I was allowed to remain on deck, under charge of a sentry, but was in no
other way treated as a prisoner. Half-an-hour elapsed, during which the
boats were probably looking for the pirate vessel, without a shot being
heard. It was a time of the most intense anxiety. At length, as if to
make amends for the previous silence, the roar of big guns and musketry
was heard reverberating in quick succession among the rocks. One
fancied that one could distinguish as each boat came up to the contest,
and the schooner fired at her in return. The wreaths of smoke could be
perceived in the atmosphere, rising above the trees. Once there was a
cessation; and it appeared that the boats were driven back. One thing
was certain, the pirates had not attempted to stop them at the narrow
passage, as they might have done; or, if they had, they had successfully
passed it.
Five minutes elapsed--they seemed an hour. Then again the hubbub
recommenced, with greater fury than before. So excited did many of the
men, and even the officers, become, that I almost thought they would
leap into the water, and try to swim to shore, to join in the combat. I
fancied that I could even hear the cries and shrieks of the combatants--
that I could see the whole scene before me, through the trees; the boats
at the mouth of the bight, firing away at the schooner, their officers
cheering the men on; the pirates, stripped to the waist, working the
guns of the schooner, some on board, and others on either point on
shore, with small-armed men scattered in every direction around. The
prolonged fight made me feel very doubtful of the result of the contest.
There was a pause, and then a loud, fearful explosion, and the masts
and spars and fragments of the pirate schooner could be seen rising in
the air. She had blown up; but still it might be questioned who were
the victors.
There was another interval of the most intense anxiety. In vain we
waited for the reappearance of the boats, till the _Neptune's_ people
began to fear that their brave shipmates had been all destroyed. There
was only one small boat, the dinghy, remaining on board. The master,
the only gun-room officer left besides the surgeon and purser,
volunteered to go in and look for them. I was on the very point of
offering to accompany him as pilot, when I remembered that I was
supposed to know nothing of the place. The commander gave an unwilling
consent, for he did not like to risk more of his people. He was just
shoving off, when first one boat was seen to emerge from among the
trees, then another, and lastly four appeared--thus one only was
missing. They pulled slowly on board, and were seen to be heavily
laden.
With a shout of joy and hearty congratulation, they were received
alongside; but the entire satisfaction at the success of the expedition
was somewhat mitigated when it was found that several of their numbers
were missing. They had brought off ten prisoners, most of whom were
wounded. Some of the packages which had been taken from the _Mary_ were
also brought on board. Neither Hawk nor Abraham Jones were among the
prisoners: I therefore concluded that they were killed or had escaped.
The prisoners, to my horror, at once recognised me and the rest of their
comrades, addressing us familiarly by our names, and thus completely
identified us with themselves. I suppose they did this from a feeling
of revenge, from fancying that we had been the cause of their disaster.
The captain, on this, ordered us all to be secured and treated as
prisoners alike, till he had time to investigate the matter fully.
I heard an account of the expedition from one of the seamen who had been
engaged in it, as he described it to a messmate. It appeared that the
pirates had at once gone on board the schooner, which they had placed,
just as I supposed they would, directly across the entrance of the
bight. Here Hawk fought her most bravely, once compelling the boats to
retreat.
On a second attempt to board, she was discovered to be on fire,
notwithstanding which Hawk had remained in the vessel till the last
moment, when, leaping into the boats, he and some of his crew escaped to
the shore. Many of them, who could not, were blown up. Fortunately,
one boat's crew only of the Americans had got on board by the stern.
Several of these poor fellows were lost; but, wonderful to relate,
others, by leaping over the taffrail at the moment they felt it lifting
under their feet, were saved and picked up by their friends. It was
considered useless to pursue the fugitives. The prisoners taken were
those picked up in the water, and a few found wounded on shore.
Securing them, and attending to the wounded of both parties, as well as
collecting some of the booty, had caused the delay. The guns, also,
planted by the pirates at the two points of land on either side of the
bight, were spiked and thrown into the water, and all arms found about
were carried off.
Such was the end of the _Foam_; and such will, in every ease, probably
be the concluding scene of piratical craft and their crews now-a-days.
They certainly deserve no better; and although their captains, to rise
to that unenviable post, must possess some of those fiercer qualities
which people are apt to admire, I have no fancy for making them
interesting characters, or heroes of romance.
On hearing that there was a considerable amount of booty on shore, the
captain despatched fresh hands to bring it off. I longed to caution
them that Hawk, if he was alive, was a man very likely to play them a
trick, but I had no opportunity of doing so till they had gone. The
boats were sent away, and I was afterwards had up for examination. I
then, as the schooner was destroyed, no longer felt myself bound by my
oath to keep silence; I therefore gave a rapid sketch of my adventures
as the best way of accounting for being found in such bad company. The
captain laughed at my statements, which, he said, were altogether
incredible, and assured me that he fully believed that I deserved
hanging as much as the rest.
I assured him that I had not deceived him, and requested him to confront
the negro, Mark Anthony, with me, and that he would corroborate all my
assertions. Had I known more of the worst part of human nature, I might
not have made this request. When the black was brought up, he gave a
malicious grin at me, and, putting his hand on his heart, assured the
captain and officers that, as he spoke the truth, I was the most wicked,
vicious youngster on board the schooner, to which he knew that it was
useless to deny that he belonged--that he was perfectly innocent of any
piratical act, having been carried off to act as cook--that he had at
first taken an interest in me, and had done his best to reform me, but
in vain, and that lately he had given my case up as hopeless.
"What do you mean by lately?" I asked.
"Just de last six months or so," he answered, with the greatest
effrontery.
"I beg, gentlemen, that his answer may be noted; for I hope to be able
to prove that I have not been on board the schooner as many weeks," I
said, with a calm voice, which had, I think, some effect on my hearers.
