Part 21

"The plan, in dealing with the Spaniards, when I had been in that part of the world before, was to call off the coast two or three leagues away from a town, and to send on shore, by some fishing-boat, to the merchants, to say what goods we had, and that we were ready to deal with them. They would then send back word when they would come, probably on that or the following night. If the weather were fine we used to anchor close in shore, always keeping a bright look out in case of treachery. As soon as it was dark, the merchant", or their agents, would come off in their boats, and take the goods on shore, and pay us good prices in hard dollars. So much for restrictive duties. Scarcely a ship entered at the custom-house at any of those ports, and the Government got no revenue, while, on account of the difficulties and risks, the people had to pay just as much as they would have done for the goods had moderate dues been levied, and the trade been regular and above board. But I am running away from the subject of my story. Well, as I was saying, we made very fine weather of it, though the wind was seldom fair, till we reached about twenty-seven degrees north latitude, when we got into the north-east trade-winds, which carried us along at a spanking pace, with studding sails alow and aloft on either side, till we were nearly in the latitude of Rio do Janeiro. It was enough to make a man vain of his ship, of himself, and of the art which formed her, to see her thus walking along the water, with her wide spread of snowy canvas proudly sweeping the blue vault of heaven. Captain Derick rubbed his hands, and smiled with satisfaction, as he walked the deck and looked up at the well-set sails, and then over the side, to watch the sparkling foam as it quickly flew past and formed a long wake astern. He amused his young wife and himself in teaching her the names of the ropes and sails, and she fully shared his pleasure and satisfaction. I remember them as if it were yesterday; she was sitting on the bench, on the after-part of the deck, with one arm resting on his shoulder, and her face looking up at his, while he was explaining some point she could not at first understand. They certainly were a handsome couple. The sea was smooth, the sky was blue, and the air was pure and warm. That evening was the last we saw of fine weather. It seemed sent us on purpose to show how pleasant the world could be, and to make us wish the more to remain in it. On the morning following the one I have described, a dark mass of clouds was seen gathering in the south-west, rising out of the sea, and every instant growing denser and broader, as recruits from all quarters arrived; then, like some mighty host, which has been waiting the arrival of its various divisions, onward it began its march towards us. As the dark body advanced, its movement became more rapid, and at last, as if urged on by some irresistible impulse, it rushed forward in an impetuous charge, covering the whole sky with its overwhelming masses. The captain had been called on deck the moment the sky had assumed this threatening aspect, and he immediately ordered all the lighter sails to be handed, the courses to be brailed up, and the ship to be kept on the starboard tack, under her topsails. As yet there had been a perfect calm, and the sails flapped idly against the masts, though the ship rolled heavily in the smooth ominous billows, which had been rising for some hours past. Suddenly, the wind burst forth from the dark clouds, accompanied with rain and hail, and struck the ship on her broadside, while the forked lightning played round her on every side, as if eager to make her feel its power. Like a reed bent before the wind, the stout ship yielded to the fierce blast. It howled in triumph over her. In an instant, her gunwale was under water, and the waves washed up her decks and threatened to fill her hold. She was in as bad a position as a ship can be placed in, and it seemed that every moment would he her last. Derick now showed that he was a good seaman, cool and fearless in danger.

"`Furl the mizzen-topsail,' he shouted out. `Up with her helm--brail up the main-topsail--furl it--she'll not steer without it.' The mizzen-topsail and main-topsail were furled, the fore-topsail was backed against the mast, the fore-staysail and jib were set, but to no purpose. Still she lay like a log upon the waters with her broadside to the sea."

Story 13--CHAPTER TWO.

"I ought to have said that all this time Mrs Derick, who had refused to stay below, was on deck seated aft under the weather bulwarks, and looking on less frightened perhaps than awe-struck at the wild scene before her. On finding that the ship still refused to wear, the captain summoned the mates with some of the best hands aft, and gave them the order to cut away the mizzen mast. With gleaming axes in our hands we set to work, the shrouds were severed, and after a few sharp strokes the mast tottered and fell with a crash into the boiling sea. The looked-for effect was not produced--still the ship would not wear. Another mast must be sacrificed; no other remedy remained. Again we gave the fatal strokes which must reduce our ship to a wreck upon the waters; over fell the tall mast with its spars and rigging, and a few more cuts served to sever it from the labouring hull. The effect was instantly perceptible--the ship righted, the helm was kept up, and away she flew before the howling tempest.

"Scarcely was she before the wind than the storm increased with tenfold fury, the wind blew more fiercely, the thunder rolled more loudly, the rain and hail came down in thicker torrents, the lightning flashed more vividly, while the waves rose on every side in black mountainous ridges covered with curling crests of foam, which the wind sent in showers on our decks even when the water itself did not break over us.

