Tom Cringle's Log Part 31

"I say, Snowdrop," said the non-commissioned officer, "where be them black rascals, them pioneers--where is the fateague party, my Lily white, who ought to have the trench dug by this time?"

"Dere now," grumbled the negro, "dere now--easy ting to deal wid white gentleman, but debil cannot satisfy dem worsted sash." Then aloud--"Me no know, sir--me can't tell--no for me business to dig hole--I only carry what you fill him up wid;" and the vampire, looking over his shoulder, cast his eye towards his load, and grinned until his white teeth glanced from ear to ear.

"Now," said the Irish sergeant, "I could brain you, but it is not worth while!"--I question if he could, however, knowing as I did the thickness of their skulls, "Ah, here they come!"--and a dozen half drunken, more than half-naked, bloated, villainous-looking blackamoors, with shovels and pick-axes on their shoulders, came along the road, laughing and singing most l.u.s.tily. They pa.s.sed beneath where we sat, and, when about a stonecast beyond, they all jumped into a trench or pit, which I had not noticed before, about twenty feet long, by eight wide. It was already nearly six feet deep, but it seemed they had instructions to sink it further, for they first plied their pickaxes, and then began to shovel out the earth. When they had completed their labour, the sergeant, who had been superintending their operations, returned to where the carts were still standing beneath the tree. One of them had six coffins in it, with the name of the tenant of each, and number of his company, marked in red chalk on the smallest end!

"I say, Snowdrop," said the sergeant, "how do you come to have only five bodies, when Cuc.u.mbershin there has six?"

"To be sure I hab no more as five, and weight enough too. You no see Corporal b.u.mblechops dere? You knows how big he was."

"Well, but where is Sergeant Heavystern? why did you not fetch him away with the others?"

The negro answered doggedly, "Ma.s.sa Sergeant, you should remember dem no die of consumption--cough you call him--nor fever and ague, nor any ting dat waste dem--for tree day gone--no more--all were mount guard--tout and fat; so as for Sergeant Heavystern, him left in de dead-house at de hospital."

"I guessed as much, you dingy tief," said the sergeant, "but I will break your bones, if you don't give me a sufficing reason why you left him."--And he approached Snowdrop, with his cane raised in act to strike.

"Top, ma.s.sa," shouted the negro; "me will tell you--Dr Plaget desire dat Heavystern should be leave."

"Confound Dr Plaget"--and he smote the pioneer across the pate, whereby he broke his stick, although, as I antic.i.p.ated, without much hurting his man--but the sergeant instantly saw his error, and with the piece of the baton he gave Snowdrop a tap on the shin-bone, that set him pirouetting on one leg, with the other in his hand, like a tee-totum.

"Why, sir, did you not bring as many as Cuc.u.mbershin, sir?" "Becaase"

screamed Snowdrop, in great wrath, now all alive and kicking from the smart--"Becaase Cuc.u.mbershin is loaded wid light infantry, sir, and all of mine are grenadier, Ma.s.sa Sergeant--dat dem good reason surely!"

"No, it is not, sir; go back and fetch Heavystern immediately, or by the powers but I will"--"Ma.s.sa Sergeant, you must be mad--Dr Plaget--you won't yeerie--but him say, five grenadier--especially wid Corporal b.u.mblechop for one--is good load--ay, wery tif load--equal to seven tallion company [battallion, I presume], and more better load, great deal, den six light infantry--beside him say, tell Sergeant Pivot to send you back at five in de afternoon wid four more coffin, by which time he would have anoder load, and in trute de load was ready prepare in de deadhouse before I come away, only dem were not well cold just yet."

I was mightily shocked at all this--but my chum took it very coolly.--He slightly raised one side of his mouth, and, giving a knowing wink with his eye, lighted a fresh cigar, and continued to puff away with all the composure in the world.

At length the forenoon wore away, and the bugles sounded for dinner, when we adjourned to the messroom. It was a very large and handsome saloon, standing alone in the lawn, and quite detached from all the other buildings, but the curtailed dimensions of the table in the middle of it, and the ominous crowding together of the regimental plate, like a show-table in Rundle and Bridge's back shop, gave startling proofs of the ravages of the "pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday;" for although the whole regiment was in barracks, there were only nine covers laid, one of which was for me. The lieutenant-colonel, the major, and, I believe, fifteen other officers, had already been gathered to their fathers, within four months from the day on which the regiment landed from the transports. Their warfare was o'er, and they slept well. At the first, when the insidious disease began to creep on apace, and to evince its deadly virulence, all was dismay and anxiety--downright, slavish, unmanly fear, even amongst casehardened veterans, who had weathered the whole Peninsular war, and finished off with Waterloo. The next week pa.s.sed over--the mortality increasing, but the dismay decreasing and so it wore on, until it reached its horrible climax, at the time I speak of, by which period there was absolutely no dread at all. A reckless gaiety had succeeded not the s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up of one's courage for the nonce, to mount a breach, or to lay an enemy's frigate aboard, where the substratum of fear is present, although cased over by an energetic exertion of the will; but an unnatural light-heartedness, for which account, ye philosophers, for I cannot--and this, too, amongst men who, although as steel in the field, yet whenever a common cold overtook them in quarters, or a small twinge of rheumatic pain, would, under other circ.u.mstances, have caudled and beflannelled themselves, and bored you for your sympathy, at no allowance, as they say.

