HUNT & WILSON, 
 
 Books, Art, Stationery, 
 
 CONCORD, N. H.

 
 DICK RODNEY; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF AN ETON BOY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES GRANT. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
 
 HOP? 
 £-13 
 
 £87 
 
 PS 
 
 £- 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE pAOI 
 
 I. The eton boy . . • • . . 7 
 II. Captain zeervogel • • • • . 15 
 
 III. The three warnings . .... 21 
 
 IV. HOW I GOT ADRIFT ... .30 
 
 V. Useless regrets . . 85 
 
 VI. The eugenie 44 
 
 VII. The scotch mate's yarn . . . .52 
 
 VIII. Voyage continued 59 
 
 IX. A hurricane drives us to the fortu- 
 nate ISLES . . . 75 
 
 X. I GO ASHORE 83 
 
 XI. HOW TOM WAS TATTOOED .... 88 
 
 XII. Dangerous company . . 99 
 
 XIH. The ventana 105 
 
 XIV. Sequel to our adventurb . Ill 
 
 XV. Tns ANcnoR a-peak . . . . 121 
 
 XVI. An incident ... ... 126 
 
 (3)
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Antonio el cubano . . 
 
 132 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 The water-spout . . 
 
 . 141 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Cuba 
 
 149 
 
 XX. 
 
 
 
 XXI. 
 
 We cross the line . . 
 
 165 
 
 XXII. 
 
 The cubano unmasked 
 
 . 170 
 
 xxur. 
 
 Conference of the crew . 
 
 179 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 I CONFRONT THE CUBANO . 
 
 . 187 
 
 XXV. 
 
 I RESCUE THE MATE . . 
 
 194 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 The thunderbolt . 
 
 206 
 
 xxvin. 
 
 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 Discover land . . . 
 
 220 
 
 XXX. 
 
 The island of alphonso . 
 
 228 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 We build a hut 
 
 233 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 
 
 xxxni. 
 
 A NEW perplexity . 
 
 246 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 The mystery increases . 
 
 . 252 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 The mystery solved . . 
 
 258 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW 
 
 . 265 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 The fata morgana 
 
 275 
 
 XXXVIH. 
 
 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 A NEW DANGER 
 
 291 
 
 XL. 
 
 The revolver again 
 
 . 297 
 
 XLI. 
 
 A waterlogged vessel 
 
 304 
 
 XLII. 
 
 The old Spanish book 
 
 . 312
 
 CONTENTS. O 
 
 XLIII. Sangre por sangre . . . 323 
 
 XLIV. The san ildefonso . . . .330 
 
 XLV. We sail for Europe . . * 336 
 
 XLVI. The homeward voyage . . . 346 
 
 XLVU. A mutiny 356 
 
 XLVIII. Sequel to the mutiny . . . 363 
 
 XLIX. The coast of Africa . . . 874 
 
 L. Santa cruz 384 
 
 LI. The old dragon tree of caora 389 
 
 LII. Valley of the diamond . . . 399 
 
 Lffl. The last of antonio el cubano 410 
 
 LIV. Conclusion . . . . .418
 
 DICK RODNEY; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF AN ETON BOY. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THE ETON BOY. 
 
 In the relation of the following adventures I 
 do not mean to illustrate the principle maintained 
 by some writers, that by an inevitable course of 
 events in life, that becomes fate, which at first 
 was merely choice ; but rather -to show how, by 
 a remarkable combination of circumstances (to a 
 great extent beyond my own control), I was in- 
 volved in a series of perils and perigrinations, 
 such as rarely fall to the lot even of those who 
 have the most restless of dispositions. 
 
 That my temperament was, and is still, some- 
 thing of this nature, I must confess; and the 
 reading of my leisure hours — books of wild ad- 
 venture by field and flood (I have devoured them 
 
 (7)
 
 8 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 all from the volumes of dear old Daniel Defoe, to 
 those of the Railway Library), filled my mind 
 with vague longings and airy fancies, for greater 
 achievements than our periodical regatta, or the 
 ranks of our Eton Ri le Volunteer Corps were 
 likely to afford, although I deemed myself by no 
 means an undistinguished member of the latter. 
 
 I had been for the usual time an " oppidan " 
 at Eton ; but, though standing high in favor of 
 the Reverend M. A. with whom I was boarded, 
 of the Vice Provost, and other functionaries, I 
 had, unfortunately and unwisely, spent too much 
 of my time with the boxing gloves and fencing 
 foils ; at cricket in the playing fields ; in rowing 
 on the river — that old traditional amusement 
 of our Etonians ; in training for the great 4th of 
 June, the College Regatta day ; and in erratic 
 excursions to Windsor and elsewhere — to hope 
 for transference to Cambridge. 
 
 This had long been the dearest wish of my fa- 
 ther, poor man! but in his letters to me the 
 names of Walpole, Canning, Fox, Wellington, 
 Hallam, and other alumni of our great seminary, 
 were rehearsed again and again without effect ; 
 and he never failed to remind me, in the words 
 of old Lembarde, that it is always to Cambridge 
 " the scole of Eton sencleth her ripe fruite." 
 
 I had earned the unpleasant reputation of be- 
 ing an idler, though by no means one ; and this 
 was oddly enough confirmed, when one day I
 
 THE ETON BOY. 9 
 
 narrowly escaped drowning in the same pool, if 
 not among the same weeds, where George, Earl 
 Waldegrave, an Eton boy in his tenth year, per- 
 ished so long ago as 1794, when bathing in the 
 Thames, near a field called the Brocas. 
 
 " Existence," says a certain writer, " appears 
 to me scarcely existence, without its struggles 
 and its successes. I should ever like to have 
 some great end before me, for the striving to at- 
 tain amid a crowd of competitors, would make 
 me feel all the glory of life." 
 
 With such vague ideas floating before me, I 
 returned from Eton last year, and found myself 
 at my father's house, the old and secluded Rec- 
 tory of Erlesmere, in a very undecided frame of 
 mind as to the future, and the profession I should 
 adopt. 
 
 My father, as before, urged King's College as 
 a proper preparation for any profession. 
 . My mother hinted that our name had shone 
 in the navy, and cast a glance at a large portrait 
 which hung in the dining-room. It represented 
 George Lord Rodney, the castigator of the Span- 
 iards, in a full bob-wig and white satin breeches, 
 boarding the leading ship of the Caracca fleet, 
 amid a whirlwind of torn rigging, smoke, and 
 cannon-balls, forming a background by no means 
 hilarious. 
 
 But my father pooh-poohed this. I was al- 
 ready far too old for the time at which the navy
 
 10 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 is entered — to wit, the mature years of thir- 
 teen. 
 
 Then my aunt Etty, who still curled her hair 
 in the fashion of thirty years ago, recommended 
 the army with a pensive air ; for she had been 
 engaged to a young sub, who was killed at — I 
 must not say where, for it was a great many 
 years ago, and Aunt Etty is unmarried still ; 
 but her views, though warmly seconded by sis- 
 ters Dot and Sybil (who saw military balls and 
 pic-nics in perspective), did not accord with 
 mine, for I had spent two years or more in our 
 Eton rifle corps, and the monotony of the drill — 
 especially that boring curriculum of Hythe posi- 
 tion (I went through the musketry class), worried 
 me, as I wilfully deemed myself able to sight my 
 weapon and bring down either a Frenchman or 
 a pheasant without it. 
 
 At Aunt Etty's suggestion, my father would 
 shake his white head, and say, quoting the author 
 of Ecclesiasticus, — 
 
 " ' There are two things which grieve my heart 
 to see : a man of war that suffereth from poverty, 
 and men of understanding that are not set by.' 
 The sword, Etty, is but a poor inheritance ; bet- 
 ter send Dick to the counting-house of his uncle, 
 Rodney and Co., in London." 
 
 But I trembled at this suggestion, as it did not 
 accord with my own brilliant views in any way 
 and so months passed idly away.
 
 THE ETON BOY. 11 
 
 I missed the manly amusements of Eton, and 
 the hilarity of my class-fellows ; and though lov- 
 ing well my home and family, when the novelty 
 of my return and of perfect freedom passed away, 
 I longed for a change of scene — a stirring occu- 
 pation — an active employment. 
 
 Is destiny stronger than intention ? 
 
 I should hope not ; yet for a time I was almost 
 inclined to think so, after the terrible episode by 
 which I was suddenly torn from my home, and 
 cast upon that world which, hitherto, I had viewed 
 through the sunny medium of my day-dreams 
 and romances alone. 
 
 Our Rectory is situated a mile distant from 
 the sea, of which an ample view can be had from 
 the upper windows. Behind the house grows a 
 coppice of mighty oaks, the gnarled arms of which 
 bear loads of rustling foliage that form long leafy 
 dells, through which the sun can scarcely penetrate 
 in summer, — trees so old that the mind becomes 
 lost in attempting to conceive what was there be- 
 fore they grew, or who planted them, and of all 
 that has passed in the changing world, of all that 
 have been born, have lived long lives, died, and 
 been laid in their silent graves, since these old 
 oaks were acorns, twigs, and saplings ! 
 
 The Rectory of Erlesmere is an antique man- 
 sion, with projecting oriel windows, the mullions 
 of which are almost hidden by ivy, woodbine, and 
 honeysuckle. One portion terminates in a steep
 
 12 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 dove-cot gable, the other in a kind of tower, 
 wherein, says tradition, an old rector of former 
 times defended himsei f against the puritans, and 
 valiantly blazed away with a matchlock through 
 some narrow slits, in which the martins now 
 built their nests in peace, and over which the 
 China roses grew undisturbed ; while against the 
 strong old wall my sisters Sybil and Dot had 
 their fernery, to them an object of great solicitude 
 and interest, as they were very learned in the 
 science of all manner of leaves, blades, and twigs, 
 and knew their mysterious names. 
 
 Close by is our old Rectory church, with its 
 brass-mounted tombs of the Middle Ages, and 
 its black oak pews of the Puritan times, where 
 every Sunday and holiday the rays of light fell 
 through the painted windows on the bowed heads 
 of the country people while my father preached. 
 
 Beyond the house and church stretches a fair 
 green English lawn, whereon a herd of deer are 
 grazing, with the summer sunshine falling on 
 their smooth dapple coats as they toss their ant- 
 lers ; and, when scared by the whistle of the dis- 
 tant railway train, they glide away to the oak 
 coppice, that is older than the days of the Tudors 
 or Stuarts. 
 
 That coppice and the sea-shore, but especially 
 the latter, were my favorite resorts. Daily I wan- 
 dered by the beach, listening to the surge that 
 chafed upon the layers of pebbles, shells, and
 
 THE ETON BOY. 13 
 
 seaweed, thinking of Danish Canute and his ser- 
 vile courtiers, or filled by those vague, solemn, 
 and pleasing thoughts, which the sight of an 
 object so mighty and mysterious as the boundless 
 ocean creates within us. 
 
 The monotonous sound of wave after wave, as 
 they broke on the fiat beach, made me think of 
 lands and shores, of people, cities, and adventures 
 far, far away from our quiet old ivy-clad Rectory 
 and its daily routine. Thus, every piece of drift 
 wood, every strange fishbone and mouldered piece 
 of timber which the ocean cast at my feet, became 
 a source of interest for the mind to ruminate 
 upon. 
 
 I remember the masts of a sunken vessel being 
 discovered one morning, about two miles from 
 the shore, and they were long a source of specu- 
 lation to me. A mystery hovered about these* 
 rotting spars, these slimy ropes that waved in the 
 sea breeze, and the hull that lay amid the rocks 
 and weeds so far down below. 
 
 What was her story, what the fate of her crew, 
 none could guess, as no bodies ever came ashore 
 with the tide. 
 
 When a ship appeared at the horizon, my eye 
 followed her until her sails melted into the dis 
 tant .haze, and then it seemed as if spirit and 
 fancy pursued her together upon the world of 
 waters. 
 
 Generally we saw only coasters creeping along,
 
 14 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 or colliers bound for the Thames, with their clingy 
 canvas, their black sides, and encumbered decks ; 
 but more than once we were favored by seeing a 
 British line-of-battle ship in all her glory t— one 
 of the channel squadron, no doubt — with her 
 squared yards, her flush decks, her snow-white 
 hammocks in the nettings — the ports triced up, 
 and the triple tier of sixty-eights or thirty-twos 
 peering through them ; the scarlet ensign float- 
 ing at her gaff peak ; the officers lounging on the 
 poop, the red-coated marines at their posts ; and 
 high over all, the long whip-like pennant stream- 
 ing on the air, from the mainmast head. 
 
 Such a sight, under a splendid sunshine, when 
 the summer sea was only rippled by a gentle 
 breeze, to catch which every inch of canvas was 
 spread to the yard-heads, might make the coldest 
 heart quicken ; and it certainly made me think 
 of my mother's wishes, and of old Rodney in his 
 bob-wig and ruffles, scrambling at the head of 
 his boarders, sword in hand, up the carved and 
 gilded side of the Spanish galleon — of Boscawen 
 and Benbow, Captain Cook, and Robinson Cru- 
 soe ; for the real and the ideal were all blended 
 together in my wayward mind.
 
 CAPTAIN ZEERVOGEL. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CAPTAIN ZEERVOGEL. 
 
 Two miles from the Rectory is the village or 
 small seaport of Erlesmere. 
 
 It is a sunshiny little place, having a row of 
 fishermen's houses, that are covered by wood- 
 bine and honeysuckle, amid which, and over 
 which, are quantities of brown nets and black 
 bladders, drying in the breeze. 
 
 Garlands of red-floats are tossed upon the same 
 breeze, as they are strung in lines across the 
 little street ; and others, that are painted yellow, 
 nestle, like great pumpkins, amid the luxuriant 
 masses of leaves which cover the picturesque lit- 
 tle dwellings. Boats of all sizes and rusty anchors 
 encumber the little street, which is paved with 
 round stones ; while oars, spare yards, and masts 
 stand against the walls and eaves in all directions. 
 
 Swarms of red-cheeked children gambol amid 
 this nautical debris ; and they bring such quan- 
 tities of shells and pebbles from the sea-beach 
 that there are as many in the street as on the 
 shore. 
 
 One of the leading features in the fisher-vil- 
 lage of Erlesmere is a little public house, at
 
 16 DICK RODNEY 
 
 the ivy-covered porch of which a group of burly 
 weather-beaten fellows in long boots, striped 
 shirts, and red nightcaps, and constantly smok- 
 ing, drinking, and " taking squints to seaward " 
 through an old battered telescope, " served " round 
 with spun-yarn. Near it is a small dock-yard, 
 \vhere their boats are built, tarred, and painted, 
 and where a passing coaster may have a trivial 
 repair effected, and occasionally be hove down. 
 
 This dock is inclosed by a low ruinous wall, 
 but, of course, is open toward the sea. It is full 
 of well-seasoned logs, queer odds and ends of 
 trees — it is redolent of tar and bilge, and is knee- 
 deep in chips and shavings. Its only ornament 
 is a flag-staff, whereon an old union jack is dis- 
 played on national holidays ; for we are very 
 loyal people in Erlesmere, no penny newspaper 
 having ever found its way there to create dis- 
 union among us. We have no traditions that 
 go beyond the days of Nelson, Howe, and Dun- 
 can ; and one old fellow, the patriarch of the 
 village, remembers well that sunny morning in 
 the last days of 1805, when a great squadron 
 was seen standing slowly up-channel, with all 
 their ensigns half hoisted, for the hero of Trafal- 
 gar lay dead in the cabin of the Victory ! 
 
 It happened, only last year, that a small Dutch 
 schooner of some fifty tons was laid down on the 
 gridiron at Erlesmere dock, for the purpose of 
 being repaired. This was an event of some
 
 CAPTAIN ZEERVOGEL. 17 
 
 importance, and the whole nautical population 
 cheerfully lent a hand in unloading her, and 
 securing the cargo, which consisted of apples 
 and Tergou cheeses ; while her skipper, Captain 
 Zeervogel, and the six men who composed his 
 crew, became for the time the lions and oracles 
 of the smoking-room and porch of the ivy-covered 
 tavern, where it was tacitly agreed that nothing 
 should be said about Lord Duncan, or " the 
 licking he gave these Dutch lubbers off the 
 Texel," in our grandfathers' days. 
 
 I had never seen a Dutch craft before ; thus 
 the quaint aspect of this schooner, with her deep 
 waist, her bow and stern which were so clumsy 
 in their form and strength, so exactly alike, and 
 tilted up till she resembled a cheese cut in half 
 — her leeboards, her brown oak planks, all bright 
 with varnish, and her little cabin windows encir- 
 cled by alternate stripes of red, green, and white 
 paint, all made her, to me, a source of wonder ; 
 and I was daily on board, having obtained a free 
 entry, after the bestowal of some schnaps (i. e., 
 gin and water) upon the captain, Jan van Zeer- 
 vogel, who told me many a strange tale of the 
 North Sea, for he was a pleasant and commu- 
 nicative old fellow, having, as he told me, a wife 
 and children, who kept his farm on the isle of 
 Wolfersdyck, near South Beveland, while he 
 tempted the dangers of the ocean to dispose of 
 its agricultural produce. 
 
 2*
 
 18 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 One nisrht, while the schooner was still on the 
 gridiron, but when her repairs were nearly com- 
 pleted, I was with him in the little dungeon which 
 he called his cabin ; darkness had set in, and the 
 hour was late — later than I ought to have been 
 aboard — for we kept early hours at the Rectory • 
 but the novelty of the situation, the old Dutch- 
 man's stories, the fumes of his meerschaum, and 
 the effect of some peaches, which he gave me 
 from a large gallipot, wherein his wife had pre- 
 served them in brandy, rendered me careless as 
 to how the time passed. 
 
 " So, Captain Zeervogel," said I, " you are a 
 farmer as well as a mariner? " 
 
 " Yes, a schiffer as well as a boor, a plougher 
 alike of the land and sea," he replied, in good 
 English. " I have a farm " (he pronounced it 
 varrm, and so on, using consonants in a mode 
 with which I shall not afflict the reader), " at 
 Wolfersdyck, which is one of the most pleasant 
 of the Zealand isles, and is about six miles long. 
 It was larger once, but when the dykes broke, 
 the sea swallowed up a great portion of it. 
 About three hundred years ago the sea burst 
 over all Beveland, and for many a year nothing 
 of it was visible above the water, but the vanes 
 and tops of the church steeples, with the sea-gulls 
 and petrels perching on them.* So, you see, 
 
 * This was in 1532.
 
 CAPTAIN ZEERVOGEL. 19 
 
 master, as soon as we come to anchor in the 
 Zuid-vliet, and have our fore and aft canvas in 
 the brails, my horses come from their stables, we 
 run a hawser ahead, and thereby they tow the 
 schooner through a little canal right into my own 
 farm-yard, where my wife, my children, my house- 
 dog — even the pigs, cocks and hens await and 
 welcome us. There we load her, and victual the 
 crew forward and the cabin aft, with the produce 
 of my own land. My brother, who kept the 
 Schiffer Huys on the shore of the Zuid-vliet, used 
 to manage all that for me. But good Adrian is 
 gone now — he died under strange and terrible 
 circumstances, heaven rest him ! " 
 
 The usually jolly Dutch captain emitted a 
 sigh and a mighty puff of smoke together. He 
 applied once more to a square-case bottle of 
 schiedam, and then became silent — even sad. 
 
 " Strange circumstances ? " said I, echoing his 
 words ; " may I inquire what they were ? " 
 
 * " Ugh, myn brooder ! I almost shudder when 
 I think of them ! " 
 
 My curiosity was naturally excited, and I ad- 
 ded— 
 
 " Was he drowned ? " 
 
 " No, no — worse." 
 
 " Killed ? " 
 
 " I cannot say ; he died by my hand on that 
 cabin floor ; and yet he did not, for he perished 
 of a marsh fever ashore."
 
 20 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 I thought that the brain of Captain Jan Van 
 Zeervogel was disordered, or at least was becom- 
 ing affected by the contents of his bottle of schie- 
 dam ; but he resumed : 
 
 " Though I am not one who is much used to 
 looking astern in the voyage of life, or back 
 through the mists of time and memory, I will tell 
 you this strange story, Mr. Rodney, as it hap- 
 pened to me." 
 
 The captain carefully refilled the brown bowl 
 of his large pipe, lit it with equal deliberation, 
 and after a few whiffs, during which his keen, 
 gray eyes were bent on the cabin floor, he fixed 
 them on the rudder case, and then commenced 
 his tale.
 
 THE THREE WARNINGS. 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE THREE WARNINGS. 
 
 " I MUST preface my story by telling you that 
 my brother Adrian and I were twins, and pos- 
 sessed to the full that mysterious affinity and 
 affection which are said to exist between those 
 who are born thus. "When Adrian's arm was 
 broken by the sail of a windmill, I was cruising 
 off the coast of Mexico, yet I was sensible of a 
 shock and of a benumbed feeling in my right 
 elbow which puzzled the doctors for many days ; 
 yet it passed away as Adrian's hurt became well, 
 and until my return home I knew not what had 
 affected me. 
 
 " It happened also that when I was nearly 
 drowned by falling from the foretopsail yard, in a 
 dark night during a gale in the Pentland Firth, 
 Adrian was almost choked in his sleep through 
 dreaming that the dykes had broken, and that the 
 waves were suffocating him. I merely mention 
 these two instances out of many that occurred, 
 to illustrate what I mean. 
 
 " Our brotherly love for each other was strong ; 
 all the stronger, perhaps, because of this strange 
 mystery, which we could neither account for, nor 
 escape from — nor had we the desire to do so.
 
 22 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " "Well, I had been with this schooner on what 
 we considered an unusually long voyage — so far 
 as Bristol, with a cargo of my own grain, cheese, 
 and apples. I sold them well, but failed to get 
 a return freight ; and after being damaged in a 
 gale, which forced us to run under a jury fore- 
 mast into Havre de Grace for repairs, we bore 
 up for home, and after a six months' absence 
 came to anchor, in a dark night, when the wind 
 was blowing fresh, in the Zuid-vliet. 
 
 " We were close in shore — so close that I 
 could see over the level land the light that burned 
 in my own comfortable kitchen ; and long I 
 remained on deck looking at it, for I knew that 
 my dear wife and all our little ones were there, 
 and that in the corner of the deep-arched fire- 
 place my brother Adrian would be smoking his 
 long pipe, and giving our youngest boy, little 
 Jan, a ride on his foot. 
 
 " They would be talking of me — of the 
 schooner and her crew, who were all neighbors, 
 — little thinking we were so near them, and that 
 our anchor had fast hold of the soil of Wolfersdyck. 
 
 " My heart yearned to join them ; but the hour 
 was late, the night was dark, and there was a 
 heavy sea rolling round the point of North Beve- 
 land and meeting the East Scheldt, so there was 
 such a swell, that every time the schooner's head 
 was lifted, I thought the chain cable would part, 
 or we would drag our anchor.
 
 THE THREE WARNINGS. 23 
 
 u I abandoned all intention of going ashore for 
 that night. I smoked a pipe, took a glass of 
 schiedam, saw all made snug aloft and on deck, 
 and read a chapter of the Bible to my crew. "We 
 returned thanks to Him who holds the great deep 
 in the hollow of his hand, for bringing us safely 
 home — for we are pious in our own quiet way, 
 we Dutch folks — and then, save the watch, we 
 all turned in for the night. 
 
 " I had been asleep in the larboard berth, there, 
 for about an hour, when I awoke suddenly with 
 an undefinable sensation of terror, and the convic- 
 tion that some one was in the cabin near me. 
 
 " ' Who is there ? ' I called aloud ; but receiv- 
 ing no answer, and hearing only the creaking 
 of the ship's timbers as she strained on the chain 
 cable, and the gurgle of the sea alongside, I 
 dropped asleep, but only to wake again with a 
 start, a shiver, and the same conviction that some 
 one was near me ! 
 
 " Drawing back that little curtain on the brass 
 rod, I looked out. 
 
 " Through the two little stern windows the 
 moon was shining, but with sudden gleams of 
 weird, wan light, as the schooner rose and sunk 
 on the long rollers of the heavy ground swell. 
 The cabin lamp swung to and fro in the skylight, 
 thus I could see plainly enough the figure of a 
 man clad like a Dutch peasant, standing near the 
 table at which we are now seated, but I could
 
 24 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 not discern his features, as his back was toward 
 me. 
 
 " My first thought was of thieves, and that 
 some schelms from the shore had ventured on 
 board, and overpowered the anchor watch. 
 
 " Snatching a cutlass from the cleat at the 
 bulkhead, I sprang out of bed ; but at that mo- 
 ment the figure disappeared like a shadow! 
 
 " Surprised and disordered by this incident, I 
 hastened on deck. All was still on board. The 
 fore and aft canvas was tight in its brails ; the 
 chain -cable was taut as the schooner's head lay 
 to the slow, deep current of the Scheldt ; the 
 watch were walking to and fro ; the wind was 
 yet blowing freshly, and the moon was on the 
 wane behind the slender spires, the great wind- 
 mills, and the flat, dark shore of Beveland ; but 
 I could see at Wolfersdyck the ruddy light that 
 still shone from the window of my own farm- 
 kitchen. 
 
 " At such a time this seemed strange. Why 
 were they not all a-bed ? 
 
 " I looked at my watch. The hour was eleven ; 
 so, believing that the figure I had seen was 
 merely the effect of fancy, I descended to the 
 cabin, once more turned in, and fell asleep, the 
 more readily that I had sniffed the night breeze 
 which came, from the land and sea together. 
 
 " But I could not have been sleeping more 
 than ten minutes when I awoke with a nervous
 
 THE THREE WARNINGS. 25 
 
 start, and with the same ^indefinable sensation 
 of terror. Again I looked into the cabin, and 
 there, in the moonlight, stood the same man, or 
 figure of a man, near the table ! 
 
 " Anger now replaced my first emotion of alarm; 
 and starting from bed, I hurled an iron marlin 
 spike at the person, exclaiming — 
 
 " ' Take that, whoever you are ! ' 
 
 " The man seemed to fall just as the light in 
 the cabin lamp sank low. I rushed toward him, 
 and then, as his prostrate form turned slowly 
 round, the dim light of the waning moon fell 
 steadily through the cabin window on his face ; 
 and oh, what saw I then ? 
 
 " The features of Adrian — of my brother — 
 but pale, ghastly, pinched, and damp with the 
 dews of death ; his eyes glazing with a terrible 
 expression of combined affection and reproach, 
 as they met mine, and then the whole seemed to 
 melt away ; the lamp went out, and the moon- 
 light passed away too, as the schooner's stern fell 
 round with the ebb tide — the usual time of death. 
 
 "I was alone — alone in the dark cabin — with 
 terror in my heart, and a cold perspiration on my 
 brow. 
 
 " I rushed on deck. The light still burned 
 in the kitchen window, but to me it seemed 
 brighter than before. 
 
 " ' Lower the boat,' I exclaimed, * for I must 
 
 3
 
 26 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 instantly go ashore There is something wrong 
 at home, lads.' 
 
 " Fortunately the sea and wind had gone 
 lown together, and we might venture to land 
 safely now ; thus the boat with two men in her, 
 was ready almost before I was dressed. 
 
 " I was soon ashore, and hastened to my own 
 house, where, as none knew we were at anchor in 
 the Zuid-vliet, my arrival was quite unexpected. 
 
 " I found my household astir — the rooms all 
 lighted up as for a festival ; but, alas, what a 
 festival it was ! My wife threw herself into my 
 arms, and wept, and our red-cheeked little ones 
 clung about me in their night dresses, as I was 
 led to the room of my good brother Adrian, who 
 was then in his death agony. 
 
 " ' Adrian,' I exclaimed, throwing myself on 
 my knees at his bedside, ' tell me how fares it 
 with you ? ' * 
 
 " He turned his ghastly face toward me with 
 the same expression of affection and reproach, 
 which I had seen in the face of the vision in my 
 cabin, and at that moment his last breath passed 
 away ; the jaw fell, his head turned on one side, 
 and a mortal pallor spread over his features. 
 
 " How such things come to pass I can no more 
 say than where a hurricane begins, or where it 
 ends ; I relate but the events as they happened. 
 
 * This story is nearly sirrilar to one which a friend related to 
 me as having occurred in his own family not long ago.
 
 THE THREE WARNINGS. 27 
 
 " My brother was dead, and I became stupe- 
 fied! 
 
 " I was afterwards told that a fatal fever had 
 seized him, and that he had been given over by 
 the doctor to the grim king at the very time we 
 had come to anchor in the Zuid-vliet. On a 
 further comparison of notes, we found that he 
 had fallen into a trance at each time I had been 
 awakened in my cabin ; and that at the moment 
 I had thrown the marlinspike (you may see the 
 mark of it there on the cabin floor), he had 
 uttered my name with a cry of agony; but 
 Heaven rest him,"' added the captain, once more 
 filling the bowl of his meerschaum, " he lies at 
 rest now in the old burying-ground of Smouts 
 Kerk." 
 
 Soon after Captain Zeervogel concluded his 
 narrative, I proposed to leave the schooner and 
 return home ; but he said, that as he intended to 
 sleep that night on board, and as the crew were 
 all ashore, he begged that I would have the 
 kindness to remain in the cabin for a few min- 
 utes until he returned from the little tavern where 
 they were located, as he had some orders to give. 
 
 " The tide will rise higher to-night than usual," 
 he added. " I must have the schooner made 
 more secure by additional warps, else there is 
 no knowing what may happen." 
 
 I could not in courtesy refuse, though in no 
 way disposed to remain in that gloomy littl
 
 28 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 cabin, after the ghostly narrative I had just 
 heard ; but he trimmed the lamp anew, as if to 
 make the place more cheery, and, without wait- 
 ing for an answer, went on deck. I heard him 
 descend the side-ladder ; and, as he passed away, 
 stumbling among the logs and chips of the little 
 dockyard, I had the unpleasant conviction of 
 being alone — alone in the confined scene of his 
 wild story. 
 
 My watch told me it was now the time for 
 supper and prayers at the Rectory, from which I 
 had been too long absent. Then a vague emotion 
 of alarm came over me, as I expected every in- 
 stant to hear some unaccountable sound, or to 
 see something that might terrify me ; so, to 
 gather " Dutch courage," I very unwisely took 
 one or two more of Captain Zeervogel's peaches, 
 which, as already stated, were preserved in 
 brandy, and consequently were more potent in 
 effect than the spirit itself. 
 
 Dearly did I pay the penalty of that act of in- 
 discretion ! 
 
 I listened intently, but heard no sound indica- 
 tive of the captain's return. Once, there seemed 
 to come a cry from a distance. My head began 
 to swim and my eyelids to droop. The fumes 
 of Zeervogel's long pipe, which pervaded and 
 made closer the atmosphere of the little cabin, 
 together with the effect of the peaches, proved 
 too much for me.
 
 THE THREE WARNINGS. 29 
 
 I started to reach the companion ladder and 
 ascend on deck ; but my limbs seemed to be- 
 come powerless — to yield under me, and I fell 
 into a drowsy doze, with my head and arms on 
 the cabin table. 
 
 The captain never returned ; and long after, I 
 ascertained that the poor man had been knocked 
 down by some unruly " navvies," that the cry I 
 heard had been his, that he had been robbed 
 and left senseless in the street of the village, 
 while I lay asleep in the cabin of the empty 
 schooner, with the flood-tide rising rapidly about 
 her. 
 
 s«
 
 30 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HOW I GOT ADRIFT. 
 
 I had been asleep nearly four hours, when a 
 fall on the cabin floor, as I slipped from the table, 
 awoke me. 
 
 Stiff, cold, and benumbed, I started up, con- 
 fused to find myself in the dark, and at first 1 
 knew not where. 
 
 I reeled, and fell twice or thrice in efforts to 
 keep my feet, for now the schooner was rolling 
 from side to side — rolling and afloat ! 
 
 " Home — let me hasten home," was my first 
 thought. I scrambled up the companion ladder 
 and reached the deck, to find water around me 
 on every side, while the schooner being without 
 ballast and light as a cork, lay almost on her 
 beam ends, as she was careened by a heavy 
 breeze that blew from the shore, the lights of 
 which, probably Erlesmere, I could see about 
 three miles distant. 
 
 A deadly terror filled my heart ! 
 
 To swim so far was impossible ; I dared not 
 leave the schooner, even with a spar or any thing 
 else that would float, as the wind and sea were 
 evidently rising together, and to remain on board
 
 HOW I GOT ADRIFT. 31 
 
 was almost as dangerous and hopeless. I had 
 the risk of drowning by her capsizing, or lying 
 on her beam ends in the water, and so founder- 
 ing and going down. 
 
 A plank might start in her sheathing — she 
 might even then be filling by some uncaulked' 
 leak ! I had no idea of the state of her hold, and 
 from many reasons feared she might sink before 
 daybreak, and before my perilous situation could 
 be discovered from the shore. 
 
 The waves were black as ink ; the sky was 
 moonless overhead, but the pale, white stars 
 winked and twinkled, and were reflected in the 
 trough of the ocean. Now, I could perceive 
 foam cresting the tops of the waves, and knew 
 that the breeze was increasing to a gale — a 
 gale that was blowing from the land. 
 
 This added to my despair, for the lights I had 
 seen soon disappeared, and the dark outline of 
 the coast seemed to sink lower and to blend with 
 the sea. Clutching the weather rigging, I could 
 scarcely keep my feet, so slippery was the now 
 wetted deck, and so cold and benumbed were 
 my hands and arms by the chill atmosphere of 
 the ocean, and by the salt spray which ever and 
 anon flew over me in bitter briny showers. 
 
 I shouted, but the mocking wind bore my 
 voice away to seaward. With despairing eyes 
 I swept the dusky water, in the hope of seeing 
 a vessel, a fishing boat, or the light of a steamer 
 near ; but gazed, with haggard glance, in vain.
 
 32 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 I had no hope now but to wait for dawn of 
 day ; and when it came, where might I and the 
 empty schooner be ? Fortunately, her topmasts 
 were struck, her fore-yard was lowered, and all 
 her gear made tolerably snug. Her canvas, 
 however, was only in the brails, and a portion of 
 the fore-and-aft foresail having got loose, it was 
 swelled out by the blast, and kept her head par- 
 tially before the wind, thus accelerating the rate 
 at which she was borne from the land, and being 
 without trimming or ballast, she danced over the 
 waves, as I have said, like a cork, but in mo- 
 mentary danger of capsizing and foundering. As 
 dawn drew near, the cold increased so much, that 
 though at the risk of being passed unseen by 
 some coaster, I was fain to creep on my hands 
 and knees to the companion hatch, and descend 
 into the cabin. 
 
 It was darker now than ever, for the lamp had 
 gone out. 
 
 The memory of the captain's weird story made 
 me shudder. His words, " I was lying in the lar- 
 board berth — there, on the cabin floor, I struck 
 the figure down," seemed ever in my ears, and 
 the pale, spectral face he had portrayed, with the 
 moonbeams streaming on its ghastly features and 
 glazing eyes, were ever before me in the dark 
 filling my young heart with a chilling horror. 
 
 " Oh to be ashore ! " I exclaimed passionately, 
 with clasped hands ; " ashore, and free from this 
 floating prison ! "
 
 HOW I GOT ADRIFT. 33 
 
 I thought of my gentle and loving mother, and 
 my soul seemed to die within me. The schooner 
 would be missed by daybreak — the alarm would 
 be given ; her alarm would rapidly become irre- 
 pressible anxiety, which would soon turn to a 
 despair that nothing could alleviate. 
 
 Sounds like thunder, or like tremendous blows, 
 at times made me start. These were caused by 
 billets of wood, mallets, or pieces of pig-iron, 
 pitching about in the hold of the schooner, as she 
 rolled, and lurched, and righted herself, to roll and 
 lurch again. 
 
 For a time I cowered miserably in the dark cab- 
 in, until my childish fears overmatched reason, 
 and I crept once more upon deck. 
 
 A regular gale was blowing now, and the 
 schooner careened fearfully beneath it on her 
 starboard side, while the bellying of that portion 
 of the fore-and-aft foresail which had got loose 
 aided in hurrying her faster out to sea. 
 
 The light of the coming day was spread in dull 
 gray over the sky, imparting the same cold tint 
 to the whitening waves. Land was still visible, 
 but it seemed like a dark bank at the horizon. 1 
 supposed it to be about ten miles distant, but 
 what part of the coast, or how far from Erlesmere, 
 I knew not. 
 
 Now I began to be assailed by that illness, 
 which terror and anxiety had hitherto but par- 
 tially repressed — a violent sea-sickness in all its
 
 34 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 horror. Afraid of being washed from the deck 
 over which the waves were breaking now, once 
 more I crept in wretchedness below. 
 
 Before descending, I cast a despairing glance 
 at the loosening sail which still caught the wind 
 it was a source of increasing danger which 
 dared not attempt to remedy, even had I strength 
 to have done so, for the wet deck was now slop- 
 ing like the roof of a house, and I would 
 assuredly have fallen into the sea to leeward. 
 After several feeble efforts, I succeeded in par- 
 tially closing the companion hatch, for warmth 
 and security, and descending, threw myself on 
 the cabin floor, sick and despairing. 
 
 The lurching of the vessel, the closeness of the 
 atmosphere, and general odor of the cabin, over- 
 powered me at last ; I became fearfully ill, and 
 from being so, lapsed into unconsciousness, after 
 enduring all the wretchedness induced by that 
 ailment of the ocean. For the top of my head 
 seemed about to fly off, its sides to be crushed 
 in ; there was a singing in my ears, an ache in 
 my eyeballs ; and then came that awful sinking 
 of the pulses, of the body, of the soul itself, 
 which thousands have endured in cases of ag 
 gravated sea-sickness, but none have been able 
 to depict. 
 
 In short, after a paroxysm of illness and tears, 
 I became totally unconscious of the peril and 
 horror of my situation, and found a refuge in 
 sleep.
 
 USELESS REGRETS. 35 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 USELESS REGRETS. 
 
 I MUST have lain long thus. On recovering; 
 I rose more stiff and more benumbed than ever, 
 and with feeble steps ascended the companion 
 ladder, and then a cry of despair escaped me. 
 
 The sky was clear and sunny, but whether 
 with the light of a rising or a setting sun, I could 
 not at first determine, morning and evening on 
 the ocean being so much alike to an unpractised 
 eye. Not a vestige of land was visible ! 
 
 Sea and sky were around me ; not a sail was 
 in sight, and nothing living was near, save a few 
 petrels tripping over the water, alongside of the 
 fatal schooner. 
 
 Had I slept all night, and was this the dawn 
 of a new day? Had I slept all day, and was 
 this the approach of another night ? I devoutly 
 hoped not, as I most dreaded night upon the 
 ocean ; but the gradual sinking of the sun, and 
 the increasing redness of the sky, ere long in- 
 formed me that the time was evening. I now 
 Knew the west, and turned my haggard eyes to 
 the south, for there the land and my home lay ; 
 but still the envious wind, though lighter now 
 seemed to blow from that quarter.
 
 36 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Oh ! how deeply and earnestly, by thought? 
 urmttered, I prayed in my heart that it would 
 change and blow toward the shore — any shore 
 — or any part of the coast of England, and bring 
 me so near that I might have a chance of escape 
 of life and preservation by swimming — by put 
 ting to the test that skill and those powers of 
 activity I had acquired at Eton, in the waters of 
 the Thames. 
 
 The sea was comparatively smooth, but still 
 the empty schooner rolled and lurched fearfully ; 
 the more so, that the fore-and-aft foresail was 
 hanging so loosely in the brails. 
 
 A hundred years seemed to have elapsed since 
 I had heard the dear voices and seen the loved 
 faces of those I had left at home — of my father, 
 my mother, of Dot, and of Sybil; while the events 
 of my early schoolboy days seemed to have 
 occurred but yesterday. 
 
 All time was chaos and confusion ! 
 
 In my sorrow and despair, I never thought, 
 unless with anger, of Jan van Zeervogel, the 
 poor Dutch skipper, whose interests were so 
 much involved with the loss or safety of his lit 
 tie schooner, with which the flood-tide had made 
 so free. I thought only of my own danger, and 
 my mother's sorrow for the mystery that would 
 overhang my fate. 
 
 Now hunger assailed me, creating a new ter- 
 ror lest I should perish by want of food ; and
 
 USELESS REGRETS. 37 
 
 all I had read or heard of wrecks, rafts, and cast- 
 aways crowded on my memory, to aggravate the 
 real perils which surrounded me. 
 
 Once more I sought the cabin, and on finding 
 an axe broke open what appeared to be a press oi 
 locker. Therein were several cups, bottles, and 
 drinking glasses, placed in perforated shelves ; but 
 nothing eatable save a single hard and mouldy 
 biscuit, which the rats abandoned on my ap- 
 proach, and nothing drinkable save the remains 
 of the brandy in which the peaches had been 
 preserved — and I viewed the jar with horror, as 
 the primary cause of all my sufferings and dan- 
 gers ; — I S ay the remains, for it had fallen from 
 the table and been broken to pieces ; so nothing 
 remained of its contents, except about a gill in 
 a fragment, and the peaches which lay in the 
 lee or lower side of the cabin. 
 
 What would I not have given for a single 
 drop of pure cold water, to alleviate that chok- 
 ing thirst which is ever the sequel to sickness, 
 excitement, and sorrow ! But there was not a 
 drop on board, as the scuttle-butt had broken its 
 lashings, in one of the lurches of the schooner, 
 and fallen overboard to leeward. So I soaked 
 the mouldy biscuit in the brandy, ate it, and 
 went on deck, in time to see the sun set at the 
 watery horizon, from whence he cast a long 
 and tremulous line of yellow splendor along the 
 
 4
 
 38 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 dancing waves, to where the schooner floated 
 in her loneliness. 
 
 Night followed, and one by one the stars ap- 
 peared in the mighty blue dome overhead ; there 
 was no moon as yet, and I thought of hoisting 
 a light at the mainmast head, but where were 
 a lantern and matches to be found ? 
 
 I thought also of lifting the fore-hatch, to ex- 
 plore the fore-part of the schooner, but I felt 
 too feeble and sick at heart ; and now with the 
 gloom of night the ghost-story of the Dutch 
 skipper recurred to me. 
 
 Thirst was now becoming an agony, and I in- 
 haled the dewy atmosphere in vain, for its prop- 
 erty was saline, and seemed to make my suffer- 
 ings greater ; but happily it induced a drowsiness. 
 I crept below, and seeking the bed in the cap- 
 tain's berth, drew the clothes over me and strove 
 to sleep — and so weary was I, that sleep came. 
 
 I had now been two nights and a day on 
 board this fatal craft. My parents and my sis- 
 ters — what would their thoughts, their fears, 
 their sorrow be ! 
 
 In my sleep their voices came to my ear, and 
 I felt my mother's kiss upon my cheek so palpa- 
 bly, that I started and nearly awoke. 
 
 Then old Eton came before me, with its som- 
 bre brick quadrangles, its bronze statue of King 
 Henry the Sixth ; the ancient college, with its rich 
 buttresses and carved pinnacles, and the great
 
 USELESS REGRETS. 39 
 
 window, past which the Thames sweeps on to 
 London, between its green and lovely banks. 
 
 The old monastic hall, and then the Playing 
 Fields in all their sunny greenness, shaded by 
 their solemn old elm trees, recurred to me ; then 
 the seclusion of the library where I had spent 
 many an hour ; then came the voices of my old 
 companions at cricket, or shouting as they urged 
 their trim-built skiffs, with the murmur of the 
 river, the familiar toll of the chapel bell, and the 
 voices of the choristers, all mingling in my dream- 
 ing ear, as with a " drowsy hum." 
 
 Anon I seemed to hear the merry English 
 chime of bells ringing in the old square tower of 
 Erlesmere Rectory ; but they sunk amid the hiss 
 and gurgle of the bitter surf and the moan of the 
 midnight sea. 
 
 Now, I thought how rapturously I could have 
 clasped my dear mother's neck ! How gladly I 
 would have obeyed my poor father and gone 
 wherever he wished me — even to my uncle's 
 dingy counting-house in the City, there to spend 
 the remainder of my existence, if fate so willed 
 it, on a tripod stool, chin-deep among red-edged 
 ledgers, invoices, telegrams, and dockets of papers. 
 I endeavored to remember all my parents had 
 taught me in their prayers and precepts, and how 
 often I had been reminded by the good old Rec- 
 tor that without the knowledge of Heaven not 
 even a sparrow could fall to the ground ; and I
 
 40 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 thought that surely I must be worth a whole army 
 of sparrows. 
 
 From these dreams and ideas — I must have 
 been half awake — I was roused by a violent 
 lurch of the schooner. 
 
 On reaching the deck, I found that a gale had 
 again come on, and that the sea was whitened 
 with foam, amid which the sea-birds were blown 
 wildly hither and thither ; that the moon was now 
 on the wane, and shed a cold, weird light between 
 the black masses of flying scud, upon the tumbling 
 billows and the empty schooner, which yet floated 
 buoyantly enough. But she now careened fear- 
 fully to port. I foresaw that unless the masts 
 were cut away, a capsize was inevitable, for the 
 wild wind howled over the waste of seething 
 water, and the schooner groaned and trembled as 
 wave after wave thundered on her empty and re- 
 sounding hull. 
 
 Notwithstanding my weakness, I endeavored 
 to tighten the brailing of the fore and aft foresail ; 
 but how vain was the attempt ! The moment I 
 removed the rope from the belaying pin, it was 
 torn from my hand ; the whole sail fell heavily 
 loose, and swelled out upon the wind. It flapped 
 with a sound like thunder in the blast, and in a 
 moment, the deck seemed to pass from under 
 my feet, and I was struggling alone in the mid- 
 night sea. 
 
 To the horror of being drowned was now added 
 that of being devoured by the fishes.
 
 USELESS REGRETS. 41 
 
 A cry to heaven escaped me, as I rose panting 
 and almost breathless, and struck out to prolong 
 existence. The sea repelled and buoyed me up, 
 for it is by no means so easy to sink as many per- 
 sons imagine. 
 
 The schoone^ was lying now completely on her 
 beam ends to port ; her masts and half her deck, 
 were in the water. It had filled the belly of the 
 loosened sail, and served to keep her steady ; but 
 still the waves washed wildly over the hull. I 
 knew she must soon fill and go down ; yet so 
 strong is the instinct of self-preservation, that I 
 soon reached the foremast, climbed into the now 
 horizontal rigging, and seated myself on the row 
 of dead-eyes, through which the shrouds are rove, 
 clutching them with wild tenacity, while drenched, 
 cold, and despairing. 
 
 The spray flew over me, thick as rain, but bit- 
 ter, heavy, and blinding. 
 
 How long I could have survived, I know not ; 
 but I felt as one in a dreadful dream, and acted 
 with the decision and firmness with which we 
 often seem to acquit ourselves amid the most 
 fantastic situations created by the fancy in sleep. 
 Suddenly, amid the stupor that was coming 
 over me, I heard a voice and saw a large brig 
 looming between me and the pale waning moon. 
 She was close by, with her courses, topsails, jib, 
 and fore-and-aft mainsail set, but with her fore- 
 yard laid to the wind as she lay to. Then I 
 
 4*
 
 42 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 heard the rattle of the blocks and tackle, as a boat 
 descended from the stern davits with a splash 
 into the sea. 
 
 " Cheerily, now, my lads, give way ! " cried the 
 voice I had heard before ; " pull to windward 
 round this craft, and overhaul her." 
 
 " There's a man in the fore-rigging ! " cried 
 another. 
 
 " Then stand by in the bow with the boat-hook." 
 
 I strove to speak, to shout ; but my voice was 
 gone. 
 
 " Spring into the sea," cried a voice ; " do you 
 hear me, you sir — you in the fore-rigging there? 
 Jump in ; we cannot sheer alongside a craft that 
 pitches about like a cork in such a sea as this." 
 
 " Don't fear, my lad," cried others ; " we'll pick 
 vou up." 
 
 But I was powerless, blinded by spray ; and 
 though unable to respond, clutched the rattlins 
 with fatuous energy. Then strong hands were 
 laid upon me, and I felt myself dragged into the 
 ooat. 
 
 " Shove off, shove off — give way ! this craft 
 *dll sink in a minute," cried some one ; " give 
 way for the brig ! " and just as they turned the 
 aead of the boat toward their vessel, the Dutch 
 schooner appeared to right herself; there was a 
 crash as her deck burst up, and then a sob 
 eeemed to mingle with the air that was expelled
 
 USELESS REGRETS. 43 
 
 from her hold as she filled and went down like 
 a stone. 
 
 Though I had been so long unseen, I after- 
 wards learned that at this time there were not 
 'ess than fifteen sail in sight of the vessel which 
 picked me up.
 
 44 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE EUGENI E. 
 
 After being conveyed on board, hot brandy 
 punch was readily administered to me ; all my 
 wet clothes were taken off, and I was put into a 
 snug berth, the cosy warmth of which, together 
 with the effect of the steaming punch — " a stiff 
 nor'-wester," as I heard it called — and the toil 
 and misery, mental and bodily, I had undergone, 
 all conduced to give me a long and almost 
 dreamless slumber. Thus the noon of the next 
 day was far advanced before I awoke to the 
 realities of life and a consideration of the awk- 
 ward predicament in which I was placed. 
 
 I had been picked up by the Eugenie, a new 
 brig of two hundred and fifty tons register, " cop- 
 pered to the bends, and standing A 1 at Lloyds," 
 as I was informed by Samuel Weston, her mas- 
 ter. He added that she had a crew of twelve 
 hands, men and boys, exclusive of Marc Hi slop, 
 the mate, and Tattooed Tom, his assistant, and 
 that the brig had the reputation of being one of 
 the best sailing vessels out of London. 
 
 The morning was fine and warm ; the skylight
 
 THE EUGENIE. 45 
 
 was open, and a pleasant current of air passed 
 through the clean wainscotted cabin. A spotless 
 white cloth was on the table, across which there 
 were lashed certain bars of wood, technically 
 termed a fiddle, to keep the plates and glasses 
 from failing to leeward; and on looking from 
 my curtained berth (for I was not permitted to 
 rise), I saw the captain and mate at lunch over 
 brandy and water, biscuits and cheese ; and busy 
 the while with charts and compasses, as they 
 were comparing their nautical notes and obser- 
 vations. 
 
 The brig seemed to be running steadily 
 through the water upon the starboard tack, and 
 I could hear the gurgle of the sea under her 
 counter, as it bubbled away in the wake astern 
 — in fact, the sound seemed to be just a foot 
 above my ear, realizing the terrible idea that there 
 was " only a plank between me and eternity." 
 
 Captain Samuel Weston was a well-made 
 man of the middle height, and somewhere about 
 forty years of age. He was rather grave than 
 jovial in manner, but pleasant, kind, and gentle- 
 manly. There was nothing about him that par- 
 ticularly indicated the seaman, and he never 
 used startling adjectives, or according to the pro- 
 verbial idea interlarded his conversation with 
 obscure nautical phraseology. 
 
 He wore a short pea-coat with brass buttons, 
 and a straw hat. A handsome gold ring secured
 
 46 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 his necktie, and the fag-end of a cheroot was be- 
 tween his teeth. He was exactly portrayed thus 
 in his colored calotype, which was framed and 
 screwed into the bulkhead. Close by it was an- 
 other of a lady, with a little boy, standing at the 
 base of a column, which of course had a crimson 
 curtain festooned behind it ; and they, I had no 
 doubt, were his wife and child. So Captain 
 Samuel — or as he preferred to call himself — 
 Sam Weston was more domestic in his tastes 
 than those who usually live by salt water are 
 supposed to be. 
 
 Neither was there any thing particularly nau- 
 tical in the appearance of the mate, who was a 
 smart and athletic young fellow, about five-and- 
 twenty years of age, with somewhat of a Glas- 
 gow accent, keen gray eyes, and sandy-colored 
 hair ; and he it was (though I was not aware of 
 it then, or for long after) who boldly plunged into 
 the stormy sea, and swam to the foundering 
 schooner, and finding that I could neither under- 
 stand nor obey his instructions, had made a line 
 fast to my waist, and thus conveyed me safely 
 into the boat; so to this young Scotsman I owed 
 my life and a debt of gratitude. 
 
 On perceiving that I was awake, a hand-bell 
 was rung by the captain, and hot coffee, accom- 
 panied by the last slice of shore-bread that re- 
 mained was brought to me by Billy, the cabin- 
 boy, and then, after a time, I was requested to
 
 THE EUGENIE. 47 
 
 state what craft that was from which I had been 
 taken, my name, and so forth, that Mr. Hi slop 
 might enter all the particulars among the " re- 
 marks " in his log-book. 
 
 I soon satisfied them as to all this. 
 
 " And where am I now ? " I inquired. 
 
 " Pretty far out upon the open sea, my lad," 
 replied the captain with a smile, as he threw the 
 end of his cheroot into the empty grate. 
 
 " The open sea — still the open sea ! " I reiter- 
 ated with dismay, which I cared not to conceal. 
 
 " Yes ; we saw the last glimpse of the rugged 
 Start on the day before yesterday, and this morn- 
 ing, just an hour before picking you up, we bade 
 good-by to old England, for the Lizard Light 
 was bearing — you had the dead watch, Hislop ; 
 how did it bear ? " 
 
 " About twelve miles off, on the weather quar- 
 ter." 
 
 " How shall I return home ? " 
 
 They both laughed as I despairingly made this 
 inquiry. 
 
 " By the way you left it, I suppose ; that is by 
 water," said Captain Weston. 
 
 " You spoke of the Start ; what is that ? " 
 
 " A cape of the Channel, on the south-east 
 coast of Devonshire, about nine miles to the 
 southward of Dartmouth," he replied, while cast- 
 ing a casual glance at a chart which lay on the 
 table.
 
 48 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 I had thus, before being rescued so providen- 
 tially, drifted more than a hundred miles from 
 Erlesmere, and it was marvellous that the 
 schooner had floated so far unseen. 
 
 " That lubberly old Dutchman, Zeervogel, 
 should have made his craft secure, by mooring 
 her so that the flood-tide could not have floated 
 her off shore. But," added the captain, laughing, 
 he may have a clear case of barratry against you, 
 if you ever return to England." 
 
 "Barratry — what is that?" I asked, with a 
 bewildered air. 
 
 " A landshark's phrase for running away with a 
 ship — carrying her out of her course — sinking or 
 deserting her ; or doing any thing by which she 
 may be arrested, detained, or lost." 
 
 " But the schooner ran away with me." 
 
 " And the sea with you both. Well, what is 
 to be done now ? We are bound for the West 
 Indies, but we may put you aboard the first craft 
 that passes us, homeward-bound ; or you are free 
 to remain, if we cannot do better for you." 
 
 I thought of my mother, of my father, my two 
 sisters ; and my heart was so full of gratitude to 
 Heaven for preserving me to the end, that I migh 
 see and embrace them all again, that I had no 
 words to reply. After a time I exclaimed — 
 
 " Home, home ! — let me go home to Erles- 
 mere ! " — weeping as I spoke, for the thought 
 of them all made me a very child again.
 
 THE EUGENIE. 49 
 
 The captain and mate exchanged glances of 
 inquiry. 
 
 " It's no use piping your eye now, my lad," 
 said the former, coming toward my berth ; " but 
 answer me quietly. You said that your name 
 was Rodney ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And you spoke of Erlesmere ; are you a son 
 of old Dr. Rodney, the rector ? " 
 
 " Do you know my father, then? " I exclaimed. 
 
 " Can't say exactly that I have the honor of 
 being known to him ; but I know of him, right 
 well. Why, Master Rodney, I have sailed your 
 uncle's ships many a time, and know his gloomy 
 old office in the city, as well as the buoy at the 
 Nore ; so you are as safe and as welcome aboard 
 the Eugenie as if in the old Rectory-house at 
 home." 
 
 This was pleasant intelligence, at all events ; 
 but my earnest desire was to return — a design 
 which was not fated to be speedily gratified. 
 
 " The pain which is first felt when the infant 
 branch is first torn from the parent tree," says 
 Southey, in a passage of great beauty, " is one 
 of the most poignant we have to endure through 
 ife ; there are other griefs which wound more 
 deeply, which leave behind them scars never to 
 be effaced, which bruise the spirit and sometimes 
 break the heart, — but never, never do we feel so 
 
 5
 
 50 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 much the want of love, and the keen necessity 
 of being loved, as when we are first launched 
 from the haven of our boyhood, into the wide 
 and stormy sea of life ! " 
 
 I felt the wrench of this separation in all its in- 
 tensity for a time, and longed for the means of 
 returning home ; but for several days we passed 
 only outward bound vessels, or others which 
 were at such a distance that the task of signal- 
 ling and speaking with them would have delayed 
 the Eugenie longer than Captain Weston could 
 risk. Two that passed near us, when we showed 
 our ensign, replied by displaying the tricolor of 
 France or the red and yellow bars of Spain ; so 
 there was nothing for me now but to remain con- 
 tentedly on board the Eugenie, which was bound 
 for Matanzas with a solid cargo of steam ma- 
 chinery and coal. 
 
 The master had no doubt of getting a return 
 freight direct for London ; thus six or eight 
 months might elapse before I could return to 
 Erlesmere. 
 
 My wardrobe was now in the most deplorable 
 condition ; but Weston and Hislop, the first mate, 
 kindly supplied me with all that was requisite — 
 " clothes and shirts for running rigging," as the 
 latter said, " with twenty sovereigns for main- 
 stays, which were sure to be well kept, as we 
 were on board ship."
 
 THE EUGENIE. 51 
 
 I gradually became reconciled to the novelty 
 of my situation ; I looked forward hopefully to 
 the time when the sorrow of those I had left be- 
 hind would be alleviated, and began to enjoy to 
 the utmost the prospect of a voyage in a spank 
 ing brig to the shores of Cuba.
 
 52 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SCOTCH MATE'S YARN. 
 
 Could I have anticipated all that was still be- 
 fore me, in the form of suffering and of peril — 
 suffering enough to shatter a stronger frame and 
 shake a stouter heart than mine — I would have 
 returned in any vessel bound for any part of Eu- 
 rope, and trusted to Providence for the means of 
 again reaching home, rather than have remained 
 in the Eugenie. 
 
 But who can lift the veil which so happily 
 hides the future from us ? 
 
 So I turned my thoughts toward the "West In- 
 dies with pleasure ; I resolved not to be an idler 
 or loblolly boy, and was allowed by Captain 
 Weston to take my watches and share of deck 
 duty with the rest of the crew ; and at intervals, 
 I worked hard at a Spanish grammar with Marc 
 Hislop, who could read Don Quixote in the origi- 
 nal, with a fluency that even my old tutor at 
 Eton might have envied. 
 
 We were now clear of the Channel ; and, 
 after a hard battle with the wind and sea, we felt 
 the long roll of the mighty Atlantic.
 
 THE SCOTCH MATE'S TARN. 53 
 
 On the third night after my rescue, we encoun- 
 tered dark and cloudy weather, with a strong 
 gale, which set all the cabin afloat. My watch 
 was over, and I had just turned in, when I heard 
 the voice of Captain Weston who was on deck, 
 shouting through his trumpet to " close reef the 
 naintopsail, hand the mainsail, foresail, and fore 
 topsail. Look alive there, lads," he added, " or 
 as sure as my name is Sam Weston, I'll give the 
 colt to the last man off the deck ! " 
 
 This threat, so unusual in one so good-natured, 
 together with the bellowing of the wind, the 
 flapping of the wetted canvas, the rattle of the 
 blocks and cordage, and the laboring of the brig, 
 which was so deeply laden that every timber 
 groaned, all gave such indications of a rough 
 night, that I sprang from my berth, and pro- 
 ceeded to dress again in haste. 
 
 To my astonishment, at that moment I heard 
 the hoarse rattle of the chain cable, as it rushed 
 with a roaring sound through the iron mouth of 
 the hawse hole ; then I was sensible of a violent 
 shock, which made the brig stagger, and tumbled 
 me headlong against the panelled bulk-head 
 which separated the cabin from the after-hold. 
 
 Hislop, who had been dozing on the cabin- 
 locker in his storm jacket, started up with alarm 
 in his face. 
 
 " Have we come to anchor ? " I asked. 
 
 " Anchor in more than three hundred fathoms 
 
 5*
 
 54 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 of water? " he exclaimed, as he rushed on deck, 
 whither I followed, and found that a very strange 
 incident had occurred. 
 
 In the murky obscurity of the stormy night, a 
 large Dutch lugger, in ballast apparently, and 
 running right before the wind, with steering can- 
 vas set, came suddenly athwart us, and hooked 
 the anchor from the cathead on our larboard bow 
 — by some unwonted neglect it was not yet on 
 board, nor had the cable been unbent — with her 
 starboard fore-rigging, and thus bore away with 
 it, until the chain came to bear, when there was 
 a tremendous shock. Several feet of our bul- 
 wark were torn away, and two seamen, Tattooed 
 Tqm, and an old man-o'- war's man named Rob- 
 erts, were nearly swept into the sea, where, in 
 such a night, and amid the confusion of such an 
 incident, they would inevitably have perished 
 unaided. 
 
 Then we heard a shout, mingled with a crash 
 upon the bellowing wind, as the Dutchman's 
 foremast snapped by the board, and then, fortu- 
 nately, our anchor tumbled from his side into the 
 sea, where it swung at the whole length of the 
 chain cable. 
 
 We manned both windlass and capstan — got 
 the anchor, which was drifting, roused to the 
 cathead, hoisted it on board, unbent the cable, 
 and stowed it in the tier ; but long ere all this 
 was done, we had lost sight of our lubberly
 
 THE SCOTCH MATE'S YARN. 55 
 
 friend, who, when last seen, was tossing about 
 like a log in the darkness, and drifting far astern 
 of us. But for some defect in the pawls and 
 notches of the windlass collar, I am doubtful if 
 the chain would have run out so freely ; but as 
 •to this I cannot say. 
 
 We had hard squalls and a sea that ran high 
 until daybreak ; there was lightning too ; red 
 and dusky, it seemed at times to fill the whole 
 horizon. We could see for an instant the black 
 summits of the waves as they rose and fell be- 
 tween us and the glare ; and when it passed 
 away, all again would be obscurity and gloom. 
 
 " More canvas must be taken off the brig, sir," 
 suggested Hislop, looking aloft and then over the 
 side, where the foam-flecked sea whirled past us. 
 
 " Well, in with the trysail, foretopsail, and 
 maintopsail," ordered Weston. 
 
 As the light of dawn stole over the angry sea, 
 through clouds of mingled mist and rain, the gale 
 abated, and all but the watch went below. 
 
 " That lugger making off with our anchor," 
 said Hislop, " reminds me of how, after we failed 
 to run off with a whale, he fairly ran off with us" 
 
 " How ? " said I, my teeth chattering as I 
 tucked myself into bed again. 
 
 " You must know, that about ten years ago I 
 was an apprentice aboard a smaL whaler, a 
 ninety-ton schooner, out of Peterhead. We were 
 returning in very low spirits after an unsuccess- 
 ful voyage, and, by stress of weather, were forced
 
 56 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 toward the rocky and dangerous coast of Nor- 
 way, where we came to anchor one evening in a 
 solitary bay, among the rugged islets which stud 
 the mouth of the Hardanger-fiord, to repair some 
 trifling damages. As day broke, there was a 
 shout raised by the watch on deck. 
 
 " ' A whale ! — a whale ! — in the shoal wa- 
 ter!' 
 
 " And there, sure enough, far up the bay, we 
 saw one sporting and gambolling, blowing and 
 diving ; and though it was a kind of robbery, 
 perhaps, we resolved to make a dash at him, for 
 the place was lonely, and not a Norwegian eye 
 upon us — not a house upon the shore, nor a 
 man upon the mountains, so far as we could 
 discern by our glasses. 
 
 " The boats were cleared, the harpoons pre- 
 pared, the lines were coiled away in the tubs, 
 and the schooner was hove short on her anchor ; 
 but just as we lowered the whaling-punts, down 
 dived our fish, tail uppermost, and then we knew 
 that he was searching for his favorite food, of 
 which plenty is to be found in these Norwegian 
 fiords." 
 
 "What is it?" said I. 
 
 " A kind of small salt-water snail, and the me- 
 dusa, or sea-blubber. As you have been at Eton, 
 you must have read all about it in Linnceus" 
 continued our learned Scotch mate. "Just as 
 the first boat was lowered, the schooner received 
 a shock so violent that her masts strained almost
 
 THE SCOTCH MATE'S TARN. 57 
 
 to snapping ; her bows were dragged down till 
 her billet-head dipped in the water, and every 
 thing and everybody en deek went toppling and 
 tumbling forward in a heap about the windlass 
 bitts. Then a shower of bloody spray fell over 
 us as the craft righted again, but with such vio- 
 lence that the water splashed under the counter 
 and over the quarter. Then she was torn 
 through the sea at the rate of thirty knots an 
 hour! 
 
 " "We had scarcely time to form an idea, or to 
 utter an exclamation, either of surprise or fear, 
 when we saw, a cable's length right ahead, an 
 immense whale, the same fish we were preparing 
 to attack, rushing through the waves with rail- 
 way speed, and dragging us after him by our 
 anchor, of the flukes of which he had somehow 
 run foul in his gambols down below." 
 
