CHAPTER XVII.
IN DANGEROUS SEAS.
THE following evening, as the twilight was falling, the lads againgathered round the old sailor.
"Well, lads," he began, "just as this other affair I was telling youabout happened further down south, so the other was a goodish bit to thenorth. We were bound for the Persian Gulf, and I fancy the captain gotwrong with his reckonings. He had had trouble before we sailed; had losthis wife sudden, I heard, and, more's the pity, he took to drink. He wasthe first and last captain as ever I sailed under as did it; forGodstone & Son were always mighty particular with their masters, andwould not have a man, not for ever so, who was given to lifting hiselbow. Anyhow, we went wrong; and it is a baddish place to go wrong, Ican tell you, is the Mozambique Channel. There was a haze on the waterand a light breeze, and just about eight bells in the morning we wentplump ashore--though none of us thought we were within a hundred milesof land. There was a pretty to-do, as you might fancy; but we had towait until morning to see where we were; then we found, when the mistlifted a bit that we were on a low sandy coast.
"We had no doubt that we should get her off so we got the boats out andthe hatches off, and began to get up the cargo. We worked hard all day,and thought we had got pretty well enough out of her, and were justgoing to knock off work and carry out a couple of anchors and cablesastern to try and heave her off, when there was a yell, and two or threehundred black fellows came dashing down on us with spears. They crept upso close before they showed, that we had no time to tumble into theboats before they were upon us. We made the best sort of fight we could,but that wasn't much. We had brought ashore muskets and cutlasses, butthey had been left in the boats, and only a few of us had time to gethold of them before they were upon us. I cut and slashed as well as Icould, but it was not for long; for a spear lodged in my shoulder justat the moment when a big native caught me a clip over the head with aclub, and down I went.
"I fancy I was some time before I got my senses again. When I did Ifound that I was tied hand and foot, and was lying there on the sands,with three or four of our fellows in the same plight as myself. They allbelonged to the jolly-boat in which I had come ashore. The other boathad made a shift to push off with some of its hands and get back to theship; but I did not know that until afterwards, for I was lying downbehind a hillock of sand and could not get a view of the sea. There werelots of natives about, and they seemed mighty excited. I could hear adropping fire of muskets, and guessed that those on board were keepingup a fire on any who so showed themselves on the beach. The natives gotmore and more excited, and kept jabbering together and pointing awayalong the coast; and I guessed that some of their own craft were comingto attack the ship.
"Presently I heard one of the guns, then another and another. The shotdidn't come whistling our way, so I had no doubt that the ship wasattacked. For a quarter of an hour the firing went on--cannon andmusketry. I could hear the yells of the natives and the shouts of ourmen, though I could see nothing. The natives round me were pretty nearout of their minds with excitement; then they began to dance and yell,and all at once the firing ceased, and I knew that the niggers had takenthe ship. I was afraid it would come to that; for you see they had lostpretty well a third of their crew in the fight on shore, and the niggerswould never have ventured to attack if they had not been ten to oneagainst them.
"We lay there all that night, and I believe I should have died of thirstif a nigger wench had not taken compassion on us and given us a drink.The next morning our ropes were undone. Our first look when we got upwas naturally towards the ship. There she lay, with a dozen native craftround her. Her decks were black with niggers, and they were hard at workstripping her. No one paid much attention to us, for there was nowherewe could run to; and we sat down together and talked over our chances.We saw nothing of our shipmates; and whether they were all killed, orwhether some of them were put aboard the native craft, I never knew.They were some days unloading and stripping the ship, and they had bigquarrels over the division of the spoil. I think the fellows with boatsdid our natives out of their share, beyond what fell into their handswhen they first attacked us. However, at last it was all done; then twochiefs came and had a look at us, and one took me and Tom Longstaff,and another took the other two.
"We had not done badly for eating while we were on shore, for there wasseveral barrels of pork and biscuits among the lot we had landed, and wewere free to take as much as we wanted. The other bales and boxes wereall broken open and the contents made up into packets, and Tom and I andabout sixty niggers, each with as much as he could stagger under,started away from the shore. It wasn't a long march, for their villagelay only about six miles away. We knew it could not be far, because thewomen and children had come down to the beach two or three hours afterthe fight was over. We stopped here about a month, and then one morningthe chief and four of his men started off with Tom and me. We made threedays' marches, such marches as I never want to do again. Tom and I didour best to keep up; but the last day we were quite worn out, and if ithadn't been that they thumped us with their spears and prodded us up, weshould never have done it.
"The place we got to was a deal bigger than the first village. We wereleft outside the biggest hut with the four fellows to guard us, whilethe chief went inside. Presently he came out again with a chap quitedifferent to himself. He was brown instead of being black, and dressedquite different; and having been trading up in the Persian Gulf I knewhim to be an Arab. He looked us over as if we had been bullocks heintended to buy, and then went into the hut again. A few minutes laterour chief came out and made signs to us that we belonged to the Arabnow, and then went away with his men, and we never saw him again. We hadan easy time of it for the next week, and then the Arab started with anumber of carriers laden with goods for the interior.
