Part 9 (1/2)
”Do you remember the breeze we had in Kingston Harbour on your first voyage?” he asked.
”What? the hurricane do you mean? Indeed I do,” I replied. ”I hope we are not going to have such another in this little craft out here.”
”I'm not so sure of that, Jack,” he replied. ”The captain begins to think so likewise. He'll be for making everything snug, if I mistake not.”
Peter was right. The order was soon given to strike topmasts, to furl sails, to set up the rigging, to fasten down the hatches, to secure everything below, and to lash the boats and all spare spars on deck.
Everything that could be accomplished was done to prepare the little craft for the expected tempest.
Still everything around us was so calm and quiet that it required no little faith in the judgment of our officers to believe that all this preparation was necessary. Much in the same way do men feel it difficult to believe in the importance of preparing for another world, when the tide of prosperity carries them along, without care or anxiety, over the sea of life. I have often thought that a gale of wind, a lee-sh.o.r.e on a dark night, and the risk of s.h.i.+pwreck, are of use to seamen, to make them prepare for the dangers which sooner or later must come upon them. So are all misfortunes--pain, sorrow, loss of friends, deprivation of worldly honours or position--sent to remind people that this world is not their abiding-place; that they are sent into it only that they may have the opportunity of preparing in it for another and a better world, which will last for eternity.
Hour after hour pa.s.sed away. Still the calm continued. I suspect the officers themselves began to doubt whether the looked-for hurricane would ever come. I asked Peter what he thought about it.
”Come! ay, that it will,” he replied. ”More reason that it will come with all its strength and fury because it is delayed. Look out there!
do you see that?”
He pointed towards the now distant land. A dark cloud seemed to be rus.h.i.+ng out from that direction, and extending rapidly on either side, while below the cloud a long line of white foam came hissing and rolling on towards us. As it reached the spot where we lay, the little vessel heeled over till I thought she would never rise again, and then she was turned round and round as if she had been a piece of straw. Loudly roared and howled the fierce blast, and on she drove helplessly before it. Every instant the sea rose higher and higher, and the schooner began to pitch, and toss, and tumble about, till I thought she would have been shaken to pieces.
”Peter,” said I, ”we are in a bad way, I am afraid.”
”We should have been in a very much worse way had the wind come from another quarter, and driven us towards the land,” he replied, gravely.
”Some of the people had begun to grumble because we had been drifted so far off-sh.o.r.e. We may now be thankful that we were not caught nearer to it, and have already made so much offing. We shall very likely have it round again, and then we shall require all the distance we have come to drive in, and none to spare.”
”I was thinking of the chance we have of going to the bottom,” said I, looking at the huge seas which kept tumbling tumultuously around us.
”Not much fear of that,” he answered. ”We are in a strongly-built and tight little craft; and as long as she keeps off-sh.o.r.e, she'll swim, I hope.”
Peter's prognostications as to a s.h.i.+ft of the wind were speedily fulfilled, and we found the vessel driving as rapidly towards the dreaded sh.o.r.e as she had before been carried from it. To struggle against it was hopeless; our only prospect of safety, should she be blown on it, was to find some creek or river into which we might run; but the probabilities of our finding such a shelter were so very remote, that all we could do was to pray that we might once more be driven away from the treacherous land. Happily such was our fate. Another eddy, as it were, of the whirlwind caught us, and once more we went flying away towards the coast of Cuba. That was, however, so far distant that there was but little fear but that the tempest would have spent its fury long before we could reach it. No sail could be set; but the vessel being in good trim, answered her helm, and kept before the wind.
Away! away we flew! surrounded with sheets of hissing foam, the wild waters dancing up madly on every side, threatening, should we stop but for a moment in our course, to sweep over our decks! Even careless as I then was, I could not help feeling grateful that we were not driving on towards a sh.o.r.e which must speedily stop us in our career; and I thought of the many poor fellows who would that day meet a watery grave, their vessels cast helplessly on the sea-beat rocks. As the wind took us along with it, we got more than our fair share of the hurricane; and the night came on while we were still scudding on, exposed to its fury.
If the scene was wild in the day-time, much more so was it when we were surrounded by darkness, and a thousand unseen horrors presented themselves to our imagination. Though I was not very easily overcome, I had suffered so much lately that I felt that I could not endure much longer the continuance of this sort of work. At last I fell into a sort of stupor, and I believe that I should have been washed overboard had not Peter secured me to the rigging, close to himself. I knew nothing more till I awoke and found myself lying on the deck, with the sun glancing brightly over the sparkling waters; the schooner, with all sail set, close-hauled, and a gentle breeze blowing. On one side was seen a range of blue hills rising out of the ocean. Peter was kneeling by my side.
”Get up, Jack,” said he; ”you've had a long snooze, but you wanted it, lad, I'm sure. There's some breakfast for you; it will do you good after all you have gone through.”
I thanked my kind friend, and swallowed the cocoa and biscuit which he brought me with no little relish.
”What! have we so soon got back to Jamaica?” said I, looking over the side, and seeing the blue ranges of hills I have spoken of.
”Jamaica! no, lad--I wish it was,” he replied. ”That's the island of Cuba; and from what I know of it, I wish that we were further off than we are. Some ugly customers inhabit it! There has been a suspicious-looking craft for the last hour or so standing out from the land towards us, and as she has long sweeps, she is making good way. I suspect the captain don't admire her looks, for I have never seen him in such a way before from the moment he came on deck and caught sight of her. If we were in the brig we need not have been afraid of her, but in this little c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l we cannot do much to help ourselves.”
”We can fight, surely!” said I. ”We have arms, have we not?”
”What can eight or ten men do against forty or fifty cut-throats, which probably that craft out there has on board?” answered Peter. ”We'll do our best, however.”
The approaching vessel was lateen-rigged, with two masts, and of great beam; and though low in the water, and at a distance looking small, capable of carrying a considerable number of men. Certainly she had a very dishonest appearance. I saw the captain often anxiously looking out on the weather-side, as if for a sign of more wind; but the gentle breeze just filled our sails, and gave the craft little more than steerage-way. All hands kept whistling away most energetically for a stronger wind, but it would not come. The felucca, however, sailed very fast. As we could not get out of her way, the captain hailed, and very politely asked her to get out of ours, or rather to steer clear of us.
Instead of replying, or acting according to his request, some forty ugly fellows or more, of every hue, from jet-black to white, and in every style of costume, sprung up on her decks from below, and directly afterwards she ranged up alongside of us. The captain, on this, ordered her to sheer off; but instead of so doing, grappling-irons were thrown aboard us, and her fierce-looking crew made a rush to leap on our deck.
They were met, however, by our captain, Mr Gale, Peter, and the rest of our people, who, with pistol and cutla.s.s in hand, were prepared to dispute their pa.s.sage.
The pirates, for such there could be no doubt our visitors were, had four or more guns mounted on their deck; but they seemed resolved to depend rather on their overwhelming numbers than on them for victory.
They had not calculated, apparently, what a few determined men could do.
”Stand back, ye scoundrels!” shouted our brave captain, in a voice which made the ruffians look up with amazement, though I do not think they understood his words. He gave them further force by a sweep of his cutla.s.s, with which he cut off the head of the nearest of his a.s.sailants. Peter, whose arm was almost as powerful, treated another in the same way; and Mr Gale knocked a third over with his pistol before any of them had time to get hold of our rigging. This determined resistance caused them to draw back for an instant, which enabled Peter, with one of the other men, to cast loose the grappling-irons forward.