A Pirate of the Caribbees

A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

PIRATE

OF

THE CARIBBEES

BY

HARRY COLLINGWOOD

AUTHOR OF "an OCEAN CHASE " " FOR TREASURE BOUND"

"jack beresford's yarn" etc. etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY C. J, DE LACY

GRIFFITH FARRAN BROWNE & CO. LIMITED

35 BOW STREET, COVENT GARDEN

LONDON

The Rights of Translation and of Reproduction are Reserved,

CONTENTS

CHAP.

I. A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC

II. THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS

III. THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE

IV. WE FALL IN "WITH AND CAPTURE A SCHOONER

V. WE PROCEED IN SEARCH OF THE ALTHEA'S BOATS
VI. WE FIND THE LAUNCH
VII. A DARING ACT OF PIRACY
Viri. WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN .

IX. WE ENCOUNTER AND FIGHT THE GUERRILLA
X. SeKoR JOS^: GARCIA ....
XI. CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD .
XII. I BECOME THE VICTIM OF A VILLAINOUS OUTRAGE

XIII. "In THE POWER OF THE ENEMY

XIV. I SEIZE THE FELUCCA .

XV. HEAVY WEATHER

XVI. THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA

XVn. CAPTAIN LEMAITRE

XVIII. A DOUBLE TRAGEDY

XIX, THE END OF THE GUERRILLA

PAGE

7
28

43

65

86

105

122

142
157

189
209
228

247
* 263
279
294
310

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE RAFT PROVED TO BE SURPRISINGLY BUOYANT

Frontispiece

IN LESS THAN A MINUTE TWO GUNS SPOKE OUT

Facing page 21

'*BACK WATER FOR YOUR LIVES ! " .

THE BOAT SEEMED TO BE FULL OF DEAD

"HEAVE A SHOT ACROSS THE RASCAl'S FORE-FOOl

.„ '»

TEN MINUTES SUFFICED US TO SPIKE THE GUNS

I SEIZED THE TILLER AND KEPT HER AWAY ANOTHER POINT

STILL, BY A MIRACLE, MORILLO HIMSELF SURVIVED

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A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

CHAPTER I

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC

" T 7 IGHT bells, there, sleepers; d'ye hear the news?
-L^ Rouse and bitt, my hearties ! Show a leg ! Eight
bells, Courtenay ! and Keene says he will be much obliged
if you will relieve him as soon as possible ! "

These words, delivered in a tone of voice that was a
curious alternation of a high treble with a preternaturally
deep bass — due to the fact that the speaker's voice was
"breaking" — and accompanied by the reckless banging of
a tin pannikin upon the deal table that adorned the mid-

r

shipmen's berth of H.M. frigate Althea^ instantly awoke
me to the disagreeable consciousness that my watch below
had come to an end, especially as the concluding portion

of the harangue was addressed to me personally, and
accompanied by a most uncompromising thump upon

8 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

the side of my hammock. So I surlily growled an

answer-

"All right, young 'un ; there's no occasion to make all
that hideous row ! Just see if you can make yourself use-
ful by finding Black Peter, will you, and telling him to
brew some coffeeJ'

The lad was turning away to do my bidding when a
pattering of naked feet became audible as their owner
approached, while a husky voice ejaculated

" Who's dat axin' for Brack Petah ? Was it you, Mistah
Courtenay?" And at the same instant the shining, good-
natured, grinning visage of a gigantic negro appeared in
the narrow doorway, through which the fellow instantly
passed into the berth, bearing a big pot of steaming hot

coffee.

" Ay, you black demon, I it was," answered I. " Is
that coffee you have there? Then find my cup and fill it,
there's a good fellow, and Pll owe you a glass of grog."

" Hi, yi !" answered the black, his eyes sparkling and
his teeth gleaming hilariously, " who you call ' brack
demon,' eh, sah? Who eber hear of brack demon turnin'
out at four o'clock in de mornin' to make coffee for young
gentermen, eh? And about de grog, Mistah Courtenay ;
how many glasses do dis one make dat you now owe me,
eh, sah ? Ansah me dat, sah. You don' keep no account,
I expec's, sah, but / do. Dis one makes seben, Mistah
Courtenay, and I'd be much obieege, sah, if you'd pay
some of dcm off. It am all bery well to say you'll oive

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC g

'em to me, sah, but what's de use ob dat if you don' nebber
paj me, eh?"

'^ Faf you, you rascal ? " shouted I, as I sprang to the

deck and began hastily to scramble into my clothes, " do
you mean to say that you have the impudence to actually
expect to ht paidl Is it not honour and reward enough
that a gentleman condescends to become indebted to
you ? Pay, indeed ! why, what is the world coming to,
I wonder ? "

" Bravo, Courtenay, well spoken ! " shouted young
Lindsay, the lad who had so ruthlessly interrupted my
slumbers, "how well you express yourself; you ought to
be in Parliament, man ! Give it him again ; bring him to
his bearings. The impudence of the fellow is getting to be
past endurance 1 Now then, you black swab, where s the
sugar? Do you suppose we can drink that stuff without

sugar r

?"

After a search of some duration the sugar was eventu-
ally found in a locker, in loving contiguity to an open box
of blacking, some boot brushes, a box of candles, a few
fragments of brown windsor, — one of which had somehow
found its way into the bowl, — and a few other fragrant
trifles. In my haste to get on deck, and betrayed by the
feeble light of the purser's dip, which just sufficed to render
the darkness visible, I managed to convey this stray morsel
of soap into my coffee along with the sugar wherewith I
intended to sweeten it, and only discovered what I had
done barely in time to avoid gulping down the soap along

lo A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

with the scalding liquid into which I had plunged it. A
midshipman, however, soon loses all sense of squeamish-
ness, so I contented myself with muttering a sea blessing
upon the head of the unknown individual who had
deposited this ** matter in the wrong place," and dashed
up the hatchway to relieve the impatient Keene.

I shivered and instinctively buttoned my jacket closely
about me as I stepped out on deck, for, mild and bland as
the temperature actually was, it felt raw and chill after the
close, stifling atmosphere of the midshipman's berth. It
was very dark, for it was only just past the date of the new
moon, and the thin silver sickle — which was all that the
coy orb then showed of herself — had set some hours
before ; moreover, there was a thin veil of mist or sea fog
hanging upon the surface of the water, through which
only a few of the brighter stars could be faintly distin-
guished near the zenith. There was no wind — it had
fallen calm the night before about sunset, and we were
in the Horse latitudes — and the frigate was rolling
uneasily upon a short, steep swell that had come creep-
ing up out from the north-east during the middle watch,
the precursor, as we hoped, of the north-east trades — for
we were in the very heart of the North Atlantic, and
bound to the West Indies. I duly received the anathemas
of my shipmate Keene at my tardy appearance on deck,
hurled a properly spirited retort after him down the
hatchway, and then made my way up the poop ladder
to tramp out my watch on the lee side of the deck — if

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC ii

there can be such a thing as a lee side when there is no
wind.

It was dreary work, this tramping fore and aft, fore
and aft, with nothing whatever to engage the attention,
and nothing to do. I therefore eagerly watched for, and

hailed with delight, the first faint pallid brightening of the
eastern sky that heralded the dawn ; for with daylight
there would at least be the ship's toilet to make — the
decks to holystone and scrub, brasswork and guns to
clean and polish, the paintwork to wash, sheets and
braces to flemish-coil, and mayhap something to see, as
well as the possibility that with the rising of the sun we
might get a small slant of wind to push us a few miles
nearer to the region where the trade wind was merrily
blowing.

The dawn came slowly — or perhaps it merely seemed
to my impatience to do so — and with daylight the mist
that had hung about the ship all night thickened into a
genuine, unmistakable fog, so thick that when standing
by the break of the poop it was impossible to see as far
as the jib-boom end.

The fog made Mr. Hennesey, our second lieutenant
and the officer of the watch, uneasy, — as well it might, for
we were in the early spring of the year 1805, and Great
Britain was at war with France, Spain, and Holland, at
that time the three most formidable naval powers in the
world, next to ourselves, and the chances were that every
second ship we might meet would be an enemy, — and at

12 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

length, just as seven bells were being struck, he turned to
me and said

" Mr. Courtenay, you have good eyes ; just jump up on
to the main royal yard, will you, and take a look round.
This fog packs close, but I do not believe it reaches
as high as our mastheads, and I feel curious to know
whether anything has drifted within sight of us during
the night."

I touched rny hat, and forthwith made my way into
the main rigging, glad of even a journey aloft to break
the dismal monotony of the blind, grey, stirless morning,
and in due time swung myself up on to the slender yard,
the sail of which had been clewed up but not furled. But,

alas ! the worthy second luff was mistaken for once in his
life ; it was every whit as thick up there as it was down on
deck, and not a thing could I see but the fore and mizzen-
masts, with their intricacies of standing and running
rigging, their tapering yards, and their broad spaces of
wet and drooping canvas, hanging limp and looming
spectrally through the ghostly mist-wreaths. I was about

I

to hail the deck and report the failure of my experimental
journey, but was checked in the very act by feeling some-
thing like a faint stir in the damp, heavy air about me;
another moment and a dim yellow smudge became visible
on the port beam, which I presently recognised as the
newly risen sun struggling to pierce with his beams the
ponderous masses of white vapour that were now slowly
working as though stirred by some subtle agency. By

))

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 13

imperceptible degrees the pallid vision of the sun brightened
and strengthened, and presently I became conscious of a
faint but distinct movement of the air from off the port
quarter, to which the cloths of the sail against which
my feet dangled responded with a gentle rustling
movement.

" On deck, there ! " I shouted, " it is still as thick as a
hedge up here, sir, but it seems inclined to clear, and I
believe we are going to have a breeze out from the north-
east presently.

" So much the better," answered the second luff,
ignoring the first half of my communication ; "stay where
you are a little longer, if you please, Mr. Courtenay."

" Ay^ ay, sir ! " answered I, settling myself more comfort-
ably upon the yard. And while the words were still
upon my lips the stagnant air about me once more stirred,
the great spaces of canvas beneath me swelled sluggishly
out with a small pattering of reef-points from the three
topsails, and a gentle creak of truss and parrel, as the
strain of the filling canvas came upon the yards ; and I
saw the brightening disc of the sun begin to sweep round
until it bore broad upon our larboard quarter. Then
some sharp words of command from the poop, in Mr.
Hennesey's well-known tones, — dulcet as those of a bull-
frog with a bad cold, — came floating up to me, followed
by the shrill notes of the boatswain's pipe and his hoarse
bellow of, " Hands make sail ! " A few minutes of orderly
confusion down on deck and on the yards below me now

14 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

ensued, and when it ceased the Althea was running square
away before the languid but slowly strengthening breeze,
with studding-sails set on both sides.

Meanwhile the log was gradually clearing, for it was
now possible to see to a distance of fully three lengths of
the ship on either hand, before the curling and sweeping
wreaths of vapour shut out the tiny dancing ripples that
seemed to be merrily racing the ship to port and starboard.
Occasionally a break or clear space in the fog-bank swept
down upon and overtook us, when it would be possible to
see for a distance of a quarter of a mile for a few seconds ;
then it would thicken again and be as blinding as ever.

*

But every break that came was wider than the one that
preceded it, showing that the windward edge of the bank
was rapidly drawing down after us ; and as these breaks
occurred indifferently on cither side of, or sometimes on
both sides at once, with now and then a clear space right
astern to give a spice of variety to the proceedings, my
eyes, as may be guessed, were kept pretty busy.

At length an opening, very considerably wider than
any that had thus far reached us, came sweeping down
upon our starboard quarter, and as I peered into it,
endeavouring to pierce the veil of fog that formed its
farther extremity, I suddenly became aware of a vague
shape indistinctly perceptible through the intervening
wreaths of mist that were now sweeping rapidly along
before the steadily freshening breeze. I saw it but during
the wink of an eyelid, when it was shut in again, but I

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 15

knew at once what it was ; it could be but one thing — a
ship, and I forthwith hailed —

'* On deck, there ! there's a strange sail about a mile
distant, sir, broad on our starboard quarter ! "

"Thank you, Mr. Courtenay,'* promptly responded the
*' second." " What do you make her out to be ? "

" It is impossible at present to say anything definite
about her, sir," I answered. *' I saw her but for a
second, and then only very indistinctly, but she
loomed up through the fog like a craft of about our
own size."

'* Very well, sir," answered Hennesey ; " stay where
you are, and keep a sharp lookout for her next
appearance."

Once more I returned the stereotyped, " Ay, ay, sir ! "
as I sent my glances searching round the ship for further
openings. The next that overtook us swept down upon
our port quarter ; it was fully a mile and a half wide, and
when it bore about four points abaft the beam another
shape slid into it, not vague and shadowy this time, as
the other shape had been, but clearly distinct — a frigate,
unmistakably, under a similar spread of canvas to our
own, and as nearly as possible our own size. So close
indeed was the resemblance that for a second or two I
was disposed to fancy that by some strange trick of light
and reflection the fog was treating me to a picture of the
old Althea herself, but a more steadfast scrutiny soon
dispelled the illusion. There were certain unmistakable

i6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

points of difference between this second apparition and
ourselves, some of which were so strongly characteristic
that I at once set her down as a French frigate.

The plot was thickening, and it was not wholly without
a certain feeling of exhilaration that I again hailed the
deck

"A frigate broad on our port quarter, sir, with a very
Frenchified look about her!"

"Thank you again, Mr. Courtenay," answered
Hennesey, with an unmistakable ring of delight in his
jovial Irish accent, which, by the way, had a trick of
growing more pronounced under the influence of excite-
ment. " Ah, true for you, there she is," he continued, '' I
have her ! Mr. Hudson, have the kindness to jump below
and fetch me my glass, will ye, and look alive, you shmali
anatomy ! "

A gentle ripple of subdued laughter from the forecastle
at this sally of our genial " second " floated up to me from
the forecastle, a glimpse of which I could just catch under
the foot of the foretopsail, and I could see that the men
were all alive down there with pleasurable excitement at
the prospect of a possible fight. Young Hudson — a smart
Uttle fellow, barely fourteen years old, and the most
juvenile member of our mess — was soon on deck again
with the second lieutenant's telescope ; but by this time
the fog had shut the stranger in again, so, for the moment,
friend Hennesey's curiosity had to remain unsatisfied.
Not for long, however ; the presumably French frigate had

u

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 17

not been lost siszht of more than two or three minutes
when I caught a second glimpse of the other craft — the
one first sighted — on our starboard quarter.

"There is the other fellow, sir!" I shouted. *' You
can see her distinctly now. And she too is a frigate,
and French, unless I am greatly mistaken."

By the powers, Mr. Courtenay, I hope you may be
right," answered Hennesey. " Ay, there she is," he
continued, " as plain as mud in a wineglass ! And if she
isn't French her looks belie her. Mr. Hudson, you
spalpeen, slip down below and tell the captain that there
are a brace of suspicious-looking craft within a mile of
us. And ye may call upon Misther Dawson and impart
the same pleasant information to him." Then, turning
his beaming phiz up to me, he continued —

"Mr. Courtenay, it's on the stroke of eight bells, but
all the same you'd better stay where you are for the
present, until the fog clears, since you know exactly the
bearings of those two craft. And I'll thank ye to keep
your weather eye liftin', young gentleman; there may be
a whole fleet of Frenchmen within gun-shot of us, for all
that we can tell."

"Ay, ay, sir!" I cheerfully answered, my curiosity
having by this time got the better of my keen appetite for
breakfast ; moreover, having been the discoverer of the
two sail already sighted, I was anxious to add to the

prestige thus gained by being the first to sight any other
craft that might happen to be in our neighbourhood.

i8 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

My stay aloft, however, was not destined to be a long
one, for the fog was now clearing fast, and within ten
minutes it had all driven away to leeward of us, revealing
the fact that there were but the two sail already discovered
in sight — unless there might happen to be others so far
ahead as to be still hidden in the fog-bank to leeward.
But before I left the royal yard I had succeeded in
satisfying myself, by means of my glass — which had been
sent up to me bent on to the signal halliards — that the
two strangers were frigates, and almost certainly French.
They were exchanging signals at a great rate, but we
could make nothing of their flags, which at least proved
that they were not British. To make assurance doubly
sure, however, we had hoisted our private signal, to which
neither ship had been able to reply. There was no doubt
that they were enemies ; and this fact having been

satisfactorily established, I was permitted to descend and
snatch a hasty breakfast.

And a hasty one it was, for I had scarcely been below

r

five minutes when we were piped to clear for action, and I
was obliged to hurry on deck again. But a hungry mid-
shipman can achieve a good deal in the eating line in five
minutes, and in that brief interval I contrived to stow
away enough food to take the keen edge off my appetite,
promising myself that I would make up my leeway at
dinner-time — provided that I was still alive when the hour
for that meal came round. This last'thought sobered me
down somewhat, and to a certain extent subdued my

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 19

hilarious spirits ; but they rose again as, upon gaining the
deck, I looked round and saw the cheerful yet resolute
faces of the captain and officers, and noted the gaiety with
which the men went about their duty.

The strangers had by this time shown their bunting, —
the tricolour, — so there was no further question of their
nationality or of the fact that we were booked for a sharp
fight, for they had the heels of us and were overhauling
us in grand style ; we could not therefore have escaped,
had we been ever so anxious to do so. And, had we
made the attempt, we should certainly have been quite
justified, for it had now been ascertained that they were
both forty-gun ships, while we mounted only thirty-six
pieces on our gun deck. Escape, however, was apparently
the very last thought likely to occur to Captain Harrison ;
for although he kept the studding-sails abroad while the
ship was being prepared for action, no sooner had the
first lieutenant reported everything ready than the order
was given to shorten sail ; and a pretty sight it was to
see how smartly and with what beautifully perfect pre-
cision everything was done at once, the studding-sails
all collapsing and coming in together at exactly the same

moment that the three royals were clewed up and the flight
of staysails on the main and mizzen masts hauled down.

''Very prettily done, Mr. Dawson," said the skipper
approvingly. " Our friends yonder will see that they have
seamen to deal with, at all events, even though we cannot
sport such a clean pair of heels as their own."

20 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

The two Frenchmen were by this time within less
than half a mile of us, converging upon us in such a
manner as to range up alongside the Althea within the
toss o{ a biscuit on either hand, but neither oi them mani-
fested the slightest disposition to follow our example by
shortening sail. Perhaps they believed that, were they
to do so, we should at once make sail again andendeavour
to escape, whereas by holding on to everything until they
drew up alongside us, we should fall an easy prey to
their superior strength, if indeed we did not surrender at
discretion.

And, truly, the two ships formed a noble and a graceful
picture as they came sweeping rapidly down upon us with
every stitch of canvas set that they could possibly spread,
their white sails towering spire-like into the deep,
tender blue of the cloudless heavens, with the delicate
purple shadows chasing each other athwart the rounded
bosoms of them as the hulls that upbore them swung
pendulum-like, with a little curl of snow under their bows,
over the low hillocks oi swell that chased them, sparkling
in the brilliant sunlight like a heaving floor of sapphire
strewed broadcast with diamonds.

They stood on, silent as the grave, until the craft on
our larboard quarter — which was leading by about a
couple of lengths — had reached to within a short quarter
of a mile of us, when, as we all stood watching them
intently, a jet of flame, followed by a heavy burst of white
smoke, leapt out from her starboard bow port, and the

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 21

next instant the shot went humming close past us, to
dash up the water in a fountain-like jet a quarter of a
mile ahead of us.

"That, I take it, is a polite request to us to heave-to
and haul down our colours/' remarked Captain Harrison
to the first lieutenant, with a smile. " Well, we may as
well return the compliment, Mr. Dawson. Try a shot
at each of them with the stern-chasers. If we could only
manage to knock away an important spar on board either
of them it might so cripple her as to cause her to drop
astern, leaving us to deal with the other one and settle
her business out of hand. Yes, aim at their spars, Mr.
Dawson. It would perhaps have been better had we
opened fire directly they were within range, but I was
anxious not to make a mistake. Now that they have
fired upon us, however, we need hesitate no longer."

The order was accordingly given to open fire with our
stern-chasers, and in less than a minute the two guns
spoke out simultaneously, jarring the old hooker to her
keel. We were unable for a moment to see the effect

of the shots, for the smoke blew in over our taffrail,
completely hiding our two pursuers for a few seconds ;
but when it cleared away a cheer broke from the men
who were manning the after guns, for it was seen that the
f^ylng-jib stay of our antagonist on the port quarter was
cut and the sail towing from the jib-boom end, a neat
hole in her port forctopmast studding-sail showing where
the shot had passed. The other gun had been less

22 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

successful, the shot having passed through the head of
the second frigate's foresail about four feet below the
yard and half-way between the slings and the starboard
yardarm, without inflicting any further perceptible
damage.

"Very well meant! Let them try again/' exclaimed
the skipper approvingly. And as the words issued from
his lips we saw the two pursuing frigates yaw broadly
outward, as if by common consent, and the next instant
they both let drive a whole broadside at us. I waited
breathlessly while one might have counted *' one — two,"
and then the sound of an ominous crashing aloft told me
that we were wounded somewhere among our spars. A
block, followed by a shower of splinters, came hurtling
down on deck, breaking the arm of a man at the aftermost
quarter-deck gun on the port side, and then a louder
crash aloft caused me to look up just in time to see our
mizzen-topmast go sweeping forward into the hollow of
the maintopsail, which it split from head to foot, the
mizzen-topgallant mast snapping short off at the cap as
it swooped down upon the maintopsail yard. Two top-
men were swept out of the maintop by the wreckage in
its descent, and terribly — one of them fatally — injured,
and there were a few minor damages, which, however, were
quickly repaired. Then, as some hands sprang aloft to
clear away the wreck, our stern-chasers spoke out again,
the one close after the other, and two new holes in the
enemy's canvas testified to the excellent aim of our

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 23

gunners ; but, unfortunately, that was the extent of the
damage, both shots having passed very close to, but
just missed, important spars.

The French displayed very creditable smartness va
getting inboard the flying-jib that we had cut away for
them, and by the time that this was accomplished they

had drawn up so close to us that by bearing away a point
or two to port and starboard respectively, both craft were

enabled to bring their whole broadsides to bear upon us,

which they immediately did, taking in their studding-sails,
and otherwise reducing their canvas at the same time,

until we were all three under exactly the same amount
of sail — excepting, of course, that we had lost our mizzen-
topsail with all above it, while theirs still stood intact.
As for us, our guns were all trained as far aft as the
port-holes would permit, and as our antagonists ranged
up on either quarter, within pistol-shot, each gun was
fired point-blank as it was brought to bear. And now
the fight began in real, grim downright earnest, the crew
of each gun loading and firing as rapidly as possible,
while the French poured in their broadsides with a
coolness and precision that extorted our warmest admira-
tion, despite the disagreeable fact that they were playing
havoc with us fore and aft, one of our guns having been
dismounted within three minutes of the arrival of the
enemy alongside us, while the tale of killed and wounded
was growing heavier with every broadside that we
received. But \l we were suffering severely we were

24 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

paying our punishment back with interest, as we could
see by glancing at the hulls of our antagonists, the sides
of which were torn and splintered and pierced all along
the broad white streak that marked the line of ports, —
some of which were knocked two into one, — while their
yellow sides were here and there broadly streaked with
crimson as the blood drained away through their scuppers.
It is true they were fighting us two to one, but, after
all, their advantage was more apparent than real, for,
running level with us as they were, they could only
fight one of their batteries, while we were fighting
both ours, and our guns — every one of them double-
shotted — were being better and more rapidly served than
theirs.

I will not attempt to describe the fight in detail, for
indeed any such attempt could only result in failure.
And as a matter of fact there was very little to describe.
We simply ran dead away to leeward, the three of us,
fighting almost yardarm to yardarm, and exchanging
broadsides as rapidly as the guns could be loaded and
run out. After the first ten minutes of the fight there
was little or nothing to be seen, for the wind was fast
dropping again, and the three ships were wrapped in a
dense white pall of smoke that effectually concealed
everything that was going on at a greater distance than
some fifty feet from the observer. The most impressive
characteristic of the struggle was noise — the incessant
crash of the guns, the discharge of which set up a

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 25

continuous tremor of the ship throughout the entire
fabric of her ; the rending and splintering of timber as the
enen:iy's shot tore its way through the frigate's sides ; the
shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying, cut into
at frequent intervals by some sharp order from the
^captain or the first lieutenant ; the curt commands of
the captains of the guns : " Stop the vent ! run in ! sponge!
load! run out!" and so on; the creak of the tackle
blocks, the rumble of the gun carriages, the clatter of
handspikes, the dull thud of the rammers driving home
the shot, the rattling volleys of musketry from the marines
on the poop, the occasional rending crash of a falling
spar, and the terrific babble of the Frenchmen on either

w

side of us, sounding high and clear in the occasional
brief intervals when all the guns happened to be silent
together for a moment, — I can only compare it all to the
horrible confusion raging through the disordered imagina-
tion of one in the clutches of a fiercely burning fever.
Our people fought grimly and in silence, save for an
occasional cheer at some unusually successful shot; but
the Frenchmen jabbered away incessantly, sometimes
reviling us and shaking their fists at us through their
open ports, and more often squabbling among them-
selves.

At length, when the fight had lasted about half an
hour, the wind dropped to a dead calm, and the French-
man on our starboard side, who had forged somewhat
ahead of us, made an effort to lay himself athwart our

26 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

bows before he lost way altogether. But we were too
quick for him, for his mainmast was towing alongside
and stopped his way; so we did with him what he tried
to do to us, driving square athwart his bows as his bow-
sprit came thrusting in between our fore and main masts,
when we lost not a moment in lashing the spar to our
main ngging. But, after all, it resolved itself into tit for
tat, for the other fellow put his helm hard aport and just

managed to drive square athwart our stern, where he
raked us most unmercifully for fully five minutes, until
he drove clear, bringing down all three of our masts

before he left us. Of course we could only retaliate upon
him with our stern-chasers, which we played upon him
with considerable effect ; but what we lacked in the way
of adequate retort to him we amply made up for to his
consort, raking her time after time with such good-will
that in a few minutes her bows were battered into a mere
mass of torn and splintered timber. Somebody on board
her cried out that they had struck, but as her marines
kept up their fire upon us from the poop, while her main-
deck guns continued to blaze away whenever she swung
sufficiently for any of them to bear, no notice was taken
of this intimation ; and presently our skipper gave the
order to cut her adrift, so that her people might have no
chance to board — a proceeding that would have proved
exceedingly awkward for us in our then weakened
condition.

But it presently became evident that they had no

A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC 27

thought of boarding us ; on the contrary, their chief
anxiety was clearly to escape from the warm berth
that they had thrust themselves into ; for a few minutes
later, the fire on both sides having slackened some-
what, we observed that both craft had their boats in
the water and were doing their best to tow off from
us, and almost immediately afterwards the French
ceased firing altogether. I believe our skipper — fire-
eater though he was — felt unfeignedly thankful at this
cessation of hostilities, for he immediately followed suit,
giving the order for the men to leave the guns and
proceed to repair damages. This was no light task,
for not only were we completely dismasted, but the
hull of the ship was terribly knocked about, the
carpenter reporting five feet of water in the hold and
twenty - seven shot - holes between wind and water,
apart from our other damages, which were sufficiently
serious. Moreover, our *' butcher*s bill" was appallingly
heavy, the list totalling up to no less than thirty-
eight killed and one hundred and six wounded, out
of a total of two hundred and eighty !

CHAPTER II

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS

T

HE French having ceased firing, and manifesting
an unmistakable anxiety to withdraw from our
proximity, we bestowed but little further attention on
them, for it quickly became clear to us that our own
condition was quite sufficiently serious to tax our energies
to the utmost. The first task demanding the attention
of the carpenter and his mates w^as of course the stoppage
of our leaks, and a very difficult task indeed it proved
to be, owing to the rapidity with which the water was
rising in the hold ; by manning the pumps, however,
and employing the entire available remainder of the
crew in baling, we succeeded in plugging all the shot-holes
and clearing the hold of water by noon, when the men
were knocked off to go to thejr w^ell - earned dinner.

r

Then, indeed, we found time to look around us and to
ask ourselves and each other where the French were
and what they were doing. There was no difficulty in
furnishing a reply to either question, for our antagonists

28

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS 29

were only a bare four miles off, and close together. But
bad as our own plight was, theirs was very much worse ;
for we now saw that the frigate which we had raked
so unmercifully was in a sinking condition, having
settled so low in the water indeed that the sills of
her maindeck ports were awash and dipping with
every sluggish heave of her upon the low and almost
imperceptible swell, while her own boats and those
of her consort were busily engaged in taking off her
crew. With the aid of my telescope I could distinctly
see all that was going on, and I saw also that the end
of the gallant craft was so near as to render her dis-
appearance a matter of but a few minutes. Hungry,
therefore, as I was, I determined tO' remain on deck
and see the last of her. Nor had I long to wait ; I
had scarcely arrived at the decision that I would do
so, when, as I watched her through my glass, I saw
the boats that hung around her shoving off hurriedly
one after the other, until one only remained. Presently
that one also shoved off, and, loaded down to her
gunwale, pulled, as hastily as her overloaded condition
would permit, toward the other frigate. She had
scarcely placed half a dozen fathoms between herself
and the sinking ship before the latter rolled heavily
to port, slowly recovered herself, and then rolled still
more heavily to starboard, completely buryingthe whole
tier of her starboard ports a5 she did so. She hung
thus for perhaps half a minute, settling visibly all the

30 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

time ; finally she staggered^ as it were, once more to an
even keel, but with her stern dipping deeper and deeper
every second until her taffrail was buried, while her
battered bows lifted slowly into the air, when, the
inclination of her decks rapidly growing steeper, she
suddenly took a sternward plunge and vanished from
sight in the midst of a sudden swirl of water that was
distinctly visible through the lenses of the telescope. The
occupants of the boat that had so recently left her saw
their danger and put forth herculean efforts to avoid it ;
they were too near, however, to escape, and despite all

their exertions the boat was caught and dragged back
into the vortex created by the sinking ship, into which
she too disappeared. But a few seconds afterwards
I saw heads popping up above the water again, here
and there, while a couple of boats that had just dis-
charged their cargo of passengers dashed away to the
rescue and were soon paddling hither and thither
among the httle black spots that kept popping into
view all round them. I waited until all had seem-
ingly been picked up, and then went below to secure
what dinner might be remaining for me.

When, after a hurried meal, I again went on deck, the
horizon aw^ay to the northward and eastward was
darkening to a light air from that quarter, that came
gently stealing along the glassy surface of the ocean,

first in cat's-paws, then as a gentle breathing that caused
the polished undulations to break into a tremor of

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS 31

laughing ripples, and finally into a light breeze, before
which the surviving French frigate bore up with squared
yards, leaving us unmolested.

Meanwhile the crew, having dined, turned to again
for a busy afternoon's work, which consisted chiefly in
clearing away the wreck of our fallen spars, and saving
as many of them and as much of our canvas and
running gear as would be likely to be of use to us in
fitting the ship with a jury-rig. And so well did the
men work, that by sunset we were enabled to cut adrift
from the wreck of our lower masts, and to bear up in
the wake oi the Frenchman, who by this time had run
us out of sight in the south-western quarter.

But, tired as the men were, there was no rest for
them that night, for it was felt to be imperatively
necessary to get the ship under canvas again without
a moment's delay ; moreover, despite the fact that the
shot-holes had all been plugged, it was found that

*

the battered hull was still leaking so seriously as
to necessitate a quarter of an hour's spell at the
pumps every two hours. The hands were therefore
kept at work, watch and watch,' all through the
night, with the result that when day broke next morn-
ing we had a pair of sheers rigged and on end, ready
to rear into position the spars that had been prepared
and fitted as lower masts. The end of that day found
us once more under sail, after a fashion, and heading
on our course to the southward and westward.

32 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

For the following two days all went well with us, save
that the ship continued to make water so freely as to
necessitate the use of the pumps at the middle and
end of every watch, a fair breeze driving us along
under our jury-canvas at the rate of five to six knots
per hour. Toward evening, however, on the second
day, signs of a change of weather began to manifest
themselves, the sky to windward losing its rich tint
of blue and becoming pallid and hard, streaked with
mares' tails and flecked with small, smoky - looking,
swift-flying clouds, while the setting sun, as he neared
the horizon, lost his radiance and became a mere
shapeless blotch of angry red that finally seemed to
dissolve and disappear in a broad bank of slate-hued
vapour. The sea too changed its colour, from the
clear steel-blue that it had hitherto worn to the hue
of indigo smirched with black. Moreover, I heard
the captain remark to Mr. Da\A^son that the mercury was
falling and that he feared we were in for a dirty night.

And, indeed, so it seemed ; for about the middle
of the second dog-watch the wind lulled perceptibly
and we had a sharp rain-squall, soon after which it
breezed up again, the wand coming first of all in gusts
and then in a strong breeze that, as the night wore on,
steadily increased until it was blowing half a gale,
with every indication of worse to come. The sea, too,
rose rapidly, and came rushhig down upon our star-
board quarter, high, steep, and foam-crested, causing

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS 33

the frigate to roll and tumble about most unpleasantly
under her jury-rig and short canvas. Altogether, the
prospects for the night were so exceedingly unpro-
mising that I must plead guilty to having experienced
a selfish joy at the reflection that it was my eight

hours in.

When I went on deck at midnight that night, I
found that the wind had increased to a whole gale,
with a very high and confused sea running, over which
the poor maimed Althea was wallowing along at a speed
of about eight and a half knots, with a dismal groaning
of timbers that harmonised lugubriously with the clank
of the chain pumps and the swash of water washing
nearly knee-deep about the decks — for the hooker
laboured so heavily that she was leaking like a basket,
necessitating the unremitting use of the pumps through-
out the watch. And — worst of all — Keene whispered
to me that, even with the pumps going constantly, the
water was slowly but distinctly gaining. And thus it
continued all through the middle watch.

It was hoped that the gale would not be of long
duration, but at eight bells next morning the news was
that the mercury was still falling, while the wind,
instead of evincing a disposition to moderate, blew
harder than ever. And oh, what a dreary outlook it
was when, swathed in oilskins, I passed through the
hatchway and stepped out on deck ! The sky was
entirely veiled by an unbroken mass of dark, purplish,

3

34 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

slate-coloured cloud that was almost black in its deeper
shadows, with long, tattered streamers of dirty whitish
vapour scurrying wildly athwart it; a heavy, leaden-hued,
white - crested, foam - flecked sea was running, and in
the midst of the picture was the poor crippled frigate,
rolling and labouring and staggering onward like a
wounded sea-bird under her jury -spars and spray-
darkened canvas, with a miniature ocean washing hither
and thither athwart her heaving deck, and a crowd of
panting, straining, half-naked men clustering about her
pumps, while others were as busily employed in passing
buckets up and down through the hatchways ; the whole
set to the dismal harmony of howling wind, hissing
spray, the wearisome and incessant wash of water, and
the groaning and complaining sounds of the labouring

hull. The skipper and the first luff were pacing the

weather side of the poop together in earnest converse,

and at each turn in their walk they both paused for

an instant, as by mutual consent, to cast a look of

anxious inquiry to windward.

Presently I saw the carpenter coming along the

deck with the sounding-rod in his hand. I intercepted

him just by the foot of the poop ladder and remarked —
"Well, Chips, what is the best news you have to tell

us?"

" The best news?" echoed Chips, with a solemn shake

of the head ; '* there ain't no best, Mr. Courtenay, it's all

worst, sir ; there's over four foot of water in the hold now.

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS 35

and it's gainin' on us at the rate of five inches an hour ;
and if this here gale don't break pretty quick I won't
answer for the consequences ! "

And up he went to make his report to the skipper.

This was bad news indeed, especially for the un-
fortunate men who were compelled by dire necessity to
toil unceasingly at the back-breaking labour of working
the pumps ; but I felt no apprehension as to our ultimate
safety. Five inches of water per hour was a formidable
gain for a leak to make in spite of all the pumping and
baling that could be accomplished, yet it would take so
many hours at that rate to reduce the frigate to a water-
logged condition that ere the arrival of that moment the
gale would certainly blow itself out, the labouring and
straining of the ship would cease, the leak would be got
under control again, and all would be w^ell.

But when, at noon that day, — the gale showing no
symptoms whatever of abatement, — the captain gave
orders for the upper-deck guns to be launched overboard,
I began to realise that our condition was such as might
easily become critical. And when, about half an hour
before sunset, orders were given to throw the main~(^^cV
guns overboard, it became borne in upon me that matters
were becoming mighty serious with us.

With the approach of night the gale seemed rather to
increase in strength than otherwise, while the sea was

certainly considerably heavier; and the worst of it was
that there was no indication of an approaching change for

36 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

the better. As for the poor Althea, she certainly did not
labour quite so heavily now that she was relieved of the
weight of her guns, but the water in the hold still gained
steadily upon the pumps, and the more experienced
hands among us were beginning to hint at the possibility
of our being compelled to leave her and take to the boats.
And these hints received something of confirmation when,
shortly after the commencement of the first watch, the
carpenter and his mates were seen going the rounds of
the boats and examining into their condition with the aid
of lanterns. Nevertheless, and despite these omens, the
men stuck resolutely to the pumps and the baling all
through the night, the captain and the first lieutenant
animating and encouraging them by their presence
throughout the long, dismal, dreary hours of darkness.

About three bells in the morning watch the welcome
news spread throughout the ship that the mercury had at
length begun to rise again ; and with the approach of
dawn it became apparent that the gale was breaking, the
sky to windward gave signs of clearing, and hope once
more sprang up within our breasts. But the men,
although still willing and even eager to continue the

heart-breaking work of pumping and baling, were by

this time utterly worn out; the water in the hold steadily
and relentlessly gained upon them, despite their most
desperate efforts, and by the arrival of breakfast-time it
had become perfectly apparent to everybody that the
poor old Aithea was a doomed ship !

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS 37

If, however, there was any doubt as to this in the
minds of any of us, it was quickly dispelled, for after
breakfast the order was passed to knock off baling ; and
the men thus relieved were at once set to work under the
first and second lieutenants, the one party to prepare a sea
anchor, and the other to attend to the provisioning of the
boats and get them ready for launching. I was attached
to the first lieutenant's party, or that which undertook the
preparation of the sea anchor; and as the idea impressed
me as being rather ingenious, I will describe it for the
benefit of those who may feel interested \x\ such matters,
prefacing my description with the explanation that, in
consequence of the springing up of the gale so soon after
our action with the Frenchmen, our jury-rig was of a very
primitive and incomplete character, such as would enable
us to run fairly well before the wind, but not such as would
permit of our lying-to ; hence the need for a sea anchor,
now that the necessity had arisen for us to launch our
boats in heavy weather.

The sea anchor was the offspring of the first lieutenant's
inventiveness, and it consisted of an old forctopsail bent
to a couple of booms of suitable length and stoutness.
The head of the sail was bent to one of the booms with
seizings, in much the same manner as it would have been
bent to a topsail yard, while the clews were securely
lashed to the extremities of the other boom. Then to
the boom which represented the topsail }'ard was attached,
a crow-foot made of two spans of stout hawser, having an

38 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

eye in the centre of them to which to bend the cable.
The lower boom was well weighted by the attachment to
it of a number of pigs of iron ballast, as well as our stream
anchor ; after which the starboard cable was paid out and
passed along aft, outside the fore rigging, the end being
then brought inboard and bent on to the crow-foot. The
whole was then made up as compactly as possible with
lashings, after which, by means of tackles aloft, it was
hoisted clear of the bulwarks and lowered down over the
side ; the lashings were then cut and the sail dropped
into the water, opening out as it did so, when, the lower
boom sinking with the weight attached to it, a broad
surface was exposed, acting as a very efficient sea anchor.
At the moment when everything was ready to let go, the
ship's helm was put hard over, bringing her broadside-
on to the sea, when, as she drove away to leeward, she
brought a strain upon her cable that at once fetched her
up head to wind. This part of the process having been
successfully accomplished, it was an easy matter to bend
a spring on to the cable and heave the ship round broad-
side-on to the sea once more, in which position she
afforded an excellent lee under the shelter of which to
launch our boats, which, but for this contrivance, must
have inevitably been swamped.

By the time that all this was done the boats were
ready for launching, and the captain gave orders for this
to be at once proceeded with, beginning with the launch ;
this being the heaviest boat in the ship, and the most

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS 39

difficult to get into the water. I feit exceedingly doubtful
as to the abihty oi our jury-spars to support the weight
of so heavy a craft, but, by staj'ing them well, the delicate
task was at length successfully accomplished, when the
worst cases among the wounded were brought on deck
and carefully lowered over the side into the boat beneath,
the doctor, with his instruments and medicine-chest, being
already there to receive them. And as soon as she had
received her complement, the launch was veered away to
leeward at the end of a long line — but still under the
shelter of the ship's hull — to make room for the first cutter.
The rest of the boats followed in succession — the men
preserving to the very last moment the most admirable
order and discipline — until only the captain's gig, of which
I was placed in command, remained. The proper com-
plement of this boat was six men, in addition to the
coxswain ; but in order that the wounded — who were
placed in the launch and the first and second cutters
might be as little crowded as possible, the remainder of
the boats received rather more than their full complement,
in consequence of which my crew numbered ten, all told,
instead of seven. We were the last boat to leave the
ship, the skipper having gone below to his cabin for some
purpose at the last minute ; and I assure you that, the
bustle and excitement of getting the men out of the ship
being now all over, I found it rather nervous and trying
work to stand there in the gangway, waiting for the
reappearance of the captain on deck. For the ship was

40 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

by this time in a sinking condition and liable to go down
under our feet at any moment, having settled so low in
the water that she rolled her closed maindeck ports
completely under with every sickly lurch of her upon the
still heavy sea that was now continuously breaking over
her, while the water could be distinctly heard washing
about down below.

At length the skipper came out of his cabin, bearing in
his hand a large japanned tin box.

*' Jump down, Mr. Courtenay, and stand by to take this
box from me," he cried ; and down the side I went,
needing no second bidding. The box was carefully

passed down to me, and I stowed it away in the stern-
sheets. When I had done so, and looked up at the ship,
Captain Harrison was standing in the gangway with his
hat in his hand, looking wistfully and sorrowfully along
the deserted decks and aloft at the jury-spars that, with
their rigging, so pathetically expressed the idea of a
mortally wounded creature gallantly but hopelessly
struggling against the death that was inexorably drawing
near. Some such fancy perhaps suggested itself to him,
for I distinctly saw him dash his hand across his eyes
more than once. At length he turned, descended the
side-ladder, and, watching his opportunity, sprang lightly

into the boat.

" Shove off, Mr. Courtenay ! " he ordered, as he wrapped

himself in his boat cloak.

"Shove off!" I reiterated in turn, and forthwith away

THE ALTHEA FOUNDERS 41

we went, the men nothing loath, SiS I could clearly see,
for the ship was now liable to founder at any moment ;
indeed the wonder to me was that she remained afloat
so long, for she had by this time sunk so deep that her
channels were completely buried, only showing when she
rolled heavily away from us. Poor old barkie ! what a
desolate and forlorn object she looked as we pulled away
from her, with little more than her bulwarks showing
above water, with the seas making a clean breach over her
bows continually, as she rolled and plunged with sickening
sluggishness to the great ridges of steel-grey water that
incessantly swooped down upon her and into which her
bows, pinned down by the weight of water within her
hull, occasionally bored, as though, tired of the hopeless
struggle for existence, she had at length summoned re-
solution to take the final plunge and so end it all. Again
and again I thought she was gone, but again and yet
again she emerged wearily and heavily out of the deluges
of water that sought to overwhelm her; but at length an
unusually heavy sea caught her with her bows pinned
down after a plunge into the trough ; clear, green, and
unbroken it brimmed to her figure-head and poured in a
foaming cataract over her bows, sweeping the whole
length of her from stem to stern until her hull was com-
pletely buried. As the wave left her it was seen that her
bows were still submerged, and a moment later it became
apparent that the end had come and she was taking her
final plunge.

42 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

" There she goes ! " shouted one of the men ; and as
the fellow uttered the words the captain rose to his feet
in the stern-sheets and doffed his hat, as though he had
been standing beside the grave of a dear friend, watching
the dear old barkie as, with her stern gradually rising high,
she slid slowly and solemnly out of sight, the occupants
of the boats giving her a parting cheer as she vanished.
The captain stood motionless until the swirl that marked
her grave had disappeared, then he replaced his hat, re-
sumed his seat, and remarked

"Give way, men ! Mr. Courtenay, be good enough to
put me aboard the launch, if you please."

CHAPTER III

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE

PON reaching the launch, the captain's first care
was to satisfy himself as to the well-being and
comfort of the poor wounded fellows aboard her ; but the
doctor had already attended to this matter, with the result
that they were as comfortable as the utmost care and
forethought could render them. The master, meanwhile,
had been ascertaining the exact latitude and longitude of
the spot where the frigate had gone down, and he now
communicated the result of his calculations to the captain,
who thereupon gave orders for the boats to steer south-
west on a speed trial for the day, the leading boat to
heave-to at sunset and wait for the rest to close. I had
not the remotest notion as to the meaning of this some-
what singular order, but my obvious duty was to execute
it ; so I forthwith made sail upon the gig, and a very few
minutes sufficed to demonstrate that we were the fastest
boat of the whole squadron. Nor was this at all sur-
prising, for the gig was not an ordinary service boat ; she

43

44 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

was the captain's own private property, having been built
to order from his own design, with a special view to the
development of exceptional sailing powers, boat-sailing
being quite a hobby with him. She was a splendid craft
of her kind, measuring thirty feet in length, with a beam
of six feet, and she pulled six oars. She was a most
beautiful model of the whale-boat type, double-ended, with
quite an unusual amount of sheer fore and aft, which gave
her a fine, bold, buoyant bow and stern ; moreover, these
were covered in with light turtle-back decks, that forward
measuring six feet in length, while the after turtle-back
measured five feet from the stern-post. She was fitted
with a keel nine inches deep amidships, tapering off to
four inches deep at each end; was rigged as a schooner,
with standing fore and main lug and a small jib, and,
with her ordinary crew on board and sitting to windward,
required no ballast even in a fresh breeze. Small wonder,
therefore, was it that, having such a boat under us, we
had run the rest of the fleet out of sight by midday, the
wind still blowing strong, although it was moderating
rapidly.

The first lieutenant was, like the captain, fond of in-
venting and designing things, but his speciality took the
form of logs for determining the speed of craft through
the water ; and in the course of his experiments he had
provided each of the frigate's boats with an ingenious
spring arrangement which, attached to an ordinary
fishing-line with a lead weight secured to its outer end,

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 45

which was continuously towed astern, registered the
speed of the boat with a very near approach to perfect
accuracy.

The day passed uneventfully away, the wind moderating
steadily all the time, and the sun breaking through con-
siderably before noon, enabling me to secure a meridian
altitude wherefrom to compute my latitude. The sea,
too, was going down, and when the sun set that night the
sky wore a very promising fine-weather aspect. As the
great golden orb vanished below the horizon we rounded
the boat to, lowered our sails, and moored her to a sea
anchor made of the oars lashed together in a bundle
with the painter bent on to them. And later on, when
it fell dark, we lighted a lantern and hoisted it to our
foremasthead, as a beacon for which the other boats
might steer. The g\g had behaved splendidly all through
the day, never shipping so much as a single drop of water,
and now that she was riding to her oars she took the sea
so easily and buoyantly that I felt as safe as I had ever
done aboard the poor old Althea herself, and unhesi-
tatingly allowed all hands to turn in as best they
could in the bottom of the boat, undertaking to keep
a lookout myself until the other boats had joined
company.

The first boat to make her appearance was the service
gig in charge of Mr. YIowgts, the third lieutenant ; she
ranged up alongside and hove-to about two hours after
sunset, soon afterwards following our example by throwing

46 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

out a sea anchor. Then came the first and second cutters,
in command of the first and second lieutenants ; the first
cutter arriving about an hour after Mr. Flowers, while the
second cutter appeared about a quarter of an hour later.
The launch followed about half an hour astern of the
second cutter; but this was not to be wondered at, the
former being rather deep, owing to the very generous
supply of water that the doctor had insisted on carry-
ing for the comfort of the wounded. Then, some
three-quarters of an hour later, came the jolly-boat
in charge of the boatswain ; and finally the dinghy,
carrying four hands and in charge of my friend
and fellow-mid. Jack Keene, turned up close upon
midnight.

Long ere this, however, we had each in succession
spoken the launch, reporting the distance that we had
traversed up to sunset. And, with the data thus supplied,
the master had gone to work upon a calculation which
formed the basis of a sort of table showing the ratio of the
speeds of the several boats, with the aid of which the officer
in charge of each boat could estimate with a moderate
degree of accuracy the position of each of the other boats
at any given moment — so long, that is to say, as the wind
held fair enough to allow the boats to steer a given course.
A copy of this table was then furnished to the officer in
command of each boat, after which the captain ordered
Mr. Flowers to make the best of his way to Barbadoes,
with instructions to report the loss of the frigate immedi-

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 47

ately upon his arrival, with a request to the senior naval
officer that a craft of some sort might be forthwith des-
patched in search of the other boats. Similar instructions
were next given to me, except that my port of destination
was Bermuda. Of course we each carried a written as
well as a verbal message to the senior naval officer of the
port to which we were bound ; and equally, of course, it
was impressed upon us both that if we happened to en-
counter a friendly craft en route, and could induce her to
undertake the search, it would be so much the better.
Having received these instructions, and taken young
Lindsay out oi the launch, which was a trifle over-crowded,
I at once made sail and parted company, the occupants of
the other boats giving us the encouragement of a farewell
cheer as we did so ; they also making sail at the same
time on a west-south-westerly course, which would afford
them about an even chance of being picked up by a craft

either from Bermuda or Barbadoes ; while, in the event of
their being found by neither, they stood a very good
chance of hitting off one or another of the Leeward
Islands.