"The foremast had hitherto stood secure, though weakened by the loss of the mainmast, but now as the tempest came down stronger on us, that too tottered, and went by the board, carrying the bowsprit with it. As this last accident happened, the captain's wife shrieked with terror; it was answered by a shout of shrill laughter, so loud, so piercing, and so unnatural, that it made the heart of every one on board tremble. It might well do so, for as we looked over the side of the driving ship, what should we see right abreast of us, in a small skiff, gliding over the frothy summits of the waves, but the very old woman who had uttered such dreadful curses at us as we were quitting Liverpool--Dame Kirby! There she sat in the stern sheets of the boat, steering by an oar with one hand, while the left bony arm was stretched out pointing derisively at us, and her countenance, as full of malignant revenge as is possible for any being possessing human features, was turned full upon us. A large sail was hoisted on the single mast, enough, one would have supposed, to lift the light skiff right out of the water; but she sat as composedly as if she were floating on a lake on a summer's evening; her boat did not seem to ship a drop of water, nor ever to sink into the trough of the sea, but it somehow or other went along on the summit of every wave.

"Every one on board saw the old woman, and knew her to be Dame Kirby. So did poor Mrs Derick; and after gazing at her wildly for some time, she could bear the dreadful sight no longer, and fell back in a swoon. Her husband ran to raise her, and as he supported her in his arms, he shouted out to the old woman to begone, and to be content with the mischief she had already caused. Indeed, there was not a soul on board who did not believe that she had done all the damage we had suffered. The hag only laughed and jeered at him the more he stormed, and so madly enraged did he become at her mockery, that I do believe had he not been holding his wife in his arms, he would in his passion have flung himself overboard to get hold of her.

"It must not be supposed that the officers and crew were idle all this time, for as soon as the foremast went we set to work to get up a jury mast on the stump of the foremast, to prevent the ship from broaching to; this, three men at the wheel had meantime the greatest difficulty in preventing her doing. At length, after much labour, we got up a spare topgallant mast, and set a topgallant sail on it, and all present danger was over. No sooner had we done this, than the witch uttered a loud `Ha, ha, ha,' which sounded like what one might suppose to be the croak of a frog in a merry mood, only a hundred times louder and shriller than any frog ever croaked; and about she put her skiff, and away she went right in the wind's eye, accompanied by a storm of lightning and rain, at the rate of not less than twenty knots an hour. When she had disappeared, the poor lady began to come to herself again, and her husband tried to persuade her that what she had seen was all fancy, and laughed heartily at the idea of an old woman in a red cloak coming out into the middle of the Atlantic in a skiff, which could not live a moment in such a sea as there was running.

"But she knew well enough all the time what she had seen, and nothing he could say to the contrary could persuade her that some dreadful disaster would not happen to them. I will do him the justice to say that, with all his faults, he was as brave a fellow as ever stepped, or he would not have borne up as he did. Any one to look at him, or to hear him, would suppose that he had no more seen the old woman than if she had never existed, while all the time it was on his account especially that she thus haunted us.

"Where we should have got to, I don't know, at the rate we were driving, but the next day the wind shifted right round again to the north-east, and sent us back as fast as we came till we were off the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the Brazils.

"We managed to steer into that magnificent harbour, and as we were in evident distress we were allowed to remain and refit; but the Portuguese in those days were not a bit wiser than their Spanish neighbours, and would allow no foreign trader to come into their ports.

"The harbour of Rio is a magnificent expanse of water, and the country would be the finest in the world in the hands of any of the northern nations of Europe; but the Portuguese did not know how to take advantage of the blessings given them by Heaven, either at home or in the colonies, and except in the neighbourhood of Rio itself, the greater portion of the Brazils was uncultivated. It is, however, a very pleasant place to visit, and our captain, leaving the ship in charge of the first mate, took his wife on shore, where, among the delightful orange groves and gardens, she soon recovered from the shock her spirits had received from the events I have described.

"We remained here for several weeks refitting the ship, for the Portuguese carpenters and riggers, though they did their work well, got through it very slowly, and though our owners suffered by the delay, we had no reason to complain. At last the ship was all ataunto and ready for sea. As Captain Derick with his pretty wife on his arm came down on the quay before going on board, he stopped to admire the appearance of the _Chameleon_. He pointed out her beauties with satisfaction as she lay in all her pride a short distance from the shore, looking as if nothing had ever hurt her.

"`There she is, my love, as stout and brave a ship as ever sailed the salt ocean,' he exclaimed. `We may bid defiance to the old woman, if she ever thinks fit to come near us again. Not that I believe one was really seen--it was fancy, my love, fancy, the work of the imagination, that often plays strange freaks. I was wrong to allude to the subject.' He spoke hurriedly, and afterwards broke into a laugh, for fear his wife should suspect he and the rest of us really had seen the witch. They came on board, the anchor was run up cheerily to the bows, the sails were loosened, and with a fine northerly breeze we stood out of the harbour, and kept away once more on our course. We had beautiful weather for some days, and as our spirits rose in the pure fresh air, we forgot all our former fears, and fully believed that we were going to have a prosperous cruise.

