CHAPTER XLVII.
TORTUGA.
'I take it,' said Barnaby, on the third morning--the weathercontinuing fine and the sea clear of ships--'that we are now clearout of the track of any British vessels. We may fall into the handsof the Spaniard; but he is mild and merciful of late compared withhis temper a hundred years ago. 'Tis true we have given him manylessons in humanity. We should now before nightfall make the islandsof Testigos; but I think they are only rocks and sandy flats, suchas they call Keys, where we need not land, seeing that we should getnothing by so doing, except to go out of the way, and so make therations shorter. Robin'--'twas at breakfast, when he served out adram of wine to every one--'I drink to thy better health, lad. Thouhast cheated the Devil. Nay, Sis, look not so angry!--I meant, thouwilt not go to heaven this bout. Up heart, then, and get strong! Wewill find thee another sweetheart, who shall make thee lift up thinehead again. What? Is there but one woman in the world?
'I was saying then,' he went on, 'that we shall presently make theislands of Testigos. There followeth thereafter, to one who steerethwest, a swarm of little islands. 'Twas here that the pirates usedto lie in the good old days, snug and retired, with their girls andtheir drink. Ay, and plenty of both! A happy time they had!' Barnabywagged his head and sighed. 'South of this archipelago (which Iwill some day visit, in order to search for treasure) there lieththe great and mountainous island of Margaritos. This great islandwe shall do well to keep upon our south, and so bear away to thedesert island of Tortuga, where we shall find water for certain--andthat, I have been told, the best spring-water that flows; turtleswe may also find, and fish we may catch; and when we have recoveredour strength, with a few days' rest ashore, we will once more putto sea and make for the island of Curacao and the protection of theDutchmen.'
It needs not to tell much more about the voyage, in which we werefavoured by Heaven with everything that we could desire--a steadybreeze from the best quarter, a sea never too rough, provisions insufficiency, the absence of any ships, and, above all, the recoveryof Robin.
I say, then, that we sighted (and presently passed) the groupof islets called the Testigos; that we coasted along the greatisland of Margaritos, where we landed not, because Barnaby fearedthat certain smoke which we saw might betoken the presence of theSpaniard, whom, in spite of his new character for mildness, he wasanxious to avoid. 'Tis strange thus to sail along the shore of agreat island whereon are no inhabitants, or, if any, a few sailorsput in for water, for turtle, and for cocoanuts; to see afar off theforests climbing round the mountain sides, the waterfalls leapingover the precipices, and to think of the happy life one might leadin such a place, far from men and their ways. I confess (since myMistress will never see this page) that my thoughts for a whole day,while we sailed along the shores of Margaritos, turned upon thosepirates of whom Barnaby spoke. They lived here at ease, and in greathappiness. 'Tis of such a life that a man sometimes dreams. Butif he were suffered so to lie in sloth, farewell Heaven! Farewellfuture hopes! Farewell our old talk of lifting the soul above theflesh! Let us henceforth live the lives of those who are content(since they can have no more) with a few years of love and wine andrevelry! It is in climates like that of the West Indies that such atemptation seizes on men the most strongly: for here everything ismade for man's enjoyment; here is no cold, no frost, no snow or ice;here eternal summer reigns, and the world seems made for the sensesand for nothing else. Of these confessions enough. 'Twas impossiblethat in such a luxurious dream the image of Alice could have anypart.
We landed, therefore, on the desert island of Tortuga, where weremained for several days, hauling up our boat and covering her withbranches to keep off the sun. Here we lived luxuriously upon turtle,fresh fish, the remains of our bread, and what was left of ourCanary; setting up huts in which we could sleep, and finding waterof the freshest and brightest I ever saw. Here Robin mended apace,and began to walk about with no more help from his nurses.
We were minded, as I have said, to sail as far as the island ofCuracao, but an accident prevented this.
One day, when we had been ashore for ten days or thereabouts, wewere terrified by the sight of a small vessel rigged in the fashionof a ketch--that is, with a small mizzen--beating about outside thebay which is the only port of Tortuga.
'She will put in here,' said Barnaby. 'That is most certain. Now,from the cut of her she is of New England build, and from thehandling of her she is under-manned; and I think that we havenothing to fear from her, unless she is bound for Barbadoes, or forGrenada, or Jamaica.'
Presently the vessel came to anchor, and a small boat was lowered,into which three men descended. They were unarmed.
'She is certainly from New England,' said Barnaby. 'Well, theyare not from Barbadoes in quest of us, otherwise they would notsend ashore three unarmed men to capture four desperate men. Thatis certain. And as we cannot hide our boat, though we might hideourselves, I will e'en go forth and parley with these strangers.'
This he did, we watching from a safe place. The conversation waslong and earnest, and apparently friendly. Presently Barnabyreturned to us.
'There offers,' he said, 'a chance which is perhaps better than tomake for Curacao, where, after all, we might get scurvy treatment.These men, in a word, are privateers; or, since we are at war withnone, they are pirates. They fitted out a brigantine, or bilander(I know not which), and designed to sail round Cape Horn to attackthe Spaniard on the South Seas. On the way they took a prize, whichyou now see in the bay. Ten men were sent aboard to navigate her asa tender to their ship. But they fell into bad weather off Brazil,and their ship went down with all hands. Now they are bound forProvidence, only seven hands left, and they will take us aboardand carry us to that island for our services. Truly, I think weshould go. They have provisions in plenty, with Madeira wine; andProvidence is too far for the arm of King James to reach. What sayye all? Alice, what sayest thou?'
'Truly, brother, I say nothing.'
'Then we will agree, and go with them.'
We went on board, taking with us a good supply of turtle, clearwater, and cocoanuts (being all that the isle afforded). Honestfellows we found our pirates to be. They belonged to the island ofProvidence, in the Bahamas, which has long been the rendezvous ofEnglish privateers. Ten years before this the Spaniards plucked upcourage to attack and destroy the settlement, when those who escapeddestruction found shelter in some of the adjacent islands, or on themainland of Virginia. Now some of them have come back again, andthis settlement, or colony, is re-established.
Thither, therefore, we sailed. It seemed as if we were become a mereshuttlecock of fortune, beaten and driven hither and thither uponthe face of the earth.