Leonard Lindsay ;

by Angus B. Reach

‘The only thing I fear,’ said Garbo to me, as we stood holding on by the foremast, ‘is for the frigate’s boats. There will be no great damage to anything else.’

Just as he spoke, a man beside us shouted, ‘A boat! a boat!’ and looking forth ahead, we saw, clearly relieved against the whiteness of a breaking sea, one of the frigate’s barges coming tossing down upon us, while, almost at the same instant, a couple of dark sails shot, as it were, like dusky shadows into the faintly lighted circle around us, illuminated by the half-dozen lamps which, in imitation of the rest of the fleet, we had fixed to different parts of the rigging, and then in a moment, as the vessel which bore the canvas rose upon the crest of a sea, we all recognised the long, low galley which had laid the pearl boat aboard. She was flying along close hauled to the wind, the white foam beating in showers over her long dusky form, and sometimes over the two patches of sails which she carried. The boat of the frigate lay right athwart her track. There were two loud shouts from those in the boat and those in the sailing galley, then, in an instant, a straggling volley of musketry was shot by the former. The flashes illuminated the sea, showing the sharp and carved prow, ending in a serpent’s head, of the adventurous craft, and the grim faces of a cluster of men, who waved their hands and shook axes and cutlasses at the Spanish boat. Then there was a sudden order, in English, on board the galley, ‘Port! Hard a-port! and give them the stem.’ The bows an instant fell off from the wind, lifted on a sea, and crushed down upon the doomed boat, driving her under water like an eggshell, while, with a loud hearty hurrah, the Buccaneer swept past us, not three fathoms from our bowsprit, and, in a moment, disappeared in the night.

‘A sail, close to astern,’ was at the moment sung out from the other extremity of our craft.

‘Never mind the sail astern,’ shouted Garbo. ‘Here—ropes, oars, anything—there is a boat swamped ahead, and as he spoke, there appeared the wreck of the man of-war’s pinnace, with some of the men clinging to it, and others striking out amid the sea, and shouting lustily to us for help. A dozen of lines were flung to them at once, while the fat negro leaped overboard, calling to the struggling mariners to fear nothing. Wooroo never moved an inch during the whole affair, except to shake his woolly head when a heavier shower of spray than ordinary fell upon him. The Spaniards, who could most of them swim well, soon scrambled up our low sides, none the worse of their ducking. Not a man was missing, thanks to the aid of our little pearl diver, who had made directly for the wreck of the boat, and very dexterously lashed a couple of ropes round the only two of the crew who, either by being stunned in the collision, or from the bewilderment and suddenness of the whole affair, were clinging for life to the shattered boat, without having in the least the power of helping themselves. Such a scene of outcry, and swearing, and hubbub of all sorts, as the Spanish man-of-war’s men made when they got aboard, I never saw. They ran from end to end of the craft, shouting out, in the darkness, after the vessel which had run them down; roaring, by all the saints, that they would be revenged upon her, and that when the frigate caught her, they would not leave a French or English throat uncut on board. As for me, I deemed it politic to chime in with these declarations—to the great amusement of Captain Garbo, who was a very good fellow, and kept my secret like wax. When we had a little settled down—the squall having also fallen, and the sea getting smoother fast—the captain called for the man who had reported the sail astern, and asked him what like she was?

‘Truly,’ said the mariner, ‘I can tell you not only what like she was, but what she really was—the vessel being no other than the bark which the Buccaneer laid aboard, and which no doubt she captured, for both ships were lying the same course—one passing ahead and the other astern of us.’

‘Ay,’ said the officer of the man-of-war, shivering in his cold wet clothes, ‘it was the ship the scoundrels wanted, and there is no denying but they have carried her off very cleverly.’

I was of the same opinion myself, and I could not but admire the judgment of the Buccaneers in rowing into the centre of the sleeping squadron, just before the outbreak of the squall, and then swooping off with their prey, in the midst of the confusion which it created. The weather soon cleared up. By midnight the stars were twinkling forth, and the frigate having worked up near us, we hailed that the crew of the pinnace were safe, and presently another boat coming on board, carried them to their own ship. With the earliest peep of the dawn I was at the mast-head of our bark. The fleet, with the exception of the one spirited away, were riding at their stations. The boats which had, yesterday evening, gone into the river with their cargoes, were again standing out for the bank. The frigate lay to windward—rising and falling on the froth-laced seas, with her main-topsail flat to the mast—but elsewhere the ocean was sailless. The Buccaneer and her prize, one of the largest and quickest vessels of the fleet, had disappeared.

