Several days passed by; we were still prisoners, and all hope of being
rescued by our friends vanished. We came to the conclusion that they
supposed we were killed, especially as Kiddle told us he had known of
several boats' crews having been cut off by the natives in those seas.
What was to be our fate we could not tell; it was not likely to be a
pleasant one, at all events. One day the whole village appeared to be
in commotion; loud shouts were heard, and presently the door of our hull
was thrown open, and several men entered, who dragged us out into the
midst of a large crowd collected in the open space in front of it.
Among them was the old chief whom we had seen on the day of our capture;
a number of the men had hoes and other implements of agriculture. After
a good deal of palaver, a hoe was put into Pember's hands, and signs
were made to him that he was to go to work with it. Toby and Pat had
hoes given to them also. Esse fancied that we should be allowed to
escape.
"They think us too little to work, I hope," he observed; but scarcely
were the words out of his mouth than we both of us had implements put
into our hands, and a pretty heavy whip being exhibited, signs were made
to us that we should join our companions. We were forthwith marched off
to a field where several natives were already at work. Apparently it
belonged to the old chief, for he sat on a raised spot at the further
end, under an awning, watching the proceedings with a complacent air
which especially excited Pember's wrath. When, also, at times the old
mate relaxed in his labours, a dark-skinned fellow with a turban on his
head, who seemed to act the part of an overseer, made him quickly resume
them by an unmistakable threatening gesture. Thus we were kept at work
till late in the evening, when we were all allowed to knock off and go
back to our hut, where a larger amount of food than usual was awarded
us. Next day we were called up at early dawn, and the hoes again were
put into our hands. Sometimes the overseer, and sometimes one of the
other men, came and showed us how to use them. All day long we were
kept at work with the exception of a short time, when we were allowed to
rest and take some food which was brought to us in the fields. We could
no longer enjoy any hopes of regaining our liberty. It seemed as if we
were destined to be turned into slaves, and to be worked as hard as any
negroes in the West India plantations. At first Pember was very
miserable, but abstinence from his usual liquor at length, I think, did
him good, and he grew fatter and stronger than he had been since I first
knew him. Still he persisted that he was dying, and should never again
see the shores of England. The rest of us did our best to keep up our
spirits, Esse and I told stories to each other, and formed plans for
escaping. Some of them were very ingenious, and more or less hazardous;
most, in reality, utterly impracticable, because, not knowing where we
were, and having no means of getting away from the coast, even had we
made our way to the shore, we should very soon have been brought back
again. I might spin a long yarn about our captivity, but I do not think
it would be interesting. Our days were monotonous enough, considering
we were kept at the same work from sunrise to sunset. What a glorious
feeling is hope! Hope kept us alive, for in spite of every difficulty
we hoped, some time or other, to escape. At length one day as we were
working, the old chief as usual looking on, a stranger arrived, and,
going up to where he was seated, made a salaam before him. After a
palaver of some minutes, which I could not help thinking had reference
to us, the old chief called the overseer, and sent him down to where we
were working. He went up to Pember, and made signs to him to go to the
chief.
"Sure that's a message for us!" exclaimed Pat Brady. "Arrah, Ben, my
boy, you will be after seeing your dear mother again; and the thought
that she has been mourning for you has been throubling my heart more
than the hard work and the dishonour of labouring for these blackamoors.
Hurrah! Erin-go-bragh! I am right sure it's news that's coming to
us."
By this time the overseer had spoken to Kiddle, and finally we were all
conducted up to the chief. What was our astonishment to see the
stranger produce a letter and hand it to Pember. It was written by the
captain of a frigate, stating that having heard that some British seamen
were detained by a petty chief, he had gone to the Rajah of the country,
who had agreed that they should be liberated. The letter was addressed
to any officer, or the principal person who was among them, advising
them to follow the messenger, who could be trusted. The old chief
seemed very indignant, but the envoy was evidently determined to carry
out his instructions.
"Sure he need not grumble," observed Pat Brady, "the big thief has been
getting a good many months' work out of us, and sure that's more than he
had any right to. Still we will part friends with him, and show him
that we bear him no ill-will." On this, Pat, not waiting for the rest,
went up and insisted on shaking the old chief cordially by the hand; the
rest of us, with the exception of Pember, did the same. I need scarcely
say that it was with no little amount of satisfaction that we began our
march under the guidance of the Rajah's envoy. I doubt if any of our
friends would have known us, so changed had we become during our
captivity. Rice and other grain diet may suit the natives of those
regions, but it certainly does not agree with an Englishman's
constitution. We were all pale and thin, our hair long and shaggy, our
clothes worn and tattered. We had darned them and mended them up as
best we could with bits of native cloth, but in spite of our efforts we
officers had a very unofficerlike appearance; while the two men might
have served for street beggars, representing shipwrecked sailors, but
were very unlike British men-of-war's men. Eager as we were to get on,
we made little progress across the rough country, and not till nearly
the close of the second day did we obtain a glimpse of the bright blue
sea. Our hearts bounded with joy when we saw it. Still more delightful
was it to gaze down from a height which we reached on the well-squared
yards and the white deck of a British frigate which lay at anchor in the
harbour below us. Pat threw up his hat and shouted for joy. He was the
only one of us who retained anything like a hat; only an Irishman,
indeed, would have thought of preserving so battered a head-covering.
