M A K A N N A.
 
 MAKANNA: 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 LAND OF THE SAVAGE 
 
 " I have seen Society under new forms, 
 And Nature us at her birth." 
 
 ROSE'S LETTERS FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
 
 " 'Tis to create, and in creating live 
 A being more intense, that we endow, 
 With form our fancy, gaining as we give 
 The life we image." 
 
 CHII.UE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. 
 
 (Strttton. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR WHITTAKER AND CO. 
 
 AVE-MARIA LANE. 
 
 1834.
 
 C. Whittingham, Took* Court, Chancery Lane.
 
 MAKANNA ; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 LAND OF THE SAVAGE. 
 
 LND 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea, 
 For an acre of barren ground long heath, 
 Brown furze, any thing." 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 THE turbulence of the storm was past, but 
 its power remained. Our ship no longer 
 yawed under the contrary buffetings of those 
 rapacious squalls, which three hours before 
 had torn at her rigging, like hungry wolves on 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 MAKANXA. 
 
 the haunches of a wearied deer; but, if I may 
 use the expression, the wind came down upon 
 her ' bodily ; ' and as a falcon bears a partridge 
 trussed in her talons through the air, so was 
 her groaning hull urged through the water. 
 The waves were equally changed in their 
 aspect, no longer rising in pinnacles of foam, 
 to break over us from stem to stern in glit- 
 tering cascades, but swelling widely around, 
 more in the form of dark and moving hills; 
 their proud crests torn off by the steady pres- 
 sure of the wind, and their foam dissipated 
 in a drizzling rain. 
 
 Black clouds no longer coursed each other, 
 like shadowy demons through the air ; but 
 over-head all was one wide expanse of dreary 
 sameness, murky and sad, yet gleaming with a 
 lurid light, as if the sun-beams shot faintly 
 through a depth of troubled water. 
 
 If a stranger could have viewed the deck 
 of that fated vessel, how would he have been 
 startled ! Instead of the silence, devoted dis-
 
 MAKANNA. 6 
 
 cipline, and grave alacrity becoming men strug- 
 gling for life, and who must abide the fury 
 of the elements, it was the very den of con- 
 fusion ; and the shouts of tumult resounded 
 often louder than the storm. In the after 
 part of the ship all indeed was tranquil ; but 
 it was the calm of watchful defiance. 
 
 On the quarter-deck was marshalled a 
 strong guard, while a brace of nine-pounders, 
 taken from the bulwark ports, were so ranged 
 as to command the waist and forecastle. These 
 guns were manned ; the lunt burning ; and the 
 grape-shot grinning at their very muzzles, 
 which at a word would have scattered death 
 below. A barricade of spars was also lashed 
 together mid-ships, and made fast to the 
 shrouds just abaft the mainmast. Forward 
 the ship was filled with mutiny; but of that 
 anon. 
 
 There are moments which stamp a sear 
 scar on the mind that time cannot efface, and 
 even now I seem to tread that guarded deck.
 
 4 MA KAN N A. 
 
 We mustered about thirty bands, that is, 
 counting officers, seamen, and passengers. 
 There were beside some females on board, 
 who added not a little to the anxiety of our 
 situation. The Captain was a sailor of the old 
 school, sea-worn and somewhat aged, but built 
 on a model so square and sinewy, that few men 
 in a fray could have stood before him. Al- 
 though bronzed by an eastern- sun, the ruddy 
 glow of health still marked his cheek; and in 
 the keen glance of his clear blue eyes there 
 was a patient firmness which showed the habit 
 of command. The very emergency of our 
 danger seemed to have given him fresh spirits, 
 and he paced the deck with an air of con- 
 fidence, which was as a cordial to us all. 
 
 Near the binnacle stood the Chief Mate a 
 thin elastic figure, with that easy grace of atti- 
 tude often seen in the Creole, to which race he 
 belonged. A frequent smile played on his pale 
 countenance, but those who watched him 
 closely might mark a -restless sparkling in his
 
 MAKANNA. 5 
 
 dark full eyes which told of other feelings, and 
 ill accorded with the winning sweetness of his 
 voice. As the Captain passed he said : 
 
 " Are we not losing time, Sir? now all's 
 snug aloft, she scuds easy as a duck floating 
 in the tail of a mill stream." 
 
 " Well, and what then how losing time?" 
 
 " Why, Sir, if you'd permit the carpenter 
 to bear .a hand, we'd cut a port through the 
 bulk-head of the bread-room, and then, by 
 popping in an iron pot with a pound of burn- 
 ing sulphur, and making all close behind by 
 Jove, Sir, we should lay those dusky dogs of 
 Mahomet to sleep without a lullaby ! and 
 if any of the hornets buzz out of their hole, 
 let but Bouncing Bess (slapping his hand on 
 the breech of one of the guns) call them to 
 order, and they'll neither sting nor hum for 
 the future." 
 
 " Tush, tush, Paul ; you carry more sail 
 than ballast What, would you cut their 
 reckoning short, when they're neither fit fur
 
 O MAKANNA. 
 
 fighting nor for dying ? no, no, Sir ! they 
 may be worth more yet than a rat's portion 
 besides, I was myself to blame, for ordering 
 the Steward to serve out the grog which 
 tempted them into the sin of drunkenness, 
 against the command of their prophet, and 
 has kept them mad as stung bullocks ever 
 since. And then again, Sir; were not these 
 very Malays engaged to assist in worVng the 
 ship at your own suggestion ?" 
 
 The last remark seemed to awaken a 
 thought which the Mato cared not to express ; 
 for, having given a nod as if in confirmation 
 of some inward emotion, he hastily recollected 
 himself, and replying "Well, Sir, you know 
 best" turned about with the easy indifference 
 of a man who has only spoken for effect, and 
 therefore cares not for the answer. 
 
 This Mate was a bold and skilful seaman, 
 and had thus won the Captain's confidence ; 
 but for my own part, I never beheld him 
 without that sort of instinctive chill with
 
 MAKANNA. 7 
 
 which one regards a deadly serpent in a cage, 
 the wires of which may perchance give way, 
 even while we gaze: and there were two pas 
 sengers on board who felt the same suspicion. 
 
 These passengers were JVlajor Falkland and 
 his daughter. The old officer was on his 
 homeward voyage ; invalided and indeed com- 
 pletely cut up by the severe toils of an active 
 service under a vertical sun, continued to a 
 time of life incompatible with such exertions. 
 Bertha was his only child ; and what rendered 
 her yet dearer, the only link that bound him 
 to existence. The wife of his bosom the 
 friends of his youth, and even the scenes 
 endeared by habit, all, all were gone. The 
 unmown grass waved rankly over some 
 and others were left in a foreign land. 
 
 It was beautiful and h art-soothing, to see 
 the old veteran fondly leaning, as was his 
 wont, upon the shoulder of his child, who 
 stood beside him like a tender plant on the 
 sunny side of a ruined tower. They were
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 almost inseparable; and thus even now, the 
 spirit of the soldier not permitting the aged 
 man to remain below, she was his close atten- 
 dant. Expostulations were in vain; she knew 
 no danger but for him, and felt not for 
 herself the storm when she saw his white 
 locks parted before it. 
 
 There is nothing so holy as domestic affec- 
 tion in the sight of a sailor it is the haven 
 of his secret hopes, and a balm to the heart 
 grown dry in the withering formalities of a 
 stern and artificial life. 
 
 For twelve long hours our men had toiled 
 to an extremity in working the ship, and in 
 keeping the mutineers in check ; and now 
 that an interval of rest occurred, they were 
 lounging around, amid the guns end spars, 
 inert and drowsy. The filial duty of Bertha 
 had, however, so won their rough sincerity, 
 that whenever she appeared, a glow of honest 
 satisfaction might be seen to brighten their 
 weather-worn countenances ; and now, although
 
 MAKANNA. 9 
 
 drooping and almost fainting with excessive 
 fatigue, they cleared a space where she might 
 remain sheltered from the extreme force of the 
 wind under the lee of the starboard bulwark. 
 
 And there she stood, wrapt in a loose boat- 
 cloak, and so concealed by the folds of a 
 crimson shawl thrown across her head, that, 
 had it not been for the mild light of the 
 dove-like eyes that beamed beneath its shade, 
 and the delicate little hand that pressed her 
 father's arm, there was nought to recognise 
 of female presence. 
 
 The rush of the wind having somewhat 
 slackened, although the ship still laboured 
 heavily, her prow and head-works were not so 
 often submerged in the bursting billows ; and 
 as the top-masts had been previously struck, 
 and every thing cleared from aloft, she ran 
 steadily under bare poles; a little storm-fore- 
 sail having been set, just to balance the helm, 
 and keep her steerage good. 
 
 The accomplished horseman has a pride 
 B 2
 
 10 MAKANNA. 
 
 in restraining the mettle of a fiery steed, and 
 the peril of our situation seemed to inspire 
 the Mate with a similar feeling and that not 
 without reason, for the captain frequently ap- 
 plauded his judgment in keeping the ship a 
 point on the wind : and the skill with which, 
 when at the necessary intervals she passed a 
 swell, he gave her free head-way, and thus 
 preserved her from broaching-to or being 
 dangerously struck by a sea. 
 
 We had continued close-hauled and half- 
 trying in this way for some leagues, the 
 weather still moderating, when an unusual stir 
 was observed in the forecastle, into which the 
 Malays and the other mutineers (for unfortu- 
 nately they were headed by eighteen Whites,) 
 had been driven in the first tumult. These 
 eighteen renegades had not only proved idle 
 
 vagabonds, but we had reason to believe them 
 
 5 
 
 desperately dangerous. Their being on board 
 was one of the sinister accidents to which this 
 fated ship was doomed; for we had picked
 
 MAKANNA. 11 
 
 them up, out of sheer charity, off the sinking 
 hull of a dismasted water-logged schooner, 
 called by them a free-trader, but which we 
 strongly suspected to have been a free-booter. 
 
 It was these graceless varlets who had 
 doubtless the night before, during that foolish 
 fancy-ball in the state-room, forced open the 
 armoury and distributed cutlasses to the 
 Malays. On the present occasion not one of 
 the desperadoes was to be seen, although their 
 tawny comrades, who had probably been sleep- 
 ing off their late debauch under hatches, began 
 to swarm about the bows. 
 
 They commenced with a chorus of howls, 
 the meaning of which we could not compre- 
 hend, until we found that they were about to 
 cast overboard the bodies of three of their 
 people who had been mortally wounded in 
 the late affray. This ceremony concluded, the 
 daring rascals had recourse to every species 
 of insulting sound and gesture their vile in- 
 genuity could devise; and shouting, often
 
 12 MAKANNA. 
 
 clashed their weapons, as if braving us to a 
 combat which they were nevertheless anxious 
 to avoid. 
 
 At length, a fellow of giant mould, (who 
 had formally been appointed to a sort of Cap- 
 tainship over his countrymen, as he could 
 speak English,) sprung on the stage of spars 
 forward, and, as if to prove the temper of his 
 blade, slashed his cutlass through two of the 
 larboard shrouds. As pranks of this sort 
 would soon have crippled the ship to a fatal 
 extent, the Captain hailed him to desist. He 
 did so, but it was only to change his mode of 
 operating ; for unwinding the costly shawl that 
 formed his turban, and reeving his loose cotton 
 trowsers to the knees, he swung himself into 
 the fore-rigging, and was on the point of 
 cutting the storm-sail from its earings, when 
 the Mate levelled a rifle, and shot him through 
 the sword-arm just above the elbow. 
 
 The wounded man had no sooner dropped 
 the cutlass, than, with the assistance of the
 
 MAKANNA. 13 
 
 other hand, he slung himself astride on the 
 main-fore-yard-arm, and began cursing his 
 enemy bitterly by name. The Mate preserved 
 his usual smile : but when after shouting 
 " traitor," the Malay, appealing to the Captain, 
 said something of a plot the Mate's eyes 
 flashed, and snatching up another piece, he 
 fired again. The aim was now more deadly, 
 for the ball passed through the chest of the 
 Malay. The wounded wretch laboured to 
 speak, but without success the death-pangs 
 were too busy with him, and the vain effort 
 only forced a bloody froth through the clenched 
 teeth his eyes rolled fiercely for a moment 
 his swarthy limbs were convulsed they re- 
 laxed, and he fell headlong and lifeless into 
 the ocean. 
 
 Without having uttered a word, the Mate 
 paced the quarter-deck, firmly and silently as 
 before 5 but a more than usual paleness stole 
 over his countenance, while he glanced intently 
 on us all, as if to read our inmost thoughts. 
 
 * O
 
 14 MAKANNA. 
 
 The report brought our spare hands* and 
 the females from below. The fearful waiting- 
 
 O 
 
 maid of Bertha flew to the side of her mistress 
 as to a sanctuary. And even the oriental 
 indolence of the proud heiress, and her ancient 
 aunt, were so far overcome, that, having 
 laboured some way up the steps from the 
 cabin, they ventured a peep upon the deck, 
 through the half-closed doors of the com- 
 panion. 
 
 Matters were in this state, and the Captain 
 had just said, " 'Twas a strange chance, that 
 rattling shot did not conjure up some of the 
 skulking white demons in the forecastle" 
 when it was observed that the Malays were 
 themselves hurrying down below. My own 
 attention was at that precise time directed 
 towards the ladies who had paused so curiously 
 in their ascent; and particularly towards the 
 youngest, who, although not wearing quite 
 so many gems as her " guardian spirit," (for 
 so we called the maiden Aunt,) was in personal
 
 MAKANNA. 15 
 
 charms, as Hamlet would have said, possessed 
 of " metal more attractive." I had not a. 
 thought of anything immediately amiss, when 
 a sudden sound of trampling came from below, 
 and at the moment the bronze-like sinewy 
 arms of some of the Malays were seen twining 
 around the ascending females, who, dumb with 
 astonishment, were dragged downwards, and 
 the ladder instantly unshipped. 
 
 The matter was so momentary that we 
 seemed like men in a dream, until the Cap- 
 tain sung out " Down with the hatches fore- 
 and-aft ! " and then, rubbing his hands to- 
 gether, his usual habit when amused, he added 
 " The vermin are caught in their own 
 trap, Sirs ; and we can let them out to the 
 dog each in his turn." 
 
 The order was obeyed with alacrity, the 
 only impediment being in the forecastle, and 
 there the guard left by the mutineers being- 
 weak, it retreated below, with the exception
 
 16 MAKANNA. 
 
 of one head-strong fellow, who at last, find- 
 ing himself separated from the rest, struck 
 desperately at random, and then, as the cut- 
 lasses began to maul him, and the blood spirted 
 like fountains from his jugulars, still fighting 
 faintly, and staggering backwards, he fell into 
 the deep. 
 
 " This is all well enough" cried the Mate 
 in rather an ironical tone " except in two 
 items first, our sails are all stowed below, so 
 that we've no chance of working the ship if 
 the weather clears, and secondly, we must 
 depend upon 'these thieves of mercy' for our 
 daily bread, the biscuits that we happen to 
 have in the round-house not being rations for 
 forty-eight hours." 
 
 " And that may be twenty-four beyond 
 our need," replied the Captain, turning short 
 on the Mate. " We've been running without 
 a rag at the rate of sixteen knots an hour, 
 
 O ' 
 
 and must have made sufficient way to be on
 
 MAKANNA. 17 
 
 the track of the Goshawk, which with another 
 spanking frigate, thank God, is cruising off the 
 Cape." 
 
 " Might I be so bold, your Honour," said 
 the Boatswain, (who had caught the Captain's 
 eye for leave to speak,) " I'd just report 
 that the carpenter ha' shied off to join the 
 mutiny, and it must have been he, your 
 Honour, the chalk-scoring son of a gun, who, 
 while those mahogany-faced monkeys were 
 jabbering away in the bows just loik to catch 
 our tention yes, it must have been he that 
 cut a gangway for those ugly imps of th' 
 old-un, through the ship by opening a port in 
 the bulk-head of the bread-room just on 
 the train loik of this gentleman's advice." 
 
 " Advice what advice ? " exclaimed the 
 Mate in a voice of thunder, and starting back, 
 his hand was on a pistol in his belt. 
 
 " Tush, Paul,'"' said the Captain, 
 " what harm can the fellow mean, he only
 
 18 MAKANNA. 
 
 glances at your brimstone scheme for putting 
 folk asleep ' without a lullaby.' Upon my 
 life, Sir, if you miss stays at every puff after 
 this fashion, I'll log what the cabin-boy told 
 of your starting in your sleep, and shouting 
 aloud to hoist the black flag, and board the 
 Brigantine Besides, have we not graver mat- 
 ters in hand, are not some of our lady pas- 
 sengers (Heaven be praised, Miss Falkland, 
 that you're not there too" Coking tenderly 
 at Bertha,) " yes, are not the heiress, and 
 her aunt, whose friends are no less than Di- 
 rectors of the Honourable Company, com- 
 pletely in the power of those hot-blooded 
 Mahometan infidels?" 
 
 A mournful shake of the head was the 
 only reply; but after a little pause, during 
 which he continued rubbing the bolt-ring on a 
 gun-carriage, as if the friction by sympathy 
 might sharpen his wit, the Boatswain ven- 
 tured to remark, " If your Honour plases, I'd
 
 MAKANNA. 19 
 
 be arter dowsing in a bull's-eye just to bail 
 those gentlemen below and put um on good 
 behaviour loik." 
 
 " Tush, Dick ; you'd have a musket ball 
 to ballast your brains, or the point of a board- 
 ing-pike in your ear for an answer but still, 
 on a second thought, if a word can be launched 
 with safety, I've no objection." 
 
 Thus chartered, the Boatswain soon demo- 
 lished one of the lenses called a bull's-eye, 
 several of which are sometimes let into the 
 deck of a ship, as they admit light, are under 
 foot, and occupy little space. A breach thus 
 effected, the Boatswain took a speaking trum- 
 pet, and placing it obliquely so as to keep his 
 head clear when using it of any assault from 
 beneath, he sung out " What, ho ! all a- 
 hoy, messmates ! That *s you galic-v/s chaps 
 that we fool loik saved from the sharks 
 What, a-hoy ! Now, boys, as we've floated 
 in the same timber loik, I'm arter wishing you 
 may come to your deaths dacently in halters,
 
 20 M A K A N N A . 
 
 loik Christian sinners, and not be broke alive 
 upon the wheel or hung aloft on hooks in the 
 sun, writhing and drying loik skinned eels in 
 torment afore hand. Now, hark 'ee, as all this 
 wull depend on the report of his Honour here, 
 when he gies ye up to the Dutch at the 
 Cape who have mortal cruel laws I'm just 
 for your own sakes, loik, arter giving you a 
 quiet hint to be very nice and very dacent in 
 your manners to the ladies for if you should 
 only twirl one of their fancy curls the ugly 
 way blood an' zounds you'd better clap a 
 lighted lunt to the powder, boys, and scud for 
 Beelzebub in a flash !" 
 
 The silence which followed this address 
 seemed to augur well for its success,- a low 
 hum of voices was heard from below, but no 
 answer; and after having waited what he 
 termed " a dacent spell," the Boatswain nailed 
 a piece of plank over the opening, and we 
 attended to other and even more important 
 matters.
 
 MAKANNA. 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 " They waited but a Leader, and they found 
 One to their cause inseparably bound ; 
 Cut off by some mysterious fate from those 
 Whom birth and nature meant not for his foes." 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 THE sudden night of tropical regions was 
 about to close around us; and having first 
 securely and comfortably stowed Bertha and 
 her Maid in the round-house, we began to 
 think of our own accommodation. This was a 
 matter which required some dexterity; for not- 
 withstanding the now moderate state of the 
 weather, those seamen whose turn it was to 
 sleep, could with difficulty find berths where 
 they might hope to escape being rolled about,
 
 22 MAKANNA. 
 
 and consequently confoundedly bruised by the 
 pitching of the vessel. 
 
 All was now so quiet below, that the 
 Captain deemed the common watch sufficient, 
 and himself, together with the rest of our little 
 party, all half dead with fatigue, lay down to 
 sleep, his last words to the Mate being 
 " Paul, let her stand keen hauled on the 
 weather-gage keep a good look out, Sir; 
 and should you make a sail, let me be 
 roused." 
 
 Having been so lucky as to secure a safe 
 berth in the hollow of a coil of cable, slumber 
 soon overtook me, and that withal so cozily, 
 that I began dreaming of my boyish days : 
 Former scenes of childish sport arid tempted 
 danger, the thin and bending ice; the dive 
 amid the roaring sluices of the mill ; all passed 
 swift as a moving picture, until at length 
 my fancy lingered in a hay field on the banks 
 of the soft flowing Avon, in the verdant 
 flowery vale of Eversham.
 
 MAKANNA. 23 
 
 Methought the evening hour was far ad- 
 vanced, yet still a sea of golden light remained 
 beyond the mountainous range of Malvern, as 
 glowing in a purple haze, the proud hills 
 stretched across the west. A soul-seducing, 
 breathing fragrance hung like a spiritual 
 presence in the air, and the coy nightingale 
 sang sweetly in the distance. I was alone 
 and then, I knew not how, methought that she 
 the first, the dearest treasure of my heart, was 
 at my side. I spoke ; when springing nimbly 
 from me, and dancing backwards with a gay 
 capricious air, she chaunted : 
 
 Hark ! for I hear them calling me, 
 
 The Nymphs that dwell in the crystal sea 
 
 Deep in their coral caves they lie, 
 
 Far far conceal'd from mortal eye ; 
 
 Softly round their pearly bed 
 
 Phosphoric stars of ocean shed 
 
 Silvery gleams of mellow light, 
 
 That freeze the heart, but charm the sight. 
 
 Oh, stay me not, dearest, there's a spell in the hour, 
 
 And the Demons of Ocean are fearful in power. 
 
 A rich deep symphony still seemed to
 
 24 M A K A N N A . 
 
 tremble on her tongue, when a tangled root 
 caught her light foot Even as she fell my 
 sheltering arm enshrined her throbbing waist ; 
 and in the passion of the moment my eager 
 lips pressed her warm cheek : And then a 
 change was wrought I seemed as one that 
 had been striving and was overcome my 
 thrilling limbs were faint, clammy, and power- 
 less I lay supine in darkness and as it were 
 buried beneath a crushing weight of the dank 
 grass I strove to speak and could not, and 
 yet, as if far above, still I heard that choral 
 voice exulting in a burst of melody, as if she 
 felt a strange unnatural joy to mock the 
 suffocating pangs that rilled me with an agony 
 beyond endurance. 
 
 My dream had lasted longer, but that a 
 cold hand was fumbling at my throat. It 
 shook me gently by the collar, and I awoke. 
 
 The Boatswain was kneeling by me ; and 
 when I opened my eyes, he put his face down 
 close to mine, saying, in a deep hollow whisper
 
 MAKANNA. 25 
 
 " Sir Sir we're all in a net ! That is 
 slaves and dead men ! The Mate is in league 
 with those sons of Beelzebub below He ha' 
 put the ship before the wind clean against 
 orders, and some half hour agone he struck 
 the deck starboard and larboard with his 
 heel; I doubt a signal, for ever since a work 
 of sawing ha' sounded faintly from within. 
 The Captain sleeps as if he'd taken his 
 medicine for the tooth-ache while the Second 
 Mate, the Purser, and the best men of my 
 own gang, are all snoring stupid, loik so many 
 gossips arter a christening." 
 
 Dick was a man trusty and resolute, and 
 his news was so circumstantial too, that I 
 could not doubt it. I had before disliked 
 the Mate, but never, even for a moment, 
 suspected him in relation to the mutiny nor 
 could I comprehend any motive for his con- 
 nivance; and yet my blood grew chill, for I 
 remembered the meaning of his eye when it 
 rested once on Bertha. 
 VOL. i. c
 
 26 MAKANNA. 
 
 Our only hope lay in time and extreme 
 caution, this I whispered to the Boatswain, 
 who managed to retire unobserved. After a 
 short interval I arose ; and going abaft, I 
 found the Mate standing at the wheel; he 
 smiled on my approach, and with his usual 
 nonchalance, observed " You're earlier than 
 the sun, Sir I've put the ship before the 
 wind ; for by Jove, there was one of those 
 volcanic islands, that are so suddenly created 
 in these latitudes, looming right on her 
 weather bow yes, and had it not been for the 
 brightness of the stars, I had not caught a 
 glimpse of the breakers tho', tumbling half 
 mast high, in time to have laid her off on the 
 
 leeward tack." ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 There was something so deliberately sin- 
 cere in the tone of his voice, and unstudied in 
 his whole manner, that I fully believed him, 
 and actually rubbed my eyes to look out for 
 the volcanic island Paul, however, saved me 
 the trouble by adding " No No we may
 
 MAKANNA. 27 
 
 be thankful that the danger is not only past, 
 but out of sight." The Boatswain too, at 
 that instant, gave a signal which opened my 
 eyes to the fallacy. 
 
 The nine-pounders previously mentioned 
 remained pointed so as to sweep the deck as 
 before : this again puzzled me ; for in case of 
 any sudden attack from the mutineers, these 
 guns would have given us a great advantage ; 
 the lunts or matches indeed were no longer 
 ready lighted, but it would have been easy, as 
 I thought, to have discharged the pieces by 
 flashing the lock of a pistol at their touch 
 holes Here again I was deluded; for on 
 taking an opportunity to examine the priming 
 of one of .the guns, I found a piece of wet 
 sponge thrust into the vent Then, indeed, I 
 saw plainly enough that we were, as the Boat- 
 swain termed it " all in a net !" 
 
 The Mate made some other remarks, but 
 not having patience to answer them, I sat 
 down on a gun-carriage to await the event.
 
 8 MAKANNA. 
 
 The Boatswain stretched himself out on the 
 deck alongside, and pretended to sleep It 
 could hardly be said indeed that there was a 
 soul awake, except Dick, the Mate, and 
 myself, for the watch had not been changed, 
 and of the first gang, two only were on their 
 legs, and these poor fellows moped about 
 with their eyes half shut, as if walking in a 
 dream. Fatigue might have something to do 
 with this, but I had no doubt but that their 
 grog had been heavily drugged, to boot. 
 
 The night had been clear and starlight; 
 but as morning came on, the wind sank 
 almost away, and a dense fog gathered in the 
 air. The first show of light had scarcely 
 marked the east, before two distinct taps 
 sounded from beneath the deck. I thought 
 the Mate looked disconcerted for a moment, 
 but no answer to the signal was attempted. 
 In about half an hour, the taps from below 
 were repeated. The Mate was now the first 
 to notice them and, to my infinite surprise,
 
 MAKANNA. 29 
 
 requested me to assist him in arousing the 
 Captain. This was no easy task, but by 
 dint of shaking, pulling, and pinching, it was 
 at last accomplished. 
 
 " What, all safe, Paul ?" mumbled the 
 Captain, still half asleep " and the ship 
 floating dead as if moored stem and stern 
 in Plymouth Sound ?" 
 
 "That's the very deuce of it, Sir; I was 
 obliged to put her before the gale in the 
 night to avoid a volcanic rock, and the only 
 hope we can obtain of speaking the Goshawk, 
 considering that we've but a single sail and 
 no chance of working the ship if a wind rises, 
 will be to man the boats, and pull off lustily 
 to the larboard and as for the hull and her 
 merry crew boxed snug under hatches let 
 them scud in storm and whirlwind, like the 
 Flying Dutchman, till the day of doom I" 
 
 This advice was really so reasonable (for 
 we had no provisions or water to serve us in
 
 30 MAKANNA. 
 
 a calm), that, like every thing else the Mate 
 proposed, it received the Captain's full ap- 
 probation ; and he ordered the plan to be 
 instantly fulfilled. All hands were now busied 
 in clearing the boats and in preparing tackle 
 to sling them over, when the Boatswain, 
 from some whim, stamped twice upon the 
 after hatch. The sound had hardly passed 
 when, with a sudden crash, part of the main 
 deck was forced up, and forty armed Malays, 
 their tawny faces and white eyes gleaming 
 with rage, sprung like hungry tigers through 
 the chasm. 
 
 " Now, Paul," said the Captain coolly, 
 " let Bouncing Bess spit the black grapes 
 from her chops, and hail the dogs in 
 thunder !" 
 
 " Sir," replied the Mate, (stepping back 
 a yard or so,) " the game's up ! That stamp- 
 ing lout has cut the play short, and we've 
 got the last scene before the second act.
 
 MAKANNA. 31 
 
 No, Sir, it won't do the guns are useless 
 the powder's too damp for wildfire, and your 
 pistols will not flash in the pan." 
 
 The Captain tried the latter experiment 
 at once, by levelling one at the head of the 
 Mate, which missed fire. The latter smiled ; 
 and waving his cutlass as he stamped, shouted 
 aloud, "On! sons of thunder, on!" 
 
 At his beck fifty rough fellows, all armed 
 and resolute, crowded around him. " Silence," 
 he cried, " and on your lives be gentle 
 all's over now so that they're safe, it is 
 enough. As for the old lion here take this 
 kerchief (untying the black one from his 
 neck,) it will be softer to his arms." 
 
 With the fearful odds of numbers and 
 ammunition, the mutineers had it all their 
 own way. The tustle lasted not a minute, 
 some flesh cuts were received and given, but 
 the enemy tumbled in so fast and so close, 
 that we had not space to raise an arm. 
 
 The Captain, who was pinioned like the
 
 32 MAKANNA. 
 
 rest, stood, without uttering a word, almost 
 suffocated with rage ; the veins of his short 
 thick neck throbbing with a visible pulsation, 
 and the hot blood settling in his face almost 
 to blackness. The perfidy of the Mate seemed 
 altogether unnatural, and he gazed on his 
 late friend with a fierce horror, as if actually 
 encountered by some unblessed vision from 
 the other world. > 
 
 "Now, Sir," said the Mate coolly, "you 
 take it too much in dudgeon the loss to you 
 is even as nothing ! Only five minutes since, 
 and all you thought of was the boats they 
 shall be yours, and what you had forgotten 
 they shall be bravely victualled too. The 
 vessel indeed is mine, but what of that ! she 
 was condemned by her late commander. 
 As for myself there again we're quits you 
 made me Mate, Sir, because my skill had 
 saved the ship, and it has done so since, 
 that debt has twice been paid. Even of the 
 mutiny I stand unimpeached, that is of the
 
 MAKANNA. 33 
 
 beginning chance brought these wild dogs 
 on board, and in corrupting the Malays, they 
 but laboured in their sworn vocation. Once 
 they mustered under another flag, as lawful 
 as your own; 'twas in the Gulf of St. Law- 
 rence, when we played at hide-and-seek 
 among the Caribbee Isles so that they only 
 reclaim their old commander." 
 
 As a ratification of the latter clause, the 
 mutineers cheered loudly, and then com- 
 menced clearing the boats for service with 
 all despatch : these were soon afloat, and 
 handsomely equipped with provisions, -bed- 
 ding, sails, and loose spars. The Boatswain, 
 and a dozen more, were already aboard, when 
 the Major, around whose neck the timid 
 Bertha had entwined her arms, in an ecstasy 
 of grateful joy at his preservation from the 
 danger of the fray, addressed the Mate, 
 saying, 
 
 " Well, Sir, I must confess that you have 
 conducted this delicate affair with more than 
 c2
 
 34 MAKANNA. 
 
 the usual courtesy, let me then intreat that 
 the ladies below may be included in this 
 liberal cartel." 
 
 " That has been too long forgotten, they 
 wait my personal homage ; the youngest has 
 a most punctilious sense of honour, or rather 
 of her own importance ; they shall command 
 me." Thus saying, and with a smile of du- 
 bious meaning, the Mate retired.- 
 
 His stay was much prolonged ; and not- 
 withstanding that the noise and trampling on 
 the deck were loud, yet from the interior of 
 the ship, perhaps once or twice, there came 
 a sound as of contending voices. On his 
 return, with evident indifference, and yet 
 politely, he steadied the litters in which the 
 ladies were borne, ready to be lowered into the 
 long boat. The aunt looked perplexed ; and, 
 what was strange, neither seemed to enjoy 
 their return to the fresh air. The heiress 
 held up her shawl almost to her forehead, 
 and when, as hurrying to the boats, a tangled
 
 MAKANNA. 35 
 
 rope with sudden jerk withdrew it, some 
 fancied she had been weeping, her cheeks 
 were burning, and a strange bewildered drow- 
 siness possessed her. On the gangway the 
 Mate gave to the eldest a casket, saying, 
 " Here, Lady, are the gems but remember 
 that silence to one may be of value far 
 beyond them." 
 
 The Captain seemed acting on the hint, 
 for he was just then hoisted by main force 
 into the boat, without having spoken a syl- 
 lable. As if to make up for the deficiency 
 of his superior officer, the Boatswain at that 
 moment, having caught a glimpse of the 
 quondam Mate, sang out, " Hope no offence, 
 Sir, I'll own your jolly dogs, as you call em, 
 ( thieves o* mercy;' and I'll just loik be arter 
 repating my good wishes, that you may all 
 suffer to a man, dacently in halters." 
 
 The whole of our party were now on board 
 the boats, except Bertha, her maid, the 
 Major, and myself: my foot too was just over
 
 36 MAKANNA. 
 
 the gangway, when the Creole caught my 
 arm 
 
 " Hold, Sir ! you stay with us your 
 presence may perchance be more useful here 
 than there." Then turning to the Major, 
 who, in deference to his age, was left un- 
 bound, he added " Sir, the boat awaits 
 you." 
 
 " And my Daughter," said the old officer, 
 his lips then for the first time in his life 
 quivering with fear. 
 
 " No, Sir, that cannot be ; I am not quite 
 the brute you think me and you shall meet 
 again Ay, and within three months, if a 
 plank will swim, or a sail will gather wind ! 
 No more" He turned away, and went below. 
 
 The father stood absorbed in mental agony, 
 the big tears rolling down his cheeks. His 
 child had sunk at once, but that a friendly 
 arm supported her. All power was gone of 
 voice or motion, yet a horrid consciousness 
 remained, and her eyes were fixed with a
 
 MAKANNA. 37 
 
 death-like glance upon her parent's face, even 
 as if her spirit longed to pass those soul- 
 subduing portals He pressed up towards her, 
 and with a lingering kiss upon her forehead, 
 said softly, " Bertha, there is a Power which 
 whispers to my heart that we shall meet 
 again ; and till that time let this lie in your 
 bosom it is a toy that did your mother once 
 a special service." She placed a little velvet 
 case within her vest one end was open, and 
 there shone a sudden glitter, as of jewels or 
 of steel, but no one saw its form. 
 
 . And they were parted : the lady was 
 borne gently to her cabin, and her father 
 placed in a boat. 
 
 The craft given up were the long-boat and 
 the cutter; while the launch, being retained 
 for the service of the ship, was ordered with 
 an armed crew to follow the others for a short 
 distance, and then to return to the vessel, 
 which was now assuming a changed appear- 
 ance.
 
 38 MAKANNA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 " Far on the horizon's verge appears a speck 
 A spot a mast a sail an armed deck ! " 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 HOWEVER painful might have been the emo- 
 tions of the subdued crew, as the frail barks 
 assigned them were urged forward on the 
 treacherous bosom of the ocean, their friends 
 in the ship felt equally depressed, and had 
 perhaps a greater cause for despondency. 
 The measured splashing fall of the oars came 
 for awhile with a mournful cadence, but when 
 the departing boats had surmounted a few of 
 the swells which still evinced the force of the
 
 MAKANNA. 39 
 
 late storm, these farewell sounds became in- 
 audible, while the receding vessels grew gra- 
 dually indistinct. At last, when they were 
 altogether confounded in the gray mist which 
 hung around, the anxious spectators could not 
 but remember that while they were them- 
 selves the captives of a man whose every 
 purpose seemed rife with evil, on Captain 
 Daker and his crew, even then, a new world 
 of hope, and enterprise was dawning. 
 
 In the skill of their commander, and in 
 their own devoted discipline, the exiled party 
 had great advantages, and on these grounds 
 their ultimate safety might be confidently 
 expected. Such at least were the topics of 
 consolation, which her fellow captive ventured 
 to suggest to the weeping Bertha, as in tremb- 
 ling: emotion she lingered at the cabin window, 
 
 O O ' 
 
 her humid eyes still poring on the void im- 
 mensity of ocean, as if her imagination painted 
 unreal objects in the distance. 
 
