Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea Part 27

"What ho! Good citizens," said he. "Do I understand that a Spaniard has frightened you all? Why, where's your courage?"

"Courage?" answered a rotund-bodied merchant. "Of that we have a plenty. But we have no ship with which to combat this fellow--or fellows--for some of my skippers tell me that there are two of them off the coast, and that they've captured twenty trading vessels."

The newcomer smiled.

"I've got a staunch craft here," said he. "My name is Walker, and I hail from Bristol, England. My ship--the _Duke William_--mounts but twenty guns, and my crew is but of thirty-two, yet, I know that many of you gentlemen will volunteer your services, particularly if there is to be a nice little battle."

"Hear! Hear!" came from all sides. "You're the boy for us! You're the chap we've been looking for! Hear! Hear!"

It did not take long to increase the crew of the _Duke William_.

Several of the wealthy colonists volunteered their services; many sailors were there who had been fighting on the Spanish Main. They were eager and anxious to join. So, before three days were out, the _Duke William_ spread her canvas for the open sea, carrying one hundred men and an additional twenty guns. Now--you see--she could put up an excellent fight with the average pirate-ship which cruised about the low-lying and sandy coast.

Out into the broad expanse of the Atlantic glided the little barque and eagerly the mariners scanned the horizon for some signs of the pirate.

"She's been hereabouts!" cried one stout seaman. "For several of my mess-mates saw her sails down near the channel islands. And her flag was surely black with th' skull an' cross-bones."

"Must have heard that we were coming, then," growled Captain Walker, "for there's nothing in view."

In an hour's time he thought differently, for, "Sail ho!" sounded from the forward deck, and there, far off to leeward, was the outline of a long, blackish vessel, bearing no flag at her mizzen or stern.

Crowding on all canvas--for the breeze was light--the _Duke William_ bore away towards her. "It must be the pirate!" said all, for, also crowding on all sail, the vessel headed up the coast, and did her utmost to get away.

On, on, went pursuer and pursued; on, on, and the _Duke William_ began to draw dangerously close to the fleeing vessel, which now could be easily seen. She was a brigantine, carrying about eighteen guns, with a high stern and graceful lines. No flags waved from her mast-heads.

Suddenly the scudding sea-warrior pointed her nose in-sh.o.r.e, ran around the corner of a sandy island, and bore away into a seemingly large lagoon upon the other side. The _Duke William_ followed, and, as she rounded a jutting sand-spit, there before her lay a little schooner, on the deck of which were seen several sailors, waving and gesticulating frantically. Behind, and on the sh.o.r.e, was an earth-work, from which several cannon pointed their black muzzles. On a flag-pole in the centre, waved a Spanish flag, and, beneath it, a black ensign upon which was the skull-and-cross-bones.

"It's the pirate stronghold!" cried several, at once. "We're in for a tight skirmish!"

But Captain Walker only smiled.

The brigantine, which he had been following, now rounded-to, opened her port-holes, and fired a couple of shots toward the pursuing craft.

At the same time an English flag was hoisted on the schooner, and a fellow on her deck sang out through a speaking trumpet.

"Thank Heaven you have come! We were only captured two days ago!

Hurrah for the English flag!"

The _Duke William_ kept on after the brigantine, her mixed crew yelling with joy, now that they were to have an action.

_Bang! Bang!_

Her two forward guns spoke, and a shot went ripping through one of the foresails of the pirate.

This was enough for the fighting spirit of those who sailed the Spanish Main. For, putting about, the brigantine scudded through a narrow channel, known only to her skipper (for no one else could have followed without grounding upon a sand-spit), and was soon running away upon the opposite side of a low-lying island, now flaunting the pirate-flag from her halyards.

"She's gone!" sadly remarked the gallant Captain Walker, "but we can capture the gun-battery. Make ready to go ash.o.r.e, if needed!"

