The Penang Pirate, by John Conroy Hutcheson________________________________________________________________This is a fairly short book, consisting of two short stories. 

The first of these, "The Penang Pirate", describes how the Captainof the "Hankow Lin", suspecting that there might be a piraticalattack on his vessel on her return voyage from Canton toAustralia, lays plans to spoil the pirates' fun. As a result ofthis the attacking pirate vessel is soundly beaten, but therewere some interesting events and confrontations before theyactually met the pirate schooner. 

The second story is "The Lost Pinnace". HMS London is cruisingthe East Coast of Africa in search of any slaver dhows. One ofthese is met with and deleted, so the London, a midshipman withknowledge of the local language having overheard that there is asecond slaver not far away, sets off in search of a furtherconquest. 

It was the custom at that time for a ship's pinnace to be leftbehind under the command of a junior officer whenever thewarship left the station on a chase. No junior officer beingavailable the pinnace is left with the bosun in command. 

All is well for a time, but there is a severe storm, and thepinnace is lost, several miles from the Madagascar shore. Some of the crew are lost, but the remainder, including thebosun, who is telling the tale years later to a friend backin England, reach the shore. Their journey to the capital ofMadagascar is very difficult and dangerous, but most of them getthere in the end. NH________________________________________________________________

THE PENANG PIRATE and THE LOST PINNACE

BY JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER ONE. 

IN THE PEARL RIVER. 

"Bill!"

"Aye, aye, bo!"

"Guess this'll be a rum v'yage, mate. "

"Why, old shellback?"

"'Cause I can't make out why we are wasting our time here, with thecargo all aboard and the wind fair. "

"Don't you fret yourself about that, Jem Backstay. The skipper knowswhat he's a-doing, and has got a heap o' 'sponsibility on them shoulderso' his'n--a fine ship and a valuable cargo to get home safe to oldh'England with a short crew, and a lot o' murderin', blood-suckin'pirates all over the h'Indian seas!"

"Pirates, Bill!"

"Ay, pirates! I spoke plain enough, didn't I? But you needn't shiverin your skin like one of them white-livered Lascars we've got aboard inplace of honest sailors, worse luck! You needn't have no cause to fearfor the number o' your mess, bo; the cap'en--God bless him!--will see ussafe through, you may be sure. "

"Right you are, Bill; you know the old man better nor I, and I s'posehe's taking cautions like?"

"No fear, mate. He's got his head screwed on right enough, my bo. "

"And that's the reason, p'raps, he'd that long palaver with theadmiral's flagship afore we come up the river?"

"Ay, " said Bill sententiously; "may be so. "

"Well, Bill, if so be there's pirates about, they might do a'most asthey likes wi' us, for I don't think there are three cutlasses aboard, and ne'er a musket as I can see, and only powder enough to fire off thatlittle popgun there to summons a pilot. "

"Aye, " answered the other nonchalantly. 

The _Hankow Lin_ was lying in the Pearl River, off Whampoa, some twelvemiles below Canton, to which anchorage all sailing vessels havingbusiness at this port of the Celestial Empire are restricted by themandarins, only steamers being permitted to ascend the reaches of theriver to the city proper and anchor in front of Shah Mien, the Englishsettlement. 

The vessel had shipped all her tea and silk, which formed a valuablecargo; and, with her anchor hove short, so that she seemed to ride justover it, and her topsails loose all handy to let fall and sheet home, she appeared ready to start at a moment's notice on her homewardvoyage--down the ugly Canton River and across the pathless Indian seasand the miles of weary ocean journey that lay between her and her finaldestination, "the tight little island, " with its now historical "streakof silver sea, " supposed to guard it from Continental invasion. 

What delayed the _Hankow Lin_?

Ah! her captain could tell perhaps, for it might be taken for grantedthat there was some urgent reason for his remaining here with nopossible object to gain when his cargo was stowed and the ship homeward-bound. The seamen could make nothing of it, however; and there was muchgrumbling forwards at this unlooked-for hitch in their departure fromthe land of "chin chins" and "no bony Johnny. "

Jem Backstay, who was a stalwart, able-bodied seaman, and as smart a"hand" as could be found in a day's cruise, did not appear at allconvinced by what his chum Bill, the boatswain, had said, for hereturned again to the conversation after the latter had apparently endedit with his monosyllabic "aye. "

"Lor', mate!" said he, "I thinks your old brains are wool-gatheringabout pirates. I've been sailing in these here China seas since I wereno higher than your thumb and I never see none. "

"Haven't you?" muttered the other disdainfully. 

"No, never a one. "

"And you've never seen none of 'em h'executed, as I have, at Canton, inbatches of a dozen or more?"

"No, Bill; how does they do it?"

"Why, mate, they makes the beggars all kneel down in a row, with theirhands tied behind them so that they can't put 'em up. Then a chap comesalong--I s'pose he's called their Jack Ketch--and he carries a swordthat's partly made like a cutlass and partly like a butcher's cleaver, with which he slices off all their heads like so many carrots. "

"Lor'!"

"Yes, bo; and the funny thing is to see this executioner chap goingalong behind all the kneeling figures, afore he knocks their heads off, and pulling this one here and a-shovin' that one theer, so arrangin' on'em that he can have a clean stroke when he ups with his sword. "

"Lor'!" exclaimed the other on hearing this description. 

"Yes, bo, it's all true as gospel what I'm a-tellin' on you. Thehangman chap don't seem to make no more account of them poor devils thanif they wos so many wooden dummies, like them `Quaker guns' as theycall--cos they can't hurt nobody, I s'pose--that them silly artfulChinese mounted in the Bogue forts to frighten us, as they thought, whenwe went to war with 'em last time, you know. "

"But, talkin' about h'executions, Bill, ain't talkin' of pirates, is it, bo? P'raps those poor ignorant chaps you seed have their heads choppedoff mightn't no more a' been pirates than you or I. "

"Mightn't they!" ejaculated the boatswain of the _Hankow Lin_ in themost indignant tones. "Much you know about it, you son of a sea-cook, that's all! Why, Jem, I could tell you stories about them cut-throatsof the sea in these here waters as would make your hair stand on end. No pirates in the China seas, you say, my joker?"

"I didn't say as there wasn't any. I said as there mightn't ha' been. "

"Well, and wot's the difference, I'd like to know?"

"Belay that, and bouse away, old ship, with that yarn o' yours that'sgoing to fright my hair off. I ain't quite frightened yet, I tell you. "

"Wait a minute, then, bo, " said the other, who was suddenly called aftby the officer of the watch to have some order given him for the morningwhich had been forgotten; and on his return to the foc's'le Jem was allattention for him to proceed with his promised yarn about the realpirates of whom he had spoken, the worthy seaman continuing to express astrong disbelief in their entity. 

"Heave ahead with that 'ere story o' yourn, " he said. 

"Don't you know, you onbelievin' swab, as how the Singapore mail steamerwas nearly as possible plundered by a whole gang o' them gettin' aboardof her as make-believe passengers and then setting fire to her andplundering the cargo, and that this occurred only last year?"

"No, I never heerd tell of it, " said Jem. 

"Well, I think I've got a noospaper in my ditty-box down below as willtell you all about it, and then, p'r'aps, you'll feel as if you'dbelieve there wos sich things as pirates. "

So saying, the boatswain bustled down into the forecastle, and shortlyreappeared above, holding a rather dirty crumpled piece of printed paperin his hand, which he handed to Jem. 

"There, " he said, "take that and read for yourself. "

The brawny seaman turned it over and over with a solemn face, and thenhanded it back to the other. 

"I ain't no scholard, " he observed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully; "wishI was, 'twould ha' been pounds in my pocket now if I could read andwrite as I once did when I war a little shaver, but I've clean forgotit. You reel off the yarn as is printed there, Bill; and then I'll tellyou what I think of it. "

"All right, then, " replied the boatswain, nothing loth to display hissuperior attainments. "Here goes for a full and true 'count of atremenjuous piretical plot to seize a mail steamer, from a specialdespatch of our 'Ong Kong correspondent;" and, holding the dirty scrapof paper at arm's-length, as if he were somewhat afraid of it, he wenton to read the following extract from it. 

"The China papers received by the last mail contain full accounts of anattempt made to seize and plunder the Eastern and Australian Mail SteamCompany's steamer _Bowen_ by a party of Chinese who had embarked onboard the vessel at Singapore as passengers. The following is extractedfrom the ship's report:--

"On the 8th of June, at 1:30 PM, in latitude 13 degrees 09 minutes northand longitude 111 degrees 20 minutes east, Cheang Sioy, Chineseinterpreter, reported that the Singapore passengers, forty-two innumber, were pirates, and intended setting fire to and plundering theship, as they had been overheard talking to this effect. An examinationwas then made below, but the Singapore Chinese passengers were soscattered among 313 Australian Chinese passengers that they could not bereadily identified. The interpreter was then ordered to pick them outand muster them and their effects on the poop-house. He first broughtup eight or ten choppers, a house-breaking tool, and a box, for all ofwhich no owners could be found. On opening the box it was found tocontain twenty-five packages of powder, about one pound weight each, allwith a fuse attached. As the matter seemed serious, all hands weremustered and armed, and the Singapore Chinese brought up and secured. Afurther search disclosed another box containing eleven loaded revolversof different sorts and sizes, also a large quantity of ammunition to fitthe same, a bundle of touch-paper, and a Chinese ship's compass. Onexamining the Singapore Chinese passengers, seventeen gave asatisfactory account of themselves; but twenty-five, who could not doso, and had neither money nor luggage, were put into a place of safetywith an armed guard over them night and day until arrival, when theywere handed over to the authorities in Hong Kong. "

"Is that all?" asked Jem, whose scepticism regarding Chinese piratesthis printed account appeared somewhat to shake. 

"That's all the steamer's log-book say, bo, " replied the boatswain; "butthe newspaper tells further on as how the beggars was brought up fortrial. "

"Let us have it, then, " said Jem, bending forward to listen to what theother went on to read in a deep sepulchral voice--

"Twenty-six Chinamen were brought before the sitting magistrate at theHong Kong police-court on the 11th of June, when Captain Miller of the_Bowen_ gave evidence. He stated that the vessel carried the Queenslandmail to Singapore and Hong Kong, and _vice versa_. It also carried themails to and from Hong Kong. The passengers are Chinese gold-diggers, and have bullion about them. Every voyage the vessel carries a largeamount of gold; on the present trip they had ten boxes of the value ofabout £10, 000. This was the cargo, and had nothing to do with what thepassengers had. The captain continued:--

"At Singapore we took in forty-two Chinese passengers, who came on boardthe morning we left. Our Singapore agents had received a telegram fromHong Kong, warning them to be careful of what passengers I took. Afterleaving Singapore, all went well until about half-past one o'clock PM, on the 8th inst, when near the Faracel Reefs. The chief officer thencame and told me that the Singapore Chinese passengers were pirates, andintended to set fire to and plunder the ship. In consequence of this, Iwent with the chief officer and interpreter to examine the steeragepassengers. I found a difficulty in separating the Singapore passengersfrom the Australians, as they were so mixed. I then ordered a gang topick them out and bring them on the poop with their luggage, forexamination. The interpreter knew where the Singapore passengers werestowed, and he there found ten choppers, and beneath the forecastle, where eight of the passengers were, he found a box. I ordered thecarpenter to open this box, which was locked, and which no one claimed, and found on the top beneath some clothes, twenty-five packages with afuse attached to each. After counting the packages, I kept one as asample, and threw the remainder with the box overboard. I did that as Iwas rather afraid to keep so much loose powder on board. I next calledall hands and turned all the Chinese passengers on deck. We thensearched the place where they had been, and the box containing elevenloaded revolvers and a quantity of ammunition was produced. Iquestioned all the passengers, and seventeen of the Singapore passengershad luggage and dollars, and they gave a satisfactory account ofthemselves. The prisoners had no property or money. They could orwould not tell what they had been doing in Singapore, or give anyaccount of themselves. I then locked them in the mail room--which is ofiron--and placed an armed guard over them. "

"There, now, what do you think o' them murderin' rascals now?" asked theboatswain when he had concluded reading the newspaper extract. 

"What do I think o' them, hey? Well, I thinks they ought to ha' beenkeel-hauled, that's what I thinks! Was these the chaps whose headsyou'd saw chopped off at Canton?"

"No, no, man, this here occurred at Hong Kong; couldn't you hear wot Iread, bo?"

"I s'poses it's all true, seein' how't is in print; and if so, mate, whyI s'pose you're right about there bein' pirates hereabouts arter all?"

"Yes, sure, my hearty. Why, look here, Jem, it's solemn truth I'mtellin' you, " and the boatswain looked as grave as a judge whenspeaking, as if to substantiate his words--"only t'other day there was afine clipper tea-ship, just like ourn, that got becalmed off Hainanisland in the Gulf of Tonquin, when, in less nor half an hour arter thewind failed, a lot o' junks sculled up to her and opened fire on thecrew with their cussed jinghals and matchlocks; and, if it hadn't a'been fur a breeze a springin' up as let 'em make sail and get away fromthe pirates, why the ship would ha' been captured and sunk after theyhad taken everything they cared for out of her; and only last year--justyou hark to this, Jem Backstay--an English brigantine, bound for thenorthern ports, was attacked by pirate junks not a hundred miles fromHong Kong--jist think of the impudent rascals having the cheek to comeso near us!--and the captain and mate were murdered, the rest of thecrew escaping by taking to one of the boats!"

"Well, " said Jem to this, "I hopes we won't come nigh any on 'em, ifthere be any sich like as pirates about, as I've said afore. I don'twant to lose the number o' my mess yet awhile!"

"Never you fear, Jem, " returned the other; "our old man's as 'cute asthey make them, out here; and if there's anything to keep a sharp look-out for, why he's all there!"

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWO. 

DARK SUSPICIONS. 

At this moment, the conversation between the two was again interruptedby Bill the boatswain starting up from the hawser on which he wassitting alongside of Jem Backstay on the topgallant forecastle. "Hallo!" he exclaimed, "I wonder what that ugly beggar of a Malay isprowling about forward for? He's smelling about them water-casks ascame aboard yesterday--he means mischief!"

"Lordsakes, Bill, " said Jem, "you've so got them pirates on the brainthat you can think of nuthin else!--Do leave the poor yaller devilalone, I'm sure he ain't up to no harm!"

"Ain't he?" said Bill scornfully. "You jest look arter your ownbizness. Hallo, you Lascar!" he shouted out aloud to the object of hisattention; "Hallo, you Lascar! leave that 'ere cask alone; d'ye hear!"

The man, a short, thick-set, black-haired, and yellow-visaged native--who had been apparently endeavouring to unloosen the lashings of thetarpaulin cover of one of six large hogsheads like water-casks that wereplaced along the gangway of the ship and securely fastened between theports--started at the sound of Bill's voice; and, seeing that his eyewas fixed on him, pretended slily for a moment to be intently gazing outseawards, and then slunk stealthily along the deck more aft to the bittsof the mainmast, where a group of his tawny fellow-countrymen weregathered together away from the rest of the crew--squatting on theirhaunches, and gabbling away at a great rate. 

"Blow them yaller imps!" said the boatswain to his companion as thenative retreated out of earshot. "I don't like 'em, for they're atreach'rous lot, and would knife you as soon as look. Why, as you know, Jem, they won't obey no orders, even from the cap'en, 'cept throughtheir own serang, or chief--ourang-outang I think'd be a better name forhim, the ugly beast! And if you was to strike one with a rope's end--ifonly in lark, mind you, to make him move quicker--why, you'd be a deadman 'fore morning, safe as houses! I shouldn't like, mate, for you andme to be the only white men aboard with that 'ere rascal lot of Lascarson the high seas, my hearty! We're short-handed as it is, with onlyfour men in each watch, barrin' Snowball the cook and the officers, which makes us twelve white men in all, besides little Jack Harper--forI count Snowball as one of us, although he is a niggur; and there aretwenty of them Lascars altogether and their chief. Howsomedevers, Jem, I've spoke to the cap'en, beggin' his pardin for the liberty, an' hetold me as how he was a lookin' out and not unmindful; so, bo, it's allright, you see. "

"And you think, Bill, the skipper's goin' to bring off some more handslike us?"

"I don't think nothin' about it, Jem Backstay. When the cap'en tells meit's all right, I knows it's all right; and that's enough for me! Heavean eye out to starboard, mate; ain't that a light on shore, like asignal or something?"

"Ay, ay!" replied the other, drawing himself up to all the height of hissix feet, and stretching out his brawny arms lazily as he peered overthe bows through the hazy light, for the sun had just set, and the shorecould only be faintly distinguished in the distance. "Aye, aye, myhearty! A light it is for certain. "

"Then it's the cap'en, sure!" said Bill; "he's late to-night. I hopewe'll start our anchor at last; I'm tired o' this Canton River. "

"Foc's'le, ahoy!" at the same moment shouted out Mr Scuppers, the firstmate, from the poop, where he was pacing to and fro with young JackHarper, the midshipman. 

"Aye, aye, sir!" shouted out in answer Bill and Jem together. 

"You are awake, are you? I thought you were all asleep! Hoist up alantern at the fore, to show the cap'en where we are, it's getting quitedark; and see if that Snowball's asleep in the galley; tell him it's sixbells, and time for my coffee. "

The negro cook, however, was awake for a wonder, and heard the mate'smessage, thus saving the trouble of its being repeated to him. 

"Yah, yah! me no sleep, Massa Scuppers, " he called out with thatcheerful good humour that seems characteristic of the darky race, andwhich seems proof against any ill treatment;--"me jus' goin' brin'coffee, sah, yes sah! It am lubly hot, massa, and 'trong as carthoss!"

"Hot and strong is it, Snowball?" said the first mate in his hearty, jolly way, as the darky cook stepped gingerly past the group of Lascars, and handed the cup of coffee up to him on the poop, with an obsequiousbow. "But, how is it you're not asleep?"

"Best to be most circumspectious, massa, wid dem culled pussons aboard;no caulking wid dem nasty yaller gen'lemen for me!"

"Well, that's a good un!" laughed Mr Scuppers; "the pot calling thekettle black with a vengeance!"

"You mistake sah, " said Snowball with dignity. "I knows, MassaScuppers, I isn't 'xactly like you white gen'lemen; but den I isn't anasty mulatto like dem poor trash; and dey isn't to be trusted!"

"Perhaps you're right, Snowball; but we ought not to suspect them tillwe've found them out, you know. "

After another turn or two on deck, Mr Scuppers cabled the boatswain tohim, --

"Martens, " said he, "have those Lascars turned in yet?"

"No, sir, " said Bill; "one of 'em at all events was awake just now, andspying about forward. "

"Indeed!" exclaimed the mate in a tone of surprise, as if theinformation was both unexpected and alarming. "Pass the word forwardfor the serang to come aft to me at once!"

"Aye, aye, air, " replied the boatswain, touching his cap as he left thepoop; and in another minute or so this Malay--serang is the name givento the chief of the gang--appeared, rubbing his eyes as if just awakenedup from sleep. 

He was the very same broad-shouldered, thick-set, tawny-yellow nativewith jet black coarse hair, like that out of a horse's tail, and lowMongolian type of face, whom the boatswain had seen inspecting the caskson deck. He now cringed and salaamed before the first mate. 

"You wantee me, comprador?" said the man, speaking in that species ofPortuguese patois which is so common in the Straits Settlements. 

"Yes, Kifong, " said the first mate, speaking likewise in broken lingo, with the idea of making himself better understood. "Captain sahib sayhe wantee you berry early morning, four bell, to get up anchor. You gobelow now first chop, and turn in; do you hear that!" he shouted out invery unmistakable English, pointing below to the foc's'le hatch. 

"Si, Senor Comprador, " salaamed again the Malay; then, giving a shrillwhistle and waving his rattan of office, the gang around the mainmastroused up, and followed him to their bunks below as obediently as aflock of sheep, without a word. 

"Get the side-lines ready for the accommodation ladder, Martens, " saidMr Scuppers, "and see that the gig-falls are clear to hoist it in; forwe'll trip anchor at daylight if the wind holds, and leave this blessedCanton River in our wake. Slip down the foc's'le hatch over the yellowbeggars. So there, that's all right, and the cap'en can come as soon ashe pleases!"

Presently the sound of oars was heard approaching the ship; and soon thecaptain's gig, pulled by six oars, came alongside quietly. The lightwas again shown, the ladder let down and side-ropes manned, and thewell-known face of the skipper appeared above the gangway. "This way, Mr Meredith, " said the latter to a well-wrapped-up gentleman whoaccompanied him, besides the second mate, Mr Sprott, who remainedbehind to see the gig hoisted in. "This way, Mr Meredith; please tellthe others to follow!"

The captain thereupon led the way into the saloon--Snowball carrying thelantern to light up--followed by the gentleman whom he had addressed byname, and ten others in single file bringing up the rear behind him;then the cuddy doors were slid to and the saloon cut off from the restof the ship. 

The captain came on deck after a time, and ordered the boatswain to tellthe men to give no hints to the Malays as to the passengers, and then ananchor-watch was set, and all hands turned in for the night. 

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER THREE. 

THE SAMPAN. 

Towards six bells in the morning watch the intense violet sky of theeast began to pale into those shades of green and grey which note thedeparture of night, the bright twinkling stars that had up to then litup the firmament disappearing one by one as day broke. Then, rapidly, streaks of warm, salmon-tinted clouds rose across the eastern horizon, shot with bright golden gleams of fire, making the water of the PearlRiver glow as if with life, and lighting up the distant house-tops andpagodas of Canton that could be seen far away from Jardyne Point; andthen, up danced the sun from beyond the paddy fields, mounting higherand higher in the heavens each moment with majestic strides, as if hewanted to get his day's work done early, so as to get a siesta in theafternoon!

