Great American Adventure Stories

by Tom McCarthy

  One of them had an extremely savage appearance, having received a blow, probably from a cutlass, across his face that had knocked in all his front teeth and cut off a part of his upper lip, the scar extending some distance beyond the angles of the mouth—three of the fingers of his left hand, with a part of the little finger, were cut off, and the thumb was badly scarred. He was tall, well proportioned, and appeared to have some authority over the others. The captain was stout and so corpulent that I should not underrate his weight at 260 pounds. He reminded me strongly of a Guinea captain I had formerly seen. He was shaved after the manner of the Turks, the beard of his upper lip being very long—was richly dressed—armed with a machete and knife on one side and a pair of pistols on the other, besides which, he wore a dirk within his vest. After examining our papers, which had been accidentally saved by Capt. Hilton, he took out of a net purse two doubloons and presented them to the master fisherman in presence of all hands. This we at first supposed to be intended as some compensation for the injury done by firing at us. The account of our shipwreck, sufferings, and providential escape to the island was now related to him by Manuel, which he noticed by a slight shrug of the shoulders, without changing a single muscle of his face. He had a savage jeer in his look during the recital of our misfortunes that would have robbed misery of her ordinary claims to compassion and denied the unhappy sufferer even a solitary expression of sympathy.

  After he had ascertained who we were, he returned to his own boat with three of his men, leaving one onboard of us as a kind of prize master. Our master fisherman, who also accompanied him, was greeted by all onboard the armed vessel in a manner that denoted him to have been an old acquaintance. We could see them passing to each other a long, white jug, which, after they had all drank, they shook at us, saying in broken English, “Anglois, vill you have some Aquedente?” to which we made no reply. When they had apparently consulted among themselves about half an hour, they sent two men with the jug onboard of us, from which we all drank sparingly in order to avoid offense, and they returned to their own vessel, took in two more men, and proceeded to the huts, which they entered and went around several times, then came down to our longboat, and examined her carefully. After this they came off to our vessel with the two canoes, one of which went to the armed boat, and brought onboard of us all but the captain and two of his men. Our little crew had thus far been the anxious spectators of these mysterious maneuvers.

  There were circumstances which at one time encouraged the belief that we were in the hands of friends and at another that these pretended friends were calmly preparing for a “foul and most unnatural murder.” Capt. Hilton was unwilling yet to yield his confidence in the treacherous Spaniard, who, I did not doubt, had already received the price of our blood. In this state of painful suspense, vibrating between hope and fear, we remained, until the master fisherman threw on the deck a ball of cord made of tough, strong bark, about the size of a man’s thumb, from which they cut seven pieces of about nine feet each—went to Capt. Hilton and attempted to take off his overcoat but were prevented by a signal from their captain. They now commenced binding his arms behind him just above the elbows with one of the pieces of cord, which they passed several times round and drew so tight that he groaned out in all the bitterness of his anguish.

  My fears that they were pirates were now confirmed, and when I saw them, without temptation or provocation, cruelly torturing one whom shipwreck had thrown among them, a penniless sailor reduced by sickness to an almost helpless condition, and entreating with all the tenderness of a penitent that they would not cut him off in the blossom of his sins and before he had reached the meridian of life—reminding them of the wife and parents he left behind, I burst into tears and arose involuntarily as if to sell my life at the dearest rate but was shoved back by one of the pirates, who gave me a severe blow on the breast with the muzzle of his cocked blunderbuss. A scene of woe ensued which would have tried the stoutest heart, and it appeared to me that even they endeavored to divert their minds from it by a constant singing and laughing so loud as to drown the sound of our lamentations. After they had told Manuel they should carry us to Matanzas as prisoners of war, they proceeded to pinion our arms as they had Capt. Hilton’s, so tight as to produce excruciating pain.