"You would scarcely believe, lads, what we went through on that 'erejourney. Many a time Tom and I made up our minds to bolt for it; and wewould have done it if we had had the least idea which way to go or howwe were to keep alive on the journey. We had agreed when we started thatwe would do our best, and that we would not put up with any flogging. Wedidn't much care whether they killed us or not, for we would just asleave have died as passed our lives in that country with all its beastlyways. Well, a couple of days after we had started, a big nigger driverwho had been laying on his stick freely on the backs of the slaves camealong, and let Tom and me have one apiece. Tom, who was nearest to him,chucked down his load and went right at him, and knocked him over like aninepin.
"Well, some of the other drivers or guards, or whatever they call them,ran up, and there was a tidy skrimage, I can tell you. It was tenminutes, I should say, before they got the best of us; and there was notone among them but was badly damaged about the figure-head. When theyhad got us down they laid it on to rights, and I believe they would havefinished us if the Arab had not come up and stopped it.
"'Look here,' said I, when I was able to get up on to my feet again; 'weare ready to work just as far as men can work, but if one of thoseniggers lays a finger on us we will do for him. You may cut us in piecesafterwards, but we will do for him.'
"I don't know whether the Arab understood just what I said, but I thinkhe got the gist of it. He spoke sharp to his men, and they never touchedus afterwards. I could not quite make out what they were taking us for,because I can say honestly we were not much good at carrying--not halfas good as one of the slaves. The first day or two we carried a goodmanful load. Then our shoes went to pieces, and we got that footsore andbad we could scarcely crawl along, let alone carrying loads. Tom said hethought that the Arab was a-taking us to sell as curios to some fellowwho had never seen white men before, and it turned out as he was right.After we had been travelling for nigh a month we came to a big village;and there was great excitement over our coming, and for two days therewere feastings, while the Arab sold part of his goods to the people forgold dust and ivory.
"The chief had come to look at us the day we arrived, and we
had beenpacked away together in a little hut. The third day he came again withthe Arab, and made signs that I was his property now, while the Arabtold Tom to go out and start with his caravan. It was a big wrench forus, but it were no good struggling against what was to be. So we shookhands and parted on it quietly, and what became of Tom I have neverheard from that day to this; but like enough he is dead years ago.
"Well, it would be too long a story to tell you all that happened in thenine months I stopped in that village. The chief was very proud of me,and used to show me off to his visitors. I had not such a very bad timeof it. I used to make myself as useful as I could. I had been a handysort of chap, and fond of carpentry, and I made a shift with what nativetools I could get to turn out tables and chairs, and cupboards, and suchlike. All this time I was wondering how I was ever to get back again. Iused to share a hut with another slave who had been captured in war.They generally sell them to the Arab slave-dealers to take down to thecoast, but this man was the son of a chief who had gone to war with thefellow who owned me, and had been killed; and he kept this chap as hisslave as a sort of brag, I think.
"We got on very well together, and of course by the time we had beenthere six months I got to talk their lingo, and we agreed at last thatwe would try to make a bolt of it together. So one night--when ithappened that there was a great feast in the village--we slipped away assoon as it got dark, and made south, our object being to strike one ofthe Portuguese stations. We armed ourselves with bows and arrows, andspears; and as many yams as we could carry. It would make a book, lads,if I was to tell you all we went through before we got there. Wetravelled chiefly by nights; sometimes killing a deer, sometimes gettinga few yams or heads of corn from the fields of the villages we passed.We had one or two skrimages, but fortunately never ran against anystrong bodies of natives. By myself I should have died before I had beengone a fortnight but Mwango was up to every dodge. He knew what rootswere good to eat, and what fruit and berries were safe. He could stealup to a herd of deer without frightening them, and was a first-rate handin making pitfalls for game.
"I didn't keep no account of time, but it was somewhere about six weeksafter we had started when we came down on the banks of a biggish river.We followed it down until, two or three days later, we came on avillage. There we stole a canoe, and paddling at night and lying up inthe day, we came after about a week to a Portuguese post. There we werekindly received, and stopped for a month; and then I went down the riverwith some traders to the coast, while Mwango took service with thePortuguese. Six weeks later I was lucky enough to get a ship bound forthe Cape, and there shifted into another for England. So that, younggentlemen, was the second time as I was off the books of Godstone &Son."
"Thank you very much, Joe. Some day you must give us some more yarnsabout it, and tell us something of your life in the village and yourjourney."
"I will think it over, Master Jim. It is a long time ago now, for I wasnot above six-and-twenty when it happened. But I will think it over, andsee if I can call back something worth telling."