 How true are those sacred and pathetic
 
 40 MAKANNA. 
 
 words, " the heart knoweth its own bitterness, 
 and a stranger meddleth not therewith." 
 
 The spirit of Bertha was so entirely wrapt 
 in its own dark fears, that even the voice of 
 kindness remained for a while unheeded; but 
 now, when unwillingly convinced that every 
 trace of her beloved parent had disappeared 
 beyond the whelming waste of waters, she 
 slowly recovered a consciousness of the pre- 
 sent. The first indication of returning serenity 
 was when the meek-eyed girl, raising her pale 
 countenance in the mute eloquence of heart- 
 felt devotion, appeared to breathe a prayer ; 
 and then, after a turn or so across the cabin, 
 with her clasped hands pressing on her bosom, 
 as if to restrain the unwonted wildness of its 
 throbs, she paused before her now silent com- 
 panion. 
 
 Their former intercourse had only been of 
 that slight character, which the ordinary 
 habits of politeness between fellow passengers 
 on a voyage enforces ; not because there was
 
 MAKANNA. 41 
 
 wanting on the male side at least, a desire to 
 cultivate the society of one so young and so 
 lovely, but simply from the sensitive timidity 
 of Bertha when in the presence of him, whose 
 respectful glances she perhaps already deemed 
 but too approving. 
 
 However that might be, on the present 
 occasion there was a confiding dignity in her 
 manner, and a gentle solemnity in the silvery 
 tones of her sweet voice, as she addressed him, 
 which well accorded with the emergency of 
 their situation. 
 
 " Yes, I confess that he would blame this 
 grief, and it shall be subdued : You were my 
 Father's friend, and may command my best 
 esteem ; yet pardon me, although I gladly 
 lean upon your council, Sir, I dread the zeal 
 that may be prematurely bold. If I recover 
 the shelter of those dear paternal arms, believe 
 me, it will not be by violence : one rash 
 moment one mistaken word might crush 
 that hope for ever: Let us then watch the
 
 42 MAKANNA. 
 
 chances of our cruel fortune, with a silent but 
 unsleeping patience : some happy change 
 may soon occur; nor can I teach myself to 
 think Laroon is now the enemy he seems; 
 there must be some mistake some sad neces- 
 sity, as he at least believes, for this strange 
 enterprise. The meaning of that melancholy 
 smile is easily translated ; but believe me, it is 
 not yet prophetic ; I shall not prove a second 
 Desdemona : And still with all his faults we 
 know that Paul is brave, and merciful to 
 some at least ; I never can forget how gal- 
 lantly he leapt into the rolling surge when that 
 poor fellow had fallen overboard. The Cap- 
 tain would have stayed him ; but no he 
 spurned each selfish fear, and ventured life as 
 gaily as he led our evening dance. You do 
 not answer, and I fear anxiety has given too 
 great a license to my words : In all respects, 
 my Father's friend may best advise, except, 
 indeed, that you must promise me to shun all 
 violence."
 
 MAKANNA. 43 
 
 It is almost needless to say, that he to 
 whom this earnest adjuration was made did 
 all in his power to support her confidence, 
 and to assuage the kind anxiety she had done 
 him the honour of expressing. These dues of 
 courtesy were however paid with an aching 
 heart, for to Vernon it was evident that some 
 of the darker lines which he believed to exist 
 in the- character of Paul Laroon, had alto- 
 gether escaped the notice of the lovely 
 pleader. In his own estimation of that bold 
 man, his better qualities were little more than 
 the pride of conferring an obligation, and the 
 specious show of military honour. And he 
 thought withal, that little dependance was to 
 be placed in the generosity of one so seemingly 
 relentless, and so reckless of the future. That 
 this successful mutineer (for such he then 
 deemed Laroon) might for a while exercise 
 towards his gentle and too confiding friend 
 that forbearing delicacy of which an ordinary 
 freebooter would be incapable, he was prepared
 
 44 MAKANNA. 
 
 to expect ; but in this, there was, he thought, 
 no ultimate security. ' Will not the hunter 
 pat the timid deer before he turns her out to 
 meet the hounds ? Yes ! and the Indian of 
 the forest spreads a feast before the captive 
 whom on the morrow he lashes to the stake ! ' 
 There was another view in which the de- 
 lusive courtesy that he expected was even 
 still more abhorrent to his feelings ; and that 
 was in so much as it might perplex the judg- 
 ment, and interest the heart of Bertha. That 
 
 thought was then too natural to be easily 
 
 
 dissipated ; and it stung still sharper than the 
 
 dread of any sudden violence which force 
 might perhaps control, or chance defeat : and 
 yet he almost despised himself for harbouring 
 a doubt so unworthy of his better hopes, as 
 any aspersion on the judgment of that lovely 
 and innocent girl might seem to imply; but 
 then with the very effort to repel it, the tor- 
 turing suspicion came burning to his brain; 
 and his distempered fancy painted the martial
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 air, the deep sonorous voice, the sparkling 
 eye, and frank gaiety of Laroon, in colours so 
 alluring, that he almost thought she would be 
 justified in overlooking the defects of a man 
 so brilliantly endowed in those external graces, 
 deemed perilous to female hearts, and who had 
 thrown his life in jeopardy, as he believed, to 
 gain her. 
 
 Such were the painful ideas which strug- 
 gled in the bosom of Vernon, when he who 
 had excited them entered the cabin. The 
 sudden flash of indignation which the former 
 felt, instinctively arising on the approach of 
 Paul, was no less instantly suppressed in 
 tenderness to Bertha, who remained seated 
 at a little distance with a book before her, 
 and appearing at least to read. 
 
 The self-appointed Captain of the good 
 ship Ganges moved forward with even more 
 than his usual self-possession. His dress, 
 too, was evidently studied for effect, and the 
 careless grace with which he wore a short
 
 46 MAKANNA. 
 
 sea-cloak, and a sash of crimson net, sus- 
 taining no less than three brace of pistols, 
 and a short heavy Asiatic sword, gave a 
 characteristic finish to what Vernon would 
 have termed " the imposing audacity" of his 
 presence. 
 
 " How little are the victims of Destiny 
 understood or pitied," said the intruder, 
 smiling gently with a respectful glance to- 
 wards Bertha, and in a tone of subdued energy 
 which seemed to challenge friendship. " You 
 feel yourselves unfortunate, yet, believe me, 
 Laroon is more so ! A drowning man would 
 clutch a sheathless blade, if held within his 
 grasp; and even so the stake which Fortune 
 throws before me must not be lost in defer- 
 ence to the weakness of my nature. Suc- 
 cessful stratagem in war has not been held 
 ignoble I owe not allegiance to the British 
 crown : and saying this, may I not stand 
 absolved of those dark deeds which accident 
 might prompt you to impute. For more
 
 MAKANNA. 47 
 
 detail, a more convenient time may offer; and 
 would to Heaven I could your future freedom 
 guarantee as easily as to the winds I scatter 
 the idle name of mutineer, or pirate. This 
 much is still within my reach, that, while 
 on board the Ganges, I may entreat you, to 
 consider yourselves as passengers alone ; and 
 with that view, Mr. Vernon will not refuse me 
 his parole." 
 
 This unexpected indulgence was offered 
 with such a show of candid politeness, that 
 he to whom it was tendered could do no less 
 than return it with a ready bow of grateful 
 acquiescence ; when the other immediately 
 presented him with a brace of pistols, re- 
 marking at the same moment, but in a 
 whisper so as not to alarm Bertha : 
 
 "There are seme roisters among the crew, 
 on whom I cannot as I would confide." 
 
 And then aloud he added, " Miss Falk- 
 land will honour me by considering the State 
 Room as entirely her own, except when she
 
 48 MAKANNA. 
 
 may feel inclined to pardon intrusions which 
 those who have once enjoyed the pleasure of 
 her society cannot perhaps altogether avoid." 
 
 " It must at least be acknowledged, Sir, 
 that you take pains to polish the fetters you 
 impose ; and play the jailer so well, that the 
 character quite becomes you," replied Ber- 
 tha, with an expression of irony, which the 
 sudden start and ashy paleness of Laroon 
 taught her it was polite, if not prudent, to 
 allay. 
 
 " Well, in sober earnestness, I thank 
 you, Captain ; a soldier's child should learn 
 to bear the adverse chance of arms without 
 repining ; and since it must be so, I am 
 really glad to find that, in the better sense 
 .of the term, you are our enemy." 
 
 Laroon bowed with an air of self-con- 
 gratulation, and the trio then separated with- 
 out exchanging another word; the Captain 
 rejoicing in the security of his own secret, 
 while to Vernon and Miss Falkland, the
 
 MAKANNA. 49 
 
 victory he had just achieved over their pre- 
 vious ideas was as sudden and complete as 
 had been his capture of the vessel. The 
 whole scene had passed so rapidly, that 
 none of the points advanced had been duly 
 weighed ; and Vernon, as he stole off to get 
 a quiet snooze in his cot, felt almost ashamed 
 of the blind suspicion which still haunted his 
 mind, as other recollections faded in the sense 
 of drowsiness and fatigue. 
 
 When a man is thoroughly exhausted in 
 mind and body, there is nothing like sleep 
 it is then that he finds it to be, as Shakspeare 
 says, " Great Nature's second course, chief 
 nourisher in Life's feast;" and the slumbers 
 of Vernon on the present occasion were of 
 such an extraordinary endurance, that, on the 
 same authority, he had " slept by day more 
 than the wild cat," when the Steward's boy 
 aroused him to dinner, which, under the 
 Captain's direction, was served in his- own 
 cabin. The solitary meal was soon concluded 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 50 MAKANNA. 
 
 and when Vernon sought his usual exercise 
 on deck, the change which a few short hours 
 had produced, in the aspect of everything 
 around him, was so signal, that he might 
 have fancied himself the subject of an Ara- 
 bian prodigy. 
 
 The ship was, when last he viewed her, 
 reduced almost to the condition of a sheer- 
 hulk, from the confusion incidental to the 
 mutiny and storm. She then lay awkwardly 
 low in the water, having been rather over- 
 freighted ; her yards and top-masts too were 
 all struck, and her decks altogether encum- 
 bered, fore-and-aft, with a complete chaos of 
 spars, coops, and cordage. 
 
 Instead of this floating wreck, what he 
 now beheld was a gallant ship in perfect 
 trim ! her polished decks without impedi- 
 ment from stem to stern, and jier white 
 bellying sails towering aloft towards the blue 
 vault of heaven, in graduated and glistening 
 beauty, light and airy, as some majestic pile 
 of snowy clouds.
 
 MAKANNA. 51 
 
 " Hark'ee, my fine fellow ! " said Vernon 
 to a square-set little dab of a mariner who 
 stood at the wheel, with his larboard cheek 
 distorted after the fashion of a baboon's pouch, 
 from the presence of an unconscionable quid 
 of the best Virginian, which he had just 
 tucked into the corner of his ugly mouth. 
 
 " What, your Captain's piped all-hands- 
 a-hoy to some purpose : the ship shows as if 
 she had been in dock for a week ; and how 
 is't, Mic, that she floats so lightly on the 
 water ? " 
 
 The fellow's first care was to secure the 
 quid by a twist of the tongue, and then came 
 the answer, in a sort of snappish half-in- 
 audible growl. 
 
 " Ay ! Ay ! Yes, Sir, that last is rather a 
 queerish point for a man to weather at a 
 guess, seeing as how none o* th' guns were 
 heaved over instead of a leading lead in the 
 storm; and yet she draws four feet less than 
 she did four hours agone Yes, four feet by
 
 52 MAKANNA. 
 
 the mark ! and mayn't that dumfounder any 
 man who kens th' worth of merchandise 
 Give me biscuit powder for beef! if I could 
 have believed that any man, much less he 
 that gives the word here, could have had the 
 heart to cast just thirty hogsheads of prime 
 sugar, and two hundred ton o' rice into the 
 sea and all for what, but to make a lollipop 
 for the fish ! Why, they were the very 
 bowels of the ship, Sir : That precious freight 
 would have chinked right merrily when trans- 
 mogrified into doubloons! and then, did it 
 not make the hussy lie so stanch, and proper 
 in the gale ? and now, Sir, when she floats 
 crank as a cork, and we've not hands to slap 
 her round in stays ! she's to be all a-crack 
 with a press o' cloth, that if the wind freshed 
 but a puff, would capsize her in a wink, lay 
 her bottom to bask in the sun, and spread 
 a special meal o' Christian flesh for the sharks ! 
 Odd's ! I'm not th' lubber to stint a risk 
 in rason; but let any man who ever squared
 
 MAKANNA. 53 
 
 a yard cast his eyes aloft that's if he can, 
 without nicking his scragbone," said the 
 fellow, suiting the action to the word, by 
 taking off his huge straw hat, and bending 
 back his shaggy head until his flat sallow 
 toad-like face lay parallel with the horizon. 
 
 " Ha 1 there they are, top-gallants, royals, 
 and sky-scrapers, mounting altogether clean 
 out o' sight ! And then th' studding-booms 
 are spliced out for an extra suit o' light 
 duck ; all packed as close as herrings in a 
 shoal." 
 
 " Haul that running jaw-tack tau't, and 
 belay." Exclaimed a gaunt lowering ruffian, 
 who moved up at the instant; and who, by 
 the silver whistle, slung from his red bull-like 
 neck, might be recognised as the newly ap- 
 pointed Boatswain. 
 
 " Who made thee Sailing Master of the 
 Ganges, Mic ? And then, don't the ship travel 
 as if 'twere without a wind, and that when the
 
 54 MAKANNA. 
 
 running of a league may keep our precious 
 necks clear of a hempen collar, that might 
 be some'ot of too tight a fit ! Ay, turn your 
 quid, and remember, Mic, that we sail under 
 pistol law !" 
 
 " Zounds, and what care I for ' pistol 
 law!' Let him who gives th' word, run the 
 ship into the Devil's gripe, and who'll flinch ? 
 But then, no snubbing on a word for me 
 ar'n't we all one as good as another, seeing 
 there's them who'd hang us all dangling in a 
 string, without having a choice for the first ?" 
 
 " Silence, and forward," cried Laroan, who 
 had just arrived from below. 
 
 " These imps of Caliban, Mr. Vernon, are 
 only fit for work as rough as themselves ; and 
 without some amusement in a calm, would cut 
 each other's throats for want of occupation." 
 
 " Does the wind promise?" He inquired 
 of the helmsman. 
 
 " No, your Honour, not the lift of a feather.
 
 MAKANNA. 55 
 
 To speak on the card, there's clean no wind 
 at all; but only just a glummy draw in the 
 air, like the sulphury glow of a furnace." 
 
 " He is right, Sir, and I fear that before 
 night it will fall a dead calm, after which 
 the fiery haze in the west betokens an evil 
 change : 
 
 " Holloa, Boatswain ! Pipe all hands a- 
 hoy : a muster ; it will keep them out of 
 mischief." 
 
 The well known signal resounded through 
 the ship, shrill as the scream of a famished 
 hawk ; and in a moment the before silent fabric 
 became rife with a sudden stir of animation. 
 Some of the half clothed Malays, who were 
 lying about the deck like so many jaded 
 hounds when basking in the sun, started to 
 their feet; and others, who, with several of 
 the seamen, were lounging in the tops and 
 rigging, appeared at giddy heights, emerging 
 from beneath the sails, and slinging them-
 
 56 MAKANNA. 
 
 selves in daring rapidity from rope to rope, 
 until they reached the shrouds. 
 
 As the motley group gathered below, 
 nothing could be more startling than the 
 banditti-like appearance it presented. The 
 major part were so young, that the downy 
 promise of a beard was hardly visible on their 
 chins; but a ferocity shone in their restless 
 eyes, which showed that they were old in 
 crime. This haggard wildness in those of 
 riper years was much subdued ; and in its 
 stead there reigned a sullen cold remorseless 
 frown, ill according with the cunning leer 
 which strove to hide it. 
 
 The garb and accoutrements of this lawless 
 gang were as picturesque and various as 
 their faces. The Malays were generally desti- 
 tute of clothing, except cotten trowsers, or their 
 native 'longooties,' which in the freedom of 
 their present condition many of them had 
 chosen to assume. Some few in addition had
 
 MAKANNA. 57 
 
 shawls bound round their loins; while their 
 shaggy curls of raven black hair were confined 
 by kerchiefs of orange or of crimson silk, in a 
 style at once fantastic and becoming. The 
 dress of the Europeans, if more complete, was 
 not less irregular : for as several chests of 
 
 o * 
 
 clothing had been forced during the mutiny, 
 these worthies had appropriated the most costly 
 articles to their own service, in a way which 
 most grotesquely contrasted with the rough 
 appearance of those parts of their ordinary 
 habits which they still retained. 
 
 Whatever le^al claim to the obedience of 
 
 O 
 
 these rough fellows ' Captain Laroon ' might 
 possess, it was evident that, under the present 
 circumstances, he was too wise a man to exact 
 it. But while the subjection of a manly disci- 
 pline was wanting, the artful mixture of un- 
 usual familiarity and severity, which their 
 leader exhibited in their control, was so 
 adroitly managed, that, while they thought 
 themselves the unshackled agents of their
 
 58 MAKANNA. 
 
 own caprice, they were in fact the abject 
 vassals of his will. 
 
 The common inspection having been made 
 on these terms, in a mode between jest and 
 earnest, and the men exercised at the few guns 
 that graced the deck of the Ganges, small 
 arms were distributed, as the Captain said to 
 Vernon, " Now, Sir, I will give them half an 
 hour's play." 
 
 " Boatswain, clear the gangway, and send 
 the boarders forward." 
 
 In obedience to the call, eighteen of the 
 most ferocious of the dare devil fellows on 
 board moved silently towards the centre of the 
 waist, and then dividing into separate bands, 
 awaited the appointed signal. At the first 
 stamp from Laroon, both parties exchanged a 
 flourish of impatient defiance, which at a 
 second, was followed by the noisy tumult of a 
 mimic fight. The cutlasses waved rapidly 
 right and left in shooting flashes of light 
 the din of their clattering clang grew loud,
 
 MAKANNA. 59 
 
 and the glaring steel glittering in the sun, as 
 hand to hand they closed, sparkled above the 
 combatants in whirling eddies of dazzling 
 flame. 
 
 It was just at this perilous moment when 
 the excitement of the sport had gained a 
 dangerous height, and some accidental gashes 
 had thrown the men on their metal, that, 
 with a panther's bound, Laroon cast himself 
 into the centre of the group. 
 
 The participation of their leader was an 
 unexpected compliment, though, like a bear's 
 embrace, it was too sincere by half, for his 
 blows were rendered with such impetuosity, 
 that the almost exhausted swordsmen were 
 compelled to recede, until the Captain stood 
 as lonely as a magician in the centre of the 
 circle which the point of his sword described. 
 The latter simile was equally just in more 
 senses than one, for the stern features and 
 shrinking gestures of the desperadoes around
 
 60 MAKANNA. 
 
 were sufficiently demoniac to complete the 
 picture. 
 
 Matters were in this state, when one of 
 the party, who before had hung aloof, at- 
 tracted general attention by the promptitude 
 with which he threw himself in the Captain's 
 way. This champion was no other than the 
 dwarfish seaman, whose sarcastic remarks, on 
 the sailing trim of the ship, had before indi- 
 cated the little good-will he bore her com- 
 mander. " Double-jointed-Mic," as the crew 
 termed him, was at all times an ugly cus- 
 tomer; and his low stature, with the tremen- 
 dous strength of his long sinewy arms, rendered 
 him the most awkward swordsman to exchange 
 a tilt with, that could be well imagined. He 
 was himself, as it were, below reach, while his 
 eternal thrust, for he seemed to know no other 
 mode of fence, came point blank, like shot 
 from a battery at the water's edge, in a way 
 almost as difficult to avoid in jest as in earnest.
 
 MAKANNA. 61 
 
 Laroon seemed perfectly awake to this 
 peculiarity, and the keen steadiness of his eye, 
 as he parried the reiterated assaults of his 
 antagonist, evinced somewhat of a sense of 
 
 D * 
 
 danger. And a very natural sense it was; 
 for although Stunted Mic twisted his capa- 
 cious jaws into a grimace, intended for a smile, 
 and gave at intervals a knowing wink, as if 
 to infer, that the exhibition of his prowess was 
 an excellent jest ; yet there was a sinister scowl 
 on his contracted brow, and a wilful eagerness 
 in his mode of following up any momentary 
 advantage, that could not but excite suspi- 
 cion, that assassination was intended under 
 the colour of an accident. 
 
 Nothing indeed but the confidence of 
 the crew in the skill of their Captain, could 
 have kept them the passive spectators of this 
 scene for a moment; and as he began to 
 exhibit symptoms of fatigue, they gathered 
 impatiently around. At that moment, as if 
 disdaining rescue, Laroon, by a sudden rally,
 
 62 
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 broke through the guard of his opponent, 
 who, in the scuffle, received a blow from the 
 pummel of the victor's sword, while his own 
 was wrested back, with a force that sent it 
 whizzing, like a rocket, through the air. 
 
 " Shiver my timbers," cried the Boatswain, 
 " but you're lucky, Mic, for had not his 
 Honour sent that toasting-iron of yourn on a 
 sky-larking trip to the moon, just when he 
 did, 'sblood, I'd 've laid the head of a broad- 
 axe athwart that horse-block shoulder of yourn, 
 to a tune that would have staved half-a-dozen 
 ribs at a guess ! Faugh, man ! why thou'rt 
 queer as a maid at a groaning, I guess th' 
 pummel knob ha' lodged a grub in the bread- 
 room, that will gnaw away the main-stays of 
 your cocksy-gear for the next cruise ! eh, 
 man?" 
 
 The suspected object of this eloquent 
 harangue slunk out of sight like a beaten 
 hound, as the Captain observed, in an under 
 tone, to Vernon :
 
 MAKANNA. 63 
 
 " You see, Sir, the jeopardy in which I 
 stand; that whelp of Satan would snap the 
 hand that feeds him let him beware ! 
 Steward, serve out a double swill of grog, and 
 I myself will break a custom, to drink 
 
 'SUCCESS TO THE GOOD SHIP, GANGES.'" 
 
 The call for all hands to ' splice the main- 
 brace/ was obeyed with the usual alacrity, and 
 the potent draught quaffed with all a seaman's 
 zest. " Hold !" exclaimed Laroon, " and before 
 we drain a second, let your clashing blades and 
 echoing cheers fill up the chorus of my song. 
 
 Oh ! woman's dear voice, more than music is sweet, 
 When her sighs, and her blushes in sympathy meet ; 
 And th' deep hidden joy that thrills at her heart, 
 In th' o' er-gush of feeling hath made th' tear start. 
 
 But transport beyond, a sound sweeter far 
 To th' Sons of th' Ocean awake in the jar, 
 As crested in foam, the wild billows bound, 
 And stormy winds burst in a tempest of sound ; 
 Oh ! give me but then, a chase full in view, 
 A sea-boat all staunch, a tough gallant crew, 
 And not th' blue lightning, when fork'd in its ire, 
 Shall scatter destruction more sudden or dire ! 
 
 Hurrah ! my gallant boys ! hurrah !
 
 64 
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 When the roses of love, by passion entwined, 
 Are sever'd too soon, and in sorrow resign'd, 
 How sweet to the soul, how precious, how dear ! 
 The lingering kiss of murmuring fear ! 
 
 But dearer than that, or the pulses of life, 
 To th' Sons of old Ocean, th' clang of the strife ; 
 When flame-flashing guns are roaring around, 
 And sulphur-clouds parting, re-echo th' sound, 
 While shot-torn our ensign, and sprinkled with blood, 
 Still crowns us with triumph, the lords of the flood! 
 Or if slain in the combat, we yield up our breath, 
 'Tis the symbol of vengeance, our solace in death ! 
 Hurrah ! my gallant boys ! hurrah !" 
 
 The shouts of the exulting crew yet echoed 
 from the deep, and the glare of their waving 
 blades still lightened in the air, when a faint 
 cry, of almost unearthly shrillness, came from 
 the cloud-like canopy of sails above. 
 
 The roar of voices rendered the first indis- 
 tinct, and a second fared no better, when 
 Laroon, having obtained silence, placed his ear 
 to the foot of the mast, with, to him, a most 
 unusual expression of anxiety, as he awaited 
 a third. A minute or so elapsed, for the poor 
 lad on the top-gallant-yard had almost lost
 
 MAKANNA. 65 
 
 his voice from the violence of the late effort : 
 at last, however, it came, and audibly, 
 "Sail, Ho!" 
 
 Some of the crew were about to repeat 
 the word, but the sound died on their lips, as 
 Laroon, casting a fierce inquiring glance 
 around, struck a blow on the mast to arrest 
 the boy's attention, and then sung out, 
 " Where-away ? " 
 
 " Starboard, ho ! "responded the boy, 
 while a creeking of the cordage gave notice 
 that he was descending. 
 
 " Shot the guns lay the pikes ready but 
 on your lives be silent ! I will myself take a 
 view of our new acquaintance." And swift as 
 the word, the Captain, with his telescope in 
 hand, slung himself gracefully into the main- 
 shrouds. 
 
 The observation aloft had occupied so much 
 time, that the seamen on deck began to catch 
 a glimpse of three faint spots on the verge of 
 the arch which the offing formed with the
 
 66 MAKANNA. 
 
 horizon, when Laroon returned. He leaped 
 with his wonted alacrity from the bulwark to 
 the deck, and after a short pause, while the 
 crew gathered impatiently around, exclaimed, 
 
 " Well, my hearts of flint ! you'll have a 
 little cold iron to knock the fire out of you, 
 presently, for there looms a Frigate, that, by 
 the yankee rake of her main and mizen, any 
 man may swear to be the Goshawk. She has 
 the wind, and bears down all-a-broad, under a 
 cloud of canvass, and three boats a-head tow- 
 ing, to boot." 
 
 The fall of a shell on board with the fuse 
 burning home, could not have scattered more 
 dismay than this intelligence. The crew slunk 
 back to a man, while here and there, three or 
 four might be seen speaking apart in those 
 smothered whispers, which, in such an in- 
 stance, could not but betoken evil. 
 
 " I'll launch my guess of th' joke in spite 
 o' the Fiend : " growled Stunted Mic. " Cap- 
 tain or no Captain, truth's truth, and one
 
 MAKANNA. 67 
 
 life's as good as another. What, have I 
 been Master and half owner of a Guinea 
 Slaver myself! to stand to be tied up like a 
 mangy dog? or to 'scape that to be forced 
 to cut my own cable for a blind run in the 
 dead sea, without a commission ! This all 
 comes o' serving under a * Gentleman ! ' one 
 of your half-and-half fellows, who are for 
 smearino; over the Devil's brass-farthings with 
 
 O O 
 
 a plate-ball, and then passing them for silver 
 'Sblood and furies ! if th' Sharks had had 
 their proper pickings, we'd ha' been safe to a 
 hair ! When I was mate o' the Rattle Snake 
 Hover, and cruising on the Spanish Main, 
 there was never a * walking,' and whenever 
 did we capture a prize without ? but what, 
 I balanced th' tilting-plank over the gunnel 
 with my own hands. And precious fun too ! 
 I remember a huge Dutch Skipper, with a hull 
 like an over fed ox, and a face round and 
 white as a mouldy cheese : Lord save us !
 
 68 MAKANNA. 
 
 ha ha ha. Now the fool's conscience 
 wasn't in sailing trim nor did he half fancy 
 getting under-way for eternity without the 
 black pilot, a Parson and a plaguy deal a 
 pricking high and low with hand-spikes, did 
 it take to get Mynheer to budge an inch 
 when luckily I thought o' claping the burning 
 hot bowl of my pipe under th' tip of his 
 snout ! and all at once, d'ye see, though he'd 
 loved bacca from his cradle, he shied at it 
 then ay, and kept spluttering, screeching, 
 and shrinking backwards and backwards, un- 
 til at last tilt went the plank and Mynheer 
 struck a beautiful three turn summersault 
 like a flying harlequin into th' deep." 
 
 " Precious < sport,' truly," said Laroon, 
 smiling ironically, " and by Jove, at the first 
 chance we'll try our hand at the game!" 
 
 The deep seated eyes of the ex-slave 
 dealer at that moment twinkled with a know- 
 ing leer, in the full anticipation of a repe-
 
 MAKANNA. 69 
 
 tition of his favourite amusement, when he 
 found himself so suddenly a prisoner, that it 
 was too late even to think of resistance. 
 
 " Yes," exclaimed the Captain, as he 
 bound the scoundrel to a gun-carriage, by 
 the ends of the cord with which he had been 
 so adroitly pinioned : " when we have done 
 with the Goshawk, we'll certainly prove, ex- 
 perimentally, if a fat Mutineer can't play the 
 ' flying harlequin' as nimbly as a Dutchman." 
 The glance of Stunted Mic lowered on 
 Laroon as these words were uttered with a 
 mingled expression of scorn and hatred, while, 
 as the latter turned away, he muttered 
 " Ay ! Ay ! youngster, when you've c done 
 with the Goshawk' Right enough that but 
 if you slip through their fingers this chance 
 it shan't be for th' want of 'peaching ! " 
 
 " Avast!" Exclaimed the Boatswain, 
 dashing the muzzle of a loaded pistol full on 
 the forehead of the captive. " Another word, 
 and your traitorous brains are in the air!
 
 70 MAKANNA. 
 
 What, you'd coin us all into blood money, you 
 grinning nigger butcher, would ye? Let th' 
 worst come to the worst 'tis but laying the 
 ship foul of the Goshawk, and a lighted lunt 
 in the magazine, will send them both to their 
 last moorings."
 
 MAKANNA. 71 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Round her she made an atmosphere of life, 
 The" very air seem'd lighter from her eyes, 
 They were so soft, and beautiful, and rife 
 With all we can imagine of the skies." 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 Hamlet. Do you see yonder cloud, that's almost 
 In the shape of a camel 1 
 
 Polonius. By the mass, it's like a camel indeed. 
 Hamlet. Methiuks it's like a weazel. 
 Polonius. It is backed like a weazel. 
 Hamlet. Or like a whale 1 
 Polonius. Very like a whale. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 WE will now leave ' Captain Laroon,' and his 
 " merry men all," to chew the cud of reflection 
 on the comfortable alternative of the grand 
 explosion, alluded to by the Boatswain, and
 
 72 MAKANNA. 
 
 which, by the by, seemed very likely to be 
 realized, as the frigate, now full in view, 
 gained rapidly upon them. Yes, we will 
 leave the deck, where the whispers of mu- 
 tiny were only silenced by fear, to catch a 
 glimpse of one, who, although unconscious 
 of the anarchy and danger lurking around, 
 was too likely to prove its victim. 
 
 At the door of the little ante-chamber or 
 lobby that led to the state room of the Ganges, 
 stood as sentinel, Maid rake, one of the few 
 followers on whom the Captain could confide. 
 The vigilance of his air, and the full equip- 
 ment of his arms, sufficiently betokened that 
 his post was considered one of importance, if 
 not of peril. Such particulars were, however, 
 overlooked or disregarded by the fair object 
 of his charge, whose past anxieties were then 
 almost forgotten in the amusing employment 
 which engaged her attention. 
 
 Although educated in India, the advantages 
 of Miss Falkland had been of no ordinary
 
 MAKANNA. 73 
 
 stamp. During the rosy dawn of infancy, the 
 sheltering arms and tender anxieties of her 
 sainted mother had soothed her opening 
 faculties to bear the stern realities of life : 
 and as the vivid days of childish joy came 
 dancing on, the admonitions of that judicious 
 parent, with the assistance of an excellent 
 preceptress, and the instructions in some ac- 
 complishments, such as music and drawing, 
 by her father, and one or two particular 
 friends, had left her little to regret in the 
 want of European schools and masters. The 
 gay romance of girlhood then advanced, but 
 its sparkling scenes were soon obscured by the 
 loss of that maternal guardian, whose smile 
 had been as hitherto the very sunshine of 
 her dawning existence. A cloud of grief and 
 tears then intervened, but the buoyancy of 
 youthful feelings surmounted them, and the 
 garlands of hope again overhung the path 
 of the unpractised wanderer in the wilder- 
 ness of life, with the unreal flowers of ima- 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 74 MAKANNA. 
 
 ginary sympathy. This is the rock on which 
 so many glowing hearts suffer the shipwreck 
 of disappointment and such perhaps had 
 been the fate of Bertha, had not her father's 
 ready council, and the charms of superior 
 society, given occupation to her thoughts, 
 and energy to her resolutions. At length, the 
 bloom of maturity glowed in the cheeks of 
 the lovely orphan, and then it was that her 
 father resolved to remove her to Europe ; 
 not with the sordid view of an advantageous 
 settlement, for the chances were all on the 
 other side, but with a tender solicitude for 
 her health, which, excellent as it was, he 
 knew would be more secure under the 
 cherishing influence of a temperate clime, 
 than where the sun of eastern splendour 
 withers too soon the blossoms of beauty 
 expanding beneath its influence. 
 
 The amusing employment, to which we 
 have alluded as having, at this moment of 
 unknown peril, engrossed the attention of
 
 MAKAJsNA. 75 
 
 Bertha, was the inspection of a variety of 
 presents and keepsakes, which her friends 
 had sent on board, already packed, previous 
 to her departure from India. Some of these 
 treasures were now marshalled out on a table ; 
 and others were being heaped up on the floor, 
 as fast as Bertha's faithful attendant, the 
 bonny little Mage, could extricate them from 
 the capacious sea-chest in which they had 
 been stowed. 
 
 It was really a pity that no painter was 
 at hand, to steal a sketch of the maiden 
 and her mistress, when thus possessed of 
 woman's supreme felicity, the indulgence of 
 1 curiosity/ To Bertha, every elegant trifle, 
 as it appeared, recalled some fond remem- 
 brance, some past scene of social enjoyment, 
 the endearments of childhood, or the confiding 
 tenderness of riper years. If in these ex- 
 cursions of sentiment the gay little Mage had 
 no participation, she was not the less de- 
 lighted with the beauty of the costly articles,
 
 76 MAKANNA. 
 
 which were now for the first time denuded of 
 the many careful envelopes with which the 
 donors had enshrined them. 
 
 More perhaps from that habit of indul- 
 gence which oriental luxury induces, than 
 from any feeling of fatigue, Bertha lay in 
 feminine indolence on a couch with the sea- 
 chest before her. As the glittering train was 
 exhibited in rapid succession, the excitement 
 and surprise of the moment gave a more than 
 usual animation to her beauty, as she reclined 
 like a crouching fawn, with her full and 
 sparkling eyes fixed on each succeeding 
 novelty. A delicious smile played around her 
 lips, while the soft and ample folds of a 
 negligee of Asiatic fabric left the charming 
 contours of her form sufficiently betrayed to 
 evince the graceful delicacy of their beauty. 
 
 " Dear me," cried Mage, then almost 
 inverting her plump little person in the deep 
 recesses of the sea-chest, " I shall never find 
 the bottom ! Those shawls were fit for a
 
 MAKANNA. 77 
 
 princess, and then those carvings in ivory 
 and here, as I live ! is something else from 
 Lady Frances I Dear me, how shall I con- 
 trive to pull it out ? " 
 
 The buxom little dame had now apparently 
 a task beyond her strength ; for although she 
 poised herself over the side of the chest, un- 
 conscious of the display of a pair of the 
 finest ankles in the world, and in her efforts 
 might perchance have given an apology for a 
 new order of chivalry, still the prize remained 
 in durance. Perseverance frequently achieves 
 the success it merits; and so at last, having 
 obtained a momentary grasp around a corner 
 of the chest, the object of her exertions was 
 extricated, and with a countenance glowing 
 as a damask rose, and panting for breath, she 
 held it aloft in triumph. 
 
 "So" said Bertha, half arising from her 
 recumbent attitude " it is a little crimson 
 trunk after all Yes, put it down on this
 
 78 MAKANNA. 
 
 cushion, Mage It was beyond your reach, I 
 suppose, for the weight is as nothing stop- 
 here is a note placed under the direction 
 and the contents are so odd, that you shall 
 hear them." 
 
