The 
 
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 THE EMIGRANT SHIP.
 
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 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/emigrantship01russ
 
 THE EMIGEANT SHIP 
 
 W. CLAEK RUSSELL 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 'THK WRECK OF THE GROSVENOK," "JACK'S COURTSHIP," ETC. 
 
 IN TEBEE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 
 
 LIMITED, 
 
 Sii, 19unjitan'0 ?l?ou0j, 
 
 Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.G. 
 1893. 
 
 [All rights reserved.l
 
 LONDOK : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFOliD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
 V.I 
 
 TO 
 MY VALUED FRIEND 
 
 MAJOK-GENEKAL PATRICK MAXWELL, 
 
 SOLDIER AND SCHOLAR.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 I. Blathford ... ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. Kate Darnley ... ... ... 14 
 
 III. Captain Cadman ... ... ... 24 
 
 IV. Mate of the "Hebe" ... ... 43 
 
 V. The "Hebe" sails ... ... ... 64 
 
 VI. A Difficulty ... ... ... 81 
 
 VIL A Plot ... ... ... ... 100 
 
 VIII. The Great Salvage Watering Scheme 118 
 
 IX. The Salvages ... ... ... 135 
 
 X. The Barilla-Cutter ... ... 158 
 
 XL Blades of the "Caroline" ... ... 179 
 
 XII. The "Earl of Leicester" ... 204 
 
 XIII. Trapped ... ... ... ... 225 
 
 XIV. Brigstock's Story ... 242 
 XV. An Unexpected Meeting ... ... 263
 
 THE EMIGRANT SHIP- 
 
 CH2VPTER I. 
 
 BLATHFORD. 
 
 '' Stop ! " said I. 
 
 "Wo ! " cried the driver. 
 
 The old horse, clanking in its harness like 
 a chain topsail sheet in a squall, halted, and 
 I mounted upon my sea-chest in the cart to 
 take a view of the scene. 
 
 The month was early August, the year 
 1850. The afternoon was beautiful and 
 rich, with a sky full of large, low-floating 
 clouds, which, as they grew, gave their white 
 breasts to the kisses of the hill-tops. On one 
 side ran a mile or two of level meadows, 
 painted with red and biindled cows and 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 2 7^77^ EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 white sheep. Afar glanced a dusty road, 
 snaking past masses of trees to the summit 
 of a green hill. I caught sight of the olive 
 and purple light of the river, and the distant 
 fields were studded with haystacks like giant 
 toadstools. A soft air blew over the country ; 
 to my salt-hardened nostrils the sweets it 
 brought seemed to combine into one marvel- 
 lous perfume of raspberry. 
 
 Do you want to know how refreshing and 
 fair beyond all prospects of meadow, hill 
 and valley which this great world has to 
 offer, is an English landscape viewed on an 
 August afternoon, when the land is piebald 
 with the blue shadows of clouds, and when 
 the wind in the trees cools the hot buzz of 
 the bluebottle with a quiet seething as of 
 expiring foam ? Come to it after three 
 years and some months of coarse seafaring ! 
 
 "Go on," said I to the carter. 
 
 " Jee oop ! " cried the man, fetching the 
 stern of his horse a friendly thump with a 
 truncheon. Again the old brass-bound, 
 chain-laden harness rattled ; the wheels 
 creaked. I emptied my pipe, and sat me
 
 BLATEFOBD. 3 
 
 upon my sea-chest. We bad but a short 
 distance to go. I stared with devouring 
 eyes. We rumbled down a lane, and then 
 into a kind of village street. Well knew 
 I the house that slighted the neighbourhood 
 by giving its blank back to the public high- 
 way, and its face of fragrant windows and 
 pleasant porch to its own green, sweet-smell- 
 ing grounds behind the wall ; also the dirty 
 little cottage with two leering windows and a 
 paralyzed door, and the dirtier little cottage 
 beside it, remarkable only for not having 
 been the birthplace of a poet : also the stone 
 dog's head spouting a stream of crystal water 
 into a trough, and the white-faced inn with 
 a faded portrait of Lord Nelson hanging 
 over a blackbird's wicker cage which shook 
 with loud melody as I passed. I seemed 
 likewise to remember the yellow cur that 
 eyed us from the doorway of the Nelson inn. 
 I recollected its manner of wagging every- 
 thing about its hinder parts but its stump 
 of tail. The mob of hens opposite the little 
 cottage, faced by three yews trimmed into 
 a likeness of immense teetotums, were also
 
 4 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 familiar ; particularly the large black rooster 
 which lay in the dust with one leg forked 
 out under one wing. 
 
 We rounded the corner, and I saw the 
 church on my right, the white tombstones 
 in its shadow, and the red flao^ of the English 
 merchant service floating from the short 
 mast on the top of tiie tower. Here was 
 a beautiful lane with a fine avenue of trees 
 which carried the eye to the thickly wooded 
 hillside a mile beyond. The cart rumbled 
 me a little way past the church, and then 
 the driver stopped at a gate. A tall hedge 
 went on either hand that gate, and be- 
 hind the hedge and through the trees you 
 caught with difficulty a glimpse of an old- 
 fashioned house, with a red roof and bur- 
 nished windows darkly shining amongst 
 creepers. 
 
 Scarcely had I jumped out of tlie cart 
 when the gate was opened, and in a moment 
 my father was straining me to his heart. 
 A few moments later my mother was hold- 
 ing me by both hands, kissing me, and 
 exclaiming in her delight, and stepping
 
 BLATEFORD. O 
 
 backwards to look at me, only to give me 
 another hug. 
 
 My father was the Reverend Joseph 
 Morgan ; this parish was Blathford, and 
 he was vicar of it. His church stood nearly 
 opposite his house ; St. John's it was called. 
 He had lived twenty years in the place. 
 His face was beautiful with benevolence ; 
 he was now about sixty years of age, very 
 grey, his smile slow and sweet, his figure 
 tall and wonderfully erect. His living was 
 a beggarly yield, and he was a poor man ; 
 the poorer by reason of his having to main- 
 tain a married daughter by his first wife 
 who had died in giving birth to the child. 
 And that is one reason why I went to sea. 
 
 The carter shouldered my sea-chest, and 
 with my mother's hand in mine, I followed 
 my father into the house. We went into 
 the dining-room, and as we entered, a girl 
 standing in the window turned her face 
 to us. 
 
 *' Kate, dear," said my mother, taking me 
 up to her, " this is my son Charles, fresh 
 from sea. Think, Kate ! we have not seen
 
 h THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 him, as you know, for three years and tliree 
 months." 
 
 She then introduced me to the girl, Jkliss 
 Kate Darnley. I had met her father once ; 
 he was a parson, and lived at Bristol ; he was 
 very poor, I recollect, but got along with the 
 help of a trifling annuity topped by an occa- 
 sional call to preach a sermon or take duty, 
 as it is termed, for which he received a guinea 
 or two. Kate was in mourning ; the melan- 
 choly, depressing attire told me I need not 
 ask what had become of her father. We 
 shook hands, and I looked in her face and 
 admired her. She was dark, with a great 
 plenty of black hair, a soft blushing com- 
 plexion, and large sparkling black eyes. My 
 mother went out to see after my chest. 
 
 *' I told Wilkinson to hoist the ensign," 
 said my father. " It is the only parish 
 welcome I can offer." 
 
 The table was laid for a late dinner, an 
 alarming departure in the habits of my 
 primitive parents. 
 
 " This is worth going to sea to enjoy, Miss 
 Darnley," said I, looking round the pleasant
 
 BLATEFORD. 7 
 
 little room. How familiar the low ceiling, 
 the high mantelpiece, the great picture of 
 my paternal grandfather (dressed in a red 
 coat, and leaning with one hand upon a 
 cannon), hanging over the ancient dark 
 sideboard which had come sliding into 
 Blathford Yicarage through five generations 
 of my mother's people ! 
 
 " Call her Kate," said my father. 
 
 But here my mother stepped in to carry 
 me upstairs, where more hugging happened ; 
 and though we talked swiftly, our conversa- 
 tion ran ns into half an hour. 
 
 " Charlie, you have grown." 
 
 "I have broadened just one inch, but I 
 have not risen by the dark of a finger-nail. 
 It is nearly all stooping with us sailors ; it 
 curves our spines, and so we're called shell- 
 backs. Kate Darnley's a pretty girl, rather." 
 
 " Poor Kate ! She is very much to be 
 pitied. Her father died, and left her with 
 only a few pounds. She was forced to go 
 out as a governess ; but she found so much 
 difficulty in obtaining a situation that she 
 had serious thoughts of becoming a domestic
 
 8 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 servant. Only think of Kate, who is really 
 a charming refined lady, as a housemaid ! " 
 
 *' Where does she live ? " 
 
 " About thirty miles away. The family 
 gave her a holiday, and we invited her here 
 for a few days. She stays till next Monday. 
 How battered your sea-chest is ! " 
 
 '^ That's through cutting plug tobacco 
 upon it.'' 
 
 " Do you want any money, dear ? " 
 
 '' I have plenty." 
 
 '' Plenty ! Well, come." 
 
 I pulled a leather bag full of sovereigns 
 and notes out of my pocket, and plumped the 
 treasure down upon the dressing-table. 
 
 " There's above three years' pay there," 
 said I, '' less slop-chest and other deductions." 
 
 "It's hardly earned money, my poor boy,'' 
 said she, taking my face in her hands, and 
 kissing me again. '' How often have I 
 prayed for you on stormy nights ! " 
 
 " And perhaps we at the same time were 
 praying in the speech of sailors, for a little 
 of the wind that was making you uneasy. 
 How is old Perkins ? Is little fat Miss
 
 BLATEFORD. 9 
 
 Smithers married yet ? How is the congre- 
 gation getting on ? Does the plate come 
 back heavier after its sabbath round ? No 
 more buttons, I hope, and sixpences taken 
 out as change for threepenny-bits." 
 
 ** It's a struggle," said my mother ; and so 
 we talked. 
 
 I stood abreast of a sheet of looking-glass 
 in a wardrobe, and got a good view of myself. 
 This is seldom Jack's privilege. He shaves 
 in an inch or two of cracked mirror, and 
 knows not what figure he cuts till he steps 
 ashore. I was a great lump of a man for 
 my three and twenty years ; not fat — no ! 
 there is nothing in the harness-cask to run 
 the body into blubber. I was a large shape 
 of tough muscle from neck to heel, and when 
 I flung my weight on a halliard or a sheet, 
 it was to leave but little more for the fellows 
 to do than gather in the slack. And yet, 
 when my father had put me to sea as a boy 
 of fourteen, the captain might have drawn 
 me through the neck of his whisky-bottle ! 
 I was burnt black with the sun ; my eyes 
 were a dark blue and mv hair a dark brown.
 
 10 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 I had packed some new clothes in my chest 
 at Bristol, but still wore the things I had 
 come ashore in, and so showed somewhat 
 raggedly like, indeed, the end of a mighty 
 long voyage ; but on my mother's going I 
 smartened myself up ; I shaved and shifted 
 me to the shoes on my feet, and when I 
 joined them in the parlour I was a new man 
 in my fresh linen and shore-going togs. 
 
 At the table I did most of the talk. It is 
 a narrow horizon that bounds scarce more 
 than hens and a churchyard and a village 
 pump ; yet life goes but little beyond such 
 things in the old parish of Blathford. I 
 spoke of the ports I had visited, described 
 icebergs and gales of wind, the whale 
 spouting its fountain to the moon under the 
 line, and the captured albatross ofi* the Horn 
 w\i\\ a missive from a shipwrecked company 
 under its wing. M}^ mother could not eat 
 for listening ; Kate Darnley's black eyes 
 glowed as they fastened themselves upon me ; 
 sometimes my father smiled, and occasionally 
 an expression of incredulity mingled with 
 the sweetness of his looks.
 
 BLATHFORD. ll 
 
 " Oil, that I were a man ! " cried out Kate, 
 dropping her knife and fork to clasp her 
 white hands on a level with her face. 
 
 " Yes, indeed ! " said my mother. *' A 
 young man." 
 
 " Would you be a sailor ? " I asked. 
 
 "Not I. Oh no, Mr. Morgan; I would 
 travel and see the world, and settle in the 
 best part of it ; which certainly is not 
 England," answered the girl. 
 
 " How long are you ashore for, Charles ? " 
 asked my father. 
 
 " Haven't you heard the news ? " said I. 
 
 " What ? " cried my mother eagerly. 
 
 " Old John Back's dead, and his ^wq ships 
 are sold. His son's realized everything, 
 down to the oldest of the office-stools, and 
 has gone abroad to live. The firm's at an 
 end — knocked clean into staves. A pity, for 
 I've been counting all this voyage on old 
 Johnny giving me command next time." 
 
 " I had heard that old Mr. Back was ill," 
 said my father, '' but had no idea he was 
 dead. Poor old Mr. Back ! He received us 
 very kindly when we called upon him at
 
 12 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 Bristol. But existence at BlathforJ is the 
 life of an oyster. Little or nothing of news 
 drains through the shell of the placid ^^ear." 
 
 " Well, dear, here is a comfortable home 
 for you," said my mother. 
 
 " I shall spend some time with you," said 
 I. " ' Mean viles I keeps mine vedder eye 
 lifting,' as Yon says. I'll stop till I've passed 
 as master. I deserve command, and mean 
 to get it if I can. And after such a sicken- 
 ing spell of brine as I'm fresh from, a few 
 weeks or even months of the scent of the 
 milkmaid '11 not hurt me." 
 
 After dinner I went to my chest, and 
 brought down some trifles of curiosities. I 
 gave Kate Darnley a Chinese silver brooch, 
 and I had not guessed how pretty she was 
 till she thanked me for the flimsy fal-lal. It 
 was the first night of my home-coming after 
 a long absence, even as seafaring then went, 
 and my father and mother sat up in 
 celebration till eleven o'clock to " make a 
 night of it," as the dear souls said. ^ly 
 father smoked not, neither did he drink. I 
 did both ; so, too, did my father's curate, who
 
 BLATHFORD. 13 
 
 looked in at eight, to ask a question, and was 
 invited to remain, that a light supper might 
 he spread before him. This curate, as the 
 evening advanced, looked vrith animation at 
 Kate Darnley, and the ejaculations and 
 observations which my stories and recol- 
 lections provoked him into, he addressed 
 chiefly to her. But her ears and eyes were 
 mine that evening. My talk put a spirit 
 into her h)oks which attracted my calm 
 mother's notice. 
 
 After everybody was gone to bed, and I 
 sat alone smoking my last pipe, I could not 
 help thinking how great a pity it was that 
 so fine a young woman should be alone 
 in the world, obliged to get a living by 
 drudging as a governess, and with no brighter 
 prospect than marriage.
 
 14 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 KATE DARXLEY. 
 
 Ix this first week of my being at home I 
 never opened a book nor troubled myself 
 with a professional thought. I had received 
 a hundred and twenty pounds when I left 
 the barque Wanderer at Bristol ; the money 
 represented about forty months of service as 
 mate, less certain odds and ends of clothes 
 and advances. I was a sailor, but no sailor's 
 sailor ; without taste for the grog-shop and 
 the bulley-in-the-alley diversions. I hated 
 the Jack of the crimps, the salt and savage 
 pet and despair of tlie waterside missionary; 
 the hairy ruffian wlio, in fur cap aiid half 
 Wellingtons, with a hanging face and eyes 
 on fire with over-proof rum, lurches with 
 scowls and drunken yelps through the slums 
 of the dock and shipping districts.
 
 KATE DARNLEY. 15 
 
 The mere being in the country, with miles 
 of meadows and hedges betwixt one and the 
 wash of the breakers, betwixt one and the 
 sickening rattle of the lifting cranes of 
 the quayside, and the loud melancholy puke 
 of the capstan pawls, was a huge delight of 
 itself. I let the whole spirit of the country 
 sink into me by lounging and roaming about 
 after the manner of the poet Wordsworth, 
 who waited for sentimental ideas, wherever 
 he found a stile or a tombstone to sit upon, 
 rd lay for hours on my back in a field, with 
 my pipe stuck up out of my mouth and a straw 
 hat rakishly perched on my nose, and not 
 only forget that I was a sailor, but even that 
 I was a man, in watching the clouds slide 
 overhead, in smelling the sweets in the wind, 
 in hearkening to the buzzing, barking, low- 
 ing noises of the land. Yes, at such times 
 I was nearer being a daisy than a man, and 
 was certainly much more of a haystack than 
 a sailor. 
 
 I gave Kate Darnley a wide berth at the 
 start, conceiving that my father's curate had 
 a leaning that way, and that if I thrust in I
 
 IG TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 might lose her the chance of a husband. 
 But on hearing from my mother that the 
 curate was engaged to be married to a young 
 lady who lived at Manchester, who had been 
 waiting for him already two years, and who, 
 it seems, was willing to go on waiting for 
 the hopeful young man for ever, I made up 
 my mind that Kate should have a jolly time 
 of it during the few days she remained at 
 the Parsonage. I took her on the river 
 along with a basket filled with champagne 
 and good things, got by sending Farmer 
 Thompson's man in the gig over to a con- 
 siderable town of shops and streets ; thus we 
 spent one long day. I hired Thompson's 
 gig, and drove the girl about the country. 
 She wanted to see the ocean, and we went 
 by rail to a part of the coast that lay some 
 twenty miles from Blathford. Here there 
 would have been ocean enough to look at 
 had the tide made ; unhappily the sea kept 
 stubbornly low throughout our visit ; we saw 
 no more tlian a gleam of blue beyond the 
 miles of slimy mud. No marine prospect 
 was ever so little like the ocean. I laughed
 
 KATE DARNLEY. 17 
 
 J 
 
 at the efforts of the town in which we found 
 ourselves to give itself a marine character, 
 by boats which were seldom water-borne, by 
 a pier which was seldom water-washed. 
 The rocks looked artificial ; the boatmen 
 sprawled with the airs of London cabmen 
 disguised in fearnought breeches. Yet Kate's 
 dark eyes were eager and bright with 
 pleasure as she gazed at the distant streak 
 of blue salt water. 
 
 ** It is the horizon, at all events," she 
 exclaimed, " and behind it are all the wonders 
 you have told us about." 
 
 *' They are wonders until they are realized." 
 ''Nothing bears realization," she answered. 
 '' Heaven itself should disappoint if we are 
 to judge by what we find out down here." 
 She curled her lip, and her cheeks brightened 
 with red, as though to some sudden passion 
 of suppressed thought. After a minute, she 
 brought her eyes away from the distant sea- 
 line, and asked me if I could give her any 
 information about J^ustralia. 
 
 " What sort of information do you want ? " 
 " Tell me the parts you have visited." 
 
 VOL. I. c
 
 18 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 *' Sydney and Melbourne." 
 
 "What's to be done iu those cities, Mr. 
 Morgan ? " 
 
 " If you ask me what a man may do, I 
 answer all that may become him ; if he dares 
 do more, there's plenty to be done. Labour 
 that gets fifteen shillings a week here gets 
 ten shillings a day there. One of our crew 
 at Sydney went ashore overnight and did 
 not turn up in the morning. The skipper 
 charged the absent seaman's wages with the 
 ten shillings he paid to a labourer off the 
 Circular Quay. If I was a very young man 
 — which I am, by the way — and hated the 
 sea, I'd perpetrate the most harmless of the 
 crimes that are visited by transportation, and 
 get a free passage to the Antipodes, and a 
 large start in life on a ticket-of-leave." 
 
 "Would it not be as easy to emigrate?'' 
 said she, with a smile which made way 
 quickly for a grave, earnest look. 
 
 " I know more about convicts than emi- 
 grants," said I. ''The convict on his arrival is 
 provided with lodgings, food and occupation ; 
 I can't say what becomes of the emigrant."
 
 KATE DARNLEY. 19 
 
 " But many people of all sorts are every 
 year emigrating to America and Australia." 
 
 " Of a good many sorts." 
 
 " Fve heard of people who were as home- 
 less in this country as those clouds are up in 
 the sky there," said she, pointing upwards, 
 and following the direction of her finger with 
 her dark eyes, " finding a home and friends 
 in Australia, and prospering. Gentility is 
 no restriction in the colonies — is it ? " 
 
 " No restrictions are placed upon the little 
 that's exported," I answered. 
 
 " A gentleman, a lady, may do in Aus- 
 tralia what they would rather die than do 
 here." 
 
 ''Perhaps so," said I. "The snob long 
 ago saddled the British lion, and still rides 
 the beast, trampling on opportunity." 
 
 "• What chances do the Australian colonies 
 offer young women, Mr. Morgan?" 
 
 *' Marriage." 
 
 " T don't mean that." 
 
 '^ Are you thinking of emigrating ? " 
 
 " I would rather be a scullery-maid behind 
 that blue line there," said she, looking at the
 
 20 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 narrow sweep of dist;int water, '* than a 
 governess in this country." 
 
 I pitied the fine girl ; but held my peace. 
 
 " Where can one find out all about the 
 Australian colonies ? " she asked. 
 
 *' I'll inquire, and whatever is published 
 I'll send you." She thanked me. " Have 
 you any friends or relatives in Australia ? " 
 
 " None." 
 
 " None in England ? " 
 
 " None in the world. When my father 
 died, I was alone." With a sudden smile she 
 added, " I should not have said so much. 
 I have friends in your father and mother. 
 But they are not friends in the sense your 
 question implied." 
 
 ** Don't think of emigrating without taking 
 all the advice you can get, and without giving 
 the subject plenty of thought." 
 
 She bit her lip and clasped her hands 
 behind her, and slightly swayed her body 
 as though advice vexed her. Then with 
 another of her quick smiles she asked me 
 if I could tell her how emigrants are treated 
 at sea, what sort of ships they are despatched
 
 KATE DARN LEY. 21 
 
 in, the cost of the passage, a person's require- 
 ments in respect of clothes and the like, how 
 long the voyage occupied, how many of a 
 company were put into one ship ? 
 
 I was able to answer some of these ques- 
 tions, and our conversation on this subject 
 ended only when we had entered a railway- 
 carriage and were in motion for Blathford. 
 
 In some of our rambles down to the day 
 of her leaving us, she talked again about 
 emigration and the opportunities a new 
 country offered to poor and friendless people ; 
 but never afterwards was she so much in 
 earnest as w^hen we had stood together look- 
 ing at the distant streak of sea. However, 
 in fulfilment of my promise, I wrote to a 
 firm in London, who sent me a book and 
 a letter full of information ; these reached 
 me on the day of her leaving us, and she 
 thanked me gratefully, and packed them in 
 her box. 
 
 I drove her to the station in old Thomp- 
 son's gig, and was sorry to part with her. 
 She and I had been much together during 
 her few days of holiday. I admired her,
 
 22 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 liked her manners and looks, and relished 
 her talk, which often tasted to the palate of 
 my mind like a sliarp and yet a sweet and 
 pleasant wine to one's lips. And then, again, 
 I felt sorry for the poor girl who was going 
 forth into a friendless life out of the repose and 
 gentle pleasures and simple affections of such 
 a home as she had passed her little holiday in. 
 Well, I bade her good-bye and drove home, 
 and I am bound to say that after she had 
 been gone two or three days, she went clean 
 out of my head. Indeed, I had something 
 else to think of. I held a mate's certificate, 
 and not very much more knowledge than 
 that spoke to was needed to qualify me 
 for a captain — yet the little involved some 
 study — and to make sure of myself I went 
 two or three times a week down to Bristol 
 to read in navigation, and do other nautical 
 work with an old retired sea-captain. At 
 the end of two months from the date of my 
 arrival home, I presented myself and easily 
 passed. This was in 1850. Certificates 
 of competency were made compulsory in 
 January 1851.
 
 KATE DARNLEY. 23 
 
 But passing was not getting employment. 
 For some considerable while nothing better 
 than a second mate's post fell in my way. 
 Not till the month of February which brought 
 me into the year 1851 was I successful in 
 finding a situation, though I had looked 
 about me in the London Docks as well as in 
 Bristol.
 
 24 THE EMIGRANT SHIP, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 CAPTAIN CADMAN. 
 
 It fell out thus. I was on a visit in the last- 
 named city to my old friend the sea-captain 
 whom I had read with. He rented a com- 
 iortable small house near the docks. I had 
 come from Blathford in the morning, intend- 
 ing to make further inquiries after a ship, 
 and had looked in on Captain Bradford for 
 a yarn and a pipe, meaning to kill no more 
 than an hour. He asked me to stop and 
 take a cut of boiled beef with him and his 
 niece. Whilst I hesitated, questioning the 
 wisdom of letting slip good time by eating- 
 boiled beef with the skipper, till perhaps it 
 should be two o'clock in the afternoon, we 
 heard a knocking on the door, and Bradford's 
 niece looking in said, " Uncle, can you see 
 Captain Cadman ? "
 
 CAPTAIN CABMAN. 25 
 
 " Oh yes," says Bradford. " Walk in, 
 skipper ! " he called out, and Captain Cadman, 
 who stood in the passage, stepped into the 
 little parlour. 
 
 He was a tall man with reddish hair and 
 a reddish dye of skin that was yet not sun- 
 burn ; his eyes were small, his nose long and 
 pointed ; his beard trimmed so as to corre- 
 spond with the run of his nose — that is, it 
 stood out like a fan, the handle at you ; at 
 the full^ his elongated physiognomy shaped 
 itself into a very wedge of a face. In fact, 
 then, he had the look of a goat ; all the 
 meaning of him in his eyes. His legs were 
 extraordinarily long, his feet immense ; he 
 wore square-toed shoes, and his knees were 
 defined sharp as the joints of a pair of com- 
 passes, through his thin cloth trousers. His 
 body was wrapped up in a somewhat rusty 
 monkey-jacket. He threw a large black 
 soft hat upon a couch, and shook hands with 
 Captain Bradford. 
 
 I supposed he had looked in on some 
 private matter, and got up to go. 
 
 " Don't leave on my account, sir," said he
 
 26 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 m a high-pitched, not strong, but rather 
 greasy voice. " Bradford, I hope I don't 
 disturb you ? " 
 
 *' Sit down — there's no disturbance," replied 
 tlie other. 
 
 " I want your opinion. Here's Flaxman's 
 account. I'm not going to let Mr. Fletcher be 
 swindled. Now, if this ain't a swindle " 
 
 He pulled a folded paper from his side 
 pocket, and opened it into a long sheet full 
 of writing and figures. 
 
 "Mark the total. One eighty-eight — 
 thirteen — one. Where do the one come in ? 
 In one penn'orth of rope-yarn, is it ? " Here 
 he laughed ; and the noise was more like 
 the slopping of a cook's bucket of slush 
 drained over the side than any imaginable 
 explosion of human merriment. " Eun an 
 eye over the items," he continued. " What 
 was the valley of a t'gallant jewel-block in 
 your time ? And h'ant fids jumped since 
 you was born, if Flaxman don't tell lies, 
 which he's incapable of anything else. I'd 
 fit out a fifty -gun frigate, for — I was 
 agoing to say — almost half the money, and
 
 CAPTAIN CABMAN. 27 
 
 chuck in three suits of canvas for t'other 
 half." 
 
 '' Let me read — let me read ! " grumbled 
 Captain Bradford, putting on his spec- 
 tacles. 
 
 After a minute or two of silence, during 
 which Captain Cadman eyed me all over, 
 finally settling his eyes upon my face with 
 a critical, screwed-up, half-insinuating, half- 
 interrogating expression in them, he said — 
 
 ** A sailor, sir ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Pretty fresh ashore ? " 
 
 " Since August." 
 
 '' A long spell ! " he exclaimed, looking 
 me over again. " Took sick, perhaps ? " 
 
 " Never had a day's illness since I landed." 
 
 " 'Long to Bristol ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " What was your last ship, sir ? " 
 
 "The Wandererr 
 
 " D'ye mean old Back's barque ? " 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 " I'm in command of the little Hehe that 
 belonged to old Back," said he.
 
 28 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 " I know the vessel well. Getting on in 
 years though, isn't she, captain ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " he exclaimed, with his mirthless, 
 sloppy laugh, " don't ever mention the years 
 of a ship or a woman. Neither gets old. 
 Both can keep all on repairing, yer know." 
 
 All this while old Bradford was diligently 
 reading the rigger's account ; his square 
 white eyebrows knitted into a frown of deep 
 interest over his magnified eyes. 
 
 " You was away, I reckon," continued 
 Captain Cadman, " when old Back gasped 
 his last ? His vessels was put up, and Mr, 
 Fletcher bought the HeheT 
 
 " How much ? " 
 
 " 'Twixt you and me and the pump, sir, 
 for as much as she's worth. After she was 
 docked — Oh, my precious eyes ! " he raised 
 his hands, and groaned. '"' That," he con- 
 tinued, pointing to the document in Brad- 
 ford's hands, " is just a muskeety bite 
 compared to the great snake sting of the 
 whole boiling. New sheathing, new starn- 
 post, new wheel, twenty foot of new keel 
 amidships, new maintopmast "
 
 CAPTAIN CADMAN. 29 
 
 " Cadman," here said Captain Bradford, 
 putting the rigger's bill down upon the table. 
 " D'ye know, I don't think this so very 
 unreasonable. Why, I see he's put in a 
 complete set of lower fore-shrouds," and here 
 he named several items of ship's furniture. 
 
 Captain Cadman slowly shook his head. 
 
 '' Knock off thirty per cent, and robbery's 
 still the order of the day." 
 
 A discussion followed. Captain Bradford 
 selected a number of items, and justified 
 them by copious extracts from his own ex- 
 periences. Captain Cadman seemed to protest 
 with heat. I say seemed — he applied many 
 injurious words to the master-rigger : but 
 it struck me all the same that he was acting 
 a part. I guessed that Bradford and Flaxman 
 being friends, Cadraan's scheme was to get 
 the captain to use his influence with the 
 rigger to cheapen the bill, himself being 
 satisfied that the charges were just. After 
 awhile he put the bill in his pocket. Brad- 
 ford took a decanter of spirits out of a 
 cupboard, and the three of us drank to one 
 another. It was hard upon twelve o'clock
 
 30 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 in the morning, and I was still considering 
 whether or not to partake of my friend's 
 boiled beef, due, as I understood, at one. 
 
 '' When d ye sail, Cadman ? " said Brad- 
 ford, filling a ])ipe, and pushing the jar of 
 tobacco across the table. 
 
 " Tenth prox., all being well." 
 
 " Got a full cargo, I hope ? " 
 
 " Up to the knocker, as cargoes go. But 
 things are not as they was in your time, 
 Bradford." 
 
 " I've been down to the wash-streak before 
 now," said the old captain, with a slow smile. 
 " I've known what it is to crawl into the 
 rigging half-mast high in a gale of wind to 
 find out what's become of the ship." 
 
 " All smother and yeast high as the 
 sheer-poles. I know — I know," exclaimed 
 Cadman, whose voice seemed even more 
 gurgling and greasy now that he was 
 smoking. '' Them was the good times. Now 
 they're always a-coming." 
 
 "• What's your port ? " said Bradford. 
 
 " Table Bay. Mr. Fletcher goes with 
 
 us.
 
 CAPTAIN C ADMAN. 31 
 
 ''To look after you?" said Captain Brad- 
 ford, drily. 
 
 " For his health," answered Cadman. 
 
 " He'll be missed till he comes safe home," 
 said Captain Bradford, with an ironical cast 
 of face. " There'll be a little more naked- 
 ness, and a little more hunger in Bristol till 
 his light shines upon us once more. The 
 psalm won't go up quite so strong on the 
 sabbath, and there'll be one yellow composed 
 countenance, and one shining new black suit 
 of clothes, and a tall hat the less on Sundays 
 whilst that good man's missing." 
 
 Cadman, without moving his head, turned 
 his little eyes upon me. 
 
 " Is the Hehe the only vessel Mr. Fletcher 
 owns ? " I asked. 
 
 '' The only vessel," answered Cadman. 
 
 '* If you weren't in command, I'd ask Jem 
 Fletcher to give the charge to my young 
 friend here," said Captain Bradford. " He 
 wants a post, and's too good a sailor to 
 be kept ashore loafing for the lack of a 
 job." 
 
 Again, without turning his head, Captain
 
 32 THE EMIGTiANT SHIP. 
 
 Cadman brouglit liis little eyes to bear upon 
 me. 
 
 '' The brig wants a mate — she's got a 
 capt'n," said he. 
 
 ''D'ye offer him the berth, Cadman? If 
 so, bloomed, Morgan, if I wouldn't close if I 
 was you," called out old Bradford. 
 
 " Fm in want of a mate, certainly," said 
 Captain Cadman, letting his words drop 
 slowly whilst he held his pipe to his mouth, 
 and now turning upon me the full of his 
 snout-shaped face, that he might eye me all 
 over very critically and deliberately. *' But 
 that's one of them needs you're able to supply- 
 without call to go upon your knees and beg 
 and pray." 
 
 "Take the offer, Morgan," said Captain 
 Bradford. ''The voyage is short and agree- 
 able, pay good, table excellent, and if Fletcher 
 goes along, then Fll warrant the whole job 
 free from vulgarity, as the music-halls say 
 when they're planning something extra 
 
 coarse." 
 
 " There's been no offer as yet," I answered, 
 laughing.
 
 CAPTAIN CABMAN, 33 
 
 All this while Cadman eyed me. I seemed 
 to see his mind in motion behind the fixed 
 and contrived expression of his face, like the 
 legs of actors under the curtain that's not 
 quite down. I could swear his considerations 
 about me went further than my mere pro- 
 fessional eligibility. 
 
 " How old are you ? " he asked. 
 
 " Three-and-twenty." 
 
 '* What's your qualifications ? " 
 
 " He holds a master's certificate," broke in 
 Bradford, '' and is six months home from 
 over three years of washing about in the 
 Wanderer, What more would ye have, 
 Cadman, if it isn't a whale ? " 
 
 But Cadman was wary, persistent, and 
 critical in his inquiries. He asked who my 
 parents were ; where I was born ; if 1 swore 
 and drank hard, and so forth. I resented 
 nothing. In fact, I had made up my mind, if 
 the berth was offered, to accept it, and I hoped 
 it would come whilst I sat, for then I should 
 return to Blathford in an easier temper than 
 I had enjoyed for some weeks past. But the 
 offer was not to be made on the spot. 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 " Well," said Captain Cadman, pocketing 
 his pipe, " ril talk the matter over with 
 Mr. Fletcher, and you shall hear from me. 
 What's your address ? " 
 
 I vscrihbled it on a piece of paper. 
 
 *' How runs the yarn in the shape of 
 pay ? " said Bradford. 
 
 '' Four pun' fifteen," answered Cadman 
 shortly. 
 
 *' It's the old story," said Bradford. 
 " Wages go down whilst everything else 
 goes up. Ev^ery thing else going up means 
 money for them who sell. Why, then, 
 should wages be always a-lowering and 
 a-lowering ? " 
 
 " Ah, that's it ! " said Captain Cadman. 
 " That's one of them riddles that Mr. 
 Fletcher's given to trying his hand at." 
 
 We were interrupted by a servant-girl 
 looking in to ask if she might lay the cloth 
 for dinner. Cadman accepted an invitation 
 to partake of some boiled beef Presently a 
 fine smoking silver- side was placed upon the 
 table ; Bradford's niece carved, and we ate 
 and drank. In the course of the meal.
 
 CAFTAIN CABMAN. 35 
 
 Captain Bradford proposed that after dinner 
 we should go down to the docks and have a 
 look at the Hebe. Captain Cad man was 
 quite agreeable, and shortly after two we 
 put on our hats, and the three of us sallied 
 forth. 
 
 Though I had followed the sea for years, 
 I loved the life ; and by the life I don't 
 mean the discipline and the wet and the bad 
 food and the poor pay ; but the freedom of 
 the great breast of ocean, the remarkable 
 beauty of a ship in full sail, and all the rich 
 poetry that in the boundless solitudes of the 
 deep you read in the book of the heavens 
 radiant with stars, or glorious with the 
 newly risen sun, or terrible with swollen 
 black thunder-clouds torn with fire. 
 
 But one condition of the life I ev(?r 
 abhorred ; and that is the dock part of it. 
 You see the business of the deep in its rough 
 and clamorous making. Everything belong- 
 ing to the sea-life that's coarse and common- 
 place, nasty and noisy is here. Ships are 
 wrecked by the riggers, decks are fouled 
 with stains of cargo ; drunken sailors in
 
 o() THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 skin caps and mossy breasts sprawl aLout. 
 the quayside, quarrelsome and obscene, and 
 the hollow holds of the wooden and iron 
 fabrics re-echo the blasphemies of ruffianly 
 lumpers. Nor do mates and captains look 
 the same in dock as they do at sea ; a some- 
 thing in their dress, a peculiarity in their 
 strut makes the difference that is quickly 
 distinguished by the practised eye ; the 
 brown of their complexion is faded, they 
 seem somehow at a loss, and though you see 
 a captain go over the side into the cabin 
 of his ship in dock he does not somehow 
 l)ear himself as her master. He is not as 
 he will be anon when the canvas is spread 
 over his head and the soft milky foam is 
 buzzino' alonf>:side. The life of the sea 
 does not begin until the docks are well 
 astern. 
 