The major elect, that is, the senior captain, was in the chair; as for the lieutenant-colonel's vacancy, that was too high an aspiration for any man in the regiment. A stranger of rank, and interest, and money, would of course get that step, for the two deaths in the regimental staff made but one captain a major, as my neighbour on the left hand feelingly remarked. All was fun and joviality; we had a capital dinner, and no allusion whatever, direct or indirect, was made to the prevailing mortal epidemic, until the surgeon came in, about eight o'clock in the evening.

"Sit down, doctor," said the president--"take some wine; can recommend the Madeira, claret but so, so your health."

The doctor bowed, and soon became as happy and merry as the rest; so we carried on, until about ten o'clock, when the lights began to waltz a little, and propagate also, and I found I had got enough, or, peradventure, a little more than enough, when the senior captain rose, and walked very composedly out of the room--but I noticed him pinch the doctor's shoulder as he pa.s.sed.

The Medico thereupon stole quietly after him; but we did not seem to miss either--a young sub had usurped the deserted throne, and there we were all once more in full career, singing and bousing, and cracking.

bad jokes to our hearts' content. By-and-by, in comes the doctor once more.

"Doctor," quoth young sub, "take some wine; can't recommend the Madeira this time," mimicking his predecessor very successfully; "the claret, you know, has been condemned, but a little hot brandy and water, eh?"

The doctor once more bowed his pate, made his hot stuff, and volunteered a song.--After he had finished, and we had all hammered on the table to his honour and glory, until every thing danced again as if it had been a matter of very trivial concern, he said, "Sorry I was away so long; but old Spatterdash has got a d.a.m.ned thick skin, I can tell you--could scarcely get the lancet into him--I thought I should have had to send for a spring phleme--to tip him the veterinary, you know--and he won't take physic: so I fear he will have but a poor chance."

Spatterdash was no other than mine host who had just vacated!

"What, do you really think he is in for it?" said the second oldest captain who sat next me; and as he spoke he drew his leg from beneath the table, and, turning out his dexter heel, seemed to contemplate the site of the prospective fixed spur.

"I do, indeed," quoth Dr Plaget. He died within three days!

But as I do not intend to write an essay on yellow fever, I will make an end, and get on shipboard as fast as I can, after stating one strong fact, authenticated to me by many unimpeachable witnesses. It is this; that this dreadful epidemic, or contagious fever--call it which you will, has never appeared, or been propagated at or beyond an alt.i.tude of 3000 feet above the level of the sea, although people seized with it on the hot sultry plains, and removed thither, have unquestionably died. In a country like Jamaica, with a range of lofty mountains, far exceeding this height, intersecting the island through nearly its whole length, might not Government, after satisfying themselves of the truth of the fact, improve on the hint? Might not a main-guard suffice in Kingston, for instance, while the regiments were in quarters half-way up the Liguanea Mountains, within twelve miles actual distance from the town, and within view of it, so that during the day, by a semaph.o.r.e on the mountain, and another at the barrack of the outpost, a constant and instantaneous communication could be kept up, and, if need were, by lights in the night?

The admiral, for instance, had a semaph.o.r.e in the stationary flagship at Port Royal, which communicated with another at his Pen, or residence, near Kingston; and this again rattled off the information to the mountain retreat, where he occasionally retired to careen; and it is fitting to state also, that in all the mountain districts of Jamaica which I visited, there is abundance of excellent water and plenty of fuel. These matters are worth consideration, one would think; however, allons--it is no business of Tom Cringle's.

Speaking of telegraphing, I will relate an anecdote here, if you will wait until I mend my pen. I had landed at Greenwich wharf on duty--this was the nearest point of communication between Port Royal and the Admiral's Pen--where, finding the flag lieutenant, he drove me up in his ketureen to lunch. While we were regaling ourselves, the old signalman came into the piazza, and with several most remarkable obeisances, gave us to know that there were flags hoisted on the signalmast, at the mountain settlement, of which he could make nothing, the uppermost was neither the interrogative, the affirmative, nor the negative, nor in fact any thing that with the book he could make sense of.

"Odd enough," said the lieutenant; "hand me the gla.s.s," and he peered away for half a minute. "Confound me if I can make heads or tails of it either; there, Cringle, what do you think? How do you construe it?"

I took the telescope. Uppermost there was hoisted on the signal mast a large tablecloth, not altogether immaculate, and under it a towel, as I guessed, for it was too opaque for bunting, and too white, although I could not affirm that it was fresh out of the fold either.

