Tom Cringle's Log Part 30

Ill as I was, however, I could perceive that all this row had now more of a tipsy frolic in it--whatever it might have had at first--than absolute fear; for the red-faced visitor, and Mr Fyall, as if half ashamed, speedily extricated themselves from the chaos of chairs and living creatures, righted the table, replaced the candles, and having sat down, looking as grave as judges on the bench, Aaron Bang exclaimed--"I'll bet a dozen, it is the poor fellow himself returned on our hands, half-dead from the rascally treatment he has met with at the hands of these smuggling thieves!"

"Smugglers, or no," said Fyall, "you are right for once, my peony rose, I do believe."

But Aaron was a leetle staggered, notwithstanding, when I stumped towards him, as already described, and he shifted back and back as I advanced, with a most laughable cast of countenance, between jest and earnest, while Fyall kept shouting to him--"If it be his ghost, try him in Latin, Mr Bang--speak Latin to him, Aaron Bang--nothing for a ghost like Latin, it is their mother tongue."

Bang, who, it seemed, plumed himself on his erudition, forthwith began "Quae maribus solum tribuunter." Aaron's conceit of exorcising a spirit with the f.a.g-end of an old grammar rule would have tickled me under most circ.u.mstances; but I was far past laughing. I had more need, G.o.d help me, to pray. I made another step. He hitched his chair back. "Bam, Bo, Rem!" shouted the incipient planting attorney. Another hitch, which carried him clean out of the supper-room, and across the narrow piazza; but, in this last movement, he made a regular false step, the two back feet of his chair dropping over the first step of the front stairs, whereupon he lost his balance, and toppling over, vanished in a twinkling, and rolled down half-a-dozen steps, heels over head, until he lay sprawling on the manger or mule-trough before the door, where the Ceases are fed under busha's own eye on all estates--for this excellent and most cogent reason, that otherwise the maize or guinea-com, belonging of right to poor mulo, would generally go towards improving the condition, not of the quadruped, but of the biped quashiet who had charge of him--and there he lay in a convulsion of laughter.

The two seamen, who supported me between them, were at first so completely dumfoundered by all this, that they could not speak. At length, however, Timothy Tailtackle lost his patience, and found his tongue.

"This may be Jamaica frolic, good gentlemen, and all very comical in its way; but, d----n me, if it be either gentlemanlike or Christian like, to be after funning and fuddling, while a fellow creature, and his Majesty's commissioned officer to boot, stands before you, all but dead of one of your blasted fevers."

The honest fellow's straightforward appeal, far from giving offence to the kindhearted people to whom it was made, was not only taken in good part, but Mr Fyall himself took the lead in setting the whole household immediately to work, to have me properly cared for. The best room in the house was given up to me. I was carefully shifted and put to bed; but during all that night and the following day, I was raving in a furious fever, so that I had to be forcibly held down in my bed, sometimes for half an hour at a time.

