TOUCHING THOSE INCIDENTS THAT HAD HAPPENED TO SIR BARTLEMY AS HE LAY AT THE MOUTH OF THE ORONOQUE.
Turning from this grisly spectacle while still the flame was bright, Thomas Palmer cries of a sudden: "Why, this is none of our ships; for our sides are painted of a lively hue."
Whereupon, casting my eyes that way, I perceived that this was none but that great black ship which had been our undoing.
So now, guessing pretty well how matters stood, we no longer hesitated to draw towards that light we had been making for. And coming to it anon, and calling out loudly for those aboard, we were answered at once by the lusty voice of my stout old uncle, who had been brought on deck by the watch on perceiving our light alongside the black ship.
Hearing his voice, my Lady Biddy cried in her sweet voice, as clear as any bell: "We are here, dear heart; we have come back to you."
To tell of the great, unbounded joy in every heart when we came on deck would call for more wit than I possess, so I must span that over and come to the time when, the day beginning to break, my Lady Biddy was induced to go into the cabin prepared for her; and my uncle and I, grown calm, sat us down together with a bottle and a paper of tobacco, and he fell to telling of his adventures; of which (not to weary the reader) will I repeat no more than is necessary.
"You see, nephew," says my uncle, "when we anchored in these roads, the water was prodigiously swollen by reason of the flux of rains; for you must understand that there is a bar to the east, which does in a manner hem in the flood. Well, here lay we very peacefully a week after the party had set out in search of you, when what should we spy in the offing one early morn but the black ship, which I knew at once for my old enemy, and another, which hath turned out to be none other than our first ship, the Adventurer, fitted out as a pirate, and commanded by that villain Parsons. My first intent was to stand up to them and pay off old scores; but having regard to the weakness of our company by the absence of those picked men gone up the Oronoque, and reflecting that if I were by any accident crippled in this bout, it would go hard with you on your coming hither, I was persuaded from my purpose; but as to showing our heels to the enemy, as some advised, that would I not do. They came on, thinking to make light work of such small fry as we were; but we stood to our guns and beat 'em off all day. However, when we could no longer see to fight, I found myself so crippled that I resolved to draw our little barks into shallow water, where their heavy ships might not dance round us on the morrow as they had that day. Accordingly we put our boats and towed us in till we touched bottom. The next day our enemy, spying us in our new ground, lifted anchor and bore down on us, thinking to pepper us all round and about as before; but presently they ran aground at a decent distance from us by reason that they drew so much more than we; nevertheless, they were near enough to bruise us again sorely with their great guns, and that was all they wanted, for 'twas the design of that accursed Rodrigues to waste none of his men in hand-to-hand fight, but just riddle us day after day with his large shot until we sank or yielded. But herein did he reckon without taking account of the hand of Providence, which is ever on the side of right; though it does seem at times as if He would be for ever a-scourging us. That night the waters sank so prodigiously that ere daybreak both we and the pirate careened over in such sort that our guns could no longer be brought to bear one upon another, which was a comfort to us. Out of this pickle was there no way until the waters should again swell. Seeing which, this Rodrigues sent me a mighty civil letter, saying that he had come there but to refresh his company and get water; bearing me no ill-will, but rather the contrary; and since, as it was evident, we must lie there neighbors for months to come, we should do better to make terms of peace and live in comfort than to go plaguing each other out of existence. To this I sent answer that I would by no means make terms with a villain, and that if he would live he must keep out of my reach. A reply came saying that he should certainly have regard to my amiable warning, and that as he was averse to useless bloodshed, he should order his company to keep to the east of our position in their expeditions ashore, and while mine kept to the west no injury would be offered us; therewith he signed himself my 'obedient, humble servant, Rodrigues.' Well, nephew, I perceived it would be to our advantage to agree to this condition—tacitly, for I would never put my hand to compact with such a rascal. And, to be brief," says my uncle, "we passed the summer without conversing or coming to blows with our neighbors. But foreseeing full well that Rodrigues, as soon as the waters rose, and he could float his ships, would certainly give his company the pleasure of spoiling us before going away, I took my measures to be prepared against him, keeping my company cheerful, sober, hopeful, and God-fearing, which Rodrigues could not do by his men, because they were naturally of a violent, willful disposition. So while mine daily increased