"Hard up with your helm," I shouted, "hard over with it; we must take
our chance of being swamped. Better that than that both craft should be
destroyed." And, dashing aft, I lent my assistance to the man who was
tending the helm.
Then ensued a breathless, hair-raising fifteen seconds, during which it
seemed impossible for the schooner and the brigantine to avoid a
collision--in which case they must have sunk each other out of hand.
Then, when the two craft were not more than fifteen feet apart, the
schooner's head fell off, she turned broadside-on to the sea, and, our
people smartly hauling down our fore-staysail, the brigantine drew
slowly ahead and clear of us, our bowsprit-end missing her mainboom by
the merest hairbreadth, and the danger was over. But during that minute
or so of frightful suspense, which the stranger's crew had spent in
rushing madly and aimlessly about the decks, execrating us in voluble
Spanish, an opportunity had been afforded us to ascertain that the
brigantine was named the _San Antonio_, and that she was beyond all
question a slaver, with a cargo on board.
We contrived to avoid her without shipping so much as a drop of water,
thanks mainly to the fact that the brigantine had served, at the
critical moment, as a floating breakwater for us. Putting our helm down
again the moment that we were clear of her, we came safely to the wind
again on her weather quarter. Had we allowed matters to remain as they
were before our narrow escape, the _San Antonio_ would soon have parted
company with us, for, as I said before, she was driving to leeward much
more rapidly than we were. Now that would not suit me at all, for since
I had made certain that she was a slaver, I was determined to capture
her as soon as the weather should moderate sufficiently to allow us to
do so. Therefore, when she had drifted about half a mile to leeward of
us, I gave instructions that the helm should be eased up as often as
opportunity permitted. The result of this was that we contrived to make
our own lee drift amount to about the same as hers, thus maintaining no
more than a bare half-mile of water between us.
Shortly after noon the gale broke, the sky quite suddenly cleared, and
an hour later we were able to set the fore-staysail and shake a reef out
of the foresail in order to steady the ship. Although the sea was still
running too high to permit of our bearing up and running down to the
brigantine, we managed to edge down a little nearer to her, so that by
eight bells in the afternoon watch we had reduced the distance to
something like the eighth part of a mile. At this distance we were able
to maintain a pretty close watch upon the craft, and half an hour later
we detected signs indicative of a determination on the part of her crew
to make sail. Evidently they distrusted us as a neighbour, and were
desirous of putting a little more water between us and themselves.
Seeing this, I took a long look round to ascertain what our chances
might be should we attempt to bear up and run down to her. There was
still a very high, steep, and dangerous sea running, to attempt to run
before which would be hazardous in the extreme; for should we happen to
be pooped by even a single one of them, the least that could happen to
us would be that our decks would be swept, and very possibly we should
lose several men overboard, to save whom would be impossible in that
mountainous sea, while it was quite on the cards that the schooner might
be swamped out of hand and go to the bottom with all the crew. But I
remembered that among our stores there was a quantity of lamp oil, and I
believed that a few gallons of this, towed astern in a porous bag, would
smooth the water sufficiently to prevent the seas from breaking aboard
during the short time that we should need to enable us to run down to
the brigantine, and I gave orders to have such a bag prepared and
dropped over the stern.
Meanwhile the crew of the brigantine had not been idle, for scarcely had
I given the order to prepare the oil bag when her people proceeded to
set their jib, close-reefed topsail, and double-reefed mainsail, with
the evident determination of escaping from our neighbourhood with as
little delay as might be. I thereupon ordered our colours to be hoisted
and a shot to be fired across her forefoot as a gentle hint for her to
remain where she was. To my surprise--for slavers do not often fight
when they find themselves opposed to a superior force--the brigantine
promptly replied to our single shot by letting drive at us with her
starboard broadside of four 9-pounders, none of which, however, came
near us, for the sea was altogether too high to allow of accurate
shooting. For this reason I refrained from firing a second time, but
replied to our antagonist by making sail, for it now appeared as though
she had some hope of escaping to windward by outsailing and weathering
upon us. Evidently her people did not know the little _Francesca_! The
first quarter of an hour of the chase sufficed to prove that the _San
Antonio_ could not possibly escape us in the manner that her people had
evidently believed would be successful. Not only did we outsail her,
but we also contrived to edge down upon her to within about a cable's-
length, when her skipper deliberately opened fire upon us with his
broadside guns, apparently with the hope that a lucky shot would knock
away a spar or two aboard us, and thus compel us to abandon the chase.
