Chapter III
A retrospect, and short description of a new character
But we must leave poor Smallbones to lament his hard fate in the forepeak of the vessel, and Mr Vanslyperken and his dog to walk thequarter-deck, while we make our readers a little better acquainted withthe times in which the scenes passed which we are now describing, aswell as with the history of Mr Vanslyperken.
The date in our first chapter, that of the year 1699, will, if theyrefer back to history, show them that William of Nassau had been a fewyears on the English throne, and that peace had just been concludedbetween England with its allies and France. The king occasionally passedhis time in Holland, among his Dutch countrymen, and the English andDutch fleets, which but a few years before were engaging with such anobstinacy of courage, had lately sailed together, and turned their gunsagainst the French. William, like all those continental princes who havebeen called to the English throne, showed much favour to his owncountrymen, and England was overrun with Dutch favourites, Dutchcourtiers, and peers of Dutch extraction. He would not even part withhis Dutch guards, and was at issue with the Commons of England on thatvery account. But the war was now over, and most of the English andDutch navy lay dismantled in port, a few small vessels only being incommission to intercept the smuggling from France that was carrying on,much to the detriment of English manufacture, of certain articles thendenominated alamodes and lutestrings. The cutter we have described wason this service, and was named the _Yungfrau_, although built inEngland, and forming a part of the English naval force.
It may readily be supposed that Dutch interest, during this period, wasin the ascendant. Such was the case: and the Dutch officers and seamenwho could not be employed in their own marine were appointed in theEnglish vessels, to the prejudice of our own countrymen. Mr Vanslyperkenwas of Dutch extraction, but born in England long before the Prince ofOrange had ever dreamt of being called to the English throne. He was anear relation of King William's own nurse, and even in these days, thatwould cause powerful interest. Previous to the revolution he had beenlaid on the shelf for cowardice in one of the engagements between theDutch and the English, he being then a lieutenant on board of atwo-decked ship, and of long standing in the service; but before he hadbeen appointed to this vessel, he had served invariably in small craft,and his want of this necessary qualification had never been discovered.The interest used for him on the accession of the Dutch king wassufficient for his again obtaining the command of a small vessel. Inthose days, the service was very different from what it is now. Thecommanders of vessels were also the pursers, and could save a great dealof money by defrauding the crew; and further, the discipline of theservice was such as would astonish the modern philanthropist; there wasno appeal for subordinates, and tyranny and oppression, even amountingto the destruction of life, were practised with impunity. Smollett hasgiven his readers some idea of the state of the service a few yearsafter the time of which we are now writing, when it was infinitelyworse, for the system of the Dutch, notorious for their cruelty, hadbeen grafted upon that of the English: the consequence was, acombination of all that was revolting to humanity was practised withoutany notice being taken of it by the superior powers, provided that thecommanders of the vessels did their duty when called upon, and showedthe necessary talent and courage.
Lieutenant Vanslyperken's character may be summed up in the three vicesof avarice, cowardice, and cruelty. A miser in the extreme, he had savedup much money by his having had the command of a vessel for so manyyears, during which he had defrauded and pilfered both from the men andthe government. Friends and connections he had none on this side of thewater, and, when on shore, he had lived in a state of abject misery,although he had the means of comfortable support. He was now fifty-fiveyears of age. Since he had been appointed to the _Yungfrau_, he had beenemployed in carrying despatches to the States-General from King William,and had, during his repeated visits to the Hague, made acquaintance withthe widow Vandersloosh, who kept a Lust Haus[1], a place of resort forsailors, where they drank and danced. Discovering that the comfortablyfat landlady was also very comfortably rich, Mr Vanslyperken had madeadvances, with the hope of obtaining her hand and handling her money.The widow had, however, no idea of accepting the offer, but was too wiseto give him a decided refusal, as she knew it would be attended with hispreventing the crew of the cutter from frequenting her house, and,thereby, losing much custom. Thus did she, at every return, receive himkindly and give him hopes, but nothing more. Since the peace, as webefore observed, the cutter had been ordered for the prevention ofsmuggling.
[Footnote 1: Pleasure House.]
When and how Mr Vanslyperken had picked up his favourite Snarleyyowcannot be discovered, and must remain a secret. The men said that thedog had appeared on the deck of the cutter in a supernatural way, andmost of them looked upon him with as much awe as ill-will.
