The brig was ours, but we were not to be allowed to carry her off
without a struggle. There were certainly not less than twenty prows,
each of them carrying from fifty to a hundred men; and though the
frigate's guns would have dispersed them like chaff before the wind, she
was too far off to render us any assistance. We had therefore to depend
upon the guns of the brig for our defence. They had all been discharged
probably by her former crew, who had struggled desperately in her
defence. Several of them lay about the deck, cut down when the pirates
boarded. They appeared to be Dutchmen, with two or three natives. One
of the mates and I, with a couple of men, were ordered down immediately
we got on board to bring up shot and powder from the magazine. On our
way I looked into the cabin. There, a sight met my eyes which made me
shudder. Close to the entrance lay on his back a tall, fine looking old
gentleman with silvery locks, while further in, two young women, their
skin somewhat dark, but very handsome, they seemed to me, and well
dressed, lay clasped in each other's arms, perfectly dead. It seemed as
if the same bullet had killed them both. We had no time, however, to
make further observations, but hurrying down we found that the magazine
was open. We immediately sent up a supply of powder, as well as
round-shot, which were stowed not far off. We were hurrying on deck
again, when I thought I saw something glittering under the ladder. It
was a man's eye. Repressing the impulse to cry out, I told Esse what I
had seen. At the same moment we sprang down and seized the man, Esse
receiving a severe cut as we did so. At the same instant a pistol
bullet whistled by my ear. It was shot at the magazine, but happily it
was at too great a distance to allow the flash to ignite the powder.
Fortunately my right hand was free, and drawing my dirk, I pinned our
antagonist through the throat to the deck. He still struggled, but
another blow from my companion silenced him for ever. I felt a
sensation come over me I had never before experienced, but it was not a
time to give way to my feelings. Had I not discovered the man, we
should probably in a few minutes have all been blown into the air. The
prows were coming rapidly on.
"If we had a breeze we should do well," observed our commanding officer,
"but if not we shall have tough work to keep these fellows off." Our
guns were loaded and run out. "We must not throw a shot away," observed
the Lieutenant. He kept looking out in hopes of a breeze. The topsails
had been loosened, and all was ready for making sail. "Cut the cable,"
he shouted at length.
"Sheet home the topsails! Man the starboard braces! Up with the helm!"
Our sails filled and the vessel's head slowly turned away from the
shore, just as the nearest prow was a dozen fathoms from us. A couple
of shot threw her crew into confusion, and before they could grapple us
we glided by them, every instant gathering way. "Give the next the
stem," shouted the Lieutenant. We did so, but we had scarcely way
enough to do the vessel much injury. The other prows were now gathering
thickly round us, and it was time for us to open on them with our guns.
The enemy had no great guns, but the instant we began firing, they
returned the compliment with matchlocks and javelins, which came flying
thickly on board. As we had to fight both sides at once, we had but
little time to use our own small-arms. However, while the men were
working the guns, Esse and I and another midshipman loaded the muskets
with which the men fired while the guns were being sponged and loaded,
we youngsters doing our part by firing the muskets which were not used.
So rapidly did we work our guns, that many of the prows at a distance
hesitated to approach us, while those which got near were quickly half
knocked to pieces. "Hurrah! There goes one of them down!" sung out
Kiddle, who was hauling in his gun. "And there's another! And
another!" shouted others of the crew. The breeze was increasing. Again
the prows came on on both sides, but our guns were all loaded, and we
gave them such a dose, few of our guns missing, that once more they
dropped astern in confusion. The wind had now reached the frigate,
which under all sail was standing towards us. When the pirates saw this
they well knew that their chance of victory was gone, and the crews of
the headmost ones, again firing their matchlocks and darting a few more
spears at us, pulled round, and made off with all speed towards the
shore. Luffing up, we brought our broadside to bear upon them, and gave
them a few parting shots, our crew giving a hearty cheer in token of
victory. We were soon up to the frigate, when Captain Pemberton ordered
us by signal to run back, and keep as close in shore as we could, in
order to watch the proceedings of the pirates. However, before long it
again fell a calm, and both the frigate and brig had to come to an
anchor. Soon after, the Captain and several officers came on board the
brig to examine her, and to ascertain more particularly what she was,
and who were the murdered persons on board. Among others was Mr
Noalles the pilot. No sooner did he enter the cabin than he started
back with a cry of horror.
"What is the matter? Who are those?" asked the Captain, seeing the
glance he cast at the dead man and the two ladies.
"Little did I expect to see them thus," he answered. "They were my
friends, from whom I have often when at Batavia received great
attention. That old man was one of the principal merchants in the
place, and those poor girls were his daughters," and again I observed
the look of grief and horror with which Mr Noalles regarded them.
