For a few seconds after the close of the man's harrowing account there
was a dead silence among us. Then the general, wiping the perspiration
from his face, turned to me and said:
"Grenvile, my friend, this is a situation for you to grapple with, and a
very difficult situation it is, I confess. For, on the one hand, those
unhappy men must be rescued at all hazards, while, on the other, it is
equally imperative that the ship and those in her should be protected
from a possible, not to say very probable, attack by the savages. Now,
what is to be done? Of course you will understand that I am ready to
play any part that you may assign to me, but I may be permitted to
suggest that I should probably be more useful in leading the shore
expedition than in any other way."
"Thank you, general. Yes, no doubt you are right, but it is a very
difficult situation, as you say, and I must have a moment or two to
think it out."
Then, turning to the five horrified seamen who had returned in the
longboat, I ordered them to go forward and get the cook to give them
something to eat and drink, for I should be in need of the services of
all of them sooner or later, while one of them would have to come with
me in the boat as a guide.
The five men whom I addressed--all thoughts of mutiny having by this
time been most effectually frightened out of their heads--turned and
slouched away forward as meekly as lambs; and the moment that they were
gone I was surrounded by an excited crowd of passengers, all of whom had
come down from the poop to listen to the story of the five returned
seamen, and every one of them had some more or less unpractical
suggestion to make. It was rather unfortunate that they had all heard
what had passed, for the very graphic narrative, told by an eye-witness,
of the gruesome happenings of the past night, and the powerful
suggestion of what was probably taking place at that moment away yonder
in the woods, had so acted upon the vivid imaginations of the women that
one or two of them were visibly upon the very verge of hysterics, while
all were more or less in a state of mortal terror as to what might be
their fate should the natives take it into their heads to attack the
ship. For, that the presence of so many white men as they had
encountered would suggest to the astute native mind the idea that a ship
was somewhere near at hand was so exceedingly likely that it might
almost be accepted as a foregone conclusion. But, terrified though the
women were, they behaved marvellously well, and quietly retired when I
requested them to do so in order that we men might be left free to
discuss details together. But, even while the chatter was raging round
me at its most excited pitch, my mind was busy upon the details of the
only plan that was at all feasible. Our entire available fighting
force, counting in the whole of the male passengers, the surgeon, Briggs
and his three assistants, Jenkins the steerage passenger, the cook, and
the five men who had escaped from the savages, amounted to thirty. It
was, of course, quite impossible to form, from the account of the five
escaped seamen, anything like an accurate estimate of the numbers of the
savages, but I believed I should be quite safe in setting them down at
not less than three hundred. There were also the four prisoners; but I
reflected that as they had not suffered the harrowing experience of the
five escaped men, they would probably be still in much too insubordinate
a frame of mind to be of any use, and I therefore determined to leave
them where they were for the present. I reckoned, however, that not a
man would leave the village, either to attack the ship or for any other
purpose, until the gruesome sport upon which they were at that moment
engaged had been played out to an end; and I therefore came to the
conclusion that I should be quite justified in throwing the balance of
strength into the land expedition. I accordingly divided my force into
two equal parts, placing Simpson in charge of the ship and entrusting
him with her defence, with a small crew composed of the surgeon, the
four stewards, the cook, Jenkins the steerage passenger, Messrs. Morton,
Fielder, Acutt, Boyne, Pearson, and Taylor, and one of my own men named
Sharland, whose wounds rendered him useless for arduous land service,
although he might be made very useful at a pinch aboard the ship. This
left, for the landing expedition, the general, Carter, myself, and seven
_Sharks_, and the five men who had escaped in the longboat. Thus each
force consisted of fifteen men. But I considered that the landing force
was far the more formidable of the two, since we numbered among us nine
trained fighting men; while, in the improbable event of an attack upon
the ship, the party left on board her would have the advantage of the
deck as a fighting platform, and, if hard pressed, the saloon and
deckhouses to which to retreat. I also left them all the muskets and
boarding pikes, as well, of course, as their own personal firearms, and
the two brass carronades. As for us, the general and I each had a
sword, the _Sharks_ carried a cutlass apiece, and every man of us also
had a brace of pistols in his belt, and a pocketful of cartridges. But
what I most trusted to for the creation of a good, wholesome panic among
the savages was a dozen signal rockets which I had found in the ship's
magazine.
