diff options
Diffstat (limited to '37327.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 37327.txt | 4461 |
1 files changed, 4461 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/37327.txt b/37327.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..daea145 --- /dev/null +++ b/37327.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4461 @@ +Project Gutenberg's O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas, by Gordon Stables + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas + +Author: Gordon Stables + +Release Date: September 6, 2011 [EBook #37327] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK O'ER MANY LANDS, ON MANY SEAS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas +By Gordon Stables +Published by Cassell and Company Limited, London, Paris, New York. +This edition dated 1884. + +O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas, by Gordon Stables. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +O'ER MANY LANDS, ON MANY SEAS, BY GORDON STABLES. + +CHAPTER ONE. + + "And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy + Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be + Borne, like thy bubbles, onward; from a boy + I wantoned with thy breakers--they to me + Were a delight... + For I was, as it were, a child of thee." + + Byron. + +Not a breath of wind from any direction. Not a cloud in the sky, not a +ripple on the ocean's blue. Only when a bird alighted on the water, +quisling rings of silver formed all around it, and widened and widened, +but soon were lost to view. Or when a fish leaped up, or the dorsal fin +of some monster shark appeared above the surface, the sea about it +trembled for a time, trembled and sparkled as if a shower of diamonds +had suddenly fallen there. + +And a broad low swell came rolling in from the Indian Ocean, as if the +bosom of the sea were moving in its sleep. But landwards, had you +looked, you might have seen it break in a long fringe of snowy foam on a +beach of yellow sand; and, had you listened, the distant hum and boom of +those breakers would have fallen on your ears in a kind of drowsy +long-drawn monotone. + +The brave ship _Niobe_ [this word is pronounced as if spelt "Ni-o-bee"] +slowly rose and slowly fell, and gently rocked and rolled on this +heaving tide, and sometimes her great sails flapped with the vessel's +motion, but, alas! not with the rising wind. + +No, not with the rising wind, but whenever they moved, the officer who +paced up and down the white-scoured quarter-deck, would glance above as +if in hope; then he would gaze seawards, and anon shorewards, wistfully, +wishfully, uneasily. + +Uneasy, indeed, was the feeling on the minds of all on board. + +The vessel was far too near the shore, the wind had been dead for hours, +but it had died away suddenly, and the glass had gone tumbling down. +That it would come on to blow again, and that before long, everyone from +the captain to the dark-skinned Kroo-boy was well aware. But from what +direction would the wind come? If from the east, strong though the +_Niobe_ was, close to the wind though she could sail, well-officered and +manned though she was, there was more than a probability she would be +dashed to pieces on that sandy beach. + +And small mercy could the survivors, if any, expect from the savage +Somali Indians, and the still more cruel Arabs, who dwelt in the +wretched little towns and villages on the coast. For the ship was here +in the Indian Ocean for the avowed purpose of putting down slavery and +piracy, and by slavery and piracy those Arabs lived. + +It was in the days before steam-power was generally adopted by our navy, +when sailors were sailors in reality, and not merely in name. + +The crew of the _Niobe_ numbered about seventy, all told fore--and--aft. +She carried ten good guns, and an unlimited supply of small arms, +cutlasses, and boarding pikes. The timbers of this brave craft were of +the toughest teak, ay, and her men were hearts of oak. They feared +nothing, they hated nothing, save uncertainty and inaction. All that +they longed for was to be accomplishing the object of their cruise. + +Had you been on board the _Niobe_ when the wind was blowing half a gale, +and the ship ripping through the waves with, maybe, green seas hitting +her awful thuds at times, and the foam dashing high over the main or +fore-tops, you would have found the men as merry and jolly as boys at +cricket. Had you been on board when the battle raged, and the cannon +roared, and balls crashed through her sides or rigging, when splinters +flew and men dropped bleeding to the deck, you would have found nought +save courage and daring in every eye, and calmness in every hand. + +But to-day, at the time our story opens, there was neither laughing, +joking, nor singing to be heard. The men clustered quietly about bows +or fo'c'sle, or leaned lazily over the bulwarks watching the vessel +roll--for at one moment she would heel over till the cool clear water +could be touched with the hand, and the next she would raise her head or +side until a yard at least of her copper sheathing shone in the sunlight +like burnished gold. + +There was no sound to break the stillness save the far-off boom of the +breakers; so quiet was it that the sound of even a rope's-end thrown on +deck grated harshly on the ear, and a whisper could be heard from one +end of the ship to the other. + +"Bill," said one sailor to another, biting off the end of a chunk of +nigger-head tobacco, "I don't half like this state of affairs." + +"And I don't like it either, Jack," was the reply, "but I suppose we +must put up with it." + +"Do ye think it would be any good to whistle for the wind, Bill?" + +"Whistle for your grandmother," replied Bill, derisively. + +"Bill," persisted Jack, "they do tell me--older men, I mean, tell me-- +that whistling for the wind is sure to bring it." + +"Ay, lad, if you whistle long enough. Look here, Jack, don't be a +superstitious donkey. I've seen five hands at one time whistling for +the wind; but, Jack, they nearly whistled the whites o' their eyes out." + +"And the wind didn't come?" + +"Never a breath. Never a puff." + +"Hand in sail!" This was an order from the quarter-deck. + +"Ay, ay, sir." This was an answer from for'ard. + +"Thank goodness," cried Jack and Bill both. "Better something than +nothing." + +There was plenty of bustle and stir and din now, for a time at least, +and bawling of orders, and shrill shriek of boatswain's pipe. But when +all was done that could be done, silence once more settled down on the +ship--lethargy claimed her again as its own. + +"I think, sir," said the boatswain, touching his cap to the officer on +watch, "I think, and I likewise hope, the wind'll come off the land when +it does come, sir. Anyhow, if it doesn't commence to blow for the next +ten hours we'll get away into the open sea." + +"You're an old sailor, Mr Roberts, and know this coast better than I +do, so I like to hear you say what you do. Well, sure enough, the sun +will be down in three hours, then we may get a bit of a land breeze. +But the falling glass, Mr Roberts! I don't like the falling glass!" + +"No more do I, sir, and I've seen a tornado in these same waters, and +the glass not much lower than it is now." + +Leaving these two talking on the quarter-deck, let us take a look down +below. + +Within a canvas screen, that formed a kind of a square tent on the main +deck, a cot was swung in which there lay, apparently asleep, the fragile +form of a young woman. A woman, a mother, and still to all appearance +but little more than a girl. + +Presently the screen was gently lifted, and a young soldier, dressed in +the scarlet jacket of a sergeant of the line, glided in, dropped the +screen again, then silently seating himself on a camp stool beside the +cot, he began to smooth the delicate little snow-white hand that lay on +the coverlet. Then her eyelids lifted, and a pair of orbs of sad sweet +blue looked tenderly at the soldier by her side. + +She smiled. + +"Oh, Sandie!" she said, "I've had such a dear delightful dream. I +thought that our darling had grown up into such a beautiful child, and +that you, and he, and I, were back once more, wandering among the bonnie +hills, and over the gowany braes of bonnie Arrandale. I thought that +father had forgiven us, Sandie, and kissed and blessed our boy, and was +laughing to see him stringing gowans into garlands, and hanging them +around the neck of our old and faithful Collie." + +"Cheer up, dear wife," said the young sergeant, kissing her pale brow. +"Oh! if you only knew how much good it does my heart to see you smiling +once again. Yes, dear, and I too have good hopes, brave hopes, that all +will yet be well with us. I was but a poor corporal when you fell in +love with me, Mary; when, despite the wishes of your father, who would +have wedded you to the surly old laird of Trona, and to lifelong misery, +I made you my wife. Your father knew I had come of gentle blood--that +Dunryan belongs by rights to me--but he saw before him only the humble +soldier of fortune; and he cursed me and spurned me. + +"But see, dear, look at these stripes on my arm, behold the medal. I +carry already a sergeant's sword; that sword I hope to wave and wield on +many a field of battle, and with its aid alone, though friendless now, I +mean to earn both fame and glory, ay, and with it win my spurs. Then, +Mary, the day will come when your father will be glad to own me as a +son. + +"But sleep now, dear; remember, the doctor says you are not to move. +Sleep; nay, you must not even talk. See, I have brought my guitar; I +will sit here and sing to you." + +He touched a few chords as he spoke, then sang low, sweet, loving songs +to her, and ere long she was back once more in the land of dreams. + +The sun sank lower and lower in the heavens, and at last leapt like a +fiery ball down behind the waves. A short, very short twilight +succeeded, a twilight of tints, tints of pink, and blue, and yellow. +Sky and ocean seemed to meet and kiss good-night. Then shadows fell, +and the stars shone out in the eastern sky, and twinkled down from +above, and finally glittered even over the distant hills of the western +horizon: then it got darker and darker. + +But no breeze came off the shore, and this was in itself full ominous. + +The captain was now on deck with his first lieutenant. + +"We cannot be very many miles," he said, "off the river." + +"Yes, sir," replied the lieutenant, "I reckon I know what you are +thinking about. If we cannot keep off from the shore in the event of +its coming on to blow, you would try to cross the bar." + +"I would," replied the captain. "It would indeed be a forlorn hope, but +better that than certain destruction." + +"I fear, sir, it would be but a choice of deaths." + +"Better die fighting for life, though," said the captain, "than without +a struggle." + +"Quite true," said the other, "and once over the bar we could get round +the point and shelter would be certain. But that terrible bar, sir!" + +It was far on in the middle watch ere the storm that had been brewing +came on at last. It came from the east, as the captain had feared it +would. Clouds had first risen up and gradually obscured the stars. +Among these clouds the lightning flashed and played incessantly, but for +a long time no thunder was heard. This, at last, began to mutter, then +roll louder and louder, nearer and nearer, then a bank of white was seen +creeping along the sea's surface towards the ship, and almost +immediately after the wind was upon her, she was on her beam ends with +the sea dashing through her rigging, and the storm seeming to hold her +down, but gradually she righted and sprang forward like an arrow from a +bow, and apparently into the very teeth of the wind. + +The ship had been battened down and made ready in every way hours before +the gale began, and well was it for all on board that preparations had +thus been made. + +She was headed as near to the wind as she would sail, but for some time +it seemed impossible for her to keep off the shore. Gradually, however, +the wind veered more to the south, and she made a good offing. But the +storm increased rather than diminished; still the good ship struggled +onwards through darkness and danger. + +The royal masts had been got down early on the previous afternoon so as +to reduce top-hamper to a minimum, but the pitching and rolling were +frightful, yet she made but little water. + +Towards morning, however, fire and wind and waves appeared to combine +together for the destruction of the ship. The gale increased suddenly +to all the fury of a hurricane, the roaring of the wind drowned even the +rattle of the thunder, a ball of fire quivered for a moment over the +fore-top-mast, then rent it into fragments, ran along a stay and +splintered the bulwarks ere it reached the water, while at the same +moment the whole ship was engulphed by a solid sea that swept over her +bows, and carried away almost everything it reached, bulwarks, boats, +and men. + +Then, as if it had done its worst, the gale moderated, the sea became +less furious, the thunder ceased to roll, the lightning to play, and in +half an hour more the grey light of morning spread over the ocean, and +on the eastern horizon a bank of lurid red showed where the sun was +trying to struggle through the clouds. + +With bulwarks ripped away and boats gone, the _Niobe_ looked little +better than a wreck, while, sad to relate, when the roll was called five +men failed to answer. Five men swept away during the darkness and +tempest, five brave hearts for ever stilled, five firesides at home in +merrie England made to mourn for those whom their friends would sadly +miss, but never, never see again! + +But see: the gale begins once more with redoubled fury, and to the +horror of that unhappy ship, the wind goes round to meet the sun. + +"I fear, sir," said the lieutenant to the captain, "that nothing can now +save us. We must die like men." + +"That we will, I trust," replied the captain, "but we will die doing our +duty to the very last. Is there any one on board who knows this coast +well?" + +"The boatswain, sir, Mr Roberts." + +"Send for him." + +"Ay, ay, sir." + +"Mr Roberts, what think you of the outlook?" + +"A very poor one, captain. But I have been looking at the land, sir, +and hazy though it is I find we are right off the bar of Lamoo." + +"Why, then, we must have been driven back many many miles; we were off +Brava last night." + +"I reckon, sir, we made up our leeway at times like, when there was a +bit of a shift of wind, and lost it again when it veered. But our only +chance now is to head for that bar, sir." + +"You've been over it?" + +"I have, sir, many is the time; and I'll try to pilot the good _Niobe_ +over it now." + +"Very well, Mr Roberts, you shall try; if you succeed, you are a made +man, if you fail--" + +"All," said the boatswain, "I knows what failure'll mean, sir." + +Half an hour afterwards, stripped of nearly every inch of canvas save +what sufficed to steer her, with four men at the wheel, and the sturdy +pilot guiding them with hand movements alone--for his voice could not be +heard amid the raging of the storm and awful roar of the breaking +billows that were everywhere around them--the brave _Niobe_ was rushing +stem on through the mountain seas that rolled shorewards over the most +dreaded bar on all the African coast. + +It is impossible to describe the turmoil and strife of the waves when +the vessel was once fairly on the bar; and to add to the terror of the +scene more than once she struck the sandy bottom with a force that made +every timber creak and groan. Next moment she would be swallowed up +apparently in boiling, breaking, swirling water, but rising again on the +crest of a wave, she would shake herself free and rush headlong on once +more. + +But look at her now: she is on the very top of a curling avalanche, and +speeding shorewards with it, her jibboom and bowsprit, and even part of +her bows, hang clear over that awful precipice of water, and if the ship +moves faster than the breaker beneath her then her time is come. + +It is a moment of awful suspense, but it is only a moment, for in +shorter time than pen takes to describe it, the billow seems to sink and +melt beneath her; again she bumps on the sand, but next minute amidst a +chaos of snowy foam she is hurled into the deep water beyond. + +An hour afterwards the _Niobe_ is lying snugly at anchor in a little +wooded bay, with all her sails furled, and nothing to tell of the +dangers she has just come through, save the splintered mast, the ragged +rigging, and sadly-torn bulwarks. + +But the wind goes moaning through the mangrove forest, where birds and +beasts are crouching low for shelter among the gnarled boughs and roots, +and although the water around the _Niobe_ is calm enough, the storm +roars through her upper rigging, and she rocks and rolls as if out at +sea. + +The youthful sergeant is sitting beside the cot within the screen, but +his head is bowed down with grief, and a sorrow such as men feel but +once in a life-time is rending his heart. The little white hand of his +wife still lies on the coverlet, but it is cold now as well as white. +The heart that loved him had ceased to beat-- + + "And closed for aye the sparkling glance + That dwelt on him sae fondly." + +All his bright visions of yesterday have fled away, all his hopes are +crushed, his very soul seems dead within him. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +At the very time the gale was raging its fiercest, and the sea +threatening every minute to engulph the ship, the lady's life had passed +away, and he who sits here pen in hand was left without a mother's care. +Born on the stormy ocean, rocked in infancy on the cradle of the deep, +no wonder he loves the sea, and can look back with pleasure even to the +dangers he has encountered and gone through. + +As the sea on which he was born, so stormy has been the life of him who +tells this tale. + +CHAPTER TWO. + + "Majestic woods of every vigorous green, + Stage above stage, high waving o'er the hills; + Or to the far horizon wide diffused, + A boundless deep immensity of shade." + + Thomson's "Seasons." + + "Hearts of oak!" our captain cried, "when each gun + From its adamantine lips, + Spread a death-shade round the ships, + Like the hurricane eclipse of the sun." + + Campbell. + +There are two events in the history of a man, of which he himself in +writing his autobiography can hardly be expected to give any very clear +account, namely, his birth and his death. To describe the former, he +would require to be born with his eyes very wide open indeed, and +instead of a silver spoon in his mouth, which they tell me some children +are born with, a silver pencil-case behind his ear; to describe the +latter, a man would need to be a prophet in reality. How is it then, it +may be asked, that I, Niobe Radnor, am able with truthfulness and +accuracy to give an account of the occurrences that were taking place +around me when I first made my appearance on "the stage of life." For +the ability to do so, I am indebted to the only father I ever knew, my +true and trusty old friend Captain (formerly boatswain) Ben Roberts, who +supplies me with the facts. + +Yonder he is, sitting out on the rose lawn there, as I write, book in +hand, his white beard glittering in the spring sunshine, and his jolly +old round red face surmounted by an immensity of straw hat--just as if +_his_ complexion _could_ be spoiled, just as if a complexion that has +borne the brunt of a thousand storms, been scathed and scarred in +battle, blistered by many a fierce and scorching summer sun, and +reddened by the snows of many a hard and stormy winter, _could_ be +spoiled. + +Ah! dear old Ben! he is getting old, wearing up towards the threescore +years and ten-- + + "--That form + That short allotted span. + That binds the few and weary years + Of pilgrimage to man." + +Yes, Ben is getting old. As oaks get old, so is my faithful friend +getting old. As oaks in age are hard and tough, and defiant of the +gales that rage through the forest, uprooting mighty trees, so is Ben my +friend; and for all the storms he has weathered, I trust I shall have +him by me yet for years and years to come. Ben is so buoyant and fresh, +it always instils new blood into my veins merely to talk to him. "Ben, +my boy," I often say, "you are, by your own confession, some twenty +years my senior, and yet I believe you feel as young and even younger +than I do." + +"Well, Nie," he replies, "I believe it's the heart that does it, you +know. + + "For old as I am, and old as I seem, + My heart is full of youth. + + "Eye hath not seen, tongue hath not told, + And ear hath not heard it sung, + How buoyant and bold, though it seem to grow old, + Is the heart for ever young. + + "For ever young--though life's old age + Hath every nerve unstrung; + The heart, the heart, is a heritage + That keeps the old man young." + +He always calls me "Nie" for short, "because," he added once, by way of +explanation, "your name is a heathenish kind of one at best, but a +person is bound to make the most of it." + +I cannot deny that Ben is right; my name is a heathenish one. How did I +come by it? I will tell you. I was born, as you know, at sea, in the +Indian Ocean, in the _Niobe_, whilst she was cruising in that region in +the search of slavers--born not long before the appearance of that +terrible gale of wind described in the first chapter of this story, when +the tempest was at its fiercest, and the stormy waves were doing their +worst; born on board a vessel which seemed doomed to certain +destruction. And it is the custom of the service to call a child by the +name of the ship in which he first sees the light of day. + +I never knew a father's love or a mother's tender care, for the gentle +lady who gave me birth lived but a little after that event; but she +bequeathed me all she had--her blessing--and died. In a glade in the +gloomy depths of an African forest my mother is sleeping, in the shade +of a banian tree. I stood by that lonely grave one morning not many +years ago. The ground, I remember, was all chequered with sunshine and +with shade from the tree above; little star-like primulas grew here and +there. Among these and the fallen leaves sea-green lizards were +creeping; high overhead bright-winged birds sang soft lullabies, and +every time the wind moved the boughs a whole shower of sparkling drops +fell down, like tears. + +And my father? He never seemed to rally after my mother's death until +one hour before his own, just a fortnight and a day from that on which +he had followed her to her grave in the forest like one dazed. He did +not appear in his mess-place after this. He took no food, he spoke to +no one, he spent his time mostly within the screen by the empty cot +where my mother had been--in grief. + +About the tenth day he suffered my friend Roberts (the boatswain) to +lead him like a child to the spare cabin where his baby boy was +sleeping; and in a daze he had seen her loved remains laid to rest +beneath the tree. He bent over the grave for a moment, and then for the +first time he burst into tears. