CHAPTER NINETEEN.
THE END OF THE GUERRILLA.
I arrived at the Pen just in time for dinner, and found myself one of anunusually large party of guests, several men-o'-war being in port at thetime, while a large contingent of civilians might always be met at theadmiral's table. The old gentleman received me with all his wontedkindness and cordiality, introducing me to such of his guests as I hadnot met before, and relating over the dinner-table, with much gusto, thestory of my abduction and escape. Then I produced Morillo's letter ofdefiance, which I took with me to show him, and which added a fillip tothe conversation that lasted us until the cloth was drawn. We satrather late over our wine, and when we rose to go the admiral invited meinto his library for a moment, and said--
"Well, my lad, d'ye intend to accept that piratical rascal's challenge?"
"Most assuredly I do, sir, if I can but fall in with him," answered I.
"Very well," said the admiral, "you shall have every opportunity to givehim the thrashing that he so richly deserves. There," handing me apacket, "are your orders, which you will find are that, while cruisingagainst the enemy, and doing as much harm as you can to their commerce,you are to keep a bright lookout for Morillo, and either capture ordestroy him at all costs. When do you sail?"
"The moment that I can get aboard, sir," answered I.
"That's right, that's right; you will then be able to make a good offingbefore the land-breeze drops," returned the admiral. "Well," hecontinued, "good-bye, my boy, and a successful cruise to you. And if,when you return, you bring Morillo with you, or can assure me of hisdestruction, you shall have t'other swab; for I shall consider that youhave well-earned it."
And therewith I left him and drove into Kingston, where I routed out aboatman and made the best of my way aboard the _Diane_. An hour laterthe brigantine was under way, and threading her passage through theshoals to seaward under the influence of a roaring land-breeze.
The question that now exercised my mind was, where was I to look forMorillo? In what direction should I be most likely to find him? It wasa most difficult question to answer; but, after considering the matterin all its bearings, I came to the conclusion that his most likely hauntwould probably be near one of the great entrances from the Atlantic tothe Caribbean Sea, where he would be conveniently posted to interceptand plunder both outward and homeward-bound ships; although he wouldprobably take care not to establish himself _too_ near, lest he shouldrun foul of any of our cruisers stationed in the same locality for theprotection of British bottoms trading to and from West Indian ports. Hewould in all likelihood select a spot some two or three hundred milesaway out in the Atlantic, from which he could command both the outwardand the homeward routes of ships bound from and to Europe. I opened achart of the North Atlantic and studied it carefully, trying to imaginemyself in his place, and thinking what I should do under suchcircumstances; and reasoning in this way, I at length fixed upon a beltof ocean suitable for piratical purposes, and thither I determined tomake my way, thoroughly searching every mile of intervening water as Idid so. Then came the question whether I should select the Windward orthe Mona Passage by which to make my way into the Atlantic; and aftermuch anxious consideration I decided upon the Windward Passage, thatbeing the channel most frequently used by our merchantmen. Iaccordingly set the course for Morant Point, and then went below andturned in.
When I went on deck next morning, shortly after daybreak, I found thatthe _Diane_ had weathered the point and was now on the starboard tack,heading well up for Cape Mayzi, with the Blue Mountains already assumingthe hue from which they are named, as the brigantine rapidly left themastern. It was a brilliant morning, with the trade wind piping up tothe tune of half a gale; yet the little ship was showing hertopgallantsail to it, and sheering through the rather short, choppy sealike a mad thing, with her yards braced hard in against the lee rigging,and the lower half of her foresail dark with spray, while the white foamhissed and seethed and raced past her to leeward at a pace that made onegiddy to look at. That the _Diane_ was a perfect marvel in the matterof speed--and a good sea-boat withal--was undeniable; and as I stoodaft, to windward of the helmsman, and watched the little hookerthrashing along, I felt sanguine that, should we be fortunate enough toencounter Senor Morillo, he would have but small chance of escaping usby showing a clean pair of heels.
