Ben Burton: Born and Bred at Sea

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

  Several days passed by; we were still prisoners, and all hope of beingrescued by our friends vanished. We came to the conclusion that theysupposed we were killed, especially as Kiddle told us he had known ofseveral boats' crews having been cut off by the natives in those seas.What was to be our fate we could not tell; it was not likely to be apleasant one, at all events. One day the whole village appeared to bein commotion; loud shouts were heard, and presently the door of our hullwas thrown open, and several men entered, who dragged us out into themidst of a large crowd collected in the open space in front of it.Among them was the old chief whom we had seen on the day of our capture;a number of the men had hoes and other implements of agriculture. Aftera good deal of palaver, a hoe was put into Pember's hands, and signswere made to him that he was to go to work with it. Toby and Pat hadhoes given to them also. Esse fancied that we should be allowed toescape.

  "They think us too little to work, I hope," he observed; but scarcelywere the words out of his mouth than we both of us had implements putinto our hands, and a pretty heavy whip being exhibited, signs were madeto us that we should join our companions. We were forthwith marched offto a field where several natives were already at work. Apparently itbelonged to the old chief, for he sat on a raised spot at the furtherend, under an awning, watching the proceedings with a complacent airwhich especially excited Pember's wrath. When, also, at times the oldmate relaxed in his labours, a dark-skinned fellow with a turban on hishead, who seemed to act the part of an overseer, made him quickly resumethem by an unmistakable threatening gesture. Thus we were kept at worktill late in the evening, when we were all allowed to knock off and goback to our hut, where a larger amount of food than usual was awardedus. Next day we were called up at early dawn, and the hoes again wereput into our hands. Sometimes the overseer, and sometimes one of theother men, came and showed us how to use them. All day long we werekept at work with the exception of a short time, when we were allowed torest and take some food which was brought to us in the fields. We couldno longer enjoy any hopes of regaining our liberty. It seemed as if wewere destined to be turned into slaves, and to be worked as hard as anynegroes in the West India plantations. At first Pember was verymiserable, but abstinence from his usual liquor at length, I think, didhim good, and he grew fatter and stronger than he had been since I firstknew him. Still he persisted that he was dying, and should never againsee the shores of England. The rest of us did our best to keep up ourspirits, Esse and I told stories to each other, and formed plans forescaping. Some of them were very ingenious, and more or less hazardous;most, in reality, utterly impracticable, because, not knowing where wewere, and having no means of getting away from the coast, even had wemade our way to the shore, we should very soon have been brought backagain. I might spin a long yarn about our captivity, but I do not thinkit would be interesting. Our days were monotonous enough, consideringwe were kept at the same work from sunrise to sunset. What a gloriousfeeling is hope! Hope kept us alive, for in spite of every difficultywe hoped, some time or other, to escape. At length one day as we wereworking, the old chief as usual looking on, a stranger arrived, and,going up to where he was seated, made a salaam before him. After apalaver of some minutes, which I could not help thinking had referenceto us, the old chief called the overseer, and sent him down to where wewere working. He went up to Pember, and made signs to him to go to thechief.

  "Sure that's a message for us!" exclaimed Pat Brady. "Arrah, Ben, myboy, you will be after seeing your dear mother again; and the thoughtthat she has been mourning for you has been throubling my heart morethan the hard work and the dishonour of labouring for these blackamoors.Hurrah! Erin-go-bragh! I am right sure it's news that's coming tous."

  By this time the overseer had spoken to Kiddle, and finally we were allconducted up to the chief. What was our astonishment to see thestranger produce a letter and hand it to Pember. It was written by thecaptain of a frigate, stating that having heard that some British seamenwere detained by a petty chief, he had gone to the Rajah of the country,who had agreed that they should be liberated. The letter was addressedto any officer, or the principal person who was among them, advisingthem to follow the messenger, who could be trusted. The old chiefseemed very indignant, but the envoy was evidently determined to carryout his instructions.

  "Sure he need not grumble," observed Pat Brady, "the big thief has beengetting a good many months' work out of us, and sure that's more than hehad any right to. Still we will part friends with him, and show himthat we bear him no ill-will." On this, Pat, not waiting for the rest,went up and insisted on shaking the old chief cordially by the hand; therest of us, with the exception of Pember, did the same. I need scarcelysay that it was with no little amount of satisfaction that we began ourmarch under the guidance of the Rajah's envoy. I doubt if any of ourfriends would have known us, so changed had we become during ourcaptivity. Rice and other grain diet may suit the natives of thoseregions, but it certainly does not agree with an Englishman'sconstitution. We were all pale and thin, our hair long and shaggy, ourclothes worn and tattered. We had darned them and mended them up asbest we could with bits of native cloth, but in spite of our efforts weofficers had a very unofficerlike appearance; while the two men mighthave served for street beggars, representing shipwrecked sailors, butwere very unlike British men-of-war's men. Eager as we were to get on,we made little progress across the rough country, and not till nearlythe close of the second day did we obtain a glimpse of the bright bluesea. Our hearts bounded with joy when we saw it. Still more delightfulwas it to gaze down from a height which we reached on the well-squaredyards and the white deck of a British frigate which lay at anchor in theharbour below us. Pat threw up his hat and shouted for joy. He was theonly one of us who retained anything like a hat; only an Irishman,indeed, would have thought of preserving so battered a head-covering.

