The Pirate Slaver: A Story of the West African Coast

by Harry Collingwood

  CHAPTER ELEVEN.

  DON FERNANDO DE MENDOUCA.

  The most striking figure in the ship, however, was, beyond all question,a tall, well-built man, with a firmly-knit, powerful frame, everymovement of which was eloquent of health and strength and inexhaustibleendurance, while it was characterised by that light and easy _floating_grace that is only to be acquired by the habitual treading of such anunstable platform as a ship's deck. He was very dark, his hair,moustache, and beard being coal-black and wavy, while his skin--or atleast the exposed parts that met my eye--was tanned to so deep a bronzeas to give him quite the complexion of a mulatto. But there was not adrop of black blood in him; his nose alone--thin, shapely, and slightlyaquiline--was evidence enough of that. He was clad in the inevitablesuit of white drill, girt about the waist with a crimson cummerbund; hishead-covering was the equally inevitable Panama broad-brimmed hat, andhis otherwise naked feet were thrust into a pair of Turkish slippers ofred morocco, embroidered with gold thread. And, early as was the hour,he held a half-smoked cigar between his large, even, white teeth. As Iemerged from the companion he was standing to windward, near thehelmsman, critically eyeing the set of the brigantine's beautifully cutcanvas; and upon seeing me he--without moving from his position oroffering me his hand--bowed with all the stately grace of a Spanishhidalgo, and exclaimed in Spanish, in a firm, strong, and decidedlymusical voice--

  "Good-morning, senor! I congratulate you upon being sufficientlyrecovered to leave your cabin. I suppose I ought, by every rule of goodmanners, to bid you welcome to my ship; but I have discardedconventional forms of speech--among other things--and now make apractice of speaking only the strict truth; and--as Pedro has probablytold you--I had little to do with your being here beyond the mere issueof the order for your transfer from the deck of the French schooner.But, if I cannot at this moment truthfully bid you welcome, I can atleast say that I sincerely hope we shall be good friends; and shouldthat come about, you shall be welcome not only to my ship, but, as weSpaniards say, to my house and all that is in it."

  "Thank you, Don Fernando," I answered. "I can easily understand thatyou find it exceedingly difficult to regard me as a welcome guest, andbelieve me, I am not going to be so foolish as to feel hurt at yourfrankly telling me so. And I heartily unite with you in the hope thatas long as we may be compelled into intimate association with eachother, we shall be able to forget that our professions are antagonistic,and that personally it may be quite possible for us to be good friends.And now, senor, permit me to seize this, the first opportunity that haspresented itself, to express to you my most grateful thanks for havingsaved my life yesterday--"

  "Stop, senor, if you please," he interrupted, holding up his hand. "Ihave already explained to you that I had absolutely nothing to do withthat beyond the mere issuing of an order. To be perfectly frank withyou, I was in no mood to show mercy to any one just then, for you andyour pestilent, meddlesome crew fought like fiends, and cost me severalgood men that I could ill spare. Your gratitude, therefore," and Ithought I detected an echo of something very like scorn in his voice,"is due solely to my boy Pedro, whose whim of saving you I did not eventhen care to thwart. But enough of this; you are my guest, and may, ifyou will, become my friend. I hope your accommodation is to yourliking?"

  "Excellent, indeed," answered I, glad enough to get away from a topicthat seemed to be somewhat distasteful to my host. "Excellent, indeed,and far more luxurious than anything to which I have been accustomed onboard my own ship."

  "Yes," he smiled; "the English are clearly anxious that their officersshall not become enervated through overmuch luxury. I have been onboard several of your ships, and saw but little to admire in theaccommodation provided for and the arrangements made for the comfort oftheir officers. How long have you been on the West African station,senor?"

