Frank Mildmay Part 24

I received from the captain of the privateer every mark of respect and kindness that his means would allow. Much of this I owed to Green, and the black man Mungo, both of whom had represented my conduct in saving the life of him who had endangered mine and that of all my party.

Green's grat.i.tude knew no bounds--he watched me night and day, as a mother would watch a darling child; he antic.i.p.ated any want or wish I could have, and was never happy until it was gratified. The seamen on board the vessel were all equally kind and attentive to me, so highly did they appreciate the act of saving the life of their countryman, and exposing my own in quelling a mutiny.

We cruised to the southward of the Cape, and made one or two captures; but they were of little consequence. One of them, being a trader from Mozambique, was destroyed; the other, a slaver from Madagascar, the captain knew not what to do with. He therefore took out eight or ten of the stoutest male negroes to a.s.sist in working his vessel, and then let the prize go.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

But who is this? What thing of sea Comes this way sailing, Like a stately s.h.i.+p With all her bravery on, and tackle trim?

MILTON.

The privateer was called the _True-blooded Yankee_. She was first bound to the island of Tristan d'Acunha, where she expected to meet her consort, belonging to the same owners, and who had preceded her, when their directions were to cruise between the Cape and Madagascar, for certain homeward bound extra Indiamen, one or two of which she hoped would reward all the trouble and expense of the outfit.

We reached the island without any material incident. I had observed, with concern, that the second mate, whose name was Peleg Oswald, was a sour, ferocious, quarrelsome man; and that although I was kindly treated by the captain, whose name was Peters, and by the chief mate, whose name was Methusalem Solomon, I never could conciliate the good-will of Peleg Oswald.

Green, the captain, who came with me, was, from the time I saved his life, an altered man. He had been, as I was informed, a drunken profligate; but from the moment when I received him into my boat, his manners and habits seemed as completely changed as if he were a different being. He never drank more than was sufficient to quench his thirst--he never swore--he never used any offensive language. He read the Scriptures constantly, was regular in the morning and evening devotion, and on every occasion of quarrel or ill-will in the brig, which was perpetually occurring, Green was the umpire and the peacemaker. He saved the captain and chief mate a world of trouble; by this system, violent language became uncommon on board, punishment was very rare, and very mild. The men were happy, and did their duty with alacrity; and but for Peleg Oswald, all would have been harmony.

We made the island about the 15th of December, when the weather was such as the season of the year might induce us to expect, it being then summer. We hove off to the north or windward side of the island, about two miles from the sh.o.r.e; we dared not go nearer on that side, for fear of what are called the "Rollers"--a phenomenon, it would appear, of terrific magnitude, on that sequestered little spot. On this extraordinary operation of nature, many conjectures should have been offered, but no good or satisfactory reason has ever been a.s.signed to satisfy my mind; for the simple reason, that the same causes would produce the same effect on St. Helena, Ascension, or any other island or promontory exposed to a wide expanse of water. I shall attempt to describe the scene that a succession, of rollers would present, supposing, what has indeed happened, that a vessel is caught on the coast when coming in.

The water will be perfectly smooth--not a breath of wind--when, suddenly, from the north, comes rolling a huge wave with a gla.s.sy surface, never breaking till it meets the resistance of the land, when it dashes down with a noise and a resistless violence that no art or effort of man could elude. It is succeeded by others. No anchorage would hold, if there were anchorage to be had; but this is not the case; the water is from ninety to one hundred fathoms deep, and, consequently, an anchor and cable could scarcely afford a momentary check to any s.h.i.+p when thus a.s.sailed; or, if it did, the sea would, by being resisted, divide, break on board, and swamp her. Such was the fate of the unfortunate ---, a British sloop of war; which, after landing the captain and six men, was caught in the rollers, driven on sh.o.r.e, and every creature on board perished, only the captain and his boat's crew escaping. This unfortunate little vessel was lost, not from want of skill or seamans.h.i.+p in the captain or crew, for a finer set of men never swam salt water; but from their ignorance of this peculiarity of the island, unknown in any other that I ever heard of, at least to such an alarming extent. Driven close into the land before she could find soundings, at last she let go three anchors; but nothing could withstand the force of the "rollers," which drove her in upon the beach, where she broke in two as soon as she landed, and all hands perished in sight of the affected captain and his boat's crew, who buried the bodies of their unfortunate s.h.i.+pmates as soon as the sea had delivered them up.

