RESCUED AT LAST.
"The savages," continued Ben, "in their rapid onslaught on us, fortunately, missed their aim, only one of us getting a spear-wound through the body, the rest of their weapons expending their force harmlessly in the bush, and by the time they were ready for a second go at us we were better prepared to receive them, although sadly wanting in the means of defence, only Jem Magellan having a knife. This he at once drew, however, while the rest of us, using the sticks we had previously cut in the forest, as I had forgotten to tell you previously, made an effort to save our lives with the determination of fighting to the last.
"But, Jem was our guardian angel now, as he had been before. Darting at one of the natives before he was apparently aware of his intention, he stabbed him through the heart, and then catching him up without a second"s deliberation by his legs, and using his body as a club, he floored three others in rapid succession. We, too, were not behindhand with our sticks; and the savages--struck more with consternation at Magellan"s tremendous strength, for he was built like a giant, and stood over six feet high, than by our prowess--ran away back into the jungle as fast as they had come upon us; leaving some four of their number struck lifeless on the ground, besides the one Jem had first settled, and whom the club exercise to which his body had been subjected had knocked out of any semblance it had originally possessed to the human form.
"We breathed hard when the scrimmage was over, for it was warm work while it lasted; and then, our sadly-lessened little party thinking discretion the better part of valour, and that our foes might get reinforced and return to attack us in numbers, only ten altogether having belonged to the body a.s.sailing us, we too took to our heels in the opposite direction. This was the very one, indeed, in which our proper course lay; and we ran on without giving a thought as to whether any of those we had knocked on the head would come to life again or not, or that we had to answer for their deaths.
"It would weary you to hear all the further trials we had to go through.
We had three other rivers to ford before reaching the base of the next mountain; and, on essaying to climb this latter, we found it so steep and matted with rank vegetation that it was impossible to ascend it.
Besides, the mosquitoes stung us almost to pieces on our going into the forest here; and, seeing that our route southwards was impracticable any longer, we bent our steps due west, following the track of the last river we had crossed so as to gain the beach again, which latter course seemed to offer now the best chance of escape.
"Arrived here, we sat down facing the sea, without a single sail pa.s.sing by within hail, as we had hoped would soon have been the case, for two long weary days and nights--one of us always keeping watch that we should not miss a vessel, in the first place, and, secondly, for fear of another attack from the natives. During all this time, recollect, we had nothing to eat since we swallowed the last fragment of the solitary parrot that poor Denis Brown had knocked down, although plenty of brackish water was at our disposal from the river.
"On the third morning, however, just when we were pretty nigh done up with the heat and hunger, thinking each moment would be our last, an Arab dhow pa.s.sed by close insh.o.r.e to where we were stretched almost lifeless on the sand, watching the monotonous sea that broke with a heavy wash on the beach.
"We hailed the people on board, but they took no notice of us, and we abandoned ourselves to despair. However, another trading dhow came by soon afterwards, luckily for us, and the skipper of this showed more sympathy to shipwrecked seamen in distress, for, responding to our appeals for help, he said he would lie to for us, but as he had no boat we would have to swim off to the vessel.
"This we did, braving our fear of the sharks, though we had seen plenty of them about during the two days we had been staring at the sea; and, plunging into the waves, were soon hauled aboard in safety, the revulsion of feeling at being thus saved from a lingering death almost making us helpless at the last!
"The captain of the dhow, who was in the employ of some Banian traders, carried us to Majunga, where we were most hospitably treated, a house being set apart for our accommodation, and the Queen of Madagascar herself sending down provisions for our use during our stay there. I recollect, on the very day of our arrival, she despatched three casks of rice, along with a dozen ducks and twelve fowls, for us to have a feast with; and I don"t think we had left a bone of the poultry or a grain of rice by the end of the following day.
"I shall never forget the kindness we all met with at Majunga. It is an Arab colony, with lots of Hindoos and Portuguese there besides, although only a small mud town. It was this place that the French bombarded the other day for no cause whatever that I can see save to get a foothold on the island and establish their blessed republic there. But then, we need not talk. I"ve known English men-of-war set fire to native villages amongst the islands in the South Pacific just to avenge a fancied insult which some blackbirding schooner had once received when its crew were trying to kidnap the natives, and I have known cruelties committed because the merchants were unable to get the proper price for their Manchester cottons and Brummagem goods; while when serving on the west coast of Africa, up the Congo river, I have seen whole colonies of poor n.i.g.g.e.rs annihilated, with their little towns wrecked over their heads, simply because they did not choose to do exactly what we told them. You may say that the French have no right to do as they have done and are doing in Madagascar; but circ.u.mstances alter cases, sir. We only think these bombardments and colonising schemes bad when they are carried out by other nations; when we do similar things, of course it is all right and just."
"Did you rejoin your ship ultimately?" I asked, when Ben had finished his little bit of moralising, apropos of international differences.
"Oh yes, sir. The _Dolphin_ came cruising in search of us down the coast after capturing the second slaver and settling all her business at Zanzibar; and, on her putting in to Majunga, of course we went on board, reporting the accident that had happened to the pinnace. The excitement had borne us up to then; but, soon after we found ourselves once more in the old ship, the whole lot of us broke down and went raving mad, being out of our minds for weeks. Magellan and the others recovered out there, but I was invalided home and sent to Haslar Hospital--being ultimately allowed to leave the service on a pension before I had quite finished my time, all through that exposure I had had when swimming ash.o.r.e in the Mozambique Channel and journeying through the bush afterwards. I have quite recovered since, however, and am now as hale and hearty a man, thank G.o.d, as ever I was in all my life."
"I"m glad to hear that," said I cordially.
"Aye, I am," he repeated, as if to impress that point carefully on my mind; and then, seeing me looking at my watch, he asked me what the hour was.
"Just eleven o"clock," I answered.
"Lord bless us!" he exclaimed, "I"d no idea what time it was. Why didn"t you stop me? I must be off home or my wife will be thinking I"m lost. Good-night, sir. Hope I haven"t wearied you with my yarn?"
"Oh no," I said, "I have not found it a bit too long. Good-night." And so ends Ben Campion"s story of "The Lost Pinnace."
THE END.