  I told him, and the conversation gradually took a more agreeable turn,my host proving himself, not only a thorough man of the world, but alsosurprisingly well educated and well read for a Spaniard. He was wellacquainted with several of our best English writers, and professed anadmiration for our literature as great and thorough as was his evidenthatred of ourselves and our institutions as a nation. He had veryconsiderably thawed out of his original coldness of manner, and wasdiscussing with much animation and in well-chosen language the Britishdrama, and especially Shakspeare, when we were summoned to breakfast andfound Pedro waiting for us in the cabin. The lad was very demonstrativein his delight at finding me so much better, and I could see that he wasalso greatly pleased--and I thought relieved--at the prospect ofamicable if not cordial relations becoming established between hisfather and myself.

  I have said that the morning was brilliantly fine, and so it was; but Ihad noticed even when I first went on deck, that there was a certainpallor and haziness in the blue of the sky, the appearance of which Idid not altogether like; and when after breakfast we went on deck--Mendouca with his sextant in his hand, for the purpose of finding theship's longitude--our first glance aloft showed us that a large halo hadgathered round the sun, and certain clouds that had risen above thehorizon were carrying windgalls in their skirts. I drew Mendouca'sattention to these portents, and he agreed with me that we were probablyabout to have bad weather. And sure enough we had, for that afternoonit came on to blow heavily from the eastward, and after running beforeit as long as we dared--indeed a good deal longer than in my opinion wasat all prudent--we were compelled to heave-to; and we thus remained forsixty-two consecutive hours, during which Mendouca fumed and raved likea madman; for the sea was making clean breaches over the brigantineduring the whole of that time, so that a considerable portion of ourbulwarks and everything that was not securely lashed was washed away,and, worst of all, it was imperatively necessary to keep the hatchesbattened down during the entire continuance of the gale, thus deprivingthe unhappy slaves pent up below of all air save such as could penetratethrough a small opening in the fore-bulkhead, communicating with theforecastle, and used for the purpose of gaining access to the hold inbad weather, in order to supply the slaves with food and water. As,however, the sea was breaking more heavily over the fore-deck thananywhere else, the utmost care had to be exercised in opening thefore-scuttle, a favourable opportunity having to be watched for, and thehatch whipped off and on again in a moment. Very little air, therefore,was obtainable from that source, and none whatever from elsewhere; theblacks, therefore, were dying below like rotten sheep, of suffocation,as was reported by those who came up from time to time after attendingto the most pressing wants of the miserable creatures. And to make whatwas already bad enough still worse, it was impossible to remove the deadfrom among the living so long as the bad weather continued.