 " DEAREST BERTHA, 
 
 " As you can no longer witness the 
 fond confusion you have so often excited, I 
 am half inclined to alter my intention, which 
 was, to let the Album pass into your fair 
 hands without a clew as to the dark gentle- 
 man whom you will find a prominent figure 
 in a drawing inscribed, 'The Hanging Bridge,' 
 and in which also appears a rather too 
 adventurous lady ! 
 
 " Well, after all, I will not tell you his 
 name and although he saved my life, yet do 
 not imagine, saucy one, that I am in love with 
 him No, no, my dear girl, that would be 
 high treason at once, when people say that
 
 MAKANNA. 79 
 
 he is nothing less than a French agent, who 
 has been striving to subvert the British 
 power in India. 
 
 " Now, what I really want to say is, that 
 I think he may sail for Europe by the Ganges, 
 and that if a handsome dark man, like the 
 gentleman in the drawing, should be in 
 danger, when your Father's influence might be 
 of service, let me conjure you, by the recol- 
 lection of our friendship, to exert your influ- 
 ence in his favour : and now with every affec- 
 tionate wish, believe me to remain, my dearest, 
 sincerely yours, 
 
 FRANCES BALMORE." 
 
 " Dear me ! what a valuable note, it's so 
 full of mystery" said Mage, as she refolded 
 it with peculiar care. The key, having been 
 found in the letter, was now put in requi- 
 sition, and without regarding the other con- 
 tents of the trunk, which yet might have 
 attracted curiosity, the Album was immediately
 
 80 MAKANNA. 
 
 referred to. In that delightful melange were 
 poems of thrilling pathos, but they were now 
 unheeded, and that by her, whose every nerve 
 was wont to vibrate to the solemn music of 
 enchanting verse : 
 
 " Where bright eyed Fancy, hov'ring o'er, 
 
 Scatters from her pictured Urn 
 
 Thoughts that breathe and words that burn ! " 
 
 And there too were drawings of surpassing- 
 beauty, depicting some of the most striking 
 antiquities and peculiarities of Hindostan. 
 Here, sculptured caverns, and there, wondrous 
 fanes, in which the common practice of archi- 
 tecture has been inverted, and the rock and 
 the mountain in the mass have been hewn 
 into temples. Even scenes such as these 
 could not for a moment detain the impatient 
 glance of Bertha. Nor did the view of a gala 
 at the court, where lady Frances was a resi- 
 dent, prove more attractive. And yet it was 
 almost unkind to pass it over, for the eyes of 
 little Mage lingered fondly on the gay parterre
 
 MAKANNA. 81 
 
 of European and Oriental costumes, which, 
 from the superb embroideries and jewelry of 
 the native princes, give on such occasions a 
 surpassing splendour to eastern magnificence. 
 At another time, Bertha might have pointed 
 out this, or that, old friend of her father's 
 among the European officers, for the figures 
 were drawn from the life but now " The 
 Mountain Pass" was the only object that 
 could have arrested her attention for a mo- 
 ment. Several other views were thus uncere- 
 moniously dismissed, when one of an un- 
 usually sombre character caught the eye of 
 Bertha, and before Mage had time to observe 
 the figures in the foreground, her mistress, by 
 reclining suddenly backwards on the sofa, 
 without taking her hands from the book which 
 was thus inverted, contrived to gratify her own 
 curiosity, while poor little Mage saw nothing 
 but the cover. 
 
 " Dear me ! if any body should come 
 in !" cried the baffled damsel, as she affected 
 E 2
 
 82 MAKANNA. 
 
 to arrange her lady's dress, which was 
 strangely disordered by the rapid change of 
 attitude, and the self abandonment arising 
 from the extreme interest she felt in the 
 drawing. 
 
 " Dear me ! if any body should come 
 in ! " repeated Mage in father a louder tone, 
 and dropping on one knee, so as to be able 
 to cast a sly upward glance towards the 
 drawing, but still failing most egregiously in 
 the ostensible object of her care " Dear me, 
 you seem to forget" 
 
 " Hush ! did you hear that ?" said 
 Bertha, starting up in alarm, but still with 
 sufficient self possession to close the book and 
 lock it up in the trunk " Did you hear 
 that?" 
 
 " Oh yes, it was the roar of a cannon ! and 
 we shall all be lost," cried Mage. 
 
 " Or perhaps be saved, if the signal comes 
 from a King's ship," replied Bertha. 
 
 " Oh, but there will be fighting, and it
 
 MAKANMA. 83 
 
 would almost be better to die at once" re- 
 joined the timid little girl, who stood at her 
 side with such an air of extreme dejection, 
 that her kind mistress, who, both as Mage 
 was of gentle origin, and on account of her 
 gay and affectionate nature, allowed her, as 
 we have seen, far more than the ordinary in- 
 tercourse of a servant, now took her hand, 
 and with a smile of assumed confidence, 
 assured her that she saw no reason to suppose 
 that Laroon could possibly be so absurdly 
 desperate, as to attempt to oppose a line of 
 battle ship. 
 
 " But go and see if you can find out what 
 it all means/' said Bertha, for the trampling 
 above now evinced an unusual stir on board, 
 and she was also aware that the sense of occu- 
 pation would go far to alleviate the painful 
 anxiety of the fearful Mage. The latter was 
 no sooner out of sight, than the crimson trunk 
 was asrain unlocked to afford a more satis-
 
 84 MAKANNA. 
 
 factory view of the ' Mountain Pass/ and the 
 dark gentleman. 
 
 The drawing in question represented one 
 of those fearful ravines, so often the scenes of 
 deadly ambuscades during the Mahratta wars. 
 A wreath of gray mist hung half way down 
 the face of a precipitous rock, along whose 
 craggy side a road was seen to wind far into 
 the shadows of the mountains. In the fore- 
 ground of the landscape, this giddy track, 
 having arrived at a chasm worn by a wintry 
 torrent between the rocks, led to one of 
 those hanging bridges so common in the 
 mountain scenery of the eastern world. These 
 structures, which are sometimes formed of 
 cables, and at others, with huge bamboos 
 bound carefully together, and boarded over, 
 although they tremble beneath the tread, and 
 in a gale swing with every blast, are not only 
 safe, but admirably well suited to the situa- 
 tions where they are placed. The removal
 
 MAKANNA. 85 
 
 of heavy materials to spots so elevated, 
 would, in most instances, be out of the ques- 
 tion ; and even if accomplished, would be 
 useless, as the rocky ledges of the precipices 
 would often give way beneath the weight of 
 solid masonry. 
 
 It follows as a natural consequence, from 
 the mode of their structure, that these hanging 
 bridges must be frequently repaired, or fatal 
 accidents would occur; and a deplorable ad- 
 venture of this nature was depicted in the 
 drawing alluded to. The bridge in this in- 
 stance was formed of bamboo, and well con- 
 trived, but the canes were cracked and 
 bleached, from a long exposure to the weather ; 
 and what was worse, the trailing branches of 
 some gigantic creepers, such as the monkey- 
 rope, and the wild vine, loaded with succulent 
 leaves and varied flowers, were suffered to 
 grow at random along the slight rampart of 
 the bridge, until they hung in ample festoons 
 of verdure over the dark gulf below, in a
 
 86 MAKANNA. 
 
 manner which, however charming to the lover 
 of the picturesque, was highly injudicious, 
 as their weight was incompatible with the 
 safety of the enfeebled structure. 
 
 Without regarding the apparent danger, 
 it seemed that one of the native guides had 
 attempted to lead over a mounted horse, in 
 whose rider Bertha immediately recognised 
 her friend Lady Frances. The poor guide 
 had too soon paid the forfeiture of his rash- 
 ness, for the bridge having given way, he was 
 seen falling into the torrent that rushed 
 beneath. The horse too was lost, but he 
 remained as yet suspended by some large 
 branches of the creepers which intercepted 
 his fall. With her dress entangled in the 
 foliage, Lady Frances appeared in a situation 
 which would have proved equally fatal, had 
 not the intrepidity of a gallant looking man, 
 in a military garb, interposed in her preser- 
 vation. Nor was this effected but at great 
 personal risk, as he was leaning from that
 
 MAKANNA. 87 
 
 portion of the bridge which yet remained, 
 while with his sword he lopped away the 
 branches which so dangerously connected her 
 with the falling horse. 
 
 This gallant was, of course, the dark gen- 
 tleman and how was Bertha astonished, to 
 find that it was also Laroon, that strange 
 adventurous man, who was now too far the 
 master of her future destiny. 
 
 It was this discovery, which Bertha in the 
 first instance had thought it prudent to 
 conceal from her faithful, but sometimes 
 thoughtless, attendant ; and now, as soon 
 as she heard the quick pattering of her re- 
 turning steps, the album was laid aside. 
 
 " Well, ma'am," said Mage, " they don't 
 answer a word, but I can't think there is 
 anything very dreadful ; Captain Laroon looks 
 so perfectly unconcerned, but then he looked 
 just the same when he shot the Malay : 
 and then, instead of wearing his proper 
 accoutrements, and looking beautiful, all gold
 
 88 MAKANNA. 
 
 and glittering steel, he has got on a gray 
 inorning-gown and a night-cap ! And then 
 again, dear me ! there's that savage dwarf 
 man, with the sallow face, and the little 
 twinkling eyes, tied fast to a cannon, with 
 the Boatswain shaving off all his hair, and 
 one of the sailors rubbing his face over with 
 a sort of white powder. At first he roared 
 like a wild beast, but the Captain gave a 
 no>d, and all at once they put a piece of 
 wood, I think they called it a gag, across his 
 mouth, which made him quite orderly. And 
 then, when I came off the deck, for they 
 would not let me stay a minute, no, not so 
 much as to look to the right or the left, it 
 seemed to me as if the whole crew expected to 
 be taken suddenly ill, for all the doctor's bottles 
 were being brought up, and put out in order 
 on a table under the awning on the quarter- 
 deck ; and little Joe, the cabin boy, was 
 pounding away at the great brass mortar, as 
 if for life or death I can hear him now
 
 MAKANNA. 89 
 
 thump thump thump ! it must be some 
 very hard drug that wants so much pounding ; 
 dear me ! I should like to know the name 
 of it, perhaps it's good for the toothache" 
 
 " Hush ! " exclaimed Bertha, as a second 
 peal from the deep-mouthed artillery re- 
 sounded from the sea : " that was certainly a 
 gun from a king's ship, and perhaps shotted 
 too, the report was so heavy. I will go on 
 deck myself." 
 
 " I beg pardon, my Lady," said Mai- 
 drake, at the same time securing the outward 
 door of the anteroom. " Orders have been 
 sent, not to suffer any passage till after the 
 strange sail has been spoke." 
 
 " And it is your duty, my good friend, 
 to obey them," said Bertha, with a calm 
 dignity, which immediately won the cordial 
 respect of the rough seaman. 
 
 " Yes, my Lady ! though I'm main sorry 
 to refuse anything to the like o' you : not 
 but that it's all for the best that his Honour
 
 90 MAKANNA. 
 
 ha' given the order, just that you might meet 
 with no unlucky turn, when the ship's all in 
 a broil, and the Boatswain swearing, that, if 
 we get choked with the king's bull-dogs, 
 he'll just clap a light in the right place, 
 and make it equally agreeable on both sides." 
 
 " Dear me ! what a clever thought," 
 said Mage, who quite mistook Maldrake's 
 meaning, and had not the most distant idea 
 that he alluded to a plan for blowing up the 
 ship; "Tes, it will be delightful, I declare, 
 to have such a blaze of light between the 
 decks : I hope it will be done without a 
 moment's delay." 
 
 "Why, do you, Miss?" exclaimed the 
 bold seaman, himself grown pale at the 
 thought. " Why, you must have the heart 
 of a lioness ! " 
 
 " Well, come back into your cage," said 
 Bertha, who, at the moment, could not avoid 
 that little pleasantry, although she was now 
 fully aware of the dreadful consequences
 
 MAKANNA. 91 
 
 which might result from the approaching 
 adventure. 
 
 Maldrake gave a short duck of the head, 
 intended for a bow, as she re-past into the 
 cabin; and when the door closed, and he was 
 quite alone, repeated to himself: " Why, 
 blow the devil's head off! there's a brace 
 of girls for ye ! The first-rate's fit to be the 
 wife of an Admiral ; and as for the little 
 frigate in tow, for all her gimcrack trim, and 
 chirruping voice, why, she's a spirit that 
 would lead on to cut out a ship from under 
 the jaws of a thirty-two pound battery ! 
 Never let them talk to me o' ' fear and petti- 
 coats.' Zounds, a fiery death has no more 
 dread for that frisky little puss, than the 
 mounting a new pair of garters ! " 
 
 And thereupon, Master Maldrake fell 
 into a most profound cogitation, in which 
 his senses were strangely jumbled with the 
 opposite fancies of exploding ships willing 
 brides stormy seas, and the snug berth of
 
 92 MAKANNA. 
 
 a neat little pothouse on shore, with such a 
 bonny wife as Mage, to keep the keys, mix 
 punch, and bear the purse. While the honest 
 tar was pursuing the latter reverie through 
 all the pleasing details to which it naturally 
 tended, and from the recollection of a country 
 alderman, or another mental association not 
 less grotesque, if more amusing, was bending 
 out the lower part of his portly figure until 
 it mimicked that " fair rotundity," which, 
 in more senses than one, becomes a bad-e 
 
 7 O 
 
 of personal importance matters on the deck 
 of the good ship Ganges were assuming a 
 serious aspect. 
 
 There was, as little Mage had observed, 
 a strange assemblage of the implements of 
 pharmacy; and no less strange was the 
 appearance and distribution of the crew. 
 The working of the ship seemed to be en- 
 tirely resigned to the Malays, who were posted 
 in all the necessary stations for that purpose. 
 The Europeans, on the other hand, were, with
 
 MAKANNA. 93 
 
 few exceptions, arranged under the awning 
 of the quarter-deck, which had then very 
 much the air of the ward of an hospital, as 
 hammocks were placed on either side, in the 
 intervals between the gun-carriages. The 
 seamen, too, in many instances had their 
 heads bandaged, as if they had been recently 
 bled or blistered. All, too, were in some 
 sort of undress; and as their faces had been 
 rubbed over with the oxide of bismuth, they 
 presented the most haggard appearance ima- 
 ginable. Laroon passed up and down among 
 these worthies, with a complexion of the 
 same cadaverous hue, which was not im- 
 proved by the before mentioned morning gown 
 and cotton night- cap. 
 
 Whatever might have been thought of 
 this apparently ridiculous mummery by the 
 seamen, who were in the dark as to its 
 meaning, their Captain evidently viewed it 
 as a matter of vital importance, and nothing
 
 94 MAKANNA. 
 
 could exceed the vigilance with which he 
 attended to every little item that could aid 
 the illusion. At first some tokens of insolent 
 surprise were not wanting among the desperate 
 men around him, who felt themselves de- 
 graded in being thus rendered absurd in 
 
 ' 
 their own estimation. But when their chief 
 
 became a party to the jest, if such indeed it 
 were, and still more when he gave his orders 
 sword in hand, with a rigour which showed 
 that the point of the weapon would quiver in 
 the heart of him who disobeyed, they shrunk 
 beneath the proud ascendency of his eye, and 
 became the mere automatons of his pleasure. 
 Such was the scene which the deck of 
 the Ganges presented, when the second gun 
 from the Goshawk, to which we have before 
 alluded, was fired ; and the frigate herself 
 was then rapidly bearing down upon them, 
 with a gentle swinging motion, which indi- 
 cated that the faint breath of air that still
 
 MAKANNA. 95 
 
 prevailed, feeble as it was, made a powerful 
 impression on the ample cloud of canvass 
 with which she wooed its influence. 
 
 Far before the approaching ship, as she 
 lay inclined, with an air of easy grace, upon 
 the tranquil bosom of the ocean, was a broad 
 expanse of water so perfectly becalmed be- 
 neath her lee, that it appeared as a detached 
 sheet of looking-glass, amid the sparkling 
 ripple which everywhere else prevailed. And 
 here the image of the majestic vessel, in all 
 the beauty _ of her gallant trim, the snowy 
 sails boomed far beyond her shadowy hull ; 
 and that proud ensign of her country's 
 sway, 
 
 " Which for a thousand years has braved 
 The battle, and the breeze" 
 
 gently waving with the bright glory of its 
 varied tints of crimson, white, and azure, 
 gleamed darkly bright, reflected in the deep 
 crystal of the waters. 
 
 And now, advanced within a musket-shot,
 
 96 MAKANNA. 
 
 the mighty fabric, as if instinct with life, 
 paused for a moment. A sudden flutter shook 
 her rustling sails, and as they edged away 
 into the wind, the golden sun-beams broke 
 gaily in between them, and then again they 
 closed in shadowy state, and with a circling 
 swoop, her fatal battery all unmasked, she 
 shot athwart the taffrail of the Ganges. 
 
 " The Commodore presents his compli- 
 ments, and would be glad to know why Cap- 
 tain Daker has not answered signal?" said 
 the First Lieutenant, from the mizen chains 
 of the Goshawk. 
 
 " I wish Captain Daker was alive to 
 answer the question," replied Laroon, with 
 an air of profound melancholy " Poor man, 
 he desired that his private papers might be 
 consigned to the ocean with his body, and 
 as I was then too much indisposed to look 
 after the matter, I fear that the papers of the 
 ship shared the same fate." 
 
 The Lieutenant bowed, and retired. The
 
 MAKANNA. 9? 
 
 ships were now laid within as short a dis- 
 tance of each other as was practicable with- 
 out the danger of their running foul, and 
 in a few minutes, the Commodore himself 
 made his appearance. 
 
 " I am exceedingly sorry, Sir, to learn 
 that my old friend, Captain Daker, is no 
 more," said the veteran officer, in a voice 
 grown husky with emotion. " May I request 
 the favour of knowing whom I have now the 
 honour to address." 
 
 " Certainly, Sir," replied Laroon, with a 
 bow, as he mentioned his own name, and 
 then added, " Our late friend left me in 
 command of the Ganges : and what is more, 
 he himself saw me installed in my present 
 authority." 
 
 " The seaman-like appointment of your 
 ship, Sir, notwithstanding the dreadful sick- 
 ness from which I see you suffer, shows that 
 the choice was made with his usual judgment, 
 and I doubt not, but that the Honourable 
 VOL. i. F
 
 98 MAKANNA. 
 
 Company, will have a peculiar satisfaction 
 in ratifying the appointment of Captain La- 
 roon." 
 
 " I am determined, Sir," replied the latter 
 " that they shall at least have reason to 
 acknowledge, that I have discharged the duty 
 which I owe myself." 
 
 The somewhat ambiguous turn of this 
 latter observation left the Commodore silent 
 for a moment, when he changed the subject, 
 by remarking 
 
 " I have been thinking, Captain Laroon, 
 that as you have lost your second Lieutenant, 
 and so many of your men, I may manage 
 to spare you a dozen hands, and then my 
 Surgeon's Mate, who happens to be an excel- 
 lent seaman, has volunteered to accompany 
 them, so that you will be completely rein- 
 forced." 
 
 " You are exceedingly kind, Sir, I am 
 most deeply indebted to you, but" 
 
 " But what, my good fellow ? You must
 
 MAKANNA. 99 
 
 not think of refusing my offer, I'll not hear 
 a word of the sort: It is no more than my 
 duty, to see that your ship is not left in 
 danger, for want of any assistance in my 
 power to afford." 
 
 " We should be truly obliged to you 
 for a supply of fresh provisions, Sir, and a 
 few cases of lemon juice but as for the 
 men, you must pardon my saying that there 
 are two reasons why they cannot and shall 
 not, put a foot in the Ganges : First, my 
 poor fellows having had all the labour of 
 the affair, should alone enjoy the merit of 
 success. And secondly, this vessel being- 
 full of the most malignant contagion, and 
 the first symptom of this fever being an 
 outrageous delirium, the looking after so 
 many desperate invalids, as would inevitably 
 be furnished by the draft from the Gos- 
 hawk, would really prove a toil beyond our 
 power."
 
 100 MAKANNA. 
 
 " Well, well, there is something in that, 
 and so I will only send you the Surgeon." 
 
 " By Jove, Sir!" said Laroon, "if the 
 Doctor comes on board, I must resign, for 
 the mere idea of commanding a ship with 
 two rival knights of the lancet, as usual 
 disagreeing while the case is capable of 
 assistance, and when the season of hope is 
 past, agreeing most religiously lest the secret 
 of their craft should miscarry, is a surfeit 
 to my patience. Our own Doctor is not yet 
 convalescent, and I verily believe, that the 
 men have been doing better ever since he 
 sickened, for as you may observe, I have 
 got them on deck, where they have, what 
 they want most, plenty of fresh air!" 
 
 " Ah ! poor fellows " replied the Com- 
 modore " I see that one of them has a 
 terrible convulsive grinding of the jaws, and 
 is highly delirious, as I suppose, for his arms 
 are pinioned."
 
 MAKANNA. 101 
 
 Every eye was now of course directed 
 towards Stunted Mic, whose jaws were in- 
 deed so notably at work, that they had almost 
 accomplished the apparently impossible mas- 
 tication of the piece of deal which had 
 gagged them. 
 
 " Mur-er-er-der," he vociferated with a 
 strange sputtering hiss from the fragments 
 of wood which still hung between his teeth 
 " Mur-er-der" and then more distinctly 
 " Cap-ap-tain Daker-er's ast ad-ri-rift" 
 And then again, as he felt the Boatswain's 
 iron knuckles grappling at his throat, " Oh 
 the-e-e throt-ot-ot-ling thie-ves mur-er-er " 
 
 From the significant whispers which might 
 be now observed among the knot of officers 
 on the poop of the Frigate, it was evident 
 that Mic's exclamations had excited some 
 suspicion. The Lieutenant had even pointed 
 to one of the boats, as if with the intention 
 of sending a party on board the Ganges, a 
 step which would have immediately revealed
 
 102 MAKANNA. 
 
 the delusion, when Laroon, by an exertion of 
 that self-command, for which he was re- 
 markable, avoided the coming danger. 
 
 " Sirrah !" he exclaimed to the Boat- 
 swain " Why were not the man's eyes and 
 jaws muffled before he was brought up for 
 the Doctor's discipline ? His frenzy was 
 enough, without this Beelzebubian concert, 
 to boot." 
 
 " You would hardly believe it, Commo- 
 dore, but that poor dog, before the fever 
 scorched his brain, was the most civil man 
 on board, yes, and so quiet, that his mess- 
 mates called him the ' methodist.' " 
 
 It seemed at that moment, that Stunted 
 Mic had rather a queer method of noting 
 his accordance with his Captain's assertion, 
 for notwithstanding that his eyes and mouth 
 were bandaged, he shook his head with a 
 rapidity, strangely emphatic of a negative. 
 This pantomime might have become still more 
 significant, but just at that moment the
 
 MAKANNA. 103 
 
 Boatswain, having previously rove the proper 
 tackle to the main-yard, gave the word to 
 three Malays, who began to pull away, and 
 in an instant the pretended patient was 
 dangling in mid air and then the line being 
 allowed to run home, he was plunged into 
 the sea again was he hauled aloft and then, 
 without time to sneeze the water from his 
 nostrils, dashed as before into the deep. 
 
 At first the struggles of Stunted Mic when 
 aloft were so tremendous, that it seemed as 
 if the rope must snap, with the sudden 
 snatches it received; and when in the water, 
 he raised a foam around him, which would 
 not have disgraced the best efforts of a 
 hooked shark. 
 
 Seven or eight of these alternations had, 
 however, wrought so laudable a change in 
 the ' obstreperous varlet,' as the Commodore, 
 half in pity, termed him, that the patient 
 came up at last, as stiff and as straight, as
 
 104 MAKANNA. 
 
 a grenadier on drill. When, being hawled 
 in on deck, his legs sunk from under him, 
 and as he lay supine, with the water gurgling 
 like a fountain from his mouth, even the 
 Boatswain seemed to feel a touch of com- 
 punction, for, pitching him like a sack on 
 his shoulder, and muttering something of 
 brandy, and a hammock, he hurried him 
 below. 
 
 " You seem, Captain, to carry your 
 medical practice to some extent:" said the 
 Commodore. 
 
 "Yes, Sir," replied Laroon, "it was 
 the doctor's plan, when he prescribed the 
 ' cold effusion,' to have the water cast from 
 buckets on the patient, but I think it must 
 be granted, that by inverting the process, 
 and sending the patient to the water, I have 
 rendered it more simple and efficacious." 
 
 At this moment, a stir was observed on 
 board the King's ship. It arose from two
 
 MAKANNA. 105 
 
 of the petty officers, who were in high dis- 
 pute as to the reality of an observation which 
 one of them professed to have made. 
 
 " As I live/' exclaimed the eldest, " I 
 made out the craft with the utmost certainty ; 
 whether they belong to this world, or the 
 next, there they are ! " 
 
 " Nonsense, Charles," said the other, 
 " you are always spying wonders ; that glass 
 of yours has made you as credulous as a 
 maid in her dotage! The specks in that 
 fog-bank are nothing more than gulls; and 
 what would your fancy make them ? craft, 
 are they ? they must have the Fiend for a 
 pilot, then ! If vessels of any sort, they 
 cannot be larger than boats, and for such 
 cockle-shells to have out-lived the late storm, 
 bating the absurdity of their navigating the 
 Indian Ocean in any way, would be an 
 utter impossibility." 
 
 " I grant it odd, but what has that to do 
 with the fact, there they are." 
 
 F2
 
 106 MAKANNA. 
 
 "Yes, there they lie in the wind's eye:" 
 said the old gray-headed Quarter-Master 
 of the Goshawk, a thorough-paced seaman, 
 whose authority on such a point was beyond 
 question. 
 
 Every glass was now pointed to wind- 
 ward, and even those who had none, thought 
 they could descry the mysterious strangers, 
 when the Quarter-Master added, 
 
 " Yes, gentlemen, to my judgment they 
 are both on the same tack, and lug-rigged. 
 But then, there is one little item to be 
 carried to the account, that you have for- 
 gotten to calculate, which is, that they are 
 cruising in the air, some hundred feet high, 
 and dry of the offing ! " 
 
 " Two Lapland Witches, doubtless, in quest 
 of a wind ! ah, ah, Charles, the Master has 
 logg'd your fancy-craft to some purpose at 
 last." 
 
 "Soft and easy, young gentleman," 
 resumed the old warrant-officer, " an idle
 
 MAKANNA. 107 
 
 scoff is no jest. Mr. Charles pricks nearer 
 than yourself. The man who follows his 
 eyes in the Indian Ocean, will have but a 
 fool's pilotage to steer by. No, no, too 
 many shadowy lures haunt these latitudes for 
 that. Look to windward now, gentlemen ! 
 the fog-bank has drifted off sea-ward ; but 
 what o' that, the show of the strange craft 
 had a certainty at the tail on't. 
 
 " It has been my chance to see these sights 
 oftener than I could have wished. Your 
 natural philosophers, I believe, call it a 
 mirage ; that is, a phenomenon by which 
 objects, many miles beyond the visible hori- 
 zon, are reflected on a vapoury portion of 
 the atmosphere, and thus brought into view 
 now, as these objects are frequently mag- 
 nified at the same time by the refracting 
 medium through which they are seen, the 
 common laws of vision are, for the time, 
 annihilated, and they appear, not only within
 
 108 MAKANNA. 
 
 a third of the real space, but unusually 
 distinct. 
 
 "Now this affair, like taking the altitude 
 of a star, is just a regular bit of book-craft 
 not to be gainsayed, yet for all that, a man 
 who has been baptized with the briny sea- 
 spray, in every clime, by night and by day, 
 like myself, can see more in these things 
 than you'll ever read of, yes, or than some 
 folk who know, would be bold enough to tell 
 of!" 
 
 " What, you think, Mr. Graham," said 
 the Commodore, " that what we saw were 
 the shadows, are rather the reflections, of two 
 vessels, now lying so far beyond the offing, as 
 not to be visible, without the intervention of 
 this optical delusion." 
 
 " Precisely so, Sir, except, that I must 
 venture to remark, that there is no ' delusion' 
 in the matter, but rather a providential pic- 
 turing forth of the future; and such a one,
 
 MAKANNA. 109 
 
 too, as a wise man would be glad to take his 
 bearings by. I was the only soul saved alive 
 out of a whole ship's company once lost for 
 want of regarding such a token-show as 
 this ! 
 
 " We were off the coast of Sicily, with- 
 out a pilot, and quite perplexed with counter 
 streams and eddies, when about seven, post 
 meridian, there came up a token-show in 
 the sky, of low rocks and breakers a-head. 
 
 " Now the sea was smooth as oil, silent 
 as death, and not any sign to give a man 
 warning, save that ' Fool's Phantom in the 
 air!' as the Captain was rash enough to 
 call it. 
 
 " Phantom, or not, it was signal enough 
 
 w t O O 
 
 for me and I begged, as if for life, that the 
 ship might be layed off on the other tack, 
 but not a word would he hear of it, and all 
 the rest, officers and crew, were equally 
 crank with their scoffings and drollery. 
 
 " Poor fools, like so many simple sheep
 
 110 MAKANNA. 
 
 jostling each other to the slaughter, they 
 hurried their own doom yes, on the edge 
 of evening they set studding-sails, and fell 
 to drinking. The night proved dark ; but 
 not so black, but that, in the second watch, 
 we had another view of the same reef of 
 low rocks and breakers, not half-a-mile a-head, 
 and yet the roar of their fall could not be 
 heard for the noise of the drunken rout on 
 board. 
 
 " I learnt something of the heart-ache 
 then, but there was no rousing them to a 
 sense of their danger, or indeed had they 
 strength left to put the ship about, and so, 
 poor thing, she ran on like a blind horse 
 who had lost his rider " 
 
 " AND STAVED HER RIBS UPON THE MARBLE STRAND !" 
 
 said the Commodore. 
 
 The Quarter Master looked rather bluff 
 
 for an instant, as a man generally does 
 
 when the tail of his story has been so awk-
 
 MAKANNA. Ill 
 
 wardly nicked, as to leave him all a-gog for 
 an answer, but his countenance perfectly 
 resumed its wonted good-humoured taciturnity 
 of expression, when, after a few observations 
 on their probable character, he found that 
 his commanding officer had a serious idea 
 of running the ship up to windward to catch 
 a more circumstantial view of the unknown 
 craft in question. 
 
 This resolution was a most fortunate one 
 for Laroon, as it promised speedily to remove 
 his rather too familiar friends in the Goshawk ; 
 and he failed not, therefore, to second it by 
 every argument in his power, and among 
 others, by one which sounded not a little queer 
 in the conscious ears of his more sagacious 
 followers : viz. that the vessels alluded to might 
 contain the crew of some ship that had 
 foundered in the previous storm. 
 
 This advice was taken as cordially, as it 
 was craftily given ; but as the beating up, on 
 so light a wind, was a task of much diffi-
 
 112 MAKANNA. 
 
 culty, even to the Goshawk, although the 
 rake of her masts gave her unusual facilities 
 for the manoeuvre; it naturally followed that, 
 notwithstanding the Ganges continued sailing 
 large on her former course, a considerable 
 time elapsed before the vessels were suffi- 
 ciently distant from each other to render it 
 prudent for the crew of the latter to throw 
 aside the disguise they had assumed.
 
 MAKANNA. 113 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " Whatsoever shall befall to-night, 
 
 Give it an understanding, but no tongue." 
 
 HAMLET. 
 
 " I therefore apprehend, and do attach thee, 
 For an abuserof the world, a practiser 
 Of arts inhibited, and out of warrant." 
 
 OTHELLO. 
 
 THE top-gallant-sails of the frigate had been 
 long sunk beneath the offing, when Laroon 
 directed that the decks should be cleared of 
 the grave mummery which had so well an- 
 swered his purpose. The order was obeyed, 
 but not with that sedulous alacrity with which 
 the crew had been wont to execute the
 
 114 MAKANNA. 
 
 slightest indication of his pleasure, and which 
 the recent escape that they owed to his 
 dexterity might have inspired. This sullen 
 waywardness did not pass unnoticed by their 
 Captain; yet, either from indolence or caution, 
 he did not resent it, and after a few remarks 
 to the Boatswain, on whom all matters of 
 business devolved, he went below. 
 
 During the remaining hours of daylight, 
 the Ganges stood steadily on her course, 
 without shifting a sail. The sky, too, was 
 still charged with the same light fiery haze, 
 and the sea without a ruffle. 
 
 In this universal and dull tranquillity past 
 exertion and excitement only served to render 
 the languor of present inaction still more 
 oppressive ; and as the rigging required no 
 immediate attention, the men were lounging 
 in the shade in listless inactivity. Here and 
 there dice, or draughts gave an apology to 
 idleness, but in the estimation of the greater 
 number sleep was evidently the supreme feli-
 
 MAKANNA. 115 
 
 city, as their sonorous nostrils gave ample 
 evidence. 
 
 With evening, came something of a fresher 
 air, and a slight veering as to its direction; 
 and no sooner had the change from day to 
 night, so sudden in tropical regions, oc- 
 curred, than in obedience to previous orders, 
 some alterations were made in the working 
 state of the ship, many of the supernumerary 
 sails were taken in, and her head-gear having 
 been rendered lighter, she was laid on a tack 
 much nearer to the wind. 
 
 The air had indeed freshened, but it was 
 still as gentle as the breathings of an infant's 
 sleep; and although there was no moon yet, 
 the glorious stars of the southern hemisphere 
 shed a benign though weaker radiance. It 
 was, in sooth, one of those balmy nights, when 
 the spirit of man seems conscious of a kindred 
 with the silent harmonies of external nature, 
 and the heart grows warm, in the delicious 
 yearnings of its own sympathies.
 
 116 MAKANNA. 
 
 Attracted by the tranquillity of the hour, 
 Bertha was pensively leaning over the taffrail, 
 while her friend Vernon directed her attention 
 to the coruscations of phosphoric light, which 
 rose in rapid succession in the wake of the 
 ship. 
 
 " How beautiful ! and are those luminous 
 bodies really living creatures, which, like the 
 glow-worm, have the power of emitting light ? 
 
 " Some we have passed shone from the 
 deep dark waters bright and glowing as red- 
 hot cannon balls, and then again, there came a 
 shower of glittering sparks; and now, with a 
 sudden gush, the waves of that swift eddy 
 are all one flash of light, as if they teemed 
 with liquid fire : 'tis beautiful and strange." 
 
 " The exhibition of to-night is unusually 
 splendid/' replied Vernon, " and I am most 
 happy that it can dissipate, if but for a mo- 
 ment, those painful reflections which cannot 
 but agitate the bosom of so affectionate a 
 daughter."
 
 MAKANNA. 117 
 
 Whether it was the earnest tone of the 
 speaker, or the care with which his eyes were 
 averted from the fair object of his address, as 
 if conscious that the words involved reproach, 
 glowing blushes mantled in the cheeks of 
 Bertha, as with an indignant start she raised 
 her recumbent head. Words as hasty might 
 have fallen from her lips, had not a moment's 
 reflection shown how naturally her conduct 
 might be mistaken for a levity uncongenial 
 with her sentiments, or indeed with that 
 chastened fortitude which became her. The 
 change in her countenance was as momentary 
 as the emotion from which it sprung. The 
 roses of excitement still lingered there, but 
 the air of indignant animation had vanished, 
 and her sparkling glances were veiled beneath 
 the softening shade of her black and silky eye- 
 lashes, as she meekly replied, 
 
 " Must I then confess my weakness, or be 
 mis-judged ! I know not how, or wherefore, 
 but a fond presentiment has filled my bosom
 
 118 MAKANNA. 
 
 with a thousand cheerful hopes, and the past, 
 with all its fearful realities, seems but as a 
 dream, in the full assurance of my dear 
 Father's present safety ! Some say such feel- 
 ings are a token of impending death and 
 some, the harbingers of joy; I only know they 
 give a present happiness." She started ; for a 
 low deep voice exclaimed 
 
 " Then give the stranger welcome ! If it be 
 happiness to know of Major Falkland's safety, 
 I have the pleasure of saying, Madam, that no 
 doubt can be reasonably entertained of the 
 fact. 
 