Our arrangements being now complete, the general bade a hasty good-bye
to his wife and daughter, who bore themselves very bravely upon the
occasion, and we all tumbled down over the side into the longboat--into
which Briggs had already, with commendable forethought, passed a large
basket of provisions for the sustenance of ourselves and such of the
mutineers as we might be fortunate enough to rescue. It was nearly two
o'clock in the afternoon when we shoved off.
It took us but a few minutes to reach the river entrance, passing
through which we presently found ourselves in a broad, lagoon-like
expanse of water, some two miles long by about a mile wide, dotted here
and there with small, tree-clad islands, some of which might have been
as much as ten or twelve acres in extent, while others were mere heaps
of mud just large enough to support a clump of half a dozen or so of
coconut trees and a tiny thicket of bamboo. The greater part of this
lagoon was evidently very shallow, for dotted about here and there were
to be seen partially submerged trunks of trees and other debris that
appeared to have been swept down into their present position by some
bygone flood, and had ultimately grounded on the mud; but there was just
sufficient current and wind to reveal a deep-water channel of about two
hundred yards wide, running in a fairly straight line through the lagoon
toward its most distant extremity. There were numerous objects dotted
about the surface of the lagoon, which, at a distance, had all the
appearance of floating logs, but which, when we drew near to them,
proved to be, in almost every instance, the heads of basking alligators.
And before we had been in the river ten minutes we were startled by a
huge black bulk breaking water close alongside the boat, which turned
out to be a hippopotamus.
"Now, Higgins," said I, "whereabout is this creek of yours? I see no
sign of it thus far."
"Oh, it's some way on ahead yet, sir!" answered the man. "Keep her
straight up through the deep-water, sir, please. I'll tell you when we
comes in sight of it."
That the unfortunate mutineers had penetrated some distance into the
country soon became evident, for we traversed the entire length of the
lagoon and fully a mile of the river after it had narrowed down to about
a quarter of a mile in width ere we sighted a break of any kind in the
thick entanglement of mangrove trees that lined the margin of the
stream. But even this, so Higgins informed us, was not the creek of
which we were in search, and which he believed lay nearly a mile farther
up the stream. Of the one actually in sight he denied any knowledge,
and I soon became convinced that it had escaped the notice of the
mutineers.
The break in question was on the northern bank of the river--that is to
say, on the same side as the creek of which we were in quest; and when
first sighted it was about a quarter of a mile distant. As we drew
nearer to it I saw that a deep-water channel led straight to it from the
main deep-water channel, at a point about half a cable's-length distant;
and I kept my eye upon the spot, as the creek gradually opened out, for
I could not help thinking that it presented an almost ideal spot wherein
a slaver might conceal herself. And, as I watched, I suddenly saw a
column of thick smoke shoot up above the tree tops at a point that I
estimated to be not much more than two hundred yards from the mouth of
the creek, and in the direction toward which the latter seemed to be
trending, while at the same moment the blare of horns and the dub-a-dub-
dub of tom-toms was borne faintly to our ears by the fitful breeze.
"Oars!" cried I sharply. "Silence, fore and aft, and listen all of
you!"
The men instantly laid upon their oars, and as the boat went surging
along with the "way" that she had on her, we all distinctly heard, above
the quiet lap and gurgle of the water against her planking, the sounds
of which I have spoken, with an occasional swelling of the sound which
conveyed the idea of many human voices raised in a monotonous kind of
chant.
"How much farther do you say this creek of yours is, Higgins?" I
demanded.
"Why, sir," answered the man, "I should say as it's the best part of a
mile higher up. Ain't it, Mike?"
"Ay, about that, I should think," answered Mike, swinging round on his
thwart and shading his eyes with his hand as his gaze searchingly swept
the river bank. And the other three escaped mutineers expressed a like
opinion.
"And what was the general trend of the direction which you took when you
followed the savages?" asked I.
"Why," answered Higgins, instantly catching my meaning, "it was
westerly, sir; wasn't it, Mike? Don't ye remember that the run of the
creek itself was some'at down-stream? And when we went a'ter the
savages we kept on bearin' away towards the left, didn't we? Depend
on't, sir, that there smoke is where the village lies, and that row that
we hears is made by the savages doorin' the tormentin' of one of our
pore unfort'nit shipmates!"