With the rising of the sun, all is bustle and excitement on board the_Hankow Lin_; for the captain before turning in had told Mr Scuppersthat they were to sail at daybreak. 

"Whee--eo! Whee--eo! Whee--ee!" The boatswain's shrill whistle washeard piercing through every nook and cranny of the ship. 

"Tumble up, there! Tumble up! All hands up anchor!" shouted out BillMartens in stentorian tones that supplemented the call of his whistle. "Now, you Lascar beggars, show a leg, will you? All hands on deck, andup anchor. Here, look alive, serang! Man the capstan-bars, and besharp with it. Cheerily, men; cheerily ho! Walk her up to her anchor. Now she rides--heave, men, with a will. Belay!"

The ship by this time has been brought up, with all the slack of thecable in; and the chief mate now lends his voice to add to the bustleand movement of the scene. 

"'Way aloft there, men; loose topsails; let fall. There! Now, serang, heave with a will! heave with a will! Now it's free; heave away, myhearties!" and the anchor was run up to the bows with a will, andsecured with tackles; when, the ship's head being now loosed from herhold of the ground, she began to pay off, with her bows dancing up anddown, as if she were bidding a polite adieu to the Celestial Empire andall its belongings. 

"Man the topsail halliards; up with the jib; loosen those courses; setthe spanker sharp, will you? Hurrah! there she fills!" The sailsbellied out and drew; and the ship bore round to her course, and beganto move, at first slowly, and then more swiftly, down the river, southand west, on her way towards England--homeward-bound, as it is joyouslyphrased. 

A regular staunch clipper is she--the good ship _Hankow Lin_; one of thebest of the old-fashioned tea-traders that as yet spurned the moderninnovation of the Suez Canal, and despised, in the majesty of theirspreading canvas, the despicable agency of steam! A sound, teak-built, staunch, ship-rigged vessel of 1200 tons register, and classed A1 atLloyd's for an indefinite number of years. 

Captain Morton--a bluff old sea-dog, with a jovial red face, and crisp, wiry grey hair, and mutton-chop whiskers that projected on either sideas if electrified--was standing on the poop to windward, with the firstmate, Mr Scuppers, and the passenger, "Mr Meredith, " looking up aloftat the nimble topmen, who were adding acre to acre to the sail-surfaceof the ship, and pluming her snowy pinions with a pull here and a shakethere. Mr Sprott, the second mate, was to leeward of the helmsman; theboatswain on the forecastle, monarch of all he surveyed in thatdepartment; and little Jack Harper, the middy--a special favourite bothwith the officers and sailors--looking on amidships at the gang ofMalays, who were hauling away at halliards, and slackening sheets, andcurling ropes, in a more slipshod and leisurely way than regular jacktars are wont. 

Jack Harper called out to the serang Kifong to make him rouse up hismen, but he was nowhere to be seen. Presently, he perceived him bendingover the side amidships, partly concealed by the shrouds, and apparentlytalking to some one overboard. Wondering what was up, Jack cautiouslyapproached him without being observed, and peered over the side too. His face brightened up with excitement as he heard the sounds of men'svoices speaking in Chinese rapidly, and then he listened with raptattention for a minute. Only for a minute, however, as the serang, turning rapidly round, saw him, and, calling out something which hecould not catch, a sampan, or native boat, quickly sheered off from thevessel, and, impelled by two rowers, darted off shore wards; the serang, with a look of unconsciousness at Jack, sauntering back to his gang, asif he were only doing the most natural thing in the world. 

The captain perceived the sampan the moment it left the ship's side, andhailed Jack. 

"Hullo! What was that boat doing alongside?"

"Can't say, sir, " said Jack, touching his cap. "I suppose some of theLascars' friends bidding them good-bye!"

"That so?" said the captain. "It isn't discipline, but I suppose wecan't help it;" and he resumed his conversation with the passenger andMr Scuppers. 

By and by, when the serang and his gang had gone forward again, to unbitthe cable chain and cat and fish the anchor, Jack went up on the poop tothe captain. 

"Beg your pardon, Cap'en Morton, " he said, "but I think that Malay chapis up to something; can I speak to you privately?"

"Oh, never mind Mr Meredith, " said the captain; "we are all friendshere; speak out. "

"Well, you know, sir, " said Jack, diffidently--he didn't like spinning ayarn, as he called it, before strangers--"that I understand a littleChinese; and I caught something of what the serang was saying to thosetwo beggars in the boat. "

"Did you?" said the captain and Mr Meredith, the passenger, almosttogether, eagerly. "What was it? what did the rascal say?"

"You may well say rascal, sir, " said Jack. "For though I did not hearall their conversation, from what I gathered I think they're up to somemischief. I first heard the chap in the boat say, `And how about thepassengers?' or something like that as far as I could make out; and theserang said, `There's only one come on the ship. '"

The captain nudged Mr Meredith here, and the first mate, and all threechuckled. 

"And then the man in the boat said, `You are certain there are notmore aboard?' And the serang answered, `No, only that onepassenger'--`strange man, ' he called him--`and twelve men besides theboy officer, '--I suppose meaning me, sir. And then the man in the boat, who seemed to have some authority over the serang, said, `In about tendays, if the wind is good or fair; and don't be in a hurry, but wait forthe signal!' and then the Malay chap turned and saw me, and the boatshoved off. "

"Very good, Harper, " said the captain; "we'll keep an eye on him, neverfear;" and then, as Jack went off again to his post he turned to MrMeredith: "I confess that I was wrong, and you and the admiral right, sir!" he said. "And now we must contrive to outwit these yellow devils, and as they're half-Chinese and ought to know, show them how to catch aTartar!"

"Ay, " said Mr Meredith, laughing, "we'll give them a lesson they'llnever forget, too, while we're about it! But, captain, we have plentyof time before us--ten days or more, just as I calculated; and all wehave to do now is to look out sharp for squalls in the meantime. "

"Right, sir, " said Captain Morton, "we'll all have to look out sharp, for they're treacherous rascals at the best, and these seem to be theworst! Keep your weather eye open, Scuppers, and give Sprott a hint--although not a word, mind you, to the men yet, with the exception ofBill Martens, who can be trusted to bide his time, as he knows alreadyas much as ourselves. As to little Jack Harper, he's a 'cute boy, andis not likely to forget what he has heard. " And there the conversationended and the subject dropped. 

All that day the _Hankow Lin_ was working her way down the river fromCanton, which lies some eighty miles from its mouth; and at nightfallthe ship again anchored, the navigation being somewhat intricate and thebreeze dying away; but next morning it was up anchor and away again witheverything hoisted that could draw and the wind right astern, the vesselmaking such good progress through the water that long before mid-day shehad passed through the Bocca Tigris, or "tiger's mouth" passage, and wasout in the open ocean. 

The nor'-east monsoon, which blows in the China seas as regularly asclockwork from October to April, and is the great trade-wind of the tea-ships, had nearly blown out its course; but still, for a time it was allin the _Hankow Lin's_ favour, and she went through the water at a finerate. Although she was pretty well laden, and was rather deep for avessel of her size, she walked along as if, as the sailors said, thegirls at home had got hold of the tow-rope; and when the log was hove atnoon she was going twelve knots with all sail set--not a bad pace thatfor a trader; but, in the old days, before steam transformed the tradethrough the Red Sea, these tea-ships were built for speed as well asfreight room. 

Sundown came, and the great orb of day set in a crescent of ruby light, making the sea like a gorgeous pantomime sea of molten gold as far asthe eye could reach; and still the wind held up fair and strong, and thevessel careered over the expanse of ocean, that looked like living fire, without slackening her rate of progress, rising and falling to the waveswith pendulum-like rhythm. And now night came on with its azure sky, sprinkled with innumerable stars all glorious with scintillating light, and the ship preserved the even tenor of her way; morning came againwith its freshness of roseate hues and golden sun-risings, and purplemists, and transparent haze; and yet, onward--onward, without pause--sheflew upon the wings of the wind like a great white dove released fromsome fowler's snare and panting for the untrammelled freedom of the widewide sea. 

So day after day passed, and everything went on in regular routine onboard, without any incident of note occurring to break the monotony ofthe voyage, the English sailors keeping to themselves, and the Malaysapart, without either mixing or speaking with the others save when theduties of the ship called them into temporary association. 

Kifong, the serang, however, they could see was wide-awake, andobservant of all that went on around him. He was particularly anxiousabout the saloon and the passenger: and was continually trying tointerrogate Snowball as to what went on within the privileged retreat, to which none else of the crew were admitted. What struck him more thananything else was the amount of food which the black cook was preparing, and carrying from the galley into the cabin. 

"What for you takee so muchee prog, black-man, in dere for?" he said oneday to Snowball, much to that individual's indignation at the referenceto his colour, which he always most studiously ignored. 

"What for, mister yaller man? Why, for eat, sure!"

The Malay's eyes gleamed like a serpent's, and he showed his teeth likea snarling dog. 

"Five men no eatee that much prog, " he said in an angry tone. "You tellone lie, black-man. "

"Lie yourself, yaller nigger, " said the darky. "You no tink dat fourofficers and de passenger gen'leman all eat muchee food; very goodappeta-tites havee. "

The serang walked away from Snowball with a strong expression of doubtin his face, and ever afterwards seemed to bear a particular ill-will tothe darky, laying traps to trip him up on his passage to and fro betweenthe galley and the cabin when heavily laden with dishes for MrMeredith's gigantic meals. 

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FOUR. 

A STRANGE SAIL. 

The ship sailed on serenely, making from two hundred to two hundred andfifty knots in each twenty-four hours run--on some exceptional occasionsclearing indeed as much as three hundred, to the great jubilation of themen--until one day, at noon, Captain Morton announced that they were inthe same parallel as the Thousand Islands, and rapidly approaching theStraits of Sunda. 

This wide channel of the sea, separating the islands of Java andSumatra, forms one of the main gateways used by the vast number of shipsthat navigate the China Sea. All vessels bound thither from the westernhemisphere pass either to the north or south of Sumatra, entering theEastern Archipelago through the Straits of Singapore or else by theStraits of Sunda. Steam-vessels bound through the Suez Canal and IndianOcean use the former route, and those rounding the Cape of Good Hope thelatter. The strait is about seventy miles long, sixty miles broad atthe south-west end, narrowing to thirteen miles at the north-east; andit was here that the terrible earthquake occurred in the summer of 1883, by which so many thousands of lives were sacrificed in a moment, throughthe submerging of some of the adjacent islands in the sea, a catastropheonly second in the annals of history to the earthquake at Lisbon in thelast century. 

Half-way through the strait, equidistant from the two shores, was agroup of three islands, the largest of which was Krakatoa, four and ahalf miles long and three miles broad, its volcanic summit reaching to aheight of 2623 feet above the sea-level, about ten times higher than thesurrounding sea was deep. Between it and Java, although the floor ofthe strait was uneven, the channel was clear of dangers; on the Sumatraside were several islands and rocks, the two largest of which, Bezee andSebooko, rose respectively 2825 feet and 1416 feet above the sea. Thetremendous volcanic eruption, with the accompanying earthquake andinundation of the coasts which lately happened here--on the 26th August, 1883--has now wrought a fearful change here. According to all accounts, it appears that the chain of islets on the Sumatra side of the straitshas been added to by at least sixteen volcanic craters rising within theeight miles of water that formerly separated them from Krakatoa. Withso enormous an upheaval it would not be unnatural to expect thesurrounding floor to be depressed; but when it is learned that the wholeisland of Krakatoa, containing about 8000 million cubic yards ofmaterial, has fallen in, and the greater part of it disappeared belowthe sea, the magnitude of the convulsion becomes more apparent, and itis the easier to realise the formation of the destructive volcanic wavethat was thrown on the neighbouring shores. It is almost inconceivablethat this island, with a mountain summit which rose nearly 2700 feetabove the sea-level, should have been so extensively submerged; but itseems to have been in the very centre of the area of this vastearthquake, which convulsed the whole basin of the sea between LampongBay, on the south coast of Sumatra, and the opposite shores of Java, extending across a diameter of more than sixty geographical miles. Thedisturbance of the sea and consequent flooding of the shores, both thoseof Sumatra to the north and those of Java to the east of the volcanicoutbreak, had the most destructive effects upon the Dutch settlements atTelok Betong, at the head of the bay in Sumatra, and likewise in Java, at the well-known commercial port of Anjer, where all homeward-boundships of every nation were accustomed to call in passing the straits toobtain needful supplies for the voyage across the Indian Ocean; andwhere also, it may be mentioned, Java sparrows, those delicate littlefeathered creatures that might teach wiser humanity a lesson in theirtouching fondness for each other, used to be purchased by sailors forpresents to their friends at home--though few, alas, of the poor"sparrows" ever reached England alive of the thousands brought away fromtheir native clime, the majority dying at sea on the first cold night!

The homeward-bound voyager, too, who passes the Straits of Sunda, issometimes fortunate enough to witness, at the western extremity of thechannel, a strange yet beautiful optical illusion, probably akin to themirage of the desert. It presents a magnificent display of naturalarchitecture, commencing at one particular point--always at the sameplace--off the coast of Sumatra. Huge granite pillars tower to the skyat nearly regular intervals, beginning at the outlet of one of thevalleys, and extending five miles out to sea. So solid and massive isthe aspect of the apparent structure that the eye refuses to accept itsunreality; binoculars are involuntarily seized, questions are pouredinto the ear of the captain; or, if no ship's officer be near, suchguidebooks or sailing directions as may be within reach are consultedfor a solution of the splendid sight. But, before the pages can beturned the gigantic columns begin to waver and vibrate in the intenselyheated air: now they come nearer, and the sun glances upon theircrystalline sides, anon they retreat and fade, until the whole fabric istransformed into, or lost in, a luxuriant expanse partly covered withenormous trees. It is probably while the feeling of disappointment isrankling in his mind, and the traveller averts his gaze from Sumatra asaltogether a delusion and a snare, that he obtains his first glimpse ofthe opposite shore to the left hand, and sees the romantic island ofJava appearing simultaneously from the waves and from the clouds. As helooks at the vast panorama of jagged peaks--some of them, perhaps, emitting a thin, scarcely-visible thread of vapour, his train of thoughtmay wander to the thrilling fireside tale of how the despairing Dutchcriminals used to rush, inclosed in leathern hoods, across the "PoisonValley, " to gather the deadly drippings from the terrible Upas-tree. 

But none of these thoughts occurred to those on board the _Hankow Lin_as she neared the straits and the group of islands; for, in the firstplace, the terrible earthquake of Krakatoa which has so convulsed theface of nature in the vicinity, had not then occurred, and, secondly, instead of the fabled Upas-tree being uppermost in their minds, all werethinking, with a far keener apprehension, of the much more deadly"pirates of the isles, " who were reported to haunt the channel-way andrendezvous in the neighbourhood, just keeping out of the reach of themen-of-war cruising in search of them, so as to pounce on unwarymerchantmen whenever they had the chance. 

Towards sunset on the same day that the captain had remarked on theirbeing close to the Thousand Islands, the nor'-east monsoon, which hadaccompanied the vessel so far, suddenly failed, and the wind shifted tothe southward and westward. A strange sail was sighted--not ahead, butcoming up astern, and gaining on them fast as if in pursuit, althoughthe light failed before they could distinctly make her out. 

The captain had a conference on the poop; and after dark, as the breezecame stronger from the south, the ship's course was altered, she runningoff at right angles to her former direction, as if bearing up forSingapore, while a strict watch was kept all night on deck. 

Morning broke at last, after some eight hours of anxiety, and Bill theboatswain, on the forecastle, took a keen look round the horizon withthe first appearance of the dawning light, as Captain Morton was doingon the poop. 

Gradually the haze cleared up from the water in widening circles, and asthe sun rose and the horizon cleared still further off, there, some fivemiles astern, and going quite as fast as themselves, if not faster, wasthe stranger; and now when she could be clearly made out, she did notimprove on acquaintance. 

She was a lateen-rigged schooner, with a long, low, dark hull, almostflush with the water, and a wicked look about her which could hardly bemistaken. 

The captain hailed the boatswain, and summoned him to the poop, wherethey were joined by the first mate and "Mr Meredith, " who, strange tosay, seemed quite as accustomed to early hours as the officers of theship. 

"It is she, without doubt, " said the captain. "I could almost swear tothe description. Where are those Malays?"

"Down below, sir; leastways, they was just now. "

"Well, keep a sharp look-out; and as it seems that it will come to ascrimmage you had better tell the men forward, and I will warn thosehere quietly. I suppose you have got the revolvers all right?"continued the captain, as "Mr Meredith" left the deck quietly. 

"Oh, yes, sir; mine's here, " said the boatswain, tapping the bosom ofhis guernsey, "all ready for action; and I'll soon serve out theothers. "

"Very good; only be cool, Martens, till the time arrives, for we may bemistaken after all in the men. I can't tell why we are not goingfaster, though, with this breeze and all that sail set. What! onlythree knots!" said he, as the boatswain hove the log and told him theresult. "Something must be wrong, Martens; go forward and see at once. "

And the long, low, dark-hulled schooner was coming up hand over hand, walking almost up into the wind's eye on the weather-gauge, coming on asif the _Hankow Lin_ was at anchor or becalmed. 

As Bill the boatswain passed forward he saw the Malays were gatheredtogether in a cluster by the side, amidships, looking at the vesselcoming up, and the serang had a peculiar, satisfied, malicious sort ofsmile on his evil countenance. 

"Guess they're getting ready too, " said Bill to himself. "I'll giveSnowball a hail, and rouse up the others. "

Snowball, however, was bustling about in his galley, and in response toa word from the boatswain he grinned one of his usual broad grins, andtapped the long knife in his belt, that looked almost as deadly a weaponas one of the Malay creases. 

"Golly, Massa Bill, me quite ready for the muss when him come! dat forde yaller nigger dat call me black-man; and dese, massa, " he said, pointing to the ship's coppers, which were full of boiling water, as hehad lighted the fires again at daybreak, "dere, is de soup for de yallernigger's gang!"

The other hands were just turning out as Bill reached the forecastle, and Jem Backstay and the rest were soon made aware of their danger fromwithin as well as without; but, before the boatswain could explainhimself properly or give any orders he was startled at seeing that someone had cut the jib halliards, and the sail had come down by the run, and was towing in the water right across the ship's bows. 

"Treachery, shipmates!" he called out. "No wonder the poor crippledthing couldn't make more'n three knots with that 'ere sail towing underher fore-foot. Those blessed Lascars did this, I suppose!"

He was in the midst of his exclamation when the lateen-rigged schooner, as if disdaining further concealment, hoisted the dread black pirateflag; and the serang, in response to the signal, gave a shrill whistle, at the same time drawing his crease. 

With a yell of defiance he and his Lascar gang rushed aft in a body forthe poop, where the captain and his officers were standing together, while the forecastle hands stood for the moment dumbfounded at thesuddenness of the attack. 

Only for a moment, however; for, almost at the same instant, Snowball, uttering a shout which might have been heard on board the pirate, nowlittle over a mile off, dashed at the Malay chief, with his long knifegripped between his teeth and his arms working like windmills; and as heclutched the serang in his deadly grip the cabin-doors beneath the poopflew open, and the Lascar gang stopped their advance as if struck bylightning, uttering at the same time a howl of terror and dismay. 

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIVE. 

CATCHING A TARTAR. 

No wonder that the murderous band of treacherous Malays stoppedparalysed in their desperate assault on the poop. 

There, right facing them, in front of the saloon doors, stood the whilomquiet, delicate-looking passenger "Mr Meredith, " dressed in the smartuniform of a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, a drawn sword in one hand anda revolver in the other; while drawn up behind him were the whole of thefirst cutter's crew of HMS _Albatross_, the name of which vessel stoodout embossed on the bright ribbons of their straw hats--ten in number ofstalwart blue-jackets, armed with cutlasses and with pistols stuck intheir belts--levelling the shining barrels of their Snider rifles point-blank at their heads. No wonder that the swarthy scoundrels recoiled interror. 

"Surrender!" exclaimed Lieutenant Meredith in a loud stern voice; andthe men, frightened by the force opposed to them, might possibly havesubmitted, when, at the moment that Snowball made his onslaught on theirleader, Jack Harvey, who stood by his captain on the poop, ratherinjudiciously fired off a shot from his revolver, which struck and brokeone of the Malays' outstretched arms, with crease uplifted ready to stabhis enemies. 

With a ferocious yell the band again rushed forward. 

"Fire!" said the lieutenant; and with one report the blue-jacketsdelivered a volley which stretched four Malays in front of them lifelesson the deck; and then rushing forward with their drawn cutlasses, aterrific hand-to-hand fight ensued. Captain Morton and his officers onthe poop fired into the mass of the Malays, and then leaped down to jointhe fray; and the boatswain, with Jem Backstay and the other sailorsfrom the forecastle, caught up handspikes and fell upon their rear. 

Even in the very midst of the fierce struggle Snowball and the serang, in deadly embrace, were rolling on the deck, each trying to get theupper hand so as to be able to use their knives. Neither could succeedin shaking the other off; and as the two rolled and twisted togetherabout the deck, now a mass of blood and gore, they gradually edged awayfrom the thick of the fight, until they rolled together close to thefore-hatch; then, with one vigorous effort, the black cook, as if he hadreserved his final _coup_ until he had wearied the other out, lifted theMalay over the combing of the hatchway, and both tumbled into the fore-hold, with a smash and crash which even made itself heard above the din, the black cook shouting out as he felt himself falling, dragging hisenemy with him, "Golly, yer yeller beggar, I got you at last!"

