‘At last,’ said Captain Garbo, ‘you have got so far with your story, that I may finish it for you. Being on a visit to see some of the gold mines of Darien, the overseer of one of them told me that he was losing almost all his negroes of the disease or superstition peculiar, I believe, to those Africans and called ‘dirt-eating.’ He pointed out to Wooroo there, as one of them who was dying the fastest, and on my speaking to him, he told me what he has several times repeated, that he was a great swimmer and a diver. So such being the case, and being then, as now, much engaged in the pearl fishery, I bought the fellow for a trifle, took him down to the coast, and I am bound to say that a better hand under water never plunged over a boat. As soon as he was afloat, he recovered his health and spirits fast; and now, I suppose, there are not two men, white or black, in the fleet, that the fellow could not grasp in either of his hands, and smash their heads together.’
As soon as his master had interrupted him, and bade him cease speaking, Wooroo lost all the look of intelligence and excitement which had gleamed in his eyes. He sat like a brainless statue of black wood. He had performed his task, and at length he held out both hands towards the spirit-flask, and only muttered—
‘Give me the wages you said—make me much drunk.’
Captain Garbo, without a word, filled a large measure with brandy, and handed it to the savage, who rose with it, and walked to a corner in the deep-waist of the ship. Passing there an hour after, I saw the brute lying insensibly drunk, with the empty measure still grasped in his hand.
CHAPTER XXIV.
MY ADVENTURES AMONG THE PEARL FISHERS, AND MY ESCAPE
FROM THE FLEET.
All this time we were beating gaily up to windward in company with our consort, both boats proceeding at much the same rate, and frequently hailing each other and sailing nearly alongside. On the third day from that of our departure, we saw upon our right, towering in great blue masses out of the sea, the high land of Santa Martha. Mariners say that it is higher than the Peak of Teneriffe, and that when the weather is very clear, there is a certain circuit of the Caribbean sea, not far from hence, where, from the tops of a lofty vessel, you may see at once the distant ridges of Hispaniola, the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, and the Peak of Santa Martha upon the main land. The next day, the coast line being far distant, and being cloven, as it were, by the great river De la Hacha, which here comes into the sea, we saw riding at anchor, in-shore from us, a squadron of small ships. We being still well at sea, the water beneath was of a deep blue; but where the Pearl Fleet, for such they were, lay, the hue of the sea was a light green. It was as glorious an afternoon as ever shone under the tropics, as bowling cheerily before the sea-breeze, we ran down for our sister ships, they lying at their anchors above the great bank of pearls. There were fourteen or fifteen barks similar to our own, and at some distance was a stately frigate, which protected them, lying-to.
‘That is the convoy of the Pearl Fleet,’ said Garbo; ‘we must first speak her, and she will allot our station on the bank.’
And, in fact, as he talked, the great maintop-sail of the Spanish ship was filled, and her bows, falling off from the wind and pointing to us, she moved slowly out to meet us. As she drew near, I could not help thinking that she was the same vessel which had chased the ‘Will-o’-the-Wisp.’ At any rate, she had the same richly-carved bows, full of figures of angels and saints, and the same goodly fabric of rigging towering up against the blue sky. Presently, she hove-to again, our small sails being becalmed under her lee, and Captain Garbo, with two of his men, went aboard her in the small canoe which the bark carried. As for myself, I did not care to trust my neck on board a Spanish man-of-war. Indeed, I kept as much out of sight as I very well could, pretending to be busy about a thousand little matters on board the bark. I noted, however, that the Spaniard bore twelve great guns upon either side, besides double batteries upon forecastle and poop. Her high decks swarmed with men, who scrambled over into her chains and out at her port-holes, and chatted with the Spanish part of the bark’s crew, and mocked and gibed at Wooroo as he sat upon his hams on the deck, taking no more notice of what was said to him than the mast. Presently the captain returned with a card in his hand, whereon was inscribed the station of the bark upon the bank. Each boat had its own appointed place; and the frigate was there not only to protect the fleet against Buccaneers, but to enforce the rules which the Spanish government, to whom the fishery belongs, lays down to be observed by the barks which prosecute it. The pearl bank extends for a great many miles in length and one in breadth, there being a deep channel about three or four leagues broad between its inmost edge and the land. Our position was towards