I was of the same opinion myself. That creek away on our port bow
appeared to lead so nearly in a direct line toward the point from which
the smoke was rising, and seemed to offer such a temptingly short cut to
the village where the diabolical work was undoubtedly going forward,
that I determined to take the slight risk of being mistaken, and make
for it forthwith. I therefore gave the coxswain orders to starboard his
helm a bit and feel his way cautiously in over the mud, and the oarsmen
to give way and keep strict silence.
In another minute, or less, we had passed out of the main deep-water
channel, and were gliding through the shallow water that covered the
flat mud-banks on either side of the stream, the men dipping their oars
deep at every stroke to get timely warning of our approach to water not
deep enough to float the boat.
"No bottom yet, sir," reported the stroke-oar at frequent intervals; and
at each report the coxswain starboarded an extra half-point or so, until
at length the boat's nose was pointing straight for the mouth of the
creek, and at every stroke of the oars the fiendish uproar of horns,
tom-toms, and shouting--or chanting, whichever it was--seemed to come to
our ears more distinctly, and with more ominous import.
At length the boat entered the creek, or canal, and I at once gave
orders for all hands who had cutlasses to draw them, and for every man
to look carefully to the priming of his pistols. This having been done,
we pulled ahead once more, and now the rapidity with which the mingled
sounds that were guiding us increased in volume told us that we were
quickly approaching the scene of action. And presently, as though to
dissipate any doubt that might still be lurking in our minds, we
distinctly heard, at frequent intervals, the piercing scream of a man in
mortal agony!
"Do you hear that, Grenvile?" whispered the general through his set
teeth. "Why, man, those cries make one's blood run cold to listen to
them! How much farther do you mean to go before landing?"
"I shall go on until we bring the sounds abeam of us," I whispered back.
"We are moving very much faster here than we should ashore, especially
when it comes to creeping through those mangrove tree roots; so I will
get as close to the place as I can before landing. Oars!"
For at that moment we swept round a rather sharp bend in the stream, and
I caught a glimpse, at no great distance ahead, of what I thought looked
very much like the stern of a canoe projecting from among the trees on
our port. I held up my hand for silence. We were so near to the scene
of action now, that, had we raised a shout, we should instantly have
attracted attention and, maybe, have temporarily suspended whatever
operations might be proceeding. But my party was altogether too weak to
justify me in incurring any risks; there appeared to be but one life in
immediate jeopardy ashore there, whereas any premature alarm might
result in the loss of several of the rescuing party, and possibly the
complete failure of the expedition. No, my strongest hope lay in the
possibility of effecting a complete surprise; so I hardened my heart,
held up my hand to enjoin the most perfect silence, and whispered the
coxswain to sheer the boat a little closer to the port bank. Then, as
the boat seemed to have plenty of "way" on her, I ordered the "stroke"
to pass the word to lay in the oars noiselessly, and for those in the
bows to stand by with the boat-hook and the painter.
These orders had just been obeyed, and we were gliding along in absolute
silence, when, a short distance ahead, I caught sight of a break in the
mangroves that looked wide enough to admit the boat, and I signed to the
coxswain to point our stem for it. A few seconds later we slid into a
kind of cavern, formed of the overarching branches of a belt of
mangroves, and, gliding along a narrow canal of about sixty feet in
length, we finally brought up alongside a good firm bank of soil, on
which there was room enough for us all to land. Our movements were
effectually masked by a thin belt of scrub, which appeared to be all
that intervened between us and the three or four hundred yelling and
chanting natives who were now making the air ring and vibrate within a
short hundred yards of us. At the same time I became aware that the
agonising shrieks, as of one in mortal agony, had ceased.
The din of discordant sounds was now so tremendous that there was no
very especial need for the observance of any great amount of caution on
our part, yet we disembarked with scarcely a sound, and I drew our
little party up in two lines, the _Sharks_ being placed in the front
rank, and the others immediately behind them.
"Now, men," said I, "I have just one last word of caution to give you
before we attack. Remember that we have not come here for the express
purpose of fighting the natives, but to rescue our fellow-countrymen;
therefore my orders are that as soon as this is accomplished a retreat
is to be at once made to the boat, no man pausing except to support a
comrade who may be in difficulties. I propose to begin the attack by
discharging the whole of these rockets as rapidly as possible into the
thick of the crowd of natives, and then to charge upon them with sword
and cutlass, reserving our pistol fire for emergencies. I hope by this
plan to scatter the savages and cause their retirement for at least a
few brief minutes, during which we must dash in, cut loose the
prisoners, and retire with them to the boat. There must be no more
fighting than is actually necessary to enable us to accomplish our
purpose."