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The _Niobe_ remained for ten days where she had cast anchor, in order to +make good repairs. + +It was a very quiet spot in which she lay, a kind of bay or bight, as +the sailors called it, with mangrove trees growing all around it close +down to the water's edge, except at the one side where the great river +stole silently away seaward, its current seeming hardly to affect in any +degree the waters in the bay itself. + +At last all repairs were finished, and the "clang, clang, clang" of the +carpenters' hammers, that had been till now incessant all day long, and +far into the night, was hushed, sails were shaken half loose, and the +_Niobe_ only waited for a breeze to bear her down the river and across +the great and dreaded bar, where, even in the calmest weather, the +breakers rolled and tumbled mountains high. + +But the breeze seemed in no hurry to come. During the day those dull +dreamy woods and forests lay asleep in the sunshine, and stirred not +leaf or twig, and the creatures that dwelt therein were as silent as the +woods around them. Had you landed on that still shore, and wandered +inland through the trees, you would have seen great lizards enjoying +themselves in patches of sunlight, an occasional monkey enjoying a nap +at a tree foot or squatting on a bough blinking at the birds that-- +open-beaked as if gasping for more air--sat among the branches too +languid to hop or fly. But except a startled cry at your presence +emitted by some of these, hardly any other sound would have fallen on +your ears. + +The only creatures that seemed to be busy were the beetles on the ground +and the bees, the latter long, dark, dangerous-looking hornets that flew +in clouds about the lime and orange-trees, and behaved as if all the +forest belonged to them, the former of all shapes and sizes, and of +colours more brilliant than the rainbow. No doubt they knew exactly +what they were about and had their ideas carefully arranged, but what +their business was in particular would have puzzled any human being to +tell--why they dug pits and rolled little pieces of stones down them, or +why they pulled pieces of sticks along bigger than themselves, dropped +them, apparently without reason, and went in search of others. There +was, one would have thought, no method in the madness of these strange +but lovely creatures: it looked as though they were doomed to keep +moving, doomed to keep on working, and doing something, no matter what. + +In the great river itself sometimes small herds of hippopotami would +appear, especially in parts where the water was shallow. They came but +to enjoy a sunshine bath and siesta. + +But at night both forest and river seemed to awaken from their slumbers. + +The river cows now came on shore to feed, and their grunting and +bellowing, that often ended in a kind of shriek, mingled [Two pages +missing here]. + +"Well, my friend, how much for your bananas, and that bottle of honey, +and those eggs, and fowls? Come, I'll buy the lot," said the boatswain. + +"De Arab chief come in big ship, two three week ago. De ship he hide in +de bush. He come to-night when de moon am shine. He come on board you +big ship, plenty knife, plenty spear, plenty gun, killee you all for +true. Den he take all de money and all de chow-chow. Plenty much +bobbery he makee, plenty much blood he spillee, plenty much murder. +Sweeba tell you for true." + +While this conversation was going on the fruit, eggs, and fowls were +being handed on board and money thrown into the boat, which was quickly +concealed by the natives in their cummerbunds. + +They found themselves richer than they had ever been before in their +lives. + +"But why do you come and tell us?" then inquired Roberts. (Roberts, by +the way, was the only one the native would converse with. He had +eagerly requested the captain and officers to keep away, for fear of +exciting the suspicion of those who he averred were lurking in the +forest.) + +"What for I come and tellee you?" he replied. "English have been good +to me many time 'fore now. Arab chief he bad man. He come to my house, +he tie me to a tree by de neck. He think I dead. Den he takee my poor +wife away, and all de poor piccaninnies. My poor ole mudder she berry +bad. She not fit to trabbel away to de bush, so he cut her head off, +and trow her in de blaze. He burn all my hut, all my house. I not lub +dat Arab chief berry berry much." + +"I shouldn't think you did," was the reply; "but now, my friend, if all +goes well come back to-morrow, and we will reward you." + +About eight o'clock that same night, the full moon rose slowly up over +the woods, bathing the trees in a soft blue haze, but changing the +river, 'twixt the ship and the distant shore, into a broad pathway of +light that shimmered and shone like molten gold. There was hardly a +cloud in the heaven's dark blue, and the stars shone with unusual +brilliancy. + +No one was visible on the _Niobe's_ decks, and never a light burned +aloft, but, nevertheless, sentinels were watching the water on all +sides, and down below the crew, fully armed, were waiting. The guns +were all ready to run out, and there was no talking save in whispers, +and when any one had occasion to cross the deck he did it so lightly +that you could scarcely have heard his footfall. + +Except the officers of the watch, all others were in the saloon or +ward-room. They too were armed, but passing the time in quietly playing +draughts and other games. Instead of being in his cabin, the captain +was there along with his officers. + +Presently the boatswain, whose duty it was to keep one of the +night-watches, came quietly in to make a report. + +"There are no signs yet, sir. The forest is quiet enough, except for +the birds and beasts. It is very bright now. If they do come, we will +have light enough to give 'em fits." + +"I hope they will, then," replied the captain; "I sincerely trust that +tall native wasn't a-gammoning us." + +"I feel sure enough he wasn't, sir." + +"Hark!" cried the captain. + +It was the sentry's hail. Next moment his rifle rang out on the night +air. It seemed to be caught up by the echoes of the forest, and the +sound multiplied indefinitely, but there was instant evidence that this +was no echo. + +A long line of fire swept across the forest shore, and bullets rattled +through the rigging or on the vessel's sides. + +The attack was about to commence. + +Guns were speedily run out in the direction from which the volley had +come, and just by way of showing the enemy that the _Niobe_ was +prepared, two loaded with shrapnel were fired. + +The yell of rage and pain that rang through the forest, told plainly +enough that some of the savages had bitten the dust. The battle had +begun. + +But it was not to be a fight of rifle against big guns. The Arabs, +unless at close quarters, are ever at disadvantage. The chief who led +this particular band bore a fierce and implacable hatred to the English +race, more especially to those who wore the blue uniform of the Royal +Navy. Many a time had he been thwarted in his designs by the ubiquitous +British cruiser, and, sword in hand, he had sworn by Allah--sworn on his +"book"--to have revenge. + +His time, it almost seemed, had come to-night. Though far south when +the first news of the disaster to the _Niobe_ had been brought to him by +a swift-footed Somali spy, Zareppa had lost no time in setting sail in +his largest dhow--he was the proud owner of many--and making his way +north. + +It was no trouble for this daring piratical slaver to cross the bar even +on a light wind. He had stolen up the river by night unseen, and soon +after planned his attack. + +Now at the very moment that a whole fleet of canoes filled with armed +Somalis and Arabs left the forest shore, under cover of volley after +volley from the bush, Zareppa, the pirate chief, was stealing round the +corner of the bay with over a hundred of his best warriors, who were +lying down so that they might not be seen, to attack the _Niobe_ on the +other quarter. + +Swiftly came they while guns thundered forestward, and all hands lay on +the port side to repel boarders. It looked as though the fate of the +good ship were sealed. + +Till this moment the soldier sergeant--my father--had lain apparently +helpless and apathetic in a screen berth on the main deck. But the +sound of warfare will stir the blood of even a dying soldier, as the +blast of a bugle does that of the aged and worn-out war-horse. No +sooner had the firing commenced than he started from his cot and +speedily dressed himself, often tottering as he did so. + +Captain Roberts tells me that even then my father could hardly have +known what he was about: that all he could have been certain of was that +a fight was going on, and it was his duty to be in it. + +Grasping sword and pistol, he rushed on deck. Still staggering, and +gazing wildly around him, almost the first thing he saw was the approach +of Zareppa's boats. He was all alive now, he rushed across the deck, +and more by gesture than by voice made the commander aware of the +terrible danger. + +None too soon. Already the heads of the foremost boarders were +appearing above the bulwarks. But our men were speedily divided into +two parties, and in a minute more the battle was raging fiercely on both +sides of the deck. + +"Deen! Deen! Deen!" was the fierce and shrill Arab war-cry. + +"Hurrah! hurrah!" was the bold and answering shout of our marines and +bluejackets. + +The tall form of Zareppa seemed everywhere. It towered high on the +bulwarks. It was seen springing down on deck, and vaulting backwards, +and wherever it came death followed in its wake. + +Soon no sound even of pistol was heard. It was a hand-to-hand fight +_on_ deck, for the _Niobe_ had been boarded: hand to hand, and breast to +breast; cutlass and sword 'gainst Somali dagger and Arab spear. There +were the shrieks of pain, the cries of exultation, and horrible oaths as +well, I blush to say, mingling with the groans of the dying in this +dreadful _melee_. + +How peacefully the moon shone--how quiet and lovely and still the forest +looked all around! How great the contrast 'twixt man and nature! + +But, see! the fight is finished. The enemy are borne backwards into the +sea. Our fellows hack them down as they fly, for they are wild with the +excitement of the strife. + +But high on the poop a young soldier is engaged in a deadly strife with +the Arab chief himself. All his skill would hardly save Zareppa. For +several minutes the duel seemed to rage. Then with a wild rash the Arab +dashed forward on the soldier, his sword passed through his body and--my +father fell dead. + +"English dogs!" shouted Zareppa, standing for a moment on the bulwarks +with bleeding sword upheld. "Dogs of English, Zareppa's day will come! +Beware!" + +He would have vaulted into the sea, but up from behind the very place +where he stood rose a dark naked figure. A dagger gleamed one instant +in its hand, and next was plunged into the back of the chief, who gave a +fearful shriek. + +"Ha! ha! aha!" yelled this strange figure, "Zareppa's day _hab_ come. +Plenty quick. Ha!" + +The Arab chief fell face forward on the deck. + +It was the negro Sweeba, who had brought the news of the intended +attack. + +From his own side of the river he had heard the firing and the wild +shouts that told of the raging combat, and had speedily launched his +rude canoe, intent on revenge for the murder of his poor wife and babes. + +CHAPTER THREE. + + "Hope, with her prizes and victories won, + Shines in the blue of my morning sun, + Conquering hope with golden ray, + Blessing my landscape far away." + + Tupper. + +Not a single prisoner was taken. + +Those who were not fatally wounded had sprung overboard. + +The rest of the night passed in quietness, but when day broke, the sun +shone on a sad and ghastly scene. There still lay about broken +cutlasses, spears, torn pieces of cloth, and all the _debris_ of fight, +and blood, blood everywhere. + +On one side of the deck, with upturned faces, lay in ghastly array the +dead of the enemy, on the other our own poor fellows had been put, and +carefully covered with flags. + +All hands were summoned to prayers, to bury the dead and clear up decks. + +When, after service, the commander and his officers--alas! among those +who lay beneath the Union Jack were one or two officers--went round to +view the bodies, to their astonishment, they found that Zareppa had +gone. + +He had only shammed death, then, in order to escape! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Incidents of the very saddest character are soon forgotten in the +service. It is as well it should be so. But a battle is no sooner +fought than the decks are carefully washed, the damages all made good, +and even rents and holes in the ship's side, that might well redound to +her honour, are not only carefully repaired but painted over. And +whenever a vessel has had sails torn in a gale of wind, sailors are put +to mend them on the following day. + +For modesty always goes hand-in-hand with true valour. + +In a fortnight after the fight in the river the brave _Niobe_ was once +more at sea, and looking all over as smart a craft as ever sailed. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Just as I wrote these lines my good friend, Captain Roberts, looked over +my shoulder. + +"Ay, lad," he said, "and she _was_ a smart craft too. They don't make +such ships now, and they couldn't find the men to man 'em if they did. +I tell you, Nie, it was a sight that used to make Frenchmen stare to see +the old _Niobe_ taking down top-gallant masts." + +"Well, my dear old sea-dad," I replied, "of course you are fond of the +good old times. It is only natural you should be." + +"But they _were_ times. Why, nowadays they could no more do the things +we did than they could pitch a ball o' spun yarn 'twixt here and +Jericho. I'm right, lad, I tell you, and I should know." + +"Oh!" I replied, "for the matter of that, I was living in those brave +old days as well as yourself." + +"Yes, so you were," cried the old captain, laughing. "You were borne on +the books o' the old _Niobe_ as well as myself, and a queer little chap +you were when first we met. Heigho! time flies: it's more'n forty years +ago, Nie." + +"Wait half a minute," I said, for I knew the old man was going to spin +me a yarn that I was never tired of hearing--the story of my own early +years. Why was it that I liked to hear him tell the tale over and over +again, you may ask. For this reason--he never told it twice quite the +same: always the same in the main incidents, doubtless, but with +something new each time. + +"Wait half a minute." + +"Ay, ay, lad!" + +I brought out the little table and set it down under his favourite tree +on the lawn, and placed thereon his favourite pipe and his pouch. + +The old sailor smiled, and drew his great straw chair up and sat down, +and I threw myself on the grass and prepared to listen. + +The captain had his two elbows on the table; he was teasing the tobacco, +and when he began to speak he was evidently following out some train of +thought, and addressing the tobacco, not me. + +"As saucy a wee rascal he turned out as ever put a foot on board a +ship," said Captain Roberts. + +"Whom are you talking about, old friend?" I asked. + +"I'm talking about baby Nie," replied the captain, still addressing the +tobacco. "I wonder, now, what would have become of him, though, if it +hadn't been for old Bo'swain Roberts. Why, he would have died. Died? +Ay, but I wouldn't see poor Sergeant Radnor's baby thrown to the sharks, +not for all the world. Fed him first on hen's milk [the name given by +sailors to egg beaten up in water]. Didn't do well on that. `Cap'n,' +says I to the skipper one day, `soon's we go to Zanzibar we must get a +nanny-goat for the young papoose, else he'll lose the number of his +mess, and the doctor will have to mark him D.D.' [discharged dead.] +`Very well, Roberts,' says the skipper, `that's just as you like.' + +"Now our purser was a mean old fellow. `Nanny-goat!' he cries, when I +went to ask him for the money. `What next, I wonder? the service is +going to the deuce. No, Her Majesty pays for no nanny-goats, I do +assure ye.' + +"I just touches my hat and marches off to our dear old doctor. I knew +he had a kindly heart. `Nanny-goat,' cries he, `why, of course the +darling baby'll have a nanny-goat. We'll keep it out of the sick-mess +fund, and mark it down medical comforts.' [Note 1.] `Excuse me, sir,' +said I, catching hold of the doctor's hand--it was as rough as my +own--`but you're a brick.' + +"And that, `Nie,' is how you came for the first five years o' your life +to be called nothing else but young `medical comforts.'" + +"Five years!" I said, "that is a long spell for a ship to be on one +station." + +"Ay, lad, you're right. But ships were ships in those days. + +"Young `medical comforts'," he continued, "as they called you, in less +than four years was a deal smarter than any monkey on board. Not that +he could climb quite so high, maybe, but he was more tricky, and that is +saying a lot. And it was among the monkeys that `medical comforts' +would mostly be, too. + +"But the monkeys all seemed to like you, Nie; they would tease each +other, and fight each other, but they never touched you. There was one +animal in particular, and he was your favourite, the queerest old chap +you ever saw. We got him down in Madagascar, and they called him the +Ay-ay. Doctor always said he was a being from another world, a kind of +a spirit, and the men used to be afraid of him. He had hands like a +human being, but the middle finger was much longer than the others, and +not thicker than a straw. When only a baby, he used to dip this long +skinny finger in milk and give you to suck, and when you went to sleep +he never left your side. Sometimes he would stroke your face and say, +`Ay-ay' as tenderly as if he'd been a mother to you. But the men always +declared it was `Nie, Nie,' he'd be saying. + +"But you had one pet on board that maybe you mind on--the Albatross?" + +"I do," said I, "young as I must have been at the time." + +"People say," the captain went on, "they've never been tamed; but there +he was, sure enough, in an immense great hencoop, that the doctor had +made for him, and there you'd be in front of him often enough, though he +would have cut the nose of anyone but yourself; and never a flying-fish +was caught you didn't get hold of, and take to him. The men got small +share of these. But, bless you, Nie, you were the ship's chief pet, and +the men would have gone through fire and water for you any hour of the +day or night. + +"The jealousies there used to be about you, too, Nie! Why, lad, if it +had been a young lady it couldn't have been worse. Jealousies, Nie, ay, +and more than jealousies, for our fellows didn't need much to make them +strip to the waist and fight. Fact is, when times were dull with us, I +think they rather liked the excuse. I've heard a row got up for'ard +just in the following fashion: + +"You would be playing on Davis's knee. + +"`Give us half an hour o' the wee chap,' Bill would say. + +"`Go along,' Davis would reply, `you 'ad him all day yesterday.' + +"`He's smilin' to me,' Bill would say. + +"`Smilin' _at_ you, you mean,' Davis would answer derisively. + +"`Smilin' at your ugly face. Why, that mouth o' yours couldn't be made +any bigger 'athout shifting your ears back.' + +"This would be enough. + +"`Come below,' Bill would cry, `and I'll see if a big ugly lubber like +you is to cheek me!' + +"`Go with him, Davis!' half a dozen would cry. `_I'll_ hold the +youngster!' + +"And there would be such a scramble to get you, that I used to wonder +you weren't torn to pieces. And all the while that animal with the long +skinny middle finger would be jumping around like a demon and crying-- + +"`Ay-ay!--Ay-ay!--Ay-ay!' + +"As he never cried like this without all the monkeys following suit, and +all the parrots whistling and shrieking--on occasions like these, Nie, +there was five minutes of a rough ship, I can tell you." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. Medical comforts are luxuries for the sick, bought at the +surgeon's discretion out of the sick-mess fund. + +CHAPTER FOUR. + + "Still onward, fair the breeze nor rough the surge, + The blue waves sport around the stern they urge; + Far on the horizon's verge appears a speck, + A spot--a mast--a sail--an armed deck." + + Byron. + +"Well, Ben," I said, "life must have been very pleasant to me then." + +"And isn't it now, Nie? isn't it now, lad? Look at the beautiful old +place that you have around you--all your own; you ought to be thankful. +Listen to the birds on this delightful morning, their songs mingling +with the cry o' the wind through the poplars. And, lad, you cannot draw +a breath out on the lawn here, without inhaling the odour of honey, and +the perfume of flowers." + +"You are quite poetic, Ben Roberts," I replied. + +"Quite enough to make the barnacliest old tar that ever lived feel +poetic, Nie," quoth Ben. + +"Well, fill your pipe again, Ben." + +"Ha! ha!" laughed the old man, "fill my pipe again, eh? That means +heave round with another yarn, eh?" + +"Something very like it," I said. + +"Well," said the captain, "an old man is to be forgiven if he does get a +little bit gossiping now and then, and wanders from his subject, and I +always was fond of a bit o' pretty scenery, Nie--pretty bits like the +old mill by the riverside down yonder." + +"And a bit of fishing and shooting, Ben?" + +"Ay, lad. But memory is at this moment taking me back to one of the +loveliest bits o' woodland landscape in the world. What a poem our +Robbie Burns could have written there! You were still the _Niobe's_ +pet, but old enough now to be left at times without your sea-dad. Away +miles and miles into the wooded interior of Africa, we were a good long +distance south the Line, and just sitting down, me and my mates, to a +snack o' lunch on the banks of a roaring tumbling brook, where we'd been +bathing. We'd had a smartish week's shooting, and were thinking of +returning to the ship the very next day. + +"Our guns were lying carelessly enough at some little distance, when +suddenly a branch snapped, and before any of us could have stood up to +defend ourselves, had it been an unfriendly Arab, or a savage Somali, a +dark skin pushed the branches aside and stood before us. + +"It was our faithful Sweeba, the negro who had brought us the news of +Zareppa's intended attack on the night your poor father was killed, Nie. + +"`Sweeba, what on earth brings you here?' says I. + +"`Commander's orders,' said Sweeba, saluting. + +"Now Sweeba was always dressed when on board like a British sailor, but +here he was almost as naked as the stem of a palm-tree. + +"`What have you done with your clothes, Sweeba?' I asked. + +"`I expect he has pawned them,' said little Brown, our purser's clerk. + +"`I not can run muchee wid English clothes,' Sweeba said modestly. + +"`And so you hid them in the bush, eh?' + +"`Ah! Massa Roberts,' replied the negro, smiling; `you berry much +clebber.' + +"`Well, and what are the commander's orders?' + +"`You come back plenty much quick.' + +"`Ship on fire?' + +"`No, sah.' + +"`Anything happened to Nie?' + +"`No, sah. Nie and de monkey all right, sah.' + +"`Well, explain.' + +"`Only dis, sah, we goin' to fight Arab dhow.' + +"We were all up quick enough at this intelligence. We didn't stop to +finish our luncheon. + +"`Lead the way, Sweeba,' I cried. + +"And off went Sweeba through the forest, we following in Indian file. +We didn't take more of the game with us than we could easily carry, so +the jackals had a good feed that night. + +"It was a long and a rough road to travel. You know the style of thing, +Nie; the dark dismal woods, the broad swamps, the hills and the wide +stony uplands, where never a thing lives or thrives, bar the lizards and +a few snakes, and then last of all the mangrove forests. Our anxiety to +get back made us hurry all the more. We made forced marches, and burned +but two camp fires ere we reached the coast. + +"The ship we had left lying at anchor in a little wooded creek. We +returned to find it gone. + +"`Massa, massa; we too late,' cried Sweeba. `Now de Arab men come quick +and kill us all for true.' + +"`Where is the nearest village, Sweeba?' + +"`Long way, sah; long way, and no good. Dey kill Englishman. No gib +mooch time to tink.' + +"`Well, we're in a fix, I think,' I said. + +"`Not a bit of it,' cried a cheery voice close behind us; and looking +round there stood little Midshipman Leigh, of the starboard watch. The +young rascal had heard us coming, and hidden his boat among the trees, +making his men lie close, as he expressed it, to see how we'd look. + +"Our orders were to follow the _Niobe_ south, where she had gone to +pitch into a whole fleet of piratical slavers, and it was currently +reported that our old friend Zareppa was admiral of the pirates, and +thirsting for his revenge. + +"What a lovely day it was, Nie; the sea as blue and tranquil as the eye +of a beautiful child." + +"More poetry, old tar," I said. + +"Wait a bit," said Captain Roberts. "Well, we