Tom Cringle's Log Part 17

"This is so good of you, Mr Cringle! you will take charge of my letter to my sister, I know you will?--I say, Anson," to the quartermaster, "do lift me up a little till I try and finish it.--It will be a sore heart to poor Sarah; she has no mother now, nor father, and aunt is not over kind,"--and again he wept bitterly. "Confound this jumping hand, it won't keep steady, all I can do.--I say, Doctor, I shan't die this time, shall I?"

"I hope not, my fine little fellow."

"I don't think I shall; I shall live to be a man yet, in spite of that b.l.o.o.d.y buccaneer's pike, I know I shall." G.o.d help me, the death rattle was already in his throat, and the flame was flickering in the socket; even as he spoke, the muscles of his neck stiffened to such a degree that I thought he was choked, but the violence of the convulsion quickly subsided. "I am done for, Doctor!" he could no longer open his mouth, but spoke through his clenched teeth--"I feel it now!--G.o.d Almighty receive my soul, and protect my poor sister!" The arch-enemy was indeed advancing to the final struggle, for he now gave a sudden and sharp cry, and stretched out his legs and arms, which instantly became as rigid as marble, and in his agony he turned his face to the side I stood on, but he was no longer sensible. "Sister," he said with difficulty--"Don't let them throw me overboard; there are sharks here."

"Land on the lee bow,"--sung out the man at the masthead.

The common life sound would not have moved any of us in the routine of duty, but bursting in, under such circ.u.mstances, it made us all start, as if it had been something unusual; the dying midshipman heard it, and said calmly--"Land,--I will never see it.--But how blue all your lips look.--It is cold, piercing cold, and dark, dark." Something seemed to rise in his throat, his features sharpened still more, and he tried to gasp, but his clenched teeth prevented him--he was gone.

I went on deck with a heavy heart, and, on looking in the direction indicated, I beheld the towering Blue Mountain peak rising high above the horizon, even at the distance of fifty miles, with its outline clear and distinct against the splendid western sky, now gloriously illumined by the light of the set sun. We stood on under easy sail for the night, and next morning when the day broke, we were off the east end of the magnificent Island of Jamaica. The stupendous peak now appeared to rise close aboard of us, with a large solitary star sparkling on his forehead, and reared his forest-crowned summit high into the cold blue sky, impending over us in frowning magnificence, while the long dark range of the Blue Mountains, with their outlines hard and clear in the grey light, sloped away on each side of him as if they had been the Giant's shoulders. Great ma.s.ses of white mist hung on their sides about half-way down, but all the valleys and coast as yet slept in the darkness. We could see that the land-wind was blowing strong in sh.o.r.e, from the darker colour of the water, and the speed with which the coasters, only distinguishable by their white sails, slid along; while astern of us, out at sea, yet within a cable's length, for we had scarcely shot beyond its influence, the prevailing trade-wind blew a smart breeze, coming up strong to a defined line, beyond which and between it and the influence of the land-wind, there was a belt of dull lead-coloured sea, about half a mile broad, with a long heavy ground-swell rolling, but smooth as gla.s.s, and without even a ripple on the surface, in the midst of which we presently lay dead becalmed.

The heavy dew was shaken in large drops out of the wet flapping sails, against which the reef points pattered like hail as the vessel rolled.