The general patted me approvingly on the back. "Excellent, my lad,
excellent," he whispered. "There spoke the prudent commander. I
foresee that you will do well in your profession. And now, let us get
on."
"One moment, general, if you please," said I. "I want to reconnoitre
before advancing into the open."
"Right," he answered. "And I'll go with you."
I nodded consent, and at once led the way toward the screen of bush that
interposed between ourselves and the village. The distance to be
traversed was merely some sixty or seventy yards, and to cover this we
were obliged to make our way through some sparsely-scattered mangroves.
It took us less than a minute to accomplish the journey, and then we
found that the bush was much less dense than it had appeared to be,
since we were enabled without the least difficulty to penetrate it to a
spot where our whole party could comfortably stand, and where the
intervening screen was so tenuous that, ourselves unseen, we could see
everything that was happening in the village. This was so obviously the
proper spot from which to make our attack that the general at once went
back to bring up the men, while I remained to make such few observations
as the brief time at my disposal would permit.
I found that we were on what might be termed the right front of the
village, which was a tolerably important place, consisting of some two
hundred roomy huts, constructed of wattles and sun-baked clay, and
thatched with palm leaves. The huts, however, had no interest for me
now; it was the scene that was being enacted in the wide, open space in
front of the village that riveted my attention. This space was occupied
by a crowd of fully a thousand blacks--men, women, and children--most of
whom were practically naked, and all of whom were slowly circling in a
weird kind of dance round a small area, in the midst of which were
planted eleven stout stakes at distances of about fifty feet apart.
These stakes were, of course, upright, and stood about ten feet high.
It was therefore easy enough to count the stakes, but owing to the dense
crowd which surrounded them it was exceedingly difficult to distinguish
whether or not anything, or anybody, was attached to them. But I found
no difficulty in arriving at a tolerably accurate surmise as to the
purpose of these stakes, for four of them were charred quite black, as
though by the action of fire, while a thin wreath of pale brownish-blue
smoke still eddied and circled about one of the four. The tone of the
chant now being sung by the savages was very different from that which
had reached our ears while in the open river; it was more subdued, and
did not convey that suggestion of savage exultation that had been the
dominant note of the other, and I also now noticed that the deafening
clamour of horns and thumping of tom-toms had ceased. The idea conveyed
to my mind was that one act in a drama of absorbing interest had closed
and that another was about to open. But I had no time for further
observation, as the general now came up with the men, and we at once
proceeded to make our final arrangements for an instant attack.
"Now, lads," said I, "you see those hundreds of dancing savages. I want
you to plant your rockets in such a manner that they will rake through
the whole crowd; and if they should finish up by setting fire to the
huts, so much the better. Fire the rockets, one after another, as
rapidly as possible, and the moment that the last rocket has been fired
we will spring out into the open and make a dash for those posts, to
which I believe we shall find the missing men secured. Use your
cutlasses as freely as may be needful, but reserve your pistols for an
emergency. Then, having cut our men loose, we must all retire in a body
to the boat, and get out of the creek as quickly as possible. Now, are
you all ready? Then begin to fire the rockets."
With a preliminary sizzle, and a strong odour of burning powder, the
twelve rockets tore, weirdly screaming, in rapid succession, out of the
clump of bush into the thick of the crowd of dancing savages,
ricochetting hither and thither as they encountered some obstacle,
scattering showers of fire in every direction, and finally exploding
with a loud report many of them having previously embedded themselves in
the dry thatch of the huts. The effect of the discharge was tremendous
and cumulative! As the first rocket plunged into the throng a sudden
silence ensued, and every savage stood death-still, gazing with eyes of
horror upon the hissing fiery thing as it darted hither and thither
inflicting painful burns and bruises wherever it went. Then, long
before the first had run its course, the second was also among them,
playing similar antics, and working havoc like the first; and then out
swooped the third at them, driving the whole party crazy with terror,
and producing a state of utterly indescribable confusion. As the fourth
rocket tore out of the midst of the belt of bush a general yell of
dismay arose, and then ensued a regular stampede, the natives knocking
down and falling over each other in their frenzied efforts to escape
from the onslaught of the fiery monsters. Before the last rocket had
sped there was not a savage to be seen, the whole swarm of them, down to
the children even, having somehow managed to make their escape into the
adjacent bush, from which their cries of terror could still be heard
proceeding, while several of the huts were already bursting into flame.
