Leonard Lindsay ;

by Angus B. Reach

‘Starboard—starboard. Keep her a little away, master, the channel is on the lee-bow,’ cried Disco. The course of the piragua was altered accordingly, and glancing ahead, I saw the streak of dark water, leading to the open sea; at the same time that the fleet of pearl fishers answered the alarm from ashore, by kindling torches, waving lanterns, and shouting and blowing horns, just as they had done the night that the privateer had swooped down in the centre of them, and carried off one of the very best in his clutch. At this moment, we having drawn clear of the sand hills on shore, the breeze freshened, sweeping down the coast, heavy with the dew of the night air. The light sails swelled stiffly out, the sheets tautened, the thin supple masts swayed and creaked, and the few ropes which stayed them upon the weather-side stretched out as rigid as iron-bars. And yet the piragua flew by every swell which rolled in from the offing—not plunging into the great green seas, and flashing the foam sparklingly up into the air, but moving rather like a bird, which, with spreading and far-stretched pinion, just glances over the sea, rather flying than swimming—borne more by the winds than the waves. Truly, I had never sailed in so wonderfully-fashioned a craft—so thin and slight was her construction, that she appeared, as it were, to yield, and bend, and quiver in the seas—but ever on, gaily and lightsomely, she went, sliding, as it were, without noise and without shock, leaping with a quick, buoyant, bounding motion, right over and over the swells, which now, as the water shoaled upon the bar, began to roll by us, white with milky foam. Verily, Peralta did well when he likened his piragua to a noiseless gliding ghost.

While I was still wrapped in amazement at the performances of the canoe, she was flying across the bar in the very midst of the fleet of pearl fishers. The whole thing passed over me like a vision—a dream of flashing foaming water, plunging and dripping ships, with their canvas flapping, and their booms, and yards, and ropes, creaking and moaning, and rattling together—of fierce, eager faces, and hurrying, dusky forms, running on the decks, leaping into the riggings, flashing their torches and lanterns; shouting, yelling, and hailing the piragua and Peralta to lie to, and put about—and some of them flourishing glimmering knives and firing pistols in the air.

All this, I say, appeared to pass by me like a vision, or a dream—and it only lasted for a few brief moments—for the piragua, which was steered in a fashion which made me look upon Peralta as a sailor rather than a merchant, flew through the panic-struck squadron, who could no more catch her, than they could the shadow of her tall sails upon the water. Once, and once only, a heavy hook or grapnel, attached to a stout line, was flung by a lusty arm, and lighted in the piragua’s fore-rigging, but even before the rope had tightened, Disco leaped to the spot, his knife flashed, the severed hemp fell back into the sea, and the useless iron tumbled down into the bottom of the canoe. The next moment we were fairly at sea, with the whole of the squadron, save one or two loiterers, behind us. Just then the frigate, who was a couple of miles or so in the offing, fired a heavy cannon, and showed a number of lights, by which we saw swarms of men, rushing from the high carved bulwarks into the rigging, as if they designed to make sail in all haste.

‘Ho! ho! ho!’ laughed Peralta. ‘Here comes the elephant chasing the weasel, and the elephant thinks that the best way to begin the race is to roar a little.’

And, indeed, any attempt of the big ship to follow us would have been just about as hopeless a chase as that to which Peralta had likened it. So, after firing a few more guns, whether with shot in them or not we neither knew nor cared, she stood cautiously in for the bar of the river, sending her boats before her, as we conjectured, to learn the cause of all the uproar. Meantime we had struck a light, keeping the lantern, however, well masked, and then setting the head of the boat about nor-nor-west, that being as near the wind as we could lie, and at the same time make good way through the water, we trimmed the sails neatly, and cried, ‘Northward Ho! for Jamaica.’

