The Cruise of the Frolic Part 16

THE CHASE.

We left her Britannic Majesty's brig "Sylph" in chase of a strange sail on the coast of Africa. The wind was from the westward, and she was standing on a bowline to the southward, with the coast clearly seen broad on the lee-beam. Captain Staunton ordered every expedient he could think of to be tried to increase the speed of his vessel, for the stranger was evidently a very fast sailer, though it was at first difficult to say whether or not she was increasing her distance from them. At all events, the British crew soon saw that it would be hopeless to expect to come up with the stranger before dark, for the sun was just sinking below the horizon, and the thick mists were already rising over the wooded sh.o.r.e, and yet they appeared to be no nearer to her than they were when they first made sail in chase. It was a magnificent sailing breeze, just sufficient for both vessels to carry their topgallant-sails and royals without fear of springing their spars, and the sea was perfectly smooth, merely rippled over by the playful wind. Indeed, as the two vessels glided proudly along over the calm waters, they appeared rather to be engaged in some friendly race than anxious to lead each other to destruction. All the officers of the "Sylph" were on deck with their gla.s.ses constantly at their eyes, as the last rays of the sun tinged the royals of the chase, and so clearly was every spar and rope defined through that pure atmosphere, that it was difficult to believe that she was not within range of their guns.

Captain Staunton and his first lieutenant walked together on the weather-side of the deck.

"Do you think she is the 'Espanto,' Mr Collins?" asked the captain.

"I have no doubt about it, sir," answered the officer addressed. "I watched her narrowly when we chased her off Loanda the last time she was on the coast, and I pulled round her several times when she lay in the harbour of St. Jago da Cuba, just a year and a half ago."

"She has had a long run of iniquity," said the captain; "two years our cruisers have been on the look-out for her, and have never yet been able to overhaul her."

"That Daggerfeldt must be a desperate villain, if report speaks true,"

observed the lieutenant; "I think, sir, you seemed to say you once knew him."

"I did, to my cost," answered Captain Staunton; "that man's life has been a tissue of treachery and deceit from his earliest days. He once disgraced our n.o.ble service. He murdered a shipmate and ran from his ship on the coast of America. It was reported for some time that he was dead, by his clothes having been found torn and b.l.o.o.d.y on the sh.o.r.e, and his family, fortunately for them, believed the story. It was, however, afterwards discovered that he had been sheltered by a Spanish girl, and, in grat.i.tude for his preservation, he carried her off, robbed her father of all his wealth, and either frightened him to death or smothered him.

The unhappy girl has, it is said, ever since sailed with him, and it is to be hoped she is not aware of the enormity of his guilt. Pirate and slaver, he has committed every atrocity human nature is capable of."

"A very perfect scoundrel, in truth, sir," answered Mr Collins. "It was said, too, I remember, that he was going to marry a very beautiful girl in England. What an escape for her!"

"No, he was not going to marry her!" exclaimed the captain, with unusual vehemence. "Her father, perhaps, wished it, but she would never have consented. Collins, you are my friend, and I will tell you the truth.

That lady, Blanche D'Aubigne, was engaged to me, and never would have broken her faith to me while she believed me alive. By a series of forgeries, Daggerfeldt endeavoured to persuade her that I was false to her, though she would not believe him. On my return home she is to become my wife. We were to have married directly I got my promotion, but I was so immediately sent out here that I was able to spend but one day in her society. I wished to have secured her a pension in case this delightful climate should knock me on the head, but she would not hear of it. Poor girl, I have left her what little fortune I possess, Collins; I could not do less. Those who live on sh.o.r.e at ease can't say we enjoy too much of the pleasures of home, or don't earn the Queen's biscuit. Bless her Majesty!"

"I don't know that, sir. There are, I hear, though I never fell in with any of them, a set of lying traitors at home, who say we are no better than pirates, and want to do away with the navy altogether. If they were to succeed in their roguish projects, there would be an end of Old England altogether, say I."

"They never will succeed, Collins, depend upon that. There is still too much sense left in the country; but if her Majesty's government were to employ her cruisers in any other part of the world than on this pestiferous coast, the cause of humanity would benefit by the change.

For every prize we capture, ten escape, and our being here scarcely raises the price of slaves in the Cuban and Brazilian markets five dollars a head; while the Spaniards and Portuguese, notwithstanding their treaties, do all they can to favour the traffic. Do we gain on the chase, do you think, Collins?"

"Not a foot, I fear, sir," answered the lieutenant. "That brig is a fast craft, and though I don't believe, as some of the people do, that the skipper has signed a contract with Davy Jones, she is rightly called by them the 'Black Slaver.'"

"If the breeze freshens, we may overhaul her, but if not, she may double on us in the dark, and again get away," observed the captain. "Take care a bright look-out is kept for'ard."

