Part 42 (1/2)
”Though our trip was not dest.i.tute of interest, I can only hope that I shall never be sent up the Orinoco again.”
Terence thanked Jack for this description of his trip when they next met, which they did off Georgetown, the capital of British Guiana, at the mouth of the Demerara river. Its gaily painted wooden houses, with broad verandahs, raised on supports some feet above the ground, its ca.n.a.ls and d.y.k.es, and numerous windmills, might make it easily mistaken for a Dutch town, were it not for the tall palm-trees which rise in its midst and the rich tropical scenery around. Here the corvette and brig remained for some days, and then sailed to join the squadron ordered to rendezvous at Rio.
A bright lookout was kept for slavers, which, notwithstanding the treaty lately made by the Brazilian Government with England, were known to swarm on the coast; the local authorities, like those of Havannah, encouraging the nefarious traffic, which put thousands of dollars into their purses.
CHAPTER TWENTY.
THE CORVETTE AND BRIG PART COMPANY--THE FORMER CHASES A SUSPICIOUS SAIL--CAPTURES A FULL SLAVER--ADAIR IN CHARGE--TAKES PRIZE TO BAHIA--AN IMPORTANT WARNING--PREPARATIONS FOR AN ATTACK--ANECDOTE OF LIEUTENANT WASEY--THE SLAVE-DEALERS ATTEMPT TO RETAKE THE PRIZE--GALLANT DEFENCE-- ENEMY DEFEATED--THE SUPPLEJACK APPEARS IN GOOD TIME.
The _Tudor_ and _Supplejack_ had crossed the line, and had got some way to the southward, when a heavy gale came on, such as is not often experienced in those lat.i.tudes. It blew with especial fury during the night. Murray hove the corvette to, and believed that Jack would have done the same, but when morning broke, and the brig was nowhere to be seen from the deck of the corvette, he could not help feeling somewhat anxious on the subject. During the day the weather moderated, and a lookout was kept for her from aloft. Two days pa.s.sed, however, and she did not appear. The wind was from the north-east, and he hoped by a quick run to Rio to have his anxiety soon brought to an end by finding that the _Supplejack_ had arrived before him.
Morning had just dawned, the breeze was fresh, the tops of the seas sparkled in the rays of the rising sun, when the lookout from aloft shouted, ”A sail on the lee bow!”
”What is she?” asked Adair, who was officer of the watch.
”A brig, sir,” was the answer.
”Is she like the _Supplejack_?” he inquired.
”Can't say, sir. She is anyhow running to the westward, and the _Supplejack_ would be steering to the south.”
”You are right. Call the commander,” said Adair to Desmond. The youngster had rejoined the s.h.i.+p at Georgetown. He himself then went aloft with his gla.s.s, to have a look at the stranger. By the time he came down Murray was on deck.
”She is certainly not the _Supplejack_, and, as she is running in for some Brazilian port far to the northward of Rio, she may possibly be a slaver.”
”We will overhaul her, at all events,” said Murray, and the corvette, bearing up in chase, made all sail she could set.
The stranger did not at first discover that she was pursued, and by the time that she did so the corvette had gained considerably on her. She was then seen to be a large brigantine, and by her square yards and white canvas, lighted up by the rays of the sun, Murray was more than ever convinced that she was a slaver.
The chase had set all the sail she could carry, and still kept well ahead of the corvette. The weather, as the day advanced, gave signs of changing, dark clouds gathered in the sky, and squalls, not very strong at first, but sufficient to make the commander look with anxious eyes at his spars, swept across the ocean--the dark clouds as they rushed along changing the hitherto blue, laughing waves to a leaden hue. Still the corvette persevered. The crew were at their stations, ready to shorten sail the moment it became absolutely necessary. The eagerness of the chase to escape made it still more probable that she was a slaver. She was dead before the wind, carrying topgallant-sails and royals, and studding-sails on either side. A dark cloud pa.s.sing over her threw her into shade; on it went, and once more the bright rays of the sun falling on her canvas brought her more clearly into view; another squall swept by, making the corvette's studding-sail-booms crack and bend as if they were about to break away from the braces.
”Hold on, good sticks!” cried Murray, apostrophising them, ”the toughest spars will win the day.”
The crew cast their eyes aloft, fully expecting to see them carried away, but they held on, and the trim corvette went das.h.i.+ng forward amid the dancing seas, which rose up, foam-crested, on either side.
”Hurrah!” exclaimed Terence, ”she is ours!” At that moment the squall had reached the chase, and away flew her studding-sails, the booms breaking off at the irons. Still she held on her course. The corvette was now rapidly gaining on her; the attempt was made to rig another lower studding-sail, but that also was carried away almost as soon as set, and in less than half an hour the corvette had got her well within range of her long guns; but Murray refrained from firing as long as he found that he was gaining on her.
”It is useless to run the risk of injuring her spars,” he observed to Adair; ”she will haul down her colours when she finds that she has no hope of getting away.”
”Those fellows are up to all sorts of dodges, and will make every effort to escape,” said Terence.
”We will take in the studding-sails at all events, and be ready for him should he haul his wind,” said Murray. The light canvas was taken in with a rapidity, which must have astonished the crew of the slaver.
Just, however, as the operation was about to be commenced, she had put her helm to port, and braced her yards sharp up on the starboard tack; but a couple of shot from the corvette, one of which struck her starboard quarter, showed her that she was too late; and fearing that other iron missiles might overtake her, she immediately hauled down her colours. The corvette's topgallant sails and royals having been handed, she also was brought to the wind and hove-to on the weather beam of the prize. Murray now directed Adair to go on board the brigantine with a mids.h.i.+pman and ten hands, and to carry her to Rio, unless, from a scarcity of provisions or want of water, he should find it necessary to put in to Bahia, or any other neighbouring port on the Brazilian coast.
Adair and Desmond were quickly ready with their carpet-bags, as were s.n.a.t.c.hblock and nine other men with their bundles, and the boat which had, meantime, been lowered, pulled off for the prize, although there was some sea on; yet as she was low in the water, she was easily boarded. She proved to be the _Donna Maria_, a noted Brazilian slaver which had often before escaped capture. According to Murray's directions, Adair sent back the captain and officers and some of her ill-looking crew, who were likely to prove troublesome if left in her.
He found that, though only measuring a hundred and fifty tons she had nearly five hundred slaves on board, stowed away as thick as they could be packed between decks.
Having had a remarkably quick run from the coast of Africa, the captain informed him that he had not lost more than twenty people. As he looked down the main hatchway, the haggard countenances of the ma.s.s of human beings packed close together--as Desmond observed, like herrings in a cask--showed him that had the voyage continued much longer, the number of deaths would have been greatly increased.