"I am puzzled," said I, as I spied away again. Meanwhile there was no acknowledgment made at our semaph.o.r.e--"There, down they go," I continued "Why, it must be a mistake, Stop, here's a new batch going up above the green trees--There goes the tablecloth once more, and the towel, and deuce take me, if I can compare the lowermost to any thing but a dishclout--why, it must be a dishclout."

The flags, or subst.i.tutes for them, streamed another minute in the breeze, but as there was still no answer made from our end of the string, they were once more hauled down--We waited another minute--"Why, here goes the same signal up again, tablecloth, towel, dishclout, and all--What the diable have we got here? A red ball, two pennants under.

What can that mean?--Ball--it is the bonnet-rouge, or I am a Dutchman, with two short streamers" Another look--"A red night-cap and a pair of stockings, by all that is portentous!" exclaimed I.

"Ah, I see, I see!" said the lieutenant, laughing, "signal-man, acknowledge it."

It was done, and down came all the flags in a trice. It appeared, on enquiry, that the washing cart, which ought to have been sent up that morning, had been forgotten; and the Admiral and his secretary having ridden out, there was no one who could make the proper signal for it.

So the old housekeeper took this singular method of having the cart despatched, and it was sent off accordingly.

For the first week after I entered on my new office, I was busily engaged on board; during which time my mind was quite made up, that the most rising man in his Majesty's service, beyond all compare, was Lieutenant Thomas Cringle, third of the Firebrand. During this eventful period I never addressed a note to any friend on sh.o.r.e, or to a brother officer, without writing in the left-hand lower corner of the envelope, "Lieutenant Cringle," and clapping three dashing, &c. &c. &c below the party's name for whom it was intended.

"Must let 'em know that an officer of my rank in the service knows somewhat of the courtesies of life, eh?"

In about ten days, however, we had gotten the ship into high order and ready for sea, and now the glory and honour of command, like my only epaulet, that had been soaked while on duty in one or two showers, and afterwards regularly bronzed in the sun, began to tarnish, and lose the new gloss, like every thing else in this weary world. It was about this time, while sitting at breakfast in the gunroom one fine morning, with the other officers of our mess, gossiping about I hardly remember what, that we heard the captain's voice on deck.

"Call the first lieutenant."

"He is at breakfast, sir," said the man, whoever he might have been, to whom the order was addressed.

"Never mind then--Here, boatswain's mate--Pipe away the men who were captured in the boats; tell them to clean themselves, and send Mr----to me"--(This was the officer who had been taken prisoner along with them in the first attack)--"they are wanted in Kingston at the trial today. Stop, tell Mr Cringle also to get ready to go in the gig."

The pirates, to the amount of forty-five, had been transferred to Kingston jail some days previously, preparatory to their trial, which, as above-mentioned, was fixed for this day.

We pulled cheerily up to Kingston, and, landing at the Wherry wharf, marched along the hot dusty streets, under a broiling sun, Captain Transom, the other Lieutenant, and myself, in full puff, leading the van, followed by about fourteen seamen, in white straw hats, with broad black ribbons, and clean white frocks and trowsers, headed by a boatswain's mate, with his silver whistle hung round his neck--as respectable a tail as any Christian could desire to swinge behind him; and, man for man, I would willingly have perilled my promotion upon their walloping, with no offensive weapons but their stretchers, the Following, claymores and all, of any proud, disagreeable, would-be mighty mountaineer, that ever turned up his supercilious, whisky blossomed snout at Bailie Jarvie. On they came, square-shouldered, narrow-flanked, tall, strapping fellows, tumbling and rolling about the piazzas in knots of three and four, until, at the corner of King Street, they came bolt up upon a well-known large, fat, brown lady, famous for her manufacture of spruce beer.

"Avast, avast a bit"--sung out one of the topmen--"let the n.o.bs heave a head, will ye, and let's have a pull."

"Here, old mother Slush," sung out another of the cutter's crew. "Hand us up a dozen bottles of spruce, do you hear?"

"Dozen battle of pruce!" groaned the old woman--"who shall pay me?"

"Why, do you think the Firebrands are thieves, you old canary, you?"

"How much, eh?" said the boatswain's mate.

"Twelve feepennies," quoth the matron.

"Oh, ah!" said one of the men--"Twelve times five is half a crown; there's a dollar for you, old mother Popandchokem--now give me back five shillings."

"Eigh, oh!" whined out the spruce merchant; "you dem rascal, who tell you dat your dollar more wort den any one else money eh? How can give you back five shilling and keep back twelve feepenny--eh?" The culprit, who had stood the c.o.c.ker of the company, had by this time gained his end, which was to draw the fat damsel a step or two from the large tub half-full of water, where the bottles were packed, and to engage her attention by stirring up her bile, or corruption, as they call it in Scotland, while his messmates instantly seized the opportunity, and a bottle a-piece also, and, as I turned round to look for them, there they all were in a circle taking the meridian alt.i.tude of the sun, or as if they had been taking aim at the pigeons on the eaves of the houses above them with Indian mouth tubes.