Part 20 (1/2)
”It was but like a long irregular cloud lying along the horizon at first. Then this cloud grew higher and darker and more defined. Then it grew bluer in parts, and lines stood boldly out towards us, then it turned blue and purple, oh! so lovely, and last of all it was a cloud no longer, but mountains stern and wild, and braelands covered half-way up with purple heath and wild flowers--geraniums I found afterwards these were--with rocks on the sh.o.r.e and a long white line of surf and sand.
”We did our business at the Cape and bore up for Australia.
”What a stretch of sea we had to cross, and what a length of time it was ere we reached Sydney!
”But I was not idle all these months. It was so good of Captain Pendrey, but he seemed to take a delight in teaching me navigation. He flattered me, too, I fear.
”'You're far too good and bright a boy,' he said, 'to stick before the mast.'
”So I worked and worked not only to please him, but because there was a prospect of my one day walking on the snowy quarter-deck of some beautiful barque, her proud commander.
”Every one on board loved our captain, although they called him the old man behind his back. From Australia we went to Hong Kong, then to Ceylon, from there to Calcutta, and then back again to Ceylon, and returned to India, lying up for repairs at the city of Bombay. And my kind captain never once went on sh.o.r.e without taking me with him, so that I saw so much that was strange in life, lad, that I could sit and talk in this cave for a month if my good friend here would bring us prog, and then I wouldn't have half told you all my strange experiences.
”I had been now nearly two years at sea, and had pa.s.sed one examination, so things were looking up.
”I dearly loved the sea and sea-life now. I would not have changed places with a land-lubber for all the world.
”We had many narrow escapes, of course, for our s.h.i.+p was a clipper, and the captain 'cracked on.' He did not mind risk so long as he made good voyages. But somehow I never dreamt of danger, not even while in the centre of a tornado in the Indian Ocean at night, and if there be a more fearful experience than that in the life of a mariner, I have yet to encounter it.
”Nor did I dream of danger even when seated of a night under the bright stars at the fo'c'stle head, while the men spun yarn after yarn of the awful dangers they had come through.
”'I've been wrecked often and often,' said our old 'bo'sun' one night.
'I was in the _Bombay_ when she was burned; I was a man-o'-war's man then. Ah! Kennie, lad, it is a fearful thing, a fire at sea. I hope you'll never see a burning s.h.i.+p. Over seventy of my s.h.i.+pmates were doomed that night, and some of them met worse deaths than drowning.
”'Another time,' he went on, 'I was the only one saved out of a gunboat.
I was taken off a bit of wreckage and rigging by the lifeboat after drifting about for twelve wet, cold, weary hours. Strange thing was this. I had been made captain of the foretop only a week before we were wrecked. 'Tis funny, mate, but it was on that same foretop I floated about so long. He! he! I was captain of the foretop then, and no mistake, and monarch of all I surveyed.'
”Just three weeks after this particular evening, Archie, I was away aloft one beautiful day. We were well down over the line, and bearing about South-South-East.
”There was a kind of haze over the ocean that day which made seeing distinctly difficult at any great distance, but I noticed what at first sight I thought was a bird or a shark's fin. I hailed the deck as soon as I made out it was something afloat with men on it.
”'Where away?' came the reply.
”On pointing in the direction, the yards were trimmed, and we soon got nearer.
”The sight that met my eyes I will not forget till my dying day. The survivors of a s.h.i.+p that had foundered they were, half-naked, half-dead, sun-blistered, sinking wretches, five in all.
”They had been afloat on a raft for nine days without food to eat, and with hardly a drop of water to quench their awful thirst.
”From that day, Archie, I began to think that a sailor's life had its dark as well as its rosy side.
”A year after this grief came. We were homeward bound. We got nearly to the Cape, and there our s.h.i.+p was dashed on a lee-sh.o.r.e, and I lost two of the best friends ever I had at sea, our poor captain and the dear old bo'sun.
”I was landed at Symon's Town at last, and there, Archie, I got your letter, and found I was an orphan. And all this great grief came to me within a fortnight.
”I had been bound for English sh.o.r.es; my hopes beat high; in a few months longer, at most, I would once again clasp my dear mother in my arms, once more visit my home. Changed I knew the glen would be, but old friends would give me a warm greeting.
”Heigho! the blow fell; I determined not to return, and, Archie, from that day to this I have been a wanderer.
”But bless Providence for all His mercies! Archie, lad, I'm not badly off, and I have you.