Kidnapping in the Pacific

Kidnapping in the Pacific.

by W.H.G. Kingston.

CHAPTER ONE.

"You want a yarn. You shall have one," said a young friend of mine, a midshipman, who had just returned from a four years" cruise in the Pacific. "I am not a good hand at describing what I have seen, but I can narrate better the adventures of others which they have told me:--"

We had visited a good many islands in the Pacific, engaged in settling the disputes of the natives or trying to settle them, punishing evil doers, supporting the consuls and missionaries, surveying occasionally hitherto unknown harbours, and endeavouring to make the British flag respected among the dark-skinned inhabitants of those regions.

I with another midshipman and a boat"s crew had landed on a beautiful island of the Western Pacific to bring off a cargo of cocoa-nuts and breadfruit with which the natives had promised to supply us. Two of our men had straggled off against orders into the interior. While waiting for them we saw the signal made for our return. Unwilling to leave them behind, we ourselves unwisely started off to look for them. The natives gave us to understand that they were a little way ahead, so we pushed on hoping to come up with them and bring them with us.

A considerable time longer than we expected was thus occupied, and when having at length overtaken them we got back to the beach, we found that a strong breeze had set in, and that so heavy a surf was breaking on the sh.o.r.e that it would be extremely dangerous pa.s.sing through it. Still the signal was flying and the order must be obeyed.

We shoved off, but had not pulled many strokes before a succession of tremendous rollers came roaring in, turning the boat right over and sending her back almost stove to pieces on the beach. Had it not been for the natives who swam to our rescue, we should probably have lost our lives.

Wet through, and half-drowned, we were dragged on sh.o.r.e. It would have been madness to have again made an effort to get off. All we could do, therefore, was to haul our sorely battered boat out of the reach of the surf and to collect the portion of our cargo washed up on the sands.

Although it was tolerably hot we felt that we should be more comfortable than we were if we could shift our wet clothes. The garments worn by the natives could a.s.sist us but little, seeing that most of them wore only somewhat narrow waist clothes. They made us understand, however, that not far off we should find the house of a white man, who would perhaps afford us accommodation. Why he had not yet hitherto made his appearance we could not tell, but we determined to visit him and claim his hospitality. Led by the natives, we proceeded some distance along the beach when we came in sight of a hut, larger and more substantially built than the other habitations around. Just inside a porch at the entrance of the hut, an old white man, dressed in shirt and trousers, with a broad-brimmed straw hat on his head, was seated in a roughly made easy-chair with his feet resting on the trellis-work before him. A large wooden pipe was in his mouth, from which he was smoking l.u.s.tily.

He seemed scarcely to notice our approach, and when we addressed him he enquired in a gruff voice where we came from and what we wanted. We told him what had happened, and asked him if he could give us shelter, and lend us some garments while our clothes were drying.

"As to that, young gentlemen, you shall have a shirt and a pair of duck trousers apiece, and such food as there may happen to be in my store-house," he answered, seeing by our uniforms who we were. "Your men shall be looked after also."

We were soon seated round his cooking stove inside the house, rigged out in the garments he had provided while our own clothes were hung up to dry. A native girl attended us, obeying with alacrity the old man"s commands. We supposed her to be his daughter, and spoke of her as such.

"No, you are wrong in that, I have no child," he observed. "She is my wife. That," pointing to a thick stick which rested on a stool near him, "served as my marriage lines, it makes her as sharp and attentive as I can wish, and keeps her in good order."

I had suspected from the appearance of the old fellow that he was a ruffian; I had now no doubt that he was a thorough one; and I felt sure that had he dared he would not have scrupled to hand us over to the natives should they by chance demand our lives. A man-of-war in the offing, though she might be driven away for a few days, afforded us perfect security with such a character.

At first he was not disposed to be communicative; he kept beating about the bush to ascertain apparently whether we knew anything about him, and had come to call him to account for any misdeeds of which he might have been conscious. When he discovered that we were not even aware that a white man resided on the island, he opened out more freely. I was curious to know something about him, and, concealing the opinion I had formed of his character, tried to induce him to talk of himself; that he was an old sailor I could see at a glance.

"You were long at sea, I suppose," I observed.

"First and last pretty nigh sixty years," he answered.

"I was a small boy when I first ran off from home, and I never lived on sh.o.r.e many weeks together from that time up to within a few years ago.

I have served on board every sort of craft afloat, and have seen a good many curious sights, as you may suppose."

