Old Jack Part 36

This done, they returned to the old chief's house, where a feast was prepared; and having eaten as much food and drunk as much angona as they could, they got up and commenced dancing in the most frantic manner, making a most hideous uproar with their drums, conch-sh.e.l.ls, and other instruments, and shrieking and howling at the top of their voices.

After this, the princ.i.p.al chiefs entered the houses of the late chief's wives, armed with a sort of bowstring. With these they proceeded deliberately to kill the unfortunate women, one after the other, till about twenty were thus executed. The new chief's mother had before died, or she would have been murdered in the same way. Many of them seemed perfectly willing to submit to their fate, though several, with shrieks and cries, endeavoured to escape, but were brought back and compelled to submit their necks to the executioners.

The young man at once a.s.sumed the functions of chief, and seemed disposed to be no less cruel and bloodthirsty than his father. Soon after, the news was brought that a vessel had anch.o.r.ed in a bay a short distance from the town. She was said to be full of all sorts of valuable commodities; of fire-arms and weapons of all sorts; of cloths, and tools, and other articles likely to be attractive to savages. At once the cupidity of the young chief was excited. If he could get possession of these things, he might become the most wealthy and powerful of all the chiefs of his nation, and bring the other tribes into perfect subjection to him. A council of his most trusty followers was called, and his plan explained to them. They at once agreed to aid him in its execution.

I trembled for the fate of the unfortunate crew of the ship, and resolved, if possible, to warn them of their danger. How was I to succeed? I would try, I thought, and swim off to the vessel; I would risk my own life for the purpose. Pretending not to have understood what was proposed, I walked about in as unconcerned a manner as possible. I lay down at night in my usual place in the chief's house, intending to get up when all were asleep, and run along the sh.o.r.e till I came abreast of where I supposed the vessel would be. Anxiously I waited for the time. I got up and reached the door. Just as I stepped out into the night air I felt a hand placed on my shoulder! I must have trembled. It was the hand of the chief.

"Ah, I know what you are about," said he. "You wish to escape to the white people, to tell them what we are going to do. I suspected you.

That cannot be. You will see that it would be wiser for you not to join them. Come with me to-morrow, and you will see."

My first plan was thus defeated. Still I hoped that I might meet some of the white crew of the vessel and warn them of their danger. I determined to try.

The next morning the chief and his warriors collected, and all their canoes were launched and paddled off to a point which concealed them from the stranger vessel. The smaller canoes were loaded with fruits and vegetables of all sorts, and about twenty men and boys without arms and in the most peaceable garb, paddled off to her.

On getting up, I found that the chief had appointed two men to attend on me and watch my movements. Everything conspired, therefore, to defeat all my hopes of warning the strangers of the fate intended for them.

I was allowed to proceed to a high hill, whence I could look down on the vessel, which lay in a bay at my feet. I longed to have the wings of a bird, to fly down and tell the crew of the intentions of the savages, whose small canoes now began to flock about her. Several of the chiefs reached her deck, and began offering presents of fruit and vegetables to the officers, and pointing to the sh.o.r.e, as if to indicate that if they would come there they would be received with a hearty welcome. I guessed, from the build of the vessel, that she was not English. At last I saw a boat lowered into the water, and a French flag flying over her stern. Though I had often been engaged in deadly strife with those fighting under that ensign, I was nevertheless anxious to save the lives of those I saw. Yet I could not speak a word of French, and probably they would not have understood my warning even if I could have given them one.

Not only one, but two boats were lowered; and, as far as I could see, no one was armed. What could have thus so speedily enticed them on sh.o.r.e?

Looking along the beach, I saw it lined with a number of people, mostly women and children. There were young girls with baskets of fruit, and older women with vegetables, and little boys with sucking pigs and other dainties, and children running about and playing on the sands. As this was not the usual custom of the savages, I guessed too well that it was an artful device of the chief to entrap the unwary strangers. By the time the boats had reached the sh.o.r.e, the women and children gradually drew off, and I saw two bodies of savages stealing down through the woods on either side of them. Oh, how I longed to warn them of their peril! I would, at every risk, have shouted out, but they would not have understood me. I remained spell-bound.

