John C. Hutcheson

“ It banished at once all thoughts of the old Dolphin out of their heads better than all my palaver, for all hands were so anxious to come up with the strange craft that they themselves voted for taking to the oars, which I certainly wouldn’t have ordered their doing in the terrible afternoon heat, as, while we were having our dinner, the wind had been gradually dying until it was now almost a dead calm, and the sails flapping against the masts, with the boat rocking on the heavy rolling swell that you always meet with out there when the sun is at the meridian. ”

“ My two cocoa-nut trees were evidently the outlying sentinels, or advance-guards of these; for they stood alone on the beach a hundred yards or more in front of the jungle and brushwood, which extended back from the shore in a mass of green that stood well out, in pleasant relief 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 of the island running like a backbone or rocky spine all along its length from its extreme nor’-easterly point down far away to the south. ”

“ Ah! sir, that was the commencement of an unfortunate voyage, for it was months before some of those that formed the 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 hands we left on board the steamer again at all, nor will they till that great last day of all when the sea gives up its dead! ”

“ When we had got the better hand of the slave crew, in which we did not quite get off scot-free, five of our men being killed outright and several wounded with ugly gashes from the sharp knives of the Arabs, we set about opening the hatches to release the slaves, who had all this while been kicking up a thundering row below, yelling and hollering as if they were all being murdered. ”

“ Be that as it may, sir, there was Madagascar now before us, with the pinnace closing in with the land every second, seeming as if she were flying towards it rather than sailing; soon, too, we could distinguish the noise of breakers, which grew every minute more distinct. We were rushing rapidly to destruction, and it looked as if no earthly power could save the boat from being dashed to pieces. ”

“ Watching his opportunity when the Dolphin rose on the top of the heavy rolling swell that set in towards the land, and when the dhow was right down in the hollow of the combers, he pulled the lanyard of the trigger, and with a bang and a belch of flame and smoke a heavy conical shot went rotating through the air, making as much noise as a railroad train as it hurtled forwards at the chase, whose hull was hidden from view, but whose masts seemed quite close to us. ”

“ Look alive, men! Be smart there; we’ve no time to lose! She isn’t half a 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 by the jib, which still trailed in the water across her bows, for no one had 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 the pirate schooner nearer and nearer. ”

“ Arrived here, we sat down facing the sea, without a single sail passing by within hail, as we had hoped would soon have been the case, for two long weary days and nights—one of us always keeping watch that we should not miss a vessel, in the first place, and, secondly, for fear of another attack from the natives. During all this time, recollect, we had nothing to eat since we swallowed the last fragment of the solitary parrot that poor Denis Brown had knocked down, although plenty of brackish water was at our disposal from the river. ”

“ The streets in the town are very narrow and are crowded with these sorts of shops or rather stalls, for they’re just like the places you see old apple-women rig up at the corners 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 in Constantinople. Lor’ sakes! why, they’re crowded with Arabs and Hindoos, Persians, Africans, Somali Arabs, and every sort of coloured native you can imagine, sir, from the lightest coffee-tinted mulatto down to the jettiest black of the pure nigger brought originally from the interior as a slave. ”

“ Up and up we struggled and toiled, perspiring all the way and gasping with heat and thirst. We tore all the skin off our arms and legs in forcing ourselves through the prickly patches of jungle, and almost splintered our feet against the rocks and gnarled roots of some of the trees, besides bruising our bodies all over with the repeated falls we had; and, all the while, we were suffering the most unmitigated pangs of hunger and thirst that mortal man could experience when in full strength. ”

“ Captain Wilson was right in his suspicions about the Arab skipper’s surrender. Although he had waved that red rag of his to make-believe that he had given in, so that we might not give him a broadside as he probably expected—for of course he didn’t know that we would not fire the big guns for fear of killing the poor slaves in the hold—no sooner had we got alongside than the beggars showed fight. ”

“ But, captain, we have plenty of time before us—ten days or more, just as I calculated; and all we have 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 the worst! Keep your weather eye open, Scuppers, and give Sprott a hint—although not a word, mind you, to the men yet, with the exception of Bill Martens, who can be trusted to bide his time, as he knows already as much as ourselves. ”

“ 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 a sharp look-out and mind that our tow-rope didn’t part, Captain Wilson went back to his own vessel—he wouldn’t leave us till everything was ship-shape again with the slaver and everybody seemed comfortable-like; taking with him the majority of the Arabs who had been uninjured in the scuffle, and who might have tried perhaps to recapture the dhow from the small lot of men whom our captain was able only to spare to man her. ”

“ Stop, don’t cheer, men, or those pirate scoundrels will hear us too soon, and we don’t want ’em to hear us till they feel us! Men, I want you to be cool—I know you are brave—and wait my word of command before you utter a shout or draw a trigger. That pirate scoundrel is plucky enough, and will take some beating; but he’ll get it soon enough if you only obey orders. Captain Morton, will you take charge of the guns, please, with Mr Scuppers? ”