I say, messmate, have you ever had the yellow fever, the vomito prieto, black vomit, as the Spaniards call it?--No?--have you ever had a bad bilious fever then? No bad bilious fever either?--Why, then, you are a most unfortunate creature; for you have never known what it was to be in Heaven, nor eke the other place. Oh the delight, the blessedness of the languor of recovery, when one finds himself in a large airy room, with a dreamy indistinct recollection of great past suffering, endured in a small miserable vessel within the tropics, where you have been roasted one moment by the vertical rays of the sun, and the next annealed hissing hot by the salt sea spray;--in a broad luxurious bed, some cool sunny morning, with the fresh sea breeze whistling through the open windows that look into the piazza, and rustling the folds of the clean wire gauze musquitto net that serves you for bed-curtains; while beyond you look forth into the sequestered court-yard, overshadowed by one vast umbrageous kennip tree, that makes every thing look green and cool and fresh beneath, and whose branches the rushing wind is rasping cheerily on the shingles of the roof-and oh, how pa.s.sing sweet is the lullaby from the humming of numberless glancing bright-hued flies, of all sorts and sizes, sparkling among the green leaves like chips of a prism, and the fitful whirring of the fairy-flitting humming bird, now here, now there, like winged gems, or living atoms of the rainbow, round which their tiny wings, moving too quickly to be visible, form little haloes--and the palm tree at the house-corner is shaking its long hard leaves, making a sound for all the world like the pattering of rain; and the orange-tree top, with ripe fruit, and green fruit, and white blossoms, is waving to and fro flush with the window-sill, dashing the fragrant odour into your room at every whish; and the double Jessamine is twining up the papaw (whose fruit, if rubbed on a bull's hide, immediately converts it into a tender beef-steak) and absolutely stifling you with sweet perfume; and then the sangaree old Madeira, two parts of water, no more, and nutmeg and not a taste out of a thimble, but a rummerful of it, my boy, that would drown your first-born at his christening, if he slipped into it, and no stinting in the use of this ocean; on the contrary, the tidy old brown nurse, or mayhap a buxom young one, at your bedside, with ever and anon a lettle more panada, (d----n panada, I had forgotten that!) "and den some more sangaree; it will do ma.s.sa good, strengthen him tomack"--and, but I am out of breath, and must lie to for a brief s.p.a.ce.

I opened my eyes late in the morning of the second day after landing, and saw Mr Fyall and the excellent Aaron Bang sitting one on each side of my bed. Although weak as a sucking infant, I had a strong persuasion on my mind that all danger was over, and that I was convalescent. I had no feverish symptom whatsoever, but felt cool and comfortable, with a fine balmy moisture on my skin; as yet, however, I spoke with great difficulty.

Aaron noticed this.

"Don't exert yourself too much, Tom; take it coolly, man, and thank G.o.d that you are now fairly round the corner. Is your head painful?"

"No--why should it?"

Mr Fyall smiled, and I put up my hand--it was all I could do, for my limbs appeared loaded with lead at the extremities, and when I touched any part of my frame, with my hand for instance, there was no concurring sensation conveyed by the nerves of the two parts; sometimes I felt as if touched by the hand of another; at others, as if I had touched the person of some one else. When I raised my hand to my forehead, my fingers instinctively moved to take hold of my hair, for I was in no small degree proud of some luxuriant brown curls, which the women used to praise.

Alas and alack-a-day! in place of ringlets, glossy with Maca.s.sar oil, I found a cool young tender plantain-leaf bound round my temples.

"What is all this?" said I. "A kale-blade, where my hair used to be!"

"How came this kale-blade here, And how came it here?"

Sung friend Bang, laughing, for he had great powers of laughter, and I saw he kept his quizzical face turned towards some object at the head of the bed, which I could not see.

"You may say that, Aaron--where's my wig, you rogue, eh?"

"Never mind, Tom," said Fyall, "your hair will soon grow again, won't it, miss?"

"Miss! miss!" and I screwed my neck round, and lo!--"Ah, Mary, and are you the Delilah who have shorn my locks--you wicked young female lady you!"

She smiled and nodded to Aaron, who was a deuced favourite with the ladies, black, brown, and white, (I give the pas to the staple of the country--hope no offence,) as well as with every one else who ever knew him.

"How dare you, friend Bang, shave and blister my head, you dog?" said I.

"You cannibal Indian, you have scalped me; you are a regular Mohawk."

"Never mind, Tom--never mind, my boy," said he. "Ay, you may blush, Mary Palma. Cringle there will fight, but he will have 'Palmam qui meruit ferat' for his motto yet, take my word for it."

The sight of my cousin's lovely face, and the heavenly music of her tongue, made me so forgiving, that I could be angry with no one.--At this moment a nice-looking elderly man slid into the room as noiselessly as a cat.

"How are you, Lieutenant? Why, you are positively gay this morning!

Preserve me!--why have you taken off the dressing from your head?"