Meantime, three or four of the large canoes stole out from behind the point, and gradually approached the doomed ship, the chiefs in them, when they were perceived, waving their hands in token of amity to those on board. If the party on sh.o.r.e observed them, I do not know; they appeared to have no fear, no suspicion of treachery. The aim of the cunning savages was to get them to separate from each other. The sellers of fruit got in among them, and enticed one on one side, and one on the other; and when this had been accomplished I saw a warrior, with his club concealed under his cloak, glide noiselessly in and attach himself to each of the unsuspecting white men. The large canoes, full of warriors, had likewise been incautiously allowed to get alongside the brig, and soon her decks were crowded with savages, making signs, and laughing, and pretending to traffic with the crew.

On a sudden, a conch-sh.e.l.l was sounded by the chief. Before its hoa.r.s.e braying had died away, the deadly weapons of the savages had descended with terrific force on the heads of the white men on the sh.o.r.e. Many fell, killed at once; others attempted to run to the boats, but were pursued and quickly dispatched. On board, the plot of the chief seemed to be equally successful. Though some resistance was offered and several shots were fired, all was unavailing--not a white man ultimately escaped; and in a few minutes their bodies were brought on sh.o.r.e in one of the canoes, while the others followed towing the brig, whose cable the savages had cut, that they might the more easily plunder her.

As soon as she was brought close to the sh.o.r.e, a scene of havoc and destruction commenced on board. Some climbed the masts to unrig her, others rushed into the hold to get out the cargo, and numbers hurried to the cabin to carry off the lighter articles which it contained.

The chief, as may be supposed, got the lion's share; and his house was soon full of fire-arms and other weapons, and clothes, and trinkets, and crockery, and articles of every description. He himself had come on sh.o.r.e, but numbers still remained on board, working away in the hold, and lowering down the rigging from aloft, when there was a loud explosion, and the deck of the vessel, with all on board, was lifted up and blown into the air! Not a human being on board escaped. Fragments of the wreck and mangled bodies came falling thick around, while flames burst out on every side from the hull, the scene of the late atrocity.

The chief was very angry at the loss of so much property, but seemed in no way to regret the lives of so many of his subjects.

I took occasion to tell him that the catastrophe was a judgment on him for the number of murders and the robbery he had committed.

He replied that he did not understand what I meant--that white men had often come to those islands in their ships, and had kidnapped his people, or shot them down with their guns, or beaten them, for some trifling misunderstanding or theft of little importance they might have committed, and that he was only treating them as other white people had treated his countrymen.

No reasoning that I was able to use after this could convince him that he had acted wrongly. Indeed I knew that there was too much truth in his a.s.sertion; and much have those navigators to answer for who have acted unfairly towards savages, when those savages, following the law of their untutored nature, have retaliated on subsequent voyagers with a tenfold measure of vengeance.

After this occurrence, I was always seeking an opportunity to escape from this blood-stained spot of earth. Whichever way I turned had been a scene of murder, and I loathed the sight of the sanguinary perpetrator of so many atrocities.

I might employ many an hour in describing the dreadful customs and superst.i.tions of these people. Every day my desire to escape from them increased. Three or four vessels in the course of the next year called off the island, but the crews seemed to be cautious; and, at all events, no attempt was made to surprise them. As each appeared, I found myself narrowly watched, so I had no opportunity of communicating with them.

I had now for some time been looked upon as a sane man, and had employed myself in working in various ways for the chief. It at last struck me, that if I were again to feign madness I might obtain greater liberty.

On putting my idea into execution, I found that it had the desired effect; and I was allowed from that time forward to go about wherever I liked, and to pry into people's houses and gardens, and even into the temples. I soon found my way down to the sea-sh.o.r.e, and used to pretend to be busy in picking up sh.e.l.ls, and in stringing them together into necklaces and bracelets for my own adornment. Then I made others, which I presented, with many a strange antic, to anybody I met. Day after day did I continue this employment, my eye wandering anxiously over the blue sea in search of the wished-for vessel.

Drearily pa.s.sed the time, without a human being with whom I could exchange an idea we might hold in common. I learned then fully to appreciate the value of the society and sympathy of my fellow-men. At length, one day as I sat at my usual occupation on the sh.o.r.e, my eyes fell on a white speck just rising above the horizon. Anxiously, intently did I watch it. Slowly it increased. First I made out the topgallant-sails; then the topsails; and at last the courses of a square-rigged schooner. She approached the island. Oh, how my heart beat within me for fear she might not come near the part where I was!

There was a channel through which vessels had more than once pa.s.sed. A point of land ran out into it, covered almost to the end with trees.

