Part 7 (2/2)
”Get some rope and lash this man; he is mad, I believe,” I cried out.
”Go and get it,” said the officer. One of the sailors sprang on deck, while the two newcomers a.s.sisted us in keeping down the infuriated pirate. He was, I fully believed, from the almost supernatural strength he exhibited, mad.
The seaman quickly returned with a coil of rope, with which the officer and his men, aided by Tubbs, soon lashed Captain Roderick's arms and legs in a way which prevented him from moving until he was secured to the mizenmast, which came through the cabin, when we felt that we were safe from his attacks. I had not hitherto looked into the countenance of the officer, nor he into mine. What was my surprise, then, to see a face I well knew.
”Charley!” I exclaimed.
”d.i.c.k!” was the answer. ”Can it be you?” and my brother and I grasped each other's hands. He had grown into a tall young man, and certainly I should not have recognised him by his figure. I was also greatly altered; besides he would not have recognised me in my present condition--my countenance pale, my dress begrimed with dirt, torn, and travel-stained. I introduced Harry and Tubbs to him, and he shook hands with them both. There was no time for talking. He told us that the frigate had lighted the slaver, which had refused to heave to, and had had the audacity to fire at his Majesty's s.h.i.+p. A gale coming on, as the only means of securing her, the frigate had run the slaver on board, when he with a lieutenant and eight men had leapt down on her deck, expecting to be followed by more of the crew, but, before they had time to spring on board, the s.h.i.+ps parted. The slaver's crew, as he called them, had made a desperate resistance, but a considerable number having been killed and more badly wounded, the survivors had been driven forward and yielded. ”Having ceased to resist, the slaver's crew,” he said, ”had promised to a.s.sist in shortening sail, and apparently in good faith, having yielded up their arms, set about doing so. We have now got under snug canvas. There is too heavy a sea running to allow of a boat with more hands being sent to our a.s.sistance. However, as we have complete mastery of the people, we can do very well without them. Mr Hallton, the second lieutenant of the 'Rover,' our frigate, was inquiring for the captain of this craft, when he was told that he must either have been killed or fallen overboard, but one of his crew suggested that he might have gone below. Another then owned that he had heard the captain say, that sooner than fall into the hands of an enemy, he would blow the s.h.i.+p up. On hearing this, Mr Hallton sent me down below to search for him.”
”You would have been too late had we not providentially prevented him from executing his mad scheme,” I observed; and I then told him how we had discovered the captain in the very act of attempting to blow up the s.h.i.+p. ”But you mistake the character of this craft,” I said; and I briefly told him how she had captured the ”Arrow,” and how we had been treated since we fell into Captain Roderick's hands.
”That greatly alters the aspect of affairs,” he observed, looking grave.
”If you will come on deck with me, we will inform Mr Hallton. Perhaps he is inclined to treat the crew rather leniently, and to put more confidence in their promises than he would do if he were aware of her real character.”
Harry on this desired Tubbs to watch the pirate.
”I should be glad to do it, sir, but I should like a sniff of the sea-breeze,” answered Tom. ”I want just to pump out all the foul air I've got down my throat.”
”Well,” said Charley, laughing, ”one of my men shall remain instead of you. Noakes, stand by this man, and shoot him through the head if any one approaches to set him free or he manages to cast off the las.h.i.+ngs, although he'll not do that in a hurry, I suspect.”
On going on deck, we found Mr Hallton, the second lieutenant of the ”Rover,” standing aft, giving directions to heave the dead bodies overboard and to collect the wounded, to attend to whom he summoned several of the most respectable-looking of their s.h.i.+pmates. The ”Vulture” had not suffered much in her rigging, and was now hove to under a closely-reefed main-topsail. She rode so easily that I was not aware until then that a heavy sea was running, and had been surprised at Charley telling me that the two s.h.i.+ps could not communicate. Charley introduced me to Mr Hallton, and briefly ran over the events of which I had given him an account.
”A pirate, do you say she is?” exclaimed the lieutenant. ”I must really beg leave to doubt that. She is full of slaves, in the first place, and the captain and his crew very naturally fought to defend their property.
But you say, Westerton, that you have found the captain. I will examine him and ascertain the state of the case.”
”But my brother here, sir, and Mr Bracewell, and the boatswain of the 'Arrow,' aver that they were taken out of their vessel and detained by force on board this s.h.i.+p, and there can be no doubt of her piratical character.”