  When at length the gale moderated and the sea went down sufficiently topermit of sail being once more made, the hatches were lifted; and neverto my dying day shall I forget the awful, poisonous stench that arosefrom the brigantine's hold. The fumes could be actually _seen_ risingthrough the hatchway in the form of a dense steam that continued to pourup for several minutes, and when the men were ordered below to pass upthe dead bodies, even the toughest and most hardened of them recoiledfrom the task, and staggered away forward literally as sick as dogs. Atlength, however, after the lapse of about a quarter of an hour, a gangventured down into the now comparatively pure atmosphere, and the workof passing up the dead bodies began. I stood to windward, as near thehatchway as I could get without being sickened by the still pestilentialeffluvium that even now arose from the hold, and watched the operation,not from any feeling of morbid curiosity, but in order that I mightbecome aware, by the evidence of my own eyesight, of some of the blackerhorrors of this most foul and accursed trade, and the sights that I thenwitnessed literally beggar description. The unhappy wretches had beenpacked so tightly together that they had been unable to move more thanan inch or so, while the slave-deck was so low that a sitting posturewith the head bowed to the knees and the hands clasped in front of themhad been ab
solutely necessary; and the miserable creatures had died andstiffened in this cramped and painful posture; it was gruesome enough,therefore, to see the bodies passed up and thrown overboard in so woefulan attitude; but the worst sight of all was in those cases where, in thedying agony, some unfortunate wretch had writhed his head back until itlooked as though the neck had become dislocated, thus revealing thedistorted features, with the eye balls rolled back until only the whiteswere visible, and the mouth wide open as though gasping for air. Thebrigantine had left the Congo with four hundred and fifty-five slaves onboard, about three-fifths of whom were men, the remainder being youngwomen and children; and of these every woman and child, and one hundredand twenty-seven men had succumbed, leaving, out of the grand total, themiserable moiety of only one hundred and forty-six survivors! It washorrible beyond the power of words to express, and to crown all, as thework went on, the water in the ship's wake became alive with sharks, whofought and struggled with each other for their prey, literally tearingthe bodies limb from limb in their frantic struggles to secure a morsel.It was a sight that, one might have thought, would have excited pity inthe breast of the arch-fiend himself, but with Mendouca it only had theeffect of goading him into a state of mad, ungovernable fury. "See," heexclaimed at last, stalking up to me and grasping me savagely by thearm--"see the result of the thrice accursed meddlesome policy of yourwretched, contemptible little England and the countries who have unitedwith her in the hopeless task of suppressing the slave-trade! But forthat, these negroes might have been comfortably stowed in three or fourships, instead of being packed like herrings in a barrel in the hold ofone only, and then all this loss of life and money might have beenavoided. By this infernal mishap I am a loser to the extent of overthirty thousand dollars, and all for what? Why, simply because youBritish, with your sickly sentimentality, choose to regard the blacks ashuman beings like yourselves. You are all virtuous indignation becauseforsooth we slave-traders have bethought ourselves of the plan ofremoving them from their own country, where their lives would have beenpassed in a condition of the lowest and most degrading barbarism, andtransporting them to another where they can be rendered useful andvaluable; where, in return for their labour, they are fed, clothed,tended in sickness, and provided with comfortable homes; where theirlives may be passed in peace and comfort and perfect freedom from allcare; and where, if indeed they _are_ human, like ourselves, which Ivery much doubt, they may be converted to Christianity. You violentlyobject to this amelioration of the lot of the negro savage; but you shutyour eyes to the fact that thousands of your own countrymen and womenare actually slaves of the most abject type, made so by your owninsatiable and contemptible craving for _cheap_ clothing, _cheap_ food,cheap every thing, to satisfy which, and to, at the same time, gratifyhis own perfectly legitimate desire to make a living, the employer oflabour has to grind his employes down in the matter of wage until theirlives are a living lingering death to them, in comparison with which thefuture of those blacks down below will be a paradise. Bah! suchhypocrisy sickens me. And yet, in support of this disgustingPharisaism, you, and hundreds more like you, claiming to be intelligentbeings, willingly endure hardships and face the perils of sickness,shipwreck, shot and steel with a persistent heroism that almost compelsone's admiration, despite the mistaken enthusiasm which is its animatingcause. Nay, do not speak, senor; I know exactly what you would say; Ihave heard, until I have become sick of it, the canting jargon of thosemeddlesome busy-bodies who, knowing nothing of the actual facts ofslavery, or for their own purposes, hunt out exceptional cases oftyranny which they hold up to public execration as typical of thesystem--I have heard it all so often that I have long passed the pointwhere it was possible to listen to it with even the faintest semblanceof patience; so do not attempt the utterly useless and impossible taskof trying to convert me, I pray you, lest in my anger I should say wordsthat would offend you."

  Good heavens! did the man suppose that he had not offended me already?I saw, however, that I might as well attempt to quell the hurricane asargue with him in his present mood; moreover I am but a poor hand atargument; I therefore bowed in silence, turned away and went below,fully determined to have the matter out with the fiery Spaniard thefirst time that I caught him in a more amenable temper. Pedro wouldhave followed me, and indeed attempted to do so, but as I entered thecompanion, I heard his father call him back and bid him remain on deck.

  With the moderating of the gale the wind had come out dead ahead, andthe brigantine was consequently on a taut bowline on the starboard tackwhen the hatches were opened and the bodies of the suffocated negroeswere passed up on deck and thrown overboard. She remained so for therest of that day; but when I awoke next morning, I at once became aware,from the steady, long, pendulum-like roll of the ship, that she was oncemore before the wind, and I naturally concluded that the wind had againbecome fair. To my great surprise, however, when I emerged from mystate-room and caught a glimpse of the tell-tale compass hanging ingimbals in the skylight opening of the main cabin, I saw that the shipwas heading to the _eastward_! Wondering what might be the meaning ofthis, I went on deck, but neither Mendouca nor Pedro was visible, and Idid not choose to question the mate--a surly, hang-dog,cut-throat-looking scoundrel, who had chosen to manifest an implacablehostility to myself from the moment that our eyes had first met.However, I had not been on deck long when Mendouca made his appearance,and in response to his salutation I said--

  "Good-morning, captain; I see you have shifted your helm during thenight."