"Preserve me--you may say that, Doctor--why, you seem to have preserved me, and pickled me after a very remarkable fashion, certainly! Why, man, do you intend to make a mummy of me, with all your swaddlings? Now, what is that crackling on my chest? More plantain-leaves, as I live!"

"Only another blister, sir."

"Only another blister--and my feet--Zounds! what have you been doing with my feet? The soles are as tender as if I had been bastinadoed."

"Only cataplasms, sir; mustard and bird-pepper poultices nothing more."

"Mustard and bird-pepper poultices!--and pray, what is that long fiddle case supported on two chairs in the piazza!"

"What case?" said the good Doctor, and his eye followed mine. "Oh, my gun-case. I am a great sportsman, you must know--but draw down that blind, Mr Bang, if you please, the breeze is too strong."

"Gun-case! I would rather have taken it for your game-box, Doctor.

However, thanks be to Heaven, you have not bagged me this bout."

At this moment, I heard a violent scratching and jumping on the roof of the house, and presently a loud croak, and a strong rushing noise, as of a large bird taking flight--"What is that, Doctor?"

"The devil," said he, laughing, "at least your evil genius, Lieutenant, it is the carrion crows, the large John--Crows, as they are called, flying away. They have been holding a council of war upon you since early dawn, expecting (I may tell you, now you are so well) that it might likely soon turn into a coroner's inquest."

"John--Crow!--Coroner's inquest!--Cool shavers those West India chaps, after all!" muttered I; and again I lay back, and offered up my heart, warm thanks to the Almighty, for his great mercy to me a sinner.

My aunt and cousin had been on a visit in the neighbourhood, and overnight Mr Fyall had kindly sent for them to receive my last sigh, for to all appearance I was fast going. Oh, the grat.i.tude of my heart, the tears of joy I wept in my weak blessedness, and the overflowing of heart that I experienced towards that almighty and ever-merciful Being who had spared me, and brought me out of my great sickness, to look round on dear friends, and on the idol of my heart, once more, after all my grievous sufferings! I took Mary's hand--I could not raise it for lack of strength, or I would have kissed it; but, as she leant over me, Fyall came behind her and gently pressed her sweet lips to mine, while the dear girl blushed as red as Aaron Bang's face. By this my aunt herself had come into the room, and a warm congratulations, and last, although not least, Timothy Tailtackle made his appearance in the piazza at the window, with a clean, joyful, well shaven countenance. He grinned, turned his quid, pulled up his trowsers, smoothed down his hair with his hand, and gave a sort of half-tipsy shamble, meant for a bow, as he entered the bedroom.

"You have forereached on Davy this time, sir. Heaven be praised for it!

He was close aboard of you, howsomdever, sir, once or twice." Then he bowed round the room again, with a sort of swing or caper, whichever you choose to call it, as if he had been the party obliged. "Kind folk, these, sir," he continued, in what was meant for sotto voce, and for my ear alone, but it was more like the growling of a mastiff puppy than any thing else. "Kind folk, sir--bad as their mountebanking looked the first night, sir--why, Lord bless your honour, may they make a marine of me, if they han't set a Bungo to wait on us, Bill and I, that is--and we has grog more than does us good--and grub, my eye!--only think, sir--Bill and Timothy Tailtackle waited on by a black Bungo!" and he doubled himself up, chuckling and hugging himself, with infinite glee.

"All now went merry as a marriage bell." I was carefully conveyed to Kingston, where I rallied under my aunt's hospitable roof, as rapidly almost as I had sickened, and within a fortnight, all bypast strangeness explained to my superiors, I at length occupied my berth in the Firebrand's gunroom, as third lieutenant of the ship.

CHAPTER XI.--More Scenes in Jamaica.

There be land-rats and water-rats--water-thieves and land-thieves I mean pirates.

The Merchant Of Venice, I. iii. 22--24.