 " The ship we spoke (while, pardon me, 
 you were a prisoner below) was no other than 
 the Goshawk ; and on our parting company, 
 she bore away in quest of two strange skiffs, 
 which I suggested, belonged to a foundered 
 ship. The wind has since veered a point, to 
 serve their purpose; the necessary time is 
 sped ; and if there be faith in man, even while 
 I speak, your Father's safe."
 
 MAKANNA. 119 
 
 " Then Providence be praised ! I do be- 
 lieve and thank you, Captain Laroon." 
 
 The latter bowed, and left the deck, while 
 the eyes of Bertha followed his receding foot- 
 steps with such a genuine expression of grate- 
 ful interest, and she expressed her sense of 
 " the noble generosity," as she termed it, of 
 Paul Laroon, in thus securing the safety of 
 her father in a way which must have com- 
 promised his own, in tones so ardent, that 
 Vernon moved aside to conceal the feelings 
 of chagrin they awakened. 
 
 Unconscious of his meaning, or indeed of 
 any thing save a joyous glow of contentment, 
 Bertha rambled over the deck, attended by 
 the loquacious Mage, whose playful ingenuity 
 extracted amusement from every thing around. 
 The greater part of the crew had retired to 
 their berths below, so that this exercise was 
 taken with little notice; and after leading her 
 mistress from the taffrail to the prow, and back 
 again, now standing in wanton daring on the 
 giddy footing of a cat's-head, and then bound-
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 ing up the step-ladder of the quarter-deck 
 with the agility of a squirrel, at last, as if 
 inspired by the very spirit of frolic, in a wild 
 melody she sung: 
 
 I could tell you, if I durst, 
 When young Love is kindly nurst ; 
 Yes, by maids, who start and scream 
 When by day the urchin's seen, 
 Pout and toss and turn away 
 From his gentle harmless play, 
 Just as if a mischief hung 
 On his soft complaining tongue : 
 Yes, I could, but guard me well, 
 They will pinch me if I tell ! 
 
 'Tis when shadowy night advances, 
 And o'er the deep the star-beam dances. 
 Each dissembler then with joy 
 Silently will clasp the boy, 
 Lull his wayward cares to rest 
 On her gently heaving breast 
 Only then impatient sighing, 
 To think his wings were made for flying, 
 And that tell-tale day so soon 
 Follows night's propitious gloom. 
 
 " Fie! fie, Margaret!" said her lady, 
 laughing, " so saucy a song deserves more 
 than pinching, and I shall impose silence for 
 a week !"
 
 MAKANNA. 121 
 
 " Silence, at the present moment, would at 
 least be prudent," whispered Vernon, who 
 had just approached them. 
 
 No reply was attempted; for the meaning 
 of his caution was then too apparent in the 
 gloating, licentious gaze, with which a group 
 of seamen, who had gathered unperceived 
 around, were eyeing the females. 
 
 The glances of lawless passion are more 
 significant than language ; and thrilled at once 
 with the instinctive dread of her sex, Bertha 
 caught the arm of her no less alarmed atten- 
 dant, and hurried to her oabin. 
 
 For a few minutes Vernon lingered with 
 
 O 
 
 the view of gaining some intimation from 
 the conversation of the men. which might 
 
 ' o 
 
 interpret their intentions; for, from the bold 
 familiarity with which they had obtruded 
 themselves on that part of the deck appro- 
 priated to their superiors, he was inclined to 
 suspect mischief. They were, however, too 
 subtle for his purpose, if it was so, for not 
 VOL. i. G
 
 122 MAKANNA. 
 
 a syllable more than ordinary escaped them, 
 and he at last retired, with the hope that 
 their unusual conduct had no other origin 
 than mere impertinence. 
 
 The first watch had passed, and an hour 
 or so of the second, when the bald head of 
 the Boatswain was seen emerging from the 
 fore-castle-hatchway. 
 
 " Holloa ! Jolly dog !" cried his old mess- 
 mate, Jack Marlin " What the plague hast 
 made thee part company with a warm ham- 
 mock?" 
 
 " Not so loud, master Steward : there's his 
 honour the Captain, what for charts and cal- 
 culations, has not been able to clew-up his 
 eyes for a wink start my ballast in a chase ! 
 but I'd rather work up junk for a week, than 
 over-haul those lubberly books for an hour." 
 
 " Ah, jolly dog, an' I can gi'e a guess for 
 that the schoolmaster forgot to take you in 
 tow, and the parson's spectacles would be but 
 dead-lights for you at the Bible."
 
 MAKANNA. 123 
 
 " Ugh, Jack ! let's ha' no running foul of 
 a friend for a joke if I've not got the bob- 
 stays of scholarship, I've the gripe for a rope's 
 end, that shall start a bigger man than ever 
 stood in slippers of yourn ! that's, if he shoot 
 athwart the course of my humour but come 
 mid-ships, Jack; I wants a word within 
 grapple." 
 
 At this intimation, the seaman addressed, 
 who was a thorough son of the ocean, rough 
 as the cub of a bear, and heavy as a por- 
 poise, began to move his short legs with the 
 usual professional straddle, until they had con- 
 veyed him to the appointed station. 
 
 " Well, jolly dog," said he," what 
 now?" 
 
 " First, let me see that we've a clear 
 offing," replied the Boatswain, kicking aside 
 a roll of canvass, which might have concealed 
 a skulking messmate " no listeners for me, 
 they always hear double. Now stow thy back 
 'gainst that cask, and don't break my line
 
 124 MAKANNA. 
 
 o'sail, with if s, and but's, and yes's and no's, 
 like a daflfe landsman ; a broken story's worse 
 to me than a baffling wind no, stand staunch, 
 and if you take, just tip a nod as signal; 
 and, on the other hand, if you shy on't, a 
 nudge with your elbow, so, will save breath, 
 and make no noise; for hark'ee, we must be 
 still as thieves in a church. 
 
 " Now for the sarmant, Jack! the text is, 
 ' We're bound for Bottomless-bay,' and I'll 
 show you the bearings and soundings of the 
 run, so that you may lend a hand, if more 
 work turns up than one can measure. Captain 
 Laroon hush ! 
 
 " He's clever as natural to the sea as 
 a fish to the water, and will run his jib- 
 boom into what port he pleases, let the 
 quarter of the globe be what it will ; ay, or 
 the wind foul or fair, just as easy as the boar- 
 rat we call Sultan smells out his own hole in 
 the dark. Now the devil a bit of navigation 
 knows any here besides him so you'll mind,
 
 MAKANNA. 125 
 
 Jack, that what stunted Mic sputters is all 
 blarney we could no more shift without the 
 Captain, than the ship without her helm. 
 
 " No, don't nudge at that ; I'll stick by 
 the Captain, that's, if he'll sarve his own 
 turn. But there's the grist of the joke. 
 Our Captain's wit is grown just like what? 
 why a rope jambed in a block, with a 
 cracked sheave, when the harder you haul, 
 the firmer it sticks; and so the more he 
 strives to please his own fancy, the further 
 he's off any satisfaction. 
 
 " No good ever came of a maiden petti- 
 coat in a ship, little or big; it catches all 
 
 the wind out of her sails. Instead o' locking: 
 
 o 
 
 to the trim aloft, the officers think of nothing 
 but their own, and the deuce a rag of a stay- 
 sail may be set, if the vessel's heeling would 
 make my lady sick! If the she thing's 
 married, or as you may say, properly tamed, 
 the matter's altogether different; and she may 
 be quite useful many ways, to flavour punch,
 
 126 MAKANNA. 
 
 rambooze, yankee cock-tail, or any thing o* 
 that sort. 
 
 " Now, Jack our Captain's doused the 
 topsails of his pride to the flash o' Miss Falk- 
 land's black eye a bonny chance that, and 
 if he'd the Parson's warrant, the Pinnace 
 were his own ! But what o* that, no such 
 black merchandize ha' been stowed in the 
 Ganges; and the ship too, poor thing, is as 
 'twere running the gantelope with an enemy to 
 windward, and a devilish hard-hearted coast to 
 leeward, both out o' sight just now, but how 
 long they're to be so, must depend on the 
 Captain's judgment and I'm feared that's 
 out o' trim else would he ha' sent the Gos- 
 hawk to pick up Captain Daker's boats, just 
 to rui) down again in a whirlwind of fire, 
 and blow us out of the water ! And all for 
 what? To save the girl's old dad, hey? 
 Now, if that squall comes, may I drink boil- 
 ing pitch, if I don't help stunted Mic to 
 noose his captainship in her garters: not but
 
 MAKANNA. 127 
 
 what, as I've said, I like's his Honour so 
 long as he's his own man. 
 
 " Now you may see, Jack, that a priest 
 would be cheap at half our cargo; it might 
 then be a regular splice, but now we're all 
 a-back, starn-way, and no steerage! 
 
 " Fair or foul, I say, Jack, the thing 
 must be done. If so be the Captain, when 
 sober, wants pluck to board the prize with- 
 out hail! why let him be primed. When 
 clean carried, and laid snug on her new 
 moorings, she may be lawfully commissioned, 
 and where's the harm ? Hush ! 
 
 " Did'st ever hear me tell, boy, of the 
 turkish cordial I bought it of a subtle 
 Venetian. Thirty drops of that " grand re- 
 viver," as the varlet called it, would make 
 your blood tingle to your very toes with 
 the devil's own waggery: it were an easy 
 thing to mingle forty with the Captain's 
 grog, and then would he stand shilly-shally 
 for Madam's willy-nilly ? No : though I've
 
 128 MAKANNA. 
 
 seen him turn pale when a smile hath 
 dimpled in her cheek, and hold his breath, 
 like a snubbed boy, when her eyes have 
 glanced half scornfully ; then, if her shrieks 
 were shriller than e'er sounded in the pil- 
 lage of a nunnery, when the steps of the 
 altar became the couch of violence, they'd 
 nothing daunt him! No, Jack, chastity in 
 that delirium would stand no better stead than 
 a studding-sail in a storm 
 
 " Pooh, man ! where did'st learn that un- 
 dertaker's gravity can'st see a judge and jury 
 in our dare-naught crew, where not a dog 
 deserves hanging so little as thy simple self. 
 
 " All our precious lives depend on La- 
 roon on his wit, man ! and that's crazed 
 with love! Ay, call it a maggot in the 
 brain, or what thou wilt, but remember, 
 there's such a sickness with't, as will prove 
 ratsbane to us all, unless it's cured, and that 
 speedily. 
 
 " These drops shall work the marvel
 
 MAKANNA. 129 
 
 The flurry past, you shall find him as keen 
 after the ship as a pilot for salvage. Ay, 
 the drops, Jack take the phial he's just 
 worn out with poring over those infernal 
 charts, but first he'll drink his glass of 
 rambooze Come, Mr. Steward, off to your 
 office, and remember, an extra dose of nut- 
 meg to hide the drug If he's trapt, tip me 
 the wink, but not a word before the men." 
 
 The details of this atrocious plot were 
 rehearsed by the Boatswain to the too ready 
 agent of his villany, in so low a tone, and the 
 conspirators were so remote from the few hands 
 on deck, that so far as secrecy was essential, it 
 was well secured. The second actor in this 
 wicked enterprise was well chosen for the pur- 
 pose, being one of those off hand sort of 
 people, who seem incapable of reflection, and 
 to whom the excitement of a new occupation 
 is so amusing, as to render them willing parti- 
 sans in any scheme of mischief, although they 
 have no chance of advantage from its fulfil- 
 G 2
 
 130 MAKANNA. 
 
 ment, and yet must run the hazard of its 
 failure. 
 
 In addition to this wilful carelessness, 
 Marlin had also that childish awe, for mere 
 bodily strength, and the ferocious achievements 
 of brute courage, which marks a vulgar mind. 
 These were endowments which, as we have 
 seen, the Boatswain possessed in the super- 
 lative degree, and he was, consequently, in the 
 Steward's estimation, a hero of the first class, 
 whose every behest it was an honour to obey. 
 On the present occasion, therefore, he suffered 
 no compunctious visitings of conscience to in- 
 terpose for a moment. The dastardly cruelty of 
 the crime contemplated was also, in his sense, 
 removed by an idea that Miss Falkland already 
 loved the Captain, and as to the manly deli- 
 cacy which had hitherto marked the conduct 
 of the latter, or the virgin scruples of the lady, 
 they were to him as chaff in a gale. 
 
 The phial under these impressions was put 
 in requisition as readily as it had been re-
 
 MAKANNA. 131 
 
 ceived, the mystic drops were counted, and 
 when opportunity offered, the treacherous 
 draught was handed to the intended dupe, 
 without remorse or hesitation. At the next 
 breath, indeed, the Steward felt alarmed, for 
 Laroon faltered on tasting the mixture, as if 
 his palate detected something amiss but the 
 moment after, in the sleepy forgetfulness 
 arising from his midnight study, the glass 
 was drained, and he retired to his cot. 
 
 Still chuckling at his successful fraud, 
 Marlin sought the Boatswain, and as others 
 were present, contented himself by giving the 
 significant hint agreed upon : The news, how- 
 ever, did not excite the tokens of inward satis- 
 faction he expected, and as the Boatswain was 
 changing the watch, his friend Jack found 
 himself ordered off with the rest in a tone of 
 peevish indifference, which he thought most 
 extraordinary. 
 
 The fact was, that the Boatswain began 
 to feel that his fiendish expedient might lead
 
 132 MAKANNA. 
 
 to results, for which he had not duly pre- 
 pared. The first effect of the medicated 
 liquor would, he knew, be a profound sleep, 
 and if that unnatural lethargy continued too 
 
 7v 
 
 long and he had no certainty as to its du- 
 ration, a commotion he feared might arise in 
 the ship beyond his power to control, and of 
 which he might be the victim. 
 
 The desperadoes, who mainly constituted 
 the crew, were hourly growing more and 
 more discontented. The respectful tenderness, 
 evinced by the Captain towards Miss Falk- 
 land, in the estimation of these fellows, was 
 rank effeminacy, and as such excited their 
 contempt, while they began to suspect, that he 
 was indifferent to their welfare any further 
 than that their services might contribute to her 
 safety. Another cause of offence, and one, 
 too, which still more annoyed them, was the 
 want of that reckless depravity on the part of 
 their commander, which would have reduced 
 him to their own level, and rendered him a
 
 MAKANNA. 133 
 
 ready leader in those marauding exploits, 
 which would have gratified them far more than 
 the voyage intended. 
 
 Although not such able casuists, the 
 Malays were little better affected towards 
 Laroon than his own followers. The death of 
 their countryman still rankled in their hearts, 
 and as the nautical science he possessed was 
 beyond their comprehension, they saw still less 
 reason for obedience. 
 
 With the whole of these facts the Boat- 
 swain" was conversant ; and he also felt, that, 
 having to enforce the necessary discipline in 
 behalf of an authority grown so unpopular, 
 he was himself become an object of dislike 
 to such an extent, that the subversion of 
 the Captain's influence would probably be the 
 signal of his own destruction. In his late 
 
 O 
 
 parley with the Steward, all allusion to these 
 unsavoury particulars had been carefully 
 omitted, nor had he either referred to what he 
 considered as the probable, and most desirable
 
 134 MAKANNA. 
 
 result of the unprincipled measure proposed. 
 This was no other than a change in the route 
 of the ship! for he felt assured that if his 
 plot succeeded, the remorse and pride of 
 Laroon would render him unwilling to re- 
 turn to Europe with so foul a blot upon his 
 honour. 
 
 With such " perilous stuff" weighing down 
 his heart, his chin cradled on his bosom in 
 sulky despondency, and his brawny arms 
 swinging, like pendulums, at the twitch of 
 each uneasy thought, the Boatswain continued 
 pacing the deck long after his accomplice had 
 gone below. At every third or fourth turn, he 
 paused near the hatches to listen, and at 
 length, when a perfect silence between decks 
 evinced that the mariners had stowed them- 
 selves off in their hammocks, after giving some 
 charge to the watch, he descended, with the 
 purpose of taking such measures as circum- 
 stances might require for the accomplishment 
 of his iniquitous plan. One of the first of
 
 MAKANNA. 135 
 
 these was to prevent any chance of risk from 
 Mr. Vernon, for which purpose he effectually 
 barricadoed the door of that gentleman's cabin. 
 The next was a task of greater difficulty, as it 
 was likely to excite the suspicions of Maldrake, 
 whose fidelity he knew to be invincible. 
 
 The honest old seaman was still on his post, 
 and as the Boatswain knew that he would 
 repel the intended attempt, if discovered, at 
 the hazard of his life, he was no less determined 
 to remove him, than at a loss as to an efficient 
 expedient for that purpose. 
 
 The narrow gangway, or, in more courtly 
 language, the corridor, across which the 
 weather-beaten tar had to march, or, as he 
 more appropriately would have termed it, 
 (considering that his swinging gait was so 
 much like the yawings of a ship under sail,) 
 to tack, in the wearisome discharge of his 
 lonely duty, was only lighted with a single 
 battle lantern, whose feeble ray served but, as 
 the poet saith, " to render darkness visible."
 
 136 MAKANNA. 
 
 Beyond the space thus occupied, as hath 
 before been noted, lay the state room and 
 principal accommodations of the ship, and to 
 this spot the Boatswain now advanced, with 
 a noiseless step, as not yet prepared with any 
 direct plan, and therefore not unwilling to 
 reconnoitre the post. His foot-falls were as 
 stealthy as those of a lady's maid, who hath 
 left her mistress with a lover, while on her 
 listening senses the rhapsodies of passion fall 
 sweeter than the strains of the midnight warbler 
 on the entranced ear of a musical connoisseur : 
 but every precaution was in vain. 
 
 Maldrake past, and repast, with most lau- 
 dable regularity, and had all the outward show 
 of martial vigilance; but it was the show alone, 
 the senses of the inward man were locked up 
 in sleep ! 
 
 Habit is every thing: your coachman has 
 been known to drive like Apollo, with four 
 frolicksome tits prancing before him, and yet 
 snoring louder than the whurr of his wheels.
 
 MAKANNA. 137 
 
 The nods of the Bench are proverbial, and the 
 vote of a Senator was never thought the worse 
 for his having outslept the debate. The Em- 
 peror Napoleon, we are told, had the power of 
 sleeping at will, and so had Maldrake, except 
 that as the mental toils of the latter were not 
 quite so important as those of the former, his 
 slumbers were not equally profound. 
 
 Thrice had this warlike apparition " stalked 
 by the fear oppressed eyes" of the Boatswain, 
 as he stood ensconced under the neighbouring 
 shadow of a door, before any suspicion of so 
 convenient a faculty of ambulatory sleep was 
 excited. Nor had the Boatswain then detected 
 it, but that Maldrake, under the influence of 
 some delectable dream, began fumbling and 
 huee;ing the butt of his muskatoon, after a 
 
 DO O 
 
 most equivocal fashion, while talking to him- 
 self he muttered 
 
 " Ah, who would have thought the little 
 hussy had such a spring on her cable, you 
 may wrestle /or the blessing and lose it
 
 138 MAKANNA. 
 
 too." " Bah !" roared the Boatswain close 
 in his ear, with the hope that so sudden a 
 conviction of a dereliction of duty would 
 confound the negligent sentry at once. 
 
 He had, however, reckoned without his 
 host, for as if possessed of that strange 
 instinctive faculty of apprehending the vici- 
 nity of objects, without either sight or touch, 
 which naturalists ascribe to the bat, no 
 sooner had the Boatswain advanced towards 
 Maldrake, than the latter grounded his 
 muskatoon with a force, which threatened 
 the toes of the appellant with annihilation 
 and at the same instant, unfixing his bayonet, 
 the sleeping combatant gave a back-handed 
 thrust, which would have ' k left the Boatswain 
 " hors de combat," had he not receded with 
 unwonted agility. 
 
 " Avast/' cried the latter, " what, murder 
 men in cold blood, messmate ? Pooh, tuck up 
 that ugly three-cornered bit of old iron I 
 sha'n't report that I found thee on the nod,
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 not I indeed for more's the shame that I did 
 not come to relieve thee before, seeing as how 
 the Captain gave so strict a charge on't." 
 
 " Well, but how can that be," said 
 Maldrake, " his Honour told me not to budge 
 an inch, without the word from his own 
 mouth ? " 
 
 Pshaw," replied the Boatswain, " make 
 no mouths about the matter, I bring thee his 
 own word; and I hope it's none the worse 
 for the carriage." Maldrake still stood irre- 
 solute, when he added," Come, turn in for a 
 spell, that dream may be coaxed on again, 
 and 'faith, man, 'twas too good to be cast 
 adrift in such a squall." 
 
 Now the precise interpretation of this dream 
 hath not appeared, but whatever it might be, 
 the mere allusion to it threw the old seaman 
 strangely off his guard, his rugged features 
 changed from their usual ruddy tint, into one 
 as deep as that of a ripe mulberry, and without
 
 140 MAKANNA. 
 
 another word, he handed his weapon to the 
 Boatswain and sought his hammock. 
 
 No sooner was the coast clear, than the 
 Boatswain, having laid aside the warlike 
 implements, which were the insignia of his 
 new office, took from his pocket a chisel and 
 marlinspike, and began to try his mechanical 
 skill in forcing the folding doors of the state 
 room. The mahogany mouldings were easily 
 cut, and the fastenings being more showy than 
 substantial, the only difficulty in the operation 
 was to perform it silently ; and this latter 
 point was the more necessary, from the danger 
 of exciting a premature alarm, either from 
 within, or without; the sleeping cabin of the 
 Captain opening into the ante-room, and that 
 of Bertha into the state-room itself. Going 
 to work, therefore, very gingerly, and pocket- 
 ing the chips as fast as they were made, he 
 contrived, at last, with a silent steady pres- 
 sure, to force back the bolt of the lock,
 
 MAKANNA. 141 
 
 and in the next moment pushed the door 
 partly open. 
 
 The work was now completed, and he was 
 only pausing from a feeling of doubt as to 
 whether it was best to leave the door invi- 
 tingly open, or closed as before, when it was 
 suddenly slammed to, with a force which 
 made the whole after part of the ship resound. 
 
 For a moment the Boatswain stood aghast, 
 from the idea that the general commotion of 
 the crew, which he dreaded, would occur in 
 the alarm which he instantly expected to 
 ensue, and his first care was accordingly to 
 extinguish the light of the battle lantern, lest 
 it should lead to his instant detection. All, 
 however, remained as silent as it was dark, 
 and, after standing motionless for ten or twelve 
 minutes, the Boatswain concluded that all 
 was secure, and was about to retire, when the 
 thought arose in his mind that Bertha and 
 her attendant h&j^ certainly been awakened, 
 and were only concealing their fear until his
 
 142 MAKANNA. 
 
 departure might render their outcries more 
 safe and effective. Stung with a sense of the 
 danger which would follow such a discovery, 
 a more horrible project now entered his mind, 
 than any he had previously entertained. 
 
 The enormity now contemplated, as may 
 have been anticipated, was the murder of the 
 defenceless females so unfortunately within 
 his power. The ruffian felt that the success 
 of this crime depended upon its being silently 
 executed, and that, for this purpose, extreme 
 caution was requisite. Having, therefore, 
 slowly and in part re-opened the door, his first 
 care was to secure it from being a second time 
 blown to, with the air from the stern windows, 
 two of which were open, by placing a chip of 
 wood beneath it. Having thus guarded 
 against an accident, he immediately proceeded 
 on his diabolical design. 
 
 The entrance to Miss Falkland's sleeping- 
 cabin was, he remembered, on the starboard 
 side, and as some scattered rays of moonlight
 
 MAKANNA. 143 
 
 then struck into the state-room, which might 
 have fallen on a person walking across it, he 
 determined to approach his unsuspecting- 
 victim by creeping along the floor on the other 
 side, where the blackness of the shadows 
 would render concealment perfect. Having, 
 therefore, unsheathed a large case-knife, and 
 placed its blade between his teeth, so as to 
 have it ready for instant use, he took off his 
 shoes, and began crawling along the carpet 
 with such cautious address, that not the 
 slightest rustle betrayed a token of his pre- 
 sence. 
 
 Lulled with the idea of perfect security 
 under the watchful care of honest Maldrake, 
 and no less by the safeguard of the Captain's 
 honour, it was the habit of Bertha to sleep 
 with the communication between her cabin 
 and the state-room open, for the sake of the 
 agreeable coolness with which the night 
 
 O O 
 
 breeze, fresh from the embrace of the ocean, 
 attempered the sultry atmosphere around.
 
 144 MAKANNA. 
 
 Having arrived at this unsecured opening, 
 the Boatswain paused and listened attentively 
 with the expectation that the quick breathing 
 of the females would betray their smothered 
 alarm. 
 
 He listened in vain, for all within the 
 cabin was silent as the grave. He paused 
 yet a moment longer, and then gradually 
 rising from his recumbent attitude, he stood 
 with the malice of a treacherous fiend behind 
 the door, with the knife already grasped and 
 raised for the blow, which he resolved should 
 in the first instance be fatal. Still all was 
 hushed ; and grown impatient, he bent his 
 head forward, with the intent of discovering 
 if the uncertain light, which now and then 
 flitted forth as the moon emerged from pass- 
 ing clouds, would assist his aim, in the 
 meditated attack. Some gleam of light, how- 
 ever feeble, was indeed almost necessary, not 
 only on account of the inconvenience of 
 having to grope out his victims in the dark ;
 
 MAKANNA. 145 
 
 but as the agonizing shrieks of a prolonged 
 struggle might in that case betray their 
 assassin. 
 
 At first, the moon being then obscured, 
 an awful blackness reigned within, where 
 not a single object could be discovered, ex- 
 cept a dim and oval spot of light trans- 
 mitted from a single pane of glass, that had 
 been let into the side of the ship, and which 
 then, with no great stretch of fancy, might 
 have been mistaken for the dread glare of 
 some unearthly eye. 
 
 Grown angry with his own delay, the 
 remorseless ruffian advanced a step, and 
 stretched out an arm in what he guessed 
 to be the direction of the bed, when a flood 
 of moonlight, breaking suddenly from behind 
 a cloud, shot through the oval pane in one 
 broad beam of snowy brightness across the 
 shadowy void within, and in its course dis- 
 played an object, which, for a moment at 
 least, arrested the dreadful purpose in hand. 
 VOL. i. H
 
 146 MAKANNA. 
 
 That vivid gleam descended full on the 
 hapless Bertha, as in the deep slumbers of 
 youth and innocence she lay unconscious. 
 Her beautiful bosom heaving its soft en- 
 trancing orbs above the throbbing citadel of 
 life, in measured rise and fall, as breathes some 
 dullest strain of melting music; her neck 
 reclined with swan-like grace, sunk in the 
 downy pillow, the head thrown back, and 
 the moist lips as opening rosebuds exhaling 
 an incense redolent with life and love. 
 
 The ruffian paused, but not so much in 
 mercy as in prudence. It was evident that 
 the lady slept ; his secret then was safe, and 
 nothing more was requisite. Having there- 
 fore recrossed the state-room with due cir- 
 cumspection, and replenished the battle- 
 lantern with a fresh light, and also put to the 
 doors which had been forced partially open, 
 he prepared to retire. In doing this, he 
 however took care to close securely the com- 
 munications leading to other parts of the
 
 MAKANNA. 147 
 
 ship ; and having thus laid the train of 
 future mischief, he left the spot, with the 
 diabolical expectation that, before the coming 
 dawn, the young heart, whose gentle heavings 
 he had so unworthily witnessed, would have 
 to lament a fate still more revolting than the 
 violent death so narrowly escaped.
 
 148 MAKANNA. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Marry, Sir, our watch to-night, excepting your Worship's 
 presence, hath ta'en a couple of as arrant knaves as any in 
 Messina." 
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 
 
 IN the strange eventful pilgrimage of human 
 existence you cannot name a holliday more 
 prodigal of joy than that of the mariner, 
 who, after a long endurance of winds and 
 waves amid the trackless waste of waters, 
 catches once more sure glimpses of the land ! 
 The face of rural nature, which has been 
 so long veiled from his longing eyes in 
 gathering sea-mist, or in the wild careering
 
 MAKANNA. 149 
 
 tempest, has then, in its most homely and 
 ordinary forms, to him a magic tinge of 
 beauty. The shadowy hills and smiling 
 valleys seem to breathe an air of warm 
 substantial comfort; and harmonize the feel- 
 ings, even as the dear and soothing voices 
 of old familiar friends, who, after a tedious 
 absence, re-open to our hearts the fountains 
 of their love. 
 
 Such are ever the emotions of those who 
 traverse the great deep, when the glad cry 
 of "Land, ho!" breaks from the giddy 
 height, where the poor ship-boy has been, 
 perhaps, for hours poring in vain towards 
 the dim verge, where sky and water seem to 
 mingle. 
 
 Now of all such spirit-stirring scenes, 
 which the circling shores of the wide world 
 can present, there is not one more full 
 of excitement, or in itself more picturesque 
 and lovely, than the sea-view of that bold
 
 150 MAKANNA. 
 
 promontory of Southern Africa, which has 
 been so appropriately termed the Cape of 
 Good Hope ! 
 
 Whether it be in the first glimpse, when it 
 rises in the form of a faint blue dusky disk, 
 crowned with a coronet of snowy vapour, 
 which gleams the brighter from the deep azure 
 of an unclouded sky, and as the ship sails 
 onward, seems some vast Titanic spectre, 
 coming in majesty of light and shade, from far 
 beyond the glittering confines of the ocean : 
 or, as when more nearly seen in all its wild 
 variety of panoramic beauty, the enchanting 
 view unfolds its more familiar charms. 
 
 The ample sweep of the strand, glassy 
 with laving waters, gilded with sunbeams, 
 and thus contrasting finely to the changing 
 hues of the sea, with each light ruffling air 
 melting alternately from purple into green. 
 And then the town, with the swell of the 
 gentle acclivity on which it stands, displaying
 
 MAKANNA. 151 
 
 its spacious streets of neat and stuccoed 
 houses, interspersed with handsome trees, 
 and cool green gardens. 
 
 The undulating land around, bedecked 
 with farms, and, in the spring time, bloom- 
 ing with gorgeous flowers of a thousand 
 dyes. And then beyond, and far more beau- 
 tiful than these, the shadowy and majestic 
 skreen of craggy mountains stretched out 
 afar, and thus dividing the peaceful paradise 
 in view, from that vast, savage, and almost 
 unknown continent which lies behind. 
 
 Of these bold heights, that are termed 
 the 'Table,' on whose level crest condensed va- 
 pour so often hangs, and forms the only cloud 
 seen perhaps for months in that clear atmos- 
 phere. The ' Sugar-Loaf,' rearing its lofty 
 cone in single grandeur, and those fantastic 
 masses, called the ' Lion's Head ' and ' Rump,' 
 which seem the characteristic guardians of 
 the shore, all, in the changing aspects of 
 their shadowy cloofs and sunny ridges, tower
 
 152 MAKANNA. 
 
 in mid air before the stranger's eye, vast, 
 stern, and dark, the ancient ramparts of the 
 world. 
 
 But after all, what have we to do with the 
 sublime or tender charms of natural scenery, 
 or with the delicious enthusiasm they inspire ? 
 Verily, nothing. Our business, it is true, 
 has set us down at the great half- way-house 
 of the mercantile world, already named, 
 which stands so opportunely between two 
 hemispheres, but it has no more direct 
 affinity with the romantic localities of that 
 renowned sea-port, than with the thoughts of 
 its rum but thrifty inhabitant, Mynheer Van 
 Riesbeck, who, half dressed, has just pushed 
 his solemn phiz and white night-cap through 
 the opening of his lattice window to catch a 
 snift of the morning air. 
 
 Every one who has visited Cape Town 
 is perfectly aware that the buildings facing the 
 bay are little more than timber-yards, ware- 
 houses, stores, and such unpretending but
 
 MAKANNA. 153 
 
 useful edifices. At the date of this our 
 history, it was, however, different, insomuch 
 as one of the said warehouses, hereby alluded 
 to, was not then in being ; but on the plot of 
 ground it now occupies, there stood the right 
 comfortable, and respectable mansion of the 
 above-named Van Riesbeck. 
 
 Now it is not unworthy of notice, that the 
 above Burger was reported by his neighbours 
 to bear a direct similitude to a snail ! not in 
 respect to an equal capacity for eternal gor- 
 mandizing, although his nether bulk evinced 
 no unfitness for that accomplishment, but on 
 account of his dwelling. 
 
 It is a fact, known to more than natural 
 philosophers, that so essential is a dry roof 
 to his snail- ship, that he willingly endures 
 the toil of always carrying one on his 
 shoulders. The snail cannot live without his 
 house, nor could they,- said . our portly 
 Dutchman: 'twas his house that fed him, 
 clothed him, and ministered no less to 
 
 H2
 
 154 MAKANNA. 
 
 his merest necessities, than to his most in- 
 dubitable luxuries. 
 
 Yes, the house of the worshipful Van 
 Riesbeck was a " boarding house," and one, 
 too, that very soon transmuted its visitors 
 into doubloons, or indeed into any other 
 coin, European or Asiatic ; for, so that the 
 metallic offerings were precious, their name 
 or colour to the recipient was a matter of 
 utter indifference. 
 
 The Master, on these grounds, being no- 
 thing more than a dependant on the house ! 
 the latter, although inanimate, may chal- 
 lenge a precedence of description, in these our 
 historical details. 
 
 Every body knows what a Dutch house 
 is, and that if your Hollander emigrates, to 
 recur to the simile of the snail, his house is 
 still the same ; that is, it is built on the same 
 fashion as any one of those you may find 
 stuck upright in the mud, along-side one of 
 the stale green canals of Rotterdam.
 
 MAKANNA. 155 
 
 The house in question was not, however, 
 built, it had only been altered by a Dutch- 
 man. The original fabric was on the Swiss 
 model, and as the worthy native of Zurich, 
 who had laid the foundations thereof, was a 
 mighty dealer in timber, he had spared no 
 due proportion of that useful material, at first 
 rather a scarce one at the Cape, so that 
 there was no lack of frame-work, or of beams, 
 small and great. 
 
 The result of the architectural medley 
 thus engendered was, that the house of 
 friend Riesbeck had more than ordinary in 
 its composition, of what painters term the 
 picturesque. The basement, or lower floor, 
 was destined by the Swiss for the offices; 
 the ceiling was low, and the divisions nume- 
 rous. On a level with the top of this, ran a 
 boarded stage, or rude balcony of timber- 
 work, along the whole of the sea-ward 
 front. A broad step-ladder on the outside
 
 156 MAKANNA. 
 
 led up to this wooden elevation, and the 
 doors of the several chambers of the second 
 story opened upon it. 
 
 The principal of these was intended by 
 the Swiss, as a store-room for drying fruits, 
 an idle conceit in Africa, where at times a man 
 can hardly keep his blood moist in his veins, 
 but so it was. This apartment, having been 
 transmogrified by the Dutchman into a very 
 decent sort of sitting room, was shown to a 
 new customer under the lofty appellation of the 
 banqueting hall. The place was, however, 
 both cool and pleasant, the first good quality 
 being partly owing to its size, and to its 
 original and really excellent floor of teak-wood 
 having been, under the direction of Van 
 Riesbeck, coated over with plaster and glazed 
 tiles. 
 
 Here, too, the furniture was equally 
 after the fashion of the Low Countries, heavy, 
 formal, and ugly. Long narrow tables, po-
 
 MAKANNA. 157 
 
 lished to blackness, and chairs so massy, that 
 their mere weight ensured them from any 
 chance of being stolen. 
 
 There, too, were feet stoves for the ladies, 
 spittoons for the men, and a huge side- 
 board, carved with the story of Susanna, 
 and crowded with antique glasses, so tall 
 and narrow, that if the obsequious host 
 had not, on occasion, furnished more mo- 
 dern and handy vehicles to aid the profane 
 practice of drinking, the sobriety of the guests 
 had been better guaranteed, than from their 
 having been members of any temperance 
 society, of either the old world, or the new. 
 