For the remainder of that night we sped gaily onward,
with the wind about two points free, making splendid
progress ; although I am bound to admit that, with the
height of sea and the strength of wind that still prevailed,
there were moments when the task of sailing the boat
became exciting enough to satisfy the cravings of even
the most exacting individual Lindsay and I relieved

48 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

each other at the tiller, watch and watch, with one hand
forward to keep a lookout ahead and to leeward, the rest
of the poor fellows being so thoroughly worn out by their
long spell at the pumps that rest and sleep was an
even more imperative necessity for them than it was
for us.

By the time of sunrise the wind had dwindled away
to a topgallant breeze, with a corresponding reduction in
the amount of sea ; we were therefore enabled to shake
out the double reef that we had thus far been compelled
to carry in our canvas, while the aspect of the sky was
more promising than it had been for several days past.
The weather was now as favourable as we could possibly
wish, the wind being just fresh enough to send us along
at top speed, gunwale-to, under whole canvas, while the
sea was going down rapidly. But, as the day wore on,
the improvement in the weather progressed just a little
too far ; it became even finer than we wished it, the wind
continuing to drop steadily, until by noon we were sliding
over the long, mountainous swell at a speed of barely
four knots, with the hot sun beating down upon us far
too ardently to be pleasant. Needless to say, we kept a
sharp lookout for a sail all through the day, but saw
nothing ; the flying-fish that sparkled out from the ridges
of the swell and went skimming away to port and star-
board, gleaming as brilliantly in the strong sunlight as a
handful of new silver dollars, being the only objects to
break the solitude that environed us. By sunset that day

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 49

the wind had died completely out, leaving the ocean a
vast surface of slow-moving, glassy undulations, and I was
reluctantly compelled to order the canvas to be taken in,
the masts to be struck, and the oars to be thrown out.
Then, indeed, as the night closed down upon us and the
stars came winking, one by one, out of the immeasurable
expanse of darkening blue above us, the silence of the
vast ocean solitude that hemmed us in became a thing
that might be felt So oppressive was it that, as by
instinct, our conversation gradually dwindled to the de-
sultory exchange of a few whispered remarks, uttered at
lengthening intervals, until it died out altogether ; while
the profound stillness of air and ocean seemed to become
accentuated rather than broken bv the measured roll of
the oars in the rowlocks, and the tinkling lap of the water
under the bows and along the bends of the boat. We
pulled four oars only instead of six, in order that we
might have two relays, or w^atches, who relieved each
other every four hours. The men pulled a long, steady,
easy stroke, of a sort that enabled them to keep on
throughout the w^atch without undue fatigue, by taking
a five minutes' spell of rest about once an hour ; but it
was weary work for the poor fellows, after all, and our

progress soon became provokingly slow.

About three bells in the middle watch that night, as I

half sat, half reclined in the stern-sheets, drowsily steering

by a star, and occasionally glancing over my shoulder at

the ruddy, glowing sickle of the rising moon, then in her

4

50 A PIRATE OF THf-: CARIBBEES

last quarter, we were all suddenly startled by the sound
of a loud, deep-drawn sigh that came to us from some-
where off the larboard bow, apparently at no great distance
from the boat ; and while we sat wondering" and listening,
with poised oars, the sound was repeated close aboard of
us, but this time on our starboard quarter, accompanied
by a soft washing of water ; and turning sharply, I beheld,
right in the shimmering, golden wake of the moon, a huge,
black, shapeless, gleaming bulk noiselessly upheave itself
out of the black water and slowly glide up abreast of us
until it was alongside and all but within reach of our oars.

''A whale!'* whispered one of the men, in tones that
were a trifle unsteady from the startling surprise of the
creature's sudden appearance.

" Ay," replied the man next him, " and that was
another that we heard just now; bull and cow, most
likely. I only hopes they haven't got a calf with 'em,
because if they have, the bull may take it into his head
to attack us ; they're mighty short-tempered sometimes
when they have young uns cruisin' in company ! I

minds one time when I was aboard the old Walrus — a
whaler sailin' out of Dundee — that was afore I was

pressed

Another long sigh-like expiration abruptly interrupted

the yarn, and close under our bows there rose another

leviathan, so closely indeed that, unless it was a trick of

the imagination, I felt a slight tremor thrill through the

boat, as though he had touched us ! Involuntarily I

))

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE

glanced over the side ; and it was perhaps well that I did
so, for there, right underneath the boat, far down in the
black depths, I perceived a small, faint, glimmering patch
of phosphorescence, that, as I looked, grew larger and
more distinct, until, in the course of a very few seconds,
it assumed the shape of another monster rising plumb
underneath us.

'* Back water, men ! back water, for your lives ! There
is one of them coming up right under our keel ! " I cried ;
and, at the words, the men dashed their oars into the
water and we backed out of the way, just in time to avoid
being hove out of the water and capsized, this fellow
happening to come up with something very like a rush.

Meanwhile, others were rising here and there all around
us, until we found ourselves surrounded by a school of
between twenty and thirty whales. It was a rather
alarming situation for us ; for although the creatures

appeared perfectly quiet and well-disposed, there was
no knowing at what moment one of them might gather
way and run us down, either intentionally or inadvertently ;
while there ^v^as also the chance that another ml^ht rise

o

beneath us so rapidly as to render it impossible for us to
avoid him. One of the men suggested that we should
endeavour to frighten them away by making a noise of
some sort ; but the former whaler strongly vetoed this
proposition, asserting — whether rightly or wrongly I know
not — that if we startled them the chances were that those
nearest at hand would turn upon us and destroy the boat.

52 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

We therefore deemed it best to maintain a discreet silence ;
and in this condition of unpleasant suspense we remained,
floating motionless for a full half-hour, the whales mean-
while lying as motionless as ourselves, when suddenly a
stir seemed to thrill through the whole herd, and all in a
moment they got under way and went leisurely off in a
northerly direction, to our great relief. We gave them a
full quarter of an hour to get well out of our way, and
then the oars dipped into the water once more, and we
resumed our voyage.

At daybreak the atmosphere was still as stagnant as
it had been all through the night, the surface of the ocean
being unbroken by the faintest ripple, save where, about
a mile away, broad on our starboard bow, the fin of a
solitary shark lazily swimming athwart our course turned
up a thin, blue, wedge-shaped ripple as he swam. There
was, however, a faint, scarcely perceptible mistiness in the

atmosphere that led me to hope we might get a small
breeze from somewhere — I little cared where — before the
day grew many hours older. At nine o'clock I secured
an excellent set of sights for my longitude, — having taken
the precaution to set my watch by the ship's chronometer
before parting company with the launch, — and it was

depressing to find, after I had worked out my calculations,
how little progress we had made during the twenty-one
hours since the previous noon. As the morning wore on
the mistiness that I had observed in the atmosphere at

■

daybreak passed away, but the sky lost its rich depth of

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 53

blue, while the sun hung aloft, a dazzling but rayless
globe of palpitating fire. A change of some sort was
brewing, 1 felt certain, and I was somewhat surprised
that, with such a sky above us, the atmosphere should
remain so absolutely stagnant.

As the day wore on, the thin, scarcely perceptible veil
of vapour that had dimmed the richness of the sky tints
in the early morning gradually thickened and seemed to
be assuming somewhat of a distinctness of shape. I just
succeeded in securing the meridian altitude of the sun, for
the determination of our latitude, but that was all. Half
an hour after noon the haze had grown so dense that the
great luminary showed through it merely as a shapeless
blur of pale, watery radiance, and wnthin another hour he
had disappeared altogether from the overcast sky. Still
the wind failed to come to our help ; the atmosphere
seemed to be dead, so absolutely motionless was it ; and
although the sun had vanished behind the murky vapours
that were stealthily and imperceptibly veiling the firma-
ment, the heat was so distressing that the perspiration
streamed from every pore, the manipulation of the oars
grew more and more languid, and at length, as though
actuated by a common impulse, the men gave in, declaring
that they were utterly exhausted and could do no more.
And I could well believe their assertion, for even I, whose
exertions were limited to the steering of the boat, felt
that even such slight labour was almost too arduous to
be much longer endured. The oars were accordingly

54 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

laid in, we went to dinner, and then the men flung
themselves down in the bottom of the boat, and,
with their pipes clenched between their teeth, fell
fast asleep, an example which was quickly followed
by Lindsay and myself, despite all our efforts to the

M

contrary.

When I awoke it was still breathlessly calm, and I
thought for a moment that night had fallen, so dark was
it; but upon consulting my watch I found that it still
wanted nearly an hour to sunset. But, heavens ! what
a change had taken place in the aspect of the weather
during the four hours or so that 1 had lain asleep
in the stern-sheets of the boat! It is quite possible that,
had I remained awake, I should scarcely have been
aware of more than the mere fact that the sky was steadily
assuming an increasingly sombre and threatening aspect ;
but, awaking as I did to the abrupt perception of the

change that had been steadily working itself out during
the previous four hours, it is not putting it too strongly
to say that I was startled. For whereas my last conscious
memory of the weather, before succumbing to the blandish-
ments of the drowsy god, had been merely that of a
lowering, overcast sky, that might portend anything, but
probably meant no more than a sharp thunder-squall, I
now awakened to the consciousness that the firmament

above consisted of a vast curtain of frowning, murky,
black-grey cloud, streaked or furrowed in a very remark-
able manner from about east-south-east to west-nor'-west,

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 55

the lower edges of the clouds presenting a curious frayed
appearance, while the clouds themselves glowed here and
there with patches of lurid, fiery red, as though each bore
within its bosom a fiercely burning furnace, the ruddy
light of which shone through in places. I had never
before beheld a sky like it, but its aspect was sufficiently
alarming to convince the veriest tyro in weather-lore that
something quite out of the common was brewing ; so I at
once awoke the slumbering crew to inquire whether any
of them could read the signs and tell me what we might
expect.

The newly-awakened men yawned, stretched their arms
above their heads, and dragged themselves stiffly up on
the thwarts, gazing with looks of wonder and alarm at the
portentous sky that hung above them.

" Well, if we was in the Chinese seas, I should say that
a typhoon was goin' to bust out shortly," observed one of
them — a grizzled, mahogany-visaged old salt, who had seen
service all over the world. "But," he continued, '* they
don't have typhoons in the Atlantic, not as ever I've
heard say."

" No, they don't have typhoons here, but they has
hurricanes, which I take to mean pretty much the same
thing," remarked another.

" You are right, Tom," said I, thus put upon the scent,
as it were, "a Chinese typhoon and a West Indian
hurricane are the same thing under different names. A
third name for them is ' cyclone ' ; and as this threatening

56 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

sky seems to remind Dunn so powerfully of a Chinese
typhoon, depend upon it we are going to have a taste of a
West Indian hurricane, or cyclone. I have read some-
where that the\^ frequently originate out here in the heart
of the Atlantic."

" If we're agoin' to have a typhoon, or a hurricane, or a
cyclone — whichever you likes to call it — all I say is, ' The
Lord ha' mercy upon us/ " remarked Dunn. " Big ships
has all their work cut out to weather one o' them gales ;

so what are ^ve agoin' to do in this here open boat, Td like

to know ? "

'* Have you ever been through a typhoon, Dunn ? "
I asked.

"Yes, sir, I have, and more than one of 'cm," was the
reply. " I was caught in one off the Paracels, in the old
Audacious frigate, — as fine a sea-boat as ever was launched,
and, in less time than it takes to tell of it, we was
dismasted and hove down on our beam-ends ; and it took
us all our time to keep the hooker afloat and get her into
Hong-Kong harbour. And the very next year I was
catched again — in the Bashee Channel, this time — in the
Lively schooner, of six guns. We kno\vcd it was comin' ;
it gived us good warnin* and left us plenty of time to get
ready for it; so Mr. Barker — the lieutenant in command —
gived orders to send the yards and both topmasts down
on deck, and rig in the jib-boom ; and then he stripped
her down to a close-reefed boom foresail. But we
capsized — reg'larly * turned turtle ' — when the gale struck

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 57

us, and only five of us lived to tell the tale. As to this
here boat, if a hurricane anything at all like them Chinee
typhoons gets hold of her, why, we shall just be blowed
clean away out o' water and up among the clouds ! And
that's just what's goin' to happen, if signs counts for
anything."

Wherewith the speaker thrust both hands into
his trouser pockets, disgustedly spat a small ocean of
tobacco - juice overboard, and subsided into gloomy
silence.

It was a sufficiently alarming retrospect, in all con-
science, to which we had just listened, and the prophetic
utterance wherewith it had been wound up, while power-
fully suggestive of a highly novel and picturesque experi-
ence in store for us, was certainly not attractive enough to

cause us to look forward to its fulfilment with undisturbed
serenity ; nevertheless, I did not feel like tamely giving in

without making some effort to save the boat and the lives

with which I had been entrusted, so I set myself seriously

to consider how we could best utilise such time as might

be allowed us, in making some sort of preparation to meet

the now confidently-expected outburst, I looked over

our resources, and found that they consisted, in the main,

of eight oars, two boat-hooks, two masts, two yards, three

sails, half a coil of two-inch rope that some thoughtful

individual had pitched into the boat when getting her

ready for launching, half a coil of ratline and two large

balls of spun-yarn, due to the forethought of the same or

58 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

some other individual, a painter some ten fathoms long-,
and the boat's anchor, together with the gratings,
stretchers, and other fittings belonging to the boat,
and a few oddments that might or might not prove

useful.

Was it possible to do anything with these ? After
considering the matter carefully I thought it was. The
greatest danger to which we were likely to be exposed
seemed to me to consist in our being swamped by the
flying spindrift and scud water or by the breaking seas,
and if we could by any means contrive to keep the water
out there was perhaps a bare chance that we might be
able to weather the gale. And, after a little further con-
sideration, I thought that what I desired to do might
possibly be accomplished by means of the boat's sails,
which were practically new, and made of very light,
but closely woven canvas, that ought to prove water-
tight. So, having unfolded my ideas to the men, we all
went to work with alacrity to put them to the test of
actual practice.

Of course it was utterly useless to think of scudding
before the gale ; our only hope of living through what was
impending depended upon our ability to keep the boat
riding bows-on to the sea, and to do this it became
necessary for us to improvise a sea anchor again. This

was easily done by lashing together six of our eight oars
in a bundle, three of the blades at one end and three at
the other, with the boat anchor lashed amidships to sink

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 59

the oars somewhat in the water and give them a grip of
it. A span, made by doubling a suitable length of our
two-inch rope, was bent on to the whole affair, and the
boat's painter was then bent on to the span, when the
apparatus was launched overboard, and our sea anchor
was ready for service.

Our next task was to cut the two lug-sails adrift from
their yards. The mainsail was then doubled in half, and
one end spread over the fore turtle-back and drawn taut.
Over this, outside the boat and under her keel, we then
passed a length of our two-inch rope, girding the boat
with it and confining the fore end of the sail to the turtle-
back, when, with the aid of one of the stretchers, we were
able to heave this girth - rope so taut as to render it
impossible for the sail to blow away. But before heaving
it taut, we passed a second girth-rope round the boat over
the after turtle-back, next connecting both girth-ropes
together by lengths of rope running fore and aft along the
outside of the boat underneath the edge of the top strake.
The doubled mainsail was then strained taut across the
boat, and its edges tucked underneath the fore-and-aft
lines outside the boat ; the foresail was treated in the
same way, but with its fore edge overlapped by about a
foot of the after edge of the mainsail. Our girth-ropes
were then hove taut, with the finished result that we had
a canvas deck covering the boat from the fore turtle-back
to within about six feet of the after one. The edges of
the sails were next turned up and secured by seizings on

6o A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

either side, and our deck was complete. But, as it then
stood, I was not satisfied with it, for at the after extremity
of it there was an opening some six feet long, and as wide
as the boat, through which a very considerable quantity of
water might enter — quite enough, indeed, to swamp the
boat. And with our canvas deck lying flat, as it then
was, there was no doubt that very large quantities of
water would wash over it, and pour down through the
opening, should the sea run heavily. Our deck needed to
be sloped upward from the forward to the after end of the
boat, so that any water which might break over it would
flow off on either side before reaching the opening to
which I have referred. We accordingly laid the boat's

mainmast along the thwarts fore and aft, amidships, and
lashed the heel firmly to the middle of the foremost
thwart. Then, by lashing our two longest stretchers
together, we made a crutch for the head or after end of
the mast to rest in ; when, by placing this crutch upright
in the stern-sheets against the backboard, we were able
to raise the mast underneath the sails until it not only
formed a sort of ridge-pole, converting the sails into a
sloping roof, but it also strained the canvas as tight as a
drum-head, rendering it so much the less liable to blow
away, while it at the same time afforded a smooth
surface for the water to pour off, and it also possessed
the further advantage that it gave us a little more head-
room underneath the canvas deck or roof This com-
pleted our preparations — none too soon, for it was now

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 6i

rapidly growing dark, and the light of our lantern
was needed while putting the finishing touches to our
work.

Our task accomplished, we of course at once extin-
guished our lantern, — for candles were scarce with us, —
and we then for the first time became aware of the
startling rapidity with which the night seemed to have
fallen ; for with the extinguishment of the lantern we
found ourselves enwrapped in darkness so thick that it
could almost be felt. This, however, proved to be only
transitory, for with the lapse of a few minutes our eyes
became accustomed to the gloom, and we were then able
not only to discern the shapes of the vast pile of clouds
that threateningly overhung us, but also their reflections
in the oil-smooth water, the latter made visible by the
dull, ruddy glow emanating from the clouds themselves,
which was even more noticeable now than it had been
before nightfall, and which was so unnatural and appall-
ing a sight that I believe there was not one of us who
was not more or less affected by it. It was the first time
that I had ever beheld such a sight, and I am not
ashamed to confess that the sensation it produced in me
was, for a short time, something very nearly akin to terror,
so dreadful a portent did it seem to be, and so profoundly
impressed was I with our utter helplessness away out
there in mid-ocean, in that small, frail boat, with no

friendly shelter at hand, and nothing to protect us from
the gathering fury of the elements — nothing, that is to

62 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

say, but the hand of God ; and — I say it with shame — I
thought far too little of Him in those days.

Not the least trying part of it all was the painful
tension of the nerves produced by the suspense — the
enforced zvaitingiox the awful ordeal that lay before us.
There was nothing for us to do, nothing to distract our
attention from that awful, threatening sky, that looked as
though it might momentarily be expected to burst into
a devastating flame that would destroy the world ! Some
of the men, indeed, frankly avowed that the sight was
too terrible for them, and crept away under the canvas,
where they disposed themselves in the bottom of the boat,
and strove to while away the time in sleep.

At length — it would be about the close of the second
dog-watch — we became conscious that the swell, which
had almost entirely subsided, was gathering weight again,
coming this time out from the north-west. At first the
heave was only barely perceptible, but within half an hour
it had grown into a succession of long, steep undulations,

running at right angles athwart the old swell, causing the
boat to heave and sway \vith a singularly uneasy move-
ment, and frequent vicious, jerky tugs at her painter.
Then we noticed that the clouds — which had hitherto
been motionless, or so nearly so that their movement was
not to be detected — were working with a writhing motion,
as though they were chained giants enduring the agonies
of some dreadful torture, while the awful ruddy light
which they emitted glowed with a still fiercer and more

THE GIG IS CAUGHT IN A HURRICANE 63

lurid radiance, lighting up the restlessly heaving ocean
until it burned like the flood of Phlegethon. Anon there
appeared a few scattered shreds of smoky scud speeding
swiftly athwart the fiery canopy, and almost immediately
afterwards, with a low, weird, wailing sound, there swept
over us a scurrying blast that came and was gone again
in a second. It came out from the north-west, and
judging that this was probably the direction from which
the gale itself would come, we at once rigged out over the
stern one of the two oars remaining in the boat, and
swept the bows of the gig round until they pointed due
north-west. Scarcely had we accomplished this when a
second scuffle came whistling down upon us from the
same direction, and before it had swept out of hearing
astern there arose a low moaning to windward, that
increased in strength and volume with appalling rapidity.
The sky suddenly grew black as ink ahead, a lengthening
line of ghostly white appeared stretching along the
horizon ahead and bearing down upon us with frightful
speed ; the moan grew into a deep, thunderous, howling
roar, and from that to a yell which might have issued
from the throats of a million fiends in torment ; the white
wall of foam and the yelling fury of wind struck us at the
same instant ; and the next thing I knew was that I was
lying flat in the stern-sheets, hatless, and with my face
stinging as though it had been cut with a whip ; while the
boat trembled and quivered from stem to stern with the
scourging of wind and water, and the spray blew in a

64 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

continuous sheet over the opening above mc and into the
sea astern, not a drop falling" into the boat. The long-
expected hurricane was upon us ; and now all that
remained was to see how long our frail craft could with-
stand the onslaught of the terrific forces arrayed against
her.

CHAPTER IV

WE FALL IN WITH AND CAPTURE A SCHOONER

'^T^HE air was thick with scud-water, so thick, indeed,
A that It was Hke fog, it being impossible to see
farther than some twenty fathoms from the boat. This
scud-watcr swept horizontally along in a perfect deluge,
and stung like shot when, by way of experiment, I
exposed one of my hands to it. As for the wind, it was
like an invisible wall driving along ; it w^as simply im-
possible to stand up against it ; it scourged the surface
of the ocean into a level plain of white froth, which was
torn away and hurled along like a shower of bullets.
Oar sea anchor fortunately maintained a sufficient hold
upon the water to keep the gig riding head to wind, but
that was as much as it could do; with the painter strained
taut for its whole length, the boat was driving away to
leeward, stern-first, at a speed of — according to my
estimate — fully seven miles an hour ! And it was,
perhaps, a fortunate thing for us that such was the case ;
for had we been riding to a sea anchor powerful enough,

66 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and sunk deep enough in the water to have held us
nearly stationary, I believe we should have been swamptd
within five minutes of the outburst of the hurricane.
Even as it was, and despite all the precautions that we
had taken to make our canvas covering- perfectly secure,
the wind tugged at it and beat upon it with such
vehement fury that I momentarily expected to see it torn
bodily off the boat and go driving away to leeward in
tatters. Probably the thorough soaking that it almost
instantly received — and which caused the fabric to shrink
up and strain still tighter than it was before — may have
had something to do with the stubborn resistance that it
offered to the gale. Be that as it may, it held intact; and
to that circumstance I attribute the fact that the gig was
not instantly swamped. But no woven fabric, however
stout, — scarcely wood itself, — could long withstand such a
furious pelting of scud-water as our sails were now endur-
ing, and in about ten minutes the water began to drip
through, first in single drops, here and there, then in a
few small streams, that rapidly increased in number until
tliere seemed in the thick darkness to be hundreds of
tliem ; for in endeavouring to avoid one stream we only
succeeded in encountering two or three more. To add to
the unpleasantness of the situation, it was impossible for
us to light the lantern ; for although we were sheltered
from the direct violence of the gale by the canvas, the
wind somehow managed to penetrate beneath, creating
quite a formidable little scuffle there, and easily frustrat-

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 67

ing all our efforts to obtain a light. And very
soon wc had another annoyance to contend with, in
the shape of a gradual accumulation of water in
the boat, whether caused by a leak in the hull, or
by the drainage of the water through the canvas
we knew not ; but it obliged us to have recourse to
baling, which proved to be a singularly awkward
operation in such cramped quarters and such pitchy
darkness.

The first mad fury of the outburst lasted for about
three-quarters of an hour, — it seemed a perfect eternity
to us, in our condition of overpowering suspense, but I do
not believe it was longer than three-quarters of an hour
at the utmost, — and then it subsided into a heavy gale of
wind, and the sea began to get up so rapidly that within
another hour we were being flung hither and thither with
such terrific violence that in a very short time our bodies
were covered with bruises, while some of the men actually
became sea-sick ! And now, too, a new danger threatened
us ; for as the sea rose it commenced to break, and it was
not long ere we had the seas washing, in rapidly increasing
volume, over the boat, and pouring down through the
opening over the stern-sheets. This kept us baling in
good earnest, not only with our solitary bucket but with
hats and boots as well, to save the boat from being
swamped. And the bitterest hardship of it all was that
there was no relief, not a moment's intermission through-
out the whole of that dreadful, interminable nip;ht. We

68 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

were in continuous peril of death with every breath that
we drew ; every second saw us trembling upon the
verge of eternity, and escaping destruction as by a
constantly recurring succession of miracles. It was
a frightful experience, so frightful that language is
utterly powerless to describe it ; the most eloquent
pen could do no more than convey a poor, feeble,
and miserably inadequate idea of the terror and suffer-
ing of it. No one who has not undergone such an
experience can form the remotest conception of its

horrors.

All things mundane have an end, however, sooner or
later; and at length the welcome light of day once more
made its appearance, piercing slowly and with seeming
reluctance through the dense canopy of black, storm-torn
cloud and flying scud that overhung us. And then we
almost wished that it had remained night, so dreary and
awe-inspiring was the scene that met our aching gaze.
The heavens gave no sign of relenting, the sky looked
wild as ever, — although the awful ruddy glow had lon^

since faded out from the clouds, — while the ocean seemed
to be lashed and goaded by the furious wind into an
endless succession of rushing mountain waves, every one
of which, as it swept with hissing, foam-white crest
down upon us, seemed mercilessly bent upon our
destruction. As I stood up and gazed about me,
for I could do so now, by leaning well forward
against the wind, — it seemed a marvellous thing to me

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 69

that the ^\<^ continued to live through it ; for, liirht

and buoyant though she was, every sea she met swept

her from stem to stern ; and it was plain enough

to us aU now that it was nothing but the canvas

covering that saved her. As it was, we shipped so much

water that it was as much as three of us could do — that

being all who could work in the opening at one time — to

keep her from filling. To add still further to our misery,

we were one and all by this time dead tired, worn out, in

fact, with the terror and anxiety of the past night ; yet we

dared not yet attempt to seek the comfort and refreshment

of sleep, for our critical situation continued to demand

our utmost watchfulness and our unremitting exertions;

and when at length we sought to renew our strength by

means of a meal, the grievous discovery was made that

the whole of our small stock of ship's bread was spoiled

and rendered uneatable by the salt water. And, as

though this misfortune was not In itself sufficiently serious,

when wc sought to quench our thirst we discovered that

the bung of the water-breaker had somehow got out of

the bung-hole, allowing so much salt water to mingle with

our small stock of fresh that the latter had been rendered

almost undrinkablc.

Our first gleam of hope and encouragement came to
us about half an hour before noon that day, w^hen our
anxious watching was rewarded by the appearance of a
small, momentary break in the sky, low^ dowm toward the
horizon to windward ; it showed but for a moment, and

70 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

then was lost again. But presently a wider and more

pronounced break appeared which did not vanish ; on the
contrary, it widened, until presently a fitful gleam of wan
and watery sunshine piirced through it and lighted up
the bleak, desolate expanse of raging ocean for a few
seconds. And almost simultaneously with the welcome
appearance of this transient but welcome gleam of pallid
sunshine, we became aware of a slight but unmistakable
diminution in the fury of the gale ; a change productive
of such profound relief to us, worn out as we all were by
long-protracted toil and anxiety, that we actually greeted
it with a feeble cheer! Nor was the hope thus aroused
fallacious ; for from this moment the sky began to clear,
until within a couple of hours the storm-clouds had all
swept away to leeward, leaving the sky a clear, pure blue,
streaked here and there, it is true, with a tattered, trailing
streamer of pinky grey, that, however, soon vanished ;
and once more we revelled in the glorious warmth and
radiance of the unclouded sunlight, while the wind
dropped so rapidly that, but for the sea, which still ran
with dangerous weight, we might have made sail again by
sunset. As it was, we were all so completely worn out
that I think we were really thankful for an excuse
to leave the boat riding to her sea anchor a few
hours longer, while we sought and obtained what
was even more necessary to us than food and drink

— sleep. -*

All actual danger was by this time past, so we arranged

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 7i

that each of us should keep a look out for an hour while
the rest slept, there being sufficient of us to carry us
through the night at this rate ; and I undertook to keep
the first look out. That hour was, I think, the longest
sixty minutes I had ever up to then experienced ; for,
now that constant watchfulness was no longer necessary to
insure our safety, the incentive to watchfulness was gone,
and overtaxed nature craved so vehemently for repose
that the effort to remain awake was absolutely painful. I
continued, however, to perform the task that 1 had under-
taken, and, when my hour had expired, flung myself down
in the stern-sheets, where I instantly sank into a profound
and dreamless sleep, having first, of course, aroused young
Lindsay, and cautioned him to maintain a bright look-
out for passing ships — a caution which I gave orders
should be passed on from man to man throughout the
night.

When I awoke I found that I had maintained all
through the night the precise attitude in which I had
flung myself down to sleep some hours before ; it appeared
to me that I had not stirred bv so much as a hair's-breadth
ail through those hours o^ unconsciousness. I awoke
spontaneously, with the light of the sua shining strongly
through my still closed eyelids. The first thing after that
of which I became conscious was that the boat was rising
and falling easily with a long, steady, swinging motion ;
then I opened my eyes, and immediately noticed that the
sun was some two hours high. A very soft, warm, gentle

72 A PIRATE OP^ THE CARIBBEES

breeze fanned my cheek, and the only audible sounds
were the snores and snorts of many sleepers near me,
mingling with the gentle lap of water along the boat's
planking. All hands save myself were sound asleep 1 I
was not greatly surprised at this, though naturally a trifle

r

vexed that my orders as to the maintenance of a look-
out had not been more strictly observed. But it was not
until I had risen to my feet and flung an inquiring glance
round the horizon that I realised how miserablv un-
fortunate this negligence had been. For there, away in
the western board, distant some fourteen miles, gleamed
the sails of a large ship ; and a more intent scrutiny
revealed the tantalising circumstance that she was
steering such a course as had undoubtedly carried her
past us about an hour before daybreak at a distance of
little more than three miles ; and, had a proper watch been
maintained, we could have intercepted and boarded her
without difficulty. Whether she happened to be a
friend or an enemy was a matter of very secondary
import just then, in our miserable plight as regarded
our stock of provisions and water ; ou r situation
was such that even to have fallen into the hands of
the enemy would have been better than to be left as
we were.

I at once roused all hands, and we forthwith went to

work to cut adrift the sails that had served us so well,
and to bend them afresh to the yards ; while the others
hauled aboard our sea anchor, cut its lashings adrift, and

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 73

took to the oars with the object of going in pursuit of the
distant sail. For there was yet a chance for us. If we

could keep her in sight long enough there was just a
possibility that some one or another of her crew, working
aloft, might cast a glance astern and catch sight of our
tiny sail, when he would at once recognise it as that of a
boat, and report it ; when, if the skipper happened to be
a humane man, he would assuredly heave-to and wait for
us to close. So we all went to work with a will, and soon
had the boat all ataunto once more, and in pursuit of the
stranger as fast as oars and sails together could put her
through the water. But the experience of the first hour
sufficed to demonstrate beyond all question the hopeless-
ness of our attempt to overtake the ship ; she was leaving
us rapidly, and unless someone aloft happened to sight
us, our prospects of rescue, so far as she was concerned,
were not worth a moment's consideration. The men,

partially restored by their night's sound sleep, toiled like
tigers at the oars, in their anxiety to prolong the chance
of our being sighted to the latest possible moment,
frequently relieving each other. But it was all of no avail ;
strive as they would, the stranger steadily increased her
distance from us until, after we had been in pursuit of her

for fully three hours, the heads of her royals sank below
the western horizon, and we lost her for good and all.
Then the men sullenly laid in their oars, declaring that
they were worn out and could do no more. Then they
began to savagely inquire among themseh^es who was the

74 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

individual to whose culpable carelessness we were all
indebted for our present disappointment. The culprit
was soon discovered in the person of a little Welshman —
the man whose watch followed Lindsay^s. This man
declared that he had remained awake throughout his
watch, and had duly called his successor before resuming
his slumbers. But there was some reason to doubt this
statement ; and even if it happened to be true, he was
still culpable, according to his own showing, for he was
obliged to confess that he had not waited to assure
himself that his successor was properly awakened, but
had satisfied himself with a single shake of the sleeper's
shoulder, accompanied by the curt announcement that it
was time to turn out, and had then flung himself down
and gone to sleep. As for the man whom the Welshman
was supposed to have awakened, he disclaimed all re-
sponsibility upon the ground that, if called at all — w^hich
he did not believe — he had been called so ineffectively as
to be quite unconscious of the circumstance. At the
conclusion of the inquiry, his comrades were so furiously

incensed with the Welshman for his culpable — almost
criminal — neglect, that they seemed strongly disposed to

take summary vengeance upon him ; and it needed the

exertion of all my authority to protect the fellow from

their violence, which broke out anew when at noon we

went to dinner, and were compelled to make out the best
meal we could upon raw salt beef washed down with
water so brackish that we could scarcely swallow^ it.

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 75

Reduced to such a condition as this, it will scarcely be
wondered at that I should be brought to something very
nearly approaching despair when my observations that
day revealed the disconcerting fact that, thanks to our
excessive drift during the gale, we were still fully six
hundred miles from our port of destination — a distance
which we scarce dared to hope might be covered, even
under the most favourable circumstances, in less than
five days.

But it soon appeared as though even this protracted
period of privation and exposure was to be increased, for,
as the afternoon wore on, the wind, still continuing to
drop, grew so light that our speed dwindled down to a
bare three knots by the hour of sunset ; and by midnight
it had still further fallen to such an extent that our sails
became useless to us, and the oars had once more to be
resorted to.

The return of daylight found us in the midst of a stark
calm, under a cloudless sky, out of which the sun soon
began to dart his scorching beams so pitilessly that the
task of pulHng shortly became a labour little less than
torture to people in our exhausted condition ; indeed,
so severe did the men find it, that, after persevering until
about four bells in the afternoon watch, they gave it up,
declaring themselves to be quite incapable of further
exertion. And thus, for the remainder of the day, we lay
motionless upon that oil-smooth sea, under the blistering
rays of the burning sun, with our tongues cleaving to our

76 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

palates as we began to experience the first fierce torments
of unquenchable thirst. For our supply of water — all but
undrinkable as it was — was growing so short that it
became imperatively necessary to husband it with the
most jealous care, and to reduce our allowance to the

r

very smallest quantity upon which life could possibly be
sustained. The men sought to forget their sufferings in
sleep, disposing themselves in the bottom of the boat,
under the shelter of the now useless sails; but I was far
too anxious to be able to sleep, for I began to realise
that our boat voyage threatened to develop into an
adventure that might easily terminate in a ghastly
tragedy.

Half an hour before sunset I called the men, and we
went to supper; and with the going down of the sun the
oars were once more thrown out, and we resumed our
weary voyage, all hands of us being equally anxious to
avail ourselves to the utmost of the comparatively cool
hours of darkness, to shorten, as much as possible, the
distance that still intervened between us and deliverance.
All through the hot and breathless night we toiled, in an
unspeakable agony of thirst, and when morning once
more dawmed out of a brilliant and cloudless sky, my
companions presented so wild and haggard an appear-
ance, with their cheeks sunken with famine and their eyes
ablaze with the fever of thirst and starvation, that they

were scarcely recognisable. Half an hour after sunrise
we partook of our loathsome breakfast of putrid meat

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 77

and nauseous water, and then composed ourselves to sleep
— if we could — through the long hours of the blazing day,
maintaining, however, a one-man hourly watch, in order
that we might be duly warned of any change in the
weather.

And, late that afternoon, a change came — a change of

so welcome a character that I believe I may, without
exac^gcration, say it saved our lives. For, about noon,
when I was aroused by the man on watch to get the
meridian altitude of the sun for the determination of the
latitude, I observed a bank of purple-grey clouds gather-
ing in the south-western quarter, their rounded edges as
sharply defined as though they had been cut out of
paper. There was no mistaking their character ; they
portended a thunderstorm. And a thunderstorm we had
about four o'clock that afternoon, of truly tropical
violence. There was not a breath of wind with it, but it
brought us a perfect deluge of rain, — thrice-welcome and
blessed rain, — pouring from the overcharged clouds in
sheets of warm water, soft and sweet as nectar. We let
not a drop escape us that it was possible to save ; we saw
that it was coming, and prepared for It by spreading the
sails across the boat, and caught the welcome stream in
the depressions that we had arranged for its reception,

drinking out of the hollowed canvas until we could drink
no more. Then, as the rain still continued to fall, we did
a desperate deed ; we threw away every drop of our
drinking water, in the hope of being able to refill our

78 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

breakers with the sweet, fresh rain-water. And we were
successful. God in His infinite mercy allowed the flood-
gates of heaven to remain open until we had filled every
available receptacle at our disposal ; and then the rain
ceasedj the storm drifted away to the north-eastward,
and the sun disappeared below the horizon in a blaze of
cloudless splendour.

But our sufferings were not yet over ; for now that
the hellish torments of thirst were assuaged, the pangs of
hunger assailed us with redoubled fury, hourly growing in
intensity, until sometime during the night — while Lindsay
and I were asleep, and the boat was in charge of one of
the men — they became so utterly unendurable that, in a

fit of madness, the famished crew fell upon the slender
remainder of our stock of eatables, devouring the whole at
one fell swoop, except Lindsay's and my own portion,
which, despite their famished condition, they loyally set
aside for us !

Another day of breathless calm ; another twelve
hours of scorching heat under the rays of the pitiless sun ;
and then, with nightfall, the men once more threw out
their oars and resumed the heart - breaking task of
shortening by a few miles the still formidable stretch of
ocean that lay between us and safety. But nothing that
we could say would induce a single one of them to accept
ever so small a share of the provisions that they had
apportioned as the share belonging to Lindsay and
myself; they declared that their last meal had so far

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 79

satisfied and rein vi'gora ted them, that they were no
longer hungry, while one or two of them spoke hopefully
of the possibility that they might catch a fish or two on
the morrow.

It was somewhere about ten o'clock that night that
we detected the first symptoms of another change in the
weather, the first subtle indication that the long period of
calm which had so nearly destroyed us was about to end.
And, best of all, the indication was of such a character as
permitted us to indulge the hope that, although the calm
was about to give way to a breeze, we were likely to be
favoured with weather fine enough to permit of our
pursuing our voyage under the most favourable condi-
tions. This symptom of approaching change merely
consisted in the gathering in the heavens of a thin veil of
mottled, fine-weather cloud, just dense enough to obscure
most of the lesser stars and render the night rather dark,

while a few of the brighter stars peeped through the
openings between the clouds at tolerably frequent
intervals, permitting us to steer our course without having
recourse to the lantern or compass. The prospect of a
comfnc^- breeze seemed to cheer the men and endow them

cry

with renewed vigour, for they gave way with something
like a will, while they occasionally went so far as to
exchange a muttered ejaculation of encouragement one
with another.

It happened to be my trick at the yolk-lines until
midnight, I having relieved young Lindsay at four

8o A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

bells. I was sitting in the stern - sheets, with my
eyes intently fixed upon a particularly bright star
that gleamed out through the clouds at frequent
intervals right over the boat's nose, at an altitude of
about thirty degrees above the horizon, and which
I had consequently selected as a suitable guide to
steer by.

It is a curious fact, well known to sailors, that an
object can be better seen on a dark night at sea by look-
ing at the sky slightly above or to one side of it, rather
than directly at it ; hence it was that, as I kept my eye
intently fixed upon the star immediately ahead, I
suddenly became aware of the presence of a small, dark
object some three points on our starboard bow. I
immediately looked straight at it, but could then sec
nothing ; whereupon I looked into the sky rather
above the point where I knew it to be, when I again
caught sight of it. To make quite sure, I sheered
the boat some four points off her course, when it
became quite distinct, although only as a small, biack,
shapeless shadow against the dark sky immediately

ahead.

I held up my hand warningly to the men, and at the

same moment gave the order, ** Oars ! "

The men, somewhat wonderingly, instantly obeyed,
staring hard at me inquiringly, while two or three
who were lying down in the bottom of the boat,
trying unavaiHngly to sleep, raised themselves upon

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER Si

their elbows, as thouirh to ascertain what was the

matter.

** Lads," said I, in low^, cautious tones, "not a sound,
for your lives ! There is a small craft of some sort out
there becalmed, and it is my intention to run her along-
side. But we cannot of course tell whether she is a
friend or an enemy, so I think it will be well for us to get
alongside without attracting the attention of her crew, if
we can manage it. If she proves to be a friend, well and
good ; but if she is an enemy, we must take her at all
costs; for we arc in a starving condition, as you are all
aware, while we are still five days distant from Bermuda,
and I do not believe we could possibly live to reach the
island without provisions. So muffle your oars as well as
you can ; have your cutlasses ready ; and I will put you
alongside. H-u-s-h ! not a sound ! That craft is a good
three miles away, but sounds travel far on such a night
as this, and we must not allow the crew of her to dis-
cover that we are in their neighbourhood. Now muffle
your oars, and we will soon find out who and what

e IS.

Without a moment's hesitation, the men forthwith

proceeded to muffle their oars with portions of their

clothing; and in another five minutes we were heading

for the small, dark blot. When we had been pulling

silently for about a quarter of an hour, a small, thin sound

came creeping across the water to us, that within another

five minutes had resolved itself into the strains of the

6

82 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Marseillaise played upon an accordion and sung by a
fairly good tenor voice, to which several others were
almost instantly added. That was sufficient ; the craft,
whatever else she might be, was assuredly French, and we
were relieved of the anxiety of approaching a vessel un-
certain as to whether she was friend or foe. The sonc:
was sung through to the end with great enthusiasm, and
then, after a slight pause, another song was started, also

French, so far as could be made out. It was cut short,
however, before a dozen bars had been reached, by a

hoarse, gruff voice loudly demanding, in clear, un-
mistakable French, " what, in the name of all the saints,
the singer meant by arousing all hands at that hour of
the night with his miserable braying?" This rendered
assurance doubly sure, and we proceeded with increased
caution — if that were possible — laying in all but a single
pair of oars, with the double object of resting the men as
much as possible prior to the attack, and at the same
time approaching our quarry slowly enough to allow her
crew to coil away about the decks, and go to sleep again

if they would.

Paddling slowly and with the utmost circumspection,

taking care that the oars entered and left the water with-
out the slightest splash, we were a full hour and more
traversing the distance that separated us from the stranger ;
but long ere we reached her we had made her out to be a
schooner of somewhere about one hundred and forty tons,
and by her taunt spars, as well as by the fact of her being

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 83

where she was, — nicely in the track of our homeward-
bound West Indiamen, — I judged her to be a privateer.
When first discovered she must have been lying nearly
broadside-on to us, but the swing of the swell gradually
slewed her, as we stealthily approached, until she pre-
sented her stern fairly at us, affording us an admirable
opportunity to get alongside her undetected. And this

we did, gliding up under her starboard quarter and
alongside, and actually climbing in on deck over her
low bulwarks before the alarm was raised. Then,
from the neighbourhood of the wheel, there suddenly
arose a muttered execration in French, followed bv
a sharp inquiry in the same language of, "Who goes
there ? "

*' British/' I answered, in the inquirer's own lingo.
" Surrender, or we \vi\\ drive every man of you over-
board ! "

*' The British ! ah, sac-r-r-r-e! Yes, monsieur, oh yes,
we surrender," gurgled the man, as I seized him by the
throat and threatened him with my cutlass, while Lindsay
led the hands forward to the forecastle. There were a few
drowsily muttered ejaculations in that direction, quickly
succeeded by a volley of execrations, a scuffling of feet, the
slamming of the hatch over the fore-scuttle, and Lindsay
sang out that the schooner was ours. Even as he did so,
two figures in rather scanty clothing rushed up on deck
through the companion ; and before I could fully realise
what was happening, one of them snapped his pistol at

84 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

me, while the other aimed a blow at my head with a
sword. Fortunately the bullet missed me, finding its

billet in the body of the man whose throat I still grasped,
while I managed to catch the blow of the other fellow on
my own blade; and in a moment we were at it "hammer
and tongs" — that is to say, the swordsman and myself,
the other fellow making a dash at me now and then,
aiming fierce blows at me with the butt-end of his pistol,

until, in self-defence, I seized my opportunity and cleft,
his skull with my cutlass at the same instant that I
launched out with my left hand and sent his companion
reeling to the deck with a blow planted fairly between the

eyes.

At this moment young Lindsay came rushing aft, with
half a dozen of our fellows at his heels, to know what was
the matter ; so, bidding a couple of the men to securely
bind the prisoners, I descended the companion ladder, with
Lindsay at my heels, to see whether there were any more
Frenchmen to be fought. There w^ere not, however ; the
close, stuffy little cabin was empty ; so we went on deck
again, and, leaving two men to keep watch and ward at the
after end o( the ship, went forward, where I personally
superintended the operation of effectually securing the
crew, who we afterwards passed down into the hold.
The cook, however, we left free, and, being ravenously
hungry, gave him orders to at once light the galley fire
and cook us the best meal the ship could afford, all hands
taking the keen edge off our appetites, meanwhile, by

WE CAPTURE A SCHOONER 8s

munching some excellent biscuits that Lindsay discovered
snugly stored away in the pantry. Our next care was to
hoist in the gig that had served us so well ; and, this done,
we settled down to waft for our dinner and the breeze
that promised to come ere long.

CHAPTER V

AVE PROCEED IN SEARCH OF THE ALTHEA's BOATS

THE wind came away about an hour and a half before
sunrise, a gentle breeze out from the north-east,
coming down to us first of all in the form of a few

wandering cats'-paws, that just wrinkled the oil-smooth
surface of the ocean and were gone again, and finally
settling into a true breeze that fanned us along at a speed
of some four knots, the schooner proving to be a fairly
speedy little vessel.

Long ere this, however, I had carefully thought out a
line of action for myself, in order that when the wind
came I might be prepared for it. It will be remembered
that before parting company with the launch I had been
furnished by the master with a table showing the relative
speeds of the various boats, and from that moment I had,
with the assistance of the table, carefully calculated the
supposed position of each boat at noon ; so that I now
knew, to within a few miles, where any particular boat
ought to be looked for, upon the assumption that all had

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHEA'S BOATS 87

gone \\'c]l with them. And somehow I thought it had;
I was very strongly impressed with the beHef that the
gale which we had encountered had not extended far
enough to the south-cast to reach the launch and the rest
of the squadron. Flowers it might have overtaken, but
my observations upon the bearings of the centre o{ the
storm and its direction led me to entertain a very strong
hope that the rest of the boats had escaped. This being
so, I determined to act upon the assumption that they
had done so, and to proceed in search of them in the
direction where they ought, upon that assumption, to be
found. Of course, \\\t\\ their different rates of sailing,
they would now be strung out in a fairly long line ; and
the question that exercised me most strongly was whether

I should first seek the leading boat, and, having found
her, dodge about in waiting for the others, or whether I
should first seek the dm^^y^ and, having found her, run
down the wind in the track of the others. The direction
from which the wind might happen to spring up would
necessarily influence my decision to p. great extent ; but
when it came away out from the north-east, and I
discovered that the schooner could fetch, upon an easy
bowline, the spot where the sternmost boat might be
expected to be found, I hesitated no longer, but at once
made up my mind to first look for the dinghy.

As the morning wore on the breeze freshened some-
what, and the schooner's speed increased to fully seven
knots. I employed the early part oi the ioxtnoon m

88 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

satisfying myself that the prisoners were properly secured,
taking the precaution to have them all put in irons, as, in
the exhausted condition of my own crew, I could not afford
to run any unnecessary risks, — and as soon as I had cased
my mind of that anxiety, I personally investigated the
condition of the schooner's storeroom. To my great joy
I discovered that we possessed an ample supply of pro-
visions and water, together with a liberal quantity of wines,
spirits, and other luxuries — enough of everything, in fact,
to maintain the whole of the survivors of the Althca upon
full allowance for at least a month. The schooner, more-
over, — she proved to be the Susanne, privateer, of St. Malo,
was nearly new, a stout, substantially built little craft
of one hundred and thirty-four tons register, as tight as a
bottle, well found, and armed with six long six-pounders
in her batteries, with a long nine-pounder mounted on a
pivot on her forecastle, and her magazine nearly full.

Nothing of any importance happened, either on that
day or the next, except that the sky gradually became
overspread with those peculiar patches of fleece- like
clouds called " trade-clouds " — showing that at length we
had hit off the north-east trade winds that seemed to have
been evading us for so long. According to my reckoning,
and upon the assumption that the wind would now hold
fairly steady, we ought to hit off the track of the boats
about six bells in the morning watch, on the third morning
after the capture of the schooner, which would allow us
some eleven hours of daylight in which to prosecute our

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHEA'S BOATS 8q

o

search ; and, to give ourselves the best possible chance of
finding the objects of our quest, I took care, on the
preceding midnight, to haul the schooner as close to the
wind as she would lie, so that there should be no
possibility of hitting upon their track to leeward instead
of to windward of them, and so running axvay from
instead of after them. And at six bells on that morning
I was called, in accordance with previous instructions, in
rder that I might work up the reckoning to the very
last moment, and so make certain of getting as accurately
as possible upon the track. My calculations now showed
that it would be nearly eight bells instead of six before
we should reach the imaginary line for which we were
making; and at a quarter to eight — having previously
sent a hand aloft to take a careful look round — I gave the
order to up-helm and bear away upon a west-south-west
course, and to pack the studding - sails upon the little
hooker. The men — thanks to good feeding and all the
rest I could give them consistent with the maintenance
of proper discipline — had by this time completely re-
covered from the effects oi our boat voyage, and were one
and all as keen as needles on the lookout for the boats
from the moment that we squared away, the watch, all
but the helmsman, taking to the rigging — without any
orders from me — ■ immediately that they had finished
breakfast, and disposing themselves upon the royal and
topgallant yards in their eagerness to catch the earliest
possible glimpse of their shipmates. I calculated that at

go A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

about five bells in the forenoon watch we oucrht to over-
take the dinghy, — the slowest boat in the fleet, — and as
that moment drew near our anxiety reached a most
painful pitch, the men on the yards straining their eyes
to the utmost as they peered intently into the distance

r

from right ahead to broad on cither beam, carefully and
slowly scanning the horizon for the little blot of gleaming
canvas that should proclaim the success of our quest. But
the fateful moment came and went, leaving the horizon a
blank. Noon arrived, and I secured an excellent observa-
tion for my latitude, by means of which I was enabled to
check my previous dead reckoning, which tallied to within
less than a mile of what it ought to be ; and still there
was no sign of the missing boat, although my calculations
showed that we had overrun by some fifteen miles the
spot where we expected to find her. I hailed the yards,
inquiring whether there was any possibility of our having
run past the dinghy without observing her ; but the men
assured me that they had maintained so bright a look-
out that had she been anywhere within the boundaries of
our horizon they would assuredly have seen her.

