Volume II Part 1 (1/2)

The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous

Vol 2

by George Augustus Sala

CHAPTER THE FIRST

OF SUNDRY MY ADVENTURES FROM THE TIME OF MY GOING ABROAD UNTIL MY COMING TO MAN'S ESTATE (WHICH WAS ALL THE ESTATE I HAD)

A STRANGE Nursing-mother--rather a Stepht and Alderman of London, that contracted with the Government to take us Transports abroad Sure there never was a ry after money Yet was his avarice not of the kind practised by old Audley, the money-scrivener of the Commonwealth's time; or Hopkins, the wretch that saved candles' ends and yet had a thousand wax-lights blazing at his Funeral; or Guy the Bookseller, that founded the Hospital in Southwark; or even old John Elwes, Esquire, the admired Miser of these latter days

Sir Basil Hopas the rather of the sanor Volpone e have all seen--at least such of us as be old Boys--in Ben Jonson's play of the _Fox_ He Money-grubbed, and Money-clutched, and Money-wrung, ay, and in a ely, and ruffle it a state and splendour He had been Lord Mayor; and on his Show-day the Equipments of chivalry had been more Sumptuous, the Banners more varied, the Entertainment at Saddlers' Hall,--where the Lord Mayor ont to hold his Feast before the present Mansion House was built, the ancient Guildhall in King Street being then but in an ill condition for banquet,--Hopwood's Entertainment, I say, had been more plentifully provided with Marrowbones, Custards, Ruffs and Reeves, Baked Cygnets, Malmsey, Canary, and Hippocras, than had ever been known since the days of the Merry Mayor, ore that King Charles the Second should take t'other bottle He was a Parliah in his Pocket, for the which he kept a War-Pan member,--more's the shame,--besides one to serve him as a cushi+on to sit on

This enorate Street, with as ues in blue liveries as a Rotterdaood ventures in Java When we poor wretches, chained together, had been brought up in Carts fro would serve this Haughty and Purse-proud Citizen but that our ragged Regi Palace; and there the varlets in blue that attended upon hiht us out Loaves and Cheese, and Blackjacks full of two-thread Beer, which, with estures and uncivil words, they offered to our fahters,--all laced and furbelowed, and s' and orphans' tears, and the blood-drops of cri in their Stoe-fed Chaplain standing bowing and s in their ears no doubt Praises of their exceeding Charity and Humanity to wretches such as ere But this Charity, Jack, says I to myself, is not of the Shapcott sort, and is but base metal after all My troth, but anted the Bread and Cheese and Swipes; for we had had neither Bite nor Sup since we left Aylesbury Gaol seven-and-twenty hours agone So, after a while, and theat us for Gallows-birds, and so us with stones,--for Luck, as they said,--ere had over London Bridge,--where with dreadful admiration I viewed the Heads and Quarters of Traitors, all shi+ in the coat of pitch i' the Sun over the North Turret,--and were bestowed for the night in the Borough Clink And hither ere pursued by the Alderains with those a the them, for cash in hand, to deliver the waters, at the Port of Eht for Heavy Fetters, if the Heaviness could be assuaged by Gold; and sootiations were carried so far as for the convicted persons to give Drafts of Exchange, to be honoured by their Agents in London, so soon as word came from the Plantations that they had been placed in Tolerable Servitude, instead of Agonising Slavery For although there was then, as there is now, a convenient Fiction that a Felon's goods became at once forfeit to the Crown, I never yet knew a Felon (and I have knownhis property, if he had any, and disposing of it according to his own Good Will and Pleasure

The Head Gaoler of the Borough Clink--I know not how his Proper official title ran--was a colonel in the Foot Guards, who lived in Jerh and Mighty business either at Poingdestre's Ordinary in St Alban's Place, or at White's Chocolate House, to say naught of the Rose, or the Key in Chandos Street Much, truly, did he concern himself about his unhappy Captives His place was a Patent one, and orth to him about Fifteen Hundred a year, at which sum it was farmed by Sir Basil Hopwood; who, in his turn, on the principle that ”'tis scurvy ers,”

underlet the place to a Coave hied to swell into at least Three for the Injustices 'Twas Aylesbury Gaol over again, with the newest improvements and the Humours of the Town added to it So, when Sir Basil Hopwood took up a cargo of cast persons for Transportation, his underlings of the Borough Clink were only too glad to harbour the a pretty profit out of the poor creatures For all which, I doubt it not, Sir Basil Hopwood and his scoundrelly Myr