I resolved not to interrupt him, unless he should get a hitch in his yarn with which a question might help him through, so I let him run on, and, once having begun, he seemed nothing loth to allow his tongue full play. Probably he had not had auditors who could understand him for many a long day.

"The first craft I shipped aboard was bound for the coast of Africa. In those days not a few vessels belonging to Liverpool were engaged in one way or another in the slave trade, either in supplying the slavers with goods, and stores, and provisions, or in actually running cargoes of blacks, which though the most profitable was a dangerous business to engage in.

"I understood that we were to bring back gold dust and ivory, but instead of that we began to load with negroes, and soon had pretty nigh three hundred stowed away below hatches. We had hoisted the Spanish flag, and had a Spanish captain, and fresh papers, for it was, I fancy, a hanging matter for an Englishman to command a slaver, though a few years back it had been all lawful and shipshape, but things change, you see, and what seems right one day is wrong the other. We had to keep a bright look out for English cruisers, who were on the coast to put a stop to the business.

"I heard some curious yarns of the way the slaves are taken. Some powerful tribes make it a regular business, and attack their weaker neighbours for no other purpose than to capture them, and then to sell them to the slave dealers. They generally steal on a village at night, surround and set fire to it, and seize all the inhabitants who rush from their huts to escape the flames. Parties go out to pick up others wandering in the woods, or travelling from one place to another. The inhabitants of the West Coast of Africa must have an uncomfortable life of it, I suspect. With our living cargo on board we made sail for South America.

"Before we were many leagues from the sh.o.r.e, an English man-of-war hove in sight. Should we be taken we should not only lose the vessel and our expected profits, but it would go hard with the English part of the crew. All knew that, and were ready to do anything to escape. We made all sail, but for a wonder the British man-of-war was a fast craft, and soon began to overhaul us. Our skipper, and most of the officers and crew, swore fearfully at the stranger, and some declared that sooner than be taken they would blow our vessel, with all the n.i.g.g.e.rs on board, as well as the English cruiser, into the air.

"I observed the captain and officers talking together, and there was a fierce determination in their looks which showed they meant what they said. I had no fancy to be blown into the air, and was considering what I could do to save myself.

"As the cruiser drew near I saw some of our men go below, and presently up they came with a black fellow. They led him aft and lowered him overboard.

"`Don"t be frightened, all you have to do is to swim to yonder ship, and she will pick you up," said the mate.

"I don"t fancy the negro understood him, still blacks are as fond of life as other people, and I saw him striking out boldly for the ship.

He was seen. The ship hove-to, a boat was lowered, and he was picked up. Our people laughed at the success of the plan, for we had increased our distance from the enemy.

"Evening was coming on. The great thing was to keep ahead of her till darkness would allow us to alter our course without being perceived.

"In a short time, as soon as we saw that the boat was hoisted up, another negro was hove overboard. He was a strong swimmer, and struck out boldly. He, too, was seen on board the man-of-war, and by another cruiser of the deep also, a huge shark. The monster made towards him, he swam bravely on for his life, but it was of no avail. Before long he disappeared, and I fancied I could hear the shriek he uttered, even at the distance he already was from us.

"We should have sacrificed half our cargo rather than be taken as long as there appeared any probability of the man-of-war heaving-to to pick up the unfortunate wretches, but the breeze falling light, we had an advantage over the heavier vessel, and darkness coming on, we at length lost sight of her. We immediately altered our course, knowing that she would do her best to fall in with us in the morning. We escaped her, however, although we lost fifty or sixty blacks on the pa.s.sage; that was a matter of no consequence, considering that we landed the greater portion and made a large profit by the venture. Our success was so satisfactory that it was not long before we were again back on the coast, and as our craft was a remarkably fast one we managed again to escape the British cruisers.

"We made altogether eight or ten trips, now and then we narrowly escaped capture, but we were too clever for our enemy, and they were not up to our various dodges.

"I had by this time become well accustomed to the work, and, though at first it had gone somewhat against me to see the blacks dying by scores during the middle pa.s.sage, yet now I saw them hove overboard with as little compunction as if they had been so many sheep.

"We had a precious rough crew, about as villainous a set of cut-throats as well could be collected together. It does not do for tender-hearted fellows to sail aboard a slaver.

"I had meantime grown into a big stout lad, and could hold my own against any of them.