This was rather disconcerting, yet I felt that I had no

real cause for disappointment ; the boats might have met
with rather fresher winds than I had estimated for, in
which case the likelihood was that they were still many
miles ahead of us. My calculations had been based upon
the supposition that they had been evenly maintaining
the same rate of speed from the moment when we parted

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHEA'S BOATS 91

with them, and I knew that this was in the last degree
improbable. Yet it was the only basis I had upon which
to make my calculations ; for it was impossible for me to
judge by the weather which we had ourselves experienced.
Of one thing I felt tolerably well convinced, which was
that, keeping so much farther to the southward than we
had done in the <i\^, the other boats would not have met

w^ith the calms that had so seriously delayed us ; and that
consequently — unless they too had been caught in the
hurricane that had so nearly proved our destruction — they
must be somewhere directly ahead of us as we were then
steering. There was nothing for it, therefore, but to keep
all on as we were until we found them.

In this condition of anxiety and suspense we continued
to run away to the west-south-west until sunset, w^ithout
sighting anything ; and then, fearful of running past one
or more of the objects of our quest during the night-time
without seeing them, I hove the schooner to under foresail
and jib, with the topsail aback, so that we might remain
as nearly as possible where we were — excepting for our
lec drift — all through the night I also caused three
lanterns to be hoisted, one over the other, from our main-
topmast stay, as a fairly conspicuous signal, pretty certain
to attract attention in the event of either of the boats
coming within sight of us during the hours of darkness,
and of course gave the strictest injunctions for the main-
tenance of a bright lookout all through the night.

The night passed uneventfully, and at daybreak, after

92 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

having first gone aloft and personally but unavailingly
examined the horizon and the entire visible expanse of
the ocean through the ship's telescope, — an excellent
instrument, by the way, — we made sail again upon the
schooner, and resumed our search.

Shortly after breakfast I secured an observation for
my longitude, and, having worked out my calculations,

found that, if the boats were still afloat, and had continued
to steer the course which I had been told they would, we
must certainly find them that day. As on the preceding
day, the men spent their watch upon the yards, maintain-
ing so keen a lookout that even I, anxious as I was, felt
satisfied they would allow nothing to escape them. Yet
the day passed, and evening arrived without the discovery
of any sign of the missing boats ; while my anxiety grew
more painfully intense with the lapse of every hour of
daylight. And when at length the night closed down

upon us, and the stars came winking mistily out from
between the driving clouds, the conviction came to me
that sornething had gone lamentably wrong, and that to
continue the search any further in the direction that we
had been pursuing would be useless.

The question was : What had happened ? I could
think of but two possible explanations of our failure to
find the boats; one of which was that they had been
fallen in with and been picked up by a passing ship, while
the other was that they had experienced bad weather,
which had driven them out of their course. If the first

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHE.VS BOATS 93

explanation happened to be the correct one, well and
good — our missing comrades were safe ; but if the second
explanation was to account for our non-success, in what
direction ought wc to continue our search? The question
was a very difficult one to answer with any approach to
accuracy, but an approximation to the truth might be
arrived at. I reasoned thus : The boats were undoubtedly
within the limits of the trade wind when we parted with
them, and the only disturbing influence that they would
be likely to meet with in that region would be that of
the hurricane that w^e had encountered. Reasoning thus,
I went below and produced a chart of the North Atlantic,
— it was a French one, reckoning its longitude from the
meridian of Paris ; but that difficulty was to be easily
overcome, — and upon it I forthwith proceeded to prick
off, as accurately as the data in my possession would
permit, first, the spot where we had parted company with
the other boats ; secondly, our own course and distance
up to the moment when the hurricane struck us ; and
thirdly, the supposititious course and distance of each
of the boats up to the moment when the hurricane would
probably strike them. The observations I had personally
made as to the bearing and course of the centre of the
storm had originally led me to the conclusion that the
other boats had probably escaped it altogether ; and now,
as I went over the matter afresh, I could not persuade
myself that they had encountered anything worse than
a mere fringe of it, a breeze strong enough perhaps to

94 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

compel them to run before it for a few hours, but nothing
more. Assuming, then, this to be the case, I calculated
as nearly as I could the probable direction of the wind
when the gale struck them, and the number of hours
during which they would be likely to be compelled to run

before it, pricking off upon the chart their probable where-
abouts at the moment when they would be likely to find
themselves once more able to head for, say, St. Thomas
or St. Kitts. From this point I laid off a course for the
former island, and then calculated their probable position
on that line at the moment, compared this with the
position then occupied by the schooner, and thus arrived
at the new direction in which I ought to seek for them.
Having reached thus far, 1 went on deck, set the new
course, and then, with Lindsay's assistance, \\'ent over all
my calculations again, verifying every figure of them.

Luckily for our anxiety, the trade wind was now blow-
ing so fresh that, on an easy bowline as we were, a whole
mainsail, foresail, and topsail, with royal and topgallant
sails stowed, was as much as we could stagger under, the
little witch dancing along at a good, clean eleven knots
under this canvas ; the consequence being that in thirty-
eight hours from the moment of bearing up we had reached
the spot where I intended that my new search for the
missing boats should begin.

This time, however, I intended to adopt a course of
procedure exactly opposite to that wdiich I had followed
while prosecuting my former search. Then, I had gone

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHE/VS BOATS 95

to windward of the spot when I expected to find the boats,
and had run down to leeward along the course which I
thought it probable they had taken ; but now my uncer-
tainty as to their precise position necessitated a search over
a belt o{ ocean several miles in w^idth. I therefore deter-
nuned to get well to leeward of the spot where my
calculations indicated that I ought to find them, and from
there work to windward on an easy bowline, making
stretches of some twenty - six miles in length. I had
already ascertained the height of our royal yard above
the sca-lev^el, and irora that had calculated that a look-
out stationed at that elevation would command a circular
area having a radius of thirteen miles. If, therefore, I
made stretches across a circle o{ iw o.nty -svk miles' diameter,
I should practically command a belt of ocean of fifty-two
miles in width ; and this I deemed sufficient for my
purpose.

Accordingly, having reached our cruising ground at
two bells in the forenoon watch, and having one hand on
the royal yard as a lookout, with two more on the top-
sail yard by way of additional precaution, we made our
first reach of thirteen miles in a south-easterly direction.
Tiien, nothing being in sight, we tacked and stood to the
northward for twenty-six miles. Still nothing in sight;
so we hove about again, and this time reached to the
southward and eastward for a distance of Uv tnty - ^lyi
miles, continuing our search thus throughout the entire
day, without success. At sunset we hove about again.

96 ' A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and, reaching to the northward, until we bad arrived at the
track which the boats, if still afloat, would probably pass
over, we hove-to for the night, hoisting three lanterns, as
before, to attract their attention should they happen to
arrive within sight of us during the hours of darkness. It
was some relief to us that the night was tolerably clear,
with a fair sprinkling of stars and a moon well advanced
in her first quarter; so that, during the first half of the
night, we had a very fair amount of light.

I did not keep the lookout men aloft at night, deem-
ing it useless, as the light, although — as I have said —
fairly good, was not bright enough to reveal a small
object like a boat at a greater distance than some two or
three miles, and up to that distance it was possible to see
really better from the level of the deck than from the
more lofty elevation of the yards ; but I had three men
continuouslv on the lookout at the same time, namclv,
one on the jib-boom end, and one each to port and star-
board in the waist. We were hove-to on the starboard
tack. Needless to say, that although we had these three
men thus stationed for the express purpose of keeping a
lookout and doing nothing else, Lindsay and I also kept

our eyes well skinned, going even to the length of blind-
ing the skylight with an old sail in order that our eyes
might not be dazzled by even the dim light of the cabin
lamp.

It happened to be my eight hours in that night, and I
had taken advantage of the circumstance to turn in early,

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHEA'S BOATS 97

for the anxiety attenclinj^ upon this dishearteningly fruit-
less search was beginning to tell upon me, and I had

suffered for the last night or two from an inability to
sleep. On this particular occasion, however, I felt some-
what drowsy, and therefore went to my bunk in the hope
of getting two or three hours' rest ; and, as a matter of
fact, I did sleep, but my rest was so disturbed by frightful
dreams of men enduring unheard-of suffering in open
boats, that at length, awaking in a paroxysm of horror,
I turned out and went on deck, to find that it was seven
bells, and that under any circumstances I should have
been called in another half-hour.

The moon was within a very short time of setting
when I reached the deck, and I stood watching her half-
disc creeping insensibly nearer and nearer to the horizon,
lighting up the sky that way with a soft, mysterious,
brownish-green light, and casting a long, tremulous wake
of ruddy gold athwart the tops of the running surges.
Lindsay was standing beside me, yawning the top of
his head nearly off, poor lad ; for although he too was
anxious as to the fate of those who we were seeking, his
anxiety had not, thus far, interfered with his rest, and his
watch was now so nearly up that he was quite ready for
the four hours' sleep that awaited him.

I was in the very act of telling him that, as I should
not go below again, he might turn in if he chose, — my
eyes being all the while fixed upon the setting moon, —

when suddenly, almost immediately under the luminary,

7

98 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

I caught a momentary glimpse of a small black object —
small as a pin-head — as it were hove-up on the back of a
sea against the luminous sky. Stopping short in what I
was saying, I sprang to the rail, and from thence into the
main rigging, half a dozen ratlines o[ which I ascended
in order to gain a horizon clear of the run of the nearer
seas. From this elevation I again looked out, instinctively
shading my eyes under my hand, and in another moment
I had again caught sight of the object, and not only so,
but had also detected an intermittent flashing, as of the
moonlight off the wet blades of oars.

" A boat ! a boat ! " I shouted, in the fulness of my
delight. " Hurrah, lads ! we have one of them at last !
Let draw the jib -sheet! Fill the topsail! Up helm
there, my man, and let her go broad off!"

As I rapidly issued these orders I swung myself out
of the rigging, and, running to the binnacle, took the

bearing of the moon, allowing half a point to the north-
ward of her as the course to steer for the boat.

"Where is the gunner?'' I shouted; "pass the word
for Mr. Robbins!"

" Here I am, sir," answered Robbins — for my words
had thrilled through the little craft like an electric shock,
and already the watch below were scrambling up through
the hatchway, carrying their clothing in their hands, in their
eagerness to get a glimpse of the newly discovered boat.

"Mr. Robbins," said I, "have the goodness to clap a
blank cartridge into one of the c^uns, and fire it as an

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHEA'S BOATS gg

encouragement to those poor fellows out there ; they will
guess, by our firing, that we have seen them."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered Robbins, shambling away with
alacrity upon his errand ; and a few minutes later one of
our guns rang out what I hoped would prove a thrice-
welcome message to our shipmates. Somehow I never
for a moment doubted that it was one of the frigate's
boats that I had seen ; I felt as sure of it as though we had
her already alongside, although of course I could form no
sort of surmise as to which of them it would prove to be.

It took us but a very few minutes to run down to the
boat, when, judging our distance, we rounded-to and laid
the topsail aback, so close to windward of the little craft
that one of our people was able to heave a rope's-end into
her, and we hauled her alongside. Then, to our supreme
disappointment, we discovered that it was not either of
the boats that we were looking for, but the long-boat of a
merchantman, with eleven people in her, all of whom were
in a very wasted and exhausted condition, partly from
famine and partly from wounds, most of them being swathed
about the head or limbs with bloodstained bandages.

Concealing our disappointment as well as we could,
we helped the poor creatures up over the side, — discover-
ing, during the process, that the rescued party were our
fellow-countrymen, — and then, having removed everything
from the boat that promised to prove of the slightest
value, we cast her adrift, having no room on our decks for
her. Meanwhile, the unhappy strangers, being too weak

loo A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

to stand, had sunk down upon the deck, pointing to their
parched throats and feebly gasping the word "water"; in
response to which appeal some of our own people had
gone to work, under my supervision, to supply them
cautiously with small quantities of water slightly dashed

r

with brandy. This treatment had a wonderfully stimula-
tive and revivifying effect upon them, so much so, indeed,
that they managed to stagger to their feet and earnestly
beg for food. This, of course, we supplied them with
forthwith, in the form of ship*s bread broken small and
softened by steeping in weak brandy and water. I gave
them this pending the preparation of a more substantial
and appetising meal by the cook ; and it was perhaps
well that circumstances obliged me to do so, for I after-
wards learned that the administration of a solid, sub-
stantial meal to people in their famished condition would
probably have had fatal results. Having satisfied to
some small extent their first ravenous craving for food
and drink, we got them below and provided them with
such makeshift sleeping accommodation as the resources
of the schooner would permit, that they might seek in
sleep such further recuperation as was to be obtained,
pending the production of the meal in preparation for
them. Having thus disposed of the rescued men, nothing
remained for us but to await, with such patience as w^e
could muster, the return of daylight, to enable us to
resume the search for the lost frigate's boats.

It was nearly noon next day ere any of the rescued

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHEA'S BOATS loi

party appeared on deck, the first to do so being a fine,
sailorly-looking man of some forty or forty-five years of
age, who introduced himself to me as " Captain " Tucker
of the late British barque Wyvern, of Bristol, outward-
bound to the West Indies with a general cargo of con-
siderable value. He informed me that all had gone well
with him until eight days previously, when, about noon, a
strange sail was sighted in the south-western board, stand-
ing to the northward, close-hauled on the starboard tack.

" You may be sure," said Tucker, " that I kept a sharp
eye upon her, {ox I knew that, for tvo-xy honest merchant-
man that I happened to meet down here, I was likely to
meet with a dozen rogues, in the shape of picaroons,

privateers, or other craft of the enemy, or even our own
men-o'-war — no offence meant to you in saying so, Mr.
Courtenay ; hwt y cm know, sir, as well as I do, that some of
our men-o'-war treat British merchantmen pretty nearly
as bad as if they were enemies, boarding them and im-
pressing all their best men, and leaving them with so few
hands that if they happen to meet with bad weather it's
ten chances to one of their being able to take their ship
to her destination. Well, knowing this, I kept both eyes
on the stranger, which I soon made out to be an un-
commonly smart and heavy brigantine, that, close-hauled
as she was, seemed to be travelling three feet to our one.
She had a particularly wicked look about her that I didn't
half like ; and I liked it still less when, having drawn well
up on our larboard beam, at a distance of some five miles,

I02 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

I suddenly discovered that she was edging away for us.
We were already under stunsails, so I could do no more
in the way of making sail ; but we mounted eight brass
nine-pounders, — very pretty pieces they were, too, — so I
had them cleared away and loaded, in readiness for the
worst; for I took her to be a French or Spanish privateer,
and I had no notion of yielding my ship to any such
vermin without making a fight for it ; and my own lads
were quite of the same mind as myself, not liking the
idea of being locked up for years in a French or a Spanish
prison.

" Well, sir, that brigantinc came bowling along at such
a pace that within half an hour of the time when I
noticed her to be edging down for us she was within gun-
shot ; and no sooner was this the case than, yawing broad
off for a moment, she pitched a shot — an eighteen-pounder
I took it to be — across our fore-foot, as a polite hint to
us to heave-to. But I wasn't in the humour for heaving-
to just then, so I hoisted my ensign and kept all on as I
was going.

'* I expected that, seeing this, the brigantine would give
us a sight of her bunting, and open fire upon us in good
earnest; but she didn't do either. She just kept edging
away, until in another five minutes she was broad on our
larboard quarter, running the same way that we were,

and creeping up with the evident intention of running
us alongside. Seeing this, I ordered Mr. Thomson, my
mate, to ram an extra shot down upon the top of those

WE SEARCH FOR THE ALTHEA'S BOATS 103

we had already loaded our guns with, and to depress the
muzzles, so that we could fire down upon the brigantine's
low deck as she ranged up alongside. But I tell you, sir,
that I didn't half like the look of things ; for by this time
the craft was so close to us that we saw down upon her
decks quite distinctly, and she seemed to be fulJ oi men
s\\'arthy, greasy, black-bearded cut-throats, tvery one oi
them, if looks w^ent for anything. In another minute or
so she was within biscuit-toss of us, — so close that we
could hear the hissing shear of her sharp stem through
the w'ater, and the moan of the wind in the hollows of
her canvas, — when up jumps a fellow upon her rail and
hailed us in what I took to be Spanish, — it wasn't French,
I know, because I can speak a little of that lingo, — at the
same time pointing to his gafif-end, up to which another
ruffian at once began to hoist a black flag,

'"So ho!' thinks I ; ' so \\!s pirates we have to deal
with, eh? Well, that means neck or nothing, so here
goes !' And with that I sings out to the mate to throw
open the ports — we'd kept them closed until now — and
let the rascals have it hot. No sooner said than done.
Thomson gave the \vord, the ports were thrown open, the
nine-pounders run out, and the next second four of our
shot went smashing through the brigantine's bulwarks,
bowling over like ninepins every man that happened to
be standing in their way. The man on the rail jumped
down off his perch as nimbly as if he was scalded, and
I heard him shout ' Car-r-r-r-amba ! ' or somethinGT like

I04 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

it, as he waved his hand to the man at the wheel. At
the same moment the brigantine delivered her broadside,
and before the smoke had time to clear away I Iieard
and felt the crash of her as she dropped alongside us fair
in the waist The next second — so it seemed to me — our
rail was alive with the dirty, garlic-smelling blackguards,
who came swarming over upon our decks until it seemed
that there was no room for more. Well, I had a pair of
pistols and a sword, and each of our lads had his cutlass,
and for three or four minutes there was as pretty a fight
as you'd wish to see going on aboard the old JVyvcrn.

Then, while I was doing my best to hold my own against
four of the rascals who came crowding round me, I got

a knock on the head from behind that made me see about

a million stars before I dropped senseless to the deck."

■$■

CHAPTER VI

WE FIND THE LAUNCH

*' "^ "■" OW long I remained unconscious I don't know,

but it must have been at least half an hour, I
should say; for when at length I came round I found
myself lying, bound hand and foot, on the deck, along
with such of my crew as had not been killed in the
defence of the ship, while the Wyvej^n was hove-to under
topsails, with her hatches off, and a regular mob of the
dirty, greasy Spaniards swarming round the main hatch-
way and hoisting out the cargo that another gang was
breaking out down below. They had hoisted out all
our boats, too, I soon found, and were using them to
transfer such goods as they required to the brigantine —
all, that is to sa}', except the long-boat, which, for some
reason that I did not then understand, was lying unused
in the starboard gangway. They took their time over
the job of picking and choosing from among the stuff
that we carried, but I noticed that all the while they had
a hand aloft on the main-royal yard keeping a lookout.

io6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

They kept at it until it was too dark to see what they
were about, and then they left us, one boat remaining
alongside for fully twenty minutes after the rest had
gone, while some of her people were busy down below.
At length, however, they shoved off as well, leaving me
and my people lying on the deck trussed up like so
many chickens. Two or three minutes later I heard some
orders given, immediately followed by the cheeping of
blocks and the creaking of yard parrails, by which I
knew that they were filling upon the brigantine and
leaving us.

" I could not understand why they had left us all
there, alive, but bound hand and foot as we were. I
suspected some villainy, however, and my first idea was
that they had set the barque on fire. But I could not
detect any smell of burning, and then the thought came
to me that perhaps they had scuttled her, intending us to
go down with the ship. The idea of either fairly made
my blood run cold, I can tell you ; but it stirred me up
too, and I went to work to see if I could work my hands
free. I might just as well have tried to fly ; the scoundrels
had made sure work of mc, and no mistake. Then I
sang out to the others to try if they could work them- '
selves adrift; and after a bit first one and then another
answered that it was no use, they were lashed altogether

too securely.

" ' Well, lads/ says I, ' if none of us can work ourselves
free, I'm afraid it's all up with us ; for my notion is that

WE FIND THE LAUNCH 107

those Spanish devils have scuttled the ship, and if so
it won't be so very long before she'll founder, taking us
with her/

" That set the men muttering among themselves, and
presently the man that was lying nearest me said

'"If you can manage to work your way near enough
to me, sir, for me to get a feel of your lashings with my
fingers, I'll see what I can do towards loosenin' of 'cm
for yen'

"*AI[ right, my lad/ says I, 'I will!' No sooner
said than done. I worked and wriggled myself up along-
side of him somehow, and presently I felt his fingers
fumbling about with my lashings. This particular chap,
I ought to tell you, was uncommonly clever with his
fingers, especially in the matter of handling rope ; and
sure enough, in about twenty minutes, I'm blessed if he
hadn't worked those lashings so loose that I presently
managed to slip my hands clear of 'em altogether. The
moment that I was free I set to work to chafe my fingers
and get the life back into them, — for they had lashed
me so tight that I had lost all feeling in my hands, — and
as soon as I was able to tell once more that I'd got a
complete set of fingers, I whipped a knife out of my
pocket and cut the lashings off my feet^ after which I
went the round of the party, cutting them adrift as quick
as I could. Then, while they were getting the benumbed
feeling out of their limbs, I swung myself down through
the open hatchway to investigate. It was as I had feared ;

io8 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

they had scuttled the ship, for already there was some-
thing like three feet of water in the hold. You may be
sure I didn't waste much time down below after making
that discovery ; I just scrambled up on deck again as quick

+

as ever I could, and told the men, what had happened.
The barque was bound to go, of course, — we could do
nothing to keep her afloat, — so I jumped to the side to
see after the boats. They were gone, all but the long-
boat, w^hich, as I told you just now, was lying in the
starboard gangway. I crossed the deck to take a look
at her, and then saw why the pirates had left her there
unused ; she was stove in on the starboard side, her
planks being crushed and her timbers broken over a space

measuring some six feet by two. As she was then she
would not float two minutes ; she would have filled the
moment we dropped her into the water. But when Chips
came to overhaul her he had a notion that he could patch
her up enough to make her carry us. As a matter of fact,
it rested between that and the whole lot of us drowning ;
for the barque was filling so fast that there was no time
for us to put a raft together. So the carpenter fetched
his tools and went to work there and then, the rest of us
lending a hand and fetching things as Chips sung out
for them. First of all, he gently coaxed the broken
timbers and planking back into their places, as nearly as
he could get them ; then he got a couple of strips of
canvas big enough to cover the hole, one of which he
dressed with tallow on both sides, workin^r the grease

WE FIND THE LAUNCH 109

well into the fabric. Then, with small, flat-headed tacks,
spaced close together, he nailed this first piece of canvas
over the hole, allowing it plenty of overlap. Then he
took the other piece of canvas, — which was cut an inch
larger each way than the first piece, — tarred it well, and
strained it tightly over the first piece. Then he cut a
third piece of canvas, which he fixed over the hole on the
inside of the boat, nailing the bottom and two ends of
the canvas so that it formed a sort of pocket. Then he
got a lot of oakum, which he first soaked in tar and then
stuffed into this pocket arrangement until it was packed
as tightly as it was possible to pack it. This was to keep
the broken planks and timbers in place. And finally he
nailed up the top of the pocket, declaring, as he flung
down his tools, that the boat was now ready for hoisting
out. And it was high time, too, for by the time that the
job was finished the barque had settled to her chain-
plates, and was liable to go down under our feet at any
moment. Accordingly, we hooked on the tackles, and,
watching the roll of the ship, managed to hoist out the
boat and get her into the water without accident. Then
we hurriedly pitched into her a couple of breakers of
water and such provisions as we could lay our hands
upon, — and that wasn't much, for by this time the cabin
was all afloat and the lazarette under water, — and tumbled

r

over the side into her, I only waiting long enough behind
the others to secure the ship's papers and the chronometer.
We shoved off in a hurry, I can tell you, for while I was

no A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

securing those few matters that I've just mentioned the
poor old hooker gave an ugly lurch or two that told me
her time was up ; and, sure enough, we hadn't pulled above
fifty fathoms away from her when down she went, stern
first.

r

" Our first anxiety was, of course, as to the carpenter's
repairing job ; but we soon found that we needn't greatly
trouble ourselves about that. There was just a draining
of water that somehow worked its way through, but a few
minutes' spell with the baler about once an hour was
sufficient to keep the boat fairly dry and comfortable. All
the same, I wasn't very keenly anxious for a long boat
voyage in such a craft as that, -so we shaped a course to
the west'ard, hoping to fall in with and be picked up by
an outward-bounder of some sort. But not a blessed sail

r

did we see for seven mortal days, until we sighted your
upper canvas last night, and pulled so as to cut you off.

And if you hadn't picked us up, I believe we should all
have been dead by this time, for our provisions soon

ran out ; and when it was too late, we discovered that
both our breakers were full of sa/l instead of fresh
water ! "

Such was the tragic story related by the skipper of
the ill-fated Wjvem, a story that was replete with every
element necessary for the weaving of a thrilling romance ;
yet it was told baldly and concisely, without the slightest
attempt at embellishment ; told precisely as though to be
attacked by pirates, to have one's ship rifled and scuttled,

WE FIND THE LAUNCH iii

one's boats stolen, and then to be left, bound hand and
foot on deck, to helplessly perish, were one of the most
ordinary and commonplace incidents imaginable. Truly,
they who go down to the sea in ships, and do business on
the great waters, meet with so many extraordinary ex-
periences, and sec so many strange and unaccountable
sights, that the capacity for wonder is soon lost, and the
most astonishing and — to shore-abiding folk — incredible
occurrences are accepted as a matter of course.

During the whole of that day w^e continued to make
short tacks to windward as before, with half the watch
aloft on the look out ; but nothing was sighted, and at
nightfall we again hove-to, maintaining our position as
nearly as possible in the same spot until the next
morning.

With the first sign of daylight I sent aloft the keenest-
sighted man we had on board, that he might take a good
look round ere we filled upon the schooner to resume our
disheartening search. So eager was I, that when the man
reacheJ the royal yard, the stars were still blinking over-
head and down in the western sky, and it was too dark to
see to any great distance. But the dawn w^as paling the
sky to windward, and as the cold, weird, mysterious pallor
of the coming day spread upward, and warmed into
pinkish grey, and from that into orange, and from orange
to clearest primrose, dyeing the weltering undulations of

the low-running sea with all the delicate, shifting tints of
the opal, I saw the fellow aloft suddenly rise to his feet

112 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and stand upon the yard, with one arm round the mast-
head to steady himself against the quick, jerky plunges
of the schooner, while he shielded his eyes with the
other hand, as he steadfastly gazed into the distance to
windward.

"Royal yard, there, do you see anything?" I hailed
eagerly ; and the sudden ecstasy of renewed hope which
sprang up within my breast now fully revealed to me how
nearly I had been driven to the confines of despair by the
long-protracted non-success of the search upon which I
had so confidently entered.

" I ain't quite sure, sir," was the unsatisfactory reply
that came down to me ; '' it's still a trifle dusky away out
there, but I thought just now that — ay, there it is again !
There's something out there, sir, about six or seven mile
away, but I can't yet tell for certain whether it's a boat or
no ; it's somewheres about the size of a boat, sir."

" Keep your eye on it," I answered. " I will get the
glass and have a look for myself."

So saying, I went hastily to the companion, removed
the ship's telescope from the beckets in which it hung
there, and quickly made my way aloft.

" Now," said I, as I settled myself upon the yard,
*' where is the object ? "

" D'ye see that long streak of light shootin' up into

the sky from behind that bank of cloud, sir ?" responded
the man. " Well, it's about half a p'int, or maybe nearer
a p'int, to the southward of that."

wp: find the launch 113

"Ah, I see it!" ejaculated I, as I caught sight for a
moment of a small, scarcely distinguishable speck that
appeared for an instant and then vanished again, apparently
in the hollow between two waves. A few seconds later I
caught it again, and presently I had it dancing unsteadily
athwart the field of the instrument. But even then I was
unable to definitely settle whether it was or was not a
boat ; as the man at my side had remarked, it looked like
a boat, it was about the size of a boat, as seen nearly end-
on, but there was no indication of life or movement about
it; it seemed to be floating idly to the run of the seas.
Just at this moment the sun's upper limb flashed into
view over the edge of the cloud-bank, darting a long
gleam of golden radiance athwart the heaving welter to
the schooner, and I looked again, half expecting to catch
the answering flash of wet oar - blades ; but there was
nothing of the kind to be seen. Undoubtedly, however,
there was sometJiing out there, — something that might
prove to be a boat, — and I determined to give it an over-
haul without loss of time. So, carefully noting its bearing
and distance, and cautioning the lookout not to lose sight
of it for an instant, I descended to the deck and straight-
way gave the necessary orders for making sail and beat-
ing up to it.

The object being nearly dead to windward, it was a

full hour before we reached it, but little more than half

that time sufficed to satisfy us that it really was a boat,

and a further quarter of an hour established the fact that

8

114 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

it was none other than the Altlieds launch ; but my heart
was full of foreboding as I observed that, although we
fired gun after gun to attract attention, there was no
answering sign of life to be discovered on board her,
although from the moment when she became visible from
the deck, either Lindsay or I kept the telescope constantly
bearing upon her. Yet the depth at which she floated in
the water showed that she was not empty. Lindsay
suggested that her crew might have been taken out of her
by some craft that had fallen in with her, and that the
reason why she floated so deep was that she was half-full
of water. But I could not agree with this view ; there was
a buoyancy of movement about her as she rose and fell
upon the surges, which was convincing proof to my mind
that she was loaded down with something much more
stable than water.

At length, when we had drawn up to within a cable's

length of her, the man on the royal yard sang out that
there were people in her, but that they were all lyinj
down in the bottom of the boat, and appeared to be

dead.

" We shall have to pick her up ourselves," said I to

Lindsay. " Let one hand stand by to drop into her from
the fore chains with a rope's end as we bring her along-
side. Lay your topsail aback, Mr. Lindsay, and let your
jib-sheet flow, if you please."

And as I sprang up on the rail to con the schooner
alongside, Lindsay gave the necessary orders.

to

WE FIND THE LAUNCH 115

With the topsail aback, and the ^mainsheet eased well
off, the schooner went drifting slow^ly down toward the
launch, that, as we now approached her, looked old,
battered, and weather-stained almost out of recognition.
We steered so as to shave past her close to windward, and
as she came drifting in under our fore chains, the man
who was waiting there with a rope's-end dropped neatly
into her, and, springing lightly along the thwarts into the

eyes of her, deftly made fast the rope to the iron ring bolt
in her stem. Then he turned himself, and looked at the
ghastly cargo that the boat carried, and as he gazed he
whitened to the lips, and a look of unspeakable horror
crept into his eyes as he involuntarily thrust out his hands
as though to ward off the sight of some dreadful object.
And well he might, for as I gazed down into that
floating charnel-house I turned deadly sick and faint, as
much at what met my sight as at the horrible odour that
rose up out of her and filled my nostrils. The boat
seemed to be full of dead, lying piled upon one another,
as though they had been flung there ; yet the first glance
assured me that some of those w^ho were on board her, on
the night when I parted company in the gig, w^ere now
missing. The captain and the doctor were lying side by
side in the stern-sheets ; the rest of the ill-fated party were
lying heaped one upon the other, or doubled up over the
thwarts in the other part of the boat. The two masts were
standing, but the sails were lowered and lay, unfurled,
alone: the thwarts, on top of the oars and boathook.

ii6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

There was no trace of food of any kind to be seen, and
the water-breakers were without bungs, and to all appear-
ance empty.

So ghastly and repulsive was the sight which the
boat presented, that our people hung in the wind for a
moment or two when I ordered them to jump down into
her and pass the bodies up over the side ; but they
rallied at once and followed me when I led the way.
The skipper and the doctor were both lying upon their
faces, and as I raised the former and turned him over,
it is difficult to say which shocked me most, whether
the startling ease with which I lifted his wasted body,
or the sight of his withered, drawn, and shrunken

features — which were so dreadfully altered that for a
moment I was doubtful whether it really was or was
not the body of Captain Harrison that I held in my
arms. I passed him up out of the boat without
difficulty, and then did the same with the doctor. It
struck me that the latter was not quite dead, and I
sang out to Lindsay to get some very weak brandy
and water and moisten the lips of each man as he
was passed up on deck ; for if life still lingered in any
of them, it might be possible to save them even now

by judicious and careful treatment. Ten of our
inanimate shipmates we singled out as possibly alive,
but with the rest the indications of dissolution were
so unmistakable that I deemed it best not to interfere
with them, but to cover the bodies with a sail, weight

WE FIND THE LAUNCH 117

it well down with ballast pigs, and then pull the plug
out of the boat and cast her adrift, after reading the
burial service over the poor relics of humanity that
she contained.

That, however, was a duty that might be deferred
until we had attended to those who had been passed
up out of her as possibly alive ; we therefore dropped
her under the stern, and allowed her to tow at the full
scope of a complete coil of line, while we devoted our-
selves to the task of attempting to resuscitate the
other ten. As I had suspected, the doctor proved to
be alive, • for after diligently painting his blue and
shrivelled lips for about a quarter of an hour with a
feather dipped in weak brandy and water, his eyelids
quivered, a fluttering sigh passed his lips, followed by
a feeble groan, and his eyes opened, fixing themselves
upon Lindsay and myself in a glassy, unrecognising
stare.

** Water! water, for the love of God!" he murmured
in a thick, dry, husky whisper.

I raised his head gently and rested it against my
shoulder, while Lindsay held the pannikin of weak
grog to his lips. For a few seconds he seemed to be
incapable of swallowing, then, like a corpse galvanised
into the semblance of life, he suddenly seized the edge
of the pannikin between his clenched teeth as in a
vice, and held it until he had drained it to the dregs.
Luckily, there were but two or three spoonfuls left in

ii8 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

it, or — as he afterwards assured me — that draught would
probably have been his last

"Ah!" he ejaculated, with a sigh of unspeakable
relief, ''nectar! nectar! Give me more." Addln^?

quickly, " No, no ; not yet, not yet ! A single tea-
spoonful every five minutes ! Oh, my God, what
anguish! Why did I not die? Is that Courtcnay, or
am I dreaming? Where is the captain?"

I whipped off my jacket and placed it under his
head, as I allowed him to sink gently back on the
deck, for at this moment Lindsay ■ whispered to me
that the captain was coming round, and I turned to
render what assistance I could. Captain Harrison's
eyes were now open, but it was perfectly plain to us
both that his wandering glances were as yet devoid
of recognition ; and it was not until some ten minutes
later that he began to evince some understanding of
who we were and what had happened. His first
inquiry was after the well-being of those who had been

with him in the boat, and to this I felt constrained to
give an evasive but encouraging reply, as he was so
terribly weak that I feared the effect upon him of a
straightforward answer giving the actual state of the
matter. We got him and the doctor down below
and put them to bed as quickly as possible, and by
the time that this was done the other eight poor souls
had also been successfully brought round, when they
too were conveyed below and made as comfortable

WE FIND THE LAUNCH 119

as circumstances would permit. This donC; we dis-
posed of the dead with all due reverence, and then
resumed our search to windward with renewed hope
arising out of the happy discovery of the launch.

It was drawing well on toward eight bells in the
afternoon watch that day when the man whom. I had
stationed in the cabin to keep an eye upon the captain
and the doctor came up on deck with the news that
both were now awake, and that the captain wished to
see nie. I at once obeyed the summons, and was
greatly rejoiced to find that both of my patients were
much stronger, and wonderfully the better in every
way for their long sleep. They lost no time in ex-
plaining that they were ravenously hungry ; whereupon
I sent word forward to the galley, and in less than

five minutes both were busily engaged in disposing of
a bowl of strong broth, prepared from two of the small
remaining stock of chickens that we had found on
board the schooner when we took her.

The moment that the soup had disappeared the
captain began to ask me questions, in reply to which I
gave him a succinct account of our adventures from
the moment when we parted company from the rest of
the boats ; and when I had finished he paid me a
high compliment upon what he was pleased to term the
skill and judgment that I had displayed throughout. He
then recounted what had befallen the launch, from
which I learned that the entire flotilla of boats had

I20 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

remained together — the faster boats accommodating
their pace to the slower craft — until caught in the
tail - end of the hurricane, — which with them only
reached the strength of a moderate gale, — when they
were perforce compelled to separate, from which time
the launch had seen none of the others again. It
appeared that the launch, deeply loaded as she was,
suffered very nearly as much as we in the gig did ;
the few in her who were capable of doing any work
having their hands full in keeping her above water.
The sea had broken over them heavily, all but swamp-
ing them upon several occasions, and destroying the
greater part of their provisions, so that within three
days after the cessation of the gale they found them-
selves without food and face to face with starvation.
Then followed a terrible story of protracted suffering,
ending in many cases in madness and death, of fruit-
less effort to work the heavy boat, and finally of utter
helplessness, despair, and — oblivion. The captain in-
formed me that he had little hope that any of the
other boats had outlived the gale, but believed that if
they were still afloat they would be found some forty
miles or so to the northward and eastward of where
we had fallen in with the launch.

In that direction therefore we continued our search,

scouring the whole ocean thereabout over an area of
fully one hundred miles square, but we found none
of the other boats ; and at length, when we had been

WE FIND THE LAUNCH 121

cruising for a full week, the captain, who by this time
was rapidly regaining strength, reluctantly gave the
order for us to desist and bear up for Jamaica. And
1 may as well here mention that none of the other
boats were ever again heard of, there being little doubt
that they all foundered during the gale.

CHAPTER VII

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY

T

HE captain, having thus sorrowfully and reluctantly
abandoned all hope of finding the missing boats,
at once became keenly anxious to reach Port Royal
with all possible expedition, in order that the painful
business of our trial by court-martial for the loss of the
frigate might be got over without delay. We therefore
carried on night and day ; and so smartly did the little
schooner step out, that on the seventh day after bear-
ing up we found ourselves at daybreak within sight
of Turk's Island, running in for the Windward Passage
before the rather languid trade wind. Most of the
people were by this time getting about once more, so
that, with our own men and the Wyvern party, our
decks looked rather crowded ; and as we went below
to breakfast the captain remarked upon it, expressing
his satisfaction that the time was so near at hand when
we could exchange our cramped quarters aboard the
schooner for the more roomy ones to be found in the

122

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 123

Kingston hotels or the houses of the hospitable Jamaica
planters.

We were still dawdling over breakfast in the close,
stuffy little cabin of the schooner, when Lindsay, who
was looking out for me, poked his head through the
open skylight to report that there were two sail ahead
— a ship and a brigantinc — hove-to in somewhat sus-
picious proximity; and that Captain Tucker — who had
been aloft to get a better view of the strangers —
declared his belief that the brigantine was none other
than the piratical craft the crew of which had pillaged
and destroyed the VVyvern.

*' How do they bear, Mr. Lindsay?" demanded the
captain.

" Straight ahead, sir," answered Lindsay.

" And how far distant?" was the next question.

"About ten miles, sir," replied Lindsay.

"And what are we going at the present moment?"
asked the captain.

Lindsay withdrew his head from the skylight to
glance over the rail, and then replaced it again to
answer, " A bare five, sir, I should say ; the wind
seems to be growing more scant. Shall I heave the log,
sir?"

" No, thank you," answered the captain ; " I have no
doubt your judgment is nearly enough correct for all
practical purposes, Mr. Lindsay. Let a hand be sent
aloft to keep an eye on the strangers, and tell him to

124 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

report anything unusual that he may see. I shall be on
deck myself in a few minutes." ,

Excusing myself, I slipped up on deck to have a look
at the two craft, the upper canvas of which was visible
above the horizon directly ahead of us. As Lindsay had

r

said, the one was a full-rigged ship, while the other was a
fine big brigantine ; both were hove-to, and in such close
proximity that the merest tyro might shrewdly guess at
what was going on there just beyond the horizon. But,
to make assurance doubly sure, I took the ship's glass,
and went up on the topgallant yard, from whence I was
able to obtain a full view of them. It was as I had
expected ; boats were passing rapidly to and fro between
the two craft, those which left the ship being heavily laden,
while those which left the brigantine were light.

I was still aloft, working away with the telescope, when
the captain emerged from the companion-way, and at
once catching sight of me, hailed

"Well, Mr. Courtenay, what do you make of them?"
" It is undoubtedly a case of piracy, sir," I replied.
" The brigantine is rifling the ship, and the latter has all
the appearance of a British West Indiaman."

" Whew ! " I heard the skipper whistle, as he walked to
the rail and looked thoughtfully down at the foam bubbles
that were gliding past our bends. " If she is an Indiaman
she will have passengers aboard her," he remarked to the
doctor, who at that moment joined him.

The doctor seemed to acquiesce, although he spoke in

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 125

so low a tone that I could not catch his words. The two
stood talking together for a few minutes, and then the
captain hailed me again.

" What do you judge our distance from those two craft
to be, Mr. Courtcnay ? " he asked.

*' A good eight miles, sir, I should say," answered I.

"Thank you, Mr. Courtenay ; you may come down,
sir," returned the skipper, which I took to be a hint that
he wanted me. I accordingly slung the glass over my
shoulder, swung myself off the yard on to the backstay,
and so descended to the deck.

" Did you notice whether they seemed to have more
wind than we have?" inquired the captain, as I joined
him.

"Pretty much the same, sir, I should think," answered
I, " It looks as though it would fall calm before long."

" I am afraid not ; no such luck," remarked the skipper,
cocking his weather eye skyward and carefully studying
the aspect of the heavens. " I fervently wish it would ;
then we could nab that fellow beautifully with the
boats."

"Might we not try, sir, as it is?" inquired I eagerly.
" We have enough people — that is, counting the Wyvern's
men, who, I have no doubt, would all volunteer," I
hastened to add, as my eye fell upon three or four of
those whom we had -taken out of the launch, and who,

what with starvation and their still unhealed wounds,
looked more fit for a hospital than for boat duty.

126 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

"Thank you, Mr. Courtenay," answered the skipper,
with a smile, evidently reading my unspoken thoughts.
" No, I am afraid it would not do. In the first place, I
question whether we really /^<^t^^ sufficient men to justify
such an attempt; and, in the next place, if we had, it
would still be desirable, in my opinion, to defer the attempt
until we are much nearer. At present nobody can tell
what we are. The schooner is such a small affair that I am
in hopes the brigantine will take no notice of us until we
are within striking distance of her ; while, if I were to
send the boats away, she would probably make off at once.
No ; it is rather trying to the patience to remain idly
aboard here, drifting along at this snail's pace, but I am
convinced that it is the correct thing to do. Perhaps, if

we show only a few men about the decks, the brigantine
may be tempted to tackle us."

" Ah ! if only she would, sir ! " I ejaculated, with such
intensity of feeling that the captain laughed.

" Why, I declare you are developing into a regular
fire-eater!" he exclaimed.

"Think of the passengers, sir, some of them women,
most likely ! " I said.^

"I aju thinking of them, sir!" answered the captain
through his clenched teeth, and with a sudden glitter
in his eye that foreboded evil to the brigantine's people,
should we be fortunate enough to get within striking
distance of them.

I turned away and walked forward to where I saw

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 127

Black Peter, the whilom servant of the midshipmen's
mess aboard the Althea. He was one of those whom we
had found still alive in the launch, and he had picked up
wonderfully since then, having become almost his old self
again. He was lounging on the forecastle near the port
cat-head, with his bare, brawny arms crossed on the rail
as he gazed ahead at the two craft, with which we were
slowly closing.

"Peter," said I, "get the grindstone ready. And
Green, get the cutlasses up on deck and give them a
thorough good sharpening. We may want them by and

by."

" Ay, ay, sir," answered Green, with a grin, as he
shambled away to get the weapon, while Peter bestirred
himself with alacrity to prepare the grindstone for its work
by drawing a bucket of water and pouring it into the
trough, A f^w minutes later Peter, his eyes gleaming
with excitement and every one of his ivories bared in a
broad grin of delight, was whirling the handle round at a
furious speed, as Green and another hand stood on either
side of the stone, each pressing a bare blade to its fiercely

buzzing disc.

We continued to drift along at an exasperatingly slow
pace before the languid breeze until we had arrived within
about four miles of the two craft, when the skipper gave
orders to clear the decks and cast loose the guns ; but he
instructed me that the galley fire was not to be ex-
tinguished and the magazine opened until the last moment.

128 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Apparently he had his doubts as to the probability of the
brigantine attacking us. And, if so, his doubts were soon
confirmed ; for when we had reduced the distance by
another mile the lookout aloft reported that the brigantine
was filling away ; and in another minute or two she turned
her stern to us, rigged out her studding-sail booms, and
went off before the wind, setting her studding-sails as she
went.

"Ah ! " ejaculated the captain, " it is as I feared ! She
smells a rat, and does not mean to wait for us ! Hoist out
the gig at once, Mr. Courtenay, and pull for your life to
that ship ; too probably it is a case of the Wyvern over
again, and if there are any people left aboard her they
. must be saved. Let the men go fully armed, but do
not take more than the boat's proper complement,
as you are not likely to have any fighting to do, while
you may want all the room in the boat that you can
spare."

We were by this time moving so slowly that it was
unnecessary to heave-to in order to hoist out the gig. No
time, therefore, was lost in getting her into the water, and
within five minutes of the issuing of the order by the
captain we were afloat and away from the schooner, with
the men — a picked crew, consisting of the strongest and
smartest men in the ship — bending their backs as they
drove the beautifully modelled boat at racing speed
through the water.

We had barely got away, however, before I detected

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 129

light wreaths of smoke curling up between the masts of
the distant ship ; and at the same moment I observed
that although her mainyards were still braced aback she
seemed to be no longer hove-to, for, as I watched, her
bows fell off until she was nearly before the wind, and she
went drifting slowly away to leeward, sometimes heading
in one direction and sometimes in another, yawing about
all over the place, with a difference of fully four points on
either side of the general direction in which she was
driving. This was most exasperating, as although she
was drifting slowly she was still drifting, and that, too, in
the same general direction that we were steering, thus
prolonging the time that must necessarily elapse ere we
could overtake her, while it would greatly increase the
expenditure of energy on the part of the oarsmen to
enable us to get alongside.

" Give way with a will, men," I cried. " The rascals
have not only set fire to the ship, but they have also cast
loose her wheel, so that she is now running away from us
to leeward. The harder you pull the sooner shall we
catch her, and the better chance will there be for us to
put out the fire. And remember, for aught that we
know, her crew may be lying there upon her deck,
bound hand and foot, utterly helpless, to roast alive, unless
we can get alongside in time to save them ! "

This appeal was not without effect upon the men ;

hard as they had been pulling, they now put out every

available ounce of strength they possessed, their brawny

9

I30 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

muscles standing out like ropes upon their bare arms,
while the perspiration literally poured off them, and the
stout ash blades bent like wands, as they all but lifted the
gig clean out of the water at every stroke. We tore along
over the low, oil-like ridges of the swell at the speed of
the dolphin, leaving the schooner as though she were at
anchor; yet to my eager impatience our headlong pace
seemed to be little better than a crawl, for the light
wreaths of smoke that I had seen winding lazily upward
from the ship's hull and twining about her spars increased
in volume with startling rapidity, while it momentarily
grew darker in colour, until, within ten minutes of its first
appearance, it had become a dense cloud of dun-coloured
smoke, completely enveloping the ship, in the heart of
which long, forking tongues of flickering flame presently
appeared. They had apparently set fire to the poor old
barkie in at least half a dozen places, and she was burning

like match-wood.

"Pull, men, pull!" I cried, "or we shall be too late;
she is well alight even now, and in another quarter of an
hour she will be a blazing furnace if she goes on at her
present rate. Heaven above ! if there are people aboard
her what must their feelings be now ? "

A groan of sympathy burst from the men in response
to this ejaculation of mine, and they tugged at the oars
with a strength and energy that filled me with amazement.
We were coming up with the ship hand over hand ; but,
fast as the boat flew, the fire grew still faster, and presently

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 131

I saw the flames climbing aloft by way of the well-tarred
shrouds until they reached the sails, when there arose a
sudden blaze of flame among the spars, and in two or
three minutes every shred of canvas had been consumed,
and the crawling tongues of fire were circling about the
masts and yards, feebly at first, but steadily increasing
until they were all ablaze. Meanwhile the ship, deprived
of her canvas, gradually fell broadside-on to the wind, and
from that position as gradually drifted round until she lay
bows-on to us. By this time we were within three-
quarters of a mile of her, and now that she was no longer
driven to leeward by her sails, we ncared her rapidly. But
my heart sank within me as I watched her, for the destruc-
tion of her sails, which I had at first thought a fortunate
circumstance, — inasmuch as she no longer blew away from
us, — I now recognised as a dreadful happening; for,
stationary as she ;iow lay on the water, the light draught
of wind had full power to fan the fire that raged aboard
her, and by the time that we drew up under her bows and
hooked on to her bobstay, she was a roaring mass of flames
from stem to stern.

I shinned up the bobstay and so got on to her
bowsprit, and from there made my way into her head ; but
I could go no farther, for the fore part of her deck was a
sheet of fire, upon which no living thing could exist for
more than a few seconds of unspeakable torment, and
even where I stood the heat was all but unendurable. 1

r

could not see very far aft for the flames and smoke.

132 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Her fore scuttle was open, and a pillar of flame roared out
of it as from a chimney on fire; and some ten feet abaft it
was her foremast, ablaze from the deck to the truck ; and
immediately abaft it again was the blazing framework of
what had shortly before been a deck-house. Beyond that
I could see nothing. One thing was quite certain, and
that was that if there were living people still aboard her
•which I could not believe possible — they must be aft,
and it was there that we must seek them. So I scrambled
down into the gig again, and ordered the men to back off
and pull round under the ship's stern.