  We were now completely in their power, and they rolled us about with as much indifference as though we had been incapable of feeling, tumbling us into the canoes without mercy. They threw me with such force that I struck the back of my neck against the seat of the canoe and broke it. Capt. Hilton, Mr. Merry, Bridge, and the cook were in one canoe; Russell, Manuel, and myself, in the other. For the first time, they now informed us that they were about to cut our throats, which information they accompanied with the most appalling signs by drawing their knives across their throats, imitating stabbing, and various other tortures. Four pirates accompanied the other canoe and three ours, besides the four fishermen, two to manage each canoe. We were thus carried alongside the piratical schooner, when all their firearms were passed onboard of her; the arm chest, which was in the stern sheets and covered with a tarpaulin, opened, several long knives and machetes taken out, their keen edges examined with the greatest scrutiny, and passed onboard the canoes for the expressed purpose of murdering us all.

  The seven pirates and four fishermen, as before, now proceeded with us toward the beach until the water was about three feet deep, when they all got out, the two fishermen to each canoe, hauling us along, and the pirates walking by the side of us, one to each of our crew, torturing us all the way by drawing their knives across our throats, grasping the same, and pushing us back under the water, which had been taken in by rocking the canoes. While some of us were in the most humiliating manner beseeching of them to spare our lives and others with uplifted eyes were again supplicating that Divine mercy which had preserved them from the fury of the elements, they were singing and laughing and occasionally telling us in broken English that “Americans were very good beef for their knives.” Thus they proceeded with us nearly a mile from the vessel, which we were now losing sight of by doubling a point at the entrance of the cove before described, and when within a few rods of its head, where we had before seen the human bones, the canoes were hauled abreast of each other, from twelve to twenty feet apart, preparatory to our execution.

  The stillness of death was now around us—for the very floodgates of feeling had been burst asunder and exhausted grief at its fountain. It was a beautiful morning—not a cloud to obscure the rays of the sun—and the clear, blue sky presented a scene too pure for deeds of darkness. But the lonely sheet of water, on which side by side we lay, presented that hopeless prospect which is more ably described by another.

  We had scarcely passed the last parting look at each other, when the work of death commenced.

  They seized Captain Hilton by the hair—bent his head and shoulders over the gunwale, and I could distinctly hear them chopping the bone of the neck. They then wrung his neck, separated the head from the body by a slight draw of the sword, and let it drop into the water; there was a dying shriek—a convulsive struggle—and all I could discern was the arms dangling over the side of the canoe and the ragged stump pouring out the blood like a torrent.

  There was an imploring look in the innocent and youthful face of Mr. Merry that would have appealed to the heart of anyone but a pirate. As he arose on his knees in the posture of a penitent, supplicating for mercy even on the verge of eternity, he was prostrated with a blow of the cutlass, his bowels gushing out of the wound. They then pierced him through the breast in several places with a long-pointed knife and cut his throat from ear to ear.

  The captain’s dog, repulsed in his repeated attempts to rescue his master, sat whining beside his lifeless body, looking up to these bloodhounds in human shape, as if to tell them that even brutal cruelty would be glutted with the blood of two innocent, unoffending victims.

  Bridge and the cook, they pierced through
the breast, as they had Merry, in several places with their knives and then split their heads open with their cutlasses. Their dying groans had scarcely ceased, and I was improving the moment of life that yet remained, when I heard the blow behind me—the blood and brains that flew all over my head and shoulders warned me that poor old Russell had shared the fate of the others; and as I turned my head to catch the eye of my executioner, I saw the head of Russell severed in two nearly its whole length, with a single blow of the cutlass and even without the decency of removing his cap. At the sound of the blow, Manuel, who sat before me, leaped overboard, and four of the pirates were in full chase after him. In what manner he loosed his hands, I am unable to say—his escape, I shall hereafter explain. My eyes were fixed on my supposed executioner, watching the signal of my death—he was on my right and partly behind me—my head, which was covered with a firm tarpaulin hat, was turned in a direction that brought my shoulders fore and aft the canoe—the blow came—it divided the top of my hat, struck my head so severely as to stun me, and glanced off my left shoulder, taking the skin and some flesh in its way, and divided my pinion cord on the arm. I was so severely stunned that I did not leap from the canoe but pitched over the left side and was just arising from the water, not yet my length from her, as a pirate threw his knife which struck me but did not retard my flight an instant, and I leaped forward through the water, expecting a blow from behind at every step.