“ I had been left by Captain Wilson in charge of the prize-crew, and this change in the weather made me feel somewhat uneasy of the tow-rope breaking from the increased strain there was now on it through the labouring of the dhow; for I thought it would be better for both the Dolphin and ourselves that we should cast loose and each sail on her own account, as at this time of the year the south-west monsoon, which takes the place of the north-eastern ‘kizkasi,’ as it is cabled, or Indian trade-wind, generally sets in with a violent tornado blowing from off the land. ”

“ The Dolphin had run down south with the fag-end of the north-east monsoon, economising her coals as much as possible, as all the men-of-war have to do nowadays, worse luck—sometimes when it’s a question between saving a few pounds or sacrificing a ship! We had passed Mazemba island, and had just weathered Cape Delgado, which is some ten degrees 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—the look-out man sang out, ‘sail-ho!’ This was just as we were piped down to tea. ”

“ During the night, the Dolphin kept under easy steam head to sea, only just preventing us from drifting ashore, as our tow-rope was hardly ever taut the whole time, for the wind blew so strongly still from the northward and eastward, the very direction we had to make for to reach Zanzibar with our prize, that it was impossible for the steamer to make any way against it, especially with the dhow in tow. The sea, too, was also very rough, breaking over the frail craft so frequently that we had to pack down all the slaves again below to prevent their being washed overboard. ”

“ 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 side as if electrified—was standing on the poop to windward, with the first mate, Mr Scuppers, and the passenger, “Mr Meredith,” looking up aloft at the nimble topmen, who were adding acre to acre to the sail-surface of the ship, and pluming her snowy pinions with a pull here and a shake there. Mr Sprott, the second mate, was to leeward of the helmsman ”

“ However, of course I put the best face I could on the matter, and contented myself with seeing that the water barricoes and stores were properly put on board the pinnace, while all the other men who had not to remain behind with me and the boat were in high glee getting ready for the fresh chase, the news being already whispered about in the messes—hoping that they would have just such another scrimmage again as they had had the day before at the capture of the Fatima. ”

“ It presents a magnificent display of natural architecture, commencing at one particular point—always at the same place—off the coast of Sumatra. Huge granite pillars tower to the sky at nearly regular intervals, beginning at the outlet of one of the valleys, and extending five miles out to sea. So solid and massive is the aspect of the apparent structure that the eye refuses to accept its unreality; binoculars are involuntarily seized, questions are poured into the ear of the captain ”

“ Five of the boat’s crew went down almost as soon as the pinnace, thus leaving only eight of us to battle against the waves and try to swim ashore if we could; although I, for one, didn’t believe a soul would ever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to it at all! ”

“ While the calm lasted, the bodies of the dead pirates were hove overboard, and the three bluejackets and Phillips who had lost their life in the first struggle with the Malays committed carefully to the deep with every solemnity; and then the Hankow Lin, as soon as the wind sprang up again, as it did by sundown, was headed towards Singapore in accordance with Lieutenant Meredith’s wish, although it was sorely against Captain Morton’s will to bear off from his direct course to England, which was almost right in front of him, the Straits of Sunda bearing a point or two off the lee beam. ”

“ The Dolphin then took us in tow till we were abreast of the Comoro Isles, when she cast us adrift, starting off up the channel full speed and steering north-east and by north, so as to get well out to sea before stretching in to the land towards Mafiyah, where she expected to pick up the slaver; while we, hoisting the sails of the pinnace, and taking it easy under the boat’s awning that was spread fore and aft, bore away for Madagascar. ”

“ No wonder that the swarthy scoundrels recoiled in terror.
“Surrender!” exclaimed Lieutenant Meredith in a loud stern voice; and the men, frightened by the force opposed to them, might possibly have submitted, when, at the moment that Snowball made his onslaught on their leader, Jack Harvey, who stood by his captain on the poop, rather injudiciously fired off a shot from his revolver, which struck and broke one of the Malays’ outstretched arms, with crease uplifted ready to stab his enemies. ”

“ Beastly unhealthy place 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 monsoon blows off the African shore. I was there when Sir Bartle Frere came to interview the old sultan to try and make him sign a treaty to put down the slave-trade; but it was all no go—the old sultan was too wide-awake for that, and, indeed, treaty or no treaty, we can never quite stop the dealing in slaves between the Arabs on the one hand and the clove-growers on the other. ”

“ Assailed thus on all sides—the lieutenant and his crew clearing all before them with a valiant cheer, which Snowball re-echoed with a terrific shout like an Indian war-cry, perhaps from some intuitive recollections of his native wilds on the banks of the Congo, in which the words “golly, take dat now!” could, however, be plainly distinguished—the attack proved a trifle too hot for the mongrel lot of scoundrels whom the pirate captain, or cut-throat, commanded; and they gave way instanter. Some died fighting to the last; some jumped overboard, preferring cold water to English cold steel ”