While this episode was being acted, the Malays were still fightingdesperately with their creases, a formidable weapon in the hands of menfighting for their lives; and many of the tars were wounded, and one ortwo killed. The Malays stood in a group at bay, and fought ondesperately, like rats driven into a corner, their numbers being stillbut little inferior to those of their opponents. At this moment thewoolly head of Snowball appeared above the fore-hold with a triumphantgrin on his black face, all wet with perspiration; and in a second heleaped on the deck, carrying on his shoulder the body of the serang, whowas knocked senseless by the tumble into the hold, although the darky'shead, accustomed to such rude shocks, was not one whit the worse. Laying down his burden he hurried to the caboose. 

The remaining Malays were huddled up in a corner by the capstan, hemmedin by the bluejackets. To all cries of "surrender" they turned a deafear, and they were evidently trying to prolong the struggle until theirpiratical accomplices, as they no doubt were, in the schooner came up tohelp them. 

Lieutenant Meredith, being a humane man, did not wish to slaughter thewretches like sheep, so refrained giving the fatal order to fire anothervolley, which would have terminated the contest, and was endeavouring tocapture them alive. The struggle was so prolonged, however, and so manyof his men were wounded, that he was just going to give the word "Fire!"when Snowball came to the rescue in a novel way, which completed thevictory. 

The darky emerged from the caboose with a bucket of boiling water filledfrom the galley coppers, which he had got ready with apt forethought, and dashed it full on to the group of huddling Malays. 

They did not want a second dose. 

Giving out an appalling howl of pain, which no cut or shot had evoked, they threw down their arms with one accord, and the blue-jackets before, and Bill Musters and Jem Backstay in the rear, seized the tremblingscoundrels. 

"Gag them all, as well as bind them, men!" said the lieutenant to theblue-jackets. "I don't want them to give the alarm to the schooner. Look alive, men! Be smart there; we've no time to lose! She isn't halfa mile off now, and will be alongside in a few minutes!"

Lieutenant Meredith was right. 

It was almost a dead calm, and the _Hankow Lin_, --her way deadened bythe jib, which still trailed in the water across her bows, for no onehad time, during the deadly fight in which they had just been engaged, to hoist it clear on board again--was almost motionless on the water;while every breath of the fast-expiring breeze was gently wafting thepirate schooner nearer and nearer. 

The sail that obstructed her motion was at last cut away, and the shipbegan to creep along through the water; but it was too late for her tohave got away from her enemy if those on board had so wished--which, however, they didn't!

"Look out, my men, " shouted out Captain Morton, who was as keenly aliveto the urgency of their situation as the naval lieutenant, --"we've allour work cut out for us!"

In truth they had; still, although only just out of one fight, in whichsome two or three had already lost their lives, and several wereseverely wounded, the blue-jackets under their gallant officer, who hadalready won the Victoria Cross for his bravery, ably seconded by CaptainMorton and Mr Scuppers, and the crew of the _Hankow Lin_ set to work toprepare for a fresh struggle with all the alacrity and glee ofschoolboys going out for an unexpected holiday. 

The conquered Lascars were tightly bound, and then tumbled below, thehatch being secured over them; and all then set to work to unload theheavy hogsheads which had caused the tar such uneasiness on account oftheir cumbering his decks, when they had first been shipped on board atCanton, some ten days before. 

"There, Jem!" said the boatswain, as the staves of the first cask wereknocked to pieces, and a nine-pounder Armstrong gun disclosed in all itsship-shape nicety. "There, didn't I tell you that the skipper had hishead screwed on straight?"

"Aye, aye, bo, right you were, " answered the brawny foretopman as heknocked in the head of another hogshead. "I'll never doubt him again, you be sure. "

There were four guns altogether, and the two other casks contained theirammunition, and spare rifles for the _Hankow Lin's_ crew. 

These cannon the lieutenant now caused to be loaded heavily with grape-shot, and placed at the midship ports to windward, on the side that thepirate was approaching; the ports still kept closed, but everythingready for raising them, and running out the guns to command theschooner's deck when she got alongside. 

The hands were then mustered. Captain Morton, Mr Scuppers, thelieutenant, and Jack Harper had escaped without a scratch on the part ofthe officers; but Mr Sprott, the second mate, had a cut across his facefrom a Malay crease, which caused him considerable pain, and undoubtedlyspoiled his beauty; although the brave fellow refused to be put on thelist of the non-fighters. Amongst the men, two blue-jackets were killedoutright, as well as Phillips, the ship's carpenter of the _Hankow Lin_;while one blue-jacket was wounded severely, and two slightly, as well asanother of the ship's regular hands. 

Altogether, their defensive force consisted now, therefore, of thelieutenant, captain, and three other officers--for Sprott would fight, and Jack Harper was quite as good with a revolver as any of hisseniors--and fifteen men, counting in Snowball, who was as good as twoothers any day, besides Jem Backstay, who was a regular giant. 

"Now, men, " said the lieutenant addressing them--"Captain, I have yourpermission to take the command?"

"Certainly, sir, " said Captain Morton. "You're my senior officer in theservice, and I wouldn't wish to fight under a braver!"

"Well then, men, " resumed the lieutenant, "we all here, _Albatrosses_and _Hankow Lins_ alike, fight under one flag, the Union Jack of OldEngland! Stop, don't cheer, men, or those pirate scoundrels will hearus too soon, and we don't want 'em to hear us till they feel us! Men, Iwant you to be cool--I know you are brave--and wait my word of commandbefore you utter a shout or draw a trigger. That pirate scoundrel isplucky enough, and will take some beating; but he'll get it soon enoughif you only obey orders. Captain Morton, will you take charge of theguns, please, with Mr Scuppers? Boatswain, you with that brave blackfellow, and two other hands, will mind the forecastle, to preventboarders coming up while we are attacking them elsewhere. I shall wanteight hands along with me for the gig, to clear her away, and get herready to lower to leeward, when the pirate comes alongside to windward. When we've given them a good sweeping discharge, and cleared their deck, captain, I shall, after reloading, drop into the gig, and board her onher weather-side, so that'll take them between two fires. Now, men, quick to your posts! Boatswain, to the forecastle with three others;gig's men step out, four blue-jackets and four _Hankow Lins_; the othersof my cutter's crew will work the guns. "

"May I come with you, sir?" said Mr Sprott anxiously. "I have nospecial duty here, and I'd like to pay out that cut across my jib onsome of them piratical scoundrels!"

"Aye, you can come, " said Mr Meredith cordially, "and glad I'll be tohave such a brave fellow with me. Now, is everything ready in the gig, and the falls all slack for lowering?"

"Aye, aye, sir, " said the coxswain. "Right as a trivet. "

"Well, then, see to your small-arms, men. Have them all loaded ready, like the guns. The surprise will favour us at first, but we shall haveto fight hard afterwards, as they'll muster pretty numerous if theaccount I have received be true. "

All these preparations being complete, the guns loaded, and ready fordischarging the moment the enemy ranged herself alongside, and each manbeing in his proper station, they awaited with the courage and cautionof brave men the approach of the pirate. Fortunately for them, as itgave them more time to prepare, the breeze had quite died away, and adead calm had fallen on the surface of the deep, while yet the schoonerhad scarcely decreased her distance, and they had been making theirpreparations for the fight. The glassy sea heaved up and down under theburning sun, which was now high in the heavens, with a sort of heavy, waveless throb, as if composing itself uneasily to sleep, the shiprolling with the motion to and fro. 

The pirates were not asleep, however. As soon as the breeze failed theyrigged out long oars from her low sides, and were leisurely sweepingnearer and nearer to the _Hankow Lin_ with every pulse of the sea. 

They must have heard the reports of the rifles and revolvers, as well asseen the smoke of the discharges, and heard the yells of the Malays asthey fought hand to hand with the blue-jackets, for the air was as clearas could be; but the stillness now, and the absence of any attempt totrim the sails or to escape, deceived them. They evidently thought thattheir fellow-conspirators on board had gained the day, or that theslaughter had been so great on both sides that there was no longeranybody capable of resistance; for after a short pause, when they were acable's-length distant, the sweeps again set to work, and the low blackhull of the schooner was urged forwards again towards the _Hankow Lin_, until those on the watch between the ports could see down on to herdeck, which was crowded with yellow Malays like those with whom they hadhad such a desperate fight; besides numbers of Chinese, some of theblack natives of Borneo and New Guinea, Portuguese desperadoes, and suchferocious-looking ruffians as herd together in Eastern seas. 

"Be ready, men, to lift the ports and run out the guns, " said thelieutenant, with finger uplifted to impose silence. "Depress yourmuzzles, and wait till I give the word to fire. She'll come up on thisside, as I thought, so we'll give her the benefit of all four at once!"

Up crept the pirate, the ominous black flag still hoisted, although, asthe breeze had dropped, it hung down limp from the mast; and they couldhear the chatter of voices on board her quite distinctly. Nearer andnearer she came--until the lieutenant could count every man that stoodgrouped on her flush deck. 

There seemed to be sixty or seventy of them, and they clusteredtogether, looking over the side of their vessel at their expected prey. 

Nearer and nearer she still continued to glide--until the schooner wasalmost alongside the _Hankow Lin_, and not ten yards off. It looked asif the pirate was going to run them aboard!

"Now, " whispered the lieutenant again to the expectant Englishmen aroundhim--"small-arm men reserve your fire; you at the guns, be ready to runthem out. Now, men, altogether, drop the ports! Run out the guns!Fire!"

The concussion shook the ship to her centre, and a perfect hail ofgrape-shot was poured on the deck of the schooner, making long lanes orfurrows through the ranks of the pirate's crew, as if they had beenmowed down by a scythe!

"Again, men; sharp's the word. Load again, and give them another round. Quick! That's right, " as a wild yell rose again from the crowdedpirate. "Now, Captain Morton, one more round and then I shall board heron the weather-side. Load again as quickly as you can. Fire!"

The terrific shot-shower again swept into the schooner, which hadremained in the same position, the first two broadsides having brokenthe sweeps and killed the men manning them; and before the pirates couldrecover from their surprise the guns had been loaded again, and the gigof the _Hankow Lin_, with Lieutenant Meredith and his chosen crew, notforgetting Mr Sprott, had dashed out from the ship and boarded theschooner on her other side, where they least of all expected a foe, andthe smoke concealed the boat's movements. 

At the instant that the naval lieutenant jumped into her rigging withhis men, another discharge of the Armstrong guns swept her decks, andthe schooner, impelled by the calm, which makes floating surfacesapproach each other on the water, ranged up alongside the tea-ship. Atthis moment, Snowball dropped from the forecastle of the _Hankow Lin_into the bows of the schooner, followed by Jem Backstay and half-a-dozenothers. 

Assailed thus on all sides--the lieutenant and his crew clearing allbefore them with a valiant cheer, which Snowball re-echoed with aterrific shout like an Indian war-cry, perhaps from some intuitiverecollections of his native wilds on the banks of the Congo, in whichthe words "golly, take dat now!" could, however, be plainlydistinguished--the attack proved a trifle too hot for the mongrel lot ofscoundrels whom the pirate captain, or cut-throat, commanded; and theygave way instanter. Some died fighting to the last; some jumpedoverboard, preferring cold water to English cold steel; and theremainder, some twenty in number, who had escaped the murderous grapefrom the guns and the keen cutlasses of the blue-jackets, threw downtheir arms and surrendered, when they were driven into the hold, and thehatches battened down over them. 

The fight from beginning to end had not lasted ten minutes; and thepirate ship was captured in almost quicker time than it had taken toovercome the original Malay gang on board the _Hankow Lin_. 

"Hoist the Union Jack, Snowball, " said the lieutenant to the darky, whohad done so much to gain the victory--seeing him with the flag in hishand, and apparently itching to haul it up. "Hoist away, darky, and letus have honest colours over that dirty black rag! Now, lads, threecheers!"

"Lord bless you!" as Bill the boatswain said to his wife when tellingher the story of the pirate's repulse when he got home some timeafterwards, safe and sound, as luck would have it, "you oughter havejust heard the shout that then went up from our throats to heaven! Itsounded a'most like thunder; it were louder nor the report of theArmstrong guns as peppered the varmint!"

VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SIX. 

"ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. "

To make a long story short, I may state briefly that in the second partof the action--the second act of a tragedy, it was for the Malays--boththe bluejackets and the men of the _Hankow Lin_ got off scot-free, notanother casualty happening to swell the death-roll, or a fresh wound ofany consequence being received by any of those engaged. The surprise tothe pirates on finding they had "caught a Tartar, " instead of assailinga defenceless merchant vessel, as they had expected, was so complete, that, in nautical phraseology, they were "taken all aback. "

Not expecting any opposition to speak of, and confident that the shipthey were attacking carried no guns--for how could even the most astuteof the Malays have supposed, with all their prying and peeping, that the_Hankow Lin_ had a set of Armstrongs on board her, headed up inhogsheads?--the pirates were stupefied by the first broadside theyreceived; and, after that, their resistance amounted to _nil_, especially the more as one of the discharges killed their chief, when, of course, they had no one to lead them on or rally their droopingenergies on the pinch. 

The schooner, it was found, was none other than the _Diavolo_, a piratecraft commanded by a Portuguese renegade, who had already earned forhimself a somewhat questionable reputation in Eastern seas; and howCaptain Morton got wind of the intentions of the Malay crew to mutinyand bring his ship for destruction may be thus briefly told:--

Several large tea-traders having mysteriously disappeared on theirvoyage home to England, after shipping Malay crews on board, the Englishadmiral on the station had conferred with the Chinese authorities, andfrom them learned that the _Diavolo_ was suspected, and that a spy haddiscovered that an attempt would be made on the _Hankow Lin_, which wasjust loading at the time, and which had, like the other missing ships, shipped some Malay hands, in consequence of the loss of the main portionof her English crew on the voyage out. 

Accordingly, precautions were taken to counteract the conspiracy of theMalay crew and capture the pirate by putting on board arms andmunition--of which they supposed the ship to have none--and concealingin the saloon a force of blue-jackets to combine with the English partof the crew should the contemplated mutiny break out--the result ofwhich precautions proved, as we have seen, to be eminently successful. 

While the calm lasted, the bodies of the dead pirates were hoveoverboard, and the three bluejackets and Phillips who had lost theirlife in the first struggle with the Malays committed carefully to thedeep with every solemnity; and then the _Hankow Lin_, as soon as thewind sprang up again, as it did by sundown, was headed towards Singaporein accordance with Lieutenant Meredith's wish, although it was sorelyagainst Captain Morton's will to bear off from his direct course toEngland, which was almost right in front of him, the Straits of Sundabearing a point or two off the lee beam. 

However, Captain Morton lost nothing by his compliance with thelieutenant's wish. The _Hankow Lin_ when she arrived at Singapore wasallotted a half share of the value of the pirate schooner and all shecontained; and that craft being pretty nearly crammed full of plunder, which she had accumulated from the different ships that had beencaptured and scuttled by her in her nefarious career, the sum thusawarded to Captain Morton was more than sufficient to compensate hisowners for any delay that had arisen through the _Hankow Lin's_detention at the Dutch port, besides swelling the handsome bounty thatwas paid to each and all of the crew engaged in the affair. 

This was not all, either. 

At Singapore, Captain Morton was able to obtain what he could not havevery well voyaged home without, and that was a supply of fresh hands tonavigate the ship in place of the treacherous scoundrels who had engagedwith him at Canton only to plot her destruction, although the captainhad ample satisfaction for all this ere he left the place, for, as Billthe boatswain said in mentioning the fact afterwards, he "saw everymother's son of them hung before he weighed anchor again. "

After bidding adieu to their late active comrades the blue-jackets, allwent well with the old vessel, from Singapore to the Straits of Sunda, across the Indian Ocean, and round the Cape of Good Hope. Not anuntoward event happened on the way home, not a mishap occurred, and, asSnowball said when he stepped ashore in the East India Dock, "All's welldat ends well. " And so ended *The Voyage of the "Hankow Lin*. "

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER ONE. 

AT ZANZIBAR. 

"Have I ever been to Madagascar?" he repeated, with a look of amazementand wonder quaintly combined on his good-natured, ruddy-brown, weather-beaten face. "Is that what you wanted to know, eh?"

"Yes, " I replied, "that is, if you've no objection to answer myquestion. "

"Why, no! I've nothing to keep dark of my doings. "

"All right!" said I; "then you can go ahead. "

"Well, sir, " he began, drawing a deep breath as if he only just took inthe import of my question and was turning over in his mind the matter inall its bearings, "I should rather just think I had been to Madagascar, and there's precious little chance too of my forgetting it, either, in ahurry. Ah! if you'd once been wrecked on sich a queer, outlandish, wild, desolate sort o' shore as that there, arterwards havin' to swimmiles upon miles through a heavy rolling sea to get to land, and thatunder a fierce burning sun the while; besides, when got ashore at last, being forced to tramp for ten long weary days and nights across slimygreen marshes filled with alligators, crawling through thick jungles ofthorny bushes that tore your flesh to pieces before ever you could ha'come to a civilised place to get your wants attended--you, that is me, not having a morsel of food or a drop of pure water to drink all theway--why, sir, I fancy as how you'd remember the blessed place to yourdying day; and, would recollect all about it in the flash of a momentagain when any one just mentioned its name again the same as you havedone just now!"

The speaker was a fine, robust-looking seaman of middle height, andprobably of middle age also, for there was a slight suspicion of grey inthe crisp brown beard that covered the lower part of his countenance, while several prominent wrinkles were apparent about the corners of hismerry, twinkling, blue eyes. 

He was dressed respectably in a sober suit of some rough material thatfitted easily to his well-proportioned limbs, and, from his civiliancostume and nautical look--for he had a sort of briny flavour about him, so to speak--I took him for a petty officer of the Royal Navy who hadretired from the active duties of his profession on account of hislength of service afloat having entitled him to the _otium cumdignitate_ of a pension ashore for the remainder of his days. Such wasmy surmise at first sight--an impression subsequently in part confirmed;but be that as it may, he and I had got into conversation one brightsummer day not long ago while standing on Portsmouth Hard, watching awhite-hulled Indian troopship steaming out of the harbour beyond, withthe marines for Egypt on board. I had mentioned Madagascar in casuallycommenting on the plucky behaviour displayed at Tamatave by CaptainJohnstone of HMS _Dryad_ in resisting the high-handed proceedings of theFrench admiral, who appeared to think that he might insult the Englishflag with impunity from the fact of his being in command of a squadronflying the Tricolour flag while the representative of the Union Jack hadonly one solitary vessel to oppose to that force. 

"Aye, I know the East African station well, " continued my friend. "Iwas invalided home from there, and got my pension three years before mytwenty years' term of service was up in consequence. "

"Indeed!" said I, to lead him on, in expectation of the yarn I couldperceive looming before me; but playing with my fish gently, as anglersknow so well how to do, so that I might not frighten him into silence byany undue display of anxiety on my part. 

"Yes, I served over a year in the _London_ at Zanzibar before beingdrafted off to one of the cruisers on the station. Beastly unhealthyplace that Zanzibar--all fevers and agues and malaria in the wet season, and as hot as a place you've heard of, sir, when the sou'-west monsoonblows off the African shore. I was there when Sir Bartle Frere came tointerview the old sultan to try and make him sign a treaty to put downthe slave-trade; but it was all no go--the old sultan was too wide-awakefor that, and, indeed, treaty or no treaty, we can never quite stop thedealing in slaves between the Arabs on the one hand and the clove-growers on the other. "

"No?" said I interrogatively, wondering what the harmless clove, whichforms such an important unit in the "sugar and spice and all thingsnice" combination of culinary seasoning, could possibly have to do withthe slave-trade of East Africa. 

"No, sir, " he answered emphatically, with the air of a man who well knewwhat he was talking about and was certain of his facts, "it can't bedone. You see, at certain times of the year, about a month after therainy season ends, in September, the cloves ripen, and it takes a goodmany hands to pick 'em all and gather them in. Did you ever see themgrowing, sir?"

"I can't say I ever have, " I responded, "although, of course, I've readabout them. "

"Well, sir, the cloves grow on tall, biggish-sized trees--"

"Dear me!" I said, interrupting him, "why, I thought they were thefruit of some little shrub like currants and capers. "

"Oh, no! They grow on trees, and some of a goodish height too. Thecloves are the bud or blossom of the tree before the flower comes; andthey must be picked early in time, or else they're not fit for anything. Their name, `cloves'--I don't know whether you are aware on it, sir--isfrom the little things resembling a small nail--_clavo_, as it's calledin the Spanish. "

"I didn't know that, " I said. 

"That's it, then, " he replied, proceeding with his explanation. "Now, of course you can see that the cloves must be got off the trees beforethe blossom ripens too much, but as the sun is so terribly hot and sucha miasma comes up from the places where the trees grow only niggers canstand the exposure; and so it is that slave labour is wanted, for nowhites could undertake the job, and the Arab merchants, you may be sure, wouldn't do it themselves, in spite of the large demand for cloves inthe European markets--that is, so long as they can get slaves to do itfor 'em. "

"How do they gather them?" I asked. 

"Why, they have queer-shaped ladders, just of the same sort as thoselittle things they put in pots of garden musk to train the plants on, broad at one end and narrow at the other--something like a triangulargrating--so that a lot of the niggers can stand on it at a time and pickaway from the same tree, on which, perhaps, there are millions of budsto be taken off in less than no time. When they are all gatheredthey're spread out in the sun and dried, and then sent off in bags towhoever wants 'em. "

"And where are they principally grown?" said I. 