 " What ! do you mean to say that the whale 
 ran off with the schooner?" I exclaimed, in 
 astonishment. 
 
 "Just as a scared dog runs away with a kettle 
 at his tail. It was one of the blunt-headed 
 cachalots, about sixty feet long. They are the 
 most hideous fish of the whole whale species, 
 having a head that is enormously thick, and one 
 third of their entire size, the spout-hole being at 
 the fore end of it. 
 
 " In less time than I have taken to tel you all 
 this, we were dragged out of the fiord ; its rocks 
 of black basalt and its sombre pine woods les-
 
 58 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 sened astern ; its entrance seemed to close like a 
 gate as it blended with the coast; and the 
 schooner, with her loose foretopsail all aback 
 against the mast, was dragged in the wind's eye 
 (whales usually swim so) for more than twenty 
 miles out to sea. Then the cachalot raised its 
 mighty head about ten feet from the water, 
 spouted a jet of froth into the air, and disappear- 
 ing, sunk, leaving our anchor swinging or drift- 
 ing in the deep water, at the full length of the 
 chain cable." 
 
 " And how came all this about ? " I asked, 
 dubiously. 
 
 " Incredible as it may appear, this monstrous 
 cachalot, while running along the sandy bottom 
 of the bay, with mouth distended, in search of 
 sea-blubber, had by some means uprooted our 
 anchor, though five hundred weight, by his nether 
 jaw, and so carried it off with eighty fathoms 
 of cable, and us at the other end of it. And now, 
 Dick Rodney, what do you think of that for a 
 yarn ? " 
 
 " I think with Polonius, in Hamlet" said 1, 
 yawning, and turning wearily in my berth, 
 through the yolk or bull's-eye of which the gray 
 light of day was now struggling. 
 
 " That it is very like a whale, eh ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " And so do I," said Hislop, laughing ; " but 
 though a close laid yarn, it is a true one, never- 
 theless."
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 59 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 
 
 I found the captain and mate of the Eugenie 
 both pleasant and instructive companions. 
 
 The latter, like the generality of his country- 
 men, was well educated ; he was tolerably read 
 in classical lore, and knew all the current litera- 
 ture of the day ; thus his little state-room was so 
 crammed with books, that he had scarcely room 
 to move in it. Like many other Scotchmen of 
 humble birth or limited means, Mark Hislop had 
 educated himself, beyond what schools or teach- 
 ers could have done. Though usually quiet in 
 disposition, he was sometimes impatient, and 
 more than once I have seen him snatch from his 
 pocket a colt (a piece of knotted rope eighteen 
 inches long) for the special benefit of the ship- 
 boys, of whom we had three on board. 
 
 He was so learned on the theory and law of 
 storms, with the practical exposition thereof, and 
 could talk so fluently about straight, circular, and 
 parallel winds, storm-waves, and storm-focuses, 
 the height of a cyclone, and speed of a hurricane, 
 that honest Sam Weston, the captain and Tom
 
 60 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Lambourne, the second mate, wondered what it 
 was all about; as they had weathered many a 
 gale without ever carmg a jot about the theory 
 or law of them, or without ever troubling their 
 brains about where the wind came from, and still 
 less about where it went to. 
 
 Among other things, Hislop had a photo- 
 graphic apparatus, by which he took the aspect 
 of the sea by moonlight and daylight, and all our 
 likenesses, in groups or otherwise. Tattooed 
 Tom Lambourne, who had once been adrift in 
 the bush somewhere, and been decorated with 
 certain ineffaceable marks by the natives, came 
 out famously in these artistic efforts, as he was 
 all over stripes, bike a zebra or a New Zealander. 
 
 Calm weather and heavy rains succeeded the 
 gale I have mentioned ; but the Eugenie steadily 
 kept her course, and two days after, when spank- 
 ing along before a fine topgallant breeze, we 
 picked up a bottle, which was descried by the 
 watch, floating and bobbing in the water a few 
 fathoms distant from the brig. She was at once 
 hove in the wind, and Hislop went in the stern 
 boat to bring the bottle on board. 
 
 As the most trivial incident becomes of inter- 
 est on board of ship, where the daily occurrences 
 are so few, and the circle of society so limited, 
 considerable concern was excited by the appear- 
 ance of this bottle, which seemed to have been 
 freshly corked ; and on its being broken, we found
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 61 
 
 a scrap of paper — torn apparently from a note- 
 book — whereon a hurried and agitated hand had 
 pencilled this brief notice : 
 
 " The Mary, clipper ship, of Boston, 20th Nov., 
 1861, momentarily expected to go down — pumps 
 worn out, and the leaks gaining — Captain and 
 first mate, with all the boats, washed away — 
 God help us ! " 
 
 " The 20th of November ? It was on that 
 night we encountered the heavy gale," said 
 Weston. 
 
 We had been on the skirt of the tempest, as 
 Hislop maintained, while the Yankee ship had 
 probably suffered all the fury of it. From the 
 main-cross-trees Captain Weston swept the sea 
 with his telescope, in vain, for any trace of her ; 
 so if that melancholy scrap of paper told truth, 
 all was doubtless over long since with the Mary 
 and her crew. 
 
 In the cabin that night, a conversation on the 
 
 probabilities of her destruction or escape, led to a 
 
 recurrence to the miraculous manner in which 
 
 the unlucky Dutch schooner had floated so long 
 
 with me ; and I mentioned to Weston and 
 
 Hislop the additional terrors I had endured by 
 
 the effect of imagination, and a recollection of 
 
 the strange incidents told me by Captain Zeer- 
 
 vogel ; but they ridiculed the story of the poor 
 
 man, chiefly, I thought, because " it was the yarn 
 
 of a Hollander." 
 
 6
 
 62 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Though I am a Scotchman," began His- 
 lop 
 
 " And come of a people naturally supersti- 
 tious," suggested Weston, parenthetically 
 
 " As all large-brained races are," retorted the 
 mate, while filling his clay pipe with tobacco. 
 
 " Well, what were you about to say ?" asked 
 Weston. " But first fill your glass and pass over 
 the tobacco bag." 
 
 " I was simply about to reiterate that I don't 
 believe in ghosts, or value them any more than I 
 do the Yankee sea-serpent, a rope's end, or a piece 
 of old junk ; I never saw one, or knew a man who 
 had seen one ; but every one has heard of a man, 
 that knew another man who saw, or believed he 
 saw a ghost. It is at variance with the laws of 
 nature, which are so ordered that no such erratic 
 spirit can be." 
 
 " I don't know that," replied Weston ; " earth 
 and water have their inhabitants, so why not the 
 air also ? " 
 
 " And why not the fire ? " 
 
 " There you go, right before the wind into the 
 troubled sea of argument — you Scotchmen are 
 all alike." 
 
 " Ghosts are at variance with the workings of 
 Divine wisdom, and we all know what Jones of 
 Nayland says thereupon." 
 
 " No we don't," said Weston ; "who the deuce 
 was he — what port did he hail from 1 "
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 63 
 
 " ' He who cannot see the workings of a Divine 
 wisdom in the order of the heavens, the change of 
 the seasons, the flowing of the tides, the opera- 
 tions of the wind and other elements, the struc- 
 ture of the human body, the circulation of the 
 blood, the instinct of beasts, and the growth of 
 plants, is sottishly blind and unworthy the name 
 of man.' " 
 
 " You hear him, Mr. Rodney," said Weston ; 
 " now he has got both his anchor and topsails 
 a-trip ; he can pay out whole speeches in this 
 fashion, all at a breath, as fast as the chain-cable 
 running through the hawse-pipe." 
 
 Being fresh from Eton, I was not going to let 
 our learned Scotch mate have it all his own way, 
 when Weston resumed, — 
 
 " If you will listen, you shall hear a strange 
 story in which I bore a prominent part." 
 
 « As the ghost ? " said I. 
 
 " No ; but you will soon acknowledge whether 
 or not I had cause for fear." 
 
 And after he had replenished his glass and pipe, 
 Captain Sam Weston began in this manner: 
 
 " About fifteen years ago, I found myself at 
 Matanzas, in Cuba, the same port we are bound 
 for now — adrift, without a ship, and almost 
 without a penny in my pocket, among foreign- 
 ers, Spaniards, and mulattoes, mestees and quad- 
 roons, black, white, and yellow. I had gone 
 there as second mate of a ship from Boston, but
 
 64 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 the tyranny of our skipper wellnigh drove me 
 mad. During the voyage he had nearly killed 
 three of our men for being slow in sending down 
 the top-gallant yards on a squally night. He 
 beat them till they were black and blue with a 
 handspike, and kept them for forty-eight hours, 
 lashed to ringbolts in the lee-scuppers, that the 
 sea might break over them, as he said, and cure 
 their sores. 
 
 " When I interfered to save a poor cabin boy, 
 whom he had hung by the heels from the main- 
 boom, and was scourging with a heavy colt till his 
 back was covered with blood, he produced a bowie 
 knife and revolver, threatening to ' shoot or rip 
 me up.' 
 
 " Just at that moment we were passing a Span- 
 ish ship of war which was at anchor in the bay, 
 about half a mile from us, and had the red and 
 yellow jack of Castile and Leon flying at his gaff 
 peak. One of the poor fellows who had been so 
 severely beaten was then in the foretop, so I 
 hailed him to make a signal of distress to the 
 Spaniard. 
 
 " In a moment his blue shirt was off and 
 placed on the lift of the foreyard. This meant, 
 Mr. Rodney, that as merchant seamen we ap- 
 pealed to the man-o'-war for protection, and 
 wanted an armed boat's crew. Thank Heaven, 
 such an appeal is never made in vain by a poor 
 Jack of any country to a British niAn-o'-war,
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 65 
 
 but the lubberly Spaniards never noticed the 
 signal, or if so, never heeded it. 
 
 " The Yankee skipper uttered a fierce laugh. 
 
 " ' Douse that shirt and come down, you sir,' 
 he thundered out; 'down instantly, or I will 
 shoot you like a coon.' 
 
 " But, desperate with fear, the poor fellow now 
 stood upon the yard, and while one hand grasped 
 the topping lift, with the other he waved his shirt 
 to the Spaniards. I heard the crack of a pistol, 
 and next moment he fell a quivering mass upon 
 the deck, stone dead, shot by the revolver. 
 
 " ' That will teach you to make signals from my 
 ship, you varmint,' snivelled the merciless skip- 
 per, giving the body a kick ; ' and as for youf he 
 continued, addressing me, and ramming home his 
 words with an oath ; but before he could get fur- 
 ther, I levelled him on the deck by a blow from a 
 handspike, and tossed his knife and revolver over- 
 board. 
 
 " His right arm was broken. There was a great 
 row about all this before the Alcalde when we got 
 into harbor ; our bell was unshipped and our 
 canvas unbent by a party of Spanish marines ; 
 but the captain crossed the Alcalde's hand with 
 silver or gold, and there was an end of it. There 
 was an end of my engagement too ; for the Yan- 
 kee weathered me about my salary, seized my 
 chest, my quadrant, even an old silver watch 
 which my mother gave me to make me comfort- 
 
 6*
 
 66 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 able, when I first went to sea, and then turned me 
 out of the ship. 
 
 " So with nothing except a Mexican dollar in 
 my pocket, but followed by my Newfoundland 
 dog Hector, I found myself on a wet and dusky 
 evening on the great quay of Matanzas, which 
 faces the bay that opens into the Gulf of Florida. 
 
 " Low alike in spirit and funds, I had to endure 
 being jostled by negro porters, scowled at by 
 alguazils, ordered about by redcapped and black- 
 bearded Spanish sentries, who were shirtless and 
 tattered, and whose brown uniforms and red 
 worsted epaulettes tainted the very sea-breeze 
 with the odor of garlic and coarse tobacco. 
 
 " The sun had set behind clouds as red as blood. 
 The bay was all of a deep brown tint, and the 
 shores were black or purple. I was very sad at 
 heart, and thought it hard that I, a British sea- 
 man, should be there an outcast, and all my kit 
 reduced to the clothes on my back, in the very 
 place where the same flag that Pococke and Al- 
 bemarle hoisted on Havana, had brought all 
 the Don Spaniards on their knees in old King 
 George's time. 
 
 " However, that would neither find me suppei 
 or a bed. I lost or missed my Newfoundland dog 
 Hector, and in the bitterness of my heart I 
 banned the poor animal for ingratitude in leaving 
 me. Just as I was looking about for a humble 
 posada, where a moiety of my dollar might pro- 
 cure me a bed, a man stumbled against me.
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 67 
 
 "'Look alive, cucumber shanks,' said he 
 
 angrily, in English. 
 
 " ' Do you take me for a negro ? ' I asked, 
 fiercely. 
 
 " ' You are grimy enough for any thing,' said 
 he ; and after being a night in the Alcalde's lock- 
 up house, I certainly was not the cleanest of 
 men ; but now it seemed as if the voice of the 
 stranger was familiar to me. I examined his 
 features. 
 
 "'What,' I exclaimed, 'Hislop — Jack Hislop, 
 is this you ? ' 
 
 '"'Tis I, Jack Hislop, certainly,' replied the 
 other, who proved to be my old friend, Marc's 
 father ; 'but who the deuce are you ?' 
 
 " ' Your old shipmate, Sam Weston, who sailed 
 with you for many a day in the Good Intent of 
 Port Glasgow.' 
 
 " For a moment his tongue seemed absent 
 without leave. 
 
 " ' What, you Sam Weston — English Sam, as 
 we called you — adrift here at Matanzas among 
 these Spanish land-crabs ? ' 
 
 " ' Aye, adrift sure enough,' said I, as we 
 shook hands heartily, and then adjourned to a 
 taberna, when I told him all about my quarrel 
 with the Yankee and my present hopeless con- 
 dition, over a glass of nor'-nor'-west. 
 
 " ' I have a brig here on the gridiron, repairing, 
 for we lost some of her copper in scraping a
 
 68 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 rock near the Tortugas shoal. All my crew are 
 of course ashore, and at present I am residing 
 with a friend,' said Hislop ; ' but I can find per- 
 manent quarters for you till you get a berth. 
 Do you see that craft out there in the bay ? ' 
 
 " ' The polacca brig, about a mile off? ' 
 
 " ' Yes. Well, she is consigned to my owner, 
 but was found adrift, abandoned by all her crew 
 except two, about fifty miles off, half way be- 
 tween this and the Salt Key Bank. I have 
 charge of her now, and there you may sleep 
 every night if you choose. What say you to 
 that ? ' 
 
 " ' That I thank you, old shipmate, with all 
 my heart, but — but — ' 
 
 " < What ? ' 
 
 " ' I have heard of that polacca, and that the 
 two of her crew who remained on board — ' 
 
 " ' Were dead ; yes, true enough. They were 
 found in their berths, one on the starboard, and 
 the other on the port side of the cabin. But 
 what of that ? I buried them off the point of 
 Santa Cruz, and there they sleep sound enough, 
 believe me, each with a couple of cold shot at 
 his heels. Here is the key of the companion 
 hatch, and take my revolver with you, for picaros 
 are pretty common hereabout.' 
 
 " ' Thanks, Hislop,' said I ; ' but how am I to 
 get on board ? ' 
 
 " ' Scull over to her in the punt that is moored
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 69 
 
 beside the quay. When on board make your- 
 self quite at home, for the agent and I left plenty 
 of grog, beef, biscuits, and tobacco in the cabin. 
 On the morrow I'll overhaul you, in the forenoon 
 watch. Till then, good-by ; ' and before I could 
 say any thing more, old Jack was gone, and I 
 found myself alone on the stone mole, with the 
 key of the polacca's companion in my hand. 
 
 " There seemed nothing for me but to accept 
 the temporary home thus offered ; so, in the hope 
 that it might lead to something better, I stepped 
 into the light punt, cast loose the painter, and 
 after a few minutes' vigorous sculling found my- 
 self on the lonely deck of the silent polacca. 
 
 " Her canvas was unbent ; most of the run- 
 ning rigging had also been taken off her and 
 stowed away, — so her tall and taper spars 
 stood nakedly up from the straight flush deck, 
 with a sharp rake aft. 
 
 " Thick banks of dark-blue cloud were coming 
 heavily up from the Gulf of Florida. The air 
 was hot and sulphureous ; some drops of rain, 
 warm, and broad as doubloons, began to plash 
 upon the deck and to make circles on the sea; 
 while at the far edge of the horizon a narrow 
 streak of bright moonlight, against which the 
 waves were seen chasing each other, glittered 
 through the flying scud, the bottom of which 
 was uplifted in the offing, like a dark curtain 
 that was tattered and rent.
 
 70 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Then a flash of red lightning, tipping the 
 waves with fire, shone, but to be replaced by 
 instant darkness, and all became black chaos to 
 seaward, save where a pale-green beacon burned 
 steadily at Santa Cruz, on the western side of 
 the bay. 
 
 " These signs prognosticated a rough night, 
 but I was glad to perceive that the polacca was 
 well moored at stem and stern ; so I unlocked 
 the companion door and descended, not without 
 a shudder, into the dark and cold cabin, where 
 the dead men had been found, and wheie all 
 was silence and gloom. 
 
 " I struck a lucifer match ; my teeth chat- 
 tered ; and while groping about for a candle, to 
 make myself comfortable for the night, I began 
 to wish I had remained on shore. 
 
 " I found a ship-lantern with the fag-end of a 
 candle in it, and this, when lighted, enabled me to 
 take a survey of the cabin ; but I first applied to 
 the jar of right Jamaica which stood on the 
 table ; and when looking about, found my eyes 
 wander so incessantly to the side berths in which 
 the dead Spaniards had been found, that at last 
 I almost fancied their pale sharp profiles and 
 rigid figures were visible in the flickering light 
 of the candle. 
 
 " ' Come,' said I, ' Sam Weston — this will 
 never do ! Are you a man, or have you become 
 a child again ? '
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 71 
 
 " Another application — a long one, too — to 
 the rum jar, and I wrapped some bunting, a rug, 
 and a pea-jacket that lay on the locker, round 
 me, and lay down on the cabin floor to sleep ; 
 and scarcely had I stretched myself there when 
 the candle flared up, and, after casting some 
 strange kaleidoscopic figures on the beams over- 
 head, through the perforated lantern-top — went 
 out ! 
 
 " I was in total darkness now, but more 
 awake than ever. 
 
 " I felt as if in a great floating coffin, but 
 heard no sound except the gurgle of the sea 
 under the counter, or the splash of the stern 
 warp, as it whipped the water occasionally. 
 
 " I kept my eyes closed resolutely, and deter- 
 mined, perforce, to sleep, and not to wake till 
 morning ; but still I could not help thinking of 
 the two poor fellows who had died in the berths 
 of that cold, dark, and silent cabin, and been 
 tossed to and fro so long upon the sea before 
 they received Christian burial. 
 
 " Which had died first, — the man in the lar- 
 board, or he in the starboard berth ? Why were 
 they thus abandoned? What had they said to 
 each other ? What messages had they sent to 
 wife, to father, or mother ? What tale of love 
 to repeat. — of guilt to reveal ? — messages given 
 by the dead to the dead, and never delivered ! 
 
 " These thoughts crowded upon me till I
 
 72 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 almost imagined the dead men lay there still, 
 and that they might rise and give their last mes- 
 sages to me. 
 
 " Then I heard a sound in the forehold. It 
 made my blood curdle ! Was it caused by rats ? 
 Perhaps they had fed on the dead Spaniards 
 and now. were come to take a nibble at me. 
 Rats were bad enough, but ghosts were worse. 
 I took a third and last pull at the Jamaica jar ; 
 said my prayers over again, with more than 
 usual devotion, adding thereto the wish that I 
 should soon have a spanking craft of my own. 
 
 " Still the idea of the two dead men, with 
 their pale faces and unclosed eyes, would come 
 before me again and again ; and I could have 
 groaned but for dread of some similar response 
 that might make my heart wither up and my 
 flesh creep. And creep it soon did ; for, just as 
 this horrid idea of an overstrained fancy, fostered 
 by imagination and fashioned out of the silence 
 and darkness, became strongest within me, what 
 were my emotions, — how painful the throbbings 
 of my heart, — on beholding a strange, green 
 ghastly light glimmering about, and playing 
 within each of the side berths . 
 
 " While shrinking into a corner of the cabin, 
 with eyeballs straining, I gazed at them alter- 
 nately with a species of horrid fascination. The 
 two lights were weird, wavering, and pale ; they 
 seemed to me as two warnings from the land of
 
 VOYAGE CONTINUED. 73 
 
 spirits, for they played upon the curtains and in 
 the recess of each berth, port, and starboard, in 
 which a dead man had been found. And while 
 these lights shone, there came upon my ear the 
 palpable sound of a heavy breathing and snort- 
 ing, as from the oppressed chest of some one 
 close by me. 
 
 " I placed my hands upon my eyes and on my 
 ears, to shut out these horrid lights and sounds ; 
 but when I looked again the former had disap- 
 peared, and all was opaque darkness. 
 
 " On putting forth my hand to rise, a cry of 
 uncontrollable terror escaped me, — a yell that 
 rang in wild echoes through the silent polacca, 
 — when my fingers came in contact with some- 
 thing icy, and then a cold, clammy, and wet 
 head of hair ! 
 
 " Then two glistening eyes seemed to peer 
 and to glare into mine ! 
 
 " In horror and bewilderment, and followed 
 by something-, I knew not what, I sprang up the 
 companion, and, half fainting, reached the deck 
 of the polacca. Then I turned to find that the 
 object which had excited so much dismay was 
 no other than my poor dog Hector, which had 
 swam off to the brig in pursuit of me. 
 
 " The eyes that in the dark seemed to glare 
 into mine, were his; the icy object, from which 
 my fingers shrunk, was his honest black nose ; 
 and what seemed a wet head of hair, was his 
 
 7
 
 74 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 own curly front; while the lights — the myste- 
 rious lambent lights — that had flickered about 
 the dead men's berths, proved to be nothing 
 more than the green beacon on the promontory 
 of Santa Cruz, which shone at times through the 
 two stern windows of the polacca. 
 
 " Being moored with the chain cable ahead, 
 and a manilla warp from her port quarter to a 
 buoy astern, she swung to and fro a little with 
 the ebb and flow of the tide ; hence the oscilla- 
 tion which caused the moving gleams that terri- 
 fied me. 
 
 " ' Ha ! ha ! ' said I, on descending into the 
 cabin, a wiser and a more sleepy man, ' scared 
 by my own dog Hector ! I have been as great 
 a gull as ever touched salt water.' 
 
 " A fortnight afterwards, I shipped with old 
 Jack Hislop as second mate, and the fifteenth 
 day saw us running before a smart topgallant 
 breeze into the Gulf of Florida, bound with a 
 cargo of rum, sugar, and molasses for the Clyde. 
 
 " So that is my ghost yarn. It conveys a 
 moral, does it not ? Order them to strike the 
 bell forward. Hislop, call the watch ; see how 
 her head bears, and let us turn in."
 
 A HURRICANE. 7fi 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A HURRICANE DRIVES US TO THE 
 FORTUNATE ISLES. 
 
 Some days after this we passed a carraca, as 
 the Portuguese name those large and roundrbuilt 
 vessels which they send to Brazil and the Indies, 
 and which are alike adapted for burden, fighting, 
 and sailing. 
 
 On exchanging the bearings — which, when 
 vessels pass each other, are usually chalked on a 
 blackboard hung over the quarter — Weston and 
 Hislop found a considerable difference between 
 the Portuguese and ours ; but never doubting 
 that we were correct, they bore on without hail- 
 ing the carraca, as we passed each other on op- 
 posite tacks under a press of sail. 
 
 The weather continued cloudy, and an in- 
 creased difference was found on exchanging the 
 latitude and longitude with another vessel nexl 
 morning. Then, after an observation at noon. 
 Weston found that for more than fifty hours the 
 Eugenie had been going several miles to the 
 south-east of her due course. 
 
 The compass was immediately overhauled by
 
 7(5 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Hislop, who found that the standard of the 
 needle was loose. 
 
 On that night there commenced a long course 
 of head winds and fotu weather, during which 
 the compass never worked properly, and the 
 captain and mate found, by the first solar obser- 
 vation, that we had drifted so far to leeward as 
 to be somewhere between the parallels of 28° and 
 28° 35' north. 
 
 Tattooed Tom and old Roberts, the raan-o' 
 war's-man, were superstitious enough to give me 
 the entire blame of all this, in consequence of 
 having fired one day at some of Mother Cary's 
 chickens ; an action, they averred, which never 
 failed to give the craft of the perpetrator a head 
 wind for the remainder of her voyage — if she 
 ever finished it at all. 
 
 " If this foul weather holds for another day," 
 said Weston, as he trod the deck with a sulki- 
 ness quite professional under the circumstances, 
 we shall see land sooner than I wished." 
 
 " Land ! " I reiterated, brightening at the idea 
 more than he relished. 
 
 " Yes, some part of the Canaries — Santa Cruz 
 de la Palma, most likely ; but we shall have very 
 Tough weather before another sun rises. I know 
 well the signs, Mr. Rodney. Don't you see what 
 is brewing yonder, Hislop ? " he said in a low 
 voice to his mate. 
 
 " You say just what old Roberts, Tattooed
 
 A HURRICANE. 77 
 
 Tom, and I were observing forward," replied 
 Hislop. " We have not all of us seen a hurri- 
 cane off the west coast of Africa, a tornado in 
 the Windward Isles, and a regular roaring pam- 
 pero off the Rio de la Plata, without learning 
 something — eh, Captain?" 
 
 " I hope not ; so remember that this gloomy- 
 weather, with the wind lulling away and then 
 coming again in hot gusts with a moaning 
 sound — in my part of England we name it ' the 
 calling of the sea ' — are always signs of a com- 
 ing squall." 
 
 As the night closed in, the canvas on the brig 
 was reduced ; the royals were struck and the 
 yards sent on deck ; the dead lights were shipped 
 on the stern windows ; the quarter boat was 
 hoisted within the taffrail, and there lashed hard 
 and fast, for there were increasing tokens of a 
 coming tempest, and ere midnight it came with 
 
 a vengeance. 
 
 The sky at first was all a deep, dark blue, 
 wonderfully dark for that region, and the stars, 
 especially the planets, shone with singular clear- 
 ness and beauty ; but in the north-west quarter 
 of the heavens we could see the coming blast. 
 
 From the horizon to the zenith, there arose 
 with terrible rapidity a mighty bank of sable 
 cloud, forming a vast and gloomy arch, at the 
 base of which a pale and phosphorescent light 
 seemed to play upon the heaving sea.
 
 78 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 This light brightened and sunk alternately. 
 Now it would shoot downward with a lurid glare, 
 steadily and brilliantly, under the flying vapor, 
 and then it died away with an opal tint. 
 
 Sheet lightning, of a pale and ghastly green, 
 extending over ten or twelve points of the hori- 
 zon, flashed and played upon it. Then we heard 
 the rush of rain, as if a great lake had been fall- 
 ing from a vast height into the sea, and next the 
 roar of the mighty blast ; while furrowing up the 
 ocean in its passage, the tempest came swooping 
 down upon us and around us, in a species of 
 whirlwind. 
 
 Bravely the Eugenie met it, for her captain and 
 men handled her nobly. 
 
 She had her topgallant sails furled, her courses 
 up, the topsails lowered upon the cap, and the 
 reef-tackles close out ; but she swayed fearfully 
 when careening beneath the hot breath of the 
 mighty blast, and riding over those black moun- 
 tains of water, which in fierce succession it im- 
 pelled toward her. High she went over a sloping 
 sheet of foam one moment, and the next saw her 
 plunging into a deep, black valley of that mid- 
 night sea ; so deep, that the wind seemed to pass 
 over us, the canvas flapped to the mast, and we 
 only caught its weight and power when rising 
 quickly on the crest of the next mighty roller. 
 
 Meanwhile the green-forked lightning flashed 
 so brightly that at times we could see every rope
 
 A HURRICANE. 79 
 
 in the vessel, our own blanched and pale faces, 
 as we held on by ringbolts and belaying-pins to 
 save ourselves from being washed overboard by 
 the blinding sheets of mingled foam and rain 
 that deluged the deck, over which the sea was 
 also breaking heavily every instant. 
 
 Each time the Eugenie rose in her buoyancy, 
 her decks were half full of water, and the long- 
 boat amidships filled so fast that a man with a 
 bucket could scarcely keep it baled. 
 
 Following the whirlwind, we went round Jive 
 times in thirty-five minutes, with the after-yards 
 squared and the head-yards braced sharp up. 
 
 Then the black mass of sulphureous cloud in 
 which we were enveloped seemed to ascend, and 
 with the same rapidity with which it approached, 
 passed away into the sky ; " the chamber of the 
 thunder," as the Bard of Cona names it, became 
 again clear, blue, and starry, though marked by 
 occasional masses of flying vapor. The rain 
 ceased, and the Eugenie heaved upon a foam- 
 covered sea, over which there passed, from time 
 to time, short squalls, compelling us to lower the 
 double-reefed topsails and run before the wind. 
 
 Now a stiff glass of grog was served round to 
 all, and by turns we contrived to get some dry 
 clothing. 
 
 In the end of the middle watch — about four 
 o'clock, a. M. — there was suddenly visible, upon 
 our larboard bow, a faint and vapory light that
 
 80 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 shot upward in the sky, from time to time, like 
 jets of steam. 
 
 This singular appearance was high above the 
 horizon, and first caught the anxious eye of Cap- 
 tain "Weston. 
 
 " Hah ! do you see that ? " said he to me. 
 
 « What is it ? " 
 
 " The Peak of Adam, — Teneriffe." 
 
 " The great volcanic peak in the Fortunate 
 Isles ! " 
 
 " Old Tenny Reef in the Canaries, we calls it, 
 sir," said Tattoed Tom, who was at the wheel. 
 " It ain't a volcano now ; but it can't give over 
 its old trade o' smoking altogether, and blows up 
 steam like a screw propeller, or just as a whale 
 does water through his spiracles." 
 
 " Tom means what the Spaniards term the 
 Veritas, or nostrils, of the peak, through which 
 the aqueous vapors come with a buzzing sound, 
 and these cause a species of light," said Hislop. 
 
 " Well, thank Heaven, though we are far out 
 of our course, that blast has done no more than 
 w T et our storm jackets, and scrape some of our 
 paint off." 
 
 " We have come out of it uncommon well, 
 sir," said Tom, as he stood with his feet planted 
 firmly apart on the deck, his hard brown hands 
 grasping the wheel, with the helm amidships, as 
 we were still before the wind, and the light of 
 the binnacle flaring upward on his weather-
 
 A HURRICANE. 81 
 
 beaten face, with its strange zebra-like stripes, 
 — at least, on so much of his grim visage as the 
 peak of his sou' -wester and a scarlet cravat that 
 was round his throat and jaws permitted us to 
 see. " The last time I was in such a breeze was 
 a pampero off the mouth of the Rio de la Plata , 
 but then we had our foresail split to ribbons, and 
 the ship was canted over on her beam ends 
 almost. The mainsail was blown right out of 
 the men's hands, and flapped in the sky like 
 thunder, while the craft — a five-hundred ton 
 ship she was, and all copper-fastened — was just 
 on the point of capsizing, when with a crash that 
 made our hearts ache, snap went the jibboom 
 and topmasts off at the caps, just as you'd break 
 a 'bacca-pipe at the bowl. She righted after 
 that ; but four of our best men were swept away 
 to leeward, and never seen again. And now, 
 Master Rodney, with all your book-learning, or 
 you, Master Hislop, with all yours, can you teD 
 me why such things as tornadoes, hurricanes, 
 pamperos, and the like, are sent to torment poor 
 hard-working fellows such as me ? " 
 
 " I can," said Hislop, turning his handsome 
 but wet and weather-beaten face to the steers- 
 man. 
 
 " You can, sir ? " reiterated Tom, loudly and 
 incredulously. 
 
 " Yes, in four lines. Listen, —
 
 82 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 "'Peihaps this storm was sent with healing breath, 
 From distant climes to scourge disease and death ; 
 'Tis ours on Thine unerring laws to trust ; 
 With Thee, great Lord, — whatever is is just ! " 
 
 " Faith, you are right, sir," said honest Tom 
 Lambourne, touching his tarry hat in respect to 
 the mate, mingled with that piety which, in his 
 own rugged way, a seaman is never without.
 
 I GO ASHORE. 83 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I GO ASHORE. 
 
 The wind lulled away into a gentle breeze ; 
 reef after reef was shaken out until a full spread 
 of canvas once more covered the spars of the 
 Eugenie ; and to repair some trifling damages 
 of the night we crept in shore. 
 
 As day brightened through clouds half rain, 
 half mist, and wholly gray or obscure, we saw 
 the land looming high and dark. Beyond it in 
 the distance there was a space of vivid light ; in 
 the foreground, surf white as snow was breaking 
 on the beach, and high over all, in mid-air, tow- 
 ered the wondrous Peak of Adam, on the east- 
 ern side of which the sun (as yet unrisen to us) 
 was shining brightly when we came to anchor 
 in the harbor of Santa Cruz. 
 
 We moored in thirty-three fathoms water, 
 about half a mile from the shore, which in most 
 places is steep, with green and lovely slopes 
 rising high above it. As Captain Weston pro- 
 posed to weigh next morning, he allowed me to 
 go ashore, but sent with me, to be a guide and 
 companion, Tom Lambourne, the tattooed sailor, 
 who had been frequently before at the Grand 
 Canary, and in whom he reposed great trust.
 
 84 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 He gave me a courier-bag containing some 
 provisions, a flask of spirits, and a telescope ; 
 and thus provided, oid Tom and I, with such 
 emotions of pleasure as two newly-escaped 
 schoolboys might feel, landed on the shore, 
 which seemed to heave, sink, and rise under my 
 feet — for after the late storm I still felt that 
 which is termed " the roll of the ship." 
 
 It was in this harbor of Santa Cruz that the 
 famous old English Admiral Blake encountered, 
 and within six hours burned and sunk, seven 
 great Spanish galleons, though they were an- 
 chored under the protecting cannon of seven 
 forts and a strong castle, in the walls of which 
 some of his shot were shown imbedded for many 
 years after. 
 
 I cast longing eyes to the summit of the 
 mighty Peak of Adam. It seemed to rise sheer 
 from the sea, over which, literally piercing the 
 clouds, it towers to the height of more than 
 twelve thousand feet ; but the idea of attempt- 
 ing to climb it within so short a space of time 
 as we had to spend on shore never occurred to 
 me ; but what a feat it would have been to re- 
 late when I returned to Erlesmere ! 
 
 The morning was early yet ; the sun was 
 bareiy above the now cloudless horizon ; so the 
 shadow of this stupendous cone was cast not 
 only over the whole island, which seems to form 
 merely its base, but to the far horizon, perhaps 
 beyond it ; for there are writers who assert that
 
 I GO ASHORE. 85 
 
 in clear weather Cape Bojadore, that dreary and 
 barren promontory of Africa, ninety miles dis- 
 tant, is visible from its summit. 
 
 Did the waves of the sea ever overflow that 
 mighty Peak ? At such a question the mind 
 becomes lost in conjecture. 
 
 As I am not writing a descriptive book of 
 travels, but merely a plain narrative of my own 
 very recent adventures, I need not detail at great 
 length either the magnitude or the aspect of this 
 great island-mountain of the Atlantic. 
 
 From cliffs of dark-brown basalt, against 
 which the ocean pours in vain its foam and 
 fury, we ascended the steep slope of the volcano 
 for a few miles. Then at our feet, as it were, 
 we could see that fertile island, where a perpet- 
 ual spring seems to smile, and where the fra- 
 grant myrtle, the golden orange-trees, and the 
 dark funereal cypress form the mere hedgerows 
 of those plantations where the sugar-cane, the 
 broad-leaved plantain, the luscious Indian fig, 
 the trailing vine, the fragrant cinnamon, and the 
 pretty coffee-bush, were all flourishing in a luxu- 
 riance that filled us with wonder and pleasure. 
 
 Further off was the boundless sea, of *that 
 deep blue which it borrowed from the sky above 
 and mirrored in its depth were the shipping in 
 the roadstead, with their white canvas hanging 
 loose to dry in the sun ; the green woods and 
 dark rocks reflected downward, and the old tur« 
 
 8
 
 86 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 reted castle of Santa Cruz, with the scarlet and 
 yellow banner of Castile and Leon on its time- 
 worn ramparts. 
 
 The summit of the great cone, on the clothed 
 sides of which we never tired of gazing, soon be- 
 came lost in vapor ; far above the dark-green 
 belt of many miles, named the Region of Lau- 
 rels, and that other belt or forest of timber, 
 where pines, chestnuts, and oaks of vast size 
 mingle their varied foliage together, the moun- 
 tain seemed all of a violet tint, which paled 
 away into faint blue as its apex mingled and 
 became lost amid the gossamer clouds. 
 
 The vines, in luxuriance, bordered the path- 
 way as we ascended, and it is said that for years 
 after the wine has been taken from these isles to 
 England or elsewhere, it always ferments and 
 becomes agitated when the vineries from whence 
 it came are in bloom ; but this tale may perhaps 
 be as true as the accounts of those mighty ruins 
 which Pliny avers once covered all the Fortunate 
 Islands, but of which no trace remains now. 
 
 Tom Lambourne and I, after a ramble of 
 some hours, found ourselves in a wild and soli- 
 tary place, where blocks of lava and heaps of 
 yellow-pumice dust were lying among shattered 
 masses of basalt, which were studded with spars 
 and chrystals that glittered as the sunshine 
 streamed through a ravine upon them. 
 
 The sides of this ravine were clothed with rich 
 copsewood and little thickets of the retama'
 
 I GO ASHORE. 87 
 
 blanca, which there grows about ten feet high, 
 and is covered with tufts of odoriferous flowers. 
 The distant sea, the waves of which seemed 
 to bask or sleep in the sunshine, closed the per- 
 spective of this ravine ; and there we could see 
 the Eugenie at anchor, with her snow-white 
 courses loose and her other canvas neatly handed. 
 Being warmed by our walk, we sat down 
 within the mouth of a species of natural grotto, 
 formed by masses of lava and basalt, which in 
 some past age the throes of the volcano had 
 thrown and heaped together. There a clear 
 spring gurgled joyously from a fissure in the 
 rocks ; and now, opening the courier-bag, we 
 proceeded to make our breakfast on the viands 
 I had brought from the ship — to wit, Bologna 
 sausage and biscuits, with brandy-and-water. 
 
 The air was deliciously clear, and over the 
 brow of the rocky chasm in which we sat, there 
 fell a natural screen of the wild Indian fig and 
 vine creepers, and these shaded us from the in- 
 creasing heat of the morning sun. 
 All was still there. 
 
 We heard only the coo of the great wood- 
 pigeons among the gorgeous foliage, or the 
 sweet notes of the little golden-colored canary 
 birds, as they twittered about us when we scared 
 them from their nests, which they usually build 
 in the barrancas or watercourses, such being the 
 coolest places in that volcanic isle.
 
 83 
 
 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HOW TOM WAS TATTOOED. 
 
 My companion was a short and thick-set 
 sailor, about forty years of age, and whose figure 
 was suggestive of great muscular strength ; his 
 hair was cut short, but his whiskers were of the 
 most voluminous description, as he was anxious 
 to conceal as much as possible of the strange 
 circles, stripes, and grotesque designs with which 
 his sun-burned face was covered, and which by 
 their form and blackness, imparted a hideous 
 aspect to features that otherwise were rather 
 good and pleasing. 
 
 He was an intelligent man, and well read, for 
 the humble class to which he belonged. 
 
 " Aye, Master Rodney," said he, on perceiv- 
 ing that I was still surveying him with some- 
 thing of wonder (and his face was a point on 
 which he was particularly sensitive) ; " you see 
 what a precious figure-head those 'tarnal niggers 
 on the coast of Africa made for me." 
 
 " How did this happen, Tom ? " said I, filling 
 his drinking-horn. 
 
 " About twenty years ago, Master Rodney, I
 
 HOW TOM WAS TATTOED. 89 
 
 belonged to the Arrow, a smart Liverpool bark 
 of two hundred and twenty tons register. I 
 made many voyages in her to South America, 
 but at last, as bad luck, or my destiny (as men 
 say in the play) would have it, she was char- 
 tered for the West Coast of Africa, to trade 
 with the natives, but not in black cattle, for sla- 
 very was never our line of business. 
 
 " We sailed from the Mersey in June, and 
 early in August found ourselves at the mouth 
 of the Congo river, after a prosperous voyage ; 
 but on the night we made the land, a heavy 
 gale came on, and it veered round all the points 
 of the compass in an hour. The sea and sky 
 were as black as they could be, and every thing 
 else was black too, except the breakers on the 
 shore to leeward, and heaven knows they were 
 white enough, — too white and too near to be 
 pleasant. 
 
 " Our skipper handled the Arrow well, and she 
 obeyed every touch of the helm as a horse might 
 do its bridle ; she was sharply built, but heavily 
 sparred, and no other square-rigged craft upon 
 the sea could beat her on a wind. 
 
 " I think I see her yet, Master Rodney, for she 
 was the first vessel I shipped on board of, and 
 hang me if I didn't love her as if she had been 
 my old mother's house, near Deptford docks. 
 
 " Her hull was long and low, and sat like a 
 
 swan ii the water, only that she was not white, 
 
 a*
 
 90 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 like a swan, but as black as paint could make 
 her. Aloft, the masts tapered away like fishing- 
 rods, crossed by the square yards, while stays, 
 shrouds, halyards, and hamper, were always 
 t;iut, as if made of cast-iron ; but for all this, she 
 failed to weather that gale off the Congo river. 
 She missed stays and got sternway, so you see, 
 sir, it was soon all over with her after that." 
 
 " How — I do not understand ? " 
 
 " Don't you know what sternway is ? What 
 do they teach folks ashore ? She was taken 
 aback in the hurricane — the most dangerous 
 thing that can happen to any vessel — a sudden 
 shift of wind threw her on her broadside in the 
 trough of the sea, and with her deck toward the 
 storm, so her hatches were soon beaten in, — 
 all the sooner that she was driven on a coral 
 reef near the Shark's Nose, where the sea was 
 like a sheet of foam around her. 
 
 " Five poor fellows were washed away and 
 drowned ; but when day broke, and the storm 
 abated a little, the captain, six men and I, got 
 ashore in the long boat just as the poor Arrow 
 began to break up, for we could see the waves 
 beating into her and rending asunder the decks, 
 the inner and outer sheathing, as if they couldn't 
 scatter the cargo fast enough far and wide. 
 
 " Well, there we were, shipwrecked in a wild 
 place on the West Coast of Africa, at a part of 
 the Congo river where the mangrove trees grow
 
 HOW TOM WAS TATTOED. 91 
 
 into the water, and have their lower branches 
 covered with oysters and barnacles. 
 
 " We could see high blue hills in the distance 
 when the sun came up from the cane swamps 
 and the wild woods which bordered the river, 
 and we sat on the beach for a while looking rue- 
 fully at the wreck, of which little now remained 
 but a few timbers, till the increase of the morn- 
 ing heat drove us for shelter into a grove of oil- 
 palms, and there, Master Rodney, we found 
 tulips, lilies, and hyacinths growing wild, and 
 six times larger than any you ever saw in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 " Some of our men proposed that we should 
 repair the longboat — she was partly stove in 
 — and put to sea, or creep in her along the 
 coast until we were picked up. We were with- 
 out carpenter's tools ; but the captain had a case 
 of surgical instruments, and the first use we 
 made of the saw was to cut into halves an iron 
 buoy which had floated ashore from the wreck. 
 
 " Thus we had two kettles, in which we boiled 
 some seabirds and their eggs, and made a mess 
 whereon we breakfasted. Exhausted by the late 
 storm, the birds were easily knocked down by 
 stones as they sat with drooping wings upon the 
 rocks near the sea ; but scarcely was our miser- 
 able meal over, when we heard loud yells, and 
 attracted by the smoke of our fire, down came 
 a whole gang of ugly darkies, all Mussolongos
 
 92 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 wild and naked, with rings or fishbones in theii 
 long ears and flat noses, — all streaked with war* 
 paint and all shouting like madmen as they 
 brandished their muskets and spears. 
 
 " They fired a volley which stretched on the 
 earth the poor captain and all my shipmates 
 dead or dying. The latter they soon despatched 
 with their knives and spears, and left them to be 
 eaten by wild animals ; but on finding that I 
 had escaped their bullets, they supposed that 
 their Fetish had protected me, and so for a time 
 I was safe. 
 
 " For a whole week I was forced to help these 
 savages in the work of taking all that remained 
 of the wreck to pieces, though hundreds came 
 from the interior, and they wrought hard, some 
 men using even their filed teeth, to get all the 
 iron and copper bolts, which they prized more 
 than the cargo, sails, or spars, as they could 
 fashion them into weapons and the heads of 
 spears and arrows. But with every thing they 
 could lay their dingy hands upon, myself in- 
 cluded, they made off inland, just as a vessel, 
 which proved to be a King's ship, came round 
 the Shark's Nose, and thus, with help, protec- 
 tion, and liberty at hand, I was more than ever 
 a prisoner. 
 
 " I was in very low spirits, you may be sure, 
 fearing they only intended to fatten me up, like 
 a stall-fed ox, or a turtle in a tub, before cooking
 
 HOW TOM WAS TATTOED. 93 
 
 and eating me, or making me a sacrifice to some 
 idol carved of wood ; for many times I saw the 
 whole 'tarnal tribe on their knees before the fig- 
 ure head of the Arrow, which had been washed 
 ashore, and was pronounced to be a great Fetish. 
 
 " For three days we travelled among deep and 
 slimy-green swamps, thick wild woods, and im- 
 mense pathless canebrakes, where in an hour I 
 saw more tree-leopards and zebras, howling jack- 
 als and antelopes, grinning monkeys and chat- 
 tering paroquets, than ever were seen in all the 
 shows at Greenwich fair, till we arrived at a 
 kraal of a hundred huts, for all the world like 
 pigsties, surrounded by a high palisade of bam- 
 boos, and situated in a forest of palms. 
 
 " I was now the slave of a chief, whose rig- 
 ging was rather queer, for it consisted only of a 
 deep fringe, or kilt, of unplaited grass, a necklace 
 of lion's teeth and fish-bones, and a cap of leop- 
 ard's skin, on which towered a plume of feathers, 
 above a row of human teeth and sea-shells. 
 
 " Being rope-ended by an inch-and-half colt — 
 aye, or keelhauled once a day from the foreyard- 
 arm — were jokes when compared to all this 
 African nigger made me undergo, while working 
 for him under a blazing sun, in pestilent swamps, 
 where the very air choked me, as if I had been 
 in a ship with a foul hold, for the slime in these 
 canebrakes was as thick as tar and black as old 
 bilge- water.
 
 94 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 " One day he was soothing his excitement by 
 beating me with a heavy bamboo, till my back 
 and arms were covered with blood. Close by 
 were a whole gang of the tribe squatted under 
 a palm-tree, smoking hubble-bubbles made of nut 
 shells, looking on and laughing at the torture 
 was undergoing ; but in the midst of their sport 
 we heard a roar that made our hearts tremble, 
 and all ready to scamper off. 
 
 " There was a mighty crashing and swaying 
 of the wild canes in the adjacent brake, and then 
 a great square-headed and tawny-haired lion, as 
 large as a good-sized, pony, and with a tuft like 
 a swab at the end of his switching tail, came 
 plunging forward, with eyes flashing and his red 
 mouth open. 
 
 " Souse as a sheet anchor goes into the sea, 
 he sprang upon my owner, and in the time I 
 take to turn this quid, Master Rodney, that 
 troublesome personage was borne off into the 
 jungle a bruised mass of bones and blood, dan- 
 gling in his jaws. 
 
 " The whole thing passed like a flash of light- 
 ning! 
 
 " At first the niggers were about to pursue the 
 lion, but upon reflection they thought it less 
 dangerous to fall upon me and kill me outright, 
 saying that my stupid cries had brought the wild 
 animal upon them. Then an old fellow, whose 
 wool had become white with age, who was
 
 HOW TOM WAS TATTOED. 95 
 
 coiled up in the root of a tree, where he gener- 
 ally berthed himself, and who was considered a 
 wise man, came forward and demanded their 
 attention. He had been a brave fellow in his 
 time, for he wore a row of human teeth at his 
 neck, all strung on a lanyard, with a bit of an 
 old quart bottle which he had found upon the 
 beach, and wore as a ' great medicine,' or order 
 of the Garter perhaps. He saved me by saying, 
 in their outlandish gibberish, that I was evi- 
 dently under the protection of the great Fetish, 
 in honor of whom I should be made like them- 
 selves, and handsomely tattooed. 
 
 " I might as well have hallooed to the wind in 
 a tearing pampero or a stiff reef-topsail breeze, 
 Master Rodney, as have attempted to oppose 
 this piece of Congo kindness. In a minute I 
 was hove down under the nasty black paws of 
 five-and-forty howling and jabbering niggers, all 
 smearing me with palm-oil out of calabashes and 
 old gallipots, and they persisted in rubbing it 
 into me till all my skin was nearly peeled off. 
 
 Then the old Fetish-man who lived in the 
 root of the tree, after making three summersets 
 and uttering six howls, ornamented all my face, 
 hands, and arms in this fashion, using a kind of 
 knife, which he dipped from time to time in 
 some black stuff that he carried in a cocoanut- 
 shell. In ten minutes I was all over serpents 
 and circles, stapes, pothooks and hangers!
 
 96 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " It went to my heart to have my beauty 
 spoiled, but I was far past making any opposi- 
 tion, and so I have had to go through life in all 
 weathers, with a face like the clown's in a pan- 
 tomime. 
 
 " They made me so like a nigger that thej 
 scarcely knew me from one of themselves. This 
 so favored my escape, that I soon found an op- 
 portunity of giving the Mussolongos the slip in 
 the night, and made a shift, after many a break- 
 heart adventure, to reach a British settlement. 
 
 " I remember well when, from a wild forest, I 
 saw before me a long blue ridge. It was the 
 Sierra Leona — or the Mountain of the Lioness, 
 as the niggers thereabout call it — the highest in 
 North or South Guinea. Glad was I, Master 
 Rodney, to see the flag of Old England waving 
 on the fort and in the bay. There was a sloop 
 of war at anchor there, the Active; and when 
 she fired the evening gun you would have 
 thought a whole fleet was saluting, there are so 
 many echoing caves and dens in the mountains 
 and along the shore. 
 
 " I soon made my way home to England, but 
 was more laughed at than pitied for my queer 
 figure-head, which frightened some folks, my 
 old mother especially, for she banged the door 
 right in my face, and called for the police when 
 I went to her old bunk at Deptford. 
 
 " However, I got used to all that sort of thing ;
 
 HOW TOM WAS TATTOOED. 97 
 
 but as folks are so ill-bred and uncharitable 
 ashore, I have left Deptford forever, and keep 
 always afloat, to be out of harm's way. So 
 that's the yarn of how I became tattooed, Master 
 Rodney." 
 
 " Finish the brandy-and-water, Tom," said I ; 
 "and now we shall make a start for the brig — 
 noon is past, and the atmosphere cooler than it 
 was." 
 
 " Your very good health. Next time we splice 
 the main-brace ashore, I hope it will be in Cuba," 
 said Tom, finishing the contents of my flask, and 
 then becoming so jovial that he broke at once 
 into an old sea-song, the last two verses of which 
 were somewhat to this purpose: 
 
 " I learned to splice, to reef, and clew, 
 To drink ray grog with the best of the crew, 
 
 And tell a merry story ; 
 And though I wasn't very big, 
 Aloft I'd climb ; nor care a fig 
 To stand by my gun, or dance a jig, 
 
 And all for Britain's glory ! 
 
 " When home I steered again, I found 
 My poor old mother run aground, 
 And doleful was her story ; 
 She had been cheated by a lawyer elf, 
 Who married her for her old dad's pelf, 
 But spent it all, then hanged himself. 
 Hooray for Britain's glory." 
 
 Just as Tom concluded this remarkable ditty, 
 
 9
 
 
 98 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 with tones that made the volcanic grotto echo to 
 
 " glory," a voice that made us start, exclaimed 
 
 close by us — 
 
 " Bueno ! Ha ! ha ! Los Inglesos borrachios ! " 
 On hearing this impertinent reflection on our 
 
 sobriety, we both looked up and saw — what the 
 
 next chapter will tell you.
 
 DANGEROUS COMrANY. 99 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 DANGEROUS COMPANY. 
 
 Behind us stood eight fellows, five of whom 
 had muskets, and three heavy bludgeons. They 
 were apparently Spanish seafaring men ; but 
 whether contrabandistas of the lowest class, a 
 portion of a slaver's crew, or merely drunken 
 brawlers, we could not at first determine. How- 
 ever, they soon made us aware that robbery was 
 their object, and that they were no way averse 
 to a little homicide also, if we interfered with 
 their plans in the least. 
 
 Some had their coarse, but glossy and in- 
 tensely black hair, confined by nets or cauls ; 
 others had only Barcelona handkerchiefs round 
 their heads. The spots of blood upon these, 
 together with several patches and discolored eyes, 
 showed us that these modern Iberians had been 
 fighting among themselves. Their attire, which 
 consisted only of red or blue shirts and dirty can- 
 vas trousers, was rather dilapidated ; but some- 
 thing of the picturesque was imparted to it by 
 the sashes of glaring red and yellow worsted 
 which girt their waists, and in which they had 
 long knives stuck conspicuously.
 
 100 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 By their bearing, their dark glaring eyes, their 
 muscular figures, their bare arms, chests, and 
 feet, their bronzed, sallow, and ugly visages, — 
 and more than all, by their rags, which were re- 
 dolent of garlic and coarse tobacco, it was evident 
 that we had fallen into unpleasant society. Sev- 
 eral had silver rings in their ears, and on the bare 
 chest of one, I saw a crucifix marked either with 
 ink or gunpowder. 
 
 These fellows had come from the inner or 
 back part of the cavern, where they had evi- 
 dently been observing us for some time before 
 they so suddenly appeared. 
 
 " Acqu'ardiente," said one, approvingly, as he 
 applied his fierce hooked nose to my empty 
 flask, and then placed it in his pocket. A second 
 snatched away my courier-bag, and a third ap- 
 propriated my telescope, which he stuck in his 
 sash. 
 
 Taking up a stone which lay at hand, I was 
 about to hurl it at the head of the latter when the 
 muzzle of a cocked musket pointed to my breast, 
 and the butt of another applied roughly to my 
 back, admonished me that discretion was the bet- 
 ter part of valor. 
 
 " El page de escoba — ha, ha ! " (the cabin 
 boy), said one contemptuously, as he examined 
 my attire — a smart blue jacket, with gilt anchor 
 buttons, which Hislop had given me. My porte- 
 monnaie, which contained only a few shillings,
 
 DANGEROUS COMPANY. 101 
 
 and my gold watch, a present given to me by my 
 mother when I went to Eton, were soon taken 
 from me. As for poor Tom, he possessed only 
 a brass tobacco-box, a short black pipe, and one 
 shilling and sixpence ; yet he was speedily de- 
 prived of them by one who seemed to be the 
 leader of the gang. 
 
 " You rascally Jack Spaniard ! " said Tom, 
 shaking his clenched fist in the robber's face, " if 
 ever I haul alongside of you elsewhere, look out 
 for squalls ! " 
 
 At this they all laughed ; and seizing us by the 
 arms, dragged us into the back part of the cav- 
 ern or fissure in the rocks, leaving one of their 
 number, armed with a musket, as sentinel, at the 
 entrance, where he lit a paper cigar, and stretch- 
 ing himself on the grassy bank, placed his hands 
 under his head, and proceeded leisurely to smoke 
 in the sunshine. 
 
 These proceedings filled us with great alarm ; 
 now that they had robbed us of everything save 
 our clothes, what could their object be ? 
 
 One of them produced two pieces of rope, with 
 which our hands were tied. Dragged by some, 
 and receiving severe blows and bruises from the 
 clenched hands and musket-butts of others — 
 accompanied by the imprecations and coarse 
 laughter of all — we were conveyed through a 
 low-roofed grotto, or natural gallery in the rocks,
 
 102 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 the echoes of which repeated their voices with a 
 thousand reverberations. 
 
 The only light here was by the reflection of the 
 sunshine at the entrance, where the basalt was 
 coated by a white substance, the debris of some 
 old volcanic eruption ; for the slope, up which we 
 had been ascending all the morning, formed a 
 portion of the great Peak. And now we became 
 sensible of a strange sound and a strange odor 
 pervading all the place. 
 
 Through a rent in the rocky roof of the grotto 
 there fell a clear bright stream of sunlight, that 
 revealed the terrors of the place toward which 
 our captors dragged us. 
 
 On one side there yawned a vast black fissure 
 or chasm in the sombre masses of glassy obsidian 
 and red blocks of lava which composed the floor 
 of that horrid cavern ; and from this fissure there 
 ascended, and doubtless still ascends at times, a 
 hot sulphureous steam, which rendered breathing 
 difficult, and induced an inclination to sneeze. 
 
 From the depth of that hideous chasm, the pro- 
 fundity of which no mortal eye could measure, 
 and no human being could contemplate without 
 awe and terror, we heard a strange, buzzing 
 sound, as if from the bowels of the inner earth, 
 far — heaven alone knew how far — down be- 
 low. 
 
 In fact, we were upon the verge of one of those 
 natural spiracles which the natives term " the
 
 DANGEROUS COMPANY. 103 
 
 Nostrils," or avenues through which the hot 
 vapors of that tremendous Piton ascend ; and 
 the buzzing sound that made our hearts shrink, 
 we scarcely knew why, was caused by some vol- 
 canic throe at the bottom of the mountain, 
 whose base is many a mile below the waters of 
 "the sea. 
 
 This fissure was almost twelve feet broad, and 
 across it there lay a plank, forming a species o* 
 bridge. 
 
 Two of our captors crossed, and then ordered 
 us to follow them. 
 
 I obeyed like one in a dream ; but my heart 
 was chilled by a terror so deadly that I had no 
 power or thought of resistance. My first fear was 
 that the plank might be trundled from under our 
 feet, and that we would be launched into the 
 black abyss below ; but such was not the object 
 of these Spaniards, as Tom and I were permitted 
 to pass in safety. 
 
 The remainder of the thieves followed, and we 
 found ourselves in another grotto, the roof of 
 which was covered by stalactites, that glittered 
 like gothic pendants of alabaster in the light that 
 fell from the upper fissure, which formed a natu- 
 ral window, and through it we could see the thin 
 white steam ascending and curling in the sun- 
 shine. 
 
 Now, supposing that they had us in perfect 
 security, our captors proceeded to hold a con-
 
 104 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 sultation as to what they should do with us ; and 
 imagining that we were both ignorant of their 
 language, or what is more probable, caring little 
 whether we knew it or not, they canvassed the 
 most terrible resolutions with perfect coolness 
 and freedom of speech.
 
 THE VENTANA. 105 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE VENTANA. 
 
 Tom Lamboukne's face wore somewhat of a 
 blanched hue, through which the stripes of his 
 tattooing seemed blacker than ever. A severe 
 cut on his forehead, from which the blood was 
 oozing, did not add to his personal appearance. 
 He scarcely knew a word of Spanish, but seemed 
 instinctively aware that we had fallen into hands 
 nearly as dangerous as his former acquaintances 
 the Mussolongos, for he said, — 
 
 " Master Rodney, I fear we have run our last 
 knot off the log-line, and our sand-glass wont run 
 again, unless heaven gives the order to turn. 
 Yet, if I could but get one of these muskets, to 
 have a shot at the rascally cargo-puddlers before 
 it's all over with us, I would be content. As it 
 is, I am all over blood from clew to ear-ring, and 
 they have wellnigh choked me by shaking a quid 
 down my throat." 
 
 " Hush, Tom," said I, for I was listening to a 
 discussion which took place among the Span- 
 iards. 
 
 " Do you understand their lingo ? "
 
 106 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " A little." 
 
 " What are they saying ? " he asked, with 
 growing interest. 
 
 " I will tell you immediately." 
 
 But as they all spoke at once in the sonorous 
 Spanish of the Catalonian coast, mingled with 
 obscure slang and nautical phrases, some time 
 elapsed before I could understand them. Mean- 
 while, how terrible were the thoughts that filled 
 my mind. 
 
 " If these fellows murdered and cast us into 
 that awful chasm, the deed would never be 
 known ; until the day of doom, our fate and our 
 remains could no more be traced than the smoke 
 that melts into the sky. Even if we escaped 
 unhurt, but were detained so long that the brig 
 sailed without us, what would be our condition, 
 penniless, forlorn, and unknown, in that foreign 
 island ? But this was a minor evil. 
 
 Then I burned to revenge the lawless treat- 
 ment to which we were subjected, and the blows 
 and bruises their cowardly hands had dealt so 
 freely. 
 
 " Companeros," I heard one say, " one of these 
 fellows is tattooed, and would sell very well tfr 
 the South American planters with the rest that 
 will soon be under hatches. He is worth keep- 
 ing, if he cannot ransom himself; as for the 
 other " 
 
 " El muchaco ! " (the boy) said they, glancing 
 at me.
 
 THE VENTANA. 107 
 
 " Si — el page de escoba — if he is allowed to 
 return, a complaint may find its way to the 
 Senor Alcalde, whose alguazils may come and 
 borrow our topsails and anchor for a time ; 
 whereas, if we heave him where the others went 
 yesterday " 
 
 "Where?" 
 
 " Into the ventana, hombre ! " was the fierce 
 response ; " and then no more will be heard of 
 the affair." 
 
 My blood grew cold at these words, and I 
 scarcely knew what followed, till the first man 
 who spoke came forward and addressed us. 
 
 " Inglesos," said he, " we have decided that 
 one of you, after swearing not to reveal our 
 present hiding-place, shall return within four 
 hours, bearing a fitting ransom for both, else, so 
 surely as the clock strikes, he who is left behind 
 goes into the ventana of the mountain, where 
 never did the longest deep-sea line find a bottom 
 — not that I suppose any man was ever ass 
 enough to try. Santos! do you hear?" he 
 added, striking his musket-butt sharply on the 
 rocks, when perceiving that Tom was ignorant 
 of all he said, and that I was stupefied by it. 
 
 " Si, senor," said I, and translated it to Tom 
 Lamhourne, who twirled his tarry hat on his 
 fore-finger, stuck his quid in his cheek, slapped 
 his thigh vigorously, and gave other nautical 
 manifestations of extreme surprise and discom- 
 posure.
 
 106 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Ransom, Master Rodney ? " he reiterated ; 
 " in the name of old Davy, who would ransom a 
 poor Jack like me ? " 
 
 " The whole crew would table their month's 
 wages on the capstan head — aye, in a moment, 
 Tom," I replied with confidence. 
 
 " I'm sure they would, and the Captain and 
 Master Hislop, too, for the matter o' that, rather 
 than poor shipmates should come to harm ; 
 but " 
 
 " As for me" said I, with growing confidence, 
 " I am, as you said, senores, only the page de 
 escoba." 
 
 " Bah ! " said the Spaniard, grinning, and 
 showing a row of sharp white teeth, under a 
 dirty and sable moustache ; " though I said so, I 
 knew better. A shipboy seldom has a watch 
 like this" he added, displaying my gold repeater. 
 " Now, we shall keep you; and if this seaman — 
 after he has first sworn that he will not betray us 
 — does not return to us here with five hundred 
 dollars within two hours after sunset, par el " — 
 (here he made a dreadful vow in Spanish), " we 
 will toss you like a dead dog into the ventana 
 of the mountain. Look down, and see what a 
 journey is before you," he added, with a diabol- 
 ical smile, as he dragged me to the beetling edge 
 of the chasm, and forced me to look into it. 
 
 Our eyes had now become so accustomed to 
 the light of the gallery or grotto, that the rays of
 
 THE VENTANA. 109 
 
 sunshine falling through the fissure above us 
 were sufficient to disclose a portion of the vast 
 profundity on the verge of which we stood. 
 
 From the earth's womb, far, far down below, 
 there came upward a choking steam, with a hol- 
 low buzzing sound, which deepened at times to 
 a rumble. 
 
 This steam or mist rose and fell on the cur- 
 rents of air ; sometimes it sank so low that 
 nothing but a black and dreary void met the eye, 
 which ached in attempting to pierce it. Anon 
 the steam would rise in spiral curls from that 
 gloomy bed below, where doubtless the fires of 
 the now almost extinct volcano seethe their em- 
 bers in the waves of the ocean. 
 
 The words "have mercy," were on my lips, 
 but I could not utter them ; nor would they 
 have availed me. Ignorant of what the ruffian 
 said, and believing he was about to thrust me in, 
 poor Tom Lambourne, in the fulness of his heart, 
 uttered a howl of dismay ; and at that moment 
 the sentinel, whom the gang had left at the 
 entrance to their lurking-place, came hurriedly in, 
 with alarm expressed in his glittering eyes, and a 
 finger placed, as a warning, on his hairy lip. 
 