They lost no time in obeying my order; and it was
well for us all that they exhibited so much alacrity, for as
we swept round and gave way an ominous cracking and
rending sound was heard aboard the ship, and a moment
later her blazing foremast toppled over and fell with a
crash into the sea, missing the gig by a bare boathook's
length.

" Look out for the other masts ; they'll be comin' down
too in a jiffy ! " sang out one of the men ; and they all
pulled for their lives. But the alarm was a false one, the
main and mizzen masts standing for full ten minutes
longer.

But when we got under the ship's stern it became
perfectly clear that no living thing could be aboard her,
for she was even more fiercely ablaze aft than she was
for'ard, the whole of her, from the mainmast to thetaffrail,
being a veritable furnace of roaring flame, with tongues

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 133

and jets of fire leaping from her cabin windows and from
every port and scuttle. It was impossible to board her in
this direction ; it would have simply been an act of suicide
to have attempted it ; even her outside planking, right
down to the water's edge, was so hot that it was unbear-
able to the touch ; and it was beyond all doubt that if
those fiends in the brigantine had left the crew, or any
portion of them, on board, the unhappy creatures must
have perished long ere we had reached the ill-fated craft.
I therefore took a note of her name, — the Kingston Trader
of Bristol, — and reluctantly gave the word to haul off to a
safe distance to wait until the schooner should run down
and pick us up.

This occurred about a quarter of an hour later, and
the moment that the gig was fairly clear of the water we
crowded sail after the brigantine ; but, fast as the schooner
was, the pirate craft easily ran away from us, and by

sunset had vanished below the horizon.

Nothing further of importance happened to us until

our arrival at Port Royal, which occurred on the evening

of the following day, when we just saved the last of the

sea breeze into the harbour. The captain went ashore

and reported himself that same night, dining with the

admiral afterwards ; but I did not go ashore until late the

next day, as there was a great deal of business that I had

to attend to. Captain Harrison was of course most

anxious that our trial by court-martial for the loss of the

frigate should take piace as speedily as possible, because

134 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

he could not Hope for another command until that was
over ; and it happened by a quite exceptional piece of
luck that there were enough ships in the harbour to allow
of its being held at once. It was consequently arranged
to take place on board the flag-ship, on the fourth day
following our arrival. It was, of course, only a formal
affair, the loss of the frigate being due to causes quite
beyond our control, — unless, indeed, we had chosen to
run from the two French ships instead of fighting them,
— so it was soon over, and before noon we were all
honourably acquitted, and our side-arms returned to us
with much congratulatory handshaking on the part of the
officers present. Captain Harrison, the doctor, Lindsay,
and I were invited to dine with the admiral at his Pen
that evening, and we accordingly drove out with the last
of the daylight, arriving at the house just as the sun was
setting over Hunt Bay. The admiral was the very soul
of hospitality, and we were therefore a large party, several
officers from Up Park Camp and a sprinkling of civilians
being present **to take off the salt flavour" likely to

prevail from a too exclusive gathering of the naval
element, as our host laughingly put it.

Somewhat to my surprise, I found myself the lion of
the evening, Captain Harrison having most generously
made the utmost of my exploit in capturing the French
schooner and my subsequent search for the frigate's boats;
and so many compliments were paid me that, being still
young and comparatively modest, I had much difficulty in

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 135

maintaining my self- possession and making suitable
replies.

After dinner, and while the rest of us were chatting
and smoking over our wine, the admiral, apologising for
being obliged to temporarily absent himself, withdrew,
taking Captain Harrison with him. They were absent for
nearly an hour, and when they returned there was notice-
able in the skipper's manner a subdued but joyous exulta-
tion that told of good news. I did not, however, learn

what it was until we had left the Pen and were driving
back to our hotel in Kingston by the dazzling silver
radiance of a tropical full moon. And, prior to that, the
admiral had said to me' as I bade him good-night —

" Come and see me in my office to-morrow about noon,
Mr. Courtenay ; I want to have a talk to you."

As soon as we were clear of the Pen grounds and
fairly on our road to Kingston, the skipper said to me

" Mr. Courtenay, do you happen to have noticed that
fine frigate, the Minerva, lying just inshore of the flag-
ship ? "

"Yes, sir, I have," said I. "She is a beauty, and is
said to be a wonderful sailer, especially on a taut bowline.
I heard yesterday that her captain is ashore, down with
yellow fever."

" Very true," answered the skipper. " The poor fellow
died this morning, and the admiral has been pleased to
give the command of her to me."

" 1 congratulate you with all my heart, sir," said I.

136 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

** I thought I could read good news in your face this
evening when you returned to the dining-room. She is
a magnificent vessel, and I sincerely hope that you will
have abundant opportunity to distinguish yourself in her.
And I hope, sir, that you will take me with you."

'* Thank you, Courtenay, thank you!" exclaimed the
skipper, evidently touched by the sincerity of my
congratulations ; *' if we can only manage to fall in with
the enemy frequently enough, never fear but I will
distinguish myself — if I live. As to taking you with me,
I would do so with the greatest pleasure, and as a matter
of course, were I permitted to have my own way ; but I
believe, from what the admiral let drop to me to-night,
that he has his own plans for you, and, if so, you may rest
assured that they will be far more to your advantage than
would be your accompanying me to the Minerva, Let
me see — how much longer have you to serve before you
are eligible for examination ? "

*' Only four days more, sir," 1 answered, with a laugh ;
"then I shall go up as early as possible."

*' Only four days more?" exclaimed the skipper in
surprise ; " I thought it was more like two months ! "

" Only four days, I assure you, sir," repeated I.

" Um ! well, I suppose you know best," was the answer,
given in a musing tone, to which was presently added,
" So much the better ! So much the better ! "

''May I ask, sir, whether that remark has any reference
to me? " I inquired.

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 137

'' Certainly, Courtenay, certainly ; there cannot be
any possible objection to your asking, but I am not
bound to answer, am I ? " replied the skipper, with a
laugh. " No," he continued, '* I must not tell you any-
thing, except that I have reason to believe that the
admiral is very much pleased with your behaviour,
and that he contemplates marking his approval in a
manner which, I am sure, will be very pleasing to
yourself."

And that was all I could get out of the gallant
captain ; but it was sufficient to cause me to pass a
sleepless night of pleasurable speculation.

Prompt to the second I presented myself at the
admiral's office next morning, and was at once shown
into the great man's presence.

" Morning, Mr. Courtenay ! " exclaimed he, as I
entered. ''Bring yourself to an anchor for a minute or
two, will ye, until I have signed these papers ; then I
shall be free to have a talk to you. Jenkins, clear away
a chair for Mr. Courtenay."

The orderly sergeant reverently removed a pile of
books and papers from a chair, dusted it, and placed it
near an open window, and I amused myself by looking
out upon the busy scene in the harbour, while the
admiral proceeded to scrawl his signature upon document
after document.

"There!" he exclaimed, with a sigh of relief, as he
signed the last one and pushed it away from him, "thank

138 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

goodness that job is finished ! Now, Mr. Courtenay — by
the way, Captain Harrison told me last night that he
beh'eved you would soon be ehgible for your examination.
Is that so?"

** Yes, sir/' answered I ; '* I shall have served my full
time in three days more."

"Three days!" exclaimed the admiral. "Is that
all ? "

I replied that it was.

"And I understand that you are a good seaman and
navigator," resumed the admiral. " I suppose you have
no fear of faihng when you go up for your examination ? "
I modestly replied that I had not, provided that I was
treated fairly, and had not a lot of catch-questions put
to me.

"Just so," responded the admiral musingly. "Your
navigation, I have no doubt, is all right," he continued,
"and of course you can work a ship when she is all
ataunto. But suppose you belonged, let us say, to a
frigate, and at the end of an engagement you found
yourself in command, and your ship unrigged, what is the
first thing you would do ? "

I considered for a moment, and then proceeded to
describe the steps I should take under such circumstances,
the admiral listening all the time intently, but uttering no
word and giving no sign of any kind to indicate whether
my reply was satisfactory or not, until I had finished,
when he said — '

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 139

" Very good, Mr. Courtenay, very good indeed — on
the whole. Have you ever helped to fit out a ship? "

" Yes, sir," answered I, " I was aboard the poor old
AltJiea during the whole time that she was in the hands
of the riggers."

"Ah!" he exclaimed, "and you heartily wished
yourself anywhere else than there, I'll be bound. But it
has done you good, young gentleman ; you have profited
by your experience, I can see, and will perhaps some day
be deeply thankful for the knowledge you then gained.
Now, supposing that you found yourself on a lee shore, in
a heavy gale of wind, with all your masts gone, what
steps would you take for the preservation of the ship and
the lives of your crew ? "

Again I replied at length, stating that I should anchor
the moment that the ship drifted into a suitable depth of
water, letting go both bovvers, backing them up with the

sheet anchors, and shackling the remainder of the bower
cables on to those of the sheet anchors, which latter I
should then veer away upon to within a few fathoms of
the clinch.

"And suppose that, having done this, your ship
dragged, or parted her cables, what then?" persisted the
admiral.

"Then, sir," said I, "we could only trust in God's
mercy, while standing by to take care of ourselves and
each other as soon as the ship should strike."

"Good!" exclaimed the admiral; "a very excellent

I40 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and proper answer, Mr. Courtenay. Now," he continued,
" I have been asking you these questions with a purpose.
I wanted to ascertain for myself whether I should be
justified in sending- you away in command of that little
schooner that you took so cleverly, and I think I shall.

r

I believe you will do exactly for the work I have in my
mind for you. Sickness and casualties together have
played havoc among the officers on this station of late, to
such an extent that I have not nearly as many as I want;
consequently I am only too glad to meet with young
gentlemen like yourself, who have made good use of their
opportunities. These waters are swarming with the
enemy's privateers, — with a sprinkling of pirates thrown in,
it would appear, from what the skipper of the unfortunate
Wyvern says, — and they must be put down — sunk, burned,
destroyed by any means that can best be compassed, or,
better still, captured. I therefore propose to fit out that
little schooner of yours, and to place you in command of
her, for the especial purpose of suppressing these pests,
and incidentally capturing as many of the enemy's
merchantmen as you can fall in with. Now, how d'ye
think you'll like the job?"

I replied, delightedly, that nothing could possibly suit
me better ; that I was inexpressibly grateful for the con-
fidence he was about to repose in me, and that I would
leave nothing undone to prove that such confidence was
justified.

''Very well, then, that is settled," observed the

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY 141

admiral genially. '* \Vc will have the schooner over-
hauled at once, and made ready for sea as quickly as may
be. Then you can go to sea for a month ; there will be
an examination next month, for which you must arrange
to be in port, and then — having passed, as I feel certain
you will — you shall have }'0ur commission, and be off to
sea again to win your next step."

CHAPTER VIII

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN

THE schooner was turned over to the dockyard
people that same afternoon, and duly surveyed ;
and on the following day, when I presented myself at the
admiral's office, the old boy handed me a list, as long as
the main bowline, setting forth the several alterations
.deemed necessary to fit the little craft for His Majesty's
service.

" Here, Mr. Courtenay, just run your eye over that list,
and tell me what you think of it," he cried, as he passed
it to me across the table.

I '* ran my eye over it." '* New gang of rigging fore
and aft — new bulwarks, six feet high, fitted with hammock
rail, etc., complete — deck strengthened by doubling the
deck-beams — new coamings to hatchways," — and so on,
and so on, until my imagination had conjured up a picture
of the trim little Stcsanne transmogrified out of recognition,
and so stiffened and hampered by her extra deck-beams
and new rigging, that we should have reason to deem

14 L'

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN 143

ourselves fortunate should we ever succeed in screwing
six knots out of her on a bowline.

The admiral must have beheld my face growing ever
longer as I worked my way through this precious list to
the end of it, for when I had finished it, and looked up at
him blankly, he laughed aloud, as he exclaimed

" Why, boy, what is the matter with you ? Your face
is as long as a fiddle ! "

"Oh, sir," I exclaimed, in accents of despair, "you
surely will not allow those — those — dockyard people to
completely ruin the poor little hooker by making all these
alterations and additions to her? She is a new vessel,
sir — I understood from the mate of her that this was her
first voyage. She is as sound and strong as wood and
iron can make her, and any attempt to further strengthen
her can only result in the destruction of her sailing powers.
Then, as to those high bulwarks, sir, what will be the use
of them ? They will not afford us an atom of protection,
while they will make her sag away to leeward like a
barge ! And this new gang of rigging"'

The admiral again burst out laughing. " There, there,"
he said soothingly, as he held up his hand to 'stop me,
"don't distress yourself any further, Mr. Courtenay ; Til
go aboard her myself this afternoon, and see how much
of this she really requires before signing the order.
Meanwhile, go aboard yourself and draw up a list of such
alterations and additions as you may think needful, and
hand it to me when I come down to have a look round/'

144 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

I did so, and the upshot of it all was that I eventually
wheedled the admiral into consenting that the schooner
should remain absolutely untouched above the deck, the
only alterations made in her consisting in an extension of
the cabin and forecastle accommodation, the enlargement
of the magazine, and the substitution of iron ballast for
the stones which the Frenchmen had considered good
enough to keep the little hooker on her feet. I had some
difficulty in gaining my patron's consent to the retention
of the low, light bulwarks with which the craft was fitted,
the admiral being strongly of opinion that they ought to

be high enough and stout enough to shelter us from
musketry fire. Moreover, I think he considered that we

looked altogether too rakish and piratical as we then
were; but I represented to him that under certain condi-
tions this might be advantageous rather than otherwise,
and in the end the kind-hearted old fellow indulgently let
me have my way. The result of this was that within a
fortnight of our arrival we were at sea again, with the little
ship — rechristened by the name of the Z"^;-;^— smelling
outrageously of fresh paint, to the unmitigated disgust of
the thirty-six stout fellows who were quartered in her
forecastle. Young Lindsay, with many apologies to
Captain Harrison, elected to unite his fortunes with mine,
rather than turn over to the Minerva ; and I was also
given another lad — a very quiet, lady-like young fellow
named Christie — to bear us both company and do duty
as master. Black Peter, also came to the conclusion that

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN 145

there would be more scope for his talents aboard the
schooner than in the frigate, and without asking anybody's
leave, installed himself, unceremoniously and as a matter
of course, in the position of cabin servant.

We weighed about five o'clock in the evening, with the
last of the sea breeze, — a very smart, handsome privateer
schooner named the Coquette being in company, — and just
managed to sneak through the narrow channel between
Gun and Rackum Cays, when the wind dropped dead,
and left us in the East Channel in the midst of a glassy
calm, rolling our rails under to the furious swell that came
sweeping along past Plum Point. The Coquette was
within biscuit-toss of us, and she too was rolling and
tumbling about to such an extent that I every minute
expected to see her roll her sticks away. This lasted for
close upon two hours, during which the sun went down in
a blaze of splendour and lavish magnificence of colour
such as I have never beheld outside the limits of the West
Indian waters. Then, just as the burning glories of the
west were fading into sober grey, while Hesperus beamed
softly out with momentarily increasing effulgence in the
darkening blue of the eastern sky, a gentle breeze came

stealing to us off the land, to which both schooners, with
a mutual challenge to each other, gladly trimmed their
canvas, and away we both went, hugging the Palisades
closely, for the sake of the smoother water, until Plum
Point was passed, when we gradually drew away from

each other, the Coquette shaping a course for Morant

10

146 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Point, while 1 edged away for the island of Martinique,
having formed the opinion that some of the more knowing
of the enemy's homeward-bound merchant skippers might
endeavour to slip out of the Caribbean between the islands
of Martinique and Dominica, in the hope of thereby
eluding our cruisers and privateers, most of which chose
the neighbourhood of the Windward Passages for their
cruising-ground. By the end of the second dog-watch the
breeze had freshened so much that it became necessary
to hand our royal and topgallant sail ; and soon afterwards
the wind hauled gradually round until it became the true
trade wind, piping up to the strength of half a gale, and
compelling us to haul down a single reef in our big main-
sail and two reefs in our topsail, under which the little
beauty lay down and thrashed through it with all the life
and go of a thorough-bred racer. The Coquette was still
in sight, some eight miles away to windward, and, famous
as she was for her speed, I had the supreme delight of
observing that vve had headreached upon her to the extent
of quite two miles. And now we began to discover the
great advantage of having exchanged our stone ballast
for iron, the schooner being not only much stiffer under

her canvas, but also more lively than before. It was
grand sailing weather, the breeze, although strong, being
perfectly steady, while the sea was long and regular,
allowing the little hooker plenty of time to rise to each as

it came rushing down upon her with hissing crest all
agleam with sparkling sea-fire. And it was exhilarating

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN 147

r

to stand right away aft, close by the weather taffrail, and
watch the Httle beauty as she tore along with breathless
speed through the dusky night. The sky was clear as a
bell, save for a few detached fleeces of trade-cloud that
came swooping along at frequent intervals athwart the
stars, so that there was plenty of light to see by ; and it
was as intoxicating as wine to merely stand abaft there,
as I did, feeling the strong rush of the wind past me, and
drinking in its invigorating freshness and coolness, as the
deck heaved and plunged beneath my feet, and the
bending masts swayed and reeled to and fro, the trucks

sweeping Jong arcs among the dancing stars, and the wind
piping high and shrill through the rigging, as the schooner
leaped and plunged irresistibly forward, with a storm of
spray flashing in over her weather cat-head and blowing
aft as far as the mainmast at every buoyant upward leap
of her to meet the sea, while a whole Niagara of hissing
foam — with an under-stratum of whirling clouds of
lambent green sea-fire — went swirling past the lee rail at
a speed that made one giddy to look at. Five bells in the
first watch saw us fairly abreast atMorant Point, and then,
as the night was clear and the breeze steady, I went below
and turned in.

Nothing of any importance occurred during the next
few days, and, carrying on upon the schooner to the last
stitch that she could stagger under, we arrived off the
northern extremity of the island of Martinique exactly at
midnight on the fifth night after leaving Port Royal. I

148 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

considered that we had now reached our cruising-ground,
and that there was consequently no need for any further
hurry. We therefore shortened sail to double-reefed main-
sail, fore staysail, and jib, — furling all our square canvas,
— and leisurely passed through the channel between
Martinique and Dominica until we were some sixty miles
to windward of both islands, when we headed the little
hooker to the northward and ratcJied as far as the latitude
of Antigua, then heaving about and returning over the same
ground again.

The first two days of our cruising proved utterly barren
of results, but the time was by no means wasted, for, having
sedulously exercised the crew in the working of the guns
and in cutlass drill every day during our passage across
from Port Royal, I now rigged up a floating target and
gave them a little firing practice, taking care to have a
man on the royal yard to give us timely notice of the
appearance of any sail that perchance might be frightened
away by the sound of firing ; and I was soon gratified
at the discovery that I numbered among my crew several
very fairly clever marksmen.

It was within a few minutes of sunset, on the evening
of the third day of our cruise, that, being again off the
northern extremity of Martinique, and heading to the
southward, the lookout aloft reported the upper canvas of
what looked like a large ship standing out close-hauled
between that island and Dominica. I immediately got the
ship's telescope and went aloft with it, being just in good

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN 149

time to catch a glimpse of the royals and heads of the
topgallant sails of a ship steering a course that would
carry her some six miles to the northward of us. Having
made as sure as I could of her bearing, distance, and
course, I descended to the deck, and gave orders to wear
ship, after executing which manoeuvre we hauled down all
our canvas and lay in wait for the approaching craft, the
schooner, although under bare poles, headreaching at the
rate of about two miles per hour. I estimated that the
distance of the stranger from us was then some twenty-
five miles, and if she was making a speed of eight knots
which was a fairly liberal allowance — it would afford us
ample time to drift fairly athwart her hawse ; and this I

hoped to do undiscovered, as I believed that, from the cut

of her canvas, she was a merchantman belonging to one or
another of our enemies, and I was most anxious that she
should not take fright and bear up for cither of the
islands, involving us in a long stern-chase, with possibly a
cutting-out job at the end of it if she should succeed in
reaching the refuge of a harbour.

The evening was fine, with a moderate breeze from
about east-north-east, and not very much sea running. The
swell, however, was high enough to hide us for at least
half the time, and although the stars soon beamed forth
brilliantly, while a thin silver sickle of moon hung high
^loft, the conditions generally seemed fairly promising
for success. Of course I gave the most stringent orders
that no lights whatever should be permitted to show

ISO A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

aboard the schooner, and I was careful to remain on

deck myself to see that these orders were rigorously

observed. The canvas of the stranger seemed to grow

upon the horizon very slowly, and the time of waiting for

her approach appeared long ; but at length, by four bells in

the first watch, she had drawn up to within about three

miles of us, and I gave the word to sec all clear for sheeting

home and hoisting away at a moment's notice; for the time

had now arrived when, if anything like a proper lookout

was being kept on board her, we might be discovered at

any instant. But minute after minute passed, and she

still came steadily on, heeling slightly to the steady trade

wind, and bowing solemnly over the undulating swell,

with a curl of white foam under her bluff bows that made

her appear to be travelling at about three times her actual
speed. We had by this time forercached athwart her

fore-foot, and were edging along at a pace that promised
to place us about half a mile to windward of her by the
time that she would be crossing our stern, and now I kept
the night-glass immovably bearing upon her, watching for
the sudden yaw that should indicate the discovery of a
possible enemy in her path. I had by this time made up
my mind that she was a Spaniard, and the mere fact
of her adventuring^ herself thus alone, instead of availing
herself of a convoy, was to me sufficient assurance that
she went heavily armed and manned. It also suggested
the possibility that she might be carrying an exceptionally
rich freight, it sometimes happening that the skipper of

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN

i^i

such a ship, especially if he chanced to be a man of daring
and courage, preferred to take his chance of making the
voyage alone rather than risk being cut off from the convoy
by the swarm of privateers and picaroons that hovered
upon its skirts almost from the moment of its sailing to
that of its arrival.

Our people were by this time all at their stations, with
sheets and halliards in their hands, ready to sway away
at the first word of an order from me ; and it was not so
dark but that I was able to see, out of the corner of my
eye, the nudges and gestures of delight which they
interchanged as the great, stately Indiaman swept at
length athwart our stern, dark and silent as a phantom.

" Up helm and wear her round," I shouted, all
necessity for further concealment being now at an end ;
"sheet home and hoist away for'ard — hold on aft with
your peak and throat halliards until we are fairly round !
Starboard braces round in ! trim aft the starboard head-
sheets ! A^ozu hoist away your mainsail ! Ah, they see
us at last ! There she bears away. Steady there with
your lee helm, my man ; do not let her come to just yet.
Keep the chase upon your weather bow; she must not be
allowed to get to leeward of us. Mr. Lindsay, just pitch
a shot athwart her hawse as a hint that we wish her to
heave-to."

The shot was fired, and another, and yet a third, but
the stranger took no notice whatever, the object of her
captain being apparently to bear away across our bows

i:;2 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and so get before the wind, when, of course, the cloud of
studding-sails that her rig allowed would afford her a very
important advantage over the schooner. But I was not
going to permit that if I could help it, and it soon became
perfectly clear that we could, the schooner having the

r

heels of the ship, although we were soon under the lee of
the latter, with her sails partially becalming ours. At
length, finding that we could outsail the Indiaman, I
luffed close in under her lee and hailed, in the best
Spanish that I could muster —

'* Ho, the ship ahoy ! Heave-to, and strike, sir, to His
Britannic Majesty's schooner TernV

The only reply to this was a rattling volley of
musketry, evidently aimed at me as I stood on the
weather rail, just abaft the main rigging, for I heard the
bullets whistling all round my head.

"If you don't heave-to, sir," I exclaimed angrily, "by
heaven, I will fire into and sink you ! "

"Schooner ahoy! who are you?" now came a hail, in
very indifferent English, from the ship ; and in the dim
starlight I could just make out the shape of a shadowy
figure standing by the mizzen rigging.

"This schooner, sir, is His Britannic Majesty's schooner
Tern, as I have already had the honour to inform you.
Do you intend to heave-to, sir, or will you compel me to
fire into you ?" I retorted, in English this time.

The figure vanished from the lee rail of the ship
vvithout making any reply to my question ; and, annoyed

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN 153

at being treated in this curious fashion, I turned my face
inward and shouted

" Let her go off a little, Mr. Lindsay, — ^just far enough
to enable us to fire at his rigging, — and then see whether
a broadside will bring the fellow to his senses,"

I leapt down off the rail, and turned to walk aft, when
the figure suddenly popped into view again aboard the
Indiaman, and shouted

*' No, no, senor ; do not fire, for the love of God ! We
have several ladies aboard here, and I will surrender,
rather than that they should be hurt ! 1 surrender, sir, I
surrender! "

And the next instant I heard the same voice shouting,
in Spanish, an order for the crew to lay aft and back the
mainyard.

As the broad mainsail of the ship collapsed and
shrivelled into massive festoons to the hauling of the
crew upon the clew-garnets, buntlines, and ieechlines,
preparatory to backing the maintopsail, we too shortened
sail in readiness to heave-to at the same moment as the
prize ; and five minutes later I found myself, with my
sword drawn and a dozen stout fellows, armed to the
teeth, at my heels, standing upon the quarter-deck of the
stranger, with a little crowd of well-dressed men —
evidently Spaniards — curiously regarding me and my
following by the light of a couple of lanterns that some-
one had placed on the capstan-head.

"Bueno!" exclaimed a fine, sailorly-looking, elderly

J54 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

man, "all is well ; they arc undoubtedly English, and we
have therefore nothing to fear I "

And so saying, he stepped forward and handed me his
sheathed sword.

As I doffed my hat and held out my hand to receive
the weapon, I could not help saying-

"Pardon, senor, but may I be permitted to ask an
explanation of that remark? "

" Assuredly, noble sir," answered the Spaniard, return-
ing my bow, with a dignified grace that excited my
keenest envy; ''the explanation is perfectly simple. The
fact is, that when your schooner suddenly appeared just
now, as though she had risen from the bottom of the sea,
my first impression was that we had been unfortunate
enough to stumble across the path of my detested countr}--
man, Pedro Morillo ; and I was determined to sink with
my ship and all on board her rather than surrender to htm."

" And pray, seiior, who is this man Pedro Morillo, of
whom you speak? and why should he require a country-
man of his own to surrender to him ? and why should you

be so very strongly averse to falling into his power?"
demanded I.

" Ah, senor, it is easy to see that you are a stranger to
these waters, or you would not need to ask for information
respecting that fiend Morillo," answered the Spaniard.
" He is a cruel, avaricious, and bloodthirsty pirate, spar-
ing neither man nor woman, friend nor foe. But little
is really known about him, senor, for those who meet him

WE CAPTURE A SPANISH INDIAMAN 155

rarely survive to tell the tale; but there have been one or
two who, by a miracle, have escaped him, and it is from
them that we have gained the knowledge that it is better
to perish by his shot than to fall alive into his hands."

*' Is the vessel by means of whicli he perpetrates his
piracies a brigantine, very handsome, and wonderfully
fast ? " I inquired, suddenly bethinking me of poor Captain
Tucker and his story.

"Certainly, seiior, that answers perfectly to the
description of the accursed Giierrilla, Have you seen her
of late? But no, of course you have not, or you would
not now be here; for Morillo is said to be especially
vindictive against the English, inflicting the most atrocious
tortures upon all who fall into his hands. In the dim
light we at first mistook your schooner for the Guerrilla,
and that is why we fired upon you as we did. Permit me,
seiior, to express my profound regret at my so unfortunate
mistake, and my extreme gratification that it was not
followed by a disastrous result."

At this compliment we of course exchanged bows
once more; after which I took the liberty of addressing to
this very poHtc and polished skipper a few questions with
regard to his ship, coupled with a hint that I was anxious

to complete without delay my arrangements for placing
a prize crew on board and bearing up for Jamaica.

Our prize, I then learned, was the Dofia Dolores of
Cadiz, a Spanish West Indiaman of eleven hundred and
eight}^-four tons register, homeward bound from Cartagena,

156 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Maracaibo, and La Guayra, with a very valuable general
cargo and twenty-eight passengers, ten of whom were
ladies. Captain Manuel Fernandez — the skipper — was
most polite, and anxious to meet my views in every way ;
at least, so he informed me. He conducted me into the
ship's handsome saloon and introduced me to his
passengers, — the female portion of which seemed to be
frightened nearly out of their wits, — and was kind enough

to promise me that, if it would be agreeable to me, the
whole of his people should assist my prize crew to work
the ship. This suggestion, however, did not happen to
be agreeable to me, so I was compelled to explain, as
politely as I could phrase it, that my duty compelled me
not only to decline his magnanimous offer, but to secure

the whole of his crew, officers and men, below, and also
to remove all arms of every description from the ship ;
after which, if he would give me his parole, it would afford
me much pleasure to receive him as a guest on board the
schooner, I could see that this was a bitter pill for the
haughty don to swallow, but I was politely insistent, and
so of course he had to yield, which he eventually did with
the best grace he could muster ; and an hour later the
Dolores^ with Christie, the master's mate, in command, and
ten of our lads as a prize crew, was bowling along before
the wind with studding-sails set aloft and alow, while the
Tern followed almost within hail ; it being my intention to
escort so valuable a prize into port, and thus take every
possible precaution against her recapture.

CHAPTER IX

WE ENCOUNTER AND FIGHT THE GUERRILLA

N the morning but one succeeding" the capture of
the Dolores^ — the schooner and her prize then
being some two hundred and forty miles to the westward
of Dominica, — a sail was discovered at daybreak some
twelve miles to the southward and westward of us, beating
up against the trade wind, close-hauled upon the starboard
tack ; and a few minutes later she was made out to be a
brigantine. We paid but scant attention to her at first,
craft of her rig being frequently met with in the Caribbean,
trading to and fro between the islands ; but when the
stranger, almost immediately after her rig had been
identified, tacked to the northward, as though with the
intention of getting a closer look at us, I at once scented
an enemy, and, possessing myself of the telescope, forth-
with made my way into the fore crosstrees for the purpose
of subjecting her to a rigorous examination, wondering,
meanwhile, whether by any adverse chance the stranger
might eventually turn out to be the notorious pirate

158 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Morillo in his equally notorious brigantine the Gtierrilla.

I had no sooner got the craft fairly within the field of the
instrument than I discovered my conjecture to be correct,
a score of triflhig details of rig and equipment becoming
instantly recognisable as identical with similar peculiarities
already noticed by me when I before saw the pirate
vessel.

Such is the perversity of blind fortune! Under
ordinary circumstances nothing would have pleased me
better than to meet this audacious outlaw and his cut-
throat crew in a clear sea, and to try conclusions with
them. But now I was hampered with the possession of
a valuable prize which I was most anxious to take safely
into port, while my little force was seriously weakened
by the withdrawal of the prize crew which I had been
obliged to put on board the Dolores. It was therefore not
wholly without apprehension that, under these untoward
circumstances, I witnessed the approach of the formidable
brigantine. I would have preferred to have met her, if
possible, upon somewhat more equal terms ; but there
she was, doubtless bent upon the capture of the Dolores,
and there was nothing for it but to prepare for her as
warm a reception as it was in our power to give. I
therefore descended to the deck and gave orders to
call all hands and clear for action, at the same time
signalling to Christie that the stranger in sight was
a pirate, and that he was to keep out of harm's way
during the impending action, keeping on upon his

WE ENCOUNTER THE GUERRILLA 159

course, and leaving us in the schooner to deal with the
intruder.

Our preparations were soon complete, but none too
soon ; for, approaching each other as we were at a good
pacC; the space between the brigantine and ourselves
narrowed very rapidly. Nevertheless there was time,
when all was done, to say a few words to the men ; so,
as I anticipated that the struggle upon which we were
about to engage would be a tough one, I called them aft
and said —

"My lads, you have all heard of the atrocious pirate
Morillo who haunts these waters; you have heard some-
thing of his doings from those poor fellows belonging to
the Wyvern who were picked up by us when wc were
searching for the Alt/tea's boats, and you saw for your-
selves a specimen of his handiwork in the blazing hull of
the Kingston Trader, the unfortunate crew of which ship
only too probably perished with her. The scoundrel
and his gang of cold-blooded murderers are aboard that
brigantine : and after what you have heard and seen, I
need not tell you what is likely to be the fate of any of
us, or of those aboard the Dolores^ should we be so un-
fortunate as to fall into their hands. They are undoubtedly
about to attempt the capture of the Spaniard. Now, it is
for you to say whether they shall do so, or whether you
will send them all to the bottom of the sea instead.
Which is it to be, men ? "

"Put us alongside of her, i\Ir. Courtenay, sir, and we'll

i6o A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

soon show you — and them too — which it's to be," answered
one of the men, the rest instantly corroborating the remark
by such exclamations as, " Ay, ay ; we'll give 'em their
gruel, never fear/' *' Well spoke, Tomrny ; true for you,
my son," and so on.

"Very well," said I, "that is the answer I expected.
Now go to your guns, men ; and see that you make every
shot tell."

While clearing for action we had also made sail and
shot ahead of the Dolores ; and within five minutes of the
moment when the crew went back to their guns, we were
within half a mile of the brigantinc, which craft was then
crossing our bows, tearing through the long, low swell
like a racing yacht, with a storm of diamond spray flashing
up over her weather bow at every graceful plunge of her
into the trough. She was a beautiful vessel, long and low,
with enormously taunt, raking masts and a phenomenal

spread of canvas — a craft well worth fighting for ; and I
thought what a proud day it would be for me if perchance
I should be fortunate enough to capture and take her
triumphantly into Port Royal harbour. She was now
well within range, so I sang out to Lindsay, who was
looking after matters on the forecastle, to know whether
the nine-pounder pivot gun was ready.

"All ready, sir, and bearing dead on the brigantine,"
was the answer,

" Then heave a shot across the rascal's fore-foot at
once," shouted I; "and you, my man, hoist away the

WE ENCOUNTER THE GUERRILLA i6i

ensign at the flash of the gun," I contmued to the fellow
who was standing by the peak signal halliards.

As the words left nay lips there was a ringing report
and a smart concussion ; and, springing, upon the weather
rail, I was just in time to see the shot neatly strike the
water immediately under the brigantine's figure-head, the
spray from it leaping up and leaving a dark stain upon
the foot of her foretopmast staysail.

"Well aimed!" exclaimed I exultantly; "if you will
all do as well as that throughout the fight, lads, you will
soon give a good account of her."

While I was still speaking there came an answering
flash from the brigantine, which at the same moment

boldly ran up a black flag at her gaff-end; and ere the

report had time to reach us^ a nine-pound shot crashed
fair into our bows, raking us fore and aft, and carrying off
the top of our unfortunate helmsman's head as it flew out
over our taffrail. The poor fellow sank to the deck all in
a heap, without a groan, without a quiver of the body,
and I sprang to the wheel just in time to save the schooner
from broaching-to.

" Anyone hurt there, for'ard ? " I shouted ; for I saw
two or three men stooping as though to help someone.

"Yes, sir," answered one of the men; "poor Tom
Parsons have had his chest tore open, and I doubt it's
all over with him ! "

" You must avenge him, then," I shouted back. " Load

again, and give it her between wind and water if you can."

It

i62 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

They were already reloading the gun, even as I spoke,
and a minute later the piece again rang out, the shot
striking the brigantine's covering-board fair and square,
close to her midship port, and making the splinters fly in
fine style. We were now so close to her that we could

r

see that her decks seemed to be full of men, and I thought
I heard a shriek as our shot struck. Her reply was almost

instantaneous, her whole starboard broadside being let
fly as she shot into the wind in stays ; and once more the
shot— ;;;?z/^ nine-pounders — came crashing in through our
bulwarks, filling the air with a perfect storm of splinters,
but happily hurting no one but myself A large jagged
splinter struck me in the left shoulder, lacerating the
flesh rather badly; but one of the men sprang to my

assistance and quickly bound it up.

" Up helm, my man, and let her go off until our star-
board broadside bears," said I to the man who now

relieved me at the wheel, adding in a shout to the crew
"Stand by your starboard guns, and fire as they come

to bear upon her ! "

Bang! bang! bang! Our modest broadside oi tJiree

six-pounders spoke out almost simultaneously. I did not

see the shot strike anywhere, but almost immediately
afterwards down came her maintopmast and the peak of
her mainsail. Her mainmasthead had been shot away,
and the Dolores at least was safe ; for the pirates, having
lost their after sail, would now be compelled to make a
running fight of it before the wind, which w^ould enable

WE ENCOUNTER THE GUERRILLA 163

Christie to haul his wind and get out of danger. Our
men raised a cheer at their lucky shot, and I, determined
not to throw away the least advantage, gave orders to
port the helm and bring the schooner to the wind on the
starboard tack, so getting the weather-gage of the
brigantine. As we rounded-to our antagonist fell off, the
two craft thus presenting their larboard broadsides to
each other; and, both being ready, we fired at precisely
the same moment, the report of the two discharges being
so absolutely coincident that I did not know the
brigantine had fired until her shot came smashing in
through our bulwarks, wounding five men and rendering
one of our six-pounders useless by dismounting it. So
close were we to each other by this time that before we
could load again the brigantine had passed astern of us,
and none of our guns would bear upon her or hers upon
us. Her crew were doing their utmost to keep her close
to the wind, but with the peak of her mainsail down she
would not lay any higher tkan within about eight points ;
and I determined to take tke utmost advantage of her
comparatively helpless position while I might, for a lucky
shot on her part might make her case ours at any
moment. I therefore signed to the helmsman to put
down his helm, and at the same moment gave the order-

" Ready about ! helm's a-lee ! "

The nimble little schooner spun round upon her heel
as smartly as a dancing girl, presenting her starboard
broadside to the brirantine.

i64 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

" Stand by your starboard broadside, and fire as your
guns bear!" shouted I; and as we swept round almost
square athwart our antagonist's stern the six-pounders
once more spoke out, one shot striking the stern of her
fair amidships and smashing her wheel to pieces, while

r

the other two took her in the larboard quarter at an angle
that must have caused them to traverse very nearly three-
quarters of the length of her deck before they passed out
through her starboard bulwarks.

The brigantine, no longer under the control of her
helm, fell off until she was running dead before the wind,
when the pirates trimmed their yards square ; and a
moment later I saw a number of her hands in the fore
rigging swarming aloft. The moment that her starboard
broadside could be brought to bear upon us she fired ;
and the next moment our bowsprit and foretopmast both
went, the former, with the flying-jib, towing under the
bows, while the latter dangled to leeward by its rigging,
with the royal towing in the water alongside. Our lads,
having by this time reloaded the starboard guns, again
fired, hulling the pirate, and then, by my orders, left their
guns to clear away the wreck ; for, encumbered as we now
were, with the jib under the bows and the square canvas
hanging over the side, the schooner was gradually coming-
to, although her helm was hard a-weather.

This ended the fight, for when I next found time to
look at the brigantine she had studding-sail booms rigged
out on both sides and her people were busy getting the

We ENfCOUNTER THE GUERRILLA 165

studding-sails upon her, while the straight wake that she
was making showed that they had already contrived to
rig up some temporary contrivance for steering her.
Seeing this, I at once hove the schooner to, and went to
work to repair damages ; for, now that I had had the
opportunity to discover the stuff of which Sciior Morillo
was made, it struck me as by no means improbable that
the moment he had repaired his damages he would return
and attack us afresh.

Altogether the fight had not lasted longer than some
eight or ten minutes at the utmost, but during that short
time we had lost two men, killed outright, while six
including myself — were wounded, four of them severely,
Christie, recognising that his duty was to take care of the
prize, had hauled his wind when we passed ahead of him,
and was now about a mile to windward, with his main-
topsail to the mast ; but when he saw that the fight was
over he filled away and came booming down to us, sweep-
ing close athwart our stern and heaving-to close to lee-
ward of us. As he bore down upon us I saw him in the
mizzen rigging, speaking-trumpet in hand ; and when he
was within hailing distance he hailed to ask if he could
be of any assistance, adding that one o'i the passengers
professed to be a doctor and had chivalrously offered his
services, should they be required. This was good news
to me indeed, for, being a small craft, we carried no
surgeon, and but for this proffered help our poor wounded
lads would have been obliged to trust pretty much to

66 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEE3

chance and such unskilled help as we could have afforded
them among ourselves. I hailed back, expressing my
thanks for the offer, and at once sent away a boat for the
medico, not caring that Christie should run the risk of
sending away a boat's crew out of his own scanty
company. .

In about ten minutes the boat returned, bringing in
her a little, swarthy, burnt-up specimen of a Spaniard, and
a most portentous-looking case of surgical instruments.
But, although by no means handsome, Seiior Pacheco
soon proved himself to be both warm-hearted and skilful,
ministering to the wounded with the utmost tenderness
and with a touch as light and gentle as a woman's.
When he had attended to the others I requested him to
oblige mc so far as to bind up my shoulder afresh, which
he at once did, informing me at the same time that it was
an exceedingly ugly wound, and that I must be particu-
larly careful lest gangrene should supervene, in which
case, if my life could be saved at the expense of my arm,
I should have reason to esteem myself exceptionally
fortunate. He remained on board, chatting with mc for
about an hour, after he had coopered me up, and very
l^indly promised to visit me and his other patients again
in the afternoon, if I would send a boat for him ; but he
declined my invitation to breakfast, upon the plea that
he had already taken first breakfast, while it-was still too
early for the second. He was full of polJte compliments
and congratulations upon our having beaten off such a

WE ENCOUNTER THE GUERRILLA 167

desperado as Morillo was known to be, and graphically
described the consternation that had prevailed in the
cabins of the Dolores when the brigantine was identified
as the notorious Guerrilla.

Contrary to my expectations, and greatly to my relief,
the pirates did not return to attack us ; and as a measure
of precaution, — in case the idea should occur to Morillo
later on, — as soon as our damages were repaired I stood
to the northward and westward all that day, shaping a
fresh course for Morant Point at sunset that evening.
The sun went down in a heavy bank of clouds that had
been <^athcrinff on the western horizon all the afternoon
and slowly working up against the wind, — an almost
certain precursor of a thunderstorm, — and as the dusk
closed down upon us the wind began to grow steadily
h'ghter, until by the end of the first dog-watch the air was
so scant as to barely give us steerage- way. The night
closed down as dark as a wolfs mouth — so dark, indeed,
that, standing at the taffrail, I could only barely, and with
the utmost difficulty, trace the position of the main
rigging against the intense blackness of the sky. As for
the Dolores, we lost sight of her altogether, and could
only determine her position by the dim, uncertain haze of
light that faintly streamed above her high bulwarks from
the skylight of her saloon, or by the momentary gleam of
a lantern passing along her decks and blinking inter-
mittently through her open ports. This intense darkness
lasted only about half an hour, however, when sheet-

i68 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

lightning began to flicker softly low down upon the
western horizon, causing the image of the ship — now
some two miles astern of us — to stand out for an instant
like a cunningly wrought model in luminous bronze
against the ebony blackness of the sky behind her.

With the setting in of the lightning the last faint
breathing of the wind died away altogether, leaving us
and the Spaniard to box the compass in the midst of
a glassy calm, the sweltering heat of which was but
partially relieved by the flapping of our big mainsail as
the schooner heaved languidly upon the low swell that
came creeping down upon us from the north-east. The
night seemed preternaturally still, the silence which
enveloped us being so profound that the noises of the
ship — the occasional heavy flap of her canvas, accom-
panied by a rain-like pattering of reef-points; the creak
of the jaws of the mainboom or of the gaff overhead on
the mast ; the jerk of the mainsheet tautening out
suddenly to the heave of the schooner; the kicking of the
rudder, and the gurgling swirl of water about it and along
the bends — only served to emphasise while they broke

in upon it with an irritating harshness altogether dis-

proportionate to their volume. So intense was the silence
outside the ship that one seemed constrained to listen
intently for some sound, some startling cry, to come float-
ing across the glassy water to break it ; and the suspense
and anxiety of waiting, despite one's better judgment, for
such a sound, caused the discordant noises inboard to

WE ENCOUNTER THE GUERRILLA 169

quickly become acutely distressing. At least such was
my feeling at the time, a feeling that possibly may have
grown out of the increasing smart of my wound, which
was now giving me so much pain that 1 had little hope oi
getting any sleep that night, especially as the heat below
was absolutely stifling. ^

Gradually — so gradually that its approach was scarcely
perceptible — the storm worked its way in our direction,
the brighter glmnrTer^^aTid increasing frequency ol the
sheet-lightning alone indicating that it was nearing us,
until just about eight bells in the dog-watch the first faint
mutterings of distant thunder became audible, while the
vast piles of sooty cloud that overhung us seemed
momentarily to assume new and more menacing shapes,
as the now almost continuous quivering of the lightning
revealed them to us. Anon, low down in the western sky
there flashed out a vivid, sun-bright stream of fire that,
distant as it was, lighted up the whole sea from horizon
to horizon, tipping the ridges of the swell with twisted
lines of gold, and transfiguring the distant Doloi^es into
a picture of indescribable, fairy-like beauty, as it brought
sharply into nionientary distinctness every sail and spar
and delicate web of rigging tracery. A low, deep rumble
of thunder followed, which was quickly succeeded by
another flash, nearer and more dazzlingly brilliant than
the first ; and now the storm seemed to gather apace, the
lightning-flashes following each other so rapidly that
very sooa the booming rumble of the thunder became

I70 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

continuous, as did the blaze of the sheet-hghtning, which
was now flickering among the clouds in half a dozen places
at once, bringing out into powerful relief their titanic
masses, weirdly changing shapes, and varied hues, and
converting the erstwhile Cimmerian darkness into a

r

quivering, supernatural light, that caused the ocean to
glow like molten steel, and revealed every object belonging
to the ship as distinctly as though it had been illuminated
by a port-fire. So vivid and continuous was the light
that I not only distinctly saw the fin of a shark fully
half a mile distant, but w^as also able to watch his leisurely
progress until he had increased his distance so greatly
as to be no longer distinguishable. The continuous
quivering flash of the sheet-Hghtning among the clouds
afforded, of itself, a superbly magnificent spectacle, but
the beauty of the display was soon still further increased
by a wonderfully rapid coruscating discharge of fork-
lightning between cloud and cloud, as though the fleecy
giants were warring with each other and exchanging
broadsides of jagged, w^hite-hot steel ; the thunder that

accompanied the discharge giving forth a fierce crackling
sound far more closely resembling that of an irregular
volley of musketry than it did the deep, hollow, booming
crash that followed the spark-like stream of fire that
lanced downward from cloud to ocean.

A few minutes more and the storm was right overhead,
with the lightning hissing and flashing all about us, and
the thunder crackling and crashing and booming aloft

WE ENCOUNTER THE GUERRILLA 171

with a vehement intensity of sound that came near to
being terrifying. The whole atmosphere seemed to be
aflame, and the noise was that of a universe in process
of disruption.

Suddenly the schooner seemed to be enveloped in a
vast sheet of flame, at the same instant that an ear-splitting
crash of thunder resounded about us;- there was a violent
concussion ; and when, a few seconds later, I recovered
from the stunning and stupefying effect of that terrific
thunderclap, it was to become aware that the foremast
was over the side, and the stump of it fiercely ablaze.
There was no necessity to pipe all hands, for the watch
below now came tumbling up on deck, alarmed at the
shock ; and in a few minutes we had the buckets passing
along. Fortunately we were able to efifectively attack
the fire before it had taken any very firm hold, and a
quarter of an hour of hard work saw the flames ex-
tinguished ; but it was a narrow escape for the schooner
and all hands of us. The most serious part of it was the
loss of our foremast, which completely disabled us for
the moment. We went to work, however, to save the
sails, yards, rigging, and so on, attached to the shivered
mast ; and before morning we had got a jury-lowermast
on end and secured, by which time the storm had cleared
away, the wind had sprung up again, and the Dolores had
borne down and taken us in tow. Fortunately the wind
was fair for us, and it held ; and, still more fortunately,
no enemy hove in sight to take advantage of our crippled

172 A PIRATE OF THE CARlBBEES

condition. We consequently arrived safely in Fort Royal
harbour, in due course, on the eighth day after the occur-
rence of the accident, and forthwith received our full
share of congratulations and condolences from all and
sundry, from the admiral downward ; the congratulations,
of course, being upon our good luck in having effected
the capture of so valuable a prize as the Dolores^ while
the condolences were offered pretty equally upon our
having met with the accident, and our having failed to
capture Morillo and his wonderful brigantinc.

CHAPTER X

SENOR JOSE GARCIA

M

EANWHILE, my wounded shoulder had been
giving me a great deal of trouble, becoming very
inflamed, and refusing to heal ; so that upon my arrival

in Port Royal I was compelled to at once go into the

hospital, where for a whole week it remained an open
question whether it would not be necessary to amputate
the arm. P^ortunately for me, the head surgeon — Sandy
M'Alister — was a wonderfully clever fellow, of infinite
patience and inflexible determination ; and, having ex-
pressed the opinion that the limb could be saved, he
brought all the skill and knowledge of which he was
possessed to the task of saving it, with the result that,
in the end, he was successful. But it meant for me three
weeks in the hospital, at the end of which time I was
discharged, not as cured, but as in a fair way to be,
provided that I took the utmost care of myself and strictly
adhered to the regimen which the worthy PvrAlister
prescribed for me.

173

174 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

By the time that I was free of the hospital the saucy
little Tern was beginning, under the hands of the repairers,
to look something like her old self again, and I was kept
busy from morning to night attending to a hundred and
one details connected with her refit. Nevertheless I found
time to present myself for examination, and, having
passed with flying colours, next day found myself a full-
fledged lieutenant, thanks to the very kindly interest
taken in me by my genial old friend the admiral. To
that same kindly interest I was also indebted for the
friendly overtures made by, and the hospitable invitations
without number received from, the planters and other
persons of importance belonging to the island ; but I
had my duty to attend to and my wound to think of,
and I therefore very sparingly accepted the invitations
that came pouring in upon me. Nevertheless I made
many new friends, and enjoyed my short spell ashore
amazingly.

