O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas, Gordon Stables [microsoft ebook reader TXT] 📗

swamps, the hills and the wide

stony uplands, where never a thing lives or thrives, bar the lizards and

a few snakes, and then last of all the mangrove forests. Our anxiety to

get back made us hurry all the more. We made forced marches, and burned

but two camp fires ere we reached the coast.

 

"The ship we had left lying at anchor in a little wooded creek. We

returned to find it gone.

 

"`Massa, massa; we too late,' cried Sweeba. `Now de Arab men come quick

and kill us all for true.'

 

"`Where is the nearest village, Sweeba?'

 

"`Long way, sah; long way, and no good. Dey kill Englishman. No gib

mooch time to tink.'

 

"`Well, we're in a fix, I think,' I said.

 

"`Not a bit of it,' cried a cheery voice close behind us; and looking

round there stood little Midshipman Leigh, of the starboard watch. The

young rascal had heard us coming, and hidden his boat among the trees,

making his men lie close, as he expressed it, to see how we'd look.

 

"Our orders were to follow the _Niobe_ south, where she had gone to

pitch into a whole fleet of piratical slavers, and it was currently

reported that our old friend Zareppa was admiral of the pirates, and

thirsting for his revenge.

 

"What a lovely day it was, Nie; the sea as blue and tranquil as the eye

of a beautiful child."

 

"More poetry, old tar," I said.

 

"Wait a bit," said Captain Roberts. "Well, we cruised along down the

coast with just enough sea-breeze to bear us onwards and keep the oars

in-board.

 

"We expected to find our ship at a little island called Chaksee, where

she would wait us; or, if absent when we went home, as our middy called

it, we could wait till she returned to this rendezvous.

 

"There wasn't a sail in sight when we started, nor a speck on the

ocean's breast, except a jumping skip-jack now and then, or a big shark

asleep on the surface, with a bird perched upon his protruding fin.

 

"The breeze held, and very pleasant it was, and most of us, I think,

were asleep at the moment the outlook at the bows sang out--

 

"`Sail ho!'

 

"`Where away?' cried the midshipman.

 

"`Rounding the point yonder, sir.'

 

"The midshipman scrambled forward, and we were all alert enough now.

She wasn't a dhow, and no one could make anything of her at first, but

we soon made her out to be one of those low freeboard one-masted craft

that the Portuguese had in those days as coasters, and which they often

used as slavers or even pirates.

 

"`She seems very low in the water,' said the midshipman, `Is she too big

to fight, Mr Roberts?'

 

"`A deal too big,' I replied, `We'd better let her alone, I think.'

 

"We got to windward of her anyhow, so we could have a peep on board. We

loaded with ball cartridge, and stood by for whatever might happen.

 

"The strange craft stood right on her course, and never seemed to heed

us, though the lowering glance her captain gave us showed he bore us no

good will. She was crowded with a rascally crew of Portuguese and

negroes, and many bore ghastly wounds, that showed she had been in a

recent fray; and it afterwards turned out that she had had a brush with

the _Niobe_, but escaped.

 

"On her deck were four or five biggish guns. Discretion in this case

was evidently then the better part of valour, for she could easily have

blown us out of the water, but she seemed too disheartened for anything

else but flight.

 

"I think we were pleased also to escape an encounter that would

certainly have ended in disaster.

 

"The wind fell about sunset, then oars were got out, and, laden as we

were, it was a stiffish pull. All in the dark too, until eight o'clock,

when the moon rose, half hidden at first by a bank of greyish clouds,

which she soon surmounted, and then shone out with a splendour that you

only see in one part of the world."

 

"And that," said I, interrupting him, "is the Indian Ocean."

 

"True, Nie, true," said Roberts.

 

"We were among islands now, some bare and level, others wooded, a few

with lofty cocoa-palms.

 

"We had just landed on one of the latter, because owing to the cocoa-nut

trees there would be, as you know, Nie, a few natives, and we expected a

bit of hot supper. We had drawn our boat well up on the sandy beach of

a little cove, hidden by some scraggy bushes when--

 

"`Look, look!' cried our purser's clerk.

 

"All eyes were directed seaward.

 

"Two great dhows stealing out to sea! They were off in the same

direction that we were going, and from the cut of their sails we could

tell they were pirates, that is Arab fighting slavers.

 

"`I say, Mr Roberts,' said the middy, `I wouldn't tackle those, would

you?'

 

"`We'd never see England again if we did,' I replied.

 

"`Well,' said the boy, `I'm precious hungry, aren't you, Mr Roberts?'

 

"`I could do with a pick,' I replied.

 

"Then young Leigh gave his orders like a prince.

 

"`Bear a hand, lads,' he cried, `and get supper; gather sticks, light a

fire, on with the pot; some of you run to the village and bring half a

dozen fowls. Cut up the bacon. Did you bring the onions? Smith, if

you've forgotten the onions, I'll have you flogged.'

 

"`Then I won't be flogged,' said Smith.

 

"Well, Nie, the remembrance of that stew, that cock-a-leekie soup, made

gipsy-fashion in that lonely island of the ocean, makes me truly hungry

to think of even now."

 

"Shall I get you a ham sandwich, Roberts?" I asked provokingly.

 

"A ham sandwich!" he cried, "What! sawdust and paint, and the memory of

that stew hovering round one like the odours of Araby the Blest? Don't

insult me, Nie. I tell you, boy, that a hungry man might have been

content to dine off the steam. There!

 

"Well, we had a good long rest after supper."

 

"You needed it, I should think," I said, laughing.