the eastern extremity of the bank, and so we beat up towards it, passing many of the anchored boats, who hailed us cheerily, and asked what news from Carthagena. As we sailed along, we saw the divers, all of them either Indian or negroes, standing often upon the edge of the boats, poising their bodies for a moment, and then plunging head-foremost down into the sea. Some of the fleet were more deeply laden than others, that depending upon the number of the oysters which chanced to lie scattered under each boat. As soon as the cargo is made up, the pearl fisherman weighs, hoists his lug sails, and runs in for the shore; but if the frigate fires two guns, one close after the other, he must lie-to, until a boat from the big ship comes and gives him leave to proceed. Although the rule, however, is, that each boat fishes and sails for itself, without attending to its neighbours, yet the convoy always tries as far as possible to arrange matters, so that the fleet may sail in a body to the shore, the frigate attending them to windward. If it be suspected that there are Buccaneers upon the coast, the ordinary rule is indeed altogether suspended, and no boat is permitted to weigh anchor until the commodore fire a gun, and hoist a blue flag at his foretop-gallant-mast head, when the whole squadron run gaily together for the Ranchiera, as the pearl village is called, upon the banks of the Rio de la Hacha. When we joined the fleet no danger was, however, suspected, and by the time that we had taken our station, and let the anchor splash from the bows, about half the barks, which were deepest in the water, had weighed; and hoisting their brown patched sails, scudded away before the last of the sea-breeze. As soon as it became dark each boat hoisted a lantern to its mast-head; the frigate showing two, one above the other, in the foretop-gallant rigging. The night was calm and still. Every now and then we would hear the faint sound of songs, coming over the water from distant barks; and, as hour after hour passed away, it was marked by the clang of the great ship’s bell. Meantime, on board our bark, we were busy preparing for to-morrow’s fishing. The waist was cleared out, and the decks fore and aft lumbered with the coils of rope and old canvas, flung aside to make room for the expected overflow of oysters. Then the baskets to be used in lifting them from the bottom of the sea, strong cages of thick wire, all rusty and bent, were prepared; the tackle was rigged, and lines were affixed to heavy pieces of lead, furnished with handles for the divers to grasp, so as to sink the quicker to the bottom. These preparations over, we cooked and ate our suppers and turned in, leaving but one hand on deck for an anchor watch, as sailors call it.
‘Now,’ thought I, as, according to my custom, instead of crawling into the little cabins, which were not much better than the hold of the ship which had carried Wooroo from Guinea, I laid myself down on deck, well muffled up in old sails, to keep the heavy dews away—‘Now,’ thought I, ‘I have heard of kings and queens who slept on beds whereof the curtains were heavy with pearls, all glittering in their lustre above them, but here am I now, and here be a fleet of us poor sea-tossed mariners sleeping upon a bed with more pearls beneath and around us than there are in the treasuries and the thrones, and on the royal bed-curtains to boot, of London, or Paris, or Madrid.’ I know not whether the kings and queens whereof I have spoken slept the better for the pearls above them; I know I slept well with pearls below me, being indeed favoured, perhaps by St. Gieronimo, with a vision in which I saw the ‘Will-o’-the Wisp’ suddenly appear in the midst of the Pearl Fleet and engage the Spanish frigate, Stout Jem himself fighting in single combat with the captain, and at length, by one stout thrust, pinning him to his own mainmast; when, just as I was about to spring forward to haul down the golden flag of Spain from the man-of-war’s topmast, a loud voice, coming from real flesh and blood lungs, smote my ear, and, starting up, I saw Captain Garbo and the rest scrambling through the hatchways in their shirts, while the anchor watch was shouting lustily that there was a strange vessel rowing with sweeps through the fleet, and that he had even heard the muttering of the voices on board of her. At this, I confess very willingly, my heart made a leap into my mouth. Was my dream a true vision—was Stout Jem, indeed, so near? We all held our peace and listened, but we heard nothing. It was now quite dark. The night had got cloudy, and there were neither stars nor moon. The air, too, was quite still, and the tap-tap of the water against the ridges of overlapping planks on the clinker-built side of the boat, as she rocked slowly on the swell, was the only sound we could distinguish. The lights of the other barks were gleaming on the dark ocean, and the two lanterns of the frigate swayed slowly from side to side, as though they were meteors playing among the stars.