cruised along down the +coast with just enough sea-breeze to bear us onwards and keep the oars +in-board. + +"We expected to find our ship at a little island called Chaksee, where +she would wait us; or, if absent when we went home, as our middy called +it, we could wait till she returned to this rendezvous. + +"There wasn't a sail in sight when we started, nor a speck on the +ocean's breast, except a jumping skip-jack now and then, or a big shark +asleep on the surface, with a bird perched upon his protruding fin. + +"The breeze held, and very pleasant it was, and most of us, I think, +were asleep at the moment the outlook at the bows sang out-- + +"`Sail ho!' + +"`Where away?' cried the midshipman. + +"`Rounding the point yonder, sir.' + +"The midshipman scrambled forward, and we were all alert enough now. +She wasn't a dhow, and no one could make anything of her at first, but +we soon made her out to be one of those low freeboard one-masted craft +that the Portuguese had in those days as coasters, and which they often +used as slavers or even pirates. + +"`She seems very low in the water,' said the midshipman, `Is she too big +to fight, Mr Roberts?' + +"`A deal too big,' I replied, `We'd better let her alone, I think.' + +"We got to windward of her anyhow, so we could have a peep on board. We +loaded with ball cartridge, and stood by for whatever might happen. + +"The strange craft stood right on her course, and never seemed to heed +us, though the lowering glance her captain gave us showed he bore us no +good will. She was crowded with a rascally crew of Portuguese and +negroes, and many bore ghastly wounds, that showed she had been in a +recent fray; and it afterwards turned out that she had had a brush with +the _Niobe_, but escaped. + +"On her deck were four or five biggish guns. Discretion in this case +was evidently then the better part of valour, for she could easily have +blown us out of the water, but she seemed too disheartened for anything +else but flight. + +"I think we were pleased also to escape an encounter that would +certainly have ended in disaster. + +"The wind fell about sunset, then oars were got out, and, laden as we +were, it was a stiffish pull. All in the dark too, until eight o'clock, +when the moon rose, half hidden at first by a bank of greyish clouds, +which she soon surmounted, and then shone out with a splendour that you +only see in one part of the world." + +"And that," said I, interrupting him, "is the Indian Ocean." + +"True, Nie, true," said Roberts. + +"We were among islands now, some bare and level, others wooded, a few +with lofty cocoa-palms. + +"We had just landed on one of the latter, because owing to the cocoa-nut +trees there would be, as you know, Nie, a few natives, and we expected a +bit of hot supper. We had drawn our boat well up on the sandy beach of +a little cove, hidden by some scraggy bushes when-- + +"`Look, look!' cried our purser's clerk. + +"All eyes were directed seaward. + +"Two great dhows stealing out to sea! They were off in the same +direction that we were going, and from the cut of their sails we could +tell they were pirates, that is Arab fighting slavers. + +"`I say, Mr Roberts,' said the middy, `I wouldn't tackle those, would +you?' + +"`We'd never see England again if we did,' I replied. + +"`Well,' said the boy, `I'm precious hungry, aren't you, Mr Roberts?' + +"`I could do with a pick,' I replied. + +"Then young Leigh gave his orders like a prince. + +"`Bear a hand, lads,' he cried, `and get supper; gather sticks, light a +fire, on with the pot; some of you run to the village and bring half a +dozen fowls. Cut up the bacon. Did you bring the onions? Smith, if +you've forgotten the onions, I'll have you flogged.' + +"`Then I won't be flogged,' said Smith. + +"Well, Nie, the remembrance of that stew, that cock-a-leekie soup, made +gipsy-fashion in that lonely island of the ocean, makes me truly hungry +to think of even now." + +"Shall I get you a ham sandwich, Roberts?" I asked provokingly. + +"A ham sandwich!" he cried, "What! sawdust and paint, and the memory of +that stew hovering round one like the odours of Araby the Blest? Don't +insult me, Nie. I tell you, boy, that a hungry man might have been +content to dine off the steam. There! + +"Well, we had a good long rest after supper." + +"You needed it, I should think," I said, laughing. + +"None o' your sauce," said the old captain. "We rested, and smoked our +pipes, and looked on the sea. Oh! to see the moonlight dancing on the +rippling waves!" + +"I can easily imagine it, because I've often seen the like myself," I +replied. + +"It was late that night when we got to Chaksee. The ship was in behind +the rocks so snug that we thought at first she wasn't there. + +"All on board were glad to see us, including Nie himself." + +"How old would I be then, Roberts?" + +"About five. The _Niobe_, it seems, was ordered down to the Cape to +refit; all her crew were to return to England, but, as you know, I +preferred to stop in the old ship with the new crew. I'm like the cats, +I don't like to move. + +"The captain and I had a long talk. He treated me just as if I'd been a +commissioned officer. He told me he had found a whole nest of pirates, +that he had given one fits a day or two before, and meant to pepper the +others soon if he had a chance. They were over there, he said, pointing +to the African coast, and he would have them. + +"The commander of the _Niobe_, indeed, was in high glee. He had been +ordered home, he said, but he would wait for those piratical scoundrels +and old Zareppa if it were a month. Then, surely, if he destroyed him +and his ships his country would, in some way or other, requite his good +services, and either promote him or give him a better command. + +"We lay snug behind the rocks at Chaksee for two whole days. Our +top-gallant masts were down, and no one in passing the island could have +told there was a vessel there at all. + +"On a hill, not far off, two men were kept always on the outlook. + +"On the morning of the third day the signalmen left their posts and +hurried towards the ship. + +"Three large piratical dhows, carrying the blood-red flag of the Arab +nation, were bearing down towards the island. They turned out to be the +very same we'd seen two nights before, in company with another and much +larger one. + +"We determined not to frighten them off by coming out too soon. We +didn't know then that these fellows rather courted fight than otherwise. + +"All sails were loosened and at last we got clear, took up the boats +that had been heading us, lifted sails, and stood out to meet them. + +"Every man was at his post. The marines lying down on deck under arms, +the bluejackets, stripped to the trousers, standing by the guns on both +decks. There was a glorious breeze blowing. Oh! Nie, lad, it was just +the morning for a fight. My old blood dances in my veins yet at the +very thoughts of it. + +"I must say that those Arabs managed their little craft beautifully. +The largest one was the first to advance, and the first to receive and +return our fire. She had even the daring and pluck to fire at us." + +"Did she succeed?" + +"She did, alas! and she poured a broadside into us that made our upper +deck like shambles. Meanwhile the other two dhows were at us, _on_ us +almost, for we were sometimes fighting gun to gun, and we had to fight +on both sides of our vessel at once. + +"The commander of the _Niobe_ wanted all his wits about him, for it was +a trying time. + +"We had one advantage over the pirates, namely, our marines. + +"The pirates had muskets, it is true, but either they were very bad +ones, or they couldn't use them properly, one or the other. + +"We stationed our marines in the tops and rigging, and every shot told +home, every bullet got its billet. + +"There were times during the fight when all the combatants seemed to +pause. It was as if the ships were taking breath, but in reality we +stopped to allow the smoke of battle to clear away, for our ship was +surrounded, so to speak, and all our gear was hanging anyhow. + +"The impetuosity of the attack of Arabs fighting at sea is very similar +to the way in which they charge on _terra firma_; it is furious while it +lasts. + +"It lasts as long as hope promises brightly, when it goes it goes at +once, and, except in the case of fanatics in a religious war, there is a +wild stampede. Victory for a time hung in the balance, then it seemed +to sway to the side of the enemy, because the _Niobe_ became for a time +unmanageable. + +"It was a trying time to the nerves of the bravest of us. There would +be small mercy accorded to those among our poor fellows who happened to +fall into Zareppa's bands. + +"The commander held a hurried consultation with his first lieutenant, at +which I was present. It was over in two minutes; in ten minutes more, +during which time the battle raged with unabated fury, we had all the +sails set which the few hands that could be spared were able to clap on +her, and were clearing sheer away from the scene of action, steering as +close to the wind as possible. And the _Niobe_ could luff too, I can +tell you. + +"Shots tore through our rigging as we fled, or seemed to fly, and +derisive jeers and cheers, worse by far than bullets, were fired after +us, till we were out of earshot, out of reach. We replied not either by +shot or shout. We drew the big dhow after us--and that was all we +wanted--as near as she could come. We even let her gain on us, and her +shots began to tell again. Then all sail was clapped on, and next-- + +"`Ready about,' was the cry. + +"Ah! Nie, my boy, it was a beautiful sight, and a supreme moment. + +"We thundered down on that devoted pirate. She never even divined our +intention. We might overwhelm her perhaps, she thought. She prepared +to out-manoeuvre us. Then all seemed to become confusion on board her. +Mind, she was over-manned to begin with, her rigging too was badly +damaged, and her decks hampered with her dead and dying. + +"In a minute more we had hurtled into her. We actually cut her in two; +she sank before our eyes, almost before we could sheer off." + +At this part of his yarn, poor old Captain Roberts stopped. I feel sure +he was thinking of that dreadful scene; that, long ago though it was, he +saw again that blood-stained ship sinking beneath the waves, with its +living freight, many of them innocent slaves. + +He filled his pipe before he resumed. + +"Ah, well! poor misguided wretches, to do them justice they died +bravely, and cheered wildly as they sank beneath the billows." + +"And so," I said; "Zareppa escaped even yet." + +"Yes, it was a plucky thing. He swum out from the wreck ere she sank, +and one of the dhows ran up even under our guns, and picked him out of +the water. + +"Then both got clear away." + +CHAPTER FIVE. + + "Like mountain cat that guards its young. + Full at Fitz-James's throat he sprung." + + Scott. + + "He watched me like a lion's whelp, + That gnaws and yet may break its chain." + + Byron. + +"Ben Roberts, dear old friend," I said, as soon as the captain had +finished. "I remember that sea-fight which you have just so graphically +described." + +"And pray," said he, "what and how much of it could you remember, seeing +you were down below, and were so well used to guns thundering over your +baby head, that you often went to sleep during general quarters? Now, +just you tell me." + +"Well," I replied, "I suppose it must have been the collision at the +conclusion, for I was knocked all of a heap off the chair, and the Ay-ay +and I threw ourselves into each other's arms and wept." + +"Yes, lad, and I found you, when I went down to my cabin, in each +other's arms, and both fast asleep." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +I myself, dear reader, must now resume the thread of my narrative, from +the place where Captain Roberts gives it up. + +When the crew of the _Niobe_ returned to their native land from the +Cape, and the new crew joined, I remained with my foster-father--my dear +old sea-dad. + +From the Cape we sailed straight to Bombay, it being found that the old +_Niobe_ would require to go into dry dock. + +I remember being dazzled with all I saw in Bombay, except those terrible +Towers of Silence, on which the dead bodies of the Parsees are exposed +to be devoured by birds. What I think struck me most was the gorgeous +dresses of the natives, and the enormous amount of gold and silver +ornaments they wore about them; bangles, and bracelets, and jewelled +noselets, and ear-rings as big as cymbals, or the brass plates that +barbers hang out in front of their doors. If I wondered at the natives, +the natives wondered at me--the piccaninny sailor-boy, as they called +me--for I was now dressed out quite like a man-o'-war's man. + +From Bombay we returned to our cruising ground, which was at that time +called the Cape station, and stretched all along the entire east coast +of Africa, from the Cape to the Red Sea, including not only Madagascar +with its circlet of tiny islets, but Mozambique, the Comoro Islands, and +Seychelles as well. Were I to tell you all my adventures on these +shores, I should have no space to devote to sketches probably quite as +interesting. + +Let me come then as speedily as I may to the one great event of my life: +my capture by that arch-fiend Zareppa, and my treatment while a prisoner +for ten long years in the wildest part of the interior of Africa. + +As soon as we reached Zanzibar, I being then of the ripe age of six +years, the captain called me aft, and Roberts the boatswain came along +with me. + +"My man," said the captain to me, "You are six now, and it is high time +you were rated." + +I began to cry. A rating I thought meant a flogging, and I had seen +poor fellows tied up over and over again and flogged until the blood +gushed out of their backs. + +"It is nothing," said the kindly captain; "I'm going to make a man of +you." + +"Oh!" I said, and wiped my eyes. + +"But," continued the captain laughing, "We'll make a second-class boy of +you first." + +Roberts laughed now. + +"I'll teach him sir," he said, saluting the captain, "to splice and reef +and steer." + +"Well, away you go," said the captain, "and see, my little man, that you +do all you are told." + +I touched my forelock, and went away forward with the good boatswain; so +proud that I'm sure I didn't feel my feet touching the deck. + +My education had begun long before; it continued now, and I hope I did +my duty. + +For the next four years we had plenty of chasing of ships, plenty of +cruising, plenty of jollity and fun, both on shore and afloat, and now +and then a pitched battle. + +We had never seen Zareppa again, but we had often and often heard of +him. We knew that he was in the habit of marching into the interior +upon peaceful negro villages lying about the Equator, burning them, and +capturing the inhabitants as slaves. + +Oh! boys at home, if you but knew the horrors of the slave trade; if you +could but realise even a tithe of the misery and wretchedness and +fearful crimes included in that one word "slavery," as applied to Africa +alone, you would not deem yourself entitled to the proud name of British +boy, until you had registered a vow to do all that may ever lie in your +power, be that little or be it much, by deeds or by words alone, to wipe +out the curse. + +Had you seen what I have seen of it, had you sojourned where I have +sojourned, you would have witnessed deeds that would harrow your mind to +think of even till your dying day. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +My life on board the _Niobe_ was altogether a very pleasant one; the +best part of it was the long glorious cruises we used to have in open +boats. Fancy, if you can, going away in a well-found boat, away from +your ship entirely for, perhaps, a month or six weeks at a time, in the +glorious summer weather, with the blue sky above, the blue sea below, +and hardly ever more wind than sufficed to cool and fan you, and to +raise the sea into a gentle ripple. We cruised along the coast, we +cooked our food on shore--and oh! what jolly "spreads" they used to be, +what soups, what stews!--we cruised along the coast, and we sailed or +pulled up rivers, and into many a lovely wooded creek, going everywhere, +in fact, where there was a chance of capturing a slaver, or of making a +prize. When the slave ships ran we chased them, when they fired on us +we fought them, and they were always beaten. They might win a race, but +never a battle. We were some fifty men strong; we never stopped, +therefore, for an invitation to go on board; we went, sword or cutlass +in hand, and they were bound to give way. + +But to me, I think, the glad sense of being away from the ship and of +leading a free and roving life, was the greatest part of the pleasure, +and I used to be so sorry when we bore up at last for the rendezvous +where we were to meet our ship. + +That, then, was the bright side of the picture of my life in these glad +old days. And I must confess that it really had not a dark one, +although sadness used to steal over my heart, when letters came from +what others called home--England. + +Home! To me the word had no other meaning except the wide ocean, and +yet when I saw others reading their letters with such joy depicted on +every countenance, well--it was very foolish of me, no doubt--but I used +to steal away into some quiet corner, and weep. + +"Now, my lad," cried Roberts to me one day. "Get that twopenny-ha'penny +cutlass of yours out, and prepare to go on shore. We're going up +country to fight those rascally Arabs. We are going to storm Zareppa's +own stronghold." + +"Hurrah!" I shouted; "And you will really take me with you, Mr +Roberts?" + +"That I will, lad; and you're not your father's son unless you know how +to behave yourself in presence of a foe." + +I said nothing; but at that moment I almost thought that Roberts +instigated an act on my part, which followed some days after this. Had +he not mentioned Zareppa and my father in two consecutive sentences--my +father and my father's slayer? + +"Oh!" I said inwardly, "could I but meet the man face to face!" What a +childish thought, you will say, for a mere stripling, with a +twopenny-ha'penny cutlass! The cutlass, by the way, was a middy's dirk, +of which I felt very proud indeed. + +The boats were called away. The expedition against the Arab stronghold +was going to be "a big thing," as Roberts said, so every man that could +be spared from the ship joined it. + +Our guide was poor Sweeba. This negro had but one thought in life; +namely, to avenge the murder of his family. I'm afraid that revenge is +a very human though an improper feeling; and it is easy enough to +understand, without attempting to justify, Sweeba's thirst for +vengeance. I hope that I myself shall never forget that Bible text +which says-- + + "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." + +The utmost caution was necessary in passing up through the forest and +jungle, for we were surrounded by enemies on all sides. However, we +made forced marches in silence and all by night, and in three days' +time, being favoured by fortune, we arrived in front of Zareppa's +stronghold, and within two miles of the place. We lay closely hidden +till daybreak, a good two hours, sending Sweeba forward to scout. He +returned shortly with the intelligence that the Arabs were in great +force, and had both camels and cavalry, and that they had also thrown up +a strong earthwork on the hill around their position. + +Before sunrise we were ready; a mere band we were, but a brave one, +about one hundred and twenty in all, bluejackets and marines. Ere the +sun had mounted over the forest land we were close upon Zareppa's +position, and in the darkness our fellows had even cut out a company of +war and baggage camels. It was here that the fighting first began, but +taken by surprise, the camel-drivers, after a faint show of resistance, +fled hurriedly up towards the fort. + +It was now daylight, but the beams of the sun were sadly shorn by the +smoke that arose from the fort as a tremendous volley was fired to check +our advance. Under cover of this volley down thundered the foe to the +charge. But little more than two hundred yards intervened between the +fort and our fellows. Yet many a horse lost its rider, many a brave and +stately Arab bit the dust, ere the enemy reached us. + +I cannot describe what followed. No one can give an account of anything +save his own experience in a fight like this. The enemy fought with +terrible courage. Again and again were they foiled, again and again did +they return to the charge with redoubled determination. They leaped on +our very bayonets, over their own wounded, and their dead and dying fell +together in heaps. But all in vain. Zareppa at last, despairing of +success, withdrew his daring followers. + +"Now, lads," cried our commander, "follow me into the fort. They have +shown us how Arabs fight; we will now show them what true Britons can +do. Hurrah!" + +The wild "Deen! deen!" of the Arab is nothing in strength of volume to +the stern British "Hurrah!" It is a war-cry that has struck terror into +the hearts of foemen on every land on which the sun shines. It is a +war-cry that means business. It meant business to-day, as our fellows +dashed up that hill and entered the fort. Then the fighting commenced +in deadly earnest; the Arabs had leaped from their chargers, which were +held in readiness in the rear, and fought with swords only, even their +spears being for a time discarded. Our fellows fought with sword, with +bayonet, or with butt-end, and men fell fast on both sides. + +Only once during this fight Roberts was near me, but then his good sword +saved me from a fearful cut. "Back to the rear, boy," I heard him yell; +"you're too young for this work." + +But, look! yonder is the chief, yonder is Zareppa. Though I had never +seen him before, an instinct seemed to tell me that that was the man who +had slain my father. I flew at him--foolishly enough, no doubt--flew at +him as if I had been a wild cat. I clutched his belt and raised my arm +to strike. He bore me to the ground by a blow from his sword-hilt. He +seemed to scorn to fight with such as I. + +Next moment he himself was down. Sweeba had felled him, but was, in his +turn, cut down almost immediately. On the ground I grappled again with +the pirate chief. It seems all like a dream now, but I have little +doubt my agility saved me, and enabled me to make such good use of my +dirk that Zareppa never rose again. + +Years after this I knew we had gained this fight, but now, as for me, I +was taken prisoner, bound hand and foot, and carried into the interior. +After the death of their chief, the Arabs had fought only long enough to +secure possession of the boy who had killed their leader. This done, +they mounted and fled. + +I was, it would seem, reserved for the torture. But the king of a +warlike tribe fancied the boy for a white slave, and the cupidity of the +Arabs overcame their love even for vengeance--I was sold into slavery. + +Then began a long, dreary march into the interior. It is only fair to +say, however, that from the commencement King Otakooma was not unkind to +me. He ordered my wrists to be untied, and I was set free--such freedom +as it was, for with a mob of savages around me I dared not attempt to +escape. Indeed, I cared little now what became of me, and for the first +few days I refused all food. Then nature asserted herself, and I ate +greedily of the fruit that grew plentifully everywhere in the country +through which we were passing. + +I had pulled what appeared to me a most delicious-looking large berry, +when suddenly I heard our chief shriek. + +"_Oa eeah wa ka_!" and at the same moment the fruit was dashed from my +hand ere I could convey it to my lips. I knew from this it was poison. +Then the chief called me towards him, and placed me on the grass, and +put before me a plate of boiled paddy [a kind of rice] and a bright +glittering dagger. I knew what he meant, and chose the paddy. Then the +king laughed till his fat sides shook again. He was a sort of +half-caste Arab, I suppose, and yellow, not black. Perhaps his