The Three Lieutenants Part 38

Jack ordered a boat to be lowered, and directed Needham and the only midshipman remaining with him to board the prize; his other officers, the doctor and purser, being busily engaged with the wounded men.

Needham was quickly alongside, and stepping on board he found that out of her crew of forty hands, six had been killed and eight or ten severely wounded, while her bulwarks and the companion-hatch had been considerably knocked about. Among the killed was her first officer, whilst the captain and several others were wounded.

Needham, as directed, inquired for her papers--

"And what is the name of this craft of yours?" he asked, when they were given to him.

"The _Black Swan_," was the answer.

"Well now, I shouldn't be surprised if you called her the _Caterina_, you would be somewhere nearer the truth."

The captain started, but made no reply.

"Come, I am to take you on board our brig," continued Needham, making a sign to the captain to get into the boat.

Jack, as soon as he could possibly be spared off the deck, went below to ascertain how Don Lopez and his companions had made their escape from the cabin. It was very evident that they had broken open the door, that the sentry had been surprised and overpowered before he could use his musket. Instead of murdering him, which it was a wonder they had not done, they had gagged and put him into the irons from which they had released one of their companions. He still sat in a corner of the gunroom, looking very much alarmed, and not a little ashamed of himself.

In a short time the schooner and corvette, brought up by the freshening breeze, were close to, and Murray at once came on board the _Supplejack_.

"I heartily congratulate you on having captured the brig before I came up," he exclaimed, as he and Jack shook hands; "I should have been sorry to have deprived you of the honour which is your due."

"Thank you," answered Jack; "but I suspect that we should not have found it so easy a matter to capture her, had you not made your appearance in the nick of time. We were hard pressed I can a.s.sure you, for the Dons fought well, and it was all we could do to drive them back when they attempted to board us; besides which, our prisoners broke loose, and would have given us a good deal of trouble, before we had knocked them on the head. But how came you to arrive so opportunely?"

"I was sent by the admiral in quest of you, to direct you to return to Port Royal, from whence we are to sail immediately in company for Trinidad. We are not likely to remain there long, and are afterwards, the admiral tells me, not a usual proceeding, to be placed under the orders of the admiral on the South American station."

"For your sake I am sorry that you are to leave the West Indies, though I shall not be sorry to visit fresh scenes, and get a little cooling after a two years broiling in these seas," said Jack; "but how did you leave your friends at Saint David's?"

Murray looked grave as he answered--

"Miss O'Regan has not recovered as rapidly as I trusted she would, from the trials she has gone through, and I think it probable that she will accompany some of her relatives to England, so that I cannot hope to meet her again till we return home; indeed, she is firm in her determination not to marry, at all events, till I pay off the corvette, and I suppose she is right, although I would rather make her mine at once. Archy Gordon, I am thankful to say, under her and her friends'

care, is gradually recovering, and will, I hope, in a few weeks, join the frigate. However, you must not forget your prize. Here comes your boat with her skipper."

The Spanish captain now stepped on board, and protested loudly against the legality of his capture, and declared that the English brig-of-war had fired into him without provocation, and that he had been obliged to board her, as the only means of saving his vessel.

"Very probably," answered Jack, "and you expected to take us and our prizes into the bargain. As to the legality of the affair, that will be decided when we arrive at Jamaica. In the meantime, as I am overcrowded, you and your officers will go on board the corvette, where your wounds will be attended to."

Murray had agreed to relieve Jack of some of his prisoners, and to send a prize-crew on board the _Caterina_. All arrangements having been made, the two men-of-war and four prizes made sail for Port Royal.

Scarcely had they got their tacks aboard than a large ship was sighted from the masthead of the _Tudor_, standing off the land. She was soon made out to be the _Plantagenet_, which had sailed from Port Royal ten days before her. The frigate made the signal to close, and the small squadron was soon hove to at a short distance from her. As directly afterwards it fell calm, visits were exchanged between the officers of the different ships. Murray and Jack went on board the _Plantagenet_ to make their report to Captain Hemming.