The malady from whose fangs I had just escaped, was at this time making fearful ravages amongst the troops and white inhabitants of Jamaica generally; nor was the squadron exempted from the afflicting visitation, although it suffered in a smaller degree.

I had occasion at this time to visit Uppark camp, a military post about a mile and a half from Kingston, where two regiments of infantry, and a detachment of artillery, were stationed.

In the forenoon, I walked out in company with an officer, a relation of my own, whom I had gone to visit; enjoying the fresh sea breeze that whistled past us in half a gale of wind, although the sun was vertical, and shining into the bottom of a pint pot, as the sailors have it.

The barracks were built on what appeared to me a very dry situation (although I have since heard it alleged that there was a swamp to windward of it, over which the sea breeze blew, but this I did not see,) considerably elevated above the hot sandy plain on which Kingston stands, and sloping gently towards the sea. They were splendid, large, airy two story buildings, well raised off the ground on brick pillars, so that there was a perfectly free ventilation of air between the surface of the earth and the floor of the first story, as well as through the whole of the upper rooms. A large balcony, or piazza, ran along the whole of the south front, both above and below, which shaded the brick sh.e.l.l of the house from the sun, and afforded a cool and convenient lounge for the men. The outhouses of all kinds were well thrown back into the rear, so that in front there was nothing to intercept the sea-breeze. The officers' quarters stood in advance of the men's barracks, and were, as might be expected, still more comfortable; and in front of all were the field-officer's houses, the whole of substantial brick and mortar. This superb establishment stood in an extensive lawn, not surpa.s.sed in beauty by any n.o.bleman's park that I had ever seen. It was immediately after the rains when I visited it; the gra.s.s was luxuriant and newly cut, and the trees, which grew in detached clumps, were most magnificent. We clambered up into one of them, a large umbrageous wild cotton-tree, which cast a shadow on the ground--the sun being, as already mentioned, right overhead--of thirty paces in diameter; but still it was but a dwarfish plant of its kind, for I have measured others whose gigantic shadows, at the same hour, were upwards of one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, and their trunks, one in particular that overhangs the Spanish Town road, twenty feet through of solid timber; that is, not including the enormous spurs that shoot out like b.u.t.tresses, and end in strong twisted roots, that strike deep into the earth, and form stays, as it were, to the tree in all directions.

Our object, however--publish it not in Askalon was, not so much to admire the charms of nature, as to enjoy the luxury of a real Havannah cigar, in solitary comfort; and a glorious perch we had selected. The shade was grateful beyond measure. The fresh breeze was rushing, almost roaring, through the leaves and groaning branches, and every thing around was green, and fragrant, and Cool, and delicious; by comparison that is, for the thermometer would, I daresay, have still vouched for eighty degrees. The branches overhead were alive with a variety of beautiful lizards, and birds of the gayest plumage; amongst others, a score of small chattering green paroquets were hopping close to us, and playing at bopeep from the lower surfaces of the leaves of the wild pine, (a sort of Brobdignag parasite, that grows, like the mistletoe, in the clefts of the larger trees,) to which they clung, as green and shining as the leaves themselves, and ever and anon popping their little heads and shoulders over to peer at us; while the red-breasted woodp.e.c.k.e.r kept drumming on every hollow part of the bark, for all the world, like old Kelson, the carpenter of the Torch, tapping along the top sides for the dry rot. All around us the men were lounging about in the shade, and sprawling on the gra.s.s in their foraging caps and light jackets, with an officer here and there lying reading, or sauntering about, bearding Phoebus himself, to watch for a shot at a swallow, as it skimmed past; while goats and horses, sheep and cattle, were browsing the fresh gra.s.s, or sheltering themselves from the heat beneath the trees. All nature seemed alive and happy--a little drowsy from the heat or so, but that did not much signify--when two carts, each drawn by a mule, and driven by a negro, approached the tree whereon we were perched. A solitary sergeant accompanied them, and they appeared, when a bowshot distant, to be loaded with white deal boxes.

I paid little attention to them until they drove under the tree.