But this was a game that two could play at, and since the rascal seemed
determined not to yield without a fight we cleared away our Long Tom and
proceeded to return his compliments. To shoot with any degree of
accuracy in such a sea was impossible, and I was particularly anxious to
avoid hulling the fellow, for I knew that this would mean the killing of
several of the unfortunate slaves in her hold. I therefore gave
instructions to the men working the gun to exercise the utmost care, and
to fire only when they could be reasonably certain that their shot would
not strike the brigantine's hull. By observing this precaution we at
length succeeded in shooting away his fore-topmast, and thus rendering
him helpless to continue his flight. Whereupon, like a sensible fellow,
he ran the Spanish flag up to his gaff, allowed it to flutter there for
a moment, and then hauled it down again in token of his surrender.
Our chance encounter with the brigantine thus ended satisfactorily
enough, so far as we were concerned. However, it was not until the next
morning that the weather had moderated sufficiently to enable us to take
possession of our prize, when we found that we had captured a very smart
vessel of two hundred and sixty-five tons measurement, with a cargo of
three hundred slaves on board, bound for Havana. I lost no time in
turning her over to Jack Keene, with a prize crew of twelve men, with
instructions to take her into Port Royal for adjudication, and to await
there the arrival of the schooner. Before parting company I seized the
opportunity to question the crew of the _San Antonio_ as to the brig of
which I was in search, but they professed to know nothing whatever of
her.
By midday all signs of the hurricane had disappeared, the sea had gone
down, and the trade wind had returned, blowing briskly out from about
east-north-east.
It was therefore a fair wind for the prize, and half an hour after I had
secured a meridian altitude of the sun for the determination of our
latitude Master Jack bore up, dipped his colours, and squared away.
Now ensued a fortnight of uneventful and wearisome cruising along the
parallel of 21° north latitude, and between the meridians of 62° and 74°
west longitude, that being the line upon which I thought it most likely
that I might encounter the pirate, or at least gather some news of him.
During that period we sighted and spoke not far short of forty sail, of
one sort and another, both outward and homeward bound, but learned not a
word that would furnish us with a clue to the whereabouts of the craft
that we were so anxiously seeking. I was beginning to fear that our
quarry had betaken himself to some other cruising ground altogether,
when one morning, at dawn, Simpson, who had charge of the watch, sent
down word to say that there was a brig in sight that he would very much
like me to come up and look at, as he seemed to recognise her.
Accordingly, without waiting to dress I tumbled out of my bunk and made
my way up on deck. We were on a bowline under short canvas at the time,
to the eastward of the Silver Bank, the tail of which we had cleared
about an hour before, while the stranger was apparently hove-to dead to
windward of us, and hull-down from the deck.
There was not much to be learned by looking at the stranger from the
level of the deck. I therefore slung the glass over my shoulder and
made my way aloft as far as the main cross-trees, from which a full view
of her was to be obtained. But before so much as taking a single look
at her through the telescope, her behaviour assured me that she must be
either a ship of war, or a craft of decidedly suspicious character. For
no ordinary trader would be lying hove-to, just where she was; the
inference therefore was indisputable that, if not a man-o'-war, she must
be lurking just off the entrance of the Windward Passage for some
unlawful purpose. If by any chance the craft in sight should prove to
be the one that we were after, I believed that I should be able to
recognise her upon my first glimpse of her through the telescope. When
I got aloft and brought my instrument to bear upon her, I found,
however, that she was just in the very thick of the dazzle of the newly
risen sun, and it was not until I had been aloft quite a quarter of an
hour that I was able to see her at all distinctly. Even then I could
discern no details of painting; I could not make out whether her hull
was painted black or green, whether she had painted ports, or merely a
narrow ribbon, or had neither. She showed against the strong light of
the eastern horizon simply as a dainty jet-black silhouette, rising and
falling lazily upon the long swell. But after looking long and
steadfastly at her I came to the conclusion, in the first instance, that
she was not a man-o'-war, and, in the next, that her general shape and
style of rig were sufficiently familiar to justify me in the belief, or
at least the suspicion, that I had seen her before. At all events it
was my obvious duty to get near enough to her to enable me to ascertain
what business she had to be lying-to just where we had happened to find
her, and I accordingly gave Simpson instructions to make sail, and then
see all clear for action.