"Why, Pemba. That's an island up above Zanzibar, about sixty miles fromthe coast, though they're very good cloves grown on Zanzibar Island too;but Pemba is the chief place, and it is to there that the chief runs ofslaves are made by the Arab dhows. That is why the _London_ was so longstationed thereabouts: it was in order to intercept these craft and stopthe traffic. "

"I suppose you've seen some service chasing the dhows yourself, eh?" Isaid, thinking this a good opening for getting him back to his yarn, ashe seemed inclined to end the conversation at this point, hinting thathe had an appointment "in the yard"--meaning Portsmouth dockyard--andthat it was getting on late, and they would soon be closing up. 

"Oh yes, sir! I served my time dhow-chasing when I was in the _London_;and saw a few sights, too, in the different craft we overhauled thatwould ha' made your blood boil against slavery. One dhow, I remember, we captured with nearly a hundred on board, all crammed into a spacethat you couldn't have thought would have held half that number of humanbeings, for it was a small dhow, of probably not more than forty tons atthe outside. On the ballast at the bottom of the vessel were huddled uptwenty-three women, some with infants in their arms. They wereliterally doubled up, sir, as they could not stand from the positionthey were in, as right over them was placed a bamboo deck not three feetabove the keel of the boat, on which forty men were jammed together inthe same way. This was not all, either, for, right above the men, righton to their heads almost as they squatted down, was another deck ofbamboo, on which were over fifty children of all ages. The whole lot, too, when we boarded the dhow, were in the last stages of starvation anddysentery, not to speak of what they must have suffered from the crampedposition in which they were confined and the want of air. They smelledsomething awful when we unkiverd them; it was enough to knock down ahorse. "

"It was horrible, " I said in sympathy. 

"No doubt it were all that, " replied my friend the pensioner. "But fromwhat I saw out there I do believe the very attempts our government maketo put down the slave-trade only increases the evils of the poorwretches we are trying to liberate. "

"How is that?" I asked. 

"Why, you see, when the traffic used to be permitted, as it was once fora period of eight months in the year, just as you have at home a settime for shooting game, the slaves used to be carried in large dhows, more comfortably, and well supplied with food and water in their passagefrom the mainland to Pemba and Zanzibar; but when our cruisers began tolook out for them and stopped the trade, no matter whether it was in thedry season or not, then the Arabs would pack 'em up in small craft thatcould lie hid in the creeks or shallows of the coast and smuggle theniggers in during the night-time, for these Arabs are just like cats, and can see in the dark when our men couldn't perceive their hands aforetheir face. Once upon a time, when I first went on the station, we usedto capture good big dhows that were of a hundred and eighty tons burdenand upwards; now our men only get hold of little Mtpe dhows that arehardly worth taking--I suppose you know, sir, as how we get a bounty orprize-money, according to the size of the vessels and the number ofslaves we liberate?"

"Yes, " said I, "I'm aware of that, as I have noticed advertisements inthe _London Gazette_ about the distribution of the bounty for such andsuch slave-dhows `captured by the boats of HMS _London_' or some othercruiser named. How are these dhows built?"

"Of a sort of close hard wood like African oak, but harder than ourEnglish timber of the same nature. The planks of the small Mtpe dhowsare sewn together with a thread-like stuff they get from the reeds inthe lagoons. They are built broad and shallow, with a keel deepeningtowards the stern, almost like a wedge, so that they can turn quickly. They're good sea-boats, too, and can sail almost up into the wind's eye, with their large lateen sails, which are cut something like an old-fashioned leg of mutton, or short tack lug. The stem of them rises highout of the water, having a poop on it, which is thatched over withmatting and banana leaves; and altogether they don't look unlike aChinese junk. Some of the bigger dhows, which are used as war craft bythe Arab chiefs of Lamoi and Mozambique, are fine craft, and carry sixand twelve brass guns sometimes, like the old carronades of theservice. "

"They sail well, you say?" I inquired. 

"Don't they, that's all! Why, none of our quickest steam-pinnaces canoverhaul them when they're going on a wind, for even with the lightestbreeze their sails, being made of twilled calico and light, waft themalong as if by magic. There are twenty that escape us for every one wecatch, as, in the busy season, the caravans from the interior bring theslaves down to the coast wholesale. The Portuguese and Arabs are thechaps that manage the business; and once the slaves are aboard thedhows, they sneak along the land until night-time, when, if the windblows fair for them, they're off and away to Pemba, or further uptowards the Arabian coast, where our boats can whistle for them for allthe chance they have of overhauling them!"

"What becomes of the slaves that are liberated when the dhows arecaptured?" said I. 

"Oh, the boys are sent to the Boy's Mission Schools at Zanzibar, and thegirls to the Female Mission there also; while the men folk, at least allthe able-bodied and strong ones that are not too old, are enlisted intothe sultan's army--the Sultan of Zanzibar, I mean, the Seyyid Burgashthat was. When I was there, the commander of his army was a lieutenantof our navy who had been `lent' by government for the purpose for threeyears, and now he has left the service altogether and is known as`General Matthews' on the east coast. A right smart chap he is too, forhe drilled the niggers as well as if he were a born sojer instead of asailor!"

"Do the slaves like this business?" I asked, thinking that their"freedom" seemed rather questionable; and then, too, consider the costboth in men and money it is to England every year. 

"Well, I don't believe they do, " answered the ex-man-o'-war's-man--"I'veheard some of them say that they were quite contented to work on theclove plantations, and preferred that to loafing about the streets ofZanzibar, where hundreds of them are to be seen every day, with nothingto do and very little to eat, unless they take to thieving!"

"What sort of a place is Zanzibar?" said I now. 

"Well, sir, " replied the pensioner, "like all them oriental towns I haveever seen in the Levant and elsewhere, it looks ever so much better asseen from the sea than it does at close quarters. Coming into theharbour from the southwards, as I've entered it many a time whenreturning from a trip down to the Mozambique, your vessel has to windslowly along through numerous little coral islands, which are, however, grown with stunted trees and bush quite close down to the water. "

"That must be lovely!" I remarked. 

"Aye, aye, so it is, " said my friend; "but the navigation is awfullydifficult, not to say dangerous, even with a man in the chains heavingthe lead and singing out the depth every moment, for the soundings shootfrom the `deep nine' to the `short five, ' and less nor that too, beforeyou know where you are! Howsomdever, once you've got inside and castanchor, it's as pretty a roadstead as I ever clapped eyes on--as prettyas Rio in South America, which I daresay you've heard of?"

"Yes, and seen too, " I said in response. 

"Have you, sir?" replied the ex-man-o'-war's-man--"then all I can say isthat you've seen the handsomest harbour in the world! But, still, Zanzibar ain't far behind it. The front of the town, which faces theanchorage, looks quite imposing like. The water of the bay is cleartoo, so that you can see the bottom down to any depth; and the whitesandy beach fringing it round is just like snow against the darkbackground of palm-trees and green foliage. Along the beach are thewarehouses and residences of the English-speaking merchants, the grandmansions of the richer sort of citizens, and the offices of thedifferent foreign consuls--each with its own national flag flutteringgaily from the top, the British Union Jack and the Yankee Stars andStripes being very prominent; while, in the very centre of the lot, isthe palace of the sultan, a fine concern. From the top of this fliesthe red ensign of Arabia, and around it may be seen sentries in a sortof zouave uniform, selected from that very slave army I told you of justnow. "

"What struck you as most peculiar about the place?" I asked. 

"Well, I'm hanged if it weren't the niggers, sir!" said my informant. "You see there the most extraordinary number of little darkies you eversaw in your life, all with nothing on 'em, no more than Adam--not even afig-leaf! The next thing to strike you, if a stranger, would be theheat, for it is far hotter, strange to say, ashore there than it isaboard your own ship. Some of the houses are curious to look at, forthey have neither windows nor doors; for the best dwellings are builtround an open court, and the windows, or air-holes as they might moreproperly be called, open on to that. Instead of being light and builtof some flimsy stuff, as you might expect, the houses are all put up `onthe heat-resisting principle, ' as I heard an engineer describe them--just like the Irishman that wore his Connemara frieze coat in summer tokeep out the sun, as he said, in the same way as he put it on in winterto keep out the cold!"

"Indeed!" I said. 

"Yes, sir, " continued my friend; "the walls of all the large houses atZanzibar are many feet thick of solid stone masonry; and even the floorsand partitions dividing the rooms are of several thicknesses too, allmade of wood and stone and lime, the wood being covered over withmortar. The roof is the best part of them, however. It is made quiteflat, and it is the principal spot for the family to go of an eveningwhen the sun has gone down and the night-breeze begins to blow. TheArabs and Parsees go on top in the mornings too, at sunrise, to saytheir prayers, spreading out a bit of sacred carpet over the stoneflagging that forms the floor of the roof. "

"Are there many shops?" I next inquired. 

"Bless you, the town's crammed full of them! but they're only opensheds, in the centre of which some Hindoo or Banian merchant is to beseen squatting all day long, chewing hashish or smoking his hubble-bubble, as if he hadn't a stroke of business to do, and didn't careabout doing it either if he got the chance!"

"I suppose they have goods to sell, though, eh!" I said. 

"Oh, yes, shawls and sandals and silks and such like; while in theeatable line you can get coffee and sherbet, and arrack too, or whatthey call English rum, besides pine-apples and mangoes, oranges, citrons, guavas, green cocoa-nuts, and every fruit you could think of, as well as cakes and sweetmeats. The streets in the town are verynarrow and are crowded with these sorts of shops or rather stalls, forthey're just like the places you see old apple-women rig up at thecorners in London; but the bazaars are the best spots to look at--they're just like those in India, and some that I've seen too inConstantinople. Lor' sakes! why, they're crowded with Arabs andHindoos, Persians, Africans, Somali Arabs, and every sort of colourednative you can imagine, sir, from the lightest coffee-tinted mulattodown to the jettiest black of the pure nigger brought originally fromthe interior as a slave. 

"The funniest thing, too, about these bazaars is to see the differenttrades or handicraftsmen at work, the goldsmiths making rings byhammering and beating the metal, the jewellers stringing pearls togetherfor necklaces and bracelets, the toy-makers rigging up the queerestcurios you ever saw, and the sandal-makers cutting out shoes of leather;but the biggest treat of all is to watch a Parsee school and see how themaster instructs the little shavers. The children, to the number offifty or more, all squat on the floor of the school-room, which is alarge open shed on a raised platform, each holding in one hand theblade-bone taken from the shoulder of a camel to serve as a slate, onwhich they make marks with a pencil-like brush. They are pretty littletrots, the children; and are mostly all smartly dressed in littlejackets and trousers of various coloured silks, green, yellow, and red, with turbans on top of their heads, just like their fathers, to completethe picture. "

"The end of the rainy season, you say, is the best time for catching thedhows?" I asked now, to bring my friend back to the main point of allmy interrogatories. 

"Yes, there's the greatest demand then for the slaves; besides which thesouth-west monsoon sets in at that time, and is favourable for theircrossing from the mainland. "

"Do they ever show fight?" I inquired. 

"Bather!" ejaculated my informant; "they're about as treacherous a lotas you could ever come across, them Arabs; for, I tell you what, they'llsometimes let a boat's crew overhaul 'em, and come up alongside as ifeverything was ship-shape and clear sailing--that is to say, sir, thatthey have nothing contraband aboard and could show a clean bill o'lading; when, drat 'em, they'll turn round on you like a parcel o'tigers with their sharp knives and spears. It was in this way my poorskipper, Capt'in Brownrigg, was killed in December '81--just atChristmas time, when I were out there. "

"That was a sad thing, " said I sympathisingly. 

"Yes, " replied the pensioner; "but, saddest of all, it was to know hispoor wife had just come out from England to join him, and was aboard the_London_ at the very time his body was brought alongside the ship in thesteam-pinnace in which he had met his death. Ah! he was a fine officerwas Capt'in Brownrigg, and liked by everybody--not only by his brotherofficers and equals, but by the men under him. Bless you, they'd a'gone anywheres to win a smile from his cheery face. Hullo, though, sir, look there, they're shutting up the dockyard gate!"

Such indeed was the case, showing that the afternoon was pretty nearly"expended, " as they say in the service. 

"Ah! that comes along o' yarning with you and not minding the businessthat brought me down here, for now I'm too late. "

"Well, in that case, " said I, seeing my chance now for getting the oft-evaded yarn of my friend's long service, "suppose you come home to myplace and have a cup of tea, when you can tell me the story of yourshipwreck off Madagascar, eh?"

He hemmed and hawed for a moment; but seeing that my invitation wascordially given, and I suppose having nothing else particularly to do, he accepted--whence this story. 

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER TWO. 

WIND AND STEAM. 

When I had made the pensioner as comfortable as I could at my littleplace--attending carefully to the wants of his inner man beforeappearing to have any curiosity regarding the matter that had made meinvite him home--and the tea-things were cleared away, I gave a sort ofinquiring cough, which he immediately took as my signal for him to beginhis yarn. 

"After serving a year in the _London_, as I told you before, sir, " hecommenced, without any preliminary beating about the bush, as many alandsman would have done, "I was drafted on to an old cruiser called the_Dolphin_. She's been broken up now, like the old _London_, though Ihear they've got a rare smart despatch-boat just building called by thesame name; but the _Dolphin_ as I'm speaking of is quite different andnot the same vessel--remember that, sir, please, in case anybody shouldtry to throw doubts on my yarn, as some of them sea-lawyers will. "

"I assure you, " said I to encourage him, "that I am quite satisfied asto the truth of your story. "

"Well, then, " he resumed, "the _Dolphin_ I am speaking of to you, sir, was a pretty fast boat for a paddle-steamer, and had already made sometidy captures of slave-dhows--that is, since she had been commissionedand sent out from England, about six months before, to replace an oldsailing brig that formerly did duty on the station as tender to the old_London_; so I fully expected when I jined her to have some smart workafore me--and I warn't disapinted neither!"

"No?" said I questioningly to lead him on, settling myself cosily in mychair. 

"You're right, sir, I warn't, " replied my friend Ben. "The very firstday I shipped aboard the _Dolphin_ we took two Mtpe dhows close inshorenear Pemba. That brought me in a niceish bit of prize-money for astart; and, just a week arter that exactly, when we had got down to ourproper cruising ground--that was, sir, just atween Zanzibar and theMozambique Channel, which, as I daresay you know, sir, is about twohundred and fifty miles wide and runs between Madagascar and themainland of Africa--why, we came upon the biggest haul that had beenmade on the coast for years; but we had to work for it, I tell you. That was a chase and no mistake!"

"Was it?" I asked, glad of Ben's coming now to an actual yarnconcerning some of the stirring events of his life; for he hadpreviously only been "beating about the bush, " so to speak. 

"Yes, sir; and not only a chase that was something to boast of, but afight as well at the end of it--one of the smartest scrimmages I everhad all the time I was out there. If you don't mind my lighting a pipe, for I allers, sir, can tell a yarn better when I'm smoking, I'll justhaul my jaw-tackle aboard and give you a full account of the wholeadventure. "

"Do, " I said. 

"There!" exclaimed he with a grunt of satisfaction, carefully filling abriar-root pipe with some dark tobacco, which he produced from out of alittle round brass box that he carried in his waistcoat pocket, tellingme it was "the right sort, " and proceeding to light it--"now, we can goon serenely. "

"Fire away!" said I, to encourage him, "I'm all attention. "

He did not waste any more time; but at once began his story. 

"The _Dolphin_ had run down south with the fag-end of the north-eastmonsoon, economising her coals as much as possible, as all the men-of-war have to do nowadays, worse luck--sometimes when it's a questionbetween saving a few pounds or sacrificing a ship! We had passedMazemba island, and had just weathered Cape Delgado, which is some tendegrees south of the equator, when--it was close on sunset at the time, and it grows dark all at once after that, you know, in the tropics--thelook-out man sang out, `sail-ho!' This was just as we were piped downto tea. Bless you, we didn't think no more of going below, I can tellyou!"

"I suppose not, " I put in, to show I was listening attentively to whathe was saying, for he paused at this juncture, as if waiting for me tosay something. 

"No, sir. Of course, although we were running down under easy sail theengine-fires were ready banked up, so that it didn't take us long to getup steam; and we were soon round like a shot, and retracing our way, right in the face of the wind, after a large dhow which we could seestealing up along-shore and hugging the land. She was what the Arabscalled a batilla, and had two large lugs, or lateen sails set, besides asort of square-cut jib forwards on her high-peaked bowsprit, by the aidof which she was sailing close-hauled, almost in the very teeth of thenor'-easter that was blowing pretty stiffly at the time, making it riskywork for a vessel to approach so near a lee-shore as she was doing. However, I suppose her captain thought he would be able to slip by us inthe darkness, when he might have got under the shelter of the island wehad passed only a short while previously in our downward passage to theMozambique; and, once he was out of sight of the _Dolphin_, of course hecould have put out to sea again at his leisure, making his way north assoon as the coast seemed clear, and thus escaping us altogether. "

"But he reckoned without his host that time, eh?" said I. 

"Aye, that he did, " responded the ex-man-o'-war's-man, warming up to hissubject as he proceeded. "He made a great mistake, did that there Arabslave skipper when he thought he'd hoodwink us aboard the _Dolphin_ thisevening I'm a-talking of--a mistake, sir, as I'll soon show you, thatcost him not only his vessel, but his life as well!"

"Indeed?" I interposed, beginning to get interested in Ben's yarn nowthat he had actually got under weigh with it in earnest. 

"Yes, that it did, " replied Ben Campion, striking another match torelight his pipe, which had gone out in the interval, and puffing awayvigorously for a few seconds in order to get it in full blast. --"He wasa 'cute chap, though, that skipper, " continued Ben presently when he hadgot the pipe to go to his satisfaction;--"for no sooner had he perceivedthat we had observed him and were in chase, than he threw off allpretence of attempting to deceive us by passing off as a simple trader. Abandoning his design of beating up to Cape Delgado, he wore the dhowround as sharp as lightning and made off down along the coast, rightbefore the full strength of the monsoon; where, with the wind in hisfavour, he would have a better chance of getting away from us, thosedhows, as I've told you, sometimes walking away from a steam-pinnace asif she were standing still. This time, however, he had no cockle-shellof a pinnace after him, but a smart paddle-steamer, and one, too, thatcould go along well also before the wind, carrying square sails as didthe _Dolphin_ on her foremast and a huge spanker aft. A stern-chase, ofcourse, is a long chase all the world over, as everybody knows, and ourswas no exception. Still, all the time we gradually overhauled the dhow;and just about sunset we got within range of a long seven-inch gun, which we carried forwards. This, Mr Shrapnel, our gunner, trainedright across the slaver's bows, and at the word of command, `Fire!' letdrive with a bang that shook the steamer right down to her kelson andseemed to stop her way for the moment, sending her back, as it were, with the recoil. 

"The gun was well aimed, the shot pitching up the water some fifty yardsin front of her, but it didn't seem to make any difference to the dhow abit, her captain keeping right on with every stitch of his canvas set, the wide lateen sails bellying out to their full, as we could see, andthe queer-looking craft burying herself in the foam that she churned upas she dived down into the waves every moment with a plunge, as if shewere going headlong down to the bottom, taking in huge seas over hercat-heads; for it was blowing more than half a gale at the time, andeven we in our bigger craft found it hard work carrying on as we didwith both wind and steam. And I tell you we were going too! Ourengines were revolving full speed ahead, and our canvas must have helpedus full another five knots, with the wind dead astern as it was, and werunning before it, while, to aid us, there was the usual inshorecurrent--that runs down the coast of the Mozambique from Cape Delgado toright opposite Madagascar, where it turns off more in an easterlydirection--carrying us along like a mill-race, some rate of three knotsmore. It made the _Dolphin_ quiver and tremble through every timber asshe seemed literally to fly through the water, but it didn't make usapproach the dhow any closer, although we held our own. As the wind gotup more and more, for it was the tail-end of the north-east monsoon, asI told you, and those blessed monsoons always die out with a brush whenthey've got to the end of their tether, the slaver appeared to risebodily out of the water and skim along the surface from the top of onerolling wave on to another--just as you see an albatross does off theCape of Good Hope when it has taken its first dart downwards after itsprey, and has then to pursue it over the sea, the large sheets of thetriangular sails of the dhow standing out on either side of her low darkkeel in the same way as the pinions of the albatross touch the water inits flight. 

"Mr Shrapnel was told to fire another gun; but it had no greater effectthan the first one, and our skipper hardly seemed to know what to do;for the dhow was now heading more towards the land, and the _Dolphin_would soon be in shoal water, as there are lots of reefs about themparts. It would never do, either, to fire right into her, although wewere well within range now, as we might probably damage some of the poorslaves aboard, who were no doubt packed as tightly as herrings in abarrel; and yet, it was growing dark, the sun being just on the point ofsetting over the highlands of the great African continent on ourstarboard hand. If we didn't do something pretty soon Mr Arab dhowwould be able to cry, `Walker!' and laugh at us for the wild-goose chasehe had led us!"

"You must have been pretty anxious as the moments flew by, the sunsetting, and the darkness creeping up, without your being able tooverhaul her?" I said. 

"We were all that, " replied Ben, knocking the ashes out of his pipeviciously as if he were giving the slave captain a rap on thehead;--"and as we stood grouped around the deck amidships close by theengine-room hatch, fixing on our cutlasses and getting ready for thescrimmage, should luck enable us to have one, I don't know what we saidwe wouldn't do to the impudent beggars when we got aboard!

"The land was looming well on our beam, some six miles distant, andthose breakers visible between us and it. The situation was a `tight'one, if there ever was such, for it looked uncommon like as if thecaptain of the dhow intended running ashore and risking her breaking topieces on the rocks, if he couldn't find an opening in the coast intosome lagoon where he could with his light draught beach the craft insafety. He was evidently determined to escape us, run what risk hemight!