That morning, we began our proper business of collecting pearls, the method of which I will briefly describe. First, the fat negro went in the canoe to several points round about the vessel, diving into the water at each, and thus finding where the shell-fish lay thickest. This having been ascertained, he placed a small buoy upon the spot, and the bark was warped up to it. The iron-basket, which I have mentioned, was then let down to the bottom of the sea, the depth of which was hereabouts nearly five fathoms, or almost thirty feet. Then Wooroo and his comrade prepared for their day’s work, by stuffing their ears full of the down of the cotton-tree, without which, or some similar precaution, divers frequently become deaf. They anointed their limbs, too, with some sort of vegetable oil, and then taking the sinkers of lead, which I have spoken of, in their hands, they poised their bodies, standing upon the gunwale of the ship, and keeping time, as it were, to her roll, flinging back their arms and shoulders, and breathing deeply, so as to puff out their broad chests with air. Wooroo, while so standing, looked like a great black image of Strength. At length they leaped simultaneously, making but one splash, and as the water settled over them, we could see their black forms wavering and quivering, as it seemed, owing to the motion of the sea, and then presently clinging to the projections of rock, all tufted over with green sea-weed—in the rifts of which the oysters lay thick. As soon, however, as they began to tear up the latter from their beds, the water became so much mudded that we could not remark the process. In the meantime, we hauled up both sinkers, which the divers had let go on reaching the bottom, and placed them on the gunwale, all ready for the next plunge. The little man came up to the surface first—puffing and blowing. There was a sort of broad-stepped ladder, with three or four rounds, which was let down into the water, and upon one of which he sat to rest, basking himself in the hot sun. Wooroo did not appear at the surface, until I began to think that he would never come up at all—and said as much to Garbo.

‘Drowned,’ said the good-tempered Spaniard; ‘that’s not the fate he was born to. Caramba! that fellow’s lungs will hold as much air as the biggest bellows that ever were puffed.’ And accordingly, after an unconscionable space of time, the negro rose, and clung to the ladder, his features appearing only a little swollen, and his vast chest heaving a little faster, as the consequences of his plunge. As soon as the basket was reported filled, it was drawn up and emptied into the deep waist, and then let down again. In the course of the day, another negro and an Indian, both expert divers, arrived from the shore to help us, there being generally four divers to each boat. Two cages were then let down together, and by nightfall, the bark had half her cargo on board.

In consequence, however, of the bold attack of the pirate, or Buccaneer, the captain of the frigate determined that all the pearl fishermen should proceed together to the shore, and from thence back to the banks, sailing in a squadron; and as the greater number of the boats had their full cargoes on board, we all weighed anchor in company, stealing in slowly for the shore, upon a smooth sea glistening in the starlight. It was a fair spectacle that small squadron, with their white sails just sleeping in the light breeze, and with the great frigate, her huge lanterns shining over her poop like sea-beacons, and now and then belching forth a sheet of red spouting fire, as an admonition to any of the faster boats, which might appear to be inclined to take the lead of the rest, not to break the order of sailing. As we glided along, the crews of the barks often sang in chorus, the music being re-echoed and reflected as it were between the many sails spread out, until it appeared as if hundreds of choristers were joining in the burden. About midnight we crossed the bar of the Rio de la Hacha, the frigate remaining outside, and presently anchored near the shore, in a shallow bay, where the water was brackish. The land hereabouts is low and sandy, with abundance of thin-stemmed, narrow-leaved herbage, and few trees. The town is a mere assemblage of huts, kept up for the purpose of the pearl fishery, and inhabited by the Indians, being principally old men, women, and children, who open the oysters, under the constant superintendence of watchful Spanish overseers, who are there to keep a sharp eye upon the pearls. Notwithstanding all their care, however, they are very often cheated, and the most valuable pearls hidden and conveyed away. I had often opportunities while on board the fleet, and ashore in the ranchiera, or village, of seeing the process of opening the oysters. These were brought from on board the barks in flat-bottomed barges to the shore, whence they are carried in baskets, upon the heads of the Indians, to a sort of store-pit, or receptacle, into which they are flung. Close to this deposit are ranged a great many narrow tables, each of them consisting only of two rough planks set upon trestles, and shaded overhead by a roof of withered grass heaped upon hurdles. All along the tables, on one side, are ranged great lines of the Indian slaves opening the oysters, while upon the other side of the tables, stand the Spanish overseers, there being one overseer to every dozen or so of openers. When an Indian finds pearls, either of the large or the seed sort, he shouts out, and his superintendent immediately goes up to him, and takes charge of the precious substances, which he is bound in turn to give to the chief superintendent, who registers their size and value in an account book.