In the midst of the deserted open space the eleven upright stakes were
now plainly visible; four of them, alas! black and half-consumed with
fire, with great heaps of still smouldering and faintly smoking ashes--
in the midst of which were discernible the calcined fragments of human
skeletons--around their bases, while to each of the other seven was
bound the naked body of a white man!
"Now, forward, lads!" cried I, dashing into the open with drawn sword in
my hand. "Cut loose those seven men, and then form up ready for a
retreat to the boat. If we are quick we may do all that we came to do
before the savages return."
It was but a run of a few hundred yards from the bush to the posts, and
in another minute we were around them, cutting and hacking at the
multitudinous coils of tough creeper which bound the prisoners to the
posts; and in another couple of minutes the last man had been released.
Dazed and speechless at the suddenness of their deliverance from a
lingering death of frightful torment, such as they had beheld inflicted
upon four of their unfortunate companions, the rescued mutineers were
being hurried down to the boat. To bundle them in pell-mell, scramble
in ourselves, and shove off was the work of but a few brief minutes; and
presently we found ourselves once more in the creek, with our bows
pointed river-ward, and eight men straining at the oars as we swept
foaming past the interminable array of mangroves, with their gaunt
roots, like the legs of gigantic spiders sprawling out into the black,
foul-smelling water.
"Well," exclaimed the general, taking off his Panama hat and mopping his
perspiring head and face with a huge red-silk handkerchief, "that is a
good job well done, and without the loss of a man, too--except, of
course, the unfortunate four that we were too late to save. You have
managed the affair exceedingly well, young sir, as I shall be happy to
bear witness at another time and place. I have somehow--I don't quite
know why--had a sort of prejudice against the navy; but a service which
trains youngsters like yourself to do such work as I have seen done to-
day can't be wholly bad."
"Bad, sir!" I exclaimed. "The navy bad? Why, on the contrary,
although perhaps it is not absolutely perfect, it is the most glorious
service that a man can possibly enter, and I am proud to belong to it.
[See note.] But we must not crow yet over our success. Those savages
will probably be rallying by this time, since they find that they are
not being pursued, and if they should choose to follow us along the
banks of the creek they may yet make us smart for our boldness."
"Ay," agreed the general, "they may; but somehow I don't fancy that they
will. Those rockets seemed to frighten them pretty well out of their
skins, and I don't believe that they will get over their terror in a
hurry. By Jove, sir, that was a brilliant idea of yours--those
rockets!"
Meanwhile the rescued men were crouching in the bottom of the boat,
silent, some of them with their faces buried in their hands, some lying
back as though dazed, with their eyes closed. And one of these last, I
noticed, had the fingers of his two hands locked together, and his lips
were moving, as though he prayed, or were returning thanks to God for
his deliverance. Presently he opened his eyes, and his gaze met mine
full. I noticed that he flushed slightly, as though ashamed at having
been detected, so I nodded to him and said:
"No need to be ashamed, my good fellow, if you were thanking God for His
mercy. We have, every one of us, abundant reason to be thankful to-
day."
"Yes, sir," said he, "and I even more, perhaps, than the rest. They was
makin' ready to begin upon me when you broke in upon 'em." And
therewith he burst into a violently hysterical passion of tears, the
result, doubtless, of the reaction arising from his sudden and
unexpected rescue from the horrors of a death from protracted torment,
such as he had witnessed in the case of the other four. For it now
appeared that--without harrowing the reader's feelings by entering into
unnecessary details--the sufferings of one or two of the unfortunate men
must have been prolonged to the extent of quite three hours. The
ringleader, Tonkin, had been, singularly enough, the man who had been
subjected to certain peculiar refinements of torture which, while
inflicting what one could readily conceive would be the most
excruciating agony, were not of a nature to produce death save by the
long-drawn-out process of physical exhaustion. We spoke such comforting
words to the poor creatures as we could think of, at the same time not
forgetting to administer a little much-needed stimulant and food. The
production of the latter reminded us all that we felt atrociously hungry
and thirsty, and as soon as we were safely clear of the creek and once
more in the main channel of the river, we fell to upon the basket of
provisions that Briggs had so thoughtfully provided for our refreshment.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: What would Grenvile have thought of the much more perfect service
of the present day, I wonder?--H.C.