"I was standing alongside our skipper on the bridge; and I could seethat he, too, was bound not to be licked, for he had screwed up hismouth in a way that he had when he had made up his mind to something, and then the admiral himself wouldn't have turned him from it!--He was abold, courageous officer, was Captain Wilson, and every inch a sailor. Poor chap! he afterwards fell a victim to the fatal coast fever atZanzibar. 

"Well, I could see from the look on his face now, that if the Arabskipper was a determined fellow, and had resolved to circumvent us, why, Captain Wilson was equally determined, too, that he shouldn't, and thatit was a case of `pull baker, pull devil' atween the two!

"`Campion, ' say he to me, `pass the word forra'd for Mr Shrapnel tocome here to me for a moment. '

"Of course I did as he told me; and soon the gunner arrives on thebridge, where, as I still stopped, it being my station there for thetime, I heard all that was said between the skipper and him. 

"`Mr Shrapnel, ' says Captain Wilson, `we'll have to fire at the fellowin earnest now, or else he'll escape us; but I don't want to hurt any ofthose poor creatures, who are on board against their will. Can't youmanage to shoot away a spar so as to cripple his wings a bit, so that wecan manage to get alongside before he gets too close inshore?'"

"`I'll try, sir, ' says the gunner, turning to go away. 

"`Do, ' replies our skipper, `and look sharp about it, too, or else itwill be too late. Mind, though, and aim high. I wouldn't have theslaves hurt for anything. As for the Arab crew, we'll give 'em a tasteof cold steel when we come across them, and that will be better than allthe shot and shell we can send after them now!'

"`Aye, aye, sir, ' said Mr, Shrapnel, going forwards again without anydelay; and the gun detachment being all ready, our seven-inch spoke outagain to the slaver, with more purpose than it had done before. 

"The first shot went wide of the mark, and so did the second; but thethird carried away her main halliards apparently, for the big sail camedown all at once by the run, making the dhow broach-to as it fell overthe side to leeward. Our men gave a tremendous cheer at this, but theslaver captain was a smart chap, as you might have noticed before, andwould not give in yet; as before you could say `Jack Robinson, ' he hadthe halliards spliced again, and the sail hoisted, bearing away straightfor the land now, and not edging along it as he had previously done. Hewas evidently determined to destroy the vessel rather than give in. 

"`Silence, men!' shouted out Captain Wilson to stop our fellowscheering, which, as you know, sir, is against the rules of the service, although winked at sometimes in the enthusiasm of the moment. `Wehaven't got the slaver yet, and it will be time to cheer when we'vecaptured him! Mr Shrapnel, ' he added then, as soon as all was quiet, the men being as mum as a mouse fore and aft--`you must send anothermessenger after, my joker; try if you can't do him a little more damagethis time!'

"`Aye, aye, sir, ' sang out the gunner; and he set to work again with awill, for the brief time during which the dhow's big main lug had beendown had enabled us to get within half a mile of her, and Mr Shrapnelwas better able to see what he was shooting at. He was a knowing hand, was the gunner! Watching his opportunity when the _Dolphin_ rose on thetop of the heavy rolling swell that set in towards the land, and whenthe dhow was right down in the hollow of the combers, he pulled thelanyard of the trigger, and with a bang and a belch of flame and smoke aheavy conical shot went rotating through the air, making as much noiseas a railroad train as it hurtled forwards at the chase, whose hull washidden from view, but whose masts seemed quite close to us. 

"He didn't require to fire a second shot this time. 

"No sooner had the report sounded and the roaring rumbling thunder ofthe discharge died away in the distance, rolling in towards the coast--the smoke being blown away, too, as quickly by the wind--than we couldsee the dhow dismasted before us, swaying about in the trough of thesea. 

"She was a hopeless wreck, for both her masts had been snapped off shortby the shot, and the yards to which the sails had been attached werelying athwart the deck. The _Dolphin_ now ranged up alongside her onthe leeward bow, and the captain hailed her to know if she surrendered, when one of the Arabs on board, who must have been the skipper, waved ared handkerchief or cloth of some kind in token of truce. He was atall, swarthy chap, with a turban instead of a fez, which the otherswore, on his head; and the belt round his body, as we could see fromlooking down on to the deck of the dhow, which was much below the levelof our vessel, was filled choke-full with long-barrelled pistols anddirks, and a round-shaped scimitar-like sword without a sheath thatseemed as if it could give a fellow a very tidy cut. 

"The sea was rough and both the dhow and the _Dolphin_ were rollingabout terribly, we dipping our foreyard-arms as we lay-to; but CaptainWilson at once ordered the first cutter to be piped away, with one ofthe lieutenants in charge; while nothing would suit him also but to havehis own gig manned. He said he mistrusted the slaver and would boardher also himself, as she had a number of Arab rascals on her deck whowould probably show fight. 

"The boats were soon in the water, under our lee, the men shinning downinto them by the falls, each chap with his cutlass tucked into hiswaistband; and, in another moment, rounding under the stem of the_Dolphin_, and getting nearly swamped as we breasted the sea, we madefor the dhow, that now lay about half a cable's-length from our vessel, which had drifted a bit astern. 

"`Put your backs into the stroke!' sang out Captain Wilson from hisgig--for I was in the cutter; and with grim earnestness we stretched outas hard as we could, gripping the water firmly and then pulling with allour strength. It was hard work against such a sea as was then runningand in the face of the wind, which was still rising and more gusty thanbefore; but we were soon alongside the chase, both the boats boardingher of course to leeward, although the captain in his gig dashed at thehigh poop astern, while we in the cutter made for her bows, which laylower in the water and would thus enable us to get more easily on board. 

"Captain Wilson was right in his suspicions about the Arab skipper'ssurrender. Although he had waved that red rag of his to make-believethat he had given in, so that we might not give him a broadside as heprobably expected--for of course he didn't know that we would not firethe big guns for fear of killing the poor slaves in the hold--no soonerhad we got alongside than the beggars showed fight. 

"I and another chap managed to grab hold of the bowsprit gear to haulourselves up by into the fo'c'sle of the dhow, when chop came a cut thatsevered the ropes we had clutched, causing us to let go and drop backagain into the bottom of the cutter with a thump that nearly knocked thebottom out of her, while another Arab shoved out the muzzle of a longmatchlock right amongst us and fired it off so closely that the chargesinged my whiskers. That did one good job, however, for it made uspretty angry, as you might imagine, and the whole cutter's crew tumbledaboard in a way that astonished them, I can tell you. They foughtpluckily though, but they were more like mad cats than men, screamingand tearing us with their nails when we had knocked their long knivesout of their hands and disarmed them. As for the skipper of the dhow, he was a perfect demon, and would have settled Captain Wilson had it notbeen for the coxswain of the gig giving him a drive through with hiscutlass just as he had got our captain down and, kneeling on his chest, was preparing coolly to cut his throat with the keen curving scimitarthat we had seen in his belt. Captain Wilson looked, sir, as pale as aghost when he got on his feet again; for although he was as brave anofficer as ever stepped, it does give a fellow a bit of a turn sometimesto be face to face with death, as he was then, and know that nothing, probably, can save you!

"When we had got the better hand of the slave crew, in which we did notquite get off scot-free, five of our men being killed outright andseveral wounded with ugly gashes from the sharp knives of the Arabs, weset about opening the hatches to release the slaves, who had all thiswhile been kicking up a thundering row below, yelling and hollering asif they were all being murdered. 

"Well, bless you! why, there were no less than three hundred and fiftycrammed in the hold fore and aft on the two decks that were underneaththe main one, and which had not four feet of space between them; thepeople, men, women, and children, being packed together so close thatyou couldn't have got a sheet of paper edgeways between them. As forthe smell; well, sir, I think you'd prefer that of a gas main justopened, or the foulest scent you could think of, to what we all smelt inthe hold of that there dhow; for it seemed to smother us and make thestrongest men aboard turn faint just like a girl does when she cuts herfinger and sees the blood. 

"After releasing half of them and bringing them up on the upper deck ofthe dhow, for there was not space to let the whole of them out of thehold at once, we had to rig up the masts of the craft again so that shecould make sail, the weather being too ticklish for the _Dolphin_ totake her in tow; although she did so for awhile, just in order to get alittle further away from the coast, which was not too pleasant aneighbour with a north-east monsoon blowing and a heavy sea setting intowards the land. 

"By the time we had rigged up jury-masts on the dhow it was dark, so, warning the prize-crew that was on board, of which I was one, to keep asharp look-out and mind that our tow-rope didn't part, Captain Wilsonwent back to his own vessel--he wouldn't leave us till everything wasship-shape again with the slaver and everybody seemed comfortable-like;taking with him the majority of the Arabs who had been uninjured in thescuffle, and who might have tried perhaps to recapture the dhow from thesmall lot of men whom our captain was able only to spare to man her. Ofcourse, there was very little chance of their attempting this now thattheir skipper was dead, the coxswain's thrust with his cutlass havinglost the dark gentleman the `number of his mess'; but still, after thetreachery they had already shown, it was best to take all properprecautions to spoil any little game they might try on. 

"During the night, the _Dolphin_ kept under easy steam head to sea, onlyjust preventing us from drifting ashore, as our tow-rope was hardly evertaut the whole time, for the wind blew so strongly still from thenorthward and eastward, the very direction we had to make for to reachZanzibar with our prize, that it was impossible for the steamer to makeany way against it, especially with the dhow in tow. The sea, too, wasalso very rough, breaking over the frail craft so frequently that we hadto pack down all the slaves again below to prevent their being washedoverboard. 

"Towards morning, the wind gradually lessened, showing signs ofshifting, which was to be expected at the season, being near the end ofMarch. The sea, too, calmed down a bit, but there was still a heavyground-swell, and from all appearances it looked as if there was goingto be a squall, the more especially as it began to rain heavily. I hadbeen left by Captain Wilson in charge of the prize-crew, and this changein the weather made me feel somewhat uneasy of the tow-rope breakingfrom the increased strain there was now on it through the labouring ofthe dhow; for I thought it would be better for both the _Dolphin_ andourselves that we should cast loose and each sail on her own account, asat this time of the year the south-west monsoon, which takes the placeof the north-eastern `kizkasi, ' as it is cabled, or Indian trade-wind, generally sets in with a violent tornado blowing from off the land. 

"Accordingly, as soon as daylight I hailed the steamer to send a boataboard for me as I wished to speak to the captain. I had something moreto tell him, however, than about my fears concerning the weather; for, while I was keeping watch during the night, I had heard some wordsdropped from the Arab prisoners on the foc's'le which I thought it bestfor him to know. "

"Did you?" I said. 

"Yes, " said Ben, continuing his story. "While I was at Zanzibar I madeit a point to study the lingo of the natives there, and had learned agood many words of the Kisawahili tongue, which is the _lingua Franca_of the coast; and hearing these half-caste Arabs talking together Ilistened to what they said, for being a Feringhee in their eyes they didnot think I could understand them. Of course I couldn't manage tostumble to everything I heard, some of their words beingincomprehensible to me; but I gathered enough to learn that the dhow wehad captured was in company with another one equally as large, loadedwith slaves, that had got off clear and was now probably making its waytowards the Persian Gulf out of reach of the _Dolphin_. 

"This would be good news, I knew, for Captain Wilson; for, although theArabs believed that this dhow had escaped us, if the _Dolphin_ at oncewent in pursuit of her in the right direction there was not theslightest doubt of her being able to overhaul her before she reached herdestination, which was, I learned through the chatter of the prisoners, first to Mafiyah, as a sort of hiding-place until we should be reportedout of the way, and then on to Muscat on the Arabian coast. 

"I had no sooner got on board the _Dolphin_ in the dinghy sent for me, than, the skipper confirmed my own opinion as to the importance of theinformation I had obtained, although he said something which slightlydamped my enthusiasm, in giving me a job I had not bargained for. 

"`You've done quite right, Campion, my man, ' said he, `in not losingtime. I am glad you hailed me when you did, for every hour is preciousin getting up with a chase that has got such a good start. I shall takecare to mention you in my despatches for your prompt assistance ingiving me news of this vessel, as well as for your gallantry in thecapture of the _Fatima_, '--that was the name of the one we had alreadytaken, sir, and now had in tow. 

"So far Captain Wilson quite flabbergasted me with his compliments andmade me feel as proud as Punch; but his next words lowered me down apeg, I can tell you!

"`I'm sorry, however, I sha'n't be able to take you with me, Campion, 'he went on, `to see the end of this other affair; for now that I have tostart off in chase of the other slaver, which will take me off thestation, where some of the little Mtpe dhows will be trying to make runsfrom the mainland, thinking the coast unguarded, I intend leaving thepinnace behind to cruise about the Comoro Islands until I get back withthe _Dolphin_, and, as you are the only responsible man I could trust totake charge of the boat and crew, you must remain here. Pass the wordat once for the boatswain to pipe away the pinnace and see that she isproperly stowed and provisioned. '

"This was a good deal more than I had bargained for. I thought I shouldhave been allowed to remain as prize-master of the _Fatima_ and sail herup to Zanzibar, as that was what the captain had hinted the nightbefore. However, of course I put the best face I could on the matter, and contented myself with seeing that the water barricoes and storeswere properly put on board the pinnace, while all the other men who hadnot to remain behind with me and the boat were in high glee gettingready for the fresh chase, the news being already whispered about in themesses--hoping that they would have just such another scrimmage again asthey had had the day before at the capture of the _Fatima_. 

"Captain Wilson did not `let the grass grow under his feet, ' as thesaying goes--though it's rather a queer one for a seaman to use--incarrying out what he had decided on. 

"Before the blazing African sun was an hour old, by which time too therain had stopped falling, the second lieutenant of the _Dolphin_ wastransferred to the command of the captured dhow, our `First Swab' havingbeen wounded, taking with him all the prisoners that had been previouslyremoved to our vessel for safety, although they were now bound securelywith ropes and had a guard set over them to prevent their doingmischief, besides some additional hands to navigate the _Fatima_--which, hoisting her big lugs on the jury-masts we had rigged up the previousevening, and casting off the _Dolphin's_ tow-rope, was soon standing upthe coast on her way to Zanzibar, keeping well inshore now, as thatcourse was safest since the wind had changed. 

"Hardly had the dhow got well off than the pinnace was lowered into thewater alongside the steamer, her crew dropping in one by one, and I, ofcourse, descending last. We had provisions and water on board to lastus for six weeks, the usual time that boats are sent away from thevessels to which they belong on the east coast when cruisingindependently, as they all take it in turn to do; and Captain Wilsontold me I was to hover about between Madagascar and the mainland in theMozambique Channel until we might expect him back, which would be amonth at farthest, even making allowances for his being detained atZanzibar about the condemning of the slave-dhows which we had alreadycaptured and the one which he now hoped to get hold of. 

"The _Dolphin_ then took us in tow till we were abreast of the ComoroIsles, when she cast us adrift, starting off up the channel full speedand steering north-east and by north, so as to get well out to seabefore stretching in to the land towards Mafiyah, where she expected topick up the slaver; while we, hoisting the sails of the pinnace, andtaking it easy under the boat's awning that was spread fore and aft, bore away for Madagascar. Ah! sir, that was the commencement of anunfortunate voyage, for it was months before some of those that formedthe pinnace's crew ever met their old shipmates again on board the_Dolphin_; the majority of those with me in the boat never met the handswe left on board the steamer again at all, nor will they till that greatlast day of all when the sea gives up its dead!"

"I suppose you refer to that time when you said you were capsized offthe coast of Madagascar, eh?" said I, noticing that Ben Campion pausedat this point. 

"Aye, " he replied; "but I'm afraid it'll take a precious long time toreel off the yarn concerning that period of the story!"

"Never mind, please go on, " I replied. "Now you've begun and got sofar, I'm sure I should like to hear the end of it. "

"All right, then, " he replied; but, before proceeding, he had to load upa fresh pipe, and while performing this interesting little operation heinformed me, _en passant_, that the _Dolphin_ he afterwards heard hadsucceeded in capturing the second dhow, and her first prize the _Fatima_had safely reached Zanzibar; and, consequently, that his prize-money forboth seizures was safe, the sum accrueing to him amounting to over £50, being subsequently paid over to him when he rejoined his ship some timeafterwards--"and spent, too, long since, " as he said. 

These little matters, relevant and irrelevant, being thus disposed of, Ben continued his narrative as follows. 

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THREE. 

IN THE MOZAMBIQUE CHANNEL. 

"Where was I, sir?"

"You had just been turned adrift from the ship, I think, " said I, "andleft to cruise on your own account--wasn't that so?"

"Ah! yes, I remember now, sir. Well, then, when the _Dolphin_ had gotwell away from us, leaving us poor chaps to our own resources, we in thepinnace, now well under her canvas, were sailing along on a coursealmost at right angles to that taken by our old ship, which somewhattook away from the nasty feeling of being sort of left behind, you know;but, we could not help watching her with longing eyes as she sped awaynorthward under full steam and with all her fore-and-aft sails set thatcould draw, going fourteen knots at the least!

"It was a lovely morning that there--the loveliest I ever saw on theAfrican coast; for there was no mist, and the rain having ceased, thestrong sou'-westerly breeze that was blowing right offshore from themainland tempered down the heat of the broiling sun, which only thosewho have been on the coast can have an idea of as to how intense it canbe, while the pinnace was moving quickly through the water; and it wasnot long before the _Dolphin_ was hull down on the horizon, the whitegleam of her upper canvas vanishing soon after. But, for a long timesucceeding that, we could still see the smoke from her funnel spread outin the shape of a fan to leeward, where it was blown by the followingwind right across the sky and was clearly apparent in the clear blue airabove as well as reflected in the sea below. Then, too, thatdisappeared at length, and we were left alone in our little boat on thewaste of waters!

"I tell you we did feel a bit melancholy and down in the dumps then, especially as all hands knew the errand on which the old ship had goneand felt that we were out of the fun! However, I did not give the mentime to think of this too long; for, acting under the directions givenme by the skipper, I steered the pinnace towards the coast to windwardof the Comoro Islands, intending after dark to creep up under the lee ofSaint Juan, where I'd been told the dhows mostly made for when the coastwas clear; and, what with trimming the sails and making taut the sheets, as well as stationing a special look-out in the bows and one in thestern behind me at the helm, I soon managed to turn the men's attentionaway from the _Dolphin_, though some of them still seemed chop-fallen, being new to boat cruising and not relishing the work. 

"Of course, I knew in what a responsible position I was--almost likethat of the captain of a ship; for, I could order the men to do anythingI pleased, and if they disobeyed me have them tried for mutiny, while Ihad the right to attack and capture any native vessels I suspected ofhaving slaves on board--so, soon after noon, when I piped all hands todinner, I made them a little speech after the grub had been stowed awaycomfortably, pointing out that their circumstances were considerablybetter than they themselves appeared to think. In course, I said, ourshipmates in the _Dolphin_ had a bit the advantage of us in starting offon another chase, with perhaps the chance of a second scrimmage at theend of it, the same as we had all had together on the previous evening;but then, I says, what we were doing was equally for the good of theservice; and, besides, as soon as the steamer had overhauled the slavershe was after she would have to go back to that beastly Zanzibar in thethick of fever time, remaining there probably for weeks, until she gotrid of the slaves from the captured dhows, while, on the contrary, wewould be down here cruising about on the free open sea and enjoyingourselves!

"We lost nothing by remaining there, I said. If our old ship took theslaver she was now chasing, why, we would share in the prize-money justthe same as if we'd been on board her, without running the risk of anyhard knocks or having some Arab's dagger cutting daylight into us; andif she didn't succeed in hunting down the dhow, which was more thanlikely, considering the long start the latter had got, why, then wewould be well out of a wild-goose chase. 

"In addition to such arguments, " continued Ben, who sometimes spoke witha purity of diction that is much more common amongst seamen of the navyof to-day than it was in "the good old days" of our ancestors beforeeducation was much in vogue, "I hinted that nobody could say we mightnot pick up a slave-dhow down there on our own hook quite as good as theother one we could not go after; and if not, well, at all events wewould have an easier time of it than if we had been kept on board theship! There, as they knew, the skipper took jolly good care to serve usout full purser's allowance of drill if there was nothing else stirring;for it was beating to quarters, or small-arm exercise, or manning thebig guns, and playing all such fancy tricks with us when he had nobetter work to keep us employed with between watches. I can tell you, Inever saw such a hand as Cap'en Wilson for that. He used to say thatthe devil always found something for idle hands; and the way he wentabout remedying this reminded me of the old poetry lines I once heard aYankee sailor call the `Philadelphia Catechism'--

 "`Six days shalt thou labour and do all thou art able, And on the seventh, --holystone the decks and scrape the cable!'

"These words of mine had such an effect on the men that I assure you, sir, they grew quite cheerful like, chatting and laughing together asthey lolled about on the thwarts under the boat awnings that were spreadfore and aft I allowed them to take it easy, with the exception of thehands having charge of the sheets of the sails and those on the look-out, as I don't think discipline is preserved any the better by keepingfellows continually on the stretch when there's nothing particular todo, merely to see them slaving their hearts out. 

"Presently, the look-out forward said he thought he saw the white sailof a dhow close in to the island we were beating to windward of; and ofcourse every one immediately must take it for granted that she's acontraband carrying slaves. "

"I suppose you didn't undeceive them?" said I. 

"Not I, " replied Ben. "I was only too glad of the chance. It banishedat once all thoughts of the old _Dolphin_ out of their heads better thanall my palaver, for all hands were so anxious to come up with thestrange craft that they themselves voted for taking to the oars, which Icertainly wouldn't have ordered their doing in the terrible afternoonheat, as, while we were having our dinner, the wind had been graduallydying until it was now almost a dead calm, and the sails flappingagainst the masts, with the boat rocking on the heavy rolling swell thatyou always meet with out there when the sun is at the meridian. "

"I thought you expected a tornado in the early morning?" I heresuggested. 