 The Bristol docks are curiosities as marine 
 receptacles, because of the topgallant and 
 royal yards and pulling bunting they lift 
 above the house-tops of the city. You watch 
 a man furling a sail past a church-spire and 
 a topgallantmast slowly descends to the
 
 CAPTAIN CABMAN. 37 
 
 melody of a sea-language happily silent in 
 the distance, seemingly close beside a 
 chimney-stack. 
 
 It was a clear, bright, cold, February day. 
 A noise of some local celebration was in 
 the air ; the chimes of many bells slanted 
 through and quarrelled down the frosty 
 wind, and I heard the sulky throbbing of a 
 big drum and the strains of a brass band. 
 The docks were full of vessels ; the picture 
 was such an one of large and busy trade as 
 you shall not see in Bristol to-day. We 
 stood on the edge of the wall and looked at 
 the Hehe before stepping aboard. 
 
 She was a brig of about two hundred 
 and ninety tons, an old-fashioned ship built 
 probably about thirty years before this time. 
 That a sailor would guess by her beam and 
 butter-box run, her immensely square stern, 
 apple-shaped bows, and cutwater curving at 
 the stem head into the nude bust and face of 
 a woman — a device of the old sort ; painted 
 staring eyes, red hair, cheeks rouged into 
 strict correspondence with forecastle taste in 
 such matters. This Hehe was no beauty.
 
 38 THE EMIGBANT SHIP. 
 
 Her immensely thick bulwarks were almost 
 the heig-ht of a man ; she had large heavy 
 tops which somehow gave her an over- 
 sparred appearance. Her decks ran flush or 
 level from the eyes to the taffrail. 
 
 "A good old-fashioned, roomy hold down 
 there for rats," said Bradford, with a sarcastic 
 laugh. 
 
 " She was built in your time, skipper," 
 exclaimed Cadman, in a stealthy voice, turn- 
 ing his queer little eyes upon me. 
 
 " Yes, and so was the Thames,'' retorted 
 Bradford, naming one of the handsomest of 
 John Company's ships. 
 
 We went aboard, and Cadman conducted 
 us into the cabin — state-room, we then called 
 it. I stared about me ; every sailor looks 
 with interest at a ship, at the outside and at 
 the inside of her. The cabin was a dusky 
 interior, spite of the large, almost flat sky- 
 light overhead. It contained seven sleeping- 
 berths, three little ones of a side, and one big 
 one athwart under the wheel. In her day, 
 the Hehe had been a West India passenger 
 as well as cargo boat, had carried several
 
 CAPTAIN C ADM AN. 31/ 
 
 big pots to and fro, had even risen to the 
 dignity of a favourite trade. 
 
 "If these dry planks could talk," said 
 Bradford, standing on wide legs in the 
 middle of the cabin, and turning his jolly 
 mottled, broad-beamed face about with his 
 hands thrust deep in his capacious breeches 
 pockets, "■ there's nothing afloat fastened with 
 bolts and trunnels that could spin more hair- 
 lifting yarns. Morgan, this same craft was 
 once boarded by pirates within thirty miles 
 of Morant Point. They cut the throats of 
 the master and mates and three men pas- 
 sengers ; flung the crew, along with two 
 delicate ladies, people of wealth and position 
 out in Jamaica, into the hold, clapped the 
 hatch on, and battened it down ; next, they 
 set fire to the galley and went away, leaving 
 smoke enough to persuade 'em the vessel was 
 in flames. The fire went out of itself, but 
 the hatch-cover sat tight 'twixt its coamings. 
 The brig was fallen in with ten days later, 
 and when the people who boarded her lifted 
 the hatch, they found eighteen dead bodies in 
 every posture of death agony. Lord, the
 
 40 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 blue, fast-mortifying faces, with the torments 
 of the thirst which had killed them— the 
 thirst and the heat and the suffocation in 
 that hold — still showing like a living expres- 
 sion in the poor Christian carrion ! Bruised 
 if I'd like to sail with you, Cadman." 
 
 We left the brig, and, in walking in the 
 direction of Captain Bradford's house, we 
 met a stout, tall man, whom Bradford shook 
 his hand at, calling — 
 
 " How d'ye do, Fletcher ? We are fresh 
 from the Behe. You've made a good job of 
 her, Fletcher." 
 
 Cadman left us to speak to him, and 
 Bradford and I waited. 
 
 " Turn yourself, that Fletcher may take a 
 good view of you," said Bradford. " They're 
 talking about you." 
 
 From the old skipper's ridicule of Fletcher, 
 I had expected to see a difterent sort of per- 
 son — something long and yellow, well-soaped 
 locks, and a suit of rusty black. Fletcher 
 was a tall, big man, with a pair of strong 
 whiskers, a small, pear-shaped nose, and a 
 huge chin betwixt two points of stick-up
 
 CAPTAIN CABMAN. 41 
 
 collar. He wore a low pot bat, and was 
 dressed in a suit of grey. He talked with 
 Cadman, and they both looked towards me. 
 
 " I bad thought to see something of the 
 devil-dodger's cut in your friend there," said 
 I to Bradford. 
 
 "He sings loud in church," he answered, 
 " has a name for charity, but you'd need a 
 policeman's bull's-eye, I think, to explore for 
 his gifts. He has failed twice ; once in 
 Sheffield and once here, yet manages to hold 
 his own, to maintain a wife and family, to 
 say no more, and to keep a good roof over 
 his head. He has a well-furnished house, 
 and brags of his pictures. He is now a 
 shipowner. Think on't ! " 
 
 " Captain, you know the people. Shall I 
 close, if they offer me the appointment ? " 
 
 " Why, the wages would degrade a foot- 
 man, and there are sweeter ships afloat. But 
 then, Morgan, you want a berth. You may 
 find a command ready for you on your return. 
 A Cape voyage won't run you into six months. 
 And whilst you're at sea you're keeping your 
 hand in — remember that. What can a sailor
 
 42 THE EMIGRANT SHIR 
 
 do ashore but spend his savings and smoke 
 tobacco ? " 
 
 Here Fletcher and Cadman parted ; the 
 former gravely flourished a farewell to Brad- 
 ford, and the other joined us. He said nothing, 
 however, about engaging me. I just took 
 notice as we walked that twice or thrice he 
 turned his face to stare very critically, as 
 though he would look far deeper than the 
 mere professional skin of me went. I 
 guessed this sort of inspection was a mere 
 trick or habit of his, and thought nothing of 
 it ; indeed, he sent the like searching glances 
 at the old skipper Bradford, it seemed to 
 me. He quitted us at some short distance 
 from the docks, first feeling in his pockets to 
 make sure that he had my address, and then 
 repeating that I should hear from him. 
 
 I thanked old Bradford for his hospitality 
 and for the introduction, and, declining his 
 invitation to step in and drink a glass, I 
 made my way to the station, and so got 
 home.
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 MATE OF THE HEBE, 
 
 I TOLD my people of what I had been about, 
 and the chance I stood of getting a berth 
 as mate of a brig called the Hehe, bound to 
 Capetown. My father said I should do well 
 to accept the offer if it came. He had noticed 
 that I was growing restless. 
 
 " Blathford is a dull place for a young 
 man," said he. " Your delight in the country 
 has passed. You are again longing to feel 
 the fabric of a ship under you, and to hear 
 the song of the salt wind." 
 
 " There is surely no hurry ! " said my 
 mother. " And though Blathford is dull, 
 it is safe, and you have been happy at home, 
 Charles. Stop till you get command of a 
 fine ship. Whenever there is a wreck it is 
 a little brig."
 
 44 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 ** Charles will be wise to take what lie can 
 get," said my father softly, with one of his 
 sweet looks. " You would have him a bishop, 
 even whilst he waits for a curacy. And 
 remember the words of the old divine : ' Is 
 it not labour that makes the garlic and the 
 pulse, the sycamore and the cresses, the cheese 
 of the goats, and the butter of the sheep, to 
 be savoury and pleasant as the flesh of the 
 roebuck or the milk of the kine, the marrow 
 of oxen or the thighs of birds.' " 
 
 " Is that a letter for me ? " said I, going 
 to the mantelpiece. 
 
 " It is from Kate, and to me. You may 
 read it," said my mother. 
 
 The girl wrote that she had taken another 
 situation where she hoped to be happier, 
 though she would be getting a little less 
 money. She said she was weary of teaching. 
 
 " It is bitter hard that girls, placed as I 
 am, should find in this country nothing to 
 do outside educating children. I am sorry 
 now that I wanted the courage to plunge 
 boldlv into domestic service. I would far 
 rather be a housemaid than a governess or
 
 MATE OF THE ''HE BE." 45 
 
 a shop-girl. The only condition of that life 
 which makes me shrink a bit when I thiuk 
 of it, is the people one must associate with. 
 How could I bear to listen to John the foot- 
 man s talk of the places he's lived in, to hear 
 Mary the cook reading aloud without an 
 aspirate from some vulgar weekly newspaper, 
 or some vulgarer magazine of love-stories ? " 
 She asked if I had found a ship yet, and if 
 so when I sailed. There was no reference 
 in her letter to her old scheme of emigrating. 
 About a week after I had visited Bristol, 
 I heard from Mr. James Fletcher. He ap- 
 pointed me to the post of chief-mate of the 
 Hebe, at four pounds fifteen a month. My 
 services would not be required until the day 
 before the brig sailed. He had chosen nie 
 out of a number, as much because I was a 
 clergyman's son as because of my qualifica- 
 tions (according to Captain Bradford) as a 
 seaman and a navigator. He had a high 
 opinion of ministers of all denominations, 
 and peculiarly respected the clergy of the 
 Church of England. He concluded that, as 
 a clergyman's son, pious sentiments had been
 
 46 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 early instilled into me, and Le took it for 
 granted that I was a sober, moral. God- 
 fearing young man. It was his intention, 
 he said, to go out in the brig for his health, 
 and he hoped I would spare no trouble to 
 help him and Captain Cadman to excite 
 relisrious sentiments in the minds of the 
 crew, and set them a good example in all 
 respects. 
 
 1 found this on the breakfast-table, and 
 handed it to my father, who said — 
 
 " He seems an honest, respectable gentle- 
 man. I like his sentiments. Well would 
 it be if all shipowners took his views. The 
 degrading and senseless vice of swearing 
 would end ; the name of Jack would no 
 longer be the short for debauchery ; the 
 tender side of the sailor's nature would 
 appear ; his character then would make the 
 profession of the sea truly noble." 
 
 '* And how pleased English consuls would 
 be ! " exclaimed my mother, one of whose 
 cousins had been consul at a Spanish port. 
 
 I pocketed the letter, and went out-of- 
 doors to think over it. I irave no heed to
 
 MATE OF THE " HEBEr 47 
 
 Fletcher's references to my parentage, my 
 morals, and so forth. Suppose the man's 
 piety a sham ; there is a no more ancient 
 fraud in the world, and I will say this : that 
 if life has never been the better, it has never 
 been the worse for it ; for surely you would 
 rather have a man be a humbug in the right, 
 than a candid rogue in the wrong. A man 
 who feigns a religious character must act his 
 part, and therefore can't help doing a little 
 good, though against the grain. A pious 
 humbug leers at you as he passes on his way 
 to old Nick, gives you a bow — if you are 
 poor, perhaps a penny — all to help him on 
 the road to the devil ; but your ingenuous 
 villain, who is too honest a blackguard to 
 put on a religious face, knocks you down, 
 and walks on his path to hell over your 
 body. In fact, there is too much imposture 
 everywhere to quarrel with the professors of 
 one sort of it. 
 
 No ; it was not the fellow's writing about 
 my helping him to make his crew virtuous, 
 and so on, that struck me ; it was his not 
 wanting me on board until the day before
 
 48 THE EMIGRANT SFIIF. 
 
 the brig sailed. I very well knew what was 
 expected of a chief-mate. My experience 
 was that when a ship was in dock, the mate 
 was more in command of her than the captain 
 himself. He was everywhere. Work came 
 to a stand unless he was by to refer to. He 
 saw to the stowing of the cargo, standing 
 at the mainhatch, and watching the business 
 as it went forward ; he looked after things 
 in fifty different directions. Yet here was 
 I requested not to join the vessel I was mate 
 of till the eve of the day of her hauling out. 
 It was strange — it was something new in 
 ocean procedure ; but, then, so much the better, 
 thought I, after reading the letter a second 
 time ; three weeks of the quiet Parsonage of 
 Blathford with the dear old folk for ray 
 company, all night in, and plenty of milk 
 and butter, and tender roast beef and mutton 
 — delicacies which twinkle and vanish in the 
 tail of your wake as it blends with the shore 
 when the curved hawser is hissing to the 
 drag: of the tu2:-boat — must surely be sweeter 
 than a like period spent in a dock, looking 
 after the filling-up of a brig's hold, yelling
 
 MATE OF THE '' EEBEr 49 
 
 to rolling figures on the decks, shouting to 
 dangling shapes aloft, and all for four pounds 
 fifteen a month. 
 
 I wrote to Mr. Fletcher and accepted the 
 berth, and asked him to say when I was 
 to sign articles. I received no reply for a 
 fortnight ; then came a letter telling me that 
 he had been away at Sheffield on a visit to a 
 manufacturer who was sending out a valuable 
 freight by the Hehe to Capetown ; and in a 
 postscript, which read like an after-thought, 
 he added, " Call upon the shipping-master 
 on your arrival on the 9th, and then sign 
 the articles." 
 
 The 9th came. I had been a long while 
 at home this time, and found " Grood-bye " 
 hard to say. I hired the carter that had 
 brought me from the railway station in the 
 preceding August, put my stowed sea-chest 
 aboard the old vehicle, and with my mother s 
 kiss still moist upon my cheek, and my 
 fathers grasp still warm in my hand, I 
 turned my back upon the old home, little 
 anticipating the new and extraordinary scene 
 of life that was to open to me. 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 On my arrival at Bristol, after signing the 
 brig's articles, I took my chest on board the 
 Hebe, I found the vessel in full sea-rig, 
 the hatches on, and all in readiness for tlie 
 start. She sat fairly deep in the water of 
 the dock, and showed like a ship comfortably 
 freighted. The only people in the vessel 
 were the steward and the carpenter. I 
 noticed the latter as I went through the 
 gangway leaning over the windlass and 
 smoking a pipe, and posturing with the easy 
 air of a ship-keeper. He did not know who 
 I was, and made no sign. I called to hear 
 if there was anybody in the forecastle who 
 would lend me a hand to carry my chest 
 below. On this he stepped aft, putting his 
 pipe in his pocket, and made a civil flourish 
 with his hand to his cloth cap. 
 
 " Are you the mate, sir ? '' said he. 
 
 **Yes," I answered. 
 
 "I'm the carpenter and acting second- 
 mate," said he, with a grin. Then, going 
 to the companion, he bawled out, '" George." 
 A young fellow of some three and twenty 
 came up ; his face was dirty, his jacket old
 
 MATE OF THE ''HEBE:' 51 
 
 and greasy, bis canvas trousers coloured here 
 and there like the centre of a drum where 
 the sticks hit it. He had a cast in his eye, 
 and seemed but a poor kind of creature for 
 any sort of work. I asked him who he was. 
 He answered with an imbecile look — 
 
 " George, tlie steward, sir." 
 
 I said, " You'll have to freshen yourself 
 up, my lad. Those togs of yours will need 
 a long tow overboard to satisfy me. Is the 
 captain aboard ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " When is he expected ? " 
 
 '^ Dunno, sir." 
 
 The carpenter waiting till I had done with 
 my questions, then said — 
 
 " Here, boy, len's a hand to carry the chief- 
 mate's chest to his berth." 
 
 I followed them down the steps, and they 
 put my old box on the deck in my cabin. 
 In the bunk lay a bundle of bedding sent 
 aboard that morning according to my in- 
 structions to a Bristol outfitter. I glanced 
 around, and found that other necessaries had 
 been duly delivered. 
 
 LIBRARY
 
 52 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 *• I see you're all ready for hauling out/' 
 said I to the carpenter, wlio seemed to linger 
 as though for a yarn ; the steward meanwhile 
 stepping into his pantry, which was imme- 
 diately abreast my cabin. 
 
 " Yes, sir," he answered. " Everything's 
 been done by the riggers. Ne'er a man as 
 sails in the ship'll have had a finger in the 
 pie aloft or alow. 'Tain't as it used to be. 
 If I were master, it's my sailors as should 
 reeve and bend, ay, and stow too. There's 
 nothen like knowing what you're aboard 
 of when the whole job means sink or 
 swim." 
 
 " Have they got a crew ? " 
 
 " Yes. A tidy crew as crews go ; I was 
 up signing along with some of them." 
 
 " What's the complement ? " 
 
 " Not counting you aft, eight men and me, 
 and that there Greorge," he answered, with a 
 nod at the pantry. 
 
 I chatted awhile with the fellow, rather 
 fancying him. He was a man of about five 
 and forty, with iron-grey whiskers, of a frank 
 sailorly manner and honest looks. The mate
 
 MATE OF TEE '' EEBE:' 53 
 
 of such a brig as this could lose nothing of 
 dignity in yarning with her carpenter. 
 There is no dignity in two hundred and 
 eighty tons. Indeed, it scarcely begins at a 
 thousand. This carpenter had sailed with 
 a man I well knew ; he also named several 
 large ships he had served in, and he looked 
 around the cabin as though he felt that his 
 present condition was a come-down. 
 
 When he left me, I occupied myself in 
 arranging my berth, and then went on deck 
 for a meal at an eating-house just off the 
 docks. As I passed through the companion- 
 hatch. Captain Cadman came over the side. 
 On seeing me, he called out, " Ho, there you 
 are ! " 
 
 I saluted him with a quarter-deck flourish, 
 of which, however, he took no notice, being, 
 no doubt, ignorant of all such etiquette. 
 His wide, flapping soft hat seemed to contract 
 his face, and I found it more snout-like than 
 I had before thought it. He was buttoned 
 up in a rusty monkey-jacket, and his long 
 legs were outlined like a skeleton's through 
 his thin flapping cloth breeches.
 
 54 TEE EMIGRANT SB IP. 
 
 " All ready for sea, sir ? " said he. 
 
 " Yes, sir," said I. 
 
 " So are we," lie exclaimed, casting his 
 little eyes aloft, then running them over the 
 decks. '• Our trim's good. We sit well, I 
 think. We haul out to-morrow at nine. 
 Nine's the hour, sir. You'll sleep aboard." 
 
 I answered with the customary, '' Ay, ay, 
 sir. 
 
 '* I'm a-dining this afternoon with Mr. 
 Fletcher. We may come aboard to-night." 
 
 He went to the skylight, called to George 
 to tell him if Mr. Fletcher's cabin was ready, 
 then, giving him certain instructions which 
 I did not catch, he walked about the deck, 
 looking here and there, getting on to the 
 rail on either side to peer over, and staring 
 aloft. I watched him with a certain degree 
 of interest. I never remember a person 
 more singular in his carriage, manners, and 
 looks. His walk was a wild, flighty stride ; 
 he seemed to have no control over his great 
 square-toed feet, and he had an odd way 
 of gazing askant at a thing. He'd hold 
 his head straight, and you'd think he was
 
 MATE OF TEE ''HEBE:' 55 
 
 looking in front of him, till, on glancing*, 
 you'd find his eyes in the corner of their 
 sockets, fastened upon you. He attentively 
 viewed the brig, as though particularly to 
 observe her trim, then, after addressing a 
 few observations to me about Captain Brad- 
 ford, the promise of the morrow's weather, 
 the sailors who had signed for the vessel, 
 and so on, he stepped on to the wharf, and 
 went away. I waited until he had dis- 
 appeared, walked to an eating-house, and 
 dined. 
 
 I hung about the brig for the rest of the 
 day, smoking, and sometimes yarning with the 
 carpenter, who said he belonged to London, 
 and had no friends in Bristol, and did not 
 care to go ashore. Ships of many kinds lay 
 round about us, and the scene, in its way, was 
 hearty and inspiriting, with the spires of 
 masts, the lacework of rigging, the hovering 
 of the bunting of divers nations at peak or 
 royalmast-head ; and the song of the capstan 
 and the cry of command mingled with the 
 melodies of church bells and the noises of the 
 city, spreading beyond in all directions. But
 
 56 THE EM 1GB AST SHIP. 
 
 it was a sliarp, cold day, spite of a high sky 
 of marble and a sunset of spacious splendour ; 
 after I had made a good supper or tea ashore, 
 T was glad of the refuge the brig s cabin 
 provided. George lighted the lamp ; I 
 smoked a pipe, mixed myself a glass out 
 of a bottle of spirits I had brought with me, 
 and killed an hour or two by reading in some 
 old thumbmarked volume of sea-tales which 
 I found on a swing-tray under the skylight. 
 
 I contrasted this gloomy cabin with the 
 home I had left — the cheerful parlour lighted 
 by the soft flame of oil, the pictures, the 
 communion-plate glittering on the sideboard, 
 the figures of my father and mother, the one 
 knitting, the other reading — and I did not 
 feel joyous. 
 
 I thought of the horrible yarn old Brad- 
 ford had spun us ; of the people whose 
 throats had been cut, and of the heap of 
 dead bodies in the hold. The gloom upon 
 my spirits was in the atmosphere ; imagina- 
 tion beheld the theatre exactly as it had been , 
 and the bloody business was re-enacted with 
 such sharpness of realization as once caused
 
 MATE OF THE ''HEBE:' 57 
 
 me to glance around a bit nervously, and 
 once even to go on deck to fetch a cold 
 breath and get some briskness of mood out 
 of the hfe that v^as in sight. 
 
 But there was little to be seen ; the water 
 in the dock floated like black oil, with a 
 gleam falling you knew not whence in the 
 heart of it ; the moon was dark, the stars 
 pale and few ; the ships lay in blocks of 
 shadow spotted here and there with yellow 
 light, and the crowd of masts swarmed into 
 the obscurity till they looked like the gather- 
 ing of a thunder-cloud with inky lines of rain 
 falling. The silence was the silence of the 
 dock when Jack in his multitude is ashore, 
 when one solitary figure leaning over a taff- 
 rail talks to another solitary figure leaning 
 over a bow, when a distant shout startles 
 and the splash of a bucket makes you hearken 
 for the alarm of a drowning man, when there 
 is a hum of drunken voices beside the shadowy 
 arm of a crane, and a dim chorussing from a 
 distant public-house. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher and Captain Cadman came on 
 board at ten. I sat in the cabin scarcely
 
 58 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 knowing whether to expect them or not. 
 Fletcher stumbled in coming down the com- 
 panion-steps, and put on a stately air when 
 he approached me. His eyes were weak, 
 and he was at some trouble to keep his face 
 steady. He was slightly intoxicated. Cad- 
 man, on the other hand, was perfectly sober. 
 Fletcher shook me by the hand, and said he 
 hoped I would fulfil the expectations he had 
 formed of me as the son of a clergyman. 
 
 " You shall have of my best, sir ; I can say 
 no more," I answered. 
 
 " I expect no more," he exclaimed, with 
 a rather tipsy flourish of his hand. ^' He 
 giveth all who giveth of his best. Is the 
 steward awake ? " 
 
 I called to George, who came out of his 
 pantry, rubbing his eyes. 
 
 *' Is there any milk on board ? " said Mr. 
 Fletcher. 
 
 " No, sir," answered George. 
 
 *' D'ye want a drink of milk, sir ? " said 
 Captain Cadman. " Jump ashore with a jug, 
 George." 
 
 " No, I'll drink no milk," said :\Ir. Fletcher,
 
 MATE OF THE "HEBE." 59 
 
 sitting down suddenly ; " milk lies cold upon 
 the stomach throughout a long night. I 
 mean cow's milk. I'd drink goat's milk, if I 
 could get it." 
 
 Cadman slopped out one of his greasy 
 laughs. " I knew a woman," said he, " who 
 brought up her young 'un on goat's milk, 
 and bloomed if the kid wouldn't turn to 
 arterwards and butt at his mother as if he 
 was a goat. He wanted nothen but horns. 
 He had all the feelings and sperrits of a 
 
 Billy." 
 
 " What's there to drink in this brig ? " 
 said Fletcher, looking at me somewhat 
 gloomily. 
 
 In silence Cadman sped with spasmodic 
 gestures and darting legs to his cabin, and 
 swiftly returned with a black bottle. George 
 then put cold water and glasses upon the 
 table. I was for going to my berth, guessing 
 I was no longer wanted. Fletcher, how- 
 ever, first asking Cadman what the bottle 
 contained, requested me to sit and drink 
 prosperity to the Hehe. A mate must be 
 always willing to oblige a shipowner. I
 
 60 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 mixed a glass of weak gin and water, and 
 the three of us lifted our tumblers, after 
 Fletcher had said, " Here's prosperity to the 
 voyage. May it find us grateful always for 
 every mercy. And here's to our safe return 
 to the country of our birth." 
 
 " I was sorry to see Mrs. Fletcher take on 
 -so," said Captain Cadman, pulling out a 
 paper bag of cigars, one of which he lighted 
 (it instantly raised so vile a smell of burn- 
 ing that it was like sitting in a ship's hold 
 which you smoke out for rats and other 
 vermin). " But she'll come round. Some- 
 how it's never long afore the empty chair 
 gets to look as homely as when it's filled. I 
 found that out arter my wife died. When 
 I came home and found her armchair empty, 
 the sight of it was enough to drive me into 
 drinking. Now its emptiness is as formiliar 
 as it would be if it were t'other way about ; 
 that's to say if I hadn't sold it." 
 
 " Mrs. Fletcher is a bad sailor," said 
 Fletcher, with his eyes half closed. '' She'll 
 miss me. We'll miss each other. She'll 
 miss me from my accustomed seat at church.
 
 MATE OF THE "HEBE." 61 
 
 and at our plain but, I think, not inhospitable 
 table." 
 
 " Far from that, sir," said Cadman, drain- 
 ing his glass. 
 
 "My daughters'Il miss me," continued 
 Fletcher. " But these separations are useful. 
 They teach us to think. They withdraw us 
 from that fool's paradise in which too many 
 of us are apt to dwell." Here he lifted his 
 eyelids and rested his dim eyes upon my 
 face. *' The great and final change when we 
 enter eternity and never return is always 
 at hand. Our small earthly comings and 
 goings prepare us for the last dread leave- 
 taking." 
 
 " I've always said," exclaimed Captain 
 Cadman, " that there's ne'er a man as can 
 dress up his Ihoughts in prettier colours 
 than Mr. Fletcher of Bristol." 
 
 " With your leave, gentlemen," said I, 
 '' I'll turn in. Work starts early in the 
 morning, and there's a long day before us." 
 
 " Good nighty sir," said Mr. Fletcher, 
 extending his hand with the abruptness of 
 drink. As I rose, he said, " I hope you
 
 62 TBE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 left your father in a fairly good state of 
 health ? " 
 
 " He's very well, sir, I thank you." 
 
 " There's no class of society," I heard him 
 say to Captain Cadman, as I went to my 
 berth, " for which I have a greater regard 
 than the clergy of the Church of England." 
 
 I shut my door, but through the bulkhead 
 heard him rumbling on in this speech about 
 the clergy. 
 
 I got into my bunk, and lay thinking. 
 This first day of my entering my duties did 
 not much seem like going to sea according 
 to one's old notions of the life, whether in 
 dock or out of soundings. I seemed to 
 be treated more as passenger than mate ; 
 Cadman had said nothing to me about the 
 cargo, stores, and so on, had barely referred, 
 indeed, to the brig when we met in the after- 
 noon. Here, too, was the owner, Fletcher, 
 shaking hands and making much of me — 
 but, to be sure, he was rather tipsy. I was 
 puzzled, but not uneasy. I knew my work, 
 and though Cadman might be a smarter 
 seaman than I in handling such a little ship
 
 MATE OF THE "HEBE:' 63 
 
 as this brig, I had small doubt of proving 
 out and away superior as a navigator to so 
 illiterate a man. They sat talking in low 
 voices long after I had turned in. I heard 
 a church clock strike eleven and then the 
 quarter, and they talked still.
 
 64 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EEBE SAILS. 
 
 The crew were aboard next morning by 
 eigijt. They arrived perleclly sober, handed 
 down their bags and chests, and disappeared 
 through the scuttle. I was satisfied with 
 their looks. They showed as a healthy, able- 
 bodied company of men, and I liked their 
 quiet, orderly manner of coming aboard. 
 
 Shortly after nine we had warped out of 
 the dock; a tug then got hold of us, and 
 with a pilot in charge, the little, square- 
 sterned, ungainly bulk of brig hissed her 
 thick cutwater through the froth of the 
 wake churned up by the paddles ahead. 
 My hands were now full ; I had fifty things 
 to look after, and found no leisure to admire 
 tlie quiet beauty of the scene of river through
 
 THE ''HEBE'' SAILS. 65 
 
 which we were towed. It was a hard, bright 
 morning, with a keen and nipping breeze 
 out of the north-east. Nothing happened 
 worth noticing until the tug cast us adrift 
 and the pilot left us. Mr. Fletcher, in a 
 great overcoat and a fur cap, stumped the 
 quarter-deck, casting complacent patronizing 
 looks round upon the sea. Cadman, who had 
 now charge of the brig, was bawling ou'!; 
 orders to make sail. I was forward on the 
 forecastle, seeing to the ground-tackle, along 
 with the carpenter and one or two men. 
 The wind, though a breeze, blew light, being 
 almost aft ; the vessel was under topsails and 
 fore-course, and they were now setting top- 
 gallant-sails and loosing the royals. 
 
 I paused for a moment or two in what 
 I was about, and could not but smile at the 
 picture of the little brig. She looked, from 
 the head, the oddest, most old-fashioned, un- 
 shapely structure that ever blew along over 
 salt water. Her canvas fitted her ill ; the 
 clews of her topgallant-sail, as the hoisting- 
 yard tautened the leech, sheeted wide of the 
 yardarms, and I could swear that the fore- 
 
 YOL, I. F
 
 66 THE EM 10 BANT SHIP. 
 
 topsail had never been cut for the little ship. 
 The standing-jib and the topgallant-staysail 
 had a meagre look, as though the cloths had 
 been stitched for a vessel wanting a tliird of 
 the Hehes tonnage. Some of the canvas was 
 dark with time if not wear, and here and 
 there I twigged a patch. I nearly burst into 
 a laugh. The effect was as that of a tall 
 boy in old clothes much too tight and short. 
 A very Smike of a brig ! thought I, though 
 perhaps this image of ribs and shanks was 
 impaired by the corpulence of the hull which 
 lifted its rags to the wind. 
 
 The carpenter looked at the brig out of 
 the corners of his eyes, and the Jacks who 
 were working under my direction frequently 
 turned their heads to fling a glance aloft, as 
 though fascinated by the monstrous exhibition 
 of sail-cloth. A light swell with something, 
 however, of the weight of the Bristol Channel 
 in its heave, was rolling through the pale 
 blue water scarcely more than wrinkled by 
 the wind, and the brig bowed oddly upon 
 it in a sort of squelching way, sousing her 
 bows, and recovering sluggishly. I felt this
 
 THE ''HEBE'' SAILS. 67 
 
 queer behaviour underfoot, and could not 
 reconcile it with the excellence of her trim 
 whilst she had floated down the river or sat 
 on the still waters of the dock. 
 
 " Blast me," says one of the sailors, stand- 
 ing upon the heel of the cathead, after first 
 spitting a thimble-full of yellow froth over 
 the side, " if I don't think this blooming old 
 hooker's half full of water ! " 
 
 " If she's going to cut these waterlogged 
 capers here," exclaimed another sailor, 
 ^' what's to be her tantrums in anything of 
 
 
 "Silence there," said I. 
 
 But now the carpenter, coming to my side 
 in a single stride, whispered hoarsely in my 
 ear, '* Mr. Morgan " — I had given him my 
 name — " Mr. Morgan," said he, " I believe 
 the men are right. This here movement 
 means three or four foot of water in the 
 hold." 
 
 Hearing this, I gave some moments of 
 earnest heed to the matter, and was satisfied 
 by the feel of the heave that it was as the 
 carpenter had said. The motion made you
 
 68 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 think of a quantity c)f loose quicksilver in 
 the brig's bottom, which, running forwards, 
 held the bow sullenly soused till the obstinate 
 lift of the swell sluggishly rose her head, 
 when her hinder part sank in a sousing 
 manner likewise, and then the recovery 
 would be sullen and slow, quite, in short, in 
 the waterlogged way. 
 
 I wondered that Cadman did not remark 
 the sickly motions of the brig. He was still 
 full of business, leaving the carpenter and 
 me to get on with our w^ork on the fore- 
 castle. It was not for me to order the 
 carpenter to sound the well whilst the captain 
 was on deck, but it was for me beyond 
 question to go aft and report my suspicions 
 that the Hehe was sinking under our feet. 
 I went along the deck and stepped up to 
 Cadman. Mr. Fletcher, who was pacing the 
 planks near at hand, stopped to hear what 
 I had to say. His whiskers looked un- 
 commonly bushy and as strong as hedges. 
 
 "Shall the carpenter sound the well, sir? 
 He thinks there's three or four feet of water 
 in the hold."
 
 TEE "HEBE'' SAILS. 69 
 
 " And so there is," said Cadman, coolly. 
 
 Fletcher still lingered, and seemed to view 
 with approval a handsome three-masted 
 schooner that was floating past ns at a 
 distance of a mile, brightening the water 
 under her with the glistening shadow of her 
 snow-white cloths. I stared at Cadman in 
 silence. 
 
 " Yes, there's two or three foot of water 
 in the hold," said the captain. '' You can 
 tell the men it was run in for sweetening 
 and presarving purposes. Some fathoms of 
 old skin was took out when the brig was 
 overhauled, and the shipwright as did the 
 repairs recommended that we should season 
 the new stuff by letting a quantity of water 
 lie in the vessel's bottom. We know what 
 we're about. It's all right. Tell the crew 
 if there's anything tighter afloat than the 
 Hehe, middle-aged as she be, Mr. Fletcher 
 of Bristol shall hand 'em over my earnings 
 for the voyage." 
 
 I looked at Fletcher, who smiled and re- 
 sumed his walk. 
 
 " We'll pump her out arter dinner," con-
 
 70 THE ICMIOnAXT SHIP, 
 
 tinued Cadman. " There's no call to sound 
 the well. There's nothen draininj^ in. My 
 life's as good as yourn or any other man's 
 aboard this vessel. So if the crew should 
 say anything, make their minds easy, will 
 ee? 
 
 I went forward again, greatly puzzled, 
 with a feeling of distrust slowdy forming 
 and hardening in me. The carpenter, whilst 
 I was e:one aft, had stood lookino^ our wav 
 as though expecting a summons to drop the 
 rod into the w^ell. 
 
 " The captain," said I, " tells me it's all 
 right. He knows that there are three or 
 four foot of water in the hold. The w*ater 
 was run in for seasoning purposes." 
 
 " For what purposes ? " echoed the car- 
 penter. 
 
 *' For seasoning the new skin." 
 
 He viewed me without speech, then very 
 moodily shook his head. 
 
 " That warn't do," said he. '' Water for 
 seasoning ! in a stowed hold too, with plenty 
 of muck, I dessay, in the ballast to w^ash up, 
 not to speak of the dunnage floating on to[)
 
 THE ''HEBE'' SAILS. 71 
 
 of the cargo ! No, no. There's no blooming 
 marines at this end of the ship to swallow the 
 likes of such stuff as that I " 
 
 '' Look here ! " cried one of the seamen, 
 springing off the rail — a wiry, hairy, square- 
 shouldered man, with the looks of a collie- 
 dog about the face, and a big clasp knife 
 dangling at a laniard round his neck. " Not 
 another stroke of work till I larn what the 
 water's a-doing in the hold, and if more's 
 coming in. Have I shipped as a rat ? Strike 
 me silly then ! " 
 
 By this time the men were down from aloft. 
 Sail had been made, and the crew were clear- 
 ing up the decks. It was a quiet day, and 
 the man's loud speech was overheard. He 
 had made it particularly significant too by 
 gestures. 
 
 '' What's up. Bill?" called a sailor from 
 abreast of the galley. 
 
 " What's the shindy now ? " sung out 
 another. 
 
