Part 15 (2/2)
Gradually the rock sank lower and lower in the horizon, till it was almost hid from sight; but when they looked towards the sh.o.r.e, that appeared almost as far off as ever. They had hoped to reach it before sunset, but that hope gradually faded away, as the breeze which had hitherto favoured them grew less and less, and finally sank into a calm.
However, that was better than a gale, and they could still paddle on their raft in the direction in which they wished to go. They were also far better off than they had been on their former raft. It was more strongly made, they had better provisions, and the prospect of reaching land in a short time. The sun, however, went down, and they were still far from it. Jack and Terence sat side by side, and endeavoured to keep up each other's spirits during that long, long night. It came at last to an end. The sun rose; they looked round the horizon; no sail was in sight. Some of the seamen began to grumble, as even the best will at times, and to complain at having been enticed off the rock. Hemming overheard them.
”What think you, my lads, would have been our lot had we remained with those madmen?” he said. ”I'll tell you; by this time not one of us would have been alive.” As the sun rose, the breeze came strongly off the land and drove them once more away from it. ”Never fear, my lads; we shall have the sea-breeze soon to send us back again,” he cried out cheerfully to keep up their spirits. It did not come as soon as he expected. At last a rock appeared rising out of the water. It rose higher and higher. The raft drifted slowly by at a distance; still the atmosphere was so clear that they could discern figures on the top.
They all looked earnestly. There could be no doubt of it; the people were struggling like madmen. Now and then one of them, it appeared, was cast off the cliff into the water, but the distance was so great that it appeared rather like some dreadful dream than a reality. While they were gazing at this spectacle the wind fell; then in a short time the breeze came from the west, and hoisting their sail they once more rapidly approached the sh.o.r.e. For the remainder of the day they made good progress; still they knew that they could not hope to reach it that night, and once more the sun went down and left them in darkness. The night pa.s.sed as the former had done. No one now expressed a wish that he had remained on the rock. Jack and Terence had kept up their spirits wonderfully. At length, leaning on each other's shoulder, they fell asleep. They were startled with a cry of ”A sail ahead!” In an instant every one roused up. As they looked out they saw a large brig on the port tack, standing to the southward across their course. In a few minutes more she would have shot ahead out of hearing. ”Now, my lads, shout, shout, till you crack your voices,” cried out Hemming; ”she is a man-of-war brig; one of the cruisers on the station. I know her by the cut of her canvas.” Weak as all on board the raft at this time were, they raised a shout such as Englishmen only know how to give. They listened eagerly. Directly afterwards a cheer came in answer towards them. The rattling of blocks was heard, and the brig's helm being put down, and her maintopsail backed, she came up into the wind. In another instant they were alongside. Cramped and half starved as they all had been, they had great difficulty in getting on board. Hemming was the only man who went up by himself, and his knees trembled so much when he gained the deck that he had to lean against the bulwarks for support.
The officer of the watch came forward to receive them. Hemming gave his name as a lieutenant of the _Ranger_.
”Delighted to see you,” exclaimed the lieutenant of the brig; ”we heard at Sierra Leone that you were lost, for several vessels have been sent to look for you, and not one could gain tidings of you. But come below; you want sleep and food, and dry clothes.”
The captain of the brig, hearing what had occurred, turned out, and had berths made up for the two mids.h.i.+pmen in his own cabin, while one of the lieutenants gave up his berth to Hemming in the gun-room. The doctor was soon in attendance on all the party, and sleep, which they all so much required, soon sealed their eyelids. Jack and Terence slept for a long time. When they awoke the sun was s.h.i.+ning right down the cabin skylight. At the cabin table was sitting a mids.h.i.+pman reading. They could not see his face, but there was something in his figure and att.i.tude which made them both sit up and exclaim, ”Hallo! who are you?”