There is another remarkable peculiarity in this island: its sh.o.r.es to a very considerable extent out to sea are surrounded with the plant called _Fucus maximus_, mentioned by Captain Cook; it grows to the depth of sixty fathoms, or one hundred and eighty feet, and reaches in one long stem to the surface, when it continues to run along to the enormous length of three or four hundred feet, with short alternate branches at every foot of its length. Thus, in the stormy ocean grows a plant higher and of greater length than any vegetable production of the surface of the earth, not excepting the banyan tree, which, as its branches touch the ground, takes fresh root, and may be said to form a separate tree. These marine plants resist the most powerful attacks of the mightiest elements combined; the winds and the waves in vain combine their forces against them; uniting their foliage on the bosom of the waters, they laugh at the hurricane and defy its power. The leaves are alternate; and when the wind ruffles the water, they flap over, one after the other, with a mournful sound, doubly mournful to us from the sad a.s.sociation of ideas and the loneliness of the island. The branches or tendrils of these plants are so strong and buoyant, when several of them happen to unite, that a boat cannot pa.s.s through them; I tried with my feet what pressure they would bear, and I was convinced that, with a pair of snow-shoes, a man might walk over them.

Captain Peters kindly invited me to go on sh.o.r.e with him. We landed with much difficulty, and proceeded to the cottage of a man who had been left there from choice; he resided with his family, and, in imitation of another great personage on an island to the northward of him, styled himself "Emperor." A detachment of British soldiers had been sent from the Cape of Good Hope to take possession of this spot, but after a time they were withdrawn.

His present imperial majesty had, at the time of my visit, a black consort, and many snuff-coloured princes and princesses. He was in other respects a perfect Robinson Crusoe: he had a few head of cattle, and some pigs: these latter have greatly multiplied on the island.

Domestic fowls were numerous, and he had a large piece of ground planted with potatoes, the only place south of the equator which produces them in their native perfection. The land is rich and susceptible of great improvement; and the soil is intersected with numerous running springs over its surface. But it was impossible to look on this lonely spot without recalling to mind the beautiful lines of Cowper--

"O Solitude, where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face?"

Yet in this wild place alarms and even rebellion had found their way; the emperor had but one subject, and this Caliban had ventured, in direct violation of an imperial mandate, to kill a fowl for his dinner.

"Rebellion," said the enraged emperor, "is the son of witchcraft, and I am determined to make an example of the offender."

I became the mediator between these two belligerents. I represented to his imperial majesty that, as far as the matter of example went, the severity would lose its effect; for his children were as yet too young to be corrupted; and, moreover, as his majesty was so well versed in Scripture, he must know that it was his duty to forgive. "Besides," I said, "her majesty the queen has a strong arm, and can always a.s.sist in repelling or chastising any future act of aggression or disobedience."

I suspect that the moral code of his majesty was not unlike my own: it yielded to the necessities of the time. He must have found it particularly inconvenient not to be on speaking terms with his prime minister and arch-chancellor, whom he had banished to the opposite side of the island on pain of death. The sentence was originally for six months; but on my intercession the delinquent was pardoned and restored to favour. I felt much self-complacency when I reflected on this successful instance of my mediatorial power, which had perhaps smothered a civil war in its birth.

The emperor informed me that an American whaler was lying at the east side of the island, filling with the oil of the walrus, or sea-horse; that she had been there at anchor six weeks, and was nearly full. I asked to be shown to the spot where the --- was wrecked; he took me to her sad remains. She lay broken in pieces on the rocks; and not far from her was a mound of earth, on which was placed a painted piece of board by way of a tombstone. The fate of the vessel, together with the number of sufferers, were marked in rude but concise characters; I do not exactly remember the words, but in substance it stated, that underneath lay the remains of one hundred as fine fellows as ever walked a plank, and that they had died like British seamen, doing their duty to the last. This was a melancholy sight, especially to a sailor, who knew not how soon the same fate awaited him.