It was evident that, whatever might be the character of the stranger,
those aboard her were fully as wide awake as ourselves, for no sooner
did we start to make sail than she did the same, with a celerity, too,
that would not have disgraced a man-o'-war. Within five minutes of my
having given the order to make sail, both craft were thrashing hard to
windward, under all plain sail to their royals. And then we were not
long in discovering that, fast as was the _Francesca_, the stranger
appeared to be nearly if not quite as fast, although we in the schooner
seemed to be rather the more weatherly of the two. This, however, might
simply mean that the skipper of the brig was intentionally allowing us
to close very gradually with him, in order that he might have the
opportunity to get a nearer look at us, and so be enabled to form a
better judgment regarding our character, while making his own
preparations, if indeed he happened to be the craft for which we were
looking. And of this I became increasingly convinced as we gradually
neared the brig; for although she was now painted dead black to her
bends, without any relief whatever, of colour, there were certain little
details and peculiarities of shape and rig that I felt convinced I had
seen before.
At length, about three bells, that is to say half-past nine-o'clock, in
the forenoon watch, the skipper of the brig seemed to have made up his
mind to a definite course of action, for he suddenly put up his helm,
squared away, and came running straight down for us. Whereupon we in
the schooner at once went to quarters, cast loose the guns, opened the
powder magazine, and got a good supply of ammunition up on deck, at the
same time hoisting our colours. The stranger, apparently, was not quite
so willing as ourselves to display the hue of his bunting; at all events
we saw none. But this might have been due to the fact that his gaff-end
was obscured from our view by the spread of his topsails. When about
half a mile to windward of us the brig, which we could now see was a
most beautiful craft, suddenly rounded-to, clewed up her courses and
royals, hauled down her flying-jib, and, throwing open her ports, let
fly her whole broadside of 9-pounders at us, the shot humming close over
our heads and considerably cutting up our rigging. And at the same
instant a great black flag went soaring aloft to her gaff-end!
"So," said I to Simpson, who was standing close beside me, "that clears
the ground and enables us to know just where we are. With that black
rag staring us in the face there is no possibility of making a mistake.
Return his fire, lads, as your guns come to bear, and be careful not to
throw a single shot away. Aim at his spars first; then, when we have
crippled him, we will close and finish him off."
But in talking thus I was reckoning without my host, for the brig
carried more than twice our weight of metal in her broadside batteries,
and a long thirty-two on her forecastle as against our own long
eighteen. In a word, I soon found that I had caught a Tartar, for her
crew were quite as nimble as our own, and quite as good shots, which was
worse. Thus, when it came to playing the dismantling game, which seemed
to be the object of both craft, we soon found that we were suffering
much more severely than our antagonist. The skipper of the brig saw
this quite as clearly as we did, and presently, believing that he had us
completely in his power, he bore up and ran down toward us, with the
evident intention of boarding.
"Mr Simpson," said I, "that fellow looks very much as though he
intended to lay us aboard. That ought to suit us a great deal better
than playing at long bowls, so please have both broadsides and the long
gun double-shotted, and we will give him everything we can as he ranges
up alongside, and then board him in the smoke, instead of waiting for
him to board us."
"An excellent plan, sir, I think," answered Simpson. "Boardin' and
bein' boarded are two very different things; and although them chaps may
be ready enough to follow their skipper on to our decks, it'll take a
good deal of the fight out of them if they finds that we're beforehand
with 'em, and that they've got to defend their own ship instead of
attackin' us. I'll go and see everything ready to give 'em a warm
reception when they comes alongside."
