m n :(■<: tac ^c di <^^ c .t«t:--ar:TZl^i?7ty ■m^A.eac^fM-Ae'n': J^^t/it'n^ya/^^/-^ L o K D on: swccESSOR TO K. coLnvrar; CUKMING. DUBLIB'.-BELI h BBABFTJTE. EDINBURGH. eALIG-N-ANI. PARIS. 1835. ADVENTURES A YOUNGER SON. And I will war, at least in words, (and — should My cliance so happen — deeds) with all who war With thought ; — and of thouglit's foes by far most rude, ■J'yrants and sycophants have been and are. I know not who may conquer : if I could Have such a prescience, it should be no bar To this my plain, sworn, downright detestation Of every despotism in every nation. Byron. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, 8. NEW BURLINGTON STREET (SUCCESSOR TO HENRY COLBURN): BELL AND BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH; GUMMING, DUBLIN. 1835. REMARKS " ADVENTURES OF A YOUNGER SON. It has been asserted by many that this Novel, one of the most original perhaps ever produced, is, for the greater part, a narrative of the life of its author, given in the guise of romance. The earnestness with which the work is written — the apparent reality and unprecedented na- ture of its incidents and characters — the vivid colour of its descriptions — and the untameable passion which riots throughout its pages, might seem to favour, if, ''ndeed, they did not altogether originate, the idea that the story is more indebted to the experience than to the invention of him by whose pen it has been embodied. It is in this belief that the reviewer in " The Spectator " says, " Mr. Trelawney, it is well known, has had some strange ad- ventures. Our readers have seen (in a play) a stout- limbed, black- whiskered fellow, in a turban, brandishing a scimitar, and cutting down, or pretending to cut down, any body or every body that looked him straight in the face. This might be taken for a portrait of the Younger Son, in his Arab dress, on board his India-built grab or his American schooner, scouring the seas of the East in VI REMARKS ON THE search of plunder. His ferocity is appalling, his courage is invincible, his strength is that of a giant : he fears a cannon-shot no more than others fear the flash powder in a priming pan ; he will leap you from the main-top into the sea, spear a tiger, creese a Malay, or cut down an honest British tar, if he can. There is no end to his exploits — in the East : in the West, they were consider- able, but not quite so triumphant. In Greece, the author (if not the hero) was shot through and through by an assassin : he survived, how^ever ; and, Ave believe, has come to this country." * * * * " The ' Adventures of a Younger Son ' is the cleverest book of the season, in its line — not excepting ' Eugene Aram.' Its freshness and vigour are perfectly surprising ; and the various and curious experience it unfolds respect- ing the East in matter has been equalled in no book of travels, and excelled in no book of poetry. We almost forgive the author even his long list of murders, for the sake of his wild romantic descriptions of island solitudes, untrod by any feet but those of the wandering savage, or the scarcely less savage or less wandering buccaneer — for his admirable portraitures of dark nations, only rarely seen by the sailor, and very meagrely painted by the geographer — for his excellent sketches of character, and his curious views of human nature, which he has evidently seen under phases that rarely present themselves to the ordinary way- farer." This, no doubt, is really the case : the author, in com- posing his novel, has, in many places, turned to account what has befallen himself, and what he has witnessed as regards others. But the work altogether as much belongs ADVENTURES OF A YOUNGER SON. VH to fiction as the "Amelia" of Fielding; wherein many passages of the novelist's life are known to be narrated. The ''^ Quarterly Review," in its admiration of the present work, speaks confidently as to the class of literature to which it is to be referred. " The Younger Son," says the reviewer, "is not a work of fiction. It is, we are as- sured, a fragment of the autobiography of a man of remarkable talents, who has chosen to live a most extra- ordinary life, and to describe its incidents with, considering their character, a most extraordinary measure of fidelity." To this it may be repUed, that the story was given by the author to the world avowedly as a work of fiction, in which character it is now included in " The Standard Novels and Romances." London, September, 1835. ADVENTURES A YOUNGER SON. CHAPTER I. Love or lust makes man sick, and wine much sicker. Ambition rends, and gaming gains a loss ; But making money, slowly first, then quicker, And adding still a little through eacli cross (Which will come over things} beats love and liquor. Byron. My birth was unpropitious. I came into the worlds branded and denounced as a vagrant ; for I was a younger son of a family, so proud of their antiquity, that even gout and mort- gaged estates were traced, many generations back, ca the genealogical tree, as ancient heirlooms of aristocratic origin, and therefore reverenced. In such a house a younger son was like the cub of a felon-wolf in good King Edgar's days, when a price was set upon his head. There have been laws corapeUing parents to destroy their puny offspring ; and a Spartan mother might have exclaimed with Othello, while extinguishing the life of her yet unconscious infant, " I that am cruel, am yet merciful, I would not have thee linger in thy pain ; " which was just and merciful, in comparison with the atro- cious law of primogeniture. My grandfather was a general, and had httle to give my father, his only son, but patronage in his profession. Nature, in some sort, made him amends B 2 ADVENTURES OF by bestowing that ■which leads to fortune oftener than genius, virtue^ or such discarded claimants — a handsome exterior set off by courtly manners. His youth was not distinguished by any marked peculiarity, running the course of the gallants of the day. Women, wine, the court, the camp, formed the theatre of his ambition, and there he was accounted to play his part well. In his twenty-fourth year he became enamoured of a lovely and gentle girl. His thoughts took a new turn. He discovered (for in that he was learned) that the passion was mutual ; and the only barrier to the completion of their wishes was fortune. Their families, but not their expectations, were equal. Youth and Jove are generally proof against the admonitions of parents and guardians. As to money, settlements, and deeds, first love is of too sincere and passionate a character to be controlled by worldly calculating selfishness, which, in after hfe, is mingled up more or less in all our dealings with women, and theirs with us. The noble and generous passions, animated by first love, often impress on the un- settled and fluctuating character of youth a fixedness, which time cannot wholly destroy, ^^'ould to Heaven my father had united his fate with her's, for her worth has stood proof against time and change ! While he was labouring to overcome the impediments to his marriage, he was or- dered with a party to recruit in the west. Thinking their separation temporary, they parted, as all those, under such circumstances, have parted, with protestations of eternal fidelity ; but, what is not so general, considering his being a gay soldier, he continued true to his oaths for three months. At a ball, given by the county sheriff on his nomination, his daughter, an heiress, when desired by her father to give her hand, for the first dance, to the man of highest rank in the room, who happened to be the oldest, declared she would give it to the handsomest. She selected my father, and with him she danced. This preference flattered hira, and its being a subject of conversation gave birth to ideas which, otherwise, might not have entered his head. She was a dark, masculine woman of three and twenty ; but she was the richest, and that was enough to make her seem at A YOUNGER SON. least the most interesting. My father was naturally, or by the example of the world, of a selfish turn of mind. Rich and beautiful soon became synonymous terms with him. He received marked encouragement from the heiress. He saw those he had envied, envying him. Gold was his god, for he had daily experienced those mortifications to which the want of it subjected him : he determined to offer up his heart to the temple of Fortune alone, and waited but an opportunity of displaying his apostacy to love. The struggle with his better feelings was of short duration. He called his conduct prudence and filial obedience — and those arc virtues — thus concealing its naked atrocity by a seemly covering. His letters grew briefer, and their interval greater, to the lady of his love — his visits became frequent to the lady of wealth. But why dwell on an occurrence so com- mon in the world — the casting away of virtue and beauty for riches, though the devil gives them } He married ; found the lady's fortune a great deal less, and the lady a great deal worse than he had anticipated ; went to town ir- ritated and disappointed, with the consciousness of having merited his fate ; sunk part of his fortune in idle parade to satisfy his wife ; and, his affairs being embarrassed by the lady's extravagance, he was, at length, compelled to sell out of the army, and retire to economise in the country. Malthus had not yet enlightened the world. Every suc- ceeding year he reluctantly registered in the family Bible the birth of a living burthen. He cursed my mother' 5 fer- tility, and the butcher's and baker's bills. He grew gloomy and desponding. A bequest fell to him, and he seriously set about amassing money, which was henceforth the leading passion of his life. He became what is called a prudent man. If a poor rela- tion appUed to him, he talked of his duty to his wife and children; and when richest, complained most of his poverty, of extortion, and of the unconscionable price of every thing. He contended that he could not afford to send his children to school; learning was too dear; it was unnecessary, for his education at Westminster had proved of no benefit, as he had never since looked into the Greek, Latin, and all the books he had read there by compulsion; yet he was not B 2 4 ADVENTURES OF more ignorant than his neighbours. He knew the import- ance of money^ and the necessity of accumulating it^ and could calculate the value of learning. Perhaps he believed exclusively in the doctrine of innate talent. Knowledge, in his opinon, would come when called for. It would be time enough when our professions were determined on, to learn what was indispensable ; and as my brother's and mine would be that of arms, very little was necessary. He hated superfluity in any thing; besides, he had observed that those in his regiment who were addicted to books were the most troublesome, and their learning was no step to their advance- ment. CHAPTER II. And oft In wantonness of spirit, plunging down Into their green and glassy gulphs, and making My way to shells and sea-weed, all unseen By those above, till they wax'd fearful; then Returning with my grasp full of such tokens As show'd that I had searchM the Jeep, exulting With a far-dashing stroke, and drawing deep The long suspended breath, again I spurn'd The foam which broke around me, and pursued My track like a sea-bird. Btro-n. My brother was tractable, mild, and uncomplaining. I was in continual scrapes. I insisted on following the bent of my inclinations ; and opposition only sharpened my desires. We were not allowed, among the many petty restrictions of our unkind governor, to stray off the gravelled paths in the garden. My brother submitted to this; while I sought for compensation in our neighbour's gardens, returning from them with fruits and flowers in abundance. ^ly brother was contented with his daily walk upon the common or the road ; I, with my pockets well filled with bread and apples, climbed the hills, or descended them to learn swimming in the rivers. I hated all that thwarted me — parsons, pastors, and masters. Every thing I was directed cautiously to A YOUNGER SOK. O shun, as dangerous or wrong, I sought with avidity^ as giving the most pleasure. Had I been treated with affection, or even with the show of it, I beUeve that I also should have been tractable, mild, and uncomplaining. Punishment and severity of all kinds were the only marks of paternal love that fell to my share, from my earliest remembrance. My father had a fancy for a raven, that, with ragged wings, and a grave antique aspect, used to wander solitarily about the garden. He abhorred children ; and Avhenever he saw any of us, he used to chase us out of his walks. I was then five years old. Had the raven pitched on any other spot than the one he selected, the fruit-garden, I cer- tainly should never have disputed his right of possession. As it was, we had all, from the time we could walk, consi- dered him and my father the two most powerful, awful, and tyrannical persons on earth. The raven was getting into years ,■ he had a grey and grisly look ; he halted on one leg ; his joints were stiff, his legs rough as the bark of a cork-tree, and he was covered with large warts : his eyes had a bleared and sinister expression ; and he passed most of his time idling in the sun under a south wall, against which grew the dehcious plums of the garden. Many were the stratagems we used to lure him from the spot ; the garbage, on which he gloated, was offered in vain. His moroseness and ferocity, and our difficulty in getting fruit, Avere insup- portable. We tried to intimidate him with sticks, but were too weak to make the least impression on his werther- hardened carcase ; and we got the worst of it. I used, when I could do so slily, to throw stones at him, but this had no effect. Thus things continued. I had in vain sought for redress from the gardener and servants : they laughed at us, and jeered us. One day I had a little girl for my companion, whom I had enticed from the nursery to go with me to get some fruit clandestinely. We slunk out, and entered the garden unobserved. Just as we were congratulating ourselves under a cherry tree, up comes the accursed monster of a raven. It was no longer to be endured. He seized hold of the little girl's frock ; she was too frightened to scream ; I did not hesitate an instant. I told her not to be afraid, and B 3 O ADVENTURES OF threw myself upon him. He let her go^ and attacked me -with bill and talon. I got hold of him by the neck^ and, heavily lifting him up, struck his body against the tree and the ground ; but nothing seemed to hurt him. He was hard as a rock. Thus we struggled, I evidently the weaker party. The little girl, who was my favourite, said, " I'll go and call the gardener !" I said, " No ; he will tell my father : I will hang the old fellow " (meaning the raven, not my father) ; " give me your sash ! " She did so, and with great exertion I succeeded, though I was dreadfully mauled, in fastening one end round the" old tyrant's neck ; I then cHmbed the cherry tree, and, holding one end of the sash, I put it round a horizontal branch, when, jumping on the ground, I fairly succeeded in sus- pending my foe. At this moment my brother came running towards me. When he saw the plight I was in, he was alarmed; but, on beholding our old enemy swinging in the air, he shouted for joy. Fastening the end of the sash, we commenced stoning him to death. After we were tired of that sport, and as he was, to all appearance, dead, we let him down. He fell on his side, when I seized hold of a raspberry-stake, to make sure of him by belabouring his head. To our utter amazement and consternation, he sprung up with a hoarse scream, and caught hold of me. Our first impulse was to run ; but he withheld me, so I again fell on him, calling to my brother for assistance, and bidding him lay fast hold of the riband, and to climb the tree. I attempted to prevent his escape. His look was now most terrifying: one eye was hanging out of his head, the blood coming from his mouth, his wings flapping the earth in disorder, and with a ragged tail, which I had half plucked by pulling at him during his Hrst execution. He made a horrible struggle for existence, and I was bleeding all over. Now, with the aid of my brother, and as the raven was exhausted by exertion and wounds, we succeeded in gibbeting him again ; and then with sticks we cudgelled him to death, beating his head to pieces. Afterwards we tied a stone to hira, and sunk him in a duck-pond. A YOUNGER SON. This was the first and most fearful duel I ever had. I mention it, childish though it be, not only because it lives vividly in my memory, but as it was an event that, in re- viewing my after-life, seems evidently the first ring on which the links of a long chain have been formed. It shows how long I could endure annoyance and oppression, and that when at last excited, 1 never tried half measures, but proceeded to extremities without stop or pause. This was my grievous fault, and grievously have I repented it ; for I have de- stroyed, where, in justice, I was justified, but where, in mercy, I ought only to have corrected; and thus thestanders- by have considered that, which I only thought a fair re- taUation, revenge. CHAPTER III. There arose From the near school-room voices that, alas! Were but one echo from a world of woes, The harsh and grating strife of tyrants and of foes. Shelley. Phrensied with new woes. Unused to bend, by hard compulsion bent. Keats. In compliance with my father's notions respecting tie in- utility of early education, I was not sent to school till I was between nine and ten years old. I was then an unusually great, bony, awkward boy. "Whilst my parents were in their daily chscussion of the question as to the period at which the schooling of their sons was to commence, a trivial oc- currence decided the question. I was perched on an apple tree, throwing the fruit down to my brother, when our father came on us suddenly. Every trifle put him in a passion. Commanding us to follow him, he walked rapidly on through the grounds, into the road, without entering the house. He led us towards the town and through the streets, without uttering a syllable, a distance of two miles. I followed with B 4 8 ADVENTURES OF dogged indifFerencCj yet at times inquired of my brother ■what he thought would be the probable resuh, but he made no reply. Arriving at the further extremity of the town, my father stopped, asked some questions inaudible to us, and stalked forwanl to a walled and dreary building. We followed our dignified father up a long passage ; he rung at a prison-looking entrance-gate; we were admitted into a court; then crossing a spacious dark hall, we were conducted into a small parlour, when the door was shut, and the ser- vant left us. In ten minutes, which seemed an eternity, entered a dapper little man, carrying his head high in the air, with large bright silver buckles in his shoes, a stock buckled tightly round his neck, spectacled, and powdered. There was a formal precision about him, most fearful to a boy. A hasty glance from his hawk's eye, first at our father, and then at us, gave him an insight into the affair. "With repeated bows to our father, he requested him to take a chair, and pointed with his finger for us to do the same. There was an impatience and rapidity in every thing he said; which indicated that he liked doing and not talking. " Sir," said our parent, '^ I believe you are Mr. Sayers ? " " Yes, sir." " Have you any vacancies in your school ? " '' Yes, sir." " Well, sir, will you undertake the charge of these un- governable vagabonds } I can do nothing with them. Why, sir, this fellow" (meaning me) " does more mischief in my house than your sixty boys can possibly commit in yours." At this the pedagogue, moving his spectacles towards the sharpened tip of his nose, peered over them, measuring me from head to foot ; and clenching his hand, as if, in ima- gination, it already grasped the birch, gave an obhque nod, to intimate that he would subdue me. My inauguration proceeded — " He is savage, incorrigible ! Sir, he will come to the gallows, if you do not scourge the devil out of him. I have this morning detected him in an act of felony, for which he deserves a halter. My elder son, sir, was in- stigated by him to be an accomplice ; for naturally he is of a better disposition." With this, my father, after A YOUNGER SON. V arranging what was indispensable, bowed to Mr. Sayers, and without noticing us, withdrew. Consider the outrage to my feelings. Torn from my home, without notice or preparation ; delivered, in bitter words, an outcast, into the power of a stranger ; and, a minute afterwards, to find myself in a slip of ground, dedicated to play, but, by its high walls and fastnesses, looking more like a prison-yard. Thirty or forty boys, from five to fifteen years of age, stood around us, making comments, and asking questions. I wished the earth to open and bury me, and hide the torturing emotions with which my bosom swelled. Now that I look back, I re- peat that wish with my whole soul ; and could I have known the future, or but have dreamed of the destiny that awaited me, boy as I was, I would have dashed my brains out against the wall, where I leaned in sullenness and silence. My brother's disposition enabled him to bear his fate in comparative calmness ; but the red spots on his cheeks, the heavy eyelid, the suppressed voice, showed our feelings, though differing in acuteness, to be the same. Miserable as I was during my school-days, the first was the bitterest. At supper, I remember, I was so choked with my feelings, that I could not swallow my dog-like food, arranged in scanty portions ; and my first relief was when, in my beggarly pallet, the rushlights extinguished, and surrounded by the snoring of the wearied boys — to me a sound of comfort — I could give vent to my overcharged heart in tears. I sobbed aloud ; but on any one's moving, as if awake, I held my breath till re-assured. Thus I sobbed on, and was not heard ; till the night was far ad- vanced, and my pillow bathed in tears, when^ outworn, I fell into a sleep, from v/hich I was rudely shaken, \in- refreshed, at seven in the morning. I then descended to the school-room. Boys, acting under the oppression of their absolute masters, are cruel, and dehght in cruelty. All that is evil in them is called forth ; all that is good repressed. They remember what they endured when consigned as bond- slaves ; the tricks, all brutish, that were played on them ; 10 ADVENTURES OF the gibes at their simplicity ; their being pilfered by the cunning, and beaten by the strong ; and they will not allow a new comer to escape from the ordeal. Boys at school are taught cruelty, cunning, and selfishness ; and he is their victim and fool who retains a touch of kindliness. The master entered. He was one of those pedagogues of, what is called, the old school. He had implicit faith in his divining rod, which he kept in continual exercise, applying it on all doubtful occasions. It seemed more like a house of correction than an academy of learning ; and when I thought on my father's injunction not to spare the rod, my heart sickened. As my school-life was one scene of suffering, I am im- pelled to hasten it over as briefly as possible ; more par- ticidarly as the abuses, of which I complain, are, if not altogether remedied, at least mitigated. I was flogged seldom more than once a day, or caned more than once an hour. After I had become inured to it, I was callous ; and was considered by the master the most obdurate, violent, and incorrigible rascal that had ever fallen under his hands. Every variation of punishment was inflicted on me, without effect. As to kindness, it never entered into his speculations to essay it, since he, possibly, had not heard of such a thing. In a short while I grew indifferent to shame and fear. Every kind and gentle feeling of my naturally affectionate disposition seemed subdued by the harsh and savage treat- ment of my master ; and I was sullen, vindictive, or in- sensible. Vain efforts — for they were ever vain — to avoid the disgrace of punishment, occupied the minds'of others. I began by venting my rage on the boys, and soon gained that respect by fear, which I would not obtain by appli- cation to my book. I thus had my first lesson as to the necessity of depending on myself ; and the spirit in me was gathering strength, in despite of every endeavour to destroy it, like a young pine flourishing in the cleft of a bed of granite. A YOUNGEK SON. H CHAPTER IV. The relationship of father and son Is no more valid than a silken leash ■\Vhere lions tug adverse ; if love grow not From interchanged love through many years. Keats'^ MS. He has cast nature off, which was his shield ; And nature casts him oil', w ho is her shame. Shellev. As my bodily strength increased, I became, out of school, the leader in all sports and mischief; but, in school, I was in the lowest class. I was determined not to apply to learning, and to defy punishment. Indeed, I do not recollect that any of the boys acquired useful knowledge there. "When satisfied with the ascendancy I had gained over my schoolfellows, I turned my whole thoughts to the possibility of revenging myself on the master. I first tried my hand on his understrapper. Having formed a party of the most daring of my myrmidons, I planned and executed a castigation for our tutor. Once a week we were refreshed by long country walks ; in the course of one of these the tutor sat down to rest himself ; the boys, not acquainted with the plot, were busy gathering nuts ; my chosen band loitered near, preparing rods ; when I, backed by three of the strongest, fell suddenly upon our enemy. I got my hand round his dirty cravat, which I continued twisting ; the others seized his arms and legs, and threw him on his back. A halloo brought six or seven more. He several times nearly succeeded in shaking us off; but I never resigned my hold, and when his struggles had driven away one boy, another took his place ; till, completely overcome, he entreated us, as well as he could articulate, to have mercy, and not to strangle him. I griped him the tighter, till the sweat dropped from his brow like rain from the eaves of a pig's-sty. We then gave him a sample of flogging he could never forget. The upshot of this is told in a few words. On my return to school, our pastor and master (for he was clerical), began to have an inkling of what I and his pupils 12 ADVENTURES OF were capable. The dreadful narrative which the usher gave of my violence awakened a dread that the sacredness of his vocation and sacerdotal robes had been alone re- spected by our despair of successful opposition ; that liaving once tasted of the sweets of victory, we might be presumptuous enough flatly to refuse obedience to his commands ; that my influence and example encouraged others ; and that he would daily lose ground in his autho- rity. This castigation of the usher astonished him. He opened his eyes to the necessity of using more decisive steps, and of making an example of me, before I was so hardened in my audacity, as perhaps to attempt or exe- cute some plot against him. His caution came too late. He called me to him, standing three steps above me on a raised platform. The boys, like young horses, when they learn their power, were unruly. I stood, not as I had done, drooping before his angry glances, but upright, and full of confidence, looking him in the face without quailing. He accused me — I pleaded my justification — he grew angry — my blood mounted to my forehead — he struck me — and I, with one sudden exertion, seized him by the legs, when he fell heavily on the back of his head. The usher, writing-master, and others, came to his aid ; but all the boys sat silent and exulting, awaiting the result in wonder. I, unwilling to be seized by the usher, who, between fear of the boys and duty to his employer, stood irresolute, rushed out of the schoolroom into the garden, and there was I in triumph. I resolved that nothing should or could compel me to continue in the school, which determination I should long before have made, but from awe of my father's dreadful severity. I had borne two years of such suffering as few could have sustained ; nature could endure no more. I was now desperate, and therefore without hope or fear. I received a message, by one of the servants, to go into the house. After some hesitation I went. I was confined in a bedroom by my- self, and at supper-time bread and water was brought — spare diet certainly, but not much worse than the usual fare. I saw no one but the servant. Next day the same solitude — the same spare diet. At night a bit of candle A YOUNGER SON. 13 was left to light me to bed ; I know not what impelled me, I suppose tlie hope of release, not revenge — 1 set fire to the bed-curtains. The bed was in a bright flame, the smoke arose in clouds : without a thought of escape I viewed their progress with boyish delight ; the wainscot and wood-work were beginning to burn, the fire crackling up the walls, while I could hardly breathe for smoke. The servant returned for the candle, and as the door opened the draught augmented the flame. I cried out, '' Look here, George, I have lighted a fire myself, you said I should have none, though it was so cold." The man's shrieks gave the alarm. There was little furniture in this condemned hold, and the fire was extinguished. I was removed to another room, where a man sat up all night with me in custody ; and I remember I exulted in the dread they all had of me. They called it arson, treason, and blasphemy — these accusations made some impression, because I was ignorant of their meaning. I did not see my reverend preceptor — perhaps his head ached ; nor was I permitted to see any of my comrades, — the latter pained me : nay, I was not permitted to see my brother, lest I should infect him. The next morning I was despatched home under a guard. My father was — O happy chance ! — absent. An unexpected and considerable fortune had been be- queathed to him. He returned, and, either softened by his good luck, or from good policy, he never opened his lips to me on the subject. But he said to my mothei, '' You seem to have influence over your son. I give him up. If you can induce him to act rationally, be it so ; if not, he must find another home." I was then about eleven years old. To give an idea of the progress I made at this birchen school, my father, one day after dinner, conversing with my mother on the monstrous price of learning, and hint- ing that a parish school in the village, to which he was compelled to contribute, would have done as well, said, turning to me, " Come, sir, what have you learnt ? " " Learnt ! " I ejaculated, speaking in a hesitating voice^ for my mind misgave me as to what was to follow. 14 ADVENTURES OF " Is that the way to address me ? Speak out, you dunce ! and say. Sir ! Do you take me for a footboy ?" raising his voice to a roar, which utterly drove out of my head what little the schoolmaster had, with incredible toil and punishment, driven into it. " What have you learnt, you raggamuffin ? What do you know ? " " Not much, sir ! " " What do you know in Latin ? " " Latin, sir ? I don't know Latin, sir ! " " Not Latin, you idiot ! Why, I thought they taught nothing but Latin." " Yes, sir ; ciphering." " "W^ell, how far did you proceed in arithmetic } " " No, sir ! they taught me ciphering and writing." My father looked grave. " Can you work the rule of three, you dunce .'' " " Rule of three, sir ! " " Do you know subtraction ? Come, you blockhead, answer me ! Can you tell me, if five are taken from fifteen, how many remain .''" " Five and fifteen, sir, are " counting on my fingers, but missing my thumb, " are — are — nineteen, sir ! " " What ! you incorrigible fool ! — Can you repeat your multiplication table .'' " " What table, sir ? " Then turning to my mother, he said : " Your son is a downright idiot, madam, — perhaps knows not his own name. ^Yrite your name, you dolt ! " '^ Write, sir ! I can't write with that pen, sir ; it is not my pen." " Then spell your name, you ignorant savage !" *' Spell, sir?" I was so confounded that 1 misplaced the vowels. He arose in wrath, overturned the table, and bruised his shins in attempting to kick me, as I dodged him, and rushed out of the room. A YOUNGER SON. 15 CHAPTER V. Oh, gold! why call we misers miserable ? ' i Theirs is the pleasure tliat can never pall ; Theirs is the best bower-anchor, the chain cable Which holds fast other pleasures, great and small. Ye wlio but see the savhig man at table. And scorn his temperate board, as none at all. And wonder how the wealthy can be sparing, Know not what visions spring from each cheese-paring. Bybon. My father, notwithstanding his increased fortune, did not increase his expenditure ; nay, he established, if possible, a stricter system of economy. He had experienced greater enjoyment in the accumulation of wealth than in the pleasures of social life. The only symptom he ever showed of imagination, was in castle-building ; but his fabrications were founded on a more solid basis than is usually to be met with among the visions of day dreamers. No unreal mockery of fairy scenes of bhss found a resting place in his bosom. Ingots, money, lands, houses, and tenements, constituted his dreams. He became a mighty arithmetician, by the aid of a Ready Reckoner, his pocket companion ; he set down, to a fraction, the sterling value of all his and his wife's relations, their heirs at law, their nearest of kin, their ages, and the state of their constitu- tions. The insurance table was examined to calculate the value of their lives ; to this he added the probable chan.^es arising from diseases, hereditary and acquired, always forgetting his own gout. He then determined to regulate his conduct accordingly ; to maintain the most friendly intercourse with his wealthy connections, and to keep aloof from poor ones. Having no occasion to borrow, his aver- sion to lending amounted to antipathy. All his discourses, with those whom he suspected to be needy, were inter- larded with the wise sayings of the prudent and niggardly ; and the distrust and horror he expressed at the shghtest allusion to loans, unbacked by security and interest, had the effect of making the most impudent and adventurous desist from essaying liim, and continue in their necessities. 16 ADVENTURES OF or beg^ or rob, or starve, in preference to urging their wants to him. Till he was rich, he had not been so ob- durate on this point. We never sat down to table without a lecture on economy. It was a natural consequence that I, thwarted on all sides till I had acquired a spirit of contradiction, should be in- corrigibly free and generous. I was stirred up to evade, by cunning, his parsimony towards myself and others. I was detected in many delinquencies, having little respect for personal property, which is generally the vice of those who have none. Eatables diminished in the pantry, and from the cupboard ; wine, sweatmeats, and fruit, as I had a par- ticular relish for them, owing to their being almost inter- dicted, strangely vanished. But at last I was convicted of a heinous sin, which appeared of so monstrous and unpre- cedented a character, that it was never forgiven or forgotten. My father cursed his fate at having such a degenerate son ; and that I might not infect others with my example, and utterly ruin him, he resolved forthwith to get rid of me. The sin I had committed was extracting from its sanc- tuary, and giving to a beggar-woman, an entire pigeon.pie, dish and all. Perhaps the offence would never have been discovered, if the officiously conscientious old woman had not returned with the empty pie-dish. I hated her honesty, and never afterwards could endure old women. The poor creature was summoned by my father; she heard his threats of the stocks, and the house of correction, of a charge of felony, and transportation, without betraying me ; nor do I think he could have elicited the truth, had I not stepped forward and confessed the fact. I shall never forget my father's wrath. He said, I was not only a thief, but a har- dened one ; and vented some portion of his rage in cuffs and kicks. I stood firmly, as I had done to my schoolmaster, for I had learnt to endure, and my hide had grown thick and horny from blows. I neither Avept nor* asked for mercy. When his hands and feet were weary, he said, " Get out of my sight, you scoundrel !" I moved not a foot, but looked at him scowlingly and undauntedly. Lest it should be imagined there was something par- ticularly evil in me, requiring the utmost severity, I must A YOUNGER SON. 17 add that my father ruled my brother and sisters with the same iron rod ; the only difference was, it could not rule me, and therefore I was not to be endured. Let one instance of his ferocity suffice — one which happened several years after this, when he was residing in London. It was his custom to appropriate a room in the house to the conservation of those things he loved, — choice wines, foreign preserves, cordials. This sanctum sanctorum was a room on the ground floor, under a skylight. Our next- door neighbour's pastime happened to be a game of balls, when one of them lodged on the leaded roof of this con- secrated room. Two of my sisters, of the ages of fourteen and sixteen, though, in appearance, they were women, 'ran from the drawing-room back-window to seek for the ball; and slipping on the leads, the younger fell through the sky- light, on the bottles and jars upon the table below. She was dreadfully bruised, and her hands, legs, and face were cut ; so much so, that she still retains the scars. Her sister gave the alarm. My mother was called ; she went to the door of the storeroom ; her child screamed out, for God's sake to open the door, — she was bleeding to death. She con- tinued to scream, while my mother endeavoured to comfort her, but dared not break the lock, as my father had pro- hibited any one from entering this, his blue chamber ; and, what was worse, he had the key. Other keys were tried, but none could open the door. Had I been there, my foot should have picked the lock. Will it be believed that, in that state, my sister was compelled to await my fathers return from the House of Commons, of which he was a member ? What an admirable legislator ! At last, when he returned, my mother informed him of the accident, and tried to allay the wrath which she saw gathering on his brow. He took no notice of her, but paced forward to the closet, where the delinquent, awed by his dreadful voice, hushed her sobs. He opened the door and found her there, scarcely able to stand, trembling and weeping. Without speaking a word, he kicked and cuffed her out of the room, and then gloomily decanted what wine remained in the broken bottles. 18 ADVENTURES OP CHAPTER VI. Ami now I am in the world alone. Upon the wide, ui.ie sea; But why >houlr! I (or others groan. When none will sigh tor me 'i Byron. There was some talk of my going to Oxford, as one of my uncles had livings in his gift, which my father could not, without pain, contemplate as property out of the familv. I was consulted ; but the decided manner in which I declined priesthood, left no hopes of my ever being guided by self- interest. Soon after this, I was taken to Portsmouth, and shipped on board a line-of- battle ship, the Superb, as passenger to join one of Nelson's squadron. She was commanded by Captain Keates ; and thence we sailed to Plymoutli to take on board Admiral Duckworth, who hoisted his flag, and detained the ship three days to get mutton and potatoes from Cornwall. By this delay, we unfortunately fell in with the Nelson fleet off Trafalgar, two days after his deatliless victory. Young as I was, I shall never forget our falling in with the Pickle schooner off Trafalgar, carrying the first de- spatches of the battle and death of its hero. We had chased her many hours out of our course, and but that our ship sailed well, and the wind was fresh, we should not have brought her to. Her commander, burning with im- patience to be the first to convey the news to England, was compelled to heave to, and come on board us. Cap- tain Keates received him on the deck, and when he heard the news, I was by his side. Silence reigned throughout the ship ; some great event was anticipated ; the officers stood in groups, watching, with intense anxiety, the two commanders, who walked apart : battle, — Nelson, — ships, — were the only audible words which could be gathered from this conversation. I saw the blood rush into Keates's face; he stamped the deck, walked hurriedly, and spoke as in a passion. I marvelled, for I had never before seen him much movetl ; he had appeared cool, firm. A YOUNGEK SON. 19 and collected on all occasions, and it struck me that some awful event had taken place, or was at hand. Tlie admiral was still in his cabin, eager for news from the Nelson fleet. He Avas an irritable and violent man and had been much incensed at the schooner's having dis- obeyed his signal, until she was compelled. After a few minutes, swelling with wrath, he sent an order to Keates ; who possibly heard it not, but staggered along the deck, struck to the heart by the news, and, for the first time in his life, forgot his respect to his superior in rank ; mut- tering, as it seemed, curses on his fate that, by the ad- miral's delay, he had not participated in the most glorious battle in naval history. Another messenger enforced him, such is discipline, to descend in haste to the admiral^ who was high in rage and impatience. Keates, for I followed him, on entering the admiral's cabin, said, in a subdued voice, as if he were choking : " A great battle has been fought, two days ago, off Tra- falgar. The combined fleets of Fiance and Spain are annihilated, and Nelson is no more! " He then mur- mured, — " Had we not been detained, we should have been there. The captain of the schooner entrejts you. Sir, not to detain him, and destroy his hopes, as you have destroyed ours." Duckworth answered not, conscience-struck, but stalked on deck. He seemed ever to avoid the look of his captain, and turned to converse with the commander of tl'e schooner, who replied, in sulky brevity, " yes," or " no." Then dismissing him, he ordered all sail to he set, and walked the quarter-deck alone. A deathlike stillness per- vaded the ship, broken at intervals by the low murmurs of the crew and officers, when " battle" and " Nelson," could alone be distinguished. Sorrow and discontent were painted on every face ; and I sympathised in the feeling without a clear knowledge of the cause. On the following morning, we fell in with a portion of the victorious fleet. It was blowing a gale, and they lay wrecks on the sea. Our admiral communicated with them, and then joining Collingwood, had six sail of the line put under his command, with orders to pursue that c 2 20 ADVENTURES OF part of the enemy's fleet which had escaped ; and T joined the ship to wliich I was appointed. It is unnecessary to dwell on the miseries of a cockpit life ; I found it more tolerable than my school^ and little worse than my home. Besides, I was treated with exceeding kindness^ and I began to be delighted with the profession. We returned to Portsmouth. The captain wrote to my father to kno%v ■what lie should do with me, as his ship was about to be paid off. jNIy father, in his reply, determined not to have me at home, ordered that I should instantly be sent to Dr. Barney's navigation school. I was horror-stricken at this news, thinking I had done with schools ; and, sup- posing they were all like my former one, 1 anticipated a state of suffering. We had had a rough passage, being five or six sail of the line in company, some totally, and others partially dismasted. Our ship, having been not only dismasted, but razed by the enemy's shots (that is, the upper deck almost cut away), our passage home was boisterous. The gallant ship, whose lofty canvass, a few days before, had fluttered almost amidst the clouds, as she bore down on the combined fleets, vauntingly called the Invincible, now, though her torn banner still waved aloft victorious, was crippled, jury-masted, and shattered, a wreck labouring in the trough of the sea, and driven about at the mercy of the wild waves and winds. 