colour +made him king, for his followers were very black, tall, wiry, and +savage-looking. + +The king on the other hand simply looked good-humouredly idiotic, but I +found out afterwards that he could be both cruel and fierce, and though +not a cannibal, he was addicted to human sacrifices. Piles of skulls +adorned his palace grounds. He built them up like rockeries, and +flowers actually grew on them, although they had never been planted. + +As soon as I had eaten the rice, he patted my cheek and asked me, +through a boy interpreter, if I would have some rum. I refused; upon +which a cocoa-nut half full and the dagger were again placed before me. + +I drank the rum, and I learned a lesson; and whenever afterwards the +king asked me to do anything that I had scruples at performing, I +pretended to be exceedingly eager to do it--and thus got off. + +Our adventures on our journey inland were many and varied. Under other +circumstances I should have enjoyed them, but every mile west was taking +me away from all I held dear in the world, so no wonder my heart sank +within me and that I loathed the savages, loathed the fat old king, and +even the boy interpreter, although he was the only one with whom I could +converse. + +Jooma was his name, and he turned out no friend to me. He entertained +me from the first with terrible stories about the cruelties of the tribe +I was going amongst, tales that made me long for death and my very blood +run cold. + +Then I thought of the poison berry, and was strangely tempted to eat a +few. Thank Heaven, I did not give way to the fearful temptation! It is +an awful thing for a human soul to hurry unbidden into the presence of +its Maker. + +One adventure thrilled me at first with delight, afterwards with grief. +We met and attacked a caravan of English travellers. I was bound to a +horse and strictly guarded, at a distance from the scene of action. I +do not know what occurred, but from the exultant looks of the savages on +their return, and from the blood-stained booty they brought with them, I +feared the worst. + +Another adventure I remember was a night attack on our camp by a +rhinoceros. The savages fled before the infuriated brute more speedily +than they would have done before a human foe. + +But my experience, gained since then, is that rhinoceroses are not as a +rule dangerous animals, although a great many marvellous stories are +told about them, usually travellers' tales. + +Sometimes the hill and the jungle gave place to wide marsh lands, +through which the cattle were driven first, the horses following, and +last of all the foolish old king on his litter, with his rum bottle +beside him. + +Often he used to drink till he fell asleep. Sometimes he would make me +sit by him. Once he had his great hand on my shoulder, and kept feeling +at my neck. + +I afterwards asked Jooma what he meant. + +"Nothing he mean," replied Jooma, grinning, "only feel for proper place +to cut your head away. Dat nothing!" + +This was pleasant. + +At last we arrived in the king's country, and a small tent was assigned +to me near the royal palace. + +The country all round, although unfilled, was fertile and lovely in the +extreme. Giant cocoa-palms waved on high, some parts of the landscape +were wild orchards of the most delicious fruit, the hills were covered +with purple heath, the valleys carpeted with grass and flowers of every +shape and hue; while the birds that flitted among the boughs, and the +monster butterflies that floated from one bright blossom to another, +were lovelier than anything you could imagine in your happiest dreams. + +To King Otakooma's country bands of wandering Arabs occasionally came, +and visited the king in his summer tent or his winter palace--for he had +both. They came to solicit his assistance in the inhuman raids they +made upon surrounding tribes of less warlike negroes. + +Did I hope for escape through these Arabs? As well might the linnet beg +the hawk to deliver her from the talons of the owl. + +CHAPTER SIX. + + "Much I misdoubt this wayward boy, + Will one day work me more annoy. + I'll watch him closer than before." + + Byron. + +When I look back now to the first two, or even three, years that I spent +in Otakooma's country, among Otakooma's savages, I wonder that I was not +bereft of reason, or that, knowing escape by death to be in my power, I +did not have recourse to the deadly poison berry that grew in abundance +in many a thicket. Our goats ate freely of this berry, by-the-bye, but +it seemed to have no other effect upon them than to make them lively. + +But even at this date, strange to say, there are certain sights and +sounds that never fail to recall to me not merely my life among those +savages, but the very feelings I then had. For instance, in the county +in England where I now reside, the cow-boys, or sheep-herds (I will not +call them shepherds), have a peculiar way of calling to each other; it +is a kind of prolonged shrill quavering shout, and it bears some faint +resemblance to the howl of Otakooma's savages, as heard by night in the +forest. Again, anyone drumming on the table with his finger-nails will +sometimes bring to my mind the feelings I used to have on hearing the +beating of the horrid tom-toms. The beating of tom-toms and the +howling, combined now and then with a shriek as of some poor wretch in +mortal agony and dread, even when I was not present, but probably a +prisoner in my hut, used to tell me as well as words could, that a human +sacrifice was progressing somewhere in the vicinity of the royal palace. + +The smell of weeds burning in a field only yesterday depressed me; the +savages were constantly burning fires of different kinds of dried roots +and weeds. + +Just one more instance. I would not have a rockery in my grounds or +garden; it would remind me of Otakooma's terrible piles of skulls on +which weeds grew green, and flowers bloomed, and lizards--sea-green +lizards with crimson marks on their shoulders, and lizards the colour of +a starling's breast, that is, metallic-changing colour--used to creep. + +If ever at that time I spent a happy hour it was in studying and +wondering at the tricks and manners of the many strange denizens of the +forest. Monkeys, mongooses, and even chameleons I managed to tame. + +You see, then, I could not have been very happy. How could I? For at +least two years I lived in constant dread of a violent death, and I +never knew what shape it would take. I might die by the spear of some +angry savage; I might be sacrificed to please some sudden fancy of the +king; I might be burned at the stake or die by the torture. + +My enemy--and he ought to have been my friend--was the boy Jooma. He +was jealous, no doubt, of my influence with the king. I tried my best +in every way to please this lad, because he could talk English, but in +vain. He belied me one day after I had been a whole year in the +country, belied me to the king in my presence--he pointed his hand at +me. I struck the hand. + +Then, as he threatened to kill me with his knife, I squared up in good +English fashion and let my enemy have one straight from the shoulder. +He went down as if he had been shot. + +The fat old king shouted for joy. That boy Jooma had never had a proper +British bleeding nose before in his life, I expect. And he did not like +it. He kept lying on the ground, because he saw me in the attitude to +give him another blow. But the king made him stand up, and for fear of +offending the king I had to put him down again. Then he refused to +rise. The king told him that a cock and a goat and two curs were going +to be carried in procession to the execution ground that afternoon, and +that if he, Jooma, did not fight "the foreign boy" he should head the +procession and finally lose his head. So Jooma had to fight as well as +he could, and although I did not punish him willingly, he was paid out +for many an ill turn that he had done me. + +I was a favourite with the king for fully a month after this. He +brought boy after boy for me to thrash. Indeed, three or four times a +day I was fighting. I suppose every boy about the king's village had a +set-to with me. I cannot say I blacked their eyes because they were +already black, but they must have felt my knocks, and I know they did +not love me any the better for it. + +I did not know how all this would end, but my heart leaped to my mouth +when one day the king himself, valiant through the rum he had drunk, +stood up and announced his intention of trying conclusions with me +himself. + +What could I do? + +What would you have done, gentle reader? + +I knew I could have thrashed him, for though not old I was very hardy +and wonderfully strong for my years, but I did not want to figure in a +procession. So I submitted to be knocked down. Then I had to get up +and be knocked down again and again. It didn't hurt very much, but +there was indignity attached to it. + +The king had found a new pleasure, and every afternoon or evening I was +summoned to the palace yard or grounds, and first I had to fight the +king, then a boy of my own standing. Well, I am afraid that if I +suffered in body and mind from my encounter with the king, I took it out +of the smaller savage to follow. There was some satisfaction in that. + +But one day, to show his own wonderful powers of fisticuff, the king +summoned a crowd of his warriors to his palace, and made them form a +great ring. Then I was ordered in and pitted against an Indian boy +bigger than myself. I never cared how big they were, they held their +arms wide and hit downwards as if thumping a piano. + +After one or two boys had been disposed of, to the wild delight of the +warriors, the king took a drink of rum and handed the leather bottle to +his chief executioner; then he took off his extra garments--his one boot +and his crown, an old tin kettle without a bottom to it--and stood up in +front of me. I went down several times according to my own programme, +and the savages shook their spears and rattled them against their +shields of buffalo hide, and shouted and shrieked to their hearts' +content. + +Then the king hit me rather hard, and I suppose my English pride was +touched, for the next thing I remember is--horror of horrors!--the +sacred person of his Majesty King Otakooma sprawling on the dusty ground +and his nose bleeding. + +A silence deep as death fell on all the crowd. + +Then there was a rush for me. Spears were at my breast and I expected +only instant death, when the king sprang to my rescue and all fell back. + +If I had knelt to him and begged his pardon, even then I might have been +forgiven. + +But an English youth to sue on his knees for mercy from a savage! Nay, +it was not to be thought of. + +The king sat down. + +The king was silent for a space of time. The king took more rum. + +Then he ordered ropes of skin to be brought, and I was bound hand and +foot and taken away to a loathsome dungeon. + +I knew I was to die next day, and I longed for sunrise to have it past, +for I suffered excruciating agony from the tightness of the cords that +bound me. + +The time came. I was to form part in a procession, and did; I was +carried shoulder-high, lying on my back on a kind of bark tray, amid +tom-tom beating, howling, shrieking, and a deal of capering and dancing +that at any other time I should have laughed most heartily at. + +At the execution ground goats and cocks were killed, then it came to my +turn. + +The king came to have a last look at me. The cords were undone, and I +stood up staggering because my feet were swollen. The king looked at my +hands: they were swollen double the size. + +The king rubbed his nose. + +The king was thinking. + +"Now," he must have thought, "here is a hand (meaning my swollen fist) +that couldn't hurt anybody. What a chance to redeem my lost honour!" + +The king took more rum. + +Then he started from his throne and shouted. What he said matters +little. At the conclusion of his speech I was again dragged up to fight +the king. If I could have hit him then I would have done so. But with +such hands, how could I? So it ended in my being fearfully punished. + +Then there was such shouting and yelling as I had never before heard in +my life. But I was free. + +The king took more rum. + +For a whole year after this I was kept under almost constant +surveillance, but there was no more fighting. + +Sometimes the king and his savages went away on the war-path, for many +weeks together. When they did so, I was confined in a dungeon, and had +no other companions except frogs, lizards, and centipedes. All the food +they gave me was a piece of dried cassava root [the root from which +arrowroot is made], daily, and I had very little water. + +But in spite of my hardships, I grew strong and robust. Probably, if I +had not been a friendless orphan, if I had had a mother for instance, or +a father, or sisters, or brothers, in a far-off home to think about, my +misery would have been greater; as it was I had no one, for I believed +that Roberts and all the people of the _Niobe_ had been slain in that +terrible fight at Zareppa's fort. + +Amelioration of my sufferings came at last, and in a strange way. + +The king fell ill. + +The king took more rum. + +The king grew worse, and all the sorcery of his medicine men could not +cure him, so I was sent for. + +I had seen Jooma putting poison into the rum, and I told the king he had +been poisoned. Who had done so? he asked: the culprit should die. No +human being, I was determined, should die on account of anything I said. +I told him, however, that next day I should fetch the evil creature who +had destroyed the health of the king. Meanwhile the rum was poured on +the ground, and I made him a pill of the poison berry, and a little +scraped cassava root. He saw me mix it. His medicine men assured him +it would be death to take it; I took a pill myself, and when he saw I +did not die, he followed my example, and took two or three. For I had +found out that in small doses this poison berry was medicinal. The king +slept, and awoke refreshed. + +Then he called for the culprit who had dared to poison his rum. + +I went and found Jooma. I told him that his guilt was discovered, and +that his life was in my hands; that a word from me would march him to +the execution ground. He knelt and prayed for mercy. I told him he +needn't trouble, that Englishmen were far too honourable to harbour +revenge. Then I made him bring a very old and savage billy-goat, and +together we brought it to the king. + +The king was greatly pleased. He said he never had liked the looks of +the billy-goat, and he had no doubt that it had worked some deadly spell +upon his rum. So the billy-goat--poor beast--was slain, and after a few +more pills the king got better, and I was chief favourite among all the +tribe. + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + + "But what avails this wondrous waste of wealth, + This gay profusion of luxurious bliss? + Ill-fated race! the softening arts of peace, + Kind equal rule, the government of laws, + These are not theirs." + + Thomson. + +I became the king's head-counsellor, his prime-minister, so to speak, +his chief medicine man. There was not much honour in this, certainly, +but nevertheless it procured me some amelioration of my sufferings. +There was less of the dungeon after this, and fewer threats of +decapitation. + +I think the king still hankered after rum, and it was an anxious day for +me when some Arab chiefs appeared in camp. Otakooma assembled not only, +all his forces but most of his people. Something was going to happen, I +knew, but till now I had had no idea of the utter depravity of this +wretch. + +He was positively going to barter his people for rum. The Arabs would +buy them as slaves. + +It was terrible to see these same Arabs walking round among the sable +mob, as calmly as a farmer does among a herd of cattle, and picking one +out here and there. But, oh! the grief, and the agony, and the anxiety +displayed in voice and in action by these poor doomed creatures--the +scene defies description. Here was the child torn shrieking from its +mother's side, there a wife separated from her husband, or a husband +from a weeping wife. + +Some indulged their grief quietly, others gave vent to loud howls and +lamentations; while others lay moaning and groaning on the ground, ever +and anon taking up great handfuls of dust, and throwing it up over their +poor heads! + +I could not help turning away and shedding tears. But had they been +tears of blood they could not have saved these people. They were +relentlessly marched away, and I was really glad when night fell, and +sleep sealed the eyes of even those who mourned. + +It was bright clear moonlight. I rose from my couch, and stole out into +the open air. I wanted to think. The close warm atmosphere of the tent +seemed to stifle me, and I could not sleep. + +I passed slowly up the beaten footpath towards the king's tent. There +was not a single soul astir, it had been a busy exciting day with +everyone, and the king had been liberal enough in his offers of rum to +his chief favourites; and although some of them ought to have been doing +duty as sentinels near to his sacred person, they had preferred +retirement and slumber. + +I stole away from the camp, and ascended an eminence some distance from +it, and sat me down on a rock. It was cool and pleasant here, away from +that blood-stained camp. The moonlight flooded all the beautiful +country, bathing plain and rock and tree in its mellow rays. The only +sounds that broke the stillness were the yapping howl of the cowardly +jackal, and farther off in the woods the mournful roar of lions. + +It was a lovely scene, but terrible in its loveliness. I buried my face +in my hands. I was boldly struggling against my sorrow. How long, I +thought, would this life last? Should I live and die among these +terrible savages? Escape there seemed none. To attempt it, I knew, +would end in failure, and probably in death by torture. I was many +hundreds of miles from the sea. I did not even know in what direction +Zanzibar lay. No, I must wait for a time, at all events. What mattered +a year or two more to one so young as I! + +I suppose this last reflection had some kind of a drowsy influence on +me, for I lay down with my head on a piece of rock, and with face +upturned to the sky, fell fast asleep. + +How long I had slept I know not. I awoke with a start: something cold +had touched my face, and I had heard a creature breathing close at-- +almost into--my ear. I started, as well I might. The thing that had +waked me was a jackal; but there, not thirty yards away, standing boldly +out against the moonlit sky, was a gigantic lioness! + +There was astonishment depicted in every line of her great face. +Strange to say, at that moment I could not help thinking that she looked +far from cruel, and I could not help admiring the splendid animal. I +never moved, but gazed as if spell-bound. Probably it was my fixity of +look that saved me, for after staring steadily, but wonderingly, at me +for fully a minute, she turned round and stalked solemnly off, giving +many a look behind, as if expecting I should follow her. + +I waited till she was well away. I felt very happy at that moment, and +very bold. I went straight back to camp, and approached the tent of the +king, and softly entered. He was fast asleep and snoring. In the +matter of rum he had been even more liberal to himself than to his +followers. There lay the skins of spirits in a corner, not far from the +couch of the drunken king. I hesitated not a moment, but seizing the +king's own dagger, I stabbed--not the king, but the skins of rum. + +Then I hastened away with my heart in my mouth. Remember, I was very +young. + +There were terrible doings next day in camp, and, I'm sorry to say, more +than one human sacrifice. I, as medicine man and chief sorcerer, went +through a great many mummeries, which I managed to make last all the +forenoon. I was endeavouring to find out the wretch who had dared to +spill the great king's rum; that is, I was pretending to. There was +more than one chief on whose shoulders I permitted my magician's wand to +rest for a while, just by way of a mild revenge, but the lot finally +fell once again on an aged billy-goat. I had saved the king, and saved +many of his subjects, for when the king was intoxicated, human +sacrifices were of everyday occurrence. At ordinary times they were no +more numerous than Bank Holidays in our own country. + +When it was all over I stole away to the shady banks of a stream to +bathe, and lie and watch the kingfishers. It was a favourite resort of +mine, whenever I dared be alone. + +The warriors of this tribe spent most of their time either on the +hunting grounds--forest and plain--or in making raids on their +neighbours. I was allowed to join the hunting expeditions, but not the +forays. I became an expert horseman. I could ride bare-backed as well +as any circus-man I have ever seen since. The king was too fat to ride +much, but he used to follow to the chase of the koodoo. + +This is a kind of beautiful antelope, and excellent eating, its +principal recommendation in the eyes of Otakooma. We often caught the +young, and they became as tame as our goats. + +Now once having taken it into my head that escape from this country of +savages was impossible, strange to say I began to settle down, in +everything else except human bloodthirstiness, and soon became a very +expert savage, taking a wild kind of pride in my exploits. + +Mine was now a life of peril and hardship; adventures to me were of +everyday occurrence; I carried my life in my hand; I grew as wily as a +jackal, and I hope as bold as a lion. I take no credit to myself for +being bold; I had to be so. + +The king and I continued friends. At the end of the sixth year of my +captivity, Jooma died. He died from wounds received at the horns of a +wild buffalo in the forest. + +This buffalo-hunting had for me a very great charm, and it certainly was +not unattended with danger, for there were times when, headed by an old +bull or two, a whole herd of these animals would charge down upon us. +This was nothing to me. I could climb trees as well as most monkeys, so +I got out of harm's way, but it was hard upon the savages, who were not +always so nimble. + +Jooma was terribly tossed and wounded by a bull, and he died at the tree +foot. He called me to him before his eyes were for ever closed, and +asked me to forgive him for all the ill he had done me, and tried to do +me. + +"I have been to you one ver bad fellow," said poor Jooma; "I have want +to kill you plenty time. Now I die. You forgive Jooma?" + +"I do, Jooma," I said, and pressed his cold hard hand. + +"Ver well," said the lad, faintly and slowly. "Now I die. Now, I go +home--go home--home." + +We buried him just where he lay, between the gnarled roots of a great +forest tree, and piled wood over the grave to keep the sneaking jackals +at bay. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +One morning about two years after this, I was awakened early--indeed it +was hardly dawn--by hearing a tremendous uproar and commotion in the +camp, with much warlike shouting and beating of those everlasting +tom-toms [Note 1]. + +The king was running about wildly--too wildly, indeed, for his weight-- +and was summoning his warriors to arms. + +White men were coming to attack the camp! + +This was glorious news for me. + +But who, or what could they be, or what could they want? + +All that day, from far and near, the warriors of Otakooma came trooping +into camp. To do them justice they were fond of fighting, and eager for +the fray; they loved fighting for its own sake, but a battle with white +men was a thing that did not happen every day. + +The old men, the women and children, and the cattle were separated from +the main or soldier portion of the tribe, and taken westwards towards +the distant hills. So it was evident that Otakooma and his people meant +business. + +What part should I take in the coming fray? I might have fled, and +remained away until the victory was secured by the white men, but this +would have been both unkind and cowardly. On the other hand, I would +not lift a spear or poise a lance against my own people. + +That same evening, after all was hushed in the camp, I sought out the +king. He looked at me very suspiciously before I spoke. + +I sat quietly in front of him on the ground, and explained to him my +situation. + +He was wise enough to see exactly how I stood, but he told me there was +an easy way out of the difficulty. Early in the morning he would chop +off my head. He bore me no grudge, he explained, _it was a mere matter +of policy_. + +"Quite right," I replied, "and, if he chose, he might take my head off +then and there. I didn't at all mind; and would just as soon be without +a head as with one." + +The king smiled, and seemed pleased. + +"But," I continued, "you may look at the possession of a head in a +different light, so far as your own particular head is concerned. If +your people are beaten, you will assuredly lose that head, unless a +white man is near to take your part. I will be your friend," I said, +"in this matter, and during the battle I will stand by your person and +never leave you." + +Otakooma was delighted at the proposal, and so we arranged matters to +our mutual satisfaction, and I felt glad I had come; I had certainly +lost nothing by my candour. No one ever does. + +Firing began early in the morning. The battle raged till nearly noon, +with dreadful slaughter on the side of the savages, who were finally +borne backwards a disorganised mob. + +I stuck by the king. He did not fly. He felt safe and said so, but he +wept to see his children, as he called them, slain before his very eyes. + +Oh! the glad sight it was to me, after all these years, to behold the +bold bluejackets, and brave marines, dashing after the foe, gun and +bayonet in hand! + +But a more joyful surprise awaited me when the battle was over; for the +very first man to rush up to me and shake me by the two hands was my +dear friend Ben Roberts. + +"Nie, old boy!" he cried, "I wouldn't have known you. You've grown a +man, and what a savage you do look! And do you know, Nie, what all this +fighting has been about?" + +"No," I said innocently. + +"Why, about _you_!" He almost shouted the last word, and I could see in +his honest eyes the tears which he could hardly keep from failing. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Note 1. A tom-tom is a kind of kettle-drum. It is simply a log of wood +hollowed out at one end, and a dried skin stretched over it. + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + + "The sea! the sea! the open sea! + The blue, the fresh, the ever free!" + + Proctor. + + "England, thy beauties are tame and domestic, + To one who has roamed o'er the mountains afar." + + Byron. + +Yes, all the fighting had been about me. + +Our fellows had not lost the battle that day at Zareppa's fort; on the +contrary, they had given the Arabs a grievous defeat. I had at first +been reported killed, but as I was not found among the dead and wounded, +search was made for me more inland, and it was soon elicited that I had +been carried away prisoner, and no doubts were left in the minds of my +shipmates, that I had died by the torture, in order to avenge the death +of the pirate chief. + +The old _Niobe_ had been wrecked since my incarceration in the land of +the savages. Roberts had been made lieutenant, and it was not until he +returned to the shores of Africa, several years after, that he heard +from friendly Arabs that there was an English prisoner in the hands of a +warlike tribe of savages, who lived almost in the centre of the dark +continent. After this my dear friend never rested in his hammock, as he +himself expressed it, until he had organised the expedition that came to +my relief. + +What a delightful sensation it was to me to feel myself once more at +sea! + + "The glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form + Glasses itself in tempest." + +We were homeward bound. I was a passenger, and we had splendid weather, +so everything seemed to combine to make me feel joyful and happy. +Joyful, did I say? why, there were times when I wanted to run about and +shout for joy like a schoolboy, or like the savage that I fear I had +almost become. + +But I could not run about and shout on board a trim and well-disciplined +man-o'-war. The very appearance of the + + "White and glassy deck, without a stain + Where, on the watch, the staid lieutenant walked," + +forbade, so at such moments I used to long to be away in the woods +again, in order to give proper vent to my exultation. + +Besides, I had good cause to be staid and sedate. Roberts had heard +news that changed the whole course of my life. I was no longer a +friendless sailor-boy. My grandfather was dead, and I was the heir to +his estate. It was not a very large patrimony, I admit. It was simply +a competence, but to me, when I heard it described, it appeared a +princely fortune. There would be no longer any need for me to sail the +seas. I could settle down in life, or I could choose some honourable +career on shore, and, if I was good for anything at all, distinguish +myself therein. + +Or, stay, I thought, should I become a soldier? "No, no, no," was the +answer of my soul. The war was past and gone; even the terrible Indian +Mutiny had been quelled at last. To be a soldier in the field was a +career worthy of a king's son. To be a soldier, and have nothing to do +but loll about in some wretched garrison town, play billiards or +cricket, have a day's shooting, English fashion, now and then, be +admired by school-misses and probably snubbed by men with more money +than brains; no, such a life would not suit me. + +I should much prefer, I thought, to stay at home and till my garden. +With my jacket off, my shirt-sleeves rolled up, and an axe or spade in +hand, I should feel far more free than playing with a useless sword. + +Lieutenant Roberts was about to retire from active service in the Royal +Navy, and he had already been promised the command of a ship in the +Merchant Service. But before he left England he would, he said, see me, +his foster-son, well settled down. + +The ship was homeward bound. There was nothing but laughing and talking +and singing all day long, for many of the poor fellows on board had not +placed foot on their native shores for five long years and more. What a +glorious place England must be, I mused, to make these men so happy at +the prospect of returning to it. How brightly the sun must shine there! +How blue and beautiful must be the seas that lave her coasts! + +So we presently crossed the Line and sailed north, and north, and north. +Past Madeira--and then the brightness began to leave the sky. The wind +to me grew chilly, biting, and cruel. The sea became a darker blue, and +finally, as we entered the Bay of Biscay, a leaden grey. My hopes of +happiness fell, and fell, and fell. Roberts tried all he could to cheer +me up, told me of the monster cities I should see, of the ballrooms, of +the concert-rooms, and of a multitude of wonderful things, not +forgetting cricket and football. + +We sailed past the Isle of Wight with a grey chopping sea all around us, +grey clouds above us, a bitter cold wind blowing, and a drizzling rain +borne along on its wings. + +Then we entered Portsmouth harbour, and cast anchor among the wooden +walls of England. Finally I landed. Landed, much to my disgust, upon +stones instead of soft sand. Landed, still more to my disgust, among +crowds of people who stared at me as if I had a plurality of heads, or +only one eye right in the middle of my brow. I glanced around me with +all the proud dignity of a savage prince. The crowd laughed, and +Roberts hurried me on. + +I daresay a visit to a fashionable tailor and its subsequent results +made me a little more presentable, but I disliked this town of +Portsmouth with a healthy dislike, and was glad when my friend took me +away. + +I had to go to London. The railway amused me, and made me wonder, but +used as I was to the quiet of the desert and forest, it deafened me, and +the shaking tired me beyond conception. + +My solicitor, a prim white-haired man, said he was _so_ glad to see me, +though I do believe he was a little afraid of me. Probably not without +cause, for at the very moment he was entering into business as he called +it, and arranging preliminaries, I was thinking how quickly Otakooma's +savages would rub all the starch out of this respectable citizen. +_They_ would not take long to arrange preliminaries with the little man, +and as to entering into business, they would do so in a way that would +considerably astonish his nerves. + +"Bother business!" I exclaimed at last, in a voice that made the prim +solicitor almost spring off his chair. + +"Oh! my dear sir," he pleaded, mildly. "We _must_ go into these little +matters." + +He ventured to give me two fingers to shake as I left the office with +Roberts. I feel sure he was afraid to entrust me with all his hand. + +"And as soon as you get home you will telegraph to me; won't you, Mr +Radnor?" + +"Telegraph!" I said in astonishment. "Telegraph! and you tell me it is +five hundred miles from here to Dunryan. Do you think you can see a +fire at that distance? It must be a precious big one I'll have to +light, and the mountains around Dunryan must be amazingly high." + +Both Roberts and the solicitor laughed; they could see that the only +idea I had of telegraphing was the building of fires on hill-tops. + +I arrived at Dunryan at last--my small patrimony. If I was pleased with +it at all, it was simply because it was my own; but everything was so +new and so strange and so tame, that as soon as my friend saw me what he +called "settled," and went away to sea and left me, I began, in the most +methodical manner possible, to dislike everything round me. + +People called on me, but I'm sure they were merely curious to hear my +history from my own lips, and partly afraid of me at the same time. +They invited me out to tea! Ha! ha! ha! I really cannot help laughing +about it now as I write; but fancy a savage sitting down to tea, of all +treats in the world, with a company of gossiping ladies of both sexes. + +Now my neighbours made me out to be a bigger savage than I really was, +because, to do myself justice, I did know a little of the courtesies of +civilised life. There was one lady who expressed a wish to have the +"dreadful creature" to tea with her. I found out before I went that she +had styled me so, though her note of invitation was most politely +worded. + +The "dreadful creature" did go to tea, intent on a kind of quiet +revenge. They could not get a word out of me--neither my hostess nor +the three old ladies she had asked to meet me by way of protection. I +did nothing but drink cup after cup of tea, handing in my cup to be +replenished, and drinking it at once. The bread and butter disappeared +in a way that seemed to them little short of miraculous. I saw that +they were getting frightened, so I thought I would make them a little +soothing speech. + +"Ahem!" I began, standing up. I never got any further. + +One old lady fainted; another "missed stays," as a sailor would say, +when making for the doorway, and tumbled on the floor; a third fell over +the piano-stool. All screamed--all thought I was about to do something +very dreadful. + +All I did do was to step gingerly out into the hall, pick up my hat, and +go off. + +I lived in Dunryan for a year. The scenery all around was charming in +the extreme. The very name will tell you that Dunryan is in Scotland; +the very word Scotland conjures up before the eye visions both of beauty +and romance. + +But one year even of Scotland, the "land of green heath and shaggy +wood," was enough for me then. + +There was no sport, no wild adventure; all was tame, tame, tame, +compared to what I had been used to. + +But if following game in Scotland seemed tame to me, what could I say of +sport in English fashion? I tried both; grew sick of both. Hunting the +wild gorilla in the jungles of Africa was more in my line. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +One night, soon after the first snow had fallen, a carriage drove up to +my door. It was to bear me away to the distant railway-station. The +moon was shining brightly down upon our little village as we drove +through; here and there in the windows shone a yellow light; but all was +silent, and neither the horses' hoofs nor the carriage wheels could be +heard on the snow-muffled street. + +It was a peaceful scene, and I heaved one sigh--well, it might have been +of regret. For many and many a long year to come I never saw Dunryan +again. + +CHAPTER NINE. + + "The dismal wreck to view + Struck horror to the crew." + + Old Song. + +The earlier history of a human being's life is engraved upon his mind as +with a pen of steel. After one comes to what are termed years of +discretion, the soul is not so impressionable, and events must be of +more than usual interest to be very long remembered. The story, then, +of a chequered life cannot be told with even a hopeful attempt at +minuteness, unless a log has been kept day after day and year after +year; and my opinion is, that although diaries are often most +religiously commenced, especially about New Year's time, they are seldom +if ever kept up very long. + +My own adventures, and the scenes I passed through in the first stages +of my existence, were not, as the reader already knows, of a kind to be +very easily forgotten, even had my mind never been very impressionable. +It was easy enough, therefore, to record them in some kind of +chronological form. + +The few adventures I and my friend Ben Roberts tell in the pages that +follow, and our sketches of life, are given as they occur to our memory; +often brought back to our minds by the incidents of our present everyday +life. + +But I do not think that even if Ben and I live as long as Old Parr, we +shall either tire of spinning our yarns, or fall short of subject +matter. + +Let me say a word or two about the place I live in now, and where Ben so +often pays me a visit. + +We call it Rowan Tree Villa. + +It stands mid-way up a well-wooded hill, about two and a half miles from +a dreamy, drowsy old village, in one of the dreamiest, drowsiest nooks +of bonnie, tree-clad Berkshire. + +The top of the hill is covered by tall-stemmed pine trees, and from this +eminence you can see, stretching far away below, all the undulating +country, the fertile valley of the Thames, and the river itself winding +for many and many a mile through it--a silver thread amidst the green. + +From the top of this hill, too, if you take the trouble to climb it, you +can have a bird's-eye view of Rowan Tree Villa. + +There it is, a pretty, many-gabled cottage, with a comfortable-looking +kitchen garden and orchard behind it, and a long, wide lawn in front. +Now this lawn has one peculiarity. From the gate on each side up to the +terrace in front of the house sweeps a broad carriage drive, bounded on +both its sides, first by a belt of green grass, carefully trimmed and +dotted here and there with patches of flowers, and secondly by two rows +of rowan trees (the mountain ash), trained on wires, and forming the +prettiest bit of hedge-work you could easily imagine. + +If you were Scotch, and looked at that hedge even for a moment, the +words, and maybe the air as well, of the Baroness Nairne's beautiful +song would rise in your mind-- + + "Thy leaves were aye the first in spring, + Thy flowers the summer's pride; + There was nae sic a bonnie tree + In a' the country side. + And fair wert thou in summer time, + Wi' a' thy clusters white, + And rich and gay thy autumn dress + Of berries red and bright. + Oh, rowan tree!" + +Well, it is June to-day--an afternoon in June; a day to make one feel +life in every limb--a day when but to exist is a luxury. The roses are +bending their heads in the sweet sunshine, for there is not a cloud in +Heaven's blue. The butterflies are chasing each other among the flowers +on the lawn, where we recline among the daisies, and the big velvety +bees go droning and humming from clover blossom to clover blossom. + +"Strange, is it not, my dear Ben," I said, "that on such a day as this, +and in the midst of sunshine, I should bethink me of some night-scenes +at sea and on land? + +"I remember well my first experience of a storm by night in the Northern +Ocean. We were going to the Arctic regions, cruising in a sturdy and, +on the whole, not badly fitted, nor badly found ship. + +"The anchor was weighed, the sails were set, and spread their wings to +the breeze; the crew had given their farewell cheer, and the rough old +pilot, having seen us safely out of Brassy Sound, had shaken the captain +roughly by the hand, and wishing us `God-speed and safely home,' had +disappeared in his boat round a point. + +"We were once more on the deep and dark blue ocean. Then the night +began to fall, and soon the only sound heard was the tramp, tramp on +deck, or the steady wash of the water, as our vessel ever and anon +dipped her bows or waist in the waves. + +"The captain had given his last orders on deck, and came below to our +little saloon, the only occupants of which were myself and the ship's +cat. + +"Poor Pussy was endeavouring, rather ineffectually, to steady herself on +the sofa, and looked very much from home, while I myself was trebly +engaged: namely, in placing such articles as were constantly tumbling +down into a safer and steadier position, in keeping the fire brightly +burning, and in reading a nautical book. + +"There was a shade of uneasiness on the captain's face as he looked at +the barometer; and when he entered his state-room, and presently after +emerged dressed in oilskins and a sou'-wester hat, I felt as sure we +were going to have a dirty night as though he had rigged himself out in +sackcloth and ashes. + +"He sat down, and, calling for some coffee, invited me to join in a +social cup. + +"`Is there plenty of sea-room?' I inquired. + +"`Very little sea-room,' he replied; `but she must take her chance.' + +"Then we relapsed into silence. + +"About an hour or two after this it became a difficult matter to sit on +a chair at all, so much did the vessel pitch and roll. + +"The captain had gone on deck, and as I had neither the need nor the +desire to follow him, I threw myself on the sofa, at the risk even of +offending my good friend and companion, Pussy. + +"The storm was now raging with terrible fury. + +"Two watches were called to shorten sail, and the din and noise of +voices could be distinctly heard rising high over the dashing of the +waves, and the whistling of the wind among the rigging and shrouds. +Every timber was stretched, every plank seemed to creak and wail in +agony; yet the good ship bore it well. + +"Tired of the sofa I turned into bed, hoping to have a few hours of +sleep; but was very soon obliged to turn out again, having been awakened +from a pleasant dream of green fields, pine-clad hills, and a broad, +quiet river, where ferns and water-lilies grew, by the crashing of +crockery in the steward's pantry. It sounded as if bottles, dishes, +plates, and cups were all in a heap in the middle of the floor breaking +each other to infinitesimal pieces. And that is precisely what they +were doing. + +"Things in the saloon were fast verging into a state of chaos, and +appeared to be making very merry in my absence. The fender and +fire-irons presided over the musical department. + +"The captain's big chair was dancing very emphatically, but rather +clumsily, with the coal-scuttle as a partner; the table was bowing to +the sofa, but the sofa begged to be excused from getting up. The only +reasonable-looking article of furniture in the room was a chair, which +was merely staggering around with my coat on, while the cat had gone to +sleep in my sou'-wester; and while endeavouring to restore quiet and +order, I was thrown below the table like a pair of old boots, where, for +the want of ability to do anything better, I was fain to remain. + +"`Clear away the wreck!' I could now hear the captain's voice bawling, +for our fore-mast had gone by the board. + +"_His_ voice was not the only one I heard. On passing the man at the +wheel, I heard the captain ask, `What! are you getting afraid, man?' +And the brave British voice that so firmly replied `Not at all, sir!' +explained better than printed volumes could have done the secret of all +our naval greatness; for to hearts like his, and hands like his, in many +a dark and stormy night, Britannia entrusts her honour, and bravely is +it kept and guarded. + +"Musing on this fact, I fell soundly to sleep beneath the table, and +when I awoke the storm had ceased. + +"There are few situations in which a healthy man can be placed that are +more full of discomfort than that of being at sea in a small ship during +a storm. I do not refer to a mere `capful of wind;' I mean a great-gun +gale. There is, literally speaking, no rest for the sole of the foot. +Tossed about in all directions, in vain do you seek to exchange your +chair for the sofa. Probably you are sent rolling off on to the deck, +and thankful you ought to be if the cushions are the only things that +follow you. Flesh-sore and weary, perhaps you seek for solace in a cup +of tea: thankful you may be again if the steward succeeds in pouring it +into your cup, instead of spilling it down your neck. Then, if you so +far forget the rules of the sea as to place it for a moment on the table +without a hand to guard it, you are instantly treated to a gratuitous +shower-bath. + +"Still the ocean has its pleasures and its charms as well as the land. +My mind, even now, carries me back and away to a scene very different +from that which I have just been describing. + +"I am sitting in my little cabin. It is a summer's evening, and all is +peace within and around my barque. Yonder is my bed, and the little +port close by my snow-white pillow is open, and through it steals the +soft, cool breeze of evening, and wantonly lifts and flutters the little +blue silken hangers. Not far off I can catch glimpses of the wooded +hills and flowery valleys of a sunny land. And night after night the +light wind that blows from it is laden with the sweet breath of its +flowers; and between there lies the ocean, asleep and quiet and still, +and beautiful with the tints of reflected clouds. + +"Often in the cool night that succeeds a day of heat have I lain awake +for hours, fanned by the breath of the sea, gazing on the watery world +beneath and beyond me, and the silvery moon and tiny stars, that make +one think of home, till sleep stole gently down on a moonbeam, and +wafted me off to dreamland. + +"But in witnessing even the war of the elements at sea, a sailor often +finds a strange, wild pleasure. Enveloped in the thundercloud you mount +with every wave to meet the lightning's flash, or descend, like an +arrow, into the gulf below--down, down, down, till the sun, lurid and +red, is hidden at last from view by the wall of black waters around you. + +"Or fancy the picture, which no artist could depict, of a ship far away +in ocean's midst by night in a thunderstorm. Dimly through the murky +night behold that tumbling sea, lighted only by its own foam and the +occasional flash from the storm-cloud. See that dark spot on the sea; +it is a ship, and living souls are there--human beings, each with his +own world of cares and loves and thoughts that are even now far away, +all in that little spot. Whish! now by the pale lightning's flash you +can see it all. The black ship, with her bare poles, her slippery, +shining deck and wet cordage, hanging by the bows to the crest of that +great inky wave. What a little thing she looks, and what a mighty ocean +all around her; and see how pale appear the faces of the crew that +`cling to slippery shrouds,' lest the next wave bear them into eternity. + +"Whoever has been to prayers at sea during a storm has had a solemn +experience he will never forget." + +"Perhaps there is no more impressive ocean-scene ever beheld by the +sailor," said Captain Ben Roberts, "than the phosphorescent seas +witnessed at times in the tropics." But though far more common in these +regions than in the temperate zones, this extraordinary luminosity of +the