 The dormitories, or, in more humble lan- 
 guage, the bed-rooms, were fitted up much in 
 the same style, that is, with a heterogeneous 
 mixture of those articles which are proper to 
 the Tropics and the Poles, viz. thick woollen 
 curtains, whelming feather beds, mosquito 
 nets, open lattices, and Venetian blinds. 
 
 After all, the outside of Van Riesbeck's
 
 158 MAKANNA. 
 
 house was most amusing, for there was equal 
 oddity with less absurdity. Having altered 
 the interior, Mynheer was determined to have 
 here something altogether after his own 
 whim. And, accordingly, no sooner had 
 he scraped together quantum suf., than 
 he set to work to build a sanctum sanctorum, 
 for the especial lodgment of his own proper 
 person. 
 
 Early recollections are those, which, when 
 opportunity offers, we like best to realize. 
 Van Riesbeck had left his native land a mere 
 child, yet he still retained a faint remem- 
 brance of a certain Burgomaster's favourite 
 Drostdy House, with its over hanging roof, 
 grotesque carvings, pointed gable, cross, and 
 gilt vane ; and so, without wit to see that 
 what was imposing on a large scale, would 
 prove ridiculous on a small one, at no little 
 expense, and after numberless abortions, was 
 perfected : what ? An ugly, half practical 
 toy, a little Noah's ark sort of thing, orna-
 
 MAKANNA. 159 
 
 merited, withal, by a weathercock almost as 
 big as itself. 
 
 When this strange gewgaw was first 
 perched up at one corner of the old house, 
 something after the fashion of a turret, the 
 very Hottentot urchins jeered at it, but, after 
 a time, people got used to it, and called it 
 " Riesbeck's folly." 
 
 It must not, however, be here concealed, 
 that some of those wiseacres, who can always 
 find a reason for every thing, opined, that as 
 Riesbeck, although gifted with a most dolo- 
 rous visage, and a bachelor withal, had not 
 precisely the fair side of a bachelor's reputa- 
 tion on the most sensitive of all points that 
 he, the said Riesbeck, in simple prudence, 
 and for the sake of rebutting such sinister 
 whispers, which certain gossips buzzed about, 
 and which tended to impugn his credit for 
 celibacy, had discreetly built himself a sleep- 
 ing place so small and awkwardly high, that 
 it could never be imagined that any two
 
 160 MAKANNA. 
 
 persons would inhabit it at the same time, 
 or at least that a woman would venture to 
 approach so perilous a structure. 
 
 The whole matter was, however, a flimsy 
 conjecture, without a particle of proof, and as 
 for those illnatured inferences, drawn from the 
 fact that a covered staircase had been carried, 
 at some expense, into this new cock-loft, 
 from the offices below, when a few open 
 steps from the balcony would have sufficed, 
 and that the rickety fabric had been known 
 to creek and shake, as if deprest with a 
 load disproportionate to its capability, they 
 were no better than a random shot at wild 
 ducks. 
 
 Whatever might be said as to the past 
 agitations of the dainty nest in question, those 
 which it indured at the present moment 
 were beyond dispute, for Van Riesbeck had 
 just thrust his head out of its single window 
 so eagerly, as to give an unusual vibratory 
 impulse to the two stout poles which sup-
 
 MAKANNA. 161 
 
 ported it on that side, where it had not the 
 advantage of a solid attachment to the body 
 of the house. 
 
 It hath been before said, that the jolly 
 Dutchman's object was ' to catch a snift of 
 the mornino- air,' and so it was. But it so 
 
 O / 
 
 happened that, while ventilating his lungs in 
 that agreeable way, his sense of hearing was 
 also put into requisition, in a manner which 
 excited his curiosity so far as to make him 
 linger at his post of vantage, and that, not- 
 withstanding that the wanton sea breeze made 
 direct inroad among the black hairs which 
 curled about his spacious chest, for, as yet, he 
 had not donned either coat or waistcoat. 
 
 Now, before any explanation, either direct 
 or indirect, is given, relative to the sounds 
 which had excited the curiosity before alluded 
 to, it behoveth, that another of the peculi- 
 arities of this uncouth domicile should be 
 known, viz. its ' stoep.' 
 
 No Dutchman would fancy the best house
 
 162 MAKANNA. 
 
 in Christendom without a ' stoep,' i. e. a neat 
 raised platform before the main entrance, 
 where the inmates, in fine weather, may 
 sit and enjoy themselves in the open air. 
 
 In this particular taste Van Riesbeck 
 was not a jot behind his neighbours. His 
 ' stoep' was not only unusually large, but 
 unusually elevated, as five cursedly high, 
 awkward, knee-cramping steps bore witness. 
 It was also in other ways distinguished. 
 First, it was completely paved with broad 
 square ti f es, of a blood-red colour secondly, 
 it had a handsome coping of white stone 
 round it ; and thirdly, it was ornamented 
 with two formal rows of dwarf orange trees, 
 in jars, and a surrounding trellis-work of 
 bamboo, which last gimcrack was really pretty 
 enough in its way. 
 
 All this magnificence could not be supported 
 without some cost, and that expended in the 
 way of labour was neither light nor small. 
 The diurnal period, fixed for the purification
 
 MAKANNA. 163 
 
 of this delectable spot, was day-break, and, 
 accordingly, the operation was now in full 
 progress. 
 
 The members of the household thus 
 employed were a man and a woman. 
 Now the woman was young, in fact, there 
 was no chance of her being otherwise, and 
 remaining part and parcel of that menage, 
 for among other oddities, her master had a 
 conceit, after the example of King David's 
 groom of the chamber, relative to the 
 sanatory influence of female youth, and was 
 wont to say, that the smiles of a young face 
 were a perpetual egg posset. 
 
 The man, on the other hand, was " in- 
 clined into the vale of years." It was 
 certainly a gross incongruity, but not the 
 less a certain rule with Mynheer Van 
 Riesbeck, never to employ any male not 
 old enough to be his father, for having 
 heard it said, that no man to his valet can 
 be always a hero, he determined that his
 
 164 MAKANNA. 
 
 private foibles should not at least be quizzed 
 by a junior. 
 
 The name of the female was Cousha, and 
 she was a Hottentot 
 
 " Oh ! patience," exclaims some blushing 
 fair one, with skin of alabaster and cheek 
 of roses and whose sensitive delicacy is 
 all turned the wrong way, like the hair of 
 an electrified cat, at the bare idea of an 
 African belle of the second table. 
 
 But Cousha was not only young, but 
 fair ! that is, using the latter term in its better 
 sense, rather than as distinctive of that subtle 
 mixture of the seven primitive colours which 
 the negro allots to the devil. 
 
 Yes, she was fair; just about the 
 height of the statue " that enchants the 
 world," which, by the by, is the general 
 standard of her race. And although it 
 must be admitted, that " the human form 
 divine" is so outrageously burlesqued in 
 the persons of the Hottentot ladies past a
 
 MAKANNA. 165 
 
 certain age, that he who sees, may die of 
 laughter; yet with their juvenile sisters, with 
 whom the heyday of youth is yet in full career, 
 the reverse is so often apparent, that, on the 
 word of La Vailant, if Zeuxis had had the 
 opportunity of taken one as a model, he might 
 have escaped the trouble of congregating the 
 flower of the grecian maidens, that he, vain 
 mortal, might in a single picture combine their 
 varied charms. 
 
 The complexion of Cousha was the softest 
 tint of brown that can be imagined, just the 
 shade and hue of a faded leaf of a fuchsia, 
 when the sap of the plant has been drained 
 by excessive flowering. 
 
 Her eyes were small, but more black 
 and sparkling than the finest jet. The 
 outline of her face was oval, but the lines 
 converged around the chin in a greater 
 degree than is common with Europeans ; 
 the teeth were white as blanched almonds,
 
 166 MAKANNA. 
 
 and the sweet dimples at the corners of 
 the mouth were so often dispersed in smiles, 
 that her countenance was even as a summer 
 sea, which the winds are ever ruffling with 
 their light and kissing breath, and which in 
 motion grows more beautiful. 
 
 O 
 
 It is in the general contours of the form, 
 that the Hottentot girls are most attractive, 
 and Cousha in this respect no less excelled. 
 She had all that polished clearness of the skin, 
 tapering roundness of the limbs, and swimming 
 easy grace of carriage which captivate the 
 fancy. 
 
 It is, perhaps, that such elegancies in 
 this race are so often carried to an extreme, 
 that they merge so soon into the reverse. In 
 some particulars there may at first be rather 
 an excess of plumpness, and it may be confi- 
 dently affirmed, that not one of these dark 
 eyed nymphs of the Cape would find her 
 figure improved by that ingenious article of
 
 MAKANNA. 167 
 
 dress, so frequently assumed by the coy 
 daughters of the West need it be named a 
 ' bustle.' 
 
 Cousha, with all these feminine charms 
 
 Well, it is scandalous, but Nature never 
 shows a due deference for aristocratic dis- 
 tinctions, and has delighted in her Cinderellas, 
 so far that Eve herself in all the pristine 
 glories of Eden, was not, in polite parlance, 
 " a lady," having no maid or humble friend 
 to render the gift of hands superfluous. 
 
 Cousha, at that moment, was kneeling 
 on the thick softness of a panther's hide, 
 while with attentive assiduity, she cleaned 
 the before mentioned blood -red tiles, of 
 every particle of drift sand or stain which 
 might detract from their most handsome 
 appearance. 
 
 The part borne by the male assistant in 
 these, the toilet duties of the 'stoep,' were most 
 insignificant. He was a native of Malacca, as 
 indeed are most of the foreign domestic slaves
 
 168 MAKANNA. 
 
 at the Cape; and it need hardly be added, 
 that the complexion of Zambo was a deep 
 tawny, rather than black, and that his features 
 were far more sprightly and prepossessing than 
 those of the negro. 
 
 Time, indeed, seemed to make so little 
 impression on the elastic nerves of this most 
 waggish and conceited of servitors, that al- 
 though past sixty, he had still the frolic of 
 a boy, and the mischief of a monkey. Even 
 now, instead of facilitating the work in hand, 
 the unlucky dog was really retarding it, by 
 slily whisking the dry sand from the leaves 
 of the orange trees, which it was his duty to 
 dust, back again on another part of the ' stoep;' 
 not that there was an atom of illnature in the 
 matter No The purifying rites of the ' stoep' 
 originated the grand gossiping season of 
 Zambo, and he always contrived to make 
 the most of it. 
 
 With this view, having given his gentle 
 helpmate at least twenty minutes' extra occu-
 
 MAKANNA. 169 
 
 pation, he straddled across the bamboo trellis, 
 and began playing the balance master with 
 the long handled feather broom he had been 
 using. 
 
 Now balancing from a tobacco pipe to 
 a loaded gun, was one of those sports in 
 which Zambo most delighted ; but, on the 
 present occasion, the trick past off but scur- 
 vily; whether the cane-handled broom was 
 lodged on the forehead or the chin, down it 
 fell in a twinkling, and wherefore ? simply 
 because the eyes of Zambo were otherwise 
 directed. 
 
 Whether it was the smart blue gown 
 of Cousha, contrasting so knowingly with 
 the transparent brownness of her complexion, 
 and the snowy whiteness of her stock- 
 ings, or the graceful agility with which her 
 plump person, undulated with the exertions of 
 her task, even as a Dutch Galiot rides with a 
 bobbing heave upon her anchor ; or perhaps 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 170 MAKANNA. 
 
 the coquettish air, with which the smiling 
 Cousha, ever and anon, reclined her depending 
 face, so as to bring the keen artillery of her 
 eyes point blank on the antic playing Zambo : 
 It might be from either, or from all of these 
 causes, but the balancing affair so egregiously 
 failed, that the feather broom was in very 
 shame discarded, and the parties fell into the 
 colloquy which had not only excited the 
 curiosity of their lord and master, but their 
 own attention to such a degree, that the 
 opening of his window had past unheeded. 
 
 " Massa vant know ebbery ting," said 
 Cousha, with that soft musical intonation so 
 common to the females of her race, " but 
 Cousha no tell'ee but one ittle bit." 
 
 " Dat long deal too much," replied her 
 mahogany faced companion, whose short 
 rattling voice put you in mind of a kettle- 
 drum. 
 
 Let Massa stick his own ear wid de
 
 MAKANNA. 171 
 
 broad ugay-flap, like da pigs, to de hole 
 for de key, and hark'ee ! Zambo no try 
 catch'ee de ittle tale for de Massa." 
 
 " Not de ittle tale but de big tale ! 
 He say to me, * Cousha, keep de eye on both 
 de shentlemen, and see if they be rech, and 
 if de tunk be heavy, and vat they come to 
 Cape for' ha! ha! ha! he! he! Cousha 
 one ittle sly girl know more tan Massa vant, 
 but no tell'ee ! " 
 
 The last few words were spoken in so 
 clear a key, as to be perfectly overheard by 
 Mynheer, who roared out "Duyvils!" in a 
 voice that might have been mistaken for 
 that of "The Prince of the Air," in propria 
 persona. 
 
 Zambo sprang off the rails with the bound 
 of a wild cat, and untwisting his white apron, 
 hurried off to prepare breakfast. Poor Cousha 
 had not the power of making so precipitate 
 a retreat; and the wrathful Dutchman was 
 already taking his morning turn at the upper
 
 172 MAKANNA. 
 
 end of the stoep, and smoking with unusual 
 vehemence. When as her task was ended, she 
 made a short tack into the house, but in her 
 way, still having to encounter the indignant 
 eyes of her master, then shedding a most 
 malignant influence from the gray whirling 
 clouds of tobacco smoke, in which they were 
 enveloped. 
 
 A few minutes later, and the little Hot- 
 tentot must have endured the thunder, if 
 not more tangible proofs of his displeasure, 
 but she was now perfectly secure in the self 
 absorption which always attended the con- 
 sumption of his morning pipe, a custom 
 which had suffered no infraction for the last 
 forty years, and the enjoyment of which he 
 deemed as indispensable to a due exercise of 
 his waking senses, as the midnight ' soopie,' 
 or dram, was to the quiet of his slumbers. 
 
 The fragrant incense of the " Indian 
 weed" was all puffed away, and the little 
 core of white ashes shaken from the bowl,
 
 MAKANNA. 173 
 
 and the joints of the pipe most carefully 
 unscrewed, preparatory to its return to the can- 
 vass bag, in which it was kept, when the 
 anger of Van Riesbeck found an utterance in 
 words 
 
 "What the ' Duyvil !'" he exclaimed 
 " shall these black vermin be fed and housed 
 to turn counter, on all the regulations of the 
 family ? 
 
 " How would the wheels of your state 
 policy keep in motion without the oil of 
 secret service-money ? and how shall such 
 a concern as this be kept together without 
 a little underhand intelligence from time to 
 time, as to the quality and means of the 
 boarders. For these three days past have 
 I been stewing and fretting, for the want 
 of a leading hint, as to the two strange 
 officers above stairs. 
 
 " Let me see they were popt on shore, 
 stealth like, from a frigate, that only wore 
 and then ran off the coast again. They
 
 .,- 
 
 174 MAKANNA. 
 
 seem not to know a soul in the garrison, 
 and not to have a single reference to a 
 mercantile firm, or a planter in the Colony, 
 are proud as Lucifer, silent as fishes, and 
 fidgetty as if they had committed treason ! 
 
 " Such gentry as these had never dark- 
 ened my doors twice, but that they spend 
 like princes : that horse bought yesterday ' 
 was a world too dear, yet not a tittle of 
 advice would they condescend to hear on 
 the bargain. 
 
 " Well, though they spend like princes, 
 they may not pay like honest men ! and since 
 I've been simple enough to let them en- 
 gage their quarters for a month, after all 
 their vapouring, I may be blinked of the 
 reckoning, and lose the profit of twelve ! 
 
 " Now that sly whining little baggage 
 Cousha has, it seems, the key of the mystery, 
 and she shall unlock it, or " 
 
 The soliloquy of Van Riesbeck terminated 
 in a complete volley of Dutch oaths, and
 
 MAKANNA. 175 
 
 as he passed off into the house, a running 
 fire of the same sort was so smartly kept 
 up, that the gentle Cousha felt happy to 
 mitigate the attack, by a full confession of 
 all the odd scraps of conversation, and other 
 items she had been able to glean, in refer- 
 ence to the strange officers, whose very 
 names had not as yet transpired. 
 
 Cousha's secret, on this occasion, was in 
 sooth a woman's that is, it appeared to 
 lead to a great deal, and ended in nothing! 
 
 There were sundry particulars tending to 
 prove that the one " shentleman" was short, 
 choleric, and droll ; the other tall, courteous, 
 and melancholy ; that the one slept in silk 
 stockings, and that the other had a hand- 
 some calf; with a long et csetera of such 
 weighty matters. 
 
 There were, however, two particulars, which 
 puzzled Mynheer not a little. The first was, 
 that the short choleric gentleman, who had 
 been most flashy with his cash, (on Cousha's
 
 176 MAKANNA. 
 
 report) was ever complaining of some ruinous 
 loss ; while the tall gentleman, whose teeth 
 time had stolen, and whose shrivelled limbs 
 appeared but jointed crutches, was most pre- 
 posterously in love! and ever sighing to the 
 picture of a rosy girl, or moaning out her 
 name with the most pathetic endearments. 
 
 These were but lame surmisings, and yet 
 there was a swindling air of trickery in the 
 first, which increased the fears of the pru- 
 dent host, and a sentimental imbecility in 
 the latter, which disgusted him, so that upon 
 the whole, he was more anxious than ever 
 to reach some positive conclusion. 
 
 " De short shentleman do give all de house 
 de grat tarn ! tarn ! and de tall shentleman 
 do vant to speak to de Massa." 
 
 Van Riesbeck attended the unceremonious 
 summons of Zambo immediately, and the 
 conference which ensued was evidently not 
 unpleasant ; for, on his return, the domestics 
 received orders to attend to every nod from
 
 MAKANNA. 177 
 
 the strange officers, as if it came direct from 
 a Prince of the House of Orange, while the 
 preparations for dinner were on a more sump- 
 tuous scale than usual. 
 
 The reader's sagacity having, doubtless, 
 long since recognised our old friends, Captain 
 Daker and Major Falkland, in the puzzling 
 guests of the Dutchman, it may not be amiss 
 to give an outline of the incidents which those 
 gentlemen had previously encountered. 
 
 After parting with the Ganges, the cruise 
 of the Frigate was as successful as the marvel- 
 loving old Quarter-master, Mr. Graham, could 
 have desired. The "token show in the air" 
 was not only proved to refer to a reality, but 
 turned out to be a most providential inter- 
 ference, as the " lug-rigged skiffs" of the 
 mirage i. e. the exiled boats of the Ganges, 
 had, from an accident, lost most of their pro- 
 visions, so that the poor fellows on board were 
 reduced to a situation of dreadful anxiety 
 and peril. 
 
 i2
 
 178 MAKANNA. 
 
 The joy of the Commodore, in finding his 
 old and valued friend, Captain Daker, still 
 living, was, as may be imagined, sincere and 
 ardent ; yet, on second thoughts, such pleas- 
 ing emotions were somewhat dashed, by a 
 recollection of " the scurvy trick, with which 
 the King's Ship had been insulted." 
 
 Worthy man, the putting the Frigate for- 
 ward in this way, as if she possessed human 
 consciousness, was a little self-deceiving, in- 
 genious subterfuge, which softened the morti- 
 fication in some slight measure, by keeping 
 his more immediate share in the affair out of 
 the foreground of the picture. 
 
 The matter was not one, however, which 
 could be suffered to evaporate in words : 
 every soul on board the Goshawk, from the 
 swabber to the Commodore, felt the delusion 
 as a personal affront, and if human exertions 
 could have realized their wish, they would 
 indeed have encountered the Ganges with a 
 " whirlwind of fire."
 
 MAKANNA. 179 
 
 The ship was put about in a twinkling, 
 and every odd boom and spar that could be 
 hoisted, in addition to her proper trim, 
 crowded with canvass, until, from the decks 
 to the trucks, a-low and aloft, she was packed 
 as close with sails, as her prototype with 
 feathers. 
 
 The light studding duck to windward was 
 kept wet with no little labour, to give it a 
 better chance of drawing, in so faint a breeze ; 
 and every other device of seamanship had 
 recourse to, that might accelerate the speed of 
 the vessel, but all was in vain ; the wind was 
 unfavourable, and she made but little way. 
 
 As the want of a gale would be equally 
 injurious to the Ganges, by preventing her 
 escape, the crew of the Frigate deemed the 
 delay of little moment, and felt confident of 
 ultimate revenge. 
 
 After two days, the weather became 
 squally, and still the Goshawk was manceu- 
 vred in every possible way that might render
 
 180 MAKANNA. 
 
 the pursuit successful, but with no better 
 chance. 
 
 A week elapsed, and not a glimpse of the 
 chase was to be seen, and so completely had 
 the adjacent ocean been traversed by the 
 King's swift Cruiser, that the total disappear- 
 ance of the Indiaman became no less extra- 
 ordinary than perplexing. 
 
 The moderate state of the weather they 
 had experienced, and the known skill of her 
 Captain, dissipated every suspicion of her 
 having perished by wreck, or any other com- 
 mon casualty of the sea. 
 
 In such a case, there was but a choice 
 of probabilities, and the search being relin- 
 quished as altogether useless, it was concluded, 
 that Laroon had either seized some small 
 fast sailing vessel and scuttled his own at 
 sea, or that he had secured a retreat among 
 some pirates then frequenting the coast of 
 Madagascar, and the neighbouring islands. 
 
 Under these circumstances it was resolved,
 
 MAKANNA. 181 
 
 that as the Goshawk could not be taken 
 off her proper duty to follow up the adventure 
 any further, it would be best to transfer the 
 two ladies before alluded to, as the " Heiress 
 and her Aunt," to the first homeward-bound 
 ship that might be spoke, and to land Cap- 
 tain Daker and Major Falkland at the Cape. 
 
 The designation of these gentlemen was 
 fixed on the ground of its being the only step 
 which could afford them any future chance 
 of recovering even the most remote tidings 
 of the lost vessel, or of her crew; and as 
 the wretched cling to hope with most perti- 
 nacity, Major Falkland felt his mind in some 
 measure relieved by the mere act of disem- 
 barkation. 
 t 
 
 The faint chance alluded to arose from 
 the fact, that the pirates of the Indian Ocean 
 were reported to have an agent at the Cape ; 
 and it was in reference to this latter point 
 that Van Riesbeck had just been consulted. 
 At the same time, the officers having in some
 
 182 MAKANNA. 
 
 collateral observations explained their rank 
 and situation, so far as to remove the pecuniary 
 alarms of their thrifty host, he thought it 
 peculiarly fortunate that his boarding-house 
 had been honoured with their preference. 
 
 There was yet another, and secret reason 
 for the Dutchman's self-congratulation he 
 was himself the agent of the pirates ; and he 
 was not more rejoiced to find that his name 
 had not transpired in that connexion, than 
 in the view of playing booty with his " Cousins 
 of the Isle," if the suspicions entertained by 
 the gentlemen were correct. 
 
 Besides the delicate alliance just mentioned, 
 Van Riesbeck was also in the habit of carry- 
 ing on a correspondence more profitable than 
 honourable with certain dangerous outlaws 
 who infested the remote districts of the 
 colony. 
 
 These desperadoes, while not of sufficient 
 importance to justify the employment of a 
 detachment of troops for their suppression,
 
 MAKANNA. 183 
 
 were yet a constant annoyance to the Gover- 
 nor, to whom complaints were continually 
 being forwarded in reference to their plunder- 
 ings of the Boors, on one side of the frontiers, 
 and scandalous aggressions, on the Gaffer 
 tribes residing on the other. 
 
 One slow, but apparently sure receipt for 
 the reduction of these marauding scoundrels 
 remained in their becoming powerless, from 
 having exhausted their primary stock of am- 
 munition. 
 
 Without gunpowder, a predatory life amid 
 the mountain glens, forest ' Kloofs,' and terrific 
 ' Karroos,' of Southern Africa, could not be 
 supported by Europeans for many days. It is 
 by the use of the musket alone that the swift 
 bounding antelope of the plain can be over- 
 taken; and it is no less by the instantaneous 
 and far-reaching death-shot, that the fatal 
 spring of the lion can be stayed, the quick- 
 eyed native kept at bay, or that the outlaw 
 can hope to escape the rugged and well
 
 184 MAKANNA. 
 
 armed Boor, who will then in caution stand 
 aloof. 
 
 The most strict orders were therefore issued 
 that the world-subduing dust! should cease 
 for a while to be an object of commerce in 
 the Colony, and the Boors of the interior were 
 placed under provisional regulations, which 
 only permitted such small quantities of gun- 
 powder to be furnished to them from time to 
 time, as were necessary for their individual 
 defence and safety. 
 
 Under these circumstances, it was natu- 
 rally expected that the bandits would speedily 
 surrender, or be easily extirpated. These 
 hopes were, however, grievously disappointed ; 
 and the rewards issued for their apprehension 
 were only met by more formidable accounts 
 of their audacity and success. 
 
 Instead of suffering from a lack of ammu- 
 nition, it was evident that they were better 
 supplied than even the Boors themselves; and 
 recent reports had mentioned their having
 
 MAKANNA. 185 
 
 entered into intrigues with some of the na- 
 tive Chieftains, while a suspicion also existed 
 that feelings of a seditious tendency were 
 extending themselves among some of the more 
 wealthy Boors of the interior. 
 
 On these grounds the transactions between 
 Van Riesbeck and these wild troopers were 
 becoming every day more difficult; yet, as the 
 profits increased in proportion to the hazard, 
 his attention was more than ever devoted to 
 their service. 
 
 Having formerly held an office connected 
 with the magazine at Fort Amsterdam, he 
 had contrived to convey away a large quantity 
 of ammunition for his own future profit. This 
 store was successfully concealed in the farm 
 buildings of a small vineyard, situated within 
 a few miles of the town, and where occasional 
 dealings in wine were carried on, as a cloak 
 for a far more valuable traffic. 
 
 The security of Van Riesbeck against 
 unlucky suspicions was, however, rather to be
 
 186 MAKANNA. 
 
 found in the regularity with which he con- 
 ducted the boarding-house in the town, his 
 close attention to domestic details, and that 
 awkward sort of reputation which he had 
 acquired for eccentricity and gallantry. 
 
 The exhilaration of Mynheer at having 
 discovered so much of his new boarders, was 
 destined to be suddenly interrupted ; for hardly 
 had he given the proper directions to the 
 cook to add a dish of springer mullets to the 
 dinner, and carefully locked up the wine-store, 
 after setting out some prime constantia, than 
 the sudden tramp of heavy feet, and the 
 smack of a whip nearly equal to the report 
 of a pistol, aroused him from his peaceful 
 occupation. 
 
 The nerves of the Dutchman were not the 
 most delicately strung, but some late rumours 
 had rendered him strangely susceptible, and he 
 had actually caught hold of an old fashioned, 
 globular wine stoop, with the intention of 
 using it as a hand grenade, when the un-
 
 MAKANNA. 187 
 
 bidden guest advanced into the centre of the 
 room. 
 
 The first act of the stranger was to disen- 
 cumber his hand of one of those heavy, short- 
 lashed whips of hippopotamus hide, nicknamed 
 in the colony a ' sambok' or doctor, by throw- 
 ing it among the bottles on the table, with the 
 most provoking indifference as to the result. 
 
 In perfect silence, and without any show 
 of introduction, he now stood still, as if amused 
 at the scrutiny of the Dutchman, who, dumb 
 with astonishment at the fellow's consummate 
 insolence, remained, as it were, rooted to the 
 spot. 
 
 There was, indeed, according to his fancy, 
 too much of the air of official habit in the 
 matter, to suit his private deserts ; and he 
 began to grow rather qualmish with the odd- 
 ness of the adventure. 
 
 The stranger's style of dress showed evi- 
 dently that he was fresh from the interior,
 
 188 MAKANNA. 
 
 although in some items it differed from the 
 
 O 
 
 common habit of the inland farmer or boor. 
 The straw hat was larger than usual, and so 
 much slouched, as almost to conceal the face. 
 The yellow pantaloons of tanned sheep-skin 
 were such as are commonly worn by the 
 people in question, but, instead of the light 
 shoes without stockings, the stranger had 
 heavy boots of buffalo leather, and instead of 
 the usual blue or white jacket, a short ' ca- 
 rosse,' or cloak, made from the soft hide of 
 the spring-bok antelope, and stained in the 
 curing to a dusky red. The waistcoat was 
 the skin of a tiger-cat with the fur outwards ; 
 but the most singular point in his whole 
 equipment was, that he appeared to be un- 
 armed; and instead of that inseparable com- 
 panion of a Dutch Boor, his ' roer,' (or gun 
 and by the by, the weapon of that sort used 
 by the ' Africaner ' is no plaything, being of 
 a make between a blunderbuss and a musket),
 
 MAKANNA. 189 
 
 he had absolutely nothing offensive, or de- 
 fensive in his possession, but the before-men- 
 tioned ' sarabok/ 
 
 In figure he was tall and massy, his car- 
 riage erect ; his cheeks of a deep ruddy 
 bloom, but so fleshy as to afford little room 
 for that play of muscle about the mouth, 
 which helps to indicate the character, while 
 the forehead was buried by the overhanging 
 hat; and it was difficult to say, if the sly 
 twinkle of the eyes, that flashed beneath it, 
 betokened fun or mischief. 
 
 The more Van Riesbeck contemplated the 
 stranger's outward man, the less was he in- 
 clined to feel at ease with himself! 
 
 His smuggling transactions were all carried 
 on at the vineyard; and as the emissaries of 
 the outlaws had been strictly prohibited from 
 visiting the boarding-house at Cape Town, he 
 concluded that the stranger was at best a 
 spy, and determined to conduct himself with 
 all due precaution.
 
 190 MAKANNA. 
 
 The mutual silence had perhaps continued 
 for a minute or so longer, but that the 
 stranger, having taken up a bottle of choice 
 frontigniac, and dashed off a tumbler of its 
 sparkling contents at a draught, was on the 
 point of dispatching a second, when Van 
 Riesbeck, on whose valour the loss of the 
 wine exerted a most stimulating effect, placed 
 his hand on the half emptied flask, and having 
 moderately filled a wine-glass, lifted it with 
 the utmost gravity towards his lips, saying 
 
 " To what name shall I have the pleasure 
 of drinking?" 
 
 " To that you may chance to fancy best," 
 replied the stranger " 'Faith, the wine's so 
 good, that if a name's its passport, that of 
 Beelzebub would slip down my throat glib 
 as honey !" 
 
 " Young man !" said the incensed Van 
 Riesbeck " Young man you may do well 
 to remember that you are in the house and 
 presence of as substantial a Burgher as any in
 
 MAKANNA. 191 
 
 Gape Town, and that if we townsmen pay 
 harbour dues and all sorts of imposts, to 
 support the dignity of his Excellency, the 
 Governor, it is not without having in return 
 a sure protection for our persons and pro- 
 perty ! 
 
 " Yes, young Sir! we have a ' Tronk,' 
 or house of bondage for those who transgress 
 our legal quiet, ay, and no want of con- 
 stables to save us the trouble of laying hands 
 on violent and unseemly persons, if there be 
 need !" 
 
 This prosing harangue might have lasted 
 much longer, had not the stranger at this 
 juncture broke through it with a most obstre- 
 perous burst of laughter, and even after this 
 had subsided, it was evidently with great 
 difficulty that he commanded the powers of 
 utterance so far as to speak distinctly. 
 
 " Why, Mynheer," cried he, " on the faith 
 of a true man, you should head the hypocrites, 
 who at a fast bewail their iniquities most
 
 192 MAKANNA. 
 
 loudly when sighing most deeply for ' the 
 flesh-pots of Egypt!' and yet I guess that 
 your hankering just now is rather for milking 
 than preaching!" 
 
 The enigmatical turn of the last remark 
 produced an almost magical effect on the 
 offended host. His heavy features, which had 
 previously been pursed up into an expression of 
 the most acetic contempt, at once lost all their 
 foreboding pomposity, and, relaxing into the 
 waggish drollery of their native humour, 
 suffered a long and violent concussion, but 
 one of which their owner, who had no easy 
 faculty of giving outward utterance to such 
 ebullitions of joy, had afterwards to lament 
 with aching sides, and watery eyes. 
 
 The fit being past, he began uncorking 
 another bottle, and, while the flask was yet 
 between his knees, as if to throw the stranger 
 off his guard, he said abruptly, 
 
 " Do the cows on the banks of the 
 Keiskamma give milk that is white?"
 
 MAKANNA. 193 
 
 " Look and see !" the stranger replied 
 as quickly and, with the word, taking a 
 blank leaf from a memorandum book, he 
 presented it, with an air of importance, to 
 Van Riesbeck. The latter, having laid aside 
 the wine, took the blank paper with avidity, 
 and immediately added, " The milk is white, 
 but how shall it be tried ?" 
 
 " Roast it, and the fire shall find a 
 voice !" 
 
 " By the foot of Pharaoh !" said the 
 Dutchman, " thou'rt an excellent fellow, 
 and I can never make thee amends for such 
 unkind suspicions. Why, the pass words of 
 the dread Makanna fall from thy young 
 lips like oracles." 
 
 " Pooh !" rejoined the stranger, 
 " Light up the charcoal, and test the milk." 
 
 No answer was returned by Van Ries- 
 beck, who immediately kindled a fire in a 
 brasier; and when the flames had subsided, 
 and the embers were reduced to an equal 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 194 MAKANNA. 
 
 state of glowing redness, he took the blank 
 leaf of paper, and holding it stretched out 
 at a safe distance before the fire in such a 
 way, that an equal and steady heat per- 
 vaded the whole surface, began to " roast the 
 milk !" 
 
 These words may sound odd, but they 
 are nevertheless literally correct. The appa- 
 rently blank paper had been previously 
 written over with a pen charged with new 
 milk, which, having been dried in the shade, 
 remained as white as the paper ; but now, 
 under the influence of the fire, these milky 
 characters appeared, and, changing rapidly 
 from a faint to a deep brown, were at last 
 as legible as if the words had been written 
 
 o 
 
 with common ink. 
 
 The operation being completed, Van Ries- 
 beck receded a few steps, and read the 
 document apparently twice with earnest at- 
 tention, and at last, having regarded it with 
 that stern expression of aroused energy, with
 
 MAKANNA. 195 
 
 which bold men are wont to face a coming 
 evil, he suddenly crushed the half-scorched 
 paper between the palms of his hands. It 
 was reduced to dust, and a single breath 
 dispersed it for ever ! 
 
 " The chaff of danger is given to the 
 winds, but the seed lies here," said the 
 Dutchman, striking his bosom, " and it may 
 yet bear bitter fruit." 
 
 " The more reason for qualifying it with 
 a little of this delicious life-inspiring nectar !" 
 said the stranger, again quaffing an ample 
 measure of the frontigniac. 
 
 " They had, at least, a fair excuse for not 
 intrusting the perilous contents of that page 
 to the ear of one whose tongue may out- 
 gallop his wit," replied Van Riesbeck, some- 
 what sarcastically, but, at the same time, 
 in the undertone of a man who is full of 
 thought. 
 
 " Come, my good friend, we must visit 
 my vineyard without delay ; pass off to the
 
 196 MAKANNA. 
 
 right from the house, and I will overtake 
 you, for we must not be seen in company. 
 
 "Hush! There are two English officers 
 above stairs, who should not even breathe 
 the very air which has been tainted with 
 what we have to say. Yes, pocket that 
 bottle, an' another if thou wilt, but go at 
 once, and I will follow.' 1
 
 AfAKANNA. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "The stars from broader beams begin to creep 
 And lift their shining eyelids from the deep, 
 The purpling ocean owns the coming sun, 
 But, ere he break, a deed is to be done." 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 SOME three or four hours had quietly elapsed 
 since the occurrence of that hairbreadth 
 escape, which had preserved the lovely 
 Bertha from the miserable fate of beinp- 
 
 & 
 
 murdered in her sleep, when the desperado, 
 whose still more infamous project was, as he 
 thought, on the point of explosion, came on 
 deck. 
 