'With infinite toil and peril, amidst the shouts and reverberated hurrahs from suc- cessive ships, we passed on, towed into safe moorings at Spithead. AVhat a scene of joy then took place. From the ship to the shore one might have walked on a bridge of boats, struggling to get alongside. Some, breathless with anxiety, eagerly demanded the fate of brothers, sons, or fathers, which was followed by joyous clasping and wringing of hands, and some returned to the shore, pale, haggard, and heart stricken. Then came the extortionary Jew, chuck- ling Avith ecstacy at the usury he was about to realise from anticipated prize-money, proffering his gold with a niggard's hand, and demanding monstrous security and interest for his monies. Huge bumboats, filled with fresh A YOUNGER SON. 21 provisions, and a circle of boats hung round us, crammed with sailors' wives, children, and doxies, thick as locusts. These last poured in so fast, that of the eight thousand said to helong at that period to Portsmouth and Gosport, I hardly think they could have left eight on shore. In a short period they seem to have achieved what the com- bined enemies' fleets had vauntiiigly threatened — to have taken entire possession of the Trafalgar squadron. I re- member, the following day, while the ship was dismant- Hng, these scarlet sinners hove out the three first thirty- two pound guns ; I think there were not less than three or four hundred of them heaving at the capstan. Our captain, suffering from a severe wound, went on shore, and gave me, with two youngsters like myself, in very particular charge to one of the masters mates, who shortlv after crossed over with us to Gosport. He had orders to convey us to Dr. Burney's. CHAPTER VII. If any person should presume to assert Tliis ^tnry is nut moral, first I pray. That they will not cry out before they're hurt. Byro.v. Ot.d Noah and his heterogeneous family felt not greaLr pleasure in setting their feet on terra firma than we did. The mate's face, Avhich had been, by long habit of obe- dience and command, settled into a wooden sort of gravity, now relaxed, and became animated as a merry-andrew's. Looking about as if he had taken entire possession of the islan'i, and as if he consiilered it treason and blasphemy in any of his subjects to appear malecontent, he turned sharply to me, and said, " Holla ! my lad, what's the matter.'' Why, you are as chap-fallen as if it was Sun- day, and the prayer-bell was ringing. You don't take me for that lubberly school-mastering parson on board, do you ? " c 3 22 ADVENTURES OF He had nearly hit it. The accursed school had crossed my mind, and I guessed lie was taking us there. How- ever, I said nothing, and he continued, " Never go to church on shore or in soundings. At sea can't help it sometimes. Besides, then there is something to pray for — fair weather and prize-money — don't want to pray for any thing on shore. Come, my lads, keep a sharp look-out for the Crown and Anchor. It should be some- where in these latitudes, if it has not driven or slipped its moorings." "A reprieve!" thought I; "he has forgotten the school, and we are bound to the tavern ! " I stepped out like an unbitted colt as I descried the glittering crown swinging over a tavern-door. I pointed it out, and he was just taking us in, when he suddenly stopped, and rubbing his brow, said, " Hold fast, my lails ! Let me see — let me see — did'nt the captain tell me to — to — take these lads — to — where the devil is it.? I say, lads, where are you to go .f* " "^ Go ! "' we repeated. " Ay, I was ordered to take you somewhere. Damned odd you don't know, and I can't remember. O, ay, I have it ! — to Dr. — somebody at Gosport. Ay, ay, I've heard of the fellow. Remember they would have sent me there once — too sharp for 'em — keep too good a look- cut — not such a luljber as that comes to. But must obey orders — humph! — but I've liberty now — not under the pennant — do as I like. AVell, lads, what do you say ? Will you go to the school, or — come, you're looking round the offing, as if you were thinking of cut- ting and running !" — (wliich was indeed true.) " Well, my lads, we can talk over this wiih a glass of grog. Lots of time — I've three days' liberty ! So, if you obey orders, why I sha'n't disobey mine, if I see your names entered on the doc or's books before I report myself on board. So heave a-head, my lads ! " On the waiter's showing us into a room, bustling about, and waiting for orders, our commodore asked us what vve would have, and, turning to the waiter, who was stirring the fire, vociferated, " What a dust you are kicking up .' A YOUNGER SON. 23 If you don't bring some grog to clear our coppers, I'll see if a kick a-stern won't freshen your way. Holdfast!" stopping him. " Come, my lads, don't you feel the land wind getting into your orlop deck ? Has it struck seven bells ? " " No, Sir," said the waiter ; " it's only ten o'clock." " No matter ; let's have some grub." "^ What would you like, Sir ? — very nice cold round of beef and ham in the house." " No, no ! What, do you want to give us the scurvy, you lubberly scoundrel ? '' " Would you like a cutlet, Sir, or beef steak.?" " Ay, av, that v.'ill do. Come, why don't you move your stumps, you landsman. — Hold fast ! Can't you grill some fowls ? " " Yes, Sir, there's a nice chicken in the larder.'' '' D — n your chicken ! Grill a hen-coop full of fowls, I say, and be quick. And mind, if they ar'n t here in five 'minutes, tell Mother — what d'ye call her.? — the landlady, I'll come and grill her. Well, why don't you move ? Hold fast ! — why, where the devil is the grog ? — ordered it an hour ago." He then shyed his gold- laced cocked hat, and drove the waiter out of the room. After a monstrous meal, diluted with an unsparing hand, ships and schools clear out of our memory, we all sallied out, our pilot taking us into a variety of shops, in every one of which he ordered something, or made some purchase, and told us to take any thing we wanted, for he would pay for it, observing that these fellows knew him, and would not humbug him as they would us. He made a point of penetrating into their little back- parlours, to see their wives and daughters, and get a glass of grog. During this cruize, as he called it, he invited every messmate, as well as every person he had seen before, ti. dine with him at two o'clock at the tavern ; and he made ap])ointments with all the young women of his acquaint- ance, which were not a few, ordering them to go home, like good girls, sweep the decks, put their cabins in order, clean themselves, meet him at the theatre, and tell their mothers to see their case- bottles properly filled, — no c 4 24- ADVENTURES OF marines among them, — with plenty of grog in their lockers. He then, for he was very provident and system- atic in his arrangements, went to the tlieat.e, engaged two or three boxes, and returned to the Crown and Anchor, complaining of his '' dry duty." His straggling acquaintances were soon dropping in. Wild, rough, and unruly were their greetings. The din- ner came, and the viands miraculously vanished. The bottles flew about, the empty dishes were cleared away, and dried fruit, and wines of all kinds, with sundry cut- glass bottles of brandy, hollands, shrub, and rum, par- nished the board. Toasts, songs, and uncleiical jests wended away the time, till our inethodical master's mate, who was president, said, — "■' Ye sea-whelps, stopper your jaw, or I'll hav.d ye, youngsters, over to the doctor ; — you understand me ! Now, my hearties, what say ycu to a turn-out .'' It's time for the play ; and you know to church and play-houses we must go sober — in respect to parsons and ladies. It's unofBcer-like to get drunk before sunset ; it's not cor- rect, and I shan't allow it. So, come. We only one more toast to give, — then I hoist the blue-peter, and you must consider yourselves under sailing orders." Here he was interrupted by the noise in the room. ^' Silence ! I say ; now, gentleman, fill your glasses ! No heeltaps, for I am going to give a solemn toast. I am very sorry to ob- serve that, from the neglect of duty of these lubberly landsmen, there's nothing but marines and bottoms on the table. Therefore, I command that you all gripe a marine by the stock, and prepaie to break their necks." The waiter remonstrated, and begged the president to spare the bottles. " Lads !" he vocife;ateil, " a mutiny ! Stand by your commanding officer ! Waiter, go below, — leave the quarter-deck. Oh, you wo'nt .'' Now, lads, one — two — and when I say — three, remember that is your target," — pointing to the waiter, '"' and break his neck !" The scared serving -man withdrew at the critical instant, and every empty bottle was smashed against the door. The memory of Nelson was then pledged, and we all sallied into the High-street. I thought the air was im- A YOUNGER SOX. pregnated with alcohol, for, when I got out, I felt the first syinptoms of drunkenness. I remtmber nothing, more of the theatre than that the audience was exclusively composed of sailors and their female companions. Had the great bell of St. Paul's been sounding, instead of the tinkling music between the acts, it would not have been heard. About midnight we supped in the same manner we had dined, and again turned out. Watchmen, dockyard-men, and red coats were assaulted wherever we fell in with them. The master's mate, not- withstanding the enormous quantity of liquors of all sorts contained in his body, had a head no more affected by them than the wooden bung of a rum-puncheon. But this being my first drunken b.nit, I cannot say I saw very clearly ; for the houses appeared to roll and pitch like ships. Neither could I walk very well, for in the broadest street I broke my shins against the curbstones on each side of the way. As I grounded on every tack I made, beating it up, I thought the street had neither beginning nor end. But the master's mate kept stragglers together, till we arrived at what he called head-quarters. He there entrusted me and the two others into the custody of a fiery-faced, flaming, old harridan, with strict in- junctions regarding his treatment of us ; to which she replied she would take as much care of us as of her own children. In the mean while, he went out to survey the coast, promising to return, and ordering a bed, a warrr- ing-pan, a red herring, and a bowl of punch, to be all in readiness by his return. Our careful, obedient, and moral hostess, with more than a mother's care, ordered a bed to be prepared for each of us striplings, mixed each of us a glass of strong waters, and then, sagely observing that late hours were bad for young blood, led me to bed first. She put one of her own caps on my head, tied it under my chin with a blue riband, closed the curtains, called me a sweet creature, tucked me up, slobbered my cheek, and parted from me with — " Be a good boy, now; and mind you say your prayers before you go to sleep ! " About daylight, I woke from unquiet and suffocating 26 ADVENTURES OF dreams. Had I been previously acquainted with that phantom, the night-mare, I might have imagined myself under its influence; but my astonishment was great to find myself in my small couch. While endeavouring to distinctly recollect how I got there, the maid of the tene- ment appeared, and the mystery was solved. After some delay in procuring the necessaries for a morning ablution, I dressed ; and, directed by the mate's well-known voice, entered the parlour, ashamed, foolish, and dreading his rebukes, not knowing, or not then con- sidering him as the cause. Though he was very methodical, he was no methodist, at least in preaching. His and their practice may be near akin. There he sat, like an emperor, or Abyssinian prince, (according to Bruce,) his august person occupying the old hostess's honoured arm-chair, and in exclusive possession of the fire. Cups, saucerless and chipped, a handless teapot, a piece of salt butter wiapped in brown paper, sugar on a broken plate, and soddened buttered- toast, half eaten, and tooth-marked, were scattered about, with fat of ham and sausage. These my first sins ought to find a place in my last will and testament ; but to whom am I to bequeath them ? to my father ? the captain ? or the master's mate ? Surely the most malicious enemy can never cast in my teeth what I committed at about twelve years old, A day or two after this, our master's mate conducted us to school, and delivered us over in precise terms. The schoolmaster was so pleased with his modest carria " I asked. " Yes/' said he ; " no matter : what they do, that will I." Thus we would wile away the time, building castles in the air, almost possessing them, and forgetting all things else, until our pastoral, innocent, romantic fabric %vas suddenly annihilated by the accursed, croaking, querulous, sycophantic, broad, vulgar accents of the Scotch lieutenant, bawling out, " Haud your tongues, ye wearisome rascals in the mizen-top there; or I wull ha' ye all down to £ 2 52 ADVENTURES OF the rope's end of the boatswain's mate, — I wull, ye raga- muffins !" We then, such is the force of habit, slunk down the rigging, crept into our hammocks, and awoke to a repetition of our abject slavery during the day, and a continuation of our romance at night ; till, I believe, we both looked forward to the night-watches with equal anxiety. As to Aston, he never ceased to treat \\'"alter otherwise than as a gentleman ; and the men, observing his conduct, with the ready cunning of slaves, followed his example. I have narrated events on board this frigate, as they chanced to recur to my memory, not as they happened in order of time. After staying a short time at Bombay, we sailed to Madras, and then returned to the former place with secret instructions from the admiral. On our passage from Bombay to Madras, on a fine day, as I was sleeping in one of the quarter-boats, there was a wild halloo throughout the ship. The first burst of Bligh's mutiny came across my mind. Such a commotion I never witnessed on board a man-of-war : the men came rushing over each other on deck, up every hatchway ; discipline was at an end ; the lieutenant commanding the deck stood astounded and aghast ; the captain and most of the officers were struggling through the dense mass of sailors, questioning and commanding ; but all controul was lost, and they were huddled and wedged together without distinction, I soon observed it was despair, and not ferocity, that was painted on the rough and weather- beaten brows of the men. At last the secret burst forth in every voice at once, of " Fire I fire ! Fire in the fore- magazine ! " That awful sound effected what nothing else mortal could have done ; it made the stout, the hardy, the valiant sailor break through the well-organised drilling of an entire life ; and he was seized with an irresistible dread of the only element he could shrink from contending with — fire, and in the powder magazine ! An instant, and bodies would be mangled and mingled in the air, without distinction of rank or station. Habit or instinct roused the officers, who, at the first cry, seemed to participate in the one A YOUNGER SON. 53 unanimous feeling. None moved but with a flushed brow; and their eyes were glaringly bent on the fore-hatchway, awaiting a fate they could not avoid. We were out of sight of land ; not a sail in view, nor a speck on the hori- zon ; the only cloud was the black, dense smoke, which burst from the hatchway ; and there being no wind, it ascended in an unbroken mass aloft, we anticipating soon to follow it. A dead silence reigned throughout the gallant frigate ; then a confused murmur ; and presently the men, without combination, yet simultaneously, rushed aft to the quarter- boats ; others crowded to the sides of the ship, straining their eys in the vain hope of espying some means of es- cape ; some tremblingly crept up the rigging ; while a small band of iron-nerved veterans alone stood undauntedly — men grown grizzled from storms, battles, and hardships, not from years. During this movement I started at the loud, clear, trumpet-like voice of Aston, commanding the firemen to get their buckets, the marines to come aft with their arms, and ihe officers to follow his example. With that he drew a cutlass from the stand ; and now the first lieutenant and other officers, as if awakened to their duty, drove the men from the boats, and out of the chains. The moment I heard Aston's voice I went up to hint) and said, " I will go down to the magazine, if you will send the gunners there and hand down water." I rushed forward down the main-hatchway, hurried along the abandoned lower deck, seized a rope, and de- scended through the smoke directly into the magazine. In the forepart, which was darker than the blackest night, it was impossible to distinguish whence the fire came. I groped about, and found my hands and head burning, and a difficulty of respiration from the smoke. Then I stumbled over a man, either dead or dead drunk, I knew not which ; and tore down bundles of matches, which were on fire. In doing this, the blue-lights, used for signals, were ignited ; upon which I heard some men, who were coming down to assist me, cry out, " She is going ! " and they hurried back to the deck, where there E 3 54> ADVENTURES OF arose another hopeless cry of "She is going!" and then all was hushed. One glance, as the blue-lights flamed, cleared up the mystery. The gunner's mate lay prostrate at my feet, •with a broken pipe stuck in his mouth, and the only sign he gave of life was puffing. The ready-primed matches for the guns had caught fire from his carelessness. The slow smouldering fire from hundreds of these had alone caused the smoke, and the danger was in their proximity to the powder. I grasped hold of the blue-lights, fire- proof in my ardour, which the probabihty of saving the ship gave me. While endeavouring to hand them up, I called out for more men. At this instant Aston was jumping down. " Don't come down," I said ; " but hand these danmed things up, and then — a dozen buckets of water — and all is right." Aston called to one of the men who followed him, bidding him go on deck, tell the captain there was no danger, and that all we wanted was water. The first bucket which was handed down Aston threw over me, saying, " You are on fire ! " ]\Iy hair and shirt were burning. This and the smoke, 1 suppose, were the cause of my falling down insensihle. Aston took my place. The fresh air soon restored me. In a few seconds the ma- gazine was inundated by the buckets, and all was safe. I was sent for on deck, and went there, my features begrimed with wet powder — nothing on but my trowsers — my hair and eyebrows burnt, my hands and face scorched, and my whole appearance, I imagine, exhibiting a lively picture of a fire -demon fresh from hell. All the ofl5cers smiled ; but they seemed, at the same time, to highly laud my presence of mind ; I say seemed, for it is against the general custom of the navy to express more. Thanking me would have been reprimanding themselves. However, I was content ; the impression could not be erased ; they could not call me a useless idler, though I took care to be a complete idler for a long time after, on the plea of my burning and bruising, and they said, " Well ! poor fellow, he deserves a little indulgence ! " A YOUNGER SON. 55 CHAPTER XV. Placed in the Arab's clime, he would have been As bold a rovpr — his mo- ther's Bible.? — or a drawHng psalter? — or a cookery book ? — . or an army list ? " He took it out of my hand. " Ha ! " he cried out, " Volney's Ruins of Empires, and Laws of Nature ! By the God of Nature, the fellow has some soul ! Had I known this sooner, I would have worked him to a better purpose ! But, after a moment's reflection, he said, " No ! a crooked stick, though straight- ened, is ever struggling to resume its natural bend. I confide in men like yourself, men naturally upright and resolved. They may be warped too by their humours, or by force ; but, in the end, they will resume their upright- ness, or be broken. Come, * * * *^ I must return to town to-morrow; and in ten days I am going to seSo What do you intend to do .? " " Why, I have not yet," I answered, " given it a thought. I like this sort of quiet Ufe." At this he smiled, and said, " Well, my dear fellow, don't balk your wishes. The bungalo is yours, if you like it. Let me see, — there are sixteen cocoa-nut trees, — the devil's in it if they and the garden won't keep you and your yak in your natural state ; for old Saboo there keeps himself, and frow, and half a score of young ones, with half their number. Think of their value : from their sap G 2 84 APVENTURES OP you have toddy ; toddy, fermented, becomes arrack ; the fruit, with rice, is an excellent curry ; and, compressed, you have abundance of oil to brighten your skin, and lighten your darkness ; then of every shell you can make a cup ; the husks will furnish you with bedding, twine, cordage, ropes, and cables : and the tree itself, when old, may be formed into a canoe. Some of these commodities you can barter for rice and ghee." " So I will ; besides, I can live on fruit, and hunt, and shoot." " Do so, my lad. Only, as the most exquisite luxuries do pall, and become nauseous from possession, so may these, all exquisite as they are. Remember I have a lovely little craft, well armed, and formed for peace or war, as occasions serves, merely lacking an enterprising officer ; such a one as I once thought you would prove, — but I was mistaken." " Where, De Ruyter, is she .f" You never told me of this. Come, where is she ? " " You forget your toddy, your cudgeree-pots, and pas- toral life." " Oh no, I don't ! But, let us just have a look at the craft. How is she rigged ? VV^here does she lie } How many tons .'' How many men } What is she to be em- ployed in } " " By no means. You appear so admirably adapted for a baboo life, you had better go on with old Saboo. Per- haps next year you may like to take a tour among the islands, and pick up a few Persian and Hindoo girls, for the propagation of peasantry ; — is that in your Law of Nature ? " Thus he went on, bantering and laughing, but would give no reply to my questions regarding the vessel. As he was in the habit of journeying in the night, as soon as the great bear shone on the verge of the heavens, he shook my hand, threw a bag of pagodas on the table, bade me deny myself nothing money could procure, promised to be with me in a few days, and returned to Bombay. A YOCNGER gON. CHAPTER XXIII. I oould not choose but gaze ; a fascinatjon Dwelt in that moon, and sky, and clouds, which drew My fancy thither, and, in expectation Of what I knew not, I remained. Shelley. The night was such as is often seen in the East. Every near object, fruit and flower, illumined by the bright, deep, and liquid light of the moon and stars, was, in shape and colour, as distinguishable and clear as by day. The pale and softened tints, the bland and gentle air, fanning the drooping trees, formed a delightful contrast to the flaming and red-hot glare of the day, when the eyes are dazzled, and we gasp, as if under suffocation, in the hot atmosphere. I sat down on the green slope, Ustened to the hooting of the owls, and watched the flitting of the large vampire bats round the tank, until I fell asleep. My dreams were of De Ruyter, of the Indian islands, of Walter ; but at last I started up at the abhorred voice of the Scotch heutenant, saying, " How now. Sir ! — asleep on your watch ! — gae to the mast-head and waken yoursel!" Looking up, 1 beheld not that snarling cur, but honest old Saboo, who was waking me with this warn- ing, " No good sleep in sun ; make sick ; house good to sleep." I was cold and cramped. The sun was up. Ordering some toddy, I went down to the tank, plunged in^ and was myself again. The quiet and happy time I passed here was uncon- taminated by disgust. However, I had resumed a jacket and trowsers, my skin not being musquito proof; and, having inadvertently trampled on a nest of young centi- pedes, I was glad to replace my shoes. From my earliest remembrance, I was subject to occa- sional melancholy ; but not of the gloomy kind ; rather a pleasing and soothing sensation than otherwise. This solitude was well adapted to awaken the shadowy phan- toms that are created in the imadnation. Mingled with G 3 '^ 86' ADVENTURES OP these^ realities forced themselves upon me ; and at last I began to ponder on my singular position. There was a strangeness and mystery in the actions and pursuits of De Ruyter, which I could not develope, and which fasci- nated and spell-bound my spirit. The rapidity with which he had gained an influence over me was marvellous. His frankness, courage, and generosity — the nobleness of his nature — his liberal and enlightened sentiments, so unUke the merchants and money-traders I had seen, convinced me he was none of them. After reflecting on his words, and what I had witnessed of his conduct, I concluded he was commander of a private ship of war. But then neither the English nor the Americans had any in India ; the French indeed had something of the sort ; but,, if under their flag, what did he in an English port, and apparently on friendly terms there ? My next conclusion was that he was an agent of some of the Rajahs, who still were independent sovereigns, although the Company were draw- ing their circles within circles around them, till they be- came driven from their fastnesses to the plain, to fall on any prey. These princes, whether at peace or war, were known to have secreted agents in the presidencies, to trans- mit to them early intelligence of the movements and policy of the Company's residents. De Ruyter seemed admir- ably fitted for this service ; though he could not, or did not, care always to disguise his indignation at what he thought the barbarous policy, intolerance, and arrogance of the Anglo-Indian dictation in India. His brow used to darken, his lip to quiver, and his eye to dilate, as he narrated, with thundering voice, instances of its cruelty, extortion, and presumption. Yet he Hked England, and individuals of that nation, though he preferred those of America, his adopted country. He observed, " It is curious that all nations who are blessed with the greatest portion of liberty at home, govern their colonies with the most remorseless and unmeasured despotism." Then he would add, " Fortunately for mankind, it is so ; it forms the only hope of freedom's being ever universal. When goaded past endurance, the most patient animal will turn, armed with the invincibility which despair gives ; — the A YOUNGER SON. 87 wild cat -will do so against the tigsr, — I have seen hira do it." This, and much more^ which I now remembered of De Ruyter, convinced me he was not what he seemed^ but left me still in doubt as to what he really was'. If my surmises were well grounded, I felt I should like him the better ; and I entertained not the slightest hesitation in placing myself under his pilotage, from every thing I had seen of him. He was after my own heart. He sent me frequent notes and messages ; and as his departure was protracted, I could no longer refuse Walter's pressing invitation ; so that one evening I mounted a horse he had provided for me, and on the following night I was canopied under his comfortable tent. He took a boyish dehght in pointing out and particularising all his comforts and advantages, contrasting them with his early privations and sufferings. As not a particle of envy was in my dis- position, I participated in his feelings. He had already become a favourite with the officers ; and having told them part of my story, we were hale-fellows the first night I passed in the camp. Escorted by a party of them, I retui-ned in a palanquin to my old quarters in Bombay. My time passed agreeably, either in the camp, or at the bungalo, where I made parties, or at the tavern in Bom- bay ; De Ruyter joining us when not employed about his affairs, — or business, as he called it. CHAPTER XXIV. Man, who man would be, Must rule the empire of himself; in it Must be supreme, establishing his throne On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy Of hopes and fears, being himself alone. Shellet. Be Ruyter now took me on board of an Arab grab brig, re- markable for its lean, wedge-like, and elongated bow. She G 4 88 ADVENTURES OF was rigged as an hermaphrodite ; and, as is the custom with the Arabs, she had disproportionate square-yards. Her crew were partly Arabs ; and the remainder, by their colour and dress, showed they were of various castes. She was unloading a cargo of cotton, and spices, purchased, I was told, by the Company. De Iluyter very seldom went on board of her ; but her captain, called the Rais, was daily with him. They generally met on board a small and very singular craft, called a dow. She was chiefly manned with Arabs : but to my surprise the sprinkling among them was of European seamen, Danes and Swedes, with two or three Americans. These were secreted on board, for what pur- pose I did not then know ; but I was especially cautioned not to mention the circumstance on shore. This dow had a large roast forward, and giggermast aft. She was the clumsiest and most unsightly craft I had ever seen in India. Her head and stern, raised and raking, were of light bamboo work. She seemed crank, and to have little hold of the water. On De Ruyter's asking me if 1 should like to have the command of her, I answered, " Yes ; when I cannot get a catamaran, or masuli boat, I may possibly hazard my carcass on board her." " I see you are particular," said he. " Now, though I have my choice, I shall, from preference, go to sea in her. Perhaps you, being fastidious, may prefer the grab ? " " Why," I replied, " knock the shark's head off her, and ship a bowsprit in its place, with a lick of tar and paint, and I should be well content to take a cruise in her. Besides, I like the look of those Arabs, and of those savage, lean, wild-eyed fellows, with their red cape, jackets and turbans. I never saw cleaner or lighter-made fellows to fly aloft in a squall, or board an enemy in battle." "' Yes, they are our best men, and come from Dacca ; and they'll fight a bit, I can tell you." " But then I should like to have something to fight with." '' O, she has guns ! " " I hate those pea-shooter-looking things on her gunnels. A few twelves, or short twenty-fours, would not be too much for her. She has a beautiful water line, and a run A YOUNGER SON. 89 aft like a schooner. Her bow is of the leanest ; and her beam being so far aft, I doubt she pitches damnably in a swell. Nevertheless there is a varment and knowing look about her which I like." " Well, will you run her down the coast to Goa ? I '11 follow in the old dow. "W^hen the sun sets, get on board^ and weigh with the land Avind. You see she is already removed into the roadstead, and ready for sea. At daylight I shall get under weigh. I have told the Rais that you are going in the grab, and to obey you. I '11 give you a few notes , in case of an accident separating us, though it is not probable. Come along. Remember you are a pas- senger to Goa. Not a word more to Walter ! When we get into blue water, you shall know every thing. Are you satisfied ? " " I am. I should not have held on so long with- out questioning, had I not entire confidence in you, De Ruyter. ^Vhere you go, never doubt but I '11 follow. I have not a very squeamish stomach, and am no change- ling." " Very well ! But have one thing uppermost in your mind : before you can govern others, you must be perfect master of yourself. That you may be so, do not, like a girl, let words or gestures betray your purpose. A loose word spoken in passion, or an embarrassed look, may mar your designs, however ably planned. Above all things do not indulge in wine ; for that, they say, opens the heart ; and who but a fool would betray himself, perhaps to those on the watch to entrap him ? " " You know I drink but little." " True ; but now I wish you not to drink at all." On my staring at him, he smiled and said, " That is, 'for the ])resent. If you do indulge, do so with tried friends only. But you had better not drink ; for I know you can more easily abstain altogether, than follow a middle course. Is it not so ?" " I believe you are in the right." After our return on shore, stopping near the tavern, he said, " Give your orders to these boatmen as to the things you want. Youll find almost every thing you can have 90 ADVENTURES OP occasion for on board ; and that is lucky for you, as you are a most heedless person." Just before the sun had sunk to rest, I received De Ruyter's parting instructions, shook hands with him, and leapt into the boat. Tiie Rais, who spoke English very well, received me on board, and showed me into the cabin. I gave him a letter from De Ruyter ; he put it to his fore- head, read it, and asked me at what time I wished to get under weigh, as he was referred to me. I answered, at twelve ; such were my instructions. I bade him hoist the boats in, stow them, and have every thing prepared for sea. While he executed these orders, I looked over De Ruy- ter's pencilled memorandums. Though I certainly under- stood I was to have the command of the vessel, if I wished it, I could not account for the strange way in which it was enforced upon me. The Rais would do nothing without my orders. " Well," thought I, " with all my heart ! To- morrow we shall meet the dow, and then De Ruyter will enlighten me." Mine had been such a dog's life in those situations in which my guardians hadplaced me, that I could not possibly, seeking my fortunes blindfold, stumble on any thing more miserable ; so that not only without hesitation, but with a joyful alacrity, my mind was instantly made up to execute any thing De Ruyter, the only person who seemed inter- ested in my fate, thought fit to employ me in. I took a hasty turn or two on the deck, with a firm step and proud glance, which command gives; and spoke with kindness to the Serang and others, as a man does in the fresh bloom of office. Though the vessel was in a disorderly trade-like trim, she was not deficient in the essentials of defensive, if not offensive warfare. Her masts and sails, with the coir running rigging, had a slovenly look to a man-of-war- man's eye ; and, from the want of tar and paint, she had a bronze hue. Notwithstanding, on a close inspection, you could see she had been fitted up with great care in all essential points, and with many of the modern European improve- ments. In measurement she was about three hundred tons, but could stow little more than half. She had a deep wist A YOUNGER SON. 91 pierced with port-holes for guns ; uut battened in, except the two forward and four after ones, which had six long nine-pounders. Her gunnels were armed with swivels. Her forecastle was raised ; and abaft she had a low poop, or half-deck, under which was the principal cabin. As the last stroke on the gong sounded eight o'clock, the sailors' supper time, I instinctively returned to this after- cabin ; the grave, which time had dug in my stomach since mid-day, yawning to be filled up. Swarms of men, with the same intention, hastened from below, squatted on their heels in small circles, divided by caste, and turned to with their messala (messes), of rice, ghee, dried burabalo, curry, fresh fruit, and dried chillies. Having filled up the aforesaid vacuum, I lay down on the couch, smoked De Ruyter's hooka, and took an inven- tory of the cabin. It was low, but roomy ; and well hghted and cooled from the stern ports. There were too sleeping berths on the opposite sides ; and in the spaces between them and the upper deck were two stars of pistols ; that is, fourteen or sixteen pistols in each, with their muzzles together, their butts forming the radii. The fore bulk-head was closely ribbed with bamboo spars ; the outer portion was ranged with musquets; and there was a gar- nish of bayonets, and jagged Malayan creeses, arrayed in most fanciful forms. This was the " fitting for war," as De Ruyter called it. Then the after part was certainly dedicated to peace, its shelves being crammed with books, writing materials, and nautical instruments ; and the ceil- ing, low as it was, had a number of rolled charts suspended between the beams ; while in the middle of the centre- beam swung the transversed compass. In other nooks and corners were telescopes ; and, though less picturesque, yet equally indispensable, such articles as I had called in requi- sition for my supper. Not being forbidden to sleep, nor having the fear of punishment over my head for neglect of duty, I was wake- ful and alert. My mind was occupied by the responsi- bility with which my friend had intrusted me. I walked the deck, gazing at the dog-vane, to see it wooed by the land wind ; but, as De Ruyter said, it was near twelve 92 ADVENTURES OF before this took place. Then I ordered the Rais to get under weigh, and, if possible, without noise. The first, he said, was easy work ; but the last impossible. We weighed our anchor, and went to sea. CHAPTER XXV. With thee, my bark, I'll swiftly go Athwart the foaming brine ; Nor care what land thou bear'st me to. So not again to mine. "Welcome, welcome, ye dark blue waves I And, when you fail my sight. Welcome ye deserts and ye caves! My native land, good night ! Byron. Am, whose physical and mental powers, no matter of what metal they are composed, are forced into premature developenient by artificial means, or by the comnmnication of cities, attain the rapid and wire-drawn growth of plants and herbs in the dense shelter of a forest. Early they put forth their leaves and buds, but seldom if ever more ; or if they do produce fruit, it is unwholesome and nauseous. When transplanted from their shelter in the open spaces of the world, the first frost or storm destroys them. So it is with animals : the power of the high-bred racer, forced by exciting food and clothing, does indeed give an early pro- mise of strength, but never realised. He is cut off in the dawn of his prime, with all the symptoms of age and decay. There are in the north some few men, and women too, who, without this care and culture, spring up into their full growth with the marvellous rapidity of the east ; and the germs of life and hardiness within them are not to be sub- dued, perceptibly, by time or toil ; so that, at the age when ordinary beings become extinguished, these iron ones yet hold their ground, sturdy and upright. Such were the patriarchs of the olden time ; and now that the world is more ripe with war, disease and adventure, diminishing A YOUNGER SON. 93 their numbers, yet such beings are to be found, who outlive all kin and kind, who cease to count time by years, but refer to the page of history and past events, and wonder of what malady a brother died at fourscore. • Though not one of these granite pillars, I gave token, not artificially, of belonging to their hardy breed ; for, at this period of my life, I had attained the attributes of perfect manhood. I was six feet in stature, robust, and bony, almost to gauntness ; and, with the strength of ma- turity, I had the flexibility of limb which youth alone can give. Naturally of adark hue, my complexion readily taking a darker from the sun, I was now completely bronzed. My hair was black, and my features perfectly Arab, At seventeen I looked to be seven-and-twenty. Then, having in extreme youth been left to jostle my way through the crowd, I had made a proportionate advance in what is called worldly knowledge, which experience alone, not years, can teach. In the way I have related the course of my first acquaint- ance and subsequent friendship with De Ruyter, I am fearful that some may be impressed with an erroneous idea that he was selfishly working on the malleability of my youth. I can speak now with proof of his having been assayed on the touchstone of time, and found true gold. De Ruyter himself was in reality a friendless wanderer ; a man self-exiled, from out the pale of civilisation and its ties ; and with a highly wrought imagination, and cultivated mind, it was natural he should seek objects to lavish his affections on, and who could sympathise with him. Such were not easy to be found where he was, and in his unsettled way of life. With the semibarbarians of the East it was out of the question ; and the European adventurers were scattered about, busy in the accumulation of wealth, or exclusively engaged in their own separate views of ambition. The few renegado sailors he could pick up from time to time were either deserters, or deserted for their worthlessness. A few associates he had liked were removed by death, or, what is the same thing, distance. He was not formed for an Asiatic : his free and buoyant nature impelled him to seek companionship ; and having perhaps no predilection at that period^ as accident 94 ADVENTURES OF cast me in his way, his feelings were interested in my behalf. He had perfectly seen through me during that period, though short yet full of matter ; and nothing doubted but that, with a little time and guidance, I should become what he wished me to be. He perceived that, added to the fresh and warm feelings of youth, I pos- sessed honesty, sincerity, and courage, not yet soiled and way-worn by journeying through the sloughs of the world, which few can pass without defilement. The step he took, therefore, was not so preposterous as superficial lookers-on might conclude. From the hour in which I had consummated my revenge on the lieutenant, in a manner which cut off the possibihty of my return to the navy, De Ruyter, seeing I was utterly friendless, became my friend in its true sense, and ever after treated me as such ; so that if fathers followed his example, we should have less of that eternal and mawkish cant about filial disobedience, dull as it is false, spawned on society by dry and drawling priests, and incubated by the barren sect of mouldy, soddened blues. His disposition, or restlesness, caused his to be a life of adventure, and consequently of peril. I was a scion of the same stock; my inchnations homogenial ; and whether I had met with him or not, I should have run my destined course, though not on the same ground. As I am writing more for my own gratification, and to beguile the now weary hours, than for strangers, they must be content to give me cable and range enough, while nar- rating this part of my history, which, however dry and tedious to them, is to me the most interesting. And who that Hves, and has a heart not grown sabre-proof, does not glow with pleasure at the remembrance of what he did and felt from seventeen to twenty ? With some, both earlier and later remembrances may be equally delightful. Not so with me ; for at twenty-one I was like a young steer taken from the pasture to the shambles ; or like the wild horse, selected from the herd, and lazoed by the South American gauchoes in the midst of my career. The fatal noose was cast around my neck, my proud crest humbled to the dust, the bloody bit thrust into my mouth, my shaggy mane trimmed, my hitherto untrammelled back bent with a A YOUNGER SON. 95 weight I could neither endure nor j,hake off, my light and springy action changed into a painful amble, — in short, 1 was married ; and married to — but I must not antedate my European adventures. For the present I must en- deavour to forget it, that I may relate my actions in India with the open and fiery spirit which freedom gives ; not in the subdued tone of a shackled, care-worn, and spirit- broken married man of the civilised West. i;- We gently glided out of the port, with just enough of air. as sailors express it, to lull the sails to sleep. At daylight, the port and harbour still in sight on our lea-beam, we dis- cerned the sluggardly old dow under weigh, creeping along the land like a tortoise. At noon a breeze sprung up from the S. W. ; and at sunset, relieved by distance from all ap- prehension of our movements being watched by the port, I bore up, ran some leagues in shore, shortened sail, and hove to. As I had anticipated, with the earliest dawn, when the grey mists evaporated and left a clear line of horizon, it was first broken, as I swept it round with a telescope, by the old dow, like a black spot on the light blue sea, on the bow. I ordered the helmsman to bear up ; and with a press of sail we came down on her at eight o'clock. I hailed her, and De Ruyter came on board. We again hauled our wind, and continued our course along the land. De Ruyter then retired with me to breakfast in the cabin, inquiring of me what I thought of the grab. " She seems to move," I said, " independently of the wind. We passed a man-of-war brig yesterday, as if she were a rock." " Yes, in such a light air as this, nothing will come near her. In a heavy head-sea, she does indeed pitch heavily. But if not over-pressed, she is light, buoyant, and holds a good wind. Therefore, don't press sail on her, or she will be buried." 