The following midnight found us handsomely weathering Cape Mayzi, themost easterly extremity of the island of Cuba, after which we held onuntil we had brought the southern extremity of Great Inagua broad abeam,when we again tacked, and so worked our way out to sea between theHandkerchief shoal and Grand Caicos, passing an inward-bound Indiaman onthe way. I spoke this vessel, asking if they had sighted any suspiciouscraft of late; to which the skipper replied that four days previously hehad been chased by a French brig, which he had contrived to elude in thedarkness; and that he had on the following day sighted and spoken theBritish frigate _Euterpe_, which had forthwith proceeded in quest of thebrig. Thenceforth we sighted nothing until our fifth day out, when wefell in with the _Euterpe_, which had just returned to her station afteran unsuccessful search. Two days later we sighted a British privateer,which made sail and tried to run away from us as soon as she made outour pennant, fearing--so the skipper said when we overhauled andcompelled him to heave-to--that we should impress some of his men. But,as I had as many hands as I required, I let him go without compellinghim to pay toll. His report was that the Atlantic was absolutely emptyof shipping, he having sighted nothing but a British line-of-battle shipand three frigates during his passage across.
Finally, we reached the cruising-ground that I had selected as being themost likely spot in which to meet Morillo; and there we cruised for afull fortnight, just reaching to and fro athwart the wind, undermainsail, topsail, and jib, and still there was no sign of the_Guerrilla_ or of any other craft. At length I became so thoroughlydiscouraged that one night, soon after sundown, I went below, got out mychart, and proceeded to study it afresh, with a view to the selection ofsome other cruising-ground; and at length, after long and anxiousconsideration, I fixed upon a new spot, for which I determined to bearup next day if by noon nothing had hove in sight.
It chanced, however, that at dawn next morning a craft was made out someten miles to windward of us, and the officer of the watch at once camedown below and called me. I went on deck immediately, to find that theday was just breaking, and the stranger even then only barely visibleagainst the faint light that was spreading along the eastern horizon.As we stood looking, we made her out to be a square-rigged vessel,apparently of no great size, running down toward us under easy canvas;and the thought came to me that here was the _Guerrilla_ at last, andthat my patience was about to meet its reward. But a few minuteslater--by which time, as I supposed, it had grown light enough to revealour canvas to the approaching stranger--the craft suddenly hauled herwind; and I then saw that she was a brig. That she was not amerchantman was obvious from the fact that she was under such shortcanvas, all she showed being her two topsails, spanker, and jib--justsuch canvas as a privateer or gun-brig would show, in fact, on hercruising-ground; and I at once set her down for one or the other. Ofher nationality, however, it was impossible to correctly judge at thatdistance and in the still imperfect light; but there was a certainsubtle something in her appearance that suggested France as the land ofher birth. Meanwhile, as she had rounded-to on the same tack asourselves, evidently with the intention of taking a good look at usbefore approaching too near, we held on as we were going, taking nonotice whatever of her. In about a quarter of an hour, however, itbecame apparent that we were head-reaching upon her; whereupon shedropped her foresail, to keep pace with us, while we on our part took asmall pull upon the lee braces, which enabled us to head up a pointhigher, and so gradually edge up toward her.
Such excessive caution as the stranger was now exhibiting convinced methat she could not be British; she must, consequently, be an enemy. Andhaving once made up my
mind upon this point, I very gradually braced ouryards as flat in against the rigging as they would come, flattened inthe main and jib-sheets, and thus brought the _Diane_ on a taut bowline,without, as I hoped, arousing the suspicion of the stranger, meanwhilekeeping the telescope constantly levelled upon her in order that, shouldI see any hands in her rigging going aloft to make sail, we might followsuit without loss of time. But I did not wish to take the initiative,because by so doing I might possibly alarm them; while, so long as weboth kept on as we were, we were gradually and almost imperceptiblyclosing her.
This state of affairs prevailed for about an hour, when suddenly--withthe view, perhaps, of compelling us to disclose our intentions--thestranger tacked. Obliged thus to throw off the mask, we at once did thesame, the hands--who had been standing by, waiting for orders--at thesame time springing into the rigging to loose our additional canvas; andby the time that the little hooker was fairly round on the starboardtack, and the yards swung, our topgallant sail and gaff-topsail weresheeted home and in the act of being hoisted, together with the flying-jib, foretopmast staysail, and main and maintopmast staysails, while thefore tack was being boarded and the sheet hauled aft. This caused animmediate stir aboard the stranger, who, in her turn, at once set allplain sail to her topgallant sails, the wind being altogether too freshfor either of us to show a royal to it.
The manoeuvres just described brought the brig about three points beforeour starboard beam and some eight miles to windward of us, both craftbeing now close-hauled on the starboard tack. There was a strong breezeblowing from the north-east, with a fair amount of sea on, and the daywas brilliantly fine, with a rich, clear, crystalline blue sky, dappledhere and there with puffs of white trade-cloud sailing solemnly athwartour mastheads; a splendid day for sailing, and we had the whole of itbefore us.