The decks were wet and slippery, and our jackets saturated with moisture; but we enjoyed the luxury of cold to a degree that made the sea water when dashed about the decks, as they were being holystoned, appear absolutely warm. Presently all nature awoke in its freshness so suddenly, that it looked like a change of scene in a theatre. The sun, as yet set to us, rose to the huge peak, and glanced like lightning on his summit, making it gleam like a ruby; presently the clouds on his s.h.a.ggy ribs rolled upwards, enveloping his head and shoulders, and were replaced by the thin blue mists which ascended from the valleys, forming a fleecy canopy, beneath which appeared hill and dale, woods and cultivated lands, where all had been undistinguishable a minute before, and gushing streams burst from the mountain sides like gouts of froth, marking their course in the level grounds by the vapours they sent up. Then breeze--mill towers burst into light, and cattle--mills, with their cone--shaped roofs, and overseers houses, and water-mills, with the white spray falling from the wheels, and sugar-works, with long pennants of white smoke streaming from the boiling-house chimneys seaward in the morning wind. Immediately after, gangs of negroes were seen at work; loaded waggons, with enormous teams of fourteen to twenty oxen dragging them, rolled along the roads; long strings of mules loaded with canes were threading the fields; drogging vessels were seen to shove out from every cove; the morning song of the black fishermen was heard, while their tiny canoes, like black specks, started up suddenly on all sides of us, as if they had floated from the bottom of the sea; and the smiling scene burst at once, and as if by magic, on us, in all its coolness and beauty, under the cheering influence of the rapidly rising sun. We fired a gun, and made the signal for a pilot; upon which a canoe, with three negroes in it, shoved off from a small schooner lying to about a mile to leeward. They were soon alongside, when one of the three jumped on board. This was the pilot, a slave, as I knew; and I remember the time, when, in my innocence, I would have expected to see something very squalid and miserable, but there was nothing of the kind; for I never in my life saw a more spruce salt.w.a.ter dandy, in a small way. He was well dressed, according to a seaman's notion--clean white trowsers, check shirt, with white lapels, neatly fastened at the throat with a black ribbon, smart straw hat; and altogether he carried an appearance of comfort--I was going to write independence--about him, that I was by no means prepared for. He moved about with a swaggering roll, grinning and laughing with the seamen.

"I say, blackie," said Mr Douglas.

"John Lodge, ma.s.sa, if you please, ma.s.sa; blackie is not politeful, sir;"

whereupon he showed his white teeth again.

"Well, well, John Lodge, you are running us in too close surely;" and the remark seemed seasonable enough to a stranger, for the rocks on the bold sh.o.r.e were now within half pistol shot.

"Mind your eye," shouted old Anson. "You will have us ash.o.r.e, you black rascal!"

"You, sir, what water have you here?" sung out Mr Splinter.

"Salt water, ma.s.sa," rapped out Lodge, fairly dumfounded by such a volley of questions--"You hab six fadom good here, ma.s.sa;" but suspecting he had gone too far--"I take de Tonnant, big ship as him is, close to dat reef, sir, you might have jump ash.o.r.e, so you need not frighten for your leetle dish of a hooker; beside, ma.s.sa, my character is at stake, you know"--then another grin and bow.

There was no use in being angry with the poor fellow, so he was allowed to have his own way until we anch.o.r.ed in the evening at Port Royal.

The morning after we arrived, I went ash.o.r.e with a boat's crew to perform the magnanimous operation of cutting brooms; we pulled ash.o.r.e for Green Bay, under the guns of the Twelve Apostles--a heavy battery of twelve cannon, where there is a tombstone with an inscription, setting forth that the party over whom it was erected, had been actually swallowed up in the great earthquake that destroyed the opposite town, but subsequently disgorged again; being, perchance, an unseemly morsel.

We approached the beach--"Oars"--the men laid them in.

"What sort of nuts be them, Peter Coamings?" said the c.o.xswain to a new hand who had been lately impressed, and was now standing at the bow ready to fend off.

Peter broke off one of the branches from the bush nearest him.

"Smite my timbers, do the trees here bear sh.e.l.lfish?"

The tide in the Gulf of Mexico does not ebb and flow above two feet, except at the springs, and the ends of the drooping branches of the mangrove-trees, that here cover the sh.o.r.e, are cl.u.s.tered, within the wash of the water, with a small well-flavoured oyster. The first thing the seamen did when they got ash.o.r.e, was to fasten an oak.u.m tail to the rump of one of the most lubberly of the cutter's crew; they then gave him ten yards' law, when they started in chase, shouting amongst the bushes, and switching each other like the veriest schoolboys. I had walked some distance along the beach, pelting the amphibious little creatures, half crab, half lobster, called soldiers, which kept shouldering their large claws, and running out and in their little burrows, as the small ripple twinkled on the sand in the rising sun, when two men-of-wars boats, each with three officers in the stern, suddenly pulled round a little promontory that intercepted my view ahead. Being somewhat out of the line of my duty, so far from my boat, I squatted amongst the brushwood, thinking they would pa.s.s by; but, as the devil would have it, they pulled directly for the place where I was ensconced, beached their boats, and jumped on sh.o.r.e. "Here's a mess," thought I.

I soon made out that one of the officers was Captain Pinkem of the Flash, and that the parties saluted each other with that stern courtesy which augured no good.