96 ADVENTURES OP CHAPTER XXVI. Half ignorant they turned an easy wheel, That set sharp racks at work, to pinch and peeL Why were they proud ? Because their marble founts Gush'd with more pride than do a wretch's tears ? Why were they proud? Because fair orange mounts Were of more soft ascent than lazar stairs ? Why were they proud ? Because red.lined accounts Were richer than the songs of Grecian years ? W'hy were they proud ? again we ask aloud, Why in the name of Glory were they proud ? Keats. De Ruyter, after some other nautical talk^ veered round to the point of the compass I desired^ commencing with, — " What I told you at Bombay Avas true ; — I was a mer- chant there. Now, having concluded my mercantile task, I am ready for freighting or fighting ; but I am generally compelled to begin with the latter. I pursue no invariable line of action ; both I and the grab are transmutable." " How are we to shape our course now .'' " " Why, in this wide sea, and amidst the conflicting broils and wars of European adventurers, and native princes, and rajahs, — besotted barbarians, worrying and flying at each other's throats in contention about the pasture, while EngUsh wolves steal in and walk off with the cattle, — there can be no lack of employment, though it requires consider- ation to decide. First, we must run down the coast to Goa, Avhere, having settled some business, and laid up the dow, we shaU afterwards be together ; and then it will be time enough to decide on our after-movements. How old are you .f* ' " I have turned seventeen." " That's odd ! — I took you for twenty. Well, — no matter your age. A green trunk often produces the ripest and richest fruit. A Little more experience, which you will soon pick up in our bustling Hfe, and a great deal more of command over your passions, and you will lack little of the essential qualifications to fit you for any thing on sea or on shore. The choice is entirely yours. If you like land-work. A YOUNGER SOX. 97 I have some friends scattered abovt, who, for your own sake, as well as mine, will be glad to employ you. If you stay Avith me, I need not say that you are most welcome. But mine is a rough life ; and if you are to judge of my actions by the common canting sophistry of public opinion, you may pronounce their legality as something more than questionable, and had better not hazard your reputation." "■ Hang that ! " I re})lied ; " with your permission I shall stay where I am. I told you before I wished to stay with you, and I repeat it. I don't want to know your plans till I have experience enough to aid you with my counsel." " No; you are a man in intellect, and have more firmness than most men I have had to deal with. For some things I have done, those devouring locusts of Europe have de- nounced me a buccanier. These sordid fellows, who would squeeze their fathers' eyes out without compunction, if they were nutmegs, will let no man warm his blood with spice, or cool it with tea, unless they have their profit, or, as it is called, their dustoory. They would monopolise every thing, and wherever there is gain, let them but once hit on the scent, they'll hunt it out through blood and mire, and admit no sharers in the spoil. Now, I like spice and tea too j and their system of exclusive right not suiting -^vith my ideas of things, I began to open a trade for myself. They denounced me, seized my vessel, and left me bank- rupt. Well ! I did not rot in a jail, nor sit down in abject despair, nor waste my breath in beggarly petitions. I am not one of those spiritless cravens. I went forth again, alone like the lion, no longer circumscribed within the narrow limits of a paltry burgher, but determined on making reprisals, and returning blow for blow, no matter whence it came. In the interval, however, between my ruin and return to the sea, I gratified my longing to, see the interior of India, and traversed the greatest part of it. I sojourned some time with Tippoo Sahib. He alone had the ingredients of greatness in his composition. I accompanied him to some of his principal battles, — but you know his fate. I vras, at that time, or.e of those visionary enthusiasts, im- pelled, by an ardent love of liberty, to try to breast the stream H 98 ADVENTURES OP which heaves tlie weak onward unresistingly. Like a petty mountain -torrent contending witli a mighty river, I foamed and struggled to maintain my purpose; but in vain, — I was borne on like the rest, till, mingled with them, I became lost in the wide ocean. Foolishly I thought that men might be induced to lay aside their paltry interests for a season, and let their passions sleep, like scorpions in the winter, till the sun of freedom dawned, and gave them leisure, un- disturbed by foreign invasion, to resume their civil and religious discord. I conjured princes and priests (the world's attorneys) to relax their gripe on each other's throat, till the general enemy were driven from the shore to the sea from whence they came. But truth is a sword in a child's hand, dangerous to himself alone. My doctrine was thought damnable. I narrowly escaped adding my name to the list of martyrs. Every where throughout the east I saw the necessity of a great moral revolution. The old system is there in all the grey and hoary frightfulness of desolation and decay ; and will remain dreary and hideous, till an entirely new one shall spring up. Time alone can effect this ; and the efforts of hands like mine to hasten his tor- toise-steps are puerile." " It seems to me," I observed, "^ that we have not much to brag of in Europe. There is room for alteration ; and men's minds, and hands too, are already at the work of re- generation." " Ay, but for themselves alone, as among the natives here. Europe is an old man's child, an unnaturally begotten and wrinkled abortion, created out of the shattered frag- ments of thewreck of the East, pieced andjoined ingeniously together, but without solidity. It is an antique bronze, patched and smeared with whitewash, a plaster miniature copy from a granite statue. The finger of destruction is already upon it, like a Spartan mother's on her puny off- spring. Thus thinking, I was roused from my dreams of reformation ; and, having expended my gold, and wanting bread, I turned round, resolved henceforth to go with the stream, and say, with the wise philosopher, ancient Pistol, — ' the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open.' . I returned to the sea, went to the Mauritius, fitted out au ( I A YOrXGER SOX. 99 armed vessel on credit^ and quadrupled my former capital ; — it was but fair I should have interest for my money. My person is not much known ; however, I seldom trust myself in any of the residences. My visit to Bombay was to achieve an inportant object — not to dispose of the paltry cargo of the grab. Yet," laughing, he continued, " if they had grabbed me there ! ^V'hy, what do you think ? That very cargo they have paid for — once at least, as I have vouchers for that — and perhaps twice, if the original vend- ers have not been defrauded of it. Six months ago, cruising in this grab, under French colours, I cut off a lazy Com- pany's ship from Amboyna, lagging astern of her convoy, — that was her cargo ! I have intelligence of some more of them loading at Banda, and perhaps we may faU in with them. When they are swollen up like leeches, I know where to put my thumb on them, and squeeze them till they disgorge. What say you .'' " " irith all my heart !" I answered. " But, tiU I came here, I always heard that our colonies were for the protec- tion of the poor devils, they not being able to take care of themselves, and for their conversion to Christianity; — then, when baptised and civilised, emancipation will foUow." " Truly so it will, — when they are converted. It is curious, though now so few stomachs are gross enough to retain cant or castor oil, that every quack thinks he has a method of insinuating either of them down the throat Avithout nausea. We are drenched, whether we wiU or no, with oil of cant, as a panacea for all complaints. This is certainly the age of gold, for who values any thing else .>* Women, saints, and philosophers squabble now for nothing but loaves and fishes. "Who speculates on any other sub- ject than how to fill his purse } And what is not to be attained by gold, from kingdoms to mitres and maidens.'* This merchant-company say they have an exclusive right (which is a general wrong) to the entire produce of this great empire. On what a grand scale is robbery now car- ried on ! Petty plundering is out of fashion, and put to shame. The mighty thieves have now enclosed that beautiful island, — I wonder we are allowed to inhale its fragrant odours ! " 100 ADVENTURES OP ' What ! Ceylon ! " " Yes ; they have taere a ring-fence of posfs^ in which the King of Candy is enmeshed. He calls the English beach-masters, but soon will they be his masters. Jungle, reptiles, nor fever, can hold back those led on by insatiable avarice, till glutted with entire possession. The other spice-islands will follow. Then no rock so bare but they will covet, and convert to their own purposes. Yet their reign will be but as a day ; the time of just retribution will come, and that speedily." " You are too sweeping in your strictures, De Ruyter. At least, they make a show of doing some good. They have established schools, built churches, started newspapers^, — which are the banners of freedom." " It is but showing false colours ! The schools are for their own offsets ; the churches to provide for knaves ; and their printing, being entirely under their own censor- ship, is one canto of premeditated lies for exportation. As for priests, — better the plague had crossed the equa- tor ! They are a well-sifted compound of bigots and fools, of knaves, Jesuits, presbyterians, moravians, and the bilious tribe of croaking, beetle-browed, ravenous, obscure dissenters. We had venomous reptiles enough before they were let loose on us." " You are now growing scurrilous, if not blasphemous. Remember they have made converts even of some of your own men." " They have converted honest men into hypocrites, like themselves ; but if I catch any more on board, I'll keel- hale them. As long as there are beggars and outcasts, and they give rice and arrack, a sprinkUng of water on the forehead won't stand in the way of a meal and a glass of grog down their throats." " A few honest men there must be among them." " Perhaps so ; but their being here is no proof of their wisdom. And what can they do ? Before they have become seasoned to the climate, and have learnt the lan- guage, most of them drop ofl'. The rest devote themselves, not to saving souls from being damned, but to preaching damnation on each other. If their sacerdotal cloaks cover A YOUNGER S^N 101 aught but hypocrisy, the Company know how to slake their holy zeal by letting them plainly see their labour is in vain. The vagabonds they do baptise are left on their hands^ unsaleable as rotten sheep ; for none of the Com- pany's servants are permitted to employ them ; nay, if before employed, they lose their bread with their caste, lest they should taint the flock. Merchants know that the many-faced and many-handed Bramah is a fit god for slaves ; they know also that they may keep their ground while the multitudinous conflicting castes of superstitious idolatry shall endure ; and that their tenure would be of Httle worth, if the natives were united in one rehgion. — But the sun is sinking in the wave ; and by its bloody mantle, and by the mares' tails streaming in the sky, we shall surely have a breeze. I have only this to add : I am no hungry dog, to stand patiently by, in the hope of picking a bone, which these lordly merchants, in general, pretty successfully blanch before they leave it. Let them gorge themselves undisturbed till, like the vulture, their weight is too heavy for their wings ; then we, like hawks, after hovering in watchfulness, will pounce upon them. No harm in despoiling robbers ! A convoy of Company's country craft, protected by their own cruisers, — whom I hold as trash for aping ships of war, — has sailed for the spice islands. By the by, you must trans- form your body, with an abbah, into an Arab's, — when they can't detect you. I have written full instructions. Continue your course to Goa, where I will follow. On no account go on shore till my arrival. The Parsee mer- chant, for whom I have prepared a letter, will do all you want. See, the breeze is springing up ! Haul the boat alongside ! " He shook my hand, jumped into the boat, and returned to the old dow. h3 102 ADVENTURES OP CHAPTER XXVII. We can escape even now. So we take fleet occasion by the hair. Shelley. Nothing particular occurred till our arrival at Goa. I had rigged myself in loose dark trowsers^ and j^urple vest, with a high black cap of Astracan lamb's skin^ a cashmere shawl round my waist, and a small creese stuck in it. My long dark elf-locks were shaven off, with the exception of one, on the croAvn, by which the black-eyed houris were to hatil me into paradise. A roll of beetle nut, properly chinammed, stuck in, or was rather sticking out, of my cheek. My teeth were dyed in the bright red colour of chess-men ; and my bare neck, arms, and ancles were well greased and highly polished. The men gathered around in congratulation, declared unanimously that I must be, that I was decidedly, Arab, and even went so far as to demand who was my father, and of what tribe. I lay to, off the point of Cape Ramas, all night, await- ing the dow, passed under the fort of Aguada, and an- chored in the harbour of Goa, The sun rose magnifi- centl), glittering on the marble monasteries, and on the ruined arches and colleges of the old town, spread over an extent which showed it had once been a flourishing city. The bunder, or pier, was breached by the sea, and in the harbour was nothing but a motley assemblage of country small craft. I sent the Rais on shore with the ship's papers and the letter to the merchant. In the evening the dow came to an anchor under our stern ; and at night-faU De Ruyter was again with me. On the following day he went up the country to meet some agents of the Rajah of Mysore, and a Mahratta prince ; leaving me at Goa to discharge the remaining part of the cargo, consisting of coffee and rice, and to take in ballast, and to complete our water. When he returned to Goa, I saw with him a Greek and a Portuguese, whom A YOUNGER SON. 103 1 believed to be spies in his empioyment. Tl)ey used to meet in the ruins of a monastery or college in the old town, close to the sea, always at night. On these occasions De Ruyter came on board for one of tha grab's boats, which landed him there. Their conferences were from twelve to two, A. m. The crew of the boat was even selected by De Ruyter. Having got every thing ready for sea, we removed all the men, and what else was useful, from the old dow, which was here given up to her owners. I warped out- side the harbour, and every night at sunset I hoisted the boats in, and hove short, lying in readiness to move on the instant. On the tenth day after our arrival, one hour after midnight, I observed, by the phosphoric light spark- ling on the black surface of the water, something approach- ing us with unusual rapidity. The hallooing and distant turmoil in the harbour was hushed • the Jiioving lights on the shore had been some time extinguished, but just then I thought I descried some commotion on the pier. As the sound was borne oft' by the light air from the land, I dis- tinctly heard some one hailing a boat in the port. This was repeated louder and louder. Lights then reappeared along the beach, and I heard the noise of oars, and spars, and boats, as if moving from amongst others to the shore. The noise growing higher, I turned towards the first ob- ject which had caught my attention in the other quarter ; and, though all was silent there, I still distinguished the sparkhng ripple in the waters, and the long arrowy line of light, such as a shooting star leaves in the heavens, or the wake of a boat darting on a calm sea in this climate. By the muffled sound of oars, and by the long and heavy- strokes which De Ruyter had taught the men in his favourite boat, I knew her, and marvtUed at her returning before the wonted hour, and at the rapidity with which she approached. The noise in the harbour augmented. My mind misgave me that all was. not right. I felt my heart flutter with anxiety of I knew not what. I called the Serang, who was asleep (the Rais being with the boat), told him to rouse the meti, and-, in my impatience, kicked them up myself. H 4 104 ADVENTURES OF Ordering them to man the capstan, loose the jib and fore-top-sail, and cast off the lashings of the fore and aft mainsail, I returned to the gangway ; where now seeing our boat, I hailed her. Instead of the usual reply of " Acbar," a voice answered in a low and suppressed tone, " Yup ! Yup ! " (silence ! silence !) I had been instructed regarding this signal, and, rushing to the bow, I seized the axe lying by its side in readiness, then, ordering the jib to be hoisted to pay her round, cut the cable, together with a chip from an Arab's leg, who was standing by it. De lluyter then came forward, and said : " That was right, my boy, in cutting the cable ; but be cool, — you have wounded this poor fellow, — send him into the cabin. Clap all the canvass on her instantly. I'll go aft. The blood-hounds have hit on a scent ; they think to find us like jungle-fowls at roost ; but they shall find a pan- ther, and he is never caught sleeping ! " He sprang aft. We wore slowly round; and, as I was cursing the length of her kelstow, and the lightness of the breeze, which made her so tardy in paying round, De Ruyter put his hand on my shoulder, and said, "■ Arm the men, * * * * ! — but only with their spears. Let no boat come alongside of us, or attempt it. Sneak them fair; but if a man puts his hand on the ladder, spear him as you would a wild boar. There is no occasion for salt- petre, it makes a noise and has a bad smell. Harpoon them ! but not till I tell you. I must keep back, and not be seen. If they question you about De Witt, the mer- chant, say you know him not." Two boats were approaching, and the foremost hailed us with, " Grab, ahoy ! " I answered. They commanded me to heave to, as they wished to see the captain. I ordered the Serang to let the mainsail fall, and loose the top-gallant-sails, and replied, " We are going to sea. I have got my port clearances and ship's papers, aU regu- larly signed at the proper oflJces. I can't lose this breeze. What do you want } " " Heave to, sir, or we shall fire ! " " You had better not," I said. We had not yet got weigh enough on her to distance A YOUNGER SON. 105 the first boat^ which belonged to the captain of the port. De Ruyter ordered the men to he down on deck. He stood at the helm. He was just calUng to me to keep under cover, when, %vith a flash of light from the boat, a ball whizzed by my head, and went into the mast. In obedience to De Ruyter's orders, I did not return it, much against my inclination. Soon after, as the boat was shoot- ing up to board us on the gangway, De Ruyter, bearing away, brought them under the lee quarter. Not being able to board us there, they lost some time, by falling astern, before they could re-use their oars. In this way (the breeze now freshening a little) we kept them off some time, during which not a word was spoken. De Ruyter remained at the helm, and I, with a party of men, stood ready, all armed with spears, to prevent their boarding us. The other boat was nearing us, and both had fired many muskets ; but we, sheltered by the bulk-lieads of the deep waist, were untouched. The foremost boat now got hold of the lee chains, „ and they were very coolly coming on board. De Ruyter said, " Cheelo, chae!" (Advance, boys !) when we thrust our spears through the port-holes, and three or four, with their leader, fell back, spitted^ into the boat, yehing with pain. Notwithstanding an officer's commanding them to hold on, they would not ; but as the other boat was coming up under the stern, I cast off one of the after guns, ran it out of the stern port, and, hailing both the boats, I said, " If you pull another stroke in our wake, or play your fire- works off under our stern, you shall hear the roar of this brazen serpent. Command where you have power to enforce obedience ; you have none here." I blew the cotton match ; they saw the bright brass muzzle of the gun depressed to a line with the boat, when I could have blown them to pieces. They lay on their oars ; and their oaths and threats, mingled with the rip- pling of the waves, died away, while we, crowded with sail, majestically receded from the port, and beheld them returning from their bootless expedition to the shore. 106 ADVENTUEES OF CHAPTER XXVIII, The slim canoe Of feather'd Indian darts about, as through The delicatest air. Keats. After taking the bearings of the land, De Ruyter patted me on the back, and said, " Those who fight under the banner of silence are victorious, whilst noise and threats end in defeat. The force of air or fire, when concentrated and confined, is irresistible. "\^"omen, and weak people, and boys before they have learnt to bite, bluster and threaten. A silent man, with a drawn weapon, is to be dreaded, because he is determined. ^Vhen a man vaunts or menaces, he is either afraid, or he wavers in his pur- pose — I have ever found it so. Come, you have made a proper beginning ! — why, your wariness exceeds that of the oldest and most experienced. AVhat induced you to keep so much on the alert, that you were prepared to be under w-eigh before I even hailed you } I thought the night-owls on shore had anticipated me, and were along- side of you." I told him the reasons which had impressed me with an idea that all was not right. " Well ! " he added, " I had great confidence in you, and anticipated much when your judgment should be perfected by experience. But, in some natures, quickness of perception is in tuition, like instinct, — it is strange. But go, my lads, you have worked hard, and w'hen overwrought we must have rest. Go to sleep ; I will keep the watch to-night." He shook me as I lay half dozing, with my head on the hatchway, saying, " The night dew, with a land wind, is here as venomous as the serpent's bite ; it is heavy with the vapours from the jungles. Goodnight!" Notwithstand- ing my objections to leave the deck, complaining of the heat, and urging that we might still be pursued, he was peremptory that 1 should go below. " No fear," said he ; A YOUNGER SOX. 107 " before daylight the eye of the eagle will not descry us, though perched on the highest rock. Good night!" The change of atmosphere, which takes place an hour before the night is seen to break into day, awoke me. I stumbled up the ladder on deck, and was only thoroughly roused by breaking my shins against a gun-bolt. De Ruyter was standing on a gun-caniage, looking over the stern with a night-glass ; the moon was reflected on his face ; he looked haggard with watching, and his hair and moustachios were dank with dew. Saluting him, I requested he would go to rest, and apologised for my long sleep. " I only wonder," was his answer, " you are up so early; but the young and happy rest when the sun withdraws his light, and awaken when he unfolds his curtains. At my age you will keep company with the moon, and prefer the shadowy silence of night to the glaring day, which is the prelude of never ending, and never useful. toil." We were standing to the southward and westward, under a press of canvass. The watch were sleeping in groups under cover of the half- decks. As the day broke, De Ruyter looked carefully around the horizon, and ordered the watch to be awakened to their diurnal duties, never ending on board a ship, and he ascertained the only sails in sight to be country vessels. Our distance from the harbour and land was such as to blend all minute points into an undefined mass, its dark outline broken by the fleecy clouds of morning, and enveloped in transparent vapours. We took our departure from the land, and De Ruyter retired to the cabin, pricked her run of the night on the chart, gave me directions how to steer, and when to call him, covered himself in his capote, and slept. Hauling up as he directed, I kept a S. E. course, to make the southernmost of the Lacadive Islands. In getting into the latitude of these islands, we were many days becalmed. My mind was then too elastic to be oppressed with weariness. I loved the sea in all its moods. During the day the duties of the ship occupied me; and, notwithstanding the grab remained as stationary as if she had taken root, time seemed to keep pace with the swallow. My inclinations and duty were, for the first 108 ADVENTURES OF time, blended together, and, from a drowsy boy, I all at once, as if by magic, became transformed into a most active and energetic man. De Ruyter wished to give his vessel a more warhke trim. We hoisted up four verdigrised brass nine-pounders, se- creted under the ballast on the kelstow, and mounted them. We fitted and filled shot-lockers on deck, made cartridges, and prepared two furnaces for heating shot red-hot. We put the magazine in order, made rockets and blue-lights, cleaned and whitewashed between decks, mustered and quartered the men, exercised them, and practised the guns and small arms, and I learned to use the spear and creese under the tuition of the Rais. We had fourteen Europeans, chiefly from the dow ; they were Swedes, Dutch, Portuguese, and French. We had also a few Americans, together with samples of almost all the seafaring natives of India ; Arabs, Mussulmans, Daccamen, Cooleys, and Lascars. Our steward and purser was a mongrel Frenchman, the cabin-boy English, the surgeon Dutch, and the armourer and master-of-arms Germans, De Ruyter was indifferent as to where his men were born, or of what caste they were ; he distinguished them by their worth alone. I was astonished at such dissimilar and incongruous ingredients being mingled to- gether with so little contention ; but it was the consummate art of the master-hand, his cool and collected manner, which regulated all : before a murmur was heard, he fore- stalled every complaint by a timely remedy. He himself was the most active and unwearied in toil, the first in every danger, and every thing he did was done quicker and better than it could have been by any other person. In short, he would have been, amidst an undistinguished throng of adventurers, in any situation of peril or enter- prise, by a unanimous voice, their chosen leader. The most unforeseen calamity, which struck the hardiest aghast, when all looked in hopeless despair, he was prepared to meet, not by submitting to it, but by an opposition equal to the emergency. This, however, must be shown in his actions, and I proceed with our voyage. On the fourth day, the sameness of the scene, the blue A YOUNGER SON. 109 sky and blue sea, underAvent a cliaage. Masses of clouds began to move and meet until the horizon was overcast with gloom. We took in our light canvass^ and double- reefed the top-sails. Cat's paws^ or light airs, came scud- ding along the waters from all points of the compass, amidst pale streaks of lightning and low thunder. Then the rain fell in torrents, and tlie rippling of the sea, borne by the eddy-winds into puny waves contending fur sway, subsided, and now, bending all one way, Avas accon:panied by a steady breeze instead of a violent gale, Avhich we had expected. The clouds evaporated in rain ; and, borne by a steady wind from the N.E., at daylight we came in sight of the Lacadive islands. The canoes of the natives here astonished me. They are called by Europeans, owing to the wonderful rapidity with v.'hich they sail, flying proics. One of them hull down on our lee beam, we going under a staggering top- gallant breeze eleven knots an hour^ came up to windward of us, standing two points nearer the wand, and passed u as if we had been stationary. There was a short breaking sea : two or three of her men, standing on her outriggers, looked as if they flew on the Avaters. She dashed not over, but through the sea, and at times was quite enveloped in the spray, resembling the reaction of a Avater- spout after its breaking. De Ruyter dreAv a sketch, and gave me a description of the boat. " These untaught people," he said, " have achieved, in the construction of that vessel, the triumph and perfection of naval architecture, in Avhich Ave, Avith all our learning, study, and encouragement, haA'e not gone beyond our ABC, as far as concerns sAviftness, dexterity in change of direction, the making no lee-Avay, and, above all, simpUcity of Avorking. They have done all this ; con- sequently the construction of their proa is, in every part, in contradistinction to our ideas of naval architecture. We build the head and stern of a vessel as dissimilar as pos- sible ; they construct them precisely of the same form and proportions. The sides of our vessels, on the other hand, are precisely the same ; but in the proa you see the sides altogether different. The proa never tacks, sailing indif- 1 1 APVENTURES OF ferently with either end foremost, as occasion serves ; but the same side is constantly the weather one. The left, or lee-side, is flat as a plumb Hne can make it ; consequently she would capsise, the weathei-side being rounded, and from her great length and narrow beam ; but, to prevent this, on the lee-side, an outrigger, made of bamboos, pro- jects considerably into the sea, and supports a heavy log of cocoa wood, shaped like a solid canoe. This gives her an immense artificial beam, without opposing much resist- ance to the water. Between this outrigger and the flat side of the proa, the water passes without obstruction, and is the cause both of her celerity, and that no lee-way is made. The proa itself, or body of the boat, is merely a few planks sewed together, and wadded between the seams with coir-oakum. Not a nail, nor a bit of metal, is about her. The sail is matting, the mast and yards are of bam- boo. When they want to go about, they bear away and bring what is then the stern to the wind, move the heel of the triangular sail till they fix it on the opposite end, and at the same time shift the boom into the opposite direction; so that what was the stern is then the head, and a man to steer always remains at each of the extremities. It may be said of them that they keep pace with the wind. No European vessel, in any weather, ever had a chance with them. They are admirably adapted for the navigation of islands situated in the latitude of the trade-winds, being enabled to cross on a wind from one to the other, with as unerring a flight as a crane ; while, in our vessels, if we miss the object steered for, by making lee-way, we have great difficulty, and lose time in beating up. True it is they are of small capacity, adapted solely to the simple commerce of bartering superfluous productions for absolute necessaries. The ordinary Indian canoe would not serve their purpose ; it either foundered in sudden squalls, or was driven to leeward of its destined port. By their in- genuity they invented this simple alteration and addition, and attained th,e imnortant results 1 have pointed out." A YOUNGER SON. Ill CHAPTER XXIX. And first one universal shriek there rush'd Loiiiler than the loud ocean, like a crash Of echoing thunder ; and then all was hush'd Save the wild wind, and the remorseless dash Of billows ; but at intervals there gush'd. Accompanied with a convulsive splash, A solitary shriek, — the bubbling cry Of some strong swimmer in his agony. . Byron. On nearing one of these islands, I went on shore to see the natives, and obtain fruit. In the night the breeze again died away. At daylight we saw two or three square- rigged vessels, about two leagues to the westward of us, lying becalmed. I boarded one of them, in a boat with ten men well armed ; and her Rais, who was in great ap- prehension, told me had been boarded off the Persian Gulf, by a large Malay brig, full of men. They had not only plundered him and two other vessels in his company, but killed several of his men, using them with great cruelty. He added, that this Malay had been cruizing at the entrance of the gulf, and had rifled a vast number of vessels. I brought the captain and some of his crew on board the grab. After De Ruyter had satisfied himself that the man's story, with all the particulars, was true, he instantly determined to look after the Malay. The Persians told him she was full of gold, and that her cargo was so rich, she had cast rich bales of Persian silk into the sea, not having room to stow them. In the evening a light breeze sprung up, and we made a long stretch to the northward and westward, anticipating to fall in with her before she entered the straights of Malacca. We made a capital run in the ensuing days, kept a good look out, and daily boarded many country boats and vessels, hoping to learn intelligence of the pirate. Day and night we were most vigilant, and liourly our hopes were excited by some passing stranger, whom we all swore was the Malay, whom we cliased, and then were as often chagrined at find- ing our hopes deceived, or, rather, at their deceiving us. 112 ADVENTURES OP De Ruyter's patience was now exhausted. He had im- portant despatches for the Isle of France, and would brook no longer detention. We therefore reluctantly altered our course again to the southward^ and, after running twenty or thirty leagues in that direction, at daylight, when the horizon was particularly clear, before the sun arose with his misty mantle, the man at the mast-head called out, " A large sail on the lee-bow ! " Fearing she might be a man-of-war, I took a glass up to the mast-head ; where, after straining my eyes to make her out, De Ruyter hailed me with, " Well, what is she?" I replied with confidence, " The Malay !" " Which way is she standing ? " •^ She has not yet seen us, and her course is to the north- ward." Then I described her ; and De Ruyter said, " Very pos- sibly you are right." I came on the deck. The horizon became misty ; and, as they had neglected to keep a look-out, we trusted we should get much nearer ere she discovered us. We bore down on her under every stitch of sail we could spread. The studding-sails we wetted with an engine for that pur- pose, to make them hold the light breeze better; and at eight o'clock she saw us, and bore away. We had gained considerably on her ; the head of her lower yards were then visible from our deck ; and De Ruyter said, " If the breeze holds till raid-day, she cannot escape us." There was an alacrity and a buzz of joy tliroughout our crew, intent for plunder. "We pumped the water out, lightened her by throwing some tons of ballast overboard, winged and shifted the iron shot, cleared the decks for ac- tion, got the arms and boats ready for service and for hoisting out, and Avatched and antedated all the motions of the enemy, as the hawk does the curlew. At noon the breeze freshened, and we gained rapidly on her ; nevertheless it was six p. m. before we came within long shot. We then kept up a fire from the bow-chasers. For some time she disregarded this. We had hoisted a French tri-coloured flag, De Ruyter, indeed, having a French letter of marque's commission, which he now produced for A YOUNGF.K SOX. 113 me to read, as the only person among the ofBcers ignorant of that fact. The shots now falling over and on board of the Malay, her top-gallant sails were lowered ; and we ran up under her lee-quarter, shortened sail, and backed the top- sail. A Malay on board of us was desired to hail her. Her deck swarmed with men. We ordered her to send a boat with her papers on board of us ; and seeing they paid no attention to this order, De Ruyter again fired a shot over her. She returned this with a volley from four carronades, divers small swivels on her gunwales, and twenty or thirty match-lock muskets, when the pieces of old iron, glass, and nails, with which they were loaded, rattled against our rigging, and three of our men were wounded. " Damn their impudence!" exclaimed De Ruyter, "they shall have enough of it ! " "W^e opened and kept up such a heavy, low, and well- directed fire, manoeu\Ting with our broadside on her stern and quarters, that, in ten minutes, De Ruyter called out to cease firing, as we had not only silenced her fire, but entirely cleared her deck, cut her rigging to pieces, and shot away her rudder. Our boats were then ordered to be hoisted out, and, with thirty men in three boats, I shoved off to board her ; De Ruyter cautioning me to be par- ticularly careful against their cunning and treachery. *' They must have been," said he, laughing, "^ a colony founded by the ancient Greeks, for they have all the cha- racteristics of my modern friend at Goa." We approached her warily. Not the smallest impedi- ment was opposed to us. Indeed nothing gave token that there was a being on board of her. I ordered the Rais, who commanded one boat, to board her on the bow with his Arabs; whilst I, with a party, chiefly Europeans, and a gallant set of fellows they were, climbed up her orna- mented quarters and bamboo stern. On getting on board, we saAV many dead and wounded on her deck, but nothing else. She was only about two-thirds decked, having an open waist, latticed with bamboo, and covered with mats. Her sails and yards were hanging about in confusion. We were now all on deck, and a party of men was preparing I 214- ADVENTURES 01^ to descent! between decks ; -wheii^ while replying to De Ruyter's questions^ I was suddenly startled at hearing a wild and tumultuous war-whoop, and springing forwards, I saw a grove of spears thrust up from below_, which, pass- ing through the matting, wounded many of our men. I was certainly as much astonished at this novel mode of warfare as Macbeth at the walking wood of Dunsinane. Running round the solid portion of the deck, several spears were thrust at me, which I with difficulty escaped. Some of my men had retreated ; I ordered them to fire down below, through the open work. Most of the men belong- ing to the Rais, v^ho were not wounded, had jumped over- board to regain their boat. Hailing De Ruyter, I informed him how the affair stood. He desired me to make fast a halser, which he would send me, to the ring-bolts of her bob-stays, secure it to her bow- sprit, and that then we should all return to the grab ; he being very careful of the lives of his men, and knowing that these pirates, when once they have made up their minds not to be taken, will abide by their resolution. I told him that if he had any hand-grenades^ or fire-balls, I would rout them out. Though we had already made consider- able havoc among them, I was very anxious, as were all the Europeans, to go below at every hazard, but our native crew were opposed to this; and seven or eight of us could liave had little chance, unable, in the dark, to see our enemies, who would spear us from their lurking places, without endangering themselves. The crew were busy in handing our wounded men do'^vn into the boat. A Swedish lad, whom I valued for being an excellent sailor, had been wounded by a spear, driven through his foot, and was suffering great pain. Hastening forward to see him handed into the boat, I step- ped over a dying Malay, shot through the body before we boarded her. I had previously, in passing him, caught a glance at his peculiarly ferocious look, and the malignant expression of his broad and brutish face. Plis coarse, black, straight hair was clotted with blood from a wound in his head, apparently by a splinter. As I now stepped over him, I was arrested by his eye, surrounded by a rigid A YOUNGER SON. 115 lid, and deeply imbedded above his high cheek-bone^ the sunken pupil still glaring like a glow-worm in a dark vault. My foot slipped in the gore, and I fell on him ; when, as I was recovering myself, he griped me with his bony hand, and made a horrible effort to rise, but his extremities were stiff. He drew a small creese from his bosom, and with a last effort tried to bury it in my breast. The passion of revenge had outlived his physical powers ; its sharp point slightly grazed me, and he fell dead from the exertion, dragging me down, his hand still clenching hke a vice. I could only extricate myself by slipping my arm out of my vest, and leaving it in his ghastly hand. '^ Such men as these," I cried out, " are not to be conquered even by death ! Their very spirits fight and stab at us ! " De Ruyter became peremptory for our instant return, as the night was now coming on, and the Malays below had again opened a fire on us with their match-locks. With rage and disappointment I returned. We had now altogether eight wounded. On reaching the grab, De Ruyter observed, " There is no help for it ! We must try to tow her towards the land ; when near the shore, they will perhaps escape by swimming. But I fear we shall not succeed in capturing her." As we filled our sails and towed her, a gang of men stood at our stern to fire at any object they could see moving on board of her. We found it difficult to tow her : not being steered, she yawed about, and in less than an hour they had contrived to cut the tow-rope. Under a cover of musketry we again made fast another, and kept up a continual fire on her bows. Nothing living was seen on her decks, yet again the halser was cut. We hailed hei", as we often had done, but no answer was given. At daylight, De Ruyter came to the determination of sinking her ; which we reluctantly did, by opening a fire with our largest guns, and red-hot shot, which had been prepared during the night. Symptoms of fire from below soon made their appearance ; smoke slowly arose ; several explosions of powder took place ; the smoke arose darker, and in masses ; at last we saw the savages themselves crawling up on all-fours upon deck. Their guns having Il6 ADVENTUEES OF been thrown overboard by us, they could make no defence. Streams of fire now burst out of her hatchways and port- holes. On the balls going through her, our Arabs swore they saw the gold-dust, and pearls, and rubies, fly out of her on the opposite side. I cannot say 1 did ; nor could I smell the otto of roses, which they affirmed was running out of her scuppers like a fountain. I saw nothing but the dense flames and smoke, and the poor devils swarming up and jumping into the waves, preferring death by water to fire and balls, — for they had no other choice. Though ■we lowered our boats to pick them up, not one approached them ; and the boats did not near the vessel, fearing her blowing up. She appeared to have an immense number of men ; not less than two hundred and fifty to three hundred. Having given over firing, Ave lay at some distance, in- tently gazing at her. After an explosion, louder than the loudest thunder, which vibrated through the air, we could see nothing but a black cloud on the waters, enveloping all around, like a pall, and darkening the heavens; and where the pirate had been was only to be distinguished by the bubbling commotion and dashing ripple of the sea, like the meeting of the tides, or where a whale has been harpooned, and sunk. Huge fragments of the ship, masts, tackling, and men, all shattered and rent, lay mingled around in a wide circle. Some dark heatls, still above the surface, awaiting, as it were, the utmost of our malice, faintly yelled their last war-cry in defiance ; then a few bubbles showed where they had been. Her hull was driven down stern-foremost, and her grave filled up on the instant. Even the wind became hushed from the concussion of the explosion ; and I started as our sails flapped heavily against the mast, and the grab's hull shook as in terror. The black cloud cleared away, and slowly swept along the surface of the sea ; then ascended and hung aloft in the air, concentrated in a dense mass. As I gazed on it, me- thought the pirate ship was changed, but not destroyed, and that her demon crew had resumed their vocation in the clouds. De Ruyter said, " It has been an awful and A YOUNGER SON. 117 painful sight ! — but they deservecl their fate. Come, set our gaping crew to work ! Hoist the boats in, and make all sail on our proper course." CHAPTER XXX. This is the way physicians mend or end us. Secundum artem ; but although we sneer In health,— when ill, we call them to attend us. Without the least propensity to jeer. Byron. Two days after, one of our wounded Arabs died, and his companions committed him to the deep with their usual mystic ceremonies. His body Avas washed with great at- tention ; his head was carefully shaved and cleaned ; his mouth, nostrils, ears, and eyes were stuffed with cotton saturated in camphor, with which his body was also anointed ; the joints of his legs and arms were broken, and then tightly bandaged in the mummy form ; and, with a twelve-pound shot fixed to his lower extremities, the mutilated carcass was launched into the ocean. Upon inquiring why they broke his joints, I was answered that it was to prevent his following the ship ; because, had they neglected to fulfil this sacred duty, his body would float on the waters, and his spirit pm-sue them for ever. It did not appear that the jMalays had, in this instance, poisoned their spears ; for the men rapidly recovered from their wounds, except the Swedish boy, whose wound was of such a nature that, had not De Ruyter added to his other chieftain's qualifications surgical knowledge, superior to many of the diploma'd butchers, we should have lost him. De Ruyter gave up his own state- cabin to him, where we both attended to his wants, without a thought of saving ourselves trouble by permitting the doctor, for the sake of practice, to lop off the limb, which most of the faculty would have done, and of which he strongly urged the necessity. Van Scolpvelt, our surgeon, had been engaged out of a I 3 lis ADVENTURES OP Dutch East Indiaman^ where he was surgeon' s-assistant, and grown old^ hoping to see service, and be a surgeon. But the muddy mettle of those burghers coukl be stirred by nothing but the prospect of gain ; and their antipathy to powder was as great as that of Quakers, so that he be- came weary for want of practice, and the instruments of his trade grew dull and rusty. All the practice he had on board of her was in administering an emetocathaiticus, an enema, or simple dejectors, to the swag-bellied Hollanders, after gormandising had disarranged the gastric functions. His dignity — and moreover the dignity of his profession — which he alone revered, he thought compromised by this degrading application of science. He therefore gladly closed with De Ruyter's proposition, and had now accom- panied him in several voyages. He said, " De Ruyter is a considerate creature, and generally keeps me tolerably employed. He has only one great blemish in his character, unaccountable in a man so liberally-minded and humane ; and that is, in siding with the heathenish prejudices of his barbarous crew, and opposing, in all cases, amputation. On this pointy" ad- dressing himself to me, " you Englishmen are the most enlightened people on earth. Your government, too, with providential care, fearing that surgeons, like others un- tinctured by the love of science, may not like gratuitous work, give (I have been told) a premium for every limb or shoot pruned off from the parent trunk ; thus, from the multitude of the maimed, their knives don't rust, and it must make a very pretty addition to their salaries. Then not only the operator, but the operatee, is bountifully com- pensated, getting more by his limb off than he ever earned by it on. Why I," he exclaimed, with unusual energy, " I, Van Scolpvelt, assisted in taking off a man's leg in an English frigate, and it was the pleasantest operation I ever attended. It was a compound fracture : the man had fallen from the mast, so that the knee-bone was forced through the integuments into the deck. The next day the man recovered his faculties, and we commenced upon him. It would have done your heart good to see him, — I wish you hadj — he was a glorious subject ! No one could have A TOUXGEIl SON^. 