We were not long kept in suspense, for, to do the pirates justice, they
came on to the attack with every symptom of perfect fearlessness, and we
had only just sufficient time wherein to make our preparations when,
taking a broad sheer, the brig rounded-to and shot alongside us. At the
moment when she was within about a fathom of us, her bulwarks lined with
swarthy, unkempt-looking desperadoes, holding themselves in readiness to
fling themselves in upon our decks, I gave the word to fire, and the
whole double-shotted broadside--with a charge of canister on top of it,
which Simpson had quietly ordered to be rammed home on top of the round
shot--went crashing into her, making a very pretty "general average"
among her crew, and among her spars and rigging. The crew of boarders
seemed to have been swept out of existence, and so severely wounded were
her masts that the shock of her collision with the schooner, a moment
later, sent both of them over the side, fortunately into the sea instead
of across our decks; and there she lay, a sheer hulk, secured to us by
the grappling irons which our people had promptly hove, and quite unable
to escape.
"Hurrah, lads," I shouted, "we have her now; she cannot escape us!
Boarders, follow me!" And away we all went, helter-skelter, over our
own bulwarks and those of the brig into the thick cloud of smoke that
hung over the brig's decks, completely obscuring them and everything
upon them.
I quite expected to find that our final broadside, in addition to
bringing down the brig's masts, had swept her crew practically out of
existence. I was therefore most disagreeably surprised to discover
that, despite the havoc which we had undoubtedly wrought, and the
evidences of which became clearly visible as the breeze swept the smoke
away, the pirates still numbered at least two to our one, and were
apparently in nowise dismayed at the havoc which that last broadside of
ours had wrought; on the contrary, they received us with the utmost
intrepidity, and in an instant we of the _Francesca_ found ourselves
hemmed in and pressed so vigorously that, instead of sweeping the decks
and carrying the brig with a rush, as I had fully expected we should, it
was with the utmost difficulty that we were able to hold our ground at
all. The pirate captain, easily distinguishable among the rest by his
good looks and the smartness of his dress, was here, there, and
everywhere apparently at the same moment, urging on and encouraging his
men in fluent Spanish, while he defended himself from the simultaneous
attack of three of our people with consummate ease. He fought
cheerfully, joyously, like a man who enjoys fighting, with a reckless
jest on his lips, but with a ferocity that was terrible to behold.
Twice I crossed swords with him. On the first occasion I had hardly
engaged when I was so severely jostled that I suddenly found myself
completely at his mercy, and gave myself up as lost, for his sword was
descending straight upon my defenceless head as his eyes glared tiger-
like into mine, when, apparently through sheer caprice, he diverted his
stroke, and, instead of cleaving me to the chin, as he could easily have
done, vigorously attacked the man next to me; while on the second
occasion, which occurred a minute or two later, he contented himself
with simply parrying my thrust, and then permitted himself to be
separated from me by a rush of our men. For ten long minutes the fight
raged most furiously on the brig's deck, fortune sometimes favouring us
for a moment and then deserting us in favour of the pirates. The battle
occasionally resolved itself for a moment into a series of desperate
single combats, during which men savagely clutched each other by the
throat and stabbed at each other with shortened weapons, and then merged
again into a general melee in which each man seemed to strike recklessly
at every enemy within reach, regardless of his own safety. And then,
while the fight was still in full swing, I suddenly received a terrific
blow on the top of my skull and fell senseless upon the deck. My last
conscious sensation was that of being trampled remorselessly under foot
by a furious rush of men.
When at length I recovered my senses I found that I was lying,
undressed, in a cot, suffering from a nerve-racking headache of so
violent a character that I could scarcely endure to open my eyes to the
brilliant sunlight that flooded the cabin of which I was an occupant.