There was such a mass of false swearing and contradictory evidence taken
during the examination, that the naval officers were compelled to
reserve any judgment on the case till they should arrive in port, when
it might be handed over to the lawyers to sift to the bottom. Greatly
to my satisfaction, the boats returned laden with further goods taken
from the _Mary_; but it required two more trips before they could all be
brought off. The task was at last accomplished, without any of the
pirates having made their appearance, and sail was then made to the
northward.
I found that our destination was Charleston, to which port the brig
belonged, and where my trial and that of the other prisoners would take
place. Had it been New Orleans, I thought I might have been able to
prove that I had gone to sea in the _Susannah_, and Captain Searle might
be found, who would give a favourable account of me. While I was
thinking of this, I suddenly began to reflect that perhaps Captain
Searle might turn upon me as the African had done, though for a
different reason. He would be able to prove that I was at New Orleans,
certainly, but then the _Foam_ was there at the same time. She had
watched, attacked, and robbed him, and taken out of his vessel me and
another person, who, without any unwillingness, had turned pirate, so
that I had perhaps all along been in league with the freebooters, and my
pretended ignorance of Hawk and his craft might have been all sham. I
might indeed be considered, as the negro declared I was, worse than all
the rest.
As I reflected on these things, I remembered that my destiny was in the
hands of a higher Power; that I had acted rightly according to the best
of my belief; and that He would direct all things for my future good.
This feeling gave me strength to endure the present and confidence in
the future. I have thus invariably found it in all the affairs of life.
When I have conscientiously done my duty, though inconveniences and
annoyances may have apparently happened in consequence, the end has
always been fortunate when I have been able to arrive at the result.
The consequence of many of our acts, we must remember, is yet in the
eternal future, unfathomed by mortal ken. To that time we must look
forward for the reward of any of our acts which may be considered by our
beneficent Father worthy of reward; and also to that time (we must not
conceal from ourselves) for punishment for our misdeeds, unless our
Saviour mercifully intercede for us.
Our voyage to Charleston was very rapid. I certainly was in no hurry to
have it over, when I had so disagreeable a prospect before me as a
trial, and not impossibly an execution. I was treated with less
harshness than the rest of the prisoners--perhaps on account of my
youth--perhaps because some believed me innocent. I fain hoped on the
latter account.
At length we arrived. I will not stop to describe Charleston. It is a
fine, flourishing city, with a dock-yard, where many of the ships of the
American navy are built. I saw little of it, for soon after the
_Neptune_ had dropped her anchor I was conveyed with the other prisoners
on shore to jail.
The Americans are as fond, fortunately, of the go-ahead system in law as
they are in everything else. In the settlements founded by Spain and
Portugal, we might have been kept six months without being brought into
court; here, before as many days were over, our trial commenced. The
fate of those taken in the schooner was easily settled. Several
robberies were proved against them; and she was sworn to as the same
vessel which had fired into the brig off the coast of Cuba, and had
there carried the pirate flag, besides having also killed and wounded
several officers and men in the United States navy.
The trial of the people in the boat next came on. The others swore that
we belonged to the schooner and the negro, in the bitterness of his
feelings against me, had acknowledged the same. I told my history as my
best defence.
"Ask him if he can swear he no fire de big guns--he no pull and haul--
when we fight de brig," exclaimed the malignant black, perfectly
indifferent to his own fate. I held my peace.
"Prisoner at the bar, can you swear that you did not aid and abet those
engaged in making unlawful war against the United States brig
_Neptune_?"
"I cannot swear to that, because, in a fatal fit of forgetfulness,
seeing every one excited around me, I might have pulled and hauled at
the ropes of the schooner."
"An acknowledgment of his guilt?" exclaimed the counsel for the
Government; and I, with all the rest, was adjudged to be hung at the end
of the week at the yardarm of the brig which had captured us. Never was
a nest of more atrocious pirates broken up, said the public papers,
commenting on the trial, and never were men adjudged to meet a more
deserved doom.
Now the reader will almost be prepared to know how I was saved. I must
own that I never expected to be hung. I felt that I was innocent, and I
trusted that some means would be offered for my escape.
Just as I was being led out of court, there was a cry of "Witnesses!
witnesses for the trial of the pirates!" Looking up, I saw several
seafaring men entering the court, and among them two persons whose
appearance at that juncture made my heart leap into my mouth with joy
and gratitude, and proved that the finger of God had directed their
coming. Need I say that they were Captain Dean and Mary, and that the
other people were the crew of the barque, released from the power of the
pirates by my means?
Their story created a great sensation in court; and Captain Dean was
ready to swear, from his knowledge of me, that I had no willing
participation in any of the acts of the pirates. My story was now
believed; but I had acknowledged having worked the guns in the action
with the brig, and I had, by the evidence of all present, willingly, and
of my own accord, rejoined the pirates, though every opportunity had
been offered me of escaping.
I urged my oath in extenuation of my conduct, and that I was bound to
return. This was not held in law to be any excuse. I had no business
to take an oath of that nature, it was asserted by the counsel for the
Government. The sentence of death against me was, however, rescinded,
on account of the many extenuating circumstances brought forward in my
favour; but still I could not be set at liberty.
The sentence of the people who had been found with me in the boat was
afterwards commuted to imprisonment for fourteen years; and I was
offered a conditional pardon, provided I would volunteer to serve for
two years on board a ship of war just then about to sail, and short of
hands.
I was sorry to be again thus separated from Captain Dean and Mary; but
as I had no dread of the service, I, without much hesitation, accepted
the offer. "I will do my duty and retrieve my character," I thought;
"and as, I trust, there is no chance of a war with England, I see no
reason to prevent me."