"Ah! never you mind about that, " said Ben. "We haven't yet done withthe east-coast weather, as you'll see presently. Howsomever, as I wassaying, " he continued, "I told them to take in the sails, being sominded, and rig out the oars. They didn't lose any time about iteither, for as soon as I gave the order it was all haul down and furlup; and, getting a good grip of the water, they started pulling likemadmen, putting their hearts into every stroke--although the day was sohot and sweltry that a fellow seemed to melt away into perspiration, even lying still in the stern-sheets of the boat, as I was, withoutmoving a muscle. 

"The craft which had been sighted by the look-out forward was a smallMtpe dhow well under the lee of the island and creeping along-shore, herlight sails and the wider spread of canvas which her lateen rigpermitted enabling her to take advantage of the slightest puff of air;while our heavy pinnace, with her small-cut sails hardly raised abovethe surface of the sea, so as to get the full force of the wind, required a strong breeze to move her at all, although then she hadpretty fair speed. 

"Now that the men had taken to the oars, however, we began to approachthe stranger more rapidly; but she was over five miles off, and a pullof that length under a burning sun is no joke, I can assure you. Strokeafter stroke, our plucky seamen kept at it in spite of the heat, oneminute appearing to gain and then again to lose distance as a whiff ofair would waft the dhow along; so that, it was not until nearly sunsetthat we got within gunshot, and could hail her to see what she was upto. 

"`Now, Adams, ' said I to the man in the bows, who had command of theseven-pounder boat-gun we had fixed there, `I think we may invite thestranger gentleman to have a little chat. Fire away, my man, and makeher come to. '

"All was ready, so without more ado he fired, the shot ricochettingacross the prow of the Arab craft, which had by this time cleared theisland and seemed making for Madagascar, that lay east and by south somethree hundred miles off. At all events, the dhow was steering in thatdirection, with whatever wind there was on her beam, and she paid noattention to us at all apparently. 

"Still, she didn't long keep on that course. The first message from ourseven-pounder did not bring her to, nor did a second, but when a thirdwent unpleasantly close, right through her broad lug-sail, we could seeher come up to the wind sharp, while a fourth shot, which we now sent toshow those on board that we meant business and would be obeyed, causedher heavy yard to be dropped by the run in token of surrender. 

"We had a long pull yet to come near her; but on getting alongside wefound it had been all labour for nothing. There was not the ghost of aslave aboard, nor any signs neither of her having carried any recently. She was only a trading dhow with a lot of Banians taking goods from themainland to the islands; and so we had had all our chase for nothing. Well, the men were so vexed that they would have liked to have scuttledher. I was glad I hadn't suggested their taking to the oars, or perhapsthey might have turned on me for making them toil so when it wasn'tnecessary; but of course I wasn't to blame, and they knew that. 

"Having no authority to stop her, I was obliged to let the dhow proceedon her way, while we lay-to for the night in a sheltered creek under thelee of Saint Juan; for it was now getting dark, and the navigation beingrather treacherous with a lot of coral reefs about, I thought it best towait for daylight before we did any more cruising. 

"On the wind rising again, towards midnight, I anchored the pinnaceabout a cable's-length off the beach, where we were pretty secure fromdrifting ashore on account of the tide setting the other way. Towardsmorning, however, it came on to blow more strongly, and as the boatrocked uneasily I hauled up the kedge again, for it was bad holdingground, the tackle chafing against the coral banks and sawing away in amanner that promised to make it part if it remained down much longer, the boat's head bobbing down and up every wave with a jerk that mustsnap our painter in time. 

"Setting the mainsail reefed, and a small storm-staysail forwards, weran before the wind, which had now increased to a gale, blowing stiffly, as it had done in the early part of the day before, from the south-west. It was of no use trying to lay-to in the open sea, for the rollers weretoo heavy for the boat to ride over, so we bore right away across thechannel towards the north part of Madagascar, having a clear space ofwater in front of us with no chance of running ashore, for the nexttwenty-four hours or so at all events, if we kept on to the same pointof the compass that the wind was now carrying us to. The pinnace beinga good sea-boat, we were all right otherwise, that was, unless the galeshifted, when we would be driven back on to the rocky reef whichencircled the Comoro Islands, and no doubt go to pieces there. 

"`Let her drive, ' said I to the men, whom I kept baling out theoccasional seas that came in over the weather gunwale. `As long as shekeeps on running like this we can come to no harm, but you mustn't stopbaling, for if she once gets waterlogged she'll founder and then we'llall be lost. '

"This made them stick to it, although most of them were tired out withthe long pull they had had in the afternoon after the dhow, and whenmorning broke we were still all right and buoyant, although the tornadoshowed no appearance of slackening, and we were quite out of sight ofland, nothing but sky and sea being around us, and the waves rollingthat high as they followed in our wake that if we had not scudded on wewould have been swamped in an instant. 

"All that day we continued driving ahead, for we could not stop, or wearthe boat round, or do anything but simply let her go where the windchose to take her. We could not even lower the mainsail, as if we haddone so it might have capsized her, besides which, as long as it heldout without being blown away, although it almost made the pinnace buryher nose in the waves in front, it prevented the following rollersbehind from coming too close, just keeping way enough on her to be outof their reach. But, it was a perilous run of it, and every big comberthat raced after us looked as if it would overtake our tiny craft andswamp her!

"By about four o'clock in the afternoon, as near as we could reckon, wesighted the highlands of Madagascar, for it couldn't be any other coastfrom the direction we had been sailing in ever since midnight. The landwas right ahead and some distance off yet; but approaching it rapidly aswe did, it made us tremble, for unless we could manage to steer insidethe reef that lay outside the shore of the island, the same as at SaintJuan, we must be dashed against the cliffs. It was wonderful to thinkwe had run all that distance in less than twenty-four hours. 

"How we did it I'm sure I can't tell, but I believe in addition to theforce of the wind, that must have driven us at the rate of twenty knotsan hour, more or less, there was a strong easterly current in theMozambique Channel with the south-west monsoon, and this must havecarried us so speedily across from the Comoro Islands. I can't accountfor it otherwise. 

"Be that as it may, sir, there was Madagascar now before us, with thepinnace closing in with the land every second, seeming as if she wereflying towards it rather than sailing; soon, too, we could distinguishthe noise of breakers, which grew every minute more distinct. We wererushing rapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly powercould save the boat from being dashed to pieces. 

"However, there was a power above watching over us. 

"Presently I noticed from the contour of the land that we were near CapeTangan, which I well knew from a coasting voyage I had made round theisland in a cruiser the year before when I came out to join the_London_, and I recollected that this headland ran out into the sea in anorth-westerly point, so that, if we could contrive to get the boat toleeward of the cape, we would soon be in comparatively still water andprotected alike from the force of the wind and the rolling waves. 

"I sang out to the men therefore to get their oars out ready, and, watching my opportunity when we were just almost abreast of Cape Tangan, I told Adams, who was in the centre of the boat now, to lower away themainsail, directing the others at the same time to pull with a will, astheir lives depended on our rounding the promontory, against which itlooked as if we were going to be hurled as we came up to it--it was soterribly near and frowning over us!

"This plan fortunately succeeded, for in another minute, during which Iheld my breath in suspense, we were round the cape and in still water, although close to a coral reef that girdled the land, which was stillsome three miles off. We really were safe for the time and dropped ouranchor, glad enough at our escape; but I saw that the haven could onlybe of temporary assistance to us, for should the wind shift more to thenorthwards we would even be in a worse position than when scuddingbefore the gale, as the reef would then be immediately to leeward of usand the gale in our face. 

"It would serve no good, however, to meet evil half-way, so as the menwere all dead tired out and exhausted with hunger, having eaten nothingsince dinner the day before the storm set in, I ordered the provisionsto be served out, telling them after that to lie down and have a goodsleep in the bottom of the boat while I remained on the watch tillmorning, having had less exertion than any of them. 

"But the poor fellows did not have half so long a rest as that. Towardsmidnight--it seemed indeed as if all our misfortunes came at that time--the pinnace dragged her anchor and drifted on to the reef, when I had torouse all hands to jump out in the darkness and shove her off againbefore she knocked a hole in her bottom. Then, no sooner were we afloatagain than the wind veered round, just as I had fancied it would do, without the slightest warning, to the northward. 

"This of course rendered it impossible for us to remain any longer underthe lee of the cliff, our anchorage there being now untenable; and, putting out to sea again, we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale inthe offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail, so as not tobe in too close proximity to the reef, which was doubly dangerous to usnow. 

"Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the storm, until shortly after daybreak; when, the rollers coming rolling inheavier and more heavily each hour, the poor pinnace sank below thesurface of the sea in twenty-five fathoms of water, leaving thirteen ofus struggling for our lives some seven miles away from shore. "

"That must have been awful!" said I sympathisingly. 

"It was awful, " replied Ben gravely. "I can hardly bear to tell of itnow. "

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR. 

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. 

"The only things left floating in the water after the pinnace sank downunder us, " resumed Ben after a lengthened pause, during which he puffedvigorously at his pipe as if to make up for lost time as well as torestore his equanimity, "were, the rain awning, a sort of longtarpaulin; the sun awning, which was of lighter stuff, and soon gotsaturated by the sea, making it go to the bottom too; a couple of oarsthat had become, somehow or other, unfastened from the rowlocks and wentadrift; a pork breaker or barrel; and two water barricoes, one of whichwas empty, while the other contained only about a couple of gallons ofthe precious fluid which in a short time would be worth more to us thangold--but, I'm anticipating matters. 

"Five of the boat's crew went down almost as soon as the pinnace, thusleaving only eight of us to battle against the waves and try to swimashore if we could; although I, for one, didn't believe a soul wouldever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to itat all!

"What the others did at the moment I can't say; for with that selfishinstinct of self-preservation which makes a man in the instant of dangergrasp anything, regardless of what his comrades in distress might bedoing, I grappled hold of one of the oars and the pork breaker, besidesthe stern-sheet grating, which I forgot to say also floated from thewreck. These I lashed together into a sort of raft with a long woollencomforter, which I had fortunately wound round my neck the night beforewhile keeping watch to protect me from the damp dew, and now took offfor the purpose. I was treading water all the time I was doing this, and the sea being very buoyant in the Indian Ocean on account of itsextra saltness, I managed to rig up my raft pretty well. Then, when Ihad finished it to my satisfaction, I looked around me, being too busyto do that before; and, seeing Bellamy, one of the crew who I knew couldnot swim, holding on to the other oar, and Russell, another chap in thesame predicament, clutching tight to the gaskets of one of thebarricoes, I helped them both on to my little platform, keeping them andmyself afloat as well as I was able by swimming alongside and pushingit; for neither of the poor fellows could aid me--they seemed perfectlyhelpless. 

"By this time the sun was high in the heavens and blazing right downupon our heads with an intensity of heat that almost seemed to shrivelup our hair, making us feel as if a red-hot cinder was laid on top ofit. There was not much wind, that having died away soon after daybreak, the tornado having spent all its force and blown itself out; but the seawas still rough, the heavy rolling waves washing over us every now andthen as they broke against the raft. Perhaps this moisture was good forus, the rapid evaporation of the water under the burning heat keeping uscool; but, what with the exposure and the fright he had sustained at oursudden upset, poor Russell went clean out of his mind, becoming as madas a March hare. Although I was trying all I could to keep him on theraft to preserve his life, he thought I was struggling to prevent hisholding on; and he commenced fighting with me, clutching hold of my neckand trying to force me under the water. I stood this for some time;when, seeing he only got worse instead of better, and that I had nomeans of fastening him down to the raft, I thought the best thing Icould do for my own safety, as well as to give the other two a chancefor their lives, was to trust to my own unaided strength and strike outfor the shore, leaving the two on the raft to look after themselves. Before abandoning that frail support, however, I adopted the precautionof taking off every stitch of clothing I had on--my boots I had chuckedaway when in the boat, preparing even then for the worst. Had I notdone this, I'm certain I would never have reached land or be now tellingyou this tale. "

"I'm sure I'm very glad you took the precaution, " I observed, "it was asensible one. "

"Yes, " said Ben, "there's no use a man attempting to swim any distancewith his things on. A fellow can do it in a bath, as a sort ofexhibition like; but when he comes to battle for his life against thesea, the only chance he has is when he's stripped; for his clothes suckin the water and weigh him down so as to take all the buoyancy out ofhim and cripple his efforts to keep afloat--that's my opinion frompainful experience. 

"Soon after I quitted the raft, " continued Ben, proceeding again withhis narrative after my interruption, "I saw on looking back that Russellhad clutched hold of Bellamy the same as he had done with me. ButBellamy hadn't half my strength, for the other soon got the better ofhim, and although I tried to swim back against the rollers so as toprevent the mishap, I couldn't make headway in spite of all my efforts, so in a minute or so I saw both tumble off the raft into the sea, and godown locked together in an embrace of death. Poor fellows, the madmanhad caused both to perish, when, by keeping quiet, they might have beenwashed safely ashore in time. I tried myself to regain the raft then, it being now vacant and ample enough to support me alone comfortably;but the waves were too much for me, so I had to give up that hope andstrike out once more for the shore, although the latter was so far offand low down too in the water that I couldn't even get a glimpse of itnow to cheer me up and lead me on. I could only judge the direction ofit by the set of the tide and the sun; and although I swam as manfullyas I could, the thought occurred to me more than once that I might bemaking for the open ocean instead of the land after all, and was onlyprolonging my last agony!

"However, a little way on, the sight of one of my lost shipmates gave mefresh courage, for I had believed up till then, when Bellamy and Russellsank under water, that I was the only one of the pinnace's crew leftalive. 

"His name was Magellan, one of the smartest topmen of the old _Dolphin_, and he seemed now to rival the reputation of the fish after which ourvessel was named, as he was swimming ahead of me with a proper breaststroke, and going well through the waves. I first saw him as he rose ontop of a roller; and he, looking back at the same moment, when turninghis head to avoid the wash of the wave, caught sight of me. 

"`Hullo, Campion!' he sang out, `where are you bound for?'

"`For the shore, you lubber, ' I retorted jokingly, for seeing him putsuch fresh life in me that I felt almost inclined to laugh out aloudwith joy!

"`Have you got anything to support you in the water?' he asked withsurprise. 

"`No, ' said I, `nothing but my own carcass and the use of my hands andlegs. '

"`The same with me, old ship, ' he replied, `let's see who'll get to landfirst. '

"`All right!' I cried, `start away!' and we both of us struck out hard;but he was a far better swimmer than I was, and I soon lost sight of himalthough I followed in the same track as well as I could steer. 

"About noontide, when the sun had got vertical in the sky overhead andblazed down with even greater power than it had done before, I hadanother cheer up; for, as I rose on the send of the sea I could faintlydiscover the tops of two trees in the distance standing out amidst thewaste of waters. This put additional pluck into me, and made me exertmyself to the utmost, as before then I could not see any sign of land atall; but, after swimming on for some time I began to lose heart againand became assailed by all manner of miserable fancies that almost mademe despair!

"I thought it was strange that I could not see Magellan, if he werestill in front of me, in the same way that I could observe the twotrees. He must have gone down at last and got drowned like the others, I said to myself; or else a shark has snapped him up and made an end ofhim, so that I alone was left out of all the thirteen of the pinnace'screw. What was I reserved for?--a worse fate perhaps than the others--possibly to reach a desolate shore, where I would starve to death insolitude without a single soul to share my misery! The idea of sharks, however, haunted me more than any other thought, for I knew that therewere plenty of these sea monsters in the Mozambique Channel, and Idreaded more being caught by one of them than the mere fear of drowning, which now seemed to lose all its terrors, although I still swam onmechanically. Every time a wave broke over me, or when I splashed upthe water with my own feet, the haunting horror seized me that the widecapacious maw and gaping saw-like teeth of a shark were ready to closeupon me, paralysing my heart nerves, and making my blood run cold rightthrough me. I never wish to pass through such a terrible time again, sir--not for the mere peril I was in from the sea and the long distanceof water I had to traverse before I could hope to reach the end, so muchas from the thought that my shipmates were all drowned, and the nervousdread I suffered on account of those devils of the deep, although allthe while I actually never saw one. This was fortunate for me, as I'msure only the sight of one in my then state of mind would have taken allthe fight out of me and made me an easy prey!

"My fear of the sharks indeed grew so strong upon me that I absolutelytried to drown myself, but I could not keep myself down below thesurface of the water long enough to carry out my intention. Theattempt, however, did one good thing for me, as, seeing that I could notsink, try as hard as I could, it appeared to me that I wasn't born to bedrowned--sailors, --you know, are rather superstitious sometimes--so, thinking this, and assured that I was certain now to get to land, ifonly the sharks left me alone, I struck again towards the direction ofthe two trees that I saw every now and then to encourage me as I rose upon the crest of each alternate wave, determined to persevere to the lastas long as the breath was left in me. 

"Why, sir, it was a swim that beat poor Captain Webb's exploit incrossing the Channel, for the pinnace had gone down soon after daybreak, and I had been swimming ever since, while now the sun was sinking in thewest, looking as if it were going to dip in another hour at the most. Yet, I seemed as far off from the land as ever, those two trees that Iwatched so earnestly, and shaped my course by never appearing to riseout of the water or come nearer to me than two miles off--for, whetherthe tide had turned or there was a current carrying me along in aparallel direction with the shore, or some other cause, for ever so longa time I never got any closer than that. It was very hard, I thought, with the land so near to me now, and I unable to reach it, strive how Imay! Perhaps, I fancied, those trees are a mere fanciful dream like thefairy-like mirage of the desert that tortures poor lost wanderers withpictures of cool lakes and rivers, while they are really in the middleof burning sandy plains. I began to doubt they were real trees at all, for I should have got up to them long since; and so, harassed again withdespair, I tried a second time to drown myself, clenching my handstightly to my side and making no effort to swim--but it was all in vain, I could not keep down. I must have been delirious I think then, andperhaps imagined it all, going out of my senses as poor Russell had donepreviously, and wandering in my mind, for I can recollect perfectlyseeing the faces of people I knew in England--my father and mother andmy young wife--beckoning to me and holding out their hands to drag meout of the water, when I knew all the while that I saw them that I wasswimming for my life in the Mozambique Channel, and that they were safeat home in the old country! I suppose in my delirium two differenttrains of thought were running through my head?

"After that, I forget what happened. I must have become insensible, forI don't remember what occurred between. I seemed to wake up toconsciousness all at once, and then I found myself lying on a low sandybeach, where I must have been washed up and left by the retreating tide. 

"Although the sun had now set--which showed that I must have beenunconscious for some time, as the last thing I recollected was itsscorching my back, for of course as I was swimming in an easterlydirection towards Madagascar, as it sank down the horizon it got behindme, --it was still light; and, looking about me, I perceived that I wason a small island or sand-bank, some distance still off the mainland, from which it was separated by a wide channel of water. I tried to getup on my feet to notice better how wide this channel-way was; but I wasso weak from my long immersion in the sea, having stopped allcirculation, that I fell back again flat on my back like a dead man. The exertion of trying to rise, however, made me bring up a considerablequantity of sea-water, some two gallons or more, which I must haveswallowed when insensible, for I certainly never took down half thatquantity while swimming, having carefully avoided letting any get intomy mouth for fear of its increasing my thirst; but, however it got intome, the emetic did me good, and I felt much better after thus disgorgingit from my inside. 

"Resting a bit, stretched out on the sand-bank, I could not helpthanking the merciful Providence that had thus preserved my life when Ihad abandoned myself to despair, and had been powerless to aid myself;and I wondered whether any of my comrades had been saved too, or if Iwere the sole survivor of the ill-fated boat's crew?

"The evening growing darker my mind was soon brought back to thoughts ofaction, especially as the tide rising on the beach where I was lyingbegan to lap against my body. Crawling on my hands and knees, for I wasstill unable to rise to my feet and walk, my limbs being perfectly numbfrom the thighs downward, I managed to get out of the way of the waterfor a while; but as it yet continued to rise, and I thought it mightpossibly cover the whole sand-bank at high tide, I determined to attemptto swim across the intervening channel that lay between the little isletI was on and the main coast--although the latter in the evening gloomseemed more than a mile away, and I felt utterly feeble and worn out. But, I had to do it somehow or other, so I nerved myself up for thetask. 

"Strange to say, however, the moment I rolled myself into the wateragain, for I cannot say I walked in, I found I could use my arms andlegs again as freely as ever when swimming, albeit so cramped andpowerless when I tried to move them ashore; and so, striking out againfor the last time with all my remaining strength, I crossed the littlechannel that separated me from the Madagascar coast in much less timethan I had calculated on, the haze having made it appear wider than itreally was. 

"It was dark, however, when I grounded on the other side, where the landfortunately shelved down into the water gradually--for if there had beenany steep bank or cliff to climb I could never have succeeded insurmounting it, the last exertion of swimming the channel havingexhausted all my energies. Now, completely prostrated with all I hadgone through, as soon as I had crawled up far enough to be out of reachof the tide, I laid down under the trunks of the two trees that had beenmy beacon guides to safety, and which grew close together out of a clumpof sand on the shore, falling asleep at once. I was so utterly worn outthat I was not only powerless to proceed any further, but I had no dreadof the savage country I was in, or any fear of being attacked by wildbeasts!"

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FIVE. 

HUNGER AND THIRST. 

"When day broke next morning, " Ben went on to say, "there I found myselfunder the shade of the two cocoa-nut palms, as I discovered my beacontrees to be, lying on the warm sandy bed covered over with leaves whichI had accidentally selected for my night's couch--being the firstcomfortable spot I came to on crawling up from the beach. I feltthoroughly rested and restored to my old self, although still somewhatstiff and sore all over, as if somebody had given me a good thrashing--which of course was owing to my long exposure to the waves and thebeating about they gave me; but, I was able to stand on my feet now andwork my limbs more freely than I could on first landing, which wasdecidedly a point to the good, as I had thought I was paralysed. 