 " Para ! Paz ! Silenzio ! " (hold — peace — si- 
 lence), he exclaimed, and added that four officers 
 from the garrison of Santa Cruz had dismounted 
 in the ravine, unbitted their horses, and had 
 
 seated themselves under a tree to smoke. 
 
 10
 
 110 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 This information was received by the band 
 with oaths and mutterings of impatience ; and 
 by us with mingled emotions of hope and agony 
 ■- hope that they might be the means of our es- 
 cape or rescue ; and agony to know that such 
 means were so near, and yet could avail us noth- 
 ing ; for on the slightest sound being made by 
 either of us, there were the Albacete knives of 
 our captors on one hand, and the ventana — that 
 awful ventana — on the other, to insure forever 
 the silence and oblivion of the grave. 
 
 Not the least of my sufferings was from the 
 cord which secured my wrists. Already the skin 
 was swollen, cut, and bleeding in consequence 
 of the tightness with which these wretches had 
 bound me.
 
 SEQUEL TO OUR ADVENTURE. Ill 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SEQUEL TO OUR ADVENTURE. 
 
 For two hours — they seemed an eternity to 
 me — it would appear, the four Spanish officers 
 lingered over their wine-flasks and cigars in the 
 wooded ravine, their movements being duly re- 
 ported from time to time by one of the outlaws, 
 who stole to the cavern mouth and peeped out. 
 
 At last, they mounted and rode off, when a 
 fresh cause for wrath and delay was produced 
 by the announcement that a wagon, drawn by 
 mules and attended by several laborers and ne- 
 groes, had broken down on the road about a mile 
 distant. 
 
 The irritation of our Spaniards — some of 
 whom spoke of having a ship to join — was now 
 so great, that I feared they might end the whole 
 affair by disposing of us in a summary manner. 
 
 This wagon being heavily laden caused a de- 
 lay for several hours. The sun's rays ceased to 
 shine through the fissure above us ; the grotto 
 grew dark by the increase of imperceptible shad- 
 ows ; the dingy faces of our olive-skinned de- 
 tainers grew darker still ; and their impatience
 
 112 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 was only surpassed by ours, for we, too, had a 
 ship to rejoin. 
 
 Every minute of these hours — every second 
 of every minute — passed slowly, like a pang of 
 agony in my heart ; and every feature of that 
 natural vault, through which the dying daylight 
 stole — with the faces and voices of the men 
 whose victims we were, and more than all, the 
 ceaseless and eternal buzz in the dark chasm that 
 yawned close by — the ventana, or nostril of the 
 Piton — are yet vividly impressed! upon my mem- 
 ory. 
 
 At last the darkness was so great, that a lan- 
 tern was lighted, and its wavering gleams, as 
 they fell on the crystals, the spar, quartz, and 
 glassy blocks of black obsidian and ruddy lava 
 which formed the walls and arch of the cavern, 
 on the dark ferocious visages, the gaudy sashes, 
 the naked arms and feet, the scrubby black beards, 
 and brass-mounted knives, and muskets of the 
 taciturn Spaniards, who sat in a sullen group 
 smoking paper cigaritos, — all added to the 
 gloomy but picturesque horror of the place and 
 of the incident. 
 
 " Antonio, que hora es ? " I heard one say, in- 
 quiring the time. 
 
 " Las neuve y media, companero mio " (half- 
 past nine), replied the possessor of my gold 
 watch, which he consulted with considerable 
 complacency.
 
 SEQUEL TO OUR ADVENTURE. 113 
 
 " Maldita ! " growled the others, knitting their 
 brows, for the dusk was rapidly becoming dark- 
 ness, and they had no desire for killing us, if we 
 could be made profitable. I have often thought 
 since, that had Tom actually procured and re- 
 turned with the required ransom of five hundred 
 dollars, they would have pocketed it and then 
 killed us both — me most certainly, as they 
 seemed to have other views for poor Tom in the 
 Southern States. 
 
 " We have had a long spell of this," said he, 
 in a low voice. " I am going to escape, if I 
 can." 
 
 " Escape ! but how ? " 
 
 " I don't know exactly how, yet ; but we must 
 first have our lashings cast off." 
 
 " Would to Heaven they were, Tom. My 
 hands are so swollen, and my wrists so cut and 
 benumbed, that my arms are wellnigh powerless," 
 I whispered in a low voice, like a groan. 
 
 " Sit with me here, in the shadow of this an- 
 gle of rock ; and now, as the darkness is fairly set 
 in, I shall soon make you free." 
 
 By a rapid and skilful application of his strong 
 teeth to the cord which bound my wrists, he un- 
 twisted the knot and freed my hands ; and then 
 in the suddenly-given luxury of being able to 
 stretch my arms, I almost forgot the necessity for 
 concealing the fact that I was now unbound. 
 
 I soon found an opportunity for untying Tom's 
 10*
 
 114 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 fetters Then we kept our hands clasped before 
 us, as if still manacled, and watched, waited, and 
 hoped — we scarcely knew for what — while in 
 the further end of this inner cave, our detainers 
 sat sullenly smoking, and, by the dim lantern 
 light, making up cigaritos from their tobacco- 
 pouches, and those little rice-paper books which 
 are now procurable nearly everywhere. 
 
 From the conversation of our captors, I could 
 gather that our brig, the Eugenie, was visible at 
 anchor in the roadstead of Santa Cruz, a mile or 
 so distant. 
 
 Three of these Spaniards had placed their mus- 
 kets against the wall of rock, and seemed dis- 
 posed to doze off asleep. 
 
 Close by us lay the plank which crossed that 
 dread ventana, like the infernal bridge of Poul- 
 sherro, which the Mahommedans believe crosses 
 the sea of fire that on the day of doom shall sep- 
 arate Good from Evil. Tom and I looked at it, 
 and exchanged glances of intelligence from time 
 to time, but the attempt to rush across might 
 prove doubly fatal to one or both. A slip of the 
 foot would hurl us into eternity ; and if the pas- 
 sage were achieved, we would be exposed to the 
 fire of those we fled from, and met by that of the 
 armed man at the mouth of the grotto. 
 
 Thus our position and its perils were some- 
 what complicated. 
 
 Suddenly the distant report of a piece of ord-
 
 SEQUEL TO OUR ADVENTURE. 115 
 
 nance, coming from the seaward, made us all 
 look up and listen. 
 
 " El ruido que hace el canon ! " (the crack of a 
 gun), exclaimed a Spaniard, scrambling up to 
 the lower end of the fissure in the arch of the 
 grotto, and looking out. 
 
 " We all know that well enough ; but what 
 does it mean ? " asked the other. 
 
 " The English brig at the anchorage has fired 
 it. I see a light glittering on her deck ; and now 
 away it goes up to the foremast head." 
 
 " It is the Eugenie, Master Rodney," whis- 
 pered Tom. 
 
 " Can the captain be about to sail to-night, — 
 and without us ? " said I, with growing dismay. 
 
 " No ; but he is impatient for us to come off. 
 He knows well what a 'tarnal slippery set of 
 imps these Jack Spaniards are, and has shown a 
 light, and fired a gun as a hint for us to look 
 sharp." 
 
 " Companero," said one of the Spaniards to 
 the other who was looking out, " are you sure 
 that it is the English brig, and not ours ?" 
 
 " Yes ; but by St. Panl ! there is a light burn- 
 ing now on the Castello de Santa Cruz ; so our 
 craft had better get her sweeps out, and put to 
 sea, even without us. Can the Senor Gober- 
 nador have smelt a rat ? " 
 
 This announcement, though we knew not what 
 it referred to, had an evident effect on our cap-
 
 116 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 tors, who were probably part of a slaver's crew; 
 for they all scrambled up to "the opening in the 
 rocks to look out. 
 
 " Now, now is the time to slip our cables and 
 run. Follow me ! " said Tom Lambourne, in a 
 hoarse but determined whisper, as he sprang for- 
 ward — snatched up two of the muskets, and 
 rushed across the plank, tripping as lightly as he 
 would have done along a boom or yard, though 
 it crossed a gulf so terrible. 
 
 Less steadily, but not less rapidly, you may be 
 assured — yet with a frozen heart — I followed 
 him, and his hard tarry hand was ready to grasp 
 mine and drag me forward into safety, while with 
 a violent kick he tossed the plank away, and 
 surging down it went, into the black gulf we had 
 crossed. 
 
 It vanished in a moment, and no sound ever 
 ascended, for it seemed to have fallen into a pit 
 that was dark as it was bottomless ! 
 
 " Take this musket, and see that you can use 
 it, sir," said Tom, as an emotion of bravado 
 seized him. " And so, you Spanish greenhorns," 
 he shouted, " you thought to sell me for a nigger 
 to the Yankees, did you ? Whoop — hurrah ! " 
 
 A volley of Spanish oaths followed this rash 
 outburst, which drew their attention at once 
 upon us. Some rushed to the dark brink and 
 paused, I suppose, for neither Tom nor I could 
 see distinctly, as there was a double explosion
 
 SEQUEL TO OUR ADVENTURE. 117 
 
 which filled the cavern with echoes like those of 
 rolling thunder, and" a momentary glare of smoky- 
 light, while two musket-balls whistled past us ; 
 and I felt one like a hot cinder, as it grazed my 
 left ear. Then came an Albacete knife, which 
 was hurled by no erring hand, for it wounded 
 Tom's right knee. 
 
 " Give them a shot, Mr. Rodney," said he, furi- 
 ously ; " I'll reserve my fire for the sentry, — and 
 here he is already ! " 
 
 And just as the eighth fellow, who was on the 
 watch, alarmed by the firing, came rushing in 
 with his piece at full cock, Tom fired at him. 
 
 " Saints and angels ! " yelled the Spaniard, as 
 he bounded into the air, and then fell flat on his 
 face, where he lay beating the earth with his 
 feet and hands. 
 
 " Fire ! fire ! Master Rodney, and then run 
 for it, before they can reload," cried Tom, who 
 saw that I was irresolute ; " give 'em a stern 
 chaser ! " 
 
 My blood was now fairly up. Wheeling 
 round, I levelled full at the group, one of whom 
 was in the act of taking aim at me ; while I saw 
 the steel ram-rod of the other, who had a musket, 
 gUtter in the lantern light as he reloaded. 
 
 I fired ! I know not whether the ball hit ; but 
 one of the ruffians sprang wildly forward, and 
 fell headlong into the ventana ! 
 
 " That will do ! " cried Tom ; " away now, as
 
 118 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 fast as we can — stretch out — bear away for the 
 harbor and the brig ! " 
 
 Grasping our newly-acquired weapons, which 
 we never thought of relinquishing, we rushed 
 out, and descending the ravine, favored by the 
 starlight, instinctively took the path which led 
 directly to the harbor. 
 
 With a heart that beat wildly, a head in a 
 whirl of thoughts, and every pulse quickened by 
 the whole affair — by the ferocious treatment to 
 which we had been subjected for so many hours; 
 by the perils which had menaced us ; by the nar- 
 row escapes we had made from bullets, and when 
 twice crossing that awful chasm ; by the wild 
 and disastrous tragedy which closed the adven- 
 tures of a long and exciting day, — I ran beside 
 Tom Lambourne ; on, on, without a breath to 
 spare or a word to utter. 
 
 Headlong we stumbled over piles of old lava , 
 now we sank ankle deep among soft pumice 
 dust ; anon we rolled, fell, or scrambled through 
 wild vines and creepers ; then through fields of 
 growing maize and wheat, or plantations of cof- 
 fee and apple trees ; but never paused until we 
 reached the base of the mighty Piton, where, 
 breathless, gasping, panting, and bathed in per- 
 spiration, we lay down in a little thicket of cin- 
 namon bushes by the wayside, to rest for a short 
 space. 
 
 During this flight I had never spoken, but Tom
 
 SEQUEL TO OUR ADVENTURE. 1.19 
 
 from time to time indulged in disjointed remarks 
 expressive of an exultation in which I could not 
 share, being only thankful to heaven for my es- 
 cape. But poor Tom had seen more of a rough 
 life, and of many a violent death, than it could 
 possibly have been my lot to witness. 
 
 " Ha, ha! you Spanish swabs! We've slung 
 two of your hammocks in a hot place — before 
 the time, perhaps ! " said he. " What a row 
 they made, like so many niggers clearing a cargo, 
 when we sheered off ! Lucky it was that I eased 
 off our tow-lines in time ! I have a good mind 
 to put about, stand for the cave, and pot another 
 of those Spanish gorillas ! " 
 
 Whether he meant guerillas I did not inquire, 
 but was happy when we reached the harbor, and 
 I felt the cool breeze of the ocean fan my throb- 
 bing temples and my hands, which, from being 
 so long and so tightly tied with rough cords, and 
 having the blood afterwards driven through them 
 by rapid exertion, felt literally burning hot. 
 
 All was dark and still when we ran along the 
 stone mole of Santa Cruz. Fortunately, at that 
 late hour, there were no officials to question or 
 molest us ; and we could see the* brig anchored 
 about half a mile distant, with the lantern still 
 burning at the foremasthead. The light on the 
 Castle had disappeared. 
 
 We soon found a small punt at the landing 
 stairs, and taking possession of it without leave, 
 cast loose the painter and shoved off
 
 120 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Silently and steadily, with all our remaining 
 strength we pulled for the brig, and were soon 
 alongside. 
 
 " Well, this spree is over, Master Rodney," 
 said Tattooed Tom, wiping his brow with his 
 sleeve when we stood on the deck, where the 
 wondering crew gathered round us ; " but catch 
 me having another in this deuced Tenny Reef, 
 — that's all!"
 
 THE ANCHOR A-PEAK. 121 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE ANCHOR A-PEAK. 
 
 Alaemed by the foregoing narrative, which 
 was fully corroborated by our excitement, ty 
 the two muskets we had brought on board as 
 trophies, by the state of our hands and wrists, 
 and the numerous cuts and bruises we had upon 
 us ; and fearing the consequent detention of the 
 brig for some legal inquiry, Captain Weston pre- 
 pared at once for putting to sea. 
 
 I was happy when rinding myself on the deck 
 of the Eugenie, but still more supremely happy 
 on hearing Weston's resolution to get under way, 
 as I possessed very vague but decidedly unpleas- 
 ant ideas of Spanish justice, and had visions of 
 alcaldes, alguazils, wheels, garottes, and even the 
 masked familiars of the Inquisition itself, floating 
 before me. 
 
 My heart beat responsive to the clank of the 
 windlass pawls, as the Eugenie was hove short 
 on her anchor, and the hands started aloft to 
 cast loose the topsails. 
 
 Weston threw our two muskets into the sea, 
 lest their discovery on borird might cause suspi- 
 cion or annoyance. 
 
 11
 
 122 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 The morning was clear, cool, and starry ; *,../ 
 yet no vestige of dawn was visible, and all was 
 still and quiet on shore ; but I was in momen- 
 tary expectation of seeing a boat dash off toward 
 us, though those from whom we had escaped 
 could have no just cause of complaint. 
 
 Suddenly I heard the sound of oars, and saw 
 a long, low boat shoot out from the obscurity of 
 the harbor. My heart stood still for a moment 
 as this craft was steered in our direction, but to 
 my infinite relief it boarded a Costa Rican that 
 lay near us. 
 
 As yet the shadows of night were on land and 
 sea, — on every thing save the cone of the Peak 
 that towered above the clouds, and there shone 
 the light of the yet unrisen sun, yellow deepen- 
 ing into saffron, purple, blue, and then indigo, 
 blending with the blackness of night as the eye 
 descended to the shore. 
 
 So Weston gave the order to brace the fore- 
 yards aback and the mainyards full ; another 
 wrench at the windlass and the anchor was 
 tripped. 
 
 " Heave and a-wash ! " cried Tom Lambourne, 
 cheerily, giving the usual call of encouragement, 
 when the dripping anchor-ring is just out of the 
 water, and the stock is seen to stir the surface. 
 
 The courses were let fall and the gib was 
 hoisted ; her head fell rapidly round and she 
 payed off bravely Then the fiery cone of the
 
 THE ANCHOR A-PEAK. 123 
 
 Piton and the lights of Santa Cruz which had 
 glittered in tremulous lines along the water on 
 our beam were shining upon our lee quarter. 
 
 " Fill away the headyards — handsomely now!" 
 cried Weston, and just as the first streak of day, 
 coming on with tropical rapidity, began to 
 brighten the horizon, and shed long shiny rip- 
 ples on the sea, the canvas swelled out, the reef 
 points began to patter on the taut bosom of 
 every snow-white sail, and the loose rigging was 
 blown out in graceful bends. 
 
 There was a fine breeze rising ; the white 
 water rippled under the forefoot of the Eugenie, 
 and soon it boiled in foam as we sheeted home 
 the topsails and ran along the western shore of 
 the mountain isle. 
 
 About the same time the Costa Rican brig which 
 was at anchor nearer the shore (a smart craft she 
 was, straight in the bends and all black, save a 
 yellow streak), also got ready for sea with great 
 expedition and worked out of the harbor ; and 
 when the hot sun, which erewhile had lit up the 
 vast continent of Africa to the eastward of us 
 rose from the ocean, we saw her black hull and 
 white canvas shining in his morning rays about 
 a mile astern. 
 
 " You say, Marc, that craft is a Costa Rican ? " 
 said Weston, doubtfully. 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied Hislop. 
 
 " She may be, but she is also a Spanish dealer
 
 124 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 in black cattle," said Weston, who was looking 
 at her through a powerful double-barrelled glass. 
 ' I am certain if you could only see her deck 
 when she careens a bit, you would make out 
 the ring-bolts for lashing the slaves to in fine 
 weather." 
 
 " Aye, and perhaps those for the carronades 
 too," added Hislop ; " she looks rather rakish." 
 
 " You are just of my mind, sir," added Tom 
 Lambourne, who was at the wheel. " She'll see 
 the Shark's Nose and the Congo river before she 
 sees the Mosquito creeks or the hills of Costa 
 Rica ; and I have a shrewd notion that the pi- 
 rates we escaped from last night are part of her 
 crew, if one may judge from what Master Rod- 
 ney, who knows their lingo, overheard them say." 
 
 Except across the Peak of Teneriffe, where a 
 cloud of white vapor floated in mid-air like a 
 permanent cymar or girdle, and above which 
 some thousand feet of the mighty cone towered 
 into the blue immensity of space, mellowing 
 from green and purple to a faint-gray tint, the 
 sky was without a cloud. 
 
 The waves danced and sparkled in the morn- 
 ing sunshine, the fresh breeze swept pleasantly 
 over their whitening tops and whistled through 
 our rigging, as we ran along the shore with con- 
 siderable speed ; and now our hearts beat lightly, 
 for the broad free ocean was around us, and on 
 clearing the dangerous rocks at Punta de Anaga
 
 THE ANCHOR A-PEAK. 125 
 
 by giving them a wide berth, we felt the heavier 
 swell of the Atlantic as we brought the larboard 
 tacks on board, and ran, close-hauled, on a taut 
 bowline between the Isles of Teneriffe and Palma, 
 keeping the weathergage of the Costa Rican, 
 and leaving her at the same time fast and far 
 astern. 
 
 We had a delightful run through the fertile 
 Archipelago of the Fortunate Isles, and after 
 clearing San Josef, found the wind come more 
 aft. Long after night had closed in, and dark- 
 ness had enveloped all the sea and the isle of 
 Teneriffe, the cone of the Peak shone redly in 
 mid-air, with the light of the sun that had set in 
 the western waters of the Atlantic. 
 
 For the whole of that day we had run fast 
 through the water, making at least seven knots 
 an hour off the log-line, but midnight came be- 
 fore we saw the last of the mighty Peak of Adam. 
 
 By that time the wind was fair, and we bore 
 
 merrily away for the Isles of the West. 
 
 11*
 
 126 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 AN INCIDENT. 
 
 By the time we had been a month at sea, hav- 
 ing applied myself assiduously to work, I picked 
 up a little knowledge of seamanship. I took my 
 turn of watch with the rest ; I learned to go 
 aloft and to lay out upon a yard in a stiff topgal- 
 lant breeze. I acquired all the mysteries of knot- 
 ting and splicing, of serving a rope with spun- 
 yarn, and to know the technical difference be- 
 tween the rope itself and a line. I could heave 
 the log, box the compass, and take my " trick " 
 at the helm with the best man on board, and 
 thus gained the golden opinions of those among 
 whom a rough turn of the wheel of fortune had 
 so strangely and so suddenly cast me. 
 
 Some days after leaving the Canaries, we 
 found ourselves passing through what seemed 
 to be immense meadows of green stuff adrift 
 By moonlight the branches, leaves, and fibres of 
 this uprooted marine forest, — for such it was, 
 being wrack and seaweeds of wondrous length 
 springing from the lowest depths of the ocean — 
 sparkled, flashed, and whirled in the foaming
 
 AN INCIDENT. 127 
 
 eddies astern of the brig as she cleft or brushed 
 down the yielding masses with her rushing keel. 
 
 I was never weary of surveying this scene, 
 which was so marvellous in its beauty, when the 
 moon was shining on the sea. 
 
 These vast broad leaves and long snaky ten- 
 drils that danced upon the surface of the sea 
 were the Florida gulf-weed. 
 
 " The tropical grape of the sailors," said His- 
 lop, as we leaned over the lee-quarter one eve- 
 ning. " These plants grow upon the two great 
 banks of the Atlantic, and were known to the 
 Phoenicians, who named them the Weedy Sea." 
 
 " I remember," said I ; " and that the seamen 
 of Columbus thought they were sent by heaven 
 to stay their course." 
 
 " You are right," replied the mate, with an 
 approving smile. " It is pleasant to meet one 
 like you, Rodney, who has read that which is 
 worth reading and remembers it." 
 
 " The Gulf Stream," said Weston, joining in 
 the conversation, " is a great current about sixty 
 miles broad, caused by the trade winds, which 
 always blow from east to west. It issues from 
 the Gulf between Cape Florida and Cuba, and 
 runs at the rate of three knots an hour along the 
 shores of South and North America, till the 
 Newfoundland bank turns it to the south-east; 
 so everywhere its track is known by that gulf- 
 weed which you now see floating past."
 
 128 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 It is by this mysterious current — this mighty 
 river that traverses the ocean — that the timber 
 logs of the St. Lawrence, the wrecks of the old 
 plate argosies, and the carved idols of older 
 Mexico and the Caribbean Isles, all covered with 
 the weeds and barnacles of long immersion, have 
 been cast upon the western shores of Scotland 
 and the Hebrides. 
 
 Every morning the weather became warmer — 
 the sea and sky more clear — the atmosphere 
 more rarefied. The wind was so steady that 
 scarcely a sheet or tack were altered. Thus for 
 several days we bore on with both sheets aft, as 
 the phrase is, when running right before the wind. 
 
 Shoals of porpoises plunged across the bows 
 of the brig in the sapphire-colored sea, and when 
 it was smooth a whole fleet of the little nautilus 
 passed us with purple sails up ; nor were the 
 dark and gliding shark and the silvery flying-fish 
 wanting at times to keep my attention excited ; 
 and the tiny petrels, as they came tripping along, 
 half in water and half in ah - , kept pace with the 
 Eugenie, as she cracked on under a press of sail, 
 dashing the waves around her, ploughing so 
 freely and so fearlessly the deep waters that hide 
 a finny world, and wash the dark and unknown 
 basements of the earth. 
 
 One glorious morning, when we were within 
 a few days' sail of Hispaniola, there occurred a 
 circumstance which was afterwards a source of
 
 AN INCIDENT. 129 
 
 the deepest regret to us all ; how and why, will 
 be shown during the progress of my story. 
 
 The day was fine, even for that region of fine 
 days. The Eugenie was running smoothly be- 
 fore the wind, and Hislop, with considerable ani- 
 mation, was detailing to the captain and me the 
 appearance of that rare phenomenon, a lunar 
 rainbow, which by singular good fortune he had 
 once seen in these latitudes, and which Aristotle 
 declares is never seen but at the time of the full 
 moon, — a declaration which our learned Scotch 
 mate treated with contempt; for he was a strange 
 fellow, this Marc Hislop, and could with equal 
 facility dilate on the Apology of Plato, and the 
 method of club-hauling a square-rigged vessel, or 
 sheering her to her anchor in a gale of wind ; on 
 the Prometheus of iEschylus, or the proper mode 
 of lying too in a hurricane, with every thing 
 struck aloft, and topsail yards on the cap ; and 
 now, on the subject of the lunar rainbow, he was 
 proceeding to quote from the Portuguese Pilot 
 of Ramusio, when Weston interrupted him by 
 hailing aloft. 
 
 " Fore-top — there ! " 
 
 " Aye, aye, sir," was the usual response iron 
 Ned Carlton, a seaman who was perched in the 
 top. 
 
 " What are you about ? " asked Weston, 
 angrily. 
 
 " Greasing the sling of the fore-yard, sir."
 
 130 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Oh — I thought you were making hay, you 
 are so slow about it. You have been staring 
 ahead for the last twenty minutes at least." 
 
 " Because I think I see something," said the 
 seaman, annoyed by the nautical taunt. 
 
 Something," reiterated Weston, "what is it? 
 a church, or a windmill going before the wind?" 
 
 " Neither, sir, — but a boat adrift." 
 
 " How does it bear, Ned ? " asked Hislop, 
 starting into the rigging. 
 
 " On the starboard bow, about two miles off." 
 
 On hearing this the telescope was resorted to, 
 and we could plainly enough see a white object, 
 which the intervening waves, as they rose and 
 fell, hid from us at times ; and there was a great 
 diversity of opinion, for one of the crew main- 
 tained it was a harbor bouy adrift. 
 
 " It must have drifted a long way to have 
 come here," retorted Carlton ; " and if you have 
 your grandmother's spectacles about you, wipe 
 them clean, put them on, and look again, — for 
 T can see plainly enough that it is a boat." 
 
 " Then we shall overhaul it," said Weston ; 
 " Hislop, prepare to lower ours, and to lay the 
 fore-yard aback." 
 
 The Eugenie's course was shaped toward it, 
 and when within a quarter of a mile, the foresail 
 was laid to the mast, the brig hove in the wind, 
 and the stern boat lowered ; Hislop, Tom Lam- 
 bourne, two other hands, and I, manned her, and
 
 AN INCIDENT. 131 
 
 put off to inspect and report upon what we could 
 discover. And so, with many surmises as to 
 wrecks, boats getting adrift or being washed 
 away from their davits, and so forth, we pulled 
 swiftly toward her, all stripped to our shirt- 
 sleeves, for a hot West Indian sun was blazing 
 in a cloudless sky, and the air seemed still and 
 breathless.
 
 132 DICE RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ANTONIO EL CUBANO. 
 
 As the strange boat pitched about on the 
 waves some of our men asserted that, at times, 
 they could see a man's head above the gunwale. 
 Others expressed their doubts of this, and in the 
 midst of such discussions we sheered alongside. 
 Hislop caught its bow by the boat-hook, and 
 while retaining his hold, fended off, to prevent 
 her being dashed against ours. 
 
 In the bottom of this boat, which was evident- 
 ly the clinker-built skiff of a merchant vessel, and 
 was all painted yellow, as a preservation from 
 the sun in a warm climate, there lay under the 
 thwarts a man, either asleep, in a stupor, or 
 dead, — at first we knew not which ; but he was 
 pale enough to have passed for the last. 
 
 By his tawny visage and coal-black beard, his 
 long scarlet cap and sash, in which a sheathed 
 knife was stuck, and also by the rings in his 
 ears, we recognized him to be a Spanish seaman. 
 He was a man naturally of a tall and powerful 
 frame, but of forbidding aspect, — of great per- 
 sonal strength, but wasted apparently by toil, by 
 exposure and famine.
 
 ANTONIO EL CtJBANO. 133 
 
 A dark and coagulated crust of something like 
 blood appeared on his baked lips and thick 
 moustaches, on the blackness of which, the sa- 
 line particles of the sea foam, dried by the tropi- 
 cal sun, glittered white as hoar frost on a bush in 
 winter. 
 
 As we roused him, he grasped his knife in- 
 stinctively and repulsively, but relinquished it, 
 and then stared wildly at us, muttering in implor- 
 ing tones, 
 
 " Aqua, aqua, por amor de Dios ! " — (water, 
 for the love of God). " Misericordia ! O senores, 
 — O Ave Maria, misericordia ! " 
 
 " Here, Jack Spaniard, ship a drop o' this ; it 
 is the real Jamaiky," said Tattooed Tom, pouring 
 between the parched lips of the Spaniard some 
 rum from a bottle, which most likely had been 
 put in the boat by the foresight of Hislop. 
 
 The black eyes of the castaway dilated and 
 flashed as the spirit revived him, restoring his 
 wasted energies, and bringing a hectic color to 
 his cheek. 
 
 " Belay now," said Tom ; " you must get some 
 Thames water from the brig before you take 
 more of this." 
 
 " Muchos gracias — many, many thanks," 
 said the Spaniard, in tones of thankfulness. 
 
 " Enough o' that ; — stow your slack, and come 
 on board if you can," said Tom, testily, as he had 
 
 12
 
 134 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 sulky recollections of our adventures at the Grand 
 Canary. 
 
 Restored by the mouthful of alcohol, the Span- 
 iard staggered up, but with difficulty ; and then 
 we perceived that gouts of blood, dried and en* 
 crusted by the sun, were on his person, and on 
 the inside of the boat, especially on one of the 
 thwarts. 
 
 " What is this — blood ?" asked Hislop, with 
 an imperceptible shudder. 
 
 The Spaniard started, and became, if possible, 
 paler at the question, as he nervously clutched 
 the gunwale of his boat with both hands, and 
 said, in broken accents, — - 
 
 " My dog, senores ; I killed a dog that was 
 with me, because — because it went mad in the 
 hot sunshine, and being without water." 
 
 " Why did you not throw it into the sea ? " 
 
 " It would have bitten me, senor, and might 
 perhaps have come into the boat again." 
 
 " Likely enough," muttered one of our men. 
 
 " You could have knocked it over with an 
 oar," said Hislop ; " but did your dog wear this ! " 
 he added, fishing up with the boat-hook a cap 
 that lay in the bilge water under the stern sheets 
 of the skiff. 
 
 " That cap is mine," said the Spaniard, in a 
 husky voice, while closing his eyes, as if wearied 
 or appalled. 
 
 " Have you two heads ? " asked Hislop, sternly 
 
 " No, senor ; but — but — "
 
 ANTONIO EL CUBANO. 135 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " A man may have two caps for all that." 
 
 Perceiving that he was on the point of sinking 
 again, Tom Lambourne poured some more of 
 the rum into his mouth, and we dragged him into 
 our boat, setting the skiff, which was quite useless 
 to us, adrift once more. 
 
 " What was your ship ? " asked Hislop, who 
 spoke Spanish fluently. 
 
 " The Marshal Serrano — a Spanish brig from 
 Cadiz." 
 
 " From the Canaries last ? " I inquired hastily. 
 
 " Yes ; bound to Costa Rica." 
 
 Tom Lambourne gave me a rapid glance, as 
 he spat on his hands and pushed his oar through 
 the rowlock. 
 
 " She foundered and went down with all hands 
 on board," continued the famished Spaniard, in 
 a broken voice and with quivering lips. 
 
 " All ? " reiterated Hislop, sternly and dubi- 
 ously. 
 
 " All, save myself, senor," replied the other, 
 hesitatingly, and lowering his hollow eyes ; " I 
 escaped in the skiff." 
 
 " With your dog ? " 
 
 « Si, Senor." 
 
 " In what latitude did this take place ? " 
 
 Without a moment's hesitation, the Spaniard 
 gave us the latitude and longitude. 
 
 " I can't make out this fellow's story in any
 
 136 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 way," said Hislop, in English. " By the theory 
 and law of storms, we should have had a touch 
 of the same gale which foundered his brig — if 
 such a gale existed. He has deserted, or been 
 marooned. I don't believe a word he says. 
 What is your name ? " he asked in Spanish. 
 
 " Antonio." 
 
 I started on hearing it, for my suspicions were 
 becoming more and more confirmed. 
 
 " Antonio. What more ? " 
 
 " El Cubano, or the Cuban ; for so my ship- 
 mates termed me, and I have no other name." 
 
 " Quick, my lads," said Hislop ; " lay out on 
 your oars." 
 
 We were soon alongside the Eugenie, an*I had 
 our castaway hoisted on board, when, for a time, 
 an end was put to our queries, but not to our sur- 
 mises, by his becoming insensible. We had 
 questioned him already perhaps too much, "con- 
 sidering the weakness of his condition. 
 
 He adhered to his original story in every par- 
 ticular when examined by Weston and Hislop a 
 day or two after ; that he belonged to the Span 
 ish merchant brig, Marshal Serrano, the same 
 craft which had worked with us out of the road 
 stead of Santa Cruz ; that she had foundered in 
 a storm, being overmasted and overladen, and 
 that he alone had escaped of all the crew ; that 
 when his dog became mad, he had slain the ani- 
 mal and cast the carcase into the sea ; and that
 
 ANTONIO EL CUBANO. 137 
 
 he had been a week floating about in an open 
 boat, without food and without aught to cool his 
 parched tongue, save the heavy tropical dew of 
 heaven, when we found him ; and to the truth of 
 all this, he was ready to swear over two crossed 
 knives, in the fashion of his country. 
 
 In short, we were obliged to content ourselves 
 with his narrative, which Hislop duly engrossed 
 in the ship's log, while expressing great disbelief 
 as to its authenticity. 
 
 In the first place, our mate denied that any 
 such storm as that in which the Cuban alleged 
 his brig perished had ever existed ; and he 
 deduced from his favorite theory that we were, 
 and had been, in the direct track of such a storm, 
 and must have felt its influence long ere this. 
 
 Hence he thought it more probable that the 
 man had deserted in the night, perhaps in conse- 
 quence of committing some crime, or for the 
 same reason had been marooned and set adrift. 
 
 The crew were divided in opinion, and Tom 
 Lambourne openly expressed his disbelief that 
 the blood which covered the clothes of the Cuban 
 and the thwart of the boat ever came from the 
 veins of a dog ; and others asserted that he must 
 have quarrelled with an unfortunate shipmate, 
 and killed him ; or had perhaps assassinated him 
 in sleep for the horrible purpose of prolonging 
 his own existence. 
 
 Amid these unpleasant surmises as to hia 
 12*
 
 138 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 character and position, in a few days the Span- 
 iard joined the crew in working the ship, and 
 proved himself to be a steady, industrious, and 
 able seaman ; and as three of our hands were 
 on the sick list, his services were the more val- 
 uable. 
 
 On remarking this to Tom Lambourne, 
 " It is all very true, sir," he replied ; " but I 
 don't like a seaman who cannot look his ship- 
 mate right in the face." 
 
 " You are a physiognomist," I suggested. 
 " Don't know what kind of a mist that may be, 
 Master Rodney ; but this I know — there is 
 always something cunning and dangerous in a 
 fellow who looks over your shoulder, as that 
 Spaniard does, when he should look at your 
 eyes." 
 
 Antonio had an excessive dislike for deck 
 duty by night. He exhibited a strange dread of 
 being left alone, and could scarcely be prevailed 
 upon to look over the vessel's side, always 
 shrinking back, as if he expected to see some- 
 thing hideous rise out of the sea. Weston sug- 
 gested that perhaps his recent suffering had 
 unmanned and rendered him nervous ; but the 
 crew thought otherwise. 
 
 In his sleep, Antonio frequently disturbed the 
 men in the forecastle bunks by his mutterings, 
 •his wild dreams, outcries, and sonorous Spanish 
 maledictions.
 
 ANTONIO EL CUBANO. 139 
 
 I was at the wheel on a calm and lovely night 
 (it was the 13th of January), when we were off 
 the beautiful shore of Hispaniola. I remember 
 well that Cape Samanna bore west by south, and 
 Cape Cabron west by north ; for my task of 
 steering was new to me, and Weston's orders 
 were " to keep her full and by," — that is, as 
 close to the wind as possible without making the 
 canvas shiver. 
 
 I could see the lights that glittered in the dis- 
 tant villages that studded the low but fertile 
 peninsula of Samanna. All was still and quiet 
 in the ship and around it. Soothed by the 
 solemnity of the hour and the vast solitude of 
 the sea, my heart was full, and busy memory 
 brought before me loved faces and voices, places 
 and scenes, that were far, far away in dear Ol'd 
 England. 
 
 The brig was gliding through the water rap- 
 idly but imperceptibly, and almost without a 
 sound ; the men of the watch were leaning over 
 the bulwark to leeward; and the air, the sea, 
 and all aloft and below, seemed to sleep in the 
 moonlight; not a reef point pattered on the taut 
 canvas, and scarcely a wavelet rippled, save in 
 the dead-water astern that marked the white 
 wake of the Eugenie. 
 
 Suddenly a shrill and piercing cry rang out 
 upon the night, and Antonio the Cubano rushed 
 from the forecastle with the wildest terror ex-
 
 140 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 pressed in his black eyes ; his visage was pale 
 and ghastly, and the perspiration glittered like 
 bead drops on his clammy brow. With his bare 
 feet, he stumbled over the chain cable, which lay 
 coiled on the deck, for on that afternoon we had 
 hauled it up, and bent it to the working anchor. 
 
 He came running aft in his shirt, brandishing 
 a knife in his hand, and exclaiming, in fierce and 
 then imploring accents — 
 
 " Who says I did it ? — who dares to say 
 so?" 
 
 Then letting his arms drop as he slunk back 
 to his bunk, we heard him groan out — 
 
 u El cuchillo — el cuchillo ! " (the knife — the 
 knife). 
 
 Hence, under such circumstances, it may 
 easily be supposed that among the crew there 
 floated strange and dark surmises as to the past 
 life of Antonio el Cubano.
 
 THE WATER-SPOUT. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE WATER-SPOUT. 
 
 As the sun increased in heat, notwithstanding 
 the season of the year, I was soon sensible of the 
 comfort of white clothing, when contrasted with 
 dark woollen or broadcloth, as the latter absorbs, 
 and the former repels the rays of the sun. 
 
 Marc Hislop illustrated this to me by igniting 
 paper with a burning-glass ; whenever the focus 
 was brought to bear upon dark places, such as 
 the printed letters, they were instantly consumed. 
 
 We ran along the coast of Hispaniola, and 
 saw the wavy ridges of its mountains that tower 
 into the clouds; we sighted Tortuga, a rocky 
 island covered with palm-trees and sandal-wood, 
 but surrounded by reefs and shoals ; and round- 
 ing Cape St. Nicholas, stood to the southward 
 between the great islands of Jamaica and Cuba, 
 but without seeing either of them at that time. 
 
 For three days we had dark and cloudy 
 weather. 
 
 About three p. m. on the 24th of January, a 
 small speck, which appeared to the westward on 
 our weather beam, grew rapidly into a gloomy
 
 142 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 cloud, and swiftly, as if on the wings of a destroy- 
 ing angel, it traversed the thickening air and the 
 agitated sea, which darkened beneath its shadow ; 
 and so this speck came on, until it grew an aw- 
 ful thunder -cloud. 
 
 " Bear a hand fore and aft ! Hurrah, my lads ! 
 — make all snug before the tempest breaks!" 
 were the cheering orders of Weston, Hi slop, and 
 Lamboume, as the brig was prepared to encoun- 
 ter a heavy squall. 
 
 The rain soon fell in torrents, impeding the 
 men at their work of close reefing, furling, and 
 stowing some of the heavier canvas, and in 
 tightly belaying the running rigging; for when 
 loose ropes are flying about in a tempest, and 
 cracking in men's faces like coach-whips, they 
 become sufficiently bewildering to impede the 
 working of the ship. 
 
 Under the lower edge of the approaching cloud, 
 when about twelve miles distant, we beheld an 
 object which filled us with wonder and awe. 
 
 It was a tremendous spout, or column of wa- 
 ter, connected with the cloud above, and the sea 
 below (the sea, from which a circular wind had 
 sucked it upward), that was now visible. 
 
 This column was like a solid mass of white 
 breakers, approaching with incredible speed over 
 waves that began to rise in short and pyramidal 
 peaks. 
 
 Hislop was too busy clewing up canvas, send-
 
 THE WATER-SPOUT. 143 
 
 ing yards down from aloft, belaying and order- 
 ing, and so lost a famous opportunity for expa- 
 tiating — as no doubt he would have done — on 
 the theory of these spouts ; for this phenomenon 
 filled us with the greatest alarm, lest it might 
 swoop down upon the Eugenie, dismast and de- 
 stroy her like a child's toy-ship. 
 
 Antonio el Cubano, being the most powerful 
 and muscular man on board, was ordered to the 
 wheel. 
 
 Across the sea this column seemed to pass with 
 the cloud, boiling, foaming, and with the sound 
 of a mighty cascade pouring into a deep valley, 
 but yet maintaining a position quite perpendicu- 
 lar. Around its base the waves seemed in dread- 
 ful commotion, rising and falling, seething and 
 glittering in the lightning which shot at times 
 from the gloomy bosom of the cloud that floated 
 over them. 
 
 As this terrible phenomenon approached from 
 the westward, Captain Weston conceived that 
 we might escape its influence by altering the 
 brig's course, and so passing it. I have heard ol 
 water-spouts being dissipated by the effect of 
 heavily-shotted guns ; but we had no such appli- 
 ances — at least we had no shot on board. 
 
 The breeze which was blowing fresh, and had 
 not as yet become a gale (to us at least), veered 
 north-westerly ; so we shook the reefs out of our 
 topsails and trimmed sharp by the wind.
 
 144 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Luff, luff — keep your luff — keep her to," 
 were the incessant orders of Weston ; and the 
 Eugenie flew through the water like a race-horse ; 
 held by the powerful hands of Antonio, she never 
 yawed an inch ; and by especial Providence she 
 got to windward of that dreadful phenomenon, 
 which passed us, cloud and all, about six miles 
 astern, when as it changed color, from grayish 
 green to white, it presented a scene so sublime 
 and terrible, that " the boldest held his breath for 
 a time ;" and Antonio, who was blanched white 
 with terror, though he had frequently seen such 
 spouts in these, his native seas, assured me, with 
 chattering teeth, that he had never beheld one of 
 such magnitude ; and it was long before he could 
 be certain of our safety, and ceased to mutter, — 
 
 " O mala ventura — mala ventura ! " (literally, 
 bad luck.) 
 
 From white, the water-spout became dusky 
 purple, when a gleam of the setting sun fell on 
 it, and the waves at its base glittered in all the 
 colors of the rainbow. 
 
 " Thank heaven ! that is past," said Weston. 
 
 " Ay, sir," said old Roberts, the man-o'-war's 
 man, " it is enough to make one's hair stand on 
 end for a week." 
 
 " Had we been twenty minutes' sail astern, we 
 could not have escaped it ! " said Hislop ; " but 
 we have handled the brig beautifully. That 
 ugly Spaniard at the wheel was worth his weight 
 in gold just now ! "
 
 THE WATER-SPOUT. 145 
 
 For nearly an hour the sea was greatly agita- 
 ted ; but as the Eugenie, still braced sharp to the 
 wind, flew from one long roller to another, we 
 rapidly got into smooth water. The barometer 
 rose quickly ; the vapors dispersed ; and when 
 the setting sun gave us a parting smile from the 
 far horizon, the storm-cloud and its water-spout 
 had disappeared together, or melted away in the 
 distant sea. 
 
 The little eddies of wind, which on a fine sum- 
 mer morning may be seen whirling up the dust 
 and dry leaves in circles on a road, are exactly 
 on the same principle as those mighty phenom- 
 ena which become tornadoes, cyclones, and 
 water-spouts, when they reach the ocean, where 
 they may easily dismast and perhaps sink the 
 largest line-of-battle ship. 
 
 Those spouts rise from the sea exactly like the 
 moving pillars of sand, which the whirlwinds 
 sweep from the hot and arid deserts of Africa 
 and Arabia. 
 
 About six bells (i. e., seven p. M.), this escape 
 was followed by a dead calm, which lasted till 
 midnight, and during that time .we talked of 
 nothing but the skill with which we had got the 
 weathergage of that column of foam. As the 
 sun set, with a rapidity peculiar to these lati- 
 tudes, the brilliant tints he shed on sea and sky 
 changed with equal speed from gold to saffron, 
 
 13
 
 146 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 from these to vivid purple, and from thence to 
 the hue of sapphire. 
 
 The sensation of loneliness which the depart- 
 ure of the sun excites in the breast of a lands- 
 man at sea is peculiar ; but this was soon chased 
 from mine by the splendor of the rising moon, 
 which changed the sapphire tints of sea and sky 
 to liquid silver and the clearest blue. 
 
 Above, no cloud, nor even the tiniest shred of 
 vapor was visible. Sea blended with sky at the 
 horizon, and seemed to melt into each other, so 
 that no line was traceable. Save a planet or 
 two, twinkling with less light than usual, there 
 seemed to be no stars in heaven, for the glory of 
 the full-orbed moon eclipsed them all ; her light 
 fell brightly on the white sails of the Eugenie, 
 and in it the features of our faces were distinct 
 as at noon-day, and now it was the noon of night. 
 
 About twelve o'clock a fresh breeze sprung up, 
 and the ship's course was resumed. 
 
 " By keeping the weathergage, and beyond the 
 circle of the spout's attraction, we escaped with- 
 out shipping a drop of water ! " said Weston, for 
 the twentieth time. " Let me see how you entei 
 all this in the log, Hislop." 
 
 " It is no uncommon thing for a craft at sea to 
 be deluged by a spout of fresh water, which the 
 whirlwind has torn up from an inland lake," said 
 Hislop ; " and houses, far in-shore, have in the 
 same fashion been deluged by salt water ab- 

 
 THE WATER-SPOUT. 147 
 
 sorbed from the sea ; — and hence the showers 
 of dried herrings, of which we have heard so 
 much at times. Now, Rodney, you will perhaps 
 be surprised when I tell you, that it is the winds 
 which produce a calm like that we have had to- 
 night." 
 
 "The winds!" I reiterated, surprised at such 
 a paradox from our theorist. 
 
 " Yes. The opposition of winds will at times 
 produce a perfect calm, and then when rain falls 
 it is always gentle and equable ; but when 
 clouds seem to move against the lower winds, 
 or when streams of air denote a variety of the 
 aerial current, and consequently the approach of 
 rain " 
 
 " What strange sound is that ahead, or at 
 least, forward ? " said Weston, interrupting His- 
 lop, who would perhaps have theorized for an 
 hour. 
 
 " It is Antonio, groaning in his sleep in the 
 forecastle," said Ned Carleton, who was at the 
 wheel. 
 
 "I wish the ship were rid of him and his 
 dreams," added Hislop, testily. " Well, as I was 
 saying, when the adverse movements of the 
 clouds seem to denote " 
 
 " Light a-head ! " cried a voice from the bow. 
 
 " Is that you, Roberts ? " asked Weston, 
 while Hislop stamped with vexation at the sec- 
 ond interruption.
 
 148 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " How does it bear ? " 
 
 " East-north-east." 
 
 " Then it is Cape St. Antonio Light, the most 
 western point of Cuba," said Weston, with con- 
 fidence and pleasure in his tone. " I thought I 
 could smell the land with the first cat's paw, be- 
 fore the breeze freshened." 
 
 The light, dim and distant like a star, was now 
 seen to twinkle among the waves at the horizon. 
 
 For more than an hour I remained on deck 
 with my eyes fixed upon that feeble but increas- 
 ing beacon, which indicated a foreign shore ; 
 then I went below and turned in, with a sigh of 
 pleasure that the voyage was nearly over, and a 
 hope that when I traversed those waves again, I 
 should be on my return home — home to my 
 father and mother, to Sybil and Dot, — to the 
 old Rectory, with its shady oak-grove, its green 
 lawn, and the masses of ivy, woodbine, and 
 honeysuckle that shaded its time-worn walls
 
 CUBA. 149 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CUBA. 
 
 When day dawned we had rounded Caybo 
 San Antonio, and were running along the north- 
 ern shore of Cuba. 
 
 I was up early, by eight bells — or a little after 
 four A. M. — for I had the morning watch ; and 
 with deep interest I surveyed the coast of that 
 beautiful island, which lay about ten miles dis- 
 tant, — the first and now the last portion of that 
 vast empire beyond the seas which Columbus 
 bequeathed to Castile and Leon. 
 
 " Dat is mi country, senor," said Antonio, who 
 was at the wheel ; and this remark, with the re- 
 pulsive aspect of the Spaniard and his mysterious 
 character, served to dissipate my momentary en- 
 thusiasm. 
 
 " That is Caybo Bueno "Vista, — and the 
 breakers on the weather-bow," he continued, 
 "mark the Collorados, a long reef of rocks. 
 The blue sharks are as thick there as the stars 
 in the sky." 
 
 We were now in the Gulf of Florida. 
 
 The sk) was cloudless and blue ; and now ii 
 
 13*
 
 150 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 seemed as if the welkin above and the almost 
 waveless sea below were endeavoring to outvie 
 each other in calmness, in beauty, and in the 
 glory of their azure depths. The wind was off 
 the land and rather a-head ; but the sails were 
 trimmed to perfection, and we ran through the 
 Gulf on a taut bowline. 
 
 I have so much more to narrate than my lim- 
 ited space permits me to give in full detail, that 
 I must compress into one chapter all that relates 
 to my visit to Matanzas. 
 
 Our run through the Gulf was delightful ; and 
 on the 29th of January, just as a rosy tint was 
 stealing over all the sea and the rocky shore of 
 Cuba, after the sun had set beyond the waters 
 of the Gulf of Mexico, we saw Havana light, 
 bearing south by west, and distant about four- 
 teen miles. So we passed in the night the 
 wealthy capital of Cuba, so famed in the annals 
 of our victories — La Hubana, or the harbor — 
 of which, from our being so far to seaward, we 
 could see nothing but the great revolving light, 
 which burns so brightly on the high rock of the 
 Morro, or Castello de los Santos Reyes ; and 
 before dawn we descried the light of Santa Cruz 
 on our weather-bow. 
 
 Weston drew my attention to it, adding " that 
 is the beacon which so scared me when it shone 
 through the stern windows of the empty polacca 
 brig."
 
 CUBA. 151 
 
 Next day, the 29th, after encountering a head 
 wind, against which we tacked frequently be- 
 tween the Pan de Matanzas and the wooded 
 point of Sumberella, at ten in the morning, a 
 Spanish mulatto pilot came on board and took 
 the brig in charge. 
 
 We ran safely into the harbor, and by eleven 
 o'clock came to anchor at a place recommended 
 by Antonio, half a cable's length from the castle 
 of St, Severino. In half an hour after, the sails 
 were all unbent and stowed below, and prepara- 
 tions were made for "breaking bulk," — to un- 
 load the vessel, whose cargo, I have stated, 
 consisted of steam machinery and coals for the 
 sugar and coffee mills. 
 
 Gangs of Spanish mulattoes, negro porters, 
 and lumpers, in red shirts and white drawers, 
 with broad straw hats, and nearly all with rings 
 in their ears, came on board in quest of employ- 
 ment; and then all was confusion, garlic, dirt, 
 jabbering in Spanish and Congo, singing, swear- 
 ing, and smoking cigaritos. 
 
 I was now at liberty to go ashore, and after 
 the first bustle was over, Weston left Hislop in 
 charge of the brig and accompanied me. Ma- 
 tanzas presented nothing new to him, but I sur- 
 veyed with interest, not unmixed with wonder, 
 the New World in which I found myself. 
 
 The city of Don Carlos de Matanzas occupies 
 a gentle eminence between the rivers San Juan
 
 152 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 and Yumuri, which roll into the bay from the 
 mountainous ridge that traverses all Cuba. Its 
 name, Matanzas, signifies the place of murder, 
 because in that bay some of the Spaniards of 
 Columbus were slain by the native Indians. 
 
 Most of the houses are built of good stone, 
 but have all their windows iron-barred without 
 and barricaded within, for the population (of 
 which our shipmate Antonio was a striking 
 specimen) consists of about thirty thousand 
 olive-skinned Spaniards, and double that num- 
 ber of slaves and free mulattoes, all loose, reck- 
 less, fiery, and apt to use their knives on trivial 
 occasions. 
 
 There was not a ship lying there for England, 
 or any other craft by which Weston could have 
 sent me home. A Spanish steam-packet was 
 on the eve of departing for Cadiz ; but being 
 wearied by the monotony of my long voyage, I 
 was scarcely in a mood for the sea again, and 
 wished to spend a little time on shore instead of 
 leaving with her. 
 
 However, I wrote to my family by the Span- 
 ish mail, acquainting them of my safety — with 
 the sirange accident which had so suddenly torn 
 me from them, and adding that I would return 
 by the first ship bound for any part of England ; 
 if possible, with the Eugenie, which would prob- 
 ably be freighted for London. 
 
 After the packet sailed with my letter in her
 
 CUBA. 153 
 
 capacious bags, I experienced an emotion of 
 greater happiness and contentment than I had 
 ever done since leaving home; for the sorrow 
 which I knew all there must have suffered, 
 and would still be suffering, hung heavily on 
 my heart. 
 
 As we were returning to the brig, which had 
 now been warped alongside the mole, when 
 passing through the street which contains the 
 great hospital, we heard the sound of trumpets, 
 and saw the glittering of lances with long 
 streamers above the heads of a dense crowd of 
 people of all shades of color, black, yellow, and 
 brown ; and we had to doff our hats with due 
 respect as they passed, for in the midst, sur- 
 rounded by a staff of officers, epauletted and 
 aiguletted, their breasts sparkling with medals 
 and crosses, and each of them riding with a 
 cocked hat under his right arm, came the present 
 Captain-General of Cuba, a marshal of the 
 Spanish army, Don Francisco Serrano de Domin- 
 guez, attended by an escort of mulatto lancers, 
 all mounted on Spanish horses. 
 
 He was a fine-looking man, and though aged, 
 had all the bearing of what he was* or I should 
 say is — a grandee of Old Castile. 
 
 On returning to the Eugenie we found An- 
 tonio, the Cuban, working among the crew as 
 lustily and actively as any man on board. Wes- 
 ton now offered him remuneration for the time he
 
 154 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 had been with us, with a hint that he might find 
 a berth elsewhere ; but our castaway evinced the 
 greatest reluctance to leave the brig, and begged 
 that he might be permitted to remain on board, 
 as three of our best hands had been sent ashore 
 sick to the hospital. 
 
 So short-sighted is man, that Captain Wes- 
 ton, despite the dislike of the crew, and the 
 advice of Marc Hislop, ordered that the name of 
 Antonio be entered on the ship's books as a fore- 
 mast-man. 
 
 Three weeks after our arrival, the brig was ca- 
 reened to starboard, when clear of all the cargo, 
 and had her copper scraped and cleaned, an op- 
 eration which the constant rains of the season 
 greatly retarded. 
 
 There was much in Cuba to feed an imagina- 
 tive mind, and mine was full of the voyages, the 
 daring adventures, and the vast discoveries of 
 Columbus, with the exploits of the buccaneers, 
 whose haunts were amid these wild, and, in those 
 days, savage shores. 
 
 I thought of the gaily plumed and barbar- 
 ously armed caciques whom Columbus had met 
 in their fleet pirog-uas, or had encountered in the 
 dense forests which clothe the Cuban mountains 
 
 — forests, old, perhaps, as the days of the deluge 
 
 — of the yellow-skinned women with their long, 
 flowing black hair, and with plates of polished 
 gold hanging at their ears and noses, of the
 
 CUBA. 155 
 
 fierce warriors streaked with sable war-paint, and 
 armed with cane arrows shod with teeth or poi- 
 soned fish-bones, that fell harmless from the 
 Spanish coats of mail ; of the wild Caribs who 
 devoured their prisoners — with whom a battle 
 was but a precursor of a feast ; and of the 
 famous fighting women — the terrible Amazons 
 of Guadaloupe. 
 
 I thought of the story of Columbus writing 
 the narrative of his wonderful discoveries, his 
 perils and adventures, on a roll of parchment, 
 which he wrapped in oil-cloth covered over with 
 wax, inclosed in a little cask, and then cast into 
 the sea, with a prayer, and the hope that if he 
 and his crew perished, this record of their achieve- 
 ments might be cast by the ocean on the shore 
 of some Christian land. 
 
 As I sat by the sounding sea that rolled into 
 the bay of Matanzas, what would I not have 
 given to have seen the waves cast that old cask, 
 covered with weeds and barnacles, at my feet ! 
 
 But now the plodding steam-tug and the rusty 
 merchant trader ploughed the waters of the bay, 
 instead of the gilded Spanish caravels, or the 
 long war-piroguas of the Indian warriors ; and 
 where they fought their bloodiest battles on the 
 wooded shore, or in the green savanna, where 
 the painted cacique and the mailed Castilian met 
 hand to hand in mortal strife, the smoke of the 
 steam-mill, grinding coffee, or boiling sugar,
 
 156 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 darkened the sky, and the songs of the negroes 
 were heard as they hoed in the plantations, or in 
 gangs of forty trucked mahogany logs, each 
 drawn by eight sturdy oxen, to the sea. 
 
 And so, in a creek of the bay — the same place 
 where the Dutch Admiral Heyn sunk the Span- 
 ish plate fleet — I was wont to sit dreamily for 
 hours, with the murmur of the waves in my ears, 
 with the buzz of insects, and the voice of the 
 mocking-birds among the palmettoes, while 
 watching the sails that glided past the headlands 
 of the bay, on their way to the Bahama Chan- 
 nel, or the great Gulf of Florida. 
 
 This was my favorite resort. A wood of co- 
 coa-nut and other trees shaded the place, and 
 made it so dark that I have seen the fire-flies 
 glance about at noon. The cocoas are about 
 the height of Dutch poplars, and are covered 
 with oblong leaves, which, when young, are of a 
 pale red. As spring drew on, the branches be- 
 came covered with scarlet and yellow flowers. 
 
 Over these, the vast coral-tree spread its pro- 
 tecting foliage, whence the Spaniards, in their 
 beautiful language, name it La Madre del Co- 
 coa, the smallest of which has at times a thou- 
 sand lovely scarlet blossoms. 
 
 I
 
 AN EVIL SPIRIT. 157 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 AN EVIL SPIRIT. 
 
 We sailed from the bay of Matanzas at two 
 A. M., on the 3d of April, bound for the Cape of 
 Good Hope, which we were fated never to 
 reach. 
 
 The Eugenie had been freighted for that col- 
 ony with a rich cargo of molasses, sugar, coffee, 
 and tobacco ; and arrangements had been made 
 that from Cape Town she would be chartered 
 for London ; thus I had a fair prospect of see- 
 ing nearly a half of this terrestrial globe before I 
 repassed my good old father's threshold at 
 Erlesmere. 
 
 I earnestly hoped that we might encounter no 
 more water-spouts or tornadoes, as they were not 
 at all to my taste ; but from other causes than 
 phenomena or the war of the elements, it was 
 my fortune, or rather misfortune, to undergo such 
 peril and suffering as were far beyond my con- 
 ception or anticipation. • 
 
 By eight o'clock on the morning of our de- 
 parture, the light on Piedras Key was bearing 
 south by east, sinking into the waves astern, and 
 
 14
 
 158 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 going out as we bade a long farewell to the 
 lovely shores of Cuba. 
 
 Three of our men had died of yellow fever in 
 hospital, so we sailed from Matanzas with ten 
 able-bodied hands, exclusive of three ship-boys, 
 the captain, first and second mates. 
 
 In these waters, after the rainy season, the sky 
 is so cloudless in the forenoon that the heat of 
 the sun becomes almost insupportable ; thus we 
 were soon glad to resort to the use of windsails 
 rigged down the open skylight to an awning 
 over the quarter-deck for coolness, and to skids 
 for the prevention of blisters on the sides of the 
 brig ; but in the starry night the land-wind 
 which comes off these fertile isles, laden with the 
 rich aroma of their spice-growing savannas, is 
 beyond description grateful and delicious. 
 
 Without any incident worth recording we ran 
 through the sea of the Windward Isles, thence 
 along the coast of South America ; and when 
 we approached the calm latitudes, as that tract, 
 of ocean near the Equator is named, we became 
 sensible of the overpowering increase of heat, 
 while the breezes were but " fanning ones," as 
 the sailors term those which, under the double 
 influence of the air and motion of the hull, are 
 just sufficient to make the lighter canvas col- 
 lapse and swell again. 
 
 We were soon aware of other annoyances than 
 mere heat ; for now it seemed as if there was an
 
 AN EVIL SPIRIT. 159 
 
 evil spirit on board the Eugenie, and that noth- 
 ing went right within or about her. 
 
 The crew sulked and quarrelled among them- 
 selves as if the demon of mischief lurked in the 
 vessel, and daily something unfortunate occurred. 
 Halyards or braces gave way, by which the 
 yards were thrown aback ; and in one instance 
 the brig nearly lost her mainmast. Standing and 
 running rigging were found to be mysteriously 
 fretted, and even cut, as if by a knife ; and then 
 the crew whispered together of Antonio el Cu- 
 bano, — that horrid, dark, and mysterious fellow, 
 whose character none of us could fathom. 
 
 Twice our compasses went wrong, and re- 
 mained so for days ; and before the cause was 
 discovered, the Eugenie had drifted far from her 
 course. 
 
 This varying was inexplicable, until Hislop, 
 who set himself to watch, and frequently saw 
 Antonio hovering near the binnacle at night, un- 
 shipped the compass-box, and found there were 
 concealed near it an iron marlinspike on one 
 side, and a lump of tallow on the other, either 
 of which was sufficient to affect the magnetic 
 needle. 
 
 After their removal the compass worked as 
 well as before. The crew were strictly ques- 
 tioned; all vowed total ignorance of the transac- 
 tion, and Antonio summoned every saint in the 
 Spanish calendar to attest his innocence, but 
 none, however, appeared. The crew now felt
 
 160 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 convinced that, inspired by some emotion of 
 malice or mischief, he alone was the culprit ; and 
 if not loud, their wrath was deep against him. 
 
 These variations of our compass set the busy 
 brain of Marc Hislop to work ; and in a day or 
 two he declared that he had discovered a plan 
 for preventing the repetition of tricks so danger- 
 ous, by insulating' the needle, so as to protect the 
 compass from attractions false or dangerous. 
 
 I am uncertain whether he perfected, this ex- 
 periment, but Antonio soon went to work an- 
 other way ; for one day, when he was supposed 
 to be busy in the maintop, he shouted, " Stand 
 from under! " and ere Hislop, who was just be- 
 neath, could give the usual response, " Let go," 
 a heavy marlinspike, the same which had been 
 found in the binnacle, slipped from the hand of 
 Antonio, and fell through the topgrating. 
 
 The iron bar crashed into the deck at the feet 
 of Hislop ; whether this occurred by inadver- 
 tence or design we knew not, but the Scotsman 
 thought the latter. 
 
 " That rascally Spanish picaroon will work us 
 some serious mischief before we overhaul our 
 ground-tackle or see the Cape," said Weston, 
 who was enraged by this new incident, and the 
 narrow escape of Hislop, for whom he had a 
 great regard. 
 
 "Aye, he has a hang-dog look about him that 
 I never liked," replied the latter. " He seems to 
 be always down by the head, somehow. We
 
 AN EVIL SPIRIT. 161 
 
 should have left him in his skiff, just as we found 
 him, like a beai adrift on a grating, or a pig in a 
 washing-tub. 
 
 On another occasion he injured "Will White, 
 one of the crew, by letting the topmaul fall from 
 the foretop, where it usually lay, for driving home 
 the fid of the mast. 
 
 His dreams again became a source of annoy- 
 ance to all in the forecastle bunks ; and on being 
 closely and severely questioned by Captain "Wes- 
 ton and the men, as to whether he had ever 
 killed any one, by accident or otherwise, after 
 being long badgered, he half drew his ugly knife 
 from its shark-skin sheath, and replied, sullenly, — 
 
 " Only a Chinaman or so, when in California." 
 
 " "Well, I wish you would clap a stopper on 
 your mouth when you go to sleep, or turn in out 
 of ear-shot in a topgallant studding sail, — as 
 far off as you choose, and the further off the bet- 
 ter," said old Roberts, sulkily, after the ravings 
 of the Cubano had kept him awake for several 
 nights. 
 
 " You seem to dream a great deal, Antonio," 
 said "Weston, with a keen glance, beneath which 
 the Spaniard quailed. 
 
 " Si, Senor Capitano," he stammered. 
 
 "How is this?" 
 
 " I am very fond of dreams," he replied, with a 
 bitter smile on his lip and a scowl in his dark eye. 
 
 " Have you pleasant ones ? " 
 
 14*
 
 162 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 " I cannot say that they are always so, but I 
 should like to procure them." 
 
 " Shall ] tell you how to do so, shipmate ? " 
 
 " If you please, Senor," growled the Spaniard. 
 
 " Go to sleep, if you can, with that which is 
 better than the formula of prayers, which at 
 times you pay out like the line running off a 
 log-reel." 
 
 " And what is it you mean, mio Capitano ? " 
 
 "A good conscience" replied Weston, with a 
 peculiar emphasis. 
 
 A black scowl came over the Spaniard's 
 swarthy visage, as he touched the rim of his hat, 
 darted a furious glance at his chief accuser, the 
 white-haired seaman Roberts, and to end the 
 examination, walked forward. 
 