"You have had better fortune than we can boast of, Rogers," he said, laughing in a tone which showed his vexation; "those rascally slave-dealers have contrived to do us, though, as we are up to their tricks, I hope that we shall turn the tables on them another time."

When Jack went into the gunroom, Adair gave him an account of the circ.u.mstance to which the captain alluded.

"We were on our way from Jamaica to Havannah, to look after you, Jack, and to prevent you from getting into mischief or catching a Tartar, as it seems you nearly did, when the captain thought fit to stand into the Bay of Guantimo; it's away there on the southern coast of Cuba, towards the east end. The admiral had received information that Don Pepe, the very rascal whose acquaintance we made on the coast of Africa, and who is now settled at Havannah, was fitting out a large and powerful craft, calculated to give a little pigmy, like you, some trouble.

"We came off Guantimo just before dark. It is, I should say, a beautiful and deep bay, with numerous small harbours in it, in which slavers may hide securely without any risk of being seen by our cruisers, unless expressly looked for. As we were standing in, intending to run up the bay, we made out a large brig at anchor with sails loose, ready for sea. She had a suspicious look about her, unusually square yards, taunt and raking masts, and low black hull.

Though she might be well armed and disposed to show fight, had you for instance attempted to question her, she would not, of course, dare to resist the frigate; and as she could not escape us, we felt pretty sure that, should she be what we suspected, she would soon become our prize.

"We had got some little way up the bay, and within half a mile of her, when the wind fell. We were by this time more certain than ever, from her appearance, that she was a slaver, and the captain therefore ordered a shot to be fired close ahead of her, that we might see how she would take it. She made no reply, neither hoisted colours, nor attempted to get under weigh.

"'At all events we will see what she is,' said the captain. He then ordered me and Norris to take the pinnace and jollyboat, and board her.

The men had just time to buckle on their cutla.s.ses before they tumbled into the boats. I was sorry after we had shoved off that they were not better armed, for the Spaniards might very possibly try to play us some trick or other, such as heaving cold shot into our boat and knocking us on the head as we got alongside, though they were much more likely to blow up their vessel or to run her on sh.o.r.e and make their escape. As we pulled on, we observed numerous boats pa.s.sing from the brig to the sh.o.r.e, and we felt pretty certain that the fellows were landing the unfortunate slaves, so that we should not be in time to rescue them. I ordered our men to give way, in the hopes of saving some of the poor wretches, and a single slave remaining on board would, of course, be enough to condemn her. It was now nearly dark, though we could still make out the brig with her white canvas loose, not far ahead. I was somewhat surprised as we approached to observe no sign of life aboard her; not a man could I make out on her deck, no boat alongside. We had got almost up to her when we observed a large schooner lying close in sh.o.r.e on the farther side of a high point which had hitherto concealed her from us. Almost at the same instant a shot came flying from the schooner towards us, so well aimed that, as it struck the surface, it threw the water right over us. The splash of our oars must have shown the schooner's people where we were, for, although we could see her, they could not have made out in the dark such small objects as our boats.

"The first shot was followed by a second, which very nearly did for the jollyboat, as, after striking the water, it bounded over her, smashing one of her oars, and knocking in her gunwale, happily hitting no one.

Not wishing to be exposed to this sort of peppering, as shot after shot came in quick succession, giving us not a most agreeable kind of shower-bath, we at once dashed at the brig, I boarding on the starboard side, and Norris on the port. We fully expected to have some hot work, but on reaching the deck, not a soul appeared, and we found ourselves masters and, as we supposed, possessors of as fine a brig as I have ever seen engaged in the slave-trade.