For about an hour, during which time little was spoken, Peralta held the helm. He then called us all round him, and apportioned the watches in the ordinary seaman fashion—I being placed with Disco, and he taking his turn of duty with Jenipa. This settled, we tossed up whose watch should begin first, and it falling to the turn of Disco and myself, Peralta gave me the helm, instructing me, as I was not well acquainted with the management of piraguas, to call him if the wind freshened so much as to seem to demand the taking in of a reef. Then creeping beneath the half-deck, which extended from the bows to abaft the foremast, he coiled himself up along with Jenipa, and the pair went very quietly to sleep. During our watch, which was tranquil, I tried to obtain some information from the Indian touching the habits and pursuits of his master, and also relating to the causes of our very sudden departure. But the fellow, although he would talk glibly enough upon the weather, or the piragua, or the manner of our escape, was as close as wax as regarded everything else. Indeed, he reminded me very truly that I ought to know more about the reason of our departure than he, having come from the shore, while he had been sleeping on board the piragua. At that I told him what I had heard from Jenipa, about Juan and Blanco having been detected and taken to the fort, where they had confessed not only the truth, but, as I had heard, more than the truth. The Mosquito man merely shrugged his shoulders, and said he could make nothing of it, although I saw very well, by the intelligent look of the fellow’s face, as the binnacle lamp shone upon his bronzed features, that he understood much more of the matter than he chose to confess. Finding I could make nothing of the Indian, I set myself to consider the whole affair, and putting Peralta’s hints about the way to get pearls cheap, in connexion with what I had actually witnessed and heard, I was not long in arriving at the conclusion, that, in all probability, for every pearl which the merchant bought of the captain of the fishery, he obtained another, and at a very considerably cheaper rate, by dealing quietly with the openers themselves, to which class I concluded that Juan and Blanco must belong. This solution of the riddle seemed the more probable, when I remembered much that I had heard touching the great number of pearls supposed to be secreted by the Indians, in spite of the utmost vigilance of the Spaniards. Jamaica sloops had, I knew, ere now gone to hover near the Rio de la Hacha, having their agents and correspondents, in various disguises, lurking upon the coast, and of course keeping up communication with the Indian divers and openers; but the adroitness and courage shown by Peralta in living as a Spaniard openly amongst Spaniards, and supporting the character of a regular pearl merchant, communicating with the captain of the fishery, while in reality he was driving the best part of his trade by underhand dealing with the Indians, conducted, no doubt, at great and constant risk of detection and death; all this inspired me with no small respect for the abilities and the nerve of the owner of the piragua. Then I thought with what cool generalship he had conducted the retreat, not losing a moment by delay, yet taking his measures with as great composure and deliberation as if he were departing upon a pleasure cruise. Afterwards, I began to wonder that I had not observed him, when leaving the hut, take with him the amount of pearls which I felt sure that he must have amassed; but a few minutes’ reflection convinced me, from the perfect unconcern with which he had walked out of the hut, not caring to pick up any one article of those strewn about, that all the valuables which he possessed on shore, he carried constantly concealed about his person. Indeed, in the matter of such costly toys as pearls, or precious stones, a man’s own garments formed by far the safest depository to be found in the ranchiera.

While brooding over these things, the night passed silently away. With the grey dawn, Peralta relieved me, and we crept in our turn under the half-deck, and slept until the sun rose high into the unclouded heaven, and the piragua was staggering along under reefed canvas, bending over to the whistling trade-wind, and leaping from sea to sea, like a hunted stag. During the day, little of note occurred. Peralta avoided taking me further into his confidence, and I had tact enough to see that I ought to refrain from seeming to intrude upon his mystery. As I watched him, however, I often saw him bite his thin lips, and wrinkle his forehead, and clench his hand, as if distressing thoughts haunted him; and at last he broke out, addressing nobody in particular, but speaking moodily to himself—

‘Those poor fellows!’ he cried, ‘those poor fellows Juan and Blanco—I would give every pearl the venture hath brought that they were safe and sound in this piragua. The Spaniards will hang them; nay, indeed, it may have been already done, and their bodies are swinging in this same sea-breeze!’

Here Jenipa interposed very respectfully, and said that no effort we could have possibly made would have sufficed to rescue the Indians, and that we had nothing to reproach ourselves with on that score.

‘No, no,’ said Peralta. ‘We could not have got them out of trouble; but we have been the cause that they fell into it.’