 

"None o' your sauce," said the old captain. "We rested, and smoked our

pipes, and looked on the sea. Oh! to see the moonlight dancing on the

rippling waves!"

 

"I can easily imagine it, because I've often seen the like myself," I

replied.

 

"It was late that night when we got to Chaksee. The ship was in behind

the rocks so snug that we thought at first she wasn't there.

 

"All on board were glad to see us, including Nie himself."

 

"How old would I be then, Roberts?"

 

"About five. The _Niobe_, it seems, was ordered down to the Cape to

refit; all her crew were to return to England, but, as you know, I

preferred to stop in the old ship with the new crew. I'm like the cats,

I don't like to move.

 

"The captain and I had a long talk. He treated me just as if I'd been a

commissioned officer. He told me he had found a whole nest of pirates,

that he had given one fits a day or two before, and meant to pepper the

others soon if he had a chance. They were over there, he said, pointing

to the African coast, and he would have them.

 

"The commander of the _Niobe_, indeed, was in high glee. He had been

ordered home, he said, but he would wait for those piratical scoundrels

and old Zareppa if it were a month. Then, surely, if he destroyed him

and his ships his country would, in some way or other, requite his good

services, and either promote him or give him a better command.

 

"We lay snug behind the rocks at Chaksee for two whole days. Our

top-gallant masts were down, and no one in passing the island could have

told there was a vessel there at all.

 

"On a hill, not far off, two men were kept always on the outlook.

 

"On the morning of the third day the signalmen left their posts and

hurried towards the ship.

 

"Three large piratical dhows, carrying the blood-red flag of the Arab

nation, were bearing down towards the island. They turned out to be the

very same we'd seen two nights before, in company with another and much

larger one.

 

"We determined not to frighten them off by coming out too soon. We

didn't know then that these fellows rather courted fight than otherwise.

 

"All sails were loosened and at last we got clear, took up the boats

that had been heading us, lifted sails, and stood out to meet them.

 

"Every man was at his post. The marines lying down on deck under arms,

the bluejackets, stripped to the trousers, standing by the guns on both

decks. There was a glorious breeze blowing. Oh! Nie, lad, it was just

the morning for a fight. My old blood dances in my veins yet at the

very thoughts of it.

 

"I must say that those Arabs managed their little craft beautifully.

The largest one was the first to advance, and the first to receive and

return our fire. She had even the daring and pluck to fire at us."

 

"Did she succeed?"

 

"She did, alas! and she poured a broadside into us that made our upper

deck like shambles. Meanwhile the other two dhows were at us, _on_ us

almost, for we were sometimes fighting gun to gun, and we had to fight

on both sides of our vessel at once.

 

"The commander of the _Niobe_ wanted all his wits about him, for it was

a trying time.

 

"We had one advantage over the pirates, namely, our marines.

 

"The pirates had muskets, it is true, but either they were very bad

ones, or they couldn't use them properly, one or the other.

 

"We stationed our marines in the tops and rigging, and every shot told

home, every bullet got its billet.

 

"There were times during the fight when all the combatants seemed to

pause. It was as if the ships were taking breath, but in reality we

stopped to allow the smoke of battle to clear away, for our ship was

surrounded, so to speak, and all our gear was hanging anyhow.

 

"The impetuosity of the attack of Arabs fighting at sea is very similar

to the way in which they charge on _terra firma_; it is furious while it

lasts.

 

"It lasts as long as hope promises brightly, when it goes it goes at

once, and, except in the case of fanatics in a religious war, there is a

wild stampede. Victory for a time hung in the balance, then it seemed

to sway to the side of the enemy, because the _Niobe_ became for a time

unmanageable.

 

"It was a trying time to the nerves of the bravest of us. There would

be small mercy accorded to those among our poor fellows who happened to

fall into Zareppa's bands.

 

"The commander held a hurried consultation with his first lieutenant, at

which I was present. It was over in two minutes; in ten minutes more,

during which time the battle raged with unabated fury, we had all the

sails set which the few hands that could be spared were able to clap on

her, and were clearing sheer away from the scene of action, steering as

close to the wind as possible. And the _Niobe_ could luff too, I can

tell you.

 

"Shots tore through our rigging as we fled, or seemed to fly, and

derisive jeers and cheers, worse by far than bullets, were fired after

us, till we were out of earshot, out of reach. We replied not either by

shot or shout. We drew the big dhow after us--and that was all we

wanted--as near as she could come. We even let her gain on us, and her

shots began to tell again. Then all sail was clapped on, and next--

 

"`Ready about,' was the cry.

 

"Ah! Nie, my boy, it was a beautiful sight, and a supreme moment.

 

"We thundered down on that devoted pirate. She never even divined our

intention. We might overwhelm her perhaps, she thought. She prepared

to out-manoeuvre us. Then all seemed to become confusion on board her.

Mind, she was over-manned to begin with, her rigging too was badly

damaged, and her decks hampered with her dead and dying.

 

"In a minute more we had hurtled into her. We actually cut her in two;

she sank before our eyes, almost before we could sheer off."

 

At this part of his yarn, poor old Captain Roberts stopped. I feel sure

he was thinking of that dreadful scene; that, long ago though it was, he

saw again that blood-stained ship sinking beneath the waves, with its

living freight, many of them innocent slaves.

 

He filled his pipe before he resumed.

 

"Ah, well! poor misguided wretches, to do them justice they died

bravely, and cheered wildly as they sank beneath the billows."

 

"And so," I said; "Zareppa escaped even yet."

 

"Yes, it was a