 " Here's this old hooker half full of water, 
 and Bristol scarcel}^ out of sight," cried 
 out Bill, intending his words for Cadman.
 
 72 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 When this was said, every man dropped 
 the job he was upon and came running on 
 to the forecastle, where, in a trice I found 
 myself in the centre of all hands, saving the 
 fellow at the helm. 
 
 "What's this about the brig half full of 
 water ? " said a man, shoving three or four 
 fellows aside to thrust close to me. 
 
 I repeated in a clear voice what the 
 captain had said, 
 
 " Four foot of water ! " shouted a man with 
 a great oath. " Ain't it time to see what 
 boats the old basket carries ? " 
 
 " Fired," cried another, " if she don't feel 
 to be a-settling every time she lurches 
 forrards ! Feel her, bullies ! " 
 
 " Chips, sound the well ! " shouted a third 
 man. " Ain't your life of no account that 
 you stand there a-blinkin' and a-chewing like 
 any blooming old cow ? " 
 
 " Forecastle, there ! " cried Cadman, with 
 the note of a shriek in bis voice ; " what's 
 the crew a-doing lumped up together there ? " 
 
 I went aft, and was followed by all the 
 men. The language in my wake was far
 
 TEE ''HEBE'' SAILS. 73 
 
 from choice. Some swore they felt the brig 
 settliDg ; others that they'd give the captain 
 two minutes to explain, then head the old 
 faggot for Bristol docks. Fletcher stood, 
 large whiskered, stout in his immense coat, 
 near the wheel at a safe distance ; but within 
 easy earshot. 
 
 " Didn't I tell 'ee what to explain to the 
 men about the water in the hold ? " said 
 Cadman, setting his compass-like legs apart, 
 and averting his snout-suggesting face, to 
 survey me and the men out of the corners of 
 his eyes. 
 
 " Yes," said I, " and your explanation has 
 been given 'em." 
 
 " But it won't smoke ! " exclaimed the 
 wiry, hairy seaman with the clasp knife 
 round his neck. " D'y^ think us men first 
 voyagers, that yer spin these blushen yarns 
 o'salting the skin of the old waggon ? If 
 yer don't tarn-to and give orders out of hand 
 to man the pumps, that we may see what 
 water the brig's making, it's up helium 
 for Bristol city afore five bells, by God ! " 
 
 This was defiance with a vengeance ! It
 
 74 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 wanted but ten minutes of the time threatened, 
 but you knew by tlieir scowls and savage 
 glances and curse-laden growls, that the 
 crew were desperately in earnest and heartily 
 frightened also. We were no great ship with 
 the taut discipline of a Liverpool or a Black- 
 wall liner fore and aft ; only a contemptible 
 little brig whose skipper was as mean in 
 origin and " learning " as George who waited 
 on him in the cabin ; mean as the meanest 
 man aboard, who, if he could read and count 
 up figures, would be reckoned as well educated 
 as the captain. 
 
 Well do I recollect that strange picture : 
 the crowd of angry frightened men abreast 
 of the main rigging ; the spider-legged 
 skipper looking at them out of the corners 
 of his eyes ; Fletcher, somewhat pale, near 
 the wheel listening ; the breeze was slacken- 
 ing, the dingy old fore-course and topsails 
 swung in, and then swung out, with every 
 sputtering sousing dip of the round bows, 
 and with every dead fall of the square stern, 
 the water flying white and hissing to each 
 slopping chop of the old-fashioned counter
 
 TEE ''EEBE'' SAILS. 75 
 
 * 
 
 where the words, " Hebe + Bristol " were to 
 be read in Jong, white, staring letters. The 
 Sim was in the west ; in the wet, still pale, 
 but slowly reddening light the land showed 
 like a length of formless, heaped-up thunder- 
 vapour ; it was of the very colour of the 
 storm, and you might have watched for fire 
 to spit ; against it the white sails of a large 
 distant barque shone like the pinions of a 
 cloud of gulls, startled and suddenly soaring. 
 " I tell you," abruptly roared Cadman in 
 a hurricane note, out of which all the natural 
 greasiness was sent flying by temper, " that 
 as much money's been put into this brig for 
 repairs as 'ud build a new 'un. There stands 
 her owner," he yelled, pointing aft with an 
 arm long, stiff, and curved, like a village 
 pump-handle. " He's Mr. Fletcher of Bristol. 
 Who don't know him ? Who knowing him 
 don't respect him ? Has he left his wife and 
 charmin' family for the good of his health 
 only to be drownded in the brig whose 
 repairs have cost him a fortune ? Why, 
 you balliraggers, there's nothen tighter afloat 
 than the Hebe. If Chips there," he said.
 
 76 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 bringing his eyes, always in the corners of 
 their sockets, to bear upon the carpenter, 
 " don't know that water swells and seasons 
 and presarves some kinds of wood, and often- 
 times them that's mostly used in lining ships, 
 why then, all I've got to say is, that though 
 he may consider hisself a man, he's still got 
 his trade to larn." 
 
 The carpenter began to speak. 
 
 " No words ! " bawled Cadman. " Get your 
 rod, and mind ye don't spare the chalk. 
 Drop it, and then all hands pump, and if 
 more water comes in, the brig's yourn," he 
 cried, addressing the men, " and me and Mr. 
 Fletcher goes ashore in the jolly-boat." 
 
 With that he walked aft and stood beside 
 Mr. Fletcher with his arms folded, his head 
 bowed, and his soft hat drawn upon his nose. 
 
 The carpenter fetched the rod, and care- 
 fully prepared it for sounding, whilst the 
 seamen drew one of the pumps for its re- 
 ception ; for the Hehe was constructed on 
 antique theories ; you looked in vain about 
 her for anything modern and convenient. 
 The sailors, breathing hard and flinging
 
 THE ''EEBE'' SAILS. 77 
 
 angry sentences and threats against the 
 captain and ship one to another, squeezed 
 round the pump whilst the carpenter sounded. 
 A trifle under four feet of water was found 
 in the hold. I reported this in a shout to 
 the captain. 
 
 " Pump ! " he roared from where he stood 
 alongside of Fletcher near the wheel. 
 " Pump till the brig's all keel ! Pump till 
 the butts start ! Pump and bust ! and I'll 
 tally the cargo for yer as it washes through 
 the scuppers." 
 
 He continued to shout out language to 
 this effect, all in a high, screeching, sarcastic 
 note, till some of the men could hardly work 
 the brakes for laughing. But thei/ were the 
 younger ones ; the older hands toiled grimly. 
 The pump clanked like the tick of some huge 
 clock, and streams of muddy water gushed 
 over the decks, and fizzed through the scup- 
 per-holes as though we had veritably sprung 
 a frightful leak, and were pumping in a last 
 extremity. 
 
 After a bit the men ceased their labour ; 
 the carpenter again sounded, there was now
 
 78 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 a sensible diminution, rapid enough to con- 
 vince me and most of the men indeed that 
 the captain had spoken the truth ; at all 
 events that the brig was tight. 
 
 " Pump ! " yelled Cadman. 
 
 The brakes clanked again, and the water, 
 now as muddy and thick as pease soup, 
 bubbled and washed from side to side with 
 the heave of the deck, and hissed overboard. 
 I saw Fletcher step to the side and look over, 
 not at the water, but at the brig, and whilst 
 he leaned, stretching his neck, his pear-shaped 
 nose drooping past one hedge of whisker, the 
 suspicion came into my head that all these 
 tons of water had in some f\ishion been secretly 
 let run into the brig to sink her a strake or 
 two to the eye, that it might be thought 
 she had hauled out of dock with a good load. 
 I can't say why I should have imagined this ; 
 nor was it in any way a purposeful suspicion, 
 for it suggested nothing more than the desire 
 of the owner to sail, looking deep. 
 
 I stood on the main-deck watching the 
 men, ready to give them a hand if the need 
 arose; the big shaft of the mainmast hid me
 
 THE "HEBE'' SAILS, 79 
 
 from the captain. The carpenter was near 
 me ; his words^ were not to be heard by the 
 sailors, owing to the noise of the pumps. 
 
 '' I don't want him," said he, meaning by 
 /mn the captain, " to tell me that they run 
 water into vessels for ' to take up,' as the 
 term is, but it's no yarn to swaller when it's 
 told of a full hold. When was the water let 
 in ? Arter the stevedore had done with the 
 brig ? Bet your legs, Mr. Morgan ! for what 
 man in his senses 'ud stow a hold with four 
 feet of water in it ? " 
 
 " There's some reason in it that's above my 
 tricks of seamanship," I answered cautiously, 
 for the spirit of the discipline of the sea ever 
 worked strongly in me ; I did not choose, as 
 mate, to talk ill of my captain with his car- 
 penter. " The skipper's an old hand, and 
 knows what he's about, no doubt." 
 
 He looked at me with a slow, acid, wrink- 
 ling smile, which was just as good as saying, 
 ^' Don't argue against your convictions ; but 
 I understand what's in vour mind." Here 
 the sailors called upon him to sound the well 
 again, and now the decrease was so marked
 
 80 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 as to satisfy us that the brig was a staunch 
 keel. The men, however, spell after spell, 
 held on till the pumps sucked ; they then 
 waited a bit, afterwards made the carpenter 
 get a last cast, then rolled forward to supper, 
 a grumbling, sweating, wearied body of men, 
 bidding me go aft and tell the captain they 
 were satisfied ; though before they signed 
 articles along with him again, he'd have first 
 of all to lift his hatches and sound his own 
 bloomin' well.
 
 ( 81 ) 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 
 
 After this queer matter of the water in the 
 hold, nothing happened that recollection can 
 now catch hold of, that is for a few days. 
 It was little more than weather and wind 
 with us, reefed topsails and strong bow seas, 
 the water by day a dark, frothing green, 
 rolling out of a thick and sallow sky, which 
 over our mastheads swept with the swiftness 
 of smoke in flying scud, the breaks between 
 sinister with stormy light ; whilst by night 
 all was howling and whistling darkness, with 
 the black body of the tub of a brig leaping 
 upon the ghastly pale froth which her capers 
 sent roaring from either side. 
 
 Yet the little craft held her own well with 
 the seas ; she jumped the tall surge with a 
 dry forecastle, and though she pitched most 
 
 YOL. I. G
 
 S-I THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 abominably, she'd dish at a time little more 
 than a bucketful of yellow suds ; the water 
 flew in living sheets from the ponderous hurl 
 of her round bow, with such a screeching, and 
 fiddling, and piping, and roaring aloft that 
 often I'd laugh outright at that multitudinous 
 noise — that orchestral clamour of sweeping 
 hemp and shearing spars, so human it was, 
 so astounding in its suggestions of land-going 
 rowdyism — yells, and hair pulling in the 
 blind alley, the shrieks and groans of a 
 drunken riot, now swelling into the roars 
 of an enraged mob, now sinking into the 
 moaning of the trampled and the dying. 
 
 This weather fell upon us when we were 
 off the Cornish coast, and lasted us down 
 to about 45° of North latitude. We speedily 
 lost sight of Mr. Fletcher of Bristol, who 
 lay sick unto death in the cabin he had 
 fitted up for himself right aft under the 
 wheel, where, of course, the motions of the 
 vessel were to be felt most horribly ; where, 
 too, were to be heard in perfection the sounds 
 of the helm, the shock of the rudder, the 
 grinding of the wheel tackles, the thunderous
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 83 
 
 squash of the square counter smiting the 
 sea. 
 
 I took notice in this time of two or three 
 matters which impressed me, even in those 
 early days: though, as in the case of the 
 four foot of water in the hold, my distrust 
 could make no use of them. First, the 
 cabin equipment was penuriously plain. The 
 table-cloths were as coarse, dark, and old 
 as the brig's canvas, the black-handled knives 
 and forks were of the cheapest and commonest, 
 the crockery was composed of odd pieces 
 of the poorest sort of ware. The cabin fare 
 w^as the worst I had ever sat down to at 
 sea ; it is true that the beef and pork which 
 we ate, which the sailors forward also ^te, 
 was up to the average of such ofifal ; what 
 I mean is, that in the cabin we scarcely fed 
 better than in the forecastle. Such things 
 as were not served out to the sailors were 
 of the vilest quality, such as the pickles, 
 the tinned meat, the biscuit, and the like. 
 We carried no live-stock of any sort, not so 
 much as a lonely hen to furnish us/with 
 a one-meal relish. It was certain the brig
 
 84 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 had put to sea as shabbily victualled as 
 Cadman or his owner durst contrive ; only 
 that the harness-cask being up to the average, 
 and the ship's bread with nothing discover- 
 able in the way of worms as yet, no forecastle 
 growls reached the cabin. 
 
 It happened, soon after the weather had 
 improved, when the brig was rolling along 
 over a swelling hollow ocean, with a single 
 reef in her maintopsail, and the topgallant-sail 
 set above it, the sky brightening out ahead 
 to the southward where the seas were run- 
 ning with frequent quick gleams of light, 
 thouo^h northward the heavens were swollen 
 with vaporous masses, whose bellies stooped 
 in sulky shadows to the sharp lines of the 
 olive-coloured ridges, that I stood beside 
 Cadman a little before noon, sextant in hand, 
 waiting with him for the sun to make eight 
 bells. George, the young steward, in grimy 
 shirt-sleeves, and bare-headed, came up 
 through the companion, and approached the 
 captain. 
 
 " What's it now^ ? " said Cadman, speaking 
 sharply.
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 85 
 
 " There's no more rum left, sir." 
 
 " Ho ! " cried Cadman. " Have you 
 squeezed the jar ? " 
 
 " There's ne'er a trickle," said George. 
 '' I guess I sarved out the last drop yester- 
 day. There's nowt but the smell left, sir." 
 
 " And hain't that to be sarved out too ? " 
 exclaimed Cadman, turning his eyes upon 
 me with a grin, and then looking aloft for 
 the sun. After a pause, he exclaimed — " The 
 men mustn't be kept waiting, Morgan. I'll 
 make it eight bells whilst you take a lighted 
 lantern — and mind it ain't a naked flame — 
 and go into the lazarette, and broach one of 
 the casks of rum that's stowed there." 
 
 I put my sextant away, and, followed by 
 George, went with a lantern into the laza- 
 rette. This was a part of the brig down 
 in the run, under the cabin ; it was entered 
 by a little hatch in the cabin-floor. I dropped 
 through ; George handed down the lantern 
 and came after. I had not before visited 
 this lazarette, nor indeed entered any part 
 of the vessel's hold. It would have been 
 pitch black but for the lantern ; black as
 
 86 IHE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 Storm, and full of the thunder of the sea 
 outside, with frequent violent shocks run- 
 ning through as the surge hit the brig and 
 swung her. 
 
 I held up the lantern and looked around. 
 There was not mucli to see ; all the cabin 
 provisions were here, and most of the 
 stores for the crew's use. But the show 
 was extraordinarily poor. I made out a 
 few barrels of pork and a few casks of flour 
 and bread, and a few cases of tinned meat 
 and preserved spuds, along with some jars 
 of lime-juice and vinegar. Everything was 
 *' few." I spied no rum-casks — nothing re- 
 sembling such things. To search w^as not 
 hard, for there was plenty of room. 
 
 '' Who says the rum's stowed down here ? " 
 I shouted, making my voice heard wuth 
 difiSculty, so confusing were the sounds of 
 the straining and washing fabric in this 
 lazarette. 
 
 *' If it ain't here it's nowhere else," answered 
 George. 
 
 I put on the hatch, gave the lantern to the 
 steward, and went on deck.
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 87 
 
 As I mounted the steps, I found Mr. 
 Fletcher holding on by the companion. He 
 was of a tallowy paleness, and his whiskers 
 wanted their former hedge-like wiriness. I 
 wished him good morning, and said I hoped 
 he was now cured of his sea-sickness. He put 
 his hand on his stomach and shook his head. 
 
 " The nausea has passed," he said, *' but 
 I am somewhat feeble. Yet those who do 
 business in deep waters must be prepared for 
 — for — this sort of thing," he bleated out, 
 after a pause, during which the brig gave 
 one of her vicious kick-ups astern, followed 
 by a long bowel-drawing slant over to lee- 
 ward, till the oil-smooth back of the huge 
 sea swelled in a headlong run from the very 
 edge of the bulwark rail. 
 
 I walked up to Cadman, who a minute 
 before had bawled out, " Strike eight bells," 
 and said, " There's no rum in the lazarette. 
 
 sir." 
 
 " Hey ! " cried he. 
 I repeated the sentence. 
 He seemed to start ; his dramatic recoil 
 and convulsive straddle was very well
 
 88 TEE EMIGRANT 8EIP. 
 
 managed. I even fancied he contrived that 
 his long, snout-like face should turn a trifle 
 pale. 
 
 " Heavens alive, man, what d'ye say ? No 
 rum ! " he cried. '' Where have you looked ? " 
 
 " In the lazarette, sir," I answered. 
 
 " No rum ? " he cried again. " Man, you 
 must be blind ! I saw the receipt for delivered 
 hogsheads, and if you tell me there's no rum 
 in the lazarette, then Mr. Abraham Win ton 
 stands to be convicted of one of the im- 
 pudentest frauds that was ever brought 
 afore the notice of an English court of law. 
 Look again — look again 1 " he yelled with a 
 demonstrative motion towards the forecastle, 
 as if he would have the sailors observe what 
 was passing. " Stop ! " he added. '' I'll look 
 for myself." 
 
 So saying, he zig-zago-ed off to the com- 
 panion on his compass-like legs, and dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 Meanwhile, Fletcher stood holding on, 
 looking palely round upon the sea. Catching 
 my eye, he called me to him with a jerk of 
 his head.
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 89 
 
 " Nothing wrong, Mr. Morgan, I hope ? " 
 said he. 
 
 I explained. 
 
 He, too, gave a dramatic start, and ejacu- 
 lated, *' No rum for the sailors ? How's that ? 
 The casks were ordered and paid for, and I 
 understood from Captain Cadman that they 
 had been securely stowed in the lazarette." 
 
 " They may be in another part of the 
 hold," said I. 
 
 " D'ye think so ? I hope you're right. I 
 fear they are not, though. You would know 
 a rum-cask at a glance ? " 
 
 " At a glance." 
 
 " If they are not in the lazarette, then Tm 
 afraid they're not in the ship. Am I the 
 victim of a cruel fraud ? Abraham Winton, 
 too, of all men ! a person of the first credit 
 in Bristol ! To cheat me, an old friend ! 
 But there must be some mistake ! " he ex- 
 claimed, letting go his hold to wave his hands 
 with a large benevolent gesture. 
 
 Just then I noticed the ship's company 
 gathering into a body near the galley, every 
 man holding a pannikin for the " tot " that
 
 90 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 had heretofore been regularly served out at 
 eight bells. Their uneasy movements indi- 
 cated impatience, and the head of the cook 
 came and went in the galley door like the 
 comb of a cock through the rails of a 
 hencoop. 
 
 Then a voice bawled, ** Ain't that gallus 
 young George a-going to show a leg with 
 the grog to-day ? " 
 
 At that moment Cadman came up the 
 companion-steps. He carried a manner of 
 excitement, and talked aloud, as he mounted. 
 
 ** Mr. Fletcher," said he, "you've been 
 cheated. Boil me alive," he cried, fetching 
 the companion-hood a hard blow with his 
 fist, ** if there's e'er a cask of rum or any- 
 thing like it, in the lazarette." 
 
 Fletcher looked with an expression of 
 dismay from Cadman to me, then round at 
 the man at the wheel, who was easily within 
 earshot. 
 
 " We have TVinton's receipt for the 
 mone}^" said he, in a loud voice ; and he 
 began to flourish his arms and topple about 
 in postures of indignation and wonder and
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 91 
 
 incredulity, all very well done, seeing how- 
 poorly equipped the dog was as an actor, 
 what with his stiff whiskers clamping his 
 face, and his nose going like a rivet through 
 the surface of his countenance, fixing it. 
 
 " Ay, and the stevedore told me the goods 
 were shipped. There's not only been an 
 artful fraud — wuss lies behind — there's collu- 
 sion ! " cried Cadman. 
 
 " Ain't we to have our regular 'lowance of 
 grog to-day ? " sung out one of the crew, 
 angrily. By this time the fellows, all hang- 
 ing together in a little mob, had come some 
 distance forward, the carpenter in the front, 
 and the cook in the tail. 
 
 '* Speak to 'em, Cadman," said Fletcher. 
 
 " Will the casks have been stowed in 
 another part of the hold ? " said I. 
 
 " No ! " roared Cadman ; " if they ain't in 
 the lazarette, they're ashore. Of all the art- 
 fullest, impudentest cheats " Passion 
 
 seemed to choke him, and he shook his fist 
 at the horizon. 
 
 "Speak to them," cried Fletcher. "Tell 
 them how deeply grieved we are to disap-
 
 92 THE EMIGBANT SHIP. 
 
 point them in their just and lawful expecta- 
 tions. Explain that I myself have been very 
 cruelly used, and may suffer a heavy pecu- 
 niary loss, if I cannot prove the non- ship- 
 ment of the goods." 
 
 " See, here, my lads," exclaimed Cadman, 
 going some paces forward, with skating, 
 dodging motions of his legs, '' I'm sorry to 
 say there's no rum left in the brig. The 
 little there was is all drunk up. Several 
 hogsheads was ordered and paid for by Mr. 
 Fletcher of Bristol there, and we've got the 
 ship-chandler's receipt, if you want to see 
 it ; but ne'er a thimbleful of that there order 
 has been delivered." 
 
 The hairy, wiry man, with the clasp-knife 
 round his neck — his name was Thomas 
 Beetle — bawled out, " We don't know nothen 
 about receipts, nor Mr. Fletcher o' Bristol. 
 We signed for the grog, and we must have 
 it!" 
 
 " There's ne'er a drop in the brig, I tell 
 'ee," cried Cadman, averting his face, and 
 looking askew at the man with eyes of 
 murder.
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 93 
 
 " What's that got to do with us ? " roared 
 the cook, coming into the knot of sea- 
 men with a thrust of his naked, yellow 
 elbows. 
 
 Fletcher let go his grasp of the companion- 
 hatch to address the men. A sudden lurch 
 ran him violently against the bulwark-rail. 
 He hung on by a belaying-pin, and assuming 
 the blandest patronizing manner and bene- 
 volent tone of voice his long sea-sickness and 
 present uncomfortable posture permitted, he 
 exclaimed, " Men, let us discuss this unfor- 
 tunate matter as friends. There's no need 
 whatever to lose our tempers, nor to indulge 
 in violent language." 
 
 " No taffy ! " shouted one of the sailors, 
 " Gi' us our grog. The grub's bad enough, 
 and suffocate me, if it's to be made wuss 
 by your sneaking our 'lowance of rum." 
 
 " Men," exclaimed Fletcher, forcing a 
 smile, and attempting a large, bland, friendly 
 gesture of arm, '^ I entreat that you'll not 
 give vent to your feelings in strong and 
 offensive language. My desire is to obtain 
 for the crew of this brig a character for
 
 94 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 respectability, sobriety, and, let me add, 
 piety." 
 
 " Blather ain't going to be sarved out 
 'stead of rum aboard here I " shouted Beetle, 
 springing in his temper half a fathom in 
 advance of his shipmates. *' 'Twasn't to be 
 pump or sink with us, as ye know, capt'n. 
 That mucking job came all right ; we don't 
 want to say nothen more about it. But 
 here's a matter of agreement 'twixt you and 
 us. We want our 'lowance of rum. If it 
 ain't to be granted, you'll work this here 
 trough yourself. I'm one as goes below." 
 
 He thumped his chest, and swung his 
 knife. 
 
 " If you don't belay that infernal impu- 
 dent jaw of yourn " shouted Cad man ; he 
 
 checked himself with a sideways look at 
 Fletcher. 
 
 " What'll 'ee do, hey ? What'll 'ee do ? " 
 snorted Beetle, with his face full of blood, 
 and his head stooped like a ram for the toss. 
 
 " Get away forrard till I talk the thing- 
 over with ]\Ir. Fletcher," cried Cadman, and 
 he then stepped across to Fletcher, took him
 
 A DIFFICULTY. 95 
 
 by the arm, and walked with liim a little 
 distance aft. 
 
 The men, with rolling bodies, and shuffling 
 feet, and muttering lips, waited. The spirit 
 of mutiny showed strong in every face my 
 sight went to. And, indeed, I heartily hoped 
 for some bloodless outbreak of it to send us 
 to an English port, for I was already sick of 
 the brig, thoroughly distrusted Cadman, dis- 
 liked and feared his companion and owner, 
 and was very uneasy as mate under a theory 
 of discipline which apparently made one end 
 of the vessel as good as the other, I had 
 witnessed revolt amongst seamen, but never 
 such sudden, contemptuous defiance as this 
 ship's company had exhibited. Yet I could 
 have sworn to all hands of them as a sturdy, 
 straight-minded body of sailors, above the 
 average. Was it that they scorned Captain 
 Cadman as a man immeasurably inferior to 
 the lowest amongst them ? 
 
 He came along the deck after a few 
 minutes, and, standing on wide legs, with 
 his hands buried in his coat-pockets and his 
 face averted, he told the crew that he had
 
 96 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 been bidden by the owner of the Hehe to 
 offer them money in lieu of rum. This pro- 
 posal was received with shouts of disapproval. 
 Several voices spoke at once. Cadraan tried 
 to obtain silence by shaking his fist ; then, 
 finding his opportunity, said that the money 
 given for the rum would be calculated on the 
 value of the spirit duty paid. 
 
 " This extray money," he told them, " ye'U 
 take up at the end of the voyage, and a 
 handsomer proposal never was made on a 
 ship's decks afore." 
 
 I looked and I listened, but could dis- 
 tinguish little, owing to the uproar. Every 
 man bawled an insult or howled a threat on 
 his own account, without regard to what the 
 rest were shouting ; but I presently under- 
 stood, and so did Cadman, that unless rum 
 to supply their legitimate claims was pro- 
 cured from a passing ship within three days, 
 they'd do no work except to sail the vessel 
 back to Bristol. When they had made them- 
 selves perfectly clear on this point, they went 
 forward. 
 
 George came aft w^ith the cabin dinner
 
 A DIFFICULTY, 97 
 
 shortly after the cook had returned to the 
 galley, and Fletcher, who had stood in 
 talk with Cadman, went below. Cadman 
 now approached me, and I naturally sup- 
 posed that he would at once speak about 
 this difficulty of the rum. Not a word 
 did he say on the subject. He told me to 
 make sail, if the wind decreased, whilst 
 he was at dinner, and to report any ship 
 that should heave in sight. Then, looking 
 towards the forecastle, he added — 
 
 " I hain't overwell satisfied with that there 
 carpenter. He's acting second-mate, but he's 
 too much in with the men to soot my books. 
 I doubt that he's up to much. A pretty 
 ship's carpenter, not to know that wood's to 
 be seasoned by water ! " 
 
 " With a full hold ? " said I dryly. 
 
 " Yes, and with a full hold," he answered, 
 darting a malevolent glance at me. " What's 
 dunnage for, hey ? And how's he to know," 
 he cried, with a toss of his chin towards the 
 forecastle, '' what the lower tier of cargo 
 consists of? It may come to you and me 
 keeping watch and watch ; " and he walked 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 muttering to the companion-way and dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 He was wise, perhaps, not to fall foul of 
 me in his temper, though there was an un- 
 mistakable gleam of dislike, if indeed no 
 darker passion lived, in the look he had 
 given me. I walked the deck thinking hard. 
 The fellow at the wheel accosted me, evidently 
 wanting to hear what I thought about the 
 men's grievance. I told him to mind his 
 helm, and continued walking. There was 
 no shadow of doubt that this business of the 
 rum was a conspiracy betwixt Cadman and 
 Fletcher to defraud the crew. The casks of 
 spirit never had been ordered ; one might 
 swear to that. No ship-chandler durst cheat 
 so nakedly. Had the goods been ordered, 
 they would have been delivered, and a re- 
 ceipt given by the person in charge of the 
 brig at the time. That person should have 
 been the mate. Was this one amongst other 
 reasons why my services had not been re- 
 quired until the day before we sailed ? What 
 was intended ? 
 
 Suspicion lay hard and dark in me, and
 
 A DIFFICULTY, 99 
 
 yet I could not give it a name. Maybe I 
 was somewhat thrown off the scent by the 
 skipper offering the sailors money instead of 
 rum. But the two men's pretended wonder 
 and temper on my discovering that no spirit- 
 casks were in the lazarette, coming on top of 
 that water which had swamped our hold when 
 we warped out of dock, convinced me that 
 something evil was in the hatching, though 
 that it was to put our lives in jeopardy I 
 could not believe, seeing that Mr. Fletcher of 
 Bristol was one of us.
 
 100 THESEMIOBANT SHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 A PLOT. 
 
 It turned out, however — to my secret morti- 
 fication — no later than two days after the 
 trouble about the grog, that Cadman was in 
 luck ; and thus it happened. 
 
 I came on deck at eight o'clock in the 
 morning to relieve the carpenter, and beheld 
 one of the strangest scenes of sea and sky 
 that I can recall. The weather was almost 
 a calm ; a faint air blew, light as the breeze 
 off a butterfly's wing ; yet the brig, under 
 all plain sail, was stealthily creeping over an 
 ice-coloured sea, heavily hung with curtains 
 of white vapour. The stuff was thin in some 
 places, and eastwards you could see the sun 
 through it, hanging dim and small there, 
 like an old worn guinea.
 
 A PLOT, / • 101 
 
 Thoiigli there was little air stirring, the 
 vapour sailed stately over the face of the 
 waters in vast blocks and columns of the 
 sheen of Parian marble ; the white firmament 
 seemed to rest upon them ; they opened in 
 aisles, and presently down one spacious cor- 
 ridor — it then wanting eight or ten minutes 
 of two bells — I spied the figure of a large 
 topsail schooner, her hull resting like a streak 
 of ebony upon the sea, and her white sails 
 blending with the mist till they looked like 
 shreds of the vapour. 
 
 The captain and Mr. Fletcher were in the 
 cabin. I put my head into the skylight, and 
 reported a sail within two miles of us. They 
 both came up ; our helm was shifted, and the 
 brig floated slowly towards the schooner, her 
 jib-boom on end with her. 
 
 This was the first sail we had sighted 
 since the grog trouble. The sailors, at work 
 on jobs aloft and in various parts of the deck, 
 grinned soberly when they saw our helm 
 shifted for the stranger. The fog thinned 
 down as we advanced, leaving a wide breast 
 of white water with a frosty, misty ripple of
 
 102 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 light under the sun at the foot of a soft mass 
 of whiteness there. 
 
 "A beautiful little ship ! " said Mr. Fletcher, 
 pulling at one wiry whisker with square- 
 ended fingers turning up. " A gentleman's 
 private yacht, I should tliink, and not very 
 likely to supply our want." 
 
 " A fruiter, sir, you'll find," exclaimed 
 Cadman. " Sweet and flush with oranges 
 and raisins from the Mediterranean. If I'm 
 right, she ought to be able to oblige us, if 
 not with the sperrit we want, then with 
 summat hot enough to keep the — the — ahem! 
 quiet till we falls in with another vessel." 
 And here he stole an askant look around the 
 deck to observe who listened. 
 
 Presently we were within hail. A beautiful 
 model that schooner was — a fruiter beyond 
 question, as Cadman had said — long and low, 
 with a saucy, piratic spring of bow, raking, 
 star-searching masts, and such a spread of 
 gleaming wing as seemed to carry her main 
 boom half her own length over the taflfrail. 
 
 " Schooner ahoy ! " shouted Cadman. 
 
 "" Hallo ? " echoed a tall man in a white
 
 A PLOT. 103 
 
 wideawake, leisurely coining to the quarter- 
 deck bulwark-rail and leaning upon it as 
 though to survey us for his entertainment. 
 
 " What schooner s that ? " 
 
 " The Jach-d-Lanthorn, from Barceloney, 
 to the Thames. What ship are you ? " 
 
 The information demanded was vouchsafed; 
 Cadman then sung out to me to back the 
 maintopsail, and whilst this was doing, he 
 bawled to the other to know if he had any 
 rum to sell. The man stood upright and 
 appeared to consider ; after consulting with 
 another, who had stationed himself alongside 
 him, he cried back — 
 
 " How much d'ye want ? " 
 
 " How much can yer spare ? " 
 
 " A quarter-cask." 
 
 **ril send a boat," shouted Cadman with 
 a spasmodic flourish of his hand. He was 
 about to address me. " No ! " he said, " I'll 
 go myself." He nipped Mr. Fletcher by the 
 sleeve, and walked apart with him; and 
 whilst the boat was lowering, I overheard 
 them arguing on the value of a quarter-cask 
 of rum. Fletcher then brought some money
 
 104 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 from his cabin, and Cadman got into the 
 boat, and was pulled to the schooner by 
 three seamen. 
 
 I particularly noticed the age and mean- 
 ness of that boat whilst Cadman was entering 
 her. She looked as though, having been 
 washed ashore from a wreck, she had been 
 found stranded, blistered, and crazy, and 
 straightway hoisted without a dab of paint 
 or the blow of a hammer, to the davits of 
 the Hehe, and scarcely had Cadman scrambled 
 over the schooner's side when one of the men 
 in that boat began to bale. 
 
 The skipper was a long time gone ; I 
 reckoned he was trying to drive a bargain. 
 The vessels had drifted a good boat's-puU 
 apart before the cask of rum was lowered 
 to the men alongside. The boat then made 
 for the brig, two hands rowing and one 
 baling, and the cask was hoisted aboard. 
 Cadman, with a purple face, came over the 
 rail, and the boat was hooked on and dragged 
 to the davit-ends, discharging a stream of 
 water as she mounted. 
 
 At noon that day, a " tot " of grog apiece
 
 A PLOT, 105 
 
 was served out to the men, who said it was 
 very good rum, better than what they had 
 been having ; and this, perhaps, because it 
 was considerably above proof, too scorching 
 for even the cook to drink neat. 
 
 It held fair and very quiet throughout the 
 day ; before the morning watch was out, it 
 was all clear weather, with a high warm 
 sun and smooth soft dark blue water. It 
 was my watch below from twelve to four. 
 After I had worked out my sights, I ate 
 some dinner alone and entered my cabin, 
 where, lying in my bunk after reading 
 awhile, I fell asleep. I was called at four 
 by George, and again went on deck to 
 relieve the carpenter who, spite of the 
 captain's talks and threats, still kept watch 
 and watch with me. As I went up the 
 companion-steps, Fletcher came out of his 
 athwartship's cabin under the wheel, and, 
 giving me a large patronizing nod, went 
 directly to the captain's berth. 
 
 The waning afternoon was very glorious. 
 There was a delicate vagueness of amber 
 atmosphere at the junction of sky and water
 
 106 THE EMIGRANT SB IP. 
 
 which stretched the ocean into a measureless 
 breast. Our canvas was yellowing with the 
 afternoon light ; veins of fire were kindling 
 in the tarry shrouds ; the old brass binnacle- 
 hood burnt with crimson stars, and the glass 
 of the skylight flashed like the discharge of 
 a gun as the brig slightly swayed. I seemed 
 to find a sort of rude, ocean beauty in the 
 old tub this day as she floated on the quiet 
 sea, with her topmost ill-fitting cloths sleep- 
 ing to the breathing of the light breeze up 
 there. She carried me in fancy to our home 
 waters ; I beheld the white cliffs of the 
 Channel, the black gaunt collier with dark 
 canvas leaning from the breeze, with the 
 green heights of the chalk beyond slipping 
 by over her mastheads, and the wool-white 
 line of the surf upon the sands, dim passed 
 her bow in contrast with the sharp white 
 froth, breaking in little leaps from the thrust 
 of the old cutwater. 
 
 I talked for a few minutes with the car- 
 penter, who then went forward for a pannikin 
 of black tea and a pipe of tobacco, and I 
 started to stump or lounge about the deck
 
 A PLOT, 107 
 
 for the two hours of the first dog-watch, 
 with the promise of nothing to do but to 
 send a lazy look aloft now and again, and 
 yawn. But when I had been on deck some 
 ten minutes or so, my left boot hurt me ; in 
 short, a corn of long standing began to worry 
 me. To remedy this, I went below to my 
 berth for an old shoe, never supposing that 
 I should be longer than a minute from the 
 deck. 
 
 Hearing voices in the captain's cabin, that, 
 as you remember, was next mine, I entered 
 my berth very silently. All was quiet down 
 here ; the heave of the brig small and faint. 
 The voices next door sounded plain ; I could 
 not help listening, but, in listening, I had 
 almost forgot the errand which brought me 
 below. 
 
