On this we all shouted—‘Yes, yes; a cruize, a cruize!’
‘Good,’ continued Stout Jem, ‘I say, with you, a cruize. That being settled, there are other matters to consider. Here are no guns, either calivers, arquebusses, culverins, or falconets. To make booty of the rich Spanish galleons without cannon, is like trying to eat a lump of bull-beef without teeth. The two brass guns below may do in their way. For these we have, however, no carriages; and besides, we want a piece of far heavier metal. Another matter is, that on board here we have neither a surgeon nor a carpenter, although both we and our ship are likely to meet with plenty of hard knocks; and furthermore, to make a cruize successful—and as the old falconers were wont to say—to fly at game of the first head, we must have more men. Jack Spaniard does not always leave his ships defenceless, and his galleons have rows of teeth which bite sharply. My counsel therefore is, that we stand for Port Royal in Jamaica. On the way we may chance upon a something worth picking up, and once arrived there, we can fit out in good style, and take on board what men we please. Besides, there we can have a French commission, or Letter of Marque, the French being now at war with the Spanish. I know that the Dons have hung many of our brave comrades with their commissions about their necks, but still I approve of doing all things regularly and in order. Now, then, you have heard my advice—what do you say to it?’
We replied, with great acclamations, that he had spoken very justly; that we had all confidence in his counsels, and that we created him captain of the expedition. After some further discussion, I was named quartermaster, I being a more experienced sailor than many older men; and to Stout Jem, or, as we now called him, Captain Jem, was given the charge of the larboard, and to me the charge of the starboard watch. This done, we re-christened the schooner—dashing a bottle of spirits upon her bows—and calling her the ‘Will-o’-the-Wisp.’ We lay quietly at anchor that night, and weighing before dawn, the last of the land-wind carried us clear of the bay, and when the sea-breeze struck us next morning, we up helm, veered away the sheets, and stood away along the coast bound for Jamaica.
How vast is the difference between beating to windward in a small vessel against a rough sea, and flying gaily on before wind and waves! Cape and headland, and bay and creek, appeared and disappeared, as the nimble Will-o’-the-Wisp went bounding on, kicked as it were by every foaming sea which rolled behind her. You may be sure that we kept a good look-out for the former owners of the schooner, as we ran just past the entrance to the cove, but no human form could we descry among the rocks and woods. Not very far to leeward, we however observed a boat, with a small clumsy sail, making her way along the coast; and, approaching a little nearer, I soon guessed that she was the boat of the Spaniards, which we had given up to them, and that they were probably risking the chances of a run to Cuba. To satisfy our curiosity, however, we kept slightly away and a cry soon overhauled the little craft. She had but four men in her, including he who seemed to have been the captain, and the woman. Their sail was a clumsy thing, made of hides and scraps of canvas, and useless for any other purpose than to drive before the wind. As we approached them, the captain got up and hailed us very vehemently in Spanish. The purport of his discourse, as I gathered it, being whether, after robbing him of his ship, we meant to run down and sink the boat. A movement of the tiller soon made him easy on that point, and he sat down doggedly, with his teeth clenched, scowling at us. The woman clung to him convulsively, and the three men lay stretched in the bottom of the boat, only showing their tangled hair and black eyes above the gunwale. Captain Jem, who as he was a brave man, was a kind one, told me to ask whether they needed any food or water, which I did; but the Spaniard only waved his hand impatiently, muttered somewhat about ‘Perros Inglesos’ English dogs; and one or two of the men clenched their fists at us over the side of the boat. All this, however, we could well afford to take in good humour.
‘Well,’ quoth Captain Jem, ‘if they are well victualled, so are we; and if they won’t say aught to us, we have little that I know of to say to them. So, cast loose your brails, my sons, and let’s be jogging.’
The sails, which had been partially furled, were accordingly reset, and in half an hour the boat was a speck on the horizon to windward. We ran through the strait which separates Hispaniola from Tortugas, near enough to the latter coast to see that there were long stretches of flat rich land washed by the sea, and high mountains beyond. We also saw a great many sails of small boats and barks coasting along, and innumerable canoes fishing. That same night we passed the north-eastern part of Hispaniola, and, directing our course towards the south-east, sailed straight for Jamaica. In the afternoon of the next day we sighted at a great distance the longest outlying point of Hispaniola, and in twenty-four hours thereafter, descried Cape Morant, in Jamaica; and coasting along the southern shore, which lies hereabouts, very rich and flat, with great peaks, called the Blue Mountains, in the distance, we descried at nightfall the glimmer of distant lights, which we knew to be those of Port Royal. Here is the principal harbour in the island—a very commodious and safe one—formed by a deep indentation in the land, like a gulf, and sheltered by a long spit or bank of sand, called the Palisades, on which the surf beats vehemently, while within the water is like a mill-pond. There is but one entrance, and that well fortified; and the town of Port Royal is built just beyond the inlet or passage from the sea. Although it was near midnight when we anchored outside, resolving not to enter until we had daylight to help our pilot, a canoe presently came alongside of us, manned by a couple of negroes, who were fishermen and pilots, and who offered us abundance of fish and fruit very cheap. These men managed their canoe like thorough seamen, and one of them we retained to take us in as soon as the sea-breeze should blow next morning.