The mids.h.i.+pman sprang from his seat, and in another instant Alick Murray was shaking them warmly by the hand. ”This is jolly, this is delightful,” exclaimed Jack; ”tell us all about it, though.” Alick accordingly told them that the brig was the _Archer_, of sixteen guns, that she was commanded by a relation of his, Captain Grant, who had got him appointed to her, and that she had only just come out direct from England. Murray then got his friends to give him an outline of their adventures, which they had to repeat to Captain Grant himself, who shortly after came into the cabin. Meantime the steward had brought them some breakfast; for mids.h.i.+pmen are not heroes of romance, and require feeding before they are fit for much. After breakfast they felt wonderfully recovered, and were able to get up and go on deck. Hemming had before this explained to Captain Grant his promise to bring relief to the Spaniards, and the brig was accordingly beating up towards the rock. As they drew near they looked out for signals, but none were made. They got still nearer. ”Where can the people have got to?”
exclaimed the captain, looking through his gla.s.s. As the brig approached the rock the lead was kept going, but the water was found to be quite deep. She sailed round and round it, but not a human being was seen there alive. Whether some dreadful catastrophe had occurred after the English left the spot, or whether some vessel had visited it and carried off the survivors, was never ascertained. Jack and Terence did their best to banish the dreadful scenes which had occurred from their thoughts, and it was with infinite satisfaction that the three mids.h.i.+pmen found themselves once more together. ”This is the station for adventure,” exclaimed Jack; ”depend on it before long we shall have lots to do.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
LIFE ON AN AFRICAN CRUISER.
That naval officers do not idle away their time when at sea, on beds of roses, the adventures of my three old schoolfellows will, I think, convince all my readers. Who would have thought when we were together at dear old Eagle House, that they would, ere many years had gone over their heads, have actually crossed swords with real red-capped or turbaned Mahomedans, fought with true Greek romantic pirates, hunted down slavers, and explored African rivers with voracious sharks watching their mouths, hungry crocodiles basking in their slimy shallows, and veritable negroes inhabiting their banks; yet here were all the three, Alick Murray, Jack Rogers, and Terence Adair, collected on board Her Majesty's brig of war _Archer_, commanded by Captain Grant. Alick had come out in the brig from England, the other two, after being s.h.i.+pwrecked, nearly drowned, murdered, and starved, eaten up by sharks, and having undergone I do not know how many other terrible dangers, had at last been picked up by the _Archer_, their own s.h.i.+p, the _Ranger_ frigate, being they did not exactly know where. This last circ.u.mstance did not probably weigh very much with them. Mids.h.i.+pmen are not generally given to suffer from over anxiety from affairs terrestrial; but Rogers certainly did wish that he could let his family know that he was well, and picked up again, after having, as was supposed, gone down in a slaver the frigate had captured off the African coast. They were capital fellows, those three old friends of mine. Rogers was a good specimen of the Englishman--genus middy--so was Paddy Adair of Green Erin's isle, full of fun and frolic; and a more gentlemanly, right-minded lad than Alick Murray Scotland never sent forth from her rich valleys or rugged mountains. He too was proud of Scotland, and ever jealous to uphold the name and fame of the land of his birth.
The _Archer_ was a fine brig, and Captain Grant was a first-rate officer. When naval officers or seamen go on board s.h.i.+ps of war they have to take their share of the duty with the rest of the crew; so Rogers and Adair found that they should have plenty of employment, even though they might not for some time be able to join their own s.h.i.+p.
Captain Grant considered that idleness is the mother of all vice, so he took care that no one in his s.h.i.+p should be idle, and certainly he had the knack of making good seamen of all who sailed with him.
The mids.h.i.+pmen's berth in the _Archer_ was a very happy place, because the occupants were, with few exceptions, gentlemanly, well-disposed, and, more than all, well and religiously educated young men. I do not mean to say by that, that they always acted with the wisdom and discretion of a bench of judges. Far from that. They were merry, light-hearted fellows, full of fun and frolic, but they could be grave, and treat serious things as they ought to be treated, with reverence and respect. Jack and Paddy quickly found themselves perfectly at home among them. The _Archer_ had been standing off the coast of Africa under easy sail, when, just as the cold grey light of day stole over the waters, a vessel was seen inside of her, evidently making for a harbour in the neighbourhood. As the light increased, she was discovered to be a schooner.
”All hands make sail,” cried the officer of the watch, who had just made his report to the commander.