 '' It's no good talking, Mr. Fletcher," I 
 heard Cadman say, and iq, no tone of respect, 
 either. " Putting the brig ashore on the 
 Salvages, wont do I I'll tell you the ob- 
 jection. Suppose we make them rocks in 
 daylight, there's no clapping her ashore with 
 a man like Morgan, or the carpenter, on the
 
 108 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 look-out. What then ? Are we to keep all 
 on standing off and on until dark ? That 
 'ud be like my splitting to the crew, and 
 ruinating the whole bilin' with a lively 
 chance of an impeachment — don't they call 
 it ? — to follow, and a sentence of lagging for 
 the brace of us. YouVe no sailor. If you 
 was, you'd understand my objection." 
 
 " I'm no sailor, it's true," answered Flet- 
 cher, speaking in a strong, warm voice ; 
 ** but when a thing's concerted, I'm for stick- 
 ing to the programme. Look at this chart. 
 Here you have an island with rocks and 
 breakers all around it. There's not a spot on 
 the ocean that offers better excuses for going 
 ashore. D'ye mean to say you can't contrive 
 to make it at night ? If you question your 
 own reckoning ; there's Morgan, you may 
 depend upon his observations to within a 
 mile ; then work by dead - reckoning till 
 nightfall. It's only giving the helmsman 
 the course for the rock, and there you are." 
 
 " Yes, there I am," responded Cadman, in 
 a sneering voice. " It is easy enough to say 
 ' there you are.' But ' there you are's ' soon
 
 A PLOT. 109 
 
 mucked up into ' there you hain't/ in tra- 
 verses arter this pattern, sir ; I don't put the 
 brig ashore where she may be found, a week 
 or a fortnight arterwards, all staunch. When 
 she strands, she must go to pieces. Yer 
 want no salvage job, I hope, along with our 
 cargo ? She must go to pieces, I say, and in 
 such a fashion that you and me don't perish 
 in consequence. I want my life, and you 
 want yourn. Is that right ? " 
 
 " Quite right," exclaimed Fletcher, some- 
 what soothingly. " Of course our lives 
 stand first. But why's Table Bay safer than 
 these rocks ? " 
 
 '' How can yer ask ? Fust of all, wrecks 
 is constantly happening there. That's like 
 greasing the ways. ' What ! Table Bay 
 again ! ' people say. ' Time there was more 
 lights. Time the authorities contrived that 
 ships shouldn't always be a-going to pieces.' 
 See, now." And here 1 judged by the 
 pause, and what followed, that Cadman 
 exposed a chart of Table Bay and the coast 
 to Fletcher. " Look at your opportunities. 
 Here they are, all the way from Moolly
 
 110 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 Point to Hout Bay. Green Point's the 
 favourite spot. I'll swear to three neat 
 jobs off it in four year. You can do what 
 you like, and choose your own time, when 
 you've got a coast like that to pick and 
 choose from. No hurry either to make your 
 port. Keep an ofiSng — your sailors'll find yer 
 a reason. In the calmest weather, there's 
 always a big surf a-thundering. I'll warrant 
 it to float every stick and rag out of her 
 before the morning ; yet, in still weather, 
 the water's smooth to the very heave of the 
 breaker, and if you've a boat that'll swim, 
 there's no risk." 
 
 Fletcher remained silent. I saw him, in 
 imagination, overhanging the chart with 
 hedge-like whiskers and pear-shaped nose, 
 musing upon the words of the devil at his 
 side. 
 
 " I own," continued Cadman, softening his 
 tone as though he fancied his companion was 
 beginning to agree with him, " that the 
 Salvage lies handy for the job, conveniently 
 in the road, and not by no means to be dis- 
 pised, if so be Table Bay war n't a dumm'd
 
 A PLOT. Ill 
 
 sight more sootable. But there's no hurry. 
 The nioney to be taken up is good enough 
 to desarve a little waiting for. It'll look a 
 thousand times more natural to go ashore 
 down Table Bay way, than on them handy 
 rocks here. Everybody says on such occa- 
 sions, 'ticularly when there's loss of life, 
 ' What a pity ! Just as they had reached 
 their port, too, pore chaps ! ' I'm for putting 
 all the nature that's to be got into jobs of 
 this sort. Make true bills of 'em. Mister 
 Fletcher, true bills ! That's the tip." 
 
 He laughed sloppily, in his old manner. 
 
 " I'll think over the matter a bit more 
 before deciding," presently said Mr. Fletcher. 
 " Not that I mean you mayn't be right. It's 
 a big venture and dangerous. I want to see 
 my way clear in the matter of life — my life 
 and yours, Cadman — and I want also to be 
 satisfied that when the vessel's put ashore 
 she'll be so thoroughly wrecked, so quickly 
 gutted, that nobody will take the trouble to 
 meddle with her. If portions of the cargo 
 should wash up about Table Bay " 
 
 " Who's going to swear to 'em ? " inter-
 
 112 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 riipted Cadman. " Who's going to prove 
 em oiirn ? 
 
 " The Salvages are uninhabited," continued 
 Fletcher. " Wreck the brig there, and a 
 month, two months, might pass without the 
 hulk being visited. In that time the sea's 
 bound to have made a clean sweep." 
 
 " Two month's dyer say ? I dunno. I'd 
 not kiss the Book on that. There's always 
 some blasted Portugee or other a-landing 
 from Madeira in search o' roots. 'Sides," 
 he cried, raising his voice in a sudden fit of 
 temper, and continuing to speak loud, though 
 Fletcher called " hush ! " two or three times, 
 "when you talk of casting a vessel away, 
 you're not to think ojili/ of the advantages 
 of the place you choose. What's agin yer ? 
 Ponder that. Make a ledger entry of them 
 Salvages, and credit them with one and debit 
 'em with twenty, and nineteen's the contrairy 
 balance." 
 
 Fletcher said something I did not catch ; 
 Cadman then, insensibly, perhaps, imitating 
 the other's tone, also spoke low. I waited, 
 hoping to catch more. Hearing nothing, I
 
 A PLOT. 113 
 
 went out, and as I did so Fletclier stepped 
 from the captain's berth with a chart rolled 
 up under his arm. 
 
 He stood stock still, staring at me. As he 
 did not offer to move, I walked round the 
 table to the companion-steps, taking one look 
 at his face — it was white as death. I turned 
 when at the foot of the ladder to see if he 
 watched or followed ; he had re-entered the 
 captain's berth. 
 
 On gaining the deck, I stood for some 
 minutes gazing aloft and around, scarce able 
 to bring my wits so to bear as to focus the 
 amazing devilish conversation I had over- 
 heard. I'll not say I was astonished ; all 
 along I had distrusted the scoundrels, though 
 I never knew what shape to give my sus- 
 picions ; but I was dismayed ; indeed, my 
 consternation was extreme. Everything was 
 clear, now that I understood the two villains 
 designed to wreck the brig. They had sunk 
 her by a strake or two with water in the 
 dock that she might look to haul out re- 
 spectably freighted. Their intention ac- 
 counted for the old sails and bad gear, for 
 
 VOL. I. i
 
 114 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 the stranded foot-ropes and rotten lifts, for 
 what would turn out to be light anchors and 
 short cables, with chafed stoppers and decayed 
 catfalls, and for the mean cabin equipment 
 and poor provisions. Their motive for cheat- 
 ing the men out of their rum was explained : 
 they never meant to pay the crew ; in truth, 
 they had talked as if they meant to drown 
 them. 
 
 What was I to do ? 
 
 I paced the deck deeply considering. The 
 sun was large and low ; it was a fine, warm, 
 shining afternoon, the breeze gentle and 
 steady, and the sea like an inland lake 
 but for the light lift and fall of old ocean's 
 bosom tranquilly breathing. The sailors 
 were gathered in the forecastle yarning ; 
 tlie carpenter stood a little away from a 
 group of them, with a pipe in his mouth 
 and his arms folded, listenino;. I debated 
 within myself whether or not I should 
 straightway tell hitn what I had heard. 
 But if I do so, thouo^ht I, he'll certainlv 
 inform the crew, and a hundred to one but 
 they'll lock the two scoundrels up and
 
 A PLOT. 115 
 
 oblige me to carry the brig home, to save 
 the vessel and their lives. That would be 
 piracy and mutiny, as affairs stand. What 
 could I prove ? The men below were two to 
 one ; they'd outswear me, and I had no 
 evidence. To be sure, the contents of the 
 hold might convict them of a fraudulent 
 design. But until the brig was cast away 
 the villains surely would be guiltless of any- 
 thing cognizable by the law ? 
 
 I paced the deck, resolved to think deeply 
 and prudently ere deciding on action. Would 
 the two rogues judge I had overheard them ? 
 They might hope I had stepped into my berth 
 for a minute, and caught nothing material, 
 nothing but the rumble of their voices.' 
 Would their fears allow them to think this ? 
 They might even now be trying the capacity 
 of the bulkhead by talking either side of 
 it. But, granted that they made up their 
 minds to believe I had got their secret, 
 what then ? Would they make away with 
 me? I bad no fear on that head, somehow. 
 I knew them now to be villains ; but I was 
 also cocksure they were cowards, willing to
 
 116 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 take their chance, indeed, of being lagged 
 for good booty, but very unlikely to venture 
 their necks, even for the freight of a plate- 
 ship. 
 
 I saw nothing of them for half an hour 
 after I had left the cabin. Cadman then 
 came up, humming some tuneless thing as 
 he stepped with zig-zag gait to the compass ; 
 he glanced at the card, looked with a leisurely 
 eye and a composed face round upon the sea, 
 and gazed at the men forward without the 
 least hint of uneasiness in his manner. I 
 watched him furtively, but with impassioned 
 attention all the same, and after a little, felt 
 so far reassured that I could swear he did 
 not sus|)ect I had overheard a word that 
 had passed. He presently pulled out one of 
 his bad cigars and lighted it at a match held 
 in his soft felt hat, glancing about him in 
 a sailorly look-out way and saying nothing 
 to me according to his custom. 
 
 It wanted something of two bells, the 
 cabin supper-hour. Fletcher now appeared 
 and hung awhile in the companion-hatch, 
 looking round upon the placid scene of
 
 A PLOT. 117 
 
 glorious ocean afternoon with a bland 
 patronizing air that pronounced he found 
 it satisfactory. His colour had returned, 
 and he was entirely the large-chinned, 
 whiskered, pear-shaped-nosed Mr. Fletcher 
 of Bristol again. 
 
 " Lovely weather, Cadman/' he called out. 
 
 " Ay, sir," answered Cadman, speaking 
 with his cheap cigar drooping at his lips. 
 '' There's no shore-going physic to match 
 this. Here's medicine to restore you to your 
 home a well man, Mr. Fletcher." 
 
 The owner of the brig lifted up his eyes 
 with an expression of gratitude, then stepped 
 over to the captain, and they walked the 
 deck.
 
 118 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE GREAT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME. 
 
 "When supper was reported ready, Fletcher 
 and Cadman went into the cabin and sat at 
 the table under the skylight, which stood 
 open, so that I caught their talk as I paced 
 past ; it was on indifferent matters, and might 
 have been the chat of two men meeting for 
 the first time. I was mighty pleased that 
 neither of the rogues had addressed me when 
 on deck — I was young, with a tell-tale face — 
 I wanted a little time to master myself 
 It is an earthquake-shock to any man to 
 stumble unawares on a great crime in the 
 hatching ; to all on a sudden come across 
 that ancient foul black hen, Sin, on one of 
 the deadliest of her blood-red eggs. 
 
 I resolved to be decided by the behaviour 
 of the two miscreants ; if thev oave me to
 
 OBEAT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME. 119 
 
 know by the least hint that they were aware 
 I had overheard their talk, then I should 
 go to the carpenter, tell all, and be advised 
 by him as an old experienced seaman. If, 
 on the other hand, I judged by marks con- 
 clusive to my own instincts and apprehen- 
 sions that the two men did not suppose I 
 had listened, but that they were willing to 
 imagine I had looked into my cabin for a 
 minute, taking what I wanted and leaving 
 quickly, seeing that I had charge of the 
 deck ; then I determined to hold my peace, 
 for the present, at all events, always keeping 
 a vigilant eye upon the brig's reckoning and 
 upon Captain Cadman. If they meant to 
 cast the brig away 'twixt Agulhas and Cape- 
 town, I should have plenty of leisure for 
 thinkino* on what was best to be done. As 
 things stood, I could offer no other proof 
 of their design than swearing to what I had 
 overheard ; but, by waiting, I might be able 
 to bring their villainy home to them, and 
 obtain evidence to justify myself and the 
 crew in taking any steps we might think 
 proper to save our lives and the ship.
 
 120 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 The two men sat in the cabin until shortly 
 before six. Cadman then came on deck and 
 talked to me about the starboard fore-shrouds 
 being slack ; he said those shrouds and other 
 rigging which he named, needed setting up 
 afresh. He also told me that next morning 
 he would require me to overhaul the stock 
 of fresh water aboard. 
 
 "The casks are stowed under the main 
 hatch," he said. " They're easily got at. 
 No need to break out anything. Ever called 
 at Madeira ? " 
 
 '* Never." 
 
 " It's a Portuguese island, ain't it ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Them Portuguese are just the most 
 swindling people on the face of the y earth. 
 They sarved me some gallus tricks at Lisbon 
 — might have ruinated me with their wither- 
 ing charges. Always keep th' horizon 'twixt 
 you and a Portugee. We're a poor ship, and 
 there's nothen in this here voyage that's 
 agoing to set me up for life. Suppose we 
 should need to fill a cask or two with fresh 
 water, will Madeira charge me a shilling
 
 ORE AT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME. l2l 
 
 a gallon ? More'n likely. Them Portuguese 
 'ud chouse a shipmaster into bankruptcy as 
 easy as lighting one of their dummed paper 
 cigars. Dyer know the Salvages ? " 
 
 " I've sighted them," I answered, meeting 
 his askant gaze coolly — I was now per- 
 fectly self-possessed — striving meanwhile to 
 interpret his looks ; but his snout-like face 
 was as expressionless to my needs as the 
 head of a cod. 
 
 " I fancy there's fresh water to be got 
 there — I ain't sure." 
 
 ** They're uninhabited, I believe ? " 
 
 ^' So the yarn goes. Likely as not. So 
 much the better if they're desolate. You 
 take your fill, and there's nothen to pay. 
 It's only a matter of rafting a few casks, and 
 there y'are." 
 
 As he said this, four bells were struck ; 
 and the carpenter at once came aft to relieve 
 me. Cadman turned on his heel and looked 
 down the skylight for Fletcher, and I stepped 
 below to get some supper. I found Fletcher 
 at the table making notes ; he at once 
 pocketed his book, and, in his accustomed
 
 122 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 way of addressing me, asked about the 
 weather, our rate of progress, where the 
 trade-wind was to be found, and so on. 
 He left me, after a few minutes, to eat my 
 supper alone. 
 
 It now entered my head to imagine that 
 the two men meant to watch me through the 
 mask of their habitual behaviour, to gather 
 by my looks or speech whether I had over- 
 heard them. I munched my supper lost in 
 thought. My situation was extraordinary 
 for its tragic difficulty. Nevertheless, I 
 determined on holding by my first resolution 
 to carefully keep my own counsel, at all 
 events for the present. What did Cadman 
 mean by talking of watering at the Salvages ? 
 We could not be running short of fresh water 
 yet I Had the two villains concerted during 
 the time they were alone, after I had stepped 
 out of my cabin and met Fletcher — had they 
 agreed, I say, to wreck the brig on the 
 Salvages after all — choosing to be quick 
 with the criminal job, now they might fear 
 I had got wind of their intention ? 
 
 Again and again, in thus thinking, I half
 
 GBEAT SALVAGE WATEBIEO SCHEME. 123 
 
 started fiom the table, or from my bimk, 
 
 where I aftei wards lay down to smoke a 
 
 pipe till eight o'clock, resolved to tell the 
 
 carpenter wliat I had heard, and to bring the 
 
 crew into the secret ; but I was regularly 
 
 checked by this consideration : what proof 
 
 have I ? The two fellows would bluster, 
 
 talk big, look innocent, swear I was a foul 
 
 liar, quiet the crew with repeated assurances, 
 
 meanwhile lock me up with irons on my legs, 
 
 leaving me to lie in my cell of a cabin when 
 
 they actually did put the brig ashore, so that 
 
 it might end in my being drowned. 
 
 The night passed quietly. Fletcher took 
 a few turns of the deck with me at about 
 nine o'clock. He talked of Bristol, asked 
 me questions about my father, my experiences 
 as a sailor, and so on. In a vague way he 
 made me understand that he had taken a 
 fancy to me, and equally vague was the sort 
 of hint he ran through his speech that it 
 might be before long in his power to offer 
 me command of a vessel. He went below 
 with Cadman, and they played at draughts 
 till five bells. I would come to a stand
 
 124 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 sometimes, and sneak a look at them as they 
 sat under the open skylight. You precious 
 pair I thought I. It was hot, and Fletcher's 
 face was oily ; his whiskers glistened wath 
 distilled dew-drops. He looked a very re- 
 spectable man ; I admired his satin cravat, 
 with its two large pins ; his stiff, stick-up 
 collars, through whose sharp points his chin 
 seemed to have burst, as though, like a pale 
 suet-pudding, it had broken through its bag 
 in boiling ; I noticed a large signet-ring on 
 his little finger, and his watch-chain was of 
 thick gold, and stretched from one waistcoat- 
 pocket to the other, with a bunch of seals 
 and fallals between. Oh, you villain ! I 
 thought. The other scoundrel played with his 
 head on one side, and his little eyes leering 
 down upon the draught-board out of their 
 corners. His right hand wandered often to 
 a tumbler of spirits. Sometimes they talked, 
 and one or another would break into a laugh. 
 After watching them awhile, I said to myself: 
 They don't believe I overheard them, for all 
 Fletcher's turning white as death on meeting 
 me at that instant.
 
 GREAT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME, 125 
 
 The light breeze freshened at seven bells, 
 and before turning in I had taken the fore- 
 royal and flying-jib off the brig, leaving it to 
 the carpenter to let her wash along for the 
 next four hours under such sail as he chose to 
 hang on to. We were at this time about a 
 hundred and twenty miles north-east of 
 Madeira, heading a course that would put 
 that island abreast just out of sight behind 
 the horizon to the westward. If Cadman 
 was aiming for the Salvages, he was on the 
 straight road for those rocks, which lie in 
 latitude 30° 7' N., and longitude 15° 54' W. 
 They are about a hundred and eighteen miles 
 north of the Canaries — that is, Teneriflfe — 
 and within an easy run of Madeira. I had 
 sighted them on one occasion at a long dis- 
 tance. The mariner commonly gives them a 
 wide berth, though the Grreat Salvage island 
 shows a bold peak of four hundred and fifty- 
 five feet in one place. I had never heard of 
 a ship watering there, and did not know, 
 indeed, that there was fresh water to be 
 found on the rock. What had Cadman in 
 his mind ?
 
 126 THE EMIGRANT SHIP, 
 
 It blew fresh during the raid lie watch, 
 and down to six bells in the raorning watch. 
 I found the mainsail furled when I came on 
 deck at four, and the brig driving along over 
 a short quartering sea under a maintop-gal- 
 lant-sail and a reefed trysail. She broke the 
 black water in white masses from her bows, 
 as though the squab tub, like somathing 
 sentient, pursy, yet vigorous withal, blew 
 for breath as she pitched and burst her way 
 along, with a noisy howling of wind aloft 
 among her rags and slack gear, and much 
 roaring under her counter, where the race of 
 her wake boiled in light like a paddle-wheel's 
 back- wash. 
 
 But, after sunrise, the breeze slackened. 
 1 heaped every cloth upon the old cask, and 
 ran up a foretopmast studding-sail, and, at 
 eight o'clock, she was wallowing over it at 
 about seven knots, having measured about 
 seventy sea miles since midnight. 
 
 After breakfiist, Cadman told me to lift 
 the main-hatch, and find out what quantity 
 of fresh water there was in the brig. He 
 hung about the hatch wliilst we were at this
 
 GREAT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME. 127 
 
 work, and watched us closely, backing and 
 stooping to catch a sight of me when I got 
 into the gloom under the deck. Fletcher 
 also came to the hatch, and looked on for 
 some time. I forget the number of water- 
 casks. They were stowed on top of the 
 cargo, which just here rose high, and seemed 
 fairly plentiful, though I well knew the brig 
 would have been sunk some feet deeper, had 
 the goods been stowed flush fore and aft, as 
 they showed in the square of the hatch. 
 The lading appeared to consist of casks and 
 cases. Knowing what I knew, I might have 
 sworn that whatever they contained was 
 warranted to sink on the brig going to 
 pieces. 
 
 I calculated enough fresh water to carry 
 us to the Cape witliout risk, a fair average 
 passage being granted. A quantity having 
 been already used, there were, of course, 
 several empty casks among the full ones. I 
 came out of the hold, and Cadman stood 
 beside me, watching eagerly whilst the sailors 
 put the hatch-cover and tarpaulin on, and 
 securely battened them down. AVhen that
 
 128 TnE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 was done^ he turned his eyes upon rae with a 
 sort of leering, cocky, expressive look, which 
 seemed to me like saying. You're satisfied 
 now, perhaps, that the brig has a cargo ? 
 
 We then went down into the cabin, where 
 I made the calculation I have given above, 
 Fletcher sitting opposite, and Cadman looking 
 over my shoulder. 
 
 " What's the quantity, d'yer say, Mr. 
 Morgan ? " inquired Fletcher, leaning back, 
 with his fingers buried in his waistcoat 
 pockets, the thumbs outside, curling up. 
 
 I answered the question. He looked at 
 Cadman, who said — 
 
 " We ought to fill up, sir, I think." 
 
 " You allow ten weeks to the Cape — a 
 good margin. And here's Mr. Morgan s cal- 
 culations, giving you a supply for fifteen 
 weeks — a better margin still," said Fletcher, 
 with one of his large smiles, which his 
 whiskers seemed to stop from overflowing 
 his neck and back, as though tliey were 
 embankments. 
 
 "Yer dunno what thirst is at sea, Mr. 
 Fletcher," said Cadman. '' Morgun'U tell
 
 GREAT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME. 129 
 
 you there's notlien orfler. I'm for having 
 plenty of water, fresh and sweet, sir — 'ticn- 
 larly when it's to be got for nothing." 
 
 " We don't want to be unnecessarily de- 
 layed," said Fletcher, smoothly. 
 
 " It can't be a matter of more'n a few 
 hours, weather permitting," exclaimed Cad- 
 man. '' Suppose a fortnight or three weeks 
 o' cahn on the Line ; add three or four weeks 
 of hard head-winds in the tail o' the south- 
 east trade, the brig blowing to the west'ard 
 on a bowline, or with an athwartship wake, 
 and a treble-reefed maintors'l. It might 
 come to it. The likes of such things happen 
 at sea. Hey, Mr. Morgan ? " 
 
 " Ay, indeed, they do," said I, who was 
 now standing up, looking from one to the 
 other of them as they conversed. 
 
 Fletcher continued to talk argumenta- 
 tively. He seemed, in a half-hearted way, 
 opposed to the Great Salvage watering 
 scheme, though Cadman gave him several 
 reasons for filling up at that island, all of 
 them very plausible ; indeed, they would 
 have been sound, had the intention been 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 honest. But I had not h'stened long, when T 
 saw it had been settled between them that 
 we should heave-to off the rocks. 
 
 Their project put a new face upon my 
 difficulty. Did the rogues intend to clap tlie 
 brig ashore under the excuse of filling up 
 with fresh water? Twenty times that day 
 had I a mind to communicate with the car- 
 penter, and, through him, with the crew. If 
 the captain cast the vessel away, then my 
 statement to the carpenter would be before- 
 hand with the villain. There would be that 
 man and the crew to prove I had overheard 
 the skipper and Fletcher talking about 
 wrecking the vessel. Yet the old considera- 
 tion daunted and silenced me. I mean, the 
 fear that Gadman would talk the sailors over, 
 lock me up, ruin my professional chances, or 
 so use me as, in the end, to destroy me. 
 
 Nothing, however, in the behaviour of 
 the two men caused me to suspect they knew 
 or feared I had their secret. I particularly 
 observed this, and was so astonished, seeing 
 that Fletcher had met me on the very thres- 
 hold of the captain's berth, that I should
 
 GREAT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME. 131 
 
 have doubted my own hearing, and believed 
 I had totally misunderstood all that had 
 passed between them, if it were not I was 
 now certain that neither men imagined I had 
 overheard the conversation. 
 
 It was on a Tuesday morning that I made 
 that calculation about the water, and on 
 Thursday, soon after sunrise, a man who had 
 gone aloft to cut away some bit of flapping 
 chafing gear, sung out from the foretopmast 
 cross-trees that there was land on the star- 
 board bow. It was such a morning as one 
 would expect to find in those latitudes. The 
 sun was hot and sparkling, though but a few 
 degrees above the horizon, and his reflec- 
 tion was a spreading breast of trembling 
 splendour ; all the eastern sea was aflame 
 with fires of silver glory. The sky was 
 high with delicate frost-like cloud that cob- 
 w^ebbed the blue from the zenith to the 
 western sea-line. The sea ran with a light 
 heave in the wake of the northerly breeze ; 
 it lifted and sank, with a prismatic sheen 
 in the atmosphere close down over the dark 
 blue of it, that made you think of a vast
 
 132 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 satin carpet swelled with the wind and 
 splendid with a strong light slipping from 
 one glossy rolling fold to another. 
 
 The brig floated slowly forwards under 
 ill-fitting lower and topmast studding-sails, 
 the watch scrubbing the decks, the scuppers 
 gushing cloudy streams into the blue brine 
 which passed alongside crisp and beautiful 
 with little foam bells and twinkling bubbles 
 of froth and lines of ripple breaking from 
 the cutwater, like the strings of a harp 
 musical with their fountain-like notes. The 
 land was in sight from the deck at ten, a 
 douV)le-humped stretch of blue shadow, fining 
 down into a pencil-shaped point south-east. 
 It was the Great Salvage Island, a rock 
 about a mile broad, and little less than a 
 mile wide, then bearing about two points 
 on the starboard bow. 
 
 Cad man was on deck at this time, armed 
 with an immense, old-fiishioned telescope, 
 which he would frequently level as though 
 it had been a blunderbuss. Fletcher hung 
 beside him, and sometimes took the great 
 glass from his hand and pointed it. The
 
 GREAT SALVAGE WATERING SCHEME. 13.3 
 
 carpenter had charge of the deck, and was 
 walking in the waist. I was too anxious to 
 see what went forward to keep below, and 
 stationed myself beside the galley, where I 
 was out of sight of Cadman. The carpenter, 
 spying me, came trudging a little way forward, 
 so as to talk without stopping in his short 
 pendulum walk. The watch were scattered 
 about the deck ; one at the wheel, two on 
 jobs aloft, a fourth stitching at a sail near 
 the main-hatch. 
 
 " Do the captain mean to water at that 
 there island ? " said the carpenter. 
 
 " Yes," I answered. 
 
 *' George brought the news forrards. Our 
 fresh water has given out plaguey soon, 
 ha'n't it, Mr. Morgan ? Looks as if they'd 
 thought more of swamping the hold than 
 filling the casks. D'ye know anything of 
 that island, sir ? " 
 
 " Nothing whatever," I answered, smoking 
 stolidly, carefully watching the rock's bear- 
 ings meanwhile, to observe how the skipper 
 was heading the brig. 
 
 '^ What's the facilities for watering there,
 
 134 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 I wonder? Have the folks ashore got e'er 
 a hose ? Or do it come alongside ? " 
 
 *' There's no hose," said I. " The island's 
 as naked as my pipe-bowl." 
 
 At this he stopped in his walk, and looked 
 at the land under the sharp of his hand, 
 then glanced aft at Cadman and Fletcher, 
 and fell to trudging afresh with the slow 
 rolling sulky gait of your true-born mer- 
 chantman. 
 
 *' Are we so hard up for a drink of water 
 as this here stoppage 'ud make out?" said he. 
 
 "The skipper means to fill his empty 
 casks." 
 
 " If the island's not inhabited, how do he 
 know there's any fresh water to be got 
 there ? " 
 
 '* I can t tell you." 
 
 He took another look at the island under 
 his hand, and muttering with a puzzled face, 
 " Blamed if there ain't a irood deal aboard 
 this brig that's not to be understood," he 
 stepped back to the part of the deck which 
 be was first pacing.
 
 ( 135 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SALVAGES. 
 
 I WALKED aft meaning to put my pipe away 
 and shave. Fletcher stood motionless beside 
 a backstay, against which he steadied Cad- 
 man's huge telescope ; he was viewing the 
 island as though absorbed by the sight ; but 
 then, after you have kept the sea for many 
 days you'll look at even the littlest fang 
 of rock with interest, as representing land 
 anyhow. 
 
 Cadman was walking the deck with quick, 
 agitated strides — his movements reminded 
 me of a thrush — a run of a half-dozen steps, 
 then a dead stop and a look up aloft. I 
 had my hand on the companion-hood, in the 
 act of descending, when he called me. 
 
 " Morgan, see all clear with the jolly-boat. 
 I mean to heave-to off that there island.
 
 13G THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 You'll go ashore with a couple of hands, and 
 see if there's any fresh water to be *ad. I've 
 always understood there's a spring on that 
 north-east point. If not, hunt about ; if 
 seeking won't find it, try what digging'll 
 do. Git a shovel chucked into the boat. 
 Mr. Fletcher'll go along with you. He says 
 he feels like wanting to stretch his legs on 
 dry land, and since I'm bound to heave-to, 
 for them water-casks must be filled — though, 
 of course," said he, pointing to the island, 
 " if there aint no water there, why — why — 
 what was I a-saying? — oh yes, since I'm 
 bound to heave-to, Mr. Fletcher's quite 
 right to go ashore. Why not ? The oppor- 
 tunity of visiting a desolate island dorn't 
 often happen, even to a sailor man, in a life- 
 time. It'll be something for him to talk 
 about to his family and friends, when he 
 gets home." 
 
 All this he said with his eyes upon me in 
 their corners as usual ; he then started off 
 on his thrush-like walk again ; an agitated 
 run of little hops, a dead stop, and a quick 
 look up of his snout-shaped face.
 
 THE SALVAGES. 137 
 
 The jolly-boat hung at davits on the port 
 quarter ; I saw all clear with her, her old 
 oars in, rudder ready for shipping, and so 
 forth. It was plain to me now that no 
 mischief was intended to the brig by this 
 proposed heaving of her to off the Great 
 Salvage Island. Indeed, she was being so 
 steered as to give the rock as wide a berth 
 as prudence required. We were floating 
 down to it on its western sea-board, keeping 
 it on the port bow; already I saw the light 
 of breakers at a little distance round about 
 it in eager tremulous flashes on the dark 
 blue water. The wind was north ; we were 
 carrying it almost dead over the taffrail, and 
 the brig, softly swaying, was wrinkling along 
 at some four knots. 
 
 I thought no more of shaving myself, and, 
 having called to a hand to fetch the shovel 
 out of the forepeak — the only shovel the brig 
 carried — I stood in the gangway looking at 
 the island. Fletcher continuously eyed it 
 through the telescope ; sometimes Cadmau 
 stopped in his jerky walk to talk with him ; 
 but their voices were subdued, and reached
 
 138 THE EMIGRANT SHIR 
 
 me only in a low murmur or growl of con- 
 versation. 
 
 By this time we had the island over the 
 port cathead, distant about five miles, little 
 more as yet than a dark blue hazy heap, 
 with a milk-white gleam of surf here and 
 there at its base, and features of the land 
 slowly stealing out of the airy shadow it 
 made against the mackerel blue of the sky 
 low down past it. Cadman called across to 
 me that there was no need to take an obser- 
 vation with that land in sight. So we made 
 eight bells by the cabin clock, and all hands 
 went to dinner. 
 
 When the meal was over, the island was 
 about a mile away, and Cadman sung out 
 for a hand to jump into the fore-chains with 
 the hand-lead. George brought some dinner 
 on deck for the captain and Fletcher, and 
 they ate it standing at the skylight, whilst 
 I went below and got through a meal of beef 
 and ship's bread, topped by a pannikin of rum 
 and water in five or six minutes. On return- 
 ing, I found the island abeam, and the watch 
 running about trimmiug sail. Fletcher
 
 THE SALVAGES. 139 
 
 stood at the backstay as before, strenuously 
 studying the lump of rock through the 
 telescope. 
 
 " There's no sign of a place for landing on 
 the west coast," Cadman bawled to me as I 
 put my head through the companion-way. 
 " We must keep all on till we see what the 
 eastern beach offers." 
 
 The man in the fore-chains was silent ; he 
 had indeed swung the lead to no purpose ; 
 there was apparently no bottom to be touched 
 with the short scope of the hand-line on this 
 west side. The island seemed to be formed 
 of volcanic matter and rocks, with strata of 
 loose clay. I observed an appearance of 
 vegetation on top, where the slopes showed 
 of a sullen bluish-green. A vast quantity of 
 birds were flying over the island, and wheel- 
 ing and curving low down, looking like 
 pieces of torn and blown paper against the 
 stretch of pumice-hued coast. The sea 
 brimmed smooth to the rocks on the western 
 side, then broke in tall glass-clear combers, 
 and the bursting falls of that white water 
 came along like the rolling notes of an
 
 140 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 electric storm. The west side indeed was 
 wild with surf, and inaccessible besides ; but, 
 as we hauled round to the south, opening a 
 good wide yawn of bay past a long pencil- 
 shaped arm of rock, we saw the sea flowing 
 smoothly in a number of shallow creeks and 
 divisions in the shore ; and here the play of 
 surf was very trifling. 
 
 The leadsman in the fore-chains began now 
 to chant : making sixteen fathoms, then seven- 
 teen, then twenty, and so on, till we hove 
 the brig to in twenty-three, the land then 
 being something more than a mile ofi*, and 
 bearing about N.N.W. 
 
 "Are yer ready to go ashore, Mr. Fletcher? " 
 cried Cadman. 
 
 " Quite ready," answered the other. " I 
 have been searching the island carefully with 
 the glass," he continued, in a loud voice, as 
 though desirous that all hands should hear 
 him, " and can't make out any signs of 
 water." 
 
 " It may be a-flowin' out of sight," said 
 Cadman. 
 
 "1 looked for the gleam of a waterfall,"
 
 TEE SALVAGES. 141 
 
 exclaimed Fletcher ; " but, as you say, there 
 may be water there out of sight. I'm ready, 
 Mr. Morgan." 
 
 The jolly-boat was lowered and brought 
 alongside. Two seaman and Mr. Fletcher 
 entered her, and I followed ; she was a tub 
 of a boat, just such a fat and lumpish child 
 as would dangle at the nipple-like davits of 
 the old Hehe. I headed her for a little bit 
 of bay on the south side of the island ; the 
 water lay perfectly still there ; further, I had 
 taken notice of a slope of white beach that 
 promised us an easy climb to the top of the 
 rocks. 
 
 " The sensation of being close to the sea 
 after the elevation the brig's deck gives 
 you, is, to say the least, a little queer," said 
 Fletcher, looking at the water. '' I believe 
 I should be sick if I stayed long in this 
 boat." 
 
 " Give way, my lads," I sung out. *' The 
 sooner we're ashore, the shorter the spell of 
 baling." 
 
 One of the fellows scowled as he looked at 
 the bottom of the boat; the other delivered
 
 142 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 a low grim laugh, whilst I picked up the 
 half of a cocoanut-sliell, and began to throw 
 the water out. The owner of the boat gazed 
 at his brig with a fast yellowing face. I sent 
 a glance at her, too, whilst I baled. She 
 sat high, and showed two or three feet of 
 green sheathing ; the long white letters of 
 her name snaked in the blue brine under her 
 counter, like streams of quicksilv^er sinking. 
 She had the look of a worn-out collier, with 
 her dingy, swinging, ill-fitting canvas, main- 
 topgallantmast stayed aft, and bowsprit 
 steeved to an angle of 45°. What's she and 
 her cargo and freight insured for ? I won- 
 dered. 
 
 *' She's no beauty," said Fletcher, meeting 
 my eyes ; " but she has carried us bravely 
 and safely so far, and we have much to be 
 thankful for." 
 
 I was now looking at the island which we 
 were fast nearing. It was mouse-coloured 
 in some parts, chocolate-coloured elsewhere, 
 coated here and there with some sort of 
 herbage ; the western peak made a bold 
 show. It rose to a height of perhaps five
 
 THE SALVAGES. 143 
 
 hundred feet, in rings of soaring ground. 
 A long hill went north and south on the 
 east side, overlooking the wide curve of bay. 
 I saw no trees, but, upon the seaward sides 
 of the heights were many clusters of bushes, 
 small thick masses of vegetation, like huge 
 green sponges, clinging to the declivities. 
 