  "Sure it serves to keep my brains from broiling," he observed, "and whatafter all is the use of a hat but for that, and just to toss up in theair when one's heart's in the mood to leap after it?" So near did thefrigate appear that we felt inclined to hail her to send a boat onshore, though our voices would in reality have been lost in mid-air,long before the sound could reach her decks. We should have hurrieddown to the shore, had not our guide insisted on our proceeding first tothe Rajah's abode, where he might report our arrival in safety and claima reward for himself, as well as the better to enable the Rajah to putin his own claims for a recompense. We were still standing in thepresence of the great man, when a lieutenant and a couple of midshipmenwith about twenty armed seamen made their appearance in the courtyard.Dicky Esse and I no sooner caught sight of them than, unable to restrainour eagerness, we rushed forward intending to shake hands with them.

  "Hillo, what are these curious little imps about?" exclaimed one of themidshipmen, as we were running towards them.

  "Imp?" exclaimed Dicky. "You would look like an imp if you had beenmade to hoe in the fields all day long with the sun right overhead forthe best part of half-a-year. I am an officer like yourself, and willnot stand an insult, that I can tell you!" This reply was received witha burst of laughter from the two midshipmen; but the lieutenant,guessing who we were, received us both in a very kind way, and Pemberwith Kiddle and Pat coming up, he seemed highly pleased to find that wewere the prisoners he had been sent to liberate. The frigate, he toldus, was the "Resolution," Captain Pemberton, who, having heard throughsome of the natives that some English seamen were in captivity, hadtaken steps to obtain our release.

  "We told the Rajah that if any of you were injured, or if his peoplerefused to restore you, we would blow his town about his ears--a farmore effectual way of dealing with these gentry than mild expostulationsor gentle threats. And now," he added, "if there are no more of you wewill return on board." In a short time we were standing on the deck ofthe frigate. Her captain received us very kindly, and soon afterwardswe made sail. The frigate being
rather short of officers, we wereordered to do duty till we could fall in with our own ship. Pembergrumbled somewhat, declaring that he ought to be allowed to rest afterthe hardships he had gone through. People seldom know what is best forthem, nor did he, as will be shown in the sequel. Both Dicky Esse and Iwere placed in the same watch, as were our two followers. The"Resolution" had not fallen in with our frigate, and therefore we couldgain no tidings of any of our friends, and as she, it was supposed, hadsailed for Canton, we might not fall in with her for some time. Wecruised round and about the shores of the numberless islands of thoseseas, sometimes taking a prize, and occasionally attacking a fort orinjuring and destroying the property of our enemies whenever we couldmeet with it. One night, while I was on watch, I found Kiddle near me.Though he did not hesitate to speak to me as of yore, yet he neverseemed to forget that I was now on the quarter-deck.

  "Do you know, Mr Burton," he observed, "that I have found an oldacquaintance on board? He was pilot in the `Boreas,' and he is doingthe same sort of work here. I never quite liked the man, though he is afair spoken enough sort of gentleman."

  "What! Is that Mr Noalles?" I asked.

  "The same!" and Toby then gave me the account which I have before notedof that person.

  "That is strange!" I said. "I really fancied I had seen him before.Directly I came on board it struck me that I knew the man, and yet ofcourse I cannot recollect him after so many years." He was a dark,large-whiskered man, with a far from pleasant expression of countenance.The ship had been on the station some time, and rather worse for wearand tear. We had not been on board long, when one night as I was in myhammock I felt it jerk in a peculiar manner, and was almost sent out ofit. I was quickly roused by a combination of all conceivable sounds:--the howling of the wind, the roar of the seas, which seemed to bedashing over us. The rattling of ropes and blocks, the creaking ofbulkheads, the voices of the men shouting to each other and asking whathad happened, were almost deafening, even to ears accustomed to suchnoises.

  "We are all going to be drowned!" I heard Dicky Esse, whose hammockslung next to mine, sing out. "Never mind, Dicky," I answered, "we willhave a struggle for life at all events, and may be, as the savages didnot eat us, the sea will not swallow us up."