From that time onwards the boys had no reason to complain of dulness.
If the old man's memory ever played him false, his imagination neverfailed him. Story followed story in almost unbroken sequence, so thatbetween old Joe's yarns and the ordinary duties of sea life the timepassed swiftly and pleasantly. After rounding the Cape they had a spellof fine weather, until one morning when Jack came on deck he saw landaway on the port beam.
"There is Ceylon," Jim Tucker said.
"I should like to land and have a day's ramble on shore there, Jim.There would be something to see there with all that rich vegetation. Avery different thing from the sands of Egypt!"
"Yes, and all sorts of adventures, Jack. There are snakes and elephantsand all sorts of things."
"I certainly should not care to meet snakes, Jim, and I don't know thatI should like wild elephants. Still, I should like a ramble on shore. Isuppose there is no chance of our getting nearer to the land."
"Not a bit, Jack. I heard Mr. Hoare tell Arthur that it was very seldomwe passed within sight of the island at all. Sailors are not fond ofland except when they are actually going to make a port. The furtherthey keep away from it the better they are pleased."
"Such splendid weather as this I should have thought it would have madeno difference," Jack said. "I should be glad if we were going to coastup the whole way. Why, we have had nothing but a gentle regular windever since that storm off the Cape."
"Yes, but it may not last all the way, Jack," Mr. Timmins, as he walkedpast and overheard the lad's words, said. "There is no place in theworld where they have more furious cyclones than in the Bay of Bengal.Happily they don't come very often. Perhaps there is only one reallyvery bad one in four or five years; but when there is one thedestruction is awful. Islands are submerged, and sometimes, hundreds ofsquare miles of low country flooded, the villages washed away, and afrightful loss of life. I have been in one or two sharp blows up thebay, but never in a cyclone; though I have been in one in the ChinaSeas. That was bad enough in all conscience."
The wind fell lighter as they made their way up the coast. They keptwell out from the land, and had not sighted it since leaving Ceylon. Solight were the winds that it was some days before Mr. Timmins told themthat they were now abreast of Madras.
"How much longer shall we be before we are at the mouth of the Hoogley,sir?"
"It depends upon the wind, lad. With a strong breeze aft we shall bethere in three or four days. If we have calms we may be as many weeks."
Another week of light baffling winds, and then the breeze died awayaltogether and there was a dead calm. The sun poured down with greatforce, but the sky was less blue and clear than usual. At night it wasstiflingly hot, and the next morning the sun again rose over a sea assmooth as a sheet of glass.
"I wonder what the captain and the two mates are talking about soseriously," Jack said as the three lads leant against the bulwarks inthe shadow of the mainsail.
"I expect they are wondering whether the pitch won't melt off herbottom," Jim Tucker said with a laugh; "or what will happen if all thecrew are baked alive. I am sure it is pretty well as hot as an oven."
"The sky looks rather a queer colour," Jack said, looking up. "You canhardly call it blue at all."
"No, it is more like a dull gray than blue," Arthur Hill said. "Hallo!What is up, I wonder?"
The captain had disappeared in his cabin, and on coming out had said afew words to Mr. Timmins, who at once went to the edge of thequarter-deck and shouted "all hands to shorten sail." The vessel wasunder a cloud of canvas, for every sail that could draw had been setupon her to make the most of the light puffs of wind. Some of the youngseamen looked as if they could hardly believe their ears at the order;but Jack heard one of the older sailors say to a mate as they ran up theratlines, "What did I tell you half an hour since, Bob: that like enoughwe should have scarce a rag on her by sunset."
The lads sprang up the ratlines with the men, for they took their shareof duty aloft. Arthur's place was in the mizzen, Jim's in the main, andJack's in the fore-top. The stunsails were first got in, then the royalsand topgallant-sails. The men were working well, but the captain's voicecame up loud from the quarter-deck, "Work steady, lads, but work all youcan! Every minute is of consequence!"
Jack looked round the horizon, but could see nothing to account for thisurgency. The sun was nearly overhead--a ball of glowing fire, and yet,Jack thought, less bright than usual, for he could look at it steadily,and its circle was clear and well defined. From that point right awaydown to the horizon the dull heavy-looking sky stretched away unbrokenby a single cloud.
As soon as the topgallant-sails were furled the upper spars were sentdown, then the courses were clewed up and two of her jibs taken off her."Close reef the topsails!" was the next order, and when this was done,and the men after more than an hour's work descended to the decksdrenched with perspiration, the ship was under the easiest possiblecanvas--nothing
but the three closely-reefed topsails, thefore-staysail, and a small jib. Mr. Hoare and the third mate had beenaloft with the men, and as soon as all were on deck the work of coilingaway ropes, ranging the light spars, and tidying up began.