 Soon after this, when evening came on we 
 heard a noise in the forecastle, and the voice of 
 Hislop, exclaiming — 
 
 " Stand clear — sheer off, Antonio ! If you 
 come athwart me, I'll knock you down with a 
 handspike ! What ! you grip your knife, do 
 you ? Well, just do it again, and I'll chuck you 
 overboard like a bit of old junk." 
 
 " What is the matter now ? " said I, hastening 
 forward. 
 
 " Oh, this rascally Spanish Creole has been 
 swearing at the men again, and threatening old 
 Roberts." 
 
 "He vows, sir, he will burn the ship," said 
 Roberts, who seemed considerably excited.
 
 AN EVIL SPIRIT. 163 
 
 •' Burn the ship," reiterated Weston. " I have 
 a great mind to put him in the bilboes for the 
 remainder of the voyage." 
 
 " 'Twere best for all concerned, sir," said Tom 
 Lambourne, touching his forelock with his right 
 hand, and giving the deck a scrape with his left 
 foot ; " or set him adrift with some provisions in 
 the jolly-boat." 
 
 " Come, come, Antonio," said Weston, with 
 greater severity than I had hitherto seen ex- 
 pressed in his open and honest countenance, 
 " you must haul your wind — for some time you 
 have been going too far. I can't spare my jolly- 
 boat, and, thank heaven ! the days of marooning 
 are past among British sailors, but beware you, 
 shipmate, or the bilboes it shall be, and we have 
 a pretty heavy pair below. And as for you, 
 Marc Hislop," he added, in a low voice, when 
 we walked aft, " take care of yourself, for these 
 Spanish Creoles are as slippery and treacherous 
 as serpents." 
 
 " I'll keep my weather eye open,"said Hislop. 
 
 " You will require to do so, I think." 
 
 " You do ? " exclaimed the Scotsman, with 
 growing anger. " If he proceeds thus, I'll break 
 either his heart or his neck." 
 
 Next morning, Roberts the old man-o'-war's 
 man, who had always been Antonio's chief ac- 
 cuser concerning his dreams, was nowhere to be 
 found on board !
 
 164 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 AJ1 the hands were turned up ; the whole brig 
 was searched, the forecastle berths, the cable- 
 tier, and every place below from the fore to the 
 after peak, but there was no trace of Roberts, 
 save his old tarpaulin- hat, lying crushed and 
 torn in the lee scuppers. 
 
 He was last seen when turned up to take the 
 middle watch, which extends from twelve to four 
 o'clock a. M., and Antonio was then in his ham- 
 mock. 
 
 Roberts was entered in the log as " having fal- 
 len overboard in the night ; " but his loss cast a 
 terrible gloom over all in the ship. Suspicion 
 grew apace, and seemed to become confirmed, 
 as open war was soon declared between the 
 crew and Antonio. 
 
 Every man was ready to take his " trick " at 
 the wheel, rather than trust the Eugenie to his 
 steering in the night, lest he might let her broach 
 to, and lose her spars, or do some other mischief ; 
 and no man, if he could avoid it, would lay out 
 on the yard beyond him. No man would walk 
 on the same side of the deck with him, or ex- 
 change a word, or a light for a pipe, or use the 
 same cup or plate ; so he was generally to be 
 seen, leaning moodily and alone, against the 
 windlass-bitts, with his black eyes fixed on the 
 horizon, as if he expected a sail or something 
 else to heave in sight. 
 
 We shall soon see how all this ended.
 
 WE CROSS THE LINE. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 WE CROSS THE LINE. 
 
 We were now in the latitudes of burning days, 
 of starry nights, and bright blue seas. The 
 winds were light, and, as usual near the line, 
 there was a tremendous swell upon the ocean, 
 which rose in long and slowly-heaving hills, with- 
 out foam or ripple — smooth, glassy, and with- 
 out sound. 
 
 On a lovely night, when the ocean seemed to 
 sleep in the moonshine, we crossed the equator. 
 
 The Eugenie was running with the lee clews 
 eased off — i. e. t with a flowing sheet — when 
 Father Neptune came on board, and the usual 
 unpleasant pranks were played on those who had 
 never passed the girdle of the world before. 
 
 Great preparations had been in progress all 
 day in the forecastle, and these were perfected 
 under cloud of night. All the crew were on 
 deck save Antonio, who turned in, having prob- 
 ably a dread of what was about to ensue, and 
 knowing that he was any thing but a favorite. 
 
 Accompanied by the shouts of the crew, and 
 preceded by Will White, playing " Rule Brilan-
 
 166 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 nia" on a violin, old Father Neptune was drawn 
 on a species of hurdle aft to the quarter-deck, 
 where Weston stood ready to receive him, with 
 his hat in one hand, and a case-bottle of brandy 
 in the other. 
 
 Under an old swab, which had been well dried 
 and curled to make a wig for the son of Saturn 
 and Vesta, I recognized the grotesquely-tattooed 
 visage of my friend Tom Lambourne. A cut- 
 lass was stuck in his girdle, and he wore a huge 
 paunch of canvas stuffed with oakum. 
 
 In a gown made by the sailmaker, Ned Carl- 
 ton officiated as Amphitrite ; and both deities 
 were armed with harpoons, as emblems of their 
 dominion over the sea. 
 
 The attendant Tritons were got up in the 
 same fashion, and all wore false noses of singu- 
 lar size and great brilliance, with tow wigs, and 
 long tails. 
 
 On Neptune and his goddess receiving a dram, 
 and questioning the captain about his crew, it 
 was discovered that Antonio and I, were the 
 only two on board who had never crossed the 
 line before ; whereupon the Tritons whooped and 
 danced as they laid violent hands on me. I sub- 
 mitted to the usual shaving and so forth with a 
 good grace, and compounded, to avoid other an- 
 noyances, for two bottles of brandy, and ascend- 
 ing to the main-cross-trees, without going through 
 the lubber's hole. But for the Cubano there was
 
 WE CROSS THE LINE. 167 
 
 neither ransom, escape, or outlet ; and the poor 
 wretch, in consequence of his mysterious antece- 
 dents, was very roughly handled, the more so 
 that he had threatened to use his knife if mo- 
 lested. 
 
 It was soon trundled out of his hand by one 
 body of Tritons, while another soused him well 
 with salt water, as he was conveyed past the 
 long boat, which was lashed amidships, and in 
 which they were stationed with buckets ready 
 rilled. 
 
 Held fast on every side, he was brought before 
 the " goddess-born " and inexorable monarch of 
 -4ie main, who ordered " the Lord Chief Barber 
 at once to shave him." 
 
 Now, as Antonio had rather a luxuriant beard 
 and moustache, the plentiful application thereto 
 of a compound of tar and slush, such as we used 
 for greasing the masts, was the reverse of agreea- 
 ble ; but the stern orders of Neptune, which were 
 bellowed hoarsely through a tin trumpet, were 
 faithfully and elaborately obeyed, and the con- 
 tents of a dirty iron-pot were smeared over the 
 cheeks, beard, and mouth of the Cubano, by 
 Billy, a mishievous shipboy, with an unsparing 
 hand. 
 
 " Demonio ! Maldita ! " were heard at inter- 
 vals, and greeted with laughter ; but when he at- 
 tempted to storm, or swear, the brush — a reek- 
 ing tuft of oil, tar, and every horrid grease — was 
 thrust into his mouth.
 
 168 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 The Lord Chief Barber was now commanded 
 to remove this noisome mess with his razor, and 
 he scraped it off with a piece of hoop, which had 
 been carefully notched for the purpose — a pro- 
 cess which, as it uprooted sundry thick portions 
 of Antonio's coal-black bristles, caused him to 
 yell and sputter out hoarse Spanish oaths alter- 
 nately. 
 
 He was again deluged with salt water ; and 
 greater severities were about to be practised upon 
 him, as some of the Tritons cried for " the ghost 
 of Roberts to come out of the sea ; " others, to 
 " smoke him, by putting his head in the hood of 
 the cook's funnel," when Weston ransomed him 
 for two bottles of brandy, and he was permitted 
 to slink away to his bunk, breathing vengeance 
 against all his tormentors. 
 
 Grog was again served round, the deck was 
 cleared for a dance, and the crew footed the 
 hours away in a succession of hornpipes, while 
 the grim Cubano lay growling in the forecastle. 
 Three cheers for the Captain, and three more for 
 Marc Hislop, terminated the fun, and all but the 
 watch retired below. 
 
 " They have gone too far with that fellow, as 
 some of us may discover before the voyage comes 
 to a close," said Hislop, when we were having a 
 parting glass in the cabin. 
 
 " Yes," replied Weston ; " he is a dark dog, 
 and though I am not very rich, I would give a
 
 WE CROSS THE LINE. 169 
 
 hundred pounds to fathom the mystery of old 
 Robert's disappearance. Well, here's to our 
 wives and sweethearts at home." 
 
 " I have neither sweetheart nor wife," said 
 Hislop, as he tossed off his glass ; " but I have a 
 poor old mother who loves me as well as either 
 could do." 
 
 Weston's eye wandered to the portraits of his 
 wife and child, to whom he was tenderly at- 
 tached, and for whom all his savings, by salary, 
 tonnage, and hat-money,* were carefully hoarded; 
 for whom, poor fellow, he tempted the dangers 
 of the great deep, the war of the elements, and 
 endured the hardships of a sailor's life — his wife, 
 his little one, and their home — " his all ; his 
 sheet-anchor in this world, and his guide to the 
 next," as I once heard him say, forcibly and 
 strangely. 
 
 * Primage, or " hat-money," is a small allowance paid to the 
 master of a vessel for the care he takes of the goods with which 
 she is laden. 
 
 15
 
 J 70 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE CUBANO UNMASKED. 
 
 As we kept the coast of South America well 
 aboard, a few days after we saw Cape San 
 Roque, or, as it is sometimes named, Point Pe- 
 linga, the north-eastern extremity of Brazil, rising 
 from the blue water like a purple cloud. But it 
 diminished to a low black streak on our weather 
 quarter when the sun set, and we found our- 
 selves ploughing the waves of the Southern At- 
 lantic. 
 
 There fell a calm for a whole day after this, 
 and while the Eugenie rolled lazily on the long 
 glassy swells, with her topsails flapping, and her 
 courses hauled up, the sole amusement of the 
 crew consisted in catching albatrosses, or in kill- 
 ing them, undeterred by the old superstition that 
 it was a bird of " good omen," or by the story of 
 the " Ancient Mariner," of which they were 
 probably ignorant. 
 
 A flock of these gigantic sea-birds congregated 
 under our stern, where they gobbled up every 
 thing that was thrown over to them ; so Hislop 
 and I proceeded nethodically to fish them on 
 board.
 
 TIIE CUBANO UNMASKED. 171 
 
 We procured strong lines, baited the hooks 
 with pieces of pork, lashing thereto a buoy- 
 formed of a common cork, and lowered four of 
 these over the stern. 
 
 They had scarcely touched the water, when 
 amid a furious flapping of heavy pinions, they 
 were eagerly swallowed ; the hooks and lines be- 
 gan to bear taully, and we soon had four gigan- 
 tic albatrosses splashing the water into froth in 
 their ineffectual efforts to escape. 
 
 We towed them in, hand over hand, and after 
 measurement found the smallest to be eleven 
 feet from the tip of one wing to the tip of the 
 other. Though rank and fishy in flavor, the 
 flesh of these birds was made into sea-pies, on 
 which the crew were regaled for two days after, 
 and they partook of it with great apparent relish. 
 But Jack is not very particular, especially when 
 at sea. 
 
 Though none of the crew shared the supersti- 
 tion connected with the destruction of an alba- 
 tross, and probably none, save Hislop and my- 
 self, knew the splendid ballad written by Cole- 
 ridge, it would seem as if our misfortunes com- 
 menced with that day's wanton sport ! 
 
 The huge sea-birds became shy and left us. 
 The sun set amid saffron-colored waves, and the 
 western sky was all aflame, when the sails be- 
 gan to fill and collapse as the wind came in 
 heavy cuffs, causing the masts to sway from
 
 172 DICK RCDNEY. 
 
 side to side, and the bellying courses to ?rack 
 and flap with a sound like thunder. 
 
 At last there came a steady breeze ; the 
 courses were let fall, and with both sheets aft, 
 for the wind was fair, the Eugenie once more 
 walked through the shining water. 
 
 tull, round, and silvery the moon arose, and 
 tipped with liquid light every wave, that seemed 
 to dance onward with the brig, which in half an 
 hour had the snow-white foam flying in sheets 
 over her catheads. 
 
 It was about the hour of one in the morning 
 that the horrible events which I am about to re- 
 late occurred. 
 
 I was in the middle watch, relieving Weston, 
 who, as the tropical dews were heavy, always 
 ordered Billy the cabin boy to give me a glass 
 of brandy-and-water before going on deck, for 
 fear of ague, and then he turned in. 
 
 The sullen Spaniard Antonio was at the wheel. 
 Tom Lambourne, Ned Carlton, and I, were walk- 
 ing to and fro, loitering at times, and looking at 
 the compass to see how she headed, — now aloft 
 to observe how the sails drew, —anon over the 
 Bide, where the water bubbled merrily past, or 
 ahead at the patch of blue and star-studded sky 
 which was visible under the leach of the fore- 
 course, as the brig's bow lifted every now and 
 then, and she rolled heavily from side to side, as 
 all vessels do when running before the wind.
 
 THE CTJBANO UNMASKED. 173 
 
 All was very still, for save the bubble of the 
 water in the wake astern, or a gurgle as it surged 
 up in the rudder-case, the creaking of a block, or 
 the iron slings of the lower yards, not a sound 
 stole upon the first hour of the silent morning. 
 
 Two of the albatrosses we had caught, were 
 hanging by the legs from the gallows-top abaft 
 the foremast, where their great extended wings 
 swung somewhat mournfully to and fro in the 
 wind and by the motion of the ship. 
 
 " Hallo ! " said Tom Lambourne, suddenly 
 looking aloft, as the topsails flapped and shiv- 
 ered ; " she's yawing or steering wild ; what is 
 that Spaniard about ? " 
 
 " But where is he?" added Carlton, as we now 
 missed Antonio from the wheel ; " Antonio, 
 where are you ? " 
 
 " Gone overboard, I hope," exclaimed the sec- 
 ond mate, with something more that need not be 
 repeated, as he rushed to the wheel, and after 
 making it revolve a few turns rapidly, he filled 
 the sails and steadied the brig. This was done 
 just in time, for the Eugenie had a press of can- 
 vas on her, and had she been taken aback, the 
 consequences might have been most serious. 
 
 " Look about for the skulking lubber," said 
 Lambourne, in great wrath, " and souse him well 
 with a slush-bucket ; another moment and the 
 craft would have broached to ! " 
 
 15*
 
 174 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " He must have crept behind the longboat, and 
 got into the forecastle," suggested Carlton. 
 
 " I'll bring him up with a round turn for play- 
 ing this trick ! " grumbled Lambourne. 
 
 " Hush," said I, as a strange sound fell upon 
 my ear. 
 
 " What is it? " asked the others, listening. 
 
 " A cry ! — did you not hear it ? " 
 
 " No, — nonsense ! " said they, together. 
 
 " It was a cry that came from somewhere." 
 
 " I did hear something," said Will W T hite ; 
 " but it was a sheave creaking in a block aloft, 
 I think." 
 
 " No, no," said I, pausing just by the capstan, 
 as a terrible foreboding seized me ; " it came 
 from the cabin." 
 
 " There is no one there but the Captain, His- 
 lop, and the boy Bill, who sleeps in the steerage, 
 and they are all three sound enough by this 
 time," said Lambourne. 
 
 " But the sound was from the cabin," I per- 
 sisted, hastening aft. 
 
 At that moment another cry, loud and piteous, 
 — a cry that sank into a hoarse moan, echoed 
 through the brig, " piercing the night's dull ear," 
 and ringing high above the welter of the sea 
 alongside, the bubble at the stem and stern, or 
 the hum of the wind through the taut rigging. 
 
 We all rushed aft to the companion, and at 
 that instant Antonio sprang up the cabin stair.
 
 THE CUBANO UNMASKED. 175 
 
 By the clear splendor of the tropical moonlight, 
 we could see that his usually swarthy visage was 
 pale as death, while his black eyes blazed like two 
 burning coals. He grasped his unsheathed knife, 
 the blade of which, as well as his hands and 
 clothes, were covered with blood ! 
 
 My heart grew sick with vague apprehension, 
 and my first thought was for a weapon ; but 
 none was near. 
 
 " What have you been about, you rascally 
 picaroon, — and why did you leave the wheel ?" 
 shouted Lambourne, becoming greatly excited ; 
 "the masts might have gone by the board, — 
 what devil's work have you been after below ? " 
 
 Then the dark Spanish creole grinned, as the 
 blood dripped from his hands on the white and 
 moonlit deck. 
 
 " Knock him down with a handspike, Carlton," 
 added Lambourne, who could not leave the 
 wheel ; " knock him down, — the shark-faced 
 swab ! " 
 
 On hearing this, Antonio drew from his breast 
 a revolver pistol, one of a pair which we knew 
 always hung loaded in Weston's cabin, and fired 
 straight at the head of Carlton, who dodged the 
 shot, which killed the seaman, named Will 
 White, who stood behind him. 
 
 The ball pierced the brain of the poor fellow, 
 who bounded convulsively, nearly three feet from 
 the deck ; he fell heavily on his face, and never
 
 176 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 moved again, for he was dead, — dead as a 
 stone ! 
 
 hi its suddenness, this terrible deed paralyzed 
 us with horror, not unmixed with fear, as we 
 were all unarmed and completely in the power 
 of this Spanish demon, the report of whose pis 
 tol brought all the startled crew, tumbling over 
 each other, out of the forecastle. 
 
 " Aha, maldita! Santos y Angeles ! " said the 
 Spaniard, waving the pistol, the muzzle of which 
 yet smoked, toward us in a half circle, as a warn- 
 ing for all to stand back ; " did you think to run 
 your rigs upon me ? I am Antonio el Cubano, 
 and don't value you all a rope's-end or a rotten 
 castano, as you shall find. I am now the cap- 
 tain of this ship, and shall force you all to obey 
 me, or else " — here he swore one of those son- 
 orous and blasphemous oaths which run so glibly 
 from a Spanish tongue — "I will shoot you all 
 in succession, till I am the last man left on board ; 
 and when I am tired of the ship I can burn or 
 scuttle her. Do you understand all this ? " 
 
 Dead silence followed this strange address, the 
 half of which was scarcely understood by ou. 
 men, as it was said in Spanish. 
 
 " Basta ! " (avast) " I see that you do under- 
 stand," he resumed ; " and now begin by obedi 
 ence. Throw this carrion — this bestia muerta 
 — overboard." 
 
 But perceiving how we all shrunk back, —
 
 THE CTJBANO UNMASKED. 177 
 
 u Overboard with him," he added, brutally 
 kicking the inanimate body of poor Will White ; 
 "or demonio, I shall send the first who disobeys 
 me to keep him company ! " 
 
 He grasped me by the arm ,* his hateful clutch 
 was firm as a smith's vice ; and then he levelled 
 his pistol at the head of Ned Carlton. 
 
 For a moment the latter stood irresolute, and 
 then seeing the black muzzle of the revolver 
 within a foot of his head, he muttered a deep 
 malediction, stamped his foot with rage on the 
 deck, and said, — 
 
 " Mr. Rodney, bear a hand with me to launch 
 this murdered man, — this poor fellow over- 
 board ! " 
 
 " Obey ! " thundered Antonio. 
 
 Like one in a dream I bent over the dead 
 man, on whose pale face, glazed eyes, and re- 
 laxed jaw, the bright moonlight was shining, and 
 in my excitement and bewilderment, I nearly 
 slipped and fell in the pool of blood which flowed 
 from his death wound. 
 
 I had never touched a corpse before, and an 
 irrepressible shudder ran through all my veins. 
 But that emotion once over, I could have han- 
 dled a dozen, with perhaps indifference ; and 
 there are few who, after touching the dead, have 
 not experienced this change of feeling. 
 
 Ned Carlton, with a sound like a sob in his 
 honest breast — a sob of mingled rage and
 
 178 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 commiseration — raised the yet warm body ; I 
 took the feet, and through one of the quarter- 
 boards, which was open," we launched it into the 
 great deep, and as the brig flew on, rolling before 
 the early morning wind, there remained no trace 
 of poor Will White but his blood, a dark pool 
 upon the deck ; and the crew stood staring at it 
 and at each other with blank irresolution, hor- 
 ror, and dismay expressed in all their faces. 
 
 Empty-handed and defenceless as we all were, 
 each was afraid to speak or act, lest he might be 
 the next victim whom the merciless Cubano 
 would shoot down. 
 
 With a growl of defiance Antonio now turned 
 away, and brandishing the revolver in token of 
 the obedience he meant to exact, he descended 
 slowly into the cabin, where we soon heard him 
 smashing open the lockers, and busy with the 
 case-bottles in the steward's locker, or Billy the 
 cabin-boy's pantry. 
 
 His departure seemed a relief to all, but in 
 half a minute after he was gone below, little 
 Billy, or " boy Bill," as he was usually termed, 
 whose sleeping place was the steerage, rushed 
 up the cabin stair in his shirt, and ran among us, 
 sobbing with fear and dismay.
 
 CONFERENCE OF THE CREW. 17J) 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 CONFERENCE OF THE CREW. 
 
 Some time elapsed before the poor boy became 
 sufficiently coherent to be understood, but it 
 would seem that on hearing the first cry, which 
 had alarmed me, he sprang out of his berth, 
 which was at the foot of the companionway, and 
 on looking into the cabin, he saw by the night 
 lamp which swung in the skylight, the Cubano 
 armed with a bloody knife, rush from the cap- 
 tain's state-room into that of the mate, which 
 was opposite. 
 
 Another choking cry acquainted him that An- 
 tonio had stabbed Hislop in his sleep ; and fear- 
 ing that his own turn would come next, he had 
 crept into an empty cask which lay below the 
 companion-ladder, and remained there, trembling 
 with dread, until he took an opportunity of rush- 
 ing on deck and joining us. 
 
 This terrible revelation added to our dismay. 
 
 We were now in a desperate predicament, 
 without a captain or mate to navigate the brig, 
 and at the mercy of a well-armed desperado, to 
 whom homicide was a pastime ; thus, all who had
 
 180 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 handled him so severely on the night we crossed 
 the line began to feel no small degree of alarm 
 for their own safety, being certain that more 
 blood would be shed the moment he came on 
 deck. 
 
 All dressed themselves with the utmost expe- 
 dition, and it was resolved to hold a council of 
 war. Lambourne was still at the wheel ; and to 
 be prepared for any emergency, he resolved to 
 reduce the canvas on the brig. So the royals 
 were sent down, all studding-sails taken in, 
 and the topsails were handed : all this was done 
 as quietly as possible, lest any sound might 
 rouse the fiend who seemed now to possess the 
 Ei/genie. 
 
 Lambourne ventured to peep down the sky- 
 light, when he saw Antonio drinking brandy 
 from a case-bottle, without troubling himself 
 with a glass. Then the Spaniard proceeded to 
 attire himself in the best clothes of Captain 
 Weston ; he forced open several lockfast places, 
 and took from them money and jewelry, which 
 he concealed about his person. What his ulti- 
 mate object could be in performing these acts of 
 plunder on the open sea, we could neither con 
 ceive nor divine, but on chancing to glance up- 
 ward, he caught a glimpse of Tom's eyes peering 
 down. 
 
 There was an explosion, a crashing of glass, 
 and a ball from a revolver, fired upward, grazed
 
 CONFERENCE OF THE CREW. 181 
 
 Tom's left ear and pierced the rim of his sou'- 
 wester as a hint that our Cubano had no inten- 
 tion of being overlooked in his operations 
 below. 
 
 We heard him close the cabin door with a 
 bang, and after locking it, throw himself on the 
 floor behind it, with the intention of sleeping 
 probably, but with the full resolution that no 
 one should enter without disturbing him ; and 
 in this way, after examining his pistols, he 
 reposed every night afterwards while on board. 
 
 " By jingo ! I thought the killing o' them 
 birds would lead to bad luck somehow," said 
 Henry Warren, an old foremast man, with a 
 reproachful glance at me, as he threw the two 
 albatrosses overboard. 
 
 We now held a solemn conference to meet the 
 emergency which was certain to come anon, and 
 to consider the best means of subduing and dis- 
 arming the culprit. 
 
 " Whoever goes nigh him in the cabin, either 
 by the door or the skylight, risks being stabbed 
 or shot," said Tattooed Tom ; " so we must go 
 to work some other way, shipmates, and that 
 other way must be considered." 
 
 " We might close and batten the skylight and 
 companion, and then starve or smoke him out," 
 suggested one of the crew, Francis Probart, our 
 carpenter. 
 
 " Smoke him out ? " echoed Tom. 
 
 16
 
 182 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Yes, as we do rats." 
 
 " By what ? " 
 
 " Fill a bucket with spun-yarn, and greased 
 flax, with sulphur and bilge-water — ain't that 
 the medical compound for rats " 
 
 " Nonsense," said Tom ; " you would burn the 
 chip " 
 
 " As he has often threatened to do," said 
 Carlton, " and may do yet." 
 
 A most extraordinary scheme was proposed by 
 one man, that we should launch the longboat, 
 throw into her some bags of bread and gang- 
 casks of water, unship the compass, double-bank 
 the oars, and shove off for the coast of South 
 America, after scuttling the brig and leaving 
 Antonio to his fate. 
 
 "We were in a horrible state of perplexity, and 
 I seemed to see constantly before me the gashed 
 bodies of my two kind, brave, and hospitable 
 friends — Captain Weston and Marc Hislop — 
 lying in their berths dead and unavenged, with 
 their destroyer beside them ! 
 
 We had the capstan-bars, and with these it 
 was proposed to assail him when next he came 
 on deck. Then we had the carpenter's tools, 
 among which a hand-saw, an auger, an adze, and 
 a hatchet, made very available weapons, and 
 these, with the old cutlass and harpoons which 
 figured on the night we crossed the line, were 
 speedily appropriated. I was armed with a
 
 CONFERENCE OF THE CREW. 183 
 
 heavy jlaw-hammer, and, vowing firmly to stand 
 b} each other, we resolved to lynch Antonio the 
 moment he came out of his den. 
 
 While we were thus employed in devising the 
 means of punishment, the dark shadows of night 
 passed away ; the morning sun came up in his 
 tropical splendor, and the blue waves of the 
 southern sea rolled around us in light, but not a 
 sail was visible on their vast expanse. 
 
 The crew seemed pale and excited, as they 
 might well be, and by buckets of water we 
 cleansed the deck from the blood that stained it. 
 
 The morning advanced into noon, and the 
 vessel was steered her due course, for the wind 
 was still fair. Ned Carlton was at the wheel, 
 and the men were all grouped forward, when 
 suddenly Antonio appeared on deck with a knife 
 in his sash and a revolver in each hand. 
 
 He was so pale that his olive face seemed 
 almost a pea-green, and a black crust upon his 
 cruel lips showed the extent of his potations in 
 the cabin. He glanced into the binnacle, and 
 perceiving that the brig was still being steered 
 her old course, he cried, in a hoarse voice, — 
 
 " Hombres, allegarse a la cuesta ! " (men, bear 
 toward the land), and pointing to the direction 
 in which he knew the vast continent of South 
 America — from which we were probably four 
 or five hundred miles distant — must be, he 
 added orders in English to shape the brig's
 
 184 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 course due west, and stamped his right foot on 
 the deck to give his words additional force. 
 
 He took us so suddenly by surprise, that, al- 
 though we had been waiting and watching for 
 him since dawn, his resolute aspect and the arms 
 he wielded controlled us all, and we stared at 
 each other with irresolution in our purpose and 
 in our faces. No man, apparently, cared to act 
 as leader. 
 
 " Presto ! " roared the Cubano ; " obey and 
 keep quiet, or, demonio ! as there are so many, 
 I have a great mind to shoot one half, that I may 
 be able to control the rest. Cast loose those top- 
 sails, and up with the royals again — set the fly- 
 ing-gib, and main trysail — quick, perros, or I'll 
 make shark's meat of some more of you ! " 
 
 The crew seemed to lack either resolution or 
 the power of combination, and no man appeared 
 anxious to incur the sure penalty of instant 
 ■death by acting in opposition to his peremptory 
 orders in setting an example to the rest. So, 
 sullenly and silently the sail trimmers stood by 
 *he tacks and braces; the wheel revolved in the 
 unwilling hands of Ned Carlton, who was com- 
 pelled to obey, for the cold muzzle of a six-bar- 
 relled revolver, capped and cocked, was held close 
 to his left temple. 
 
 The head of the Eugenie payed off in obedi- 
 ence to her helm, the yards swung round and 
 were braced sharp up ; and with the starboard
 
 CONFERENCE OF THE CREW. 135 
 
 tacks on board, in three minutes we were steer- 
 ing as due westward as her head would lie for 
 the coast of South America. 
 
 This alteration of our course furnished the 
 crew with a new source of speculation. It was 
 evidently the intention of Antonio, if he could 
 reach the coast of Seguro, or that of Bahia, to 
 escape with all his valuables and his vengeance ; 
 and to this end, if ships passed without succoring 
 or overhauling us, and if we did not destroy him, 
 he might certainly destroy us, by scuttling the 
 brig, or setting her on fire. 
 
 The noon passed over without an " observa- 
 tion," for there was no one to work it, to esti- 
 mate the latitude or longitude, to keep a reckon- 
 ing, or take note of our variation and leeway ; 
 and lest we should signal any passing ship, An- 
 tonio, who was a most thoughtful scoundrel, 
 threw every color we had overboard. He did 
 not come on deck again for some time, as he 
 had plenty of spirits and provisions below, and 
 the tell-tale compass in the skylight afforded him 
 constant information as to whether the brig was 
 teered in the direction he wished. 
 
 He was constantly drinking, but never became 
 so intoxicated as to be unwary. 
 
 And so the fated brig glided over the hot sea, 
 under the blazing sun. The albatrosses came 
 round us again, with tripping feet, flapping 
 wings, and open bills ; but no one molested them
 
 186 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 now — we had other things to think of; and as 
 I sat on the anchor stock in the weather bow, 
 watching them floating in the water, or skim- 
 ming over it with their vast wings outspread, I 
 thought of the " Ancient Mariner," and all that 
 he had suffered for killing "the bird of good 
 omen." 
 
 I felt a strange dread creeping over me while 
 these verses seemed on my tongue — they were 
 so descriptive of the atmosphere and of our situ- 
 ation : 
 
 "All in a hot and copper sky, 
 The bloody sun at noon, 
 Right up above the mast did stand, 
 No bigger than the moon. 
 
 * # * # 
 
 " I closed my lids, and kept them close, 
 And the balls like pulses beat, 
 For the sea and sky, and the sea and sky, 
 Lay like a load on my weary eye, 
 And the dead were at my feet."
 
 I CONFRONT THE CUBANO. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 I CONFRONT THE CUBANO. 
 
 From the wild thoughts and fancies which the 
 horrors of that early morning, our strange situa- 
 tion, and my own rather active imagination, 
 were suggesting, I was roused by Ned Carlton, 
 who, on being relieved from the wheel, came 
 forward to the bows, where most of the crew 
 were seated on the windlass, or were lounging 
 against the bitts, speculating on what might turn 
 up next. 
 
 In an excited and impressive manner, he reported 
 that he had heard, from time to time, the sound 
 of moans, as from some one in great pain in the 
 cabin ; that he believed that either the captain or 
 mate yet survived ; and if we could get down by 
 any means we might be in time to save one or 
 other. If he was bleeding to death, the victim 
 could not last long, — a little time, and we should 
 be too late ! 
 
 This information increased our anxiety, and 
 greatly excited us. 
 
 Remembering the manner in which Antonio first 
 came on board — the mystery of his being alone
 
 188 DICK RODNEr. 
 
 in the blood-stained boat — his dreams — the 
 disappearance of Roberts — the occurrences of 
 the morning — and though last not least, the 
 rough treatment to which the crew had subjected 
 him on the night we passed the line, — none 
 were very willing to enter the cabin where thi 
 savage Cubano, Hushed with brandy, bloodshed, 
 and ferocity, sat with loaded pistols in his hands. 
 But all felt that something must be done ; that, 
 while a doubt remained, it should be solved, and 
 a life so important to us saved, even though 
 others be risked for it. 
 
 I volunteered to become the envoy of the 
 crew. 
 
 " No, no, Master Rodney," said Tattooed 
 Tom ; " this will never do ! What, do you think 
 we will let you venture into that murderer's 
 den while so many able-bodied fellows hang 
 astern ? " 
 
 " But I know his language, which none of you 
 do." 
 
 " He speaks the Queen's English now as well 
 as any of us," said Carlton ; " and if I had only 
 a pistol or a musket to give me but one chance 
 for my life, I would have made it speak to him 
 long ago, in the lingo such pirates know best." 
 
 " Moreover, as I did not molest him on the 
 night we crossed the line, he has no particular 
 grudge at me," I urged. 
 
 " There is eome sense and truth in that," mut- 
 tered several of the crew.
 
 I CONFRONT THE CUBANO. 189 
 
 "Til go — it is settled," said I, anxious to 
 solve the mystery of the groans, while feeling a 
 glow of triumph at the applause I should gain 
 for the risk I ran, which assuredly was not a 
 small one. 
 
 " It is a shame for us lubberly fellows to stand 
 by here and see that lad risk his life,'" said Pro- 
 bart, one of the crew ; " and if so be that Creole 
 picaroon falls foul of him " 
 
 " If he does," exclaimed Tom Lambourne 
 through his firmly set teeth, while striking his 
 clenched right hand on the hard palm of the left, 
 " may I never see England again if we don't 
 attack him both at stem and stern at once ! I'll 
 * drop down the skylight, with as many as will 
 follow me, while you, Ned, will dash down the 
 companionway with the rest, and then at him 
 with hatchet, handsaw, and capstan-bar. He 
 can't kill us all, shipmates, that's one comfort — 
 he can't kill us all ! " 
 
 The prospect of an early demise was neither 
 soothed nor encouraged by this promise of the 
 bloody scene that was to follow. 
 
 The carpenter gave me a small but very sharp 
 tomahawk. I concealed it in my breast, and 
 resolved to use it to some purpose if molested in 
 the cabin. The idea flashed upon me that by 
 one determined blow I might disable him for- 
 ever, and perhaps do an act of justice by dis^ 
 patching him outright.
 
 190 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 With a vague sense that I was about to face 
 a terrible danger, and that the sooner it was faced 
 and past, the better, I walked hastily aft, and on 
 descending the companion-ladder, paused when 
 half-way down, and after knocking on the bulk- 
 head called out distinctly and boldly, — 
 
 " Antonio ! Hallo, Cubano ! " 
 
 " Well, what do you want ? " asked he, sulk- 
 
 ay. 
 
 " To speak with you ; may I come down ? " 
 
 " Enter companero ; you have not yet harmed 
 me, thus I bear you no malice/' 
 
 Putting a hand in my breast to ascertain that 
 my little hatchet was secure, I entered the cabin, 
 where the Cubano, with his broad back placed ., 
 against the rudder-case, was seated on the stern- 
 locker at the table, which he had covered with 
 bottles, biscuits, cheese, and polonies, while pa- 
 pers, dockets, broken desks and boxes, lay scat- 
 tered about him. He was clad, as I have stated, 
 in the poor skipper's best shore-going suit of 
 clothes, which he wore open and loose, for the 
 atmosphere of the cabin, notwithstanding the 
 shattered skylight, was oppressively hot, as the 
 sun was now almost vertical ; the flies were in 
 noisy swarms, and the cockroaches were crawl- 
 ing over all the beams and bulkhead panels. 
 
 On first hearing a foot on the companion-lad- 
 der, he had evidently snatched up a revolver, and 
 cocked it; but on finding that his visitor was
 
 I CONFRONT THE CUBANO. 191 
 
 only me, he put it down, threw away the fag-end 
 of a cigarito, and said, wth a ferocious grin and 
 ironical politeness, — 
 
 " Buenos dias (a good day), senor ; to what 
 am I indebted for this visit ? " 
 
 It was the first time I had ever looked in the 
 face of a man who had coolly destroyed a fellow- 
 being as he had done, and my flesh seemed to 
 creep with an indescribable loathing ; but I had 
 a purpose to achieve, and determined to do it. 
 
 I was about to enter "Weston's state-room, 
 when the Cubano cocked his revolver and cried, 
 in a voice of thunder, — 
 
 " Come back, or I will shoot you as dead as 
 he is ! Ha, ha ! por grados " (by degrees) " I 
 shall get rid of you all." 
 
 I paused and looked at him ; my young heart 
 beat wildly; I felt that I was facing death, and 
 what would I not have given had my hatchet 
 been a pistol, even with one barrel, though my 
 opponent was master of twelve charges. 
 
 " He is dead then ? " said I, in a husky voice. 
 
 « Who — which ? " asked the Cubano, with a 
 fresh cigarito between his strong white teeth. 
 
 " Captain Weston." 
 
 " Aye, dead as Judas ! " said he, laughing 
 hoarsely. 
 
 "But I understand that Hislop — " I stam- 
 mered. 
 
 " El contra-maestre — well 1 "
 
 192 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 At that moment, a low moan which went 
 through my heart, came from the state-room or 
 little side cabin of Mark Hislop. 
 
 " Well, hombre, what of him ? " growled An- 
 tonio. 
 
 " He is bleeding to death, and I wish to re 
 move him." 
 
 " Do as you please, he will be food for the fish 
 before the sun sets." 
 
 " You will allow me to take him on deck ? " 
 said I, earnestly, almost imploringly. 
 
 " Yes; you have done me no harm ; " (he re- 
 peated this very often) "woe to those who have 
 done so ! " 
 
 A gleam of suspicion flashed in the eyes of 
 Antonio as he said — 
 
 " True ; but not a man shall enter here, and 
 leave alive. The ship-boys may assist you ; but 
 I will shoot the whole crew down like dog's, if 
 they venture to approach me ; so I give you five 
 minutes to carry the contra-maestre to the fore- 
 castle bunks, or to pitch him overboard, which- 
 ever you please, though the last would please 
 me." 
 
 " Five minutes ? " 
 
 " Yes, five by this watch," he added, pulling 
 out of his fob a gold repeater, which, even in the 
 excitement of the moment, I recognized to be 
 mine, the same which my mother gave me, when 
 I first left home for Eton, and of which I had
 
 I CONFRONT THE CUBANO. 193 
 
 been robbed at Teneriffe. There was no doubt- 
 ing the little rings and charms which my sisters 
 Dot, Sybil, and one of their female friends had 
 appended to it ; and thus I discovered another 
 black link in the life of Antonio. 
 
 I dared not appear to recognize it when his 
 strong, brown, hairy hand, the bloody spots on 
 which made me shudder, held it toward me, lest 
 he might shoot me down, but summoned Billy 
 Wilkins, the cabin boy, by desiring the man at 
 the wheel, " to pass word forward for him and 
 another apprentice." 
 
 The boys came, but not without great fear 
 and reluctance ; and while Antonio proceeded 
 leisurely to make another paper cigar, keeping 
 his ears open for every sound, and his black eyes 
 fixed keenly on us the while, we entered the little 
 state-room of Marc Hislop, and beheld a sight 
 which filled us with the deepest commiseration 
 and dismay. 
 
 17
 
 194 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 I RESCUE THE MATE. 
 
 Pale as marble, with his lower jaw relaxed 
 and his eyes almost closed, motionless as if 
 dead, but, nevertheless, still breathing slowly 
 and heavily, poor Marc Hislop lay in his bed, 
 the clothes and pillows of which were saturated 
 with blood ; for he seemed to be covered by 
 wounds, and the crimson current had flowed 
 over the piles of his favorite books, which were 
 scattered upon the cabin floor, where they had 
 been trod under foot by Antonio while over- 
 hauling the repositories of the unfortunate pro- 
 prietor. 
 
 Shuddering, and in haste, we lifted him from 
 the bed, muffled him in a blanket, and conveyed 
 him, passive as a child, in our hands, from the 
 cabin. 
 
 As we passed out, for a moment it seemed as 
 if the ruffianly Spaniard repented of his tempo- 
 rary clemency; for when he saw the pale, 
 bloody, and insensible form of the poor fellow 
 trailed past, he made an ominous stride toward 
 us, and threateningly clutched the haft of the
 
 I RESCUE THE MATE. 195 
 
 Albacete knife in his sash. Then waving his 
 hand, almost contemptuously, he said, — 
 
 " Basta — go, go — it matters little now, either 
 to him or to me. Demonio ! I always strike 
 deep." 
 
 Alarm and pity endowed us with unusual 
 strength, and we bore the speechless victim of 
 Antonio up the steep stair to 1he deck, where 
 our crew, with muttered oaths of vengeance, and 
 expressions of commiseration, bore him into the 
 forepart of the vessel. There a bed was made 
 up for him on deck ; for coolness, an awning 
 was rigged over it, and we had his wounds ex- 
 amined. 
 
 We found a deep stab in the neck, most dan- 
 gerously near the jugular vein ; a second in the 
 breast, a third between the bones of the right 
 forearm, and a fourth in the left thigh ; all had 
 evidently been dealt through the bedclothes, and 
 with a savage energy of purpose. 
 
 " The poor lad is dying for lack of a doctor," 
 said old Tom, who knelt beside Hislop, handling 
 his wounds with the tenderness of a woman ; 
 " and if the whole British navy hove in sight, 
 we haven't a rag of bunting to shake out as a 
 signal, since that rascally picaroon, the Cubano, 
 has cast every color and signal overboard. 
 
 " Well, Tom, he shan't die this bout," said 
 Ned Carlton, hopefully ; " let us tie up his 
 wounds as best we can, to belay the bleeding, 
 and give him something as a reviver."
 
 196 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " It's a blessing his old mother in Scotland 
 don't see all this,' ; added rough Tom Lam- 
 bourne, with a tear in his eye ; " poor Marc His- 
 lop is her only support, and a sister's too. 
 
 I thought now with compunction, how often 
 his theories and pedantry had bored me, and I 
 resolved to be unremitting in my care of him. 
 
 The united medical skill of those honest souls, 
 our crew, was very small ; however, the wounds 
 were carefully washed in clean water ; their best 
 shirts were torn into bandages, or folded into 
 pads to stop the bleeding ; and in this they were 
 quite successful. 
 
 A breaker of New England rum was hoisted 
 out of the forehold, and its head was instantly 
 started. The liquor was very redolent of treacle ; 
 but a glass of it mixed with water — the readiest 
 stimulant that occurred to the minds of the sea- 
 men — was poured between the parched lips of 
 the sufferer, who at last slept, in the pleasant 
 atmosphere formed by the awning which shaded 
 him from the fierce sun, and in the breeze that 
 whistled past the bows as the Eugenie still bore 
 on her new course, close hauled, with all her 
 fore-and-aft canvas set, and the white glittering 
 spray flying over her cat-heads and dolphin 
 striker. 
 
 The terrible Cubano still kept possession of 
 the cabin. His two six-barrelled revolvers gave 
 him twelve shots, and we were but nine in all,
 
 I RESCUE THE MATE. 197 
 
 as the captain, Roberts, and Will White had 
 already perished by his hand, and Hislop to all 
 appearance was dying; thus Antonio kept us all 
 in subjection by his weapons, just as half a 
 dozen well-armed soldiers may control a mob of 
 thousands. 
 
 So passed the night; the crew grouped for- 
 ward, full of schemes for vengeance, and he aft, 
 full of triumph, ferocity, and cognac. 
 
 Next morning, I was on the quarter-deck, and 
 when day broke, I became aware, by a plashing 
 sound astern, that we were towing something in 
 the dead water of the brig's wake. On looking 
 over the taffrail, what were my emotions on 
 beholding the body of my kind friend Weston — 
 our good and hospitable captain — towed by the 
 neck at the end of a line ! 
 
 Around the poor corpse, which was in its 
 night-dress, the green waves danced merrily in 
 the golden light of the morning sun that was 
 now beaming over the sea, "refreshing the dis- 
 tant shores and reviving all but him." Antonio 
 m the night had cast it from one of the cabin 
 windows on the port side of the rudder-case, and 
 through that aperture the line to which it was 
 attached was now run. 
 
 By the smoke of a cigar which ascended to 
 the taffrail at times, T discovered that the atro- 
 cious Cubano was sitting at the open cabin 
 window below me, watching and waiting to see 
 
 17*
 
 198 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 the body devoured by sharks ; and I knew tnai 
 he would shoot all who attempted to cross his 
 purpose, or who came within reach of his pistol. 
 This prevented any man from lowering himself 
 over the stern, either to haul in the line or cut it 
 adrift. 
 
 " Demonio ! " we heard him exclaim, when, by 
 a sudden lurch of the ship, the line parted, and 
 the poor corpse went rolling and surging to lee- 
 ward. 
 
 " There he goes, and God bless him, although 
 he's cut adrift without a prayer or a sailor's wind- 
 ing-sheet," said Tom Lambourne, taking off his 
 hat, as the body bobbed like a fisherman's float 
 on the waves for a little space, and then disap- 
 peared in the long white track made by the Eu- 
 genie, through the dark apple-green of the morn- 
 ing sea. 
 
 All the stories I had heard or read of Spanish 
 revenge seemed eclipsed by the atrocities of this 
 fiendish Cubano.
 
 THE REQDITAL. 199 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE REQUITAL. 
 
 Three days and nights passed after this with- 
 out finding us able to surprise or dislodge the 
 demon who was in possession of the cabin ; with- 
 out our knowing where the ship was driving or 
 drifting to, and without a sail appearing. A 
 man-of-war belonging to any country we should 
 have hailed as a protector; but on the wide 
 waters of the Southern Atlantic ships are few 
 and far between. 
 
 Hislop rallied a little, and was removed into 
 one of the forecastle berths. He could tell us 
 only that he had been surprised when asleep, 
 and been stabbed again and again — that he be- 
 came insensible, and remembered nothing more. 
 His distress was great when we related the story 
 of the captain's fate, the death of Will White, 
 and that their destroyer was still in possession 
 of the ship, and the arbiter of all our lives. 
 
 He writhed on his bed of pain, and sighed 
 bitterly on finding how stiff and sore, how weak 
 and almost blind he had become by loss of blood ; 
 but a crisis was now at hand with our Cubano.
 
 200 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 The evening of the fourth day after we had 
 saved Hislop found the brig still lying a westerly 
 course; but whether in the latitude of Cape San 
 Roque or of the Rio Grande, we knew not; and, 
 I suppose, it was all the same to Antonio. 
 
 I was at the wheel. The sunset was gor- 
 geously beautiful. The Eugenie was running 
 with both tacks aft; and under the arched leech 
 of her courses I could see the blood-red disk of 
 the sun right ahead setting in the waves, which 
 shone in all the colors of the dying dolphin ; 
 while against the flaming orb, the black outline 
 of the masts, the figure-head, and the taper end 
 of the jibboom, with its cap, guys, and gear, were 
 clearly and distinctly defined. 
 
 The waves ahead rose and fell between me 
 and the sun, as slowly and imperceptibly he sank 
 at the flaming horizon, from a quarter circle to a 
 segment; then the last vestige of that also dis- 
 appeared, but the lingering rays of his glory 
 played upward on the light clouds that floated 
 above. Even they paled away and died out, and 
 twilight stole over the silent sea, which changed 
 from gold to a transparent blue. 
 
 With the increasing twiiight came a change 
 of wind, and before it a great bank of cloud rolled 
 from the horizon on our starboard bow. Under 
 its shadow the sea was darkened, and its broken 
 water flecked with white. The new breeze came 
 first upon our quarter, then rapidly it was abeam,
 
 THE REQUITAL. 20J 
 
 and three great albatrosses were seen to whip the 
 sea with their wings, while a whole shoal of 
 brown porpoises surged past our bows, plunging 
 joyously from wave to wave. 
 
 Tacks and braces were instantly manned, and 
 the sails were trimmed anew for our desultory 
 course. 
 
 "Sail ho — to windward!" said one of the 
 crew, in a low but excited voice, lest the sound 
 might reach the cabin ; and as the dense bank 
 of purple cloud opened, a large bark came out 
 of it, and her form became more and more de- 
 fined as she left the vapor astern. She was going 
 free — that is, with her head further off the wind 
 than close-hauled — and had a press of snow- 
 white canvas, which shone in the last light of 
 the west. 
 
 " She is four miles off," said Carlton. 
 
 " We must signal her," added Lambourne. 
 
 "With what?" asked Carlton, in the same 
 sharp but low voice ; " every color is overboard." 
 
 " Any thing will do — a blue shirt at the fore- 
 mast head; quick! — the sky will be quite dark 
 in ten minutes. Run it up in a ball with a slip- 
 ping loop, man-o'-war fashion," said Lambourne 
 in a loud whisper ; " get ready a ship's lantern 
 some of you, for the night darkens so fast that 
 we shall scarcely be visible when she is abeam 
 of us. Ned, get into the fore-channel, and wave 
 the light as a signal that we want a boat."
 
 202 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 These orders were rapidly obeyed, and prep- 
 arations made to throw the brig in the wind. 
 While one man hastily got the lantern from a 
 little round house, in which certain stores and 
 tools were kept on deck, Ned Carlton pulled off 
 his shirt, and was in the act of binding it to the 
 signal halyards, when the Spaniard, whose quick 
 ears detected some commotion, sprang on deck, 
 armed as usual. 
 
 On seeing Carlton busy with the halyards, he 
 looked round, caught sight of the ship, which 
 was running with the white foam boiling under 
 her forefoot, and thus in a moment divined what 
 we were about. 
 
 Muttering a terrible imprecation in Spanish, 
 he fired at Carlton, but missed him as before, 
 and shot dead a poor apprentice who was close 
 
 by- 
 
 "'Tarnal thunder, flesh and blood can't bear 
 this ! " shouted Tom Lambourne, whose fury was 
 boundless, and who snatched up a capstan-bar. 
 " Bear down on him all hands : there is neither 
 sea law nor land law can help us here ! " 
 
 Snatching whatever came nearest to hand, we 
 all rushed upon the Cubano, who stood boldly 
 at bay, and keeping the binnacle between us and 
 him, fired over it five or six shots from his re- 
 volver with terrible rapidity ; but so unsteady had 
 his hand become in consequence of his free pota- 
 tions below, that every bullet missed, though one
 
 THE REQUITAL. • 203 
 
 cut the knuckles of Tom Lambourne's right hand, 
 and another tore away the rim of my straw hat. 
 
 He drew a second revolver from his sash, but 
 Lambourne, by one lucky blow with the capstan- 
 bar, knocked it out of his hand. It went twenty 
 feet into the air, and fell overboard. 
 
 Quick as lightning, Antonio placed the other 
 in his breast, drew his knife, stooped his head, 
 and darting through us like an eel, gave Carlton 
 a gash in the thigh as he passed. 
 
 He then made for the main-rigging, and sprang 
 on the bulwark, no doubt with the intention of 
 running up aloft to some secure perch, where he 
 might reload his remaining pistol, and shoot us 
 all down at leisure ; but he missed his hold of 
 the rattlins, and fell overboard ! 
 
 There was a shout of furious joy. 
 
 " The sea will rob the gallows of its due ! " 
 said Carlton ; "but he'll be shark's meat, any 
 way." 
 
 But Antonio was not gone yet, for in falling 
 he caught one of the lower studding-sail booms, 
 and clutched it with deadly tenacity, for he knew 
 that if once he was fairly launched into the ocean 
 his fate would be sealed. 
 
 His face was pale with combined fear and 
 fury ; his black eyes blazed with the fire of 
 hatred ; the perspiration oozed in drops upon his 
 temples. Tom Lambourne sprang forward to 
 beat off his fingers ; but at that moment, the
 
 204 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 boom, a slender spar, broke from its lashings 
 alongside, and swung out at a right angle from 
 the brig, with the wretch at the extreme end of 
 it, dangling over the waves, like a herring at the 
 point of a ramrod. 
 
 Again and again he writhed his body upward 
 in wild struggles to get astride the boom, or to 
 reach it with his knees, but in vain ! 
 
 Instead of exciting pity, his terrible situation 
 drew forth a shout of derision, mingled with ex- 
 pressions of hatred and satisfaction, from the, 
 line of avenging faces that surveyed him over 
 the bulwark. He hung thus for fully five min- 
 utes, for he was a powerful man, of great 
 strength, muscle, and bulk. 
 
 I have no doubt this man was as brave as it 
 is possible for a ruffian to be ; but the prospect 
 of an immediate death — a death, too, from 
 which there was no escape — terrified him. 
 
 His glance of hate toward us turned to one of 
 wild and earnest entreaty. 
 
 " Mercy ! — pardon ! — in the name and for the 
 love of the Almighty ! " he exclaimed in Span- 
 ish, in a tone of intense earnestness ; but he was 
 heard by us with fierce derision in that moment 
 of just triumph and too long delayed vengeance. 
 
 Twice the Eugenie gave a lee lurch, and each 
 time the feet and knees of the wretched Cubano 
 were immersed in the waves. 
 
 Beneath him was the abyss of water that
 
 THE REQUITAL. 205 
 
 rushed past the side of the brig. He panted 
 rather than breathed ; and through the dusk we 
 could see how his aching hands turned white as 
 his face ; and that the points of his fingers were 
 blood-red. His eyes grew wild and haggard as 
 terror chilled his coward heart and agonized his 
 soul; and yet through the surge the fleet craft 
 flew on ! 
 
 Every moment increased the weight of his 
 body and the weakness of his hands and wrists. 
 
 At last it was evident that his powers of en- 
 durance could be no longer taxed ; he uttered a 
 half-smothered shriek, and closed his eyes as he 
 clung to that slender spar, and it swayed to and 
 fro while the close-hauled brig flew on ! 
 
 There was a crash ! 
 
 The iron hook in the bulwark on which the 
 studding-sail boom was hung, gave way under 
 the double weight of the spar and of his body. 
 There was a shrill cry of despair, like the parting 
 shriek of an evil spirit, on the skirt of the gusty 
 blast, as the boom, and the wretch who clung to 
 it in blind desperation, vanished into the black 
 trough of the sea, and, like a cork or a reed, were 
 swept amid the salt foam to leeward. 
 
 The Eugenie rose like a duck upon the water, 
 and, as if fieed at that moment from a load of 
 crime, seemed to fly forward with increased speed. 
 
 'Twas night now, and the ship which we had 
 first seen upon our weather bow, was a mile 
 astern and to leeward of us. 
 
 18
 
 206 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE THUNDERBOLT. 
 
 An emotion of mingled freedom and satisfac- 
 tion possessed the whole crew on being rid of 
 our tormentor, and Lambourne now took charge 
 of the brig, which he was perfectly able to han- 
 dle and work, though ignorant of navigation as 
 a science, and having but a vague idea of the 
 course to steer for the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 She was hove in the wind, while in the moon- 
 light, about two hours after the exciting scene 
 which closes the last chapter, we committed to 
 the deep the body of Antonio's last victim, the 
 poor apprentice, whom the sailmaker sewed up 
 in his hammock, to which, being without shot 
 or other suitable weights, we tied a sack of coals 
 to sink the corpse. 
 
 The head-yards were filled again, and as if 
 anxious to leave that portion of the sea as far as 
 possible astern, we hauled up for the Cape. Tom 
 Lambourne ordered every stitch of canvas that 
 the spars would hold, to be spread upon the 
 Eugenie, that she might, as he said, " walk 
 through the water in her own style.
 
 THE THUNDERBOLT. 207 
 
 All he could do, at first, was to keep her in the 
 course we had been steering on the night these 
 disasters began, for as yet we knew not to what 
 degree of latitude, south or north, we might 
 have been drifting ; however, we calculated that 
 Hislop, weak as he was, might be able to take a 
 solar observation, and prick off our place on the 
 chart, in the course of six or seven days. 
 
 We had the usually snug little cabin cleansed 
 and cleared from the debris created by the out- 
 rageous proceedings of Antonio, who must have 
 gone to the bottom with all Weston's valuables 
 and money about him, as we could find neither ; 
 and the sweet expression of the poor widow's 
 face, as it seemed to smile on us from the minia- 
 ture on the after-bulkhead, contrasted strangely 
 with all the wild work that had so lately taken 
 place on board. 
 
 Hislop and I were restored to our former 
 berths, and then more than once in my dreams 
 the pale olive-green visage and glaring eyes of 
 the Cubano came before me, and again I seemed 
 to see him clinging unpitied, and in desperation, 
 to the slender boom which swung above the 
 seething sea, — for his death and all its concom- 
 itant horrors haunted me and made me unhappy. 
 
 The intensity of the heat in that season sug- 
 gested the idea that we could not have drifted 
 far south of the line. 
 
 So great was it, that tht upper spars of the
 
 208 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Eugenie appeared to wriggle or vibrate like ser- 
 pents aloft in the sunshine ; while so hot, so 
 clear, and so rarefied was the atmosphere be- 
 tween decks, that it was suffocating, especially 
 in the lullings of the faint breeze. A white heat 
 seemed to make sea and sky grow pale, and the 
 former cast upward a reflection from its glassy 
 surface and long smooth swells, that was hot, — 
 hot beyond all description. 
 
 Though ever and anon the upper deck was 
 drenched with salt water, it dried immediately, 
 emitting a strong odor of wet wood, while the 
 skids over the side failed to keep the paint, tar, 
 and rosin from rising in large burnt blisters. 
 
 About the time when we hoped that Hislop 
 would have been well enough to make an obser- 
 vation, even by being placed in a chair on deck, 
 the weather became so rough that he was unable 
 to leave his berth, and during all that day the 
 brig drove before a heavy gale, with her courses 
 hauled close up, the fore and main-topsail yards 
 lowered on the caps, and their canvas close 
 reefed. 
 
 After the heat we had endured, the reader may 
 imagine this gale would be refreshing and a re- 
 lief. Not so. The atmosphere, as it became 
 dark with gathering clouds, increased in density, 
 closeness, and heat ; thus about the time we 
 should have had clear twilight, the hour was 
 gloomy as a northern midnight, — so dark that
 
 THE THUNDERBOLT. 209 
 
 the men in the tops, or those lying out along the 
 foot-ropes at the yard-arms, when under close- 
 reefed topsails, could not be seen from the deck, 
 while the breeze that swept over the ocean was 
 breathless, — hot as the simoom of the desert ; 
 and our men knew not whether they were most 
 drenched by perspiration or the spoondrift torn 
 from the warm wave tops by the increasing blast. 
 
 The peculiar appearance of this black gale 
 alarmed and bewildered Tattooed Tom, who 
 could make nothing of it, while poor Marc His- 
 lop, whose skill would have been invaluable to 
 us, when he heard the singing out on deck, the 
 thunder of the bellying courses struggling with 
 their brails, the roar of the wind through the half- 
 bared masts and rigging, the clatter of blocks 
 and feet overhead, writhed in his bed, and 
 mourned his own inactivity, or rather incapaci- 
 ty ; but he sent me to tell Lambourne to cover 
 up the anchors with wetted canvas, as it was not 
 improbable, by the state of the atmosphere, that 
 it was full of electricity, and thus we might be 
 in a dangerous way. 
 
 " Tell Tom," he whispered, "it is a trade-w T ind 
 gale, — I know it to be so." 
 
 " How ? " I asked, " when you are lying here 
 below." 
 
 "By the barometer, which remains high, while 
 
 the wind is steady," replied Hislop in a low 
 
 voice, for he was still very weak ; " if the barom- 
 
 1S*
 
 21f DICK RODNEY. 
 
 eter fall, be sure it will become a typhoon, and 
 then, with a short-handed craft, heaven help us ! 
 But assure Tom it is only as yet a trade-wind 
 gale, — to take as much canvas off her as he can, 
 and to make all snug aloft. We'll have thunder 
 directly, Dick, — such thunder as you can only 
 hear in the tropics." 
 
 He sank back, exhausted even by these few 
 words, while I hurried on deck with his orders. 
 
 I had scarcely conveyed them to Lambourne, 
 who was keeping a look-out forward, when, 
 amid the dusky obscurity of sea and sky, there 
 burst a sudden gleam of wondrous light. 
 
 The men, who were spreading some old wet- 
 ted sails over the sheet and working anchors ; 
 the steersman at the wheel ; the watch, and all 
 hands who were crouching to leeward, or holding 
 on by ropes and belaying-pins to windward, 
 seemed for a moment to become white-visaged 
 spectres, amid a sea of pale-blue flame, — a sea 
 whereon the flying brig with her brailed courses 
 and reefed topsails, her half naked masts and 
 black cordage, were all distinctly visible as at 
 noonday, while the polished brass on funnel, 
 binnacle, and skylight, all flashed and shone, as 
 ship and crew, with all their details of form and 
 feature, 
 
 " Were instant seen and instant lost." 
 
 For a broad and blinding sheet of electric flame
 
 TIIE THUNDERBOLT. 211 
 
 burst upon the darkness of the night, and passed 
 away as rapidly, when the livid brand burst in 
 the welkin or in the wave, we knew not which. 
 
 Then came the roar of thunder — the stunning 
 and appalling thunder of the tropics, every ex- 
 plosion of which seemed to rend earth, sea, and 
 sky, as they rolled like a palpable thing, or like 
 the united salvo of a thousand cannon overhead, 
 to die away in rumbling echoes at the far horizon. 
 
 After a sound so mighty and bewildering, the 
 bellowing of the wind through the rigging, the 
 hiss and roar of the sea as wave broke against 
 wave, the flapping of the brailed courses, the 
 creaking and straining of the timbers, seemed as 
 nothing — the very silence of death — while the 
 Eugenie tore on, through mist and spray, through 
 darkness and obscurity, with the foam flying 
 white as winter drift over her bows and martin- 
 gale. 
 
 Again there was a pale-green gleam overhead, 
 right above the truck of the mainmast, where the 
 chambers of the sky seemed to open. The clouds 
 divided in the darkness of heaven, and out of 
 that opening came the forked lightning, zigzag, 
 green, and ghastly. 
 
 There was a dreadful shock, which knocked 
 every man down, except Carlton, who was at the 
 wheel, and an exclamation of terror escaped us 
 all. 
 
 A thunderbolt had struck the Eugenie !
 
 212 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 With all its wondrous speed — instantaneous 
 as electric light could be — it glided down the 
 maintop gallant mast, rending the topmast-cap 
 and the framed grating of the top to pieces; 
 thence it ran down the mainmast, burst through 
 the deck, and spent its fury in the hold. 
 
 At that moment the main-topmast, with all its 
 yards, gear, and canvas, fell about the deck in 
 burning brands, and the brig was hove right in 
 the wind's eye, while the sea twitched the hehn 
 out of the hands of Ned Carlton, who became 
 bewildered on finding the compasses lose all their 
 polarity, by the influence of the electric fluid, the 
 north point of one heading south-east, and of the 
 other south-west. 
 
 Almost immediately after this there was a cry 
 of " Fire ! " — that cry so terrible, so appalling on 
 board ship; and then thick white smoke was 
 seen to issue from the crevices of the battened 
 main-hatchway. 
 
 All hands rushed to this point. The long-boat 
 was unshipped from its chocks and dragged aft ; 
 some stood by with buckets of water, while others 
 struck off the padlocks and iron bars ; the tarpau- 
 lin was torn away — the hatch lifted — and lo ! 
 
 A column of fire ascended in a straight line 
 from the body of the hold, lurid, red, and scorch- 
 ing, as the casks of molasses and bales of cotton 
 Durned and blazed together. A column that rose 
 up between the masts, scorched through the main-
 
 THE THUNDERBOLT. 213 
 
 stay, all the braces of the fore yards, and rilled 
 the whole vessel with light, announced that all 
 was over ! 
 
 " It is a doomed ship ! " cried Tom Lambourne; 
 " we must leave her at last. Clear away the 
 longboat. Be cool, lads ; be cool and steady ' 
 Your lives depend upon your conduct now, and 
 your obedience to orders ! "
 
 214 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 CAST AWAY. 
 
 Not a moment was lost in getting the long- 
 boat over the side, and with a heavy splash, by 
 which it was nearly swamped, we got it afloat. 
 
 Ned Carlton and Probart the carpenter sprang 
 in, to fend off and keep it from being stove or 
 dashed to pieces by the sea, against the brig's side. 
 
 By the wild weird glare that rose in frightful 
 columns from the main and fore hatchways, we 
 had plenty of light, as it shone far over the huge 
 billows of that dark and tempestuous sea, to 
 which we were about to commit our fortunes ; 
 and now a pale and half-dressed figure approached 
 us. 
 
 It was Marc Hislop, whom the terrible odor 
 had roused from his berth in the cabin ; and he 
 now came forward, supporting his feeble steps 
 by clutching the shrouds and belaying-pins. 
 
 I rushed below and brought up a blanket and 
 great coat to wrap him in, and he was promptly 
 swung over into the boat, where Carlton received 
 and supported him. 
 