  Finding everybody was turning out, I huddled on my clothes as best Icould, and with the rest found my way on deck, though I quickly wishedmyself below again, as it was no easy matter to keep my footing when Iwas there, and preserve myself from slipping into the sea, which wasdashing wildly over our bulwarks. The ship was on her beam-ends. Bythe light of the vivid flashes of lightning which continued incessantlydarting here and there round us, I saw the Captain half-dressed, withhis garments under one of his arms, shouting out his orders, which thelieutenants, much in the same state as to costume, were endeavouring toget executed, their voices, however, being drowned in the tempest. Forsome minutes, indeed, even the best seamen could scarcely do anythingbut hold on for their lives. One thing appeared certain: either themasts must be cut away, or the guns hove overboard. It seemedimpossible, if this could not be done, that the ship would continueabove water. Suddenly with a violent jerk up she rose again on an evenkeel with her topmasts carried away, and the rigging beating withfearful force about our heads.

  "Clear away the wreck!" shouted the Captain. Such was now the no easytask to be performed. The officers, however, with axes in their hands,leading the way, sprang aloft, followed by the topmen. Blocks and sparscame rattling down on deck to the no small risk of those below. Atlength the shattered spars having been cleared away, head sail was goton the ship, and off she ran before the hurricane, the master havingascertained that we had a clear sea before us. When morning dawned, thefrigate, which had looked so trim at sunset, presented a sadly batteredappearance, her topmasts gone, the deck lumbered with the wreck, two ofthe boats carried away, a part of the lee-bulwarks stove in. Thecarpenter too, after going below with his mates, returned on deck andreported that the ship was making water very fast. "We must ease her,sir," I heard him say, "or I cannot answer for her weathering the gale."The Captain took a turn or two along the quarter-deck, his countenanceshowing the anxiety he felt.

  "It must be done," I heard him say. "Send Mr Block aft." He was thegunner. "We must heave some of our upper-deck guns overboard, MrBlock." The gunner seemed inclined to plead for them.

  "It must be done," said the Captain. And now the crew, who would havesprung joyfully to the guns to man them against an enemy, began withunwilling hands to cast the tackles loose in order to launch them intothe ocean. Watching the roll of the ship, first one gun was sentthrough the port into the deep--another and another followed.

  "By my faith it's like pulling out the old girl's teeth, and giving herno chance of biting," observed Pat Brady, who was standing near me.

  "We will keep a few of her grinders in though, Pat," observed Kiddle:"we must handle them the smarter if we come alongside an enemy, to makeamends for those we have lost."

  The heavy weight on her upper-deck being thus got rid of, the frigatelaboured less, and the pumps being kept going, the water no longercontinued to gain upon us. However, it was necessary to work the chainpumps night and day to keep the water under. At length we arrived atAmboyna, where we remained some time repairing damages and refitting thefrigate as far as we were able.

  "I wish we were aboard our own ship again," said Kiddle to me one day,"for I don't know how it is, but the crew of this ship declare that sheis doomed to be unlucky. I don't know how many men they have not lost.They have scarcely taken a prize, and they are always getting intomisfortune. It's not the fault of the Captain, for he is as good aseaman as ever stepped, and the officers are all very well in their way,and so there's no doubt it's the ship's fault. Some of the people, tobe sure, don't like Mr Noalles, the pilot. They don't know who he isor where he came from, though that to my mind has nothing to do with it,for it's not likely he would be aboard here if he was not known to be aright sort of person."

  At length we once more sailed for a place called Booroo, where we got asupply of wood and water, as well as refreshments and stock, and thensailed for the Straits of Banca. As we were standing along the coast,when daylight broke one morning, we saw towards the land a number ofvessels, which were pronounced to be pirate prows. In their midst was alarge brig, which they had apparently captured. We were standingtowards them when the land-breeze died away, and we lay becalmed, unableto get nearer. On this the boats were ordered out, and two of thelieutenants, the master, and a couple of mates took the command. DickyEsse and I accompanied the Second-Lieutenant. Our orders were to boardthe prows, and if they offered any resistance, to destroy them. Thewater was smooth and beautifully blue, while the rising sun tipped thetopmost heights of the lofty hills, which rose, as it were, out of theocean, feathered almost from their summits to the water's edge withgraceful trees. There lay the brig, while the prows were clustered likeso many beasts of prey around their quarry. The pirates seemed in noway alarmed at our approach. Our leader, however, had made up his mind,in spite of their numbers to board the brig, and then, should the prowsinterfere, to attack them. As soon as this resolution was come to, wedashed forward to get on board her without delay. The pirates seemedscarcely aware of our intention, and before any of the prows had liftedan anchor we were on board. Some forty or fifty dark-skinned,villainous-looking fellows had possession of the brig, but they wereprobably unable to use the big guns, and though they made some littleresistance, we soon drove them forward, a considerable number being cutdown, the rest jumping overboard, and attempting to swim towards theprows, which, instantly getting out their sweeps, began to approach us.