”I beg that you will wait to give your opinion until you are asked for it, Mr Westerton,” answered the lieutenant in a gruff tone. ”I say that she's a slaver, and, as such, being taken full of slaves, we will condemn her. With regard to her piratical character, that has to be proved.”
I was very much surprised at the way in which the lieutenant spoke.
Charley told me that the report on board was that he himself had served on board a slaver, if not a pirate, in his younger days, and that he was stubborn and ill-tempered in the extreme. ”Whether or not he has found any of his old a.s.sociates on board the craft I cannot say, but I know that the crew gave in very soon when they saw him leading the boarders across the deck. To be sure he fought like a tiger, and cut down several fellows, so that I cannot suppose that he has any great love for them, at all events.”
The cries and groans which ascended from the slave-deck soon drew our attention towards it, and Mr Hallton sent Charley with four hands down to ascertain their condition. I accompanied him, having procured a brace of pistols and a hanger, without which I should not have liked to venture among them. A dreadful sight met our eyes. Three or four of the frigate's shot had entered and swept right across the deck, taking off the heads of not less than eight men in one row, and wounding others on the further side of the s.h.i.+p in another row as if it had gone through diagonally; while the legs of a still greater number had been shot away.
Most of the badly wounded were dead, but others were still writhing in agony. I need not picture all the horrors we witnessed. Charley told me to go on deck and obtain a.s.sistance. The lieutenant replied that I might take some of the slaver's crew, but that he could not spare his own men. I went forward to where they were collected, but found only three, to whom Harry and I had rendered some service in dressing their wounds, willing to give themselves any trouble in performing the task.
They, however, got tackles rigged, and we hoisted up three and sometimes four bodies together, all dripping with gore, a terrible sight, and then swung them overboard. Even this took some time. The wounded thought that they were to be treated in the same manner, and we had great difficulty in persuading them that we intended to do them no harm, but rather to attend to their hurts. Altogether, fifty men had been killed, or had died from fright, or succ.u.mbed directly they were lifted on deck from their wounds. Charley proposed having the survivors up, so that the slave-deck might be washed and cleaned from the ma.s.s of gore and filth collected upon it, but Mr Hallton replied that it was perfectly unnecessary, and that if the slaves should break loose, we might have to kill them all, or be ourselves overpowered. This I thought very likely to happen, though I felt that a few might safely be brought up while the part of the deck they had sat upon was cleansed. Harry and I, however, did our best to attend to their wants. We carried down water and supplied a cup to each. They mostly received the water scarcely casting a glance of grat.i.tude towards us; but one man exhibited a marked contrast to this behaviour, and, as I handed him the cup, he exclaimed before drinking it--”Tankee, ma.s.sa, tankee, ma.s.sa,” and then quaffed it eagerly, showing how much his parched throat required the refres.h.i.+ng fluid.
”Do you understand English?” I asked, thinking perhaps that these were the only words he could speak.
”Yes, ma.s.sa; him talky English, him serve board English s.h.i.+p.”
I inquired his name. He told me it was Aboh. I found, however, that although he might understand me, his vocabulary was very limited. I should have liked to have given him another cup of water, but as I knew that the rest of the slaves would consider themselves ill-treated if I favoured one more than another, I refrained from doing so, but I promised to remember him. I then begged that he would speak to his companions, and advise them to be quiet, telling them that we would do everything in our power for their benefit. I heard him shout out what appeared to me to be perfect gibberish, but it had the desired effect, and they at once became far more tranquil than they had hitherto been.
Night was now rapidly coming on; the frigate was hove to about half a mile to windward, and, as Tubbs observed to me, both s.h.i.+ps appeared to be making very fine weather of it considering the heavy gale blowing.
The frigate showed signal lights, and the lieutenant ordered ours to be hoisted in return. Captain Roderick had hitherto remained lashed to the mast, but he could not, without cruelty, be left there all night, and it was necessary to decide what should be done with him. Lieutenant Hallton considered that it would be sufficient to shut him up in one of the cabins and place a sentry over him. Charley suggested that his wrists, at all events, should be placed in irons, as in his savage mood it was impossible to say what he might do. The lieutenant was obstinate.
”The man was only acting as he believed right in defending his own s.h.i.+p, and I'm not one to tyrannise over a fallen enemy,” he answered in somewhat a scornful tone.
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