CHAPTER TEN.
WILLIAM EVANS CONTINUES HIS YARN.
"We were now about two days' sail from the island of Porto Rico, and wehad discovered from the ship's papers that it was from the Port of SanJuan in that island that she had recently sailed.
"The name of the craft was the _Villa de Vera Cruz_, and our plan was tore-christen her, alter her rig and general appearance, and sail boldlyinto the Port of San Juan, hoping to be taken for some vessel justarrived from Spain or elsewhere. Then, if unmolested, we should examinethe harbour; and, if it were found to contain any vessel suitable forour purpose, the plan was that we were to wait for nightfall, and thenboard the other vessel by means of the boats, capture her, and sail outof the harbour again before daylight with both vessels. And when oncewell out of sight of land, and reasonably safe from pursuit, all thesurvivors of her crew, if any, were to be killed and flung overboard.All stores, cargo, and guns were to be transferred to the new capture,and our present craft sunk--as we had done with the galley.
"It had become a saying with us that `dead men tell no tales'; so it wasagreed to kill every soul we captured, taking care that none escaped us.We should thus--so we believed--keep our movements secret for someconsiderable period at any rate. For--it is useless for me to attemptto disguise the fact--we had not been in possession of our prizetwenty-four hours ere we had agreed to start piracy in earnest, preyingon all nations, and selecting some nook where we could hide whattreasure we captured.
"Well, we duly arrived in the roads of San Juan, and anchored well outof gunshot from the forts, seemingly without exciting any suspicionwhatever. We carefully examined the roadstead, and there, sure enough,was just the craft for our purpose; but she was lying right under theguns of the fort. She was a pretty vessel: schooner-rigged, very low inthe water, and--as we found out when we took her--of very deep draught;broad in the beam, and `flush-decked' fore and aft, with no raised foreor after castles. We could see, by her open ports, that she carriedtwelve guns of a side--nine-pounders they were,--with a long gun forwardof her foremast that threw a thirty-two pound shot. She was thereforequite heavily armed enough for our purpose, and there would be no needto transfer our old guns to her when she was captured; and we shouldthus be saved a great deal of labour. Her masts were very long andtapering, with a big rake aft, and from a distance the vessel lookedovermasted; but when one got on board her one saw that her great widthof beam gave her the stiffness necessary to carry such lofty masts withtheir corresponding spread of sail. In short, she was just what wewanted, and, indeed, we could not have had a ship better suited to ourpurpose even though we had built her ourselves. Needless to say, wedetermined to cut her out from under the guns of the fort, and captureher, at any risk, that very night. During the day we got up our arms,loaded our pistols, sharpened up our swords and cutlasses, and got allready for the night attack. We were in a fever of impatience to try ourluck, and could hardly bring ourselves to wait until dark, still lessuntil midnight, which we decided was the earliest hour at which we couldmake an attempt. So great was our excitement and impatience that westrove to allay them by drinking raw spirits continually; and by nightwe were mad with drink, the only effect of which was to turn us into agang of demons who would stop at nothing. It was perhaps due to thedrink--though we did not know it--that we actually took the vessel afterall; for we encountered a most stubborn resistance; and had there beenany people in the fort, they would certainly have opened fire upon us,and we should have been killed to a man. Luckily, as it happened, forus, there was a carnival in progress in the town that night, and nearlyevery man in the place was attending it. Those who had not got leavedeserted, and went all the same, even to the last sentry; so that whenwe made our attack there was not a solitary soldier in the fort.
"At length the hour came; we got our boats over noiselessly, and pulledaway toward the schooner. It was dark as the inside of a wolf's mouth,and there was but little phosphorescence in the water. We pulled withmuffled oars, and were nearly alongside her, when someone on board musthave caught a glimpse of the faint flash as our oars dipped, for weheard a voice giving the alarm on board in Spanish. Seemingly they didnot want us to know that they were on the alert, and reckoned on givingus the surprise we intended for them; but we had caught the low words ofwarning, and knew that they were ready for us. We laid our boatsalongside one another, and held a whispered council, as a result ofwhich we very slowly and cautiously pulled round to the farther side ofthe vessel, and boarded her silently there, falling upon the Spaniardsin the rear. This was the saving of us, for they had lined the bulwarkson the other side, and had we attempted to board on that side we shouldnever have been successful.
"The fight was fierce and grim, and, strangely enough, silent; there wasnot a cry, save the groans and moans of the wounded and dying. Westruggled and fought in silence, and in the dark it was difficult totell friend from foe. At length, to make my long story a littleshorter, we drove them below, and, cutting the vessel's cable, made sailfor the open sea. We had agreed to show a red light to our own vessel,as a signal for her to slip out also, if we were successful; so welooked round for a red lantern, and presently found one. The signal wasmade, and immediately answered by three flashes of a white light fromour old ship, as decided upon before leaving her. Both craft were soonunder way for the open sea, and kept each other in view by the light ofthe stars; and at daybreak we could only just see the land. We kept on,however, until mid-day, to make ourselves doubly safe, by which time wehad run the land out of sight; when both craft were hove-to. Then thecrew of the prize were brought up on deck; and as we were, after ourrecent rights, very short-handed, we gave them the choice of joining usor of walking the plank. They were, for the most part, a rascally lotof men, and did not need the persuasion of `the plank' to join us;indeed they seemed glad to have the opportunity. By this means wereplenished our crew, and our total number now exceeded by forty-ninethat which we were before taking the galley. We had, therefore, a crewof two hundred and twenty-five men, which was a big crew for so small aship. But then, as Leirya said, we had to provide against casualties.Seventeen men walked the plank, rather than join us, and after that wemade the necessary transfer of stores and other material, and sank ourold vessel. We were now ready and well equipped for our piraticalundertaking, and we started at once on our nefarious career.
"I cannot recount to you all that took place, for many long years havepassed since I first threw in my lot with that scoundrel, Jose Leirya;but we took countless ships, and accumulated a vast amount of treasure,the most part of which is buried in a certain spot. I know the baywhere the hiding-place is; but exactly where the `cache' itself is Iknow not. Of that, however, a little later on. To shorten my story--ofwhich I expect you are now heartily tired--I will pass over my life andexperiences during the years that I have been with the pirate, untilabout six months ago. But I must tell you first that, what with fights,disease, punishment by death, accident, and so on, our crew graduallychanged until I and two others, with Jose Leirya himself, were the onlysurvivors of the original galley-slaves. The other men hated me, andfor some time had been putting about false reports of me, and othermatters to my great harm, until at length Leirya said he would get ridof me. The men clamoured for my death, for I had often sent others ofthem to their death; but Jose refused to kill me, as I had been so longwith him. He promised to maroon me, however, and the scoundrels had tobe satisfied with that promise. They made many attempts, however, tomurder me, but I escaped them all.
"We did not sight an island for some time, and now, every day, I broodedover the wrong Jose had done me in listening to the lies of others, andacceding to their demands, and I determined to have my revenge on him.He had always trusted me, and did so still, and I had a key that fittedthe lock of his cabin. One day we sighted a ship; and, as it fell calm,the boats were ordered out to pull to her and capture her. Nearly allhands went, including Leirya himself, but I remained behind to help lookafter
the schooner. While they were away, I went into the captain'scabin, and, finding his keys in the pocket of a jacket of his that hungthere, I opened his private drawer and took out all the papers that werethere, putting back blank ones of similar appearance to those that I hadstolen, relocked the drawer, and replaced the key. I then hid thepapers in my own chest, which I was certain Jose would allow me to take.I will tell you why I stole those papers. It was because I thought Ishould find the key to his hidden treasure among them; and I was notmistaken. I found it, or what I believe to be it, but it was in cipher;and I have spent nearly all my time since I have been on the island intrying to translate it, but have not been able to do so. I know,however, whereabout the bay is in which the hiding-place is situated.It is at the east end of the island of Cuba, in latitude 20 degreesnorth, longitude 75 degrees west.
"I have those papers still; and before I die I will give them to you,Master Trevose. They may be useful to you; and if you can translate thecipher, why, there are millions there for you, unless, indeed, JoseLeirya removes them before you can get there. Well, sirs, Jose did notdiscover the loss by the time that we fell in with this sand-bank, and,according to his promise to the crew, I was marooned here; but he gaveme a musket, with powder and ball, and enough provision to keep me for ayear. The men who went in the boat to put me ashore were, however, mymost deadly enemies; and before we reached the shore, and when they werefar enough away from the vessel not to be seen, they dropped musket andall overboard, leaving me only a very little provision, saying that theydid not wish me to die too soon. Then, after landing me, they returned,the ship disappeared, and I have seen no sail but yours since they leftme here two months ago. That, gentlemen, is my story. To help you huntdown that bloody pirate, however, I will tell you that he intendedsailing up through the bays of Honduras and Guatemala, and through theYucatan channel into the Gulf of Mexico, to cruise there for merchantmensailing to and from Vera Cruz and the other ports. And it is there thatyou will find him, sirs. Chase him; run him down; take him, at allcosts, and hang him and his crew from his own yard-arm, and burn hisship; so shall you exterminate one of the most cruel, ferocious,bloodthirsty devils who ever sailed the sea, and avenge me, sirs. For Ishall soon die; the hardship and exposure that I have suffered here havekilled me! But now that I have told you my story, I can diecomfortably, for I have only lived to impart my information to someoneelse, and so help them to hunt that man down. But see, the dawn isbreaking!"
The other three had been so intensely interested in the outcast's talethat the time had passed unnoticed, and the first streaks of dawn wereindeed in the sky. Moreover, the wind had dropped, the rain had ceased,and the sea was going down. The unfortunate ex-pirate seemed exhaustedby the long recital of his experiences, and looked very weak. Presentlyhe laid himself down on the sand under his shelter, and fell fast asleepthrough sheer fatigue. The others went outside and took a survey of thebeach, and were lucky enough to be able to collect quite a respectablequantity of wreckage, together with several casks of provisions. Andthey could see several more being gradually washed in, so they were inno danger of starvation, at all events for the present. They at oncebegan to roll up the casks to the shelter, promising themselves a goodmeal before beginning the work of collecting all on which they could laytheir hands. They resolved to collect all that they could, for it wasimpossible to be sure as to when the three vessels of Cavendish's fleetwould return; they knew that there were too many vicissitudes in asailor's life to permit of their absolutely depending upon anything, andthey therefore resolved to make every possible provision for a lengthystay where they were, should such prove to be necessary. That Cavendishwould never abandon them they knew, but it was easy to think of a dozencircumstances or accidents to defer his search for them indefinitely.
Roger and the two seamen rolled up a few of the casks to the door of thelittle shelter, and, all feeling very hungry, they determined to broachone of them, as they judged from their appearance that they wereprovision-casks. They first glanced at the marooned man, to see if hehad yet awakened from the slumber into which he had so suddenly fallen,but he was lying in his former position, breathing very heavily, and hehad evidently not moved since they left him. Roger remarked to the twoseamen: "I fear that poor fellow will not live much longer; he says heis exhausted by exposure and privation, and, looking at him, I caneasily believe it. I hope he will live long enough to be taken on boardthe ships, and so be able to tell his story in his own words to thecaptain; but unless the squadron appear very soon it will be too late,for I am afraid a few days will see the last of him!" Then, as thereseemed no fear of rousing him, they went into the shelter to look forthemselves and see how much provision he had left. They found itwithout difficulty. There was only about three pounds of ships'-biscuitleft, and two or three strips of dried meat. This was absolutely allthe food that was left, and had it not been for the wreck, and the casksof provisions being washed ashore, their position would have been veryserious indeed. Jake Irwin had been searching for some cooking utensil,or some article which could be used as such, and presently appeared withan iron three-legged pot, which was the only thing in the smallestablishment that would serve their purpose. Meanwhile Roger andWalter Bevan had secured the ex-pirate's only axe, and were busilyengaged in removing the head of one of the casks which they had rolledup opposite to the little shelter. The top presently came away, andthey saw, disclosed before their longing and hungry eyes, not theprovisions they so much needed, but a hard and rocky mass of cakedgunpowder, made useless and solid by the action of the sea-water thathad penetrated through the crevices of the cask.
"God help us!" exclaimed Roger. "If all these casks hold nothing butpowder, we shall slowly starve to death. I hoped they would all beprovision-casks; I never thought they would contain aught else!"
"Never despair, Master Trevose," replied Bevan, "they may not be all thesame. Let us try another cask. We may have better luck this time."
Disheartened and anxious, they set to work, desperate with hunger, andbeat in the head of the next cask with savage blows. And, oh joy! inthis cask they at length found the much-needed food in the form of saltpork, with which the barrel was filled.
"Hurrah," shouted Roger, "we are saved after all!"
They took out two large pieces. Jake Irwin filled the pot with waterfrom the spring, and, having soon made a fire, they set the meat on toboil. The savoury odour of the cooking meat soon met their nostrils andencouraged them to fresh efforts on the other casks. Strangely enough,though the first cask opened was filled with spoilt gunpowder, all therest of the barrels had good wholesome provisions in them. The secondbarrel opened was found to contain ships'-biscuit, the third and fourthsalt pork; the fifth had beef in it, and in one or two more casks theyfound further food, sufficient in all to last them for some monthswithout going on short rations. It was not long ere the meat wassufficiently cooked to satisfy them, and they went in to call Evans andacquaint him with the fact that he could now have a good wholesome meal.They aroused him with great difficulty, and he seemed to be weaker thanever. He revived somewhat under the stimulating influence of the hotfood, and told them that if only he had had such food a little earlierit would have saved his life.
Their meal finished, they got up a few more casks which had meanwhilecome ashore, and gathered more wreckage, piling all their materialrecovered from the sea in a place of safety well above high-water mark.Having at length collected everything in sight on the beach, the nextthing they set themselves to do was to find a suitable spot and erect,with the wreckage that they had found, a hut large enough to contain theentire party with comfort. But first, as Roger very rightly observed,it was necessary and prudent to build a fire the smoke of which could beseen out at sea, and which might serve as a guide to Cavendish in hissearch for the sand-bank should he happen to be looking for it. Theirplan was to feed the fire with damp wood and sea-weed during the day, toproduce a thick smoke that could be seen at a long distance
out at sea,and to put on dry wood at night to make a bright blaze which could alsobe seen a long way off. This was soon done, and a site was thenselected for the projected hut. Among the palm-trees on the summit ofthe bank were three trees so placed as to form the points of a fairlyspacious triangle. Roger selected these, intending to nail or otherwisesecure planks to their trunks, making a three-sided enclosure; leavingspace, of course, in one of the sides for a door. A roof they believedthey could dispense with, as the trees were not very high, and the tuftsof leaves at their summits were so thick, and grew so close together,that it seemed very doubtful whether even the furious rain of thetropics would be able to penetrate them. They found a number of nailsin the planks and timbers which they had collected, and these servedtheir purpose. Roger, Jake Irwin, and Walter Bevan worked rightmanfully at the job of erecting the new hut, and in a few hours it wasfinished. Evans, poor fellow, was far too weak to take a hand in any ofthe operations, and lay in his shelter almost unable to move. When thenew hut was finished, the builders found the man too far gone to walk,so they brought some planks and put him on them, carrying him up in thatway. He was laid gently down and made as comfortable as possible underthe circumstances. A pannikin of water was left with him, and some coldprovisions placed near him in case he should feel hungry. The othersthen went away to seek further wreckage and casks, but they found nomore. Then they decided to make another shelter wherein to protecttheir provisions. It was thought advisable to construct this place nearthe new hut; so the old shelter--such as it was--was taken down andreplaced close behind their new structure, and the casks, barrels, andother perishable matters were placed therein as being safer, as well aseasier to get at at all times. They were now fairly settled down intheir new domain; they had shelter, and plenty of food to last for somemonths, even on full rations. There was water in abundance to be hadfrom the spring, and altogether their lot was far and away moresatisfactory and endurable than that of the poor marooned pirate hadbeen. Besides, there were now four of them, and they had the advantageand comfort of each other's company, while Evans had been entirely alonewith only his own miserable thoughts for companions until Roger and histwo seamen made their welcome appearance on the sand-bank. It occurredto Roger that it would be a very good thing to have a flag andflag-staff, because their fuel would not last for ever, and with itwould go their only means of signalling to passing ships; so severalnarrow pieces of wood were nailed together, and the two seamen, both ofwhom were wearing red shirts, sacrificed those garments in the interestsof the community. The lad then split them both down one side, toincrease the area of his improvised ensign, and tied the arms togetherto increase the length. This "flag" was then nailed to the makeshiftflag-staff, and Roger and Jake Irwin swarmed up a palm-tree--one of thethree composing the posts for the support of the walls of their hut,while Walter Bevan passed up the flag and staff to them from below.Then Roger, with his sword, which he had carried up naked between histeeth, cut away part of the foliage, and the staff was pushed up throughthe hole thus made, the lower portion being secured to the top of thetrunk of the palm-tree. Both men then scrambled down to the groundagain and looked up at their handiwork. There it fluttered, far abovethe tufted crowns of the palm-grove, a large red flag at the top of itslengthy staff, some eighty feet above the ground, and visible, as theyjudged, at a distance of at least ten miles out at sea on a clear day.This, as Roger remarked, gave them an extra chance of being recovered bythe fleet, as the flag would be seen at almost as great a distance asthe smoke from the fire, while the two together ensured their beingsighted by any vessel that approached the island within ten miles.
Satisfied at last with their work, and seeing that there was nothingfurther for them to do at the moment, Roger determined to make a tour oftheir little domain; so, leaving Jake Irwin to attend to the sick manEvans, Roger and Walter Bevan set off. Starting from a point on thebeach opposite the hut, they began their walk, going towards the easternend of the sand-bank. They found that the shore was everywhere sanduntil they had gone some half a mile and nearly reached the end of theisland, when they came upon a ledge of rocks over which they had toclamber, and which stretched out for quite a long distance into the sea.The two ventured out some few hundred yards along the ridge to seaward,and found that it had deep water on each side of it, the rock seeming torun perpendicularly down to the sandy bottom. The place struck them asbeing an excellent situation for fishing from if only they possessedhooks and lines, for, peering down into the water--which was clear ascrystal,--they saw all manner of many-hued and beautiful fish disportingthemselves below. They gazed admiringly and somewhat longingly at themfor a few minutes, determining to return later and attempt to catchsome, and then resumed their explorations. They had not gone very far,and were walking side by side, when Roger stumbled over an inequality inthe surface of the sand. He passed on, taking no notice of thecircumstance, thinking it to be only a stone or piece of rock covered upby the sand; but Bevan, who had noticed the occurrence, stepped back,and, dropping on his knees, began to clear away the sand with hisfingers, presently revealing to Roger's wondering eyes a number of eggs.
"Whatever are those?" exclaimed the lad, hardly able to believe hissenses. "I suppose they are eggs; they look like eggs; but I have neverbefore heard of eggs being buried in sand."
"These, Master Trevose," responded the man, smiling at Roger'sastonishment, "are turtles' eggs, and they are excellent eating, I canassure you. They will be a grand change of food for us, as will thefish when we can catch them. Moreover, having laid these eggs here, theturtle may very possibly come back to this spot to lay more. We willlook out for her, and if she returns we must turn her over on her backand then go back and fetch Jake, who will help us to carry her to thehut. We need not worry about fresh meat now, Master Trevose. If we cancatch turtle we shall have meat enough to last us for some time."
"I am rejoiced to hear you say so," returned Roger. "But why turn theturtle on her back, should she make her appearance?"
"Well, sir," replied the man, "the way of it is this. By turnin' aturtle over on its back you can always make certain that, if you'reobliged to go away and leave it, you'll find it in the same place whenyou come back; because if a turtle's laid on its back it can't turn overagain by itself, and so is perfectly helpless and unable to move."
There were fourteen eggs in the "nest" in the sand; so Roger took offhis coat, and, tying the arms together, made a sort of bag of it, intowhich he carefully put a few of the eggs. Then, carrying his parcelvery carefully, they resumed their journey. They found no more eggs atthat time, and discovered nothing further of importance, and shortlyafterwards arrived back at the hut, having completed their walk roundthe islet.
Irwin reported that the man Evans had called for water, and had seemedin great pain, but had revived a little after drinking, and was nowagain asleep.
The two explorers deposited their burden of eggs, and told Jake of theirhopes regarding the turtle, arranging to go down again later and watchfor the creature, knowing how important it was to their health to secureas varied a diet as possible. But before setting out again they put afew of the eggs into the hot ashes of the fire and baked them in theirshells. When they thought they would be sufficiently cooked, they tookthem out of the ashes, and roused Evans up with the news that anothermeal was ready for him.