"An event, however, soon occurred, to make us think differently. We were within sight of land, with the sky overhead bright and blue, and the sea calm as a millpond, when on a sudden a tremendous squall struck the ship, carrying away our topgallant masts, sails, and yards, and throwing her on her beam ends. The topsails were clewed up, and the men were sent on the yards to furl them. I was at the weather earing, on the main-topsail-yard, when just as she was righting, a second squall struck and hove her down again so suddenly that three of our best hands were shaken from their hold and hurled into the hissing waters under our lee. Their loud shrieks reached our ears, but when we looked for them they were nowhere to be seen. At that moment, I, as well as every man on board, beheld as clearly as I do you, right to windward of us, the old witch, in her skiff, skimming over the frothy waters, and pointing jeeringly at us with her bony hand.

"There was not much sea on, and as soon as we could we hove the ship to, and Captain Derick ordered a boat to be lowered to look for the men. Now I believe our crew were as brave men as any fellows of their class, but when they prepared to lower the boat, instead of flying as usual on such occasions, to try and be the first in her, they all hung back, and not one of them would go. They did not like the look of the old woman, even when they were comparatively safe on the deck of the vessel, but the idea of finding her close to them in the boat, perhaps of feeling the touch of her staff or the gripe of her bony fingers, was too dreadful to be thought of.

"`What, you cowards, are you afraid of?' shouted the captain, in a furious rage. `Your shipmates will be drowned while you're skulking there--lower away the boat, or I'll shoot some of you.'

"These words had the desired effect. Three hands sprang into the boat to be lowered in her, the third mate and another were following, when through the fright and carelessness of some of the people, one of the falls was let run too soon, the boat was swamped alongside, and the three hands were washed out of her before they could get hold of anything to save themselves. A loud cackling peal of laughter was heard as this second catastrophe occurred, and the witch was seen whirling her staff round on the other side of the ship.

"I thought most of the crew would have jumped overboard in their fright as they saw what she was about. The captain all the time was as cool as if nothing out of the way had happened, though his wife, who was unfortunately on deck at the time, and saw it all, had fallen down again in a swoon from terror. He scarcely heeded her; he was intent on something else.

"`Lower the starboard quarter-boat,' he sang out. `I shall go in her; who'll follow me?'

"I and three hands declared our readiness, and this time more caution being used, the boat was got safely into the water with us in her.

"`Take care of my wife, Mr Tanner,' cried the captain to the first mate, as he sprang over the side; `see if you can bring her to.'

"We got clear of the ship, and with very misdoubting hearts pulled away in the direction where we hoped to find any of our shipmates who might still have kept themselves afloat. By this time there was a good deal of sea running, stirred up by the violence of the squall, though not so much as there would have been had we not been under the lee of the land. As the boat rose to the top of a wave we fancied that we could see one of the poor fellows who had been cast off the yard struggling in the distance, but when we got up to the spot he had disappeared. A cry from a drowning man was heard in another direction, and away we pulled towards it, but before we could clutch the poor fellow he had sunk beneath the waves.

"A third man was seen at a distance still striking out boldly--now he rose to the top of a wave, now he sank into the trough of the sea. We made sure that we at least should save him. Every nerve was strained as we bent to our oars to reach the swimmer. He saw us coming--he felt certain of being saved; but a power greater than his or ours was his enemy, and when we were within twenty yards of him we saw him throw up his arms in despair, his eyeballs started from his head, and with a shriek of agony he sank beneath the foaming waves. He was the last--the others had disappeared, and no trace of them was to be seen.

"Our search had been fruitless. Intent upon our object, we had not observed where we were going. Now, as we looked up to search around for our other shipmates, we saw directly before us the ill-looking witch in her skiff, turning her countenance, with a malignant scowl, over her shoulder to look at us. The hideous sight seemed to drive the captain mad.

"`Give way my men, give way,' he shouted, in a voice trembling with earnestness; `give way; we'll overtake the cursed hag, and I'll punish her for haunting us in this way.'

"With a strange species of infatuation we bent to our oars as ordered, in the hopes of catching her. We might as well have attempted to overtake the whirlwind. The more we strained at our oars, the louder and more insulting became her cackling shrieks of derisive laughter.