It soon became apparent that we were gaining upon the brig--weatheringand fore-reaching upon her at the same time; and as it was now broaddaylight, I sent the men to quarters, hoisted our colours, and fired ashotted gun to windward as an invitation to her to heave-to; but of thisshe took no notice whatever. By nine o'clock--at which hour I took anobservation of the sun for my longitude--we had fore-reached upon thebrig sufficiently to bring her a couple of points abaft our weatherbeam, and then, in accordance with the rule for chasing, we tackedagain; whereupon she did the same, thus bringing us right astern andslightly to windward of her. It was now a stern-chase, she being asnearly as possible seven miles ahead of us. The wind held steady, andhour after hour the two craft went plunging along at racing speed, thebrigantine gaining steadily all the time, until by one o'clock the chasewas within range, and we opened fire upon her with our long eighteen-pounder. Our shot flew close to her on either side,--as we could see bythe jets of water thrown up,--but it was fully half an hour before wehit her, which we then did fair in the centre of her stern. Sheimmediately shot into the wind, all aback, and it took them fully fiveminutes to box her off again, when--seeing, I suppose, that they couldnot now possibly escape us--her people clewed up her courses, hauleddown topgallant sails and staysails, until they had reduced their canvasto what it had been when we first sighted her, hoisted French colours,and bore up for us.
It was at this time that we first made out the upper canvas of anothervessel just appearing above the horizon in the northern board, andevidently steering in our direction; and upon sending aloft one of themidshipmen who were acting as my lieutenants, he reported her as a craftof apparently about our own size. The fact that she was heading_toward_ us led me to the conclusion that she must be either a privateeror a small cruiser like ourselves,--evidently attracted by the sound ofour guns,--and as I did not wish for her assistance, if a friend, or theadditional anxiety of having to fight her at the same time as the brig,if an enemy, I called the hands aft and made them a brief speech,impressing upon them the importance of settling the brig's business aspromptly as possible, in order that we might be free to give the otherstranger our undivided attention, if necessary. They answered with ahearty cheer, and went back to their guns; and a quarter of an hourlater the brig rounded-to within biscuit-toss to windward of us, givingus her larboard broadside as she did so.
This was the beginning of a regular set-to, hammer and tongs, betweenus, the French fighting with the utmost courage and determination, andplaying havoc with our rigging, which they cut up so severely that halfa dozen of our people were kept busy aloft knotting and splicing. Atlength, however, when the fight had thus been raging for a full hour,with heavy loss on both sides, tacking suddenly under cover of the smokeof our starboard broadside, we shot across the brig's stern, raking herwith a double-shotted broadside from our larboard guns, which had theeffect of bringing both her masts down by the run, rendering her a wreckand unmanageable; and we now felt that she was ours.
But we were reckoning without our host--or rather, without the secondstranger, whom we had been altogether too busy to give a thought to. Asthe smoke of our guns blew away to leeward, and we prepared to tackagain preparatory to passing once more athwart the brig's stern, I got afull and clear view of the stranger, who--approaching us from towindward--had hitherto been hidden from us by the brig and by the smokeof our combined cannonade. She was less than half a mile distant fromus, and was at the moment in the very act of taking in her studding-sails. She was a brigantine, and a single glance at her sufficed toassure me that she was the _Guerrilla_, and that at last the feudbetween Morillo and myself was to be fought out to the bitter end. Ihad long ago prepared a red swallow-tailed burgee, such as the piratehad dared me to exhibit, and I immediately gave orders to hoist it atour fore royal masthead. The flag had scarcely reached the truck when Isaw a _black_ flag flutter out over the other brigantine's rail and gosoaring aloft to her gaff-end. Morillo had evidently recognised mychallenge, and was prompt to answer it.
Sweeping under the brig's stern again, at a distance of only a fewfathoms, I hailed, asking whether they surrendered; but a pistol-shot,which flew close past my ear, was their only reply, so we gave them ourstarboard broadside, and then wore round to meet our new antagonist,leaving the brig meanwhile to her own devices.
I am of opinion that Morillo must have had a very shrewd suspicion as toour identity long before the exhibition of our burgee, because of theeager haste with which he bore down upon us. So eager, indeed, was he,that he carried his studding-sails just a minute or two _too_ long; amistake on his part, which enabled us to make a couple of shortstretches to windward and secure the weather-gage before he was ready toround-to, although as soon as his people detected our purpose theyworked with frantic haste to shorten sail.