 Steering with one hand, and baling with 
 the other, I headed the jolly-boat into the 
 bay. Her stem grounded on the white sand, 
 and I jumped out, Mr. Fletcher following. 
 
 "Haul the boat up," said I to the men. 
 " She'll drain so." 
 
 " Keep by her. Don't leave her. Mind," 
 said Mr. Fletcher. " Mr. Morgan and I will 
 search for water. If the boat goes adrift, 
 our situation will be awkward." 
 
 The fellows surlily muttered, " Ay, ay." 
 They did not love Mr. Fletcher of Bristol, 
 and the condition of his jolly-boat no doubt 
 put a strong meaning into their thoughts of 
 him just then. 
 
 I shouldered the shovel, and we started. 
 The ascent was easy, but the sun was hot, 
 and there was no shade. The climb to the
 
 144 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 top, from where the boat lay, was short ; the 
 land ran level for a little distance north and 
 east, rising quickly then into a hill, which 
 nearly filled the east side of the island. It 
 was a walk of about a mile from end to end. 
 Large tracts of the soil, if soil it can be 
 called, were covered by a plant called by the 
 Spaniards, barilla, by us, " salt-wort," bushes 
 of a pale bluish-green, rising a little above 
 a foot high, with prickly leaves like a 
 cobbler's awl. Fletcher stooped his whis- 
 kered face to one of those bushes, and asked 
 the name of the plant. I have since learnt 
 that, and its use (they get carbonate of soda 
 from it), but could not then tell him. 
 
 He stood up, tipped his wide straw hat 
 on to the back of his head, and moved his 
 pear-shaped nose slowly round the island and 
 the ocean. 
 
 " This will furnish me with an impressive 
 memory," said he, slowly clasping his hands 
 and smiling approvingly. *' I shall turn to 
 the pages of ' Robinson Crusoe ' with re- 
 newed zest. I have not read that story 
 since the days of my boyhood. It comes
 
 THE SALVAGES. 145 
 
 upon me, fresh and strong, with this picture 
 of loneliness and desolation." 
 
 His little eyes travelled over the island as 
 he talked. I caught a tone in his voice that 
 was new in him. His face was yellow, and 
 his mouth and eyebrows twitched and 
 worked. I took these symptoms to mean 
 that the pull in the boat had disordered him 
 somewhat. 
 
 We had the brig clear in sight. The sun 
 was upon our left, and raining its splendour 
 upon her, and she lay radiant as though gilt 
 — a toy of amber. All that was glossy with 
 paint, or grease, or tar, was streaked with 
 fire. Her yellow topmasts burned, and golden 
 flashes broke from her wet side as she rolled. 
 I had never seen the plain of ocean look 
 vaster, not even from the royal-yard of a 
 twelve-hundred ton ship, and, bending my 
 eyes steadily into the south, whilst Fletcher, 
 with large nostrils and an odd hurry in his 
 way of looking, was peering round, I seemed 
 to distinguish in the distant air the faint 
 blue liquid shadow of the Peak of Tene- 
 riife. 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 As we stepped, rabbits skipped from the 
 bushes, and fled to other hiding-places. 
 
 " I see no appearance of water," said 
 Fletcher. 
 
 " Nor I. And I doubt if there's any to 
 be found by digging," said I, bringing tlie 
 shovel down ringing upon the hard, lava-like 
 surface. 
 
 " Where would Cadman have you dig," 
 he asked, " if not on top here ? " 
 
 " Fresh water might be found under the 
 sand down yonder ; but not enough nor sweet 
 enough at that to serve our turn," I replied, 
 pointing to the wide spread of white beach 
 between the horns of the east bay, now in 
 sight down the slope of the hill. 
 
 " Let's try on the other side before 
 we weary ourselves," exclaimed Fletcher, 
 and he moved away with some briskness 
 towards the rising ground on the west sea- 
 board. 
 
 I was sensible in his manner of a pecu- 
 liarity I could not define. He seemed hard 
 and frightened also. It entered my head 
 as I followed him to wonder if this visit
 
 THE SALVAGES. 147 
 
 for water was merely an excuse of his to 
 examine the island with a view to Cadman 
 wrecking the brig upon it that same night. 
 It was certain, supposing we met with fresh 
 water, that we should not be able to raft the 
 casks and fill them till next day ; therefore, 
 a long night lay before the two villains — 
 there were shoals enough to choose from — 
 and the sky promised fine, quiet weather. 
 Suspicion grew so strong in me as I followed 
 the bulky figure of the rogue that I now 
 determined, on returning to the brig, to 
 acquaint the carpenter with what I had 
 overheard. 
 
 Scores of birds wheeled over our heads, 
 uttering cries like the bleating of lambs ; 
 they were extraordinarily fearless, even to 
 the extent of not getting out of our way ; 
 indeed, they obliged us on several occasions 
 to step over them. 
 
 " I see no water," said Fletcher. 
 
 " I don't think you'll find any on this 
 side," I exclaimed. 
 
 The ascent was growing painful under the 
 roasting sun, and the soil betwixt the patches
 
 148 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 had a parched, dry face, full of splits. Still 
 Fletcher pushed forwards, moving his head 
 from side to side as though peering for 
 water. Presently, striking off to the left, 
 he reached the edge of the cliff and stood 
 staring seawards, with his hand sheltering 
 his eyes. The height above the ocean here 
 was about a hundred feet ; on our right, the 
 hill soared ruggedly to that tall west peak 
 I have before named. 
 
 " This is a noble view," exclaimed Fletcher; 
 ^' how truly magnificent is that play of surf 
 at the bottom there ! " 
 
 I drew close, and stood beside him to look ; 
 at that instant he stepped back. 
 
 " Curse you ! this II keep you silent ! " I 
 heard him say. 
 
 The next moment he thrust me over the 
 edge ! 
 
 I remember hearing of a sailor who, in 
 falling from a royal-yard, whilst in the air, 
 said to himself, "This is well enough if it 
 would but last." I know from experience 
 that a man can think even in the flash of
 
 TEE SALVAGES. 149 
 
 a fall. I recollect the expression the villain 
 used as he pushed me, the pressure of his 
 fists under my shoulder-blades, as I was 
 hurled forward. I also recollect the sensa- 
 tion of the lead-like drop through the air, 
 followed in a breath by a mighty crash, 
 which did not, however, in that instant 
 render me senseless, because I can remember 
 thinking that I had hit the sea, and that 
 the loud, smashing noise was the foam 
 raised by my plunge. But after this, all 
 was blank. 
 
 When I opened my eyes it was dark. I 
 tried to lift my arm, but found myself as 
 completely snared and meshed about as 
 though lodged in the heart of a hundred 
 fathom of trawl-net. My wits were slowly 
 returning ; presently, I got my mind, though 
 feebly, and my first perception was that my 
 head ached most damnably. I could not 
 imagine what gripped and bound me so 
 tenaciously, till after a bit, by waving my 
 hands at the wrists, without moving my 
 arms, I perceived that I was enveloped by 
 twigs and leaves. Light shone through
 
 150 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 what resembled a cage of wire fencing, 
 thickly complicated by layer upon layer — 
 it was the light of the moon. Whilst I lay 
 wondering, utterly confounded and thunder- 
 struck by my situation, I heard the deep 
 organ-like note of surf rolling beneath me, 
 the thunder of the breakers bursting and 
 recoiling with the noise of electric hail. 
 This it was, I think, which gave me all I 
 needed to know ; for after I had listened 
 for a few minutes to that sound of the sea, 
 everything came to me. 
 
 It was clear that on my being thrust over 
 the edge of the cliff, I had plunged into one 
 of those growths of bushes which hung here 
 and there in clusters, sponge-shaped, as before 
 described. The crash of the twigs and leaves 
 in my ears — the last thing I recollect — made 
 the roar which I had supposed the thunder 
 of foam. With knowledge of my situation 
 grew, with exquisite keenness, the sense of 
 horrible peril. I might guess by the noise 
 of the surf that I was hanging at a height 
 of fifty or sixty feet, and that if I wriggled, 
 nay, if I attempted to move, I might burst
 
 TEE SALVAGES. 151 
 
 Ihroiigli the frail Dest of bush, and be in- 
 stantly killed on the hard beach below. 
 
 It had been about three o'clock when we 
 landed on the island ; it was now night, and 
 the moon shining ; how long had T hung 
 insensible ? My head ached cruelly. I 
 imagined I had struck some knob of cliff, 
 and that I should find my hair hard with 
 blood, dared I wrestle to clear my arm. 
 
 I lay in a strange posture, doubled up. I 
 had struck the bush sitting-fashion, and the 
 squeeze of the twigs and boughs brought my 
 knees close to my face. It was hopeless to 
 think of attempting to release myself till 
 daylight. I did not recollect the character 
 of the front of the cliff beneath me, and 
 could do no more than pray with the utmost 
 fervour that I should be able to descend it. 
 
 The prospect of dawn disclosing a sheer 
 wall to the wash of the surf made that time 
 of waiting horrible. Impatience to know 
 my fate rose into torture. The moonshine 
 burnt in little stars amongst the leaves ; I 
 guessed by the altitude of the planet that it 
 might be about one o'clock in the morning,
 
 152 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 and I believe I was right when I recall the 
 length of time that passed after I awoke to 
 consciousness before the green of the dawn 
 showed in the sky. In those dreadful hours 
 of waiting for sunlight I thought over the 
 murderous ruse which had betrayed me into 
 the island for this. It was very plain now 
 that Fletcher and Cadman knew I had over- 
 heard their conversation. How would the 
 villain account for me ? I might be sure he 
 had gone down to the boat with a made-up 
 face of horror, and sworn I had fjillen over 
 the clilBP. They'd not stop to look for me ; if 
 only because the two seamen would know 
 they could do nothing with the leaky old 
 jolly-boat in the heavy swell that beat where 
 I had fallen. Had Fletcher seen me dis- 
 appear in this bush ? Anyway, he'd con- 
 sider me as good as dead, and carry that 
 notion on board the brig to his hellish col- 
 league. I had their secret, and so was to be 
 made away with ! As God's my hope, I had 
 never thought it of them ! 
 
 Dawn broke at last, after such an eternity 
 of mental and physical anguish as there is no
 
 TEE SALVAGES. 153 
 
 magic in this poor pen to express. The light 
 grew quickly, and now I was able to think, 
 and perhaps act. I found I was in the midst 
 of a dense mass of bush. My weight had 
 carried me almost sheer through it ; I judged 
 there was not above the thickness of a foot 
 betwixt me and the open. The plunge of 
 my body had rent the topmost part into a 
 sort of tunnel; but the surface-stuff had come 
 together, and I saw nothing. 
 
 My first business was to make sure I had 
 strength enough to hold on with, next 
 that the growth was strong enough to sup- 
 port me if I should require to hang by it. 
 My tests satisfied me ; taking a firm grip of 
 a heap of the withe-like branches and twigs, 
 I straightened my legs, and made a hole 
 through the stuff with one foot. I was now 
 able to see, and, sailor as I was, used to 
 reeling spars and to holding on witli my 
 eyelids, I confess my brain spun in my 
 aching skull when I looked. A sixty-foot 
 height of wall-like cliff is no very terrible 
 thing to gaze up at ; but peer doivn over the 
 ed2:e of it ! The surf was rollins: in bijr
 
 154 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 masses of snow at the bottom. I could just 
 see through the opening a small expanse of 
 the sheet-calm ocean, flowing like blue oil 
 full of light to the very curve of the forming 
 breaker. 
 
 But I had not been staring long, with my 
 heart beating hard in my ears, and imagina- 
 tion working like a madness in me in its 
 struggles to figure schemes of release, when 
 I took notice of a growth like to that in 
 which I lay nested, about thirty feet down, 
 and in a straight line. The face of the cliff 
 between was smooth and sheer ; but just past 
 that lower heap of bush it stood broken in 
 projections. If I could manage to drop upon 
 one of those rocky ledges, I should be able to 
 crawl round to where the island fell into a 
 gradual slope, easily climbed. But how was 
 I to fall thirty feet without dashing out my 
 brains, and bounding on to the full distance 
 of sixty, vanishing in the surf a mangled 
 corpse, to be torn to shreds in an hour or two 
 by the wild play there ? 
 
 As I thus reflected, it occurred to me to 
 drop out of the bush in which I lay into
 
 TEE SALVAGES. 155 
 
 the stuff on a line below. It was my one 
 chance. There were thirty or forty feet of 
 unclimbable rock above me ; therefore I had 
 to determine either to take my chance of 
 dropping into the lower bush or missing it, 
 or remain where I was and miserably perish. 
 
 I durst not consider ; deliberation might 
 prove fatal by hindering me; carefully taking 
 the bearings of the sponge-like mass, I wrig- 
 gled and worked downwards, holding the 
 long twigs and stuff with the grip of a 
 drowning man. In five or six minutes — 
 the time ran into that, for this job of extrica- 
 tion was horribly difficult and dangerous — I 
 was hanging clear ; but, scarcely was I thus 
 poised, asking God to direct my fall, with 
 the thunder of the surf sounding with start- 
 lino- loudness now that mv ears were clear, 
 when the stuff I grasped gave way, and down 
 I went like a lightning stroke, plunging sheer 
 into the very heart of the growth. 
 
 I kept my senses, but I believed that my 
 eyes had been torn out of my head, and the 
 skin off my face, and that I had lost my ears, 
 so lacerating was that plunge, so crunching
 
 156 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 and rending the shock. I rested motionless 
 to breathe, in the posture in wliich I had 
 arrived, straight up and down, feet first. 
 The growth here was stronger than that 
 above — the twigs thicker ; this hanging tract 
 of vegetation was about twice the size of 
 the other. Where the roots found soil, and 
 whence they drew nutriment, I don't know ; 
 the cliff seemed all hard rock ; but, in this, 
 I was doubtless mistaken. 
 
 I now considered myself comparatively 
 safe ; my heart beat full of rejoicing, and my 
 old strength came back to me. I tried my 
 eyes, and found all right with them ; then, 
 with some difficulty, felt my face and ears, 
 and brought my hands away smeared with 
 blood ; but I suspected that my wounds were 
 neither deep nor serious. I had come ashore 
 in a camlet jacket and a sailor's check shirt ; 
 these garments hung in rags upon me, and 
 my white drill trousers were covered with 
 blood. 
 
 When I had thoroughly taken breath and 
 rested, I exerted my whole strength to make 
 an opening in the interlacery of green stuff
 
 THE SALVAGES. 157 
 
 facing that part of the rocks I desired to 
 gain, and judge of my delight on perceiving 
 a wide ledge within an easy drop, and other 
 ledges trending away in a broken front 
 round to where the hill shelved gradually ! 
 Using all my force, I broke my way through 
 the twigs and branches, leaving the remains 
 of my jacket and a goodly portion of my 
 shirt behind me. Then, letting myself down, 
 I dropped cleverly on to the ledge that was 
 about four feet under foot as I hung. 
 
 In another quarter of an hour I had 
 crawled to where the slope began.
 
 158 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE BARILLA-CUTTER. 
 
 Some scarlet thunder-swollen clouds were 
 hanging low in the north, and the greasy 
 surface lay bronzed under them ; otherwise 
 the sky was as clear as glass from line to 
 line. I tore the sleeve off my shirt to make 
 a cover for my head ; my clothing now 
 consisted of little more than mv vest and 
 trousers, but these sufficed. Man wants but 
 little in the shape of apparel down the 
 Salvages' way. 
 
 I looked up at the height over which I 
 had been thrust, and my heart turned hot 
 with rage. Would it ever be in my power 
 to punish the treacherous scoundrel ? How 
 sly and deliberate the dog had been, feign- 
 ing to admire the view, then courting me to 
 the brink! I o-uessed that mv face was
 
 TEE BARILLA-CUTTER. 159 
 
 dark with blood whilst I sat with my 
 fists clenched, thinking of Mr. Fletcher of 
 Bristol. 
 
 When I was rested, I climbed up the slope, 
 and easily reached the top of the island. I 
 walked to the place where Fletcher had 
 thrust me over, and looked for the shovel 
 I then held, and not finding it, concluded 
 that it had been hurled into the sea when 
 I fell. My deep imperative need now was 
 fresh water, and I spent till noon in hunting, 
 thinking of nothing else, spitting the white 
 froth from my lips as I walked, and feeling 
 nearly suffocated. At about midday, as I 
 guessed the hour was by the sun, having 
 descended a spur of hill in the north-east 
 point of the island, I caught the sweet music 
 of the bubbling of a brook, and a minute 
 later I was kneeling beside a little crystal 
 spring, gushing from under a rock, and 
 chattering along in a channel of its own, 
 through obscuring tracts of barilla to the 
 margin of the cliff, where it spread and 
 disappeared. I drank deeply, and then 
 collecting the water in the hollow of
 
 J 60 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 my hands, I repeatedly bathed my face and 
 head. 
 
 Now, being deliciously refreshed, ray thirst 
 gone, ray face and head cool, the pleasant 
 chill of snow sinking into my very marrow 
 out of the icy coldness of that water in my 
 hands, I felt hungry, and looked about me 
 somewhat desperately. Rabbits in plenty 
 were frisking shadowily among the vegeta- 
 tion, and big sea-birds were to be had at 
 the cost of knocking them over. But I was 
 not yet so sharp-set as to eat raw things ; 
 and how to get fire ? I plunged my hands 
 into my breeches-pockets in a fit of musing, 
 and pulled out a little burning-glass, which 
 I carried for lighting my pipe by the sun ; 
 fire being as scarce as news on board ship, 
 Avhere the lucifer-match is rarely found, and 
 where the galley-furnace is not always at 
 your service. 
 
 Whilst I held the burning-glass, looking 
 about me for stuff that would burn, I spied 
 a rabbit within a dozen feet ; I stooped very 
 warily, picked up a large piece of stone or 
 rock, and took aim with so much dexterity
 
 THE BARILLA-CUTTER. 161 
 
 that I knocked the poor brute over. It was 
 alive when I picked it up, so I cut his throat 
 with mj penknife, and skinned it. 
 
 Whilst I was at this dirty work, I looked 
 round the sea ; nothing was in sight. Indeed, 
 nothing, if it were not steam, was to be 
 expected ; the calm was profound. The 
 silence of the now blazing day lay in a 
 fiery hush upon the ocean ; the bronzed and 
 thunderous stuff in the north was gone, and 
 the blinding white dazzle about the sun 
 sloped with a colouring of azure in its silver 
 to the light tropic blue over the horizon, the 
 whole cloudless. 
 
 I found plenty of dry stuff amongst rotten 
 parts of the saltwort tracts, and easily kindled 
 a fire, leaving a hollow in the ring of flame 
 for my rabbit to bake in. It was but a red 
 and black repast, that; a nasty, cannibal 
 compound of cinders and gushing flesh ; 
 yet it made me a meal, and satisfied my 
 cravings. Enough was left to serve me for 
 a supper by-and-by, and, hiding the remains 
 near the spring, that the birds might not rob 
 me, I made my way to the east beach — a 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 wide tract of sand betwixt two horns of rock. 
 Here I found shade for ray aching head, and 
 I sat down under a huge oversheltering ledge 
 of cliff* to think over my situation, and how 
 I was to escape from this lonely island. 
 
 It was then that a vision of Blathford rose 
 before me ; I saw the water spouting from 
 the stone dog's head. I saw the church 
 and the Parsonage, the silent trees and the 
 long, fragrant shadows in the garden at 
 sunset. I saw Kate Darnley bending over 
 a flower-bed, and my father standing at the 
 dark gleaming window of the parlour, and I 
 heard my mother calling me. Did I fall 
 asleep and dream this ? 
 
 When a boy, I'd think there could be no 
 happiness to equal the being alone in a 
 desolate island. I was now in that blissful 
 state, and my heart sank in me as I thought 
 of it. How was I to get away ? Was this 
 spot of rock ever visited ? I tried to re- 
 member what I had read about it in an 
 Admiralty despatch, addressed, as I now 
 know, by Admiral, then Captain, Hercules 
 Robinson, to some official big-wig, but
 
 THE BARILLA-CUTTER. 163 
 
 could recollect no more than that the 
 island abounded in cormorants and rabbits, 
 which I found true, and that both the Great 
 and the Little Salvages are surrounded by 
 perilous shoals. Ships might sight this 
 rock, but would seldom haul in close enough 
 east or west of it to distinguish a signal 
 even of smoke. I might be forced to spend 
 weeks Lere, and then be found mad — a gaunt, 
 naked spectre, all beard and ribs, like that 
 frightful Peter Serrano in the old true sea- 
 story. 
 
 This imagination sent me crazy for a time, 
 and I started up and walked about in a state 
 of distraction. 
 
 It was smooth water here ; the breakers 
 were little more than big ripples, rolling 
 with, summer softness, and expiring with 
 long, seething sounds, which ran like heavy 
 sighs betwixt the points. The small undu- 
 lation was westerly. The swell was on 
 the other side therefore, and the dulled 
 roar of it was like the thunder of an en- 
 gagement between line-of-battle ships miles 
 away.
 
 164 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 I calmed myself after awhile, for I was 
 young in those days, and hope had a strong 
 hold of my soul. I have had a narrow 
 escape, I thought. I am not dead yet. I 
 must keep myself alive, and pray to God to 
 deliver me. To occupy my mind, I went to 
 work to collect crabs and shell-fish for eating, 
 and soon had store enough for a supper that 
 would be better than a nearly raw rabbit. 
 Before sundown, I sought a sheltered corner 
 for a resting-place, and discovered a little 
 cave in the rocks about ten feet deep, far 
 above high-water mark. But there was 
 nothing to furnish me with the smallest 
 convenience, though I had looked narrowly 
 about while searching for shell-fish and the 
 like ; not a fragment of wreck — not a stave 
 of cask — nothing. So, wanting a drinking- 
 vessel, I invented one by taking the biggest 
 of the crabs and scooping his shell clear of 
 him. With this I climbed the cliff for a 
 drink. I don't know what I should have 
 done without my penknife. It was in my 
 trousers'-pocket by rare good fortune, brought 
 about through my emptying my waistcoat-
 
 THE BARILLA-CUTTER. 165 
 
 pockets. I had bought it for a shilling at 
 Bristol, and still have it. 
 
 I drank deeply of the spring, and then 
 returned to the beach, fearful of attempting 
 the descent after sundown. The sun set 
 directly abreast of the bay, and never before 
 had I beheld such magnificence of light in 
 the sky. The heavens were a universal 
 blaze of crimson ; the smooth sea reflected 
 the splendour and added fresh glory to the 
 sublime and appalling radiance it mirrored. 
 Before the light died out, I ate a small 
 quantity of shell-fish. They were a sort of 
 limpet, and relished like oysters. Not just 
 yet could I bring myself to eat raw crab, 
 and now the sun was gone, my burning-glass 
 was useless. 
 
 The sand was soft and dry in the little 
 cave I had chosen as a bedroom, and when I 
 lay down I immediately fell asleep. A hor- 
 rible nightmare awoke me ; the vision of a 
 wrestle for life with Fletcher on the edge of 
 a cliff as high as the peak of Teneriffe ! I 
 started up, and in the sheen of the moonlight 
 which hung like a silver veil before the
 
 ]C)6 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 opening of the cave, I spied the sand I had 
 slept on alive with a score or more of crabs. 
 They were big and little, and some were 
 land-crabs, I think. They scuttled away 
 when I got up, and disappeared. 
 
 I went out and walked about the beach 
 for the coolness of the night, and to look 
 about me. A pleasant wind was whistling 
 over the sea which was shivering in a wide 
 breast of flaking silver under the bright 
 moon. The surf poured strongly on the 
 sands, though the wind was north, with 
 something of east in it, and this side 
 sheltered. From the eastern board, the 
 boom of the breakers came along in notes 
 heavy and melancholy ; and they were 
 solemn wnth the power of the deep. Many 
 small white clouds scudded across the stars ; 
 the life of a six-knot wind was in the scene 
 of moonlit ocean, and more briskness still 
 went to it out of the ivory brilliance of the 
 rolling lines of foam upon the sand. I stood 
 intently staring seawards, thinking to see a 
 ship ; but, beholding nothing, I went back 
 to my cave, from which all the crabs had
 
 TEE BARILLA- CUTTER. 167 
 
 departed. This time, however, I planted my 
 back against the rocks, and slept with my 
 head bowed upon ray folded arms. 
 
 I was awakened by a sound of singing ; 
 it was a man's voice, strong, hearty, and 
 coarse. My senses came to me with the 
 opening of my eyes ; I sprang to my feet, 
 and running out of the cave saw a man 
 walking along the sands towards the north- 
 east point. It was broad daylight ; the sun 
 was shining behind the island ; the breeze 
 was still fresh, and the ocean streamed north- 
 wards in little seas, flashing with the light 
 of the foam they melted into. 
 
 When I saw the man, I shouted. He was 
 singing so loudly, and the surf was so noisy 
 besides, that he did not hear me. I shouted 
 again, on which he turned with astonishing 
 swiftness and stood still, beholding me in a 
 posture of wonder and fear, as though I had 
 been some bleeding corpse on end in the 
 sand. 
 
 He was an extraordinary figure of a man, 
 dressed in a blue cap, a red shawl round 
 his throat, a dirty white shirt, over which
 
 168 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 was a jacket with treble rows of pearl 
 buttons ; his breeches were a sort of 
 dungaree, very tight, cut sliort midway 
 down the calves, which were bandaged as 
 though wounded ; he was shod, to a little 
 above his ankles, with yellow boots. Through 
 a stout belt, over his hips, were thrust on 
 one side a small bright hatchet ; on the 
 other, a long dagger-hafted knife, buried in 
 a leather sheath, attached to the belt. His 
 face was as ugly as his attire was queer ; 
 his complexion as yellow as gold, enriched 
 with patches like verdigris about the brow, 
 cheeks and nose ; bis eyes were deep-set, and 
 he squinted most abominably. His nose was 
 of the bigness of a man's little finger, and 
 after descending straight, it started at the 
 extremity into a gouty knob, pierced by two 
 lifting holes, full of hair ; under this strange 
 device he carried an enormous moustache, 
 coarse as a horse's tail, mingling on the 
 cheeks with a pair of frill-shaped whiskers 
 which, wide as they spread, still left exposed 
 his huge oyster-shells of ears. 
 
 I stared at this amazing figure for some
 
 TEE BARILLA-CUTTER. 169 
 
 moments, too much astonished by his appear- 
 ance to speak. He now approached me 
 slowly ; when he moved, I called out " Do 
 you speak English ? " He shook his head 
 with frightful energy, and continued to ap- 
 proach until he was quite close, and then 
 stood stock still again, looking at me from 
 head to foot. Ugly as he was, I seemed then 
 to find in his face as reassuring an expression 
 of kindness, and I may say tenderness, as 
 Nature's utmost effort could inform such 
 features with. Nor, indeed, ought I to have 
 wondered that he stared at me — it was not 
 my sudden apparition only — I have little 
 doubt I presented a dreadful shape with my 
 scratched face, head bound up with a shirt- 
 sleeve, bloody trousers, and a few rags of 
 shirt. 
 
 He addressed me in thick accents in a 
 language utterly unintelligible ; seeing that 
 I did not understand him, he touched his 
 stomach and then his mouth, and made a 
 show of drinking, all with his poor ugly 
 face full of feeling and kindness. I knew 
 what he meant, and nodded my head. Indeed,
 
 170 THE EMIOBANT SHIP. 
 
 I was both hungry and thirsty. He looked 
 at me from top to toe again, then along the 
 length of sand, as though for some sign of 
 a wreck, and with a beckoning gesture of his 
 chocolate-coloured hand, hairy as Esau's, he 
 led the way up the craggy face of the cliff. 
 
 I supposed that he meant to conduct me 
 to the spring and point to the rabbits as we 
 walked ; instead, he crossed the island to the 
 exact spot where Fletcher and I had arrived 
 on gaining the top, after quitting the jolly- 
 boat ; and from the height of the gentle 
 acclivity,' looking down, I perceived in the 
 same creek in which the jolly-boat had lain, 
 a large two-masted craft of about fourteen 
 tons, sharp as a knife at the bow, painted 
 white, with a boy on his knees before a 
 little stove in the bottom of her, whistling 
 loudly, whilst he plied a pair of bellows. All 
 in silence, merely turning his head from time 
 to time, to see whether I followed, the ugly, 
 queer ly apparelled man led the way to the 
 water's edge. 
 
 The boat lay with her nose on the sand ; 
 she was secured by a little anchor hooked to
 
 TEE BARILLA-CUTTER. 171 
 
 a rock. My heart leapt up at the sight. 
 The chimney was smoking bravely ; the 
 tawny boy was staring at us with the bel- 
 lows motionless in his grasp, as though he 
 had been blasted by lightning ; the water 
 was smooth in this creek, but at sea the 
 foam-lined ripples were streaming briskly ; 
 a length of red bunting attached to the tail 
 of a little gilt cock flogged merrily at the 
 mainmast head ; but what I liked most was 
 the smell of cooking. 
 
 The man with the blue cap motioned to 
 me to climb over the bow into the boat. I 
 did so, and found myself aboard a broad- 
 beamed, comfortable, finely-lined, very sea- 
 wardly-looking craft, with a short forecastle 
 deck, and white sails neatly stowed upon the 
 yards along the thwarts. The boy, whose 
 dress in some respects resembled the man's, 
 and who was quite as ugly, with long greasy 
 black hair snaking down his back, and an 
 immense mouth full of huge yellow teeth, 
 continued to stare at me with many marks of 
 alarm. On my getting into the boat, he 
 dropped his bellows, and made the sign of
 
 172 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 the cross upon bis breast, and let fly a yard 
 of questions in the rapidest, shrillest voice 
 conceivable. The man answered him ; many 
 words passed between them ; the boy then, 
 keeping the stove between him and me, pro- 
 nounced the word ^^Anglish?" I nodded. 
 "You Anglish ?" he exclaimed again, in the 
 note of a scream. 
 
 " I am English," I answered. " Do you 
 speak English ? " 
 
 " Yash, me speak Anglish," he shrieked. 
 " Who you ? How you here ? " 
 
 The other watched me intently, his fearful 
 squint beaming with the soul of goodness, 
 whilst the boy addressed me. I suspected 
 that the lad's knowledge of English would 
 not permit him to understand much of my 
 story ; so I said I had come ashore in a boat 
 from a ship, and that in approaching the 
 edge of the cliff I had fallen over, and I 
 pointed and dramatized and acted the short 
 yarn, indicating the cliff, then the bushes, 
 then making as though I fell, then touching 
 the blood-stains upon my clothes, and so on ; 
 afterwards, by speech and gesture, but mainly
 
 THE BARILLA-CUTTER. 173 
 
 by gesture, contriving to make the lad under- 
 stand that my people, th hiking me dead, had 
 gone away. 
 
 Both the boy and the man, as I discoursed 
 and dramatically swung my arms, nodded 
 their heads with a like impassioned, demon- 
 strative vehemence. I perceived that I was 
 understood ; indeed, my appearance, and the 
 state of my clothes told a very full story, 
 when the first hint of it had been given. 
 Nodding again and again, with his hideous 
 squinting countenance full of wild rough 
 sympathy, the man entered his forepeak, 
 and immediately crawled out with a tin 
 measure and a large jar. The draught was 
 half a pint of crude Madeira wine. I made 
 him understand that I wished for water to 
 mix with it, and then I drank, bowing and 
 smiling first to him and then to the boy, 
 before draining the measure. 
 
 " From Madeira ? " said I, looking ex- 
 pressively at the lad and then at the boat. 
 
 The youth nodded. 
 
 " Barilla ? " said I, pointing to the top of 
 the island.
 
 174 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 The man grunted an affirmative, under- 
 standing the term. 
 
 " Portuguese ? " 
 
 They bobbed their heads with immense 
 energy, and then, a pause liappening, the 
 boy fell to whistling with piercing clearness, 
 whilst he kicked the bellows away with a 
 yellow naked foot, and dropped a large flat- 
 fish into a frying-pan, which he set upon the 
 fire. 
 
 I was able to appreciate my escape now 
 that I might consider myself delivered from 
 the dreadful fate of imprisonment and mad- 
 ness and nakedness I had terrified my heart 
 with not long before. I glanced at the 
 island, at the height of cliff over which I 
 had been flung, and my whole being was 
 swelled with gratitude when I thought of the 
 horrible dangers I had come safely through. 
 
 Whilst the boy fried the fish — which, seeing 
 some fishing-lines in the stern of the boat, T 
 supposed he had caught since sunrise — the 
 man prepared one of the thwarts for break- 
 fast by producing some tin plates, and knives 
 and forks, a loaf of bread, and a quantity of
 
 THE BARILLA-CUTTER. 175 
 
 grapes. He also set the jar of wine under 
 the thwart. When the fish was cooked, the 
 man helped me to a large piece of it and a 
 thick slice of bread, and gave me a pannikin 
 of wine and water. I looked my thanks, and 
 held him by the hand and bowed, that he 
 might understand my gratitude. He laughed 
 and shook his head, and spoke a sentence or 
 two in Portuguese, which set the boy grin- 
 ning, whilst he cried, '' Eat ! All Anglish 
 good." 
 
 I never made a meal which I enjoyed more 
 thoroughly, nor swallowed food that seemed 
 to do me half so much good. The sun was 
 not yet above the island, and the boat lay in 
 the shadow of the cliffs. The wind gushed 
 freely over the arm of reef, trembling the 
 water of the creek into diamonds, and de- 
 liciously cooling the shade cast by the island. 
 My mind worked nimbly whilst I ate. Would 
 this worthy Portuguese convey me to Madeira? 
 I did not doubt it, since I knew he hailed 
 from that island. And what should I do 
 when I got there ? I was rendered as miser- 
 able a beggar by Cadman's and Fletcher's
 
 176 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 murderous conspiracy as the dirtiest, most 
 grievously stricken wretch that whines for 
 alms on Funchal beach. All my clothes, a 
 considerable sum in money, my nautical in- 
 struments — property, in short, which I could 
 not have replaced under two hundred pounds, 
 apart from the sentimental value of certain 
 keepsakes and choice home gifts — were in 
 my chest aboard the Bebe, and I might reckon 
 upon every farthing's-worth going to the 
 bottom. Yes, I had no shadow of a doubt 
 that the villains would wreck the brig some- 
 where off the Cape settlement, as Cadman 
 had proposed or decided. 
 
 Now was I bitterly vexed that I had not 
 communicated with the carpenter. The crew, 
 as things stood, never would imagine I had 
 been foully dealt with. Then, again, when 
 the brig should have been cast away, they'd 
 never know she was deliberately wrecked, 
 unless, indeed, Cadman's method of going 
 to work roused suspicion. All these things 
 ran in my head, whilst I was eating the 
 grapes and fish and bread with the Portu- 
 guese and his boy.
 
 TEE BARILLA-CUTTER. 177 
 
 I endeavoured to make some of my 
 thoughts understood to them, and partly 
 succeeded, with the help of gestures and 
 the boy's small knowledge of my tongue. 
 The man nodded, when he understood I 
 wished to learn if he would convey me to 
 Madeira. I also gathered tliat he was likely 
 to remain at this island for four or five days, 
 and that if meanwhile a ship hove in sight, 
 and he could get at her, he'd put me aboard, 
 if I chose. 
 
 To this I assented gratefully ; it was all 
 one to me whether I was landed at Madeira, 
 whence I supposed the British consul would 
 send me to England as a distressed seaman, 
 or whether I was transferred to a ship making 
 for another port. Indeed, my inclination 
 leaned to the latter. Being stripped, I 
 wanted clothes. If I was sent home, I must 
 burthen my people till I got employment. 
 I had found it hard to obtain a post ; I 
 might again find it hard. If I should have 
 the luck to procure a mate's berth, I'd need 
 a round sum to equip me. My father could 
 not afford a penny. It must come to my 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 TEE EMIGRANT SH/P. 
 
 having to sail before the mast. Why not, 
 then, ship down here in these seas, if I could 
 meet with a vessel willing to receive me, 
 and hold on as a foremast hand, until, on my 
 return home, there would be wages enough 
 to take up to help me to a fresh start ?
 
 ( 179 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 BLADES OF THE CAROLINE. 
 
 The Portuguese and his son — as I guessed 
 the lad to be by his face (barring the squint) 
 — looking like a copy of the other's reflected 
 in the back of a polished silver spoon ; the 
 two, I say, made a vast meal, the elder 
 drinking abundantly of the wine. 
 