"Sure it serves to keep my brains from broiling," he observed, "and what
after all is the use of a hat but for that, and just to toss up in the
air when one's heart's in the mood to leap after it?" So near did the
frigate appear that we felt inclined to hail her to send a boat on
shore, though our voices would in reality have been lost in mid-air,
long before the sound could reach her decks. We should have hurried
down to the shore, had not our guide insisted on our proceeding first to
the Rajah's abode, where he might report our arrival in safety and claim
a reward for himself, as well as the better to enable the Rajah to put
in his own claims for a recompense. We were still standing in the
presence of the great man, when a lieutenant and a couple of midshipmen
with about twenty armed seamen made their appearance in the courtyard.
Dicky Esse and I no sooner caught sight of them than, unable to restrain
our eagerness, we rushed forward intending to shake hands with them.
"Hillo, what are these curious little imps about?" exclaimed one of the
midshipmen, as we were running towards them.
"Imp?" exclaimed Dicky. "You would look like an imp if you had been
made to hoe in the fields all day long with the sun right overhead for
the best part of half-a-year. I am an officer like yourself, and will
not stand an insult, that I can tell you!" This reply was received with
a burst of laughter from the two midshipmen; but the lieutenant,
guessing who we were, received us both in a very kind way, and Pember
with Kiddle and Pat coming up, he seemed highly pleased to find that we
were the prisoners he had been sent to liberate. The frigate, he told
us, was the "Resolution," Captain Pemberton, who, having heard through
some of the natives that some English seamen were in captivity, had
taken steps to obtain our release.
"We told the Rajah that if any of you were injured, or if his people
refused to restore you, we would blow his town about his ears--a far
more effectual way of dealing with these gentry than mild expostulations
or gentle threats. And now," he added, "if there are no more of you we
will return on board." In a short time we were standing on the deck of
the frigate. Her captain received us very kindly, and soon afterwards
we made sail. The frigate being rather short of officers, we were
ordered to do duty till we could fall in with our own ship. Pember
grumbled somewhat, declaring that he ought to be allowed to rest after
the hardships he had gone through. People seldom know what is best for
them, nor did he, as will be shown in the sequel. Both Dicky Esse and I
were placed in the same watch, as were our two followers. The
"Resolution" had not fallen in with our frigate, and therefore we could
gain no tidings of any of our friends, and as she, it was supposed, had
sailed for Canton, we might not fall in with her for some time. We
cruised round and about the shores of the numberless islands of those
seas, sometimes taking a prize, and occasionally attacking a fort or
injuring and destroying the property of our enemies whenever we could
meet with it. One night, while I was on watch, I found Kiddle near me.
Though he did not hesitate to speak to me as of yore, yet he never
seemed to forget that I was now on the quarter-deck.
"Do you know, Mr Burton," he observed, "that I have found an old
acquaintance on board? He was pilot in the `Boreas,' and he is doing
the same sort of work here. I never quite liked the man, though he is a
fair spoken enough sort of gentleman."
"What! Is that Mr Noalles?" I asked.
"The same!" and Toby then gave me the account which I have before noted
of that person.
"That is strange!" I said. "I really fancied I had seen him before.
Directly I came on board it struck me that I knew the man, and yet of
course I cannot recollect him after so many years." He was a dark,
large-whiskered man, with a far from pleasant expression of countenance.
The ship had been on the station some time, and rather worse for wear
and tear. We had not been on board long, when one night as I was in my
hammock I felt it jerk in a peculiar manner, and was almost sent out of
it. I was quickly roused by a combination of all conceivable sounds:--
the howling of the wind, the roar of the seas, which seemed to be
dashing over us. The rattling of ropes and blocks, the creaking of
bulkheads, the voices of the men shouting to each other and asking what
had happened, were almost deafening, even to ears accustomed to such
noises.
"We are all going to be drowned!" I heard Dicky Esse, whose hammock
slung next to mine, sing out. "Never mind, Dicky," I answered, "we will
have a struggle for life at all events, and may be, as the savages did
not eat us, the sea will not swallow us up."