 The moon was down, and the sombre
 
 198 MAKANNA. 
 
 curtains of the night yet hung so heavily on 
 the dark surface of the ocean, from whose 
 sullen bosom the fitful wind at intervals 
 came fraught with hollow moans, that the 
 dim reflection of the Ganges was hardly to 
 be discerned amid the pervading blackness of 
 the scene. 
 
 The inward thoughts of the Boatswain 
 were as oppressive as the state of the 
 elements around him. Ruffian as he was, 
 the crime of deliberate murder was beyond 
 his experience, and conscious that the guilty 
 intention had made him no better than the 
 blood-stained monster mankind unite in exe- 
 crating, he felt degraded in his own esteem. 
 
 The reckless audacity of the ready com- 
 batant, prodigal of life, and wooing danger 
 as a bride, was exchanged for the remorse 
 of the baffled assassin ; and, cold and 
 heartless, he stole about the ship as if the 
 evil genius of her fate. 
 
 In so rugged a nature, such feelings are
 
 MAKANNA. 199 
 
 as little connected with repentance, as they 
 are intolerable, and the Boatswain's first care 
 was to drown them in some new excitement. 
 For a man so rudely nurtured, he had 
 hitherto entertained a strange antipathy 
 towards intoxicating fluids, but now their 
 very novelty gave them a claim on his 
 moody fancy. The means were easily at 
 hand, and, glass after glass of unslaked 
 spirit did the rough seaman drain, as if they 
 had been water. 
 
 The invisible fire of the alcohol gave a 
 fresh impulse to his blood, and although 
 not a better man, he felt himself a bolder. 
 Meanwhile, in his attention to the necessary 
 duties of the vessel, it was evident from his 
 unconscious laugh and hurried movements, 
 that although not unequal to the common 
 practical duties of navigation, any unforeseen 
 emergency would render him a perfect im- 
 becile. 
 
 The enormities of the past midnight now
 
 200 MAKANNA. 
 
 crossed his distempered imagination, as some- 
 thing between a reality and a dream : and 
 then, he would be speaking, as if he 
 wondered that the Captain had not been on 
 deck to inspect the morning watch ; or 
 listening at the companion, to catch any 
 unusual sound that might issue from the 
 cabins underneath. This last trouble was, 
 however, in vain, for the interior of the ship 
 remained as silent as the night without, and 
 not a sound was heard, except the ceaseless 
 rippling of the waters closing aft, and the 
 creakings of the steerage gear. 
 
 The time of dawning drew nigh, and the 
 offing gradually heaved up darker, and 
 sharper, against a misty wilderness of clouds. 
 With the sudden chill of day-break, the 
 Boatswain's disjointed jokes became less fre- 
 quent, the yawnings that followed them more 
 hollow and abrupt, while it grew evident that 
 his faculties began to be wrapt in a vague 
 but intense anxiety.
 
 MAKANNA. 201 
 
 The mariners from below were now mus- 
 tering on the deck, to catch a mouthful of the 
 
 O ' 
 
 fresh breathings of the dawn, and the absent 
 formality with which their old messmate met 
 their noisy greetings, excited wonder and 
 suspicion. 
 
 " The Boatswain shall teach the next 
 monkey I keep to cringe and scrape a leg 
 like a dancing master," said one. 
 
 " The Captain takes his sleep as easy 
 as a Port Admiral," said another. 
 
 " Lend me a bar shot," replied a third, 
 " and I'll beat such a larum on the cuddy 
 gratings, as should wake the seven sleepers !" 
 
 " Leave it alone, Fred," cried a fourth, 
 " 'twould be a pity to scare the women from 
 their morning dreams/' 
 
 The Boatswain started, and seemed about 
 to speak, but, with a second recollection, 
 turned away. Much eager conversation then 
 ensued, as to the risk of a second visit from 
 the Goshawk, and as to the probability of 
 K 2
 
 202 MAKANNA. 
 
 their ultimate escape. Topics so interesting 
 soon led to another still more directly im- 
 portant ; the present route and trim of the 
 ship. 
 
 The very strange absence of the Captain 
 at such an hour seemed to inspire the crew 
 with a most unusual fluency of speech, and 
 an equal precipitance of judgment; and on 
 the before mentioned subjects, ticklish as they 
 were, every man seemed to have his own sage 
 plan for a change, while not any two united 
 in the same expedient, though all were agreed 
 in being utterly disgusted with the present 
 arrangements. 
 
 The Boatswain heard their varied opi- 
 nions, and self-conceited upbraidings, in dog- 
 ged silence, and with somewhat of that 
 contemptuous spleen with which a statesman 
 listens to the spoutsman of a mob. 
 
 His own thoughts, nevertheless, were not 
 of the most comfortable nature. He remem- 
 bered Laroon's late anxious labour at the
 
 MAKANNA. 203 
 
 charts, and he knew that the Captain had 
 not intended to keep the vessel long on 
 the present tack ; but what should be the 
 change, or when it was to take place, he had 
 not the most remote idea. He remembered, 
 too, at starts, and with a horror which, at the 
 instant, awakened all his faculties, that even 
 if his accursed drug worked safely, the 
 Captain would not be sufficiently calm for 
 hours to look after the navigation of the ship, 
 while the consequences of delay might be 
 fatal. 
 
 The disputes among the crew grew move 
 and more vociferous ; quarrels ensued, and 
 stabs had followed, had not some peculiar 
 indications in the eastern heavens attracted 
 their attention. 
 
 Instead of that golden fringe on the verge 
 of the offing, and those cheering beamings of 
 radiant light, which, in such tranquil weather, 
 might have been expected to mark the up- 
 rising of the glorious orb of day, that portion
 
 204 MAKANNA- 
 
 of the sky at the crisis of the dawn became 
 suddenly obscured. 
 
 No sun appeared ; but in its stead arose, 
 with slow and solemn motion, an immense 
 mass of luminous vapour. It crept gradually 
 forward, on the surface of the water, and 
 stretched itself around the horizon in a dense 
 and fast increasing curtain. 
 
 The hue of this vapoury shroud, as it 
 closed rapidly on the eye, was, at first, a faint 
 rosy glare, softening to a silvery gray ; but, as 
 the dawn became matured, the aerial tint 
 deepened, until both sea and sky were clothed 
 in dusky red : and then, too, the lone vessel, 
 in hull, and masts, and sails, with every 
 tapering spar, and all her tracery of cordage, 
 seemed dyed with a deep and bloody stain. 
 
 Rendered anxious by the previous pecu- 
 liarities of their situation, the mariners 
 watched this not very rare phenomenon of 
 the Indian ocean with a dumb and heart- 
 misgiving awe ; and as the hot air seemed
 
 MAKANNA. 205 
 
 growing thick around them, each looked 
 wistfully in his comrade's face for comfort, 
 but to little purpose, for the same strange 
 sanguine tint flushed every feature, and each 
 desponding eye gleamed like a flickering 
 flame. 
 
 For five minutes, at least, this sickening 
 silence had prevailed so far, that to these 
 sea-worn men the very heaving of their breath 
 seemed a sound unnatural, and the mere 
 flapping of a sail struck on their guilty hearts 
 as if it had been a funeral knell. 
 
 At last the Boatswain broke the charm, by 
 exclaiming " Now, messmates ! show me the 
 man who would not rather be clinging to 
 the bare bottom of our water-logged-schooner 
 yes, and drifting without a biscuit, than 
 fill the snuggest birth in this doomed hull ? 
 
 " And then such a proper hint as was 
 sarved out for I, not to venture afloat ! 
 
 " The oars were in the ro'locks, and the 
 Cockswain swearing like thunder, (for the
 
 206 MAKANNA. 
 
 ship had tript her anchor) when I lugged out 
 my 'bacca-box, just as a keepsake for my 
 Kate. Now a better brass snapper than that- 
 ere was never knocked out o' mettle, and 
 what with a seven month's cruise in the 
 pouch of my waistcoat, it was rubbed down 
 to a gold polish, and as for the hinge 'twas 
 solid and sure as that of a church gate. 
 
 " Now, as the box glistened in the sun, 
 says I to my Kate, poor wench, ' Kate,' 
 says I, 'keep thy thimble here, girl, and 
 think o' me.' With that I just put a finger 
 to slue up the lid, when, without a touch, 
 the hinge parted, and down it fell in the 
 sand. 
 
 " ' There !' cried Kate, with a screech ! 
 * that box is just a coffin without a lid and 
 a proper token to keep thee on shore, lad.' 
 
 " I knew the omen, too and poor Kate 
 piped her eye, and all that. Well, the jolly 
 dogs in the boat laughed, the Cockswain 
 mocked with the tip of his finger to his
 
 MAKANNA. 207 
 
 nose ; and I that had no need to wet a shoe, 
 jumpt into her stern-sheets, and before Kate 
 could find a voice, they'd pull'd off like wink- 
 ing, and we were tumbling through the surf 
 
 "Peace! Peace!" exclaimed a dozen 
 voices at once. 
 
 " A sail ! a sail ! to leeward !" 
 
 The Boatswain looked westward, but the 
 next instant shrunk back aghast his teeth 
 chattered, his knees smote together, and 
 clutching a main-stay for support, he faltered 
 out 
 
 "The Weird Craft! a speedy death! 
 The Lord be merciful ! for who is fit to 
 meet it?" 
 
 Every eye became rivetted on the mys- 
 terious stranger, which appeared swinging 
 forward under easy sail, and right abreast 
 of the Ganges! 
 
 She was a ship perfect to the sight in 
 all her trim, but those who gazed upon her 
 shuddered, for ever and anon, she shrunk into
 
 208 MAKANNA. 
 
 a thin and spectral shade, and then again 
 the moving fabric grew dark and massy, and 
 all the while bore onward, although her hull 
 raised not a ripple in the water. 
 
 To the guilty and superstitious, such a 
 phenomenon could not but be in every sense 
 appalling, and had the crew heard the philoso- 
 phical explanation which resolves the " Phan- 
 tom Ship," like the well known " Spectre of 
 the Hartz," into a natural arrangement of 
 shadow and reflection, it would not have 
 reassured them for a moment: What then 
 was their consternation, when piercing shrieks 
 and a peal of heavy knocking resounded from 
 below. Not a word was spoken ; the Steward 
 and Boatswain exchanged glances of guilty 
 cognizance, but the rest continued to gaze on 
 the shadowy ship, now fading like a drift of 
 cloud in the far distance, and to whose myste- 
 rious influence they attributed these unex- 
 plained cries, with increased dread. 
 
 The aerial visitation being at last wholly
 
 MAKANNA. 209 
 
 dissipated, the Steward brought on deck a huge 
 leathern jack of brandy, and served it round 
 in ample doses to his shipmates. 
 
 At first the drams were drained as- silently 
 as the wine at a funeral, when relatives are 
 present ; but scarcely was the sparkling liquor 
 a second time in circulation, than the courage 
 and loquacity of the crew revived, and each 
 was eager to relate some preposterous conceit 
 in reference to the ghostly visitant, which 
 might apologize for the symptoms of cowardice 
 he had before exhibited. 
 
 Nor was there much intentional delusion 
 in the matter; for so great had been their 
 fears, and so highly were their imaginations 
 excited, that not one in ten could distinguish 
 between the image which had actually ap- 
 peared, and the mental phantasmagoria to 
 which his own heated fancy had given being. 
 
 Thus one related, that, on looking nar- 
 rowly, he had observed, that instead of can-
 
 210 MAKANNA. 
 
 vass, her sails were nothing less than human 
 skins stitched carefully together. Another 
 was no less certain that her hull was filled 
 with liquid fire, having seen, as he said, with 
 his " own eyes," the blue burning sulphur 
 trickling from her scuppers. A third would 
 doubtless have communicated some fact, not 
 less authentic, had not a repetition of the 
 clamour below aroused them to more imme- 
 diate objects. 
 
 Female outcries were again ringing in their 
 ears, and three or four were starting off to 
 ascertain their meaning, when the Boatswain, 
 throwing wide his arms, sung out, 
 
 " Starn, all !" The crew receded as he 
 added with a wink, " Gently, gentlemen all, 
 what, can't his Honour be spliced without a 
 dozen of th' like o' you clattering down to 
 scare the bride in her blushings." 
 
 The noise within arising again, he paused, 
 and turning somewhat pale, continued in a
 
 MAKANNA. 211 
 
 husky tone, " I guess th' parson ha' shut 
 his book, for the clerk's amen was louder than 
 a trumpet hail." 
 
 Just at that moment, Maldrake, after a 
 long sleep induced by his previous watchings, 
 was come on deck, and having heard the 
 Boatswain's ambiguous address, became filled 
 with indignation and alarm. 
 
 To feel angry and act wisely, is a degree 
 of perfection with which but few poor mortals 
 are endowed, and Maldrake's present conduct 
 was no exception on the brighter side of the 
 question. Without regarding the temper of 
 the crew, he made a dash to pass the Boat- 
 swain, and failed ; not that the dexterity, or 
 force of the latter, were brought into play ; the 
 brandy had not left him sufficiently his own 
 man for that; but the crew, who did not 
 understand the meaning of either, interfered, 
 to obtain such an explanation as might satisfy 
 their own curiosity. Maldrake's fears when 
 mentioned were derided, and the Boatswain's
 
 212 MAKANNA. 
 
 hints remained so broken and disjointed, that 
 the whole ship's company became equally 
 incensed. 
 
 A scene of indescribable uproar and con- 
 fusion now ensued, but still there was no 
 actual fighting ; and after a while, the result 
 seemed to be, that if the Boatswain's autho- 
 rity was sunk past recovery, he was no less 
 become an object of indifference in the far 
 more dangerous feelings that then began to 
 be awakened. 
 
 Without their consciousness, and even 
 while in another sense offensive, the honour- 
 able conduct of Laroon towards Miss Falkland 
 had hitherto restrained the licentious habits 
 of the crew. This delicate and invisible bond 
 was now torn, and as the hints just dropped 
 led them to believe, that their captain had 
 thrown the bridle on the neck of lawless pas- 
 sion, they felt but too much inclined to follow 
 his example, and were not particularly nice 
 as to any offence he might feel, from their
 
 MAKANNA. 213 
 
 putting in an unexpected claim to a share of 
 the plunder, which, as they imagined, he had 
 so unceremoniously appropriated. 
 
 The pleadings of prudence as to the future, 
 and the fear of present danger from their 
 ignorance of navigation, at another time, might 
 have restrained them even then, though led 
 
 ' O 
 
 to the brink, from any direct act of mutiny 
 but now with brains bewildered with liquor, 
 and blood boiling from the irritation of the 
 recent quarrel, all such considerations were 
 forgotten or unheeded. 
 
 The awful aspect of the elements around, 
 and that strange sight which their super- 
 stitious fears had so grossly exaggerated ; 
 these, appalling as they were, in the madness 
 of the hour, served only to render them the 
 more restless, and desirous of a change ; and 
 now, a few armed men having been posted 
 fore-and-aft, to prevent any possible trouble 
 from the Malays, with shouts and execrations, 
 they rushed below.
 
 214 MAKANNA. 
 
 * At this crisis, had the Boatswain been 
 perfectly himself, his strength and vigilance, 
 with the assistance of Maldrake, might pro- 
 bably have been successfully opposed to their 
 headlong sally. No chance of this sort, 
 however, remained, and both these men 
 merely followed the rest from that blind 
 impulse which gives motion to a crowd, whe- 
 ther of sheep, or of men ; and the Steward, 
 who was too much the poltroon to fight in 
 any cause, sneaked at their heels. 
 
 The doors which have been alluded to, 
 as fastened by the Boatswain, gave way at 
 once, beneath the weight of numbers, and 
 thus without opposition they had reached 
 the quarter gallery, which had been the former 
 post of Maldrake, and in which the solitary 
 light was still burning, when their course 
 was for a moment stopped. 
 
 This suspension in their march did not 
 arise from any substantial impediment, but 
 rather from the want of it ! The ruffians
 
 MAKANNA. 215 
 
 had expected to meet their Captain at this 
 point, and, although a life or so might have 
 paid for their insolent temerity, it would in 
 their estimation have been as nothing, com- 
 pared with the perfect silence and open space 
 before them. 
 
 They knew the courage and ready re- 
 sources of their leader too well, to imagine 
 that he would at any time be overpowered 
 without a struggle of the most tremendous 
 character, and they now dreaded some stra- 
 tagem, which might render his resistance far 
 more fatal than they had anticipated. 
 
 The folding doors of the state room were 
 closed, and conceiving that darkness would 
 add to their safety, one of the foremost con- 
 trived to unship the battle lantern with a 
 boarding pike. 
 
 The light being extinguished, the muti- 
 neers passed silently forward with the inten- 
 tion of forming a close rank immediately 
 behind the folding doors, which, at a pre-
 
 216 MAKANNA. 
 
 concerted signal, were to be burst open by 
 a simultaneous rush. 
 
 With the uncertainty as to how many 
 victims might fall in the assault, it was yet 
 deemed tolerably sure that whoever stood 
 in the centre, so as to be first discovered 
 on the giving way of the doors, would in- 
 evitably be cut down. The more prudent of 
 the crew were by no means ambitious of this 
 honourable post, and, by closing in on both 
 sides, contrived to force the Boatswain pre- 
 cisely into this enviable spot. 
 
 The cutlasses were most securely grasped, 
 and every finger on its appointed trigger, when 
 the Boatswain, in half drunken indolence, 
 began to lean against the door, and having 
 at the moment forgotten the midnight ope- 
 ration which had removed its lock, he 
 reclined with so much pressure, that he had 
 hardly retained his easy position for a second, 
 when the barrier flew open, and he tumbled 
 headlong into the apartment.
 
 MAKANNA. 217 
 
 The apparently spontaneous opening of 
 the doors, and the death-like fall of the Boat- 
 swain, without either shot or sabre wound, 
 were circumstances so strange to the muti- 
 neers, whose minds had been recently agitated 
 with the supposed supernatural, that they 
 stood awe-struck with imaginary fears ; and 
 on looking into the state room, the objects 
 it contained were no less calculated to excite 
 them. 
 
 There was neither the prowess they had 
 so often witnessed, and had now so much 
 reason to dread, nor were there any traces 
 of those guilty excesses in which they had 
 been so eager to participate. 
 
 They had not advanced as yet so much 
 as a foot into the room, when they were met 
 by the once gay, but now almost distracted 
 little Mage, who, running towards them with 
 a look of returning satisfaction, exclaimed, 
 
 " Thank God, you're come at last ! I 
 screamed for my very life ! and almost beat 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 218 MAKANNA. 
 
 in the wainscot with the hilt of the poor dear 
 Captain's sword, but all was in vain." 
 
 Not a syllable was uttered in reply ; 
 for just at that moment objects of far 
 greater interest were presented. On a sofa, 
 at the extremity of the cabin, and near 
 one of its open windows, reclined Laroon, 
 in an attitude so frigid and motionless, that 
 at the first glance he might have been mis- 
 taken for a corpse. 
 
 The face, too, in all its features, was 
 equally fixed ; but, instead of that sunken 
 vacuity which stamps the wreck of mor- 
 tality when the vital spirit is exhaled, each 
 lineament seemed charged with that stern 
 grandeur of expression which reigns in the 
 sculpture of the ancient world; all too was 
 as silent, cold, and deathly, save that the 
 black and eagle eyes shone with a wild and 
 eager sense of life. 
 
 Still bathing the temples of the invalid, 
 as if unconscious of any other danger, in
 
 MAKANNA. 219 
 
 all the gentle dignity of her sex, and with 
 her own peculiar grace of attitude, and 
 sweet intelligence of mien, stood the kind- 
 hearted Bertha. 
 
 In the instance of Miss Falkland, a 
 native strength of mind had been so well 
 cultivated, that in any case of sudden alarm, 
 instead of sinking into that inert and de- 
 fenceless condition, which is too often mis- 
 taken for delicacy, her first care was to 
 discharge the duties of humanity as they 
 arose, at the moment ; and if evil occurred, 
 to meet it with tranquillity. 
 
 The swoon into which the Captain had 
 fallen, on attempting to pass from his own 
 cabin, for the diabolical trick of the Boat- 
 swain had utterly failed, was therefore no 
 sooner discovered by Bertha, who heard his 
 fall, than she immediately hastened to the 
 spot; and having with some difficulty pre- 
 vailed on her shrieking attendant to give 
 the necessary assistance, the apparently in-
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 animate body had been removed to its pre- 
 sent situation, where the fresh air from the 
 sea, and judicious care, had already awa- 
 kened some degree of consciousness. 
 
 The captain's precarious state had so 
 totally absorbed the tender assiduities of 
 Bertha, and Mage had so often repeated 
 her shrieks, and knockings for assistance, 
 that the opening of the doors would have 
 passed unobserved, had not the patient 
 turned his eyes in that direction, with an 
 expression so wild and furious, as to arrest 
 attention. 
 
 Except the fact of their being armed, 
 there was not now anything dangerous in 
 the appearance of the astonished crowd, 
 who filled the quarter-gallery ; nor was 
 there, indeed, a mutineer in the gang, who 
 did not wish himself well out of the affair. 
 
 The whole matter appeared to them 
 awful and mysterious in the extreme : the 
 Captain's state was ascribed to the malign
 
 MAKANNA. 221 
 
 influence of the spectral ship ; and thus as 
 the strange red light from without broke in 
 faint gleams from the narrow cabin win- 
 dows, each began to fancy that he was 
 about to suffer, from the perilous attack 
 that had overtaken the Captain : nay, that 
 the vessel herself was no longer what she 
 should be. 
 
 The late fall had happily so far aroused 
 the Boatswain's faculties, that he had now 
 regained sufficient judgment to remark that, 
 like a pack of hounds at fault, the ship's 
 company, in their present confusion, might 
 be led off by any momentary impulse; and 
 therefore, assuming a careless smile, as if 
 the past had been a jest, he exclaimed, 
 
 " Plague on 't, messmates I what all in 
 the dolldrums, ey? Come, take advice of 
 an old sea-dog, who'd rather snap his teeth 
 on a file, than run down a friend napping 
 at the wheel ! 
 
 " Off, I say ! Get under way without
 
 222 MAKANNA. 
 
 signal, and scud while the gale serves ! 
 His Honour, here, will be out of his flurry 
 before I could pipe a call: and as for the 
 lady 'faith, 'tis better as 'tis ; for on my 
 life, boys, it's nothing but the grace of 
 her heavenly presence that can ballast 
 the ship in these d n'd enchanted lati- 
 tudes." 
 
 The latter part of this address was spoken 
 in the very sincerity of fear, for the Boat- 
 swain was now most completely puzzled. The 
 very opposite effect of the drops, to what 
 he had expected, for they had only thrown 
 the Captain into a lethargy, the present 
 state of the vessel, and the future anger of 
 Laroon, were objects of reflection not less 
 natural than perplexing. 
 
 Nor was he certain that some fresh diffi- 
 culty might not immediately arise, for several 
 of the crew, on whom the effects of the 
 brandy were still visible, began to accuse 
 each other of the irresolution betrayed, and
 
 MAKANNA. 223 
 
 perhaps, in a moment, the horrors before 
 contemplated would have been enacted in 
 all their revolting enormity, had not the 
 fearful cry of 
 
 " Breakers a-head !" 
 
 Hurried the whole gang to the deck in 
 terror, and in silence. 
 
 The scene above was one which might 
 have appalled the stoutest heart. The crim- 
 son-tinted vapour which had hitherto ob- 
 scured the horizon was drifting more dis- 
 tinctly into fog-banks to leeward, under the 
 influence of that light and curling breeze, 
 which frequently awakens with the first hours 
 of opening day. 
 
 On the starboard quarter, this change 
 was rapidly proceeding in another form, as 
 there, the misty veil was gathering towards 
 the middle region of the air, in huge masses 
 of lowering cloud, while from beneath, a 
 broad expanse of ocean stretched out in 
 glassy, but sullen blackness, its extreme
 
 224 MAKANNA. 
 
 verge being the snowy pinnacles of foam, 
 which indicated the situation of the breakers. 
 
 " Helm a-lee hard down port !" roared 
 the Boatswain in a voice of thunder: and 
 again, before he had scarcely had time to 
 catch a glimpse of the danger, 
 
 " Look alive, jolly dogs ! That's your sort, 
 luff luff let her head veer gaily to the 
 wind ! 
 
 " By Jove ! she's round like a top ! Now 
 then, clew up those same courses. Haul away 
 with a will, and together ay, ay, the pudding 
 bags are in the brails ; come tumble up, boys, 
 and take them fairly in. 
 
 " Holloa ! you lubbers aft what means 
 that gibbing of th' boom? 
 
 "Ay, burst your wind an' ye will, but 
 haul with a vengeance, we must have the 
 
 O ' 
 
 mizen-main tau't as sheet iron. Now, my 
 hearties ! look alow-and-aloft, yarly ! 
 
 " Zounds ! we'll have her in stays, and 
 sucking on the wind in a wink."
 
 MAKANNA. 225 
 
 These orders were executed almost as 
 rapidly as they can be read. Better seamen, 
 in the practical sense of the word, than the 
 lawless crew of the Ganges, never chanted 
 to the creek of a capstan ; and the ponderous 
 machinery of the rigging, on the present 
 occasion, was thrown into the necessary 
 arrangements, with a force and dexterity which 
 seemed as if they might command the ele- 
 ments. 
 
 " Hark'ee, old messmate," said the Boat- 
 swain, addressing Maldrake, who in all these 
 matters had done most worthy service. 
 
 " I'm after thinking that if his Honour, 
 the Captain, was whipt up on deck, sofa and 
 all, just as he lies the bare sight of those 
 hoary sea-wolves off the starboard bow, and 
 the clean trim of the ship as she edges, away 
 eating on the wind, would fresh rigg the life- 
 pumps of his heart, and make him his own 
 man in a giffy." 
 
 Maldrake assented, and the Captain was 
 L 2
 
 226 MAKANNA. 
 
 soon afterwards borne up from the cabin, 
 followed by Miss Falkland and Mage : the 
 powers of motion and of speech were still sus- 
 pended under the influence of the deleterious 
 drugs which had been so treacherously em- 
 ployed, but the singular keenness of the eyes 
 grew every moment more intense ; and it was 
 also evident that he had a full comprehension 
 of every circumstance around him. 
 
 " Those Venetian drops will prove -my 
 death dose :" muttered the Steward, as he 
 dogged the Boatswain into the forecastle. 
 
 " The Captain ha' smoked the trick, for 
 the glance of his eye shot through my inwards 
 like a bayonet thrust at short quarters : 
 Never did look so evil cross me but once, 
 and then, though not a Christian's, it led to 
 little good." 
 
 " Ah, perhaps 'twas the rolling goggle of 
 a tawny hide, just scalped, and not dead, in 
 the back woods of America ! Or a New 
 Zealander trying on the dried skin of an
 
 MAKANNA. 227 
 
 enemy's head for a night-cap !" replied the 
 Boatswain. 
 
 "No," said the Steward, " that look 
 came from a whale !" 
 
 " The deuce it did," cried the Boatswain, 
 " what, he took ye for the ghost of Jonah, 
 and shied at the thought of a second emetic." 
 
 " Belay," said the other, sternly, " there 
 was more of murder than jest in the matter." 
 
 The Boatswain's eyes fell in a qualm of 
 sudden consciousness, while the Steward re- 
 joined 
 
 " Yes, the poor devil of a fish was stranded ; 
 but yet for all that, not one of th' lubbers 
 on the beach would venture within a cable's 
 length of th' beast, while he'd got the proper 
 swing of his weapons j but somehow, at last, 
 with his own flurry, he managed to get his 
 tail jammed in a quicksand hole, too far to 
 riggle it out again. Now, for all that, a full 
 half hour he went on thrashing away with 
 his side-fin-flappers like a steamer heading
 
 228 MAKANNA. 
 
 a spring tide, the pebbles flying round fast 
 as hail, and a rare drizzling shower of sludge. 
 
 " This could not last for ever, and so after 
 a time, he lay still as a water-logged-wreck 
 at half tide. Then was it that we cowardly 
 lubbers, as we were, armed with knives, hay- 
 forks, and such outlandish tools, ventured on 
 a nearer peep. 
 
 " The monster had dug a sort of hollow 
 forward, and cast up a precious heap behind, 
 so that not more than twelve feet of his gallows 
 carcass was in sight, and that all littered over 
 with sand and shells. Still with his panting 
 and snorting, there were those who did not 
 fancy getting too near, and the worst he got 
 was an ugly prick in the blubber flank now 
 and then, at long-reach, with a hay-pike, or 
 a boat-hook. 
 
 " Matters were at this stand, when the fool- 
 hardy fancy came into my knob, of running 
 in forward to cut a death wound, under the 
 jaw, where the skin's soft and no fat.
 
 MAKANNA. 229 
 
 " Not a word did I say, but cowering down, 
 got within arm's reach, when the creature 
 looked me full in the face just like a Christian, 
 with such a wicked, knowing, curious stare, 
 that when I should have yerked the knife 
 into his throat, my off foot slipped under his 
 starboard flapper. He had split the ends of it 
 before into a fringe of bloody tags, with 
 beating it on the keen and broken shingle ; 
 yes, and it lay as still then as the vane of a 
 windmill in a calm ! but what o' that ? 
 the fish was too cruel deep to let the chance 
 slip, and so he fell to thrashing again, and 
 with the first blow, broke the splinter bone 
 of my leg all of a jam. I sang out lustily 
 for help, and well I might, for as I lay at 
 my length along-side his slavering jaws, every 
 flap fell on the limb like the blow of a. sledge 
 hammer. 
 
 " My outcries only scared the cowards off, 
 and the monster's unlucky eye kept poring
 
 230 MAKANNA. 
 
 over me all the while, as if it could have 
 drawn the very life out of my body ! and 
 then too, the roar of th' rising tide sounded 
 nearer, and louder. 
 
 " Well, for ever so long I hailed as a 
 drowning man in a storm, and no assist- 
 ance ! when at last, Joe Miller, the lame 
 parish clerk, bless his soul, reached up a 
 boat-hook, and towed me out more dead 
 than alive :-^and as for the fish, zounds, he 
 was under-way at half flow, and spanking 
 off with the flood, like a galley on a chase." 
 
 " Bear a hand," cried the Boatswain, 
 " we'll give an extra haul on the fore-sail- 
 bow-line. Look aloft, Jack, on my life the 
 gale's half puffed out already, and if the wind 
 lulls too soon, we're lost to a certainty." 
 
 The latter remark appeared not unlikely 
 to be verified, for notwithstanding the masterly 
 way in which the ship had been handed, the 
 tremor which now ran along the edges of
 
 MAKANNA. 231 
 
 her almost collapsing sails, evinced too plainly, 
 that she could make but little progress on a 
 wind so light and baffling. 
 
 In the mean time, as the roar of the 
 breakers, notwithstanding the seaward course 
 of the vessel, remained undiminished, there 
 was every reason to believe, that the reef of 
 rocks they were anxious to avoid, not only 
 ran in the direction already remarked, but 
 that it also made a semi-circular sweep to the 
 east, a circumstance which might eminently 
 increase the danger already apprehended. 
 
 This unpleasant fact grew every moment 
 more and more evident, and the sailors soon 
 became conscious, that, during the past night, 
 they had been carried, as it were, blind-folded 
 into the peril of a fatal embayment. But 
 while this misfortune was by them ascribed 
 to the supernatural influence which they 
 imagined to be abroad upon the waters, the 
 Boatswain had the greater mortification of
 
 232 MAKANNA. 
 
 reflecting, that it arose solely from his own 
 villany, which had defeated the skill and fore- 
 sight of the Captain, who otherwise would, 
 doubtless, have put the ship about, at least 
 two hours before. 
 
 Self reproach is no very agreeable com- 
 panion : he had, however, the sagacity to keep 
 his own council on a matter, which the in- 
 dignation of the crew might have rendered 
 immediately fatal to himself. Yet, still his 
 consciousness of the fact had its use, as it 
 made him singularly vigilant to leave no step 
 untaken, which, by the most remote proba- 
 bility, might prove of service. Thus the lead 
 was frequently cast, although the call of 
 " by the deep nine," was repeated so often, 
 as to remove any present fear, as to a sufficient 
 depth of water, or direct peril, so long as sea 
 room remained, or that the breeze continued. 
 
 At this time, there was an individual on 
 board, whose situation was still more perplex-
 
 MAKANNA. 233 
 
 ing, as he was debarred all chance of escape, 
 from what appeared to be a deadly and im- 
 minent danger. 
 
 The reader will readily foresee that we 
 are referring to his old acquaintance, Vernon, 
 who, during the previous night, had so un- 
 consciously been made a prisoner by the 
 villany of the Boatswain. 
 
 The clamour and disturbance on board the 
 Ganges from the earliest hour of dawn, had 
 left Vernon but little chance of sleep; and 
 when the repetition of such sounds became 
 alarming, he arose with the view of ascer- 
 taining their cause: how great then was his 
 mortification and astonishment, to find himself 
 a captive. 
 
 About this time, too, the female outcries 
 which have been referred to, broke forth, and 
 his efforts to escape, from the wish to give 
 assistance, were redoubled. Unfortunately, 
 the door and bulk-heads of the cabin were 
 too firm to be broken in by his utmost efforts,
 
 234 MAKANNA. 
 
 and at last, utterly exhausted and dispirited, 
 Vernon resought his cot. 
 
 He had remained in this supine condition 
 for only a few minutes, when the same wild 
 shrieks were again repeated, and shuddering 
 with a vague but horrid suspicion, he leapt 
 wildly forward, with the hope that some 
 chance of escape had been overlooked. An 
 immediate sense of the impotence of his 
 efforts, as he turned on every side in vain, 
 recurred with a sickening force, which made 
 his limbs feel as if loaded with shackles of 
 lead, and while his bosom swelled with rage, 
 almost to suffocation, he stood trembling as 
 a slave, bewildered and ashamed of the 
 inactivity necessity imposed. 
 
 At this juncture, he thought of opening a 
 small port, originally cut in the side of the 
 vessel for the insertion of such a single pane 
 of glass as has been before alluded to, as 
 existing in the sleeping cabin of Miss Falk- 
 land. This task proved one of difficulty,
 
 MAKANNA. 235 
 
 and when at last accomplished, it seemed 
 only to increase the horrors of his situation. 
 
 Through the opening thus obtained, was 
 heard, more plainly than before, the crash 
 and stir of maritime exertion, the creeking 
 of cordage, and the trampling of many feet, 
 while in the little patch of sky beyond, he 
 shuddered to observe a lurid glow, which, 
 knowing nothing of the fiery tinted vapour 
 that had arisen, he naturally imagined to 
 be caused by a conflagration, which had, as 
 he concluded, broken out in the rigging 
 and upper works of the ship. 
 
 To die unheeded and alone, with no 
 pitying hand to moisten the shrunk lips, and 
 smooth the rumpled pillow ; with no friend to 
 receive the last low whispers of affection, or 
 join the faltering prayer which throws the 
 bridge of hope above the gloomy chasm of the 
 grave, is so melancholy a fate, that there is 
 a heart-felt satisfaction in knowing it to be 
 one, that even the most abject children of
 
 236 MAKANNA. 
 
 poverty are seldom called upon to endure. 
 What, then, were the feelings of Vernon, 
 when, in the delusion of alarmed imagination, 
 he felt himself exposed to a solitary and dread- 
 ful death. 
 
 His late abortive efforts had crushed 
 every idea of escape, and fortitude had little 
 solace for one grown heart-sick with the 
 anticipation of tortures which could expect 
 neither witness nor mitigation. 
 
 At first he felt a gloomy satisfaction in 
 having obtained a last look' towards the 
 heavens, and in breathing the pittance of 
 fresh air which the port admitted. Such 
 crumbs of comfort were, however, soon swal- 
 lowed in the reflection, that this opening, 
 small as it was, would render his death more 
 lingering by preventing that quick suffocation 
 which might otherwise have saved him from 
 the scorching agony, as he believed, about 
 to be indured. 
 