We rafted off several casks of water during that day, and on the following we completed our water, and then ran to the east end of the island to anchor near and wait for our consort, the whaler, the captain of which had come in his boat to visit us: I conversed with him, and was struck with one remark which he made.

"You Englishmen go to work in a queerish kind of way," said he; "you send a parcel of soldiers to live on an island where none but sailors can be of use. You listen to all that those redcoats tell you; they never thrive when placed out of musket-shot from a gin-shop: and because _they_ don't like it, you evacuate the island. A soldier likes his own comfort, although very apt to destroy that of other folks; and it a'n't very likely he would go and make a good report of an island that had neither women nor rum, and where he was no better than a prisoner. Now, if Brother Jonathan had taken this island, I guess he would a made it pay for its keep; he would have had two or three crews of whalers, with their wives and families, and all their little comforts about them, with a party of good farmers to till the land, and an officer to command the whole. The island can provide itself, as you may perceive, and all would have gone on well. It is just as easy to 'fish' the island from the sh.o.r.e as it is in a vessel, and indeed much easier. Only land your boilers and casks, and a couple of dozen good whale-boots, and this island would produce a revenue that would repay with profit all the money laid out upon it, for the sea-horses have no other place to go to, either to shed their coats in the autumn, or bring forth their young in the spring. The fis.h.i.+ng and other duties would be a source of amus.e.m.e.nt to the sailors, who, if they chose, might return home occasionally in the vessels that came to take away the full casks of oil, and land the empty ones."

The captain of the whaler returned to his s.h.i.+p, but, I suppose, forgot to give our captain very particular directions about the anchorage. We ran down to the east end of the island, and were just going to bring up, when, supposing himself too near the whaler, Peters chose to run a little further. I should have observed, that as we rounded the north-east point, the breeze freshened, and the squall came out of the gullies and deep ravines. We therefore shortened sail, and, pa.s.sing very near the whaler, they hailed us; but it blew so fresh that we did not hear what they said; and, having increased our distance from the whaler to what was judged proper, let go the anchor.

Ninety fathoms of cable ran out in a crack, before she turned head to wind; and to our mortification, we found we had pa.s.sed the bank upon which the whaler had brought up, and must have dropped our anchor into a well, for we had nineteen fathoms water under the bows, and only seven fathoms under her stern. The moon showed her face just at this moment, and we had the further satisfaction of perceiving that we were within fifty yards of a reef of rocks which lay astern of us, with their dirty black heads above water.

We were very much surprised to find, notwithstanding the depth of water, that, during the lulls, we rode with a slack cable; but about two o'clock in the morning the cable parted, being cut by the foul ground.

All sail was made immediately, but the rocks astern were so close to us, that you might have thrown a biscuit on them, and we thought the cruise of the _True-blooded Yankee_ was at an end; but it proved otherwise, for the same cause which produced the slack cable preserved the vessel. The _Fucus maximus_, we found, had interposed between us and destruction; we had let go our anchor in this submarine forest, and had perched, as it were, on the tops of the trees; and so thick were the leaves and branches, that they held us from driving, and prevented our going on sh.o.r.e when the cable had parted. We dragged slowly through the plants, and were very glad to see ourselves once more clear of this miserable spot.

"Better dwell in the midst of alarms, Than reign in this horrible place."

But I sincerely wish all manner of success to this little empire, though I hope my evil stars will never take me to it again. We shaped our course for the Cape of Good Hope, for Captain Peters would not run further risk in waiting for the consort privateer.

Poor Thompson, notwithstanding all my exertions in his favour, was exposed to much ill-treatment on board the vessel, on account of his firm and unshaken loyalty. He seldom complained to me, but sometimes vindicated himself by a gentle hint from one of his ample fists on the nose or eye of the offender, and here the matter usually ended for his character was so simple and inoffensive, that all the best men in the vessel loved him. One night a man fell overboard--the weather was fine, and the brig had but little way; they were lowering down the jolly-boat from the stern, when one of the hooks by which she hung by the stern, broke, and four men were precipitated with violence into the water. Two of them could not swim, and all screamed loudly for help as soon as they came up from their dive. Thompson, seeing this, darted from the stern like a Newfoundland dog, swam to the weakest, supported him to the rudder chains, and, leaving him, went to another, bringing him to the stern of the vessel, and making a rope fast under his arms. In this way he succeeded in saving the whole of these poor fellows. Two of the five would certainly have sunk but for his timely a.s.sistance, for it was some time before another boat could be got ready; and the other three owned that they much doubted whether they could have reached the vessel without help.