The admiral was, as I have already said, particularly
kind to me in every way, and in nothing more so than
in the unstinting commendation which he bestowed upon
my conduct during my first brief cruise in the Tern.
Yet, despite all this, it was not difficult for me to perceive
that the reflection that Morillo and his gang were still
at large greatly nettled him, and that I could not find
a surer way to his continued favour than by finding and
capturing or destroying the audacious pirate.

Accordingly I made what inquiries I could relating

SENOR JOSE GARCIA 175

to the whereabouts of the fellow's headquarters, and
also instructed Black Peter to try his luck in the same
direction ; but, up to within twenty-four hours of the
time when the schooner would again be ready for sea,
neither of us had met with the slightest success. When,
however, the twenty-four hours had dwindled down to
ten, I received the welcome intimation that Black Peter
had at length contrived to get upon Morillo's trail. The
information was brought to me by Black Peter himself,
who, having secured an afternoon's liberty, which he broke
by coming aboard about ten-thirty instead of at six o'clock
p.m., presented himself — considerably the worse for liquor,
I regret to say — at my cabin door, beaming hilariously
all over his sable countenance as he stuttered

"We-e-11, M-mistah Cour'-nay, I g-got him a' las',
sah ! "

" Got who, you black rascal ? And what do you mean,
sir, by breaking your leave, and then presenting yourself
in this disgraceful condition ? You are drunk, sir ; too
drunk to stand steadily, too drunk to speak plainly ; and
I should only be giving you your deserts if I were to
turn you over to the master-at-arms. What have you
to say for yourself, eh, sir?" I fiercely demanded.

*' Wha' have I to s-s-say for 'shelf, Mistah C-Cour'-nay ?
Ha ! ha ! I has p-plenty to s-s-shay. Why, sah, I — I
IVe g-got him, sah ! "

" Got who, you villain ? Got who ? '' I reiterated.

" Why— why— M-M-Mor— the pirate ! " blurted Peter,

176 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

finding himself unable to successfully pronounce Morillo's
name.

" Do you mean to say that you have succeeded in
obtaining news of MoriUo, Peter?" I demanded eagerly,
my anger at the fellow's condition at once giving w^ay to
the keenest curiosity.

"I — just dat, sah ; no less," answered Peter, nodding
his head as he leered at me with a drunken look of preter-
natural smartness.

''Then," said I, "go and get somebody to pump cold
water upon your head until you are sober, after which you
may come back here and tell me all about it. And if you
fail to give a good account of yourself, stand clear, my
man ! I fancy a taste of the cat will do you no harm."

Peter regarded me with horror for a moment as the
sinister meaning of this threat dawned upon his muddled
senses; then he drew himself up to his full height, saluted
with drunken gravity, and vanished into the outer darkness,
as he stumblingly made his way up the companion ladder
and for'ard.

About a quarter of an hour later he returned, compara-
tively sober, and, saluting again, stood in the doorway,
waiting for me to question him.

'*So there you are again, eh?" remarked I. "Very
well. Now, Peter, if you are sober enough to speak
plainly, I should like to know what you meant by saying
that you have 'got' Morilio, the pirate. Do you mean
that you have actually found and captm^ed the fellow ? "

SENOR JOSE GARCIA 177

"Well, no, Mistah Courtenay, I don't dissactly mean

that ; no such luck, sah ! But I'se got de next best t'ing,

sah ; I'se got a man who says he knows where Morillo's
to be foun\" answered Peter.

'' Um ! well that is better than nothing — if your friend
is to be trusted," said I. " Who is he, and where did you
run athwart him ? "

" He ain't no friend ob mine," answered Peter, virtuously

indignant at so insulting an insinuation; "he's jus' a

yaller man — a half-breed — dat I met at a rum shop up in

Kingston. I heard him mention Morillo's name, so I

jined him in a bottle ob rum, — whicJi I paid for out ob my

oivn pocketj Mistah Courtenay, — and axed him some

questions. He wouldn't say much, but he kep' on

boastin' dat he knew where Morillo could be found any

time — excep' when he was at sea. So I made him drunk

wid my rum, Mistah Courtenay, and den brought him

aboard here instead ob puttin' him aboard his own footy

little felucca in Kingston harbour."

"I see. And where is the fellow now, Peter?"

inquired I.

" Where is he now, sah ? " repeated Peter. " Why, sah,
he is on deck, comfortably asleep between two ob de
guns, where I put him when I come aboard."

"Very good, Peter; I begin to think you were not so
very drunk after all," answered I, well pleased. '* But it
will not do to leave him on deck all night," I continued ;
''he will get sober, and give us the slip. So, to make

13

178 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

quite sure of him, stow him away down below, and have
a set of irons clapped on him. When we are fairly at sea
to-morrow, I will have him up on deck, and see what can
be made of him. Meanwhile, Peter, he is your prisoner,
remember, and I shall hold you responsible for him.

r

Now go and turn in, and beware how you appear before
me drunk again,"

Early next morning I presented myself at the admiral's
office, timing myself so as to catch the old gentleman
immediately upon his arrival from Kingston, when, having
reported the Tern as ready for sea, I received my orders
to sail forthwith, and also written instructions in reference
to the especial object of my cruise. These, I was by no
means surprised to find, indicated that, while doing my
utmost to harass the enemy, I was to devote myself
especially to the task of hunting down and cutting short
the career of Morillo the pirate and his gang of cut-
throats.

We weighed shortly before noon, beating out against
a sea breeze that roared through our rigging with the
strength of half a gale ; and when we were fairly clear
of the shoals I gave orders for Black Peter's prisoner of
the previous night to be brought on deck. A minute or
two later the fellow — a half-caste Spanish negro — stood
before me; and when I beheld what manner of man he
was, I could readily believe him to be on terms of friendly
intimacy not only with Morillo but with all the human
scum of the Caribbean. The rascal presented a not alto-

SENoR JOSfi GARCIA 179

gether unpicturesque figure, as he stood in the brilHant

sunh'ght, poising himself with the careless, easy grace of

the practised seaman upon the heaving, lurching deck of

the plunging schooner; for he was attired in a white

, shirt, with broad falling collar loosely confined at the

neck by a black silk handkerchief, blue dungaree trousers

rolled up to the knee and secured round the waist by a

knotted crimson silk sash, and his head was enfolded in

a similar sash, the fringed ends of which drooped upon

his left shoulder. But it was the fellow's countenance

that riveted my attention despite myself; it was of itself

ugly enough to have commanded attention anywhere,

but to its natural ugliness there was added the further

repulsiveness of expression that bespoke a character

notable alike for low, unscrupulous cunning and the most

ferocious cruelty. But for the fact that he had been

encountered upon ground wdiereon neither Morillo nor

any of his gang would have dared to show themselves, I

could readily have believed that he not only had a pretty

intimate knowledge of the movements and haunts of the

pirates, but that he was probably a distinguished member
of the gang.

" Well, my fine fellow, pray what may your name be ? "
I demanded in English, as he was led up and halted
before me.

**Too mosh me no speakee Anglish!'' he promptly
replied, shrugging his shoulders until they touched the
great gold rings that adorned the lobes of his ears,

i8o A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and spreading out his hands, palms upward, toward

me.

" What do you speak, then ? " I demanded, still in
English, for somehow I did not for a moment believe
the rascal's statement.

'* Me Espanol," he answered, with another shrug and
flourish of his hands.

" Good, then ! " remarked I, in Spanish ; " I will
endeavour to converse with you in your own tongue.
What is your name? "

" I am called Jose Garcia, senor/' he answered.

"And you were born — ?" I continued interrogatively.

" In the city of Havana, thirty-two years ago, seilor,"
was the reply.

" Then if you are a Spaniard — and consequently an
enemy of Great Britain — what were you doing in King-
ston?'' I demanded.

*'Ah no, senor," he exclaimed protestingly ; *' I am no
enemy of Great Britain, although born a Spaniard. I

have lived in Jamaica for the last fifteen years, earning

my living as a fisherman."

** Fifteen years ! " I repeated. *' Strange that you
should have lived so long among English-speaking people
without acquiring some knowledge of their language ;
and still more strange that you should have spoken
English last night in the grog shop in the presence and
hearing of my steward ! How do you account for so
very singular a circumstance as that ? "

SENOR JOSfi GARCIA i8i

The fellow was so completely taken aback that for a
few seconds he could find no reply. Then, seemingly
convinced that further deception was useless, he suddenly
gave in, exclaiming, in excellent English

'' Ah, sir, forgive me ; I have been lying to you ! "

" With what purpose?" I demanded.

" Instinct, perhaps," he answered; with a short, uneasy
laugh. ^'The moment I was brought on deck I recog-
nised that I was aboard a British ship-of-war, and I

smelt danger.

}}

. *' Ah," I remarked, "you afford another illustration of
the adage that ' a guilty conscience needs no accuser.*
What have you been doing that you should * smell*
danger upon finding yourself aboard a British man-

o'-war ? "

" I have been doing nothing ; but I feared that you
intended to impress me," answered the fellow,

'*So I am," returned I, "but not for long, if you
behave yourself. And when you have rendered the
service which I require of you, you shall be richly
rewarded, according as you serve me faithfully or
otherwise."

"And — and — what is this service, sir?" demanded he,
with some slight uneasiness of manner.

"You last night boasted that you could at anytime
find Morillo — unless he happened to be at sea," I said.
"Now, I want to find Morillo. Tell me where I may
meet with him, and you shall receive fifty pounds within

i82 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

an hour of the moment when I shall have carried his ship
a prize into Port Royal harbour."

"Morillo? who is Morillo?" he demanded, trying
unsuccessfully to assume an air of ignorance and indiffer-
ence at the mention of the name.

" He is the pirate of whom you were speaking last
night," I answered sharply, for I suspected that he was
about to attempt further deception with me.

" I must have been drunk indeed to talk about a man
of whom I have never heard," he exclaimed, with a hollow
pretence at a laugh.

"Do you mean to tell me that you do not know
Morillo, or anything about him?" I demanded angrily.

" Now, take time to consider your answer. I want the
truth, and the truth I am determined to have by one
means or another. You have attempted to deceive me
once, beware how you make such an attempt a second
time. Now, what do you know of Morillo the pirate?"

" Nothing ! " the fellow answered sullenly. But there
was a shrinking of himself together, and a sudden grey
pallor of the lips, that told how severe a tax upon his
courage it was — ■ under the circumstances — to utter
the lie.

" Think again ! " I said, pulling out my watch. " I will
give you five minutes in which to overhaul your memory.
If by the end of that time }^ou fail I must endeavour to
find means to refresh it."

"What will you do?" demanded the fellow, with a

SENOR JOSE GARCIA 183

scowl that entirely failed to conceal the trepidation which
my remark had caused him.

I made no reply whatever, but rose, walked to the
binnacle, took a squint at the compass, and then a long
look aloft as I turned over in my mind the idea that had
suggested itself to me, asking myself whether 1 should be
justified in carrying it into action. I believed I now pretty
well understood the kind of man I had to deal with ; I
took him to be a treacherous, unscrupulous, lying
scoundrel, and a coward withal, — as indeed such people
generally are, — and it was his cowardice that I proposed
to play upon in order to extort from him the information
I desired to obtain. In a word, my plan was to seize him
up and threaten to flog him if he refused to speak. My
only difficulty arose from a doubt as to how I ought
to proceed in the event of my threat failing to effect the
desired result. Should I be justified in actually carrying
my threat into execution ? For, after all, the fellow really
might no^ know anything about Morillo ; his remarks to
Black Peter on the previous night might be nothing more
than boastful lies. And if they were, all the flogging I
might give him could not make him tell that of which he
bad no knowledge. But somehow 1 had a conviction
that he could tell me a great deal that I should be glad
to know, if he only chose; so I finally decided that if he
continued contumacious I would risk giving him a stroke
or two, being guided in my after conduct by his behaviour
under the lash.

i84 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

By the time that I had fully arrived at this resolution
the five minutes' grace had expired, and I returned to
where the fellow still stood, guarded by a Jack with drawn
cutlass.

"Well," I demanded, '* which is it to be? Will you
speak freely, or must I compel you?"

" I have nothing to say ; and I demand' to know by
what authority I have been kidnapped and brought aboard
this accursed schooner?" was the reply.

" Did I not tell you a few minutes ago that you are
impressed ? " I answered. " You have been brought
aboard here in order that you may render me a service,
which I am convinced you can render if you will. When
that service has been faithfully performed, I will not only
set you free again but I will also handsomely reward you.
You know what the service is that I require of you.
Once more, will you or will you not render it? "

** I repeat that I have nothing to say. Put me in irons
again if you choose ; you cannot make a man tell that
which he does not know," answered Garcia ; and as he
spoke he turned away, seeming to consider that the dialogue
was at an end.

" Here, not so fast, my joker," interrupted the seaman
who had the fellow in charge, seizing Garcia unceremoni-
ously by the back of the neck and twisting him round
until he faced me again, " it ain't good manners, sonny, to

turn your back upon your superiors until they tells you
that they've done with you, and that you can go."

SE5J0R JOSE GARCIA 185

The half-breed turned upon his custodian with a snarl,
and a drawing back of his upper h'p that exposed a whole
row of yellow fangs, while his hand went, as from long
habit, to his girdle, as though in quest of a knife ; but the
look of contemptuous amusement with which the sailor
regarded him cowed the fellow, and he again faced me,
meekly enough.

*'Now/' said I, "your little fit of petulance being
over, let me ask you once more, and for the last time,
will you or will you not afford me the information I
require?"

" No, Seiior Englishman, I will not\ I am a Spaniard
and Morillo is a Spaniard, and nothing you can do shall
induce me to betray a fellow-countryman ! Is that plain
enough for you ? "

"Quite," I answered, **and almost as satisfactory as
though you had replied to my question. You have as
good as admitted that you can, if you choose, tell me what
I want to know ; now it remains for me to see whether
there are any means of compelling you to speak. Take
him away forward, and keep a sharp eye upon him," I
continued, to the sailor who had him in charge. " And as
you go pass the word for the carpenter to rig the grating.
Perhaps a taste of the cat may loosen this gentleman's
tongue."

" The cat ? " exclaimed the half-breed, wheeling
suddenly round as he was being led away ; '*do you mean
that you are going to flog me ? "

i86 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

"Certainly, unless you choose to speak of your own
free will," answered I.

"Very well, then, I will speak ; and your blood be on

your own head ! " he hissed through his clenched teeth.

" I will direct you how to find Morillo, and when you have

found him he will amply avenge your insult to me, and

your audacity in seeking him ; he will make your life such

an unendurable torment to you that you will pray him,

with tears of blood, to put you out o^ your misery. And

I shall be there to see you suffer, and to laugh in your

face as he refuses to grant you the boon of a speedy

death/'

"That is all right," I answered cheerfully,"! must

take the risk of the fate you have so powerfully suggested.

And now, that matter being disposed of, I shall be glad to

hear from you how I am to find your friend."

The fellow regarded me in stupid surprise for a
moment, as though he could not understand his failure
to terrify me by his vaguely awful threat; then, with
a gesture that I interpreted as indicative of his final
abandonment of me to the destruction that I seemed
determined to court, he said —

" Do you know anything of the Grenadines, seiior ? "

"No," I answered, "nothing, except that they exist,
and that they form a practically unbroken chain of islets
stretching between the islands of St. Vincent and Grenada."

" That is so," he assented. " One of the most
important of these islets is situate about thirteen miles

SENOR JOSE GARCIA 187

to the northward of Grenada, and is called Cariacou. It
is supposed to be uninhabited, but it is nothing of the
kind ; Morillo has taken possession of it, and established
quite a little settlement upon it. There is a snug
harbour at its south-western extremity, affording perfect
shelter and concealment for his brigantine, and all round
the shore of the harbour he has built storehouses and
residences for himself and his people. I pray only that
he may be at home to give you a fitting reception."

"I am much obliged for your kind wish," I replied
drily. "And now, just one question more — is this
harbour of which you speak difficult of access? Are
there any rocks or shoals at its entrance or inside? "

"No, none whatever ; it can safely be entered on the
darkest night," was the answer.

" Good," I returned ; " that will do for the present, Senor
Garcia, and many thanks for your information. You will

observe that I have accepted as true every word that you
have spoken ; but I should like you to think everything
over again, and satisfy yourself that you have made no
mistake. Because I warn you that if you have_^(?;/ will be
shot on the instant. You may go ! "

He was forthwith marched away and placed in close
confinement below, — for my interview with him had
convinced me that the fellow was as malignantly spiteful
as a snake, and would willingly destroy the ship and all

hands if an opportunity were afforded him, — after which I
retired to my cabin, got out the chart, and set the course

i88 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

for the island of Cariacou, a course which we could just

r

comfortably lay with yards braced taut against the lee
rigging and all sheets well flattened in. The trade wind
was blowing fresh enough to compel us to furl our top-
gallant sail, but it was steady, and under a whole topsail
and mainsail the little hooker drove ahead over the long,
regular ridges of swell at a good, honest, nine-knot pace
hour after hour, as steadily as the chronometer itself

We sighted the island, some sixteen miles distant, on the
evening of our fourth day out, and I at once shortened
sail and hove-to, in order that I might carry out a little
plan which I had concocted during our run across.

CHAPTER XI

CARIACOU — AND AFTERWARD

S soon as the darkness had closed down sufficiently
to conceal our movements, I filled away again
upon the schooner, and stood in until we were within two
miles of the southern extremity of the island,— which also
forms the southern headland of the harbour mentioned by
Garcia, — when, having run well in behind the head, I again
hove-to and, launching the dinghy, proceeded toward the
harbour's mouth ; my crew being two men who, like
myself, were armed to the teeth.

We pulled in with muffled oars, and in due time
arrived within a stone's throw of the shore. The coast here
proved to be precipitous and rocky, the swell which set
round the southern extremity of the island breaking with
great violence upon the shore and rendering landing
absolutely impossible ; moreover, the night was so dark
that — although in every other respect admirably suited
for my purpose — it was impossible to clearly see where
we were going, and two or three times we inadvertently

1S9

igo A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

got so close to the rocks that we narrowly and with the
utmost difficulty avoided being dashed upon them. At
length, however, we rounded the southernmost head and
entered the harbour, and almost immediately afterwards
made out a narrow strip of sandy beach, upon which I
landed without difficulty, leaving the two men to look after
the dinghy and lay off a few yards from the shore, ready
to pull in again and take me aboard at a moment's notice
if necessary.

Having landed, I ascended a rather steep, grassy slope,
some seventy or eighty feet high, and stood to look about
me. The harbour was quite a spacious affair, the entrance
being about half a mile wide, while the harbour itself
seemed — so far as I could make out in the darkness — to
be quite two miles long. The general shape of this inlet
immediately suggested to me the conviction that if, as
Garcia had informed me, Morillo really had established
his headquarters here, he would be almost certain to have
constructed a couple of batteries — one on each headland
— to defend the place ; and I at once set about the task of
ascertaining how far my conjecture might happen to be

correct. Toward the eastward from where I had halted
the land continued to rise in a sort of ridge, culminating
in what had the appearance of a knoll, and it struck me
that, if a battery really existed on that side of the harbour,
I ought to find it not far from this spot. I accordingly
wended my way toward it as best I could, forcing a
passage for myself through the grass and scrub, with a

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 191

most unpleasant conviction that I might at any moment
place my hand or foot upon a venomous snake or reptile
of some sort ; and finally, after about twenty minutes of
most unpleasant scrambling", found myself alongside the
"knoll," which, as I had more than half suspected, now
proved to be nothing less than a rough earthwork, mount-
ing four thirty-two pounders.

My devious path had brought me to the face of the
battery, so I had to clamber up the steep face of the slope
before I could get a view of the interior. This I did,
entering the battery through one of the embrasures, when

I found myself standing upon a level platform constituting
the floor of the battery. Keeping carefully within the
deep shadow of the gun, and crouching down upon my
hands and knees, I at once proceeded to reconnoitre the
place, and presently made out a couple of huts, the smaller
of which I concluded must be the magazine, while the
larger probably accommodated the garrison. Both were
in utter darkness, however, and my first impression was
that they were untenanted ; but, to make quite certain, I
crept very softly up to the larger building, and, finding a
closed door, listened intently at it. For a few seconds I
heard nothing save the sough of the night breeze through
the branches of some cotton-wood trees that grew close
at hand, but presently I detected a sound of snoring
in the interior, which, as I listened, grew momentarily
more distinct and unmistakable. The sounds certainly
emanated from more than one sleeper ; I thought that

192 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

there were probably at least three or four of them at work,
but my hearing was not quite keen enough to enable me
to accurately differentiate the sounds and thus arrive at
the correct number of those who emitted them. They
were, however, sound asleep, and therefore not likely to

r

be disturbed by a slight noise. Moreover, the hut was well
to windward, and the sough and swish of the wind through
the cotton-woods seemed powerful enough to drown such
slight sounds as I might be likely to make ; so I stole softly
across the open area to the nearest gun, which I at once
proceeded to carefully spike with the aid of some nails
and a leather-covered hammer with which I had provided
myself. Despite the deadening effect of the leather the
hammer still made a distinct "clink," which to my ears
sounded loud enough to wake the dead ; but a few seconds'

I

anxious work sufficed to effectually spike the first gun,
and as nobody appeared to have heard me, I then
proceeded to spike the next, and the next, until I had
rendered all four of them harmless. This done, I slipped
out of the same embrasure by which I had entered, and
successfully made my way back to the beach and to the
spot off which the dinghy lay awaiting me.

The presence of a battery on the south head of the
harbour entrance convinced me that there must also be
a similar structure on the north head. As soon, therefore,
as I found myself once more aboard the dinghy, I headed
her straight across the mouth, reaching the northern side
in about twenty minutes. Half an hour's search enabled

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 193

me to find the battery which I was looking for, — which
proved to be a pretty exact counterpart of the one I had
already visited, — and here again I succeeded in spiking all
four of the guns without discovery. This I regarded as a
fairly successful night's work ; so, as we should have to be
stirring pretty early in the morning, I now returned to the
schooner, and, having hove her to with her head off shore,
turned in and had a good night's rest.

At daybreak on the following morning I was called
by Black Peter, and within ten miuntes I was on deck.
We were then some eight miles off the land, with the
schooner heading to the eastward ; but we at once wore
round and bore straight away for the harbour's mouth,

clearing for action and making all our arrangements as

we went.

An hour's run, with the wind well over our starboard
quarter, brought us off the mouth of the harbour, which
we at once entered ; and as soon as we were fairly inside,
the schooner was hove-to, and two boats were lowered,
each carrying eleven men armed to the teeth, in addition
to the officer in command. One of the boats was com-
manded by Christie and the other by Lindsay ; and their
mission was to capture the two batteries commanding the
harbour's mouth, and blow them up before the spiked
cannon could be again rendered serviceable. I brought
the telescope to bear upon the batteries as soon as we
were far enough inside the harbour to get a sight of them,
and was amused to observe that there was a terrible

^3

194 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

commotion going on in both. Our presence had been
promptly discovered, and the first attempt to open fire
upon us had resulted in the discovery that their guns
were all spiked. Of course it was by no means an easy
matter to estimate the strength of the garrisons of these
batteries, but I calculated that it would probably total up
to about thirty men to each battery ; and as they would
be nearly or quite all Spaniards, I felt that the boats' crews
which I had sent away would be quite strong enough to
satisfactorily account for them. Nor was I disappointed;
for although the pirates opened a brisk musketry fire upon
our lads the moment that they were fairly within range,
the latter simply swarmed up the hill and carried the two
batteries with a rush, the pirates retreating by the rear as
the Terjts clambered in through the embrasures. The
moment that the boats shoved off from the schooner's side
I saw that the spirit of emulation had seized upon the two
crews, for they both went away at a racing pace, and their
actions throughout were evidently inspired by this same
spirit ; the result of which was that the two batteries were
destroyed within five minutes of each other, while the
whole affair, from the moment when the boats shoved off

to the moment when they arrived alongside again, was
accomplished within an hour and a quarter, and that, too,
without any loss whatever on our side, or even a wound
severe enough to disable the recipient. The pirates were
less fortunate, their loss in the two batteries amounting to
five killed, and at least seven wounded severely enough to

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 195

render them incapable of escaping. These seven were
brought on board by our lads, and secured below immedi-
ately upon their arrival.

Meanwhile I had not been idle, for while the boats
were away I had employed my time in making, with the
aid of the telescope, a most careful inspection of this
piratical stronghold ; and I was obliged to admit to my-
self that it would be difficult to imagine — and still more
difficult to find — a spot more perfectly adapted in every
way for its purpose. The harbour itself was spacious
enough to hold a fleet, and almost completely land-locked,
so that, once inside, a ship was perfectly concealed ; while
the fact that the opening faced in a south-westerly direc-
tion rendered it absolutely safe in all weathers. And, so

far as enemies were concerned, the two batteries at the
harbour's mouth were so admirably placed that ih^y ongJit
to have proved amply sufficient for the defence of the
place ; and no doubt they would have so proved in other
hands, or had a proper lookout been kept. That they had
fallen so easily to us was the fault, not of Morillo, but of
the man whom he had left in command.

At the bottom of the bay or inlet — for it partook of
the nature of the latter rather than of the former — ^lay
the settlement that Morillo had established, consisting of
no less than seventeen buildings. There was also a small
wharf, with a brig lying alongside it

The moment that the boats arrived alongside I ordered

the men out of them, and had them dropped astern, when

196 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

sail was made and we stood down toward the settlement,
with our ensign flying at the gaff-end. As we drew near
I was able to make out that here too our presence was
productive of a tremendous amount of excitement ; and
presently fire was opened upon us from a battery of six nine-

r

pounders that had been constructed on the rising ground
immediately to the rear of the wharf, while the black flag
was boldly run up on a flagstaff close at hand. It did
not suit my purpose, however, to engage in a running
fight ; I therefore bore down upon the brig — discharging
our port broadside at the battery when we were within
pistol-shot of it — and, running alongside, grapnelled her.
This done, every man Jack of us swarmed ashore, Lindsay
holding the wharf with a dozen of our lads, while Christie
and I, with the remainder of the crew, made a rush for
the battery and took it. Ten minutes sufficed us to spike
the guns and blow up the magazine, which done, we found
ourselves masters of the whole place, the inhabitants
having taken to flight the moment that this third battery
fell into our hands.

We now proceeded to make a leisurely inspection of
the place, with the result that we discovered it to be quite
a miniature dockyard, with storehouses, mast-houses,
rigging and sail-lofts all complete ; in fact, there was every
possible convenience for repairing and refitting a ship.
Nor was this all ; there was also a large magazine full of
ammunition, quite an armoury of muskets, pistols, and
cutlasses, and several dismounted guns, ranging from six-

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 197

pounders to thirty-two pound carronades ; while the store-
houses were well stocked with provisions and stores of
every possible description. One large building immedi-
ately facing the wharf was apparently used as a receptacle
for plunder, for we found several bales of stuff that had
evidently formed part of a cargo, or cargoes, but there was
surprisingly little of it, which was accounted for, later on,
by the discovery that the brig was full of plunder to the
hatches. In addition to the buildings which were in use
as stores, there were two most comfortably fitted up as
barracks, while at the back of the settlement and well up
the side of the hill stood a little group of seven handsome
timber dwelling-houses, each standing in its own garden
and nestling among the lofty trees that clothed the hill-
side.

Having secured complete possession of the place, my
first care was to have the small amount of plunder that
lay in the storehouse, and the guns, conveyed on board
the Tern and sent down her main hatchway. This job
took us about two hours, during which a {q.\\ shots were
occasionally fired at us from the woods ; but as the
bullets all fell short, we did not trouble ourselves to go in
pursuit of the individuals who were firing upon us. Our

next act was to blow up the magazine, thus destroying
the whole of the pirates' stock of ammunition ; and when
this had been successfully accomplished, we went system-
atically to work, and set fire to the whole of the store-
houses and barracks, one after the other, until the whole

igS A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

place was in flames. Finally, we turned our attention to
the seven dwelling-houses on the hillside. These proved,
to our astonishment, to be most elegantly and sumptu-
ously furnished in every respect, the only peculiarity
noticeable being a lack of uniformity among the articles
contained in some of the houses, plainly showing that
they had been gathered together at different times and
from different places. Evidences of female influence
were abundantly present in all these houses, from which
we assumed that they formed the abode of Morillo and
his most important subordinates during their short
sojourns in port. The six largest of these buildings we
set fire to, leaving the seventh as a refuge for the
unfortunate women, who were doubtless concealed at no
great distance in the adjacent woods.

The burning of these houses completed the destruc-
tion of the settlement, which was accomplished absolutely
without casualties of any kind on our side. We waited
until the houses were well ablaze, and then retreated in
good order to the harbour, a few shots being fired at us
here and there from ambush as we went ; but as we were
well out of range I took no notice of them, and in due
time we arrived once more on the wharf

Our next business was to take possession of the brig,
which we did forthwith, Christie, with eight hands, going

on board her as a prize crew. She was a beamy, bluff-
bowed, motherly old craft named the Three Sisters,
hailing out of Port-of-Spain, and was evidently British

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 199

built, her whole appearance being that of a sober, honest,
slow-going trader, such as one constantly meets with,
doing business among the islands. Her hold, however,
was full of booty ; and I conjectured that Morillo had,
through his agents, purchased her in a perfectly straight-
forward manner for use in the conveyance of booty from
Cariacou to such ports as afforded opportunity for its
disposal without the asking of too many inconvenient
questions.

It was the work of but a few minutes for the prize
crew to transfer their few belongings from the schooner to
the brig ; and, this done, we got both craft under way
and stood out to sea — the brig under every stitch of
canvas that she could show to the breeze, while the
schooner, under topsail, foresail, and jib, had to heave-to
at frequent intervals to wait for her.

My first intention was to send the brig to Port Royal
in charge of the prize crew alone, remaining off the
island in the Tent until Morillo should appear — as he
would be certain to do, sooner or later — in his brigantine.

A little reflection, however, caused me to alter my plans
and to determine upon escorting the Three Sisters to her
destination, lest she should haply encounter Morillo on
the way, in which case the fate of her defenceless prize
crew would probably be too dreadful to bear thinking
about. As soon, therefore, as we were clear of the harbour

I set the course for Jamaica, and away we both went,
cheek by jowl, the brig — with a roaring breeze over her

200 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

starboard quarter — reeling off her six and a half knots per
hour with as much fuss and splutter as though she were
going fifteen !

For the first two days nothing of any importance
occurred. On the third night out from Cariacou, however,

r

or, to be strictly accurate, about two o^clock in the
morning, — it being my watch on deck, the night dark and
somewhat overcast, two sails were sighted on our star-
board bow, heading to the eastward on the port tack,
and steering a course which would bring them close to us.
One of them was a craft of considerable size, the other a
small vessel ; and from the moment that these two facts
became apparent, I made up my mind that one was the
prize of the other, though which of the two was the captor,
there was just then no means of ascertaining. The smaller
craft was perhaps a privateer, and the big one her prize ; or

quite as likely — the big craft might be a frigate, and the
small craft her prize. In either case, however, it behoved
me to be very careful ; for one of the two was almost
certain to be an enemy, and if she happened to be also
the captor of the other it was more than j^robablc she
would tackle us. From the moment, therefore, when we
first sighted them, I never allowed the night glass to be
off them for more than a few seconds at a time.

When first discovered, they were hull dowm, and only
just distinguishable in the darkness as two vague blots of
black against the lowering gloom of the night sky ; but
the trade wind was piping up rather stronger than usual

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 201

that night, while we and the strangers were approaching
each other on a nearly straight line. We consequently

closed each other rapidly, and within about twenty
minutes from the moment of their discovery we were able
to make out that one of the twain was a full-rigged ship,
while the other seemed to be a large brigantine ; and a
few minutes later I discovered that the ship was showing
a much broader spread of canvas than the brigantine,
thus proving the latter to be the faster craft of the two.
It was scarcely likely, therefore, that the ship was a
frigate; and if not that, she must be a merchantman, and
doubtless the prize of the brigantine.

At this point, the question suggested itself to me:
Might not the brigantine be Morillo's craft? She
appeared to be about the same size, so far as it was
possible to distinguish in the darkness ; and if so, ft would
fully account for the boldness with which she held on
upon her course, instead of heaving about and endeavour-
ing to avoid a possible enemy — for doubtless they had
made us out almost if not quite at the same time as we
had discovered them. I most fervently hoped it might be
as I surmised, for, if so, 1 should have the fellow at
advantage, inasmuch as he would doubtless have put a
fairly strong prize crew on board the ship, which would pro-
portionately weaken his own crew. Full of the hope that
this Ishmael of the sea might be about to place himself
within my power, I caused all hands to be called, and,
having first made sail, sent them to quarters, the gunner

202 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

at the same time descending to the magazine and sending
up a plentiful supply of powder and shot. By the time
that we were ready, the brigantine and her consort had
neared us to within a couple of miles, the two craft
closing meanwhile, doubtless for the purpose of communi-

r

eating instructions. That they were quite prepared to
fight aboard the brigantine was perfectly evident, for we
could see that her deck was lit up with lanterns, the light
of which, shining through her ports, enabled me to
ascertain that she mounted six guns of a side. Both
craft held their luff, but it was now quite clear that the
brigantine was much the faster and more weatherly of the
twOj she walking away out to windward of the big fellow
as though the latter had been at anchor the moment that
she made sail in answer to our challenge.

And now ensued a little bit of manoeuvring on both
sides, with the twofold object of discovering whether the

stranger happened to be an enemy, and if so, to secure
the weather-gage of him. We had the advantage, however,
as we were running free and could haul our wind at any
moment; and this advantage I kept by hauling up on the
starboard tack and then heaving in stays with the topsail
aback, waiting for the brigantine to close ; which she
presently did, ranging up within biscuit-toss of our lee
quarter. She was now so close to us that, despite the
darkness, it was quite possible to make out details ; and it
was with a feeling of mingled disgust and disappoint-
ment that I discovered that, whatever she might be,

CARIACOU~AND AFTERWARD 203

she certainly was not Morillo's beautiful but notorious
brigantine.

She was, however, in all probability an enemy, — it
seemed to me that, so far as I could make out in the
uncertain light of the partially clouded stars, she had a
French look about her, — so, with the idea of securing the
advantage o[ the first hail, I sprang upon the rail as she
ranged up alongside, and hailed, in Spanish —

*' Ho, the brigantine ahoy ! What vessel is that ? "

*' The Be//e Dianc^ French privateer. What schooner
is that?" came the reply, also in Spanish of the most
execrable kind, uttered with an unmistakable French
accent.

*' His Britannic Majesty's schooner Tern, monsieur, to
which ship I must request you to surrender, or I shall be
under the painful necessity of blowing you out of the
water," answered I, firmly persuaded of the policy of
rendering oneself as formidable as possible to one's
enemy.

But my well-meant endeavour proved to be a signal
failure ; the enemy was not m this case to be so easily
frightened.

" Les Anglais ! mille tonneres ! " I heard the French-
man in the brigantine's main rigging exclaim, as he waved
his clenched fist in the air. Then he retorted, in what he
doubtless believed to be the purest English —

" Vat is dat you say. Monsieur Angleeshman ? If I do
not surrendaire, you vill blow me out of de vattar? Ha,

204 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

ha ! Sacre ! It is /, mon-sieur, who vill blow dat footy
leetle schooner of yours into ze sky, if you do not
surrendaire yourshelf plus promptement, eh!"

" All right, monsieur ; blaze away, then, as soon as you
like !" retorted I, in the best attempt at French I could

r

muster. Then, to my own people, who were at quarters —
" Stand by, starboard guns ! Wait until she rolls
toward us. Now,^r^ ! "

Our imposing broadside of three guns rang out at
the precise moment when the brigantine rolled heavily
toward us, exposing her deck to our fire ; and I heard the
shot go crashing through her bulwarks to the accompani-
ment of sundry yells and screams, that told me they had
not been altogether ineffective. Almost at the same
instant three of her guns replied ; but their muzzles were
so deeply depressed, and she was just then rolling so
heavily toward us, that the shot struck the water between
her and ourselves, and we neither saw nor felt any more
of them. Meanwhile, our square canvas being aback, our
antagonist swept rapidly ahead of us ; seeing which, I
filled upon the schooner and bore up under the brigantine's
stern, raking with our port broadside as we crossed her

stern, immediately hauling my wind and making a half-
board across her stern again to regain my position upon
her weather quarter. Our starboard guns were by this
time reloaded, and we gave her the three of them, double-
shotted, as we recrossed her; and the tremendous clatter,
with the howls and shrieks that followed this discharge,

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 20

showed that we had wrought a considerable amount of
execution among the Frenchmen.

"There's something gone aboard of him, but what it
is I can't make out," exclaimed Lindsay, who was
standing close beside me. "Ah!" he continued,*'! see
what it is now ; it is her mainboom that we have shot away.
I can see the outer end of it towing overboard. And see,
she is paying off; with the loss of their after-sail they can
no longer keep their luff ! "

It was even as Lindsay had said ; we had shot
away the brigantine's mainboom, and thus rendered
her big, powerful mainsail useless ; so that, despite the
lee helm that they were giving her, she was gradually
falling off, until within a minute or two she was nearly
dead before the wind. This placed her almost com-
pletely at our mercy, for we were now enabled to sail
to and fro athwart her stern, raking her alternately with
our port and starboard guns, and with our nine-pounder
as well, while she could only reply with two guns which
her people had run out through her stern ports. Still,
although disabled, she was by no means beaten, her
plucky crew keeping up a brisk fire upon us from these
two guns until by a lucky broadside we dismounted them

both. But even then they would not give in ; despite the
relentless fire that we continued to pour into them, they
contrived after a time to get two more guns into position,
with which they renewed their fire up'on us as briskly as
ever. This sort of thing, however, could not continue for

2o6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

very long ; our fire was so hot and our guns were so well
aimed, that we fairly drove the plucky fellows from the
only two guns that they could bring to bear upon us, and
within a couple of minutes of the cessation of their fire, a
lantern was waved aboard the brigantine, and someone

r

hailed that they surrendered, while at the same moment
all sheets and halliards were let go and her canvas came
down by the run, as a further intimation that they had
had enough of it.

Upon this we of course at once ceased firing, and
ranged up alongside the prize, hailing her that we would
send a boat aboard. Then, for the first time, we dis-
covered that both our large boats were so severely

damaged that neither of them would float ; whereupon
Lindsay offered to board the prize in the dinghy, with two
hands, and take possession. Accordingly, the little cockle-
shell of a craft was dropped over the side, and in less
than two minutes my chum hailed to say that he was
safely aboard, and that the execution wrought by our fire
had been terrible, the brigantine having lost nearly half
her crew, both the captain and the chief mate being
among the killed. He added that the brigantine's long-
boat was undamaged, and that he proposed to hoist
her out, with the assistance of the prisoners, and send her
to us by the two hands who had manned the dinghy, if
we would look out to pick her up in the event of their
being unable to bring her alongside. To this I of course
agreed ; and a quarter of an hour later the boat was

CARIACOU— AND AFTERWARD 207

safely alongside us, with a prize crew of twelve picked

men tumbling themselves and their traps into her.

Meanwhile, what had become of the Three Sisters

and the big ship? I looked round for them, and behold !
there they botli were, about half a mile to windward, and

bearing down upon us in company \ " Phew ! " thought I,
'* here is a nice business ! While we have been playing the
game of hammer and tongs down here, the big ship —
doubtless manned by a strong prize crew — has run along-
side the old brig and taken her! And yet — can it be so?
Christie has eight hands with him, and I believe the fellow
would make a stout fight for it before giving in. I cannot
understand it ; but we shall soon see. If they have
captured him we shall have to recapture him, that is all !"
Then, turning to the men, who were busy securing the
guns and repairing such slight damage as had been
inflicted upon our rigging, I said

" Avast, there, with those guns ! Load them again,
lads, for we may have to fight once more in a few minutes.
Here is the big ship running down upon us, and it looks
very much as though she had taken the brig. Fill your
topsail, and let draw the headsheets !"

Getting sufficient way upon the schooner, we tacked
and stood toward the new-comers, passing close under the
stern of the ship, witH the intention of hailing her. But
before I could get the trumpet to my lips, a figure sprang
into the ship's mnzzen rigging, and Christie's well-known
voice hailed —

2o8 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

" Tern ahoy ! is Mr. Courtenay aboard ? "

" Ay, ay," I answered ; " I am here, Mr. Christie.
What are you doing" aboard there ? "

" Why," answered Christie, " I am in charge, you know.
Seeing you busy with the brigantine, I thought I might as
well try my luck at the same time ; so I managed some-
how to put the brig alongside this ship, and — and — well,
we just took he?'!'

"Well done, Mr. Christie!" I shouted; but before I
could get out another word, my voice was drowned in
the roaring cheer that the Terns gave vent to as they
heard the news, told in Christie's usual gentle, drawling
tones; and by the time that the cheers had died away the
two craft had drawn so far apart that further conversa-
tion was, for the moment, impossible.

CHAPTER XII

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF A VILLAINOUS OUTRAGE

AKING room, Christie presently hauled to the wind
and hove-to ; and some ten minutes later he
presented himself on board the schooner — brought along-
side by the ship's gig, manned by four of the ship's crew
to report his own share in the incidents of the night.
From this report I gathered that, like myself, at first he
had mistaken the French privateer for Morillo's brigantine,
and had also arrived at the conclusion that the ship was
a prize of the latter. He had kept a keen watch upon the
movements of the schooner until it had become apparent
that we intended to attack the supposed pirate, when he
at once turned his attention to the ship, with the object
of ascertaining whether, with such a phenomenally slow
craft as the Three Sisters, anything could be done with
her. He believed that, with luck, it could, as he felt
pretty certain that the attention of the ship's prize crew
would be fully occupied in watching the manceuvres
of the brigantine and the schooner; and, trusting to this,

2IO A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

he hauled his wind until he iiad placed the brlv^ in

position the merest trifle to windward of the course that
the ship was steering, when, taking his chance of havin
thus far escaped observation, he clewed up and furled
everything, afterwards patiently awaiting the development
of events.

And now ensued a very curious and amusing thing, it
having transpired that the French prize crew of the ship
/lad seen the brig, and had at once jumped to the
conclusion that she was a prize to the schooner. The
curious behaviour of the T/iree Sisters had puzzled them
not a little at the outset, but when we opened fire upon
the brigantine they knew at once that we must be an
enemy ; and, supposing that the prize crew of the brig —
whom they rashly judged to be their own countrymen —
had taken advantage of our preoccupation to rise and
recapture their vessel, they immediately bore down to
their assistance. This lucky mistake enabled Christie to
fall alongside the ship without difficulty, when, laying
aside for the nonce his gentle, lady-like demeanour, he led
his eight men up the ship's lofty sides and over her high
bulwarks on to her deck, where the nine of them laid
about them with such good will that, after about a
minute's resistance, the astounded Frenchmen were fain
to retreat to the forecastle, where, in obedience to Christie's
summons, they forthwith flung down their arms and
surrendered at discretion. Then, clapping the hatch over
them, and stationing two men with drawn cutlasses by it

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 211

as a guard, Christie proceeded to liberate the imprisoned
crew of the ship, — which he discovered to be the British
West Indiaman Black Prince, homeward bound at the
time of her capture, two days previously, with an exceed-
ingly valuable general cargo, — and then sent his own men
back to the Three Sisters, which had all this time been
lying alongside, secured to the Indiaman by grapnels.
The brig then cast off, and the two craft forthwith bore
down upon us to report, the fight between ourselves and
the brigantine being by that time over.

By the time that our own and the brigantine's
damages had been repaired it was daylight, and we were
all ready for making sail once more. But before doing
so I caused the whole of the Frenchmen to be removed to
the schooner, where they were first put in irons and then
clapped safely under hatches ; after which I visited first
the Belle Diane and then the Indiaman. I must confess I
was astonished when I beheld the effect of our fire upon
the former; I could scarcely credit that so much damage
had been inflicted by our six-pounders in so short time,
her stern above the level of the covering-board being
absolutely battered to pieces, while the shot had also
ploughed up her decks fore and aft in long, scoring gashes,
so close together and crossing each other in such a way as
showed what a tremendous raking she had received. She
began the action with fifty-seven men, all told, out of

which eighteen had been killed outright, and the re-
mainder, with one solitary exception, more or less seriously

212 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

wounded. Looking upon the paths our shot had ploughed
along her deck, I was only surprised that any of her people
were left alive to tell the tale. In addition to this, hve of
her twelve guns were dismounted, and her rigging had
been a good deal cut up ; but this was now of course all

r

knotted and spliced by Lindsay's people. She was a very

I

fine vessel, of three hundred and forty-four tons measure-
ment, oak built, copper fastened, and copper sheathed to
the bends, very shallow — drawing only eight feet of water
and very beamy, with most beautiful lines. Her spars
looked enormously lofty compared with our own, as I
stood on her deck and gazed aloft, and her canvas had
evidently been bent new for the voyage. She had only
arrived in West Indian waters a week previously, from
Brest, and the Blach Prince was stated to be her
first prize.

Having given the Diane a pretty good overhaul, and

satisfied myself that her hull was sound, I gave Lindsay
his instructions, and then proceeded on board the Black
Prince^ where I arrived in good time for breakfast, and
where I made the acquaintance, not only of her skipper —
a fine, grey-headed, sailorly man named Blatchford — but
also of her thirty-two passengers, eighteen of whom were
males, while the remainder were of the gentler sex, the
wives and daughters mostly of the male passengers.

There were no young children among them, fortunately.
My appearance seemed to create quite a little flutter of
excitement among the petticoats, and also not a little

)}

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 213

astonishment, apparently ; for I overheard one of the
matrons remark to another, behind her fan, " Why, he is
scarcely more than a boy !

The Black Prince was a noble ship, of twelve hundred
and fifty tons, frigate-built, and only nine years old,
splendidly fitted up, and full to the hatches of coffee,
tobacco, spices, and other valuables ; she also had a re-
putation for speed, which had induced her skipper to
hazard the homeward voyage alone, instead of waiting
for convoy. The poor old i€[\o\v was ol course dreadfully
cut up at his misfortune — for, having been in the enemy's
hands more than twenty-four hours, she was a recapture
in the legal sense of the term, and, as such, we were entitled
to salvage for her. However, unfortunate as was the
existing state of affairs, it was of course vastly better than
that of a i^\N hours before, and he interrupted himself in
his bemoanings to thank mc for having rescued him out of
the hands of those Philistines, the French privateersmen.
I informed him that it would be my duty to take him into
Fort Royal, but he received the news with equanimity,
explaining that even had I not insisted on it, he should
certainly, after his recent experience, have availed himself
of my escort to return to Kingston, and there await
convoy. I breakfasted with him and his passengers, and
then, leaving Christie aboard as prize master, returned to
the schooner ; and we all made sail in company, arriving
at Port Royal five days later, without further adventure.

The admiral was, as might be expected, immensely

214 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

pleased at our appearance with three prizes in company,
and still more so when I reported to him the discovery
and destruction of Morillo's headquarters.

** You have done well, my boy, wonderfully well ; better
even than I expected of you," said he, shaking me heartily

by the hand. "Go on as you have begun, and I venture
to prophesy that it will not be long before I shall feel
justified in giving you t'other ' swab,' " pointing, as he
spoke, to my single epaulet.

To say that I was delighted at my reception but very
feebly expresses the feelings that overwhelmed me as the
kind old fellow spoke such generous words of appreciation
and encouragement. Of course I knew that I had done
well, but I regarded my success as due fully as much to
good fortune as to my own efforts, and I was almost over-
whelmed with joy at so full and complete a recognition
of my efforts. So astonished indeed was I, that I
could only stammer something to the effect that our
success was due quite as much to the loyalty with
which Christie and Lindsay had seconded me, and the
gallantry with which the men had stood by me, as it was
to my own individual merits.

" That's right, my boy," remarked the admiral ; " I am
glad to hear you speak like that. No doubt what you say
is true, but it does not detract in the least from the value
of your own services. I always think the better of an

ofhcer who is willing to do full justice to the merits of
those who have helped him, and your promotion will not

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 21;

come to you the less quickly for having helped your ship-
mates to theirs. You have all done well, and I will see
to it that you are all adequately rewarded — Christie and
Lindsay by getting their step, and you by getting a some-
what better craft than the little cockle-shell in which you
have already done so well. I am of opinion that all
you require is opportunity, and, by the Piper, you shall
have it."

And the old gentleman kept his word ; for when I
went aboard the Te7'7i on the following day — I dined and
slept at the house of some friends a little way out from
Kingston that night — Christie and Lindsay met me with
beaming faces and the information that the former had
got his step as master, while Lindsay had received an
acting order as lieutenant pending his passing of the
necessary examination. The only drawback to this good
news was the intelligence that the man Garcia had
mysteriously disappeared during the night, leaving not a
trace of his whereabouts behind him.

An hour or two later I went ashore and waited upon
the admiral at his office, in accordance with instructions
received from him on the previous day ; and upon being
ushered into his presence, he at once began to question me
relative to the qualities of the Diane. I was able to speak
nothing but good of her ; for indeed what I had seen
of her, during the passage to Port Royal, had convinced
me that she was really a very fine vessel in every respect,
a splendid sea - boat, wonderfully fast, and, I had no

2i6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

doubt, a thoroughly wholesome, comfortable craft in bad
weather.

