Part 16 (1/2)
”As she cannot have escaped along sh.o.r.e, and certainly has not evaporated into the air, the chase must have got into some creek or inlet, the mouth of which we cannot distinguish,” observed the captain.
”You will therefore search for such an entrance, and pursue, and bring her out if you can.”
”Ay, ay, sir!” answered Hemming, delighted with the work in prospect.
The three mids.h.i.+pmen got leave to go in the boat. Jack accompanied Evans, the other two went with Hemming, as did Jack's old follower d.i.c.k Needham. Away they pulled in high spirits. As they approached the sh.o.r.e they observed that a long line of white surf was breaking heavily on it. Hemming stood up and scanned the coast narrowly, thinking that after all the schooner might have been run on sh.o.r.e, and as slavers are but slightly put together, might have speedily been knocked to pieces.
As he stood up, and the boat rose to the top of the swell, he saw not what he expected, but a piece of clear water inside a narrow spit of sand, and a little to the south he observed a spot where the surf broke less heavily, and which he concluded was the entrance to the creek or river.
”I have little doubt that this must be the place where the schooner has taken refuge; and as she has gone up, so may we,” shouted Hemming, pointing it out to his brother officer.
Evans agreed with him, and the two boats pulled away in the direction indicated. That there was an entrance was evident, but it required great caution in approaching it. A capsize would probably prove fatal to all hands--for had any escaped drowning, they would have fallen a prey to the sharks, which in southern lat.i.tudes generally maintain a strict blockade at the mouths of rivers, to pick up any offal which the stream may bring down. The boats rose and fell on the smooth swells as they came rolling in. At last Hemming observed a s.p.a.ce on the bar clear of broken water. He gave the signal to go ahead.
”Now, my lads, now pull away,” he shouted.
The boats dashed on, the surf roared and foamed on either side of them, and not only did the three mids.h.i.+pmen, but most of the older men in the boats, hold their breath till they were well through it, and once more floating in smooth water inside the bar. Instead of being in a mere creek, they found that they had entered a broad deep river which seemed to come down from a considerable distance in the interior. They pulled on more certain than before of finding the chase. However, after they had gone some distance, they arrived at a spot where the river formed two distinct branches, or, rather, it might be, where another broad stream joined the main current. Up which the schooner had proceeded it was impossible to say.
”I'll take one stream, you take the other,” shouted Hemming to Evans; and the boats dashed on.
It was important to overtake the schooner before she got higher up, and perhaps hidden away in some narrow creek where it might be no easy matter to find her. The scenery was far from attractive. Little else on either side was to be seen but long lines of mangrove bushes, and as the tide fell black banks of mud began to appear, which it was evident would soon narrow the width of the stream. Evans and Jack took the branch of the stream which came from the southward. It wound about a good deal, so that they were aware they might any moment come on the schooner. They kept their muskets by their sides ready loaded.
”I say, Mr Evans, I wish that we could see the chase some time before we get up to her,” observed Jack. ”What are we to do should we find her, sir?”
”Jump on board, and knock every fellow down who resists,” was the lieutenant's answer. ”Depend on it she is a slaver or pirate, probably both, and her crew will not give in without a tussle.”
”With the greatest pleasure in the world,” replied Jack, who was very practical in his notions about fighting, and had no idea of half measures.
The current was now making down very strong, and the boat consequently progressed but slowly. Still Mr Evans persevered. The men bent l.u.s.tily to their oars, and reach after reach of the river was pa.s.sed, but there was no sign of the chase. Now and then there were openings in the mangrove bushes, and more than once Jack felt certain that he saw some dark figures running along parallel with the river, and evidently watching their movements. Jack pointed them out to Mr Evans.
”That looks as if we had enemies in the neighbourhood,” observed the lieutenant. ”Be ready, my men--marines, look to your arms.”
The boat pulled eight oars, and there were two marines in the bows, and two in the stern-sheets, sitting with their muskets between their knees.
In the bows of the boat was a small swivel-gun, and all the bluejackets with cutla.s.ses and pistols. Besides the lieutenant and Jack, there was the c.o.xswain, and there were some half-dozen long pikes which, as the latter observed, would come in handy, if they had a fight with another boat or had to attack a fort, but for boarding he would not give a rush for them. The ebb-tide rushed past the boat dark and smooth, but with swirling eddies, which showed the strength of the current against which they had to contend.
”I wonder whether the other boat has fallen in with the slaver.”
”I envy them if they have,” observed Jack, who didn't much like being silent just then.
There was something very oppressive in the atmosphere, and in the dark solemn scenery which surrounded them. The sea-breeze had by this time set in and blew up the river, but it had not yet been strong enough to make it worth while to hoist the sail.
”I scarcely think the schooner could have got up so far as this,”
observed Mr Evans. ”But we will pull on a little farther, and then if we do not see her, we will go back, and join the other boat.”
They had just then arrived at the end of a reach. The extent of the next one was hidden from their sight by a point of land thickly covered with trees. They pulled on, and soon doubled the point. Directly they did so there appeared before them, pressing up the stream, under all sail, the object of their search. The men required no urging, but, bending to their oars, away they pulled in hot chase after her. The schooner stood on steadily, as if no one on board was aware of the presence of the boat of a British man-of-war. The boat rapidly came up with her. As they drew near, Jack remarked that her decks were crowded with a very ill-looking set of ruffians, but he cared little for that, and he knew that every man in the boat would be ready to attack even twice as many as there were there. They had got up to within a hundred yards of the schooner without any notice being taken of them.
”Give way, my lads; we'll be alongside in a moment,” shouted the lieutenant.
Scarcely had he uttered the words, when a couple of guns were ran out at the schooner's stern ports, and a shower of langrage, nails, bits of iron, lead, and missiles of all sorts, came rattling among them, accompanied by a volley of musketry. One or two of the seamen and one of the marines were hit, but the boat pulled on as fast as before.
”Marines, give it the scoundrels,” cried Mr Evans. The red-jackets, turning round, deliberately picked off several of the people who had fired at them. They had scarcely time to load again before the boat was alongside the schooner, and the seamen, cutla.s.s in hand, began to scramble up on her decks. Pikes were poked out at them, pistols were flashed in their faces, and cold shot hove into their boat, but fiercely as the pirates fought, they could not prevent the British seamen from gaining the deck of their vessel. Desperate was the struggle which took place there. Both parties fought for their lives. The English knew that they should receive no quarter. The pirates did not expect it either. Jack was soon knocked down, but he got up again with a somewhat ugly gash on his arm, and went at it as hard as ever. At length Mr Evans and his men gained the afterpart of the vessel, and were thus able to command her movements, but the pirates still cl.u.s.tered thickly in the bows, and were evidently preparing to make a rush aft. The English had left their boat, which was alongside, with her painter made fast to the fore-chains. This was an oversight. The pirates perceived it, hauled her ahead, and instead of attempting to regain their vessel, the greater number, jumping into her, made off, leaving four or five of their companions in the hands of the British. These few threw down their arms and sang out for quarter. This was granted them, little as they deserved it. Meantime the rest of the pirates pulled away for the sh.o.r.e, and were soon concealed from view behind a wooded point.
”See the cable ranged, to bring up, Mr Rogers,” was the first order given by the lieutenant.