 Three bags of bread, with a tarpaulin to cover 
 them, two kegs of rum, four casks of water, with
 
 CAST AWAY. 215 
 
 oars, sails, and blankets, were thrown pell-mell 
 into the boat. A hatchet and a bundle of spun- 
 yarn completed our stores. 
 
 The compasses were considered now to be use- 
 ess, or were omitted, I forget which. 
 
 The wind still amounted to a gglife, though less 
 violent, and it fanned the growing flames, so that 
 the fated brig burned fast. The lightning still 
 flashed, but at the horizon, and the thunder was 
 heard to grumble above the hiss of the sea ; yet 
 we heeded them not, though they added to the 
 terror and the grandeur of the scene ; and, most 
 providentially for us, the fury of the storm was 
 past. 
 
 Tattooed Tom was the last man who left the 
 brig, and the moment he was in the boat, he 
 exclaimed, with a loud voice, that rang above 
 the roaring of the flames, which now gushed 
 through every hatchway and aperture, above the 
 howling of the wind and the breaking of the 
 frothy sea, — 
 
 " Shove off! — out oars, there, to starboard — 
 pull round her stern — pull with a will to wind- 
 ward — keep the boat's bow to the" break of the 
 sea ! " 
 
 We pulled .silently and vigorously, and soon 
 got clear of the brig, through the four stern win- 
 dows of which four lines of light glared redly on 
 the ocean. 
 
 All our strength was required to achieve this, 
 for the brig, being the larger body, attracted the
 
 216 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 boat toward her. However, we got safely to 
 windward, which w T as absolutely necessary, for 
 to leeward there fell hissing into the sea a tor- 
 rent of sparks and burning brands from the rig- 
 ging, which was all in flames now. 
 
 Resting upon our oars, or only using them to 
 keep the boat's head to the break of the sea, and 
 to prevent her being swamped — an operation 
 during which they were as often flourished in the 
 air as in the ocean, when we rose on the crest 
 of one vast heaving wave, or sank into the dark 
 vale of water between two — resting thus, we 
 gazed in silence and with aching hearts at the 
 destruction of our home upon the sea. 
 
 We could feel the heat of the conflagration 
 even to windward. In a quarter of an hour she 
 was enveloped from stem to stern in a sheet of 
 fire, that rose skyward in the form of a pyramid. 
 By this time every vestige of her spars, sails, and 
 rigging had disappeared. 
 
 The entire deck had been consumed ; the bul- 
 warks and moulded plank-sheer rapidly followed, 
 and through the flames that roared fiercely from 
 the hollow of her hull, we could see the black 
 timberheads standing upward like a row of fangs. 
 
 Rents appeared next in her sides, as the flames 
 burst through the inner and outer sheathing, and 
 with a hissing sound as they met the waves of 
 the briny sea. Then a salt steam rose, and its 
 strange odor, with that of the burning wood, was 
 wafted at times toward us.
 
 CAST AWAY 217 
 
 At last she gave a sudden heel to starboard, 
 and with a sound unlike any thing I ever heard 
 before — a deluge of water extinguishing a 
 mighty fire — the waves rushed tumultuously in 
 on all sides. She vanished from our sight in 
 mist and obscurity, and a heavy darkness sud- 
 denly replaced the glare that for a time had lit 
 up the heaving sea, dazzling our eyes and sick- 
 ening our hearts. 
 
 " All's over now," said Tom Lambourne, as he 
 grasped the tiller with a firm hand, after carefully 
 wrapping a blanket round poor Hislop, who 
 drooped beside him in the stern-sheets. 
 
 " Which way shall we pull ? " asked the bow- 
 man, as we paused with our oars in the rowlocks. 
 
 " It matters little, mates," cried Tom, in a loud 
 voice, with his left hand at the side of his mouth, 
 to send what he said forward above the roar of 
 the wind and sea. " We must be many hundred 
 miles from Brazil, the nearest land, and we can 
 do nothing now but keep our boat alive by bal- 
 ing and steering till daybreak. Now, Master 
 Hislop," he added, lowering his voice, « how do 
 you feel, sir ? " 
 
 " I feel that I am quite in your way, my lads 
 — a useless hand aboard, to consume your food 
 and water, replied Hislop, faintly. 
 
 " Why, sir," said Probnrt, the stroke-oarsman, 
 " you don't think we could have left you to burn 
 in the poor old brig ? " 
 
 19
 
 218 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " No, not exactly ; still, I am of no use to you, 
 and I feel " 
 
 " What, sir, what ? " asked Tom, anxiously. 
 
 " Heart sick and despairing," moaned Hislop 
 letting his chin drop on his breast. 
 
 "Don't talk so, sir," said Lambourne, stoutly; 
 " despair never found a place in the heart of a 
 British sailor ! " 
 
 " You are right, Tom ; and perhaps I'll gather 
 headway, and get to windward yet." 
 
 " Of course you will," replied Tom, cheerfully ; 
 "but here's a sea coming — together, lads — 
 pull together ! " 
 
 Despair might well have found a place in all 
 our breasts at that awful crisis ; but Tom's bluff 
 and cheerful way prevented our hearts from 
 sinking, though the hours of that awful night 
 seemed dark and long. 
 
 Well, without compass, chart, or quadrant, 
 there we were, ten in number, in an open boat, 
 tossing upon a dark and stormy sea, enveloped 
 in clouds, with the red lightning gleaming 
 through their ragged openings, or at the far and 
 flat horizon — ignorant of where we were, where 
 to steer for, or what to do, and full of terrible 
 anticipations for the future ! 
 
 We were silent and sleepless. 
 
 My- heart was full of horror, grief, and vague 
 alarm, when I thought of my home — the quiet, 
 the happy, and peaceful old Rectory, with all
 
 CAST AWAY. 219 
 
 who loved me there, and whom I might never 
 see again. 
 
 The hot tears that started to my eyes mingled 
 with the cold spray that drenched my cheeks, 
 and there seemed but one consolation for me, 
 that my father, my affectionate and gentle 
 mother and sisters, dear Dot and little Sybil, 
 could never know all I had endured, or how I 
 perished by hunger or drowning, if such were to 
 be my fate. 
 
 All the stories I had heard or read of ship- 
 wrecked men — their sufferings, their endurance 
 of gnawing hunger and burning thirst, their can- 
 nibalism, their mortal struggles with their dear- 
 est friends for the last morsel of food, for the last 
 drop of water, and how the weak perished that 
 the strong might live — crowded upon my mem- 
 ory to augment the real terrors of our situation. 
 
 So suddenly had this final catastrophe come 
 upon us that we had considerable difficulty in 
 assuring ourselves of its reality, and that it was 
 not a dream — a dream, alas ! from which there 
 might be no awaking. 
 
 So hour after hour passed darkly, slowly, and 
 silently on. 
 
 The turbulence of the wind and waves abated, 
 the lightning passed away, the scud ceased to 
 whirl, the vapors were divided in heaven, and a 
 faint light that stole tremulously upward from 
 the horizon served to indicate the east and the 
 dawn of the coming day.
 
 220 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 DISCOVER LAND. 
 
 The following are the names of those who 
 escaped with me in the longboat : 
 
 Marc Hislop, mate, Edward Carlton, 
 
 Thomas Lambourne, Henry Warren, 
 
 second mate, Hugh Chute, 
 
 Francis Probart, car- Matthew Hipkin, 
 
 penter, William Wilkins, usu- 
 John Thomas Burnett, ally called "Boy 
 
 ship's cook, Bill." 
 
 As the morning light came in, there appeared 
 to the south-westward a vast bank of mist or 
 cloud which shrouded half the sky, and assumed 
 a variety of beautiful tints when the rising sun 
 shone on it — yellow and saffron, deepening into 
 purple and blue as its masses changed in the 
 contrary currents of air ; while to the eastward, 
 in the quarter of the sun's ascension, the rippling 
 ocean shone as if covered with tremulous and 
 glittering plates of mingled gold and green.
 
 DISCOVER LAND. 221 
 
 A ration of rum-and-water in equal propor- 
 tions was now served round to each man — the 
 leathern cover of a bung being our only cup, as 
 we had omitted a drinking vessel among our 
 hastily-collected stores. Half of a biscuit given 
 to each constituted our breakfast, and with hope 
 dawning with the day in our hearts, we shipped 
 our oars and pulled stoutly toward the west. 
 
 Tom Lambourne steered : the sea was smooth, 
 the wind light, and in our favor ; so ere long the 
 mast was shipped, and a sail hoisted to lessen 
 the labor of the rowers. 
 
 "We were anxious for the dense bank of purple 
 cloud to clear away, that we might have a more 
 extensive view of the horizon, and perhaps dis- 
 cover a sail, but the envious vapor seemed to 
 darken and to roll before us, or rather before the 
 wind that bore us after it. 
 
 About mid-day, when we were pausing on our 
 oars, breathless and panting with heat, drenched 
 with perspiration, which ran into our eyes and 
 trickled down our breasts ; and when visions of 
 iced water and bitter beer came tantalizingly to 
 memory — for sea and sky were equally hot, as 
 the former seemed to welter and become oily 
 under the blaze of the latter — a sharp-winged 
 bird that skimmed past us suddenly caught the 
 hollow eye of Hislop, who, I thought, was sleep- 
 ing. 
 
 " Do you see that bird, Tom," he exclaimed, 
 
 19*
 
 222 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 half starting up from the stern-sheets ; it is a 
 man-of-war bird ! " 
 
 " What then, sir ? " 
 
 " We must be near land," replied the mate. 
 
 " Land ! " reiterated every one in the boat, 
 their voices expressing joy, surprise, or incredu- 
 lity. 
 
 " Is it Brazil ? " asked Tattooed Tom, with 
 amazement in his singular face. 
 
 " I do not think so," said Hislop, passing a 
 hand wearily and reflectively over his pale fore- 
 head. " Brazil — it is impossible, by the last 
 reckoning I made before that Spaniard wounded 
 me. But Heaven only knows where we may 
 have drifted to since then ! " 
 
 " The wind and currents may have taken us 
 many hundred miles from where the last obser- 
 vation was made," added Carlton. 
 
 " But I am convinced that we are near land 
 — look at the sea-wrack that passes us now; 
 and we must be out of the track of the Gulf- 
 weed," continued the mate with confidence. 
 
 " And may I never see the Nore again, if that 
 ain't land now, looming right a-head through the 
 fog-bank ! " exclaimed Tom, starting up, and 
 shading his eyes from the sun with both hands 
 as he peered intently westward. 
 
 As the reader may imagine, we all gazed anx- 
 iously enough in the direction indicated by the 
 old seaman, and a swell of rapture rose in the
 
 DISCOVER LAND. 223 
 
 breasts of all when something in the form of a 
 headland or bluff could be distinctly seen right 
 ahead, bearing due west, about seven miles dis- 
 tant, standing out from the bank of vapor, or 
 looming like a darker shadow within it. 
 
 This appearance never changed in outline, but 
 remained stationary, and every moment became 
 more defined and confirmed. 
 
 Exclamations of joy now broke from us, and 
 we congratulated each other on making the land 
 so soon and so unexpectedly, without enduring 
 the miseries which so frequently fall to the lot 
 of those who are cast away, as we were, in an 
 open boat at sea. 
 
 " But what land is it ? " was the general in- 
 quiry. 
 
 Another allowance of grog was served round ; 
 the oars were again shipped, we bent our backs 
 and breasts sturdily to the task, and at every 
 stroke almost lifted the boat clean out of the 
 shining water in our eagerness to reach this sud- 
 denly discovered shore. 
 
 This had such an effect upon Marc Hislop, that 
 though weak and sinking as he had been, he begged 
 that he might be allowed to steer the boat a little 
 way, while Tom Lambourne kept a bright look-out 
 ahead, to watch for any ripple or surf that might 
 indicate the locality of a treacherous coral reef, as 
 such might prove dangerous to a large and heavily 
 laden craft like ours.
 
 224 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 With every stroke of the bending oars the 
 land seemed to rise higher and more high. 
 
 Ere long we could make out its form clearly. 
 It was bold, rocky, and mountainous, and as 
 the mist dispersed or rose upward into mid air, 
 we could see the dark brown of the bluff, and 
 some trees of strange aspect, with drooping foli- 
 age on its summit, were clearly defined, as they 
 stood between us and the blue sky beyond. 
 
 We soon made out distinctly that it was a 
 large island. The shore was somewhat level to 
 the north-east, and in the centre towered an al- 
 most perpendicular mountain of vast height, the 
 sides of which seemed covered with furze, gorse, 
 and brushwood. 
 
 Elsewhere its dusky and copper-colored rocks 
 started sheer out of the sea, whose waters 
 formed a zone of snow-white surf around their 
 base. 
 
 We headed the boat to the north-east, where 
 the shore seemed more approachable, and as we 
 pulled along it, but keeping fully three miles off, 
 when the land opened, we saw high crags, deep 
 ravines, shady woods and dells in the interior, 
 though no appearance of houses, of wigwams, or 
 of inhabitants. 
 
 Many speculations were now ventured as to 
 what island this might be. 
 
 " May it not be land that has never before 
 been discovered ? " I suggested with a glow of
 
 DISCOVER LAND. 225 
 
 pleasure, in the anticipation of being among the 
 first to tread an unexplored and hitherto un- 
 known shore. Hislop smiled and shook his 
 head. 
 
 Henry Warren, who had been an old South- 
 sea whaler, suggested that it was the island 
 Grando, but Hislop assured us that this was im- 
 possible. In the first place, by the position of 
 the sun, he could see that we were not so far 
 south as the parallel of Port San Giorgio on the 
 Brazilian shore ; and in the second, the exis- 
 tence of such an island was doubted. 
 
 " Can it be Trinidad Island — Tristan da 
 Cunha, or the Rocks of Martin Vaz ? " asked 
 Tom Lambourne. 
 
 " If the latter," replied Hislop, " we should 
 now be in south latitude 20° 27', but this land 
 in no way answers to the aspect of the Martin 
 Vaz Rocks." 
 
 " Did you ever see them, sir ? " asked several. 
 
 " No ; but they are described by La Perouse 
 as appearing Yikejive distinct headlands." After 
 pausing and pondering for a moment, he sud- 
 denly added, with confidence, " It is the Island 
 of Alphonso de Albuquerque ! " 
 
 " How do you know ? " I inquired. 
 
 " By the appearance of that cliff, and tl e 
 mountain inland." 
 
 " You have been here before ? " asked Probart. 
 
 " Never ; but I know it to be Alphonso by that
 
 226 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 cliff on the north, and the mountain too, which 
 were particularly described in a Spanish book I 
 lost in the Eugenie. The mountain is a peak 
 which the author says resembles — did any of 
 you ever see a place like it before ? " 
 
 " It is as like Tenny Reef from the port of 
 Santa Cruz, as one egg is like another ! " ex- 
 claimed Tom Lambourne. 
 
 " Exactly, Tom, that is what the Spanish 
 author likens it to, though he does not use the 
 simile. So if it is the island of Alphonso, we 
 are now somewhere in south latitude 37° 6', and 
 west longitude 12° 2'. Pull southward, my 
 lads, the shore opens a bit beyond that headland. 
 We shall find a smooth beach probably within 
 the bight yonder." 
 
 " Anyway we're not in pilot's water," added 
 Tom, laughing ; " give way, mates — stretch 
 out." 
 
 We pulled with a hearty will, and ere long 
 were close in shore — so close that our larboard 
 oars seemed almost to touch the rocks which 
 rose sheer from the sea, like mighty cyclopean 
 walls, but covered with the greenest moss ; they 
 overhung an J overshadowed the dark, deep water 
 Hhat washed their base, and as they shielded us 
 from the fierce noonday heat of the sun, we 
 found the partial coolness refreshing and delight- 
 ful. 
 
 As Hislop had foreseen, on rounding the bluff,
 
 DISCOVER LAND. 227 
 
 the shore receded inward, and through a line of 
 white surf, like that which boils over the bar at 
 a river's mouth, we dashed into a beautiful little 
 bay, the sandy beach of which was shaded bv 
 groves of bright green trees. 
 
 Still we saw no trace of inhabitants ; but se- 
 lecting a small creek which was almost con- 
 cealed by trees that grew, like mangroves, close 
 to the edge of the water, we ran our boat in, 
 moored her securely, where none were likely to 
 find her save ourselves, and then all sprang joy- 
 ously ashore — at least all save Hislop and Billy 
 the cabin boy, who remained to attend him, 
 while we went on an exploring expedition in 
 search of natives or whatever might turn up 
 next.
 
 2<J8 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE ISLAND OF ALPHONSO. 
 
 We had some dread of savages, and being 
 totally unarmed, we penetrated inland with 
 more anxiety than pleasure at first ; but ere long 
 we became convinced that the island was totally 
 destitute of human inhabitants. 
 
 No vestige of wigwam or hut, of road or path, 
 nor even of the smallest track or trail (save such 
 as the wild goats made) was visible anywhere, 
 and thus we became impressed with new emo- 
 tions of wonder and awe, in treading a soil 
 where man lived not — where no human foot 
 seemed to have trod, and where only the hum of 
 insect life stirred the solitude of that wild island 
 of the South Atlantic. 
 
 For a considerable distance we traversed flat 
 ground that was covered with sedge grass, inter- 
 spersed by shrubs of bright green. Beyond this 
 level plain rose a series of ridges covered by 
 trees, and those ridges formed the first slope of 
 the great mountain, which was some thousand 
 feet in height, and also of the great bluff we had 
 first descried at sea.
 
 THE ISLAND OF ALPHONSO. 229 
 
 We found Alphonso to be the largest of a 
 giioup of three islands. It is a mass of rock 
 nearly twelve miles in circumference. The other 
 two are cavernous and inaccessible, and every 
 approach to them is dangerous and difficult, in 
 consequence of the foaming of the sea about 
 them, so that during the weary days of our 
 sojourn there, we made no attempt to explore 
 them, lest the longboat — in our circumstances a 
 priceless property — might be swamped or dashed 
 to pieces. 
 
 Hislop informed me that he had read some- 
 where that in the month of March, 1506 — 
 the same year in which the great Columbus 
 died — two adventurers of Spain or Portugal, 
 named Tristan da Cunha and Alphonso de 
 Albuquerque, sailed for the Indies on a voyage 
 of discovery, with fourteen great caravels. 
 
 During this expedition they found three great 
 islands which they named after Tristan da 
 Cunha, and elsewhere three others, which were 
 named from Alphonso, who, after their fleet had 
 been scattered by a great tempest, sailed throizgh 
 the Mozambique channel. He discovered many 
 seas, isles, and channels hitherto unknown to the 
 Portuguese or Spaniards, and ultimately reached 
 the Indies, of which he became viceroy for Fer- 
 dinand the Catholic, and died in 1515, holding 
 that office. 
 
 It is very strange that since that remote period, 
 
 20
 
 230 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 no European country has turned these islands to 
 any account, as they do not lie more than fifty 
 leagues from the general track of the shipping 
 bound for the coast of Coromandel or the Chi- 
 nese seas, and in time of war would form a use 
 ful and important rendezvous for a fleet. 
 
 They lie exactly in that portion of the wide 
 and mighty ocean where it was fabled and be 
 lieved a great continent would yet be found. 
 
 The three isles of Tristan da Cunha, which lie 
 some hundred miles distant, have now a mixed 
 population of English, Portuguese, and mulat- 
 toes ; and a strong garrison was maintained there 
 during the captivity of the Emperor Napoleon 
 at St. Helena. 
 
 Being thus cast away upon a shore so far from 
 the general track of ships, we resolved to make 
 preparations for a probable residence of some 
 time — to build a hut wherein to store our pro- 
 visions, and to use every means for adding to our 
 stock, by angling in the creeks, which seemed to 
 abound with fish, and by hunting in the woods, 
 which teemed with goats and boars running 
 wild ; by collecting birds' eggs, as the cliffs 
 seemed to be literally alive with petrels, alba- 
 trosses, and sea-hens; and all these exertions 
 were the more necessary as none could foresee 
 the probable length of our sojourn there. 
 
 A ship might heave in sight to-morrow; but 
 a year might pass before one came near enough 
 to be attracte i by our signs.
 
 TIIE ISLAND OF ALPHONSO. 231 
 
 We resolved to have a signal-post erected on 
 the mountain top, a beacon-fire prepared, and 
 amid these and many other deliberations, the 
 night closed in and found us tolerably contented 
 with our island, and even disposed to be merry 
 over misfortunes that we could not control. 
 
 But considerable speculation was excited when 
 Billy Wilkins the cabin boy, who had been in 
 pursuit of a little kid along the beach, returned 
 to us, dragging after him a long spar which he 
 had found among the layers of shingles, bright 
 shells, and dusky weeds, deposited by the sea; 
 and on examination this spar proved to be one 
 of the lower studding-sail booms of the Eugenie, 
 and the same which had parted from the brig and 
 fallen overboard with Antonio on the eventful 
 evening of his punishment! 
 
 " It is our own property," said Billy, " and may 
 be useful when we have a fire to light." 
 
 " Boy Bill, we have a better use for it than 
 burning," said Tattooed Tom ; " 'tis the mast for 
 our signal-post, already made to hand, and we'll 
 step it on the hill-top to-morrow. 
 
 For that night we bivouacked under a large 
 tree, the name and genus of which were alike un- 
 known to us. At times some were conversing 
 some slept, others lay waking and thinking, with 
 the murmur of the shining sea, close by, in their 
 ears ; and I could see the stars of the Southern 
 Cross shining with wonderful brilliance at the 
 verge of the watery horizon.
 
 232 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 The novelty of our situation kept me long 
 awake, and with my head pillowed on a bundle 
 of dry seaweed, with the sail of the longboat 
 spread over us as an impromptu tent and for 
 protection from the dew, I lay in meditation and 
 full of melancholy thoughts ere sleep came upon 
 me, and with it confused dreams of the burning 
 ship, of my secluded home, and of 
 
 " the schoolboy spot, 
 
 We long remember, though there long forgot." 
 
 Again I was at Eton ! Again I saw the 
 smooth green playing-fields alive with ardent 
 schoolboys in the merry summer sunshine ; and 
 again I heard the clamor of their young voices 
 and the balls rattling on bat and wicket ; again 
 I heard the pleasant green leaves rustle in the 
 old woods of the Tudor times ; or again I was 
 in the shady quadrangles where the monotonous 
 hum of many classes poring over their studies 
 stole through the mullioned windows on the 
 ambient air; and in my dreaming ear that 
 " drowsy hum " seemed strangely to mingle with 
 the chafing of the surge upon " th' unnumbered 
 pebbles " of the lonely shore close by. 
 
 At last overcome by weariness, by lassitude 
 and toil, I slept soundly.
 
 WE BUILD A HUT. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 WE BUILD A HUT. 
 
 My old tutor at Eton used to say, quoting 
 some " wise saw," that " a lazy boy made a lazy 
 man, just as a crooked sapling makes a crooked 
 tree." 
 
 It was fortunate for me, however, while on 
 the island of Alphonso, that my habits were those 
 of activity, and that I was never lymphatic by 
 nature. 
 
 After dawn next morning we set about the 
 erection of a hut, though we had no other tools 
 than a small hatchet and our clasp-knives. 
 With these we cut or tore down a great number 
 of large branches, and stuck them in the earth, 
 selecting a place where two angles of impending 
 rock conveniently enough formed two solid 
 walls for our edifice, leaving us but two others 
 to erect. 
 
 As Tom Lambourne said, " the fellow who 
 cannot use a hammer or axe, is only half a 
 man" so we all worked hard with such imple- 
 ments as we had, until our hut was complete. 
 
 We left an entrance next the rocks by which 
 
 20*
 
 234 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 (o creep in and out, and then thatched or built 
 over the intertwisted branches with turf, torn up 
 by our hands, and with broad plantain leaves, 
 creepers, and all kinds of tendrils that had 
 toughness and consistency woven to form a roof. 
 
 At the erection of this most primitive wigwam 
 we toiled the whole day, save during the scorch- 
 ing interval of noon, and ere nightfall it was 
 complete, with piles of dried leaves and seagrass 
 for couches and bedroom furniture. 
 
 Therein we placed all our provisions — the 
 three bags of bread, two kegs of rum (which by 
 unanimous consent were placed under the sole 
 supervision of Hislop) ; our four casks of water 
 were also brought ashore, though there was no 
 lack of pure springs on the island. 
 
 In this wigwam were also placed our blankets, 
 the sails and tackle of the longboat, and then the 
 succeeding days were spent in accumulating 
 provisions (as we looked forward with dread to 
 our last biscuit), and a signal-post was erected 
 on the mountain. 
 
 With Probart the carpenter, and Henry War- 
 ren (two of our stoutest hands), Tom Lam- 
 bourne and I went upon this duty. 
 
 Alternately carrying on our shoulders or drag- 
 ging in our hands the studding-sail boom, we 
 toiled through wild and untrodden wastes, to- 
 ward the summit of the great and yet nameless 
 conical mountain that rears its lonely scalp to
 
 WE BUILD A HUT. 235 
 
 the height of five thousand feet above the waves 
 of the Southern sea. 
 
 The hope that on reaching its summit we 
 might descry a sail, was an additional incentive 
 to toil up the steep slope without lingering by 
 the way. 
 
 On leaving a flat savanna of sedge-grass we 
 reached a series of wooded ridges which form 
 the base of the mountain, at every step rousing 
 clouds of birds, especially a species of black- 
 cock, and twice in the jungle we came upon the 
 lair of wild boars of great size and such ferocity 
 of aspect that we were glad to shrink astern of 
 Tattooed Tom, who earned the hatchet. 
 
 This jungle was exceedingly difficult of pene- 
 tration, owing to its density, the number of wild 
 aloes, with creeping plants, prickly pears, and 
 other tropical weeds, of what kind I know not, 
 twined about them. It was a literal wilderness 
 of serrated grass blades, yellow gourds, and great 
 squashy pumpkins like gigantic vegetable mar- 
 rows, all woven into an inextricable network of 
 leaves, tendrils, and branches. 
 
 In other places we had to force a passage 
 through thickets of richly flowered shrubs and 
 tall plants with mighty leaves, the general green- 
 ery of the landscape being increased by the 
 many runnels of fine spring water which poured 
 down the fissures c f the mountain into the plain 
 we had left.
 
 236 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 By the sides of these runnels, we frequently 
 paused, and making a cup of a large leaf, filled 
 it with the cool, limpid water that gurgled over 
 the rocks, to quench our constant thirst ; and for 
 a time such vegetable cups were the only drink- 
 ing vessels we had while on the island of Al- 
 phonso. 
 
 At last we gained the summit of the mountain, 
 and with mingled satisfaction and anxiety in our 
 hearts, swept the horizon with eager eyes. 
 
 Not a sail was in sight! 
 
 Far as our eyesight could reach around us, in 
 a mighty circle, rolled the waters of the Southern 
 Atlantic, almost tepid with heat, and pale and 
 white, as they seemed to palpitate under the rays 
 of the unclouded sun. 
 
 At our feet lay the whole isle of Alphonso and 
 its two rocky appendages, with the encircling 
 sea boiling in the narrow chasms between them, 
 with a fury which was the result of contrary 
 currents, and which formed a singular contrast to 
 its calmness elsewhere. 
 
 After a brief rest we prepared to set up the 
 signal-post. 
 
 Tom took off his shirt, and drawing from his 
 pocket a piece of spunyarn, which a seaman is 
 seldom without, he lashed his under-garment to 
 the end of the studding-sail boom, and by the aid 
 of the hatchet and our hands, we scraped a hole 
 sufficiently deep in which to erect the spar, and
 
 WE BUILD A HUT. 237 
 
 then jammed it hard and fast with stones. As 
 the shirt was blown out flag fashion upon the 
 wind, we hoped it would prove a sufficient indi- 
 cation to a vessel approaching from any quarter 
 that there were people on the island in want of 
 succor. 
 
 For some hours we lingered on the mountain- 
 top, in the fond hope of seeing a sail, and then 
 returned slowly downward to the beach, where 
 our shipmates awaited us at the wigwam which 
 now formed our home, and which we jocularly 
 designated the capital city of Alphonso.
 
 238 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 A WILD BOAR. 
 
 We felt very much the want of firearms. The 
 air seemed alive with birds — the woods with 
 game of several kinds ; and now an old musket 
 with a few charges of powder would have proved 
 more useful to us than the treasure of the Bank 
 of England. 
 
 Hislop recovered strength rapidly, and his con- 
 valescence inspired our little band of castaways 
 with new confidence and vigor, as they had im- 
 plicit reliance in his superior knowledge and in- 
 telligence. 
 
 We were never idle ; for, unarmed as we 
 were, the task of procuring food for our general 
 store was by no means a sinecure to those who 
 undertook it. 
 
 Tom Lambourne and John Burnet, the cook, 
 first brought us a valuable contribution in the 
 shape of a great sea-lion, which was furnished 
 with a rough and shaggy mane, that added 
 greatly to its terrible aspect, for it was an un- 
 wieldy brute, as large as a small-sized cow. 
 
 They had fallen in with it when it lay bask*
 
 A WILD BOAR. 239 
 
 ing on the beach. Burnet courageously attacked 
 it with one of the stretchers of the long-boat,* 
 and dealt it a severe stroke on the head. 
 
 The animal uttered a hoarse grunt and turned 
 upon him open-mouthed, when he thrust the 
 staff down its throat, and held it there till Lam- 
 bourne hewed off the head with his hatchet. 
 
 One or two others were afterwards despatched 
 in the same way ; but we had to lie long in 
 wait, and could catch them only by cutting off 
 their retreat to the water. 
 
 Their hearts and tongues were considered the 
 best food by the sailors, who broiled them over 
 a fire which we kindled by striking two stones 
 together, and letting the sparks fall upon a heap 
 of dry leaves ; and to the discovery of these im- 
 promptu flints we were indebted to Ned Carlton. 
 
 As for salt, I found plenty of it, baked in the 
 crevices of the rocks upon the beach, where the 
 spray had dried it in the hot sunshine. 
 
 "The wild boars that lurked in the woods, baf- 
 fled our efforts for a long time. By the edge of 
 the hatchet we possessed, I fashioned for my 
 own use a kind of spear, about six feet long, 
 hewn out of a piece of fine teak woou, which I 
 found upon the beach. 
 
 This weapon I made and pointed with great 
 
 * Stretchers are pieces of wood placed across the bottom of a 
 boat, whereon the oarsmen place their feet that they may have 
 additional purchase in rowing.
 
 240 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 care, and armed with it frequently lay in watch 
 for the sea-lions, but without success. 
 
 On the shore, at this season, when the sun- 
 shine was reflected from the sloping faces of the 
 volcanic rocks and from the surface of the sea, 
 the heat was beyond all description — intense 
 breathless, and suffocating, so that the lungs 
 would collapse painfully, in the difficulty of res- 
 piration. 
 
 To breathe was like attempting it at the 
 mouth of a newly opened furnace, and so I usu- 
 ally retired inland and sought the cool solitude 
 of the deep thickets, or wandered through groves 
 of solemn, impressive, and majestic old trees ; for 
 some were there so old, that they must have cast 
 the shadows of their foliage on Alphonso de Albu- 
 querque, or Tristan de Cunha, and their bearded 
 followers. 
 
 How many ocean storms had swept their 
 leaves into the waste of waters since then ! 
 
 We had now been five days on the island 
 without a sail being seen, though more than 
 half our time was spent in watching the horizon ; 
 and so Tom Lambourne's old shirt still waved 
 in vain from the boom-end on the mountain- 
 top. 
 
 On the fifth day, however, to our surprise, the 
 signal was no longer visible, so we supposed that 
 a gust of wind had overthrown it in the night. 
 
 Lambourne, Carlton, and Probart started for
 
 A WILD BOAR. 241 
 
 the mountain-top to restore it, while Hislop and 
 I rambled into the wood;-, where we had a view 
 of the shining sea to the westward. The waves 
 came in long rollers, as there was a fresh breeze 
 blowing from the west, and the foam rose white 
 and high on the tremendous bluffs of the Inac- 
 cessible Isles, as we named them. 
 
 All the water between them was a sheet of 
 sparkling and snowy frolh, amid which, had we 
 been nearer, we should doubtless have seen the 
 black heads of the sea lions, as they sported in 
 the spray and sunshine. 
 
 On asking Hislop how far he thought we were 
 from the continents of Africa and South America, 
 he replied without hesitation, — 
 
 " We are about fifteen hundred miles from the 
 mouth of the Rio de la Plata on the westward, 
 and twelve hundred odd from the Cape of Good 
 Hope on the east ; but there is land nearer to 
 us » 
 
 " Land nearer ! " I reiterated. 
 
 " There are the three isles of Tristan da Cunha, 
 and about five hundred miles south-west of us a 
 desolate rock called the Isle of Diego Alvarez ; 
 and fortunate it is indeed for us that we were 
 not cast away there, as it yields only mossy grass, 
 and now and then a few seals or sea-elephants 
 may be seen upon the reefs about it. But, Dick 
 Rodney, does it not make one long to be afloat 
 again, with a good ship underfoot, both tacks 
 
 21
 
 242 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 and the breeze too, aft? — a cloud of canvas, 
 carrying the three masts into one when seen 
 astern — the lower studding-sail booms rigged 
 out and dipping in the flying spray as she rolls 
 from side to side — does it not, I say, bring all 
 this to mind, when from here we can walch the 
 waves that rose, perhaps, upon the shores of 
 Mexico rolling in foam between these rocky isles ? 
 Do you remember Homer's description of the 
 curling wave ? " And without waiting my reply 
 he began to recite from the Iliad, with wonderful 
 facility : 
 
 "As on the hoarse resounding shore, v»hen blows the stormy 
 
 west, 
 The billowy tide comes surging wide, from ocean's dark blue 
 
 breast ; 
 First in mid-sea 'tis born, then swells and rages more and 
 
 more, 
 And rolling on with snowy back, comes thundering near the 
 
 shore ; 
 Then rears its crest, firm and sublime, and with tumultuous 
 
 bray 
 Smites the grim front of \he rugged rock, and spits the briny 
 
 spray." 
 
 How far Hislop in his classical enthusiasm 
 might have pursued his free translation, till we 
 had all the deeds of Agamemnon and others on 
 that tremendous day before the walls of Troy, ] 
 cannot say, had not a crashing sound in the ad- 
 jacent thicket roused and alarmed us. 
 
 We started up, and had just time to conceal
 
 A WILD BOAR. 243 
 
 ourselves behind the trunk of a tree, when a herd 
 of seven wild boars came plunging out of the 
 thicket to drink at a runnel which flowed toward 
 the sea. 
 
 They were unlike any of the swinish race we 
 had ever seen before ; and but for our vague sen- 
 sations of alarm we could have watched them 
 with pleasure, as they inserted their long fierce 
 snouts in the water that sparkled under the forest 
 leaves. 
 
 They were all broad-shouldered animals, with 
 high crests and thick bristly manes ; and all were 
 black in color or darkly brindled. 
 
 Unlike those of the sty-fed hogs to which we 
 had been accustomed at home, their erected 
 bristles shone like silver or polished steel in the 
 rays of sunshine that fell through the waving 
 branches ; their eyes were flashing and clear, and 
 their skins were all clean as if washed for a show 
 of prize pigs. 
 
 Thin flanked, active, and strong, they began 
 to grunt and gambol, and to splash up the glit- 
 tering water, till suddenly they caught sight of 
 us, and all fled save one, a fierce old boar, which, 
 after tearing up the grass with his hind feet, came 
 resolutely forward, showing a pair of tusks that 
 made me tremble for the calves of my legs if I 
 ventured to run off, and still more for those of 
 poor Hislop, who was alike unable to escape 01 
 confront him.
 
 244 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Fortunately I had my teak-wood spear. 
 
 While keeping a tree between me and the 
 boar, he prepared for the offensive by whetting 
 his terrible tusks against a stone and grunting 
 hoarsely. 
 
 Excited and bewildered, as he came on at a 
 quick run, I charged my weapon full at him, and 
 by the mercy of Providence, the point entered 
 one of his fierce glittering eyes, which made him 
 rear and recoil, while in his rage and pain the 
 bristles on his ridgy back rose up like little blades 
 of steel. 
 
 " Into his throat with your spear! " cried His- 
 lop ; but I anticipated the suggestion, for ere the 
 words had left his lips, I bad buried — thrusting 
 deep with all the force that excitement and terror 
 gave me — the pointed teak-wood shaft down 
 his red and gaping throat. 
 
 Choking in blood, in foam and fury, the great 
 boar writhed upon his back, and in doing so 
 twitched from my hands the weapon, which still 
 remained wedged in his throat and tongue, and 
 rendered him almost powerless. I knew not what 
 to do now, for if he snapped it through, and thus 
 released himself, we, or I at least, would be lost. 
 
 But as he lay there on his back and sides al- 
 ternately, snorting, roaring, and covering the 
 grass with bloody froth, and tearing it by his 
 bristles, Hi slop sprang forward, and though weak 
 with many half-healed wounds, drove a clasp-
 
 A WILD BOAR. 245 
 
 knife repeatedly into the throat and stomach of 
 the monster, which soon lay still enough. 
 
 When it was quite dead, I drew out my teak- 
 wood spear, and found the point almost unin- 
 jured, for I had hardened it in fire. 
 
 We thrust two crooked branches through the 
 tendons of the boar's hind-legs, and by these 
 drew it to our hut, which was about half a mile 
 distant ; there our prize caused great congratula- 
 tion among our crew, and I obtained no little 
 praise for performing so hardy a feat. 
 
 Our return diverted for a time some excite- 
 ment and surprise which had been caused by the 
 return of Tom Lambourne, Probart, and Carl- 
 ton from the mountain-top, with tidings that the 
 studding-sail boom had vanished, and that not a 
 trace of it was to be found anywhere ! 
 
 21*
 
 246 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 A NEW PERPLEXITY. 
 
 The disappearance of the boom and of Tom's 
 old striped shirt, which had waved from it like a 
 banner, excited considerable speculation and 
 something of alarm. 
 
 If simply overturned by the wind, it must 
 have lain where it fell ; at all events, it could 
 not have rolled far from the cairn, or pile of 
 stones, in the centre of which we had wedged it. 
 By what agency had this disappearance come 
 to pass ? 
 
 That it was the work of wild animals could 
 not for a moment be conceived ; so the event 
 tilled us with vague but very alarming conjec- 
 tures. 
 
 With his hatchet, Probart the carpenter cut 
 down and prepared a long and slender tree to 
 replace the lost boom on the top of the Devil's 
 Mountain, as we now termed it ; and while one 
 portion of us assisted him in this, the other set 
 about the capture of some of the wild goats with 
 which the woods of the island abounded, as we 
 were anxious to procure the milk of the females, 
 and the flesh of their kids.
 
 A NEW PERPLEXITY. 247 
 
 This was a most arduous task, as they were 
 so fleet of foot ; and when pursued, or when in 
 search of those bitter and astringent plants of 
 v hich they are so fond, they could gain the 
 most dangerous pinnacles and ledges of rock 
 that overhung the sea. In such places there 
 grew a kind of wild laburnum, and Hislop did 
 not fail to remind me that Theocritus described 
 it as the favorite food of the goat. 
 
 We often saw these agile quadrupeds spring, 
 without pause, fear, or hesitation, from pinnacle 
 to pinnacle, or from ledge to ledge of rock, where, 
 had they missed footing, they must have fallen a 
 thousand feet or more, either into the ocean on 
 one side, or some ravine on the other ; and there, 
 perched far aloft, they would remain, looking at 
 us quietly, and reminding me of the couplet : 
 
 " High hung in air the hoary goat reclined, 
 His streaming beard the sport of every wind." 
 
 By great industry, and the exertion of incredi- 
 ble labor and activity, we succeeded in capturing 
 five, by isolating them from their flocks and 
 chasing them into chasms and corners from 
 which they had no means of escape, and then we 
 secured them by the running rigging of the long- 
 boat. 
 
 Some of the females afforded milk, a rarity and 
 nourishment to us who had been so long at sea 
 The flesh of a kid we thought delicious ; and
 
 248 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 lest we should tire of roasted and broiled, Jack 
 Burnet, the ship's cook, contrived to boil some 
 pieces of a goat in its own skin, stretched upon 
 sticks, with a fire underneath, salt for a spice, and 
 sliced pumpkin for vegetables. 
 
 Of the horns, when carefully scraped and 
 cleaned, we made very efficient drinking-cups, 
 in which our rum, duly mixed with water, was 
 doled out to us by Hislop, the keeper of our pro- 
 vision-store. 
 
 The eggs of the sea-birds were a constant ob- 
 ject of search, and being an expert climber, I fre- 
 quently collected great numbers of those laid in 
 the crevices of the rocks by the sea-gull and 
 storm-finch. 
 
 Our life was one of perpetual exposure and 
 daily activity. Though overpoweringly hot at 
 noon, the atmosphere of the morning and even- 
 ing was delightful ; and as these portions of the 
 day were spent in hunting for food, the time 
 passed rapidly ; but Hislop's chief fear was, that 
 if we were not taken off by some ship before the 
 rainy season set in, our discomforts and danger 
 from agues would become very great. 
 
 By the time we had been fourteen days on the 
 island, he was recovered so far as to be able to 
 join me in making an exploration of it, or rather 
 in walking all round it. 
 
 The circumference of the largest isle is only 
 four leagues ; but its shores are so steep and
 
 A NEW PERPLEXITY. 249 
 
 rocky in some places, that traversing them 
 proved a most arduous task. 
 
 On the eastern side we found a great cascade 
 pouring from, a brow of rock upon the beach. 
 The latter was covered almost everywhere by a 
 broad-leaved seaweed, the dark and slimy ten- 
 drils of which were several yards in length, and 
 were termed by Hislop " the gigantic fucus." 
 
 So day after day passed, and amid our various 
 means of procuring food, we never failed to keep 
 a keen look-out to seaward for a passing sail ; 
 but none came near that lonely islet of the 
 southern sea. 
 
 One morning I found there had drifted ashore 
 near our hut a mass of that mysterious sub- 
 stance, the origin of which has puzzled so many 
 naturalists — ambergris. It must have weighed 
 more than a hundred pounds in weight; and 
 and when we threw some of it into the fire, it 
 melted and diffused around a most agreeable 
 perfume. This marine production, which is only 
 to be found in the seas or on the shores of Africa 
 and Brazil, is alleged by some to be a concre- 
 tion formed in the stomach of the spermaceti 
 whale. 
 
 On the fifteenth morning after our landing, a 
 seaman named Henry Warren, who went to 
 milk our goats, which had been tethered to a 
 large tree near the hut, returned in haste to an- 
 nounce that the ropes which had secured them
 
 250 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 were cat, apparently by a sharp instrument — 
 cut clean through — and that the goats, the cap- 
 ture of which had cost us so much labor, were 
 gone. 
 
 " Cut ? By whom ? " asked every one. 
 
 Before we had time to consider this, Hislop 
 came out of the hut, and stated that one of our 
 three bread bags had also been cut open, by a 
 slash from a knife apparently, and that several 
 pounds of biscuit had been abstracted. 
 
 The strange alarm, and what was worse, the 
 doubt of each other, which these discoveries ex- 
 cited, were painful and bewildering. 
 
 We examined the place where the goats had 
 been tethered, but could discover no traces of 
 feet, and nothing remained but the ends of the 
 ropes (the longboat sheets and halliards) tied to 
 the stem of a tree. 
 
 Whoever among us had done this was guilty 
 of wanton malice and treason to the rest of his 
 friends — for friends we hoped we were, as well 
 as brothers in misfortune. 
 
 We also examined the mutilated bread bag. 
 In the side thereof was a clean slash a foot in 
 length, made by some sharp instrument, and by 
 \this aperture the biscuits had been abstracted by 
 some one who had inserted his hands through 
 the fragile wall of our hut, which, as I have 
 stated, was composed only of turf and branches. 
 
 This theft had been committed in the night; 
 but by whom ?
 
 A NEW PERPLEXITY. 251 
 
 Was the thief one of ourselves? The eyes 
 of each seemed to ask the hateful question of 
 the others, and to repel then inquiring glances; 
 but soon after three of our missing biscuits were 
 discovered by Tom Lambourne, lying a few 
 yards apart among the long grass, as if the 
 abstractor had dropped them during a hasty 
 flight toward the woods or the Devil's Moun- 
 tain. 
 
 " In addition to ourselves there is some one 
 else on this island," exclaimed Hislop, emphati- 
 cally ; " and this accounts for the loss of the 
 studding-sail boom ; and without delay, this some 
 one else must be discovered." 
 
 We dreaded lest savages might be concealed 
 in some of the caverns or woods, and that they 
 might come upon us in the night and slay all, or 
 that they might make off with or destroy the 
 longboat, our most valuable possession. 
 
 It was at once resolved that one of our num- 
 ber (to be regularly relieved) should remain in it 
 day and night, armed with the hatchet, our only 
 weapon, and that he should be well flogged if 
 he slept, or neglected the double duty of watch- 
 ing the hut and boat, which were close by each 
 other.
 
 252 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE MYSTERY INCREASES. 
 
 An immediate search was resolved upon. 
 Lots were cast for the one who was to remain 
 behind to guard our property, and the duty fell 
 upon me. 
 
 Armed with the boat stretchers, or with clubs 
 which they had carefully selected and cut from 
 the trees, Hislop departed with all my compan- 
 ions ; and after proceeding over the grassy plain, 
 they soon disappeared in the woods that covered 
 all the lower slope of the great mountain. 
 
 I cannot describe the sensations of loneliness 
 that came over me on finding myself for the first 
 time single, alone, and left entirely to my own 
 reflections and resources. 
 
 The carpenter's hatchet was my only weapon ; 
 and armed with it I sat on a grassy slope mid- 
 way between the hut and sea, gazing anxiously 
 inland, listening for any passing sound ; but all 
 remained still save the chafing of the waves on 
 one hand, and the loud buzz of tropical insect 
 life in the thickets or among the long grass on 
 the other.
 
 THE MYSTERY INCREASES. 253 
 
 What, I asked myself, if savages were actu- 
 ally lurking in the woods, and on seeing that ail 
 my companions were gone, they should come tu- 
 multuously down upon the hut and boat ? I 
 would at once become their victim. 
 
 Or what would be my fate if my friends fell 
 into an ambush, or perished in detail ? 
 
 Could any human beings be lurking in the two 
 adjacent isles ? was my next surmise. 
 
 We had never seen any thing alive on them 
 — not even wild goats or boars ; and if there 
 were other inhabitants, the steepness of the 
 rocks, which rose sheer from the water, and the 
 fury of the surf that rolled between, forbade any 
 attempt to cross. 
 
 So in such painful surmises, and in keen 
 watching, I passed the most of the day alone. 
 
 In the afternoon, one by one, all my shipmates 
 returned to our little headquarters on the shore, 
 weary and jaded — torn by briars and brambles 
 in the thickets — and all had the same tale to 
 tell. They had seen and heard of nothing save 
 wild boars, wild goats, and sea-birds. 
 
 Hislop now directed that one of our number 
 should guard the hut by night, and a second the 
 boat, with orders to hail each other in this fash- 
 ion : 
 
 "Boat, ahoy!" 
 
 " Hut, ahoy ! " 
 
 This was to insure a Watchful look-out ; but 
 22
 
 254 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 with all these precautions, wise and necessary 
 though they were, our feeling of security, and 
 *?ven of reliance on each other, was gone for the 
 time. 
 
 As these occurrences excited the imagination 
 of our companions, some of those who watched 
 the hut and boat by night, asserted that when 
 all our party, save themselves, were safely lodged 
 and asleep, something like the figure of a very 
 tall man had appeared for an instant on the 
 bluffs that overhung the sea, between them and 
 the moonlight. 
 
 But of this mysterious personage, if such ex- 
 isted anywhere, except in the overstrained imag- 
 ination of a lonely midnight watcher, we could 
 discover no trace during day. 
 
 One night, when Francis Probart and Ned 
 Carlton were on watch, a sound like the distant 
 report of a pistol was heard by them, and at the 
 same instant, both saw a flock of petrels and 
 storm-finches rise up in the moonlight from the 
 face of a bluff, where they revolved above the 
 breakers, like a swarm of gnats in a sunbeam. 
 
 So if Ned and the carpenter were mistaken 
 in the sound, the birds were also roused and 
 alarmed. 
 
 Marc Hislop ridiculed their story, but he was 
 considerably bewildered, and so were we all when 
 two days after, a seaman named Hugh Chute, 
 when rambling in the woods, found one of our
 
 THE MYSTERY INCREASES. 255 
 
 goats, which we knew by the fragment of rope 
 still tied round its neck, lying dead, with a bul- 
 let in its throat ! 
 
 He brought it to the hut, where the wound 
 was cut open, and the bullet extracted. It was 
 small, and had evidently been fired from a pis- 
 tol ; this event caused the most exciting specu- 
 lations, amid which the carcass was hastily 
 buried, as not one of us would eat of it. 
 
 What or who could this person be ? were the 
 prevailing questions ; and what was his reason 
 for concealing himself from us in the thick woods 
 of the island ? 
 
 In the thorough exploration of the latter, caused 
 by these episodes, our people fortunately discov- 
 ered a fine grove of banana trees, and returned 
 laden with their yellow and luscious fruit. 
 
 At the same time Tattooed Tom found some 
 letters " in a foreign lingo," as he said, cut on 
 the face of a steep rock, overhanging the river, 
 which formed the cascade at the beach. To this 
 rock he conducted Hislop and me next day, and 
 after tearing aside some masses of creepers and 
 scraping off a rich coating of moss, we found 
 this old legend on the smoothed face of the ba- 
 salt : 
 
 El noble Caballero, D. Alphonso de Albuquerque ; 
 
 a. d. 1506. 
 
 RVGVEX A DlOS FOR EL. 
 
 " The yeai of the discovery of the island ! " 
 said Hislop.
 
 256 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Have other eyes ever seen this inscription 
 since ? " added I. 
 
 " It is very doubtful. This Alphonso also dis- 
 covered the Albuquerque Kays, as he named the 
 three islets which lie off the Mosquito shore in 
 the Caribbean Sea." 
 
 Hislop copied the inscription into his note- 
 book, and just as we turned to leave the spot, a 
 large stone about sixty pounds in weight, came 
 crashing down the cliff, hurled apparently from 
 its summit, and if so, by no inexpert hand, for it 
 struck the rock of the legend within a foot of 
 where Hislop stood, and was shivered into a 
 hundred pieces, covering him over with dust. 
 
 Had it struck him instead, he had been slain 
 and mangled on the spot. Had a fragment 
 broken any of his limbs, in how miserable a 
 plight would he have been on that desolate 
 island, without proper shelter or surgical aid ! 
 
 Looking up to the summit of the cliff, which 
 was about a hundred and fifty feet in height, I 
 perceived among the dense fringe of wild gourds, 
 shrubs, leaves, and plantain trees, then waving 
 in the wind, something like a human face, that, 
 after peering over at us, was suddenly with- 
 drawn. 
 
 " That stone was never dislodged either by 
 goats or by accident," said Hislop ; there is not 
 a vestige of clay upon the fragments — besides, 
 all the face of the cliff is smooth and solid 
 rock!"
 
 THE MYSTERY INCREASES. 257 
 
 " And it is the only place we did not overhaul 
 yesterday, master Hislop," said Tom Lam- 
 bourne. 
 
 " Then there must be the thief of our biscuits 
 — of our goats " 
 
 " Of our stun'sail boom and my old guernsey 
 Let us have all hands turned up for a hunt 
 again," exclaimed Tom. 
 
 I now mentioned what I had seen. 
 
 " A man ! — do you think it was a man's 
 head ? " 
 
 " I cannot be certain, Hislop," said I ; "it 
 seemed a face of some kind, and a very hairy 
 one too." 
 
 " It might be an old pumpkin," suggested 
 Tom, in his matter-of-fact way. 
 
 " Or a goat — at all events, it could not have 
 been a baboon ? " said I. 
 
 " No, no ; there is no such animal hereabout, 
 masier Rodney," replied Tom. 
 
 " Man or monkey, goat or devil, we'll overhaul 
 the place this very afternoon," exclaimed Hislop, 
 with increasing energy and anger ; " but first we 
 hall return with all expedition to the hut." 
 
 22*
 
 258 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE MYSTERY SOLVED. 
 
 All day the air had been unusually sultry and 
 breathlessly hot, even for the tropics at that sea- 
 son ; but when the sun sank westward, when 
 the air became cooler, and the shadows of the 
 island, with its wooded bluff and towering blue 
 mountain, across the slope of which the light 
 gossamer clouds lay floating half-way up, were 
 thrown far eastward over that lonely sea which 
 no keel seemed ever to furrow, we prepared for 
 a further exploration, or as Hugh Chute said, 
 " to overhaul that ere cliff from truck to keelson." 
 
 Chute and Carlton were despatched to its 
 base, by the way of the river bank, and to w r here 
 the cascade poured over the rocks, waking the 
 solemn echoes of the otherwise silent ravine. 
 
 Their instructions were, to station themselves 
 near the rock which bore the Spanish legend — 
 to keep a sharp look-out on the face of the cliff 
 and all the way up to the grove of banana trees 
 that grew on its summit. 
 
 Billy the cabin boy was left in charge of the 
 hut and boat, while Hislop, with the rest of ua
 
 TIIE MYSTERY SOLVED. 259 
 
 advanced toward the cliff, up the sloping bank 
 of which — its only accessible point — we pro- 
 ceeded to climb. 
 
 It was, or is (twelve months can make no 
 change) a hundred and fifty feet in height, as I 
 have stated, rising sharply up from the side of 
 the great mountain, and is covered by a jungle 
 of wild shrubs that must have been growing 
 there since the days of the deluge. 
 
 The creepers with gummy branches, the sharp 
 serrated grass, the yellow gourd vines, the wild 
 tendrils and plants of which we knew neither the 
 names nor the nature, were there interwoven as 
 closely as a herring net, to the depth of seven or 
 eight feet from their roots. 
 
 Amid this jungle the hum of the myriads of 
 great insects which we roused and dislodged 
 was deafening; while the black clouds of gad- 
 flies and cockroaches were very bewildering, 
 and, to say the least, annoying. 
 
 We floundered and fell as we waded through 
 this sea of leaves and verdure, but rose and 
 scrambled on again, pausing ever and anon, 
 breathless and exhausted, to sit and fan our- 
 selves, or to aid in pulling each other out of this 
 jungly network, for it resembled that which 
 sprang by magic spell around the palace of the 
 sleeping beauty in the old fairy tale, to baffle all 
 intruders for a hundred years. 
 
 Hislop, who had not yet recovered his strength,
 
 260 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 was among the first to give in, and declare, 
 when half way up, that " he could climb no 
 further ! " 
 
 Two or three took advantage of this admis- 
 sion to remain with him for a time ; but I, 
 refreshed by a ripe banana which had fallen 
 from the trees at the top, and which I found 
 just at hand, pushed on, and being lighter than 
 any of my companions, got ahead of them all. 
 
 After half an hour's severe toil, during which 
 my hands and knees were lacerated and torn by 
 sharp blades of gigantic grass, and by the gummy 
 creepers to which one's very flesh adhered at times, 
 I reached at last the banana trees, the foliage of 
 which waved like a gigantic plume on the summit 
 of this isolated rock. 
 
 The banana rises with a stem which is about six 
 or seven inches in diameter at the root, and from 
 thence tapers upward to the height of eighteen or 
 twenty feet, to where the leaves spring like a bright 
 green tuft, broad, wavy, feathery, and drooping, as 
 those of the palm do. 
 
 I uttered a shout — an " Io pecan!" — to my 
 companions, announcing that I had gained the 
 summit before them, and armed with my only 
 weapon, the teak -wood spear, pushed my way 
 forward between the smooth stems of the 
 bananas, till I reached the abrupt brow of the 
 cliff, from the verge of which I saw, far down 
 below, the brigh blue stream that rose on the
 
 THE MYSTERY SOLVED. 261 
 
 slopes of the great mountain, running through 
 the heart of the isle and glittering in the setting 
 sun among groves and ravines, to where it 
 poured in foam upon the white sandy beach, 
 and mingled with the mighty Southern Sea. 
 
 I saw also the figures of Chute and Carlton, 
 as they stood near the rock which bore the in- 
 scription, but they could neither distinguish me 
 nor hear my shout, which gave fresh ardor to 
 those whom I had left half-way down, and who 
 now resumed their ascent. 
 
 I looked keenly and cautiously about me on 
 every side, but saw only the slender and count- 
 less stems of the tall bananas, whose broad 
 leaves, as they spread under or over each other, 
 interrupted the rays of the sun, and formed a 
 shade that was pleasing and gloomy. 
 
 Now, when about to cross what seemed a 
 hole or hollow in the jungle, by stepping from 
 the strong tendril of one creeper to another, a 
 naked arm and great human hand came up from 
 amid the mass of leaves ! 
 
 I was seized by the right foot, and in an in- 
 stant found myself dragged down through foli- 
 age and intertwisted plants — down — down — 
 I knew not where ; and before I had time or 
 breath to cry or resist, I lay prostrate on my 
 back in a hole — a lair under the matted jungle 
 — with a man above me, his knees planted on 
 my breast, his strong hards upon my bare throat,
 
 262 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 and his fierce wild eyes glaring like those of a 
 hyaena into mine. 
 
 Then, how terrible were my emotions on recog- 
 nizing in the light that fell through the mass of 
 foliage above, as through a vine-covered trellis — 
 now overspread with hair, as beard and whiskers 
 all were matted into a mass — the dark and fe- 
 rocious face of Antonio, whom I believed to be 
 drowned and lying at the bottom of the sea — 
 Antonio el Cubano ! 
 
 " Silenzio ! " said he, in a low voice, like the 
 hiss of a serpent in my ear ; but the injunction 
 was unnecessary, for so completely was I taken 
 by surprise — so utterly at his mercy, and so des- 
 titute alike of breath or weapon — that resist- 
 ance was impossible. 
 
 Perceiving that I was almost strangled he re- 
 laxed his fierce grasp a little, but still kept the 
 sharply pricking point of his knife at my throat, 
 as a hint to remain quiet. 
 
 It would be impossible for me to describe the 
 emotions of my soul during this time, which 
 seemed an eternity to me ! Utter fear was one, 
 for I thought the fellow had something super- 
 natural — something truly of the demon — about 
 him ; that he could neither be drowned nor de- 
 stroyed ; and I lay still in that dark hollow, pant- 
 ing in his fierce clutch without a thought of re- 
 sistance. 
 
 Now I heard my name shouted lepeatedly
 
 THE MYSTERY SOLVED. 263 
 
 u Rodney — Mr, Rodney — Dick Rodney — 
 where are you ? " 
 
 It was Tom Lambourne and others, my com- 
 panions, who had now attained the summit of 
 the rock, and were scrambling over the jungle, 
 and pushing between the stems of the bananas, 
 searching for me, rather than for the first object 
 of such mystery. 
 
 My disappearance alarmed them. 
 
 " Can he have gone adrift over the bluff," I 
 heard Tom Lambourne say, " or is he only hav- 
 ing a game with us by hiding himself? " 
 
 " Oh yes ! — that is it," replied Probart, the 
 carpenter ; " he can't have gone aloft into one of 
 these bananas, for they are as clear of branches 
 as a spare topmast ; so let us sheer off to the 
 mate, and Mr. Rodney will soon come down 
 after as." 
 
 " Well, my lads, there are neither wild men 
 nor wild beasts here," said Lambourne ; " so we 
 shall return back to Master Hislop, who is hang- 
 ing in the wind halfway down, and then be off 
 to the hut. We've earned a stiff glass of grog 
 by this bout, anyhow." 
 
 My emotions became almost suffocating, when 
 I heard them turn away to descend and rejoin 
 Hislop without me. 
 
 I saw and heard them pass and repass over us, 
 the creepers of the jungle yielding with their 
 weight.
 
 264 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 The leg and foot of one, named Henry War- 
 ren, came down through the green network of 
 leaves, and actually touched me. 
 
 I drew a long gasping breath, and the atro- 
 cious Cubano, believing I was about to cry 
 aloud, compressed my throat so tightly with his 
 muscular hands, that a thousand lights seemed 
 to flash before my eyes, and I must have be- 
 come senseless for some minutes, as the next in- 
 cident that dwells in my memory, is seeing him 
 sitting in a crouching attitude, with his elbows 
 on his knees ; his black-bearded chin resting in 
 the hollow of his right hand, and with his knife 
 — his murderous Albacete cuchillo — clenched in 
 his white teeth, while he surveyed me with a 
 strange and sardonic smile in his deeply-set black 
 eyes, which glittered like those of a snake in the 
 rays of sunlight that struggled through the woven 
 roof of leaves above us. 
 
 I heard no more ^the voices of my shipmates. 
 They were gone, and I was left alone and un- 
 armed with this man or devil, — as yet I knew 
 not which he was ; but I knew that if he had 
 the will, he had assuredly the power, to kill 
 and leave me in his lair, or to cast me, a man- 
 gled heap, to the bottom of the cliff whereon he 
 lurked.
 
 A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW. 265 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW. 
 
 • 
 
 He perceived the fear or horror he excited, 
 and it seemed to amuse or flatter him. 
 
 I remembered his dreams, his outcries, and 
 midnight terrors, when in the forecastle bunks ; 
 I thought of poor Captain Weston, of old Rob- 
 erts the man-o'- war's man, who disappeared so 
 mysteriously in the night, and of others whose 
 blood was upon this man's hands and on his 
 soul, and my flesh crept with loathing at our 
 proximity. 
 
 What must his thoughts have been amid the 
 awful solitude of that lonely isle before our 
 arrival ? I dared not attempt to imagine or to 
 analyze them. 
 
 Why were the waves so sparing — why was 
 Fate so favorable to a wretch like this ? How 
 came it to pass that a life so vile had been so 
 marvellously protected? and when would the 
 day of retribution come ? 
 
 All these thoughts came upon me with rapid- 
 ity. Antonio seemed almost to read my heart, 
 for he laughed, and said in Spanish, — 
 
 23
 
 266 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " El diabolo ! so we meet again. Ha ! ha ! 1 
 suppose you thought — Ohc Juan hobo — it wag 
 all over with the Cubano when the studding-sail 
 boom parted, and amid the laughter of these 
 English dogs I fell away to leeward — to drown 
 — to die in the trough of the sea — eh ? " 
 
 I did not reply to the mocking question, as I 
 was not yet in possession of all my faculties. 
 
 " Aha ! Antonio el Cubano does not die so 
 easily," resumed the Spanish Creole ; " but now 
 what am I to do with you ? " 
 
 " You will release me, I hope, as I have never 
 harmed you." 
 
 " For what purpose did you come up these 
 rocks, hombre ? " he asked, with a keen glance. 
 
 " Only to survey the island from a new point 
 of view," I replied, evasively. 
 
 " The top of the mountain would be a better 
 place for that purpose," he replied, grimly. 
 
 " But it is a much more laborious ascent." 
 
 " So the Eugenie has been cast away ? " 
 
 " She was struck by lightning, took fire, and 
 was burned to the water edge." 
 
 On hearing this, Antonio ground his sharp 
 x eeth, and taid, with a savage malediction, — 
 
 " Por grados, as I said before, I will rid the 
 world of you all ! " 
 
 " For myself," I began, with some agita- 
 tion " 
 
 "If I permit you to return alive to these men,"
 
 A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW. 267 
 
 he replied, sternly, " you will enable them to track 
 me out. But see you this" he added, showing 
 me a revolver ; " I will make them all food for 
 the sea-gulls and the wild boars if they attempt 
 to molest me." 
 
 It was one of those which had hung in Cap- 
 tain Weston's cabin. It appeared to be loaded 
 and capped ; and though very rusty, was still 
 sufficiently dangerous. I remembered that he 
 had put it in his breast before he fell overboard. 
 
 " As for you," he resumed, and paused. 
 
 " I never harmed you., as you have frequently 
 said." 
 
 " But you laughed as I swung at the end of 
 the studding-sail boom. It was a fine joke to 
 see a spar, with the world at one end and a poor 
 devil holding on at the other ! I can remember 
 that, senor, though you may find it convenient to 
 forget it." 
 
 " I am not aware, Antonio, that I did laugh," 
 said I, in my most conciliatory tone. 
 
 " But I am quite aware of it, demonio," said 
 he, furiously. 
 
 " Oh ! why am I always doomed to meet this 
 man ? " I exclaimed bitterly. 
 
 " True," said he, with another malevolent 
 grin, " I am a very horrid fellow ; but we have 
 met before we had the good luck to sail to- 
 gether." 
 
 " Before — I know it."
 
 268 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " At Teneriffe," said he ; " up among the 
 mountains." 
 
 " You were the sentinel who stood at the 
 mouth of the cavern ? " 
 
 " I was not, muchacho." 
 
 " Who or which, then ? " 
 
 " He who was shot," said he, grinning. 
 
 " And who fell into the ventana ? " 
 
 " Si, hombre ! " (yes, man) replied the Cubano, 
 with a shout of fierce laughter. 
 