"Just so/' commented the admiral, when I had finished
singing her praises ; " what you have said quite confirms
my own opinion of her, which is that, in capable hands,
she may be made exceedingly useful. Moreover, she is
more nearly a match for Morillo's brigantine than is the
little Tern, eh ? Well, my lad, I have been thinking
matters over, and have made up my mind that she is good
enough to purchase into the service ; so I will have it seen
to at once, and of course I shall give you the command of
her. She will want a considerable amount of attention at
the hands of the shipwrights after the mauling that you
gave her, but you shall supervise everything yourself, and
they shall do nothing without your approval ; so see to it
that they don't spoil her. I notice that she mounts six
sixes of a side. Now I propose to alter that arrangement
by putting four long nines in place of those six sixes, with
an eighteen-pounder on her forecastle ; and with such an
armament as that, and a crew to match, you ought to be
able to render an exceedingly good account of yourself
What do you think of my idea ? "

I replied truthfully that I considered it excellent in
every way ; and we then launched into a discussion of
minor details, with which I need not weary the reader,
at the end of which I went aboard the Tern and paid off
her crew, preparatory to her being turned over to the
shipwrights, along with her prize,

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 217

It happened that just about this time there was an
exceptionally heavy press of work in the dockyard ; for
there had been several frigate actions of late, and the re-
sources of the staff were taxed to the utmost to effect the
repairs following upon such events and to get the ships
ready for sea again in the shortest possible time ; with the
result that such small fry as the Diane and the Tern were
obliged to wait until the heaviest of the work was over
and the frigates were again ready for service. It thus
happened that, although I contrived to worry the dockyard
superintendent into putting a few shipwTights aboard the
Diane^ three weeks passed, and still the brigantine was
very far from being ready for sea. During this time I
made my headquarters at *' Mammy " Wilkinson's hotel
in Kingston, — that being the hotel especially affected by
navy men, — although I was seldom there, the planters and
big-wigs of the island generally proving wonderfully
hospitable, and literally overwhelming me with invitations
to take up my abode with them. But about the time
that I have mentioned it happened that certain alterations
were being effected aboard the brigantine, which I was
especially anxious to have carried out according to my
own ideas ; I therefore spent the whole of the day, for
several days in succession, at the dockyard, going up to
Kingston at night, and sleeping at the hotel.

It was during this interval that, one night about ten
o*cIock, a negro presented himself at the hotel, inquiring
for me ; and upon my making my appearance in the

2i8 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

entrance-hall, the fellow — a full-blooded African, dressed
very neatly in a white shirt and white duck trousers,
both scrupulously clean, for a wonder — approached me,
and, ducking his head respectfully, inquired —

" You Massa Courtenay, sar, cap'n ob dc man-o'-war
schoonah Tern ? "

" Well, yes," I replied, " my name is Courtenay, and I
commanded the Tern up to the time of her being paid off;
so I suppose I may fairly assume that I am the individual
you have been inquiring for. What is it you want with

me?"

" You know a genterman, nam'd Lindsay, sar ? " asked
the negro, instead of replying to my question.

" Certainly I do," answered I ; " what of him ? "
^ "Why, sar, he hab got into a lilly scrape down on de
wharf, and de perlice hab put him into de lock-up. Dey
don' beliebe dat he am man-o'-war bucra, and he say,
* Will you be so good as to step down dere an' identerfy
him an' bail him out ? ' "

" Lindsay got into a scrape ? " repeated I incredulously.
*' I cannot believe it! What has he been doing?"

" Dat I cannot say, sar," answered the black ; *' I only
know dat a perliceman come out ob de door ob de lock-
up as I was passin' by, and asked me if I wanted to earn
fibe shillin' ; and when I say ' yes,' he take me into de lock-
up and interdooce me to young bucra, who say him name
am Lindsay, and dat if I will take a message to you
he will gib me fibe shillin' when I come back wid you."

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 219

" It is very extraordinary," I muttered ; *' I cannot
understand it ! But I will go with you, of course. Wait
a moment until I fetch my cap."

So saying, I left the fellow and hastened to my room,
w^here, closing the door, I opened my chest and furnished
myself with a supply of money, and then, closing and
locking the chest, I hastened away to where the negro was
waiting for mc. As I passed through the hall several men
of my acquaintance were lounging there, smoking, and one
of them hailed me with

" Hillo, Courtenay ! whither away so fast, my lad ? "

It was on the tip of my tongue to explain to them my
errand, but I bethought me just in time that if Lindsay
had been doing anything foolish he might not care to
have the fact blazoned abroad ; so I kept my own counsel,
merely replying that I was called out upon a small
matter of business, and so effected my escape from them
into the dark street.

" Oh, here you are ! " exclaimed I, as the negro emerged,
at my appearance, from the deep shadow of the hotel

portico. "Now, then, which way? Is Mr. Lindsay in
the town jail ? "

" No, sar, no ; he am in de harbour lock-up," answered
my guide. " Dis way, sar ; it am not so bery far."

'''^Y\\Q Jiarbottr lock-up?" queried I. *' Where is that ?
I didn't know that there was such a place."

*' Oh yes, sar, dar am. You follow me, sar ; I show
you de way, sar," answered the negro.

220 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

"All right, heave ahead then," said I; and away we
went a little way down the main street, and then turned
to the right, plunging into one of the dark, narrow side
streets which then intersected the town of Kingston.

"Keep close to de wall, sar," cautioned my guide;
" dere am a gutter in de middle ob de road, and if you
steps into dat you go in ober your shoes in muck."

I could well believe this, for although it was too dark
in this narrow lane to see anything, the abominable odour
of the place told me pretty well what its condition must
be. We plodded on for nearly ten minutes, winding
hither and thither, and penetrating deeper and deeper
into the labyrinth of dark, crooked lanes, but gradually
edging nearer to the harbour, while, as I thought, working
our way a considerable distance to the westward. Presently
my guide, who had been humming some negro melody to
himself, lifted up his voice in a louder key and began to
chant the praises of a certain " lubly Chloe, whose eyes
were like the stars, and whose ' breaf ' was like the rose ! "
The fellow had a wonderfully melodious voice, and in
listening to him as he strode easily along at a swinging
pace, improvising verse after verse in honour of the un-
known Chloe, I lost my bearings as well as my count of
time, and was only brought back to a consciousness of
the present by suddenly finding my head closely en-
veloped in what seemed to be a blanket, while at the
same instant my feet were tripped from under me, so that
I should have fallen forward but for the restraining

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 221

influence of the blanket and of a pair of arms that
gripped mine tightly behind my back, so that I was
instantly overpowered and effectually precluded from
making the slightest effort to free myself. Then, before

I had time to realise what was happening, I was lifted
off my feet, and, despite my desperate struggles and in-
effectual efforts to shout for assistance, carried in through
an open doorway and flung upon my face upon the ground,
where someone at once knelt upon me and securely lashed
my hands behind my back, some other individual at the
same instant lashing my ankles firmly together.

**Dere, dat will do, Peter ; I t'ink him cannot do much
harm now," remarked the voice of my whilom guide ; and
as the fellow spoke I was relieved of the very considerable
weight that had been pressing upon me and holding me
down. Then I was rolled over on my side, and, as the
blanket that enveloped my head and very nearly suffocated
me was cautiously removed, I felt the prick of something
sharp against my left breast, and the same voice that had
spoken before observed

"Massa Courtenay, we hab no wish to hurt you, sah;
but it am my painful duty to warn you dat, if you sing
out, or make de slightest attempt to escape, I shall be
obleeged to dribe dis lilly knife ob mine home to yo'
heart, sar. So now you knows what you hab to expec.
Does you understan' what I say, sah?"

" Certainly I do," answered I, with suppressed fury,
"your meaning is clear enough, in all conscience. But

222 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

beware what you do, my fine fellow. You were seen by
several of my friends at the hotel, who will have no
difficulty in identifying you ; and I warn you that you
will be made to pay dearly for this outrage to a British
naval officer. What is the meaning of it all ? Have you
any idea of the enormity of your offence ? "

"Oh yes, sah," answered my guide cheerfully, '* we hab
a very clear idea ob dat, haben't we, Peter?" addressing
another big, powerful negro of somewhat similar cut to
himself, but attired in much less respectable garments.

Peter grinned affirmatively, but said nothing ; where-
upon his companion continued

" Now, Peter, where am dat gag? Just bring it along,
and let us fix it up, so as to make all safe. It would be
a most drefful misfortune if Massa Courtenay was to sing
out, and force me to split him heart wid dis knife ob mine ;
so we will just make it onpossible for him to do any such
foolis* t 'ing."

All this time the knife — a formidable dagger-shaped
blade fully a foot long — was kept pressed so firmly to my
breast that it had drawn blood, the stain of which was
now dyeing the front of my white shirt, so the moment
was manifestly inopportune for any attempt at escape or
resistance even ; I therefore submitted, with the best grace
I could muster, to the insertion of the gag between my
teeth, reserving to myself the right to make both ruffians
smart for their outrage upon me at the first available
opportunity. But before the gag was placed between

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 223

my teeth, I contrived to repeat my inquiry for an
explanation.

"Nebber you mind, Massa Courtenay ; you will find
out all about dat in good time, sah," answered the leading
spirit of the twain ; and with that reply I was perforce
obliged to be content for the moment.

Having made me perfectly secure, the two negroes
squatted down upon their haunches, and, with much
deliberation, produced from their pockets a short clay
pipe each, a plug of tobacco, and a knife ; and, after
carefully shredding their tobacco and charging their
pipes, proceeded to smoke, with much gravity and in
perfect silence. It struck me that possibly they might
be waiting for someone, whose appearance upon the scene
would, I hoped, throw some light upon the cause of this
extraordinary outrage, and give me an inkling as to what
sort of an end I might expect to the adventure. Mean-
while, having nothing else to do, I proceeded to take stock
of the place, or at least as much of it as I could command
in my cramped and constrained position.

There was little or nothing, however, in what I saw
about me of a character calculated to suggest an explana-
tion of the motive for my seizure. The building was

simply one of those low, one-storey adobe structures,
thatched with palm leaves, such as then abounded in the
lower quarters of Kingston, and which were usually in-
habited by the negro or half-breed population of the place.
The interior appeared to be divided into two apartments

224 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

by an unpainted partition of timber framing, decorated
with cheap and gaudy coloured prints, tacked to the wood
at the four corners ; and as a good many of these pictures
were of a religious character, in most of which the Blessed
Virgin figured more or less prominently, I took it that the
legitimate occupant of the place was a Roman Catholic.
The furniture was of the simplest kind, consisting of a
table in the centre, — upon which burned the cheap, tawdry,
brass lamp that illumined the apartment, — a large, up-
turned packing-case, covered with a gaudy tablecloth, and
serving as a table against the rear wall of the building,
and three or four old, straight-backed chairs, that had
evidently come down in the world, for they were elabor-
ately carved, and upholstered in frayed and faded tapestry.

A few more cheap and gaudy coloured prints adorned
the walls ; a heavy curtain, so dirty and smoke-grimed
that its original colour and pattern was utterly unrecog-
nisable, shielded the unglazed window ; two or three
hanging shelves— one of which supported a dozen or so
of dark green bottles — depended from the walls ; and
that was all. The floor upon which I lay was simply the
bare earth, rammed hard, thick with dust and swarming
with fleas, — as I quickly discovered, — and the whole place
reeked of that hot, stale smell that seems to pervade the
abodes of people of uncleanly habits.

The two negroes smoked silently and gravely for a
full half-hour, about the end of which time my captor
slowly and with due deliberation knocked the ashes from

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 225

his pipe, and, rising to his feet, yawned and stretched
himself. In so doing his eye fell upon the shelf upon
which stood the bottles, and, sauntering lazily across the
room, he laid his hand upon one of the bottles and placed
it on the centre tabic. Then, lifting up the cloth which
covered the packing-case, he revealed a shelf within the
interior, from which he withdrew a water monkey, two
earthenware mugs, and a dish containing a most uninvit-
ing-looking mixture, which I presently guessed, from its
odour, to be composed of salt fish and boiled yams
mashed together, cold. These he placed upon the table,

and, still without speaking, the pair drew chairs up to the
table and, seating themselves opposite each other, pro-
ceeded to make a hearty meal, helping themselves

alternately, with their fingers, from the central dish, and
washing down the mixture with a mug of rum and water
each.

They were still thus agreeably engaged when the
distant sound of rumbling wheels and clattering hoofs
became audible, rapidly drawing nearer, and accompanied
by the persuasive shouts and ejaculations of a negro

driver.

" Dat am de boy Moses wid de cart, I 'spects," re-
marked the negro whose name I had not yet learned.
*' What a drefful row de young rascal makes ! Dat nigger
won't nebber learn discreshun," he continued, wiping his
fingers carefully on a flaming red handkerchief which he
drew from his breeches pocket

15

226 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Peter grunted an unintelligible reply, and the next
moment the vehicle pulled up sharply at the door ; the
cessation of its clatter being immediately followed by the
entrance of a negro lad, some eighteen years of age.

" I'se brought de cart, as you tole me, Caesar," he
remarked. " Am it all right ? '*

**Itam, sar," remarked Caesar — the hitherto unnamed
negro — loftily ; " when did you ebber know me to fail in
what I undertooken, eh, sar?"

*' Nebber, sah, nebber," answered Moses apprecia-
tively. " An' so dat am de gebberlum, am it ? " pointing

at me with his chin, as I lay huddled up on the floor.

"Yes, sar, it am," answered Caesar curtly, in a tone

of voice which was evidently intended to cut short all
further conversation. "An' now, Peter," he continued,
" if you has finished yo' supper we better be movin'.
Nebber mind about puttin' de t'ings away ; de ole 'oman
will see to dat when she comes home in de mornin'. Now
den, Peter, you take hold ob de genterman's legs, and
help me to carry him out ; does you hear?"

Peter the Silent grunted an affirmative, stooping as he
did so and seizing my legs, while C^sar raised me by the
shoulders in his powerful arms, remarking, as he did so

" Massa Courtenay, jus' listen to me, if you please, sah.
We am goin' to take you for a nice, pleasant lilly dribe
in a cart, and I am goin' to sit on you, so dat you may
not fall out. Now I still has my knife wid me, and if I
feels you begin to struggle, I shall be under de mos'

I BECOME THE VICTIM OF AN OUTRAGE 227

painful necessity ob drivin' it into you to keep you quiet;
so I hope dat you will He most particular still durin' yo'
little journey. You sabbe ? "

I nodded my head.

"Dat's all right, den," resumed Caesar. "Now, Peter
up wid him, and away we goes."

And therewith the two black rascals raised me care-
fully, and carrying me into the open, placed me in a mule
cart, covered me with a thick layer of green forage, and —
Caesar coolly carrying out his threat to sit upon me — drove

away.

CHAPTER XIII

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY

O

UR drive was a most unpleasant one for me, for the
cart had no springs, and the boy Moses, like Jehu,
drove furiously. It fortunately lasted only some five-and-
twenty minutes or so, however ; and at the end of that
period we pulled up on what I guessed, from the running
of the vehicle and the sound of rippling water, to be a
sandy beach. My conjecture proved to be correct, for

when presently I was hauled out from underneath the
forage, and stood upon my feet, more dead than alive, I
found that we were on the margin of a tiny creek or cove,
about three-quarters of a mile to the westward of the
outskirts of Kingston. A small canoe lay hauled up on
the sand, and in the bottom of this craft I was carefully
deposited ; after which she was run down into the water,
when Caesar and Peter sprang lightly into her, giving her
a final shove to seaward as they did so, and paddled
away, leaving Moses and his cart to make the best of
their way back to the town.

228

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 259

Lying upon my back in the bottom of the canoe,

F

with my face turned upward to the stars, I was able to
see that we were heading eastward toward Kingston
harbour ; and about half an hour later the canoe glided
up alongside a small felucca, of some thirty tons burden
and was made fast by her painter. The canoe secured to
his satisfaction, the negro Csesar climbed over the felucca's
low bulwarks, and I heard his bare feet pattering along
the deck until, as I supposed, he reached the companion,
when the sounds became muffled, and were presently lost.
Then I caught the sound of voices, — Caesar's and others'

■but so indistinctly that I was unable to distinguish what
was being said. The conversation, however, was brief,

for in three or four minutes the tread of Cc'esar's bare feet

again became audible, accompanied by that of others ;

and I then discovered that a conversation, of which I

was the subject, was being conducted in Spanish ! This

seemed to suggest that I had fallen into the hands of the

enemy, though why the Spaniards should wish to kidnap

so very unimportant a personage as myself I could not

for the life of me imagine, unless they had adopted some

new system of warfare, one element of which consisted in

kidnapping as many of the enemy's officers as possible,

without much reference to their importance or otherwise !

But of course I should soon see ; for as I lay there in the

bottom of the canoe, cogitating to this effect, I became

aware, from the remarks interchanged by those on deck,

that I was about to be transferred to the felucca : and if

530 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

the Spaniards had adopted the novel system of kidnap-
ping British officers, I should doubtless find sonne of my
fellow-officers on board in the same plight as myself

Presently C^sar swung himself over the felucca's
bulwarks and down into the canoe, when he at once seized
mc by the shoulders, and, calling upon his friend Peter
to lend him a hand, proceeded to pass me up over the
felucca's rail to the three Spanish-speaking individuals

who stood on deck stretching out their arms to receive
me. They were very careful not to hurt me unnecessarily
during the process of transfer, from which circumstance I
derived a certain amount of comfort ; the inference being
that, whatever might be their motive in thus seizing mc,
no bodily harm to me was intended. Having safely
transferred me from the canoe to the deck of the felucca,
my abductors next conveyed me below to the hot, stuffy
little cabin of the craft, where, outstretched upon a locker
that was barely long enough to accommodate my length,
they left me without a word, and returned to the deck,
carefully closing the doors and drawing over the slide at
the head of the companion ladder, and then as carefully
closing both flaps oi^ the hitherto open skylight. This
done, their conversation with Csesar and his satellite was
continued in a leisurely, desultory fashion for about half
an hour, — the burden of it being unintelligible to me
through the closed skylight, — when I heard the two
negroes descend into their canoe and shove off, wishing
the others a quick and pleasant passage. Then followed

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMV 231

some leisurely movements on deck, accompanied by the
throwing down of a rope or two, the creaking of blocks
and parralls, a few quiet ejaculations as of men pulling
and hauling, the clink of windlass pawls, the loud slatting
of loose canvas in the strong land-breeze that was blow-
ing ; and finally — as the latter sounds ceased — I felt the
felucca heel strongly over to port, and heard the increas-
ing gurgle and wash of water along the bends and under
the counter of the little craft, accompanied by an
occasional call from for'ard to the helmsman, by which
I knew that we were under way, and standing down the
harbour toward Fort Royal.

By and by I felt the felucca come upright, there was
a warning cry on deck, a sudden, violent flap of canvas
overhead, and the felucca heeled slightly over to star-
board ; by which I knew that she had squared away, jibed
over, and was running out of the harbour. A few minutes
later I felt her beginning to rise and fall over the gather-
ing seas as she skimmed away off the land ; the motion
steadily grew stronger, merging into a swift, floating,
forward rush, as the seas came up astern of her, followed
by a long, dragging pause as the crest swept past; and
presently the companion slide was pushed back, the doors
at the head of the ladder were flung open, and a man
one of those who had helped to convey me below —
descended into the cabin.

"Phew! senor, you are warm down here!" he
exclaimed, in perfect English, as he stood gazing thought-

232 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

fully down upon me. I could of course make no reply,
as I was still gagged ; but he probably observed the

dreadful condition that the gag and the lashings round
my wrists and ankles had reduced me to, for he continued,
as he stooped over me

*' We are now at sea ; and as it is therefore impossible
for you to raise an alarm, or effect your escape, I think 1
may safely make you a little more comfortable. You
look terribly distressed, amigo ; and my orders are
imperative that you are to be delivered safe and sound.
There ! " as he removed the gag and cast off the lashings,
" that ought to be more to your liking."

"For pity's sake," I ejaculated, "give me something
to drink ! That horrible gag has all but suffocated me ! "

"Something to drink? With pleasure, seiior. What
shall it be — plain water or 'grog,' as you English call it?
I think it had better be grog, for I cannot recommend the
water we carry in our scuttle-butt."

So saying, he went to a little cupboard alongside the
companion ladder, and produced therefrom a water
monkey, two tin pannikins, and a bottle of rum, all of
which he placed on the cabin table.

" There, senor, help yourself freely ; the little Josefa

and all that she contains is yours ! "

" Thanks, senor," I replied, as I poured out with a
shaking hand and benumbed fingers a generous modicum
of rum, filling up the pannikin with evil-smelling water,
'* I drink to our better acquaintance."

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 233

So saying, I emptied the pannikin at a gulp, and set it
down upon the table. " And now, senor," I continued, as
my companion, in turn, proceeded to help himself and to
pledge me, " perhaps you will kindly inform me, first,
whom I have the honour to address ; secondly, why I
have been brought aboard this felucca ; and, thirdly, to
what place you propose to convey me?"

"Assuredly, senor," answered the Spaniard; "it will
afford me much happiness to gratify so very natural and
reasonable a request. In the first place, sefior, I am your
Excellency's most humble servant, Juan Dominguez,
captain of this felucca. In the next place^ you are here
by order of my excellent friend and patron, Don Pedro
Morillo, captain of the brigantine Guerrilla ; and, in the
third place, I am conveying you — also by Don Pedro's
orders — to Cariacou, an island which I understand
you have already visited, under certain memorable
circumstances."

So that was it, was it ? I was kidnapped, not in
accordance with some wild scheme of the Spaniards to
cripple our too active navy by robbing it of every officer
that they could lay hands upon, but in order that a
cowardly, bloodthirsty pirate might at leisure, and in
safety, wreak his revenge upon me for the injury that I,
in the exercise of my duty, had done him. Speaking in
all frankness, I do not believe I am a coward ; but I
confess that the information thus calmly communicated
to me by this Spaniard — who was most probably a

234 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

naturalised British subject — caused my blood to run cold ;
for I had heard quite enough of Morillo to feel tolerably
well assured that if his motive in causing me to be
kidnapped was revenge, he would not be satisfied with
merely shooting me, or stabbing me to the heart ; he

r

would undoubtedly exercise his utmost ingenuity to
render my passage out of this world as lingering and
painful as possible ; and, from all accounts, he was quite
an adept in the art of torture !

'* You seem disturbed at my intelligence, amigo,"
remarked my companion, gazing upon me with a smile
of amusement. ** Well," he continued, "perhaps you
have cause to be ; who knows ? I have heard that it was
you who, taking advantage of my friend's absence at sea,
visited Cariacou and destroyed poor Morillo's batteries
and buildings there, carrying off his brig and everything
else that you and your crew could lay hands upon. I

hope, for your sake, that Morillo was misinformed, and

that you will be able to demonstrate to his complete

satisfaction your entire freedom from all complicity in

that very ill-advised and malicious transaction ; he may
then be content to simply hang you at his yardarm.

But if you fail to convince him — phew ! I sincerely pity

you ; I do indeed, senor."

" Thanks, very much," retorted I, with the best attempt

at sarcasm that I could muster,— for I began to perceive

that this fellow was amusing himself by endeavouring to

frighten me, and I did not intend to afford him very

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 235

much gratification in that way, — "your pity is infinitely
comforting to me, especially as it is evident to me that
the feeling is genuine. May I ask whether your share in
this present transaction is undertaken purely out of
friendship for Morillo, or is it being carried out upon a
business basis ? "

" Well, to be strictly truthful, there is a little of both,"
answered Dominguez. " Why do you inquire, if it is not
an indiscreet question ? "

"Now," thought I, " I wonder whether this question of
his is intended to indicate that he is open to a bribe — a
bribe to put me ashore again, safe and sound, provided
that I make him a sufficiently liberal offer. Perhaps the
attempt may be worth making; it will, at all events,
enable mc to judge what are my chances, so far as he is
concerned." So I replied

" To be candid with you, friend Dominguez, it
occurred to me that you had undertaken this little
adventure as much with the object of turning a more or
less honest penny as for any other reason. Now,
supposing that I should experience any difficulty in
satisfying Morillo upon the point that you just now
referred to, what do you imagine will be the result?
Something exceedingly unpleasant for me, I assume,
since you were good enough to express pity for mc."

" Something exceedingly unpleasant ? " he repeated,
with a laugh. " Well, yes, that is one way of putting it,
certainly, but it is a very mild way ; so ridiculously

236 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

mild that it suggests no idea of what was in my mind
when I said I pitied you. Flaying alive is unpleasant,
so is being roasted alive over a slow fire, so is gradual
dismemberment — a finger or a toe at a time, then a hand
or a foot, and so on until only the trunk remains, — all
these are unpleasant, exceedingly so, I should imagine,
from what I have seen of the behaviour of those who have
undergone those operations at my friend's hand ; but in
the contingency you just now suggested, I fancy that
Morillo would do his best to devise something consider-
ably better — or worse, whichever you please to call it —
for yo7ir

I shuddered, and a feeling of horrible sickness swept

over me. Strive as I would, I could not help it, as this
inhuman wretch spoke, with evident gusto, of the torments
to which I might — failing Morillo's ability to devise still
greater refinements of cruelty — be subjected. But by the
time that he had finished speaking, I had succeeded m
rallying my courage sufficiently to remark

" Thanks ; your reply to my question leaves nothing
to be desired in the way of lucidity. Now, supposing I
should happen to feel some repugnance to those delicate
attentions on Morillo's part that you have just alluded to,
what inducement would be sufficient to persuade you to
'bout ship, and land me on the wharf at Kingston, instead
of at Cariacou? "

" Ah," replied Dominguez, " that is a question that is
not to be answered off-hand ; there arc several points

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 237

that occur to me as requiring careful consideration before
I could name the sum that would induce me to act as you
wish. Of course you will understand that I have no
personal animus against you ; you have never injured me,
and therefore I have no feeling of revenge to gratify by
delivering you into Morillo's power. But, on the other
hand, Morillo is my friend, and I am always glad to
oblige him when I can, particularly when, as in the
present case, I am well paid for it. Now, if I were to act
as you suggest, I should be thwarting, instead of obliging
him ; I should convert him from a friend into an enemy ;
and I think that you are now in a position to understand
what that means. It means that I should be compelled
to disappear as completely as though the ground had
opened and swallowed me ; because it is on^ of Morillo's
characteristics that, while he is a staunch and generous
friend, he is also a bitter and relentless enemy. He never
forgives ; so long as his enemy lives, he will never rest
until he has been revenged upon him. And this reminds
me that if you and I should succeed in coming to an
arrangement, you must not regard the matter between
yourself and Morillo as settled ; I w^arn you that you will
have to maintain a ceaseless watch, for so long as you

and he live he will never relax his efforts to get you into
his power. Afloat, and with a greatly superior force, you
maj' reckon yourself to be reasonably safe ; but ashore-
no ! Very well. Now, what I have told you will enable
you to understand my position in relation to this matter:

238 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

at present I am his friend, but I have his enemy in my
power ; and if I aid and abet that enemy to escape I
become his enemy, which will necessitate my prompt
retreat to the other side of the world, to begin life afresh,
with the haunting feeling that, go where I will and do
what I may, I am never safe ! That alone points to a
necessary demand on my part of a considerable sum —
a very considerable sum — from you as compensation for
the many serious inconveniences and dangers that must
inevitably follow upon my falling in with your proposal.
But that is not all. There is my niate, Miguel, and the
lad Luis, for'ard ; both of them would require some very
substantial inducement to lead them to fall in with our
views. Altogether, I should say that what you propose
would probably cost you — well, at least, ten thousand
pounds."

"Ten thousand pounds?" I ejaculated. "Nonsense,

man ; you must be dreaming. Why, I could no more
raise ten thousand pounds than I could fly."

"No?" he queried coolly; "not even to save your-
self from "■

" Not even to save myself from the utmost refinement
of cruelty that your friend Morillo is capable of devising,"
I answered decisively.

" Pardon me, senor, but I can scarcely believe you,"
retorted Dominguez, with that hateful, sneering smile of
his. " You have been exceptionally fortunate in the
matter of prizes since your arrival in these waters, and I

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 239

feel convinced that in prize money alone you must now
have a very handsome sum standing to your credit.
Then, if I am correctly informed, you have made many
friends. You are, for instance, a great favourite with the
admiral, who would doubtless be willing to advance a
very considerable sum to help you out of your present
exceedingly disagreeable predicament ; and I have no
doubt there are others who would be equally willing to
help you if your position were clearly laid before them."

"But, man alive, I cannot do it," I exclaimed angrily.
" So far as prize money is concerned, I suppose three
thousand pounds is the very utmost that I possess. And
as for the admiral, I am no more to him than any other
officer, and I am certain that he would absolutely refuse
to advance a single penny-piece for such a purpose as you
suggest ; to do so would simply be offering an induce-
ment to you — and others like you — to kidnap officers,
and then hold them to ransom. But I tell you what it
is," I continued ; " you may rest assured of this, that if any
harm befalls me, — if, in short, you deliver me into Morillo's
power, — the admiral will make you suffer as severely for it
as Morillo himself could possibly do. So there you are,
between two fires ; and, if you care for my opinion, it is
that the admiral is likely to prove a worse enemy to you
than even Morillo over this business."

*' That, possibly, might be the case if the admiral
happened to discover that I have been implicated in
it/' replied my companion, with exasperating com-

240 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

posure. " But then, you sec, he never will ! I have
taken every possible precaution against that"

" How about Csesar and Peter, the two negroes
who brought me aboard here?" I inquired.

" Pshaw ! " answered Dominguez impatiently, *' do
you suppose they would inform against me? Not
they. Why, they are both — -well, never mind what
they are, except that I feel perfectly safe, so far as
they are concerned."

"Very well," I retorted, ''time will show whether
your confidence in them is well founded or not. Mean-
while, my position is such that three thousand pounds
is the outside figure I can offer you as my ransom,
and you may take it or leave it as you please."

"Then I fear, amigo, that your days are numbered,"
replied Dominguez composedly, as he rose from his
seat preparatory to returning on deck. " I am sorry
for you," he continued, " very sorry ; but I must think
of myself before all else, and three thousand is not

nearly tempting enough. Possibly when you have had
a little longer to think it over you will be able to see
your way to make a very considerable advance upon
that sum. There is plenty of time ; thtjosefa is a grand
little ship, but she has one fault, she is slow, and I do
not expect that we shall reach Cariacou in less than a
full week. You have therefore six or seven days before
you in which to consider the matter ; and should you
see your way to raise the ten thousand, at any time

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 241

before we sight the island, I shall be happy to talk with
you again. Meanwhile, there is your bunk. Will you
turn in at once, or would you prefer to take a turn on
deck first?"

" Thanks," answered I, with alacrity, delighted to
discover that I was not to be confined to the cabin.
" I think I will go on deck for half an hour or so, to
get a breath of fresh air j it is rather close down
here."

"As you will," returned Dominguez, amicably enough ;
*' I have no fear of your attempting to escape. You
are scarely likely, I think, to go overboard and offer
yourself as a meal to the sharks. Do you smoke? I
can recommend these," as he drew from a locker a box
of cigars.

I helped myself to one mechanically, and lit it,
Dominguez following my example, and then politely
offering me precedence up the companion ladder. I
accepted the courtesy, and made my way somewhat
stiffly up the steep steps ; for my limbs were still
cramped from the compression of the ligatures where-
with I had been bound. After what I had passed
through it was an inexpressible relief to me to find
myself once more breathing the free, pure air of heaven,
with the star-spangled sky arching grandly overhead.

It was a brilliantly fine night, — or morning rather,

for it was by this time past two o'clock a.m., — the sky

cloudless save for a small shred of thin, wool-like

16

^42 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

vapour skimming rapidly athwart the stars ; the trade
wind was blowing a moderate breeze, and the felucca
was bruising along on an easy bowline with long, swing-
ing plunges and soarings over the low, jet-black, glistening
surges at a pace of some five and a half knots perhaps,
with a perfect thunder of roaring, breaking seas under
her bluff bows, and a belt of winking, sparkling sea-
fire, a couple of fathoms wide, sweeping past her lee
rail and swirling into the broad, short wake that she
trailed behind her. The land was still clearly in sight
on our port quarter, the range of the Liguanea
Mountains towering high into the star-Ht sky and
gradually sloping away to the eastward in the direction
of Morant Point. Beside Dominguez and myself there

J

was but one other figure visible on deck, that of the
man at the helm — a long, thin, weedy-looking figure,
so far as I could make out in the ghostly starlight,

but one who had evidently used the sea for some time,
if one might judge by the easy, floating poise of his
figure on the plunging deck as he stood on the weather
side of the tiller, with the tiller rope lightly grasped in
his right hand, swaying rhythmically to the leaps and
plunges of the little hooker. As Dominguez followed
me out on deck he stepped aft to the small, dimly
h'ghted binnacle, glanced into it, made some brief
remark in a low tone to the silent helmsman, walked
forward and took a long look ahead and on both bows,
and then, returning aft, excused himself to me for

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 243

turning in, upon the plea that it would soon be his
watch on deck, and so dived below and left me.

Left thus to myself, I fell to mechanically pacing
the short deck of the felucca for a few minutes, smoking
thoughtfully the while and turning over in my mind the
disquieting conversation that had just passed between
Dominguez and myself; then, my gaze happening to
wander aft to the solitary figure at the tiller, I sauntered
aft and endeavoured to strike up a conversation with
him. The fellow, however, proved to be so boorish
and saturnine in his manner that I quickly abandoned
the attempt and, pitching my half-smoked cigar over
the rail, retired below and tumbled, "all standing,"
into the bunk that Dominguez had indicated as mine,
where, despite the food for serious reflection that the
occurrences of the night afforded me, I soon fell into
a sound sleep.

The week that succeeded my abduction was so
utterly barren of events that it may be passed over
with the mere remark that throughout the whole of

the time we had perfect weather, with a steady,
moderate trade wind, under the impulsion of which the
felucca bruised along upon her proper course, reeling
off her five to six knots per hour with the regularity
of a clock ; and during the whole of that time, strange
to say, we sighted not a single sail. I had been by
no means idle during this time, however, as may well be
supposed ; for every day at noon saw the little hooker

244 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

a hundred and thirty to a hundred and fifty miles
nearer the spot where, if nothing happened in the

interim to prevent it, I was to be deHvered into the
hands of a fiend in human form, whose hatred of me
was so intense and vindictive that he had taken a con-
siderable amount of trouble, and put himself to con-
siderable expense, merely to get me into his power
and wreak a blood-curdling revenge upon me.

But to tamely submit to be thus handed over to
Morillo's tender mercies was the very last thing that
I contemplated. I had every reason to believe that
the picture drawn by Dominguez of the form which
Morillo's revenge would probably take was a tolerably
truthful one; and while I was prepared to face death
in any form at a moment's notice in the way of duty,
I had not the remotest intention of permitting myself
to be tortured to death merely to gratify the ferocity of
a piratical outlaw^, if I could possibly help it. So for
the first three or four days I devoted myself wholly to
the task of endeavouring to bribe my custodians to
forego their intention of handing me over to Morillo,
and to land me upon the nearest British territory
instead. But I by and by made the discovery that
my efforts in this direction were doomed to failure ;
Dominguez was clearly so profoundly impressed with
Morillo's power, and wdth his tenacious memory for
injuries, that the conviction had borne itself in upon
him that if he yielded to my persuasions it would be

IN THE POWER OF THE ENEMY 245

absolutely necessary to his safety, not only to buy over
the whole of those engaged upon the business of
my abduction, but also to place the whole width of
the globe between himself and Morillo ; and to execute
these little matters satisfactorily would, according to
his own calculations, necessitate the disbursement on
my part of the modest amount of ten thousand pounds
sterling, a sum which, as I explained to him over and
over again, it was utterly beyond my power to raise.
It was not that Dominguez was grasping or avaricious ;
it was simply that he regarded a certain course of

*

action necessary to his own safety and well-being, in
the event of his consenting to yield to my wishes ;
and as he had no intention of suffering any pecuniary
or other loss or damage by so yielding, it appeared to
him that the thing could not be done under the sum he had
named, and there was the whole matter in a nut-shell.
The attempt at bribery having thus resulted in
failure, there remained to me but one other alternative,
that of a resort to force — myself against Dominguez
and the two men who formed his crew. For, come
what would, I was firmly resolved never to suffer

r

myself to be delivered alive into Morillo's hands ; if
it was my doom to die at the end of this adventure,
I would die fighting. So, while feigning to yield to
the inexorable force of circumstances, I began to
meditate upon the most promising means whereby to
escape from the exceedingly unpleasant dilemma in which

246 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES ' ■

I found myself involved ; and after giving the whole

matter my most careful attention, I came to the

conclusion that my simplest plan would be to take —
or attempt to take — the felucca from Dominguez and
his associates, and, having done so, make for the

nearest British harbour.

CHAPTER XIV

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA

AVING come to this conclusion, the next thing
was to devise a plan of some sort ; but upon
attempting to do this, I soon discovered that it was
wholly impossible, so much depending upon circum-
stances over which I had no control whatever, that I
might have formed a dozen plans with never a chance
to carry any one of them through. The only thing,
therefore, was to await an opportunity, and be prepared
to seize it the moment that it presented itself Perhaps
the most difficult part of my task was to preserve
all through this trying time such a demeanour as would
effectually conceal from Dominguez the fact that I was
alert and on the watch for something ; but I managed
it somehow, by leading him to believe that, rather
than suffer torture, I had determined to provoke
Morillo into killing me outright ; a plan of which
Dominguez highly approved, while expressing his
doubts as to the possibility of its achievement,

347

248 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

In suggesting — as I find I have in the above
paragraph — that I had no plan whatever, I have
perhaps conveyed a wrong impression ; what I intended
the reader to understand was that I had no finished
scheme, complete in- all its details, to depend upon.

A plan of a sort I certainly had, but it was of the
vaguest and most nebulous kind, consisting in nothing
more specific than the mere determination to seize the
felucca at the first favourable opportunity, and sail
her, single-handed, to the nearest British port ; but
of how this was to be accomplished I had not the
most remote idea. The only point upon which I was
at all clear was that it would be inadvisable, for
two reasons, to make my attempt too early; my first
reason for arriving at this conclusion being that, the
longer I deferred action the nearer should we be to
Barbadoes, for which island I intended to make; while
my second reason was that, should Dominguez per-
chance suspect me of any sinister design, the longer
the delay on my part the less suspicious and watch-
ful would he be likely to become. Fortunately for my
purpose, we were making rather a long passage of it,
the little hooker not being by any means a particularly
weatherly craft ; consequently our first land-fall — on our
sixth day out — was the curious shoal and accompany- ,
ing group of rocky islets called Los Roques, or The
Roccas, off La Guayra, close to which we hove about
and stood to the northward on the starboard tack.

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA 249

This occurred during the early morning, about an
hour after sunrise. The trade wind was then blowing

steadily but moderately, and the weather was, as usual,
fine and clear. Toward noon, however, it became notice-
able that the wind was very decidedly softening down ;
and when Dominguez took his meridian observation of
the sun, we were not going more than four knots. It was
the custom aboard the felucca to dine in the middle of
the day, as soon as Dominguez had worked out his
calculations, the skipper and I dining first, and then
going on deck while Miguel, the mate, took his meal.
While Miguel was below Dominguez usually took the
tiller, but of late I had occasionally relieved him — with
a vague idea that possibly it might, at some opportune
moment, be an advantage for me to be at the helm.
And, as it happened, I chanced to be first on deck on
this particular day, and, without any premeditation, went
aft and relieved Miguel ; so that, when a few minutes
later Dominguez came on deck, he found me in possession
of the tiller, and staring intently at some floating object
about a quarter of a mile away, and slightly on our
weather bow, that kept rising into view and vanishing
again as the long, lazy undulations of the swell swept
past it.

*' What are you staring at so hard, Seiior Courtenay?
Do you see anything?" demanded Dominguez, as he
sauntered aft toward me from the companion, cigar in
mouth.

250 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

"Yes," answered I, replying to his last question first,
"there is something out there, but what it is I cannot
for the life of me make out. There — there it is ! You
can see it now lifting on the back of the swell, about a
point on the weather bow."

r

*'Ay," he answered eagerly, "I see it, and, unless I
am greatly mistaken, I know what it is. Keep her away
a little, seiior, if you please ; let her go off a point. I do
not want to pass too close to that object if it be what
I imagine."

"And pray what do you imagine it to be, sefior, if
one may be permitted to ask the question?" inquired
I, as I gave a pull upon the tiller rope and kept the
felucca away, as requested.

" A turtle ! a sleeping turtle, and an unusually fine one,
too ! " answered Dominguez, in a low voice, as he stood
staring out away over the weather bow, with one hand
shading his eyes while the other held his smouldering
cigar.

As Dominguez spoke a little thrill of sudden excite-
ment swept over me, for I thought, "Just so; I know
what he means. He intends to make an effort to capture
that turtle, — probably by means of the boat, — and, if he
does, my chance will have come 1" But I steadied myself
instantly, and returned, in a perfectly nonchalant tone of
voice —

"And supposing that it be, as you imagine, a sleeping

turtle, what then, sefior?

))

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA 251

" Hush, senor, I pray you ! " replied Dominguez, in a
low, excited whisper. " Keep silence ; you will soon

see!

I"

Presently the object lifted into view ag'ain, only some
ten or a dozen fathoms away ; and as it went drifting
quietly past, we got so distinct and prolonged a view of
it as to render its identity unquestionable. It was, as
Dominguez had imagined, a sleeping turtle of enormous

size.

" Holy Virgin, what a magnificent fellow ! *' ejaculated
Dominguez, as the creature vanished in the trough on
our weather quarter, " we inus^ have him ! Sefior, if we
lower the sail, so that the felucca cannot drift far, will

you have any objection to being left by yourself

for a few minutes, while Miguel and I and the boy
go after that turtle with the boat ? " he demanded
eagerly.

So my chance /md come, if I could but so de-
mean myself for a few minutes as not to arouse the
suspicions of this man by any ill - timed exhibition
of eagerness or too earnest assent to his proposal. I
took a second or two to steady my nerves, and then
asked —

" Cannot we a/l go in the boat together ? I have never
yet seen a turtle captured, and should greatly like to
witness the operation."

" No, senor ; I am sorry, but it is out of the question,"
answered Dominguez hastily. ' The boat is but small,

252 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and I am very doubtful whether she will be capable of
carrying three of us and that great brute — if we are so
fortunate as to catch him. I would send Miguel and
Luis only, but that I know they would not be able to
secure him unaided. We shall not be gone long, sefior,
and the felucca cannot drift far in this light breeze and
with so little swell running."

" N — o, I suppose not," I answered, with just the
slightest imaginable show of reluctance. " All right,
senor," I continued, "away with you, by all means; I
should be sorry to spoil your sport for you. Shall I
lower the sail ? " ■

" Not just for a moment, senor," answered Dominguez ;

" we must creep far enough away that the flapping of the
canvas may not wake our friend yonder, or we shall lose
him." Then, poking his head through the open skylight,
he called softly, in Spanish

** Miguel! Miguel! come on deck at once, friend ; there
is a large turtle out here floating, fast asleep, and I want
to catch him."

Miguel mumbled a reply of some sort, — what it was
I could not tell, — and Dominguez briskly withdrew his

head from the skylight and sprang upon the rail, looking
away out on the weather quarter for the turtle. It was
still visible, at intervals, but fully a quarter of a mile
astern now,

" There, that will do ; we are far enough away now,
I think," he muttered, stepping lightly off the felucca's

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA 253

low rail to the deck. " Here, Miguel/' as that worthy
emerged from the companion, wiping his lips with the
back of his hand, '' help me to lower the sail, quick !
And you, Senor Courtenay, will you do me the favour to
haul taut the sheet as the sail comes down, so that it
may not flap about and make more noise than we can
help ? "

" Certainly," I answered cheerfully, letting go the
tiller rope and seizing the fall of the sheet. " Lower
away whenever you like."

The single lateen sail, stretched upon its long, heavy,
tapering yard, came sliding down the mast, rustling
heavily, despite all that I could do to prevent it ; and
presently it lay quiescent, stretched along the deck, with
the after yardarm projecting far over the taffrail. I
sprang up 'on the companion slide to see whether the
turtle was still visible, and was rejoiced to find that he
was^ — floating, an unconspicuous and unrecognisable
object by this time, — nearly half a mile away, appar-
ently quite undisturbed by the rustling sounds of the
canvas.

"Is he still there, senor?" demanded Dominguez, in
an eager half-whisper.

I nodded, pointing silently to where I could see the
creature appearing at intervals on the rfdges and backs
of the swell.

" Good ! " ejaculated Dominguez. *' Now, where is
Luis ? Oh, here you are ! " as that individual poked

254 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

his head up through the fore scuttle to see what was
going on, his still working jaws betraying that he too
had been disturbed during the process of consuming the
midday meal. "Just look into the boat, Luis, my son,
and see that the oars and baler are in her, while Miguel
and I unship the gangway. Can you still see him, Seiior
Courtenay ? "

"Yes," I replied, "he is still there, but a long way off
now. I think I had better keep my eye on him, and
direct you by an occasional wave of the hand, as you
pull down, or you will have a job to find him."

"Thank you," answered Dominguez ; "if it will
not be troubling you too much I shall be greatly
obliged."

"Oh, no trouble at all," responded I. "I should stand
here to watch the fun in any case."

Dominguez and Miguel soon managed, between them,
to unship the gangway, which done, they lifted the
boat — a mere dinghy — out of her chocks on top
of the main hatchway, slued her bows round toward
the gangway, and ran her over the side, fisherman
fashion, the three of them immediately jumping in and
shoving off from the felucca's side ; Dominguez, who
steered the boat, looking round at me from time to
time for directions as to the way in which he was to
head the boat.

Released now from the scrutiny of the Spaniard's
eyes, it was no longer necessary for me to maintain that

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA 255

painful self-restraint which had cost me so severe an
effort in order that I might not by look or gesture arouse
the ghost of a suspicion as to my Intentions ; so, while I
continued to mechanically wave the boat to the right or
the left, as circumstances demanded, I now gave my mind
to the task of determining the details of my proposed
line of action.

To begin with, I was fully resolved that Dominguez
and his companions having left the felucca, they should
never again return to her, if I could possibly prevent it.
At the right moment I would make sail upon the little
craft and head her for Barbadoes, leaving them to get ashore
as best they could. And here my conscience pricked me
a little, for I had already had experience of a voyage in
an open boat, and knew what it meant. On the other
hand, however, my life was at stake ; for it had by this
time become perfectly apparent to me that unless I could
raise the sum of ten thousand pounds demanded by
Dominguez — which was a simple impossibility — that
individual would most certainly deliver me over to Morillo ;
in which case there was every reason to believe that I
should die a cruel and lingering death of torment — which
I considered myself quite justified in avoiding by every
means in my power. Moreover, we were not very far
from the land. The Roccas were only some twenty-five
miles away, at the utmost, and could easily be reached
by Dominguez before midnight ; and the weather was
fine, and the water smooth. The voyage of the dinghy

2i;6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

was therefore not likel}^ to be of a very adventurous or
dangerous character; so that, by taking possession of the
felucca and turning the Spaniard and his companions adrift,
I should only be inflicting upon them a very mild punish-
ment for their unlawful seizure of my person, especially
when the cruel object of that seizure came to be taken
into consideration. I would not leave them, however,
wholly without provisions and water, if I could help it.
My first thought, therefore, was how I might be able
to convey to them a small supply of each without
affording them an opportunity to regain possession
of the felucca : and after a few minutes' deliberation I
thought I could see a way by which this might be
accomplished.

Meanwhile the dinghy went drifting rapidly away
astern, propelled by Miguel and Luis, who stood up at
their oars, looking ahead, while Dominguez stood up in
the stern-sheets, looking over their shoulders and occasion-
ally glancing back at me for guidance. At length, however,
he caught sight for himself of the turtle, and thenceforward
kept his attention wholly fixed upon it. As soon as I
became fully satisfied of this T jumped down off the
companion, for the moment for action on my part had

now arrived.

The first thing was to get sail upon the felucca again ;
and to masthead the long, heavy lateen yard, with its
big sail, was no easy task for one man. There was,
however, a little winch affixed to the fore part of the

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA 257

r

mast, chiefly used for tliis very purpose; so, upon jump-
ing down off the companion, my first act was to assure
myself that the mainsheet was securely belayed, after
which I rushed forward, and, setting hand-taut the main
halliard, threw two or three turns of the fall round the
barrel of the winch, I then ran aft again and sprang once
more upon the companion to see what was happening
aboard the dinghy. She was by this time drawing
pretty close up to the sleeping turtle, and the whol
attention of the trio aboard her appeared to be absorbed
in the effort to get alongside the creature without waking
him. Now, therefore, was my time for action. I accord-
ingly dashed forward to the mast, and, shipping the crank

handle of the winch, hove away upon the halliard for dear

life. The yard and sail crept slowly — oh, how very slowly

up the mast, the canvas rustling in the wind noisily

enough to wake the dead, still more to reach the ears

and give the alarm to those in the dinghy. But, having

once begun, there was nothing now for it but to go on with

the work, and get the yard mastheaded and good way upon

the felucca before those in the dinghy could pull back and

get alongside.