  I saw, when it was too late, that my remark was an unfortunate one, forMendouca scowled as he replied--

  "Yes; it was not worth while to make the trip across the Atlantic andback for the mere purpose of landing one hundred and forty odd negroes--even could we have got them over without further loss, which I greatlydoubt--so I am going back to the coast for more--unless I can pick themup without going so far," he added, after a momentary pause, and with apeculiar look which I could not at the moment fathom. "And all thisloss of life, and money, and time, and all this extra risk are forcedupon me by the meddlesome policy of Great Britain. _Great_! Faugh!Could she but see herself as others see her she would, for very shame,strike out that vaunting prefix, and take that obscure place among thenations which properly befits her. Senor Dugdale, do you value yourlife?"

  "Well, yes, to a certain extent I do," I replied. "It is the only one Ihave, you see; and were I to lose it the loss would occasion aconsiderable amount of distress to my friends. For that reason,therefore, if for no other, I attach a certain amount of value to it,and feel bound to take care of it so far as I may, with honour."

  "Very well, then," remarked Mendouca, with a sneer, "so far as you can_with honour_, refrain, I pray you, from thrusting your nationality intomy face; for I may as well tell you that I have the utmost hatred andcontempt for the English; I would sweep every one of them off the faceof the earth if I could; and some day, when this feeling is particularlystrong upon me, I may blow your brains out if I happen to remember thatyou are an Englishman."

  "I hope it will not come to that, Don Fernando, for many reasons," Iremarked, with a rather forced laugh, "and among them I may just mentionthe base cowardice of murdering an unarmed man. I rather regret thatyou should be so completely as you appear to be under the dominion ofthis feeling of hatred for my nation; it must be as unpleasant for youas it is for me that we are thus forcibly thrown together; but it neednot last long; you can put me out of the ship at the first land that wetouch, and I must take my chance of making my way to a place of safety.It will be unpleasant for me, of course, but it will remove from you aconstant source of temptation to commit murder."

  Mendouca laughed--it was rather a harsh and jarring laugh, certainly--and said--

  "Upon my honour as a Spanish gentleman, you appear to be mightilyconcerned to preserve me from the crime of bloodshed, young gentleman.But do you suppose it would not be murder to put you ashore, as yousuggest, at the first land that we
reach? Why, boy, were I to do so,within six hours you would be in the hands of the natives, and lashed tothe torture-stake! And would not your death then be just as much my actas though I were to shoot you through the head this moment?"

  And to my astonishment--and somewhat to my consternation, I must admit--he whipped a pistol out of his belt and levelled it full at my head,cocking it with his thumb as he did so.

  "I presume it would," I answered steadily; "and on the whole I believethat to shoot me would be the more merciful act of the two. So fire byall means, senor, if you _must_ take my life."

  "By the living God, but you carry the thing off bravely, youngcockerel!" he exclaimed. "Do you _dare_ me to fire?"

  "Yes," I exclaimed stoutly. "I dare you to fire, if you can bringyourself to perpetrate so rank an act of cowardice!"

  "Well," he returned, laughing, as he lowered the pistol, uncocked it,and replaced it in his belt; "you are right. I cannot; at least not incold blood. I dare say I am pretty bad, according to your opinion, butmy worst enemy cannot accuse me of cowardice. And, as to putting youashore, I shall do nothing of the kind; on the contrary, widely as ouropinions at present diverge upon the subject of my calling, I hope yetto induce you to join me. You can be useful to me," he added, in pureEnglish, to my intense astonishment; "I want just such a cool, daringyoung fellow as yourself for my right hand, to be a pair of extra eyesand ears and hands to me, and to take command in my absence. I can makeit well worth your while, so think it over; I do not want an answernow."