 Absurd as this statement was, it was not 
 without a horrid effect upon me for a moment, 
 as he added, — 
 
 " Par los Santos ! it is not so easy to kill An- 
 tonio ! " 
 
 " Then I actually met you on the mountain 
 side in Teneriffe ? " 
 
 " So it would seem. A few of us had been 
 ashore from the Costa Rican brig, the Marshal 
 Serrano, in search of a diamond which is said to 
 shine at night in the rocks there ; but as our 
 search was vain, we thought of raising a few 
 silver dollars on you and your companions, as all 
 our trouble had gone for nothing." 
 
 " But how did you reach this island ? " I 
 asked, willing, if possible, by conversing with 
 him to gain his better mood. 
 
 " I was swept astern of the brig when the 
 studding-sail boom parted, but I clung to it with 
 a death clutch, and the waves, as they rose and
 
 A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW. 269 
 
 fell, soon hid the Eugenie from me ; but before 
 that, every time I rose, half blinded, winking and 
 spluttering on the summit of a wave, and saw 
 her sails and spars and cabin windows glittering 
 and looming large in the clear twilight, I sent a 
 bitter malediction after her. However, I soon 
 wearied of that, as it spent my breath, and when 
 that went, the water always closed over my 
 head." 
 
 " Had you no fear, Antonio ? " 
 
 " Fear — of what? " he asked, scornfully. 
 
 " Of death — of drowning," said I, earnestly. 
 
 " I cannot tell what I felt ; at least I had no 
 thought of swimming, for there was no land that 
 I knew of to swim to nearer than Brazil, which 
 was perhaps fifteen hundred miles distant ; so as 
 life is dear," (I thought of the lives he had de- 
 stroyed) " I clung to the spar in the hope of being 
 picked up by some passing ship. 
 
 " I slipped off a coat, two waistcoats, and a 
 pair of boots which had belonged to the captain, 
 and every nook of which I had crammed with 
 money, watches, and other valuables of his and 
 Hislop's " (and my mother's parting gift — 
 thought I), " and with another malediction, I let 
 them go to the bottom of the sea, or the bellies 
 of the sharks, I cared not which. 
 
 " The red sun had set, and night, with all its 
 stars, came on. The silvered sea was pleasant, 
 warm, and smooth. I felt certain I could float 
 
 23*
 
 270 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 by the spar all night, but my sole fear was for a 
 blue shark, and every thing that sparkled in the 
 water near me, made me draw my knees up to 
 my chin, and my heart leap to my mouth, as I 
 expected to be bitten in two or have all the flesh 
 torn off my legs at a mouthful. 
 
 " By my necktie, I lashed my left arm tightly 
 to the spar, so that if weariness came over me, 
 even for a moment, it might not be swept from 
 me, because, if such an accident happened in the 
 night, I might never recover it again. So there 
 were the studding«sail boom and I floating, adrift 
 and alone, in the middle of the South Atlantic. 
 
 " I found that we were borne by a current due 
 eastward, and I hoped that it would cany me 
 near some ship that might be running with it 
 toward the Cape. 
 
 " Day dawned. 
 
 " And there, about a Spanish league off, I saw 
 this island, with the light clouds floating midway 
 between its blue summit and the golden-colored 
 sea. It was so like Teneriffe that I could have 
 sworn I saw the white houses of Santa Cruz, 
 with the ships at anchor in the bay, the dark 
 Valley of the Diamond opening inland, and the 
 Spanish flag flying on the old castle ; and so 
 strong is fancy, that par todos santos ! I did see 
 them all for a time. But some hours after, I was 
 thrown by the waves with a shock upon the 
 beach, where I lay long — I cannot tell how long
 
 A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW. 27J 
 
 — in a stupor, exhausted, worn-out, and all but 
 dead." 
 
 " It is a strange story," said I, as the Cubano, 
 who told it in very good Spanish, paused — 
 
 " As I came back to the world," he resumed, 
 " savage and bloody thoughts occurred to me ! 
 Again I was swinging above the waves at the 
 boom-end ; again I saw all your exulting faces 
 line the bulwark of the Eugenie ; again I was in 
 the sea ! 
 
 " Then, horrid monsters, red-eyed and covered 
 with shining bristles, were about to devour me. 
 I felt their cold noses and their hot breaths upon 
 my face ; and with a yell of terror, I half rose up 
 to find myself lying high and dry above the tide- 
 mark, but among the sea- weed and shingle, blub- 
 ber, star and jelly-fish of a warm beach, on which 
 the evening sun was shining ; and that the bristly 
 monsters of my dreams were a herd of wild boars 
 in council (consejo) about devouring me ; but 
 they scampered into the woods when slowly and 
 feebly I staggered up, like one after a long de- 
 bauch. 
 
 " My left arm was still lashed to the boom, 
 from which I now released it. 
 
 " As I stood erect, shore and cliff, sea and 
 mountain, swam round me, and then I became 
 assailed by thirst and hunger. 
 
 " The nearest spring fully relieved one longing, 
 and a wild gourd, which I nearly devoured, sat-
 
 272 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 isfied the other. I remained long in thought, 
 considering where I had been cast, and as night 
 came on, and the moon arose, the fear of sava- 
 ges or wild animals made me climb into a tree. 
 
 " I had no clothes but what you see ; a pair 
 of tattered calziones de marinero (sailor's trou 
 sers), and my sash ; but, diabolo ! did I not ut 
 ter a shout, when, on examining it, I found that 
 in the folds there were still my knife — my old 
 Albacete knife — and one of the captain's revolv- 
 ers, with a little tin case, which I had taken from 
 his cabin. I then conceived that it might con- 
 tain jewellery — now I hoped it was food — a 
 case of sardines at the least ! 
 
 " It was soldered and water-tight, so I forced 
 the lid with my knife, and found that it contained 
 caps and ammunition for the revolver ! 
 
 " Thus, without fear, I supplied myself with 
 food, until the arrival of your crew upon the is- 
 land. I was hidden among some mangroves on 
 the day when the long-boat came into the creek. 
 I knew you all, and my heart swelled with rage 
 as I covered you in succession with this pistol ; 
 but as every charge was, perhaps, a day's food 
 to me, and I valued my scanty ammunition more 
 than your wretched lives, I spared them, intend- 
 ing to cut you off otherwise, when any straggler 
 came within reach of my knife ; and, as you 
 know, with a large stone, I nearly marred forever 
 the seamanship of the contra-maestre. So that's 
 all my yarn, and what do you think of it ? "
 
 A TERRIBLE INTERVIEW. 273 
 
 " I think that when Heaven has so miracu- 
 lously spared you, Antonio, your mind should 
 have other thoughts than vengeance now." 
 
 The dark Cubano gnashed his white teeth, and 
 laughed bitterly ; but now, by his story, the dis- 
 appearance of the boom from the mountain-top, 
 the thefts from our bread-bag, the alleged pistol 
 reports, and those appearances of a human fig- 
 ure on the bluffs in the moonlight, the wounded 
 goat, and every thing else which had so greatly 
 perplexed us of late, was completely accounted 
 for ; and fortunately for me, in the relation of his 
 adventures, the Cubano had talked himself into 
 a state of comparative equanimity. 
 
 " Now," said I, rising, " you will permit me to 
 go, Antonio ; and if you do, I promise to leave 
 you a dozen of biscuits to-morrow on the rock 
 at the foot of the cliff." 
 
 " As a ransom ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, biscuits are more valuable than golden 
 doubloons here ; but might they not be a snare ? " 
 he asked, with a savage gleam in his eyes. 
 
 " I swear it is not ! " I exclaimed, with the 
 greatest earnestness. 
 
 " Bueno — very well — you may go. You see 
 how I am armed ; so tell the contra-maestre and 
 his men that if they attempt to molest me, they 
 shall share the fate of those who died in the brig. 
 So vaya — begone ! "
 
 274 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 This was all said in Spanish — he had spoken 
 nothing else — and not without a wild dignity 
 of manner that was rather impressive. 
 
 I lost no time in creeping or clambering out 
 of his hiding-place. 
 
 " Buenos noches,'' said I, for the sun was now 
 set; and not without fear that Antonio might 
 change his wayward mind, and send a bullet 
 through my back, I scrambled, rolled, ran, and 
 went at times headlong and endlong down the 
 back of the cliff in my anxiety to get beyond his 
 reach, and rejoin my companions, whom I found 
 debating on my disappearance and assembled in 
 solemn conclave near the hut, where Burnet, the 
 ship-cook, was roasting a kid for supper, and 
 where I was received by a shout of welcome.
 
 THE FATA MORGANA. 275 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE FATA MORGANA. 
 
 The former horror of my companions for An- 
 tonio was now revived and increased by the mys- 
 tery of his almost supernatural escape, and their 
 eyes wandered upward to the brow of the steep 
 cliff whereon he lurked. It was visible about 
 two miles from where we were assembled on the 
 beach, and presented a rugged and savage out- 
 line. 
 
 Some of them, among whom were Hislop and 
 Probart the carpenter, urged that at all hazards 
 we should still attempt to storm his nest, and 
 punish him by lynch law. 
 
 " With his revolver, rusty as it is," said I, " he 
 is as strong as he was when on board the Eugenie, 
 and when he held the cabin against us all ; he 
 could shoot each of us down at leisure, and with his 
 knife finish what the bullet might leave undone." 
 
 " We can fire the jungle," said Tattooed Tom, 
 " and burn him out like a rat." 
 
 Others proposed that we should act as we had 
 hitherto done — keeping a strict watch upon our 
 boat and property, and permitting Antonio to
 
 276 DICK^CIODNEY. 
 
 remain unmolested until the arrival of a ship, to 
 whose captain we shor.ld commit the whole affair. 
 
 We came to no decision, but talked a great 
 deal while supping on the roasted kid in the 
 moonlight at the door of the hut ; but ere long 
 there occurred an incident so strange, and ap- 
 parently so unaccountable, that it soon decided 
 the intentions of our crew. 
 
 The moon had risen, as it only rises in these 
 latitudes, with the brilliance of day, and with a 
 white light that is dazzlingly pure. From where 
 we were squatted among the sea-grass that bor- 
 dered the shore, the whole sweep of the bight or 
 bay which we had first entered, and on the mar- 
 gin of which we had built our hut beside the 
 rocks, could be seen vividly in all its details. 
 
 It was an opening of about two miles from 
 headland to headland. Each of these were bold 
 and rugged bluffs of great height — one being 
 that stupendous rock which was tufted with trees, 
 and which (with the mountain now shrouded in 
 light clouds) we had first descried from the sea. 
 
 The beach between was a complete bow of 
 white sand, beyond which were thick groves of 
 trees, and some wild palmettoes that tufted the 
 dark rocks which formed the horns of the bay. 
 
 In a straight line from each of these horns ran 
 a slender ridge of snow-white surf, that was for- 
 ever boiling up, rolling and breaking over a hid- 
 den coral reef, or sandbank. Within it the bay,
 
 THE FATA MORGANA. 277 
 
 and without it the sea, were, on this night, smooth, 
 waveless, and calm as the cloudless sky, whose 
 deep immensity of blue was mirrored in them. 
 
 There was scarcely a breath of wind to stir the 
 pendent forest leaves. 
 
 I have been somewhat minute in describing 
 all this, in consequence of the phenomenon which 
 occurred on this night, and thus fixed the features 
 of the scene in my memory. 
 
 It might have been about the hour of ten, and 
 we were still loitering on the moonlit beach, 
 when the cry of " A sail in sight ! " made every 
 heart leap wildly and with hope. 
 
 'Twas Tom Lambourne who spoke, but every 
 eye caught the ship at once, and even those who 
 had been dozing on the warm sand or within the 
 hut were awake and on the beach in a moment, 
 stretching their hands toward her with joy and 
 exultation, but the aspect of the ship gradually 
 changed all this into suspense and utter bewilder- 
 ment. 
 
 She was a large square-rigged vessel — a ship 
 running close-hauled on the port-tack (to use a 
 man-o'-war phrase) and with nearly all her can- 
 vas set. 
 
 She was about four miles off the reef at the 
 entrance of the bay, and was bearing directly 
 toward it. Her canvas glimmered like snow in 
 the moonshine, and we could see the red lights 
 of her cabin windows flash at times upon the 
 
 24
 
 278 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 sea astern, and the whiteness of her long flush 
 deck, as she careened before the breeze. 
 
 Yet how was it, we all asked, that there was 
 not a breath of wind with us ? 
 
 " Perhaps she brings it with her," suggested 
 Hislop. 
 
 " And how came it to pass that she appeared 
 right in the offing and outside the bay all at 
 once ? " asked Tom Lambourne. 
 
 " She must have rounded the high bluff while 
 we were all palavering," said Probart. 
 
 Nothing more was said for a time, but 
 whether it was the effect of imagination or of an 
 overstrained eyesight, I know not, she seemed to 
 melt as it were in the brightness of the moon- 
 shine — to become so indistinct that we could 
 see the line of the horizon through her topsails ; 
 and next it seemed as if her hull, her spars, and 
 rigging, were edged with bright prismatic hues. 
 
 But on she came, right for the bay, braced 
 sharp to the wind ; and now we saw her sail- 
 trimmers set the flying jib and haul the spanker 
 further aft to steady her steerage. 
 
 At that moment the sea assumed a singularly 
 luminous aspect ; and now she was but a mile 
 off the surf-beaten reef. 
 
 On came the large ship, with every thing set 
 aloft and alow — a cloud of white canvas from 
 her deck to her trucks ; but that which puzzled 
 us most and silenced us all, was the circum-
 
 THE FATA MORGANA. 279 
 
 stance that although there was not a breath of 
 wind to stir the leaves on shore, as she ap- 
 proached she careened well over, like a vessel 
 under the influence of a fine spanking breeze — 
 rising and falling regularly and gracefully, as if 
 she rode over the heaving of a succession of long 
 waves — her courses, top-sails, topgallant-sails, 
 royals, headsails, and spanker, all bellying out — 
 the leaches forming complete arcs over her deck, 
 her loose rigging all blown out in bends, and yet 
 there was not an inch of foam under her forefoot, 
 and she left no wake astern upon the sea. 
 
 What mystery was this ? 
 
 She was like the mere reflection of a ship cast 
 by a magic lantern on a wall, save that she 
 seemed instinct with life, for we had seen fresh 
 canvas set upon her, while her royals and topgal- 
 lant-sails shivered at times, as if the breeze we 
 could not feel failed with her somewhat aloft, or 
 the hand at her wheel was unsteady, and unable 
 to keep her full and by. Then, just as she ap- 
 proached the entrance of the little bay, all her 
 cabin lights went out ! 
 
 " She will be ashore on the reef if she draw3 
 deep ! " cried every voice. But no ! she glided 
 over it or through it, without shivering, shock, 01 
 hindrance, and ran into the bay. 
 
 " Her false keel must have gone through it 
 like a knife," said Lambourne, with amazement. 
 
 " Perhaps her draught of water is small," sug-
 
 280 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 gested the carpenter, while the excitement of 
 our men increased every moment. 
 
 " Why don't the lubbers take some canvas off 
 her ? " exclaimed one. 
 
 " Or heave her in the wind ? " added another. 
 
 " There's the jib-sheet let fly : down royals 
 and in topgallant-sails ! Why don't you heave 
 her in the wind ? Ready your anchors ! " cried 
 Hislop loudly in his astonishment, as he shouted 
 to those on board, and rushed mid-leg into the 
 water. " Heavens ! " he added, " she still bears 
 on, cracking under every thing! She will be 
 ashore in a minute, and then all her sticks will 
 snap by the board like tobacco-pipes ! " 
 
 A cry escaped us all as her flying jib-boom 
 appeared right over a grove of little trees ; then 
 her bow touched the white sandy beach ; but 
 there was neither shock nor pause as she seemed 
 to sail right on and inland, still careening over 
 and still rising, falling, and heaving, as if upon 
 the sea. 
 
 As I gazed upon her a strange and paralyzing 
 sensation came over me, and all my faculties 
 became frozen. The profound silence of the 
 scene, the calm landscape of the moonlit isle, 
 and the noiselessness of the ocean, made us 
 stare at her and at each other as men in a 
 trance. My breath became suspended, my heart 
 seemed to stand still in all its pulses, while 
 this mysterious — this most spectral ship —
 
 THE FATA MORGANA. 283 
 
 passed before us like a living thing, and then 
 melted away in the moonshine, apparently right 
 under the cliff of Antonio, leaving us to gaze at 
 each other, in doubt as to whether we were mad 
 or not. 
 
 Hi slop was the first to recover himself, and 
 striking his hands together, with the air of one 
 to whose astonishment had succeeded the bitter- 
 ness of a deep disappointment, he exclaimed, — 
 
 " It is only the phenomenon called Fata Mor- 
 gana ! " 
 
 24*
 
 282 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 MAROONED. 
 
 It is impossible for me to describe the blank 
 astonishment, or rather the intense consternation, 
 of our men on the disappearance of this ves- 
 sel, which was the object of so many hopes and 
 wishes. 
 
 Some time elapsed before the poor fellows 
 rallied sufficiently to speak on the subject ; and 
 meanwhile, there flashed upon my memory, some 
 strange and weird old Celtic tales, which a High- 
 land boy at Eton was wont to tell us, of ships 
 which in the days of Ossian, traversed the steep 
 hills and the salt lochs of Morven with equal fa- 
 cility. 
 
 " It is a ship — or rather the representation of 
 a veritable ship — which cannot be far off the 
 island, and is making for it at this moment," 
 said Hislop, emphatically. 
 
 " How far off do you think she is, sir? " asked 
 Hugh Chute, mockingly. 
 
 " Perhaps twenty miles — perhaps a hundred 
 
 - it is impossible to say." 
 
 " Perhaps ten thousand ? " queried Tom Lam- 
 bourne, with great irritation.
 
 MAROONED. 283 
 
 " It was the ship of the Flying Dutchman ! " 
 said Probart, the carpenter. 
 
 " I've seen many a queer thing in my time, 
 but never the like of this before ! " exclaimed 
 Carlton. 
 
 " Though foul weather don't matter much to 
 us here, it will be sure to follow ; — so I say, 
 mates," resumed Probart, " it was the Flying 
 Dutchman and nought else ! " 
 
 " Vanderdecken or the devil come for Anto- 
 nio," added Ned Carlton ; " and whether he has 
 shipped aboard that craft or not, hang me ship- 
 mates, if we should stay another hour on the 
 island with it, or with him, or where such things 
 are seen." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said all the rest ; " let us take to 
 the long-boat again, and sheer off." 
 
 " For where ? " asked Hislop, coming forward. 
 
 " Anywhere," replied Lambourne, sulkily. 
 
 "Stuff! You must hang on by the island, or 
 it will be the worse for you," responded the wary 
 mate. 
 
 "How will it be worse for us?" asked Pro- 
 bart. 
 
 " In more ways than one." 
 
 "Indeed!" 
 
 " Yes. And moreover, it is my orders." 
 
 "Lookee, now, Master Hislop," said Henry 
 Warren, our oldest seaman, with great gravity, 
 "in everything that is reasonable, I have obeyed
 
 284 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 you, and I will still obey you all the same as if 
 the deck of the Eugenie was under our feet, and 
 the blue water round us ; but as for living on 
 this here 'chanted island for a longer spell, with 
 a murdering villain like the Spaniard Antonio, 
 who can make ships sail on sea and land alike, 
 for all the world like pictures in a lantern or a 
 penny show, is more than flesh and blood can 
 bear ; so I say, mates, let us embark all our pro- 
 visions, set sail, clap dry nippers on our oars, and 
 make out Gough's Island, or Tristan da Cunha, 
 leaving the devil and Antonio to keep company 
 here as long as they please — and that is likely 
 to be long enough, I can tell you." 
 
 " Tristan da Cunha can't be above three hun- 
 dred miles off," added Probart ; and the proposi- 
 tion met with such universal approbation, that 
 Marc Hislop became seriously alarmed. 
 
 He begged the crew to listen to him ; but they 
 did so with evident reluctance and impatience, 
 muttering the while, and twitching their hats and 
 trousers. 
 
 He said every thing he could think of to as- 
 sure them that the ship they had seen was quite 
 an optical illusion ; and his arguments, though 
 they might have been convincing enough to the 
 old Dominican friar, Antonio Minasi, who thrice 
 saw the Fata Morgana in the Straits of Messina, 
 or to Sir David Brewster, they totally failed to 
 assure Tattooed Tom, old Probart our carpen-
 
 MAROONED. 285 
 
 fcer, Jack Burnet the cook, and others, that it was 
 merely a natural phenomenon, to be accounted 
 for through some form of dioptrical refraction, 
 by means of which a ship sailing on one part of 
 the ocean might be reflected on another, or, as 
 we had just seen, even on the land itself. 
 
 " I assure you, my lads," he continued, " she 
 was the representation of a vessel now under sail 
 elsewhere. You all saw that the sea and bay 
 were calm as glass, that the ship was braced 
 sharp to the wind, with her port tacks aboard, 
 while we had none, not even a catspaw on the 
 water, or a leaf stirring on shore. You saw that 
 she careened, as if beneath its influence, and rose 
 and fell as if running through a heavy sea. You 
 saw the cabin lights go out, and the flying-jib 
 hoisted. Thus it was quite evident that by 
 something indescribable in the state of the at- 
 mosphere, her form and motions were taken up 
 elsewhere, and mirrored here." 
 
 " I don't understand all this fine talk," said 
 Tom Lambourne, sulkily, " and I don't care if I 
 never do. I ain't a scholar, but a hardworking 
 foremast-man, that has seen every land under the 
 sun. So by your leave, or without it, we shall 
 make the long-boat ready for sea. Come, my 
 lads ; we shall fill the watercasks at the spring 
 yonder, and get what remains in the bread bags, 
 with all the other stuff we've collected, aboard." 
 
 " Hurrah ! " cried the crew, " hurrah for blue 
 water ! "
 
 286 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Get the mast, stepped, and all the gear ready ; 
 we'll be at sea in an hour, or my name ain't 
 Tattooed Tom Lambourne." 
 
 " Rodney," said Hislop, turning to me, bit- 
 terly, " Goethe says that painting and tattooing 
 are natural symptoms — the savage hankering 
 after the brute — and faith, I begin to think so." 
 
 Old Tom Lambourne only half understood 
 the remark ; but it stung him deeply. 
 
 " I don't deserve this at your hands, Master 
 Hislop," said he ; " and it ain't manly to upbraid 
 a poor fellow with his misfortunes when ship- 
 wrecked among savages, and I tell you so — for 
 all your book-learning," he added, bitterly. 
 
 " You are right, Tom, and I am wrong. Par- 
 don me, old ship-mate," said Hislop, as they 
 shook hands. 
 
 So thoroughly were our companions scared by 
 the recent spectral appearance, which they con- 
 nected in some way with the dreadful character 
 of Antonio el Cnbano, that they at once com- 
 menced with alacrity the preparations for put- 
 ting to sea. 
 
 It may be that somewhat of the professional 
 restlessness of sailors confirmed their resolution. 
 
 They were already tired of their sojourn on 
 the island, and inspired by the desire of reaching 
 Tristan da Cunha, which is inhabited by about 
 eighty families of Portuguese, English, and mu- 
 lattoes, among whom Hislop assured them they
 
 MAROONED. 287 
 
 might linger long enough before they were taken 
 off by a passing ship — quite as long as if they 
 remained on the Isle of Alphonso — and where, 
 for subsistence, they would be forced to work as 
 day laborers in the savannas and on the high- 
 ways. 
 
 As for the Island of Diego Alvarez, our Scotch 
 mate, who seemed to know every thing, assured 
 them that it produced only moss and sea-grass, 
 and that if cast there they would die of starva- 
 tion. Moreover, without chart or compass, how 
 could they hope to steer with certainty in any 
 direction ? 
 
 They might all perish in detail by the most 
 dreadful deaths in their open boat, gasping with 
 unquenched thirst under the blaze of a tropical 
 sun. He said much more ; but they would lis- 
 ten to nothing save their own fears and restless 
 impulses. 
 
 I, too, was weary of the island ; and though 
 feeling all the despondency that follows a severe 
 disappointment on the disappearance of the illu- 
 sory ship, I in no way shared the wild and ill- 
 regulated wishes of the crew, though assured 
 that I would be compelled to follow their despe- 
 rate fortunes. 
 
 Hislop made a last effort to convince them 
 that all they had seen was only the reflection of 
 a real object produced by natural causes, such as 
 the dead calm that prevailed upon the sea — the
 
 288 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 moon shining from a point where its incident 
 ray formed an angle of 45° on the water — the 
 influence of saline and other effluvia suspended 
 in the air, producing, as in a catoptric theatre, a 
 vision by reflection ; but finding that they heeded 
 all this no more than the wind, he fairly lost his 
 temper, and bade them " go and be hanged for 
 6tupid dolts." 
 
 It was perfectly natural that all this should 
 sound strange to unlettered seamen ; so they 
 continued their preparations with all speed and 
 in silence, for they all loved Hislop, and were 
 loth to offend him. 
 
 Two bags of bread which still remained, the 
 kegs of rum, and four casks newly filled with 
 fresh water, were put on board the longboat, to- 
 gether with all our arduously collected store of 
 kids' flesh, boars' hams, and sea-fowls' eggs. 
 
 The oars, boat tackle, and blankets were also 
 shipped, and the whole crew embarked at the 
 mangrove creek, where the boat lay. 
 
 Hislop and I still lingered ; so we were told 
 peremptorily that if we did not come on board 
 at once, they would shove off without us. Thus 
 compelled, we stepped in most reluctantly and 
 seated ourselves in the stern, and he assumed 
 the tiller. The oars were run through the row- 
 locks, and Lambourne was about to shove off, 
 when Probart, who had the bow oar, suddenly 
 remembered that he had left his hatchet near our 
 wigwam, and asked me to get it.
 
 MAROONED. 289 
 
 I jumped ashore, and was proceeding along 
 ihe beach for it, when suddenly I was confronted 
 by Antonio, who from a thicket had been watch- 
 ing our operations and departure. 
 
 His tawny skin — for he was naked to the 
 waist — his ferocious aspect, his head of matted 
 hair, his colossal strength, and atrocious charac- 
 ter were not without a due effect upon the boat's 
 crew at this crisis. 
 
 " Shove off — shove off! " I heard several 
 voices cry in the boat ; " here comes that dog of 
 a Cubano." 
 
 I struggled with Antonio ; but he laughed 
 loudly, and drew his pistol with the air of one 
 who would enforce obedience ; besides, his eyes, 
 which the tangled masses of his hair overhung, 
 were flashing with malignant fire, as all the 
 slumbering devil was roused within him. 
 
 The whole crew saw this, and I perceived that 
 Marc Hislop made an attempt to rise up and 
 spring overboard to my succor ; but as all their 
 hopes of reaching Tristan da Cunha depended 
 entirely upon his skill and knowledge of naviga- 
 tion, he was seized by Warren, Chute, and 
 others, roughly thrust down in the stern sheets, 
 and forcibly held there. 
 
 I saw now that the fear and selfishness of the 
 rest prevailed over all thfit Hislop, Lambourne, 
 and Carlton could urge ; for amid a storm of 
 contending tongues, I perceived the oars dipping 
 
 25
 
 290 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 in the water again and again, and flashing like 
 silver blades in the moonlight as they were 
 feathered; and the longboat with all my com- 
 panions, shot from the creek into the bay, and 
 bore away to seaward about two in the morn- 
 ing, leaving me on the beach alone — marooned 
 with the fiendish Cubano !
 
 A NEW DANGER. 291 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 A NEW DANGER. 
 
 Had not Antonio held me fast, and menaced 
 me with his pistol, I would have sprung into the 
 water, and undeterred by the sharks that were 
 forever gliding stealthily about in the bay, would 
 have swam after the boat ; for desperate though 
 the fortune of those who were there, I would 
 rather have shared it than live on the island of 
 Alphonso with such a companion. 
 
 His fierce mocking laugh grated harshly in my 
 ear, but I heeded him not, and continued to gaze 
 after the boat and the lessening forms of those 
 who had abandoned me, not without a fond and 
 desperate hope that they would return for me. 
 Every moment I expected to see her put about ; 
 but no ! she held steadily on, till hull, and sail, 
 and crew were blended into one little dark spot, 
 which ere long could scarcely be discerned on the 
 moonlit morning sea. 
 
 Her course was trimmed north-east, for where 
 they supposed the isle of Tristan da Cunha lay. 
 She had caught a breeze, and before four o'clock 
 in the morning, the last vestige of her had disap- 
 peared.
 
 292 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Still I did not entirely despair! 
 
 When day dawned, while my eyes were al 
 most blinded by tears of rage and bitterness, 1 
 clambered in haste to the summit of the great 
 bluff, and gazed eagerly to seaward, in the hope 
 that the arguments or wishes of Hislop, of Carl- 
 ton, and of blunt old Tom Lambourne might 
 have prevailed, and that I should see her return- 
 ing ; but alas ! there was nothing visible save a 
 lonely albatross skimming lazily between me and 
 the rising sun. 
 
 Except for the sake of Marc Hislop and one 
 or two others, who in our parting interview had 
 acted as my friends, I hoped — but this was in 
 the intense bitterness of my heart, at an aban- 
 donment so cruel — that the longboat might 
 swamp, founder, or perish, how I cared not. 
 
 What was to become of me now ? 
 
 The boat might fall in with some ship, and 
 thus afford me a double chance of being taken oft 
 the island. But would the captain of this sup- 
 posed ship bear up for the land if it lay far from 
 his course ? 
 
 Amid these perplexing thoughts and surmises, 
 my greatest source of annoyance was the odious 
 companionship of the Cubano. 
 
 I felt neither hunger nor sleep, though all the 
 preceding night I had never closed an eye ; but 
 now I. remained upon the bluff, gazing on the 
 sunlit sea, from under the shadow of a broad-
 
 A NEW DANGER. 293 
 
 leaved plantain, until I was roused in the after- 
 noon by Antonio, who joined me. 
 
 u Hola ! mio mucharfto ! " (hallo ! my boy), he 
 exclaimed ; " you promised me a dozen of bis- 
 cuits if I released you from my hiding hole in 
 yonder rock. Now, biscuits are biscuits here, so 
 where are those for which I ransomed you ? " 
 
 " Gone in the boat with every thing else," I re- 
 plied, sulkily and sternly. 
 
 " What ! — all ? " 
 
 " Every thing." 
 
 " What shall we do when my powder is 
 done ? " 
 
 " I know not, and I care not." 
 
 " There are but ten charges left," said he, 
 gloomily, as he opened the tin case. 
 
 " What is that to me ? " I asked, with grow- 
 ing anger. 
 
 " It is this much to you, that if provisions 
 fall short, I shall eat you ! " he replied, with a 
 fiendish grin, accompanied by an emphatic oath. 
 " Now, my fine fellow, what do you think of 
 that ? " 
 
 The words of the wretch, his herculean frame 
 and ferocious aspect, which the wild life he had 
 lately spent among the woods of Alphonso had 
 not improved, made me shudder. 
 
 On remembering the manner in which we first 
 found him floating in the open boat at sea, the 
 suspicions of Weston, Hislop, and Lambourne 
 
 25*
 
 294 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 regarding the disappearance of a companion who 
 had probably been with him — suspicions which 
 all his future conduct seemed to confirm, and 
 knowing all he was capable of committing, my 
 heart sickened with disgust and apprehension ; 
 but the imminence of my own danger made me 
 dissemble. 
 
 While pretending to smile and to disbelieve 
 him, I mentally considered how to arm myself, 
 or how to deprive him of those weapons which, 
 when added to his muscular strength and singu- 
 larly brutal nature, rendered him an enemy so 
 formidable. 
 
 The idea of swimming to one of the adjacent 
 isles occurred to me ; but the straits between 
 were full of foaming breakers and sharks ; the 
 rocks, moreover, were inaccessible, and wherever 
 I might go Antonio could easily follow. 
 
 I remembered the carpenter's little hatchet, 
 which was still lying upon the beach, and re- 
 solved to possess myself of it, to conceal it about 
 me, and to use it without mercy if occasion 
 served or required. 
 
 " Did you hear me speak, you English 
 heathen ? " shouted Antonio, striking me on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Yes," said I, shuddering again ; for in addi- 
 tion to the load of crime which covered Antonio, 
 I loathed him as the primary cause of all our 
 misfortunes, and of my present misery.
 
 A NEW DANGER. 295 
 
 " Bueno — then look to it ! " said he, nodding. 
 
 'Look to what!" 
 
 " We must take to kid-catching, and boar- 
 hunting, else I may feed myself, as I have done 
 before, with whatever comes most readily to 
 hand." 
 
 " Shall we not place a signal again on the 
 mountain ? " 
 
 " Foi what purpose ? " he asked with a grim- 
 ace. 
 
 " To attract a passing ship." 
 
 " Of what shall we make it ? " 
 
 " The studding-sail boom — where is it con- 
 cealed ? " 
 
 At the mention of the boom, the revengeful 
 Cubano gnashed his teeth, and replied, — 
 
 " I have cast it where man's hand shall never 
 get it, into a chasm on the other side of the 
 mountain ; but voto ! let us go down and repair 
 the hut those ladrones have left, and you," he 
 added, with a grin, " shall be my camarada de 
 casa." 
 
 The sun was now setting beyond the sea, and 
 the shadow of the great mountain was falling 
 eastward over the island as we began to descend 
 from the bluff, where I had lingered so long, by 
 one of the narrow and winding tracks made 
 through the gorse by the wild goats. 
 
 Hunger now assailed me, and saying I would 
 hasten forward and procure some bananas, I
 
 296 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 reached the beach before Antonio was half-way 
 clown the rocks, and found Probart's hatchet 
 where — so unfortunately for me — he had left 
 it in the hurry of embarkation. 
 
 I snatched it up, and as the handle was short, 
 and the blade, though sharp, was small, I secured 
 it in the waistband of my trousers, and buttoned 
 my now tattered jacket over it, determined to 
 prove therewith the hardness of Antonio's head 
 on the first opportunity. 
 
 An emotion of security now filled my heart, 
 as I felt that I had a weapon with which to 
 strike at least one blow in defence of my life, if 
 it was assailed.
 
 THE REVOLVER AGAIN. 297 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 THE REVOLVER AGAIN. 
 
 As it was alike dangerous and uncomfortable 
 to sleep under the dews that descended after 
 sunset, for two nights after the departure of the 
 boat, I was compelled to share the wigwam with 
 Antonio, but did so with dread and loathing, and 
 kept as far away from him as possible. 
 
 His dreams, which were full of oaths, ejacula- 
 tions, and frequently cries of " El aparicion ! El 
 espectro ! " came on him as of old ; and as sleep 
 to me became an impossibility, I resolved to leave 
 him to his own devices. Certainly the island 
 was large enough for us both. 
 
 Moreover, he had become so sparing of his ten 
 charges of powder, that he would not fire a sin- 
 gle shot at either bird, or goat, or wild boar. I 
 have since believed that he saved them with the 
 resolution of defending himself to the last, if 
 Hislop ever returned to arrest him ; and now, be- 
 ing lord and master of the whole island, and of 
 me too, he exhibited a new phase of character. 
 
 He became too lazy to procure food, and 
 forced me to find it for him, under threats of
 
 298 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 shooting me. Thus for two days after the de- 
 parture of the boat, being totally incapable of 
 catching one of the fleet goats alone, and being 
 in no way disposed to encounter singly one of 
 the wild boars, I had to climb the steep rocks 
 above the breakers to steal the sea-birds' eggs. 
 
 This feat I achieved with considerable peril, 
 for the birds, when roused from their eyries, 
 whooped, screamed, and wheeled in flocks and 
 circles about me, flapping their huge wings ; so 
 that once I became so bewildered, that instead 
 of clambering again to the summit of the cliff, I 
 began a descent toward the foaming sea below. 
 
 In reascending, my hat was blown away, and 
 with it the wretched eggs for which I had risked 
 my life and limbs. 
 
 After this event I resolved to procure food for 
 myself alone, and instead of returning to Anto- 
 nio, who usually loitered about the hut our men 
 had left, I went to the opposite side of the 
 island, and found a banana grove, wherein I 
 took up my quarters. 
 
 The fruit, as it fell ripe from the trees, formed 
 my food, and of the broad leaves and some 
 branches I made a little gipsy-like hut, wherein 
 I might sleep at night without being drenched 
 by the baleful tropical dew ; for of it, and its 
 subsequent fevers and ague, I had a great dread, 
 for to become ill would ensure a death of hunger 
 and thirst.
 
 THE REVOLVER AGAIN. 299 
 
 In that place, which resembled the laii of a 
 wild animal, though I had no fear of the awful 
 solitude around me, I lay awake for half the 
 night, listening to the chafing of the surge, and 
 shedding many a bitter tear for my home and 
 those who were there — those whom I might 
 never see again — and longing, oh, how ear- 
 nestly, how eagerly, and how prayerfully, for a 
 passing ship ! 
 
 Anon, I would start up and rush forth to look 
 about me and to listen, fearing that some craft 
 might heave in sight on the other side of the isle, 
 take off Antonio, and leave me ! 
 
 Such a catastrophe would, I am assured, have 
 driven me distracted. " 
 
 In the wild life I led there, on the Island of 
 Alphonso, it was strange how sharp, how keenly 
 acute every sense became, but more especially 
 those of touch and hearing. 
 
 I had been thirty-six hours without seeing my 
 pleasant chum, the Cubano, or being near him 
 with food. I knew that his rage would be great, 
 and feeling myself unusually weak, after all the 
 mental excitement and bodily exposure I had 
 undergone, necessity now compelled me to avoid 
 him strictly, as I was totally incapable of con- 
 tending with him in any way. 
 
 If he found me, to plead that I had lost my 
 way or had missed him, in a space so small as 
 our island, though wild and wooded, would 
 scarcelv prove an excuse.
 
 300 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 » 
 
 Another dread haunted me, that if a ship of 
 any nation, but more especially of Spain, hove 
 in sight, Antonio, to provide for his own future 
 safety, might deem it necessary to dispose of me 
 forever, lest I should accuse him of the many 
 crimes he had committed. 
 
 Without the evidence of Hislop and others, 
 such accusations, if made by me alone, would 
 have no great weight ; but he might not think 
 of that ; and, moreover, was no doubt a steady 
 believer in the old buccaneer maxim, "that dead 
 men tell no tales." 
 
 When searching for berries, about sunrise, on 
 the western side of the isle, and while the sun, 
 though up, was ye4 below the great mountain, 
 and cast its shadow to the extreme horizon of 
 the hazy morning sea, I encountered Antonio at 
 last. 
 
 Stooping on my hands and knees, 1 was turn- 
 ing over the great leaves of some creeping plants 
 that were unknown to me in search of some wild 
 berries, which, as I had seen the birds eat them, 
 must, I knew, be harmless, when a severe blow 
 on the head almost stunned me. 
 
 On looking up, there stood Antonio bending 
 over me, with a savage scowl on his face, and 
 his pistol clubbed as if about to repeat the 
 assault. His intentions were evidently hostile, 
 as he placed a foot upon my hatchet, which lay 
 near, and his left hand grasped his knife.
 
 THE REVOLVER AGAIN. 301 
 
 Every way I was totally at his mercy ! 
 
 Hunger, apparently, had rendered him furious ; 
 but feeling certain in a moment that timidity 
 would do me no service, I started back and said 
 in Spanish, — 
 
 " Villain ! for what have you dared to strike 
 me?" 
 
 " Dared," he reiterated ; " ha ! ha ! much dar- 
 ing there is about it." 
 
 " Yes, you dog of a picaro ! " 
 
 " For what reason did you desert me, you rat- 
 erillo ? " 
 
 " Because I could scarcely procure food for 
 myself, and still less for a lazy ruffian like you." 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! I told you what would happen 
 when I wanted food," said he, feeling the point 
 of his knife. 
 
 My blood ran cold at these words, and I cast 
 a longing eye upon my lost hatchet ; he saw the 
 glance, and trampled upon the weapon with a 
 mocking laugh. 
 
 " What do you mean, Cubano ? " I asked, in 
 an almost breathless voice. 
 
 " Simply this : that as self-preservation is the 
 first law of nature, I am bound to kill you." 
 
 He had the revolver in his hand, and while ne 
 cast a glance at the caps on the breech, as if to 
 see that they were all right, and sheathed his 
 knife, I made a bound aside, and placed a ba- 
 nana-tree between us. The dastard fired, and 
 
 26
 
 302 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 the ball, as it whistled past, stripped off a piece 
 of bark. 
 
 In the same manner, I escaped a second shot, 
 so Antonio, finding that his much-prized ammu- 
 nition was likely to be expended fruitlessly, rushed 
 'forward to use his knife. 
 
 The tendril of a pumpkin caught his left foot ; 
 he fell heavily, and hurt himself severely. Then, 
 darting past, I secured my hatchet, and rendered 
 furious by all that had occurred, and by the im- 
 minent danger which menaced me, a light seemed 
 to flash before my eyes, I trembled with rage, 
 and felt as if endued by a supernatural strength. 
 
 I was about 'to spring upon Antonio, with 
 hands, feet, and teeth, — to hew at him with the 
 hatchet as I would have hewn at a tree — when 
 a new object suddenly caught my eye. 
 
 It was a ship — but a ship ashore ! 
 
 " Cubano," I exclaimed, in a husky voice, 
 " look there ! " 
 
 Antonio looked in the direction indicated, and 
 pausing in his murderous intention, uttered a 
 fierce laugh of satisfaction. 
 
 In the rocky channel which opened between 
 the inaccessible island and ours, there lay the 
 wave-beaten hull of a dismasted vessel, which 
 must have been drifted in over night, as it was 
 certainly not there yesterday, and it was now 
 jammed hard and fast upon a reef of rock that 
 connected them.
 
 THE REVOLVER AGAIN. 303 
 
 This new object changed at once the terrible 
 current of the Cubano's ideas. A grim smile 
 passed over his olive countenance ; he shook 
 back the elf-like masses of coal-black hair which, 
 in Skye-terrier fashion, overhung his wild dark 
 eyes, and sheathing his knife, said, — 
 
 " Mio muchacho — come; I was only joking. 
 Yonder we shall find food, perhaps, and who 
 knows what more ? Come, it is a bargain ; and 
 if you don't desert me, I shall not molest you 
 again." 
 
 He proceeded at once toward the beach, and I 
 was hungry enough, and perhaps reckless 
 enough now, to be glad of a truce, and to follow 
 him, in the hope of finding something eatable on 
 board.
 
 304 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 A WATERLOGGED VESSEL. 
 
 Descending the rocks, which were steep and 
 rugged, we reached their base, where a danger- 
 ous and treacherous beach sloped abruptly down 
 into the deep water. It was covered with frothy 
 sea-weed, bright-colored shells, strange-looking 
 pieces of blubber, and decayed fish of many 
 kinds. 
 
 Over some large misshapen rocks, which were 
 covered by masses of barnacles and long tangles 
 of sea-weed that waved in the water, but which 
 adhered to the stone with the tenacity of steel 
 bands, we reached — but not without considera- 
 ble difficulty, and being partly immersed in the 
 foam that boiled over the reef connecting the 
 islands — the wreck that lay hard and fast upon 
 it. 
 
 By her build she was evidently a new Span- 
 ish brig of somewhere about one hundred and 
 fifty tons burden, and straight as an arrow 
 in her sheer stroke, which had been painted yel- 
 low. 
 
 Her masts were gone by the board, and her
 
 A WATERLOGGED VESSEL. 305 
 
 bowsprit had been snapped off near the cap. 
 Every vestige of the bulwarks had long since 
 been torn away by the waves that had swept 
 over her ; and the skeleton row of her timber- 
 heads, the windlass-bitts, and the booby-hatch, 
 alone remained. 
 
 Her hull had been swept of every thing else. 
 
 She had evidently been long tossing to and 
 fro, perhaps for six months, exposed to wind and 
 weather. Nearly every vestige of paint had long 
 since been washed from her hull by the waves, 
 or scorched from it by the sun. 
 
 Her copper was thickly encrusted with barna- 
 cles, and coated with long trailers of sea-weed. 
 
 Singularly lonely, silent, and desolate she 
 looked, as she lay on the reef, heeled over to 
 starboard, with the bleached or washed ends of 
 her shrouds and rattlins hanging from the dead- 
 eyes over the side channel-boards in the water ; 
 and then, to add to the effect of the whole, three 
 huge and lazy albatrosses gorged with star-fish 
 and blubber, alighted on her taffrail, and flapped 
 their dusky wings with a melancholy booming 
 sound. 
 
 As we clambered on board by the ruins of the 
 main-rigging, which hung pendent over the port- 
 side, an exclamation of disgust escaped even 
 Antonio when we saw the miserable remains of 
 a poor human being, hanging by the wasted and 
 bony legs, which were jammed in the iron gear 
 
 26*
 
 306 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 about the fore-channel ; it had, when in life, been 
 lashed thereto, and now hung pendent, with the 
 head, arms, and body immersed in the water; 
 and these relics had evidently been dragged 
 about with the wreck exposed to the waves, 
 the sun, the fish, and the sea-birds for many 
 months. 
 
 Of the crew we saw no other traces, and their 
 probable fate .was left to gloomy conjecture. 
 
 Removing the booby-hatch, we descended into 
 her cabin, and found it half full of water, amid 
 which the debris of the lockers had been long 
 washed to and fro. There were blankets and 
 clothing, cushions and pillows, bottles, glasses, 
 cigar-boxes, Spanish packs of cards having cud- 
 gels for clubs, espados for spades ; and there, too, 
 were charts and books reduced to mere pulp by 
 long immersion. 
 
 The skylight was gone ; but on the cabin-win- 
 dows we still saw the dead-lights, as those ports 
 or shutters are named which are usually shipped 
 in rough weather to prevent high seas from break- 
 ing in. 
 
 The place had a chill feeling — a dreary and 
 desolate aspect ; for many months the water had 
 been washing there from bulkhead to bulkhead 
 and from stem to stern. 
 
 With the aid of my hatchet we forced a pas- 
 sage into the bread-room, as the locker wherein 
 bread or biscuit is usually kept is named. It was
 
 A WATERLOGGED VESSEL. 307 
 
 entirely lined with tin, to exclude rats; but this 
 had failed to exclude water, for the bags of bis- 
 cuit, which to us would have been more valuable 
 than sacks of diamonds or doubloons, had all 
 been reduced to mouldy pulp and paste long ago. 
 
 Antonio seemed in his element ; his eyes spar- 
 kled with a lurid glare ; his limbs appeared to 
 dilate and strengthen as he hewed and hacked 
 away at the panels and bulkheads in quest of 
 food and plunder, so he soon forced his way 
 through the fore and after holds, and, indeed, over 
 all the wreck ; while the blows of the hatchet, 
 and the sound of his voice, as he shouted and 
 swore to himself, sounded hollow and strange 
 in the hitherto long-abandoned ship. 
 
 A little examination proved her to be a Spanish 
 brig, timber laden, principally with mahogany, 
 and completely waterlogged. Thus she could 
 never sink. 
 
 She was probably from the Bay of Honduras. 
 We found several coils of Manilla rope on board, 
 and some cocoa-nuts entire. She was oak-built, 
 copper-fastened, and coppered to the bends. 
 
 " She had not made the land in her last voy- 
 age," said Antonio ; " and a storm must have 
 overtaken and dismasted her at sea." 
 
 " How do you know this ? " I asked. 
 
 " Because one anchor — her best bower — still 
 remains in the bow, and the cables have not been 
 bent, but are stowed in the tier below. Her
 
 308 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 working anchor and kedge have both gone w 
 been sent overboard to lighten her." 
 
 And then, as if he had wasted time enoi gh, 
 Antonio descended to renew the ransacking of 
 the vessel ; and ere long I heard him utter a shrill 
 howl of delight. 
 
 He had discovered a square box, entirely filled 
 with case-bottles of Jamaica rum ! To one who, 
 like him, had been so long deprived of his favor- 
 ite stimulants, this discovery was more valuable 
 than a gold mine. 
 
 I cannot say that I shared his delight in this 
 matter, knowing well that the wretch would 
 drink to excess, and then there would be greater 
 reason than ever to dread his presence. 
 
 Our investigation had occupied almost the 
 entire day, and it was about the time of sunset 
 when Antonio found his prize. Knowing well 
 the danger of getting ashore in the dusk along 
 the ridge of the reef and up the weed-covered 
 rocks of the island, I urged the Cubano to re- 
 turn at once, as I had a dislike of remaining all 
 night in a waterlogged wreck, which any rise of 
 the wind or sea might take off the coast again ; 
 but Antonio only mocked me, and was deaf to 
 my advice. 
 
 He drank at least a pint of rum in a few min- 
 utes, and this prostrated his energies for the time ; 
 so, leaving him half-seated in the water that 
 washed and gurgled about the cabin, with hia
 
 A WATERLOGGED VESSEL. 309 
 
 back propped against the after bulkhead, the spirit 
 box placed between his legs, and a square case- 
 bottle in each hand, I prepared to sheer off and 
 get ashore ere worse came to pass. 
 
 All the plunder I brought away with me con- 
 isted of a book, which I found, half defaced by 
 water, on a shelf, and a small sword, like a couteau 
 de chasse, that hung on a hook in one of the 
 cabin berths, and which, unseen by Antonio, I 
 concealed in my trousers, as he had lost my 
 hatchet somewhere in the fore-hold, and I had 
 no other weapon with which to defend myself 
 if attacked. 
 
 I had eaten nothing but half a cocoa-nut all 
 day, and felt weak and giddy when lowering 
 myself off the wreck by the main-chains. 
 
 In the tropics the sun sets rapidly, and already 
 the reef was darkened by the shadows of the two 
 islands between which it lay. Their rocks were 
 black as marble ; but the sea, and all the surf 
 between them, were white as milk by the reflec- 
 tion of the snowy clouds on which the rising 
 moon was shining. 
 
 The whole scene of the silent and waterlogged 
 wreck was solemn and impressive ; and a gloomy 
 horror was added to it by the ghastly remains 
 of the dead man, which hung and were washed 
 to and fro alongside, head downward, from the 
 fore-channel — swaying with a gurgling sound, 
 as if he was essaying to rise from the water.
 
 310 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Shudderingly I turned away, and wading 
 through the surf, clambered over the piles of 
 slippery and weedy boulders, to regain the higher 
 portion of the Island of Alphonso. 
 
 As I ascended, the voice of Antonio, now 
 somewhat cracked and wavering, reached me, as 
 he put his head above the booby-hatch, and 
 sung a Spanish ditty, one verse of which ran 
 thus: 
 
 " Companero, companero, 
 
 She is gone that ruled my heart ! 
 Companero, companero, 
 
 That was sorrow's deepest smart. 
 But companero, companero, 
 
 Here's the bota, drink your fill ; 
 For companero, companero, 
 
 Wine's the cure for every ill ! " 
 
 At this point of his song he suddenly van- 
 ished. Probably his foot slipped, and if so, he 
 would fall souse into the water, which flooded 
 all the cabin and companion-way. If stunned 
 by the fall, or stupefied by the rum of which he 
 had partaken so freely, he might lie there and 
 drown. 
 
 But what was the fate of such a wretch to 
 me ? If I returned on board, could I save him ? 
 No ; it was more than probable that in his in- 
 toxication he would assail me, and I might per- 
 ish by his hand ; so leaving the Cubano to his 
 fate, I continued my ascent, until I reached the
 
 A WATERLOGGED VESSEL. 311 
 
 banana thicket, where my little hiding-place lay. 
 There I placed the sword I had found beside 
 me for security, and coiling myself up on my 
 bed of dry leaves, strove to sleep, and dream of 
 deliverance and of home. But the idea of An- 
 tonio perishing there in the wreck haunted me, 
 and kept me long miserable and awake.
 
 31? DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 THE OLD SPANISH BOOK. 
 
 Next morning my doubts about Antonio were 
 dispelled, when, from my place of concealment 
 (which was on the brow of a wooded rock), I 
 heard him shouting for me ; and once or twice I 
 obtained a glimpse of him, stumbling about as 
 if intoxicated, with the box of case-bottles slung 
 over his back in a Manilla rope. 
 
 How he had got either the box or himself 
 ashore was a mystery, the passage along the reef, 
 and the ascent from thence to the upper part of 
 the island being so difficult and so dangerous ; 
 but heedless of his invitations to join him, and 
 of his threats for absenting myself, I remained 
 close in my place of concealment, being well 
 aware that if the Cubano was a hateful and 
 perilous companion when sober, he would be 
 doubly so in his present state. 
 
 The morning was clear and bright in all its 
 tropical loveliness. My first glance was turned 
 to the sea, where its waters blended in the faint- 
 est blue with the flat horizon ; but no sail was 
 in sight.
 
 THE OLD SPANISH BOOK. 313 
 
 So long had this been the case — so often had 
 I swept the sea at sunrise and at sunset with 
 haggard eyes in vain, — that I repressed the 
 usual sigh ; and placing the book I had found 
 open in the sunshine, that its damp leaves might 
 dry, I selected a ripe banana, brought some 
 water in a large leaf from a spring, and pro- 
 ceeded to make my breakfast like a hermit of old. 
 
 Concealed by thick shrubs and beds of gigan- 
 tic tulips, I was certain that Antonio could 
 neither discover nor molest me — at least, that 
 he could not take me by surprise, which was 
 somewhat consoling ; for the events of yesterday 
 morning had given me a greater terror of him. 
 
 At my feet apparently lay the bay, on the 
 margin of which stood the rude wigwam built 
 by the men of the Eugenie; and it made me 
 think sadly of good Marc Hislop and others who 
 were gone. 
 
 There lay the rocks which formed the horns 
 of that beautiful bay, tufted with feathery trees, 
 and between them extended the long white lino 
 of the coral reef, over which the shadowy vessel 
 had appeared to sail on that eventful night. 
 
 On my right towered through the clouds the 
 great mountain, which is yet unnamed ; and on 
 my left rose, sheer from the water, the mighty 
 bluff we had first descried at sea. 
 
 I took up the book, the leaves of which the 
 warm sunshine had dried and crisped, and its 
 
 27
 
 314 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 pages made me think of home and of that civili 
 zation from which I was exiled — of Eton and 
 other times ; and for nearly an hour my eyes 
 were full, my heart sick and heavy, with intense 
 longing for relief, and a weariness of the life I 
 was passing on this lonely island. 
 
 After a time I began to read, and in this new 
 or old (it was both to me) sense of pleasure, I 
 forgot all my sorrow and peril. 
 
 It was a Spanish book, the title-page of which 
 was gone, but proved to be the first volume of a 
 collection of the voyages and discoveries made 
 by the Spaniards in the olden time. 
 
 It related * the adventures of Alphonso de Al- 
 buquerque, detailing how he and Tristan da 
 Cunha, each with seven caravels, had sailed from 
 Europe and touched at Teneriffe, while there 
 was an eruption from the crater of the great 
 peak, during which a mighty mass of rock fell 
 down, and brought to light the great diamond, 
 which had since shone at times with such won- 
 drous brilliance in the night, but the exact local- 
 ity of which baffled all search during day. 
 
 Sailing from thence to the isles named Tristan 
 da Cunha, a storm dispersed the fleet ; but Al- 
 phonso, after being separated from Don Tristan 
 discovered the island, which he named from him- 
 
 * I subsequently learned from Marc Hislop that the work was 
 probably a volume of the Collection de los Viages y Descubrimicn- 
 tos de los Espanotes en Indias,
 
 THE OLD SPANISH BOOK. 315 
 
 self, and had his name cut on one of the rocks, 
 in the year in which Philip, King of Castile and 
 Emperor of Austria, died ; and this was the rock 
 which we had discovered. 
 
 Then, in the following year, he sailed to India, 
 of which he became viceroy, for Ferdinand the 
 Catholic. It detailed how, thereafter, he went 
 from the city of Cochin unto the Straits of Ma- 
 lacca, and sent a certain valiant Portuguese 
 knight, named Ruy Nunnez da Cunha, as am- 
 bassador to the king of the Seguiers : how he 
 sailed to Java, where he found the wonderful 
 birds of paradise, that came in flights from the 
 southern isles of India, and were fabled to be 
 always on the wing without the power of alight- 
 ing, till they found some that were drunk with 
 the strength of the nutmeg, which always intoxi- 
 cates them. 
 
 In that sea huge lampreys adhered to the keels 
 of his caravels, and for a time retarded their pro- 
 gress, which was deemed to be enchantment. 
 
 Sailing thence, Alphonso discovered an island 
 where the sea-serpent coiled up his monstrous 
 length for certain seasons, guarding caverns that 
 were filled with piles of golden ingots, and casks 
 of orient pearls, rubies, and diamonds ; and in 
 this isle were deep bights and bays, where ships 
 with all their crews lay spell-bound by necro- 
 mancers. 
 
 On another island he found a white nation,
 
 316 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 whose cavaliers were arrayed in fine shirts, 
 slashed doublets of taffeta, and trunk hose, with 
 long swords and short mantles, exactly like the 
 Portuguese ; and having money of silver, with 
 many other incredible statements, all tending to 
 assure the reader that this settlement was one of 
 the seven Christian colonies that, under seven 
 bishops, had fled from the Spanish Peninsula 
 when the cross was trampled under the feet of 
 the Moors, and when the churches of Christ were 
 converted into mosques for the worship of Mo- 
 hammed, as a punishment for the wickedness of 
 Roderick the Last of the Goths. 
 
 Returning westward from this wonderful voy- 
 age, in 1513, Don Alphonso went from the city 
 of Goa to the straits of Mecca, and passing with 
 twenty caravels through the narrow Gate of 
 Tears into the Red Sea, he bombarded the city 
 of Aden, after w r hich a cross appeared in heaven, 
 shining before his ship, like the pillar of fire that 
 shone before the children of Israel ; and two years 
 after, this worthy cavalier, just as he was about 
 to make Shah Ishmael, king of Persia, pay trib- 
 ute to his master the king of Castile, " passed 
 away to the company of the saints," dying like 
 a true Hidalgo, with his armor on, and his toledo 
 at his girdle. 
 
 The real and the marvellous were so curiously 
 blended in these voyages, that I read on, forget- 
 ful of all about me, and charmed in spite of my 
 deplorable situation.
 
 THE OLD SPANISH BOOK. 317 
 
 At last I came to the history of a valiant mari- 
 ner who invented a steamship in the time of 
 Charles V. — a narrative which seemed to illus- 
 trate the old aphorism, that there is nothing new 
 under the sun. 
 
 When Charles the First of Spain and Fifth 
 of Germany was emperor, there lived in the busy 
 town of Barcelona, a certain Blasco de Garay, 
 captain of a merchant ship. 
 
 In his youth, Blasco had been one of the mari- 
 ners of Columbus, whom he accompanied in all 
 those voyages which gave to Castile and Leon 
 a new realm beyond the seas of the southern and 
 western world. He was with him when he landed 
 in Guana Bay, and erected the standard of Fer- 
 dinand and Isabella on a shore never before trod 
 by a Christian foot ; so this land, which is one 
 of the Bahamas, by the suggestion of Blasco, he 
 named San Salvador ; and he was also with him 
 at the discovery of Cuba, of Hispaniola, and the 
 discovery of that mighty continent, the nominal 
 honor of which was robbed from Columbus, by 
 Amerigo Vespucius, the Florentine. 
 
 But all this was when Blasco was a boy ; so 
 fifty-one years after, that is, in the year of grace 
 1543, he conceived the idea " of an engine able 
 to move large vessels in calm weather without 
 the use of oars or sails." 
 
 So coldly were his proposals met at home, 
 that he was on the point of applying to James 
 
 27*
 
 318 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 V. of Scotland, a monarch then far in advance 
 of any other in Europe, m the cultivation of the 
 arts, of commerce, music, architecture, and paint- 
 ing; but unfortunately ne died of a broken 
 heart, and, moreover, his mariners were the 
 scourge of the shores of Portugal and Spain. 
 
 But Blasco did not lose heart, for after endur- 
 ing torrents of ridicule, and experiencing incred- 
 ible abuse, with threats from the Dominicans 
 that they would burn him as a sorcerer, the Em- 
 peror agreed to permit a trial of his great inven- 
 tion, and it took place in presence of a mighiy 
 concourse, at Barcelona, on the 17th of June, 
 1543. 
 
 The harbor there is formed by a kind of bight, 
 which lies between the citadel of Monjuich and 
 the city ; all the shore of this bay was covered 
 with spectators ; the battlements of the govern- 
 or's palace, and those of the palaces of the 
 counts of Barcelona and of the kings of Arragon, 
 with the spire of St. Mary-of-the-Sea, were also 
 covered by a multitude. 
 
 The Emperor was on horseback, surrounded 
 by his courtiers, the commanders of St. Jago of 
 Calatrava, of Alcantara, and other religious and 
 military orders, wearing their crosses and man- 
 tles, and all the officials of his splendid house- 
 hold, while his guard of archers, the guards of 
 Monteros de Espinosa, and the old German 
 Lanzknechts, lined the beach with their great
 
 THE OLD SPANISH BOOK. 319 
 
 gilded partisans, the staves of which were cov- 
 ered with crimson velvet and tasselled with gold. 
 
 On beholding all these preparations, and such 
 a concourse of the noble, the wealthy, and great 
 around the Emperor, Blasco de Garay believed 
 that the fortunate hour — "the hour which, ac- 
 cording to the general saying, presents itself to 
 evejy man once in his life for making fame and 
 fortune, had now arrived. 
 
 He had spent the night in prayer, at Montser- 
 rat, for the success of his invention — dreamt of 
 in youth, studied in manhood, and now matured 
 in age — the ship that would be alike independ- 
 ent of wave and wind. 
 
 Montserrat is a few miles from Barcelona, 
 and had then a famous abbey, which was much 
 frequented in consequence of a miraculous im- 
 age of the Virgin, which was kept in a chapel 
 on the summit of a rock ; and in this chapel 
 ninety lamps of solid sijver, filled with perfumed 
 oil, burned night and day, and on each was en- 
 graved the name and arms of Alphonso de Al- 
 buquerque, who brought them from the mosques 
 of the East, beyond the realms of Prester John. 
 In the caverns beneath dwelt many aged her- 
 mits and others who wished to seclude them- 
 selves from the world ; so there did Blasco de 
 Garay spend the night preceding the 17th of 
 June, in meditation and prayer for the success 
 of his wonderful scr ?rae.
 
 320 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 A vessel of two hundred tons, named La 
 Trinidad, commanded by Captain Pedro de 
 Scarza, was then passing the high bar which is 
 formed at the entrance of the bay by the waters 
 of the Bezos, and the Llobregat mingling with 
 the sea ; and when she caught the eye of the 
 Emperor, he ordered Blasco to try his experi- 
 ment on her. 
 
 She was laden with corn, and had just come 
 from Monte Colibre or the Columbretes islets, 
 which lie near the coast of Valencia, and poor 
 Pedro de Scarza, in his ignorance and fear of 
 what was about to be done to his ship, rent his 
 beard and tore his slashed doublet as he stamped 
 about her deck and gave himself up for lost, 
 when ordered to furl every thing aloft as La 
 Trinidad was to sail without canvas, or as he 
 believed, about to be bewitched. 
 
 Blasco told his secret to none ; but it was ob- 
 served that he placed across the vessel's deck, 
 and bolted thereto an axle, at each end of which 
 was a large wooden wheel. Amidships were 
 several other mysterious wheels with bands and 
 bars, and a necromantic-looking iron boiler of 
 great size, which he filled, however, with water 
 from the holy well of Montserrat. 
 
 The moment this water attained boiling heat, 
 by means of a fire which burned in a grating 
 underneath, the wheels revolved, and again Pe- 
 dro de Scarza rent his beard, while most of hi&
 
 THE OLD SPANISH BOOK. 321 
 
 crew jumped overboard ; for now the vessel ran 
 right across the Bay of Barcelona against the 
 wind which was blowing fresh, to the great as- 
 tonishment and terror of the people. 
 
 Charles V., whose mind was more occupied 
 by wars and conquests, by battles and sieges, 
 than the arts of science and peace, ordered his 
 treasurer to inspect this strange machine and 
 report upon it. 
 
 The treasurer, in doing so, got his trunk 
 breeches torn by a portion of the machinery, by 
 which accident about three pecks (Spanish) of 
 fine cedar sawdust, which formed the bombast- 
 ing thereof, were spilled on the deck of La Trin- 
 idad; so being a solemn, proud, and pompous 
 grandee of Old Castile, he justly considered 
 himself insulted by a vile mechanical contriv- 
 ance, which he loudly denounced, stating " that 
 it was not worth adopting, as the vessel did not 
 go more than eight miles in two hours, which 
 any caravel might do ; and that the boiler was a 
 Satanic affair, which was liable to burst and 
 scald good Christians. 
 
 The Emperor, who was on the eve of departing 
 from Spain to invade France, thus forbade Blasco 
 to think more of his invention ; but he bestowed 
 upon him forty thousand maravedis, and created 
 him a knight of the Dove of Castile — an order 
 instituted in 1379, by Henry II., King of Castile 
 and Lord of Biscay — the same who was poi-
 
 322 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 soned by a handsome pair of buskins sent to him 
 by Mohammed II., the Red-faced king of Gran- 
 ada. 
 