"Looking about me, I noticed that I had managed to fetch a low curvingbay or arm of the sea considerably to the south of Cape Tangan, which Icould recognise stretching away to the northward. The shore was of finewhite sand; and in the background was a dense bush of jungle and foresttrees, principally palms and such like tall upright trunks, that had nobranches, all their foliage being on the top in a cluster like a lady'sparasol. 

"My two cocoa-nut trees were evidently the outlying sentinels, oradvance-guards of these; for they stood alone on the beach a hundredyards or more in front of the jungle and brushwood, which extended backfrom the shore in a mass of green that stood well out, in pleasantrelief to the gleaming sand, as far away as the eye could reach, clothing the slopes of the high mountains which rose up in the centre ofthe island running like a backbone or rocky spine all along its lengthfrom its extreme nor'-easterly point down far away to the south. 

"This forest belt of green encircles the whole coast of Madagascar, I'vebeen told, beginning close almost to the water's edge in some places andextending back inland until the higher levels are reached; and it is ofa uniform width of some fifteen miles across, except where, of course, it has been cleared away at the different settlements and colonies atthe heads of the various bays with which the coast is indented. I know, at all events, that this jungle seemed endless and impenetrable; for Ihad quite enough to do with it in the following ten days that I was thusbrought face to face with it, as I can tell you!

"As soon as I woke up, the first thought that crossed my mind was, wherecould I find water? I was so parched with thirst that my tongue seemedglued to the roof of my palate, and I believe it was feeling this thatroused me; so, naturally, I turned about, hunting for some brook orstreamlet where I could get a drink, as rivers mostly run to the shoresof the majority of islands I ever heard of. However, there were noneclose in sight that I could see from the beach, and all the water therewas salt; and, as I argued to myself that all the green jungle must havebeen produced and kept alive by moisture of some sort, I abandoned thesea-shore as hopeless and directed my steps towards the bush, with theexpectation of finding there the object of my quest. I didn't go withany lagging steps either, for by this time my thirst was almostunbearable, becoming the more intense the longer I waited for water. 

"I proceeded after getting into the bush to where the ground sloped downinto a sort of valley, fancying that such would be the likeliest placefor a river; but I had not got very far through the rough thicket, whichscratched my exposed skin pretty sorely by the way, when, as I emergedagain into the open, I saw before me a group of men in front amongstsome detached trees. Two or three were moving about, while the restwere lying on the ground; so, taking them to be natives, and knowingthat the Sakalavas who inhabited this part of the coast were, unlike theHovas, friendly to foreigners, many Hindoo families and Portuguese beingsettled amongst them, besides a few stray Frenchmen and Americans, I atonce made towards the group. Judge of my surprise, however, on comingup to the men, to find that they were none other than Magellan and fourothers of the pinnace's crew, whom I had supposed to be lost, but whohad managed to get ashore safely long before myself!

"Well, what a hand-shaking there was that went round them--why, it waslike meeting chaps that had been dead and buried over again! We none ofus could say anything for some time, the emotion of seeing each otheragain being too much, for I was a pretty good favourite with all thehands, and Magellan had told the rest about his having passed meswimming ashore early in the day they all got to land; and then, throughmy not turning up, of course they all believed I had gone down to DavyJones! One thing was now certain, however; and that was, that we werethe whole number that were saved; for, if you will recollect, five outof the thirteen comprising the crew of the boat had gone down with herwhen she filled and sank, leaving eight only struggling in the water. Of these remaining eight, six of us were now together on the Madagascarcoast, and the other two, Bellamy and Russell, I had myself seen drownwhen they tumbled off the raft on which I had left them in that lastdeadly embrace of theirs. 

"I was so knocked of a heap at meeting my old shipmates so unexpectedlythat I declare to you I forgot all about my raging thirst for themoment; but as soon as the excitement had calmed down and all sorts ofquestions and answers had been asked and replied to, with muchpalavering and congratulating of one another, the intense feelingreturned to me worse than ever--my tongue being so swollen up that itseemed to fill my mouth!

"`Have you got any water?' says I to Magellan; `I'm dying with thirst!'

"`Bless you, my hearty!' replied he, `why didn't you say that afore?But mind now, you must go gingerly. This is all we've got till we findsome more, and we've agreed to allowance ourselves. Half a pint is allyou can have, shipmate, now, and if you drinks it all you'll get no moreto-day. I advise you to rinse your mouth out with it, for that'll makeit go further, bo!'

"So saying, Magellan hands me a pannikin into which he had drawn off thequantity of water he had said was the allowance out of the barrico, which I told you contained some when the pinnace was wrecked. It hadfloated ashore all right, fortunately for us all; and Magellan, pickingit up, had had the good sense to economise it for the advantage of thelot. I can't tell you how it felt as I drank it down! Nothing that Iever tasted before or since all the world over ever came up to thatdrink of water. It was like the nectar as I've read of that the oldGreek gods used to drink on Mount Olympus, for it was sweeter than anywine or liquor that ever crossed my lips before I learnt to wear theblue ribbon!

"I took Magellan's advice and drank it sparingly, washing my mouth outto make it go further before I swallowed it and spinning it out as longas I could, giving a great gasp of satisfaction as I drained down thelast drop. I never thought such a chap as Magellan would have had thesense to lay hands on the barrico as he did and serve it out onallowance--considering the little amount of water there was, and how allmust have been pretty nigh as thirsty as myself; but, I suppose theperil he had been in and the fact of his not seeing any river neartaught him caution!

"Now, on seeing me drink, the others wanted the pannikin passed round;but Jem Magellan said `No, ' putting the barrico back under some leavesalongside of where he had been sitting when I came up, which was thereason I hadn't noticed it as I was certain to have done; and I, takingcommand of the party again, as I was entitled to do as senior pettyofficer, endorsed his authority, saying that it was for the good of allthat some restriction should be placed on the water so as to make itlast out till we got more. I daresay, sir, as how you must have thoughtit strange that Captain Wilson should have put me in charge of thepinnace, instead of a warrant officer or middy?"

"Yes, I must say I have been wondering at that, " I replied to Ben'squestion. 

"Well, it seems rather queer, " said Ben; "but you must know that whenthe _Dolphin_ captured the dhow that time, the only officers on boardfit for duty that weren't down in the sick bay with fever were the firstand second lieutenants, one middy and the boatswain, besides Chips thecarpenter, who couldn't be spared from the ship; and in boarding the_Fatima_, the first swab, as I told you, got an ugly scrape in the legthat prevented him from moving; so when the second lieutenant was put incharge of the dhow to take her up to Zanzibar, I was the onlyresponsible man the captain could think of to send cruising with thepinnace, as the middy was a harum-scarum youngster, who hadn't gotthought enough, and neither the boatswain nor Chips could be taken awayfrom their duties without perhaps the ship suffering. Besides, I had avery good character, standing on the books for promotion, with threegood-conduct badges; and being at the time well acquainted with thecoast and the ways of the slave-dhows I was just the man to be put incharge of the boat as `jaunty, ' as we say in the service. "

"All right, I've no doubt the captain selected you as a fit person forso responsible a post, " said I. "Fire away with the yarn. "

"Very good, sir, " said Ben, continuing his narrative now that he hadgiven this explanation. "I was in command of the party anyway, though Imust say I wasn't very much like an officer in appearance, for I hadn'ta rag of clothing on. Indeed, most of us were in the same condition;for, only Magellan and one other chap had trousers, the remaining threebeing, like myself, as naked as when they were born! However, that didnot trouble us much then, as we were under the shade of the trees, andin those parts of the world the less you have on the more comfortableyou are; although, when exposed directly to the sun it soon raisesblisters on a bare skin. 

"Before doing anything else, as soon as I resumed my proper post asheadman of the crew, I thought the best thing was to organise a propersearch for water, that being our principal necessity for the moment;and, accordingly, directing the lot to separate, each going a differentway so as to properly overhaul the ground, but not keeping too far apartto be out of hail of one another lest we might get lost, we dispersedthrough the bush--I taking the beach line for my course, and telling therest to keep the two cocoa-nut trees in sight for a general rendezvousand report progress in an hour's time or thereabouts if they had notfound water before. If they found it, of course they were to sing outat once. 

"Our courage was pretty well up then, for we had yet only seen thebeginning, so to speak, of our trials, and the men went off laughing andskylarking; one calling out as how he'd soon be piping us down to a realgood feed, with lashings of grog; and another saying he'd look in andask the Queen of Madagascar to send down a carriage and fetch us to thepalace. Bless you! you know what light-hearted chaps sailors are, evenin the midst of danger. As for myself, I was more serious like; for, besides having the responsibility of the whole party on my shoulders andwishing to do the best for all, I couldn't help thinking we were in avery sorry mess altogether. I knew what the coast was, you see; for itwas a wide extent of savage country all the way from Cape Tangan toMajunga, with only some little native settlement here and there between, all of which were separated by this endless belt of jungle I'vementioned, and wide lagoons and rivers, in addition to high mountains inmany places--that would have been tough climbing at the best of times, without the heavy brushwood and tangled thickets that ran up from theirbases to their summits, and the deep crevices and gorges in which theyabruptly ended, making one come to a dead stop on the edge of some awfulabyss, over which one step further would precipitate you. I knew allthis, sir, from my own past acquaintance with the coast, as well as fromwhat I had learned from others who had seen more of it than I had; so, Idid not see quite such a satisfactory end to our difficulties as all therest did, with the exception of Magellan, who had been shipwreckedbefore, on the coast of China, and knew it wasn't child's play. But, asfor the other poor fellows, they had to learn the reality in bitterearnestness. Now that they had succeeded in getting ashore suchdistance from where the pinnace had sunk under us, they believed theyhad passed through the worst peril they could possibly have to contendagainst and that thenceforth all was plain sailing for them. Ah! beforethat first day of their experiences in Madagascar was over they wouldhave a very different tale to tell, as you'll see. 

"So thinking, and, as luck would have it, anticipating exactly whathappened, though perhaps this was more owing to the melancholy frame ofmind I was in than any pretence of being able to foretell the future, assome folks set up for doing, I went from the little clearing in thebush, where we had been assembled, down to the sea, the glimmer andshimmering of which, from the sun shining on it, could be seen throughthe openings in the foliage of the trees--first directing my footsteps, being now able to walk easily and well, to the bank at the foot of thetwin cocoa-nut trees where I had rested for the night, and from thenceto the place where I had crawled ashore; for, I could trace my waywithout any difficulty by the tracks and marks I had made in the clearwhite sand, which being above high-water mark had not been washed out bythe tide, as would otherwise have been the case. 

"From this spot, I followed along the beach the whole curve of the bay, a good two mile or more, to where it ended in a precipitous cliff, without finding the mouth of any stream or river emptying itself intothe sea; but I found one thing of some service, for, attached to an oar, which must have formed part of the raft I had made and abandoned toRussell and Bellamy, was the comforter that I had taken off my neck andbound the spars together with. It came in now even handier than ever;as, wrapping it round my loins I converted the old comforter into a sortof petticoat that did duty for my missing `unmentionables, ' as delicatepeople call them, and I confess I felt more comfortable with thisapology on, even though I was in those savage wilds with but my ownmessmates to see me. 

"Only the oar had been cast up by the waves; neither the pork breaker, which had contained one or two junks of meat that might have been usefulto us, nor the stern-sheet grating, which I had lashed together with it, being observable anywhere on the strand, so they must have been carriedby the current round the cape. 

"I retraced my way sadly to our meeting-place; for, as I argued, if Icouldn't see the mouth of any river there they wouldn't find one in thebush, as the ground shelved down gradually towards the sea in theneighbourhood, so if there was any water stream, it was bound to findits way there, not being able to run uphill!

"During all this time I could hear our chaps hollering and calling outto each other, sometimes the voices being far away and then again closeat hand; but when I had got up to the cocoa-nut trees there they allwere once more, with the same story of an unsuccessful search. Divingbeneath the brushwood and jungle they had peeped and peered into everylikely spot they came across, without finding a trace of water, nor eventhe empty bed of what had been a stream in the rainy season. It wasevident that the valley we were in was too northerly for the rivers thatI had heard entered the sea mostly on the west side of the island; andthat to come to such we would have to make our way over one of theintervening chains of hilly land lying between. 

"The men, however, were too tired to attempt this now, for instead of anhour, we had been nigher three searching through the forest and coast;and, it being close on noontide, from the elevation of the sun, whichbeing in the zenith was right over our heads, I called a halt--all of uslying down under the trees till it should get a bit cooler towardsevening. All, too, were so thirsty, and clamouring out so much forwater, that I and Magellan had to give in to their entreaties and serveout another half-pint apiece, which we told them would have to last themuntil noon next day; but still, this second allowance all round made aserious drain on our store, for there being six of us now, and each, including myself, having had half a pint in the pannikin before, thatmade six pints out of the two and a half gallons the water barricooriginally held--nearly a third of the whole quantity. If we went on atthat rate, why it would only last for three days, or two more at theoutside, when, as I calculated, it would take us a week at least toreach Majunga, that is if we could manage to surmount the mountainranges that I was aware lay between where we were and that port. I saida word or two to that effect to the men, but they didn't pay muchattention to my caution, all being tired out and the majority fallingasleep as soon as they drank their allowance, without waiting to see thenext served out even, they were so drowsy. 

"I tried to keep watch for a bit, but the exertion of walking about hadbeen too much for me too, and I soon followed suit in dropping off withthe others, not waking up until it was close on sunset, when theslanting rays of the fiery orb shining right into my eyes roused me andmade me turn out, although I took care not to wake the rest. 

"I felt thirsty now no longer but hungry as a hunter, and started up tosee if I could find anything to eat. I thought there might be cocoa-nuts about, for these when they are old, as you generally only see themin England, contain, instead of juice, or `milk' as they term it in thetropics, which the nut is filled with when young, a valuable amount ofsolid matter, which is not only tasty to eat but nourishing as well, being mostly a kind of vegetable fat or oil. However, on looking up atthe trees over our sheltering place I could see no cocoa-nuts; while ahunt amongst the bushes disclosed nothing there in the fruit lineeither. I saw some tamarind trees certainly, but the beans on thesewere only just sprouting out from the blossom; and although I gatheredsome of these and chewed them, thinking they might have an acid tastewhich would alleviate thirst if it did not allay hunger, they were sonasty that I had to spit them out again and wash my mouth out with sea-water to take away their flavour, going down to the shore for thispurpose, as well as to see if there was anything eatable there to pickup. 

"Presently, Magellan woke up too, and then the others, all sufferinglike myself from hunger. One chap said he could eat his boots; but thenwe had all pulled those off when the pinnace was labouring in the seabefore she foundered. I told them about my unsuccessful try for cocoa-nuts and fruit, so they were perfectly satisfied that if I failed itwould be useless for them to worry themselves by searching; and after atime chatting together and planning out that, next day, we would try tocross the mountains to Majunga, we all settled down to sleep again afterthe sun had gone down in the west--when night came on suddenly, withoutany twilight the same as you have here, enveloping the forest and allour surroundings in a darkness so dense that it could almost be felt, nomoon rising or any stars peeping out until long after we were snoring, that is, if any at all came out then. 

"The next morning, we made a terrible discovery. 

"Through some carelessness or other in putting back the bung-stopper ofthe barrico, or from one of the chaps getting up in the night and`sucking the monkey' while we were all asleep, every drop of water haddisappeared from the vessel, and although we all awoke thirsty, the sameas we had done the previous morning, there was nothing left now toquench our drought with. 

"The men were so angry over it that they nearly came to blows, Magellanand I having much difficulty in pacifying them; the more especially, assome of them complained that if they had been allowed to have had theirfill before going to sleep, at all events the water would have done somegood then instead of being wasted, and they would besides not have beenso thirsty as they now were, while they also would have been able tohold out longer till they got more. 

"Of course this was absurd on their part, although very aggravating; soto stop any more hard words and argufying in the matter, I suggestedthat as there was nothing to be gained by our remaining any longer inthe vicinity of the bay where we had first come ashore, we had betterstart off at once on our journey to Majunga while we were fresh in theearly morning, before the sun got high in the heavens to enervate uswith its scorching heat. 

"This motion was carried, with one or two dissentients, and weaccordingly at once started off due south, as nearly as I couldcalculate by the position of the sun and sea, making our way through thestiff jungle up the side of the mountain that spurted right across ourcourse in that direction, the way getting steeper and steeper each stepthat we took forwards, and the jungle thicker and more dense. 

"Gracious goodness! what a climb that was! Up and up we struggled andtoiled, perspiring all the way and gasping with heat and thirst. Wetore all the skin off our arms and legs in forcing ourselves through theprickly patches of jungle, and almost splintered our feet against therocks and gnarled roots of some of the trees, besides bruising ourbodies all over with the repeated falls we had; and, all the while, wewere suffering the most unmitigated pangs of hunger and thirst thatmortal man could experience when in full strength. 

"To add, too, to the misery of the toilsome journey, we could hardly seean inch before us, although the sun took right good care to blaze downright immediately over our heads through the tops of the trees. Wecould only tell we were ascending from the extra fatigue it entailed inlifting our weary feet in stepping upwards; and although we climbed upseveral trees that looked taller than the rest near, so that we mightbetter observe our whereabouts, when perchance we might discover somewelcome oasis in sight in the midst of this desert of green, not asingle yard could we see beyond the tree tops immediately near, whichclosed in the view completely--the only break apparent being the intenseglaring blue of the burning sky just overhead, with its molten copperydisc of a sun darting down fiery rays from the zenith. 

"At last, when every man Jack of us felt that he could not proceed asingle step beyond if we had any more climbing to do, the groundsuddenly began to descend, telling us that we had reached the slope thatled into the next valley. 

"This put fresh life into us and made us press onwards with renewedvigour, everyone hoping that, as soon as we got to the bottom of thedeclivity, we would reach one of those rivers which, as I had told themen, emptied themselves from the west coast of Madagascar into theMozambique Channel--buoying up their drooping energies whenever theyappeared to falter on their toilsome way by holding out this dream tothem, for I believed in it fully myself. 

"It was but a futile hope, however; and one, too, that was doublydisappointing. 

"On getting to the lower part of the hill, something was seen shiningthrough the trees, like as the sea had been observed shimmering in thesun on the other side of the mountain, but this now evidently could notbe any portion of the Indian Ocean or Mozambique Channel, from thedirection we had been proceeding in since the morning?

"No, it could not be the sea. 

"It could be nothing else, thought the men, than the much-longed-forriver which I had led them shortly to expect to see in sight; so, with aglad cheer they rushed between the trunks and branches of theintervening trees in mad, hot haste to quench their thirst in thecooling stream. 

"But oh! the terrible surprise!

"The water was salt and brackish, not fresh. It was a lagoon, or arm ofthe sea, running up between a gorge of the hills, and not a river afterall. "

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX. 

THE CROCODILE'S VICTIM. 

"You won't think I'm exaggerating, sir, or that we were unmanly; but Iassure you that one and all of us broke down under this disappointment, and cried as if we were a parcel of children. It was like the laststraw, you know, that broke the camel's back!

"As soon as we all recovered a bit from the disappointment, I told themen that we must make the best or worst of it, and that it wouldprobably ease their thirst if they bathed in the lagoon. This some ofthem did, but the majority gave way to despair; and if we had not luggedone chap out he would have drowned himself. 

"We had a long rest here, if rest you can call it when fellows feltutterly burnt up with the heat, and so parched with thirst and famishedwith hunger that their whole inside was all one gnawing crave for foodand drink; but it eased us a bit, and Magellan and I held a council ofwar, as you might say, looking matters in the face and studying ourposition. 

"As near as I could judge from what I had observed when cruising off thecoast, we should have to cross three more mountains similar to the onewe had just got over, and travel through three more valleys like this inthe same way, before arriving within hail of Majunga; for I knew therewere three bays between Cape Tangan and the port we were aiming for--Pasanda, Radama, and another whose name I forget. The question was, would we ever get over the distance? If we did not meet with watersoon, it would be utterly impossible for us to accomplish the journey;and, as the dry season had now set in, our chance of finding strayrivulets and mountain streams would grow each day less and less--unless, sir, you've ever been in the tropics you can't tell how quickly theappearance of the country alters with the change of the season! Aplace, one day, may be all foaming down with cataracts and mountaintorrents, with a river perhaps lying in your way that you would have toswim through to get over to the other side of it; while, the next timeyou visit the same locality, even within a week, the mountain torrentsand cataracts will have vanished as if by magic, and the river you hadto swim over or found impassable will now have dwindled down to a tinystreamlet that a child could paddle in, or else have completely driedup, leaving only a rocky channel in the ground with huge boulders tossedabout here and there to show where it had been. 

"It was fortunate for us we had the sun to guide us through all thisforest waste, as otherwise we could not possibly have steered in anyconstant direction, but would probably have gone round in a circle likea horse in a mill. As it was, however, even amidst the depth ofbrushwood and jungle by the side of the salt-water lagoon where we werecamping for the time, we could easily distinguish the western point ofthe compass from the sun circling almost directly towards that quarterafter it had passed the meridian, for we were only some fifteen degreessouth of the equator; and in the morning, likewise, we had no difficultyin telling when we faced east. 

"Under these circumstances, therefore, I advised all hands to get upwhen they felt a little less tired and trudge on steadily due south, where our only hope of safety lay, as long as the light through thetrees enabled us to see where we were going. Once the light becameuncertain, it would be better to stop for the night than to wander aboutand fatigue ourselves unnecessarily, only perhaps to find out when thesun rose again at dawn that we had been merely retracing our previousday's steps to no good. 