  "But I _must_ answer now," I returned, also in English; "I cannot allowa single minute to elapse without assuring you, Don Fernando, that youaltogether mistake my character if you suppose me capable of anyparticipation whatever in a traffic that I abhor and detest beyond allpower of expression; a traffic that inflicts untold anguish uponthousands, and, not infrequently, I should imagine, entails such afearful waste of human life as I witnessed yesterday. Moreover, it hasjust occurred to me that when we attacked you and your friends in thecreek this brigantine was flying a _black_ flag. If that means anythingit means, I presume, that you are a pirate as well as a slaver?"

  "Precisely," he assented. "I am both. Some day, when we know eachother better, I will tell you my story, and, unlikely as you may nowthink it, I undertake to say that when you have heard it you willacknowledge that I have ample justification for being both."

  "Do not believe it, Don Fernando," I answered. "Your story is doubtlessthat of some real or fancied wrong that you have suffered at the handsof society; but _no_ wrong can justify a man to become an enemy to hisrace. I will hear your story, of course, if it will afford you anysatisfaction to tell it me; but I warn you that neither it nor anythingthat you can possibly say will have the effect of converting me to yourviews."

  "You think so now, of course," he answered, with a laugh; "but we shallsee, we shall see. Meanwhile, there is my steward poking his uglyvisage up through the companion to tell us that breakfast is ready, socome below, my friend, and take the keen edge off your appetite."

  It was on the day but one after this, that, about four bells in theforenoon watch, one of the hands, having occasion to go aloft to performsome small job of work on the rigging, reported a strange sail ahead.The brigantine was still running before a fair wind, but the breeze hadfallen light, and it looked rather as though we were in for a calmspell, with thunder, perhaps, later on. We were going about four ormaybe four and a half knots at the time, and the report of the strangesail created as much excitement on board us as though we had been aman-o'-war. For some time there seemed to be a considerable amount ofdoubt as to the course that the stranger was steering; for, as seen fromaloft, she appeared to be heading all round the compass; but it waseventually concluded that, in general direction, her course was the sameas our own.

  As the morning wore on the wind continued to drop, while a heavy bank ofthunder-cloud gathered about the horizon ahead, piling itself steadilybut imperceptibly higher, until by noon it was as much as Mendouca coulddo to get the sun for his latitude. By this time we had risen thestranger until we had brought her hull-up on the extreme verge of thehorizon; and the nearer that we drew to her the more eccentric did hermanoeuvres appear to be; she was heading all round the compass, and butfor the fact that we could see from time to time that her yards werebeing swung, and some of her canvas hauled down and hoisted again in themost extraordinary manner, we should have set her down as a derelict. Iought, by the way, to have said that she was a small brig of,apparently, about one hundred and forty tons. Mendouca was thoroughlyperplexed at her extraordinary antics; his glass was scarcely ever offher, and when he removed it from his eye it was only to hand it to meand impatiently demand whether I could not make out something toelucidate the mystery. At length, after witnessing through thetelescope some more than usually extraordinary performance with thecanvas, I remarked--

  "I think there is one thing pretty clear about that brig, and that isthat she is in the possession of people who have not the remotest notionhow to handle her."

  "Eh? what is that you say?" demanded Mendouca. "Don't know how tohandle her? Well, it certainly appears that they do not," as thefore-topsail-halliard was started and the yard slid slowly down themast, leaving the topgallant-sail and royal fully set above it. "ByJove, I have it!" he suddenly continued, slapping his thighenergetically. "Yonder brig is in possession of a cargo of slaves whohave somehow been allowed to rise and overpower her crew! Yes, byheaven, that must be the explanation of it! At all events we will rundown and see. Blow, good breeze, blow!" and he whistled energeticallyafter the manner of seamen in want of a wind.