 But Blasco de Garay, on seeing no further 
 hope of success with his long-cherished steam 
 engine, in the bitterness of his heart dashed it to 
 pieces with a hammer, thus destroying in an 
 instant all that the fond hopes, the deep thoughts, 
 and the labor of a lifetime had developed and 
 constructed. 
 
 Disgusted with the world and weary of it, he 
 retired to one of the little hermitages in the Rock 
 of Montserrat, only in time to prevent the In- 
 quisition from burning him as a sorcerer, and 
 there he died, in the year of the Emperor's abdi- 
 cation, 1555.
 
 SANGRE POR BANGRE. 323 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 SANGRE POR SANGRE. 
 
 Seated under a banana tree, with my back 
 resting against its trunk, I had read thus far ; 
 and lulled by the ceaseless hum of insects among 
 the leaves, and by the equally monotonous chaf- 
 ing of the sea on the beach far down below, I 
 permitted the book, so valuable under the cir- 
 cumstances in which I was placed, to drop from 
 my hands, and I was about to sleep, when the 
 appearance of a distant object on the waters 
 gave me a species of electric shock. 
 
 A Ship' 
 
 Under a cloud of canvas, she was running 
 direct for the island from the west, and must have 
 been some hours visible before she caught my 
 eye. 
 
 I started up as if I would have met her half 
 way, and then seated myself again, and watched 
 her in a species of ecstasy. 
 
 Ah ! how my heart leaped at this sight J My 
 emotions were suffocating, and with them there 
 was a nervous fear that it might prove another 
 optical delusion — another Fata Morgana — an-
 
 324 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 other ship that would melt away on a nearer 
 approach. 
 
 But no ! On she came — on and on, with the 
 white foam curling under her sharp bows, a long 
 wake weltering under the counter, and running 
 far astern, every thing set upon her that would 
 draw, from deck to trucks ; even her studding- 
 sails were rigged out from the lower, the topsail, 
 and top-gallant yards. 
 
 She seemed a very large vessel, ship-rigged, 
 and apparently about fifteen miles distant. 
 
 How I dreaded that she might change her 
 course ! How I longed for some means of at- 
 tracting her, ere evening came on. How I 
 panted. I rose, and in an incredibly short space 
 reached the summit of the great bluff which over- 
 hangs the sea. 
 
 There, under a blazing sun, I exhausted my- 
 self by waving my tattered jacket, and by shout- 
 ing as if her crew could have heard me. 
 
 Then I felt my brain almost boiling in the heat, 
 and sat down in the shade of a thicket to fan my- 
 self with a large leaf, and lave water from a 
 spring upon my face and head. 
 
 Forgetting all about Antonio, or what his 
 views or purposes might now be, I descended to 
 the beach, and stood upon the white stripe of 
 sand, in the hope that some one on board who 
 might be using a telescope would distinguish 
 me ; and about two hours after she came in
 
 SANGRE POR SANGRE. 325 
 
 sight, I supposed this was the case, for when the 
 wind veered more upon her quarter, I saw her 
 ensign floating as it was run up to the gaff peak ; 
 but my eyes failed to make out its color or na- 
 tion. 
 
 And now her hull became black and all her 
 canvas assumed a purple hue as the sun set ; 
 but her sails grew white again when the shadow 
 of the mountain fell across the sea she sailed 
 on. 
 
 She was about three miles off, when the wind 
 became light, and ere long almost died away. I 
 felt as if bursting with impatience — with excited 
 hope, with joy to behold her, and with desire for 
 deliverance. All this created a delirium in my 
 head and heart, like intoxication or fever. 
 
 During the day, I had seen nothing of Anto- 
 nio, whom I supposed to be either on board the 
 wreck, or employed with his beloved case of Ja- 
 maica rum in some thicket on the other side of 
 the island. Indeed I forgot all about him, and 
 thought only of the approaching ship. 
 
 I felt certain that I had been seen ; why else 
 would she have shown her colors ? 
 
 The sunset was followed by a deep and sol- 
 emn crimson, which overspread the western 
 quarter of the sky and sea. The line of the ho- 
 rizon could no longer be distinguished, so softly 
 did cloud and water blend together in the dis- 
 tance. 
 
 28
 
 326 DICK. RODNEY 
 
 In the dark blue vault above, the diamond 
 stars were sparkling. No sound met the ear but 
 the gurgle of a spring from a rock plashing on 
 the pebbled channel, and the ceaseless chafing 
 of the sea upon the lonely shore. 
 
 The passing breeze stirred the pendent leaves 
 of the palms, and then died away, for it came in 
 puffs that caused the canvas of the coming ship 
 to shiver aloft ; so ere long her courses were 
 brailed up, as they collapsed against the masts. 
 
 Slowly and imperceptibly the large and stately 
 craft came on. There was a trim squareness in 
 her hamper aloft, and a clean, flush run in her 
 hull that gave her somewhat the aspect of a man- 
 o'-war ; but she was not one, evidently. 
 
 Nearer and nearer she came. The look-out 
 ahead evidently saw the bar or coral reef, with 
 the ridge of white foam that boiled at the en- 
 trance of the bay, for now a leadsman was busy 
 in the forechains to leeward. 
 
 Anon her cloud of canvas, topsails, topgallant- 
 sails, and royals, seemed to tower between me 
 and the sky. I could see every sail and rope 
 distinctly, and could count the men upon her 
 deck. 
 
 Now her royals were hauled down, and the 
 fore-yards slewed round as her head was thrown 
 in the wind ; then the rushing sound of the great 
 chain cable, as it roared hoarsely through the iron 
 hawse-pipe, reached my ear over the ripples
 
 SANGRE POR SANGRE. 327 
 
 within the bay, as she came to anchor outside 
 the reef ; and I saw her crew swarming up aloft, 
 and laying out upon the yards to hand her can- 
 vas, and in a few minutes she was bared of every 
 thing. 
 
 I panted with eagerness for the next move- 
 ment in the drama of my deliverance, and 
 laughed exultingly when one of her quarter boats 
 was lowered and manned. 
 
 For a time, it hung off the larboard quarter, 
 as the great ship swung round at her moorings, 
 and the bow-man held on to the mizzen channels 
 by a boat-hook, while the men kept their oars 
 up-ended. 
 
 During this delay, I endured an agony of im- 
 patience. At last a smart fellow slid down the 
 falls to the stern sheets, seated himself, seized 
 the tiller rope, and the oars dipped in the water 
 as she was shoved off with her bow pointed to 
 the shore. 
 
 They were pulling for a part of the beach 
 where a ledge of rock formed a kind of natural 
 pier within the northern horn of the bay, and I 
 was about to run in that direction, when the 
 voice of Antonio, rendered husky by his recent 
 potations, reached me. 
 
 " Hola ! Stop, or it may be the worse for 
 you," said he. 
 
 I turned, and saw him start from behind some 
 large boulders which lay on the beach to my
 
 328 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 right. There he had evidently been lurking and 
 observing the ship's approach ; and now he stood, 
 with bare knife in hand, between me and the 
 coming boat. 
 
 The pile of weedy boulders concealed us both 
 at that moment from the ship, and from those in 
 her boat ; and by the light of the moon, I could 
 read the fell intention of Antonio in his dark and 
 deep-set eye. 
 
 In tangled masses, his black hair fell over a 
 low and narrow brow, and met the equally black 
 whiskers that mingled with the beard which grew 
 like a furze-bush over his chin and cheeks. Naked 
 to the waist, he resembled in every way a brawny 
 savage. Inflamed by alcohol, the expression of 
 his eye was terrible, and he seemed to tremble 
 with the ferocity of his emotions, as he grasped 
 his knife, with the thumb of his right hand placed 
 firmly over the pommel. 
 
 The moonlight shone brightly on the beach ; 
 so whatever he meant to do, he resolved should 
 be done behind the screen formed by the bould- 
 ers among which he had been concealed. 
 
 I had still the sword which had been taken 
 from the wreck, and I drew it with the resolution 
 of defending my life to the last. Antonio started 
 on beholding me armed so unexpectedly. 
 
 " You see the boat which is making for the 
 shore ? " said he. 
 
 " I do, and am on my way to meet it ; so 
 stand aside, Cubano," I replied, firmly.
 
 SANGRE POR SANGRE. 329 
 
 " And you will tell her crew of all that hap- 
 pened in the Eugenie, and cry sangre por san- 
 gre ! " said he, grinding his teeth. 
 
 " That is as may be," said I, without consid- 
 eration. 
 
 Then uttering a howl like a wild animal, he 
 rushed upon me with his knife uplifted ; but 
 quite undaunted I met him half-way, and thrust 
 the sword under his right arm-pit. Springing 
 back, before the great lumbering ruffian could 
 renew the attack, I gave him another dangerous 
 wound in the breast, which tumbled him down 
 on his face ; and without looking to see whether 
 or not he moved again, I ran along the moonlit 
 beach, and reached the boat, which had just 
 sheered alongside the ledge of rock already men- 
 tioned.
 
 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 THE SAN ILDEFONSO. * 
 
 The bowman held the boat's-head to the shore 
 by the hook, which he grasped with his left hand, 
 while stretching out his right to me. 'Twas old 
 Tom Lambourne ; there was no mistaking that 
 quaint and tattooed visage of his ! 
 
 " Hilloah, Master Rodney, here we are again, 
 come back for you, after all ; " he exclaimed, joy- 
 fully. 
 
 " Tom, Tom ! " I gasped, while seizing his 
 hard brown hand, and leaping without invitation, 
 into the boat, where my hands were immedi- 
 ately grasped by Hislop, who had been steering. 
 " Oh, Hislop, Marc Hislop ! " I added, in a breath- 
 less voice, and nearly sank down overcome by 
 emotion. 
 
 " You didn't think I would leave you there, 
 my boy, if I could help it ? " said he. " Thank 
 heaven, we have come in time. I have counted 
 every day, every hour, aye, every moment, and 
 have scarcely ever slept for thinking of you, 
 and the wretched condition in which you were 
 left."
 
 THE SAN ILDEFONSO. li'Jl 
 
 I could not reply, but, completely overcome by 
 the revulsion of feeling, seated myself in the 
 stern-sheets, and wept. 
 
 " What is this in your hand ? " said Hislop, 
 with astonishment ; " a sword, and blood on it 
 too ! Where did it, — where did this come 
 from ? " 
 
 " Antonio," — I began. 
 
 " The villanous Cubano ? " 
 
 " Yes," my voice sank into a whisper, I was 
 so weak. 
 
 " What of him? — where is he ? " 
 
 " He tried to kill me when he saw the boat 
 approaching, and — and — " 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " I ran him through the body." 
 
 " But where is he now ? " continued Hislop. 
 " Our work in rescuing you will be but half done 
 if we leave him unhanged." 
 
 " He is lying wounded, dying, perhaps, on the 
 beach. Oh, Hislop, it is horrible! For pity's 
 sake, for heaven's sake, go some of you — be- 
 hind those rocks," I added, incoherently, for in 
 my joy at escaping, I felt it possible even to com- 
 passionate and forgive Antonio. 
 
 " Remain here," said Hislop, and leaping 
 ashore, followed by Tom Lambourne, he went 
 at once to the place I indicated. 
 
 I now looked at the boat's crew, eight in num- 
 ber and to my surprise found they were all Span-
 
 332 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 iards ; bearded, mustachioed, and armed with 
 sheath-knives in their sashes ; some wore red 
 nets on their heads, others red night-caps, and they 
 might all have passed — especially those with 
 earrings — for blood relations of the Cubano. 
 
 I had scarcely made this unpleasant discovery 
 when Hislop and Lambourne appeared, half 
 supporting and half dragging Antonio toward 
 the boat, into the bow of which they thrust him 
 with very little ceremony ; and there he lay 
 in a heap, as it were, with his eyes closed and 
 his bare and hairy chest covered with blood and 
 sand. 
 
 His right hand still clenched his Albacete* 
 knife, the weapon with which he had committed 
 so many crimes ; • so Hislop tore it from him, and 
 cast it into the sea. 
 
 He moaned heavily, and the Spanish oarsmen 
 looked at each other, and then at me, with eyes 
 the reverse of friendly in expression ; but now 
 Hislop seated himself, assumed the tiller-lines, 
 and said, in their- own language, — 
 
 " Shove off for the ship, marineros. We must 
 have the wounds of this picaro looked to at 
 once ; so give way with a will." 
 
 The boat's head fell round, her stern lay to the 
 beach of that detested island of Alphonso, and 
 the sturdy Espanoles, with their bare feet planted 
 
 * Albacete is a town of Murcia, where the cutlers manufacture 
 a great number of sheath-knives.
 
 THE SAN ILDEFONSO. 333 
 
 firmly on the stretchers, bent their backs at every 
 stroke, and made the boat fly through the moon- 
 lit bay, toward the ship, which lay more than a 
 mile distant outside the coral reef. 
 
 In a few minutes I related to Hislop, how my 
 time had been spent since his departure, and how 
 I had feared that the desperate sequel of to-night 
 would assuredly ensue when Antonio found a 
 ship off the island. 
 
 " He will dangle from the yard-arm now, if 
 ever a rascally pirate swung there ! " said Hislop, 
 through his clenched teeth. 
 
 After my loneliness on the island, I cannot 
 describe how pleasant his voice — the voice of a 
 valued and trusted friend — sounded in my ear ! 
 
 He told me that the boat's crew soon repented 
 of their selfishness and folly in leaving the island, 
 and next day would have returned, but they had 
 lost all idea of its bearings, and being without 
 compass or chart, were compelled to run in what 
 they believed to be the direction of Tristan da 
 Cunha. 
 
 A sea half swamped the boat, and washing 
 away the tarpaulin which covered the bread- 
 bags, soaked and destroyed their contents ; yet, 
 having no other food, they were compelled to eat 
 these salt-sodden biscuits, and thus their thirst 
 became excited to agony, as they were under a 
 vertical sun, and their supply of fresh water was 
 rapidly consumed.
 
 334 DICK RODNEY 
 
 For six days and nights they endured un- 
 speakable misery; and just when they were 
 sucking the last putrid drops from the barrel- 
 staves, a large vessel hove in sight, running 
 due west, under a cloud of canvas. She saw 
 their signal, bore down, and picked them up. 
 
 She proved to be the San Ildefonso, a Spanish 
 merchant-ship of sixteen hundred tons, bound 
 from Java to Cadiz, with a mixed crew of Span- 
 iards and Lascars, and with a few cabin pas- 
 sengers ; in all about sixty souls. 
 
 Her skipper, the Captain Jose* Estremera was 
 very unwilling to add to the number of his 
 crew, lest provisions should run short, and flatly 
 refused at first to haul up for the island, and 
 take me off. 
 
 For two days he resisted all the entreaties of 
 Hislop and others, till the former found one ally 
 in a Portuguese Mar, who was returning from 
 his mission in Java, and another in a wealthy 
 Dutch passenger. 
 
 Fra Anselmo held the terrors of Pandemo- 
 nium before the capitano, and the Dutch planter 
 held a handful of guilders, so the yards were 
 trimmed anew, the charts were consulted care- 
 fully, and in two days more the look-out man in 
 the fore-cross-trees of the San Ildefonso sighted 
 the great mountain of the island. 
 
 Hislop had many doubts whether he would 
 find me alive, fearing that I might perish of
 
 THE SAN ILDEFONSO. 335 
 
 hunger, of despair, or by the hand of the Cu- 
 bano. 
 
 Just as he concluded his narrative, I found 
 myself under the towering side of the Spanish 
 merchant-ship. 
 
 She had a long flush deck : was pierced for 
 and carried twelve brass nine-pounders, and had 
 top-gallant bulwarks aft. Over these and along 
 her side was a row of faces, surveying us in the 
 moonlight with expressions of wonder and in- 
 terest. 
 
 I sprang up the rope-ladder, and on reaching 
 the deck my hands were caught and shaken by 
 Ned Carlton, old Probart, Burnet the cook, Boy 
 Bill, and others of our crew, who all expressed 
 in various fashions, but chiefly by swearing at 
 themselves, their contrition for having so selfishly 
 abandoned me ; but that was all over now, and 
 I desired them to forget it. 
 
 Antonio was next hoisted on board. His ap- 
 pearance and his wounds excited great astonish- 
 ment ; and now, surrounded by a crowd of dark 
 and grim-looking Spanish seamen, and darker 
 leathery-visaged Lascars, we were conducted aft 
 to the quarter-deck, where Captain Jose* Estre- 
 mera awaited us, together with a number of 
 passengers, whose curiosity was excited by the 
 whole affair.
 
 336 DICK ROPNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 WE SAIL FOR EUROPE. 
 
 Estremera was a smart little Andalusian, with 
 large whiskers, which he curled with great care, 
 and he wore his black hair shorn short. He had 
 little gold rings in his ears, and the red point of 
 a cigarito perpetually gleamed between his teeth. 
 He wore a broad-brimmed straw-hat, from which 
 a scarlet ribbon floated, and he was entirely clad 
 in a spotless suit of white linen — jacket, waist- 
 coat, and trousers. The ample collar of a shirt 
 that was broadly striped with red and white was 
 folded over his shoulders. He was about to 
 speak, when Antonio, who was supported by 
 two of the crew, suddenly exclaimed to one of 
 them — 
 
 "Benito Ojeda — hah! Don't you remember 
 me, Benito ? " 
 
 " What, Antonio, is this you ? " replied the 
 seaman ; " the best Cubano that ever sailed past 
 the Morro light." 
 
 " Do you know this man, Benito ? " asked the 
 captain. 
 
 " Right well, senor, and will bear witness to 
 his character," replied the sailor bluntly.
 
 WE SAIL FOR EUROPE. 337 
 
 " Much value your evidence will be," said Es- 
 tremera, contemptuously, " when you are known 
 to be the greatest picaroon on board. Come, 
 esta, senor," he added to me, " you are wel- 
 come." 
 
 " Muchos gr atlas, senor capitano," replied I, 
 bowing low, as I stepped forward. 
 
 " But what in the name of mischief am I to 
 do to provision you all?" said Estremera, with 
 perplexity. 
 
 " After what I have endured, senor capitano, a 
 very little food will suffice for me." 
 
 " Were you ever in Spain ? " 
 
 " No, senor." 
 
 "How, then " 
 
 " Oh ! one may speak Spanish without hav- 
 ing been in Spain," said I, smiling. 
 
 " Of course — of course. But what is this ? " 
 he added, on perceiving the wounds of Antonio ; 
 " Caramba ! have you been fighting — killing one 
 another ? " 
 
 " Senor," said Hislop, " this is the picaroon of 
 whom I told you — he who slew our captain and 
 shipmates, and whom we thrust overboard ; but 
 who, as if by a miracle, reached the island of 
 Alphonso before us." 
 
 " Bueno ! And what more ? " 
 
 " On seeing your ship come to anchor outside 
 the reef," said I, with some anxiety for the issue 
 of the affair, " he endeavored to kill me ; and but 
 
 29
 
 338 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 for the swoid with which I was armed, be had 
 assuredly done so." 
 
 " To kill you — santos ! — and why ? " 
 
 " Lest I should accuse him of those crimes 
 which he had committed in the Eugenie, and 
 which so many of her surviving crew, now here 
 on board, are ready to substantiate." 
 
 " And now in the name of justice, senor capi- 
 tano, I demand that he be strung up at once at 
 the foreyard-arm ! " said Hislop. 
 
 " Demonio! I have neither the power nor the 
 will to do that, before all these accusations have 
 been inquired into and proved ; and there is no 
 chance of our meeting with a Spanish ship of 
 war in these seas," replied the captain. 
 • There was a pause, during which Jose Estre- 
 mera scratched his right ear with an air of per- 
 plexity ; and the aspect of Antonio, as he 
 drooped between his friend, Benito Ojeda, and 
 another seaman, was truly ghastly in the moon- 
 light. 
 
 " Take that man below, and have his wounds 
 looked to," said Captain Estremera to some of 
 the crew. " Senor Hislop, I wish to speak with 
 you alone on these matters ; and meanwhile, 
 Senor el Gobernador," he added, to the Dutch 
 gentleman, " will excuse us." 
 
 He and Marc Hislop now retired aft to the 
 taffrail, over which they leant and conversed, 
 while the most of the crew went below with An-
 
 WE SAIL FOR EUROPE. 339 
 
 *onio, who would no doubt give them his ver- 
 sion of the story ; while I remained near the bin- 
 nacle, anxiously waiting the result of this con- 
 ference, and watching the changing features of 
 the fertile shore, the curved bay, the foam-cov- 
 ered coral reef, and every thicket with which I 
 was so familiar — the palms, the chestnuts, and 
 bananas — as the great Spanish merchantman 
 swung slowly round at her anchor, when the soft 
 night wind veered from east to south. 
 
 Silence soon reigned fore and aft, for there was 
 none on deck but some of the passengers, smok- 
 ing over the taffrail, the anchor-watch amid ships, 
 and some of the Eugenie's men loitering about 
 the forecastle-bitts, that they might have an 
 opportunity of speaking with me before turning 
 in. 
 
 It would appear that, being loath to add to the 
 number of his crew, who were a mixed and 
 somewhat mutinous band of Spaniards, Cuban 
 Creoles, and lascars, and having still a long voy- 
 age before him, he offered to rid us of Antonio, 
 and supply us with muskets and ammunition, 
 some medicines and cooking utensils, some old 
 sails and spars wherewith to erect a comfortable 
 hut, and to leave us all on the island of Al- 
 phonso, to the chance of being taken off by the 
 next passing ship, which very possibly might be 
 a British one. 
 
 My heart died within me on hearing this 
 strange and most unexpected proposal.
 
 340 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " How would you rid us of Antonio, senor ? " 
 asked Hislop, gravely ; do you mean by hanging 
 him?" 
 
 " Oh no ! — by taking him with me to Spain." 
 
 " For what purpose ? " 
 
 " To have him tried before the regidores at 
 Cadiz." 
 
 " While all the witnesses are left behind ? " 
 resumed the Scotchman, with surprise. 
 
 " Demonio — that is true !" said the captain, 
 scratching his ear again, for a partiality to his 
 countryman was evident, and a little use of the 
 knife is not deemed a very heinous crime in the 
 land of Don Quixote. 
 
 " You can all work ? " said he, in another 
 tone. 
 
 " All — all can hand, reef, and steer." 
 
 "Bueno — one English sailor is worth a dozen 
 Lascars ; so if it were not for breaking an agree- 
 ment, I would maroon them all ashore there. 
 Hanging your Cubano might be very useful to 
 terrify some of my crew who are very discon- 
 tented ; but I have not the authority to do so — 
 and the greater is the pity, as I shall have to 
 feed him, and there is no use in feeding up a 
 fellow merely to hang him. Caramba ! there is 
 nothing for it but keeping you all until we reach 
 Teneriffe ; — I shall be compelled to run into 
 Palma or Santa Cruz for fresh water, at all 
 events; and when there, I shall leave the whole
 
 WE SAIL FOR EUROPE. 341 
 
 affair in the hands of Senor, the Captain-General 
 of the Canaries." 
 
 " And meanwhile the Cubano " 
 
 " Shall be put in the bilboes in the cable-tier, 
 as he must be too dangerous a picaroon to leave 
 afloat among a ship's company like mine." 
 
 A berth was prepared for Hislop and me in 
 the steerage, while the rest of our shipmates 
 were berthed among the Spaniards and dirty 
 Lascars, neither of whom were much to their 
 liking. 
 
 Food and wine were immediately provided for 
 me. I partook of them greedily, and believe 
 that, but for the new strength they gave me, I 
 should have sunk altogether. 
 
 Old Tom Lambourne, Ned Carlton, and Pro- 
 bart, the carpenter, now rejoined me and ex- 
 pressed great discontent that Antonio was not 
 "run up at once," adding the satisfaction with 
 which they would all have " walked aft with the 
 line, had he been at the othe T end of it," and 
 prophesying evil to the ship and her crew if he 
 was kept aboard. 
 
 " But what is the captain to do ? " asked Pro- 
 bart; "'tain't no use attempting to kill that Cu- 
 bano — he is either Davy Jones or the Devil ! " 
 
 " Or Whirlwind Tom, as puts maggots into 
 the midshipmen's nuts," said Lambourne, " and 
 makes a sound ship leak, nobody knows how or 
 why ; sours the burgoo forward and the wine 
 
 23*
 
 342 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 aft; makes many a poor fellow lose his hold 
 when laying out on the yard-arm in a dark night, 
 and works all manner o' mischief aboard." 
 
 " If he ain't Whirlwind Tom, out and out," 
 added Probart, solemnly, and with increasing 
 energy, as if by describing their own fears the} 
 wished to apologize for their desertion of me, 
 "if he ain't Whirlwind Tom, I say he's some- 
 thing as bad, and I wish I was clear o' this here 
 craft, before he works us all a mischief." 
 
 " I think he's the ghost of some old buccaneer 
 that's been hung at Port Royal, or marooned on 
 the Albuquerque Keys long ago," said Lam- 
 bourne. " He has already found an old ship- 
 mate aboard, and may I never see the Nore 
 again if they wont be up to something sly before 
 long : for that fellow has sin enough on his soul 
 to sink a seventy-four!" 
 
 The San Ildefomo was a beautiful ship, and 
 very man-o'-war-like in her general aspect. 
 
 Her decks were clean and spotless. Every 
 rope was tidily belayed and coiled away in its 
 place, and the brass mountings of her binnacle 
 lamps, of her wheel and capstan, were all pol- 
 ished till, like the twelve brass nines she carried, 
 they shone with the brightness of burnished 
 gold. 
 
 She was thoroughly Spanish, though — for all 
 the food on board, even to the cabin biscuits, 
 had the flavor of garlic ; and every thing else,
 
 WE SAIL FOR EUROPE. 343 
 
 even to the red and yellow flag at the gaff peak, 
 was redolent of Havana cigars. 
 
 Her cargo was valuable, and consisted of the 
 most choice productions of Java, such as sugar, 
 coffee, pepper, indigo, and tobacco, with spices 
 of all kinds. 
 
 Among her cabin passengers she had the 
 Dutch Governor of Surabaya, a province of 
 Java, which is bounded on the north by the sea 
 of that name, and on the east by the Straits of 
 Madura. He was a retired soldier, and latterly 
 had been a planter, and was now returning home 
 to Holland with a vast quantity of luggage, in 
 which, as Hislop informed me, according to the 
 rumor current about the forecastle, an almost 
 fabulous amount of guilders was packed in can- 
 vas bags. 
 
 " And with a crew so mixed as ours," he ad- 
 ded, " it is the reverse of pleasant to have such 
 constant whispering about it, when we have to 
 run along the wildest portion of the west coast 
 of Africa." 
 
 For three days the San Ildefonso remained at 
 anchor a few fathoms off the reef, while her 
 crew took every thing of value from the water- 
 logged brig that lay on the western shore. 
 
 Her iron cables and remaining anchor, her cop- 
 per bolts, and a log or two of mahogany, with 
 some coils of Manilla rope, were brought on 
 board. The poor fellow whose bones were hang- 
 ing at the fore-channel, found a Christian grave,
 
 344 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 for he was buried near the rock which had the 
 Spanish legend carved on it ; and there Fra An- 
 selmo, the Portuguese missionary, performed the 
 funeral services of his church ; and solemnly for 
 the unknown dead, the prayer seemed to go up 
 to Heaven from that lonely islet in the South 
 Atlantic. 
 
 Then, to my joy, the boats were hoisted on 
 board, — the topsails were cast loose, and prepa- 
 rations made for leaving Alphonso. 
 
 The windlass was manned, and I saw Marc 
 Hislop with the rest, handspike in hand, heav- 
 ing short on the anchor, in his anxiety to get un- 
 der way. 
 
 " Heave, my lads, — heave and rally ! " I heard 
 him shout, as if he had an English crew under 
 his orders, and wished them to work briskly. 
 
 The anchor was soon tripped, and the head- 
 yards were filled as she payed off ; but too slowly 
 for Hislop's sailor eyes, for he shouted again in 
 English, which he was safe to use, — 
 
 " Sheet home, you lubbers ! Oh, Rodney, how 
 slow these jack-Spaniards are! I would rather 
 have one of our own sort than a hundred of 
 them. Never mind — all's one for that! I'll 
 have my foot on a deck of good British oak ere 
 long. Now the canvas fills — she's under way 
 at last, and walks through the water like a brave 
 and handsome craft as she is ! " 
 
 Now the island of Alphonso began to recede ; 
 the tall trees lessened to shrubs the great bluffs
 
 WE SAIL FOR EUROPE. 345 
 
 to little tufted rocks, while the arms of that old 
 familiar bay seemed to close and blend with the 
 shore, as we bore away to the northward before 
 a fresh, fair southern breeze. 
 
 Though I detested the island and all its fea- 
 tures, yet I could not but watch them with 
 interest, for it was a shore I should never see 
 again. 
 
 The evening was lovely, and the blue waves 
 of the ocean rolled in shining ripples which 
 seemed to flow along with us. 
 
 Hislop and I stood on the forecastle leaning 
 over the lee bow, and watching the white foam 
 bubbling under her forefoot, as the sharp cutwater 
 cleft the sea, till the rising spray began to sparkle 
 about the catheads ; then the brine-dripping an- 
 chors were fished up to the gunwale, and finally 
 hoisted on board. 
 
 Fresher came the breeze, and now, as the stud- 
 ding-sail booms were rigged out to port and 
 starboard, the ship flew through an ocean crim- 
 soned by the setting sun, and I heard Hislop, as 
 he sat on the bowsprit, singing in the lightness 
 of his heart, — 
 
 Gaily we go o'er the salt blue seas, 
 And the waves break white before us ; 
 
 Our canvas aloft swells out in the breeze ; 
 And home points the pennant o'er us.
 
 346 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVL 
 
 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. 
 
 My heart beat happily ; I was no longer a 
 lonely maroon, but on the high road to home and 
 Old England. 
 
 We had several days of the finest tropical 
 weather, and they passed unmarked by a greater 
 incident than seeing a shoal of dolphins, spark- 
 ling as they surged through the brine ; the silvery 
 flying-fish leap from one green watery slope to 
 another, while the dark crooked fin of the stealthy 
 shark glided as usual in the trough of the sea 
 between ; a piece of weedy drift-wood with 
 Mother Cary's chickens or albatrosses floating 
 near it, or perhaps at the horizon, the topsails of 
 a vessel hull-down, appearing for a time like 
 white or dusky specks, according to the position 
 of the sun. 
 
 The captain of the San Bdefonso perceiving 
 that Marc Hislop and I were great friends kindly 
 placed us in the same watch. 
 
 As for Antonio the Cubano, we never went 
 near him if we could avoid it. He was placed 
 in the cable tier, and for more complete security,
 
 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. 347 
 
 In the bilboes, which are iron shackles that con- 
 fine the feet. However, we daily heard from the 
 surgeon, and from Fra Anselmo, who was some- 
 what skilled in surgery, and who undertook his 
 cure bodily and mentally, that the wound under 
 the right armpit had proved slight, though the 
 lung had escaped narrowly, but that the other 
 in" the breast had penetrated the fleshy portion of 
 the heart, and was a very dangerous one. The 
 friar added, " that the Cubano was not one of 
 those men who are easily killed, and thus he 
 would recover rapidly." 
 
 We also heard that Antonio was well cared 
 for, as he had discovered one or two friends 
 among the crew, such as the seaman Benito 
 Ojeda, a most villainous-looking, beetle-browed, 
 and squat little Catalonian, who seemed to be 
 the worst character on board, and was engaged 
 in perpetual quarrels. 
 
 " As we approach land," said the friar, " it will 
 be necessary to have both these fellows well 
 watched." 
 
 " Why ? " asked Captain Estremera. 
 
 " Lest they plot an escape or mischief for 
 some of their companeros de viage." 
 
 Hislop gave me a quick glance as the old 
 Portuguese padre said this ; for, of all the per- 
 sons on board, we had the most reason to dread 
 this fettered fiend getting his hands and feet loose 
 again.
 
 348 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Thus, in our berth in the steerage, I was fre- 
 quently haunted by vi. ions of wreck and danger 
 • — of sharks opening iheir jaws to devour me — 
 of being thrown overboard — of being again ma 
 rooned on that wild and lonely island, where no 
 sound of life met the ear, save the charing of the 
 waves upon the shore, the hum of insects, and 
 the rustle of the falling leaves in the solitary 
 woods. 
 
 But chiefly Antonio was ever before me, like a 
 tormenting spirit or the monster-man of " Frank- 
 enstein." 
 
 I was ever engaged in fighting with him, or 
 escaping from him ; and so strong was this idea, 
 that I always kept by my side, at night, the 
 sword with which I had wounded him when he 
 attempted to cut me off before reaching Hislop's 
 boat. 
 
 Then I would lie awake for hours thinking of 
 the home to which the ship was bearing me, but 
 which I might be fated never to see, and watch- 
 ing from my berth the square patch of blue and 
 star-studded sky through the open hatchway, lis- 
 tening the while to the hum of the wind through 
 the mizzen rigging, the pattering of the long rows 
 of reef-points on the sails, and at times, when 
 looking up, I could see the little round trucks 
 that seemed to pierce the starry welkin. Then, 
 when about to drop asleep, I would start to in- 
 stant wakefulness, lest the feet of some one, com-
 
 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. 349 
 
 ing down the ladder close by, might be those of 
 Antonio — of the assassin escaped from the bil- 
 boes! 
 
 One evening Hislop and I were in the second 
 dog-watch ; we had just had our coffee below 
 with the captain, the old Dutch Governor of Sura- 
 baya, Fra Anselmo, and other passengers, and 
 had come on deck as four bells struck. 
 
 There was merely wind enough to keep the 
 canvas full aloft, and not a cloud was in the sky. 
 The sea around us had a strange tint like apple 
 green, that paled off into faint blue at the hori- 
 zon, and the stately Spanish ship, when the 
 wind came in puffs upon the beam, careened 
 gracefully under her cloud of canvas, between us 
 and the sky, as we walked to and fro aft the 
 mainmast. 
 
 Seated under an awning which was rigged 
 above the topgallant bulwarks aft, the passengers 
 were enjoying their cigars, the men were all in 
 groups about the deck forward, knotting, splicing, 
 and conversing. A gang of the copper-colored 
 Lascars were squatted on their hams near the 
 hawse-hole in the weather bow, all smoking 
 one hubble-bubble, which was made of a large 
 cocoa-nut, and which they passed from one dingy 
 moustachioed mouth to another in the most free- 
 and-easy way imaginable. 
 
 Each wore a dirty turban or fez ; their blue 
 tunics and brick-red trousers were girt at the 
 
 30
 
 350 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 waist by a tattered sash, in which the deadly and 
 double-edged Malay creese was stuck ; and this 
 costume gave them an aspect as picturesque as 
 the swarthy groups of muscular Spanish sea- 
 men, in their brightly-striped linen shirts, and 
 with their heads furnished with Barcelona hand- 
 kerchiefs, long scarlet caps, or twine nets to con- 
 fine the masses of their coal-black hair. 
 
 Suddenly there was a shout forward, and we 
 found that the squat little sailor, Benito Ojeda, 
 when engaged in raising the foretopm a st- stay- 
 sail out of the bowsprit netting, in which it is 
 usually stowed, had fallen overboard. Three 
 sharks, which had been following the vessel for 
 a week past, would soon have sealed his fate, 
 but fortunately he caught hold of one of the mar- 
 tingale back ropes, and holding on desperately, 
 swung above the spray that boiled under the 
 bows. 
 
 Hislop skilfully caught him in the bight of a 
 rope, and he was hauled in hand over hand, heels 
 foremost, looking alternately as white as a sheet 
 and as red as a boiled lobster. 
 
 " I don't think you've done the ship much ser- 
 vice, Master Hislop, in fishing that ere customer 
 aboard again," said Tom Lambourne, in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " Why so, Tom ? " asked the mate. 
 
 " Because he's the chum of that ugly Cu- 
 banny ; and a down-headad dog he is, that is al-
 
 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. 351 
 
 ways skulking fore-and-aft when off duty, whis- 
 pering to one, twisting cigarittys with another, 
 and brewing mischief among the whole crew. 
 
 Hislop looked round at the squat and forbid- 
 ding little Espanol, whose head, shoulders, and 
 general bulk were so great that he looked like a 
 big man cut off by the knees; but Benito turned 
 sullenly away, and, without a word of thanks to 
 his preserver, joined a gang who were hoisting 
 the flying jib. 
 
 By the association of ideas, this sail made 
 Hislop and me think of the spectral ship we had 
 seen when on the island of Alphonso, and which 
 had so terrified our men. 
 
 " I have not a doubt," said he, " that it was 
 but the shadow of this vessel — the San lldefonso 
 — we saw on that night. The captain permitted 
 me to examine the ship's log, and I found that 
 at the same hour she was running upon a wind, 
 and close hauled; that her cabin lamp was 
 broken by an accident, that the watch on deck 
 had just shaken out her jib, and by some acci- 
 dent let the jib-sheet fly, and that the mate 
 ordered the spanker to be hauled more aft, that 
 she might answer her helm better. Could we 
 have stronger proofs of what I then asserted, 
 that what we saw was but the dioptrical refrac- 
 tion of a vessel under canvas elsewhere ? " 
 
 " It was a startling episode," said I, though 
 his meaning was not very clear to me ; " thus we
 
 352 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 need not be surprised that foremast-men like 
 Tom Lambourne and others will maintain to the 
 end of their days that it was the Flying Dutch- 
 man they saw, and nothing else ! " 
 
 " Very likely ; but according to tradition, Van- 
 derdecken is seldom seen in these seas," replied 
 Hislop, laughing ; " he is always cruising in Ta- 
 ble Bay, or knocking about in the seas off the 
 Cape of Good Hope, as any old salt will readily 
 tell you. He may generally be known by his 
 carrying a press of sail, royals, sky-scrapers, and 
 every thing, when other craft can scarcely carry 
 steering canvas or double-reefed courses ; and he 
 always sends off a boat with letters for Amster- 
 dam, addressed to people who have been in their 
 graves for two hundred years or more. Some of 
 these letters are addressed to William II., Prince 
 of Orange (father of our William III.), who died 
 in 1660, and are offering him five thousand guild- 
 ers and as many Indian mohurs, payable at the 
 bank of Amsterdam, if he will grant them a par- 
 don." 
 
 " For what ? " I asked. 
 
 " Crimes committed on board. Other letters 
 are addressed by the crew to their relations, in 
 places that no longer exist, such as the Haarlem 
 gate and Cinghel-street ; and these letters are 
 alike dangerous to take or refuse." 
 
 " Why?" 
 
 " Because they bring mischief if left on board,
 
 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. 353 
 
 and if refused, a typhoon comes on and sinks 
 you." 
 
 " He is a pleasant craft to be overhauled by, 
 certainly ! " 
 
 " No one knows the origin of the legend," said 
 Hislop ; " some say she was a Dutch Indiaman, 
 returning laden with great wealth, when her voy- 
 age was arrested by dreadful acts of piracy and 
 . murder which were committed by her crew. To 
 punish them, Heaven sent on board a pestilence, 
 which reduced them to a small number of wasted 
 and worn spectres, who sailed from port to port 
 offering all their ill-gotten gold as the price of 
 rest, of shelter, of prayers for their sinful souls, 
 and burial for their shrunken bodies ; but they 
 can never die ; and thus from every haven and 
 harbor, from every shore and town, their dread- 
 ful aspect, and the unexplained plague which de- 
 voured, without destroying them, even as the vul- 
 ture preyed upon the vitals of Prometheus with- 
 out their being consumed, always procured their 
 expulsion, till finding they were shunned by all 
 the world, they were compelled at last to cruise 
 off Table Bay, the scene of their crimes, where 
 their spectre ship, always the precursor of a storm, 
 must haunt that sea until the day of doom ; as 
 Scott has it, — 
 
 " that phantom ship, whose form 
 
 Shoots like a meteor through the storm, 
 30*
 
 354 DICK. RODNEY. 
 
 When the dark scud comes driving hard, 
 And lowered is every topsail yard, 
 And canvas wove in earthly looms 
 No more to brave the storm presumes ; 
 Then, 'mid the war of sea and sky, 
 Top and top-gallant hoisted high, 
 Full spread and crowded every sail, 
 The Daemon Frigate braves the gale ; 
 And well the doomed spectators know 
 The harbinger of wreck and woe ! " 
 
 • 
 
 " I have often thought," continued Hislop, whose 
 memory was singularly retentive, " that the story 
 may have originated in the queer old nautical idea 
 of a downhill current, by which any kind of craft 
 that doubled Cape Bojadore, on the western coast 
 of Africa, could never return ; for such was the 
 fixed idea of all mariners prior to the voyage of 
 Bartolomeo Diaz, in 1486, and the discovery of 
 the Cape of Good Hope. For this downhill cur- 
 rent was supposed to run south from the equator ; 
 and hence ships, however close-hauled, might beat 
 and tack against it in vain ; for an adverse wind 
 blew forever in the same direction, till their spars 
 rotted, their sails were frittered into rags, and 
 their rigging wasted away — till their seams gaped 
 and opened, and they sank into the sea a worn- 
 out wreck." 
 
 With conversations such as these, combining 
 amusement with instruction, this intelligent 
 young sailor was wont to beguile our watches, 
 while the San Ildefonso sped on her homeward 
 track.
 
 THE HOMEWARD VOYAGE. 355 
 
 We recrossed the line, and each successive 
 morning I hailed the sun with fresh pleasure, as 
 we drew nearer the latitude of Europe ; but we 
 could still sniff the hot wind that came from the 
 deserts of Africa ; and, ere long, the more experi- 
 enced eyes on board began to discover to the east- 
 ward a blink in the sky, as that peculiar appear- 
 ance of the atmosphere which indicates the local- 
 ity of land is named by seamen.
 
 356 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIL 
 
 A MUTINY. 
 
 From time to time Lambourne made Hislop 
 and me rather uneasy, by expressing suspicions 
 of a collusion among the men forward. 
 
 The whispers of the treasure alleged to be in 
 possession of the old ex- Governor of Surabaya, 
 and the desire of Ojeda and one or two others to 
 save Antonio from the punishment that would 
 certainly overtake him, if we reached Teneriffe or 
 signalled a Spanish ship of war, formed an un- 
 pleasant conjunction of ideas. 
 
 We, the survivors of the crew of the poor Eu- 
 genie, knew that if any revolt broke out among 
 this mixed gang of dingy rascals, Spaniards, Cre- 
 oles, and Lascars, our fate would be sealed. We 
 were among the first who would assuredly be 
 knocked on the head. 
 
 There must be great truth in the maxim, that 
 " no human being ever came near another with- 
 out influencing them for good or for evil." 
 
 On board the San Bdefonso it would seem that 
 Antonio found all the materials for evil readv to 
 his hand, as more than half the crew were raga-
 
 A MUTINY. 357 
 
 muffins " engaged by the run," as the phrase is at 
 sea. Bat the surmises of Lambourne were much 
 too vague for us to give them any tangible form 
 as yet; and Antonio, our chief object of dread, 
 was still secure in the bilboes in the cable-tier. 
 
 He had nearly recovered from his wounds. I 
 saw him only once below, and, in his impotent 
 wrath, he ground his teeth and spat at me like a 
 baited polecat. 
 
 We saw nothing of the island of St. Mathew, 
 so the next land we expected to sight would be 
 the isles off the Cape de Verd ; but the wind con- 
 tinued to blow freshly and steadily from the west, 
 and as Jose" Estremera made no allowance for 
 current-sailing, the setting in of the sea carried us 
 nearer the coast of Africa than was either neces- 
 sary or desirable. 
 
 Thus one evening, we heard the cry of " Ti- 
 erra ! " from the look-out man in the crow's nest, 
 and, soon after, a low blue and wavy streak on 
 the lee-bow was declared to be the coast of 
 Africa. 
 
 Though sea and sky were reddened by the set- 
 ting sun, the rising coast wore a tint of the deep- 
 est indigo. It seemed rather flat and low ; but, 
 as we crept in shore, its features changed and 
 became more broken. Thickets of strange trees 
 were discernible along the sea-margin, and then 
 mountains rose in the distant background, with 
 the sunset lingering in gold on their summits.
 
 358 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Night fell, and the ship's head was kept away 
 a few points more to the west ; and when day 
 broke we were all on deck betimes to greet the 
 land. 
 
 We found the ship off Poison Island, which 
 lies far northward of Sierra Leone, and adjoins 
 the territory of the Felletahs. Many of the na- 
 tives came off in their carved and painted canoes 
 (which were propelled by paddles shaped like 
 shovels), offering fruit, vegetables, and bananas 
 for sale ; and these Africans would courageously 
 shoot their light boats right across the forefoot of 
 the ship while still under way. 
 
 At last the mainyard was backed for a few 
 minutes, while Jos£ Estremera bought the entire 
 contents of a large canoe for a few empty bottles, 
 some iron rings, and the links of an old chain. 
 
 Some of these craft were rowed by Felletah 
 women, and I could perceive that though deeply 
 tanned by the sun, their faces were pleasant and 
 oval, their noses aquiline, and their hair black 
 and glossy. 
 
 All these tawny rowers wore striped cloth tu- 
 nics, which reached to their ankles, and had their 
 necks and arms loaded with beads of glass or 
 coral, and many of them had Spanish dollars at- 
 tached to their ear-rings. 
 
 A gun was fired as a warning for all boats to 
 keep off, lest some accident might ensue ; and it 
 was amusing to see the consternation of the poor
 
 A MUTINY. 359 
 
 Felletahs, and with what speed they paddled 
 away toward the shore. 
 
 Orders were now issued to lay the ship's head 
 nearer the wind for the Cape de Verd, and to 
 bend the cable to the working anchor, that it 
 might be ready for any emergency ; and these 
 directions had the unexpected effect of bringing 
 matters to a crisis between our captain and the 
 friends of Antonio. 
 
 They assembled in sullen groups about the 
 deck, and clustered out upon the booms, where 
 they muttered and whispered, and frequently 
 pointed to the shore and to the native boats that 
 were paddling into the sandy coves and wooded 
 creeks. 
 
 Tom Lambourne, whom Captain Estremera 
 soon discovered to be one of the best seamen on 
 board, had gone below, with one or two more, to 
 rouse the cable out of the tier, when, to his sur- 
 prise, he found the place filled with Spanish sail- 
 ors and Lascars, all talking at once, and in full 
 conference with the fettered Cubana ! 
 
 He was roughly ordered to sheer off and let 
 the cable lie, while one or two drew their knives 
 in a threatening manner. 
 
 " They are up to something at last ! " said he 
 to Carlton ; " so it is high time for the captain 
 and his cabin passengers to look out for a squall, 
 or that old Dutchman's dollars may change hand? 
 at the capstan-head before night."
 
 360 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Hislop and I had dined with the captain, and 
 were lingering over some wine of Alicant, fruit, 
 and cigars, listening to a dispute about some very 
 irrelevant matter between the old Governor of 
 Surabaya and Fra Anselmo, when the ship's 
 steward came to say that a sailor wished to speak 
 with us in haste. 
 
 Tom was admitted, and bluntly stated at once 
 his conviction that a plot had been laid by An- 
 tonio and others to seize the ship and run her 
 ashore. If such were not their intentions, why 
 had they refused to let him bend the cable to the 
 working-anchor ? 
 
 Hislop hurriedly repeated Tom's statement in 
 Spanish, adding thereto his own ideas and sus- 
 picions on the subject. 
 
 The old priest and the rich Dutchman became 
 seriously alarmed ; while the olive visage of Cap- 
 tain Estremera grew dark as night with anger. 
 
 " Ave Maria ! " said the priest, closing his snuff- 
 box, and putting it hastily in his pocket. 
 
 At the same time the Dutch Governor started 
 up to look for his sword. 
 
 "Seize my ship! — A mutiny! — What can 
 their object be ? " stammered the captain. 
 
 " With some," replied Hislop, " merely to have 
 a buccaneering ramble ashore among the Felle- 
 tahs — with others, to marry and settle for a time ; 
 but with all, to have a scene of plunder and de- 
 vastation, to aid in the escape of Antonio, and to 
 murder his English shipmates "
 
 A MUTINY. 361 
 
 At first the captain was inclined to doubt the 
 whole affair ; but a stranrre noise was now heard 
 in the forepart of the ship, and Manuel Gautier, 
 the chief mate, came hurriedly down to report 
 that some of the men had taken the iron balls 
 from the shot-rack at the main-hatchway, and 
 were rolling them about the deck ; and that, when 
 qe remonstrated' with Benito Ojedo, there was a 
 <ush made aft, with cries of " Throw him over- 
 board ! " 
 
 On hearing this sudden confirmation of Tom's 
 statement, Estremera started from the table, and 
 buckled on a cutlass that hung on the after-bulk- 
 head ; and then, with the brevity, but characteris- 
 tic taciturnity of a Spaniard, he proceeded to act 
 with promptitude and determination, and in- 
 stantly breaking open a case of ball-cartridges, 
 began to distribute them. 
 
 " If so be there is a breeze on board, I'll make 
 that Antonio dance Old Nick's hornpipe before 
 it is over ! " said Tom Lambourne, angrily. 
 
 " Fortunately, all the ship's muskets are be- 
 low, I believe ? " remarked Hislop. 
 
 " Si, senor. Twenty stand are on a rack in 
 the steerage," replied Estremera. " Santos ! gen- 
 tlemen, we must work hard. Get all those arms 
 into the cabin and load them. We have not a 
 moment to lose ! " 
 
 " Run on deck, Tom ; they don't know that 
 we are alarmed yet. Order all the Eugenie's 
 
 31
 
 362 DICK KODNET. 
 
 men, all others you can depend on, aft. I fear 
 ours are the only lads this poor Spanish skipper 
 can rely on now!" 
 
 In less than jive minutes we had all the mus- 
 kets conveyed from the rack in the steerage into 
 the cabin. We provided ourselves with hall-car- 
 tridges ; and then Hislop and I, with Manuel 
 Gautier, the mate ; the old Dutch governor, the 
 captain, and even Fra Anselmo, in his long black 
 soutan (quoting " that the end justified the 
 means ") proceeded with all speed to load and cap 
 the fire-arms. 
 
 Meanwhile, the rolling of the loose shot upon 
 the deck overhead still continued, and to that 
 noise was now added the hallooing of the Spanish 
 crew and the screaming of the Lascars, as they 
 proceeded together from one act of open insub- 
 ordination and outrage to another.
 
 SEQUEL TO THE MUTINY. 363 
 
 CHAPTER XL VIII. 
 
 SEQUEL TO THE MUTINY. 
 
 There were on board the San Ildefonso ten 
 survivors of the Eugenie, including myself ; and 
 fortunately for the ship at this crisis, one of us, 
 Francis Probart, the carpenter, was at the wheel, 
 and remained steadily at his post during all that 
 ensued ; for had the steering been relinquished 
 for a moment, the vessel would have broached to, 
 and her masts must have gone overboard. 
 
 The captain, with his three mates, his surgeon, 
 and cabin passengers, and our men, made up 
 twenty in all ; so we prepared at once for defen- 
 sive operations. 
 
 The wild hallooing increased with the thunder- 
 ing of the iron shot overhead, as they were bowled 
 aft along the quarter-deck, smashing the grated 
 stern seats, and rebounding against the taffrail, 
 over which some of them tumbled into the sea. 
 
 u "We're all here, sir, — Ned Carlton, Jack the 
 cook, Warren, Chute, and even boy Bill ; but we 
 want arms," cried Tom Lambourne down the 
 skylight. 
 
 " On deck, and at them ! " said Hislop ; and we
 
 364 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 rushed up the cabin stair, supplied each with two 
 loaded muskets to arm our friends above. 
 
 At this moment the ship was running with a 
 fine breeze, which was pretty well aft. She had 
 several studding-sails set ; and the extremely wide 
 spread of her white canvas, which caught the 
 sea-breeze one way, and the full yellow blaze of 
 an African sunset the other, made me think — 
 but the idea only flashed on me and was gone 
 instantly — that if a tropical squall came on, 
 while in contention with our own crew, our fate 
 would soon be sealed by the elements. 
 
 She had every thing set, even to little triangu- 
 lar scrapers, rigged to a skysail pole above her 
 royals; and all this cloud of canvas was glitler- 
 ing in the red and yellow light reflected from the 
 sun and clouds. 
 
 But the evening was lovely ; the waves were 
 in reality shining in liquid light on the western 
 quarter of the ocean, as the sun, " blood-red," to 
 use a hackneyed term, dipping down past a suc- 
 cession of straight and horizontal crimson bars, 
 sank slowly beyond what appeared to be the 
 flaming edge of a watery world. 
 
 But we had no time for poetry, or for survey- 
 ing the scene around us. That which was about 
 to ensue within the bulwarks of the San Ilde- 
 fonso was impressive and terrible enough ! 
 
 " Hand us the muskets, gentlemen," said Ned 
 Carlton, as we rushed up the companion ladder
 
 SEQUEL TO THE MUTINY. 365 
 
 " Hurrah for the tools and the men to use 
 them ! " added Tom Lambourne, quoting some 
 proverb, as the arms were promptly distributed ; 
 and to the number of twenty we formed a line 
 across the quarter-deck, a little way aft the mizzen- 
 mast. 
 
 This was achieved just in time, for with loud 
 yells of " Perros y ladrones ! '' (dogs and thieves !) 
 " Muera Jose" Estremera ! Mueran los Inglesos ! " 
 a gang of yellow-visaged Spaniards armed with 
 knives and handspikes, and yellower Lascars 
 with their terrible creeses, rushed aft in two par- 
 ties, one on the weather side of the ship, and an- 
 other on her lee ; but, on being suddenly con- 
 fronted by the levelled barrels of twenty muskets, 
 they paused and wavered, though continuing to 
 shout and brandish their weapons. 
 
 " Here goes for a shot at Antonio ! " said Lam- 
 bourne, taking a deliberate aim at that person ; 
 but Fra Anselmo laid a hand on his arm, and 
 besought him to pause. 
 
 " Don't spoil him outright for hanging," said 
 Hislop ; " I would rather have him with a rope 
 at his neck, and all bearing a hand to run him 
 up to the foreyard-arm, than shot dead like a spar- 
 row." 
 
 " Come on," shouted our men ; " come on, 
 muzzle to muzzle ! None of your lubberly stand- 
 off work ! " 
 
 " Fire at their legs, and simply disable as many 
 
 31*
 
 366 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 of them as possible, but spare life," said Fra An- 
 selmo, in broken English. 
 
 " Fire at their heads, kill as many as possible, 
 and spare none, though you should leave the ship 
 unmanned ! " said Estremera, in Spanish. 
 
 Lambert fired ! 
 
 He missed ; and the ball, after shaving the side 
 of the long-boat amidships, whistled into the sea 
 far ahead, and Antonio uttered a fierce and de- 
 risive laugh, while the Lascars shrunk back with 
 fear. 
 
 The enemy had not a single missile, for, most 
 fortunately, all the loose shot for the ship's guns 
 had been rolled aft, and lay in our rear. 
 
 While both parties paused, one irresolute to 
 advance, the other to pour in their volley, I — 
 being an old Eton bowler — resolved to make a 
 wicket of the Cubano's legs. I took up a nine- 
 pound shot, which lay with a score of others in 
 the lee scuppers, and hurled it at him with all my 
 strength. 
 
 He leaped aside nimbly, and escaped, while the 
 shot bowled harmlessly along the deck. He 
 rushed after it, doubtless with the intention of re- 
 turning it to me with compound interest ; but 
 fortunately for me, at that moment Hislop, who 
 had lost all patience, and was no doubt smart- 
 ing under the memory of his wounds and of 
 Antonio's past outrages, cried, — 
 
 " Fire a volley and fall on them, my lads, with 
 the butt ends of your muskets ! "
 
 SEQUEL TO THE MUTINY. 367 
 
 It might have been better policy, considering 
 the superior number of the mutineers, for ten of 
 us to have fired, and ten to have reserved their 
 fire until the former reloaded ; but Hislop's order 
 was promptly responded to. 
 
 We all poured in a confused volley, and then 
 rushed on, in the smoke, with clubbed muskets 
 and a hearty English cheer. 
 
 There was a brief struggle, during which our 
 men laid about them mercilessly, and knocked 
 over the Spaniards like nine-pins ; while I en- 
 countered one active and wiry old villain, the tin- 
 dal of the Lascars, who rushed on me with his 
 creese in his right hand, his body doubled, and his 
 head bent down. 
 
 Charging him breast-high, the muzzle of my 
 piece came crash upon the crown of his caput, 
 which a scarlet fez failed to protect, and so I 
 tumbled him against one of the brass nines to 
 leeward. 
 
 On seeing this the whole of the Lascars, in- 
 stead of coming to his rescue, fled down the fore- 
 hatchway. 
 
 I gave the tindal another tap on the head to 
 enforce quietness, and took away his creese. 
 
 " Help me to secure this rascal," cried I to our 
 men ; " he will be a surety for the other Lascars." 
 
 " I have him, sir, hard and fast, as if clenched 
 in the dry nippers of a Jamaica land-crab," said 
 Tom Lambourne ; and, in a few seconds, he had
 
 368 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 the old copper-colored rogue seized by the hands 
 and feet to one of the aftmost guns. 
 
 Then we rushed forward to share in the scuffle, 
 which was soon ended ; for just as Antonio, on 
 seeing the turn matters had taken by the force of 
 our superior arms, was about to spring overboard, 
 Hislop struck him senseless by a blow from the 
 butt-end of his musket, and flung him, like a 
 bale of wool, upon the top of the Lascars, who 
 crowded about the bottom of the fore-hatchway 
 ladder. 
 
 " Ha, porpoise-face ! " said he, fiercely, " I have 
 brought you up with a round turn at last ! " 
 
 One or two Spaniards now fled up the fore- 
 rigging, whence they implored us not to shoot 
 them ; but the squat marinero, Benito Ojeda, and 
 all the rest, were driven down the fore-hatch, 
 where they crowded at the foot of the ladder, 
 treading the Lascars under foot, growling and 
 menacing us with their knives and creeses, and 
 threatening to set fire to the ship, — a threat 
 which they were quite capable of fulfilling. 
 
 On the deck lay one Lascar dead, and two 
 Lascars and one Spaniard who were wounded 
 in the legs. In his death agony the first had 
 driven three inches of his sharp creese into the 
 deck, when the blade broke off. 
 
 Probart was still at the wheel, steering the ship 
 so steadily that not a cloth shivered aloft ; but 
 night was coming on, and as she was covered
 
 SEQUEL TO THE MUTINY. 369 
 
 with canvas, to reduce it was necessary, but first 
 the mutinous crew must be crushed. To Probart, 
 as a spectator, the conflict must have presented 
 an exciting scene ; for, had we been beaten, his 
 fate as an Englishman would soon have beei 
 sealed. 
 
 Jose Estremera, who had long been captaii 
 of a Spanish slaver, was inexorable ! 
 
 " Manuel Gautier," cried he to the chief mate, 
 " cast loose that gun in the weather-bow ! " 
 
 Manuel, a smart and handsome young fellow, 
 with the surgeon and two others, soon cast loose 
 the lashings of the gun, and in a twinkling it was 
 loaded, not with round shot, but with some thirty 
 or forty ball cartridges. 
 
 " Now, forward with it to the coaming of the 
 ■ hatchway," ordered the captain. 
 
 " But the bottom of the ship ? " urged Gautier. 
 
 " Blow these rascals through it ! " was the 
 stern answer. 
 
 " Madre de Dios and all the saints keep us ! " 
 implored Fra Anselmo, crossing himself; " senor, 
 you do not mean to destroy them thus ? " 
 
 " Yes — like rats, padre mio," replied the Span- 
 ish captain. " Depress the muzzle, hombres — 
 up with the breech ; clap a handspike under it, 
 Gautier. Ready the fuse — a lucifer match or 
 any thing will do." 
 
 " Miserecordia — O miserecordia ! n cried one 
 fellow, looking up the hatchway with hands
 
 370 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 clasped, for the aspect of the round muzzle of the 
 depressed cannon filled them all with terror, and 
 made the miserable Lascars scream like children. 
 
 " Have mercy on us, senores ! " howled the 
 Spaniards in chorus, again and again. 
 
 " And what then ? " asked Manuel Gautier, 
 who was preparing a gun-match, as coolly as he 
 might have made a paper cigarito. 
 
 " We shall return to our duty." 
 
 " Oh ! no doubt, when we have got the weather 
 gauge of you ; but we mean to keep it you cow- 
 ardly picaroon!" said Estremera. " Up yet with 
 the breech of the gun — cover as many of the 
 wretches as you can." 
 
 " For pity's sake, senor," said Fra Anselmo, 
 laying one hand on the captain's arm and the 
 other on the trunnion of the brass cannon. 
 
 On looking down the hatchway, at that moment, 
 my heart sickened when I beheld so many cowards 
 crouching in a cold sweat beneath ; so many up- 
 lifted hands ; so many olive faces turning livid 
 with terror ; so many dark and expressive eyes, 
 glaring upward to one point, — the muzzle of the 
 brass gun, which was to belch down death and 
 mutilation among them ; but there too lay Anto- 
 nio el Cubano, covered with blood, and gazing 
 at us with something like the smile of a mocking 
 fiend in his countenance. 
 
 " We are ready to surrender, senores," said 
 Benito Ojeda ; " so, if you fire, our blood be upon
 
 SEQUEL TO THE MUTINY. 371 
 
 your heads, and on that of El Cubano, who lured 
 us into mischief! " 
 
 Their united cries for mercy became so appall- 
 ing, that, though they would have yielded no 
 mercy to us had the circumstances of the case 
 been reversed, Estremera consented to withdraw 
 the cannon on three conditions : 
 
 First, that they would surrender every thing 
 they possessed in the shape of a weapon. 
 
 Second, that they would handcuff and deliver 
 up all their ringleaders. 
 
 Third, that they would swear to be faithful to 
 him and his mates for the remainder of the voy- 
 age. 
 
 To these offers they agreed, and about forty 
 Albacete knives and creeses were thrown upon 
 deck. 
 
 Hislop and I selected one or two as trophies 
 of our victory, but Manuel Gautier tossed all the 
 rest overboard. 
 
 Ten pairs of handcuffs were then thrown down. 
 On this a tremendous row ensued among the 
 culprits, who were only quelled on seeing the 
 muzzle of the brass nine appear again ; and in a 
 few minutes Antonio, Ojeda, and eight others 
 were forced up the hatchway, and dragged aft 
 to the quarter-deck. 
 
 The mutineers then came sullenly up, and the 
 number of cuts and bruises about them showed 
 how severely they had been handled.
 
 372 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 On their knees, before Fra Anselmo, the Span- 
 iards made a solemn promise of peaceful and 
 good behavior for the future ; as for the Lascars, 
 it was deemed advisable to keep their tindal as a 
 hostage for their conduct in time to come. 
 
 When I went aft I found him lying prostrate 
 over the gun to which he was bound, incapable 
 of speech, and literally foaming at the mouth 
 with impotent rage. 
 
 Tom Lambourne laughed, and said, — 
 
 " Master Rodney, always tie the hands of a 
 Lascar, if you wish to make him hold his 
 tongue." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Because they are like a Chinese ; they can 
 never speak when their hands are tied. They can 
 only sputter and choke like this old mountebank 
 here." 
 
 Those who returned to their duty received ban- 
 dages, wadding, &c, for their cuts and bruises, 
 and even a tot of wine each, in token of amity. 
 The three wounded men were placed under the 
 care of the surgeon, and the dead Lascar was 
 buried by his countrymen, who cast him over to 
 leeward, when a couple of sharks soon took care 
 of him ; for we saw a black crooked fin on one 
 side, and the white belly of a second monster on 
 the other, as he turned up open-mouthed. 
 
 Then the body vanished in a whirlpool, with a 
 downward jerk that made our hearts shudder !
 
 SEQUEL TO THE MUTINY. 373 
 
 The prisoners were ropes-ended without mercy 
 by Manuel Gautier and the other two mates ; 
 they were also repeatedly drenched by buckets of 
 salt water, and we stood by with cocked muskets 
 until the whole — ten Spaniards and one Lascar 
 — were secured in the cable tier, where an armed 
 sentinel watched them day and night during the 
 remainder of the voyage, a duty that frequently 
 came to my turn, as I was a kind of waister on 
 board, and was seldom sent aloft. 
 
 So ended this exciting and most deplorable 
 affair, which might have proved the destruction 
 of the ship and of every well-disposed person on 
 board. 
 
 The twilight was passing with tropical rapid- 
 ity, and when all was over, the hands were sent 
 aloft to reduce the canvas. 
 
 " Stand by the studdingsail-halyards," shouted 
 Manuel Gautier, in his own language. These 
 <*ails were soon taken in, and the lower spars 
 boom-ended alongside, while the royals and sky- 
 sails were sent on deck, the loose shot were re- 
 placed in the rack round the coaming of the main- 
 hatch, all loose ropes were tightly belayed or 
 coiled away ; and now, as the freshening breeze 
 came more and more aft, the stately Spanish 
 merchant ship bade good-night to the shores of 
 Poison Island, and bore away through the silent 
 sea toward the Cape de Verd. 
 
 32
 
 374 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 THE COAST OF AFRICA. 
 
