, a very soporiferous proceeding, I was not surprised that both
Toby and William fell asleep. It was more necessary, therefore, that I
should keep my eyes and ears open. At last I saw what looked like the
illuminated dome of some vast cathedral slowly emerge from the dark line
of the horizon; up it rose, till it assumed a globe-like form, and
appeared to decrease in size, while it cast a bright silvery light over
the hitherto obscured landscape. I roused up the two midshipmen, who
were sleeping as soundly as if they had been in their hammocks. We
worked our way onward among tangled underwood, not without sundry
scratches and inconvenient rents in our clothing, till we reached a
hill, up which we climbed. From the top we looked down, as we had
expected to do, on the harbour. Below us lay the _Mignonne_, or a ship
very like her; her sails were loose and bulging out with the land
breeze, while from the sounds which reached us it was evident that her
crew were heaving up the anchor preparatory to sailing; boats were
moving backwards and forwards over the surface of the calm water of the
harbour, on which the moon shone with a refulgence which enabled us to
see all that was taking place. The anchor was shipped, the sails were
sheeted home, and the privateer slowly glided out of the harbour on her
errand of mischief; two, if not more, boats returned to the shore fully
manned. Farther up the harbour lay three large hulks, with their lower
masts only standing; they were high out of the water, showing that they
had no cargoes in them. There were also several smaller craft, but all
were dismantled, and looked as if they had been there for some time.
The French, then, had a settlement on the island. The inhabitants were
sure to be armed, and probably were as numerous as our party. If so, it
would be unwise to attempt gaining anything by force, though of course
we might surprise them. We waited till the people in the boats had had
time to turn in and go to sleep, and then descended to reconnoitre the
place more nearly. We crept cautiously on till we reached several
scattered cottages, or huts rather, built, without any regularity, as
the nature of the ground seemed most suitable. There were also two or
three storehouses close to the water; indeed, we saw enough to show us
that there was a regular settlement made by the French for the purpose
of refitting their ships. The barking of several poodles in the
cottages made us afraid of moving about much, lest their inmates should
look out and discover us. We therefore retraced our steps to the hill.
"A magnificent idea," exclaimed Trundle, as soon as we called a halt.
"We'll surprise and capture the place and hold it for the King of
England. You'll be made governor, Braithwaite, to a certainty."
"To be turned out by the first French privateer which enters the
harbour--to be thrown into prison and perhaps shot. Thank you," said I,
"I would rather not."
"This establishment solves a mystery," observed William. "We have often
been puzzled to know what has become of vessels which have disappeared,
and which, from the fineness of the weather, and for other reasons, we
did not suppose had been lost. We should do good service if we could
get away without being discovered, and send some of our cruisers to
watch in the neighbourhood."
I agreed with William; at the same time the idea of capturing the place
was very attractive. If we should make the attempt and succeed,
however, we should find liquor there, and the seamen would certainly get
drunk and mutinous. No object would be gained, either, unless we could
immediately send a vessel to sea, to give notice at the Mauritius of our
success and obtain assistance. Discussions on these points occupied us
till daylight, when we recommenced our journey to the tents. The news
we brought was so far satisfactory to our companions, that we were not
likely to be starved to death, and as peace would come some day or
other, we might then hope to make our escape. No one, however, seemed
at all desirous of attacking the French settlement; the risk was
considerable, the gain problematical. It was finally agreed that we
should remain quiet where we were, and only in case of extremity make
ourselves known to our foreign neighbours. The more energetic of the
party became, as may be supposed, very impatient of the inactive life we
were compelled to lead. We could do little else than fish all day, and
make expeditions in search of water. In this we were at last
successful; the spring was more than a mile away, and it became a
question whether we should move our camp there, the objection to our so
doing being that it was so much nearer the French settlement. The next
morning, on going near the spot where the captain and his companions had
erected their tent, I saw no one moving. I called to them. There was
no reply. I went to the tent. It was empty! It was supposed that they
had gone to the newly-discovered spring, but those who had gone to bring
water from it told us that they were not there. While we were wondering
what had become of the men, as William happened to be sweeping the
horizon with his telescope, he cried out that he saw a sail in the
offing. In a short time afterwards another was descried, her topsails
gradually rising out of the water. She was pronounced to be larger than
the first which had appeared.
"It is that scoundrel La Roche again!" exclaimed O'Carroll, after eyeing
the nearest stranger for some time. "I knew that it would not be long
before he would be back again, and there he comes with a big prize,
depend on it."
"But suppose, instead of the big ship being his prize, he has been
captured by one of our cruisers, and has been sent in first to show the
way?" I suggested.
"No, no, the headmost craft is the _Mignonne_, and the big one is an
Indiaman, her prize, depend on that," said O'Carroll.
There seemed every probability that he was right, but this did not
increase our satisfaction. The only thing that could be said was that
we should now have companions in our misfortune. As may be supposed,
however, we watched the approach of the two ships with the greatest
interest, feeling assured that in some way or other they would have a
considerable influence on our fate.