"`You hell-born hag, stay and speak, and tell me whence you come and where you are going!' shouted Derick, but the witch did nothing but grin more maliciously, and jeer and laugh the louder. Still we continued the pursuit, but we never got an inch nearer to her, though she was going away with her sail set, right in the wind's eye. The harder we pulled the faster she went, and at last disappeared in a squall of thick rain, which drove down upon us. This was fortunate for us, for so mad had the captain become, that I believe he would have followed her till we all dropped down from fatigue, and he was not the man, in his present mood, the boldest of us dared disobey. We now looked round for the ship. She was nowhere to be seen.

"I cannot describe to you the feelings which took possession of our hearts. It was the blankest despair: Derick alone seemed indifferent to our fate, and only felt enraged at not having been able to overtake the witch. I believe we were capable of jumping overboard, or of rushing at each other with our knives and fighting till we had stabbed each other to death, when, as I was standing upon the thwarts to look around, I saw the ship dead to leeward. I pointed her out to the captain and men.

"`We'll return on board then,' he answered, coolly, as if nothing had happened. `And mind, let none of you talk about our chase after that accursed old hag--we shall have the people fancying next, I suppose, that the ship is doomed.'

"`Ay, ay, sir,' we answered; but though I said nothing about it, I believe the men did not hold their tongues a moment after, they got down into the fore-peak. As the sea went down after this we had little difficulty in getting on board again. When we did so, we found that for some time they had given us up as lost.

"Fortunately, poor Mrs Derick did not return to consciousness till just as her husband got on board, so that she was spared the misery of believing him lost. He had her taken below, and sat up watching her most tenderly till she recovered. In two days she was better, and on deck again, but I observed a great change in her. She looked pale and anxious, and all her life and spirits were gone. I fear she began to suspect that there was good reason for the old witch to haunt us. The loss of six of our best hands was very serious, especially as we had no prospect of supplying their places in any port at which we were likely to touch. On, however, we must go, and make the best of it. The wind now came ahead, and we were obliged to make tack and tack, scarcely ever getting a fair slant till we reached the latitude of Cape Horn.

"One would have supposed that we had had enough of storms and accidents for one voyage, but we had soon to learn that we had something more to go through. Mrs Derick had by this time become something like herself again, and as for the captain, though he felt more than any one, he never changed. He sang and joked as much as ever, and even sneered at the old woman and her jolly-boat, as he called it. I cannot describe what happened every day of the voyage, so I must merely mention the most remarkable events. It was in the afternoon watch, when, as I was sweeping the horizon with my glass, I observed an unusual dark appearance on the water. Some said that it was a sand-bank, others an island, some a shoal fish, but I saw that it was a heavy squall driving furiously over the hitherto smooth unruffled sea. I was not mistaken. I called Captain Derick on deck, and the hands were sent aloft to lower topgallant yards and to furl every sail, except the fore-topsail, which was closely reefed. The men sprang to their duty, for they saw that not a moment was to be lost. The ship was put before the wind just in time. Down came the squall upon us, roaring, and tearing, and hissing along the ocean. Away we flew before it like a sea-bird on the wing. Our only danger was lest we should not be far enough to the south to clear the land of the Patagonians--the renowned Cape Horn.

"Every moment the fury of the gale increased, the waves rose higher, and the wind roared louder. Everything on deck was secured, and preventer braces were put on the fore and fore-topsail yards to assist in securing them. As night approached the terrific contest increased. The sea, which ran on either beam in high mountainous surges, broke with an awful roar; the stern of the ship now lifted on the summit of a wave, and the next instant her bow was plunging madly into the dark trough which yearned apparently to engulf her. The thunder rattled loudly through the heavy sky, the vivid lightning played threateningly round the masts, and the wind howled and whistled through the rigging. Those who had never before felt fear in a storm, now trembled with alarm. On we drove with impetuous violence, the hands at the wheel scarcely able to keep the ship before the boiling seas, which, as they curled up astern, seemed ready to rush down on our decks and overwhelm us.

"It was in the middle watch, and the captain had just joined me on deck, when one of the look-outs shouted, `Land on the starboard bow.' The startling cry was echoed through the ship, and every man sprang on deck. We were clearly in dangerous proximity to the coast, and with the foreboding of mischief on the minds of all, many thought that our time had arrived. All eyes were directed anxiously towards the coast, which every instant was growing more distinct. The wheel was kept a few spokes more to starboard, but we could not venture to haul the ship more up lest she should broach to, and as no land appeared ahead, we hoped to be able, if it were Cape Horn we saw, to scrape round it; at all events a short time would decide our fate.

"The captain went into the cabin with me to consult the chart, and we had every reason to hope that the land we saw was the southernmost part of Cape Horn. When we returned on deck we had drawn awfully near the coast, but it was broad on our starboard beam.

"`We shall be round the Cape in another half hour,' exclaimed the captain in a cheerful tone, `and then, my lads, we shall be clear of the accursed witch and her devilish tricks.'