"I could not help feeling, however, a little uncomfortable on recollecting the tricks the rascals are apt to play, and I half expected to find myself and my men hoisted into the air by the explosion of the magazine, when, as I was about to send below to examine the vessel, I heard voices in the after-cabin, and presently a Spanish officer in full rig appeared, followed by half a dozen men-of-war's men. He announced himself as a midshipman belonging to the Spanish man-of-war schooner which lay at anchor in sh.o.r.e, the same craft which had fired at us, and said that he had been put in charge of the brig, which had been captured by his vessel.

"'And pray, then, why did your schooner fire at our boats?' I asked, eyeing the young fellow narrowly, for I much doubted that he was really a midshipman.

"'Your boats were seen approaching our prize under suspicious circ.u.mstances in the dusk of evening, and you probably were taken for pirates,' he answered, quite coolly.

"'There was light enough when we were first seen to make out our ensign,' I answered. 'If that schooner is a man-of-war, her commander shall be made to apologise for the insult he has offered to the British flag.'

"'Of course he will, and if you choose to send on board you will find that what I have told you is the case,' he answered, biting his lips, as if, so I supposed, he disliked having his honour doubted.

"'Well, you will remain here, and I will send one of my boats on board the schooner. Should any treacherous trick be played, I shall make you answerable,' I said, eyeing him sternly. He did not quail, and I was pretty well satisfied that he spoke the truth. I accordingly ordered Norris to go on board the schooner and ascertain the facts of the case, and to tell the captain that I wished to see him immediately on board the brig; after he was gone, I felt no little anxiety as to the reception he might meet with. The Spanish midshipman, however, appeared at his ease, and accompanied me over the brig; I found that she was a brand-new vessel, having never before been to sea; she was laden with cotton goods, and had the planking for a slave-deck, with leaguers, and a large cauldron for boiling farina; indeed, she was in every way fitted for a slaver, and would, I felt sure, if we could not stop her career, bring back some seven or eight hundred slaves in her capacious hold.

"'She is a slaver, you will allow?' I said, turning to the midshipman.

"'A slaver!' he said, 'worse than that. She is a regular pirate; as such we captured her.'

"Notwithstanding what he said, I was convinced that she was simply a slaver, though the Spaniards are generally in no hurry to take such vessels. We returned on deck, and I kept my eye on my friend and his men.

"The brig's crew had all been removed, he told me.

"'We shall see them, then, hanging at your yardarm tomorrow morning,' I observed.

"'Oh no! we do not treat our prisoners in so summary a manner,' he answered.

"We paced the deck for some time together, while I turned a somewhat anxious eye towards the schooner, hoping soon to see Norris return.

"Norris, as I afterwards learnt, as he got near the Spanish schooner observed her guns pointed down at his boat, ready to sink her in a moment. Undaunted, however, he pulled alongside. No opposition was offered to his coming on board. When he got on deck he found the fighting-lanterns ranged along it, sixty marines drawn up with muskets in their hands and swords by their sides, and fully two hundred men at their quarters. At the gangway stood the captain, a thin, short, wizen-faced man, with an immense moustache, who, as Norris appeared, began stamping with his feet, and swearing roundly in Spanish--

"'Who are you? How dared you go on board yonder brig?' he asked.

"'I am an officer of her Britannic Majesty's frigate _Plantagenet_,'

answered Norris, having a good notion of the proper way to meet such a fellow. 'I obey the orders of my captain. He supposes her to be a slaver, and if she is not, all I can say is, she is very much like one.'

"'She is not a slaver, but a pirate, and I have captured her under the same treaty that you English take slavers, and she is therefore mine and under my charge, and no one shall interfere with her.'

"'In that case, why did you fire at us, I beg to know?' asked Norris.

"'Because it was dark, and I could not see your flag,' answered the little Don.

"'You could have seen our frigate, and you must have known perfectly well all the time that the boats you were firing at were English,'

replied Norris. 'My superior officer, who has taken possession of the brig, wishes to see you on board her immediately.'