O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas Part 7

From the Cape we sailed straight to Bombay, it being found that the old _Niobe_ would require to go into dry dock.

I remember being dazzled with all I saw in Bombay, except those terrible Towers of Silence, on which the dead bodies of the Pa.r.s.ees are exposed to be devoured by birds. What I think struck me most was the gorgeous dresses of the natives, and the enormous amount of gold and silver ornaments they wore about them; bangles, and bracelets, and jewelled noselets, and ear-rings as big as cymbals, or the bra.s.s plates that barbers hang out in front of their doors. If I wondered at the natives, the natives wondered at me--the piccaninny sailor-boy, as they called me--for I was now dressed out quite like a man-o'-war's man.

From Bombay we returned to our cruising ground, which was at that time called the Cape station, and stretched all along the entire east coast of Africa, from the Cape to the Red Sea, including not only Madagascar with its circlet of tiny islets, but Mozambique, the Comoro Islands, and Seych.e.l.les as well. Were I to tell you all my adventures on these sh.o.r.es, I should have no s.p.a.ce to devote to sketches probably quite as interesting.

Let me come then as speedily as I may to the one great event of my life: my capture by that arch-fiend Zareppa, and my treatment while a prisoner for ten long years in the wildest part of the interior of Africa.

As soon as we reached Zanzibar, I being then of the ripe age of six years, the captain called me aft, and Roberts the boatswain came along with me.

"My man," said the captain to me, "You are six now, and it is high time you were rated."

I began to cry. A rating I thought meant a flogging, and I had seen poor fellows tied up over and over again and flogged until the blood gushed out of their backs.

"It is nothing," said the kindly captain; "I'm going to make a man of you."

"Oh!" I said, and wiped my eyes.

"But," continued the captain laughing, "We'll make a second-cla.s.s boy of you first."

Roberts laughed now.

"I'll teach him sir," he said, saluting the captain, "to splice and reef and steer."

"Well, away you go," said the captain, "and see, my little man, that you do all you are told."

I touched my forelock, and went away forward with the good boatswain; so proud that I'm sure I didn't feel my feet touching the deck.

My education had begun long before; it continued now, and I hope I did my duty.

For the next four years we had plenty of chasing of s.h.i.+ps, plenty of cruising, plenty of jollity and fun, both on sh.o.r.e and afloat, and now and then a pitched battle.

We had never seen Zareppa again, but we had often and often heard of him. We knew that he was in the habit of marching into the interior upon peaceful negro villages lying about the Equator, burning them, and capturing the inhabitants as slaves.

Oh! boys at home, if you but knew the horrors of the slave trade; if you could but realise even a t.i.the of the misery and wretchedness and fearful crimes included in that one word "slavery," as applied to Africa alone, you would not deem yourself ent.i.tled to the proud name of British boy, until you had registered a vow to do all that may ever lie in your power, be that little or be it much, by deeds or by words alone, to wipe out the curse.

Had you seen what I have seen of it, had you sojourned where I have sojourned, you would have witnessed deeds that would harrow your mind to think of even till your dying day.

My life on board the _Niobe_ was altogether a very pleasant one; the best part of it was the long glorious cruises we used to have in open boats. Fancy, if you can, going away in a well-found boat, away from your s.h.i.+p entirely for, perhaps, a month or six weeks at a time, in the glorious summer weather, with the blue sky above, the blue sea below, and hardly ever more wind than sufficed to cool and fan you, and to raise the sea into a gentle ripple. We cruised along the coast, we cooked our food on sh.o.r.e--and oh! what jolly "spreads" they used to be, what soups, what stews!--we cruised along the coast, and we sailed or pulled up rivers, and into many a lovely wooded creek, going everywhere, in fact, where there was a chance of capturing a slaver, or of making a prize. When the slave s.h.i.+ps ran we chased them, when they fired on us we fought them, and they were always beaten. They might win a race, but never a battle. We were some fifty men strong; we never stopped, therefore, for an invitation to go on board; we went, sword or cutla.s.s in hand, and they were bound to give way.

But to me, I think, the glad sense of being away from the s.h.i.+p and of leading a free and roving life, was the greatest part of the pleasure, and I used to be so sorry when we bore up at last for the rendezvous where we were to meet our s.h.i.+p.

That, then, was the bright side of the picture of my life in these glad old days. And I must confess that it really had not a dark one, although sadness used to steal over my heart, when letters came from what others called home--England.

Home! To me the word had no other meaning except the wide ocean, and yet when I saw others reading their letters with such joy depicted on every countenance, well--it was very foolish of me, no doubt--but I used to steal away into some quiet corner, and weep.

"Now, my lad," cried Roberts to me one day. "Get that twopenny-ha'penny cutla.s.s of yours out, and prepare to go on sh.o.r.e. We're going up country to fight those rascally Arabs. We are going to storm Zareppa's own stronghold."

"Hurrah!" I shouted; "And you will really take me with you, Mr Roberts?"

"That I will, lad; and you're not your father's son unless you know how to behave yourself in presence of a foe."

I said nothing; but at that moment I almost thought that Roberts instigated an act on my part, which followed some days after this. Had he not mentioned Zareppa and my father in two consecutive sentences--my father and my father's slayer?

"Oh!" I said inwardly, "could I but meet the man face to face!" What a childish thought, you will say, for a mere stripling, with a twopenny-ha'penny cutla.s.s! The cutla.s.s, by the way, was a middy's dirk, of which I felt very proud indeed.