”All hands make sail,” echoed the boatswain, giving with his shrill pipe the well-known signal. ”Tumble up there, tumble up there,” roared out the boatswain's mates, with their gruff voices, to the sluggards who seemed inclined to stick in their hammocks.
In a few moments the watch below were rus.h.i.+ng up on deck and flying to their stations, and then, as if by magic, the masts and yards of the brig were covered with the broad sheets of canvas which had been furled during the night. Topgallant-sails, royals, and studding-sails being set in rapid succession, away glided the brig with her head towards the land, through the calm, leaden-coloured water. Jack and Terence had with the rest sprung on deck, not taking many moments to slip into their clothes. Few landsmen can understand how quickly that operation can, by constant practice, be performed. They had there joined Alick, who had the morning watch. Together they all went aloft to take a look at the chase.
”She's a slaver, from her evident wish to avoid us, and from the way she is standing,” observed Alick, after having taken a long look at her through his gla.s.s. ”We may prevent her from embarking her slaves, and save the poor wretches the horrors to which they are always exposed, when once they get on board these iniquitous prison-s.h.i.+ps. To look down on a slave-deck crowded with human beings, is quite sufficient to make a man abhor slavery for ever after, and to desire to put an end, with all his might, to the system which can produce such horrors.”
Jack and Adair agreed that they should have great satisfaction in capturing or destroying every slaver on the coast. The stranger soon discovered that the brig of war was in chase of her, and having crowded all sail, kept away directly for the land. From the wide spread of her white canvas, and from the way she had behaved, there was no doubt she was a slaver. Everybody felt certain that they should capture the stranger; the _Archer_ was undoubtedly overhauling her, and she could not escape either to the north or south without their perceiving her, and cutting her off. An hour's chase brought them in sight of the land.
It was a low, uninviting sh.o.r.e, lined with a dense belt of mangrove bushes, a few tall palms appearing here and there above them; then the ground rose slightly, with some ranges of blue hills in the distance.
As the sun rose, a mist was drawn up which floated just above the water and shut out the lower branches of the mangrove-trees, though their tops, forming a wavy dark line, could just be seen above it. None of the officers of the _Archer_ had been on the coast before, and as she had no pilot, it was necessary to approach it with caution. The lead was therefore kept going. The schooner stood boldly on.
”The fellows will, I am afraid, run her on sh.o.r.e, if they can find no other means of escaping,” observed the captain, after scrutinising the chase and the coast she was approaching through his gla.s.s.
”We shall have her, she can't escape us, that's one comfort,” cried Jack Rogers.
On flew the schooner. The wind freshened somewhat. Suddenly she entered the belt of mist. Everybody on board the brig rubbed their eyes. Where was she? Not a vestige of her was to be seen. As they approached the land, the roar of the surf on the sh.o.r.e reached their ears. There could be little doubt that the schooner had been run on sh.o.r.e, and would probably soon be knocked to pieces, while her crew had made their escape to the land. Captain Grant was anxious to stand in as close as he could.
”By the deep nine,” sang out one of the men in the chains.
”By the mark seven,” soon repeated another.
To approach nearer would not have been prudent. The canvas was therefore flattened in, and the brig's head was once more turned to seaward. Scarcely had she hauled her wind, than the sun having risen high above the land, the mist lifted, and the whole line of coast fringed with mangrove bushes, and here and there with a white belt of sand, appeared in sight. But the chase, where was she? Not a sign of her appeared on the sh.o.r.e, while neither to the north nor to the south was she to be seen. Jack looked at Adair, and Adair looked at Jack, and together they discussed the matter with Alick, but neither of the three could offer any satisfactory explanation of the matter. Captain Grant and the rest of the officers appeared equally puzzled. As the brig stood closer in-sh.o.r.e there was a chance of the mystery being solved.
The hands in the chains were kept heaving the lead, which showed that the brig was slowly shoaling her water. At length she was hove-to, and two boats were lowered. Their own lieutenant, Hemming, who had escaped with them from a sinking slaver, volunteered to take charge of one of them, and Evans, the second lieutenant of the brig, went in the other.
The former, as the senior officer, had charge of the expedition.
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