 These thoughts were intolerable; and he
 
 MAKANNA. 237 
 
 shouted with the view of attracting the atten- 
 tion of the crew, but the sound seemed merely 
 to reverberate, and that so mournfully, and 
 the tumultuous stir above continued so loud 
 and stormy, that he felt that hope itself was 
 lost. 
 
 A state of dreadful suspense ensued, his 
 heart beat with a palpitation laboriously 
 painful ; cold, clammy perspirations suffused 
 his limbs, sight grew dim, and his ears rung 
 heavily. 
 
 This tendency towards fainting passed 
 gradually away, and then came on a quick- 
 ened and highly exaggerated state of the 
 senses, as if the more hidden faculties of life 
 were all in arms to meet the approaching 
 conflict. 
 
 He had before listened intensely, but in 
 vain, for that crackling and whizzing of 
 burning timber, and explosions of pent up 
 air, which, when a ship is on fire, sound so 
 awfully! But now, to his heated, and self-
 
 238 MAKANNA. 
 
 torturing fancy, such ominous warnings seemed 
 awakened, with the roaring crash of a thou- 
 sand cataracts. And yet so nicely and acutely 
 were the nerves of sensation strung in this 
 unnatural excitement, that the slightest mo- 
 tion produced an irksome noise, and the very 
 crawling of a spider across the ceiling of the 
 cabin, seemed audible. 
 
 This torture must soon have ended in 
 delirium, had not Vernon felt the unsub- 
 stantial nature of the tide which was carrying 
 him away, and, by summoning reason, at 
 once controlled it. 
 
 With his throbbing temples buried in his 
 hands, he remained for a time, as it were, in 
 the darkness of death, until the faculty of 
 thinking calmly returned, and his judgment 
 had time to rally. Still he felt on the verge 
 of emotions leading to madness, when, as a 
 last resource, he thought of arranging some 
 articles of value, even as if a chance of life 
 and rescue had still existed.
 
 MAKANNA. 239 
 
 The sense of occupation, by baffling other 
 thoughts, seemed to soothe, and he insensibly 
 fell into a more tranquil train of reflection. 
 
 In these appalling moments, how consoling 
 was it to Vernon, then, as he imagined, about 
 to close for ever the eventful volume of human 
 existence, that, though not free from errors, 
 that record presented none of those foul and 
 blotted pages, too often left for the uncertain 
 cancel of a death-bed repentance, or to be 
 amended by a posthumous retribution, which 
 may never be realized. 
 
 It is a strange fatuity, that regard for 
 the little vanities of dress, and external cir- 
 cumstance, which seems to hang about some 
 men like a natural instinct, when they are 
 reduced to mortal extremity, and half within 
 the advancing shadow of eternity. The noble 
 and the base are equalized in this, and the 
 martyrs of Thermopylae, combing their hair 
 before the fight, which impeded the invading 
 Persians, and crowned the self-sacrificed heroes
 
 240 MAKANNA. 
 
 with immortality ! were in that little fop- 
 pery as weak as the prim felon, who robs 
 his widow for the sake of the black suit 
 which dignifies the drop ; or the fine lady, 
 described by the poet as saying, in her last 
 moments, 
 
 " And Betty, when I'm dead, 
 Pray give this cheek a little red." 
 
 The nicety might be merely mechanical, 
 with which Vernon on this occasion adjusted 
 his dress, but there was a spice of vanity and 
 show in the choice, which, at another time, 
 he would have avoided. 
 
 These employments were concluded, and 
 he found a faint revival of hope in the re- 
 flection, that the late crisis had been so long 
 suspended. ' But if they are indeed sus- 
 pended/ he immediately reasoned with him- 
 self, ' is not the ship deserted, and my fate 
 sealed beyond the reach of hope ?' 
 
 Again he cast his eyes anxiously towards 
 the opening, which gave him a glimpse of the
 
 MAKANNA. 241 
 
 outward air. The lurid redness of the sky 
 still continued, for the strange pall of crimson- 
 tinted vapour which had previously alarmed 
 the crew was not as yet dissipated. But what 
 he now observed with something like hope was, 
 that this mysterious light still remained of the 
 same tint, and was neither brightened by the 
 flashings of flame, nor obscured by inter- 
 vening clouds of smoke, as might naturally 
 have been expected, if it arose, as its colour 
 seemed so fearfully to indicate, from the burn- 
 ing of the vessel. About this time, too, some 
 little stir was again heard from the deck, 
 and it was evident, that, if the launch had 
 been hoisted out, as he imagined the previous 
 tumultuous noise indicated, and the greater 
 part of the crew had thus escaped, some few, 
 at least, were still left aboard, whose efforts 
 might yet preserve the vessel, were she indeed 
 on fire ? 
 
 These were not the reflections of despair, 
 but yet they were too full of uncertainty to 
 VOL. i. M
 
 242 MAKANNA. 
 
 afford any positive satisfaction ; and so feeble, 
 on the whole, were these scattered rays of 
 hope, amid the clouds of apprehension, that 
 they served but to render their gloom the more 
 apparent, as the small glittering cascades of 
 Alpine scenery, at sunset, gleam like silvery 
 threads across the dim precipices, whose rocky 
 bastions grow the darker from the contrast. 
 
 Having left his watch in another part of 
 the vessel, Vernon was without any correct 
 idea of time, and had endured the torment 
 of this solitary confinement far longer than 
 he would have deemed it possible, when his 
 attention was awakened by the scarcely audible 
 groans of some unfortunate wretch, who, as 
 far as the sound might indicate, was confined 
 in the hold. 
 
 The bare idea of having a fellow creature 
 who participated in the' same trials, and who, 
 by some unforeseen accident, might succeed 
 in attracting the attention of those on deck, 
 and thus succeed in rescuing both, gave a
 
 MAKANNA. 243 
 
 relish for life, and a desire to preserve it; 
 which, but a short time before, Vernon would 
 have despised for their seeming absurdity, 
 and kneeling, he laid his ear down to the 
 floor, on the side from which the groans had 
 issued, with a strange eagerness to drink in 
 their faintest echoes; when
 
 244 MA K ANNA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 " She was a warrior's daughter, and could bear 
 Such sights, and feel, and mourn, but not despair." 
 
 BYRON. 
 
 FOR more than an hour, had the Ganges 
 been beating up, on the baffling breeze before 
 alluded to, without having gained that sea- 
 room which could inspire confidence; and 
 although the ominous roar of the breakers 
 was scarcely to be recognised in the murmur 
 which came and went with the breathings of 
 the wind, their foamy heads were still too 
 visible in the offing.
 
 MAKANNA. 245 
 
 " My mind misgives me," said the Boat- 
 swain, who for some time had been sitting 
 sullenly apart on the drum-head of the 
 capstan, " my mind misgives me, but that 
 the ship's in the doldrums at last ; some 
 unnatural ground current is clutching at her 
 bottom, and checks her way to a certainty." 
 
 This observation was made to Maldrake, 
 who immediately moved off to cast the log, 
 and make such other arrangements as might 
 ascertain the point. 
 
 "I've been after thinking," remarked 
 the Steward, with an emphatic nod, and a 
 look which seemed to discern more than his 
 comrades beheld, " I've little doubt, but 
 that there's land not far away ; and now this 
 same fog ha' changed to a more wholesome 
 sort of a colour, likely enough it may soon 
 slue-up altogether, lads, and give us a clear 
 look-out, with one of your wild, green palm- 
 growing islands, filled with bread-fruit, dates,
 
 246 MAKANNA. 
 
 sweet water, and wishful eyes, lying snug 
 under the lee-bow, within a six hour's run." 
 
 The Boatswain deigned no answer, but, 
 as Maldrake returned, exclaimed, surlily, 
 
 " Five to one on my own guess, but 
 what o' that, Messmate, we'll bring her to, on 
 the best-bower, and take a nap till the turn 
 o' th' night rouses some'at of a gale." 
 
 " Not so fast, Master Boatswain," 
 replied the old seaman, " no doubt but that 
 anchoring just now would be proper, as if 
 his Honour the Captain was in proper trim 
 to give the word to pay-cable with his own 
 mouth ; but what argufies that, if it can't 
 be done ? What stay, I pray ye, may anchor 
 fluke, naked or shod, expect to find in a 
 quick-sand, with fifty fathom o' water ? " 
 
 As the due-warrant of his opinion, Maldrake 
 turned up the end of the deep-sea sounding 
 lead, and exhibited its concave surface, which, 
 
 / 
 
 having been smeared over with tallow, in the
 
 MAKANNA. 247 
 
 usual way to cause adhesion, was covered 
 with the sort of sand in question. 
 
 "No matter," rejoined the Boatswain, 
 with that calm indifference, which it was his 
 habit to assume when utterly perplexed, " no 
 matter! Douse my glims! but I'll try the 
 game to the last, and if she won't be tied, 
 why let the Fiend look after his own. 
 
 " Holloa ! clear away that best-bower. 
 Now, my bullirock hearties, veer away to the 
 last coil, she'll come-to on a whole cable 
 yet." 
 
 " Yes," said Maldrake, " she'll come-to 
 and ride sure while the breeze helps to hold 
 her, but " 
 
 " But what ?" exclaimed the Boatswain. 
 
 "Why, the wind's spent," mournfully 
 replied the experienced mariner. 
 
 The Boatswain cast his eyes aloft, and as 
 he beheld the canvass fluttering at random 
 in the expiring sobs of the gale, and then, 
 as it were, dropping lifelessly against the
 
 248 MAKANNA. 
 
 masts, he felt his spirit sink within him : 
 but yet on the instant, as if to prevent the 
 fears of others, by anticipating their cause, he 
 sung out : 
 
 " She'll drag, boys, but what o' that ? 
 veer out a second cable on that same bovver, 
 the other anchor's a-cock-ball bend the 
 sheet, and clear her off, splice on another, and 
 make a shot on't, an' ye will : Zounds ! we'll 
 sarve out hemp enow to hold the hussy 
 staunch, though she tugged short as a bull 
 at the ring, or that the sea were bottom- 
 less ! " 
 
 These orders were instantly obeyed ; and 
 as the Boatswain took care that no practical 
 observation was made, which could decide 
 the fact, the crew believed that the ship had 
 not only come-to fairly, but was riding securely 
 at her anchors. 
 
 To Miss Falkland, who happened to 
 be on deck, many of these particulars were 
 not intelligible ; she had, however, gleaned
 
 MAKANNA. 249 
 
 enough from the exclamations of the seamen, 
 and the anxious looks of the Boatswain, to 
 comprehend that there was some danger that 
 the vessel would drift before the ocean current, 
 which was now plainly indicated on the sur- 
 face of the water, and which ran immediately 
 in the direction of the breakers. 
 
 With such impressions she could not 
 tranquillize her mind sufficiently to retire 
 below, a step otherwise within her power, as 
 Laroon had fallen into a deep and wholesome 
 sleep, which seemed to promise a full resto- 
 ration, and removed the necessity of imme- 
 diate attention. Little Mage too declared that 
 her eyes ached with the glare of the sea, an 
 observation equally just, with regard to her 
 lady ; yet on every side did Bertha continue 
 to gaze with that determined anxiety which 
 her vague fears were so well calculated to 
 inspire. 
 
 In the eastern arch of the horizon, as a 
 train of indistinct and hazy clouds rose and 
 M 2
 
 250 MAKANNA. 
 
 melted in the distance, she every now and 
 then imagined that the top-gallant-sails of 
 the Goshawk were looming as dusky spots 
 upon the offing; and then, elated with hope 
 and filial affection, her heart throbbed with 
 ardour, as she reflected on the delightful 
 interview with her father, which, should a 
 breath of air awake, a few short hours might 
 realize. 
 
 And then again, as these pleasing illusions 
 vanished, and she turned with disappointment 
 towards the west, a thousand fears of wreck 
 and famine were awakened by the sight of 
 the distant breakers, still glaring white and 
 hungry amid the dazzling sheen of the ocean. 
 
 Towards those remote specks of snowy 
 brightness, which seemed to lie in wait so 
 treacherously, as tigers feign to sleep, on the 
 tranquil bosom of the deep, the dark eddies 
 of the ocean currents bubbling and rippling 
 as they passed, were now coursing each other 
 with fearful rapidity; and as she continued
 
 MAKANNA. 251 
 
 to gaze, the ship, as she imagined, was her- 
 self drawn slowly in the same direction ! 
 
 She communicated her fears on this point 
 to the Boatswain, in such a manner, as not 
 to be overheard, for she was perfectly aware 
 of the mischief which a groundless alarm 
 might create among the disorderly crew of 
 the Ganges. 
 
 He listened to her remarks respectfully, 
 but protested that her fears were altogether 
 needless, and throwing a piece of bamboo into 
 the sea, requested her remark how quickly 
 it was carried past the side of the vessel, 
 which was, he assured her, a sufficient proof 
 that the ship was, as she should be, perfectly 
 stationary. 
 
 From the Boatswain's manner, there was 
 no reason to doubt his sincerity, but Bertha 
 had too much sagacity not to remember that 
 it was no more than natural, that a fragment 
 
 * O 
 
 of light cane would be floated forward in 
 the course of a current with greater rapidity
 
 252 MAKANNA. 
 
 than the ponderous hull of a laden ship, the 
 motion of which was beside restricted by the 
 dragging of its anchors and cables. She 
 imagined to, that after her late remark, the 
 Boatswain looked westward much oftener 
 than before, as if he now began himself to 
 doubt the force of the testimony he had 
 adduced. 
 
 About the time of the failing of the 
 wind, the obscure vapour, which had so long 
 prevailed, melted into a thin and yellow 
 haze, through which a tropical sun trans- 
 fused, with power unsubdued, its majesty of 
 light, and furnace glow of heat. 
 
 It is, perhaps, chiefly owing to the op- 
 pressive influence of climate, and the languor 
 it induces, joined with the monotony of ma- 
 ritime life, without exertion, that the crew 
 of a ship becalmed, in the Indian Ocean, so 
 often lose all self-confidence, and give way 
 to nervous impressions and despondency. 
 It is certain at least, that such feelings are
 
 MAKANNA. 253 
 
 sometimes carried so far, that, grown wild 
 with a pining desire for that home which 
 he fancies he shall never re-visit, the young 
 voyager has been known to leave his cot, 
 and pass over the side of the ship, under 
 the delirious impression that the sea around 
 him, grown vividly green from the reflection 
 of the amber-tinted haze which then fre- 
 quently prevails, is nothing less than the be- 
 loved fields that witnessed the sports of his 
 childhood, and from this flattering delusion, 
 the doomed wretch is only awakened as the 
 waters ingulf him in their cold embrace 
 for ever. 
 
 Predisposed by the occurrence of so 
 many real and fictitious dangers, the crew of 
 the Ganges now readily gave way to the ener- 
 vating influence of their situation. Without 
 present occupation, or certainty as to the 
 future, they huddled together in detached 
 groups, and seeking the coolest parts of the 
 ship, spent the tedious hours in recounting
 
 254 MAKANNA. 
 
 marvellous adventures, said to have been 
 encountered in the olden time by hapless 
 mariners. 
 
 Among other prodigies, the histories of 
 such fatal calms were related ; and how the 
 elemental lethargy had been prolonged, from 
 weeks to months, until at last the grinding 
 pains, of famine clung to a whole ship's 
 company. 
 
 And then they told how, day by day, 
 the men grew ravenous, and found the 
 sodden leather from the ship's pumps, and 
 their very shoes, delicious food : and then 
 when these were gone, and hours had rolled 
 on hours, without a chance, or hope, though 
 each to patience was an age ! how like a 
 troop of wolves at bay, they circled round, 
 and watched with greedy joy the last faint 
 struggles of a messmate, expiring of the 
 hunger felt by all. 
 
 And how before the death -film had al- 
 together dimmed his dying eyes, the limp
 
 MAKANNA. 255 
 
 and wasted limbs were gashed; and how, 
 with vampire-thirst, they sucked the empty 
 veins tore the shrivelled sinews from the 
 bones and gorged to madness on the soul- 
 revolting banquet! 
 
 Such topics as these, when long indulged, 
 intoxicate weak minds; and the ignorant 
 rout on board the Ganges pursued them so 
 far, that in recurring to the state of their 
 own vessel, they began with general accord 
 to ascribe the jeopardy of their situation to 
 some unholy influence from the world of 
 spirits; and having previously drawn the 
 unlucky inference that the Captain's swoon 
 was connected, in point of time, with the 
 vision of the ' Weird Craft/ they began to 
 carry the idea still farther, and to believe, 
 and that with all the potency of perverted 
 fancy, that his presence had still some mys- 
 terious and sinister effect on the working of 
 the ship, and on the elements around her. 
 
 Surmises of this nature were at first only
 
 256 MAKANNA. 
 
 implied by hints and broken whispers, for 
 every man was ashamed to make a direct 
 announcement of his opinion, and the con- 
 sequence was, that each suspected that his 
 comrade had too good a reason for the 
 concealment he maintained, until the brood- 
 ings of doubt gave the force of reality to the 
 wildest creations of fancy. 
 
 Miss Falkland had long retired below 
 but Laroon continued in the same deep 
 sleep on the quarter-deck, and as from 
 time to time the ruffians fearfully drew 
 near to watch his slumbers, they began to 
 imagine that his whole form was unnatu- 
 rally dilated, a circumstance which confirmed 
 their superstitious dread, and added to their 
 caution. 
 
 On such a theme as the influence of 
 the Spectral Ship, the cowardice of the 
 Boatswain was equal to that of the merest 
 poltroon on board ; and although on private 
 grounds not equally deceived with regard to
 
 MAKANNA. 257 
 
 the Captain, he joined the rest of the crew, 
 who, to a man, now hung carefully aloof 
 from the quarter-deck. 
 
 So great indeed was the stupidity into 
 which their infatuation had thrown them, 
 and so loud the clamour of their voices, (for 
 a constant and noisy conversation was main- 
 tained from the very fear of silence,) that 
 two substantial indications of coming danger 
 had for some time escaped notice, when an 
 accident revealed them. 
 
 This accident was the return of Bertha 
 to the quarter-deck, who had no sooner 
 cast a glance towards the west, than turn- 
 ing deadly pale, and leaning on the tafferel, 
 she beckoned to the Boatswain. 
 
 Her caution and self-command, in making 
 
 7 O 
 
 no exclamation, were, however, thrown away ; 
 for in the momentary silence which her at- 
 titude of sudden alarm produced, its cause 
 flashed at once on the startled senses of the 
 crew, in the renewed roaring of the distant
 
 258 MAKANNA. 
 
 breakers, towards which it was evident that 
 the vessel was gradually, but inevitably 
 drifting. 
 
 " Ay ! ay ! Poor Kate's token-sign of 
 the open coffin, when the lid of the 'bacca 
 box fell on the wet strand, is a bitter 
 thought now," muttered the Boatswain, in a 
 husky tone, as he wiped away the large 
 drops of cold perspiration which suddenly 
 bedewed his swarthy forehead. 
 
 The emotion was severe, but soon con- 
 quered, and as if nothing had occurred, he 
 gave some common-place orders to engage 
 the attention of the crew, and then turning 
 towards Miss Falkland, he said respectfully, 
 but in a cautious undertone, 
 
 " I'm thinking, my Lady, that the Captain 
 may sleep past praying time, if we don't hail 
 to quarters at once." 
 
 This was rather a puzzling question to 
 Bertha, who saw the danger of the ship, but 
 having heard that it was unadvisable to
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 arouse the sick, from what might prove a 
 critical slumber, was unwilling that Laroon 
 should be disturbed so long as it could be 
 avoided. Maldrake observed the demur, and 
 broke through it by exclaiming, 
 
 " No offence, I hope, but half a chance 
 should never be lost for the want of a 
 snatch ! 
 
 " The very sight of the lady's sweet face 
 will make the Captain turn the ship into a 
 fish, before what he loves best, shall wet a 
 hair ! " 
 
 At another time, the crew would have 
 understood the bold tar in the plain sense 
 intended, viz. that Laroon's best seamanship 
 might be commanded in so dear a cause, and 
 that it was hard to say, what his skill and 
 experience might not accomplish. But in 
 the prostration of intellect, arising from their 
 absurd fears and credulity, the thoughtless 
 words were considered as an ominous intima-
 
 260 MAKANNA. 
 
 tion of some magic change in their impending 
 fate. 
 
 Totally unconscious of the dread and 
 jealousy he had awakened, Maldrake now 
 attempted to arouse the Captain, but with 
 little success, until after having tried several 
 of the more gentle expedients, he took a pistol 
 from his belt, and discharged it in the air ! 
 
 The report rang heavily through the rig- 
 ging, but before it had boomed away to the 
 offing, or even the smoke had time to rise, 
 Laroon stood before him, not only awake, but 
 evidently all he had ever been, in energy of 
 mind and body. 
 
 The old seaman had obtained his first 
 object, but when he would have explained the 
 peril of the ship, the mortification of the 
 moment almost stifled his utterance, and 
 having with a significant shrug pointed out 
 the breakers, and in a few broken words 
 explained that the anchorage was unsound,
 
 MAKANNA. 261 
 
 
 
 he made way for the Boatswain, who mut- 
 tered something of the same sort, and with 
 no better grace. 
 
 Whatever emotion intelligence so sudden 
 and momentous excited, its outward signs 
 were 'subdued by the Captain, who directed 
 the men to attend to some immediate but 
 trifling duties, with the utmost nonchalance. 
 
 Having dismissed these fellows, the eagle 
 eye of Laroon now wandered with a searching 
 anxiety over every particular of the ship, and 
 throughout the whole circle of the horizon, 
 and then after a short interval of thought, 
 his pale countenance brightened, and ap- 
 proaching Bertha, he said, in a kind and 
 confidential tone, 
 
 " Miss Falkland has doubtless remarked, 
 that I have felt it prudent to conceal my 
 surprise at our present situation, no less than 
 my consciousness of the recent treachery from 
 which I have suffered : Her safety is now 
 the only object worthy of a thought, and as
 
 262 MAKANNA. 
 
 the first step towards securing it, let me 
 entreat my gentle friend to seek the repose 
 her cabin may supply. 
 
 " A thousand busy cares are crowding in 
 upon me, and some may challenge a harsh 
 and stormy meeting, unfitting for a lady's 
 presence." 
 
 It was with great pleasure that Bertha 
 concluded from this address, that the Captain 
 was perfectly unaware of the kind attentions 
 which he owed to her tenderness, during the 
 alarming lethargy from which he had suffered. 
 At the same time, she was disappointed in 
 not having received any intimation relative 
 to the views he entertained as to the proba- 
 bility of saving the vessel, and she therefore 
 suffered Mage to teaze him with a variety 
 of questions, which, had they been answered, 
 would have gratified her curiosity, if they had 
 not relieved her anxiety. 
 
 These interrogations were met by the 
 Captain with perfect good humour, but, at
 
 MAKANNA. 263 
 
 the same time, with a dexterous evasion ; and, 
 after having herself ventured on one or two 
 leading hints, with no better success, Miss 
 Falkland took the proffered advice, and retired 
 from the deck. 
 
 In his momentary survey of the ship, 
 Laroon had remarked the disaffected conduct 
 of the bulk of the crew, in keeping themselves 
 at a distance at the moment of his recovery, 
 and, as the Boatswain had skulked off to the 
 rest, he drew the ready inference, that he 
 participated in some mutinous plot then in 
 progress. 
 
 With such impressions on his mind, 
 Laroon felt that his personal safety would be 
 compromised, and his efforts for the service 
 of the ship defeated, by any step which might 
 imply a want of confidence in his own power, 
 or resources. It was in accordance with these 
 views, that no inquiry was made after Mr. 
 Vernon, whose absence from the deck he 
 considered voluntary ; and that he resolved
 
 264 MAKANNA. 
 
 to rely no longer on the services of the Boat- 
 swain, as a medium of communication between 
 himself and the lawless gang he had to cir- 
 cumvent and control. 
 
 From these observations, it may be inferred 
 that Paul did not consider the loss of the ship 
 so inevitable as the remarks of the Boat- 
 swain had implied, or all such secondary 
 matters would have been unworthy of a mo- 
 ment's regard. This was fortunately the case, 
 for, in surveying the adjacent ocean, his 
 critical and practised eye had detected that 
 hurried ripple, and lighter shade of colour 
 in a space of sea on the starboard quarter, 
 which indicated the presence of a shoal, or 
 a reef of sunken rocks, and near which it 
 was probable, that better anchorage might 
 be obtained. 
 
 This spot lay between the breakers, and 
 the ship, at the distance of about a mile out 
 of a direct line from the latter, and there, 
 at any expense of labour, the Captain resolved
 
 MAKANNA. 265 
 
 upon carrying the vessel, with the hope that 
 she would be thus preserved, until the evening- 
 brought its usual seaward breeze. 
 
 With this object in view, but without 
 having communicated a syllable of his in- 
 tention, Laroon past forward to see the 
 launch cleared and hoisted out, and to have 
 some spare booms prepared by the carpenter, 
 so that they might be used as sweeps, in 
 the intended enterprise. 
 
 The crew went sulkily to work, but were, 
 nevertheless, obedient ; and, these equipments 
 being completed, the command of the launch 
 was given to the Boatswain, with orders 
 to pull directly north ; while Maldrake, to 
 whom the duty of sounding was confided, 
 had separate instructions. In the mean time, 
 the sweeps were shipped, a proper gang 
 allotted to each, and the capstan manned to 
 hove round on the anchors. 
 
 In the prosecution of these measures, one 
 order had followed another with such pre- 
 VOL. i. N
 
 266 MAKANNA. 
 
 cipitancy, that no time for reflection among 
 the men had occurred, but now, when they 
 saw that, notwithstanding the steady force 
 with which the oars of the launch were 
 plied, had rendered the tow-line, which at- 
 tached her to the ship, tau't as an iron bar, and 
 that though the gangs at the sweeps toiled 
 heavily, no apparent way was made, they again 
 turned restless, and began to murmur. 
 
 The current set so stiffly, that it would 
 have taken half a dozen boats, as they re- 
 marked, to have headed it but a knot an 
 hour ; and there were those among them, who 
 remembered, that the agents of malignant 
 influence, from the realms of darkness, were 
 said to have a fiendish satisfaction in re- 
 marking the tormentingly anxious efforts, with 
 which the unfortunate attempt in vain to 
 wrestle with impending fate. 
 
 With such imaginations rankling in their 
 hearts, Laroon's every look was watched with 
 the eagerness of hatred, and while all his
 
 MAKANNA. 267 
 
 faculties were devoted to their service, the 
 ignorant wretches on board the Ganges were 
 debating as to the propriety of casting him 
 overboard, as the master spell which hung 
 as a curse upon the vessel. 
 
 Still the dark eddies of the ocean current 
 followed each other in rapid succession to- 
 wards the breakers, and the drifting ship, 
 notwithstanding the toilsome splash of her 
 mighty oars (sweeps), and the constant tugs 
 of the launch, was borne, as it appeared, like 
 a struggling victim, in the same direction. 
 
 The disgust of the crew became gradually 
 more poignant, and had soon led to an ex- 
 plosion that would have been fatal to the 
 Captain, when a shout from Maldrake excited 
 the attention of all, and to Laroon conveyed 
 intelligence that the ship by a lateral move- 
 ment had been conducted to the berth in- 
 tended. 
 
 Again the impetuous accents of command 
 resounded from the deck again the capstan
 
 268 MAKANNA. 
 
 creeked to the monotonous " Yeo-ho ! " of 
 the seamen, as the anchor was dropt, and the 
 cable served. 
 
 A moment of intense anxiety ensued, as 
 to whether the experiment would prove suc- 
 cessful, but it was no more, the Launch was 
 cast off, and the ship being left to her proper 
 bearings, swung merrily round, and canting 
 off, came-to on her best bower, fixed and 
 staunch as if in port. 
 
 The crew remained for a few seconds 
 dumb with joy, astonishment, and shame 
 and then their cheers pealed round the decks 
 like echoing thunder, and had they had an 
 empire to bestow, it had been cast at the feet 
 of Laroon. 
 
 This returning confidence was of too late 
 a growth to suit the warm temper of the 
 Creole, and he turned away with disgust and 
 abhorrence from the sycophants, whose only 
 bond of fealty and regard hung on the pos- 
 session of fortune's accidental gift, success !
 
 MAKANNA. 
 
 This trial of maritime skill did not, however, 
 pass unhonoured, in that quarter where the 
 meed was dearest ; for even as he turned away 
 from the noisy crowd around, he encountered 
 the smiling thanks, and blushing approval 
 of Bertha, whose eyes were still moist with 
 the tears she had shed, when praying for 
 the preservation of " the doomed ship," and 
 her devoted crew. 
 
 " Avast, you lubberly swabbers," cried 
 Maldrake, who was just returned aboard, 
 and who seemed twenty years the younger, 
 from the exhilaration of the moment. 
 
 " Avast, make a clear gangway a-head, 
 that his honour and the lady, God bless them, 
 may have space to tack for the state room." 
 
 " Right, old boy," said Laroon, as he 
 past forward, with Miss Falkland on his 
 arm, " But as it is my fancy to have a new 
 Steward, trip down first, Maldrake, and look 
 after the wine." 
 
 The old seaman joyfully obeyed, nor did
 
 270 MAKANNA. 
 
 the former knight of the pantry, albeit attached 
 to the ' flesh pots of Egypt/ and * potations 
 pottle deep,' adventure so much as a petition 
 for the restitution of his office, although he 
 exchanged a look of no very cordial aspect 
 with the Boatswain. This latter worthy, too, 
 at this juncture, found it convenient to re- 
 member, that he had kept our old friend, 
 Vernon, in no very comfortable captivity ; 
 and as a discovery of his services on that 
 occasion might have led to an awkward result, 
 he slipt down slyly with an iron bar, and 
 retreated again unseen, having, in the mean 
 time, wrenched open the door of that gen- 
 tleman's cabin, in the way which occasioned 
 the emphatical " when," which formed the 
 unceremonious termination of our previous 
 chapter.
 
 MAKANNA. 271 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 " The ocean with its vastness, its blue-green, 
 Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears, 
 Its voice mysterious ; which whoso hears 
 Must think on what will be, or what has been." 
 
 KEATS. 
 
 THE shades of evening were again closing 
 around the Ganges, but with no very flat- 
 tering promise for the night. The haze, which 
 
 had not been wholly exhaled at any period 
 
 
 
 of the past day, grew denser with its de- 
 clining hours, and if the scattered streaks 
 of vermilion, floating like fairy islands in 
 the vapoury ocean above, contrasted finely
 
 272 MAKANNA. 
 
 with the emerald dye of the sea; the usual 
 flood of golden light was absent, and instead 
 of that quick transmission to the less radiant 
 but serener charms of an eastern night, a 
 sullen dim refracted glow still lingered in 
 the west. 
 
 During the interval that had elapsed, 
 every measure, which naval skill and pru- 
 dence could dictate, had been taken to ren- 
 der the ship secure. 
 
 She was now riding on two anchors, the 
 second having been carried out in the 
 launch, and dropped at some distance. Her 
 canvass was also snug, and all her equip- 
 ments in perfect trim; so that she might 
 take advantage of any favourable change. 
 In these, and indeed in every other parti- 
 cular, the Ganges was all that the most 
 severe nautical criticism could exact; and 
 yet there was an indescribable something, 
 whether in the ship herself, or in the 
 aspect of the heavens, or of the sea, or in
 
 MAKANNA. 273 
 
 the tout ensemble, which depressed the 
 mind with a vague sense of apprehension. 
 
 " Ay, boy ! if that throat o' thine were 
 an organ-pipe, the deuce a wind would it 
 witch for us to-night," said one of the 
 prime forecastle-men to the Boatswain, who, 
 as he sauntered about the deck, was whist- 
 ling at snatches in a low desponding key, 
 not unlike the moan of a distant gale. 
 
 " All 's still as murder," said the Boat- 
 swain ; " and look'ee, the very stars are 
 sleeping in the mist: hie thee down to the 
 orlop, and get a quiet snooze on the 
 chance." 
 
 " Yes, catch me roosting before the 
 ship's on a wholesome course, if you can," 
 replied the seaman, and immediately added, 
 
 " I 'd rather turn up for a dozen, than 
 turn in for such another dream as the 
 last." 
 
 "Dream!" said the Boatswain, stopping 
 short, and regarding him with an air of 
 
 N2
 
 274 MAKANNA. 
 
 profound interest, for the affair of the 
 'Weird Craft' had rendered the whole crew 
 credulous in the extreme: 
 
 "Dream! What dream?" 
 
 " Why, messmate, thou'st heard me tell 
 o' my cruise in a hearse that had discharged 
 her rotten cargo, and was on the homeward 
 trip?" 
 
 " D n the trip, and the black bum- 
 boat to boot ! " exclaimed the Boatswain ; 
 " speak to the dream, lad there's many a 
 token in a dream." 
 
 "Ay! sure enough," replied the tar; 
 "well, you must understand, there was the 
 hearse, all as natural as life, with six coal- 
 black horses, all in velvet housings: but 
 then, instead of a snug birth under hatches, 
 or the girls, and their dimity toggery, I, 
 and twelve other salt-water sharks (look'ee, 
 that was just the unlucky number,) were 
 all perched round the edges on the top, and 
 each man straddling with one of the tall 
 *
 
 MAKANNA. 275 
 
 gawky ostrich plumes sticking up between 
 his thighs by way of a holdfast. And no 
 joke in that ; for the cattle dashed off at 
 such a thunder-devil of a rate, that 'twould 
 ha* been a break-neck turn of thirteen to 
 the dozen without them. 
 
 " Well, the wheels whirled so swiftly, 
 that they looked altogether like hollow 
 wreaths of smoke from the muzzle of a 
 gun; and on, on, on, fled the black snorters, 
 with their tails lashing in the air, as if 
 they meant to catch th' wind, and not a 
 touch o' the whip either. 
 
 " Now let the mast bend till the dead- 
 eyes windward start, an* they will. I like 
 a fair scud in a rousing gale none better 
 but we none of us understood the new craft 
 under us well enough to relish that ! And 
 so, at every pitch, we hailed coachee to 
 shorten sail, but the tall swarthy trickster 
 turned a deaf ear. And then as his rattling 
 laugh came and went in the breeze, the six
 
 276 MAKANNA. 
 
 black varment pricked up their ears, and 
 fled the faster. 
 
 " Not an inch could we stir, for fear of 
 tottling overboard ; and every soul grew sick 
 as a lubber in a storm : and then, like wink- 
 ing, we were whirling over a boundless heath 
 covered with snow ; not your natural virgin- 
 white, wholesome snow, for that I mean was 
 just the colour of dead ashes; and all at 
 once the black craft lurched into a fathom- 
 less drift, and still coachee laughed, and 
 th' six horses, all foaming and snorting, 
 showered up the snow with their hoofs, and 
 kept galloping as 'twere, but without clearing 
 an inch ! Now the deeper and faster we 
 settled in the drift, Coachee's devil of a laugh 
 came the quicker and the louder. 
 
 " That waiting spell, without even a chance 
 to walk th' deck, was cruel bad for th' frosty 
 rime fell sheet upon sheet, and freezing 
 over every limb, soon cased us up stiff in 
 glassy armour : our teeth chattered beneath
 
 MAKANNA. 277 
 
 a mask of ice, and every joint ached with the 
 weight, as if it had been screwed up in a vice. 
 Two of our company shied at this, and slipping 
 overboard, the snow seemed to suck 'em in 
 clean out o' sight; poor souls, their groans were 
 stifled soon. 
 
 " At length one of our company chanced 
 to pray and all at once, the head of what 
 we'd thought a real coachee gybing, swung 
 round without the body." 
 
 " Bah !" cried the Boatswain, and plac- 
 ing his open hand, as if to muzzle his com- 
 rade, added, 
 
 " There's no safety in speaking o' that 
 wild rover ye mean, in such an hour as this ; 
 And 'faith, the colour of the sea's already 
 changed, to some'at just like the dead ashes 
 o' thy dream, and then, what's this same , 
 black crazy hull, but " 
 
 The interpretation was unluckily marred 
 by the unexpected approach of Laroon, fol- 
 lowed by Maldrake, the latter bearing a tele-
 
 278 MAKANNA. 
 
 scope and some other astronomical instru- 
 ments. 
 