 All these scenes made a terrible impression 
 upon me. It seemed now indeed that the boy- 
 ish " dream of life was at an end, and that its ac- 
 tion had begun." 
 
 The whole affair, in all its details, furnished am- 
 ple scope for conversation in the cabin for some 
 time after ; and too well we knew what our fate 
 would have been, but for the promptitude of Es- 
 tremera, and the courage of Marc Hislop and his 
 Englishmen. 
 
 To each of the latter, the Dutch governor of 
 Surabaya, grateful for his preservation from a 
 cruel death, gave a gold doubloon, and Jose" 
 Estremera added five dollars per man. 
 
 To Hislop and me he presented each a pair of 
 handsome brass-barrelled Spanish pistols, and 
 from the governor we received each a valuable 
 diamond ring ; but Marc was quite the lion of 
 the cabin passengers during the remainder of the 
 voyage. 
 
 Fra Anselmo was greatly surprised by the ex- 
 tent of his scholarship and varied knowledge,
 
 THE COAST OP AFRICA. 375 
 
 which far exceeded the acquirements of most 
 young seamen ; but Hislop, who was a modest 
 fellow, considered them as quite a matter of 
 course, education being so generally diffused in 
 his country. 
 
 Among our men, when any point was in dis- 
 pute, it was common to hear them say, — 
 
 " Ask Master Hislop, he knows every thing." 
 
 " Of course he does," added Tattooed Tom, 
 one day ; " blowed if I didn't hear him beat that 
 Portuguese friar all to nothing at talking in three 
 different lingoes the other afternoon." 
 
 " Indeed, Tom, I am very far from knowing 
 every thing," answered Hislop ; " I am only a 
 hard-working seaman like yourself; but I have 
 picked up some knowledge of different matters. 
 You must know many a thing that I don't know, 
 for even the greatest men in the world can only 
 learn a part of what can be known, and thus, at 
 times, are as ignorant as those poor Lascars. 
 But I have to thank my good mother at home, in 
 old Scotland, for sparing nothing on me when a 
 boy, and since then 1 have made myself, — as any 
 man, indeed, who has the will may do." 
 
 And it seemed to me that there was much 
 sound sense in what the Scotchman said. 
 
 On the morning, after the extinction of the 
 mutiny, we came to anchor a league to the north- 
 ward of Warrang, for what reason I know not 
 unless it was that the wind blew hard and the 
 land was on our lee.
 
 376 DICK RODNEY 
 
 It was my trick at the helm (as the two houra 
 usually allotted to that duty are named), and 
 when, for the purpose of stopping the ship's way, 
 and bringing her head to the wind, and making 
 the canvas shake prior to furling up, Manuel 
 Gautier sang out in Spanish, — 
 
 " Timonero, luff and touch her ! " I did not un- 
 derstand him, and nearly had the wheel twitched 
 out of my hands. 
 
 The anchor was let go, and the great ship 
 swung round with her head to the wind, which 
 blew from the westward, and with her carved 
 and painted stern to the green and wooded isle 
 of Warrang, which is the most northerly of those 
 that compose the archipelago of the Bissagos, a 
 group of twenty little isles, lying near the mouth 
 of the Rio Grande, in "West Africa. 
 
 Banks of mud and sand render all these isles 
 dangerous on the seaward. With the excep- 
 tion of Warrang, they are all inhabited by a 
 wild and robust race of savages called the Bija- 
 guas, who are of great stature, and are warlike 
 and intrepid. 
 
 Though thirty miles in length, Warrang, with 
 all its fertility, is destitute of inhabitants, being 
 totally without springs or water. 
 
 While at anchor, we saw a dark savage, in a 
 canoe, floundering about in the apple-green shoal 
 water that lay between us and the land. With- 
 out fear he paddled close to the ship, and on
 
 THE COAST OF AFRICA 377 
 
 signs being made that he might come on board, 
 he moored his canoe under the mizzen chains, and 
 sprang up the side with ease and confidence. 
 
 He was a tall and powerfully made man, with 
 features of the lowest African type, and close 
 curly wool on his head, but without a vestige of 
 clothing, unless a string of beads were to be con- 
 sidered as such, and a little paint like ochre in 
 color. 
 
 He pointed to the sea and then to his parched 
 mouth*, implying that he had been fishing, and 
 was thirsty. 
 
 Some water was brought from the scuttle-butt ; 
 he drank of it greedily, and then patted his breast 
 in token of gratitude. 
 
 The tattooing on Lambourne's face particu- 
 larly attracted his attention, and seemed to excite 
 his admiration ; but poor Tom, with whom this 
 unwished for decoration was a tender point, had 
 no desire to fraternize with our sable visitor, and 
 walking forward he leant against one of the wind- 
 lass bitts and smoked his pipe sulkily. 
 
 The Bijagua now offered us his fish, which were 
 strung upon a green withe, and Estremera pre- 
 sented him in return a gaudy old muleteer's 
 jacket, which, being covered with brass buttons 
 and red braid, would thus, he conceived, please 
 the eye of a savage. 
 
 The Bijagua turned it round and viewed it in 
 various ways, as if it puzzled him, upon which 
 
 32*
 
 378 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 Hislop showed him how to put it on, and then 
 attempted to persuade him to run his arms 
 through the sleeves. 
 
 What idea occurred to the savage I know 
 not ; whether he conceived himself insulted, or 
 that his personal liberty was in danger, but ut- 
 tering a yell, he overthrew both Hislop and Estre- 
 mera, and springing down the ship's side with 
 the agility of a monkey, reached his canoe, and 
 in half a minute was clear of the San lldefonso 
 and paddling vigorously in-shore. 
 
 " This reminds me," said Hislop, when he had 
 gathered himself up and regained his breath, " of 
 an old voyager of whom I once read. About a 
 hundred years ago, a Captain Weddel, who com- 
 manded the ship Royal Charles, was at anchor 
 in Augustine Bay, off the coast of Madagascar, 
 and there he insisted on clothing a savage in a 
 complete suit of clothes, including a bob-wig and 
 three-cornered hat. 
 
 " ' They will keep you warm,' said the captain. 
 
 " ' But I am warm enough without them,' re- 
 plied the savage, writhing and perspiring in attire 
 so unusual to him. 
 
 " ' They will defend your skin.' 
 
 " The savage laughed scornfully, saying, — 
 
 " ' With my smallest arrow I can pierce them 
 through and through.' 
 
 " He was in an agony of fear, and felt as it 
 fettered with irons, and entreated so earnestly to
 
 THE COAST OF AFRICA. 379 
 
 be set on shore, that his wish was granted. The 
 moment his foot was on the land, with every 
 expression of rage and fury, he was seen to cast 
 his hat one way, the wig another. Then he rent 
 the coat and shirt from his back, the breeches 
 soon followed, and he spat and danced upon 
 them, in mingled contempt for attire, and joy that 
 he was once more free. Our friend, the Bijagua, 
 seems certainly to have shared his spirit and 
 ideas." 
 
 In the evening, on the wind veering round and 
 becoming more southerly, we prepared again for 
 sea, and Hislop was directed to weigh the an- 
 chor, by underrunning the cable in the longboat, 
 as the tide had ebbed, and we were in exceed- 
 ingly shallow water, which was covered with 
 green and slimy stuff, probably the inland debris 
 of the Rio Grande. 
 
 This mode of weighing our Scotch mate per- 
 formed skilfully, by placing the chain cable over 
 the davit-head of the boat, and underrunning it 
 till the anchor was apeak, when it was tripped 
 by means of a buoy-rope. 
 
 There was a great length of cable out, for the 
 water was so low that the ship could not have 
 been hove to the anchor without danger. 
 
 " We'll make sailors of these Spanish lubbers 
 before this voyage is over," I heard Lambourne 
 say to Hislop, as they scrambled on board, and 
 then the boat was hoisted in.
 
 380 DICK RODNEf. 
 
 The evening sun was burning hot, and shed a 
 red glare upon the green slime of the shallow 
 sea, till it seemed to swelter in its heat, emitting 
 an oppressive miasma that would have been 
 deadly had we lingered long there. 
 
 The strange trees that fringed the shore were 
 seen to toss their great cabbage-like leaves on the 
 rising wind ; but, as we speedily receded from 
 the coast, they gradually lessened to the size of 
 shrubs, and from shrubs to the size of little weeds, 
 until they finally disappeared, when Warrang 
 melted into the waves astern, as the San Ilde- 
 fonso soon made a good offing and bore away 
 to sea. 
 
 Our prisoners were now very effectually sub- 
 dued. 
 
 More heavily ironed than the rest, Antonio sat 
 ever silent and sullen, with his black-bearded 
 chin sunk upon his breast ; and frequently when 
 it came to my turn to be posted as sentinal over 
 him and the others in the cable tier, I could see, 
 by the dim light of the horn lantern, which 
 swung from the beam above (serving chiefly " to 
 make the darkness visible "), his keen, fierce eyes 
 fixed on me with a rattlesnake glare, which 
 seemed to siy, if a glance of hate and spite could 
 kill, he would slay me. 
 
 After he became used to having his hands 
 fettered, the old tindal of the Lascars was by far 
 the most lively and conversable of the ding)
 
 THE COAST OF AFRICA. 381 
 
 gang, who all sat in a row, with their feet locked 
 in the iron bilboes. 
 
 One day I gave this old fellow some wine and 
 water, when he was almost sinking amid the 
 stifling atmosphere of the den in which he was 
 confined. 
 
 His gratitude was unbounded, and in a burst 
 of confidence — which brought upon him the mal- 
 edictions of the rest — he informed me in bro- 
 ken English (of which he had picked up a smat- 
 tering during a voyage in one of our old India- 
 men), that had the mutiny been successful, every 
 one of us would have been made to walk the 
 plank to leeward, and then the ship was to have 
 been run ashore in some convenient creek, dis- 
 masted there, to conceal her from the seaward, 
 and then to be completely plundered; — on the 
 whole, unfolding a strange and incomprehensible 
 project. 
 
 When he concluded, I smiled significantly, 
 and tapped the butt of my loaded musket, as 
 much as to say, — 
 
 " It is all very well, old boy, but we weathered 
 you fairly ! " 
 
 As we approached the Cape de Verd, Estre- 
 mera issued strict orders that no man was to sleep 
 on deck at night, for fear of moon blindness — an 
 ailment not uncommon in the tropics. An old 
 voyager, Sir Richard Hawkins, relates that the 
 moon's rays off the African coast have a singu-
 
 382 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 larly pernicious effect upon the human body, and 
 that " he knew a person who, sleeping one night 
 in his cabin on the coast of Guinea, with the 
 moon shining upon him, had such a violent pain 
 burning in his shoulder, that for above twenty 
 hours he was like a madman, and was not freed 
 from it at last without a great many applications 
 and abundance of suffering ; " though what this 
 ailment was, would now greatly puzzle one to 
 discover. 
 
 After a delightful run, on one of the last days 
 of autumn, we sighted the Cape de Verd and the 
 Isle of Goree. 
 
 Those rose on our starboard bow, rapidly and 
 abruptly, for the ship was running before the 
 wind at the rate of nine knots an hour, with all 
 her studding-sails rigged out. 
 
 .It was about dawn when land was first dis- 
 covered from aloft, and by midday the Isle of 
 Goree bore about three miles off on our starboard 
 beam. 
 
 The wind now fell light, and, as the ship crept 
 along, we had a good opportunity for observing 
 the coast by our telescopes. 
 
 Fra Anselmo, who had once resided there as 
 a missionary, drew my attention to the sea of 
 floating weeds, called the sargasso, through which 
 we were sailing, — weeds which are so brilliant 
 and so green as to impart a peculiar hue to the 
 water, and thereby gave the promontory its name, 
 — the Cape de Verd.
 
 THE COAST OF AFRICA. 3S3 
 
 Along the shore we could see groves of the 
 orange, the lemon, the pomegranate, and the cit- 
 ron tree, with their ripe golden fruit studding the 
 green foliage like golden balls. 
 
 On the almost inaccessible isle of Goree, Fra 
 Anselmo showed to us the old castle of St. Mi- 
 chael, which was built by the Dutch in 1617, and 
 stormed forty-six years after by the English, un- 
 der Admiral Holmes. In 1664 it was retaken by 
 Adrian de Ruyter, after a little band of sixty 
 British soldiers, under a Scotsman, named Sir 
 George Abercrombie, made a defence so pro- 
 tracted and so resolute, that they only surren- 
 dered after the walls were battered to ruin, and 
 all their ammunition was expended. 
 
 It was not without deep interest that we viewed 
 these scenes and heard those forgotten fragments 
 of our past history, when so far from old Eng- 
 land, and while sailing along a shore so wild and 
 vast as Africa. 
 
 We used soundings while skirting the dangei- 
 ous shoal known as Compan's Bank, over which 
 it is alleged a famous buccaneer, named Nicho- 
 las Compan, sailed his galley ; and by sunset the 
 Cape de Verd was far astern, and nothing but 
 the blue sea around us again ; for now that won- 
 drous shore receded eastward, far away toward 
 the mouth o ' the Senegal.
 
 3S4 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 SANTA CRUZ. 
 
 A few days after crossing the tropic of Cancer, 
 on a lovely afternoon, we again saw the Peak of 
 Teneriffe lighted up by the western sunshine, 
 and rising like a cone of red flame from the blue 
 sea. 
 
 The clouds seemed to rise with it, and ere long 
 we saw its base spreading out beneath them. 
 
 " Tennyreef again ! " I heard old Tom Lam- 
 bourne muttering, as he leaned over the lee bow 
 with a short pipe in his mouth ; " Dash my wig! 
 I have had a spell enough of Tennyreef before 
 this ! " 
 
 Manuel Gautier and Hislop now came with a 
 party of seamen to get the anchors off the fore- 
 castle to her bows. This was no light task, the 
 reader may be assured, for they were each about 
 forty-five hundred weight ; and now the ponder- 
 ous cables rattled along the deck as they were 
 bent to the iron rings. 
 
 We approached this singular island from a point 
 that was new to me ; but still its great and most 
 familiar features were the same as when I first 
 saw them from the deck of the Eugenie.
 
 SANTA CRUZ. 385 
 
 Estremera now reminded us that, when at Ten- 
 eriffe, we should not fail to visit the two great 
 sights of the island — the Valley of the Diamond 
 and the old Dragon-tree of Caora. 
 
 The wind was fresh and fair, but fell light after 
 sunset ; and when the high land of the Grand 
 Canary was on our starboard beam, it almost 
 died away. As we crept on we saw the lighthouse 
 at the base of La Montana Roxo, sparkling like 
 a star above the waves of the sea, which in the 
 warm sunset seemed to have turned into blood 
 or port-wine, so deeply crimson was the glow that 
 lingered on the clouds and on the shore ; and then 
 the vast peak — save where girdled in mid air by 
 a light floating vapor — seemed all of a deep vio- 
 let tint, dotted at its base by the white walls of 
 houses, or of sugar-mills, and by groves of cocoa 
 and rosewood trees. 
 
 Darkness was soon there, but still the sunset 
 lingered in rays of fire upon the mighty Peak of 
 Adam, on which the eye never tired of gazing. 
 
 By midnight we were abreast of it, and all was 
 darkness at last, save where the millions of stars 
 were sparkling in the wide blue dome of the 
 sky. 
 
 Hislop and I were in the morning watch when 
 the ship arrived off the mouth of the harbor of 
 Santa Cruz — that pretty town, which Humboldt 
 termed the grand caravanserai between Spain 
 and the Indies. 
 
 33
 
 386 DICK RODNEY 
 
 A flash that broke upon the darkness, with a 
 light puff of smoke floating away from the old cas- 
 tle walls, indicated the morning gun, and that 
 dawn was visible. 
 
 It seemed as if it were but yesterday when the 
 Eugenie and the Costa Rican brig had worked 
 out of the same harbor together, in the same spe- 
 cies of dull twilight, and that all which had passed 
 since that time had been a dream. 
 
 We beat in with the breeze ahead. The light 
 of another day was rapidly descending from the 
 summit of the peak, and already that green girdle, 
 named the Region of Laurels, was shining in the 
 sunbeams ; so ere long we saw the windows of 
 the custom-house, which stands above the long 
 mole, and all the shaded lattices of the terraced 
 streets of Santa Cruz, glittering in gold and pur- 
 ple sheen. 
 
 The anchors were ready to be let go ; the chain- 
 cables were ranged upon deck in long coils that 
 ran fore and aft ; we tacked repeatedly ; and 
 each time the tacks became shorter and more fre- 
 quent. 
 
 " Ready about ! Presto ! down with the helm, 
 — let fly the head-sheets ! " were the orders heard 
 incessantly from Estremera and Manuel Gau- 
 tier. 
 
 The yards slewed round sharply, and the can- 
 vas flapped with a sound like the cracking of 
 musketry ; at last, the anchor was let go about a
 
 
 SANTA CRUZ. 387 
 
 half-mile from the shore in thirty fathoms water 
 and the ship swung round head to wind as her 
 courses were brailed up, and the men hurried 
 aloft to hand the topsails and topgallant-sails ; 
 so she was soon denuded of her canvas. 
 
 When the anchor plunged into the frothy wa- 
 ter, making a thousand concentric ripples run 
 from the ship ; and when I felt, by the instant 
 strain upon the cable, that she had firm hold of 
 the ground, my heart swelled with unalloyed hap- 
 piness ; for to be in Teneriffe was to be far on the 
 watery high road to my home. 
 
 Santa Cruz, being the capital of these isles, is 
 the residence of the Captain- General of the Ca- 
 naries, the seat of the supreme court of law, and 
 of all the consuls and commissaries of foreign 
 powers, whose various flags, when displayed upon 
 their houses, make the handsome streets as gay 
 in aspect as the harbor, which is always crowded 
 by the shipping of every nation. 
 
 A custom-house boat, with the Spanish ensign 
 floating at the stern, came promptly off with an 
 official, a dandified creole in uniform, with a som- 
 brero on his curly head, a sabre at his side, and 
 a cigar in his mouth. To him Captain Estre- 
 mera made a full report of the mutiny which had 
 broken out in his ship when off the African coast, 
 and the stern mode of its suppression. 
 
 Hence, in two hours after, we had the satisfac- 
 tion of seeing Antonio el Cubano, Benito Ojeda,
 
 388 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 the old tindal of the Lascars, and eight other ras- 
 cals, taken off to the Castle of Santa Cruz, in a 
 large open boat, guarded by twelve Spanish sol- 
 diers, in charge of a lieutenant, Don Luiz Pineda. 
 
 I can still recall the glance of impotent and 
 baffled malignity that Antonio bestowed on us 
 as he went down the ship's side. It combined 
 all the worst emotions of his angry heart, and 
 somewhat reminded me of his face in that terri- 
 ble moment when he swung at the end of the stud- 
 dingsail-boom, with despair in his clutch and death 
 at his heart. 
 
 We watched the boat till it reached the long 
 stone mole, and then we saw the fixed bayonets 
 of the escort Hashing, as Ihe whole party ascended 
 the great stair toward the custom-house, and sur- 
 rounded by a mob of those nautical idlers who 
 usually make a pier their lounge, disappear in the 
 interior of the town, as they marched toward the 
 castle. 
 
 Two episodes more will close the story of An- 
 tonio, — his trial and punishment.
 
 THE OLD DRAGON-TREE OF CAORA. 389 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 THE OLD DRAGON-TREE OF CAORA. 
 
 The trial came on in a couple of days after, 
 and proceeded with a celerity unknown in Eng- 
 land or Scotland eh her. We were all examined, 
 and previously were sworn, not on a Bible, but 
 over two sword-blades held in the form of a cross, 
 — for such is the old chivalric custom in a Span- 
 ish court of law. 
 
 Without hesitation the judges found Antonio 
 guilty ; he was sentenced to die by the garotte ; 
 and heard his doom with apparent apathy. 
 
 The tindal of the Lascars was released, as it 
 would appear that he had acted under compul- 
 sion ; but Benito Ojeda and eight other Spanish 
 seamen were sentenced to work in the fortifica- 
 tions or on the highways for ten years, in chains, 
 as felons or galley-slaves. 
 
 The trial over, Hislop and I gladly left the 
 crowded hall of justice, and made our way through 
 the streets of Santa Cruz, passing a mingled 
 population of yellow mulattoes, Spanish laborers, 
 negro water-carriers, mercantile men, old ecclesi- 
 
 33*
 
 390 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 asties, and importunate beggars, till we reached 
 our hotel, the windows of which faced the sea. 
 
 There we resolved to dine, and then ride over 
 to Orotava, to see the wonderful tree which grows 
 near it, taking care, however, to provide ourselves 
 with rifles and ammunition for our protection 
 as the adventures of Tom Lambourne and my- 
 self were too recent to be forgotten. 
 
 On our return we hoped to be able to visit the 
 Valley of the famous Diamond, which was only 
 visible in the night. 
 
 I have little more to relate now than what 
 would seem more suitable to a traveller's com- 
 monplace book than the conclusion of adventures 
 so wild as mine have been ; and so must hasten 
 on. 
 
 At the posada in the main street of Santa 
 Cruz we procured horses ; and leaving the fertile 
 plain in which the little city stands, traversed a 
 bleak and barren mountain -track for some leagues, 
 until we reached the town of Orotava, or Caora, 
 as it was named of old when the Dragon-tree 
 was a sapling. It is built on the western side of 
 the isle, and is both pretty and picturesque. 
 
 The mighty force of the Atlantic was breaking 
 on the shore, in billows so vast, so white, so over- 
 arching, and with a sound so thundering, that 
 they exceeded all we had ever heard before. The 
 sky was becoming black to the northwest, and he 
 could see the ships at anchor near Porto de la O
 
 THE OLD DRAGON-TREE OF CAORA. 391 
 
 getting under way, and shaking out their courses 
 with all speed, to make a safe offing in case a 
 squall came on. 
 
 Orotava, a pretty little town, clean and neatly 
 built, stands upon the green slope of a beautiful 
 hill, and faces the Atlantic. Ruins of sugar-mills 
 and wine-presses were to be seen here and there 
 among the corn and maize-fields, the vineyards 
 and gardens ; for these remains, now almost cov- 
 ered by creepers and luxuriant plants, are the 
 ruined fragments of the edifices destroyed by the 
 great hurricane of 1826. 
 
 We reached an inn, gave our horses to the 
 stable-boy, dined on a galina stewed with beans 
 (and garlic of course) ; we had some native wine, 
 and for a shilling might have had a sackful of 
 pineapples. 
 
 From the windows of the posada, as we sat at 
 dinner, we watched the waves rolling in moun- 
 tains of snowy foam, before the wind, in-shore ; 
 and all the craft weighing or slipping their cables, 
 and beating close-hauled under topsails and 
 courses to attain good sea-room, lest they might 
 be driven on the rocks. It was a lively sight, 
 and a stirring one. 
 
 " Oh, for a fair wind when we sail again ! " 
 said I. " I would beg, borrow, or steal one, if I 
 knew where such commodities were to be had." 
 
 '"Tis a pity you are not a subject of King 
 Eric- with-the- Windy- Cap," replied Hislop, while
 
 392 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 making up a cigarito. " See how clumsily those 
 lubbers sheer that brig to her anchor ! Why the 
 deuce don't they keep the current right ahead, 
 and lessen the strain on the chain-cable? I 
 shouldn't like to have my fingers between it and 
 the hawse-pipe just now. Why, she's forging 
 broadside on! " 
 
 " Who was King Eric-with-the- Windy- Cap ? " 
 I asked. 
 
 " Did you ever read Olaus Magnus ! " 
 
 " No ; the name would seem enough for me. 
 Moreover, we don't read Scotch poetry at Eton;" 
 
 " He was one of the oldest annalists of Scan- 
 dinavia, and you lose a deal in not reading him." 
 
 " Well, but this Eric " I resumed. 
 
 " Was King of Sweden. He was surnamed 
 Waderhat., and was deemed in his time a great 
 sorcerer, — so great, that he ranked second to none 
 in that kind of craft. He was on the most fa- 
 miliar terms with all kinds of goblins and evil 
 spirits, and constructed a peculiar cap, which by 
 spells he endowed with such extraordinary power 
 that the wind would blow from whichever way 
 he chose to turn it. Our old Scotch fishermen 
 in Orkney and Shetland, who are half Norse- 
 men, can spin yarns by the hour about King 
 Eric Waderhat; and it was by his aid, says 
 Olaus, and thus being able to have always a 
 fair wind, that the great pirate, Regner, King of 
 Denmark, who was his nephew, carried the ter-
 
 THE OLD DRAGON-TREE OP CAORA. 393 
 
 ror of his name to the uttermost parts of Europe. 
 But now, Dick, as the bones of the galina are 
 picked clean, as the wine is drunk, and the sun 
 in the west, let us be off to see this famous old 
 bit of aboriculture, — the Dragon Tree of Caora. 
 Ah ! that brig has got her anchor apeak at last ; 
 the port-tacks are close aboard, and the jib hoisted, 
 and — by George ! if her stupid fiddle-head is 
 long in paying off she'll be foul of that polacca ! 
 But here comes the senor de casa." 
 
 We asked the landlord, who entered at that 
 moment, where the famous tree stood ; on which 
 he politely offered to accompany us ; and certainly 
 our visit was not time wasted. 
 
 In the garden of a Senor Franqui (whose father 
 showed it to Humboldt), we saw this gigantic 
 specimen of the many-headed palm, the aged 
 Dragon Tree of Caora. 
 
 Its stem is forty-eight feet in diameter, and as- 
 cends like a solid pillar to the height of sixty feet, 
 from whence an incredible number of strangely 
 twisted and fantastic branches shoot off in every 
 direction, but all bearing flowers and fruit. 
 
 " This, senores," said the hostalero, " is said by 
 a learned traveller " 
 
 " Aye," interrupted Hislop ; " you mean Hum- 
 boldt." 
 
 " Si, senor, — to be the oldest tree in the world. 
 Documents exist in the town of Santa Cruz which 
 prove that in the fifteenth century — that is, when
 
 394 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 the Spaniards first came here under Don Al- 
 phonso, Ferdinand of Lugo, and others — it was 
 just the size we see it now, and not a twig more 
 or less. 
 
 " This is very likely, Dick," said Hislop, in Eng- 
 lish, turning to me ; " but for all that, it is not the 
 oldest tree in the world. Europe and Asia are 
 full of trees with doubtful or fabulous ages ; but 
 M. de Candolle, of Geneva, asserts that the most 
 ancient tree in the world — one which was in full 
 bloom when our Saviour was born — is the old 
 yew of Fortingall, at the mouth of Glenlyon, in 
 Scotland. Well, senor," he resumed, in Spanish, 
 " and this palm ? " 
 
 " Alphonso de Lugo struck it thrice with his 
 sword, in token that Teneriffe and all the adjacent 
 isles belonged to Ferdinand and Isabella, to Cas- 
 tile, and to the Catholic Church." 
 
 " What wonders, and how many changes has 
 the world seen since then ! And this old tree is 
 in bloom and bearing yet!" I exclaimed. 
 
 " I think," added Hislop, as we turned to leave 
 the garden of Senor Franqui, " that Humboldt 
 says this species is very slow in growth ; and that 
 the Dragon Tree required a thousand years to 
 attain its present maturity." 
 
 " A thousand years ! " I repeated, looking at it 
 with that vague emotion of interest which is gen- 
 erally excited by the knowledge that we are look- 
 ing on what we, in all probability, shall never 
 see again.
 
 THE OLD DRAGON-TREE OF CAORA. 395 
 
 It vas near evening when we returned to the 
 posada ; and after giving a " consideration " to the 
 hostalero, who was a very pleasant and intelli 
 gent Spanish colonist from the old city of Iaen, 
 in Andalusia, we mounted to return ; on which 
 he said, — 
 
 " Senores Inglesos, you should not leave Ten- 
 eriffe without visiting the Valley of the Dia- 
 mond." 
 
 " We had some thoughts of doing so," said His- 
 lop ; " but is it far from this ? " 
 " About a league and half." 
 " Where away ? " 
 
 " Among the mountains, on the northern slope 
 of the great peak." 
 
 " Ugh ! the scenery looks rather wild there- 
 about," replied Hislop ; " but 'twere a pity to 
 leave without having a look at it, after all." 
 
 " You may remember, Marc," said I, " that this 
 diamond is particularly mentioned in the old vol- 
 ume of voyages which I found in the water-logged 
 brig at Alphonso." 
 
 " Yes, to be sure I do," replied Hislop ; " and 
 that book, I think, must form part of La Collec- 
 tion de Viages y Discubrimientos. The diamond 
 was first seen by Albuquerque and Tristan da 
 Cunha, senor hostalero. I believe that it shines 
 only in the night," said Marc, turning to the land- 
 lord. 
 
 " But then it beams like a star in heaven, sen- 
 ores," replied the Spaniard, crossing himself.
 
 396 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " You have seen it then ? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh ! senor, a hundred times and more." 
 
 " Is it supposed to be worth much? " 
 
 " From its light and size, many millions of 
 duros." 
 
 " And yet it has been allowed to glitter away 
 there for more than three hundred and fifty 
 years ! " I exclaimed, with incredulity. 
 
 " Because, senor, its exact locality can never 
 be discovered, even by the most active searchers." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " On their approach it gradually fades, and 
 finally disappears." 
 
 « But in daylight ? " 
 
 " Not a trace of it can be found among the 
 rocks, though a thousand men have searched for 
 it a thousand times, till their fingers were worn 
 and their hearts grew sick." 
 
 " Strange ! " we exclaimed. 
 
 " Many an illustrious senor who has been cap- 
 tain-general of the Canaries for his Most Catholic 
 Majesty has offered a thousand duros for its dis- 
 covery, and many a dog of a Jew has almost lost 
 his senses in the rocky valley ; others have nearly 
 died of starvation rather than quit the search ; but 
 it always seems to melt away on being approached 
 or as day dawns, so there are many who aver that 
 it is no diamond at all." 
 
 « What then ? " 
 
 " An enchanted light," replied the hostalero.
 
 THE OLD DRAGON-TREE OF CAORA. 397 
 
 Hislop seemed to ponder for a moment ; then 
 a bright smile spread over his jovial and sunburnt 
 face, and he asked, — 
 
 " Will this be a good night for seeing it, think 
 you, senor hostalero ? " 
 
 " The innkeeper turned to the north-west, where 
 the clouds were still banking up in heavy masses. 
 
 " Si, senor ; I should say so." 
 
 " At what distance is this diamond visible, and 
 from what spot ? " 
 
 The Spaniard now gave us a knowing glance ; 
 his keen black eyes glittered, and he laughed 
 aloud. 
 
 " Par todos santos, if you, senor, have any de- 
 sire for getting it, you may find it easier to call 
 down one of the blessed stars that are now be- 
 ginning to twinkle in the heavens above us." 
 
 " Never mind what I wish ; but say, where is 
 it to be seen ? " 
 
 " If you ride fast, senores, the light will yet 
 enable you to reach the valley," replied the hos- 
 talero, still smiling, — almost grinning, in fact. 
 
 " Pursue the way from this to the eastward for 
 nearly a league, passing on your left La Mon- 
 tanza de Centejo, and so on, till you reach a well 
 shaded by three old rosewood trees." 
 
 "What next?" 
 
 " Wheel off by a narrow path that lies to the 
 
 right, and pass between two rocks ; you will then 
 
 see the summit of the great peak before you ; and 
 
 34
 
 398 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 after proceeding about a mile, you will come to 
 a flat stone, and from there you will perceive the 
 diamond (if the atmosphere serves) shining like a 
 light in the face of the rock, about fifty yards or 
 so before you." 
 
 " Muchos gratios, senor," said Hislop ; " these 
 directions seem very clear." 
 
 " I am glad senor is pleased," replied the hos- 
 talero, removing his broad straw hat. 
 
 " Could you oblige me with a piece of hard 
 chalk?" 
 
 " Hard chalk," reiterated the hostalero ; " cer- 
 tainly, senor," and in a second he brought a piece 
 from his kitchen. 
 
 Hislop thanked him, placed it in his pocket, 
 and we rode off just as the clear twilight began 
 to deepen with the most magnificent effects of 
 lingering light and purple shadow on land and 
 sea, on mountain, isle, and shore. 
 
 " What are you about to do with that piece of 
 chalk ? " asked I ; " for assuredly there is some- 
 thing veiled under the request." 
 
 " You shall soon learn, — that is, if we see this 
 real or enchanted diamond," said Hislop, laugh- 
 ing. 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " That I shall put this diamond, if such indeed 
 it is, into my old mother's lap, when I go home 
 to Scotland!" said he, with a boisterous laugh, 
 in which I could not resist joining.
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE DIAMOND. 399 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 
 THE VALLEY OP THE DIAMOND. 
 
 We rode due eastward by a narrow path that 
 traversed mountains of rock, covered by wild lau- 
 rels, rosewood trees, and vines. Far away on our 
 left, wearing the deepest indigo tint, spread the 
 ocean, the horizon line of which was distinctly 
 seen against a sky of coppery red that appeared 
 beneath the bank of squally clouds, which were 
 fast dispersing now, or whirling upward into mid 
 air and melting away. 
 
 In a valley on our left some lights were seen to 
 glitter as if from the windows of houses. 
 
 " That is Montanza de Centejo, no doubt," said 
 Hislop. 
 
 In a few minutes more we saw the three rose- 
 wood trees, and then the wayside well beneath 
 the shadow of their branches. It was a simple 
 and rude arch of stone, from a wooden duct in 
 which the water flowed into a stone basin. 
 
 u Here is the fountain," said I ; " and now oui 
 path to the right — " 
 
 " Lies through a gap in these rocks." 
 
 " An ugly place ! "
 
 400 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Is your rifle loaded, Dick ? " 
 
 " Yes, — and capped too," said I. 
 
 Passing through a gorge in the piles of rock 
 that rose on our right, we found ourselves in a 
 large and rugged ravine, through which, under 
 masses of creepers, there brawled a rough black 
 mountain torrent, and by its side there wound a 
 narrow path. 
 
 This ravine had been formed by that convul- 
 sion of nature which took place during the visit 
 of Alphonso de Albuquerque and Tristan de 
 Cunha, when the famous diamond was said to 
 have first become visible. 
 
 The stupendous cone of the great Piton rose 
 before us at the end of the ravine. In some 
 places the latter was dark as blackest night could 
 be, while the former, for some thousand feet of 
 its height, below even the region of laurels, was 
 bathed in a pure white flood of silver sheen, for 
 a splendid moon had now arisen from the sea. 
 
 After proceeding with our horses at a walk for 
 about a mile, looking carefully for the next land- 
 mark mentioned by the hostalero, Hislop drew 
 up and dismounted, saying, — 
 
 " Here it is, Dick." 
 
 I also dismounted, and found near the path- 
 way a stone which had evidently once stood up- 
 right, but now it lay flat among the long grass 
 and wild flowers that grew there. 
 
 Notwithstanding the gloom which yet envel-
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE DIAMOND. 401 
 
 oped us I could make out an inscription, partly 
 by feeling with my fingers. It was deeply cut, 
 and ran thus : 
 
 " Aqvi mataron a Juan Hererro. 1850." 
 
 " Here they slew John Smith," said Hislop, 
 choing, or rather, freely translating the legend. 
 
 " They, — who were they ? " 
 
 " Some robbers, no doubt ; perhaps, like us, he 
 came in search of the great diamond." 
 
 "Then is he buried here, think you?" asked 
 I, instinctively stepping back from the stone. 
 
 " I cannot say. It is lively this, and not a bit 
 of moonshine here yet ! " 
 
 Eagerly and anxiously we gazed about us, but 
 saw not a ray of light in the dark valley or ra- 
 vine ; and though neither of us said so at the 
 time, we were not without vague suspicions of 
 having been fooled, or, it might be, lured into 
 some awkward trap ; for our ideas of the Spanish 
 character had by no means improved upon ac- 
 quaintance. 
 
 " Do you see the diamond yet, Dick ? " asked 
 my friend for the third time. 
 
 " Not I. Are you sure that we are on the spot 
 from which it is visible." 
 
 " Here, by this flat stone, we were to stand. 
 Try a little more to your right." 
 " I see nothing yet." 
 
 There was a pause, during which we walked 
 about, peering into the obscurity. 
 
 34*
 
 402 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 u Stay, — I see something ! " I exclaimed, in an 
 excited tone. " Come this way — a yard or so 
 ■ — it shines now ! " I added, when, after stepping 
 a pace or two to the left, a faint gleam, like the 
 first ray of a small and very distant revolving . 
 beacon — a tiny one indeed — stole upon the 
 gloom ; and then a steady sparkle, like that of a 
 star, shone through the pitchy blackness that en- 
 veloped the whole length and breadth of the 
 hollow. 
 
 The hostalero of Orotava had not deceived us, 
 for the diamond was now before us, shining 
 visibly. 
 
 Like a star, it seemed to shrink and tremble 
 while we gazed at it, which Hislop did, long and 
 steadily. 
 
 " Well, Dick Rodney," said he, " you have fir3t 
 seen the diamond, and shall have the largest 
 share, if we get it." 
 
 I laughed at this, and asked, — 
 " How does it shine thus in the dark ? " 
 " Because the diamond is a gem possessing a 
 greater refractive power than any other precious 
 stone, and reflects every atom of light which falls 
 upon it at an angle of incidence greater than 
 twenty-four and a half degrees, even before being 
 cut. I remember that Benvenuto Cellini, in his 
 History of Jewelry, mentions a magnificently col- 
 ored carbuncle, which was found in a vineyard 
 near Rome simply by its shining in the nighu
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE DIAMOND. 403 
 
 Stand steadily where you are, Dick, and don't 
 lose sight of it, while I advance up the ravine." 
 
 He did so thrice, and each time found that on 
 proceeding about twenty yards, it faded away 
 altogether. 
 
 " It is very probably a mere rock crystal," 
 said I. 
 
 " No rock crystal ever shone with a brilliance 
 like that!" replied Hislop, vehemently; "but 
 whether it is a diamond of the purest water or a 
 will-o'-the-wisp — a spunkie, as we call it in Scot- 
 land — I'll give it a touch with a short Enfield, 
 point-blank." 
 
 Hislop's rifle was already capped and loaded, 
 but with his knife he shaped an oblong bullet of 
 the hard white chalk which he had procured at 
 Orotava, and carefully rammed it down the bar- 
 rel. 
 
 Having some matches about him, he touched 
 the knob of the foresight and the notch of the back- 
 sight with phosphorus, and thus bringing the two 
 lights in a line with the diamond, he took a long 
 and steady aim from his left knee, and. fired! 
 
 The dark valley and the steep mountains rang 
 with a thousand reverberations, as they seemed 
 to toss the sharp report from echoing rock to 
 rock, until it died away in mid-air ; but still the 
 diamond shone as brightly as ever, and our 
 horses plunged so wildly that they nearly broke 
 away from us.
 
 04 DICK KODNEY. 
 
 " If my aim is true, and the chalk bullet has 
 struck the rock, it will indicate the bearings of 
 the diamond, and we may unship it somehow in 
 the morning," said the practical Scotchman, as 
 he quietly reloaded. 
 
 " Morning ? Must we wait here till then ? " 
 
 " Well, Dick, it is worth waiting for ; and after 
 all we have gone through since that day when 
 we picked you up adrift in the chops of the 
 Channel, we may sleep here pleasantly enough 
 in one of the thickets." 
 
 After lingering a little time and observing the 
 strange sparkle, the actual origin of which we 
 could scarcely realize, we found a thick grove of 
 laurels ; and securing our horses to two branches 
 by the bridles, we unstrapped from each the large 
 coarse horse-cloth, which is frequently folded and 
 placed under the saddle by riders in Spain and 
 its colonies, and in these rugs we wrapped our- 
 selves for warmth and protection from the dew 
 and mosquitoes. 
 
 There we lay, each with a loaded rifle by his 
 side, and his horse picketed near. Sailor-like, 
 Hislop went off to sleep at once, as sound as a 
 timber-head ; but for hours I found it impossible 
 to follow so pleasant an example, and lay watch- 
 ing the light of the moon, which, as she rose 
 higher in the sky, descended the vast side of the 
 Peak of Teneriffe, and at last filled the volcanic 
 ravine with a flood of liquid silver. 
 
 The loveliness of the night, the solemnity of
 
 THE VALLEY OP THE DIAMOND. 405 
 
 the scenery, the lonely position in which I found 
 myself, and the strange errand on which we had 
 come, all conduced to fill me with contemplation 
 and many thoughts that banished slumber. 
 
 In all the vast expanse of heaven, into which 
 that wondrous peak ascended to the height of 
 more than twelve thousand feet, no cloud was 
 visible ; but there were millions upon millions 
 of stars, rivalling and almost eclipsing the splen- 
 dor of the moon. 
 
 The silver light was poured aslant into the val- 
 ley through every rent and fissure in the crags, 
 causing masses of shadow between them ; while 
 the wild vines and the cocoa-nut trees were cov- 
 ered with prismatic gems as the dew gathered on 
 their pendant leaves and fruit. So splendid was 
 the moonshine, and so mild was the atmosphere, 
 that the wild canaries, like golden buds in some 
 fairy valley, were twittering about us as if day 
 had broken. 
 
 At last I grew weary and slept. 
 
 With the first peep of day Hislop roused me. 
 It was well to be up and doing before others, who 
 might observe us, came out of the ravine, though 
 it had all the aspect of a lonely and unfrequented 
 place. About two miles of the mountain peak 
 were gilded by the yet (to us) unrisen sun ; but 
 in the valley there was only twilight when we 
 folded our rugs, saddled our horses, and proceed- 
 ing to the stone which bore the name of Juan 
 Hererro, went from thence in a straight line to-
 
 406 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 ward the rocky cliff, which closed in the end of the 
 hollow, at the distance of somewhat more than 
 fifty paces. 
 
 We reached a sloping bluff of rugged basalt, 
 faced by strange lava-like columnar masses that 
 might easily be dislodged by a crowbar, and all 
 were spotted by luxuriant lichens, which in the 
 wet season would ripen into velvety moss, while 
 long green trailers, covered with gorgeous wild- 
 flowers grew in every cleft and chasm. 
 
 This rocky bluff was about sixty feet in height, 
 and, by the increasing light, Hislop scanned it 
 with a keen nautical eye, that had been accus- 
 tomed to detect sight and signs in every state of 
 the atmosphere and elements. 
 
 In a minute or less an exclamation of satisfac- 
 tion escaped him, and pointing upward, — 
 
 " Dick,", he added, " do you see that ? " 
 
 I looked in the direction indicated, and saw a 
 small white star formed by the chalk bullet upon 
 the face of the rock. 
 
 « I do," said I ; " I do ! " 
 
 " There or thereabout must be this diamond, 
 which is never visible by day." 
 
 "But we have neither hammer, chisel, nor 
 crowbar," said I ; " and our fingers, I fear, wont 
 avail us much." 
 
 Hislop threw the bridle of his horse over a 
 laurel-bush ; I did thcsame ; and in a few min- 
 utes we had climbed to the spot indicated by the 
 chalk mark ; and there also we found the conical
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE DIAMOND. 407 
 
 bullet of his Enfield rifle, flattened out like a 
 florin, and adhering to the face of the rock. 
 
 For nearly twenty minutes we examined all the 
 locality of these marks, and at last I discovered 
 something that appeared to be a dull gray piece 
 of rock crystal, half sunk and half projecting from 
 the face of the basalt, and led Hislop to it. 
 
 Uttering an exclamation of joy, he declared 
 that, beyond a doubt, it was the diamond ! 
 
 We were almost breathless at this sudden dis- 
 covery, and looked about us on every hand, like 
 the perpetrators of a robbery, lest we might be 
 observed ; but, except our horses cropping the 
 grass, and the golden canary birds that sang on 
 every twig and tree, there appeared no living 
 thing on the mountain above or in the ravine 
 beneath us. 
 
 But how were we to extract our treasure, if a 
 treasure indeed it was ? 
 
 Vainly we used our knives, till the blades bent 
 and broke ; vainly we punched it with the butts 
 and ramrods of our rifles. It remained solid, 
 hard, fast, and immovable. 
 
 Hislop's aim had been a true one, under the 
 circumstances, for the crystal was situated just 
 three inches from his shot-mark. 
 
 At last he, being fertile in resources, on finding 
 a sloping rent in the rock, about eight inches 
 above the object of our solicitude bethought him 
 of blowing it out by gunpowder. 
 
 All our cartridges, about thirty in number, were
 
 408 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 at once opened, and their contents rammed hard 
 or pounded in, with a piece of stick and a stone 
 in lieu of a mallet. The rent was small, and 
 seemed about a foot deep. This impromptu 
 mining was a laborious affair, for it required to 
 be carefully done, and occupied more than two 
 hours, as we had to plug up the aperture tightly, 
 leaving only a very small touchhole. 
 
 When all was complete, some cigar fusees and 
 wetted powder were prepared together as a slow- 
 match ; they were inserted and a light applied. 
 
 " Sheer off, Dick, — give it a wide berth ! " cried 
 Hislop. 
 
 The fusee smoked as it consumed, but slowly, 
 and breathlessly we looked on, at ten yards' dis- 
 tance. 
 
 It seemed to die out, for the smoking ceased, 
 and the last puff, after curling among the green 
 trailers passed away. 
 
 Hislop was about to ascend and to examine 
 the powder, when there was a loud and sharp ex- 
 plosion ; a little cloud of dust rose, and disen- 
 gaged from the cliff some fragments of rock, six 
 in number, about the size of half bricks, fell on 
 the bank below. 
 
 Uttering a shout, we rushed down, and in a 
 moment Hislop found the diamond adhering to 
 a piece of stone larger than itself ! 
 
 Some time elapsed before we could fully real- 
 ize our good fortune or believe in the wealth we 
 had so suddenly acquired.
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE DIAMOND. 409 
 
 It seemed like a mere lump of rock crystal, but 
 larger than a goose-egg, and not unlike the Koh- 
 i-Noor — the fabled Light of the World — that 
 mysterious palladium of the destinies of India, 
 before it was cut, polished, and in some degree 
 mutilated, that it might figure in the Exhibition 
 of 1851 — as ours may do, perhaps, in that of 
 1871. 
 
 Time will show. 
 
 If a pure diamond, this stone was worth nearly 
 seventy thousand pounds ! 
 
 " Let us keep our own counsel, Dick, about 
 this, till we find ourselves in London," said His- 
 lop, as he consigned it to his breast-pocket, to- 
 gether with the piece of stone which adhered to 
 it ; " and now we must make a good offing while 
 all is quiet here." 
 
 In a minute more, and just as a group of horse- 
 me n — farmers and sugar-millers — entered the 
 valley, we had mounted, and were galloping to- 
 ward Santa Cruz as fast as our horses' heels could 
 carry us. * 
 
 * By a note from Hislop, he informs me that the idea of mark- 
 ing with a chalk bullet the locality of the diamond was given him 
 by an old Scottish legend which he heard, of a precious stone, of 
 great size, that shone, but by night only, amid the rocks on the 
 beautiful hill of Kinnoul. There it had long tantalized the citi- 
 zens of Perth, till an ingenious fellow fired a ball of camstone at 
 it, and by thus marking the place [licked the gem out at his lei- 
 sure. 
 
 35
 
 410 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 CHAPTER LIIL 
 
 THE LAST OF ANTONIO EL CUBAN 0. 
 
 As we entered Santa Cruz we found a great 
 crowd of colonists, citizens, mulattoes, Creoles, 
 and negroes, all in motley and gaudily-striped 
 linen jackets and trousers, assembled in the Plaza, 
 where a guard of Spanish infantry, with muskets 
 shouldered and bayonets fixed, kept back the 
 people in the form of a hollow square, about a 
 raised wooden platform, which was covered with 
 black cloth, and whereon was placed the ga- 
 rotte. 
 
 " What is all this about ? " we asked. 
 
 " It is for the execution of Antonio, a Cuban 
 pirate, who is to die by the garotte" replied a sol- 
 dier. 
 
 This instrument of the law was simply an up- 
 right wooden post rising from the platform. At 
 its base was a low stool, on which the condemned 
 are seated ; and about three feet above that ap- 
 pears an iron ring with a handle and screw, by 
 the compression of which they are strangled, in- 
 stantly or slowly, according to sentence. 
 
 The crowd was very impatient ; the hour at
 
 THE LAST OF ANTONIO EL CUBANO. 4H 
 
 which the grim scene was to have taken place 
 was now long past. Loud murmurs rose from 
 the people, who had heard most exaggerated sto- 
 ries of Antonio's stature, strength, and ferocity, 
 and glances of anger and impatience were darted 
 at the gilt dial of the town-house, on which a 
 black banner was hoisted but half-mast high. 
 
 We recognized nearly all the crew of the San 
 lldefonso in front of the mob ; and there, too, 
 were a number of British sailors of H. M.'s steam 
 sloop-of-war Active, which had anchored in the 
 harbor that morning. 
 
 Several priests in long gray robes were hurry- 
 ing to and fro, begging a " peseta " to pay for 
 masses for the soul of the condemned man. 
 
 As neither Hislop nor I had any desire to wit- 
 ness a scene so barbarous and revolting as an ex- 
 ecution, we hastened to our posada to breakfast, 
 where we were joined by Captain Jose" Estre- 
 mera, who had just come from the Castle of Sania 
 Cruz, where the culprit was confined, and where 
 a most extraordinary scene had taken place. 
 
 The little Spanish skipper was quite excited ; 
 his black eyes were round as saucers ; his olive 
 cheek was flushed crimson ; and he spoke so fast 
 and said so much that he nearly choked himself 
 over his eggs and scalding-hot coffee. 
 
 His narrative was as follows, and it presented 
 a singular instance of mad ferocity, of cowardice, 
 and despair.
 
 412 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 In the morning, probably about the same time 
 that Hislop and I were busy with our diamond, 
 the bastonero, or turnkey, of the Castle of Santa 
 Cruz, which is at once a prison, a barrack, and 
 fortress, opened the door of Antonio's cell to 
 announce to him, in the usual form, that Senor 
 the Judge of the First Instance, accompanied by 
 an Escribano of the Court, had arrived to read 
 over his sentence again, and to convey him to the 
 Chapel of the Doomed, where Fra Anselmo 
 would confer and pray with him prior to his exe- 
 cution. 
 
 On entering, the bastonero found Antonio 
 whistling cheerfully, and deliberately using a sharp 
 file, which he had procured no one knew how, 
 but with the aid of which, he had released one of 
 his ankles from the fetterlocks, by which his feet 
 had been secured to a ponderous iron bar that 
 traversed his cell. But though still held fast by 
 one leg, he flung himself bodily, like a wild ani- 
 mal, on the unsuspecting bastonero, tore the 
 heavy keys from his leather girdle, and after deal- 
 ing him a deadly blow on the head, dashed him, 
 bleeding and senseless, against the wall outside 
 the cell door. 
 
 He then closed the latter, locked it on the in- 
 side, and resumed the use of the file, which was 
 heard rasping on the steel, while he sang hia fa- 
 vorite " Companero, companero," &c. 
 
 Aware that the crowd were waiting in the
 
 THE LAST OF ANTONIO EL CTJBANO. 413 
 
 Plaza, and that Spanish crowds were not to be 
 trifled with, in vain did the commandant of the 
 Castle of Santa Cruz, the judge, the escribano, 
 and Fra Anselmo entreat Antonio to cease his 
 fruitless resistance, as his fate was sealed now 
 beyond the reach of pardon even from the cap- 
 tain-general. 
 
 Resolved to die as he had lived, like a tiger, 
 Antonio fiercely refused. 
 
 The priest next implored him to pass the keys 
 through the iron grating in the cell door. 
 
 He uttered a shout of laughter. 
 
 The armorer of the castle was now summoned 
 to force the lock ; but the mechanism of it re- 
 sisted all his strength and skill. Senor the com- 
 mandant was furious ! 
 
 The pioneers of the garrison were next ordered 
 in with their iron crowbars and sledge-hammers 
 to beat down the door. 
 
 It was small but enormously thick, being built 
 of bars of oak and iron bolted together, and curi- 
 ously inserted in a groove formed in the massive 
 wall of the old castle. 
 
 For an hour they toiled at it, and in the inter- 
 vals of their labor the sound of Antonio's file 
 was heard at work, together with his maledic- 
 tions, his songs, and fierce derisive laughter. 
 
 " Ho ! ho ! my fine feilow," said the Command- 
 ant, rattling his sabre, " we shall soon see the end 
 of this fine game! " 
 
 35*
 
 414 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 At last the door fell in fragments, but unfortu- 
 nately one strong iron bar still remained across 
 the aperture ; the daylight streamed into the vault, 
 and now, like a baited wild beast, Antonio, who 
 was still fettered to the iron bar, dragged himself 
 toward the doorway, armed with the large key, 
 which was about a foot long. 
 
 When another bastonero attempted to enter 
 by stooping, a blow from the key fell like a thun- 
 derbolt upon his defenceless head, and he was 
 dragged out by the heels, apparently in a dying 
 state. 
 
 Several others who ventured in met with the 
 same fate ; the whole place became splashed 
 with blood ; the consternation increased, and the 
 authorities were at their wits' end, for the door- 
 way was so small that one person alone could en- 
 ter at a time, and then only when stooping low, 
 — a position which placed them completely at 
 the mercy of Antonio. 
 
 For another hour did that frenzied ruffian keep 
 all at bay, replying to the threats of the Com- 
 mandant, the entreaties of Fra Anselmo, and th 
 suave legal rhetoric of the Judge of the First In- 
 stance with laughter and derision. 
 
 Tired at last of wielding his large key, or find- 
 ing that none would come within reach of it, he 
 flung it at the group outside, and broke the 
 nether jaw of the escribano, who left the field of 
 battle with great precipitation.
 
 THE LAST OF ANTONIO EL CUBANO. 415 
 
 The commandant now summoned a party of 
 soldiers, and twelve men of the castle guard 
 came, under the orders of the lieutenant, Don 
 Luiz Pineda, who at once ordered them to load 
 with ball-cartridge. 
 
 On seeing these dire preparations, which he 
 could no longer withstand, Antonio ceased in his 
 untimely ribaldry. Great drops of perspiration 
 poured over his low but narrow temples. His 
 dark brow was furrowed deeper, as if by baffled 
 rage and futile ferocity ; his black eyes glistened 
 with a fearful glare, and his vast bulky form 
 seemed to dilate in muscular strength and size ; 
 the blue pallor of death passed over his thin and 
 cruel lips, but still they were writhed by a mock- 
 ing smile. 
 
 " Senor Don Luiz," said Fra Anselmo, " I en- 
 treat you not to have him shot dead " 
 
 " What then, Senor Padre ? " 
 
 " But merely wounded, that he may have time 
 for repentance." 
 
 " Buena, — then wounded he shall be." 
 
 At that moment Antonio struck the young 
 lieutenant on the face, by hurling the file at him, 
 and inflicted a severe wound. 
 
 " Fire ! " cried Pineda, mad with rage. 
 
 A musket was levelled and fired ; and while 
 the vaults of the castle rang with a hundred 
 echoes the loud laugh of Antonio was heard. He 
 had crawled along the iron bar into a dark cor-
 
 416 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 ner of his prison, where, coiled up at the extreme 
 length of his chain, he escaped the bullet, which 
 was flattened on the masonry. 
 
 Again and again the soldiers fired in succes- 
 sion, but missed him, and the vault became full 
 of smoke. 
 
 " Basta ! " said they ; " what is the use of wast- 
 ing powder on a picaroon who is bullet-proof? " 
 
 Pineda now took a musket, and aiming very 
 deliberately, fired. Then Antonio's chain was 
 heard to rattle as he sprang from the iron bar 
 with a wild bound, for the ball had broken his 
 right thigh-bone. 
 
 Now he howled, bellowed, and literally foamed 
 at the mouth, as he rolled about on the floor, en- 
 cumbered by his iron chain, his broken leg, and 
 fettered foot. Two other shots were fired ; by 
 one an arm was broken, and by the other a col- 
 lar-bone. On this he lay still, and called out in 
 a husky voice, — 
 
 " Senores, I surrender — have mercy ! " 
 
 Then the pioneers rushed in and dragged him 
 out. But the spirit of the fiend was yet strong 
 within him, for as he was borne past Don Luiz, 
 bleeding from three wounds, he clenched the 
 hand which yet retained power, and struck him 
 a violent blow. 
 
 On that instant the sword of the fiery young 
 lieutenant would have been passed through his 
 heart, had not Fra Anselmo arrested the blade 
 by grasping it.
 
 THE LAST OF ANTONIO EL CUBANO. 417 
 
 Just as Jose" Estremera had reached this point 
 in his narrative oi the morning's proceedings, we 
 heard a tremendous hubbub, and on hurrying to 
 the front windows of the posada, saw a vast 
 crowd running after a low hurdle that was drawn 
 by two mules past the end of the street which 
 led straight toward the great Plaza. 
 
 It bore the miserable and half-dead form of 
 Antonio el Cubano to the final scene of his crimes 
 and recent sufferings, — the garotte. 
 
 So perished this sinner!
 
 418 DICK RODNEY 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I have but little more to add, for with this last 
 episode the course of wild adventures upon which 
 I had been so strangely hurried, nearly closes. 
 
 A few hours after the death of Antonio, when 
 Hislop and I, with Lambourne, Carlton, and 
 other survivors of the Eugenie were waiting in 
 the office of the British Consul to make some 
 arrangements for rewarding Jose Estremera for 
 his great kindness to us all, we met Captain the 
 
 Hon. Egerton B , of H. M. ship Active, who 
 
 was so struck with our story that he offered us 
 all a passage to England, an offer which we ac- 
 cepted with gratitude. 
 
 His ship was leaving the African squadron, and 
 returning home to be repaired. 
 
 "Rodney — Rodney," said he, ponderingly, when 
 the Consul introduced me ; " you ought to have 
 been a sailor, for your name is well known in the 
 service ; " and his words brought the memory of 
 my poor mother's ambition back to me, and T 
 thought of the old picture which hung in the din- 
 ing-room at home.
 
 CONCLUSION. 419 
 
 After a brief conference with his shipmates 
 Tattooed Tom now came forward, and twirling 
 his fragment of a hat, said that " if the noble cap- 
 tain had no objection, as he, Ned Carlton, Pro- 
 bart, and the other poor fellows of the Eugenie 
 were out of a berth, and at uncommon low water, 
 they would gladly ship aboard the Active^ and 
 enter her Majesty's service." 
 
 Captain B , who saw at a glance that they 
 
 were all first-class seamen, readily accepted the 
 offer, and promised them the usual bounty ; on 
 which they gave three loud cheers for the Queen, 
 and it came from their throats not the less heart- 
 ily that they were far away from her and in a for- 
 eign land, all tattered as they were, with scarcely 
 a shirt to their backs. 
 
 " Heaven bless you, my lads," said Hislop : 
 " this is the best thing you can do ; and believe 
 me, Captain B , you will find my old ship- 
 mates neither waisters nor green-hands, but thor- 
 ough A. B.'s." 
 
 As they all loved him, another cheer for His- 
 lop followed, and while the captain went off to 
 the Active in his gig, we all adjourned to a po- 
 sada to have a last friendly glass together. 
 
 Soon after, as the war steamer was to sail that 
 evening, a boat under a midshipman came off for 
 us, and then we bade farewell to Jose" Estremera, 
 to his mate, Manuel Gautier, to Fra Ans<slmo, 
 and the old Governor of Surabaya.
 
 420 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 " Come, Dick — we have no time to lose," said 
 Hislop ; " let us be off to the ship while daylight 
 lasts ; these fellows in Teneriffe haven't missed 
 their diamond yet ! " 
 
 I shall never forget my emotions of joy when 
 the boat with Hislop and the rest of us came sheer- 
 ing alongside the Active. 
 
 She was so clean, so trig, so square aloft ; with 
 the bright copper gleaming in the water below ; 
 her black bulwarks and red portholes, through 
 which her sixty-eights and thirty-twos peered 
 above the brine ; the snow-white hammock cloths, 
 with the gold epaulets of the lieutenant of the 
 watch glittering above them ; the red-coated ma- 
 rines on her poop and forecastle ; the great scar- 
 let ensign of " Old England " floating at the gaff- 
 peak : — and that no part of the illusion might 
 be wanting, a little marine fifer, playing shrilly 
 but sweetly " Home, sweet home," in one of the 
 boats that lay alongside by the guess-warp 
 boom. 
 
 She was so thoroughly British in her aspect, so 
 unlike any thing we had seen in the seas we had 
 traversed, that we felt at home the moment our 
 feet were on her deck of good old English oak 
 — ay, as much at home as if we stood upon the 
 chalky South Foreland, and saw the green hop- 
 fields of fertile Kent at our feet, with the gray 
 towers of Dover and the white spires of Deal in
 
 CONCLUSION. 421 
 
 the distance. Old Lambourne uttered a shout, 
 and pointed to the Union Jack. 
 
 One must be abroad and far away to feel to 
 the full the emotions that are excited, and the 
 confidence which is inspired on seeing the old 
 flag, that has swept every sea and shore, waving 
 in its pride from the gaff-peak of a British man- 
 of-war ! 
 
 It is then that we feel " what a sway one little 
 island has exercised over this mighty earth." 
 
 Hislop and I dined with Captain B , who 
 
 was anxious to hear our story in detail. 
 
 Our shipmates were told off to their several 
 divisions, and we were placed in the ward-room 
 mess for the remainder of the voyage. 
 
 We sailed that night, and under steam an# 
 canvas, as we bore away to the north, we soon 
 saw the Peak of Adam sinking into the dark blue 
 sea. 
 
 " Adieu to the Canaries," said Hislop, waving 
 his hat ; " the next shore we see will be Europe, 
 — the white cliffs of Old England, perhaps." 
 
 But next day we sighted the great pitons of 
 the Salvage Islands, a group of uninhabited rocks 
 which are claimed by the Portuguese (perhaps 
 because no one else cares about them), and which 
 are surrounded by dangerous shoals. One of 
 these isles closely resembles the fantastic rocks 
 of the Needles, at the west end of the Isle of 
 Wight. 
 
 36
 
 422 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 On the Salvages the canary birds are so nu- 
 merous, that an old voyager says, " it is impossi- 
 ble to walk without crushing their eggs." 
 
 "We touched at Madeira, and after a delightful 
 voyage of about sixteen days, ran up the Chan- 
 nel, and came to anchor in the Downs on the 
 20th of October. 
 
 * # # • # 
 
 I had been absent from home more than a year, 
 when I found myself in London — in mighty 
 London, with its dark forests of masts and its 
 darker cathedral dome, that meets the eye from 
 every point of view : — a wondrous and bewilder- 
 ing change, after traversing so long the wide and 
 lonely sea ! 
 
 With a heart swollen by anxiety to learn tid- 
 ings of my father, my mother, and sisters, I reached 
 the counting-house of my uncle's firm, Rodney 
 and Co., in the city, but there was something so 
 peculiar in my aspect, which pertained neither to 
 sea nor shore, and was unmistakably outlandish, 
 that old John Thomas, the porter, seemed inclined 
 to shut the door in my face. 
 
 A short explanation, however, soon overcame 
 his scruples, and I was then admitted. 
 
 My uncle was at Erlesmere ; but his head clerk 
 assured me that my family were all well, though 
 they had long since given me up for dead, as a 
 handsome (he assured me it was very handsome)
 
 CONCLUSION. 423 
 
 white marble tablet erected to my memory in 
 the Rectory church remained to testify. 
 
 My letters from Cuba had never reached home ! 
 
 As I had no desire to shock my parents by a 
 sudden surprise, a telegram preceded me, and in 
 less than an hour I was off by the express-train 
 for Erlesmere. But with all its speed, the express 
 seemed too slow for me. Marc Hislop accom- 
 panied me until he could get a ship ; but before 
 looking for that he meant to visit his old mother, 
 who lived somewhere in Scotland. 
 
 After all that we had undergone, all that I had 
 to show my family were the sword and old book 
 found in the water-logged brig, the creese of a 
 mutinous Lascar, the ring given me by the Gov- 
 ernor of Surabaya, and though mentioned last 
 not esteemed the least, our diamond, of which 
 Marc Hislop and I have not yet ascertained the 
 value, or I should rather say its proper claim to 
 the designation of a diamond. 
 
 For Marc Hislop's sake, more than my own, I 
 trust that -our sanguine expectations may be real- 
 ized, and that it may, at all events, furnish him, 
 out of his share of the prize, with the means of 
 providing comfortably for the mother who so ad- 
 mirably trained him up to a love of knowledge 
 and to a sense of duty. 
 
 I have now realized the truth of Goethe's max- 
 im: "He that looks forward sees one way to 
 pursue ; but he who looks backward sees many"
 
 424 DICK RODNEY. 
 
 And so, tempered by a year of adversity, en- 
 lightened by its experience and suffering, I have 
 returned, more than ever determined to make up 
 for lost time, and to work my way manfully to 
 King's College, Cambridge; after which, the reader 
 who has accompanied me so far, may perhaps 
 hear of me again. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 tatingly commend this volume as one of the very best which the 
 season will offer to book -buyers." — New York Christian Union. 
 
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 first shows itself upon the young, and then holds an abiding 
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