  The breeze, however, utterly refused to blow; on the contrary, it wasgrowing more languid every minute, while our speed had dwindled down toa bare two knots; and the thunder-clouds were piling up overhead blackerand more menacing every minute. At length, when we were a bare threemiles from the brig, the helmsman reported that we no longer hadsteerage-way, and as the _Francesca_ slowly swung round upon her heel,bringing the brig broad on her starboard quarter, Mendouca stampedirritably on the deck, and cursed the weather, the brig, the brigantine;in fact he cursed "everything above an inch high," as we say in the navywhen we wish to describe a thorough, comprehensive outburst ofprofanity. At length, having given free vent to his impatience, hestood for a moment intently studying the lowering heavens, strode acrossthe deck and glanced through the open skylight at the barometer, thenturned to me and said, in English--

  "What think you, Dugdale; would it be safe, in your opinion, to sendaway a couple of boats to take possession of that brig? The glass hasdropped nothing to speak of since it was set this morning, and thatstuff up there promises nothing worse than a sharp thunderstorm and apelting downpour of rain. The boats could reach her in forty minutes,when their crews would take possession, shorten sail, and wait for us tojoin. I'll be bound there is sufficient `black ivory' aboard there tospare me the necessity to return to the coast and to make good all mylosses."

  In my turn I too looked at the sky intently.

  "I hardly know what to make of it," I answered at length. "It may be,as you say, that there is nothing worse than thunder brewing up there;yet there is something in the look of those clouds that I do notaltogether like; their colour, for instance, is too livid a purple forthunder alone, according to my idea, and I do not like the way in whichthey are working; why, they are as busy as a barrel of yeast; depend onit, senor, there is wind, and plenty of it, up there. As to how long itmay be before the outburst comes, you have had more experience than I ofthis part of the world, and ought to know the weather better than I do."

  "Well, I dare say I do," he assented, with apparent relief, and againraised his eyes and anxiously scrutinised the clouds. "I'll risk it,"he at length exclaimed, decisively, and forthwith turned and issued thenecessary orders to his chief mate, who trundled away forward, bawlingto the men as he went; and in a few minutes all was bustle and activityabout our decks, the arm-chests bei
ng brought on deck, and the selectedboats' crews coming aft and receiving their weapons from Mendoucahimself, while the gunner served out the ammunition. The rascals were asmart, active lot--I will give them credit for so much--and in less thanten minutes from the announcement of Mendouca's decision, the boats, twoof them, with ten men in each, were in the glassy water, and their crewsstretching out lustily for the brig.

  It was perfectly evident to me that Mendouca was possessed by a feelingthat his eagerness to acquire the brig's cargo of negroes had warped hisjudgment and egged him on to an unduly risky course of action in sendinghis boats and so many of his people away in the face of that threateningsky; the boats had no sooner shoved off than he became consumed byanxiety, and, oblivious of the suffocating heat and closeness of theatmosphere, proceeded to pace the deck to and fro with hasty, impatientstrides, halting abruptly at frequent intervals to scrutinise the aspectof the sky, and, anon, to watch the progress of the boats. The crews ofthe latter were evidently quite aware that the expedition upon whichthey were engaged was by no means free from peril, for until they hadreached a distance too great to enable us to distinguish their actions,I could see first one and then another glancing aloft and over hisshoulder at the sky, the action being invariably followed by theexhibition of increased energy at the oar. They were clearly doingtheir utmost, one and all; in fact the boats were making a downrightrace of it for the brig; the men bending their backs and throwing theirwhole strength into every stroke, churning the oily-looking surface ofthe water into foam with their oar-blades, and leaving a long,wedge-like wake behind them, while the two mates in charge, and who hadhold of the yoke-lines, were bowing forward at every stroke in trueracing style. Yet, rapid as their progress was, it did not satisfyMendouca, who, every time that he paused to watch their progress,stamped upon the deck with impatience, and cursed the oarsmen for a setof lazy, good-for-nothing lubbers.

  And there was ample, justification for his anxiety; for scarcely had theboats reached a quarter of a mile from the _Francesca_ than there was asudden and very perceptible darkening of the heavens, followed by avivid flash of lightning low down toward the eastern horizon, the low,muffled boom of the thunder coming reverberating across the glassy waterwith the sound of a cannon-shot rolled slowly along a timber floor.