Finding everybody was turning out, I huddled on my clothes as best I
could, and with the rest found my way on deck, though I quickly wished
myself below again, as it was no easy matter to keep my footing when I
was there, and preserve myself from slipping into the sea, which was
dashing wildly over our bulwarks. The ship was on her beam-ends. By
the light of the vivid flashes of lightning which continued incessantly
darting here and there round us, I saw the Captain half-dressed, with
his garments under one of his arms, shouting out his orders, which the
lieutenants, much in the same state as to costume, were endeavouring to
get executed, their voices, however, being drowned in the tempest. For
some minutes, indeed, even the best seamen could scarcely do anything
but hold on for their lives. One thing appeared certain: either the
masts must be cut away, or the guns hove overboard. It seemed
impossible, if this could not be done, that the ship would continue
above water. Suddenly with a violent jerk up she rose again on an even
keel with her topmasts carried away, and the rigging beating with
fearful force about our heads.
"Clear away the wreck!" shouted the Captain. Such was now the no easy
task to be performed. The officers, however, with axes in their hands,
leading the way, sprang aloft, followed by the topmen. Blocks and spars
came rattling down on deck to the no small risk of those below. At
length the shattered spars having been cleared away, head sail was got
on the ship, and off she ran before the hurricane, the master having
ascertained that we had a clear sea before us. When morning dawned, the
frigate, which had looked so trim at sunset, presented a sadly battered
appearance, her topmasts gone, the deck lumbered with the wreck, two of
the boats carried away, a part of the lee-bulwarks stove in. The
carpenter too, after going below with his mates, returned on deck and
reported that the ship was making water very fast. "We must ease her,
sir," I heard him say, "or I cannot answer for her weathering the gale."
The Captain took a turn or two along the quarter-deck, his countenance
showing the anxiety he felt.
"It must be done," I heard him say. "Send Mr Block aft." He was the
gunner. "We must heave some of our upper-deck guns overboard, Mr
Block." The gunner seemed inclined to plead for them.
"It must be done," said the Captain. And now the crew, who would have
sprung joyfully to the guns to man them against an enemy, began with
unwilling hands to cast the tackles loose in order to launch them into
the ocean. Watching the roll of the ship, first one gun was sent
through the port into the deep--another and another followed.
"By my faith it's like pulling out the old girl's teeth, and giving her
no chance of biting," observed Pat Brady, who was standing near me.
"We will keep a few of her grinders in though, Pat," observed Kiddle:
"we must handle them the smarter if we come alongside an enemy, to make
amends for those we have lost."
The heavy weight on her upper-deck being thus got rid of, the frigate
laboured less, and the pumps being kept going, the water no longer
continued to gain upon us. However, it was necessary to work the chain
pumps night and day to keep the water under. At length we arrived at
Amboyna, where we remained some time repairing damages and refitting the
frigate as far as we were able.
"I wish we were aboard our own ship again," said Kiddle to me one day,
"for I don't know how it is, but the crew of this ship declare that she
is doomed to be unlucky. I don't know how many men they have not lost.
They have scarcely taken a prize, and they are always getting into
misfortune. It's not the fault of the Captain, for he is as good a
seaman as ever stepped, and the officers are all very well in their way,
and so there's no doubt it's the ship's fault. Some of the people, to
be sure, don't like Mr Noalles, the pilot. They don't know who he is
or where he came from, though that to my mind has nothing to do with it,
for it's not likely he would be aboard here if he was not known to be a
right sort of person."
At length we once more sailed for a place called Booroo, where we got a
supply of wood and water, as well as refreshments and stock, and then
sailed for the Straits of Banca. As we were standing along the coast,
when daylight broke one morning, we saw towards the land a number of
vessels, which were pronounced to be pirate prows. In their midst was a
large brig, which they had apparently captured. We were standing
towards them when the land-breeze died away, and we lay becalmed, unable
to get nearer. On this the boats were ordered out, and two of the
lieutenants, the master, and a couple of mates took the command. Dicky
Esse and I accompanied the Second-Lieutenant. Our orders were to board
the prows, and if they offered any resistance, to destroy them. The
water was smooth and beautifully blue, while the rising sun tipped the
topmost heights of the lofty hills, which rose, as it were, out of the
ocean, feathered almost from their summits to the water's edge with
graceful trees. There lay the brig, while the prows were clustered like
so many beasts of prey around their quarry. The pirates seemed in no
way alarmed at our approach. Our leader, however, had made up his mind,
in spite of their numbers to board the brig, and then, should the prows
interfere, to attack them. As soon as this resolution was come to, we
dashed forward to get on board her without delay. The pirates seemed
scarcely aware of our intention, and before any of the prows had lifted
an anchor we were on board. Some forty or fifty dark-skinned,
villainous-looking fellows had possession of the brig, but they were
probably unable to use the big guns, and though they made some little
resistance, we soon drove them forward, a considerable number being cut
down, the rest jumping overboard, and attempting to swim towards the
prows, which, instantly getting out their sweeps, began to approach us.