The pirates opened the ball by giving us their whole larboard broadsidewhile we were in stays, tacking toward them; but the guns were firedhurriedly, and did us no harm, the shot flying high over us and betweenour masts, without touching so much as a ropeyarn. Five minutes laterwe passed close across the _Guerrilla's_ stern, making a half-board toclear her, and delivered our larboard broadside, with the eighteen-pounder thrown in, every shot taking effect and raking her from end toend. Morillo was standing aft by the taffrail, and as we passed nearenough to hear the wash of the water about the pirate vessel's rudder,he suddenly snatched up a blunderbuss, and, singling me out, firedpoint-blank at me, one bullet knocking my cap off, while another lodgedin my left shoulder, a third killing the man at our wheel, close behindme. The _Guerrilla_ immediately ported her helm, while I, springing toour wheel, put it hard a-starboard, thus passing a second time athwartour antagonist's stern; and again we raked her mercilessly, this timewith our starboard broadside. Keeping our wheel hard over, we sweptround until we were once more in stays, the _Guerrilla_ having tackedtoward us a minute earlier, with the evident intention of raking us inher turn. We were just a little too quick for her, however, gatheringway so smartly that, as we neared each other, it became evident that,unless one or the other of us tacked again, we must inevitably run foulof each other. I had no mind for this sort of thing, however,
as weshould probably hurt ourselves quite as much as our antagonist; so,holding on until we had only just room to clear the _Guerrilla_, andsinging out for a second shot to be rammed home in the larboard guns, Ieased our helm down just at the right moment, ranging up so close to theother brigantine that we almost grazed her side, when we exchangedbroadsides at precisely the same instant, with terrible effect on bothsides. At the same moment our topsail was thrown aback to deaden ourway, and as the _Guerrilla_ passed ahead our helm was put hard up and wepaid square off across her stern, firing our starboard broadside intoher as we did so. The result this time was absolutely disastrous to thepirates, for the guns were fired at the precise moment when the_Guerrilla's_ stern was lifted up on the crest of a sea, while we werein the trough beyond; in consequence of which, our shot all struck her atrifle below her normal water-line, producing a very serious leak,which, even under the most favourable circumstances, it would have beenexceedingly difficult to stop. But this was not the worst of it; theshot, by a lucky accident, so far as we were concerned, had somehowbecome concentrated, all of them taking effect upon the pirate's rudderand stern-post, with the result that the former was shot away, and thelatter, as well as two or three hood-ends, so badly started that ere tenminutes had elapsed it became apparent that the _Guerrilla_ was rapidlyfilling.
Meanwhile, however, we held on across her stern, filling our topsailagain, and tacking as soon as we had room; while the pirate brigantine,deprived of her rudder, shot into the wind and got in irons, obstinatelyrefusing to pay off on either tack. This enabled us to sweep across herbows, pouring in our port broadside as we passed, raking her fore andaft, and bringing down her foremast by the run. Holding on for a fewminutes, we next wore round--getting her starboard broadside as wepassed--and then cut close across her stern again, raking her as before.By this time, however, it had become apparent that she was sinking, so,having once more tacked, we ranged up close athwart her stern, with ourtopsail aback, when, instead of firing, I hailed to ask if theysurrendered.
"No, senor," replied Morillo himself, who was standing aft close to thenow useless wheel, "we will _never_ surrender! I wrote you a letter--which I hope you received--in which I said that I would fight you untilmy ship sinks under me; and I mean to do so. I also told you that myfeud with you is to the death; so, take that!" and therewith thescoundrel quickly levelled a pistol and, for the second time that day,fired point-blank at me! And there is no doubt whatever that this timehe would have slain me--for the pistol was pointed so truly that Iactually looked for a moment right into the barrel of it--had it notbeen for the _Diane's_ helmsman, who unceremoniously seized me by thearm in the very nick of time and quickly pulled me aside. As it was,the bullet whistled close past my ear. This dastardly act soexasperated our people that forthwith, without waiting for orders, theypoured the whole of our port broadside into the devoted craft,completely demolishing her stern, so that for a few seconds, as we drewslowly athwart her wake, we got a full view of her decks, which werecumbered with killed and wounded, and literally streaming with blood.Still, by a miracle, Morillo himself survived this last destructivebroadside of ours; for when the smoke blew away I saw him still standingerect and shaking his fist defiantly at us.