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the lieutenant, repeating the order and adjusting his night-gla.s.s; "she hasn't altered her course, at all events."

By this time daylight had totally disappeared, although a pale crescent moon in the clear sky afforded light sufficient for objects to be distinguished at some distance. Few of the officers turned in, but the watch below were ordered to their hammocks to recruit their strength for the services they might be required to perform on the morrow, as Captain Staunton had determined, should the wind fail, to attack the chase in his boats. When the enemy is well-armed and determined, this a very dangerous operation, and in the present instance there could be no doubt that he who commanded the "Black Slaver" would not yield without a desperate resistance. Lookouts were stationed at the mastheads as well as forward, and every eye was employed in endeavouring to keep her in sight--no easy task with the increasing darkness--for a light mist was gradually filling the atmosphere, and the moon itself was sinking into the ocean. The breeze, however, appeared to be increasing; the brig felt its force, and heeled gracefully over to it as the water bubbled and frothed against her bows.

"What are the odds we don't catch her after all?" said young Wildgrave to his messmate; "I hate these long chases, when one never comes up with the enemy."

"So do I," answered his companion. "But to tell you the truth, I have a presentiment that we shall come up with her this time, and bring her to action too. She has escaped us twice before, and the third time will, I think, be fatal to her. By-the-by, where is she though?"

"Fore-yard, there!" sang out the first lieutenant, "can you see the chase?"

"I did a moment ago, sir;--no, sir, I can see her nowhere."

A similar answer was returned from the other lookouts. She was nowhere visible.

THE SLAVER.

The "Black Slaver" well deserved her name. Her hull was black, without the usual relief of a coloured ribbon; her masts and spars were of the same ebon hue, her cargo was black, and surely her decks were dark as the darkest night. She was a very large vessel, certainly upwards of three hundred tons, and also heavily armed with a long bra.s.s gun amidships, and ten long nines in battery, besides small bra.s.s swivel-guns mounted on her quarter, to aid in defending her against an attack in boats.

Her crew was composed of every nation under the sun, for crime makes all men brothers, but brothers who, Cainlike, were ready any moment to imbrue their hands in each other's blood; and their costume was as varied as their language--a mixture of that of many nations. A mongrel Spanish, however, was the language in which all orders were issued, as being that spoken by the greater number of the people. She was a very beautiful and powerful vessel, and all the arrangements on board betokened strict attention to nautical discipline. For more than two years she had run her evil career with undeserved success, and her captain and owner was reputed to be a wealthy man, already in possession of several estates in Cuba. Slaving was his most profitable and safe occupation, mixed up with a little piracy, as occasion offered, without fear of detection. Several slavers had unaccountably disappeared, which had certainly not been taken by English cruisers, and others had returned to the coast complaining that they had been robbed of their slaves by a large armed schooner, which had put on board a few bales of coloured cottons, with an order to them to go back and take in a fresh cargo of human beings. The "Espanto" was more than suspected of being the culprit; but she was always so disguised that it was difficult to bring the accusation home to her, while they themselves being illegally employed, could obtain no redress in a court of law.

She had for some time been cruising, as usual, in the hopes of picking up a cargo without taking the trouble of looking into the coast for it, when, weary of waiting, and being short of water and provisions, the captain determined to run the risk of procuring one by the usual method.

From the ruse practised by the "Sylph," she was not seen by his lookouts till he was nearly close up to her. He was in no way alarmed, however, for he recognised the British man-of-war, and knowing the respective rate of sailing of the two vessels, felt certain, if the wind held, to be able to walk away from her. To make certain what she was, he had stood on some time after he had first seen her, a circ.u.mstance which had, as we mentioned, somewhat surprised Captain Staunton and his officers. Having ascertained that the sail inside of him was the "Sylph," he hauled his wind, and making all sail, before an hour of the first watch had pa.s.sed, aided by the darkness, he had completely run her out of sight. When he stood in he had been making for the Pongos River; but being prevented from getting in there, he determined to run for the Coanza River, some forty miles further to the south, before daybreak, and as the mouth is narrow, and entirely concealed by trees, he had many chances in his favour of remaining concealed there while the British man-of-war pa.s.sed by. A slave-agent, also, of his resided in the neighbourhood, who would be able to supply him at the shortest notice, and at moderate prices, with a cargo of his fellow-beings. At this rendezvous he knew there would be a look-out for him, and that there were pilots ready to a.s.sist him in entering the river.

"Square the yards and keep her away, Antonio," he sung out to his first mate, a ferocious-looking mulatto, who was conning the vessel. "We are just abreast of--Point, and Diogo, if he has his eyes open, ought to see us."

The helm was kept up, the yards were squared, and the vessel stood stem on towards the sh.o.r.e.