This fellow wore coarse canvas trousers, a striped shirt, and a great straw hat, and grinned and showed his white teeth, and rolled his eyes, and clattered in his gibberish fashion to all on board.
‘Oh, me de best pilot in all Port Royal,’ he would say; ‘take in a king’s ship, big enough to put dis schooner in him pocket, and never rub him keel. No, no, massa, Dick Canoe,’ for so he called himself, ‘de best pilot in all de island, and bery much esteem and respect by all de merchants, officers, and gentlemen privateers.’
On asking him for news, he told us that many privateers were in the harbour, and that their crews having had reasonably good luck in an expedition to the main, were spending their money in the usual fashion ashore; information which pleased us the more, as we would probably have our pick and choice of good men. So next day we ran in among very intricate sand-banks, which lie at the mouth of the harbour, and presently saw the houses of Port Royal, with hundreds of artificers labouring to construct forts and bastions and such works around them, disposed so as to command the entrance to the harbour completely. Inside, in the smooth water, rode many brave merchant ships and certain smaller barks, which, I believe, had often brought destruction upon the Spanish towns of the main; but these last seemed empty, except a negro or two left in charge of them, all hands being carousing on shore. We dropped our anchor in a suitable place, and cast lots who should remain on board to take charge of the schooner, while the rest went into the town. The die fell upon Black Diamond, and the Mosquito men stayed on board voluntarily, intending, however, to put off in a canoe during the day to strike fish upon the sand-banks and the little islands near the Palisades. Captain Jem, Nicky, and myself went ashore in the pilot’s canoe, meaning to make the necessary arrangements for the further prosecution of our voyage. We found Port Royal very bustling and busy. As I have said, the people were occupied in building great fortifications, under the direction of officers in the English uniform, some of the workmen being, as we heard, criminals, others negro slaves, and the rest free labourers, either white or black. On the beach, great crowds of negroes were rolling down casks to the water’s edge, or along the wharfs, where the boats of the ships in the harbour were awaiting them; these labourers being generally naked except a pair of light drawers and a tattered shirt, and shouting, and chattering, and laughing to each other, while the white drivers, who walked amongst them with great broad-brimmed hats, very often interrupted their conversations with a smart crack of the whip, and a harsh order to labour on. Passing through these busy crowds, and amongst great heaps of goods, such as bales and casks just landed from England, and masses of shipping stores, over which grave merchants and supercargoes were busy with pen and ink, comparing invoices, bills of lading, and what not, and wrangling about qualities and freights, we emerged among the houses of the town, which were in general mean, and but of one story, built indeed commonly of wood, with shingle roofs, which rattled in the sea-breeze, and often sheltered by orange trees covered at once with fruit and bright flowers, and mangoes with their heavy foliage, and tamarinds, with branching feathery leaves, and long waving pods. The houses had great open casements and covered galleries, called jalousies, with pillars, round which many gaudy creeping plants clung. Here there were great stores, with all manner of commodities, and there, vast taverns, from the open windows of which we could hear loud roaring songs in French and English, and a great clatter of glasses; and now and then, when the noise somewhat lulled, the rattle of dice. The streets, which were very narrow, dusty, and irregular, were crowded with groups of half-drunken seamen and their trulls, gangs of negroes carrying great baskets of fruit and vegetables on their heads down to the harbour, with planters upon horseback, who rode along scattering the crowd right and left, and bullock-carts, which creaked and rumbled by, laden with kegs of sugar or rum, and drawn by oxen, all slavering at the mouth, and seeming half dead with dust and heat. Through these crowded and smothering streets, Captain Jem, who was our leader, pushed along with the air of a man who knew his business and could do it. He was often stopped and accosted by his acquaintances, many of whom professed themselves surprised to see him, as they heard that he had been murdered by the Spaniards in Hispaniola.
‘What! Stout Jem, still in the land of the living?’ said one man, a very tall personage, burnt almost black by the sun, wearing great moustaches, and having a hanger fixed to a broad leathern belt—‘what! Stout Jem again! Why, my lad, we drank a rousing glass to thy memory no later than the night before last, at Nance Finlayson’s on the quay. We heard that the Spaniards had sent thee from Hispaniola to a hotter place still.’