It was by this time evident to us all that the _Guerrilla_ was a doomedship; she was settling fast in the water, and to continue firing uponher would only be a waste of ammunition. We therefore filled ourtopsail and, a few minutes later, tacked, again getting a broadside fromthe sinking ship, when we stationed ourselves square athwart her bows--where we were pretty well out of the way of her fire--and, with topsailaback and mainsheet eased off, waited patiently for the final moment,which we saw was rapidly approaching. Yet, even now, Morillo persistedin firing at us with his two bow guns, compelling us to fire upon him inreturn; and so the useless fight went on, until the _Guerrilla_ hadsettled so low in the water that the sea welled in over her bows atevery plunge of her, rendering it impossible to any longer maintaintheir fire. Then, with folded hands, we all stood by, watching for theend.
And a very melancholy picture it was upon which we looked. There wasthe illimitable expanse of ocean all round us, blue as sapphire, heavingin long, regular ridges of swell, and whipped into foam here and thereby the scourging of the strong trade wind, with a rich blue sky above,dappled with wisps of trade-cloud, and the sun shining brilliantly downfrom the midst of them, causing the heaving waters to flash and glitterunder his fiery beams, so that the sea that way was too dazzling to lookat. And there, right in the centre of the glowing picture, lay the twobrigantines--we with our bulwarks torn and splintered to pieces, oursails riddled with shot-holes, our rigging badly cut up, and our decksscored with shot-marks and littered with dead and wounded men; while the_Guerrilla_ was an even more melancholy wreck than ourselves, as she layheaving and rolling sluggishly, with her covering-boards awash and thesea sweeping her decks from stem to taffrail at every plunge, and thewreck of her foremast towing under her bows. There was not a soulvisible on board her. When she first engaged us her decks had appearedto be crowded with men, but now most of them were either killed orwounded, and the few who had escaped seemed to have flung themselvesdown exhausted, for they had all disappeared. As for the craft herself,it was now only when she rose heavily upon the ridges of the swell thatwe could see her hull at all; and every plunge that she took into ahollow threatened to be her last. Yet she lingered, as though reluctantto leave the brilliant sunshine and the warm, strong breeze; lingereduntil I began to wonder whether she would not after all remain afloat, awater-logged wreck; and then, all in a moment, her stern rose high inthe air, revealing her shattered rudder and stern-post, and with a long,slow, diving movement, she plunged forward, like a sounding whale, andsilently vanished in a little swirl of water. We at once bore up forthe spot where she had disappeared,--finding it easily by the torn andsplintered fragments of wreckage that came floating up to the surface,--but her crew went down with her, to a man; for although we cruised aboutthe spot for fully half an hour, we never saw even so much as a deadbody come to the surface.
And so ended that terror of the seas, the _Guerrilla_, with herbloodthirsty pirate crew; and with her destruction ended the feud thathad been thrust upon me by one of the most fiendish monsters in humanform that ever sailed the ocean. It may perhaps seem to the reader acold-blooded deed on our part to remain passively by and calmly watchthe passing of those wretches to their account; but in reality it was anact of mercy, for their end was at least swift; whereas, had we savedany of them, it would only have been that they might terminate theircareer upon the gallows.
Meanwhile, the brig had dropped some six miles to leeward during thefight, and her crew had made the best of the opportunity by endeavouringto get some jury-spars aloft. The time, however, was too short forthat, and when we ran down to them they were still in the thick of theirwork. But they had now had enough of fighting, for when I again hailedto ask if they surrendered, they at once replied in the affirmative; andin due course we took possession of the _Nereide_ of Bordeaux, armedwith twelve long nine-pounders, and with a crew originally of eighty-sixmen, of whom twenty-three were killed and fifty-seven wounded in herfight with us. We spent the remainder of that day in completing therigging of the jury-masts that her people had begun, and made sail uponboth craft just after sunset that same evening, arriving safely in PortRoyal harbour some three weeks later.
And now, what remains to be said? The tale of my association with thefate of Morillo the Pirate is told; and all I need add is that when theaccount of my exploit was told, I received a great deal more credit andpraise than I felt I really deserved; while, as for my friend theadmiral--well, he was as good as his word, for within twenty-four hoursof my arrival with my prize in Port Royal harbour, he handed me, withhearty congratulations and many kind words, the commission that entitledme to mount "t'other swab."
THE END.
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