This place was a prison for Debtors as well as Criminals, and was to the full as Foul as the Tophet-pit at Aylesbury yonder I had not been there half an hour before a Lively companion of a Gentleman Cutpurse, with a wrench at my kerchief, a twist at my arm (which nearly Broke it in twain), and a smart Blow under , pressed beef, sugar, coiven me The Rascal comes to me a few minutes afterwards with a packet of Soap and a Testament, which he had taken frosince his Body had felt need of the one or his Soul of the other And yet I think they would have profited considerably (pending a Right Cord) by the application of Both So I in a corner, to moan and whimper at my Distressed condition

A sad Sunday I spent in the Clink,--'twas on the Monday ere to start,--although, to soh For very many of the Relations and Friends of the Detained Persons ca, and other Refreshments 'Twas on this day I heard that one of us, as cast for Forgery, had been offered a Free Pardon if he could lodge Five Hundred Pounds in the hands of a Person who had Great Influence near a Great Man

Late on the Sunday afternoon, Sir Basil Hopwood came down in his coach, and with his chaplain attendant on hiht and Alderman would not venture further in, for fear of the Gaol Fever; and he 's Mercy,--which I deny not,--and his own Infinite Goodness in providing for us in a Foreign Land The which I question Then he told us hoere to be very civil and obedient on the voyage to those ere set over us, refraining fros, on pain of i said this, and the chaplain having given us his Benediction, he gat hione, and ere rid of so much Rapacious and Luxurious Hypocrisy We lay in the yard that night, wrapped in such extra Garh to have; and I sobbed ht never be Day again, but that ht all be closed in by the Merciful Curtain of Eternal Night

So on the Mondayere driven down--a body of Sir Basil Hopwood's own co us--to Shayler's Stairs, near unto the church of St Mary Overy; and there--ere in nuhtway, the tide being toward, bore down the river for Gravesend

By this time I found that, almost insensibly, as it were, I had become separated from my old companions the Blacks, and that I was reatest likelihood is, that Authority deeood and all, the Formidable Confederacy they had laid hold of, and to prevent those Dangerous Men froether Butand uncertain Vision, and I took little note of the personages ho around me, in a dull listlessness about the Hoy, I found ly picked up hap-hazard froland But 'twas all one to me, and I did not much care Such a Stupor of Misery caood Quaker Friends, and the lessons they had taught erous little brute; and that seeing the Master of the Hoy, a thirsty-looking ed to serve him as I had served Corporal Foss with the de o' Tyne

We landed not at Gravesend, but were forthwith removed to a bark called _The Humane Hopwood_, in co three days in the Downs, put into Deal to complete her complement of Unfortunate Persons And I re on the Goodwins, which was said to be a Leghorner, very rich with oils and silks; round which were gathered--just as you athered round a dead carcass, and picking the Flesh fro to the Deal Boatmen These worthies had knocked holes in the hull of the wreck, and were busily hauling out packages and casks into their craft, co to blows sometiest Booty And it was said on Board that they would not unfrequently decoy by false signals, or positively haul, a vessel in distress on to those same Goodwins,--in whose fatal depths so ulfed,--in order to have the Plunder of her, which was -run shore Lawyers of Deal and other Ports, ont to buy the Boate Men, indeed, these Boat it was theirfar less of saving Hu at the waifs and strays of a Rich Cargo And then up would sheer a Custom-House cutter or a Revenue Pink, the skipper and his crew fierce in their Defence of the Laws of the Land, the Admiralty Droits, and their oentieths; and from Hard bloith fists and spikes, matters would often come to the arbitraeed between the Deal Boat's Officers Surely the world was a Hard and a Cruel and a Brutal one, when I was young--bating the Poor-Lahich were more merciful than at present; for now that I am old the Gazettes are full of the Tender Valour and Merciful Devotion of the Deal Boatmen, who, in the most tempestuous weather, will leave their warm beds, their wives and bairns, and put off, with the Sea running ht Vessels and the Precious Lives that are within theh, but they were likewise unconscionable rogues