  The shrieks of the dying had ceased—the scene of horrid butchery in the canoes was now over—Manuel and I were in the water about knee deep—two of the pirates after me, and all the rest, with the fishermen, except one pirate, after Manuel. We ran in different directions, I, toward the mouth of the cove, making nearly a semicircle in my track to keep them over my shoulder, which brought me back again toward the canoes, and as the remaining pirate came out in order to cut me off, I was obliged to run between the canoes so near the last pirate that he made a pass at me and fell, which gave me the start. At the first of our race, I was after Manuel, with pirates before and behind. My object was to gain the bushes as soon as possible, supposing their cutlasses would be an obstacle, which I had the good fortune to prove. I lost sight of Manuel just as I entered the bushes; he was up to his breast in water and the pirates near him. When I entered the bushes, one of the pirates was within ten feet of me and continued striking, hoping to reach me, and all of them yelling in the most savage manner during the whole distance. The most of the way, the water and mud was nearly up to my hips—the mangroves were very thick, covered, as I before observed, with oyster shells up to high water mark. It was about noon when I entered these bushes, my course westerly, the pirates after me, repeatedly in view, one of them frequently within three rods of me. Had it been on cleared land, I should soon have been overtaken by them, but the bushes were so large and thick as frequently to entangle their swords. I was barefoot, and had I worn shoes, they would soon have been lost in the mud. My feet and legs were so badly cut with the oyster shells that the blood flowed freely; add to this, my head was very painful and swollen, and my shoulder smarted severely. In this manner and direction, I ran till the sun about an hour high, when I lost sight of the pirates and paused for a moment; pulled off my jacket (the cord being yet on my right arm, which I slipped off), in which I rolled my hat; and taking it under my arm, I settled down on my knees, which brought the water up to my chin, in order to secrete myself. In this way I crept till nearly sunset, when, to my astonishment, I discovered the ocean, and just as the sun was setting, I crawled out to the border of the island. I looked round and saw a very large bush of mangroves, the highest near, among the roots of which I concealed myself. When the sun was setting, I could distinctly hear the splashing of water and cracking of bushes and the pirates hallooing to each other, which increased my apprehensions, supposing they might discover my track through the muddy water. I was almost exhausted from a severe pain in my side caused by running so long, though I had determined not to yield to them until I fell under the blow of their cutlass. Soon after the sun was down, their noise ceased, and I crept up to the top of the tall mangrove, put on my hat and jacket, where I sat all night, until the sun rose the next morning, that I might discover if they had come round the island to intercept my passage.

  As I ran through the bushes, I disturbed numberless birds, among which was the flamingo, who was extremely bold, flying around me with such a noise that I feared it would betray me by serving as a guide to my pursuers.

  When the sun had arisen without a cloud, I could discover nothing to increase my apprehension. I descended the mangrove and proceeded to the border of the key—looked across the water before me, where lay another key, which I judged two and a half or three miles distant. Here I stripped myself to my shirt, the sleeves of which I tore off, and with my trousers threw them into the sea. I then tied my jacket, which was of broadcloth, by means of the cord that was on my arm, slung it over my neck, and put my hat on to protect my wounded head from the sun. In this plight I committed myself to the sea, first supplicating on my knees a Divine blessing on my undertaking but doubting whether I should ever reach the opposite key. Being, however, an excellent swimmer, having before swum nearly two miles on a wager, I reached the opposite key without any other injury than the galling my neck with the cord and with much less fatigue than I could have supposed. This key was much of the description of the last but smaller. I made but little pause, continuing my course southwesterly across it, which was, I should suppose, about three miles, and as I had not hurried, owing to my fatigue, when I arrived at its border, it was about the middle of the afternoon. At about two miles distance, I descried another key, to which I swam, slinging my jacket as before. When I arrived at this, which was the third key, it was a little before sunset. I proceeded into the bushes about three-fourths of a mile, it being a small key, and came out nearly to its margin, where I passed the night, leaning against a bunch of mangroves, with the water up to my hips. Such had been my fatigue and mental excitement that, even in this unpleasant situation, I slept soundly, until I was disturbed by a vision of the horrible scene in the canoes—the images of Capt. Hilton and Mr. Merry, mangled as when I last saw them, came before my eyes, and in my fancied attempt to rescue them, I awoke but could not convince myself it was a dream until I grasped my own flesh. Again I slept interruptedly until daylight. Being excessively hungry, for this was the third day since I had taken a single particle of food or drink, I plucked some of the greenest of the leaves; this relieved my hunger but increased my thirst. About sunrise I departed from this key, wading with the water at times up to my neck for nearly a mile, when it grew deeper.

