the beginning of the adventure
you ask me to relate to you the most terrible adventure i ever experienced? well, my whole life, from the time when, as a lad of fifteen, i first took to the sea, has been one of adventure, and i have passed through several rather thrilling experiences, so that it is not quite so easy a matter as you may imagine for me to say, off hand and at a moment's notice, which was the most terrible of them all. but, as you seem anxious for a yarn, i will tell you of an adventure that befell me shortly after i received my first command.
i was serving on the west coast at the time, and, when this yarn begins, held the position of third lieutenant on board the narcissus, a corvette belonging to the slave squadron. it was in the year 1826, just two years after slave-trading had been declared to be piracy in the eye of the law, and its perpetrators subject to the punishment of death if caught in the act. popular feeling at home was very strong upon the subject; the sympathy of the nation had been powerfully aroused by the stories which from time to time found their way into the papers of the sufferings inflicted upon the blacks in the process of converting them into slaves; strenuous orders had been sent out to us to be unsparing in our efforts to suppress the infamous traffic; and we were all as keen as hounds in our endeavours to run down and bring to book the rascals who openly laughed at and defied us.
my adventure may be said to have commenced with a slice of luck that befell us in this wise. we were cruising at the time in the neighbourhood of cape lopez, standing close-hauled to the northward under easy canvas, when, about three bells in the afternoon watch, the look-out aloft reported a sail broad on our starboard bow. we could see nothing of her from the deck, so i took my glass and went up on to the fore top-gallant-yard, from which position i made out the craft to be a smallish schooner, with stumpy but very raking spars upon which was spread an enormous show of canvas. my first look at her satisfied me that she was a slaver; and the fact that she was steering to the westward under every thread that she could show to the hot, languid breeze, was proof enough that she had a cargo of slaves under her hatches. of course i lost no time in reporting my convictions to the skipper, and in another instant all was bustle and activity on board the corvette as we crowded sail in chase.
as the afternoon wore on, the wind fell light; but so well was the corvette handled that when at length the sun went down in a clear sky, giving promise of a breathless night, we had the satisfaction of seeing that the slaver was helplessly becalmed, as was our own case soon afterwards.
some time before this, however, i had observed captain pascoe and our first luff in close confabulation; and shortly after the golden orb of the sun had disappeared beneath the horizon the former beckoned to me and said—
"mr. farmer, i believe we are about to have a fine, calm night; i have therefore determined to send the boats away to capture that schooner; and i intend to put the expedition under the command of mr. richardson"—the first lieutenant—"with you to second him. have the goodness, therefore, to proceed at once with the necessary preparations, as the boats will shove off the moment that it is sufficiently dark to conceal your movements. i have no doubt the fellow will expect you, but it is hardly worth while to tell him plainly what our intentions are."
our preparations were soon made and i then dived below, snatched a hasty substitute for dinner, in the shape of some cold meat and pickles, and was all ready, with my sword belted to my side, and a brace of freshly-loaded pistols stuck in my belt, in time for the skipper's inspection of our little party prior to shoving off.
captain pascoe waited patiently until the darkness had closed down upon us sufficiently to completely hide the chase from even his penetrating gaze, and then he gave the word to shove off; whereupon away we went, with muffled oars, and the boat binnacles so carefully shrouded that we felt perfectly secure against our presence being betrayed by any stray glimmer of light emanating from them. the master had taken the bearings of the schooner with the utmost nicety just before she disappeared in the darkness, and he gave us the course which we were to steer.
our expedition consisted of the first cutter and the gig, under mr. richardson, and the second cutter and the jolly-boat, under my command; the whole mustering forty-eight hands, all told, including two venturesome mids who, preferring the excitement of a scrimmage to the more solid delights of dinner, had begged permission to be placed in charge of the gig and jolly-boat respectively.
we had been pulling about half-an-hour when the dull muffled roll of sweeps became audible, and upon listening intently we discovered that the schooner was sweeping away in a southerly direction, or at right angles to the course which we were steering. we therefore shifted our helm to cut her off.
the men now bent to their oars with a will, keeping up a steady but fairly fast pace for an hour, by which time we were able not only to distinctly hear the roll and splash of the sweeps, but also to see the schooner as a small, vague, indefinite shadow of deeper blackness against the dark background of the overcast sky. the rascals had taken in every thread of canvas, so that it was only her hull we saw; but having once sighted this, we never again allowed our glances to stray from it.
we had arrived within about a quarter of a mile of our quarry, and were congratulating ourselves upon having so far escaped detection, when a voice from the shadow hailed us in spanish, demanding who we were and what we wanted.
"oars!" murmured the first luff, in tones of deep but suppressed excitement; "do not answer! not a sound, for your lives!"
about half a minute of intense anxiety now ensued, when the hail was repeated; and immediately afterwards the ghastly blue-white radiance of a portfire lit up the scene, distinctly revealing the hull, spars, and rigging of the schooner, with the figure of the man who held the firework standing by the fore rigging, one hand grasping a backstay, and the other holding the portfire high above his head, with sparks shooting and dropping into the water alongside, and the white smoke curling lazily upward between the naked masts.
"boats ahoy!" hailed the voice again, "if you do not instantly sheer off i will open fire upon you! do you hear?"
"what does the fellow say, farmer?" demanded richardson; "you understand that lingo, don't you?"
i translated; whereupon he murmured—
"oh yes, my hearty, we hear well enough; but we shall just have to take our chance. give way, men, with a will! at them before they have time to recover from their surprise! you will board on the port side, if you please, mr. farmer."
"ay, ay, sir!" answered i. "bend your backs, my lads, and let's get alongside! marines, stand by to return their fire if they open upon us!"
i was in hopes that, having recognised our strength, they would see the folly of resisting us; but they did not; on the contrary, they gave us a broadside of four guns—six-pounders they sounded like—and at the same time opened upon us a confused fire of musketry. one of the men in my boat gave a gasping groan as he dropped his oar and reeled off his thwart into the bottom of the boat; but we had no time to attend to him just then, for in another minute we were alongside, and i sprang over the low bulwarks of the schooner, closely followed by the men of my own division, as richardson, with his two boats, swept under the stern to board on the starboard side.
we were met by a ragamuffin crowd of swarthy, black-haired, fierce-eyed ruffians, rendered visible by the light of a second portfire which a burly negro held aloft, who greeted us with a lively popping of pistols, followed by a great brandishing of cutlasses and knives. but our fellows meant making short work of the job, and laid about them with such energy and good-will that the spaniards almost instantly gave way before us, only to find themselves attacked in the rear by the first luff and his party. this was altogether too much for them: they flung down their weapons and bolted incontinently for the fore-scuttle, down which they tumbled helter-skelter, one on the top of another; and almost before we were able to realise our success we were in possession of the schooner.
"we were met by a ragamuffin crowd of swarthy, black-haired, fierce-eyed ruffians."