119 ■witnessed the operation without astonished delight ! He never squeaked, or made a wry face, or spoke a word till it was over ; and then, turning his quid, h& only asked for a glass of grog ; — if there had been but one bottle in the world, he should have had it ! — I loved him ! They are good people, and feel no more than the log of wood that carpenter is now adzing ; — no patient ought ! Now this boy in the cabin, — they would not speak one word to him, but take ofF his leg, and then ask him how he feels. Afterwards he would be sent to the hospital for Ufe, — or he dies, — no more ! While I shall be three or four months in curing him, and he, all the time, eating and drinking, and doing no work. De Ruyter does not think of this ! You are an Englishman ; go and persuade him, that's a good lad! — go and tell him I do it with very little pain." I stopped his cajoling whine with — -" If my leg was hanging by a remnant of skin, and any doctor clipped it, I would stab him with one of his own probes !" He stared at me with unutterable wonder, and, putting the case of instruments, on which he had been descanting, in his pocket, he shuffled away, making a noise like a shark's fin flapping on the deck, which his flat feet resembled. As De Ruyter called him to answer some questions, I could not refrain from running my eye over his ex- traordinary figure. He had a small, dry, sapless body, then stripped for operating, which I could compare to nothing but a gigantic russet-haired caterpillar. His wizened face was puckered up like a withered shaddock, or Chinese mandarin. His pate was bald, hedged round with long, wiry, reddish-grey hair. The hair, that should have been on his eyebrows, eyeUds, and beard, having entirely deserted its several posts, was dotted about on his lank cheeks, chin, and neck, the latter of which was long as a heron's, and seemed covered with scorched parchment. Four or five irregular, yellow- crusted tusks boomed from his jaw, like the wild hog's; and his capacious mouth, and thin, fishy lips, were like a John Dory's. His eyes were small and sunken, with a mixture of light red, green, and yellow. I 4 120 ADVENTURES OP Yet, notwithstanding his immoderate love of practice, and this preposterous exterior, he was not deficient in a certain sort of ability, and was an enthusiast in his mystery. When not actively engaged, his recreation consisted in poring over old Dutch surgical works, chiefly manuscripts, or, if not, closely interlined and annotated, throughout the margins, by his own hand, and illuminated with disgusting representations of appaling operations in their horrible preternatural colours. His dress, on ordinary occasions, ■was composed of such stray articles as he picked up in the sick-ward, or plucked from the corpse of a savage. As to his age, it was impossible to form a guess at it ; for he looked like the resurrection of an Egyptian mummy, yet he was active, always awake (as far as we knew), and his faculties were unimpaired. He was in animated discussion with De Ruyter as they returned to where I stood, Avith his hand extended, of which he was somewhat vain. It was long and narrow, like the claw of a bird of prey ; so utterly devoid of flesh, that on meeting him at night with a candle shaded between his palms, the light shone so clearly through them that I asked him to let me have the loan of the signal lanthorn he was carrying. But he valued his hand from its useful properties. " For," as he said, " where a ball goes, there I can follow it," stretching out a long ghastly finger, adorned ■with the only ornament he wore — a huge silver-mounted, antique, carbuncle ring, embossed with cabalistic characters. I went below with the doctor to see the wounded, where he proceeded to business without delay, using his probe with the same sort of indifference as a man does a pipe- stopper. When he had probed, and cut, and fingered those who had mere flesh wounds, De Ruyter insisted on his looking at the scratch on my breast. He did so, and pointed out to the standers-by the physiology of the part, descanting on the action and effect of Indian poison, and on the subtlety with which it infuses itself by absorption into the whole animal economy, through the circulation of the blood and nervous system. " That is, to be plain," said he, " having taken the outposts, having poisonedj A YOUNGER SON. 121 paralysed, and wormed its way through the husk and shell, it eats into the kernel. Then, beginning with the extre- mities, which it destroys, it gathers and concentrates its power, till, the venom touching the heart, the patient is seized with convulsions, and dies." Such was the tune the Dutch doctor sang in my ears, as he was preparing a red-hot iron, which, with the gloating look of a sensualist, he applied to my breast. Whether this prevented the agreeable voyage of the poison through my system, I know not ; but it certainly converted a slight scratch into a spreading and ulcerated sore, which troubled me for a long time. When he came to examine, for the second time, the really bad wound of the boy, he revelled in his description of the muscles and tendons torn and wounded in the instep. Gangrene and mortification were the least that must ensue : he declared that unless amputation above the ancle took place, in four-and-twenty hours he might be compelled to remove the entire quarter up to the hip, and yet with little probability of saving his life, as a patient generally expired under the operation. The poor boy cried, and petitioned first the doctor and then me. I called De Rayter, who absolutely forbade the operation. To compensate in some measure for this, the surgeon, after having the boy held, set to work on him with as much ingenuity as an Indian when flaying a staked enemy ; and when the boy happily became insensible from the excruciating torture, the doctor looked at him, then round in astonishment, and said, " Why does he groan and faint like a little girl ? Why, you see I merely scrape the bone ! " De Ruyter then came down into the cabin, and told him to bind up the wound, and poultice it. " Doctor," said he, " you are like the old cook, who put live eels into a pasty, and knocked them over the pate with the rolling- pin, exclaiming, ' lie down, ye wantons !' " ^^'lien the boy came to his senses, De Ruyter gave him a glass of brandy, which restored him ; and afterwards would never allow the wound to be dressed unless he or I 122 ADVENTURES OP was present ; when, in spite of the doctor's predictions, he did recover, though slowly. This boy is mentioned par- ticularly, as I shall have to narrate his melancholy fate. CHAPTER XXXI. The sky became Stagnate with heat, so that each cloud and blast Languish'd and died; the thirsting air did claim All moisture. Shelley. OuB progress was slow ; frequent calms — but, not to be tedious, my time was fully occupied, and we practised a thousand amusements. The abstemiousness and temper- ance of the natives rendered it a less arduous task to govern them than a crew, however small, of Europeans. Those of the latter which we had were picked up with great caution, all holding responsible situations in the ship, and were also fully occupied. De Ruyter was not only a high- spirited and excellent commander, but an admirable com- panion ; so that I had nothing to complain of. After leaving the Lacadive Islands, Ave put into one called Diego Raves, for wood and water. We then passed a long cluster called the Brothers ; and, keeping more to the south, took a fresh departure from Roquepez Island. Some days after, between the great bank of Garagos and the St. Bran- domlslands, the man at the mast-head called out — " A strange sail to the westward !" — and then — " Another !" They were in our course ; we stood on. A heavy squall of mist and rain coming on, we lost sight of them for some time. On this clearing away, the strangers were visible from the deck ; and the instant I saw them, I called De Ruyter from the cabin, being then one o'clock, p. m., telling him they were certainly two frigates — perhaps French ones, from Port St. Louis, in the Isle of France. " They may be so," said he, " but I doubt it. Give rae the glass." He looked at them attentively, and mut- A YOUNGER SOX. 123 tered, " Too high out of the v/ater ; — canvass too dark ; hull too short ; — and the yards not square enough for Frenchmen. No, they are not French. H«ul down the studding sails, and bring her up on the larboard tack^ close to the wind." On doing this, the headmost stranger hauled his wind, and shortly after tacked too ; the sternmost held the same course. The wind %vas light, and we all kept turning to windward. The headmost frigate sailed remarkably Avell, and left her companion hiiU-down to leeward ; but yet she was no match for us. All we feared was the wind chang- ing, or losing it altogether, which we did at sunset. During the night we were on the alert ; no light was allowed, fearing they might see us ; our decks were cleared for action, the guns double-shotted, and the small arms were got up in readiness ; not in the vain hope of contend- ing with the frigate, but as a measure of pi-ecaution against any possible attempt at boarding us with boats. After the middle watch, a light air came out of the channel of Ga- ragos, and we made a long stretch to the eastward. The wind then varied, with intervals of calm ; the night was dark ; the frigates showed no lights, nor did we see any thing to form a guess of how they were standing. Our object was to get among the group of islands, the Brothers ; by which means we might elude their seeing us again, as we thought they would, in all probability, retain their posi- tion between us and the port, which, by the course we were steering when they first discovered us, we were evidently bound to. But the breeze had been so scanty during the night, that we had made but little way. The night, too, had been cloudy, so that our night-glasses were no of use ; and we began to feel anxious for the dawn of day. At last the sombre clouds broke in the east, changing their colour to purple, which speedily became fringed with an orange hue, and the circle of the horizon was enlarged. Still the frigates were not to be seen, and every face was brightening up with the appearance of day. De Ruyter stood on a gun, watching a hazy bank of misty clouds on our lee quarter, which were slowly evaporating, and he suddenly exclaimed, " There she is I" 124 ADVENTURES OP I looked, and saw one of the frigates looming in the vapour, in which she was enveloped, like an island. She must soon after this have seen us, for she tacked in our wake, and crowded on all the light canvass she had. She •was not more than nine or ten miles astern, and four to leeward of us. Her consort we saw at a great distance, hull-down. We turned all our attention now to trimming the grab, and we clapped every inch of canvass on her ; then all the deck-lumber was turned overboard. After watching the frigate for some lime, De Ruyter said, " By Heaven ! she is a crack sailer ! I think she almost holds her way with us ; and that is what no other vessel can do in these seas. She must be some new frigate, fresh from Europe. Besides, in this trim and rig, the grab is not herself. I don't like the look of the weather ; when the sun gets up, the breeze will die away. Get aU the sweeps in readiness." Two hours after this, the water became of a glassy smoothness. The sun rose like a globe of fire, and looked terrible ; its piercing rays hardly could be endured ; they seared to the very brain ; and I was obliged occasionally to close my eyes in relief from the dazzling glitter, which I thought would have deprived me of sight. Yet in this heat the frigate ventured to hoist out her boats, at about ten, A.M., and give us chace. De Ruyter admired their hardiness. For the last hour Ave had been sweeping ; yet, from our size, and the disadvantage of labouring with the thermometer at a hundred and eight in the cabin window, we made little progress. We therefore made every preparation to meet the worst ; but De Ruyter observed, " Those fellows toil in vain ! At mid-day we shall have a sea- breeze ; then they may hoist in their boats, by which they will lose time." As he predicted, a httle after noon, flaws of wind began lightly to ripple the glassy surface to sea-ward ; and then a faint current of air raised the feathered dog-vane. We held up the palms of our hands towards it, as in supplica- tion. The hght cotton sails aloft first caught it ; when, A YOVXGER SOX. 125 instead of sticking, as if glued, to the spars, they swelled out to their arched form. On my telhng De Ruyter that one would imagine he held communion with the elements, he interpreted them so truly, " And so I do," was his reply ; " all my life have I studied them ; but life is too short to comprehend their mystery ! They are a book a sailor should ever keep his eye on ; and it is ever unfolded before him. Those who do not are unfit to command, and have charge of the lives and properties of others." We saw the frigate hoist the recal signal to her boats, and telegraph to her companion to stand off and on, to intercept us if we should attempt to bear up during the night for the Isle of France. De Ruyter had copies both of the Admiralty and private signals of ships of war, as well as their telegraphic signals ; which did him good service on many occasions. We continued beating up to the weathermost island, and then the breeze gradually freshened^ till we were compelled to take in our light canvass. The headmost frigate, as she continued to carry hers, rather gained on us. De Ruyter grew impatient at finding that the grab did not distance her pursuers, as she had been wont to do. He said she was cramped in her movements ; and, to ease her, the stays and backstays were slackened ; we cut away the stern-boat ; got the anchors pressing on her lean-bow further aft ; and liglitened her forwards. We then shifted ballast in her wings, and, to try her in different trims, he ordered all the men, with eighteen-pound shot in each hand, to come aft ; then he removed them from place to place ; but still we could hardly hold her on. He remarked that her copper was foul with the accursed slime of Bombay. " ^y/' I added, " and the frigate is a clipper." The sun sank to rest, cloudless, red, and fiery, as it had risen. The breeze still freshened; and having neared the land by eleven o'clock p.m., De Ruyter determined on bearing away, getting to leeward of the island, and anchor- ing; which we did, trusting that the frigate would stand on to windward, and so lose us. Still, however, we were 126 ADVENTURES OF on the alert during the night ; or those sleeping had their arms in readiness : our carronades were loaded with bags of musquet-balls. CHAPTER XXXII. The morning watch was come ; the vessel lay Her course, and gently made her liquid way ; The cloven billow flash'd from off her prow In furrows form'd by that majestic plough. Bvron. The doctor^ who had as keen a scent for blood as the carrion-kite, after having made a platform of gratings in the hold for the anticipated wounded, thrust his head up the hatchway from time to time, to ask when the slaughter was likely to commence, and to solicit two of the boys as his assistants. At night, when we had anchored, he ven- tured up, trailing a bandage as long as the log-line, which he was adroitly rolling up. " Now^, my dear fellow," said he to me, " it's time I should instruct you. Just sit down on this gun-slide for one moment, while I show you how to apply a tourniquet." "W^ith these words he lugged one out from his waistband. " Nonsense, doctor, I have other things to attend to than to do your duty." " Oh ! you are young and wilful ! Every man should know how to apply that; for if not done at the critical mo- ment, I lose my patient, and the wounded man his life." As I was called off to attend to something aft, he went to De Ruyter, whom he was beseeching to be instructed how to apply cross and double cross bandages. He was answered somewhat harshly, and went below, muttering, " Want of sleep creates fever, fever dehrium, and then madness !" He soon afterwards made his appearance with a small bottle and glass, and insisted that De Ruyter and I, and the whole crew, should take a glass of his water. He A YOUNGER SON. 127 said it was a natural^ cooling draught, would allay the heat of the body, and be as refreshing as sleep. De Ruyter, who was sorry for having spoken unkindly to him, took the glass; and saying it was nothing but nitric acid and soda, drank it. Van Scolpvelt, finding him so pliant, again lugged out some fathoms of bandage ; but De Ruyter laughed, and walked away. Then I was attacked, and, in succession, most of the crew ; but he could not, with all his eloquence, dispose of another drop of his cooling draught on deck ; so that in despair, and that it might not be lost, he took a bumper himself, and only refrained from emptying the bottle by remembering his actual patients below, whom he accord- ingly drenched. Wearied and jaded as I was, I looked for daylight with great anxiety. Older seamen, habituated- to such scenes, lay down at their posts, and soundly slept. De Ruyter paced the deck with a night-glass in his hand, I bathed in the chains, by having buckets of water thrown over me, to keep my eyelids from closing, till De Ruyter entreated me to lie down for an hour. At the first glimpse of daylight we were all astonished, as the object which caught our sight was the frigate at anchor, and not three miles from us. Her lying close under the high land, and her hull being hid from us by some high rocks, projecting into the sea, together with the shadow of the mountain, had prevented us from seeing her during the night. The quick and piercing eye of De Ruyter was aware of her, before she had espied us ; and our cable was cut, and we were again under a crowd of sail, with the rapidity of thought. She soon followed us; but she had to work round the dark coral reef, which lay like a huge alligator ; so that we got a good start of her, considering there was but a very light air stirring. We again lightened her by throwing lumber and ballast overboard ; but De Ruyter, fearing we should be calmed, set himself to work in seriously preparing for battle. The sweeps were got out under the hot sun ; the breeze again died away ; and, at ten, the frigate, being 128 ADVENTURES OP about four miles astern, began to prepare her boats. With what little air there was, and with sweeping, we continued to drop the frigate ; which she observing, hoisted her boats out, and we counted seven which shoved off in pursuit of us. De Ruyter saw there were no hopes of wind till the evening ; and in despite of our utmost exertions at the sweeps, we could not prevent the frigate's boats coming up with us in three or four hours. His clear brow became over- cast with thought, and his look anxious, but without fear. He called me to him, and said, " You see that pre- cipitous rock, jutting out boldly into the sea, bleached by the sun and storms to a grayish white, and sapped and undermined into caverns. There is not a symptom of vegetation on it, or in its neighbourhood. It stands like a watch-tower, overlooking the island. You observe, by the colour and stillness of the water at its base, that it is profoundly deep on this side ; and you see a long dotted line, hke the floats of a fishing scan, stretching round in the form of a half crescent ; — that is a low ridge of white coral, with which the sea, near this island, abounds. Now I want the grab to be swept round that rock ; but you must keep her well out, to clear the outermost point ; therefore place men on the extremity of our bow, and on the fore-yard, to look out for breakers. There Ave shall find a little sandy rook, sheltered from the trade wind that blows at this time of the year, which can be entered only in very smooth water, and by no vessel with much greater beam than ours. All around is so thickly studded with reefs and rocks, eddies and currents, that no one, im- perfectly acquainted with its intricacies, would venture to approach it, even in a calm like this. But with the shght- est wind stirring, or from the swell left after a breeze, all about is in commotion, and hazardous even for a life-boat, for coral cuts like steel. In a moderate gale of wind, such as I once witnessed in that very place, the most foolhardy in sea-daring would not venture within leagues of the shore. The heavy swell, which gets up between this island and the great bank of Baragos, is tremendous ; the mountain waves rolling in here are opposed and broken (as A YOUNGER SOX. 129 regular armies are sometimes by guerillas), by those count- less rocks, whose heads you just see peering above the water. Then, though impeded and broken, yet not stopped, the sea is white with rage, and covers half the island with spray and foam. On this side, there being no impediment, the roar and dash of the surge drown the loudest thunder. In the gap leading to that, — it looks no bigger than an albatross's nest, — we will place the grab athwart, to give these fellows (who fight for love with more ferocity than others do in hate) a meeting. With our men I might in., deed meet them on fairer ground, without dreading the result ; but the days of chivalry are past ; craft and cunning are now called the art of war, and a commander is stigmatised who gives a chance, when he can avoid it. Besides, I now wish to spare the effusion of blood ; still I must defend, and will defend the grab against all odds, even if the frigate herself came alongside of us. The savage Malays have taught us that death is preferable to dungeons ; — if all men thought so, there would be none. What think you, my boy ? " " I love fighting, and hate foul air." ^' But they are your " " I am sorry for it. But bull-dogs, you know, will fight against their own kind and kin ; and I am no mon- grel. I '11 show my breed." He smiled, and I went to cheer the men at the sweeps, and place the look-outs, whilst he directed the helmsman. CHAPTER XXXIII. Death doing in a turban'd masquerade. Keats' MS. A victory ! * * » « * it ^i]l pluclc out all grey hairs j It is the best physician for the spleen ; The courtliest inviter to a feast ; The subtilest excuser of small faults ; And a nice judge in the age and smack of wine. Ibid. At two P. M. we were sweeping round the reef, in accord- ance with De Ruyter's plan. The frigate lay becalmed K ISO ADVENTURES OF under the northern extremity of the island. Her boats •were gaining on us fast. AV^hen we were embayed amongst the shoals, and closed in by the shore to the south^ we lost sight of them all, hidden by a massy abutment of rock, stretching out in lonely grandeur. We furled all our sails, took up our position at the inner entrance leading to the little cove, got bakers from our bow and stern, and made them fast with some difficulty to the rocks. 'We mustered our men ; there were only fifty-four fit to bear arms, and many untried men amongst them. All being in readiness, an awful pause took place while awaiting the boats' weathering the point. Even I, fond of fighting and reckless a^ I then was, felt a queer sensation in this sudden transition of circumstances, finding myself leagued with dusky Moors in opposition to my fair-haired countrymen. Then, when one of the boats reappeared, and we heard their cheering hurrah repeated from boat to boat, till it died away in echoes on the hollow shore, I felt my heart beating impetuously pgainst my bosom, and the cold drops trickling down my burning brow. There was a stillness in the grab I had never witnessed before ; un- pleasant thoughts were gathering in my brain : but they instantly took flight at the full and clear tones, unem- barrassed look, and firm step, with which De Ruyter ad- vanced, saying to his men: — " Come, return them the Arab %var-cry ! You were not wont to be so silent. And try if that headmost boat is in range of the guns." I fired accordingly. " That gun," said he, '• is too much elevated. I'll try this: — here, bring a match. Ay, that will do." The ball went in a right line, struck the water, bound- ing like a cricket ball, or, as it is technically termed, rico- chetting, and passed clean over the headmost boat. She lay on her oars till it passed, cheering the other boats to advance. I omitted to mention that, with the first shot, our French colours were hoisted ; each of their boats had the Union Jack flying. On their uniting, we observed them in consultation ; and then separating into two divisions, they advanced along the inside of the reef. We kept up a steady fire upon them ; I A YOUNGER SON. 131 but nothing daunted, they replied to every gun with a cheer, and quickened their advance upon us. " Look, De Ruyter !" said I, perhaps with some degree of exuhation at their heroic courage, — " one of their boats was struck with that last shot, and she is sinking ; and see, they have only left a boat to pick the men up, drowning every mis- chance with a jovial hurrah, as if they were rejoicing ai a feast ! " His answer was, " Prize money, promotion, and habit will do much. Now let's give them a volley of cannister. We must cripple their leaders." From this period I continued at my station forward ; most of the Europeans were under my command ; and De Ruyter having given me his last injunctions, went and re- mained aft, surrounded by his Arabs, over whom he had great influence. Another boat, which took the lead, was swamped; and, whilst they were picking up the men, though they opened a cross fire from swivels and muskets, their loss in men was obviously so appalling, that we heard them hailing each other. Rash as they certainly were, they were brought to a stand-still, and paused as if hesitating in what way to advance; for as to retreat, — the word had fallen into disuse among men grown presumptuous with success. The heaviest boat, their launch, with an eighteen- pound carronade, and crowded with mariners, now came up with their barge. We heard the order — " Give way, my lads ! " — and, under a steady quick fire which did some small damage on board of us, they dashed on with redoubled cheers, suffering severely from our commanding fire, though they were partly sheltered by some points of rock. They had undergone immense toil ; the little air stirring scorched as that from the mouth of a blast-fur- nace; and it was evident they had not anticipated so warm a reception and unequal a combat. Desperation and their characteristic gallantry seemed to urge them on. Five of their little squadron laid us alongside, while the groans of the dying were mingled with their comrades' loud cheers and sharp fire. We now took to our spears and small arms. Some of the most active, however, soon got up into our chains ; K 2 132 ADVENTURES OF and, though frequently repulsed, renewed their endeavours to get on board. While we were all intent on repelling them on our exposed side, the barge got across the bow ; when a breeze and shght swell swinging the grab's bow in- shore, many threw themselves on our deck from the land side. This calling us off, small parties boarded us in other directions. I saw a Lascar, whom I had before reproved for skulk- ing behind the mast, attempting to shirk down the hatch- way. All the hatches were battened down, except the main one, under which the doctor was to operate. De Ruyter, fearing some of his Bombay sailors might run below, had ordered Van Scolpvelt to allow none but the wounded and powder-boys to go down or up ; adding, with a smile, " Chp the limbs off, doctor, from any cravens who desert their quarters ! " to which Van Scolpvelt grin- ned a pleased assent, and answered, " Never fear. Cap- tain!" Aware of the evil example of cowardice, and how rapidly a panic takes place, I instantly shot the Lascar, who fell down the hatchway on the doctor, who was lug- ging at his leg. At this moment I received a wound from a cutlass, and a pistol was thrust into my mouth with such force as to cut my lips, though, perhaps from the lock being wet, it did not take fire. De Ruyter swept the deck with his Arabs, and called out to me to look out on the starboard bow. Our opponents never had a shadow of chance in their favour, though they fought with the most foolhardy valour. Many of them, severely wounded, still held on by the rigging, and fought manfully ; and when we had driven them headlong into the boats or the sea, they strug- gled to chmb up again. Our loss was great in wounded ; my veins seemed to run with burning lava ; I felt a thrilling excitement that almost made me mad ; though slashed and maimed in several parts of my body, I was totally insensible to pain ; and my men fought, generally, if not with the same impetuosity, with equal courage. Two more of the boats were lost by being stove and swamped alongside. Those of the enemy, who yet re- mained on board, were sullenly submitting, or rather had A YOUXGER SOX. 1S3 discontinued their hopeless resistance ; one of them ob- serving, " Damn me, if I strike to a Negur, howsomever they sarve us ! " To quiet these fellows' scrupulous delicacy on that score, I addressed them with, — " Come, rny lads, give up your arms ; and you shall have what is more use to you now, — a piece of salt junk, and a glass of stiff grog." " Why," said one to the other, " it's all over, Tom ! And though he ben't rigged, yet he speaks Uke a Chris- tian." Those who remained forward, many of them wounded, came to me, and gave up their arms. De Ruyter told me, after the action, that as soon as Van Scoipvelt had learnt it was I who had inflicted summary justice on the Lascar, he came on deck, in the thick of the fight, to complain of my having, in disregard of orders, unjustifiably robbed him of an excellent patient, on whom he ardently wished to try some new instrument he had himself invented, which he held in his hand, and called a hexagonal, transverse, treble-toothed saw, rapidly revolving on its own axis, and cutting without pain or splinters. In vain he was reminded of the necessity of continuing at his station ; he went on complaining, that, either in contempt of science, or from a plot, there seemed to be a general combination on board, a malevolent and wicked design to blast, destroy, and render abortive all the fondly cherished hopes of his philanthropic hfe. De Ruyter insisting on not being further interrupted, he stood in mournful and abstracted contemplation of his horrid instrument, when a sailor, struck by a ball in the heart, was spinning his death-round near him. Van whipt hold of him, ere he fell, by the arms, doubled up his body in the form of a Z, and with miraculous strength trotted off with him, saying, " If I cannot have a hving patient, I will essay my saw on a dead subject, and that forthwith I" K 3 134 ADVENTURES OP CHAPTER XXXIV. Pick'd like a red stag from the fallow herd Of prisoners. Keats' MS. The fight was o'er ; the flashing through the gIoom,'j Which robes the cannon as he wings a tomb. Had ceased. Shelley. We had ordered parties to take possession of their hoat and barge alongside, while a cutter and gig were shoving off with some of the officers and men, whom we had driven overboard. At the same time a handful of men, led on by an officer, seeing his boat seized, cut his way aft to get at De Ruyter, with whom he seemed determined to try his hand, or, if compelled, to surrender himself only to the commander, not to his dusky crew. De Ruyter saw his purpose, and called out to his men, who were struggling to oppose him, but who could hardly use their weapons on account of the dense crowd, " Stand back, Arabs ! Let him pass ; but alone ! " My attention thus arrested, I looked aft, but instead, as I expected, of seeing him surrender his sword, he at- tacked|De Ruyter with great impetuosity. In bulk and stature I thought him the most powerful man I had ever seen. De Ruyter seemetl to think he had found his match, and to be glad of it ; for his form dilated, and his piercing and full eye became fixed and contracted. He had a pistol in his left hand, and a short, slightly curved sword in his right. He several times ordered his men, who were pressing on, to hold back, or advance at their peril. The stranger's common ship's cutlass, made of the worst of metal, bent Hke a hoop as it struck the sword-guard of De Ruyter, who stood alone on the defensive. At this critical juncture, the cook, a Madagascar black, was in the act of plunging his long knife into the stranger's side. De Ruyter shifted his position, and pistolled the fellow ; and said to the stranger, — " Come, heutenant, you have done every thing the bravest could, and it is too hot to be thrust- ing carte and tierce. You forget you are amongst old A YOUNGER SON. 135 friends here. The game of fighting has been long up ; chance has decided for us. Come, cast away that worth- less weapon." I then went aft^ and said, " What ! As>ton ! " He threw his sword on the deck, and gazed on me with wonder. As soon as he could recognise me through my coating of blood, powder, and sweat, " Ha ! " said he, " I see it all ! The well-known De Ruyter, that was De Witt, the plodding merchant at Bombay, — and — " (looking at me) " and — you !" He looked half reproachfully as he continued, '< Well, it is strange ! And with two such fellows, and a crew composed of the same stuft!, what chance had we .f* Then^ to attempt to take you in such a position as this, to sa- crifice the finest fellows in our ship in such a wild-goose venture, it was folly or madness, I know not which to call it!" Some of the frigate's men were still endeavouring to escape ; and two of the boats, which had, in the confusion, shoved off, were now attempting to retake a third boat from some of our men, who had possession of her, when a desultory fire was kept up. De Ruyter was waxing wrathful, and came up to Aston with a hurried step, saying, " Sir, I entreat you — speak to your men! If they are to expect the usages of war, let them desist from useless efforts at further opposition. It is mere wantonness, and I can no longer control my people, if yours are per- mitted, after they have struck their flag, to attempt to re- gain their boats. My only wish is to spare a greater effusion of blood." Aston spmng forward, commanded the men, struggling in the barge, to desist, and come on board, and those on board to go below. " As for those boats already shoved off," he said, " they must take their chance." " Let them !" replied De Ruyter, " I shall not impede their flight. I do not want boats or prisoners. Never- theless I must do my duty in keeping those I have got, though I am sorry to have them. It is the most un- profitable victory I ever gained. I have lost some of my best men, and the services of others that are wounded." K 4< 136 ADVENTURES OK " Continued success/' observed Aston, " makes us perhaps too confident, and this is the result." "^ No," said De Ruyter, " it is that confidence which insures your success in almost all you undertake. All nations have had their turn : while they thought them- selves invulnerable, they were so ; when they began to doubt it, no longer were they victorious. People become what they believe they are. The flags of Europe are faded, old, and rent, successively decaying. Those stars and stripes" (pointing to an American flag covering the hatchway) " must, — it is their station, — soar aloft! But," (turning to me) " show your friend below, and make him welcome. There is much to be done. Yet what ? holla ! what is the matter ? Why, you denied being wounded ! " From toil, exhaustion, and loss of blood, I dropped so suddenly on the deck, as if shot, that De Ruyter could not catch me, though he contrived to break my fall. Van Scolpvelt had been some time on deck, looking over and summing up, with satisfaction, his rich harvest of patients. He viewed, with a malignant glance, an as- sistant surgeon, who had accompained Aston in his boat, and was bandaging a wound on the lieutenant's leg, having obtained De Ruyter's sanction to attend exclusively on his own wounded, which were by far the more numerous. These were by no means prepossessed in favour of Van Scolpvelt ; on the contrary, as he was busily scanning amongst them for a case of amputation, in order to make a trial of his newly-invented instrument, its horrid appear- ance, in such hands, made the stout hearts of these hardy sailors quail. I heard one of them say, *' Tom, here's an Indian devil of a cannibal going to cast off" our head- matting," (that is, scalp us,) " cut us up into junk, and sarve us out, like so much salt pork, to the ship's messes ! " " I'll be damned," rephed the other, " if old Nick brings his fork here to ship me into the harness cask, I '11 sarve him out with a long spoon ! " At the same time he picked up one of the shot-ladles. The offended amputator complained of this mutinous conduct to De Ruyter, just before I fainted ; and then A YOUNGER SON. 137 said, leaning over me, " I thought how it would be ! He laughed when 1 offered to dress the contusion on his face ; but he won't laugh now ! " (taking out his case of instru- ments.) "■' Yes ! he knows better than the doctor ! I would sooner smoke my meershaum in the powder-ma- gazine than have him to cure ; for he is self-willed and obstinate as the she -kind are. He killed my patient, too ! Could he not have left the man to me .'' So fond of shoot- ing people, this is a judgment on him ! But for him, I should have had the best case ! " During this soliloquy, which Aston repeated to me, they carried me into the cabin, where Scolpvelt loosened my shawl-sash, and, on taking off my stained shirt, found two other wounds, one from a ball through the small part of my arm, the other a contusion on my side, from the butt end of a musket. " A judgment," he continued, "for the most atrocious of crimes — deceiving his surgeon! He would not learn how to put on a tourniquet either ; what foolish and irrational people the English are ! I don't doubt but that he Avould rather lose his life than his obstinacy. To cheat and rob his doctor of a pa-ti-e-n-t! " (here he was scooping about, and shoving tow into the wound), " Oh, ho ! he don't hke that ! I thought he had no feeling." Aston told me I was roused into motion by his ap- plications ; then, being called on by a dozen different messengers, he hastily dressed and bound up my^wounds, and went to attend on his numerous patients. CHAPTER XXXV. In stern reproach demanded where Was now his grateful sense of tormer care ? Where all his hopes to see his name aspire And blazon Briton's thousand glories higher? His feverish lips thus broke the gloomy spelL Byron. On recovering my senses, I found Aston stooping over me, sponging my face and breast with vinegar and water. 