For the first minute or two after my recovery my senses were so utterly
confused that I found it impossible to recall anything that had happened
save that, somehow, I had been struck down in a fight. Gradually, as I
lay there wrestling with the state of confusion in which I found myself
plunged, my memory returned, and I recollected everything up to the
moment when I had been struck down on the deck of the pirate brig. Then
I began to look about me, with the view of ascertaining where I was. I
found that the exceedingly roomy and comfortable cot in which I was
lying was slung from the beams of an equally roomy and luxurious cabin
which was furnished with a degree of mingled elegance and comfort that
was seldom found afloat in those days, and indeed is very far from being
common even now. The whole of the after end of this cabin was occupied
by a series of windows of semi-elliptical shape, beyond which the
sparkling sea could be seen, and through which a delicious, balmy,
refreshing breeze was blowing. A broad locker arrangement, handsomely
worked in choice mahogany, stretched right athwart the cabin immediately
beneath the stern windows, and upon this stood several beautiful
flowering plants in pots of elaborately hammered brass, this locker
forming the top of a long sofa, or divan, upholstered in crimson velvet,
which also stretched across the full width of the cabin. The interior
paintwork of the apartment was a rich, creamy white, imparting a
deliciously cool and bright appearance to it. The furniture which it
contained, and which consisted of, among other less important matters, a
table of elaborately carved mahogany, a large bookcase full of books,
many of which were in sumptuous bindings, a rack containing about a
dozen charts, four chairs, each one of different pattern from all the
others, and a very fine, thick carpet, was all exceptionally good. The
only fault that I could find with it was that it lacked uniformity of
design, and suggested the idea that it had been acquired in a more or
less haphazard way and at different times and places.
By the time that I had completed my survey of the cabin in which I lay I
had sufficiently regained the control of my senses to realise that I was
certainly not aboard the _Francesca_; and, that being the case, where
was I? Undoubtedly aboard the pirate brig, on the deck of which I had
been struck down senseless. And then arose the question, what had
become of the schooner and my shipmates? Had they been captured, sunk,
or driven off? That the fight was over, and had probably been over for
some time, was evident; for although there was a sound of much movement
on the deck overhead, with the jabber of many voices in Spanish,
intermingled with frequent calls and commands, the stir and bustle were
of that quiet and orderly character which conveyed to my practised ear
the suggestion that the people on deck were engaged upon the task of
repairing damages. For a moment the idea presented itself to me that we
might possibly have proved the victors, and that the brig was in our
possession, but it was dispelled the next moment by the reflection that,
had such been the case, the speech on deck would have been English, not
Spanish, and I should probably not have been left unattended. As my
mental balance gradually recovered itself, so did my anxiety touching
the fate of the _Francesca_ and my comrades intensify, until at length I
felt that I could endure the suspense no longer, but must turn out and
investigate for myself. I accordingly made an effort to raise myself in
my cot, but instantly sank back with an involuntary groan, for not only
did the effort result in an immediate and severe attack of vertigo, but
I also became aware of the fact that, in addition to the injury to my
head, I had received a very painful hurt in the left breast, close above
my heart. To get up and dress, as I had intended, was obviously
impossible, and the only thing to be done, therefore, was to remain
where I was until somebody should come to me.
I lay thus for perhaps a quarter of an hour longer, fretting and fuming
at my helplessness, and still more at my ignorance of what had happened
to the schooner, when the door of the cabin opened softly, and a rather
good-looking young Spaniard approached my cot on tiptoe. Seeing that my
eyes were open, and probably detecting a look of rationality in them, he
smiled as his fingers closed gently upon my wrist to feel my pulse.
"So, senor," he said, "you have recovered your senses at last! There
was a moment when I almost began to fear that you would slip through my
fingers."
"And pray, senor, who may you be, and where am I?" I asked.
"To reply to your questions in their regular order, senor," answered the
Spaniard, "I am Miguel Fonseca, the surgeon of this brig, the name of
which is the _Barracouta_; and you are the prisoner, or the guest, I am
not quite sure which, of her commander, Captain Ricardo."
"Captain Ricardo!" repeated I. "What is his other name?"
"Ah, senor, that I cannot tell you! We know him only as Captain
Ricardo," answered my companion.
"Thank you very much for your information," said I. "But there are one
or two matters of much greater importance to me than your captain's
name. Can you tell me, for instance, what has become of my schooner and
her crew?"