water is sometimes observed around our own coasts. + +"I shall always remember," he continues, "the first time I witnessed the +phenomenon, though I've often seen it since. + +"What a happy day we had had, to be sure! We were a party of five--I +but a schoolboy, my comrades little more. It was the first time I had +been to that most bewitching of western islands called Skye. We had +started off one morning early on a ramble. We simply meant to go +somewhere--anywhere, so long as we did not come back again for a night +or two. Not that we were not happy enough in the old-fashioned manse of +K--. But we wanted change, we wanted adventure if we could find any, +and if we did not, then probably we should be able to make some. There +was, at all events, the wild mountain peak of Quiraing to be climbed, +with its strange top--the extinct crater of a burning mountain. Ah! but +long before we came anywhere near it, there was a deal to be done. + +"We had started from the beautiful little bay of Nigg, keeping a +northerly course over a broad Highland upland. + +"It was the month of June; the heather was not purple yet, but it was +long and rank and green, and it was inhabited by many a curious wild +bird, whose nests we hunted for, but did not rob; we saw some snakes, +too, and one of us killed a very long one, and we all thought that boy a +very hero, though I know now it was no more dangerous or deadly than a +tallow candle. + +"But the best fun we got was when we took to horse-catching. There was +not much harm in this after all. There were dozens of ponies roaming +wild over the green moor, and if they allowed themselves to be caught +and ridden for miles through the heather, why, it did not hurt them; +they soon danced back again. + +"We laughed, and screamed, and whooped, loud enough to scare even the +curlews, and that is saying a good deal. I'm not sure, indeed, that we +didn't scare the eagles from their eeries; at all events we thought we +did. Then we began to ascend Quiraing, a stiff climb and somewhat +hazardous; and light-hearted though we were, I believe we were all +impressed with the grandeur of the view we caught from between the +needle-like rocks that form one side. + +"We went down to the plains below more quickly than we came up. + +"Presently we came to a little Highland village close to the sea, and +there, to our joy, we found that a large fishing-boat was going round +the northernmost and east part of the island to Portree, the capital. +For a trifle we managed to take a passage. We had lots of bread and +cheese in our wallets, and we had some money in our pockets, good +sticks, and stout young hearts; so that we should not be badly off even +although we should have to trudge on foot back again to the old manse. +Which, by the way, we had to. + +"Our voyage was a far longer one in time than we had expected it would +be, because the wind fell. But the beauty of the scenery, the hills, +the strange-shaped mountains, the rocks and cliffs, with waterfalls +tumbling sheer over them and falling into the sea; the sea itself, so +calm and blue, and the distant mainland, enshrouded in the purple mist +of distance, repaid us for all, and made the day seem like one long, +happy dream. + +"But daylight faded at last, and just as the gloaming star peeped out +there came down upon our boat a very large shoal of porpoises, which the +boatman gravely assured us at first was the great sea-serpent. These +creatures were in chase of herrings, but they were so reckless in their +rush and so headlong, that we were fain to scream to frighten them off, +and even to arm ourselves with stones from the ballast, and throw at +those that came too near. + +"Night fell at last, and we were still at sea, and the stars came out +above us. But if there were stars above us there were stars beneath us +too; nay, not only beneath us, but everywhere about and around us. The +sea was alive with phosphorescent animalculae; the wake of the boat was +a broad belt of light behind us, every ripple sparkled and shone, and +the water that dripped from the oars looked like molten silver." + +"Ah!" said I, "that was one of your first experiences of the open sea, +wasn't it, Ben?" + +"I was only a boy, Nie," replied my friend. "I've had many a sleep in +the cradle of the deep since then." + +"I was reading this morning," I said, "of that terrible shipwreck in the +Atlantic. It puts me in mind of the loss of the _London_. I was in the +Bay of Biscay in that very gale, Ben; our vessel unmanageable, wallowing +in the trough of the seas, the waves making a clean breach over us; and, +Ben, at the very darkest hour of midnight, we saw, by the lightning's +gleam, a great ship stagger past us. We were so close that we could +have pitched a coil of rope on board. There were no men on her decks; +her masts were carried away, and her bulwarks gone, and it was evident +she was foundering fast. There were more ships lost, Ben, that night in +the Bay of Biscay than ever we shall know of-- + + "`Till the sea gives up its dead.'" + +CHAPTER TEN. + + "Throned in his palace of cerulean ice, + Here Winter holds his unrejoicing court." + + Thomson's "Seasons." + +"I don't think," said I, as Captain Ben Roberts and I sat at breakfast +one day in a homely old hotel in Bala, North Wales, "I don't think, Ben, +my boy, I ever ate anything more delicious in the way of fish than these +same lovely mountain trout." + +"Well, you see," replied my friend, "we caught them ourselves, to begin +with; then the people here know exactly how to cook them. But, Nie, +lad, have you forgotten the delicious fries of flying-fish you used to +have in the dear old _Niobe_?" + +"Almost, Ben; almost." + +"Well, I can tell you that you did use to enjoy them, all the same." + +"Ay, and I've enjoyed them since many and many is the time in the +tropics, and especially in the Indian Ocean." + +"So have I," said Ben Roberts. "Funny way they used to have of catching +them, though, in the old _Sans Pareil_. Of course you know they will +always fly to a light if held over the ship's side?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, but the orders were not to have lights kicking about the deck at +night, either naked or in a lantern; so some of our fellows--not that I +at all approve of what they did--utilised a wild cat the doctor kept in +a cage. When they came on deck to keep the middle watch--we were on a +voyage from Seychelles to the Straits of Malacca--they would swing him, +cage and all, over the stern. His eyes would be gleaming like bottled +wildfire. 'Twasn't long, I can tell you, before the flying-fish sprang +up at the cage. Old Tom put out his claws and hooked some of them in; +but lots flew on board, and they were being fried five minutes +afterwards." + +"I quite believe you, Roberts," I said; "though some would call that a +traveller's tale. But just look at that lovely pair of Persian cats in +the corner there, Ben; it seems almost impossible to believe they can +belong to the same family as the wild cat you've been speaking about." + +"Yes, Nie, civilisation is a wonderful thing when it can extend even to +the lower animals. You were once a savage yourself too, Nie. Think of +that." + +"I shan't think about it," I replied. "None of your sauce, my worthy +friend. What were you doing at Seychelles, and what were you doing with +a wild cat on board?" + +"We had queerer things than wild cats on board, Nie; the fact is, we +were what they call cruising on special service. We had a fine time of +it, I can tell you. We seemed to go everywhere, and do nothing in +particular. At the time we had that wild cat on board, Nie, we had +already been three years in commission, and had sailed about and over +almost every ocean and sea in the world." + +"What a lot of fun and adventure you must have had, Ben! Wish I had +been with you." + +"You were in the Rocky Mountains then, I believe?" + +"Yes, and in Australia, and the Cape. You see, I had a turn after gold +and diamonds wherever I thought I could find them. But help yourself +and me to some more of those glorious trout, and spin your yarn." + +"Let us get away out of doors first, Nie. On this lovely summer's day +we should be on the lake." + +So we were, reader, one hour afterwards; but the sun was too bright; +there were neither clouds nor wind, and the fish wouldn't bite; so we +pulled on shore, drew up our boat, and seated ourselves at the shady +side of a great rock on a charming bit of greensward, and there we +stayed for hours, Ben lazily talking and smoking, I listening in a +dreamy kind of way, but enjoying my friend's yarn all the same. + +"Yes," said Ben, "we were on special service. One day we would be +dredging the bottom of the sea, the next day taking soundings. One day +we would be shivering under polar skies, the next roasting under a +tropical sun." + +"Come, come, be easy, Ben; be easy," I cried, half-rising from the +grass. "If you were under polar skies one day, how, in the name of +mystery, could you be in the tropics next, Captain Roberts? I shall +imagine you are going to draw the long bow, as the Yankees call it." + +"Well, well, Nie; the fact is, we passed so pleasant an existence in the +_Sans Pareil_, that time really glided away as if we had been in +dreamland all the while. We sailed away to the far north in the early +spring of the year. We didn't go after either seals or whales; but we +did have the sport for all that. Our captain was one of those real +gentlemen that you do find now and then commanding ships in the Royal +Navy. Easy-going and complacent, but a stickler for duty and service +for all that. There wasn't a man or officer in the ship who wouldn't +have risked his life at any moment to please him--ay, or laid it down in +duty's cause. Indeed, the men would any day do more for Captain Mann's +nod and smile, than they would do for any one else's shouted word of +command. + +"We dredged our way up north to Greenland. It was a stormy spring. We +often had to lie-to for a whole week together; but we were a jolly crew, +and well-officered, and we had on board two civilians--Professor kind of +chaps I think they were--and they were the life and soul of the whole +ship. Whenever we could we took soundings, and hauled up mud and +shingle and stuff from the bottom of the dark ocean, even when it was a +mile deep and more. But when that mud was washed away, and the living +specimens spread out and arranged on bits of jet-black paper, what +wonders we did see, to be sure! Our Scotch doctor called them +`ferlies': he called everything wonderful a `ferlie.' But these +particular ferlies, Nie, took the shape of tiny wee shells of all the +colours in the rainbow, and funny wee fishes, some not bigger than a +pin-point. But, oh! the beauty, the more than loveliness of them! The +roughest old son of a gun on board of us held up his hands in admiration +when he saw them. We cruised all round Spitzbergen, and all down the +edge of the eastern pack ice. We shot bears and foxes innumerable; +walruses, narwhals, seals, and even whales fell to our guns; while the +number of strange birds we bagged and set up would have filled a museum. + +"Some of those walruses gave us fun, though. I remember once we fell +amidst ice positively crowded with them. They seemed but little +inclined to budge, either. Again and again we fought our way through +them; but the number seemed to increase rather than diminish, till at +last our fellows--we were two boats' crews--were thoroughly exhausted, +and fain to take to the boats. Was the battle ended then? I thought it +was only just beginning, when I saw around us the water alive with +fierce tusked heads evidently bent on avenging the slaughter of their +comrades. + +"Our good surgeon was as fond of sport as anyone ever I met, but he +confessed that day he had quite enough of it. At one time the peril we +were in was very great indeed. Several times the brutes had all but +fastened their terrible tusks on the gunwale of our boat. Had they +succeeded, we should have been capsized, and entirely at their mercy. + +"The surgeon, with his great bone-crushing gun, loaded and fired as fast +as ever fingers could; but still they kept coming. + +"`Ferlies'll never cease,' cried the worthy medico, blowing the brains +clean out of one who had almost swamped the boat from the stern. +Meanwhile it fared but badly with the other boat. The men were fighting +with clubs and axes, their ammunition being entirely spent. One poor +fellow was pierced through the arm by the tusk of a walrus and fairly +dragged into the water, where he sank before he could be rescued. + +"The ship herself bore down to our assistance at last, and such a rain +of bullets was poured upon the devoted heads of those walruses that they +were fain to dive below. The noise of this battle was something +terrible; the shrieks of the cow walruses, and the grunting, groaning, +and bellowing of the bulls, defy all attempts at description. + +"What do you think," continued Captain Roberts, "I have here in my +pocket-book? Look; a sketch of a strangely fantastic little iceberg the +doctor made half an hour after the battle. He was a strange man--partly +sportsman, partly naturalist, poet, painter, all combined." + +"Is he dead?" + +"No, not he; I'll warrant he is busy sketching somewhere in the interior +of Africa at this very moment. But I loved Greenland so, Nie, that old +as I am I wouldn't mind going back again. The beauty of some of the +aurora scenes, and the moonlight scenes, can never be imagined by your +stay-at-home folk. We went into winter quarters. Well, yes, it was a +bit dreary at times; but what with fun and jollity, and games of every +kind on board, and sledging parties and bear and fox hunts on shore on +the ice around us, the time really didn't seem so very long after all." + +"What say you to lunch, Ben, my boy?" I remarked. + +"The very thing," replied my friend; "but first and foremost, just shake +that ferocious-looking stag-beetle off your shoulder; he'll have you by +the ear before you know where you are." + +"Ugh!" I cried, knocking the beast a yard away. The creature turned +and shook his horrid mandibles threateningly at me, for a stag-beetle +never runs away. Although admiring his pluck, I could not stand his +impudence, so I flicked him away, and he fell into the lake. + +"Ah! Nie," Captain Roberts said, "if the wild beasts of the African +jungle were only half as courageous and fierce as that beetle, not so +many of our gay sportsmen would go after them. Only fancy that creature +as big as an elephant! + +"Well, Nie, in that cruise of ours, we had no sooner got back to England +and been surveyed than off we were down south, across the Bay of Biscay. +No storms then; we could have crossed it in the dinghy boat. Visited +Madeira. You know, Nie, how grand the scenery is in that beautiful +island." + +"And how delicious the turtle!" I said. + +"True, O king!" said Ben; "the bigwigs in London think they know what +turtle tastes like, but they're mistaken; there is as much difference +between the flavour of a turtle newly caught, and one that has been +starved to death as your London turtles are, as there is between a bit +of cork and a well-boiled cauliflower." + +"Bravo! Ben, you speak the truth." + +"Then we visited romantic Saint Helena. It used to be called `a rock in +the middle of the ocean.' How different now! A more fertile and +luxuriant place there isn't in all the wide, wide world. We called at +Ascension next; well, that is a rock if you like, not a green thing +except at the top o' the hill [it has since been cultivated]. But the +birds' eggs, Nie, and the turtle. It makes me hungry to think of them +even now. + +"We had whole months of sport at the Cape and in South Africa, and all +up the coast as far as Zambesi. We visited Madagascar; more sport +there, and a bit of honest fighting; then on to the Comoro islands--more +romantic scenery, and more fighting; then to Zanzibar. Captured prizes, +took soundings, dredged, and went on again. On, to Seychelles, then to +Java, Sumatra, Penang, then back to India, and thence to Africa, the Red +Sea, Mocha; why, it would be easier far to mention the places we did not +visit. But the best of it was that we stayed for months at every new +place where we cast anchor." + +"Visited Ceylon, I dare say?" + +"Yes, hid, and had some rare sport elephant-shooting. I tell you what, +Nie, there was some clanger attached to that sort of thing in those +days, but now it is little better than shooting cows, unless you get +away into the little-known regions of equatorial Africa; there you still +find the elephant has his foot--and a big one it is--upon his native +soil. But I remember once--I and my man Friday--being charged by two +gigantic tuskers, and the whole herd rushing wildly down to their +assistance. It was a supreme moment, Nie. I thought my time was come; +I would have given anything and everything I possessed to get up into +the top of the palm-tree close beside me. + +"`Now, Friday,' I cried, `be steady if you value your own life and +mine.' + +"I fired, and my tusker dropped. But the terrible noise and trumpeting +must have shaken Friday's nerves a bit. He was usually a good shot, but +on this occasion he missed. I loaded at once again, and as the great +brute came down on us, let him have it point-blank. He reeled, but +still came on. I felt rooted to the spot. My life in a moment more, I +thought, would be crushed out of me. Ah! but there must have been a +mist of blood before the tusker's eyes; it was a tree he charged; his +tusk snapped like a pipe-stalk, and the great elephant at once fell +dead." + +"It was a narrow escape." + +"Well, it was, but for the matter of that, Nie, who knows but that our +lives may be ever in danger, no matter where we are. A hundred times a +day, perhaps, we are upheld by the kind hands of an unseen Providence, +`our eyes are kept from tears, and our feet from falling.' + +"Should we be grateful when our lives are spared? I think so, Nie, lad; +only the reckless, and the braggart, and too often the coward, boast of +the dangers they have come through, just as if their own strength alone +had saved them." + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + + "They are all, the meanest things that be. + As free to live, and to enjoy that life, + As God was free to form them at the first, + Who in His sovereign wisdom made them all." + + Cowper. + +We had just finished lunch by the lake-side at Bala, my friend Ben +Roberts and I, and were thinking of trying the fishing once more, for +the clouds had banked up from the west and obscured the sun's glare, a +little breeze had rippled the water, and everything looked promising, +when the Captain burst out laughing. + +"Shiver my timbers! as sailors say on the stage, Nie," cried he, "if +there isn't that same old stag-beetle making his way up your jacket +again, intent on revenge." + +"Plague take it!" I exclaimed, shaking the brute off again; "I have +flicked him away once; I shall have to kill him now." + +"No you won't," said Ben Roberts; "the world happens to be wide enough +for the lot of us. Let him live. I'm a kind of Brahmin, Nie; I never +take life unless there is dire necessity. + +"We in England," continued Captain Roberts, "have little to complain +about in the matter of insects; our summer flies annoy us a little, the +mountain midges tickle, and the gnats bite, and hornets sting. But +think of what some of the natives of other countries suffer. I remember +as if it were this moment a plague of locusts that fell upon a beautiful +and fertile patch of country on the seaboard of South Africa. It +extended only for some two hundred miles, but the destruction was +complete. + +"The scenes of grief and misery I witnessed in some of the villages I +rode through, I shall remember till my dying day. + +"`All, all gone!' cried one poor Caffre woman who could talk English, +`no food for husband, self, or children, and we can't eat the stones.' + +"These poor wretches were positively reduced to eating the locusts +themselves." + +"I shouldn't like to be reduced to eating insects," said I; "fancy +eating a stag-beetle fried in oil." + +"And yet I doubt," replied the Captain, "if it is a bit worse than +eating shrimps or swallowing living oysters. You've seen monkeys eating +cockroaches?" + +"Yes, swallowing them down as fast as they possibly could, and when they +couldn't eat any more, stuffing their cheeks for a future feast." + +"On the old _Sans Pareil_ we had fifteen apes and monkeys, besides the +old cat and a pet bear. Ah! Nie, what fun we did use to have, to be +sure!" + +"Didn't they fight?" + +"No, they all knew their places, and settled down amiably enough. The +very large ones were not so nimble, and some of them were very solemn +fellows indeed; the smaller gentry used to gather round these for +advice, we used to think, and apparently listened with great attention +to everything told them, but in the end they always finished up by +pulling their professors by their tails. If at any time they did happen +to find that old cat's tail sticking out of the cage, oh! woe betide it! +they bent on to it half a dozen or more, and it was for all the world +like a caricature of our sailors paying in the end of a rope. Meanwhile +the howls of the cat would be audible in the moon, I should think. Then +up would rush our old cook with the broom, and there would be a sudden +dispersal. But they were never long out of mischief. The little bear +came in for a fair share of attention. You see, he wasn't so nimble as +the monkeys; they would gather round him, roll him on deck, and scratch +him all over. The little Bruin rather liked this, but when three or +four of the biggest held his head and three or four others began to +stuff cockroaches down his throat, he thought it was taking advantage of +good nature; he clawed them then and sometimes squeezed them till they +squeaked with pain or fright. They used to bathe Bruin, though. The +men brought the bath up, then the monkeys teased the bear until he got +on his hind-legs and began clawing the air; this was their chance. They +would make a sudden rush on the poor little fellow, he would step back, +trip, and go souse into the bath. Then the chattering and jumping and +grinning of the monkeys, and the laughing and cheering of the men, made +a fine row, I can tell you. We had two monkeys that didn't brook much +nonsense from the others--an orang, and a long-nosed monkey--we got her +in Sumatra--who looked a very curious old customer. The best of it was +that the sailors taught the long-nosed one to snuff, and the orang to +drink a glass of rum. + +"As soon as the old orang heard the hammering on the rum-cask to knock +out the bung, he began to laugh, and he beamed all over when his basin +of grog was brought. The other old monkey taking a pinch was a sight to +see. She stack to the box at last, and when any of her friends came to +see her would present it to them with a `hae! hae! hae!' that spoke +volumes." + +"Any other funny pets on the _Sans Pareil_?" + +"Oh, yes, lots. We had an adjutant. Ah! Nie, we did use to laugh at +that bird, too. Five feet tall he was, and a more conceited old fop of +a fellow I never did see. He had a pouch that hung down in front. +Well, he used to eat everything, from a cockroach to half a leg of +mutton; and when he couldn't hold any more he used to stuff his pouch. + +"`Comes in handy, you see,' he seemed to say, alluding to this pouch of +his. `But, dear me!' he would continue, `ain't I a pretty bird? Look +at my pretty little head; there ain't much hair on it; but never mind, +look at my bill. There is a bill for you! Just see me eat a fish, or a +frog, or a snake! And now, look at my legs. Pretty pair, ain't they? +See me walk!' + +"Then he would set off to promenade up and down the deck till the ship +gave a bit of a lurch, when down he would go, and the monkeys would all +gather round to laugh and jibber, and Snooks, as we called him, would +deal blows with his bill in all directions, which the monkeys, nimble +though they were, had some difficulty in dodging. + +"`Can't you see,' he would say, `that I didn't tumble at all--that I +merely sat down to arrange