Steering for the coast, the guns of the _Duke William_ opened upon the sandy barricade, and shot after shot was soon making the dirt and gravel fly in every direction:

_Poom! Poom! Cu-poom!_

The cannon in the earth-work next began to speak, and, it was apparent, from the strange noises which some of them made, that they were full of rust.

_Cu-Poom! Cu-Pow! Chuck-chuck-cu-swash!_ they roared, and a few b.a.l.l.s began to whistle about the spars of the _Duke William_.

There were some accurate marksmen upon the deck of the British vessel, and, as she lay broadside to the fortification, one well-aimed shot struck a cannon and dismounted it; while another shattered the flag-pole and brought down the flag with a crash.

"Hurrah!" shouted the men from Charleston. "Now we'll even up with these cursed pirates for all the damage that they've done us. Now, we'll teach them not to ravage our coasts and catch our merchant ships!"

_Cu-whow!_ barked the rust-caked guns of the barricade. "_Go-slow!

Go-back! Go-home!_"

To this a full broadside roared, and the b.a.l.l.s tore the top of the earth-work to shreds.

"Now let thirty men take to the boats!" commanded Captain Walker.

"Steer for the beach and rush the barricade with pistols and cutla.s.ses. I don't believe that there are more than a dozen men inside the earth-work."

"Huzzah!" was the cheerful answer to this order, and, in a few moments, several boats were racing for the beach, each eager to be the first ash.o.r.e.

As they approached, the antiquated guns on the sand-spit became strangely silent, and, as the eager raiders rushed valiantly upon the pirate fortress, no shots were fired at them to impede their progress.

With a wild yell they leaped over the side of the barricade, only to find it deserted; for whatever had been the force that had fired these cannon, it had taken to the brush as the English seamen drew near.

Only a few charges of ammunition were there, so it was plainly evident that the pirates (whatever their strength might have been) could only have held out for a few more rounds.

"Hurrah! Hurrah!" shouted the raiders. "The fort is ours!"

"And it's a sorry victory," said one of the crew, "for there's nothing here worth the having, except the cannon, and they couldn't stand more than two more shots without blowing up. I call it a pretty hollow success."

In spite of this the men of Charleston were well pleased. They had dispersed the pirates; taken their fort; and had re-captured a schooner which had recently been taken only a few miles from the harbor-mouth of that fair, southern city.

When they sailed into their home port they received a tremendous ovation. The bells were rung in all the churches; shots were fired; trumpets were blown.

"We could fall in with nothing that would stay for us upon the seas,"

said Captain Walker, modestly; but, in spite of this, he was treated like a great hero. All the influential persons in the Colony offered to sign a request that he might be given the command of a king's ship; but this he declined. So they tendered him an immense tract of land if he would remain in that country and drive off the pirates when next they became too bold and daring; but this he also declined, and stuck to his ship. In a few weeks he sailed for the Barbadoes, and then to England, in company with three unarmed trading-vessels which placed themselves under his convoy. The good people of Charleston bade him a sad and affectionate farewell.

George Walker sailed forth smiling, but he was now to have far more trouble than his little affair with the pirates.

When half way to England, a terrific gale struck the _Duke William_ and her convoys, which separated them by many miles, and made this good vessel (which had dispersed the pirates) leak like a sieve. The gale continued in its violence, while Captain Walker was so ill that the ship's surgeon despaired of his life. But note how grit and nerve pulled him through!

On the second day of the tempest, a sailor rushed into his cabin, crying:

"Captain! Captain! We'll founder, for the water is pouring into our bottom by the hogshead. We're gone for unless we take to the boats!"

Captain Walker was not the man to leave his ship in such a crisis.

"Throw all of the guns overboard, but two!" he ordered. "We need those in order to signal for help if a vessel comes near us. That will lighten us so that we can still float awhile."

This was done, but, as the last cannon shot into the waves, a sailor burst into his cabin with the intelligence that the men had prepared to desert in the tenders.

"Carry me on deck!" roared the resolute captain. "I'll give these cowards a piece of my mind."