"Assuredly, senor," answered the surgeon. "We beat her off, with great
loss, and, taking advantage of the fact that you had dismasted us with
that last venomous broadside that you poured into us just as we ran
alongside you, your people made good their escape. But I doubt very
much whether they will ever reach a port; indeed it is most probable
that they have all gone to the bottom by this time, for the schooner was
terribly cut up, and appeared to be making a great deal of water when
she hauled off and made sail."
"They will get in all right, senor," said I. "I have very little fear
of that. If they managed to get from under your guns without being
sunk, they will somehow contrive to keep the schooner afloat until they
reach a port. And now perhaps you can tell me how it is that I happen
to be here. Does your captain take care of his wounded prisoners and
nurse them back to health, as a rule?"
"By no means, senor," answered Fonseca with a grin. "His usual
practice, after a fight, is to fling the wounded and dead alike to the
sharks, while the unwounded are afforded the option of joining us or--
walking the plank. Why he has made an exception in your case, senor, is
more than I can tell; it is a mystery which I will not attempt to
fathom. Nor should I care to hazard a guess as to whether his action
bodes you good or evil; all I know is that he happened to be standing by
when, after the retreat of your schooner, our people were clearing the
decks of the dead and wounded, and that when you were about to be thrown
overboard he suddenly interposed and ordered you to be taken below and
placed in his own cot, my instructions being to attend to your hurts at
once, before attending to even the most seriously injured of our own
people."
"Um! that is rather queer behaviour, isn't it?" I commented. And, as
Fonseca nodded, I continued: "And pray, when did this happen?"
"About five hours ago, immediately after the fight," was the answer. "I
have been attending to our own wounded during the interval, and have
only just finished with them. I am afraid I shall lose a good many of
them. Your men fought like fiends, and struck some very shrewd blows;
indeed there was a moment when I began to think that Captain Ricardo had
made a serious mistake in determining to run down and lay you aboard.
For a minute or two it looked very much as though our people were about
to give way before you, and indeed I believe they would have done so but
for the fact that your men grew discouraged and gave way when you fell.
But this will not do at all; here am I talking to you when it is of the
utmost importance that you should be kept perfectly quiet. Now, not
another word, if you please, but allow me to dress your wounds afresh."
And so saying he softly opened the cabin door and said something in a
low voice to someone who was apparently waiting outside. Then, closing
the door again, he returned to the side of my cot and began, with very
gentle fingers and a light touch, to remove the bandages that were
wrapped about my breast and shoulder.
"This," he said, "is your most serious injury--a pike wound; when did
you get it?"
"I have really not the slightest idea when or how I got it," I answered.
Then I stopped suddenly, for, as I spoke, I suddenly remembered that
when I sprang aboard the brig, at the head of the boarders, I was
conscious for a moment of having received a violent blow on the chest,
the memory of which, however, had instantly vanished in the excitement
of the fierce struggle that promptly ensued. "Yes," said I, "that must
have been it." And I related the occurrence just as it had happened.
Just then a low tap came on the cabin door, and in response to Fonseca's
bidding a young mulatto lad entered, bearing a large basin of warm
water, towels, bandages, lint, and other matters.
"Good! Now stand you there, Francois, and hold the basin while I foment
the wound," ordered Fonseca, who forthwith proceeded to bathe and patch
me up in the most careful and skilful manner.
"There!" said he, when he had at length attended to my hurts and made me
tolerably comfortable. "I think you will do pretty well now for an hour
or two. The wound in your breast looks very much inflamed, but that is
only to be expected from the character of the weapon with which it was
inflicted. But I have applied a lotion which ought to allay the
inflammation somewhat, and I will prepare you a nice, soothing, cooling
drink, of which you may take as much as you please; and when you have
finished it, Francois, who will remain here to look after you, will
bring you a further supply. But what you now need more than anything
else is sleep; so, if you should experience the slightest inclination
that way, please yield to it without hesitation. And now, senor, I will
bid you _adios_ for the present, but will come and have another look at
you before dark."
And, so saying, he withdrew from the cabin as quietly as he had come.