my pretty feathers?' And Snooks would retain +his position for about half an hour, preening his wings, and scratching +his pouch with the point of his bill, just to make the monkeys believe +he really hadn't fallen, and that his legs were really and truly +serviceable sea-legs. + +"I've lain concealed and watched the adjutants in an Indian marsh for +hours; there they would be in scores, and in every conceivable idiotic +position. + +"Suddenly, perhaps, one would mount upon an old tree-stump, and spread +wide his great wings. `Hullo, everybody!' he would seem to cry, `look +at _me_. I'm the king o' the marsh! Hurrah! + + "`My foot's upon my native heath, + My name, Macgregor;' + +"or words to that effect, Nie." + +"You were always fond of birds, and beasts, and fishes, weren't you, +Ben?" + +"I was, Nie, lad, and never regretted it but once." + +"How was that?" + +"I was down with that awful fever we call Yellow-Jack; and, oh! Nie, it +seemed to me that at first all the awful creatures ever I had seen on +earth or in the waters came back to haunt my dream; and often and often +I awoke screaming with fright. Indeed, the dream had hardly faded when +my eyes were opened, for I would see, perhaps, a weird-looking camel or +dromedary's head drawing away from the bed, or a sea-elephant, a bear, +an ursine seal, or an old-fashioned-looking puffin. + +"In my fever, thirst was terribly severe, and I used to dream I was +diving in the blue pellucid water of the Indian Ocean, down--down--down +to beds of snow-white coral sands, with submarine flowers of far more +than earthly beauty blooming around me; suddenly I should perceive that +I was being watched by the terrible and human-like eyes of a monk shark, +or--I shudder even now, Nie, to think of it--I should see an awful +head--the uranoscope's--with extended jaws and glaring protruding eyes. +Then I would awake in a fright, shivering with cold, yet bathed in +perspiration. But, Nie, when I began to get well a change came o'er the +spirit of my dreams. The terrible heads, the horrid fishes, and the +slimy monsters of the deep appeared no more; in their place came +beautiful birds, and scenery far more lovely than ever I had clapped a +waking eye upon. So, in one way, Nie, I was rewarded for my love for +natural history." + +"What a lovely day!" I remarked, looking around me. + +"Yes," replied Ben; "but do you know what this very spot where we are +now standing puts me in mind of--lake and all, I mean?" + +"I couldn't guess, I'm sure," I replied. + +"Well, it is just like the place where I was nearly killed by a panther, +and would have been, but for my man Friday." + +"He must have been a useful nigger, then," I said, "that man Friday." + +"He came in precious handy that day, Nie. You see, it was like this:-- +Neither he nor I had ever been to South America before; so when we went +away shooting together we weren't much used to the cries of the birds or +beasts of the woods. The birds seemed to mimic the beasts, and reptiles +often made sounds like birds. We had been away through the forest, and +such a forest--ah! Nie, you should have seen the foliage and the +creepers. We had had pretty good sport for strangers. We shot and +bagged everything, snakes and birds and beasts, for I was making up a +bag for the doctor, who was a great man for stuffing and setting up. We +had just sat down to rest, when suddenly the most awful cries that ever +I heard began to echo through the woods. + +"They came from a thicket not very far away, and at one moment were +plaintive, at the next, discordant, harsh, dreadful. + +"`Friday,' I cried, starting up and seizing my gun, `there is murder, +and nothing less, being done in that thicket. Let's run down and see.' + +"`It seems so, massa,' said Friday; `it's truly t'rific.' + +"We ran on as we spoke, and soon came to the place, and peered +cautiously in. + +"It was only a howler monkey after all." + +"And was nothing the matter with him?" I asked. + +"Nothing at all. It was merely this monkey's way of amusing itself." + +"Did you shoot him?" + +"I never shot a monkey in my life, and never will, Nie; it appears to me +almost as bad as shooting a human being. + +"`We'll go back to the lake-side now, Friday,' I said, `and have +dinner.' + +"Alas! I had no dinner that day, Nie, nor for many a long day to come. + +"There is no fiercer wild beast in all the forests or jungles than the +cougar or puma, and none more treacherous. I have an idea myself that +the darker in colour the more courageous and bloodthirsty they are; +however that may be, I would any day as soon fight hand-to-hand with a +man-eating tiger as I would with some of the monstrous pumas I have seen +in South America. And yet I have heard sportsmen despise them, probably +because they have never met one face to face as I have done, and as I +did on the day in question. + +"We were quietly returning, Friday and I, to the place where we had left +our provisions and bags, when he suddenly cried, `Look, massa! look +dere!' We had disturbed one of the largest boa-constrictors I had ever +seen, and it was moving off, strange to say, instead of boldly attacking +us, but hissing and blowing with rage as it did so. It looked to me +like the trunk of some mighty palm-tree in motion along the ground. + +"`Fire!' I cried; `fire! Friday.' + +"The crack of both of our rifles followed in a second, but though +wounded, the terrible creature made good its escape. + +"I hurried after him, loading as I went, and thus got parted for a short +time from my faithful servant and body-guard. + +"I soon discovered, to my sorrow, the reason why the boa had not +attacked us. + +"In these dense forest lands, the wildest animals prey upon each other. +Thus the boa often seizes and throttles the life out of even the puma, +agile and fierce though it be. This particular boa had been watching a +puma, evidently, when we came up. The brute gave me not a moment to +consider, nor to finish my loading. + +"I yelled in terror as I found myself seized by the shoulder. I +remember no more then. + +"Friday had boldly rushed to my rescue. He struck the puma over the +head with his useless rifle. The beast sprang backwards fully fifteen +feet, and prepared to give Friday battle, but the brave fellow was on +him, knife in hand, in a moment. Friday told me afterwards that he +literally flung himself on the puma. Had he missed his aim, he would +never have had another chance, but deep into the monster's very heart +went the dagger, and he never moved a muscle more. Friday was +unwounded." + +"And you, Ben?" + +"Fearfully cut in the shoulder with the puma's teeth, cut in the back +with the talons of his fore feet, and lacerated in the stomach with his +hind. They have an ugly way of cutting downwards with those talons of +theirs, few who have felt it are likely to forget." + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + + "Wide-rent, the clouds + Pour a whole flood; and yet, its flame unquenched + Th' unconquerable lightning straggles through + Ragged and fierce, or in red whirling balls, + And fires the mountains with redoubled rage." + + Thomson. + +My old friend Captain Roberts is quite a remarkable man in his way--yes, +I might go farther and say, in many of his ways. As a pedestrian, for +example, there are few young men can beat him. When he and I make up +our minds to have a walk, the elements do not prevent us. We start and +go through with it. + +But in summer or spring weather, when the roads are not quite ankle-deep +in mud, we dearly love to mount our tricycles and go for a good long +spin. We like to return feeling delightfully hungry and delightfully +tired; then we dine together, and after dinner, when good old Ben gets +his pipe in full blast, it would indeed do your heart good to listen to +him. Everything or anything suggests a yarn to Ben, or brings back to +his mind some sunny memory or gloomy recollection. + +One day last summer we started for a ride, for the morning looked very +promising, and the roads were in splendid form. We followed the course +of the Thames upwards, and about noon found ourselves enjoying our +frugal luncheon near a pretty little reach of the river, one of the +thousand beautiful spots by the banks of this famous old stream. + +As the clouds, however, began to bank up rather suddenly in the west, +and as they soon met and quite hid the sun, and as the day was still and +sultry, we expected, what we soon got, a thunderstorm. Neither my +friend nor I am very shy, when it comes to the push, so we ran for +shelter, and just as the thunder began to roll and the raindrops to +fall, we got our 'cycles comfortably housed in a farmer's shed. + +The farmer was not content, however, until he had us both indoors in his +comfortable parlour. He threw the window wide open, because, he said, +the glass drew the lightning; so there we sat with the thunder rattling +overhead, the rain pattering on the grass and sending up delicious +odours of red and white clover, while the lightning seemed to run along +the ground, and mix itself up with the sparkling rain-rush in quite a +wonderful way. + +"Terrible thunder!" said Captain Roberts. "Terrible! puts me in mind of +South America." + +The farmer looked eagerly towards him. + +The farmer's wife entered with tea, and this completed our feeling of +comfort. + +"You've got something to tell us, Ben," I said. "There is something +which that storm reminds you of. Better out with it, without much +further parley." + +"Ah, well," he said, "I suppose I must. Not that it is very much of a +story; only, gentlemen, it is true. I haven't lived long enough yet to +have to invent yarns. I haven't told half what I've seen and come +through. But not to weary you--what delicious tea, ma'am!" + +"So glad it pleases you, sir." + +"I've sailed around a good many coasts in my time; but I think you will +find scenery more charming on the seaboard of some parts of South +America than in any other country in the world. Round about Patagonia, +now, what can beat the coast line for grandeur and stern beauty? +Nothing that I know of. + +"But farther north--on the shores of Bolivia, for instance--the scenery +is just a trifle disappointing; the coast is low and sandy, and very +rough in places. + +"They call the ocean that laves it the Pacific. Bless my soul! friends, +had you but seen it one day in the month of April, 18--, you wouldn't +have said there was much `pacific' about it. The bit of a barque I was +coasting in was on a lee-shore, too, and there was nothing short of a +miracle could save her. We all saw that from the first. That miracle +never took place. We were carried on shore--carried in on top of a +mountain wave, struck with fearful force, and broke in two in less than +an hour. + +"It was a wonder anybody was saved. As it was, seven of us got on shore +one way or another, and there we lay battered and bruised. The sun +dried one half of our clothes; then we rolled round, and he dried the +other. We had tasted no food for four-and-twenty hours, for we had been +battened down, and all hands had to be on deck. So when a case rolled +right up to our very feet we weren't long looking inside it, and glad +enough to find some provisions in the shape of tinned soup. + +"Stores floated on shore next day, and spars, and one thing and another, +so we rigged a tent, and made ourselves as much at home as it was +possible for shipwrecked mariners to do. + +"We had been shipwrecked apparently on a most inhospitable shore. To +say there wasn't a green thing in sight would hardly be correct. Bits +of scrubby bushes grew here and there in the sand, and a kind of strong +rough grass also in patches; but that was all. Inland, the horizon was +bounded by a chain of mountains; to the west was the ocean, calm enough +now, very wide and dark and blue, with not even an island to break its +monotony. + +"It was a poor look-out for us, only we all agreed that it would be +better to stay where we were until our wounds and bruises were somewhat +healed, and until we had gathered sufficient strength to explore the +country. + +"We had plenty to eat and drink where we were; we could not tell how we +might fare elsewhere. Only we were quite out of the way of ships, and +our provisions would not last for ever. + +"For the first three or four days, I may say we did nothing else but +bury our dead. Sad enough employment, you must allow. But after this a +breeze of wind sprang up, which during the night increased to a gale, +blowing right on to the shore. When the darkness lifted, to our great +joy we found our ship, or rather the pieces of her that had in a sort of +way held together, floated high and dry on the beach. + +"Had we wished now to become Crusoes we should have had every +convenience, for we not only got provisions of all kinds out of the +wreck, but boxes of stores, guns, and ammunition. For the last we were +very grateful; and rough sailors though we were, we did not forget to +kneel down there on the sands and thank the Giver of all good, not only +for having mercifully spared us from the violence of the sea, but for +giving us this earnest of future good fortune. + +"The hawk scents the quarry from afar, and early next morning we were +not surprised to receive a visit from some armed Indians. They rode on +horses and on mules that seemed as fleet as they were sure-footed. +These Indians were kind enough to express a wish, not over-politely +worded, to possess samples of our various stores. We gave them to eat +as much as they liked; but when they attempted to pillage the wreck, we +first and foremost smilingly and persuasively hinted our disapproval of +such a proceeding. + +"This hint not being taken, we tried another: we levelled guns at them, +and they fled. + +"They came again the next day; and we made them many presents, and asked +them, in broken Spanish and a deal of sign language, to conduct us +safely over the mountains to the nearest Bolivian town or settlement. + +"They were in all about twenty, and if they were half as bad in heart as +they looked, then they were indeed scoundrels of the first water. But +we numbered seven--seven bold hearts and true, and we were well armed, +and able enough to drive a bargain with these fellows to our mutual +advantage. + +"We did so in this way: we were to have several horses and five mules, +which should be laden with all our own especial baggage. They--the +Indians--should have as much as they liked of the stores that remained. + +"They appeared to consent to this willingly enough. So we made our +packs up--taking the best of everything, of course, and whatever was of +the greatest value. + +"It was now well on in the afternoon, so we determined to start on our +journey inland the very next morning. The Indians had still half a +dozen good mules left, and they at once set about making preparations +for loading them. + +"There was a deal of squabbling and wrangling over the division, and +more than once they seemed coming to blows. + +"As soon as they had chosen all they could carry, we set about piling up +the rest of the wreckage in a heap, preparatory to setting fire to it. +This was absolutely necessary, for if anything was left behind it would +be but a short convoy those Indians would give us. They would hide +their mule packs among the mountains and hurry back for more. + +"They were very much displeased, therefore, to see what we were about. + +"But nothing cared we; and just as the sun dipped down into the western +ocean we set fire to the immense pile. + +"When darkness fell, and the flames leaped high into the air, the scene +was one worthy of the brush of a Rembrandt. The sea was lit up for +miles with a ruddy glare; the sands were all aglow with the blaze; the +Indians and their mules thrown out in bold relief looked picturesque in +the extreme, while we, the white men, armed to the teeth, and carefully +watching the Indians, though not in any way to give them cause for +alarm, formed a by no means insignificant portion of the scene. + +"We were early astir the next day, and on the road before the sun had +begun to peep down over the eastern hills. + +"We marched in single file, an old grey-bearded Indian leading the van +as our guide. + +"Before many hours we had left the sandy hills along the seashore, and +had entered the mountain defiles. + +"Scenery more rugged, wild, and beautiful I had seldom clapped eyes +upon, either before or since. At the same time we could not help +feeling thankful that we had obtained the guidance of these Indians, +treacherous though they no doubt were, for we never could have made our +way otherwise across this range of rugged mountains, nor through the +wild entanglement of forest. + +"By day many a wild beast crossed our pathway, but only seldom we shot +them, and we never followed far; we were shipwrecked sailors trying to +make our way to some semi-civilised town, where we could live in some +degree of safety until we found out the lay of the land, as our mate +called it, and fell in at last with some British ship. + +"These fellows, our guides, could tell us nothing, but they led us day +after day towards the east and the north. + +"We kept a strict watch over their every movement, and it was well we +did so. At night we bivouacked but a little distance from their camp, +and had separate fires and separate sentries. + +"Almost every evening after supper they made themselves madly drunk with +the wine they had received from us, and without which they would have +refused to guide us at all. + +"After four days' wandering we arrived, during a pitiless storm of +thunder and rain, at a strange and semi-barbarian village. The houses +or huts were built upon piles, and the inhabited portion of them stood +high above the ground; you had to ascend to this on a sort of hen's +ladder. + +"The street itself at the time we entered the town was more like a river +than anything else. But we were glad enough to find shelter of any +kind, drenched to the skin as we were, and wet and weary as well. + +"Next day was bright and clear again, and it seemed to me that every one +of the villagers turned out to see us start. They appeared to be +peaceable enough, so we made little presents to the women, and advised +our Indian guides to do the same. They were not inclined to part with +anything, however, and evidently looked upon us as fools for what we +did. + +"Our march that day was across vast plains and swamps towards another +mountain-chain, more rugged and grand than any we had yet seen. + +"We chatted pleasantly and sang as we rode on, for the Indians assured +us that in two days more we should arrive at a very large and populous +city, where plenty of rich white men lived, with splendid houses, broad +paved streets, hotels, and even palaces. We bivouacked that night at +the very foot of the chain of mountains, and next morning entered and +rode through gloomy glens and dark woods, and the farther we rode the +wilder the country seemed to become. Yet some of the woodland scenes +were inexpressibly lovely. We came out at last on the brow of a hill, +just as the sun was setting over the distant forest, and bathing with +its golden glory a scene as lovely as it was sad and melancholy. + +"A vast plain in the centre of an amphitheatre of hills, clad almost to +their summits with lofty trees, a broad river meandering through this +plain, and on both banks thereof what appeared from where we stood to be +a city of palaces. Alas! on entering it we found it a city of ruins. +Trees and shrubs grew where the streets had been, the gardens had +degenerated into jungles; we saw wild beasts hiding behind the +mouldering walls, and heard them growl as we passed; and we saw monster +snakes and lizards wriggling hither and thither, and these were the only +inhabitants of this once large and populous town. + +"Yet in the halls of its palaces the banquet had once been spread, and +gaiety, mirth, and music had resounded in its streets and thoroughfares, +till war came with murder and pestilence, and then all was changed. The +city's best sons were sent to work in mines, or slain; the city's +fairest daughters marched away in chains to become the slaves of their +terrible foes. + +"I could not help thinking of all this as I rode through this ruined +city of the plain, and sighed as I did so. The words and music of the +sad old song came into my mind: + + "`So sinks the pride of former days + When glory's thrill is o'er. + And hearts that once beat high with praise + Now feel that pulse no more.' + +"But the sun set and night came on, and with it storm and darkness." + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + + "Here roams the wolf, the eagle whets his beak. + Birds, beasts of prey, and wilder men appear." + + Byron. + +My friend Ben paused for a moment. + +A sheet of lightning almost blinded us. It was followed instantaneously +by one of the most terrific peals of thunder I have ever heard in this +country. + +"It was in just such a storm as this," said Captain Roberts, "that we +took shelter in the ruins of an old fort. We tethered our mules +outside, and we had not even the heart to keep the Indians from sharing +our quarters. For once, and it was the last time, we ate with them, +drank with them, and talked to them. How little we suspected them of +treachery! + +"We found plenty of dry wood in the old fort and soon had a roaring fire +with which to warm up our soup and cook our vegetables. + +"`Who goes sentry to-night?' I said to the mate. + +"`Well,' replied the mate, `I guess we'd better draw for it. He'll have +a wet skin whoever does it.' + +"It was just after dinner when this conversation took place. + +"`But,' continued the mate, stretching himself before the fire, `I +expect it will be between you and me, for, look, the other fellows have +all gone to sleep, and I feel so drowsy I really--don't--know--how +long--' + +"He said no more; he was asleep. + +"`Poor fellows,' I said to myself, as I took up my gun and prepared to +leave the room, `they're tired. I'll station myself here by the door, +where I can be in the dry and still see all that is going on.' + +"The storm continued with unabated violence. The rain came down in +sheets; the thunder seemed to rend the old fort and shake it to its very +foundation, while the lightning was everywhere; the whole world looked +as if on fire. Night was coming on, and rude though our shelter was, I +felt thankful we were not out in the gloom of the forest. + +"`How soundly they sleep!' I said to myself about half an hour after +when I went to heap more wood on the five. `How I envy them! I'll sit +a moment and think. The Indians are not so bad as they look. First +impressions are not always--the--best.' + +"The next thing I was conscious of was hearing voices close beside me. +It was the Indians bending over me and over my companions, and seeming +to listen for our breathing. + +"`They're dead,' one said. + +"`Better make sure,' said another. + +"Then with half-open eyes I could see drawn daggers gleaming in the +fire-light; but I was unable to stir hand or foot; I felt like one in +some dreadful nightmare. I tried to shriek, but my voice failed me. +Then, `O God, be merciful to us!' I inwardly prayed, `for our hour is +come.' + +"Two Indians advanced, knives in hand, towards the mate. One pulled his +head back, the other had his arm uplifted to strike, when suddenly he +sprang back appalled. + +"Was it sent as in answer to my prayer? I know not; yet I firmly +believe nothing happens by chance. The electric fluid had entered by +the roof, shattering the masonry and scattering the fire. It gleamed on +the uplifted knife of the would-be assassin; he dropped it, and with arm +paralysed and hanging by his side fled shrieking from the building. The +others uttered exclamations of terror and surprise, and quickly followed +the first. + +"I remember no more then. Daylight was shimmering in through the broken +roof of the building, and the fire had long gone out, when I awoke +shivering, and started to my feet. + +"Almost at the same moment the mate jumped up. He was the first to +speak. + +"`We have been drugged,' he cried, pressing his hand to his aching head. + +"`Drugged?' I answered. `Yes, fools that we were to trust