138 ADVEXTUEES OP It was some time before I understood where I was ; for Aston's face reminded me of my drowning frolic. " 1 have been dreaming," I said; '' h that Aston? where am I?" " Where I am sorry to find you. Under any flag but this, I could have forgiven you ! " This recalled my flitting remembrances together, and I said, '• You will allow I had cause to be disgusted with the former. Now I fight under De Ruyter. Show me a braver man, and I'll leave him ; but there is none braver or nobler." " Ay, he is well known for a gallant fellow, and I have found him so ; but that is not to the purpose." " Well, Aston, you know how I was situated; what better could I do ? What, in my case, would you have done .'' " He thought a momeni, and taking my hand, said kindly, ^'By Heaven, I believe the same ! " But then added, " when I was at your age." " Ah ! if you knew him as well as I do, you might go farther, and say at any age. I know I would ; so let 's say no more about it. I want to know how things are going on upon deck. It seems a dark night, and we 're in a devilish queer place. What ! is that surf breaking against us } " " No, againsi the rocks. Who would have ventured in sucl) an anchorage as this but De Ruyter ? I see his ob- ject, — to prevent our ship's getting alongside of him. It is wonderful! I should as soon have thought of anchoring on the sand-heads in a tiffbon." " Rest satisfied ; he knows what he is at. ' Tis not the first time he has lain here ; he told me so. But come, boy, hand out the grub and grog. I must supply the loss of this red liquor ; I am dry as a sponge. What the devil has old Scolpvelt been at with my side } I feel the print of his cursed talons festering in my flesh. That fellow is ready made for chief torturer in hell. I wish, Aston, you would let your doctor overhaul me, for Van has spoiled my appetite." Aston sent for him, and said : " That doctor of yours A YOUNGER SON. 139 has certainly an extraordinary look. I can 't say I like the cut of his jib." " Not half so bad as the feel of his paws ; they bum like bluestone." Aston's surgeon now came down. As doctors never openly censure individuals of their tribe, except by direct implication — that is, by always undoing what another has done — so did he. Some soothing liniment was ap- plied, and the accursed tow plugs were removed ; Avhich gave me as much relief as drawing a spUnter out of a wound, in which it had been long rankling. Thus eased, I resumed my talk with Aston, shook hands with him, asked him about our old ship, and why he had quitted her ; for I knew she was not the one which had chased us. He told me a friend of his had just come out in com- mand of the present frigate, and had got him appointed as first Ueutenant. Having received intelligence of two French frigates, they had gone in all haste to report the same to the admiral at Madras ; and he had ordered them, and another frigate, to go and look after, and by no means lose sight of the Frenchmen. They had discovered them lying in Port Louis, which they had been some days blockading. " Besides that," said he, " we had intelli- gence that De Ruyter was out in his corvette ; with or- ders to endeavour to cut him off in his return to port. Not the smallest idea had we of finding him here in the grab. We all mistook him for an Arab. I thought I had seen her somewhere, forgetting it was at Bombay. But then, I had not the shghtest reason to suppose De Ruyter had any concern with her, or even De Witt ; much less that they were one and the same person. He has done more harm to the Company's trade than all the French men-of-war together; and his head is worth a frigate's ransom. It is wonderful how long he has kept clear of the traps set for him, clever as he is." De Ruyter having made his arrangements on deck, came down, shook Aston by the hand, and said, " This mis- chance of your faUing into our hands will no be great evil. 140 ADVENTURES OF You can better afford it than I. "What raercy should I have if the merchant inquisitors had me in their gripe ? I would rather feel the elephant's knee, when in wrath, on my breast." He then added : " Toput you as much at ease as cir- cumstances will allow, I have only to say that I leave the disposition of your men to your judgment, satisfied with your word of honour. How many men had you in the boats ? " " With officers and marines, sixty or more." " Well, while your ship is in the neighbourhood, your men may be im.patient and troublesome. She will be off here in the morning, and you may send the doctor on board with the badly wounded ; they will be better at- tended to there, for we are lumbered up here, and alto- gether unprepared for such unexpected guests. I had no idea of any of your cruisers being off here. If you have any letters to write, get them ready." He returned on deck, Aston wrote, and I slept till the ensuing morning. I was then well enough, with a stick to scramble on deck. A look-out, whom we had placed on a point of rock on shore, gave us notice of the frigate's motions. Soon after day-break she stood in as far as she could with safety, to where we lay, with a top-gallant breeze. We sent our long boat on board her with a flag of truce, the wounded, under the care of the surgeon, and with letters from Aston. The captain of the frigate returned his thanks, but promised, notwithstanding De Ruyter's gentlemanly and humane conduct, to rout him out of his lurking-place. To this effect every expedient was used. But De Ruy- ter knew, by the signal made to the other frigate, that she was on no account to quit the blockade of Port Louis. She having lost her boats, could do nothing, it being im- possible for her to get within gunshot of the grab. Her only chance was in blockading him ; but on account of the frequent storms prevalent at that time of the year, she could not do that effectually ; so that De Ruyter felt little uneasiness. " As to the rest," said he, " I shall sleep better, and eat better, with a slight excitement to help my A YOUNGER SON. 141 digestion, and keep that portion of my blood which is Dutch;, from stagnating." To avoid tediousness, should I have been hitherto for- tunate enough to shun that rock on wliich so many have wrecked themselves, I shall borrow an extract from De Rutyer's abrupt and succinct journal : — " Ten p.'m. dark and cloudy ; hghtning ; heavy show- ers of rain ; got under weigh ; warped out from our anchorage ; wind fresh from the land ; aided by the hghtning, kept clear of the breakers ; at one a. m. made sail ; turned to windward of the island, which had been our refuge." This was on the third day after our action with the boats. We stretched over to Diego Garcia, and got out of the track of the frigates, having my friend Aston, and twenty-six of his men, on board. CHAPTER XXXVI. There's nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms. As rum and true religion. Byron, De Ruyter was willing to emancipate Aston, but the latter would not hear of it. He said he disdained to evade the natural and merited consequences of failure in his at- tempt. Had he been successful, he hoped he should have wished to be generous as De Ruyter ; but his power would have been hmited. Consequently, now that the reverse had happened, he readily submitted to the usages of war; en- treating De Ruyter not to hazard his own reputation, and the allegiance he owed to the sovereign under whose flag he was fighting, by stretching his power to save him from, he trusted, a short incarceration, however severe ; — short, because, as there were so many French prisoners in India, an exchange would readily be effected. " It shall be as you think best," said De Ruyter. "Only 142 ADVENTURES OF be sure of this : I have power enough at least to promise you thatj if the name of prisoner does not gall your pa- tience, you shaU not feel any of its indignities. If I thought otherwise, you should be none, where I command. My allegiance is of ink, not of blood; — I owe the French- men none. Our compact is (as all should be, if intended to endure) one of mutual interest; which ceasing, either party would break it without an instant's hesitation. The scum that the French revolution has boiled up, domineers at the Isle of France, a Botany Bay, to which France transports her lawless felons. There they are frivolous, fickle, and violent as the monsoon gales in Port ' Louis, where the wind blows from every quarter of the compass between sunrise and sunset. But they dare not trifle with me. I say, dare not ; for, with all their trumpet-tongued vaunting, they are neither .brave nor noble at heart. Their courage is but lip-deep, their rage but as a hurricane in petticoats. They will hate you, because you are brave, and have so often plucked their borrowed plumes, exhibit- ing them in their naked gull-like form ; or they will hate you, because you are taller, have a better coat, or beard, or button. They are envious, malicious, cruel, and das- tardly, as in the mowing and chattering tribe of Mada- gascar monkeys ; noisy and filthy as the draggletailed dysenteric cockatoo ; vain, conceited, libidinous, and bestial as the ourang-outang of Borneo." Aston looked in amaze, and I laughed at this tirade. He continued : " I tell you this, because I wish you to understand I am serving not them but myself. I despise them as a nation, though there are a few redeeming charac- ters among them, '\yith all their vaunted civilisation they would treat you with indignity. So seldom have they an opportunity of heaving up their accumulated bile on an English prisoner, they would play all sorts of fantastic tricks on you. But they sliall not. Let them choke with their own venom, ere I permit an Englishman, and my prisoner^ to be even looked at with contempt. So now we understand each other. Come, my lads, let us see what shot remains in the locker. I am afraid our cookery and crockery have suffered since these rude visiters boarded us. A YOUNGER SON. 14S But this cool and cloudy weather does not need the aid of shaddock-biters to sharpen the edge of appetite. Go down ; — I '11 just give a look round and follow you." As we went down I called out for our steward^ Louis, telling him we were hungry as hyenas. " Yet who the devil," said I, " can masticate the dry junk and rotten salt fish on the table ? Come, old boy, fork out something better than this ; or I shall be obliged to make a devil of Van Scolp, and grill him." Louis replied, " He once in, you never eat more. I ra- ther eat a horses hoof." Scolpvelt him£.eir then came down the ladder to look at my wounds. " No, no, old Van," I said, " no caustic plugs for me ! Sii, down, and fill out some of the loose skin hanging about you, like a shrivelled tarpaulin." " What !" he exclaimed, " you must not eat ! I have ordered the boy to make you some congee."' " Curse your rice-water ! Go, Louis, go up to the cook, and tell him to grill us a couple of fowls, with a piece of pork. I want something solid." Van would have countermanded this, had I not clapped my hand as a stopper on his jaw-tackle. Then pouring a bottle of INIadeira into a slop basin, I was about to empty it down my throat, but he struggled hard against me, de- claring I should not, while his patient, commit suicide, and stigmatise his system. He called his boy, and told him to bring a bottle of his concentrated lemon juice. " Unless you drink congee gruel," said he, feeling ray pulse, '' the lemon, Avith your febrile symptoms, is your only fluid. It is the fruit of the citrus, of the class polyadelphia, order, icosandria. It is the chief ingredient in citric acid, valu- able for pharmaceutic uses on shore, and would be a thou- sand times of more use on ship-board, where it is never to be had. But I, — I, Van Scolpvelt, have long been la- bouring to make it applicable by condensation. Hitherto, among the chemists, it has shown symptoms of decomposi- tion. But by the aid of a valuable old manuscript of mine, written by the learned Winschotan, the preceptor of the immortal Boerhaavc; bearing date l673, together with some small additions of ray own, I have at last succeeded in 144 ADVENTURES OF preserving it in the concrete form. It is now sixteen months old ; and you shall see it better and fresher than when plucked from the tree. Here^ boy, give it me !" As he turned to the boy, he forgot the Madeira, which I swallowed at a draught. He gave me one look, put the concrete essence in his pocket, hastened on deck, and told De Ruyter he washed his hands of me, that he had not been accustomed to attend mad people, and recommended a strait waistcoat. After supper Louis handed out a dusty-looking stone bottle of the right bamboo- coloured skedam. We satisfied ourselves it had the true zest, or, according to Louis's dainty observation, it had the taste and colour of flame, mellowed with smoke of the juniper tree. " Come, Louis, devil us a biscuit. You are the only useful man on board — no one can equal your curried devil. It will bring out the oily and delicious odour of the juni- per smoke." As Louis toddled on deck, Aston inquired, " '\^Tiat is Louis ? He seems every thing here — purser, steward, clerk — and now you are adding cook to his other voca- tions." " He is, in fact," I answered, " a double man — Dutch stock crossed by a Frenchman — a nondescript fellow, born at the Mauritius. He unites the characteristics of the two nations — the portentous belly and square beam of the Hollander, with the wiry arms and legs of the Frenchman, like a hogshead of skedam on stilts. His face is a ludi- crous compound of both parents ; full and round as the pumpkin, and rubicund withal, with a Gallic nose, hke a ripe red fig, the stalk uppermost, a mouth from ear to ear like the bat's, and heavy, flabby, moist hps, which, when gathered up in talk, display a long double row of ebonies, similar to the piles at the entrance of a Dutch dike or canal, and, like that, ever ready to receive whatever is offered. His natural chin is ridiculously short, but, Uke his stomach, of a prolific natiire, for it has shaken thi-ee reefs out — a mass of fat stuck on a thorough-bred French neck, long, bony, and arched out in the dromedary fashion. His head seems formed for nothing but a golden crown, as A YOUNGER SOtf, 145 no covering with less ballast can fetay on it in a breeze of wind^ andj indeed, he goes by the name of Louis le Grand. Here he comes — look at him, and say if I have exagger- ated." VFhen the devil and griUed fowls were placed on the table, I bade Louis come to an anchor on the locker, and explain to Aston how he came to be promoted to the office of purser. " Vy, sir, de last purser die." " Come, I know that ; but how did he die .'' " He then commenced a history in his broken English, showing how the late purser, in his too great love of eco- nomy, was about to put on the cabin- table the leather- like rind of a dry, over-salted, Dutch cheese ; how he, Louis, objected to it as uneatable ; how the other abused him for growing dainty and wasteful, affirming that the cheese was a good cheese ; how to convict Louis, who,m he called an obstinate half-bred Dutch hog, he splintered off a ragged fragment, and attempted to bolt it ; how it stuck in his throat like the horns of a goat when swallowed whole by a boa ; how Scolpvelt was on shore ; and how Louis, as a kind friend, smacked the poor purser on his back till he died, and then stepped into his shoes. CHAPTER XXXVIL Few things surpass old wine, and they may preach Who please, the more because they preach in vain ; Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter. Sermons and soda-water the day after. ByRON. Wb all laughed at Louis, though there was no one on board that did not feel indebted to him for his good ser- vices. He was indefatigably industrious, and, having a stomach himself like a chronometer, he never missed the hour of serving out the rations ; besides, he was scru- pulously honest in weight and measure. Under the abun- X. 146 ADVENTURES OP dant and well-organised system of this conscientious purser^ ■we rarely had cause to complain ; and he used to pride himself on the crew's increase of power and weight since his appointment : the only exception, which gave him in- finite pain, was Van Scolpvelt. He said, " I believe he de devil ! He live on physic and smoke — he smoke all day and night — eat noting — sleep noting ! — he must be de devil or noting ! Is he not ? " ^^"hile conversing on the admirable purveyorship of Louis, De Ruyter joined us, and spoke highly in his fa- vour. " Nothing," said he, " is of such importance in a commander as feeding his men well. Sailors are really very Uttle eaters ; but if they are stinted, they are ungovern- able and savage as beasts of prey, which, even lions, when surfeited, are innoxious. Your fleet," turning to Aston, '•' once mutinied ; — men that never rebelled before took your wooden walls from you, because you stinted them in ■provisions, when the united riches of the world could not have seduced them from their duty. Your soldiers, too, break through all discipline, and cease to be soldiers, when deprived of their rations. With us, who only hold our command by the suffrages of those under us, nothing puts our ride in such jeopardy as when surrounded by half- starved men. Hunger is deaf to reason, to fear, and to the iron curb of habit. The only thing requisite on board a ship is to prevent waste and drunkenness, — which last is, in its effects, akin to hunger. Come, old Louis, let us have another flash of the liquid lightning, for good cheer is as necessary as a good compass on board a ship ; and then, as our fellows have had hard work, go on deck, and splice the main brace. You have corrupted our men's or- thodoxy ; your eloquence has overcome their scruples re- garding gin : — so easy is it to make converts on a point of faith tallying with our desires ! This Louis has persuaded my Mussulman crew that gin was not, and is not, forbidden by Mahomet ; on the contrary, he interdicted wine, in order that nothing but gin might be drunk in the world, in compliance to a miraculous vision, wherein an angel presented him with a stone-bottle full, brought as a sample from Heaven, — or Holland ! " A YOUNGER S0>'. 147 Louis went on deck, and presently returned to tell us there was a blue shark in our wake, reminding us at the same time that our fresh provisions were exhausted. Then, as he hauled a shark-hook out of the locker, he said, " I go catch him. He very good to eat, in de vay I cook him." At this we all turned up, and having baited the hook with a fowl's entrails, the greedy monster hardly let it touch the water, ere he darted on, turned quickly round, and without benison or grace, gulped the garbage, regard- less of the barbed iron. ^Ve soon succeeded in hauling him on deck ; he was a gigantic one ; and, notwithstanding the remains of a sailor's jacket was found within him. Louis instantly employed his knife, and a plentiful dish of cutlets was carved out of his sirloin. This wiled away the evening. The watch was set. De Ruyter went to pore over his volume of Shakspeare; and I leant over the hammock nettings, ruminating on the past, the present, and marvelling at what was to come. Henceforth every thing went on pleasantly and merrily ; or if interrupted by untoward occurrences, such as are in- separable from a sea-life, where men are hudtUed up like herrings in a barrel, and will sometimes ferment, still they passed over as the summer clouds, leaving the sky yet clearer than before. Time lagged not on board the grab. I was associated with the two men I most admired and loved. I wanted but Walter ; — and then if a deluge had swallowed up all the world, and the grab had been our ark, I should have lost nothing to weep for, so narrow and sel- fish were my views in this my dawn of life. Those I loved were all the v.orld to me ; to all else I was totally indifferent. My affections were germinating, yet unex- panded. My passions and feelings were in embryo, except those awakened into being by Aston and De Ruyter. They were, in fact, alike ; though, from education and country, habits had so grown on them, and encrusted them, that, to a casual observer, no two men could seem more dissimilar. But at the core they were the same, they had the same stability of character, heroic courage, gentle and affectionate L 2 148 ADVENTURES OP manners, and open manly bearing. They soon grew fast friends. Sailors consider the sea as their country, and all true bred sons of Neptune as their foster-brothers. National prejudices are washed and rubbed off by the elements. In a ship intimacies are formed in an hour, which would re- quire years on shore ; and what is never done on land is freely done at sea, when shipmates share purses, and give more frankly than the nearest of kin lend, — a word not in the vocabulary of a sailor. Sea air ripens friendship quicker than the hot-bed of a city. Good fellowship, sin- cerity, and generosity seem to have flown for refuge to the ocean. After a few days, we descried a strange sail to the west- ward. She bore down on us, and we, finding we outran her, shortened sail, till she came near enough for us to make her out. De Ruyter then knew her to be a French corvette. We hoisted a private signal, which they an- swered. We hove to. At sunset she came under our quarters ; and after some conversation with the captain, De Ruyter went on board, where he had a long conference. On his return we altered our course for the island of Madagascar. Several of our wounded died. Not having sufficient room for our prisoners, De Ruyter, first consulting Aston, and being well acquainted with the French commander, who was a humane and honourable man, removed them, under the direction of one of their own midshipmen, and a marine lieutenant, to the corvette, with the exception of Aston, and four of the men, who entreated permission to remain with their officer. This permission, through my intercession, was easily obtained. A YOUNGER SON. 149 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Afric is all the sun's, and, as her earth. Her human clay is kindled ; full of power For good or evil ; burning from its birth. The Moorish blood partakes the planet's hour. And like the soil beneath it will bring forth. Bteox. We then understood from De Ruyter that the corvette had been sent to examine into an act of piracy, committed, it was supposed, by the INIaratti, a formidable nest of bri- gands, on the north point of the island of Madagascar. The Portuguese and French had several times attempted to settle there, but had always been compelled to abandon the place with great loss, the natives having harassed them unceasingly, day and night; till at last they de- clared the cUmate to be pernicious, and the settlement of no use, and they decamped (that is, those who could) with such precipitation, that they left the buildings they had erected, and some temporary fortifications, to be occu- pied by the Maratti, together with other lawless bands. These Maratti, an ancient horde of pirates, formerly dwelt on the east side of Madagascar, where they became a terror to the early settlers in the neighbouring islands ; especially by their junction with the pirates of Nossi Ibrahim, afterwards called St. Mary's. They cut off the suppUes of cattle and provisions furnished by Madagascar; and even landed, burned, and slaughtered the inhabitants of the Mauritius and the island of Bourbon. The Dutch, then in possession of the INIauritius, were so straitened for provisions, and tormented by these hornets, that eventually they were compelled to abandon the island. Like the Portuguese, they too had their ready excuse, and pleaded locusts and rats as the cause of their abandonment ; but there are, as old Shylock says, " land-rats and water-rats ;" and these last were the rats who drove out the Dutch. They retired to the Cape of Good Hope, where they found the brute-Uke Hottentot a far less noxious animal than the water-rats — Pirates, I mean. The French settled in the island of Bouibon, close at L 3 l.'>0 ADVENTURES OP hand, instantly took advantage of this; and, hke the cuckoo, took possession of the Dutchman's nest ere it grew cool. Port Louis was then a miserable hamlet ; for the Dutch love mud and wood, of Avhicli, as elsewhere, their dwellings were exclusively composed. Soon after, the French, Portuguese, and Dutch com- panies formed an armament to exterminate the jNlaratti, who committed great havock on their trade. They attacked the pirates in their strongholds of Nossi Ibrahim and other posts, and, with immense loss on their part, de- stroyed a great portion of their war-canoes, and drove the pirates for refuge to the hills of Nossi Ibrahim, and the mountains of Madagascar. Now the Maratti, after driving off, or rather doing as they had been done by, — exterminating a French settle- ment which the company had planted in the bay of Antongil, had re-established themselves on the coast of Ma- dagascar, near Cape St. Sebastian, where they grew formid- able in numbers. They were encouraged by the natives, who found them a less nuisance than the Europeans, who plundered their coast, and massacred them, whenever they wanted a salad or a fresh egg. Here the Maratti, hardy and desperate, became adventurous from success, having defeated several attempts to suppress them ; and they were widely spreading the circle of devastation. By their rob- beries on the Indian seas, they had already depopulated the Comoro, Mayotta, Mohilla, and other islands in their vicinity, by seizing the inhabitants, and selling them to the European slave-merchants ; though, prior to their expul- sion from Nossi Ibrahim, they never could be induced to enter into the slave trade. So abhorrent was it to them at that period, that they invariably massacred the crew of every vessel they found carrying on this loathsome traffic, to which their own, as pirates, was comparatively just and honourable. This was the principal cause of the com- bination among the European merchant companies, to an- nihilate them, as unchristian barbarians, without light enough to see their own interest. At St. Sebastian (1 suppose the patron saint of slaves), they speedily gave in- dications of being less heathenishly inchned ; for there A YOUNGER SON. 151 they entered, with true Christian zeal, into all the ramifica- tions of slave-dealing, and monopolised that trade in the East, with the same system of excJusiveness as the Dutch had methodised for spice, and the English for tea. They learned statistics, mapped the islands, counted their popu- lation, divided them into districts, calculated their power of breeding, and every spring and autumn sent out a fleet of proas, visiting the different islands in rotation. They considerately refrained from pouncing on the same island for three or four, or sometimes more years. The young and able-bodied were selected, from the age of ten to twenty.five, marked with a hot iron and black powder, and carried to St. Sebastian, where they remained till an occasion offered for disposing of them to the French, Dutch, Portuguese, or English. The Maratti learnt another lesson from the Europeans ; they left no means untried to foment disunion and hatred among the natives of Madagascar, and enlightened them as to the advantage of selling their prisoners through them, out of which they deducted a very pretty interest, in the way of dustoory. As long as they restricted themselves to kidnapping and selling slaves, however obtained, whether from their own kin and kind, whether they were sons sold by fathers, or brothers and sisters by the first born, all was fair and honest traffic. But a French schooner, hav- ing plundered a village of sheep and poultry, and beaten the inhabitants, was pursued by the Maratti in their war- canoes, boarded, taken, and, ere the French had time to cut the throats of the sheep, they themselves were slaugh- tered, and the innocent sheep released, and restored to their pasture. The representatives of the grand nation at the Mauritius were struck with horror at this daring atrocity: and, if unatoned for by an ample massacre, their honour would be compromised. A total extermination of the natives of Madagascar was first contemplated. These ideas of severity were, however, mitigated, owing to the unlucky circumstance of their only disposable force, two frigates, being blockaded in the port by two much smaller English frigates, or, generally, by no more than one. At last a corvette arrived in the port, to windward of the h 4 152 ADVENTURES OF island, and she was sent with ample orders, but with very limited means, to execute them. This was the vessel we fell in with. The commander, a young man of engaging manners, the next morning came on board, rejoiced at the opportu- nity of getting information from De Ruyter. He used every argument to induce him to join the expedition ; and insisted on his dining on board the corvette, with Aston and myself, at four, by which time De Ruyter promised to give a final answer. CHAPTER XXXIX. How speed the outlaws ? Stand tliey well prepared Their plunder'd wealth, and robber rock to guard ;■' Dream they of this our preparation, doom'd To view with fire their scorpion's nest consumed ? Byron. That evening De Ruyter told the French commander that he had only one difficulty to get over, and, if that could be mastered, it would please him well to keep com- pany with him till the blockade of Port Louis was raised. " But," said he, " you must be aware that, with our force, we can literally do nothing ; unless, perhaps, to ascertain who the pirates were, wherefore they had attacked the French flag, and whether the schooner had given cause for that attack. For," he added, " I am sorry to say we are somewhat too hasty, overbearing, and unjust in our dealings with the natives of these islands. Therefore let us first discover who were the aggressors, and then we may find a time to punish them." The captain replied he had boarded several vessels, which had been recently plundered by the long war-canoes of St. Sebastian. " I doubt little," said De Ruyter, " of their being the Maratti. But you know they seldom go to sea, unless in the south-west monsoon ; and what can we do against their numbers .'' " A YOUNGER SON. 153 To this the captain answered, " From every thing I hear they are now out ; but where^ I cannot learn. We must first think of your despatches ; and I believe we shall not be long without an opportunity of sending them ; for I expect every day to fall in with some of our cattle- boats." From this time we continued in company. The wea- ther being particularly fine^ with Uttle wind stirrings we passed our time very pleasantly, in giving parties alter- nately on board the corvette and the grab. Aston, who had been a prisoner in France when a midshipman, spoke French as perfectly as De Ruyter. At daylight we used to separate, and keep a look-out to windward ; and to- wards sunset we bore down, and remained together during the night. The first vessel we fell in with was a schooner, which, after a long chase, we made out to be an American. As soon as she discovered we were French, she hove to. She was a beautiful vessel, long, low in the water, with lofty raking masts, which tapered away till they were almost too fine to be distinguished, and the swallow-tailed vanes above fluttered like fire-flies. The starred flag waved over her taffrail. As she filled and hauled on a wind, to cross under our stern, with a fresh breeze to which she gently heeled, I thought there was nothing so beau- tiful as the arrowy sharpness of her bow, and the gradually receding fineness of her quarters. She looked and moved like an Arab horse on the desert, and was as obedient to command. There was a lightness and bird- like buoyancy about her, that exclusively belong to this class of vessels. America has the merit of having per- fected this nautical wonder, as far^surpassing aU other vessels in exqusiite proportion and beauty, as the gazelle excels all animated nature. Even to this day no other country has succeeded in either the building or the working of these vessels, in comparison with America. A light and fairy-looking boat, akin to the Nautilus, was now launched over the gunwale. It appeared a marvel how she could support the four herculean mariners that jumped into her. Two or three strokes of her long wooden fins brought her instantly alongside of us, and De 154< ADVENTURES OF Ruyter was overjoyed at meeting with his countrymen ; for though his father was Dutch, he was a naturalised American, and he had known no other home. He wrung the captain of the schooner by the hand, talked of nothing but Boston, his birthplace, and the port whence the schooner had last sailed. She had touched at St. Male's, and was bound to the Mauritius. Th*s was one of the fast-sailing schooners, which drove what was called a forced trade for drugs and spices. They were principally Americans, selected for their match- less sailing. After leaving America, they touched at some French port, got French papers, and sometimes had com- missions and lettres de marques. They were armed and well manned ; and all on board being allowed a portion of the profits on the freightage, they were interested in its success. They had a nominal French captain, a mere cipher, but necessary, as America was then at peace with England. This schooner had a cargo, to my mind richer than gold, of cognac, claret, sauterne, and a variety of European luxuries ; which, when she had discharged at the Mau- ritius, were to be exchanged for spices. She had run the gauntlet through the English squadron in the Bay of Biscay, and at the Cape of Good Hope ; and had we not given her information of the blockade at the Mauritius, she would have run another risk of being captured. De Ruyter advised her to put into a port to windward of the Mauritius, gave our despatches, and wrote some letters. She, in return, let us have a pipe of claret, a hogshead of cognac, and good store of edibles. The corvette now coming up, we separated from the American, and kept our course for St. Sebastian. Soon after we fell in with, and boarded some Arab trading- vessels. They had been plundered : the greater part of their cargoes and crews were taken out, leaving merely a few old men to w^ork the vessels, with a little water and rice. This was committed by a fleet of eighteen Maratti proas, each having from eighteen to forty men on board. It appeared that this fleet was bound to some of the islands in the IMosarabique channel. A YOUNGER SON. 155 De Ruyter now conferred with the French commander; and his advice was that we should, in the absence of the greatest part of the pirates, effect a landing at 'St. Sebastian, surprise them during the night, plunder and destroy their fortifications, burn their town, and rescue their prisoners ; for doubtless they were loaded there, as they had kept possession of two of the largest of the Arab traders. This was agreed to ; and the corvette supplied us with two of her brass guns, and lent us fifteen of her soldiers. Without any thing particular happening, we got into 15° 20' south latitude, ran on till we saw the high land of Madagascar, and kept to the north-east side of the island, till we had run well in-shore ; when we sent a boat, and brought off some fishermen, who gave us information. We then crept round the land, to the north, at night, De Ruyter piloting, being in sight of the north point of Cape St. Sebastian, which stretches far out to sea, in the form of an estuary. Taking advantage of the twilight, De Ruyter piloted us through a narrow channel in the recess ; and, before midnight, we brought to as close to the rocks as we could on the east side, having the cape between us and the town, by which means we were unobserved. It was a cloudy night, with frequent showers of rain. We got out our boats, and landed a hundred and twenty officers and men well armed : eighty from the corvette, and forty from the gi-ab. To do the Frenchman justice, he felt no envy of De Ruyter's superior knowledge ; on the contrary, he insisted on his taking the command, and gave his officers orders to implicitly obey De Ruyter in every particular, he himself staying on board the corvette. On landing, De Ruyter divided the men into three parties, retaining to himself and the first officer the strong- est, consisting of fifty men, armed with muskets and bayonets; a French lieutenant commanded thirty-five, and I thirty. I had a part of De Ruyter's favourite band of Arabs, armed with their lances and short carbines. We kept on together, till we got round the cape ; then De Ruyter ordered me to ascend the rocks, and keep round the hill, nearly at the foot of which the pirates' town was situated, till I arrived immediately above it. The lieu- 156 ADVENTURES OF tenant was directed to keep along the beach, till he was in a line with me ; while De Ruyter, with the main body, went directly forward. We were all to march as near as possible, and by every precaution to avoid discovery. When we had taken up our respective positions, we were to conceal ourselves till just before the dawn of day, when the main body would fire a rocket, which, on being answered by us, was to be the signal for a simultaneous advance and attack. We were to make what observations we could, under cover of the night, as to the readiest means of getting into the town, which was defended by low mud walls, having three entrance ports. On taking possession of these entrances, we were each to leave a party to keep them, who were to kill or make prisoners all who attempted to escape, whilst the remainder attacked those within. If any of us should be previously discovered, or if we should be attacked, we were to retreat to the main body. After some other instructions, De Ruyter com- manded us to kill none, at our peril, but those with arms in their hands ; and particularly to avoid doing injury to the women, children, and prisoners. CHAPTER XL. With a nimble savageness attacks, Escapes, makes fiercer onset, then anew Eludes death, giving death to most that dare Trespass within the circuit of his sword. Keats' MS. My party had some distance to go, and up a rugged and precipitous path, where we were suddenly stopped by a black and deep ravine, or chasm, at the bottom of which we heard the dashing of water. It would have been folly to attempt to cross here ; for a couple of men, on the other side, might have perhaps opposed us with success. We therefore went lower down the mountain ; and it was with great toil, and the loss of time, that we crossed to the op- A YOUNGER SON. 157 posite side. My impetuosity spurred me on ; and, when it wanted little more than half an hour to dawn, our scouts in advance gave us the welcome intelligence of being near our destination. I now halted our party, and advanced with two men. We descended a narrow sheep-path, amidst broken and stony ground, overgrown with prickly peas, low shrubs, and clumps of the palm cocoa. We heard dis- tinctly the surf breaking on the beach, with the monotonous regularity of the ticking of a clock at night. The ground became smoother, and we discerned, close under us, the low huts of the town, huddled together, and looking like a multitude of large white ant-hills, or bee-hives. We then came to some ruins, on a conical hiU, up which one of the Arabs climbed on all fours, like a jackal, and found it was deserted. I sent the other man back, to bring up our party, as this was a capital post to occupy, in case of sur- prise. With great caution I then descended to the wall of the town ; it was low, and in a crumbling state, till I came to two or three palm trees, where a mud hut was built on the waU, like a swallow's nest. Below there was an en- trance, or rather a hole, which evidently led to the interior. Having examined the place well, we hastily returned. The clouds gave indications of breaking in the east. The rain was stiU falUng. I crept down with ten men, and ad- vanced under the shadow of the waU, till within pistol-shot of the entrance. There taking our position, we impatiently awaited the concerted signal from De Ruyter. The night was tardily withdrawing her dusky canopy, and the morning advanced gloomily. The hushed stillness was ominously broken by the whizzing noise of the rocket- signal, flying like a meteor over the devoted Maratti town. It evidently came, not as it should have done, from De Ruyter, but from the lieutenant, being exactly opposite to my position, which showed that the lieutenant's party was discovered, or anticipated discovery. I repUed to it ; and nearly at the same moment another rocket ascended from De Ruyter. This commanded an immediate attack ; and scarcely had it risen to the height of the lance I held in my hand, ere I had forced the trifling impediments at the entrance ; and, in my haste, stumbled over something on 158 ADVENTURES OP the ground. The man, for such it was, essayed to rise. I dropped my lance, and grappled him by the throat. The greater part of my Arabs rushed in. I called out to force open the inner entrance ; which done, the faint light showed us four or five of the Maratti rising from the ground, com- mencing their war-cry. These were despatched quickly. The man I held scarcely needed the aid of the creese, which I forced through his breast into the sandy floor. A commotion was now raised within. AVe got through the rude out -works into the interior. The remainder of my men were dropping down inside the wall, which, with the aid of their lances, they had scaled. A noise of the assault on the other side was growing high ; and presently we heard the sharp report of fire-arms. I left a portion of my men to guard the entrance, and advanced, as pre- viously arranged, to the centre of the habitations ; the in- mates of which — for the surprise was complete — came out in twos and threes, in great confusion and terror. Those who crossed our path we speared ; and those seeking to save themselves by flight we fired at. We gave them not an instant to rally, till we arrived at the ruins of a con- siderable building in the centre, which had been erected as a magazine and court of guard by the Portuguese or Dutch. Here having taken possession, we halted. Presently the lieutenant, and then De Ruyter, came up ; he said, " Well done, my lad ! always first in danger." Then leaving an officer and twenty men to keep this place, we advanced in three parties, dividing the men equally, with strict injunc- tions to make all the prisoners we could, and send them in to this post. De Ruyter told me to go round to the port I had en- tered, as there would be an attempt to escape that way to the mountains ; and while he was speaking, a sharp fire was opened from that quarter. I hastened thither, amidst a scattering fire of muskets and match-locks, and the yells and shrieks of men, women, and children, running about in all directions. The war-cry of the Arabs, and the aliens ! and vii-e ! of the French were so loud, that I could not hear either my own voice, or distinguish the report of my own carbine. On nearing the place at which we had A YOUNGER SON% 159 entered, we saw a mingled heap of naked savages, of all ages, men and women, armed with creeses, guns, knives, and bamboo spears ; others with their children, and many loaded with their goods, all rushing on. I stopped my men, and gave them