 When we had breakfasted, I expressed by 
 signs and speech my willingness to assist 
 them in cutting the saltwort ; the man 
 nodded pleasantly and muttered a thank- 
 you, in Portuguese, but showed no disposi- 
 tion to leave the boat. On the contrary, 
 when he had breakfasted, he crawled into 
 his little forepeak, and brought out a jar of 
 tobacco, and made two large paper cigars, 
 one of which he handed to me. Next, after
 
 180 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 looking at me with attention, he again 
 crawled into his little forecastle, and emerged 
 with a large, flapping, well-worn straw hat, 
 which he put upon my head, grinning and 
 talking in his native tongue. Then he 
 lighted a piece of wood at the stove, and 
 gave it to me with all the grace you could 
 imagine; he afterwards seated himself in an 
 indolent posture, with his hack against the 
 mast and his feet upon a thwart, and blew 
 a cloud with great relish and enjoyment, his 
 eyes sometimes lazily fixed on me, sometimes 
 peering through half-closed lids at the rocks. 
 
 His son, on the other hand, stripped him- 
 self and jumped overboard, and after wading 
 to his armpits, lay afloat on his back buoyant 
 as a cork. All this was true Portuguese 
 fashion — genuine Dago style, and charac- 
 teristic of a race by whom a turn round the 
 longboat and a pull at the scuttlebutt is 
 reckoned a good day's work. 
 
 I judged that if they meant to load barilla 
 at this rate, they'd need all the four or five 
 days the man had talked of, though a couple 
 of Englishmen would have been away, deep
 
 BLADES OF TEE "CAROLINE:' 181 
 
 to the wash-strake, and the island perhaps 
 out of sight in the south, by sundown. 
 
 I was too anxious and troubled in my 
 mind to sit and smoke, and twice climbed 
 the slope to view the sea, before the Portu- 
 guese seemed ready to turn-to. Nothing 
 was in sight. On my return from the 
 second visit to the to23, the Portuguese 
 sprang to his feet, with the energy of 
 sudden fury, and roared out to his son who 
 was cutting capers in the sea some distance 
 beyond the mouth of the creek. The boy 
 came swimming alongside as though driven 
 by steam, jumped into the bows, and dressed 
 himself streaming wet. The Portuguese, 
 then pointing to his chopper which lay on 
 a thwart, signed to know if I would 
 accompany him ; I nodded eagerly, being 
 wishful, indeed, to make the best return in 
 my power for his humanity and Christian, 
 merciful treatment of me. Upon tliis, he 
 fetched a couple of sacks and a second 
 chopper out of the forepeak, and after 
 speaking to his son awhile, he put that 
 chopper and a sack into my hands, and
 
 182 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 leaping on to the sand, invited me with a 
 motion of his head to follow. 
 
 We gained the top, and went to work to 
 cut barilla. I had supposed we should 
 speedily crowd the two sacks, but I soon 
 found tliat the Portuguese was excecdini:ly 
 choice in his selection of the plant ; so that 
 after three hoars, not so much of toil as 
 of careful search and judicious cutting, we 
 had scarcely filled each man the half of 
 his own bag. At this rate, the job of load- 
 ing the boat was likely to last us a week 
 instead of four days ; nor would it need 
 many paper cigars and indolent after-break- 
 fast musings to run tliat week into a fort- 
 night. 
 
 The man killed a couple of rabbits, and 
 flung them down the slope for the boy to 
 fetch. When we returned, somewhere about 
 one, as I guessed hy the sun, those rabbits 
 were seething in a saucepan full of broth, on 
 which, and some fish, grapes, bread, and 
 Madeira wine, we dined magnificently. In 
 the afternoon we went again for more barilla, 
 and spent two hours in cutting the plant.
 
 BLADES OF TEE "CABOLINE:' 183 
 
 After supper I sat in the boat, smoking a 
 paper cigar, and endeavouring to converse 
 with the Portuguese with the help of his 
 boy. It was about six o'clock in the evening. 
 The sun was out of sight behind the island, 
 but he was yet many degrees above the 
 horizon, and his light flashed out the whole 
 scene of ocean in the south and east, till, even 
 from the low level of the boat's gunwale, the 
 horizon there looked seventy miles distant. 
 The breeze had died in the middle of the 
 day, and all had been breathless calm and 
 roasting heat till about five, when a little air 
 of wind sprang up out of the north-east; 
 the brushing of it darkened the blue, but 
 there was no weight in that draught to make 
 the foam spit. 
 
 The creek in which the boat floated lay 
 open to the south ; a good stretch of water 
 in the east was likewise visible to us ; west- 
 ward the view was blocked by the fall of the 
 land to an arm of reef which ran about two 
 cables' length into the sea. The silence upon 
 the island was broken only by the noises of 
 the seafowl flying over our heads, and by
 
 184 TUE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 the rolling roar of the surf along the west 
 side. 
 
 I was gradually making out, through the 
 broken, stammering, scarcely intelligible Eng- 
 lish of the boy, and the dramatic gestures 
 and grotesque grimaces of the man, that this 
 Great Salvage rock was visited at long in- 
 tervals only by the Madeira cutters of barilla, 
 so that I was particularly to witness the hand 
 of God in the coming of the boat a few hours 
 after my own murderous betrayal into this 
 scene of desolation, when, my eye then rest- 
 ing on the horizon in the south-east, I spied 
 a ship's canvas glowing like yellow satin, or 
 rather like a large orange-hued star that 
 enlarges as it soars. 
 
 I started up to gaze from the elevation 
 of the thwart. The Portuguese looked too, 
 and the boy, pointing, cried out, " Ship, 
 ship!" 
 
 The wind was scanty, and the vessel's pro- 
 gress so slow that I could not guess which 
 way she was headed ; so, to help my vision, 
 I climbed to the top of the island ; and there 
 I saw her plain enough, perhaps down to her
 
 BLADES OF TEE ''CAROLINE:' 185 
 
 hull, though the water she floated on was as 
 far off as the horizon itself. I yearned for a 
 telescope to determine her by ; if she was 
 steering our way, the Portuguese might be 
 willing to put me aboard. I cared not what 
 her nationality should prove. I was heart- 
 sick of this island, and my very spirits shrunk 
 from the prospect of cutting saltwort on tho 
 scorching top of the land for perhaps another 
 week, and then of my arriving at Madeira 
 in rags, to be sent home as a beggar, and 
 stepping ashore in the Thames or an out- 
 port without a cent in my pocket or a coat 
 on my back. 
 
 I went down to the boat again, and got the 
 Portuguese to understand tbat I'd be thankful 
 if he'd put me aboard that vessel, if she was 
 hauling in this way. He answered through 
 his son, and in his own fashion, that he would 
 stand out to her if she grew, on which I 
 grasped him by the hand, and first pointing 
 to the island, then to my clothes, then sig- 
 nificantly pulling my empty right-hand 
 breeches-pocket inside out, I made him per- 
 ceive how acutely I felt my situation. He
 
 186 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 talked quickly to his son, often turning looks 
 of sympathy and pity upon me. 
 
 Presently the boy ran up the slope to the 
 top of the land with tlie ease of a goat, and, 
 after viewing the distant sail betwixt his 
 dark hands, shouted. The father fetched his 
 breast a thump in token of satisfiiction, and 
 made a gesture with a sweep of his thumb 
 from the ship to the island. So she was 
 heading our way, if the boy's eyes did not 
 deceive hiui ! and again I sprang on to a 
 thwart to look at her. Yes, her motion 
 could no longer be mistaken ; she was on the 
 starboard tack, crawling on a taut bowline 
 into the north and west, clearly outward 
 bound, and waiting for this island to get 
 large before patting her helm down. 
 
 It was about seven o'clock ; I judged of 
 my time by the passing of the sun, and 
 would have bet upon it within ten minutes. 
 Tl),e sky was wild with crimson overhead, 
 and in the east the glory of the west was 
 " reverberated," to use Shelley's expression, 
 by a terrace of bright yellow cloud, whose 
 effulgence filled the water under it with a
 
 BLADES OF THE '' CAROLINEr 187 
 
 hot, brassy lustre, whilst the glory of the 
 cloud sifted upwards towards the scarlet of 
 the sunset. 
 
 The Portuguese went into the stern-sheets 
 of his boat, and stared at the distant sail ; 
 then, slowly looking about him and above, 
 as though taking measure of his chances of 
 fetching her, he shouted to his son, who was 
 still on top of the land. The boy came 
 running down. The father roared out again, 
 whereupon the lad lifted the little anchor oif 
 the rock it was hooked to, and brought it on 
 his shoulder into the bow of the boat. Both 
 got out and shoved the boat's nose off, jump- 
 ing in as she floated. In a few minutes they 
 had an oar over ; then, loosing the neatly 
 stowed sails, they manned the halliards and 
 mastheaded the long lateen-like yards. 
 
 No sooner was the boat clear of the land 
 than, catching the soft warm breathing of 
 air in her canvas, she slightly leaned and 
 drove over the calm blue water, shreddinfr 
 it as a ploughshare shears through soil, with 
 two soft feather-white lines of foam in her 
 wake. It was the most exquisite sensation
 
 188 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 of swift and buoyant sailing I had ever 
 experienced. Her hull was white, and her 
 spacious wings were cotton white, and she 
 must have looked to the ship as we went 
 towards her like a star-like gyration of 
 wind-whipped froth. 
 
 The vessel was about seven miles distant 
 from us when we started. She was heading 
 our way, and we were skimming over it at 
 five or six, so that it was not long before 
 we had lifted her into determinable propor- 
 tions ; and there floated right aliead of us, 
 stiff as a church under the light breeze, a 
 black barque of some four hundred tons, 
 with a stump foretopgallant-mast and a 
 white boat dangling at her starboard davits. 
 She made a fine, cloud-like picture, all her 
 canvas swollen and stirless, and the red light 
 in the west dying out upon her topmost 
 sails, which showed like bronze shields 
 against the dark blue beyond her. 
 
 Over the terrace of clouds in the east tlie 
 blue lightnings were running in wire-like 
 rills ; the island stood sharp, hard and dark 
 against the colour in the west. It had
 
 BLADES OF THE " OAROLINEr 189 
 
 drawn around somewhat dark, with a deal 
 of cloudy fire in the water, before we were 
 within liail of the barque; the lunar dawn 
 was growing green astern of the ship, and 
 the stars sparkled overhead. The Portu- 
 guese put his helm down, the boy let go the 
 main halliards, and the little white dipper 
 hung without way in the direct course of 
 the barque. Taking my chance of the 
 vessel's nationality, I bawled with powerful 
 lungs through my telescoped hands, " Ho, 
 the barque ahoy ! " 
 
 G-reatly to my delight, the familiar English 
 echo, " HuUoa ! " came back. 
 
 " I'm an English seaman, who has been 
 cast away on the Great Salvage yonder. 
 Will you take me on board ? " 
 
 " Douse your foresail, and look out for the 
 end of a line," was the answer. 
 
 I let go the fore-halliards — it was too dark 
 for gesticulations to serve — the Portuguese 
 grunted aloud in his native tongue^ but in 
 a tone that was like telling me I had done 
 riglit. The barque now loomed big close 
 aboard us, and all was hushed for some
 
 190 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 moments, save the rippling of the water 
 at her bow. The stars winked amid her 
 rigging and along her yards ; the risen 
 moon was now shedding some light, by 
 which I distinguiished a group of figures 
 leanino: over the forecastle-rail, and a man 
 sitting on the port poop-rail, holding on to 
 a stay, and leaning backwards over the water 
 to view us. 
 
 " Look out for this line," shouted a voice 
 from the forecastle-head, and plump came 
 some forty pound weight of fakes into the 
 middle of the boat. The boy took a turn ; 
 but it had never been my intention to parley 
 alongside. I w^as most devouringly in earnest 
 to board that barque, and sail away in her 
 anyhow and anywhere ; so, springing aft, I 
 grasped the hairy paw of the Portuguese, 
 motioning to the main-chains, and gently 
 obliging him to sheer the boat ; then wring- 
 ing his hand in a very passion of gratitude, 
 and hitting the boy a friendly blow of f\ire- 
 well on the back, I sprang into the barque's 
 chains, and as I climbed over the rail, 1 
 saw the boy free the boat, whilst the
 
 BLADES OF TEE '' CAROLINE:' 191 
 
 Portuguese sprav/led forwards to masthead 
 the foresail. 
 
 ^' By 'Esus, dot vhas a cool bandt! Did 
 he know dot her boat vhas all gone ? " called 
 some heavy Dutch voice out of the shadowy 
 group of seamen in the bows. 
 
 I stood a moment, after gaining the deck, 
 to look along it. The gloom of the night 
 was betwixt the vessel's rails, but some ruddy 
 gleams darting like wheelspokes through the 
 galley-door, touched the coils of rigging and 
 bulwarks abreast ; there was a hazy sheen 
 of radiance aft, round about the skylight. 
 By the small delicate moonlight now flow- 
 ing, I made this barque out to be a lump 
 of a square-bowed waggon, with a crowded 
 look about her decks, owing to her galley, 
 long-boat, pumps, mainmast and foremast all 
 seeming to come together in a sort of murky 
 huddle, as though everything was too big. 
 I saw the figure of a man aft. It was 
 he who had leaned backwards, looking at 
 us. He was advancing as I approached 
 him. 
 
 " What d ye want aboard here ? " said he.
 
 192 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 " Hail your boat, and keep her alongside, till 
 I hear your story, anyhow." 
 
 ''They're Portuguese, and won't understand 
 us unless we talk in their tongue, which I, 
 for one, don't know," I answered. 
 
 The man seemed struck by my speech and 
 manner. We were near the skylight, within 
 the sphere of the sheen of it, and I saw his 
 eyes travel over me. 
 
 " What are you ? " said he. 
 
 " Am I talking to the master of this 
 ship ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I was mate of the brig Hehe of Bristol. 
 O.ie day I overheard her owner and the 
 captain arranging to cast her away ; one 
 choosing that rock," said I, pointing to the 
 island, '^ and the other, the coast near 
 Agulhas. They were in their cabin ; as I 
 came out of mine, the owner met me face 
 to face — turned white as these bloody 
 breeches upon me — but said nothing, and 
 I guessed by the behaviour of both men 
 that neither suspected I had overheard them. 
 I vow to God that, the day before yesterday,
 
 BLADES OF THE "CAROLINE." 193 
 
 the owner of the brig took me ashore on 
 that island, under pretence of seeking a 
 spring for his water-casks. He coaxed me 
 to the edge of the cliff, and threw me over 
 — the villain! Mr. Fletcher of Bristol — 
 that's his name ; Jonas Cadman is the Hebe's 
 master. They sailed away, leaving me 
 murdered, as they thought. They've got all 
 that I possess in the world aboard, and the 
 dogs'll wreck the brig yet, and maybe drown 
 the crew, mark me ! " 
 
 My companion listened with motionless 
 attention. 
 
 "Fletcher of Bristol," said he. "He's 
 owned some small craft besides this Hehe, 
 hasn't he ? " 
 
 " I dare say. I know nothing of the 
 devil's history." And now, moving a step 
 to get a better view of this man, and 
 advancing my head to inspect him closely, 
 I said, " Pardon me — is your name Blades ? " 
 
 " Yes," he answered. 
 
 " William Blades, who was formerly third- 
 mate of the Newcastle ? " 
 
 " That's right." 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 " I made my second voyage, as an ap- 
 prentice, in that vessel. You and I were 
 not only shipmates but messmates." 
 
 " Is it Charles Morgan ? " said he. 
 
 '' To the very rags of him." 
 
 '^ Well, begummers ! " said Captain Blades, 
 and shook my hand. He was stepping to 
 the companion-way, as though meaning I 
 should follow him below, then halted, and 
 exclaimed, looking in the direction of the 
 boat that was now fast blending with the 
 gloom, though she yet shone dimly in her 
 whiteness like the weak reflection of a large 
 pale star : " I shall be carrying you away 
 round the Horn, if you stop aboard. I am 
 bound direct to Callao. Madeira isn't far 
 off, and that boat would land you there, 
 wouldn't she ? " 
 
 I answered briefly that I wished to remain 
 with him — having lost all, I did not mean 
 to go home till I had earned money to take 
 up. I was willing to serve him in any 
 capacity, forward or aft. 
 
 " By the great Anchor ! then," said he, 
 *' you may turn out a godsend, after all.
 
 BLADES OF THE "CAROLINES 195 
 
 Stay here. We'll yarn presently." He then 
 roared out, *' Mr. Brace, ready about ! " 
 
 " Ready about ! " was echoed by a figure 
 stalking in the gangway, and the whistle 
 of a boatswain's pipe rang shrill through 
 the vessel, followed by a bull-like roar of, 
 " All hands about ship." It delighted me 
 to hear the music of that pipe aboard a 
 barque of four hundred tons ; but in those 
 days the traditions of the sea were clung to 
 with a tenacity which iron and steam have 
 surprisingly relaxed. In a few moments 
 the dark decks were full of life and hurry ; 
 the shapes of the seamen, scarcely distinguish- 
 able in the gloom, took their stations. 
 
 " Helm's a-lee ! " bawled the captain. 
 
 "• Helm's a-lee ! " was re-echoed from the 
 forecastle. 
 
 Then rang the several orders of, " Raise 
 tacks and sheets. Maintopsail haul. Let go 
 and haul," and so on. The black block of 
 island swang along on to our port quarter. 
 The whole life of the ocean was in the 
 hoarse strange cries of the men, and in the 
 shouts of the captain and Mr. Brace.
 
 196 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 " Well the foretopsail-yard ! Small pull 
 the iriaiu t'gallant-yard ! Royal yard too 
 much! Well all!'' 
 
 Presently the ship was soberly dribblin,^ 
 through it on the port tack. The captain, 
 after speaking apart to the man whom 
 he called Brace, took me below into the 
 cabin. 
 
 It was like the Hebes; the arrangement 
 of the berths much the same, and everything 
 plain to rudeness. A large parrot restlessly 
 clawed the brass wires of its cage that 
 swung under the open skylight near the 
 lamp. When we entered, Blades called out, 
 " Jackson," and a stout young fellow came 
 out of the pantry. 
 
 *' Some supper for this gentleman," said 
 the captain ; " then turn-to and get the mate's 
 berth ready for him. You've left your port- 
 manteau on the Great Salvage, I expect ? " 
 he added, grinning, as he directed his eyes 
 at me. " When the berth's ready, Jackson, 
 get some slops up." 
 
 Jackson stared when Blades called me 
 gentleman, I turned to the captain and said,
 
 BLADES OF THE "CAROLINE:' 197 
 
 " I've not had sight of a looking-glass since 
 Mr. Fletcher of Bristol took leave of me. 
 How do I show, sir ? " 
 
 Blades bade the steward fetch a looking- 
 glass. I took it under the lamp, and hardly 
 knew myself. My beard was four days old ; 
 my hair was frightfully wild, and curled 
 madly, owing to my flight through two 
 bushes ,• my face was badly scratched ; 
 I looked like a drunken sailor, released 
 after a week of lock-up in the same state 
 in which he had been found up a dark 
 alley. 
 
 " You'll not remember me, captain ? " said 
 I, with a hang-dog grin, handing the glass to 
 the steward. 
 
 " Only by name," he answered. *'But it'll 
 not take you long to scrub and clothe yourself 
 into my fond remembrance." 
 
 I sat down at the table, he opposite, and 
 told him everything as here stands related — all 
 about Fletcher's piety, the four foot of water 
 in the hold, the trick of the rum-casks, and 
 the rest of it. He listened with fixed eyes, 
 deeply interested, as indeed any sailor was
 
 198 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 bound to be in such a tale, seeing what a 
 hellish job those two men still had in hand, 
 and how tragically the criminal conspiracy 
 had been accentuated by the respectable Mr. 
 Fletcher's heaval of me over a hundred foot 
 of cliff. 
 
 By the time I had made an end, supper 
 was ready, and I fell to with a keen appetite 
 on a solid square of harness-cask beef and 
 other shipboard delicacies, all like what the 
 Hebes table provided, only more of them, 
 and very good of their kind. Blades ate 
 with me, and our drink was cold brandy and 
 water. 
 
 This new character in my strange traverses 
 was a fine, handsome fellow, rising six feet 
 tall, with tawny hair and reddish beard, and 
 mocking, sea-blue eyes, brilliant as gems, full 
 of character and spirit. He was an Orkney 
 Islander, but had nothing of the rough accent 
 of the people of those storm- vexed spots of 
 earth. I looked at him, and recalled many 
 incidents of a voyage which sterner and 
 wilder experiences had long sunk deep out 
 of sight. He also looked at me, and often,
 
 BLADES OF TEE ''CAROLINE:' 199 
 
 in the intervals of our discourse, very 
 musingly for so merry an eye. 
 
 By-and-by, when we had supped, he jumped 
 up, pulled out his watch, and said, " Go now 
 and get the wash-down you need, and sweeten 
 yourself up with such togs as Jackson has 
 got you. I'll be with you anon. I've some- 
 thing to talk to you about." 
 
 He went on deck, and I heard his heavy 
 footfall along the plank. Jackson had lighted 
 up the cabin assigned me ; I recollected that 
 Blades had called it the mate's, and wondered 
 if that officer had been broke, and where he 
 was. I had heard as yet of no mate in this 
 barque ; the man who had whistled the crew 
 to 'bout ship was Brace, and he was no mate. 
 But all the news I needed would come to me 
 from Blades, and without asking questions of 
 Jackson, I stripped and thoroughly washed, 
 swept the wildness out of my hair with a 
 strong brush, and clothed myself in a coloured 
 shirt, trousers of dungaree, and a shaggy pea- 
 jacket, all slop-made, rank with the ready- 
 made outfitting smell. 
 
 After half an hour Blades came below.
 
 200 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 He put a handful of Manilla cheroots upon 
 the table, and brought a bottle of Hollands 
 out of a locker. The weather was perfectly 
 quiet, the vessel going along with never a 
 creak coming out of her frame, and the lamp 
 hanging as though from a ceiling ashore. 
 Blades now told me that this barque was the 
 Caroline, a trifle over four hundred tons, from 
 Sunderland to Callao, with a small general 
 cargo; she belonged to a Newcastle firm. 
 He had sailed with a mate, and a boatswain 
 acting as second-mate. A few hundred miles 
 north of Madeira the mate fell ill and kept 
 his bed ; at his own request, he was sent 
 ashore at Madeira, along with his traps. 
 Blades sought for a certificated man to take 
 his place ; as no one offered, he got his anchor, 
 and started for his port of destination, re- 
 solved to carry the barque there watch and 
 watch with George Brace, the boatswain. 
 
 " That's how matters stand now," said he. 
 '' I'm no sea-lawyer, and can't tell you 
 whether I'm acting legally in proceeding, 
 under the circumstances, without a mate. 
 What do you say ? "
 
 BLADES OF THE " OAROLINEr 201 
 
 "Well, I believe no ship may lawfully 
 start from her port without a mate. But if 
 he falls sick, and another's not to be got, 
 what's to be done ? " 
 
 " Why," he answered, breaking at times 
 into his words with a short laugh, the 
 only thing to do is to head for the 
 Great Salvage Island, where, fifty to one, 
 but you'll find some castaway gentleman 
 anxious to obtain a situation. A shirt isn't 
 all front. It isn't always the thing itself 
 that you seem to be looking at. Often a 
 man's best chances get into the secret parts 
 of his life, just as you find a sovereign 
 in a pocket you forgot you dropped it 
 into." 
 
 He nodded over his poised glass at each 
 wise saying, took a deep draught, and sucked 
 his moustache. 
 
 " B'lay your jaw ! Blast that talk ! " 
 croaked a hideous voice overhead. 
 
 "Bury your old nut, and turn in!" said 
 Blades, looking up at the parrot. 
 
 He then went on — " My mate being gone, 
 another'll make this voyage more comfortable
 
 202 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 than I'll find it with Brace alone. I'm a 
 nervous man," here he stiffened his chest, 
 that might have been some forty-three inches 
 in girth. '' I like to have the law on my 
 side. I want a mate. I ought to have 
 a mate — I feel it. Well, the very thing I 
 need crawls aboard out of the main-chains 
 after dark, as if, by the blessed Jemima, my 
 desire had been turned into flesh and blood 
 to solve me a difficulty. In good Orkney 
 Saxon, Morgan, will ye sign on as first of 
 this gallant hooker ? " 
 
 " I will, and with a thousand thanks," I 
 replied, hot-faced, with a sudden flush of 
 delight. 
 
 *' Six pounds a month, the voyage to Callao 
 and back to the Wear ! " 
 
 I bowed in silent joy. 
 
 " You're pleased, and so am I," said Blades. 
 " You're a changed man if you're wanting in 
 smartness." 
 
 " You'll find me wanting in nothing, not 
 even in gratitude," said I. 
 
 " You'll have all night in to rest ye after 
 the Salvage joke. Take till eight bells
 
 BLADES OF TEE ''CAROLINES 203 
 
 to-morrow morning to dream the old skunk 
 Fletcher clean out of your skull ; then turn 
 to with a jolly heart." 
 
 An hour later I was sound asleep.
 
 204 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE EARL OF LEICESTER. 
 
 It was a Friday morning, May 1st, 1851. 
 Our latitude on the preceding day had been 
 70° 15' S., our longitude 13° 21' W. I do 
 not exactly recollect how long I had served 
 as mate aboard the Caroline when this date 
 of May 1st came round. But I know that 
 I was now heartily liking the ship. My 
 life with Blades was more like a passenger's 
 than a mate's ; he walked the decks with 
 me ; we yarned and smoked together, and 
 galvanized a dead hour with cards or 
 draughts. He lent me one of his sextants, 
 and made me free of his cabin. I could 
 have gone on sailing round the world with 
 such a man for ever. Never in all the time 
 I used the sea had I been happier.
 
 THE ''EARL OF LEICESTERr 205 
 
 Old Brace, the boatswain, though a crabbed 
 and sour tarpaulin, was one of the expertest 
 seamen I had ever met. The salt beef oi 
 his calling had hardened into marrow in 
 his bones ; he had worn out his teeth in 
 biting ship's biscuit ; his joints creaked with 
 rheumatism spite of the greasing of them by 
 half a century of pork fat. He had been 
 everything that a man can be at sea ; 
 washed through the Channel in December 
 in a barge loaded out of sight with stone ; 
 served in a man-of-war ; sailed in American 
 liners ; traded in contraband walks in the 
 South Pacific ; had been a beachcomber, 
 'longshoreman, whaleman, slaver, cook in 
 a West Indian drogher, and master of a 
 little schooner out of Nassau. It was like 
 reading a book of thrilling sea-tales, to talk 
 with that man. I shall never forget his 
 yarns, nor the time I spent in his company. 
 
 The Jacks of the Caroline were good men ; 
 but then Blades was one of the few merchant- 
 skippers who have the art of being in perfect 
 sympathy with their crew without sacrificing 
 anything of their own quarter-deck dignity.
 
 206 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 I did my utmost to support his theories and 
 carry out his views, and we were a happy, 
 quiet, and comfortable ship. 
 
 May 1st, 1851. This was a Friday morn- 
 ing, and I came on deck at eight bells to 
 relieve the boatswain who had had the look- 
 out since four. Blades was sauntering to 
 and fro the quarter-deck in slippers and 
 flannel jacket and wide, petticoat-like drill 
 trousers. The sun shone with a sharp tropic 
 sting ; his wake was rolling in a long white 
 flame over the soft heave of ocean to the 
 very bends of the barque. It was mighty 
 hot, with the heat besides tingling off the 
 water where the dazzle of the soaring sun 
 was ; as though the spangled sea was the 
 tremble of countless white hot needles coming 
 at you. 
 
 We carried but a short awning, and in the 
 shadow of it stood the man at the wheel. 
 The breeze was light, hot as your breath, 
 and out of the north-west. Brace had piled 
 up the studding-sails, but the barque's way 
 was scarce perceptible, and the tail of her 
 greasy wake was not a pistol-shot off.
 
 TEE ''EARL OF LEICESTEB:' 207 
 
 The first thing I saw when I came on 
 deck was the three spires of a vessel, hull 
 out of sight, away down on the lee bow. 
 The sea-line ran unbroken round the ocean 
 to her ; there was a shading of cloud just 
 above the gleam she made on the blue rim, 
 and over our mastheads the sky was freckled 
 with morning vapour ; a high blue, bright 
 morning, splendid for the sparkling azure 
 space the eye found in it, but hot — hot ! and 
 the breeze a light air. 
 
 " What have we there ? " says Blades, 
 looking at the distant sail, seemingly for the 
 first time. 
 
 I fetched the glass. 
 
 " A small ship," says he, talking with his 
 eye at the telescope ; " she's lying right 
 athwart our hawse. Her yards seem queerly 
 braced ; the fore and mizzen square, and the 
 main fore and aft. Look at her." 
 
 I steadied the glass ; the three soft feathery 
 heights shone in the lenses in symmetric 
 spaces, and I perceived the yards braced in 
 the manner described by Blades. The sails 
 hovered like shreds of morning mist, and
 
 208 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 their whiteness was shot with airy gleams. 
 The line of the vessel's rail was just visible 
 above the edge of the sea, " dipping " as 
 sailors call it — I mean coming and going 
 with the light swaying of the barque. 
 
 When I had seen her canvas there was 
 nothing else to look at. I watched her a 
 little, thinking she might be manoeuvring ; 
 she hung in one posture with her head 
 athwart our course, and I said to Blades — 
 
 " If she's not derelict, there's sickness 
 aboard ; and she's helpless." 
 
 "I believe you're right/' said he slowly, 
 when he had looked as^ain. 
 
 But now breakfast was announced. The 
 captain went below to eat, and left me to 
 pace the deck alone. 
 
 The Caroline was a flush-decked vessel, 
 with a large windlass in her square bow, 
 and a heavy littered look of deck. She had 
 the scantling of a frigate ; everything was 
 heavy and large. I stood beside the fellow 
 at the wheel gazing forward ; smoke was 
 blowing from the caboose chimney ; some 
 of the watch below were scrubbing their
 
 THE ''EARL OF LEICESTER:' 209 
 
 clothes in the lee-scuppers ; those of my 
 own watch were at work about the vessel, 
 one in the maintop, a couple in the fore- 
 shrouds ; a fellow sat astride the fore- 
 yardarm, doing something to the lift ; his 
 loose white trousers and naked feet, his 
 straw hat and mahogany face, with one 
 bright eye in profile, and four inches of 
 black beard curling like the edge of a 
 saucer, stood out against the liquid sky as 
 prismatically hued as a daguerreotype. In- 
 deed, the ocean light that morning gave a 
 look of silky shifting colour to everything. 
 
 The barque made me think of the Hehe, 
 and I wondered what the bleared old fabric's 
 reckoning would be at noon that day. Would 
 Cadman and the other stick to their resolu- 
 tion to wreck her ? Wouldn't the conscience 
 that must come of my murder fright them 
 from the commission of other damnable 
 things ? Alas, Conscience is a flower of 
 slow cultivation, scarce likely to break its 
 tender shoot through the dung-crust of such 
 minds as theirs. 
 
 Now and again I looked at the distant 
 
 VOL. I. p
 
 210 TBE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 ship as I stood or paced, musing. AVe were 
 creeping southwards ; she, with her yards 
 braced anyhow, hung right athwart our 
 road. Slowly we raised her, and, by the 
 time Blades came on deck, she was showing 
 a white line, broken with painted ports. 
 Now, too, I made out a colour at her mizzen- 
 peak; red, but hanging up and down, and 
 indistinguishable. 
 
 Piping hot it was that morning, and sweet 
 was the sudden gushing through the heel of 
 a windsail of a little freshening of tlie breeze 
 on deck whilst I breakfasted. When I re- 
 turned above I found the water darkened 
 into violet by a pleasant breeze, with here 
 and there an instant ivory wink of foam in 
 the curls of brine ; from the barque's fat 
 sides the flying-fish were glancing in dozens, 
 and we had a thin white line of water to 
 leeward, and a noise of purring water under 
 the bows, with a universal tautening of brace 
 and curving of leech, and arching of foot ; 
 the jibs swelled with a yearning look for- 
 ward ; it was like the cock of a dog's ears 
 at the sight of another dog ; the barque
 
 TEE "EARL OF LEICESTER:' 211 
 
 seemed to know there was a ship in sight ! 
 Gods ! what life comes into a saih'ng-ship 
 with a little wind. It is the breath of her 
 being, the soul of her strakes and treenails ; 
 and, thus possessed, she'll do everything but 
 speak. 
 
 We were within hailing distance of the 
 vessel by eleven o'clock. Our helm was 
 then put down, and our maintopsail brought 
 to the mast ; and there lay within easy reach 
 of a man's voice a ship of something less 
 than six hundred tons, with painted ports, 
 metalled to the bends with new sheathing, 
 her figure-head some dark gold device, her 
 quarters lustrous with gilt ; but she had a 
 desperately slack look, spite of her smart 
 hull, with her outer and flying jibs hauled 
 down and hanging loose, her three royals 
 clewed up but unstowed, her spanker half- 
 brailed in, as though by insufficient hands, 
 with other signs of helplessness which I'll 
 not weary the shore-going reader with. 
 
 Two men only were visible on her short 
 length of poop, and one of them was at the 
 wheel. I saw no signs of any living thing
 
 212 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 elsewhere. The galley chimney forked ' up 
 black and unsmoking ; in one dead pause 
 before we hailed I heard a cock crow, and 
 afterwards the bleat of a sheep. We lay 
 within a few ship's lengths of each other. 
 The fellow at the stranger's helm was just 
 such another plain seaman as stood at our 
 wheel ; the other was dressed in a cloth coat 
 and a wide straw hat. He stood watching 
 us until we had ranged abreast, then, with 
 a glance aloft at the flag, which proved the 
 English Merchant ensign, Jack down, he 
 came to the low poop-rail, got upon it, and 
 stood with a hand at his ear. 
 
 " Ship ahoy ! " cried Blades. 
 
 "Hallo!" 
 
 " What ship's that ? " 
 
 " The Earl of Leicester, from Madras for 
 the Thames. We're in great distress. Will 
 you send one of your officers, as we're without 
 men to man one of our own boats." 
 
 "What's wrong with you?" Blades called. 
 
 " Most of the crew are dead of the plague," 
 the other cried ; then shook his head and 
 flourished his arm, loudly shouting, " No,
 
 THE "EARL OF LEICESTER:' 213 
 
 I don't mean the plague. It ain't the plague, 
 sir. It's a sort of sickness like fever. Some 
 of them shipped with it, and gave it to the 
 others." 
 
 " Whatever it is, it's long in killing, since 
 it's lasted them all the way round to up here," 
 said Blades, looking at me. " What's it you 
 want ? " he bawled. 
 
 " Help, sir," cried the other. 
 
 '' How many can you muster ? " 
 
 The man pointed to the sailor at the 
 wheel. 
 
 " Too few as a ship's company for a vessel 
 of that size," said Blades, rounding upon me 
 with a bothered look. " Yonder's a sick ship, 
 and to send men would mean to them the 
 death that's emptied her hammocks. Yet to 
 bring those two chaps aboard might signify 
 a like beastly quandary for the good barque 
 Caroline, for who's to know how tainted 
 they are ? " 
 
 The man in the straw hat gazed at us 
 from the top of the rail, without motion. 
 A hush fell ; you heard nothing but the 
 noise of water slopping alongside — the clink-
 
 214 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 ing of a chain-sheet strained by a slight roll, 
 and from the vessel abreast of us, the crow- 
 ing of a cock. In that pause I took another 
 good look at the ship. To my nautical eye 
 her appearance did not correspond with the 
 straw-hatted man's statement. She seemed 
 too clean to be all the way from Madras, 
 which meant a hundred days of ocean. Her 
 rigging was well set up, her paint-work 
 fresh. I saw no growth of grass, no adhe- 
 sion of shell upon the new sheathing she'd 
 slightly lift. Though her short poop-deck 
 lay open betwixt the low rails, her bulwarks 
 stood tall, and hid her amidships to as far 
 as the topgallant forecastle, which was railed 
 like the poop. There was no motion in the 
 sea to make her roll her main and quarter- 
 decks into view. Three good white boats, 
 whale-ended, hung at her davits ; one boat 
 — the fourth — was gone ; and a long light 
 gig dangled at her stern. I also spied a big 
 long-boat abaft the galley, under a number 
 of spare booms. 
 
 " Yet it wouldn't do," said Blades, looking 
 at the vessel with one eye closed, '* to leave
 
 THE ''EARL OF LEICESTER:' 215 
 
 that fine ship to go to pieces down here." 
 lie hailed her again : " Have you any dead 
 aboard ? " 
 
 " All are over the side, sir," was the 
 answer. 
 
 " How many sick have you ? " 
 
 The man seemed to consider, looking round 
 as he did so to the fellow at the wheel. He 
 then bawled back in tones that warranted 
 him in lung-power, if in nothing else, 
 ** There's two sick, and us two makes four ; 
 all that's left of three and twenty men." 
 