Towards this point I ran, concealing myself as much as I could among the trees from the people on sh.o.r.e. I reached the point un.o.bserved. I had hoped to find a canoe there, but there was none. I looked about, and at last discovered a log of banana-wood, which is very light. It had been cast on sh.o.r.e. With my knife I cut a stick with a broad end, to serve as a paddle and to defend myself against the sharks which abound on the coast. I was ready to run all risks. I had become desperate. I felt sure that if I were observed by the natives I should be brought back and slaughtered. Still that idea did not daunt me. At every hazard I was resolved to get on board, or to perish in the attempt.

Eagerly I kept my eye on the vessel. On she came. She was steering for the channel. I got my log ready to launch. It was with no small dread that I looked around to ascertain that I was not observed. I watched for the moment to commence my perilous voyage, when, by pulling directly out from the sh.o.r.e, I thought I could fetch her. I had secured two long outriggers at each end of my log, to prevent it from turning round; the tendrils of the wild vine served me as rope. The time arrived to launch forth. With all my strength shoving the log into the water, I took my seat on it, and with might and main using my paddle, I worked on my rough canoe towards the schooner.

Now commenced the most dangerous part of the enterprise, as I drew out from the point and became exposed to the view of the people on sh.o.r.e.

Every now and then I gave a hasty glance over my shoulder to ascertain if I were followed.

For a long time no one observed me. I had nearly gained a position by which the schooner must pa.s.s, when, to my dismay, I saw a large canoe putting off from the sh.o.r.e. If I could not gain the side of the schooner before she reached me, I was undone.

Again I took to my paddle, and urged on the slow-moving machine towards the approaching vessel; still the canoe was rapidly drawing near. Every instant I expected to find an arrow sticking in my body. The thought made me redouble my efforts.

On came the schooner. I shouted out, "Have mercy on an unfortunate Englishman!" I saw many swarthy faces on her forecastle. I thought that I might not be understood. What was my joy then to see her brail up her sails, for she had a leading wind, and lower her boat!

The boat approached me. I leaped into her just as a shower of arrows was sent flying after me. Most of them fell short, but some struck the boat. Those on board the schooner seeing this, instantly let fly a volley of musketry at my pursuers, and made them pull back with no little rapidity towards the sh.o.r.e. The moment my eye had time to look about the vessel, I thought that I recognised her. I was not mistaken; she was Newman's schooner, and Newman himself was standing on the quarter-deck, not as I had for so long known him, but in dress and appearance like an officer. He, of course, did not know me. How should he? I was thin and haggard with care and anxiety. Of my seaman's clothes but a small portion now remained, and the few garments I had were made of the native cloth, but had been torn in my run among the trees, and afterwards almost destroyed in the water. Altogether, I was a miserable figure.

I resolved not to make myself known to my old friend, but still I was anxious to guard him against the treachery of the natives. Seeing that I appeared to wish to speak to him, he sent for me aft to give an account of myself. I had not talked five minutes when he exclaimed, "I am quite certain I know that voice and mode of expression. Who are you, my man?"

I at once told him. He grasped my hand cordially, and greeted me as he would have done in the forecastle of the _Drake_. Directly he made me at home, and told me that I must mess in his cabin.

"You must be clothed, so I will dress you as an officer. As we have no boatswain on board, I will at once appoint you to fill the berth.

That's all settled; and after you have had some food, I must hear all that has happened to you since we parted." He told me that he was well aware of the treacherous disposition of the natives, and that he was always on his guard.

How delightful it was to feel myself out of the power of those bloodthirsty savages, and to be sitting at dinner with an intelligent companion! He had been in the schooner ever since we parted; and so much satisfaction had he given the Dutch authorities, that he had been promised shortly the command of the largest vessel on the station. He was in high spirits, and told me that he expected, on his return to Batavia, to marry a lady of considerable fortune, and that he looked upon his prosperity as certain. "Pretty well, is it not, I have done, remembering the point from which I started only a few years ago?"

I very soon recovered my health and strength on board the schooner.

Newman had been sent to examine these and other neighbouring groups of islands. We cruised about among them for some months, and then once more shaped our course for Batavia.

On getting on board, I had no little difficulty at first in speaking English, and I found that I had almost entirely forgotten how to read and write. Newman, however, used to have me every day into his cabin, and I very soon recovered the knowledge I had lost. Indeed, he took as much pains to instruct me as he had done on board the whaler, and he encouraged me with the hope that he might get me appointed as one of his mates while he remained in the schooner. But alas! I found that in one point he was still unchanged. Religion was yet a stranger to his soul.