"So, so, my masters, not enough of fighting on the coast of America, but you must have a little private defacing of G.o.d's image amongst yourselves?"

Pinkem spoke first. "Mr Clinch," (I now knew he addressed the first lieutenant of the flagship)--"Mr Clinch, it is not too late to prevent unpleasant consequences; I ask you again, at the eleventh hour, will you make an apology?"

He seemed hurried and fidgety in his manner; which rather surprised me, as I knew he was a seasoned hand in these matters, and it contrasted unfavourably with the calm bearing of his antagonist, who by this time had thrown his hat on the ground, and stood with one foot on the handkerchief that marked his position, the distance, twelve paces, having already been measured. By the by, his position was deucedly near in a line with the grey stone behind which I lay perdu; nevertheless, the risk I ran did not prevent me noticing that he was very pale, and had much the air of a brave man come to die in a bad cause. He looked upwards for a second for two, and then answered, slowly and distinctly, "Captain Pinkem, I now repeat what I said before; this rencontre is none of my seeking. You accuse me of having spoken slightingly of you seven years ago, when I was a mere boy. You have the evidence of a gallant officer that I did so; therefore I may not gainsay it; but of uttering the words imputed to me, I declare, upon my honour, I have no recollection." He paused.

"That won't do, my fine fellow," said Pinkem.

"You are unreasonable," rejoined Clinch, in the same measured tone, "to expect farther amende for uttering words which I have no conviction of having spoken; yet to any other officer in the service I would not hesitate to make a more direct apology, but you know your credit as a pistol-shot renders this impossible."

"Sorry for it, Mr Clinch, sorry for it."

Here the pistols were handed to the princ.i.p.als by their respective seconds. In their att.i.tudes, the proficient and the novice were strikingly contrasted; (by this time I had crept round so as to have a view of both parties, or rather, if the truth must be told, to be out of the line of fire.) Pinkem stood with his side accurately turned towards his antagonist, so as to present the smallest possible surface; his head was, as it struck me, painfully slewed round, with his eye looking steadily at Clinch, over his right shoulder, whilst his arm was brought down close to his thigh, with the c.o.c.k of the pistol turned outwards, so that his weapon must have covered his opponent by the simple raising of his arm below the elbow. Clinch, on the other hand, stood fronting him, with the whole breadth of his chest; holding his weapon awkwardly across his body, with both hands. Pinkem appeared unwilling to take him at such advantage, for, although violent and headstrong, and but too frequently the slave of his pa.s.sions, he had some n.o.ble traits in his character.

"Turn your feather edge to me, Mr Clinch; take a fair chance, man."

The lieutenant bowed, and I thought would have spoken, but he was checked by the dread of being thought to fear; however, took the advice, and in an instant the word was given--"Are you both ready?"

"Yes."

"Then fire!"

Clinch fired without deliberation. I saw him, for my eyes were fixed on him, expecting to see him fall. He stood firm, however, which was more than I did, as at the instant, a piece of the bullion of an epaulet, at first taken for a pellet of baser metal, struck me sharply on the nose, and shook my equanimity confoundedly; at length I turned to look at Pinkem, and there he stood with his arm raised, and pistol levelled, but he had not fired. He stood thus whilst I might have counted ten, like a finger-post, then dropping his hand, his weapon went off, but without aim, the bullet striking the sand near his feet, and down he came headlong to the ground. He fell with his face turned towards me, and I never shall forget the horrible expression of it. His healthy complexion had, given place to a deadly blue, the eyes were wide open and straining in their sockets, the upper lip was drawn up, showing his teeth in a most frightful grin, the blood gushed from his mouth as if impelled by the strokes of a force pump, while his hands griped and dug into the sand.

Before the sun set, he was a dead man.

"A neat morning's work, gentlemen," thought I.

The two surgeons came up, opened his dress, felt his pulse, and shook their heads; the boats crews grouped around them--he was lifted into his gig, the word was given to shove off, and--I returned to my broom-cutters.

When we got on board, the gunner who had the watch was taking his fisherman's walk on the starboard side of the quarterdeck, and kept looking steadily at the land, as if to avoid seeing poor little Duncan's coffin, that lay on a grating near the gangway. The crew, a.s.sisted by thirty men from the flag-ship, were employed in twenty different ways, repairing damages, and were bustling about, laughing, joking, and singing, with small regard to the melancholy object before their eyes, when Mr Douglas put his head up the ladder--"Now, Jackson, if you please."