There had apparently been two or three other passengers on board, but
what had become of them, or the remainder of the crew, we could find
nothing on board to tell us. The sight of those poor girls, cruelly
murdered in their youth and beauty, was enough certainly to make the
hardest heart on board bleed, and yet how much worse might have been
their fate. A prize crew was put on board the brig, but of course the
cabin was held sacred till the murdered people were committed to their
ocean grave. At first it was proposed to bury them on shore, but a
strong force would have been required had we landed, and as their
remains might afterwards have been disturbed, it was determined to
commit them to the deep. For this purpose the next morning the Captain
came on board the brig with most of the officers, the sailmaker having
in the meantime closely fastened up each form in several folds of stout
canvas, with a heavy shot at the feet. As Mr Noalles informed the
Captain the deceased were Protestants, he used the burial service from
the Church of England prayer book. The words, indeed, sounded
peculiarly solemn to our ears. All present probably had heard it over
and over again when a shipmate had died from wounds in battle or
sickness brought on in the service, but their deaths were all in the
ordinary way. These people had been cut off in a very different manner.
I remember particularly those words, "In the midst of life we are in
death." They made an impression on me at the time, and more so from
what afterwards occurred. As they were uttered the old man's corpse was
allowed to glide off slowly into the calm ocean, into the depths of
which it shot down rapidly. The bodies of the poor girls were launched
one by one in the same manner, and I could not help jumping into the
rigging to watch them, as the two shrouded figures went down and down in
the clear water, till gradually they were lost to view. Most of us then
returned on board the frigate. Such stores as the brig required were
sent to her, as well as a prize crew, and she was then despatched to
Amboyna to bring the frigate certain stores which it appeared she
required. As our ship was supposed to be cruising in another direction,
we remained on board, in the hopes of falling in with her. A light
breeze towards evening enabled the brig to get under weigh three or four
days after the circumstances I have just related. Esse, who drew very
well, made a sketch of her as she stood along the land, the rays of the
setting sun shedding a pink glow on her canvas, while the whole ocean
was lighted up with the same rosy hue. One side of the picture was
bounded by the horizon, the other by the yellow shores and the lofty
broken tree-covered heights of the island. We remained at anchor,
intending to sail in the morning, should there be sufficient wind to
enable us to move. As the sun was sinking into the ocean, the sky and
water for a few seconds were lighted up with a glow of brightest orange,
which faded away as the shades of night came stealing across the water
from the east. In a short time the stars overhead burst forth, and
shone down upon us, their light reflected in the mirror-like expanse on
which we floated. The heat was very great. Esse and Pember had the
middle watch under the Third-Lieutenant of the ship (the second had gone
away in the prize). The heat making me unwilling to turn into my
hammock, I continued to walk the deck with Esse. Sometimes we stopped
and leaned against a gun-carriage, talking, as midshipmen are apt to
talk, of home, or future prospects, or of late occurrences.
"That foreign-looking pilot aboard here is a strange fellow," observed
Esse to me. "The people think him not quite right in his mind. They
say he talks in his sleep, and did you observe his look when he caught
sight of the murdered people aboard the brig?" I did not, however,
agree with Dicky's notions.
"The man had been employed on board ships of war for many years, I am
told," I answered. "And if he was not a respectable character it is not
likely that they would take him."
"As to that I have my doubts," answered Esse. "All they look to is to
get a good pilot who knows the ugly navigation of these seas, and that,
I suppose, at all events, he does. But see, who is that on the other
side of the deck?" As he spoke he pointed to a person who was standing,
apparently looking out at some object far away across the sea.
"Yes, that is he," I whispered. "I hope he did not hear us."
"If he did it does not signify," said Esse. While we were looking at
him, the man walked directly aft, and remained gazing, as he had done
before, into the distance over the taffrail. The watch at length came
to an end. "I shall caulk it out on deck," said I. Esse agreed to do
the same. Indeed several of the crew were sleeping on deck--Kiddle and
Brady among them. There also was Pember. Indeed it seemed surprising
that anybody could manage to exist in the oven-like heat which prevailed
in the lower part of the ship. "Sound slumber to you, Burton," said
Esse, and he and I before a minute passed were fast asleep. How long we
had slept I do not know, but I was awoke with the most terrific roar I
had ever heard. I felt myself lifted right up into the air, and then,
as it were, shoved off with tremendous violence from the deck on which I
was lying, and plunged into the water. Down! Down! I sank. My ears
seemed cracking with the continued roar. My breath was going. The
horror of deep waters was upon me. Then suddenly I appeared to be
bounding up again. I thought it was all a dream; I expected to find
myself in my hammock, or in my bed at Whithyford, and certainly not
struggling amidst the foaming waters in the Indian Seas.