The Three Lieutenants Part 42

"Though our trip was not dest.i.tute of interest, I can only hope that I shall never be sent up the Orinoco again."

Terence thanked Jack for this description of his trip when they next met, which they did off Georgetown, the capital of British Guiana, at the mouth of the Demerara river. Its gaily painted wooden houses, with broad verandahs, raised on supports some feet above the ground, its ca.n.a.ls and d.y.k.es, and numerous windmills, might make it easily mistaken for a Dutch town, were it not for the tall palm-trees which rise in its midst and the rich tropical scenery around. Here the corvette and brig remained for some days, and then sailed to join the squadron ordered to rendezvous at Rio.

A bright lookout was kept for slavers, which, notwithstanding the treaty lately made by the Brazilian Government with England, were known to swarm on the coast; the local authorities, like those of Havannah, encouraging the nefarious traffic, which put thousands of dollars into their purses.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE CORVETTE AND BRIG PART COMPANY--THE FORMER CHASES A SUSPICIOUS SAIL--CAPTURES A FULL SLAVER--ADAIR IN CHARGE--TAKES PRIZE TO BAHIA--AN IMPORTANT WARNING--PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTACK--ANECDOTE OF LIEUTENANT WASEY--THE SLAVE-DEALERS ATTEMPT TO RETAKE THE PRIZE--GALLANT DEFENCE-- ENEMY DEFEATED--THE SUPPLEJACK APPEARS IN GOOD TIME.

The _Tudor_ and _Supplejack_ had crossed the line, and had got some way to the southward, when a heavy gale came on, such as is not often experienced in those lat.i.tudes. It blew with especial fury during the night. Murray hove the corvette to, and believed that Jack would have done the same, but when morning broke, and the brig was nowhere to be seen from the deck of the corvette, he could not help feeling somewhat anxious on the subject. During the day the weather moderated, and a lookout was kept for her from aloft. Two days pa.s.sed, however, and she did not appear. The wind was from the north-east, and he hoped by a quick run to Rio to have his anxiety soon brought to an end by finding that the _Supplejack_ had arrived before him.

Morning had just dawned, the breeze was fresh, the tops of the seas sparkled in the rays of the rising sun, when the lookout from aloft shouted, "A sail on the lee bow!"

"What is she?" asked Adair, who was officer of the watch.

"A brig, sir," was the answer.

"Is she like the _Supplejack_?" he inquired.

"Can't say, sir. She is anyhow running to the westward, and the _Supplejack_ would be steering to the south."

"You are right. Call the commander," said Adair to Desmond. The youngster had rejoined the ship at Georgetown. He himself then went aloft with his gla.s.s, to have a look at the stranger. By the time he came down Murray was on deck.

"She is certainly not the _Supplejack_, and, as she is running in for some Brazilian port far to the northward of Rio, she may possibly be a slaver."

"We will overhaul her, at all events," said Murray, and the corvette, bearing up in chase, made all sail she could set.

The stranger did not at first discover that she was pursued, and by the time that she did so the corvette had gained considerably on her. She was then seen to be a large brigantine, and by her square yards and white canvas, lighted up by the rays of the sun, Murray was more than ever convinced that she was a slaver.

The chase had set all the sail she could carry, and still kept well ahead of the corvette. The weather, as the day advanced, gave signs of changing, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and squalls, not very strong at first, but sufficient to make the commander look with anxious eyes at his spars, swept across the ocean--the dark clouds as they rushed along changing the hitherto blue, laughing waves to a leaden hue. Still the corvette persevered. The crew were at their stations, ready to shorten sail the moment it became absolutely necessary. The eagerness of the chase to escape made it still more probable that she was a slaver. She was dead before the wind, carrying topgallant-sails and royals, and studding-sails on either side. A dark cloud pa.s.sing over her threw her into shade; on it went, and once more the bright rays of the sun falling on her canvas brought her more clearly into view; another squall swept by, making the corvette's studding-sail-booms crack and bend as if they were about to break away from the braces.

"Hold on, good sticks!" cried Murray, apostrophising them, "the toughest spars will win the day."

The crew cast their eyes aloft, fully expecting to see them carried away, but they held on, and the trim corvette went dashing forward amid the dancing seas, which rose up, foam-crested, on either side.