At length we reached Batavia. He went on sh.o.r.e in high spirits, telling me that he was going to visit the lady to whom he was engaged; but he let me know that he must call also on another who had formed an attachment for him, that he might pacify her respecting his intended marriage. I feared from what he said that all was not right. I expected him on board again that night, but he did not return.

In the morning he did not come, so with some anxiety I went on sh.o.r.e to inquire for him. For a long time I searched in vain. At last I met a person whom I guessed to be an Englishman.

"Your captain do you ask for?" he answered. "Look there!"

Some police-officers stood at the door of a house. They allowed me to enter. On the floor of a room at the side lay a body. A cloth covered the face. I lifted it up. There I beheld all that remained of the highly endowed Edward Newman, for by no other name did I know him. He had been poisoned through fiery jealousy. A cup, in pretended friendship, had been laughingly offered him. Unsuspiciously he had drunk of it. The Government seized the murderess, who paid the penalty of her crime with her life.

Thus died one who was well calculated to shine in the higher walks of life. Who he was, whence he came, or even the slightest clue to his previous history, I was never able to ascertain. In a strange land he died, far away from kindred and friends--if, indeed, he had any--his fate for ever unknown to them. Let this be a warning to those who hear the sad conclusion of his history. The highest talents, and the most undaunted courage and perseverance, will avail a man nothing, unless at the same time he be under the guidance of principle.

The death of my friend threw me completely adrift, and I was glad to find an opportunity of working my pa.s.sage to England on board a ship just going to sail for Liverpool.

Once more I stood on my native sh.o.r.e, a care-worn, weather-beaten man, well advanced in years. On inquiring for the bank in which I had invested the savings of my former voyage, I found that it had failed, and that I was as poor as when I began the world, with this difference, that I had a profession, and had bought a large amount of experience with the money I had squandered--which is not always the case with spend-thrifts.

I made inquiries for Captain Carr, but could hear nothing of him. As I concluded that he had invested the money made by my last voyage in the _Drake_, I supposed that also to have been lost by the bank. I thought this a very great misfortune, as I wished to have settled on sh.o.r.e in some business or other. Perhaps I might have chosen that of a publican, as many sailors do. However, I had now no resource but to go to sea again.

While in this humour I fell in with an old shipmate. We had been together in the _Glutton_, and one or two other ships, so we knew each other directly. He told me that he belonged to a revenue-cutter then stationed in the Mersey, and that she was short of hands, especially of three or four steady men; and when I mentioned to him that I had been boatswain of a man-of-war schooner, he said that he was certain I would get a berth on board. I was weary of foreign voyages, so I accompanied him at once, as he proposed, to the commander, and was entered immediately.

Ever since have I had reason to bless that day. The commander was a pious, excellent man, who, aware of the value of his own soul, was ever solicitous for the eternal welfare of all those placed under his authority. He soon found that though I had some knowledge of the Bible, and much of other things, I was ignorant of the way of salvation. He called me often into his cabin. Kindly and affectionately he spoke to me, and set before me the truth of the gospel as it is in Christ Jesus.

As he spoke to me, so did he, from time to time, to all the rest. He, truly, was not ashamed of the Master he served. At an early age he had hoisted his flag, and had ever since fought bravely under it, against the scorn of the world, against evil in all shapes. Even the most obdurate were softened and influenced by the example he set, though they might not receive the truth with gladness of heart. We were what all ships' companies might become--a Christian crew, though not without faults and shortcomings; but we loved Christ, and worshipped him with singleness of heart. At the same time I am very certain that no crew ever more efficiently did their duty to their country than we performed ours.

For three years I served on board that vessel, and at the end of that time was sent round to Woolwich, where she had been fitted out, to be paid off.

The last time I landed at Liverpool, I met an old gentleman walking along the street. I looked in his face. It was Captain Carr! I told him who I was. Of course he had thought I had been lost, and was very much surprised to see me. He was shocked to hear of the death of my companions, and deeply interested in the account I gave him of my captivity. To my no little satisfaction he told me that he had not invested the money, which was mine by rights, from the last voyage; and that he thought he could obtain fifty pounds from the owners as my share of profits. This sum I afterwards received. It was all that remained out of the thousands I had made in the course of my life.