a volley ; and as they were facing about, Ave charged them with our lances. They stood on their defence with the fierceness of desperation, and a few of our men dropped ; but they resisted without method, impeded by their own numbers, and a panic seizing on them, they separated to escape. A great many were butchered, and no prisoners made ; for blood is hke wine, the more we have the more we crave, till, excited to mad- ness, one excess leads to another ; and it is easier to per- suade a drunken man to desist from drinking whilst he can hold his glass, than a man, whose hands are reeking with blood, to desist from shedding more. My fellows rushed about in ungovernable disorder, de- stroying all whom they met ; and I was obliged to remain myself at the outlet, until I had enforced ten or twelve of them to keep that post. As the light grew clearer, objects became distinct, and I beheld the confusion and slaughter going on within. My senses were dizzy with the blood I had shed, and seen shed. The jNIaratti, environed in their own walls, essayed every outlet, sought every means to provide for the escape of their women and their children, and, finding none, they fought with the fearlessness or heedlessness of ensnared tigers. They ran from gate to gate with blind fury, and threvv- themselves headlong on the bayonets and lances. They had never heard of mercy, yielding, or asking for quarter. There were no such words in their language. They had been accustomed to shed blood from their childhood, whether of men or monkies, with equal indifference ; and they believed all the ivorld to be of the self-same nature. As for Europeans, they were always treated by them, if they fell into their hands, like fish — hanged up in the sun to dry. Old men, women, and children, therefore, preferred to die fighting ; and, thtis far, we had not a single prisoner. They would have succ?eded in forcing my position, had not De Ruyter come to my aid. I feel extreme pain and shame at remember- l60 ADVENTURES OF ing the horrible ferocity with which I slaughtered these besotted barbarians, and more at the savage and inhuman delight with which I did so. It would have ended in their total extermination, had they not effected several outlets in their mouldering walls. The only wound I received was in the leg, from a woman, who attempted to hamstring me as, in hurrying along, I stepped on her body ; and the first symptom of my returning reason was, on discovering her sex, instead of crushing her with my uplifted foot^ to have her carried to the main guard : this was the first prisoner Ave had taken. It was then De Ruyter came to me, and said, " We have had blood enough. Call our people off, and let the poor devils go. Seize what prisoners you can, but take no more lives : and lead your men to the huts on that sand-hill ; — there you wiU find their Arab and other pri- soners : take care they are not sacrificed in the fray ; and send them to the guard. Bandage your leg — you are bleeding fast." CHAPTER XLI. She was born at midnight in an Indian wild, Her mother's screams with the striped tigers'blent, While the torch-bearing slaves a halloo sent Into the jungles; and her palanquin Rested amid the desert's drearinient, Shook with her agony, till fair were seen The little Bertha's eyes ope on the stars serene Keats' MS. How beautiful, if sorrow had not made Sorrow more beautifnl than beauty's self. Keats. I DID SO, and went, as directed, to the sand-hill. It was well I did, or we shoxdd not have had a prisoner to release ; for the women were kilhng them, as they lay bound hand and foot on the ground in heaps. These dark hags were despatched. Then entering a small matted tent, affixed to a larger one, the first object which struck me was a naked. A YOUNGER SON. 161 gaunt Arab, bound and fastened to a short stake driven into the earth. He was covered with stabs, weltering in his own blood ; yet though bound, helpless, and dying, his unsubdued spirit still shone like a chieftain's. An aged, a decrepit she-devil was lying on his prostrate body, she having slipped in the gore, and with a cocoa-nut knife in her hand, was hacking at him with feeble blows. Her fallen victim held fast her left hand in his teeth ; and at his feet, huddled up in a corner, was a young girl, almost naked, screaming in affright, — "Oh! father, father, let me get up !" — with her bound hands stretched out, strug- gling to rise, but pressed down by the strong limbs of the man, who thus sheltered her from the fiendish old woman. I seized on the cloth band round the Hecate's loins, and, lifting her withered carcase up in the air, I dashed her down with such force, that she never stirred more, but lay sprawling like a crushed toad, the faint sparks of -life being extin- guished ^vithout even a groan escaping her. This scene exhibited to my view the worst of cruelty, in its most diabolical shape, and filled me with horror and pity. I bade an Arab unbind the father, who lay motion- less watching me, as I proceeded to liberate his daughter. He seemed perfectly reckless of himself, and hesitating how to act, doubting my designs. In vain he endeavoured to sit up, for the ground was slippery with his blood. I saw his fears, and, to dispel them, instantly placed him in a sitting posture, and drew my creese from my belt. His eyes glared ferociously. I put the weapon into his hand, and said, — " We are friends, father ! — fear not !" He tried to speak, but the blood oozed from his mouth, and the words died on his lips. His child, now unbound, over whom I threw a mantle, crawled to her father's side, and kissing his incrimsoned hands and eyes, bent over him in speechless and inde- scribable anguish. The old man's desperate look relaxed ; his eye lost its fierceness, then became clouded and dim. I knelt, subdued by the scene, on the side opposite his child, supporting him. He, Avith an effort, took my hand in his ; I felt its clammy moisture ; he put it to his lips ; then, with great difficulty, he removed a ring from his finger M l62 ADVENTURES OF and placed it on mine ; and, laying my hand on his child's, he alternately looked at us both, and convulsively squeezed our hands together, muttering some words. J\Iy eves were wet with tears, which dropped on his bosom. His head and frame shook as with an ague-fit; his fingers grew cold as ice, his eye stony, fixed, and glazed, and his limbs rigid. I could no longer uphold his increasing weight. His spirit fled its earthly tenement. Yet still our hands were bound together so fixedly in his, that I could not re- lease them ; and he still seemed to gaze on us both with intense anxiety. Motionless as a form of marble, his child bent over him. She neither wept, nor even appeared to breatbe. This re- called me to my senses. I thought she was dead too ; and unclenching his death-gripe, I freed myself, arose, and went to her. She appeared to awaken, when I tried gently to remove her, as from a trance, threw her arms round her father's neck, and clung to him with convulsive strength. I cleared the tent of the gazers-on, who were not unmoved^ for they gave vent to their feelings in vows of vengeance ; then placing two Arabs, in whom I could confide, at the entrance, to let no one pass, I Avent into the open air, to recover from the faintness that was creeping over me. I slung my carbine over my shoulder, and now used all my efforts to stop the slaughter. A general pillage was going on. The grab's and the corvette's long-boats were attending on the beach, the vessels themselves not being able to get round the reef, as it was perfectly calm. These boats, therefore, and some canoes lying on the beach we commenced loading with the booty, wbich was consider- able ; gold, spices^ ^iales of Chinese silk, the muslins of India, cloths and shawls from the Persian Gulf, bags of armlets and anklets, silver and gold ornaments, maize, corn, rice, salt fish, turtle, rackee, and an infinity of arms > and apparel, besides slaves, male and female, of all ages and countries. Every eye glistened, and every back was bent with a costly burden. Yet so greedy and insatiable were our men, who were at first fastidious in their selection, that at last they re- A YOUNGER SON. 1 63 garded every thing with a jealous eye^ and oecame so gross in their avaricious desires, that they would fain have borne off garbage which the wild dog would have passed heedless by ; rotten fish, mouldy rice, rancid ghee, broken pots and pans, cast-ofF apparel, mats, and tents, nothing so villain- ously worthless or nauseous, but had some value in their inordinate avidity for plunder. ^Vhat they could not carry on their backs they did in their bellies : they gorged themselves, like the ostrich, till they could scarcely move. Van Scolpvelt and the steward now appeared in the field, and took their ground, intent on very different ob- jects. Van seemed distracted with the rich variety of patients before him. As he hurried about the encamp- ment, with his shirt sleeves tucked up, his skinny arras, bare, bony, and hairy, a case of glittering and appalling instruments in one hand, and in the other a monstrous pair of scissors, rounded into the form of a crescent ; he realised, in his appearance, the most damnable picture of an avenging demon that ever was conceived by saintly painter or poet. Some, not quite dead, feebly shook their creeses at him, others screamed with horror as he stopped to examine their wounds, and a few actually gave up the ghost as he approached. The steward, on the other hand, grinned from ear to ear, as he contemplated the huge mass of plunder, and the destruction of the pirates, whom he hated, because they had repeatedly intercepted the cattle trade to the Mau- ritius. But his joy was presently checked, and he said to me in sadness, and in worse English than I give him, " Oh, Captain, can you let these improvident savages waste so much ? Look, the earth is covered with grain and flour as if it had snowed ! And do you see these Uvely turtles ? They are of the most delicious kind, and the most beautiful creatures I ever saw : what beastly savages to leave them here ! Make the men throw away tlie lumber they are carrying on board ; we don't want it ; do you ? and load the boats with these. Of what use are those black savages you are sending in the boats ? One of these" (pointing to a turtle) " is worth an island of them. Nobody can eat them ; can you .'' Bah ! I hate l64> ADVENTURES OP savages, and doat on turtle; don't you? We have enough of the one sort on board ; but where have you ever seen such lovely creatures as these ? I have not for years; have you?" Intent on this, which now solely occupied him, by threats and entreaties he endeavoured to induce the men to assist him in bearing off the turtle. At last growing desperate at the Arabs, who loathe them, (which Louis said proved they were without human palates,) he set about loading the slaves and women with them, the latter of whom he declared he never saw usefully employed be- fore; then turning to me, asked, in his peculiar voice, which began in the deep hollow tones of a muffled drum, and ended with the tinkling jingle of a matin bell, " Have you ? " De Ruyter now came up, accompanied by Aston, who had just come on shore to see the place. I told them of the scene I had witnessed in the slave tent, when Aston's gentle heart was moved, and he reproved me for having left the girl. My reply was, that I had done so, thinking it was better she should be left alone, to give vent to the first burst of sorrow. END OP THE FIRST VOLUME. A YOUNGER SON. 165 VOLUME THE SECOND. CHAPTER I. The Moslem daughter went with her protector. For she was harmless, houseless, helpless ; all Her friends, hke the sad family of Hector, Had (jerish'd in the field or by the wall : Her very place of birth was but a spectre Of what it had been ; there the muezzin's call To prayer was heard no more! Btron. '' But/' said De Ruyter, " there is not now an instant to lose. We must hasten aboard; for these fellows outside will assuredly rally, and, aided by the Madagascarenes, as- sault us in our turn. So call the stragglers together. The prisoners are embarked, and we must embark forthwith." " Come, Aston," I said, " assist me in getting this poor orphan girl on board." We proceeded together to the tent, where we found her making loud wailings. Then she would break off", and cry, " Father, arise, — we are free ! The strangers are good ; and see ! they come to free us. The old woman has not killed me ; I am well, and she herself is dead. Oh ! father, get up ! — look, I have bound up your wounds, — you don't bleed now !" And indeed she had carefuUy bandaged him with the only remaining rag on her person. Taking her hand, I said, " Come, dear sister ; you are free. We must leave these cruel Maratti." Without looking at me, she went on, — '■' See, how my father sleeps ! They would not let him sleep or eat, and he is weary and hungry." " Come, dear," I said, " we must go." *' Go ! " she replied, " how can we } — our father M 3 166 ADVENTURES OF sleeps ! — and I cannot awake him ! Oh, awake him, that I may feed him ! See, I have got some beautiful fruit, and his lips are dry. Oh, these cruel Maratti will come again when you are gone, and kill him ! Awake, my father ! His eyes are open, but he can 't move. He is old, and feeble from hunger ; he wants food ; his lips are cold with hunger ! " At this she kissed him, and rub- bed his head, and squeezed pomegranate juice in his mouth. "Come!" said Aston, '^ they are calling you. We must be off. 1 cannot bear this sight. I '11 take her to the boat." I entreated him to do so ; then gently loosed her hands, covered her with my abbah, and told her I would take care of her father. Aston snatched her up, and bore her off. Her screams were appalling. She called on the name of her father to save her ; and Aston shook, but not with his light burden. I was in little better trim. Send- ing some Arabs down to the beach with Aston, I returned to De Ruyter, who was drawing off the men with great difficulty. Louis, whose bad English I must continue to make better, as Aston passed him, exclaimed to me, '•' AVhat is he carrying away ? What ! a girl ! 'Wliat use is she ? Why, he could carry this great turtle, which else must be abandoned, for no one here can lift him, — can you ? And she might carry that little one, — it will make very good soup ; and is very pretty, — much more so than a little girl ? " I passed on, ordering him instantly to come on board, or the Maratti would soupify him. " What \" he ejacu- lated, " leave that turtle, worth all the rest we have taken ! " and he wrung his hands in anguish. Armed men were now appearing on the hills ; and De Ruyter grew furious at the tardy movements of his men. Many of the Frenchmen were drunk, and could not be got out of the tents. The shouts on the hills augmented, and we were obliged to move. De Ruyter went out of the gate, and I staid some time longer with the Arabs, to Collect stragglers, and then followed him. I omitted to A YOUNGER SON. 167 mention, that we had fired the town in many places^ and burnt two Arab vessels which were grounded, with seven or eight canoes on the beach. The natives were hurrying towards the town ; and soon after we saw bodies of them armed, skirting along the side of the river we had to cross, and descending as if to attack us there. We hastened, on, preparing our arms. When we arrived there, keeping as near the sea as possible, we heard a firing, and saw De Ruyter crossing the river. He left a party to keep the opposite bank, went on to the boats, fearing they might be attacked, and sent a mes- senger to me, to hasten me on. But before I could arrive there, being detained by the difficulty in getting on the drunken Frenchmen, the natives had increased till their numbers were formidable. They grew bold, and attacked the party on the opposite bank ; then wading down the stream, and closing on our rear, they became troublesome. We kept our ground firmly, and I continued on the bank till our party had crossed. Just as I was following with my Arabs, I heard some shots in our rear, and now appeared, emerging from behind a sand-bank, a monstrous figure, a Patagonian, in (what I thought, as the sun shone on him,) bright scaled armour. It was the steward, with the turtle on his shoulders, accompanied by a Dutch soldier. I roared out to them to come on quickly, for every moment became more perilous. As they staggered towards us, I could hardly refrain from laughing. Louis, whom I could with difficulty make out to be a human figure, looked like a hippopotamus, as, reeling like a drunken man, he bent under the weight of the huge fish, which I thought he had left behind. The other fellow, the Dutchman, who came staggering on in his wake, was bulged out into preposterous proportions ; his red Guernsey frock and ample Dutch trowsers, secured at the wrists and knees, were crammed with stowage of gold and jewels, which he had discovered after one of the houses had been pulled down. He looked like a woolsack, and moved like a Dutch dogger, which his broad beam resembled, labouring in a head sea. I told them to cast their slough, if they valued their lives, and commenced crossing the river M 4 l6s ADVENTURES OF by a sand-bank, thrown up by the tide, the only passable ford. The natives pressed more closely on our rear ; the difficulty in using our arms in the water made them bold ; and but for our men stationed on the opposite bank, we should have had little chance of escape ; for they, in a great degree, checked their advance, and kept the space clear before us. Still we were compelled to hurry on. At this moment I heard something flounder in the water, and a savage yell, as of triumph, from the natives. I looked round, and the Dutch soldier, who was in my rear, was missing. Overballasted by his treasure, he lost his footing on the ford, and sunk in the stream, borne down by the weight about his body, which it was impossible for him to shake off, I only got a glimpse of his person, when my attention was called off" by the steward, who either from fear, or from having been caught hold of by his fallen countryman, who was close to him, had also fallen. I ran back, and holding the shaft of a spear to him, he grasped it tight, while the huge monster he had been carrying tumbled into the water, and flapped his heavy fins in triumph, as he regained his native element. When Louis had recovered himself on the bank, he exclaimed, with a rueful look, — " But where is my turtle? Oh, don't mind me. Captain ! — save the turtle \" " Hang the turtle ! I wish he w-as down your throat ! " " Oh ! so do I, Captain I — that 's all I want ! Oh, where 's my turtle?" As he vociferated this demand, up it rose to the surface, in mockery of his enemy ; and the instant its bright shell glistened in the sun, Louis seemed inclined to rush down the stream after it, bawling out, " There he is ! Oh, save him ! " Thinking he meant the soldier, I looked, and inquired, " Where ? " " Why, there ! " he replied, pointing to the turtle. " Oh, Captain, I told you how hvely he was ! I cut his throat two hours ago ; but he won't die till sunset ; they never do ; and then he will be lost, — won't he ! " I had ordered two of my men to drag him along ; and so loath was he to leave the turtle, that with his eyes A YOUNGER SON. l69 Strained down the stream, he came reluctantly in a sidelong motion, Mke a crab. Once or twice I was compelled to turn Tound on our pursuers, and drive them off, before we reached the other side. We hastened to regain our boats. Four of our men were slightly wounded in this retreat ; besides the loss of the Dutch soldier, and the deeply lamented turtle. Where- ever the ground was broken, or where there was a cover of rocks or shrubs, the Madagascarenes closed in on our flank and rear. I therefore retired close to the sea, and skirted its margin. There was one very dangerous pass ; it was the rough abutment of ragged rocks jutting out into the sea, half a mile on the other side of which were our boats. The natives were ranged along the ridges in files, and there was already a sharp firing going on there. While wondering that De Ruyter should have deserted me under such circumstances, and hesitating as to the best mode of proceeding, I espied on the extreme point his swallow- tailed flag. We now ran on, and were hailed by our ship- mates ; who seeing this post was possessed by the enemy, had driven them up, and opened a passage for us. Yet every inch was obstinately disputed, and here three of our men were left dead ; for the natives, under cover of the rocks, and lying down with their long matchlocks, had a great advantage, while we could not get a shot at them. The boats approached ; and the French soldiers were drawn up on the beach, which being open, the natives dared not advance, though they kept up a scattering fire. We embarked amidst the wild yells of the savages, who, the moment we shoved off, came down like a countless flock of crows ; and with as much noise and din they even fol- lowed us into the water, and their arrows, stones, and balls fell about us like a hail-storm. 170 ADVENTURES OF CHAPTER II. A y ! at set of sun ; The breeze will freshen when the day is done. ***** The vessel lay Her course, and gently made her liquid way; The cloven billow fiash'd from off her prow In furrows form'd by that majestic plough ; The waters with their world were all before, ^Behind the South Sea's many an islet shore. Byron. All of us, I believe, were glad to regain our ships. We then towed them out, it being a dead cahn ; awaited tlie land breeze at night ; and ran directly from the land, shaping our course for the island of Bourbon. On computing our loss on board the two ships, the killed and missing amounted to only fourteen, but we had twenty-eight wounded, most of them, however, slightly. I observed to De Ruyter, as I was entering these par- ticulars in the log-book, — " It appears to me, considering the service we were on, and the numbers against us, this is a very small loss." " No, it was a very large one !" cried out Louis, who had just come down the ladder, " you '11 never see so fine a one again. I 'd rather have lost every man and thing than that ; — would not you } " " What do you mean, Louis ? " " Mean ! — why, the turtle, to be sure. You saw it. Sir, and might have saved it, — could you not .'' But you think of nothing but little girls, — my turtle was worth all the girls in the world ; — was it not ? " — turning, as he always did, at his repeated interrogations, sharp round, and shoving his expanded nostrils right in one's face. " This fellow," said de Ruyter, " is a Hindoo ; and believes the world is supported on the back of an enormous turtle," '^ And I should not wonder," I added, " if he makes a voyage to the Pole, not for the benefit of navigation, but to extract its calliopash and calliopee. What luxury, Louis, A YOUNGEK SON. 171 to let your entire carcass wallow in such a sea of green fat ! — would it not ? " — mimicking him. " Yes ;" he replied ; " but there is no turtle there ; nothing but walvusses, white bears, and whales." Van Scolpvelt now came down with some splinters of bone in his palm, and said, holding out his saw in the other hand, " See here ! I have trepanned a skull ; and look, what I told you is true ; feel the edges of the bone, they are smooth as ivory, and have a gloss, a polish on them, quite beautiful. I have extracted a ball, and the cerebrum is uninjured, the weight of a hair not having compressed it." He was proceeding to say the man never felt it, when an assistant came to tell him he was dying. '^ That's a lie !" he exclaimed, and rushed on deck after the messenger, who was frightened at the outstretched instrument. As the doctor followed him up the ladder, it tickled him on the breecli, and made hini spring on the deck, as if a white-hot iron had been applied. Soon after, under the superintendence of Louis, a feast, that might well be termed a turtle one, was served up. A huge tub of soup, where a fleet of canoes might have almost fought a battle, the steward himself put on the table ; and mopping his reeky brows, said — " Taste that, and you '11 live for ever ! Why, the odour itself is a feast for a burgomaster, or a king ! I never smelt any thing so beautiful ; — did you ? " Then came calliopash and calliopee, and stewed, and steaked, and minced, and balled, and grilled ; and when all these were cleared away, leaving us well nigh surfeited, quoth Louis le Grand, — " Now here are two dishes which I have invented, and no one has the secret of them ; though burgomasters and foreign ambassadors have been sent to me with great offers to discover it. But I never would ; because this secret makes me greater than all the kings in the world, for they cannot purchase them with a kingdom, nor would I give them in exchange for a kingdom ; — would you } All I shall tell you is this — and it is more than I ever told any one before — the soft eggs, and head, and heart, and entrails, are all there ! — but there are many other things, which I shall not, must not, speak of." 172 ADVENTURES OP Casting his eye on my plate, and seeing the green fat left, he inquired in astonishment why I did not eat it. I answered him, " I can't ; I don't Hke it." " Can't ! " he exclaimed — " why, if I were dying, and had but strength enough to open my mouth, I would devour that divine food! And not like it ! — then you are no Christian ! — is he .'' But it is impossible, — I don't believe him ; — do you ? " Madagascar is one of the largest and most fertile islands in the world ; nearly nine hundred miles in length, and three hundred and fifty in its greatest breadth. There is a chain of glorious mountains, winding through its entire length, of varied height, whence many large and navigable rivers take their source. The interior of this vast island, and its inhabitants, are little known ; but those parts on the coast which, at that time and afterwards, I have frequently visited, give abundant indications that nature has here scattered her riches with no stinting hand. Nothing seems wanting but knowledge to place this mag- nificent island in the foremost rank of great and powerful empires. When I was there, the line distinguishing the man from the animal was hardly visible. The evening was singularly beautiful, the sea calm and clear as a mirror, and our crew sinking into rest, outworn by the unwonted toil of this busy day. De Ruyter was in the cabin ; I was keeping the watch, and Aston bore me company. He lay along the raised stern, and I leant over the taffrail, gazing on the land. The forms in the distant range of mountains were growing dark and indistinct. The transparent, glassy, and deep blue of the sea faded into a dusky olive, subdivided by an infinity of mazy, glimmering bars, as if embroidered with diamond heads, traced by the varied, wandering airs, and sporting like the lion's whelps on their mother's quiet bosom ; while he, their mighty parent, lay hushed within his lair, the caverned shore, torpid from toil and devastation. Over the land the glowing sun hastened to his cool sea-couch ; his expiring rays stained the lucid sky with bright, fading colours, — deep ruby tints changing to purple ■; then emerald green, barred and streaked with azure, white, and yellow ; and as the sun was dipping, the whole firmament A YOUNGER SOX. 17^ was dyed in crimson, and blazed ; then left the western sky brighter than molten gold, till the sun's last rays were extinguished. When the moon came forfli Avith her silvery, gleaming light, all the gay colours faded, leaving a few fleecy and dappled specks, like lambs grazing on the hills in heaven. The change was like life in youth and beauty suddenly extinguished ; white and misty death, with his pallid winding-sheet, enveloped all around. As the grab's stern swung round, and as my eye caught our companion, the corvette, her black hull and white wings alone broke the line of the moon-lit horizon, like a sea- sprite reposing on the boundless waters. Enwrapped in our contemplation of the wonderful beauty of an eastern night, we remained hours in silence ; and after the turmoil of the day, this stillness had a preternatural, or magic effect on the mind, more soothing than sleep. The helms- man, in his sleep, from habit, called out — " Steady ! steady!" and even the customary forms of changing the watches had been neglected ; while the sentinels, un- conscious that their time of duty was expired, dozed on their posts of guard over the the prisoners ; and the balm of sleep medicined the wounded, and made free the captive, who, perhaps, dreaming of hunting on his native moun- tains, or fondling with his young barbarians, or their mother, was destined to awake, fettered and bound with festering manacles, chained, like a wild beast, in the worst of dungeons, under the sea, in a ship's hold, doomed to death or slavery. CHAPTER III. And we prolonged calm talk beneath the sphere Of the calm moon, when suddenly was blended With our repose a nameless sense of fear ; * * * I seem'd to hear Sounds eathering upwards, accents incomplete. And stifled shrieks ; and now, more near and near, A tumult and a rush of thronging feet. Shelley. A SOUND, as of some one moving, caught my ear, instantly succeeded by a rattling noise, as of stifling, and a gurgUng 174 ADVENTURES OF flow, as of water, followed. Aston and myself started up. He inquired, " What is that? " as a heavy weight tumbled on the deck, in the bow of the grab. Ere any one could answer, a dark and naked figure approached us with a hurried step. Instinctively I griped hold of the small creese I always wore in my sash. As he stopped, a few paces before us, I said, " Holla ! Torra, is that you ? " (He was a Madagascarene slave, whom De Ruyter had emancipated, and who had been much favoured by him and me.) " What do you want } What noise was that just now forward ? " He replied, — " Only Torra kill his bad brother with this." And he extended his black bare arm, his hand clutching a broad knife. " Killed what ? " He repeated, " My brother — bad brother Shrondoo." 'MYhat brother? You are mad or drunk!" For I knew of no brother he had. " No, massa. Torra no mad, and no drink." An alarm now took place in the forecastle ; and the helmsman, opening his eyes, said, " Steady ! Steady ! " Torra looked round, and, seeing the men coming aft, said, " You no hear me now, massa. Torra say all when day come." The men recoiled on coming near him, seeing his knife. He observed it, and told them — " No fear Torra. No do bad. Torra only kill bad brother ;" — and he cast the weapon into the sea. " Massa, you good man. You friend to poor black slave ; won't let them kill Torra, now night. When morrow come, Torra say all. He wish to die then. No wish to live. Go to his father in good land ; no slave there ; no bad white man come buy poor black one, for make slave." Thinking him mad, I ordered him to be seized, hand- cuffed, and ironed. He stood motionless, only again saying, — " No kill Torra night. Kill Torra morning. Torra must tell all." I hastened forward, asking — " What has he done ? Who is killed ?" And as I advanced, my naked feet felt A YOUNGER SON. 175 something wet and slippery. Looking down I beheld a dark liquid stream running to the scupper holes. Something lay huddled up^ from which it flowed^ an undistinguishable mass, covered with a stained white cotton garment, at the breech of the bow-gun carriage. A man lifted it partly up, and said, " Here he is ! " The gazers-on said, " Allah! II Allah!" and it again fel heavily; when, at the sound they all stepped back. The light of the moon, then unshaded, fell on the corpse of a dark naked man ; its covering had fallen ; the head was nearly separated from the trunk by a frightful gash across the throat. Again I demanded who it was ; but none could answer. I then recognised it as the body of one of the prisoners lately captured. As life was extinct, I ordered the corpse to be laid on a grating, and brought aft, and a sentinel to be placed over the assassin. This horrid sight seemed to have banished sleep. The men stood about in disordered groups, startled at their own voices, which sounded low and husky ; and fellows Avhose hands and garments were still moist and dabbled from the morning's slaughter, stood appalled at a solitary night- murder. They gathered round to gaze on Torra, the assassin, as he sat on his heels, shadowed by the bulk-head. His irons jangled, and the gazers-cn shrunk back ,• the same men who, a few hours before, had assaulted un- hesitatingly a waited camp of desperate men, of ten times their number. Aston and De Ruyter were conferring together, when I observed a hght air stealing along from the land. I called out, " All hands trim sails ! " The crew started, and then I went on giving directions to shorten sail, to reef top- sails, and to make sail again. De Ruyter came up to me, and said, " Why all hands .? There is no squall that I can see." " Nor I either," I replied ; " but a panic seems to have taken possession of the whole crew ; and I want, bv find- ing employment, to shake it oiF. They appeared spell- bound ; and if a squall had come, we should have lost our masts, ere they regained their faculties." " Well thought of, my lad !" 176 ADVENTURES OF Having turned the tide in the sailors' minds, by making as great a commotion as if we were in a storm, they replied to my orders, and moved with their wonted alacrity, regardless of the continued stillness of the weather. At any other period I should have insured to myself a thousand muttering, sullen curses. This done, I left De Ruyter in charge of the deck ; and in despite of what had taken place, the stiffness of my limbs, and the smarting of my cut leg, with shooting pains from former wounds, which seemed breaking out again, so heavy were my eyes that, while endeavouring to recall the events of the day, without troubling myself to unrig, I tumbled into a berth, and slept as soon as my head touched the pillow, as if by enchantment. Perhaps it was a magic pillow ; — I wish I had it now. CHAPTER IV. 1 am a guilty, miserable wretch ; I have said all I know, now let me die. Shelley. In a youthful, well-formed frame, which is health and strength, and wherein a good heart naturally seeks to dwell, for it must have room to expand, in order that its glowing impulses may rush through every channel, unimpeded, hke lightning, ere it cools, — in such a frame the soul or spirit which governs us is strongly engendered, is born, and lives for ever ; but when forced and crammed into narrow, dark, and dreary bosoms, from want of air and room, its feeble flame dimly flickers in the lamp of life, till it is al- most or wholly extinguished. The philanthropist Owen of Lanark, or the sage and saintly Hannah More, and her tribe, scrawl and jabber about education, and of that alone constituting the difference between man and man, and of nature having sent us into the world equally disposed for good or evil. Shakspeare and Bacon thought otherwise ; and they were deep and wise, as the others are shallow and A YOUNGER SON. 177 foolish. Bacon says, " Deformed persons are commonly- even with nature ; for as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature, being for the most part (as' the Scripture saith,) void of natural affection ; and so they have their revenge of nature." And as ill-finished, dwarfish, or mis- created abortions sometimes strive against their nature to attain goodness, so do the well-formed (for I talk not of beauty), in some instances, inchne to evil, from choice against their nature. I have been led into this digression by the memory of Aston and De Ruyter, whose noble and majestic persons, free and graceful movements, lofty spirits, and gentle and loving hearts, first awakened in my nature feelings, which had been trampled on but not annihilated, of friendship and benevolence; for I had begun to think the world was peo- pled with demons, and that I was confined in a dark and dreary hell. How fondly do I dwell on those days, and gladly pay them this tribute, poor as it is, in return for such content and happiness as I experienced in their dear presence, when the sun seemed always shining, and the world one great garden of fruits and flowers ! I would not then have given up this world, such as it was to me, for paradise, such as it is painted by saintly enthusiasts, even though I could have gone thither, without passing through the dread ordeal leatUng to it. Yet mine was then a life of almost unexampled toil and peril, of pain from wounds, and sometimes of greater suf- fering from hunger and thirst. I have seen the time when I would have freely exchanged my blood, or given both my hands full of gold, for enough water to fill one of my palms ; when my lips have been glued together, and thirst, Uke a mahgnant fever, gnawed at the vitals of life. Abun- dance came, and my sufferings were forgotten on the in- stant, or only remembered to give a keener appetite, a more exquisite relish to things, which, grown too common by use, are almost considered useless, — bread and water. Often, with my head pillowed on a shot-locker, for iron served my turn then better than the softest down does now, covered with a tarpaulin to break the fury of the rain and spray, in which I was well nigh floating, plunged and N 178 ADVENTURES OF tossed on what might be well called a sea-cofRn, on a lee and dangerous shore^ amidst thunder and lightning, in a tempest which would have torn up a cedar as easily as man uproots a blade of corn, — thus, and in such a scene, I have slept sounder than a wearied child upon its mother's lap, hushed with song and gentle rocking. If I could en- dure these hardships and privations uncomplainingly, how unnaturally must I have been dealt witli in my earlier days by parents and guardians, to be so disgusted with life, as to seriously ponder on self-destruction ! Yet not only did I think on it, but, at the age of fourteen, I was on the point of carrying it into execution. It was then that I collected all the authorities, ancient and modern, within my reach, in its defence and justification. I am induced to mention this, on account of having found that paper a few days since. But soon after Aston, Walter, and then De Ruyter bound me to the world by the gentle chains of friendship. Thus was I rescued from a fate, which, but for their love, would assuredly have been mine. It was near noon ere I was awaked by the doctor's boy with a bottle of camphor and oil to apply externally, and a mixture to take internally. Louis was standing by, giving directions for serving up a second repast of turtle, and commenced an angry altercation with the fellow. " What is camphor good for," said he, " but to stuff dead Arabs? I hate the smell; — don't you .^ The doctor would make every man hve on poison, like himself, the scorpions, and the centipedes. The captain wants to fill his body, not to' rub his legs. The soup is ready ; and I warrant that will go down to his toe-nails, and circulate through his corns, if he has any. It will cure every thing ; — won't it ? " I answered, for I was hungry as a bird in a hard frost, " I think it will." So the boy was chased up the ladder, and a repetition of turtle laid on the table. "When De Ruyter and Aston came down, I inquired what had been done with Torra. " He is as you left him." " Well, have you found out the mystery ? For he must have been governed by some strong impulse, to enact so A YOUNGEIl S0N\ 179 bloody a tragedy^, as he has always appeared a good and quiet man." " Yes/' observed De Ruyter ; ^' but I have ever found these very quiet men the most dangerous, revengeful, and bloody. They execute, whilst brawling fellows satisfy themselves with talking. Did you not see him, in the morning's slaughter, dyed like a red Indian in blood ? " " Certainly I did ; he startled me. He rushed wherever they were thickest, armed with nothing but two long knives. I began to think he had a propensity for cannibalism. But he is kind-hearted as bold : you remember the other day, when my favourite bird, the loorie, was knocked overboard, in a squall, by the topsail halliards ; he leaped into the sea, and saved him. And he was very honest ; for he was con- tinually down here, where dollars are more plentiful in the lockers than biscuits, and spirits than either, yet he never took one of the first, nor helped himself to a glass of the latter. Besides, Louis knows him to be the most trust- worthy man in the ship." " Oh," said Louis, " I am sure of that ! I'd trust him with all the gold in the world ; for nothing can tempt him to steal. Only recollect when, off Ceylon, I picked up that pretty little turtlet, which you all contended was a log of wood, — but I knew he was a turtle. Why, I can see a turtle twenty miles off, when he shows no more shell above water than that ladle ; that is, when they sleep, for then they like to feel the sun on their backs, — don't you ? 'Well, do you remember how I took him up in the boat, so gently, without waking him, like a little child ! And then, when I was insinuating my knife between his shell, he just popped out his pretty little head, looked me in the face, and felt my knife tickle him ; and he had only time to draw it in again, before he felt himself in the pot on the fire. Oh ! the black man is honest and brave ! — for he knocked down one of the men who wanted to put his spoon into that soup ! And though I left it to him to watch, he did n't even put his finger in to have one lick. Oh ! he is the most honest man in the world ! — for any body else would have had one lick, — would not you } a black man, quite different from a white man, steals nothing, not so N 2 180 ADVENTURES OP much as a lick at the soup. I like a black man for that ; — don't you ? " " Come," said De Ruyter, " hand out the long corks, and clear the decks." This done, Louis withdrew himself into his berth, where we heard him feeding like a cormorant, and bolting green fat, as a turkey bolts barley-meal balls. " If the ship were on fire," said Aston, " he would not move from his moorings ; he is fast. So, De Ruyter, tell us about Torra." " It is soon done," said he, " but I must first tell you what I knew of him previously to last night." CHAPTER V. I do not feel as if I were a man, But like a fiend appointed to chastise The offences of sou.o unremcrabered world. Sheliey. Thou wert a weapon in the hand of God To a just use. Ibid. " Eighteen months since I put into the Island of Rodri- quez for wood and water ; and, shooting in a jungle there, I sprung this fellow from a lurking-place among the rocks. He was one of the most wild and hungry " " What ! " bawled out Louis, not getting up, but thrust- ing his enormous head forwards, the perspiration running from his forehead, the turtle-fat oozing from his jaws, and his eyes, like a lobster's, protruding, " Whatl hungry ! — If he's hungry, I'll give him some of this. I can't eat it all, and there 's plenty on board now ; and I love him, be- cause he 's an honest man." Our laughter compelled him to withdraw, when De Ruyter continued : — " Having a rifle in my hand, he could not escape. I beckoned him towards me, and when he came I questioned him. As Avell as I could comprehend him^ he gave me a dreadfvd account of what he had suf- A YOUNGER SON". 