those +scoundrels; we've been drugged, and, doubtless, robbed.' + +"The mate looked very pale and ghastly in the early light of the +morning; probably I myself looked little better. My surmise was right: +the Indians had gone. They had taken all our goods and our pack-mules +with them, and driven away the spare animals. Thank goodness, they had +left us our arms and ammunition. + +"Not even on the morning after the shipwreck did we poor fellows feel so +miserable as we did now, seated round a meagre meal of bananas and +gourds. + +"But we were intent on regaining our goods. + +"Clever though these Indians might be if alone and unencumbered, they +could hardly go fast, nor far at a time, through forest and jungle with +horses and laden mules. Nor could they go anywhere without leaving a +trail that even a white man could pick up and follow. + +"The rain of the previous night favoured us. We soon found the trail, +and, better still, we had not gone very far ere a sound fell upon our +ears that caused us to pause and listen. It was soon repeated--the +neighing of a horse. I sprang into the jungle, and there, to my joy, +found not only the horse I had ridden, but two others and some mules +besides. The poor brutes were quietly browsing on the herbage and the +tender leaves of young palm-trees, but were evidently delighted to see +us. + +"We went on now with more comfort, and had good hope of speedily coming +up with the pillaging Indians, of whom we never doubted we could give a +good account. + +"Somewhat to our surprise we found they were taking a westerly +direction, instead of going east and by north, as they had been leading +us. They were either then bent upon returning to their own village, or +making their way to some seaport where they could sell their plunder. +If this latter surmise was the correct one, we were comparatively safe; +if the former, any chance we had of recapturing our goods lay in our +being able to come up with them before they were reinforced by members +of their own tribe. This thought made us redouble our exertions. But +we were weak for want of food and from the effects of the drug that had +been administered to us on the previous evening, so that our progress +was not so great as we wished it to be. + +"The trail continued all day to lead us through the jungle; but before +sunset we found ourselves out in the open, on the brow of a hill that +overlooked a vast, almost treeless, swamp. It was bounded on the +further horizon by a chain of mountains--spurs, no doubt, of the +ubiquitous Andes. Away to the left, and just under the hills, we could +see smoke rising, and had no doubt that here our friends were encamped. + +"We speedily held a council of war, at which we discussed the best plan +for attacking the Indians. + +"We stirred not then till long past nine o'clock, when the moon rose and +flooded all the landscape. Then we took to the swamp. It was a +terrible ride: at times our horses floundered in the quagmires, at other +times they had to swim, to our imminent danger of being devoured by the +huge alligators with which the place seemed to swarm. We startled the +birds from their beds in the reeds, the wild beasts from their lairs in +the patches of jungle, and herds of fleet-footed creatures fled, +bounding away towards the forest at sight of us. It was a dangerous +ride. But we cared for nothing now; it was life or death with us. We +must reach the camp of the Indians, conquer them, or die in the attempt. + +"All night we rode, struggling and fighting against fearful odds; but at +five o'clock in the morning, or about one hour before sunrise, we left +the plain and entered the forest, determined to take our foes by +surprise. The ride through the tangled forest, without any pathway save +that made by the beasts, was one of extreme difficulty. But we were +free at last; and tethering our horses, we prepared for the attack. We +could see the Indians on a small plateau not three hundred yards beneath +us, asleep by their smouldering fires. But we were on the brow of a +hill, they much nearer the plain; beneath was a precipice, overhung with +trailing shrubs and creepers, fully five hundred feet in depth, which it +was impossible to descend without risk of being seen. + +"The place the Indians had chosen for a camping-ground was fortified by +nature. Probably that is the reason they had not troubled to set a +sentry. We saw our advantage at once; it was to make a detour, gain the +level of the plain, then creep up the hill upon them, attacking both in +flank and rear. + +"We carried out our plans most successfully. Few but sailors could have +climbed up the rocks which led to the plateau. So steep were they that +in some places the loosening of a stone or one false step might mean +death. + +"Just as we were at the very brink of this precipice, and within twenty +yards of where the enemy lay, a bough snapped with a loud report, and +next moment they were all up and on the alert. + +"There was no need for further concealment; we speedily showed +ourselves, poured a volley into their bewildered ranks, and before they +could recover from their surprise we were on them with our muskets, +which we used as clubs. + +"They were nearly three to one. They fought like fiends. So did we, +and the battle for a time was desperate. They were beaten at last, and +the few who remained alive ran shrieking away towards the rocks. We +cared but little how they fared. + +"Our mate and another man were wounded, but not severely, and in two +days' time we were able to resume our journey. + +"Providence was kind to us. We came upon a broad old war-road that led +through the forest and jungles and plains towards the setting sun, and +in one week more we were overjoyed to find ourselves standing on a +hill-side overlooking a verdant plain, with a river and a town, and +beyond it the blue sea itself, studded with the ships of many nations. + +"And those who climb the hills in Greenland in spring-time to catch the +first rays of the returning sun, were not more joyful than we were now. +We laughed and shouted, and I believe the tears rolled down over our +cheeks. + +"But we did not forget to kneel down there, and, with our faces on the +ground, thank in silence the kind Father who had led us through so many +troubles and dangers. And now, Nie, the storm is gone. We must thank +these good people for their kind hospitality, and start." + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + + "Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes + Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, + The bird of dawning singeth all night long: + And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad. + The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike. + No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm; + So hallow'd and so gracious is the time." + + Shakespeare. + +It was Christmas Eve. It was going to be an old old-fashioned +Christmas, too, there was no mistake about that. And to-night the snow +lay fully two feet deep on the lawn in front of Rowan Tree Villa. The +sky was overspread with masses of darkest cloud that were being +continually driven onward on the wings of a fierce north wind, seldom +permitting even one solitary star to peep out. The storm roared through +the leafless elm trees, and shrieked and moaned among the giant poplars. +It was indeed a wild and wintry night. + +Ah! but it didn't prevent my old and faithful Ben from making his +appearance, though what with his long white beard, his snow-clad coat, +and his round, rosy, laughing face, when I went myself to open the hall +door to him, I really took him for King Christmas himself. + +But half an hour afterwards, when the crimson curtains were closely +drawn, when the table was laden with good cheer, the two great +Newfoundlands sleeping on the ample hearthrug, old Polly asleep on her +perch, the cat singing on the footstool, and the kettle on the hob, with +Ben at one side of the fire, his pipe in full blast, and myself at the +other, you would have admitted we looked just as snug and jolly as there +was any occasion to be. + +"Well, Nie, lad," said Ben, "this is what I call the quintessence of +comfort. Heave round with a yarn." + +"Just the thing," said I; "but what shall it be?" + +"Well, we're cosy enough here, that's certain, Nie, and as contrasts are +pleasant sometimes, why, let's hear of some doings of yours in the ice +and snow." + +"So let it be, Ben; I will tell you of a Christmas I once spent in the +Arctic Ocean." + +"Not a very jolly one, I suppose," Ben replied. + +"Not so dull as you might imagine, I can tell you. Ours was a brave +brig, as strong as iron and oak could make us. It seemed to me that +there were no icebergs big enough to hurt us. We had spent the summer +whaling in Baffin's Bay. The sport we had, so far as birds and bears +and seals and foxes were concerned, was as good as anyone could have +wished; while the wild grandeur of the scenery, and the very desolation +of some of it, are painted on the tablets of my memory, and will remain +for ever. But we had not the fortune to kill a single whale. + +"Then winter came on us all at once, and we found ourselves frozen in, +in one of the dreariest packs of ice it has ever been my lot to lie in. +The days got shorter and shorter, till the sun at last went down to rise +no more for months. We had the glorious aurora, though, and moonlight +and stars, but sometimes for weeks together snows fell and storms raged, +and we were enveloped in total darkness and a silence deep and awful as +that of the very vaults of death. We managed, despite the weather, to +give Christmas a welcome, and were gay enough for a time. Perhaps it +was our very gaiety at this season that caused us to be so gloomy and +disheartened afterwards. + +"Sickness came, the black death almost decimated our crew, and when, in +the cold bleak spring-time, the sun returned, and the ice opened and +allowed us to stagger southwards, though the whales were plentiful, +there were not men enough to man the boats, and hardly enough to set the +sails. + +"I had been an invalid; indeed, I had barely escaped with life, and it +would be long ere I was fit again for the wild roving existence and wild +sports in which my soul was so much bound up. + +"`Come with me, sir,' said our captain when we reached New York at last. +`I'm going south for the good of my health, and I have cousins near San +Francisco, and it is right welcome we both shall be.' + +"`Are they ladies?' I asked. + +"`Ay, and dear good sisterly girls at that,' he answered. + +"My savage nature rather rebelled against the society of ladies, Ben; +bears and wolves were more in my line. But I could not offend my kind +friend, so consented to go. + +"`We'll take it easy,' he said, `and have a look at the land as we go +south.' + +"We did take it easy. We visited all the lovely and enchanting scenery +of the Adirondacks, then went slowly south and west; we lingered for +weeks in the Yellowstone Park. It was summer, all the woods and forests +were astir with life, the prairies gay with gorgeous flowers; there was +joy all around us; we drank in health in every breath we breathed. + +"I felt myself no longer an invalid when we arrived at the home of my +captain's cousins, an old-fashioned log mansion, with verandahs and +porticoes around which gigantic creepers flower-laden trailed and +twined, and cooled the sun's rays that sifted through their leaves, ere +they entered the beautifully-furnished rooms. There were wide, grassy, +park-like lawns, terraces, and fountains, and everything that wealth +could bestow or luxury suggest adorned this lovely spot. The owner was +a retired planter. His servants were still slaves, but the master was +kindness itself to even the meanest of them. + +"I would now fain have resumed my old life, and gone with rod or gun in +hand to the forest, the mountain, and stream. But I was not to be +permitted to do so. I must still consider myself an invalid. Such were +the orders of my captain's cousins. So I became a willing captive, and +did all that the dear kind-hearted girls told me. + +"And, indeed, sitting under the shade of a cool and leafy orange-tree, +the air perfumed with its delightful scent, with Letitia quietly sewing +beside me, and Miriam reading `The Lady of the Lake,' was as good a way, +Ben, of passing a drowsy summer's afternoon as any I ever tried." + +"Didn't you fall in love?" asked Ben slyly. + +"Don't ask any questions," I replied. "Stir the fire, my boy; just hear +how the wind is roaring, and the hail rattling against the panes." + +"Ugh!" said Ben, with a little shudder as he applied the poker to the +blazing coals. "Well, go on, Nie." + +"When I got still a little stronger, we, the captain's cousins and I, +used to go for long rambles to the hills and woods, and sometimes south +to a picnic or dance. + +"There are giants in the forests of California, Ben. Once, I remember, +our ball-room was the stump of an old tree, the lofty pines its walls, +and the blue sky its roof. + +"As I happened one day to let out rather inadvertently that I was, +virtually speaking, a homeless man, a wanderer over the wide, wide +world, my good host said bluntly, but kindly: + +"`Then, my dear sir, you are a prisoner here for the next six months. +Come, I won't take a word of denial.' + +"Well, I had to give in, if only for the simple reason that both the +girls added their influence to that of their father; I promised to stay, +and didn't repent it. + +"Though I say it myself, Ben, I was soon a favourite with all the slaves +about the old estate. I daresay I had my favourites among them; it is +only natural. One of these was Shoe-Sally, another was Shoe-Sally's +little brother Tom. They were both characters in their way, and both +oddities. Shoe-Sally was quite a personage about the old mansion. She +seemed to do anything and everything, and to be here, there, and +everywhere all at the same time. Shoe-Sally also knew everything, or +appeared to do so, and she was just as black and shiny as the shoes she +polished. Sally was bound up in a little brother of hers called Tom. + +"`Leetle tiny Tom,' she told me one day, `is so cleber, sah. He read de +good Book all same's one parson, sah. Make parson hisself one o' dem +days. Sure he will, sah.' + +"But Tom had a deadly enemy in the person of Joliffe the overseer, a +perfect brute of a fellow, with slouching gait and murderous eye. How +his master retained him so long I don't know, but he had been overseer +for more than ten years, I was told. Well, he might have been useful in +some ways, but he was terribly cruel. He did not dare to let his master +see him with a whip in his hand, but he had a short thick one in his +pocket with which he flogged the poor slaves most unmercifully. + +"Once Shoe-Sally came running to me; I was playing with a little pet dog +belonging to Tom: + +"`Oh! for mussy sake, come quick, sah!' she shrieked; `Massa Joliffe he +done whip my pooh brudder most to death.' + +"I followed her quickly enough, and I never want to see again what I saw +then. Joliffe had stripped the poor black boy, tied him up in the +stable, and was lashing him across the face and shoulders. He had +injured one eye badly, and the blood was flowing everywhere about. + +"`You cowardly savage!' I roared. + +"Ben, I have a hard fist. That wretch's head was under my arm in a +moment, and I simply punched it till I was tired, then I threw him into +the stall and let him have a bucket of water over him by way of a +reviver. Joliffe's face was a sight to see for some weeks. I told my +host what I had done, and the verdict was, `Serve Joliffe right!' + +"Poor Shoe-Sally came to thank me with the tears streaming over her +honest black cheeks. + +"`For what you hab done dis day,' sobbed Sally, `Hebbin will bress you +ebery hour in your life. And, oh, sah!' she added, `Sally will die for +you!' + +"I shudder even now, Ben, my friend, when I think of how true, how +terribly true, the latter part of this little grateful speech turned +out. + +"Time passed, and I felt happier far in that old Californian home than I +believe I ever did anywhere before. I never once, however, met Joliffe +the overseer, but he scowled a dreadful scowl at me, and I knew he was +inwardly vowing deep revenge. As for the little boy, Tom, he was taken +entirely out of the overseer's charge, and became message-boy and +`buttons' about the house. + +"It was before the tremendous civil war had broken out in America, Ben, +and I was very young and just a bit romantic. Perhaps I really was in +love with dear Miriam. At all events, there was nothing I would not +have done for her, and I was never so perfectly, so serenely happy as +when in her sweet presence. But everyone loved Miriam, ay, every slave +about the place, and every beast and every bird. The wandering Indians +that occasionally came around looked upon her as some being better than +themselves, and I believe that even when they were on the war-path she +might have gone to their camps, or to their fastnesses in the +wilderness, and need have dreaded nought of ill. + +"It came to pass that Miriam was invited to spend a week at the house of +a friend who lived some twenty miles from the old mansion. + +"Her father took her over, and--for sake of the drive we shall say, +Ben--I went along with him. I never enjoyed any drive so much, at all +events. At the end of the week, as my host was not over well, I boldly +volunteered to go alone for Miriam, and my proposition was accepted. + +"I should sleep one night at the house where she had gone, and together +we should drive home next day. I knew every foot of the road and every +feature of the scenery; even should we be belated, there would be bright +moonlight. At any time, a ride through the forests and hills of the far +West, when the full moon is shining down from a clear sky, is a treat to +be remembered, but with such companionship as I should enjoy, why, it is +bliss, Ben, and nothing less. + +"Now, something out of the common occurred on the very day I left to +bring Miriam home. It was this: both Joliffe and Shoe-Sally were +missed. Poor Tom was disconsolate in the extreme, and went about all +the forenoon with tears coursing along his nose, almost as big as the +silver buttons he wore on his jacket. + +"That same day at noon a strange meeting took place between two braves, +apparently Indians, in one of the deepest and darkest nooks of the great +forest. The spot was on the brink of a deep canon almost filled up with +fallen trees, the result of some terrible storm. + +"One savage, who evidently belonged to the warlike Apaches, and was a +chief, sat quietly and meditatively smoking. The other leaned upon his +club, and did all the talking, and this most energetically. + +"`Ugh!' said the sitting chief; `but the paleface and I am at peace. I +like it not. I care not for his scalp.' + +"`But think of the gold I offer you,' said his companion; `think of the +fire-water it will buy you. You will be happy for ever with such wealth +and riches, and think of the _prize_. You are a great chief, this +paleface girl will be brighter than the sunshine in your wigwam, sweeter +far than the wild bee's honey. Think.' + +"Nearer and nearer to a rifted tree not far from these two men crept a +dark figure, moving along low on the ground, and as silently as a snake +glides, till their every word became audible, their every gesture +visible. + +"There was much more that the club-armed savage said which need not be +repeated. Suffice it to say that the listener heard all, or heard +enough, then retired with the same stealthy gliding motion as it had +approached. + +"Miriam and I set out about noon next day on our return journey. + +"With our spirited horse, and light waggonette, three hours would have +taken us home easily. But we did not hurry the horse, and it was two +o'clock ere we had accomplished half the distance. + +"`We must be quick,' cried Miriam, looking at her watch with some degree +of anxiety depicted on her lovely face. + +"She had hardly spoken these words ere an Indian woman tearing a child +on her back in her blanket, suddenly appeared at the bend of the road, +and begged for a few coppers. I felt too happy to refuse, and drew up. +The woman leaned against the wheel, a silver coin glittered in her hand, +and next moment we had driven on. + +"Our path now wound along through a beautiful forest, and close by the +banks of a lake. + +"The view was charming in the extreme, and I could not help stopping for +just a moment that we might gaze on it. The day was hot and still; +there was silence on the hills, silence on pine wood and lake, broken +only by an occasional plash as a fish leaped up, or a bird stirred the +glassy waters with glad wing. We were almost close to the edge of a +fearful precipice. + +"`Get me that flower,' murmured Miriam, pointing to a deep crimson +anemone that grew by the side of the road. + +"I sprang down to get it. I had hardly reached the ground ere one of +the front wheels flew off and rolled over the rock; it took all my +strength to support that side of the machine, until Miriam should +alight. + +"My thoughts at once reverted to the Indian woman who had leaned against +the wheel. She had doubtless drawn the linch-pin. + +"There was treachery of some kind in the wind. But what could it mean? +I never for a moment thought of Joliffe and his possible revenge. + +"As quickly as fingers could work, I took out the horse and tied him to +a tree, then I backed the carriage into a sheltering corner of the rock, +and hardly had I done so ere the whole forest resounded with the howling +of vengeful savages. + +"I had expected no assistance from Miriam, and was surprised to get it. +But the dear girl had all the courage and coolness in danger of a true +American woman. Armed with a revolver each, we gave those Redskins a +warm reception; and though the bullets rattled on the rocks behind us +like the hail on our window panes, Ben, they retired discomfited. + +"We could hardly expect to remain where we were much longer, and hope +itself was sinking in my heart, when the yelling was renewed, and the +Indians came on a second time to the attack. + +"Ah! but help was at hand. Savages can _yell_, but there is nothing so +blood-stirring as the wild `hurrah!' of a Briton or an American. + +"We heard it now, and sent back cheer for cheer. + +"I can hardly describe the scene that followed. It was a fierce +_melee_, a hand-to-hand contest, and dreadful while it lasted. But the +Redskins were beaten, Ben, at length, as Redskins always have been in +the long run who crossed sword or spear against civilised man. + +"For the life of me I could never tell how long that fight continued. +It might have been but five minutes--it might have been an hour. + +"But there, in the midst of the dead and the dying, stood Miriam, locked +in her father's arms. + +"Ben," I continued, after a pause, "the most mournful part of my tale +remains to be told. It was poor, droll, innocent Shoe-Sally who had +followed Joliffe to the forest that day, dodged him while he disguised +himself, and crept after him, and listened to all he had said to the +Apache chief. She had hurried home again and exposed his treachery, and +as it happened our friends were on the spot barely in time to save our +lives." + +"And Shoe-Sally?" said Ben; "what became of her?" + +"We found her among the dying. + +"`My brudder, my brudder!' was all she ever said ere death stepped in +and closed the scene." + +There was moisture in my friend's eyes as he bent down to stir the fire. + +"`Poor Sally!' he said; `and were these her last words? Well, Nie, we +are all of us brothers and sisters in this world.'" + +Yes, my dear readers, all of us, as Ben said, black or white. Remember +that. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The End. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's O'er Many Lands, on Many Seas, by Gordon Stables + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK O'ER MANY LANDS, ON MANY SEAS *** + +***** This file should be named 37327.txt or 37327.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/2/37327/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |