CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
LIFTS THE CURTAIN SLIGHTLY AS TO PIRATICAL DOINGS IN THE NINETEENTHCENTURY.
Silently they glided on, until the shades of evening fell, and thebrilliant stars came out. Silently, for the gun-boat went athalf-speed; silently, for her engines were good and new, and workedsoftly without the jarring of age or mal-construction; silently, becausethose on board were in a tranquil mood, and did not raise their voicesabove a low murmur.
"How romantic," said Aileen, in a low tone, as she sat by the stern-railand watched the gleaming track left by the screw; "how enjoyable, if wecould only forget what has just passed, and the object we have in view.The world is a mystery!"
"Is this the first time you have thought so?" asked Edgar, who leaned onthe rail near her.
"Well, I think it is," she replied, with a sad smile; "at least it isthe first time I have been deeply impressed with the thought."
"It is a very old thought," returned the youth, musingly. "Philosophersfrom the earliest times have recorded it. Thoughtful men and women ofall ages have expressed it. Young people of all generations fancy theyhave discovered it. The Bible is a key which opens up much of it, andmakes it plain; but much still remains in mystery, and I suppose willcontinue so to remain, till Time merges in Eternity."
"Do you think such mystery undesirable?" asked Aileen.
"No. It is desirable, else God would not have left it there. `Shallnot the Judge of all the earth do right?' There is a need be, I doubtnot, for mystery, and there is no need for our being distressed by it,for what we know not now we shall know hereafter. But there is muchcause for anxiety lest we, either through wilful ignorance, orcarelessness, or stupidity, should allow that to remain involved inmystery which is made plain by revelation. The way of salvation was aninsurmountable mystery to me once, but since you gave me that poor man'sTestament, Aileen, it has become very plain and very dear to me, throughJesus Christ."
Aileen thanked God in her heart, and a thrill of gladness filled her,but before she could utter a word in reply, the captain came forward andsaid in a low tone:--
"Stop the engine, Mr Berrington. We'll lie by in this creek tillday-break."
Edgar went below. The vibrating of the boat ceased, and an awfulstillness seemed to sink down upon her as she glided into a little creekor bay, which was deeply shaded by mangrove trees.
But the silence did not last long. It was still three hours fromdaylight, and the captain employed the time in preparations for theaction which he anticipated on the following day. The yards were sentdown; the decks were cleared of all useless incumbrances; the guns weregot ready; and an attempt was made, to some extent, to disguise thevessel, so that, in the event of the pirates being found, the gun-boatmight get as near as possible without her true character beingdiscovered. The men, meanwhile, who were not engaged in such work,busied themselves in sharpening cutlasses and cleaning small arms, whilethey conversed in an undertone. All was activity and order, withoutfuss or needless noise--the result of a man of the right stamp being incommand.
"It's a brush we'll be havin' soon," said Rooney Machowl, with a flashof the eye which told that he inherited a little of his nation's love offighting.
"Looks like it," replied Maxwell, who sat beside his friend in the midstof a group of the Malay crew, rubbing up his cutlass with much interest.
"Does anybody know how many of a crew we have altogether?" asked Rooney.
"I heard the captain say to Mr Berrington," answered Joe Baldwin, whowas busy cleaning a rifle, "that we've got ninety men all told, which isquite enough for a 180-ton vessel. With these and seven guns we shouldbe more than a match for all the pirates of the eastern seas."
"Ho!" exclaimed Ram-stam, looking up from the weapon he was engaged onwith an amused expression, "you know noting of pirits of dem seas. Hi!Hi! Wait."
Ram-stam said this with the air of one who held the decided opinion thatwhen he _had_ waited Joe would have his views enlarged.
"What, are they such bold fellows?"
"Ho yis, vely muchee bold. Ca'es for noting. 'Flaid of noting. Doosa'most anyting--'cept what's good."
"Swate cratures," murmured Rooney; "I hope we'll be introdooced to aichother soon."
As it is desirable that the reader should have a little more extendedknowledge of the miscreants referred to, we will retrace our steps intime a little, and change the scene.
On one of those sweltering mornings in which the eastern seas appear tohave a tendency to boil under the influence of the sun, three piraticaljunks might have been seen approaching a small island which lay on thesea as if on a mirror. They were propelled by oars. The largest ofthese junks was under command of our red-jacketed acquaintance,Pungarin. It was what is termed double-banked, and the oars were pulledby "slaves," that is to say, the crews of trading vessels recentlycaptured.
Pungarin had more slaves than he knew what to do with on that occasion.He had been unusually successful in his captures. All the white mentaken had at once been slaughtered, also all who attempted to give thepirates trouble in any way, including those who chanced to be too weak,ill, or old to work. In regard to the rest, each man was secured to hisplace at the oar by means of a strip of cane, called rattan, fastenedround his neck, and a man was appointed to lash them when they showedsymptoms of flagging. This the unhappy wretches frequently did, for, ason a former occasion to which we have referred, they were made to pullcontinuously without food or water, and occasionally, after droppingtheir oars through exhaustion, it took severe application of the lash,and the discovery of some unusually sensitive spot of the body, to rousesome of them again to the point of labour.
The junks were strange, uncouth vessels, of considerable size, capable,each, of containing a very large crew. They might almost have beenstyled "life-boats," as they had hollow bamboos wrought into theirstructure in a manner which gave them great buoyancy, besides projectingbeyond the hulls and forming a sort of outside platform. On theseplatforms the slaves who rowed were fastened. In each vessel there wereat least forty or fifty rowers.
Pungarin walked up and down his poop-deck as if in meditation, paying noregard to what was going on around him until a feeble cry was heard fromone of the rowers,--a middle-aged and sickly man. The pirate captainlooked carelessly on, while the overseer flogged this man; but the lashfailed to arouse him, and the captain ordered the man to desist--but notin mercy.
"Over with him," he said, curtly, and then resumed his walk.
The slave-driver drew his knife, and cut the rattan that bound the man,who turned his dying eyes on him with an imploring look.
At that moment one of the pirates, who from his dress and bearing seemedto occupy a position of authority, stepped upon the platform and lookedat him. He gave a brief order to one of his comrades, who brought alarge piece of cork and fastened it to the slave's neck. He alsobrought a short spear, with a little flag at its handle. This he thrusta few inches into the fleshy part of his shoulder, and then pushed himoff the platform into the sea. Thus the wretched creature was made tofloat, and, as he went astern, some of the pirates amused themselves byshooting at him with their muskets.
Now, _gentle_ reader, don't shut your eyes and exclaim, "Oh! Toohorrible." It is _very much_ because of that expression of yours, andthe shutting of your "gentle," (we would rather say selfish) eyes thatthese accursed facts exist! Yes, we charge it home on you so-called"soft ones" of the earth, that your action,--namely, shutting youreyes,--does probably as much, if not more, to perpetuate horrible evilas does the action of open godlessness,--that condition which is mostaptly expressed by the world's maxim, "every man for himself and thedevil for us all."
Do not imagine that we presume to invent such things or to exaggeratefor the sake of "sensation." We relate well-authenticated facts. Weentertain strong doubts as to whether devils are, in any degree, worsethan some among the unsaved human race. There is great occasion foryou, reader, whoever you are, to know and ponder such f
acts as we nowrelate. We are too apt to regard as being applicable only to the pastthese words, "the dark places of the earth are full of the habitationsof cruelty." If we were to fill our book with horrors from beginning toend, we should only have scratched the surface of the great and terribletruth. Assuredly now, not less than in days of old, there is urgentneed of red-hot philanthropy.
But we gladly pass from the cruel to the cunning phase of piraticallife. These villains had at that time been about six months on theircruise. They had made the entire circuit of Borneo, murdering, andplundering, and striking terror and desolation wherever they went. Thescenes enacted by Norse pirates in the tenth century were repeated inthe middle of the nineteenth by a people who, _unlike_ the Norsemen, hadno regard whatever for law; and now they were returning home laden withbooty.
The pirate-chiefs usual mode of procedure on such occasions was to go toan unfrequented island in the neighbourhood of Singapore, land all hiswarlike stores and prisoners, and, leaving them under a strong guard,proceed with two of his prows loaded to the gunwale with merchandise, tothe port. The merchant-boats which he had previously sunk, and whosecrews he had murdered, provided him with "port-clearances," whichenabled him to personate the trader and regularly enter and clear thecustoms at Singapore, so as to cause no suspicion; then, returning tohis place of rendezvous with a fresh supply of guns, ammunition,etcetera, he divided his ill-gotten gains and recommenced his piraticalexpeditions.
On the present occasion, however, Pungarin had received intelligencewhich induced him to modify his plans. Hearing that a gun-boat was inpursuit of him, he determined to change his rendezvous for the time.
The weary slaves were therefore again set to work at the oars; but "kindNature" took pity on them. A breeze sprang up and increased into agale, under the influence of which the prows sped out to sea and soonleft the islands far behind them.
It was while thus attempting to evade their enemy that the pirates hadthe misfortune to run at last into the very jaws of the lion.