This is certain, that the cutter had been a little while before in astate of mutiny, and a forcible entry attempted at night into thelieutenant's cabin. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose thatVanslyperken felt that a good watch-dog might be a very useful appendageto his establishment, and had procured one accordingly. All theaffection he ever showed to anything living was certainly concentratedon this one animal, and, next to his money, Snarleyyow had possession ofhis master's heart.
Poor Smallbones, cast on the world without father or mother, had becomestarved before he was on board the cutter, and had been starved eversince. As the reader will perceive, his allowance was mostly eaten up bythe dog, and he was left to beg a precarious support from the good-willand charity of his shipmates, all of whom were equally disgusted withthe commander's cruelty and the ungainly temper of his brute companion.
Having entered into this retrospect for the benefit of the reader, wewill now proceed.
Mr Vanslyperken walked the deck for nearly a quarter of an hour withoutspeaking: the men had finished their breakfasts, and were lounging aboutthe deck, for there was nothing for them to do, except to look out forthe return of the two boats which had been sent away the night before.The lieutenant's thoughts were, at one minute, upon Mrs Vandersloosh,thinking how he could persuade her, and, at another, upon Smallbones,thinking how he could render the punishment adequate, in his opinion, tothe magnitude of the offence. While discussing these two importantmatters, one of the men reported the boats ahead, and broke up thecommander's reverie.
"How far off?" demanded Mr Vanslyperken.
"About two miles."
"Pulling or sailing?"
"Pulling, sir; we stand right for them."
But Mr Vanslyperken was in no pleasant humour, and ordered the cutter tobe hove-to.
"I tink de men have pull enough all night," said Jansen, who had justbeen relieved at the wheel, to Obadiah Coble, who was standing by him onthe forecastle.
"I think so too: but there'll be a breeze, depend upon it--never mind,the devil will have his own all in good time."
"Got for dam," said Jansen, looking at Beachy Head, and shaking his own.
"Why, what's the matter now, old Schnapps?" said Coble.
"Schnapps--yes--the tyfel--Schnapps, I think how the French schnapped usDutchmen here when you Englishmen wouldn't fight."
"Mind what you say, old twenty breeches--wouldn't fight--when wouldn'twe fight?"
"Here, where we were now, by Got, you leave us all in the lurch, and notcome down."
"Why, we couldn't come down."
"Bah!" replied Jansen, who referred to the defeat of the combined Dutchand English fleet by the French off Beachy Head in 1690.
"We wouldn't fight, heh?" exclaimed Obadiah in scorn, "what do you sayto the Hogue?"
"Yes, den you fought well--dat was good."
"And shall I tell you why we fought well at the Hogue--you Dutchporpoise--just because we had no Dutchmen to help us."
"And shall I tell you why the Dutch were beat off this Head?--becausethe English wouldn't come down to help us."
Here
Obadiah put his tongue into his right cheek. Jansen in return threwhis into his left, and thus the argument was finished. These disputeswere constant at the time, but seldom proceeded further than words--certainly not between Coble and Jansen, who were great friends.
The boats were soon on board; from the time that the cutter had beenhove-to, every stroke of their oars having been accompanied with anautical anathema from the crews upon the head of their commander. Thesteersman and first officer, who had charge of the boats, came over thegangway and went up to Vanslyperken. He was a thickset, stout man, aboutfive feet four inches high, and, wrapped up in Flushing garments, lookedvery much like a bear in shape as well as in skin. His name was DickShort, and in every respect he answered to his name, for he was short instature, short in speech, and short in decision and action.
Now when Short came up to the lieutenant, he did not consider it at allnecessary to say as usual, "Come on board, sir," for it was self-evidentthat he had come on board. He therefore said nothing. So abrupt was hein his speech, that he never even said "Sir," when he spoke to hissuperior, which it may be imagined was very offensive to MrVanslyperken: so it was, but Mr Vanslyperken was afraid of Short, andShort was not the least afraid of Vanslyperken.
"Well, what have you done, Short?"
"Nothing."
"Did you see anything of the boat?"
"No."
"Did you gain any information?"
"No."
"What have you been doing all night?"
"Pulling."
"Did you land to obtain information?"
"Yes."
"And you got none?"
"No."
Here Short hitched up the waistband of his second pair of trousers,turned short round, and was going below, when Snarleyyow smelt at hisheels. The man gave him a back kick with the heel of his heavy boot,which sent the dog off yelping and barking, and put Mr Vanslyperken in agreat rage. Not venturing to resent this affront upon his first officer,he was reminded of Smallbones, and immediately sent for Corporal VanSpitter to appear on deck.