 " What are you ? " called Blades. 
 
 " I'm the ship's carpenter, sir." 
 
 Blades still hung in the wind ; he'd look 
 at me doubtfully, then at the vessel, and 
 indeed the dilemma was no small one. 
 Yonder lay a plague-ship — so at least her 
 carpenter reported her. If we sent a few 
 hands on board to help her to her port what 
 was to hinder them from perishing as the 
 original crew had, leaving the ship in the 
 same plight ? If we brought those two men 
 off, they might infect the whole of our com- 
 pany. And then, what was to be done with
 
 216 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 the two sick wretches in her forecastle ? 
 Again, yonder was a craft, the value of 
 whose salving would certainly not fall short 
 of a little estate. All these conflicting reflec- 
 tions worked in Blades's face, and produced 
 twenty expressions in a minute. He said 
 to me : " We certainly can't leave her." 
 
 *'No, sir." 
 
 "What's the nature of the sickness ahoard ? 
 I'd give fifty pounds, to find out." 
 
 " Shall I go over to her, and see what 
 there is to report to you ? " 
 
 " But you're no doctor, are ye ? Could 
 you name a disease from a description of 
 symptoms ? Suppose it should be small-pox.'' 
 He shuddered with a sudden face of loathing 
 as he looked towards the vessel. 
 
 " I expect it's some distemper arising from 
 the cargo," said I, " like blindness from 
 wheat or fever from coffee." 
 
 This seemed to give him an idea, and he 
 hailed the ship to know her load. 
 
 " Sugar, mainly," answered the man, who 
 continued standing on the rail, holding on 
 by a backstay, apparently eyeing us intently.
 
 THE "EARL OF LEICESTER:' 217 
 
 " Don't some sort of sweating sickness 
 come from sugar ? " said Blades, turning to 
 me. 
 
 I didn't know. 
 
 "• It may be as you say," said he. ^* She'll 
 not be the first ship whose cargo has bred 
 pestilence for her people. There can be no 
 harm done, I think, in your taking a boat 
 and going across and looking around. Even 
 if the vessel's not to be meddled with, the 
 men must be saved ; that's the confounded 
 problem. Unless we tow her — but then 
 we'll need to board her, to furl her canvas. 
 Take a boat — that's if you have no objection. 
 I'm not for putting this sort of job upon 
 any man as a duty." 
 
 I sung out for some men to lay aft and 
 clear away the port quarter boat. Four or 
 five sailors came slouchingly and reluctantly 
 along the deck. 
 
 " Bear a hand. Aft with you," I shouted, 
 for I ever heartily abominated in seamen 
 that sort of behaviour which we of the jacket 
 call sojering. 
 
 The group came to a stand at the quarter-
 
 218 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 deck capstan, and after a little backing and 
 filling, hard biting of junks in their cheeks, 
 and screwing up of eyes at the ship with 
 sulky woebegone looks, one of them said, 
 gloomily, " Are us men expected to board 
 that wessel ? " 
 
 " To put me aboard," said I. 
 
 " Capt'n, you heard what the covey in the 
 straw hat said," exclaimed the man. 
 
 " I'm not asking you to step over the side. 
 The chief-mate takes the risk. You can lay 
 off, and breathe and spit," said Blades. 
 
 On this they came to the boat, but sullenly 
 and reluctantly cleared and lowered her. 
 Three of them entered, I followed, and we 
 pulled for the vessel. I headed to pass under 
 her stern, to board her to leeward. When the 
 man in the straw hat saw me coming, he 
 leisurely stepped off the rail and crossed the 
 deck. I guessed from his motions that he 
 took his calamitous situation pretty coolly ; 
 there had been nothing whining, nothing 
 whatever of the " Help-us-for-Gord's-sake " 
 \^owling in his cries to us. I saw " Earl of 
 Leicester + London," in small letters on the
 
 TEE ''EARL OF LEICESTER:' 219 
 
 ship's counter, as we pulled under the square 
 of stern, with its large gleaming cabin win- 
 dows just under the keel of the gig ; we 
 were close here, and could see how clean her 
 sheathing was when the small swell hollowed 
 a trifle under her run, lifting the metal and 
 the copper of her rudder with a look almost 
 of brand-new light in it out of the green 
 brine. 
 
 " Mizzen-chains, lads," said I ; " then shove 
 off, and hang within hailing distance." 
 
 I sprang into one of those platforms to 
 which in those days the shrouds of the lower 
 masts were secured by dead-eyes, and the bow 
 oar eagerly thrust the boat clear. 
 
 I found myself on the deck of one of the 
 smartest ships I had ever boarded. Her 
 planks were like a yacht's, with the white 
 grain of the wood and the clean-edged black 
 seams. As I jumped from the rail, I glanced 
 forward, but saw not a living creature stir- 
 ring. Nothing moved but the heads of a 
 number of cocks and hens betwixt the bars 
 of a long coop just forward of the mainmast. 
 The main-hatch was closed, with a tarpaulin
 
 220 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 over it in ship-shape cargo-bottom fashion. 
 The instant impression of distress and dreari- 
 ness I got out of my first look round is one of 
 the most impressive of my memories ; all the 
 running gear slack, the yards wildly braced, 
 the unstowed cloths flogging aloft in the now- 
 freshening breeze, the big topsails silent, one 
 hollowing in, the other swelling out, the 
 decks a lifeless length, save but for those 
 quick throbbings of red combs in the coop ; 
 the ship without way, course, or meaning in 
 the aspect of her canvas, and a short man, 
 with a crumpled face and a large moustache, 
 holding on to the wheel, as though pretend- 
 ing to steer ! 
 
 The seaman who had answered Blades's hail 
 stood beside the mizzen-shrouds as I climbed 
 up out of the chains. He was a dark, 
 grave-faced man about forty years old, with 
 shaven cheeks, and a quantity of black 
 hair, dashed with grey, upon his throat 
 and chin. His eyes were soft, black, and 
 penetrating ; his countenance comely after a 
 rude pattern, the features good but coarse. 
 His coat was of new cloth ; his waistcoat and
 
 THE ''EABL OF LEICESTER:' 221 
 
 small-clothes were also new and good. I had 
 sailed with several ship's carpenters in my 
 time, but never before met with one who, at 
 sea, dressed so well as this man, with fine 
 flannel shirt, silk handkerchief, and good 
 boots. 
 
 The other fellow, whom I jnst cast an eye at, 
 was of the average type of sailor, dressed in 
 the jumper's rig, naked feet, old duck breeches, 
 a red shirt, which exposed half his breast, 
 and a knife in a sheath strapped round his 
 middle. I supposed him a foreigner with 
 his big moustache, despite a leering blue 
 eye and one of those dry twisted expressions, 
 crowding the face with puckers, full too of 
 a low vulgar humour, which I never yet fell 
 in with out of this kingdom. 
 
 The man in the straw hat flourished his 
 hand in a grave salute. 
 
 "I'm thankful to you, sir, for this visit," 
 said he in a sober, smooth, rather deep 
 voice. "May I ask your rank aboard the 
 barque ? " 
 
 " I'm her mate," I answered, struck by his 
 very earnest regard of me. " Let's hear now
 
 222 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 what is this sickness that's reduced you to 
 two well men out of a forecastle full ? " 
 
 *' There's a description of it in a book 
 below," he answered ; " I found it in the 
 capt'n's cabin. I'm no scholar, and couldn't 
 give it jer as that there book expresses of it." 
 
 " What is it ? " said I, " a medical work ? " 
 
 " I allow it is then. It's got pictures of 
 things belonging to the human body — heyes 
 and hears, a man's thumbs, and the likes of 
 that. There's a piece in that book that 
 answers to what the men have died of. 
 Kindly step below, an' I'll show it jer." 
 
 " What's your cargo again ? " 
 
 " Mainly sugar." 
 
 ** Has it sweated ? " 
 
 " Can't say I've took notice of that," he 
 replied, looking in his slow way at the man 
 at the wheel, who grew uneasy, I thought, 
 under this silent reference, since he shuffled 
 and gave the spokes a twirl, and looked aloft 
 as though for a lifting leach. 
 
 I hesitated before entering the cabin, 
 having somehow a fancy of the taste of sick- 
 ness in the atmosphere down there. I
 
 THE ''EARL OF LEICESTERr 223 
 
 glanced at the skyliglit ; it was closed, and 
 the crimson blinds under it were drawn. I 
 found nothing significant in this, amid such 
 a picture of disorder as the ship presented 
 aloft, the confusion up there working down 
 into the whole body of her, so to speak, and 
 affecting the eye as though everything was 
 wrong. 
 
 " Can't you bring that book up on 
 deck ? " 
 
 " I'd take it kindly, if you'd step below, 
 sir," said the man, speaking always very 
 soberly and smoothly, with a slowness in 
 the motion of his head and body, as though 
 his spirits had been sunk by anxiety. " The 
 log-book's in the cabin. I'd like you to see 
 the entries down to the time when the 
 second-mate, the last of 'em aft here, was 
 took. Yer'll get the rate of deaths there ; 
 likewise, perhaps, a sarviceable hint or two. 
 I allow that my answer touching the plague 
 skeered them yonder." He dropped his 
 head sideways towards the barque. " I 
 gave the thing the first name as rose. We 
 badly want help, sir. You can see it now ; "
 
 224 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 and he sent a look along the silent, deserted 
 decks. 
 
 That notion of inspecting the log deter- 
 mined me. Moreover, I wanted to see the 
 ship's papers. I moved towards the com- 
 panion. Observing this, the man went 
 before, and led the way below. 
 
 The instant I was at the bottom of the 
 steps, I saw that I was trapped, and tnrned 
 to rush up, meaning to jump overboard, with 
 a shout to the Caroline s boat ; but even 
 whilst I drew breath with that intention, the 
 companion was closed by some hand above, 
 and the steps darkened, and I faced forwards 
 again, breathing hard and short, with both 
 my fists clenched, prepared for a struggle 
 for life.
 
 ( 225 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TRAPPED. 
 
 The cabin, or cuddy, as it might be called, 
 under the poop-deck, was in shadow, owing to 
 the companion being closed, and the crimson 
 blinds of the skylight drawn over the glass. 
 But there was light enough to give one a 
 clear view. It shone through little windows 
 forward, overlooking the quarter-deck. I 
 saw five men in that cuddy, in addition to 
 the straw-hatted man who had conducted me 
 below. They were forecastle hands, dressed 
 in the plain familiar attire of the pier-head 
 and the boarding-house. They had been 
 sitting when we entered, but sprang to their 
 feet on our coming down, whilst one of them 
 stepped quickly betwixt me and the com- 
 panion-ladder. 
 
 ''I'm sorry to take you unawares in this 
 
 VOL. 1. Q
 
 22G TUE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 fashion," said the man who had styled him- 
 self the vessel's carpenter, " but the long and 
 short of it is, we want a navigator, and we 
 want a captain, and you'll sarve our tarn for 
 both, sir. S'elp me Grod, as I stand here, 
 we mean honestly. It's all come about 
 fairly. The only dirty part of it'll be this 
 here kidnapping of you. But what must be, 
 must be. I beg you'll keep your mind easy ; 
 nothen but what you'll presently find right's 
 intended. These are to be your quarters, 
 and here we'll ask you to be good enough 
 to stop till we calls upon you to take 
 charge." 
 
 He stepped to a door, and, throwing it 
 open, motioned me^into a large cabin, lighted 
 by a large, circular port-hole in the ship's 
 side. 
 
 I had stared at him with a wildly beating 
 heart, and doubtless with a stone-white face, 
 so startling, so terrifying had been this 
 sudden, this most unexpected entrapment, 
 whilst he delivered the above extraordinary 
 address. Then, as he stood motioning me 
 into tlie sleeping-berth, I exclaimed —
 
 TRAPPED, 227 
 
 " You must let me go. I'm mate of that 
 barque abreast of you, and my services are 
 wanted there. I can't help you here." 
 
 " We beg you'll make no fuss," said one 
 of the seamen, a brown, high-coloured man, 
 with the looks of a fisherman. " We're all 
 agreed. A master's wanted, and now you're 
 here, you'll have to stop, sir." 
 
 This was said, not insolently, but firmly, 
 yet with a note in it that threatened temper. 
 
 '' But, good God, men ! " cried I. " This 
 is an English ship, I take it ; and you're 
 Englishmen, aren't you ? You can't walk 
 off with a man in this fashion. It's a 
 criminal ofi"ence — a hanging job, not long 
 since. There's many a passing ship that'll 
 help you to a navigator. Don't carry me 
 away against my will, without the know- 
 ledge of my captain, who'll suppose I've run 
 from him." 
 
 " Mr. Brigstock," said a short, fat seaman, 
 with pig's eyes, and full, hanging chops, " we 
 don't want to use no force. All this here's 
 been schemed out, and it's about time we 
 trimmed sail, ain't it ? " i
 
 228 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 " It's crool hot down here, with every- 
 thing shut up, too," said the high-coloured, 
 fisherman-like sailor. 
 
 *' Jump on to the table, and open that 
 skylight, Bill," said the man called Brig- 
 stock, who was plainly the leader in this 
 queer ocean business. 
 
 ** There's more'n us as is finding it hot — 
 don't forget that, Mr. Brigstock," exclaimed 
 a lively looking young seaman, with ginger 
 hair and greenish eyes, and that sort of clean 
 appearance you'd expect in a man who had 
 served aboard a man-of-war, or spent a year 
 or two in the ranks. 
 
 " There's this to be said first," said Brig- 
 stock, addressing me, " whatever clothes and 
 property we may be forcing you to lose sight 
 of — no obligation to speak of losing of 'em — 
 will be made up for fivefold. There's plenty 
 to pick and choose from ; and the first 
 inning's yourn. That, sir, on Thomas Brig- 
 stock's good oath. Now, if i/ou please," and 
 with another grave motion of his arm, but 
 viewing me sternly and even threateningly, 
 he invited, or rather commanded, me to enter.
 
 TRAPPED. 229 
 
 I perceived the iiselessness of expostulation 
 or entreaty. I had followed the sea too long 
 to mistake any meaning I might find in the 
 faces and talk of sailors. Half-stunned with 
 the suddenness of it all, and scarcely yet 
 fully realizing what had befallen me, I 
 obeyed Brigstock's gesture. When I was in 
 the cabin, he lifted his straw hat, and saying, 
 with a relaxed face, and very civilly, " Your 
 wants shall be seen to. You'll be kept here 
 no longer than is needful," he withdrew, 
 closing the door after him and locking it 
 outside. 
 
 I went to a bunk under the port-hole, and 
 leaning against it with folded arms, waited 
 for my wits to collect and compose them- 
 selves. This was a large, cheerful cabin ; 
 the fittings excellent, the bunk, washstand, 
 little chest of drawers, all of polished 
 mahogany, the long, handsome locker of 
 some dark wood, perhaps oak. It had 
 certainly been the captain's cabin. I guessed 
 that by twenty signs ; by the chronometers 
 on shelves, the fine telescope, the bag of 
 charts, the cases of mathematical instruments
 
 230 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 on a hinged table, the tell-tale compass amid- 
 ships of the ceiling. There was good new- 
 bedding in the bunk ; some wearing apparel 
 hung at the bulkhead, and a square of 
 Brussels carpet furnished the deck. 
 
 On looking through the port-hole, I saw 
 the Caroline; she lay toy-like in the radiant 
 disc, diminished by it, though no further off 
 than before. I opened the port to let in air 
 and hear ; just as I did this the powerful 
 voice of Brigstock sounded overhead — 
 
 " Boat ahoy ! You can return to the 
 barque. Your mate means to stop along 
 with us." 
 
 If any answer was returned, none reached 
 my ear. In a few moments I caught the 
 noise of the voices of seamen pulling and 
 hauling, with a hurried tread of feet, and 
 an occasional shout as of command. The 
 breeze was now fresh and brilliant, and 
 gushed blue and salt with the colour and 
 savour of the ocean through the orifice I 
 stood at. The barque still kept her topsail 
 to the mast; every sail was tremorless. She 
 sometimes shot a dazzling flash of sunshine
 
 TBAPFED. 231 
 
 from the glass of her skylight ; it was like 
 a gun, and I wished to heaven in the wrath 
 and despair which filled me as I stood look- 
 ing, that it had been one often repeated and 
 loaded to the mnzzle. 
 
 What would Blades suppose? that I had 
 voluntarily quitted the service of his ship ? 
 Would he understand I had been stolen ? I 
 saw him clearly as he stood aft, near the 
 wheel. Beside him was old Brace. It 
 was easy to imagine the astonishment and 
 consternation which held them dumb and 
 staring. Then I saw Blades spring with 
 motions full of passion into the mizzen- 
 shrouds, and as he hung there, lifting his 
 hand to his mouth to direct the flight of a 
 cry, the boat swept into the circumference 
 of the port-hole, the stroke-oar, rowing 
 fisherman-fashion, face forward, looking up 
 at the barque, and seemingly calling to old 
 Brace, who leaned over the rail to hear. 
 
 " Ship ahoy ! " came the voice of Blades, 
 in one of those sonorous, deep-chested, hurri- 
 cane roars, which years of bawling to men 
 aloft, and amid the thunders of hard weather,
 
 232 THE EMIGRANT SHIP, 
 
 bad qualified his fine chest to deliver. ^* What 
 do you mean by keeping my mate ? What 
 trick's this you're playing off on me ? Return 
 the man ; d'ye bear ? Eeturn the man ! " 
 Here he shouted an order down to the 
 boat that was now alongside. " I have the 
 name of your ship. . . ." The rest was 
 lost, owing to the barque at this moment 
 sliding out of the ring of the port-hole. The 
 seamen had trimmed sail — the vessel I 
 was aboard of had gathered way — we were 
 off! 
 
 I fell back, breathing thick and feverishly 
 with helpless rage and alarm. The breeze 
 was now sweeping full and fair into the 
 trimmed canvas of the ship. The water w\as 
 passing in a glittering hurry of ripples, fast 
 growing and racing under the sweep of the 
 wind ; my cabin was full of the twinkling 
 lights of the sliding surface. The ship had 
 gathered way quickly, and the foam of the 
 arching bow- wave streamed like a satin 
 ribbon within biscuit-toss of my port-hole. 
 It was about a quarter to one by the sun. 
 I looked up at the tell-tale compass, and
 
 TRAPPED. 233 
 
 found they were heading the ship due south. 
 Due south ! What was the meaning of this 
 mess I had suddenly tumbled into ? The 
 ship was homeward bound just now, loaded 
 with sugar from Madras ! What was it — a 
 mutiny ? If so, a murderous one surely, for 
 in this sort of vessel you'd look for a captain 
 and three mates, and where were they ? Or 
 was it that the craft had been abandoned 
 and then taken possession of by a ship- 
 wrecked crew who, having settled what to 
 do with her, had been lying in a posture of 
 seeming disorder, to carry off the first poor 
 devil their lies or a distress colour could 
 court aboard ? 
 
 After I had been locked up about an hour, 
 somebody struck the cabin door, the key was 
 turned, and a young seaman walked in, bear- 
 ing a tray. He put the tray upon the table. 
 It was furnished with the plain food of the 
 sea — some slices of salt horse, a ship's biscuit, 
 a cube of cheese, and a bottle of ale. The 
 man went out, locking the door. I did not 
 speak to him. Indeed, I had no questions 
 to ask. I took him to be an ordinary sea-
 
 234 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 man ; no man, anyhow, to give me news of 
 the crew's intentions. 
 
 The ale refreshed me exceeclin,G^15^ There 
 is no better drink ashore, and, at sea, it tops 
 the list of all draughts — when you can get 
 it. I ate some beef and bread, and then, to 
 divert myself, took a look around the cabin. 
 On examining the telescope, 1 found an in- 
 scription upon it, stating that it had been 
 presented to Thomas Halcrow, Master of the 
 Star of India, by certain passengers in that 
 ship, 1847. I found the name of Halcrow 
 upon the sextant and chronometer cases, and 
 likewise read it in some nautical works upon 
 a shelf. Thomas Halcrow, then, I guessed, 
 had been the commander of this ship, the 
 Earl of Leicester. What had the crew done 
 with him ? 
 
 I sought for the vessel's log-book and 
 papers, but to no purpose. Some clothes 
 were stowed in the locker. Here, too, I 
 found a desk, which, as the lid opened when 
 I handled it, I took the liberty of examining, 
 hoping to meet with something to give me 
 information about this ship ; but I came
 
 TRATFED. 235 
 
 across notliing to the point. A bundle of 
 old letters, all addressed to " My dearest 
 Tom," a miniature portrait of a good-looking 
 young woman, and a few odds and ends of 
 a desk's ordinary equipment — these formed 
 the contents. I hunted with patience and 
 eagerness for the ship's papers, and was 
 heartily vexed at not finding them. Taking 
 a sheet of paper from the desk, I sat at the 
 table, and wrote in pencil, as briefly as pos- 
 sible, the particulars of my entrapment. 
 This done, I folded the paper, and put it in 
 the bottle. There was sealing-wax in the 
 desk, and several boxes of wax lights on a 
 shelf. With these I carefully sealed the 
 cork, and then dropped the bottle through 
 the port-hole, hoping that it might prove 
 the means of accounting for my fate, should 
 I never be heard of again. 
 
 This, together with my searching the 
 cabin, had occupied my mind. Now that I 
 had nothing to do, my spirits sank to the 
 very degree of suicide. What was to hap- 
 pen ? What baseness in the eye of Heaven 
 had I been guilty of, that I should be forced
 
 236 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 into these abrupt and tragic experiences ? 
 First, I sail away in a brig that is to be 
 wrecked. Next, I am carried ashore and 
 thrown over the edge of a cliff a hundred 
 feet high. I lose all my money and effects. 
 Then I suffer all the miseries of loneliness 
 and hopelessness upon a desert island : 
 
 " No classic roamer, but a shipwreckt man ! " 
 
 And, no sooner has the wheel gone round, 
 and I am comfortable and happy again, 
 earning good pay, living in the company 
 of the best and kindest shipmate I ever 
 sailed with, behold ! I am brought into this 
 ship, made a prisoner of, and sailed away 
 with, presently to meet with Heaven alone 
 knows what dreadful end ! 
 
 Thus ran my thoughts as I stood scowling, 
 in a fit of suicidal dejection, through the 
 port-hole, at the sea. The wind had brisk- 
 ened since I came aboard. The vessel was 
 leaning under a press of canvas. The heel 
 of her was sharp enough to lift the port-hole 
 above the horizon, and I saw nothing but 
 the skj', all adrift and flying east and south,
 
 TRAPPED. 237 
 
 SO nimbly ponred tlie clouds, white and small 
 and shining like mother-of-pearl. There was 
 a great noise of washing waters under the 
 port-hole, with quick, shattering falls of 
 brine leaping from the slope of the metalled 
 bends. The vessel was swarming through 
 it at about nine knots. I guessed the wind 
 nor'-nor'-west by the tell-tale, and, again 
 looking at that compass, I saw they had 
 headed the ship within the hour upon a 
 course a little west of south. 
 
 From time to time, during that afternoon, 
 I fancied I heard the voices of women. 
 Once I seemed to catch a laugh in the clear 
 notes of a girl, just overhead. Sometimes 
 the sounds were as though groups of women 
 stood at a distance talking earnestly. I put 
 all this down to imagination, helped by the 
 mimicry of the wind, whose whistling of 
 laughter, song, and chatter in the rigging, 
 would reach me through the cabin window. 
 
 The hour was six, by the light, when the 
 door was beaten for the second time that day. 
 Brigstock entered. I looked past him, ex- 
 pecting others. He was alone. He held
 
 238 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 bis straw liat in his hand, and his whole 
 demeanour and aspect were formal, decent, 
 and respectful. His dark hair was smoothed 
 upon his head as though soaped ; it was 
 parted on one side, and the division was 
 peculiarly white, broad, and defined. He 
 bad something of a psalm-singing look about 
 him, and my instant thought was of Fletcher 
 of Bristol. 
 
 I was exceedingly agitated, though I 
 sought to compose my flice into a stern look. 
 I folded my arms, and demeanoured myself as 
 an outraged man, but my spirits ran very low, 
 for when I saw Brip'stock I thousrht to mvself, 
 what has he come to say ? What's to be my 
 fate ? I was a prisoner in this ship, un- 
 armed, friendless, helpless, and the men's 
 need of my services, the services to be 
 rendered, and the story of the vessel herself 
 were yet to be learnt. 
 
 Brigstock shut the door, and looking at 
 the tray, exclaimed, '' I hope you han't been 
 neglected ? I directed that you was to be 
 seen to. We've been carrying on to run your 
 barque below the sea, and my hands have
 
 TRAPFED. 239 
 
 been full, what with keeping a look-out and 
 other matters." 
 
 " Is the barque out of sight ? " said I. 
 
 " Oh, why, yes, sir," he answered in his 
 slow, grave way. ''Out o' sight ? What's 
 that poor old barge a-going to do with a 
 hull built on the lines of this here vessel ? " 
 
 "" What's your name ? " 
 
 " Thomas Brigstock, sir." 
 
 " I remember." 
 
 " And yourn ?" 
 
 " Charles Morgan. Mr. Brigstock, what 
 motive have you in carrying me off in this 
 fashion ? " 
 
 " A little patience, sir. I know it's hard 
 — but itll all come right. If the scheme 
 don't fit your own notions to a hair, I'm no 
 man. Such a choice as there is — saving of 
 course this : perhaps you're married ? " 
 
 "" I don't understand you. Explain your 
 reason for imprisoning me. Where's this 
 ship bound to ? What was your object in 
 telling me about the plague and the four 
 survivors of a large company, and of your 
 being homeward bound from Madras with a
 
 240 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 cargo of sugar ? And what do you mean to 
 do with me ? " I added, speaking with heat, 
 and looking at the fellow with a face of 
 temper that was no longer a counterfeit. 
 
 " It was necessary to stoop to a lie," 
 answered Brigstock, coolly and leisurely. 
 *' We tarned the matter over, and all agreed 
 there was no help for it : a lie must be told. 
 Well, it is told. There's several kinds of 
 lies. One, the harmless sort : no man's ever 
 the worse for being told it." 
 
 " What's become of your captain ? " 
 " You shall hear all about that, Mr. 
 Morgan." 
 
 " And your mate ? " 
 *' All about that too, sir." 
 " How many mates do you carry ? " 
 "All about it, all about it, with a little 
 waiting," he exclaimed. " Now, sir, as 
 you're to be master of this vessel, allowing 
 that you're capable of navigating her, which 
 I don't doubt, it's not for us to keep you 
 any longer locked up here. That 'ud be 
 mutiny.' 
 
 So saying, he threw open the door, and held
 
 TRAPPED. 241 
 
 it in an attitude significant of liis wish that I 
 should pass out. 
 
 I did so, and found myself in an elegant 
 little cuddy, painted white and gold and 
 furnished with cushioned lockers, and a short 
 row of handsome chairs on either side the 
 length of rich, dark, highly polished table. 
 The after-end of that table was cut so as to 
 embrace the shaft of the mizzen-mast, a solid 
 white column, elaborately fluted and picked 
 out with gold. I had seldom viewed a 
 prettier interior. 
 
 What I have described I saw in a quick 
 look round after stepping out. Now stand- 
 ing at the table, I gazad forward, and the 
 sight I beheld so astounded me that my 
 reason could scarcely credit the report of my 
 eyes. 
 
 VOL. r.
 
 242 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 brigstock's story. 
 
 The cuddy front was furnished with a central 
 door and two windows on either hand of it. 
 Door and windows were wide open. The 
 decks were visible through them to the fore- 
 castle ; imagine my amazement when I 
 beheld those decks crowded with women ! 
 
 At the first look there seemed two hundred. 
 Groups stood about in eager talk. Many 
 came and went at the door and windows, 
 peering in and then passing on. All were 
 in motion with few exceptions — a perpetual 
 shifting and dissolving of small mobs of 
 females. Now, in good truth, could I hear the 
 voices of women ! 
 
 Glancing up, I spied the faces of several 
 females looking at me through the open sky-
 
 BRIG STOCK'S STORY. 243 
 
 ligLt. They wore shawls and hats and 
 bonnets, and were mostly young, it seemed to 
 me then — both the skyh'ght lot and those out 
 on the main-deck. Brigstock and I had the 
 cabin to ourselves. I stared at him with a 
 frown of astonishment and inquiry. Of 
 course I was too old a hand to wonder where 
 these women had sprung from. They had 
 been kept in the drenching heat of the 
 'tween decks, the hatches on, tarpaulined 
 and battened down that the ship might 
 look a plain cargo-carrier, whilst Brigstock 
 answered Blades across the water, and lied 
 to me about the plague and the vessel's 
 lading. 
 
 " Who are those people ? " said I. 
 
 " Emigrants," answered Brigstock. There 
 are ninety of them, and there's twelve of us 
 males. One hundred and two souls in all 
 a-washing about without a navigator, and 
 nothing to depend on but the heye of 
 Providence." 
 
 " "Why," cried I, rounding upon him pas- 
 sionately, " didn't you tell my captain the 
 truth ? He would have seen you to some
 
 244 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 place of safety — put me aboard to keep the 
 ship in the barque's company." 
 
 A slow peculiar smile worked over his face 
 like a succession of ripples on water. The 
 mirth was out of his eyes whilst the grin 
 was still on his lips. 
 
 " Will yer sit down, Mr. Morgan, and I'll 
 give you the whole yarn ? " said he. 
 
 I went to the table, and sunk upon a chair. 
 A number of women were now clustered at 
 the skylight, and groups were constantly 
 coming and going at the door and windows, 
 pausing to stare, and then they'd walk 
 away, talking quickly, making room for 
 others. 
 
 Brigstock, turning up his eyes at the 
 skylight, exclaimed, " You're a-keeping the 
 air out, ladies. 'Sides, the poop ain't yourn 
 now that the ship's got a capt'n. Do, like 
 kind good people, step down on to the 
 quarter-deck, will yer, and leave room for 
 that there skylight to let in wind." 
 
 " If there's a captain come on board, will 
 he tell us if ever we're to get to Orstralia ? " 
 cried a young woman, in an old bonnet and
 
 BBIGSTOCK'S STORY. 245 
 
 shawl, with a club nose and a rather merry 
 cock in her blue eyes. 
 
 '* Ay, ay, it'll be all right now — it'll be all 
 right now," exclaimed Brigstock, soothingly. 
 " Do, like good kind people, go away forward, 
 will yer, ladies ? " 
 
 " If you calls yourself a man," cried a 
 gipsy- faced young woman, black and red 
 and curly, with bright eyes, and white teeth, 
 " you'll tell the new capting the mischief 
 vou intends us, as how we're not to reach 
 Australia at all, but to put into an 
 ilyand " 
 
 " That ain't true," cried Brigstock, " and 
 you knows. Miss Dolly Johnson, whilst jer're 
 saying of it, that it ain't true. I've got jer 
 name ! I knows you ! I've arsted jer more'n 
 wance to be civil. Everything's right in 
 this ship. Our meaning'll be plain to the 
 new captain, shortly. Won't jer go away, 
 then ? " 
 
 " Captain, I wish you would let us know 
 what's to become of us ? " exclaimed a pale, 
 dark girl, in a languid voice, dressed in a 
 round velvet hat and a jacket — she had the
 
 246 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 look of a housemaid or a dressmaker, as she 
 leaned into the skylight ; her rather pretty 
 figure was peculiarly graceful in its un- 
 conscious posture of entreaty and alarm. 
 
 I was too puzzled and bewildered to make 
 answer. It was not only the eyes of perhaps 
 a dozen girls now staring down at me, one 
 over another's shoulder, through the large 
 open skylight — the women on the main-deck 
 were crowding the doorway and the windows, 
 talking swiftly amongst themselves, now and 
 again a voice lifting into shrillness as though 
 urging another to speak out — this sudden 
 confrontment, I say, of women's faces above, 
 and women's forms below, was enough to 
 scatter the wits of a man who a little while 
 before had never guessed that there was 
 more than sailors aboard, who had not set 
 eyes on a woman for weeks, and who, at any 
 time, was never much at his ease in the 
 company of a number of the sex. 
 
 *' So you won't go ? " cried Brigstock, with 
 energy, but without temper. " Mr. Morgan, 
 I'll be back in a minute or two." 
 
 He went on deck, and bawled for Isaac and
 
 BRIGSTOCK'S STORY. 247 
 
 Jupe, and Bill and Joe, and one or two others, 
 to lay aft. Most of the women at the sky- 
 light then went away ; amongst those who 
 stayed was the gipsy-faced girl. 
 
 She screeched down, "Captain, sail us to 
 Orstralia, please. We're female emigrants, 
 going out to take situations. We're all re- 
 spectable girls, and some of us is ladies. The 
 sailors ain't got no 'ed, and they talk — and 
 they talk " 
 
 By this time some of the men had come 
 on to the poop. " Now ladies, \^ you please," 
 one of them exclaimed. In a few moments 
 the skylight was empty of faces, but the 
 gipsy-like girl's voice rang out as she went 
 forward ; others swelled their pipes high in 
 cackling choruses of fear, wonder, temper. As 
 the skylight women drained off the poop on 
 to the main-deck, the crowds there gathered 
 about them. A couple of seamen stood sentry 
 at the skylight — they stared down hard at 
 me, who sat just under. Others cleared the 
 entrance-door forward, and kept the windows 
 free — through which I watched a scene 
 strange and wild indeed, to light upon in
 
 248 THE EMIOBANT SHIP. 
 
 raid-ocean — seventy or eighty women, mostly 
 young, attired in as many ways as there were 
 people — a few in black, most in gay colours. 
 The ship was going along smoothly, heeled 
 by the breeze ; on the slope of the planks 
 the women stood crowding around the main- 
 hatch and mainmast, filling the deck to the 
 bulwarks on either hand, flourishing their 
 arms, chatting with fire, their hands upon 
 their hips, some appearing to spit their 
 thoughts at one another in cockfighting 
 attitudes, nose to nose, as they talked. A 
 few hung silently apart ; and they were 
 mainly the soberly dressed women. 
 
 I did not command the whole scene, but 
 what I beheld througli the door and windows 
 was an amazing picture of female passions, 
 almost startling with the abounding life in it, 
 so vivid were all colours in the liglit of the 
 red sun, so dramatic and ceaseless the 
 postures and movements, so vital, too, the 
 whole with the quickening spirit put into it 
 by the play of shadows flung by the rigging 
 and the sensation of swiftness comincr out of 
 the roar of parted and passing waters, and
 
 BBIGSTOCK'S STOBY. 249 
 
 the marble-hard curves of the straining 
 canvas. 
 
 Brigstock came leisurely down the com- 
 panion-steps. He laid his hat upon the 
 table, and seated himself abreast of me. 
 
 " Never yet met a woman," said he, 
 ** whose tongue wasn't slung in the middle 
 for both ends to wag at wunst, Talk ! 
 There's that Dolly Johnson as her name is. 
 Start her, and it's like sticking a gimblet into 
 a full cask. But women's man's weaker 
 vessels, and must be borne with." 
 
 " What about this ship ? " said I, staring 
 him full in the face. " Why am I kept 
 here ? " 
 
 He slowly looked up at that part of the 
 upper deck which was pierced by the shaft 
 of the mizzenmast, and pointed to it. 
 
 " D'jer see that smudge there, sir, as 
 thouirh the stuff had been coated with 
 charcoal ? " 
 
 It was as if the spar had been lanced with 
 fire, chiselled deep but fine ; then blackened 
 with the smoke of a blast of gunpowder. I 
 had not before observed those marks. They
 
 250 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 ran down abaft the mast, winding towards 
 the table. 
 
 " That spar's been struck," said I. 
 