"It was a hard job to make the poor chaps buckle to their tramp again, and it was as much as Magellan and I could do to get them to start. Oneof them, Denis Brown, he was a faint-hearted man even on board ship, entreated us to let him lie down there and die where he was; but ofcourse we would not leave him behind, and he had to come on with uswhether he liked it or not, Magellan and I forcing him on his legs anddragging him on. 

"Our first task was to get round the lagoon, which was so overgrown withreeds and suchlike rank vegetation as grows in swamps that we couldn'ttell where it began or ended; but as the sea must lay towards the west, I came to the conclusion that if we skirted the bank in the oppositedirection we would soon come to the neck of the water and be able towade across it. This we did, but it was arduous walking--through mudand slime, with snakes darting out every now and then upon us, and hugecrocodiles crawling out of our way, just as we almost set foot on them, which frightened some of the timid ones pretty much, I can tell you!

"At last we managed to get round the lagoon; and then, steering steadilyagain to the south, this bit of easting having taken us a good deal outof our straight course southwards, we had a second mountain to climb upthrough tangled brushwood and jungle. This seemed harder work a gooddeal than the first one, for we were almost tired out when we started onthe journey, while our feet were so swollen and blistered with all thewalking we had already done, besides being torn to pieces with thestones and jagged bits of tree roots we had trodden on, that we couldhardly crawl up, although we grasped hold of the branches of the shrubsand brushwood to drag ourselves up by. When we arrived at the top ofthis chain of hills--for it was first up and then down most of the way--the sun was just setting; so, down we squatted in the first open placewe reached, resting for the night and leaving the descent into thevalley for the next morning. Indeed, we were so weary and worn out thatif we had known for a certainty that water was within reach of us at thebottom of the hill, although we were so thirsty that we couldn't hardlyspeak to one another, I don't believe a man of us would have stirredafter once lying down to get a drink--we really couldn't have stirred astep!

"The sun had been up a good time before we rose from the ground, onthis, the third day of our being in the bush, and when we got up it wasas much as we could do to stand in an erect position at all, ourenergies being so exhausted that hardly a man had a scrap of strengthleft to drag himself up. Of all the miserable scarecrows you ever sawin your life, we must have then looked the worst--with our bare peltsburnt and blistered, our tangled hair and beards, our woebegone faces, out of which our eyes were almost starting from their sockets, and ourbleeding feet and limbs, the latter all scratched, and with pieces offlesh torn out of them by the briars and thorns through which we had toscramble in our climb up the mountain!

"`We look just fit for Madame Tussaud's chamber of horrors, ' saidMagellan, contemplating himself ruefully, and then looking at the restof us, who were all in the same sorry plight--like a parcel of nakedwhite savages. 

"`Aye, ' said I, `and I wouldn't mind being there in London now!Howsomdever, old ship'--I added on to what I was saying, seeing that thefellows laughed and cheered up a bit at Magellan's comical way--`if weever hopes to get there we must trudge on now. Our course is alldownhill, thank goodness, and perhaps we'll meet with a river at last--as soon as we get down to the gully. '

"`That's your sort, ' shouted out Magellan heartily; `rouse up, myhearties, and let us push on. There's no good our remaining here, andthe sooner we start, why, the sooner we'll get to Majunga. Yo, heaveho! Up anchor, men, and make sail! Heave ahead with a will and followme!'

"With that, we got under way again, with Magellan leading, as he wasstronger than me now, and the first man of course made the path easierfor those coming after him--which was the reason I went in advance aslong as I was able. In proportion as it had been harder to climb, sowas this mountain steeper and more dangerous to descend than the firstone we had surmounted, for it sloped down so suddenly in some placesthat it seemed as if we were sliding down the pointed roof of a house;while we had to look out narrowly for several ugly chasms or crevices inthe ground on which we popped every now and then most unexpectedly. Denis Brown, the most unlucky of the party, as generally happens totimid nervous people, nearly got his neck broken in one of these gulliessoon after we started, and it was only by the exertions of all our partythat we saved his life. 

"Slipping, sliding, swinging ourselves forward sometimes by the branchesof the trees from one foothold to another, but still ever descending, wemade our way down the side of the mountain for ever so long, going ontill we thought we must be diving into the heart of the earth, the gorgewas so deep. Occasionally, when we arrived at some little open space, we could see the tops of the trees underneath us, as if under our feet, and felt inclined to jump on them and go right through to the groundbelow with a crash, and have done with it at once. The work, however, was so different to the climbing we had the day before that the men wentat it more cheerily, besides which it was like running downhill, andwhen once they had begun descending they could not stop themselves, buthad to go on like a rolling ball. 

"Thank God, though, it was toil well spent! As we got nearer thebottom, I could fancy I heard the noise of water running, the soundcoming to my ear in the silence of the still solemn forest when thenoise we made crashing through the brushwood had ceased. I couldn'tbelieve it, however, at first, and thought it was a dream, or arose outof the delirium occasioned by the thirst from which I was suffering; butit grew clearer and more distinct as we proceeded, and being assured ofthis I halted of a sudden. 

"`Jem, ' I sang out to Magellan, who was still in front forcing a way forus, `stop a minute! Don't you hear anything?'

"He therefore halted like myself, and so did the rest, who were pressingon between us, he leading and I bringing up the rear, the other fourbeing in the middle like a wedge. 

"`Listen!' I cried. All was stillness for a moment, but soon, abovethe hush that succeeded the noise of our movement through the bush, wecould hear a faint silvery trickling sound that was sweeter than thesweetest music to our ears. It was the murmur of running water, with anoccasional splash as it leaped over a stone. 

"`Hooray, boys!' exclaimed Jem. `We've fetched the water at last--follow my leader now, and we'll be able to slake our thirst!'

"So saying, he plunged again downwards through the jungle, and we afterhim, helter skelter through the forest in our mad race for the preciouselement of which we had been so long deprived, and whose real value wedid not properly appreciate till we had lost it. Our rush must haveresembled what I've read takes place on the prairies of America whenthere is a stampede of the wild animals frightened by the forestscatching fire or some other scare. 

"Thank God, as I said then, it was not another deception this time likethe salt lagoon that had disappointed us so sorely that time when wethought we had a drink at last!

"As we got nearer and nearer the bottom of the valley, the sound of therunning water increased, and mingled with it was heard that bubbling andsplashing that echoes so delightfully on one's ears on a warm summer dayin England from a garden fountain; so you can imagine how it appealed toour parched senses. Why, we wouldn't have stopped then in our progresstowards it if a fiery volcano lay between us, or if a thousand bayonetstried to arrest our movement!

"Another moment of suspense, and then, there lay the stream before us. I never experienced before that saying in Scripture so thoroughly, aboutthe sight of the water in a thirsty land. It was like heaven to us!

"It wasn't a big river--only a little streamlet of about six feet inwidth, yet pretty deep, for it came up to our shoulders when we stood init; but it was quite enough for us, and we dashed into it, plunging inand rolling over in our hot haste and eagerness to drink, so wildly, somadly that it was a wonder that we did not drown one another, allclumped up together as we were. We swilled and swilled till we well-nigh felt that we were bursting; while some continued to drink evenafter their stomachs were unable to contain any more, and the waterrolled back out of their mouths. We were more like beasts than humanbeings for over a quarter of an hour; and then, we roared with an agonyof pain from the distension this sudden repletion gave us. After atime, however, this passed off and we felt more comfortable, when wewere able to sit down by the green banks through which the stream leapedand raced along in its course down to the sea to the westwards beyond. The river, we could now see, when we had more leisure to contemplate it, came from a little cataract or waterfall that sprang down a niche in therocks at the point where two gorges met, and if we had gone half a milefurther to the eastward we must have missed it. Providence surelyguided our steps that day, for I'm certain we could not have livedanother twenty-four hours without water, nay, not twelve!

"As soon as our thirst was appeased, all of us began to feel ravenouslyhungry; the men, to my eyes, seeming by the looks they were casting ateach other as if they would turn cannibals if no other proper foodturned up. Glancing about the little glade where we were resting, Ifortunately saw just by the side of the streamlet some lace-like leavesof a climbing plant which resembled very much what I knew in the WestIndies as the water yam--a very good vegetable that serves the niggersthere instead of our potato, and indeed some folks, myself included, like it better than that even, when roasted, with lots of butter on it. 

"I told Jem of this; and he, fortunately having his knife with him slungon to the lanyard round his trouser band--he was the only one of us thathad a weapon of any sort--at once began to dig about the roots of theplants, soon dragging out from the ground a large bulb something like anelongated beet-root. It was the water yam, sure enough. I recognisedit the moment I looked at it, and I was glad that the leaf had attractedmy attention; so, telling Jem it was all right, he at once sliced it upinto six pieces and shared it out to us. I can't say it tasted nice, being raw; but it was something in the food line at any rate, and we ateit all ravenously, the same as we would have eaten the leather of ourboots if we had any. 

"Jem Magellan dug out three more yams, one of which he shared out in thesame way and which was just as quickly demolished; but the two others hereserved for the next day, in case we should not chance to come acrossany more plants. Then, we had another good drink of water, which tastednot the less sweet the more we had of it; and as the sun was now settingwe turned in for the night by the bank of the stream, intending to staythere a bit until we had recruited ourselves after all the exhaustingprivation and terribly hard work we had experienced in getting throughthe bush since quitting Cocoa-nut Bay, as we had christened the place wehad come ashore from the wreck of the pinnace. 

"Next morning we woke up more at our usual time aboard ship, soon afterthe sun rose, the rest and food and drink having refreshed us so greatlythat we felt almost ourselves again; but we were still mighty hungry andpolished off our two yams for breakfast in a brace of shakes, the mennot listening to the injunctions of Magellan and myself that perhapsthey would feel the want of them more before the day was out. Now theyhad had their ravenous cravings appeased, they thought they had come tothe end of all their privations. Poor chaps, they and myself had tosuffer a good deal more yet before we had quite done with Madagascar!

"A little later on, a sort of large parrot or cockatoo came flying downthe valley, perching on the branch of a tree near the waterfall, wherehe began to croak away; so Denis Brown ups with a piece of stone andchucking it at the bird brings it down. In a moment he had picked offthe feathers, when Magellan, taking out his knife again, cuts the parrotinto six portions, entrails and all, and distributes it amongst us. That was the first thing we had between our teeth in the shape of meatfor nearly six days, for we had our last meal on board the pinnace theday before she upset; so the fowl tasted better to us than the bestfancy dish ever served up at the lord-mayor's dinner--the only thingagainst it being that there was so little of it, divided amongst the sixof us! However, it was a godsend any way; and it gave us so muchadditional strength and courage, combined with the effects of the yamswe had already eaten and the plentiful supply of good water, that it wasunanimously resolved, after having a thorough rest that day by the sideof the river, to resume our march to Majunga the next morning atdaybreak and to keep on till we got there. 

"But, `Man proposes and God disposes, ' says the old proverb, and a verywise one too, as we proved before the next forty-eight hours went overour heads. 

"There was no breakfast this morning of our second day's rest by thebanks of the river that had so providentially been sighted in time tosave our lives; but, notwithstanding that drawback, the whole party ofus started gaily afresh on our way through the jungle, resuming oursoutherly course towards Majunga. Magellan and I regretted very muchthat we had omitted bringing the empty water barrico from Cocoa-nut Baywith us, for now we could have filled it and carried a supply with us inthe event of our being unable to come across another spring; but none ofthe other men would carry it, and he and I after taking it along for atime had thrown it away before the end of our first day's pilgrimage, itbeing as much as we could do to drag ourselves along without beinghampered with an empty cask that might after all be a uselessincumbrance. 

"So, once more depending on the chance of what we might meet with on theway, we set out; our way was, as at first starting, lying again uphilland the steepest bit of climbing we had yet had. In spite of our goodintentions of the previous night, what with prospecting our journey andone thing and another, it was past mid-day before we got well off fromthe valley, and it was nightfall when we reached the top of the thirdmountain; but the men were not near so tired as they had been on thelast two days of our wandering before getting water, and even now didnot complain again of thirst as they had done at their former halts forthe night--moaning through their sleep and bursting out sometimes inincoherent ravings as if they were going mad. From the top of thiseminence, too, we had more of an outlook than we had yet been able togain, seeing a distant peep of the sea through the trees, and below usfar away, wandering in and out between the masses of thick foliage, thesilvery gleam of a river coursing its way to the coast. We went tosleep, therefore, with the comfortable assurance that everything wouldturn out well for us on the morrow, when we should be in clover ifappearances were to be trusted. 

"Alas, it was a day of calamity and greater peril than we had yetundergone!

"Our downward progress this morning was as rapid as that into the oasiswe had discovered in the wilderness on the day before, and indeed seemedmuch easier, the vegetation not being so thick and the ground shelvingless abruptly; but then, in compensation for this, we did not receive asimilar thankful reward for our toil on reaching the bottom, for, although we came to a river, its water was utterly unlike that of thespring in the glade, being muddy and brackish. However, to men thirstylike ourselves it was drinkable, and we had to content ourselves withit, taking as little of it as we could help and that only sufficient toquench our cravings. 

"What upset us more than this, though, was that this river was somethree hundred yards across from bank to bank, so that we would have towade it or swim it to get over to the other side, our investigations onthe shore where we were deliberating showing us that it would beimpossible to circle round it without going for miles out of our way. We were not frightened at the mere fact of having to venture intounknown depths--men who had swam the distance we had done in theMozambique Channel could afford to laugh at the paltry width of thestream. What troubled us was the sight of innumerable crocodiles, sluggishly dragging themselves up the slimy mud banks on either side andswimming about in the centre of the stream as if on guard over itsprecincts. We did not care about tackling these; and so it was wehesitated, none wishing to be the first to venture the passage. 

"At last, Jem Magellan, as usual, came to the fore. 

"`Come now, men, ' says he; `what are you minding them air crocodilesfor? They won't harm you, when the sharks let you t'other day inswimming ashore from the pinnace! Jest follow me, and you'll soon seethat my splashing in the water will frighten them off! They are ascowardly as they're big and ugly!'

"With these words, he leaped into the river and was very shortly acrosssafely on the other side, the hideous reptiles taking no more notice ofhim than if he had been one of themselves, continuing to wallow about inthe green slime. 

"Seeing this, I too followed, for I own to being a bit skeared of theanimals before Jem put courage into me; and so did two of the others;but Denis Brown and the sixth man got terrified when they were in midstream, shouting out and hollering that the crocodiles were after them. Jem, who was as brave as a lion, opening his knife and putting itbetween his teeth, plunged into the water again, swimming back to whereDenis Brown was struggling in the river alone, the other chap havingabandoned him and made for the shore. But, the true-hearted fellow wastoo late; just as he was within a yard or two of Denis, the other gaveout a shriek which went right through us all like an electric shock anddisappeared below the water, into whose muddy depths one of the hideousbrutes we had seen had dragged him down. I declare, it affected usmore, that did, than all we had gone through; and we were not calm tillJem Magellan stood once more amongst us, for we thought the crocodilemight capture him next. We did not any of us like Brown much; but ourmisfortunes had drawn us all closer together and we felt his lossdeeply. 

"That wasn't the end of our troubles for the day either. 

"Resuming our course sadly across the level marshy land which adjoinedthe river and apparently extended some distance before we could reachour last hill, we had just entered within the outskirts of anotherforest of jungle when our ears were assailed with the most terribleyells. The next moment, without the slightest warning, a band ofnatives rushed at us with savage cries--hurling spears and darts at us, before we could put ourselves into a posture of defence--poor, unarmed, defenceless fellows that we were!"

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SEVEN. 

RESCUED AT LAST. 

"The savages, " continued Ben, "in their rapid onslaught on us, fortunately, missed their aim, only one of us getting a spear-woundthrough the body, the rest of their weapons expending their forceharmlessly in the bush, and by the time they were ready for a second goat us we were better prepared to receive them, although sadly wanting inthe means of defence, only Jem Magellan having a knife. This he at oncedrew, however, while the rest of us, using the sticks we had previouslycut in the forest, as I had forgotten to tell you previously, made aneffort to save our lives with the determination of fighting to the last. 

"But, Jem was our guardian angel now, as he had been before. Darting atone of the natives before he was apparently aware of his intention, hestabbed him through the heart, and then catching him up without asecond's deliberation by his legs, and using his body as a club, hefloored three others in rapid succession. We, too, were not behindhandwith our sticks; and the savages--struck more with consternation atMagellan's tremendous strength, for he was built like a giant, and stoodover six feet high, than by our prowess--ran away back into the jungleas fast as they had come upon us; leaving some four of their numberstruck lifeless on the ground, besides the one Jem had first settled, and whom the club exercise to which his body had been subjected hadknocked out of any semblance it had originally possessed to the humanform. 

"We breathed hard when the scrimmage was over, for it was warm workwhile it lasted; and then, our sadly-lessened little party thinkingdiscretion the better part of valour, and that our foes might getreinforced and return to attack us in numbers, only ten altogetherhaving belonged to the body assailing us, we too took to our heels inthe opposite direction. This was the very one, indeed, in which ourproper course lay; and we ran on without giving a thought as to whetherany of those we had knocked on the head would come to life again or not, or that we had to answer for their deaths. 

"It would weary you to hear all the further trials we had to go through. We had three other rivers to ford before reaching the base of the nextmountain; and, on essaying to climb this latter, we found it so steepand matted with rank vegetation that it was impossible to ascend it. Besides, the mosquitoes stung us almost to pieces on our going into theforest here; and, seeing that our route southwards was impracticable anylonger, we bent our steps due west, following the track of the lastriver we had crossed so as to gain the beach again, which latter courseseemed to offer now the best chance of escape. 

"Arrived here, we sat down facing the sea, without a single sail passingby within hail, as we had hoped would soon have been the case, for twolong weary days and nights--one of us always keeping watch that weshould not miss a vessel, in the first place, and, secondly, for fear ofanother attack from the natives. During all this time, recollect, wehad nothing to eat since we swallowed the last fragment of the solitaryparrot that poor Denis Brown had knocked down, although plenty ofbrackish water was at our disposal from the river. 

"On the third morning, however, just when we were pretty nigh done upwith the heat and hunger, thinking each moment would be our last, anArab dhow passed by close inshore to where we were stretched almostlifeless on the sand, watching the monotonous sea that broke with aheavy wash on the beach. 

"We hailed the people on board, but they took no notice of us, and weabandoned ourselves to despair. However, another trading dhow came bysoon afterwards, luckily for us, and the skipper of this showed moresympathy to shipwrecked seamen in distress, for, responding to ourappeals for help, he said he would lie to for us, but as he had no boatwe would have to swim off to the vessel. 

"This we did, braving our fear of the sharks, though we had seen plentyof them about during the two days we had been staring at the sea; and, plunging into the waves, were soon hauled aboard in safety, therevulsion of feeling at being thus saved from a lingering death almostmaking us helpless at the last!

"The captain of the dhow, who was in the employ of some Banian traders, carried us to Majunga, where we were most hospitably treated, a housebeing set apart for our accommodation, and the Queen of Madagascarherself sending down provisions for our use during our stay there. Irecollect, on the very day of our arrival, she despatched three casks ofrice, along with a dozen ducks and twelve fowls, for us to have a feastwith; and I don't think we had left a bone of the poultry or a grain ofrice by the end of the following day. 

"I shall never forget the kindness we all met with at Majunga. It is anArab colony, with lots of Hindoos and Portuguese there besides, althoughonly a small mud town. It was this place that the French bombarded theother day for no cause whatever that I can see save to get a foothold onthe island and establish their blessed republic there. But then, weneed not talk. I've known English men-of-war set fire to nativevillages amongst the islands in the South Pacific just to avenge afancied insult which some blackbirding schooner had once received whenits crew were trying to kidnap the natives, and I have known crueltiescommitted because the merchants were unable to get the proper price fortheir Manchester cottons and Brummagem goods; while when serving on thewest coast of Africa, up the Congo river, I have seen whole colonies ofpoor niggers annihilated, with their little towns wrecked over theirheads, simply because they did not choose to do exactly what we toldthem. You may say that the French have no right to do as they have doneand are doing in Madagascar; but circumstances alter cases, sir. Weonly think these bombardments and colonising schemes bad when they arecarried out by other nations; when we do similar things, of course it isall right and just. "

"Did you rejoin your ship ultimately?" I asked, when Ben had finishedhis little bit of moralising, apropos of international differences. 

"Oh yes, sir. The _Dolphin_ came cruising in search of us down thecoast after capturing the second slaver and settling all her business atZanzibar; and, on her putting in to Majunga, of course we went on board, reporting the accident that had happened to the pinnace. The excitementhad borne us up to then; but, soon after we found ourselves once more inthe old ship, the whole lot of us broke down and went raving mad, beingout of our minds for weeks. Magellan and the others recovered outthere, but I was invalided home and sent to Haslar Hospital--beingultimately allowed to leave the service on a pension before I had quitefinished my time, all through that exposure I had had when swimmingashore in the Mozambique Channel and journeying through the bushafterwards. I have quite recovered since, however, and am now as haleand hearty a man, thank God, as ever I was in all my life. "

"I'm glad to hear that, " said I cordially. 

"Aye, I am, " he repeated, as if to impress that point carefully on mymind; and then, seeing me looking at my watch, he asked me what the hourwas. 

"Just eleven o'clock, " I answered. 

"Lord bless us!" he exclaimed, "I'd no idea what time it was. Whydidn't you stop me? I must be off home or my wife will be thinking I'mlost. Good-night, sir. Hope I haven't wearied you with my yarn?"

"Oh no, " I said, "I have not found it a bit too long. Good-night. " Andso ends Ben Campion's story of "The Lost Pinnace. "

THE END.