Sea-Dogs All!

by Tom Bevan

  Chapter XLIX.

  EASTWARD HO!

  Panama awoke with the sun, discovered the flight of the galley, andmade ready for pursuit. There were some small craft in the bay, andthese were manned with Indians and soldiers and sent out to sea; butthey came back as they went. Truth to tell, the flotilla would havestood no chance against the guns of the _Santa Maria_, and those aboardthe tossing boats knew that.

  Thereafter, for some weeks, the town lived its nights in alarm. Firesburned along the fort and on the most seaward points of the bay. Noman expected other than that the slaves would come back in the darknessand take a terrible revenge for the cruelties they had suffered. ButPanama was alarmed quite needlessly: the galley never rode on itswaters again.

  The first care of the revolted slaves was to get as far away from theirlate masters as possible. In spite of their fatigue, they rowed harduntil daybreak. At first there was some difficulty with the Europeanriff-raff. These wanted to swagger about on deck and bully theIndians; but neither Hernando nor his two English friends would hear ofit. They had chosen the able-bodied sailors from amongst the rowers,and placed them on deck to attend to helm and sails. All not wantedfor this duty must sit at the oars. Two or three flatly refused to doso, and began to talk above their deserts. They were promptly put backinto chains again, and Hernando stood over them with a whip and floggedthem into work. The lesson was not lost on the others.

  A breeze came up with the sun; sails were spread, sweeps taken in, andthe Indians freed from their chains. The delight of the poor fellowswas unbounded. They fell down before their rescuers, worshipping them;then they rushed up on deck, dancing and singing like a mob of childrenlet loose from confinement. There was plenty of excellent food aboard,and for once the rowers fed sumptuously. The breeze continuing, allsave the three commanders and the deck hands laid themselves down andslept until nearly noon. Then labour began again. The wind still heldstrongly, so the natives were put to work cleansing the slave-deck ofits accumulated filth. The chains, save about a score of the strongestsets, were tossed overboard. These were kept in case of mutiny amongstthe scum whites. There was no fear of trouble with the natives; thefaithful, grateful creatures would follow their liberators everywhere.

  The cleaning being finished, a council of all the whites--save thethree put into bonds--was held on the after-deck. Hernando, as primemover in the revolt, presided. As the Spaniard was a good seaman, hewas unanimously appointed captain; whereupon he chose Morgan, Jeffreys,and a trustworthy Spaniard as his chief officers. Then, before thewhole assembly, he swore solemnly to do his utmost for the welfare ofhis ship; and his three officers, having his promise to issue no ordersthat a gentleman might hesitate to fulfil, solemnly swore to obey himto the death. The others, according to their several stations, tookvows of faithful obedience to their officers.

  The captain then proceeded to set matters in order. There wereprisoners in the cabins near them; these were brought forth one by one,and examined with commendable fairness. Morgan was surprised at thechange in Hernando. He had expected to find him vindictive and cruel,and he knew that not a soul in the fore-part of the galley had beenspared in the darkness of the previous night. But liberty had softenedthe Spaniard; he remembered the injustice he had suffered, not with aview to exacting "eye for eye" and "tooth for tooth" from others, butwith the resolve not to inflict injustice upon his fellows. The trialsof the prisoners took up the remainder of the day. Some who had beencruel to the slaves were hanged with but little ceremony; it was hardlyto be expected that men whose backs still smarted would do otherwise.The two boatswains had perished the night before; the chief boatswainwas doomed to share their fate; two others were hanged; the rest weresent below to the slave-deck, and chained to one of the oars, farenough away from the troublesome slaves who were undergoing punishment.

  The night passed without alarm. Hernando and Morgan walked the deckfor hours in the starlight, planning for the future. They saw thedifficulties and dangers of their position, but could not clearly see away out of them. They had a ship, well manned and well armed, andfairly well victualled. What should they do with her? Search would bemade for them, and galley after galley, ship after ship, coming intoPanama, would be sent in quest of them. It they continued in Spanishwaters, they must be overtaken at some time or other. What would theresult be? They had guns, ammunition, and a fair supply of weapons,but their fighting capacity was very small. The Indians--or most ofthem--must be at the oars. Out of less than a score of Europeans, somemust be about deck duties. A mere handful of men would be left to workthe guns and fight. A foe of any strength must inevitably capture them.

  Should they attempt to cross the Atlantic to England? There again camethe question of capture. Would the Indians remain faithful if anyattempt were made to take them thousands of miles from their homes?Should they turn corsairs; capture a sailing ship; set the Indiansashore on their own coast, or leave them the galley to do as theypleased with it? The two men could not make up their minds.