 " Right, sir," he answered, with a slow 
 drop of his head. " The master of this 
 vessel was Captain Halcrow, her chief mate 
 was Mr. Billing, the second officer was 
 termed Mr. Jeremy Latto. The bo'sun of 
 the ship was called Cox, and there was Dr. 
 Bolt, a medical gent, in charge of the emi- 
 grants. One day the capt'n, Dr. Holt, and 
 Mr. Billing were sitting at dinner at this 
 table. The captain, as it might be, was 
 there. Here, opposite him, sits Dr. Rolt. 
 Alongside the medical gent was Mr. Billing. 
 I had come aft to put a screw into that sky- 
 light, and looking down saw the three 
 gentlemen at their lunch as I've described. 
 I went forward to get a small screwdriver. 
 It was a very heavy day. The hatmosphere 
 seemed full of smoke, long sleeping lines of 
 it. The horizon was thick as dust, and the 
 muck overhead hung in heaps close down to 
 the trucks, as if nothen but our mastheads 
 kept their bellies from bustin'. The royals
 
 BRIOSTOCK'S STORT. 251 
 
 and torgallan's'Is were off her, the mainsail 
 hauled up. The second mate had charge of 
 the deck. Everything had been quiet whilst 
 this weather was a-brewing. I never heard 
 a single note of thunder out in the gloom, 
 and the water was like a looking-glass, with 
 a large heave of swell running through it 
 from the south'ard. I'd just got to my 
 cabin, which I shared with the bo'sun — in 
 that port wing o' fok'sle," said he, pointing 
 forward, ''when there was a traymendious 
 flash of lightning, followed by such a roar of 
 thunder that I actually thought the ship was 
 splitting into pieces underfoot. Some one 
 yelled, ' We've been struck.' Just then out 
 rushes the mate from the cuddy, bellowing 
 like a cow for its calf, and flourishing his 
 arms as if he was gone clean mad. Whilst a 
 number of us was running aft there was a 
 second traymendious flash, and another roar 
 of thunder like to what went before, only 
 louder, and down comes the rain in a living 
 sheet. 
 
 " What had happened ? When we ran 
 into the cuddy, we found Dr. Rolt lying over
 
 252 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 tlie table dead as a chisel. The captain was 
 standing up with his hands over his eyes. 
 * Oh, I'm struck blind ! ' he was crying. * Oh, 
 I'm struck blind ! ' You can see how it 
 happened. Here they sat, and the lightning 
 falling maybe down the topsail-sheets, strikes 
 through the mast-coat, and kills one man 
 and blinds another." 
 
 I got up and walked to the mast to look 
 again at the marks. They were the work of 
 a flash of lightning, and given two men sit- 
 ting close against the spar on either hand it, 
 what more conceivable than that one should 
 be killed and the other blinded ? 
 
 I returned to my seat. By this time 
 others of the ship's company had gathered at 
 the skylight, and glancing up I found myself 
 closely scrutinized by some half-dozen sailors. 
 Others who kept the women clear of the 
 doors and windows, constantly directed their 
 eyes our way. 
 
 " Well, sir," continued Brigstock, " we 
 buried poor Dr. Bolt, and the body of a 
 kinder man was never tossed overboard by 
 sailors. You should have heard him read
 
 BRIGSTOCK'S STORT. 253 
 
 the sarvice on Sundays ! and I'd never ask 
 for a beautifuller sermon than he'd give us. 
 The captain having lost his sight, was of no 
 use. There was nobody to tell him what to 
 do to get his eyes again. He kept his cabin, 
 and Mr. Billing took charge ; but we soon 
 saw that things was going wrong with the 
 mate's intellects. It might have been the 
 helectricity. It might have been the seeing 
 a man struck dead just maybe as he was 
 opening his mouth to talk ; something had 
 happened that was too much for his reason, 
 which I'm bound to say was never to be 
 classed A 1 in Natur's Registry o' Brains. 
 He'd call a man aft, look strangely, and for- 
 get what he'd sung out to him to come for. 
 I'd take notice of a wildness in the poor 
 chap's eyes, and wanse bid the bo'sun observe 
 it, and Cox he saw it. 
 
 " He came on deck one middle watch, and 
 before two bells were struck, all hands was 
 called. What for ? Because Mr. Billings 
 had chucked himself overboard. So help 
 me 'Oly Writ, which I read and believe in, 
 it's the truth I sit here a-tellinc^ you," said
 
 254 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 Brigstock, slowly, putting his great brown 
 hand down upon the table, and solemnly in- 
 clining his head at it three or four times in 
 silence. " Twas the man at the wheel saw 
 Mr. Billing cast himself into the sea," he 
 continued, after a pause, during which I had 
 closely watched his face, convinced by this 
 examination that he was talking facts. 
 " He gave the alarm, as it's called. The 
 ship was brought to the wind, and a boat 
 sent away with the bo'sun in charge of her. 
 There was some moonlight — too much to 
 miss the ship by, too little to find the man 
 with. They searched long, for the mate's 
 was a valuable life, then returned, and we 
 proceeded. 
 
 '' It got about that the captain, much the 
 same as Mr. Billing had, was beginning to 
 show some weakness in his senses. The 
 news had come along by the steward. We 
 onderstood he meant to tranship himself at 
 the first chance. It looked bad that a 
 capt'n, though blind, should abandon his 
 ship. Why didn't he order the second mate 
 to carry the vessel to a port ? Because, in
 
 BliiaSTOCK'S STOEY. 255 
 
 my opinion, tlie second mate wanted com- 
 mand hisself, and worked upon the feelings 
 of the afflicted commander. Be struck blind, 
 sir, and let the stays of your hintellects fall 
 slack, and it's odds if the first designing 
 chap as comes along don't find jer an easy 
 prey. The steward 'ud tell us that he'd 
 look in on the capt'n, and find him with 
 tears on his cheeks. He overheard the poor 
 man tell Mr. Latto — that was the second 
 mate's name — that he wanted to get back to 
 his wife and children. If his sight wur 
 gone, he was a ruined man, he said. He 
 must get home quickly, and put himself in 
 the hands of the doctors, whilst there was a 
 shot in the locker to pay 'em with ; and the 
 second mate kept on recommending that he 
 should go, taking the first ship for home 
 that 'ud receive him. 
 
 ^' It'll be ten days ago to-day that we 
 spoke a vessel called the Sovereign, from 
 Bombay for London. We hove to, within 
 hail, and Mr. Latto talked with her master. 
 They had a doctor aboard, but he'd hurt his 
 leg, and couldn't leave the vessel ; so the
 
 256 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 captain invited Mr. Latto to bring our com- 
 mander to bis ship, that the doctor might 
 look at his hejes, and tell him whether he 
 might keep all on, or whether he ought to 
 retarn home for a hoperation. Poor Captain 
 Halcrow was handed over the side. Mr. 
 Latto, he got in. The bo'sun. Cox, he went 
 along too. He was troubled with something 
 wrong inwardly ; and, there being no doctor 
 in this ship, he asked Mr. Latto's leave to 
 get the advice of the surgeon of tlie Sove- 
 reign. They left me in charge of this vessel. 
 Though I'm signed-ou here as carpenter, I 
 must tell you that I'm an able seaman like- 
 wise, also sailmaker, and was mate of a 
 coaster three voyages ; but I know nothen 
 about navigation. 
 
 " It was blowing a steady good breeze 
 when the boat put off that morning. It was 
 a little afore noon. On a sudden it piped 
 up in a squall that whitened the water, 
 though I could see nothen for more wind to 
 come out of than there was before. The sea 
 began to jump, just as though there was a 
 volcanic heruption at work. This vessel lay
 
 BBIQ STOCK'S STORY, 257 
 
 down to the blast, and we let go and clewed 
 "Up, but the maintopsail was aback. I saw 
 that the yard must be swung if the spar was 
 to stand, and I put my helm up, never doubt- 
 ing that the Sovereign, seeing our situation, 
 'ud follow with our boat till we brought the 
 ship to again. 
 
 " To cut this yarn, sir, the breeze 
 hardened into half a gale afore two bells. 
 All to windward it was thick as muck. 
 We reefed topsails, and brought the ship to, 
 but t'other vessel was out of sight by this 
 time. She'd faded in the thickness, as yer 
 image disappears in ruffled water. Some of 
 our men said that when they last saw 
 her she was running. If so, she was not 
 making our course. We hove-to, and 
 kept a bright look-out, but never saw her 
 again." 
 
 He got up as he pronounced these words, 
 and entered a cabin two doors from the one 
 I had been locked up in. It was yet the 
 afternoon, but the sun was low. Through 
 the skylight I spied many scarlet clouds, 
 speeding fast athwart our mastheads. The 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 25S TnE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 sailors had withdrawn. One or two may 
 have been hanging about to keep the sky- 
 light clear of the women ; but there was no 
 more eager, scrutinizing staring down at me 
 up there. 
 
 The quarter-deck, however, continued 
 filled with young women. I heard the 
 sailors stationed at the door talking to a little 
 crowd, who had just then swarmed to the 
 cuddy-front, as though to a general impulse 
 of feverish, overmastering anxiety and curi- 
 osity. The hot, blood-red light lay on them, 
 and again I viewed with amazement that 
 singular scene of life and colour, the con- 
 tinual movement of female shapes, a restless 
 coming and going of white and brown faces 
 and shining eyes ; a stream-like mingling of 
 fluttering hues of apparel, the greens and 
 reds and blues of feathers and ribands and 
 hats, under the arch of the milk-white stav- 
 sail, whose clue curved aft like the pinion 
 of a sea- fowl. 
 
 In a few moments Brigstock returned with 
 the log-book and a tin box ; he put them on 
 the table, saying, " YouVe had my yarn, Mr.
 
 B BIG STOCK'S STOBT. 359 
 
 Morgan. Now you'll be able to judge of; the 
 truth for yourself." 
 
 He sat down with his slow motion and 
 sober face and watched me. I opened the 
 log-book, and found that the entries under 
 the heading of " Remarks " corresponded 
 exactly with Brigstock's story. . The mate 
 had kept the journal down to the day when 
 he took charge, on the captain losing his ^ght. 
 Afterwards the second-mate, Latto, kept the 
 log-book. This was made clear by the hand- 
 writing. The reference to the disaster in the 
 cuddy ran thus : i : 
 
 " The day opens thick and heavy, the 
 weather darkening towards noon with a calm 
 sea and a light westerly swell. At one o'clock, 
 whilst the captain. Dr. Rolt, and the chief- 
 ofScer were at lunch in the cuddy, the ship 
 was struck by lightning ; the flamqf cut 
 through the mast-coat and burst with an ex- 
 plosion like a gun, filling the cuddy with a 
 dazzling violet light. Dr. Rolt was instantly 
 killed, the captain was blinded, the chief mate 
 sustained a serious shock, but was not other- 
 wise injured."
 
 2G0 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 I looked at Brigstock after reading this to 
 myself, and said, " Here is the story of the 
 lightning-stroke just as you related it." 
 
 He viewed me gravely without speaking. 
 I turned over the pages, and read more, all 
 to the point. The burial of Dr. Rolt was 
 entered : likewise the suicide of the chief 
 officer — this, of course, in the handwriting of 
 Mr. Latto. There was also an entry record- 
 ing the death of the steward : this had 
 happened some days after the tragic incident 
 of the lightning, and was probably referable 
 to it, if, as was likely, the man was waiting 
 upon the captain and the others at the time. 
 The last of the log-book entries was dated 
 eleven days before ; signifying, according to 
 Brigs tock's statement, the accuracy of which 
 1 was now certain of, that on the day follow- 
 ing, Latto had gone in the boat with the blind 
 captain to the Sovereign, and lost his ship. 
 
 " Now look at the vessel's papers, sir,'* 
 said Brigstock, observing that I closed the 
 log-book. 
 
 But there was nothing material to be 
 gathered from these documents ; all of in-
 
 BRIGSTOCK'S STORY, 261 
 
 terest concerned the cargo. The vessel, it 
 seems, was freighted with stores for New 
 South Wales. The goods consisted of agricul- 
 tural implements, household furniture, male 
 and female wearing apparel, and the like. 
 Here were clearly given all particulars of the 
 ship. She was the Earl of Leicester, of five 
 hundred and eighty tons registered burthen, 
 owned by Bull and Johnstone, of Fenchurch 
 Street, chartered for this voyage as an emi- 
 grant vessel. The number of female emigrants 
 was ninety, including a matron. There had 
 been originally nineteen seamen ; but death 
 and the misadventure of the boat had sunk 
 the number to twelve. 
 
 " Are you satisfied, sir ? " said Brigstock, 
 with one of those strange smiles which passed 
 over his face like a catspaw over the sea, 
 shadowing but a part at a time. 
 
 '' Yes, that you've spoken the truth," I 
 answered; *'but that doesn't leave me the 
 better off. Will you tell me where you're 
 bound to, and what I've got to expect ? " 
 
 '' With your leave," he answered, " I'll put 
 these things in your cabin."
 
 262 THE EMIGRANT SEIP. 
 
 He carried the book and the box to the 
 berth I had been imprisoned in. 
 
 "Now, sir," said he, coming back to the 
 table, and picking up his hat, " afore I tells 
 yer what our scheme is, I'd like yer to take 
 a look at the ship," and without waiting for 
 an answer, he slowly stumped up the com- 
 panion-steps.
 
 ( 263 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XY. 
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 
 
 A FRESH breeze was blowing off the starboard 
 beam, a point abaft it. The sky was red-hot 
 from sea-line to zenith with the sunset, and 
 under the great orb, poised yet a few degrees 
 above the horizon, the seas were working in 
 blood. The ship had all plain sail on her, 
 and was making noble progress. Masses of 
 orange-coloured foam broke from her weather 
 bow, and over the rail to leeward the race 
 was a wide and giddy swirl of froth whose 
 extremity trembled in a windy sparkle a 
 league astern in the liquid crimson which 
 down there overhung the blue and breaking 
 surge. 
 
 I stood a minute or two at the companion 
 looking up and around to see what the picture
 
 264 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 was like. This was a fine little ship, her 
 decks sand-white, brass and glass and paint- 
 work bright and gleaming, everywhere a 
 finish as of yacht-like precision in smallest 
 details, such as the grating abaft the wheel, 
 the boat fittings, the compass-stands, and so 
 on. Her short poop was handsomely railed 
 at its break with brass, where a row of trim 
 buckets were neatly fitted. A central flight 
 of steps led to the quarter-deck. 
 
 A couple of seamen patrolled the weather 
 side of the poop ; one of them was the dark, 
 high-coloured, fisherman-looking fellow ; the 
 other a middle-aged man after Brigstock's 
 build and looks, with a sour curl of lip, and 
 a pair of large globular grey eyes, the left 
 ■lid with a droop that painted a leer upon his 
 countenance. This man I reckoned was 
 looking after the ship in Brigstock's absence 
 whilst the other might have been one of the 
 men who had kept the skylight clear. They 
 halted in their pendulum walk on wheeling- 
 round and seeing me on deck. 
 
 Brigstock exclaimed, " Our new capt'n, 
 Joe: Bill, the new capt'n," on which both
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 265 
 
 men flourished a thumb at their fore- 
 heads. 
 
 They were attired in the clothes they had 
 shipped with, Joe in a fur cap and a worn 
 monkey-jacket : the other in the togs of the 
 sailor-end of London. Joe had the appear- 
 ance of the master of a collier, sturdy, sour, 
 and self-sufScient. Their attire made me 
 suspect that Brigstock — that he might enjoy 
 his temporary command of the ship up to the 
 hilt — had clothed himself in garments left 
 behind by the captain or mates. 
 
 " Joe's been hacting as; chief-orficer," said 
 Brigstock ; " but the duty han't amounted to 
 much more'n keeping a look-out. He'll do 
 well as second." 
 
 I glanced at the men, but said nothing. 
 Small wonder that the Caroline should have 
 been quickly run out of sight in such a 
 breeze as this. Her round bows might 
 thunder out eight with half a gale of wind 
 at her stern ; but here was a clipper ship 
 with lines for an easy twelve as the wind 
 now blew, rearing such spacious heights as 
 she did, everything aloft fitting to perfection.
 
 2G6 TUE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 everything set with the critical care and eye 
 of true seamanship; not an inch of the histrous 
 cloths but doing its work. Yes, the Caroline 
 had long ago faded out of sight like the 
 honest old cask that she was ; and then, again, 
 the seamen of this vessel had headed her on 
 a course that was not Blades's, whose thoughts 
 would not be of chasing, but of reporting. 
 
 I walked to the break of the poop and 
 looked along the decks. I supposed the 
 women had supped ; there was no coming 
 and going in the galley, at whose door three 
 or four seamen lounged, smoking and staring 
 aft at me. The decks were not so full as 
 they had shown. Probably half of the 
 emigrants were below, yet those visible made 
 a goodly number as they hung here and 
 there in groups, or restlessly walked. It is 
 women's apparel, I suppose, that, by filling 
 the eye, seems to swell a mob of twenty of 
 them into the bulk of forty men. 
 
 I stood looking, wondering what was to be 
 the issue of this, the latest of my extraordinary 
 adventures. Brigstock came and posted him- 
 self beside me. The man Joe resumed his
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 267 
 
 walk, and the dark, high-coloured Bill went 
 forward. I took notice that many of those 
 whom I viewed were young women ranging 
 from eighteen to perhaps thirty years of age. 
 Most had the looks of what you would call 
 upper servants ; others suggested the shop 
 and the workroom. Here and there was a 
 refined face. They all seemed in good health, 
 as though picked for the most part, and well 
 treated since they had been in the ship. 
 
 The main-hatch lay open with a single 
 grating across it. A few girls were seated 
 on the coamings of that hatch, but they got 
 up when they saw me, and then all the 
 women seemed sensible of my presence at 
 the same moment ; every face was upturned. 
 A pale girl with dark eyes, clothed in a hat 
 and well-fitting jacket, stepped to under the 
 spot where I stood, and cried out with an 
 hysterical clearness and loudness of voice — 
 
 " If you are the captain, will you please 
 tell us, sir, what's to become of us ? " 
 
 " Lady," answered Brigstock, leaning over 
 the rail, and speaking with the gravity of a 
 man in the pulpit, " it's not in the captain's
 
 268 TEE EMIGRANT SB IP. 
 
 power to answer that question, and wLy ? 
 because he dorn't yet know himself what our 
 plans are." 
 
 " But we know what your plans are," cried 
 the girl, looking around her as though she 
 would summon others to form up and help 
 her with their presence. " They talk, 
 captain, of choosing wives out of our number, 
 and settling in an island ; and there's them 
 in this ship," she went on, with a scowl 
 as she looked around her, *' as are base 
 and vile enough to accept the sailors' offers. 
 Oh, sir," she cried, lifting her hands, and 
 raising her voice into a harsh, unmusical 
 vrailing note, "if you are a gentleman, 
 as we see you are, you'll sail us to the 
 country we're embarked for. We're many 
 as wishes to have nothing to do with the 
 sailors, and who scorns the silly notion of 
 an island." 
 
 " Mr. Brigstock," said I, " has told you 
 the truth so far as I am concerned. I have 
 no notion as yet of the men's intentions. 
 Do you know how I was brought into this 
 ship? "What's expected of me I've yet to
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 269 
 
 hear. But one thing I ho pe — indeed, I am 
 sure of — whatever the designs of the sailors 
 may be, no mischief is intended you ; nothing 
 worse, let me believe, than a delayed voyage. 
 Am I right ? " I said, turning upon Brig- 
 stock. 
 
 " They know," he answered, spreading his 
 square-ended fingers towards the quarter- 
 deck, as though he blessed the crowd of 
 up-lookers, " that no harm's meant. Yer'll 
 larn all presently, Mr. Morgan ; but I wanted 
 jer to take a look round fust." 
 
 At this moment I became conscious of 
 being intently watched by a girl who stood 
 alone at the bulwarks abreast of the main- 
 hatch. Strange that one, out of the many 
 females who were staring at me, should 
 catch and fix my eye ! I looked and looked 
 again with growing wonder. I said to my- 
 self, " Where have I met that girl ? " She 
 wore a black-and-white straw hat with a 
 black ribbon round it, and was dressed in 
 black ; her plain robe fitted her so as to 
 yield to the sight most of the graces of her 
 figure. Enough daylight yet lived to see
 
 270 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 clearly by. I stretched my neck and screwed 
 my brows to distinguish the girl ; observing 
 this, she bowed and smiled, and with some 
 colour in her face, came along to the poop- 
 ladder. 
 
 Not until she bad reached the foot of the 
 ladder, did I recognize her. It was Kate 
 Darnley ! 
 
 In a moment, I ran dowa to catch her 
 hand and bring her on to the poop-deck. 
 
 " Heaven preserve us ! " I exclaimed, re- 
 garding her with amazement ; in truth, I 
 was so entirely capsized by this sudden 
 encounter that I forgot how to behave 
 myself. " What on earth are you doing 
 here ? " 
 
 " It is an extraordinary meeting," she 
 answered, with a great deal of colour still 
 in her cheeks. " What should I be here 
 but an emigrant ? But to find t/ou in the 
 ship ! " 
 
 I glanced at Brigstock, who had stepped 
 aside, on my bringing Kate Darnley up the 
 ladder ; he was viewing us with complacency. 
 His mind lay plain in his face ; he was glad
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 2 i 1 
 
 I had found a friend amongst the women — 
 the discovery would reconcile me to my 
 situation perhaps. The women on the main- 
 deck looked and talked in asides ; curiosity 
 was strong in their countenances, and many 
 of them were smiling. 
 
 "Well, I'm junked!" said I. "And yet 
 I remember now you'd sometimes talk a bit 
 darkly of emigrating. I recollect certain 
 questions you put to me, when we stood 
 one day watching a streak of sea past ten 
 miles of mud." 
 
 " I was without friends, and I declined to 
 starve," she answered, speaking quickly ; 
 " but I never bargained for this'' 
 
 I led her aft. When the man named Joe 
 saw me coming to the weather side of the 
 poop — which is the ship's dignity-walk, the 
 place for the commander, when he's on deck, 
 everybody, saving the passengers, giving it 
 a wide berth then — he crossed to leeward, 
 joined Brigstock, and they paced ath wart- 
 ships. Many of the women went some dis- 
 tance forward to watch us, of such importance 
 in the dullness of the sea is any trifle which
 
 272 TEE EMIGRANT SB IP, 
 
 rises above the nothings of the everyday- 
 life spent upon it. 
 
 " I scarcely now credit my eyesight," said 
 I. " Your face brings up Blathford, and I 
 smell the sweets of the old garden again, 
 and we're on the river, watched by cows and 
 sheep instead of — instead of — but you are 
 looking well. Are not you plumper than 
 you were ? But, great guns ! what a situa- 
 tion to find you in ! " 
 
 She kept her dark eyes fastened upon me 
 whilst I rattled on. Her colour had gone, 
 but it brightened again in a soft suffusing 
 bloom, when I talked of the sweets of the 
 garden and our river jaunts. 
 
 " I am as astonished as you," she exclaimed. 
 " It is a wonderful meeting. But then I have 
 been watching you fur some time, and my 
 surprise has not the freshness of yours. 
 Have you been wrecked ? Did the sailors 
 find you in an open boat, that you're here ? " 
 
 " Don't you know," said I, " that this 
 morning a barque named the Caroline was 
 spoken by this ship, and her mate — myself — 
 courted on board by the most artful infernal
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 273 
 
 lie ever uttered by a respectable pious sea- 
 man ? " 
 
 " All I know is this," she answered : " A 
 vessel was sighted this morning, and when it 
 was understood she was steering for us the 
 sailors told us to go below, and covered up the 
 hatches ; and there they kept us for three or 
 four hours, till some of us were nearly dead 
 with the heat and vile air." 
 
 I now told her my story, afterwards going 
 back to my start from Bristol, and working 
 through my adventures down to that morn- 
 ing. She listened with eyes large with 
 wonder and interest, sometimes uttering 
 exclamations at the more tragic parts, as 
 Fletcher's throwing me off the cliff. By this 
 time the sun was gone, the shadow of the 
 night was upon the sea, the stars were shin- 
 ing brightly, and there was a piece of red 
 moon down in the south-east. The wind 
 blew stroDg, and the ship was roaring through 
 the darkness, throwing a faintness as of twi- 
 light upon the atmosphere round about her 
 out of the foam she hurled to left and 
 right. 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 "Capt'n, she's a bit pressed," called out 
 Brigstock from the break of the poop. " Shall 
 we hease her of the royals, and mizzen- 
 t'garn'sl." 
 
 '^ I am no captain of yours," I sung back. 
 '' There's something to be said and heard 
 before I take that post here." 
 
 " That'll be as soon as ever you're ready to 
 step below, sir," he answered as respectfully 
 as any man could wish to be addressed by 
 another ; then spoke to " Bill," who called 
 out orders to clew up and stow the light sails 
 just named. 
 
 " I hope you'll take command of the ship," 
 said Kate Darnley. " What otherwise is to 
 become of us ? The sailors have some wild 
 dangerous scheme in their heads of choosing 
 wives from the women on board, and settling 
 upon an island." 
 
 "They've been reading about the mutiny 
 of the Bounty, I suppose," I exclaimed, not 
 very credulous of what she told me. 
 
 '' They've found women," she went on, 
 *' willing to accept them as husbands, and to 
 settle with them."
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 275 
 
 " What ! since you lost sight of the 
 Sovereign, with your blinded captain in 
 her ? " 
 
 " I suppose so. The men had very little 
 to say to the girls when Dr. Rolt was 
 alive." 
 
 " In ten days the Jacks have worked out 
 a scheme of marriage and colonization ! I'll 
 hear Brigstock's yarn. What part of the 
 ship do you occupy ? " 
 
 " The 'tweendecks, with the rest of them." 
 
 " I'll have you out of it, and put you into 
 a cabin aft. You have a fine spirit to start 
 all alone on a bread-hunt t'other side the 
 world. You've no friends in Australia, I 
 know." 
 
 " None. But I had no idea either of 
 starving in England, Mr. Morgan." 
 
 " You called me Charlie at Blathford." 
 
 " And I'll call you so here," she answered. 
 " But we've not met for many months, and 
 this sort of meeting is like being introduced 
 afresh." 
 
 " So it is. But still you'll call me Charles, 
 for auld lang syne, and you shall be Kate.
 
 276 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 I'll tell you why. If I take command here — 
 the ship certainly must be navigated, and I 
 guess I'm the only one that can do it — I 
 shall be able to make you comfortable with- 
 out exciting the jealousy of the 'tweendecks 
 or the criticism of the forecastle by letting 
 everybody suppose you're a connection of 
 mine : or if not that, an old and intimate 
 friend." 
 
 " But," said she after a pause, during which 
 she had caught hold of my arm to steady 
 herself, for on a sudden the breeze had 
 freshened in a shrieking gust, tilting the 
 angle of the deck into a sharp slope, and 
 setting Joe roaring out to the men to clew up 
 the fore-topgallantsail and to take in other 
 canvas — " but what will you do," said she, 
 *' if the men insist on carrying out their 
 scheme ? " 
 
 " I must learn their plans from their own 
 lips before I can answer your question." 
 
 Just then the shape of a woman showed 
 darkly on the poop-ladder. The moon made 
 very little light. Her wake was a short 
 scope of broken, leaping silver ; the stars
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 277 
 
 shone finely ; yet it was a dark night, though 
 clear, with swift gleamings of the Gold fires 
 of the sea-glow in the black ridges ere they 
 broke. 
 
 " Is that you. Miss Darnley ? " called out 
 the woman standing on the poop-ladder. 
 
 The girl answered '' Yes." 
 
 " It's eight o'clock, please." 
 
 "• All right," returned Kate. '' We're 
 supposed to * turn in,' as you sailors say, at 
 eight," she added. 
 
 The woman disappeared. 
 
 " Who was that ? " said I. 
 
 '' Miss Cobbs, the matron/' she answered. 
 
 " Do they still carry out what was done in 
 Dr. Holt's time ? " said I, walking slowly 
 with her towards the ladder. 
 
 '* Nearly. Meals are served at the same 
 hours, and we're called below by the matron 
 at eight — the time was seven at first." 
 
 " I'm glad to hear that," said I. " It speaks 
 well for the crew. There's no head — you 
 can't talk of Brigstock as a bead — and yet 
 the rules, of Rolt's contrivance, I presume, 
 are as much in force as when he was aboard."
 
 278 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 "I'll say this," she exclaimed in a low 
 voice, for the man '' Joe " paced near us 
 whilst we halted a moment or two at the 
 head of the poop-ladder : " the men so far 
 have behaved with perfect propriety. I have 
 not heard a complaint. Good night. We 
 shall meet to-morrow, I hope." 
 
 " I'll see you to your door," said I, and 
 accompanied her to the main-hatch, down 
 which I watched her descend. 
 
 A middle-aged woman stood on the lower 
 deck looking up ; I rightly supposed her to 
 be the matron. The ladder that sank to the 
 'tweendecks was a wide flight of w4iite-wood 
 steps with a single handrail. A dim sheen 
 of swinging lamps came sifting to this large 
 yawn of hatch — large despite the two gratings 
 which were now upon it, and the crowding- 
 heel of a windsail, whose white leg was 
 blowing like an escape of steam to the mad 
 swaying of the outstretched phantasmal head 
 of it. Kate looked up with a smile and 
 passed out of sight, and I walked to the 
 cuddy with a design of calling for some 
 supper.
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 279 
 
 All the women were apparently below ; 
 the decks ran forward dark and deserted, but 
 I saw the figures of seamen in the fore-shrouds 
 against the stars coming down from furling 
 the topgallant-sail, and I heard the voices of 
 men aloft stowing staysails, and the calling 
 of men on the forecastle to others out on the 
 jibboom. The cuddy was in darkness. I 
 sang out, supposing there might be somebody 
 about or in the pantry. Brigs tock was busy 
 with the ship on deck, the man Joe, as I 
 reckoned, having gone forward to help the 
 watch. 
 
 I entered the captain's cabin, and, feeling in 
 the shelf, found the matches, and lighted the 
 bracket-lamp in the berth, then the cuddy- 
 lamp. The pantry was next to the captain's 
 cabin. The lamp swinging abreast threw 
 plenty of light into it, and in a few minutes 
 I stepped out with both hands full of things 
 to eat — biscuits, cold pork, and a piece of 
 boiled fowl. I judged by these remains that 
 Brigstock and others had used the cuddy for 
 eating in, though perhaps not for sleeping in. 
 I sought again in the pantry for something
 
 280 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 to drink, and found a vinegar-jar with a drain 
 of rum in the bottom of it. There was nothing 
 more in the shape of spirits, and no beer ; but 
 the rum made me a drink when I mixed it 
 with fresh water from a decanter in a bracket 
 over the cuddy door. 
 
 The lee lid of the skylight lay open, and 
 whilst I was eating Brigstock put his head 
 through, and called down — 
 
 " Ya're right to make yourself at home, sir. 
 There's more wind a-coming, I think, and I'm 
 waiting to get the mainsail off her before I 
 join you." 
 
 I gave him a nod, and went on eating. 
 
 The state of a man's mind is a tedious 
 thing for another to read about ; but even 
 though I had the wish to weary you, I should 
 be little able to express the confusion of my 
 thoughts whilst I sat lonely in that cuddy, 
 supping. The sailors were hoarsely bawling 
 on deck, the wind was whistling and groaning 
 and hooting like a theatre full of maddened 
 people, and the white seas poured from the 
 cleaving stem of the driven ship in a sound 
 of thunder. I had grown tolerably familiar
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 281 
 
 with my new extraordinary situation ; my 
 talks with Brigstock, my view of the ship 
 had made a pretty real thing of it to me ; the 
 dream-like character it had taken at first was 
 passed. Yet now, when I thought of Kate 
 Darnley, the whole passage seemed a wild, 
 romancing vision again, something I should 
 awaken from to find myself with Blades, or 
 even with Cadman, and all between sheer 
 nightmare. 
 
 However, I began to see clearly after I 
 had swallowed the rum and eaten some food. 
 It was certain I was in the power of the 
 crew ; and that was to be kept steadily in 
 mind by me, as assuredly it would be by them 
 in all that was going to pass between us. 
 But I bit the salt pork with the savageness 
 of a wolf, when I thought of the trick Brig- 
 stock had played me, the lies he had told, the 
 indignity of my imprisonment, his insolent 
 indiJBference to my rights and convenience. 
 Then, with the fancy of Kate Darnle}^ all 
 became dreamlike again ! 
 
 By-and-by the noise of men up aloft and 
 on deck ceased ; the ship, eased of the pres-
 
 282 TEE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 sure on high, took the seas buoyantly, with 
 now and again a sharp hail-Hke rattle 
 forward, when a weather lurch of her forging 
 bow flung a bucketful of brine crisply inboard. 
 I heard Brigstock call to Joe. A few faces 
 of seamen now showed and vanished at the 
 black cuddy windows. Presently Brigstock 
 came down by way of the companion, and 
 shaking a shower of crystals off his coat, he 
 threw his hat down and said, " I hope you 
 found all you wanted, sir ? " 
 
 " I have done very well." 
 
 '' There's young Gouger as'U be willing to 
 help aft here when things get settled," said 
 he. " Yer read about the steward in the 
 log-book^ didn't jer ? Gouger can lay a 
 cloth and bring a dish from the galley ; and 
 that's nigh all that's wanted. Did jer find 
 anything to drink ? " 
 
 " A drain of rum." 
 
 " We broke out a cask of bottled ale a day 
 or two ago. There's some left in that cabin," 
 said he, pointing. " Shall I fetch yer a bottle ?" 
 
 " No, thanks. But I'd be glad of a pipe of 
 tobacco."
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 283 
 
 He pulled out a clasp-knife and a plug of 
 Cavendish, then going to the cuddy door he 
 called to a man, waited till he had done his 
 errand, then returned with a clean clay pipe. 
 Whilst I was chipping a pipeful of the 
 black tobacco into the palm of my hand, he 
 said — 
 
 " Mr. Morgan, will you set us a true 
 course ? This sort of sailing's mere ramb- 
 ling." 
 
 " Where are you bound ? " I exclaimed 
 coolly, striking a wax match and lighting my 
 
 pipe. 
 
 " To put it straight," he replied, with the 
 
 merest shadow of hesitation in his manner, 
 
 " we're going for the South Pacific." 
 
 " What part ? The South Pacific's a big- 
 ocean ! " 
 
 " Well, it mayn't be the South Pacific 
 either ; it might come to what we want 
 a-lying nothe o' the equator. But, anyhow, 
 all this side, our course is for the Horn. 
 Will yer make it true ? " 
 
 I instantly resolved to do so, since nothing 
 could possibly come of stipulating at this
 
 284 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 moment, up here too, on the equatorial verge 
 of the South Atlantic, seeing how the man's 
 determination pointed. I pulled off the soft 
 grey wideawake and the slop jacket I had 
 come aboard in, and going to the captain's 
 cabin, overhauled the chart-bag, and found a 
 track-chart of the world. This was good for 
 my purpose. I recollected the situation of 
 the Caroline at noon on the preceding day, 
 and could guess the present position of the 
 Earl of Leicester close enough to save me 
 from bothering with the stars. 
 
 When I came into the cuddy with the 
 chart and a pair of compasses I found three 
 seamen besides Brigstock standing at the 
 table. They were bare-headed, and saluted 
 me respectfully. 
 
 " Mr. Morgan," said Brigstock, '' these men 
 don't ask your pardon for being here, though 
 there'll be no intrusion upon you when once 
 the border and procedure of the voyage is 
 settled. We view ourselves in the light of a 
 republic : every man's as good as his ship- 
 mate ; but of course all are resolved for the 
 gen'ral welfare to obey orders and behave
 
 AN UNEXPECTED MEETING. 285 
 
 theirselves as men. More'n a man there's no 
 need to be in this here world. This," said 
 he, pointing to the active, wiry, crumple- 
 faced young fellow with the large moustache^ 
 who was at the wheel when I came into the 
 ship, " is Isaac Coffin ; this here," he con- 
 tinued, pointing to a fat, staring sailor with 
 pig's eyes and hanging chops, like a monkey's 
 bags, *' is Jupe Jackson ; and that man," 
 indicating the dark, high-coloured fisherman 
 fellow, '•' is Bill Prentice — three out of twelve 
 of us. The port watch has gone below. 
 These men attend on behalf of the ship's 
 company. You want our yarn, and we want 
 your sarvices." 
 
 He pulled a globular silver watch from the 
 band of his breeches, starting it with an 
 effort, and bringing it out like a cork, and 
 looked slowly and gravely upon it as it lay in 
 the hollow of his hand on a level with the 
 bottom button of his waistcoat. " It's a little 
 arter one bell," said he. " Well, it can't take 
 us long to square this here circle, and the ship's 
 a-going along snug enough. Will you give 
 us a true course for the Horn, Mr. Morgan ? "
 
 286 THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 
 
 " Hold this chart open," said I. 
 
 I made my calculations, and named the 
 course S.W. by S., guessing that that would 
 do till I had found the ship's true position. 
 Brigstock stumped with his solemn gait up 
 the companion-steps, from the top of which 
 he roared out, " How's her head ? " 
 
 An indistinguishable reply, like a half- 
 smothered bark, came dimly to the ear. It 
 happened that the course I had given was 
 the course within a quarter of a point the 
 ship was being steered : there was no need 
 therefore to handle the braces. Brigstock 
 came to the table. 
 
 ''Now, sir," said he, "if you'll be good 
 enough to sit down, I'll tell you exactly what 
 us men's intentions are." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: PRINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS. LIMITED, 
 STAMFORD STBKKT AND CHARING CROSS.