This conduct of Thompson was much applauded by all on board, and some asked him why he ventured his life for people who had used him so ill; he answered, that his "mither" and his Bible taught him to do all the good he could: and as G.o.d had given him a strong arm, he hoped he should always use it for the benefit of his brother in need.

It might have been supposed that an act like this would have prevented the recurrence of any further insult; but the more the Americans perceived Thompson's value, the more eager were they to have him as their own. The second mate, whom I have already described as a rough and brutal fellow, one day proposed to him to belong to their vessel, certain, he added, that he would make his fortune by the capture of two, if not three, extra Indiamen, which they had information of on their pa.s.sage.

Thompson looked the man fully in the face, and said, "Did ye no hear what I telled the captain the ither day?"

"Yes," said the man, "I knew that, but that's what we call in our country 'all my eye.'"

"But they do not call it so in my country," said the Caledonian, at the same time planting his fist so full and plump in the left eye of the mate, that he fell like the "_humi bos_," covering a very large part of the deck with his huge carca.s.s.

The man got up, found his face bleeding plentifully, and his eye closed; but instead of resenting the insult himself, went off and complained to the captain. Many of the Americans, either from hatred or jealousy, went along with him, and clamorously demanded that the Englishman should be punished for striking an officer. When the story, however, came to be fairly explained, the captain said he was bound to confess that the second mate was the aggressor, inasmuch as he had acknowledged that he knew the penalty of the transgression before he committed the act; that he (the captain) had told Thompson, when he made the declaration, that he thought him perfectly right, and, consequently, he was bound to protect him by every law of hospitality as well as grat.i.tude, after his services in saving the lives of their countrymen.

This did not satisfy the crew; they were clamorous for punishment, and a mutiny was actually headed by the second mate. There was, however, a large party on board who were in no humour to see an Englishman treated with such indignity. Of what country they were may readily be conjectured. The dispute ran high; and I began to think that serious consequences might ensue, for it had continued from the serving of grog at twelve o'clock till near two; when casting my eyes over the larboard quarter, I perceived a sail, and told the captain of it; he instantly hailed the look-out-man at the mast-head; but the look-out-man had been so much interested with what was going on upon deck, that he had come down into the maintop to listen.

"Don't you see that sail on the larboard quarter?" said the captain.

"Yes, sir," said the man.

"And why did you not report her?"

The man could make no reply to this question, for a very obvious reason.

"Come down here," said the captain; "let him be released, Solomon; we will show you a little Yankee discipline."

But before we proceed to the investigation of the crime, or the infliction of punishment, we must turn our eyes to the great object which rose clearer and clearer every five minutes above the horizon.

The privateer was at this time under topsails, and top-gallant-sails, jib, and foresail, running to the north-east, with a fine breeze and smooth water.

"Leftenant," said the captain, "what you think of her?"

"I think," said I, "that she is an extra Indiaman; and if you mean to speak her, you had better put your head towards her under an easy sail; by which means you will be so near by sunset, that if she runs from you, you will be able, with your superior sailing, to keep sight of her all night."

"I guess you are not far wrong in that," said the captain.

"I guess he is directly in the face of the truth," said the chief mate, who had just returned from the maintop, where he had spent the last quarter of an hour in the most intense and absorbed attention to the cut of the stranger's sails. "If e'er I saw wood and canvas put together before in the shape of a s.h.i.+p that there is one of John Bull's bellowing calves of the ocean, and not less than a forty-four gunner."

"What say you to that, leftenant?" said the captain.

"Oh, as to that," said the mate, "it isn't very likely that he's going to tell us the truth."

"Because you would not have done it yourself in the same situation,"

said I.