The boats were called away. The expedition against the Arab stronghold was going to be "a big thing," as Roberts said, so every man that could be spared from the s.h.i.+p joined it.

Our guide was poor Sweeba. This negro had but one thought in life; namely, to avenge the murder of his family. I'm afraid that revenge is a very human though an improper feeling; and it is easy enough to understand, without attempting to justify, Sweeba's thirst for vengeance. I hope that I myself shall never forget that Bible text which says--

"Vengeance is Mine, I will repay."

The utmost caution was necessary in pa.s.sing up through the forest and jungle, for we were surrounded by enemies on all sides. However, we made forced marches in silence and all by night, and in three days'

time, being favoured by fortune, we arrived in front of Zareppa's stronghold, and within two miles of the place. We lay closely hidden till daybreak, a good two hours, sending Sweeba forward to scout. He returned shortly with the intelligence that the Arabs were in great force, and had both camels and cavalry, and that they had also thrown up a strong earthwork on the hill around their position.

Before sunrise we were ready; a mere band we were, but a brave one, about one hundred and twenty in all, bluejackets and marines. Ere the sun had mounted over the forest land we were close upon Zareppa's position, and in the darkness our fellows had even cut out a company of war and baggage camels. It was here that the fighting first began, but taken by surprise, the camel-drivers, after a faint show of resistance, fled hurriedly up towards the fort.

It was now daylight, but the beams of the sun were sadly shorn by the smoke that arose from the fort as a tremendous volley was fired to check our advance. Under cover of this volley down thundered the foe to the charge. But little more than two hundred yards intervened between the fort and our fellows. Yet many a horse lost its rider, many a brave and stately Arab bit the dust, ere the enemy reached us.

I cannot describe what followed. No one can give an account of anything save his own experience in a fight like this. The enemy fought with terrible courage. Again and again were they foiled, again and again did they return to the charge with redoubled determination. They leaped on our very bayonets, over their own wounded, and their dead and dying fell together in heaps. But all in vain. Zareppa at last, despairing of success, withdrew his daring followers.

"Now, lads," cried our commander, "follow me into the fort. They have shown us how Arabs fight; we will now show them what true Britons can do. Hurrah!"

The wild "Deen! deen!" of the Arab is nothing in strength of volume to the stern British "Hurrah!" It is a war-cry that has struck terror into the hearts of foemen on every land on which the sun s.h.i.+nes. It is a war-cry that means business. It meant business to-day, as our fellows dashed up that hill and entered the fort. Then the fighting commenced in deadly earnest; the Arabs had leaped from their chargers, which were held in readiness in the rear, and fought with swords only, even their spears being for a time discarded. Our fellows fought with sword, with bayonet, or with b.u.t.t-end, and men fell fast on both sides.

Only once during this fight Roberts was near me, but then his good sword saved me from a fearful cut. "Back to the rear, boy," I heard him yell; "you're too young for this work."

But, look! yonder is the chief, yonder is Zareppa. Though I had never seen him before, an instinct seemed to tell me that that was the man who had slain my father. I flew at him--foolishly enough, no doubt--flew at him as if I had been a wild cat. I clutched his belt and raised my arm to strike. He bore me to the ground by a blow from his sword-hilt. He seemed to scorn to fight with such as I.

Next moment he himself was down. Sweeba had felled him, but was, in his turn, cut down almost immediately. On the ground I grappled again with the pirate chief. It seems all like a dream now, but I have little doubt my agility saved me, and enabled me to make such good use of my dirk that Zareppa never rose again.

Years after this I knew we had gained this fight, but now, as for me, I was taken prisoner, bound hand and foot, and carried into the interior.

After the death of their chief, the Arabs had fought only long enough to secure possession of the boy who had killed their leader. This done, they mounted and fled.

I was, it would seem, reserved for the torture. But the king of a warlike tribe fancied the boy for a white slave, and the cupidity of the Arabs overcame their love even for vengeance--I was sold into slavery.

Then began a long, dreary march into the interior. It is only fair to say, however, that from the commencement King Otakooma was not unkind to me. He ordered my wrists to be untied, and I was set free--such freedom as it was, for with a mob of savages around me I dared not attempt to escape. Indeed, I cared little now what became of me, and for the first few days I refused all food. Then nature a.s.serted herself, and I ate greedily of the fruit that grew plentifully everywhere in the country through which we were pa.s.sing.

I had pulled what appeared to me a most delicious-looking large berry, when suddenly I heard our chief shriek.

"_Oa eeah wa ka_!" and at the same moment the fruit was dashed from my hand ere I could convey it to my lips. I knew from this it was poison.

Then the chief called me towards him, and placed me on the gra.s.s, and put before me a plate of boiled paddy [a kind of rice] and a bright glittering dagger. I knew what he meant, and chose the paddy. Then the king laughed till his fat sides shook again. He was a sort of half-caste Arab, I suppose, and yellow, not black. Perhaps his colour made him king, for his followers were very black, tall, wiry, and savage-looking.

The king on the other hand simply looked good-humouredly idiotic, but I found out afterwards that he could be both cruel and fierce, and though not a cannibal, he was addicted to human sacrifices. Piles of skulls adorned his palace grounds. He built them up like rockeries, and flowers actually grew on them, although they had never been planted.

As soon as I had eaten the rice, he patted my cheek and asked me, through a boy interpreter, if I would have some rum. I refused; upon which a cocoa-nut half full and the dagger were again placed before me.