At length, after what seemed to be an interminable

time, — although the rapid click, click of the pawls told me

that in reality I was accomplishing my task very smartly,

I managed to get the yard some two-thirds of the way

up the mast, when I took a turn with the halliards and

once more rushed aft to get a look at the boat. As I had

17

258 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

expected, the slatting of the canvas had reached and given
them the alarm, and the boat was now round and heading
back after the felucca, Miguel and Dominguez straining
frantically at the oarS; while Luis had taken the place of
the latter at the tiller. The little craft was being pushed
furiously along — as I could tell by the manner in which
her nose dipped and the white foam boiled round it at
every stroke of the oars ; but the felucca was gathering
way, and with the wind square abeam and her imperfectly
hoisted sail ramping full, seemed to be quite holding her
own. I seized the tiller and kept her away another point,
carefully watching both her progress and that of the
boat, and ten minutes later I experienced the satisfying.
conviction that she was steadily leaving her pursuers.
Once fully assured of this, I lashed the tiller, and once
more running forward, completed the setting of the
sail, when I let the little hooker come up to '* full

and by/'

The next matter demanding my attention was that
of conveying a supply of food and water to the luckless
occupants of the dinghy without permitting them to
come alongside. There were several small breakers of
fresh water on deck, constituting the supply of the
felucca, and one of these would be ample for the
occupants of the dinghy until they could get ashore or
were picked up — indeed, the boat had not capacity for
more than one. They were all carefully bunged with
cork and canvas, so I could safely launch one of them

1 SEIZE THE FELUCCA 259

overboard for the dinghy to pick up. I therefore pro-
ceeded to unlash one and roll it toward the still open
gangway ; and then came the question of provisions.
There was a large wash-deck tub on the forecastle which
I knew to be water-tight, and it struck me that this might
be utilised to float the dry provisions until the dinghy
could pick them up; so — first making sure of the position
of the boat — ^I dived below and routed out of Dominguez'
bunk a large canvas ditty-bag that I had often seen there,
and, emptying out the clothing which it contained, pro-
ceeded to fill it with bread and such other provisions as
I could most readily lay hands on. This, when full, I
tied securely at the neck and took on deck, placing it in
the wash-deck tub after I had dragged the latter con-
veniently close to the gangway. Then, going below
again, I brought up three plates, some knives and forks,
three tin pannikins, and a few other oddments that I knew
would be useful, and placed them in the wash-deck tub
with the provisions. Then, when I thought that all was
ready, the boat's mast and sail caught my eye as it lay
upon the hatchway, — having been flung there by Luis
when he cleared out the boat, — and this I determined
they should also have, as, while quite resolved to abandon
them, I was most anxious that they should be afforded
every opportunity to reach the shore alive and well.
Then, everything being ready, I once more ran aft to sec
whereabout the boat now was.

She was a long way astern — quite two miles — and, as

26o A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

I looked, it appeared as though Dominguez had already
given up the pursuit, for the boat did not seem to be
moving. Her occupants were, however, all on their feet,
staring hard in my direction and waving their arms
frantically. I therefore put the helm up, and, jibing
round, proceeded to run down toward them. This was
rather a risky thing to do, but I thought that with care
I could accomplish what I wanted, and still evade re-
capture. When they saw me returning for them — as they
doubtless thought — they started pulling again for a minute
or two, then once more lay upon their oars, watching. On
my part I also was careful to keep a keen watch upon their
movements, my intention being to pass within hailing

distance of them, if possible, without giving them a
chance to dash alongside. That this was their intention
I soon became aware, for as the felucca swept down
toward them I could see that their oars were in the water
and that they were quietly manoeuvring to get the
dinghy head-on and as close as possible to the spot
over which they expected me to pass. But I was not to
be quite so easily caught napping ; so, carefully measur-
ing the distance with my eye, I again put the helm up,
just at the right moment, and, sweeping past the dinghy
within half a dozen fathoms, hailed her discomfited
occupants somewhat to this effect :

" Dinghy ahoy ! I am not going to allow you to come
alongside again, so I would recommend you to make the
best of your way to the Roccas, which, as you know, bear

I SEIZE THE FELUCCA 261

south-south-west, some twenty-five miles distant. I have
no doubt that, if you can reach them, you are certain to
be taken off sooner or later. Meanwhile, I do not wish
you to starve, so I am going to launch overboard some
provisions and water for you to pick up ; also the boat's
mast and sail. The weather promises to hold fine, so
you ought to make a fairly good and quick passage
of it."

Meanwhile, the moment that Dominguez became
aware of what I was doing he swept the boat round with
a couple of powerful strokes of his oar, and once again
they gave chase with might and main, Dominguez at the
same time shouting to me that if I would allow them to
return on board they would land me wherever I pleased,
and never ask so much as a penny-piece by way of
ransom. Could I have trusted the fellow, I would
willingly have acceded to his proposal ; but I could not.
He had already shown himself to be so coldly callous, so
absolutely indifferent to the fearful fate to which he had
undertaken to consign me, that I felt it would be the
sheerest, most insane folly to place myself in his power
again. I therefore kept the felucca away until I found
that she was rather more than holding her own in the
race, when I once more lashed the tiller, and, calling to
Dominguez to look out for the things that I was about
to launch overboard, ran to the gangway, and first success-
fully set the wash-deck tub afloat, then rolled the breaker
of water out through the open ga.ng\vayj and finally

262 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

sent the mast and sail adrift; after which I returned
to the tiller and watched the process of picking up
the several articles, as I gradually brought the felucca
to her former course, close-hauled upon the starboard
tack.

CHAPTER XV

HEAVY WEATHER

THE provisions, water, and the mast and sail were all
successfully secured by the occupants of the boat,
after which Dominguez, to my great satisfaction, made
sail to the southward, and in another hour his tiny speck
of canvas had vanished beyond the horizon. This left
me free to attend to my own necessities without further
anxiety on the score of being boarded ; I therefore once
more lashed the tiller in such a position that the felucca
would practically steer herself, and then, having first taken
a good look round, to see if anything was in sight, proceeded
below, found the chart which Dominguez had been using,
and ascertained the bearing and distance of the island of
Barbadoes. A careful study of this chart revealed the
rather disconcerting fact that, taking into consideration
the circumstance that Barbadoes was to windward, while
Jamaica lay well to leeward of me, it would be almost as
quick to return to the latter as it would be to beat out to
the former. On the other hand, however, there was this

264 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

to be taken into consideration, that, on a wind, the felucca
might be made to practically steer herself, as I had already
ascertained by experiment, while it was quite certain that
she could not be persuaded to do any such thing while
running off the wind. Moreover, by ratching far enough
to the northward to enable the felucca to fetch Bardadoes
on the next tack, I should be stretching away in a fairly
promising direction for being picked up by one of the
many British cruisers that were watching the principal
outlets from the Caribbean to the Atlantic. After mature
deliberation, therefore, I arrived at the conclusion that I
could not do better than adhere to my original determina-
tion of trying for Barbadoes.

The next question was, how I was to dispose of my
time, or rather, what portion of my time it would be best
to devote to sleep. One fact stared me in the face at the
outset, namely, that until I was once more safe ashore I
should have to make shift with the smallest possible amount
of sleep, the care of the felucca calling for my almost con-
stant attention ; consequently, I should have to so arrange
my periods of rest that they would coincide with the times
when the felucca could best be left to take care of herself.
These periods would obviously occur during the hours of
daylight, when it would be possible to take a good look
round, and if nothing was in sight, or likely to approach
within dangerous proximity for an hour or two, lie down
on deck in the shadow of the sail, snatch a short nap, and
then take another look round ; repeating the process as

HEAVY WEATHER 265

often as possible throughout the day, in order that I might
be fresh and Hvely for an unbroken watch through the
hours of darkness. Having arrived at this conclusion, I
forthwith proceeded to carry out my plan, and found it to
act fairly well ; the only drawback being, that, for want of
watching, the felucca evinced a tendency to run a little off
the wind, while, when I attempted to remedy this by
lashing the helm an inch or two less a-weather, she erred
to about the same extent in the other direction by
gradually coming-to until her sail was all shaking, and I
had to jump hurriedly to my feet and jam the helm hard
up to prevent her from coming round upon the other tack.
Little by little, however, I remedied both these defects, so
that by sunset I had her going along just "full and by,"
almost as steadily as though I had been standing at the
tiller and steering her.

Meanwhile, the wind, which had been very moderate
all day, with a distinctly perceptible disposition to become
still lighter, had gradually softened down until the little
hooker was barely doing her three knots per hour, while
the sea had dwindled away until only the long, regular
undulations of the swell were left, these being overrun by
a wrinkling of those small, uncrested wavelets that
frequently precede the setting-in of a calm. Yet there
was no reason why a calm should be anticipated, for I
was in a region where the trade wind blows all the year
round, except when, for a few hours, it gives place to one
of the hurricanes that occasionally sweep over the

266 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Caribbean with devastating effect. Could it be possible
that such a phenomenon was about to happen ? There
was no especial reason why it might not be so^ for it was
the "hurricane season," But there was no sign in the
heavens of any approaching atmospheric disturbance —
unless, indeed, that faint, scarcely perceptible, hazy
appearance up aloft had a sinister meaning !

When the sun had declined to within a few minutes of
his setting, I shinned up the mast and took a good look
round ; but there was nothing in sight. Waiting, therefore,
until the sun had sunk below the horizon, — which he did
in the midst of a thin, smoky haze, through which the
rayless luminary glowed like a ball of red-hot iron, — T
descended to the deck and forthwith set to work to
prepare myself such a supper as the meagre resources of
the felucca permitted : after discussing which, as the stars
were shining brilliantly overhead, and the little craft was
steering herself, I again stretched myself out on deck to
snatch another nap.

I this time slept for several hours, for when I was at
length awakened by the rustling of the sail it was close
upon midnight. Starting to my feet, I first glanced aloft
and then around me ; but there was nothing to be seen, the
darkness being so profound that it needed but a very
small stretch of the imagination to persuade me that it
might absolutely be felt! It was the thick, opaque dark-
ness that I remembered having once experienced when,
as a boy, I went exploring some Devonshire caverns and

HEAVY WEATHER 267

clumsily allowed my candle to fall and become extin-
guished in a pool of water. It seemed to press upon me,
to become palpable to the touch, to so closely wrap me
about that my very breathing became impeded. And oh,
how frightfully hot and close it was ! The air was
absolutely stagnant, and the slight draught created by the
uneasy motion of the felucca seemed to positively scorch
the skin. Moreover, there was no dew; the deck-planks,
the rail, everything that my hand came into contact with,
was dry and warm. I groped my way to the rail and
looked abroad over the surface of the ocean, and ft will
perhaps convey — at all events to those who have used the
sea — some idea of the intensity of the darkness when I
say that not the faintest glimmer of reflected light came
to me from the polished undulations of the slow-creeping
swell. The water, however, was highly phosphorescent,
for alongside the felucca, and all round her as she rolled
and pitched with a quick, jerky, uneasy motion, there
extended a narrow band or cloud of faint greenish-blue
sea-fire, in the midst of which flashed and glittered
millions of tiny stars, interspersed here and there with less
luminous patches, in the forms of rings and d'iscs, that
vanished and grew into view again at quick intervals in
the most weird and uncanny manner.

I groped my way to the companion, and from thence
below into the little cabin, where I lighted the lamp and
seated myself at the table, well under its cheerful if some-
what smoky beams ; for the grave-like darkness of the

268 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

declc had oppressed me with a feeling very nearly akin to
horror, and even the dull yellow light of the lamp seemed
inexpressibly cheerful in comparison with it. There was
no barometer aboard the felucca, so I had nothing to
guide me to the meaning oi" the weather portents, but I
was convinced that something out of the common — some-
thing more than a mere thunder-squall — was brewing ; and,
if so, I should probably have my hands full in taking care
of the felucca, with nobody to help me. Still, so awkward a
condition of affairs was preferable to that of being delivered
over to Morillo, for him to work his fiendish will upon me.

The cabin was much too hot to be comfortable, so,
having quickly conquered the feeling of depression
produced by the darkness that had preceded the lighting
of the cabin lamp, I helped myself to one of Dominguez'
excellent cigars, and, lighting it, went on deck, where the
dull gleam of the lamp, issuing from the small glazed
skylight, now made quite a pleasant little patch of yellow
radiance on the deck and bulwarks immediately adjacent.
I w^as by this time broad awake, having secured all the
rest and sleep I just then needed ; so I fell to pacing to
and fro over the small patch of illuminated deck, deter-
mined to watch the matter out.

I might have been thus engaged for about an hour,
when I became aware that the darkness was no longer so
densely and oppressively profound as it had been ; there
was just the faintest imaginable gleam of light in the sky,
whereby it was possible to barely distinguish that the

HEAVY WEATHER 269

firmament was packed with vast, piling masses of heavy,
menacing cloud. Very gradually the light strengthened,
assuming, as it did so, a lowering, ruddy tint, until in the
course of half an hour the whole sky had the appearance
that is seen when it reflects a great but distant conflagra-
tion. And now I knew of a surety that a hurricane was
brewing; for that fearful ruddy light in the sky was the
self-same appearance that I had once before beheld when
in the Althecis gig I had been attempting to make my
way to Bermuda. There was no mistaking the sign, for it
was one that, once seen, could never be forgotten.

And now^ the storm-fiend having unfurled his fiery
banner, and thus given warning of impending war, my

time of inaction was over; for there was plenty to do
before the felucca could be considered as prepared to
engage in the coming struggle. And, at the best, the
preparation could only be a partial one ; for the craft was
not only small, she was old, crazy, and miserably weak
for the ordeal that lay before her ; and it was not in my
power to remedy so serious a defect as th^t. All that I
could do was to take in the great lateen sail and secure
it, and substitute for it, if I could, some very much smaller
piece of canvas, that, while sufficient to save her from
being overrun by the furious sea, would not be too big for
the felucca to carry. Fortunately, there was such a sail on
board, — a small lug-sail made of stout canvas, and nearly
new, — which was intended to be substituted for the lateen
on those rare occasions when the little craft might be

270 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

caught in heavy weather ; and this sail I now proceeded to
drag up from below and bend to its yard ; after which I
lowered away the lateen, laid it fore and aft the deck, and
made it up, securing it as well as I could by passing
innumerable turns of a light wharp round it ; after which
I firmly lashed it to the bulwarks with as many lashings
as I could find pins or cleats for. My next job was to
close-reef and set the lug, which I did with the aid of the
winch ; and this done, I went forward, and, beginning
with the fore scuttle, proceeded to carefully batten down
every opening in the deck, bringing the cabin lamp on
deck in order that I might have a sufficiency of light to
work by. The skylight I secured as well as I could by

passing lashings over the cover to a couple of ring-bolts

conveniently placed in the deck, and I finished up by
backing the companion doors with a couple of stout pieces
of timber, w^hich I sawed to the proper length and wedged
in between the uprights, rendering it practically impossible
for the doors to be forced open by a sea, while, by
drawing over the slide, I could at the last moment
effectually close all access to the cabin. This completed
my labours, with which I was fairly well satisfied, the only
portion of my defences about which I liad any serious
doubt being the skylight, the glazed panels of which
might easily be smashed by a sea ; but I was obliged to
take my chance of that, being unable to find anything
with which to protect them.

And now, all that remained was to watch and \vait.

HEAVY WEATHER 271

Nor had I to wait very long ; for when, having completed
my preparations, I found time to again glance aloft at the
frowning sky, I observed that the heavy masses of fiery
cloud, that had hitherto seemed to be practically motion-
less, so stealthy were their movements, were now working
with a restless, writhing motion, while ever and anon
some small detached fragment of vapour would come
sweeping rapidly out from the westward athwart the
twisting masses, as though caught and torn off from the
main body by some sudden, momentary, partia], but
violent movement in the atmosphere. These small,
scurrying fragments of cloud, the vanguard of the
approaching tempest, rapidly increased in size and in
number, while the twisting and writhing of the great
cloud masses momentarily grew more rapid and convulsive,
until it appeared as though the entire firmament were in
the throes of mortal agony, the suggestion soon becoming
intensified by the arising in the atmosphere of low, weird,
moaning sounds, that at intervals rose and strengthened
into a wail as of the spirits of drowned sailors lamenting
the cominq; havoc. And as the wailin^? sounds arose and
grew in volume, sudden stirrings in the stagnant air
became apparent, first in the form of exaggerated cats'-
paws, that smote savagely upon the glassy surface of the
water, scourging it into a sudden flurry of foam, and then
dying away again, and then in sudden gusts that swept
screaming past the felucca hither and thither, sometimes _
high enough aloft to leave the water undisturbed, at other

272 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

times striking it and, as it were, rebounding from the
surface, leaving in its path streaks and patches of ruffled
water that had scarcely time to subside ere another gust
went howling past, to leave them more disturbed than
before. These sudden scurryings of wind were the fore-
runners of the hurricane itself, and only sprang up a short
five minutes before the low, hoarse murmur of the
gale itself became audible. As this sound arose I
looked away to the westward, — the quarter from which it
came, — and saw, by the faint, sombre, ruddy light of the
unnaturally glowing sky, a thin white line appear upon
the horizon, lengthening and thickening as I watched,
until it became a rushing wall of foam, bearing down upon
the felucca at terrific speed, while behind it the heavens
grew pitchy black, and the murmur became a low, deep
roar, and the roar grew in volume to a bellow, and the
bellow rose to an unearthly howl,' and the howl to a
yelling shriek, as the hurricane leapt at the felucca — which,
happily, was lying stern-on to it — and seized her in its
grip, causing the stout, close-reefed lug-sail to fill with a
report like that of a cannon, and burying her bows deep
in the creamy, hissing smother ere she gathered way, while
the scud-water flew over her in blinding, drenching sheets.
For a moment, as I gripped the tiller convulsively, T
thought the little hooker was about to founder bows first,
but after a shuddering pause of a few breathless seconds
of horrible suspense, she gathered way, and in another
instant was flying before the gale like a frightened thing,

HEAVY WEATHER 273

at a speed which I dare venture to say she had never
before attained.

It was a wild scene in the midst of which I now found
myself. With the outburst of the gale the supernatural,
ruddy glow of the sky had suddenly faded, to be suc-
ceeded by a frightful gloom, which yet was not actual
darkness, for the whole surface of the sea had in a few
brief seconds become a level sheet of boiling foam, so
strongly phosphorescent that it emitted light enough for
me to sec, with tolerable distinctness, the hull, mast, and
sail of the felucca, and to make out the position and
character of the principal objects about her deck ; and
this same weird, ghostly light it probably was that, re-
flected from the clouds, enabled me also to discern their

forms and to distinguish that they were no longer the
rounded, swelling masses that they had hitherto been, but
were now rent and tattered and ragged with the mad fury

of the wind that had seized upon them and was dragging
them at headlong speed athwart the arch of heaven. The
air, too, was full of spindrift, to perhaps double the height
of the felucca's mast, and that too was luminous with a
faint, green, misty light that imparted a weird, unreal
aspect to everything it shone upon ; an effect which was
further heightened by the unearthly screaming and howling
of the gale.

There was nothing for it but to keep the felucca run-
ning dead before the gale ; and, fortunately for me, this

was by no means a difficult feat, as the craft steered as

iS

274 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

easily as a boat, — indeed she almost steered Iierself. For
the first half-hour or so nothing special occurred, the
hurricane continuing to blow as furiously as at its first mad
outfly, while the felucca sped before it as smoothly and
steadily as though mounted on wheels and running upon
a perfectly smooth and IqvcI road ; my only fear just then
being that the mast would go over the bows, or the sail
be blown out of its bolt-ropes. The spar, however, was a
good one, and well stayed, while the sail was practically
new, and the gear was good ; everything therefore held,
although I could /e^i that the little craft was straining to
an alarming extent. But about half an hour, or there-
about, after the gale first struck us, a movement of the
hull — gentle and easy at first, but rapidly increasing — told
me that the sea was beginning to rise ; and soon after that
my troubles commenced in earnest, for the sea got up
with astounding rapidity, and as it did so the steering
became increasingly difficult, especially when the stern of
the little hooker was thrown up on the crest of a sea, at
which periods, for a few breathless seconds, the rudder
. seemed to lose its grip on the water, and the felucca was
hurled irresistibly forward, with her bows buried deep in
the boiling foam, while she seemed hesitating whether to
broach-to to starboard or to port, either alternative of
which would have been equally disastrous, since in either
case she must have assuredly capsized and gone down.

But, by what seemed nothing short of a series of inter-
positions on the part of a merciful Providence, in every

HEAVY WEATHER 275

case, just at the moment when a broach-to seemed immi-
nent and inevitable, I felt the rudder take a fresh grip on
the water, and we were again safe until the next sea over-
took us. And so it continued throughout the remaining
hours of that dreadful night, with grim Death threatening
me at every upward heave of the little craft, until at
length — after what seemed to have been a very eternity
of anxiety — the day broke slowly and sullenly ahead, by
which time I had grown absolutely callous and indifferent.
My nerves had been kept in a state of acute tension so
long that they seemed to have become incapable of any
further feeling of any kind, and I had ceased to care
whether I survived or not ; or rather^ I had become so
thoroughly convinced of the absolute impossibility of
ultimate escape, that there seemed to be nothing left
worth worrying about. Moreover, I was by this time
utterly exhausted with the tremendous exertion of keep-
ing the little craft running straight for so long a time ; for
at the critical moments of which I have spoken, the helm
seemed to so nearly lose its power that it became neces-
sary to jam the tiller hard over, first to this side and then
to that, as the felucca seemed actually starting on a wild
sheer that must have flung her broadside on to the sea,
and so have abruptly finished her career and mine at the
same moment.

Thus was it with me when the dull and sullen dawn
at length came oozing through the mjrky blackness
ahead, gradually spreading along the horizon, grey, dismal.

276 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and lowering, bringing the tattered shapes and sooty hues
of the wildly flying clouds into stronger relief, and reveal-
ing a horizon serrated with the frenzied leapings of the
angry waters that hissed and roared around the straining
felucca, chasing her like angry wolves about to leap upon
their prey. At first I thought I was alone in this scene
of mad turmoil; but presently, when the light grew
stronger, as the felucca hung poised for an instant upon
the crest of a foaming comber, that boiled in over both
rails amidships and flooded the deck knee-deep, I caught
a momentary gh'mpse of a large craft, some nine miles
away on the larboard bow, running, like myself, before the

w

gale. She was hull down, of course, and very probably
in the hollow of a sea when first I caught sight of her ;
for I saw only the heads of her lower masts, with the three
topmasts rising above them, the topgallant masts either
struck or carried away. She was running under a close-
reefed maintopsail and goose-winged foresail, and I took
her to be a frigate, though whether one of our own or
an enemy, she was too far off for me to be enabled to
judge ; but, of whatever nationality she may have been,
she was undoubtedly a fast vessel, for she soon ran out of
sight, although I estimated the speed of the felucca to be
quite nine knots.

About an hour later I became sensible of a distinct
abatement in the fury of the hurricane, which, in the
course of another hour, had still further moderated, until it
had become no more than an ordinary heavy gale. Yet

HEAVY WEATHER 277

so callous had I now become that the change afforded me
scarcely any satisfaction ; I had grown so utterly indiffer-
ent that I had long ceased to care what happened. But I
was worn out with fatigue ; my limbs ached as though I
had been severely beaten, mj' hands were .blistered and
raw with the chafe of the tiller, and my eyes were smart-
ing for want of sleep. Rest I felt that I 7;iust have, and
that soon, come what might of it. So, as the gale had
moderated somewhat, I determined to heave-to. I believed
the felucca would now bear the weight of her small^ close-
reefed lug even when brought to the wind, and if she did
not — well, it did not matter. Nothing mattered just then,
except that I must have rest. So, the sail being set on
the starboard side of the mast, I watched my opportunity,
and, availing myself of a *' smooth," brought the felucca to
on the starboard tack, with no worse mishap than the
shipping of a sea over the weather bow — as she came up
with her head pointing to windward — that swept away
the whole of the port bulwarks, from abreast the windlass
to the wake of the companion. As she came to, the little
craft laid over until the water was up to the lee coamings
of her main hatchway, and for a second or two I thought
she was going to turn turtle with me ; but, once fairly
round and head-on to the sea, she rode wonderfully well,
especially after I had lashed the helm a-lee and got the
mainsheet aft. The latter was a heavy job, but I man-
aged it in about half an hour, with the assistance of the
watch-tackle, and, that done^ the craft could take care of

278 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

herself. I therefore sHd back the top of the companion,
swung myself heavily in through the opening, stumbled
down the ladder, staggered across the little cabin, and
flung myself, wet to the skin as I was, into my bunk,
where I instantly lost consciousness, whether in a swoon

r

or only in a profound sleep I never knew.

CHAPTER XVr

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA

WAS awakened, some five hours later, by the sound
of water washing heavily to and fro, and upon look-
ing over the edge of the bunk I discovered that the cabin
was all afloat, the floor being covered to a depth of nearly

a foot, so that I looked down upon a miniature sea,

violently agitated by the furious leaping and plunging
and rolling of the felucca. I could tell, by the roar of the
wind and the hissing of the sea, with the frequent heavy
fall of water on deck, that it was still blowing heavily,
and my first impression was that the water had come
down through the companion, — the slide of which I had
left open, — but a few minutes of patient observation con-
vinced me that, although a slight sprinkling of spray
rained down occasionally, it was not nearly sufficient to
account for the quantity that surged and splashed about
the cabin. The only other explanation I could think of
was that the felucca had sprung a leak ; and, leaping out
of the bunk, I made my way on deck to ascertain the
truth of this conjecture.

279

28o A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

It was a dismal and dreary scene that presented itself
when I swung myself out on deck through the companion
top. It was still blowing with the force of a whole gale ;
the sky to windward was as black and threatening as
ever ; and the sea was running so high and breaking so
heavily that, as every succeeding comber came sweeping
down upon the felucca, with its foaming, hissing crest
towering above her to nearly the height of her masthead,
it appeared to me — new to the scene as I was — that the
next sea must inevitably overwhelm her. Yet, deep in
the water as I instantly noticed her to be, the little craft
still retained buoyancy enough to climb somehow up the
steep slope of each advancing wave, though not to carry
her fairly over its crest, every one of which broke aboard
her — usually well forward, as luck would have it ; with the
result that while I had been sleeping below the whole of
the lee bulwarks and the forward half of them on the
weather side had been swept away, leaving her deck open
to the sea, which had swept away every movable thing,
leaving nothing but the mast and the splintered ends of
the stanchions standing

This constant sweeping of the deck by green seas
rendered the task of moving about extremely dangerous,
for the rush of water over the fore part of the deck was
quite heavy enough to lift a man off his feet and carry him
overboard. But I wanted to sound the well ; so, securing
the pump-rod, which, for convenience, was hung in beckets
in the companion, I watched my opportunity, and, rushing

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA 281

forward, succeeded in dropping the rod down the well
and getting- a firm grip upon the fall of the main hahiard
before the next sea broke aboard. Then, as the water
poured off the deck, I quickly drew the rod out of the
well and dashed aft with it to the shelter of the com-
panion in time to escape the next sea. An inspection of
the rod then sufficed to realise my worst fears ; the little
craft had upwards of three feet of water in her hold !

Evidently she was leaking badly, and the sooner I could
devise some means of relieving her of the weight of water

in her the better it would be for me. Had I made this

discovery half a dozen hours earlier I should probably

have regarded it with perfect indifference; but those five

hours of death -like sleep had so greatly refreshed me

that I now felt a new man. My state of indifference

had passed away with the intensity of my fatigue, and

the instinct of self-preservation \^'as once more asserting

itself

My first idea was to rig the pump ; but this was

instantly discarded, for I had but to stand in the

companion way for a couple of minutes, and watch the

heavy rush of water athwart the deck, to be convinced of

the absolute impossibility of maintaining my position at

the pump ; for, even i( lashed there, my utmost efforts

would barely suffice to prevent myself from being swept

overboard, while to work the pump would be quite out of

the question. Then I remembered that the lazarette

hatch was situated immediately at the foot of the com-

282 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

panion ladder ; and I thought that, by raising the cover, I
might get a sort of well from which to bale, and in this
way at least keep the leak from gaining upon me, even
if I found it impossible to reduce it. For time was what
I now wanted. I had a conviction that the felucca*s
seams were opening, through the violent straining of her
in the heavy sea and through the tremendous pressure of
the wind upon her sail ; and I felt tolerably confident that,
if I could succeed in keeping her afloat until the gale had
blown itself out, all would be well.

But at this point of my meditations it suddenly
occurred to me that I was hungry and thirsty ; so I
descended the companion ladder and made my way to the
small pantry, in search of something to eat and drink. It
was a small place, scarcely larger than a cupboard, and
very imperfectly lighted by a single bull's-eye let into the
deck ; but it had one merit, it was well provided with
good wide shelves, upon which everything that could
possibly spoil was stowed ; and here I was lucky enough
to find an abundance of food — such as it was — and several
bottles of the thin, sour wine which Dominguez and his
crew drank instead of coffee. I ate and drank there in
the pantry, standing up to my knees in water, and when I
had finished, went to work with a bucket and rope to bail
the water out of the lazarette, standing out on deck, on
the lee side of the companion, and drawing the water out
of the lazarette as out of a well. I stuck doggedly to this
work throughout the whole afternoon and well on into the

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA 28^

night, until I could bail no longer for very weariness ; and
then — having convinced myself that I had succeeded in
checking the rise of the water — I took a final look round
to ascertain whether anything happened to be in sight,
but could see nothing, the night being again dark as
pitch, came to the conclusion that it was blowing a trifle
less hard than it had been, and that the felucca would live
through the night even though I should cease to bale ;
and so descended to the cabin and again flung myself
into my bunk, where I dropped sound asleep as my
head touched the pillow.

When I next returned to consciousness my awakening
was brought about through the agency of water splashing
in over the side of my bunk, the felucca having steadily
filled during the period of my sleep until the cabin was
fully three feet deep in water. It was broad day, and oh,
blessed change! the sun was shining brilliantly down
through the skylight, while the wind had evidently
dropped to a pleasant breeze. A heavy sea, however, was
still running, — as I could tell by the movements of the
felucca, — and I could hear the water well and gurgle up

the side of the little craft and go pouring across her deck
from time to time, although not so frequently as before I

turned in.

I rolled reluctantly out of my bunk — for I seemed to
be aching in every joint of my body, and my head was
burning and throbbing with a dull pain like what would
be occasioned by the strokes of a small hammer — and

284 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

waded, waist deep in water, to the companion ladder, up
which I crawled, and so out on deck.

The gale had blown itself out, the wind having sub-
sided to a very gentle breeze, that I soon discovered was
fast dying away to a calm — although what little wind
there was still came breathing out from the westward.
The sky was perfectly clear, of a rich, deep, pure blue
colour, without a shred of cloud to be seen in the whole of
the vast vault ; and in the midst of it, about two hours
high, hung the morning sun, a dazzling globe of brilliance
and heat. The sea, I now found, had subsided almost
entirely, but a very heavy swell was still running, over
which the felucca rode laboriously, the water in her
interior occasionally pinning her down to such an extent
that the quick-running swell would brim up over her bows
and pour in a perfect cataract athwart her deck. This,
however, I was not surprised at, for — as nearly as I could
judge — the felucca showed barely nine inches of freeboard !
Still the little hooker seemed surprisingly buoyant, con-
sidering her water-logged condition, and now that the seas
no longer broke over her, there seemed to be no reason
why, given enough time, I should not be able to pump

her dry, and resume my voyage to Barbadoes.

So I rigged the pump and went to work, hoping that,
as the gale had now abated and the sea had gone down,
the straining of the hull and the opening of the seams
had ceased, and that consequently the felucca was no
longer in a leaky condition. I toiled on throughout the

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA 28^

whole of that roasting morning, with the sun beating
mercilessly down upon me, while the water swirled
athwart the deck and about my legs, until noon, and then,
utterly exhausted with my labour, my skin burning with
fever and my hands raw and bleeding, I was fain to cry
"spell hoi" and give up for a time, while I sought some-
what to cat and drink. I had worked with a good will,
sanguinely hoping that when I felt myself compelled to
knock off I should discover that I had sensibly dimin-
ished the amount of water in the felucca's interior ; but
this hope was cruelly disappointed, for when I reached
the companion, on my way below, I found that there was
no perceptible difference in the height of the water in the
cabin from what it had been before I turned to ; indeed
the water seemed to have n'seu rather than diminished, a
sure indication that the hull was still leaking, and that
by no effort of mine could I hope to keep the craft much
longer afloat.

And now, as I descended to the cabin, and noted the
violence with which the water surged hither and thither
with the roiling and pitching of the little vessel, a wild
fear seized upon me that I might find all the provisions
in the pantry spoiled. A moment later and my surmise
was changed to certainty, for as I opened the door of the
small, cupboard-like apartment, a recoiling wave surged
out through the doorway, its surface bestrewed with the
hard, coarse biscuits that sailors speak of as " bread." The
water had risen high enough to flood the shelf upon

286 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

which the eatables had been stowed, and everything was
washed off and utterly spoiled. Worse still, there was
no possibility of obtaining a further supply, for the
lazarette, or storehouse, was beneath the cabin floor and
had been flooded for hours. Moreover, it was unap-
proachable. Fortunately I did not feel very hungry ; I
was, however, consumed with a burning thirst which — all
the water -casks having been washed overboard — I
quenched by draining a whole bottle of the thin, sour
wine of which I have before spoken. Then I went to
work to collect all the biscuit I could secure, and carried
it up on deck to dry in the sun, spreading it out on a cloth
on the top of the companion ; and while engaged upon
this task, and also in removing my small stock of wine to
the deck — for the cabin was by this time uninhabitable —
I began to consider what I could do to save my life when
the felucca should founder, as founder she must, now that
I had demonstrated my inability to keep the leaks under.
The question was not a very knotty one, or one demand-
ing very profound consideration; obviously there was but
one thing to do, and that was to build a raft with such
materials as offered themselves to my hand. And just at
this point the first difficulty presented itself in the shape
of the question: what available materials were there?
For, as I have already mentioned, the deck had been
swept of every movable thing, including the big lateen
yard, which had doubtless gone overboard when the
bulwarks were carried away. There seemed to be

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA 287

absolutely nothing, unless I set to work to break up the
felucca herself! Yet stay, there was the mast, the yard
that spread and supported the lug-sail, the tiller — a good,
stout, serviceable stick of timber — and — yes, certainly,
the hatches — which could now be safely taken off, as the
sea no longer swept over the deck heavily enough to pour
over the coamings. Surely with those materials I ought
to be able to construct a raft buoyant enough to support
me, even although It would be obviously necessary for me
to construct It on the deck, and then patiently wait until
the felucca sank and floated it off — for it would be quite
impossible for me to launch it.

So to work I went, my first task being to descend into
the flooded forecastle and grope about for an axe that I

knew was kept there somewhere ; and I was fortunate
enough to find it almost at once. Then, returning to the
deck, I lowered away the lug-sail and cut the canvas adrift
from the yard, carefully lashing the latter, that It might
not roll or be washed overboard. Then I began to cut
away the mast, chopping a deep notch in it close to the
deck, and when I heard it beginning to complain, I cut
the laniards o{ the weather rigging, when away it went
over the side with a crash. This (rave me a eood deal of

fes"*^ xi^v. I* ^

trouble, for I wanted the spar on deck, not overboard ; so
I had to go to work to parbuckle it up the side, which I
managed pretty well by watching the lift of the seas.
Then I cut the mast in halves, laid the two halves parallel
athwart the deck, and secured the yard and the tiller to

288 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

them, as cross-pieces, witli good stout lashings. And
finally, to these last I firmly lashed four of the main hatch
covers, when I had a platform of some twelve feet long
and eight feet wide to support me. All that now
remained to be done was to secure my provisions and
wine, which I did by stowing the whole in a double
thickness of tarpaulin, the edges of which I gathered
together and tightly lashed with spunyarn, finally secur-
ing the bundle to the raft by a short end of rope, so
that it might not be washed away when the felucca
should take her final plunge; and I had then done every-
thing that it was possible for me to do.

By the time that my task was finished the sun had
sunk to within a hand's breadth of the western horizon,
while the wind had dwindled away until it had become
the faintest zephyr, scarcely to be distinguished save by
the slight ruffling of the water here and there where it
touched, it being so nearly a flat calm that already great
oily-looking patches of gleaming smoothness had ap-
peared and were spreading momentarily througli the faint
blue ripplings that still betrayed a movement in the air.
As for me, 1 was utterly exhausted with my long day's
toil under the roasting sun ; every bone in my body was
aching ; I was in a burning fever, and was sick with the
smart of my raw and bleeding hands. The old feeling of
callousness and indifference to my fate was once more
upon me, and as I gazed at the crazy-looking raft which
I had constructed with such a lavish expenditure of

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA 289

painful toil, I smiled in grim irony of myself that I should
have done so much to preserve that life which now
seemed of such little worth, and which promised soon to
become an unendurable burden to me. A reaction from
the excitement that had sustained mc during my labours
had set in, and I am persuaded that -had any further
exertion been necessary for the preservation of my life I
should not have undertaken it.

Meanwhile the felucca had sunk nearly to her cover-
ing-board, and might be expected to founder at any
moment. I climbed laboriously upon the top of the
closed skylight and took a last, long look round to
ascertain whether anything had drifted into my range of
view while I had been engaged upon the raft, but there
was nothing ; the horizon was bare .throughout its entire
circumference ; so I climbed down again, and, staggering

to the raft, flung myself down upon it, with my bundle
of provision as a pillow, and patiently awaited the
evanishment of the felucca.

Poor little craft ! what a forlorn, weather-beaten, sea-
washed wreck she looked, as she lay there wallowing
wearily and — as it seemed to me — painfully upon the
long, creeping, glassy undulations of the swell! How
different from the trim, sturdy little hooker that had
sailed seaward so confidently and saucily out of Kingston
harbour a few years — no, not years, it must be months,
or — was it only days — a few days ago? It seemed more

like years than days to me, and yet— why, of course it

19

290 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

could only be days. Heaven, how my head ached [ how
my brain seemed to throb and boil within my skull ! and
surely it was not blood — it must be fire that was coursing
through my veins and causing my body to glow like
white-hot steel ! A big, glassy mound of swell came
creeping along toward the felucca, and, as she rolled
toward it, curled in over her covering-board and poured
in a heavy torrent across her deck, swirling round my
raft and shifting it a foot or two nearer the side ; and as it
swept past I dabbled one of my hands in it, and was dully
surprised that the contact did not cause the water to hiss
and boil ! Another mountain of water came brimming
over the deck of the shudderino; craft and shifted the raft
so far that it fairly overhung the covering-board, so that
when the felucca rolled in the opposite direction the end
of the raft not only dipped in the water but actually lifted
and floated, the heave of the water sucking it perhaps
another foot off the deck. The next two or three undula-
tions passed harmlessly hy^ — the swing and roll of \h^
felucca was such that she just happened to meet them at
the right moment, though lagging a little at the last, — and
then came another great liquid hill, towering high above
the horizon, until the sinking sun was utterly obscured.
On it swept toward the felucca, which had now slewed so
that she faced the coming swell nearly stem-on, the water
in her meanwhile rushing forward as she sank down into
the trough until her stem-head was completely buried.
Now she was meeting the breast of the on-coming swell,

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA 291

her bows still pinned down by the rush of water in her
interior, and now the glistening green wave was upon her,
sweeping aft along and athwart her deck, mounting over
the coamings of the main hatchway and pouring down
the opening in a smooth, hissing, four-sided cataract,
snatching up the raft in its embrace and shooting it half
a dozen fathoms clear of the doomed craft, and rushing
along the deck until even the companion and the skylight
were submerged. By that time the hull was full, the
curious rectangular hollow in the surface of the water that
marked the position of the main hatchway was filled, the
hull was completely hidden save for a splintered stanchion
that projected above water here and there. Then, as the
wave passed, the bows of the felucca emerged, gleaming
and dripping with snowy, foaming cascades, that poured
off the uncovered portion of the deck. Higher and
higher rose the bows out of the water, until some ten feet

in length of the felucca was revealed, the deck gradually
sloping until it assumed an almost perpendicular inclina-
tion, when slowly, silently, and glidingly, without a sob
or gurgle of escaping air, the wreck slid backward and
downward until it vanished beneath the waters, now
gleaming in gold and crimson with the last rays of the
setting sun. A few seconds later the great luminary also
vanished, a sudden grey pallor overspread the ocean, and
J found myself alone indeed, swaying upon that vast,
heaving expanse, with nothing between me and death
save the clumsy structure that I had so laboriously put

292 A PJRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

together, and which now looked so insignificantly small
that I caught myself wondering why my weight did not
sink it.

But it did not ; on the contrary, the raft proved to be
surprisingly buoyant, riding over the great, glassy, round-
backed hills of swell as dry as a bone, with a gentle,
swaying movement that somehow seemed to soothe my
fever-racked frame, so that the condition of semi-delirium
that had possessed me just before the felucca foundered
passed away and left me sufficiently self-possessed to
recognise the necessity for eating and drinking, if I was
to survive and get the better of my misfortunes. So I
carefully opened my bundle and extracted from it a small
quantity of sun-dried biscuit — which, thanks to the
curiously gentle manner in which the raft had been
launched, had received no further wetting — and pro-
ceeded to make such a meal as I could, washing it down
with a sparing draught of wine. But although the biscuit
had dried superficially, it was still wet and pasty in the
middle, and horribly nauseous to the palate, so that I
made but a poor meal ; after which I stretched myself at
full length upon the raft, and endeavoured to find relief in
sleep. But, exhausted though I was, sleep would not
come to me ; on the contrary, my memory and imagination
rapidly became painfully excited. I thought of Dominguez,
and wondered whether he and his companions had escaped
the hurricane ; then I thought of Morillo and his fiendish
hatred of me ; and so my thoughts and fancies chased

THE LAST OF THE FELUCCA

293

one another until they became all mingled together in an
inextricable jumble ; and through it all I heard myself
singing, shouting, laughing, arguing upon impossible
subjects with wholly imaginary persons, and performing
I know not what other mad vagaries, until finally, I sup-
pose, I must have become so utterly exhausted as to have
subsided into a restless, feverish sleep.

CHAPTER XVII

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE

CONSCIOUSNESS returned to mc with the sensation
of soft, deHcate hght impinging upon my closed
eycHds, and 1 opened my eyes upon the picture of

a sky of deepest^ richest, purest blue, studded with
wool - like tufts of fleecy cloud, opalescent with dain-
tiest tints of primrose and pink as they sailed over-
head with a slow and gentle movement out from
the north - east. The eastern horizon was all aglow
with ruddy orange light, up through which soared
broad, fan-like rays of white radiance — the spokes of
Phoebus* chariot wheels — that, through a scale of
countless subtle changes of tincture, gradually merged
into the marvellously soft richness of the prismatic
sky.. A gentle breeze, warm and sweet as a woman's
breath, lightly ruffled the surface of the sea, that
heaved in long, low hills of deep and brilliant liquid
sapphire around me; and here and there a sea-bird
wheeled and swept with plaintive cries, and slanting,

294

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE 295

motionless pinions, in long, easy, graceful curves over the
slowly undulating swell.

I sat up and looked about me vaguely and wonderingly,
for the moment forgetful of the circumstances that had
placed me in so novel a situation, and at the instant a
glowing point of golden fire flashed into view upon the
eastern horizon, as the upper rim of the sun hove above the
undulating rim of the sea ; and in a moment the rippling
blue of the laughing water was laced with a lon^",

broadening wake of gleaming, dancing, liquid gold,
as the great palpitating disc of the god of day left his

ocean couch, and entered upon his journey through the
heavens.

My forgetfulness was but momentary ; as the radiance

and warmth of the returning sun swept over the glittering,
scintillating, golden path that stretched from the horizon
to the raft, the memory of all that had gone before, and
the apprehension of what still haply awaited me, returned,
and, as quickly as my cramped and aching limbs would
allow, I staggered to my feet, flinging anxious, eager
izlanccs all around me in search of a sail. The horizon,
however, was bare, save where the long, narrow pinion of
a wheeling sea-bird swiftly cut it for a moment here and
there; and I sighed wearily as I resumed my recumbent
position upon the raft, wondering whether rescue would
ever come, or whether it was my doom to float there,
tossing hour after hour and day after day, like the
veriest waif, until thirst and starvation had wrought

296 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

their will upon me, or until another storm should arise,
and the now laughing ocean should overwhelm me in its
fury.

And indeed I cared very little just then what fate
awaited me ; for I was so ill, my frame was so racked
with fever and my head so distracted with the fierce
throbbing and beating of the wildly coursing blood in it,
that the only thing I craved for was relief from my
sufferings. It was a matter of the utmost indifference to
me at that moment whether the relief came from death
or from any other source, so long as it came quickly. My
strength was leaving me with astounding rapidity, and I
was quite aware that if I wished to husband the little that
still remained to me I ought to eat ; but the mere idea of
eating excited so violent a repugnance, that it was with
the utmost difficulty I resisted the almost overwhelming
temptation to pitch my slender stock of sea-sodden biscuit

overboard. On the other hand, I was consumed with a
torturing thirst that I vainly strove to assuage by so
reckless a consumption of my equal!}' slender stock of
wine, that at the end of the day only two bottles remained.
Such recklessness was of course due to the fact that I was
unaccountable for my actions ; I was possessed of a kind
of madness, and I knew it, but I had lost all control over
myself, and cared not what happened. More than once
I found myself seriously considering the advisability of
throwing myself off the raft, and so ending everything
without more ado ; and I have often wondered why I did

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE 297

not do so ; it was certainly not the fear of death that
prevented me. As the day wore on my sufferings steadily
increased in intensity ; my brain throbbed and pulsated
with pain so acute that it seemed as though a million
wedges were being driven into my skull ; a host of weird,
outrageous, and horrible fancies chased each other through
my imagination ; I became possessed of the idea that the
raft was surrounded and hemmed in by an ever-increasing
multitude of frightful sea monsters, who fought with each
other in their furious efforts to get within reach of me;
day and night seemed to come and go with bewildering
rapidity; and finally everything became involved in a
condition of hopelessly inextricable confusion, that event-
ually merged into oblivion.

My next consciousness was that of a sound of gurgling,
running water, and of a buoyant, heaving, plunging motion ;
of flashing sunshine coming and going upon my closed
eyelids; of the vibrant hum of wind through taut rigging
and in the hollows of straining canvas ; of a murmur of
voices, and of the regular tramp of footsteps to and fro
on the planking overhead ; and for the moment I thought
that I was aboard the Teru, and just awaking from a sleep
during which I had been haunted with an unusually long
series of peculiarly unpleasant dreams. But as I opened
my eyes and looked with somewhat languid interest upon
my surroundings, I became aware that I was in a small,

298 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

plain, but fairly snug cabin, of which I seemed to possess
no previous knowledge ; and at the same moment a
confused but rapidly clearing memory of what had
happened came to me, together with the knowledge that
I had been rescued from the raft, and was feeling very
much better. But an attempt to move, preliminary to
turning out, revealed the disconcerting fact that I was as
weak and helpless as a new-born infant, so I was perforce
obliged to remain where I was ; and in a short time I
dozed off into a light sleep again, soothed thereto by the
hum of the wind, the gurgling wash of water along the
side of the ship, close to my ear, and the gentle heave and
plunge of the fabric that bore me.

From this nap I was awakened by the somewhat noisy
opening of my cabin door ; and upon opening my eyes I
bchdd a swarthy and somewhat dirty-looking individual
bending over me. From his appearance I at once set him
down as a Frenchman ; and as I gazed up into his face
with mild curiosity, this impression became confirmed by
his exclaiming in French —

" Ah, monsieur, so you have come to your senses at
last, eh? Good! I knew I could save you, although
Francois declared you to be as good as dead when he
brought you aboard ! And now, mon ami, what do you
say ; can you eat something? "

"Thank you," replied I, in the same language; " now
that you come to mention it, I think I can."

"Good!" ejaculated the unknown; "rest tranquil for

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE 299

but a short time, and I will see what that rascal cook
of ours can do for you. Stay ! another dose of quinine
will do you no harm, just by way of precaution, you know,
although I think I have driven the fever out of you at last.
Permit me."

And, so saying, he laid a rather grimy hand upon my
forehead for a moment, and then transferred it to my
wrist, remarking —

" Good ! the skin is cool and moist, the pulse normal

again. Ha, ha, my friend, you will do, you will do ;

henceforth the cook must be your doctor. All you need

now is plenty of good nourishing food to restore your

strength. Now, drink this, and as soon as you have

swallowed it I will away to the galley."

While speaking, this individual had been busying

himself with a bottle, from which he extracted a small

quantity of white powder, which he mixed with water and

then handed me the mixture to drink.

"Thank you," said I, handing him back the glass.
*' And now, monsieur, do me the favour to tell me your
name, in order that 1 may know to whom I am indebted
for my preservation."

"My name?" he repeated, with a laugh. " Oh, that
will keep, monsieur, that will keep. At present your most
urgent necessity is food, which I am now going to get for
you. When I return I will tell you all you may wish to
know, while you are eating. For the present, adieu,
monsieur, li you feci disposed to sleep again, do so;

300 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

sleep is nearly as valuable as food to you just now.
When I have some of the latter ready for you I will wake
you, never fear."

So saying, and before I could utter another word, he
vanished, slamming the cabin door after him.

His retirement caused me a sensation of distinct relief,
at which I was very greatly annoyed with myself; for had
not this man doubly saved my life, first by rescuing me
from the raft, and afterwards by nursing me through what
I believed had been a serious illness? Yet, ingrate that
I was, even in the brief interview that I have just described
I had taken an unmistakable dislike to the man ! It was
not so much that he was unclean in person and attire, — it
was possible that there might be a good and sufficient
excuse for that, — but what had excited my antipathy,
when I came to analyse the feeling, was a certain false
ring in his voice, a subtle something in his manner sugges-
tive of the idea that his friendliness and heartiness were
not natural to him — were assumed for a purpose. Yet
why it should be so, why he should have rescued me from
the raft and afterwards troubled himself to fight and drive
out the fever that threatened to destroy me, unless from
a feeling of humanity and compassion for my pitiable
condition, I could not imagine; yet there had been — or so
I fancied — a fierce, shifty gleam in his coal-black eyes
during the few brief minutes that he had bent over me as
I lay there in my bunk, that seemed to reveal cruelty and
treachery, rather than pity and goodwill. Let me describe

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE 301

t

the man. Standing there beside my bunk, he had con-
veyed to me the impression of an individual nearly six
feet in height, — I afterwards found his stature to be five
feet ten inches in his stockings, — broad across the shoulders
in proportion, and big boned, but lean almost to the point
of emaciation. His skin was dry, of an unwholesome
yellow tint, and shrivelled, as though he had once been
stout and burly of form but had now become thin, while
his skin had failed to shrink in the same proportion as his
flesh. His eyes were, as I have said, black, small, and
deeply sunken in his head ; his hair was a dull, dead black,
and w^as worn cropped close to his head ; his black beard
was trimmed to a point ; and he wore a moustache, the
long ends of which projected athwart his upper lip like a
spritsail yard. His hands were thin, showing the tendons
of the fingers working under the loose skin at every move-
ment of them, while the fingers themselves were long,
attenuated, ingrained with dirt, and furnished with long,
talon-like yellow nails, that looked as though they never
received the slightest attention. Finally, his clothing
consisted of a cotton shirt, that looked as though it had
been in use for at least a month since its last visit to the
laundress, a pair of grimy blue dungaree trousers, and a
pair of red morocco slippers.