 " Let every man go down," said the 
 Captain, but at the same time intimating to 
 Maldrake, that he was not included in the 
 order. 
 
 " And now those restless boobies have 
 made their exit, give me the night-glass." 
 
 Maldrake obeyed ; and long and patiently 
 was the Captain employed in the examina- 
 tion of the whole circular sweep of the offing, 
 and when he at last desisted, it was with an 
 air of peculiar dissatisfaction. 
 
 This was observed by his attendant, who, 
 although he preserved the silence which be- 
 came his station, betrayed the interest he 
 felt, so far that Laroon found himself inclined 
 to take advantage of the old man's experience, 
 on a point which had proved too puzzling 
 for his own. 
 
 " There is," said he, " an odd sort of 
 moving shadow perhaps, after all, only a
 
 MAKANNA. 279 
 
 spot in the object-glass but still I think it 
 is a reality, and traversing onward from the 
 north-east. 
 
 " Balance the instrument on the mizen 
 shrouds, and with a little sweep to the right, 
 just above the offing, it will be caught." 
 
 Maldrake did as directed, but he had 
 hardly used the telescope a second, when it 
 was withdrawn with the quickness of one, who 
 recognises something already too well under- 
 stood, and looking the Captain earnestly in 
 the face, he exclaimed : 
 
 " Tis the storm's eye, your Honour !" 
 
 " Yes," said Laroon, in a solemn tone, and 
 as if from the impression of self-conviction j 
 " one of those plague spots of the East swift 
 as a thunderbolt gathering as an avalanche 
 it will be here anon ! What, Hoa ! 
 
 " Summon all hands on deck, Pray Heaven 
 our cables prove but stanch we'll wrestle for 
 it yet! 
 
 " What, Hoa ! "
 
 280 MAKANNA. 
 
 The alarm was repeated by Maldrake, and 
 swiftly as the fire-flash sparkles along the 
 train, transpired throughout the ship, until, 
 with a simultaneous rush, the decks were 
 crowded, and all hands stood in silent awe- 
 waiting for the word. 
 
 " Down ! Down ! with all, and every 
 thing," shouted Laroon. Now, Top Captains, 
 do your best, we'll strip her to the main 
 sticks All hands aloft ! " 
 
 And then, as if transported with the ex- 
 citement of the moment, and it is ever a 
 proud one, when a true son of the ocean is 
 challenged by her terrors, the haughty smile 
 of conscious power curled on his lip, and 
 his keen eye flashed with a gladiator's scorn, 
 as he paced the deck impatiently. 
 
 The danger was too imminent to be mis- 
 taken, the exertions of the seamen were almost 
 superhuman, while, in every successive mo- 
 ment, as the signals of the Top Captains re- 
 sounded from above, the lofty rigging dis-
 
 MAKANNA. 281 
 
 appeared, mast after mast, and all their com- 
 plement of yards and tackle were hurried 
 down with the celerity of magic. 
 
 The decks were now become a mere chaos 
 of spars, blocks, running-gear, and canvass ; 
 but no sooner was the task aloft accomplished, 
 and the ship lying bare under her lower 
 masts, than the busy rout commenced below, 
 and the various portions of the rigging were 
 stowed away with an equal dexterity. 
 
 The launch was next hoisted on board, 
 and lashed to her berth mid-ships with un- 
 usual care, the guns made sure with extra 
 bracings, the main stays made tau't, and 
 a few turns of the capstan taken on the cable 
 of the best bower, to bring the ship's head 
 fairly to the north-east. 
 
 With the stir and animation of these pre- 
 parations, departed, in a great measure, the 
 confidence of the crew ; and, as they watched 
 the distant indications of the coming storm, 
 the anticipation of its force, and too probable
 
 282 MAKANNA. 
 
 consequences, became augmented with the 
 delay of the impending blow. 
 
 Prompted, in some degree, by curiosity, 
 but still more with the rational desire of gain- 
 ing a due idea of the expected danger, that 
 she might meet its assault with resignation, 
 Miss Falkland again sought the deck. Veraon 
 and the Captain were both near her, and 
 explaining the late preparations in a way most 
 calculated to calm the fears she naturally 
 entertained. 
 
 Bertha heard them with a sweet intelli- 
 gence, that showed how gratefully she appre- 
 ciated their kindness ; but still her pallid 
 cheeks, and the watchful eagerness with which 
 she regarded the ocean and the sky, evinced 
 that her spirit was too deeply wrought by 
 the mustering of the elements without, to 
 comprehend the details which her friends so 
 kindly attempted to describe. 
 
 The single cloud, termed by Maldrake 
 the " storm's eye," and which then, from its
 
 MAKANNA. 283 
 
 immense distance, seemed no more than a 
 dim and vapoury spot, having, during its 
 approach, grown gradually larger, had now, 
 from some sudden change in its relative elec- 
 tricity, burst into large diverging fragments, 
 which, under the influence of a powerful 
 current in the upper regions of the air, coursed 
 each other in vague fantastic shapes, like some 
 wild troop of fleeting demons, across the 
 field of the horizon. And now too the disk 
 of the rising moon began to show above 
 the verge of the offing ; the gleamings of its 
 icy radiance striking in scattered beams ath- 
 wart the gloom, and falling on the solitary 
 ship, as if to grace her obsequies, while 
 the hoarse and distant dashings of the 
 breakers sounded as a requiem. 
 
 As yet, the tranquillity of the ocean was 
 undisturbed ; but, as the rush of gathering 
 clouds increased, Laroon felt that the eventful 
 crisis was fast approaching, and urged the 
 retirement of Bertha, who left the deck appa-
 
 284 MAKANNA. 
 
 rently far more distracted by the sobs and 
 cries of her timid attendant, than by the 
 appalling hazard of the moment. 
 
 At this time, too, some few of the mariners, 
 on whose minds the visitation of the morning 
 had left an expectation of a more fatal sequel, 
 might be seen stealing fearfully away ; and 
 others were directly ordered below, lest a 
 crowded state of the deck might lead to 
 accidents. 
 
 About twenty-five of the boldest, with 
 Vernon, remained, and these had just secured 
 the hatches, when a sudden rush of wind 
 made the ship lurch forward, on the instant 
 the shout of Laroon re-echoed above the 
 storm, 
 
 " To th' shrouds ! hold hard for life ! it 
 comes ! " 
 
 Before the words had past, the sky 
 darkened, and as if the demon of the tempest 
 was trying the power of his pinions, a second 
 rush hurtled through the air, and all again
 
 MAKANNA. 285 
 
 was still. It was but the truce of a moment, 
 and then the tornado burst without restraint, 
 and sweeping downwards in a cataract of 
 wind and rain, tore the billows into foam, 
 and striking on the ship, drove her stag- 
 gering beneath the surf with a force that 
 threatened annihilation. 
 
 The passage of this whirlwind was but 
 of short duration ; and it was well that it 
 was so, for it left the men almost without 
 the power of breathing ; while the darkness 
 grew so total from the sea spray, and the 
 deluge of rain, that no correct idea could be 
 formed as to the state of the vessel, and 
 each man, as he felt her quivering under the 
 heavy seas that buried her groaning decks, 
 imagined her a wreck. 
 
 As is not unusual in such instances, the 
 departure of the tornado was as sudden as its 
 approach, and within the space of ten or 
 twelve minutes, every vapoury obscurity was
 
 286 MAKANNA. 
 
 chased away, and the moon in her cold 
 brightness looked out on the deep azure of 
 a cloudless sky, so silently and sweetly, that 
 the past seemed but as the coinage of a 
 dream. 
 
 " Oh God ! " cried Laroon, as the re- 
 turning light revealed the high and broken 
 sea. 
 
 " Oh God ! There's no hope, and we 
 must watch him perish, as if we had not 
 human blood, or sympathy ! 
 
 " 'Tis well the vortex has him, 'twas 
 a brave struggle, but all is quiet now; the 
 agony of such a strife was worse than the 
 death itself." 
 
 No other voice was raised, for no other 
 heart in such a perilous moment entertained 
 even the idea of saving poor Maldrake, who, 
 by some accident, had lost his hold, and be- 
 fore he could recover it, was ingulfed by 
 the reflux of a wave.
 
 MAKANNA. 287 
 
 Aghast and spiritless, dripping with water, 
 benumbed with cold, and, as their sunken 
 eyes and pallid features glistened in the keen 
 moonlight, far more like drowned corses than 
 living men, the mariners still clung in the 
 shrouds, but hardly able to retain their 
 grasp. 
 
 The situation of the ship, too, was now 
 most critical. Under the confinement of her 
 anchors, and therefore without the power of 
 surmounting them, the weight of each suc- 
 cessive surge struck home, as if she had been 
 a motionless rock, and ever and anon, broke 
 over her from stem to stern, with such tre- 
 mendous force, that no fabric of human 
 workmanship might long withstand. 
 
 Under these appalling circumstances, it 
 was becomino- a doubt whether the strength 
 
 O o 
 
 of the men would enable them to remain 
 aloft until the ground swell became less, 
 when one of the cables snapt asunder, and 
 throwing the ship, with a head-long lurch
 
 288 MAKANNA. 
 
 on the starboard bow, left her quarter-deck 
 clear from the inroads of the sea. 
 
 The advantage of being able to open a 
 communication with the interior of the vessel, 
 was seized with due promptitude, the men 
 were not only refreshed with food, but those 
 most wearied were sent below, in exchange 
 for other hands, and all were soon ready for 
 any enterprise which might be deemed 
 judicious. 
 
 On the latter question, there was, however, 
 a difference of opinion, the Boatswain con- 
 sidering it best for the ship to depend, at 
 any risk, on the remaining anchor; and the 
 hazard was nothing less than that of foun- 
 dering, for she was straining fearfully in her 
 whole frame ; while the advice of the 
 Captain was to " cut and run." 
 
 When extremities involving such mortal 
 consequences arise, the dictum of authority 
 is powerless, even in the best disciplined crew, 
 unless supported by at least the show of
 
 MAKANNA. 289 
 
 benefit, and the desperate ship's-company of 
 the Ganges only sided with Laroon, as they 
 felt his arguments the most conclusive. 
 
 It was at last resolved, that the cable 
 should be cut ; and yet, no sooner was the 
 determination formed, than a difficulty arose 
 as to its accomplishment. The bows of the 
 vessel were still being continually submerged, 
 and the thundering billows burst over all in 
 
 O 
 
 cascades so fierce and heavy, that to encounter 
 them, appeared to be tempting the very jaws 
 of death. Had the plan been his own, not 
 even this danger would have deterred the 
 Boatswain ; but as it was, he stood sullenly 
 irresolute, with the axe in his hand, until 
 Laroon snatched it from him, and proceeded 
 to the task alone. 
 
 In this enterprise, the risk of being 
 
 washed overboard was guarded against, by 
 
 the expedient of attaching a line and brace 
 
 to the adventurer, but the danger of being 
 
 VOL. i. o
 
 290 MAKANNA. 
 
 dashed with fatal violence against the bul- 
 warks, ov the lumber of the forecastle, was 
 one for which the chance of escape lay in 
 personal dexterity alone. 
 
 At the first essay the event appeared 
 doubtful, for a wave of unusual size rolled 
 its mountainous bulk darkly up before the 
 sky, and happening to strike the vessel for- 
 wards, buried her bows in a deluge of foam, 
 and left her staggering so long beneath its 
 weight, that her righting appeared doubtful ; 
 and when at last its smothering eddies had 
 subsided, its past force was too apparent in 
 the wreck of the bowsprit, of which, not more 
 than four feet remained, and in the loss of 
 the figure head, trail-boards, 'and cheeks -of 
 the prow. 
 
 " Now, jolly dogs, give the Captain a 
 rousing hurra !" cried the Boatswain, " for 
 there he stands, all unharmed, like a salt- 
 water merman, or a sea-devil, to my mind,
 
 MAKANNA. 291 
 
 for when did honest flesh and blood 'scape 
 th' like o' that?" 
 
 The latter part of this address received 
 no greater attention than it deserved ; for 
 from the moment Laroon left the shelter of 
 the bulwarks, until bounding forward, his 
 flashing axe had accomplished its office, there 
 was not time to breathe, and then his voice 
 rose high above their shouts 
 
 " Hold hard ! and cun her from the 
 sea." 
 
 The caution was most timely, for when 
 thus suddenly restored to perfect freedom, 
 the buoyant and rebounding ship, like some 
 proud charger breaking from the rein, tossed 
 her torn head amid high jets of sparkling- 
 spray aloft into the air, and then veered 
 swiftly off to lee-ward, as if she felt the 
 lashing of the waves, and would have escaped 
 their fury. 
 
 " What ho ! bear every man a hand, 
 the ship shall keep her own.
 
 292 MAKANNA. 
 
 " Helm-hard-a-weather we'll run her for 
 the shore." 
 
 " Land, your Honour ! what and where ?" 
 cried twenty voices at once. 
 
 " Africa ! it lies but scarce a league 
 beyond the breakers." 
 
 The last words, by attracting the atten- 
 tion of the crew to the dangers more im- 
 mediately impending, rendered them silent 
 and thoughtful. Still all the necessary points 
 of seamanship were promptly executed, and 
 while Vernon was engaged below in soothing 
 the fears of the females, and in directing such 
 preparations, as might afford a chance of 
 saving some useful stores, in case of the 
 worst, the Captain attended to the duties of 
 the deck, with a zeal and alacrity, which 
 enforced obedience and inspired hope. 
 
 With wind and current both in the same 
 direction, the rate of the vessel, although 
 she had made so much water, as to require 
 the pumps, was not less than seven knots
 
 MAKANNA. 293 
 
 an hour ; meanwhile the hollow and en- 
 creasing roar of the breakers told that the 
 time of her trial was at hand. 
 
 The turbulence of the water remained so 
 great, that all idea of sounding was out of 
 the question; and Laroon found himself left 
 to the guidance of his eye alone, in selecting 
 an opening where it might be advisable to 
 attempt a passage between the chain of rocks 
 before them. 
 
 Two such spaces presented themselves 
 with little difference, except that the one 
 was considerably wider than the other. The 
 choice of the Captain fell on the narrowest, 
 while the Boatswain would have preferred 
 the other; no dispute however occurred, nor 
 was any reason stated, so that under the idea 
 that the point was willingly conceded, the 
 Captain felt no mistrust, when as soon as the 
 Ganges got into the " race," or rapid current, 
 setting towards the breakers, the Boatswain 
 took charge of the wheel.
 
 294 MAKANNA. 
 
 The speed of the vessel was now fearfully 
 accelerated with every second, while a short 
 and broken sea, tumbling at random, made 
 her shake and groan in every timber. 
 
 " Helm, mid-ships steady ! " exclaimed 
 Laroon, passing forward to take a better view 
 of the foaming channel, then almost roaring 
 beneath the bow, when the ship suddenly 
 yawed from her course, and before she could 
 be properly brought up, the opportunity of 
 making the intended passage was lost, and 
 no alternative remained, but to attempt the 
 other, which the Captain imagined did not 
 present an equal depth of water. 
 
 Whether this unfortunate occurrence was 
 accidental, or arose from the perfidy of the 
 Boatswain, Laroon could not discover, al- 
 though he had every reason to suspect it to 
 be the latter. 
 
 The ship was brought up, but hardly 
 within sufficient time to save her from strik- 
 ing on the rock, which formed the barrier
 
 MAKANNA. 295 
 
 between these chasms ; and as she was com- 
 mitted to the headlong torrents that filled 
 the second, the perfect paleness and ab- 
 stracted look of the Captain, evinced that he 
 considered the matter as one to be decided 
 rather by the tiat of Providence, than by 
 any exercise of human skill, and that his 
 thoughts were on the future rather than the 
 present. 
 
 Whatever such reveries might be, they 
 were of short duration, for the Ganges had 
 not shot forward more than a cable's length, 
 when she struck with a violence which car- 
 ried away her keel sheathing, and brought 
 every soul on deck. 
 
 " Let me beseech you to take Miss Falk- 
 land below," cried Laroon " I would not 
 have her gentle nature tried beyond need, 
 nor am I yet without resource. 
 
 " What ho ! cut the star-board guns 
 from their lashings, and prize them over- 
 board !
 
 296 MAKANNA. 
 
 " Explain these matters to the lady, Sir, 
 below, and fear not but I'll have the Ganges 
 floating in smooth water yet." 
 
 The request prevailed; and no sooner had 
 Miss Falkland descended, than the ship re- 
 sounded with the crash and din of exertion, 
 the guns were soon tumbled into the foam- 
 ing ocean, and a large quantity of spars, 
 cables, and other dead weight cast over- 
 board. 
 
 The well was now sounded, and as no 
 great increase of water appeared, and the 
 ship floated forward, a sail was bent on the 
 main-fove-yard, and the ship having been 
 rendered altogether lively, was cunn'd large, 
 and as the canvass began to draw, she sheered 
 off in better style than might have been ex- 
 pected. 
 
 Scarcely, however, had this successful 
 manoeuvre tempted the crew to entertain the 
 hope of reaching the shore now visible, in 
 safety, by running the vessel on the sands,
 
 MAKANNA. 297 
 
 which evidently lay beyond the scattered 
 group of rocks around, than she struck again ; 
 and before the sail could be shifted, continued 
 beating with such staggering force, as to 
 stave in her starboard bow, and then heeling 
 in the same direction, she lay at the mercy 
 of the waves. 
 
 " Now, jolly dogs," said the Boat- 
 swain, with his usual cool, sarcastic inso- 
 lence, " as Captain and swabber are both 
 meat o' th' same relish to the maw of a 
 shark, suppose we take equal chances for 
 th' first run in the launch ; five and twenty 
 will be a full complement in this short water, 
 and yonder tumbling surf ; and as for the 
 petticoat gear, they may stay for the luck 
 of a second trip !" 
 
 This selfish and dastardly plan had been 
 preconcerted long before, and the lashings 
 of the launch were cut, the boat hoisted 
 out, and her self-elected crew ready to pull 
 ofF, before even their purpose was suspected. 
 o2
 
 298 MAKANNA. 
 
 Laroon, whose first care, when the ship 
 stranded, had been to look after the safety 
 of Miss Falkland, at this moment came on 
 deck, and, without wasting a word upon the 
 perfidious miscreants, who were still within 
 hail, attempted to pacify the alarm of the 
 Malays, who, in the despair of the moment, 
 were casting themselves into the sea, with 
 the vain hope of escaping by swimming. 
 
 This friendly advice was unheeded, and 
 he had the mortification of seeing the last 
 victim of this desperate folly plunge head- 
 long into the deep, when an unexpected acci- 
 dent seemed to promise them a chance of life. 
 
 By some mismanagement, the launch had 
 been run on the tongue of a sandbank, and, 
 before the Boatswain and his comrades could 
 get her off, the Malays had almost overtaken 
 them. The escape of both parties by the 
 boat was impossible, and a struggle for her 
 possession was about to ensue, of the most 
 fierce and deadly character.
 
 MAKANNA. 299 
 
 As the launch, when stranded, presented 
 a solid obstacle to the force of the waves, they 
 were now lashing around her in a tempest 
 burst of violence. Still nothing daunted, the 
 Malays might be seen swimming in upon 
 her on every side, their dusky shoulders and 
 raven hair contrasting wildly with the snowy 
 brightness of the foam. The crew of the 
 boat were at first too busy in baling her, and 
 in attempting to push and cant her off, to 
 notice the approach of their old shipmates ; 
 but, no sooner were they aware of the intended 
 visit, than they were terribly on the alert to 
 meet it. 
 
 Only a few were armed, but these might 
 be observed standing back with cutlasses 
 drawn, ready to chop off the fingers of the 
 first tawny hand that clutched the gunnel 
 of the boat, while others had their oars raised 
 in readiness to brain any unfortunate wretch 
 that swam within reach. That the Malays 
 were aware of what they had to expect was
 
 300 MAKANNA. 
 
 now evident, from a screaming shout of de- 
 fiance, that arose, as it were, unnaturally from 
 amid the bursting waves ; and then, striking 
 boldly forward, on the bosom of a long swell, 
 they seemed inclined to prove the worst. 
 Just as they appeared within reach, the crew 
 struck desperately at them with the oars, but 
 failed ; for the Malays, diving like so many 
 wild fowl, were out of sight in a moment, 
 and, in the next, thick as a swarm of bees, 
 they rose under the sides of the launch. 
 
 Short and horrid was the combat now ; and, 
 if the Europeans could but have killed fast 
 enough, their assailants from the water would 
 have had no chance, but, as it was, numbers 
 and despair were too potent for the keen and 
 vengeful steel. Gashed thick with death- 
 wounds, streaming with gore, and frantic with 
 pain, the Malays, clambering over the gunnel, 
 began to tear their murderers with their very 
 teeth ! and one poor devil, in particular, 
 whose hand had been chopped off with a
 
 MAKANNA. 301 
 
 short hatchet, by the Boatswain, (who, by 
 the by, had been beating in the skulls of 
 some half dozen in the water, with that same 
 weapon, as he would have cracked cocoa nuts) 
 watching his opportunity, with desperate re- 
 solution, thrust the bleeding stump between 
 the jaws of his adversary, and doubtless would 
 so have suffocated him, but that, just then, 
 the launch, falling off into deeper water, 
 foundered at once, and left both parties to 
 perish in the sea. 
 
 Shrill cries of agony now came, mingled 
 awfully with the hoarse dashings of the 
 breakers ; and, here and there, the Boat- 
 swain, with two or three of the more robust, 
 might be seen still struggling with their fate, 
 and attempting vainly to stem the roaring 
 current, which was carrying them rapidly 
 from the wreck, and at last ingulfed them, 
 one by one, beneath its swift and sparkling 
 eddies. 
 
 " Methinks," said Laroon to Vernon, as
 
 302 MAKANNA. 
 
 they watched this melancholy scene, " those 
 selfish unfortunates, in accelerating their own 
 
 destruction, have given us a better chance 
 
 . 
 for life ; had they remained even but for 
 
 the few hours, until the tide goes down, and 
 J J> the sea becomes sufficiently tranquillized for 
 a boat to have lived, the scanty stock of food 
 now left uninjured by the storm, had been 
 expended, and we had found a far more bitter 
 death by famine, than they have by the 
 waves." 
 
 " The evil is only rendered a little more 
 remote," replied Vernon, " we have no 
 boat ; and although, were the sea less rough, 
 we might ourselves swim to the shore, with 
 the assistance of a spar, yet that were not 
 the means to save Miss Falkland." 
 
 " Oh no, certainly not," rejoined the Cap- 
 tain. " How did you leave her ?" 
 
 " Sitting on a sofa, where little Mage was 
 lying in a trance-like sleep, brought on by 
 excessive fear and weeping. She had niinia-
 
 MAKANNA. 303 
 
 tures of her parents near her, and doubtless 
 had been long regarding them, for tears hung 
 like dew-drops on their frames. This grier 
 seemed past, and she was reading those sad 
 and holy chapters which tell of god-like 
 sorrow, and, as she said, the divine pathos 
 of the story gushed, like a tide of comfort, 
 on her heart, until her spirit seemed almost 
 impatient for its summons." 
 
 " Yes, still herself," exclaimed Laroon ; 
 " with all the soft delicious tenderness of 
 woman, she hath a stoic's firmness. Let her 
 not be disturbed. I have a prisoner to re- 
 lease, for this is no hour for bondage." 
 
 With these words the Captain left the 
 deck, and soon returned, followed by " Stunted 
 Mic," whose vicious nature immediately 
 broke forth in fiendish joy on hearing that 
 the Boatswain and his other comrades had 
 so miserably perished. This evil exultation 
 was however, short, for, with a command too 
 peremptory to admit dispute, the Captain
 
 304 MAKANNA. 
 
 set him to work in bearing up stores from 
 below. 
 
 The receding tide had now left the deck 
 far above the reach of the short and broken 
 sea which still prevailed ; and as the stores 
 were arranged, Vernon observed, that if the 
 cooperage was good, the contents need not 
 fear the weather. 
 
 " Yes," said the Captain, " they're snug 
 enough in casks ; and as the launch is 
 swamped, our only chance will be to lash 
 them together, and float them in with the 
 drift." 
 
 " But where ?" exclaimed the former, 
 "where is the baggage of Miss Falkland?" 
 
 " It forms no item in this list," replied 
 Laroon, who at that time was calmly busied 
 in numbering the casks in accordance with 
 a description of their contents, so noted in 
 his pocket-book. 
 
 " Good Heavens !" cried the other, " you 
 cannot think of abandonino- "
 
 MAKANNA. 305 
 
 " Perhaps," said Laroon, " it matters little 
 what we think. Look there, behold your 
 answer." 
 
 Vernon needed no second hint; for in 
 the dark transparent water to leeward, two 
 sharks were contending for the body of a 
 drowned seaman, which in their eagerness 
 was rent piecemeal. 
 
 " Tis horrible ; but yet their nature. 
 Full gorged already, still they lacerate each 
 other, though for a prize they cannot swal- 
 low. Why this but mocks the magnates of 
 the land, who ruin often when they can't 
 enjoy." 
 
 " But we were speaking of our dear and 
 gentle friend," said Vernon. 
 
 " There is no boat ; and who would cast 
 a form so beautiful to such a fate," replied 
 the Captain. 
 
 Vernon was silent, for just then a consi- 
 derable space of water grew crimson with 
 the blood of the sharks and their severed 
 prey.
 
 306 MAKANNA. 
 
 The sanguine cloud was dissipated with 
 the next wave, and he observed, 
 
 " For myself at least, if not for all, I 
 wish the Ganges had foundered at her 
 anchors." 
 
 " No, not for ALL," replied Laroon, with 
 that peculiar smile which equally marked 
 his features in moments of peril and of 
 triumph ; " No, not for all ! for that would 
 leave my promise unfulfilled ! 
 
 "Did I not say she should be safe ! 
 while yet a plank could swim, a sail could 
 gather wind !"
 
 NOTES.
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Authentic Account of the " Phantom Ship" or 
 Flying Dutchman, of the Indian Ocean ; as 
 published BY COMMAND OF THE LORDS COM- 
 MISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY. 
 
 As persons unacquainted with nautical affairs 
 might unadvisably doubt the strict veracity of 
 some of the latter scenes of the past volume, the 
 Editor feels it a duty to quote the following 
 authority, as an ample corroboration of one of 
 the principal facts. He would also remark, that 
 as the gallant crew of H. M. S. Leven imagined 
 that the individual features of their comrades of 
 the " Barracouta," were, by an optical phe- 
 nomenon, transferred through a space of two 
 hundred miles, and actually seen, at the distance 
 of two ! Their faculty of " second sight" must 
 at least have been equal to the credulity of any 
 one of the superstitious ship's company of the 
 H. C. S. Ganges.
 
 310 THE MIRAGE. 
 
 " In the evening of the 6th of April, when 
 off Port Danger, the Barracouta was seen about 
 two miles to leeward : struck with the singularity 
 of her being so soon after us, we at first concluded 
 that it could not be she, but the peculiarity of 
 her rigging, and other circumstances, convinced 
 us that we were not mistaken ; nay, so distinctly 
 was she seen, that many well known faces could 
 be observed on deck, looking towards our ship. 
 After keeping thus for some time, we became 
 surprised that she made no effort to join us, but 
 on the contrary, stood away ; but being so near 
 the port to which we were 'both destined, Captain 
 Owen did not attach much importance to this 
 proceeding, and we accordingly continued our 
 course. At sunset, it was observed that she hove 
 to, and sent a boat away, apparently for the 
 purpose of picking up a man overboard. During 
 the night, we could not perceive any light, or 
 indication of her locality. The next morning we 
 anchored in Simon's Bay, where for a whole week 
 we were in anxious expectation of her arrival, 
 but it afterwards appeared, that at this very period 
 the Barracouta must have been about two hundred 
 miles from us, and no other vessel of the same 
 class was ever seen about the Cape. 
 
 " This is not told in order to authenticate the 
 stories of fear, or fancy, or to add to the visionary 
 terrors of superstition, but it is recorded as a 
 strange, and at present unaccountable fact,
 
 THE MIRAGE. 311 
 
 doubtless attributable to natural, and probably 
 simple causes. 
 
 " In Simon's Bay we found the ' Andromache,' 
 and ' Delight' ten gun brig, Captain Hay. Had 
 this vessel seen the Flying Dutchman instead of 
 us, the fire of superstition would by her subsequent 
 loss have been fed with a little more fuel ; nay, 
 many even now think that the Phantom mistook 
 the vessel, and meant his visit for the unfortunate 
 ' Delight,' but we should imagine him too good 
 and old a sailor to mistake a frigate for a ten gun 
 brig." See Captain Owen's " Narrative of 
 Voyages to Explore the- Shores of Africa, Arabia, 
 and Madagascar." 
 
 The above account contains at least enough 
 of the wonderful, to render it amusing ; but as 
 the appearance of the " Phantom Ship," is 
 undoubtedly a peculiar effect of the mirage, the 
 following extract from the travels of Lichtenstein, 
 is presented to the reader as containing the most 
 circumstantial, ingenious, and satisfactory ex- 
 planation of that interesting optical illusion 
 which has yet been given. 
 
 " The next day we were presented with a 
 very interesting spectacle, which I cannot refrain 
 from describing somewhat minutely. As we 
 reached the summit of one of the numerous hills 
 that lay in our route, we saw at a great distance, 
 southwards in the horizon, the sea, as we all 
 thought, exactly as it appears when seen under
 
 312 THE MIRAGE. 
 
 such circumstances. Delighted at a sight, of which 
 for two months we had been wholly deprived, we 
 exclaimed unanimously, in a tone at once of plea- 
 sure and surprise " The sea ! the sea !" A mo- 
 ment's reflection was, however, sufficient to convince 
 us that since we were now only some hundred feet 
 above the level of the sea, and at least, six miles* 
 distance from the coast, it was impossible that 
 the sea could in fact be visible to us. Yet the 
 more we looked the more our eyes seemed assured 
 that they were not mistaken ; the impression was 
 indeed so strong, that almost in spite of myself, 
 I remained for a while halting between belief and 
 doubt ; nay, I was at last only convinced that 
 it could not be the sea, from the unevenness of 
 the horizon. The -idea then struck me that this 
 appearance originated in a reflection of the sea 
 and coast in the air above : many circumstances 
 strengthened this opinion, and our guide, who 
 was not unacquainted with it, asserted that I was 
 perfectly right; but he said that he never recol- 
 lected seeing it so distinctly. I can scarcely 
 express how much I was delighted at being pre- 
 sented with a phenomenon of which I had heard 
 so much. 
 
 " I now turned my attention to examine it 
 more particularly, when I made the following ob- 
 servations. It was between nine and ten o'clock 
 in the morning, the sun was to our left, at about 
 
 * German miles, of two thousand five hundred feet each.
 
 THE MIRAGE. 313 
 
 fifty degrees above the horizon ; it was not itself 
 visible, but its situation was plainly to be dis- 
 tinguished glistening through the thin vapour, with 
 which the air was entirely filled. The heat was 
 66 by Fahrenheit, and the peasants foretold rain, 
 which, in fact, fell abundantly in the evening. 
 Not a morsel of sky was to be seen, or any thing 
 which in the least broke the mass of vapour ; it 
 was nearly a dead calm, a very trifling breeze 
 came only occasionally from the quarter on which 
 the coast lay. The appearance in the air still 
 continued the same, and was exactly like the sea, 
 as seen from Table-mountain, at an immense dis- 
 tance. From a longer observation I was convinced 
 that the unevenness we had observed in the horizon, 
 that jagged margin which divided the dark blue 
 of the supposed sea from the light gray of the 
 heavens, was in fact the reflection of the coast, with 
 its projections and creeks. It seemed then as if 
 the effect we saw was produced 'by our point of 
 vision falling exactly on the spot, where the sea, 
 which was mildly illumined by the rays of the 
 sun, was reflected back, as in a concave mirror, 
 upon the heavens above, and it was only visible 
 to us from the circumstance of our being enveloped 
 in a thick vapour, which concealed the sun entirely 
 from us. The phenomenon will not then be diffi- 
 cult to explain : it must arise solely from the 
 relative height of the object with that of the 
 reflecting medium, and upon there being such a 
 VOL. i. p
 
 314 THE MIRAGE. 
 
 degree of density in the latter, that it is capable 
 of refracting the rays, so as to leave only the 
 degree of light necessary for the object to be dis- 
 tinctly represented in the picture; something too 
 must depend upon the relative situation of the 
 sun, and that of the spectator. 
 
 A more difficult question to answer is, how 
 it happens that this phenomenon is so seldom to 
 be seen on l'<xd ; that it almost always appears 
 over the sea.* It seems to me that a sufficient 
 reason for this may be assigned in the equal 
 degree of denseness that the vapour retains over 
 the level surface of the sea, whereas upon the 
 land, from the unevenness of the surface, there 
 must be different degrees of heat and dryness: 
 and these, though not perceptible, yet create an 
 inequality which annihilates the reflecting powers : 
 perhaps also the reflection is affected by the mix- 
 ture of different sorts of gas proceeding from the 
 same cause. Another cause may certainly be 
 found in the chemical nature of the sea vapour. 
 May not the luminous nature of the sea itself, the 
 luminous properties of so many of its inhabitants, 
 
 * What made this instance differ from any other occasion, 
 on which I had an opportunity of observing the ' mirage,' 
 is, that the place in which the reflection of the sea appeared 
 was over the land, and even at some distance from the coast. 
 This may, however, be accounted for, from the level nature 
 of the country upon the coast, and from the faint sea breeze 
 by which the vapour was driven very much upon the land, 
 without its level, with the horizon being lost.
 
 THE MIRAGE. 315 
 
 and the wonderful play of light at the rising and 
 setting of the sun under the line, be by some 
 unknown means connected with this very extra- 
 ordinary phenomenon ? 
 
 The " Mirage" has been described by various 
 writers, as for instance by Gruber, Biich, Walt- 
 mann, Wallaston, and others, but more particularly 
 by Zb'llner : he relates that in 1797, he saw from 
 the mouth of the Elbe the Island of Heligsland, 
 then at ten miles distance, reflected in the air. 
 #Uian mentions a Sicilian, who had such won- 
 derful acuteness of sight, as to be able, occasionally, 
 when he stood upon the promontory of Lilybseum, 
 to see every vessel that went into Carthage ; he 
 could even distinguish them plain enough to count 
 the number of sail. Now the promontory of Lily- 
 baeum is thirty-two sea miles from Carthage, and 
 does not stand so high, as that more than a third 
 of this distance could be included in the horizon. 
 The most recent instance of this sort, is related 
 by a certain Botineau, in a periodical publication 
 called Le ' Spectateur du Nord,' in the number for 
 October, 1802. He says that a man in the Isle 
 of France had seen ships at the distance of fifty 
 sea-miles off, and could even tell the size of them, 
 and the course they were going. This account 
 is accompanied with testimonies, which must re- 
 move the very natural doubts upon the fact, yet 
 a satisfactory explanation of it is wanted, and 
 perhaps none so satisfactory can be found, as
 
 316 THE SAMBOK. 
 
 resolving it into a phenomenon of the kind above 
 described."* 
 
 " Sambok;" i. e. Doctor, (see page 187.) So 
 called doubtless on account of its sanatory effi- 
 cacy, as a cutaneous stimulator! This species 
 of the " Flagalum" is peculiar to Africa, and made 
 from the tough hide of the hippopotamus. The 
 skin, as soon as taken off the animal, is for this 
 purpose cut into narrow tapering strips, each of 
 which is then so rolled together, that the glutinous 
 edges unite, and form a pipe-like lash, which 
 being afterwards well greased, to render it pliable, 
 is one of the most terrific in sound and execution 
 that can be imagined. These whips are an article 
 of trade, and as we are informed in Burckhardt's 
 Nubia, are sold in Egypt for from half, to a dollar 
 each. 
 
 * Travels in Southern Africa by Henry Liechtenstein, M. D. 
 &c. &c. vol. i. p. 169, 170, 171. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 C. Whiltingham, Touks Court, Chancery Lane.
 
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