  The next and fourth key, being about another mile distant, I swam to. This day I kept on about the same course, southwesterly, and crossed three more small keys about a mile distant from each other. I had now arrived at the seventh and last key; on this I passed the night, having prepared a kind of flake of old roots, on which I slept soundly, for the first time out of water since I left Cruz del Padre. Between daylight and sunrise, having eaten of the green leaves as before and having been refreshed by sleep, I departed from the last key, by this time so weak that I could scarcely walk. The water was not so deep, but I could wade until within half a mile of what afterward proved to be Cuba but of which I was ignorant at the time.

  While I was crossing this last passage, I had to contend with a strong current, probably from the mouth of the very river I afterward forded, and when but a few rods from the shore, a shark approached within a rod, but to my great joy, he turned and left me.

  I had now swum about nine miles beside the distance I had traveled through mud and water, and the hunger and thirst I had endured, having tasted neither food nor drink except a few salt leaves of mangroves during my flight. And to add to my sufferings, my almost-naked body was covered with mosquitoes, attracted by the blood and sores produced by my escape from Cruz del Padre.

  Observing that this shore varied a little from th
ose I had passed, I followed it in an easterly direction, which was reversing my former course, for nearly two miles, when I came to a large yawl with her foremast standing. As I set me down on her gunwale, the thought struck my mind that this boat, like our own, might have preserved some unfortunate crew from the fury of the storm in order to offer them up to the pitiless pirate, who, perhaps, had not suffered a solitary individual to escape and say that the vengeance of man on these encrimsoned shores had sacrificed those whom the mercy of God had spared amid the dangers of his “mighty deep.” While I was employed by these reflections, the gnawings of hunger were suddenly aroused by the appearance of two crawfish under the stern sheets, one of which I caught and devoured with such greediness that it was very soon rejected, and although I at first thought I could have eaten a dozen of them, the exhaustion produced by my efforts to vomit destroyed all relish for the other.

  I again proceeded on my old course, southwesterly, until about the middle of the afternoon, when I approached dry land and set me down on a windfall to contemplate my situation, to a description of which I might well have adapted the language of Job: “My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken and become loathsome.” Near the roots of this tree, as I sat viewing some holes formed by land crabs, I observed water issuing from one of them. A more grateful and unexpected sight the Israelites could not have witnessed at the smitten rock, for I soon found the water proceeded from a boiling spring, and without it, I am sure I could not have survived another day, for it will be recollected that this was the first freshwater I had tasted since the morning my shipmates were murdered. But pure as it was, my parched stomach would not retain it, until after repeated trials I succeeded in quenching my thirst. I again proceeded southwesterly, the land gradually elevating, until there suddenly opened upon me an immense plain, where the eye could reach over thousands of acres without the obstruction of a tree, covered with cattle of every age and description, some of which came snuffing around, so near that, in my crippled condition, I feared they might board me. But a swing of my hat set them capering and snorting in every direction. The number and variety of wild cattle collected on these plains is immense. I should think I saw more than five hundred hogs, chiefly of a dark color, and more than half that number of horses, principally white; bulls and cows with calves by their sides; goats; mules; &c.