"How it was I don"t know, but I should not have liked at that time to have done the things that some of them did. We had a black cook aboard, whether or not sitting before a hot fire had softened his heart, I cannot tell, but he was not as bad as the rest; he had consequently a hard life of it amongst them. One day he was detected by the mate carrying a mess below to some of the sick blacks, they were people of his own tribe, and I suspect relations. The mate swore that he intended to raise a mutiny among them, it may be to let them loose to murder us all. Poor Sambo declared that he had no thoughts of doing anything of the sort, but that the people were ill, and that he hoped what he gave them would do them good and save their lives. He was a sensible fellow, and must have known that from where we were, about mid-channel, they could never have found their way back again to the coast of Africa, and that if they had murdered the crew they themselves must also have perished. The captain and mate would not hear his excuses, and began belabouring him with thick cudgels till they had nearly knocked the breath out of his body. I felt very indignant, for black though he was I had a liking for the man, and determined to speak out.

"`I tell you what, Ringdon, if you don"t belay your jaw-tackles you will be treated in the same way!" exclaimed the captain, turning on me.

"`Sambo had no bad intentions, I will answer for that," I cried out.

`If any of us were sick and dying we should expect one of our countrymen, if he had the means, to help us, and I don"t see that Sambo intended to do more than that." Sambo gave me a glance, as much as to say if I have the chance I"ll render you a service some day; and, bobbing his head, as the mate made another blow at him, escaped forward.

The two then turned on me, and I thought were going to try their cudgels on my head. I stood up boldly and faced them.

"`Now," I asked, `what have you got to say to me?"

"`Look out for squalls, Master Boas, that"s all," growled the mate.

"`You will some day wish that you had kept your opinions to yourself,"

said the captain, but neither he nor the mate ventured to strike me. I turned round and walked forward, leaving the two talking together. I was sure by the glances they cast at me that they meant mischief, so I determined to be on my guard.

"Several days pa.s.sed away, and things went on much as usual. Sambo got many a kick and cuff from the captain and mate when he could not help coming near them, but he kept out of their way as much as he could within the caboose, and cooked our meals without uttering a complaint.

"I had heard say that the pitcher which often goes to the well gets broken at last, and I could not help fancying, notwithstanding our long run of success, that such would be the fate of the slaver.

"Perhaps the owners thought the same, for we had received orders to proceed round the Cape to the East Coast of Africa, where the Portuguese slave dealers had agreed to supply us with a cargo--that coast at the time being less watched by the English cruisers.

"We were some way off the Cape, on our pa.s.sage eastward, when, while it was blowing hard and a pretty heavy sea was running, I fell from aloft.

I had been a good swimmer from my boyhood, and when I came to the surface I struck out for my life, expecting to see the schooner heave to and lower a boat to pick me up. Instead of her doing so, what was my horror and dismay to observe that she was standing away from me. I caught sight of the captain and mate on the p.o.o.p, and by the looks they cast at me I felt sure that they intended to leave me to my fate. I shouted loudly to them, asking if they were going to allow a fellow-creature to perish. Again and again I cried out, doing my utmost to keep my head above the foaming seas.

"A number of huge albatrosses had been following the vessel, sweeping round and round her, now soaring upwards, now plunging down into the waters to pick up anything which had fallen overboard. You may fancy my dismay when I found that instead of chasing the vessel as before, they were gathering round my head. Every moment I expected to see them darting down towards me, and I knew that a blow from one of their sharp beaks would have easily pierced my skull and struck me lifeless in a moment. Nearer and nearer they drew. I could distinguish their keen eyes watching me, and had I remained quiet for a moment I felt convinced that they would have dashed at me. I continued, therefore, striking out with my feet and beating the water with my hands, which I lifted up as often as they came near to keep them at bay. Still I knew full well that the struggle must soon cease, for I could not possibly much longer exert myself as I was then doing. I had had very little enjoyment in life, but yet I had no wish to go out of it; my hopes of escape, however, were small indeed; the only chance I could see was that the crew, indignant that one of their number should be left to perish, would insist on the captain heaving-to, and would lower a boat to come to my rescue.

"Further and further the vessel sailed away from me. I was beginning at last to think that I should be left to perish, when a hail reached my ears, and I saw about midway between myself and the vessel, a black head rising above the foaming seas. I shouted in return, and redoubled my efforts to keep the albatrosses at a distance, while I struck out to meet my friend, whom I recognised as Sambo the black cook. I found that he was towing after him a spar, which, though it had impeded his progress, would support us both. I was soon up to him.