181 fered from a Dutch overseer (for he was a slave), and that he had been employed, with others, on the northern part of the island, in salting flsh and catching turtle, to be sent to the Isle of France. He ran away just as the party were taking their departure, before the S. W. monsoon was over, for ]\Iacao ; and ever since he had lived alone in the woods, subsisting on eggs, fish, and fruit. ^V'ell, though this was an old tale, I pitied him, and took him on board ; since which, as you have seen, he has always behaved ex- tremely well." Louis, now surfeited, again made his appearance, re- commending us strongly to take a glass of skiedam, just to keep the turtle quiet. " For," said he, " though you have got him in your bellies, he'll not die till sunset, be- cause he was killed this morning ; for now Torra is gone, I have nobody able to assist me. A turtle should always have his throat cut at sunset, and then they die directly. Torra knows this ; but all the rest on board are fools, and know nothing, — do they ? Just let this little drop go down, it will turn him, he'll stay quiet till sunset, and you'll hear nothing more of him. That French wine is only good for soup, when there is no ^Madeira. " As he could not persuade us that smoky Hollands was better than the best Bordeaux, he, to comfort himself, half filled a cocoa-nut shell, which he called a sail-maker's thimble, opened his dry dock gate, and let the water in. De Ruyter, who oftener encouraged than interrupted him, proceeded, " After you were asleep, I went to Torra. On my questioning him, he related his story. I'll give it, as well as my memory serves, in his own words." " Do," I said ; " but not with your usual brevity. You are a most unmerciful clipper down of other men's stories. And I wish much to know every thing about the fellow; for, as Louis says, 1 like him, and shall be sorry to find I have been deceived in him." " I will be more honest," said De Ruyter, " than most translators are ; for, if I don't give it literally, you shall have the matter unbiassed by my opinions, and free from the chaff of canting moral digression, either as episode, N 3 182 ADVENTURES OF preface^ note, or annotation, all which one fool makes, thinking many fools -will read. " ' I was born/ said Torra, ' at a fishing village, on the north-east part of Madagascar, in the Bay of Antongil. My father was a poor man, and took one wife. She had only one child, a boy, sickly, and not good for much. She would not let him Avork, nor would she have another child ; and as she grew old, she grew cross. So, you see, the same species of women flourish here as in Europe. In courtship they give us their furred paw, and we think it soft as velvet. We wed them ; and then the contracted talons are unfolded, and their gentle purring is changed to a threatening hiss.' " I looked at Aston, ami we smiled at De Ruyter's having so soon forgotten his promise at starting. He observed this, and said, — " By Heaven ! this is only a liberal trans- lation, or imitation, of a simile he actually did make. Hear his own words : ' In youth a woman is like a green gourd ; her shell is soft and phant ; but, when old, harder than iron-wood. My father talks not to his wife, it is of no use ; but like a wise man, he goes and buys another wife, and gets three children by her. The first wife likes not this, and lets him not bring her home. So he goes to the other side of the water and builds a new house. Here he catches more fish, and trades with the white men who come there. He now sees not his old wife. Her son is big enough to work, and he gives him a canoe, a fishing- net, and a spear. But he likes not work, and they are very poor. " ' When I grew strong, I was a good fisherman. My father loves me. Sometimes I give my brother fish ; and when I have no fish, I give him couries. Then the white men,' (here Torra meant the Frenchmen from the Isle of France,) ' seeing the place was good, speak kindly to my father, and a great many come and live there. Soon after they quarrel with my father. They Avant his land, where he grows his bread, to build a strong place. My father likes not to give it; and they kill him, and take it, and take my mother and my sisters, and make them slaves. " ' I run up to the mountains, and then I cross to Nossi A YOUNGER SON. 183 Ibrahim. There they are a very brave people, and hate the whites. They steal on the water, not on the land, and make no slaves. When I tell them the wliite men came and killed my old father, who was a good friend to them, they all say they are glad of it, for my father was wrong to have white friends. But when I tell them they took my mother and my sisters, and made them slaves, they say that was very bad. Then they call a war-talk, and say they would speak with these white men. And then an old man who was a friend to my father, says, ' No ! it is not good to speak with them. Their words are white as morning, but their deeds are black as night. It is not good to speak with them. It is good to kill them all.' And after much more talk, they agree with the wise old man. " ' They get many great war-canoes. They all sail over in the night. There was no moon, and the night was dark. The old man hkes the black night. ' For the white man,' he says, ' is afraid, and likes not to fight in the dark. A black man is the owl that sees them in the night ; but they the wild turkey that sees nothing. Their thunders strike not.' " ' The white men made a feast ; for it was the great day of their good spirit ; and in the poor black man's country they are all drunk. And when we hear they sing no more, we know they sleep ; and we come down the hills and kill them every one. " ' My friends take all they can find, and go away. I like not to stay there, now that my father is dead. I take my mother and sisters, and go to the other side, where ray father first lived. Our father gone, my brother seems very sorry ; so we are all good friends, and I work for them all. My brother goes many times away, we know not whither ; and stays many days. " ' Four moons after, I go to Nossi Ibrahim, to see the old man ; for he was a good friend, and more moons older than I can tell. When I come back, I go to my house, and find no one there, though it is night. I go to my brother ; and he neai-ly dies with grief. He tells me that, when I went away, the Maratti came in their war-canoes, took my mother and sisters, and because his old mother N 4 184 ADVENTURES OP talked to them, and she not being good for much, they killed her. ' Now/ he says, ' I want to make fire to burn her,' In grief we go, and build a pile, and the body is burnt, " ' Then my brother says to me, "■ It is not good to weep. Thy tears will not bring back the women,' " ' And I say, ' Why did they not take thee ? ' " ' Oh,' he says, ' I ran up the mountain, and they saw me not.' " ' I was going back to the old man at Nossi Ibrahim, to ask counsel. But my brother says, ' No ; that people is few and poor, and they sell not slaves. The Maratti are a very great people, and they make many slaves. They hate each other like bad brothers. In the Maratti there are some good men ; let us go to them ; one of them is my uncle ; he will get back what you have lost, for he loves me ; let us go and talk with him.' " CHAPTER VI. The ghastly spectres, which were doom'd at last To tell as true a tale of dangers past. As ever the dark annalsof the deep Disclosed for man to dread, or woman weep. Evrox. The boat was one curved shell of hollow pearl Almost translucent. Shelley. " The conclusion," continued De Ruyter, " you may sur- mise. The simple fool, Torra, was kidnapped and sold by his crafty brother. He, being the eldest, inherited paternal righte over the youngest ; and had, by their laws, the power, of which he took advantage, to sell them all. His old mother, having less of the devil in her, or through fear, opposed him ; upon which he himself killed her. Torra was sent in slavery to Rodriguez ; and the women to the Isle of France. You already know the rest of Terra's tragic history, and his summary code of laws. A YOUNGER SON. 185 There is no more to remark on but this : yesterday morn- ing, when we had landed, he swam on shore with his knives ; and it seems he joined your party."' To this I rephedj " Torra indeed surprised me. "WTien we were stumbling about in the dark, seeking to cross the ravine, it was he that led us forward to a place lower down. He was afterwards of infinite use in directing us to the waUs and the gate. Indeed I had a suspicion, from his extraordinary officiousness, that he intended some strata- gem, and therefore I kept an eye on him. But on our entering, when the signal was made in the morning, all doubt vanished ; for the fellow was by far the most active of us all. Though he puzzled me then, you have now made me understand his feelings of revenge against the Maratti. While I was losing time in holding a fellow by the throat, to prevent his giving an alarm to those within, Torra had most expeditiously, as well as more effectually, silenced the three others — I verily believe, before they were awake. He then burst open the other entrance, which led to the interior. After which I lost sight of him, till I caught his figure, crimsoned from head to foot, rush- ing from hut to hut. Wherever he was, the air was rent with piercing shrieks and screams, till all was silent. I thought the fellow mad, and at last fired a shot across his bow, for it was useless to talk to him ; and thus I stopped his triumphant war-yells." " But," said Aston, " you have told us notliing regard- ing his meeting with his brother." " Oh," said De Ruyter, '' it was truly fraternal. But I had forgot, he is a dreamer, and has visions. Never re- membering my own dreams, no wonder I should forget friend Torra's. By Jove it is most miraculous, and de- serves to be recorded. Thus saith Torra : — " ' In the town of the Maratti I seek, in every place, to find my bad brother ; but I find him not. So I feel my head and blood Hke fire. I kill all I find. I too wish to die, but no one fights with me. AU run away from Torra, one man with nothing but a knife ; while they have swords, and darts, and guns. Iron strikes me and hurts me not ; guns wound not Torra. 186 ADVENTURES OP " ' W\vew I come on board I am sick and hot. and lie down on the hammock-nettings of the forecastle, but not to sleep. I have too much pain to sleep. I lie down^ looking at the sea : and then I see my old father rise up from the bottom, in a great fish shell, with his fishing-net in his hand. He looks at me, and says, ' Torra, ray son !' " ' I try to answer, but cannot. '■" Then he says, ' Thy mother, thy sisters, where are they.?' " ' I try to say, they are slaves to the white men. " ' He understands me, and says, ' No, Torra, they are free ; look here ! thou art a slave, my son, but they are with me ! ' And I see them all three in the shell. " ' Then he says, ' Thy brother, where is he ?' " '• I try to answer, ' I know not ! ' when an old and wrinkled white man, who lives in the dark clouds, comes with a long spar of fire, and says, ' "Wliere is he } ' " ^ My father shakes his fishing-net, and again says, < Where is he ? Torra^ thou art a bad son, and a false brother to thy sisters, not to send thy bad brother to the evil spirit, who bids me cast my net for him ; and till I catch him, Ave are to have no rest, no peace, condemned to follow him ; and now I find he is in the ship with thee, and he alone of all my blood can sleep. Torra hath for- saken and forgotten the law of his father's land, blood for blood ! ' " ' My father then throws his net again and again, and the white demon of the cloud shakes his spear, calling on the name of my brother, — Shrondoo. " ' I turn and look the other way, and see my brother, as my father said, asleep. I go down on the deck ; I stand over him ; and %vhen I am certain it is he, I kill him. And I look through the port on the waters, and see my father catch his spirit in the net, and the white demon take it on his spear. They aU scream and clap their hands j the shell sinks in the sea ; and the white demon is seen no more ! ' " Such was Torra's vision — what think you of it ? I promise you the fellow is in earnest, for he entreats me to A YOUNGER SON. 187 let him go overboard to his father;:, but I think the conch- shell is sufficiently charged already." " Poor fellow !" said Aston, " he has been hardly used, and misfortune has extinguished what little intellect he had." " By Heaven ! " I exclaimed, " I don't know what you call little ; the wisest of the ancients would have lost their senses in such a case. As to kiUing his brother, if he had slaughtered a myriad of such fellows, he ought to be re- warded, not punished." " Very true ; but men's prejudices," observed De Ruyter, " must influence the scales of justice. Our crew would become mutinous, if I were to pardon Torra. His brother, as the first-born, had his patriarchal rights, and might sell all his kin and kind. The command of the father, though but in a dream, might, on the other hand, justify Torra in killing him ; but, as the father is not here to give evidence, Torra 's blood must now atone for that which he has shed." '•' Surely," I eagerly asked, " you don't intend it.^" " Surely I do not," was his reply ; " but we must make a show as if we did, and use some occasion of letting him escape when we get near land." However, this was unnecessary ; for, two days after, Torra going towards the bow of the vessel, handcuffed, and with a sentinel guarding him, looked at the sea, cried, — "There he is, waiting for me! I come, father!" and sprung over the bow, and the ship passed over him. It was useless to make any attempt to save him, as the weight of his manacles dragged him down hke lead. This poor fellow's story, and melancholy fate, made us all sad for some time. Aston, who had a shade of a sailor's faith in dreams and omens, was at some trouble, on our arrival at the Isle of France, to find out if that part of Torra's dream or vision, relating to the death of his mother and sisters, had actually happened. There being a go- vernment office, where the deaths of slaves were registered, he discovered it not only verified, but, on comparing our logbook with the register, that they had all died within the four-and-twenty hours in which Torra had seen them 188 ADVENTUftES OP on the sea ; they having been drowned in a boat as they were being conveyed to the Isle of Bourbon. I need not add that Aston's faith, after this^ was not to be shaken. CHAPTER VII. Whereat a narrow Flemish glass he took, That since belonged to Admiral De Witt, Admired it with a connoisseuring look. And with the ripest claret crowned it; And, ere the lively bead could burst or flit. He turn'd it quickly, nimbly, upside down, His mouth being held conveniently fit To catch the treasure : " Best in all the town ! '' He said, smack'd his moist lips, and gave a pleasant frown. " Keats' MS. We were in the west trade-wind, and scudded merrily along in company with the corvette, having determined to run into Port Bourbon, in the Mauritius, on the south-east coast, as the English frigates were blockading the port on the north-west. " Port Bourbon," said De Ruyter, " is the best to get into, being on the windward side, but dif- ficult to get out of. However, it is a beautiful harbour, and we shall have to lie out the north-west monsoon, which is on the eve of commencing. Besides, Ave shall then be nearer my home, and in quiet, as there are few ships and little commerce in Port Bourbon, that being carried on to leeward at Port Louis." Having been now some days at sea, I thought of visiting my Uttle female captive ; not that I had neglected her hitherto, having given her my own, comparatively, com- fortable cabin, and ordered the good old Rais to find out those of her father's tribe, or followers, on board. Besides, I sent him, privileged by his age and rank, to see her, talk to her, and assure her she should want nothing, and that all her wishes should be granted. He told me that tlaee women, who had been with her in her father's ship, were already with her ; that he had collected and given them what articles they wanted, and that in a few days she would A YOUNGER SON. 18.9 be better. Indeed the old Rais, in respect of her father's having been, not only an Arab, but a schaich^ of a tribe in the Persian Gulf, near his own country, had anticipated all my wishes. He said, " I must do the same for her as for my own child ; for we are all brothers." De Ruyter, who heard our conversation, as he stood by, began to talk with the Rais, addressing him by the name of " Father ;" for so he called him, the commander of his Arabs, and one who had been long with him. He con- sulted the Rais on every point connected with his men, and never opposed the fulfilment of their customs. On his secret expeditions to the English ports, the entire com- mand, in appearance, devolved on the old Arab, while De Ruyter took the character of a merchant, Parsee, Arme- nian, or American — they were all the same to him, as occasion served. " I have been telling this youngster of mine. Father," said he, " that the Arab girl is now law- fully his wife, i:«i the most sacred manner, according to the customs of your country. Is it not so ? Inform him." The old Rais had heard all the particulars from the men present at the father's death, and said, " Most assuredly, malik ; who can doubt it ? Yet strange it sounded in my ears when I was told it. It is the first time, old as I am, that I ever heard of an Ai-ab schaich, whose generations are countless as the grains of sand on the great desert, giving his daughter, and mingling the blood of the ances- tors of the human race with one of the infidels of a country, so newly discovered, that our fathers knew not of it, nor could her father have heard of its existence ; a Yaoor ! " " Bah ! " replied De Ruyter. " Why, the father knew him for an Arab, to be sure. What else .'' Does he look hke a Christian ? Has he not the Koran in his cabin ? Come," (addressing me,) " say your Namaz." " Wise are you, malik," said the Rais ; " that is the truth. It is not strange her father should have so thought ; and I am an ignorant man if his father was not an Arab born, or Arab descended ; for I never saw any of your western people sun. dyed and featured like this boy. He is honest and brave, loves our people, fights with our weapons, and uses our customs. You see nature will break 190 ADVENTURES OF out. Now that he has, by the blessing of Mahomet, our Holy Prophet, an Arab wife, I hope he will find out the tribe of his ancestors ; and not, like unto his foolish father, go from his own country, to dwell on white rocks in the sea." ^ This was spoken so seriously, and De Ruyter, checking his ready laugh, conversed so learnedly on the subject, that I began to entertain doubts of my own identity. Moreover the Rais argued that the father had joined our hands, when under the shadow of death ; at which period, though distant things become indistinct, things near are miraculously unfolded, when connected with the secrets of the other world, which, to us hving, are visionary as spectres in a dream, but, when flitting between life and death, are made distinct and clear. " Therefore," said he, " her father could not have been deceived in that moment. He knew into whose hands he was giving his daughter, the hopes of his house, and the care of his children." "What children.?" inquired Aston; "has he other children ? " Ah-eady I began to think in what a predicament 1 was placed ; — wife, children, and Heaven knew what else ! " Children !" said the Rais ; " oh, yes ! but not many. For he was a brave and desperate warrior ; and most of his tribe have been cut off in wars with people like these Maratti, who pillaged his village, and killed them almost all. Now he has not more than twenty or thirty." " Enough too ! " exclaimed Aston. " I think quite enough," added De Ruyter, mimicking Louis, — " don't you ? " I suppose I looked little animated at this discourse, now that I began to find it in earnest ; and, perhaps, as chap- fallen as one of Louis's lively turtle, after his throat is cut. However, I was a httle comforted by discovering that his children were not of his body, they having been removed by the creeses of his enemies, but his tribe — as the Rais called all the Arabs on board his children ; sometimes, when he was pleased, including De Ruyter and myself. De Ruyter assured me, on his honour, casting jesting aside, that, strictly speaking, every thing the old Rais had said A VOUNGER SOX. 191 was true as the Koran. " But then," he added, " the Koran is nothing to you, and the Arab law is not yours." " True ; but how Avill it affect her ? " I inquired. " Only that, as her father affianced her to you, she can marry no one else. From duty, therefore, as well as hu- manity, you must provide for her, and convey her, with her Arabs, to her own country. I know you have feeling as well as honour, and that, whatever course you are destined to steer, they will never quit the helm. I never have, nor ever wUl, my dear boy, thrust officious counsel down your throat, which, like iron, is only to be digested by the power of an ostrich's stomach. Besides, you are not one of those who arrogate exclusively to themselves, their sect, or country, (as too many of your countrymen do,) all the good and virtue under the sun. The light is not less bright, because unobscured by what is falsely called civilisation, on the sands of these wild children of the desert. Though they are not warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter, as old Shylock says, as Jews and Christians are, yet if you prick them, they bleed, — and so forth. You understand me. So, come down, and having discussed this, let us discuss a cup of claret ; the making of which, and of barbers, dancers, fiddlers, cooks, pimps, and courtesans, are the only real benefits France has conferred on the world, as Voltaire has fully proved in his ' Lettre aux Welches.' If any Frenchman expects to go to heaven, it must be by virtue of one of these pleas alone." Aston afterwards inquired of me what I intended doing in this affair. " Doing ! " I replied ; " why, did you not hear ? — it is all ready done, man." " WTiat done } " ''^ Why, I am married, — without banns, or babbling about the business. It is but Hke the first shock in bathing; the timid suffer most by creeping in by degrees ; the bold, by plunging in head foremost, hardly feel it, I am no stickler. If I must go in, give me deep water, and a height to leap from ; — then I shall neither cut my foot, nor feel the shock." 192 ADVENTURES OF " But consider, my lad, she is but a baby ; and you have scarcely seen her." " Well, what Arab does till after he is married ? ''' " How can you take her home ? You don't intend passing all your life with Arabs ? " " "Why not ? I have no home. Old father Rais says this is my country ; and T like it very well, — I like the sun better than snow. Aston ! don't be puckering up your face, like a libidinous parson in the pulpit, exhorting his parishioners against the sin of the flesh and the devil. Come, shake those wrinkles out with claret. Have you not heard this is my wedding-day ? Let us spend it in re- joicings ! I hate preaching, and hke wine." So with calUans, sheroots, and claret we passed the time; De Ruyter and Aston bantering me about my novel marriage. My spirits were too good to be dashed by such a trifle, as I then thought marriage. When Louis heard of it, he said, " I had a frow too once; but she was never good for much. "\Fhen I went to sea, she drank all my gin. I never could keep a drop of good skiedam in the house. I did not Hke that ; — would you ? She grew very big, and every one said she was with child ; but I knew, if she had any thing, it must be young kegs of hol- lands. Afterwards the doctors thought the same ; for they — what they call — tapped her many times. But she loved the liquor too much to let it out, — they got nothing but water. This I could not have believed — would you .? For I never saw her touch water in my life ; she could not abide the sight of it, and said it gave her a cold in the stomach. So I left her, and went to sea, — I knew she'd not follow me on the water ; and she was sad, and sick, and melancholy, from grief, poor woman ! — because she got no more gin. I took all with me." A YOUNGER SOV. 193 CHAPTER VIII. For your gaping gulf ami your gullet wide, Tlie ravine is ready on every side ; Tlieir boiled meat, and roast meat, and meat from the coal, You may chop it, and tear it, and mash it. Shelley. Van Scolpvelt then came down, Avith the list of sick and wounded. His hands were so full of business^ that we seldom saw him, — except his head, which he occasionally shoved up the hatchway for air, as a grampus does his above the water. He expounded to us the law regarding murderers, whose bodies, in all civilised countries, were given for dissection ; therefore, he continued, by bene- fiting science, they did a great deal more good than evil in the world, and that it was a pity so few murders were committed. Then he accused us of a conspiracy to para- lyse the efforts of scientific men, not only by opposing amputation, but by conniving at a felonious fraud in de- priving him of a post-mortem dissection. " Had you acted," said he, " in a summary manner, which you do on other occasions, with Torra, — who was a very fine subject, — you would have hanged him instantly, and given me his body. I thought he was an honest man ; but find him, like every one else, conspiring to cheat the doctor, — which he has done by throwing himself away to the fishes, when he was my lawful perquisite." With a glass out of Louis's bottle, he returned to his patients. "Ah!" said Louis, "if I did not see him drink this now and then, and smoke his pipe, I'd not be- lieve him a live man. But any man may live on this," — (holding up the bottle), — " could not you ? For it is like oil and spirit at once ; the one keeps the body, the other the soul ; — don't they .'' " " Yes, with the addition of a turtle, now and then, I think I might. Do you think, Louis, they have turtle in heaven ? " " I am positive they have," was his reply ; " or who o ^9'^ ADTEWTURES OF would wish to go there ? — would you ? It is no paradise without turtle ; — is it ? Then there is plenty of water in the moon, or wnere does the rain come from? — so- there must be gin there as well, to keep the damp out." I went on deck to keep the first watch. From Louis- and turtle my thoughts reverted to my own little turtle- dove in her cage. Then, only looking at the sunny side of things, all was bright. I seemed to expand in bulk and stature. My thoughts ran nearly in the same channel with those of Alnaschar, the prattling barber's brother^ the fabled glass-merchant, of imaginative renown ; for, like him, my fancy ran wild. I determined to be, at first, a kind and loving husband, then austere and severe, or kind and cruel by turns. Certainly, though I thought of every thing the most preposterous, not a single ray of light, use- ful or rational, shone on my midnight reveries. The gong sounded twelve ; I was relieved from duty. The cares of married life not once disturbed my sleep. I wonder now I slept so soundly. At last I was awakened by Van's shaking my leg. I sprung up in an instant, stamping it on the ground, in fear that he had been operating on it in my sleep. " What 's the matter, Van ? " " What are you talking about ? One of the prisoners. an Arab, is dying. He wants to see you." I dashed my head into a bucket of salt water, and fol- lowed the doctor. Notwithstanding I met Louis in the way, with a hot turtle-steak, which he urged me to eat first, as it was hazardous to go into the sick berth with an empty stomach, down I went ; the man, who was badly wounded, only wanted to tell me to be kind to his father's child ; to let him see her before he died, in order that he might take any message to her father, with whom he should soon be again, for he saw the blue angel of death hovering over him, in haste to spring aloft ; to urge me to be a father to his two wives and five children, and to tell them they must, Ishallah ! (please God !) continue their war for ever with the Maratti, because, Avhilst one re- mained alive, their father's spirit would be kept out of the heavens ; and lastly, to see him put into the sea with all A YOUNGER SON. 195 the customary rites of his country, not allowing that white Indian with his long knife, pointing to "\'an ,Scolpvelt, to scalp him, or cut him. " For," said he, " if he cut any thing away from me here to eat it, I am no more fit for a warrior in the other land." Van gathered up his visage into a compound of horror, astonishment, and ferocity, and growled and snarled hke a hyena. I believe the fear of Van Scolpvelt hastened the Arab's spirit, which, by the glassiness of his eye, was already on the wing ; for it took flight, while I was endea- vouring to appease the doctor's wrath. I bade his Arab comrades take charge of the body. They erected a canvass berth, placed it within, and re- peated the same ceremonies I have before narrated — only that now I was obhged to be an actor in their mys- teries. Here was I transformed, as by magic, from a friend- less, outcast, reckless boy of the West, without tie or home, into sea Schaich, Arab, Mussulman — married ! To give some idea of how much these transitions (at least the last, which governed the rest) weighed on my mind, I should not have known my wife from any other girl or woman. I had been so occupied with the father, and her head and face having been, for the most part, veiled, that I had not seen, or observed her features. I had not even yet in- quired her name. It is true I had a Koran ; but I knew not where was my adopted country. The first step I took was, I then thought, and think still, the right one — to obtain information regarding the lady. I therefore ascertained, to begin in a business-like way, that her name was Zela. That, engraved on my memory then in faint characters, wiU be found deeply, indelibly impressed on my heart when I die. Should any curious Van Scolpvelt desire to pry into my body, I freely give him leave, but more readily to Van himself, should he then live, to show him that I have not that unmeasured hatred of science, with which he has so often taxed me. He shall find, annexed to my last testament, a codicil, in which I have expressly set down that my body shall be sent to Amsterdam (where he was when I last heard of 2 196 ADVENTURES OP him), conserved in a hogshead of right skedam — the body for the scientific Van Scolpvelt, the fluid for honest Louis's frow, if recovered from her dropsy. After I had breakfasted, and fulfilled the injunctions of the dying Arab, by witnessing the consignment of his body to the deep, my thoughts again veered round to the right point of the compass — my virgin bride. I was schooled into the proper guttural pronunciation of her name ; no easy task, for I was compelled to repeat the Z a hundred times, ere the old duenna who tutored me was satisfied with its hissing aspiration. Then she proceeded to im- press on my memory ten thousand ceremonies and cautions to be used ; I was not to touch the lady's veil, or person, or garments, or talk too much, or ask questions, or stay too long. For the lady Zela's thoughts were communing with her father's spirit ; all her love was dead with him ; her eyes, which outshone the stars when she was happy, were now lustreless as her dead father's ; her face, fairer than the moon, was now darkened by the clouds of grief ; her lips, redder than henna, were pale with sorrow ; all her loveliness was under eclipse, for tears had been her only food, and peace and sleep had fled her pillow, since her father's spirit had gone away, and left her alone in the world. She then added, " Oh ! stranger, be good to her, and all good will be yours in possessing herl" CHAPTER IX. she like a moon in wane, Faded before him, cower'd, nor could restrain Her fearful sobs, Belf-folding like a flower That faints into itself at evening hour. Keats, This ring ****** 'Tis chosen, I hear, from Hymen's jewelry. Keats'^ MS. She went to prepare the lady Zela, and, had I been a hot and impatient lover, she left me time to cool. Possibly A YOUNGER SON. 197 the very thought that I was not going to woo, hut was already fast wedded, helped to make the hour and a half, before she returned, appear neither more nor less than ninety minutes. Nor did I make any pretty invocations to Time, with leaden or swallow wings. It might be that about this time of the day, I had a particular relish for smoking my callian, and sipping my coffee. I have never quitted this vice, or rather virtue ; forj at this very time, I am as surly, if called away in the morning ere I have had my pipe and coffee, as a judge, when a jury finds a verdict according to their conscience, and against his summing up ; or, as a bull-dog with his bone, when an impudent cur offers to knab it ; or as a woman, detecting her wearied husband in the act of moving her new bonnet off the sofa to repose himself. I sat inhaling the last whiff of the fragrant tombacae of Shiraz, through rose-water from Benares, I filled my lungs with a delicious cloud, which seemed to circulate throughout my body ; and I sent it forth again like a jet of water, or frankincense burning from an altar, or from a swinging chalice, or like the spiral wreath from a cottage chimney, — for I was comparing it to all these ; and so intently wrapt in watching and admiring the rainbow-like tints, borrowed from the sun, glittering upon the vapour, as I eked it out from my compressed lips and nostrils, with my cheeks swollen like a trumpeter's, that I had not seen the old Arab woman return. I suppose her beauties too were, like the moon, under a cloud, or in an eclipse ; for her dark figure startled me, and I thought of the tale of the fisherman, and that the smoke had condensed itself into a black witch. She informed me that the lady Zela had been awaiting me with coffee and sweatmeats, till the one was cold, and the other turned sour. '^ No one has been here," I replied, ^' to tell me she was ready.'' She looked sour enough to have spoilt the sweatmeats at a glance, as she said querulously, " I have been stand- ing here so long, that, see — my feet are grown to the wood ! " I laughed ; for she was so far right that the sun an*! o 3 198 ADVENTURES OF heat of her foot had melted the pitch ; and she had some difficuhy, as the vessel was heeling over, to keep her ba- lance, while she disengaged her hoof. Saying all 1 could to soften her, down we went together. The cabin door was opened by a little Malayan slave girl, from the coast of Malabar, whom I had sent as my first gift, and I entered. The lady mine was seated cross- legged on a low couch, so shrouded and enveloped in white drapery, the mourning of her country, that I could dis- tinguish nothing of those wondrous beauties the old Arab woman had talked of. On my entrance I thought her one of those marble figures I had heard of in Egyptian temples ; but I found she was alive. Her feet were bare ; she rose and placed them in embroidered slippers, which lay on the deck of the cabin ; she took my hand, put it to her forehead, then to her lips : I entreated her to be seated. She resumed her position, and remained motion- less, her arms drooping listlessly down ; her little rosy feet nestled under her, like tiny birds under the mother's wing. Her hair, the only part now visible, covered her like a jet black cloud. I had felt the pressure of her tre- mulous lips ; and imagination, or perhaps some faint out- hne which fancy had left graved on my hand, pictured her mouth exquisitely soft and small, — (I loathe a large and hard one) ; and I think now, this silent pressure wove the first link of that diamond chain which time nor use could ever break or wear away. I seemed entranced. We both sat silent ; and I felt it a relief when the old Arab woman returned with coffee, and mangastene and guava jelly. She again rose, which I would have prevented, but the old woman signed me to sit still. She took a minute cup, in a filagree silver stand, and presented it to me. I was so intently gazing on her tapering, delicately formed fingers, that I upset the coffee, and, putting the cup to my mouth, was going to swallow that ; which indeed, as it was not bigger than the spicy shell of mace that holds the nutmeg, I might have done without choking. The old woman told me afterwards this was a bad omen. She then presented the conserves ; and, returning the stand to the woman, resumed her seat. A YOUNGER SON. J 99'' Taking from my hand a ring of gold, with an Arabic inscription, and hooped with two circles of camels hair, she same her expiring father had placed on my finger, I held it towards her. The low and suppressed moans she made on my entrance broke out into sobs, so violent that I coijld see her loose vest agitated by the beating of her heart. I was about to remove this object, which awakened such painful remembrances, when she grasped it, pressed it to her lips, and wept over it some time. The woman then said something to her ; and, without the guidance of her eyes, she again put forth her tapering little fingers, and replaced the ring. It was indeed the antique signet of her father's tribe ; and, like the seal of princes, it made right wrong, or wrong right, and gave, and took away, and made, and unmade laws, obeying the will of its wearer. She put it on the fore finger of my right hand ; and again pressed my hand to her head and lips. Upon this I took a ring 1 had selected from De Ruyter's store of baubles ; it was a deep ruby, of the shape and size of a wild grape, hooped and massy with virgin gold, and, by its size, seemed to have been worn by a fairy. Gently disengaging her hand from the drapery as it lay montionless by her side, I placed this ring on the fore finger of her right hand ; — the old woman smiled. Then I put her little palm to my lips, and repeatedly kissed it ; — the old woman's brow darkened, or rather the wrinkles on her brow deepened, for her colour, by time and the sun, was fixed into an indelible bronze. However, taking the hint, I let go the hand, and it dropped by her side. This interchange of rings was a definite acknowledg- ment of our union. I now asked the lady if I could do any thing to add to her comfort on board the ship. I told her I had collected and released all I could find of the tribe of her father ; that they should be kindly at- tended to ; that I was a stranger, and ignorant of many of their customs, entreating that she would direct me ; that our Rais was a good man, and would love her like a father. Her sobs now became more violent. Catching the infection of melancholy, I put my hand to my heart, and said, " Dear sister, moderate your grief. Command o 4 200 ADVENTURES OF me in all things; for am I not your happy slave?" She did nothing but weep^ and I withdrew. CHAPTER X. The simplest flowers In the world's herbal ; — this fair lily blanch'd. Still witli the dews of piety ; this meek lady Here sittiiisr, like an angei newly shent, Who veils his snowy wings and grows all pale. Keats'^ MS. Thus passed my first visit, and many successive ones. It was long ere I heard the music of her voice. I thought she was mute as well as motionless, but, distracted by the busy turmoil of our now crowded vessel, my visits to the silent lady were not irksome. I culled every thing I thought would amuse or please her ; made strict search, amidst the heaps of plunder we had taken from the Maratti, for every thing belonging to her father, and his people, which was restored; and I was unwearied in attempts to win her regard. Yet so long she remained insensible, that I thought I might as well have worshipped a mummy from the pyramids ; and had not my impatience been listened to, and soothed^ by the kind-hearted Aston, I should have expressed my dis- satisfaction to the lady herself, and totally have withdrawn from her, as my presence seemed offensive. Perhaps that would have been no easy task. For though I could never interchange speech with Zela, the old Arab woman was not so reserved. She would stop in the midst of every errand, as she crossed the deck, and talk of nothing but her lady Zela. At first I cursed her garrulity, as mv legs grew weary with standing; I thought she would have talked them off, for nothing would induce her to be seated. No ! she must not sit in the presence of her malik; besides, her mistress was waiting for water, coffee, sweetmeats, or something else. Methought her mistress must be won- derous patient, for the moon wasted ere her discourse con- cluded. A YOUNGER SON. 201' At last she instilled into me hopes that Zela was not in- sensible of my kindness ; that she said I was very good, — I must be, for her people said so ; that it was a pity I spoke her language so imperfectly, and was a stranger of a far distant tribe ; she was sorry the great kala panee (black water) was between our fathers' lands j but I was gentle, kind, beautiful as a zebra, and she liked to hear my voice. This delicious poison relumed my expiring hopes ; the dark old woman grew bright and entertaining, and her harsh voice sounded sweet. My night watches seemed miraculously diminished. Yet I had seen no more of Zela than her foot and head ; the tone of her voice I was as yet a stranger to. How then could I love her ? I had never felt, or seen, or dreamt of the strange power of love. Indeed I know not when, or why, or where, or how he found entrance even in my thoughts. It appeared to me T was only ful- filling a duty, sacred from its having been laid on me by the impressive energy of a dying parent, consigning to me, with his last breath, his friendless child. In the crystal purity of youth, this was the first impressive scene, in which I had been the principal actor, in which the emphatic appeal was made to the good feelings of my heart, a sealed foun- tain, then broken ; and pity, and sorrow, and now love were flowing from it hke a swollen torrent, which bears down all before it. The poor little captive bird was building her nest in my bosom's cove, whilst I thought her quietly caged in my cabin below. My visits grew longer and more fre- quent. I retained her passive hand in mine, till I felt its warmth restored, and fancied it glowing with mine. The very air about her seemed to grow heavy with fragrant odour. Even the touch of her insensible hair, more grace- ful than the willow's pendent boughs, as it kissed my cheek, filled my soul with passion. All my senses seemed ex- quisitely refined, and a world of new thoughts and deUcate fancies to have birth within me. As I at last caught the full radiant brightnessof her large dark eye, my limbs shook, my voice trembled, and my heart beat convulsively, and fast. Holding her hand, I gazed in speechless ecstacy. "Whether she observed, I know not ; but she removed her 202 ADVENTURES OF hand, and veiled the hrightness of her eyes. It was enough; they had thrilled through me, and the fire Avas inextin- guishable. She had murmured some words in a broken voice, which buzzed in my ears like a honeyed bee's, or like the warbling of the humming-bird, that lives in the cinnamon groves, and her breath was sweeter than the trees on which It lives. My senses ached with the intensity of the new world of delight which opened to me. And love was thus ignited in my breast, pure, ardent, deep, and imperishable. Zela, from that day, was the star I was destined to worship ; the deity at whose altar I was to offer up all the fragrant incense of my first virgin affec- tions, feelings, and passions. Nor did ever saintly votary dedicate himself to his god with intenser devotion than I consecrated my heart to Zela. When dull mortality returns to dust, when the spirit bursts its charnel-vault, and wings its way, like a dove, it will find no resting-place, or olive hraneh of peace, till reunited with Zela's ; then will they blend, two sunbeams together, shining onward to eternity. CHAPTER XI. And then he went on shore without delay. Having no custom-house nor quarantine To ask him awkward questions on the way, About the times and place where he had been : He left his ship to be hove down next day, With orders to the people to careen. So that all hands were busy beyond measure, In getting out goods, ballast, guns, and treasure. Byron. No other circumstance, of any importance, dwells on my mind during this eventful cruise. We were now in the latitude of the Mauritius, thirty-two leagues N.AV. of the Isle of Bourbon. The Mauritius was first called by the Portuguese, on their visit in 1 521, Swan Island, from being a favourite resort of that bird. The grasping Dutch were the first to lay their hands on it, yet not till long after. A YOUNGKR SON. 203 somewhere about 1 600. ' They named it the Mauritius, coraphraenting, in this appellation, the admiral of the United Provinces. The French, as I have already related-, succeeded them, and called it the Isle of France ; and it was the rallying point and rendezvous of all their cruisers. Nearly in the track of the company's homeward and outward bound Indian fleets, of the departure of which care was taken to procure early intelligence, they sent their ships of war to cruise for them in the latitudes of their usual route. But it was from private ships of Avar, with commissions of lettres de marque, that the English merchant-fleet princi- pally suffered. Against the large French ships they were protected by efficient convoy of their own men-of-war; but the smaller, fast-sailing French cruisers, filled with desperate adventurers, hung round their fleets, Hke the wandering Arabs on the desert round a caravan ; while the English men-of-war were withheld from pursuing them, fearful of losing sight of the merchantmen, and of their being attacked by others in their absence. The Frenchmen rarely ventured near them during the day, or when it was fine weather^ unless supported by some of their own frigates, following them in the hope of cutting off" stragglers. In bad weather, dm-ing dark nights, they deceived them, by making false signals to lure them off"; or during the heavy and sudden squalls which prevail in those latitudes, in the event of any accident happening, such as losing a mast, or, what fre- quently was the case, losing sight of their convoy, they were certain of attack from one or more of these French privateers. But being all well armed, and very large ships, they sometimes succeeded in defending themselves, not only from the private ships of war, but, on more than one oc- casion, they gallantly beat off" a French squadron. The French found the Mauritius of essential import- ance; enabling them to harass tlie English commerce, and to preserve a footing in India. They spared no expense in fortifying it; and, to confess the truth, they were not back- ward in improving it, by rendering it useful and productive. They introduced, and cultivated with success, most of the spices and fruits of India, with rice, and all sorts of corn from Bourbon, Cochin China, and Madagascar. But the 204 ADVENTURES OP island being small, not more than nineteen leagues in cir- cumference, of course all this was on a proportionally limited scale. The Dutch, by their neglect, had allowed the most valuable port, on the N.W. coast, to be choked with their own filth, and mud and stones washed down by the torrents from the mountains rising close to it. The French, under a clever and enterprising governor, cleared this harbour, built a good wall, and made a superb basin for their ships of war, sheltered from all winds, which are here occasion- ally terrific. We made the island of Bourbon, then hauled up to the Mauritius, which we soon after got sight of. This island is of an oval form, and that part we now coasted, on the N. W., was grand and rugged, with occasional verdant crver. De Ruyter observed that this side of it had been turned topsyturvy by the agency of volcanoes ; and that it was thought, by observers in these matters, to have been for- merly united with the Isle of Bourbon, but torn asunder by the convulsion of internal fire. We saw many huge arched caverns, into which the sea was rolling with a hollow, thundering voice. Grey and ragged fragments of calcined rocks were piled on each other in fantastic disorder. The land then rose gradually from the cliffs to the centre of the island, terminating in a mountain, which rose like a dome. De Ruyter told us this was an elevated plain, thirteen hundred feet above the sea ; and though, from this side, it appeared a precipitous mountain, on the other side, at Port St. Louis, the ascent was so gradual, that a horse might gallop up nearly to the the summit, which was pointed like a sugar-loaf, called Piton du milieu, and surrounded by a plain. We saw seven other mountains, looking like seven giants seated in conference. Many low capes stretched out into the sea, and, winding their rocky roots yet farther, formed beautiful bays, with white sandy beaches, and nar- row valleys, often intersected by streams or rivers, verdant and wooded, and thickly set with shrubs and flowers. As Aston and myself stood watching these with our glasses, I said, " How quiet and exquisitely beautiful is that ! Oh let us go and dwell there !" Then, as that shut in, and another opened far more beautiful,*and then another. 