As I lay there in the bunk, recalling the appearance of
my rescuer, and trying to evolve therefrom some definite
impression of the man's character, I became aware that
the duty of the ship seemed to be carried on with a very

302 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

unnecessary amount of vociferation alhd contumelious
language. An Englishman will sometimes, in critical or
urgent moments, garnish his orders with an expletive or
two by way of stimulus to the crew ; but upon the occasion
to which I am now referring there was not the slightest
excuse for anything of the kind. The weather was fine, the
wind moderate, and we were evidently not engaged upon
the performance of some feat of complicated or difficult
navigation; for the course remained constant, and there
was neither making nor shortening of sail. It simply
appeared that the officer of the watch happened to be one
of those distressing and trouble-making individuals who
regard it as incumbent upon themselves to continually
*'haze" the men; for he was constantly bawling some
trifling order, and accompanying it with a running fire of
abuse that must have been furiously exasperating to the
person addressed.

After an absence of about half an hour, the man who
had already visited me returned, this time bearing a large
bowl of smoking broth, and a plate containing three large
ship biscuits of the coarsest kind. The broth, however,
exhaled a distinctly appetising odour, which had the effect
of again reminding me that I was hungry ; so, with my
visitor's assistance, I contrived to raise myself into a sitting
posture, and forthwith attacked the contents of the bowl,
previously breaking into it a small quantity of biscuit.
The "broth" proved to be turtle soup, deliciously made,
and, taking my time over the task, I consumed the whole

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE 30

^

of it, my companion meanwhile giving an account of
himself, his ship, and the circumstances attending my
rescue.

" My name, monsieur," he said, in reply to a question
of mine, "is Lemaitre — Jean Lemaitre; a native of Fort
Royal, in the island of Martinique, and owner as well as
Captain oi La belle Jeannette — the schooner which you
are no^ honouring with your presence. I am in the
slave-trade, monsieur,— doing business chiefly with the
Spaniards, — and exactly a month ago to-day I sailed from
Havana for the Guinea coast. We came west and south
about, round Cape San Antonio, stretching well over
toward the Spanish Main, in order to avoid, if possible,
those pestilent cruisers of yours, which seem to be every-
where, and are always ready to snap up everything that
they can lay their hands upon. By great good fortune we
managed to dodge them, and got through without being
interfered with ; but it threw us into the track of the
hurricane, and necessitated our remaining hove-to for

twenty-six hours. Four days later, as we were sailing
merrily along, we saw something floating ahead of us, and
ten minutes later we all but ran down your raft, on which
we saw you lying face downwards, while the sharks were
fighting each other in their efforts to get at you and drag
you off. Francois, my mate, was for leaving you where
you were, — asserting that you must surely be dead, and
that to pick up a dead man would make the voyage un-
lucky, — but I am a humane man, monsieur, and I insisted

304 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

upon heavlng-to and sending away a boat to bring you
aboard. The boat's crew had a hard job of it to drive off
the sharks, and to get you safely into the boat, monsieur ;
and, even sOy the creatures followed the boat alongside-
to the number of seventeen, for I counted them myself.
Francois suggested that wc should throw you to them,
declaring that you were as good as dead already, and that
it was a shame to disappoint the sharks after they had
waited so patiently for you ; but I am a humane man,
monsieur, — as I believe I have already mentioned, — and I
would not listen to his proposal. So I had you brought
down below and placed in this spare cabin, where I have
attended to you ever since, — that was ten days ago, — and
now, behold, the fever has left you, your appetite has
returned, and in another week, please the good God
we shall have you on deck again, as well as ever you

w^ere."

'' Thank you, monsieur," said I. " I am infinitely
obliged to you for the humanity that prompted you to
pick me up — despite the dissuasions of your mate,
Francois — and also for the trouble you have taken in
nursing me through my illness. Fortunately, I am in a
position to make substantial recognition of my gratitude ;
and upon my return to Jamaica — as to which I presume
there wall be no difficulty — it shall be my first business to
take such steps as shall insure you against all pecuniary
loss on my account."

" Ah, monsieur," exclaimed Lemaitre, '' I beg that

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE -.o

0^:5

you will say no more on that score ; it hurts mc that you
should think it necessary to mention so mercenary a
word as that of ' reward/ We are both sailors, and
although we have the misfortune to be enemies, that is no
reason why one brave man should not aid another in
distress, without looking for a reward. As to your
return to Jamaica, no doubt that can be managed upon
our return voyage " —

" Your return voyage ! " I interrupted. " Can you
not manage it forthwith, captain? I can make it
quite worth your while to up helm and run me back
at once. It is of the utmost importance to me to
return to Port Royal w^ith the least possible delay,
and'

" Alas, monsieur, it cannot be done," interrupted
Lemaitre, in his turn. " A cargo of slaves is even now
awaiting me in the Cameroon River, and my patrons in
Havana are impatiently looking forward to their
delivery. If I were to disappoint them I should be
ruined, for I have many competitors in the trade to
contend with, especially since all this talk has arisen
about making slave - trading illegal. No ; I regret to
be obliged to refuse you, monsieur, but there is no help
for it."

" At least," said I, " you will transfer me to a
British man-o'-war, should we chance to fall in with

one?

)j

*' And be myself captured, and lose my ship for my

20

3o6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

pains ! " exclaimed Lemaitre. " Oli no, monsieur ; we will
give your ships a wide berth, if we fall in with them,
and trust to our heels."

" Nonsense, monsieur," 1 returned. " Surely you
cannot suppose I would be so ungrateful as to permit any
such thing. I am a British officer, and should, of course,
make a point of seeing that, in such a case, you were held
exempt from capture. My representations would be quite
sufficient to secure that for you."

*' Well, monsieur, we will see, we will see," answered
Lemaitre ; and therewith he took the empty soup bowl
from my hand, and retired from the cabin, slamming the
door, as usual, behind him.

For the next three days I continued to occupy my
bunk, my strength returning slowly ; but on the fourth I
made shift, with Lemaitre's assistance, to get into my
clothes, and crawl on deck ; and from that moment my
progress toward recovery was rapid. Meanwhile, the
** hazing " of which I have spoken continued at regular
intervals, day and night, and I soon ascertained that the
individual responsible for it was none other than the
Francois who so kindly suggested that I should be hove
overboard to the sharks. This fellow was evidently a
born bully ; he never opened his mouth to deliver an
order without abusing and insulting the men, and as
often as not the abuse was accentuated with blow^s, the
sounds of which, and the accompanying cries of the men,
I could distinctly hear in my cabin. That, however, was

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE 307

hardly the worst of it ; for I soon discovered that
Lemaitre, the skipper of this precious craft in which such

doings wxre permitted, was a drunkard ; for every night,
at about nine o'clock, I used to hear him come below,
and order out the rum and water ; after which he
and Francois, or the second mate, — according to whose
watch below it happened to be, — would sit for
about an hour, drinking one against the other, until the
language of both became incoherent, when the pair of
them would stagger and stumble off to their respective
staterooms.

This was my first experience of a slaver, and a most
unpleasant experience it was. The vessel herself, — a
schooner of one hundred and twenty tons register, —
although superbly modelled, a magnificent sea-boat, and
sailing like a witch, was rendered uncomfortable in the
extreme as an abode by her filthy condition. Cleanliness
seemed to be regarded by Lemaitre as a wholly un-
necessary luxury, with the result that no effort was made
to keep in check the steady accumulation of dirt from day

to day, much less to remove that which already existed.
Even the daily washing down of the decks — which, with
the British sailor, has assumed the importance and
imperative character of a religious function — was
deemed superfluous. Nor were the crew any more
careful as to their own condition or that of their cloth-
ing. It is a fact that during the whole period of
my sojourn on board La belle Jeaniiette I never saw

3o8 ^ A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

one of her people attempt to wash himself or any
article of clothing ; and, as a natural result of this
steadfast disregard of the most elementary principles
of cleanliness, the , little hooker simply swarmed with
vermin.

But, bad as it was, this was not the worst. The
crew, from Lemaitre downward, were a low, brutal,
quarrelsome gang, always wrangling together, and
frequently fighting ; while, as I have already mentioned,
the one predominating idea of Francois, the chief mate,
was that they could only be kept in order by constantly
and impartially rope's-ending them all round. Possibly
he may have been right ; at all events, 1 found it far easier
to excuse his behaviour after I had seen the crew than I
had before.

All this time Lemaitre had been behaving toward me
with a rough, clumsy, off-hand kindness that his personal
appearance would have led no one to expect, and
which, try as I would, I could not bring myself to regard
as genuine, because, through it all, there seemed now and
then to rise to the surface an underflow of repressed
malignity, not pronounced enough to be certain about,

yet sufficiently distinct to provoke in me a vague
sensation of uneasiness and distrust. To put the matter
concisely, although Lemaitre was by no means effusive in
his expressions of goodwill toward me, and although
there was a certain perfunctory quality in such attentions
as he showed me, there was with it all a curious subtle

)

CAPTAIN LEMAITRE 309

something, so intangible that I found it utterly impossible
to define or describe it, which yet impressed me with the
feeling that it was all unreal, assumed, a mockery and a
pretence ; though why it should be so, I could not for the
life of me divine.

CHAPTER XVIII

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY

HAD been up and about for a full week, and had
during that period observed In Lemaitre's manner
toward me not only a steadily decreasing solicitude for
my welfare — which was perhaps only natural, now that
my health was rapidly improving — but also a growing
disposition to sneer and gibe at me, covert at first but
more pronounced and unmistakable with every recurring

day, that strongly tended to confirm the singular suspicion
I have endeavoured to bring home to the mind of the
reader in the preceding chapter. Then one night an
incident occurred that in a moment explained everything,
and revealed to me the unpleasant fact that, so far as
my enemy Morillo was concerned, I was still in as great
danger as when on board the felucca, although in the
present case the danger was perhaps a trifle more
remote.

I have already mentioned Lemaitre's habit of drinking
himself into a state of intoxication every night. This

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 311

habit, and the obscene language that the man seemed to
revel in when in such a condition, was so disgusting to me
that not the least-prized advantage afforded by my con-
valescence was the ability to remain on deck until the

nightly saturnalia was at an end and Lemaitre and his

companion had retired to their cabins. On the particular
night, however, of which I am about to speak, a slight
recurrent touch of fever caused me to slip quietly below
and turn in before the orgie began ; not that I expected
to get to sleep, but simply because I believed the warmth
and dryness of my bunk would be better for me than the
damp night air on deck.

Punctually at nine o'clock Lemaitre and his chief
mate came noisily clattering down the companion ladder,
glasses and a bottle of rum were produced, and the car-
ouse began. It had not progressed very far before it
became apparent to mc, as I lay there in my hot bunk,
tossing restlessly, that Lemaitre was in an unusually ex-
cited and quarrelsome condition, and that Francois, the
chief mate, was rapidly approaching a similar condition
as he gulped down tumbler after tumbler of liquor. They
were always argumentative and contradictory when
drinking together, but to-night they were unusually so.
At length Francois made some remark as to the extra-
ordinary good fortune they had met with on this particu-
lar voyage, in having come so far without falling in w^ith a
British cruiser; at which Lemaitre laughed scornfully)
declaring that there \va.s not a British cruiser afloat that

312 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

could catch La belle Jea7inette ; and that, even if it were
otherwise, he should have no fear of them this voyage.
" For," said he, " have we not a guarantee of safety in the
presence of that simple fool Courtenay on board ? Have
we not saved his life by rescuing him from the raft ? And

r

do you suppose they would reward our humanity, ha, ha !
by making a prize of the schooner? Not they ! If there
is one thing those asses of British pride themselves upon
more than another it is their chivalrous sense of honour
a sentiment, my child, that they would not outrage
for the value of fifty such schooners as this. All the
'same," he added, with an inflection of deep cunning
in his voice, " I do not want to meet with a British
cruiser at close enough quarters to be compelled to
hand the dear Courtenay over to his countrymen ;
oh no!"

"Why not?" demanded Francois; ''what advantage
is it to you to keep him on board ? Is it because you are
so fond of his company? Pah! if you had eyes in your
head, you would see that, despite his gratitude to you for
saving his life, he despises you. What do you mean to
do with him ? Are you going to turn him adrift among
the negroes when we arrive upon the coast ? I never
could understand why you insisted upon saving him at
all."

" No ? " queried Lemaitre, with a sneering laugh. "Ah,
that is because you are a fool, Francois, vion enfant^ a
piore arrant fool even than the dear Courtenay himself.

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 313

Do you suppose 1 did it out of pity for his conditiorij or
because I love the British? No. I will tell you why,

idiot It is because he will fetch a good five hundred
dollars at least in the slave-market at Havana."

"So //laf is what you intend to do with him, is it?"
retorted Francois. " Well, Lemaitre, I always knew you
for an ass, but, unless you had told me so with your own
lips, I would never have believed you to be such an ass as
to sell a man for five hundred dollars when you can just
as easily get a thousand for him. Yet you call me fool
and idiot ! Pah, you sicken me ! "

"Oh; I sicken you, do I?" growled Lemaitre, by this
time well advanced toward intoxication. '* Take care what
you are saying, my friend, or I shall be apt to sicken
you so thoroughly that )'ou will be fit for nothing but
a toss over the lee bulwarks. No doubt it is I who am
the fool, and you who are the clever one ; but I should
like to hear by what means you would propose to get a
thousand dollars for the fellow. True, he is young and
stalwart, and will be in prime condition by the time that

we get back to Havana, — I will see to that, — but I have
known better men than he sold for less than five hundred
dollars ; ay, w/iiU men too, not negroes,"

"Did I not say you are an ass?" retorted Francois.
"Who talks of selling him at Havana? You, not I.
Do you not know who this Courtenay is, then ? I will
tell you, most wise and noble captain. He is the youth
who attacked and destroyed Morillo's settlement at Cari-

314 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

acou, — I remember the name perfectly well, — and I was

told at Havana, by one who ought to know, that Morillo

had given it out among; his friends that he would pay one
thousand dollars to anyone who should bring Courtenay
to him alive And that is not all, either. You know what

r

Morillo is ; he has declared a feud against this miserable,
meddlesome Englishman, and not only will he gladly pay

a thousand dollars for the privilege of wreaking his ven-
geance upon him, but the man who delivers your friend

Courtenay into his hands will be free to sail the seas

without molestation from Morillo as long as he lives.

What think you of that, Captain Lemaitre?"

*' Is this true?" demanded Lemaitrc.

" Ay," answered Francois, "as true as that you and I
are sitting here in this cabin."

" Why did you not tell me of this before, Francois, my
friend ?" asked Lemaitre, in a wheedling tone.

" Why did I not tell you before ? " echoed Francois.
" Ask rather why I tell you now, and I will answer that
it is because I am such a fool that I cannot keep a good
thing to myself when I have it. Sac-r-r-r-e ! what need
was there for me to make you as wise as myself, eh?
However, I am not going to let you have this choice little
bit of information for nothing. I have told you how to
make a clear five hundred dollars over and above what
you could have earned without the information I have
been idiot enough to give you, and you must pay me half
the amount; do you understand?"

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 315

" Ay, I understand," answered Lemaitre, with a
sudden return to his fornier sneering, aggressive manner ;
" but I should Hke to know — ^just for the satisfaction of
my curiosity — how you propose to compel me to pay
you that two hundred and fifty dollars that you talk

about."

" Why, easily enough," snarled Francois, with sudden
fury, as he realised that Lemaitre intended to evade the
extortion if he could. "If you do not pay me immedi-
ately after receiving the reward from Morillo, I will
denounce you to him. I will say that you intended to
have yielded up your prisoner to the British, in order that
you might curry favour with them and secure immunity
from capture by them ; and that you would never have
given him up to Morillo at all but for my threats. And
1 suppose you know what that will mean for you,
eh ? "

"Oh, so that is what you would do, is it, my friend?"
returned Lemaitre, with a harsh laugh. " Well, well, it
will be time enough for you to threaten when I refuse
to pay you the two hundred and fifty dollars. Until then,
there is no need for us to quarrel ; so fill up your glass,
Francois, and let us drink to the health of the dear
Courtenay, who, after all, was quite worth picking up off

the raft, don't you think ?

)t

Then followed a gurgling sound as the two topers
filled their glasses. A gulping and smacking of lips, suc-
ceeded by a banging of the empty tumblers upon the table,

3i6 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

came clearly to me through the latticed upper panel of
my door ; and then certain staggering sounds, as the two
struggled to their feet, were followed by Lemaitre thickly
bidding his companion good-night, as the pair reeled and
stumbled away to their respective berths.

r

I slept badly that night, the fever, with the in-
telligence 1 had just acquired, combining to make me
restless and wakeful ; but after tossing from side to side,
until about two bells in the morning watch, I gradually
sank into a troubled sleep, from which I was startled by
a sudden outbreak of loud, excited shouts, succeeded by a
sound of fierce scuffling, accompanied by a volley of oaths
and exclamations, the stamp of feet, a heavy fall, a rush
of footsteps up the companion ladder, and a sudden,
heavy splash alongside. Then followed a terrific outcry
on deck, with the hurrying rush of feet on the planking
overhead, the furious slatting of canvas as the schooner
shot into the wind, more excited shouts, ending in a sort
of groaning mingled with ejaculations of dismay, a sudden
silence, and then a terrific jabbering, suggestive of the

idea that all hands had incontinently taken leave of their

senses.

I sprang out of my bunk and hurriedly proceeded to
dress, rushing on deck bare-footed to see what was the
matter ; and as I emerged from the companion way I
saw all hands gathered aft, most of them staring hard
over the taffrail, while one man was busil}- engaged in
binding up the left arm of the second mate.

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 317

" Hillo, Monsieur Charpentier I " I exclaimed, " what is
the matter? Has anything happened ? "

*' Happened, monsieur ? I should think so ! " exclaimed
the second mate, turning to me a white and ghastly face ;
"a most awful thing has happened. When I went below
just now to call Francois I was unable to make him hear,
although I called several times and knocked ever so hard
at his door. So I ventured to turn the door handle and
enter his cabin, and what do you think I saw, monsieur?
Why, poor Francois lying dead in his bunk, his clothes
soaked with blood, and a great gaping wound in his
breast, right over his heart ! I was so horrified, monsieur,
that I scarcely knew what to do ; but, collecting myself
with a mighty effort, I went to call the captain ; and
when I reached his cabin I found the door wide open and
Monsieur Lemaitre crouched in a corner of it, with a
great bloodstained knife in his hand, his eyes glaring,
and his lips mumbling and muttering I know not what. I
saw that there was something wrong with him, monsieur,
— I believed he had gone mad, — and I was about to turn
away and call for help ; but he saw me, and, before I was
aware, sprang upon me, seizing me with one hand by the
throat while with the other he aimed blow after blow at
me with his terrible knife. I defended myself as well as
I could, monsieur, fighting bravely for my life ; but what
can one do against a madman? The captain seemed to
possess the strength of twenty men ; he forced me irre-
sistibly back against the bulkhead, and then drove his

3i8 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

knife through my arm. Believing that he had killed me,
I relaxed my hold upon him ; whereupon he hurled me
to the deck, sprang over my fallen body, aad bounded up
on deck, and front thence overboard\ And now they tell
me, monsieur, that he had scarcely struck the water when
a shark rose, seized him, and dragged him under ! See,
monsieur, look astern ! He is gone ; there is nothing to be
seen of him! What shall we do? oh, mon Dieu, what
shall we do ? "

" Are you quite sure that the captain was seized by a
shark?" I demanded, looking round from one to another
of the men, who had now turned their faces inboard and
stood staring alternately at Charpentier and myself.

"Oh yes, monsieur," excitedly replied half a dozen of
them all together, "we all saw it; it was a monster.
And," continued one of them, '*thc captain had scarcely
risen to the surface after his plunge overboard when the
shark seized him by the middle and dragged him under.
We all saw the blood dyeing the water, — did we not,
shipmates? — but the captain never uttered a cry; just
threw up his arms and vanished. Is not that it, my
friends?"

"Yes, yes," they all exclaimed again, "that is it.

Jules describes it exactly as it occurred."

"Then," said I, "it seems to me, Monsieur Charpentier,
that, Captain Lemaitre and the mate being dead, nothing

remains but for you to take command and navigate the
schooner to her destination."

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 319

" But, monsieur, I cannot do that, for, unhappily, I
am not a navigator,'' replied Charpentier, wringing his
hands.

I

" Do you mean to say that you know nothing whatever
about navigation ! " demanded I.

" Alas, no, monsieur ! nothing whatever," was the

reply.

" And is there no one else among you who can navi-
gate the schooner?" asked I.

The men looked at each other, shaking their heads
and muttering, *' Not I"; and finally Charpentier ex-
claimed, "You see, monsieur, there is not one of us who
can navigate. What is to be done? You, monsieur,
are an officer — at least so I understood Frangois to say ;
perhaps you could" —

"Well," demanded I, seeing that the fellow hesitated,
"perhaps T could — what?"

"Pardon, monsieur," exclaimed he, *' I was in hopes
that, considering the difficulty we are placed in by this
most lamentable tragedy, you would kindly take command
and navigate the schooner."

"I see," remarked I. "Well," 1 continued, "if such is

the wish of you all, I have no objection to do as you wish.

^^^^ r

But — understand me — I will only consent to navigate the
schooner back to the West Indies ; I will not undertake
the trouble and responsibility of carrying the ship to her
destination and shipping a cargo. I disapprove, on prin-
ciple, of slave - trading, which I consider an iniquitous

-.20 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

o

))

traffic, and I will have nothing to do with it ; but, if you
are wiHing, I will navigate the ship back to Port Royal, —
guaranteeing you immunity from capture upon our arrival,
in consideration of the rescue and succour that you have
afforded me, — and, when there, you will have no difficulty
in procuring someone who will navigate the schooner
from thence to Havana or any other port that you may
choose to go to. Just talk it over among yourselves, and
let me know what you decide on doing.

I could see that my proposal was not at all to
Charpentier's liking, or, indeed, to the liking of any of
the crew ; but I cared not for that. I was quite
determined to have nothing whatever to do with the
kidnapping of any unfortunate blacks ; and in the end
they were obliged to give way, although Charpentier
tried hard to dissuade me from my resolution ; the result
being, that immediately after I had ascertained our
position at noon, we wore round and shaped a course

for Martinique, that island being in a direct line with
Jamaica. At first I was rather apprehensive that the
disappointment of the men at so unprofitable a result of
the voyage would cause them to be troublesome ; but it
did not. The question of turning back having once been
settled, they all seemed to take the matter very philo-
sophically, the fact that they were now relieved of the
mate's tyranny perhaps reconciling them to such dis-
appointment as they might otherwise have felt.

I need not dwell upon the return voyage, which was

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 321

singularly uneventful ; suffice it to say that, favoured with

fine weather and a fair wind all the way, we made an
exceptionally smart run across the Atlantic, entering Port
Royal harbour on the morning of the twenty-second day
after bearing up, and eleven weeks to a day from the date
of my abduction by Dominguez.

My sudden reappearance created quite a sensation
among the dockyard people, my disappearance having
been involved in so much mystery that all sorts of
surmises had been indulged in to account for it. Some
were of opinion that I had fallen overboard into the
harbour, and had found a secure hiding-place in the maw
of a shark; but there were others who, happening to

have been present when 1 was summoned from Mammy

Wilkinson's hotel upon my supposititious errand of help
and rescue to young Lindsay, at once mentioned the
circumstance, with the result that a very strong suspicion
of foul play was aroused. My friend and patron, the
admiral, was especially concerned upon my account, even
going to the length of offering a reward of fifty pounds
for such intelligence as should lead to my discovery ; but
it resulted in nothing, those worthies, Cassar and Peter,
perhaps being too much afraid to utter a word of what
they knew. Then there occurred more frigate actions,
resulting in so heavy a pressure of work, that nobody
seemed to have any time to think about the mysterious
disappearance of a somewhat obscure young lieutenant.
But now that I had unexpectedly turned up again, safe

21

322 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

and sound, I was overwhelmed with congratulations,
while the admiral sent a party of police to the house
to which I had been conveyed, with instructions that the
two negroes were to be at once found and arrested. The
house, however, proved to be empty when the police made
their domiciliary visit; and, as for the negroes, then-
whereabouts was never discovered. Possibly the excite-
ment of my reappearance, and the talk to which it gave
fise, alarmed them and caused them to beat a hasty
retreat to some other island.

To my great joy, I discovered that the Diane was not
yet recommissioned, the repairs and alterations to her
having been greatly delayed by the more pressing work
of repairing the frigates,, while the admiral — in the hope
that I might still turn up, and with that extreme kindness
that had marked all his treatment of me — had determined
not to give the command of her to anyone else until she
should be absolutely ready for sea. I therefore at once
stepped into my former position, and lost no time in
getting as many men to work upon her as could be
spared. And there was the less difficulty in accom-
plishing this, that Morillo was believed to be more busy
than ever, several outward-bound ships being overdue
without the occurrence of any bad weather to account
for their disappearance. Meanwhile, during the progress
of the work aboard the brigantine, I gave myself up to
the task of getting together a crew, of which my old friend
Black Peter constituted himself the nucleus, while several

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 223

former Terns volunteered, these again inducing other men
of their acquaintance to come forward and join ; so that
by the time that the finishing touches were being put to
the Dia?ie^ I had fifty -two first-rate men waiting to go
aboard as soon as the ship should be ready to receive
them. But I wanted five more to complete my comple-
ment, and these I picked up by making a raid one night
upon the low boarding - houses in Kingston, where the
crimps were in the habit of taking in sailors and keeping
them in hiding until they had extracted from them every
penny of their hard-earned wages.

At length, some five weeks from the date of my re-
appearance, the time arrived when the Dzane, being ready
for sea, with her guns mounted, provisions, water, and
stores of every kind on board, and sails bent, hauled off
alongside the powder hulk to ship her ammunition ; and
that delicate job having been successfully accomplished,
under my personal supervision, I went up to Kingston to
dine with the admiral prior to sailing, calling at the hotel
on my way in order to change my clothes. As I entered
the building, the head waiter — a negro —stepped forward
and handed me a letter addressed in an unknown and
foreign-looking handwriting to myself. I opened it at
once, and found that it bore a date a full fortnight old,
and read as follows, the language being English :

**Senor Courtenav, — You have constituted yourself
my especial enemy, and have apparently declared war to

324 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

the knife against me. In return I now declare my
determination to destroy you by whatever means may
present themselves. Thrice have you injured me, either
personally or through my agents ; but rest assured that a
day of reckoning will come, when you shall curse the hour
that gave you birth. I will fight you wherever we may
happen to meet, and let the strongest conquer. If you
fear not to meet me, hoist a red swallow-tailed burgee to
your fore royal masthead, that I may recognise your ship
from others. . MoRILLO/'

"When did this letter arrive, and who brought it?"
demanded I of the waiter, who stood by as I read the
document.

"A black boy brought it, about half an hour ago, sah,
an' said I was to be suah an* gib it you, sah, an' dat dar
was no ansah, sah," replied the fellow.

" Did you know the boy? " demanded I.

" No, sah ; nebber saw him befoah to my knowledge,
sah," was the reply,

'^ Did you take enough notice of him to be able to
recognise him should you happen to see him again ? "

asked I.

" Fs afraid not, sah ; those black boys are all exactly
alike, you know, sah," replied the fellow, who was himself
as black as the ace of spades.

"Well," said I, "if you should happen to see him again,
and can manage to detain him until you can give him into

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY 325

custody, it will be worth five guineas to you. I should
very much like to see that boy and ask him a question
or two."

'' All right, sah ; if I see him I'll stop him, nebbah
feah, sah," replied the waiter, with a grin ; and therewith I
hurried away to my room to dress.

CHAPTER XIX

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA

ARRIVED at the Pen just in time for dinner, and
found myself one of an unusually large party of
guests, several men-o'-war being in port at the time, while
a large contingent of civilians might always be met at
the admiral's table. The old gentleman received me with
all his wonted kindness and cordiality, introducing me to
such of his guests as I had not met before, and relating
over the dinner-table, with much gusto, the story of my
abduction and escape. Then I produced Moriilo's letter
of defiance, which I took with me to show him, and which
added a fillip to the conversation that lasted us until the
cloth was drawn. We sat rather late over our wine, and
when we rose to go the admiral invited me into his
library for a moment, and said —

*' Well, my lad, d'ye intend to accept that piratical
rascal's challenge ? "

"Most assuredly I do, sir, if I can but fall in with
him," answered I.

1326

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 327

" Very well," said the admiral, '' you shall have every
opportunity to give him the thrashing that he so richly
deserves. There," handing me a packet, "are your
orders, which you will find are that, while cruising against
the enemy, and doing as much harm as you can to their

commerce, you are to keep a bright lookout for Morillo,
and either capture or destroy him at all costs. When do
you sail? "

" The moment that I can get aboard, sir," answered I.

" That's right, that's right ; you will then be able to
make a good offing before the land breeze drops," re-
turned the admiral. " Well," he continued, '" good-bye,
my boy, and a successful cruise to you. And if, when
you return, y6u bring Morillo with you, or can assure me
of his destruction, you shall have t'other swab ; for I shall
consider that you have well earned it."

And therewith I left him and drove into Kingston,
where I routed out a boatman and made the best of my
way aboard the Diane. An hour later the brigantine
was under way, and threading her passage through the
shoals to seaward under the influence of a roaring land

breeze.

The question that now exercised my mind was, where
was I to look for Morillo ? In what dJixQctXon should I be
most likely to Bnd him? It was a most difficult question
to answer ; but, after considering the matter in all its
bearings, I came to the conclusion that his most likely
haunt would probably be near one oi the great entrances

328 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

from the Atlantic to the Caribbean Sea, where he would
be conveniently posted to intercept and plunder both
outward and homeward-bound ships; although he would
probably take care not to establish himself too near, lest
he should run foul of any of our cruisers stationed in the
same locality for the protection of British bottoms trading
to and from West Indian ports. He would in all likelihood
select a spot some two or three hundred miles away out
in the Atlantic, from which he could command both the
outward and the homeward routes of ships bound from
and to Europe. I opened a chart of the North Atlantic
and studied it carefully, trying to imagine myself in his
place, and thinking what I should do under such circum-
stances ; and reasoning in this way, I at length fixed upon
a belt of ocean suitable for piratical purposes, and thither
I determined to make my way, thoroughly searching every
mile of intervening water as I did so. Then came the
question whether I should select the Windward or the
Mona Passage by which to make my way into the
Atlantic; and after much anxious consideration I decided
upon the Windward Passage, that being the channel most
frequently used by our merchantmen. I accordingly set
the course for Morant Point, and then went below and

turned in.

When I went on deck next morning, shortly after day-
break, I found that the Diane had weathered the point and
was now on the starboard tack, heading well up for Cape
Mayzi, with the Blue Mountains already assuming the hue

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 329

from which they are named, as the brigantine rapidly left
them astern. It was a brilliant morning, with the trade
wind piping up to the tune of half a galej yet the little
ship was showing her topgallantsail to it, and sheering
through the rather short, choppy sea like a mad thing,
with her yards braced hard in against the lee rigging, and
the lower half of her foresail dark with spray, while the
white foam hissed and seethed and raced past her to lee-
ward at a pace that made one giddy to look at. That the
Diane was a perfect marvel in the matter of speed — and a
good sea-boat withal — was undeniable ; and as I stood
aft, to windward of the helmsman, and watched the little
hooker thrashing along, I felt sanguine that, should we
be fortunate enough to encounter Sefior Morillo, he would
have but small chance of escaping us by showing a clean
pair of heels.

The following midnight found us handsomely weather- ,
ing Cape Mayzi, the most easterly extremity of the island
of Cuba, after which we held on until we had brought the
southern extremity of Great Inagua broad abeam, when
we again tacked, and so worked our way out to sea
between the Handkerchief shoal and Grand Caicos,
passing an inward-bound Indiaman on the way. I spoke
this vessel, asking if they had sighted any suspicious craft
of late ; to which the skipper replied that four days
previously he had been chased by a French brig, which he
had contrived to elude in the darkness ; and that he had
on the following day sighted and spoken the British frigate

330 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

Euterpe^ which had forthwith proceeded in quest of the
brig. Thenceforth we sighted nothing until our fifth day

out, when we fell in with the Euterpe, which had just
returned to her station after an unsuccessful search. Two
days later we sighted a British privateer, which made sail

r

and tried to run away from us as soon as she made out
our pennant, fearing — so the skipper said when we over-
hauled and compelled him to heave-to — that we should
impress some of his men. But, as I had as many hands
as I required, I let him go without compelling him to pay
toll. His report was that the Atlantic was absolutely
empty of shipping, he having sighted nothing but a British
line-of-battle ship and three frigates during his passage
across.

Finally, we reached the cruising ground that I had
selected as being the most likely spot in which to meet
Morillo ; and there we cruised for a full fortnight, just
reaching to and fro athwart the wind, under mainsail,
topsail, and jib, and still there was no sign of the Guerrilla
or of any other craft. At length I became so thoroughly
discouraged that one night, soon after sundown, I went
below, got out my chart, and proceeded to study it afresh,
with a view to the selection of some other cruising ground ;
and at length, after long and anxious consideration, I
fixed upon a new spot, for which I determined to bear up
next day if by noon nothing had hove in sight.

It chanced, however, that at dawn next morning a
craft was made out some ten miles to windward of us, and

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 331

the officer of the watch at once came down below and
called me. I went on deck immediately, to find that the
day was just breaking, and the stranger even then only
barely visible against the faint light that was spreading
along the eastern horizon. As we stood looking, we made
her out to be a square-rigged vessel, apparently of no great
size, running down toward us under easy canvas ; and the
thought came to me that here was the Guerrilla at last,
and that my patience was about to meet its reward. But
a few minutes later — by which time, as I supposed, it had
grown light enough to reveal our canvas to the approach-
ing stranger — the craft suddenly hauled her wind ; and I
then saw that she was a brig. That she was not a
merchantman was obvious from the fact that she was
under such short canvas, all she showed being her two
topsails, spanker, and jib — ^just such canvas as a privateer
or gun-brig would show, in fact, on her cruising ground ;
and I at once set her down for one or the other. Of her
nationality, however, it was impossible to correctly judge
at that distance and in the still imperfect light ; but there
was a certain subtle something in her appearance that
suggested France as the land of her birth. Meanwhile,
as she had rounded-to on the same tack as ourselves,
evidently with the intention of taking a good look at us
before approaching too near, we held on as we were going,
taking no notice whatever of her. In about a quarter of
an hour, however, it became apparent that we were head-
reaching upon her ; whereupon she dropped her foresail, to

332 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

keep pace with us, while we on our part took a small pull
upon the lee braces, which enabled us to head up a point
higher, and so gradually edge up toward her.

Such excessive caution as the stranger was now
exhibiting convinced me that she could not be British ;
she must, consequently, be an enemy. And having once
■made up my mind upon this point, I very gradually
braced our yards as flat in against the rigging as they
would come, flattened in the main and jib sheets, and thus
brought the Diane on a taut bowline, without, as I hoped,
arousing the suspicion of the stranger, meanwhile keeping
the telescope constantly levelled upon her in order that,
should I see any hands In her rigging ^om^ ^Xoit to make
sail, we might follow suit without loss of time. But I did
not wish to take the initiative, because by so doing I
might possibly alarm them ; while, so long as we both
kept on as we were, we were gradually and almost imper-
ceptibly closing her.

This state of affairs prevailed for about an hour, when
suddenly — with the v\^\^[^ perhaps, of compelling us to
disclose our intentions — the stranger tacked. Obliged
thus to throw off the mask, we at once did the same, the
hands — who had been standing by, waiting for orders
at the same time springing into the rigging to loose our
additional canvas ; and by the time that the little hooker

was fairly round on the starboard tack, and the yards
swung, our topgallant sail and gafftopsail were sheeted
home and in the act of being hoisted, together with the

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 333

flying jib, foretopmast staysail, and main and maintop-
mast staysails, while the fore tack was being boarded
and the sheet hauled aft. This caused an immediate stir
aboard the stranger, who, in her turn, at once set all plain
sail to her topgallant sails, the wind being altogether too
fresh for either of us to show a royal to it.

The manoeuvres just described brought the brig about
three points before our starboard beam and some eight
miles to windward of us, both craft being now close-hauled
on the starboard tack. There was a strong breeze blow-
ing from the north-east, with a fair amount of sea on, and
the day was brilliantly fine, with a rich, clear, crystalline
blue sky, dappled here and there with puffs of white
trade-cloud sailing solemnly athwart our mastheads; a
splendid day for sailing, and we had the whole of it
before us.

It soon became apparent that we were gaining upon
the brig — weathering and forereaching upon her at the
same time ; and as it was now broad daylight, I sent the
men to quarters, hoisted our colours, and fired a shotted
gun to windward as an invitation to her to heave-to ; but
of this she took no notice whatever. By nine o'clock — at
which hour I took an. observation of the sun for my

longitude — we had forereached upon the brig sufficiently
to bring her a couple of points abaft our weather beam,
and then, in accordance with the rule for chasing, we
tacked again ; whereupon she did the same, thus bringing
us right astern and slightly to windward of her. It was

334 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

now a stern chase, she being as nearly as possible seven
miles ahead of us. The wind held steady, and hour after
hour the two craft went plunging along at racing speed,
the brigantine gaining steadily all the time, until by one
o'clock the chase was within range, and we opened fire
upon her with our long eighteen-pounder. Our shot flew
close to her on either side, — as we could see by the jets of
water thrown up, — but it was fully half an hour before we
hit her, which we then did fair in the centre of her stern.
She immediately shot into the wind, all aback, and it took
them fully five minutes to box her off again, when —
seeing, I suppose, that they could not now possibly
escape us — her people clewed up her courses, hauled
down topgallant sails and staysails, until they had
reduced their canvas to what it had been when we
first sighted her, hoisted French colours, and bore up
for us.

It was at this time that we first made out the upper
canvas of another vessel just appearing above the horizon
in the northern board, and evidently steering in our
direction ; and upon sending aloft one of the midshipmen
who were acting as my lieutenants, he reported her as a

craft of apparently about our own size. The fact that she
was heading toivard us led me to the conclusion that she
must be either a privateer or a small cruiser like ourselves,
evidently attracted by the sound of our guns, — and as I
did not wish for her assistance, if a friend, or the addi-
tional anxiety of having to fight her at the same time as

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 335

the brig, if an enemy, I called the hands aft and made
them a brief speech, impressing upon them the importance
of settling the brig's business as promptly as possible, in
order that we might be free to give the other stranger our
undivided attention, if necessary. They answered with
a hearty cheer, and went back to their guns ; and
a quarter of an hour later the brig rounded-to within
biscuit-toss to windward of us, giving us her larboard
broadside as she did so.

This was the beginning of a regular set-to, hammer
and tongs, between us, the French fighting with the
utmost courage and determination, and playing havoc
with our rigging, which they cut up so severely that half

a dozen of our people were kept busy aloft knotting and
splicing. At length, however, when the fight had thus
been raging for a full hour, with heavy loss on both sides,
tacking suddenly under cover of the smoke of our star-
board broadside, we shot across the brig's stern, raking
her with a double-shotted broadside from our larboard
guns, which had the effect of bringing both her masts
down by the run, rendering her a wreck and unmanage-
able ; and we now felt that she was ours.

But we were reckoning without our host — or rather,
without the second stranger, whom we had been alto-
gether too busy to ^WQ; a thought to. As the smoke of
our guns blew away to leeward, and we prepared to tack
again preparatory to passing once more athwart the brig's
stern, I got a full and clear view of the stranger, who^

336 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

approaching us from to windward — had hitherto been

hidden from us by the brig and by the smoke of our

combined cannonade. She was less than half a mile
distant from us, and was at the moment in the very act of

taking in her studding-sails. She was a brigantine, and

a single glance at her sufficed to assure me that she was

the Gtiei'rillay and that at last the feud between Morillo

and myself was to be fought out to the bitter end. I had

long ago prepared a red swallow-tailed burgee, such as

the pirate had dared me to exhibit, and I immediately

gave orders to hoist it at our fore royal masthead. The

flag had scarcely reached the truck when I saw a black

flag flutter out over the other brigantine's rail and go

soaring aloft to her gaff- end. Morillo had evidently
recognised my challenge, and was prompt to answer it.

Sweeping under the brig's stern again, at a distance
of only a few fathoms, I hailed, asking whether they
surrendered ; but a pistol-shot, which flew close past my
ear, was their only reply, so we gave them our starboard
broadside, and then wore round to meet our new
antagonist, leaving the brig meanwhile to her own
devices.

I am of opinion that Morillo must have had a very
shrewd suspicion as to our identity long before the ex-
hibition of our burgee, because of the eager haste with
which he bore down upon us. So eager, indeed, was he, that
he carried his studding-sails just a minute or two too long;
a mistake on his part, which enabled us to make a couple

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 337

of short stretches to windward and secure the weather-
gage before he was ready to round-to, although as soon as

his people detected our purpose they worked with frantic
haste to shorten sail.

The pirates opened the ball by giving us their whole
larboard broadside while we were in stays, tacking to-
ward them ; but the guns were fired hurriedly, and did us
no harm, the shot flying high over us and between our
masts, without touching so much as a ropeyarn. Five
minutes later we passed close across the Guerrilla's stern,
making a half-board to clear her, and delivered our lar-
board broadside, with the eighteen-pounder thrown in,
every shot taking effect and raking her from end to end.

Morillo was standing aft by the taffrail, and as we passed
near enough to hear the wash of the water about the pirate
vessel's rudder, he suddenly snatched up a blunderbuss, and,
singling me out, fired point-blank at me, one bullet knock-
ing my cap off, while another lodged in my left shoulder,
a third killing the man at our wheel, close behind me.
The Guerrilla immediately ported her helm, while I,
springing to our wheel, put it hard a-starboard, thus
passing a second time athwart our antagonist's stern; and
again we raked her mercilessly, this time with our star-
board broadside. Keeping our wheel hard over, we swept
round until we were once more in stays, the Guerrilla
having tacked toward us a minute earlier, with the evident
intention of raking us in her turn. We were just a little

too quick for her, however, gathering way so smartly that,

22

SsS A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

as we neared each other, it became evident that, unless one
or the other of us tacked again, we must inevitably run
foul of each other. I had no mind for this sort of thing,
however, as we should probably hurt ourselves quite as
much as our antagonist; so, holding on until we had
only just room to clear the Guerrilla, and singing out for
a second shot to be rammed home in the larboard guns,
I eased our helm down just at the right moment, ranging
up so close to the other brigantine that we almost grazed
her side, when we exchanged broadsides at precisely the
same instant, with terrible effect on both sides. At the
same moment our topsail was thrown aback to deaden
our way, and as the Guerrilla passed ahead our helm was
put hard up and we paid square off across her stern, firing
our starboard broadside into her as we did so. The
result this time was absolutely disastrous to the pirates,
for the guns were fired at the precise moment when the
Guerrilla's stern was lifted up on the crest of a sea, while
we were in the trough beyond ; in consequence of which,
our shot all struck her a trifle below her normal water-line,
producing a very serious leak, which, even under the most
favourable circumstances, it would have been exceedingly
difficult to stop. But this was not the worst of it; the
shot, by a lucky accident, so far as we were concerned,
had somehow become concentrated, all of them taking
effect upon the pirate's rudder and sternpost, with the
result that the former was shot av/ay, and the latter, as
well as two or three hood-ends, so badly started that ere

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 339

ten minutes had elapsed it became apparent that the
Guerrilla was rapidly filling.

Meanwhile, however, we held on across her stern, fill-
ing our topsail again, and tacking as soon as we had room ;
while the pirate brigantine, deprived of her rudder, shot
Into the wind and got in irons, obstinately refusing to pay
off on either tack. This enabled us to sweep across her
bows, pouring in our port broadside as we passed, raking
her fore and aft, and bringing down her foremast by the
run. Holding on for a few minutes, we next wore round
■getting her starboard broadside as we passed — and then
cut close across her stern again, raking her as before. By
this time, however, it had become apparent that she was
sinking, so, having once more tacked, we ranged up close
athwart her stern, with our topsail aback, when, instead of
firing, I hailed to ask if they surrendered.

"No, senor," replied Morillo himself, who was standing
aft close to the now useless wheel, " we will fzever sur-
render ! I wrote you a letter — which I hope you received
— in which I said that I would fight you until my ship
sinks under me; and I mean to do so. I also told you
that my feud with you is to the death ; so, take that ! "
and therewith the scoundrel quickly levelled a pistol and,
for the second time that day, fired point-blank at me !
And there is no doubt whatever that this time he would
have slain me — for the pistol was pointed so truly that I
actually looked for a moment right into the barrel of it
had it not been for the Diane's helmsman, who un-

340 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

ceremoniously seized me by the arm in the very nick of
time and quickly pulled me aside. As it was, the bullet
whistled close past my ear. This dastardly act so exas-
perated our people that forthwith, without waiting for
orders, they poured the whole of our port broadside into
the devoted craft, completely demolishing her stern, so
that for a few seconds, as we drew slowly athwart her
wake, we got a full view of her decks, which were cum-
bered with killed and wounded, and literally streaming
with blood. Still, by a miracle, Morillo himself survived
this last destructive broadside of ours ; for when the smoke
blew away I saw him still standing erect and shaking his
fist defiantly at us.

It was by this time evident to us all that the Guerrilla
was a doomed ship ; she was settling fast in the water, and
to continue firing upon her would only be a waste of
ammunition. We therefore filled our topsail and, a i^w
minutes later, tacked, again getting a broadside from the
sinking ship, when we stationed ourselves square athwart
her bows — where we were pretty well out of the way of
her fire — and, with topsail aback and mainshect eased off,
waited patiently for the final moment, which we saw was
rapidly approaching. Yet, even now, Morillo persisted in
firing at us with his two bow guns, compelling us to fire
upon him in return ; and so the useless fight went on,

until the Guerrilla had settled so low in the water that
the sea welled in over her bows at every plunge of her,
rendering it impossible to any longer maintain their fire.

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 341

Then, with folded hands, we all stood by, watching for
the end.

And a very melancholy picture it was upon which we
looked. There was the illimitable expanse of ocean all
round us, blue as sapphire, heaving in long, regular ridges
of swell, and whipped into foam here and there by the
scourging of the strong trade wind, with a rich blue sky
above, dappled with whisps of trade-cloud, and the sun
shining brilliantly down from the midst of them, causing
the heaving waters to flash and glitter under his fiery
beams, so that the sea that way was too dazzling to look
at. And there, right in the centre of the glowing picture,
lay the two brigantines — we with our bulwarks torn and
splintered to pieces, our sails riddled with shot-holes, our
rigging badly cut up, and our decks scored with shot-
marks and littered with dead and wounded men ; while the
Guerrilla was an even more melancholy wreck than our-
selves, as she lay heaving and rolling sluggishly, with her
covering-boards awash and the sea sweeping her decks
from stem to taffrail at every plunge, and the wreck of
her foremast towing under her bows. There was not a
soul visible on board her. When she first engaged us her
decks had appeared to be crowded with men, but now
most of them were either killed or wounded, and the few
who had escaped seemed to have flung themselves down
exhausted, for they had all disappeared. As for the craft
herself, it was now only when she rose heavily upon the

ridges of the swell that we cpuld see her hull at all ; and

342 A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

every plunge that she took into a hollow threatened to be
her last. Yet she lingered, as though reluctant to leave
the brilliant sunshine and the warm, strong breeze;
lingered until I began to wonder whether she would not
after all remain afloat, a water-logged wreck ; and then,
all in a moment, her stern rose high in the air, revealing
her shattered rudder and sternpost, and with a long, slow,
diving movement, she plunged forward, like a sounding
whale, and silently vanished in a little swirl of water. We
at once bore up for the spot where she had disappeared,

finding it easily by the torn and splintered fragments
of wreckage that came floating up to the surface, — but her
crew went down with her, to a man ; for although we
cruised about the spot for fully half an hour, we never
saw even so much as a dead body come to the surface.

And so ended that terror of the seas, the Guerrilla,
with her bloodthirsty pirate crew; and with her destruc-
tion ended the feud that had been thrust upon me by one
of the most fiendish monsters in human form that ever
sailed the ocean. It may perhaps seem to the reader a
cold - blooded deed on our part to remain passively by
and calmly watch the passing of those wretches to their
account ; but in reality it was an act of mercy, for their
end was at least swift ; whereas, had we saved any of
them, it would only have been that they might terminate
their career upon the gallows.

Meanwhile, the brig had dropped some six miles to
leeward during the fight, and her crew had made the best

THE END OF THE GUERRILLA 343

of the opportunity by endeavouring to get some jury-
spars aloft. The time, however, was too short for that,
and when we ran down to them they were still in the
thick of their work. But they had now had enough
of fighting, for when I again hailed to ask if they sur-
rendered, they at once replied in the affirmative ; and in
due course we took possession of the Nereide of Bordeaux,
armed with twelve long nine-pounders, and with a crew
originally of eighty-six men, of whom twenty-three were
killed and fifty-seven wounded in her fight with us. We
spent the remainder of that day in completing the rigging
of the jury-masts that her people had begun, and made
sail upon both craft just after sunset that same evening,

arriving safely in Port Royal harbour some three weeks
later.

And now, what remains to be said? The tale of my
association with the fate of Morillo the Pirate is told ;
and all I need add is that when the account of my
exploit was told, I received a great deal more credit and
praise than I felt I really deserved; while, as for my friend
the admiral — well, he was as good as his word, for within
twenty-four hours of my arrival with my prize in Port
Royal harbour, he handed me, with hearty congratulations
and many kind words, the commission that entitled me to
mount '* t'other swab.''

THE END