in steadfastness and vigor, his grew more violent and lawless, as we could hear every night by their drunken revelry and singing of filthy songs. And then, knowing the advantage must be to him who could first get afloat, I did secretly by night convey all my heavy stores out of this ship into my companion bark, keeping aboard only such shot as I intended to deliver into that scurvy pirate. The first day of the rains we lifted; yet I still of purpose kept her careened over to deceive Rodrigues. The second morning, the water having risen in the bay still further, I found we might contrive, with the next breeze, to right the ship and get into that deeper water where the Black Death lay; and with this design I got all my men to their posts, and everything ready for a speedy start. In the afternoon came a sweet little breeze from the land, on which I gave the signal; and all replying with a hearty cheer and stout hearts, we presently righted ourselves, and shaking out our sails slid easily off the sand, like a duck into a mill-pond. And now, nephew, I bore right up to Rodrigues with a warlike blast of our trumpets, and passing to that side of her where she lay exposed below the water-line, I poured such a volley through her timbers as would stay her from taking to the water if she had the mind, Then wore we round by her other side, and gave her just such another dose over her bulwarks and through her decks; but my gunners, at my desire, did take especial care to bruise all her boats, so that they could not put off to our attack. And having served Rodrigues' ship in this sort, we wore away and served his consort—for they were a couple—in the like fashion. In line, Benet, we riddled 'em both like a pair of colanders, and seeing by the disablement of their boats that they could neither do us any further mischief, I held off, knowing they must come to yield themselves up to our mercy in the end from sheer starvation; for they had no store aboard, by reason of their wilful improvidence and headstrong insubordination, and no means to provide themselves with necessaries from the land neither, now that every boat was disabled. We counted that a few days would humble Rodrigues and bring his rascals to their knees; but they were in no mood to suffer privation long, and that very evening one of their number swam to us, while his fellows spread out a white sheet over the side of their ship for a sign of peace. Coming aboard, this messenger said he had been sent by his commanders, Edward Parsons and Sanchey Rodrigues, to acknowledge themselves at my mercy, and to know what terms I would make with them and their company.
"'Surrender yourselves prisoners to me,' says I, 'and you shall receive such treatment at my hands as humanity prescribes, until I may deliver you to the ministers of justice to be dealt with according to your deserts.'
"'Why, your honor,' says he ruefully, 'that is but to offer us a safe conduct to the gallows; and for my own part I would as soon trust to Providence in these wilds as to justice in England. 'Tis hard on us poor fellows, who would die honest men, and have no love for such plaguy adventures as those who have brought us to ruin.'
"'Nay,' says I, 'if you would have indulgence of me I must have good assurance that you are not willing accomplices of your commanders.'
"'I take your honor at that," says he quickly, "for though I be here in the name of our commanders, my chief purpose is to plead for my mates. You shall have that assurance you demand before another day is past: set every one of us down for a born scoundrel else.'
"And with that he leaps into the sea, and swims back to his ship. In the middle of the night following we were aroused by shots fired on the Black Death, whereby we knew that the men had risen in mutiny against their captains; but clearly they were prepared for this assault, for the fighting continued on and off all that night and best part of the day following; but about six in the evening the battle grew to its loudest, and after half an hour we perceived that it 'twas decided one way or the other by the firing coming to an end, and a prodigious cheer being raised. Nor were we long in learning how matters stood, for shortly after the company, coming to the side of their ship with a waving of hats and much hallooing, swung up that wretch Rodrigues and his fellow, Parsons, by their necks to the yard-arm."
When my uncle had made an end of his discourse, I ventured to ask him if he had chanced to hear anything of Sir Harry Smidmore since he had been lying in these parts.
"'Nay," says he, "I have seen naught of him; but I got tidings of him only yesterday from one of the pirates we have now aboard. He tells me that before coming hither Rodrigues put ashore on that island where he set you and Smidmore, to see if hardship had subdued your spirits and inclined you to cast in your lot with him. There, on a post planted in the shore, they found a bottle tied, with a letter inside it signed by Sir Harry, telling how—to his great joy and the praise of Heaven—he had been found by an honest merchant putting in for water, and was about to sail with him thence for the city of Bristol. And so, Benet," says he, "you have no reason to torment yourself on that score."