"Hurrah!" exclaimed Terence, "she is ours!" At that moment the squall had reached the chase, and away flew her studding-sails, the booms breaking off at the irons. Still she held on her course. The corvette was now rapidly gaining on her; the attempt was made to rig another lower studding-sail, but that also was carried away almost as soon as set, and in less than half an hour the corvette had got her well within range of her long guns; but Murray refrained from firing as long as he found that he was gaining on her.

"It is useless to run the risk of injuring her spars," he observed to Adair; "she will haul down her colours when she finds that she has no hope of getting away."

"Those fellows are up to all sorts of dodges, and will make every effort to escape," said Terence.

"We will take in the studding-sails at all events, and be ready for him should he haul his wind," said Murray. The light canvas was taken in with a rapidity, which must have astonished the crew of the slaver.

Just, however, as the operation was about to be commenced, she had put her helm to port, and braced her yards sharp up on the starboard tack; but a couple of shot from the corvette, one of which struck her starboard quarter, showed her that she was too late; and fearing that other iron missiles might overtake her, she immediately hauled down her colours. The corvette's topgallant sails and royals having been handed, she also was brought to the wind and hove-to on the weather beam of the prize. Murray now directed Adair to go on board the brigantine with a midshipman and ten hands, and to carry her to Rio, unless, from a scarcity of provisions or want of water, he should find it necessary to put in to Bahia, or any other neighbouring port on the Brazilian coast.

Adair and Desmond were quickly ready with their carpet-bags, as were s.n.a.t.c.hblock and nine other men with their bundles, and the boat which had, meantime, been lowered, pulled off for the prize, although there was some sea on; yet as she was low in the water, she was easily boarded. She proved to be the _Donna Maria_, a noted Brazilian slaver which had often before escaped capture. According to Murray's directions, Adair sent back the captain and officers and some of her ill-looking crew, who were likely to prove troublesome if left in her.

He found that, though only measuring a hundred and fifty tons she had nearly five hundred slaves on board, stowed away as thick as they could be packed between decks.

Having had a remarkably quick run from the coast of Africa, the captain informed him that he had not lost more than twenty people. As he looked down the main hatchway, the haggard countenances of the ma.s.s of human beings packed close together--as Desmond observed, like herrings in a cask--showed him that had the voyage continued much longer, the number of deaths would have been greatly increased.

Although there was food enough and water for the slaves, either the crew had hove overboard some of their own provisions, or had brought but a small supply, so that Adair found but a scant allowance for himself and his men; he therefore sent on board the corvette for such articles as he thought would be required. Just as all arrangements had been completed, and he had put the brigantine on her course, he saw the corvette haul her wind, and stand away to the eastward. As she did so, Murray signalised that a strange sail, which he hoped to overhaul, had hove in sight in that direction.

A sufficient number of the slaver's crew had been kept on board to attend to the unfortunate blacks, and carry them their provisions and water. Adair himself went round among them, and endeavoured to make them understand that he was their friend, and that as soon as possible they should be sent back to Africa. At first they looked on the Englishmen with an expression of terror in their countenances, many of them believing that they would be taken on sh.o.r.e to be killed and eaten, or to be offered up to the white man's Fetish. Fortunately one of the seamen, who had been long on the coast, could make himself understood by some of them; and, by his means and kind treatment, Terence succeeded at length in banishing their fears. One of the Brazilians also spoke a little English, and so was able to act as interpreter. Pedro was a better-looking fellow than most of his companions, and by the kind way he treated the blacks Terence was inclined to trust him. He declared that poverty alone, and a wish to support his family, had induced him to ship on board the slaver, and that it was the last voyage he would ever make.

"These countrymen of mine are great rascals," he observed; "you take care what they do, or they play you one great trick."

Pedro then told Adair that the brigantine was somewhat leaky, and that it had been necessary to pump her out at every watch.

He at once ordered the well to be sounded, and s.n.a.t.c.hblock reported "two feet of water in the hold;" he accordingly ordered the pumps to be rigged, and set some of his own people to work them. Pedro again came aft, and a.s.sured him that he felt certain he could pick out a score or more of blacks who could be trusted on deck, and that they would willingly take the duty, glad to escape from the confinement of the hold.

"We will try them," said Terence, and in a short time Pedro sent up the number he had mentioned, all of them well-made, stalwart negroes. The scant clothing they wore exhibited, however, how much they had suffered by confinement, even during their comparatively short run across the Atlantic. Half of them quickly understanding what was required set to work with a will, being relieved by their companions. By their exertions the brigantine was at length almost freed from water. During the night it had, however, again gained on the pumps, and the weather coming on worse soon after daybreak Terence judged it prudent to bear up for Bahia.