  The next day the same thoughts came to the rest of the Europeans, andthey were heard discussing their chances of ultimate escape. Anotherfull council was held, and the position placed clearly before them all.There were many differences of opinion, but eventually it was agreedthat there was too much danger in remaining near the seaboard ofSpanish America, and equal or greater peril to be encountered in anattempt to make a winter passage to Europe. No man would face thevoyage round Cape Horn with an inadequate crew and a clumsy galleymainly propelled by oars. The voyage would take nearly a year, andthey had provisions for about a fortnight. The plan of capturing asmall ship was more favourably considered; but the question arose,Where could such a ship be found? If they got into the ordinary trackof navigation, other and less welcome vessels might sight them. Theposition was distinctly perilous, and a bad feature of it all was thatsome of the rescued men were thoroughly treacherous and untrustworthy,and others so broken down by years of slavery as to be helpless forstrenuous action. The three ringleaders saw plainly that they had lessthan a dozen men, including themselves, that could be relied upon forloyal, valiant, and intelligent conduct in an emergency. They went torest that night with no definite plans for the morrow. The galley waskept slowly going northward towards the Pacific coast of Mexico; theoars were little used.

  The next morning Hernando took definite steps. He took the capturedofficers and the recalcitrant whites, put them into a boat within sightof land, set them adrift, and stood out to sea again. He had noneunder his command then who were not at least faithful.

  For a couple of days he went north, well out to sea. Then he turnedinshore again, coasted for a while, until he came to a wooded bay thatoffered good anchorage. Entering this he dropped his anchor, and wentashore with Morgan and half a dozen or so of the Indians. The partywas away for some hours, and only returned at sunset. The next day theobject of the expedition was disclosed. Hernando called the wholecrew, white and Indian, before him. He explained the dangers they werehourly in on the high seas, and the impossibility of fighting anystrong adversary. Food was running short, and a long voyage in thegalley was out of the question. He proposed to take to the landhimself, and hazard his chance of life and liberty there. The Indianscould scatter abroad. The forest teemed with game, and he and hisparty had seen many streams. No village or town was anywhere in sight.The chances of escape into Mexico were excellent for whites and nativesalike. Or any man who wished it might try to reach his own tribeagain; a matter of half a moon of marching would bring him to hispeople. Every man should take some weapon and as much food as he caredto carry. His plan included the burning of the galley, so that alltrace of them might be lost.

  The natives rejoiced at the chance of quitting the hated galley fortheir native woods, and the Europeans saw that their captain's planoffered them the best hope of safety; they agreed also.

  The _Santa Maria_ was partially dismantled. All that was of value inher was
taken out; the food was shared, arms distributed, and the wholeparty went ashore in the boats. Hernando stayed last, and fired thevessel before he left her. During the whole night she blazed,illuminating the camp of her late occupants amid the trees on theshore. The Indians had rigged up two tents with the sails, and inthese their white companions slept comfortably.

  No move was made from the camping-place on the shore for several days.The Indians scouted round in all directions, going fifty or sixty milesthrough forest and over mountain, and spying out the land. Hernando,meanwhile, tried to get some idea of his position on the Pacific coast.From his observations, and the reports of the natives, he concludedthat he must be somewhere west of the great lake of Nicaragua, and in aline for the small town of San Juan on the Atlantic coast, not morethan a week's march away.

  When fairly satisfied of this, he struck his camp, and marched inlandover the mountains. The natives carried one boat. In due time theysaw a vast stretch of water below them, and knew that the lake lay intheir path.

  On the shores of the lake the white men had decided to part from theirnative companions. Villages clustered here and there on the margin ofthe waters, and the appearance of a large company would spread alarm,and send reports through the land that might betray them all. Theleave-taking was pathetic enough. The poor Indians looked like so manyhelpless children. They begged the white men to stay with them, andsettle in the mountains between the lake and the sea. The country wasrich, and food and water plentiful. They would be faithful children totheir white fathers, if the latter would but stay to guide, protect,and counsel them.

  But neither Englishmen nor Spaniards had any desire to rule as pettychiefs in a Central American forest; their thoughts and hopes tookhigher flights than that. Adieus were said; the Europeans took totheir boat, with but one Indian as a scout and possible interpreter,and pulled out from the shore, the mass of natives rushing after theminto the water, weeping and lamenting.

  The passage of the lake was safely accomplished; the course of a riverflowing into it was followed as far as it was navigable. Then theparty camped whilst the Indian went to the hilltops in the east, andsurveyed the land that sloped away to the coast. He was away aboutforty hours.

  On his return with a favourable report the camp was struck and the boatburned. Then, carefully covering up their tracks, the fugitives setout for the Atlantic coast. It was hardly possible that any report oftheir escape would have reached so far, and the authorities would neverlook for them on the eastern ocean.

  When the outskirts of San Juan were reached, Hernando went on asadvance guard. The next day they all entered the town as a party ofshipwrecked sailors. The Englishmen had been rechristened with Spanishnames for the nonce, and they wisely left the talking to their Spanishcompanions. They were received without suspicion.