The old fellow's countenance fell as if his heart was wrung by the order he had to give.

"Aloft there! lie out, you Perkins, and reeve a whip on the starboard yard-arm to lower Mr"--The rest stuck in his throat, but, as if ashamed of his softheartedness, he threw as much gruffness as he could into his voice as he sung out--"Beat to quarters there!--knock off, men!"

The roll of the drum stayed the confusion and noise of the people at work in an instant, who immediately ranged themselves, in their clean frocks and trowsers, on each side of the quarterdeck. At a given signal, the white deal coffin, wrapped in its befitting pall, the meteor flag of England, swung high above the hammock nettings between us and the bright blue sky, to the long clear note of the boatswain's whistle, which soon ending in a short chirrup, told that it now rested on the thwarts of the boat alongside. We pulled ash.o.r.e, and it was a slight perchance to move a woman, to see the poor little fellow's hat and bit of a dirk lying on his coffin, whilst the body was carried by four ships boys, the eldest scarcely fourteen. I noticed the tears stand in Anson's eyes as the coffin was lowered into the grave,--the boy had been wounded close to him,--and when we heard the hollow battle of the earth on the coffin,--an unusual sound to a sailor,--he shuddered.

"Yes, Master Cringle," he said, in a whisper, "he was as kind hearted, and as brave a lad as ever trod on shoe leather,--none of the larkings of the men in the clear moonlight nights ever reached the cabin through him,--nor was he the boy to rouse the watch from under the lee of the boats in bad weather, to curry with the lieutenant, while he knew the look-outs were as bright as beagles,--and where was the man in our watch that wanted baccy while Mr Duncan had a shiner left?" The poor fellow drew the back of his h.o.r.n.y hand across his eyes, and grumbled out as he turned away, "And here am I, Bill Anson, such a swab as to be ashamed of being sorry for him."

We were now turned over into the receiving ship the old Spark, and fortunately there were captains enough in port to try us for the loss of the Torch, so we got over our court-martial speedily, and the very day I got back my dirk, the packet brought me out a lieutenant's Commission.

Being now my own master for a season, I determined to visit some relations I had in the island, to whom I had never yet been introduced; so I shook hands with old Splinter, packed my kit, and went to the wharf to charter a wherry to carry me up to Kingston. The moment my object was perceived by the black boat-men, I was surrounded by a mob of them, pulling and hauling each other, and shouting forth the various qualifications of their boats, with such vehemence, that I was nearly deafened.

"Ma.s.sa, no see Pam be Civil, sail like a witch, tack like a dolphin?"

"Don't believe him, ma.s.sa; Ballahoo is de boat dat can beat him."

"Dam lie dat, as I am a gentleman!" roared a ragged black vagabond.

"Come in de Monkey, ma.s.sa; no flying fish can beat she."

"Don't boder de gentleman," yelled a fourth,--"ma.s.sa love de stamp and go--no so, ma.s.sa?" as he saw me make a step in the direction of his boat.

"Oh yes--so get out of de way, you black rascals,"--the fellow was as black as a sloe himself--"make room for man-of-war buccra; him leetle just now, but will be admiral one day."

So saying, the fellow who had thus appropriated me, without more ado, levelled his head like a battering ram, and began to batter in breach all who stood in his way. He first ran a tilt against Pam be Civil, and shot him like a rocket into the sea; the Monkey fared no better; the Ballahoo had to swim for it; and having thus opened a way by main force, I at length got safely moored in the stern sheets; but just as we were shoving off, Mr Callaloo, the clergyman of Port Royal, a tall yellow personage, begged for a pa.s.sage, and was accordingly taken on board. As it was high water, my boatmen chose the five foot channel, as the boat channel near to Gallows Point is called, by which a long stretch would be saved, and we were cracking on cheerily, my mind full of my recent promotion, when, scur, scur, scur, we stuck fast on the bank. Our black boatmen, being little enc.u.mbered with clothes, jumped overboard in a covey like so many wild-ducks, shouting, as they dropped into the water, "We must all get out,--we must all get out;" whereupon Mr Callaloo, a sort of Dominie Sampson in his way, promptly leaped overboard up to his waist in the water. The negroes were thunderstruck.