He was thankful to believe that he would soon be in smooth water, for the poor slaves suffered dreadfully by the way the vessel tumbled about in the heavy seas, and several of the weak ones were found to have died during the night. The Brazilians hauled them out, without the slightest exhibition of feeling, and hove the bodies overboard as if they had been so many dead sheep. The heat and effluvium which arose from below were almost unbearable, the instant the hatches, which had necessarily been closed during the night, were taken off.

It was the first full slaver Desmond had ever been aboard.

"I have always heard the African coast abused, but I can only say that I should be ready to go and serve there, for the sake of catching some of these rascally slavers before they have had the opportunity of making the poor blacks suffer so horribly, as they must do during the middle pa.s.sage," he exclaimed, as he warmed with indignation at what he witnessed.

At last, a short time before nightfall, the brigantine entered the harbour of Bahia, which is easy of access, and came to an anchor at some distance from the town. Scarcely had she brought up than the weather moderated, and Terence began to regret that he had not continued his course for Rio; still he hoped that Murray, judging by the weather, would take it for granted that he had put in there, and would come and look for him.

It was too late that evening to communicate with the authorities; several boats, however, came alongside, though as no officer appeared among the people in them, Adair would not allow any one to come on board, with the exception of an official who was sent, he said, by the captain of the port to make inquiries about the vessel. At last all the boats took their departure. There was no moon, though the stars shone forth brightly overhead, reflected on the calm surface of the water. It was rather dark all around where the brig lay; here and there only, distant lights glimmering from the sh.o.r.e. The watch, of which Ben s.n.a.t.c.hblock had charge, was set, and Adair and Desmond retired into a small cabin on one side of the deck to take supper.

"Well, I hope these poor fellows may be sent back safely to their homes," said Desmond. "I am afraid a good many more will die before they get there, if they are not placed in some healthy spot and allowed to take exercise first."

"Not one of them will ever get back to their homes," answered Terence.

"They are all brought some hundreds of miles from the interior, and would be quickly seized and carried back into slavery were the attempt to be made. They will be sent to Sierra Leone, or some of them may find their way to Liberia, a colony established some years ago for liberated blacks from the North American States."

Adair was giving Desmond further information on the subject when Pedro put his head in at the door.

"Senhor Capitan, I want to have one word with you," he said, putting his finger to his mouth. "You be on the watch; I heard things said by the people in de boats, and I make sure they come off and take all de slaves away, and knock you and your people on de head. Hist! hist! Don't let my comrades know I tell you, or dey cut my troat as sure as I now a living man. No time to lose."

Adair asked Pedro further questions, but he could elicit no more information. Pedro was evidently in a hurry to be gone, and again making a sign to show that caution was necessary he stole forward, keeping close under the bulwarks, as if afraid of being observed.

"The information Pedro has given us must not be neglected," observed Adair. "He may be mistaken, but if the Brazilians think that they can get hold of the slaves they will try to do so without scruple, and will cut the throats of every one of us should they find it necessary to carry out their object. Go and turn out our people, and I will have a talk with s.n.a.t.c.hblock on the subject."

Desmond, making his way forward, roused up the prize crew, cautiously awaking each man separately, so that the slaver's people should not hear them.

Adair followed him on deck, and told s.n.a.t.c.hblock what he had heard.

"Well, sir, to my mind the first thing we have to do is to secure the Brazilian fellows we have on board, for if we are attacked by their friends from the sh.o.r.e, as Pedro thinks likely, we shall have them, may be, playing us some trick," answered Ben. "Either they will let the slaves loose and set them up to murdering us; or if they can get hold of arms they will set on us themselves, should they see a chance of helping our enemies."

Adair thought Ben's advice good, and told him to get a sufficient number of lengths of rope to secure the fellows. This was quickly done, and Adair and his men went into the berth, and soon had all the Brazilians secured, almost before they were awake. He had Pedro lashed like the rest; Adair whispered, however, into his ear that he did so for his own sake, as should he be suspected of having given the Englishmen information he probably would be murdered by his countrymen. Pedro, indeed, seemed perfectly satisfied to be so treated.

"They no countrymen of mine, though," he answered, in a low voice, "they Brazilians, I true-born Portuguese."

"Well, whatever you are, I am much obliged to you, and hope to reward you some day for the a.s.sistance you have given us," answered Adair.