1 A YOUNGER SON. 205 and another still-, I reiterated the same exclamation. We all three loved nature, and De Ruyter took delight in point- ing out to us every minute change in the scenery. " Surely/' I cried, " this island is a paradise of the Eastern poets ! AVho but a fool, once on this land, would leave it ? Oh let us forsake the never-certain ocean, which, with its treach- erous smiles, lures us on to sickness, disappointment, pain, and death ! " Aston was not less delighted than myself; and there was a willing alacrity and lightness in the movements of all on board. Joy spread in every countenance, every source of discontent was forgotten, and all was union and harmony. As we let the anchor go, the men flew aloft like birds, and the sails were furled in an instant. Canoes, almost sinking with their cargoes of fresh fish, fruit, and vegetables, were hovering round us. The pleasure which filled ray heart was' augmented to overflowing by the dear presence of my little eastern fairy Zela, who, yielding to my earnest prayers, had allowed me to lead her on deck. As the gentle air waved her light gauzy robes aside, or pressed them closer to her, played with her hair, and showed her youthful form, which seemed almost suspended in its own lightness, Aston gazed at her with astonishment, and compared her to a young fawn by the side of a stag. De Ruyter, who spoke her language perfectly, took her hand, but was so surprised at her beauty, that it was some time before he could utter a word, though she was then pallid and wan, and her lips colourless. He talked to her in his most soothing manner ; then, turning to me, said, " This is some little eastern sprite, too delicate and frail to be touched by human hands ! I may now congratulate you with all my heart ; nor lives there a man so cold as not to envy your good fortune. By Heaven ! I thought you were making a sacrifice, and I find you have a jewel, "which kings, if they had hearts, would give their crowns to possess ! Knowing this, if you do not treasure her as such, may happiness forsake you for ever ! Fortune can can never again give any thing so far above comparison." She looked round like a frighted antelope, with wonder 206 ADVENTURES OP at finding herself surrounded by so many strangers, all gazing on her; and her face was crimsoned like the morning clouds. She would have returned below, but her hand was shackled in mine. I sent for a carpet and cushions, and she sat down on deck, encircled with women CHAPTER XII. Worse than a bloody hand is a hard heart Shelley. Thou bitter mischief, venomous, bad priest ! Keats'j MS. De Ruyter went on board the corvette, to tell her captain that the EngUsh frigates had left their blockade of the leeward port. This was occasioned by the loss of their men and boats, and in order to return to Madras before the S.W. monsoon set in. Besides, as the homeward- bound fleet was supposed to have passed the latitudes of these islands, their object in blockading was effected. It was then determined that the corvette, after getting a sup- ply of water and fresh provisions, was to go round to Port St. Louis ; and that De Ruyter, by crossing over land, was to meet the captain there, and give their despatches to the French general commanding. This done, he returned on board, when we sent aU our prisoners and wounded on board the corvette, and De, Ruyter went on shore to provide accommodations for his own sick, and procure supphes. The next morning he left us for the town and port of St. Louis. He gave me directions what to do in his absence, and promised to be with us at latest in three days. We shook hands and parted. It was arranged that when the grab Avas cleared, we should lay her up, and proceed to De Ruyter's country house ; he possessed a considerable estate in the interior of the island. A YOUNGER SON. 207 It is worthy of remark that^ regarding climate, this island has a peculiarity I never remember to have found in any other in India. Other islands are Comparatively cool and pleasant on the coasts^ and close and unhealthy in the interior, unless on the heights. Here it is reversed : the entire coast is so scorchingly hot, and the air so bad, that at Port St. Louis, and other places round, no one dares venture out in the daytime during six months of the year, as he may be almost certain of having a sun- stroke, which occasions a brain-fever, the malignant fever cholera morbus, or dysentery ; %vhile, at the same period^ in the interior, particularly on the windward side, the air is temperate and salubrious. For six months in the year, from November to April, the town of St. Louis is insuf- ferably and noxiously hot; scarcely any one but the slaves could be induced to remain there, the free inhabit- ants departing for the interior. Then again, the dry months at Port St. Louis are the rainy ones in the central parts ; and whilst the fiercest hurricanes are raging on the coast, a few miles inland all is calm and sunshine. I have repeatedly witnessed this ; and it is strange in so small an island. With a nature ardent, active, and enterprising, my soul was in what I undertook, and with unwearied diligence I executed De Ruyter's behests. Watching and toil were to^ me pleasure ; for my body was strong, and my spirits winged. Magazines of spars, planks, and matting were speedily erected on the shore ; every article not pertaining to the vessel was landed and daily sent round on the backs of mules, asses, and slaves— (the last, I shame to say, were the chief animals of burthen on the island) and transported, with proper precautions, to the town of Port St. Louis. De Ruyter had made great exertions and sacrifices in the importation of buffaloes and asses, to supersede the use of slaves, in the degrading and painful toil of bearing burthens in a climate of almost insufferable heat. But the cold indifference with which men, solely devoted to mer- cenary pursuits, treated his humane propositions, made it up-hill work. These heartless traffickers could neither see 208 ADVENTURES OF nor hear of any plan, except such as tended to their own immediate profit. With them the common organs of nature became brutalised ; their views of things were narrowed into the circumference of actual sight ; and as the wasp, with an eye like a lens, magnifying into bulk the minutest objects within an inch of its optics, cannot dis- tinguish, at the distance of a yard, a wall from a wall- flower, so was it with these fellows. There was no use in talking of to-morrow, of what could be then done with mules and buffaloes, because with slaves they could realise a profit to-day. As to human suffering, they not being touched with human feeling, how could that influence them ? " Is that the law ? — I cannot find it, 'tis not in my bond," — is the sum of their ready reply to the advo- cates of humanity. To every appeal they are deaf as cro- codiles ; and while you are talking of humanity, they will lash, or order to be goaded, the bare and festered back of an overloaded female slave, her tender nature one animated mass of ulcers and cancers, half consumed alive by flies and maggots, antedating their destined prey. Then, what the free and happy most fear — death — is her only hope and refuge, and comes like a bridegroom ; when the corrupted mass is cast uncoflined into the sea, or in a ditch, where the dog-fish, or the wild dog, famishing, will turn from it, — the worms' leavings. Thus it is with her, and with harder and more enduring man. I have seen their spines knotted as a pine tree, and their skins as scaled and callous, with the flesh cracked into chasms, from which blood oozed out like gum, as hundreds of them, poor wretches ! underwent their daily toil in the dock- yard at Port St. Louis, under a sun so scorching, that their task -masters, shaded, sheltered, and reclining, have gasped as from suffocation ; and when, from the mere exertion of moving a few yards, at a snail's pace, to give commands, their bodies have reeked with moisture, and larded the earth, like a horse's after a race in July. The pity and pain I felt at the sight of these poor slave?, could only be equalled by the deep and overwhelming damnation I invoked on the heads of their inhuman oppressors, them and their kind for ever ! Surely monsters like these are A YOUNGER SON. 209 annihilated, — they cannot be immortal ! Yet they should be so, with an eternity to torture them in. They should have justice and their bond ; and what they have done to others should be done to them ; and I defy the inven- tion of hell's fabled demons to be more cunning in cruelty than themselves. This barbarous treatment of the slaves, though not to the extent which I afterwards witnessed on the other side of the island, impelled me on, if a spur was wanting, to despatch my business in Port Bourbon, that I might has- ten to the secluded, wild, and wooded hill, De Ruyter had pointed out as the place of his residence. There, I knew, where he had power, pain and oppression would be sof- tened, if not driven away altogether. At the appointed period De Ruyter returned. Active and energetic as he was in all he did, he was surprised at our expedition. The burthened hull and lofty-rigged vessel, which, a few days before, had come into the port half buried by her weight, with clouds of canvass on her, now floated as light as a sea-bird sleeping, her canvass unbent, masts and yards struck, dismantled, and moored close to the shore. De Ruyter informed Aston that he had obtained per- mission for himself, and the four men belonging to the frigate, whom we had kept on board, to remain with him, on his parole for himself and them. We were discoursing of the slaves when he came in. He told us this tale, in his pithy and abrupt manner : " Two days ago I went to the door-way (for I never ven- ture farther) of a church they were consecrating, to seek for a slave-dealer, with whom I had business. He is a cruel villain, but a punctilious, sanctimonious, and sour church-goer ; a feUow who, if there remained but one man besides himself in the island, and if their faiths dif- fered but in the breadth of a hair, would, by force or stratagem, stake or burn him. You shall hear: the church, flagged with white pavement, was blotted by half a score of black priests. There was a mass of people to see the ceremony ; and these priests looked like the smutted ears bound up with a sheaf of corn. I was going p 210 ADVENTURES OP away, for I grew sick, from the filthy compound smell of frankincense, sweat, and garlic, all mingled. An ignorant converted slave entered, who, seeing some muddy water in a stone basin at the portal, concluded it was for ablution. He, therefore, laved his tarred and begrimed arms in it, up to the elbows. A missionary priest, observing this, struck him over the pate with the cross, on which was bedaubed, as if in mockery, a gory Christ. The cross, being of the same materials as the priest's heart, iron- wood and ebony, was heavy. The priest was strong and malignant. It crushed the fellow's bare head, and entered the brain ; — the first good act a bigoted priest committed, for the slave was emancipated." " What did they with the assassin ?" exclaimed Aston. " I know," answered De Ruyter, " what they would have done with you, if they had heard you so call him. Why, they drowned the victim's death-scream with bel- lowing Te Deum, mopped their sweating brows, and went and feasted at the slave-butcher's house. As to poor negu7' man, I saw his carcass to-day, as I rode along at high water-mark, a banquet for the land-crabs. These are the staunch upholders of the Pope's bloody banner, and these the arguments used for the conversion of unbe- lievers. At Rome is the main-spring of this faith, which I liken to a banian tree : for every branch from the main body throws out its own roots, — at first in small tender fibres, but continually growing thicker, by gradual descent, they get within the surface of the earth ; where, sticking in, they increase to large trunks, and each becomes a parent tree, throwing out new branches from the top ; these, in time, suspend their rcot, and receiving nourish- ment, swell into trunks, and shoot forth other branches ; thus continuing in a state of progression, so long as the first parent of them all supplies its sustenance." " No more of this ! " said I ; " let us hasten to our quarters on the hill, away from priests and slaves ! " A YOUNGER SON. 211 CHAPTER XIII. Soft mossy lawns Beneath these canopies extend their swells, Fragrant with perfumed herbs, and eyed with blooms. Minute yet beautiful. Shellet. No tumbling water ever spake romance. But when my eyes with thine thereon could dance; No woods were green enough, no bower divine. Until thou liftedst up thine eyehds fine. Keats. In a few days more, all our arrangements being made, and the Rais left on board in command, De Ruyter, Aston, and myself, with the gentle Zela, and her attendants, went on shore as the day broke. We commenced our journey in- land, with mules, ponies, and asses. We went some dis- tance along the pebbly margin of the shore, beautifully tesselated with a variety of shells, of all colours and shapes. Then crossing an arid plain, we wound up a rocky, rugged ascent, on a path with only room for one mule. I walked by the side of Zela's little horse, and pointed out to her the sublime beauty of the scenery. As the grey mist was eva- porating, the tops of the cone-like hills were left bare, while their bases were still hidden by the vapours. They looked like a group of beautiful islands or black swans, floating in a calm and silent lake, some feathered to the very crest with shrubs and bushes; some with majestic timber, the palm and cedar ; and others blasted by volcanic fire. Zela had the blood of a fearless race. She had been bred and schooled amidst peril always at hand. Not having learnt to affect what she did not feel, she crossed ravines, wound along precipices, and waded through streams and rivers, not only without impeding us by enacting a pantomimic representation of fears, tears, entreaties, pray- ers, screaming, and fainting ; but she was such a simpleton as not even to notice them, unless, in the usual sweet, low tone of her voice, to remark that they were delightful places to sit in during the sultry part of the day ; or she would stop her pony over a precipice to gather some p 2 212 ADVENTURES OP curious flowers drooping from a natural arch ; or to pluck the pendant and waving boughs of the most graceful of Indian trees, the imperial mimosa, sensitive and sacred as love, shrinking from the touch of the profane. " Put this," she said, holding out a branch, " in your turban ; for I am sure in some of these hollow caves and dreary chasms the ogres live ; they feed their young with human blood, and they love to give them the young and beautiful. Put it in your turban, brother, — since you say I must not call you master; — and never frown, — I do not like to see it, for then you are not so handsome, — I mean good, — as when you smile. Do not laugh, but take it. It will preserve you from every spell and magic. Nothing bad dares come near it." While crossing a sandy level, suddenly she started, as her eye caught some object. Without stopping her horse, which was ambling along, she sprang off, and ran up a sand-hill, like a white doe. Never having witnessed any thing like this before, I was so astonished that she was returning, ere I could overtake her to ask if an ogre had lured her with his evil eye. " O, no," she cried, — " look here ! You like flowers, but did you ever see any one so lovely as this? Smell it, — 'tis so sweet that the rose, if growing near it, loses its beauty and fragrance, from envy of its rival." Certainly I thought she was bewitched. It was a glaring, large, red bough, full of blowzy blossoms, and yellow berries, with a musky foetid odour. " Why," I exclaimed, " you have as much reason to be jealous of old Kamalia, your nurse, as the rose to be jealous of such a scraggy bramble as this ! Faugh ! the smell makes me sick." I suppose I was instigated to make this rude speech by her fondling and kissing it. Her dark eyes expanded ; and she seemed, for an instant, to view me with astonish- ment, then with sorrow ; as they closed, I perceived that their brightness was gone, and the long jetty fringe, which arched upwards as it pressed her cheek, was covered ivith little pearly dew-drops. The branch fell from her hand under my feet, her sprightly form drooped, and the tones A YOUNGER SON. 213 of her voice reminded me of the time when she hung over her dying parent as she said^ " Pardon me, stranger ! I had forgotten you are not of my father's land. This tree covered my father's tent, sheltered us from the sun, and kept away the flies, when we slept in the day. Our virgins wreathe it in their hair ; and, if they die, it is strewn over their graves. So, I can't help loving it better than any thing. But, since you say it makes you sick, I won't love it, or gather it any more." Then her words became almost inarticulate from sobbing, as she added, " Why should I wear it now.? I belong to a stranger! My father is gone ! " I need scarcely say that I not only returned the flowers, and pleaded my ignorance ; but I went up the hill, and pulled up the tree by the roots. " Sweet sister," said I, " I was only angry with it because you abused the fa- voured tree of our country, the rose. But now, as the sun shines on it, and I see it nearer," — looking at her, — " I do think the rose may envy it, as the loveliest of my countrywomen might envy you. I '11 plant it in our garden." "' O, how good you are!" she exclaimed; "and I '11 plant a rose near it, and they shall mingle their sweets ; for our love and care of them will make them live together with- out envy. Every thing should love each other. I love every tree, and fruit, and flower." Still I observed, as her thin robes were disarranged, that her little downy bosom fluttered like an imprisoned bird panting for liberty; and, to turn her thoughts from what had pained her, I said, " Do not fear, dear Zela. That is the last stream we have to cross ; and then we shall ride over that beautiful plain." '' O, stranger!" she repUed, " Zela never feared any thing, but her father, when angry ; and then, those who feared not to gaze on the lightning, when all the world appeared to be on fire, feared to look in his face. Then his voice was louder than the thunder, and his lance deadHer than the thunderbolt. Last evening, when you talked to that tall man, who is so gentle, you looked Hke my father ; and I thought you were going to kill him, and I wanted to tell you not; for I have read his eyes, and he loves p 3 214 ADVENTURES OP you much. It is very bad to be angry with those that love us." " Oh^ you mean Aston ! No, dear, I was not angry with liim. I love him too. AV^e %vere talking of the horrid cruelties practised on the poor slaves here ; and I was angry at that." " I wish I knew your language ! How I should have loved to hear you ! And then I should have slept ; but being ignorant of that, I did nothing but weep, because I thought I saw you angry with one that loves you." De Ruyter now came up, and we suddenly stood on the elevated plain, called Vacois, in the centre of the island. Our ascent had been very abrupt, winding, and rugged. Before us, in the middle of the plain, on which we now rodcj was the pyramidical mountain I have already noticed, under the name of Piton du Milieu. Inclining to our right was the port and town of St. Louis. To the south were large plains, in rich vegetation, divided by a fine river, with one solitary hill. To the north were other plains, inclining to the sea, white, as if the briny waters had recently receded from them, and only partially cultivated with sugar-canes, indigo, and^ in the marshy spots, with rice. From south to east it was volcanic and mountainous_, with jungle and ancient forests. The north-east was, for the most part, level. The plain, where we were, was full of little sheets of deep war, forming themselves into pretty lakes ; which^ overflowing during the heavy rains, at times made the plain swampy, and ever overgrown with canes, reeds, and gigantic grass. Such was the diversified and beautiful scenery now disclosed, as the sun, having risen above the mountains in the east, dissipated the yellow mists, and laid bare the hitherto obscured beauties of this divine island, like a virgin unrobed for bathing. We alighted under the shade of a group of the rose-apple trees, which seemed to have drawn a charmed circle round a solitary oak, on the brink of a lake, clear as a diamond, and apparently of amazing depth, the golden Chinese fish sporting on its surface, and green, yellow, and blue dra- gon-flies darting here and there above it. The modest wood-pigeon and dove, disturbed in their morning ablu- A YOUNGER SOX. 215 tions, flew away to the woods. The gray partridge ran into the vacour^ which stood in thick lines on the brink, impene- trable from its long fibrous leaves, standing ofit like a pha- lanx of lances. The water-hens dived, and the parrots chattered on the trees, as if they had been peopled with scolding married women; whilst the sluggish baboon sat, ■with portly belly, gormandising with the voracity and gravity of a monk, regardless of all but the stuffing of his insatiable maw with bananas. We were told that there were, in this lake, prawns as big as lobsters, and eels of incredible size, from fifteen to twenty feet long. The two principal rivers took their rise from this plain, augmenting in their course by the tribute of an infinity of streamlets ; till swollen into bulk and strength, hke two rival monarchs, they ran parallel for a while, trying to outvie each other in pomp and velocity, springing over their rocky beds. After sortie distance they separated to the right and left, and passed through their different districts, to pay, in their turn, tribute to the mightier ocean. CHAPTER XIV. The oak Expanding its immeasurable arms Embraces the hght beech. The pyramids Of the tall cedar, overarching, frame Most solemn domes within ; and far below. Like clouds suspended in an emerald sky. The ash and the acacia floating hang, Tremulous and pale. The parasites, Starr'd with ten thousand blossoms, flow around The grey trunks. Shelley. After the senses were satiated by the matchless beauties of nature, our grosser appetites prevailed, craving some of her solid bounties. Fish, fruits, and other simple fare, a sailor's greatest luxury, were spread out in abundance. We devoured them with truly sacerdotal zeal. Meanwhile, p 4 2l6 ADVENTURES OP the odour of citrons, raspberries, guavas, wild mangoes, and strawberries, with countless herbs and aromatic plants and shrubs, ascending up the valley with the morning dew, filled us with exquisite sensations of delight. My limbs, light and elastic, impelled me to believe I could have outrun the deer, which, from time to time, we saw crossing the opening glades, and dashing into the coverts. A portion of the pleasure I felt infused itself into the mind of Zela. This was the first time we had eaten bread and salt together. As I remarked it to her, she smiled, and said, " Yes, now we must be friends I And, if you keep our country's customs, you must not even frown on me, your guest, till the sun shall set, and again dawn." While strolling together, and gathering flowers, I I questioned her respecting their classification, — not the botanical, but the oriental one of love ; but De Ruyter soon halooed us to horse. We left the lake on our right, skirted the base of Piton du Milieu, over a volcanic soil of pulverized cinders, and, by gentle descents, proceeded towards the south. Again we were among mountains, passing green lawns, and marshes overgrown with vitti-vert (which is used for thatching), fern, marshmallows, waving bamboos, and wild tobacco. We saw plantations of the manioc (bread- fruit), maize, sweet potatoes, the cotton-tree, the sugar- cane, coffee, and cloves. Then we crossed rocky channels of clear rippling water, hedged by dwarf oaks and the dusky-coloured olive, underneath which flourished the dark-green fig-tree, with its strawberry-red marrowy fruit, bared by the bursting of its emerald-green rind. Here the majestic palmiste towered grandly alone, crowned with its first, tardy, and only fruit ; and when deprived of that diadem, like earthly monarchs, it perishes. We penetrated the wild native woods, where grew the iron-wood tree, the oak, the black cinnamon, the apple, the acacia, the tama- rind, and the nutmeg. Our path was arched by wild vines, jessamine, and a multitude of deep scarlet-blos- somed creepers, so thickly interlaced in their living cordage, that neither sun nor storm could penetrate them ; or if a wandering beam found entrance through the thick A YOUNGER SON. 217 natural trellice-woik, it was only enough to cover some little tuft of violets or strawberries, its own offspring, growing up in its genial warmth with a -strength and vigour pre-eminent amidst the pale and sickly brood of the neglected children of the shade. Nothing I had ever imagined of the lovehness of nature equalled the reality of these scenes. Among such fairy haunts, created for a sylvan people, we appeared intruders ; and, for the first time, methought De Ruyter's and Aston's voices were harsh, and their manly figures and weather-strained brows, out of keeping: they would be more in their places, I thought, on the armed deck of a ship, or leading men to battle. I could in no manner so group them as to make them keep tone, or preserve the harmony of the scene. The most favourable view that could be taken of them, was to regard them as wood-demons, jungle admee (wild men), ourang-outangs, or centaurs. The old nurse, Kama- Ha, who, with two black slaves, brought up the rear, I was so convinced was a sybil or sorceress, with her attend- ant demons, ready to execute her horrible enchantments, that I began to wish myself out of the gloom of the forests, and to long once more to be in the sun, however scorching; and when Zela pulled in her horse, and the old dark hag approached with her blacks, I grasped hold of his bridle, and urged him on, anticipating every instant to see Zela transformed into a white fawn, bounding into the density of the woods, and myself and all the others into great black dogs, doomed to hunt her, without pause, for a hundred moons. My fears were a little dissipated, as, clinging firmer on her horse, for its sudden motion, as she was looking up, had almost thrown her, she said, "O, let me go— I shall fall! — and I want to speak to old Kamalia, to ask her what these beautiful red flowers are on the top of that tree. And, see ! they are not blossoms, but little scarlet birds, and you have frightened them all away !" I, laughingly, acquainted Zela with my thoughts. She laughed too, and inquired — " But what do you think I am ?" " You, dear, are the gentle Ariel, the fairy sprite of the 218 ADVENTURES OP place. This wood should be your dwelling-place, your empire : nothing human, — for every thing human is dashed with evil, — should find an entrance. Elemental walls should incage you ; and you should live, like the bee and those bright birds, on the sweets of herbs and flowers." " Yes, but I should not wish to live alone ; nor could I be happy if imprisoned, though in the sweetest place, for then it would be no longer sweet." " Then, dearest, I would attend on you as your slave." " O, no, no, no, there shall be no slaves : did you not say so ."* " Our path now became wider and hghter, and we emerged from dark shade into an open plain, almost blinding us with dazzling brightness. As we crossed a river, by a rustic bridge, I thought I recognised De Ruyter's hand in the construction. Again ascending a zig-zag path, we mounted, amongst groups of trees and shrubs, to an ele- vated platform, on which stood the house and gardens of De Ruyter, I shouted with delight to Aston^ who was behind me — " See, here it is — here is our house : it must be so; for who but De Ruyter would have ever discovered so match- less a spot to build a dwelling on ? I told you so: every thing we have hitherto passed is nothing in beauty to this ; and, possessing this, what else can a man desire ; for here is every beauty in nature drawn together to make it per- fect." " It is indeed!" answered Aston, looking at the situ- ation, and gazing round at the extensive view over the island, " it is perfection ! " "Come, come, dismount," said De Ruyter; "you'll have time enough to examine this. It is now the hottest hour of the day. Your husband," turning to Zela, " is fit only for a wandering santon of the desert ; see, he has selected the most unsheltered place he could find, to have the full benefit of the sun. Look at him, he is unturban- ing ! He would be a saint among the Raypoots — the sun's offspring ! " Zela came up to my side, and gently said, " Do not stand in the sun, for it is very bad now. Look ! aU the A YOUNGER SON. 219 blossoms and flowers shrink from it, and, shutting their eyes, they sink into the shadow of the leaves ; and they too droop despondingly. And all the prefty birds and insects are gone to sleep in the woods. No animal is stirring abroad when the sun is in the middle of heaven. Every thing sleeps ; even the wind is gone to sleep, in those holes and caverns we saw on the shore. Nothing but the malignant little fly is awake ; he now collects his venom in the poisonous exhalations, to torment the night with his war-cry, whilst he stabs with his lance, and frightens sleep away. He is the bad spirit, and sleep is the good. Come away ; the captain says so, and you mind him more than me." A very pretty description of the sand- fly tribe, thought I, as we dismounted under a viranda, and were led by De Ruyter into the house. It had a double row of Persian blinds all round, which completely excluded the sun, and let in the air. The centre hall, comprising nearly half the house, had a flag pavement, with a stream of the clearest water, hurrying through a little channel, which filled an oval basin in the middle, and then a large bathing tank in the garden-grounds, serving also for irrigation. It afterwards formed a cascade, and leaped from crag to crag, till it reached its parent river, whose waters could be heard from the window, murmuring beneath us. De Ruyter had cut, upwards in the moun- tain, to the source of one of the springs, which he thus brought down into his house and grounds. Round the centre hall were low, broad, cushioned seats ; and on its walls Indian and European weapons of the chace, mingled w^ith drawings and rustic implements. Zela and her at- tendants were shown into one of the wings, over which was written, in Persian characters, •' The Zennanah." " This was a whim of the artist," said De Ruyter, " who arranged and painted the interior; for your lady is the first who, as far as I know, ever entered it." Then, showing Aston his room, he turned to me, and continued : "^ As for you, a walled room cannot contain your wandering spirit. So we must leave you to rove about after your restless fashion ; — I know you will do so. 220 ADVENTURES OP whether permitted or not. If you want any thing, clap your hands ; then, if they are real wants, they will be satisfied. As to luxuries, I have avoided the taint of the climate ; yet nothing is prohibited, for that defeats its object, and sets a value on shadows. AVhen the gong sounds one, you will find tiffin in the hall." CHAPTER XV. We gaze and turn away, and know not where, Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart Keels with its fulness. With these words he left us to ourselves, and Aston exclaimed, " What can he mean by luxuries ? Can the world produce such as these, to my mind the most exqui- site that man can conceive ? " " I think we may contrive," I replied, " not being very fastidious in these matters, to rough it here." "Yes," he rejoined; "and when we leave it, every thing else will appear rough and musky as an Irish hut." Thus chatting, strolling about the hall, and just sallying out, the gong sounded. All but Zela appeared. " We shall find you," said De Ruyter to me, " but a droning sort of comrade, unless the queen bee makes her appear- ance ; so let her be entreated to wave the customs of her country, and follow ours, — at least in this. In most others I like hers best." A woman was called and sent to her. After some demur Zela entered, and, placing her on a couch, for she had never sat on a chair, I placed myself by her. Ad- mirable were her little tapering fingers in eating. Their beauty was destroyed by an ugly iron prong, which she essayed in vain to use. I begged her to teach me her way ; but, instead of separating grains of rice, as she could, with fingers, it was impossible to separate the rice from A YOUNGER SON. 221 the wing of fowl in a curry. I was compelled to shovel them both in my mouth together. Zela, with still some difficulty, consented to accompany us in our evening stroll. She retired, and we reclined on the couches round the hall, with coffee and callians, gazing on the water, which, in its shadowed channel, looked hke a mirror in a marble frame. Too happy to express our feelings, we did not talk, but sat musing, till we found reUef in sleep. On awaking, we washed in basins placed on stone benches by the stream. A drink was brought, of iced water, with the compressed juice of the freshly plucked pomegranate ; and a little filagreed basket of fruit and sweetmeats. Then again restoring the fine tone of the palate with coffee, whose fragrance filled the hall, we once more smoked our callians, till the sun was sinking behintl a mountain, and the breeze came from the sea, when we sent for Zela. At her appearance we went into the grounds about the house, and ascended, by a gentle acclivity, in shaded and embowered paths, to a summer-room exactly of the form and colour of a marquee. Here was a commanding view of the principal beauties of the island, the sea, and the entire port of Bourbon. Zela cried out, " There is the ship ! — close below us, — not more than five miles off! " And, with the telescope, I fancied I could see Louis le Grand busily handhng the turtle, under the awning on deck. I sat down on a projecting crag, above a deep chasm, with my eyes riveted on the light and winged movements of Zela, who was flitting about, like a bee or bird, from tree to flower, examining nicely into each scent and quality. Elegant motion, graceful bearing, and bashful yet unem- barrassed address, are to be found in perfection in the East. Nature, as if fearing the rivalry of art, or indignant at its presumption, or disdaining to contend with so feeble a foe, or disgusted that her choicest, best gifts are despised, tortured, and distorted into unseemly shapes in what is called civilised communities, has withdrawn from populous cities to the desert and the lonely mpuntains, her own 222 ADVENTURES OF loved haunts ; and there she dwells, sporting with her favoured offspring, the ring-dove, the antelope, and the barb. A child of the desert is like a vine in the wilder- ness, spreading its leafy tendrils in profusion ; although, in comparison to the same plant cultivated and pruned, it yields but a scanty vintage, it is more beautiful, hanging in flowing ringlets on the heads of forest trees, than clipped and confined to hedge- stakes. The vine and the olive are children of the hills and sands, nurtured by sunbeams. The desert-horse and antelope are the fleetest and most beautiful. That majestic king of birds, the plumage of which waves over tlie jewelled diadems of human kings, and nods in triumph over a royal hearse, inhabits the sandy wastes. The richest fruits, the sweetest flowers, the balmiest air, the brightest and purest water, are found amidst rocks and sands, nursed in solitude and liberty ; and there man communes with God and nature till, in love and Avorship, his feelings are almost divine. There, too, I have seen her virgins — and Zela was one of these — untaught as her wildest children, whose exquisite loveliness shamed the Grecian sculptor's art, his measured lines and cold proportions, by beauties such as inspiration, with the perfection of science, could never dream to trace. 1 have gazed on their forms, features, and expression, blending and harmonising together, till the over-excited senses, all concentrated into one, have so fascinated my being, that I have become faint with unendurable delight, and my heart, overflowing with its delicious sensations, sought relief in sighs and tears. "VFhat eye so stony, that meets their arrowy glance darting through the brain, could scrutinise its colour or measure its lines, to see if it were of the Grecian or Roman mould ? The owl might as well at- tempt to gaze undazzled at the sun. It was only in Zela's absence that I could dwell on her portraiture. She had just turned her fourteenth year ; and though certainly not considered, even in the East, as matured, yet, forced like a flower, fanned by the sultry west wind, into early development, her form, like its petals bursting through the bud, gave promise of the rarest beauty and sweetness. Nurtured in the shade, her hue A YOUNGER SON. 223 was pale ; but, contrasted with the date- coloured women about her, the soft and transparent clearness of her com- plexion was striking ; and it was heightened' by clouds of the darkest hair. She looked like a solitary star unveiled in the night. The breadth and depth of her clear and smooth forehead were partly hidden by the even silky line from which the hair arose, fell over in rich profusion, and added to its brightness; as did the glossy, well-defined eye-brow, boldly crossing the forehead, shghtly waved at the outer extremities, but not arched. Her eyes were full, even for an orientalist, but neither sparkling nor promi- nent; soft as the thrush's. It was only when moved by joy, surprise, or sorrow, that the star-Hke iris dilated and ghstened, and then its effect was most eloquent and ma- gical. The distinct ebon-lashes which curtained them were singularly long and beautiful ; and when she slept, they pressed against her pale cheeks, and w-ere arclied up- wards. That portion of the eye generally of a pearly white- ness in hers was tinted with a light shade of blue, like the bloom on a purple grape, or the sky seen through the morning rnist. Her mouth was harmony and love ; her face was small and oval, with a wavy outline of ineffable grace descending to her smooth and unruffled neck, thence sweUing at her bosom, which was high, and just developing into form. Her limbs were long, full, and rounded ; her motion was quick, but not springy — light as a zephyr. As she then stood canopied beneath the dense shade of that sacred Hindoo tree, with its drooping foliage hanging in clusters round her, in every clasped and sensitiveleaf of which a fairy is said to dwell, I fancied she was their queen, and must have dropped from one of the leaves, to gambol and wanton among the flowers below. Runnin