Before long the dark line of a tree-fringed coast was visible, when she was again brought to the wind; her lower sails were furled, and she was hove-to under her topsails.

"We must make a signal, or the lazy blacks will never find us out, senor captain," observed Antonio to his chief.

"Yes, we must run the risk: we shall not be in before daylight if we do not, and the enemy will scarcely distinguish from what direction the report of the gun comes. Be smart about it though."

A gun from the lee quarter was accordingly discharged, the dull echoes from which were heard rebounding along the sh.o.r.e, and directly afterwards a blue-light was fired, the bright flame giving a spectre-like appearance to the slaver and her evil-doing crew. They might well have been taken for one of those phantom barks said to cruise about the ocean either to warn mariners of coming danger or to lure them to destruction.

Soon afterwards a small light was seen to burst out, as it seemed, from the dark line, and to glide slowly over the water towards them.

Gradually it increased, and as it approached nearer, it was seen to proceed from a fire burning in the bow of a large canoe pulled by a dozen black fellows. When it came alongside, two of them scrambled on board, and recognising the captain, welcomed him to the coast. Their language was a curious mixture of Spanish, Portuguese, English, and African.

"Ah, senor captain, berry glad you et Espanto, come esta nocha, viento es favoravel, for run up de river Diogo--me vos on the look-out you, sabe."

Having thus delivered himself, the chief pilot went aft to the helm with much the same air as one of his European brethren, habited in Flushing coat and tarpaulin hat, although the only garment he boasted was a blue shirt, secured at the waist by a piece of spun-yarn, and a red handkerchief bound round his head.

"Up with the helm, then square away the yards!" sung out the captain, and the vessel, under the direction of the negro, was standing dead on to the apparently unbroken line of dark sh.o.r.e.

It required great confidence in the honesty and knowledge of the pilot for the crew not to believe that he was running the schooner on sh.o.r.e, for such a thing had been more than once before done.

"Remember," whispered Antonio, as he pa.s.sed him, "if the vessel touches, my pistol sends a ball through your head."

"No tien duvida, senor, contremestre," answered Quacko, quite unmoved by the threat, as being one to which he was well accustomed.

"Viento favoravel, rio fundo. Have de anchor p.r.o.nto to let go."

The bowsprit of the schooner was now almost among the mangrove bushes.

"Stivordo!" sung out the pilot.

A yellow line of sand was seen over her quarter. This seemed to spring up from the sea on either side, like dark, shapeless phantoms, eager to destroy the slaver's crew, the spirits of those their cruelty had sent from this world. Taller and taller they grew, for so calmly did the vessel glide on, that she appeared not to move, yet the broad open sea was completely shut out from the view of those on board; a narrow dark line, in which the reflection of a star was here and there visible, was the only water seen as still, on the schooner moved.

"Bombordo!" sung out the pilot.

The helm was put to port, and the schooner glided into another pa.s.sage, her yards, as they were squared away or braced up to meet the alterations in her course, almost brushing the branches of the lofty trees. For some minutes more she ran on, till the stream grew suddenly wider, and a little bay, formed by a bend of the sh.o.r.e, appeared on the starboard hand, into which she glided. The anchor was let go, the topsails were furled, and so entirely was she concealed by the overhanging boughs, that a boat might have pa.s.sed down the centre of the stream without seeing her.

At dawn the next morning a busy scene was going on on board and round the slaver. Her crew, aided by a number of negroes, were employed in setting up her rigging and fitting slave-decks, while several canoes were a.s.sisting her boats in bringing water and provisions alongside.

Thus they were employed without cessation for two days. There was no play, it was all hard, earnest work. It is a pity they were not labouring in a good cause instead of a bad one.

In the mean time the King of --, as he was called, in reality the princ.i.p.al slave-dealer and greatest rogue in the district, was collecting the negroes who had been kidnapped by him or his allies, from whom he had bought them in the neighbouring provinces--some as they were quietly fishing in their canoes on the coast, others as they were seated beneath the shade of the palm-tree in their native forest, or were coming from the far interior with a load of oil or ivory, to sell to the nearest trader--untutored savages, who perhaps had never before seen the face of a white man, or the blue dancing ocean. It is no wonder that they paint the Devil white, and believe the sea is the pa.s.sage to his realms. Eight hundred human beings were thus collected to be conveyed in that fell bark to the Far West, there to wear out their lives in hopeless slavery.

The greater part of the fourth day was spent in receiving half the number on board, and stowing them below. This operation was performed by men whose especial trade it is. The unhappy wretches are compelled to sit down with their legs bent under them, so closely packed that they cover but little more s.p.a.ce than the length of their feet, between-decks, little more than a yard high; and thus they remain, bolted down to the decks, the whole voyage, a few only being allowed to come up at a time to be aired, while the smallest quant.i.ty of water possible is afforded them to quench their burning thirst.