The wind proved false to us at Deal, and we had to wait a weary ten days there Captain Handsell was our co 'Twas always a word and a bloith hienerally came first, and the word that folloas sure to be a bad one The Captain of a shi+p, fro Smack to a Three-Decker, was in those days a cruel and merciless Despot 'Twas only the size of his shi+p and the nue that decided the question whether he was to be a Petty Tyrant or a Tremendous One His Empire was as undisputed as that of a Schoolainsay him? To whom, at Sea, could his victims appeal? To the Sharks and Graed to beat, to fetter, to starve, to kick, to curse his Seaht of this Bashaw of Bluewater; for he had Irons and Rations of Mouldy Biscuit for thehty Lady paying full cabin-passage has bowed down before the wrath of a vulgar Skipper, who, at hoht unworthy to Black her Shoes, and ould be seething in the revelry of a Tavern in Rotherhithe, while she would be footing it in the Saloons of St Jae, the Skipper had his superior; the Bashaw had a Vizier as bigger than he There was a Terrible Man called the Pilot He cared no more for the Captain than the Archbishop of Canterbury cares for a Charity-Boy He gave him a piece of his mind whenever he chose, and he would have his own Way, and had it It was the delight of the Searaded for a time under the supreme authority of the Pilot, who drank the Skipper's ruoo at the Skipper's table; ore, if he was so minded, the Skipper's tarpaulin; who used the Skipper's telescope, and thumbed his charts, and kicked his Cabin-boy, and swore his oaths, till, but for the fear of the Trinity House, I think the Skipper would have been n of this Great Mogul of Lights and Points and Creeks soon came to an end A River Pilot was the lesser evil, a Channel Pilot was the greater one; but both were got rid of at last Then the Skipper was hiain He would drink himself blind with Punch in the forenoon, or cob his cabin-boy to Death's door after dinner for a frolic He could play the very Devil a the Hands, and they perforce bore with his capricious cruelty; for there is no running away from a shi+p at Sea Jack Shark is Gaoler, and keeps the door tight There is but one way out of it, and that is to Mutiny, and hey for the Black Flag and a Pirate's Free and Jovial Life![A] But Mutiny is Hanging, and Piracy is Hanging, and Gibbeting too; and how seldoh in thely Halter dances before a man's eyes, and dazes hi will Schoolboys endure the hideous enormities of a Gnawbit before they co will a People suffer the les their Liberties, who fleeces and squeezes and tramples upon them, before they take Heart of Grace, and up Pike and Musket, and down-derry-doith your Ruler, who is ordinarily the basest of Poltroons, and runs away in a fright so soon as the first Goose is bold enough to cry out that the Capitol _shall_ be saved!

Nothing of this did I think aboard _The Huht at all, save of rage and anguish when it pleased Captain Handsell, being in a cheerful mood, to belabour inning of the voyage I was put into the hold, ironed, with the rest of the convicts, ere only per, for a few Mouthfuls of Fresh air; ere fed on the vilest biscuit and thebut a scrap of fat pork and a dram of Ruenerally, e But by and by,--say after ten days; but I took little account of Tiatory,--Captain Handsell had me unironed; and his cabin-boy, a poor weakly little lad, that could not standdead of that and a flux, and so thrown overboard without anysaid about it--(he was but a little Scottish castaway froht in the Grass Market, and sold to a Greenock skipper trading in that line for a hundred pound Scots--not above eight pounds of our currency)--and there is no Crowner's Quest at sea, I was proh now, and the Wound in er and more hardened under the shower of blohich the Skipper very liberally dealt out to me; I hardly knoith more plenitude when he was vexed, or when he was pleased But I was not the sa little Laerous's apprenticeshi+p had been useful to hiraduate in their Latin and Greek, so I had graduated upon braining the Grenadier with the demijohn

I could take kicks and cuffs, but I could likewise give the Skipper le with, and bite, and kick his shi+ns till soether on the cabin-floor and tuether!--till the Watch would look down the skylight upon us, grinning, and chuckle hoarsely that old Belzey, as they called their co I these unthinking Sea (who, I have heard, is the Lesser Fiend), or Little Bri Pitchladle And then I, intheir scurril nickna theerous

The oddest thing in the world was that the Skipper, Ungovernable Brute as he was, seeh er-cub it is!” he would say so about his Rope's End, as if undecided whether to hit me or not ”Lie down, Rawbones! Lie down, Teareain,” I would cry, all hot and flurried; ”I'll e he would make a Rush at me, and Welthis Locker would give e, or a white Biscuit, or a nip of curious Nantz

At last he gave up ether ”If you'd been of the sa of the poor little Scottish lad who Died, ”I'd have o

'Slid, h, or there's no vartue in hackled heot a Heart, ed before you're out of your Teens, you'll show the World that you can Bite as well as Bark some of these days”

So I became a prime Favourite with Captain Handsell; and, in the Expansion of his Liking towards ive me instruction in the vocation in which a portion of h I say it that should not) been passed Of scientific Navigation this very Rude and Boorish person knew little, if any thing; but as a Practical Seaman he had much skill and experience Indeed, if the Hands had not enjoyed a lively Faith in the solid sea-going Qualities of ”Foul-Weather Bob,” as they called hiive him his demoniacal appellation, they would have Mutinied, and sent hie of Discovery at least twice in every Twenty-Four Hours For he led them a most Fearful Life